Things I've noticed in New Zealand (by Donna)

The kids were very surprised about how little Christmas was celebrated. It is surprising if you see lights on houses etc. However, in the area they live you really can't see the houses from the road. In the beach houses in town, you could see them and maybe there were 3 houses we saw in the town that had lights. We saw several people wih their trees after I came which was really close to Christmas. Brandon said they really didn't start playing Christmas music till the 20th or so in all the stores and the people didn't really start shoppping till school was out which was the Wed. of the week I came. The toilets have little buttons on the top which you push to flush. There are 2 buttons, one for a little job and one for a big job. Also, most public toilets are unisex, a fact I new but sort of forgot yesterday when we were at the Gold Class Theatre.
Just before the movie started Mindy and I dashed in to potty. There was a little area inside the door with a mirror, I guess to touch up your make up and then another door to go into the potty. since we were in a rush, I went ahead and unfastened my pants so I could dash in as soon as she came out. Much to my dismay about that time, a young man walked in and just
stood in that tiny room with me waiting! I luckily had my hoodie on and managed to kind of wrap it around so my pants didn't gape open! Something to remember when visiting!
The kiwis not only drive on the wrong side of the road, they naturally walk that way too. Brandon pointed out yesterday that the walking would go better for us if we would move over on the sidewalk, stairs etc. I can't get used to it still although I can ride now without my tummy flipping over on the circles (turn arounds) They really make you feel like you are going the
wrong way! There are almost no pick ups or big cars here. I think I've seen one pick up. Even trucks like trash trucks, delivery etc. are usually way smaller. They are toyotas most of the time. Also, the kiwis are CRAZY drivers. The roads are mostly narrow, two lane roads that have no shoulders to speak of b/c the plants grow right up to the edge of the road. At least
in this area anyway. The roads are winding, and go up and down hill constantly. They get in their little cars and fly around the corners and hills and may cross over the line at very inoportune times. Add to the mix lots of bikes and pedestrians. Also, they don't have yellow lines, only white ones on the roads. I have to rush off to get dressed to go out and about today. This is such a fun fun adventure for me. I think I am a gypsy at heart and could live happily in an apartment and travel tons more! I love watching people and seeing how differently or the
same they do things. Oh yes, there are TONS of pregnant women here. they seem to have a baby about every 9 - 15 months. Their strollers have a place for a baby, then a little add on for a toddler and usually one or two more walking alongside and Mum may be pregnant. It seems they have about 3 kids as close together as possible. One morning, I got to see them
going to school. Most folks walk their children to school so here goes Mum or Dad (lots of stay at home Dads here carrying around the babies) with the kids, a pram and backpacks walking along together to school. The sidewalks were just full of people. Mindy says that from about the age of 10 or so the kids in her neighborhood walk along with cups of coffee but the kids
in other areas carry cokes along and drink on the way. Apparently this neighborhood is more health concious? Anyway, that is all I can think of right now of interest. The weather forcast today is 17 and 1 raindrop. The weather has a little picture of the sun (if you're lucky) and either a light gray cloud or dark gray cloud with 1 - 4 raindrops telling you how much it will rain
that day. One raindrop is good but right now it is pouring. Of course it will probably clear off and be fine in 10 minutes! I have learned that 17 is blue jean weather and long sleeves and a hoodie for me though so I have to go put away the shorts I have out. It was really warm yesterday if it wasn't windy anyway. Have a great day everyone! I'll be home Sunday or Monday !

Zoo Day (by Mindy)

We spent today at the Auckland Zoo. It is a VERY nice zoo. There were NO cages!! Everything was right up where you could see it. Some of the animals where even lose and you had to go through double doors to get into their area. They all stayed out of reach, but it was a lot of fun! Enjoy the pics :) Oh, and I'm NOT as big as the side view picture makes me out to be!!! I just had on a blousy shirt! Though, I will announce that we had an appointment with the midwife today and we got to hear the baby's heart beat!!! I just can't tell you how incredible it was to hear that little beating heart in my tummy :) We could also hear whenever (s)he moved because it would make this little bump sound--there were lot's of bumpy sounds going on in there. I may be in trouble when little pickle gets big enough for me to feel moving around in there!

Christmas Dinner

Here are pictures from our Christmas Dinner. It was a classical Kiwi Christmas Dinner -- ham, new potatoes, and green beans. Dessert was Pavlova -- a baked meringue with a whipped cream topping.

Here are PICTURES!

Merry Christmas!! :)

We've had a WONDERFUL Christmas day. I cooked pancakes for breakfast, we made Pavlova, opened our Chrissy Pressies and chatted with everyone we know! Here are the pictures from today, including EVERY SINGLE outfit I got for Christmas or we've bought shopping--I'm just worn out from modeling and posing. Brandon and mom are working on a traditional New Zealand Christmas dinner as we speak. I'm taking pictures of all their hard work and we'll take a picture of the finished meal before we eat it. So you can check for those pics tomorrow. We love you guys and miss you bunches!! Have a wonderful Christmas day, we will be hitting the Boxing Day sales!

Click for pictures
PICTURES!!

Mum's vacation (by Mindy)

Fun in the sun in December on the beach (Only in New Zealand!) We gave mum 12 hours of sleep and then packed her up for 4 days at the beach. We had the cutest bach just steps away from the rumbling ocean. Our first full day there we decided to walk down the beach to a trail through the mountains. Looks were a little deceiving, because we walked about 45 minutes on the beach before we even reached the trail. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and we didn't mind so much. We hiked up the mountain through a beautiful trail that had some magnificent views from the top. We made it back just in time for lunch (okay, so I started snacking on the way back!). After lunch and a nap Brandon and I decided to try our skills at kayaking. We (and by we I mean mum and Brandon--I'm pregnant :) hauled a huge, heavy two-man kayak down to the beach. The waves looked big, but we decided that must just be part of kayaking in the ocean. Undettered by 12-15 foot waves we made a plan, strapped on our life vests and pushed off. We got fairly far out before I finally chickened out. Out in the ocean in a little kayak watching waves that are WAY high above you crashing down (looked a lot like a tsnuami coming at you) is a little scary. So we managed to get turned around and headed back before we finally got tossed from a little vessel. We thought it was a pretty good first voyage over-all. We got the kayak back to the beach and went and played in the smaller waves for a while. And by we I mean Brandon and I, mom was sitting in a lawn chair trying to recover from wathing her daughter and her young family facing tsnuami sized waves in a kayak. We got back to the bach and went on a VERY long tour of about 3 or 4 towns trying to find somewhere to eat that was open. Our next day at the beach we drove to a city that was near by and did some shopping and ate some wonderful ice cream. When we got back we decided to go walk on the beach. We came over the little sand dune to where we could see the ocean and it was as smooth as glass! Not a single wave!! We stared at each other a moment before busting out laughing--kayaking lesson no. 1: don't try to kayak in hurricane type winds! We collected sea shells for mom's class and I collected Paua shell, which is a shiny shell. That night we cleaned our little bach--the directions left for us said it should look like no one had stayed there. The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn (5:30!) loaded our stuff and headed out to swim with the dolphins. It was AMAZING!! We found a pod right of the bat. They were in the process of feeding so we just observed, but it was SO interesting. The dolphins all spread out to herd a school of fish. They all came together and made a perfect circle around the fish and ate like crazy. After they ate they swam around and played with the boat. We were told it was time to swim so we donned our wet suites, masks and snorkels. We divided up into two groups on the boat. The first group went but the dolphins swam away, so we chased them down and the second group went (somehow Brandon and mom missed out on both those first groups but I jumped in on the second group). The boat left us when the dolphins swam off to see if they could bring them back. The boat returned but the dolphins didn't. After cathing up with them again the guides connected a big swim bar to the boat with ropes. When we caught up with the dolphins again we were told to jump off, swim as quick as we could to the bar, grab ahold like superman and put our faces under the water to look for dolphins. What they didn't tell us was that as they dragged us along behind the boat at 3-4 knots (fairly fast) icey water was going to shoot down our wet suits which takes your breath away. It took several goes before the dolphins finally got used to us and were will to swim with us. I enjoyed it, I saw 3 or 4 dolphins swimming under me, but was more impressed by all the dolphins swimming and jumping beside me. Mom was also being drug along at that time so she got to see them too. Unfortunately Brandon hadn't made it into that group and never did see any while in the water. It was VERY fun, but VERY cold! When we got back to land we ate lunch and headed to another town on our way home where we did some shopping. We finally found a store that sold maternity clothes and just about bought the place out! This morning we woke up and mom and Brandon were both a little sore from being drug along behind the boat. I didn't have much sympathy for them since I'm 3 months prego and feeling just fine! Today we took the train downtown and went to a little market and walked around downtown a bit. We are now home in our pj's watching "Griswald Family Christmas" and getting ready to crash for the night!

http://picasaweb.google.com/boots4walking/WaihiBeach

Mom made it!!

We picked mom up at the airport just a few hours ago! She made it all the way around the world with ALL her luggage! We have gone through and looked at all the fun baby stuff and placed all the Chrissie pressies under the tree. And amazingly she is still upright! We were a little nervous about her making the plane Saturday because she went home from school Friday with 100 degree fever! Fortunately, the doc at the minor emergency clinic gave her great shot--she's kind of dragging that leg behind her, but she's not sick anymore :) Well, I must go play with my MOM!!! :)

Pickle's first sonogram

Here is the first picture of our baby!! Little Pickle is 3.5 cm long and is NOW expected to be here around July 10--a couple of weeks later than we were thinking. It was so cool to see our little baby in there wriggling and kicking and he even waved hello! Hope you make out all the parts :)

Going to the Doctor Could Be Bad for Your Health

The Journal of the American Medical Association (no less) says that a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health has done a study that demonstrates that the U.S. health care system may contribute to poor health.

“ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
# 12,000 — unnecessary surgery
# 7,000 — medication errors in hospitals
# 20,000 — other errors in hospitals
# 80,000 — infections in hospitals
# 106,000 — non-error, negative effects of drugs

These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!! Iatrogenic means induced in a patient by a physician’s activity, manner, or therapy -- especially of a complication of treatment.

This just confirms what I discovered while representing physicians in medical malpractice lawsuits. Doctors are human and are no more virtuous, miraculous, or trustworthy than any other person with an opinion -- which we know every asshole has (isn't that the saying?). You are responsible for your own health. Why do so much of us hand that responsibility over so freely? [Maybe because it is easier. We love easy.]

The Western or allopathic medical system has its place, but only as a heroic measures treatment. If a person is hit by a car and bleeding to death, he should be seen by a medical doctor and not a medicinal herbalist. Acute injury and heroic measures are what the vast majority of an M.D.'s training is in. However, a person with a cold or chronic depression or asthma must explore her options or face the possibility of becoming one of the statistics above. The Western physician's focus is too narrow and his toolbox to sparse to give him complete control of our health.

See, http://www.traditionalnaturopath.com/ for more.

A Kiwi Jingle Bells

Found this at my school--enjoy! :)

Dashing to the bay, In a Kombi campervan,
Christmas at the beach--The family's master plan.

Dad is at the wheel, And Mum sits by his side,
We kids are squabbling in the back, As we go for a ride.

Oh jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in New Zealand
on a sunny summer's day,
Ay!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to have a Kiwi holiday

We stop off at the shops, to load the chilly bin,
Hokey-pokey ice cream soon dribbles down my chin.

We jump into the van, heading for the shore,
Dad fiddles with the radio to hear the cricket score.

(Chorus)

Soon we're at the beach, Our rellies shout "G'day"
We swap our Chrissie pressies, A boogie board--Hooray!

We change into our togs and to the sea we run...
What a joy to splash and swim, Summer's so much fun!

(Chorus)

The grown-ups call us in, They've laid us out a spread:
Lunch is fish n chips, and cheerios in bread.

L&P to drink Pavlova, pud and pie,
Anzac bikkies, choccy fish it's cracker Kiwi Kai!

(chorus)

The kids are keen to play, but the dads all want to nap,
The sunscreen starts to fly,
As Mums go slip--slop--slap.

We race out to the sand, to play a game of touch,
But all the cuzzies are too slow, Because they ate too much!

(chorus)

The barbcue heats up, the sun begins to sink,
Our tea's as good as gold,
We've scoffed it in a wink.

It's nearly time for bed, We've had an awesome day,
Celebrating Christmas time the real New Zealand way!