AVA THE MAD DOG

As I mentioned yesterday, Sue W has a young Huntaway dog named Ava.

She greets everyone by leaping up on them... she's super exuberant and friendly.  Overly so.
But in saying that, she's adorable.

I sat on a couch and she was ALL. OVER. ME!
She tried to sit in me lap, then lie on me, then she crawled up around my neck and licked me and smothered me in kisses.

She really thinks she's a little dog, and has no idea just how big she is!  I just LOVED her.  I'd take her home in a heartbeat.

But... *sigh*... two things stopping me.   Sue (dammit) and ... Tallulah

Tallulah would KILL HER.  Seriously.  So, Ava better stay where she is, *smiles*.

Sue 2 got a few photos from yesteday, I will share:

 ABOVE:  Me 'n' Ava.  She totally mussed up me hair... I'm such a mess!

 ABOVE:  Sue's.
They will have to get used to taking selfies with THREE of us now!  lol

ABOVE:  Though it is MUCH harder to fit three cuddly girls in one selfie me thinks.

 ABOVE:  I DID have tights on!  Well... cycle shorts really.  It's too bloody hot to wear longer tights right now.


ABOVE: Keera last night, such a happy wee kid.  She was having a 'break' from her glasses.
In fact, she told me to take them back to the shop, she didn't want them anymore.  *sigh*

Today?  I'm going into Hamilton again.  I would like to find a cycle helmet and that plastic mat for under my sewing chair.

And that's all for now... 

ONWARD...

1.22 pm:  And I've been a busy girl this morning.
First up, I went and enrolled Keera at Primary school.

ABOVE: Then I went into Hamilton and found a helmet and basket for my bike.  I didn't want to be having a backpack on while riding, so the basket will be used for me drink, keys, phone and so on.


Then I got the last chair mat in the shop at Warehouse Stationary... and it was reduced by $50, so that was lucky.


After THAT, I decided to do some grocery shopping... cos we were out of quite a few essentials... like fruit and snacks for Miss Muppet.


Home now, and taking a break... watching Home and Away from yesterday.

Well clearly I've not been back all afternoon!  lol
Been busy doing bugger all really.
Quiet afternoon.  Cooked dinner, fed family, watched TV.
Winding down for the evening now.

LOOK WHAT I GOT!

I didn't get around to telling you about something that I was given yesterday did I?

My Aunt and Uncle (Richard and Muriel), are into bike riding in a big way.
They ride all the time, miles and miles at a time.

They got new bikes a while ago, electric bikes in fact.  And they had Muriel's old bike just sitting in the garage, so they gave it to me.

ABOVE:  When we got home yesterday afternoon, I went on a little ride up the road and back a couple of times.  I didn't fall off... but only just!
It will take me a while to get my confidence back, but once I do I plan on going riding on the bike trail that heads out to Lake Karapiro.

It's an excellent bike trail... off road, wide concrete path, all flat.  Just my sort of trail.

I'm really looking forward to it.

*** (Check out yesterday's post if you missed it, there's lots of photos)

 ABOVE:  A lovely quilt that Muriel has made.  She put prairie points around the edge instead of binding, and it looks neat!

 ABOVE:  Muriel's sewing room, which used to be their pool/games room.  I can only dream of having such an awesome room!  
She has an embroidery machine in the cupboard too.  I'm not sure if I aspire to having one of those, or not.

 ABOVE:  I DO aspire to have one of those plastic mats for under my chair though.  It's a right fag trying to move my chair on carpet, particularly when I'm sitting on it.
I will try and find one today or tomorrow.  

ABOVE:  These two girls didn't get much of a show yesterday, so I will post them again... cos they are just so cute.

Now, today?
I'm going into Hamilton, meeting up with Sue 2, then we are both going out to Sue W's home for morning tea/lunch?  Not sure which!
It is SUE W's birthday TODAY.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE, I hope ya have an awesome day.  

See you later even!

ONWARD...

My day so far:

Kids to school, home, did some housework.
Then into Hamilton.
Went straight to Sue 2's home and spent a little while nattering... and having a look around her garden.
Bugger!  Didn't take photos... but will next time.  Her garden is lovely. She has CHOOKS!!!
But she keeps them confined, so is a 'good' chooky owner.

ABOVE:  Two of Sue's critters, Sheba the lab/collie cross and the kitten Toebee.  They were playing together, hard to get a photo!

Toebee is thus named as he?she? has big 'thumbs' on each paw!  Sue 2 also has an older Bichon Friese named Oscar.

So, after our natter, Sue 2 took me to Habitat for Humanity Op Shop (evil woman), and I found 2 tops for me:

ABOVE:  I can see that going to Op Shops is going to be a big part of my 'outings' with the Sue's!

So, after that we drove out to Sue W's home, which is out in the country... down a gravel road even! Totally in the wop wops!

Sue W also has two dogs:

ABOVE: Ava is a very young Huntaway, and she's mad.  She loves people, and wants to crawl all over them, sit in their lap, wrap herself around their neck while sitting on their neck... and she did ALL OF THAT to me! 
She was delightful.    Max was more reserved.

 ABOVE:  a funky stone garden/seat in Sue W's garden.

 ABOVE:  A dove cote.  But no doves.  It's lovely though.

Shame I couldn't have stayed longer, but I had to get home in time to pick up Keera from Kindy.

So we headed back to Hamilton, and I got in me car and got back JUST in time to pick Miss Muppet up!

ABOVE:  Tallulah and Coco having a right sniff ... they could smell all those dogs on me!  I knew they would.

The delightful Sue 2 just sent me some photos she took today... I will post them tomorrow.  There's quite enough on here already!

Wound down for the day... been watching some mindless TV.  Off to bed now.

CLOTHES

While we were out getting Keera's glasses yesterday, I popped into TS (big girl's shop), and took advantage of their sales.

I managed to grab two new tunic/dresses and a lovely blue/white sheer over coat.

AND, using the handy dandy remote, I took some photos, it's SO EASY now! 

 ABOVE: New navy blue dress and sheer over coat. The other clothes I already had.

 ABOVE:  Left is new white tunic/dress and new sheer over coat.

ABOVE:  both tunics/dresses were the same, I love the lace detail on the sides of them.

It was VERY hot in my room yesterday afternoon taking the photos... hence the flushed face.  

Now, today we are taking a day trip over to Tauranga.  I want to check out the venue for my Mum's 80'th birthday in May.
It is just up the road from where my Mum grew up and went to primary school.

And it is where she wants her party, so the hall is booked!  The cake is ordered, and the invites have gone out.

It's going to be a lovely family 'reunion' of sorts, as it's not that often all of my Mum's siblings get together.  I'm expecting 9/10ths of them.  Sadly, one of her sisters lives in Canada, and I'm not expecting her.

But it will be awesome anyway. 

Taking our togs today, as it's going to be a stinking hot day again.  A swim might just be on the cards. 

ONWARD...

FAB FAB FAB DAY!

We have just got home and I have to start at the 'end' of our day trip, cos it's so funny!

We get home, and I walk inside to see this:

 ABOVE:  A TRUE BLOGGER'S SON!  Laying out on the floor, ready for a photo, his new clothes!!!

I feel SO PROUD.  (I hadn't asked him to do it!)

We bought the boy some new t-shirts, as nothing fits him any more.  He went out today wearing one of Stew's shirts.

ABOVE:  He chose these 4 shirts, all size 2XL.  He's a big boy.

Right, back to the start of the day.

We left around 10 am, and headed off to Tauranga.  But, I made Stew stop at Hinuera, cos there was this ROCK I wanted to photograph.

Last time I saw it I immediately thought of:

 ABOVE:  'Lion Rock'! 

ABOVE:  Seriously... totally our own Lion Rock eh?  Without the hyena's. 😝

Random photos:

 ABOVE:  Griffin keeping his little sister safe in the car park.

 ABOVE: I don't get many photos of these two together. Nice one today.

We went for a walk over the rail bridge at the bottom of the Tauranga shopping centre:

ABOVE:  I would have loved to be in that little boat fishing!

 ABOVE:  DREAM HOME... on the water, own boat shed and ramp, and a two minute walk to the shops!  Drool.

 ABOVE:  Heard of 'ducks in a row'?  Well, I give you... boats in a row.  Cos I can.

 ABOVE:  The view from my Aunt and Uncle's home in Oropi, which is a few miles out of Tauranga.
A very heat hazy day today, so not the best photo of the bay and Mount.

The reason for our trip over there was to check out the Oropi Hall... so we get there and walk in... and in this huge expanse of bare room is:

 ABOVE:  Can you see it?  .... all on it's own seemingly...

ABOVE:  A teeny, tiny baby!  

I'm like, wtf?  Then we walked around a corner and there was her Mum, talking to a young couple who were also there, checking out the hall for their wedding venue!
Rather funny.  

 ABOVE: Our girls found their little girl outside in the playground and had some fun.

 ABOVE:  Keera having fun outside at Richard and Muriel's. 

 ABOVE: Neighbour's over the fence.
I love cows.

And that's all for now!  I'm trying to do this update, cook dinner (macaroni cheese with bacon) and tend to Keera, who is coughing and vomiting on the couch!

Yep, busy.

*sigh*... dinner is done.  No one seemed that hungry.  Keera couldn't eat much cos she kept having a coughing fit and up chucking. Ikk.
Poor kid I know, I know.

She's come right now, so hopefully she sleeps well and wakes up feeling better.

Winding down for the day now.  Catch ya tomorrow.

FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!

I can't remember just how long I've had my Canon camera, but there has been one thing really bugging me about it.

I couldn't work out how to use the bloody remote control!

The instructions said I had to remove the eye viewer part on the camera, and cover it with that little rectangular piece ... but didn't actually say HOW to do it!

So, because I didn't want to break it, I kept putting it off.  I could have gone into a camera shop and asked... but never did.  Kept forgetting.  Derrr.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I nearly dropped the camera, and grabbed it awkwardly, and BOOM! The eye viewer piece came off in my hand.  

OH!  So THAT'S how it comes off!

So last night, I decided to give the remote a go.

I really didn't expect it to work to be honest... but it did!

So now I can be in every family photo if I so wish... cos I can take the photo with the remote control. 

I am rapt.  Of course, I took a few photos last night, just to give it a go:

 ABOVE:  Not the best shots I must admit, but I was just playing around.  

Another funny story from yesterday's lunch:

We are sitting at our table, ordering our lunch from the waitress (a lovely girl), and she (the waitress) commented on how lovely my nail polish was.

To which I promptly said "Oh wait till you see this" ... and I reached over and dunked my finger in Sue # 2's glass of water!

Sue looked horrified, the waitress laughed her head off and I showed them what happens when I put my warm finger in a cold glass of water... my nail polish went from pale blue to purple.  COLOUR CHANGE NAIL POLISH, of course.

None of them had seen it before, and were rather impressed.  Not to mention thinking it was hysterical that I would plonk my finger into Sue's drink!  lol

Luckily Sue didn't mind. ha ha ha 😉

ABOVE: Another nice photo of the Sue's and me from yesterday.

Well... today.  Not sure what we are getting up to... but I hope to get back to that little giraffe at some point.

ONWARD...

So I woke this morning with one thing on my mind.  Find my camera tripod, so I can use it for taking photos using the remote.  

I knew I'd seen it recently, and I knew I had moved it to a place that wasn't 'the normal' place.  So I started hunting for it.

But do you think I could find the bloody thing?  I hunted for about an hour, then gave up.  

Then Stew decided to have a go at finding it, after I told him I was kinda thinking it was in the garage.  And my darling found it fairly quickly.

 ABOVE:  We spent some time remembering how to work it...

ABOVE:  And see that little lever?  I had NEVER figured out what it did... and Stew worked it out just like that!  MEN!  At least he didn't rub it in.

So now I've got my tripod all sorted, my remote all sorted... and ready to go!  Excited for all the 'selfies' I can now take!  No more having to be behind the camera for all family events.

Keera's glasses have arrived, so we are popping into Hamilton to pick them up and have them fitted.  I wonder if Keera will notice how much better her vision is with them on?

ABOVE: And the excitement of wearing glasses wore off in about ....   10 minutes.  But she will adjust I'm sure.  
She can be a really cranky kid and stubborn, so it might be a battle for a while.  

Well little Miss Muppet came right after her lunch and seemed to be just fine wearing her glasses for the rest of the day.

We  had a quiet afternoon/evening.  Stew got the lawns mown and I did bugger all really.  It was JUST. TOO. HOT.

And that is it for the day.  I'm going to watch Coronation Street then go to bed.

LUNCH WITH THE SUE'S

Today I'm off to lunch with the Sue's.  Two bloggers from Hamilton. I met Sue #2 the other day, and am looking forward to meeting Sue W today.  

I am sure we will have a nice time, we are going to the new pub in town, the Good Union.

ABOVE:  The Good Union is a new pub/eatery in Cambridge.  It's been open a few months and is VERY popular.
They are a boutique brewery as well.  I doubt I will be sampling any of their beers any time soon!

I am looking forward to trying their food though, Stew and I have been meaning to go for a while now, but it still hasn't happened.

Could have something to do with having to drag 3 kids along too? Yep, that's probably it.

Much as I love our kids/grandkids, it is going to be AMAZING when it's just Stew and Me!  Maybe in 5 years? 

Because Keera has a full day at Kindy, I can enjoy lunch and not have to rush off to pick her up either.  Her kindy is actually just 300 meters up the road from the pub! 

This morning, before I go out, I will be just doing odd jobs around the house.  Like so much FUN.  No really!  I love housework ...said no one EVER.

ONWARD...

Oh shit, sorry I've not been on all day!  Been busy.

First up, I did some friggin housework.  Then I got all tidy and was about to  head out to meet the Sue's, when they rocked up in me driveway!

So they came inside and had a natter, then we went off to the pub (sounds so evil!) for lunch.
I got a ride with them, seemed silly to take two cars to the same place.

I swear, those two could be my missing sisters! We are so alike... it's scary.
Sue #2 warned me that Sue W was crazy and loud, and well... I think I held me own with those two!

Can you believe we ALL have a son who's a builder?  True dat.

Anyway... we spent a good couple of hours enjoying a lovely lunch:

ABOVE: Sue W taking a photo of our lunches!  Doing what all good bloggers do... cos I was doing the same obviously.  I had pork on a stick and some fries.  I didn't eat all the fries I'm proud to say.

Sue W had Pulled Pork on a Rosti... it looked delish.

 ABOVE:  Sue # 2 had a chicken and Avocado Salad, she said it was lovely.  It looked lovely too.  AND it was REAL chicken... not pressed shit.

I had a blast with those girls. 

At one point we were discussing WEIGHT *sigh*, and I was saying how I hated my face/boobs and bum... and Sue W decided to declare that she LOVED MY FACE, BOOBS AND BUM.... just at a young male waiter came to our table!

OMG!  He was highly amused... I think!  We tried to assure him we were not lesbians... but by the time Sue W got that tidbit of information out, he had scarpered.!  lol  

As I said, we had a blast, and I thorougly enjoyed myself.  THANKS GIRLS for taking me into the 'fold' so to speak.
I reckon we are going to be great friends.  *smiles*

 ABOVE:  Isn't that a lovely photo of us three?  Sue # 2 just loved those cows.  

We had lunch indoors, as it was blisteringly hot outside, and I think I would have melted if we'd sat out there.  Wouldn't have been a good look.

I'm sure there will be photos on the Sue's blogs of our lunch too:  Sue W and Sue # 2.

TRACY:  "Ladies at lunch"... ha ha ha! There is nothing ladylike about us let me assure you!  We are all down to earth, say it like it is chicks.
I love that about the Sue's.  Really, really normal, fun loving girls.  MY sorta girls.

Winding down for the day.  It's is unbelievable HOT inside this house tonight.  I turned on the Air Conditioning and closed the kitchen/family room door to keep it cool in here at least.

Coronation Street is on, 2 hours of utter enjoyment.  Then bed to toss and turn and sweat.  Oh ya.