My hectic social life ...

It happens every year. I know it is going to happen, but it always hits me like a ton of bricks.
December is just So. Very. Busy. It started in November, and it will no doubt creep into January. Like a virus, really.

I have constructed a "living list" of social events and appointments on my calendar. By "living" I mean a list that is growing, evolving and expanding at a rate of knots. Let me tell you, it felt really good to cross off a dozen things that I had on there for November! Here's what's left for December (that I know of!):

1/12
Tyler - Doctor 8.40am
My work Christmas Function 6pm
3/12
Church 9.30am
Joshua's Dedication
Choir practice 5pm
5/12
Music practice 7.15pm
6/12
Drinks with girls from Coffee Group 7.30pm
7/12
Kindy Christmas Party
8/12
Ethan & Tyler - Dental Nurse 9am
Rob's work Christmas Function 8pm
10/12
Church 9.30am
Wayne & Mari's Baptism 12 noon
Lunch with ex-Adis girls 1.30pm
Choir practice 5pm
12/12
Music practice 7.15pm
14/12
My specialist appointment 9.30am
15/12
Preschool Christmas Party
All-Staff Christmas Function
17/12
Choir performance 9.30am
Choir performance 7pm
19/12
Last day of Kindy
22/12
Last day of work
24/12
Christmas Eve service 10am
Christmas Eve service 7pm
25/12
The Big Day!

I'm pretty glad that I have 4 weeks holiday this Christmas. I am entitled to 4 weeks paid annual leave each year, but very rarely do I take more than 2 weeks over the Christmas/New Year period. This time I'm taking 3 weeks over Christmas/New Year, and then another week in late January/early February. I'll be back at work for just 2 weeks inbetween ;-)
But boy, I'm going to need all the rest I can get!

An update

So I got an email this morning from Little Treasures magazine, and unfortunately Tyler didn't get chosen for this particular photo shoot :-( Of course I am a little disappointed, but she is keeping his photo on file and hopefully he'll get chosen another time.

In other news …
I took Ethan to a Kindy concert & disco on Friday night. We had a great time! He was happy to dance with me. They had cool music, dry ice, a bubble machine and coloured lights. Most of the kids were completely fascinated with the dry ice. They kept throwing themselves onto the floor, pretending to gag and choke like they were being gassed or something. Well, the boys did. The girls just stood around trying not to get it in their eyes, lol.
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Ethan now knows about his bike being stolen. And as I predicted, he was really upset. He kept saying "why are there bad people in this world, Mumma?" … man, how are you supposed to answer that?! I just tried to be honest with him but he was still shocked that any "bad" people would live in our neighbourhood [You know what? We were surprised about that, too]. We told him that we were going to get him a new bike, but he said he wanted his old one :-( He also said he hoped that the Police would catch the bad people and shoot them!!
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Mum told me a little story about something that happened at her place on Saturday. She was about to go out to her work dinner, and she was taking Ethan with her. Tyler was staying at home with Grandad. Mum overhead this conversation just before they left:

Ethan: "Now Tyler, come here. I want to have a little talk with you. I'm going out with Nana soon, but you are going to be staying here with Grandad. Now I need you to be a good boy for Grandad, and don't be naughty. There's to be no screaming or crying, okay? And you have to do what Grandad tells you, okay? Alright, Tyler?"
Tyler: "Alright."
Then Mum came in and Ethan told her about his "talk" with Tyler. She asked Tyler about it.
Tyler: "I be a good boy for Grandad". And apparently he was.

Vertigo

So last night was the U2 concert: Vertigo.

Man, it just totally ROCKED!!!!!!!

It was the BEST concert ever, I was so completely blown away by it and I hardly have the words to describe it!!
The best part of all was that we were among the first 4000 to be admitted into the stadium, which means we got into the special roped-off area right by the stage. We called it the "holding pen" because it was caged off and we all got "branded" with green stamps on our necks so that we could go in and out to get food, use the toilets, meet people etc. I know, totally awesome!

It wasn't even part of our plan to get there early. But we arrived at 3.30pm. The gates were due to open at 5pm, so around 4pm we started getting into line outside gate A. While we were waiting, I looked ahead and thought "there are not that many people in front of us, perhaps we will be part of the first 4000". Bonus! Then I noticed an area off to the side where some people were being sent through a different gate and then ushered into a HUGE tent. I told Rob to go and find out what they were doing. He wouldn't go, so I kept on nagging him, lol. Eventually he went over and a few seconds later he was motioning at us to follow him. We started walking towards the big tent and he said inside were the "first 4000" people!!! They let us go in because we asked! They weren't advertising what was happening and it was just a matter of "you ask, you get". But we knew there was still no guarantee that we would be one of the 4000, because they were just roughly counting and the "official" counting would be done down on the field (with handheld counter thingies). So we tried our luck and waited inside the tent for 45 min. Then finally we were allowed into the stadium. It was a mad rush for the front, and we made it!!! About 10 seconds after we got there, they closed it off and said "sorry, no more". We were SO lucky!! Seriously, we were just about doing backflips when we realised we had made it, and that we would be able to go in and out all evening thanks to the green stamps!

We were SO CLOSE to the stage! Especially the runways that jutted out into the crowd. When Bono and The Edge were standing on them, they were literally only a few metres away from us! We could see the entire stage perfectly, we had TONS of room around us and nothing behind us except 2 fences and some burly security guards ... and then row upon row of crushed people!
The show itself was OUT OF THIS WORLD. They did so many awesome songs! Obviously quite a few from How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, but they also did a few from All That You Can't Leave Behind and then heaps of older ones from The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, etc. Of course they did "One Tree Hill" as the final encore, which was just awesome! The stage was SO impressive, and the lighting and screens were just amazing.

Man, I just can't stop talking about it!! My sister took heaps of photos on her mobile phone but obviously we didn't have our cameras. But it was the show of a lifetime. Just an awesome, awesome night!! It was a long day, with lots of standing and I wasn't feeling too well, but it was worth it all. We got home at 1.30am but since the kids were sleeping over at my parents' place we were able to sleep in - bliss! I'm feeling shattered now but I'll be off to bed shortly. We've been playing our U2 CDs all day ... I guess we've got it in our blood at the mo ;-)

Surprises ...

Today has been full of surprises!

This morning I got a letter from my bank. Basically the letter said that the bank has reached a settlement with the NZ Commerce Commission relating to disclosure of currency conversion fees on foreign currency transactions. Apparently they didn't adequately disclose their fees to customers between 17 April 2002 and 31 December 2004, and therefore breached the Fair Trading Act. This was the part of the letter that was most surprising to me: "As you were on of those customers, you are entitled to a payment of $0.38. This payment will be paid to your account."
Could I BE any luckier? 38 cents!!

Then about half an hour ago, I got a phone call from the editor of Little Treasures magazine. For those who don't know, LT is the biggest Kiwi parenting magazine. I've been a subscriber since I was pregnant with Ethan. When Tyler was about 4 months old, I sent in a photo for their files, hoping that Tyler might get some work as a baby model. Everybody had been telling me how gorgeous and photogenic he was, especially with his red hair and bright blue eyes (which are now hazel). So I sent the photo in, and never heard back. I have to admit, I never really thought about it again.

Well the lady who rang today wanted to know if I could send a more up-to-date photo, because they are looking for little boys to be on their next cover!! I said "you do realise he is 2 years old now?" and she just laughed and said "I bet he looks very different to the baby in this photo I am holding!" ... and obviously he does! But she is still keen to see some recent photos so I have just emailed them off to her. I'm thinking perhaps it was a good thing that we cut his hair! I still don't know if they want him or not, but if they do we will be off to a photo shoot next Wednesday! Apparently they choose 5 models for each cover, shoot all of them and choose the best. So even if he goes to the photo shoot, he may not end up on the cover. But he would still be on their files and have a good chance of future work.

I feel quite proud of my little man! Even if he isn't successful, he still got "noticed" and that makes me feel pretty good. He's sick at the moment and pretty miserable, so it is nice to have some happy news where he's concerned :-)

Site counter stats

After reading Angella's post about her stat counter, and requesting for lurkers to come out of hiding and post, I decided to further investigate the stats on my own counter. I must admit, I hardly ever take the time to read my stats, but after today I think I will do it more often! Very interesting indeed!

Just as Angella did, I decided to have a look at the particlar Google searches people have done in order to end up here. These were pretty funny!

Junkyard Jalopy
(my kids love this game!)
Waiwera
(what a great place!)
Sore ears after snorkelling
(interesting …)
Tickly throat lost voice
(okay, I know I've been sick a few times but seriously?)
What boys want Hannah
(this one I found particularly amusing … if not a little disturbing)
Cough medicine that works
(well I'm also on a mission to find one ….)
I love sudoku + blogs
(hey, me too!!)
Wentworth Miller
(now this one really made me smile ;-)

So, following in Angella's footsteps, I am also going to request that all lurkers come out and leave me a comment. I'd love to know who is reading and not posting! Even if you've only read my blog a couple of times. Most of my readers are Kiwis, which makes sense. But I have quite a few Canadian visitors, and I suspect many of them are friends of Angella's or Jenn's. In fact, their sites are common referring links :-)

What really gets me is the number of visits lasting 0 seconds. Am I really that boring?? I have to say, if I stumble across a blog (either via a link on another person's site, or via a Google search), I will generally spend at least a few seconds reading it. But these people obviously click and can immediately tell that I am not worth any more of their time. Why does this depress me so? I guess I thought I was more interesting than that. Perhaps not. We shall see just how many comments I get on this particular post … and perhaps I will make a few new friends in the process!

Bring on the comments!!

Random Monday thoughts ...

I have a few things I want to say today, so I'm going to save a few brain cells by just listing them in bullet points ;-)

* I am very tired this morning.
* Last night I had dinner with Christi, Ann & Dale at the Mexican restaurant in Orewa (it was fun, thanks girls!)
* Yesterday we had Tyler dedicated at church. Our goddaughter Miriam was also dedicated yesterday.
* I am getting used to Tyler's short hair now.
* This Saturday we are going see U2 live in concert!
* Most of my weekends are fully booked up until Christmas.
* Between Wednesday and Saturday last week, I did 5 scrapbooking layouts and made 5 cards.
* We haven't found Ethan's bike :-( … and he still hasn't noticed it is missing.
* I got my hair cut on Wednesday and the only people who noticed were my husband and my sister.
* In 7 days, Ethan will be exactly 4 and a half years old.
* I really need to get some work done now!

First time published!

Well, the issue is finally out! And my layout is on page 74 - woohoo!
It feels pretty awesome to see my work and my name in print. I'm sure for many it is not a big deal, but I've been submitting to Up2Scrap for about a year without any success, so I'm hoping this will get a foot in the door, so to speak.

Here it is, for those of you who don't scrapbook or haven't already hot-footed it down to the local bookstore to pick up a copy ;-)

Congratulations also to Christi, Ann, Delys, Julie, Andrea and the other ladies who were published in this issue. I noticed so many "familiar" names this time!!

Chocolate

A girl at work has just passed around squares of 70% cocoa bittersweet organic chocolate.
I'm sorry, but why bother?

Eating this is like eating cocoa powder straight from the box/tin. The aftertaste is beyond unpleasant. It is like eating cooking chocolate. Which I have done in the past, but only because I was utterly desperate and there was no "normal" chocolate left in the house.

It always amuses me to read about the purported benefits of dark chocolate.

- you only need to eat a small amount. EXACTLY! Who wants to only eat a small amount??
- one small piece will satisfy any sugar craving. Um, wrong! I've eaten one small piece and not only has my sugar craving intensified, my taste buds are protesting because they have been cruelly tricked.
- it has antioxidants. Well, so does cabbage, but that doesn't make me want to eat it! And if you really need to boost your antioxidant levels, why not drink a glass of red wine?
- it contains minerals such as magnesium, potassium and calcium. Um, take a supplement.
- it decreases LDL cholesterol. Hmm, I know of some drugs that can do that.

I don't care what they say, I won't eat this stuff. I won't waste precious calories on it when I could be using them to eat something much more satisfying. For me, it is milk chocolate all the way. Cadbury is the best, but I would never say no to Nestle or Whittakers.

In my opinion, if you are going to eat chocolate, you may as well enjoy the experience. Now is that a strange concept, or common sense? I thought so :-)

What have we done?

What have we done?
We got Tyler's hair cut on Saturday.
After more than 6 months since his last cut, it was getting real long. He had the softest curls and we both loved his hair long, but it was getting in his eyes a lot and we heard that he had been subjected to wearing hair clips and ponytails at daycare!!
On Friday, 3 people called him a girl while we were out shopping.
When Rob came home, I said "it's time to get his hair cut" and he agreed.
So on Saturday morning, Rob took him up to the Barber. When he came home and I saw my baby, I cried. The hairdresser was psycho and ruthless and decided to cut off a whole lot more than Rob requested. She cut off ALL his beautiful curls.
And now he looks like this:


He is still beautiful of course, but he just looks SO different. He looks like a completely different boy! And I really didn't want to lose his curls. I'm still upset about it, and Rob is too. We are slowly adjusting to our "new" Tyler. My mum almost fell over when she saw him. People are definitely getting shocked when they see him!!

Ethan, on the other hand, just loves his brother's new look! As soon as he saw him, he said "Bubby, your hair cut is SOOOOO cool!! Do you want me to help you look in the mirror?". And when we ask Tyler if he likes his hair cut, he smiles and says "YEP!". We've been saying "Tyler, shake your crazy hair" (from a Hi5 song that we always used to sing, and Tyler would always shake his hair and laugh) and he tries to do it and then says "No, all gone!" ... so cute!
So I guess the main thing is that he is happy, his hair is no longer in his eyes and hopefully people will stop calling him a girl.

But despite my feelings of despair, I'm still in love with his cuteness. His gorgeous smile is even better now, as it really does stand out on his face without his hair in the way. And now his curls are not the first thing people notice. They see his eyes, his smile, his personality. And I'm happy about that.
I just hope the curls grow back again!

I'm in shock ...

Ethan's bike was stolen. From right next to our front door.
We're not entirely sure when it happened, but we noticed today that it was missing.
Ethan doesn't know yet, we haven't told him. I have no idea how to tell him, he is going to be so heartbroken. It was the bike he got for his birthday in May, with a Batman bell on it and everything. We've decided not to tell him until he notices himself. Hopefully that won't be until the next time he wants to go for a ride.
It just sucks that somebody could do this. Stealing from a child is just the lowest. I'm guessing it was another kid who took it, but I can't understand how his/her parents aren't wondering where they got a new bike from!
We have given pictures of it to all our neighbours, and we're going to put some up in the shop down the road. Hopefully somebody will see something and we'll get it back.
I swear, if I see another kid riding MY son's bike, I will be on them, man.
I honestly just feel like crying. My security has been shattered. We've never had anything like this happen to us before, this is a really safe neighbourhood. I know we probably should have had the bike chained up, but it doesn't take away from the awful thing that has happened. I'm totally gutted.

20 Questions

1. What countries have you visited?
Australia, USA, Canada.

2. Would you rather fly, walk, swim or ride a horse?
Swim, but I'm not all that good at it. I am able to keep myself from drowning but I certainly wouldn't win a race and I wouldn't get any points for technique!

3. If you could get stuck in an elevator with any celebrity, who would it be?
Easy - Wentworth Miller!! The man is HOT!

4. How would your co-workers describe you?
Extremely organised, highly productive, reliable, friendly but not overly sociable.

5. Do you have any piercings or tattoos?
I have 4 piercings (2 in each ear) and a tattoo on my left shoulder.

6. Which movie character would you most like to be?
Meg Ryan's character in "City of Angels". I would love to be that close to Mr Nic Cage!

7. What is your nickname?
I have a few, I guess. Rob calls me Poppet or Honey. My close friends and some family members call me Han. Dad calls me Sam or Molly. My boys call me Mumma.

8. Have you ever been arrested?
No.

9. What is your worst pet peeve?
Drivers who don't indicate (signal).

10. Is your music collection alphabetised?
Yes. You're not surprised, are you?

11. What's your favourite cartoon character?
I've always loved the smurfs, and I guess Smurfette was my favourite. Girl power and all that.

12. Do you play any instruments?
I play the piano.

13. If you were on Survivor, what would be your luxury item?
Pen and paper. I always need to be writing (heck, I even do it for a job!) or sketching/doodling.

14. If you could eliminate one disease, what would it be?
Cancer.

15. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
I'm not really either!! I definitely like to go to bed early (preferably before 10pm) but I can't say I like waking up early! I guess you could say I like to sleep :-)

16. What are your secret talents?
I can flare my nostrils on command. I can roll my tongue. And some other things to do with having small wrists and flexible arms that I can't explain well in words, they need to be seen to be believed.

17. Who is your favourite author?
Lee Child.

18. Which TV family would you like to join?
The Huxtables.

19. What song would you sing at Karaoke?
"I'm gonna soak up the sun" by Sheryl Crow.

20. If you could have only one food for the rest of your life (assuming that this would not affect your health), which food would you choose?
No question! Chocolate, for sure!

I'm tagging everyone who reads this! Ha!

Growing up

Sometimes I get quite emotional about how fast my boys are growing up.

It suddenly hit me last night that Ethan will be starting school in just over 6 months' time! I'm excited for him, but at the same time I feel sad. He is such a great kid now, I just want him to stay that way! I'm not sure that I'm ready for him to be out in the "real world" so to speak. Okay, he is already at Kindy and is being influenced by his friends & teachers there, but school is just so much bigger. Of course I am looking forward to him learning lots of new things, and improving on the skills he already has. Along with that, his social skills, confidence and independence will improve. Those are great things, but as well as the positive things about starting school, there will be some negatives. I'm just not sure if I'm ready for it all!

Tyler is now 2,, and no longer a "toddler" in my eyes. He has been getting really good at talking, and now speaks in 20-30+ word sentences all the time!! I'm constantly amazed by the things he says and understands. He's still my baby of course, but he's growing up faster than I ever expected him to. I think having an older brother is a real incentive for him to talk louder, run faster and jump higher! He comes up with the funniest sayings.

Last night I started thinking about how one day my boys may not want to spend heaps of time with me, and give me cuddles & kisses. If I had my way, that day would never come. But I know it probably will.
The best thing I can do right now is to make the most of today. Enjoy the things that Ethan does & says that make him, well, four. Relish the fun times with Tyler, even when he is being a typical toddler. Take lots of photos, write about the things I want to remember, create memories that will last forever. I'm glad that I do those things, and that I have really great memories of the last 4 1/2 years. In many ways it is exciting to think about the future, and wonder what my boys will be like in another 5-10 years. I'm sure we'll continue to have as much fun as we do now (if not more).

Guy Fawkes & recent pictures

Yesterday we went up to Sky Fawkes at Snells Beach with Christi, Hugh, Kamryn & Lauryn. It was a pretty good afternoon/evening.
We got up there about 5pm and the kids played for a while on the bouncy castles & slides, and then Kamryn & Ethan got their faces painted. We had our dinner on the hill alongside the stage and listened to/watched some of the acts. The whole thing was supposed to finish at 9pm, but the fireworks didn't even start until after 9.30pm!!
Our kids were SO good, I was really shocked at how well they did being up so late. My kids have never been up later than 8.30pm so for them to last until 10pm was pretty awesome!! Ethan got sleepy but Tyler was just wired and loving everything that was going on around him. He had a good time dancing to the music, and he especially loved the fire dancing. He kept saying "Want more fire song! Not fair!!" in the car on the way home (before he finally fell asleep, lol).

I was pretty disappointed that the fireworks started so late, but considering how good the kids were it really didn't matter. It was well worth the wait, too. The show was just amazing!! Some of the best fireworks I've ever seen. My boys were actually a bit scared of them but Christi's girls just loved them. Kamryn even said "this is like my dream come true!" which I thought was so sweet!
The kids had a great time playing together, running up and down the hill playing Tag, rolling down the grass and dancing. Kamryn gave Ethan a few kisses when it was time to leave, which he said he didn't like ... but secretly I think he did ;-)

We left around 10pm but it took a while to get out of Snells Beach because of all the people trying to leave at one. We took the "back roads" down to the beach and then came back up to the main road at the roundabout so we didn't have to wait. It was pretty sweet from then on! The kids slept in the car and finally got to bed at 11pm - wow! They both slept in this morning though - Tyler slept until 7.30am (he normally wakes at 6.30pm) and Ethan slept until 8.15am (and he only woke up because Tyler was being his usual loud self). After church Tyler had a big 3 hour sleep. I thought they would have been really grumpy today but they've been great! Really happy! So maybe tomorrow they will be tired, but that's okay because it is Rob's day off, hehe!

Anyway, I wanted to post a picture of Ethan from yesterday, and a couple of others that I took during the week. The boys love riding around our back yard with their Daddy on his Vespa. They looked pretty cute so I had to get a photo. Even though Rob bought the Vespa without my permission ... but that is a whole separate story!! lol :-)