Our lovely ducks still frequently drop by for a visit. In fact, the other day, Pollo was on her own and was quite persistent for attention and bread once she saw us. Ok, to be honest (and admit to my being dorky) when I heard Pollo's quack, I looked out the window and waved at her! The funny thing is that she walked up towards the window watching us, and then tried to fly into the house! Poor thing nailed the very closed window, which had no ill effects for her slamming into it. She then went to our glass door and beaked slightly on it, like she was knocking! I have never seen her do that before - though granted, she has never flown into the window before - at least not at our house.
So the kind Samaritan that I am, grabbed a piece of bread to take out to her. Now, we are not actually allowed to feed the ducks in the driveway. Our landlord said we could only feed them by the stream. So I went outside and with Pollo looking up at me, told her that we had to go down to the stream, and then I lead the way. The best part is that she followed me! It was like a momma and baby duck. It was cute. I walked to the gate and stopped, she followed and stopped just looking at me. I opened the gate and went down, and she came down. Then she got her treats. Once I was done, I came back in and I am sure that she was grateful.
I do like this house...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Earthquake!!
New Zealand lies right over a rather large fault line. This fault line cuts pretty much from top to bottom of the country and sometimes results in earthquakes. Earthquakes are a common life experience here. In my time here in New Zealand, I haven't been able to really experience one until the other night.
Now to be fair, I slept through a very small one while in Wellington and another time was in the car driving when one occurred too. Unless the earthquake is large on the rictor scale, you won't feel a thing if you are driving around. So now I am happy to report that I have felt my first earthquake.
We were at Jon's parents house where we had gone to visit, have dinner and chat for a while after church last Sunday. I had tried earlier to contact my mother to see how she had done with the Hurricane. We were in the living room talking, Jon and I about ready to leave for home when it happened.... The whole house shook - not massively though. It was a moderate earthquake. It did no damage to their house or the city and didn't shake anything off the walls. However, it did shake the house.
Never being in one before, it is just another reminder how amazing and powerful Mother Nature is. We are getting many reminders of this lately. Anyway, for those of you who are curious, the earthquake was about a 5.2. It happened on Sunday, Sept 14 2008 at apx. 9.25pm. It originated about 60 km southwest of Wanganui out in the ocean floor. We felt it around 9.30ish here in New Plymouth.
It was rather exciting for me, but I will admit that I do not think I would find a large scale earthquake all that exciting. That would be scary. (I am happy to report that it did not even scare me. Really I think I was just amazed and excited to know right away what it was.)
Now to be fair, I slept through a very small one while in Wellington and another time was in the car driving when one occurred too. Unless the earthquake is large on the rictor scale, you won't feel a thing if you are driving around. So now I am happy to report that I have felt my first earthquake.
We were at Jon's parents house where we had gone to visit, have dinner and chat for a while after church last Sunday. I had tried earlier to contact my mother to see how she had done with the Hurricane. We were in the living room talking, Jon and I about ready to leave for home when it happened.... The whole house shook - not massively though. It was a moderate earthquake. It did no damage to their house or the city and didn't shake anything off the walls. However, it did shake the house.
Never being in one before, it is just another reminder how amazing and powerful Mother Nature is. We are getting many reminders of this lately. Anyway, for those of you who are curious, the earthquake was about a 5.2. It happened on Sunday, Sept 14 2008 at apx. 9.25pm. It originated about 60 km southwest of Wanganui out in the ocean floor. We felt it around 9.30ish here in New Plymouth.
It was rather exciting for me, but I will admit that I do not think I would find a large scale earthquake all that exciting. That would be scary. (I am happy to report that it did not even scare me. Really I think I was just amazed and excited to know right away what it was.)
Hurricanes
I have been asked by a few people how my family has fared during Hurricane Ike. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful and concerned everyone gets when something potentially disastrous is coming to town nor how wonderful everyone gets afterwards when they start to pick up the pieces. I would like you to know that my family has done just fine with this hurricane outside of losing a little power - both in Houston and Louisiana.
For those of you who know my family well, you will be happy to know that the bbq was up and going and Hurricane Ike was celebrated with a nice bbq brisket and probably some other meat too. For those of you who do not know my family, let us reminisce back to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita....
As you may remember, Hurricane Katrina sent masses from New Orleans to other states and cities in case something drastic was to happen. Indeed the amount of destruction wound up being large as the levees that hold out the storm failed in parts of the city and the pump system that pumped water out stalled as well - a huge problem since this beloved city lies below sea level. About 2000 people would lose their lives and others would lose their homes, their pets, other property, and many are still missing probably presumed dead. Most of my family from New Orleans left for this and went to nearby cities, or over to Houston where I lived. One of these being my grandmother.
Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and the destruction mentioned happened. Without much time to recover, and no one being allowed back in New Orleans, a new Hurricane built up and started coming towards Houston. Houston at this time was housing many of the refugees from Hurricane Katrina. It would turn out that Hurricane Rita would not hit Houston directly, but that was not known at the time. For the record, while Rita did very little damage to Houston, it did cause damage along the Texas/Louisiana border.
Now, that is background... here is my family hours before Hurricane Rita is supposed to hit Houston or near it.... We had our swimsuits on - all of us, including my grandmother! - were out in the pool swimming and playing with the dog. We had the bbq going and the radio playing. (Who's thinking this isn't so smart? - We agree! We actually made that comment. However, it had not even started raining yet.)
I am very grateful that my family lives where it does in Houston. We are on the Northwest side of the city and because of that, have much less to fear from these Hurricanes. It does not mean we are impenetrable from them, just less likely to have the floods and have the damage to the same extent. When 1 million people were asked to leave Houston, I knew that my family would be part of the 3 million asked to stay. Knowing this though does not quite quell the worry until the storm has passed. I am also grateful that Hurricane Ike was not as bad as had been predicted.
For those of you who know my family well, you will be happy to know that the bbq was up and going and Hurricane Ike was celebrated with a nice bbq brisket and probably some other meat too. For those of you who do not know my family, let us reminisce back to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita....
As you may remember, Hurricane Katrina sent masses from New Orleans to other states and cities in case something drastic was to happen. Indeed the amount of destruction wound up being large as the levees that hold out the storm failed in parts of the city and the pump system that pumped water out stalled as well - a huge problem since this beloved city lies below sea level. About 2000 people would lose their lives and others would lose their homes, their pets, other property, and many are still missing probably presumed dead. Most of my family from New Orleans left for this and went to nearby cities, or over to Houston where I lived. One of these being my grandmother.
Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and the destruction mentioned happened. Without much time to recover, and no one being allowed back in New Orleans, a new Hurricane built up and started coming towards Houston. Houston at this time was housing many of the refugees from Hurricane Katrina. It would turn out that Hurricane Rita would not hit Houston directly, but that was not known at the time. For the record, while Rita did very little damage to Houston, it did cause damage along the Texas/Louisiana border.
Now, that is background... here is my family hours before Hurricane Rita is supposed to hit Houston or near it.... We had our swimsuits on - all of us, including my grandmother! - were out in the pool swimming and playing with the dog. We had the bbq going and the radio playing. (Who's thinking this isn't so smart? - We agree! We actually made that comment. However, it had not even started raining yet.)
I am very grateful that my family lives where it does in Houston. We are on the Northwest side of the city and because of that, have much less to fear from these Hurricanes. It does not mean we are impenetrable from them, just less likely to have the floods and have the damage to the same extent. When 1 million people were asked to leave Houston, I knew that my family would be part of the 3 million asked to stay. Knowing this though does not quite quell the worry until the storm has passed. I am also grateful that Hurricane Ike was not as bad as had been predicted.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Ouch!
Today on the way home from work, I stopped at the Shell station to get gas so I could actually make it home today. That's when it happened. I was brutally attacked by the fuel door whilst trying to pump petrol in my car. I thought everything was under control when suddenly, a gust of wind kicked the fuel door over right as my hand was going down. I now carry a sad little bruise and only now has my finger stopped hurting. My thumb is sad. I can only hope that the inevitable kiss from my husband will make it all better. (We all know that works, right? Just like when Mom or Dad kissed bruises and other ouchies better?) I just had to share my pain with the world - learn from my mistake and be careful when fueling.
*This message has been brought to you by the makers of Desirea's Thoughts Inc. All feelings, rights, and privileges are the responsibility of one said Desirea and potentially none other. If there are any complaints to register against said thoughts, please keep them to yourself. Have a nice day.
*This message has been brought to you by the makers of Desirea's Thoughts Inc. All feelings, rights, and privileges are the responsibility of one said Desirea and potentially none other. If there are any complaints to register against said thoughts, please keep them to yourself. Have a nice day.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Being Naughty at Work
It is a wet and rainy day outside. I am currently sitting supposedly 'working' but really mostly not. I am either inputting data that the 'boss' finally came up with to keep me busy or waiting on my so called 'boss' to answer a question or find me something new to do. I am really quite bored and I have always always hated busy work.
You see, I am temping at a company who was supposed to have a project that they needed assistance on for a few weeks at least. The suddenly after a day of working, they may have to put a hold on the project. However, they still have me for the remainder of the week... Which means busy work. The guy who is supposed to be directing me, keeps giving me new stuff that takes only about an hour to do. I try to drag it out, I check emails in between, I wish I could read...
So now I am being naughty and blogging whilst at work. Though I really don't have much to say at the moment. It is just a nice sense of release to post and be blogging when I really shouldn't be at all! Ah, the freedom.
I think I'll go have lunch now. :)
You see, I am temping at a company who was supposed to have a project that they needed assistance on for a few weeks at least. The suddenly after a day of working, they may have to put a hold on the project. However, they still have me for the remainder of the week... Which means busy work. The guy who is supposed to be directing me, keeps giving me new stuff that takes only about an hour to do. I try to drag it out, I check emails in between, I wish I could read...
So now I am being naughty and blogging whilst at work. Though I really don't have much to say at the moment. It is just a nice sense of release to post and be blogging when I really shouldn't be at all! Ah, the freedom.
I think I'll go have lunch now. :)
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Inspiring Sunsets
I just wanted to post some photos... The sunset was just beautiful the other day.
You can just see the tip of the mountain in this one above. The sunset lights it up just barely.
You can just see the tip of the mountain in this one above. The sunset lights it up just barely.
Reminiscing in Wellington
A couple weekends ago, Jon and I went down to our beloved city of Wellington. Wellington is where it all happened for us, and in many ways we are sad that we are still not living there. (We are happy where we are at though.) We actually went down to Welly for Jason (one of Jon's brothers) to be set apart for his mission. He will be serving in Brisbane, Australia for 2 years for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This setting apart was to take place on Sunday, so we decided to take the whole weekend and meet up with friends and roam around all the places we missed.
The whole weekend was a lot of fun, but it went by way too quickly! Friday night the ward we had left was having a stake ball. We arrived late, but before the very end. This particular ball we did not have the time to get ready for, so Jon was in his suit, and I was in one of my church dresses. We did some dancing, and catching up. Some of the people in Welly thought we had already left the country, another didn't realize we had been married yet! It was funny.
It reminded us of one of our first dates. We had gotten all dressed up (myself in a stunning red formal floor length "kiss me" dress) and Jon in his suit. We danced all night long, except when I let him off to dance with someone else. (I did have to be fair, there weren't many guys.) I did get the first, last, and many in between dances. Jon also prepared a lovely meal for me beforehand, which we had by candle light, to sweet background music. I loved that night.
Saturday, we roamed around town and meet up with more good friends we had not seen. Lunch was at Satay Kingdom - one of our favourite cheaper places to eat - with some of my past co-workers that still keep in touch. The lunch time dessert call was at the waterfront with ice cream from Kaffee Eis with my lovely fun dear friend and ex-flatmate. Dinner found us with another couple that had gotten married not too long before us. Dinner was at Nandos... yum...
For our roaming around on Saturday, we basically drove into town and parked at the Institute building and walked everywhere. Again memories.... That is where Jon and I first kissed and where we spent many hours practicing dance moves for the ball and a dance lesson I would be giving for Enrichment.
Even the church building on Sunday brought back memories. Jon and I first met there the first weekend that I went to church while being in New Zealand. It is where we spent many hours talking and some days we walked to town from church together.
On the way into town, we waved as we passed my old flat, where Jon proposed and where we spent many hours.... Off the Terrace, again we waved as we passed the building Jon used to live in. This was where we spent many hours as well and where we picked up the tradition of kissing in the elevator (don't worry - we only snog in the elevator if no one else is there...).
Funny story actually... We were going down from the 13th floor in this building and let me tell you, this elevator took forever to get anywhere... So we were leaning ON OPPOSITE sides of the elevator talking the whole way down. At the bottom, the door opened, and this elderly lady was waiting to get o the elevator. She looked at us and then said "The elevator is not the place for snogging." I was actually quite shocked as we had been on OPPOSITE sides of the elevator even when the door opened! Well I was having none of that, if we were going to get accused of snogging on the elevator, you can be assured the next time, we would be snogging! So here is my profound thank you to this elderly woman, who has started a nice little tradition. Our kids will hate you for it.
Another funny kissing story that involves another game... You know the whole "slug bug" game that we play? Well Jon's family always played this game with Mini's because there are a lot more Mini's here in NZ than Bug's. Anyway, Jon and I have adapted the game so that any time we see a Bug or a Mini we kiss. No hitting, because that is violent and not nice... and kissing is just fun. Well one day we were on the bus heading to the chapel, and were talking to another couple (older) who were in the church. We saw a Mini and kissed. This sister looked at us and then her husband and said "Should we be doing that too?" and then proceeded to kiss her husband. We then explained why, but it was amusing that she just jumped to kissing her husband because we had kissed for what appeared no reason at all.
Back to the other weekend though, Jason's setting apart was cool. I have never actually been around when a missionary is set apart. Apparently none are really alike, but it was nice to be included. Jason is now in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and will be heading over to Aussie in a few weeks, I believe.
Random-ish offset to this blog... when I was little, I always heard that missionaries went to the MTC before they went off on their mission. But everyone says this and it always sounded like "Empty Sea" to me. For years growing up, I wondered why they sent these missionaries to some sea in the middle of nowhere before they went to proselyte and serve. I even vaguely wondered where it was from time to time. It just didn't make any sense. I don't think it even really dawned on me until I got to Utah! LOL. What can I say? I am blonde.
The whole weekend was a lot of fun, but it went by way too quickly! Friday night the ward we had left was having a stake ball. We arrived late, but before the very end. This particular ball we did not have the time to get ready for, so Jon was in his suit, and I was in one of my church dresses. We did some dancing, and catching up. Some of the people in Welly thought we had already left the country, another didn't realize we had been married yet! It was funny.
It reminded us of one of our first dates. We had gotten all dressed up (myself in a stunning red formal floor length "kiss me" dress) and Jon in his suit. We danced all night long, except when I let him off to dance with someone else. (I did have to be fair, there weren't many guys.) I did get the first, last, and many in between dances. Jon also prepared a lovely meal for me beforehand, which we had by candle light, to sweet background music. I loved that night.
Jon and I from the first dance. 13 July 2007.
Saturday, we roamed around town and meet up with more good friends we had not seen. Lunch was at Satay Kingdom - one of our favourite cheaper places to eat - with some of my past co-workers that still keep in touch. The lunch time dessert call was at the waterfront with ice cream from Kaffee Eis with my lovely fun dear friend and ex-flatmate. Dinner found us with another couple that had gotten married not too long before us. Dinner was at Nandos... yum...
For our roaming around on Saturday, we basically drove into town and parked at the Institute building and walked everywhere. Again memories.... That is where Jon and I first kissed and where we spent many hours practicing dance moves for the ball and a dance lesson I would be giving for Enrichment.
The Institute Building.
Even the church building on Sunday brought back memories. Jon and I first met there the first weekend that I went to church while being in New Zealand. It is where we spent many hours talking and some days we walked to town from church together.
On the way into town, we waved as we passed my old flat, where Jon proposed and where we spent many hours.... Off the Terrace, again we waved as we passed the building Jon used to live in. This was where we spent many hours as well and where we picked up the tradition of kissing in the elevator (don't worry - we only snog in the elevator if no one else is there...).
Funny story actually... We were going down from the 13th floor in this building and let me tell you, this elevator took forever to get anywhere... So we were leaning ON OPPOSITE sides of the elevator talking the whole way down. At the bottom, the door opened, and this elderly lady was waiting to get o the elevator. She looked at us and then said "The elevator is not the place for snogging." I was actually quite shocked as we had been on OPPOSITE sides of the elevator even when the door opened! Well I was having none of that, if we were going to get accused of snogging on the elevator, you can be assured the next time, we would be snogging! So here is my profound thank you to this elderly woman, who has started a nice little tradition. Our kids will hate you for it.
Another funny kissing story that involves another game... You know the whole "slug bug" game that we play? Well Jon's family always played this game with Mini's because there are a lot more Mini's here in NZ than Bug's. Anyway, Jon and I have adapted the game so that any time we see a Bug or a Mini we kiss. No hitting, because that is violent and not nice... and kissing is just fun. Well one day we were on the bus heading to the chapel, and were talking to another couple (older) who were in the church. We saw a Mini and kissed. This sister looked at us and then her husband and said "Should we be doing that too?" and then proceeded to kiss her husband. We then explained why, but it was amusing that she just jumped to kissing her husband because we had kissed for what appeared no reason at all.
Back to the other weekend though, Jason's setting apart was cool. I have never actually been around when a missionary is set apart. Apparently none are really alike, but it was nice to be included. Jason is now in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and will be heading over to Aussie in a few weeks, I believe.
Random-ish offset to this blog... when I was little, I always heard that missionaries went to the MTC before they went off on their mission. But everyone says this and it always sounded like "Empty Sea" to me. For years growing up, I wondered why they sent these missionaries to some sea in the middle of nowhere before they went to proselyte and serve. I even vaguely wondered where it was from time to time. It just didn't make any sense. I don't think it even really dawned on me until I got to Utah! LOL. What can I say? I am blonde.
The 54 Bus to Churton Park. This is the bus that took me home to Churton Park and away from Jon while we were dating. Each night we spent in town, Jon would walk me to the bus stop and see me get on the bus before heading home himself. What a gentleman.
The Coffee Stop. My favourite hot chocolate in the city. The don't know my name there, but they know my order as soon as I walk up. Even after months of not being there.
Mostly this drive way sign amuses me....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
