Of things heaven and earth

One day during the week we had thunder and lightening and a lot of rain. Very much needed, but it brought on some interesting conversations in our household about the Gods - Greek, Roman and Norse gods of thunder in particular. Zeus, Jupiter and Thor. They were gods of the sky and would throw lightning bolts if they became angry. Something I wish I could do some days. Just a little lightning bolt; just enough to stop the arguing . . . ya know?

I am going to get up to date if it kills me!!!

Have had a couple of birthdays in the family . . . Dals was Friday and mine yesterday.
Dallas got some mags for the van, a voucher for dinner, voucher for the movies - both vouchers for two people ;-) - CDs, some home brew, a neat doorbell that sounds like a Ford racing car and some $$$$.
Lucky me - I got a new phone - much needed; a scrapbooking voucher; a 'Motherhood' book, a Resene CD that I can sort out paint colours for the house, a voucher for another tattoo - yay - some $$$ and the most exquisite card from Dallas.

Can you say "spoilt"???

Today we had a bit of a tidy up after the festivities, then this afternoon we went down to the Taylor River and bombed Ricki and his mates that were competing in the raft race. What a laugh that was - but these boys, so young, so fit - couldn't cope. They built this elaborate raft and kept getting passed by people on bits of board and in tyre tubes! I think the lesson for next year is K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple, Silly :)

Well we're ready!!

We've mowed the lawn for the very first time :-)

Our full working plans are in the process of being drawn up, then they go to the Council for permitting.

In the mean time - decisions need to be made. Roof colour, joinery colour, outside plaster colour so we can pick the roof and joinery colour!!!

Sigh - it's not going to be easy.

Promised photo ~

Of Josh . . .





















and Josh and Liam (who of course never wants his photo taken these days, especially with his little brother.)

What's your summer ride??

This little beauty is mine :)

Click on "What's your summer ride?" below the pic to find out what yours is.

Your Summer Ride is a Beetle Convertible

Fun, funky, and a little bit euro. You love your summers to be full of style and sun!

What's Your Summer Ride?

Some crazy thoughts to ponder ~

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

Why is it that when adults have multiple personalities it's schizophrenia, but when a child has imaginary friends it's cute?

If all the nations in the world are in debt, where did all the money go?

If Practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, then why practice?

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here and drink what comes out"?

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken over there ... I'm gonna eat the first thing that comes out if its butt"?

You know that little indestructible black box that is used on planes, why can't they make the whole plane out of the same substance?

Why do they call it your "bottom", when it's really in the middle of your body?

And finally . . .

Isn't it funny how the word 'politics' is made up of the words 'poli' meaning 'many' in Latin, and 'tics' as in 'bloodsucking creatures’?

FORE!!!

New Years Day . . . Happy New Year everyone :)

We decided to get some family time and exercise in - we played golf! Nine holes of mind numbing - errr, mind enhancing - hitting a little white ball around the dry grass. The hardest parts - trying to stop the kids from yelling about every bad hit they did and annoying the other golfers (not that there were many, surprisingly), and walking from one side of the course to the other, chasing the damn balls!
How it's meant to look ~



















How the rest of us did it ~


















Not even going to show you my attempts!!

We played at Picton and it was really lovely there. Just the right temperature, too.

On the way back we stopped at the Spring Creek dairy and got icecreams . . . $2.00 for these absolutely HUGE icecreams . . . will definately be taking a drive out there for ice creams again very soon!

I'm not happy

about the way the photos are reproducing on the blog. Might have to look into that, they aren't very clear at all.

Now - where were we . . .

Christmas is done. Boxing day we cleaned up a bit, relaxed a bit, then went around to a friends for a BBQ.

The boys spent most of the time in the pool - having an awesome time with water guns and balls.

It was just nice to sit back and catch up with life, friends, watch the boys interact with the littler people.




On Tuesday Dallas and I had street receivers to clear. Thankfully we didn't have set times as we normally do, so were able to get out and get it done all in one cycle, instead of the usual three.

So what are you reading?

I've just finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown - precursor to The Da Vinci Code, which I read last year. What great books! Didn't want to put them down. Of course, Karl didn't - he read both of them in one sitting - starting early afternoon and finishing early next morning.

While reading the The Da Vinci Code, I also spent alot of time Googling alot of the things in the book so I could see what he was talking about. AMAZING!!! If you haven't read them - well, get thee down to the Library today!

Merry Christmas

Christmas was a quiet time at our home, with just us and Dal's family sharing it.

Our little rental had absolutely NO room for a christmas tree, so I decided to decorate the mantlepiece so we felt just a little bit Christmassy.


































Dallas just sitting back and relaxing after a CRAZY couple of months leading up to Christmas.
















Karl and Ricki enjoying a glass of wine (or not LOL) . . . maybe a little TOO much for Ricki - as he's holding TWO glasses.






















Liam parading in his new threads!













You might notice no photos of Josh - am I a bad mum, or what?!? Honestly, that boy moves so fast - he doesn't stay still long enough to take a photo! I promise one to come soon :)

And even further back ~

20 December 1988 Ricki Lee Smith was welcomed into our family. He weighed in at 6lb 13oz, and was 3 1/2 weeks early.

I had been hoping to go full term with this baby - Karl had been early 22 months before and I had thought it would be nice to get it 'right' this time. And I nearly did!

Went into labour in the afternoon and knew that Dallas was due home around 5ish, so I didn't bother letting him know. I waited, and waited. Mum and Dad, along with my sister Lynette, came to pick Karl up and take him for the night. Had called Dals dad, and warned him he might have to come and take me to the hospital in the truck if Dallas didn't get home real soon. Well, he finally got home, we rushed up to the hospital and I ended up have a C-Section. He was breech, wouldn't turn, and was getting into difficulty. And he's been causing problems ever since LOL


Happy 17th birthday, Ricki. Love you heaps :)

Let's go back in time ~

19 December, 1990 Liam Samuel Smith was born, wide eyed and bushy tailed into the world 6 weeks early. I really, really, really didn't want him to come that day - it was Ricki's 2nd birthday the very next day - that wouldn't be fair to either of them!

I had spent the morning trying to ignore labour pains while watching over lots of little children while their mums went swimming, telling all my friends that were there that this couldn't happen, it wouldn't happen, it wasn't going to happen!

But, as history tells us, it did. He was breech - had been the whole pregnancy - and because the last baby was a C-Section, they gave me one for Liam, too.

Happy birthday Liam :) We love you :)

We apologise for this break in transmission ~

Normal programming will resume as soon as possible.


*&%^$!* computers . . . . .