The way I see it

Guest writer for the month is Abby and this is what she has to say....

Hi family and friends.  I'm having a good time in New Zealand.  Let me tell you what is happening with me so far. 

If you ever attend Putaruru Primary School beware, the pool is C-O-L-D!  I do like swimming every day but it's still cold.

I have met some great friends that I really like and are nice to me.  One of them lives right around the corner and we play a few times a week after school together.  Her name is Lucy.



Lucy and me in my backyard

I am in grade 5 here and in our math work they moved me up to 3 levels to the highest level of math before the kids to go jr. high.  That made me feel pretty happy.  I am still trying to keep up with my math work from California so maybe that helped.

I am learning the language pretty quickly.  Such as togs are swim suits, rubbish is trash, nappies are diapers, and felts are markers and others that I have to pick up on when I don't know what they mean.

New Zealand is very pretty especially our back yard.  I have liked seeing all the places we visit on the weekends.  We are having a lot of fun here.  I do miss my friends and my bed at home but I'll be back some day.

Until then I get to continue to enjoy the fun things at school such as a week at camp.  I'm sure my mom will wright about it again.  They take the classes to a camp where we swim, take walks in the bush; oh that's another new word.  Bush means forest.  We canoe, see glowworms, and learn more about the Maori culture and much more.  I'm a little scared but it will be fun to be with my friends.

I want to share one of my favorite days that I have had here and at school so far.

One day at school my teacher left the room and some kids started fighting.  Then we went to another teacher's room and she read us a Maori legend.  Everyone was talking during the story.  So when the story was over she made us all write an essay of what the story was about. We all wrote our stories and I was the first one done writing.  I showed it to my teacher who had come back into the room and she read it.  Then she said "come with me."  She went to find the teacher who had read us the story and told us to write the story.  She read my story too and after she finished she gave me a big hug.  Then she took my story to her room and said "this American girl got this Maori legend right and it was her first time hearing it."  Then she read it again to the entire class.

It made me feel like I could understand things even if I was different than others.  I also felt happy and proud to do a great thing on that day. 

It was hard at first being here but I am getting used to it.  As Annie says "I think I'm gonna like it here!"

xoxo,

Abby

Gardens, Birds and Worms

I have been amazed at the beauty that I've seen so far in New Zealand.  Just the simplicity of driving down the road on the way home from my 20 minute drive from the grocery store still takes my breath away.  "Am I really living in such a beautiful place as this?  Must I really leave?  Can I find this serenity in the states?"

Then we visit three different and amazing places today that testifies of God's amazing creations that took my breath away.  I have to say I was a bit speechless a few moments at what my eyes took in.  No pricey (or mid-priced in our case) camera could EVER really capture the majesty of what laid before us this weekend.  Unfortunately, at one specific case they did not allow camera's in at all and that I respected because it needed to be preserved the best way possible.

We started Friday night by going to  the Hamilton Gardens.  We thought we'd walk around for about 30 minutes or so checking out some nice plants and shrubbery but boy were we WRONG!  We  walked in and were immediately engulfed in walls of greenery and oh the smell of earth that surrounded us.  We got lost in the paths instantly and followed them around for a good 3 hours and only covered half of the grounds.  It was beautiful in all its entire splendor.  There was one thing that was pretty funny but maybe only because we were American. (You'll see) 

They had a "Paradise Garden Collection" area where they featured gardens from a variety of places.  Job well done.  I know where the next place I'd want to live/decorate my home like/have a backyard party decorated after.  What's your favorite?

English Flower Garden

Japanese Garden of Contemplation

Chinese Scholar's Garden

American Modernist Garden

Italian Renaissance Garden

Indian Char Bagh Garden

Saturday we woke up early and took a long drive to Ortorhanga where they have the largest private collection of native birds.  And you know what that means?  Kiwis!  They had a lot of great birds to see and of course the Kiwis were the main reason for our visit.  We had seen them before on our last visit to NZ but these ones were huge and amazing to watch eat among the leaves and trees.  They really are a beautiful bird.  I just still don't get it how they can function without any arms/wings.  Just two legs and a beak.  Hmmm, I'll ask God about that one later. 

We watched two Kea birds be fed by a trainer and man are those things smart.  Beautiful and smart!  What a catch in the bird world.  Smarter than my two year old who earlier in the day put his finger in a fence and got it bit by a orange beaked bird.  Sad, but it was the highlight of that outing for the kids.

Kea Bird

Darn bird that bit Maddy

Next we made our way down the road to the most incredible, beautiful, spectacular, unbelievable real sight that I've ever seen.  We visited the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.  I have to say that we saw a lot more than just glowworms though.  In the tour they take you down in to the deep caves of limestone, stalactites and stalagmites before you are deep enough to reach water and the underground of earth to see where the glowworms live.  Along the way you see caverns, tunnels and a cave "cathedral" in which performers such as the Vienna Boys Choir come and sing.  Visiting Opera Singers to sing Christmas Music here as well.  Can you imagine?  WOW.  Then you  move on and learn of the life cycle of the glowworm, they turn off the small amount of lights and then there they are!  Hanging like small threads of silk and glowing like stars in the dark.  Colors of green, light blue and white light right above our heads.  It was breath taking.

To get out of the huge cave that we had just climbed down in to and walked around in they put us in a boat and they floated us out through a series of rope pulling that lead us around more tunneling in the dark.  As we floated the only light that shined above us were hundreds of little specks of lights of glowworms.  It looked like we were looking up in to the night sky and looking at a full night of stars.  Just beautiful.  Just lovely.  Just AAAH.

Glowworm Cave

"Cathedral"

At one point in the cave I turned to my kids and said, "Hey you guys, this stuff is real!  This has been created by God.  He put this here.  This is not Disneyland and it was not made to look like this by some person.  This is all real."  Just then Walker says "Ya' I was just going to say that this place looks like the Indiana Jones ride."  Oh how our minds have been tainted.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was pretty fun and interesting.  I soon realized that it is not commercialized here in New Zealand when I didn't see heaps of heart shaped candy, balloons, soaps, or anything red and pink exploding all over the store aisles.  If you weren't to know what day it was (thanks to my handy calendar) you wouldn't even know there was a holiday among us.  No real mention of it at school or at any store until the day of when they started pushing some random perfume at the checkout stand.

I was going to have to be creative in order to not disappoint the kids this year.  I didn't have 3 Targets with in a 6 mile radius to load up on unnecessary decorations, candy and bags to fill with treats and toys only to be forgotten until Easter when I was to please them all over again.  Isn't that what we do as moms?

This is what I came up with this year.  Not feeling so crafty and to par with what I know I could have done with my normal supplies back at home.  Then again, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto.

Paper cut out hearts taped on the wall.

Heart pancakes for breakfast.

Walker helped by decorating his lego figures with Valentine's vests and a loincloth.

Enjoying Valentine's breakfast while Maddy still sleeps.

Valentine's dessert.

Chocolate Cake and Raspberry Lamingtons

Then after dinner and dessert we exchanged Valentine's gifts.  Abby went first.  She had been working all week on personalized letters for everyone in the family.  It was so kind and thoughtful of her and we all appreciated her efforts.

Then Walker passed his out to Mom and Dad.  Lovely letters to each of us followed by gifts he had made.  Shells from our beach trip that he had drawn personalized pictures on.  He had wrapped them in towels for us to unwrap.  I love the thought and effort that went in to his gift as well.

Then I passed out the rest of the families gifts.  I guess it works when you know your kids pretty well.  The boys got a new lego figurine and a candy bar.  They also got a chess set that I'm sure will keep them busy the remainder of their time here.  Abby got nail polish and a candy bar as well as some NZ stickers she can use for writing letters.  They all got a small canvas picture to paint that we can do on a slow Sunday afternoon.  Dad got candy and a new shirt.  So at the end of the day I think I was able to pull it off pretty well. 

Now on to Easter.  I haven't seen any plastic eggs yet and in America these would have been put out about a month ago so I'm thinking I need to start to hollow out eggs, do paper mache, hard boil about 50 eggs or maybe just get wads of paper taped up tight to look like eggs. We have a huge yard that the kids can have a hay day finding stuff in.  Any ideas?

Beach Time

Our original plan this weekend was to drive to Mount Maunganui and hike the base of Mauao.  It is a small mountain and as Maori mythology goes, it was once a nameless mountain that stood inland.  It came to rest in its current location after falling in love with a nearby mountain named Puwhenua.  When she did not reciprocate, Mauoa was so upset that he called upon his fairy-like friends to drag him towards the coast and help drown him in the Pacific Ocean in the darkness of night.  He made it to the end of the peninsula, but at that moment the sun rose.  His friends, being night creatures, were forced to flee back to the forest, and left him stranded there forever. 

Mauoa is at the very end of the peninsula and there is beach on both sides.  One side seems to cater to sand volleyball, surfers and sun bathers.  The other side held sail boats, barbeques and beach camping.  It is a beautiful beach town that is full of beach homes, apartments, eateries and shopping. 

So drove to the base and couldn't really seem to find the entrance.  Plus it was super hot and we were hungry for lunch.  So instead we decided to forgo that plan and hit the beach instead.  There we had a beach picnic, played in the water, walked along the beach front and found all sorts of fun discoveries like baby muscles growing on rocks and the most perfect seashells we've ever seen.  The scenery at this beach is amazing!

   

Scenery in the ocean

Mauou on the left

Completely flat shell

Perfect shells were everywhere!

Then we walked around town for a bit and found a great family restaurant for dinner.  What a nice way to keep the family occupied while dinner is being cooked.  So many fun things around each corner in NZ!

 

Then to finish off the weekend we relaxed by going to Church at the Tokoroa Ward for the second week now.  It's been great.  They are soooo kind and welcoming.  Spirit was great and they are nice to involve us in the lessons and activities already.   

Just the start of a 4 hr puzzle

Time with the boys

With the dad gone and two older kids in school I've had some enjoyable days just hanging out with the younger boys.  Ann Silva (who I met at church on Sunday) came and took us to some amazing sights all day and had a fun picnic lunch along the river bank.  Some places she took us to was Arapuni Swin Bridge.  It was so beautiful and we will for sure be taking the entire family back soon.

After that we took a short hike around Mnt Maungarautari.  Just enough to see what it was like in there so we could again bring the entire family back.  There are so many trails that we could have spend hours in that place.  It was amazing and so beautiful.  At the base of the mountain it was completely fenced off with a double gated door you have to enter.  They do this to keep out rats and other animals that might harm the birds and other animals and vegitation they are wanting to preserve.  Well done I say!

Other days in the week we spent going to the park, the library and relaxing reading our books.

The weather is so nice with it being summer here that we have been eating our dinners outside.  So why not have picnics for lunch?

 Then to finish off the week the kids had a "Sausage Sizzle/Pool Party" at their school at night.  Not keen on the sausage thing just yet we got take away for ourselves.  It was open to the community but it was mostly school kids and parents and all the teachers.  It was fun to see teachers racing kids and everyone socializing and having a good time.

Now it's Friday and we are looking forward to the weekend and more fun.  Maybe the beach.  Who knows?  Oh and yes, I did keep track of the week and Cordell was picked up on Thursday!

So confused?

What day is it today?  Three day weekends are so nice but is it just me or does it throw off your entire week?  Monday is like another Saturday so what does that make Tuesday?  It's not Sunday cuz we didn't have church twice.  So that would make it Monday starting the week new but then we are ahead of the week by a day.  Darn, I'm so confused.   I don't have the convenience of a iphone or fancy techy device hooked to my side to keep me updated with the world. 

Cordell had to go out of town this week and all I can think is "crap, don't forget to pick him up from the airport on Thursday.  Better yet, don't forget to remember what day is Thursday."  I taped a small piece of paper on the fridge with this on it "Thursday, 7:40" but then today I realized it means nothing if I don't know what day the current day even is.  Wow, my life is so laxed I'm not even keeping track of what day it is.  Is that nice or what?

So in an attempt to organize my days (yep, that's how simple it's gotten around here, keeping track of what day it is) I decided I need a calendar to hang up.  Hmmm, how am I going achieve that?  At home I'd have one.  No, I'd have a phone that would have it for me.  As a backup I'd print out a cute fancy one I'd found on some over achieving mom blog somewhere that I would soon add to my favorites bar.  I'd use one of my adorable bottle cap super strength magnets that can hold up a small child (I've been very tempted to try as a means of a time out location) to hold the fresh personalized and printed calendar.  But oh the days of home offices and home printers are long gone.  Not so much here!

Remember back in the day of say 5th grade when you needed a calendar or a picture of a country for the cover of the book report you'd been working on for days.  You had to free hand it on a piece of paper with rulers or any straight object if you couldn't find a ruler that hadn't been ruined by a marker, tracing over pictures out of a book, or use an overhead projector and dark room to draw what later could only look like Einstein's profile, hair and all.  Yep, that was me today trying to get a simple calendar made simply so that I wouldn't forget to pick up my husband at the airport in 2 days.

How I take for granted a printer and plain paper.  And without a copier looks like I'll be going through this ordeal two more times.  Oooh but I can trace Febs calendar to make it much easier.  But let it be known, brochures make for a good ruler. 

Agrodome, Voltage and Hot Pools

Hmmm what to do, what to do?  Our first Saturday in NZ and what is there to do?  PLENTY I tell you!  We have a long list to tackle while we are here so let's get to it.

We spent the entire day in Rotorua.  A beautiful city known for its thrilling activities, natural attractions, entertainment, shopping and dining.  We started at the Agrodome which would make any 4H member envy to no end.   This famous attraction features live sheep shearing, 19 breeds of champion rams, cow milking, lamb feeding, dog demonstrations as well as a full New Zealand dog trial.  Let me tell you what, they sure do give you the full experience.  Just take a look.

Walker chosen to go on stage to milk a cow.

Proud certificate for milking the above mentioned cow.

Abby chosen to go on stage to participate in a contest.  See who can feed a baby sheep the fastest.

Her reward for winning was all the wool from the sheep that was sheared earlier in the show.  Lucky us. :/

Who knew there were so many different breeds of sheep?

Next we drove to Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park.  This was a glorified petting zoo.  It had lion cubs to pet.  Although my hyper kids couldn't stand quiet long enough to be in the cage to wait their turn that we needed to leave.  The zoo keeper worried they would get the resting cubs riled up.  Fair enough.  Didn't want any kid to lose a hand at my child's expense.  So we walked on our merry way and found some other fun animals like deer, pigs, birds, wallabies, eels, alpacas, donkeys, goats and then the mother of all mothers, the lion den.  They had 6 lions (5 female and 1 male, can we say sister wives?) in the cage.  All though this one was surrounded with fencing and signs that said "warning, electric fence".  Oh great.  Maybe this will be the time my boys learn their lesson not to touch everything they see, everywhere we go!  Is it just my boys or is it all boys that are told "don't touch that, put that down, don't touch it, PLEASE!" constantly? 

So this is how we had to draw the picture in their head so that they would hopefully listen to us for real this time. 

"Hey kids, remember that scene from Jurassic park where the boy is climbing the fence and all of the sudden the fence turns on and ZAP he goes flying off and gets hurt real bad?" 

"Ya' mom, we get it." 

"Do you really?  Because this is serious and we don't want you guys getting hurt."

"So are you saying it's like that part in the Muppets movie when he gets shocked and gets burned up?" said younger kid

"I guess so, but do you all understand what we are saying?"

"Wooooooaaaaaaaa"

And wouldn't you guess, not even 23 seconds later guess who's hand is right up there ready in slow motion touching...the...fence! 

"N-N-N-O-O-O-O-O-O-O"

Stupid me.  Why would they put the electric part of the fence on the outside of the lion's den?  It was on the inside of the double fenced area.  But still, he should have listened.  Now the lesson of "don't touch" was void again!  Darn you false warning signs!


To rest from that dramatic experience we drove a little ways off to the Polynesian Spa.  Hot mineral bathing pools that smell a little less than desirable but feel oh so good.  We swam in freshwater pools that were filled with alkaline mineral water leaving our skin "soft and supple".  It was a great way to end our long fun filled day. 

 Can't wait to see what adventure next weekend has in store for us.  Lets just hope it does not involve high voltage of any kind.