A few little projects

And, I mean little.

Our house came with this ugly tile. Just one strip above the kitchen sink.

It is UNDER the window trim, so cant remove it without taking off trim.

After a while, I just forgot about it...as I do with many home renovation ideas.

But, this past weekend after A FULL day home because of the blizzard, I decided it was time.

 

Andrew sanded it a bit, put some primer on (the kind meant for shiny surfaces) and Then, he put white paint on.

But, we thought the white was boring and just blended in with the rest.
He took a look in the basement and we had some light green from our living room, so he painted it light green.
We kind of want to make it a bit brighter. Any suggestions??

It was quick to paint so we can paint it again very easily.

Before and After:

Andrew has this big chunk of Amber. Might see if I can get something made out of it, like jewelry :)

 

My niece turned TEN yesterday! I cant believe it. It seems like she was just Anika's age.

I have always wanted to make these Vday cards!

I saw them somewhere even pre pinterest days.

Anika can give them to the kids at her sitter.  They are all older than her and can have lollipops.

 

I saw this on FB and thought it was interesting. I eat all of this stuff regularly, so I should be super skinny, right? ha.

 

 

Guess what was going on a year ago this week??

MY husband was in the hospital with his mystery illness. The only thing I wanted last year for Valentines Day was a healthy husband and for him to be home....

This year, I am back to normal and want flowers or a gift! haha.

In all honesty, I am SOOO grateful for his health and that entire episode made me appreciate so many of the small things in life and about him.  He is one helluva a guy and I really don't take that for granted like I used to. At least, I try not to :)

Another Friday Here

Knock, Knock!
I was looking at my old blog yesterday for some things.

Wow, I used to write a lot. And, people used to comment! HA.

I guess that's what happens when I fall off the  face of the blogging earth.

That's ok. I do record a lot of things on a calendar I keep near Anika's rocker, so at least I have a lot of my memories about Anika stored away there.
My memory is SO, SO bad, so its imperative I write all the little things down. Even the things I don't think I could Possibly forget.

I have become a master at Legos...well, the toddler version.
I put this together by looking at a photo that came with them.
And, it was pretty sad that I was really really proud of myself and then looked at the box and saw they are for children, age 3.  So, I guess I shouldn't be so proud.

 

 

Yesterday before we went to Miss W's and work, I took a this picture of A.
I got that Alpaca sweater in NZ at a market for $10 NZ dollars, so that's like $8 US. Its so cute. The rest of the outfit is hand me downs, as many of her clothes are. Or gifts- she still wears a lot of gifts!
 

 

It is snowing here...you might have heard about the blizzard on the news, but I still went to spin this morning and captured this beauty of myself. Its not too bad here yet, but I guess it will be coming down for a while.

 

I was supposed to have a ski race tomorrow, but it got cancelled because of the snow! In my 20+ years of racing, that has NEVER happened.  OH MY GOSH- I had a race two weeks ago, and I WON. BEST Female time of the day.  I forgot to tell you all that.

Anika has gotten in a few ski days too. I need to post pics.

 

Last wekend, I spent a fabulous weekend in Boston with my friends- my INTERNET FRIENDS turned real life friends!!!
YES!!  Except one Internet friend is actually friends of friends with someone I know in real life, so that was cool. Two friends came from California and one from Ohio for the weekend.

One of the girls has a son that was due the EXACT SAME day as Anika, but he was born  a week early (Homebirth) and Anika was 2 weeks late so they are 3 weeks apart.   SO Cute together.

 

I hope you don't get hit with snow too bad where you are.
I wish I could just give someone my photos and speak my stories and have someone write them all here for me :)

 

Freakin FRiDAY!

I already cried this morning. Anika hasn't seen my mum in 10 days because my mom and Gram went to Hawaii for my Gram's 80th Birthday! When we pulled into the gym this morning, Anika saw my mum's truck and she got excited "Nona's truck! Nona's Truck" And when we walked in she was looking and calling for her, and then she spotted her across the way and just smiled huge and ran and ran into Nona's arms and gave her the biggest hug and my mom was exploding with happiness.  I stood there with my arms full of gym bag, diaper bag, lunch bag, her jacket etc and fought back tears (I had the about to cry feeling in my nose- does anyone else get that?)  THAT moment just reminds me no matter how much we want to move, we can't ever take Anika away from my parents. Everyone at the gym looked on in Aww. They all know us- its a small gym and we are friendly with the other members and employees. Anika knows most of the people who work there by name. 

 I recovered and got myself to spin and every time I pictured their reunion, my eyes started flowing again, along with my sweat...all down my face. My heart ached and stomach felt it- i could literally feel their love for each other. I'm crying again now thinking of it.
Anika is just so, so lucky to have them, and so am I. I am also very close with my Gram (My mom's mom) so its a wonderful feeling.

 

Now, instead of crying, I am just SOOO excited for Tonight. Anika and I are driving down to Boston to meet some friends and staying at a fancy hotel!  Something is VERY speical about these friends!!

Happy Friday!

 

Day 1 in NZ after the Long Trip

We arrived at Christchurch airport and my FIL and MIL were there to meet us. My FIL took these photos.  Andrew's best girl mate K was there with her daughter too! We had not seen her or her family in almost 5 years!

They brought Anika a pressie.

That is what I look like after 30 hours of travel.  ha

We said bye to K and S and piled into both of my inlaws cars. We needed both with all our luggage. MY MIL had rented us a car seat and that was all set up in one of the cars. 

We drove right to our new house. We did not take any photos while at the new house because a renter had JUST moved in.  It was a little smaller than in photos but the gardens were better in person. The neighborhood was cute. LOTS AND LOTS Of floor to ceiling windows, like many houses in NZ.

Then we went into city centre to see where Andrew's dads shop used to be....
The entire block has been demoed since the earthquakes and his store is now a parking lot :(

 

We went to my inlaws house to have lunch and settle in. I showered and got out of my  2 day old outfit and into something better suited for warm weather. 

 

We went to Andrew's old house...it is going to be demoed soon. It doesn't look bad from the outside in these photos, but it is off the foundation and the roof is all falling in. It is very warped.

The house is named Awhina- A Maori name. It Pretty much means "The Friends House" from what I understand. 

The Photo above is Me sitting in front of the house (LEFT SIDE in a red shirt) back in 2005 when I was dating Andrew.

 This is 2012. All grown in. Anika and I standing to the left of house. You can see the broken window.

The walkway is all grown in now.

 

The main hall in 2005 and 2012. He redid the wood floors in 2006.

 

 2005 and 2012 in the carport

2005 and 2012 out back.

 

Andrew got pretty emotional seeing the house.  I felt bad for him.  Sad to know it will be gone the next time we are there. He worked really really hard to buy that house. When I was there for 6 months, he pretty much just worked and we were at the house a lot because he had no extra money to do fun things.  I was a young college kid and didn't get it, but I get it now.  He made a lot of sacrifices.
The area the house is located is very posh and we love it.  I love walking to the café, along a the river and to his friends house.  UGh, if I could just MOVE my family there and rebuild on that land, we would.

 

 

Anika had her FIRST meat pie!!
She likes to put herself in her seat and she was eating this while parked, and her straps were correct while driving. I noted this because I take car seat safety pretty seriously. We were  hit when Anika was an infant. I was also hit Yesterday in a snow storm. A guy couldn't stop and hit me from behind.  Also, car accidents kill more kids age 0-3 than anything else.  AND, lastly, I have a lot of friends and family who are VERY passionate about car seat safety so when I posted this on fb I didn't want them to blast me :) 

 Yum!!

 

Hanging out at Poppa's house.

 

Well, it only took me 2 weeks to write this post.  Life is just really getting in my way of blogging.
I don't even know if anyone is still reading, but I will keep plugging away when I can.
I would love to share more of our trip with you and record it for my memories before I forget!

 

 

 

I did it!

The words spoken by Anika, not me.

 

EVERYTHING, and I mean everything these days are "Ill do it" or "I do it myself"

From getting dressed to getting in her car seat- she is independent.

In some ways, its great she can do so much herself- gives me more time...but other times I have to practice my patience.

She is up to all sorts of things lately.  We went swimming with my friend and her daughter last night. I was SHOCKED that Anika liked it so much. She just swam and swam and screeched and had a grand old time.  Before swimming, we went out to eat. Anika sneezed, and then wiped her boogy nose all over her dress! ha.  Such a lady.  When I get dressed in the morning, she likes to come up and slap my butt. In a loving way.
I got a text from her sitter Thursday that Anika had said "Its bloody cold out"  - the bloody would have been something she picked up in NZ.
She also was farting at the sitter's on Thursday and every time she did she said "Kate did it" (one of her little friends).
At the grocery store today a couple people told me she seems feisty and bossy.  I cant even get over the people she has interactions with when out shopping. The girl just doesn't stop.

 

And, HAPPY New Year to all of you.

Ill be back soon with my next post about NZ!

International Travel with Anika

 

I am going to start off my New Zealand posts with our travel.

Our plane was scheduled to leave Monday,  December, 17th at 10 AM.

We were flying out of Boston, so we had to be there at 8 AM. We live in NH, 2 hours north, so we had to leave home at 6 AM, but my mom was driving us and she was worried about city traffic, so she wanted to leave at 5 AM.

That was the plan.
Then, Sunday happened. It was snowing and freezing rain. It was supposed to last through the night and into Monday.

I did NOT want to head down Sunday night, but by midday Sunday,  we decided that was the safest bet. I had SOO much to get done at home, but Andrew just said "tell me what you want" and we just worked together as a team to get it all done. Actually, It was quite nice :)
I have to say, we were a total team through all the travel on the way there, so that made it all so much easier.
On the way back, we had a few spats. ha, but we were sad the holiday was over, so maybe we were no longer happy and excited and that is why?

On Sunday, My parents and my niece picked us up at 3/4 PM at our house and we all crammed into my mum's truck. And, ALl of our luggage :)  Oh, and Piri too. My parents didn't want to come back to our house later that night in bad weather to get Piri, so she went along for the ride too.

It was a LONG ride in bad weather.  And Andrew got car sick. And Anika fussed and cried. And my dad said "can you get her to be quiet?"

So, that was fun.
We got to our hotel near Boston (10 minutes from the airport) and got situated and said our goodbyes.
We ordered some dinner and ate around 8 PM ...

 

 Anika's makeshift table and chair.  We slept that night ok- Anika was OK. but up early of course.  
 

Before my parents left my dad took his hook off. He has had it since his first trip to NZ.  HE handed it to Anika and said "Grampa wants you to wear this because it is special,  and it is going to keep you safe on your travels"
And I was thinking, aww, that's sweet (because my dad isn't usually mushy) and then he continued ..

"and can you guys get a new rope for it, because the one on it is broken"
OK..so he had motives.

HA.
On Monday morning we got a shuttle from the hotel to airport.
We checked in at United.  We got our boarding passes and were NOT sitting together!
We had 2 adult tickets and an infant seat. Infant means she sits on our laps.
She can do that until she is 2. Yes, having her in her own seat with a car seat is safer, but flying to NZ around Christmas is NOT cheap. Our tickets were quite a big chunk of money and we still had to pay $300 for her and that was just a small percentage of ours.

United people were ...well, assholes.
When we got on the plane, Andrew told the attendant we weren't even together and the guy said to figure it out. There was another family with their 5 year old and they had the 5 year old away from BOTH parents. Luckily, the other passengers traded spots with us.
Add on top of that, they give NO snacks on the flight from Boston to San Francisco.
That flight was, well Long.
We bought an Ipad a couple weeks before and put shows on it. and a few aps.
I had a small suitcase of books, toys, new toys she had never seen wrapped up, coloring, snacks, you  name it.
The Ipad was the big hit.
She didn't nap on that 6 hour flight. Andrew and I just took turns with her. He actually did most of the entertaining...the whole trip :) ha.
Oh, and she was pulling at her ears and wanted to nurse of course.

So, we did. I had a blanket and Andrew kept putting it on us and Anika kept pulling it off, and she finally snapped at him and said "NO daddy. NO blanket" and tossed it at him.

We had a few hours in San Francisco. It was when we were taking off from Boston,  I realized CRAP, I forgot to rearrange some of our bags at the hotel in Boston and I only had FOUR nappies with me in my bags! Our other bags were checked to NEW Zealand. I had 4 nappies to last me 24 hours.
I panicked. I have never bought a disposable, but I have never seen any in the airport!
I texted some friends and nope- they hadn't seen them either.
I texted a friend who lives in SF and asked if she has seen them at that airport and how far to the closest store. We thought one of us could get in a cab and go to a store, but Andrew was nervous about that and getting back in time.
As soon as we landed in SF, I asked an airport worker if there was a store that sold them...she said she didn't know, but then came back and said she called her friend and yes- there was ONE pharmacy in the airport that sold them.
I found the pharmacy and they sold them singly. Pampers. I picked up 4 and guess how much ONE diaper was ? $3.99.
Barf.
I had no choice- I bought MY FIRST disposable diapers because I effed up and packed all of ours in the bag that was checked through to NZ.
And, if you are wondering- I NEVER even needed them!  She ended needing one change when we got to SF, did her poop on the potty, then one change right before we boarded the flight from SF to Auckland, NZ,  and then slept too much of the 13  hour international flight, so only got one change on that plane.  So, I used our cloth.
Then, I got the rest of her diapers in Auckland.

Having a snack in SF.
 

 

 

That teddy is a travel teddy. It came with a little purse. Inside the purse, there was a little passport, a little journal and a little world map. Guess what country was missing from the "word" map??
NEW ZEALAND! lOl.

My mom gave her the bear when she dropped us off at the hotel. I was like, great one more thing to carry, but it provided a lot of entertainment...like, Anika trying to put on the bear's jacket (above).
you can see the nose of the plane behind her above.

 

 

Waiting to board in SF. She actually at this point had been awake since 5 AM Eastern time and it was 10 PM eastern time in this pic. ANd, she took a huge run around right before we boarded- tons of energy.  I also had to call Verizon when we were sitting there and get service turned over to an old blackberry because the Verizon Iphone 4's do not work in other countries. I turned off all the data, but wanted to have a phone working in case people at home texted or my mom needed to get in touch with me right away, etc.  I think I made 2 phone calls on it, but its $2 a minute so just short calls. And of course no email or internet- that would have cost THOUASANDS a day.

We were NOT guaranteed the bassinet seat, but we asked for it when we got to SF. It is only guaranteed to babies 8 months and younger.
The weight limit is 26 pounds and she weighed 23.
 When we were told we could have it, I was SOO excited. WE NEEDED this. She wont sleep in my arms.  These seats also have more leg room and no seats in front of them. When Anika accidentally kicks seats in front of us, it makes me nervous she is pissing off the people in front of her, and it just makes it hard for me to be calm. I do NOT want her to bother others.

United does NOT have family boarding on planes- rude. Air NZ does. Nice.
We were walking to our seats and this pretty nice flight attendant saw Anika and asked if she was the weight for the bassinet and I said yes and she said great. I was getting into the row and I heard her voice say "Andrew?" and I turned around and it was someone Andrew knew!!
An old friend of his! SO, um, from there on out- the flight rocked. She treated us like royalty. She also tried very hard to get the couple sitting next to us to move so we could have the whole row, but I guess they had paid extra for the bassinet seats since they have more leg room.  She was just wonderful. She saw that I was "feeding" and brought me tons of extra water to keep me hydrated.  Well, I really just cant say enough about her. But, not just her...on every NZ flight, the flight attendants are so amazingly nice. Even, the people on those flights- you can see a HUGE difference after getting off a US domestic flight. People are so much friendlier.

On the US domestic flights they just have us hold babies in our laps- NO belts for takeoff and landing.
On Air NZ, they had us strap her to us for takeoff and landing.
She fell asleep in my arms soon after takeoff, and I placed her in the bassinet...and she slept for NINE HOURS STRAIGHT!! NINE.

I ate the dinner they served and drank the complimentary wine, obviously and then I slept myself.
I slept about 7 hours.
Then I woke up, watched some tv on my personal Tv.

 

 

 You can see her sleeping in there.

 Then, she woke up and had some breakfast with us. Then watched some Ipad in her bed.

 

yes, she was watching Caillou and we have decided that show is NEVER allowed again.
What a whiny little kid. We swear she picked up some whining from him. Her behavior changed after we let her watch that show.
 

 

We got to Auckland in one piece and I felt good because I had slept. Andrew never can sleep.
We got our bags in customs and then had to recheck them, so we were rearranging a few things. The flight from Auckland to Christchurch is only 1.5 hours.

 

When I was getting bags rearranged, Anika plopped herself down and started coloring. 
 

 

The last flight was quick and easy...

And this is long, so I will continue in another post. I am also really tired. ha

Oh, but guess what I did get?
My ray ban glasses...see below :)