Christmas 2009

So the marking is over; thank goodness for that, and the holiday has begun!!! After 1300 exams I am finally happy to put "physics" behind me and move on to art of baking. Truly, in addition to "baking a child", I have been baking up a storm in the kitchen. Must be the nesting starting, who knows.

We headed up to Wanganui for Christmas with Uncle John And Cushla and the rest of the clan. We had about 17 people with us for Christmas lunch and it was great to see everyone. For those of you in a winter Christmas, we had full sunshine all Christmas day. So much so that it snuck up on me while I was sitting under a tent and the back of my arms got a wee bit sunburnt. However, I must say that there hasn't been many Christmas days where I have been complaining about sunburn!

In the afternoon, we headed to the park to play teeball with some of the lil cousins. All was going well until another little boy from a different family decided to join in and grabbed the bat and ball and had a swing with the bat, then decided to take off with it; so we had to stop the game a moment to get the bat back. Too funny.
The next day was Boxing day so Bryce and I hit the stores and got some great deals on a camera and a microwave. We had been meaning to buy both for a long time, especially the camera. Never really felt the need to overheat my food quickly in a metal box (the oven has always been fine), but EVERYONE seems to feel that if you have a baby, you MUST have a microwave. So we caved. It won't be too bad I am sure. I will have to get used to using one again though. I tried putting some ham in the microwave today for a minute and luckily a friend stopped me after 15 seconds and said, "I think you will find it's done already!" as its spluttering away. Felt like a grandma with an Ipod!
After all of our shopping we went to the pool with the kids and me tummy being hard to hide in a bathing suit made me stand out a bit. First, I wasn't allowed to go on the water slide which was pretty disappointing. Then when I ran through the inflatable obstacle course that they have over the water, I kept slipping which slowed me down. Some kid must have caught up to me and landed on top of me over some hurdle and said, "oh sorry, miss, I don't think these things are meant for people as big as you!". Needless to say, I gave him a bit of an "accidental" shove to knock him in the water after that.

Yesterday, Kirstin (Bryce's childhood friend) and her boyfriend Ant from Australia came to visit for the night in the midst of their New Zealand Christmas tour. It was great to see them and catch up with Pam (Kirstin's mom), Andrew and Quentin for a bit before they all headed back up north.
No plans for New Years yet, but we are very excited about Clare and Brent's wedding on the 2nd. Then we head up north to do some "last summer as only two" holidaying before coming back to school and getting ready for the April Project to kick it off!

I'm getting bigger!

We went out for Bryce's birthday last night and I had some fun wearing this dress which showed off the bump pretty well. Don't think I will be able to fit the dress by New Years though at the rate I am going!
Just over 25 weeks now.

Meet Mr G.

More marking procrastination....

This is a clip from Summer Heights High. An australian show that involves one actor who plays 3 different characters. Politically incorrect and so funny. Maybe funnier because I am a teacher.
(Warning: there is a bit of swearing in this clip.)

23 Weeks.

What you will note here is an attempt by Candace to do anything but mark school exam papers, no new update in ages then a whole lot at once. Here is the 23 week 'getting bigger' shot.

Vball reunion

I had a game organised last week between the Senior Girls vball team I coached for 5 years who graduated in 2006 and the Senior Girls from this year. It was great to see all the old girls again and catch up with what they are doing now. Makes me feel a bit older to see how they are done, or almost done university now! Fun day though.

More photos....

I keep meaning to have a weekly update on this thing but I seem to go in cycles: whenever I have time to add to it, I have nothing interesting to add. When I am too busy to add stuff, it seems like that is when I have stuff I want to put on here!
I will just add some of the most recent photos from my phone and do a quick entry. I seem to be in one of those phases where they is too much to do right now. Doing exam marking again this year and still have about 1000 Physics papers left to mark. What was I thinking?


This is a photo of Kim and I taken at a karaoke bar during Clare's hens party.


And this one is Clare (the hen herself) and Kim and I before the night became a bit more wild. Belly dancing and karaoke were fun. Even for a pregnant chick! I found it weird to try to swing my hips, and shake my pelvis, without actually being able to differentiate the difference anymore between my waist and hips!


This is a photo of John and Bryce, the day after John had eye surgery. This is the first time Bryce had ever seen his uncle without glasses. John's vision had been improved from the surgery and he said he was feeling naked without his specs. Awesome!!


This is some of the teachers and I at school who are dressed up as zombies for our end of year "dance on stage, look like weirdos and entertaing the kids" dance. I am on the left. A pregnant zombie made some of the kids a bit weirded out. He He