My girls

 Last weekend Jaz took a couple of photos of the girls and I. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of my photo being taken and because of that we don't have a lot of photos of the girls and I, so she struck while I was in the mood!
When I look at these photos I feel so proud of what we as a couple have achieved so far in our lives together. Houses and cars along with all the other material stuff is great but our kids will always be our greatest achievement. My girls are beautiful and the apple of my eye and I'd be the first to admit that this year has been pretty tough for them as most of my focus has gone on Jasmine and her recovery. Its only now 6 months after her operation that we are starting to plan and do things together as a family. Simple things like visiting the park or the beach have been like a breath of fresh air.
We all look forward to the weekends now and instead of sitting around home we are out exploring again!
As another weekend approaches the prospect of more rain  looms so its off to the Mall tomorrow for a bank appointment and may be a visit to the movies. Molly wants to see Cars 2! Which took me by surprise but should be a lot of fun!

Go the All Blacks

Mark

Catch up

Well since my last blog not much has happened really, work has been very busy and I'm almost at full capacity. Phoebe managed to pass on her cold to me which has developed into a case of debilitating man flu and the weather has been particularly miserable to say the least.

On Thursday I worked at the Mitre 10 expo and was pleased to see lots of old friends up from Christchurch. It was great to catch up and reminded me of how much I miss the South Island.
One of the things I love about the hardware industry is the friendships and I certainly felt a lot of love and support from people that will always be friends.


Jaz seems to be managing life after radiation pretty well, she is still quite fatigued but in general marches on as best she can. I have been surprised at my reaction to life after Radiation. I  found myself almost quite miserable fearing the worst. I think the anxiety of no treatment has finally caught up?
We seem to have been so focused on treatment and fixing it that I never had much time to think about things and now as life gets back to some normality I freaked out to say the least!
But I continue to exercise and try to keep my chin up, I must admit my lovely wife knows me better than anyone and keeps me in check when required. I love that lady to bits!! Tonight I have planned a nice dinner for 2 at a local restaurant with out kids and any other distractions which Im really looking forward too.

The Crusaders last weekend gallantly took on the Queensland Reds in the Super rugby final failing to take the win but exceeding most peoples expectations. The only team in history not to play a game at their home ground.  As you can see by the picture they were bitterly disappointed. However I don't think anyone in the rugby world was not impressed by their dedication to themselves and the fans of the Canterbury region. Well done guys you made me proud to call myself a cantabrian.
 Well that's it from me for today, this bloody cold is making feel pretty miserable so I think Ill retire to the couch for a snooze. Have a great and safe weekend.

Mark

Rain rain and sleeping beauty's

When we arrived in Auckland 2 years ago the locals said we would love the mild weather. I must admit the change from a cold Canterbury winter to the mild Auckland winter has been well received but no one ever made comment about the rain.
Today a heavy front came through with high winds and the heaviest rain I have ever seen!

I took this photo from my office window when the heavy rain started around 2pm then 30 minutes later it was all gone! Crazy!!! Guess what 30 minutes after that we had another amazing downpour! It might be warm but the weather is bloody crazy!!!!!

Little Phoebe has caught the cold from hell and has spent the week home. It seems to happen every second week Jaz has done a great job looking after her while trying to rest. Its not an ideal situation but the weekend is not too far away. Fingers crossed it doesnt rain!!!
One of the best things about not traveling  all the time is I now get the opportunity to tuck the girls in at nights. The girls normally have a story then spend 15 or so minutes reading with the lights on. Well this is what I saw when I went up to tuck them in and turn off the lights! Two sleeping beauty's!!!

The Power of Pamol!!!

Sweet dreams Molly x

Have a great week :)
Mark

Bugs Burlesque and Earthquakes

Well its been an interesting week to say the least, hooray to Jaz who finished her radiotherapy on Wednesday. Huge sigh of relief from us all, Molly was very excited on Monday I think it was and said to Jaz that she was very happy that Mum would be all better after Wednesday. If only it was that easy! While our child's naivety of the situation was rather cute we were also saddened by the prospects that might lie ahead.

Anyway to dwell on the negative is not healthy and we have since moved on. Concentrating on and enjoying the day ahead.

I managed a lot more work this week attending meetings and planning sessions that I haven't been apart of for such along time, it was really great and I have found the weekend a welcoming rest rather than just another day off. I also managed to inherit Phoebes gastro bug on Thursday causing much vomiting etc (Ill let your imagination work out what the etc was!!!!!!!!!) which meant no exercise at all for 2 days. Probably not a bad thing as I have managed to slip down to 84kgs. Ive lost 18kgs since Christmas. A combination of stress and exercise almost everyday has seen the kgs fall off!!! My goal now is to sit around the stress less 85-90kg mark but to add muscle rather than fat this time. Its quite an interesting process, while exercising, your body needs fuel to develop and grow muscle but the mind fears excess food intake worried that old habits might come back. I went to the library last weekend and have read alot about sports nutrition so I'm pretty confident that I can maintain a good balance causing healthy results.

Auckland joined other parts of the country and had an earthquake of its own last night only 2.9 but enough to worry a few locals. I noticed a few cantabrians chipping their Auckland cousins for making a fuss over the experience. Id like to stick up for those people in the big city that are worried about the what ifs, imagine if Auckland experienced an earthquake of similar devastating effect to Christchurch? I'm not sure if our tiny country could cope with the economic pressures caused by a disaster in our main centre.  So to all of those people mocking Aucklanders take a step back. I was blown away by the amount of businesses and schools etc that took part in Red and Black days after the first big quake raising an awful lot of money. As Paul Holmes said in his letter to Canterbury"I know you think we Aucklanders are up ourselves. I know you bang on about bloody Aucklanders. But really, we're just the same as you. We're Kiwis, before we're anything else. We're strugglers, like you. We get up and go to work and do the best for our kids, just like you. We help our neighbours, just like you, and we've watched you helping each other this week and we've all been deeply moved. We just want to walk up to the television screen and hug you and hold you."
Well thats my grump for the week. To finish last night Jaz and I watched Burlesque on DVD. I thought it was going to be a chick flick and I was right the script wasn't the best but the dancing and singing was pretty amazing, well worth a watch if you have a spare couple of hours.

Have a great weekend

Mark