My Nan....

Unfortunately in the early hours of this morning my Nan passed away.

She had been successfully on dialysis for several years to combat kidney failure, but early stages of dementia and an infection received through her dialysis meant she was transferred to a Christchurch Hospital, then a Christchurch Rest Home (as no Timaru one could administer dialysis for her - RIDICULOUS) only a few weeks ago.

Last weekend the infection came back with a vengeance, and there was nothing more that the doctors in Christchurch could do for her. We were told on Monday morning that she wasn't expected to see out the week, and arrangements were made for her to be transferred to the Hospice here in Timaru, because being back here was all she wanted the whole time she was away. She arrived and was settled in at the Hospice by 3 o'clock Tuesday, and she was gone just after midnight.

Dad had told me on Monday that he thought once she got back to Timaru that she'd probably give up, and he was so right. It was sooner than we were ready for, but the best thing for her really. And lets face it, we were never going to be ready. How could you be?

I took this photo of her just before Christmas last year (under duress I might add as Nan doesn't like getting her photo taken), so that I could make memory books for myself and my sisters.

I got Nan to write on a card which I put with the photo in a pocket of the book, along with photos and messages from our other grandparents, our parents and each other. I am so pleased now that I did that. Now I will always have a little piece of my Nan when I need it, and so will my sisters. Incredibly at my age, up until today I still had three of my four grandparents left. I only wish I had scrapbooked when Grandad Scott was around. He had the most beautiful handwriting, and probably many a story to tell too.

At least now, after 14 years of patiently waiting, she is with Grandad again, where she should be.

Elizabeth Evelyn Scott (Betty)
6 June 1924 - 17 December 2008

Our weekend...

Our weekend was crazy (again!)... my best friend Ange's little sister Ness got married, and I was photographer AND guest!

The ceremony was in the Raincliff Outdoor Chapel (on the Scout Camp grounds), and the reception was at the Youth Camp, which worked well because all the guests that wanted to could stay the night in the bunkrooms :) Because we could, D towed the in-law's caravan out while I was sorting out pre-ceremony stuff with the wedding party, so that we could sleep in a double bed, rather than the bunks. Fab!

The wedding was beautiful, and because I have known the bride's big sister for nearly 25 years, it was almost like being at a family wedding, so that was cool. I was (and still am if I am totally honest) completely stuffed yesterday, after taking the photos all afternoon, then dancing the night away until about half one in the morning - something I haven't done in a LONG time! We had a yummy brunch the morning after the wedding - bacon, eggs, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, toast etc. Mmm mmm!

Anyhoo, here's a wee taste of the photos I got on the day... Ladies and Gentlemen, Jonno and Ness Hines (nee Morrison):

Righto, that's it for me for now, best get away and make lunch for J before we need to head off.

Toodles, B x

HaHaHa

Nice one Rachel, yes I can type and since you enjoyed my blog so much I'll start a regular blog on Becks site just for you!!!! ENJOY

Blog Takeover....

This is Daz here, I finally thought it was about time that there was something on this blog for the husbands, so here goes.

It was late February 2008 and I had a bike that needed a freshen up in the motor department, so why not freshen up the rest of the bike at the same time? This is how the bike looked before it went in for a make over.

And so the strip down begun, who would've thought that this would be the start of 8 long months? That is correct, from initial strip down to final assembly and coming out the other end looking and sounding 100% better it was 8 months.



After the bike was stripped of its parts I then started attacking it with a stripping disc on all the accessible parts of the frame, when this was completed it was taken down to the sodium blasting dude in redruth (payment for the sodium blasting was made in the way of 24 pack), it had to be blasted around all the welds, nooks and crannies where I couldn't get in with the strip disc. When I got the frame back I then had to sand the whole frame to smooth out the profile that the blasting left, all up I probably spent about 16 hours stripping and sanding.



So now it's time for painting. First the frame had a couple of coats of undercoat then countless coats of a two pack paint which Stu at Resene matched for me off a brand new 2008 KDX at Motorcycle World, thanks Stu. I figured that if I was going to all the trouble of stripping and painting the frame I might as well give it a coat of the latest colour (so now I have a silver KDX which looks much smarter than the old green model). But it didn't stop there, since changing the frame colour I also had to change the colour of the tank, this was hand sanded to give the paint something to etch to, this also had a couple of coats of undercoat and then 3 or 4 coats of a 2 pack gloss black, this now ties in with the frame. When spraying the frame I used a state of the art spraying jig!! (It's amazing how many uses you can get out of a common broom and wheelie bin) The rear swing arm got stripped right back and had a couple of grooves welded up by the good lads at Andar and then sanded and sprayed in the same silver as the rest of the frame.




Now that the frame is looking good as new it's time to start assembly, or as much assembly as I could do without the motor. This is how the bike spent the next few months while I had a friend rebuild the motor which included the following: new conrod, piston, rings, every bearing in the motor, gasket sets and I also had to get the bore re-chromed (not a cheap rebuild but had to be done)





The rest of the bike had the following replaced: new gripper seat cover, new alloy bash guard for the rear brake master cylinder, new headstock bearings top and bottom, new bearings in all suspension joints/pivots, new front pads, new air filter, new alloy gear lever, new fork gators and I've also added an hour meter to keep up with maintenance based on hours running.

My KDX is now re-born, a project that took 8 months but was worth the wait.



Tune in for the next instalment soon... Daz.

Dr Bunsen Honeydew?!

Well, apparently that's who the staff at Hubbards think Daddy-bear looks like now!

Spot the difference...

Ha ha ha ha ha! That is SO funny! Oh well, that's all for now, I will post more tonight about our crazy weekend.

Toodles, B x

More Child Cancer Funrazor....

Here are Dave and Ken from work, two of the RSM partners, doing their bit for the Child Cancer Funrazor. Between them they raised just over $3,000.00. Well done guys!

To be fair, Ken had a lot less to lose/shave in the first place, but I still say good on them for taking part. Jolly good show, ol' chaps! Bloody good effort for a bloody good cause. Huge props to you both.

Righto, time to head off to the office..

Toodles, B x

Child Cancer Funrazor

Well, it's done - Daddy-Bear has (pretty much) no hair left now! They don't actually 'shave' your lid, but they give you a number 1 haircut with clippers. I got some pictures of the shave unfolding, but he was too busy afterwards getting the 'after' photo taken and talking to people that I haven't managed to get an 'after' photo myself yet! He was pretty hairy before he was shorn - he had been growing his hair and beard for a bit instead of keeping it trimmed like normal. Very hairy beard, ick! Well, here's the pics I managed to get.....

Well it was for a fab cause, and Timaru on its own had 81 people volunteer to have their heads shaved, raising over $50,000.00 for Child Cancer. Hubbards (Dad's work) raised more than $6,500.00 of that on their own, with four of them (two of whom were women) standing up to be counted. Absolutely awesome to see people taking part. I have to confess I am way too chicken to have my hair off, but I certainly take my hat of to those who did, especially the women.

I have pics of the two guys from work too, so will add them next post...

Toodles, B x

NO WAY!

This is in no way intended to offend the woman in the paper today, but have you ladies SEEN the article on page 9 of today's Timaru Herald? Seriously, could they not have found ANYONE ELSE who makes cards? This woman basically showcases examples of the type of handmade card that makes people cringe when you talk about having made your own cards. Grrrrr.

I know that all you lovely ladies out there have, and do, make beautiful cards. I have started on mine already this year - check out these two quick snaps I have taken this morning of the designs I have made so far..... I've made about 8 of each thus far, so I've a wee ways to go to finish my production line! I also have another couple of designs I want to play with too... maybe this weekend I'll get round to it!

So, for those of you who end up with these cards pictured below, I apologise for spoiling the surprise, but that article just ticked me off. Seriously.

Enjoy my slightly out-of-focus photos.... (oops).... I'm off to make lunches

Toodles, B x

Oh... My... God...

Did any of you actually SEE what D looked like during MOVEMBER? Yeah, nasty huh? I even made it on the air on The Edge to join Jay-Jay's WAM support group - Women Against Moustaches. They put me on air so I could repeat my text... Yes, my hubby resembles Paul Snr from American Chopper. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck. Thank goodness it is now December (otherwise now to be known as "Get-that-Face-Fuzz-Off-Month" Ba ha ha ha ha) See what I had to wake up to:

Yeah, it's gone now, hooray! I think to be honest, he's just stoked that he grew the hairiest, ugliest moustache out of all his workmates - must be a testosterone thing yeah? Oh well, all over for another 11 months at least. Phew!

Nuff said about body hair.... Toodles, B x

Oh and PS, D is going to do a post or two of his own soon, for the hubby's to read... about his bike rebuild and the trailer reno's, so WATCH THIS SPACE! ;)

Belated gloating to follow - be warned!

Yes, I'm afraid this has to be done - below are photos of what our place looked like on Bathurst day (back in early October). I never got to post much about this because I was flat out studying for my exams, but yeah - GO FORD!

AND, not a bad result either - Ford finishing P1, and P2, and the Holden that came in P3 was Greg Murphy, and you gotta love Murph, he's a good 'ol Kiwi boy! :)

Righto, I spose that's enough gloating then... oh wait, hang on, GO FORD!!!

(Sorry, that one just slipped out, ha ha ha!)

Toodles, B x

ok, ok, OK!

I know, I have beaten my formerly CRAP record and nearly made it to a whole month without blogging. SORRY! So now, Bridgette, you can shut your cake hole!

I am going to do some separate posts with photos in from our labour weekend trip, but first I'll tell you about last weekend...

I went to the last crop day for 2008, 9am - 9pm. We all took food to share, and man did we have a HEAP of food to get through! Although, scarily, we managed to chew our way through a hell of a lot of it....oops.

I struggled to find my 'mojo' as Nic calls it, but once I got past lunchtime, I got into the swing of things and got two one page layouts completed.

This was just the cutest chalk drawing, so I just had to capture it on film. Gotta love that denim blue glimmer mist for colouring the flowers with.... looks awesome huh?

The eyes on your feet story is really very cute - many many moons ago when I was a wee lass (probably about 3 years old) my Dad drew eyes on my feet to help stop me from tripping over all the time - the theory being that if my feet had eyes that they would be able to see where they were going. Clever theory I reckon!

Anyhoo, J walked into the toilet door the other night, and honestly, you would have thought that his bloody feet had fallen off, the noise he was making! So, I told him the story about my Dad, and offered to put eyes on his feet. At the time he refused, but the next morning, obviously after some careful thought, he asked me to draw the eyes on his feet after all. And, being the good scrapbooking mother that I am, I took photos for future use (of course, ha ha ha!)

After I put the eyes on his feet, we phoned my Dad... well Jacob did... at 7.15am he was the only one up and about, so he answered the phone. The first thing he asked Dad was 'Guess what I've got on my feet, Grandad?" And when he told Dad about the eyes, I could hear Dad chuckle down the phone from across the other side of the room. He never realised those twenty-something years ago that he was starting a new family tradition! Ha ha ha ha ha. To be honest, I think he was stoked :)

Oh well, that brings you up-to-date on the recent past for now, so onwards and upwards from here huh?

Toodles, B x