Family Trip to Tauranga

On Friday night last week I left my family and went to stay with my other family. Daddy Joe had granted me leave for the night and following day and I was excited to go on a family trip to Tauranga.

To try and stop tears and tantrums as I left the house on Friday evening, I told the girls I was going to a meeting. That appeased their cries, until Faith asked 'why are you packing a bag for your meeting, why are you taking a blanket and pillow to your meeting?' Oops!

The weekend started with a Georgie Pie combo with Uncle Pete and Aunty Beezy. Then I had the privilege of watching the Aeroview Ward performance at the 'Soundtracks unplugged' Youth Roadshow. So cool! I can't wait until our kids get to that age when we're going to watch them perform up on stage. About 7 years to go!

Then I went to meet up with old school friends in Browns Bay to farewell my associate teacher (10 years ago), Ange Ley. She's retired so she's moving to Hamilton to be closer to family. I'm like a boomerang for Sherwood. I actually did my first 2 days relieving there since I left to have Seffy last May.

Then back to see the last ward of the roadshow and home to bed for a big day in Tauranga. First time I've slept at 18 Ensign Place since I left and it was fun.

Here's a few pics of the day in Tauranga with the Ormsbys, Stoners and Leones

Cutesy lil' Mac with his plate of Chinese food

One of Uncle Carl's plates. I was scared to confess to my husband that I passed on this food and went to Burger King for a Whopper instead....each to their own!

Mac on the good old Humpty Dumpty at Memorial Park. It's seen much better days but it's still cool to see him on something that Aaron and even I think Mum had photos on when they were little

 

At the family cemetery next to Uncle Brett's dad's grave. Cool to be able to visit and send him a pic

Mac aka photographer in training

Typical Grandie had to check it out

Dad and 4 of his kiddies (the Auckland ones...until Aunty Beezy leaves in a few weeks :(

I had a wonderful day even though I missed my husband and bayans (as Grandie calls them). It was so nice to come home to them and I almost had a heart attack (in a good way) when I saw everything that Daddy Joe had done. Not only had he spoken at a baptism and had his 3 hour activity at the chapel, but he'd also brought in and folded 3 loads of washing, cut his hair and mowed the grass. Amazing! But I told him, now that I know that's possible, I'll expect better things from him. When I told Dad that, he said 'Give him a break Mel, it was a once off!' to which Daddy Joe laughed 'Thanks Dad!!!'

If you're wondering what the kids were doing while he spent and hour mowing and blowing down the yard, apparently the girls were watching a movie and Seth was in the highchair!

Oh, and the whole point of going down was to visit Grandad's grave and see Aunty Jane and Uncle John. I often think of Grandad Wattie and I really look forward to meeting him one day. All we've ever had is photos and stories from Dad, which are good but to see him and hug him and hear him talk will be really cool. I suppose that's what it will be like for my children hearing about Mum :(

And it's always fun to see Aunty Jane and Uncle John. It's cool to have that connection with people that were so close to Mum and miss her and love for her cause sadly I feel that as time goes on there's less people that we are around that know her. Nearly 7 years......

Homemade tortillas/Enchiladas

Earlier this week when I was writing my shopping list I was looking through my 'yummy food' board  on Pinterest trying to find new ideas. I pin things all the time and rarely actually make things off it, for dinner at least (I often make yummy/sweet/treat type things though)

So this week I decided I would make pizza in the style of an italian calzone and homemade tortillas for enchiladas.

Enchiladas was on the menu for tonight and I was excited to try out making the tortillas. Then early this morning I got a call to go in to Summerland to work in a Year 2 class. Great!!!! That meant Daddy Joe was on baby duties, kindy duties, washing duties, dinner duties etc. I considered changing the plan so he could make his own thing, which would inevitably be noodles or eggs on toast. But I decided to go ahead with the schedule. We can't have those staple dinners of his every time I work!

So when I got myself sorted in my class this morning I sent the link through for making tortillas and instructions on how to get the mexican mince ready. Turns out I needn't have been worried about it at all. He did a fantastic job, so much so that I don't think we'll ever buy tortillas again. Will save the $5 that I would probably spend on 6 or 8 of them and make them instead (12 tortillas for $2-ish)

 

 

 

 Delicious!!!! (especially with a bit of sour cream on top)

And even better, we've got 6 tortillas leftover so I think every time we have this for dinner I'll cook a roast chicken the next day and we can have chicken/salad wraps. Yeeyah!

NZ Blood Pin Ups

 Final Editorial for Blood Donor Article.....

When Joseph Heke (Ngapuhi/Ngati Hineuru) started dating his girlfriend Melissa (Ngati Maniapoto) in 2007, it not only led him on a path towards becoming a husband and father, but also put him on a path to saving lives.

Melissa convinced him to become a blood donor early on in their relationship as she had been a regular donor since giving at high school. She had seen the process at a young age whilst going with her Mum to regularly donate blood and knew that when she was old enough she would like to save lives in this way as well. After becoming a blood donor Joseph was approached by the nurses during one of his donations and signed up to join the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry (NZBMDR) after learning that Māori donors were sought after for the Registry (to find out why see page 11).

In January 2013 Joseph was at work when he was contacted by NZBMDR. A patient overseas was in need of a bone marrow transplant and his records indicated that he could be a possible match.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be a match for somebody but they asked me to come in so they could get a couple of tubes of blood to test. Then a few days later I got a phone call saying I was a suitable match for the patient and was asked if I would donate my bone marrow.“
Joseph felt no hesitation to agree and Melissa said she had no doubts that if it was needed that he should give, as she was also on the Registry and understood the importance of it. 
Joseph was put on a course of a medication called G-CSF to increase the number of stem cells circulating in the blood stream. He was so determined to make sure he was fit and healthy before he donated his bone marrow that he even lost four kilograms by exercising and eating well before his donation date!

On 18 February 2013, Joseph donated his bone marrow at the Epsom Donor Centre through a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donation, a similar process to apheresis donations where blood is taken and spun down in a centrifuge, the components needed (stem cells) removed and the rest returned to the donor.

The whole donation took approximately four hours and Joseph had his support crew, in the form of his three children and wife Melissa, join him for the last 40 minutes.   He returned to work two days later with only minimal bruising from where the needle was. 

Joseph and his wife Melissa firmly believe “if you can donate, give”, and between them have now saved over 100 lives in New Zealand, along with one person overseas with their generous donations.
The couple have three children who will one day hopefully follow in their parent’s footsteps and become blood donors as well as join the NZBMDR. 

NZBMDR still requires donors who have Māori, Pacific Island or any other ethnic minority to join the Registry. For more information go to www.bonemarrow.org.nz or see page 11.


(It's pretty darn hard/impossible to get a photo of us all looking at the camera, so let's just say we got some family pics of us as at June 2013. Some grumpy, some shy, some eating toys, some scratching noses, but the Joseph/Mel family nonetheless.)

 

 

Tong Tong Tong Tong Pakitong Kitong

Last Wednesday I sent Daddy Joe up to Summerland Kindy for Faith's drop off. It was Filipino Independence Day and I knew they were having some kind of celebration so I thought he'd be all into that. It turns out he stayed up there for the whole 3 hours cause the Filipino Mums wanted him to do his funny crab song (which they had already planned on doing, but he did it better). So after playing with the kids, fixing some play equipment outside and carrying out their old 'mat' carpet, he did the special crab song.

Oh and they had some Pinoy food that he really enjoyed too.

When I went in the next day there was a thank you on the board for him that went like this 'thanks to the Filipino Mums who shared their culture with us yesterday, and well done Joseph too!'

Sicky Seffy

My poor little man has the dreaded lurgy. He's been out of sorts since the start of the week and it's so sad and so cute at the same time.

Yesterday for Aunty Beezy's party he wasn't really in the mood and that was when I knew  he was really out of sorts.

Today he was even more lethargic and huggable. Although he's a snuggly little man, he's not used to being rocked to sleep. He's just been such a wonderful little baby from the moment he was born that he's never needed to be cuddled and rocked to sleep. Today that's exactly what he got though, cuddled for sleeps. Even his sissy Faith got the pleasure.

After we got home from our blood donor photo shoot (more on that another time) all Seffy wanted to do was snuggle up on the couch with Faify....

3 seconds later

Tonight I dropped the ball on making dinner. Faith kept asking and I kept ignoring it like she was going to forget about wanting food tonight?!?!?! Eventually she got up and said she'd make something for herself. I saw her with udon noodles and carrots so I helped her out by giving her pork, veges and some spicy sauce (and her Daddy as a helper)

Gotta go and put Ella to bed again. It's now 10:41 Bedtime started about 3 hours ago and it's still going. They started off in their own beds, then Daddy Joe put the top bunk mattress on the ground for them to play on. That caused fighting so eventually Faith got back into her bed and fell asleep. I went down to find Ella screaming on her mattress on the floor and the room stunk like vicks. She'd put it all over herself. She's now had a shower and is insisting that she's got a sore ear and can't go to sleep.
Great!!!!

Seafood Bonanza

Last week Uncle Pete and Aunty Beezy went on a fishing charter for the day, a big long day at that. Not my cup of tea but it was something Uncle Pete really wanted to do and I hope it lived up to his expectations. It ended with 4 snapper and an octopus being cut up at my front door and stinking out my kitchen....here's the pics to prove it!

Faith is always a great side-kick for any and all jobbies

Gosh, how many fish were you planning on catching Pete?!

The girls were all in there for the whole experience

Not sure what Ella's doing in this shot?!?!?!

Thankfully there was a very thorough tidy up afterwards and the fish smell was gone by the time I got up on Saturday morning.

THE BEST CARAMEL POPCORN EVER!

Whenever I make this people say how yum it is and want to know what the secret is. There is no secret, it's so easy and no fail which also makes it fairly dangerous as we usually have all the ingredients in our house. Here's how it's done:

3/4 C Caster Sugar
125g Butter

Melt in saucepan over medium heat. Don't stir it, just swirl it around the pan by tipping it a few times.
While that's melting, pour out 3-4C popped popcorn into a baking paper lined oven tray. Sprinkle about 1C cuts on if you want. I use light buttery and salted popcorn (pre-popped) and honey roasted nuts.

Once the caramel starts to turn a brown colour, keep a close eye on it. Take it off when it's fairly dark brown and before it starts to smell burnt. Pour it all over the popcorn/nuts and mix around. In 5-10 minutes it will be set and you can break it up into bowl and serve.


So so so so good!

I think there's a couple of good things about this recipe, it's a salty and sweet (salty popcorn and sweet caramel) And it's crunchy, not chewy like other caramel popcorn recipes so it doesn't get all stuck in your teeth.