In fine form in Kiwi-land

New family dynamics July 12, 2010

I must be honest that last night in bed I was wondering if the kittens were a good idea.  We got home and poor little Looey got chased around by Prince Charming (who wasn’t all that charming).  He kept growling at her, following her, having a go at her.  And on top of that, Caitlyn was suddenly terrified.  She would burst out crying hysterically if they jumped on the couch she was sitting on or walking past her.  Sigh.  That’s not quite what we had in mind.

This morning, much much much better.  No more growling.  For most of today Prince Charming lived up to his name and did very little chasing.  And the two kittens got along pretty good.  We have 3 chairs stacked together from the move and Looey decided this was the perfect napping spot and she loved sleeping there covered by a soft blanket.  And Prince Charming made himself at home in his soft little bed which Bianca put her in room.  Not sure where the two of them will choose to sleep tonight, but Bianca would be thrilled if her kitten chose her room.  So we’ll see.

Right now as I’m writing this the two kittens are both on top of the stacked chairs and they are curled up together as if they have always lived together.  That is so sweet.

And Caitlyn? No more of the hysterical crying.  She still jumps if they suddenly run past her, but for most of the day she’s attempted to play with them and stroke them.  And Bianca of course is in her element – she simply could not get enough of them today.  I think she fell in love yesterday

Dreams coming true July 11, 2010

Today was an amazing day.  As some of you know for about a month now we’ve been thinking, planning, looking into getting Bianca a pet – a kitten to be specific.  Actually 2 kittens to be more specific.  2 Kittens because this way they can be company for each other, but also initially I know Caitlyn will feel quite scared, but once she’s used to them she might very well want her very own kitten.

Now I was going to wait until we cleared all the boxes sitting in our lounge, but today I simply couldn’t wait any longer.  It was a beautiful sunny day, the kids woke up in such a great mood (Bianca even kept Caitlyn busy and made her breakfast so that we could sleep in (I just love having a 7 year old).

So I rang the Waikanae SPCA and they didn’t have any kittens, but the Wellington branch did. We were going to go anyway because we had to pick up the jacket Bianca left behind at the one place they went to during the school holiday programme and we thought we’d stop off at the Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre and then we could stop off at the SPCA.

So we told Bianca that while we were in the city maybe we could donate a few pet toys to the SPCA.  She knows about the SPCA and she was so excited and so Terence and the kids went to get a few things for the animals.

After our swim we got to the SPCA and we asked if we could see the kittens.  I waited and explained to the lady our plan about how Bianca didn’t know that we planned to adopt and thought she was only there to donate something.

So we stood there and the girls immediately zoomed in on the two kittens in the middle two cages.  I asked the girls what they think their names could be and Caitlyn immediately pointed to the top little kitten “that’s Looey” “Really?  Are you sure?” “yes, that’s Looey”.  Bianca looked at the white one below and said “Prince Charming”.

Then finally we got ready with the camera and we asked Bianca “would you like to take these two kittens home?”  First she looked at us almost with a look of disbelieve and then her whole face lit up “really? To keep?” and for the next 10 minutes she kept checking if this was really happening.  Let me tell you I stood there with tears in my eyes and could barely get a word out.  We have finally finally managed to make Bianca’s greatest wish come true.

The whole way home Caitlyn kept saying “My Looey” and boy did she talk non-stop the whole way home.  Of course once she got home she suddenly wasn’t so sure about the kittens anymore and I think it will take her a bit of time to get used to them.  But I’m sure she’ll get there.  And the kittens are getting to know each other too.

News from Wellington July 7, 2010

Our internet is finally restored at our new home. Now just waiting for Terence to hook up our home PC again so until then I can’t upload any photos.

We arrived at our new home in Wellington on 1 July.  We love our new rental home.  It is spacious (okay a bit cold now that it is winter, but we have a fireplace and our gas heater).  We have so much more space to pack everything, it is simply amazing.  We moved all our boxes into our lounge (instead of into the garage after unpacking the basics as we did with other moves), because this time we are really going through every single box, throw out what is rubbish, not wanted, not needed and keep the things that are important and unless they are memory box items or the Christmas Tree, we are unpacking it.  It is taking longer than I would like, but I’m pushing ahead slowly but surely.

Caitlyn is taking time to adjust to Bianca having her own room that is not shared with Caitlyn.  She doesn’t mind sleeping in her new room, but she can’t quite understand why Bianca might sometimes like to just be alone and so then she gets a bit upset when Bianca says that she does not want Caitlyn in her room.  But we are getting there.

I love our view around us.  It is part of town life, but still feels like you are living in the country which I just love. I love how quiet and relaxed and slowed down life feels right now.

Yesterday I couldn’t help laughing – on the weekend we took a drive through our town just to look around.  We went all the way to the beach and it was so beautiful and peaceful with Kapiti Island in the distance.  I can really see us spending quite a bit of time there.  In the summer for the kids to play in the water and in the winter (on sunny days) just to take a walk).  The beach is not walking distance from us, but is pretty close by car.

And then after this we went to the fire station where they had an open day and some displays and Terence has been thinking about joining the volunteer fire brigade and so we had a chat with the fire chief about it.  The fire chief asked 1 question “how available are you during the day?” which of course Terence can’t be and so he turned to me and I quickly had to let him know “umm I need to get kids settled first before I look at anything else”.

And so we left to Lindale Farm.  It was going to close, but there are new owners running the farm walk and it was so nice to take the kids there again.  The new owners are really so hands-on and completely open to making it a great experience for us.  The highlight was by far when we got to feed the really cute calves and lambs.  So if you are in the Wellington area, make sure you stop off at Lindale Farm!  It is highly recommended!

Anyway and so the weekend went past and yesterday I went to the shopping area with Caitlyn just to walk around a bit to see what is there and suddenly I heard somebody speaking to me and it was the fire chief “don’t forget to join the fire brigade”.  I guess that’s how you can tell it is a really small town .  But I don’t mind. It feels like home!

Time to take control again June 24, 2010

I have been doing a little bit of thinking.

You know there was a time before we moved to NZ in 2004 where we didn’t even have internet at home. We had no desire to have it.  We had a computer and we mostly used that for games (Theme Hospital used to be my favourite… oh and Bubble Bobble) and we used Excel and Word, but other than that the computer pretty much stayed off and mostly gathered dust.

Then we came to NZ and we got internet at home.  And that is all very well and fine and good and certainly Terence uses it for work and certainly when Bianca became sick it became this huge lifeline. We didn’t have many telephone calls or visitors during this time and so our blog (and later Facebook) and email became our lifelines. This way we connected with people.  This way we didn’t feel quite so isolated as we were during Bianca’s illness.  In fact at first I didn’t even know anything about Facebook. And then I got my first invite to join Facebook about 2 years ago.  By a friend. And so I joined just for her sake.  And she was my only friend on Facebook.  And as it goes, slowly but surely I got sucked into the world of Facebook.  I don’t even know when I really became hooked.  And now?  Not a day goes by that I don’t check the stupid thing.  And where is my friend?  Hardly ever on Facebook anymore.  Sigh!  I’m such a sucker!

Fair enough there are some that I regularly check in on and stay in touch with, but the majority?  Not so much. There are some that I haven’t even “chatted” to since we “connected” on Facebook.  And so recently I started clearing some off my “friends” list.  But despite this, I still spend way too much time on Facebook than I really want to.  That and now Twitter.  Although Twitter not quite as much.

I must say though that I have actually already made quite a few changes.  When Bianca became sick I went on a blog hunt.  I was absolutely desperate to find other real stories and when you find one, you find another and another and finally a whole heap.  When the list became too long to put on the side of my blog I created a blog just with links and sorted it by the type of illness i.e. leukemia, neuroblastoma and so on and I must say I had quite a few people referring to that list to find others when they started walking the journey.  But since we reached the point of being done with treatment I started cutting down on my blog reading.  There are still some blogs I read every single day and I get quite impatient when people don’t update often, but I don’t spend as much time on blogs as I used to.

Then there were forums.  There were 2 in particular.  Really active forums.  Mostly South African forums which I didn’t join because of it being South African, but because it seemed a nice place to be.  Until I realised how unwelcome you are when you are not actually living in South Africa and so I just got to the point where I got tired of people forever arguing and fighting and writing pages and pages and pages of comments on whether they pay their domestic workers enough or too little or whether BEE is still an  issue and yes, at times it was shocking to see just how much racism there was – oh my word!  So I got to the point where I realised just how much time I spent reading and participating in this forum (and some of these people simply cannot survive without this forum and would rather die than not be on it).  And so one day I simply stopped.  I stopped going, I stopped reading, I stopped opening the link.  I wasn’t interested anymore.  It was a waste of time.  And I felt free when I made that deliberate decision. I have not been back since.  I don’t plan to be back.

So now I’m not sure why Facebook still seems to be like this magnet attracting me to the computer every single day.  It is as if I cannot let go and I’m getting fed up with myself.

So now I have decided that when we are in the new house next week and when we move the computer into another room that is not the lounge, I am going to set a strict time limit on my Facebook visiting.  And I know that when I really set my mind to it, I can do it (just like with the forums).

I hate how reliant we became on technology and it is time to take control again!

Not in the mood anymore… June 23, 2010

Today I’m just irritated, tired, not in the mood, so over it.

Caitlyn’s chickenpox really got to me and caught me by surprise, the whole concept of being all isolated at home again where you can’t go anywhere because it is too risky.  I really thought our isolation days were behind us and right now it just feels as if the stupid chickenpox is never going to go away (which I know is silly because I got chickenpox when I was 18 and they are long gone), but we are back at the time dragging along and it is almost like watching paint dry or snails race.  And it is hard having to tell Caitlyn she can’t play at the park, go to the shops, her daycare or get Bianca from school, because she has chickenpox.

Bianca had a slight high temperature yesterday when she came home from school and she complained her legs have been sore the whole day.  So I’ve been working hard to not let the what-ifs take over.

And our move… I’m so over this whole moving thing. I really wish we didn’t have to move this time again. I think I hate it more because it wasn’t really by choice, but circumstance. But don’t get me wrong, I’m really excited when I think about the new house and the chance to let Bianca have kittens and so on, it is just the whole effort of having to pack up and think about all the things we need to do to get ready. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

But we’ll get through. I know we will. I’m just impatient and having one of those off days.  Caitlyn is calling, so off I go.  See you soon!