Random Pearls from Parnell

This is probably the last time I will write to you from my lovely little perch in Parnell.  Movers are scheduled for Monday morning and we are headed out to Kohimarama for the remaining time that we will be in Auckland.    I am looking forward to it in some ways but not in others.  I wanted to share a little that's been on my mind in the meantime although I have absolutely nothing of any importance to say, I am going to type away...

Once, what seems like a million years ago, I had a friend who we will call Raquets 4 Rachel of R4R for short who had a baby.  I wasn't even married yet or even thinking about it if I recall so I was probably like 26!  I went to her house one day and someone knocked on the door (once I was already inside).  She didn't answer the door telling me that when she had become a mother she had stopped answering the door unless she was expecting someone...I will not lie, I thought this was over the top!

Fast forward almost a decade and guess what?  I do not answer my door unless I am expecting someone!  I totally agree with her, when someone calls you mama, life changes.  Ed McMahon (did you know he died four years ago?  I had NO idea) could be knocking on my door (although it would have to be his ghost with publisher's clearing house) and I would not answer.  Better yet, it could be Oprah and I would be like, please make an appointment!

The people who bought our house have been here like a dozen times (not exaggerating) in the last FOUR months and they are about ready to drive me insane.  There is always a door left open or a window left unlocked and today they left the gate to the unused backyard open (where I finally found AJ3 after a frantic search).  I don't really like having strangers (and their subcontractors) around my kids. If for no other reason than this, I am ready to move.

Our new house is AWESOME!!  Super excited to show you around!!  We have a great view of Rangitoto, a little fenced in park down the street a walled off private courtyard and one whole side of the house is glass!

So, today I am saying goodbye to the new owners of the Brighton house but I am also saying goodbye to my second least favorite part of pregnancy -- the first trimester!  Whoohoo!  Goodbye sleepy, grumpy, sicky, icky, nasty first trimester!!  Babies who make it through the first trimester of gestation have only a 3% risk of miscarriage (okay so that statistic could be totally inaccurate as I googled it and gave you the first answer I found -- I'm not even siting it).  Tomorrow morning I am officially still not very pregnant (14 weeks) but I have been feeling ready for the energy, nesting, wonderfulness of trimester 2!

I even look forward to the dreaded last six weeks -- okay, maybe I don't -- but the last day of pregnancy at like 37 weeks sounds fantastically happy to me!!  Some of my favorite people were born on June 19 (I'll be 37 weeks that day)!!  I have NEVER carried a baby 40 weeks or 39 weeks or even 38 weeks so I am hoping for a healthy, 6 1/2 pound (Oh goodness, I will not know how much my baby weighs until after I convert it!!), 21 inch (again with the conversion!), 37 week kiwi in the middle of the night (I've never had a baby in the daylight hours!)!!  Just watch, I will have an 3.62 Kg, 43 CM, noon time baby!!

One last thing and if you haven't left of your own volition, I will be done - AJ1 has been asking about birth.  I'm just not ready to have that conversation with my four year old...This weekend he was asking in the car with JJ and I and I answered that the baby would be born at the hospital.  AJ1 asked where the baby would come out, I said the hospital.  It's a conversation we have had for weeks and weeks and he knows I am avoiding him so JJ answers that I will push the baby out at the hospital.  1 becomes very serious and says incredulously that Mamma can't do that because then 4's head will explode!  I think we traumatized him more than we would have with talk of vaginas!!

Cheers!

Not My Cup of Tea!

Was I not paying attention?  Was the train misrepresented?  I don't really know (okay, I wasn't paying attention) but I will never forget the hour I spent clutching my babies thinking of all the ways we could die on the narrow gauge train ride at Driving Creek Railway and Pottery!  If you are not the faint of heart, you can see Barry's story here...It was actually really amazing and Barry has lots of plans to save his little part of the world -- Very commendable!

We arrived and everyone was excited!  Look, there are tracks to explore.  See here, pottery and pottery sculpture! 

The new organic waste water treatment plant was endearing...

The entire place was gorgeous really and I didn't really record it well (I didn't realize that I wouldn't really feel up to it upon return from the train :)

Here is the kind of train that we rode...Caged in to the half way point, open at the top.

Here we go!

So, the photo above is from one of the areas where the train goes out onto a cliff, actually, off a cliff on tracks where it sits with no gaurd rails, while the (very crunchy) conductor walks to the other end to put the train in the opposite gear and pull back onto the zig-zag tracks.  Seriously, how easy it would be to forget to change the gears and go right off the cliff down the bazillion foot drop (for real, a bazillion!).  I was concered when we went over the non-tressled bridge that was a trillion feet up a mountain but by the time we got to the bazillion foot drop I was writing headlines in my head!

Yep, took this photo while riding the train!

Oh, look, there is a piece of track down below!!

At the top it was almost worth it.  The views were amazing, like nothing I'd ever expected to see in my whole, entire life!!  When we got back on the train to go down I almost had myself convinced that it wasn't as dangerous as all the times I ran around and rode on rides at the Buck Creek Festival as a kid but I still don't really believe that!

The Playground of My Sons

I'm always looking for a new way to tell you just how beautiful it is here in New Zealand.  There are only so many ways that I can say words like "amazing", "breathtaking" and "inspiring" before I feel as though I will no longer be believed or my readers will just become bored.  Today I would like to just show you.  I would like to show you the playground of my sons and their parents and let you see for yourself...

Occasionally I even make an appearance ;)