Baby on Board....

Around August, Jon and I found out officially that there will be a little addition to our family.  In February, Jon and I will be expecting a little boy.  We have decided to name him Tristan Gabriel.

April - Moving House

In April, Jon and I finally made it out of the parents house (no offense mom!) and moved into our own apartment.  We moved into a great complex that has lots of nice amenities and even better in the building over are some of our best friends from church!  It is nice to have neighbors that we know and a place of our own.  Will post photos up later.  I didn't realize we had none of the apartment and it is still in a slight distressed state from Halloween decor.

Halloween Excitment Starting Early

I am soooo excited for Halloween. I love the holiday. The Halloween magazines are starting to come out. Stores are starting to hold Halloween merchandise...

Jon and I have even made our first scope out of the new Halloween stuff and have made a few additions to my previous acquisitions.

This will be the first year for a real Halloween party for Jon. New Zealand is not so hot on the holiday or just don't actually have it to be more precise. I think they are missing out. So once again, we will be having a Halloween party.

Invitations have started to be made already. Plans are in formation. Time off requests made (though I don't know if my boss actually realizes that I am very serious about having Halloween off!) Games, food, costumes... I love holidays!

June 26th - The day the girl got older...

Once again that time of the year has arrived where I gain that magically extra number to the end of my age. +1. Really, it doesn't bother me so much. Or at least it doesn't at the moment. Maybe when I hit 30 or 35 or 40. I suppose part of that has to do with the fact that I don't actually feel any older. Though I have noticed a few things that have changed. For example, I like going to bed a little earlier. It is harder to go out dancing until 1 or 2 am and then go from there to Denny's or IHOP before heading home. Sometimes I just want to stay home and do nothing. I get up earlier, instead of at 11 or noon. And then there is work... I work all the time. So I suppose I am actually growing up! Perhaps some would even call me an adult now. Yikes! Oh, and the bills, I hate bills. Can't we just not have bills to pay?? That would be the best birthday gift ever! Oh well....

Realism sets in now. My birthday was a pleasant one. We had some friends over, had a pool party and then plays games afterwards. It is wonderful to be in the ward we are in. It was nice to get the house and back yard cleaned up, BBQ, hang out by the pool, and just really enjoy being with friends and family.

Last year was pretty good, we will see how this year goes.

San Antonio

I got off for Friday and Saturday! Yay! Jon and I decided to head to San Antonio for the night. Friday night we drive towards San Antonio. We hit an odd bit of traffic outside of Houston on the way to San Antonio, but didn't see any wrecks or anything that we could tell may have slowed traffic so much. It put us about a half an hour to an hour behind on our schedule, but we got there about 9, so it was fine.

We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn by the airport. It was a nice hotel, but we found out later that night that the bed just sucked! It was really hard, but only one side had been slept in a lot, so it was lower than the other part of the bed. But because the bed was still so hard, you couldn't be in the middle without feeling like there was a hard board sticking up or something. We didn't sleep very well.

Before we headed off to sleep though, we went out to Cowboys Dancehall, my favorite country dance hall thus far. It happened to be a night where they had professional bull riding competition, so we watched that for a bit. It was fun, except when they fell right off of the bull, and it takes a while for them to reset for the next rider. Jon enjoyed it though, so I loved it. We also did a little dancing. Not as much as I had planned, but by the time the bull riding was over, we were both pretty tired.

The next day we headed off to downtown San Antonio to see the Alamo. We walked from about Market Square over to the Alamo. Had ourselves a little Haagen Dass Ice Cream Shakes or what not to cool down, and toured the Alamo grounds. The line to get into the actual building we think of as the Alamo was really long - probably due to Memorial Day weekend.

It was starting to get grey out, so we went off to find a place to eat and shelter while it rained. However, it didn't start raining until we were half way through our meal. We probably should have just gone straight back to the car, but it was really kind of fun that we didn't. I do like the rain. We ate at one of the restaurants on the Riverwalk. It started pouring rain midway through the meal, and we were glad we were inside. When we were done though, we had to wander back out into the rain - no umbrellas or raincoats. We ran from awning to awning until we got back to the visitor's shop in front of the Alamo. I remembered seeing rain parkas there.

We got a couple, but the rain had started dying down and we noticed the Alamo was practically empty at that point. So we went inside and looked at a few of the things we missed before because of the lines. We had been planning on going to six flags, but with the storm, they would have shut the place down.

Afterwards, Jon and I headed home and spent the remaining portions of the evening with my mother, grandmother and aunt. Aunt Kelsie flew down with Mamaw to bring her here. It was a good evening, they were all glad to see us and visit.

Hair Cut

I like it better in person than in the photos. Then again, I just hate photos of myself.

Mother's Day

Ok, so I'm not a mother, but I so appreciate all you mother's out there. In saying that, you must know I have the greatest husband ever. Just because I am not a mother, that didn't stop him from making the day special for me.

I have been working nights and worked both Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. Saturday night, Jon came out and had dinner with me at work. At about 1 a.m. Sunday morning, when I got home, Jon surprised me with Mother's Day. He had cleaned up all of our part of the house for me and had gotten me beautiful red roses.

He's the best!

Flooding

April 28th, Jon and I were woken up at 3 am by the rain. It was storming outside... lightning, thundering, heavy rain. We wound up dozing every now and then until 5 am, but for the most part we wound up just cuddling and listening to the storm. Jon went ahead into work while I watched the news seeing if anywhere was flooded, especially with the little bmw I am driving right now! Turns out that a storm system had practically stalled over Houston over night and dumped up to 11 inches of rain over a few hours. Jon called me from the car and said I wouldn't be able to get out from Philippine because of the water. He had been fine though in the Expedition.

A little while later, when Mom had gotten up, I jumped into her car and went to check out the two exits from our part of the neighborhood and found that we were flooded in. I didn't push the car too deeply into it, but I knew my car would never make it. The news was saying that if you could stay home until the middle of the day, to do so. It would hopefully give the system time to drain properly. The bayou in our neighborhood breached the banks, which caused most of the flooding down the streets...

Jon was sent home and called me from the middle of the neighborhood. He had driven through some of the water and was afraid to go further in it. He had pulled into someone's drive way and talked to them to see if he could leave the car there. He also helped her move her cars up further in the driveway and then he walked home. I went out part way to meet him at the bayou. It had certainly been over its banks earlier and was starting to go down at that moment. By the time Jon got to me, he was soaked up to the top of his thighs.

When walked to get the car later, we realized that if you had walked in the middle of some of the streets that the water would have been up to your waist easily. We just skirted through peoples yards where we had to walk to get in less water. Jon and I rested in the middle of the day and by 9 or 10 apparently the water had gone down enough that Senate and Lakeview/Philippine were no longer flooded. At about 3 pm, Jon and I decided that since the water had receded and neither of us were at work, that we would take a ride to the Woodlands to Fat Ogre Comics and maybe get the next two booster decks for Killer Bunnies.

Well... That was not so hot of an idea we found out. The ride was simple enough until we hit 45 north just before the Woodlands. I-45 had flooded over and was not draining. There was only one lane open to go through the flooded section. It wound up taking us a lot longer to get through to the games store and then to get home. We actually went a back way home to avoid the water on 45 south. We were glad that the store was open after all of that though, and wound up buying 5 of the booster packs and two sets of the blank cards so we could make our own. We now only need two more decks to complete the game. We may also get the Kinder Bunnies to add to it as well.

2001 Ford Expedition

We have a car! Finally, transportation that is not borrowed! Houston is so not the city to be carless in. Everything is at least a half an hour away. I was very spoiled living in New Zealand where I could walk to town from my house or where a nice (and safe... yes, safe) bus ride would take me to town where I could then walk everywhere. Houston has its charms, but it is certainly a spread out city.

Last Friday, Jon and I visited Joe Myer's Ford and found a spectacular deal on a 2001 Ford Expedition. We were certainly not looking for something so big, but we needed a car and once we saw it, we really liked it. The previous owner took really good care of the car. Our mechanic passed the car off and said that it was great, minus a few things that needed to be fixed. So we went back to the dealership and before we signed the deal, they committed to fixing all the problems on the car.

We have not taken pictures yet, but will do so shortly and post them. It is a very pretty blue on the outside and tan on the inside. (Amazing that the interior doesn't even have any stains or anything!)

Ok, rejoice!

Houston BBQ/Reception/Welcome Back Party

Yes, a party of many names! We couldn't really decide on if it would be called a Reception or not. It is almost past the point of calling any wedding celebration receptions since the wedding was almost a year ago. But to be fair, we didn't get back to the states to have a reception until now. So we combined the Reception and BBQ and added the Welcome Back part as well. In saying we, I need to point out that Mom was the one who all the credit goes to. We helped out some, but Mom organized most of it, and saw to all the food and most everything else. I am so greatful for everything she does for us!

The theme... Texas BBQ. Barry cooked brisket, which anyone who has had his brisket knows, is amazing! There was all the usual BBQ happenings, potato salad, baked beans, pasta salad, rolls, etc. Mom made a beautiful cake and put flowers on it.

The most amazing bit was all the people who showed up. We had new friends from the ward that we are just getting to know. Old friends from the ward from when I was young. People from my mother's work. People I grew up with... friends from college, high school, YSA, and work.

It was so amazing to be able to share with my friends and family, memories of my wedding. I look forward to being able to do that even more 'formally' (if you will) in March when we have our One Year Anniversary Party/New Orleans Reception.

Thank you everyone who was able to make it to the party to support us, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers for those who could not make it!

Jon and I cutting our cake.

Jon, Me, My grandfather, Ryan (my brother), and Mom

2008

January: Jon and I celebrated New Years and looked forward to the year that we would get married in.

February: Jon and I flew to New Orleans so that my father and the family could meet Jon properly before the wedding. We celebrated Mardi Gras while there and had excellent food. It was also my first Valentine's day being attached to someone.

March: We got married! Yay!

April: Jon and I moved to New Plymouth to be closer to Jon's family as we worked on getting my work visa renewed. Jon took a new job with Foreman's Insulation and I worked on getting everything set for my work visa.

May: I sent everything in and started waiting as patiently as I could about my work visa. Jon and I got our own apartment/flat not too far from Jon's parents or the city.

June: My birthday. Jon and I celebrated in true Gilmore Girl style a week long birthday extravaganza which ended with a lovely dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town.

July: Jon's birthday. Again we celebrated in style. Another week long event ending on Jon's actual birthday with his birthday party - Mario Party style. The party was themed and fun. Following Jon's party we then went off to Ben's birthday party (Jon's twin) who had an airline themed party since he is working to be a pilot.

August: I started working at a temp agency who sent me to work mostly for Greymouth Petroleum answering phones and filling out reports. Jon and I began filling out and getting together everything for his greencard to come to the states.

September: We took a trip to Wellington somewhere around here to get his medicals done for the applications and stayed with friends.

October: Becca came to visit. Jon and I took time off our jobs, moved back in with his parents and we showed Becca around the North Island of New Zealand. We also had our interview with the US Consulate about Jon's greencard, which went really smoothly.

November: Jon and I got the last few things need for his greencard and mailed them to the Consulate. We also had a late Halloween in November with Jon's family and carved their very first pumpkin. A few weeks later we also had an early Christmas in New Zealand as we would be leaving soon.

December: Jon and I moved to the states. We spent December sorting out a spot for ourselves in the house, getting ready for Christmas and the New Year. We both got callings at church and celebrated the holidays first in Houston with my mother and then in New Orleans with my father.

This year has been wonderful. We were sad to leave New Zealand and miss it, but we are happy to be where we are as well. We are thankful for our family and our friends and look forward to a new year ahead of us.

Young Married Couples!

What a difference this ward is compared to our branch in New Zealand. Our ward here is not overly large, but is large compared to the branch. But there exist young married couples here! People our age that we can get to know and hang out with (hopefully).

I was so excited when Jon and I were invited over to another couples home last Sunday after church for games with other couples. It was a lot of fun and we got to know some of the other couples around our age much better. Not that we are best buddies or anything, but my fear of being in primary and not getting to know anyone is fading somewhat. Granted I will have to get to know people before or after church or outside of it all together, but that's ok.

I have to say though, it is so nice that my friends from before I left are still willing to hang out and get together, especially the ones that are single. I would hate not being able to see them because there were three of us instead of just me and my friend. I have seen that happen a lot when a couple gets married, they drop off the face of the earth or their single friends hate hanging out with them or don't want to interfere or something. So thank you my friends. I love you!

Christmas in the states

This year Jon and I have been able to experience Christmas 3 times over. Few people have that joy. It is not just the gifts (which are fun) but being able to be with family and friends and to extend that joy and love over a period of time. I have been meaning to blog lately, but I kept wanting to wait until I could post some photos too. Today I decided it was just time to blog with or without them.

Our first Christmas in the states was in Houston with Mom, Ryan, Ryan's friend who was homeless for the holiday, and Barry. We got up looked through stockings that Santa left us (apparently we were all good this year as everyone had something). A little later that morning, we opened gifts from each other. Jon and I felt very spoiled with the gifts we were given. We had a nice Christmas dinner and read in the Bible about Christ's birth. It was lovely.

Our following Christmas in New Orleans was not so nicely set up and sort of spontaneous. Basically at some point we were given our gifts and so we gave them ours for them. Again we were spoiled. I think my family is happy that we are back in the states.

Aside from family Christmas cheer, we had a Ward Christmas Party. There were three different kinds of turkey, all kinds of sides and plenty of desserts. Mostly it was just a Christmas dinner, but it was nice to get to know some people in the ward. They also were taking family Christmas photos, so Jon and I now have our first official Christmas family photo. (Which I wanted to attach, but is not currently scanned into the computer yet).

All in all we had a merry Christmas and hope that you did as well.

Christmas in November

Our Christmas season has begun a little early here in New Plymouth. Due to Jon and I leaving shortly, we decided along with the family to have a small Christmas before we left. Now we just bought our plane tickets and will be headed to the USA on the 6th of December. (We land on the 6th as well in Houston, but it will be midnight.) So last night, the family gathered for a pre-Christmas celebration.

Christmas number one was great. Two small Christmas trees went up, Christmas table clothes went out, etc. We had a nice dinner, opened presents, and then had a lovely dessert. Opening presents was sort of funny because we had one small gift for everyone and then the rest were for us. I am a bit used to that since I usually have two Christmas's and one is always late or before (one at Mom's and one at Dad's), but I think that was a new experience for Jon.

We got some cute Kiwi/New Zealand stuff including a flag, some mugs, a tie for Jon, earrings for me. Funnily enough we also got three kiwi themed baby shirts... no we are not expecting any one new in the family yet. I think they were hinting at something there, but they are really cute.

Last we popped Christmas crackers. They are a lot of fun and I think will forever be included in my Christmas celebrations from now on.

The Prodigal Daughter Returns!

Hi all! It has been a month since I have last sent off an email. With traveling around, some family-in-law things going on, and a lack of speedy internet or at sometimes the lack of internet all together, I hardly had a moment to post.

The excitement is that soon I will be on my way back to the USA with my husband in tow. We have had our interview with the US Consulate and have been approved for our visa and greencard. We have one more thing to mail into them before it is actually given to us, but that will shortly be taken care of.

We will be heading in to the states in the first or second week of December, which makes me happy to be back for Christmas. (And only sort of said that I missed the last weeks of Ren Fest.) So those of you in Houston or that may be in Houston at anytime after that, lets get together!

More info to come as we get tickets and all, but it is finally here!

Our House

After living here months now, we finally took our obligatory photo of us outside. We figured that we certainly needed one before we left.

Some photos of inside our house... We don't get the best light for photos of the house... Don't get too excited either, we haven't furnished with much since we will be leaving for the states.

Our Room

The view of outside from our room.

Spare Room

Living Room

The view of outside from our living room (where our desk is)

Bathroom

Kitchen and Dining

Hallway - View from Kitchen to me standing in the doorway of our room

Some of the flowers and birds that frequent our backyard

Cluedo: The Secret Combination Edition

About a month ago, we hit secret combinations in our Book of Mormon Sunday School class. I was sparked with an idea that it would be more fun for the youth if they got to play a game. It then came to me, what better game than the game of Clue (for you Americans) or Cluedo (for you non-Americans). The game where you try to find out who committed the crime?

With Jon's help, we made a board with all the rooms being lands of the Book of Mormon - Bountiful, Manti, the Wilderness, the River Sidon, etc. We selected weapons that would have been used in those times, and Jon made small metal props of them to use for the game. We pulled Book of Mormon characters that were involved with secret combinations. The goal of the game was to find out who murdered the Chief Judge and where. His body was found on the judgement seat.

We did ofcourse talk about what secret combinations were and what really happened - that Kishkumen killed the Chief Judge on the Judgement seat and that he was a Gadiantan Robber. The youth really enjoyed the game. What do you think? Can I market this to Milton Bradley and get a game made up officially? We would ofcourse do up the board a little fancier. Put in drawn photos in each room or something....

Oh, and for you curious, the secret passage ways were secret robber tunnels that lead from the mountains or the wilderness to one of the cities.

Blah Blah Blah... Yackity Schmackity... Yadda Yadda Yadda...

Yes, basically this is going to just be a bit of a ramble. I am home today sick... yes, again! I have decided that working as a temp and filling in for people who are sick is possibly not a good idea. Both times, I have caught a little bug of something. Today I am trying to preempt it, as I am not terrible, it just hurts to talk. (I have been coughing a nasty cough that started yesterday.) What really sucks about this is that I could be at work today. I had a week or two of no work, so this has been good. All of my income goes towards our savings and only occasionally to a bill. However, I am supposed to fill in for a whole other week while a grandma takes off to visit her new grandchild, so I want to make sure I am well for that!

Ok, enough on sickness. When did it become October? I looked at the calendar and here it is! September has flown by. I am grateful for that, because this month leads to a bunch of excitement. However, there is so much to be done! We have our interview with the American Consulate coming up, my best friend Becca is coming for a visit - so we will be traveling and showing her around, before she comes we will move out of our place and in with Jon's family again, plus work! Before we move, we will need to sort through all our stuff to see what is coming with us to the states and what of that we might be able to send back with Becca beforehand. We need to sort out the things we borrowed and return those. And we need to sell off some of the things we needed to buy. It is slightly overwhelming, but it can and will all get done!

Our Duck Pollo

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...

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.

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