Jessen-Tye Family

We've all been quite busy of late with the end-of-year approaching and busy work/Kindy weeks.

I started a new job at Waimea College a couple of weeks ago as the Community Education Coordinator. I work three mornings a week which fits in well with Amelia's Kindy hours. I'm enjoying the job as it's been a while since I've had a desk-job. I'm still adjusting to my new weekly schedule - dropping off Amelia at 8.30am at Kindy and then starting work at 9am.

I'm still working at MacMillans in the gallery on a Sunday and am involved in four community groups (including the committee for Amelia's Kindy) so life is feeling a bit hectic right now. I started up an infertility support group here in Nelson in October which is for women-only and meets once a month. There have been two meetings so far and quite a lot of interest out there.

I have a slipped disc so am having physio sessions at the gym - almost like having my own PT which is great! I'm looking forward to things being back to normal sometime soon (ha ha - note the pun!)

Recently I went up to Wellington to spend the weekend with my Mum. It was great to have some time together and we squeezed in a lot. We saw Michael Jackson's This Is It on the Friday night at the Embassy. An amazing film (which I've ended up seeing twice as I saw it in Nelson as well this weekend). Saturday we had brunch with Bev, had an interesting Chinese massage on Cuba St (in which I got the giggles as I witnessed my Mum looking as though she was being tortured out of the corner of my eye!), and had a big walk around Wellington including going to the city gallery to see Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years.

Saturday night we went to see Mamma Mia! which was great too. Amazing singing and quite the atmosphere with quite a few groups of women (and some men!) dressed in their Abba gear. Sunday morning we went to Andrew and Marg's for morning tea for some delicious chocolate muffins! It was great to finally see their lovely house that they built last year.

Unfortunately there wasn't time to catch up with everyone in Wellington this visit but another trip is on the cards for next year.

Kev's been working a bit at the neighbour's house helping them out with some landscaping/garden stuff. He's pretty busy with his work too so family time and date nights seem to need to be rostered!

In August we appointed Danielle as Amelia's respite carer which has been working out really well. Kev and I typically have a date once a week - usually a Friday or Saturday night while Amelia has some fun with Danielle (who is a trainee teacher at her Kindy). We joined The Surburban Club (our local) a few months back so have been there for a few meals, games of pool (Kev always wins) and one game of darts (which I won - just!). We've also been ten-pin bowling (I won signifcantly!), to the movies a couple of times, for walks, and out for dinner with friends.

The September school hols went well. I really enjoyed having a few mother-daughter outings with Amelia. Particularly memorable was the day we took the bus into town. All went well - it was a lovely day - until we got off the bus and her wand from the $2 shop wasn't with us! While a meltdown threatened to explode, I acted fast and phoned the bus company who said they'd try to track down the bus we were on. A few minutes later they phoned and told me to wait outside at the bus stop (just around the corner from us) as the wand was coming on the next bus! You should have seen the look on Amelia's face as the bus pulled up, the doors opened and the bus-driver waved the wand in the air with a big grin - everyone else on the bus was also grinning! Incredible service!

Amelia's week is pretty busy with Kindy in the mornings and RDA (riding for the disabled) on Monday afternoons, gymnastics on Tuesdays, and one-on-one swimming lessons on Thursdays. She is doing really well at Kindy - blossoming - and I've started planning her transition-to-school. She will be starting at the age of five - end of March - attending just mornings to begin with. Her new entrant teacher is just lovely and completely accomodating and open around the ASD (autism spectrum disorder) side of things.

Being Spring it is fair season in Nelson so we've enjoyed getting out and about and going to a few school fairs in Appleby and Hope as well as going to the Masked Parade a few weeks back.

Kev and I are looking forward to an end-of-year get-together at our local German eatery we've organised Dec 12th - hoping as many Nelsonians (and anyone else who cares to travel!) can make it!

Click on photos at the top of the page to view recent photos.

It seems to have been the season for celebrating birthdays.

In late June I flew to Auckland to celebrate Sarah A's 40th. What a fantastic weekend! I had the best time staying with Sarah and Sila. I caught up with my Dad and family on the Friday night for dinner and then spent the rest of the time at Sarah and Sila's. I had a lovely loooong catch-up with Steph Saturday arvo over coffee. Sarah's 40th was a lot of fun. It was at The Garnet Bar - an intimate venue with just under forty guests. It was great to catch up with my old primary and high-school friend Melanie and her husband Clayton too! I definitely partied up a storm - and certainly paid the price the next day!

We recently signed up as members of our local - The Surburban Club. We've been there a couple of times - once for Kye's 30th which was in a one of the function rooms and also for Andy's birthday where our two families met at the cafe for a Sunday meal. Amelia and Thea really enjoyed their night out in the middle of Winter!

Rainna (Kev's Mum), Raelean (Kev's sister) and her son Jack, Kat and her daughter Olivia came to Nelson for a few days in July. They stayed at the Tahuna motorcamp and we had a pre-birthday dinner for Danny's 40th. Carina and Craig came down from Wellington for Danny's actual birthday. It's always nice to see some more Tyes down this neck of the woods!

We had a lovely roast dinner for Jason's birthday (our nextdoor neighbour) with his and Evey's friends and family not so long ago. And Friday night I went out with Trina, her sister and a few friends for her birthday.

Amelia has been pretty sick over the last week or so - firstly with a cold and then this weekend with a vomiting bug. She's now had one full term at morning Kindy and is thriving there. She's also doing RDA (riding for the disabled) and gymnastics - both of which she loves a lot. We caught up with a few people over the school hols that we don't usually see in the school term which was good. We also had a few precious mother-daughter outings to town and The Richmond Mall.

I joined a book club recently and am enjoying the challenge of reading a book a month. I really liked my new circle of book-friends too that I met at our first official meeting a couple of weeks back.

We've been going on family adventures in the form of local walks when the weather and our health has permitted. Amelia enjoyed walking up to the centre of New Zealand and for a walk along the Matai river.

Warren caught a big dirty rat the other day and took it into our room to show off to Kev. He was not impressed! (thankfully I missed it because I was settling Amelia at the time!) We have all been quite disgusted.

Click on Photos at the top to view some of our recent photos.

I hope everyone is well and happy out there. Please share your news - we'd love to hear it! :)

Love, Lynda, Kev and Amelia
xx

Last Monday we flew to Hamilton to catch up with the Tye family and some friends - but mainly to attend Rainna's (Kev's Mum) 60th birthday lunch on Saturday.

Pete picked us up from Hamilton airport and we stayed a night with Pete, Julia, Emily, and Leo. We all enjoyed some sausages and chips along with Raelean, Jack, Marilyn, Brody, Sean and Katie. Marilyn and Jamie kindly lent us their car for the week. Tuesday morning we caught up with my Great Aunt Marian in Hamilton on the way through to Tauranga. We spent a bit of time at The Mount before heading to Julia, Adam, Bea and Mia's house where we stayed for two nights. We had a great time chilling with The Proverbs as always. Amelia enjoyed a special excursion to Lollipops with Bea and we enjoyed a family outing to K-Mart! We caught up with Tracey Chitty from Kev's Palmy days and met baby Jorja (pretty sure that's the right spelling!) for the first time.

Thursday we headed back to The Waikato. We caught up with Rainna, Raelean, Jack, Marilyn, Katie, Kat and Olivia for lunch in Waitoa. Then we checked into our motel in Morrinsville before catching up with Nic, Sarah, Lily and Madison for fish n' chips for tea.

Unfortunately it rained and blowed during most of our trip away so we suffered a little bit of cabin fever. We cheered ourselves up with a pig-out at one of the local cafes (Ronnies) in Morrinsville before heading back to Nic and Sarah's on the Friday. Friday afternoon Katherine popped round - she and Kev used to go to youth group together many moons ago.

Saturday was Rainna's big day. We arrived shortly after noon and left at three-thirty. It was the first time a lot of the family had been together under one roof as such. In particular all of Rainna's children were present: Danny, Kev, Marilyn, Tracey, Carina, Nic, Julia and Raelean. That's 8 children all up and 9 grand-children who were also all there: Sean, Brody, Katie, Lily, Madison, Amelia, Emily, Leo, and Jack. It was a casual BYO BBQ and friends and family came and went over a seven hour period.

We had a brief stopover in Auckland where we caught up with my Dad at McDonalds (very brief as our flight from Hamilton was delayed). Was good to see him all the same.

Sunday Nic and Sarah hosted a day-long eating-of-the-left-overs. We stayed for about four hours and Amelia had a blast bouncing on the trampoline with her older cousins.

It was a good to see everyone in their own homes and to meet some of the latest additions to the Tye family. We were pretty rapt to get back to sunny Nelson though yesterday!

Click on Photos at the top to view quite a few(!) photos from our trip. Apologies that some of the photos are out of sequence.

Bought yesterday at The Mapua Easter Fair - an apron each for Amelia and myself. I couldn't resist. We bake quite a bit and between the two of us make quite the mess. We may as well look the part!

Friday afternoon we headed down to Christchurch for the weekend. We had a couple of stops on the way - a cuppa in Murchison and then fish n'chips for tea in a park on the way. We got into Chch about 7pm, found ourselves a cheap and nasty motel on the outskirts of town, and settled in for the night.
We had a lovely day on Saturday cruising through Hagley Park, visiting the Canterbury Museum, going out for lunch and then walking back to the motel via Cathedral Square. We took Amelia's city stroller which she was in and out of. She loved the playground at Hagley Park and had a great time at the Museum. Kev and I went to the original Paua House in Bluff on our honeymoon five years ago so it was interesting to see the replica in the Canterbury Christchurch Museum. It was quite an impressive Museum actually and kept us all entertained for a bit.

All in all we spent about four hours in central Christchurch so were ready to kick back the rest of Saturday afternoon in our motel.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed off to The Wiggles concert with Amelia in her Wiggles t-shirt. It was full-on as soon as we arrived at the Town Hall - there were families everywhere and it was just crazy. We bought some merchadise before the show which ended up being a good call.

The actual Wiggles concert was amazing. It had a circus theme and had a very, fast, energetic feel with The Wiggles and their friends bouncing all over the place. Clearly a few gymnastic classes have taken place recently - Anthony and Captain Feathersword in particular did some pretty spectacular stunts. The Wiggles jumped through hoops among other things with their circus performers on stage. There were several changes in costumes and there was a good mix of old songs with the new.

Amelia seemed a bit overwhelmed at first given we were just five seats from the front in the "hot potato" seats. But there were some smiles when some of her favourites were sung such as Do The Monkey, Quack Quack Cock-A-Doodle-Do, and Hot Potato.

It was a great weekend away. The only downer was when I went to give Amelia her evening milk in her new Wiggles cup tonight when we got home. I zapped it in the microwave, forgetting it had flashing lights at the bottom... and that was the end of the cup. Luckily Amelia got a Wags The Dog toy and a balloon as well from the concert. She fell asleep tonight holding on to Wags tightly and the balloon string with it hovering above her.

Click on Photos at the top for more Wiggles Christchurch concert photos.