Separated from my boys

I’m going to a music conference this weekend. It starts tonight (Thursday) and finishes late Saturday night. It will be the longest time I have spent away from my kids since they were born.

Ever since he was a baby, Ethan has had numerous “sleepovers” at Nana & Grandad’s, but only for one night each time. Except once, when Rob and I went away for a weekend. That was for 2 nights. When Tyler was born I only spent 2 nights in hospital, and Ethan came to visit twice anyway. Recently, both kids stayed over at my parents’ place for one night. That was Tyler’s first “sleepover”. They’re doing it again next weekend (its our wedding anniversary), but again only for one night.
This time, I won’t see my kids for more than 3 days. The conference starts tonight, but I had to say goodbye last night because I leave for work at 6.30am when the boys are still asleep, and I’ll be leaving for the conference at 4.30pm while they are still at preschool. I’ll get home around midnight on Saturday, but obviously I won’t see them until Sunday morning.

So Wednesday night until Sunday morning – that’s a long time!

Ethan was upset when I said goodbye and told him I was going away for a couple of days. I had to bribe him with promises of the things Daddy would do with them while I was gone (and then tell Rob afterwards so he would make sure to follow through). Tonight they’re having Wendy’s for dinner. You know, bribery with chicken nuggets has worked with Ethan since he was old enough to eat them! I guess they are his currency :)

Of course I am not at all worried about Rob’s ability to look after the kids by himself for 3 days. He’ll be fine. He’s such a hands-on father, I know he is not fazed at all by the prospect. I am worried about my kids missing me. Most people have been saying “oh, they’ll have such a great time, they won’t even miss you” but I don’t think that’s true. My kids love me, and they ask for me when I’m not there. Tyler often calls out for me in the mornings, even though I’ve left for work already. When they wake up in the night, they usually call for mummy.
Whether or not my kids will miss me is beside the point, anyway. I’m going to miss them, I know that for a fact!

Gingerbread People

I was thinking this morning how scrapbooking and blogging are so intricately linked. Confused? Well, often I blog about things that I intend to scrapbook, and today I scrapped a page that I am now going to blog about.
I would have blogged about this earlier, but it happened almost six months ago. Therefore, I can't blog about it in the usual way. So instead I'm posting a picture of the layout I did this morning. I was actually pretty chuffed with how it turned out. And pleased that I finally got to use some of my Die Cuts With a View Retro paper that I've been hoarding for ages :-)

Enjoy.



The journalling reads:

Ethan, you had been asking me to help you make "gingerbread mans" for months. I think it was a result of watching "Shrek 2" so many times! I guess you figured if an Ogre and a Donkey could help make a Giant Gingerbread Man, then the least I could do was help you make some not-so-giant ones! You were pretty excited when the day came. We made gingerbread men and gingerbread ladies, and then decorated them appropriately. One poor guy lost his life down the waste disposal unit, but it was for the best, as he had been cut a bit thinly and got a good roasting in the oven. You were pretty distraught about losing a man, but these things are part of life, buddy. The others lived to tell the story. Until we ate them, of course.

I only wish I'd taken a photo of YOU to put with these ones. A photo of you covered with flour and icing, a photo of you stealing "just one" chocolate chip, a photo of you watching them cook in the oven. Oh well. These pictures will always remind me (and you) of the fun we had together, making your first "gingerbread people".

Way to melt a mummy's heart

I always meant to post this, but I completely forgot about it until the other day when I was cleaning out my bag. I found a scrap of paper I had used to document this little conversation with Ethan, with the thought of using it for a scrapbooking layout.

Ethan & I were driving in the car one day, just the two of us.

E: Why do we have heads?
Me: So we can use our eyes, ears, nose and mouth. God made us that way.
E: God gave us …
eyes so we can see fishes …
ears so we can listen …
mouths so we can …. um, talk …
feet so we can stand up …
knees so we can … why do we have knees? …
hands so we can touch things …
arms so we can hold things …
… and God made flowers so we can choose them for somebody!

I just love the way his little mind works!! It was so lovely to hear the first thing he thought of for each of those things. Probably not the first thing I would have thought of – but that is what made it so special.
I thought the last line was especially neat, it just melted my heart.

Our Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend.
After church on Friday morning, we headed up to Whangarei for a couple of nights. We stayed with Rob's mum and stepdad, but we also caught up with Paul & Jo, Liv & Hamish as well as Julien (Rob's dad) and Jenni.
Rob went fishing all day Saturday with Pete & Hamish, and then Ethan got to spend an hour or two out on the boat as well. He loved it! We had fresh snapper for dinner - yum!
The kids had a fantastic time collecting feijoas, feeding the cows, chasing each other around the orchard, and watching Mr. Goose. We left Whangarei around 6pm on Sunday night, which turned out to be the best time to travel. Got home just in time to put the kids to bed and watch C.S.I. together :-)

Yesterday (Easter Monday) we took the kids to the Easter Show. Mum, Dad & Leah came with us and we had the best day! Last year Ethan was too scared to go on any rides or touch the farmyard animals, and Tyler was only a baby. But this year Ethan rode a horse, fed & patted the animals at the walk-in farmyard, rode on the Ferris Wheel with Mummy, slid on the big slide with Daddy, and went on the Merry Go Round with Nana!
As expected, both boys loved the Madagascar live show.
Tyler especially loved the farmyard ... the child has no fear!!! He was pushing & shoving the sheep if they ran away from him, he tried to "ride" one of the pigs like a horse, and he wasn't shy about saying hello to any of them! He couldn't quite manage to hold the animal food in the palm of his hand so they could eat out of it - instead he kept picking up small pieces and trying to shove it into their mouths! He had such a great time running around and chasing them all. Poor animals!
Mum got the boys a Spiderman cap each - only $5! They are really cool, I'll have to post some pics of them.
Unfortunately we didn't get the see the Circus this year - the 11.30, 12.30 and 1.30 shows were all booked out by the time we went to get our tickets.

Next year the Easter Show is going to be really fun - because Ethan will be even more confident (he is getting better & better all the time) and Tyler will be old enough to do so many more things. And I know he will not be scared of anything!

Meeting Christi!

Those of you who read Christi's blog will know that we met for the first time on Saturday. This is despite us living only a few minutes walk from each other!

We did have a really nice afternoon. I felt really comfortable with her (and Hugh as well). And her girls are just gorgeous! Kamryn is such a cutie and she has a lovely accent - like 1/2 Kiwi and 1/2 American, I love it! Lauryn is such a smiley girl. She slept for most of the time I was there until I asked what time she usually woke up and Christi realised it was 4pm and went to get her out of bed. Man, I WISH Tyler would sleep that long - even just once a week, LOL!

Okay, since Christi gave her first impressions of me, here are my first impressions of her:
* She looks really young! Honestly, I don't know why people think she is in her 30's. I thought she looked younger than me.
* She's got a cool accent. I love American accents!
* She has a really great laugh.
* She is outgoing.
* She is not shy to say what she thinks.
* She has a kick-ass scrapbooking area!!

Like Christi wrote on her blog, we had a pretty productive afternoon with our scrapbooking. I got to use my new Basic Grey paper and was happy with the layout I did. I thought it was really nice that Hugh sat at the table with us while we worked, chatting with us. He was looking after the kids too, but it was cool that he seemed interested in what we were doing and talking about.

Anyway, I had a really nice time and it was great to finally meet in person.
Thanks Christi, for a great afternoon!

My "other" birthday present

My birthday present to myself, that is.

Yes, I got a tattoo. It is on my left shoulder.

For those who are interested, the flowers are the boys' birth flowers. Ethan's is Lily of the Valley, which is the May birth flower. Tyler's is Morning Glory, the September birth flower. I really wanted to get something that had significance & meaning, and the flowers were perfect.

I really love how it turned out! It is quite a bit smaller than the sketch I gave him, but he did such a good job with the detail! And I love the colours. I never knew you could have any colour you wanted. Like white. He did such a good job with the shading, especially on the Morning Glory flower (the purple one).

It actually didn't hurt that much. I was expecting it to be a lot worse, but at the same time I knew it wouldn't be as bad as I expected, after talking to Christi & Heidi. They both said the colouring in part would hurt the most, and it did. But it was certainly not unbearable.

Now I'm curious - let me know what you think!

Okay, I'm hooked!

I, along with most of the world's population (so it seems), jumped on the Sudoku bandwagon last year. I quickly became addicted and actually posted on my blog about how much I loved it.
However, a few months ago the novelty began to wear off. The puzzles became too easy (yes, even the difficult ones) and I simply wasn't being "challenged" anymore.

Then I discovered Kakuro. And I'm completely hooked.

Kakuro has been described as the bigger (and harder) brother of Sudoku.
A Kakuro consists of a playing area of filled and empty cells similar to a crossword puzzle. Some black cells contain a diagonal slash from top left to bottom right with numbers in them, called “the clues”. A number in the top right corner relates to an “across” clue and one in the bottom left a “down” clue. The object of a Kakuro is to insert digits from 1-9 into the white cells to total the clue associated with it. However no digit can be duplicated in an entry. For example the total 6 you could have 1 & 5, 2 & 4 but not 3 & 3. Sound simple? Not always!

Check it out for yourselves ... but don't blame me when you become addicted and start to ignore all your housework (as I've been doing).
http://www.kakuro.com

The BEST birthday ever!!

Another year older. Yep, I turned 28 on Friday.
It is now Saturday night. I have had the most amazing weekend so far and just wanted to share it with you all!

FRIDAY:
~Got present & card from my boys.
~Received breakfast in bed.
~Went on trip to Auckland Zoo with Ethan and his preschool.
~Met 10 of my friends for dinner at Imbibe.
~Got this amazing birthday present:

(scroll down)

Yes, I got an iPod nano! But mine is black, and it is the 1GB model (holds 250 songs). Rob, Mum & Dad, Leah, Grandma, Phil & Jo and Dan & Steph all pitched in to buy it for me. I am so lucky!

~Enjoyed great food & wine.
~Had a night without the kids.

SATURDAY:
~Slept in until 7.30am.
~Stayed in bed until 8.30am.
~Went snorkelling at Goat Island with Rob.
~Had lunch at the Rusty Pelican in Matakana.
~Ate dinner at mum & dad's.
~Took our kids home to bed.
~Played with my new toy.

I had such a great birthday. I was spoiled with my iPod but I also got lovely presents from other friends & family too, and I'm so grateful. Thanks everyone! Especially my wonderful husband, who bought my iPod and organised the collection. He also planned our wonderful day today, just the two of us, and it was so special. It truely was the best birthday ever.