Father's Day

Dugald is the best dad ever. Seriously. We are so grateful God blessed us with him and I love him even more when I see him interacting with the girls. So, even though he said he doesn't mind not celebrating Father's Day, we had to at least acknowledge it. New Zealand celebrates Father's Day on the first Sunday in September, unlike the American celebrations in June.

We presented our gifts to Daddy before church - Josie made him some sort of feather crown out of pipe cleaners, Meggie wrote him a poem and Katie and Ellie gave him a tie.

I can't really put into words the powerful emotions I feel when I think of what a great daddy Dugald is to our girls. He has sacrificed much for us, he has chosen family over work time and time again, he has lovingly participated in homeschooling the girls, he leads us by serving us, he requires excellence out of the children in behavior and school work, he loves them unconditionally and willingly spends time with them when he could so easily choose to pursue his own hobbies instead and much, much more. I didn't realize that I was SO getting the total package when we married because I had no idea that this man who is such a great husband would also turn into a father that is better than my highest dreams for my children. So, even though we kind of don't make a big deal out of Father's Day it doesn't mean we aren't grateful for the Daddy you are Dugald Morrison! We love you!!

Hello everyone!! This is what we woke up to the day of the "storm the size of Australia". A better morning than most actually!

Things did eventually get wet and it lasted awhile, but as I've said on here many times before that isn't too unusual for Wellington. Other parts of the North Island lost electricity and had it a bit worse than we did, but we are used to ferocious winds.

The big news in the Morrison household this week is that we finally broke down and got the girls some bikes. Gulp, I still can't believe the price but seeing as I was the one who left all of them in Texas I needed to get over it. Now that we are having the occasional nice day the girls have been desperate to ride and only Meggie and Katie had bikes. Meg got a new one for her birthday two years ago and I bought Katie a hand-me-down on Trade Me (similar to ebay but not as many choices) for her 8th birthday. Katie's bike was a bit of a disappointment but it was also more than $200 cheaper so we made it work. Meggie is growing like a weed and while she could have kept her bike another year we decided to go ahead and get her a new, bigger bike and give Katie Meggie's old bike. Then we bought Ellie and Josie each one and a rack for the car. They love me at Penny Farthing (the bike store). Dugald and I are still bikeless but that's next on the list.

Josie was not yet riding without training wheels so we took her out to the park and had her start to learn on Katie's bike to see if it was within the realm of possibility to get her a bike without them. Dugald taught Meggie to ride a two-wheeler in about three hours and Katie took about five-minutes to learn, so I was hoping Josie would be more like the latter. There is a reason Dugald is the bike instructor and it has to do with the required amount of patience. However, sunny days are rare and I knew I had to get out there and take advantage of the sunshine so off we went to the park and day one of "Mommy Riding School". My back quickly complained so Meggie stepped up and we took it in turns to help Jo.

After about two hours, one coffee, two hot chocolates and two juice bottles, Josie could ride a few meters without me holding on to her. We decided that was enough of a victory and we headed to the bike store to make our purchases - we had gone a few days before to look at and price bikes with Daddy but we hadn't actually bought anything.

Three days of rain followed our purchase. So much for the nice weather. Finally today we had more sunshine so we headed on back down to Karori Park for day two of "Mommy, Meggie and Katie Riding School," this time with two students, Ellie and Josie. Meggie and Katie took turns helping Ellie learn to peddle and steer while I worked with Josie again. Jo liked her new bike so much better, it was more her size and didn't have as many sharp edges when she took a tumble. I'm proud of her for her persistence, she kept at it for a long time and I think after an hour or so with Daddy tomorrow she'll have it nailed. Here's praying the weather service is right and we have a sunny Saturday!

(Please excuse the quality of these photos - I took them with my iphone and it was obviously quite sunny thus all the squinting and shadows and whatnot.)

The sad irony is that as soon as we gave in and decided on this rather big expense the girls' school computer died. Grr.

We have also celebrated Father's Day since I last posted and I have a few pictures of Dugald with his gifts - some of which were homemade - so I'll post those later. School work and life have been keeping us from posting more often but I think we've finally found our feet and I hope to post more frequently. Lots of love!!

Windy Welly

So the fact of the matter is we probably can't afford to all go to America again next year - I mean we could I suppose if I didn't want to buy a house someday sooner rather than later, or if we didn't desire to educate our children at a university one day, or save for retirement or any other lofty financial goal. So, I'm resigning myself to a longer winter next year with perhaps a brief jaunt to Australia or somewhere a bit closer but warmer during the July school holidays. All that to say - we would welcome visitors this year. Oh please come see us!! This video was posted on Facebook today and it made me laugh because sadly it is all too true. I don't want to discourage any of you from visiting - rather I want you to see what an adventure it can be starting with landing in Wellington!! Hugs from all of us. xx

Happy People Make Me Smile

This makes me happy - remember the video of the bride and groom dancing up the aisle last year for their wedding? Here is another one along the same lines - this video is from the reception of Tony award winning writer Lin-Manuel Miranda and his new bride Vanessa. . . enjoy! ( I found it on Boo Mama's blog)

The Size of Australia. . .

We're preparing ourselves for this, a storm the size of Australia coming at us tomorrow. I hate to think how windy it will be when they are warning us about it!! A typical day in Wellington often has stronger winds than I've ever felt before, well except for hurricanes of course. I took particular note of the fact that vans may get blown around on the road, oh my.

Hope you are enjoying the last days of warmer weather my North American friends! Send some our way please. :)

Greetings

I know things have been terribly quiet here on the blog - I just can't figure out how to make the routine of our life at the moment even remotely interesting! Dugald has been sick - he was home all last week with a temperature. This morning he limped out of here around 11 am and it's 6:30 pm and he's not home yet, so that's almost a full day. I think his temperature is finally gone but he's still darn run-down. To be fair he was working like a mad man when we got back, really long hours, so it's not much of a surprise that he got sick. I optimistically washed all the sheets and duvet cover and wiped down all door handles with anti-bacterial wipes in the hopes that things are on the up and up. Time will tell.

The girls are doing well with our new and improved school schedule - it's a lot more demanding on all of us but we are making it work and settling into it well enough. Our Mondays are very busy - lots of housework to catch up on after the weekend, plus school, plus I swim for an hour with my swim group and then we all go get coffee so that takes a hunk out of the morning. Speaking of swimming, we are participating in the "Dead Sea Challenge" which is to swim the length of the Dead Sea (around 55 K's) by the end of October. Those who make it are in the draw for prizes - I have no idea what they are - so we are all "giving it a go". So far I've done 13 K's. I have some serious swimming to do!

My heart was heavy when we got back here and I heard of the death of my very good friend's mother. She has been sick with Alzheimer's for many years but it still is so hard to say goodbye and my heart hurt for my friend as much as with missing her mom. I was wishing I could be there to hug her neck. We also had a few fairly serious health scares in my immediate family but I am VERY grateful to say that both of those people are doing a lot better.

Lastly, our weekends have been full of ballet, ballet and more ballet! Netball finished last weekend with it's Saturday morning games, to be replaced by extra ballet rehearsals for the oldest three as they prepare for their exams. I can't complain though, if anyone needed the extra practices it was my girls after being away for seven weeks. They all are doing so well - as most of you know both Katie and Josie are naturals when it comes to dancing - but Meggie has surprised even herself with how much she is enjoying it! I still wouldn't call her a natural but because she loves it so much she is practicing at home and is doing fantastically well - it's hard to believe she only just started taking six months ago or so.

Well I started this post when I was making dinner and it's now 7:45 and we just finished and believe it or not we are not far away from my bed-time. Ever since we've been back I've been heading to bed early and up by 6:30 in the morning. I'm not complaining (but Dugald kind of is), I quite like it, long may it last.

Lots of love to all! xx

We are all well

Just a quick note to let everyone back home know that we are ok after the 7.1 earthquake near Christchurch. I didn't feel a thing and slept right through though some friends did feel a jolt. Many of our Wellington friends have family in Christchurch but thankfully all are fine with varying degrees of damage. Miraculously there were no fatalities, such a contrast with Haiti, we feel blessed.

On another note, I have some new glasses. After almost 12 years of not wearing them thanks to surgery on my eyes I'm getting used to them again. What do you think?

Lots of love to all! xx