Still alive

I find writing to be very much a mood thing, hence the really long gaps between posts though I might look into scheduling so that I update at least once a week as this is starting to get really poor :( I have lots of great thoughts and it flits through my mind that I really must blog about them but I never get to it.

Signing off now as I'm tired after a good night out and need a nap.

Permanant marker and toddlers

These do not mix. About four days before we are due to move, Morgan fell asleep in my bed watching little einsteins this morning so I snuck out to have a shower. I left the bathroom door open so I could hear if they needed me. Morgan woke up and the first thing I knew about it the bathroom door was closed, I got out and found his beautiful artwork all over the house >.<

Here is an example of what I found. If you look closely you can see some around the corner and on the door as well.

After being sprayed with hairspray and wiped

Half scrubbed off with a whitewash sponge (like magic eraser)

Finished job (ignore the mess in the background lol)

So vivid can come off walls. We anxiously await tomorrow to see just how much damage has occurred to the paint. I'm praying like hell that its not much and that if any repainting needs to be done that it will be minimal. The grooves in the doors have been the hardest to try and remove it from, I think there will be faint purple shadows there for a while.

So what have I learned from this? To put the toddler in the portacot if I think he is asleep and I want to go have a shower (cos he can't climb out). Also to buy washable markers to label boxes with and not have vivids in reach of my rather tall two year old.

Lifes little pleasures

I love sitting down with my husband in the evenings. More often than not the tv is on and we are both on our laptops but although we are doing our own thing it is still time spent with him. The boys are all tucked up in their beds and at 7.30 (or there abouts) one of us will grind the beans and put on a pot of coffee. There is nothing like the smell of coffee made from freshly ground beans at the end of a long day.

If we are really lucky (or naughty) there is a packet of tim tams to go with it nomnom! When I was pregnant with Jack, Mark got me hooked on the tim tam slam. Bite each end off the biscuit, suck up your coffee through the middle (like a straw) and then pop the whole tim tam in your mouth before it disintegrates. Oh so devine and that first one is very messy :D This is a favourite treat of mine that sadly I indulge in probably a little too often but impressively enough it hasn't stopped me from losing weight (hate me yet?). But that I think is a post for another day.

Blooming door handles!

I walked into one again today. Sadly this is a reoccurring incident, I just can't seem to keep away from them. They are at perfect forearm height so I now have a lovely muscle bruise thats forming and could feel the impact along the nerve just about right up and down the whole arm :(

This is a bit of a pain to happen this week as its making lifting and moving things somewhat more difficult. Also it happens to be the exact spot Jack rests his head whilst breastfeeding. Turn head to look at his brother being a goofball and cue pain for mummy. *sigh* so lots of arnica cream is being slathered on in the hopes that said bruise will heal nice and quick. Good thing we've hired movers for next weekend huh?

I'm so sorry

Yet again this incredibly slack tart hasn't updated. Given that for me writing is very much a mood thing I may seriously have to look at doing blog schedules so that there is something to actually read here (I was/am a lousy diary/journal writer too). In my defense (pathetic attempt anyways), we have been looking to move.

Now that we have found a place, signed the lease and have the keys in our hot little (big in Marks case) hands we are just waiting until the first before we actually start putting stuff in there. To do so earlier would just be bad manners. I'll post pics when we've moved because Oh My God you have to check out the three layers of decking out the back lol. Makes perfectly good sense given that it is on a hill out the back and it actually gives us some usable space and it will certainly be easy to maintain. So while hopefully a mood will strike me soon and I can start a frenzy of posts to queue up I will probably be fairly quiet over the next couple of weeks whilst we move etc.

Noahs Ark

We are over birthday season finally! Well, mostly. Its taken me this long to recover and to be honest I'm still all birthdayed out. But now that I feel like writing again (very much a mood thing over here) I thought I'd share with you the great creation.

Cake going into the oven

Because I didn't have the right size tin according to the instructions I kinda had to make it up a bit. I screwed up on one spot but improvised and it still turned out ok.

Iced! I made far too much icing. Did a whole nother cake and there was still some left over *gasp*

With animals in place. Just missing the roof that was one whole block of cadbury's dairy milk. The photo is still on my camera. I'll upload it and edit this post shortly

It was great fun, I do love to create but I hate cleaning up the mess afterwards. I got so many compliments when it was brought out and I am rather proud of my efforts lol. Speaking of messes, I have one in the kitchen calling my name. Best sort that out and dinner.

I'm terribly slack but

The lovely Kelly over at Reclaiming me has recently reached her 100th post and so to celebrate is doing a giveaway. This is a complete and shameless plug to say go check her out! Kelly is one very talented crafty lady. Makes me wish I had a sewing machine lol and maybe some motivation. but since I don't right now I shall continue browsing the lovely works of others :)

Birthday season is upon us!

All our antenatal babies are turning Two! The first birthday was at the start of April and there are 10 in the group, all scattered through until about the middle of June. We've gotten smart and instead of buying everyone a small, cheap present we are all pitching in and buying a quality gift from the group. We are lucky enough to have the brains behind chocolate+chilli as a member of the group so have easy access to some absolutely gorgeous gift ideas (we've agreed mums can choose/suggest what the kids need/want). I totally confess to have fallen in love with several items including the toddler bags and the "me + you = happy" tee :D

Ok so that wasn't meant to be a total plug lol but thats the way it turned out. Don't worry I have a deliberate and shameless plug coming up in the next post!

Back to birthdays, my wonderful mother in law (MIL) has offered to cook me/us dinner for my birthday (May 5th). I asked her if she'd mind looking after the boys so hubby and I can have a night out so she's going to have Morgan the whole night and Jack for a few hours (I won't inflict Jack upon her overnight he wakes at least twice still between 12-6am! and I know she doesn't cope too well with disturbed nights) and has offered to shout us to the movies as a present :D How lovely is that - I get a date! A night out!

Morgan turns Two on May 10th. I'm already planning how to get my cake on and have learned a lot from last year, ie bake the cake a week before hand and freeze it if you need to - DON'T try to ice a sponge cake with butter icing it flakes and crumbles right through the icing lol. In saying that, heres a couple of pics from last year and overall I don't think I did to badly (improvisations included)

Side view (in the pantry lol)

Front view (in the pantry lol)

Thats me in the black dress. In the grey is Aunty Haley.

This year I'm going to attempt an Ark (as in Noahs Ark). My mum has the fisher price little peoples toy and Morgan just loves it, the first thing he grabs when we go visit so I thought I'd give it my best shot. I'm going to use the basic boat pattern from the womens weekly cake book and the animals will be toys lol. *fingers crossed* I promise photos!! You can see how well I do (or not lol).

Sleep Deprivation

I'm sure my boys have worked out its a form of torture. I've been doing pretty much nothing for the last couple of days as they have been conspiring and preventing me from sleeping. It doesn't help of course that I tend not to go to bed until after 10pm. Tonight however I am going to bed straight after House at 9.30. For now I will comfort myself with pictures of my sleeping angels (yes Morgan is in a tent, was the only way he'd go to sleep last week).

Kindy

Morgan is coming up Two in a couple of weeks and its occurred to me I need to start thinking about enrolling him in Kindegarten. This is a new and scary experience I have absolutely NO idea where or how to start!

I mean I know theres the obvious making a list of what is local and available to me but what after that? Do I do just call them up? Might have to get in touch with a friend who knows these things so at least I know where to start. *sigh* I'll keep you updated.

Just because I can

My two beautiful little boys. Morgan is showing Jack the toy typewriter at Grandma's on Easter Sunday. Its so lovely to see and Morgan just adores his little brother. I'm enjoying it while it lasts...

Procrastination

Time to tackle a serious topic now. It can become a crippling state of mind if you allow it. Yes I'm talking about the art of procrastination. I should know, I was voted Most Procrastinating Female of my year in 7th form.

So what is procrastination? The online Cambridge Dictionary defines it as "to keep delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring". I've done it for years. I hated homework and didn't see the point, I wouldn't do my assignments simply because they didn't interest me. I'd rather curl up with a fat juicy book, so much more interesting and hey, by the time I was 8 I had the vocabulary and comprehension of a 16 year old according to those wee tests they do in school.

So what do I procrastinate about these days?

• Housework! I hate it. Stupid thing is I love being in a tidy (and clean) house. Having a cleaner helps funnily enough, I have to tidy up before she gets here. My mother has drilled in to me that cleaners clean and do not tidy and it works :D

• Going to the dentist (I'm not going to tell you when I last went, you'll think I'm feral

• And something else that I'm not going to confess to because I know its serious and that it needs to be done now. I'm in the process of doing it though - rest assured its not just hanging there

I'm not sure what else there is off the top of my head. My memory is playing up on me (I blame it on baby/nappy brain) but I'm sure theres plenty of other things, it just so happens those are the two major ones.

I find though that you feel so much better when you aren't trying to avoid doing something. Procrastination is a kind of coping method but not a very good one. Its actually quite stressful and has been known to make me sick in the past as I was sooo worried/scared about doing something. Funny thing is as soon as I've done whatever it is I'm trying not to do I feel a shitload better. The weight of the shoulders can be quite a relief.

The key is to tackle the big issues and get them out the way - the ones that really need to be done. For example I got my learners license when I was 18, did nothing about it kept putting it off. Then I fell pregnant and it was rather important to learn to drive and at least get my restricted - I got it a month before Morgan was born lol. I went for my full about halfway through my pregnancy with Jack - having kids forced me to actually get my driver license lol - but I did it.

The perfect friday night

is curling up on the couch with a cup of earl grey tea, some chocolate and a chick flick. I'm over going out, getting slaughtered and hitting the clubs, not to mention with two under two I just don't have that kind of energy these days :D

I hate it when my night is ruined by some young punks walking through our area, ripping it up and hurling abuse at the Mr with the intent to bait him and beat him up :( (he's the kind of guy most people take one look at and leave alone on account of how tall he is)

Shout out to the New Zealand Police. They always come when theres shit stirrers wrecking havoc and in general I feel a hell of a lot better knowing they are out there. To the men and women in our police force, thank you.

Latch hooking

As a little girl I was taught how to sew, knit, cross stitch and latch hook. I can also remove stains from clothes, put up a wall and fix a toilet lol so I wasn't raised a total princess. I also helped renovate my mums kitchen and bathroom and since I married a (lovable) geek, guess who puts together any 'assembly required' furniture etc.

So latch hooking. The easiest way I could think to describe it was to take photos, made a time consuming project even more time consuming lol. I have only finished one mat and that was the one mum had me work on as a child. I finally finished it whilst pregnant with Morgan. I'll put a pic up later cos I don't have any of it and its packed away right now.

This is the box of the one I'm doing at the moment. I started it while pregnant with Morgan and still have much to do. Its my mums but she has much less spare time than I do so I offered to do it for her.

This is the canvas. It has a rough guide printed on it but I tend to use the pattern as they never quite seem to match up :/ Yes its taken me two and a half years to do this much. It is more of a winter project haha and not one for while the kids are awake.

Put the hook through the canvas with the latch in the down position

Thread a piece of wool underneath and place it in a crossed position inside the latch hook

Pull the hook through

Pull the knot tight and lay it flat. Repeat until rug is finished, or until your back is killing you and you can't sit comfortably anymore lol. And that my friends is latch hooking. I'm not sure that its terribly common but like most craft you get an immense sense of satisfaction when you can see the finished product.

Going nowhere

my thoughts that is. I've had some great post ideas that I've thought of, however I was in bed trying to sleep and I'll be damned if I'm climbing out of my nice snuggly warm bed.

Speaking of beds, Morgan is in his big boy bed and Jack is now in the cot. I took the cot down for about a month after getting Morgan into the bed so he didn't feel shoved out to make room for his brother. Of course now that the cot is back up (in our room) he tries to climb into it every now and again. We have to remind him that he is a big boy now and has a big boy bed.

I took him out shopping to choose some sheets. He chose two sets, the set that you can see in the photo are the cotton sheets. My boy has good taste! The Pooh blanket on the top is one I bought for him while pregnant. We had no idea if he was a boy or a girl, so figured we couldn't go wrong with blue Winnie the Pooh. He has two Patrick dogs on the bed head, a Chocolate Mickey who cuddles his seahorse (lights up and plays music) and his special favourite Mickey cuddle buddy that goes everywhere with him. Yes its a single mattress on a queen sized base. Its easier for him to climb in and out of the bed on his own. Also provides a soft landing space if he rolls out of bed (which he has yet to do). The teddy on the shelves next to the bed was specially made for him while I was pregnant. One of mums workmates sisters used to make them professionally and though she had retired when F said something to her she made him. He's absolutely gorgeous and a true bear collectors item. My boy is so spoilt!

My baby Jack fast asleep in his cot. I know feet are supposed to be at the bottom but he keeps on wriggling up so I just go with it. I know there shouldn't be toys up the top either, I should probably move them to by his feet. He has Tigger -who lights up and plays music, the green bear is Sam -he got from mum's work Christmas party, Paddington came back from Englad with a friend and My first Mickey came from Disneyland especially with Jack in mind from his aunty Haley. Ra Tiger by his hand is courtesy of the lovely Mrs McZany who gave him when she left to move to Melbourne. The blanket he's holding onto was especially chrocheted (I can't spell it lol) when I was pregnant with Morgan. Beautiful baby blanket, one of those keepsakes you hold on to long after your babies have grown. The cot is actually the one my mum bought second hand and stripped and painted when she was pregnant with me. Funny isn't it how these things last and can be passed down to the next generations.

I love it when my boys are sleeping. They are always foremost in my thoughts though. Time I pulled out my old hobby - Latch hook rugs!!

Oh Mickey you're so fine you blow my mind Hey Mickey!!

I was lying in bed last night with hubby when this song came on the radio and it was only towards the end of the song - for the first time in nearly 27 years I realised that it just might not be about Mickey Mouse. Hubby of course was astounded as it had never occurred to him that it might be about the famed Disney character.

To explain a wee bit I grew up in a household of Disney fans. The first movie I can recall seeing on big screen (or perhaps ever) was Cinderella and I must have been about 5 or 6 so it would have been the rerelease in the late 80's. My mother collects Mickey Mouse bits and pieces however not quite to the point where you are surrounded by creepy paraphenalia. Mum encouraged her love of MM to grow in my youngest sister - although that slowed down over the years and is now successfully nurturing the love in my eldest son Morgan.

So hubby pulled out his iphone, did some wikipedia searching and came across that the song was actually written about Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_%28song%29 if you would like to read. I'd never have guessed but they say you learn something new everyday.

Children and supermarkets

98% of the time when I leave the supermarket I'm grateful for two things. One: we made it in and out without a meltdown and Two: I had enough money to pay for everything - especially when its close to payday and the account is running lower than I would like. And at the moment since its been a good couple of months since hubby's payday (due to switching jobs and the invoicing procedure) its running at pretty much empty :(

Shopping with two under two is always slightly daunting as guaranteed its always somebodies nap time. It just can't be helped. More often than not its J's as he's still in a capsule so he can sleep anywhere whereas his older brother can provide slightly more of a challenge. Today was in the middle of J's and just before M's. So after shopping, lunch and disposal of a poopy nappy M is finally in bed and hopefully going to sleep. J on the hand is wide awake after a feed etc and in his bouncer trying to convince me that he doesn't need sleep when the bright red rims of his eyes are telling me a different story. Gently bouncing him as I watch his eyelids slide lower... and lower... and shut. Sleep tight my baby.