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Showing posts with label Summer blog challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer blog challenge. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2012

#blog challenge 18/8/12 onwards

It is now September and Im a wee bit disappointed in myself for lagging on the summer blog challenge. I got way behind so many times and now its finished and its Spring and I still have two weeks (or round abouts) to catch up on.
Ok...here we go.

How did you meet your significant other?
I just asked John this and he said "painfully"....hmmm maybe I shouldn't ask him these questions to help me answer.

The short story is that I went to Polytech with one of Johns younger brothers and John was running in the same sort of social circle as me. I think we were bound to cross each others path eventually, but I found him sitting at my kitchen table one night when I came home from a friends house.
We swapped cellphone numbers and were stuck like glue ever since.
We didn't date though (which makes me a bit sad), we just hung out together with his friends and I think we were together for about 2-4wks before we moved in together.

It was very fast, but I don't regret it for a second.

Share a favorite free font you've found.
Some of these prompts I have found a wee bit silly TBH....like this one.
I have no idea where to get a free font from or even have the patience to trawl through pages and pages and pages to find one. I don't actually know how to download one to my computer either. I am still very new to the WWW and pick things up very slowly off other bloggers.

Give a tip for new bloggers
A tip for new bloggers from a recent new blogger is to read blogs, google blogs, join blog hops (yeah that was a new thing for me), comment on blogs you like and ask questions.
Always ask questions.
I have a few blogs I always read and refer people to and have learnt stuff from.
Ooh and get "blogging for dummies" haha

Favorite rainy day activity.
Ooh this is soooo easy......My favourite rainy day thing to do is cuddle up on the couch with John and the boys and watch telly or a dvd with the fire going.
Normally its something John or the boys want to watch, but I have found that being open minded (which was VERY hard to do) has taught me that I would of missed some good programs and movies etc if I had chosen not to watch them myself.

What's a show from your childhood that you'd love to bring back?
There are heaps of shows from my childhood I would love to bring back.
  • The Snorks
  • Captain Planet
  • TMNT (the original 1980s show)
  • That cartoon with the cat wearing a top hat
  • The Jetsons
  • Transformers
  • The Avengers
I could keep going, but I think I would run out of room!

Who is your favorite villian?
I don't have a favourite villian.....I don't even have a villian come to mind from my childhood. Im a hero kind of girl

If you could have personally witnessed one event in history, what would you want to have seen?
The short answer to this is...there isnt one. My mind is somehow only seeing the bad events and I don't want to go through any of those.




Friday, August 31, 2012

#blog challenge 12/8/12 onwards

What's an eco-friendly organization that you could get behind and support?
Im not too sure if we have any eco-friendly organizations around where I am....will have a looksee.

What type of schooling do you currently or plan to do with your children?
I don't understand this prompt. My kids are currently in Primary School. They are year 0 and year 3.
I have done Secondary education and did start a business degree, but had to put that on hold when I fell pregnant with Declan. I plan to start that up when he gets a bit older.

Give a good piece of advice to first time parents.
I think the best piece of advice I can give to a first time parent is to take what people say and filter out what doesn't work for you.
When I had Andrew, I didn't have the internet or coffee groups etc. I had no family or friends. I had PLUNKET. They came into my home and told me I was a crap parent and that I needed to do what they said etc. Luckily one of my aunties came in and helped me to weed out the crap plunket told me and make it suit how I was as a person and a mother.
So the best advice I can give is to take what is said with a grain of salt. Also, if you need help ask for it, because it wont always come to you if you don't speak out.

The hardest part of parenting is...
not succumbing to what everybody else is doing and buying.
I have learnt that parenting is sooo much different to what it was when I was a first time parent. We coped with basic clothing, toys, pram, carseat, and hand me downs. When I became a parent to Declan too, it all changed and everyone was all about the newest and latest carseat, cot, pram, toys, clothes etc. Then you have the toys as they get older and the after school activities etc. The hardest part of parenting is to not "keep up with the Joneses"

10 things you love about your significant other (or kids or pets)
I read this as about everyone hehe....so I will do 5 for the kids and 5 for John (because I love them all)

Andrew and Declan

  1. They make me laugh
  2. They make me look at the world differently
  3. I miss them when they are at school because they aren't here with me
  4. I love the way they love movies..they are currently into The Avengers
  5. They like the little things in life
John

  1. He loves me for me
  2. He works hard to look after the boys and I
  3. He sacrifices things so we can have what we need (or want)
  4. I love that when he goes away for work, he rings me everyday without fail just because he wants to.
  5. I love how he watches a lot of re runs and really bad movies because I want to
How did your child (or pet) get their name?
He he.....when I saw this, I went straight to Andrew.
Andrew John came into this world at a funny time in my life.
My grandad had recently passed away not long before we found out I was pregnant. I "knew" it was a boy so wanted to forego the 20week "gender" scan.
He is named traditionally after an important man in my life.
Andrew is the middle name of my grandad and John is from...well John.
It just seemed appropriate to continue the name John and to take something from my grandad too.

Declan Phillip is a wee bit different.
We couldn't decide on a name and Declan was the only name we kept coming back to in the baby book that John liked and didn't make fun of.
Phillip is from my grandad. His full name is Phillip Andrew Ritchie and my boys have both his names somewhere.


Monday, August 6, 2012

#Day 65 summer blog

WHAT HELPS ME GET THROUGH A MELT DOWN?
NOTHING!
I yell and scream and cry and freak out and then it turns into a full on anxiety attack in most cases.
Its really awful and I don't know what to do about it. That makes me sad.


In other stuff....I have pictures!
John and I went to Te Papa last week......




Sunday, August 5, 2012

#Day 58 + summer blog

DAY 58 WRITE UP SOMETHING ABOUT AN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCE
John worked on this wind farm Te Apiti Wind Farm
I don't know much about it or about alternative energy sources. It is a very big wind farm lol.

DAY 59 WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU "ROUGHED IT"?
Lol. I have never "roughed it". Actually as I write this, I do remember the ONE time I have been camping. It was like ummmmmmmmmmm

14years ago? I think? I don't know. That was the time I ever roughed it. Although it wasn't really roughing it as we had working flushing toilets etc and it was ONE night for school camp.

DAY 60 HOW DOES YOUR LIFE MEASURE TO THE VISION YOU HAD WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?
I thought when I was younger, that everything would be like Fifth Element or The Jetsons etc.
I thought we would be run with robots, sky scrapers, so much technology etc that we would be like The Jetsons with space crafts for cars etc.
Boy was I wrong! Now, we have the technology, but we are also struggling with everyone else to get by comfortably. This is but isn't the way I thought it would be. I always knew that money etc would get worse. I just "knew" and freaked out and worried about it a lot as a kid. Now its not much better, but I am more realistic.

DAY 61 SHARE SOME ART YOU HAVE DONE OR SOMETHING YOU LIKE
I am not too sure how to answer this. Im not an arty farty and I don't really have anything to share otherwise.

DAY 62 POST A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO
This was a standard color picture when I took it. I then uploaded it to some app on my iPod and turned it into this.......This is Declan.
DAY 63 SHARE AN IDEA OF A HOMEMADE GIFT TO GIVE TO SOMEONE ELSE
Im a really boring person as I am finding out more and more with each post on this challenge.
I don't do homemade gifts or ANYTHING.
My idea of homemade gifts is whipping up a batch of biscuits and putting them in a store bought gift box. (and I have done that)

DAY 64 WHAT FEATURE WOULD YOU HAVE TO HAVE IN YOUR DREAM HOME?
The must have feature I have to have in my dream home is a HUGE kick arse kitchen!
I think I could handle living in a tent as long as I had a kick arse kitchen like in one of those mansions on the Kardashians lol.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

#Day 52 + summer blog

DAY 52 TALK ABOUT A FREE ACTIVITY YOU DO WITH YOUR KIDS
My free activity is taking them to either the lake for a walk and feed the ducks or take them down to my mums and we stop at the dog park on the way and let the dog have a run around.
There is heaps to do with the kids, you just have to look for it.

This is from when John took us to pick up pine cones a few years back.


DAY 53 WHAT IS YOUR BEST GARDENING TIP?
Im not the gardener of the house. John is. He has heaps of "advice" but doesn't follow any of it lol.

DAY 54 HOW DO YOU BEAT THE SUMMER HEAT?
If we ever manage to have summer this year, I spend most of summer inside with the curtains shut. No such thing as AC in our house. Then its lounging around watching telly in barely enough clothing to be acceptable and eating salads and easy fast food. Lots of ice cream, water etc and lots of water fights outside (on our water days)

DAY 55 WHAT'S A BAND YOU HAVE BEEN LIKING AND LISTENING TO LATELY?
At the moment, I have my iPod on shuffle and its playing a wee bit of everything.
Yesterday, I was favourable to Pink, Lily Allan, Disturbed, Matchbox 20 etc and some Ed Sheran, Train, and others I am having a mind block on.

DAY 56 GIVE US 3 EASY SNACKS FOR CHILDREN OR TODDLERS
Some recent snacks I have been giving the boys are:
"little sausages" or cocktail sausages (while I am cooking dinner)
raw veges (capsicum, celery, carrots etc) and aioli dip (store bought)
fresh and tinned fruit

DAY 57 IF YOU HAD A SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
If I had a super power? I thought I already had one....Im a mum. What do you do?

I want the power to be able to bounce off the walls at 6am and keep going til 10pm.
Thats the super power I want.

Friday, August 3, 2012

#Day 42 + summer blog

DAY 42 FAVOURITE VACATION/HOLIDAY
Funnily enough, I haven't actually taken a "holiday". I have stayed in hospitals, friends houses, family houses etc, but never had an actual bonafide vacation. Sad eh?

DAY 43 THEN AND NOW PHOTO OF YOU
I dont actually have another photo of me other than the one I originally posted on week one. Sorry people. Im not a photo person. Im the one taking the photos. Even if I take a photo of myself in a mirror, I NEVER ever look as good in the picture than I did no more than 2mins before in the mirror.

DAY 44 ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WANT TO GIVE YOUR CHILD
The only piece of advice I want to give my boys is to be yourself.
I have spent my whole life changing myself into someone who I thought others wanted me to be. I don't think I have ever been happy. I am a people pleaser and a door mat. I let people walk all over me and treat me like utter crap and Im an implosive person. Im the person that gets sick of it and thinks about stepping out in front of the train.
All I want for my kids is to be happy, be themselves and do what they want to do (when they are older) as no one can make your life but you.

DAY 45 GOT ANY GOOD MAKEUP TIPS/ROUTINES?
Im sorry. This is a short and sweet answer. I don't wear make up. I don't like it, it never looks right on me and I can't apply it to save myself. I also don't have the time, patience or money to spend on make up lol.
I have however just recently (ok almost 5months ago) gotten my lashes and brows tinted, but again I don't have the time or money to waste doing that on a regular basis.
I do wash my face every morning with Nutrogena oil free grapefruit face scrub. Thats it. No moisteriser or anything.
Im a simple girl really lol

DAY 46 FAVOURITE ROOM IN YOUR HOUSE
Again, a short post. I don't have a favourite room in my house (unless my bed counts). I hate my house. I hate the fact that nothing we do makes it look any better. I hate that its so dark and small.
My dream is to win lotto, knock it down and start again (unless I can sell it in the meantime).

DAY 47 A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS
Is this something I have done? I do RAK all the time. Im a sucker for being nice to people.
I remember this one time, I offered to take this ladys trolley back for her (she had four kids with her I think) and it was raining. Not long after, I got some movie tickets sent to me in the mail. I thought that was pretty cool. Made my day until I realised that those two little tickets were going to cause nothing but arguments in the house lol.

DAY 48 FIVE THINGS TO DO IF THE POWER GOES OUT
Hehe all I can think of is "go to bed and snuggle with John"
Hmmmmm last time our power went out, I snuggled up on the couch with a book and read with my iPod playing.
There isnt much you can do when the power goes out. If it's night, light some candles etc.
I loved it when the power went out. No TV, no computer, no internet, no nothing and it was fantastic!
That doesn't really answer the post title, but what do you do when the power goes out?

DAY 50 IF YOU WERE PRESIDENT OR PRIME MINISTER FOR A DAY, WHAT ONE LAW WOULD YOU CHANGE?
I can't answer this. It would make so many people mad! There is soooo much I would do if I could, but I would also upset so many people. This is the sort of stuff I tell John. We kind of think a long the same lines as each other, but it's not something I am willing to share on here.

DAY 51 WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY?
Oooh I love this sort of thing.
I would knock my house down and start again with the house of my dreams.
I would give money to Johns nana to keep her comfortable for the rest of her life.
Take a holiday around the world etc
Thats the most part of it. The rest of it would be on silly little stuff like cars etc.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Blog Catch Up #2 From June 29

This is a HUGE catch up that I have been meaning to do for AGES.

DAY 29 WRITE A "HOW TO" POST
I have to be honest, I have been slowly neglecting this as the prompts are getting harder for me to do. A "how to" post makes me run and hide. Im not good at writing anything let alone a how to post and actually putting some thought into it lol.
So with the help of a fellow blogger, I am writing about a typical weekend in my house.
HOW TO SURVIVE A WEEKEND!
I dread weekends. I have two VERY ACTIVE boys that are up at sparrows fart and need to be occupied 24/7.

The only way you can survive in my house is to have a never ending supply of food and drink for the boys and then throw them outside (if its raining, put a coat on them). If that fails, pop in an action DVD or a sci-fi and give them a bowl of chippies or popcorn and a blanket.

Once you have done all that and they are quiet, you then have to think about what will happen when John gets home from work on Saturday afternoon. The only way I have found to do that is to keep him occupied with the telly (or computer game) and food and then curl up with a good book until its time to make dinner.

Then its start all over again on Sunday with John home. Thats pretty hard as John can be worse than the kids at times and its very hard to get him up to do something once hes on the couch engrossed in telly. Im pretty lucky its winter, because its perfect fire and telly weather.

DAY 30 MY SENSE OF STYLE
This post would be a bit hard on me too. I dont have a style as such. I wear what fits and what I feel comfortable in. I have tried trends and I just dont have the body shape (or money) to pull any of the current trends off.

Everytime I get dressed, I think I look like a movie star.....really I look like a frumpy mum with messy hair and a belly that looks like a baby is about to drop out of it and an ass to match.
This is the sort of stuff I would wear if I could look like the movie stars.
DAY 31 SOMETHING ECO FRIENDLY YOU DO
We are eco friendly (well I would like to think so)
I take our cardboard boxes (from packaging, food etc) to the local kindy for the collage box a long with my magazines and newspapers and plastic bags (for changes of clothes etc).
We have a compost for our food scraps. John dug a hole in the ground and when its full, hes going to fill it back in and thats how we make our compost.
When I was pregnant with Declan, I bought MCN. Those snazzy nappies with snaps and patterns etc on them.
Its not a lot to us, but its a wee bit more than anyone else would be doing.
I know that there is a lot more that we are doing that I just cant think of right now....oh water....I try and save water and tip grey water into the garden etc instead of tipping it down the drain.

DAY 32 SHARE A POEM
Im not really a poem type of gal, but my nana owned a book by Pam Ayres and I love her poems. There are too many to share, but here is one.
OH I WISH I'D LOOKED AFTER ME TEETH

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth,
And spotted the dangers beneath
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food.
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

I wish I’d been that much more willin’
When I had more tooth there than fillin’
To give up gobstoppers,
From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin’.

When I think of the lollies I licked
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.

My mother, she told me no end,
‘If you got a tooth, you got a friend.’
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin’
And pokin’ and fussin’
Didn’t seem worth the time – I could bite!

If I’d known I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin’s,
Injections and drillin’s,
I’d have thrown all me sherbet away.

So I lie in the old dentist’s chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine
In these molars of mine.
‘Two amalgam,’ he’ll say, ‘for in there.’

How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin’
It’s methey are beckonin’
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

DAY 33 PLANS YOU HAVE FOR SUMMER
Oh this is easy! We have LOTS of plans for summer! Luckily Summer is in November so we have plenty of time to get saving!
  • We need to re-build our wood shed and look at building an extra one
  • We need to get some WOOD
  • The house needs the painting finished outside
  • The yard needs cleaning (which may happen this year)
  • Under floor and ceiling insulation before summer is out
  • We are hoping to do a re-jib and paint in the boys bedrooms (I think its called drywalling?)
  • oh and now my brain has gone blank haha

DAY 34 FREE DAY....WILL COME BACK TO THIS

DAY 35 A FEAR YOU HAVE
I have a lot of fears....one is flying.

John watches A LOT of "air investigation" programs on National Geographic (or is that Discovery?) and I am already freaked out about flying as it is without all that. 
We had to go to Auckland last November to the hospital for John to have a procedure done.
We flew up in a 737 and it was a really bad flight for me. My seat was next to the wing and we were packed in like sardines. I got really scared and wanted off the plane, and having John talk about the plane dropping out of the sky was FREAKING me out even more.
I dont know why I am scared to fly, I mean I have done it twice about 20years ago in a little pencil plane.
I think its weird how your fears can spiral out of control as you get older. This is a fear that can seriously hold us back from doing things in life (unless I am sedated that is). It was great view from in the plane, but I was too scared to enjoy the flight (and really it was only about 30mins in the air anyway).

Thats my fear.

This is the end of this catch up. Hopefully I will be back on board in a few days.

I love reading comments that you have sent in, and I love to visit everyone who visits me. 

Much Love
Vikki


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Something you are proud of the last few days #summerblog19

Today is something you're proud of (hence the title)
I have heaps of things I'm proud of from the last few days.
To other people, they are silly things. To me, they are important.

  1. I cooked a FANTASTIC pickled pork in my slow cooker on Saturday night. I had it with honey glazed yams and mixed veges. I found a recipe online (thank you iPod) and we had Johns nana for dinner before we went out to the movies and she babysat the kids for us.
  2. I got us a great trailer of wood. Its a little trailer, but the wood is a great mix and dry.
  3. I got the kids to help tidy the lounge on Saturday
  4. Apart from a few baskets of laundry that need folding (the sock basket and my clothes), I am UP TO DATE and we have an extra couch to sit on!
  5. I have done some dusting.
  6. I am slightly more organised than I used to be
  7. I got up at 7am this morning and did my dishes while I waited for the kids to get up (and our visitors to get up)


As you can see, I have a lot to be proud of.
Thank you to Kassandra Groll who put this as a summer blog challenge.


Today is a surprisingly warm day. Slight breeze which is chilly, but there is NO condensation on the windows and the house is all open to air. Its Tuesday so I have to pick up Johns nana (why do I say that?) from grocery shopping in a few hours. I bought Fifty Shades of Grey last week and lent it to her to read and then got told its NOT a suitable book for her to be reading. I really didnt think it was that bad, but I was informed that its quite raunchy and has BDSM in it etc. So if she skips all that stuff, there probably isnt much of the book left to read lol.


Anyway, have laundry in the machine and dishes to dry now.
Much love

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Where am I at the end of the year? #blogchallenge day13

I have so many things that I would like at the end of the year. Its the same goals I have at the start of the year lol, its just that things crop up and my goals get pushed to the back burner.
I have things like a new kitchen on my list etc, but thats not really where I would be is it?

30kg lighter would be nice (ok yup.......)
travelling (ummmm)
working (working on that one)

The stuff thats on my "to do" list is

New kitchen
travelling (or at least a family holiday)
renovations on the house (at least start that)
a full re paint of the house (inside)
the outside needs finishing (painting)
the yard cleaned up
doing up the boys bedrooms (thats a dream)

I just want to be the person that I used to be (well ok I AM that person, but I need work).

I think the hardest thing about doing this challenge is that I have spent a lot of my life trying to please others and being shot down, bullied, taken for granted etc that I just don't know what to do when I have to think of the positive things in my life or think about ME for a change. I am writing this as I have a cuppa before going to my weekly church group (and then hopefully do the grocery shopping) and no doubt I will remember so much more once I click on the "post" button.

So how do YOU see yourself at the end of the year?

Much Love
xoxoxo

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Best Day of My Life/Worst Injury

Best Day of My Life
I have a lot of days that I would call the best day of my life.

The day I gave birth to Andrew was a good day....although when I reflect on it, it was one of the WORST days of my life followed by more days that I would love to erase (but I want to keep the baby that I had lol).
The day I gave birth to Declan was a good day...better than Andrews birth and the days after were better too...although now, that perfect baby is a hyperactive 5yo lol.
I bought a house
I got married (and even though I can look back on that day and wish for something better, I am happy that I got married....and the GROOM was late!)
Those are a few days that I would consider the best in my life. Its really hard to sit and write about them and narrow it down to just ONE day. They are all good in ways, but shadowed by regret in others (that makes me sound like an ungrateful horrible person).
Ok Im moving on now hehe

Worst Injury
I dont actually have a worst injury (unless giving birth counts). I have never broken anything, fractured anything, been admitted to hospital for treatment (except for when I got my tonsils out and had the kids). Im a healthy person with no injuries (fingers crossed it continues).

Right O thats the summer challenge done! Time for an update on us :)

Today is a CRAPPY day! We woke up to rain, wind and a cold day. I have been ringing around for firewood because we are running out (John said, not to worry about getting wood because he would get it....I should have known better and we have also been screwed around by people I thought were friends who said they would help us out in summer). Lesson learned? Dont ask for help because in most cases you dont get it and then when people ask you for help and you say no, they seem to think its ok to bitch about you not helping them.....yeah life sucks arse. Im am SO not elaborating on this lol
I have the kids at school. John is at work and Im just wasting time at home before I go have a coffee with Johns nana in town (which I dont actually want to do, because its warmer in my house for a change).
I have bills coming out my ears and stress up to my eyeballs. Im one of those people where a fallen tic tac is enough to make me spazz out and stress and worry and I have no idea how to get around that. It creates a monster.

Enough of me spazzing out....time to go and do a clean up and go meet Nana for a cuppa in town.

Have a great day.
Much Love