And so this week...

It's been a good first week at work. It's nice to be in a local kindergarten again, especially with a mix of town and rural families - they both bring something quite different to the table. It's lovely to be in an environment where the teacher's all get on well and two out of three are them are all for trying new ways of doing things. One is a bit more dubious lol. Don't get me wrong, I'm not out to change the world, but a small step here and there doesn't hurt. This weekend I've gone out and brought nice material and some little glass containers to go on one of the tables...scray stuff huh! My colleagues were watching me use a programme for writing learning stories (Comic Life, Mandy), and now two of them want me to download it and get it up and running for them. I like working in a team that is keen to do that, and I like that they ask me rather than me being the one suggesting it...

Yesterday saw a concrete mixer busy at our house. We have a concrete pad down now, for the new garage/workshop. Lyall's itching to get that sorted. He's off four wheel driving again this coming weekend. An overnighter. Looking forward to that lol, always get a good nights sleep without him snoring away next to me. Okay so I'll miss him a tiny weeny bit. Hope it's not too cold as they're in a DOC cabin for the night. Apparently bourbon is helpful in that situation, according to Blair a fellow club member...

Come this Friday I'll be having lessons in using Photoshop. Dad kindly brought Photoshop Elements for me before we left Auckland, and while I muck around with it, I don't really get how it all works. (Even though the lovely Tracy Le Roy, did give me some help), so I finally decided to do something about it and have organised for one on one lessons for a few weeks. At sixty dollars an hour they better be darn good! But I'm sick of it sitting there and me not being able to use it...

Have a good week. Okay, so I had photos for this post, but they won't upload...

Monday, Monday...

Another wonderful SENZ weekend has passed. More great memories filed away. Lovely time spent with friends, both new and not so new. Some shopping and new layouts filed away too. Funniest moments? Trina asking me to play photographer in her class, me asking her where the zoom was on her SLR camera. Some poor lady had fallen down the stairs at the entrance and an ambulance had been rung (now that wasn't funny) but looking out from the third floor and seeing Danice (whose a nurse)'helping' - in her nurse cottony overcoat thing (you know those things they wear so they don't get covered in vomit etc) with a ciggy in her mouth. Hmm doesn't sound as funny as it looked lol. Discussing the ways in which we could welcome Mandy - lucky for Mandy we didn't organise any of them earlier lol. Lots of others but alas time is running out (and I don't want to bore you with them!)

A new job started today, and getting home much earlier than I used to, now that's bliss. It meant I could finish a layout and actually take a photograph of it lol. But must shoot off soon as it's dog obedience tonight.

When I went off to Heidi and Vicki's on Thursday morning as we headed off to pick up Mandy from the airport, I noticed a Chorus bloke, (you know the phone fixer upper people lol) at the phone box thingy which sits in front of our paddock, so I stopped and had a wee chat with him about what he was doing, turns out it might be for broadband. He said it was for broadband but maybe it's for a new house. Better not be, this old house here needs it first lol. So people, keep your fingers, toes and whatever else crossed because that would seriously be life changing for me if we had broadband to the gate. I could watch video's. It might not take me ten tries to upload one photo. When I email people it might actually go through...And yes, I did phone Telecom and got a great girl and the call centre. As I explained what I was wanting to know, the girl (Sarah was her name) said "yep, one of my friends here in the call centre lives out your way and has exactly the same issues...makes it pretty hard when she has to try and sell the product to customers." LOL.

Right, time to throw on warmer clothes and head off with my little dog.

Sometimes in life you say something and then it comes back and bites ya lol! Last week Vicki and I were trying to organise a dog walking date, however the day that was going to work for me was her Zumba day. She suggested I come along. I was far too lazy to drive in for Zumba, drive back out get the dogs and then drive back in and walk them and also there was other 'stuff' that I had to fit into the day. So I jokingly told her, no Zumba for me I've got a sore back and a bad cough (she knew I was joking). Anyway cut forward a couple of days and I decided to mow the lawns, and take some rubbish to the tip - to do this I needed to move the trailer around - and low and behold I ended up with a sore back. Note to self...don't drag the trailer around! Hey at least the bad cough bit didn't come true lol. Anyway along with the Deep Heat and the Voltaren I toddled off to the osteopath, so am well on my way to being mended, but as the osteopath and I were chatting, it turns out she'd just spent the weekend in Beachlands (my old home town in Auckland) and was thinking of shifting there - what a small world.

With SENZ arriving in our neck of the woods this coming weekend that must mean my holidays are at an end, but they've been good, relaxing and got a few things accomplished that I wanted to. Still not sure about this strip club that Heidi is planning on taking us to when Mandy arrives...but hey what the heck!! (Okay so that's just my sense of humour shining through lol!)

Best I go and pack a few things for SENZ - got to work tomorrow and then off to catch up with the girls on Thursday - see you then Mandy!

And so this week...

It's been a good week. It all started with having a cat who is sleeping through the night. Sounds strange? Our animals are all inside animals, and up for about three weeks, Tui our cat had decided she wanted to go outside during the night. At about two thirty in the morning. And then come back in about three in the morning. And then go back out about three thirty. Then come back in about four...you get the picture. And no, I couldn't just ignore her. If the scratching on the door doesn't make me get up then she hits the metal handles on the dressing tables. We wrapped them up so they made no noise. She then figured out that if she wipes her whiskers across my face that'll do it. That wakes me up. Could I lock her out. Well I could, but she would just stand and scratch on the door to come back in, or jump up and keep whacking the handle (she can open the unlocked doors). Anyway, for some reason she has snapped back into her old pattern of sleeping through the night. And I love my sleep and sleep makes the whole world seem just a little bit brighter lol.

Other good things that have happened this week? I got a gorgeous, gorgeous box chocka full of goodies from my two friends Viv and Trace up in the Naki - thanks again girls - I was really stoked. I got a little parcel of goodies I ordered over the net from Embellish It. It was the last week of term and while sad to say goodbye to the families at the the kindergarten I've been working in, I'm totally looking forward to my new job. They seem so much more open to new ideas, having spent Wednesday afternoon chatting with them and of course it's heaps closer to home.

Tuesday night Donna and I went to the Antarctic Centre for a teachers only night - it was fab. Lots of fun games, like mini golf in the big freezer bit and walking with a balloon between your knees and a spoon in your mouth trying to scoop up little plastic fish in a bowl of water - great for breaking the ice (yep, pun totally intended lol). Lots to drink and eat and I even won a spot prize. Shame we couldn't stay longer but we had a course to go to - but it was a great course (I should know it's the eighth time I've been to hear her speak!!).

This weekend has been shiny and bright with the thermometer reading twenty three outside today, so we headed to the snow with the dogs. Not much snow, but enough to grab some photos of them anyway. Love these crystal clear days and starry starry nights (hmmm frost not so much, but if that's the price you pay for the rest...lol).

Oh and the other good news arrived in my inbox today...

Congratulations! Your entry was judged the winner for the Up2Scrap blog challenge :)

So am darn happy about that!

Now the photos above...well the layout is just some random one to use up scraps (will have to look to find the one that I put in for the Up2Scrap blog and post it on here). Darcy in the snow. Project Life Page - that's for you Heidi lol. The mountains today. And last but not least, my lovely box of goodies.

Right, best I go check some of your blogs - which I should be able to do a bit more regularly with it being the holidays and all (even though I have courses on Monday and Tuesday of this week...) Have fun.