And then there was November!

November - a month that saw Dallas walking out the door often before 7am and not getting home until dark. And this job was supposed to be easy!! He had seen the previous owner having quite a few afternoons off, late starts in the mornings and thought he'd have it that way too! I think he forgot he was starting in the spring. And when does grass grow at its fastest rate??? He was certainly thrown in the deep end. But he came up for air, and things have been pretty sweet ever since.

Dals mum and my sister Anne took off for Australia on 17th November. Mum was going to see her daughter Lorraine, and Anne was going over to see her daughter Pamela. A wonderful time was had by all.

Ricki and Liam had school exams - Rickis last for secondary school.

We were also thinking about gardens. This is as far as we got ~




Also got some grass laid in the back yard, and a couple of cherry trees got planted, too.





A couple of the hard workers . . .



Dallas mowed a vineyard at Delta Heights. The views were magnificent!

October 2006

Big month for Karl. He bought his very first car. A red one. And we all know that red cars go faster!! Bought it off Trade Me - from Nelson. It's lovely to drive, and will hopefully last him for a long time :)

It was also the end of an era (a short era) for Dallas. He finished up with Courier Post and we bought a mowing contracting business. He had a couple of weeks learning the ropes before starting properly on 1st November. This is not a franchise . . . it's all ours. He mows parts of vineyards, headlands, around restaurants, schools plus some private lawns. Less stress than the courier, but you still have to be reasonably fit and healthy.

Rolling forward to September

We did have some days off. A trip to Picton saw us walking round to Bobs Bay. Just the fresh sea air that we needed!

Friday 29th saw me in hospital having a BCC cut from my forehead. Now THAT was a spaced out experience LOL. They doped me up real good! By the time I got home mid afternoon, I slept the rest of the day and most of the next! It took me a good few days to recover from the tiredness.

24 August 2006

Our first night sleeping over :)

We had spent the previous four nights moving things from the rental to the new house. In the dark. With lots of swear words. And mud.

At least we had all boys on deck to help - not like the last move when Karl was still in Wellington. They get amazingly strong amazingly quickly boys do!

Got straight into levelling out the driveway:

The boys had a ball using the machinery.

We won't mention the fact that we ended up taking most of that dirt away again when we actually got the concreting done . . . Well, we are only beginners - hehe

August 2006

Lounge looking back thru to family room

Main bathroom

Main bathroom

Ensuite, Walk in wardrobe

August 2006

Looking into kitchen from family area

Looking into kitchen from dining

Kitchen on left, doors thru to lounge on right

kitchen on left, doors thru to entry

July 2006

The house colour is Dulux Rakaia.

This is where the kitchen goes . . .

May thru June 2006





May thru June 2006

One year later . . . Hellooooooo

Thinking about restarting. Lots of catch up on, though . . . alot has happened in the past year. Let me have a play, and I'll see what happens :)

Update

** Sold the car on Trade Me - we are now down to just the van. Two less bills to pay :)

** Ricki had his school formal last Friday night. He had a great time. Went with a group of mates and then they went to the after party later. Stumbled home at 4am the next morning.
**Had Joshuas parent teacher meetings. I came home with LOTS of things to chase him up about. Hasn't done the majority of his homework . . . talks too much in class (that isn't a surprise!) . . . doesn't focus on his school work in general. Quite a bit of work needs doing with him. He has caught up with most things now, so it's just a case of keeping on top of it, and trying to get him to be more organised.

**Karl has had a change of work days. Is now doing Monday to Friday and straight away has joined up with a soccer team so he can start playing again. He goes for his drivers licence at the end of the month - finally.

** Mothers Day was celebrated in Picton having lunch with MIL, SIL and our niece Carlene. Worked out quite well, because it was Carlenes birthday the next day, so it was a double celebration.

**Tomorrow after school I have Liam and Rickis parent teacher meetings. Hopefully they will be a bit more positive than Joshs!!

**Tomorrow night we are going out to Rickis Chef Training evening. After seeing the menu, it should be a really nice night.

**Friday night Dallas and I are going out to the Ferrymans Restaurant. We won a voucher on the radio for our last anniversary. Might get to watch the Hurricanes win the semi-final on the big screen while we're there :)

**This is our house as of today . . .
The guttering is up and hopefully tomorrow the roofing will start.