how animals eat their food.

I know a lot of you have seen this but it makes me and Jared laugh so hard, we get hiccups.

WhyFi

 Some may say...

"God?

There's no God.

I can't see Him or feel Him.

I can't touch Him with my hands and prove that He exists.

He can't exist because you cannot prove to me that He is there."

"WiFi?

Of course it exists!

You can see the effects of it.

It's influence on people's live is evident.

It is vital to communication in this world of technology.

You know when you are connected and when you are not."

God says...

You can't physically see Me, touch Me, 'hear' Me, smell Me or see Me face to face.

BUT...

You can see the effects of My presence.

You can see the power of My influence.

My communication to you is vital.

I know when you are connected and when you are not.

I say...

Everywhere I go it seems I am searching for WiFi but I can't find it. Everywhere I search for God, He is there. It may indeed take more faith to believe in WiFi than it does to believe in God. :)

punkinhead

My little pot drum playing...

punkin' hat wearing...

10 month old with blueberry five o'clock shadow...

had a great rainy, giggly, funny day!

go fly a kite.

I cleaned every inch of this house today. I mean cleaned.

I cleaned it out, organized every cupboard, pantry and closet. I donated and tossed. Having had a lot of company and being gone on vacation during the past month, I haven't had time to do my weekly sort and purge. This helps me to not hoard.

Because I am a hoarder. (not over the top but too much of one to not fit the label)

I clean by putting things in piles and then moving those piles from place to place.

So to overcome those tendencies, I have to stay on top of things.

Brennan was awesome today as he played with new things that I found and the trash that I threw away. He also willingly follows me wherever the vacuum goes so it is easy to keep him in sight.

I never vacuum without him. Not just because he follows me, but I will even wait until he wakes up to vacuum because he laughs hysterically and screams and jumps the whole time. I love it.

Today, he was playing with the vacuum close to the trash bag.

I had given him a rice cake about 5 minutes earlier and he promptly traded it for a piece of styrofoam from the bag. He took a chunk before I could get to him, but he spit it out. I am not surprised he opted for the flavor of styrofoam over the flavor of his rice cake!

When Jared got home, we ate dinner and then took a walk to the park.

We all needed some fresh air and Jared got a new kite this weekend so he wanted to try it out.

Brennan watched in delight as Jared steered the kite through the wind. I tried two times, both of which ended in crashing immediately.

I took Brennan to the swings and his cackles of delight were enough to bring Jared from his high flying activity.

The wind really picked up so we went back to the kite. Lots of people coming through the park were coming to see him fly the kite. There was one couple walking through and the man had a parrot on his shoulder!

Another man sped by on his bike as I yelled 'Woohoo, Go Baby!' to Jared. The man smiled and winked thinking I was talking to him.

This day made me so ready for summer nights!

 The look on his face cracked me up too much to exclude this photo!

 Don't let him fool you...it is much harder than it looks!

talkin' bout this generation

Thank You Lord for comfy beds!

Let's just say our sleep last night was a bit less than desirable.

It was well worth the sleep-crawling baby that kept laughing in my face and then instantly falling back asleep.

The lock in for our youth and Wellington youth was nothing less than awesome. The guys worked so hard to prepare the food, quizzes and games. Our kids agreed unanimously that this was the best one yet!

Our team did come away with a win and a trophy which will have to be defended at the next Bible Challenge in January. We were SO proud that they allowed us to be a part of their group!

Our youth learned a lot the past few weeks and even this weekend. I learned something too.

We give teens such a hard time.

'This generation is so disrespectful'.

'This generation is spoiled and doesn't know what hard work really is.'

'This generation...blah blah blah.'

Let me tell you something.

This generation rocks.

They deal with things on a daily basis that I didn't have to face until my college years or even later.

They are bombarded daily with messages that they should be different than how God made them.

They are concerned about the spiritual and emotional well-being of themselves and others.

They have opinions and ideas that really are thought provoking and incredible.

They fight the fight against Satan everyday.

They are fully aware that they are in a battle.

This generation is looking to us to not send them to the front lines of that battle. They want to learn the skills of war and go into a fight knowing there is victory on the other side. 

 

It is our job as seasoned veterans to stop pretending like we never fought.

We must tell the gory war stories of our losses at dealing with sin.

Take the opportunity to rally the troops with stories of triumph through Christ!

Let them know that the only victory is in God and that even though we may fail in battle from time to time, He has already won the war!

If we learn from each other and fight sword by sword, when the battle is done we can all go Home...together.

cucumber encumbrance

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Monday we had a few errands to run before we headed to the airport around noon. I had packed the night before but after weighing suitcases, I had to repack everything anyway. My carryon must have weighed 50 pounds and I was sad at that moment that it was a backpack.

During a final run through of the apartment, I checked the fridge and realized that we had left a whole cucumber, a ripe avocado, a container of butter and a pack of sandwich meat. Of course, being the waste not want not type, I shoved them any way I could into my backpack.

After our rental car place returned us to the airport, we checked our bags and sat down at the cafe to wait for our flight. I saw signs and heard announcements that your carryon would be weighed and if it exceeded 7kgs (14.4 pounds) that excess charges would apply. Seeing as how my arms were tingling from the weight I just knew it was over. There was nothing I could shift because we had already checked our luggage.

If you know my travel history, I am quite notorious for this. 9 lbs over on each bag coming back from America my first time. My carryon back from America that same trip ended up weighing 12 kgs. How? I have NO idea.

So here I am in the cafe trying to feed Brennan the last of the food we had bought. I snatched a plastic knife and started cutting up the avocado and feeding it to him with a spoon, I then moved on to the cucumber and just prayed that no one would ask me why I had a vat of butter melting in my bag!

Can you imagine the sight of a grown woman hacking away at vegetables with a plastic knife in the middle of the airport?! I should apologize to my children in advance for the embarrassment I will cause.

Our trip home was safe and uneventful. We even boarded through a gate that didn't make you weigh your bag. That means that all of my last minute veggie ditching was for naught.

Today has been a great day as well. I feel like we are getting back into the swing of things. We have a lock-in in Wellington tomorrow. That is our first big event with all of our youth group and we are pumped!!!

Two of the girls are staying with us tonight and came over earlier today.

We headed to the park up the road and to the dairy for a popsicle.

I sent them to the swings and then went to visit Ms. Marie (referred to as Morrie previously).

She lives across the road from the park.

She answered the door and looked quite excited to see me which was a good feeling.

She said that when she had her afternoon tea, she would sit and watch people walking by to see if any of those people were me and Brennan. Isn't that cool? We are going to visit her again next week (after she gets back from Phantom of the Opera) so please keep that possibility of a study in your prayers!

Goodnight!

This is a picture of Brennan playing on the infamous 'Buzzy Bee' at the airport when we landed. I forgot to include it earlier.

satsun

We took Saturday morning slow with a little bit of laundry and a long breakfast. Jared had been gone a while so Brennan and I decided to take a walk into town.

Jared had walked to his conference in the CBD the day before but forgot to mention the GARGANTUAN hill that you must go down to get to town. I seriously thought that if I wasn't careful, Brennan's stroller and I would be doomed. The worst part about going down a big hill is the thought of going back up to get home. More on that later.

Since the day we arrived, I had my eye on a place called FergBurger. The line was out the door all hours of the day and night. They are open 21 hours a day so that is saying something! While I was in town on Saturday morning I thought I might investigate this store. Yes, it was morning...but I thought that might be my only chance to ever get one.

I was out of luck as there was already a line and so I moved on to their new venture next door, FergBaker. It's a small pastry shop with lots of 'too sweet, must eat' goodness. I settled on their 'famous' Boston creme donut and shrouded my utter delight until I exited the premises.

 Now THAT is something to be famous for.

I took my breakfast down to the wharf and Brennan fell asleep along the way. I was looking for a certain spot to sit and eat and this was my view. Not bad.

 It was my luck that there happened to be a community market at the lake that day. There was lots of beautiful paintings, ceramics and jewelry. All of these were priced for tourists so it was nice to look but not buy.

 After Brennan woke up, we went to Underwater World!

Now in my head, I am picturing a vast aquarium full of indigenous fish and maybe even some ducks.

What we got was four windows along a wall where you had to pay to feed the fish so that you could see them. Not quite ideal. Even Brennan wasn't really impressed but I am sure he thought it was a little cool. What he thought is really all that matters anyway right?

Second nap in 3 hours...go for it dude.

 When it was time to walk back to the hotel, I followed my instinct and went through the Queenstown gardens. You get to the same place, but it is several small hills instead of one goliath one. I am a cheater when it comes to hard stuff. Don't the say to work smarter and not harder? I thought so.

When Jared's conference was over, we met him for fish and chips. These pieces of fish were as long as my forearm. I would post a picture but I fear that you may be getting bored with my food pictures.

oops.

Sunday, we took a drive to Glenorchy. I feel like this would be a name of one of the orks in the Lord of the Rings. 'Hi. My name is Glen. Glen Orchy.' Can't you see it?!

Here are some pictures from our road trip.

 We took a detour to a place called Paradise.

When we got to the River Jordan (not joking), it was flooded.

 But what do you do to get to Paradise? Cross the River Jordan in a rental car of course!

At last we made it to Paradise!

 Jared wanted to see the start of the Routeburn Track so off we went after leaving Paradise.

 It was really gorgeous on the drive to and from the Routeburn track.

 The grayish part of that mountain in the front was a giant slip (landslide)

 This is hard to see but I took it for my dad. That is an absolutely raging waterfall way up in the mountains. They were all over. They were really high up and I zoomed a lot on my camera to get this one!

I chose not to include pictures (nor did I take any) of the events that transpired on the way back from Glenorchy. I will put it like this...little man takes after his dad when it comes to car sickness. :(

unfortunately for us, this time it was 'in a rental car' sickness.

ear slaw

We knew that Thursday would be our only full weekday to enjoy Queenstown together. Jared's conference started early Friday morning. He would be walking and I would have the car, but we still wouldn't be together.

We started off early by taking a walk down to the lake and snapping some pictures. After coming back and getting ready, we headed into town.

While I was making 3 separate attempts to pay for our parking, Jared found our breakfast spot. It's called Les Alpes and its an authentic French restaurant right on the lakeside. It was decorated beautifully like an old farmhouse. I had the Millefeuille d'oeufs poches. Yes, I had to point at it. It's basically, poached eggs between two layers of puff pastry served with hollandaise sauce and ham. So...eggs benedict.

and Brennan had his first experience with soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers. 

It's a common breakfast food for kids here and it is GOOD. :) I only know because I shared some with him. Jared had a crazy assortment of French pastries.

 no...not all of these.

 and let just say....we made another run for those almond croissants later in the week.

Brennan decided that if you must eat at a French restaurant, you must have a French hairstyle.

 There will be a lot of talk about what we ate because it was so pretty and so good. Let me apologize in advance.

Jared had our day nice and planned so I was along for the ride. He took us up to Coronet ski field. Our rental car company had provided us with chains, but none were needed. The only place there was snow was on the actual ski field. We couldn't believe our luck with the warmer weather! It was awesome. This is where the fathead comes in! While attempting to get a selfie shot of 'The Remarkables' mountain range, I covered it up--with my head.

Here it is in all it's actual beauty. (The mountains, not my face)

 Brennan seemed to find 'The Remarkables' quite unremarkable.

The next stop was around lunchtime and we went to Arrowtown. Arrowtown was at the center of the New Zealand gold rush There is a Chinese settlement and a beautiful quaint little town.

It was recommended that we eat at a place called 'Provisions'. They are known and famous for their homemade sticky buns. Sitting outside in the garden, we experienced said sticky bun.

And to be honest, it was great but maybe not worth being known for.

Between breakfast and Coronet Peak, we had booked a trip on 'The Earnslaw' steamboat. Luckily, the booking agent didn't bat an eye when I misread and asked for tickets on the 'Earslaw'. This ship is coal fired and runs to the other side of Lake Wakatipu.

As you travel from shore to shore, they tell you interesting bits about the boat and the lake. They also point out mountains and talk about the history of the surrounding towns and sheep stations. They said that the name 'Wakatipu' means hollow of the sleeping giant. Apparently, the mountains look like a giant sleeping and the lake is in the middle. I am not sure how those who named it would have seen it from the air to know that but we'll pretend they did.

On this voyage is where I first had to dress my boy incognito.

Every single person on that boat that was visiting from Asia wanted to take a picture of him. A picture of him and a peace sign too. We were getting our picture made on the deck by the lady that tries to sell it to you...and there were Chinese tourists snapping our picture and trying to make Brennan laugh. I wish we had bought the picture so that you could have seen the quizzical look on his face. Now I am not being racist, I just think they thought he was the cutest thing they had ever seen. That is a fact that spans all cultures I guess. :)

I've written a book here, so I will save our mommy and boy adventures for another day!

ahhhnurld.

Let's play a game where we pretend to be musical composers!

I told you I would be back!

My lame humor has been absent from cyberspace lately but with good reason. For the past 6 days, we have been on our first official family vacation!!! Technically, Jared was still working but...I was on total vacation.

Jared had an endodontics course that just happened to be in QUEENSTOWN!

Here's how the conversation started in May...

Jared: 'There's a conference in Queenstown in September.'

Me: 'I'm already packed.'

We had been planning this conference/vacation for a while so we had plenty of time to research and get excited. Jared had been to Queenstown a few times before. It is close to Dunedin in the South Island where he went to school. I knew that it was going to be crazy fun and was excited to see what he loved so much about it.

We left on Wednesday and were chauffeured to  the airport by our friend and Jared's assistant Mya.

We landed around dinner time and spent the rest of the night checking into our apartment and acquainting ourselves with the area. Part of acquainting ourselves with the area meant finding an awesome Mexican restaurant called Sombrero's. It was authentic tex mex and the gave free chips and salsa! A rare find in these parts!

Here are some pictures from our first day of vacation!

 having a snack at the Palmy airport

 I keep looking for the plane but I can't see it!

 we live on an island ya'll...airports are small and you walk out to your plane.

 He was out of it by the time we landed in Christchurch. I had some sinus issues before we left and by the time we landed here, it felt like my eardrums were about to burst. I have never felt that on planes but now I understand!

 See those images in the distance that look like more clouds? Snow covered mountains! We were so lucky that there was very little cloud cover during our flight so I got to see Mt. Cook!

 This is the view from our front porch.

 This is the view at the end of our street! Taken with a cellphone but I think it's a framer. We also got a lot of pictures of Brennan that are quite nice but will need some touch ups and such.

 Tune in tomorrow for fancy french restaurants, fatheads, slaw and peace sign picture snappers :)