Ups, downs, changes, and weird creatures

We just finished another beautiful weekend in Paekakariki on the Kapati Coast of New Zealand. In many ways (other than the absence of one very important family member), it seems as though we've been here for a long time. We know our way around for the most part, I smile and say hi to the other parents when I pick the kids up from school each sunny, warm afternoon at 3pm, I go shopping for groceries and other life necessities, I use my local debit card on my local bank account when I shop....I even get frustrated around dinner time when I'm trying to unpack lunch remnants, make dinner, listen to the kids read to me (their only homework so far for the most part) and talk to Jim all at the same time. So in many ways, our experience is proving the truism that "wherever I go, there I am!" Michael asked me the other day if it felt like I was on vacation or actually living here, and I replied, "when you have 3 kids, there are no real vacations." There are wonderful times, but there's no real escape from real life. And that's as it should be.

Some ups: internet and phone "up" as of last Friday, we jumped "up" in joy and excitement as we rode the waves on Jennifer and Michael's boogie boards Saturday evening after dinner, we celebrated our new friend, Melissa's finishing "up" of her Masters' thesis, the kids climbed "up" some really cool sand dunes near our house on Sunday (see first picture on top of sand dunes and second picture climbing them.

Some downs: internet and phone "down" as of Sunday morning due to some technical issues (fortunately back up again as of today), came back down the dunes squealing with delight, a few "down" moments for the kids as they miss their dad and their friends.

Changes: Our address. As lovely as the house we're living in is, we're going to move as of March 20th or even a bit earlier. This house is very expensive and getting more and more expensive as the $$ tumbles. This is exaccerbated by the fact that everything is way more expensive here than we had expected. Additionally, this lovely house we're in is about a 20 minute walk from school and most of the kids friends. Serendipitously, Jennifer and Michael are moving into their new house (they bought and renovated their dream house that overlooks the sea) in a few weeks, but as the housing marketing is tanking in NZ as well, have been unable to sell their old house as quickly as they would have liked. So we will move in there, solving our money and location problems and hopefully bridging the time it will take them to sell their house. Deciding to move was hard because the person from whom we are renting the current house was hoping to have us longer than this. On the other hand, as they say, that's life in the real estate market.

Oh, and the weird creatures....that's the third picture. As we were walking back from the sand dunes to our house on Sunday, we came across this fish skeleton perched on a post. At first, I thought it was art, as Paekakariki is quite an artist community. I found out later that it was a puffer fish, which people tend to save in this way because they're so unusual and beautiful in their own way. I also saw a sand sculpture of a naked lady lying on her side last week when I was running on the beach. I wanted to show it to the kids, but alas, the tide had washed it away! More on weird creatures....Jennifer and Michael took us to one of their favorite places on Saturday, a place called Pokeru Bay, where you can go walking around on the rocks next to the sea and spend hours watching little sea creatures (starfish, shrimp, crabs and much more) swimming around in these endless little pools of water. It was a place to lose yourself.

All for now.....