August 18th 2010

So to welcome me the city of Orewa named a bakery after me :)
I finally recieved my care packages! :) Thanks fam!

So this is Brooklyn who is obsessed with tigers :) She and Anika had a sleepover at Grandmas and they did my makeup and painted my nails :)

This is Anika and Brookie and I all decked out in our makeup :)

A Day With the Shaw Girls

This is a picture of Delta and Anika and I. They were playing with my hair for about an hour today and they put a lovely clip in my hair as you can see. I took this picture because Delta told me, "I love to cuddle your hair, I wish I could cut it off and cuddle it to bed." I thought it was like the funest thing to say, so I took a picture of them "cuddling" my hair.

Delta was playing with my camera :)

I taught the girls how to "plait" hair and this is Delta showing off her plait the one on my face is Anikas.

This is a picture that Delta drew of her and I. apparently I am the one on the left and shes on the right and I am walking her to school.

These are the little newborn lambs that live right next door. I am also putting up a picture of them running. It is the cutest thing.

Okay so today was monumental! I drove by myself! I drove a car on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car in another country on my own! Sweet Fancy Moses, I am extremely proud of myself (if you couldnt tell). So I had to pick Delta up from Kindy (Kindergarten) and I drove over, signed her out, picked up her artwork and we gum-booted out way to the car, and I drove us home, Deltas is so sweet she said, "Alice you are a good driver." Im sure she could tell it was a big deal for me. The kids are great and I love them, tomorrow Carly and I are going out to get fun things to do with them because I am going to be spending A LOT of time with them :)

love and miss you all!

Tim Tam Slam!

So tonight was my initiation into the Kiwi culture. I had my first Tim Tam Slam! So here they have these "chocolate biscuits" that are crunchy chocolate cookie with a creme center and they are dipped in chocolate. So people eat these all the time and think they are just delicious, but you dont know what you're missing until you have a Tim Tam Slam. So first you make a Milo, which is like hot chocolate but better and then you bite off the ends of your Tim Tam like you would a licorice stick if you were making a straw. But with the Tim Tams its solid all the way through so it seems odd, but you dip one end in the Milo and suck through the other and all the chocolate filling melts and the Milo makes the Crunchy cookie soft and then you plop the whole biscuit in your mouth! Its this amazing mass of warm chocolate in your mouth and then you wash it down with your Milo. It's really quite delicious :) Dont worry im totally stocking up on both before I come back and I'll share with you all :) So the first picture is me hesitantly trying to suck the Milo, it was very intense as you can tell because my eyes are closed in concentration :) and the second is me having taken a bite of the softened Tim Tam and Pamela is cheering me on to eat the rest. And the third is me trying to keep the Tim Tam in my mouth while laughing at everyone laughing at me. :) It was a glorious event :)

I was just given some pictures from Paul and so I thought i'd introduce you to the Polka Dots! On the left in the pink is Dionne, then the purple is Sara, Mr. Bop is Lincoln and the orange is Carly and the Green is Dez. I get to play with their fabulous children while they are out educating other children, talk about paying it forward :) Here is a link to their website: Polka Dots!

And this is my first day in New Zealand :) I was taken to breakfast at Dionnes and all of the girls were still in their pajamas and we were coloring, they seemed to like me right off because they kept taking turns jumping into my lap :) In this picture Delta is in my lap and Camryn has her back to the camera, in the red is Caydence and the blonde in the pink is Anika, or neaki as we call her, and the sweet brunette is Brooklyn, or Brookie.

Well we have started our month of concerts and we are already in the swing of things so I'll need all the rest I can get! Love and miss you all! Email me! :)

I am an official NZ YSA

So yesterday was probably the longest day of my life. I have been quite sick with a wicked cold. In fact I have lost two thursdays in a row. My first lost thursday was due to the international date line and I lost the second because I was asleep practically all day. I just got really sick and I guess my body decided to hibernate. It was odd. So when I woke up from my 24 hour coma I had to go over and watch all seven of the kids for about 9 hours straight, did I mention I was the only one watching them? So needless to say there was a lot of fun, hurt feelings, bumps, bruises and cuddles. My favorite is when one of the girls comes up to me and says "I just need a cuddle". It might be my new favorite phrase. They dont call hugs, hugs here they are cuddles (i'll add that to the list).
Let me just give you a small window into the personalities of these kids. Delta, the oldest is intent on being in charge and often trys tricking me by saying, "Oh mom lets us do that" or "Mom would let me eat that" Caydence is Deltas age and her main goal is to undermine Delta, but while still maintaining their BFF status. Then comes Anika who loves to lift her shirt up and often whispers and loves to play with my hair which is fine but she has the habit of doing it while she eats... on a side note im showering quite frequently. :) Next is Camryn who is not afraid of throwing punches to get what she wants, but she doesnt do it spitefully, its like her instant reaction. Then comes miss Brookie who is 2 years old but is actually as tall as the 9 month olds. She is a tiny little girl and she has snot perpetually running down her nose. And now for the babies... Ellie is a clapper, she just sits and claps forever, she throws a random "yay!" in every once in a while as well. And the only boy around is Mr. Ashton-Paul. which I just learned is not his first and middle name but his full first name. He is the little Maori and has the best facial expressions.
So after we had jumped on the trampoline, gone to ballet practice, watched Annie, and played play dough we took baths and went to sleep. Except for Caydence and Camryn who had to stay up and wait for their dad to come get them. So at 8pm the girls and I are cuddled up watching the little mermaid while waiting for their dad to come. But before he gets, Jordan(one of the family members) comes to pick me up for a YSA activity. Lets backtrack, all day the parents of these chillins have been home but rehearsing for their concerts so it wasnt leaving the girls alone. Okay fast forward, so im slightly exhausted and still sick and I am off to meet new people and try to have fun. So we get there and there were some people that id met before so that was nice and I was introduced to everyone and it was a ton of fun. We drank L&P which is NZ national soda or fizzzie drink as they're called here. It taste like lemon and gingerale, its pretty delicious. We also drank Ginger beer, which is their root beer equivilant... but its not very good, and we ate chocolate biscuits which are like sweet crackers dipped in chocolate, which are extremely popular here. We danced a lot which im going to have to get used to... im no dancer, and we played mafia and everyone taught me how to "properly" pronounce certain words and they taught me different phrases,which I fully intent to bring back to the states. They said that I talk more with a Maori accent than a Kiwi accent which thrilled me beyond belief. Besides the accents it was quite like being at a YSA party at home. At about 1 am I piled into a van full of polys that lived near me and im told will be my ride to everything. When I got home at 1:30 am I was smoked (thats like really tired in kiwi lingo) :) and I fell right asleep and woke to my alarm at 7am ready for another full day of kid watching while we made our temple trip but miracle of miracles, it was too rainiy to make the trip so we postponed it until next week! So after watching the kids for only a couple of hours this morning while the parents rehearsed we got to go home! I am now snuggled in my fabulous bed watching the rain pour. This is an epic post but it was an epic day :) love and miss you all!

My Shopping Trip

So Pamela took me for a trip to the supermarket, we went to Pak 'n Save where you bag your own items. It was glorious to see all the differences from America. They just recently got Oreos! ha! but they come in these little rows, its like a 1/3 of our size.
And they have frozen pizzas! Which have just come in the last few years as well.

So on our way back from Pak 'n Save we passed a McDonalds, which was funny because they dont have like any drive thru food places but, of course, they have a McDonalds. But what made me laugh was that the drive thru is backwords! Which once you think about it is not that funnybecause they drive on the other side of the road, but at first glance it really made me laugh.

I have quite a cold and im stuck in bed :( but i will be better by tomorrow, ive decided. I am really excited because this Saturday (Friday for you all) we are all driving down to Hamilton to go to the temple. So i'll have some really awesome pictures for you all of that. I've been told that its tradition that we always stop at this ice cream place where we each get a 7 scoop dish. ha! I dont know if they are just joking but i guess i'll find out on Saturday! Okay im going to take some cold medicine and drift off! Talk to you all later!

Lingo Differences ---->

I have added a new part of the blog, im going to have a running list of different terms used in NZ. I'll update it when something comes up so check it out :)

My NZ Home

This the magnificent Reid home
and this is their amazing lake with ducks and a little row boat :)

this is the fun counrty road into the polkadot compound :)

this is the incredible back deck complete with a pool!

and this is the view from my window seat, those are the neighbors sheep and one just had twin baby lambs yestarday, they are adorable! and thats saying something because im not much of an animal fan

The pictures may seem a bit dreary but the camera cant capture the magical mystique of it all, i feel half like im straight out of a jane austin novel and half like im living some amazing dream, which depending on the novel could be one in the same.

Okay well today was my sunday and I went to my new ward, the Hibiscus Ward. How cool is that? Well i love it, the ward is small but sweet and the people are all very diverse and loving. i was welcomed with open arms and kisses on the cheek :)

I just wanted to tell you all some differences between NZ and the states:

1. the lingo, i can understand the accent perfectly but i have to ask for clarification or definitions often. bangs are called frenchs. strollers are prams and we say eh? and yeah at least once in every sentence.

2. the rumor that the toilet water flushes the other way is false but over shadowed by the fact that the toilet has its own tiny room right next to the bathroom which bothers me to no end! (and the toilet is very deep and the water just goes straight down, just to clarify any rumors :)

im sure i'll find plenty more to add to the list but for now im beat, im going to sleep! which thank heavens is a universal necessity, and some what of a luxary. Happy Sabbath to you all!