Li'l All Blacks

Today we went to visit some of Bryce's family and got a chance to see his 2nd cousin (?) Henry play rugby. Henry is 7 and Cushla had said he was one of the youngest on the team. It was a much more skilled game than I thought we were going to see, considering their age. They had "proper" scrums, lineouts and even some super hero, leap in the air trys to score. Very cute.
Henry is number 9 and was a great player. Very focused and a super tackler. Here's a picture of him at the end. His mom Rachel said that he would not be in the bath till later in the day. Not by her choice, but he just loves being dirty and we saw the esteem he held around the big rugby boys later, with having lots of dirt on him.


The picture below shows Henry and an opponent (with barefeet,of course) fighting for the ball.

Head butting teenager- the latest update

So, we got a letter. Actually we got a phone call from the police first to tell us a meeting of her whole family and lots of agencies were meeting with "HER" to help her rehabilitate to a proper citizen who doesn't head butt strangers. Then today, we got the apology letter she wrote. Man, there was some shocking grammar, spelling, not alot of thought process...or flow, but a nice gesture, I guess.
If you would like the low down on what the letter actually said, I'll let you know, but not in a public forum like this. I do believe that the police are doing all they can to make her make amends for her rash stupidity, but it's hard not to criticize when she obviously behaves like this for many reasons than just her being an "evil unruly teenager". I did like the addition to the letter that was addressed to me, "I am so sorry for making your female partner affaid and making her scared. You both should really visit our town again. After all, there are alot of excellent people staying here including myself."
The giggle we had was retribution enough. Surely that doesn't make us evil, does it?

Grandma/Grandpa Party

So, this past weekend we were home for the first time in 3 weeks. How great it was! We spent the day doing some much needed gardening and stacking some free firewood we got after giving some labour to a farm who needed lots of wood gone, after the big wind storm from 3 weeks ago.
On Saturday night, we were invited to Michelle and Nathan's house for a house re-warming/birthday party that was a Grandpa/Grandma theme. It was awesome to see everyone's outfits because everyone got into the theme of it. Crazily enough, Michelle's outfit was so good she actually didn't look like she was wearing a costume at all. I can see her looking like that as an old teacher one day! (Just kidding Biggs!)

Bryce and I, looking ahead to the Year 2043:


So Bryce and I went to the Salvation Army and got some "cool" nana duds. Bryce got a plaid engineers hat and plaid suit jacket. I bought a turquoise blue 2 piece suit, with lapels and shoulder pads. The skirt was a size too small. It's amazing how after a glass of wine, wearing a skirt that is only partially zipped up isn't such a big deal.
Enjoy the pics. It was such a fun night!

John and I, "In my day, we didn't have schoooool buses, or cars! We had to walk to school, uphill both ways. That's the way it was, and we liked it!"


Grandma Kim Kelly - but in the car with my cellphone camera - not a good mix


THE BAHAMA CRESCENT REST HOME - not everyone that was at the party, but a good overview of what it looked like with all of us as old fogies


Michelle Biggs - aka, the best costume for real life resemblance... to an old teacher


Clare - enjoying the old woman bra, with old woman breasts


Clare with me, enjoying the comfort of her old woman breasts


Clare - getting her old groove on (before she busted her hip, that is)


Don't mess with the geriatric crew. We'll waste you.


Kim, John and Bryce

On another note, I have truly enjoyed watching the Olympics. B and I have been glued to the TV every night, and on most occasions been caught yelling and cheering on the athletes from our lounge. I think that having so much sport on TV is just fabulous and wish it came around more than every 4 years. Quite sceptical about the Jamaican success in the track events though. Can't help it. I am putting money on them being "juiced". Mind you, I would rather find out they had some amazing unusual training regime instead, which made them stand out so far amongst the rest of their competitors.
Super impressed with all the sports, especially Synchronised Diving, Gymnastics (every event) and the 10km swimming marathon. Who swims for 2 hours? Like, seriously? What is up with that?
Volleyball is still by far the greatest event at the games, but I must admit, I am thrilled to be watching any sport when you know you are seeing the best people in the world competing at that event. It doesn't get much better. Except when they are on the trampoline....and they fall. And only because I have been yelling, "fall, fall, fall" at the screen. That is always better than any gold medal.

2 week catchup...

How dare I leave the blog unchanged for two weeks? Shame on me. So I will make it up to you with funny pics.
First off, I am going home to Canada for a well deserved family visit to meet the newest Knights: Zoe and Annalise. They will be almost 2 months old before I get a cuddle so hopefully they will be well out of their "puke on their aunt" phase. (I can hope, can't I?)
Second, Two weekends ago we went up to Ruapehu again for a ski weekend with Carl, Denise and some friends of theirs. They had booked a great chalet, which was an A-frame style house with a cosy fireplace, a warm shower and bedrooms upstairs right above the fireplace so that the rooms were stinking hot at night. Nice though, considering it was snowing lightly outside.
So Bryce and Carl got a big day snowboarding in on Saturday, while the ladies stayed back at the chalet, chilled out, went for a run, and then went up and watched a snow competition on rails up on the mountain. Denise and I also partook in a little bit of "bum-sledding" on any slope we could find. Great fun.
The next day, we decided we were going to spend the next day toboganning so we bought some small slide on bum toboggans that you sit on, with the handle that goes between your legs. We had a great time and because you are up high on the mountain/volcano, there was a lot of powder. I have never sledded in powder. It was awesome, but super cold when it blew all over your face from sliding through it all.
Bryce had got a tummy bug late Saturday night and felt pretty sick after almost fainting in the chair lift lineup on Sunday, so he cut the ski day short and we headed back home pretty early. And No, no 14 year old girls caused us any trouble this time, which has nice.

Weekend in Vegas

Another weekend away, another long drive on both Friday and Sunday (5 hours each way), but another whole suitcase full of memories as well. Good to be getting away after being homebodies for a month or two. Mind you, being at home for a weekend is looking pretty appealing now.

So, we drove up to Roto'vegas' on Friday, amidst lots of rain and bad kebabs and stayed with Mark and Rachel for the weekend. They were on call for the entire weekend, so our visit was complete with great vet stories about delivering calves with arms up the cow's backside up to Mark's shoulder, and about twisting uterus' around to deliver twin calves. It is always great to reflect on your own job and how the problems of unruly teenagers are still always preferable to me than putting my entire arm up the backside of a bovine. Although, we are looking at alterior discipline strategies at the school....maybe I should pass on the suggestion....I'm sure the threat of it would cause some behaviour changes!

Anyway, I digress. The most amusing vet story/situation I encountered this weekend was when Mark and Rachel were both busying around getting their vehicles ready for their next call-outs and they were discussing how they need to go back to the clinic for some lube. Silly of me to picture a small, toothpaste size tube of lube for delivering a cow. Instead, I was shocked to see that the amount of lube they use in these deliveries is carried in a plastic milk-type carton, that must hold about 10L of the stuff. Ewwww......so impressed with them though. MArk and Rachel I mean, not the lube jars.


So we had a rainy weekend, AGAIN. But we at least were in Rotorua, so we had great sulphur stench all weekend, along with a fun ride for Rod and Bryce, an AllBlacks vs Australia game to watch at the pub, great cooking from MArk and Rachel, lots of cafe visits with Rod and Donal and a visit to see that Maureen's tree is looking strong and healthy once again. Oh, and I also ran a half marathon.


The race started in lots of rain. Cold. I was wearing mitts. Didn't want to get out of the car. But finished in 2 hours 13 minutes. Same time I did at this race last year, with not as bad weather and surely a more severe headwind on the last 5Km that we had last year.


On the drive home, we came across some flooding on the highway. With my fancy new phone I captured some of the water shots from the car. This country has gone from drought in some areas, to serious erosion, mud slips and floods in the same areas, all in one year! Blessed to not have had those problems with our town. And our house. Our main house problem right now is that only 5 out of 6 of our cauliflower seedlings have started growing. Life is good!

Oh and I got to meet (over Skype) my new niece Zoe the other morning. Big baby, but still soooo tiny!