Last Year

Now that I have my pictures organized and I am a little more settled, I think I am ready to look at NZ pictures without getting all misty-eyed. Okay, I still get a little mist and regret that I couldn't and did not get to DO MORE there but one day...
So here are some pictures of what the children were doing last year during January and February and maybe in a few days you can see what we are doing now :)

Mark was installing this bathroom.

Chocolate Chip Hot Cross buns were out in Baker's Delight Stores.

I was enjoying one of the nicest, warmest swims ever with no crowds.

We went to the Lyttleton Farmer's Market and enjoyed some bacon burgers at 10 in the morning.

We had pet frogs that we raised from tadpoles. I actually still really miss those frogs. Hopefully Bassett Street Kindergarten has kept them alive. At least we didn't leave them with Tom- where we knew their fate would have been sealed- don't make me bring up poor munty's fate.

I took my camera off of automatic mode for the first time. I put Ed in a swing and swung him for a long time trying to perfect an "action" shot. In the end, the pictures depicting "movement" gave me motion sickness every time I looked at them until I deleted them. Freezing is best for me.

Aida was swinging on our washing line. The kids had a lot of good times on that old washing line and I miss it.

Ed was sporting his Euro-shorts at the beach and wasn't timid about showing off the chunky legs.

We were able to create domestic bliss with good friends. Oh to have friends again...

I had a faux hawk and was busy making one of my specialty cakes for Ed's first birthday.

The girls were trying to train Ed to stay in his circle at the beach and not destroy their works.

Ed wasn't afraid of the sand. Now he has a real phobia of sand and snow-he is getting over it, slowly. Don't worry, he is fine-see he just hoarfed up all the sand. Thank goodness for the easy clean of the beach!

Maya would wear skirts as ponchos and sunhats were mandatory. I thought the look worked for her. She doesn't do it anymore and I miss it.

We were able to enjoy lazy days doing nothing at all but enjoying the local views.

Ed was in cloth nappies doing war dances in the backyard.

Our butterflies had hatched for the season and Lucy was thrilled to have them to play with.

The Complicated Me

My need for perfectionism has OFTEN caused me to over-complicate things. In my efforts to create a paperless office I have been madly scanning. Going through some of my "kid scans" where I am attempting to scan in their artwork so I can throw away their adorable originals. I was doing a quick proofing when I came across this gem of a page that I had scanned. Time well spent-wouldn't you say? I had to laugh because this pretty much sums up how all of my attempts at "perfection" come out-not at all how I picture them in my mind. It also brings the pleasant memory of how when the girls had cork boards in NZ I discovered one day that they enjoyed keeping their old, used plasters-blood and all as mementos to their injuries, all tacked to the board in a row. Although it was like pulling teeth to get them to get them to put away their clothes, it turns out they were very diligent about keeping their old plasters.

Box of Chocolates

I just thought I would take a line from "Forrest Gump" when he says that "life is like a box of chocolates-you never know what you are going to get" and relate it to my hair. I can't say that I am growing my hair out necessarily, I am more just letting it be and see what happens. So far, it has not left me disappointed-okay it has but it does seem to mix itself up. Some days I absolutely love it-like this past Sunday morn, I blow-dried it and it was exactly like Gabby's feathered look from Desperate Housewives-the rich Gabby, not the "poor" Gabby. I went to church feeling like a million bucks. Then, the next day it was comparable to a mullet and I contemplated just shaving it off. True, I have more bad hair days than good, but when they are good-(now I am not one to go on about myself) but I look FU-INE. I have this love/hate thing going on because I can't cut it-not when a Cosmo-like do is just around the bend... Then I have scoped out this new hair salon where everyone inside is 6 feet tall and garbed in black. It is like where all the secret supermodels from South Jersey hang out. Very intimidating, but could they cut my hair to look like Rich Gabby all the time?

New Recipe

Maya has decided that she would like to start a cookbook. She actually decided this last week and like much of her dreams I put it off until she forgot. HOWEVER I do have this picture that she insisted I take of her special "nutella person sandwich recipe". As you can see, the ingredients are few and the effort is minimal. Maya likes to make things to eat that she can also talk to. I never understood that whole thing about how kids like to play with their food. Prior to Maya this was never an issue, sure I had a few sloppy eaters, but Maya takes it to a whole new level. So, here is her first and last recipe to be filed along with her abc book that only contains pages for the letters a-c. I would post the actual recipe but if anyone can't figure it out for themselves..well then do they really deserve the recipe?

Joi-ze Love

I decided since there is a lot of love week going on out there, I would go ahead and post ten things that I love about New Joize. It has been a lot of change and we miss NZ terribly so I thought it would do me some good to think positive about Joize.

1. Eczema has been downgraded to "dry skin" in New Jersey, no more slathering and steroiding the girls and myself.

2. Mark's job is excellent.

3. We have full access to several varieties of mozzarella and other Italian cheeses we didn't even know existed.

4. The bike path outside my door.

5. Seasons with out the extremeness of having seasons.

6. Central heated home.

7. Beaches

8. People can still wear sweatsuits and call strangers "hon" and "suga"

9. My uggs are still "in".

10. My hair's natural wave is brought out whilst keeping frizz to a minimum.

Oh, man I could just go on and on but I best keep myself to 10. Um yeah...

13,452

I know, he's a natural. Hello! RED wagon-totally counts as a "red" picture. Plus, he just knows how to work it!

That is how many photos I have organized or semi-organized. Don't worry, I know the number seems small for 9 years of taking digital pictures because the truth is-I have MORE. Yes more. I still have old scanned albums of pictures that were damaged and then scanned in poorly and then moved from one computer to the next like 20 times, pictures from China from I don't remember where (sorry Dad), and then a few little random delights that I chose to edit and save to my desktop including my favorite folder (I kid you not), "fixedbutnotyetorganized". Who knows if they even exist and if they do, where are the originals from those bad boys?
My plans for this week were to post pictures of random red things, since obviously, I have not taken any new ones. Now here is the funny part, last night after working on photo # 11,234 I shut down my computer, went to work on it some more and "trial expired" appeared before my eager little eyes. What is funny about that? Nothing- in my world, but those of you that would like to see me "get mine" it means that all the organizing I did to find my pictures has now made is possible to not find anything at all.
Since I am an optimist and a real go-getter, I will find some red pictures for you all because that is how much I care. They may not be the best, they may be repeats, but they will have a dash of red so you can feel the love from yours truly this week.

On old one of Lucy's toes. I can't resist painting a baby's toenails. There is just something fun about it-miniature jelly beans.

How Cold

Notice how the superhero effect is able to camouflage my thumbs up?

I find that when I first step out of my house for a cold run, I actually run pretty quick until I get puffed and realize that I am subconsciously running quicker to try to get out of the cold, sort of like when you run to, and from your car. It isn't too long before I come to my senses and realize that no matter how fast I run, I cannot escape the cold until the run itself is over.
How cold does it have to be before one could legitimately not have to exercise outside? I have a real guilt complex about missing running days. I guess a diet that is heavy on chocolate chip cookies and pizza demands that I do something to minimize the damage done. True, I could and should just cut back but I can't, I am weak. The lowest temperature I have been able to endure is 32 degrees and even then I thought my nose was going to fall off and every step was labored as it felt as if my gluteus maximus was no longer functioning as a muscle but rather as two blocks of ice. Here is a picture of me in my super-hero outfit braving the cold. Really, tell me how cold does it have to be to give me a guilt-free pass to skipping a run?

What Kind of a Person

What kind of a person would post 6 posts in a row with no original pictures? I wouldn't blame any of you three readers (c'mon you know who you are) for not even bothering to look at my blog anymore. The truth is I have been madly organizing photos with a trial version of a program I can't afford. My hope being that I can catch up on the past 10000 pictures from the past 8 years and then by the time I can afford the program catching up on 3000 should be a breeze. In organizing pictures that I have already looked at heaps of times, I feel a little sick coming up in my throat (as Tom would say) when I even think of having to look at them again. I guess one could say that I am suffering from picture overdose. I haven't taken any new pictures for awhile because the thought of looking at them and organizing them-well, I already told you what happens. Oh see, now you made me think about it and I need to go hoarf. I guess that takes me to 7 posts without any original pictures (the lowe's picture doesn't count because it is ugly).