Tracey tagged me a while back to list my TEN favourite D things .. I think I'm going to find this hard.

1: Dusty. She was our first cat, Matts and mine. She was amazing. The most character filled, fantastic, amazing feline. We loved her so and we lost her when she was still a kitten really. She'll always be in our hearts and memories, amazing how close you can feel with a cat really.

2: Drinking. Yes it's true, I'm a dead set lush. Those who know me know this to be true. A happy drinker. An unhappy the next day-er.

3: Diamonds. Well, my diamond engagement ring to be exact. I'm not a big jewellery fan but my princess cut solitaire is beautiful and I love it still.

4: Driving. I'm the driving Queen. I love to drive. A trip Melbourne to Sydney by myself is a treat, haven't done it in years but I love it, it's calming and I love the sweeping highway. I'm a confident driver (bit of a road rager) but I really enjoy it and think I'm a courteous driver to boot!

5: Dollies. Blythes in particular, also kewpies and Iron Fairies and plushies and lots of others that I admire but don't own.

6: Degustation menus: We've only done it a few times but wow what a pleasure - particularly when every course is matched with a lovely wine!

7: Dandy Warhols. Not so much their latest album but a few years back I was obsessed, and Courtney is a dead set spunk.

8: Dancing. Not me so much but watching the kids dance is a total crack up. I did do a mean Sugar Plum Fairy impersonation tonight to send the kids off to sleep. They're a very appreciative audience.

9: Daquiri: By the pool, with an umbrella. Preferably strawberry.

10: David Beckham. Okay I'm desperate, but he's pretty hot. :)

Noone will be surprised that I'm going to kill off my LJ. With three children now and living overseas from all family and long time friends I'm just going to have to simplify my internet life. I'm basically going to be 'living out of' my flickr account - which as Penni noted is where I tend to blog and chat - and if there are any readers out there (echo echo!) who are not already contacts on flickr find me here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustyjo/

Most of it is kids, and when I find the time (not often) I'll get a dolly shot or two in there also. Most of the shots are public but let me know if you want to be made family and friends and I can do that!

Thanks to those who have read along and commented over the years, sorry, have had a very lame journal here, though I have really enjoyed reading others who put a whole lot more heart and soul into it!

Hooroo for now! XXX

Couldn't decide between Joey or Caroline (My real name is Caroline Jo) but ran with the song that was always my true favourite, hairs on my arms on end ... love this song.

Thanks Trace, CB are getting a belting on YouTube now. :)

This weekend we went to stay with our friends Paul and Ali and their kids Charlotte (7) Natalya (5) and Gemma (almost 4) at their beachhouse down at Waihi Beach. It's a true Kiwi bach in that it's very basic, almost a bit of a time warp back to the 60s.
There were 9 of us in the 2 bedder so Paul and Ali gave up their bed to the pregnant heffalump (me!) and ended up staying down the block in a tent which was nice of them.
We arrived there late on Thursday after hospital appointments for me and for Asha and we raced home to pack and got down there at about 7.30pm the kids were so excited and were hard to settle by 10!

The next day after a swim etc. we were hanging out having some down time when there was a strange cry from the kids room, Gemma and Lulu were playing and Gemma had squashed/bent her arm in the old cot that they keep down there for their baby cousin, it was on a scary angle and Paul and Ali headed off ro the GP, then Xray place then Tauranga Hospital. Like Asha's breaks, well, this was more of an intense bend than a break as there was no heavy impact, it had to be manipulated and put in a full arm cast, poor wee Gemma, her pool party for her 4th birthday is next weekend. She's a tiny thing, for her age, (12kg or less) and she ended up doing well lugging around the cast though after the initial attention/excitement, she wasn't coping so well today having to have it all taped up for the beach etc. and was getting pretty upset.
I could forsee that it was going to be hard for Gemma, who has a pool at home too, it will be like Asha was in Melbourne, whose little heart broke every time we went to a pool or the sea, it was so stressful for her. The good news for Asha however was that she can have her cast off a week early this Thursday (all going well).

This is minutes after Gemma arrived home from the hospital on Saturday, she looks dazed and confused, instantly pounced on by her two sisters and my two girls, they are giving her some love here - Asha with her own cast on doing her hair for her after they'd taken Gemma on a special treasure hunt which led her to her bed where they had many hand made cards and presents they had wrapped up in home made wrapping paper.



It wasn't really the relaxing weekend I needed but the girls had heaps of fun, playing madly for hours, riding on the trotting sulky and horses of the guy next door, making dinosaur eggs and boogie boarding at the beach over the road, lots of lego and drawing and playing 'Teachers' it was fun for the five girls together.

My highlights were:
Eating a divine lunch at Astrolabe (my happy place) in the Mount after Ali and Paul got back from hospital yesterday, Matt and I grabbed the girls and took off for a drive for a few hours, bliss!
Reading 'Water for Elephants' on the deck in peace any chance I could get, a brilliant book, must head to bed and read more now!
Buying huge bags of local massive creamy avocados for $2 each from the farm just up the road from the holiday house on the way back this afternoon. There is no greater taste sensation on this earth than avocado, none I tell you!

Poor old Lulu had a bad sunscreen experience with it getting into her eyes then a mozzie bite or something else which has one still swollen and red, but still, being the Princess of Stamina she kept on roaring along, and had a bit of fun on the deck on this toy truck. Looking the part in Asha's cowgirl hat - though sore eyes and bright sun = Squinty Girl.

1. My rock star name (first pet and current car)
Stanley Commodore

2. My gangsta name (ice cream flavour plus cookie, or biscuit)
HokeyPokey TicToc

3. My fly girl name (first letter of first name, first three letters of last name)
J Bev

4. My detective name (favourite colour, favourite animal)
Turquoise Turtle (!)

5. My soap opera name (middle name, city of birth)
Jo Melbourne

6. My Star Wars name (first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name)
Bev-Jo

7. My superhero name (second favourite colour, favourite drink, add “the”)
The Silver Bubbles

8. My Nascar name (first two names of my two grandfathers)
William (can you believe I don't know? Peter?)

9. My stripper name (favourite perfume, favourite sweet)
Flower Bomb Meringue

10. My witness protection name (mother’s and father’s middle names)
Jo Leonardus

11. My weather anchor name (fifth grade teacher’s name, a major city beginning with the same letter)
Bridges Budapest

12. My spy name (favourite season/flower)
Summer Wattle

13. Cartoon name (favourite fruit plus garment you’re wearing, with an “ie” or “y” added)
Avocado Thongy

14 Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast plus favourite tree)
Muffin Magnolia

15. Your rockstar tour name (favourite hobby plus weather element, with “the”)
The Blythe Storm

Asha's been in the wars. Over two weeks ago now she had a big fall off the monkey bars at Natalya's house, nine hours later at midnight she was in theatre getting her badly broken bones realigned, stayed overnight at Starship. Not good. She's *so* brave though, incredibly strong. Ten days later we went in for a follow up xray and it had come apart again (wah!) so had to go through the whole theatre/hospital process again and we're again dealing with it all. Let's hope it sticks and heals well from here and with luck she'll get the cast off on the day before her 5th birthday. Oh I so hope that she does.

Lulu is still crazy. A new desire to dress as Cinderella daily which sits strangely with her usual tomboy behaviour but very very cute. Wicked sense of humour and a real touch of the clown about her. Beautiful girl.

Matt has started on a new project on the other side of the Bridge. Nothing exciting there unfortunately but working with some great people so that's a bonus.

I'm sick sick sick sick sick (morning afternoon and night) but the end is in sight - well, three weeks away with luck! Have booked in with an obstetrician this time after midwife support only with the girls so curious to see the differences there (probably none except an emptier bank account!) .. still interested in this New Zealand health system and seeing how it all works. Had my first energy burst in 4 weeks this morning and actually re-dressed three Blythes, first touch of them since the morning sickness hit. A good sign! Also had my first coffee this morning in weeks so the two may be connected. Watching the first Kangaroos (AFL) game on TV that has been broadcast here this year. Our magnificent magnolia tree is in full bloom, it's an amazing sight, caught the ladies from next door on a step ladder over the fence lopping off branches the other morning, oh well, share the joy I say. (small pic on my flickr, will take more tomorrow).

Hope everyone (in sthn hemisphere) is feeling the impending joy of Spring. Only 7 days to go.

We've been back from Noosa for almost a week now.

( more to read plus big pics )

Shes only four! Four and three quarters. Four years and 41 weeks. It's 11 weeks until she turns 5. It's 12 weeks and 3 days until she starts school. Eeeeeep!

It's the worlds smallest tooth. Hard to guage if you don't know NZ currency but suffice it to say that it's small. Ten cent pieces are small and Asha's tooth is the smallest I've ever seen. I hope that the tooth fairy doesn't pay by weight.




I made a little gazebo from this site recommended by Georgia
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Toypages/06gazebo/06toothfairyGazebo.html
(sorry still can't work out how to hyperlink grrrr)
and it's by the bedroom window with the tooth in it. The Fairy can have a little relax in the gazebo before flying off to collect the next tooth. Wonder what she does with them all??

ps: we're off to Noosa (yay) on Sunday so will be absent for a while. wish us sun and weather warm enough to swim!

Here is our current update.

Jo
Happily back to blonde.
Finished her Photoshop course and still none the wiser.
Joined the YMCA gym and have a weights plan in action. Terrified. But loving that treadmill.
Enjoying a musical reawakening thanks to Jacquie.
Not enough playing with dolls and not enough photo taking but working on it. Will make some time this weekend.
Loving being with the girls and running them around here and there and all the assorted cuddles conversations and dramas. Looking forward to some husband time soon too!
Working on health and wellbeing. Getting there. Slowly.
Waiting on dream dolly all the way from Finland.

Asha

Started gymnastics and is in roley poley heaven. All that practice on the monkey bars has paid off.
Still doing ballet and improving each week. Mumma has learned the art of the perfect bun. Yay!
Kicking serious backsides at swimming and moving up to the pre-school advanced class next term.
Creating beautiful things at Bear Park and enjoying her friends Grace, Terri-Jane, Emma, Jai Lin, Paddy, Rowan, etc. and working on getting the trophy again doing ball skills with Coach Adam, art with Miriam, new Brazillian teacher Alex and his puppets.
Still the queen of princesses mermaids dolls drawing dancing butterflies and sparkles.
Can make things out of nothing, very clever with drawing, painting, constructing things, she is very artistic.
Turns five in 14 weeks, and starts school in 15 weeks ... !!!
Loving: Creative dress up combinations. Ariel hair. Monkey bars. Gymnastics. Swimming. Playing with Rowan. Being helpful, gentle and kind.

Lulu

Doing what a two year old does best, yelling, demanding, attitude all the way, but cute in overdrive. Oh dear, that child has charm on tap. Scary stuff.
No fear .. baby gym lover climbing, bouncing, twisting, turning, booked in again next term and ready to go!
Another water baby here, she's the champion of her swimming class and will be an early starter in pre-school real beginner class where I predict she will also be ahead of her game. Proud parents Matt and I!
Loving: Gromit, trains, Charlie and Lola, dancing, Asha's bike, rollovers, singing, screaming, books, climbing and being troublesome.

Matt
Work work work work work work work.
Work.
Work work work work work.
Thinks about his ocean kayak and surf board and fishing rods a lot. Probably wonders about how many layers of dust there are on each item. I'm guessing 2,836.
Plays with the kids a lot between working, loving lots of park time and bike time and flying fox time.
Looking forward to our Noosa holiday (as we all are). Hopefully will be able to wash all the dust off his beloved water/fish catching toys then. And relax.

We spent the day at Storylines in Aotea Square in the city, a big family day based around childrens literature, storytelling, performance. It was fantastic. My absolute hero Tanya Batt was performing, I'm such a nut, I got all teary and starstruck talking to her, had to wander away (I'll blame that on being tense and probably hormonal), then came back to buy her new book The Princess and the White Bear King (please excuse me but I'll come back and try a hyperlink to that) and an older CD the Story Sack. So we took a break midway and went to look at a house in Meadowbank which was amazing but not quite right (steep block) but yes, amazing!

Back to Storylines we saw a talk by Shaun Tan about his new book and his illustration in general, he is a genius, oh yes he is. Than another performance by Tanya Batt (yes I'm obsessed) and as we left we really annoyed the security staff who were trying to push Margaret Mahy out of the area but we pushed in and got a photo and a signed book to boot! She was so lovely.

Add to that meeting and photo ops with both Hairy McLary AND Clifford the Big Red Dog .. face painting, craft and balloons .. well .. a great day!

( Pics Galore after the cut )

Tagged by Kath :) Yay, I love talking about me! Hahahahaha. Heh.

1. Four of my favourite jobs

I loved working in record shops (Brashs and Gaslight), loved listening to music all day, loved talking about music all day. Loved free CDs, store discounts, loved album launches, loved free gigs and my name on the door everywhere! Loved serving customers well and .. loved serving famous people (David McComb!).
Bit naff but being a mum. It's the best job I've had, the job I'm best at, but yeah, worst pay, toughest bosses .. yada yada.
Tiger Angel .. had it's highs and lows, but I was proud of my work there, huge range of responsibilites, I loved the factory staff .. it was challenging and had a broad scope. Tested my people skills to a huge degree!
Hmmmnnnn ... hard to choose a fourth. I've had a zillion jobs but not so many that I actually loved.

2. Four of my favourite local places

Anchor Bay (beach - see pic). BeesOnline (restaurant). eondesign (shop). Little Rangitoto Reserve (park).


3. Four of my favourite foods

Avocado. Potato. the smokey miso baked eggplant at Tanuki. Pear paste.

4. Four of my favourite international places

New Zealand (of course!). Prague. Turkey. Vienna.

5. Four names of people I am tagging

Do 4 people read this? I think three do and they've all done this questionaire!

I hope all the Mums out there in LJ land had a good day. Mine was quiet and slow and lovely. Here are a couple of pics (with me in them!! argle argle ack ack!) taken by Matt .. my girls are growing up. Amazing what a bit of bronzer can do, I almost look human. Well she shall have music wherever she goes .. from now on. I now have a working iPod dock for the lounge and a working car stereo player!! It's going to be singalonga heaven from here on in .. as long as the girls don't hijack. Which they will. Sigh.

I love seeing Asha's take on photography, i love seeing things from her height, seeing what she sees and what catches her eye. I have given her my old digital, it's pretty dodgy but give it a whack and it usually comes good. Seriously. She fills the memory on it in no time flat so recently I emptied it for her and off she went.
She took this mega cute one of Lulu in our bathroom. There's obviously something wrong with the camera (hence the pinkness) but i love this image.






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She's such a sand muncher and loves to give us the cheeky grin that she knows she's being naughty but cute at the same time and we just faint at her incredible cuteness.
Brat!

another pic from our Sunday arvo .. covered from head to toe after playing in the huge crater she and Matt dug.

Penni has tagged me with the task of writing about my 10 favourite G things .. so I may be finding some loose obscure connections as nothing springs to mind, but I'll do it!

Most obvious is my GIRLS .. fabulous little ferals that they are. Here is a rare moment where they are not inflicting pain upon one another.



Oh and GOOGLE and GMAIL what would I do without them!!

GROOVE ARMADA and any other trip hop .. cruisy happy summer music .. music to drink to. :)



I'll be back with more.

GREEN: what a timely mention of that froggy leafy oh so peaceful colour - just ask my OBP friends.

GOLDIE! Oh she is the darkest coolest boggliest eyeballed Blythe .. she's such a rock star cool chick I love her to bits. One day she will be mine ... har har ha harrrrrrrrr!!

*image borrowed from lollipop on TIB*




back with more again soon!

Asha.B. ready to go for her first ballet lesson. She was fabulous and especially enarmoured with the huge walls of mirrors (as were most of the girls).

Pic is a bit poor, was in a bad mindset unfortunately however next week shall endeavour to take some leaping backyard pics.

I'll also sneak a camera into class next week and take an action photo. It was also her first swimming lesson today, and only her booked into the class - ripper - so a personal lesson basically, and she did great.

Took another daytrip to Anchor Bay today .. though it was bucketing rain .. it really is a beautiful place, I go into 'the zone' when I'm there. Stunning.

pics after the cut (if it works, haven't done a cut before)

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John Taylor was one of my earliest crushes, I think I was 10. There was only one other crush before him, James Freud. I really did like the girly boys didn't I? Oh, and from what I've seen, he's still a huge spunk. This is the video that started my obsession.



oh and I should mention that I was inspired to post this link because of the very handsome barman at the bar last night, dead ringer for JT circa 1981. heh heh.

It's been a funny old weekend. I'm on tenterhooks about Mish and her baby, Frizzy, who is still 'inside' and is 8-11 days overdue, just anxious and excited and am waiting to hear that all is okay.
Matt and I had a hot date last night, we went to http://www.thegroverestaurant.co.nz which was actually incredibly delish, we had the tasting menu with matching wines ... incredible, it was so nice to sit and chat and we worked through some stuff which was lovely. The food was beautifully presented and the service was great - bar a typo on the menu which of course irritated me! - but all good.
We then took the advice of the waiting staff and headed (hobbled in my case in my gorgeous yet unwalkable wedges) to Tabac which is a cool little bar owned by Neil Finn. Then home to a happy babysitter who had both the girls asleep half an hour after we left. Good night!
I'm so wimpy though, I was almost falling asleep at the table by 10pm, so a macchiato and some tequila cocktails !! gave me a bit of a boost. It was still so odd being out on a Saturday night.

Matt got up this morning with the girls at about 7am and left me to sleep until 9.30 .. noice. We had a cruisy day just headed to Ponsonby Road for a wander then to Kohimarama beach for a play and fish and chips. Girls and Matt to bed at 7.30pm !!!

Tomorrow is a public holiday, Auckland anniversary day - wishing for sun so we can head up to Anchor Bay. Pretty please Amaterasu, Sekhmet, Sol ... shine down on us tomorrow!!

Two random images, the girls going nutso in their new pool - which has proved to be great entertainment, plus a new piccy of the beautiful DD.