A Long Time Ago....

I don't know what has happened to my blogging mojo lately. Just haven't felt like writing or blogging. There's been so much going on - but nothing that I've really felt like blogging about. There have been the usual ups and downs of moving town. The children are loving their school. It has been worth the move just for that. If that is the only good thing that comes out of our move, then I'm glad we did it. As for everything else --- well, in the end it will be alright. And if it is not alright, then it is not the end.
(Who went and saw that movie)?

We've had some strange things happen - a neighbour who does not like animals complained about our dog barking. But our dog does not bark excessively - she just doesn't like animals. But in spite of a nasty neighbour on one side, there is a lovely neighbour on the other with a daughter the same age as Meredith. They have really hit it off and play together alot.
We've been looking at houses to buy, but just when we start to get serious about it, it either gets pulled off the market, sold or some other complication arises. Like the land we were looking at that I blogged about a few posts back - we found out that there is no right-of-way from the road. Glad we found that out now!

We're still waiting on our house to sell in Canterbury. The agent says that our price is right. Other houses are selling in the area - so why not ours? We have given our tenants notice as we really need to have the house presented well for the price bracket that we are asking. Hired furniture - here we come!

However, on a postive note, our oldest boy, Hugh, has made it into the Bethlehem College A Hockey team this winter! He has never played hockey seriously before, so we're very proud of him for getting into the best team.
We had a marvelous holiday. It was one of those holidays that you don't want to end. I have always been glad to go home at the end of a holiday, but not this time - we all just wanted to stay there forever. Here are a few photos from the week. My parents came and stayed with us in the apartment next to ours. It is a timeshare resort at Okawa Bay near Rotorua that my husband's family own. The children made lots of friends, were able to row themselves about in the paddle boats, swim everyday and build sandcastles. We took a walk into the Okere Falls, which was definitely worth visiting (and free). The track winds down a cliff to a tunnel below, where the Maori women would hide during raids, only back then they had to let themselves down by rope! No handy stairs for them then.

Today the kids started back at school. They were all excited to go, but I did have a few protests about the winter uniform. We are still acclimatising ourselves to this semi-tropical weather up here in Tauranga, and it didn't really feel very cold to us this morning. Theodore does not like having to wear long socks, as you will notice in the photo!

Hugh is thriving at the college. He's made some good friends and his teacher tells us that he is now at the top of his math class. (That's for you Carole)! He's studying French this term and is quite pleased about it, as it is one of the options he wants to do next year, along with Graphic Design and computer studies. Meredith is really enjoying the challenges her teacher sets for her. She came home all excited today because this term they are studying war and doing speeches. Theodore has such a lovely teacher, and I do parent help twice a week, which is such a lovely way to get to know the kids in his class and the teachers. He is doing really well with his reading and catching up on that, thanks to a really great reading recovery teacher. But his strength is in numbers. He's a maths whizz!

Alice is enjoying kindy three mornings a week. She usually comes home and has a 3 hour sleep afterwards, and it gives me a chance to run my errands and do parent help at school. Our house is fast getting filled up with paintings!

Well, I hope that now I've done a catch-up blog, that it will kick-start my blogging again.