{M}ichelle

Where do you go??

Been thinking a lot lately and sometimes to do that you have to go to a special place.   I have a special place, in fact maybe a couple but its somewhere where I can forget the chaos of my day and of my responsibilities and just "be" .  My place, has the open sky as the backdrop when on the darkest of nights the stars fill both the sky and the ripples of the water.  Where the horizon is caressed with the bending of long grass and punctuated with silohetted trees.  Where the moon sits in the branches of a willow and in the distance you hear the lapping of waves.  Its where I go to sit and just "be" to reflect on life and if I'm lucky sometimes to just clarify my thoughts that often get ignored when I'm at work or in the car with the kids :)  

 I've had a lot on my mind,  Times when you cant seem to make a clear decision on what your doing in life but know in your heart of hearts its like your standing at a cross road and whilst you can see the road ahead of you what you can't see is the destination.    Sometimes its about courage,  and sometimes its about comfort.  Right now these two  "C" words are at polar opposites for me so guess where I'm heading later tonight?  Back to my special place, not sure which one right now but thinking I'm gonna practice my night photography so I can put it on a page :)

One of the cool things I love about blogging has been the ability to write things down as they occur or as they come to me and later go back to them and put them on a page later.  

So just wondering where do you go?  

 If you leave a comment or if you link back to your blog "where you go" then I put all the names in a draw and pull out a winner to send of a big box of goodies!!

PS working on posting some poems but at the moment wordpress isnt letting me type them up properly... HELP

PPS  Thanks thanks and thanks so stoked to be get  4000 hits.  Was bummed :O when I moved from Blogspot to here as I had to start back to a beginning..  but again thanks for hanging in there with me and not getting bored out of your brain with my posting on my family, scrapbooking and 'stuff'!!

Gotta love these maori

cause they are all mine and with such a beautiful day was good to be outside again with them.  Admittedly Sunday is usually my day... its  where I get to go out and do my thing sometimes with the kids and sometimes without.... works especially well during winter cause DH is out all Saturday Sat night with rugby so nice to get that "me" time.   Today it was with the kids and about 4 loads of washing I might add too!

So nice day with a little bit of cloud what a girl to do... take a million and one photos and I did!  So this day we played league on the lawn, ate KFC on the deck, sang as loud as we could, drove down and collected shells at the beach, sat in the car for an hour on the way to town which usually takes about 10 mins (unfortunately not a great day for another family in a car but not sure of the details) watched my dad on kai time on the road and had children asleep in bed by 7.... Truth be told I was kinda asleep in bed by 6.30, went to have cuddles with my Joey and kia ora I'm snoring... truth be told again I woke up about 8ish bright as a button and kinda missed most of my dad being on kai time on the road but heres the little bit on him from the web site................

Next Weeks show Episode 12 - Kiwi360° - It’s Autumn time and the Kiwifruit packing factory in Te Puke is in full swing. Pete finds his way thru the maize of vines packed with juicy fruit and talks with local orchard manager Wiremu Tibble. Homman Tapsell local tangata whenua and pack house manager will give Pete a guided tour thru the factory. Dont miss this weeks episode of Kai Time - on the Road screening THIS SUNDAY 19th August at 7:00pm, on Maori Television...Buono Appetito...Mauri Ora!

Dads done a couple of these shows now with Kai time on the road adn some hunting cooking the kai after kinda shows with Howie Morrision Jnr. One story (M rating contains violence against a bunny wabbit) .... dad goes out rabbit shooting on the orchard, comes back and cooks this mean rabbit stew. Presentation wise my father is the BOMB... could make old lettuce look beautful ... he's on tv giving the big out "when I was a shepard boy in the 60s you ate what you could kill in the hills"  he serves this meal up and blow me down my sister brother and I are in shock cause we have never been served rabbit stew (not that I would eat it mind you, well maybe I would just dont tell me its rabbit) and hello makes it sounds like our everyday family meal... hell no!!

Anyway the moral of a stiry every now and then we learn something great and new about our parents and when we do its awesome.  To this I might with fathers day coming up I have the best father in the world, hands down!!!  seriously I do and sometimes I forget that but not this day!!

Ok some photos to share... hungry children thinking that they will starve

Not likely kids have you check out your whakapapa.... aint gonna happen

A little story to go with these 3 photos...ps Witeri had to turn away so he wouldnt wet himself with laughter......  Dad had the gravy son wanted it son said " I da boss dadda, not ou"

Dadda said no I'm the boss Joey not you mate, ME! (grrr)

Then Joey gets sad  (dad turns away trying not to laugh)  " I sowwy dadda, you da boss. me not da boss, me Joey"

Guess who got the gravy.....  I'm thinking your the boss Joey!!

Ok I have a 4 going on 5 year old.  Just recently like in last 5 months my daughter has been stuck to me like glue, seriosuly glue.  Let me tell you honestly and now, I'm not good with glue :(  So I have been learning to be patient and hang in there with myself and be patient with her.  Part of me needs to have independant children because of my work and sometimes I need to remember that in having achieved that to some degree sometimes a girl just needs her mama and today was one of those times.   Today was also one of the times when she asked if I could take her photo and then preceeded to tell me which of the effects on wotoshop she likes on her photos..... I tell her I will put some up on my blog and she tells me put all of them up mama so for you my girl when you wake in the morning to see if mama did what you asked and so you can no I love you when I read this to you before you head of too kohanga.............

Oh yeah we didnt win the league last night but lets not dwell on that.  Instead I'm dwelling on the fact that this time next week I will be very happy cause I would have watched the warriors game sitting in the western seats at Erricson Stadium!!  Like I mentioned in the last post we have been a rugby family but now my kids are all about league.  My boys are "bummed" that they arent coming next weekend but what do they want to be when they grow up "warriors"  They havent aspired to be All Blacks so this comes as a bit of a surprise to know that this is something they have verbalised but this maybe because of the age they are, there impressionabl.  we havent been to an all blacks game so with that in mind am thinking that attending last weekends game will stay with them in there hearts as children.  So here they are on the lawn practicing for next season....

Stoked to have some many new photos to scrap book... um which papers will go with that lovely steamers blue and yellow jersey.... umm think these photos will be black and whites haha!!

Converted to league

So my dad old school you know, rugby, local team, provincial, groundroots rugby every Saturday well that changed on Saturday!!  I went to the warriors game and wow... wow to their bodies, a given really, wow to the knocks they take.   It was an early present for my son Wiremu and so we headed up to Auckland and took Tini and Wiremus friend Ryan  and had an awesome time at the game.... the boys were mean, they were shouting out all kind of words they I didnt think they could string together and without the use of swear words I was pretty impressed that they were still able to get the "intent" without the actual swear words. 

Disappointing though, I didnt have my camera... ok slight lie, I did but I left in in the boot of the car because someone ill advised me (cough husband cough) that it would be confiscated and I certainly couldnt risk that.  hello get in the east stands in E38 seat a10 and boom hit a flash of light from like a million camera.. chuck a chip at hubbys head and give him a "man I could have scrapbooked this moment" look.... to which he hangs his head and says next time..... he doesnt get it though I'm thinking ... next time is never as good as the first time (ok there are a couple of areas where thats so not true but I'm not talking about that!!)

But some photos before going to the game of my Wiremu on the tramp.... ps I love these photos they are taken at about 5.30pm Auckland time (haha) but they I think look great....

After the game my kids hung there head out the windows and yelled out "warriors" all the way back to manukau and initially was like bloody country folk but then drove past a few others and decided it wasnt about country or city it was about dedication...  to which we were latter educated means coming to a game all the time and not when they are winning... I guess the difference between 5ooo supporters in the stand or 20000 in the stand....  Actually need to mention that Witeri and I have the best boss ever!! Thanks again boss you rock!!

more photos of meaningless but everyday events like DH kicking ball in a house which I yell at my children NOT to do.... (lots of yelling this weekend)

and some layouts also which I have been working on the last couple of days.  Used the salsa range as a colour palette because my photos were so busy with colour.  The backgrounds worked well the the photos and tried not to make it too busy again given the photos.  can you tell I'm in love with transperencies at the moment... really Michelle!!

and a couple more.... also I seem to have this thing at the moment for numbers and fonts... will have to keep a check on that cause it may cost me a bit

Dont think this page is finished yet.... gonna add some swirls me thinks in the left corner and some journalling over it as a layered effect.... umm

and I think I almost qualfy to participate in the scrap the teens site cause my son is 10 going in 15.... the horomones are kicking in at the same time as the lippy mouth.....  i need a parent course now me thinks!!

Also a special thanks to Kirsty for her "tag"  but dont so if your reading ladies your it

Sandra P

Yolande F

Lianne G

 Rach H and

Meg C

ok off to bed now

Ok so starting to get back into the swing of things

and it feels really good on the scrapbook front....  spent some time scrapbooking to day and will carry on into the night I guess but feels good to know the mojo hasnt entirely left the room.

Had a busy week with birthday this week.... can you believe it my niece who turned 5 had 3 birthday parties.  lucky girl.  One was at kohanga one on her actual birthday with all our family and then one today with her friends at lollipop land.  I think you can tell shes a first born, becuase I'm sure I did the same with our eldest but probably wont be to that scale for our daughter who turns five in November.  Shes a summer baby so will look to have something at the beach or at a part near the beach me thinks :)  so some photos anyway of us at home

Te Reign blowing out her candles

Te Reign and my Girl Parekotuku

all the maoris

and then cause I just love his little face my baby boy Joseph

ok will try and post my layouts tomorrow