Joseph

I decided I should probably blog about Joseph, seen as he's a pretty consistent part of our life at the moment.  At the moment he's coming 3 days a week 9-3.30.  Well, he's meant to.  His mother has issues with time and he usually gets dropped off more like 10am or 10.30, and it's not uncommon for her to pick him up at 2pm, or 4pm.  I think it's a cultural thing, the lack of dedication to time.  But it sure makes life hard for me.  I try really hard to plan stuff for Joseph, activities, outings, etc, but it gets totally thrown because of his mother's inconsistancy.  And talking to her about it doesn't help as she really struggles with English, and always just pretends she understands.  I cut her soooo much slack coz I feel bad that she's a single mum living in a country that's not her own, as a refugee, trying to learn english.
Anyway, she's the bad side of the whole situation.
Joseph himself is great, he really is a good little kid.  So excited to learn and to do things.  I've been working hard lately to teach him his numbers 1-10, and to write his name.  Infact, I've been trying to make everything we do educational in some way. When we go for walks we stop and look at the numbers on the letter boxes, when we're at the park we talk about the colour and shape of everything.  I guess I want to do for him what I'd want someone to do for my child, not just babysit him, but enrich him.  After all, my title is "Home Educator".  I also try to do things with him that I know he doesn't normally do, like baking, or swimming (he's been swimming twice his whole life - I've taken him both times), or to the museum, or gardening, or going to the library, or dancing.  We have fun together.  And my boys loooooove him.  Vili gets super excited when he sees him, cuddles him, wants to be right next to him.  And Malachi and Joseph are just buddies. 









I'm glad things are working with Joseph.  Without him and the income he provides Malachi wouldn't be thriving at Pre-school the way he is.  So I'm glad to have him.

**The day after writing this, Joseph's Mum gave her 2 weeks notice, said that her friend was going to watch Joseph now.  I am kinda bummed, for him.  I've met the lady he's going to, and he's just gunna sit and watch TV all day, not be spoken to in English, not socialise with other children.  I'm really sad for him actually, sad that all his hard work, all his learning, is going to be a waste because it won't continue to be reinforced.  And he was finally starting to write his name!! Oh well.  Because we still need the money, I'll be having another little boy come and replace him.  I know that replacing children is like trading 2nd hand cars, you give up one set of issues for another set of issues.  Watch this space for more on the newbie.**

Whangamata

The race was in Whangamata and we made a weekend out of it.  We drove down friday afternoon and stopped on the way in Paeroa, home of L&P.











When we got to Whangamata, we could not have been happier.  We were literally, across the road from the beach, in the biggest, flashest bach I've ever been in.  It was awesome.  Before we'd even unpacked we were at the beach.  And when everyone else turned up later that day, we went back to the beach.  And the next day after the race, beach again.  And then after nap time, beach!  It was so good. Vili finally got used to the sand, and Malachi was just in his zone!



Vili looks pretty happy about those views!!



Malachi was sooooooo excited to sleep in a sleeping bag!!





Vili getting used to sand.







Malachi would have dug to china if I let him.



We have a picture just like this from Hawaii, except with only 3 sets of footprints.









Checking out their shell collection.





So happy.

Vili spent a good amount of time covering himself in sand, and then trying to swim in it. Crazy monkey.









Babies on the beach.


We shared the house with my brother and his family, my SIL's parents and sister, my other brother, and his pre-missionary friend.  My sister stayed down the road.  The kids had a blast being with cousins and aunty's and uncles.  It makes me so happy to see them together.  I grew up living away from most of my cousins (there are about 20 1st cousins I have never met), and I always wished I was closer to them.  So I love that Malachi and Vili get to see one of their cousins practially every day.  It was just a really great family weekend.

D-Day

So the day has finally come and gone.  And here's the story.
I saw the physio the day before and he told me that I was not, under any circumstances, to run more then 5km. After 3km I needed to stop and see how i felt, but definately not to run more then 5km.  I would do permenant damage and regret it.  I was still keen as a bean to do the half-marathon, but the thought of having to walk 16km after running 5km was soooooooooooo not appealing, it would just take waaaay to long.  So instead I opted to just do the 10km, coz walking 5km was doable.  So on the day I made a goal for myself to try and run the first 5km.  Well, the race started, it was carnage, 1000 people all pushing and shoving trying to get through all the walkers and pram pushers, and find their pace.  But off I went (starting on HILLS of course - I have never run hills!!), running, running, running, singing, running, and I wasn't really sure how far I'd run, coz there weren't any km markers that I could see, not that I was really paying attention (actually I was way too busy singing, I felt bad for the people running next to me, coz singing Adele while running up a hill makes for some terrible sounds).  And then when I finally did see a marker it was 6km - I'd already passed my goal!  So I stopped and walked for about 100m, and realised I was totally fine, my ankle was ok, so I ran to the 7km marker, walked again for 50m, I was fine, and so I ran the rest.  Finished in 52.54min, a time I am very proud of.  I'm so glad I did it, even though it wasn't what I'd planned on, or trained for, it was awesome.  I got a blister the size of my thumb on my foot so I won't be running for a while, but I'm signing up to do the Rotorua Half Marathon in April next year.  Hopefully my SIL will be fully recovered (she had a stress fracture that meant she had to pull out completely this weekend, couldn't even walk the 5km, poor thing) and we can do it together.  My goal now is to do 1 race a year.  If I'm pregnant it will obviously not be a half marathon, maybe more a brisk 5k-er.  But something.  They had Sarah Olmer (sp?), a NZ Olympic gold medalist there and she basicly said that at the end of the day, your health is the greatest thing you'll ever have, without it, you can't enjoy any other part of your life.  And it's so true.  I wanna make exercise and keeping fit a family tradition.  I want my sons to wanna go for a bike ride instead of playing x-box afterschool.  I want them to be excited to hike, and not dread it.  And in order to have that I need to set an example to them, that running is fun,that exercise is awesome, and that it's important.  Coz it was fun, and it was awesome.  Here's to many, many more to come.
Yay me!



All of us that ran, right before we left. As you can see, we're wearing matching airforce shirts that my dad got for us, all the supporters were too.....oh yea, except for Richard!!! What a dork!



Waiting to start.



Stupid hills.







Malachi ran the last 100m with me to the finish. He was so excited. He ran the last bit with my brother too.



The finishers.



My support team.



The whole support team.

River walks

As part of my endeavour to never take for granted a place I live in (like I did in Hawaii), we have been going on weekly river walks.  Hamilton (for those not familiar with it), is divided in half by the Waikato river and the council has made an effort to make these amazing river walkways all along it.  Every time we go we pick a different place to park, and just walk.  The kids bring their bikes which they love, and we just enjoy some outside time.  We stop along the way at playgrounds or to feed ducks or throw rocks into the river. It's so much fun.  And now that spring is finally here, we're having more and more fine days, and this is the perfect way to take advantage of those days. Here are some pictures from our last few walks.

T minus 1 week

So after I found my motiavtion again, and got all super pumped to do this, I found out I'd torn a ligament and I've been out of commission for the last 3 weeks.  No running.  None.
What are the odds right?
Is the world trying to tell me something?
This week, with one week to go, I've been given the ok to run up to 5km......wow.....a whole 5km......considering I'm gunna need to do more then 4 times that in a week, it's pretty pathetic.
But I'm still going to do it. My goal now is just to do it, and to finish.  I'm going to ignore the physio guy and run the first 10km and walk the rest.  It's pretty disapointing, but I'm determined more then ever just to do it.
T-Minus 1 week.