expansion

since moving home and working part time, i dubiously began a garden to see if i could at least keep something alive and maybe feed my family healthy stuff. much to my surprise it has brought so much out of me i had lost and i have totally embraced the new found creativity it has brought me.

hubby and i were talking the other night and he said {i think your garden is a picture of you}. it took me back for a minute as i was surprised at such a revelation but in many ways it's true. i thought to share with you some personal insights on my garden journey and the metaphorical picture it is painting me.

chocolate milk and hell in the hallway

if you live outside of new zealand you may be unaware of a wild craze that has gripped north islanders for the last couple of weeks. people are going absolutely bonkers for chocolate milk! more specifically lewis road creamery {fresh chocolate milk}

it's in the bag {ocean beach, northland}

for father's day this year, i had the idea of doing {the present or the bag} a take-off of the famous kiwi game show {it's in the bag} that toured the country in the 70's and 80's. hubby had to choose between the wrapped presents or a new idea on a handwritten note {well, i'll let you know he somehow managed to get them all by the end!}

one of the notes was to take isaiah to ocean beach for the first time. ocean beach is a place you have to plan to visit as it's positioned on the southeast side of whangarei heads; the entrance to our harbour.

father's day | 2014

it was a stunning day, with puffy clouds hovering in a sea of blue. an amazing respite from the unrelenting rain we have experienced since being back.

we started with celebrating hubby, with rough and tumble on the bed... Pancakes and presents and a fun 'the present or the bag' rendition, making opening presents a little more interesting. i owe hubby a forty minute massage because of it!

A first father's day

from baby Hub

Today we are celebrating a first.

My love's birthday

My love's birthday was a big celebration this week.

There were surprises, movie watching, pizza and watermelon (always a good combination), secret photoshoots (below), present opening and a dinner out with a sleeping baby during most of it so we could chat and gaze into each others eyes (hehe maybe just a little).

 Happy birthday Mark ~ you are an amazing father, great adventurer and my best friend!

Love you more than the most xx

TIK: Exercise

TIK: This is Korea

Well! You don't see one of these every day. An exercise machine AND a virtual horse ride! From my *amazing* commentary, this experience was described as a 'comfort ride'... Speaking from experience, (as I was pushed encouraged to try it next) this is no 'comfort ride'. This is a work out people! You can choose the degree it moves, the speed you 'ride', all while holding onto a bar in the front of the saddle. The sales assistant sure thought I needed a work out when I tried it out, Hubby definitely came off light!

Twin Day

My hubby loves to dress up, he is known for his costumes and flair when it comes to parties and gatherings.

Nothing could prepare people for what he and his buddy did today.

Sumo anyone?

My favorite

After 29 hours of travel, sporting his All Blacks top and an upper-lip camouflaged with a month's worth of Movember growth, Hubby arrived safe and sound back to me here in NZ.

It's SO great to be reunited and to prepare for our little's arrival but let's just say the mo' will be going very soon!

We have lots to catch up on as we have been away from each other for the looooongest time - one whole month people! - at the start of the time it was such a daunting task but God is good and we skyped sometimes twice a day to get through... Thankfully baby Hub held on!

Here's to our next adventure as soon-to-be mum and dad and to spending lots of quality time with family and celebrating this very special time of year with the ones we love!

34 Weeks

When we visited the Garden of the Morning Calm we had an opportunity to take some maternity photos before I leave for NZ on November 3.

It was great to capture these moments in such a beautiful environment.

Life sure is going to be a new adventure in the next 6 weeks!

Running for Peace

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share something Hubby did last Sunday... He ran a 10km run for the DMZ Peace run.

An awesome event that supports peace between North and South Korea. We even got a 3kg bag of rice from the DMZ area with being enrolled for the event! I think that will last a while!

Hubby went with a big group of friends and colleagues from our school - leaving at 3:45am to catch the bus for a 2+ hour ride to the northern area it was being held... and in the end coming back at 5:30pm - a massive day! But one filled with great achievements and bit of fun thrown in when a group went to the jimjilbang (gender segregated hot jacuzzi and sauna places here in Korea) to relax the muscles while they waited for the longer races to finish.

I am so proud of him for doing this and he getting a time of 58mins for his first 10km run, I thought he did an awesome job.

He said he wants to do another one and better his time now! Go MP!

flower delivery love

i have been horribly sick this week, with a nasty flu bug that is doing the circuits here at our school. 

i am loving how my sweet husband made me feel so loved on tuesday, even when i was feeling miserable!

in every apartment here we have a video control board which lets us see if visitors want to be let into our building and a camera at the front door of our apartment. quite often we have random people press our apartment number so we usually ignore them. 

on valentine's day, feeling sorry for myself in bed, i heard the tune start playing and so i thought to just let it play and it would stop. it kept going so i got up and checked the video screen... i certainly didn't recognize the korean man at our building's door. i then got a phone call. and as i started to speak my very un-fluent korean, the person on the other end quickly realized i could't speak to him and he couldn't speak to me! we then hang up... 

later on, I find out that he was a flower delivery man! 

second time round he is successful and we laugh together as he hands me the flowers and says to me 'mistu hu-budo' in broken english. 

so today i am joining in with paisley-jade and loving my red roses, chuckling about a funny scenario in a still-somewhat-foreign land.

Treats

Well, here I am stuck up in bed sick on Valentine's Day.

But thankful that my valentine was so thoughtful to bring me treats and soft toys to keep me company.


I love you Marko.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Full circle.

Hey, there. Nice to see you again. It has been soooo long since I have even popped in here myself! I have been full circle....
Delete it.
Too deep in a season of challenge and stressed out.
I want to try.
Don't know how to start again.
Delete it.
But I want to write.

Til now. So, I am back and to start I want to address my silence here.

movember november {2011}

november has been and gone, but what fun measures hubby took to raise money for an important cause he and his colleagues wanted to support!

during the month, he took a photo of his progress daily with differing names for his mo. i chuckled a lot with his photography skills and captions...

be in awe of his transformation.

open-ceremony mo / is it working? mo / Cautious mo / friday evening mo / disconcerting mo

self-conscitious mo / tender mo / looking-at-you-sideways mo / angry mo / reflective mo

fantastic-friday-man-date mo / big-bad-wolf mo / northland mo / mr. mu mo / milk mo

working-class-man mo / tuff mo / relaxed mo / christmas mo / creeping-over-the-lip mo

china mo / korean-teddy mo / romantic mo / raccoon mo / clouded mo

mascara mo / mr. ohm mo / horseshoe mo / fancy mo 

lastly, here is a collage of his team taken by a colleague todd. 

aren't they a handsome crew?

in total, this team raised over $3,700 for the cause. thanks to all the donations and for the effort these fine men made.

just so you know, hubby tried to keep his mo for most of December 1st but i was swift to remind him that movember was done and dusted. he quickly complied. 

i didn't realise he had captured the process he took to take it off though so i have to share it with you.

ah, phew another year of fending off the mo is over... the sound of the electric razor was oh-so-sweet!

how do you feel about moustaches? are you a fan?

An apple a day...

I am proud of him.

And the relentless effort in which he teaches his students.

This fun-filled, rugby-obsessed teacher and husband was chosen by a colleague for Teacher of the Month.

You deserve it Hubby. 

Good job MP.

Fun times

Hubby had his first body board in Korea today. In his words 'It was small but fun'. I was happy for him, it was relaxing to enjoy the warm water and see him having a chance to get in the waves. 

I snapped this pic of him as he paddled in.

I have loads of photos of our adventures with my in-laws so stayed tuned :)

Happy Chuseok everyone!

For old times sake...

A couple of days ago hubby found these photos (taken when we were dating) and it made me teary eyed. 

We miss them.

Happy birthday MP.

Thank you for the daily ritual of tickling my toes and doing the dishes without any hesitation. 

Bless you for your big wrap around hugs and for the way you care for my family. 

Thank you for challenging me in ways I didn't know existed and for dreaming big dreams with me.

But thank you most of all for being born on this very day. I'm so grateful for that and for you. 

x

I just cant get enough of it!

Oh I am loving being outside!

I realize that the last winter we have been through was the harshest and coldest I have ever experienced. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad, there was some amazing memories from it but I am such an outside person. I wasn't used to all this 'apartment living' - so it has been so freeing to be outside this weekend and enjoying the beauty of our maker's design in this amazing season.


Long may it last!