I love Kapoochi

Kapoochi

I have a really good friend that now designs the diaper bags at Kapoochi in Australia. She sent me one right in time for my baby boy. She has done an amazing job and I still have a hard time believing it is a diaper bag! It is the nicest bag i have ever owned! I have had the bag for six months now and it still looks brand new even with the everyday use. It fits everything including both the baby's things and all the things i used to have in my handbag. I know its silly but every time i see it i still giggle with glee a little remembering the day i got it.... hehe. Honestly I don't know if I will be able to give up the bag once the kids don't need the diaper bag any more...

love it, love it, love it!!!!

Sale Failed....

The sale of our house unfortunately did not go through.... bummer! We never expected to get the house sold this quickly in the first place, but still it would have been nice if it had been sold quickly.

Since re-listing our home we have been bombarded with phone calls from real estate agents wanting to list our house. There was one day we got six phone calls and one of them wouldn't even let my husband get off the phone even though he said over and over again that we where not looking to list our home with an agent at this time. I guess the NO REALTOR S on our ad means we want Realtors to call in some language?

The neighbors are glad we have not sold yet.... They are good neighbors and we would not want to loose them to quickly! Even if we did sell quickly I would hope we could keep in touch with all of them they are so sweet.

I know i have said it before but i don't know if the girls really know what it will be like to move so far away that they will not be able to see there old friends every once in a while. We keep telling them that they will not be able to see there grandparents, school, cousins and friends once we leave and they just reply I know... but i want to move to NZ so it's ok. I guess it is something we will have to deal with once it really hits them in NZ. They are too excited to see there grandma J and Grandad and the beach over there that they don't think about anything else.

A few pictures of the house.

Two weeks and already an offer

We have had the house on the market only two weeks and already had three people come through and presto...one offer! However we are currently countering the offer because it was too low to even be considered really but at least it is a start right?

My sister also came over to take some pictures of the house and they turned out much better then our original ones did... thank goodness! One of my friends just sold there house and another just sold two weeks ago so it looks like things are finally picking up in the area! I think it is partly because they want to get there "first time home buyers" credit of 8,000 from the government. It ends soon so they are all rushing in. Plus all the homes are priced so darn low that no one is making any profit at the moment! We'll these are the times.... unfortunately for us sellers.

The house has been for sale for a whole week and the only people who have called has been Realtor's. We knew it would take a while to sell the house so we are not to worried yet. Keeping the house clean all the time with four kids and a husband to take care of is hard though. We have gated off the basement (there old play room) to help with keeping things clean and they now only have a quarter of there toys to play with so are spending more time outside (which is so nice!)

We have also taken all our storage and either donated it, given it away or stored it at family's homes. My sister is coming to take pictures of the house because our camera stinks and the pictures come out fuzzy.

Fingers crossed things will go better over the next month or two.

Starting Medical School

Travis and I have looked into ways that he can move up. I asked him if he would want to become a doctor (as a joke at first) because he has always been really interested in watching my surgery's (C Sections) at the time he said no but after a while started thinking more and more about it until now he is saying he wants to do it! wow how awesome would it be to have a husband as a doctor huh! I have to say i am glad i mentioned it! .... He looked up how much it would cost to go to school in NZ because he is worried about how the family will be looked after while he is going to school full time and we found it to be a third of the cost here in the USA! not to mention the fact that my family is there to help with the kids as much as they can and they have an apartment and car ready for us to use.

So i called mum and spoke to her about our thoughts on Travis going to school full time for the next couple of years and she said it would be fine, so long as Travis was sure this was what he wanted to do. The next day Travis called my father to wish him a happy fathers day and also asked him what he thought about him going to medical school and my father thought it was a fantastic idea! I have to say that was a load off my mind.... I had no idea how my father would react, I knew he would be supportive and positive I just didn't know how supportive he would be.

Well I have this to say about my family..... If you reach for the stars they will build the ship to get you there! Thank the Lord i have them on our side!

Travis already has his chemistry books out for his first year, talk about motivation! He is studying at every spare moment.... my goodness if only i had a mind like his we could be the Huxtables!

It has started....

Today I finished filling out the forms for the kids passports and birth abroad. My husband called shipping company's for our furniture and got three quotes that where all about the same and I cleaned out the girls toys into what we where taking and what was staying. I went through all the kitchen cupboards and got rid of all the unnecessary things to get ready to sell the house.

Travis and I (mostly Travis) have been doing painting touch ups, filling any holes, scrubbing off kids drawings and cleaning all the walls.

The de-cluttering of the house is looking good and the throwing out of unnecessary storage even nicer! now we just have to find a place for the last few boxes to be stored.

If you don't know anything about NZ here is a little clip ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sEZ-wdFegU&feature=related#

The list of to dos...

Travis and I have talked and talked and weighed the good and the bad, the staying and going and then the staying again and then finally the going (its a big decision you know!). We have gone back and forth and finally come to a decision.

It's official we have decided to go!!!..... and so the daunting task of getting everything done in order to get to NZ starts (*groan...sigh... and groan again)

And so the saga begins with a list of things to do....we have to sell the house, car and anything we don't plan on taking has to be given away, sold or donated. Everything we do want to take has to be cut to a minimum to keep shipping costs to its lowest. We need to fill in and register the kids as NZ citizens (something we should have already done) And then get the passport process started. My husband needs to get his residency so he can find a job legally! We need to find out the cost to ship all our furniture to NZ. Make sure all bills are paid in full (so we can start fresh) and find flights (cheap preferably) ...phew! and that is only the beginning!

Should I stay or should I go???

I called my mother in NZ to check how everyone was after the earth quake, she said some people felt it in Christchurch but didn't seem to be bothered about it. They didn't even know it was big enough to get on the American news stations....lol. I talked to her about how much we where missing home. She told me her and dad would love to have Travis and I living back in NZ. I told her I was worried about the cost to move back and she went on to say that she and dad have been getting ready for us to come home for some time now. She said "we have been collecting toys and clothes for the kids and even have a spare mini van waiting for you when you come" she said " the apartment down stairs is empty and furnished too! all you need to do is bring yourselves and everything will be provided for you"

The truth is for quite some time now Travis and i have been thinking a lot about moving back to my home country of NZ. I love NZ with all of my heart and had a wonderful childhood there growing up with my large family of 12. I miss them all so much, they are all so supportive and helpful I know that if we where to make the move anything we would need would be taken care of.

The move will be expensive though! We have to pay for flights, Immigration, Passports, Citizenship for my kids, shipping furniture and buying new appliances not to mention homes in Auckland aren't cheap. I don't know what to do? I know this is what the family wants but I am worried about leaving the family and friends and home we have here.

Oh and the beaches! ... Oh how I miss the Beach!!!

the little nothings of an everyday dinner

For my husband and I, cooking dinner is a way to catch up on the happenings of each others day and so we usually wait until he comes home at 5pm to get dinner started. He will take one thing and I will take another and by some happy coincidence it all seems to work perfectly. The kids know this is there parents time, so they will run off into there playroom until they are called to dinner.

At dinner it is then there time to say whatever they want to and Travis and I will give them all of our attention, usually something new and a little odd will come out too, like tonight when they asked where daddy worked, I replied "at a bank" they asked "what does he do at the bank" I said " he buys and sells stocks for people" Then the topic changed and cleo asked "can I have my birthday party tomorrow?" and Travis said "We don't have everything that we need for a party ready by tomorrow" she then said "why don't you just buy the stuff tomorrow" we told her "We don't have enough money to just get everything tommorrow" she replied "why don't you just get it from the bank" (like there are happy elves willing to pass out everyone money whenever they need it or something) "we need to work for the money to put in the bank" then she looked at us a little puzzeled "but daddy works at the bank!" We laughed a little but tried to fill in all the blanks as best we could for a five year old.

Felicity our two year old has to be watched like a hawk because she will literally do something the moment your back is turned. When dinner was finished and her two sisters had asked to be excused and where leaving the table to take there plates up to the sink, I turned back to find felicity out of her chair and walking around the back of her seat with her plate still full of food and with some bad two year old footing bumped her plate into the wall and down came all the food to the floor. After moving her out of the way and cleaning up the mess I dumped all the leftovers in the bin only to look up and see her licking a full block of butter! how she got it i don't know..... I swear she is so lucky she is cute!

All because two people fell in love....

Somewhere beyond the sea, somewhere waiting for me.... was my best friend and darling husband Travis!!!