Today

Hello! Sorry to have waited so long to post, but we lost our internet for a couple weeks here at the house. Things are going well here. We started a new series at church called "Revolution" which is going great. We went with the hippie theme and its pretty groovy. Tabi has taken pics and I'll try to start a new link to them as I get them.

Just for fun, I thought I would interview our daughter, Elena, who just turned three. Cheers!

"Elena's Favorites"
Getting to Know Elena (these are her answers):

What's your favorite color?
Maybe orange or something.

What's your favorite food?
I like orange.

What's your favorite song?
Maybe the Barbie song.

What's favorite movie?
Barbie movie.

What's your favorite thing to do?
Color.

Where's your favorite place to go?
To McDonalds and go at the beach or something.

What's your favorite kind of animal?
A giraffe, a lion and a lion.

What's your favorite toy?
Barbie.

Who's your best friend?
Kaylie.

That's all I've got for today.

Bye for now,
Erin

Super Bowl

So, we're watching the Super Bowl here and I've noticed something very near and dear to my heart is missing...the sweet as commercials. What?! So I ask Linda and our friend Brett (who is an America junkie) what the deal is, and they tell me they don't show the American commercials here. I felt so, cheated. How could they do this to me and all other Americans abroad (well, in New Zealand anyways). Now all that's left is the football (no offense :0) but seriously, like a lot of "American" stuff they try to do over here, they just don't get it right most of the time. It's cute that they try though. Like when we went into Subway the first time, for instance. It looked like a normal Subway, had the same assembly line like our Subway (with some Kiwi additions for toppings), then we went to grab our chips. We looked all around the counter, behind the counter, they were no where in sight, then finally we asked where they were. They said they didn't have any. What?!? They said nobody was getting them, so they just took them out of the store. Danny and I started laughing like you've got to be kidding! She assured us, after seeing our disbelief, they were proposing on bringing them back. What can I say?

There are things unique to here that are pretty awesome though. Like the lattes. They have them everywhere. I mean everywhere. (And they're really awesome.) We went to get our car serviced at this little garage and they had a sandwich board advertising their lattes. It would be like the Scott Brothers (the one where they pump your gas in Battle Ground) gas station making you an extra foam latte while they fill your car. Its crazy. At all the gas stations they still pump your gas and check your oil for free (with no problem and sometimes a fabulous greeting of, "Hello, love!"), kids don't have to wear shoes everywhere (even at my kid's school), and people take time to help you at stores (sometimes that backfires and I lose patience waiting for my turn :0). Overall it is a pleasant and beautiful place to be. Its okay they don't do American stuff well. They're Kiwi, and they're not supposed to! That's what makes our stuff "American". I actually enjoy the quirks of the cross cultural differences. They make me smile.

Is this a blog or a novel? Sorry. I will go now. Everyone was bludgeoning us to blog more, so I'm doing my part! Have a great Monday.

~erin

Wow!

Hi everyone! We made it back to New Zealand after 14 hours of flying. Ugh. We were sitting in the back of the plane near the bathrooms (eew...especially after dinner :0) and it was a bit of a bumpy ride this time, but I actually slept a bit. Linda kept coming back to check on us and she said I was sleeping every time she came back. Yes! On the flight here I watched Danny and David sleep because I just couldn't. It was rough. They have this flight tracking thingie on the tv (every one has their own tv on the seat in front of them) and you can watch our plane (computerized) fly across the ocean. It tells you how far you've gone and gives you an estimated time of arrival. It's really depressing when you're awake and checking it throughout the night because you think you've waited awhile and that a couple hours have definitely passed since you last checked it, but the reality is it's only been 45 minutes. Ahhhh! So this time I knew I slept some cuz when I checked it there was only 3 hours and 36 minutes to go. Yesss! Then we drove about 2 1/2 hours from Auckland back to our home in Tauranga. We were excited to see the kids and they were excited to see us. Everyone did well while we were away.

It was so good to come back and see everyone. We've missed you guys a ton. We're sorry we didn't have enough time to see everyone we wanted to see, but it was such a fast trip. We are so excited that we got to bring Pastors David and Linda back to tell their side of the story. Isn't it amazing how God works? To be sure, I never would have thought last year at this time I'd be sitting here in New Zealand, let alone flying back to tell everyone about all the awesome things going on here. Hopefully we will get some pics posted of the church here soon. Take care.

-erin