Guess Jason and Malia's Baby's Stats

As all of you know, Malia is expecting a GIRL!

I would like to hold a competition to guess the statistics of this upcoming Strother Family member - what will her number be I wonder?

Rules:
Everyone is invited to enter the competition - any age.
Only one lot of statistics is allowed.
Group or individual guesses are allowed but you cannot do both (eg. Nina can't enter some guesses for herself and then for Mason and herself).
Deadline for guesses - 10 April
Prizes given for individual and overall winner

You may guess:
Height
Weight
Date of birth
Time of birth

My decision is final and no arguments will change my mind!
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

New Zealand vs. South Africa

I told myself I wouldn't just blog about sports, but after what transpired overnight in the Cricket World Cup I couldn't help myself. The Blacks Caps, led by an inspired Jacob Oram, find themselves in the semi-finals once again. Ironically, it is at the same venue where New Zealand suffered it's most embarrassing loss in it's 81 year history. That's right, the fourth loss in an ugly 4-0 whitewash to Bangladesh last year. That is typical of the Black Caps. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But that's why we love them. And then hate them. And then love them again. It's also typical of the sporting rivalry we share with South Africa. So I thought I would compile a list of five lowlights, and then five highlights.

LOWLIGHT(1) In the 1995 World Cup final we faced South Africa only to lose 15-12 in extra time. We won't mention anything about food poisoning.
HIGHLIGHT(1) The following year the All Blacks won their first test series in South Africa sealing it with a 33-26 win in the second test in Pretoria.

LOWLIGHT(2) South Africa stunned the Netball World with a dramatic semi-final win over the Silver Ferns in the 1995 Netball World Championships, being led by outstanding GS Irene Van Dyk
HIGHLIGHT(2) There is a saying "If you can't beat em, join em." In Irene Van Dyk's case she beat them, but joined them anyway. Van Dyk moved to New Zealand and became a Silver Fern not long after.

LOWLIGHT(3) Despite their Apartheid laws the NZ Govt had no issue with the Springboks coming to NZ for a rugby tour which caused protests nationwide. Households were divided, games were cancelled, and players were getting hit by flour bombs.
HIGHLIGHT(3) We managed to clinch the 1981 series 2-1 with an Allan Hewson penalty goal in the dying seconds of the third test in Auckland.

LOWLIGHT(4) Johan LeRoux grew tired of Sean Fitzpatrick so he decided to bit his ear.
HIGHLIGHT(4) LeRoux was suspended for 19 months for his actions, and we won the series.

LOWLIGHT(5) Because of their Apartheid Laws, South Africa didn't allow non-white players to tour their country. Eventually a compromise was made when NZ's non-white players were given "honorary white" status. A slap in the face to the Polynesian and Maori communities.

HIGHLIGHT(5) It has nothing to do with the previous lowlight, but at the 1992 Cricket World Cup, a new opening batting combination was formed. That of Mark Greatbatch and Rod Latham. They blasted their way to an unforgettable run-a-ball 100run opening stand against the Proteas winning by 7 wickets.

Another oldie!

All i can say is WOW i have bushy eyebrows!  Come on family...get blogging!

They just don't make show like they use to!

Watching T.V. the other day and had to turn it off because it was full of reality tv rubbish; surely know one cares about watching other people cook and compete against other people cooking, surely know cares about watching fatties cry and moan and compete to be the biggest loser. I admit I will watch the finale to see how well they have done and I may even clap for some of them, but the journey has been made out to be too much drama. What happen to people making shows that are not about real people and fun to watch, not talking about How I meet your Mother, which never seems to actually happen, or Home and Away etc. I am talking about shows like MacGyver and Mash, sure at that age I didn't have hearings aids that actually allowed me to hear what was going on, and sure I didn't even understand the jokes anyway, but I enjoyed them. I am talking about seeing my Dad, who rarely cries (the only other times was when Grandpa died) openly weep at the last episode of Cheers.
Blog your favourite old show and tell us something worth watching.
Love you all and loving the Bogs, photos and comments
Wils

Our Big Boy!!

Our not so little boy had his first solids... he wasnt too sure about it at first but loves it now... thought these photos were priceless.... he gets bigger everyday... Preparing him to be an All Black!!

From Aunty Lynette

Hello family! I've joined the blog. Can't wait to read all the fun posts.

Aunty Lynette

Check it out!

Sorry, one more thing from me...check out mine and Dilz blog and comment there as well.  It's our photoblog...kinda like a challenge against each other to help us both improve our photography skills!

http://chrissyvsdil.blogspot.com/2011/03/so-this-is-my-night-shot.html

A few tips for blogging.

Just to make it a whole lot easier for me...i added an email subscription on the sidebar instead of having to manually input everyones email addresses into the settings (of which it only allows 10 email addys...silly really).  This allows you to be automatically updated anytime someone posts somethings...i'm not sure about it alerting you when someone comments though...but you'll be able to tell if someone comments on a post...by looking at the number of comments at the bottom of a post.  Does that make sense.

So simply type your address into the email subscription bar and you'll get a confirmation email...after that, you're good to go.

OH, also...you may notice in the sidebar...LABELS!!! Just so in future if we ever want to go back and read posts, instead of having to scroll back through hundreds of posts...simply click the cuzzies name...or topic in the sidebar....so you can see only the posts done by that cuzzie...or in that catergory.  If you would like to make a new label...simply go to NEW POST, EDIT POST, select the box next to post you want to add a label to...above the posts you'll see a drop down box that says LABEL ACTIONS...click on new label...and type in the new label.  If you ever want to use that label again, when you write a new post, before you click publish, you'll see a little box at the bottom that says LABELS...click on show all and select the labels you want...hopefully this all makes sense...just trying to help keep the blog a little more orderly.

Just Thought you would like to know

At the end of our trip we stayed in Auckland for a few days and got to catch up with Kaea and Jaenne who had us over for a potluck and managed to get together Luke and Crystal and their families. First time I had seen Crystal in donkeys years who now has two little kids, met Jared who is a real nice guy and chatted with Luke too. Luke's wife and kids didn't get to make it which was a shame because I didn't really want to see Luke as much as I wanted to meet his family, sorry Puke. Got me thinking its a shame we didn't have enough time to organise and get more of the cuzzies there, mainly because we didn't have numbers etc. So here are our details if anyone is coming to the coast or even Syndey and want to catch up with Rak, Ant and Sarah call me or drop a line, there is a place to stay if you need it and transport if you want it.

Wilson and Rhiannon and Aja
wirifisih1234@hotmail.com
0449188509
I don't want everyone to post their details but I just hate the idea that a ctach up could have happen. So keep this somewhere and use it if you need it.
Wils

Its not every day you have an ALL BLACK at you wedding!!

This post will join Doug and Wilsons comments together... At our wedding we were lucky enough to have Jason Eaton, former All Black and current Hurricanes player... Dad (Mark) was especially excited as you can see from the photo.. Hows that for famous Willy??

And after our departure from Hamilton we went to stay with him and his girlfiend in Wellington. We were at the Cheifs vs Hurricanes game.. I think a few of you saw us on the big screen.... For the record Anthony was forced to cheer for the Hurricanes.. Not only was he sitting with 4 girls screeming for them but he was staying at Jasons house and even tho Ant is a big boy he wasnt game to go up againt the 7 ft somthing brick wall we like to Jase the Ace!!!

Famous People

If you read my comment to Doug's last post this post will make more sense, wanted to ask who are the most Famous you have seen in person? I want to find the family member who has seen the most famous person, of course the rest of the family can debate as to how famous they are. My most famous is a toss up between Julia Roberts, who I hate and Russel Crowe. I use to take Clients to a swimming pool in Sydney city at the same time as Russel Crowe and his son, and swim in the same pool. Also up there is 10x world champ Kelly Slater (or K-dogg as I call him) who I shared a wave in the surf a currumbin. Anyone match that?

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Quick question to you sports fans out there. With Christchurch losing all seven of its World Cup games (including 2 quarterfinals), don't you think they should have given Waikato stadium one of those quarterfinal games? I guess it doesn't matter for me cause I watch rugby in the warm comfort my living room with a fridge close by, not to mention the convenience of instant replays, commentaries (sometimes from the the commentators), and a lack of drunks around me shouting obscenities at the ref and opposition (and sometimes the home team!). Wait, I'm losing my point... Ah yes, don't you think the good people of Hamilton deserve a world cup quarterfinal? Or are we resigned to a solidary All Black game against a team we beat by 128 points the last time we met. Boo hoo NZRU. We deserve a quarterfinal!! Sometimes it's not always about money. What ya think?

Let the fun stories BEGIN!

So, i thought i'd jump the gun and get the ball rolling...here's a photo i happened upon in my private collection...

I think this was taken back in Massey...awesome don't you think????  Does anyone else have any cool photos from the olden days to share??? Would be awesome to see em.

Oh, and while i'm happy to post this photo on our families PRIVATE BLOG, i wish to express my feelings of evil towards any person who decides to take this and post it on FACEBOOK! (atleast without asking my permission) Not to be nutbar or anything, but i'd rather these kinda things stayed within the family...and not on Facebook.  COOL BEANS???

A post from CHRISSY!

Sweet! Good to see Wilson has made a start to the blog.  I hope you all enjoy adding to this...which is why i've jumped on...hope wilson doesn't mind...to help you guys out with how to post on here.

As we want to keep this as private as possible...it would be a good idea if you can all forward me your email addresses...that way i can set it up so eventually i can make this blog completely private from Cyber Space...so please email me at chrissymakata@hotmail.com i'll give you 3 weeks to do so...once i've gotten pretty much everyones email addresses, i'll close it off completely to the public...this will probably make no sense to you guys...but i know what i'm talking about...so do the right thing...send me your email addys.

Wilson and i both know, it probably would've been much easier to do this on FB, but we wanted something a little different from that...something we could change up from time to time...design wise...and make completely our own.  The header is just something quick i threw together...and the background was just the first one in the design menu, so if there is anyone out there computer savy that would like to design a better header...feel free to do so.  This might seem complicated, but it's really not once you get to know your way around...any questions...just ask and i'll be glad to answer.

Anywho...i shall private email you all the username and password for this blog so you can get blogging.  I too look forward to reading funny stories etc etc.  PEACE OUT!

The Idea for this Blog

First off, thank you Chrissy and Dillon for putting the blog together, the idea came to us when I first saw the photo that was posted on Facebook and all the comments that followed. We want a place for all the family to log on and catch up, post photos, videos, favourite recipes, tips, travel plans, topics of debate, testimony, favourites etc. I remember Uncle Clive wanting to put together a book of stories of the family and how much I thought that was a great idea, a lot of stories go untold and lost and with a family of this size I know it would be a waste not to get these stories out. I spoke with Doug the other day and he spoke of how he and uncle Ken spoke of some of his experiences in Basketball and coaching, there was four hours of discussion with two hours of tape time. There is a lot of experience and knowledge that I want my kids to read about.

There is no set protocol as to how it works, we really just want people to post anything and I think it will flow on. Lets get all the family involved, having said that this blog is for family, I think people outside of the family won't understand half the stuff we joke about anyway so keep it to the family, all 180 whatever it is now.

I hope this takes off, if not it will just be another way for me and chrissy to mock everyone behind their backs. Lots of love and hope to read a post or two soon.
Wils