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Deb in NZ

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  1. Dh is renovating our house. He's been working on this for the past 7 years. Today we demolished our old kitchen as both our boys will be moving away from home in the next month. He assures me that we will be without for kitchen for weeks, not months, but as he is in the early stages of 2 bathrooms, an office, & the new master bedroom as well I'm realistically looking at no kitchen until possibly as late as mid-year. Luckily it will be just dh & I for most of that time, so I won't be trying to feed a houseful. I have a couple crockpots, a microwave, a toaster, & a single portable hob. I work as a relief (substitute) teacher during the school year, so won't have heaps of time, so easy, simple meals are best. At the moment our lounge is cluttered with most of the kitchen gear & we are washing dishes in the laundry tub. The only thing that I left in the kitchen was inside of the lower cabinets as dh said they wouldn't be touched when he took down the walls & ceiling. Well, the guys managed to tip over the cabinet with my dishes & casseroles in it :glare: not quite the way I had planned to declutter. I haven't dared to see what survived the crash yet. TIA
  2. I'm a short mother (4'11") of short children. Dh is the tallest by far in his family, currently 5"6" at age 66, but he tells us he used to be 5'10" :laugh: Both of his parents were really short. When ds#1 was 7yo we took him to the paediatrician as we were worried that he was still wetting the bed. The dr was more worried at how short he was & sent him for blood tests & a wrist x-ray. The x-ray results showed he was 2 years delayed in development. This proved true as both my boys didn't begin their growth spurts until after age 15. Ds#1 was 7 pounds 14 oz at birth, so about average (midway on the chart) but by 6 months he was off the bottom of the chart. He was growing consistently each month but just at a slower rate than the chart showed. We took him to a dr but she wasn't worried when she noticed that he was meeting or exceeding all developemental milestones, just growing physically at his own rate. All 3 of my dc were / are the smallest in their peer group. The dr who saw ds#1 at age 7 tried to push for growth hormones, but when we asked what the possible side affects of taking them were longer-term, he couldn't tell us that it was risk free. When were asked what would happen if we didn't start them, he said ds#1 would most likely be short. Well, being short was normal in our family so that wasn't a problem in our eyes & we refused the growth hormones. Ds#1 is now 22 & is about 5'4"-5'5". He was very active growing up, doing quite well in gymnastics & sailing. He is a qualified tradesman (heavy fabrication & welding) & isn't the smallest man in the workshop at all. Dd is only 5'2" & her height hasn't held her back at all. She pulls her weight on the ship, just like her larger members of her crew. Ds#2 is about 5'6" but still growing at age 19. He has always been the smallest in his peer group, but this hasn't stopped many from "looking up to him" as his personality is much larger than his physical size. He plays on the NZ u19 hockey team as a goalie, something that is a HUGE achievement for any size young man. His team mates call him "Bilbo" fondly :lol: but he is their first choice to have in the net, ahead of much bigger men. When he was younger he also did gymnastics, karate, sailing, soccer, etc. Size has never held him back in his eyes & has been beneficial in some ways as others' preconceived ideas about being short have limited what they thought he could do, giving him an advantage. We never had him tested, like we did ds#1, as his growth echoed his brother's path. From what we've found being short has less problems than what our really tall friends have had to deal with over the years. JMHO
  3. I believe that hurricanes are in the Atlantic, typhoons are in the North Pacific, & cyclones are in the South Pacific. All 3 terms are for the same type of storm.
  4. Growing up in VT, I heard "cyclone" &" twister" used for "tornado." "Tornado" was the most common used, but I have heard both of the others as well. Other terms that have sometimes confused non-Americans are: American term = non-American term flip-flops = jandals (NZ), thongs (Aus.), Zoris (Marshall Islands), Slippers (other Pacific Islands) cooler = Esky (NZ/Aus) biscuits = scones cookies = biscuits soda / pop / etc. = fizzy drink supper = tea bedtime snack = supper morning snack = morning tea jumper = pinafore sweater = jumper turtleneck = skivvy candy = lollies pinnies (worn by sport teams in practice) = bibs diapers = nappies hot drink = cuppa crib = cot backpack / knapsack = school bag sub / submarine sandwich / hogie / grinder / etc. = filled roll living room = lounge family room = rumpus room kitchen counter = kitchen bench bathing suit = togs I'm sure that there's tons more. When my dc were little & we would travel to visit my family, I would use the l-o-n-g flights to refresh their American English. Ds#1 is heading off to the States early next year. He'll find it interesting as all of my dc's "first language" is Kiwi-English.
  5. The first time I made Chicken & Biscuits for dh, he was horrified that I would put chicken stew on "scones." After that when ever I would make that meal, he would have his "scones" on the side with strawberry jam. :lol: The funniest dialect misunderstanding in our bi-cultural home was over the word "cyclone." Here in NZ "cyclone" = hurricane or typhoon. DH would not accept that "cyclone" = tornado. Our dc were ROTFL over that days dinnertime discussion.
  6. Ds#1 has bought his ticket to head overseas on his OE. His plane departs at 12:30am on a Monday. Check-in is usually 3+ hours before departure for international travel. So he would need to check in before 9:30pm on Sunday, right??? Also, when we travel we always buy travel insurance. Ds#1 will be gone for at least a year. How long can you buy travel insurance for? He'll be based mostly in North America as his plans stand at this time. TIA,
  7. We're fine, but we live up in Northland, the only part of NZ not directly on a fault line. Ds#2 is at uni in Palmerston North & felt the 7.8 quake Sunday night. His last exam was to be 9am Monday morning, but all Monday's exams were postponed, then canceled as the buildings needed to be checked for damage. Ds#2 was very happy as that exam was worth 60% of his grade & he has a B+ average in that class for all work up until now. Dh worked in Christchurch after the Feb 2011 quake & he says this quake looks to be a lot more powerful. The number of severe aftershocks is very concerning & the high winds & rain that is hitting the country at the moment is making things worse. In the past 48 hours there has been over 800 aftershocks, many quite severe. I don't know how people cope with the on-going stress. You are in my prayers, Ruth. Keep safe. Blessings,
  8. I'd like to see all primaries to be open primaries as they are publicly funded. If the primaries were all on one day (May 1) with campaigning allowed only 2 months prior (say March-April) to voting it would help to prevent people who by the time November comes are just completely sick of the election. Take the candidate of each party who received the most votes overall to run in the main election. This would allow for 6 months of campaigning for the selected candidates. By holding open elections the parties could more clearly see how much support the candidates had from the whole electorate, not just the small number of registered party members. Holding the primaries on one day would allow for all states to have the same amount of info when making their choice. In this year's election states that had early primaries weren't as fully aware of who some of the candidates were & it definitely favoured candidates with prior name recognition. I believe that much of the stress over this year's results can be traced back to the primaries of both major parties. JMHO,
  9. We're a sports family here. Neither dh nor I had much, if any support ($ or time) from our parents when we were teens, so we were determined to support our dc to the best of our ability. Scholarship &/or career opportunities are not the best reason for playing sport IMHO. If you have a teen with skill, promise, desire, & the work ethic to make it work, sport is worth it. Being able to set long term goals & work towards them is a skill that many teens (& many adults) lack in today's world. Being a good team player, managing other commitments (work, study, family, etc.), while still training is very good preparation for university & adult life in general. The increased independence (while hard on mom & dad) is very important for teens. Your dd may be completely committed to her chosen major at uni, but that isn't 100% guaranteed. I changed my chosen major between my junior & senior year in high school after focusing on the previous one for 6 years. My major changed again slightly during my sophomore year in uni. All 3 of my dc have been competitive athletes to one degree or another during their teen years. All 3 ended up passionate about different sports & competed at a national level for at least part of that time. As we don't live in one of the main centres, most competitions required travel of at least 3 hours. There is no such thing as full ride athletic scholarships here unless you are or have been on an Olympic level team. To be fair, full ride academic scholarships are just as scarce. Ds#2 did get a sports scholarship to uni, but it just about paid for his 2 main tournaments this year. The mentoring & workshops (nutrition, time management, etc.) that were part of the sports academy scholarship were just as valuable as the actual money. Ds#2 just found out that he has been named in the jr national team for the 3rd year. This would not have happened without us supporting him to pursue his passions. His sport isn't professional here, so to play professionally he'd have to move to Europe. He could look at coaching, but that is requires volunteering for years before you get to a level that it pays the bills. Neither dd or ds#1 still compete in the sports that they played during their teen years, but the skills, connections (networking), etc that they acquired during that time has proven very, very valuable. JMHO
  10. TPPA = Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement
  11. I voted "yes" but in reality only in making my final choice does the important issue come into play. Looking at the 4+ choices I have for POTUS I look at many issues to narrow my choices down to 2 candidates. Then I look at those 2 candidates as to how they support or don't support my big issue (this election it's the TPPA) I have decided to make sure my vote goes for someone I can support, not to make sure someone else doesn't get elected. (i.e I will only vote FOR someone, not AGAINST someone) This election that means that my vote has gone for a 3rd party candidate. My vote will count as it shows what I feel is important for our country to support. If everyone voted for what they believe IN, instead of voting out of fear of someone else getting elected, we would have a better view of what the general population wants this country to support.
  12. I like the planners at tiny.com. https://www.tinyme.com/personalized-diaries For the past 3 years I have had one with columns that lists the days across the top & the names down the lefthand side. For 2017 I have one with the names across the top & the days down the left hand side. I use it as a personal / family planner to keeps track of who has what when, etc. If I was still HSing I would get an A4 size one that listed subjects instead of names. I use an A5 size planner as it fits easily in my purse. Before discovering Tinyme, I used a BusyBody Book as my planner & I really liked their column setup, but they went out of business about 5 years ago. A plus with Tinyme is that each planner is personalised, meaning I don't have to label the columns 52 times :hurray: I order from the Australian site, but there are sites in the US & UK as well. Blessings,
  13. I would guess that they don't have any stats on the AKL-LAX flights as they are just starting that route in the next few weeks. But it is a bit worrying with what livetoread said about their service (or lack there of). I may look at direct AKL-BTV flights & adding a BTV-ATL return mid visit for him thanks again everyone for your input
  14. Thanks again Lanny :-) Looking more closely, yes there is a direct LAX-ATL flight that would give him 3hrs 40 min in LAX, a MUCH better connection time. And if we route him through Washington, DC rather than Philly on the BTV-AKL home journey he gets 2hrs 15min in LAX (30 min more than going thru Philly) making that connection a bit less stressful. I'm going to sleep on it & look again in the morning. I do like the departure / arrival times that AA has as they are possible to connect with domestic NZ flights if we want, an option that I didn't have on my last trip 2 years ago with Hawaiian Airlines. There's nothing like starting a 12 hr flight with a 3 hr car journey :-P Normally we just look for AKL-BTV flights, but ds wants to visit my brother as well, so we're trying to see if a multi city trip works out cheaper &/or easier. This dc is my least confident child, even though he is 22yo. Dd went to Europe on her own for 3 weeks last August with no trouble. Ds#2 has traveled within NZ a lot solo & traveled to Australia as part of a NZ team. Two years ago both boys traveled together to meet us in Vt for a family wedding, but I think that ds#2 was the more confident one of the pair. This trip will be very good for ds#1.
  15. Thanks Lanny, I have flown numerous times internationally & that is why the short transit time raised a red flag with me. I try to avoid entering the US at LAX if I have a choice, so it's been at least 7 years since I passed threw customs there & that time I was flying Air NZ, so had 8 hours to get through customs, etc. In the past I seem to remember finding recommended transit times on the airport websites, but all I can find is check-in times & that doesn't really help when flying long distances, with many transits. I use Expedia just to research different options. Expedia has routed ds AKL-LAX (1hr 30min lay-over) LAX-Dallas (1 hr 7 min lay-over) Dallas-ATL (stop #1), ATL-Charlotte (2hr 39min lay-over) Charlotte-Burlington (stop#2), Burlington-Philly (49 min lay-over) Philly-LAX (1hr 43 min lay-over) LAX-AKL. The LAX lay-overs seem a bit too short for comfort, even with traveling with only a carry-on bags & within the same Airline company. I agree with expecting the unexpected. One trip I had a transit through SYD that was 90 minutes (the minimum recommended transit time) As we were only transiting thru SYD, not entering Australia, I thought we would be OK. Little did I know that SYD made even transiting passengers go through customs, immigration, & wait in line to get boarding passes, etc. & still get to their gate at least 30 minutes before departure time. Needless to say even with running, we only made it to the gate 25 minutes before departure & were not allowed to board. After a 10 hour flight, this was the last thing we needed. I now avoid SYD completely.
  16. Ds#1 (22yo) is planning a trip back to the States to visit family. Looking at different routes / airlines / etc., it looks like flying with American Airlines is about $800 cheaper than the next cheapest option. I haven't flown with AA since '85 & never internationally. The one thing that concerns me is that Expedia only has a 90 minute lay-over at LAX, where ds will need to pass through customs & immigration. Ds is an US citizen & will be only taking a single carry-on bag, so that should speed up transit times a bit, but I'm not sure if 90 minutes is enough time. Has anyone entered the US at LAX, transiting onto a domestic flight recently? What terminal is AA using at LAX for international arrivals? for domestic departures?
  17. Looking at the costs posted above, I now understand why many are not happy with health insurance changes in the past few years. I grew up in the States, but our family was lucky that my father's work provided 100% health/dental coverage. When I began working health insurance was provided as a benefit of my teaching job. When I went overseas health care was provided for all in the 3 different countries where I lived over the years. If there was any co-pay, it was minimal (usually under $20) & prescription costs were minimal as well (currently I pay $5/prescription). I have had prenatal care in 4 different countries & found the level of care to be acceptable in each country. Surprisingly I found that postnatal care & well-child visits outside the States to be superior to what I found back in VT. Yes, waiting lists are a part of making sure health care gets to those who need it more urgently first, but I have never had to wait where the wait negatively impacted my health. Talking to people back "home" I think that I have as much choice in providers here, if not more choice as they say they are limited by their insurance provider to go to only certain doctors, etc. When I travel overseas, I buy private travel insurance for the time I'm away from NZ. Even with the deluxe coverage needed for travel to the States, I pay no where what you all are quoting above & I have little to no deductible costs. What you are saying it costs you for a month's health insurance for a family would take a huge % of our after tax income. Hopefully something can be done to rein in the outlandish cost of health care in the States real soon. :confused1:
  18. I've always had low, low BP, but never experiences side effects until last year. I find that staying well hydrated is VERY important. Adding salt regularly to my foods helps as well. Also, I have more side effects if I get anaemic, so keeping my iron levels up is important as well. Both times that I ended up passing out completely I was very anaemic.
  19. Our chest freezer is in the garage. To get to it is a hassle as the garage is full of stored gear, etc. due to our on-going renovation. Hopefully in the next few weeks the new laundry room will be finished & we can move the chest freezer there where I'll be able to have easily access to it. I know it's stuffed full, but have no idea with what. Most likely I'll need to ditch at least 75% of the contents & start over. :-( I'll plan to have a small whiteboard for chest freezer inventory as well after the move/clean-out.
  20. I have a whiteboard on the side of the fridge that I list what I have on hand. It has 2 columns (fridge & freezer). After I shop I list what I put into the fridge / freezer. As I use things, I erase the item, thus have a running inventory of sorts. I don't list condiments & staples, but instead target meats, veg, etc. that would go bad quickly if not used. The fridge list also includes left-overs to be used for snacks & lunches. Meats & other items that are targeted for certain meals are marked with that day's name. Others like the beef mince / ground beef I bought this week on sale I've marked to brown & freeze for quick meals in the future. When I put the beef into the freezer, it will be added to the freezer list.
  21. I've fallen to meal planning after I shop as I look for discounted meats, etc. & plan my menu around those. Three dinners a week are big salad plates that are good for using up many left-overs. One night is soup (usually aimed to clean up all those little bits in the fridge that are not big enough for another meal.) One night is a roast dinner, big enough to provide left-over meat for our salads & lunches. I freeze the drippings to use as a base for the weekly soup. This week's menu looks like this: M --- pulled pork (cooked in the slow-cooker overnight & half is frozen for another week) roast veg (potatoes, kumera, onions) salad T --- Teriyaki Pork balls Rice Stir-fry veg W --- Chicken Enchiladas salad TH --- Beef Pot Roast (in crockpot) F --- beef pie (made using left-over pot roast) salad Sat --- soup & fresh bread Sun --- Shopping day (frozen fish & chips + veggie platter) Lunches are left-overs (unless they are earmarked for future meals) or sandwiches. Breakfasts are get-your-own during the week (usually porridge or weetbix). On the weekend we have cooked breakfasts (eggs, pancakes, etc.)
  22. When I've felt that way, I have been dehydrated or anemic. I even passed out 2 different times, six months apart. The second time I was already in the A&E (emergency room) visiting my mother-in-law, so I got checked out right away. I find making sure I get enough salt helps a bit, too. It's scary as I get little warning before I pass out. I, too, have very, very low blood pressure naturally, but until the past year I haven't had any fainting issues.
  23. If he's traveling internationally, weight may be an issues as well as size for carry-ons. Most airlines, except the really budget ones, allow one carry-on + one personal item for each passenger. As to what bags work best, I like the spinner style carry-on bags best as I don't have to lug them through long transfers. I bought a Ricardo spinner at Costco when I was home in May 2014. Dd & ds#1 have convertible backpack style carry-ons that they like best. Dd took hers on a 3 week trip to Europe last year & loved it. She said that she got lots of complements on her bag. It is a Jeep brand bag http://www.briscoes.co.nz/bags-and-luggage/backpacks/1054222/Jeep-Trailhawk-Utility-Bag-Red.htmlIfound at Briscos here in NZ.
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