Things that make you go hmmm

Wow, I cannot believe it's been over a month since I've written a blog entry.  I could say that I've been busy but the real reason is because I read my husband's blog every day (http://kiwiscots.blogspot.com/ ) and I feel a bit unworthy in my writing skills. Of course I would be letting down my 2 friends who read my blog so I decided to throw caution to the wind (and grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) and continue on.
Anyway, we've been settling into a rhythm here and have passed the dreaded 6 month hump when homesickness usually sets in. For me, the start of soccer season cures most of my ailments. There is something magical about seeing your kid excel at something he loves.  Soccer season brings a sense of normalcy to our lives ever since Morgan joined his first team 10 years ago. Morgan however, has decided to forgo soccer this year for Rugby so it is up to Ewan to keep this tradition going. I think he would actually prefer to play Cricket but is doing this for me. I don't have the willpower to let him off the hook. I would really miss it. 
Along with soccer and Rugby, we now have break dancing.  That's right, we moved to NZ and Morgan joined a crew and practices one or two times a week and has even performed at a local community fair. Who'd a thunk?  To top it off, he's not bad.

I had accidentally gone to a psychiatrist last week (really) who told me that after a few months in a new place this sort of transformation takes place. you start to feel at home and enjoy the differences and culture.  I am beginning to agree with her. Let me explain.  Every couple of months or so a State Department doctor visits our Embassy to check on the employees and family members.  We are encouraged to make appointment to deal with any medical issues we may have and it is free!  Well, my dear sweet husband made an appointment for me since I had a nasty spider bite that would not go away. We were afraid that it may have been one of the dreaded "White Tailed" spiders and that i would need further medical treatment.  Neither of us knew that the doctors that made the rounds at the Embassies were shrinks. Oh well, I love a bargain and hate to waste anything, including a doctors appointment, so I started telling her about how I was adjusting and what my expectations were.  Funny how quickly an hour passes when you have someone to listen to your boring issues.  Not as funny was my husband's reaction to me spending an unexpected hour with a psychiatrist.  All in all, we are all adjusting well and though we miss our favorite treats from home, we have discovered some new ones.

Yeah, that's orange flavored ice cream with chocolate chips. Surprisingly good.

What the heck is that?

I woke up early this morning to check emails and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a mouse. I wish.  It was not a mouse but a huge creepy Weta bug.  I  F-R-E-A-K-E-D out.  My giant man child Morgan (6'1") wouldn't go near it.  I had to catch it and release it since our resident vegetarian, Ewan, pointed out that it is protected and we cannot kill it.  We probably could have grilled it and had it
 for lunch with leftovers.
The Weta bug is revered in NZ and they are , in fact, protected. They do bite, though I didn't know that when I was catching it.  Other than leaving a stinging bite, they are harmless. You won't die or need to go to the ER if you get bitten by one.  Good to know.
You see, our delightful house in NZ does not have air conditioning and since it was hot last night (84 F), I had left our windows open.  Of course the Kiwis don't put screens in their windows (that would be wimpy) so our new house guest just waltzed right in unmolested.
If anyone can find regulations on State Department housing and air conditioning / screened windows, please forward it to me. I will be eternally grateful.  I can learn to love pink walls and tile floors but there is no way I am going to let my kids melt at night or snuggle up to Wetas, no matter how "privileged" we are to live in New Zealand.

Our new friend

House a home?

It is no secret that I was less than thrilled with my new home in NZ. I was happy with NZ, don't get me wrong, but my house was "quirky."  I'm not going to get into the details. I am tired of hearing myself complain, so I'm sure my friends and family are tired of it as well.

I had heard that homesickness really starts to set in at 6 months into a tour, and especially during the holidays. Check and check. On top of those two triggers, we surprisingly sold our home in Costa Rica just before New Year. I was supposed to be happy, but I wanted to cry. Now I was completely and truly "homeless."  This pink and green fiasco was my only home. I was not gonna go into a decline and feel sorry for myself.

We need a party, I decided. In my former life as a publisher's wife, I had many parties. Adrian and I would invite all the "cool kids" to our parties and shun the pompous hoitie-toities.  We had a blast.  But, having a big New Year's party would require everyone coming to our house. Ugh. I just couldn't see it.

Having given up hope of ever wanting to entertain people here, I turned our dining room into a sewing room and the main living room has been transformed into the kids' room. So the only area left was the kitchen/family room with its tiny stove and ridiculous dwarf couches. 

I did have that rockin' fake fireplace, though, so there was still hope. Adrian, ever the diplomat (even before the new job) reminded me that people don't care at New Year. As long as there is food and alcohol, they will be happy.  So, it was decided. We were going to have people over. Lots of people, and each of them would be bringing children.  So, we began inviting the cool kids.

I cleaned and hastily hung up the pictures I had been "meaning to get to" since the movers came 3 months ago. My new friend Peggy helped me decorate and I cooked all day. People came, people laughed, kids played and everyone had a great time. After all the children were fed, we rolled out the Pièce de résistance - our CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN.  Mmmmmm.  Nobody, I mean NOBODY can resist the chocolate fountain. One of our guests, who is allergic to chocolate, even tried it. It is heaven. Our cute little guest Misa was covered in chocolate within 2 minutes. Luckily, I had the foresight to put the fountain outside so the house did not suffer. In the end, nobody wanted to leave and I saw in the new year for the first time in years. My house was now my home.

This weekend I completed the transition by fixing all of the little annoyances that have plagued me since moving in. I hung up my favorite artwork, cleaned out closets that were still filled with boxes unopened, and lovingly placed family photos. My southwestern styled couches are now covered with IKEA covers and I choose to believe my pink walls are beige. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. My rugs are covering hard tile floors and the combination of white tile, pink walls and green Persian carpet doesn't seem too ridiculous. In fact, it looks "eclectic." I like it, it is my home, and I love it.

Before                              After

And, the additoin of my faux fireplace

Still working on these :)

Choosing to love my new home was a conscious decision.  It had to be done.

Best Birthday Ever

Well, while Ewan's birthday party was a bit unsettling, mine was awesome.  Since Adrian had a week off of work and the boys were off from school for summer break, we decided to head to the South Island and spend my birthday there.  We did ZERO planning aside from booking tickets on the ferry.  With our diplomatic status, we were entitled to half price ferry tickets (usually $800 for 4 people and a car) until the 15th of December. So, we kinda had to plan that, the rest of the trip we were gonna "wing it".  We had a general idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see but no set plans or hotel rooms.
The ferry ride over was very nice though both boys got a tiny bit seasick. Adrian was in heaven. I think he took a thousand photos.
We spent our first day and night in Nelson and found a very clean and comfy hotel right near the beach. I have to say, this was one of the best beaches so far that I've seen in NZ. It reminded me of Fla. The sand was light and clean, the water was lovely and there was room to run around, or fly a kite!

We moved on closer to one of our chosen destinations: Abel Tasman Park. It is reputed to be gorgeous and did not disappoint.  Adrian wanted to go Kayaking with the boys and since I had no intention of going out for a 4 hour kayak, I volunteered to pack up the hotel and hang at the beach we had found the day before.  While Adrian was hunting for our 2nd hotel of the journey, the boys and I found this sweet little lagoon right off the beach at Abel Tasman.

No sharks :) 

The restaurant selection here was a bit dismal but we had places to go and things to see in Kaikoura so we headed east to our next destination.
Kaikoura is a really fun place to spend your birthday. I have to admit, I was spoiled. Kaikoura is home of the Crayfish, or as we call it, LOBSTER. They aren't cheap ( @ $80 each) but they are good.  You can stop at a little trailer on the side of the road and have a lobster right there, freshly plucked from the ocean.

With some time to kill before upgrading to our next hotel (our first one had no Internet "gasp") we headed to the seal hang out to check out the seals. The lady at the Lobster Shack told us about a short hike into the forest where you can see baby seals hanging out in a stream. They apparently swim up there to hang out while their moms hunt. I had read about this place earlier and was dying to go though our odds of seeing the seals were slim since they mainly go in the winter.  Our chances were also diminished by some jerks who recently had gone up there and slaughtered @ 30 of the pups. The seals will probably never come back now ruining a great local opportunity and tourist attraction. The waterfall was beautiful though and we enjoyed the hike.

Our new Hotel (Waves) was amazing. It was actually made up of independently owned apartments that the owners rent out nightly.  It was expensive and worth every penny.  It was a full 2 bedroom apartment with everything, super clean and very modern.  Right next door was the best restaurant in town where we ate this:

Early the next morning Adrian went whale watching. The boys and I had had enough sea sickness and knew we were getting back on the ferry later that day so we decided to hang out in Kaikoura while daddy went out on the boat. As a nod to Ewan, our resident vegetarian, we went to an animal farm to make up for his lost whale watching trip. It was a bit lack luster but the animals were cute and we were allowed to feed them. I was even able to get over my fear of chickens when a overly friendly chicken sided up to me and begged for food.

I loved it. My birthday was perfect and I got to celebrate it again when we got home.  As a special gift, a pod of dolphin followed our ferry out of the harbor. Thanks boys.

Christmas Lunch with the DCM

We have a very nice DCM here in Wellington and a very good CLO which makes for fun parties.  Our DCM invited the entire Embassy over to his house recently for a Christmas lunch (pot luck). We didn't get the sunshine we were hoping for which called for a bit of reshuffling with the kids' activities but "partly sunny" was good enough.  Everyone brought a dish so we got to enjoy some good home cook food!
I never know what to wear to these things so I wore a dress even though it was considered a picnic. Better to be over dressed in my book. I let the boys get away with polos and shorts.
This may have been one of the most relaxing events yet.  Most of the parties at the Marine House are laid back and casual but for some reason, this one was my favorite, perhaps because it was Christmas.  Erin (our CLO) even arranged for Santa to stop by and hand out candy to the children.
It wasn't the swingin' booze fest Iwas used to from our Newspaper days but a nice change of pace and no hangover.

Not the Best Birthday Ever

Wow, I am ashamed that I haven't written a blog post in over 3 weeks. To say that I've been busy would be an understatement. Let's see, after Thanksgiving we finally had a birthday party for Ewan who actually turned 11 three months ago. Better late than never I suppose. I have no idea why I agreed to having 8 extra little boys sleep over. It started out ok but then the inevitable happened....someone got hurt. How guilty can one mother feel? Pretty guilty. Poor Thomas, Ewan's closest friend and one of the nicest boys I've ever met, actually offered to help during dinner. He was going to fill up the fancy glass water bottles. Did I mention that we have hard tile floors? Everything that falls on them breaks, including Ipods and glass water bottles. Thomas tried to catch his as it fell and ended up in the emergency room for his troubles. I was so horrified, still am.  While I am sure Thomas' parents were not too happy about the situation, they did bring him back the next morning to finish off the party. Perhaps I should offer to reimburse them for the tennis lessons they just paid for but won't be able to use?

Here is the happy bunch before the accident.

Ewan is second from the right and Thomas is second from the left with the banana on his shirt.

Since half of Ewan's friends are vegetarians, we decided to make veggie burgers for dinner but this kid really like his veggies. Not only is he eating a veggie burger and sweet potato fries, he added broccoli to his! This is a new one.