Wow - It's been a while

Can't believe how time has flown by and with so much on the go, blog posts just took a back seat.  There is still lots to do, so I don't anticipate regular posts recommencing any time soon, but thought I'd provide a quick update of the renovations that have been going on at our home.  These had been on hold for years, due to lack of funds, but the events over the past couple of years somehow turned things around and managed to put our finances back into a healthy position and so we decided to crack on and get our house how we wanted it.

There has been a ton of interior fixing, painting and touch ups, upstairs, as well as commencing on painting and touch ups downstairs (and a few things ripped out-lol) but the major feature was the carpet upstairs (and down to the bottom of the stairs).  It has been years since we had any form of carpet in this house, except a large rug in the lounge.  Finally we were in a position to afford new carpet.  Sadly, right after choosing our carpet, an accidental drop of a camera and wrought iron trivet in the kitchen cracked one of the tiles, so the carpet had to wait. The tiles had been discontinued (gutting), so we had to re-tile the entire kitchen.  Yay for the insurance company who covered the whole thing, including replacing the camera - double yay!  So, new tiles down (and we love them more than the original ones) and then the brand new carpet went in.  Absolutely stoked with the end result.

Mike is now currently working on the outdoors, with new hand railing, completion of the deck and then we will finish with painting the outside of the house.  I am working on the downstairs toilet - basically ripping it all out, doing the walls, then installing a brand new vanity and reinstalling the toilet.

Soon the last set of wooden doors downstairs will be replaced with aluminium door to match the others and that will be the last high cost item.

Then it will be the major job of the downstairs floor, which will entail emptying out every room including the rumpus, but the end result will be well worth it.

There will still be a few other items on our list after we complete the above, like the laundry and storage areas, but they are more minor areas, so we can just work away on those slowly after sitting back and enjoying the rest for a while.

Will post more photos as items get finished.

So Truly Grateful

When something comes along and turns your life upside down, something which is stressful, heartbreaking, life changing perhaps, it's easy to be caught up in all the emotions of grief, anger, despair, but if instead you are able to breathe, keep your head high, get support and take help when offered, then chances are, you will get through it and perhaps even come out the other end much stronger.  That's just what has happened to us.

Despite the fact our family went through hell for 18 months (a hell which does not need to be published on line), we have so much to be grateful for.

Firstly, we remained strong as a family unit and have come out the other side even stronger.  Even our extended family bond is stronger.   I'm sure many families who didn't have such a strong bond might nearly have been torn apart going through a similar situation.  We marveled at just how strong and resilient our children were and how they handled the whole situation in a mature manner.

We are super grateful for the support of our massive extended family and so many of our friends, both locally, around the country and even overseas (some of whom knew both parties in our issue) which has been phenomenal and unwavering. It has been amazing the level of support we have had from so many people, even those who heard about it 2^nd and 3^rd hand and still offered support and continue to check in on us. Bless you all!

Grateful for the surprising amount of support from the kids schools. The Intermediate and Colllege were both very supportive in the initial stages of everything, then once both kids were at the college, they certainly went way and beyond anything we could have expected in supporting the kids and us as a family. Funny how things work out, as we had never intended to inform the college of the situation, but our hand was forced by the actions of the other party on day 1 of the school year 2014. The principal, deputy principal, deans and several teachers have been outstanding throughout the entire thing and continue to have an open dialogue with us, as we work through some residual issues, although those are lessening every week and great progress has been made in leaps and bounds.  In fact a total turnaround, almost to the way things were prior to Dec 2008 – according to the counselor, it's because it's all out in the open and is being dealt with – another thing to be grateful for.

The amazing support from Government organisations – these can sometimes be difficult to deal with, but we have had the most amazing experience with 3 government organisations in particular, as well as agencies that work for, or on behalf of them, who have worked with our family. There are some pretty amazing individuals out there.

Whilst the Police didn't get the end result they were aiming for, we were assured that coming forward was the right thing to do, even if only to help prevent someone else going through the same thing. We were told up front that in the justice system, many guilty parties get off, because the defence do not have to prove their innocence, rather the prosecution have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and without forensic evidence, this can often be very hard to do. It was pointed out to us that a verdict of Not Guilty, does not always mean innocent, it just means there was insufficient evidence to prove it. We totally get this and the fact that a member of the other family had to lie on the witness stand (much to my daughter's disgust, who knew otherwise) and didn't even do a very good job of it (according to my husband's dad - who was watching via CCTV and is an ex detective from Auckland CIB, the policeman in charge and the crown lawyer), showed us that they knew the truth as well, That coupled with the fact that 2 complaints from parents of children who went to my kids camp in 2010 came in a few weeks after the final court session, (advising they had just become aware of some inappropriate behaviour by the male leader at camp), confirmed for us everything we already knew to be true! Thankfully the complaints were nothing serious enough to warrant police involvement (and I am hoping it is only those 2 isolated cases), but I still did make mention of it to the Police. I also apologised from a business point of view to the parents, outlined our experience to them and advised them that if they wished to make it a formal complaint, to pop it in writing, so it could be held on file.

Since then, we have received a lovely letter from the Police advising they are now closing the file and moving it to permanent archives, but outlining that they maintain our side of events to be true and accurate and that we should keep the letter for future use, should it be necessary for reference at any point in time. So thankful we had such an amazing detective to work with.

Thankful for the advocate we were assigned after the court case, who worked with us to ensure ongoing support (which has been approved) would be provided and also advised us we would be eligible for compensation. This was absolutely the last thing on our minds as we have never felt monetary compensation makes up for these sorts of things. Definitely not something we would ever have gone seeking, but were advised to pursue it, as the funds could be used however we deemed most appropriate. Again funny how things turn out, as we had tried to refinance our mortgage completely but were unsuccessful due to our low 'on paper' income from self employment, together with a few too many debts we had. The bank however had said yes to a small loan for a new car - presumably so I could keep working?-lol. Anyway, as it now turns out, (despite our feelings towards compensation), we now have the new car, all other debts are paid off and now our mortgage is $150 less per fortnight than it was. It doesn't change what's happened, or make it better, and we still need to be careful with money, but we are in the best financial position we have been in for many years and this has allowed us to relax just a little, start renovations on the house, and purchase some stuff for the kids. We are tremendously thankful for the way things turned out on this front.

So I guess even the darkest of dark clouds can have a silver lining and this situation (although difficult at the time) certainly provided several of them. So, for all of these and more (not mentioned due to their personal nature) we are So Truly Grateful.

The Old Cabinet

This old cabinet has been sitting in my rumpus for what must be 5+ years!  I bought it off Trademe for $50 from memory, with a view to doing it up.  It's half stripped, but the stripping of the inside was going to be a mission, so think I just kept putting it off and putting it off until it just sort of started getting used as is.  

For the past few months, I have been searching Trademe and other sales for a cabinet for the lounge to house our glassware without success, as I haven't found one I like more than what I believe this would look like finished (well not within a price range I can afford anyway).   So, I've started in on it again.  Most of the paint inside is now stripped away and the wood (Rimu) is just lovely.  Just the cracks and joins to go, then a good sand down and a bit of wood filler in some spots and over nail holes, before the finishing begins.

In the process of removing paint, I found a mark inside at the top back panel, with the makers initials and the date '1928', so wrapped I really do have a lovely old piece of furniture to restore.  It came partially disassembled, so had various bits and pieces in the drawer.  I still have 2 pieces that I can't work out any possible location for, but that may come to light the further I work on it.

I have to go and try and find appropriate hardware for the hinges and latches to the doors and a drawer handle that fit with the age of this piece and then some glass for the front panel and the doors.  Can't wait to see what it looks like finished.

Will post photos as it comes along.

Not Much Blogging

So as you would have seen, not much blogging went on here in 2013.  Despite us thinking it was going to be a great year for our family, for the better part, it was not.  Both financial issues and some pretty serious personal situations arose, none of which needed to be shared publicly, so I didn't really post anything.

Bit sad really seeing as we did have a few amazing things happen at the beginning of the year, when Taryn went to the US for the World Robotics Championships is California.  This was followed very quickly by an all expenses paid trip to China!  She had a blast.

We however, were at home dealing with one of the issues and so blogging was not high priority.  I hope to get around to posting at least some of the photos and info from her trips, but if not, it will at least get into the scrapbooks.

We are still dealing with one or two of the more personal/private issues and we know it will all get a lot worse before it gets better, so not presently expecting to do much blogging in 2014, but in the background we will be working hard to sort our issues and move on.  This brings me to my word for 2014: 'RESTORE'  It covers so many different aspects of what we will need to go through this year - healing, mending, repairing, etc, etc so it was a good fit.

On that note, I am looking forward to a much better 2014 and although we know there is a fair bit of hard work ahead of us for the first half of this year, we know it will all be worth it and hopefully in the second half of this year we will reap the rewards from our efforts.

I wish you all the very best of everything for 2014!

The Office - What a difference a day makes!

Well when I say a day, I mean a few hours a day for just over week, totalling about a full day!

Poor office - it always ends up with the bits and pieces that have no where else to go, is always last on the list for a de-clutter (for that very reason)  and it is always the first place to start getting messy again after a big clean up.

I de-cluttered the office back in March 2011, but it didn't take long for it to start gaining stuff again and by January this year, it was to the point you could hardly get in there without tripping over something.  It was so hard to find anything and certainly not I place I wanted to sit and work in, so monthly financials were left till year end-arghhh.

I knew there was loads of stuff in there that needed to either go to the dump or be re-homed and knew I just had to get it back under control.  This time I was ruthless and by the time I had finished (2 boxes of paper based recycling, 4 large banana boxes of goods to the Op Shop, 3 large bags of rubbish and 1 large basket of stuff waiting to be re-homed later), it was even clearer than when I did it in March 2011.

It feels so good to have such a nice space to work again.  Might even blog a little more frequently now?

Anyway, here are the before and after pics (don't fall off your chair Glenna!!!)

God, what a mess!

Now you can see why it was hard to work at this desk!

Is that the floor I see? (Glenna, don't fall off your chair!)

Way more floor space and the blue stacking baskets on the left of the photo will soon be gone also, once the goods in there are either sold on TradeMe, or re-homed too.

I look forward to working at this clean and organised desk.

Now I guess it's time to move onto the next room.  Perhaps the studio.

Lots of Improvement

Ok, so I haven't posted for quite a while, because there has been so much going on in our household, but during it all, there have been lots of improvements made in many different areas.

Over the next few weeks, I'll try and post some of the stuff that has happened, but I won't get around to it all and it probably wont be all nicely in order either.  One of the things I have improved is family time and so some things have to give a little!

Anyway onto the posting....

My Word for 2013

It took me right till January 1st to finalise my word for this year.  I went through quite a few to find one that encompassed all I wanted to achieve in 2013.

There are things I want to change, fix, make better, develop, cultivate, increase, revamp and so many others that come to mind, that it was hard to cover it with one word.  I had thought of Action at first, but some of the things on my list actually involve a little less action on my part, so wasn't sure that it was such a good fit.

Finally I sat and looked at my list and asked myself what it was all the things I wanted to do really meant and it came down simply to improving my life - in every aspect, hence the word Improve for 2013.

My goal for this year is simple (although my list looks anything but simple):

Do 1 thing every day that improves my life (or that of my family, friends or environment).  It can be as small as making a regular family meal a little healthier, right through to doing a major outstanding renovation project on the house, but as long as it is 1 thing every day, then the only way is up!

Do you have a word or verse for yourself for 2013?

Long time no write!

So, it's been a while!  Shortly after my last post, life got a little crazy for a while there and I am only just catching up.  So here's a snippet of what's been happening around here.

September -Art auction at the school.  An event I started when I first joined the committee and have been part of 3 times now.  It's full on, but well worth it financially for the school.  It all but consumed a heap of  August!

Mid September - right after my last post from memory - I went for a routine breast screening mammogram. I was called back in as they could see a mass in my left breast that could not be explained. (I had previously -1990- had a small lump removed from my right breast, so wasn't too worried).  Went back in for an ultrasound at which point the doctor advised he could see a tumour in my left breast and wanted to do an immediate biopsy.  Seven tissue samples were taken and then it was waiting 1 week for the results.  Benign was the most wonderful word I heard when the nurse rang me with the results!

Beginning of October was Kids Camp, followed directly by Scrapbook Retreat and some manic school holidays, trying to work at the same time as ensuring the kids had a great holiday and didn't kill eachother!  Mid October repainted the bathroom - a week of full on prep work, filling holes, sanding, washing, sanding again.  The first coat of the new colour was so awful I nearly cried.  Was supposed to be warm neutral tan colour, but on the walls it looked PINK!  back to square 1.  I bought new pain and started again.  Here is a photo of the bathroom with 1 coat of the first paint (above shower) and 1 coat of the new pain on the left-hand wall - such a difference.  I will get around to a photo of the entire bathroom once all the new fittings are in place.

Late October, sports prizegiving for Taryn who received Most Valuable Player award for her team and was awarded and Honours certificate for her rep cricket in North Harbour U15 girls Rep team.

November - Swap Frock event at school.  Taryn turned 15 and I made her a cricket ball (well half a ball) cake, which we took to cricket for her team to enjoy.

 Then there was Taryn's U15 tournament, for 3 weekends in a row, plus on the final weekend, she played on the Monday as well.  heaps of baking, with my favourite being the 'Harbour' cricket ball biscuits, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all.

 December saw Jayden go to his graduation dinner/dance, (which he nearly didn't get to go to because of behavioural issues he was having at school through October & November).

 Then there was the Asia pacific robotics competition for Taryn.  It was HUGE.  never seen so many teams in one place, but I guess it is even bigger in the states.  They didn't make it into the finals, but had a great time anyway.  Nationals at the beginning of 2013 is their last chance to gain a place at the Worlds in USA, so here's hoping for them they can achieve what is required.

Camp Maynard Christmas BBQ, where Jayden was awarded a certificate for his ongoing work at Camp Maynard working bees - nominated by Charlie and present by John.  Then Wayne Philip - Mahurangi Zone Leader announced that I would be taking over as chairperson for the committee.

Taryn's academic prize-giving saw her graduate year 10 with merit and gain an honours certificate in Science and  Music.

 Graduation assembly on the 2nd to last day of school.  Can't believe he has grown up so fast and is off to Intermediate!

 His wonderful teacher Sophia Jalil who worked so hard with him and had the patience of a saint in dealing with some of the stuff he presented.

 Another huge impact on his schooling life at Manuka - Chris Barclay.  It's so sad that there are so few male teachers in our education system now.  They desperately need more!

Mid December - straight into Kids Camp, this time a 3 day camp the first day of school holidays.  Was an excellent camp, but being 3 days and 2 overnight stays, was pretty full one, so came home very tired.

In between all of that, Mike fell from a ladder whilst trimming a hedge.  The 'still going' hedge trimmer landed on his face, puncturing through to the muscle and requiring 3 stitches and also leaving a light slice line from the top of his cheek through to his lips.  Luckily he was wearing his safety work glasses and avoided any injury to his eyes. He also broke his right collar bone and took the skin off the elbow, which quickly became infected and required a course of antibiotics and regular dressing changes for the better part of 3 weeks.  Always right before Christmas, but at least it has been 7 years since his last good injury!  I told him he must have gotten the 7 year itch!

So, that along with all the usual stuff and some stuff I haven't mentioned or didn't photograph to help remind me is what the last few months of 2012 were like for us.

We are now looking forward to a much brighter 2013!

Glow Stick Bath

Ok, so I can't remember where I first saw this - I think on my friend Gypsy's blog, as she does the coolest stuff with and for her kids, but I just can't remember, so let's just give her the credit anyway!

Anyway, Jayden was having a bit of a rough day the other day and so asked if he could have a bath (instead of his usual shower).  As he was filling the bath I remembered seeing the photos of a glow stick bath and thought I would treat him to the same.  I grabbed some glow sticks, then knocked on the bathroom door asking him if I could pop my head in for a moment.  I dropped the sticks into the bath and took a photo (with the light on).  It's cool how the light is bouncing around on the water, but not too spectacular right?

So, spread them out throughout the bath and turn the lights off and take a photograph without any flash and the effect is way better.  He thought it was great and ended up staying in the bath for about 1/2 an hour.  Cheap exercise too, as the glow sticks were $2 for a packet of 15 and I only used 5.

Milo the kitten

The kids begged us for ages to get a kitten.  We sat them down and discussed how they would need to be prepared to pay for her, her food, her vet bills etc.  We also said they would need to be the primary caregivers, cleaning up any accidents, cleaning out her litterbox box, feeding her etc.  The two of them discussed it, worked out the cost of everything and a plan of how much pocket money it would take each week and then agreed to go forward and get a kitten.

Due to some soft brown markings, they decided she looked like she had Milo stains down her back and so called her 'Milo'

She was so tiny when we brought her home, but grew super quickly.  Milo is a bit mischievous, so fits into our family well! 

She loves to cuddle up and fall asleep on us, or just sit on us and watch what's going on.

 Sometimes she lies down in some funny positions.

We love her dearly and hope she will be with us for a very long time. 

Bed Hut

Since he was a baby, Jayden has always liked to be wrapped when going to sleep.  Even at 10 he likes the feel of an extra blanket wrapped around him before the rest are pulled up over him.  

Lately he has also started to build low bed huts before going to sleep.  We try to keep it just to the weekends, as it's quite time consuming to get just right, but when he does, his smile says it all and he happily goes off to sleep.  He does a pretty good job too, as the huts last right through the night.  Quite different from me, in that I'm a bit too claustrophobic to be able to sleep in such a small enclosed space.

Oh and if you read the last post about his drawing on walls, you can see the totally stripped walls in these photos.  So far, so good - not one bit of new writing/drawing.  He may just get his room redecorated before his birthday!

Done drawing on walls...

...well, so he says anyway.  One of the ways Jayden would take out his frustraions in life was to write on his walls.  We let it slide for a while and then said he really needed to stop, which he said he had.  We decided that there was just so much on the walls, that it was hard to know if there was anything new there or not, so we have stripped the walls completely (was previously just the backing paper he was writing/drawing on) and have said if there is nothing new on there in a months time, we will redecorate his room.

Some unusual looking creations could be found on his walls.

Plus the notice to "stay out of my room"

And the final bit found behind the bedroom door... anyone know what a PW is?  Mike says he can think of one term, but don't think Jayden knows that term, so pretty sure that's not it.  We did ask him, but he says he wrote it a long time ago and can't remember now.  We had to laugh!

Will keep you posted as to how it goes.

Kinex Contraption

Here is one of Jayden's impressive Kinex contraptions.  I really must photograph more of them as he has made some impressive looking vehicles, towers and other visual items such as this one.

Creative Plea

Jayden was sent to his room for some time out.  I cannot even remember why now, but, we were sitting in the lounge when this little 3 wheeled contraption appeared from out the hallway. 

Very creative 'plea' vehicle and I love the way he kept adding extension posts to get it out to us without ever leaving his room!  Some of the contraptions he comes up with out of his Lego and Kinex are just awesome.

First Harvest

The first items to be harvested from my garden were my beetroot.  I love beetroot and will admit to being a Watties beetroot snob, as nothing else seems to even come close, but I figured hey, I'll try to grow and pickle my own just once and then I can at least say I did try home-grown ones.

Well here they are after being cooked and mildly pickled and you know what - they taste pretty darn close to Wattie's sliced beetroot, so I think I will definitely grow them again.  Probably not so many this time, as had so many, I couldn't have preserved them all in time and so gave mum a bunch and my dear friend Denise  a bunch and still have some left in the garden.

Will have to find another recipe to try for the last harvest of beetroot coming out soon.

Vege Garden

Having dabbled with growing veges in pots and planter boxes on the deck, I wanted to try and expand my crop size and range.  We had an unused corner in the backyard beside the shed, so I bought a couple of metres of half round edging, some stakes and off I set.  first I cleared the area (which had become a bit of a rubbish pile), then Jayden helped me set up the garden edge.

Not a pretty shot, but looking at this know, I definitely know I have lost a fair bit of weight!!! anyway, back to the subject at hand...

Once the edging was secure, I filled the entire areas with the compost Mike had been making in his compost bins and planted out tomatoes, chillies and beetroot.  It looked so sparse, I wondered if I had planted enough in there.

A few weeks later, my wondering was answered with a definite YES.  I had planted more than enough in there and these plants were obviously loving all that compost.  I had to stake all the plants within a matter of weeks, then had to re-stake the tomato plants with taller stronger stakes.  the garden just went wild!

All i used in the garden was the compost and the water, with a little soap based spray to more naturally control the bugs.  Big plans in place for the veges that come out of this garden!

Getting Ahead?

It surprised me a while back when someone commented about me basically being a stay at home mum and asked me "don't you want to get ahead?"
"Ahead of what?" I asked, "the Jones'?"
'No" they replied, "but you know, pay your mortgage off sooner, update that old car, get some new clothes, maybe even go on a holiday"  I was a little taken aback, but my reply:  I'd love to be mortgage free sooner and to have a newer car and it would be nice to be able to afford more new things, but those things aren't as important to me as being home to send my kids off to school in the morning, being home when they get home, going to their sports (practice and games), going on school trips and camp with them, being home for them during the holidays or when they are sick, being able to be so very involved in their schools and basically just enjoying a more simple lifestyle.

So, I stay at home and do part time work when I can and loads of charity work and yes income is up and down and sometimes we struggle and we have played 'how low can you go' with the food in our pantry/fridge more than once in the past year, but I can tell you (from working in a high paying corporate role for 18 months once Taryn was 11 months old), that money isn't everything.  I missed so many of her 'firsts' it nearly broke my heart.  I know that sometimes families have no other option and we've come close to having to find additional work ourselves and if it came down to me having to get a full time job, then that's what we would do, but whilst we can continue to manage and reap the benefits for our children we will.

I know that pretty soon, they will be off to University, or even off on their OE's and even sooner than that, they might not want to be spending that much time with us - or want me on their school trips and when that time comes, I will not look back with regret on all the time I didn't or couldn't spend with them simply because I wanted to 'get ahead'.  Instead I will savour those memories and be thankful that I made the financial sacrifices to have the lifestyle we enjoy so much right now.

Time for getting ahead will come for us soon enough and if that is currently your main goal in life, then I'm happy you are achieving your goals, but please don't judge me because my goals are different to yours.

And life goes on..

Been quite a while since I posted.  There has just been so much happening and so many of the events I just couldn't get my head around blogging what I actually wanted to say.  Some of the events I have had difficulty with lately:

• An old work friend passed away. Younger than me.  Finally losing her battle with cancer.  I'd only just got back in touch and been to visit.  I cried all the way home after that visit and never got back up to see her again!
• Wendy moved back to Hamilton.  I was super happy for her and what the new job meant, but super sad she was going.  Although I knew she was just a bit further away, I started to realise how many things would change as a result.  I'm still processing some of those changes.
• Jayden saw a new paediatrician and was diagnosed with some additional syndromes/conditions, which will help us in the long run, but was a bit to take in at first.  He is now under Marinoto and so things are finally progressing in the right direction.
• Damage to the house from the ceiling/walls flooding after a tradesman error - it was all only just finalised and sorted last week, with the repairs now to be undertaken and our excess and no claims bonus from the insurance still to be sorted out.
• Been sick for the better part of 3 weeks, with a sick little boy home for an entire week and still not 100%.  Woke up feeling like round number 2 is on it's way and both kids sounded terrible this morning, so who knows what this week will bring.
• Gypsy is moving to Perth!  Saw her one last time today (until who knows when) and it was so much harder than I thought.  The indefinite move overseas hadn't really sunk in till she got here to say goodbye and as she drove away, I lost it. Tried to speak to Wendy 3 hours later and started losing it again.  

All been floating around in my head with no clarity for getting all the feelings out and so I resisted blogging, but I have made an effort to journal the feelings so they are released and I can get back to blogging.  After all, no matter what we face ...life goes on!

Wet, wet, wet

We recently had a heat pump installed.  The team were very professional and did a great job of the insulation, but... in the process of installing the wiring, they move a roof tile and forgot to replace it.  We then had 2 days of full on rain and our roof cavity and walls filled up with water, which then flowed down through the walls, out onto the chipboard floor, soaking the carpet.  The wallpaper also started peeling off the walls.  We had to have a commercial blower under the carpet with a commercial dehumidifier going in the lounge.  These were both exceptionally noisey and sucked up the power too.   We are still in the process of dealing with the insurance company over the necessary repairs.  Here are the photos to date.