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 One is not old enough to be charming but just old enough to be totally ugly and out of date-BUT it has the room we need and a yard and a great location (except that it is far away from G's work which we really didn't want).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 ;)