The biggest news this week happens at the end of it. My first anniversary, the first of many to come, is on Sunday. It reminds me of something that Gordon's Dad told him about marriage before we got married. "The first 6 months of marriage you exist on pure love," or something along those lines. It's been a year and marriage is still a breeze when it comes to loving and living with each other. I guess that just means that Gordon and I were supposed to be together all along. We've had our own worries that dealt with bills and money but after a year we are starting to save, trying for a family and looking for a place to call our own. The only debt we have is due to my airplane ticket to Albuquerque which will be paid off in 3 months and we are still saving in the meantime. We've decided to wait until the end of the year to look at our financial situation and then re-examine our housing. We may just switch to a different Air Force house for more space and keep saving.
The fact of the matter of is that I would have to really and truly be in love with Gordon to transfer myself from New Mexico to New Zealand, away from family and friends that I've grown up with all my life. Trying to strike out and make a new life and new friends is not easy when you don't have the means to go out and socialize, when you have to watch your finances. Not having or getting a job has taken a toll on my psyche but Gordon has been supportive and compassionate when I feel blue about it. He supports me in all my endeavors and tries to make my dreams come true. My best friend has become my husband, Patty you're still my bestest friend too! I've done without Starbucks and eating out as much as I used to. In fact, I don't even have a cell phone and I used to use it all the time in NM. There have been lots of changes on my end but Gordon has had to make sacrifices as well, no impulse buying! Marriage has made me a better person, a more responsible person than I used to be.
It will be interesting to look back after ten years and see where we started off and how we changed. I can only hope that we don't change for the worse but for the better. We don't have big plans for the day of our anniversary because we have to go to church. We will be celebrating on Saturday, the 1st, though. We plan to go to Burger Fuel and then to a movie, a real American date night! I don't know if we'll see "Harry Potter", "Transformers", or "The Hangover" those are the movies that look of interest to me that are at the Palmy cinema. Gordon may get me some flowers and I already have his present. I'm just putting the finishing touches on it. We'll probably watch our wedding ceremony on the DVD we have as well.
Kylie and Glen have recently been sick with a bout of...swine flu! Now I know someone who has had it. Gordon and I have been lucky enough not to contract it. They seem to be doing a lot better but for awhile there Glen was pretty sick. I also met up with my mother-in-law to chat with her since she was coming through Palmerston North on her way back from a conference. She seems to really enjoy her trips when she only has to worry about going somewhere and not having to cook dinner or anything.
I've started going to a weekly bible study class on Thursday nights. Gordon gets to watch all the sports he wants while I'm gone studying the Word. It has been very insightful. For the moment, we're focusing on praise by looking at passages throughout the Bible on how praise is used and phrased, etc. Book club is also going along as well. We've had a couple of hiccups in getting meeting dates and times down but I think we've settled on something. It was just me and Lindsay this time because Morgan was helping a neighbor, Jo had to stay home because her husband was working and Emma is in England. The book that we read was "A Thousand Splendid Suns", a very sad but beautiful in its own way book. There seemed to be a theme of oppression throughout the book. Lindsay and I had a good talk about it. I also found out that she's becoming an avid fan of "The West Wing". I guess she watches episodes on the net. We also talked about Mexican food in America and how I was going home in October.
It seems the time has come. The dreaded immigration paperwork has crept up on me. I've started my immigration medical, which ended-up costing me 391 dollars! At least its done and taken care of. We are having our pastor write a letter of reference for our relationship. I'm also gathering all the documentation that shows Gordon and I have been together for a whole year. I may use blog entries to show that I talk about him constantly, maybe not. I just have to print out the photos because I have our papers for the car and credit cards that show we have things in both our names. Gordon went and got his sponsorship papers notarized by the Bulls constable so everything should be squared away for that. It just feels like a pain sometimes to be jumping through all these hoops but what can I say, I love my husband and want to be with him.
Ending on a light note, just like how "light" this blog is. I've been making great progress on my cookbook of New Merican for Christmas presents. I only have to get about 10-20 more recipes down and the thing will be ready to be edited. I've just been writing it in sections. There's the Kraft and Campbells section as well as my miscellaneous recipes. I wanted to put cute little pictures on the sides but we'll see when we have a more finished product. I have to go off and make some banana cupcakes now for our anniversary. I'm getting more motivated by the day so I'll keep up the blog and try to get it updated every two weeks or so. Everyone have a good week, I know that I'm going to have a great weekend!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Some days my hands can barely function
Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold! Its always flashing in my mind because that's how I feel 90% of the time. Our gas bill was 100 dollars extra so I've reverted back to the old days of just getting by with a blanket wrapped around me. I've also lowered the heat pump temperature to make it work less and save us money. The cold is a factor towards this late blog entry and due to the fact that I'm just plain lazy right now. I really have to be motivated to do a blog entry because I don't want to blab on about mundane things. I did start yesterday trying to update my blog but my fingers weren't cooperating because they were too cold. It was like working outside on a freezing day and not having any gloves to protect you, that's how my fingers felt sore and stiff. I've never been a sissy about the cold until this winter in New Zealand. Its a damp cold, water seems to seep into the walls and makes the whole place cold. I wake up to condensation on the windows every morning. The answer is quite simple, there is no insulation in Air Force housing and, according to locals, this is one of the coldest winters that the Marton area has ever had. Lucky me. Even Mojo is cold, he stays curled into a perpetual ball all day trying to sleep the cold away. He likes to sleep on our bed now, thanks to the electric blanket, he won't move until all the heat has dissapated from that bed. I guess the next thing I need to invest in is a low-energy cost heater for the living room to save us some money.
Besides the frigid weather, life has been normal. Gordon and I are seriously talking about houses now. It wouldn't be bad for us because the chances of him moving somewhere else is extremely unlikely. The only move he'll be looking at is maybe going to the accessory bays one of these days. We've decided to look at Marton because that is where we have started to go to church and there are Air Force people in the area. The New Zealand Air Force is nothing like the US Air Force, a lot of Air Force families have homes in the towns around base. The houses are reasonably priced and we're looking for a home that we can live in until the kids are out of the house.
We did find a great house that was owned by a fellow parishioner at our church. We were very interested in buying it but we did the math and we wouldn't be able to start the process until November. As luck would have it, the house was sold this week. Gordon loved the house and he could really see us having a family there and everything. I felt bad for him so I've arranged to go look at some other houses for sale in the area. I don't want to get my hopes up because I don't know how long these houses will be on the market either. The real estate game can be quite tricky but predictions are that things are going to get worse before they get better so we may be in for a good surprise.
Since the baby aspect of our family hasn't happened yet, I've decided to focus on getting a house to make into a home. I don't know what the plan is for me but I feel like looking into a home is a step in the right direction for now. Plus, lets face it, it will look good on my residency and work applications if we listed that we met with a mortgage broker and were looking into houses. It will be months until we are able to purchase anything. I'm still thinking with a level head though, not being my usual self. I've had fun thinking of ways to make my house into a home. Such as painting, easy kitchen fixes and, the most important, storage! We are going to be staying at Ohakea for awhile so it seems like the right move. Gordon found out that he was on the wrong level for payment with the Air Force so we get an extra 48 dollars a fortnight and he is owed back pay as well! It seems like things are falling into place. They could be falling into place for a baby but I don't know. We also found out that, due to the recession, there will be no unnecessary promotions for the next year so Gordon will be a Corporal for awhile still. I think he likes it though because being a Sergeant means more paperwork and less time with the helicopters.
When Gordon came back from his exercise in Dip Flat he got a couple of afternoons off so we got to spend a little bit more time together than usual. It was due to the Air Force budget for the month of June. It was totally blown and there were to be no unscheduled flights so Gordon and the rest of the 3 squadron didn't have much to do. They encouraged people to take some time off using toil hours, aka overtime hours, so Gordon decided to spend some afternoons with me. We went for a date at The Grapevine cafe since we saw that it was finally open when we were hungry! I had corn fritters and Gordon had a bowl of wedges, chunky potato wedges.
The biggest thing that happened over the weekend was the St. Andrews Mid-Winter, Christmas dinner. Since the camp was canceled it was decided to have a mid-Winter dinner in place of it. I signed up to bring two cheesecakes. I was so nervous about whether they would like my cheesecakes or not because I was using some of my canned pumpkin to make pumpkin cheesecake. What's a dinner of thanks and celebration without some pumpkin put into the mix? It turns out that my cheesecakes were a favorite of the dessert table! It made me feel really good to know that I had made something delicious for everyone to enjoy. Most of the time when I take baking goods to functions, no one seems to eat it and I have a tons of leftovers. It plays tricks on my mind when that happens. Gordon says my cooking is great but he is my husband and human garbage disposal. Still, if Gordon won't eat it then no one will.
The past couple of weeks have been very mundane so I'm thinking of researching into areas around the Zealand to talk about. What's a New Zealand/American blog without talking about the places I've been? I know that I've been to a good chunk of the North Island so I guess that I'll start there this week in my next blog entry. If there is anything interesting happening in our lives then I will let you know as well. Have a good week and I'm trying my best to update weekly but it looks like I'm slowing down to one entry every two weeks. Have a great week you people in the Northern Hemisphere. Enjoy the sun because I wish we had some more of it right now over here!
Besides the frigid weather, life has been normal. Gordon and I are seriously talking about houses now. It wouldn't be bad for us because the chances of him moving somewhere else is extremely unlikely. The only move he'll be looking at is maybe going to the accessory bays one of these days. We've decided to look at Marton because that is where we have started to go to church and there are Air Force people in the area. The New Zealand Air Force is nothing like the US Air Force, a lot of Air Force families have homes in the towns around base. The houses are reasonably priced and we're looking for a home that we can live in until the kids are out of the house.
We did find a great house that was owned by a fellow parishioner at our church. We were very interested in buying it but we did the math and we wouldn't be able to start the process until November. As luck would have it, the house was sold this week. Gordon loved the house and he could really see us having a family there and everything. I felt bad for him so I've arranged to go look at some other houses for sale in the area. I don't want to get my hopes up because I don't know how long these houses will be on the market either. The real estate game can be quite tricky but predictions are that things are going to get worse before they get better so we may be in for a good surprise.
Since the baby aspect of our family hasn't happened yet, I've decided to focus on getting a house to make into a home. I don't know what the plan is for me but I feel like looking into a home is a step in the right direction for now. Plus, lets face it, it will look good on my residency and work applications if we listed that we met with a mortgage broker and were looking into houses. It will be months until we are able to purchase anything. I'm still thinking with a level head though, not being my usual self. I've had fun thinking of ways to make my house into a home. Such as painting, easy kitchen fixes and, the most important, storage! We are going to be staying at Ohakea for awhile so it seems like the right move. Gordon found out that he was on the wrong level for payment with the Air Force so we get an extra 48 dollars a fortnight and he is owed back pay as well! It seems like things are falling into place. They could be falling into place for a baby but I don't know. We also found out that, due to the recession, there will be no unnecessary promotions for the next year so Gordon will be a Corporal for awhile still. I think he likes it though because being a Sergeant means more paperwork and less time with the helicopters.
When Gordon came back from his exercise in Dip Flat he got a couple of afternoons off so we got to spend a little bit more time together than usual. It was due to the Air Force budget for the month of June. It was totally blown and there were to be no unscheduled flights so Gordon and the rest of the 3 squadron didn't have much to do. They encouraged people to take some time off using toil hours, aka overtime hours, so Gordon decided to spend some afternoons with me. We went for a date at The Grapevine cafe since we saw that it was finally open when we were hungry! I had corn fritters and Gordon had a bowl of wedges, chunky potato wedges.
The biggest thing that happened over the weekend was the St. Andrews Mid-Winter, Christmas dinner. Since the camp was canceled it was decided to have a mid-Winter dinner in place of it. I signed up to bring two cheesecakes. I was so nervous about whether they would like my cheesecakes or not because I was using some of my canned pumpkin to make pumpkin cheesecake. What's a dinner of thanks and celebration without some pumpkin put into the mix? It turns out that my cheesecakes were a favorite of the dessert table! It made me feel really good to know that I had made something delicious for everyone to enjoy. Most of the time when I take baking goods to functions, no one seems to eat it and I have a tons of leftovers. It plays tricks on my mind when that happens. Gordon says my cooking is great but he is my husband and human garbage disposal. Still, if Gordon won't eat it then no one will.
The past couple of weeks have been very mundane so I'm thinking of researching into areas around the Zealand to talk about. What's a New Zealand/American blog without talking about the places I've been? I know that I've been to a good chunk of the North Island so I guess that I'll start there this week in my next blog entry. If there is anything interesting happening in our lives then I will let you know as well. Have a good week and I'm trying my best to update weekly but it looks like I'm slowing down to one entry every two weeks. Have a great week you people in the Northern Hemisphere. Enjoy the sun because I wish we had some more of it right now over here!
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