Blogging excuses

Can't believe I am using the too busy to blog excuse but that would appear to be the case. Life has been frantic with sport, production, prayer group, a renewed commitment to exercise(gulp),exams...

Thankfully it is now the school holidays and I can catch my breath a bit.

So proud of Christian - only middle school student on the lighting crew for the production - he had a ball and was in his element both playing with the equipment and scrambling up the rigging. 'Joseph' was fabulous - I love watching school productions, seeing young people give their all, and sooo much talent on stage and in the orchestra. Well done.

Nicole and I are off to Sydney on Sunday for the Hillsong Conference and some girly time (have booked the Hilton for the last night and we will check out their day spa).

Very excited.

So that will be my next blogging excuse - no laptop.

KIWIBOTS INVADE DALLAS

Sam and Christian got to meet the US ambassador to NZ last week as he invited the winning teams to a celebration reception at Sky City. Christian was particularly pleased as the ambassador gave him his US/NZ flag pin to put on his blazer

KIWIBOTS INVADE DALLAS

Immigrants of the Digital Age

Wow, crazy month. Not sure how I ever used to fit in working every day as well as studying. Things seem just as busy as they did then, although admittedly more of it is things I do by choice rather than necessity.

I went to a school assembly last week where the principal gave the students a great message on being safe on the internet. These are middle schoolers so they pretty much swim in the sea of the web everyday. They are of course what we now call 'digital natives' - those born and growing up in this new web-dominated world.

Our generation has been described as 'digital immigrants' and we will always I guess speak with an accent. I was talking with some parents after the assembly and I realised that a lot of us unconsciously choose to only learn a few key phrases out of the phrasebook!I want to be fluent in the language and topography of cyberspace and have gone out of my way to do so, and feel I am the richer for it.

The internet and all that goes with it, Facebook, Twitter etc is here to stay and we live here too - time to ditch the phrase book and go exploring with the natives.

Happy Mothers' Day

Just want to say Happy Mothers' Day to everyone, whether your kids are grown or tiny or somewhere in between.

Thank you to my lovely bunch (and my husband) for a beautiful lunch, lots of laughs and hugs and a ticket to Metallica - my kids know me so well.

2010 VRC World Championship Final Match

Kiwis win World Robotics Champs in Dallas - Technology - Video - 3 News

Kiwis win World Robotics Champs in Dallas - Technology - Video - 3 News

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My plans for updating while we were away were foiled by the seconding of my laptop to programming duties. Can't really complain as we came home with five trophies including the world champion title and the coveted judges' award for outstanding team robot.
Brief thoughts...

The trip was fantastic, it was great finally getting to Disneyland and the boys loved every second of both it and California Adventure.

We loved San Diego Zoo and seeing the panda cub was unbelievable.

The competition itself was more intense than we could have possibly imagined. We had been warned but nothing could have prepared us for the frenetic pace and the tension of watching the matches that would take us through to the final in a packed arena, hosted by Grant Imahara from Mythbusters. Every Kiwi team was screaming their lungs out in support. We were louder than the impressively loud Puerto Rican team!!

Spent yesterday shopping in Los Angeles, checking out Hollywood and having a slightly scary trip on the subway.

We have banned the words robotics and programming for this next term, but then we will be back starting to prepare for next year's game which looks a lot more complicated than this year's.

Decided that I could get into this travelling lark despite my dislike of flying.

It is however wonderful to be home.

Let's hear it for the internet

We are now all booked - flights,hotels, Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, bus tour of LA and I didn't talk to a travel agent once. (Well I did at the beginning but he was not very useful).

We forget so quickly how things were done before the net. We used to have to go a travel agent and wait for them to come up with everything, based often only on the companies they deal with. Now,thanks to Trip Advisor you can scutinise every lodging in a given area and see what people really think of them.

Every detail of your trip can be checked out, Google maps and Google Earth mean that you can make sure your hotel is where you want it to be. But timetables, shuttles, trains you name it - it's all there.

So I have a folder full of important bits of paper, and a very stressed credit card.

Time has sped up this week. Suddenly there are lots of last minute bits and pieces to finish off, masses of forms to fillout, and of course working out how we get the extra baggage associated with two robots over the States.

We are however nearly there and I have today and tomorrow to sort the rest out and pack. It's one advantage of geeting up at 4.45am - you can get a lot done!

End of the Supermom Era by Lenore Skenazy on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

End of the Supermom Era by Lenore Skenazy on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Looks like it's now OK to have a messy car, thank goodness for that!

Here we go again

I'm sure we said never again, but this morning the alarm went off at 4.45am and I staggered out of bed to wake a sleepy 13 year old and we headed off the the pool for a 5.30am start. Hmmm. It's not as if we didn't know what we were letting ourselves in for. Three years of driving our daughter to swim training before she got her licence has been forever etched on my brain (and added wrinkles I am sure).

Trouble is swimmers have to spend so much time in the pool to get better. And it's so good for our lanky, previously non-sporty teen who now has muscles and the resting heart rate of a top cyclist.

The quiet steady splashes of a squad moving up and down the pool is very restful. As I come back in daylight to pick him up, I hear the bark of a coach, followed by teenage laughter. The sleepy zombies at the beginning of the session are bouncing round looking pleased with themselves,chatting about the rest of their day . Christian's fears that he would be the slowest in this move up are now evaporated. New friends will be made, new confidences, new challenges, new life skills.

Maybe it won't be so bad after all

Matt and Mel's wedding photos are finally here. Seems such a long time ago now but they capture that beautiful day perfectly.

Easter

I think in a lot of ways I prefer Easter to Christmas. Yes it is a more reflective celebration, but ultimately joyous on Resurrection Sunday. It is the heart and hope of our faith. We worshipped on both Friday and Sunday with our church family which was beautiful. I love the slower pace of it for us as it doesn't have the frantic build-up of Christmas, just lots of getting together with people we love, laughing and eating (especially eating), and the long weekend that is so precious to those that usually have to head out the door on a Friday and Monday.

I think it has something to do with the time of year. This is ironic as we would appear to celebrate Easter at the wrong time of year, but I think it works well with the intimacy of the celebration. Days are slightly colder and daylight saving comes to an end so we instinctively draw closer as the nights are now darker. Unfortunately it was still too warm for us to light the first fire of the season, but that will keep.

This wonderful and leisurely weekend has been interspersed with Christian basically living up at school perfecting his robot programming skills. That boy is dedicated. He is so happy creating code and then watching it translate to action. Sam not so keen but is up there being a grunt worker - resetting the field over and over again. We are starting to count down the sleeps until we go.

USA here we come

Everything booked. Flights and hotels. Vaguely freaked. It all seems very unreal.I know everyone else we know seems to have travelled to the US but we haven't so it's all new. So far it's Disneyland for two days, a trip to San Diego, Dallas for the epic competition ( four days), back to LA for a day - Universal Studios and shopping, then home to NZ. SOOO excited. This is why we have saved and sat back when we could have spent. We are now totally debt free and the possibilities are now looming before us. USA here we come, hopefully returning with a world title under our belts.

Looking good for Dallas

Wow what a nail biting weekend of competition. Two days of robots battling it out. Fifty teams of dedicated students competing. Some amazing games . It came down to Kristin having both teams in the final. It was almost too tense to watch.It looked like we were going to take it but lost due to a bit of bad luck in the decider. However NZ runners-up is pretty good with such stiff competition. Amazing driving by one of the team has secured us generous $6000 funding which will be a big help.

This means we now have two robots going to Dallas so it is going to be very frenetic.

Have spent a happy few days trying to find a hotel in Anaheim for us as we do the Disneyland thing. Think I have it sorted. Starting to wish we were getting to California earlier as there is so much I would like to do. Funnily enough the boys aren't that keen on checking out Rodeo Drive but I am going to make sure we do (and Hollywood Boulevarde of course).

Favourite time of the year on its way

I have a confession to make. In a country that celebrates its glorious summers - the beaches, the chorus of cicadas, slowly melting ice creams, heading off to the bach - I am the opposite. Don't get me wrong, I like summer, but I love winter and the autumn months drifting into it. This amazingly crisp time of the year signals the beginning of cold clear mornings,reading books by the fire,hearty dense food, rich red wine, interesting layers of clothes and acccessories, and of course the first ski report. I think I am definitely a creature of the colder months.

This year I have jars of jam and preserved apple sitting like little jewels in the pantry.I feel like a happy squirrel. I am already plotting stews and casseroles, and delicious soups, of which our family can never get enough.

the mystery continues

After a week of tests, from bloods to ECG we still don't have a definitive diagnosis for Christian. He is a lot better, although still has the visual snow. Now we have the dilemma of whether or not to give him the high-powered drugs he has been prescribed. Prophylactic treatment of migraine symptoms involves medications that have big side effects and I'm not sure if that is better than the original symptoms. Will ring the paediatrician today to see what he thinks. Have also taken him off artificial sweeteners,MSG, any caffeine etc - all the obvious triggers.

It has been frustrating dealing with the hospital. They don't like it if you have got yourself informed via the dreaded internet before you talk to them. I also need to ask why the drug on the prescription is not the one we talked about. (Completely different family of medications).

On a lighter note -- Robotic Nationals loom this week - it will be a fun week-end of geeky mayhem

One of those seasons

I have noticed that things do come in seasons and we are in one of those interesting ones at the moment. Haven't had one for a while. Can't say I want one now.The Bosco adventure has faded into the distance as we deal with an epic migraine attack in Christian. No respite from drowsiness, vagueness, and the weirdest vision stuff since Saturday. For a teenager who has thought processes at the speed of light and a mind keenly honed, this is appalling. We are waiting on the results of the MRI, which should confirm that it is nothing more sinister. He's coping really well, even though I know it is really upsetting and frustrating him. He commented that it makes him feel like he has ADD as he can't concentrate on anything.

We are praying and internet researching. As a family of migraine sufferes we already know a lot. Now I know some more. Some doctors we have spoke to know very little. Christian has realised for the first time that they are just people too who don't know everything. We had to override a GP to get a referral to a specialist - never had to actually say to a doctor before 'I'm not happy with your treatment plan.' Feel vaguely naughty. Was the right decision though as we got an MRI.

Feeling quite powerless as there is no magic wand we can wave over this situation. Just have to sit tight and trust God.

Miracle dog

Wow you think life is ticking along pretty well... been making jam (plum perfect, apricot maybe burnt);... dealing with having bronchitis and feeling pretty bad but doing ok;... planning the trip to Dallas as a major nerd...then wham (and this is from an unexpected quarter). Our daughter was taking dog #2 (only one year old) out for a run on the beach when we get a phone call "I've lost him, he was there and then he was gone". Frantic searching from all of us, calling, retracing steps, recriminations from me about some of her decsions about letting a puppy off the leash by a 50ft cliff.

Devastated, we go home. I look up the Council website to register him missing and see that a dog that sounds like him has been found. Yes it is he!! Two kilometres from where he was lost, traumatised and in shock. We pick him up from the wonderful people who found him and cared for him. He is limping. Emergency vet says he has been hit by a car. At the moment he is at the vet on a drip and having Xrays. Vet is pretty sure he is a miracle dog and will be OK. Thank you God!!

The people who found him spent half an hour chasing him on a busy road, marvelling at how the cars missed him. It is a miracle - do dogs have angels??

I can't believe how much I love this animal. We have another dog (and have had another previously) but there is something about this little black maniac that I have competely fallen in love with. I felt as though one of my children were missing. He is the one who follows me everywhere and thinks I am #1. and I am so glad that he has been found. (OK I know I need therapy)

Nerds and proud of it

Saturday was a big day in our family. Our boys were part of a winning team at the Regional Robotics Championships which means we are heading off to Dallas Texas in April. We're especially proud of our youngest as he was one of the two boys who wrote the winning programme. Everyone else on the team is a Yr 13 and he is a Yr9 so that's a pretty big achievement. For a family that has never flown further than Fiji, this is very exciting. I've managed to sneak in as the team "Mum' (read general go-fer) and cannot wait.

Eeek - here it goes

Have been thinking for a while that I'd like to blog - on what in particular I'm not sure. I've read lots of blogs, and I know what I won't be blogging about (even if its things I enjoy reading about).
I don't have much to offer on
* being in the haze of early motherhood. Our children range from 25 down to 13. Might have some things to say about parenting teenagers however (and maybe sometime soon grandchildren)
*self-sufficiency and the simple life - something we are very erratic at, veering between the Good Life and Mad Max. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't
*lovely craft abilities - admire them, but I don't think I should take up any new hobbies (apart from blogging) or even revisit old ones.

So I think this will be more of a record of my new phase of life - children who are growing/grown up;opportunities to travel properly(ie not Australia or Fiji) for the first time, definitely food ideas, friendship... I don't know, I've never done this before