The fever gets the best of me

Photo fever that is. I just could not stand it any more! This blog is being avoided [by me!] because there's a lack of interesting photos.

I know, I've told you this more than once.

But even though it's taking me an hour or two to download my camera card onto this arcaic dinosaur of a computer,

and even though I don't get to edit them the way I like,

and even though I should be putting away laundry, or cleaning my kitchen, or figuring out why the beans in the crockpot are not softer after 4 hours on low, or labelling things for our garage sale [shameless plug, if you live near us, please come by my parents' place Saturday!]

despite all that,

I have got to post some pictures! I cannot blog to my liking without photos. I just doesn't work.



Eastern Beach, Auckland

Christina & Levi

Uninspired

I really miss having a computer with PSE7 or even Picasa capabilities. Since our laptop bit the dust (or at least gives us enough trouble that it's not worth turning on) we've been borrowing an old CPU from work, a monitor from church, with our own keyboard and an old wireless mouse. The computer is fine for internet... only. It probably could even handle a low res camera and no editing... but that's not what I want to do! :)

So I haven't been blogging much because I have no good pictures. In fact, I'm so frustrated by the lack of editing capabilities that I've all but stopped using my camera! I know. Sad. But until this computer issue is fixed, I don't see any reason to fill my camera up with creative images... as I can only download them straight to an external drive and wait until we have editing capabilities again. Boo...

Anyways, in other news....

Christmas! It's warm, it's sunny, Matt's sunburned, and we're Christmas shopping. What's that you ask? Am I done Christmas shopping? No. I wish I'd started earlier. But this happens every year, we wait - trying to figure out how much we will spend on Christmas - and by the time we pull some cash out of our savings account, its WAAAAAY too close to Christmas for my comfort. I end up awake at all hours finishing sewing projects, wrapping presents, and trying to make sure I got the things planned.

[Note to self: Naomi still needs her first toothbrush, the stockings need stuffing, I haven't bought some food for Christmas day, and there's still presents to finish up start for my mum and sister].

And since the holiday spirit may be slighty lacking in the absence of snow, hot cocoa, real fir trees, and Christmas carols that fit the season, I'm tanking on Hazelnut coffee and Irish Creme coffee.... :D LOTSA coffee. *Happy grin*

Naomi's not walking yet, but she stands up without holding anything and stands alone for 10-20 seconds at a time. My mum said she thinks Naomi will give me first steps for Christmas. *Eye roll* We'll see. Hopefully we'll catch it on camera if she does. :)

Taking out *Best Dressed Girl

Is it any wonder that Naomi won Best Dressed Girl at the Mainly Music Christmas party? The theme was Christmas or Party Clothes - which is really open for interpretation.

I popped Naomi in her tutu and basted a few scrap pieces of tulle onto a stretchy headband - voila! - matching outfit. Havalah asked me "What is she supposed to be? A Christmas ornament?" Ha! That hadn't crossed my mind, I thought it was cute. Christmas ornament it is!

As much as "Angel" is easy with little girls, I was yawning over the idea. We'd done it before, so I tried to think of something else. Star! But the problem with "star" is that it did't have anything specific about it, so I drew stars on her cheeks with my *ahem, blue* eye liner. [That'll teach me to READ the packaging before grabbing wildly at makeup in WalMart...] For the record, eye shadow, over eyeliner makes it last a bit longer, should you need to use it in place of facepaints! *Note to self, buy the girls face paint for Christmas*

*Oh yes, please note the red fingernails. She insisted on them yesterday morning. In.Sist.Ed!*

I am VERY pleased with this picture of me and Naomi. A/ It's hard to get a self portrait with my 50mm lens, so it came out ok, considering. B/My skin looks great! Considering that it's not fantastic this week, I appreciate that the picture looks better than it is. ;)

Too cute! I love that Oceana knows exactly what to do with a guitar! She was so upset when the guitars were handed out and she missed out. I spied one up front [Ok, so maybe it was supposed to be the coordinator's guitar, but it was on the floor] and sent her up to get it. ;) Very, very, very happy girl!

Their Christmas party was fun, though they were really tired [it was an afternoon party, difficult when most toddlers and preschoolers have a rest time or naptime then].

Josiah's Senior Portraits

I had the chance to take my 18-year-old brother out for his Senior portraits this last weekend. He's actually a very easy guy to shoot! :) Josiah finished school a few weeks ago, and has been accepted to MIT [Manukau Institute of Technology, LOL] in the Maritime program. Si's on his way to becoming a ship's captain - specifically with interest in tankers and container ships. He's been a deckhand on the M/V Pacific Link for 2 years already, and loves being at sea. It suits him well. I'm looking forward to seeing what my awesome little brother will get up to in the future. :)

8 months old

Another long-ago photo. This is Oceana at 8 months and my brother Josiah who was 15 in this picture. Thank goodness he didn't stay with that mop-top-hairdo. :)

Naomi will be 8 months old on Friday. Oh how time flies!

Blast from the Past

Oceana in August 2008. Oh my goodness she's changed in just over year!

In response to a comment

Last night a comment came in, asking why I didn't write more about what we do here. It got me thinking, and I've decided to share a couple things.

1/ Because I've been home on "Maternity Leave" since April, I haven't had a lot to report for myself. I tried to get back into the office in July, but because of Matt's job changing from part-time in the office (we were trading off, so I was home when he working, he was home when I was working) to the DTS I wasn't able to get to the office. We're [still] a one-car family, so when Matt went to the port for DTS on the ship it was the opposite direction to the office. I also needed a babysitter, and to this day only Matt and my mom have watched Naomi, and survived. Some girls from the DTS watched both of them, and apparently she screamed for 3 hours straight both times. Oceana's fine with just about anyone. But Naomi is exhausting, so I sort of gave up trying to get to the office. This will hopefully change when we move up to Oropi and are very close to the office (perhaps in the same building).

I've been doing a bit from home, namely this. The ship tour I've mentioned a few times has a blog, which Jada [our Media Liason who has been on the ship] writes, and I edit and post, link newspaper articles, and upload photos. It's not much, but it's what I've been doing.

I had a list of people to call for ship tour, and would you believe the Monday/Tuesday I was supposed to make those calls I was laid up sick with the flu. Wednesday I was recovering, Thursday I was packing for our trip, and Friday we were travelling. I felt like it was Murphy's Law! Ak! Thank goodness someone else was able to take on the list.

2/ Stretch & Grow. I'd love to share more about it. In fact, I think I will take my camera next week at the Christmas party and share some pictures of these beautiful girls. ;)

18 months ago I went along to help out, and it was me and two other girls. The two girls had been there for a while, both with a toddler. Since May 2009 when I started coming, our group has grown like crazy!!! Each week Belinda - who runs it - text messages about 25 girls. We normally have about 10, which sounds small. No way! The room we have designated for our use has seats for 10. But then there's me, Belinda, and another organiser, Jo. And most everyone already has a child, some several children, and the rest have burgeoning bellies! It get so crowded, crazy, and LOUD! The kids range in age from newborn - 5/6. Obviously a few kids - maybe 2 or 3 - are already in school. But we've had to create a nursery/daycare group for 1 hour, because the noise level of our toddlers is so bad you can't hear anything!

We bring in people to discuss subjects with the girls - who range in age from about 17 to 25. Over time it has become a Mom's-In-Crisis/Young-Mothers group because we usually get girls about 17+. The subjects discusses have ranged all over the place - but have included budgeting, parenting, grocery shopping, menu planning, cleaning, active play/health for children, how to bake bread, how to make baby food, and early childhood development.

It's not an in-your-face Christian place, though the girls know we are Christians, and what our priorities are. But over time, we've been able to become their friends. We love them, love their children, care about their problems, and try to help them however we can. And they know we love them. :)

3/ If you haven't had a look at our website before, have a look now. It's still being tweaked, but I like it. :)

Too cute not to post

Oh my goodness I had fun with these shots! They're not great, they were dark, and I didn't think through them much. But OH they're cute! And uhm... can we please ignore the grass in my drive way? *Blah* Cobblestone is annoying... I sprayed it with weedkiller a week ago, but I'm still wait for it to completely die. I'll still have to pull them all. *YAY! ... not ...

Thanks so much for your visits over to TradeMe! And just a quick reminder that if you were wanting a tutu [in the US/Canada] you'll need to let me know before this weekend. This mailout will be the only one that will make it before Christmas. *WoopDeeDoo for delays in the mail from Christmas + International Mail*. As soon as I get a bouncingblossoms website/blog up, I'll stop posting about it here, and simply tell when I've posted something new over on the blog. But you know, that requires extra time. Anybody got some they wanna share?

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In other news - EXCITING - Matt and I cleaned yesterday. I cannot explain what came over Matt, but he started purging. I'm talking we cleared Havalah's old room/the office/collecting place/landing spot for all things without a home. I'm talking about a full Hefty/rubbish bag of trash. I'm talking about a box of yard sale clothes and "stuff". I'm talking about the fact that the shoe closet has all matching, fitting, and often-in-use shoes. Oh my goodness! The laundry got put away, the computer/office/technology stuff got purged [superfluous chargers, an old xD card, and pencil bags], the coloring books got purged [why do we hold onto the crappy colouring books long after every page has been colored on?], the attic got straightened, the toy box was decluttered and purged, and the girl's bedroom was cleaned. All in one measly afternoon. Why oh why oh why does it take Matt getting into a cleaning mood for me to find the motivation to get this stuff done? I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care. Because right now, my house is looking pretty good!

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Naomi is standing up without holding anything, from a sit. *Oi...*

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Naomi is sleeping a teeny bit better. I think I found the beginnings of a top tooth popping through. I think the teething is affecting her sleep, again. It makes sense. She slept 11-1, 1-5, 5-7 last night. That's TONS better than it's been. Here's hoping for a realllly good night tonight. Hear that Na? I'd kiss you a billion times for a 6am wakeup call. *Oh for the days that I never saw 6am in...*

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Our artificial Christmas tree [bought off a Clearance rack last year] is about 5' tall, and tied via bungy cords only a small coffee table. How else do you keep the baby off the tree/ornaments. :) It works... it's not perfect. But it works. :)

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I'm going to a baby shower on Saturday for one of the girls, K, at Stretch & Grow. She was in an abusive relationship when she had her first 2 children, and she's now pregnant with a 3rd. Her boyfriend is very supportive [he sounds wonderful, by the sound of things] and since she never got to have a shower with her first two babies, she's getting a shower this time! I'm excited to be a part in blessing her. I've pulled out my old yarn stash and am working on a baby hat for next winter. Baby's due this summer, but I always find the cutsie stuff seems to run out around 6 months, because everyone wants to buy the little teeny stuff. I just hope I can finish it in the next 36 hours, since it's only about 1" long right now.... Eek!

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Another girl, T, from Stretch & Grow [PS. The teen mom's support group out church runs] was baptised along with her husband last Sunday! Absolutely awesome! So excited for her and their little family [baby#1 turns 1 soon and baby#2 is due in February]. And another girl, D, gave her heart to the LORD at T's baptism! I'm really excited to be a part of all this.

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Hopefully getting a chance to shoot Havalah for Rock the Frock/Trash the Dress session this week and my brother Josiah for senior portraits soon too. ;) Lotsa fun!

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I'm sure I'm not alone, so I'll laugh about it here. My sweet, wonderful, absolutely amazing mother-in-law asked me what I wanted for Christmas. *Uh.....* I had to ignore her email for a day and a half because I couldn't think of anything! Ok, let's be fair. I could think of thigns, but they weren't for me. They were things like fabric so I could sew dresses *for the girls*, or a stuff to *build a business*, or ... see, not for ME. I asked for something for me, don't worry. I did finally email her back. Anyone else have trouble answering this question this year?

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I would have opted for clothes, but for the first time in 4 years I'm IN my skinny clothes over a summer.... so I'm quite happy with my new-again-to-me-because-I've-forgotten-I-owned-them wardrobe! Summer 06 USA - Recently pregnant, not fitting skinny stuff by a mile. Summer 06 NZ -Less recently pregnant, but still not looking great, the closest I got to these clothes. Summer 07 - Pregnant. Summer 08 - Pregnant. Summer 09 - Skinny[ish], and definitely Not. Pregnant. ;)

Of course, I now have learned to define skinny by what buttons barely, what buttons easily, and what buttons easily, but falls down over the course of 10 minutes. See, these are now sizes.... :) I think in"groups" of clothes, rather than #s now. And its been so long since I've been in ONE set of clothes, that I literally have a variety of sizes from 2 - 14 in my closet at all times. Um... Note to self: You don't wear them all. You need to pack that stuff away. ;) And not to self, it should not take 6 months to put the maternity pants away... Ahem....

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Alrighty, that's enough from me tonight! ;)

Bouncing Blossom Tutus

No way am I turning this blog into my store - but I wanted you all to know what I'm up to! In an effort to support our family and provide myself a creative outlet I've created Bouncing Blossom Tutus [and Apparel eventually...]. :)

Here's my concept [I'm proud of this one!]. Tutus look like flower. You can call a tutu a princess skirt, a ballerina skirt, or a ballgown - but a flower is what it really looks like! So each color combination has a name!

Tulip - orange, yellow, and bright pink [pictured]
Rose - red and white
Iris - purple, yellow, and white
Pohutukawa - red, white, and green
Hydrangea - turquoise, seafoam green, and purple
Daisy - white and yellow
Peony - bright pink, light pink and purple
Tiger Lily - yellow, orange, and brown
Sweet Pea - light pink and green

or

Build*A*Bouquet where you choose your own assortment of 2-3 colours.

Available in sizes Newborn, Infant, 1T-2T, and 3T-5T [Email me if you need a different size].

Neat, right?

What's also neat [word of the day ;)] is that these tutus weigh less than I thought they did, so shipping to the States is not as bad as I thought it was! If I sent 1 tutu, it's about $7 [NZD], but if I send 20 tutus, it's about $3 [NZD, per tutu]. I hope I'll be be able to send them in bulk lots. :)

So, this is the plug, and then I'll leave it to being a sidebar. If you want a tutu, particularly if you want one by Christmas, please contact me via email on bouncingblossom[@]gmail[.]com. :)

Newborn & Infant sizes - $20NZD/$15USD

1T-2T - $25NZD/$20USD

3T-5T - $30NZD/$25USD

Shipping will be about $5 [Items must be shipped 2x, once to the US in 1 box, and from their landing point to your home]. More on that if you email me.

I put up my first tutu auction tonight!

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Toys-models/Pretend-playing/Dress-ups/Fairies-princesses/auction-257393466.htm

And now, back to our regularly programming, where I forget about my blog for days and days at a time and then apologize through multiple pictures of my adorable children. ;)

Some thoughts

If you didn't get a chance to read our newest newsletter, it's the next post down. If you don't normally read them, please take the chance to read this one. I have said some things there that I'd normally not want to say, but because the work we do is more important than my pride, I've said it. Thank you so much.

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The girls are slowly getting over their head colds. Last Tuesday the girls woke up with snot-factory, so we've been laying low. I took Naomi out Wednesday, leaving Oceana home. But other than that we didn't go out except to the grocery store and my parents house until Sunday. Stir.Crazy. :) But they're on the tail end of it now. Thank goodness.

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If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have seen my mention of splinter extraction last night. Oceana thinks there is no worse torture, and Matt went so far as to close our patio door so our neighbors wouldn't think we were killing her. The splinter had been in for weeks. Turns out we could have put a piece of raw potato on it overnight and it would have come out on its own. Hmm... we'll have to file that away for next time. Much better than the blood-curdling screams we were treated to.

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Coffee. That's all. Doesn't make sense? Ok. I love coffee. I heart it. I could drink coffee forever and forever, amen. To quote the Marmite ad, "Eets me FayvRit!". Despite the Kiwi claims though, Marmite is NOT me favorite.

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I'm working on starting up a small business. I've always wanted to sell my wares on a site like Etsy, but haven't followed through. Between the international shipping, and the time it takes, I didn't think it was a smart idea. But now I want to try. I'm still trying to decide if I can ship internationally, or rather if shipping internationally is worth it. The business will be/is called Bouncy Blossom Tutus. The one at the top is just a play thing I made up, it's not how the BB Tutus will/do look. But I'll post pictures when I do get up and running, whether I sell in the US and abroad, or not. :) I guess at the end of the day. I can always sell internationally, the buyer just has to be willing to pay international shipping prices. Luckily tutus are pretty light :).

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Christmas is upon us. So that means my creative, sewing time of year is in full tilt. :) I'm doing a lot of remade clothing this year. Things like the shirt-dress I started making myself when I was expecting Joshua, but never wore as I never fit it - which will now be a dress of sorts for Oceana. And the bottoms of my ripped jeans that became capris for summer have become a denim skirt for Oceana. And the hand-me-down skirt I never liked has become two pencil rolls and a tunic for Oceana. Hmm... I think I need to even things out and make something for Naomi, what do you think? ;)

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I'm thinking of selling on my bridemaid dress from Havalah's wedding. As pretty a gown as it is, I don't think I'll find another use for full-length watermelon dress. Know anyone who needs a size 8 watermelon David's Bridal gown?

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Any insight on a/ getting a baby to sleep through the night again? A month ago she was sleeping 11 and 12 hours through. Now she sleeps 8-11, 11-1, 1-3, 4-5 is awake, and 5-7. And b/getting a baby to eat more solids? She won't take solids from me, I've resorted to putting them out on her tray and letting her mangle them. Maybe she's not getting enough solids, so she tries to br*astfeed all night? *Tired Momma*

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I think Naomi just stood up without holding anything. I can't be sure, as I wasn't watching carefully. I would not be surprised... In fact, I won't be surprised if she walks before Oceana did, at 2 days sort of 9 months. Mark my words - that would be any day before January 8, 2010.

November 2009 Newsletter

Click in to see them larger.

Sleep is for the weak!

No new pictures to offer you. I wish! But alas, we are having computer issues. My dear, sweet laptop, with whom I have a special connection, is on her last legs. We have a lender CPU from work, a lender monitor from church, and that works for basics - but it's barely got room for my Photoshop Elements, let alone photos. So I have photos on my camera, but none downloaded in 3 weeks. Ew...

The girls and Matt have colds. I have either allergies or a cold. Either way, we're going through tissues pretty fast around here. Boo...

I think Naomi is cutting teeth again, she's drooling all over the show, plus the cold. Lots of unwanted bodily fluid over here. :)

And as you can imagine, between teeth and sickness and trip over the weekend, sleep is a precious, and RARE commodity.

Sleep is for the week, you know that right? Did you also know that my precious mother-in-law prays for good sleep for her three grandchildren every day? She knows how important it is. :) Her prayers will be answered, some day. Probably not tonight, as I'm settling a sick baby already at 11:00pm. But I can dream, can't I?

*zzzzzz.....*

Kary & Andreina

NaBloPoMo is getting out of hand, oh well. But you, sometimes stuff comes up. You know, like... Viral Stuff. Oh yeah! Oceana was a precious and generous little girl and passed on her sickness to me. Oh yay! I've been flat on my back for about 48 hours now. I'm really hoping that this is the last of it.

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Until I'm able to get back to blogging like normal, here's what you've reallllly been waiting for. :) The bride and groom have seen their photos now, so you can see them too.

Oh yes, let's do that!

I have discovered, over the last week, that I often let my children control me. Eek! In fact, when someone I greatly appreciate and respect pointed out to me that I had said [several times in an hour] that "but the girls won't let me do that"...I got extremely defensive. On the inside I was making excuses, and explaining why that wasn't the case at all.

But then I thought about it. And it's true. I often take the easier road, because I don't like tears, whining, and complaining. I want happy children.

But eversomuchmore than happy-in-the-moment children, I want to have intelligent, patient, caring, self-controlled, wise, loving, sacrificial children with impeccable integrity and character.

So with that in mind, I'm changing the way I treat my children. I'm changing my reactions. I'm especially changing my tendency to react, rather than to respond. To stop saying in frustration "Stop it Oceana! Leave me alone!", and say calmly, "Oceana, we don't do that in our house. This is your one warning before Time Out."

Last night I chose to follow a different method of CIO [Cry It Out] with Naomi and I finally won. My former method was to let her cry for 30 minutes and if she wasn't calming down at that point, I'd go upstairs and get her [Yeah, me and my white knuckles from 30 minutes of crying].

A friend recommended a different way, one that had worked for her [now 20 month old] son. Plunket [NZ Well Child Nurses] had suggested going up every 20 minutes, laying baby back down [she sits up now and cries, which makes this take longer!], cover them back up, but not to have any eye contact and not to talk. [Very Supernanny-esque, actually]. So I did that. I went up at 7:50 and 8:10, with no changes. Naomi cried for an hour. But she went to sleep on her own. I knew she was safe. She knew I was still there, which made me more comfortable with letting her cry for longer than normal. And she didn't get as hysterical as she does other times. Hopefully this will only take a few days of this hard-yards part.

So that's what's happening over here, among other things, I'm changing my attitude, my reactions, and hopefully that will also change the result.

Deal of the Day

This may come off a bit funny to you, or even icky, but I think it's just fine. I'm going to brag on my $$-saving-skills! :)

I dropped in to City Produce [just in case there's some Tauranga visitors who want to know it's the one on Hamilton Street] around 9:30am today. We were on our way to Mainly Music at church, but I wanted to make sure I got whatever early morning bargains were there before someone else had picked them over.

City Produce always has a "Reduced to Clear" section at the front - for stuff that doesn't look as beautiful as it did it's first day in, or that's the last of it's kind. Today I walked away with a bag of tomatoes [not R2C], half a small cabbage, 3 pieces of silverbeet [10c!!! - think swiss chard my US friends], and 2x 2/3 of a telegraph cucumber [LOL, someone had broken 2 of them???] for $3.60 NZD [about $2 USD]. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was good just the same.

On our way out of Mainly Music around 11:30am I thought I might just swing back by, because my mum had told me their bargain boxes were often out around that time. So I swing through the parking long and see 5[!!!] boxes by the door where they put their $2 boxes. These bargain boxes are probably 1'x2' and about 6-8" deep FULL of 2nds fruit. Today I walked away with 2 boxes for $4 and nothing short of kiwifruit, apples, pears, and oranges. We have fruit to last us at least 2 weeks. It's not all beautiful, but I cut the bad spots out, rinsed and dried them. They don't look beautiful, but they're just fine. Whatever we don't eat will be made into apple/pear sauce or orange juice and all for $7.60. Thankyouverymuch!