marc.vic.max.elliot

We have been busy busy busy this past week (just like every week!) We’ve managed to fit in the following:
Monday – Playgroup and the Fire Station visit in the morning and kindy for Max in the afternoon
Tuesday – house work and then kindy for Max. He learned to flip over holding onto the swinging rings and also helped a lot at clean-up time so the teachers gave him the ‘well done’ badge for that day.

Wednesday – a visit to the library, grocery shopping and lunch with my mum (the boys’ Nana). I later baked supper ready for the Playgroup Committee Meeting (I’m the treasurer on this committee). Very nicely they all came here for the meeting so I wouldn’t have to organise a babysitter to go out.
Thursday – music in the morning, a trip through the car wash (very entertaining as Elliot screamed the whole time we were in there!) and then kindy for Max. After that we popped in to see my sister Ali, who was flying out to Europe that evening for three weeks of work.
Friday – swimming with my friend Anna from up the road and her two littlies Zach and Stella (which the boys loved, so will try to do that more often). Our plans for dinner on Friday night unfortunately fell through as another friend Mary Jane’s little boy James was unwell – but the boys and I had takeaways instead.
Saturday – Our visit to Grannie (Marc’s mum) was postponed as she was also unwell, but the boys played outside most of the time until Max pulled a muscle in his neck jumping on the trampoline. He then spent most of the rest of the day with an icepack on his neck, or asleep. He was not a happy boy, and even opted out of going to his friend Neve’s 4th birthday party (very unlike Max).
Sunday – Max said he was feeling a bit better this morning although he was still holding onto his neck most of the time – but we went out (with my Mum) and visited a new clothes shop where I managed to find three new winter tops. We also stopped in to see Grandad and his partner Ngaire (that’s Marc’s dad). Ngaire has her own business doing Bowen Therapy – so while Max played she did a little bit on his neck and the difference is amazing. He could turn his head both ways and didn’t seem to be in anymore pain. We’ve just come back from a BBQ dinner at Nickie and Quintin’s house (a lady I met through playgroup) which was very nice.Somehow we’ve also managed to fit in eating, sleeping, showers, dishes, laundry, playing with and tidying up mountains of toys and 300-070 books, and also Elliot’s afternoon naps.

The only other thing I can think of to mention is that Elliot no longer sits in his highchair for meals – he’s been sitting at the little table with Max for breakfast and lunch, and at the dining room table for dinner. He’s been pretty good for the most part and doesn’t get up and walk around too much!

Just off to make playdough to take to playgroup in the morning, and then I will be collapsing into bed – all ready for the chaos to begin again tomorrow!

Hello from Sunny California!

What to say….hmmmmm…it’s sunny, not too warm and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road!

So far the trip has gone OK with the flight out here being uneventful but long (1 hour to Auckland and then 12.5 to San Francisco) I arrived in the early afternoon last Saturday and a colleague arrived just after me so we ended up having dinner together.  On Sunday the two of us went up into SF by train and did the usual things (Rode on the tram, saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz (both from the shore) and just pottered around.  The funny thing is we had our pre-course drinks that night and the Americans were amazed that we used public transport to get into SF.  Admittedly it took a while (10 minute walk to the light rail, 20 minute ride, 1:30 on the Caltrain into the city) but we had a great time and had fun talking to conductors and just generally chilling with the locals!

The New Hire training was very long and very tiring.  The whole week built toward a team presentation on Friday morning and the learning and planning was very taxing.  The days went like this:

Mon:  07:30 – 19:30

Tue:  08:00 – 24:00 (team dinner)

Wed: 08:00 – 23:00 (work through dinner on presentation)

Thur: 08:30 – 01:00 (same as the night before)

Fri:  08:00 – 14:00 (presentation in the morning)

As I said, a long week…….

Today (Saturday) it was really nice to lie in and all I’ve really done today is go the mall, go to the movies (saw 300 – it was OK if not a bit predictable)

Tomorrow it’s back into SF for lunch with a colleague and then Mon-Wed some more training.  I am so looking forward to getting home next week and I really miss Vic and the boys 🙁

Oh and one more thing – the print that I had in the exhibition mentioned the other day actually sold! yay!

Today our playgroup visited the local fire station. One of the dads that comes to playgroup is a volunteer fireman so he organised it all. It was fantastic – he showed the kids inside the station, put on all his gear (including mask and tanks – he honestly looked terrifying so I hope we never have a fire where they come in dressed like that),300-101 dumps let the kids climb inside the engine, turn on the siren, and best of all – they all got a turn squirting water from the hose.

300-075 dumps Back at home and the boys had had their lunch and were sitting at their table drawing pictures so I popped out of the room to put the washing machine on. I heard them laughing and thought “oh that’s good – they’re playing nicely together”, when really I should have thought “that’s strange – they’re laughing and not fighting with each other”. Max came through and said “Mummy – Elliot’s drawing”. Warning Sony Xperia SGP312U1/B AC Adapter lights went off in my head and I ran back through to the family room to discover Elliot standing with a whiteboard marker in his hand and black scribbles on the windows, floor, tv screen, Max’s new book, and on two of the three new rimu bar stools by the kitchen bench (the third luckily had a magazine on the top – but that was also covered with scribble). Elliot got put straight in the naughty corner while I tried to clean up – FYI whiteboard marker comes off glass and laminated flooring, but not books or bar stools (it’s just soaked right in). Max claimed he hadn’t seen Elliot do any of this – however I later found pen marks on the top of my laptop (kept on the breakfast bar) so knew Max had been involved too – there is no way Elliot could have reached that high. I’m guessing Max started it and then gave the pen to Elliot and told him where to draw. I hope we’re going to be able to sand the stools down, re-stain and oil them to get rid of the marks.
It’s going to be a long two weeks ….. at least it wasn’t a permanent marker pen!

300-115 Marc has gone to the States for two weeks for his new job induction and training. He used to travel a bit with his last job, so now I’m used to dealing with the boys by myself. It just means I have to be a bit more organised – sorting out bags, snacks or lunch boxes the night before for whatever we have planned the next day, and while Elliot sleeps in the afternoon and Max is at kindy I get dinner organised (instead of doing housework or surfing the net:)). We’ve even got our bedtime routine sorted out so Max tidies away the toys while I bath or shower Elliot. All in all for the most part it’s not too bad and I no longer dread the thought of Marc going away. In fact it means I have one less person to tidy up after (sorry honey!) although I do have all the dishes to do myself!

This morning started off bright and early – I picked up mum at 7.00am and we headed over the hill to Martinborough (about an hour away) to the Martinborough Fair which is held the first Saturday in February and March every year. Got there nice and early so didn’t have to pay for parking this year, and it also meant it wasn’t too hot. Managed to get a good selection of native plants (so hopefully fairly low maintenance) for planting on our bank, a couple of t-shirts for the boys, a lovely cd rack made of macrocarpa, and of course a bag of coconut ice for all my boys.

300-101 We headed back around lunchtime, so I got home in time to take Marc to the airport for his flight to Auckland and then onto San Fransisco. The boys love the airport and are so excited to see the planes taking off and landing, the little trucks with the bags on, the fire engines and this time they got to see the rescue helicopter flying off as well.

Now we’ll just see how the next two weeks go …..

Free wireless at Wellington airport – sweet!

Just about to get on a flight to Auckland and then a nice 12:30 leg to San Francisco overnight.  Yay 🙁

Two weeks of NetApp indoctrination and the longest time I’ve spent away from the kids ever.  I’m pretty sure that Vic has the short end of the stick but I’ll really miss them all 🙁

Not sure how much I’ll be able to update in the next fortnight but I’ll try to let y’all know how I get on.

Oh, and I bought a Canon 30D digital SLR to replace my six year old D30 (confusing nomenclature!)

I’ve decided to set up my own blog as I feel like the joint one Marc and I have is now well and truly his – he’s been updating it for what seems like forever. I think the last entry I made was probably before Max was born (so at least four years ago). In fact it was probably even somewhere on the previous blog.

I’ve been reading a few blogs recently and thought it doesn’t look that hard, so maybe I should give it a go. I have no idea what I’ll write about, or even how most things work on here – so this should be an interesting way to learn 300-101!

I was walking through the forest one day when this hideous beast appeared in front of me!  I snapped off a quick shot…..

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Well I have my trip to the US confirmed.  I leave on Saturday 3rd March and get home on Friday 14th – almost two weeks!  Oh well, I was warned that this would happen but I’m also up in Auckland for Wed and Thurs this week as well…… Does anyone have any suggestions for things to do in San Fransisco?  I have two weeks in Sunnyvale, California and it’s only about an hours drive from SF.

On a more positive note the family and I met up with a very good friend of ours, Gayle, for brunch today.  While eating I noticed a nice painting on the wall of the cafe and saw that it was for sale.  I mentioned it to Vic and she said that she had also noticed it so 10 minutes later we were the owners of an original piece of art.

size is approx 30” x 40”