Lesson learned

So remember a while ago Takeshi got into a little trouble at school with a kid and his father?

The father rang Dru and said all this stuff about Takeshi and what went down.

I told Takeshi off, made him go to their house and we both apologized and went home.

So fast forward till a couple of days ago and I was talking to the 'duties' of the school.

Turns out that what this father told Dru wasn't how it went down according to other witnesses.

My heart sunk.

The duties were suppose to email me to let me know how this father had treated Takeshi on the play ground.

One of the duties told me if I had witness what this father had done.................she would've liked to have seen the throw down between him and I on the playground.

They said because he was yelling so loud at Takeshi they had to run over and 'save' Takeshi from him and he wasn't even suppose to be at the school on the playground anyway.

Apparently he'd just come without checking in, and apparently he does it often and they get upset at him.

She said Takeshi was simply doing as he was told, and made a mistake when he threw the jacket and they saw it and the father overreacted to the point of them having to come to Takeshi's rescue.

What a different tale to what we were told.

Dru and I are upset that we listened to this father and didn't listen to Takeshi. 

I'm upset that I made Takeshi apologize to this man.

But Dru told me it's a lesson learned.

Always make sure you get the whole story before you react right?

I apologized to Takeshi and told him I'd listen to him better next time. I feel like the worse mother ever and am so sad about it and am upset about how this father treated my son.

I gotta yoga breathe it out man cause this father is in Takeshi's soccer team and Takeshi see's this boy every day at school.

It never occurred to me that an adult would bend the truth so much about a 6 year old? I'm so shocked but I'm also thankful for this 'other side' of the tale that was given to me.

This has been such an important lesson for both Dru and I to learn.

I'm sure there'll be other times where we need to assess situations and because of this, Dru and I can move forward with a more holistic approach, rather than a 'one sided, believing only one person' approach.

Bless Takeshi's heart man. So sweet and so sensitive and so wonderful and I'm sad I forgot all of those things briefly in the moment of this fathers lecture.

He's  NOT a bully.......

He's NOT a vicious kid..........

He DIDN'T deserved to be reported to by the principal.........(no wonder I never heard from her)

He DIDN'T deserved to be yelled at by this man...........

Sometimes life throws us lessons though right? And we learn from them and move forward with our lives with clearer vision and a greater understanding for ourselves and our loved ones as well as the strange behaviours of other people.

Real Hot Springs

So after Dru had worked on the yard for hours and hours Keith gave us a call and asked if we wanted
to go to some hotsprings. That sounded like a great idea so we jumped in the car and went to dinner together then headed off.
Keith was vague on the details and so we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into. I thought it was a hotsprings like the others I've been to, like a place where you pay and go inside.
No, no, no, that was far from it. They were natural hotsprings in the middle of the forest, which was fine.
It took around an hour to get out there. It was a beautiful ride out past Banks way. As long as I have something to look at out the window, I'm good.
We finally got there and headed out.
Keith told us beforehand that it was a little hike so to wear decent shoes. So we did. Thank goodness we listened.
 
Masaru being the hotdog in a bun.
So the hike started off normal like just on a trail and such and then Keith showed us where we needed to go to get to the hotspring. It was straight down a gravel rocky semi cliff face.
I took one look and was like 'What the..............' but I couldn't be the pansy right? The kids cruised down like it was nothing and Dru helped Emiko down and I just had to concentrate on getting myself down. I'm not good for gravel/rocky down hill hiking man, I get scared.
Thank goodness Dru's a moutain goat, although he slipped a little while he had Emiko and Nydia gasped but he got his footing just fine. I didn't see it, thank goodness, cause I was concentrating so much on not dying, that was what I was thinking at least hahahahaha

Once we got down there, however, it was so beautiful and so great. The kids had the best time and we sat and chilled and talked and found the warmer places to sit. I never stood under the waterfall but Dru said it was really hot and parts of it were hotter than other parts.
It was pretty cool.
Can you believe we got all those kids down that cliff face? Lucky all the kids are awesome.

Thank goodness all the kids were warm and happy.
It started getting dark and then some other campers came down to jump in. They had no idea that they were going to come down and find all of us in there AND 8 children. They were shocked and amazed hahahaha
We said we were only going to hang out for another 20 mins or so then slowly leave. A couple of the guys had big alcohol bottles with them and were partially drunk. They were good with the kids though and timed them holding their breath under the water and such.
They asked us what it was like to have so many kids and so we told them and let them know to pick a great partner then go for it. Kids were worth it and made you a better person.
We then all slowly got our kids and each other dressed then headed straight up.

I tried to get a picture of us going straight up the hill but couldn't quite work the camera too well, sorry. Dru gave me our bag so he could take Emiko out and the bag almost tipped me over. I was super worried and then Keith said he'd take it, which was nice. So the men had the kids and bags and I took a smaller bag and concentrated on getting myself out and up. The older 5 kids totally rocked it. Toby and Emiko needed a little help but they did so, so great.

Once we got to the top it was nice to be back on the trail. But as we started walking around Masaru said "I think we're walking in circles"
Sure enough we had taken a wrong turn somewhere and were heading the wrong way.
Dru went up the hill a little ways to see where we were and it was just getting thicker and thicker and said up wasn't where we needed to go.
Keith said for everyone to turn their torches (flashlights) off and try to find a camp fire. If we could find a camp fire then we'd know which was the road was.
So everyone turned their torches off and we looked, sure enough we found a camp fire way over to our right and the kids yelled out 'Over there'
Keith said "Yip that's where we need to go then"
We didn't want to go back down to the trail we'd just climbed up though and so Keith said "We need to find a game trail and follow it out, the game (animal) trail will lead us where we need to go"
So we looked around and found a trail and followed it out to the road.
The kids were learning so much.
Then Keith talked to them a little about forest and hiking safety and what to do if you think you're lost. The kids were just taking it all in man and loving it. They weren't worried at all, because they had two mothers who were behind them doing all the worrying for them.
It was exciting for sure.


Then we got to the road and the men and some kids went to get the cars to bring down to us. It started raining. Nydia and I talked about the pioneer women and how they must've felt and that made us appreciate our little experience together.
Turned out the gates were shut and so the men couldn't come down the road to get us and so we walked out to the cars.
Keith reassured us he had matches and a gun and we would've been ok. hahahahahaha
We said our goodbyes and got in the car and drove home.
I don't know how Dru did it. I was so smashed man and tried my hardest to stay awake to help him driving, but was bobbing all over the place man.
We got home around 12:30am and all just fell into bed in our clothes.
The next morning I woke up in so much pain I almost cried. I took some pills and a heat pad and went back to bed.
We totally missed to first part of church, and I think had I not had meetings and a lesson to teach..........don't know if we would've made it at all hahahahahahaha
The kids woke up and said 'That was the best night ever' and totally had a blast. I'm glad they loved it so much. That makes me happy and that's what the best memories are made of right? Not boring stuff, but crazy, I'm gonna die stuff..................................hahahahaha
I'm glad no one died.

Keith told us back in the day that he used to be called 'Crazy Keith'. We're beginning to gain a testimony as to why he had that name.
He wants to take us to these beautiful waterfalls. I asked him 45 questions and told him we'd think about it!!!!

Yard work

So Saturday we had soccer games in the rain, like I mentioned, and the kids did great. We got home,
and did chores while Dru started working in the yard.
Our mate Keith, has his own excavation business and so has machinery. He let Dru use one of his machines for the weekend, which was super nice of him.
The kids worked  hard on their inside chores, so they could go outside and work with their father.
Here I am pulling teeth to have them do their inside chores and it's a 'highlight' to help their father with the outside chores.
You win some and you lose some I guess hahahaha

Here's Dru pulling out a big tree root that was in our yard. We had no idea it was there. There was just a big pile of grass and a rock and bar in this mound and so Dru dug into it and realized there was a tree root in there and got to work getting that out.

The kids thought it was awesome and Dru taught Masaru how to drive it so he could help him out with little things around the yard.
Masaru was in heaven.

We also have a trailer that connects onto our John Deer and so Masaru worked hard at taking loads for Dru to different parts of the yard and then he mowed the lawn for us.
He's a hard worker and a good helper. Whenever Dru needs help, Masaru is right there willing to help him out. This is really great because Dru has a lot of great skills he can pass onto our children and I'm glad they're learning them.

Here they are trying to remove this shrub.

The big tree root that we finally got out.

Masaru decided 'Safety first' and got his construction hat, safety glasses and hairnet, you know, just in case.
Crack up man.



The finished result of the digging and removing and grading. This is where we'll put our swing set. Looks good right?

Then this is what it looked like after we removed everything from here as well. We're just going to grass this section for now, until we decide what we want to do.
In the top left there you can barely tell that he made a space to put the pool for the summer. It'll be a nice spot.
We don't have much shade in the back yard. It's pretty open to the sun all day. So we're going to invest in some sails and figure out where to put them around the yard to give the kids some shade while they're playing.
I'd like to have a picnic table back here somewhere too with some shade so we can sit and eat or draw or hang out while everyone is playing. It'd be nice to have somewhere to eat outside for dinner as well.
With food comes flies though and so we need to figure out how to keep the flies away, which I have no clue how to do.
I'd like to get lights up around under the back porch but we'll see. I need to calm down man. Plus I don't like shopping right? So who's gonna get this stuff? Not me, so it doesn't happen. Dru probably likes that hahahaha
Great progress right?

He also moved rocks at the front of our house to the street front of our house to start making the berm to block out some of the noise from all the cars going past. We're excited with the progress and still have hours and hours of work to do but are grateful to Keith for his kindness and for the progress we've made so far.

Another mtb crash and ER visit

So in an attempt to meet my 5500 meters vertical climbing in a month, goal, I hit the trails last Monday night after I dropped Takeshi off at soccer. It was going to be a quick up and back 4 miler with almost a 1200 vert climb (in feet) just to help me meet my challenge. I had mapped out my week and what I needed to do.

I felt strong and got my fastest time up this trail, called Cobb, and had stopped twice to take a picture of these wonderful flowers and for a mtb'er coming down. So I totally could've gone faster. I couldn't believe it!!

So since I felt strong and good I figured I'd rock the DH man. I chose a different line that I thought would go faster and hit it.

A lot of the time on the DH you push yourself a little further to get faster. It's how it goes. Most of the time it works out, you feel great, get a little more confident and can't wait till the next time.

This time didn't work out for me.

I came down and hit gravel which swallowed my bike and stopped it short right in the bushes.

I was coming down what's called the 'Rock section' which is exactly what it's called, the rockiest section of the trail, a bunch of ledges and rocks right at the beginning.

I came off my bike and hit the rocks hard and my head hard as well. I'm not sure if I hit two rocks or what but my body hit hard too and must've hit a few rocks as well.

I immediately got up, checked my body and realized I was ok. 

I instantly had a sore neck and shoulder blade but was feeling good enough to get back on my bike and go down the rest of the trail.

I went to put my helmet on and it felt funny and lose so I took it off and realized the inside part had clicked out of place from the outside part. This is called the Mips system. 

http://www.mips.technology/

Basically it means that when you crash this inside system will move with your head, rather than staying with the helmet which could force your neck a way it shouldn't be going.

Thank goodness for awesome helmets which are totally worth the money when you hit hard.

I clicked it back into place then headed down the rest of the trail.

I got a few scrapes on the other side of my body that turned into some pretty big bruises. I bruise easily though.

I saw this on my helmet and once I got home I saw another divot on my helmet as well. Didn't seem like a big deal.
I got home and asked Dru if he could check my bike cause I'd crashed and had planned to bike the next day. He asked me about the crash while I was coming in and heading for the ibuprofen (anti inflamatory) pills since I felt sore.
I told him I hit my side and head and that I felt sore in the neck and shoulder and was starting to stiffen up. I knew it was worse than what I'd hoped.
Dru jumped in the shower with me and helped me out. The shower was nice and hot and I started seeing stars and told Dru "I'm seeing stars" then Dru told me my eyes rolled back and I went limp. Fortunately he was holding me, partially already, and caught me.
Can you imagine if he wasn't there and I just fell in the shower? I could've knocked my head again and this time without my helmet on!!!
He said it was pretty scary and I'm not allowed to do that again.
All I remember is seeing stars then feeling like I was dreaming and sleeping. When I came to Dru was talking to me and pulling me out of the shower and trying to dry me off.
He put my safely in bed and started calling his brother and a couple of other people I think.
I kept telling him I was fine and his brother said if he didn't take me to the hospital to at least wake me up every 30 mins throughout the night to make sure I was ok.
He gave me a blessing, organized for Natalie to come be with the sleeping kids and took me to the ER.
The ER gave me a EKG test http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/electrocardiogram and I was fine there, then they took some x-rays and talked to me and asked me some questions.
The Dr said the x-ray peeps thought I had a fractured rib, hence the sore shoulder blade, but didn't think I had a brain bleed because I could account for the whole ride in detail, I wasn't throwing up and the only reason I passed out was because of the hot shower opening my veins with my head recently banged.
Also a brain scan has a ton of radiation in it and the Dr didn't want to basically give me cancer if she didn't have to. So she left it and they sent me home with some drugs and a few pads to put on my shoulder which had medicine in it.
She told me I wasn't allowed to use my brain much for the next 3 days. So no TV, phone, reading, knitting, doing two things at once. So I was basically on lock down.
It also meant no riding for the next 1 to 2 weeks!! That's the hardest part.

So I had mates visit me and hang out while I sat in my back yard and just listened to the birds and chilled. I had lunch brought to me and flowers given and dinner and rides and help with my kids. I'm grateful for good mates.
I never got a headache but my muscles in my neck are still sore and it's sore to laugh on my rib. It's been a week and I'm still not ready to ride and I'm totally bummed about it.
It's REALLY hard NOT to work out. When you're working out 6 days a week it's super tough to stop, mentally and physically. But I keep telling myself it's for the greater good and I need to suck it up and deal with it.
I did a little work on Saturday and totally paid for it, which let me know my body isn't ready and I need to take another solid week off. Sucks man but I'm no spring chicken and need to listen to what my body is telling me, especially if I wanna be back on those trails rocking the DH's.

Hey man at least the ER visit is only going to be a few dollars right?

Kids

We've started a garden in our neighbours back yard. The kids are at the neighbours house and vise versa all the time. I love it. They all get along so great and the kids have tons of fun. Here they are thinking of doing some starters with Aria's mother.
Look at Takeshi man.......that kid.

Here's Takeshi all wrapped up for soccer. He scored on Saturday as well as Yuki and Masaru score 2 tries for his rugby game.
It was raining and windy and cold and the soccer kids did so great in that kind of weather.
Masaru's game was on Wednesday night and it was his first time back on the field. He did great but was upset with the game. He thought he could do better. I hugged him and we had a talk and he felt better.
I thought he did great man and told him it was just one game and he wouldn't be Ritchie McCaw all in one game against a bunch of kids he's not used to playing with. He seemed to settle down about it.
It's really nice to watch my kids play and get along with their team mates and figure things out.
Couple more games and then the seasons are over and bring on summer I say!!

Yuki and Takeshi's work. Yuki did a cute Earth Day booklet and Takeshi did a book on the different types of rocks.










Then Yuki and the kids are learning new tricks on the tramp. Here's Yuki's latest and greatest trick. Pretty neat alright.

Changes in body and guest rooms

Dru and I are watching what we're eating and it says unlimited veges and so Dru texted this picture of himself eating unlimited veges. Pretty funny.
He's semi miserable with no white bread and rice but has lost over 5 pounds. He's doing so great and I'm proud of him for sticking to it for 2 weeks. That's pretty amazing for him. I can feel him getting a little over it though, so hopefully his body will continue to show him results so he can stick at it and reach his goals. He's about 12 pounds away.


I'm healing up really well and this is an old picture. Now you can barely see anything. Bodies are amazing.
I've been watching what I'm eating as well and have lost 2% body fat which is great. I'm down to 26% which feels really good. I can tell in my body, I look better and so that's good. I'd like to be 21% which is a great place to be at for me. So I'll keep at it and continue to work at it week by week.
I still don't like it though. Being strict with what you eat is really hard man and it sucks, but in order to have my body the strongest and healthiest I wanna gain muscle and be strong. This means eliminating fat and that means making sacrifices until I get there, which I know man. It just sucks. It's easy to let yourself go though and the older I get to more effort it takes. Story of my life mate.

Dru finished painting the guest room and it looks perfect. He's a good painter, even if latex sucks.
We found this daybed on craigslist and I had to go get mattress covers and a blanket and a couple of pillows and cases for it.
I hated almost every minute of it.
Turns out I don't like to shop. I thought maybe if I had money and no kids I'd like shopping, but I had a budget and Emiko wasn't a big deal and I still hated it.
I just don't like to shop. Period!!
If I could give someone money and say "Hey man can you make this bed look good with my room" and trust them, I'd be in heaven.
I'd also like someone to shop for clothes for me as well. I hate that too. Turns out I'm not a shopper and that's ok for the most part. But every now and then I have to shop and I end up flustered, upset and feel like I've wasted hours of my life!!
Maybe Yuki will be a good shopper and she can help me.
Enough said.

Planting, artwork and biking.

So spring is here, the weather has been nice and we've been starting to do a few things around the house.
Dru put the first coat of paint on the craft room walls. He had to use latex and was basically swearing the whole time. I told the kids to stay out of his way and leave him alone until he ventures out, and even then to maybe not talk to him for a wee while until we know it's safe hahahaha
Poor guy!! It looks great though but needs another coat, so he'll do that tonight and I'll find a nice book to curl up to or knitting project and get him whatever he wants while painting!! Once that's done then we can put the daybed we found on craigslist, in there and that room be done for a little while and our bedroom can stop being the 'store room' for all the craft room stuff. That'll be nice.



Yuki brought home a couple of projects that I figured I'd put up here.  Turns out Yuki loves soccer, faith and cartoons. I'd say that's a good balance.

Then I thought this was cute.

Emiko and I hanging out. She wanted me to get pictures of us with clips in our hair and a clip in her toy's hair as well.



Then I saw this somewhere and thought 'That's brilliant' and went upstairs and did the girls drawers. It just makes sense to be able to see all of your clothes so you can choose what to wear. I taught them how to put it back and all, but I'm sure there'll be a learning curve. For now, it works great.



My mother made this cardigan for Masaru and I brought it out for Emiko to wear. But too little too late man. We're going into summer and I only took this out of her 4 year old box. So she wore it and it's almost too small for her. I'll have to keep it to let someone else use. It's the best.

Soccer is in full swing and the kids have practices and games. They're doing great and loving it.
Here's Emiko taking a selfie of us watching Yuki play.
Yuki's team is much bigger this season so they don't have to play so much, which is good and bad. Her team is pretty good man, so we'll see how they do.
Takeshi is playing with all his mates and having fun. I'm not sure how long it'll last so we'll see. He has so much energy though that it's so good for him to learn how to channel it into something, for now.

I'm reading this sweet book which is really talking to me in a way that's so great.
It's called: The gifts of Imperfection. I'm only up to page 24 but it's saying things that just make so much sense to me. Here's one of the quotes from it that I think is so true man. There's others as well but I figured I'd put this one up.
I think it's so easy to give yet, for some, so hard to recieve you know and this hits the nail on the head for it I reckon. We think if we're receiving help that we're weak maybe? Or that receiving help reflects badly on us for some reason! Well that's because we need to stop attaching judgements onto it and let go and figure out why we feel that way. That's what I got outt've it anyway.
SO.TRUE!!!
Love it.
If you read this book, let me know, and we can have a chat about it.
I'm barely even into it and it's changing the way I see things and is making me wanna be better. I love it.

My challenge this month is to climb 5500 meters. It's been a week and I've only climbed a little over 1000 meters. I gotta step it up man or I won't meet my challenge!!
Here's the view at the top of Freestone. This ride was awesome. I didn't stop until the big hill, which means nothing to anyone else than me. I felt strong and couldn't even believe that I made it that far this early in the season. It was nice to push myself.

Here's Takeshi's piece of artwork called 'The jumping cat' hahaha so cute right?

Then here's his project about matter.


I love it.



I love his teacher and will miss him having her. Hopefully his second grade teacher is ok.


Then on Friday we let the kids watch the Peanuts movie with a sitter, and Dru and I went out on a double date with our mates Nydia and Keith.
They took us to a burger place out in Meridian, Habits? It was so good man. It just sucks it's all the way out there. Then Keith took us to a place with the word Pig in it. It's a BBQ place? He got us some bread pudding!! That was really good too. It was a double hit.
Then we got a shake from Chic fil A!!
Those guys are so fun to hang out with man. Keith has helped Dru a ton with different things and really likes him. I'm glad Keith is around. Nydia is super nice too and so it's always good to have mates around who you enjoy. It was a great night.

Saturday was filled with soccer and house things. Dru painted, and I decided to go get some plants and get those going since the weather was nice and I felt like being outside.
I always get hanging plants, so I figured this year I'd actually buy the pots that last and make my own. Who know's if it'll work out, but I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out right?
Here's hoping I chose the right plants.

Here's out front door.

Emiko's little fairy garden from a cute fairy party she went to on Friday. We transferred it from her party plate to our pot here. Pretty cute right?

Then we have that other one out the front by our well water.
Yuki helped me and they look just lovely.
The rest of the day we tidied and then watched the new star wars movie with the kids. They were pumped to watch it, but to be honest I don't think they really paid attention much. I think they just liked the idea of watching it and that was enough!!
I snuck out and did some shopping for Dru and I. We decided to do a 21 day clean eating thing, that I've done before.
I planned on starting it last week and mentioned Dru doing it with me, thinking he'd mock it and he said he'd maybe do it. I was like WHAT? He's never been interested in doing anything with me before man and so after talking to him some more he said he'd commit to doing it with me. I'm still in total shock but am rolling with it. It's like a weird dream world I'm living in. But he's realized he's gained a little weight and would like to shed some pounds and so I think he sees 21 days as a sacrifice he's willing to make to get the kickstart he needs. I'm just really happy to have a buddy to starve with and moan to. It'll be 'fun' to do it together. The end results will be great, we can focus on that.
I havn't been able to drop this NZ weight I gained and so I knew I needed to take it to the next level and to have Dru in my corner is just a dream come true man, well he's always in my corner, but this is the first time he's been in my corner and taking the eating on board with me.
We took pictures last night and measurements. So we'll see how it goes.

Sunday was stake conference. It's always rough with the kids but I'm glad we went. There was a lady from Cambodia there who told her story and it was really good man. I'm glad she talked.
Then our stake Pres. shared a message that spoke to Dru and I really well. It was nice. The kids made it through just fine as well.
I did a count down with Takeshi and that helped him a ton. You should've seen his face light up when I told him we had 15 mins left!! Crack up.

We came home and ate and hung out then went out for a bike ride together and with some mates.
It was so much fun. We had the best time with the Jares and Thompsons.


Here's Boe kicking some butt on this huge drop like it's nothing.
We hung out, biked, ate and had fun with each other. It was such a nice day.

Once we got home we fed the kids and they were totally ready for bed.
Such a great weekend, full of fun, friends, nature and learning. Love it.