A moment of madness

As I pulled up to the shop where I do my fortnightly grocery shopping, I glanced down, and saw (with horror) that I was still wearing my slippers!!!

I sat there, in the car, for a moment and contemplated going home. But only for a moment. It was already 7.45pm and I was tired. So although the drive home was only 5 minutes, I chose to just go with them.

I was a bit sheepish and embarrassed to begin with and checked frequently to see if people were looking at my feet. They weren't. I guess my slippers could pass for boots after all. But who wears bright pink, slightly grubby, boots with jeans and a nice grey cardigan?

Me, I guess.

What do you think? Would you have gone home?

A doggy adventure

I had an adventure with a dog recently. He lives next door. And last week, I found him on top of our recycle bin. Barking and keeping Turbo from going to sleep.

Don't mess with a mother trying to get her kid to sleep. Seriously.

He had somehow climbed the fence, still tied to his rope on the other side of the fence, and was barking woefully at me as he stood on top of the bin in the pouring rain. Darn.

I'm not one to just leave an animal in that kind of situation.

So I approached him cautiously, (also not one to underestimate dogs) and unhooked the rope on his collar, which was twisted around the fence, and pushed him back over....really scared while doing all this by the way. 

Once safely in his yard, he then bolted out of his gate, which apparently he can get out of, and down the driveway!!!!!!!

Who keeps a dog in a yard with a gate they can get out of?!

Picture me, running after him, in the pouring rain, no shoes on, calling his name.

Hmmpf. So not funny.

Every time I got near him, he bolted. "What a fun game", he was thinking.

I went home, trying to think of what I was going to tell the neighbour, praying hard that he would come back.

Ten minutes (and one frantic call to Mr Samoa) later, he reappeared near the front door.

Feigning a sickly sweet voice, I invited him, muddy paws and all, into our lounge.

He looked delighted with the offer and bounded in.

Smiley went berserk, crying in terror.

I grabbed his collar (the dog's, not Smiley's) and marched him through the back door, through my yard, into his, clipped his rope back on, and marched out, chuffed with myself for being so decisive and brave

...but not so chuffed at the wet dog smell now emanating from my hands and clothes.

Later that day, the barking began again. He'd done it again.

You know what I did this time?

Gave him a bowl of water and some bread on top of the bin! Which he refused.

This time, your owner can sort you out, buddy.

Which she didn't have to do as the dog showed me that he could climb back over all by himself!

The owner was greatly embarrassed to hear of my adventures. And she's been taking the dog to work with her ever since!

Here he is, outside his yard, showing us how he can get out, despite his owner's recycle bin propped against the gate. He's a little scary looking, right?

An actual laugh out loud

I'm grateful for things that make me laugh.

So my lovely friend, Leisl, has a blog, as mentioned in the last post. She is a witty and talented writer. And by the way, this is not a plug for her blog. Just the plain facts. She's brilliant.

Read this little excerpt:
"The next time someone tries to tell you that having children close together in age is a good idea, tell them to get lost. Seriously. They have either never tried this particular brand of torture out themselves, or they’re so badly traumatised by it, they’ve split off a personality that keeps the horror at bay.


Alas, I was dragged like a hapless fool into believing this conspiracy theory. But here’s the thing – all that rubbish about them being best friends when they’re older? What they don’t tell you is that the REASON they’re best friends is because their mother turns into a psycho nut-job and they need to join ranks to defend themselves against her."

And then she went on to say how her husband came home to find her jumping on the bed with ther baby in her arms and...o, you better read it for yourself. This got an actual laugh out loud from me. How often do we put the famous LOL and truthfully, it's only a moderate chuckle, or a smile.

Maybe its that I know her and can picture the scene in my head. Or maybe it's because I've been there, in her shoes. O, the ridiculous and desperate things I did to get my boys to sleep at times.

And just for fun, here's a song that I just can't get out of my head. You know those ones with the extremely catchy and contagious tunes? You've been warned.



Linking up with....

Dear Mr Virus-Maker Man

So you managed to bypass our anti-virus software and give our computer a virus. Good on you. Give yourself a pat on the back.

We were without our computer for 3 days, (quite a nice break actually) and had to visit my clever brother-in-law to fix it. It only took him a couple of hours.

So the inconvenience to my life was not that great. But I'm sure contriving the virus and getting it right took you a long time.

They say people like you are very clever. I disagree. Why would someone who was so clever, spend their time trying to bring inconvenience and disorder to other peoples' lives? Don't you have a life of your own to get on with? Obviously not.

So I pity you. And implore you...please get a life!

Because laughter is the best medicine

Naughty cow & gorilla kisses

There are so many things I'm loving about Turbo's age and about Smiley's age, different as they are. Turbo is 2 years and 5 months to be exact.

I'm loving how his vocabulary is increasing daily. And words like 'dinosaur' and 'butterfly' are coming out of his mouth. He understands way more and is starting to speak in short sentences. The other evening, we were reading a book and he came to a page where the animals had a made a big mess with some paint cans. He said, "Naughty cow! Made mess! Time out! Stay there!" Yikes. That could be a recording of me. Yes, the words are coming thick and fast and I better be careful about what I say!

He LOVES robots and we discovered a trick to make him sit down for 15 minutes while we have a coffee. We buy him these $3 pack of robots and play shooting games with him (what can I do, he has older boy cousins). Up until now all we had time for was to order the takeaway cup of coffee before he was pulling on our sleeves to get going. Here's a picture of Turbo bathing with his robots...and his pink nails which he asked to be painted at kindy. Apparently this is normal for little boys? 

Smiley is now 7 months old. He has been sitting for a while now but is starting to scoot around on his bum. I'll leave him in one spot and he'll be another when I return. Only thing is he falls over frequently and bangs his head because he's moved away from the cushions I had placed behind him. He grabs everything and has a fetish for phones and remotes. Is it the buttons? Or maybe because he sees us with them a lot so thinks they must be desirable objects!

His two bottom teeth are coming through which meant a rough couple of weeks but hopefully we're in the clear now...until the next ones. And he kisses us (with an open mouth) and also kisses soft toys. We put two big stuffed gorillas next to him, one on each side, and he will turn to kiss each of them again and again, kicking his legs in delight in between each 'kiss'.

And here he is practising another new skill: pulling himself up to standing. What next? Love the chubby legs, too.

I want to enjoy these little things and not wish my boys' lives away. There are, however, a few things I am looking forward to:

1. Leaving both the boys with family overnight
2. More sleep
3. Doing really cool family stuff like going to Rainbow's End (Theme Park) or Waiwera (Hot & cold pools) and all being able to participate together
4. Sleeping in
5. Sitting down for a coffee or dinner out all together
6. Both of them being at school or kindy so I can work/study more easily
7. Cool chats about school or other topics
8. Seeing what they're good at emerge
9. More dates with Mr Samoa, just the two of us
10. Being less tired

I feel so blessed to be able to see these awesome little beings become teenage boys! I just can't imagine how that will be. They will probably tower over me. I'll just have to wait and see.

What's your flavour?

Mr Samoa and I have a very sweet tooth. My tooth has got even sweeter since marrying him but let's not do the blame game. It's his fault! So often he goes off to the supermarket or dairy to get us some treats. One particular night I sent him to get some Rolos, one of my favourites. He came back with a bar of Cadbury Dairymilk. I couldn't believe he thought I would like it! To me, chocolate is only yummy when it has something in it - nuts, caramel, raisens, shortbread....anything rather than plain. Anyway.

Rather than moaning at Mr Samoa, (I mean he did actually make a special trip to get it for me) I thought about what I could do with the chocolate. Earlier that day I'd baked some banana muffins so I melted the offending chocolate bar and dipped the tops of the muffins into it. Instant, real chocolate icing! Don't they look good? Mmmm.

I'm interested though: what is your favourite chocolate?

The kind of day I love

I am a very task-focused person and today was the kind of day I love: a productive one! Bet you were thinking I'd say I spent it with my kids, and, well, I do love doing that too, but I can't change who I am.


It's only on Thursdays and Fridays that I get to have these kind of days. Because on these days, Turbo is at day care. And I breathe a sigh of relief. I can actually DO stuff.

If you think I'm being dramatic, let me give you a quick example. Our freezer works a little too well and I frequently have to chip the ice off of it. This morning as I was doing just that, the pile of ice was rapidly building and it looked just like snow. So I piled it up on the shower floor and gave Benjamin a cup to build some snow castles. I showed him how and he was very keen to get going. I left him happily building, chuffed with my motherly creativeness. 30 seconds (I kid you not) later he was back. Bored and wanting my attention. That is life with Turbo.


A month or so ago, I made a few decisions and helped myself get focused on what I want to achieve in the next few years. One of these decicions was to learn the guitar and get back into music a bit more. So today I learned how to tune my guitar and learned two chords.

Another goal is to write more, because you only get better by practising. And what better way than to blog? With writing, it's good to also be able to take good photographs and use a program like Photoshop. I want to make myself a simple header with a photo for my blog. So I looked up an online tutorial and tried to teach myself. I got nowhere! It's really not very easy. But I learned what a layer is, for those of you who know what I'm talking about. At least that's something. I'm going to have to enlist the help of the awesome Sammy who knows a bit way more than me about the program.

I also called the university I did half my degree at (before unexpectedly falling pregnant with Turbo) and asked them to send some information out. I may start doing some papers soon because finishing my degree is another one of those goals. I was thinking about going back full time but the cost of two kids in day care might bankrupt us in the process.

On top of all the above, I folded washing, washed dishes, sent a few emails and managed to relax a bit. Sigh.

I am content.

Faithful steed

Faithful Steed has been with our family for a while. She started out with my sister and carried her eldest son (pictured right at 11 months old - he's now almost 5!) faithfully for a couple of years. Then she was passed onto me when I was pregnant with Turbo. What a blessing! My sister is extremely generous and this is not the first (or last) thing she has passed on to us.

Here is a picture of Faithful Steed when we were out on a walk with Turbo, just 11 weeks old, in 2008:

The best thing about her is that the infant car seat clips in, so no need to wake a sleeping baby when moving from the car. Love that feature! Smiley is still in the infant car seat but only just. We pick up Turbo's new seat next week and Smiley will graduate into Turbo's. Anyhoo.

Faithful Steed has been on many adventures with us like this one. He drives well in most terrains and, most importantly, is easy to steer one-handed so the other hand can hold a coffee!

In the last few days, Mr Samoa has mentioned that Faithful Steed is looking...well, erm, a bit shabby well-used. Now for Mr Samoa to notice, it has to have got quite bad. He is laid back and doesn't usually notice these things.

So instead of moaning about not being able to get a new one, I chose to let the Kiwi DIY/fix-it ingenuity rise up and I gave Faithful Steed some much needed TLC. A little expert (NOT!) stitching on two torn and frayed corners, a hard scrub where mould has sprung up (bless this bloomin' humid climate) and some good old Gaffa tape on a split handle bar.

Ok so there's not much I can do about the parts that are faded from the sun but at least Faithful Steed is looking a little less worn. And Mr Samoa was very happy with the result...which I only managed to accomplish, of course, when he had taken Turbo out to the park.

So thank you to my loyal Faithful Steed. Don't think you'll do another baby but I bet you'd still try.