Monday 30 December 2013

Too long!

Sunday 29 December

It's been a long time since I wrote any posts.
Too long really!
Quite a bit has happened in the nearly three months since I last blogged.

For now I'm going to suspend writing till later tonight.
Things to do. . .as usual!

So now it is 11.50pm or 23.50 & I'm finally back on here.
I'm going to post a few pictures of life around here as a bit of an update.
Too much has happened and too long a time for me to remember everything.



 A few years ago Boar made me this drying line. We have a rotary line up the path from here.
This line is under cover and is great in winter for drying things, especially towels.
Here in Wellington, in winter, it is either still and cold, or blowing a gale.
Or raining.
Either way not the best drying weather.
This line is on a pulley. I let it down to hang the clothes/towels.
Then pull it up out of the way.
After a day or two I'll bring it in and finish it off in the drier or by the fire.

Earlier in the year Locket decided she wanted to knit a scarf.
Interestingly Locket is the daughter who is the most interested in crafts.



Here is the scarf partly done.
And a couple of pics showing the different ways she chooses to wear it once it was finished.





Pretty good effort for a first attempt I thought!

I decided I needed a decent sized something for writing down things that needed to be bought.
I hit upon the idea of creating a blackboard on the inside of one of the pantry cupboards.
So I marked it off with masking tape and away I went. 
Blackboard paint makes it easy. 
Here is the one I used.


 Using the tape made it easy to get a nice clean edge, once the tape was removed.



One of me doing the painting, just to prove it's not a robot typing all this :)


It took me a while to be able to do the 2nd coat. I may have done three altogether.
Partly because wee Mr Magoo was in the house and I didn't want to have paint fumes in the air when he was around.
After living here for around 8 weeks Jester, Frosty and Mr Magoo moved in with a friend of Jester's.
Mouse is his name. He has a daughter who lives with him every other week.
Jester, Frosty and Mr Magoo have a bedroom and lounge area downstairs.

Here is the finished result. . .we don't buy very exciting stuff!


It's working well. All I need to do is wipe it off with a damp cloth when the items are bought.
Boar & Locket are using it to write things on that we need.
Not so sure if Brains has yet.
 
 
This picture is from way back in March. Here are Halfpint, on the left, and Little Sunshine, on the right. It was taken at Halfpint's first birthday party. They are only 27 days apart in age, so it will be fun watching them grow up. Very different natures the two of them have!


Couldn't resist taking this cute pic one day. This is Halfpint, our oldest grandson "helping". He found some tea towels waiting for the wash and decided the windows needed wiping.

Okay I'm jumping to November now.

November 3rd saw Absent-minded Professor turn.

A belated birthday wish on here. We made sure to wish you happy birthday on the day!
We love you heaps, our oldest child and son. Doesn't seem possible that you are 27!

The next event of signficance was Chuckles' 23rd birthday party.
But I missed it.
Because I was a bit busy that day.
Not as busy as Moneypenny though!
The picture below will give a clue to just why I was not able to attend Chuckles' party.


Yes, Absent-minded Prof and Monypenny's 2nd child chose November 9th to be born!
A beautiful wee girl. A quick labour. 3610g or 7lbs 15oz.
And to think for a while there was concern she was "too small"!
I'm going to call her Poppet on here for now.
Because she is just a wee poppet :)
She is now 7 weeks old and doing very well. Smiling. A settled wee lass.

 A few days later saw Chuckles celebrate her actual birthday.
She turned
 We sent you a text on the day, but a belated birthday greeting on here, Chuckles.
Love to you, and glad you are part of our family :)

November also saw the 10th anniversay of the death of a friend's son.
I picked a rose in his memory.
It is called Compassion and has a beautiful scent.
Here it is around 6am.


And again around 10.30am by which time it had fully opened.


In some ways it seems a short time, not possible that 10 years have gone by.

A week later I posted the following on my Facebook page.

"I just knew life had been too quiet!

Minding my own business, getting on with dinner. . .thinking R was a bit late home from work, when in he walks with 3 fingers on his left hand bandaged! Nearly took them off at work. . .but thankfully the docs were able to sort them out, all stitched up, bits of bone in the middle finger picked out as it is a compound fracture. Been in ED since around 3pm AND...

...Did anyone call me? No! Boss forgot to. . .R's comment "Well, there was nothing you could do" Ummmm, okay! And then he drove home! In a manual van.

Supposed to have two weeks off work. . .we shall see. Photo's esp for the kids!"


 Here are the two photos I took. His boss took some of the actual injuries.  
He has said he will send them but hasn't so far.





And, yes, in typical Boar style he took the next day off, then it was the weekend.
On the Monday he returned to work. . .and when he came home told me he had used the SAME machine with the SAME piece of wood! 
A case of "If you fall of the horse get right back on it" or something like that.
Nuthin' you can do with some stubborn folk!
It is healing well. The little finger first.
The ring finger is now free of bandages.
It only remains for the middle finger to "fill in". There is a bit of a hole apparently!
It is still being dressed every few days at the medical centre.
Boar is very thankful he didn't loose the fingers. 
He realised very quickly that it would be difficult to do all he does without them.

In early December I got a brand spanking new laptop.
Been waiting a long time for one!
The details are below for any techies.

Acer Aspire V5-571G Intel i5-3337U 1.8GHz 8GB 750GB 15.6" LED 1366x768 GT620M 1GB Graphics DVDRW Win8 64bit 1yr 4Cell BT4 GLan HDMI USB3 Webcam WiFiN

My home-ed friend Pete sent me in to get it at the PB Technologies Black Friday sale.
A few hiccups but eventually the store came through and I had my laptop.
Pete set it up for me. 
It has Windows 8 so I've had to learn my way around it.
I'm managing ok.
Writing on it now so hope I'll be able to blog a lot more often!



Here is my photo of my laptop. . .yes, it's the right way. 
They must put the logo on upside down so that it is the right way up when the lid is open!

Early December was taken up with dance concert madness!
I say madness as there are extra rehearslas, sewing to do and lots to arrange.
The studio now has a website.
L Dance Studio
 

This is the photo on the front of the website. Locket is in the red and black tutu.
Brains is holding his hat.
Yes, he does ballet but for this photo Miss L-M posed him thus!
Our tall ballet lad at the back set up the website.
I tweaked it with Miss L-M sitting beside me saying "Yes" or "No"
D, the ballet lad, was accepted into
Queensland National Ballet School
for their 2014/15 programme.
He was also accepted into about 6 others!
Quite an achievement.

Once the concert was over Christmas rolled around pretty quickly.

Before that it was Jester's birthday. Happy belated birthday on here, Jester.
I know you had a great time as Frosty told me you both did.
Frosty booked tickets to 7 Days live show in Napier.
Before she did she asked if I coud look after Mr Magoo while they were away.
As it was after the concert I was able to say "Yes" quite happily.
Mr Mgoo is 7 months old already! Time goes so quickly
He was very settled while he was with us.
Poor wee lad has Eczema 
It is mainly on his face and he rubs it in his sleep.
Sometimes raw.
Frosty and Jester are trying various things to help treat it.

I've a couple of photos of our Christmas tree.


The tree a day or so before Christmas.


And on Christmas day! 
Courtesy of Smufette's Facebook. . .hope you don't mind me borrowing it :)
The fireguard is to keep enthusiastic wee people from 
opening the preents before time!

Almost everyone was at our place for Christmas lunch.
Pa had lunch with Ma at Johnsonvale Resthome.
Jester & Frosty chose not to come as they wanted to have their first Christmas with Mr Magoo, just him and them. As Frosty said there will be plenty more.
We had a lovely dinner and then went our separate ways.
 We went over to Mirimar to have an evening meal with Boar's extended family.

That about wraps up the main happenings for the last few months.
So now I'll read this through and post it :) 

Hopefully caught most/all the mistakes.
Now it is more than time I got some shut eye!
Especially as it is 3am.
Oh well, I shall survive even if I will be a bit tired.
Probably get a mld growling form Boar later today as he has roused a couple of times and may have glanced at the clock!

Night. . .or morning, whichever you prefer!