OUCH!!

It started out a wonderful morning.  I was finally feeling better after a few days of a runny nose and congestion.  I went out for a morning run with Rex; down to Matheson Bay, around the coastal walkway, down to harbour and back home.  I was feeling great.  We had a big day out planned with the whole gang.  First we were off to Rita's swim lesson, then into Warkworth for some shopping, a quick visit to the library, and finally finishing up with lunch at a local vineyard.  We were waiting for Rita's friend Kaya to be picked up so I peeked into the construction site of a garage downstairs to see how it was all going.  I had an idea of where to put the bar fridge and a little kitchenette setup so I called Pete over to have a look.  And that's when it happened...........We pulled the wrought iron bed out from the wall where it was leaning and SLAM: the bed frame came flying down and bashed me in the face!  I screamed, Pete and Tui looked at me in shock and blood started pouring out.  Pete grabbed a towel, mom got some ice and I went straight to the couch to try to ingest what was happening.  I kept thinking I didn't want to go to the hospital, I wanted to go out to lunch at the vineyard and pickup the library book I ordered.  Funny what runs through your head in a time of emergency and shock.  Pete asked me if I thought any of my facial bones were broken and then started in on if I was concussed and what was my name and what day was it.  I am Megan stupid and it is Saturday!  I am not concussed dammit!  Pete called the doctor and made me an appointment then took Rita to her swim lesson while I sat for over and hour with an ice pack on my face, taking copious amounts of arnica to hopefully reduce any bruising.  I was pretty certain I was in for a black eye.  The scenario was all too familiar as some years back when we were doing a ski season I was pummeled by a large Russian man and ended up with stitches across my nose and two black eyes.  The verdict this time around: quite a large slash under my eye but thank god, no stitches.  Just a few butterfly strips and off I went.  It hasn't bruised or swelled up as much as I anticipated but I do look as though I've been in a pretty good fight.
As for lunch at the vineyard, it was postponed for a day so off we go today all bandaged up and ready to taste some much needed wine!

Renovations in a small town

Project garage conversion is on the go.  (Well, actually it is probably on hold for the weekend; Pete is picking up our new boat today so I imagine he's going to want to play with the new toy for the best part of the weekend.)  Anyway back to the garage conversion.  I finally convinced Pete that instead of adding on a whole extra wing to the house all we needed to do was throw out a heap of junk that was sitting in the garage and convert it into super deluxe guest quarters.  First off was purge-o-rama.  Ute loads of stuff we no longer used were either dumped or given to op shops.  Closets cleaned, shed reorganized and new storage spaces created inside.  We scored a perfect-fit ranch slider off of trademe that happened to be just down the road from us.  When does something like that ever happen on trademe?  We usually end up truckin' down to Auckland to pick up goods!  The local electrician came by and yes he wired the whole place when it was remodelled 12 years ago so he knows the place inside and out.  He remembers so and so who used to live here, etc. etc.  He's got a plan for how to do the lighting and where to put all the switches.  The plasterer also stopped by for a cold Steiny and to add his two cents about the project.  Oh yes, he did all the plastering 12 years ago and knew the people who sold the place and why they sold and where they moved.   No worries mate, he can sort us out when the time comes.  And by the way he is the husband of the head teacher at the preschool.  Did I mention it's a very small town?  We are talking 500 people max.  Everyone knows everyone and everyone knows who's doing what.  The ranch slider gets fitted in with some help from visiting friends.  Now on to the re-lining the walls and ceiling, plastering the floor, finishing off the architrave, painting, carpeting, furnishing.....Jeez and I thought this project wasn't going to be a major!
So once it's a job done, we'd better have some visitors; invitation open......almost.

from garage......

to ripped apart half storage area cum construction zone....

at least the doors are in and we can lock it all up again!

Coming soon.........Super deluxe guest quarters completed (wishful thinking on my part).
To be continued...

Schoolol Girl

This is our very proud school girl on her first day.  We walked up to school and she shot off without a glance back towards me.  I yelled out to her twice before she actually gave me a dismissive wave.  The principal walked by at that moment and said, "it looks as if she's settling in well".  Yes indeed.  At the end of the day I picked her up eager to hear what she had to say about her first day at "big school".  "Fun as", she told me.  But she "didn't really learn that much yet".  Swimming was her favorite part and she and Pipi were the only ones who could actually swim!  There are 8 kids in her class.  Yes folks this is one very small country school. 

Intentions

Every morning I wake up with intentions of writing a new blog post. I have thoughts, ideas and photos all ready planned to post.  But something gets in the way every single day and nothing ends up happening with the blog; that something is life with 3 kids on summer break.  No way, not going to happen.  It is pretty much impossible to sit down on the computer and write something comprehensible with photos uploaded to boot.  Life around here is changing quickly and I can barely keep up.  Rita is off to school next week.  Gone, dusted, 9 to 3, 5 days a week from now on.  Gigi is talking; and when I say talking I mean talking.  She narrates everything she does just because she can.  She re-lives stories over and over, tells me who she likes and who isn't her friend (usually me), and which songs and dvd's she likes.  It is hilarious and exhausting.  Tui wants to walk.  Today she actually took a step on her own.  She isn't even 9 months old.  She wants to walk around holding my hand all day long.  This evening she climbed up on the rocking chair by herself and thought it was so funny to stand on the seat and rock away while I nearly had a heart attack trying to rescue her from across the room.  My garden is in full bloom and if anyone has ideas for what to do with cherry tomatoes it would be much appreciated.  How did I manage to plant 8 cherry tomato plants?  I was sure there were some beefsteak and roma in there.  We've been running and running.  Pete is training for the coastal challenge and I am training for the beach to bush.  6km through the bush the other day totally worked me, how will I manage 22km?  I've been working, the kids have swimming, and then of course the usual laundry and dinner, etc.  So, how the hell do these mommy bloggers manage?  I honestly don't have a second to spare to get on the computer.  Tonight is the exception: it is past 8 o'clock and I am usually collapsed in bed as soon as the kids are down.  They are down early tonight! 
With all the best intentions of keeping this blog current, all I can hope is that once the kids are back in school I might just have a few hours to myself each week to post something worthwhile.  Until then........

Merry Christmas

Pee-U

I’ve been on a quest to find a “natural” non-aluminium deodorant for years now.  I have tried every product on the market and so far nothing has come up successful.  I’ve spent many a day thinking, “man, I stink”.  It’s not so much the sweating that bothers me just the smell of stinky hippy body odour.  Lately with all the kids in the house I’ve taken to just swiping my pits with a baby wipe when I feel a bit stinky and callin’ it all good.  At some stage though something has to give and there just has to be a product out there that can help without giving me cancer or some other serious ailment associated with environmental chemical use.  Some of the deodorant and brands I would put in the stinky unsuccessful basket are Jason’s, Tom’s, Australian Tea Tree, the salt crystal either in block form, roll on or spray on, Kiss My Face, Aubrey, the list goes on.  Recently I splurged on Weleda’s Citrus Deodorant.  This actually worked but I found the spray-on a bit wet, enduring a 5 minute dripping pits session before getting dressed every morning.  When Soapwalla came to my attention thanks to Estelle I was more than happy to give it a go.  While I waited patiently for my Soapwalla to get sent to my mom in California who then forwarded it to me in New Zealand, I kept up with my dripping Weleda pits, not unhappy with them but not entirely pleased either.  Soapwalla arrived just in time for a few long days of work in a hot kitchen, no better test for a deodorant than conditions like that.  The application is a bit strange rubbing cream into your armpits but I quickly overcame that.  No big deal actually, it’s just like rubbing body lotion onto your skin.  Soapwalla has exceeded my expectations.  It’s brilliant!  It smells delicious like creamy lavender cake or something yummy and sweet that you’d want to eat.  As far as the stink factor goes, I haven’t had even a whiff of smelly hippy in the 2 weeks I’ve been using it.  If there was one natural deodorant I would happily recommend to people, this would be the one.

Annie

The sun will come out, tomorrow.........
Remember this?  Yesterday we received the Annie DVD in the post for the girls to watch.  I was so excited to put it on and re-live every moment of this story.  Mrs. Hannagan.  Daddy Warbucks (was that his name?).  Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.  I think I watched the film 50 times at least, when I was a kid.  We played "Annie" with the girls who lived next door to my grandma and spent hours singing every song from the movie.  Of course everyone always wanted to be Annie.  It was a huge part of my childhood, this film, so I couldn't understand when Pete said he had never heard of it and it seemed like his worst nightmare, all the singing and stuff.  The girls gave me funny looks as I sang every song word for word.  But slowly as the film played the girls became more and more entranced until they were both sitting in their chairs right in front of the TV screen staring at this all time favorite movie of mine.  I hate to say it but I am going to put it on again today and hope that they are seduced by the charms of Annie just as I was when I was a little girl!!!  They are real singers my little ones so I am just dying to hear them sing "the sun will come out..." in their sweet little voices!