HAIR APPOINTMENT?

Today I am going to try and get a hair appointment.  I've not had me colour done in ages... the regrowth is horrendous.

I've been kinda distracted by other things lately, so kept putting it off.  With any luck I can get an appointment today, or tomorrow.

While I'm out I will also send back Brylee's PE shorts, they are too small.  The company will replace them free, which is great.

Talking of uniforms... :

ABOVE: They both seem to be very happy with their new uniforms.  I can't believe how big these kids are now!  It's like every time we move, they are so much bigger.

I hope our next home is our 'permanent' home!

It's the last day of May.  What does that mean?

TEN SLEEPS!

TEN!

Right, I'm off to make me bed and get ready to go out for a while.

ONWARD...

I didn't get my  hair done.  I have to wait until Friday.  All good.  I had a good wander around the local mall, then I got a few groceries and came home.

Then... I had a nana nap!  And woke up when the kids got home from school!

Bloody hell, that killed most of the afternoon!

TV was good tonight.  Happy Valley is shaping up to be riveting again.

OUR LAST FULL WEEK HERE

YEP... today is the start of the last full week we will be spending in this home!

Stew's last day of commuting every day to Hamilton.

Brylee and Griffin's last week at their current school.

And me?  Probably not much different from the past few weeks, winding up this home, getting everything sorted and ready for the big move.

EXCITING STUFF!

Mostly today I'm going to do some of the ikky jobs around here.  Give the loos and showers a massive scrub, get them clean as a whistle, so there's less to do next week.


Hopefully it's not a wet dreary day again.  I'd love to be able to open all the windows and doors and let some fresh air in.  It's been a good week since we have had a dry day.

 ABOVE: I got my camera out last night, and took some cute videos of the kids...  and young Archer saw the camera and next thing...

ABOVE:  He's right beside me looking at the camera.  He LOVES the flash!  Weird baby.  He's adorable though.  I love how he anticipates the flash and screws up his face!

OK... enough for now.  I've got plenty to be getting on with.

p.s.:  In case anyone needs reminding:

*SQUEALS*

ONWARD...

OK... while I'm cleaning.....


You can watch this little video. *smiles*

The kid's new school uniforms arrived today.
They just tried them on.  I got the sizes right, except for Brylee's PE Shorts, which I will have to send back for a swap. She can hardly get into them.  WHOOPS.  lol

I've got lamb chops cooking in mint sauce, the smell is divine!  Though I always expect it to, having done lamb like this many times before.
It's one of my favourite meals.

OOOOOh, Happy Valley starts tonight!  Three consecutive nights this week, and again next week.  Yaaa, love that show.

Oh and it WAS a wet, dreary day here.  The house feels so cold and uninviting to be in now that all our pretty stuff/paintings etc are gone.
It's just blank.  

ANYONE WANT TO BUY A FRIDGE?

What about a chest freezer?

LOL

I'm selling our full door fridge and our chest freezer.

We have too many now that we have bought a house with a big fridge/freezer plumbed into the kitchen!

So, I think it's time to get rid of the surplus before we move.

All going well we will end up with two upright fridge/freezers, one in the kitchen and one in the garage.  That should be plenty!

I will be advertising them on Trade Me today with a short selling time.  Hopefully they go quick.

Just need to take photos and get them online.

The rest of today will be used to sort out all the stuff,  IN said fridge and freezer, and get rid of anything that's past it's best by date.  I seem to have far too many frozen veges!

De-cluttering the frozens!  What next?

Seriously, there isn't much more I can do now until the last minute... and that is frustrating!
Because last minute stuff makes me stressed out.

Oh well ... it will all be done and we will be moving in...

The number is getting smaller.  Still so excited!

My mind keeps going around and around with ideas for the new house and section.  I can't wait!

ONWARD...

GALE FORCE WINDS overnight, and now... torrential rain.  I'm kinda over the rain now!
Still loving the cooler weather though.  

I was really worried about the Archgola staying put in the wind last night, but all was good this morning.  Obviously it's not going to get blown in!

Stew and I just took everything out of the chest freezer, threw out really old stuff and put the rest in the double fridge/freezer.  It didn't take much time at all.

12.56 pm:  And within 10 minutes of listing our fridge it was sold!
The freezer has three bids on it too... but not sold yet.  Awesome!
The money can go towards something for our new home.

Had Steve, Bex and the little boys over for dinner...Archer is walking all over the place now.
And he just LOVES playing with Tallulah!  He holds her squeaky chicken and Tallulah takes it out of his hand and Archer laughs his head off.

They are adorable together.

Time for bed now... nite nite

COSTLY BUSINESS

Today's mission is to find suitable school shoes for Brylee, and a warm scarf and black pantyhose.  Then her uniform will be complete.

I've ordered their new school uniforms... to my shock and horror it's costing $746 for ONE set of everything they need to wear.

1 shirt for each of them, 1 skirt for Brylee, 1 pair of trousers for Griffin, 1 jumper for Brylee and 1 Jacket for Griffin and a pair of PE shorts each!  And we have to get their PE t-shirts yet.

Once I add in the shoes, scarf, pantyhose and PE tops I will have spent about a thousand dollars on uniform.  Bloody hell.

I don't remember spending that much on school uniforms EVER.  *sigh*

I think that will be 'us' for the day!  We will probably have lunch at the mall... wander around a bit then come home and relax.

Once we get to Cambridge we won't be 'relaxing' for quite a while, so we better make the most of it now.

ABOVE:  YEP, less than 2 weeks now!

ONWARD...

Shoes - DONE
Pantyhose - DONE
Socks - DONE
Scarf - NOT DONE

Lunch - DONE

Sylvia Park wasn't too crowded today, thankfully.  I really loath crowds.  And ignorant pricks who stand slap bang in the middle of the 'walkway' in bunches, and won't MOVE out of the bloody way.  Grrrr.  

I used to love shopping but not when every man and his dog is at the mall too.

Give me 9 am on a Monday morning, when it's deserted.

I bought Griffin a mobile phone today too.  His reaction was very muted.  NOTHING like Brylee's that's for sure.  He is thrilled though.
It means he can now keep in touch with his friends here once we live in Cambridge.

8.47 pm:  just home from having a really lovely dinner at my Aunt and Uncles up the road.  Roast pork 'n' veges followed by Apple & Guava crumble AND Quince crumble too!   I wasn't sure I'd like the quince, but I did.

It's Coronation Street time!  Yaaaa.

CRAZY

I got a phone call last night that had me shaking my head.

It was from a lady named 'Angel', she was working for a Real Estate Company in Queensland, Australia.

She wanted me to consider her offer of a 4 bedroom brick and time home, on a parcel of land ... in QUEENSLAND, Australia.

Why would I do that I asked her?  Because I must be aware of the crazy prices of homes here in Auckland, and so.. why not move to Queensland, Australia!

I couldn't believe an Australian company was doing cold calls to people here, trying to get them to buy their house and land packages, and move to Australia.

Enterprising I suppose.  I let her know I was not interested, and she hung up on me.

Nice.

I'm going to Hamilton with a last load of fragile boxes and so on today.  I thought I'd taken it all last time, but no... I found more yesterday.
At least I will get to relax while driving.  It's a really nice drive.

I will also drop off the completed enrollment packs to the high school while there.

ONWARD...

3.30 pm:  Well another good trip to the 'Tron'.  Unloaded the last of our fragile stuff, then took the enrollment forms to the school.  Like clockwork... tick tock tick tock.
Everything is falling into place.

I had lunch with Stew, which was nice.

Now home, feet up, fire on... BLISS.

It will be an easy dinner tonight.  Normal Friday line up... dinner, Coronation Street, then bed.  *smiles*

ABOVE: Just to remind myself!  LOL
Two weeks from now we will be sleeping in our new home!
*squeals*

ORGANISING SHIT

Today... I'm going to 'label' boxes.
Different colours for different rooms... so the movers know where things go.

ABOVE: See?  I will have each box marked with the corresponding colour so there's no confusion.
This floor plan will be at the front door of the new house so the guys can see where to put things.

Hopefully things go like clockwork!

I talked to the Estate Agent in Cambridge last night.   We have arranged to meet at the new house on Sunday the 5th of June, to do the final inspection, and to talk to the present owners about the alarm system, and any other idiosyncrasies of the house, rubbish days etc.

There are several fruit trees on the property, and I want to know what they are.  I know three of them are fig trees.  That's 3 fig trees too many!  Though, we might keep one cos it looks nice where it is.  Time will tell if it goes or not.

I mean, who likes figs?  I don't even know if I like them!  What can ya do with figs???

 ABOVE:  Tallulah has a new chew toy...

ABOVE:  this was her last one.  It WAS a set of three keys... but both dogs chewed it up and now?  No keys!  Just little bits of chewed up plastic.

Right, off I go to do stuff... it should be a cruisy day really.

ONWARD...

I got something wrong yesterday... The number of sleeps to go till we are living in our new home!

ABOVE:  we have one day less than I thought.  Yaaaa.  It's not going to be long now.

I've done heaps this morning.  Washing.  Boxes made. Packed a few more things.  Now it's time to relax for a little while.

For no apparent reason, I'm feeling incredibly crabby this afternoon.  The kids are getting on my wick BIG TIME.
Maybe I'm just tired?  But for sure, I'm just in a bad mood.

I look around and all I see is work I have to do. Feeling a bit like... why do I have to do all this shit?  

Clearly. I know why.  But still.  CRABBY.

Let's just get crabbier.  I rolled my right ankle a couple of days ago on the driveway, and took a nasty fall.

And just now I did it again, same ankle, and fell against the garage door.  Big graze on my right lower arm.. blood... tears.

I think I will stop working now and just relax!  Clearly I'm tired.

NOT MUCH ON TODAY

Not too much planned for today.

I will do the usual housework this morning, and make up more boxes for packing.
I hope I'm saving a shit load of money doing most of the packing myself!

I'm really proud of how much I've done on my own.  The guys (Stew, Steve and Griffin) have, of course, done all the heavy stuff like putting furniture into and out of storage.

I can't wait for this whole process to be over.
Imagine how good that will feel!

And it should be all done and dusted in about 4 weeks!  

17 sleeps until we are in our new home.  

17 SLEEPS TO GO!!!

It's not too early to start the countdown is it?  lol

Gosh it's so exciting!  

I'm taking Tallulah for a groom today.  She is all fluffy, which is great for winter, but she stinks.  While she was in her cone of shame she got even stinkier... ikkk.  Poor girl. She will no doubt feel the cold afterwards.

Coco's turn next week.

Something else I will have to investigate... where to take them for their grooming once we live in Cambridge.  Sheesh, there's so much to remember to do/organise.

Luckily, I'm a very organised sort of person *SMILES*

ONWARD...

2.46 pm:  and the day has so far gone to plan.
Tallulah is now smelling lovely, and has a shorter coat, but not too short, or she would freeze.
I had a nice visit with Bex and the boys while waiting for Tallulah's groom.

Done some housework, totally boring.  
I'm making a yummy macaroni cheese for dinner tonight... with bacon and onion.  Can't wait, it's one of my favourite meals.

Dogs are not happy with me.
Because they had quite a lot of hair growth lately, the bark collars were not working.   So, they could bark.
And they did.
ALL. THE. FUCKING. TIME.

Any noise set them off.
If I moved off my chair, or bed, or out of a room, they would go ballistic with barking.  I got sooooo mad, I just took to them with the shaver and shaved their necks to the skin.

NOW I bet they won't bark!  Or if they do, they will get zapped.  Coco KNOWS what I've done.  Her ears are down and she keeps looking at me!

I can't bear it when they both bark like crazy over the littlest noise or disturbance in the house.  And I sure in hell don't want them barking all the time and upsetting neighbours.

Fingers crossed they both get zapped tonight and learn a lesson.  And stop barking.

I don't even feel mean doing it.  They are both crazy barkers.

Well... when Stew got home from work, the dogs would normally have barked and barked like banshee's.
Tonight?  Tallulah barked, and got zapped and jumped out of her skin, then slinked off.  Coco?  Nah, that clever tart didn't make a murmer.  
Clever is Coco.

So, hopefully we have some quiet times ahead.  I just have to remember to keep their neck hair clipped.

WILL I, WON'T I?

I mentioned last night that we have drafted an email to the Estate Agent who we were working with prior to us going it alone and finding our own new home.

She added a clause into a contract that almost meant we had to go through with the purchase of a leaky home.  

The email just details how we felt about what she had done to us by adding a clause that was not in our best interests...  in a purely factual way.

But try as I might, I just don't feel comfortable sending it.
I'm not sure why?   Perhaps because it is now 'in the past', and we have moved on.  

Yet I still want her to know what she did to us.

Grrrrrr.  I just don't like confrontation, and sending the email might cause a backlash?

*sigh*... I will just have to wait till it feels right to send it I suppose.

Today is earmarked for phone calls.  To organise final power readings, disconnection of SKY TV, internet and so on... and re-connection in Cambridge once we get there.

There's quite a list of calls to make.

I also want to get the floor plan of the new house printed out and enlarged, so when the movers are taking everything into the  new house they just need to look on the 'map' for where to put things.  

I've done this before and it works really well.  I stand at the front door, see what's coming in and tell them "Bedroom 1, 2, Lounge, Kitchen" and so on.

It sure helps having moved over 2 dozen times in my adult life.

Slowly but surely everything is falling into place.  Steve is going to take a couple of days off work to help with the move too... which will be great. 

Once we get to Cambridge, the guys will get everything out of our storage units in Hamilton, then the fun will begin.  I can't wait to see all my fabric again... how sad is that!

ONWARD...

Yeah... I'm going to stick with the old saying "If in doubt, don't".
I will not send the email.  I'm sure she knows just how bad we felt about the whole fiasco.

Bex and the boys stopped in this morning.  Bex had taken Dante to the Doctor because he's got the cough like me and Stew.  They have him Antibiotics and an inhaler.  Hopefully it helps.

I'm now going to do all those phone calls....fun.

IT. ISN'T. FUN.  I can't believe how long it's taken to get our power/phone/sky tv disconnected on the 10th of June, and reconnected again at our new address!

Why is 'HOLD' music such shit?  *sigh*
I almost want to scream, it's been that bloody annoying.

8.51 pm:  quite glad today is over.  I got heaps done though... I was on the phone for HOURS getting things sorted for our move.

Looking forward to me bed tonight.  Stew put our winter duvets on the bed last night, so cosy.  We have two... one for him and one for me, no fighting over the blankets in this house. *smiles*

OFF TO HAMILTON AGAIN

Today Stew is going back to work... for the first time in over 25+ years he had a full week off work because he was sick!

And he's not really 100% well yet, but he must be feeling much better to be heading back to work.  

Once the kids leave for school I too am heading to Hamilton, with another load of fragile stuff and lots of paintings/wall hangings.

After dropping it off at the storage unit, I'm heading over to Cambridge High School, to get the kids enrolled in readiness for when they start there... which should be the 13th of June.  

I will then meet up with Stew if the timing is right, to have lunch together before I head back to Auckland.

On my way out of town I shall be picking up a couple of chilly bins (on loan) from Kelly.  Yaaa, I don't have to buy one after all.  I've also got some clothes of Brylee's that she's outgrown for Rena.  

Quite a busy day planned.

ONWARD...

Well... safely arrived in Hamilton... unloaded boxes and paintings at storage unit... then off to Cambridge High to enrol kids.

Then back to Hamilton to meet up with me darling for lunch.

It's rained non-stop since I left home. Dreary winter weather, but lovely and COOL.  I wonder how long it will take before I'm bitching about being cold?  lol

4.59 pm:  After arriving home mid-afternoon, I just felt so tired I lay down with the dogs and we all had a power nap!

I'm now ready to get some work done around here.  There's a mountain of washing to be folded and put away, dinner to prepare, vacuming, bla bla bla.

The house feels HORRIBLE now.  There are boxes everywhere, no pictures, no ornaments, it's barren!  Totally not my home anymore. It feels cold and uninviting.

Won't it be fantastic once we are all settled in our new home!

We spent a bit of time this evening drafting an email to 'that' Real Estate agent, who almost caused us to buy a leaky home.
While I want to hit 'send'... I hesitate.  Not sure why.
Will sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning.

OFF TO MARKET AGAIN

But a different market this time.
We are going out to Clevedon this time.  They have a market every Sunday, and it's usually full of stalls of various types, not just garden produce.

Hopefully the man who makes lovely wooden kitchen boards and the like will be there.

Yesterday I forgot to mention we had visitors from Taupo and Auckland City...

ABOVE: Sharon (in red) and her son Samuel and his girlfriend.  The two kids live in the city, while Sharon still lives in Taupo.

Sharon was up for a wedding and to visit the kids.  It is always lovely when friends call in.

ABOVE: Tallulah went right out of character, and was all loving and friendly... here she is sprawled on Samuel's lap!  Little hussy.  *smiles* 

ABOVE:  Talking of laps... two little boys who clearly love their granddad, and love being on his lap. 

 ABOVE: Archer is mesmerised.... with...

 ABOVE:  The fire.  Too cute.

 ABOVE:  Steve and Bex playing rough and tumble on the floor...

 ABOVE:  You can't see it in this photo...

 ABOVE:  But in this one you can.  Archer did not like his parents playing rough and tumble... nope, not at all!  Awwww poor bubba.

Right, that's all for now... fingers crossed we find that woodworker at the market.

ONWARD...

2.19 pm:  Well we went to Clevedon, visited both markets out there. 

 ABOVE: This one has stalls of crafts, plants etc.
We didn't see anyone selling wooden boards... but did see (and bought) these:

ABOVE: Old boots painted and uses as planters.  We got these two for our new front door entrance.
Even if they fade over time, they were dead cheap!

ABOVE: very cute.  *smiles*
After the craft market, which took all of 5 minutes to get around, we decided to head over to the Clevedon Farmers Market.
We hadn't been before.

ABOVE: It had a very good crowd there, but it was all fresh food, produce and stalls selling food to eat there.
There were some really lovely smelling stalls I can tell you!

After that, we decided to drive over to WestGate in Henderson. There's a big craft shop there.
But again, we did not find what we were looking for.  A big wooden board for the kitchen bench.  We do have one, but two would be better.

We had lunch at the new mall out there, thankfully it wasn't as busy as Sylvia Park or Manukau mall.  

Now that we are home I am going to load my car with more stuff to take down to Hamilton storage tomorrow.

We are expecting Marty, Jacqui and their two kids for dinner.  They are doing BYOD!  

Lovely evening spent with our dear friends.  They stayed for dinner then headed home to Tauranga.