Settling In

So this morning I woke up just before 6:30am, possibly due to the fact that I was asleep before 9:30pm and partially because I'm not quite adjusted yet.  Right around 6:30 there was some screaming downstairs kids were awake!  Looks like I'll be on an early schedule, for at least half of the week!  Mondays through Wednesdays will be my days to take the kids to school and pick them up again.  And Tue./Wed. I will also be responsible for Tessa in the afternoon while Reuben and Libby are at school.  So it looks like I'll be learning two languages while here, Kiwi slang along with Tessa slang.  Tessa and I spent about 30 min playing with photo booth on my computer, she kept saying "mooore" and thought it was the funniest thing she could see herself in the computer!  Later I brought the computer downstairs and the other kids loved the effects, good thing to keep in mind for indoor days...I'm pretty sure they would stay entertained for hours!

Some family friends came over for dinner with their 2 boys, Reuben and Libby's age.  I was trying to explain Antonio's pizza, because we had pizza for dinner.  Sounds like there's nothing really like it over here, but now they're on a quest to find something comparable! 

We went into Takapuna today and visited a few phone stores and a bank, and when everyone asked how long I was visiting for and I said the year, they immediately said, oh working holiday?  Seems to be a common thing for people staying the a in NZ. 

Also today there were severe storm warnings! Like advising people to go out and make sure they have batteries and flashlights and water and things like that!  I wasn't too worried because we have these types of things all the time in the winter and for some other storms, but usually nothing happens.  But apparently they never have advisories like that so Julia was in a bit of a panic!  So far there are pretty strong winds and some rain and the swells are getting pretty high in the ocean, but it's just like a chilly rainy spring to me, nothing too crazy!  It's comforting though that everyone comments on how HORRIBLE the weather is and not a very nice welcome to the country, but it really isn't that bad at all, and there's even been some sun in between the wind and rain so I'm thinking the weather is usually pretty perfect!