Moving to a new nest in a new tree..

Hello! or as I now should say KIORA!

Nadim suprised us and arrived in Fiji on the 6th, after a wedding, selling our belongings, a few dramas, a reunion and sad good byes we left the islands 10 days later for our new home in Auckland.

The last few days settling into the new nest in our new tree has been....an experience. Luckily Nadim did a wonderful job setting up the nest (will post pictures later), the only things missing was shampoo and a hairbrush (his latest hair do...is the "no hair at all" look, so he did not need shampoo or a hairbrush)

Noesheen is settling in well, she loves the mall! She has asked to go home a few times, but as soon as Nadim mentions the mall....she automatically loves NZ.

The weather is totally different to Fiji, and its a nice different. So now I find my self sleeping -in in the mornings, taking my time with breakfast, cleaning the house on a daily basis (umm sometimes two or three times before I give up trying to clean Noesheens crumb trail) and job hunting. It sure is a lot different from what I have been used to doing in the past, but I know once I get a job ....the leisure life will dissappear.

Time to go, the laundry calls. Here is wishing all of you a WONDERFUL Christmas and a JOLLY New Year!

It's Time.....

I have a very very very good excuse...I hope, for being silent for so long! Its time, yes my friends its time.....

1. Its time for the Mad Rush before Christmas

Its this time every year, we experience a huge influx of ads, campaigns and other advertising material that need to go out, like yesterday! The TV station will tell us..."sorry that program is booked out" and our clients will tell us, "there's one more thing we would like to do". Needless to say, my work keeps me up during my dreams at night.

2. Its time for weird weather

Fiji has now entered its CYCLONE season, which means for the most part that it will be blistering hot in the morning. Then at lunch, the sun will go on vacation and the rain will pour in buckets, as the skies darken.

3. Its time for the cold & flu & fever

Due to the sun/rain weather we have in Suva, the number of cold & flu & fever cases increase. It doesn't help that dengue is around as well. Noesheen was down with the fever for a few days, then with a heart wrenching cough for a few more. She is fine now, and is of course making up for lost time by redoubling her efforts to watch every cartoon, destroy every sign of tidiness and fill up all the silence in between with questions, stories and other fun banter.

4. Its time for my favorite time of year

Growing up I loved Christmas. My parents had several traditions and it was always fun to be a part of that, and watching the joy these selfless acts would bring to the faces of others. Although I sound like a frog drowning, I love Christmas carols!!!

Since BYU Hawaii and Georgia, I fell in love with THANKSGIVING....What a coincidence! So HAPPY THANKSGIVING YA'LL!!! Although we do not celebrate it here in Fiji, around this time of year, I take extra special time to be thankful for all the blessings I have received all year round.

5. Its time for Weddings!

Nadim's Family have two weddings over the next few weeks, so we are going to be all weddinged-out by mid Dec. Nov - Dec is wedding season in Fiji, so there is always a mad rush to .....get married before Christmas.

6. Its time to move!

That's right, sadly enough....well it's a twist of emotions. Noesheen and I join Nadim in New Zealand in the next three weeks. What this means right now, is that I have even more to do at home as well as at work. House items to sell, clothes to sort, car to sell, finances to put in order, clearances to gain, new person to train etc etc  So I am taking one day at a time, and finding that I am running out of days! heehee

I also am trying to spend as much time in the temple (only up the road from my home) as in New Zealand it will be several hours away. Its all these little things about Fiji that I love. 

Don't get me wrong after almost nine months of separation, we are happy that we will be together in a few weeks time!

Time to resurface!

Hello! I'm back....I found a little window of time in my schedule, so I thought I should write a bit. Lots has been happening! Life is very very tight.

I managed a trip to the West two weeks ago (other side of the island), and the night before when i was explaining to my dearest child that I would be leaving very very very early in the morning, she asked where "Lautoka" was, as i explained, she realized that she lived on an island! what a wonderful discovery that was, her eyes widened with amazement, "an Island? we live on an Island?"

Although i have been teaching Sunday school twice a month for a lot of months now, I don't officially have a calling in church (ahem...rephrase "didn't). Well, now i got one, my grandmother is the Relief Society President, so......yah! You are reading the new RS teacher's BLOG! YAY! I love RS! oh and I still teach Sunday School as well.

There has been a super lot going on at work, as the year rounds off, we get busier and busier....once we have launched a few things, i will put a few pictures up. There is something really big on the horizon for one of my clients, Vodafone! So it will be super and bit nerve wrecking to get stuff done.

As for my child, she has learnt that baking choc chips taste just as good if not better than actual confectionary chocolate..... I have learnt that umbrellas are for all seasons; you should show them off as often as you can, especially if its clear with pink polka dots and is too big for you. 

I have also learnt that my child is the bestest missionary ever, she has directly asked her great-grandpa, " Do you love Jesus?", "Next time you go to church with me!"....10 children, 44 grandchildren later, my grandfather exclaimed, "This kid will have me converted".

Prayers are indeed answered!

ONCE again....thank you Janan!

So I open my blog, after what seems like yoncks! and what a surprise, I have been tagged, I think Janan is getting very good at helping me update my Blog, thanks gal!

Okay so, wait give me a min...let's just read what i have to do....okay set, i will shortcut this a little bit okay, just cuz i can!

Seven random facts huh....

1. I think like you watch an animation/cartoon....a bit funny at times, and sometimes it just does not make any sense...to anyone else, but me of course! Bits and pieces glued together like a collage, no that does not make me very creative, it makes me...random!!! See this first fact did not make any sense at all!

2. FOOD- I love food, I have never met a food that I did not like...I have had this addiction since I was born...ME LIKE FOOD! and if you saw me, you could tell, since you know i'm like a size 6, hahah, yah just add 1 in-front of that, or maybe put a 1 in front of it and add a 2 to it...but yah food, from chinese to pacific to Indian to mexican to Italian to stuff you can just throw together coz you so hungry you could eat a .......In fact over the years, i have just totally stopped listing my favorite food, because, it's just so hard to decide!!

3. DESSERT- Unfortunately for my teeth, and my body...i love cakes and cookies and ice-cream and cheese cakes (that needed a mention on its own) and brownies and pies and all the other mouthwatering yumyums there is out there, but i prefer homemade to store bought, only exception is ice-cream of course. And if i do buy cakes, it has to be from the really expensive place (my wallet suffers for my addiction). I also have a fetish for Indian sweets, but as i get older, i realize that my body cant handle all the sugar like it used to....ah the frailty of age!!! So since Nadim has been away, guess what i have been doing? Making cupcakes and cookies almost every weekend i can! My excuse, well Sheen needs Sunday snacks!

4. ORder -  i live like i think, unorganized and all over the place. I am not the neatest most well organized person in the world, if any of you have lived with me (ex roommates, mission companions) you will say "amen" to this! This really bugs my husband, who is like the opposite of me

5. writing - you would not be able to tell from the way i keep this blog, but i started writing a journal when i was like 12 ( I think i started before then but kept loosing my notebook) and by the time I was 17 I had already filled like 13 or so journals. The habit forgot to kick in when i got married, but now almost 5 years later, i got my groove back! and so i am writing my journal again, its not like it was back in highschool, when i just rambled (something that has not changed), now i ramble about more important things...of course there are less dramas in my life! Because i have so many books filled, i had to started going back and putting everything into separate categories ....like school, religion, friends...so once that massive task is done, then i can compile according to categories and hand those out to my ....daughter! That way i sound so much more sensible!

6. Stories - i love to read and then making up stories, in fact this became a small fun group thing we used to do in Uni when my kiwi friend Winnie was there. i have started writing a book....and am yet to finish it.

7. umm lets see......my wedding, yes, i let my mom plan my entire wedding and did everything she wanted done...because at that time, I thought it was really important as the oldest child that I let her do that....and you know what, no regrets! I mean when Nadim and I celebrate an anniversary (which one i haven't decided yet, i think i am waiting for the light-bulb effect), i want to re-new vows and do things....well my way...then again, i have gone through too many bride magazines, maybe that's not a good idea. Oh ya and I had a hobby of collecting bride magazines when i was at Uni.

Phew!! sorry, random i know! and again, sorry for not updating in a while, i have to sit down and talk and talk about all the things that have been happening around me....for now i think this much reading is reading enough!

you thought i forgot to tag.....hahaha okay i tag

Kamaile

Whitney

Marie

Sue

Victoria

Jessica Bills

sorry, guys, no links, i have to get back to work! 

ramblings

 First of all "thank you Janan!". I have been wondering what to write about, then I read Janan's message to update this blog, and thought to myself, "just ramble woman....something interesting ought to come out of that" so here goes....

I turned 30!

For those of you who did not know, I turned 30 on the date of my last post. It was a nice day. For those of you wondering how the day went....the sun was out, but there was this nice cool

 breeze....the gang at work got me a cake and sang "happy birthday".....so i got cake! All my friends from almost all over sent me nice little messages....thank you facebook! I went home and made roast for dinner....which was nice....so it was nice, of course it would have been 

nicer if my husband were around, but that's okay, many more birthdays to come....

Zedekiah's Birthday Party

Sharon's son's birthday party was held on the 30th.....the busiest weekend of ....i think...the year! Because I love my sister so much...and it was her first kiddy birthday party...i helped. Thi

 means I ended up doing the pinata (from scratch), pin-the-pants-on-spongebob poster, cupcakes, cookies, packed the party bags, as well as decorate the two birthday cakes. If I did not mention it before, i'll tell ya now, the two cakes were Spongebob and Patrick...it turned out alright, I was more happy with how Patrick turned out this time. Sorry, I don't know where the pictures are, when i find it I will post it. 

So we were up til four on Saturday morning baking, then went to bed only to get up a few 

hours later at 7am, helped Sharon with a bit of last minute shopping before I dedicated myself entirely to decorating the cakes. 

Noesheen had super fun at the party, and was a bit upset to leave at 5.30pm for a quick shower and change before we headed off to another function,which ended at 11.30pm. Needless to say, Sunday we were super super tired as we sat in church (our meeting starts at 8am). 

No and I am not superwoman, because we arrived at church an hour and a half late!

I learnt a lesson though....DO NOT OVERBOOK YOUR WEEKENDS!!!! Having said that, i know I am bound to do something like that again!

I am looking forward to a much much quieter weekend this weekend, heavens know my house needs it!

THE ROAD-TRIP!

On Tuesday, I was supposed to take a road trip to the other side of the island 

to see a building we are to brand for a mobile company. I was excited! Super excited, what an adventure! 

Getting up at 2am in the morning for a road-trip to a place I hadn't seen in over 15 years! Then the more and more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to let my other ME (media executive who also happens to be my brother) do it. 

Why?? Several work related reasons, I am in the process of off-loading a lot of my work in preparation of my departure (no its not like I am leaving next week, or next month for that matter...have to ramble about this later)

As a result I gave up a good trip. For those of you that are not familiar with Fiji, the country is made up of a group of over 300 islands. The main island, which is Viti Levu is where I live. The island is also home to the capital and has the main ports of entry into the country. The main island has two major highways that go around the island....Queens highway and Kings highway. The Queen's goes from Suva passed Sigatoka to Nadi and Lautoka and I think up to Ba. The Kings highway goes from Suva in the opposite direction to Nausori passed Rakiraki and Tavua and I think meets the Queens in Ba. The Queens is the road most often travelled, its faster to get to the airport on this road. The Kings is mostly inaccessible.....under-construction...and requires an off road vehicle. Its getting better though as the pictures will tell.

 Although after a rainstorm most of our roads require an off-road vehicle...but thats another rambling for another day...bless the hearts of all the men who work tirelessly in the hot sun to repair all the pot-holes only to have their hard work go down the drain after a storm! Sorry, i have to take a moment to laugh at that statement!

So where, was I... oh yah...the Kings road...yes that's the road the boys took in their road trip. I couldn't go but I have some pictures...that Simon took of the trip and the

 natives...enjoy!

the natives ...well the chick belongs to the chicken who belongs to the natives that live on this side of the island!

AHHHH...I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by Whit,
DA Rules: Answer da questions using only ONE WORD. Then tag four others.
I'm going to tag Kamaile, Janan, Marie and Sarah.

1.Where is your cell phone? TABLE
2. Your significant other? NADIM
3. Your hair? Shoulders
4. Your mother? working
5. Your father? Away
6. Your favorite thing? SPIRIT
7. Your dream last night? CONFUSING
8 Your favorite drink? WATER
9. Your dream/goal? EXALTATION
10. The room you’re in? OFFICE
11. Your hobby? TALKING
12. Your fear? DROWNING
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? NEW ZEALAND
14. What you’re not? Organized
15. Muffins? BLUEBERRY
16. One of your wish list items? VISA
17. Where you grew up? SUVA
18. The last thing you did? SNACK
19. What are you wearing? COOL WATER
20. Favorite gadget? BLACKBERRY
21. Your pets?NONE
22. Your computer? DESKTOP.....UMM SOON TO BE A MAC (i know i cheated!!!)
23.Your mood? GRATEFUL
24. Missing someone? EVERYONE!
25.Your car? NISSAN
26. Something you’re not wearing? EARRINGS
27. Favorite store? HUH????
28. Like someone? YESSIRREE
29. Your favorite color? UNDECIDED
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? SUNDAY....

Our put-put turns one!

Zedekiah, thanks to Noesheen and I has inherited a lot of nicknames...some really hilarious ones "put-put" is just one of them. He turned 1 yesterday and Sharon had all of us over for lunch after church. If you are a regular reader of my blogs, you would know by now, we love cakes.....making them, eating...we just love cakes.

So we had a problem with keeping the smarties on the cake and the fingers off the cake.. As soon as those candles were blown out...how you like our candle?? Sharon forgot candles (Zedekiah has his big party next saturday, this was just a get together and practice for him).

So as soon as the candle was blown out umm i think three times...the first time sheen blew it out, the second time, I was trying to get him to blow it and accidently blew it out myself....yah I know, Zedekiah got it the third time and blew it out himself!!

That last picture tells the real story...that we are all a-related-cake-crazzy bunch!!!

CHOW TIME!!!!!!

Here's the update

I know, its been a bit of a while since my last post, no excuses here! So I thought I'll show you all the pictures first, then do all the talking ummm ranting and raving later.

So Noesheen found my missionary tag in the drawers I was cleaning out, and of course she knew exactly what it was..."missionwaries!!!!!" That morning she had to wear my nametag to Sharon's house, I thought when I picked up up after work, she would be over the ....."missionwaries". I was wrong, I went to pick her up and she was not just wearing my nametag, but had removed the dark lenses from zedekiahs sunnies (oh she has sunnies of her own, but my goodness if she removed the lenses from those, she couldnt wear them now could she...thats little girl logic for ya) and was now using it as another "missionwary accessory". My sister Sharon (pictured) thought it was hilarious that Noesheen was imitating mummy, all I have to say is....she still has a way to go to master the dressing up part! heeheh

A few weeks ago, Noesheen inherited some of Sherneez's old church dresses. So that meant a little trip to Nadim's aunty who is a seamstress. We took up the hems of the dresses and added a few bits here and there. This dress is one of the results of that trip. Noesheen loved the dress.

So yesterday as I struggled more than usual to get sheen out of bed for church, she was disappointed to see what I had selected for her to wear. Another one of Sherneez's hand-me-downs-amended-to-fit. I thought the dress was lovely and really very "with the times" as we just finished our local Hibiscus Festival. Noesheen did not think so, so of course there would be naturally no smiles for the pictures as a sign of protest. She was also upset that I put all her hair up!!! kids these days!!!!

But by the time we reached church and she was complimented on how nice she looked, I did not have a problem at all!

The story with Fairy Bread...mmmmm!!

This post is especially for my dear hawaiian friend Kamaile, Fairy Bread! Fairy Bread is very simple to make and kids love them. Traditionally, you just spread some butter on slices of white bread and cover them with sprinkles...better known here as 100's and 1000's. I cheated a bit and since i have such a sweet tooth (honestly, I will be wearing dentures when i am 40....pray for me) I used left over choc and vanilla frosting, and covered that with the sprinkles...ohh and cut the edges off the bread too please....oh and i also used as another option nutella...mmmm yummy (that's a choc hazelnut spread)....the kids loved it.

Thankyou everyone for all your nice comments on the cake...I have Zedekiah's birthday coming up and guess what cake the birthday boy's momma wants??? thats right, our good ol friend who lives in a pineapple under the sea!!

And then it was Sunday!

Noesheen just loved the dress that my land lady (who Noesheen calls Nani (or granma)) gave to her for her birthday and wore it to church on Sunday. But before we went to church the dress had to be put to a photoshoot test! Noesheen loves pictures, but she wont pose for just anyone..again note to reader, I did not direct this shoot, i was just the cameraperson (not a very good one but a cameraperson still the same).

"Okay mommy, I have had enough!!"

Noesheen with her great-grandmother (my maternal grandmother) after church. Well it seems Noesheen is too big for big ol hugs now too! or just really moody.

..and my baby turns 4!

Okay if you are not planning to sit down and read for a while, I suggest...finding time to do that first before you start reading...because this is going to be a long post, haha. Noesheen turned 4 on the 9th of this month. I can't believe how fast these four years have past. It only seems like last sunday, i put on that tent of a dress to go to church....because at that stage of my pregnancy that was about the only thing that could fit me...i was huge! a hippo-mummy-to-be! Although the docs wouldnt tell me (they do that here you know) the sex of my baby, i knew my baby was a girl...and before i was sure of it, my mom was sure of it...from the time i got pregnant, my mom declared it was a girl! So there i was squeezed into the second last row in church sitting next to my distant cousins the Vareas. There i was smilinh at everyone, because they all had the same thing to say, "you still pregnant!" "when is that baby coming?" "weren't you due like last month?".

The answer i gave them..."yah, baby will come when she is ready!". Sitting there that sunday on the 8th of August, i felt different, more tired, yet more calm. My baby was due on the 17th of July, needless to say, that was a huge miscalculation! Nadim had taken time off work because for weeks now we were told, "any day now".

I remember that Sunday night, we were watching TV when the contractions started...about 15 mins apart, being first time parents, we rushed over to the hospital, the docs took one look at me and said, "nope you not ready yet, your water has to burst first, go home, try and get some sleep". So we went back home, around 11.30 the contractions were closer together, more painful, but still no "gushing of water". Nadim couldn't handle it, so we went back to the hospital, the docs said, "no you not ready, your water has not burst yet", i said, "well my contractions are becoming 5 mins apart, i dont care about any "gushing ofwater" I am not going anywhere, cos you are going to admit me now" Heehee that did the trick, he found a bed for me and I was officially admitted. "but you know, you are still a long long way from delivering could be tomorrow afternoon..." the doc warned.

I didnt care, coz i knew she would come sooner than that. At that time the maternity ward in the hospital was under renovation so we had to use the old theatre area...plus they wouldnt allow Nadim to stay with me! That was the hardest part i guess for me, was not to have him with me. Needless to say, the contractions got worse, my mom sneaked in to see me, and pushed me to get some sleep, "you will need all the strength you have baby!" she said. I finally fell off to sleep around 5 or 6 in the morning after some frevent praying. When the HOD did her rounds at 8 the next morning she declared, "you're ready!".

Boy I was overjoyed!! so there they wheeled me off to a another room full of women who were ready as well, so like 45 mins later, she said, "okay now you ready to push". I think at that point, I could not feel half face and my hands...coz i was numb with pain... and there was a problem with my bp as well at that point...I remember thinking to myself, "okayeeee, sure". Then i had to get up, hold my IV and walk to the theatre in the next room and climb up onto the delivery table (yah i know what you thinking) but, the little walk felt better! So after pushing for a while Noesheen came into the world at 9.45am 9th August! I wanted to find the doctor who told me I was going to be in the hospital all day and say, "haha, I told you so!!!! This baby was coming sooner than you think".

Noesheen was 4.1kg and 51 cm tall, with a head full of jet black curls. I think she suprised the midwives with her size, coz they exclaimed, "gosh what have you been eating!" She fell off to sleep the min they wrapped her, actually she didn't even squeal, it was almost like she just needed to sleep off the whole tramatizing experience. Nadim was beside himself with joy when they finally allowed him to come see us, he thought i would just about die! Infact, when everyone asked me, "so how was it" as if i was going on vacation, i would respond "well it was like i died and was re-born with Noesheen!" But i am glad for her spirit and the joy and mischief she gets into. So now at 4 I can see that she is officially "not a baby anymore", but a little girl.

With Nadim away (yes still!) I thought she needed to have the best birthday ever. When i first asked her what she wanted, she was adament, "spongebob". Then it changed to a pool party, and i was soo glad about that, i quickly did the invites and sent them off.

Then she wanted a guitar cake, i thought to my self no problem that's easy. But then a few days before the party, she decided she wanted "spongebob squarepants", and if any of you have lived on this island, you would know, theme birthday cakes like spongebob are hard to come by if you can find it. and if you can find it, you will literally pay the price for it. But i give credit to all the cake shops that do all the birthday cakes, cars, trains, batman, superman...i mean most kids just want that right? So I took on the mammoth of a task and decided to make it my self, with a few internet searches (thank you internet) I knew what i was going to do....

I baked the yellow cake the night before at my sister Sharon's place, got up like at 6 on Sat morning, and started decorating the cake after 7, it took me a while but I was done by like 9ish. Of course, then Noesheen got up before it was done, and wanted to help out, which meant eating like half the icing. Then all the birthday phone calls came in, and of course Noesheen wanted breakfast and had like 2 million urgent questions that needed to be answered immediately! But I am pleased with how the cake came out, whatchathink?

After doing the cake, we had to make a trip to the supermarket to pick up the bread for fairy bread and some lemonade for the punch, so Noesheen got ready to go to the store, and no I did not dress her like this, and no i did not direct the poses for this photograph.

The party was a small... well you can say, family affair, coz it was full of Noesheen's cousins and aunties her age (and some not). Noesheen was in her togs (swimsuit) and in the pool the min uncle Simon and uncle Sashi were done inflating it (thanks guys).

The rest of the picts are random picts from the small party. It was the best ever, coz she had sooo much fun and did not get out of the pool til she was shivering cold at about 4pm!

Birthday prezy from Aunty Sapna and Uncle Alan (Nadim's cousin and her husband)

Here is Nadim's cousin Noelene with daughter Jazel (seated) and niece Irris, just before we blew the candles out.

Here is me and my sister Sharon's son Zedekiah. Noesheen adores him and treats him like a brother.

Cake with Candles! Waiting to be blown out! Noesheen was super excited.

Here is my eager beaver, we were in the middle of singing happy birthday and she wanted to blow the candles out already! Thats my hand on the right trying to tell her to hold on!

you mean i can eat it now? I'm giving her a little help to dig into the cake!

I decided to keep the snacks basic, so we had homemade choc-chip cookies, choc-choc-chip cookies, cheese and crackers, dip and nachoes, fairy bread, mac and cheese and my special nibbles and of course birthday cake.

Jaz, Sheen and Irris hit the pool!

So while all the kiddies were swimming downstairs in the pool, Aunty sapna was tasting the food...you know just to be sure everything was okay for the kiddies to consume!

Zedekiah was the only one who could not join the girls in the pool, the water was a bit too cold for his liking.

Grub time, while Irris and Jaz had had enough, Noesheen when back into the water when her lil aunty Resha arrived, she had way too much fun with Resha and Jon in the pool. Sorry no picts there!

Sheen just did not get enough of her birthday cake, so she took to it again after all the guests had left!

At the end of it all she was thoroughly exhausted, I had to put this picture in... I am so thankful that Heavenly Father thought me worthy to me mom to this active little girl. I thank him every day for her and the joy she is to me and Nadim.