MORE OF COCO...

I am so excited! Stew and I can't wait to get Coco... we have not told the kids as they would just nag us constantly, wanting to know WHEN we were getting her! No definite date yet.. but probably in two weeks!!!

Today.. well I SHOULD be doing some housework.. but I'm thinking if it's nice enough we will go for a drive somewhere. I am sick of being at home.... and the housework can wait until tomorrow, when everyone is back at work/school and I can do it uninterrupted. (which I prefer)

Diet: is going GREAT.... it is so good to feel in control again...

Exercise: well I almost feel like doing some... now that other things are not on my mind so much anymore!

Family Stuff: well it's good to know that some of my kids are on an even keel again... I am getting quite good at forgetting some of them too! You just have to sometimes or you will go nuts, and some of them are soooo not worth going nuts over! Sad, but true.

ONWARD....
We have nosey children in this house! So much for keeping Coco a 'secret'... the little buggers looked on my compter and saw today's entry... so now they know... and Griffin has hardly stopped asking 'How many sleeps till we get her'! Grrrrrr, just what I didn't want. Done now.. moving on!

We have just done the grocery shopping, it is so good taking Stew, he gets to do most of the physical part of it! Yaaaaa.

End of Day: I will have to put the 'sleeps' up on the whiteboard... so the kids can cross off the days obviously.. or they are going to bug us every day with 'How many sleeps?". nite nite.

MEET COCO!

Last night I wheeled and dealed... and found our new puppy!

MEET COCO... she is 6 weeks old and we can pick her up in about 3 weeks! She is living up north right now... with her 3 brothers and one sister. She is a Bichon/Shih Tzu Cross like our Teddy.

Teddy is going to be thrilled to bits to have a sister to play with! And I won't feel so bad when I go out and leave him alone... awwwww can't wait! Teddy is a neutered boy... so if we decide to breed with Coco, it will be with another boy dog.

Today Steve heads back to Palmy... we have loved seeing him and wish he wasn't going... *sigh*.

I need to pull finger today and get the kids uniforms ready for school on Monday... it's into winter uniforms now, even though it isn't that cold here yet. One of the HUGE benefits of living here... it simply never gets FREEZING like in Palmerston North! BLISS.

ONWARD.....

Our son Steve put this comment on PEPSI, so I am posting it here so you who are in the know can read it:

Levithaan said...
Thanks for all your support guys, I may not know most of you but your support meant alot :) I can now move forward with my life, and although the police force is out of the question, I plan to get a degree in IT, a passion of mine. I'll keep ya updated on how that pans out, I'll hijack mums blog and give you an update one day (I know her password haha). Steve

It is now 9.30 am and I'm still in bed! The family all slept in ... which was lovely. I suppose I should get up eh?...

ABOVE: my lazy-boy fell to bits! Luckily Stew has been able to fix it, cos it's a really comfy chair. It was held together with staples, into shit wood.. no wonder! I feel like my being fat killed it! Maybe not though.. I'm not THAT FAT! Well... I like to think not anyway.

Steve has left.. I made him a packed lunch of chicken sandwiches to take with him.... his parting remark was "I bet you go telling everyone you made me a lunch to take"... so I just HAD TO eh? lol

Now things can settle down again... kids will be back at school in 2 sleeps... and I can get my house all tidy again. I love tidy.

End of Day: quiet afternoon, Stew did the gardens/lawns, I had a granny nap then made a few more fabric flowers for my cards. Looking forward to bedtime, so tired! nite nite.

GOING TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE DAY

ABOVE: All three of them playing on their PSP's! Cute.

Today I want us to make the most of the day as tomorrow Steve has to go back to Palmerston North and get back to work. Not sure what our plans are yet... too early in the day, not sure what the weather is doing.....

ABOVE: yet more of my cards... not bored with making them yet!

ONWARD.... must get outta bed and start this day....

I read this on my Daughter Amanda's Facebook page: "Whatever you give a woman, she will make it greater. Give her sperm, she will give you a baby. Give her a house, she will give you a home. Give her groceries, she will give you a meal. Give her a smile and she will give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges whatever she is given. So if you give her ...crap, be ready to receive a TON of shit!" I REALLY LIKE THIS!

It's an indifferent day today... the sun is shining, but it is threatening to rain any moment. Still have no plans for the day, Steve (son) is still sleeping... typical!

ONWARD...

SEE my weight loss on the sidebar? Doing great ain't I???? 20 pounds!!! Dats a lot of butter!

Stew and I went and grabbed some groceries. Left Steve looking after the kids. Shame is isn't dark here.. we could have parked up and been 'naughty'... ha ha ha! No such luck.

Made this card so far today... really love it too! Seems I love all of me cards! I must stop making them 'willy nilly' cos I don't have envelopes to fit them! Idiot. But... most of my cards will be going to someone with a gift... so I shall just add them to the parcel!

End of Day: cooking a lovely dinner... Pork steaks, carrot/onion/cheese bake, cauliflower & Broccoli with cheese sauce.... maybe some peas and brussell sprouts! YUM YUM, my tummy is rumbling already! Had a nice day just around the house at the end of the day... been working on something VERY EXCITING (NO, not a card!)... might be able to tell you about it tomorrow! nite nite.

TODAY WILL BE TOUGH TO GET THROUGH....

The 'nasty family situation' is back on today. I am going to do everything in my power to fill my day and not think about it.

For those who are not in the 'know'... just know that it is a very upsetting family thing that I can do NOTHING about. But it is affecting me something awful.


ABOVE: I made this card last night... and I totally LOVE IT! The fabric flowers are so neat don't ya think???

I made another 5 flowers last night too... so shall no doubt make some more cards today... I need to get some more card, probably go and get that too...

I have weigh in at the Doctor's this morning... I am expecting a decent loss.... then the kids and I are going shopping for more card making stuff... so will be back later with a report on how much I lost...

ONWARD...

Weigh in went well.... lost 2.8 kgs ( 6.1 Pounds) on their scales, will weigh again tomorrow on mine to double check and record.

Took the kids out for lunch... I had a sandwich too. Got the supplies I wanted:

ABOVE: The card on the top has a 'pearlish' finish, which is just gorgeous! Also got a corner cutter thingee....


Have not heard how things are going with the guys, told Stew I did NOT want a 'blow by blow' account of their day... not something I can handle. Got nervous diarrhoea already! And I have this damn awful lump in my throat... finding it hard to swallow. Nerves I expect.

Nasty family situation is resolved. Not the best outcome we could have hoped for... but way better than it could have been we think! Now we can move on from it and 'the family involved' can start afresh. I am certainly feeling much better about it all now. It's the unknown that is so hard to take. ONWARD EH?....

End of Day.... and we are all having a drink tonight. Not to 'celebrate' but certainly to unwind! *smiles* nite nite.

WE HAVE NOTHING ON TODAY!

It may be hard to believe... but we have nothing planned today! How weird is that?

I took this really cute photo of Teddy the other night.. he is so nosey about what is going on in our street! Any noise whatsoever and he's up there looking out.. and if he sees anyone he barks and growls! Such a good guard dog !

I am seriously looking into getting another dog like Teddy, only a girl next time. Have my eyes peeled for one ....

Diet wasn't so good yesterday, so have to make a concentrated effort to be extra good today.

The nasty family situation has been postponed... due to unexpected circumstances... so it drags on.....worst luck.

ONWARD....

I'm off to have morning tea with my aunt up the road in a mo.. on me own. BLISS. Then when I get home we will pop out to get some dog food before said dog starves.. and I want to buy a stamp I saw the other day..... hopefully it is still there!

Morning Tea = DONE

Dog Food = BOUGHT

Stamps = BOUGHT...

ABOVE: this is the one that tickled me fancy! No idea how I can use it in a card... YET.... lol!

ABOVE: I also bought this set of 6 little ones (suitable for little wee cards or tags as they are very small).... very cute though. So, I'm slowly building up some supplies.

We had lunch at the mall.. as per Stew and I had a carb-less kebab... so yummmm. Full now, need to go have a granny nap I reckon! It's a lovely warm afternoon.... ZZZzzzzzzzzzz....

End of Day: and I didn't have a nap.. I kept thinking of things I wanted to do... so got up and did them! Ended up making a couple more fabric flowers for cards.... they are quite fun to make. Diet good today.... weigh in at Dr's tomorrow. nite nite.

EVA, THE TRAVELLING DUCK

One of my ducks went to a lovely girl in England... and she (the duck) is having the time of her life it would appear! The family who 'adopted' her have taken her on holiday to Devon:

And they even named her: Eva! Here are the 'girls' at Brixham Harbour in Devon...

ON THE RIGHT: Eva ... at Berry Pomeroy Castle, I'm told it is one of the most haunted castles in England! I hope Eva wasn't too scared, her new family are looking after her so well... seems she has her own bed in their caravan too. Awwww... how cute! lol

Wish I could be there too.... but I'm not. Today: we take Griffin to be assessed by a couple of Occupational Therapists... who are going to put him into a programme to help him control his body better..... he fidgets and cannot sit still... to the point where it drives us nuts... and his teachers too! Fingers crossed it will help.

Hopefully it's a nice day again and we can perhaps go on another tiki tour too... there are so many nice beaches in and around Auckland... I want to see them all!

It's a cloudy day.. but not cold.. tis all good!

I spent an hour this morning sorting out my wardrobes... getting rid of lots of 'FAT' stuff...I now have three separate 'lots'... Fat, Medium and Small clothes! I am going to chuck out anything that is FAT in 6 months.... just you watch me! I am on such a high in the motivation stakes right now! It's great. Success breeds success! And I am not going to stress if I never get into the 'Small' clothes either.. I just want to be a 'normal' size and happy about it.

End of Day: The assessment went well apparently... Griffin starts attending a group next term for Occupational Therapy with a few other kids... he is looking forward to it. Rest of day = quiet. nite nite.

MILFORD BEACH

Here's a few photos from yesterday's visit to Milford Beach:

Like a twit, I wore a long dress to the beach! So had to hike it up constantly... the water was lovely too. It was low tide so not as pretty as it could have been... but still a nice beach.

ABOVE: this house was for sale... right on the beach... *drool*... Stew and I so want to end up living by the beach!

ABOVE AND BELOW: a card I made yesterday... it's for a birthday coming up soon....I put Stew's cellphone in the picture so you can see the card size.
Today... well the 'fix it' guy is coming back to fix our carpet... and put the doors back on etc. And I am going to leave Stew and the kids to it and go to Sylvia Park to meet up with a blogger who is up from Wellington ( got that wrong, she's from Tauranga)! Neat eh? Just me, no kids! AWESOME.

ABOVE: Natalie from Tauranga.. what a lovely girl! We hit it off ... must have! We yakked for almost 4 hours! I WAS in the photo, but it was a freaking awful one of me, so I cropped me out! lol.... we can all take a bloody awful photo sometimes eh? Natalie looks lovely though, which is nice.

Now that I am home it's time to do some housework... yaaaa. Can you just hear the enthusiasm?

ONWARD.....

RATS!.... OK now I don't want to live at Milford Beach! (read Tracy's comment) lol

End of Day: another day done and dusted. Had a lazy afternoon doing... NOTHING! Yes, I can do nothing sometimes! nite nite.

ARE WE BORED WITH CARDS YET?

*SIGH*... too bad. I am gunna show you some more I made yesterday.... cos I can!

In the last 3 days I have made 16 cards... there's a couple that are not quite finished... and most of them need 'words' stamped in them yet... but as I don't have said 'words' yet.. it will have to wait.

I look at some and think "Hmmm.. .needs something else"... but I don't want to end up putting too much on them... so will just sit back and wait and see. It has been fun... and I'm sure I will make more once I have more supplies and stamps.

Diet... is going great again... still doing low carbs... which basically means NO: Breads, Pasta, Rice, Starchy Vegetables, cakes, biscuits, crackers and the like. It is not a hardship at all as I am seeing the results and I do not feel awful or deprived doing it. I ROCK... and can feel my motivation increasing every day. HELL... I might even get back into exercise one of these days too!

But I am not pushing myself to do anything really... I have a big crappy family situation coming up that I am trying to keep from swamping my emotions... DEEP BREATHS.... my Doctor has said my best weapon to overcome it is to pretend it isn't happening! I can do that! I don't have to 'engage' in what is going on... and once it is over and resolved (either for the good or bad)... then I can deal with it.

ONWARD....It's another gorgeous day, and Stew is home... and I love that man so much! I'm a Soppy Tart.

As it's been such a glorious day today.. we went out for a drive. We ended up on Milford Beach, which is on the North Shore of Auckland. Such a nice beach too. Stew took some photos which I will share tomorrow.

I even had an ice cream... bloody nice it was too! Got to have a treat now and then eh? And anyway, I stepped on the scales today and have lost about 2 kilos since Thursday! AWESOME.

End of Day: made a few more cards this evening... got the bug to do them it would appear! nite nite.

CARDS... AND A SONG

Here is three of the cards I made yesterday:

ABOVE AND BELOW: I have a girl at Stew's work in mind for this one! Can you see the glitter I put on her boobs! LOL
ABOVE AND BELOW: Front and Middle of card.
ABOVE AND BELOW: Front and Middle of card.

I really need to get some stamps with common sayings on them, like 'Happy Birthday', 'Congratulations', etc! I don't have any. Will check out Trademe (like e-bay) over the next week or so and hopefully pick some up cheap.

ABOVE: This is what I put on the back of all my cards. I love that fish kiss stamp!

Now for the 'song' part of this post! I saw this young man singing on YouTube.. it is worth a listen I PROMISE!....

Click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-tOsM6F4Y&feature=player_embedded

It's saturday, Stew is home for the next week... yaaaa! Poor bugger needs the break too.. he's knackered. Work has been crazy/busy for him for months.

ABOVE: the cards I am working on this morning! I have run outta glue! And I also want to find me bits of paua shell... got some 'somewhere'.... to add to the front of these cards....

We went out for a drive... I wanted to check out a Scrapbooking place my friend told me about in Panmure.. and it is AMAZING! It sells fabrics and scrapbooking stuff, and stamps etc.... truly amazing shop! I will have to go there again when I have some cash to spend! Today... I'm broke! *sniff*

Had a healthy carb-less kebab for lunch at Sylvia Park then we came home and I've been mucking around with a couple more cards. It is a gorgeous day out there, so Stew is watching the kids ride their bikes in our little street. So it's nice and quiet inside. Neat.

Oh and I found my paua, but am not using it on those cards afterall.. it would be 'overkill' if I did. And YES, the jandals (thongs) are fabric.

End of Day: ***PEPSI UPDATED***. It's been a really neat day. Productive. I like productive... lol.

nite nite.

ANYONE WANT THEM?

Right: here's a little Giveaway. If you want to 'win' these just leave a comment saying "I want to win" on this entry, or any entry in the next week... and you will go in the draw. That's all there is to it. You don't have to become a follower, or blog about it... or nothing!


ABOVE : A single cushion cover waiting to be made... and BELOW: two cushion covers waiting to be made.

ABOVE: some fake fur material.. I made lots of really neat cushions out of this stuff a few years ago. Don't wanna make any more! So .... who wants it?

Today: Teddy gets groomed again. The groomer is coming to the house.... I am going to stay right away from them! Last time I kept checking on Teddy and he howled something shocking!

Apart from that.... might make a couple more cards.... do some friggin housework and .... keep the kids from driving each other nuts... and me!

Teddy got groomed, the kids and I stayed inside the house so he couldn't see or hear us.. and he didn't bark or howl ONCE... not at all! What a relief.

The lady who grooms him does such a wonderful job! She works for DOGWORKZ... her name is Rhonda Shirley (Phn: 021 288-1271).... and I can highly recommend her. I am thrilled with how gorgeous she makes Teddy look!
ABOVE: I am making a few cards... and see that ruler/rotary cutter and board? They are now the ones I shall use for card making... one less expense to worry about eh? Works for me.

ONWARD... well I've made 4 cards during the day.. and here's a sneak peek at them:

As there is HEAPS on today's post.. I shall show you my latest cards tomorrow!

End of Day: it's been a lovely day again. Productive. I like that. The kids have now been home for a week, and they are starting to get on each other's nerves. Thank gawd Stew is going to be home for the next week! He can help entertain them. nite nite.

CARD MAKING...

I thought I'd show you all what Jackie and I made yesterday... cos it was really fun!


ABOVE: Jackie and the kids at the table... busy making cards....

ABOVE AND BELOW: the two cards Jackie made.....

And as for me... I decided to try using some fabric on my cards....

ABOVE AND BELOW: a card I made from fabric I bought to support Breast Cancer... I love how this card came out.

AND remember that cute fabric I won the other day? Well I used a little bit of it for this card:

ABOVE AND BELOW: Probably overdid this one a bit, but still cute.

Today I have a hearing test (it's free to us oldies!) then off to my Weight Loss Group at the Doctor's. Yikes, expect a big gain this week!

ONWARD...

Apparently I have PERFECT HEARING! I wouldn't have thought that... as I often struggle to hear what someone is saying when there is other noise around! *shrugging me shoulders*.

Weight Loss Group: I gained a kilo... not the end of the world. I can and will continue to work on getting the weight off... slowly but surly... while keeping my 'whole' self healthy and sane! At the moment there is quite a bit of stress in the background which I am doing my best to overcome... mostly by NOT eating to smother the emotions. This in itself is a huge WIN for me... cos my biggest problem is emotional eating. So in all I am not unhappy about the kilo gain.. not at all. I am doing well.

HOLY HELL.. I went out to buy a wee bit of card so I could make a few more cards.... it ain't cheap is it? There are masses of other 'bits and bobs' I would love to buy... but it will have to wait! I could spend a FORTUNE on that stuff! The dilemma is.. I love my sewing ... is it possible to have two hobbies? Both that cost a lot???? I hope so! It is nice to do a variety of things ... innit? lol

End of Day: I had a nana nap this afternoon! Just ran out of batteries and flaked. Kids watched TV quietly on the most part, but freaking Teddy would not stop jumping on me and licking my toes. Weird dog. Had lamb chops in the crockpot for dinner... so didn't feel bad about doing bugger all for an hour or so. Looking forward to Coronation Street on the telly shortly... nite nite.