Update

Well things are going great here at the mother board.
I forgot a couple of things. My recipe box, scrapbooking stuff, books for the kids, my jewelery and our insurance card for the car. Dru was speeding on the way down to SLC and we got pulled up and realized we had no proof of insurance.
Nice.
I could tell the cop EXACTLY where it was. But he still gave us the warning anyway.
Lucky, no ticket though.
Dru drove nicely the rest of the way.
We're all unpacked and in place and it feels really good. I'm open for options of awesome recipe's from people as I have NONE.
I might go hunting through Dru's mum's recipe books for some. She's got that Better homes and gardens one.
Anyone have a favourite out of that one?
I might go searching on peoples blogs for recipes they've posted.
I'm bumming out about my scrapbooking stuff. I was all keen to get that all done and then I FORGOT IT.
I'm gonna start taking the kids to the library and get books out with them. I've never done it before and I'm very ashamed.
Both Dru and I were brought up with going to the library and getting books out with our siblings.
I think it's cause I have SO MANY books there's no need you know.
So this'll be good for us.
I talked to Masaru about it and he was all excited and said "Wow I'm going to get THREE books mum"
He's having a great time here. I love summer as the kids play outside all day and get EXHAUSED and drop into bed and in SECONDS are asleep.
Love it.
He talks about his mates up in Moscow and how they're all missing him.
"Mum my mates in Moscow all miss me"
"Is that right Masaru"
"Yeah, I'm really far away from them, I miss them too mum"
Cute.
Dru had a good first week at work and tomorrow is our first day at our ward. I'm excited.
I've caught up with some people and it's been really nice.
We went to our house and have a bit of yard work to do.
It'll keep me busy and the kids love playing on the street with the other kids while I weed away.
I might go down every morning till it's looking decent.
I feel sorry for the neighbours.
Lucky they like us.
It'll be easy enough to get looking clean.
Masaru LOVES living so close to his cousins and plays with them all the time. He loves seeing his Auntie and Uncle every day too and gives them a yell and a wave everytime he sees them.
Anyway I'm rambling, but so far so good.
Things are great.

And it all begins...................for Yuki, or should I say Kakiko

So little Kakiko won second prize in her colouring in competition. As you can see, she got $5, which we put into our bank account straight away. Nice job Kakiko, we're very proud of you.
Here's her entry. It's the glitter that won them over, I think. She did it all herself. I didn't help at all. Ok I helped clean up the glitter mess. Masaru might have been an influence with the magic lamp because I can't see Yuki doing it like that. But who knows.
In the bank's defense, here's what they had to go by for Yuki's name. I wrote it AFTER the glitter was dried and the 'Yu' was done over the glitter part on the other side, so it's a little messed up.
I can see how they got Kakiko from my handwriting.
I think this one COULD be my fault.
Sorry poo poo's.
Since we're on the subject of messing up names, we got Masaru's pre-school class photo, and let me remind you THEY HAVE HIS NAME DOWN ON FILE NUMEROUS TIMES, apparently his name is Masary Nakaua. Someone has issues with u's and y's I guess.
IT'S ON THERE FOREVER. I can't change that. Now if he's famous the other kids are gonna look at that and say to themselves "I'm sure we used to call that dude Masaru, who knew it was Masary"

Kids

Apparently Dru and I warrented a certificate for being such great parents to Masaru this pre-school year. Yaaaa for me and Dru and the wonderful parents we are!! I mean if Masaru's pre-school think we deserve this then we really MUST be awesome. Surely it was just Dru and I that got this, no other parents, right!!

So Masaru finished his first year at pre-school and I think it went well. To be honest I wasn't impressed with his teacher. I don't think her heart was in it, she was disorganized and took a lot of days off. I know I'm already starting to become THAT parent that all the teachers would talk about in the faculty room. I don't care. I just don't think she was that great. Nice girl, just not a great teacher. Anyway she decided to quit and Masaru had the aids as his 'teachers' for the rest of the year. So it was a little crazy actually. The main reason I sent him was socializing. He's only got one other boy his age in our ward and was going 'crazy' at the apartment and misbehaving. So head start was a great option to get him out four times a week to exert some energy and make some mates.
The one thing I'm grateful for is his speech lessons he's been getting. He's doing really well and wouldn't have gotten them if it hadn't been for the head start programme.
I don't think they teach them much academic's to get them prepped for kindergarten, but I'd always planned on teaching my kids for a hour or so a day once they reached 5 years old. I have issues with my kids not starting school at 5 like back home in NZ. Yuki isn't going to be in first grade till basically 7 years old. My mum said in NZ a 7 year old kid is a fluent reader!!
This is another post for another time though. I'll hold off my rant about the system here.

Anyway, of course, I'm proud of Masaru and his year at pre-school. I miss him and wish it wasn't so many days away. I could do 2-3 days max, 4 is a little much. But I don't want him to be absent from school. I guess I could just take him to 3 days.
A girl that I visit teach is going to be the new teacher. I love her and am going to do everything I can to get him in her class. The 'head' lady told me "Oh all the teachers are good, Masaru will be ok" and tried to blow me off when I asked if Masaru could be in her class. I left it, but if he's not in her class, she'll be hearing from me again.
Here's a cute pic of the kids. They, like most kids I think, LOVE books, love them. Things that will keep my kids quiet.......food............TV and books, oh yeah and sleep.

Dru's first day

It went great.
He went in a full suit. As he said "It's better to be overdressed than underdressed"
That's not my philosophy at all, I wonder if it's the reason I'm not a good interviewer?
Anyway he had a GREAT day. I'm so glad. His 'special' assignment was this HUGE case which is way to complicated for me to write here. It's pretty messed up man. He spent a lot of the day reading up on the case so he could be a big help in it.
He really likes the people he's working with. He's going to fix their fridge and he told me it's messed up. He said he's going to do it when everyone's gone. Typical Dru. I'd do it at lunch time where everyone could see me. It's part of the reason I married this guy.
The guy said Dru could go to court with cases and could do a few arguments, which is GREAT NEWS as Dru hates public speaking. So this'll be really good for him.
His next semester he has a class with public arguments that he doesn't think he'll do well in. So I figure if he gets REAL cases to argue in a REAL court he'll get better and better. It's good for him man.
It just sounds like it's going to be SO GOOD for him.
He came home happy and excited. I know this is the right career for him. He gets so excited about the law. He was talking my ear off on the phone. Wonderful.
His boss asked him if he was a good writer.
Dru's like "It's my best subject" and the guy is like "Great, you can help us write up some stuff"
I forget what they call it when you write them a paper.
He did really well on his written class. He really is a good writer, so now I'm glad.
His boss said by the end of the summer Dru will know a lot of stuff in a certain law. I forget, civil maybe, who knows.
Anyway he's off in his business casual outfit today and will take a suit with him just in case he gets called to court and keep it in his cubicle. He has his own space even. Lucky.
There's 5 law students. Four of them are the same year as Dru and one is the next year. I think the rest of them are from the UofU. I'm not sure if any are from BYU. He hasn't met the girl but he says the other guys are really nice.
Dru's the only full time helper and he thinks the boss is really happy about it cause when he introduces Dru to everyone he then says "He'll be here full time for the whole summer!"
I'm glad he can help. Maybe cause he's full time he might get to go to court more or get chosen when they can only choose a certain amount.
We'll see.
I'm COMPLETELY BIAS but I think they'll love Dru and really appreciate how hard working he
is.
I'm really happy for him. I hope it'll be a great summer for Dru.

We're here!!!!

Oh yeah baby the Nakaya's are in town.
It was a LONG trip, but it wasn't too bad really.
The trip from Moscow to Boise was SO BEAUTIFUL. Has anyone ever been from Moscow to Boise going through the McCall way? I dunno if that's how you spell it. Anyway it's AMAZING. Wow, talk about breath taking, and I've seen good views.
We stayed with our mates Robby and Natalie in Boise and it was awesome. We also visited our other mates as well who've just had a new baby. He's doing GREAT. So that was good news. He was born with spinabifida. I know that's not how you spell it but too bad man.
Boise to Utah was quicker than I thought it would be.
We unpacked at Dru's parents then headed STRAIGHT OUT to our mates Pug's cabin for the weekend.
I was so over traveling and told Dru he can go by himself with the kids LOL
Of course I went and it was a great weekend of doing nothing. It was nice to see Dru so much and the kids had a good time.
Yuki wasn't on her best behaviour. She's ALL OVER DRU lately and won't let him outt've her sight. More than usual. I'm not sure what it is. I hope she gets over it.
Anyway we headed to Bountiful after stopping at the outlets at Park City and Dru picking up a couple of shirts and a belt, Masaru picking up a cap and Yuki picking up some jandals (flipflops).
I picked up nothing and the whole reason we went to the outlets was for ME to spend some of my birthday money.
I came out with nothing.
I'm not in the mood to try on clothes and stuff so wanted material sissors and body butter but they were all out.
So who knows what I"m going to spend the money on. Maybe scrapbooking stuff since I TOTALLY FORGOT to bring it down from Moscow and still have to do Dru's mum some pages FROM CHRISTMAS!!!
Anyway we got the kids bathed and put into bed, right after Masaru had to play with his cousins for a while on his bike.
Dru starts work tomorrow. His boss said he has something special for Dru to do on his first day.
Hmmmmmmm I wonder what it could be.
I'm excited for him.
Should be good.
I'll let us know after work tomorrow.
I've got a lot of unpacking to do.
Can't wait to catch up with mates and for Masaru to catch up with his mates.

Craaaaaaaaaaaaazy

Just some crazy faces.

Chillin

I saw Masaru on the potty the other day and had to take a pic of him.

Coldsore

I'll save you from a picture of it on my face but it's there none the less.
There's a story behind me and coldsores.
I caught it off my brother, Bevin, when I was around 21 and was SO UPSET. I had gotten through my whole life without catching one off my siblings or mates.
It comes up in the corner of my mouth.
It only comes up when I'm really run down and stressed.
After I caught the first one from my brother I didn't get one again till about a week before my wedding.
With Dru stuck at the LA airport for a week and us scheduled to be married in the NZ temple I was quite stressed and run down from orgainzing a wedding by myself.
It comes up maybe every couple of years or so, whenever it knows I'm at my weakest I guess.
Well this week it's decided to show itself.
It's too late for the 'catch them when you feel the tingle' ointment as I'm past that. I don't have time or money for those kind've things.
So here it is, on my face.
I never think I'm too rundown or stressed until it comes up and I start thinking about what my life has been like in the past couple of weeks.
When I think of my life in the past couple of weeks, now I can understand why it's decided to come up.
I don't really think I'm much of a stresser but having to look after the household, by myself, for the last month must've been hard on me.
Having not been to bed before 1am for the last month, must not be good either. I'm sorry, but I just can't get to sleep very well without Dru in bed with me. So I wait up for him. For the last month the earliest he's ever been home from school was around 10:30pm and it was only once.
I also worry about Dru. I know I shouldn't cause it's outta my control but I do.
I worry about his exams, health, sleep, eating habbits and what more I could do to help him out when he's like this. I think I worry about him more than the kids and for sure more than myself.
That can't be good.
Then two moves can't be good on a person, so close together. Plus wondering if anyone's gonna help you since your here, alone with no family, PLUS the fact you know your not good with moves and over half of them your've done in your married life, you've ended up on a heap on the floor crying and your husband tells you to just sit there while he packs and cleans everything on his own, even though you feel guilty cause he's stressed too but let him do everything all the same.
Then the unpacking and cleaning of the new place, twice.
Then all the mother stuff we all know about and I don't need to list off, which is just daily.
Oh yeah, and then there's the fact that I'm carrying a little boy, who takes all the good out of me and leaves me with what's left over.
Since this coldsore has come up, I'm wondering if there's anything left over for me?
My guess is not much.
Now, come on, I'm not disillusioned  about how blessed I really am.
I know there's people out there with more stresses and more to do, and believe me, daily I'm grateful for my life and I'm VERY happy.
But this is my guess as to why this little coldsore has decided to come up and make the side of my mouth look all gross.
As a reminder to me about what this last month has done to my body.
Here's to at least 2 more years with no cold sores coming up.
I'm guessing it'll come up again at the end of Dru's third year of law school when we don't know where he's working and I'll be pregnant again (maybe) and we'll be doing the BIG move back to Utah to live in our house again.
Maybe it'll come back then.
Who knows.

Double take

Here he is, the hairless wonder.  We decided to chop his hair tonight for family home evening.  I'm not sure what to think at this point.  It's weird.
I never realized what big cheeks he had.  But he's still got a great smile. 
Here's Yuki looking all concerned.  Look how grubby her face is.  It's playing outside and in all day and mum not really taking notice cause the house looks like hurricane Katrina.
Here's all the hair.  Honestly he has SO MUCH HAIR.  Next time we need to grow it 12 inches so he can give it to locks of love.  He could provide like 3 kids with full wigs!!
I think Yuki's thinking bad thoughts about me in this pic.
Daddy shaving and Masaru saying "It hurts daddy, it hurts"

I LOVE this shot cause of that cute curl hanging on for dear life over on the right side.  I'll miss those curls.
His hair was so long just using the clippers wasn't working.  So Dad had to cut his hair with the kitchen sissors first and then buzz it.
Here he is trying to buzz it long.  Not working.
Yuki was saying "Me daddy, me"  I'm not buzzing her hair.  I'd be really tempted though if it grew out like Masaru's.
She was so focused on what was happening.  It was pretty cute.
Here he is.  He's doing a pose just like I would.  He looks a lot like me in this picture.
His long locks at the back.
The 70's, bunny look.

I miss his long hair already.  BUT it WAS a pain to look after at the end.  He'd almost cry every morning brushing it.  I think he's got a sensitive scalp like me AND washing it was a pain cause we had to use MY shampoo and conditioner.

His hair grew this long in a little over a year.  Maybe a year and 3 months.  So if I REALLY miss it I can just wait till this time next year and it'll be back to this.

What do you think?

The move

So we moved into a 3 bedroom Friday night and Saturday.

Friday night our mates Sarah and Brandon came over and helped us move the majority of the kitchen from the 2 to the 3 bedroom.

Sarah is a very organized person, so this was the perfect companion for me.  At one stage of the night she said "If I'm being too bossy just tell me"

I said "Are you kidding me, I need to be bossed, otherwise I do nothing"

Then she came back over on Saturday t 8:30am and woke us up to get started again.  She didn't mean to and in her defense she asked when she could come the next day and WE SAID 8:30am.

Then we started cleaning, moving, packing etc.

There were about 5/6 guys who helped and around 5/6 girls who helped.  IT WAS AWESOME.

I don't know how Dru and I would've done it by ourselves with no family.  

I owe all these peeps so much.  So I just wrote them a thank you note.  I mean we don't earn any money, otherwise I'd give them money.

We had doughnuts and juice and pizza at lunch time AS PROMISED and had the majority of it done by around 2ish.

The manager came and grabbed the keys and checked our 2 bedroom over at 4:30pm!!  All done.

I didn't do much compared to the other women.  THEY WERE AWESOME!!

All the dudes were sweating as it was a warm day.

Our new place has a HUMOUNGOUS red stain on the carpet.  We're gonna try and get the carpet changed while we're here.  Dru's going to read up on landlord/tenant laws during the summer.

The problem is is it's curved around the hall and livingroom so there's no way to hide it.

Oh well.

We love the place though.  It looks like a hurricane has been through it right now but we've got a week to quietly unload things and organize.

I'm very happy and extremely grateful.

Masaru did GREAT with the day.  He biked back and forth and played and ate lots of doughnuts.  He was very disturbed, however, that he never had breakfast and was still asking for it before bed.

Yuki, however, can't be trusted outside by herself so my mate K8 looked after her for a couple of hours then I tried to put her down for a nap and she played for an hour in the crib. 

THEN at around 4pm she had a meltdown and I just let her.

I had no sympathy for her!!  She chooses not to nap then it's not my fault she's all melty at around 4pm, so I just ignored her.  Much to the neighbours dismay.

She got over it.

GREAT MOVE.  And it's all because of GREAT MOVERS.

We then met some mates for a BBQ that night and all fell asleep in seconds once we got home. No insomniac husband last night LOL

Geico explained

This is my birthday gift from Dru.

He brought it to me in a box and then I opened it and he started singing the music to it.

I was laughing so much.

He did a great job creating it I reckon.

Don't worry, it's not ALL $20's.  Just the top one.  The rest are $1's.

And for all my non american readers this is a character on a bunch of commercials for car insurance.  It plays this song called "Somebodies watcing me"  They're pretty funny but weird too.

Masaru saw it and was like "Mum, what's Geico doing here?"

Dru said "He's been following your mother around all day and is really tired"

I was cracking up man.

So now Masaru talks to 'Geico'.  The other day he asked him if he wanted some breakfast.  He's also put him in cozy places so he'll sleep better.  He says bye to him when we leave the house.

I said to Dru "You realize I'm not going to be able to spend him now Masaru's attached to him being around"

I tried explaining to Masaru the other day that 'Geico' was going to have to leave and he almost had a fit.  I said "He's got other places to be and more money to give"

He said to me "But mum if you take his money he'll die cause that's his body"

I'm outta ideas.

Hopefully with this move and me hiding it in my purse he'll forget him.  Although he did mention him at church today.

I guess we all know what insurance Masaru will be getting once he's of age.

Thanks babe, great gift from a frazzled insomniac.

I feel like I'm being watched.................................

Need blessings?

Well the Nakaya's have the perfect solution for you.

This Saturday from 9am to around 3pm they're offering free blessings.

Just come to their apartment with some enthusiasm and good cheer and wait for those blessings to arrive from above.

All they're asking is some moving and cleaning.

Sounds easy right?

Wait.........it gets better.

If you choose to come and get blessings there'll be free pizza involved around lunch time.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT"...............you say.........."blessings AND PIZZA?"

That's right folks.

So if you feel the need for a few extra this Saturday just come on down for half an hour or longer and put yourselves to work.

The wife is pregnant and the husband is an insomniac!!

So if you're going to be in the Moscow Idaho area and have wondered where you were going to throw your services and selflessness this Saturday THIS IS FOR YOU.

What a deal.

Twofer

So Sunday was a 'twofer' for Dru. Mother's Day and my 32nd birthday all wrapped into one sabbath day. Dru was pretty pumped about that. Plus Sunday is the only day we see him so it worked out well.
We usually go out, but that happened the other week remember? The Wolverine movie. Ahhhh yeeeeeeah.
Anyways Dru was gonna make me breakfast in bed then said he was too tired.
It's the thought that counts right?!?
But he did get up with the kids and let me sleep in for a while.
We were pretty late to church actually cause I enjoyed my sleep in.
I've been getting crap sleep lately and I fear it'll only get worse.
These pictures above are gifts I received on the day.
Cupcakes in the shape of the number 32, cookies, frame and onsies (I'm gonna have to loose a bunch of weight to fit into those) I'd like to add that the picture on the front is a KOALA!! I was giving my mate a hard time about that. I said "What no kiwi's?"
Then we have some yummy itallian bread, tulips, cards and these yummy chocolate things.
I also got a couple of emails from mates.
Thanks guys.

We got back from church and Dru make me crepes for lunch and then napped from around 1 to 5pm while I stayed outside and watched Masaru ride up and down on his two wheeler bike. Yuki napped about that long too. I guess everyone's tired.
Dru told me that he went to get my present on Saturday but the store was closed. So I'd have to get it on Monday. Well it's Tuesday while I'm writing this and still no gift.
LOL Usless mate. Oh well. I'm gonna have to get used to this as the next two more birthdays will be right in the middle of his finals. Plus with being this old I really don't feel like too much celebrating.
Dru invited some mates around and made some peach cobler. It was his best yet. He tidied the house before everyone came and looked after the kiddies so that was nice.

Then we watched Amazing Race and went to bed.
This is what he got me for mothers day. He gave it to me in the morning before we left for church. It was funny cause he got it out and said to Masaru "Now this is a secret don't tell mummy"
So Masaru went straight into his room where I was getting Yuki ready and goes "Mum you can't go into your room cause daddy's got a secret flower for you"
It was so funny.
Home made cards are the best since Dru's a great artist and I LOVE the flower. Masaru was almost in tears when we went to church cause he thought the flower was going to die.
He runs in after church and says "The flower didn't die mum, it's ok"
I had a great day all in all.
I still have issues with my age but I need to get over it.
It's just the number I have a problem with. I feel great and think I look great, with some showering and effort, I've loved my thirties so far and love my life and am grateful for it.
The other day a girl in my ward had her birthday and turned 21.
Those are the times I feel a little old.
I also deserve it in a sense as I've always been the young one and thought 30 was so old and would look at women and pity them, somehow never believing I'd be that old. Weird.
I was young all through out my school years, I was 17 when I started Uni., 21 when I had my degree, served a mission then stayed young in my teaching career.
Then I had kids and kept getting older. And I'm still getting older and there's nothing I can do about it.
Well now is my turn for these women to look at me and be thinking in their heads "Man 32 is really old, I feel bad for Melissa"
But it happens to all of us I guess and we either deal with it or start plastic surgery LOL
I'm not about to get plastic surgery so I need to deal with it.
Like I said, I actually have no complaints about my 30's. They've been fabulous and I've loved the last 3 years.
Also as an added bonus 32 was always my favourite number growing up, so I should be happy that for one year I'm my favourite number.

Stake Extractor

So we're in Relief Society at church (women's part of the session) and they put on a nice spread for us (mothers day) and we're in a circle telling each other what we're doing for the summer right!!
Then it comes to this lady and she introduces herself as the stake extractor. I'm like thinking "Did I hear that right........an extractor"
So I turn to a couple of women and go "Did she say extractor?" They're both like "Yeah"
Then my one mate see's me a little confused and says "She extracts teeth"
Well I lost it.
Like have you ever started laughing and can't stop?
Well that was me. It happens quite often though cause I always have these images replaying over and over in my head. It's usually at inappropriate times.
I'm like thinking "What the hell is she extracting? How come I haven't heard of this calling? I wonder what my family would think if I wrote home and told them I was the stake extractor?"
I laughed and laughed and these thoughts kept running through my head.
Now it might not seem funny to you but it was for sure funny to me at the time.
Another girl thought I was sobbing and asked if I was ok. I said yeah I'll be alright.
But THEN my one mate sitting beside me threw me right under the bus and goes "SHE THINKS IT'S FUNNY THAT THAT WOMAN IS A STAKE EXTRACTOR"
So the woman then tries to explain that it's to do with geneology and she extracts NAMES, not teeth or people.
I had to leave.
So I did.
Guess what my next calling at church will probably be now I've mocked it!!!???

What a Racket!

by Dru
At the end of exam number 3 I went to the bookstore to see if I could recoup some of the investment I put into my textbooks. I took in my Torts, Property, and Civil Procedure case books. I was one guy too late to get a decent price on my property case book, so all I got offered is $25. Hell no! I'll sell it myself. I'm not giving it to them for $25 so they can turn around and sell it to the upcoming 1L's for $120. I got an ok price on the torts case book, so I sold it back. Now my civil procedure case book was a new edition, so we had no choice but to buy a brand new one at the sweet price of $160 and that didn't even include any KY! Well it turns out that the publisher has put out yet another revision and yep you guessed it, I got offered $0 for it. I tell ya what, I want in on the textbook racket.
These publishers add two new cases, tweak the old cases to accommodate the 2007 restyling of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure so they can put out a new edition. They refuse to sell the old edition, so universities are forced to use the new book cause there is no guarantee the students can round up an old copy (which I'm sure they could) and the students are left holding the bag on an over priced book. Capitalism at its finest!
Any way, I've got nothing better to say at this time of night when I should be sleeping, so sorry for the ranting. Thanks for reading...til next time.

When Masaru got a hold of the camera

This is the pictures he took. Among others that I didn't put up here that were just of red and black shots. I think they're pretty cute.
I like the gradual close up of Yuki on the swing in this set of pic's above. Yuki looks pretty pleased about it.
He obviously thinks taking pictures of himself is very important. There's a lot of shots of up his nose!!
I think Yuki wanted a turn and so Masaru decided to take pictures of her asking nicely.

Mum

(Mum's the one in the grey top)

I haven't really talked about my mum, so I think it's fitting since today is Mother's Day.
She was born in a town called Winton just outside of Invercargill.
She's the third eldest of 8 children. Four boys and four girls.
She looked after the kids a lot and was responsible, growing up and did well at school and was a Prefect (similar to a SBO) at Girls High.
She went straight into Uni. and trained to be a teacher and met my dad and married him when she was 20.
She was always religeous but refused to listen to the missionaries.
After a lot of prayer and fasting by Dad and the Elders, however, she listened and both her and Dad joined the church after 3 weeks of discussions.
Mum always said "It was like I had heard it before"
She's been strong ever since.
She had me a little over a year later and then 6 more kids.
Two girls and five boys.
She always worked with us. Staying at home didn't fit her personality and did better working, at least part time, while looking after us.
I think you have to know your personality and know what's best for you and your kids and for my mother it was working a little to keep her sane.
Man I think of raising us 7 and I think I'd wanna get out of the house as well!!!!
She's a school teacher and a really good one. She knows what she's talking about and children are lucky to have her working with them. I'd love it if she could be my kids teacher. They'd do well.
She's a good baker and always made us apple cinnimon rolls, scones, apple sponge, banana cake and so on.
She didn't have much money to work on, but did the best she could.
We always had great family home evenings with her and dad cause they always did great lessons and wonderful activities. We love it growing up.
She trusted us to make right decisions as children and taught us well.
Dad's death was hard on her.
I think it always will be, but she's doing well.
She comes and helps me out with every birth, which is amazing for me. She's the best help I could ask for. She needs no entertaining and doesn't judge me and my parenting, just asks "What can I do to help"
That's it. I love it. She's a joy to have around since I've been here in USA and I wish I could see her more.
She's equal as a grandparent with Dru's mum. She's awesome. She loves my kids and plays with them, cooks, reads, walks, does the garden with them. It's awesome.
I'm sad they miss out on seeing her all the time. She's a real asset in their lives.
I love mum. She's a good woman who's been through a lot.
I know she loves us too.

Old/New pictures

My Uncle sent me some pic's he took back in November at my bro's wedding. Here's a couple of Yuki. I think her eyes have changed colour since back then. Here they look a little lighter.

Here she is hanging out with someone's cell phone. I'd like to know if someone's kid DOESN'T like cell phones. They can all tell the difference between the REAL thing too and the fake toy one you give them so they'll stop playing with your one.

Here's some of Yuki and Masaru's cousins hanging out in the Hotel spa bathtub in our Auntie and Uncle's room.

I think these pic's are awesome. I would've loved this as a kid. Look at those bubbles!!

Another One Bites the Dust

by Dru 

Apparently Melissa's computer doesn't like property. Confused? Let me explain. There is a software that the college uses that allows us to use our computers on exams. What it does is it shuts down your entire system so that all you can do is type your answers, disabling all other functions and programs. So at the end of the exam you have to upload your exam to the ExamSoft server so that the college can retrieve it and print it out for the professors to grade. It only works with windows cause they're Mac haters, so I've been using Melissa's computer cause I can't be bothered putting windows on my boot camp.

Well, last semester my first exam was for property. I took the exam, tried to upload it, and nothing. The test wasn't there. Hmm? So I took it to the IT guy and he's like, Hmm? Not a good sign. Apparently it fragmented the file and spread it over my hard drive. Long story short he had to get in touch with the ExamSoft peeps to figure out how to extract it off my system. It only took a couple of hours-the whole time Im thinking 'great! I'm gonna have to take that bloody exam again.' 

So I had my property exam today, went to upload it, and low and behold the file was not there.

At least this time the IT guy knew how to remedy it so I only had to wait a half hour instead of 2. So, I guess Melissa's computer doesn't like property.

My insomnia is in full force still, running on 4 hours of sleep today and I still have at least 6 hours of study to do. But at least I'm getting closer to the end. I'm going to get my boot camp set up with the help of a tech savvy friend, just in case Melissa's computer doesn't like Torts!

Games and stuff

I have a friend from NZ who, like me, married an american and moved here. 

Her husband does computer stuff and is really good.

Here's his blog site of games

http://risinggames.blogspot.com/

Also he's written a wonderful book which has a great story line and a real tear jerker.  It'd be great for a Christmas gift.

Here it is on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Chance-Cory-Mitchell/dp/1440477906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241761715&sr=8-1

Did you know.........

That every morning I look forward to getting Yuki dressed and doing her hair?
That's right folks, every morning.
And that after I've gotten her dressed and her hair done, I look at her and have a moment where I think "She's the most beautiful girl in the world!"
Every morning.
And that I could literally take her picture and make up another blog of 'How Yuki looks today' and post that picture on there.
Yep, I could do that....................every morning.
I know, I'm nuts.
Nuts for her!

One Down...Only Four to Go!

(Dru here) One exam down and four to go! I think the exam went well for two reasons, (1) my study group and I studied like mad men and (2) my professor wrote an exam that covered maybe a fifth of what I studied. I'm hoping that the exam seemed easy because I studied hard and not because the professor wrote an easy exam...only time will tell. At any rate I feel like this exam has set a good tone for the rest of my exams.
I can't wait for these exams to be over so that I can start seeing my wife and kids more. Poor Melissa has more or less been a single mum for the past two weeks. She's the real champion in this story! I love her to bits. The kids don't show that they are affected by it and are always happy to see me when I come home for dinner. Masaru always asks me why I'm going back to school after dinner. It always breaks my heart because I know what he really means is why can't you stay home. I love my kids.
One side affect to finals is insomnia. I hate it, and it only occurs during finals. I can come home from school at midnight dead tired, hop into bed, and stare at the roof for two hours. For whatever reason I can't seem to turn my mind off. I just keep running through analysis after analysis from the days studying. I think I get it from my old man. When work is busy he lies in bed thinking about what needs to get done on the job and can't get to sleep. Thanks Dad!
So if anyone needs some company and you think its too late to ring someone, give me a ring, chances are I'll still be up! Any who, I'm excited to see all the Utah peeps this summer, I see some good times ahead. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

One of my favourite sounds

Last night I left the window open as it rained all night.
It was WONDERFUL.
I love listening to rain, when I'm safe and warm inside.
It's actually one of my favourite things to listen to.
I know I've complained about the weather and I really would like sunny, warm weather.
But last night was really relaxing and peaceful.
I really do love the rain. Maybe it's cause there was TONS of it in NZ growing up as a child. I think I had many nights of listening to the rain while going to sleep.
Hmmmmmm maybe it's a childhood comfort.
Anyways it was very relaxing.

My Art teacher

This is one of my high school art teachers Bro. Baucke. He was my art teacher at my last highschool I attended. We still keep in touch today.
He's exactly what you'd expect your art teacher to be, crazy, fun, emotional, great dresser, good cook, great artist, down to earth and care free.
He was such a huge influence on my life and when school finished, was still there for me to make me meals and give me a job to help with University and help me through other art projects I needed to do.
He's a good friend and I miss him.
He always gives me a hard time about life and things. It's great.
He's got the best hugs.
This is him visiting me on my mission.
When I got married to Dru he said "I always knew you were going to marry a dark boy Milz, I just didn't know it was gonna be this kind've dark"
He's always afraid I'll turn into an american and mostly gives me a hard time about that.
He's living in a small, hot, town in Aussie now and loving it.
He's got the biggest heart and I'm so glad he's a part of my life.