Outings Galore

This week we have actually managed some dry nights to enjoy walking home without getting wet, and we were even blessed with our first fine and warm Saturday for hmmm it must be eight weeks!

The awesome view of the snow-capped Tararua Ranges on our walk home almost makes up for all the terrible weather we've had!
Mark had a wee mishap with the front bumper a week or so back, so we now have a fully functioning car again after having a new bumper fitted in the week (yay for insurance!), and we felt a bit more free to travel around this weekend without the worry of not having any front indicators as we had last weekend. The night we drove the car back home from town we got home a little earlier than usual so we had a bit of fun throwing some balls around in the driveway making the most of the last of the light and a fine evening to boot!

Noah has been really enjoying The Wiggles of late (aka 4 cheesy Australian blokes doing kids songs complete with Dorothy the dinosaur, Waggs the dog and Noah's favourite Captain Feathersword the pirate). I have been trying to rent a different Wiggles DVD out from the library most weeks, and he really enjoys dancing to all the music when we put it on after dinner every night for half an hour before bathtime. This week we have 'Pop Goes the Wiggles' which is all the old-school nursery rhymes, and he particularly loves doing the actions to 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush', and 'Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around'.


Lots of singing and dancing going on at home these days......  
The last few weeks have been a bit tough for me as we are going through a company restructure which means that 6 positions, 3 of which are my immediate team mates including my manager are being made redundant. This means quite a few new tasks and responsibilities are now going to be included in my role. Whilst I am trying to see it in a positive light and as a chance to grow and expand my role, the timing is not that great as I am not finishing my Chartered Accounting studies till the end of October and all my team are finishing work on Friday. I also had a great team and we had all worked together for over 3.5 years so I will be very sad to see them leave. It will be very different going forward being a team of just me, my part-time student and a part-time administration resource who is only going to be a temporary contractor for the next few months. I do believe that God has it all in control though, so will just have to remember to take each day as it comes over the next wee while!

Anyway, enough about work. This weekend we enjoyed some lovely outdoors time in the warm sunshine. After the weekly supermarket visit with the obligatory detour to watch some planes take off on the way home, Noah and I ran around home having a fun game of Follow the Leader (me following him), jumping up and down our patio steps, zig zagging through the olive trees, and falling over onto our pebbled area. Saturday afternoon we took a long overdue trip to Karori Pool. We worked out we hadn't been for six months, so we were expecting Noah to be a bit apprehensive, but he was remarkably good (i.e. no tears!), and didn't need too much coaxing to get into the swing of it. More to the point he had to be coaxed out at the end, it was only with the bribe of a banana that we managed to get him out of the pool!


Noah emulates the planes taking off with great gusto.....   Sunday morning we went to the zoo and met up with a few friends and parents from daycare. It was a bit of a miserable day, raining fairly steadily but with our season passes it didn't seem like a waste to take in a quick circuit of most of the animals. We were fortunate to see the kiwis (as much as you can in the near pitch-black darkness) as we hadn't seen them the other times we have been. We also got to see the chimpanzees up close enough to touch through the glass, and there is one tiny baby chimp who is just far too cute for words!

  This afternoon there was just enough time for a quick sleep for Noah and out to visit some friends in the Hutt Vally for afternoon tea. The rain has showed no signs of abating all day so we did very well to get outside as much as we did yesterday.

Mark and I have continued to enjoy the Olympics (in between study for me) this week. GB has been doing awfully well - 4th in the medal table. NZ has had a quieter week this week, but to see Bevan Docherty so extraordinarily happy after a bronze in the Triathlon was so refreshing. Usually the athletes who get the minor medals look very disapointed, much as if they are the poor relations, but you would have thought Bevan had won the gold the amount that he celebrated. Add to that, the fantastic result of Nick Willis getting a bronze in the 1500m up against the entire might of the African continent, has made it a week to remember for us Kiwis. His lap of honour around the stadium must have been a record for the slowest ever, as he thanked every Kiwi he could find in the crowd, so excited and elated was he.

In other news, we are hoping that Grandma will be able to come home this week so hopefully next time you read this Grandma, it'll be from the comfort of home! We all continue to send our love and prayers to you each day!