As Time Goes By

Matching outfits, cute girl and dog and killer stripey dress....what more do you want?

Tired...Few Words...Fun Days

More Hair




Indoor Mini Olympics because it rained on our parade. This is the Hurdles.
This is the photo of me jumping the hurdles taken by Kenzi. It's my jumper and skirt! No embarrassing face photo's for me!

These Are...

The things I love.  Because when you're in a different place and all you want to do is curl up in bed and let your crazy spinning head just slow down for a little bit you have to look for the good things in life like...

Stolen breakfast knives to spread vegemite on crackers for morning snacks.

Air Canada flight socks that keep your tootsies warm in a chilly hotel room, kinda duck-like don't you think?

A corner jammed with yummies, some from Amsterdam, some from the shop around the corner, and quite a few from the breakfast bar.  And an awesome green thermos from an awesome not-green sister (I'm still working up the guts to take it to breakfast and fill it with hot chocolate!).

A little buzzing heater to counteract the too-chilly air conditioning (so much for the eco-friendly claims of this hotel!).

And a little patch of sky that I can see if I lean to the right and poke my head next to the window.

But most of all, I love you, all the blog readers.  My family, my friends, all the ones who make me happier and warmer than stolen knives, flight socks, snacks, heaters and patches of sky.

Smatterings - what a great word!

These are just a smattering of things we have done in the last few days....mainly Kenzi and I because Connor has been at school and Pobj has been at work.
We made thank you cards.

She dressed as poison ivy, complete with plants in her shoes.

She shaving creamed her doll after doing shaving cream pictures on the table.

He played soccer with his mates and had a great time.

She used a shower cap because her hair was done before the shower.

She wore wearing all op-shop items.

Smatterings.

The Things I Saw

Today will be an in day for me.  It's drizzling and overcast outside today, the perfect weather for me to sit in front of the computer and get some assignment work done.  But here's a little look at yesterday when the weather was too good to waste in front of a computer screen.

Shop-wandering, the Swedes have amazing design stuff, even funky matchboxes.  If only my bag were big enough, and the bank account.

Hanging out in the Kronhus Bodarna, a courtyard surrounded by warehouses with glassblowers, silversmiths, potters and chocolate makers inside them.

Reading in the garden behind the above.  Sunshine, sweet, sweet sunshine.

I just did lots of wandering yesterday.  Andrew swung by the hotel after work and we drove to Skatås which is this great nature area with different length paths for jogging/walking.  There's always  LOTS of people up there.  Andrew thinks a sure-fire business would be to open a lycra store in Gothenburg.  I think he's pretty right.

A nice day. Ended by a trip to the airport, and then another half trip to the airport.  Our hire car's windscreen seemed to have overspray on it so when the sun was shining through we could hardly see a thing.  So we called Avis and they said to bring it back which we did.  They gave us another car and then half way home they called us because we'd kept the other car keys.  So back to the airport again.  Exciting adventures indeedey!

Cheap Recipe Number 1

(not exactly what mine looks like, but similar found here.)

This is one that I make once a week. The whole family enjoy it and with some vegies or salad on the side it covers our nutrient intake of the night.
Tuna Rice Pie
Pie Crust
2 cups cooked rice
1 onion chopped and cooked in
3 tablespoons melted marg
1 teaspoon curry powder
Tuna Filling
1x425g can tuna, drained
1 can sweet corn kernels
1 tin condensed chicken supreme soup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
breadcrumbs
Method
Combine all the pie crust ingredients and press into base and sides of a quiche dish.
Arrange a layer of tuna and corn over rice. Combine soup, milk and water in saucepan until combined and thickened slightly. Spread sauce over top. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Bake at 180'c for about 20 mins.
Chow down with a side of tossed salad and balsamic dressing. Yum!
I have no photo because it gets consumed so quickly in this house. Sorry!

Fairy Houses and Girly hairdo's

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden....or at least on top of our step ladder! Kenzi created this beautiful fairy boarding house with lots of soft moss beds after we found some great moss down by the habour.
And another hairstyle today for shopping.

Heydo

Yep, this is me checking in from Gothenburg, Sweden.  We can't seem to get enough of this country.  It wasn't that long ago we were here for Frida's wedding, and now we're back for Andrew's work.  It's great coming back, we were here a year ago and I spent 2 weeks traipsing around the city stumbling across lots of great little things.  Now I get to do it all again, and blog about it, yay!  Although there's a whole line of uni assignments to be done, so I'll have to buckle down  every now and then, lock myself in the room, and not let myself out until they're done.

Andrew said I had to post.  And because I'm a dutiful wife I am.  He said I had to post about me being a hotel wrecker.  And he's kinda right.  We're staying in the Scandic Europa.  It's really cool because they've been renovating the rooms and they're making them something like 90% recyclable.  We were in one last year and we've got an identical one again this year, although it's looking out over the front of the hotel this time.  Here's what it looks like, our's is just flipped the other way:

Oh, and about the hotel wrecking.  My bag weighs a serious ton because of my uni books.  I was slinging it up the stairs to get to our room and I took out one of the stair lights with it, in front of the whole lobby.  Oops.  Then on our way back from dinner I decided that I needed to know if the VERY LARGE ceramic balls on the side of the stairs were stuck down.  They're not.  Thankfully the one I gave a shove to didn't end up shattered at the bottom of the stairs.  We'll save the serious hotel wrecking behaviour for just before we leave.

Kindy Hair

I have been experimenting with various different hairstyles for the girl so that when she goes to kindergarten she will not come home looking like she has gone to Kansas and back on top of Dorothy's house! The trouble is the fine Weedon hair that she has inherited doesn't lend itself to curls like she always wants! So we get out the coloured bands and go to town. Here was todays church style.

Front

BackSide

She also did a concert for us the other day. She, of course, was the good fairy and Connor was bad Jack Frost who stole her pet dog.

My life is grand.

Sir Connor

Mr Connor never ceases to surprise and delight me. Today I nearly wet myself laughing because as we were eating tea he was sitting beside me. He ha-hummed at one point and I looked around only to see him with a pair of glasses on from out of the dress-up box. He looked at me over the top of his glasses and said "Hello, my name is Mr Connor and I am your teacher for today!" How ever did my quiet, shy little man get so comfortable with himself? However am I going to maintain bladder competence if he keeps on springing those sorts of things on me?
School finished about 10 minutes ago and I am still chuckling at the antics.

Bad Wife and Mother

Find this cool photo of pool volleyball here.

I realised today that I am bad wife and mother. Not because I don't love, fed and clothe my family. Not because I don't laugh with them, play with them or hug them. No, it's because neither my husband or my babies have ever had a game of water volleyball in the pool at the farm! How could I have missed this essential part of them being part Macdonald? How did Brenton ever get me up the aisle without having gone at least one round of this fun, mad, crazy and intensely competitive game? HOW?
So, because nobody has seemed to notice this,( thanks for overlooking it and letting me marry the boy if you did notice it ) I have decided that we need to have at least one game of pool volley ball over the Christmas break.
Who is in?
Also I think the rule needs to be that partners cannot be on the same team. I seem to remember it being a lot more fun when John and Linda, Rik and Donna and Mum and Dad where on opposing teams - not quite marital bliss! and lots of cheating to win against your spouse!
So, game on?

This is the way we...

Spent our Saturday morning.  Andrew volunteered (or maybe it should be 'was volunteered') to make a promotional film for our church's Care Team.  This morning we cycled down to Beaudine/Martin's house and I cooked up a potful of stempot while Andrew filmed.  When I'm in the country and there's no visitors or uni assignments due I help out around his house.  One of the things I do is peel.  Apples, potatoes, pretty much anything that is hard to do with one hand.  And that's that.  Just a little sneak-peek.

Back from the Dead

They say that the best things in life are free..I should have remembered this when I spent months saving up for a camera fix-up...because it ended up costing nothing, nada, nit! The nice delivery man who appeared at my door this morning when I was unshowered, bra less and in my sleep trackies (Ha, the spell check for this had the word tackies - how fitting!) nearly got a big hug! I was so surprised and excited. SO my camera is back from the dead. All better. It's like seeing a friend again after a long absence. Canon is awesome and great and fantastic and wonderful and amazing. YIPEE!
In honor and recognition of my camera, my friend and my recorder of life I will give it a break from posting any photo's tonight (besides I cannot find the usb cable that I need) and stick with faithful flickr until tomorrow when I am going camera crazy and posting all those things that I have not been able to photograph because of my lack of camera stasis.

Get Smart

Andrew and I had a cheap date night last week so we could blow the budget this week.  We went to the movies and saw Get Smart.  It was FANTASTIC.  I laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.  Maybe it's cause I don't get out of the house enough, but gosh it was good.  And Anne Hathaway does an awesome Agent 99, very like the old one but more self-reliant, independent, and not so Max-adoring,  you go girl!  If you have the chance to see this, I think it's a must.  And someone tell Dad to go see it, I think he'd love it.

Jumping on the Wagon

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachwass2000/)

I am jumping on the wagon on more ways than 1. (only 2 but it sounded so good!)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphie/)

Firstly I am doing the 20 minutes for 20 days that Meet me At Mikes has embarked upon. I started yesterday and it was wonderful to be up walking at 5:30am and seeing the sunrise. I also realised as I walked/jogged slowly past our local bakery that there was no beautiful bread baking smells...hmmmm very disappointing!(http://www.flickr.com/photos/araleya/)

Secondly I am jumping on the gardening wagon. I have been inspired by baby sister in this. That Zucchini was awesome and while we cannot have zucchini vines that crawl everywhere we have weeded and hoed and watered reading our pre-spring soil for all the yummy salad vegetables that we are going to plant.Kenzi and I made a small scarecrow today to go in our basil pot. We will make a bigger one for our garden. Today I feel like planting sunflowers and lettuce. I will consult the trusty Yates garden guide and see just what I need to put in and what will yield good stuff!
I think that is all the wagons today....who know what tomorrow will bring!
And Brenton is going to Indonesia. Money has been coming out of the woodwork....we are so blessed. Full story when it has finished.

Huff Puff

Find this groovy pic here.

Yup, that's what I did.  I downloaded the first week of Podrunner (First Day to 5K) and I headed out into the rainy streets yesterday morning for a bit of interval training.  I don't think I'll be heading out with Andrew for the Amsterdam Marathon, but it's really nice to cruise the early-morning, shiny, wet streets with only a handful of people about.  And I didn't keel over and die like I thought I might, it was just the right level.  Although now that I'm running I don't have as much time to peruse the roadside garbage piles.  Sigh.  Poor me.

Drum roll PLease

After dinner tonight we had a limerick reading.
We donned our intellectual poet clothing (Kenzi wore a stunning red satin dress, Connor had his shirt and tie from school on, Pobj had his beanie and bedsocks on and I donned my glasses) lit the candles and read all 11 limeriks in a very poetic voice!
Our scoring was 1 - 15points, 2 - 10 points, 3 - 5 points. Let me tell you it was very difficult!
We pondered and pondered and read and read and finally arrived at an outcome. (A little unexpected I must say!)
1st - Big Belly
2nd - Mick
=3rd - Aunt Irma, Wee and Kenzi P.
Well done to all who stretched their brains and came up with some great rhyming words and equally great subjects. Little somethings will be coming your way at some point!
Thanks for joining in and having a little fun. You made our night fantastic!

For Rohan

When Mum was here we had a visit to the Ronald McDonald House in Amsterdam.  It wasn't planned so it was even more of a treat.  We'd just stopped outside to take a photo and a volunteer (the fabulous Nelly) saw us and came rushing out to see if we wanted a tour.  And of course we wanted a tour.  Volunteers are friendly the world over it seems.  So, here's a little sneak peak into RMH on the other side of the world.

One of the bedrooms.  I think there's 18 in this House, maybe not all as big as this one though because it was one that had disabled access with a larger bathroom etc.

It was fairly open plan, so the dinging room ran into the kitchen which ran into the living area with the play area on the side.  All along the side ran big windows and doors which opened onto a terrace area and a great garden.

We had a drink with Nelly and chatted all about RMH and the joys of volunteering.  She has a friend with a wholesale flower business so all the extra flowers get spread around RMH, it really added a beautiful homeyness to it.

So, here's to RMH the world over, the splendid staff that work there (you know who you are!)  and all the wonderful volunteers!