Cricket!

We went to the cricket this past weekend... Day 1 of the Test between Australia and New Zealand. We all had lots of fun - but we haven't got around to processing any of the mountain of photos that we took. Once we've done that we can post some more details :)
UPDATE: I've now processed a whole heap of photos, so here you go!

False start

If a post about Easter Traditions turns up in your reader and looks decidedly not finished...that's because it isn't. I accidently clicked publish instead of save draft. I will post the finished post later today hopefully - with all the gaps/questions marks filled in!

The squealer...

In the past week Naomi has learnt to squeal (a real girly skill to be acquired). At first it was a happy squeal which she would practice while playing on her mat in the mornings. Now she's developed the unhappy/crying squeal. So when she doesn't want to go to sleep, instead of crying, she squeals at the top of her voice. I wonder if she will lose her voice one day from squealing too much?

Maybe I'll get the camera out one day and record a sound bite of it, for those of you who are interested.

Parent inflicted illness...

As planned, the kids got their flu vaccine yesterday (well half of it - kids under 9 get it as 2 half doses 4 weeks apart). They did very well getting the needles, no crying or tantrums. We then went to Bible study as normal and they didn't seem to be having any reaction to it. In the afternoon , Ben went to kindy as normal and Joanna had her nap. When she woke up she had a fever and when I went to get Ben he was complaining of a headache (which one of the kindy teacher's said he had told her about during the afternoon) and when I felt him, he also had a temperature. So they have been suffering flu like symptoms all night (I had to give them paracetamol twice during the night) and today (Ben's temp has gone, but Joanna still has one). So now I'm wondering if the pros of getting the vaccine outweigh the cons or not? Do I take them back to get the 2nd half dose in 4 weeks time or not?

(Jean's post about caring for sick children has also made me more conscious about my attitude and behaviour towards the children when they are sick - I'm trying to let some of the day-to-day things slide so that I can be there for them more to read stories, give leg rubs - Ben actually requested it yesterday arvo, etc. Although there is only so much that can slide when you have a 5 month old baby to take care of as well.)

Graduating

Yesterday, Ben finally got a date for when he will be moving to morning kindy! He will start on the 19th of April which is the first day of Term Two here.

To Doctor, To Doctor...

After being sick for about 2 weeks now I finally went to the doctor. Not so much to treat my immediate condition, but sort out long term health stuff that I've been putting off. So I went in to my appointment with a list - which I guess you could best describe as a 'shopping list' except it was for drugs instead of the usual bread and milk shopping list.

Here is what I accomplished:

1. I have restocked my supply of low dose and high dose antibiotics for my chronic tonsillitis (I managed to get a case of tonsillitis last weekend). I've also got a referral to the public system ENT here (I was on the waiting list in QLD to see and ENT for over 12 months before we moved here and never even got an appointment!).
2. I have restocked my supply of asthma medication (including some good hard core prednisone) , so I can stop using my out-of-date ventolin (because that's all I had).
3. I got my flu jab for the year (I can get it for free here because I have asthma).

I also booked Naomi in for her 5 month immunisations and Ben and Joanna to get a flu jab at the same time (kids under 6 can get it for free here).

The best pasta recipe ingredient...

Is Chilli! I love it, it adds a great zing/extra oomph to pasta dishes and you only need to use a little bit. It works with tomato/meat sauces, as well as with pesto. And if your kids aren't into chilli, make it up without the chilli, but make sure you have a bottle of crushed chilli flakes which you can sprinkle onto your bowl of pasta just before you eat (just like you'd grate parmesan cheese on top - except not quite as much!).

I committed childcare's #1 sin today!

I sent Joanna to creche at the gym with peanut butter on her bread!

(It wasn't just me being totally brainless, it was connected to breakfast time - she'd asked for another slice of toast with peanut butter on it, but then a minute later she said she was all done without having taken a single bite of it. So I said she would have to eat it for morning tea - instead of the biscuits she normally gets - because it was a wasteful thing to do. And in the heat of the moment I didn't even think about the problem with it having peanut on it - it wasn't until we arrive home from the gym that it dawned on me!)

It ain't summer no more

Last night was cold. It was forecast to get down to 5C overnight. I checked what it actually was this morning when I got up: "0.6C, feels like -1C". No wonder it felt cold.

5 bad things about junkmail

1. It wastes a lot of time looking through it all.

2. It's bad for the environment - all that paper.

3. It makes you think you need to buy things because you see it in the catalogue, whereas you could easily live without it if you hadn't seen it.

4. It creates more work cleaning - all those catalogues lying around the house that need to be collected and put in the recycling.

5. You can't select which ones you receive and which you don't so you get lots of ones for stuff that you couldn't care less about.

5 good things about junk mail

1. You know what is on special so can save money on items that you need to buy.

2. Gives you a general idea of the cost of certain items, so when you are bidding for new or used ones on ebay/trade me, you know what is a fair/reasonable price.

3. Great for kids to cut pictures out of for collages.

4. Information is at your fingertips, instead of having to search online for store websites, hope they have an online version of their catalogue, and having to deal with annoyingly slow and cumbersome electronic catalogue displays.

5. Makes the mailbox feel useful (we don't get much actual official mail as most our bills we get electronically)

And then there was one...

Had final inspection for our rental today. All went well and now we only have one house to worry about. And a long list of stuff to do with it!

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning...

After 2.25 days of people slogging away at our new house removing 5 years of cigarette smoke residue (and who knows what else) from the walls, ceiling, floors last week...today was the start of 2.5 days cleaning our old house before we hand back the keys.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

As you might have figured from the previous post, we've managed to move into our new house.  Things went pretty smoothly really - as smoothly as could be expected anyway.  Plenty of people helped out with the cleaning and then moving - thanks everyone!

 So, how's the house?

The Good:

• It's relatively clean now - thanks to lots of hard work from lots of people - thanks!
• It's not as noisy as we thought it might be.  We're on a busy road, but it quietens down a lot at night, so in the first two nights there, we haven't really noticed it being particularly noisy.
• It's ours :D

The Bad:

• Ants.  Lots of them.  In the kitchen.
• Kitchen tap leaks.  Just a little bit, but it isn't doing the kitchen bench any good...
• Too many little things to do... towel rails to get, window stays to fit, etc etc.

The Ugly:

• The kitchen smell.  One of the pipes (I think it's the dishwasher wastewater outlet) isn't sealed at all, so we get a bit of a smell in the kitchen.  Not that bad, but noticeable, to me anyway.  I think I need to investigate and fix sometime.  Along with the hundreds of other things to do...

Before the rooster crows...

We were already out of bed.

Last night was our first night sleeping in our new house. And while we were having breakfast this morning, we could hear the faint crowings of a rooster. Obviously somebody close by owns some chooks, but not our immediate neighbours - it wasn't that loud.

Little Miss No-girl

Joanna is very much a two year-old. Recently she's been particularly stubborn, just answering "no" to everything. And telling us "no" whenever we tell her to do things or ask her nicely to do things. Except for when it comes to dessert.

woohoo!

Our house is settled.  We now legally own a house.  And a big fat mortgage.  

The waiting game...

Today is settlement day for our new house. So I'm sitting at home waiting for the bank and lawyers to do their thing with all the money, so I can then get some keys!

Although I must admit I'm not overly excited as there is a lot of hard work cleaning to do in the next couple of days (before we move our stuff in) and I'm going to have to rely on others to do most of it as I shouldn't be doing too much with my back still recovering from injury.

The Silence to Come

With us moving house in a few days time, our internet will be transferred... there's a possibility of some downtime.  Hopefully Mel will survive!

And hopefully it's only a day of downtime.

I've discovered TV on demand

It's almost as good as having a PVR. I can watch TV shows when I want, without ads! Only problem is not all the shows I want are offered and...it chews up our download.

Race report - Rotorua half

I did the Rotorua half-marathon this morning... a much delayed attempt at another half (after intending to do Taupo in August, Hamilton in November...). I hadn't really done enough training, but went anyway. It's an off-road run through the forest, partly on forestry roads, partly on mountain-bike trails. I was attempting to improve on my not-particularly-impressive PB (from my one and only half-marathon race) of 1h51min.

The weather was perfect - partly cloudy, cool, and in the forest we were completely sheltered from a pretty stiff breeze. I'd managed to forget to bring a watch, so I had no idea what sort of pace I was going at - I thought I was on target, until I got to the halfway mark and found that about 57min30sec had alredy gone by... I was about 5min off where I'd really wanted to be! There was no way I was going to make up that much time, but I made a valiant effort - in the end I managed negative splits (second half faster than the first), but only by about a minute. So I had to make do with a 1h54min time. The course was certainly not overly easy, being off-road, and not particularly flat, but still, it would have been nice to go slightly quicker than that. Oh well, next time.

EDIT: Just checked the actual results on the website and discovered that my negative split was actually better than a minute... 2min30sec actually.  Which is a reasonably substantial speedup.  Just a pity I was speeding up from such a slow start...

Camping with Dad...

I hadn't been camping with the kids this summer yet, so I figured I'd better go before autumn arrived. Last weekend was the only time that was going to fit before we moved, so that was what happened. We went to Dicky Flat - the same place Mel and Joanna stayed at last year.
Ben and Joanna were super-excited about going camping - they loved it. I left work slightly early on Friday afternoon and headed off then - we got there in time for dinner. The kids both had a good night - they slept well and didn't wake up early. We had the yummiest breakfast ever (according to Ben) and then headed off to Karangahake to go for a pleasant walk.
Back to the campsite for lunch and a rest, then we got to paddle in the river at the campsite before packing up and heading home. We had to stop in Paeroa for an ice cream on the way in an attempt to keep Joanna awake... I really didn't want her falling asleep and then not going to sleep until late at night!

It's getting close...

Only 5 sleeps until we own our own house!

Now really need to get everything packed into boxes!

Methinks Ben don't watch much TV

(For reference, the kids usually watch a DVD in the afternoons - the library has a good selection of kids DVDs which are free to borrow)
This evening, there was cricket on the TV (it only happens a couple of times a year, so I had it on!). Ben sat in front of it for a couple of minutes before it was time to go and have a bath. He decided that he'd watch "three more bowls". One ball and two replays later, he wanted to know "how to turn it off"
"As you usually do, the button on the front of the TV"
"But we need to stop it first!"
"No, it's on TV, so you don't need to stop it!"
"Yeah, the cricket is inside the TV, so we don't need to stop it"

Bending the rules...

Went to the physio about my back today. I'm not allowed to bend my back for 48 hours!

I also am only allowed to sit for 15 minutes at any time and have exercises I have to perform every hour. So I am spending a lot of time lying on the floor and I need constant help to do most things.