Here you go Bridgette!

Yes, this is specially for Bridgette, my SPECIAL (and very loud) friend!!!! Ha ha ha. I had to wait until I was past that one week deadline, just to p*** her off :)



Since my last post, well, it's been pretty much same shit different day (what's new eh Bridg?!)



Thursday night last week D had 'the boys' here for a poker night, and Daddy-Jim came along for a laugh too. I disappeared off to Ma's for a while. I hadn't been there too long when I got a charming text message from D..... "Your Dad's a f***in burglar" Oh dear! They were laughing about it by the time I got home at half ten-ish. It took FOREVER for everyone to go 'out', and was about 1am before the last of them left to go home. I think the fact that they were running out of beer helped, ha ha ha!



The next day was ANZAC Day, so I was up at 5.30am to go to the Dawn Parade with Daddy-Jim. Gem and DJ came too, and if Sarah were here she'd be there as well - a bit hard to attend from Aucks. We go every year, listen to the Dawn Parade, then go and put our poppies on Grandad Scott's plot at the cemetery. No matter how many times I hear it, The Last Post always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Quietly eerie, but very moving. There was a pretty good turnout again this year, which is getting more impressive each year - the actual Returned Servicemen and Women are few and far between these days - it was a long time ago. Just goes to show that there is a tiny little bit of patriotism still out there, which is cool.



I have to confess though that I had to have a large nana-nap later that day for a couple of hours, I am too old to cope with late nights and early mornings at the same time apparently!



Saturday was 12 hour crop day - fantastic! I had nothing planned except to maybe get more done on my address book. I got a bit more done on that, and picked out the matching cardstock shades to make the pages with, but still a wee bit more to be done on that (to be continued)

I did get two double page layouts done - one was a bit of work, the other was a copout really, just a quick chucking together of scrapbooking elements. The more involved one was a layout for J about borrowing Kaia's quadbike - I sewed chipboard shapes onto the page, inked pre-coloured chipboard letters, used dimensional magic (of course) and even managed some hidden journalling on a pull-out tag under the main photo. I am pleased with how that one has turned out :)

Anyhoo, that was pretty much my weekend - Sunday was a quiet day, D got groceries, we all went for a walk in the rain in the afternoon, and the usual sunday afternoon kip in front of the fire was fantastic! MAN I am getting OLD!!! Ha ha ha.

Right now it is Wednesday night and I have been to visit H tonight (it's her birthday). I took round her presents and we had a glass of wine and a bit of a catch-up. Really awesome - too long between drinks me thinks :)

On Friday, Sarah arrives, and we have TWO family dinners to go to on Saturday night at Benny's Again - yes, TWO! My family are going to Benny's Again for Ma and Pa's 35th Wedding Anniversary, but so are D's family, on the same night for the same reason, except theirs is the 40th Anniversary. It will be interesting juggling two families for the night.... D will sit with his lot and I will sit with mine, J will have to run between the two all night! Oh dear oh dear :)

Sunday we have the Lister boys christenings to go to, so I must go out hunting tomorrow for Christening presents x2 and Anniversary presents x2 - Ouch!

For now I spose I'd best go - it is nearly half ten and I know that the alarm will be going off at 5.45am (which rolls round surprisingly quickly unfortunately) BUT from the sounds of the rain and wind outside, I might not have to go for my walk tomorrow morning, so I might get an extra half hour in bed (but not likely)

Righto, time for me to bugger off.... Toodles peoples, B x

PHOTOS!

Alright! The photo upload problem has been fixed at last!

Below is a pic of my address book (current work in progress #1)

I have yet to design the pages to go in it and get them printed off....

And now, Jake's book a-la Nic Howard's blog.... I have put my own spin on it and used a chipboard concertina album that I have had for ages...

Cover

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3



So that's it from me, gotta go get ready for work - Toodles, B x

I had a hot date today....

No really, I did! My boys picked me up and we went to the Ale House for lunch - we finally got to use the voucher that Helen and Jamie gave me for doing their wedding photos.

D was at home for the day, recovering from his huge weekend away (he only got home at about half one this morning, so he was pretty tired).....so they came and picked me up for lunch - lovely! I don't often get to go out for lunch, especially not with both my boys anyways.

Oh, and I got started on my album for Jake on Saturday - when Blogger lets me upload photos again I will show you :)

I got one of my Progress Reviews back today - the first one for the Introduction to the Legal System so far.... I got a great mark, so am stoked - thank freakin goodness for that! Now I only have 6 more months of studying, testing, studying, testing, studying etc.... Ha ha ha!

Well, that's it for me, I have stuff to do, then sleep to be doing. Toodles, B x

Yeah - it's the WEEKEND!!!!

Hey peoples - how are we all today?

I spoke to D this morning, and he is in the corporate site for Porter Hire today - he said they have free programmes, gift packs etc. So I said "fill your bag up honey!" Ha ha ha :)

This afternoon J and I are off to see "Horton Hears a Who" at the movies... He has asked GrannyRose to come along too, so hope the movie isn't a pile of crap! It's based on a Dr Seuss book, so hopefully should be ok.

By the way, if you think that "Atonement" sounds like a good romantic chick flick to hire, DON'T BOTHER. It was the biggest pile of CRAP I have seen in ages. Talk about disappointed. I was expecting this romantic tale of torn lovers separated by a lie, reuniting in the end, but they didn't, in fact they couldn't because they were DEAD. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Waste of an hour and a half watching it. So as you can see my evening last night was a little disappointing - am hangin high hopes on today's movie extravaganza being a whole lot better!

Otherwise not a lot else to report since yesty. Oh Ange, Vanessa and Jono are coming here at 10am this morning to talk wedding photos, so that's cool :)

Was going to post a pic of my address book (now covered, just the pages to design), but I seem to have lost the ability to post photos today, blog keeps crashing, so will have a go later today and see if I can manage it. It looks awesome if that's any help? Ha ha ha!

Will go now anyway and see what J is up to - it's awful quiet, so I am getting suspiscious.

Toodles, B x

Go FORD - Yeah!!!!

Hi all, well it's the Hamilton 400 this weekend, and I have just sent D off on his way to Hamilton to spend the weekend inhaling burning rubber and avgas fumes.... I will most definitely be watching it live on tv this weekend :)

Not a lot has happened the past couple of days - I have been laid out with some sort of virus thing - nasty headaches and dizzy spells (no blonde jokes please!). Seriously, it was not very nice - I thought I was going to pass out at daycare on Wednesday morning and had to get Daddy-Jim to pick me up and take me home because I was too scared to drive. I basically spent Wednesday lying in the dark avoiding any sort of noise or light to try and make the headaches go away. Thursday was marginally better, although when I felt better and thought I'd rest in front of the telly instead of in bed, even that gave me a headache, dammit! I finally started to feel better about 4 o'clock yesty, thank goodness.

Earlier in the week was no different to any other week - Monday was work, eat, study as per usual. Tuesday was DWTS final - I so LOVE that show! The final always rocks because the finalists get to do a funky freestyle number, but unfortunately the final means it's the final - no more DWTS until next year :( I am totally bummed about that...

Anyway, I am feeling much better now, so it's back to work for the busiest day of the week. Oh and I made Green Tomato Relish last night at about 9pm...I had to try some on toast this morning to make sure it was ok - delicious!!! Sorry, rambling...

Gotta go get ready for work peoples...Toodles, B x

Twins!

Well, we survived the weekend, ha ha ha!





We had the Newall twins, Brock and Isabelle, for the night at our place last night to give our friend Charlette a night off (as her birthday present from us). I personally think we may have not been thinking clearly when we offered, and I think Charlette thought we had lost the plot too! HOWEVER, we did offer, and she did accept, because of course she'd be stupid not to take us up on this once only offer :)




The babies arrived at about half three on Saturday afternoon, and stayed with us until lunchtime today. It has been a LONG time since we have had a baby in the house, let alone two - that woman deserves a friggin medal.... every time you get one baby sorted/settled/fed/asleep, there is still another one to sort out too, not to mention in Charlette's case a toddler too. I have to say that it makes us appreciate our reasonably well behaved 4-year-old!




I have a confession to make though.... Sorry Karlos, we had to do this to your son...

Brock (son of a MEGA Holden fan) playing with Jake's Ford Flag!

...and wearing Jake's Ford T-Shirt! (might be a bit mean, but it IS bloody funny!!!)

Brock and Jake playing under the play-gym. Note the fact that Brock is just about to grab a good-sized handful of our son's hair.... guess you could call that payback eh Karlos?! Ha ha ha!!!

Finally, try getting someone to take a photo of you with TWO babies, and try to get them both looking at the camera at the same time.... Arrrgghhh, impossible! (Oh and yes Karl, he's yanking fairly visciously on MY hair in the first pic!)

Well, that's about it from me.... After the babies left, D and J went to the Weber Bros Circus, which sounded like it was a little over-rated, but at least J got to go (thanks Ma for shouting your grandson!)

We called round to see Ma and Pa for a cuppa after the boys got home from the circus (I cleaned, then studied while they were away), then late in the afternoon, J and I went for a walk for about an hour - he rode his scooter flat out the whole time! He needed to get out and get rid of a bit of energy after spending so long sitting on his butt at the circus.... a half hour wait beforehand and a two hour circus show equals one 4-year-old with excess energy to spare! Problem solved!

Well, that's it from me for today.... I am going to go watch Men in Trees (just finished watching Grey's Anatomy while doing this - LOVE that program)

Toodles peoples, B x

Quick update....

Hi all - here's a quick update from me - I got a little more done on my birthday/address book last night - here's a teaser for you (sorry it's a bit blurry)...



I think it'll be really good when it's finished! Gotta fly, catch you laters. Toodles, B x

PS - How'd the modelling go Rach?! :)

It's HUMP DAY!

Hiya - yes, it's Hump Day again (the day in the middle of the working week!) It's a downhill slide from here into the weekend - yeah!

I must be nuts, we are having the Newall twins for the night on Saturday as a favour for Charlette, well actually, as her birthday present - they were only born late last year. It's been a while since I had to pull an all nighter with a baby, let alone babies plural! Oh crap!

Not a lot else to report tho, same sh*t, different day in our house at the moment.... work, study, eat, drink, sleep, work, study....... etc etc etc

I did manage to get some scrapping done last night though, which was awesome. I am making an address/birthday book to sit on my kitchen bench. I have painted the edges brown and covered the mdf with periphery papers so far. It's gonna be real cool I reckon. Hope to get more done later in the week, but only after some study :)

Well, time for me to jump thru the shower and get off to work/daycare... Talk later, Toodles, B x

What has everyone done today?

We have been out at Levels today, watching the Trucks, the V8 Utes, and some sidecar bikes too. J came with us, and he was SO good - he actually spent most of the time out there truly watching what was happening. Put the other kids out there to shame - they fought and argued with each other the whole time they were there, and some of them were only there an hour, we were there for 5 hours in total! Makes us realise what a good boy we really have. Is nice to be reminded about that every now and again! Here are some pics from today's action...





This was J's favourite truck out on the track... we got to see them twice today, once for qualifying, and then again for their first race at the end of the day.





Here's J taking in the action....



Believe it or not, Temuera Morrison is drving this one! In this class the drivers all have nicknames on their utes, his (of course) is THE MUSS... Ha ha ha!



This is how NOT to drive your ute.... you don't generally see two vehicles mid-race facing each other on the track!!!!










And here's the safety truck leading the Super Trucks around the track for the rolling start in their first race....




....and the Trucks getting the green light to commence racing after the Safety Truck pulls off the track




And two of my favourites, Troy Wheeler and Malcolm Little hard at it coming into Castol corner - these guys have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Good crowd-pleasing entertainment! :)

More of the same in store tomorrow, except J is going to hang out at Nana and Grandad's place just down the road from the track. He hasn't been there on his own for a while, so he probably needs some Caithness grandparent time. I plan to enjoy just hanging out at the track and taking more photos.... it's back into studying again from tomorrow night.

I figure if I dedicate enough time during the week to studying, I can have the weekends off for the most part. So this week, the study plan falls into place - two nights a week at the library, one or two lunch hours at work studying, and maybe an hour or two at night at home too if required. That should hopefully cover it.... Here's hoping so anyways. Two assessments went in this week for marking, so it will be good to get feedback about how I am doing - it's hard to know what they expect in the way of answers etc until we get some feedback either way. I only hope the feedback is GOOD feedback, not BAD!!!!

Anyhoo, it's time I dragged this butt off to bed, it's now half eleven (although with daylight savings ending tonight I suppose it's really only half ten?). I have a couple of emails to send, then I'm outta here...

If anyone is out at the track tomorrow, look me up - we're in the Talbot Forest Cheese trailer in the middle of Castrol.

Toodles, B x

Buzzy Boy!

Here's a shot of our beautiful Buzzy Boy! We thought we had lost him when we came back from the Sounds... Mum had been feeding him, but he hadn't been seen for a day and a bit by the time we came home. We called and called and called and called, but he just didn't come home. Finally on Monday just before 7am he came in, covered in dirt. I think he must have been shut in someone's garage or basement or something... Anyway, the good news is he came home, phew!

It's been a while since we took pics of him, he has started to turn into a lovely cuddly cat, instead of the naughty little kitten he was :) About time!

Here you go... Photos aplenty!!!!

So, I spose you want to hear all about our trip to the Marlborough Sounds for Mary's wedding? Well, we needed to be in Picton by about midday on the Thursday, which meant up at 4am, and on the road by 4.45am - which tbh is BL**DY early! NOT GREAT! We made it to Picton in good time after only a couple of coffee stops at Rolleston and Kekerengu, although it is still about 6 hours driving to get there - a long way!

Anyways, we got to Picton and headed to the Campbell house. After a quick lunch, we dropped our baggage at the waterfront, then left our ute at Helen & Jim's and walked back to the waterfront to board the ferry to Furneaux. Because it was only wedding guests on that particular trip, they put wedding ribbons on the boat (see below) which was VERY cool!

Boat to Furneaux adorned with wedding ribbons.

D on the ride in...

Looking back towards Picton as we get nearer to Furneaux.

Arriving at Furneaux (we even had a greeting party, including the groom, Tony!)

Chalet #7 - our homebase for the next two nights (and apparently home to some sort of loud snoring animal?! - more about that shortly, ha ha ha!!!)

Looking across to the Furneaux Homestead and the Wedding Marquee from our Chalet

Some of the guests arrived from Queenstown by helicopter (Mary's brother James and his family). Talk about a grand entrance!!!

We arrived and found out where we were meant to be staying, ditched our luggage and met our new roomies - Tudor from Wales and Deb and Anne from York - all extremely hard case people! We had a bit of time to get to know our roomies and chill for a bit before the buffet barbecue for dinner. Dinner was beautiful, was followed by a really cool DVD (put together by Shane) of Mary and Tony each growing up and then meeting each other etc - like a 'story so far' kind of movie - it was awesome. After that we had a couple drinks, then headed to bed because we were pretty tired from our early start! And about that snoring beast in our chalet.... that was TUDOR!!!! Man that guy can SNORE! UNBELIEVABLE!!!! The next morning we didn't wake until about half nine, and read for a bit until we hauled our arses out of bed at about half ten to shower and have brekkie. We walked a little bit of the Queen Charlotte Track for an hour or so, and I took some artsy photos along the way... check it out!

When we got back from our walk, we did a bit more 'recon' around the Furneaux Lodge grounds...

Looking from the Lodge down to the waterfront - the site for the wedding later that day.

From the waters edge looking back up the path to Furneaux Lodge

Then it was time to have lunch and get all fancied up for the wedding - but the weather was getting dodgier by the minute..... By the time we were all ready to go to the bar and await the arrival of the bride, it was heavily drizzling, and the chairs had been brought in from outside. Talk about crap luck, it had been beautiful the day before.

The Chalet #7 'Roomies' - Anne, Tudor, Deb, D and me

The official 'I Do' part...

The smoochy part!

The part where Mary has rose petals stuck down the front of her dress?! Ha ha ha

Mary and D

Me, Mary and D (Oh and that's John in the background - nice smile!)

The happy couple with her parents Helen and Jim

Mary with her siblings - Heather, Fiona, Mary and James

Clan Campbell! Heather, Elizabeth, John, Shane, Fiona, Helen, Mary, Tony, Jim, Lynne, Duncan and James.

Men in skirts - need I say more?! Ha ha ha! Just kidding - don't they look great? And I can confirm that at least ONE of them was not wearing anything under his kilt!

The Thirty-Somethings

Not often we get all gussied up - so here's the money shot!

John blowing some of the wedding bubbles (meanwhile the rest of us were enjoying the REAL bubbles, by the bottleful!)

Anne proudly displaying her glass (we called it a bucket) of red...

Her bucket after we had finished with it. I don't think she actually managed to drink it all though - that would have taken SOME doing!

Us Roomies sharing a private joke - poor Tudor had no idea he was being set up for this one! That'll teach him for snoring like a trooper!

Louise, Anne, me and Deb

The wedding rocked - the ceremony (although unfortunately inside) was lovely. The weather then cleared in time for them to have their photos taken outdoors, which was lucky.

We hung out for a bit outdoors enjoying the Deutz bubbles which were flowing aplenty, then retired to the marquee for a sumptuous dinner - antipasto platters, aoraki salmon, venison and lamb casserole and fillet of beef as well as veges etc. Dessert was chocolate covered profiteroles, fresh fruit and wedding cake (both chocolate and fruitcake).

Our table was a laugh - our roomies Deb and Anne, John (Scottish) and his wife Louise (Irish) and another couple from Auckland, Sheridan and Vince. It was one of those very cool weddings where EVERYONE got up and boogied to the band (Good band too - The Noodles from Wellington).

I think we turned in about half past midnight, we kind of had to cos my feet were about to fall off! Next morning there was a buffet brunch in the marquee - cereal, fruit, croissants, bacon, eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, fruit pastries and coffee to choose from - YUMMO! We hung out in the bar again, and exchanged email addys with some new friends, until it was time to catch the ferry back to Picton.

Once we were back to Picton, we said our goodbyes to Deb and Anne, and John and Louise, and headed off outta town....

First stop, Blenheim. Since we love Allan Scott wines so much, we thought we'd better drop into their vineyard. Talk about an awesome place....

After a bit of wine tasting, we bought a couple of wines, and hit the road again. Just before we got to Kaikoura, we came across the Fur Seal colony. I just had to take some pictures to show J, there were even baby seals playing in little pools in the rocks... too cute!

When we got into Kaikoura, we stopped off for a Hot Chocolate at this cool place called Sonic...

On the way to Amberley, there was an really awesome sunset too...

We rocked into Amberley at about half eight on Saturday night, a little shattered from the drive. The place we were booked into was cool... it has only been open 5 months, so everything is very clean and new. We asked the owner about where to get a feed, and she sent us to Brew Moon, a gourmet brewery on the edge of town.

Teviot View Apartments, Amberley

Brew Moon, where we had a gourmet pizza for dinner the night before.

The next morning, we headed into the Waipara Valley to grab some breakfast. We decided to check out the Mud House Winery and Cafe, and had a hot chocolate and a muffin each for brekkie :)

The Mud House Winery and Cafe

The awards on the wall in the foyer - very impressive!

After checking out the Vineyard, we hit the road home - stopped off in Christchurch at the Riccarton Mall for some lunch, then off again to get home! We arrived at home about 3pm, absolutely shattered. Jake was very pleased to see us home again, and it was nice to hear that he had been really good for Ma and Pa while we were away. He is a good boy really!

Oh well, that's the official commentary on our trip to the Sounds, and that's about it from me for now. Toodles peoples, B x