LETS HOPE FOR A QUIET, UNEVENTFUL DAY.

No Speld lesson for Griffin today.  His teacher is otherwise occupied.


So... I'm not going anywhere.
I'm not seeing anyone.


Hopefully I do nothing to piss anyone off.
Cos I am over stressful days.

ABOVE:  Baby # 9.  She already looks cute.   In an ultrasound kinda way... *smiles*   .... Hopefully it's OK to post a photo of Baby 9?  *sigh*  suppose I will find out eh?


Maybe Bex and I can go down to the Hospice Shop and have a look around!  Now there's an idea!  Op shopping... yaaaaa.....


ONWARD... a bargin awaits... I'm sure!  hee heee.....


It is a complete and utter crap day out there!  Pissing down with rain.  Joy.

ABOVE:  Bex and I went down to the Hospice Shop and found some baby stuff for Baby 9, and a tupperware container for the cornflakes.  

Then we drove down to the local Manukau Mall... where I wanted to look at shoes, cos Teddy has chewed me Sketchers and they are looking a bit ragged.

So, we are wandering around the mall and Bex sees Steven's (Kitchen ware store) is having a SALE... so I said... ummmm nah, I don't NEED any more kitchen ware.... but she wants to go there ... so we go there....

ABOVE:  yikes! bloody hell, two of those big bags are MINE... *sigh*..... it was a SALE people!  I've now got some Christmas presents already sorted... yaaaa!


We are back home now... contemplating .... ???


TRACY: sorry Chick, what I bought is for Christmas presents for people who read the blog... so no show and tell today!


Made a wicked potato salad to go with marinated chicken drumb sticks for dinner... so yum!  


End of Day:  a totally lazy day really... got lots of washing done, but that's about all!
ON TRACK:  probably went over today!
nite nite.

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BIRTHDAY... BABY - WHAT ARE YOU?

Yesterday Lacy visited us. I got some nice photos:

 ABOVE:  she has a really little belly for 5 months!  But, I'm sure everything is fine.  Lacy is just a small person afterall... lucky tart.

ABOVE:  Lacy and the kids.  

ABOVE:  I have two new fridge magnets!  Bex gave them to us.... awwww.... such a greasy little pork sausage she is!  lol


TODAY:  well!  Bex and I are going over to Henderson to see Lacy having her 5 month scan... hopefully today we find out what 'it' is!
AND.... it's LACY'S BIRTHDAY TODAY!  She is 32.


No Hospice Shop today.... really wanted to go to Lacy's scan... so no 'treasure hunting' today. What a bugger.


ONWARD... 

ABOVE:  Lacy and Wade.   ANON: He is the baby's father.  This photo was taken before she got pregnant.


The scan went well... all is 100% OK with the baby.... and SHE is doing well.  Yep, another little granddaughter due in July.  So, now we have to wait to see what Russell and Tess are having ... few more weeks for that one though.


After the scan, Bex and I went to Sylvia Park for lunch... only... I had forgotten the kids were finishing school at 12.30 today, Bex knew as Brylee had mentioned it this morning...so we had to hot foot it home to pick them up.
We still had lunch at a mall, but just down at Manukau.


All home now, and I'm contemplating doing NOTHING this afternoon at all!  Maybe watch some telly....


***PEPSI UPDATED***PEPSI UPDATED***PEPSI UPDATED***


Bex is having a ball... watching all the episodes of Home and Away that she missed while down in Invercargille!  
Me.... just got really upset and angry at someone... so might just release some steam by doing some housework...  instead of screaming.


End of Day:  *sigh*.... glad the day is over.
That is all.
ON TRACK:  yes.  Pure and simple.
nite nite.

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POSSIBLY A BUSY DAY...

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO THIS LITTLE GIRL:

ABOVE:  Emily Drew OB... you are just delightful!  We hope you have a lovely day today.

ABOVE: Rena helping Emily with one of her new toys....Emily really liked this particular toy!  Didn't want to share it really.  *smiles*


Today: Teddy and Coco get groomed at yet another new place... Animates in Takanini.  I hope we find the right groomer for us soon!  


I have to drop them off by 9am, then I have a few jobs to do at the mall...


ONWARD...


Well... Teddy cried in the car, all the way to the groomers ... and then he didn't want to get out of the car ... I had to drag the little bugger in.  The only thing he didn't do was pee all over their floor... weird, cos he had always done that at other places!


Coco ... well there was no holding her... she was jumping and straining to get in there!  lol


I'm home now, contemplating the vacuming.... yeah... it's such a wonderful life being a kept woman!


Ain't done the vacuming... yet.
Realised we desperately needed groceries, so I went to Sylvia Park Pak 'N' Save and did the shopping.  Christ what a shit of a job in this heat and humidity!  It's taken me almost 20 minutes to get it all unloaded and up the stairs into the house.  I had to keep taking a breather!


NOW I have to put it all away... maybe the kids will be doing the vacumming when they get home?  NOT a bad idea me thinks.


I felt sorry for the kids having to walk home is this stifling heat... so I vacummed.  And caught flies for dem frogs.  We have lots of flies at the moment... fish guts in bin.  Freakin Ikkkkk.  Can't wait till friday when the bin gets emptied.

ABOVE:  this little frog was a tadpole a few days ago! He/she still has a bit of a tail stump left.

 ABOVE: Teddy and Coco, both knackered after being at the groomers.  And yes, poor Teddy has had a flare up of his itchy skin... so we had to put the collar back on.  First time in over a year we have had to do it.

ABOVE: yep, she's gunna hate me when she grows up and I show everyone this photo.... *snigger*.  So flattering.  


I'm expecting Bex to arrive soon (Steve's girlfriend) ...  AND Lacy.  


FROGGY:  we changed groomers as we found one much closer to home.... and they have done a really nice job.  Yaaaa.  No more changing!


Lacy arrived, and stayed and visited for about an hour and a half.
Bex arrived just before Steve got home... so that was nice too.


Off to WEIGHT WATCHERS in an hour.... Stew is reluctantly coming too... he is going to record a gain... I might too... not sure yet.


End of Day:  well... Stew and I both GAINED 100 grms this week!  Less than a piddle, we will do better next week for sure.
ON TRACK:  yes!  Not going to blow it by getting grumpy about a teeny gain, that's for sure.
nite nite.

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HAMILTON YESTERDAY...

I saved photos from yesterday for today... as clearly there were enough on yesterday's post already.


So... here's a few:


After having lunch with Kelly and Rena, we all went around to Amanda's.   Kelly was holding Emily when we arrived... but as soon as Emily saw Stew she put her arms out to him!  So he got to cuddle with her...

ABOVE:  clearly she loves her Granddad!

ABOVE:  kisses for Granddad even!  Meanwhile I got kinda ignored!  *sniff*

ABOVE:  a really nice photo of Kelly and Rena... Obviously they both got my eyes!

ABOVE: this look was reserved for Russell.... a friend of Amanda and Andrew's.  She didn't want anything to do with him.... so funny.

ABOVE:  very proud of herself!  She can walk as of Friday!

ABOVE:  walking to Griffin.
As she was ignoring me I decided to sit on the floor.... and I had my bottle of diet coke with me.... WELL !!!  That was it.  She saw me bottle and suddenly was my best friend!  She loves sipping my bottle of diet coke.  (she only ever gets a tiny bit... I am aware it's not good for babies, OK!)

 ABOVE:  CLEARLY she does not need to practise her sculling skills, she has it down pat!

 ABOVE:  And doesn't she know it!  Cheeky little imp.

ABOVE: this gorgeous wee granddaughter is ONE YEAR OLD tomorrow!  I can't imagine our lives without her, she is just adorable.


NOW, today:  the usual!  Housework.  Might even get time to catch up on some taped tv programmes!  Stew and Steve watched freaking cricket last night... it was torturous.  I just don't get why anyone would want to watch it.  It's bloody boring as *&$#.


ONWARD...


Rotting fish guts in the rubbish bin makes for lots of....FLIES!  It's smelly... but good news for the frogs!  I feel bad for the neighbours.... I hope they can't smell that too much!


It's been an incredibly quiet day... I even had a nana nap this afternoon!  Feeling kinda bored, I should go and do some sewing, but I'm just not in the mood.
Almost time to get dinner sorted...Chicken and something tonight!


DEBBIE:  Unfortunately Rena is not that keen on either Stew or me.  Kelly.... sorry that upset you, but it's the truth and you know it.  


END OF DAY:  well it's been a fairly lazy day around here I must admit.  
ON TRACK:  WHY YES!  *smiles*
nite nite.

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OUR FISHING EXPEDITON, BLOW BY BLOW

Right ...  here we go! 

ABOVE:  after arriving and boarding the boat, we headed down the river towards the harbour... in the thick fog...

ABOVE:  passing another charter fishing boat on it's way down the river.  We got to our first fishing spot and HALF AN HOUR LATER that boat caught up with us.  My Dad's old boat is FAST.

ABOVE:  Tony, the owner/skipper... navigating our way down the river using GPS and depth sounders... it was the only way to do it as we could not see further than 50 metres in front of us due to the fog.

ABOVE: the sun trying to peep through the fog.  It was darn cold with the fog too!  First time I had felt cold in MONTHS!  It was kinda nice.

 ABOVE:  we had to pick up some passengers from Shelly Beach wharf... I was scared Tony would crash into it cos we couldn't see it for ages!  But.. we didn't of course... lol.

ABOVE:  I have NEVER seen anything like this before!  Like a rainbow/halo over the water... due to the fog and sunrise I think.  It was AWESOME.  The water was DEAD CALM too.

ABOVE:  Finally, the sun came out...  see all the fog down low!

 ABOVE: heading to the northern end of the harbour, right near where the harbour meets the sea....

ABOVE: Stew caught the first fish...

 ABOVE:  shame it was a bloody shark!  We threw him back .... not worth keeping.   At this spot we just kept catching sharks, so we moved to another place....

 ABOVE:  Dave caught his first fish... a really nice gurnard... he was wrapt.  AND, get this... he lives in our suburb... just over the back of our street!  We had never met him before... talk about a coincidence. 

ABOVE:  Stew showing off another of his fish, this time a Kawhai.... we hope to buy a cheap smoker today so we can smoke some of our fish.

 ABOVE:  the LAST fish of the day!  MINE.  A freaking stingray!  He fought like buggery too... but he got chucked back in too.  Not good to eat.  
Everyone on board caught their quota (allowable  number) of fish .... so it was an EXCELLENT day both weather wise and for the fishing.

ABOVE: huge heat clouds (I'm sure they have a proper name) over the hills.  The scenery was just AMAZING.... we couldn't have been anywhere more beautiful if we tried.


We have already decided to go again soon... and next time we will take the kids too.  I am sure they will love it. 


TODAY:  sleep in for a while, then we are heading down to Hamilton to see family.  
ONWARD...
HAMILTON:  well, it was stinking hot!  Like, really really uncomfortable hot. Melt in the car hot.  Get crabby hot.
But, we had a nice lunch at The Base with Kelly and Rena, then visited Amanda and the kids.


We bought this from The Warehouse:

ABOVE:  a smoker.  It was darned expensive for a tin box!   Even at the cheapest place in town.
When we got home from Hamilton we put some of our fish in it.... and learnt a few lessons in smoking fish....  

ABOVE: Our smoked fish.  Lessons learnt:
- Don't use THAT much wood chips...
- Don't use THAT much brown sugar!
- Only smoke THICK fillets or whole fish.
The bottom layer ended up bathed in sugary wood chips!  But still edible.
AND our fish was really nice.


While our fish was cooking we had a quick visit from Jacqui, Martin and kids.... they were on their way home from Thames and got caught in gridlocked traffic... so stopped in here to feed Sofia... who was getting grumpy.  4 month olds tend to do that when stuck in a car in this heat.


End of Day:  a super hot day today, but glad we got to see the family in Hamilton... seeing as we didn't go to the family event yesterday.
ON TRACK:  maybe not today... I had KFC for lunch!  
nite nite.

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WE ARE GOING FISHING! SUPER HAPPY

 ABOVE:  Helensville... and the winding Kaipara River.  We meet the boat at the mooring in Helensville, then wind our way down the river to the Kaipara Harbour:

ABOVE: the harbour!  And hopefully it will look as gorgeous as this!  It's supposed to be a fine day today... bit hard to tell right now as it's still dark.  Once we reach the harbour we head over  to a place called Shelly Beach to pick up the rest of the charter guests and then we go fishing!


We are leaving shortly for the hour long trip to meet the boat.  I've got plenty of Diet Coke!  Fish Bait.  Sunblock.  Warm and hot clothes.  Hopefully we will come back with a fish or two?


While we are away, Steve is looking after the kids for us.  Yaaaa... a WHOLE DAY without kids. Lets chalk that one up as the first one in a few years!


Sorry, but obviously there will be no updates today... until we get home anyway.  
ONWARD... THE FISH AWAIT... lol.


Well.. we are safely back from our fishing expedition.  I felt ill having to get up at 5.30am.... and there was a thick fog most of the way up to Helensville, but we got there in plenty of time.
I was stressed out before we got there.... worried that I would be seasick... cos that does happen to me sometimes, and it is a miserable thing to happen when you are out on a boat ALL DAY feeling ill.


But, I'm happy to say I felt fine all day.


We had a FANTASTIC TIME.... it was the best day I can remember in YEARS.  I adore fishing so much... and being out on the water.


I am not going to post  many photos tonight, we are shattered!  We got home and had to cut and fillet about 25 fish!  

ABOVE:  Our catch!  Some of them belonged to the skipper and deckhand too.  Everyone else who came on the boat had brought their own chillybins to put their fish in.  We had left our's in the car... Derrr.


But it was OK.  I am going to post LOTS of photos tomorrow!


End of Day:  after gutting and filleting all our fish we did not feel like having to cook dinner, so we went out and had a burger!  Fish tomorrow night for sure.
ON TRACK:  surprisingly, YES.  I did not eat all day in fear of being sick, so dinner was my only meal today.
nite nite.

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