Christchurch courage

During our recent visit to Christchurch we got to see first hand the devastation the earthquakes have brought upon this city and its people. While there are lots of new subdivisions under construction there are still streets of broken houses and buildings. We visited a whole new town called Pegasus which felt very weird and looked like a set from Stepford Wives. It was all brand new and laid out beautifully but it had no character and any minute it felt like a camera would start rolling and beautiful people would emerge to act. 

 Still I can see the attraction of this when your house now looks like this...

 In Kaiapoi there were streets and streets filled with quake damaged houses like this one where the residents had just had to walk away and find a new home...like my Auntie Judy who has just moved into her new home 3 years after the last quake. This was a hard and heartbreaking journey for her and her family. (though I love the astro turf lawn they have installed, the kids said it felt like Christmas trees!)

In the inner city tower cranes are everywhere as buildings are torn down and restoration and rebuild begins.

 

 However, I saw Canterbury spirit everywhere including this huge metal bow on the scaffolding surrounding the art centre and lots of street art in the inner city. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries before I could capture it all. First rule of holidays, carry extra batteries!

 Thank goodness for Google...

 Just one of the wall pieces we saw on our drive around.

This newly erected letterbox sculpture in Kaiapoi looks amazing!

So don't be scared and go check out the amazing place that Christchurch is becoming...and the only earthquake we felt was when we arrived back home in the North Island.

Did you see that!!!

There it goes, 2013 just whizzed by when I was busy trying to juggle life, study and work. Alas blogging was not on my list of things I had time for so here's a brief rundown of the year that was.

 

The year started with lots of swimming at the local pools, the council made one wise decision and opened them for free. 

 My boys grew and grew and grew (averaging a cm per month) and Western got glasses.

 And a cup for achievement for year 6 at the school prize giving...proud mommy moment here, while Ethan graduated from Reading Recovery after 6 months of hard work. 

 Our beloved Molly girl passed away, but not before she had given us 9 puppies. Unfortunately they were only 4 weeks old when she died so it was all hands on deck to looking after the puppies. They all found local homes except for these two...

So we now have two dogs, Bonnie and Foster, currently in training to be just like their Mum which is easier said than done when there are two of them!

Then the cats started to breed, Lola decided to disappear after two weeks leaving us with two kittens so bottle feeding began every two hours....then Charlie gave birthday to 5 cute tabbies luckily she stuck around and so have the kittens.....hopefully Neil won't notice LOL.

 

I got to work with some amazing teachers who support my own teaching journey and spent some time at the local kindy for my study. I love how you give a kid a camera and they can take photos of anybody including me!

 

My Palmer journey continued with the arrival of my original birth certificate with my father in his rightful place.

 And an awesome family holiday to Christchurch to meet more family including my brother Rhys, hear lots of family history (and secrets) and visit my dad's grave. 

and we got to spend heaps of time with this Palmer lot...

and catch up with more rellies...

12 years to too long between visits! So the saving begins for the next holiday.....

My hubby has worked hard all year and is enjoying his new job doing light engineering in between hunting and dog training. He enjoyed some much deserved down time over Christmas but I think the highlight was getting to drive a brand new rental car!

 

And so here we are at the beginning of 2014, Neil and I are both back at work, the kids are enjoying their summer holidays, the study books are due any day and another cat is pregnant.......

It's been a while

It's been a while and I blame study! When people ask what you've been up to I've learnt to say "study" and roll my eyes, it's a good excuse for having no time for socialising, being roped into jobs or housework!

Man, how time flies when you are juggling full time study, part time work, full time parenting and still try to fit in some volunteer work!

I'm half through trimester one (why do they call it trimester when there are only two!) of year two of my degree. The work load seems to have stepped up this year but I have found some ways to keep my motivation up for all the reading we seem to be doing....

My first set of assignments are looming (3 due at the same time...aargh) but this year I will have some helpers, Jack and Jim...

for I intend to take Ernest's advice and write drunk then edit sober! I'm sure I can wax lyrical on the use of critical theory in early childhood education with a few drinks in me LOL.


While still grappling with the mind blowing knowledge that I am actually doing tertiary study I took on a paid job as a teacher at a local preschool. 20 odd (sometimes very odd) paid hours per week is a new concept for me. Regular money, working with a great team of professional teachers and amazing kids and being valued for what I bring to the job is great for my self esteem....this is all great but its the family juggling thats a challenge. Two mornings a week my boys have to be up, dressed, fed and out the door to mum's place by 7.45am. (big thanks for mum's who do heaps of babysitting for free and often throw in doing the dishes as well). She also collects them three afternoons a week and can cover at a moment's notice for emergencies.

Some mornings that takes more tantrums and tears than I would normally allow myself LOL.


So some serious time management skills are being developed while all this juggling is going on, I'm sure they will be useful once I'm working full time when my study finishes. (fingers crossed) But I still haven't figured out how to fit blogging in but bear with me I promise to try!



Love you more than my highlighter!
Happy Easter 2013 everybody

We look the same!

Don't we look the same!

The house was cleaned into a shining beacon of welcome, the food prepared, the children dressed in their new clothes and the nerves stretched to almost breaking point when finally they pulled up the driveway. Daniel and Mandy had arrived and I promptly burst into tears and pushed my sister out the door first so I could compose myself LOL.

And sorry, Gail it looks like you missed out on the height genes on both sides of the family! Even I felt small beside Daniel and Mandy.

So once the intial nerves were calmed and the few tears were wiped away we got on with getting to know each other. Lots of questions were asked (sorry Daniel) as I tried to find the missing parts of myself that I actually hadn't noticed until this day. Daniel and Mandy helped me build a picture of my father and their life with him as we revisited this topic throughout the day while celebrating Daniel's 30th birthday and exchanging gifts, photos and letters from their children Alex and Sam. All too soon Gail had to leave to drive home. The rest of the day flew by on wings of laughter and connections being made. Comparisons were made of our funny little Virgo habits (we are so anal sometimes!) and promises made to meet up again soon before they had to finally leave late in the night to drive back to Wellington.

So now the accomodation is booked at Waikuku Beach for Christmas 2013 and we are going to have our first away family holiday in Christchurch. We will be catching up with my extended Caldwell family, visiting a few tourist spots but most of all spending real time with the Palmer crew and further building on this amazing connection!

The benefits of meeting a new brother

My brother Daniel and his talented wife Mandy are coming to Carterton in September. Let me repeat that, incase you missed it...MY BROTHER DANIEL AND HIS TALENTED WIFE MANDY ARE COMING TO CARTERTON IN SEPTEMBER! Yes I know capitals means I'm shouting but I so excited as I have never met them before. I have never even heard their voices, but thanks to Mandy's proflific photo taking I have seen lots of them. 

Once the inital burst of happiness went by the panic set in...I seriously thought for a nano second I needed to move house as my house is a work in progress and wouldn't be good enough to show to a new member of the family. One glance at the bank statement soon put paid to that LOL.

What has happened is I am looking at my house with fresh eyes, trying to see it from a new brother perspective. Its helpful to know his house is also a work in progress LOL. 

This is Daniel destroying his house

And their brand new kitchen, far to nice to cook in.

So far I have decided the whole house needs painting inside, new curtians in most rooms, carpets and lounge suite need cleaning (seriously! 9 years of snotty, yoghurt eating kids don't mix with a navy blue lounge suite) and the clutter just has to go. Neil has already fixed the toilet seat which wobbled when you sat on it, something I've been asking for ages, and put the hooks up in the laundry for the coats. Now he has to put all the missing door handles back, our house doesn't like door handles and we have a few to put back. (This has been on the to do list for a very long time!) 

I've brought more RCA cables so our DVD player and video can be housed in the cabinet on perched on top  and lots of cleaning product! 

So thank you Daniel and Mandy for helping us spend some time on our house again and I know you are not coming to see the house but at least it will be clean and tidy with door handles and a safe toilet set LOL.

Now what to feed them, what do we talk about, will they like us, will my kids behave, do I have enough tissues to cope with all the tears I'm sure will flow, will Daniel cope with two new sisters, (feel free to hide in the shed with Neil, but not all day) can I lose 30 kilos before then for the million photos I'm sure will be taken...(note to self, get batteries for the camera) the list goes on......haircuts, clean and matching clothes for the boys,.....

Did I mention I'm really excited to be meeting Daniel and Mandy?

Love you more than Flybuys points


Carey

Cat love

May saw the arrival of the most adorable little kittens ever! Name Charlie and Lola by Ethan they quickly settled in at 5 Brooklyn Road. They lulled us into a false sense of security with their cuteness...but it was all a trick! I had forgotten how much of a pain a cat can be sometimes and i've got double trouble. 

Kittens like to sit on you, especially if the fire is not going....

which makes it very hard to type or study, have also found that the keyboard can be warm and have been known to sleep on the keyboard which adds about a million new words to your work!

I think they are secretly geeks as Charlie is demonstrating, she, (yes Charlie is now a she) loves to help Western play his games or just seemingly read what you are typing.

Cats are great climbers, up your legs, up the sofa, up the curtians! They can also poop in the oddest of places, the laundry tub, the bath, behind the freezer...thank goodness for mothballs, cats hate mothballs and so they are great to use as a deterent.

Cats love popcorn or maybe just the butter, they have been found in the popcorn bowl rolling it around until it tips over as demonstrated in this photo LOL.

They love to sleep anywhere, on the chairs, on the bed, on people, on keyboards, in the washing pile and most of all in front of the fire. 

But when they are ready to eat nobody sleeps, we have had to start shutting them in the lounge at night to avoid the 2.30am wake up call which includes loud purring right in your ear or running across your face. 

But all is forgiven everytime they turn these cute little faces at you and purr, they are so god damm adorable they can get away with anything.

Who said we had to shave our legs!

Oh how i wish I could turn back the clock to that fateful day at 14 when I first shaved my legs. I can remember using a blunt razor and Mum freaking out when she saw the bath full of blood. It was the beginning of a lifetime of buying expensive razors, painful razor cuts, and because I'm half blind in the shower, (you try wearing your glasses in the shower!) racing stripes on my legs.
Who said we have to shave our legs, abd why do I think it necessary to continue...because the hair grows back black!!!!! Its a vicious cycle

If only I hadn't started but alas I have. The only respite is winter followed by a very long session and 2 razors later to get the legs to public viewing standard. As Kaz Cooke says in her new book Women's Stuff, (a must have for any women and very funny) "the idea of normal has become abnormal, we are shocked to see a photo in the media of a natural woman showing any body hair, or a flash of fur under somebody's arm." (feel like I should be APA referencing hair here). Contrary to popular belief armpit hair is not unhygienic and the smell only arises from not washing daily.

So who am I shaving for if its not for hygiene reasons?  I do get the odd comment from the hairy (very hairy) lump I share my bed with about prickly legs but its not for him, its because my culture expects it from women and apparently its all been driven from America's beauty culture.

So while I would like to go free range for the rest of my life, my culture dictates I can't unless I invest in dreadlocks, maxi tie dyed skirts, go braless and and barefoot as apparently all hairy women are hippies, and as appealing as that sounds I'm sure Carterton could not cope with that LOL! Bloody americans!

Love you more than my winter jeans