Saturday, February 28, 2009

Vintage Car

I want to document this little conversation with Brent.

On Sunday 22 Feb I had just finished taking the photo of the day when Brent rushes in & says, "Mum, there's a really cool vintage car in our street. It's stopped just outside number 7." So I grab my camera & go outside expecting to see a wee Austin 7 or something. Imagine my surprise when I saw this....


I burst into fits of laughter. He asked me if I thought it was cool. I said it was but it was hardly what I call a vintage car. My dad used to have a jag a bit like this one, I remember it, so in Brent's eyes I must be "vintage". I sure hope I have mellowed & that my vintage is a good one.

Sunday 22 February


The sun shone & the wind was blowing so it was a great day to wash the swimming towels & sheets.

Saturday 22 February - New Book


I've started on to a new book. It's quite a good book but at the moment the whole time travel thing has me a bit lost.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

January - Quail Island


credits: credits: Digitreats by digitreats.typepad.com ;http://vicki20.blogspot.com/ "A work in progress"
This layout will be in Brent's album.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Lost Tooth!


Look who's lost his second tooth. That tooth has been annoying James for quite sometime so on Friday at school he finally pulled it out. He wrapped it up carefully in a tissue & brought it home. He almost thought he had lost it when he carefully unrolled his tissue to show me, he was a bit worried that he would miss out on the tooth fairy money. Brent found the tooth stuck between the two layers of the tissue so he did get some money after all.

Porridge for Breakfast


Here's a bowl of my favourite weekday breakfast, porridge. I am all for quick though so we use the Uncle Toby's instant porridge where you just add milk & cook in the microwave for 1 & 1/2 minutes. Have to love a quick but healthy breakfast.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Project 365 Layout - Week 7


credits: template - Meredith Tiede (www.Moriginals.blogspot.com) kit - Club Scrap Digital A Study in Red.
Here is the layout about last week. All the journalling can be found in the other posts of my blog.

Buffet Bee-uties


credits: Bee a Prince Page Kit Created by Christine Gundersen; Bee You Starter Pack Created by Christine Gundersen
Slowly but surely I am getting the cruise scrapped. These amazing food & ice carvings were in the buffet area & got changed everyday.

Home again, home again


Here's the busload of boys coming home from camp. It sounds as thought both Scott & Brent really enjoyed the whole time. It also sounds like a rather plush camp, no tents, indoor heated swimming pool, nice cooked meals. However both of them were absolutely exhausted & Scott was almost falling asleep at swimming lessons that night.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Batts! - Tuesday 17 February

Yesterday the builder cam & removed all the batts from the ceiling. The entire house is now battless in the ceiling. The builder finished the process & looked like he had been digging for coal, he was so black. They placed the batts in a couple of large piles in the back yard. i got quite a surprise when I went to look out my bedroom sliding door & find this sight.
Today the builder came back with a trailer & took them all off to the rubbish dump.
We had the cleaner come by today & they have now finished cleaning the rooms until the renovations are all finished. The builder left at midday & won't be back until I don't know when. He's not back until it is time to replace the ceilings, gibstopping & painting which is after the whole roof has been replaced. I don't know when that gets started so now it is just a matter of waiting for the next phonecall telling me someone wants to be here in half an hour will you be available?
This afternoon I had the whole house to myself so I am really looking forward to tomorrow where I can do my exercise leisurely (maybe even a swim) & then come back to house that is quietly mine.

Off to Camp - Monday 16th February


The two big boys are off to camp at Living Springs. Scott is going as a parent helper & is really looking forward to it. Brent is really excited, so excited that he was ready to go to school at 7:45am.

Found You! - Sunday 15th February


For a while now James has been talking about how he has a secret hiding place where he hides from me & Scott. It would appear that I have now found his hiding place.
Shhhh .... don't let him know that I have told you where it is. You'll have to keep it a secret. It's behind the blue couch, in the blue room under the window.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Saturday 14th February


Dad popped by to see me today & look what he gave me. They have the most beautiful scent which makes the main living area a lot better. Thanks so much Dad & Janet they are very much appreciated.

Project 365 - 1st week of February Layout


credits: Template - Meredith Tiede ( www.Morginals.blogspot.com ); Papers - Club Scrap digital - A Study in Red kit
Here's my layout for project 365. All the journalling is on this blog already.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Friday 13th February

As much as I love being in my house I find it a tad noisy. I complain about the noise the boys make but the noise I am living with at present is non stop & louder.
This is one of 4 fans that we have trying to dry the house out after the water damage of the fire. We have one of these fans at the far end of the hallway, one in Brent's room drying out his floor, one which we have now moved to James' room to try & circulate the smokey smell & send it out of the room & one in our room to dry it out.
There is also a dehumidifier going as well just to add to the noise level.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Fire photos from the roof - Thursday 12 February

Thursday was a day of waiting around for cleaners, & then insurance assesors & insurance electrical engineers etc. Mean while Scott went up into the roof space to take some photos of the damage up there. As you will see we really are very lucky at how minimal the damage truely is.

Scott went up the manhole & walked along to the hot water cylinder that was near the epicentre of the fire. He went the other side of it & took this photo looking back towards the man hole cover. You can see the cylinder & then all that silver tubing is ducting for our newly installed HRV system. We only got it installed just proir to christmas but I really attribute that to having smelt the smoke at all. That rectangular metal box looking like it is lying willy nilly is actaully one of the HRV units that filters all the air & recirulates all the ceiling air to the house in an attempt to keep it warm in winter. If we didn't have that HRV & all those vents into the bedrooms sending down air from the ceiling, I don't think I would have been able to smell the smoke soon enough to keep the damage to this minimal amount.
This photo is a side on view of the cylindar. You can see part of my bathroom vanity through one of the holes & the oraqnge of the bedroom wall through the other one.


This is an up close photo of the actual cylindar & the electrical part of it. The plumber & electrician both think that it is in that rectangular box that the fire happened. Both of them said it was very rare for this to happen, which might be why the electrical engineer hired by the insurance company disputes that that is where it started. He thinks it started in the wiring that ran below the cylindar.

Fire Photos










In my previous post when I mentioned that I saw smoke billowing out of the roof, this is where I saw it billowing from. It's probably a bit hard to see but that black stuff just below the iron capping is smoke damage.
On the other side of the house this is what the roof looks like. About 4 sheets of this corrugated iron roof are all buckled & the white one is where the majority of the heat hit it.
This photo is taken from inside my bedroom. We have a small hot water cylinder that sits just over the door lintel that services the ensuite. Everyone is in agreement that it is from that area that the fire started. There is a disagreement between various people as to whether the fire started inside the cylinder or in wires that ran near the cylindar but there is no disputing the fact that there was a fire in the ceiling of my bedroom where I had walked under about three times that morning while it was burning.
To explain the holes. The biggest hole closest to the door is the first hole the fireman made to attack the fire. He made the hole & fires the water up it only to have the water come back down on him again as his hole was right at the base of the hot water cylinder.
He then made a hole further back to get at the fire. I'm not sure why there is a third hole but I do know there were two men in the ceiling space & two on the ground so maybe another fireman made the third hole.
This photo is looking up that hole closest to the door at the hot water cylinder & the burnt out platform that it is sitting on.

Wednesday 11 February

What a day! Someone was watching over me, whether it was God, a guardian angel or fate, someone or something out there is watching over our family. So many things were supposed to happen that the outcome, if any of them were happening as scheduled, would have meant the difference between being homeless or being in need of temporary shelter.

I'll try to explain as succinctly as possible what happened.

Firstly one of the things that had got altered, only last week, was that my 10am hair apointment for Wednesday 11th had to get changed to 10am Thursday 12th.

Secondly, I had planned to go swimming after dropping the boys off at school. I was dressed in my togs when I dropped the boys off & drove to the swimming pool. I have a multi membership that covers both the gym facilities & the pools. To use these facilities I have a membership card that I keep in my gym bag. I got to the pool & started hunting in my gym bag to find my card. I couldn't find it. I then thought I'll go home & pick it up & then go swimming. I came home & found the card but then sat down to clear some emails. After about 30 minutes of that I decided that swimming wasn't a goer & I'll just have a shower & start doing the housework. If I had gone swimming I would have been out of the house at 10am Wednesday 11th.

I had my shower & started to do the laundry. I walked to my bedroom with ironing board to do some ironing when I smelt smoke. I took a deep breath just to check & yes it certainly smelt like smoke. I then ran to the kitchen to make sure that I hadn't left anything on that could be burning, I hadn't but there was no smell of smoke there either & Mo was sitting contentedly on the blue couch in the next room. I went outside to clear my mind & went back down to my room again only to smell smoke again. This time I went into my office & turned off my computers & printers thinking that maybe the dust was playing havoc with the fan on the laptop. Still worried I went & checked that the boys hadn't turned heaters on & left things on them that could be smoldering. I then went to my bedroom & opened the window in hopes that the smell would leave the room. I walked back down to the living areas & again I couldn't smell smoke down there. I then picked up the telephone & walked back to my bedroom & could smell the smoke again. I started to panic about now & called Scott at work. Scott suggested that either I call the electrician or to poke my head up the manhole into the ceiling & see if there was a problem up there. I then hung up & mulled that through my head & decided that I was not happy with those options & I would have to come up with my own solution.

I decided that the safest option was to call the fire brigade but I was conscious of the fact that Mo was still in the house (I thought if she smelt fire she would leave the house) & that the smoke alarms weren't going off but somehow I could still smell smoke. I got the phone book out & started to find out what the phone number of my local fire station was when I decided that it might just be easier to call 111 & get charged however much it would be if it was a false alarm. I went back down to my bedroom with the phone to make the call because I still couldn't believe that what my nose & now my eyes were telling me, yet the cat is still in the house & the smoke alarms are still not going off. I got through to the operator & she told me to close the doors & leave the house. I asked if I should close the window & she said if I had time I should. So I closed my bedroom window & went out of my bedroom & went to get my handbag. I went outside & closed the door behind me only to see the cat still sitting in the house. I decided that obviously I was totally mistaken on the fire & I'll just pay however much for my peice of mind. That being the case I went back into the house to get Mo out. She was still sitting on the couch & wouldn't have a bar of me getting her so she ran under the dining room table. I could hear the sirens so thought "stuff you, if this is real you'll have to fend for yourself" & got out of the house & closed the door behind me.

The fire engine arrived & 4 men looking very surly came out & the next thing I know another engine arrives. My first thought was "oh dear this is going to cost me an arm & a leg to pay if this is a false alarm." My worries about how much it was going to cost were then allayed by a fireman coming out of my house, saying "it's a live one" & simultaneously I saw smoke billowing out the roof of the house. That's when I lost it, I broke down in tears & called Scott to tell him the house was on fire but not to worry too much as the fire brigade was here.
From then on those surly men turned into caring individuals while also fighting the fire in my house. Several times I had one of them come up to me & ask if I was feeling alright. Eventually they put me in the fire engine so I could at least sit.

They put the fire out & my house was saved. Not only that but we didn't lose a thing! Nothing but a few peices of timber & gib board were lost. The firemen all came up to me & said I was a very lucky person because ceiling fires are the worst to have. I did ask if those smoke alarms ever went off, & they did but not until there was a lot of smoke in the house to register. Since the fire was in the ceiling space the smoke alarms can't detect the smoke until it gets quite strong in the house & that was when the firemen were there.


Of course I didn't take my camera out of the house with me so this is a photo Scott took after we were allowed back into the house to get the camera. The engine is actually parked astride our driveway & the house is being run to the fire hydrant across the road from our house.

Tuesday 10 February


Tuesday night is a night that we seem to have a few TV programmes to watch. During the ads Scott redid my toenails for me. That has to be love.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Remember This


credit: Remember This QP by Vicki AcremanMade from the Granny Series by Mabelle Santiago-Rubia http://www.myscrapworks.com/mswdigi
This has been a bit of a tear jerker of layout. Luckily it is all digital & really all I had to do was put in the date & the photo. Really it is quite the typical photo of Brent wanting to be cuddled & who better than Nana.

Monday 9 February


Medbury has finally changed the PE uniform from white shirts & shorts to black shorts & then a top corresponding to the house colour. Brent's house, Clyde, is yellow so he & James both get to look like bees or wasps for sport from now on.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Sunday 8 February

We've been trying to make a path that goes right around the house. Scott hasn't done too much work on it this summer but today he made another section of the path.

Saturday 7 February


In an effort to read more of the Whitcoulls top 100 books I bought this book to read. I haven't got far through it but I am enjoying it so far.

Aoraki


credit: Christine Gunderson - Digital Scrapbook Place - Sweet Sentiments overlay
This is a very simple layout but I just love this photo of Aoraki. I took this photo December 23rd on our way back home from Invercargill.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Week 4 Layout



Yippee! I am all caught up on the layouts for this project.


Week 3 Layout




Friday 6th February


We've got corn growing in the garden but we aren't really sure when to pick it. This ear looks like it could be about ready though.

Thursday 5 February


I took mum to her oncologist apointment today. After that I felt like taking a little break from the world so I pulled the curtains & watched the first season of 6 Feet under on DVD. I love getting DVD's from Fatso, I can keep them as long as I like without getting charged late fees, which is probably just as well given how often I usually make time to watch the DVDs.

Wednesday 4 February


The boys now have swimming lessons at 5:30pm on a Wednesday night. This slow cooker is now put to use every Wednesday night just to make my life easier when it comes to having a meal prepared after we get home at 6:15pm.

Tuesday 3 February


This is my ironing pile. I try to do my ironing once a week but last week went by & I got no ironing done at all so it took me half an hour to iron two weeks worth of ironing.

Friend

Tuesday was Scott's & my 13th wedding anniversary, so I made this layout with that in mind. These photos are actually from our cruise a couple of years ago (I can't believe it was 2 years ago now).
credit: Club Scrap - Be Still Digital quickpage

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Little Girls...


Credits: Quick page by Vicki http://vicki20.blogspot.com/
Date Stamp- Meryl Bartho http://store.digitalscrap...2_23&products_id=1775
Word Art - Bethany http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.com/

First day of School

The boys were very excited to get to school. They were ready & out the door at quarter to eight. Since we were so early I decided it was a good chance to take a photo.
Brent is in year 5 & has a teacher who is new to the school. James is in year 3. Both boys came home yesterday very happy with their teachers & their day at school.

School Preparation

The boys bags were all packed & waiting on Sunday night, ready for Monday morning & the first day back at school.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Drexels fo Breakfast

We have started a little tradition that on the first Saturday of the school holidays we go to Drexels to have an American Style breakfast to celebrate the holidays. The boys always seem to order the same thing. Brent gets scrambled eggs with soldiers & James gets mini cakes with blueberries.

Saturday was the last Saturday of a very long school holiday so we decided to have breakfast there to celebrate. I was taking a photo of the boys & Scott at the table when a very nice woman asked if we wanted her to take a photo of all of us. How could we turn down her offer.

Oh & by the way the clock on the wall behind us is correct. It is 7:30 in the morning, so much for a sleep in!

Buskers Festival


On Friday the boys & I went into town to have lunch with Scott & to watch some of the buskers at the Buskers Festival. After thinking we wouldn't be there for long we were actually there for 4 hours watching various performers. This is Slackwire Sam at the end of his act where he is on a unicycle on a slackwire juggling falming torches. He juggled them in the air as well as under his legs. It was a wonderful way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Back to School Buying


On Thursday we went to do the back to school shopping. Luckily we only had to buy Brent a pair of shoes but at $114 I am glad that's all we had to buy.

Lego Love

There's some really neat scrapbook paper around & here's one I found a while ago which feels like Lego. It has raised bumps all over it just like Lego does. So what else better to scrap on it than a layout about Lego.