I'VE BEEN TAGGED

I've been tagged by Karen

4 jobs I've had:

• NZ Operations Manager for Land and Deeds Division of the Department of Justice
• Owner of Tuatara Tales scrapbooking
• Note Office, Reserve Bank of NZ (great school holiday job consisting of sorting and throwing out bank notes)
• Registrar, Indecent Publication Tribunal (yep, there ain't a dirty book I aint seen!)

4 Movies I could watch over and over:
Beaches, Shrek (have seen this about 10 times - the only kids movie I can sit through again and again); In My Father's Den; struggling to find another one

4 TV shows I love to watch: The Biggest Loser (it motivates me); NCIS (better than CSI!); Oprah (is that ok?); A Place in the Sun

4 favourite foods: Hot lemon, ginger and honey drinks (now that I don't have hot chocolates!); strawberries (only in season); olives; anything someone else cooks for me

4 tunes that play in my head: The entire Jack Johnson Curious George CD (thanks to Elliot who plays it EVERY time we're in the car); theme song from The Biggest Loser (what have you done today to make yourself proud?); Caitlin's latest iPod downloads which she constantly sings;

4 Websites I visit daily:Trade Me; Lots of blogs; Kiwiscraps; National Bank (online banking!)

4 best scrapbooking lines: Queen & Co; Heidi Swapp; Basic Grey; Maya Road

I'm tagging Janine, Zeetra, Shani, Delys

WOMEN WHO READ

A friend sent me this...

"One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing anddecides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside thewoman and says, "Good morning, Ma'am.What are you doing?"
"Reading a book," she replies, (thinking,"Isn't that obvious?")
"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her.
"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading."
"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at anymoment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault,"says the woman.
"But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden.
"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you couldstart at any moment." "Have a nice day ma'am," and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.

ISN'T IT FUNNY

A remember a couple of years back my Mum commented to me that one of the reasons she was really enjoying scrapbooking was that she actually made some new friends as a result of attending workshops and classes. She said that all her good friends were people that she's known for years and years and that now she was in her sixties she hadn't ever thought she'd meet new people who would become friends. But she has. Though scrapbooking. Same for me really.

Yesterday Shani came to visit after school. Shani and I are taking part in a Circle Journal swap through Scrapbook Outlet. Shani is on their design team and she teaches classes at Scrapbook Central (ok she's talented!). Putting two and two together we realised that her 5 year old, Molly, has recently started at Elliot's school. It's a small world.

It's weird when you meet a new person. Will we have anything to talk about? We sure did. And after they left Caitlin commented "That Molly is really cute!" I thought so too. Thanks, Shani, what fun to make a new friend.

OUT OF THE BLUE

In the car on the way to school today (because it was too cold to walk) Elliot said to me:

"Mumma-do you know what my 3 favourite things are?"

Mother (thinking the answer might be maybe Mumma or Dadda(the baby names for us he has recently reverted to) or icecream): "What are your 3 favourite things, Elli-boy?"

Elliot:" Star Wars, Lego and Jack Johnson!"

And I thought two things:
- well, at least he is learning the pleasure of music at a young age and
-Nic Howard would be proud!

NAIL BITER

Janine had a manicure today. Which reminds me. I am a nail biter from way back. Like forever. At 40 years of age I had bitten my nails my entire life. I have big, man hands and no nails. Not a great look. When the other Janine (my sister) was visiting about 3 months ago we decided to get our nails done. Acrylics. I figured they'd snap off after a few days. Wrong. Three months later I am still having them backfilled religiously every 3 weeks (yes, I tell Darryn I am high maintenance now). A french polish. I can still garden and do the housework. They make me feel nice. I still have big hands. And a few too many wrinkles. But I have nails!

Check out the new kitchen cabinetry colour in the background. More photos once the benchtop comes (hopefully in a week).

OOOPS

Banner problems. Apologies for the larger than life photo (didn't mean to scare anyone!)- will work on sizing issues later in the day!

THE BLING BOY

Should have shared this photo of Darryn and I with you last month. The photo was taken at my sister's 40th. What I wanted to show you was the necklace I am wearing. Darryn chose this all by himself as part of my birthday present. It came from a great shop in Wellington called Artikel. Is he clever or what?

WORDS

Thanks, Karen, for this prompt. Karen wrote today about how she's always liked writing. About how she writes every day. I can so relate.

I blame my Mum.

My Mum, Fay, was the first woman journalist on both the Wairarapa Times-Age and The Ashburton Guardian (when they were REAL newspapers). She was a pioneer in an age when women didn't have jobs like that. Then she chucked it all in when she had a family to be a stay-at-home Mum. As a kid I preferred hanging out with the adults at gatherings where the grownups were journalists and writers. I thought they were cool. Cooler than the kids.

Mum taught us to love words.Years of sub-editing meant Mum couldn't break the habit. As kids we weren't allowed to hand in homework with spelling mistakes. Or grammatical errors. To this day my sisters and I are exceptional spellers. We abhor spelling mistakes in restaurants and signs.

As a kid I had a huge number of penfriends. I remember some of them. Louise Mikkelsen from Auckland. A black African girl in Kenya (Katie Mugabi), a Canadian (Chris French- I stopped writing to him when he told me he was bi-sexual - my 13 year old life experience couldn't handle that) . Whatever happened to them all? I still write to Renee - next year it will be 30 years since letters first made their way between Lower Hutt and Chicago. I count her as my oldest friend. I will visit her some day. I've spoken to her once on the phone. We email. A couple of times a year we write a real letter. For the sake of it. For there is nothing better than receiving a letter in the post. From a foreign land.

When I owned a scrapbooking business my favourite class was teaching journaling. It's still my favourite part of scrapbooking. I think the reason I became a scrapper is because it gave me a legitimate reason to write. To preserve my writing.

I buy gorgeous notebooks to write lists. And plans. And goals. And I collect quotes. Because I like seeing them written down. And I read them out. I find inspiring quotes in the death notices. I read them out loud to hear what they sound like. I fear that if anyone hears me they'll think I'm mad.

I hate crap writing - chick lit, Mills and Boons. When I read a Marian Keyes book I think - what a waste of time. What a waste of words. I am a word snob. But I don't like big words. I like plain English.

I admire Karen's writing style. I like the short snappy, first person present-ness of it. I like reading blogs that are short and to the point. That don't assume. That have something to say. That don't ramble.

My friend's husband died last week. I wrote her a letter. Because we don't do that anymore. But we should. Because words are precious.

WHO HATES SCHOOL?

9.58pm and despite going to bed at 7.30pm Elliot (6) is still awake. "I hate school" he tells me and proceeds to give me a litany of the things he hates about school:

"I hate being inside all day"
"I hate it when the teachers check your lunch box"
"I hate when Josh and James say those mean words to me"
"I hate writing"
"I hate that they don't have Playstation".

Why can't he be like his big sister who loves school?

I'VE NEVER OWNED A BIKE

In 41 years of life I've never owned a bike - until yesterday! Darryn had been out and about and came home and said let's go down to the bike shop. And he bought me a bike! My very first bike. I've never owned one before. When we were kids my parents just thought it was too unsafe to ride to school and with 3 of us close in age it was too expensive. So I never had one.

Now I've got this. (Mine's blue.)




An Avanti Spirit. $900 but on sale for $499 because it's the 2005 model (like, who cares if it's last year's model?). I don't think I'll be doing the round Lake Taupo race in November (my sister, Janine, is in a team doing this for the first time). But I will ride to and from the gym (I tried it yesterday, easy peasy (apart from being a bit nervous on the roads - I mostly stuck to the Hutt River trail).

Here's the blurb from the Avanti site:
"All-road comfort! The Spirit offers reliable Shimano parts, Suspension Fork/Seat Post and comfort Avanti Saddle. The ultimate comfort ride, perfect for riding through the park followed by a cafe attack!" Sounds just like the perfect bike for me.

VOTE!

Photo: Evana Willis Layout: Heidi Swapp

Heidi Swapp had a competition recently where you had to send in your "water' photos.

3500 people entered. 3500!

Heidi chose 3 lots of photos and scrapped their photos (imagine Heidi Swapp scrapping YOUR photos).

Anyway the lovely Evana Willis from NZ was one of the lucky 3! How cool is that?

Now head on over to Heidi's site and vote for your favourite layout (pick Evana!).

WORK IN PROGRESS

This is one of the reasons I am not going to be doing any scrapping over the next week or so (except that I have to do Sharee's circle journal - maybe I'll sit on my bed and work on that in the weekend). There is no where to scrap (despite having a scrapping table in the playroom I prefer the kitchen table).

Still no kitchen - just more holes and more mess. Dust everywhere .The builder (a friend whose lovely wife has invited us for dinner tonight) noticed there was no insulation in the ceiling so today they are installing Batts to warm us up. Good. But I want my kitchen back. But I am not complaining (not really) - it will be worth the wait.

A POEM FOR A FIVE YEAR OLD

I was looking for a recipe for my circle journal swap and I came across this poem I'd written for Elliot. I'd forgotten I wrote it 15 months ago when he started school. (He'd still rather be at home!)

For Elliot on your 5th birthday

Sweet baby, boy
Today you started school
You would have preferred, I think,
the confines of home
for a little longer.

Your bottom lip trembled.
You didn't cry.
You told the class your news
About a new Playstation game.
I cried after I had left you there.
Mothers do that sometimes.

You cried when I picked you up
because you had bitten your tongue.
And it was sore.
And you hadn't eaten all day.
So we left school a little early.

We sat at home on the couch
and watched TV and Piglet made you laugh.
And we had a bath with bubbles.
And we read The Cat in the Hat.
And I sang "I Love You" and "Twinkle, Twinkle"
and "Away in a Manger" because we always sing those songs.
And now you are sleeping.
And you are always my darling, baby

But tomorrow I must send you off
into the world again
because that is what a mother has to do
to help you grow up to be a big boy.
But I really want to keep you here with me,
in the confines of home,
for a little longer.



13 April 2005

WHILE WE WERE GONE

While we were in Taupo...

... Tarisota announced their new designer.... the wonderful Delys Cram. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Well done, Delys.

... our kitchen is gone... totally.. we don't have one

... we had an awesome time. Clear blue days, snow and heaps of fun. Visits to The Hidden Valley, the Prawn Farm (went prawn fishing - both kids caught one, adults didn't) and the best day at Whakapapa. Snow. Cold. Such fun.