November Memories

: : That time he stretched A L L the way across my bed : :

: : Yes, this actually happened : : 

: : Manufacturing her own laptop ;) : :

New Month, New Goals

Welcome to September!

The calendar has flipped over another page and I'm beginning to see things pop up about a new season too; change is in the air and my blog isn't escaping it. If you enjoyed my {almost} daily posting through August then my apologies; if you couldn't keep up then now is your grand opportunity to catch up! ;P I wanted to knock out pile of photos -- getting them edited and posted, seeing as I have so many to catch up on; to that end daily posting was a major goal for August. Turns out I have more captures from Australia than I thought (which is great!), so I didn't get as far as I expected. All the editing and blogging actually took a lot of time, which may be due in large part to using my old, dying laptop for most of the month, (I finally replaced it last Friday!!) so in some ways it's a relief that the month is over!

The plan is to still post regularly and continue making progress through my photos, but I won't be posting daily this month since I need the time to focus on some other things. A few people are talking about Steptember; I want to get back into walking again but I think I'm going for Sleeptember first lol . . . I'm so tired right now. Here's hoping for some earlier nights to catch up. 

So my laptop. I think I've mentioned it a few times recently so if you've read a few of my posts you probably know something about it. Basically I bought a second-hand one several years ago and it served me pretty well without much upkeep for a fairly decent length of time. The battery died on it a while ago though, so it had to always be plugged in to the power; not particularly convenient, but I managed! Then it got to the point of only turning on when you tilted it back on a solid surface and pushed the battery in, and in the last few months it would randomly lose the internet connection and pick it up again. A few times I opened Task Manager to see what was going on and it would sit at 100% CPU for ages, even after I walked away. In the last couple weeks it presented even more problems that impacted it's use in the classes I teach as well, so I decided I had pushed it to the max and the benefits of a new one would outweigh the cost. 

I'm loving the speed of this new one, and finding my way around Windows 10 all right. I still have to buy Office for it, and I'm still setting things up as I go along. Had to change some of my passwords since I had them saved on my old system and couldn't remember what they were. ;P Guess I'm getting old lol. Oh and Xj I have a built in mic and webcam this time lol; one of these days we'll have to see how much better that is ;)

It's crazy to think that there are just three weeks of this term left! Guess I have a few things to work on to wrap it up, go away for the holidays, and then be ready for term 4. Private classes are booked one term at a time so nearing the end of each I have to sort out my bookings and schedule for the following one.

Think I'll wrap up here, it's already taken longer than expected to write this and my eyelids are drooping. Goodnight guys and thanks for reading. :)

Recently

I'm sure the summer holidays get shorter every year! At least, that's what it feels like. I guess it's more general than that though, all of life just seems to speed up as we grow older. 

My laptop adapter finally did arrive, so the technical difficulties have been overcome and I just need to find {ahem, make) the time to edit my mountains of images and then post them here. (Cheer me on guys ;) :P)

Over the past few months I have accomplished a fair bit of walking; an hour plus most days. (Xj why am I applying French pronunciation to English words now?! *insert 2015's word of the year* The above image was taken on one of said walks, on my iPhone admittedly, since I haven't been taking the camera with me.

In January the rest of the fam abandoned me (kidding) for a couple weeks and went on holiday to the Taranaki. I did have several good study days, but somehow I didn't manage to catch up on sleep like I planned lol. Ate plenty of good food though!! ;P Got in some good catch-ups with friends and finally went to a couple of services at a friends' church. It was different than I'm used to lol but I won't complain. And being in a church that didn't feel like it was trying to give Antarctica a run for it's money was a very welcome change. (I'm not telling the time I'm writing this, and yes I am sarcastic normally, but this is probably worse.)

Life took a sad turn midway through my time home alone when my nana in Wellington passed away. My family drove straight down from the Taranaki and I flew day on the Monday, in time for the Tuesday funeral. Hopefully a post in the near future will feature a number of photos from Nana's life. It was a pretty short trip for me, as we all left on Wednesday, with the others dropping me in Marton at the ATI Student Conference, and then driving back to Auckland. I spent a day and a half-ish with my awesome friend Susannah (first time seeing each other since we swapped numbers back in July last year lol), talking heaps,  drinking way too much coffee, and not sleeping a lot (paid for it when I got back :P) before I came back on Friday. (That bus driver had no de Bruin blood in him. Or the trip would have taken half the time. Just saying.)

Now that school has gone back I'm into teaching again (privately) -- and at this stage I've managed to get all my classes in just one afternoon!! *clapping emoji* This term half my students are returning from last year, and the other half are new students, learning the basics of how to hold a recorder and such. Putting students through exams is exciting, and it's amazing to reflect back over how far they've come, but it's pretty special as well to see new students grasp the basic concepts!

I finally have managed to make a start on job hunting, so to speak; I expect to have an interview pretty soon to discuss details, and then I should be picking up some part time work. I've made a second enquiry somewhere else so we'll see what comes of these two and take it from there. I'm half thinking about joining Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator too. (Anyone interested in a party?!)

And that's my update for now. If it changes it's because I changed my mind about how much I wanted to share once I had more sleep. Lol. 

Portraits || Laura Yvonne

: : Can't do her buttons up yet, so she's pulling the two sides across each other : :

: : Sitting on Bryce's garage using her "laptop" : :

: : It really does look like she's using a laptop here, doesn't it? : :

: : Cutie : :

Carpet Cleaning . . .

A couple weeks back we cleaned the carpets; and Mum shot some interesting pics. . .

: : Cute! : :

: : Can't go a whole afternoon without internet!! : :

: : And I wanted to finish a couple of skirts I started the night before : :
(No, I've never been normal and I probably never will be :P)

: : Oh dear! : :

: : How to keep it like this? lol : :

: : Photo roughly divided into thirds, slanted line. Love! Now just need to reduce the DoF!  : :

: : Home made swings :P : :

Day 3 ~ Wednesday ~ Fishing

Wednesday started out a beautiful sunny day. Dad decided we should go down to the i-site before lunch; we took the car down and I parked up ‘round the corner with my laptop to make use of Telecom’s free wi-fi. Lol.

Back at the camp we searched the fridge (no kidding, we actually have one in our tent! :P), chilly bin, and several boxes to find food for lunch. (Yep, organisation around here is lacking a bit.) Afterwards I took a chemistry test (from Dr. Wile’s textbook :)), dictation from some of the little ones for their diaries, and photos {for my blog}. And I read a bit from my book – Generation Change by Zach Hunter.

Since we hadn’t managed any ‘activity’ that afternoon (it got a bit late after the others had been in the camp pool), Dad said we should all go fishing. Well, that was his plan. I went ‘fishing’ with my laptop (excellent internet connectivity – woohoo!! Lol) sitting at one of the picnic tables on the waterfront. Hehe :P We got back around 11pm and Maria and Laura weren’t so happy. Maybe that’s why the people in the tent across from us only stayed one night . . . haha

: : Bryce and Maria : :

We don't have any great photos of this,  but you can see a few lights and things in this one.

: : Monique with here catch : :

More pics....

ok so one day last month I decided to sit outside while doing biology so I could enjoy the last remnants of summer....and I took my camera with me =)



Maria and me (Don't you LOVE my laptop? lol)

                                                 Below: Me...only slightly photoshopped!!! :P

Danielle and me


  And then my siblings wanted a turn with my camera.....



Danielle



Maria (2), Bryce (4), Diana (6)



Diana, Danielle (9), Bianca



Stratford - Day 5 - Tuesday December 27th

Written 29th December




Breakfast...mmm!! lol

Tuesday, December 27th saw the end of our family get-together. Everyone was up early, and busy cleaning, packing up, and cooking the last of the leftover food for breakfast. Yum, I love a cooked breakfast! We had to clean the entire campground, so that kept us all busy.

We had planned to stay at the campground until Friday, but another large group was scheduled to arrive at 2pm, and Uncle Mike had booked us in at Stratford Top Town Holiday Park until Friday. So we, along with everyone else, packed  our belongings and prepared to transfer. This time we hadn't packed so well, and the result was that we couldn't fit everything into the van. Oops! But Uncle Mike came to the rescue, and transported everything we couldn't fit, in his work van, to the new campsite.

 No one was in any hurry to leave, thereby putting an end to our great weekend. We all just hung around, talking and whatever, until about midday, when we were required to vacate the campground. Slowly we said our goodbyes, and one by one everyone left. Last of all, we piled into the Burton's van, and drove to Stratford, or specifically, the campground in Stratford. Torn between two accommodation options, Mum finally chose the larger backpacker room with 12 beds, and attached lounge, dining, and kitchen, (which we had stayed in the previous year), over the 4-person self-contained unit that we could have squeezed a few more beds into, thereby losing most of the lounge space.

One that difficult decision was made, we unpacked the vast majority of our belongings, and scavenged the bags/boxes of food for something for lunch.


Later that afternoon, Dad decided to drop in to Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's to see what they were up to that night, whether or not they wanted  to catch up that night. I tagged along with my laptop in the hope of an internet connection, and Jarrod and Monique for no particular reason.
Aunty Sonia kindly looked for the information I needed to connect to their wireless, but it wasn't to be. instead she found me a cable. Yay, finally I was online! I replied to a few emails and checked a blog (jesmithfamily.blogspot.com) before Dad announced, all to soon, that it was time to leave.

After a dinner of fish and chips, Uncle Mike and Nana came for a coffee, and we talked for a while. My siblings were watching Little House on the Prairie on my laptop, when it cut out after someone knocked a connection. Unable to get it to turn back on, I told them they'd have to do something else.

Once Uncle Mike and Nana had left, I was ready to do some blogging, so grabbed my laptop, plugged everything in, pressed the power button... and... nothing happened! We tried a few things with it but I ended up putting it away.

After everyone went to bed, I watched Soul Surfer on our new portable DVD player, and went to bed rather late!

Preparation for Holiday in Eltham - Thursday 22 December

Written 24th December


On Thursday, 22nd December, we were supposed to pack our bags and suitcases for going away the following day. As it happened, I was still sewing the clothes that I wanted to pack! Talk about cutting it close….man! Jarrod (12) had actually packed the previous day, so I got him to make Diana (6) a new skirt (Yes she needed new clothes badly!). I attempted to get Monique to finish a skirt she had started for Diana, but it would appear that she needs some more lessons before I tell her to just make a tiered skirt with limited help!

So I alternated between sewing and transferring some files to my new laptop. Actually I was sure there were more things I was doing, but I can’t think what!

Around 3pm we left to do some last-minute shopping (actually I only went because I needed a haircut, I had heaps of split ends and I just needed to get my hair tidied up). We didn’t make it to the hairdressers, but arrived home at 4pm, and no I actually hadn’t accomplished anything so would have been far better to stay home and continue my packing!

Anyway Mum left for her midwife appointment with Monique, and Dad took the rest of us to the mall so I could get my hair cut, while he took everyone else to McDonald’s. Yes , I needed my hair tidied up, but it kind of annoys me that I can’t seem to get my hair to grow longer and still look nice! Seriously, that was only the second time this year that I’ve actually had my hair cut, and it is definitely WAY shorter now than it was at the beginning of the year! On the way out I met a friend I haven’t seen in ages, Sara, with her Mum and Dad. =)

At home, Mum made dinner, while I replied to a couple of emails, watched part of the Little House on the Prairie DVD that my siblings were watching, and did some more sewing. After a TV dinner, I continued sewing, et cetera, and later on I played on my laptop at the same time…=) lol Dad also picked up the Burtons’ 12-seater.

Well, I finally finished packing my suitcase, and Mum packed everything into the Burtons’ van. Believe it or not, I eventually I made it to bed!

Hello again, readers!

I have MANY posts waiting to be uploaded. However, I am set on publishing them in chronological order, and the next ones to go up are sitting on my laptop. And my adapter died. So, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until I buy a new adapter...I am watching a few on Trade Me, so I'm HOPING you won't have to wait too much longer!

But, in the meantime, I thought I'd let you all (or should I say y'all? lol) know what I'm currently up to.

I started school (as in homeschool) today. Yeah, my mum thinks I'm weird too! =) Honestly, I just can't seem to stay away from it...so why exactly am I planning on graduating at the end of next year? haha 

With all the work I want to get through before then, though, I should be more than ready to finish!

Athletics starts again tomorrow. It'll be nice to be back, but it will shorten the amount of time I have for getting school done.

On Wednesday I'll be at work with Dad (oh great, I gotta get up at 6am!), and on Thursday communion begins at our church. That means morning and evening services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and one last service on Monday morning. Hopefully we'll be able to have people over during that time (people come from Australia and throughout New Zealand for communion). The challenge of juggling church, school work, making sure church-clothes for everyone are clean and ironed, and keeping the house clean for having people over will be interesting! =)

I really need to go to bed, but just quickly, I FINALLY managed to start Starlight and Time by Dr. Russell Humphreys the other day. I've been wanting to read this book for ages, so its really nice to read it now! The information has become out-dated, but the book was mentioned in the science curriculum I use. Next on my reading list is Starlight, Time, and the New Physics by Dr. John Hartnett.

Really gotta go now!

G'night all,

Bee