Times, They are a Changing

So I have really always wanted to be amazing at journaling but sticking with it is not my strong suite. For the sake of friends and family knowing that I am still among the living here in NZ, I will persevere with my journaling experience.

BIG NEWS- My host family has decided to move house. We will be moving closer to the Bay area, which i am 100% okay with being closer to the beach. The one house my host dad is bidding on tomorrow literally has a private path to the beach. Not to mention I would have a bedroom on my own floor AND my own toliet. This would be my own kind of heaven. Its been a bit stressful around the house because they are doing a lot of renovations. A 1 and 2 year old around sharp tools and equipment is kind of hell. Also, they are renovating the kitchen so all the cupboard doors are off and that is Jesse’s heaven, so you can’t take your eyes off of him or half of the pantry would be gone.

Basically I have just been hanging around Auckland, for the past two week(end)s  because I have quite a few trips coming up in November that I need to save money for. Even though I haven’t done a ton I have been hanging out with some good friends. To me, making good friends and being and experiencing with them is just as important as seeing things on this trip so I can’t complain. Unfortunately two of my closest friends are leaving in late December and mid January. I can honestly say I don’t know what I will do without them here, we have far reached the point where we can hang out always and never get sick of each other. One of the things i miss most about home is just being able to hang out, where with a lot of au pair friends here you just meet up for coffee or an event of some sort and thats great and all but I think good friends are people who can do nothing together for hours. Excuse my ranting, I just can’t imagine going through this process again in a few short months. The good thing is that my friend Jasmin is part of the south island trip that I am doing in Dec/Jan and it will be kind of our last who-rah, I’ll probably be bawling my eyes out off and on the whole trip.

Speaking of just being able to hang out, this past weekend my friend Max’s host family went away to Fiji and had Max house sat for them. They were kind enough to let him have people over. People, can I tell you how great it was to have a house that was all to ourselves, no worrying about how much food you eat, how loud you are or when the family will be home. IT WAS GLORIOUS!! We spent the night laughing, drinking wine, gourging ourselves on bad food and watching Sex and the City. What more could you want, we were none to happy to leave that wonderful abode the next morning.

Here’s some pictures according to my iPhone of the last week or so…

Jesse turns 3 this weekend and Stella turns 2 next week. Exciting stuff, I am baking both of their birthday cakes, which will be fun. Then after that I am off to Wellington, which will be really nice just to get out of Auckland for a bit. After that Piha (beach time) and then the Tongariro Crossing the weekend after. Weekends are filled, which will be great because thats when the open houses will be taking place. Let the new adventures begin!

Taupo: When 4 Hour Car Rides Take 7

So last week was pretty full on with the kiddos. I spent a good part of the week babysitting if I wasn’t working. Then Thursday I started my first day of many Thursdays where I will have the kids starting at 7:30 and then I put them to bed at night. Now lets just say that I don’t think any future Thursday could have gone as utterly terribly as this one. You know those days where just about everything goes wrong…you got it right, this was one of those days. I won’t go into detail but by the time I caught up with my host parents at the end of the night we were in hysterically laughing over the mishaps of the day, you have to be able to laugh in the end right?

Needless to say, I was more than ready to have a weekend away. After the unfortunate first trip to Rotorua my friend, Jessica’s host dad so kindly offered to take us to Taupo, close to Rotorua, but oh so much better in my opinion. Jessica’s host family has a bach there ( I had no idea what this meant, apparently it means summer home). So Jessica, her host dad, and her host families kids, Alex 2 and Rose 4 and I tumbled into their mini-van also referred to as the bus and took off early Friday morning. Unfortunately Rose is just past the point of being potty trained, meaning we had to stop about every half an hour to wee. It made for a very long car ride there and back. The weather was completely awful, I’m talking hail, sleet and rain everyday, all day except for Sunday. There were a few pockets of sunshine and I have to say in those moments, even the rainy ones I really fell in love with Taupo. The lake is absolutely breathtaking, with a mountainous backdrop. I will definitely be making another trip back when the weather is nicer. The little city was really quaint and fantastic as well. Despite the weather Jessica and I managed to do a bit of shopping, we did a virtual rafting tour (thanks to Jessica’s host dad since the weather wasn’t great), we went swimming in natural hot springs, went to a honey farm and we managed to visit Hell’s Gate in Rotorua on the way home, which is a geothermal park. The first day we went to this terrifying toy museum where about a million old dolls stared back at you, the kids loved it, all of us adults were reminded of Chuckie. Not to mention Jessica is my foodie friend, so we managed to sneak in quite a few delicious meals. The weekend was overall relaxing and completely made up for the first trip. THANK YOU, TAUPO

Here’s some pictures of the trip according to my iPhone..

This week I had all five kids and yikes, I can honestly say that this au pairing gig is the best form of birth control. Marley is a great help with the kids and she got to join us for Monday morning playgroup!

And can we just talk about what an absolute cutie miss Stella-bee is?? Her siblings started watching Malificent and she saw the fairies in the beginning so she insisted on being a fairy for the day. All dressed in her tutu get-up she would flap her hands behind her like wings and dart off saying, “Look Kate, I a fairy.” Love this little miss.

I also had a new driving instructor this week, which I was a bit freaked about after the horrendous experience I had. I am happy to report that this instructor was much more relaxed, although I was painstakingly informed about how much he hates the government and how he thinks we need to be self sufficient on our own homesteads like olden days (a little off his rocker) for the first fifteen minutes and the last ten of my lesson. I start driving manual next week so everyone in Auckland please clear the roads, that would be much appreciated!