I'm sitting here in my suddenly chilly house with slippers on and a thunder / hail storm threatening overnight. (According to the forecast) It was only 6 degrees C this am and we still sent the kids to school in shorts because it warms up quickly during the day and then cools off again at night. Actually because we were trying to avoid buying them school uniform pants and long sleeve shirts for the 2 remaining months.
On the bright side I haven't killed one of these LOVELY bush cockroaches in at least 3 days. Yes, they're our special friends that climb in our open windows and are about 2 inches long. I have to kill one every other day or so. Dave hates them - won't touch them, so it's all up to me. FUN
Did I mention that we've also caught 2 mice in the house? Trapped them. I wouldn't touch them.
My darling Xavier brings home all of his paperwork shoved into his backpack looking like THIS, right next to his lovely take home folder that is supposed to hold his paperwork. Unreal.
They get first term reports home next week and then we'll have parent teacher interviews to see what havoc the boys have been creating at school. Who am I kidding? Jackson's absolutely fine. (He's made friends with a boy who lives on a yacht and sailed here from France . . .) Xavier is heading to a birthday party tomorrow for twin boys from his class. The mother suggested to bring their scooters so they can go to the skate park. Speaking of which . . .
We keep running out of bandaids (sticky plasters) around here because the children are allowed to do THIS at school (and on Saturday with Daddy while Mommy was at work)! We went to an assembly last week and 3 children had broken arms . . .
My job is ending one week from today as our store is closing and the staff are losing their jobs. Not so good for the bank account. We've also had the busiest 2 days so far because of the clearance sale and tomorrow the radio station is setting up outside our shop with a sausage sizzle (aka BBQ) to draw even more of a crowd. We sold as much product in one day yesterday as in an average month. Exhausting. And I'll be officially living on retirement savings again.
Homesickness. Xavier told me tonight that he wished Uncle Mike and Auntie Laura were his parents. . . . because they have the Wii and the Mario game he really misses. (eye rolling) Seven months later, a trip around the world, beaches, wildlife, adventure and all the kid wants is his Wii.
Actually, we miss people heaps! Family, friends, Beacon and our church. Really, there's not much scenery to look forward to back in Niagara, but lots of people we'll want to catch up with. Some of you just don't post enough on facebook for me to keep up with your life. I feel so out of touch! Yes, we're meeting people here and developing a social network of sorts, but we miss the familiarity.
I miss Costco. But I know when I get back, I'll miss the market and small shops here. It's a bit confusing. But I really don't like paying $6.47 for my shaving gel.
Easter came! We celebrated!
Egg Decorating (with brown eggs)
Hill Sliding (Grass + Cardboard boxes)
The Easter Bunny found us somewhere in the pacific! (So looking forward to an outdoors hunt, but we got rained out. )
It was peaceful until it wasn't, and then we said GO FLY A KITE!
The boys had Mon / Tues off school, so Dave treated us to fish and chip takeaways on the beach at Rabbit Island with a family bike ride on the trail afterwards.
I know I was trying to ease the jealousy factor with this post, but I probably haven't really succeeded (although Dave's proofreading comment was "That's quite a different tone from your usual posts"), so I'll end with these photos anyways. The beauty keeps me going here in NZ. Living next to the sea is very life giving. The rhythm of the tides, the surrounding hills and the colour of the sky cause me to breathe more deeply.
PS Give my mom a hug today if you see her please, I'm missing her birthday. Her really special birthday. She was born April 5th, 1953. You can do the math.
