ouch

Poor little Catherine... I shouldn't be so hard on her. She's had a stiff neck for a week and someone suggested I take her to an Osteopath... and it turns out she'd put her neck out! They had to click it back into place. We don't know how she did it but it might have been something as simple as leaning on her elbows all day at school and while she watches tv.

And this is what I got up to today :)

Wow. I was looking back through my blog the other day and realised the last time I painted a panel on my van was August! At this rate, I thought, it'll be 9 months before it's done. So I sanded another panel today, and hope to paint it tomorrow.

Here's Catherine at the book parade. Her class did the Lion King.

She is also in the Christmas Drive Thru at Greenlane Christian Centre... and I sit there as she practices thinking "why is my kid the only kid that is twirling around, not listening and crawling along the floor like a dog with an itchy bum? Is it my fault that she acts so A.D.D? Did the fact that I had a mental illness with the concentration span of a goldfish a few years ago get passed on to her some how? Or will she just grow out of it? Who knows.

Garden's going great and it's my first time growing peas. They are loving this hot weather with occasional rain showers!

Here's that sign. I finished it today. Yay for no more stuff ups!

As they say in the comic strips... AAAARRGGHHH!

Well, let me tell you about something really DUMB  I did yesterday. One of my customers asked me to redo a sign, and I was a bit nervous not knowing what to expect, so  I packed the van with paint, trays, 2 ladders, heat guns and everything imaginable. When I got there I saw this sign. "This has gotta be it" I thought, expecting the worst. (I mean, look at it). Got to work and managed to get off two letters without a heat gun.

Just then I thought to myself, "Wait a minute... didn't he say it was on a pole?". Looked to my right and saw this...

DOH! I'd just taken two letters off someone else's sign!!!

AAAARRRGGHHHH!

Well, long story short, I rushed home and cut two letters and replaced them. Then feeling like a chump I thought I better tell them... and the guy just laughed (praise God!!). Glad some people have a sense of humour. Well, looking at the state of it he musn't have been too concerned about it anyway.

In the end, all I needed was a scraper and some turps.

The sign I actually had to do was still daunting, but I managed to get up there by resting the ladder against one of the bolts. As you can see the ladder is on quite a lean. Not too bad for a girl who couldn't even stand on a chair to change a light bulb when she first started sign writing, aye?

But still, ridiculous mistake!!!

Big news in lil old New Zealand.

Well, I voted today. A day early. Call me conscientious or what. I won't tell you who I voted for, but if you don't know anything about New Zealand politics... it's a JOKE. Our politicians are clowns!

Let me give an example.

They've just had what they call the "teapot saga". Right before the election our Prime Minister , John Key (pictured right)  was recorded at a lunch table, chatting with his mate. He was basically heard to have said he was a shoe-in to win, and joked about the average age of Mr. Peters voters (mostly elderly).

Oh the scandal!!

Mr. Peters found out what was said and made a big flourish telling everyone.

Does this sound like grown-up people to you? or kids in the playground?

Cupcakes

There's a cake stall at Catherine's school tomorrow, and I baked 41 cupcakes! Overkill?

What I don't get is that we are fundraising for a trip to the zoo.... First we buy ingredients, then we spend hours baking and then we give our children money so they can buy other people's baking... why don't we just pay for the trip?

I also had a funny thought. I have two talented cake maker friends, Dana and Charmaine, and started wondering what would they do for a school cake stall when they have kids of their own? The mind boggles.

Vivid

Did I ever tell you about when I went to Tarawera recently, and I'd been 3 days without a computer and had spent the days walking through bush? That night after I put the girls to bed I turned off the light and lay down and closed my eyes.... and just about jumped out of my skin. I swear, as soon as I closed my eyes I was standing in the middle of the bush, with ferns and trees, pebbles I could almost touch and a little stream running past me. To add to the effect, I'd left the fan on in my room and a breeze was blowing on my face! I just can't describe how vivid it was. I could almost touch the things around me... it was like one of the bible visions, honestly, I  didn't know what was happening.
I remembered this last night and shut my eyes to see what my minds eye would see.... and saw my mouse hitting an icon!
 Hmmmmm.....

I'm a christian but....

.... I love watching these Atheist Experience shows on You Tube
(and my church thinks I ask hard questions!!)

.... I love reading the Hare Krishna books they give out when they hang out in Papatoetoe

.... I love philosophy (do we even EXIST?? hehe)

... I am reading the Qu'ran right now

(which often leads to awkward silences when I mention it to other christians. Sometimes I'm tempted to leave them there languishing, but that's not love, so I say something like "I'm confident enough in my knowledge of the bible not to be intimidated in learning about other religions")

Basically, I just don't think we should be ignorant as christians, coz you know, christians can say some pretty ignorant stuff (not excluding myself there). Plus I love learning this stuff, and I don't think Jesus minds me doing it.

PS. You'd think my blog would be alot more enlightened than it is wouldn't you??! but I'll probably be blogging about my potatoes or something next week.

BEIRUT - In the Mausoleum from The Flying Club Cup

I just discovered these guys. Pretty awesome music!

No, I'm not being facetious

I just love Philosophy. I listen to lectures on the Internet from Oxford and Harvard (gotta LOVE the net!), and I'm reading a book called called The Rights of Man, by Thomas Paine.

But I've just come across the coolest  DVD I watched today with Catherine's cousin. I just gotta get this book. It's DEEP.

Potted seedlings, making do.

One of the advantages of being a large consumer of hot drinks is that when I have need of some milk bottles to cut into pots for some tree seedlings I find... I can go to our recycling bin (which gets emptied weekly) and pull out 6 2-litre milk bottles quite easily.

Did I tell you I love budgeting? Mum was sick the other day and sent me out with $60 cash to buy the entire weeks groceries. BLISS.  I came back with $10 change! I even decided to bake biscuits that week instead of buying them. Fun, I tell you, it's FUN.

And I've reached a little milestone in my business. Business? I hear you cry? Didn't you give up your business , like, 5 times now? Well, yes I did pretty much, but I kept my GST payments going and kept selling a few stickers on Trade  Me here and there, and kept my website going.... but basically I've been on holiday for 9 months! Well, anyway, a couple of biggish jobs came in and they paid quite well. And they came through word of mouth, and that encouraged me a wee bit, so I decided I might try this word of mouth thing instead of  just advertising... and well, long story short, the mile stone IS... that I've finally been able to pay myself a small wage for the first time in 5 years! I'd feel like a real adult if I could support myself one day, but still...this is quite an achievement for me really.

Death isn't funny. Unless you're Irish. Then it kinda is. My last post was sposed to be kinda funny... in it's own lame way.

Oh well, onwards and upwards. Here's how my Datsun's going...

And then I look down...

Sometimes I have conversations in my head about God. And the thing about that is, I know He's listening to everything I say... AS I think them. Sometimes they are bad things too. Sometimes I think what's the point? Things are never going to be good because God want's us to grow spiritually so He's gonna be bringing bad things into our lives for the rest of our lives! so there's no point planning or dreaming for better days because things will always be bad... till we die... so I want to DIE.

 Then I realise I may not have things in quite the right perspective, because I look down at my plate and I realise I'm eating a toasted cheese and ham sandwhich with feta and spinach dip made from Baker's Delight bread. And I look up a bit and there's fresh flowers on the table and a cake tin with intricately painted scene that someone hand painted. Not to mention if I shut off my mind to my own thoughts I can hear birds outside and it would actually be quite a pleasant day if I just decided to enjoy it!

And then I say sorry, and ask God to help me get a better perspective on life.

And hey! my Datsun. She's all legal now. Got the Warrant and Regestration yesterday and 3rd party insurance. I am spending the rest of the day cleaning her up so I can get her evaluated for full insurance. It's a good day really...

Heck!

Holy heck! I was looking through some of my old photos and I can't BELIEVE how over grown it was behind the garage before I finally took my Uncle's advice and planted grass seed there. 

 This is before...

                                                         This is the after!

And check out this beauty! Dad used to grow leeks every year but this is the first time I've managed to grow a decent leek. I don't know if it did the trick, but I got a whole lot of toilet roll inners and put them over the leeks while they were growing to keep them white. Musta done something anyhow!

Legend

Here's a hard-case add for drink driving that's just come out. We have different ones come out now and then, as we have a culture of binge drinking... this one uses humour to get it's point across... probably a good tactic though, because I've seen people even share this on Facebook.