Catching Up my Diary
Wow it's been ages again Diary. I thought I was doing such a good job of keeping you updated, but then nearly 2 weeks go by without an update. Alas. Thing that we've done recently include:
We went out to the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago, had a nice time out there though it was quite cold in the shed. Then from there we went to a Model Train expo that I'd seen advertised the week before when Theo and I went to World Train. Theo had the best time at the expo, well even Beth loved it too. Lots of lovingly made little model trains, plus a really cool one made with mechano or whatever that fancy metal lego stuff is called. It would drive along then end up on a bridge that would slowly move the train from one side to the other, plus little roundabouts and all sorts. We stayed for about an hour before it really was time to go, at which point Theo promptly lost the pop entirely and cried and grizzled for half the drive home he was so upset. Thankfully Stink-a-Saurus was in the car's CD player and that kept everyone happy until we arrived home for a sleep.
Oh, I forgot to mention that was the Queen's Birthday long weekend. On the Saturday of that, there was no swimming for Theo so we all went to Ocean Spa instead and had a swim there. Theo loves his swimming so much, we had to keep getting angry at him because he would dive in/under the water, but he can't actually swim properly yet so we'd have to rescue him. I mean we had our eyes on him the whole time, but he's overconfident now and will think he's better than he is, just jumping in towards us. So we had to growl at him a few times, but overall he had a great time. So did Beth, she was swimming around and diving in and under and all those things. It's just amazing to see how great she's gotten at her swimming, Sarah took a video of her last Friday swimming along, blowing bubbles, and then another one of her floating on the front then rolling over in the middle onto her back.
We got our tank/drinking water fixed, we had a man come over with his truck and drain all the water out of the tank, then give it a good scrub, then put some tank cleaner stuff in. Now the water seems much better, it doesn't have a pong smell sometimes. I haven't had it tested again, but we're pretty sure that it should be nice and clean and not giving us any problems anymore. Plus we have a bottle of PureTec tank cleaner stuff which I can put a little bit in each month and it will keep the tank clean and free from nasties.
I bought a bunch of "Home Automation" stuff recently. I've never been a big fan of the "Internet of Things" but having seen what can be done I thought I'd give it a bit of a go. It also acts a home security system. I bought little motion sensors, door/window sensors, tempurature sensors and 3 "smart plugs" you can turn the power on/off too. So now I am sitting in New Plymouth, but I can log onto the Home Assistant system I've setup and turn on the Driveway Lights, or the lounge lamp, or the upstairs lamp. Which is good. Plus the system is also setup so that it knows if Sarah and I are home by seeing if our phones are connected to the Wifi. If we're not home and it sees motion on any of the sensors it lets us know. Next up I'll integrate Cameras into it, so that we can see who's at the front door and catch anyone prowling around or things like that. There are similar sytems you can buy that do it all already, and I wanted to get one of those, but then they want an ongoing $40 a month. My system thus far cost $200 and a couple of security cameras will probably cost $400, but then it just runs itself.
Plus the best thing of all is the system comes with a "hub" that talks to all the little sensors, and the Hub has a light on it that can shine in something like 256,000 colours or something. It works as a great night light for the kids, and each night before they get to go to bed one child gets to turn off the TV and the other child gets to select what colour the light will be that night. That's a task they love, though who knows how long that'll be exciting for them for.
In other news, my abdomen has been a real pain the abdomen. I had some tests done last week and my liver and kidney seemed to be OK. So I had some more tests done on Tuesday, an X-Ray and that came back fine, so now they need a CT Scan to see what's going on. It's very annoying, it feels like I have a balloon in my stomach and it's blowing up. They keep trying to suggest I'm constipated, I mean do I need to start taking pictures to explain to them I'm really not? Anyway Jason our regular Dr is onto the case now and hopefully we can get to the bottom of it soon, maybe whip another unnecessary organ out or something. Though I don't really know how many more unnecessary organs there are left?
What else has been happening... Last weekend we took the kids to The Hot Chick for an icecream and a walk/ride on their bikes. They had a good time there, riding around, playing on the playground. We bumped into Jospeh and Isla there with Barbs, then went to get an Icecream. Beth and Theo were both really good, giving each other licks of their icecreams and even asking Sarah and me if we'd like to try a bite of theirs. It was very cute. Sunday we went out to the Farmer's Market and had a great time, Beth decided to run over and back on the big oval. She got half way over and Theo realised she'd dropped her little stuffed toy, so ran over screaming "Bethy Bethy you dropped your toy" until both of them were on the other side of the oval, then they slowly ran back together looking out for each other.
Last week during the week Sarah went to Auckland, so I had to be Daddy for the kiddies. I mean I am already Daddy, that sounds stupid, but you know cook them dinner and those sorts of things that I'm pretty useless at. I managed to keep them alive and fed so that was good. I bet they were glad when Sarah arrived back though. Beryl came and looked after Theo on Tuesday, usually Mary would look after him but because Monday was a public holiday she had to work that day. I stayed home and worked from there, keeping an eye on them, but Theo had a fantastic time. Took him ages to call Beryl Beryl and not Geral.
And the weekend just gone! Saturday took Theo swimming and then spent the rest of the afternoon/day getting stuff done around the house, finally it was a nice weekend. Cut back all the hedges next to the kids rooms, weed sprayed in the veggie garden. Saturday afternoon the Mooney's came over on their bikes for a visit which was nice.
Sunday we took the kids for a little fast, "one photo" Portrait shoot. We got a photo of Beth and Theo with Big Bae. Big Bae even got washed for the occasion, which was the cause of much upset at 2 in the morning when Theo woke up and Big Bae was nowhere to be seen. The photoshoot was very fast, basically walk in, snap snap snap and walk out, over in about 3 minutes. We went from there down to FG Smith for some breakfast and then down to the Ahuirir for a play on the beach and an icecream. Came home and did a bit more work around the house.
First weekend I think where we haven't even tried to put Theo down for a sleep, he's just so go go go and he seemed to cope pretty well without one.
Ok wel that's it Diary you are finally up to date. I will try much harder to keep you more updated.
Oh yes Congratulations Jeremy on getting your Degree!
Tim