Dan doesn't feel like blogging tonight

So I will......again. The kids are tucked in bed and we are sitting at the dining room table with two laptops on the go. Dano is enjoying searching up Cogeco services for when we go back. He has thoroughly gone through a list of channels we will get, the speed at which our internet will flow from our finger tips and that I can make long distant calls to all of North America at no extra charge. He loves that crap.

Two weeks ago we created a list of items we had to sell before we leave NZ. Happily we were able to list our stuff on one page. Within two weeks of our list being posted at my high school, Abby's school and here at the camp we have sold most of our things. Our lounge set it gone, we are using the ones that were here when we arrived. Our receiver for our Freeview is gone, so our TV gets no channels. The TV, stand a DVD player will be delivered to it's new owner very soon. Besides Sam's bike and a few small items we have rid ourselves of things that will not be making the trip home. It feels good once again to be down to having very, very little.

Our Kiwi friends have been calling and setting up dinners with them before we leave. Jude and Peter George are friends of ours that we met through our kids at Pukerau School. They had us up to their house for tea. They have 3 kids, Katelyn, Rueben and Olivia. Our kids get on very well with them and our meal and visit was easy, delicious, full of conversation, noisy at parts and felt like we were saying "see you later" rather than "good bye". Our church held a farewell service for us and another family going to Sudan. It was lovely, a light finger tea followed. Stacey and Robert Young had us and the George family up for tea as well, the Georges were leaving for a vacation to California the next day. I am sure we will see Robert and Stacey at our doorstep in Canada one day, we hope! It would be wonderful for Sam and Abs to see their friends James, Libby and Sam Y again. In fact, I am betting that they will be our first kiwi friends to make the journey!

This has been a particularly trying week at school for me. Most of the Senior Management Team and all of the Deans were away Monday - Wednesday at training, which I did not go on as I am leaving. Myself and two SMT were busily hopping around the school. It has been interesting but exhausting at the same time. You would think that the moon had been full for 4 days in a row!

There have been two young families and an older couple staying here at the camp. They are part of a MMM New Zealand, a Christian organization the does property work at churches, camps and schools. The husbands have been lining the dining hall. The families live in giant trailer buses. I will try to get photos of these, they are like nothing we would see in North America. The bonus is that our kids have had the pleasure of having 7 kids living almost right beside us. Ernie and Michelle Pene have 4 kids, Daniel 13, Alix 10, Grace 4 and Mouse or Michael 2. Sammer and Daniel have become good mates. The kids are home schooled by their mom and for the past week Daniel has met Sammer when he gets off the bus at the end of the day. Alix and Abby get along great. Alix came to Alexandra with us last Saturday for Dano's last hockey tournament. She even got to witness Abby puking 2 times on the way, car sickness is bad in NZ with the twisting winding roads( and Dano's driving.) Alan and Rosina Mitchell have 3 daughters, Virginia 14, Erin 12, and Josie 10. For the last 3 weeks Abby, Alix and Josie have been like three peas in a pod. They bought rings together and had a little ceremony where they all put them on, signifying their friendship where ever they are in the world. It was cute! Grace 4 and Mouse 2 are so cute. At any given moment their adorable little faces might appear in our glass door. Many days I come home to them sitting on the couch beside Sammer and Daniel who are playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Both Grace and Mouse have little salad plates in their hands driving the Mario kart. And Sammer and big brother, Daniel encouraging them on as they drive with a plate. Very cute.

Tomorrow is Friday and I am thankful for that. Sam is planning to have a friend, Andrew come over after school. Abby will need an early bed, she has had a busy week. Her class does water safety and swimming lessons three times a week, she is still dancing and getting ready for an exam that she will not be here for. She practices hockey with Sammy and Dano too. She is usually zonked by the time Friday rolls around.

We have less than 2 weeks left of our Kiwi Adventure, it feels a little surreal. We plan on getting our blog made into book form. We hope that this will make a meaningful Christmas gift for the kids and we will get one for us to have. The deal is that every blog I have written Dano will read aloud to me as we snuggle into our bed, and likewise for me. He will doing most of the reading!

Until next time,
Samantha

EARTHQUAKE!

We had an earthquake tonight! At about 9:30pm Thursday July 15th the earth shook. Dano was sitting at the dining room table, the kids and I in the living room watching Karate Kid III with our new friend Daniel Pene. Both Dano and I thought we were having dizzy spells at first. It was amazing! The feeling of the whole house gently swaying was unreal! The hanging lights were swinging. Our friend Daniel has lived in New Zealand his whole life of 13 years and this was his first quake too!

The quake had a Richter magnitude of 6.6. To give an idea of where we are in relation to the quake, Gore is 60km north-east of Lumsden.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/5729011/geologists-to-keep-watch-after-big-quake/

Buying Tickets Home

It is almost 8am Wednesday July 15. Dano and I are sitting at the dining room table, eating breakfast with laptops at our finger tips. We are purchasing our tickets home online. The kids are asleep as it is winter holidays and there is a feeling of peace and relief that our decision to return home is but clicks away. We will be flying from Dunedin August 12 at 9:45am and fly to Auckland. We will have an eight and a half hour lay over in Auckland, which is good with us since we did not get to Auckland we plan on check our baggage and then getting a cab to see the sights. Then we board in Auckland for the big flight to Vancouver. It is the red eye flight and Air New Zealand does it beautifully. They have excellent food, excellent staff and we look forward to all flights but especially the long one. Once in Vancouver we only have and hour and a half to clear customs and get to our next flight taking us back to Toronto. We will end up flying into Toronto at 11:28pm August 12, after 30 hours of travel. We will stay in a hotel once we land in TO then my Dad and Dan's brother Mark will come to pick us up the next morning and bring us home.

We had dinner down at the dining hall last night. There are 3 families living at Camp Columba in buses and trailers. They work for MMM, Mobile Mission and Maintenance. The husbands are builders and they are lining the inside of the dining hall. The board of the camp was here too for a meeting and to discuss Dano's replacement. While sitting at the table the Chair of the Board leaned over to Dano and I said, "what would it take to make you stay?" We joked about him twisting my arm and that would be all it takes. This is such a weird feeling. I know that we want and need to come home. We need/want our kids to know Canada, their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. We want to be close to our fantastic friends. BUT, we will miss New Zealand. I have said before that our move back will be bittersweet and that emotion is becoming very real. There are so many things that NZ has given us. We have met many wonderful people here and will always have friends from across the world! NZ has given Dan and I the change we needed in our jobs and brought us closer in our relationship. It has provided Sammer with the much needed freedom and sense of belonging to grow into a happy, easier going boy. And Abby has continued on her path of strong personality and leadership. But the biggest thing that NZ has done for us, is made us a tight family unit again. We have not had the demands of all of the things that pulled and tugged at us back home. We have consciously chosen our life here. It has just been us and we have seen things and done things with just us. I feel closer to my children and to Dano than I ever have. People ask us what we will miss about NZ, my answer is always "the scenery", because that is the easy obvious answer. It is stunningly beautiful here. The real answer is that I will miss the pace of life here, less demands, less running around, simple, non materialistic way of life where the four of us enjoy being together. We talk more here, we rely on each other, we look forward to coming back together after being away at school/work, we enjoy each other's personalities...so that is what I will truly miss! It is hard for people to understand this and I hope and pray that this sense of family closeness will stay with us even when we return. So, yes it is tempting when the Camp Columba chair of the board, and my principal at school asks what they can do to make us stay...very tempting!

Now for the SWEET! We are looking forward to so many things back home. The kids are ready, Sam would have come home with my parents had we let him. Abby needed the rest of our time here to digest this whole move. This sounds strange but we have become closer to many people back home since we have been here, some people that I never thought. Through facebook, our blog and emails it has been special to "refriend" some people. I feel very good about coming to Chatham to be near friends and family that have kept in touch with over our adventure. I am also sooo looking forward to teaching Kindergarten, working for Ken Gregory and with Cheryl. I am not sure I would have got a move out of Grand Bend if we did not take this detour in our life. Dano, too is looking forward to what lies ahead. And the kids...although they have a wonderful time with the NZ school system we are all excited for them to become part of McNaughton school. They are already making sleep overs with their cousins, and talking about kids that might live in our neighbourhood (which they have never had before). Since I left for university twenty years ago (HOLY CRAP) I have not lived in Chatham, it feels right now. Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Until next time,
Samantha

Mom and Dad leave NZ, 33 days left for us

Mom and Dad left this week after a wonderful 3 week visit. It was cold while they were here but we had a great time anyway. A few of the highlights for me were Dad and Sammy skating together at the Gore Arena while Dano and I did our concession booth volunteer time. It was so nice to see the Sams skating around, playing together on the ice. Another favourite thing was realizing that every time Mom or Dad was sitting still on a couch or chair one or both kids were directly beside them, leaning on them or sitting on them. I guess they were making up for lost time. Also Mom and Dad played Pepper with Dano and I most nights. At first the men would beat Mom and I every time. Mom would get frustrated and call Dad and Dan names. Dad would find places to hang the score sheets around the house which ticked Mom off. It was funny. By the end of the trip Mom and I won two nights in a row. A beautiful way to end the trip.

Unfortunately at the end of their first week here Abby came home with the flu and was in bed with fever, coughing, vomit and all the delightful ailments that come with the flu. I then came down with it too. Mom and Dad tried not to get it, Dad spent most of the time that week with his sweat shirt pulled up over his face so he had a filter to breath through. We joked about getting surgical masks which maybe we should have done as both Mom and Dad had a day of chills, aches. Mom is a walking pharmacy so she immediately started popping her pills while Dad stuck to his Fisherman's Friends. Being sick did not stop us from seeing places and walking around New Zealand.

We rented a 12 seater van from our church and took Mom and Dad to the airport in Dunedin. We needed the space so that they could take back 3 extra pieces of luggage for us. Now that they are gone it feels like the end for us. The day after they left the kids brought out our luggage and began sorting through their clothes. Sambo and Reena joked that they were taking the kids home with them and that Dano and I would follow in 35 days. Sammy was ready to go with them. He is ready. His room is packed up, his toys sorted and everything of his fits into two pieces of luggage. Abby is a different story, she needs to say official goodbyes to her friends and teachers. Her room is completely pulled apart and she is having a harder time sorting through her stuff. She takes her time with these things. We have not even talked about her stuffed animals yet, but I fear that she would rather part with clothes instead of her animals. As for me, I am very happy to return home with two suitcases of my stuff. I have clothes that made the trip that will not return with me. Things like bedding and shoes and bags are my things that take top priority. I cannot live without my brown micro fleece blanket that keeps me warm each night.

This afternoon I talked to our new land lady. She is an English lady that came to Canada with 9 suitcases and 3 kids. She has been so kind to us and keeps saying that she knows what it is like to start over with nothing. She has arranged for there to be 2 single beds for our kids, there are plates, glasses, cutlery, couches, a sectional in the basement and a pullout couch. We have been so fortunate that people have been offering to give us things that they do not need anymore. It is so wonderful to know that we are coming home to a house that will have the necessities. Thanks to everyone that has helped us out!