The Ends of the Earth

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Thank You Amazon.com

I've never enjoyed shopping this much in my life. Online shopping is dangerously fun and easy. About once a week we get a text from Ken the mail guy at the embassy saying we'll need our van to bring home all of our packages. Too much fun! In all actuality, we're saving lots by shopping from the US vice NZ. Case in point, the $50 garbage can we got from amazon.com today would be 3 to 4 times more expensive here.

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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Haka

Third rainy day in a row warranted a double-header morning of Baby Rock n' Rhyme at the library and the Haka exhibit at Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand.

From wikipedia: "Haka (singular is the same as plural: haka) is a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from the Māori people of New Zealand, which has become more familiar worldwide because the New Zealand rugby union team All Blacks do the haka before every rugby game. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.^[1]"

This is one of the better haka from the 2011 Rugby World Cup. This is what it should look like: http://youtu.be/QSGTK9f3yWc Below is Charlie and my interpretation.

Every picture I tried to get of Charlie "doing the Haka" -- he kind of looked bratty with tongue stuck out and snotty-faced. This was the best shot I got...

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Lola

Charlie really likes preschool. He goes every Tuesday and Thursday all day. His favorite friend is Lola because she has sparkles on her face and she's cute (that's unfortunately actually a quote). Lola's mommy is the director of the preschool. This is a snapshot from this morning when she got a hold of her mommy's lipstick.

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Monday, October 3, 2011

Measles?

Liam seems to have a rash that covers his entire body. We are not too freaked out yet but the timing is unfortunate. There seems to be an outbreak of measles that is epidemic is Auckland and the first case hit Wellington last week. I don't think it's measles (no other symptoms) but we'll call the GP just to make sure. The problem is that measles is super contagious and they don't want suspected cases brought to the doctor's office. We brought him to church yesterday, but skipped playgroup today, so the other mommies would have peace of mind. Bottom line, I think it's a detergent problem.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/86955/measles-case-confirmed-in-wellington

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Sunday, October 2, 2011

Grizzly man helping me come up with a blog title

Bliss!

We are almost completely out of groceries so treated ourselves to yummy breakfast before church. Here is my flat white (latte more or less) in a bowl. First one since high school caribou days.

I braved the roads on our drive to church today. I was a little gun-shy after our teeny-tiny (as Charlie would put it) accident in Australia. I sort of knocked the passenger mirror clean off the rental car when I hit a road barrier on the drive to the Canberra Zoo. That being said, the ride to church was smooth and I'm feeling increasingly confident. (here is Charlie near the giraffes at the Canberra zoo).

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Craziest Weekend Yet (... and it's only Saturday)

Okay - I've proven to be a pretty stinky blogger... There is SO MUCH TO SAY about the crazy departure from Virginia, the amazing and challenging summer in MN and the insane transition to life in Wellington... Maybe I'll add stories as things get quiet here in NZ. That being said, I still really want to be reflective on this stage of our lives. I know these three years will fly by, and in the busyness of life I want to make sure that I'm documenting this season of life. I'm still not publishing this until I have SOME SORT of consistency with blog posts.

It's Saturday night and I'm passing out on the couch. So tired... We had an incredibly special weekend and we haven't even hit Sunday yet.

1. Hunted glow worms at the botanical gardens about 1/2 mile from our home (this wasn't our picture - but not too far from what it looked like)

2. Caught sight of a penguin in the Wellington harbour walking home tonight from...

3. ...our 12 mile (9 miles running. 3 miles walking) adventure along the water to the local beach playground where we watched airplanes take off and land

4. Witnessed the entire NZ Navy participate in a "once in a lifetime" changing-the-Queen's colours ceremony in front of parliament while wearing my bathrobe and eating pancakes on our patio. We called them birthday pancakes, because it was the Navy's 70th birthday, and Charlie wanted to bring the pancakes down to the parliament lawn for the "Mavy".