Day 26 Wellington New Zealand Thursday!

We move into our new place this morning. Packing up the luggage now! We will not have Internet for the next 7 days except on our phones which is not enough to blog, so I will type it up and then publish the posts when we get Internet again in a week. Until then...we love you...we hope your Christmas and New Years Holiday's are WONDERFUL!!!

Much love,
The Fry's

Day 25 Wellington New Zealand Wednesday

Today was Garrett's first day off of work for his Christmas Holliday. We spent the morning at the museum with the kids showing Garrett all the exciting things he has missed out on. Then we fed them lunch and Garrett droped me off and took them back to the hotel to take naps and I battled the wind walking around downtown doing a little last minute shopping and checking out the furniture warehouse.

We spent the second part of the day running making necessary purchases like-dishes, cups, silverware (oh wait we put that back at the register because it was more than we had thought), tupperware, bath towels, pillows, sheets (for Enoch and Ezra-the rest of us have sheets with us), kitchen towels, a pot holder, iron, chopping mats,a few hangers, and I can't remember what else. This was really good timing because there were some great deals for Christmas. Everything we bought was at least 20% off and most was 40-50% off so everything total was only $520 NZD or $300 something USD. Seriously good for all the things we had to purchase. It was two overflowing carts full of stuff.

We didn't end up getting an ironing board because I am really crossing my fingers somewhere else will have one that is cheaper than 70$. Granted it was on sale 30% off but STILL! REALLY?? wow, that is a lot.

Well Ethne was an ANGEL durring all of that because she got a good nap. She was just as good as gold being in that store cart for two hours or more. She was really unbelievably good.

Enoch and Ezra, although usually quite good, were horrid. Not maybe by some kids standards-but for them. Garrett and I didn't handle them well and didn't keep them engaged. Instead we just kept telling them to be good, to stop touching, to stop running, to stop climbing on things, to stop touching again, to stop pulling the hurting each other etc... Instead we should have engaged them somehow, but were to busy trying to make decisions to stop and think about the situation. It ended with them eating PBJ sandwhiches for dinner instead of chicken and curry and being shuffled off to bed.

Since Day 26 will be much the same as today we will get to try again. Hopefully it will go better.

Day 24 Wellington New Zealand

Today is Tuesday. Those last several entries are out of order. I haven't had much time to write on the blog so I am trying to do a little catch up. My brain is too fried to remember it all so they are short and sweet. Right now Ethne and Ezra are sleeping and Enoch is watching people ice skate to Mannheim Steamroller on tv-but he is board he just told me. I guess that means I don't have much time left to do this :) So today we spent the first 1/2 of the day at the museum. Did I already tell you that they are the only museum in the world that has a Colossol Squid on display in a tank (it is preserved and very very cool). It was pooring rain and SUPER windy today so Garrett picked us up and we showed him the squid and all of its parts that are usually hidden so that you don't know they are there. The claws that turn 360' and the beak, the eggs that were inside it and the tenticles up close. enoch and Ezra checked on their squid (the one they made in the computer there) and it said they were 7 days old and had traveled about 33KM. Enoch's had passed through a pod of Killer Whales and Ezra's had just escaped a scientist. They were very excited to have this knowlege. We ate lunch in the cafe and Enoch and Ezra ate the sea food chowder. I thought this was just a little funny to be learning so much about the squid and then eat his relatives for lunch. Garrett ate a salad and fish pie and Ethne and I shared a salad and fish and chips.

Ethne has become a very serious dipper. She now will not be content to eat things diped once--she DOUBLE and TRIPPLE dips in MY dip. She has to dip every time she takes a bite. I have to be very stratigic to keep her from contaminating it all. She is a VERY busy lady who knows just what she wants and what stands in her way of getting it. She is quite capable of eliminating or getting around her obsticles. Garrett, the boys and I are facinated to watch her as she moves forward-always with a purpose. She is quite amazing.

Cutting this short-no time to finish-maybe later :)

Day 20 Wellington New Zealand Friday

Tonight we went to Moore Wilson's. Moore Wilson's is a four part shop. One part is the FRESH section and it is filled with very high quality fruits, vegetables, breads, pastries, cakes, pies, fish-whole and part, shell fish, and other meats. They have lots of parts of the animals that you can't find anywhere else. It is a treat just to go into Moore Wilson's. It is as fun as Costco.

The second part is an everything kind of store. They have a lot of everyday kinds of things like appliances and kitchen items. Upstairs here is a great toy store that has a lot of the kinds of toys I like. Plan Toys, Lego's, nice games, Wooden Toys, Books, and more.

The third section is the bulk section where you can buy things in large quantities-not sure yet if you have to have a licence for this.

The fourth section is all wine. I haven't actually been in there but it looks like they have a great selection for those who are interested.

We bought the kids several things in the toy store for Christmas. They will like these. Later I will go back for stocking stuffers. They have fantastic chocolate from all over and other little treats for Christmas. :)

Happy Shopping to you all and Merry Christmas. Wish you were here to do some shopping with us. I love Christmas!!!

Still haven't found that Kiwi ornament that Enoch wants but we are still looking. Well, actually we did find one but it was so ugly that I just couldn't see having it on our tree for years to come.

Enoch also wants a stuffed Kiwi for Christmas and I found one that is fantastic but it is $49. That seems a little much for a stuffed animal so we passed on that one.

Love you all-

Wellington New Zealand Day 21 Sat.

On Sat. we spent the entire day as a family doing Christmas shopping and shopping for appliances. We looked for all the white ware. We need a microwave, fridge, and washer/dryer. It took the entire day but it was really a fun day for the most part. Garrett and I felt overwhelmed at the money we are going to have to spend, but we found some great deals and were able to make some good notes to go home and contemplate. We also bought Christmas presents for the kids because we haven't been able to do any Santa shopping yet really. We spent an hour the night before (Friday) and I purchased a doll for Ethne a different day, but that was all we had done. They aren't getting much but what they are getting is really great so I think they will be happy. Since our things will not be here until February we though it would be important for them to have something great to play with. They will need something to do when it is cold and rainy. We went to lunch at a little cafe where Ezra had scrambled eggs on toast (their eggs on toast are really good here), Enoch had chicken nuggets and fries, Garrett had lasagna and Ethne and I shared an pasta with chicken and Thai chili sauce. It was fantastic. Actually everyone was very happy with their food. Good place! I bought Garrett a really nice boogie board for Christmas. (don't worry he never reads the blog so he won't know-oh wait he already knows :(

It was really tricky to buy all the Christmas gifts with the kids there. We had to talk about what we were going to get them and then I would distract the kids and Garrett would gather it up and go pay for it and load it in the car and meet back up with us. Pretty hard when Enoch is the king of deduction and doesn't miss a beat--EXCEPT if he is watching a movie, playing on the ipad, or looking at star wars Lego's :)

The kids were really pretty good while we were out but there were a few times where they were really tired of looking at boring things. Their favorite part of the day was at the appliance store when a boy a little older than Enoch showed them how to use their body's to play river rafting on the huge screen TV via X-Box. They really loved being able to jump and watch the boys in the raft on the TV jump as well. They would have so so much fun with something like that. Too bad they are addicting and they turn your children into boring, unimaginative, combative, tyrants :) I am already tired of them asking me all day long to play on the ipad. If we had something else I would be asked 1 million times a day if they could play that too.

Wellington New Zealand Day 22 Sunday

Day 22 of:

1. Being in New Zealand
2. Living in a tiny hotel
3. Eating pre-made food, peanut butter, and cold cereal (for the most part)
4. Trying to get into a house
5. Driving on the wrong side of the road (Garrett’s two cents)
6. Eating at nice café’s (also Garrett’s two cents)
7. Walking everywhere we go-which I LOVE I might say.
8. Having homicidal tendencies (more from Garrett). I am not having them, so he is alone in that. He has been wanting to throw things out of our 11 story window-nuts, cereal, whatever. Not sure where that came from but OK!
9. Looking out the window, standing on the balcony and feeling the wind and looking at the amazing amounts of green vegetation.
10. Learning new words and changing the way we speak. Things like rubbish, chips, trolley…
11. Drooling over adorable things in children’s shops that are way too expensive to even contemplate buying.
12. Feeling light headed, dizzy and like we are in the elevator a lot of the time. We think the building moves and is kind of making us sick. Garrett and I both are having bizarre symptoms and are very lethargic.
13. Getting hardly any sleep
14. Loving and hating everyday :)
15. Crazy Wild Ezra
16. Naughty defiant Enoch
17. Tired, hungry but not eating, happy Ethne (when she isn’t melting down about getting back in the car or stroller, or being attacked by her brothers).
18. Good times
19. Hard times
20. Happy times
21. Adventures
22. Firsts
23. Being creative
24. Lonely
25. Over stimulated
26. Under stimulated
27. Living a contradictory life :)

Testing the Waters--WHAT no marshmallows?

Today is raining. I am tired and worn out and we have no rain gear or umbrella's. I think we will stay inside today and try to sneak in some laundry and read a few books. Our rain gear and other things are on their way to Singapore the to Australia and then to Auckland and then to Wellington-BAD NEWS-we will not be getting our things until February 18th probably. 5 weeks longer than it was supposed to be here. The shipping company said 8-10 weeks. That will make it 15 weeks :( We will really get to be minimalists now.

I have been testing the waters the last couple of days to find out how my kids are emotionally. Are they OK and if not why?

I asked them each if they are enjoying our adventure in New Zealand or if they would like to go back to the USA. Enoch said he was enjoying the adventure, but Ezra most definitely wants to go "home". I told Garrett and he very quickly replied "this is our home". He has so much on his plate right now he doesn't really have the capacity to worry or care for anyone or anything else. That is my job, so I talk with Ezra and console and see if I can help him in any way. Today was the clincher though. He almost had me in tears...over marshmallows.

I was drowning my sorrows in a hot cup of Chocolate and the boys smelled it and asked if they could have some. They are supposed to be cleaning up their room so I said if they did a good job they could have some. I said there wasn't any more left but when the cleaning people came I would ask for more. Ezra said "oh yea! can you ask for some marshmallows too?" I said well I could but they don't have marshmallows like we do in the United States. He asked what I meant and I tried to explain that their marshmallows are not like ours and he was SO SO SAD!! His lip stuck out about two inches as he tried to gulp back the tears. He managed not to cry but I almost cried just feeling sorry for him. It was so cute and so sad all at the same time. Poor guy-he is going to miss marshmallows like I will BBQ and root bear :(

BUT-on the flip side he will get really great chocolate and ice cream :) Much better than we have in the States. So hopefully that will be helpful to him.

Ethne is happy. She is talking so much since we got here. Her newest thing is saying the words Peek-A-Boo and she says it really well. I am going to try to get it on video but she NEVER preforms on demand. Another new thing for her is answering questions. I say Ethne do you want to go to bed? She says nah-uh, I say Ethne do you want to go sleepy-sleepy? She says nah-uh! I say Ethne do you want to nurse? She says nah-uh. Anything I ask her at bed time that gets her closer to bed is NA-UH or NO! She is really cute as she scurries around never looking at you just answering questions.
The one time that she seemed to miss home was when the boys saw someone that looked like her cousin Brigham. At the mention of his name she went nuts trying to get out of the stroller. She wanted her Baby Brigham. Then another time She was frantic trying to find her Oakley. So those are the people she misses most-Brigham, Oakley (and CA Grandparents). She has also had a few moments of wanting Grandma and Grandpa as well when they were being talked about. She used to be very afraid of Garrett's dad but when we lived with them for two weeks before moving here she loved Darryl and Gwenn both. She would walk up to Darryl and put out her arms for him to pick her up. So CUTE! Gwenn's daughter Jenny was also a target of Ethne's affection as well. Gwenn taught Ethne to say Grandma and Grandpa.

She says eat, more, apple, snack, night-night, bye-bye, Peak-A-Boo, Grandma, Grandpa, Ezra, daddy, mommy, ball, cookie, Ethne, cheese, princess (as per Ezra's request), hat, meow, woof woof, roar, cat, ooh ooh ooh (for monkey), bird, bread, drink, water (doesn't sound much like water though), food, banana-nana, and more.

She is the queen of dancing and she is starting to add a few new moves to her routine. She sings gibberish as well and it is very endearing. She is really the light of the family. The boys love to play with her but usually end up hurting her when trying to wrestle and play with her. Enoch knocks her over ALL the time while running after her. Makes me crazy but I am glad they adore her. While I was writing this on the blog they were trying to get Ethne to say things so that I could write them down. lol

Day 19 Wellington New Zealand

So today was pretty uneventful. We GOT OUR CAR THOUGH!!Garrett turned in the loaner "boy racer" car last night and today he paid for our Honda Odyssey. He said he loves driving it. That is good! We feel really blessed--We paid AA (the non-USA version of AAA) to do an inspection for us. They recommended that we find out if the timing belt has been replaced. We had the dealership check and they said it most likely hadn't been done. The dealership has work done on cars all the time so they have connections and they get wholesale prices. They offered to have the work done and split the cost with us. They could get it done for $400 and everywhere else is 1000$ (without their discount). So we figured either they are really swindling us or they can get us one really great deal. They have a really great reputation with Weta people. The sell a lot of people cars to people coming in to Weta and they are very proud of that relationship so we figured we would go for it.

The kids wanted to go back to Te Papa again so I got them all ready, packed a lunch and we walked down there. Shorty after Garrett calls me and tells me he needs me to go to the bank with him. We got it all worked out but we only got to stay at the museum for 1.5 hours the we walked back to meet him outside the hotel. by the time we got there the kids were hungry again. Ezra said "mom I wrilly hungry"
Mom: You just ate lunch
Ezra: "Yea but it wasn't very much food"
Mom: you had a sandwich and a banana and a nectarine and some popcorn.
Ezra: "That's not very much"

Garrett wasn't around anywhere and if he was keeping the same schedule as he had been lately he would be at least a 1/2 hour late if not an hour. SO, since the Indian restaurant was next door to our hotel I got some Roti for everyone to snack on while we waited. This gave us rights to sit in the outdoor seating instead of just standing in the way on the side walk. We were almost out of bread when Garrett got there just in time. We walked over to the bank and did what we needed to do and then stopped in one other place before coming home to have naps.

The rest of the day is even more uneventful so I will spare you. Still no house but we are getting closer we think. Pray for us :)

Day 18 Wellington New Zealand Wendnesday-Carols

The first two are Enoch busting a move.

This is what the boys kept wanting to do. Wrestle. They would dance a little while and then attack Garrett. So full of energy. It was mostly Ezra, and then Enoch would see them having fun and jump in. The were anxious for the Christmas program to start.

Here is Santa in the helicopter when it finally got started.

Ezra wrestling again. Good headlock dad!

Ethne the little dancing queen. This little girl can really cut-a-rug :) She is so funny about music and dancing. Anytime, any place, anywhere.

Today was a mostly horrible day so I am going to skip the horrible part and move on to the good part. Christmas Carols in the park. Garrett got off work and met us at the hotel where I and the kids were ready and waiting to walk to a park downtown for a very Wellington Christmas tradition. I had packed a picnic dinner of sandwiches, cheese and crackers, popcorn and fruit and we headed off. We found where we were going after about a 20min walk and I was not impressed...at first glance. It was a huge field of people dancing, singing and sitting on blankets listening to Michael Jackson's "Just Beat It" Oh no I thought this is horrible. It there is one thing I don't want to hear at Christmas time (or any other time of the year) it is Michael Jackson. I know everyone loves him. He is an idol, a legend, blah blah blah. I CAN'T STAND HIM! He just grosses me out and I don't even like his music-so I am sorry to all of you fans, I was feeling hugely disappointed.

Anyway we walked around a few minutes trying to get it all figured out and Garrett and I very hesitatingly decided to wait and see what happened. The program got started about 20 minutes later and that is when things got really good. There was such an awesome feeling in the air. There were so many people there all singing Christmas Carols with a live band. They sang "Away in a Manger", "White Christmas", "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", and every other traditional Christmas song I can think of (almost :). It was so fun to sing and dance with our kids and to really have them enjoy themselves. Since it is summer here the weather was nice, if a little windy, and it didn't get dark until 9:15. We left to walk back to the hotel at 9:00 so we missed the lighting of the huge light tree in the park, but we couldn't keep Ethne out any longer. She was SO WILD and tired. She actually packed us up to go. She made me stand up by pulling and pushing me, took me over to my bag and had me put in on, then she brought Garrett his sweatshirt and made him get up, she put the food back in the bag and tried to carry it, she tried to put up the stroller to wheel it away, and when all that was done she went to poke and prod her brothers until they got up and came with us. Garrett got at least part of that on video so maybe he can put it up on here tonight. She was so funny.

The highlight for Enoch and Ezra was when Santa flew by in a helicopter, but for me it was definitely the singing of Christmas carols with so many from our community. We all really had a great time and it was worth all the lame 80's and 90's American music they played beforehand. Not that all 80's and 90's American music is lame-just the songs they played :)

Side note-Our first Sunday here someone made the comment in RS that Americans all think they are the center of the universe and everyone was cracking up and agreeing. It was really quite funny to watch. So I told Garrett about it later and he said "America is the center of the universe. They don't know it but it is for them too. They watch American TV and movies, they listen to American music, they watch our news and read our papers...." They totally keep up with Hollywood stars and our celebrities. They make fun of Obama and Hillary Clinton and they follow our every move. So now every time we are out and about together we laugh because so much of what they have comes from us-The Americans :) So we laughed and laughed that we didn't hear a single song by anyone other than American artists. Cindy Loper, Machael Jackson, The Proclaimers, Justin Bieber and a bunch of others. Just funny!

The Cheese Princess

New winds a brewing in the Fry hotel room as of the last few days. No one is sure if they are here to stay, but from what we are seeing the Cheese Princess might be trading in her title for a new one. Two days ago Ethne Elizabeth Fry, who up to this point isn't really a fan of eating, ATE A PEANUT BUTTER on an apple!! Granted it was only one slice of apple but for this shining star that is big news. She has always declined peanut butter (and any more than a few bites of anything else at a time-except CHEESE) and turned to fruit only when her body would give her an overwhelming PLEASE feed me something healthy. But this time she actually started licking the PB off the apple and she wanted me to keep re-filling the apple so I just gave her a spoon of PB and she ate it like that.

While it might be a bit of an exaggeration that she doesn't eat anything but cheese it is true that cheese is by far her favorite food. It is also true that she would rather drink water or nurse above eating or drinking anything else. I have never seen a child consume so much water the way she does.

When the Cheese Princes was about 6 months old her parents lovingly started making her baby food in the amazing Beaba Babycook-a magnificent baby food maker by Williams Sonoma. Mom was super excited to be able to have it and use it but The Princess didn't want to eat food. She would just rather nurse. OK thought her parents no rush-there is plenty of time, but they kept trying every week to feed her a little bit . Finally at 9 months she was starting to accept more baby food but nursing was always the priority and then after that she would eat some baby food. By 9 months of age her brothers both preferred baby food to nursing and Enoch had weened himself altogether. It isn't so much that she is picky as much as it is that she won't try anything. Often if i can get it in her for one bite she will eat several more bites and then she is done.

One thing she will not touch is milk. It doesn't matter what kind-whole,low-fat, rice milk, she hates them all the same.

So last night right before dinner time Ethne went to the cupboard pulled out the Peanut Butter. She brought it to me emphatically pointing and yelling NACK! NACK! Yesterday she ate a PB sandwich and today she had a 1/2 of one. I don't normally feed my kids very much PB because Enoch is the only one who likes it and , but since we are out and about all day everyday we have eaten quite a bit of it.

So back to the Cheese Princess--
This winning lady with a new found passion for Peanut Butter may turn in her title, but not to worry she is in for another one- "The Protein Princess"


Just a side note about Peanut butter. I just figured out why pediatricians are starting to say no PB until 2 years. My Ped. said that it has nothing to do with allergies. They are worried about kids choking. PB has always been on the choking list so WHY now start upping the age to two years old? I am convinced it is because of white bread and filler peanut butter. My kids have never had a problem with real PB sticking to the roof of their mouth or choking on it. BUT when we got cheap bread here the other day that was mostly white flour and PB that was only 97% peanuts (that is the closest I have found here to 100% peanuts) I fed it to ethne and it was a horrible mess in her mouth. REAL BREAD with REAL PEANUT BUTTER don't do that. So I guess if I buy real peanut butter and real bread I don't have to worry about my kids choking to death on it :) There, I have just solved one of the biggest problems facing mother's of children under two.

Day 17 Wellington, New Zealand

This is the colossal squid they have on display in the huge tank at the museum.
This is Enoch and Ezra designing their own squid on the touch screen. Each time we have gone back to the museum they check their squid to see what it has been up to. Very Fun!

this is Ethne trying to turn the tentacle hook around. It feels just like a real one. Very much like squishy rubber with sharpened bone.

Ethne feeling the beak.

Garrett has started working this week-so as of yesterday he is working full time now which is 50 hours a week. This means we really have no more time to look for housing and do a lot of things. We only have the one loaner car that Garrett takes to work while the kids and I who are downtown have access to lots to do on foot. Today we walked over to the museum for the first time yet and had a lovely day learning about birds and sea life including colossal squid. We learned that they have beaks and that their tentacles have hooks on the end. We got to study a giant squid that was in a tank preserved in some kind of fluid. The beak was preserved and the eggs they found inside telling them it was a female were preserved and so was one of the tentacles. I have pictures of the kids doing a few of these things if they will work I will post them. We brought PBJ's and had a Serene lunch outdoors in their little gardens. It feels rather like a big tree house out there. very fun. After that we came home and since Ethne had fallen asleep in the stroller on the walk home so I transferred her to bed and had delusions of sleeping while the other kids slept as well. Enoch and Ezra were hungry again so after they ate I put them down for a nap and Enoch fell right to sleep. I curled up on the couch outside their door with my new book "The Song of the Cardinal" and hoped to fall asleep after reading for a few minutes. Ezra decided to not go to sleep and instead torment Enoch and I by coming out of his room banging on walls,, playing with things that made loud noises, etc...SO no nap but Enoch did get to sleep for about 1/2 and hour before Ezra woke him up so that was good.

When Ethne woke up the cleaning crew finally decided to show up for the first time in 3 days and we went down stairs and tried to put the laundry in but of course it was full seeing as how there is only ONE washer. We waited for a little while until the cleaning people were finished and then went back into our clean rooms to find something to do indoors since it was raining. We pulled out the kids "Animal Sequence" game and played a few rounds. The kids had a great time because we were actually spending some fun time together and that made us all happy :) Next I got out the kids "hard Animals" (their Schleich animals) and they played while I made dinner-heated it up rather. We had some smoked white fish chowder with noodles and sliced apples. Not exactly what I would have put together normally but the kids LOVED IT!! I was hoping for some crunchy bread instead of noodles but Garrett did the grocery shopping :)

Garrett got home kind of late but the kids were obedient and happy today and so it was an awesome day. LOVE THAT! Now Garrett and I are going to plan our Christmas vacation.

Goodnight!

Day 15 Sunday Wellington, New Zealand

So today was Sunday and since we went to bed super late last night no one woke up until 8:30this morning. Church started at 9am. There were so many obstacles to getting there that we didn't make it until part way through the second meeting. We had moved hotels the day before so we had to re-find all the church clothes and iron them etc... Plus it takes at least 15 minutes for garrett to walk to where the car is parked and come pick us up. With all those things and more against us we were pretty late. Since I really didn't feel like going at all i had to force myself to even do that after everything that went wrong. But we were of course glad we went in the end. I got very little out of church seeing as how I was in nursery the whole time with Ethne, but I always feel uplifted by the sweet spirits of all the kids. Including the little boy who through things at me and the other little boy who was banging his little sister over the head with the lid to his lunch box. Lol That same kid accidentally bit his little sisters finger when she reached into his lunch box and stole a handful of his popcorn. He grabbed her hand and tried to eat the popcorn out of it and when he bit the popcorn he also bit one of her fingers. Poor sad little sister.

The choir director for the ward is also in nursery and he asked me if I would stay and sing. I sheepishly told him I can't really sing and he replied "I didn't ask you if you COULD sing. I asked you if you WOULD sing.". Ouch! He is a voice teacher!

After church we went home to the hotel and had lunch and everyone took naps. By the time everyone was up and finished doing their changing clothes etc...it was time for dinner. We Ate and then we were fortunate enough to be allowed by a tenant to come look at the place his family is moving out of in Jan. We really liked what we saw. It is right out by the beach. It is across the street from a park and it is a great little house. 4 bed 2 bath, wood floors, central heating, great big back yard with tree swing, really great. But it is really expensive. It is also close to Garrett's work so that would save a lot of money in a lot of ways but we still aren't quite sure if we could or should spend that kind of cash. Hmm....life is so full of decisions that are hard to make and honestly I hate making them. Oh well-I have some major white people problems going on at the moment! Hopefully things will resolve themselves soon.

What is Appealing to Boys About Scaring Girls?

What is Appealing to Boys About Scaring Girls? I don't know you tell me. Ezra who is only 4 years old comes to Enoch in a very animated fashion and says:

"Hey Enoch I have a wrilwry wrilwry (really really) good idea. I can invite some kids to come to a party. Some group of girls and some boys and I can buy some costumes for everyone. We can get feather hats (back story for that) for the girls and whatever costumes for the boys that they wanted. And The boys can dress up in their costumes and we can scare the girls. That will be so so fun!"
Enoch says: yeah that will be so so fun. And we can get Ethne a princess costume. Oh but you can't scare Esne (Ethne) because she is just little and doesn't know any better.
Ezra: Yes because we are going to scare ALL the girls and Esne (Ethne) is a girl. I am going to scare all the sisters.
Enoch: How many sisters do you have?
Ezra: All the girls.
Enoch: all the girls are your sisters?
Ezra: all the girls AND the sisters. We can scare them all with our costumes.
Enoch: Yeah we should get Kiwi costumes...
Ezra:Yeah and parrot costumes.

Mom: why would you want to scare the girls?
Enoch and Ezra: because it will be so so fun.
Mom: why is it fun to scare girls?
Enoch and Ezra: BECAUSE!!
Mom: why don't you scare the boys?
Enoch and Ezra: BECAUSE!!

OK then-They are hilarious, but honestly I can't believe my ears.

ONE WASHER FOR 16 FLOORS?

OK, so on most days I am pretty understanding of people and things going wrong,bad circumstances and such, but today is not one of those days!!! This is the kind of day where I am glad I don't know any words that would make a sailor blush because I would probably be using them. A very rare Damn or Hell might escape my lips but this day calls for something much stronger-I am better off with my limited swearing vocabulary.

That Damn lady at the front desk is about to make me jump over the 11th floor balcony adjoining our room. She is so Damn pleasant about their lack of amenities. She smiles as I ask in the most patient voice I can conjure up-so is that the only washing machine for the whole building???? Yes she replies smiling :) Why does this make me angry? She is polite and smiling as she says no we don't have high chairs, no there is no parking, no I am sorry the housekeeping isn't coming by and yes we are a crappy hotel with nothing to make your stay comfortable :) BUT you do get friendly staff.

I must be in a really bad mood, because I just want to smile and say a few choice words that I do know and add whose *&%$# idea was it to put one washing machine in the whole building for 16 floors of people to use??? Seriously?

Well now you have all seen my wicked side and I don't even care-how's that??

Don't worry though my fury may be great but it subsides VERY quickly. I am having a rather bad day but it will be over before I know it and I will have a sickly smile on my face for other people having bad days to sneer at!

Mine is Better-NO! Mine is Better.

So this morning Enoch woke up and told Garrett he was dreaming about pancakes. He said he was arguing with a another little boy who said "my pancakes are better because they have ice cream on them" and Enoch was saying "no my pancakes are better because they are healthier". When I asked him later about the pancake dream he said "mine were healthier because they were plain-no not plain they had chocolate on them (nutella) and this kind of chocolate is healthier than ice cream."

Now he is saying: "mom in another dream of mine that I didn't dream today but another day and I didn't get to tell you about it. I dreamed about winnie the pooh and his dad was there and he had one of those things that you wear when you are hiking in caves and stuff.

Mom: A head lamp?
Enoch: yeah. There was an ironing board on top of a tree and Eyore was hiding under it and they were looking for Eyore and they found him. Changes gears for a second while eating his baked potato--"Mom it needs salt!"

Mom: there is no salt in this hotel room honey.
Enoch: is there pepper?
mom: no there isn't
Enoch: mom if there was pepper I wouldn't eat it because you said their pepper was gross"

Day day 14 Wellington New Zealand

I haven't been able to blog for a few days or close to it. The days are starting to all run together for us here. It is funny that here we have such an awesome opportunity to be here and to have new experiences but most of our time is spent stressed out and working like crazy trying to just find a car and a place to live. :) We had to turn in our rental car by 9am tomorrow morning which is when church starts and we had to check out of our hotel by 10am this morning. We found another hotel that we can pay 700$ a week for so that will buy us one more week of time to find a place to live. The hotel we are in now is so hard to be in with the three kids. Parking is a big big problem even when you pay for it. There is no high chair and only two chairs at the tiny table period. No dishwasher and a tiny sink. It is right above 4 clubs and it was super noisy until about 2-2:30am. I couldn't sleep until then. there are no dressers, no closet space, no room in the bathroom for toiletries. No tub for Ethne and she HATES showers. There is mold all around the top of the shower and the garbage can is not big enough to hold more than three diapers much less all the garbage we have with 5 people. This is our toughest part yet BUT we are good. I am not saying all this to complain I am just writing it so we can remember our experience how it really was.

We have been looking like crazy for a family car to buy and each time we have thought we found the right one, the test drive told us it just wasn't the right car. I felt horrible about one that we drove yesterday that seemed perfect. It was sluggish and although I don't know a whole lot about cars I could just tell that something was just not quite right. Thank heavens for inspiration. We had such a hard time trying to figure out what was "normal" for cars like this and what was us just being spoiled by the cars we drove in the states.

Garrett and I have realized that we really don't have a realistic perspective on what cars should feel like and be like. We drove a Lexus and an Acura and compared to those nothing else is really comfortable to ride in. Nothing feels smooth and is quiet. They all make weird noises and you can hear the brakes when you push on them. One thing they do here that is really irritating is the reverse beeping. When you put a car in reverse it starts beeping at you like you were standing outside watching a fork lift. So funny! We are going to have them disconnect that in our Odyssey. YES! we finally found one. We are using a loaner car from the dealership while we get the Honda Odyssey checked out by a professional. We pay them 140$NZD and they do a full inspection for us.

So funny- the loaner car they gave us is what they termed a "boy racer". They apologized and laughed when they told us about it and said- you'll see when you drive it. It is a souped up Subaru wagon with alloy wheels and and engine that purrs loudly before you even give it any gas. When you do give it a little gas it sounds like a big truck. It has a lot of get up and go that's for sure. It is quite embarrassing to drive. Everywhere we go people turn and look and stare and some give us the WOW that is a HOT car sign. Garrett likes to make it roar so that people will turn and look. He thinks the whole thing is so funny. He especially likes to put it in park when we are stopped and rev the engine like he is going to race people. Mostly he likes to embarrass me and make me slink down in my seat.
It is so low to the ground you can hardly get in-it is more like falling in.

So our new car (as long as it checks out ok) is grey on the outside and tan on the inside (not what I would have picked but it's ok) it is not really a van I guess they call it a people mover. It has four doors no van doors. It has about 90K's on it and we got it for $9950 NZD. Much better deal than the other things out there. We really were hoping not to spend more than 10K because we only need it for a year or two anyway, so that worked out just perfect.

That was our whole day-moving into another hotel and car shopping, cleaning out the rental car and returning it to the airport.

We came back to the hotel and I made hamburgers for dinner and we put the kids to bed. Very boring but we did accomplish some very important things.

Weta Widdows

Well this may be the first time I have been adopted into a club or group of women that I had really mixed emotions about. There is a group here called the Weta Widdows that I am now a part of just by the nature of my position. I am married to a Weta man-therefore it is a lot like being a single mum. They do a lot of fun things together-or so I am told-BUT it does make me sad that we will be fatherless again soon.

It is such a shame that when Garrett is between projects or jobs we never get to spend time with him. He is working non-stop on his demo reel or applying for jobs or interviewing or we are frantically packing up our house to move. It would be nice to have him around when we could actually do something relaxing and fun as a family. Maybe over his Christmas break :)


More on this-later

Day 10 Tuesday Wellington New Zealand

It seems like every time I get on here to blog I feel a sigh and a WOW coming out of me. I think to myself-where to start? I can't write it all, and even if I had the time I just don't have the brain power to remember all the obstacles and blessings that come up each day. This day was particularly trying for me. Garrett and I were at odds with one another and that was an added stress and burden. We went to look at ma tresses for Garrett and I all morning and it wasn't too bad for the kids because at each place we went they had a little basket of toys for little ones to play with while their parents shopped. It was a nice change from them moping around begging to leave. We got an idea of what they will cost and how long it will take to get them delivered. That was quite helpful. After that we went to look at the top two houses on our list again with the idea that we would pick one and put in an application. It was still such a hard decision. One is not old enough to be charming but just old enough to be totally ugly and out of date-BUT it has the room we need and a yard and a great location (except that it is far away from G's work which we really didn't want).

As a side note the reason we didn't want that is because he will be working 50 hours a week on a normal week and when things pick up it will be a minimum of 80hrs. a week. Less than the 120 hour weeks at IMD but still he will be gone long enough each day already.

K- back to the other house. It is new enough to be sheik and comfortably. Still in style and quite pleasant. It is in a good neighborhood and has a great view, BUT it is high enough to catch the dreaded southerly wind as they call it here. Not such a good thing. No heating pump and will probably be quite cold in the winter. AND it is expensive at 750 a week.

After looking at the houses the kids and I were all starving but we were still on a tight schedule to get things done so we parked downtown to go to the furniture rental place DTI and we ran in and got the info. we needed. The kids were great here too because once again they were catered too. They changed the Chanel on the big screen TV to something appealing to their ages and they offered them some of New Zealands own little toffee/carmel candies. They were so good I asked her about them and she filled up a little Ziploc for us to take with us. People here are really super friendly and helpful.

Next we walked down to the Internet, land line, cell phone place that claims they do it all and we split up there. Garrett went in there and I battled the lunch line with all three kids at the Turkish take away/ restaurant. The food was not that great but the seating an decor was quite nice I thought---UNTIL... Enoch said "hey mom when Ethne gets big do you think she will be able to dance like that?" I couldn't see what he was talking about so I got up and looked around the corner where he had a perfect view to a TV with what looked like Madonna (just a look alike) in her nasty little hooker outfit slinking around to some music. NOT dancing in my opinion. I looked at Enoch and said "I hope not because that is yucky!" He laughed and said "I think so too". Since they were almost done eating I bundled everything up and we left. I only wish I had checked out that TV earlier. It was a big screen in their full view but I couldn't see it from where I was sitting. They had been talking about Maori dancing earlier. I sure hope it was something worthy of my boys eyes.

At the end of the day we went to Pac-n-save to buy groceries and they were having a Christmas party-no joke-there at the grocery store we barely got a parking spot because it was so packed. We went in and there was a pathetic looking clown with a Santa hat on singing Christmas carols. There were so many people we could barely get through the isles. They were having great sales for that day only (lucky us) and then they were handing out goody bags full of toys to the kids at the check out and a lolly to go with it. Funny little experience.

We got home and had chicken nuggets, salad and fruit for dinner and quickly got the kids to bed since it was so late. It was quite the day-very full, very stressful, and hard not to burst into tears about every 2 hours or so. However I did well and only a few tears escaped the whole day ;)

Day 9 Wellington New Zealand

today started out quiet while the kids played in the hotel I blogged and Garrett went to work to use the Internet on a big computer and to use the phone there. I have a cell phone now but it is SO outrageous here for cell phone plans that for my $59 a month I only get 310 or 320 min a month-can't remember at the moment. I get 1000 texts though so that is what I will have to do I guess. They don't use your minutes if someone calls you but since it is so expensive for minutes no one calls they just text (from what I have heard). Also you can't call a cell phone from your land line without an additional charge on your home phone bill. It costs above and beyond to call a cell #. That is a frustration for us here right now since we are so handicapped without cell phones. We are used to having no land line and using them for everything. I feel handicapped without my unlimited minutes :(

So in the afternoon we went to see a few more houses. The first one was yucky and the second was absolutely charming. I just loved the newly remodeled kitchen and the woodwork. Garrett said it is a regency style house (he is much better with that sort of thing than I am with his history of architecture background). It was 5 bedrooms and 2.5 baths and with a view that is absolutely astonishing. BUT there are a few safety issues with having kids and there isn't a heat pump. It isn't in a great location for sun as natural heat in the winter either so they would have to put in a few heat pumps and do a few things to make it more safe. We are in a bargaining position too though because they have had this place listed on trademe for a month now. Trademe is their equivalent of Craigslist. Tomorrow we will go see the other two houses that we liked and we will try to make a decision on a place to live.

After houses we went to get a very late lunch/early dinner before finishing our hunt for furniture. I neglected to mention we had looked at a few furniture places before going to look at housing. We ate at a little Malaysian take-away close to Weta. We have seen something called butter chicken listed lots of places so Garrett ordered that to try it and I got chicken in some kind of peanut sauce with nuts and coconut. Enoch and Ezra were very upset that their was no seafood chowder but they settled for some noodles with prawns, squid and who knows what else. Enoch really didn't like it that much and kept saying he wished he had gotten the seafood fried rice. The Rita however (Malaysian non-yeast bread)was a huge hit with everyone. The food was very very good and quite cheap considering it was about $30 USD for 3 adult entrees and 2 specialty breads-that would include tip and tax and everything.

Next we went to look at more furniture to get an idea about what we are up against price wise. It isn't too bad when you are investing to stay but since we are tying to plan like we will only be here a year it makes it seem much more expensive. We are going to try to get things second hand except maybe mattresses. I would rather not sleep on something that I don't know where it has been :)

Ezra has informed us all day that he is sick of looking at furniture and houses. It is boring and he isn't getting out of the car anymore. He wants to be left alone in the car but when I say OK you stay here and we will go look he gets panicky and he says "who is going to stay with me?" I say-no one we are all going to look and he says "but I am not going and I want someone to stay with me" It always takes him about 5 minutes to agree to come with us. Poor kid-poor parents :(

Hopefully we will be done soon!

Gotta run Ethne is really upset and not sleeping tonight. I am not sure what is up with her but Garrett just wont do at a time like this--she wants mommy :(

Thanksgiving in California

So I am having the same problem with putting up pictures here as well, so I will tell you all about them here.

This was Thanksgiving at CA grandparents house before we flew out to New Zealand. These were the only pictures taken in a format that I could post so I thought it would be better than nothing. Unfortunately there are no pictures of CA grandparents or several of the other people there but there are some great ones of the rest of you :) Ethne is especially cute in that precious outfit.

There is a piture of Gwenn's butternut squash soup, her carmelized onion rolls, her turkey, her homemade cranberry sauce, my apple pie, Jenny's green beans (that I made for her since poor thing had two car emergencies in one day trying to get to Thanksgiving), and I think that covers it. Happy Late Thanksgiving (although we celebrated it 5 days early.

Church With The Kiwi's

Wow it is really a small small world. I met a lady, Deb, today who is a great friend of a friend of mine. Jennifer she told me today that she knitted Holy's first baby sweater. So funny! She is from Novato where Garrett's last company was located. The town just south of ours.

Garrett met a guy he knew from BYU in the Animation program. His name is Adam and he works at Weta too.

Then we met the Turners who just got back from their mission in London where they served with Garrett's Aunt and Uncle Fry.

Garrett met a missionary that might have been related to good friends of ours in the states but we didn't actually make the connection yet :)

There was a lady there from the states whose son lives in Santa Rosa, CA which-for those of you who don't know, is right by where Petaluma.

And there was another lady from the states whose family is in Marin (also right by where we used to live).

There was a lady I met who flew back from SF on the same plane we came in on. She was on her way back from San Jose. She saw us say goodbye to CA Grandparents and said she kept thinking how sorry she was for us and how we were in for a long night. Then she said she didn't hear a peep out of the kids the whole trip and she couldn't believe how good they were. She was also on our flight from Aukland to Wellington. Funny we never talked or anything. I didn't even recognize her. She seems really nice.

Observations # 3

1. I am adventurous and like the outdoors etc.. but when it comes to somethings I am a total city girl. I think that coming closer to our food is great in theory. We would probably eat much much more healthy if we had to face our food in it's more natural form or slaughter it ourselves however-I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE HEAD ON MY FISH OR MY BEEF OR ANYTHING ELSE FOR THAT MATTER. I don't want my eggs to be brown and fresh and taste like the smell of a chicken-the further from that the better in my opinion. I don't like my milk raw and gamey. If fact I don't like milk at all really-but water just doesn't cut it on cereal :) I normally love my food to be fresh but not THAT fresh. I don't want it to moo or baa or oink when it is served to me and I don't want it RAW! OK with the exception of some sushi. I love that when we order fish and seafood here it tastes so fresh but to see it in the market and to take it home and cook it that way ??? I just don't see me doing that. The eggs here are all brown and yucky looking on the outside and I cooked some up this morning and you would have thought I was pregnant. I couldn't stand the smell of them. Then I found out later that the white pepper I put front the hotel shaker smells like a BARNYARD-SERIOUSLY! I couldn't eat this morning at all. I felt like throwing up. So now I don't know how much of it was the eggs and how much of it was the pepper-

2. The water is SO beautiful here.

3. It is really hard for Ethne to sleep in such a tiny place.

4. there aren't really any salads in the restaurants here-weird.

5. There is no fast food here which is good but there aren't really any healthy options that are in the take aways either. I am going to either have to be very good at planning or find some healthy alternatives to the high fat high sodium foods on the go here. OR I could always starve I guess :) Speaking of eating healthy we will have to get back on course as soon as we find a place to live and can cook again.

6. You can't steam rice in a tiny pot on a stove burner that boils everything over even on the lowest setting-burned undercooked rice is really yucky.

7. This place is really behind the times when it comes to a lot of things. But it seems they are ahead in a few.
examples: their cell phone plans are really lame. They are like ours were in America about 10 years ago. Most people actually have prepaid minutes. Also their Internet is based on usage. You pay a monthly fee and you can only use so many MB and then you either have to get cut off, pay for more or be dropped into a slower bracket-like satellite Internet in the USA. One thing they have here that I haven't seen yet in the USA is...chips in the credit and debit cards so that they can not be duplicated by swindlers. Every time you buy something with your card you swipe it and then stick it inside the machine so it can read the chip and authenticate. Kinda cool-

8. Garrett says they put meat in bread and it is really good :)

9. Not only does everyone smoke here but all the used cars smell like smoke-shoot!

10. This is a city of 300,000 plus people but it doesn't feel at all crowded. Fun!
More later-

Day 7 in Wellington New Zealand

So something weird is going on with my blogging on this computer. I can't write about each picture by the picture so for now you will get it all here. So the cafe is where we ate lunch that day and the sail boats are from the cafe as well. We ate out on the back deck right by the water.

The bear is the really funny looking Sun Bear I wrote about from the zoo.

The picture of Enoch and Garrett is at the zoo as well where they were watching the VERY hungry tiger pacing back and forth waiting to be fed.

The picture of Ezra crying was really quite funny. We were all watching the cheetahs when I looked up and saw Ezra throw a handful of rocks and dirt into the cage at the one lying down right in front of him. I automatically yelled Ezra don't! but it was too late the cheetah got hit by all that stuff and was none too happy. I explained to Ezra about the boys who teased the tigers at the Oakland Zoo and what happened and he was so emotional from my yelling at him and the story he burst into tears and cried in my arms for several minutes. Poor boy!







Today we went on a long tour of part of the island looking for the car auction. We went all over trying to get there before the auction started so that we could preview all the cars. It started at 12 and we should have been there at 11 but we didn't get there until 12:30. Ethne got a lovely nap though :) Good thing too because it was the only nap she got.

It looks like the auction might be a great place to buy our cars. Good deals and a lot of them have had full inspections that are posted right on the car. Wish us luck!

Next we ate lunch in a big cafe ocean side. We sat at a little table out on the back deck and watched all the sail boats go by. It was picturesque. Garrett has promised to put up Pict's for me since I have been spending so much time blogging. I had the first salad I have been able to find since we got here-weird. You can't find a whole lot of healthy low-fat food here in the cafes. It was delightful-chicken, greens, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and believe it or not salsa and a corn tortilla :) Not a lot of Mexican food here.

Enoch had a sausage roll but didn't like the pastry so he took the sausage out of it and ate it plain. Ezra at an egg and bacon muffin that Garrett said was fantastic. Ethne ate a bagel with cream cheese and little bits of other peoples food.

Garrett ate the seafood chowder which had squid, scallops, octopus, shrimp, clams and who knows what else. The boys tasted it and both really wished they had ordered it. "next time were going to get that mom"--Enoch The squid was tiny and whole with little tentacles and everything. The clams looked very different from the ones we would get in SF too. They were quite colorful. Anyway, I am glad my kids are adventurous eaters because looking at those little things grossed me out. I tasted the soup and it was fantastic but I couldn't make myself eat that squid- The scallops were the first I have had that I could say were really good.

Yea for seafood by the sea...

After that we took the kids to the zoo. We bought a year membership and plan to go back as often as possible. It was far from the best zoo we have been too--more a zoo with potential I would say. They have great plans for it though and our money contributed to that so we feel great about it. I saw a sun bear for the first time and it was really funny looking. It really looked more like a mix between a badger and a pit bull. Odd to say the least. The monkeys were of course the favorites of us all. They were so active and all over the place doing funny things. There are also 10-12 chimps that have pictures and name plaques around the cage with little descriptions of what they love to do. The only problem with those is...we could only find 2 of them and one was sleeping in the dark. Oh well that is usually how zoo's are-you walk by a lot of empty looking cages trying to find the animals that are well hidden behind a rock or tree or bush.

After the zoo we got little tip top ice cream cones and took turns trying each others flavors and chatting as we walked back to our car. I believe the flavors were: cookies and cream, coconut marshmallow ice(yes that is one flavor-not three), mango something, and orange chocolate chip. Quite the mix isn't it? And believe it or not Ezra's coconut marshmallow ice might have been the best one-who would have thought?

We stopped by the store on the way home to get nappy's and food for tomorrow so we could be prepared for our sabbath day. We get to meet the ward tomorrow at 9am. Garrett met one guy in the ward at work the other day and to judge by the guys face the other day when we passed him in the car at weta he was happy to have another member there. Can't wait to meet him and everyone else :) Yea for the church and for having it be such a rock in every storm.

Well, Garrett is ironing our church clothes and then I think we will have a little popcorn and watch a little something before bed.
Goodnight to you all our sleeping friends and family who are far far away.

Oh that reminds me of something awful. We passed a house of ill repute today and the huge yucky sign said "oh come all ye faithful" twice across the top and she was wearing a Santa hat. Poor girls! Wish I could help them find a better profession. The only girl I have know who had a job like that was so sweet and sad. She was in her late 30's and had a sickly child that she was trying to provide for and pay towering medical bills for. There was a sweet guy I knew who was trying to help her find her way out. I hope he did! God bless you where ever you are now--

Day 6 Wellington NZ Friday

Today G went in to work and took care of a bunch of business. I got a text from Jenny (I discovered that is how she spells her name even though it sounds like Ginny) and she had two more houses for us to go and see. The kids and I spent the morning tiding up here and at the bookstore and then came home for ethne to take a nap. Garrett go here at 2pm just in time for us to meet Jenny at 2:20. One of the homes was OK and the other was not. Neither were what we are looking for-bummer.


Next we went to look at cars and found a few that might work. By 6pm when we got home we were all tired and ready for dinner. We made pancakes and had a party to satisfy Enoch and Ezra's need to do something fun. Ezra kept saying all day long--mom when can we do something FUN?

Garrett got popcorn, sarsaparilla, and ginger beer. They boys were in heaven although I don't know how they can stand those drinks-yuck! I am sorry but Sarsaparilla is NOTHING like Root Beer like G says.

So today I am feeling overwhelmed and yes a little emotional about how expensive everything is. So many money decisions to make and even though we have the money to pay for it all it just seems so wrong to pay these kinds of prices for things.

example: $7 a gal. for gas, $12,000-$18,000 for an old Japanese import car, $720-$750 a WEEK for housing,$16-34 a ki. for fish, and food is outrageous as well. It is like I was saying yesterday-a juggling act. Where do you want to put your money?? We want to live in a nice place because we want you all to come visit!! But we also want to travel to Fiji, Samoa and Australia--we want to spend time doing things around both NZ islands as well. AND then there is the big savings issue. We are used to saving a huge portion of our income and saving less would be stressful for us :) Although I am sure we will get used to it. All these things will work out and soon since we only have a week and one day left to make them, but for tonight I am really feeling the weight of it all. It is quite hard to put into words as well so hopefully this makes sense to you all :)

We miss you all like crazy and hope you are all well and happy--

Love all of us

Car Shopping

This to me is one of those really distastefull things. Car salesmen are usually some of the most slimy and dishonest people you meet. They sneer when you say you only want to spend 8-10K and they show you how great the models are that are out of your price range-not forgetting to mention how you will easily make up for spending more in the end. You get what you pay for right?

Well, I am happy to report it wasn't that bad when we went. People were pretty nice and genuine. There was a little sneering and a little pushing the more expensive models but not too much hustling and swindling :)

We found out that the used cars imported from Japan are a lot cheaper than those assembled locally--and for good reason. That is not to say they aren't worth buying. that is most likely what we are going to get. You can't use the GPS's because they are for use in Japan and the CD players, owners manuels, and all other things are in Japanese. You can't trade out the CD players in the sportier models because you can't take the units out with cameras etc... but you can replace them in the more simplistic models. For a family car we are looking at both the toyota Ipsum and the Honda Odyssey.We have found several used and imported of both. The kids sure had a hard time looking at cars. Poor babies-I feel so badly that they are being draged around all the time. BUT I have taken them to do a lot of fun things in in between.

Well we have a lot to thing about and a lot to discuss before making some big decisions here. Tomorrow we go to the car auction to check out what they have there.

Wish us luck-

Day 5 Wellington New Zealand Thursday

Wow! today has been very long for all of us and ended with everyone tired stressed and irritable. I want to be in bed right now but will have no time tomorrow to write down thoughts from today.

Garrett is up doing a budget for us so that we can figure out how much is reasonable to spend on a house. We are feeling torn right now on that issue. We are both usually VERY conservative on monthly expenses. We keep the monthly expenses as low as possible-no car payments or extras that can be done without. This gives us more money for saving for a home, saving in general, helping other people, and splerging on things occasionally that we feel will enrich our lives.

Right now however, we are both at a point where we are so tired of living in junk, places that are too small, too yucky, too cheap that we are looking around and saying to ourselves-maybe we should spend a little more and get something we actually LIKE.
Garrett said something to me today that I never thought I would here from him. He was tired and worn out and he said "I am so tired of living in junk. I just want a place that is nice to come home too". When he told Ginny to start looking in the $700 a week range instead of the $650 a week range I just about had a heart attack. Not just because of the expense but also because I can't believe he (Mr. Cheap housing) said those words :)

We saw 6 places that were mostly junk. There were two that we really liked but both were just out of our price range. Garrett is ready to just take one of those but I was hoping maybe on Monday we would find something lovely AND less expensive. We should probably go with Garrett's instincts though. He is worried that any day they will put him on a shot and then everything will be left to me which I am not sure I could do all this alone. There is still so much to do. Once we get a place we have to decide whether or not to rent or by furnishings. We have no beds, no furniture at all actually-so there will be a lot to do for that as well and once Garrett starts on a shot he will be working 10hr days and there will not be any stores open by the time he gets off work.

Well we are off to bed finally-should sleep well since we are so exhausted. Goodnight!

Day 4 Wellington NZ

This morning Garrett went to work at 9am. He called us at 10 to let us know we wouldn't be looking at any houses today but that tomorrow we would start at 1:30 and go see about 5 we have appt. for. The kids and I went to the bank again and got those AMEX travelers checks. These things are really a big pain. It cost me 5$ just to deposit them :)

Next we went to the store with all the Christmas ornaments and such to hunt down a kiwi bird ornament for Enoch and a reindeer ornament for Ezra. They were going to buy them with their first NZ pocket money. We didn't find anything we really liked so we kept shopping. We did find a precious baby doll for Ethne to put on her Christmas list. She really liked it a lot.

After that we walked over and got cookies at a little stand that looks exactly like a Mrs. Fields but it is called Mrs. somebody else. the kids ate their cookies while we walked to the bookstore and when they were finished we went in and read for a little while. We read a kiwi version of A Christmas Carol and we read a kiwi 12 days of Christmas and we read part of an ocean book and then...we had to leave. Ethne pooped and we didn't have any wipes. So we went back to the hotel and had lunch (which was spoiled by their cookies) and Garrett came home. We were supposed to go get cell phones and look at cars but wow it took a long time to figure out cell phones. We walked to the place we thought we could get phones from and found out that we had to have either a NZ passport or a NZ DL. The guy told us to go to AA to get the DL and assured us we would not be able to get phones without doing this. He also told us that we wouldn't be able to keep our USA DL for longer than 3 months. After that if we got pulled over we would be in trouble.

We got to AA and they told us our USA DL was good for a year and if we left the country even for a week to go to Australia or somewhere when we got back it would be good for another year. She said that she had never heard that about the cell phones. We walked back to the other store and they said if there was a way to do it they didn't know how and they sent us to a 2 degrees (one of the cell phone providers)store. There they told us our USA passports and visas were just fine but we couldn't sign up for a plan that was longer than the actual visa. By the time we picked out phones the kids were going nuts so I walked them down to the park on the warf and we played while Garrett got the plans. An hour later G comes walking up to the park with NO cell phones. He went through a lengthy process and found out that they didn't have any of the free phones in stock and he would have to come back tomorrow unless he wanted to get a more expensive phone. Also he couldn't get my phone because I had to be there in person. I left him with the kids and went back to the store and got my phone and plan and by the time I was done it was 6pm and everything was closed. Things close very very early here. Pretty much everything is shut down by 5:30pm.

Garrett was in a super grumpy mood after his cell phone experience and didn't want to go back to the hotel so we went to a fresh fish shop and got fish and chips and talked with a local guy about the kinds of fish he sells and how much they sell for etc...Interesting guy.

All the car places were closed which was a bummer so really we couldn't take care of any more business outside of using the internet.

We came back here to the hotel and Garrett can't stop playing with my phone :) Funny he wanted only the free phone but from the moment I got back to the park he has hardly kept his hands off of my phone. He keeps telling me what a sweet phone it is and telling me what all it can do. Makes me laugh.

Tomorrow we will start bright and early at the car dealerships to find a car that will work for our stay and still have great re-sale ability when we are done with it. Wish us luck.