Not a shoe person

I've decided I'm not a shoe person. I have about two pairs of shoes I wear during the week, a pair of exersize shoes and church shoes. That's it. I find it a bother to put socks on to wear closed toe shoes and end up wearing my reefs all year round and occationally my ugg boots. It's probably why my feet are wide and don't seem to fit into cool, hip, pumps that some of my mates wear. I feel like the ugly step sister trying on Cinderella's glass slipper.
So why bother holding onto shoes just because you think you might wear them once?
So here's some shoes that have hardly been raced or rallied.
They're free and looking for a good home.
These are size 9

These are size 9

These are size 8 and a half.
I'm gonna end up taking them to the DI (second hand store) if no one wants them. I just figured if I could give them to a mate, why not?
So anyone in Moscow or Utah who wants them just let me know and I'll get them to you.

Artwork

Here's a couple of Masaru's drawings as of late.
Here's his spiderman. This took him 2 days to do. He was so proud of it, so so was I. I did the eyes and lines on him but Masaru did everything else including the writing.

I think this is pretty cute. It's his first family portrait. We've all got hair, ears, feet and hands, but no clothes on. I think he was too exhausted for clothes. He was also tired from writing all of our names. He opted for Tak instead of Takeshi. Lucky mum and dad are pretty easy.
Good job bub.
PS When he was doing me he goes, and I quote "This is you skinny mum"

Thanksgiving

So cooking Thanksgiving isn't for sissy's, that's all I've gotta say.
We spent the holiday with the Bleazard family. We split it up 50/50 between them and us and this is the result. Pretty awesome if you ask me. Green beans, mashed potatoes, mashed squash, candied yams, turkey, rolls, carrots, stuffing, gravy, cranberries and juice.
We didn't even put a dent in it. So if you'd like to come over for dinner tonight or for the next week just show up at around 6ish and we'll make you a plate.
Robby did the turkey. Yes it was as good as it looks. Nice work Robby, you da man.
Dru and I looked at each other, after dinner and the kids were in bed, and started laughing cause we were so exhausted.
We spent more than half the day cooking and were pooped. Now we have a little more respect for our mum's who do stuff like this. So a big shout out to all the mum's who spend the whole day cooking while their kids have the best day ever mucking around, playing and being spoiled.
It's all worth it. I think.........well I dunno lol.
I also wanted to put this picture of Yuki here cause I owe her a little shout out for sitting still while I did her hair up like this.
She's awesome.
Special hair do for a special day/girl.

We also were excited to make Dru's grandmother's apple pie. She honestly does the best pie I've ever tasted. So after she passed her daughter gave us a cook book of all her recipe's. This is one of them. So we followed it to the T.
And here she is in all her glory. Now I'm going to sound arrogant but it was so yummy.
I don't know if it was as good as Grandma's, I mean I'm not THAT arrogant but I think we did a damn good job of it if I do say so myself.
I'm telling you man, Dru and I make the best team. I love working with him.
Doesn't that look good?
Oh yeah baby.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
I hope yours was as good as ours.

Grateful

Lately the books I've been reading have made me feel grateful, even before Thanksgiving came around.

I guess now is the 'appropriate time' to express my gratitude.

Between 'Night' 'Three Cups of Tea' and 'My sisters Keeper' I have much to be grateful for.

After reading 'Night' I feel extremely grateful for my freedom.
I'm free to be a mother and know that my kids won't be taken from me and brutally killed just because of their race.
I'm free to have a testimony of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for me and even be allowed to tell people about these feelings that burn inside me without being thrown into some kind of horrible prison.
I have food in my cupboards and plenty to feed my family so my children never have to know what it feels like to slowly starve to death.
I'm warm at nights and sleep peacefully knowing I'll be safe.

After reading 'Three Cups of Tea' I feel extremely grateful for my education.
In my life I was never looked down upon for being a woman. It was fully expected of me to gain my bachelors degree. I was able to go to a public school system that, even though, we called it flawed it's free and educated me just fine.................well I'm a crappy speller but I wouldn't put that all on the public system!!!
Even though my parents were too poor to pay for my University years I had a government who had enough money to help me out so I could gain this education.
I had options.
I had a way.
Others don't.

After reading 'My Sisters Keeper' I feel extremely grateful for my body and family.
My body functions perfectly. It moves how it should, I need no help and neither does Dru and the kids.
I need to remember to always be grateful, daily, for this body that functions so well. One day, if things go 'normally' I'll be older and this body will slowly give out, I need to remember to be grateful for these days that my body is working flawlessly and to treat it how it deserves to be treated.
I'm grateful for each and everyday I have with my little family.
I didn't know I could love this much.
Do you ever feel like you love so much you could burst?
Have you ever sat back and watched a situation playing out between your husband and kids and just want it to last forever?
I love the days, minutes, seconds I have with them.
I'll forever be grateful for the gifts they are in my life, the things they teach me and how they make me look at things in a new light.
I know things can change in seconds.
So I'm grateful.

Takeshi laughing

A Man's Man or Just Insane?

My brother, for what ever reason, decided that he wanted to start entering triathlons. Most "normal" people would start with the spudman and then maybe aspire to the Echo Triathlon. But no, that's not the way my brother rolls. It's all in or nothin.
So this past weekend he entered the Tempe Arizona Ironman. Yeah that's right, a freak'n IRONMAN. I don't know about you, but that just sounds insane to me. I think people who want to run marathons are nuts. Now wrap that with a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike. "I think he's loosing his mind."
Curious, I looked up the race results (public information apparently) and he didn't do too shabby for a first-timer. Hell, I'd probably be happy if I ever placed as high as he did-not that I'm interested in entering an Ironman. His comment-"a half hour faster would have been better."
Even though I think he's nuts for even having the desire to enter, I'm proud to say that I know someone who has finished an Ironman.

Cakes

It was my mates twin girls second birthday on Friday, so I asked her if I could make their cakes for their present. She said yes so I asked her what they liked. She said "Nemo, anything princess and Care Bears"
I opted for Nemo.

Sandwich

Is that how you spell sandwich? Anyway the kids were yelling at me to take a picture of them making a 'sandwhich' with their father on the couch.

I guess dad's the meat or peanut butter in the middle and my kids are the bread. They were really happy with themselves and wanted me to record it.
Sometimes I think kiwi is like 'Where's Waldo (USA)/Wally(NZ)' in my pictures. He's always hanging around somewhere LOL

The End

So I thought things were going great with my breast feeding and I was finally getting somewhere you know, but the past couple of weeks I was wondering if I had enough. He would cry after every feed but I think just gave up crying so I thought I was doing well.
Then I read that if they're wetting enough then you know they're doing ok.
He'd been wetting just fine, until the last week.
I could keep his nappie on for half the day and it have maybe one pee in it. Not a good sign.
I increased my herbs, drank more, 'tried' to relax, although I don't think this is happening. It's really hard for me to relax with a household to run and three kids in tow.
I'm stressed as well, but I don't know how to not be stressed. So what do I do? Starve my kid?
This time of the year is horrible.
Dru's gone all but 2 hours a day. He gets back at like 2am and leaves in the morning.
So the household and children are all me you know. Which is just how it is for the next month and there's nothing I can do about it.
Dru's stressed enough as it is.
Now I'm not complaining as much as I am letting you know just simply what my life is like and why on earth I'd be stressed.
So my guess is stressed means, no milk.
He took some formula tonight and lay on the couch in a comatose state for about half an hour.
It would've been pretty funny if it wasn't sad.
He did a poop STRAIGHT away and went to sleep.
I feel bad.
I'm not sure what to do.
I fed him first and he still ate like 6 oz.
So he's getting next to nothing from me.
It's a tough decision and inward battle I have, each time this happens.
Breast feeding stresses me too as I'm constantly worried if they're getting enough. I know that's not good either.
It's a vicious cycle I guess.
I know I'm hormonal and a little emotional and so I starting getting down on myself that I'm not a good enough mother cause I can't breast feed for a whole year, then that causes more stress, which we now know means less milk.
Winter is coming up and I desperately wanted to breast feed him through the winter months.
But I'm not sure I can de-stress you know, enough and long enough to get my milk back.
I've never been able to get it back once it's gone like this.
I've tried numerous things here and in NZ. Nothing worked.
I think I just need to change to the bottle, for my mental health and for his health.
Anyone lost their milk and got it back?
How did you do it?
Does it seem like I'm giving up too quickly or easily?
I know it does.
I guess no one will tell me cause I'm hormonal LOL


.

Elise

So here's my niece. It's been around 3 and a half months of treatments and hospitalizations.
Here she is with all of her beads. These beads are a representation of every single treatment she's had on her tiny, 4 year old body. My sister said it's great as there's no way she could remember the different treatments she's gotten over the last three months.
Typical child, happy and smiling against all odds. She's lost a bunch of weight. I didn't recognize her at first and stared at the picture for a few minutes to make sure it was really her.
I think she's lost like 9kgs so about 20 pounds since it's all started. Or it might be 6kgs like 15 pounds.
It's her birthday next month and she'll be 5. I just hope she's not in hospital for it and for Christmas. It's been rough on her family. My sister is doing the best she can under all circumstances as well. She's started cross stitching and asked me for a list of good books she can get her hands on, as she's spending SO MUCH TIME in hospitals it's crazy.
The closest hospital is an hour away. The main hospital is 2 and a half hours away. So it's A LOT of driving.
I can't even imagine you know. I can't begin to imagine what this is like. I, obviously, cried seeing her like this. Her hair was strawberry blonde and wavy and beautiful.
Sarah said in the last 6 weeks her, her husband and three girls have been to gether a total of 8 days.
THAT'S IT.
I've got nothing to complain about. Sure Dru's in the finals schedule now of seeing us 2 hours a day and me and him spending ZERO alone time together BUT we're all healthy and I get to stay at home with the kids.
Just makes you think aye.
What's important.
What you're grateful for.
What you're complaining about.
There's ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, people who are worse off than you. I think that's why the majority of our prayers we say should be thank yous, not asks and blessings on these other people like my sister, that they can have strength and when we see a need, we can fill it, without complaint.

Super Saturday 4

It's a recipe book. It's great cause now I can just print recipes off the computer and not re-write them onto a little card to fit in my little recipe box.

I'm happy with it.

My last activity is a quiet book.
No I WON'T be posting that tomorrow. That's gonna take a while. I'm excited for it though.

Super Saturday 3

Here's my third project I started and just finished today, thanks Lacee.
It's a Christmas countdown. I made one for me and one as a Christmas present for someone.
I think it's a great idea and I'm excited to use it with Masaru since numbers aren't his strong point at the moment.

Super Saturday 2

Here's my second project. It's a kids apron. Again, I cut it out at the super saturday and finished it at home.
It was a little more time consuming cause I had to make my own bias tape outt've the material. Talk about tedious.
I liked the way it turned out though and am extremely grateful for Tessa and her idea to do this as well as Sarah and Lacee's hard work.
It might be cause it's late at night and I'm sleep deprived and Takeshi is crying cause he needs a feed right now, but these look like boobs!!!
They're suppose to be pockets. They don't look this bad in real life.
Can't go wrong with Peanuts right?