A whole lot of change ...

Well of course there's the big one that we moved from UK to NZ! But we've had a few more since ...

I should do a quick update of our life in New Zealand so far. We arrived at the end of October during a very, very cold spell of weather and I had only bought summer clothes - you'd think I would have learnt that New Zealand really is the land of 'four seasons in one day'! The relaxing and chilling out did happen but just not for very long. I was keen that we would know where we wanted to be by the start of the new school year and to that end went exploring. From Waitarere Beach I travelled the length of the Kapiti and Horowhenua Coast and realised it wasn't for us because it is so busy (that coming from someone who lived in the Midlands - but it certainly is busy by New Zealand standards and you have SH1 to contend with!).

So I went farther afield and tiki toured the Wairarapa. Now this is a beautiful part of thw world and I felt it would give us the best of everything - a rural life but with access to amazing coastline and the capital, Wellingon, within easy reach. I had my first day ever away from the girls and went exploring and liked it enough to then take Craig with me. I was getting quite excited and also thought that it would be great if we did move there because then maybe we'd be able to meet up with Janelle from Heart Felt and Amy at Seven Stitches.

Alas it was not to be! We got to the stage where we were seriously thinking of putting in an offer (and to the UK readers the house buying process here is completely different to that in the UK and the first offer you make is formalised in a contract that is a legal document - the advantage is that if everyone agrees you have a binding contract and you can, and we have, buy a house in 2 weeks, the disadvantage is that you really need to mean the offer because it's hard to break!). It was at that stage that we really started talking about what we were going to do for a living. We've nearly always worked for ourselves and have had ideas in the past for starting up a business.

However, to cut a long story short we decided that now was not the right time, with regard to family life and the economy, and that ever since I met Craig he had talked vaguely about going back to college at some stage. So we've taken the plunge and he's enrolled at college and starts next Monday!!!!! I think he was more nervous than I was about it but, like I said to him, if he doesn't do it now he may never do it. We're used to living off not very much and it would be harder to head back to study in a few years time if we had already set up a business/venture.

I've also got a few ideas in my head of things I can do whilst the girls are still at home (and I can't believe Maia will be starting school this September - how quickly does the time go?!). Hopefully I'll now have time to implement some things without any moving around! So we've ended up in a small town in the Manawatu. Certainly not what or where I was envisaging, which was rural, land, veges and animals and I really thought it would be the South Island, but then I didn't know Craig was going to go back to college. On the up side it means I can walk everywhere so I can cut my car usage which has been on my list for a long time, we still have a 1/4 acre section so we can certainly grow veges, we've got lots of neighbours .... well I can't think of any positive spin to put on that because I was dearly wanting a private, secluded section!

Maia is starting at her new kindy tomorrow - her 5th! Sometimes I do have guilt attacks and wonder what all the moving around is doing to them but on the whole I think they're very well rounded girls who seem to be developing really well and are extremely loving and generous. In fact I received a beautiful complimtent the other day from my sister-in-law. They came up from Wellington to stay for the night and she couldn't believe how good the girls were and the fact that she didn't hear them cry or whinge once the whole time. I played it down but she's around alot of children and she really did think ours were great! It's not often that you get praise or compliments for your efforts as a parent so it was definitely nice to hear.

Phew! I thinks that's the longest post to date - will lighten the load tomorrow with photos!