katie, me and myke
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
turning 30
Yesterday I turned 30! Slept in until about 10 which was much needed after a long weekend working and staying up late for the FA cup final on Sunday morning. Liverpool had an awesome finish again thanks to Gerrard--awesome!! Went to Nelson with Katie and she went clothes shopping while I went TV shopping! Since it was my birthday I bought myself a new TV-- a 28 inch flatscreen Sony. Was on special too! Then the WRX wouldnt start so had to get Daymans to have a look and they ended up putting a new small part in which is now all good! So had a nice Chai Latte with Kate while waiting for that. Then drove up to Redwood Downs for dinner and when I got there Aunty Jan and Lisa were setting the table for about 10 people!! They had arranged a small surprise dinner party!! So that was pretty cool to have some good mates there for dinner. Aunty Jan had made a great favourite dinner being corned beef and hot mustard sauce--mmmm. And kumara, peas and carrots. After dinner we played Settlers--it was a long drawn out game which Katie finally won! I don't feel any older but now I have to say 30 which sounds older than 29!! A great day really and thanks to all who made it special and wrote me emails or sent me texts. And praise to God for His leading of my life--its been a pretty amazing journey so far and I just wonder what the next 30 years holds!!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Easter bunnies and eggs!!
Thursday night i strained my groin a little at training so left early. Decided to leave for the sounds that night. Got my laundry washed and dried and packed the car and cleaned up heaps of stuff and left at 9:45pm. Got down there at 11:15 and Jude(Lisa's mum) was waiting up for me with a hot chocolate! Friday we put tents up and mucked around. I cooked dinner for everyone. Saturday heaps of people came and we played touch and cricket, rode the motorbikes and ate. Saturday night was Lisa and Tim's engagement party. About 60 were there and we had a pig on the spit. Me and Sinky wore the rabbit ears cause Tim and Lisa wouldn't! Sat round the fire until 4am--actually i fell asleep and woke up and everyone else had gone to bed!! Sunday we played around some more and had a easter egg hunt. I cooked pancakes for breakfast and took Mandy Russ up the top of the hill on the 4 wheeler. I cooked dinner again sunday night, watched a movie and then I had a bath in the outside bath to soak my groin strain. slept in my tent again and woke to rain on the tent-real cool sound!! More relaxing on Monday and more cooking before leaving about 4pm stopping at numerous places on the way home to deliver birthday party invites. My party is May 20 and we going on a bar-b-cruise. Home for dinner cooked by Jennie as her and Nate were here staying. A real relaxing weekend and good times as usual down there. Congratulations to Tim and Lisa!!
Monday, March 27, 2006
Gisborne--soccer mad and no sunshine
Last week was crazy busy putting a new septic system in at camp. Plenty of hard work to get it in in a 6 day period between camps! Friday morning I left for Gisborne. After a stop at Brightwater 4 square for a powerade and some danishes, I pulled onto highway 6 only to see a blue and red flashing light behind me. A mufty cop car had been sitting by the school and apparently clocked me over the 50 km limit. Some new campaign means only a 5 km allowance outside schools. Anyway it will mean 110 demerit points now which means I lose my license for 3 months! Oh well maybe I can save some money! I will sell the WRX as soon as possible. Our team flew to Gisborne on a specially chartered flight and got off the plane and onto a bus to take us to our motel. It felt like we were a real professional team. Everything was organised for us and all paid for including our meals. It was nasty rainy weather all weekend. We won our game on Friday 2-1 against Gisborne Thistle but lost Saturday 4-1 against Mount Albert Grammer School and then lost 4-0 on Sunday against Gisborne City. Flew home Sunday night after a good weekend where we got to know each other well and learn a lot. Was good fun!! I shared a motel room with 2 guys, one named Jay (Ozzie) and he is a loose unit. He drinks a mixture each morning of energy stuff and he get extra hypo and cant sit still!! Hilarious to be around tho!! Good times!! Also Tim and Lisa got engaged on Friday night!! Crazy! Cool! Wow! Next planned weekend away will be Easter down the sounds when we will celebrate their engagement.
Friday, March 17, 2006
annas wedding
Last Saturday was Annas wedding. She married Chris a South African who also plays music and has been living in Germany and playing in an orchestra with Anna. The wedding was in Paeroa and was outside. It rained during part of the ceremony but we carried on under umbrellas!! The reception was really cool and it was great to meet some of Anna and Chris friends from Germany and Spain and South Africa. A very talented group of musicians. A pity Rufus wanted to leave early so we missed them making music together. Good food and wine tho and good to see so many cousins and relatives that I haven't seen in so long and others that I hardly know!! Anna is going to be playing for the NZ Symphony Orchestra in April/May as a trial for a position in it!! Wow!! She has been playing 1st violin in one of Germanys top orchestras! I'm hoping they will be coming to Nelson as part of the 6 week long tour that she will be on. I had flown up to Auckland Thursday night and stayed with Jennie Tiers and her boy Matt. Spent Friday downtown shopping-- a new dress shirt and a map of South America!! Went to the boat show at the viaduct and bought a new yacht! (nah just looked and dreamt!!) Then caught the train from the new Brittomart station (very nice) out to Pukekohe where Dad met me. Sunday we had dinner all together at mum and dads (with Pris and Sjoerd and Johanna) and then me and Rufus and Jon went to the Warriors game at Erricson. Warriors lost. Home for a game of settlers which I would have won if I had kept my mouth shut about it. Jon stopped me tho. Monday was a quiet day and then said bye to Rufus and Jon as they were leaving for South America on Tuesday. Flew home Monday night back to another fun week of school camp at Teapot! Now its Friday night and I'm watching Commonwealth games waiting for the sevens to come on. NZ will win another gold medal. I must say I enjoyed a bit of the opening ceremony but a boy and a duck?? Australians. What did it have to do with anything? Awesome fireworks tho with the river all lit up like that. Tomorrow I play my first real soccer game of the year. Our team is full steam ahead now and I have ordered my new boots(cleats). Adidas Tunits--they pretty cool and the club pays $200 towards them! We have a 2 day tournament this weekend here in Richmond and then a 3 day one next weekend in Gisborne which will include some of NZ's top teams. Can't wait!! I'm playing as a right wing striker in a 3-4-3 formation.
Monday, February 20, 2006
pics from the pro tour
Courtney spikes in the womens final at Mount Maunganui
Shannon (NZ) and Laura (Germany) 
Courtney and Tracy (USA) 
Night session at ASB tennis Centre, Stanley St, Auckland
Another great week of summer!
I had Monday and Tuesday off last week. Monday dinner was at Redwood Downs with John and Sara Barrett from the UK-Dads cousins. Tuesday I took 2 Paraguayans (Marcos and Denise) up the Abel Tasman. We went by boat to Ohi stopping by the seal colony. It rained and was pretty rough! We ate lunch in the shelter and were treated to a moari wiri or challenge. Then we walked the 90 mins back to Bark Bay and got rather wet. It was still very nice walking thru the native bush with a light rain falling. At Bark Bay the boat picked us up again and took us back to Kaiteriteri. Then off to soccer training!! yep soccer training is in full force and in a months time we are off to Gisborne for a 3 day invitation tournament with some of NZ's top teams. Will be a great experience! Wednesday night and 190 students from Nelson Girls College arrived for their leadership camp. This is pretty big for us so it made for a very busy 2 days.
Friday night was touch finals night. We lost our semifinal tho so no final for us this year. Straight after that we headed for the sounds. Katelyn and Josh came with me, we stopped for KFC and left Nelson. Caught up to Tim and Lisa halfway down and sped up to pass them. Just my luck as a cop came towards us just after I had passed. So I got another speeding ticket which puts my demerit points at 90! (You lose your licence at 100!!) So I can see I really need to go overseas real soon! Tim was lucky tho cause if I hadnt passed him he probably would have got the ticket. Saturday was perfect weather and we took the boat out to Te Mahia with the tube. We relaxed on the beach and I drove for Jerry to ride and then Tim drove for me riding. He threw me around pretty fast and was awesome fun! I managed to make it roll right over and stay on. Back to watch the cricket and have afternoon naps. Then some played in the water again, Katelyn and I rode the 4 wheeler and hunted banana passionfruit before a BBQ dinner. Watched rugby and cricket some more and ate a lot of icecream! Watched Anna and the King movie before bed. I slept in my open tent under a clear starry sky--so nice! Sunday I made pancake and french toast for breakfast and then we took the 2 small dinghys out for a fish. I caught a kawhai and a seagull and then we tied up on a mussel farm. We were about to go home when Lisa caught a decent sized snapper! Then Katelyn caught 1 and soon we had caught 10 of them. Katelyn caught 4, Lisa 3 and josh and mike 3 between them. I had one on my line but it got off and poor Timmy got nothing! He did work hard baiting everyones lines and working the burley. Back home for lunch at about 3pm and Tim and I fileted the fish. Packed up and left about 5pm. Such a great relaxing weekend. Back to work today and its still real hot here. plenty of swimming to be had and icecream and berries to eat!! A short week this week as Friday morning I'm off to Christchurch for the cricket on Saturday. Yeah!
Monday, February 06, 2006
Sports Camp 06 & pro tour
Its been an ultra busy month since I wrote on here last in the middle of the pro tour. I flew back to Auckland and got a shuttle down to Tauranga for the weekend tournament there and then back to Auckland where I stayed with Sharon Broadbent which was fun (shes a real cool cousin!). We spent 3 days preparing the ASB Tennis Centre for the NZ open and then 3 days running it. It was such a blast and I refereed a lot as well and got on TV!! Since I got back 2 weeks ago I have not stopped working on sports camp. Very late nights for 2 weeks is catching up with me and right now I am very worn out!! We just finished camp tonight-not sure how many people we had exactly but 8 teams competed in about 11 different sports and Annesbrook won overall. I also played a few games for Valley and we won the touch final in a real close game.
About 7 people responded to the message that Matty G brought to us. He talked about fear and how perfect love casts out fear. Jeff Bucknam had talked the night before about winning and why do we care so much? Even tho I was so busy I had a great weekend and wish we ran a camp like this every month! Now I have 2 days off so think I will sleep for most of that! Plenty of pics to come on here soon tho!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
New Years and the Pro Tour
New Years eve I flew to Auckland and then drove with Mum and Dad down to Tauranga. Stayed at Ruth and Jons and went down to the Mount to see some bands playing and played settlers which I won! Hung around at their house on New Years Day and then Pris and Sjoerd and Johanna turned up and so we had another game of Settlers. Then Monday I met up with the pro tour van and we drove up to Matarangi at the top of the Coromandel. Tracy and Courtney from the USA were with us too and has been real cool hanging out with them. Matarangi was real real nice but we got some nasty weather and freak high tides which washed over the courts! Stayed at the Beach Resort which was real nice!! I ended up refereeing the mens final and have now been given this duty for the tour it seems. I have been assessed in Wellington last weekend so I can hopefully get a qualification for this--maybe I'll become a pro referee!! Thursday we drove to Wellington and Friday setup at the beach there. Went to the second half of the cricket and had a great time as NZ fought back and won. Crowd was awesome! I worked, refereed and played in Wellington so was very busy. Monday morning I flew back to Nelson and am back at camp for 4 days. There are 320 campers here this week so it is pretty crazy!! Tomorrow I will fly back to Auckland to get to the Mount on Friday for the next tournament. So will write about that later!! Summer is great!!
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Bond clean bowls em!
note the bails are in the air--the ball has just hit and is at the base of the stumps
Monday, January 09, 2006
Matarangi Beach
After the tide washed over centre court Courtney wrote this. These cool girls are from California. Good luck on the tour!
Friday, December 30, 2005
1996 WRX for sale
NZ new, excellent condition, ABS, airbag, alarm/immobiliser, full electrics, brand new tyres, complete service history. 122 000kms (new cambelt etc done at 100 000kms) $14 000 ono. Reluctant sale--wanting to travel.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
The best week of the biggest year!!
Yep I'd have to say 2005 was the biggest year of my life. And in a lot of ways the toughest year. But after some big challenges and a lot of lessons learnt I can say that this week was the best of the year!! It started with a party of one of our teens from 1BW (www.onebigwhanau.blogspot.com) which is our youth group. We have had such an awesome year this year with them. Then I got some news which wasn't so great and got me thinking more about my interest in going to Paraguay. On Tuesday I bumped into a friend and told her about Paraguay and she is really keen to go too!! So I got way more excited about it and started checking out tickets etc. I had to buy new tyres for my car so have decided to sell it so I can start saving seriously for my trip. Then on Friday I found out another of my mates is real keen to go to Paraguay too! I had a great week at work (www.teapotvalley.co.nz) and got heaps done. Saturday I did my Christmas shopping and then we went to the carols at the church steps. Today had a Christmas church service and then spent the day at my uncle and aunts. Ate heaps and started reading my new book "The Dream Giver". Of course there were many other cool moments that made this week so good, like the spas, Chevy and Kristians engagement, dinner at the lonestar with Karen to celebrate the week and just thinking about the journey God has me on!! And I just got a job on the Pro Beach Vball Tour so will be travelling all over the north island for the first 3 weeks of January! Yippee! So this year is almost over and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me next year. God bless you all and especially those of you who have had so much input into my life in particular during the tough times of 2005. You are awesome and a huge blessing!!
Monday, December 12, 2005
Saturday, December 03, 2005
My Christmas tree on the front porch
Yes I have put my lights up--the icicle lights are my new ones for this year.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
My weekend!
Last weekend was a classic Nelson summers weekend. Friday night was a BBQ up at the apartment overlooking the bay-a perfect evening. Played 4 on the couch and got beaten by the girls. Saturday was our first soccer trip away. I picked up Jimmy and Stew and we were at the airport by 9:15am. Flew on Origin Pacific to Christchurch on a charter flight arriving around 11am. We hung out in the airport for 45 mins and then got shuttle buses to English Park. Its a sweet soccer ground--perfect pitch and even had a grandstand!! I'll put some pics of it all on here. Had a pretty good game which we led until about 20 mins to go and then they scored so the final score was 1-1. Flew back up the country--it was a perfect sunny day all the way and back into Nelson about 7pm. Up to Redwood Downs for another BBQ (I was on the barbie again!) and then a game of Catch Phrase-good effort Stew!! Back home to finish building the grandstand for the rugby. 1:20 am and I get to bed for 100 minutes of sleep before the test. About 15 of us watched the game on the huge screen in the couch grandstand. Sunday was 1 Big Whanau day at church. Some of our youth greeted people at the door and handed out communion etc. We played a movie of pics etc of our year at youth group and I spoke about what we do and Donald prayed for us all. A bunch of us went to Beam and Averils for lunch then off to the A & P Show to watch some wood chopping, have a quick look around and then a ride on the Kamikaze!! Off to Tahuna Beach for a walk and throw the ball around. The tide was the lowest I have seen it so we walked way out. Then back to Karens new house for dinner-not quite a BBQ but almost!! And finally finished the weekend off with a spa up at Tim Rutledges house. Beeeaaautiful!!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Angels
Check out pics below of our awesome day in the Abel Tasman park on Monday. Thanks guys--its was so much fun!! In other news, the team for our soccer game on Saturday will be named tomorrow. We fly to Christchurch for the day to play the NZ under 18 side. I'm fairly confident I will make the side. Have been watching the grand slam All Black tour on a huge screen in my apartment each weekend with people sleeping over. This weekend I think I will make a mini grandstand as we take on England. I'm up late right now cheering on Australia (believe it or not) as they are in extra time against Uruguay to get to the World Cup. Looks like a penalty shoot-out will be on. Still working at Teapot Valley and keeping real busy with work and youth group and sports etc. Summer is fully here and should be a good long hot one!!
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