Well, I didn’t intend to go a week and a half without blogging a single thing, but that’s what happened.  To say that it’s been busy around here is an understatement.

On Business Trips…

Chris got back from a trip to the States where he had his fill of philosophy, barbecue, and beer.  In loving-husband style, he stopped in San Francisco to get me, his chocolate-and-peanut-butter loving wife, a travel gift…

Oh yes, Reese’s PB Cups Minis and PB M&Ms.  Nothing like {mental} health food from the States!  I have to share, however, that after handing me the Target bag and after I’d photographed the goods, Chris backpedaled and said that he hadn’t meant for me to have the M&Ms, that those were for him.  Ha!  Very funny.  Just try to pry them out of my hands.

On Moving Out and Moving In…

After Chris got back it was go-go-go for about 3 days.  We were officially moving out of our house-sit and into our new place.  I was cooking, cleaning, and getting groceries delivered for our friends who were set to return from the US, and Chris watched Joe while trying to get over his jet lag.  In the midst of this was usual life: cooking for my family, keeping the apartment here clean, doing laundry, grocery shopping, watching Joe, and everything else.  Chris started teaching again at the university, as the semester here started last week.

On Dishwashers and Life Without A/C…

Our new place is nice, but like every new place, we’ve had a few adjustment bumps.  The dishwasher here didn’t work (so aggravating after having a non-working dishwasher at our house-sit for the last 2 1/2 months) but was thankfully quickly fixed with minimal disruption to our daily lives.  We have some beautiful views and basically an entire wall of windows, which is lovely but also a sun-catcher in the afternoon.  I’ve written before about how many homes in NZ don’t use air-con because, generally, it’s not needed.  The summer here doesn’t get into the high-90+F range like in the States.  But this summer has been a bit warmer and drier, and combine that with being pregnant and it gets a bit uncomfortable for me. Once 3pm hits, I get Joe up from his nap and we are out of here!  Otherwise, we bake.

On Small Kitchens and Silver Linings…

And speaking of baking and cooking and meals, I’ve learned to adjust to yet another new kitchen, this one the smallest we’ve had yet.

It’s not bad, really.  I was thinking to myself, “The downside to having a very small kitchen is that you’re constantly cleaning and rearranging stuff.  The upside, however, is that it takes almost no time to do all of that.  Hooray!”  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep to my 2 week meal-planning with the much smaller fridge and freezer, but so far, so good.

On Being Without a Car Again…

We gave up the vehicles when we moved to NZ nearly 3 years ago.  It was nice to have 24/7 access to one once again while house-sitting, and we’ve had friends who’ve let us borrow theirs in the past when they were traveling.  I really like the convenience of having a car, but I also really enjoy living in an area where I can walk to most places that I need to visit, have my groceries delivered, and avoid paying for things like petrol, insurance, maintenance, and parking.  I took this photo for a friend’s daughter back in the States as part of a class project that she was doing.

Please note that this is per litre, not per gallon.  This was with a receipt voucher code for having shopped at the attached grocery.  In general, it’s $2.20/litre rather than $2.13/litre, which would equal a little over $8.30 per gallon.  Yeouch.  Definitely happy to be able to use my 2 feet to get most places – far more economical.  But like anything else with moving to a new country, you learn to take the good (such as the gorgeous weather, high quality of life, access to healthcare, etc., etc.) with the bad (like high petrol/food prices, high housing rates, etc., etc.).

On Surgery…

Chris has needed to have sinus surgery for the last 6+ years.  He put it off at first because we’d talked about it and decided it could wait… but over time, his sinuses got worse and his nighttime heavy breathing was bordering on snoring.  Over time, his sinus surgery became a point of… nighttime discussion?  Middle-of-the-night conversation topic?  Early morning wake-up call?  You get the point, I’m sure 🙂  He went to see a doctor in the NZ public health system before we took our trip to the UK, then had follow-up upon our return.

It was looking as though Chris wouldn’t have the surgery till mid- to late-April.  With my due date in early May, this wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t mind – I was ready to have quieter nights (well, quieter on one side of the bed and a newborn on the other side of the bed!).  Then we got some news – a surgeon had a few slots open up on his schedule and Chris is set to have the operation this Friday.  Hooray!  We’re praying that his recovery won’t be too difficult and that he’ll be able to return to work on Monday.

All of this was a lesson to me on (1) communication and (2) putting myself in another person’s shoes.  It’s easy for me to forget, as a nurse, that surgery can be an anxiety-producing thing.  Recovery isn’t fun.  It’s one thing for me to push my husband to have surgery.  It’s another thing for him to be the one to actually go through the surgery.  Chris would never say that he was anxious about the operation, but I know that he’s not keen on taking off work or having his schedule interfered with because of recovery.  I felt a little selfish and spoiled for pushing so much, especially since we’d had another middle-of-the-night “roll over, you’re keeping me awake!” session just a few nights earlier (cue grimace right about now!).

I think that’s enough of an update for now.   I hope that all of you have been doing well and enjoying summer (if you’re on my side of the world) or winter!