Ellie Update by Noreen

Ellie was doing great by the long holiday weekend and I’m so grateful she got to participate, but unfortunately she relapsed on Sunday. Monday found us in the Doctor’s office for the 3rd time in two weeks and Tuesday at a Specialist to see if her asthma was allergy driven. She was very brave while pricked her back dozens of times with possible allergens. She did have some allergies (some trees, grasses, mold, and cats) but the Dr. didn’t think it was the cause of her breathing problems. She is now on 4 medications (that I have a love/hate relationship with) and seems to be doing better. The hardest part for her is being homebound. She wants so badly to go to church and swimming lessons and anywhere else someone is going without her. I took her last night to the library, but didn’t stay long because her cough sounds so bad. I feel like hanging a big sign around her neck that says “ASTHMA, NOT CONTAGEOUS!” so I can set her free.

Ellie followed me around the house half the day today with an empty milk carton, begging me to let her paint it. I realized that this was really important to her and set everything up in “painting mode.” She spent over an hour intently painting her milk carton, first tri-colored, then a blue “cow” and finally as a red “volcano.” Who knows, maybe a vintage milk carton by Ellie will fetch a fortune in the future.

Comics by Steve L

Click on image to view larger.

Ice Cream Review by Steve

Imagine Whirled Peace

Boring, boring, boring. Definitely last on the list. Although cleverly named and promoted with a licensed selff portrait of John Lennon done by himslef; this flavor was simply a marketing mistake. It simply has no life. Comprised of sweet cream ice cream, chocolate peace symbols and toffee cookie bits, it sounds alluring, but alas, it tastes plain. I didn't make it very far into it before I gave up. Have you ever at down to a meal that was all one color and seemingly one flavor? This was that meal. The toffee cookie bits had no punch, nor consistancy, but were merely colored parts of the ice cream. The ice cream was good if you like vanilla. The choco bits were amply present, yet too few to change the "color" of the pint. Waste of money, woudln't recommend it, but the kids loved it and rated it a 10. They ate most of it.

Coral, I am now looking for the flavor Creme Brulee. Did you know that on the B&J website you can find a store nearest to you with the flavor you are seeking? But, until I find Creme Brulee I will go with something already handy in the freezer; next week Phish Food.

Golden Bay by Noreen

On December 18th, 2006 we made it to the South Island. When the ferry docked, we drove to the northern tip of the South Island to a gorgeous campground called Golden Bay. Whitney had been dieing to go to the beach for about 4 ½ months, so we agreed to go "look" at the water for family night. Of course this consisted of every taking off their shoes, rolling up their pants and then getting drenched. The children required full warm showers that night, but we loved it! We spent the full next day on our own private, gorgeous beach. For Christmas the campground expected 900 people, but being the week before we had it mostly to ourselves. Turns out, Christmas holiday in NZ like Memorial Day or the 4th of July in the States. Everyone camps, B-B-Qs and spends the day on the beach.

A couple days later we defied the weather and went through with our plans despite the rain. We took a hike to see a great view of the Farewell Spit (on a map this is the long skinny peninsula at the northern most tip of the south island) and another hike to a Whakariki beach were a seal colony lives. These are sights marked on maps, so you might expect paved trails, with tour guides and entrance fees. Instead there was a small sign with occasional arrows leading you through farmer's sheep pastures and over fences on stiles. We hiked over steep rolling hills among the sheep (and a lot of sheep droppings.) Our reward on the other end was always remarkable. We saw some wild seals body surfing on the waves and sitting majestically on rocks. It just rained and rained the whole hike, but of course it stopped about the time we got back to the car. We didn't mind, however. We changed out of our wet things, had some hot chocolate and watched a movie in our trailer.

Not everyday day was a beach or exploring day. In the past we have taken a vacation for a week or a week and a half if we were lucky. You can, with some effort put your life on hold for this amount of time and then play catch up when you get back. Being on an extended tour is different, because you have to incorporate everyday life into it. We made time for laundry, and cooking, dishes, shopping and finances. It makes for a slower pace, and that’s just what we wanted!

"Looking" at the water

Our "private" beach

You can (kind of) see Farewell Spit in the background.

To see a map of the places we traveled so far in this series, click on this link: <http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&ie=UTF8&ll=-40.359103,172.875366&spn=8.067848,12.128906&z=6&msid=116765397961150020384.000451b63510a46db34d4>

End of Issue 7

Vol. 1 Issue 6

Beehive Camp by Whitney

I really enjoyed Oakcrest it was the best camp/activity/trip I’ve ever gone on.

There are about 400 girls that attend every week, and they do it all summer.
When you get there they split you into groups each group has 8-12 kids. Each has a group leader. They all have nick-names, like Sparkles, Rio, Froot Loop, Oodlellly, Fluff and Lobsterbush.(Yes, lobsterbush.) You don’t actually get to know their real names until the very end. I got Bubbles. She is the most awesome leader. In my cabin there were nine girls total and it was great! We all gave each other nick names. (I was Robin)

There was, Monkey (Morgan), Tree (Sarah), Bananas (Tiffany), Stripes (Julia), Blondie (Kayla), Chipmunk (Tiffany), Pinecone (Chelsea), and Coolest (Leah).

There are about 60 staff members and they are all girls. About 15 are kitchen staff, about five are floaters, there are four directors, and then there are grams and gramps. (They own the property.)The rest are cabin leaders.

The kitchen staff makes the meals,

Floaters do odd jobs,

In the directorship there are;

Crimson
(The head honcho, who reminds me so much of my Aunt Laura its scary)

. Selia (second hand girl) Smooch (also second hand girl)

Elmo (head of kitchen staff)

In that order. (You have to be at least 16 to be on the staff, and at least 18 to be a counselor.)

They had classes, activities, and spiritual activities. They had scripture study every morning and night, as well as ten minutes of silence at 9:30 that you could use for writing in your journal or reading a book or what ever you felt like doing as long as it was silent.
They have a trading post that you can go and but anything you’d need, from shampoo to candy, water bottles to sweatshirts, cameras to song books. There was a craft shop were you could buy materials to make craft such as magnet boards or photo frames.

They also had activities such as a zip line, several archery ranges, (it’s a lot harder than Robin Hood makes It out to be!) a parachute and more. They also had several devotionals. We also had some classes. One was first aid taught by Stitches and Nanook. There we met Jimbo. Jimbo is a tick that is taped to a tongue depressor, to show everyone what a tick looks like. They found him on crimsons bed so now he is used as a visual aid in first aid class.

On Wednesday we went on the overnighter. It was really cool. We all hiked up to this big field with aspen groves around it then we spread out a bunch of tarps and put our sleeping bags on it. It was so cool sleeping under the stars.

I'm so sad I'm not going next year (because I'll be too old) and I can't wait till I’m old enough to be on the staff!

Cartooning by Steve L.

On Saturday I went to see Phil Yeh, a graphic novelist, who was speaking on creativity. (A tip - when choosing your characters, don't name them after someone you know. He told us the person who made the Simpsons named the characters after his family members. His Dad wasn't very happy about having one of the stupidest characters being named after him.) He said that the most creative people don't spend 6 hours a day playing video games and the rest watching TV. They draw live art, read classic children's literature, and know the names of other artists. All of it was really cool.

I showed him my comics and he said he really liked my choice of characters.

Ice Cream Review by Steve

Chunky Monkey

Now we're talking! This flavor is number two behind NYSFC for sure. This tasty ice cream has a light yellow color and tastes like artificial bananas. OK, I did say in an earlier article that fruit should be eaten straight out of its peel or not at all. Scratch that with bananas. I like banana everything; drinks, smoothies, dehydrated, and yes, the fruit itself. Floating in the sea of banana smoothness are large walnut chunks. BIG chunks. All over the place. That is the good thing about B&J, they try to surprise you with every flavor. Throw something in you don't expect. Also present in the ice cream were chocolate chunks, very similar to those found in NYSFC, except only half the size. So, the chocolate bits and the nuts were very inspiring, and I did finish the pint. I found it certainly more interesting than Cherry Garcia, but will anything eclipse NYSFC? What would it take its place? More types of chunks? A totally amazing ice cream flavor? Who knows? One can only try. Next up, Whirled Peace.

Movie Review by Noreen

My Girl Friday



Staring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell 1940



A spoof on the 1940's newspaper industry, Cary Grant plays Walter, a demanding newspaper editor. His ex-wife (whom he still loves, but never remembered to pay attention to) returns and announces her engagement. Hildy (Rosalind Russell) also happens to be his best journalist. He devises several schemes to try to get her away from her fiance and back to the newspaper.



This one of my favorite Cary Grant roles, because it suits him so well and he has so much fun with it. Hildy reminds me of the lead newspaper woman in The Hudsucker Proxy. The very witty, sarcastic dialogue never stops. This is a very funny, but not a very relaxing movie. If you like Grant and have the energy to follow the quick dialogue, you'll enjoy this movie.

Locks of Love by Janey

On Monday I got my hair cut. They cut off ten inches of my hair. I donated my hair to Locks of Love. They are going to make little baby wigs for kids who have cancer, because their hair falls out. I felt happy that I donated my hair.

(Note from Mom: Janey was very excited to get her hair cut when she found out about Locks of Love. She donated her hair in honor of my cousin's baby Serenity who is battling cancer. It was very hard for me to see her sun-kissed locks go, but I am very proud of her.)

Family Night Fun

Our Monday Family Home Evenings usually consist of a more formal gospel lesson, but Monday we were exhausted! Steve loves his job, but it is very demanding, and he couldn't get home until 7:30. I had spent the day at appointment after appointment interspersed with lots of errands. Ellie had coughed half the night and we decided I should take her back to the doctor. He ordered chest x-rays, so we were off to the Insticare. (Why do they call it Insticare when they make you wait so long to be seen?) I was afraid it would be a waste of time and money, not to mention the radiation exposure, to take her in, but I felt I should do it anyway. Turns out she has bronchitis and the beginning stages of pneumonia! I'm so glad we caught it early. She has been on Albuterol and Steriod to help her breath, which makes her very hyper, like she's had a bunch of caffeine. Then they tell me to keep her resting with lots of fluids. Ya right!

So back to Family Night. Eight o'clock we all crashed in the living room, while I read out loud from the book de jour and Steve played games of back gammon with the boys. Then Whitney led the kids in some of the zany songs she had learned at Beehive Camp. It was so much fun and just what the doctor ordered (except for the resting and drinking fluids part!)

Swimming by Daniel

Janey practicing her "ice cream scooper" arms.


Daniel swimming!

I just learned how to swim. I can do the Dead Man's float and do the front crawl. I can dive into the water from the side of the pool, but one time I did a belly flop! I like swimming a lot.

Lake Taupo by Noreen

After a week of preparation we were finally on our way South! We outfitted the caravan (pull-behind trailer) and pulled out a 4:00 pm Friday, our one week mark of being in New Zealand. We stayed at a wonderful campsite in Taupo that night and went to the mineral hot springs in the morning. It consisted of many different swimming pools heated naturally. School was still in session in NZ so we had the entire resort to ourselves and had a blast. We pulled out about 11:00 and drove around the outer perimeter of Lake Taupo on our way south. The small slice of the lake that we saw on our last trip here (Steve and I vacationed in NZ in 2004 with my side of the family) was nothing compared to the beauty of driving around it! About twenty minutes into the drive Steve said, "Alright, I can't stand it anymore!" and pulled over to the side of the road to explore. It was just too beautiful to drive by with out stopping. Daniel immediately ran down to the shore and started throwing rocks in. He about fainted when the volcanic rocks (pumice) floated back to him! After exploring for awhile, we piled back in the van and headed straight for the southern tip of the North Island.

It may be because we had already celebrated Christmas with our extended family, but it was easy to forget for days at a time that it was almost Christmas. It is not nearly so commercialized NZ and of course the warm weather fools you. About the only time you run into it is at the grocery store were they have American Christmas songs blaring over the speakers and 4 foot Santas boogieing to Jingle bell rock. It all seemed so out of place. Sometimes we forgot the date entirely. On Sunday we found some amazing new birds and Whitney was marking them in our bird book. She asked Steve what the date was and he looked at his watch and told her December 17th. We both looked at each other and laughed and hugged and I got teary eyed. It was our 14th Anniversary and we almost missed it!

The next morning (Monday) we pulled out of camp at 4:45 am to catch the 6:00 am a ferry to the South Island. We drove the van and caravan right onto the boat! A couple of hours later we arrived and started our adventure around the South Island!

End of Vol. Issue 6