Tell Me What You Think And NO Cheating... Part One

Here are some NZ words that we use all the time now. Tell me via posting on the blog what you think they mean, AND NO CHEATING by using the Internet etc... Just make guesses based on your experiences and what you think they might be. Most of them are really pretty easy:

1. Nappies
2. Plasters
3. Rubbish
4. Trolley
5. Crisps
6. Capsicum
7. People Mover
8. Tui
9. Tuatara
10. Jacket potato
11. chips
12. Trolley Parking
13. FTPOS card
14. Lift
15. rubbish bin
16. Sultanas
17. If someone tells you to "Bring a plate" what does that mean?
18. "Sweet As" What does this mean?
19. wholemeal
20. mum
21. Stay date
22. staycation

Fog And Fairy Tales

So I wrote this post about my very most perfect day. It was really wonderful. It was well written and beautiful because I was still caught up in the perfectness of the day. It got erased from the computer and no longer exists :( That makes me quite sad, but below I will try to re-create the experience for you and hopefully you will be able to still feel what a magical experience it was.

I had a very surreal experience the other day that gave me enough energy to run on for a long time. I had the most perfect day! The kids woke up happy and cheerful. They were full of energy but very obedient. They went outside and played almost the entire morning. I was left alone to clean for 2 hours and I could see and hear them through all my many windows so they were perfectly safe. They had so much fun and so did I. I chatted with Amber and Dorothy and Lacey throughout the day and that was really fun. I made fast healthy meals that required only the minimum of clean up. I was able to keep the whole house clean all day. It was sparkling when Garrett got home from work. AND he got home from work at 5:15. Just in time for us to walk down to the beach before dinner. We went down to look at the fog that had been moving in for a few hours. We could hear the fog horns on the boats as we walked down to the ocean. The part we walked to was rocky and the tide was coming in. The fog had settled all across the water and you could just see vague outlines of the boats that were really close. We could hear them all loud and clear though. It was truly a magical site. I can't believe how calm it made us all feel just to witness the beauty. I, of course, was drawn into the water. It seems that no matter how cold it is or how windy or how I am dressed I just can't stay out of the water. I rolled up my pants and walked in the shallow parts down the beach with the boys at my side (not in the water) looking for shells. Good thing Garrett found my Chaco's cause I couldn't see where I left them by the time I got out :) The thing about being at the sea is that it just makes you feel completely content. It doesn't matter what is going on in my life when I walk across the sand and feel the waves come up over me I feel total contentment. I don't feel as if I need anything more in my life except people to share it with. I miss you all at moments like this because I just want you to be here and experience it with me. It is so perfect-like in a fairy tale. We went home and had a lovely dinner and put the kids to bed. Garrett had to run off somewhere for a little while and I sat down in my room and chatted with Lacey via my gmail chat on my cell phone and I listened to the fog horns and watched the scene from my window while the wind blew in and dusk came. It truly was one of those perfect days! And somehow it just isn't the same in the photos. I hope you can see them well enough to enjoy the serenity.

The only bad thing that happened was just a minor thing, but left me quite shaken. I walked into the playroom with my kids and just caught a glimpse of Ethne's PJ top. I did a double take and my heart started pounding in my chest. The internal dialog came in loud and clear. (Is that what I think it is? No it couldn't be). I look again. (It is what I think it is Oh my gosh it is huge- like a small tarantula. That is the scariest spider I have ever seen-besides a tarantula. OK remain calm-just slap it with the towel in your hand.) SLAP! (oh my gosh it's in the towel). Throw towel. Boys running over yelling what is it? What happened? Ethne is looking at me like she can't believe I just slapped her with a towel. More internal dialog-heart still pounding. (OK just be calm-be calm. You don't want the boys to be afraid of spiders. Just act like it's no big deal). I say: Enoch can you go get me a big heavy shoe? Enoch comes back with a flip flop. I hand it back to him while keeping my eyes on the towel and say: Enoch please go get me a BIG HEAVY shoe. This isn't a big heavy shoe. He comes back with one of Ezra's church shoes. It is heavy but it isn't big. (OK, you can do this. Just pick up the towel and hit it. NO! I don't want to pick up that towel. It's in there. OK, Maybe if you just smash the whole towel all over with the shoe you will get it. OK now that is a better idea.) I muster up the courage with the boys asking all kinds of questions I don't have the presence of mind to answer. I start smashing the towel all over and after a sufficient amount of time I back up and breath. Something I forgot to do while smashing the small tarantula. Whew! OK heart still pounding mind still talking (OK now you need to pick up the towel and make sure it is dead and dispose of the body. OH seriously, I don't want to pick that up. But you can't just leave it in the play room. Come on be brave for the kids. Enoch and Ezra need to be tough. OK) :( Pick up towel see spider with guts. Put him in toilet and think about not flushing until Garrett gets home so I have proof of the size. Put towel in laundry. It takes me a few minutes to calm down all the way. I didn't know at the time if that spider was poisonous but it sure was HUGE and scary looking. I couldn't believe the size. ugh! I found out later that there is only one poisonous spider in NZ so chances are that wasn't it. BUT, nevertheless it was a HUGE scary spider that was on my little girl. That made it scary enough without being poisonous.

So silly since spiders are really great to have around. I just like having them around from a distance :)

Goodnight

My Enoch-Such a Great Kid!

This is my Enoch AKA Mr. Enoch, Enie (his cousin Olivia used to call him that when she was little and he loved it), the KING of Deduction and Enoch man. We pretty much just call him Enoch though most of the time. We aren't really big on nicknames for some reason at our house. My boy is handsome, introspective, intelligent, fun, silly, a tease, helpful, and deductive. He is also naughty and sneaky sometimes :) We LOVE our Enoch. We just couldn't get by without him. Every day I am amazed at what a smart kid he is. He soaks up everything around him good and bad and then filters out the bad thank heavens. I have to be VERY careful what he is around because he will pick it up in a moment without even understanding it. Needless to say we don't watch a lot of movies or cartoons at our house. We stick with the basics: Charlie and Lola, Veggie Tales, Signing Time, and certain movies. Unfortunately one of his favorites-"I Love Lucy" is starting to have a negative influence. He is now old enough to pick up on more and Ezra is facinated with smoking now-How did we miss that one :(

Anyway, back to Enoch. He is big into family tradition and rules. It is important to him to find ways and ideas to support our family culture and mores. For instance, one of the very important parts of our family is education. Everything is a learning opportunity for us. When we sing, dance, play, read and do activities we are always learning. Enoch knows this, not because we have told him, but because it has been a part of his life in our family since birth. When we first told him we were moving to New Zealand his first question was "Will I get to learn a new language?" . Then once we got here his focus was what can we do that will be new and unique to this culture. What can we do that will teach us something. He also uses this to his advatage as leverage for things. Mom, can we go to the museum so we can learn more about the colossal squid? Mom can we try this candy, because it's a kind we have never had before? Mom, that's a new kind of ice cream. I don't think they have that in the United States. We should try it. Healthy eating is another part of our family and Enoch is very good at this all by himself. When he was 4 at my brother's wedding he was off at another table visiting with some family members. My brother-in-law later told me that Enoch was refusing wedding cake because there was too much sugar and calories in it :) He has a lot of self-control and cares about his body and his health. The other day he told me he wasn't going to have any sugar for a while because he was concerned about cavitys.

Enoch is a little OCD about germs. He is working hard to NOT wash his hands too much and to not cry and get upset when another child doesn't wash their hands. He has the idea in his head that his cousin Sammy and his brother Ezra need to be watched VERY closely when they go to the bathroom because "they never wash their hands". He feels it is his duty to be the germ police, but he is working on it so that he doesn't grow up to be an unhappy, but clean adult :)

Random Te Papa Museum Moments

Eating at the Te Papa Cafe'. Here Enoch and Ezra are staring down into their Seafood chowder trying to find little squid and octopus for me to take pictures of.

They had already eaten most things that were worth looking at but here is part of an octopus I believe. Hard to remember.

Dad listening to people talk about "the good old days" on a recoding in this display. Ezra playing store owner and ringing up peoples groceries.

Ethne with her shopping basket busy as a bee. She was trying to get some of that little girls food and the little girl grabbed her stuff back and knocked Ethne flat. :( Poor Ethne. I guess she won't do that again...on second thought she did try it again.

Ethne Playing the ukulele. You know the phrase 'mad as hornets' yup that was her when we took this little instrument away from her. She was in heaven with it, but was being too rough unfortunately so we put it away and had to remove her from the area to distract her.

On the main floor there is one of those huge balls that sits in water for the kids to push and turn. I don't know what they are called. Anyway, Ethne was all wet from playing in the water and she was energized and looking for trouble. She was board with the water and kept trying to run off, and Ezra kept trying to keep her from running off. Here he is being nice about it.

Here he is NOT being so nice. Poor Ethne-mom will save you.

The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For!

OK so this picture ended up out of place but I don't know how to move it so here is the picture of the inside of the kitchen. Gas range which I LOVE!! I have always wanted a gas range and now I have one and it is everything I hoped it would be. Notice the Jamie Oliver cookbook on the cookbook rack. I was so excited to have that cookbook rack that swivels etc...while you are cooking you never have to touch it with dirty hands. But alas it was not to be. Garrett broke it within the first week :( He is going to fix it though someday. That is the fridge and the microwave that we bought. Everything else was already here. We didn't think we would have a fridge for Christmas since we moved in on the day before Christmas eve but it came that same day. The 23rd of Dec. we got our mattress, the kids mattresses, Ethne's crib, the fridge, the washer, the dryer and that's it :) Everything was ordered or purchased from different places but it all came that day just like we hoped and prayed it would. Such a big blessing.
This is the back yard and back deck of the house. These pictures are back of house to front of house (not like I meant them to be). It is a really big back yard with beautiful trees and plants all around. Not the best grass but the best we have had yet in a rental. On the edge there you can just see the tiny charcoal grill Garrett bought to grill. Kind of sad I had just bought him the grill of his dreams (not really but a great one) for his birthday and Father's Day in June and we had to leave it behind so he was really wanting something.

This is our front door which is not in the front of the house but on the right side of the house. I was standing close to here when I took the picture above.

This is the front of the house. I am standing at our front gate. The window you see on the left is our master bedroom window. The big glass doors on the right (yes the one kind of behind the pillar) is to Ethne's bedroom and the guestroom which are one and the same. Don't worry we will move her out when people come to visit :)

OK so this is up on that deck where Ethne's room is. Here doors are the right and our master bedroom doors are the ones on the left. This whole house is doors and windows and when they are all open it is just like being outside because NO ONE here has screens. NO ONE. At first that drove me nuts. Just the idea of it was irritating to me. But so far--I LOVE IT.

OK here I am standing on the deck in front of the doors in the last picture and that is our garage on the left and Ethne is coming up the path from the front gate. It is a totally private front yard surrounded by a slatted fence and trees. The slatted look is VERY beachy. It really adds a lot to the house actually. I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but the house actually has a very Frank Loyd Wright look to it on the outside. I had more pictures of the outside that helped these along but I realized that our Internet is based on usage here. I only have 20GB a month for all my blogging etc... So I eliminated a lot of pictures and now this feels a little disjointed. Sorry.

OK So here is the front of the house from the fence.

OK, so this is where something happened that you will hear about later. Oh man you are going to love this story. Notice how Ethne was just coming out of hiding from behind that chair. I was just coming out here with the camera to find her. It was the first picture I took outside. I didn't know it then but I believe that that is where she picked up the spider that you will hear about in my next post or the one after that. Oh baby!

OK back to the kitchen now. Right to the left of the microwave and oven is a big wood sliding door. When you slide that door to the left the light pops on and you are greeted by the larder. At least that is what WE like to call it. Then when you slide the door back to the right the light goes off in the larder. I have everyone already trained on shutting the door as soon as you are done in there-except Garrett but he is coming along nicely :) JK

This is the kitchen from the living room side view. lots of big cupboards and drawers that I love. And to the right of the fridge is a huge cabinet with shelves for storage and the ironing board pops down with a plug and light AND a timer for the iron outlet. So if you leave it plugged in it dings and shuts off when the timer runs out. Clever isn't it?

The only thing I really hate about my kitchen is the sink. I will not grow to like it either. No way no how. The sink is very small and no disposal. Then on top of that it has no edge to it. When water sprays or when you move the faucet from one side of the sink to the other, barely existent side, water goes everywhere. All over anything and everything on the counter top. Drives me nuts. Would it really have hurt to just give a little rim around the sink?

OK on to the next picture... This is the hall way where the first left is the front door, the second left is the play room, the final left is Ethne's room. Straight ahead is our room. Then the first right, across from the playroom, is the kids bathroom. The next right is Enoch and Ezra's bedroom.

This is the living room before the furniture has arrived. We have the Ikea type chair we got at "The Warehouse" and the table Garrett got also at The Warehouse to serve as a tv/computer table until we can find something more suitable for them. Wood burning fireplace and tree that is no longer there.

This is the window seat that I really love. Adds a lot to the house. Those pillows don't actually go there though. They go on the couch we ordered that isn't going to be here for 3-4 more weeks. You can't see them very well but the little one in the corner has a starfish embroidered on it. Quite lovely actually. This window seat will be very bare without pillows. Garrett says "no it won't. I like it better without pillows". Blah!

This is the dining room with one wall opened up accordion style. I love this feature of the house because it is perfect for entertaining. You have the table and chairs out on the deck and the yard to play in for the kids. It is so outdoor/indoor and I really love it. Probably my favorite part of the house.

Here is the same dining room with the wall closed up. This is where the table and chairs should go but honestly I like the room so much empty I hate to put anything there. Garrett says no we may not leave it empty because yes we will need a table and chairs. I am sure he is right :(

Here is Ethne again in her PJ's coming into the open living/kitchen/dining room from the hall way.

OK now rooms from down the hall. This is a sample for you of the walls and curtains in the playroom.

Here is one view of the playroom from the doorway. Nice open windows and large space to play.

Different view of playroom with the toy organizer we bought. It is handmade real wood furniture from Indonesia which makes it cheap both in price and in quality. It looks lovely and it is real wood but it just isn't what you would find made in NZ or USA. It has 10 big baskets to keep things in and the kids are wild about it so I love it. The problem is it smells like bug spray. We have to keep the windows open in there at all times and the door if anyone is in there. We just got it though and expect that it will go away soon. They got that pirate floor play mat for Christmas and it has been a big hit.

This is one shot of Enoch and Ezra's room. They got the tiny room because I am hoping they will only sleep there and it will stay clean. This way they get a BIG toy room and there isn't anything to mess up in their bedroom. Yup, mom's a thinker! lovely big window and 1/2 the closet door.

This is the rest of their room. We just got them these really cheap metal bunk beds again from The Warehouse, so that they can do their worst to them and all will be well. WELL, the bunk beds are even cheaper than we thought and they actually might not be as indestructible as we thought. Whoops! Now if only they will just last for two years :) Just as a side note...I hate this kind of bunk bed. They are SO ugly, but what is a girl to do with crazy boys who are really hard on everything and with my dear sweet lovable Ezra who is like the Hulk. He is normal one minute and the next he is the hulk. He grunts and sweats and goes crazy destroying things and drawing on things and being very naughty. Then the next thing you know he is brought back to reality and he is saying I'm sorry mom I love you. Sigh! Oh yeah, we have had our first bunk bed accident as well. Enoch was climbing down the ladder and tried to swing onto Ezra's bed and ended up on his head on the wood floor. AND Ethne loves the bunk beds. She wants on them all the time.

This is our room. Mattress on the floor and suitcase we don't have enough hangers or a dresser to unpack. It has these lovely thin fabric inside curtains so that you can open the outside curtains and still have privacy. They keep bugs out for the most part and blow in the wind when the windows are open. They give the room an airy feel and make it feel like a nice beach resort room. Goes great with the tiny intricate coral reef pattern on our bedding.

No better way to end that a cute picture of Ethne in mom and dad's bed. She was messing it up as she always does. Cute thing. She is so adorable. She is in most of the pictures because she followed me around the house wanting to see the pictures on the camera after I took them.

Well, in case you couldn't tell, I love my house. We all love it. We enjoy being here and living here in this house. We need some more furniture to make it more comfortable but all in all we really like it just the way it is. Thank you to Garrett and Amber for persuading me to spend more to get a place we would really LOVE!!

Finally Back Online!

Well I have been horrible at keeping a record while we didn't have Internet. We have been so busy trying to get settled in that almost everyday has been one boring mass of looking for furniture, household items, and other necessities. We have had little time for anything fun so we have tried to find joy in the journey. When we were looking for things downtown we would stop at the little playground on Cuba street and let the kids play for a little while to get out some wiggles and frustration while they played. I really feel sorry for them being drug around all these boring places. The highlight of their days has been playing on the ipad in the car while Ethne was napping and Garrett and I were taking turns running in and out of furniture stores. LOL! This is pretty pathetic actually. Part of the problem is that Garrett and I are plagued with the dilemma of what to do about and what to spend on furniture.

The plan was to get here (New Zealand) and buy a beater car, junkie furniture, and make do without anything that we could. When we got here we found that people hold on to things until there is NO life left in them except that which has moved in and made a home there-if you catch my meaning. The used things for sale on Trade me are SO old and SO junky that we just couldn't do it. And Garrett just keeps saying he is TIRED of being displaced and TIRED of living this way that he just wants to spend money and be comfortable. (money we have of course-seeing as how Enoch is always mentioning that his parents are debt free :)
SO, we went on a search for Wal-Mart quality things that were new but not inhabited. What we found was that those things were still so expensive we better look into how much new and NICE would cost and do some comparison. Then the question became: Do we want to spend lots of money for junkie things we will just get rid of when we leave OR for only double the money do we want to get nice things to take back with us?? Hmmm!!!
Well when we get back to the states the only furniture we have there are our bookshelves and our buffet and a few small things. So we will have to buy furniture again in a few years. All this opening of Pandora's Box was making things very muddled and complicated in our minds. We wandered from store to store not making decisions and not sure what to do.
After all the wandering and searching and discussing we finally bought a couch and a chair that matches. Then we bought one of those cheap rocking type chairs you get at Ikea so at least on person can sit down while we wait out the 4 weeks until the furniture gets here :) We went with New Zealand made so it takes time to get it. (that isn't the real reason we bought the chair-it actually looks good in the house :)

I gave Garrett the blank check on the tv blu-ray player thing and told him to do whatever. I didn't care. He picked them out and now the blu-ray is getting the region code decoded so that we can play all the movies we brought with us plus the movies we get here. Garrett ended up getting a 42" on sale for about what it would have been in the states I believe.

For a kitchen table and chairs we are at a stalemate. No decision in site at this time. I am however really liking the idea of Mango Wood. It is a completely sustainably wood with great durability. For density it is in the 600 range along with properly aged Birch or remu. A soft wood like a pine would only be in the 300 range. It is all of course dependant on if the wood is aged properly. most furniture is made from wood on plantations. They usually cut the wood down at about 20 years and so it isn't aged properly. Mango wood is plantation grown too but they use the trees for fruit for the first 35 years before cutting them down and replanting for more fruit. It is beautiful wood and it doesn't all look the same. It comes in some very wild looks actually.
My favorite wood so far is the remu wood. It is just beautiful to me, but it is a tree native to New Zealand and getting hard to find so it is very expensive. Remember the $800 wooden chairs? Yeah that is the remu wood. I would love to find an old remu table and chair set and re-finish it but that would be like striking gold. Like I said everything here is used to death before being taken to the 2nd hand stores. I wanted to post a picture of the remu chairs but they were so far out of our price range that I guess Garrett didn't take a picture of them. So you will have to google remu wood and see what beautiful things come up.
The next post is Christmas and will have pictures. Then I should have lots of pictures of the house coming soon after that. OR maybe before. Depends on where all the pictures are :)

The Windy City--Wellington

Wellington, NZ is know for being VERY windy. We had been warned of this before we moved here but were really quite unprepared for just how windy it would be. They have wind sculptures around the city that spin, tip, turn, and light up (I think) to show you just how windy it is. This morning we went out to take pictures of the wind sculptures around the city just for you guys.

This was a very funny but sad picture of all of us. Ethne was so upset that she had to sit still long enough for a picture and Ezra just kept squeezing her around the neck to show off his seed pod. So sad but so funny. Enoch wouldn't look the right direction so he can barely be seen.
I really wish you could see Ethne's face up close :)

We hope you enjoy these picts. We just ran over to Garrett's work so that I could post them. We still have no Internet. We found out a few days ago that they will have to dig a hole from the house out to the street if we want fast Internet. We have to get that cleared by the land lady first as well. Darn all the holiday time off people get here :)


this is called the needle. It is huge as you can see. We are standing at the bottom to give you a scale to compare. It is EXTREMELY heavy as well so that it doesn't blow easily. BUT, when it is really windy that needle will tip all the way over. It is really quite amazing. There have been a few nights where we thought that there must be a hurricane coming but then it all BLOWS over ;) Love to you all-