Hijinks with hogs

We have had an exciting week or so.... On monday the inhabitant's of our circle were gratified to see a swarm of bees had taken up residence in the trees by the playground. I called the council and some apiarists raced out that evening to shake the swarm from the willow tree and pop them into a hive. Many gathered around marvelling at the event. I was at Zumba. On tuesday I went for a brisk one hour walk. I was sweating like a hog by the time I staggered back home. On wednesday I managed to purchase a GIANT tub of polydrons in time for a friend to bring them back from the UK to NZ. I went to a playcentre workshop on 2 year old play options. It was very interesting. On thursday I made my painful way through the streets of Glen Eden posting flyers for the Playcentre Gala. On friday we headed out to Kiwivalley as part of the Playcentre trip. The boys loved it. They dashed about feeding sheep and alpacas and donkeys and cows and chasing peacocks and chickens and then we reached the ring where the little Shetlands shuffled gamely around the ring with children perched atop their backs..we arrived and none of the children wanted to get on the ponies...until my eldest pushed to the front clamouring for a pony ride. He wound up getting 2 seperate rides. I asked Cameron if he wanted a ride and received "NO! Am eating!" as my answer. 30 seconds later he shoved a biscuit in his mouth, dashed to the front, grabbed a helmet, held it out to the pony escorts and demanded "Horsie please". He rode all the way around by himself and had a blast. Afterwards we retired to the barn for kisses and snacks. On saturday we had free tickets to the Ronald McDonald panto. Thank god it was free because it was DIRE!! Then that afternoon I took the boys to playcentre so I could help set up for the gala, then headed home at 3. On sunday I took the boys off to Playcentre and we hung out there and bought some cool extremely cheap stuff for their xmas stockings. Headed home for lunch then whicked K back there at 3:30 to help tidy up afterwards. I was knackered.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person with a blog should update it frequently....oops!

Ok, so it has been a LOOOOONG time since my last post on Guy Fawkes/aka the abortive burning of Glen Eden. I will try and fill you in with what's happening - at least, as well as I can remember.

 

Let's start with me :)

Studywise I finished the last of the 3 exams on the 8th November. I then finished identifying papers for next year, and enrolled. My 2013 year will be a bit of a mare with 3.5 papers in semester 1, and 2.5 (internal, meaning I have to attend classes at Massey) in semester 2. I have also requested all known textbooks from the library so I can do some prereading. I am also being a session leader for Monday playcentre sessions and volunteering for Mainly Music - this will help my PG Primary enrolment. I am finishing up running the Plunket coffee group at the end of this year too - which should free up some time in semester one. I am also planning on doing course 2 at Playcentre in the first term - again to strengthen my application. I have 2 contact courses in Palmerston North in semester 1 - so Chris will have special daddy/son time....in excess even :) I put on plenty of weight sitting around studying at every opportunity, so am now trying to shift it :) I am still doing Zumba, which I really enjoy.

Now for the boys. They are flourishing. Sometimes I think they could flourish a little less. Cameron is still loving kindy and I am trying to increase his hours there (esp with next years workload). Kieran yearns for Cameron to attend kindy with him, but as he starts school next year this is highly unlikely to happen. He is however very excited by his 3 pre school visits which start next monday. He constantly begs to go to school - and who wouldn't want to lol. Cameron is going great - counting, alphabet, problem solving skills are all fab - and he has turned into an assertive young lad (or thug, on a bad day haha). They are both really looking forward to the Aussie visit too. Tickets have been booked for this, cattery booked and I will book the supershuttle next payday. I can't believe it's only 3 weeks away. Kieran and I also took part in the Glen Eden Santa Parade. He rode in one of the hot rodder cars and perfected his royal wave. He had a blast!
I suppose Chris needs a mention too. He had his neurological visit last week and has been cleared of any potential stroke experience - just a migraine. This is a huge relief.
Bandit is in fine form, unknowing of the torments awaiting him otherwise known as the cattery stay while we are in Aussie.
We will need to spend 1k on the car to get the next WOF - new windscreen, 2 new tyres and getting rust cut out above the rear windscreen. I have begun to hate the car for all the costly repairs. That money could have been spent on me after all lol. In better news my IPAD, which Kieran dropped face down on the tiles by accident, has cost us $200 rather than $500. We went through our insurance, paid the $200 excess and got a brand new IPAD. In a massive trip to Henderson I went to AMI, went to KMART, took boys to the dragon playground, got a call from AMI asking for the IPAD, walked to OMNITech, got IPAD, walked back to AMI, dropped it off and raced for the train - all before noon. Poor Cameron fell asleep in the stroller, and missed lunch before I took him up to kindy. I have been reading some excellent books recently - I feel really spoilt for choice lol. Some memorable titles are Unspoken, Team Human, Lord Vorpatril's alliance and a truckload of others :) I love this time of year when I actually get to read again.

Remember, remember…..

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

Cause gunpowder and treason

Should never be forgot

I shall add extra details on Thursday afternoon, after my final exam – at the moment every spare moment is devoted to studying

Is there anyone out there?

Well I have finally poken my nose above the parapets. All assignments have been completed, tests have been undertaken and I am in the final frenzy known as studying for exams. I have 3 of the things. One on halloween, on on the afternoon on November 7th and the final one on the morning of November 8th. So what's been happening here at chez seal. Let's see.....
Obviously the most exciting event recently was Chris experiencing what seemed to be a stroke. He'd taken wednesday off work so I could do my assignment. I knew something was wrong when he came back from Parrs Park and told me about a dizzy spell. Mumbled something about seeing a doctor after we came back from Kerikeri. He then tried to get Cameron to sleep, had some more interesting symptoms - tingling in one arm and leg, tingling lips etc, staggered downstairs and asked me to get him an appointment that day. After I called and described the symptoms he got the choice of having an ambulance called or me driving him. So I drove Chris and Cameron to the hospital. Chris was in bad shape at this time - slurring etc. I thought I was doing quite well hiding my fear until I returned to the car at 3:15 and saw I have left the car in Drive with no handbrake on. Yes, my driving ability was not enhanced by thinking my husband was having a stroke. Chris then lolled around on a bed in the ER, getting his chest shaved for the ECG. Heehee that was funny. Cameron was exceptionally good for a little boy who was torn from his bed before he had had any sleep. After we headed off Chris was sent for a CT scan. Cameron was asleep 2 minutes into the drive and I popped him into bed before collecting Kieran from lovelt Isabelle who had walked to collect Kieran and Madison from kindy. Chris got to stay at the hospital and be woken every 2 hours and have a torch shone in his eyes. I got to do very little work on my assignment, and have a little cry when I got loving phone calls. Collected Chris the next morning, he had not had a stroke, or even a mini stroke. They think he experienced an atypical migraine, but he has been referred to Auckland Hospital's Neuro team. That will happen sometime in the next 6 months. Apart from that we have changed our diet, and will keep changing it to remove some fat and salt. And Chris will be encouraged to exercise more.
Cameron is settling down well at kindy. When I say settling down well I meaned he is rudely jerked from his slumbers by his mother shouting Kindy kindy! He then deigns to be carried downstairs, shod and escorted to the car. Once we reach the kindy gates he races through and begins cavorting. The kindy staff love him and call him a free spirit.
Kieran also loves kindy, but still persists in telling me how every day is a sad one as I wasn't there with him. I completely understand this for I am the bees knees :) The kindy teachers greet me with many stories of his exploits and I stagger out with sheets and sheets of artwork so he can't be too miserable lol. He has been getting better - which is all good for school. I have been helping out the kindy by sorting all their books and making a catalogue. Over the next few weeks I will order them into useful categories. Dewey decimal it won't be, but it will work for their needs. I asked to be a member of the kindy committee too and have a kindy committee meeting on the 25th. I am also session leader for Playcentre on Mondays which is kind of stressful, but good too. I have enrolled for my final 6 papers for my BA. Semester 1 will be doing 3 1/2 papers and semester 2 will be 2 1/2 papers. Semester 1 will be a frigging nightmare. Semester 2 I will have to travel to class so hopefully the classes will be on the same day or adjacent days as I am not that much of a fan of driving to Massey day in day out. This does mean that I can then apply for the PG DipPrimary. Yay me. Lets hope they let me into the programme! I am thinking of resigning from the Plunket coffee group - but we'll see. They are in the process of selling the building so will see how it goes.
The weather is very Springlike, sunny one moment torrential rain the next. We went to Kerikeri last weekend for Freya's christening. We got her a charm bracelet with the letter F on it. As we drove up saturday morning in the pouring rain, a truck roared past going well too fast for the conditions and threw a sheet of water up onto the windscreen (we couldn't see for a few seconds!) as well as a large stone, which put a half circle gouge into the glass. We managed to get into Novus in whangarei (the kind man waited for us as he was due to shut at 12) only to find that there was no point repairing it as it would fail a WOF anyway. Our WOF is due December 23rd. Merry christmas car, you get a new windscreen, 2 new tyres and the rust cut out of the roof by the rear windscreen. I don't really want to spend a grand on the car but it looks like we'll have to.
I am in the process of making the boys halloween costumes. They want to be peter pan from peter pan returns. Isabelle made the boys pants from a pal green sheet I scored from the op shop jumble sale. I converted 2 tops into Peter Pan tunics, and am making peter pan hats from felt. I have done one, and the next is to come. I bet on the day Cam isn't keen lol. Kieran currently has a double ear infection - lucky little lad! Our Working for families tax credit FINALLY came through, so we went and had my passport photo done. I could weep. One of the worst photos ever. Oh well. I took over 300 pics of Cameron and finally got one that hopefully is acceptable. Now we just need a witness to well, witness them and they can head off to the passports office.

Daddy's Day

It’s been an exciting morning. I dragged the box for the trampoline out of the garage and the boys played at being pirates. After the yo ho'ing died down they lolled in their pirate ship playing with IPAD's and LeapPads haha. Much later Chris sauntered down and was greeted with screams of joy and "Happy Daddy's Day!" They delved into the bag of Father's Day goodies, showing off their cards and pictures and then pulled out the chocolatey part of the gifts. These were loving presented, with many admiring comments and gentle strokings. Some bosom pressing also took place. A celebratory round of hot chocolates followed before Chris had to retrieve his cobwebbed furchild from the top of the kitchen cupboards. Tonight we'll have a rack of lamb chosen by Kieran, and Chris can bask in the fathomless love of his wee boys lol.

Gladiatorial combat aka kindy sports day

It’s been an exciting week or so. I have submitted the most recent batch of assignments and am now working on the next lot – no rest for the wicked! I have now immersed myself in more vampire movies and books, before I dive into Human Development. The boys have been having a blast. Kieran spent much of the week training for the Kindy Sports Day. He was in the green team aka God’s Gladiators. He has been sprinting, and climbing, and leaping and having a thoroughly marvellous time… as he should as we have had some lovely sunny days this week. Friday was especially sunny and the Sports Day went off well, with Kieran winning a silver medal in the bucket and ball race. He was so proud of winning a medal “just like the Olympics” and has vowed to win a gold medal next time. Maybe it was his haircut. We dashed up to the barbershop just before the sports day started, and K got his hair cut. He had a blast and chatted happily to the hairdresser while Cameron chittered his rage that he wasn’t getting a haircut. Kieran has settled nicely into his new kindy routine of Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday – in preparation for Cameron doing a morning session on Monday’s and Wednesdays. He is also enjoying going to the library storytimes on Thursdays. I am applying for WINZ child subsidy for Cameron. I am entitled as I am studying – woot. If I get it I won’t have to pay $40 for Cameron’s 2 mornings a week. They’ll only be starting mid-October – just in time for exams lol. We signed up for a free trial of the reading eggs program. In our 2 weeks Kieran did 34 lessons, and is able to sound out words and craft basic sentences. I am so proud of him. Cameron was also keen, but at 2 and 3 months was not able to progress as well as Kieran :). There is a Hairy MaClairy show coming up in September that I will take the boys too. As father’s day is coming up the boys have been churning out Father’s Day cards. I also took them up to the FourSquare and they chose a present for Chris. They were insistent that “Daddy wants chocolate”. I suspect Daddy will also be doing a lot of sharing lol.

Olympic shenanigans

I started this blog entry a few days into the Olympics and I finish it as I watch the closing ceremony. In my defence I had 3 assignments and 1 test on the go. It has been a mighty struggle wrangling the boys watching the Olympics and keeping up with assignment work – but I managed…I am also thankful it’s over so I can sleep again lol. NZ has a respectable medal haul – we even passed Oz at one stage haha. I loved the artistic and rhythmic gymnastics – my god, they’re SO fit! Kieran adored watching it too, although he is more a fan of the beam, bars and floor lol. He has been prancing around being a gymnast. We prepared a sheet “Kieran’s 2012 Olympics’ for kindy. Kieran chose the sports he wanted represented and we googled images of rowing, show jumping (the horses jumped over Saturn! And the Moon!), gymnastics and kayaking. He has pontificated on the Olympics at the drop of a hat to anyone who even mentions the Olympics, has made an Olympic torch and has begged to have gymnastics lessons again. I whisked the boys off to the doctors last week as they were coughing like old men with emphysema… to the point of vomiting. Oh yeah, the good times just keep on rolling in our house! And they have been rolling like this for 7 weeks. The boys were prescribed antibiotics which seem to have done the trick – booya! We have ordered our photos from the kindy photo session. Sadly we ditched the one with Kieran’s broad smile and Cameron’s cheesy grin lol. On Friday we headed to play Centre. The boys have gone from strength to strength bar their unfortunate illness lol, and have been having a lark. The weather was slightly improved this fortnight with some sunny days – awesome. We had a bike day at Kindy last week and Kieran had a blast. Then he and Cameron dragged the gym mats into a heap and performed death defying leaps onto them while the bikes skidded down the slope towards them. Cameron still adores going to kindy with Kieran. I hope his enthusiasm continues unabated in November when he goes in for 2 mornings a week. I have also prepared the letters from space up to Mercury which I thought would be the last one. More fool I! Gentle questioning of my son revealed he expected one from when Zoop reached the sun. I didn’t have the heart to mention that Zoop would have passed the sun several times in his planetary tour. Chris and Kieran made a kite on Saturday and had a wonderful time flying it over the weekend. It was pretty good for butcher’s paper, tape, string and scavenged sticks. I took the boys to Playcentre on Friday but had to leave early as Cam was listless, clingy, whiny and running a fever. We managed to score a dr appointment that afternoon. Luckily I did as he had a really inflamed ear. What a great weekend we would have had otherwise hehe. Medicine was prescribed, and collected and poured into the child who took a dramatic turn for the better. Plans for this week involved Play Centre, Plunket, calling Oratia Primary to sort Kieran’s pre-school visits, watching the Olympics closing ceremony, working on 2 assignments and trying to do all my reading and study for my papers at the same time. It is a struggle. I spend Cameron’s nap time doing readings and then once the boys are in bed at 7 I try and get on with assignments and study. The house, frankly, looks a tip. As I have assignments due on August 24 (x2), Sept 12, 17, 26, October 1, 5 & 12 (x2) & 26 followed by exams on October 31, November 7 & 8 I don’t really care to be honest. I have paid a lot for the 3 papers and I will pass them all. Perhaps even well lol. Cleaning has dropped way down my list of priorities. We may yet find Chris cleaning the bathroom and doing the laundry.