The interview

I saw this while blog-hopping the other day, and thought it would be cute to do.
I’ve always wanted to interview my kids. Actually, I did interview Ethan once – it was for a scrapbook page. I haven’t started the page yet!

Anyway, here’s what happened when I interviewed the boys. I did the interviews separately, otherwise Tyler would probably just a) copy whatever Ethan said or b) say the exact opposite of whatever Ethan said (just to annoy him).

Their answers, verbatim:

1. What is something mummy always says to you?

Ethan: I love you.
Tyler: I love you.

2. What makes mummy happy?

Ethan: that I’m her son.
Tyler: doing as I’m told.

3. What makes her sad?

Ethan: that I do naughty things.
Tyler: being naughty.

4. How does mummy make you laugh?

Ethan: by doing funny things.
Tyler: by doing silly things.

5. What was mummy like as a child?

Ethan: funny & cute.
Tyler: like me.

6. How old is mummy?

Ethan: 30
Tyler: this many (holds up 3 fingers).

7. How tall is mummy?

Ethan: I don’t know.
Tyler: this tall (holds hand high above his head) … 1 … 2 … 3 … 4.

8. What is her favourite thing to do?

Ethan: read.
Tyler: play.

9. What does mummy do when you’re not around?

Ethan: I don’t know.
Tyler: just read a magazine.

10. If mummy becomes famous, what will it be for?

Ethan: for me.
Tyler: for being different.

11. What is mummy really good at?

Ethan: typing and scrapbooking.
Tyler: reading magazines.

12. What is mummy not very good at?

Ethan: Playstation.
Tyler: riding scooters.

13. What does mummy do for her job?

Ethan: work on the computer.
Tyler: do work on the ‘puter.

14. What is her favourite food?

Ethan: broccoli.
Tyler: carrots and meat and … that’s all.

15. What makes you proud of mummy?

Ethan: I love her typing.
Tyler: going down tunnels doing flips.

16. If mummy were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Ethan: Pearl (from Spongebob).
Tyler: Spiderman.

17. What do you and mummy do together?

Ethan: go out and have lunch together.
Tyler: play.

18. How are you and mummy the same?

Ethan: we have the same coloured eyes, and we have 2 legs.
Tyler: our teeth.

19. How are you and mummy different?

Ethan: she’s a girl and I’m a boy. She has rings and I don’t.
Tyler: because she’s a girl and I’m a boy.

20. How do you know mummy loves you?

Ethan: she gives me hugs.
Tyler: she kisses me.

Interesting. Funny how accurate some of their answers were, yet how inaccurate others were!
So just for the record … I cannot do a flip! Although I like them, broccoli and carrots are definitely not my favourite foods. And I’m pretty good at Playstation, thank-you-very-much!

WW: week 7

I lost 600g (1.3lb) this week. Total loss, 6kg (13.2lb).

I am (finally!) starting to notice the changes in my body. I can see and feel that my tummy is flatter (not flat enough, but going in the right direction!) and my clothes feel different. Like most people who have lost/gained weight, I have “fat clothes” and “skinny clothes” in my closet, as well as some “inbetween clothes”.
My fat clothes are too big now, but my inbetween ones are fitting nicely. I can even squeeze into some of my skinny clothes, but most things are still a bit tight. I don’t want to wear them until they fit properly.

I am going to THROW AWAY my fat clothes. I won’t be needing them again. Having them there, even if they are hidden at the back of the closet, is almost like giving myself permission to put the weight back on. So getting rid of them is definitely the way to go.

Unfortunately I don’t have a LOT of “inbetween clothes”. This causes a few problems. I can either squeeze into the smaller clothes (and look awful), or wear pants that hang off my butt (and look awful). I remember this stage from last time I did WW. Most of the time, I just don’t care if my clothes are baggy & saggy; I know it will only be for a few more weeks/months. But there are times when I’m going out and I do want to look nice, and my “inbetween jeans” just happen to be in the wash.

My solution? Sale items! Over the past fortnight, I’ve picked up a new pair of black pants and 4 new tops. All on sale. And all in my “inbetween” size. Yay!

On the mend

I honestly thought Ethan would find it hard to cope with the chickenpox. I expected to hear a lot of complaining, and I expected orders of “no scratching!” to fall on deaf ears. I thought he would be likely to shut himself in his room and have a good scratch!

But he has proven me wrong: he’s been a real trooper.

Ethan has a very bad case, much worse than Tyler’s (and his was bad enough). He is totally covered in spots. They are in every conceivable place (and I mean every place). The poor little guy has heaps of them in his mouth and throat, which have made it hard for him to eat. I’m surprised he can even sit down comfortably because of all the spots on his backside and around his private parts.

But he hasn’t scratched! And he hasn’t complained (much)!

The Phenergan bottle is now empty, and most of the Alpha Keri oil is gone. But I think we are definitely on the up & up. Many of Ethan’s spots are starting to dry up now, and he says they aren’t itchy anymore.

Tyler’s scabs have pretty much all fallen off, although I have spent a LOT of time trying to get scabs out of his hair. He had SO MANY spots on his scalp. And because they are around for such a long time, new hairs start to grow through the scab. So even once the scabs have detatched, they are still quite firmly stuck in his hair. Gross!!

Ethan probably won’t be back at school until next week. I’m very impressed with how well he has handled being stuck at home with not much to do (remember he spent the whole 2 weeks of the school holidays stuck at home as well, thanks to Tyler). For the first few days after he got sick, he was really lethargic and didn’t feel like doing much. He even had a 2-hour nap one day! But now he’s almost back to his old self, and he’s keeping himself busy by doing some of his school work, colouring in, watching DVDs, and honing his Playstation skills — don’t worry, Crash Bandicoot and Monsters Inc. are the only games he’s allowed to play.

____________________________________

Slightly off-topic …
My Grandma is in the hospital. They think she had some kind of fall at the rest home on Friday morning (they found her on the floor in her room) so they called an ambulance. We’re not sure exactly what’s wrong with her at this stage, but she definitely has some kind of infection. They are doing lots of tests, and we don’t know the results yet.
If you’re the praying kind, please pray that the doctors will be able to treat her effectively, and that she’ll recover quickly.

Tyler’s “gifts”

Last Friday night, Tyler told me that he had put some of his special things in our bedroom for us. He asked me to come with him and have a look. This is what I saw:

Tyler then proceeded to explain all the “gifts”. Rob and I each received one of his special blankets, as well as a soft toy “to snuggle with”.

Then Tyler showed me the pile of books he had left on the end of our bed “for you to read”.

Knowing how much Tyler loves his blankies, soft toys and books made this gift so meaningful.

It was just the sweetest thing ever! The way he lovingly placed them all in the right place, the way he explained everything to me.
And all this was followed by a big hug, a kiss and an “I love you, Mummy. So much.”

My angelic-looking boy is a rough-and-tough spitfire with a fiery temper and an iron will (all of which has been demonstrated with FORCE several times over the past weeks) … but I just love this soft & gentle side of him. Not many people get to see it, but I treasure these special moments.

It might seem funny to take photos and blog about “little” things like this, but I want to remember them forever. When I read this post a few years down the track, I know my heart will melt again. Just like it did that night.

The pox has hit again!

You guessed it – Ethan now has chickenpox!
Just when Tyler is finally back to normal.

We did send Ethan to school on Monday, but I kept him home today. He was coughing quite a lot this morning, and felt a little warm. Even though he didn’t seem that unwell, I just had a funny feeling that I should keep him home.
By lunchtime, he really didn’t seem that sick. When I suggested he go to school for the afternoon, he replied, “but you’ve already rung the office and booked it in.” LOL!

I checked him periodically for “spots” during the day — nothing. I decided to do one last check at bedtime. Lo and behold, I found 2 spots on his back (at the fluid-filled stage).

I’m so glad I kept him home today, as he would have been very infectious. I guess the “funny feeling” was my mother’s intuition. Yay, I have some of that!

Poor little guy was really upset at bedtime, because he doesn’t want to miss school.
He said, “poor Mrs Nicholson, she is going to miss me so much, because I’m so good!” … ROFL!
I told him I’d go and see his teacher tomorrow and get some work for him to do while he’s off school. I also suggested buying a special exercise book for him to work in while he’s sick, which he can “hand in” to Mrs Nicholson when he gets back to school. That cheered him up a LOT.

Sigh. Ethan is JUST like me. I used to set myself assignments to do in the school holidays. I remember doing one about birds when I was about 8. I copied page after page of text from my encyclopaedia, and drew intricate pictures of different birds.
Rob finds it all rather hilarious: “don’t people get beat up for doing stuff like that?”

Ahem. Back to the topic at hand.

I feel so sorry for Ethan. The school holidays were very boring for him, as we couldn’t really go anywhere with Tyler. He never complained about it though. He was excited to finally be back at school, and now he’ll be home for days on end, AGAIN. He will also miss out on his team’s soccer photo this Thursday, and of course he will miss his game on Saturday. Life is not much fun for him at the moment! I am planning to go shopping tomorrow and get him a few goodies to help ease the disappointment of it all.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Rob is showing NO signs of the pox. He doesn’t have any cold/flu symptoms, which I would have expected him to have by now if he was going to get it.

Back to playing nurse for me!

WW: week 6

Wow, I can’t believe I have been doing WW for 6 weeks already! The time has just flown by and it honestly hasn’t been that difficult to stay on track.

I lost 900g (2lb) this week.
My total weight loss after 6 weeks is 5.4kg (almost 12lb).

Last night I also received my 5kg bookmark!
It was quite a celebration, actually. One of the girls at our meeting is training to become a leader, so she took last night’s meeting as part of her training (while our leader evaluated her). She was beyond excited to be able to give out two 5kg bookmarks! Her delight and excitement about it made me smile inside, and I feel quite proud of what I’ve achieved so far. I’m past the halfway mark now!

At the meeting, we talked about planning:

“A perfect plan is one that suits each individual, is flexible enough to accommodate unexpected surprises and see you through the tough days or temptations that come your way. WW research has found those who track their eating and exercise habits and plan ahead have a better chance of success in weight loss.”

I thought I’d share some of their great planning tips:

1. Plan meals ahead of time. This ensures you have everything on hand for healthy eating.
2. Freeze a few low-Point meals for nights you don’t feel like cooking or come home late. Have a few frozen Weight Watchers meals on hand.
3. Keep healthy snacks with you when you’re out and about.
4. Stock up the kitchen with basics to whip up quick and easy meals for when you don’t feel like eating what you had planned.
5. Save up to 4 Points per day for use within the same week.

Marmalade

Debbie asked for a Marmalade recipe, and I said I would post one. This is the recipe I should be using, because of the copious amounts of grapefruit we have on our tree.
The recipe was given to me by a work colleague. According to her, you should make marmalade on 1 July, and no later! But in the past I have given grapefruit to my FIL’s partner in late July/August, and she has used them to make lovely marmalade.

9 medium grapefruit
16 cups water
4.3kg sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice

Peel, quarter and slice grapefruit. Add water and boil for 1 hour.
Add sugar and boil hard for 20-45 min, until the mixture gels.
At the end, add lemon juice.

Makes 16 x 100g jars.

(I’m sure you can double/triple the recipe to suit).

Me, from A to Zee

A few days ago, Elaine, one of my newest blogging friends, tagged me for this meme:

A. Attached or Single? Attached to Rob for the past 11 years (and married for the past 9).

B. Best Friend? Rob. Nobody (nobody!) understands me like he does.

C. Cake or pie? Either, as long as they have the word “chocolate” in front of them.

D. Day of choice? Sunday. Church in the morning. Hanging out with friends and family in the afternoon. Relaxing in the evening. What could be better?

E. Essential Item? Only one? I don’t think I could choose just one. Okay, my handbag (there, that covers most things I need on any given day. Except my computer).

F. Favorite color? Blue.

G. Gummy bears or worms? Either, as long as they are sour. I love sour lollies. Don’t care much for any other kind.

H. Home town? Auckland, New Zealand

I. Favorite Indulgence? Chocolate!

J. January or July? No contest. January. Because here in NZ, January means summer. And summer means BLISS!

K. Kids? I am very proud of my 2 beautiful boys, Ethan (6) & Tyler (3).

L. Life isn’t complete without? MY life wouldn’t be complete without God.

M. Marriage date? 1 May, 1999.

N. Number of brothers/sisters? One sister. She’s the best.

O. Oranges or Apples. Either, but I’d prefer it if somebody else peeled and cut them. That way I’d be more likely to eat them. Lazy, I know!

P. Phobias? No real phobias (I doubt many people realise the true meaning of the word “phobia”) but I’m not that fond of large spiders. Small ones are fine, but I don’t like big ones.

Q. Quotes? This one graces the cover of this year’s graditute journal: “Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.” Just one of my many favourites.

R. Reasons to smile? Um, how long have I got? Sunshine, the love and companionship of my family, chocolate, doing a job I love, scrapbooking, fresh flowers, a handwritten letter, date nights with Rob, cuddles with my boys, the knowledge that God loves me, summer holidays, a good book, a shopping spree, living near the beach, Coke Zero …

S. Season of choice? Summer!

T. Tag 5 People. Nah. If you want to do it, feel free!

U. Unknown fact about me? As a little girl, I always wanted to change my name to Sam. Sam is one of my Dad’s nicknames for me, and has been ever since I can remember. I’m not sure if that’s why I wanted to change my name, or if he started calling me that because he heard me say that I liked it …

V. Vegetable? My favourite is sweetcorn. The vegetable I hate the most would have to be cucumber.

W. Worst habit? Playing games on Facebook until 11pm … Scrabble, anyone?

X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Weird question. I guess X-rays are less invasive, but then there’s the radiation to consider. Um, neither?

Y. Your favorite food? Chocolate! Slightly disturbing to see how many times that particular answer has cropped up …

Z. Zodiac sign? Aries, supposedly (but I don’t believe in all that).

Rays of sunshine

A couple of days ago, I had some stuff (work-related) happen that really threw me for a six. I don’t want to go into details, but suffice to say it put me into a real funk. A big ‘ole black cloud took up residence over my head.

But I am grateful for a few rays of sunshine that have been poking through.

Ray #1: receiving a lovely handmade card in the post from Ali.

She also made this card for Tyler, and addressed it to him in a separate envelope. Isn’t it adorable? A spotty chicken!

Tyler absolutely LOVED it. His face just lit up with a huge smile when he saw the chicken and “got” that it was for him, because he had chickenpox.

Ray #2: enjoying fresh grapefruit from our tree for breakfast:

July is the time when our grapefruit are at their best. It’s supposedly the best time for making marmalade, too. Which I should be doing, because very shortly we will have grapefruit coming out our ears. The tree is large. We like grapefruit, but even we can’t eat/juice/freeze all of the bounty. Every year, we end up putting crates of fruit out by our letterbox with a “FREE” sign next to them.
If I were more domesticated (and if I actually liked marmalade), I would be preserving like crazy.

Ray #3: going out for dessert & coffee last night with 2 girlfriends I used to work with. We have 7 kids between us, aged 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. We all work (part- or full-time) from home. It’s the school holidays. Getting the picture here?!
Not surprisingly, we all agreed that it was nice to get out of the house and engage in some decent adult conversation.
And the bonus? I had saved up enough points to have a piece of chocolate brownie. Mmm.

Ray #4: having a clean & tidy house (just one of the benefits of taking lots of sick leave to look after a not-so-sick child). I love looking around my house and seeing that everything has been done (and to be honest, that doesn’t happen much when I’m working).
Today I look around and see beds made, rooms tidy, toilets clean, dishes done, washing folded & put away, playroom tidy, freshly-baked carrot & walnut muffins in the pantry … and all before 11am.
I just need to get the grocery shopping done after Rob gets home from work today. I haven’t had a chance to do it this week – it’s a bit hard when you are completely house-bound with an infectious child!

Ray #5: reading this in my devotional this morning:

Isaiah 50 v 10 “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on His God.”

“When we feel fearful or discouraged, and negative thoughts and worries cloud our minds, all we have to do is turn to God. Even in the dark, He can see the obstacles that lay ahead in the path. And as He shines His light on them, we can see them too. Sometimes what seems like a huge monster in the darkness is a small bug in the light.”

Poxy Baby

So, a few people have been asking how Tyler is doing.
He is doing really well. Amazingly well. He’s been a real trooper.

At first I thought Tyler had quite a mild case of chickenpox. But a LOT of new spots appeared on Saturday and Sunday, and looking at him now, he’s got them pretty much everywhere. Fortunately he doesn’t have many on his face, but he has a lot on his back, chest and scalp (under his hair). He also has them in his ears, up his nose, on his lip, in his mouth, and all over his private parts.

As I predicted, the spots started to get itchy on Friday evening. I gave him some Claratyne (antihistamine) which didn’t help at all. Several of you had cautioned against using calamine lotion, and recommended other alternatives. And because I trust you, I definitely wanted to avoid using it, if at all possible. I had planned to get something else from the Pharmacy on Saturday morning, but he was looking pretty miserable on Friday night. So I “painted” his spots with calamine lotion before putting him to bed.

Big mistake.

He didn’t sleep much at ALL that night. Consequently, neither did we. He was so restless and uncomfortable, yelling out “Owieeeeee, owieeeee!” every 30-60 minutes. All. Night. Long.

The next morning, I went to the Pharmacy. I got full-strength Phenergan (to replace the useless Claratyne), and some Alpha Keri oil to put in the bath with the Pine-Tarsal.

Interestingly, the Pharmacist I spoke to said she doesn’t know why people still use calamine lotion! She’s from Australia, and she said nobody uses it over there. It’s strange, because I remember it providing quite a bit of relief when I had chickenpox as a child. But then again, I also remember having to reapply it all the time. Probably because the relief didn’t last long.
Anyway, I now believe that calamine lotion is EVIL.

Tyler has been having 1 or 2 baths every day, and I have to say the Alpha Keri oil is AMAZING. Thanks, Mandy! It leaves a thin oily residue on the skin afterwards, which continues to relieve the itchiness. It has helped so much that we haven’t heard him complain about being “sore” (aka “itchy”) since we started using it. He has been SO good about not scratching, which I’m happy about. I don’t want him to have scars.

The Phenergan has been an absolute lifesaver at night-time. We have now had 3 full nights’ sleep in a row and we all feel normal again.

Apart from that first night, Tyler has been really happy. He doesn’t even seem to mind being stuck at home for days on end. He’s been so brave and cheerful through the whole ordeal.

Ethan has been really good, too. He’s missing out on a lot of school holiday fun because we can’t go anywhere with Tyler. We also had to cancel a couple of playdates with his school friends, because they haven’t had chickenpox yet. But despite the disappointments, he’s been really mature about everything.

I did take some photos, but feel a bit funny putting them on the internet. But watch this space … I’m sure I will do a layout on this!