#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.

#summer blog catch up...nearly at the end now :-(

POST A TYPICAL "DAY IN THE LIFE" POST
A typical day in my shoes is as follows.....

Monday.....
7am my alarm goes off and I push the snooze button until 7.40am
7.40am I get up and get the boys breakfast ready and then get them up
While they are eating their breakfast, I make their lunch and then get them dressed (well I get Declan dressed because he is very easily side tracked).
I then get dressed while the boys are watching telly, then I go outside and have my coffee, my smoke and start the car up.
Come inside and wash my face and brush my teeth and then we are all off.

8.35am or roundabouts, I am dropping Declan off at school. I go in and unpack his bag with him.
8.40am or roundabouts, I take Andrew to school.

Then I go see my friends for a coffee.

11.45am I take John lunch

12.30pm or roundabouts...I go home and watch telly.

4.45pm I go out and pick the boys up from after school care and then go home and cook dinner

I try and have the boys ready for bed and in bed by 7pm so I can spend the nights with John.

Thats pretty much it.

#summer blog catch up

I am OFFICIALLY wayyyyy behind.....heres my catch up

WHAT'S YOUR DREAM JOB?
Mmmm my dream job is a...........

RADIOGRAPHER!

That means that I want to be the person that takes ultrasounds, x-rays etc. It is something I have wanted to do for the past 8years or so and still want to do now. I have gone through the process of actually looking at where I can study to do it, I have asked other Radiographers how they did it and its also a very short staffed profession here.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE AUTHOR?
Yes! In fact, I have too many authors.
I love Judy Blume. She is one of my childhood/teenage favourites a long with Paula Dazinger. They are both great women in their own right and write fantastic books. My fave books would be..... Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself and The Pistachio Prescription (AND the fudge o mania books and the bat in bunk five books).
I think thats it...I have read a lot of other authors and always seem to come back to these two. I have re-read their stuff, read everything they published that I could find and have their books on my bookshelf.
I also read Janet Evanovich and Louise Bagshawe, but they dont compare.

WHAT IS A SKILL YOU WISH YOU HAD?
mmmmm a skill? like a work skill or a life skill?
A life skill that I wish I had is.......to be more calmer in life (especially as a parent) and to have the life skills that I should of been taught that I didnt pick up myself. Now that I think about it some more....the list is actually getting longer lol.

CREATE A BUCKET LIST

1. Travel to all the places I learnt about in school
2. Go and see the lego factory
3. Go to Holland (I think)...the model train museum
4. See more of my country before I head off overseas and see the world
5. Fix up my house the way I want it to be
6. Watch my kids grow up and become men
7. Take an actual Family Holiday!
8. Do all the silly mundane things that I keep meaning to do and never get around to doing
9. Eat more chocolate biscuits
10. To do the "eat, pray, love" thing and be happy.

NAME A MOVIE YOU LIKE AND WHY IT APPEALS TO YOU
My movie is The Notebook.
I love this movie. I have it on DVD. I have pictures saved to my computer HDD so I can look at them later. I have watched movies starring the lead actors too.
I love the story. I love the love. I love the way the couple goes through so much and still comes out of it together. I love everything in it.
I think I love it so much, because John and I have been through so much too. He is my Noah Calhoun and Im his Ali.The Notebook Wiki Synopsis

SHARE A PET YOU HAVE OR HAVE HAD IN THE PAST.
This is my baby Tungsten. John bought her off some friends 6years ago. She is a GREAT DANE/BULL MASTIFF cross with a bit of Ridgeback in her. She is huge! She sits in front of the  fire every winter and Im pretty sure she would climb in if she could fit......

John is away......

John went away for TWO weeks on Sunday 12 August.

I *should* of done a post on my first day as a "solo" parent, but I didnt really think about it.

The first day went ok until bed time rolled around and I realised that John was NOT coming home from work so I went to sleep in an empty bed for the first time in a few months. Ok, hes been away before (3 nights to Auckland for work or a few nights in hospital....) I should of just got on with it.
The first nights were good. I got the kids into a routine and we were eating junk for dinner (American Hotdogs, chicken burgers, hell pizza lol). Then Andrew woke up with his attitude and the past week has been a nightmare.

Last Thursday I did my groceries and got home and it hit me like a hammer. I was home in an empty house (until I got the kids) and I had no one. I spend my days texting John and having lunch with him and then he comes home from work and we watch telly and go to bed. This was more than 3 nights away. This was HORRIBLE. I cried!

Friday wasn't too bad. Declan decided to go to Johns nanas house for a sleep over and it was just Andrew and me. I spent the WHOLE night texting anybody who would text back and Facebooking anyone who would Facebook me back too. Johns brother wouldnt come over and watch telly with me and Johns friends were busy... it made me realise that although I have "friends", I have no one to call on when I am lonely and need someone. Everyone seems to be busy with their lives and too busy to let little old me in for a 5min chat. People also DO NOT visit anyone anymore either. Its all "sit at home and wait for someone to come to you".

Saturday I went to pick up Declan and he decided that he didnt want to come home. No amount of texting my BIL would make him come over and I even bribed him with petrol money to get home!

Sunday, Andrew and I had chocolate cheesecake for breakfast and blobbed out in front of the fire watching telly before picking Declan up (because lets face it, he had school the next day).
After I fed them, bathed them and put them to bed, I had another pity party and cried again. I MISSED JOHN.

Monday, Declan stayed home from school and we had telly lol. We also visited my best friend who is sick and just did nothing really. I attempted to mow the lawn, but ran out of petrol! And then it rained!

It is now Wednesday and even though I know John is home on Saturday, I miss him more with every day that passes. He is now on night shift (started last sunday) so instead of calling every night, he calls every afternoon. The nights are really long and Ive been playing Facebook games.

Even though I parent the kids by myself, this has been different and I do take my hat off to the actual solo parents out there that have to do this alone every day.

Im off to clean my house (who am I kidding?).

Much love
xoxoxo

I am.......

I am annoyed today.

I am annoyed that things aren't what they should be and we should be able to say what we feel and what we want to say without having to think about what others may say or think about us in return.

I am annoyed that my birthday didn't go as I thought it would, but it actually went they way it always does. Let down after let down.

I am annoyed that a "young" mother left her child at home one night to go out and see friends and then got a smack on the hand and name suppression when other people would of gotten something a lot harder.

I am annoyed that I can't say what I really want to say because then it makes me look like a sad jealous pathetic person.

I am just plain annoyed at everything.

I am annoyed that the car is playing up and we can't find out what is wrong with it and fix it

I am annoyed.

Hopefully my weekend will be better and I wont be so annoyed by monday.

xoxoxo

#Day 66 summer blog

WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
My favourite article of clothing is.....my socks and my jeans.
I love SOCKS. I love socks like other women love their make up and ear rings etc.
I also love my jeans, because it is really farking hard to find a good comfy pair of jeans.

I have LOTS of photos to share.....so I am going to add one at the end of each blog post

This is Declan and his grandad

#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......

#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.

#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.

#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.