Albert Whaanga

Earlier this week I was talking to my brother about when our Dad died. I think as siblings we have all felt differing emotions surrounding this event.
Maybe you need a background to our family...it's rather long and a little complicated. For most of my life it was just mum and I she was married once for 6 years or so but he wasn't so much of a nice man. Then one day she met Alby. His well meaning brother in law and sister set up a meeting to which my mum went and on her return said "nah, not for me" fast forward a few weeks and a letter arrived in the mail from Alby and everything changed. At this time I was 13 and totally grossed out by my mother dating. the next few months were spent travel to and from Hamilton where Alby and his three kids lived. (a long five hour drive) they were soon married and our life as a mixed up family began. A year or so later we as a family decided to adopt our little brother Teina who we call baby even though he's 11 now. We had PLENTY of ups and downs as you can imagine with a mixed family of 4 teenagers. When they were married our ages were Wane, 14, Me, 14 Eleanor 13 Kevin, 12. Our parents worked hard, a lot of the time we defended for  ourselves, we helped raise our little brother who was 1 1/2 when we got him.

Time went by we grew up and moved out of home, moved back home, moved out again...a vicious cycle. We all lost interest in church, sometimes we went other times we didn't. We weren't out doing stupid stuff  we just weren't all that interested in going to church and doing what we knew we should be doing. We made some dumb mistakes and learnt hard lessons. All the while our parents prayed for us, loved us, and set a good example.

Eventually my sister fell in love with a missionary that served in our ward...she said he had nice hands. They became engaged and were soon married but not in the temple. Things just didn't work out that way. They had an amazing wedding on the east coast of NZ surrounded by family and friends.
Three days later while out at lunch with my Mum and Nana we got a call from Alby's work mate that we needed to go home. Instinct set in and we all knew what had happened. While at work he had suffered a major heart attack and there was no way anyone could have saved him. His class of boys tried to do CPR on him as he had taught them only a week before.

Our house was soon full of family friends people we didn't even know. The hardest thing I have ever had to do was call my sister and tell her her dad had died. We then had to ring our brother who had just left on his big adventure to America and tell him.

Throughout the next few days our mum took us kids aside to tell us that she had had a dream or something can't really remember. But she told us that Alby had told her things to tell each of us. Pretty much in essence it was "get your act together and go back to church"

Fast forward 1 year. Almost to the day of Alby passing away, Eleanor, Kevin and I went through the temple together, later that day we were sealed to our parents. The next day Kevin left on his mission. One week later I was married in the temple to my wonderful husband. The next week Eleanor and her husband were sealed in the temple. The following week, our little brother was baptised.  In a few weeks Wane will leave on his mission.

I often feel angry, annoyed, and down right furious that Alby died. I get angry that my mum only got to spend 8 years with him that, he left us. Angry that he missed out on weddings and grandkids, missions and the chance to grow old. But then I stopped to think, If he hadn't died where would we be now? would I have the wonderful husband and baby that I have now? or would I be still chasing a loveless relationship? would my family be sealed together? would my brothers serve missions? would we as siblings be as close as we are now? I doubt it.

Mum said something to me not long after Alby died. She said "if I had to lose my husband in order for all you kids to be back at church and be happy I would do it again in a heartbeat"

Is that love or what?

Things happen for a reason, no matter how much we hate them. The lord knows all things, he knows what we really need. I wish that we didn't need such a drastic wake up call but I see now that we have been blessed in so many ways.

The second coming will be a wonderful time for our family.

Alby was an amazing man. The most humble man I know. A father people only dream of. A man of God.  Patient (you need to be patient in our family). He was a man to aspire to be like. He will always shape the way that us as his children live our lives. I know he will be looking down as each new grandchild is born. When Kevin enters the temple to marry his sweetheart. When Wane and Teina leave on their mission. He will be watching over our mum as she continues to guide our family and be the backbone as she always has.

One year later...

Only a week to go!

That's right this time next week we will be starting out on our big adventure overseas! It actually come up really fast! We are getting very excited, Aarahi's extra excited that he wont have 2.30am Monday starts for 3 whole weeks. Not to mention the fact that he starts at 4am every other day. I think we are almost all sorted with everything we need. I picked up some good 'plane toys' for Auron and will stock up on snacks and drinks for him too.
On Friday night Aarahi went to do Temple Baptisms with the youth from church, Auron and I just hung out at the shopping centre near the Temple. We left home at 2pm that day and didn't get home until about 10pm. We were so tired especially my poor husband who didn't get enough time to have a nap. Auron had a melt down in the car and in my attempt to calm him down he threw his yoghurt at me and poured the rest all over himself....oh so nice this was at the start of the trip too! He soon fell asleep and all was good again.
On Saturday Aarahi went and sat his forklift license. This is good as it will help him with the work he is doing now aswell as give him more opportunities in the future as he heads toward his 5 year plan and beyond.
Auron has recently discovered drawing! oh how wonderful he thinks it is! He holds his pen near perfect too, maybe he will follow in his uncle Tuk's footsteps! But for now we have drawings all over the house and on Daddy's important church papers. Hopefully he doesn't find the walls! Auron also managed to get the USB into the lap top the other day...after hours of practice. The satisfaction on his face was priceless!

Labour Weekend!

This was a long weekend, for some reason Victoria has pretty much all its holidays at the start of the year. None the less it has been lovely. Aarahi worked a few hours on Saturday but had today off. We had a ward activity down at the park by our house which started at 8am, Aarahi and Auron went down on time yet I stayed home and had a sleep in as Auron had been awake most of the night for some reason. He's been sleeping through the night for the past month but the last two nights have been terrible. Anyway when I finally made it down to the park it was full of people they had sports organised, not just your ordinary touch and volleyball but some other cool ones that involved all the kids as well. The food was cooking away on the BBQ and it smelt AMAZING, probably more so as I hadn't eaten breakfast. The activity ended with lunch of sausages, chicken, salads and cakes for dessert. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and we were blessed with a beautiful day, which believe it or not has been a bit hit and miss here all summer.

Earlier this weekend we attempted to go to the movies to see the Hunger Games but once we made the made rush to get ready and get there on time (it was a last minute idea) we got to the counter and realised it doesnt come out til next week. I must've read the session times for next week. So we went to pick out some birthday presents for Auron instead I cant believe he is going to be one in two weeks! I was also feeling lazy so we picked up some Chinese takeaway for dinner and headed home for a lazy night of dvd's.

Auron LOVES usb's at the moment he will spend hours...not even exaggerating, trying to put them into the hole in the computer. You can't even try and help him a little without him bursting into tears. He so far hasnt managed it yet, but I'm sure one day he will get it!

Can I feed myself now?

This week Auron has taken a liking to feeding himself. He's not too bad at it but definatly needs some more practice. This week we will be working on feeding ourselves. He's pretty good eating things with a small fork but using a spoon is another story.
On Saturday we went to a missionary homecoming for Elder Lemalu. He served in our home ward in NZ but he's actually from our ward here in Australia. It was a really nice night, lots of food, lots of people, and some really good company. Aarahi caught up with two guys he grew up with in Tauranga which was a nice surprise.
We've had the grossest weather this past week. So bad infact that I had a HUGE pile of washing sitting in the laundry for almost a whole week. Finally we were blessed with ONE nice day and managed EIGHT loads of washing. I think it was pretty much all the clothes and towels in our house! In hindsight I should have just gone to the laundry mat and put them in the dryer.

Bits and pieces

Ughhhh I hate hot weather! We are lucky that our house doesn't get too hot it's still gross and sticky and hard to sleep. But now its pouring with rain and stormy as anything, hopefully that cools everything down.
Yesterday Auron managed to pull my hair straighter off the shelf and turn it on and subsequently burnt himself. I didn't realise how bad it was until later that night. He barely even cried but as I looked at his fingers I noticed to big blisters. Poor baby. He doesn't seem at all bothered by them though so we are lucky there. Such a tough little man we have.
Auron has his little routine in the morning. He wakes up and sits there for a minute then he's off down the hallway to the bathroom to play in the bottom of the shower. He plays there for a good 20-30mins then he's back to get me to make his breakfast. I think its just so cute that he does it EVERY morning. He also loves to talk on the phone. He uses the the actual phone, the remote, wii controller and DVD's and holds it up an babbles away to himself.
On the weekend we went to my cousins 7th birthday. They have a cool blow up pool which all the kids loved, it was a 40 degree day so it was well used all day. Auron loved it, it was a nice chance to cool down. He also loved the raspberry iceblock and bottle of juice his cousin Tiarne gave him. He definatly is a spoilt little boy. Earlier that morning we went to clean the chapel at 6am. Auron followed Aarahi around outside with his little lion bike.
Now that Aarahi has Sunday afternoons free, because he no longer teaches mission prep it gives him the chance to be able to participate in the choir which he has been wanting to do ever since we moved here. He loves to sing....and he CAN sing but he hasn't had many opportunities for awhile now.

Yey not sick!

For the first time in 3 weeks or so I haven't had a stomach bug or a cold, or bad headache it's been great to say the least.
This week has been fairly uneventful in the Matthews household. Valentines day was great! I woke up in the morning to find a bag from the jewelers on the dining room table. Inside was a note that said "I am hiPing....." confused much? I thought maybe it was an old bag and he meant we could go get something when he got home. I typed hiping into facebook and the wiggly line appears, right click to spell check "hiding"! well that makes sense. Searched the house top to toe and gave up and fed Auron his breakfast and then I saw sitting on my chair a cute little box. inside were 2 beautiful charms for my Pandora bracelet.
I still hadn't bought Aarahi anything...he's impossible. None the less Auron and I headed into town to try our luck. We settled on a new bag, he had said he wanted a new one anyway. It was a little expensive so thought I better actually make sure he liked it. Rang him to come and have a look, he approved. Then subway for lunch.
I made a yummy homemade from scratch butter chicken for dinner with some homemade garlic naan bread. Recipes from my new Jaime Oliver cook books I scored for $5 each at the small grocer by our house. (I saw them later that day at Target for $50each) Dinner was polished off with mini bonoffee pies. Boy did we feel fat!
Auron is growing like a weed, he's getting so tall and is pretty good at his walking now he hardly crawls at all. His favourite thing to do is chase the gym ball around (atleast it has some use right). He also LOVES to play xbox with Daddy, I think we are breeding a nerd. Uncle Jameson will be so proud.

Our yummy dinner

Hehe I found this photo of Auron the day he came home. These clothes fit him all of one week!

A Week of Fun

So I had a new plan this week as I was feeling like a bit of a useless mummy. I was always busy with trying get the housework done, tending to Auron's basic needs, cooking dinner, keep the house running, making sure my hard working husband was ok and trying work on my own little projects that Auron just got slotted into whenever I had a spare moment. He would always be following me around tugging at my legs while I tried to do things and complaining and the more I ignored his pleas for attention the louder he got and seriously this boy screams like a girl, so high pitch it's painful to hear.

Starting on Monday I made sure all the house work and organising etc was done before midday, I worked on my own projects only when Auron was napping or was playing with daddy. I dedicated 3 hours each day in a row to uninterrupted Auron time. The difference has been AMAZING for the last 4 days the only times hes cried have been when he hit his head and when he goes to bed. The complaining and high pitch screaming stopped immediately and no more tugging on my leg. He is now happy to play on his own when I'm busy and I am finding I actually have more time on my hands and the house is cleaner and more organised.

So what do we do you may ask? Well we've played with play dough, done finger painting on the floor...by far his favourite activity, chased the gym ball around outside, played in buckets of water, read lots of books, done 'cooking' he just likes to eat whatever we are cooking, watched some youtube clips, and just played together.

Today we went to the Bunnings Hardware store and Auron pushed around one of those trolleys they have for little kids aw he was so cute gutted that we forgot the camera. We went to buy some baby proofing supplies. Aarahi has been tying plastic bags around the door knobs in the kitchen so Auron can't get in. It works well for Aarahi seeing as he never really opens any cupboards in the kitchen but it was driving me crazy having to untie all the knots!

Aarahi rang to tax department this week to ask about our tax return which was due last year but still hasn't come through. They were no help, I guess the tax department is the same in every country. They said just wait and it will come, in the mean time they will put a fast track on it. I'm hoping it comes in time for our holiday but I highly doubt it, but it would be nice to have a bit more spending money. Although some of it will be off to meet my infamous student loan. That's a whole other story and why I hate the NZ tax department. Getting an education shouldn't be so expensive!

I crocheted this week! My nana taught me years ago and i brushed up on youtube. I made the baby this cute little owl hat. I am quite proud of it haha first time I've actually completed something like that!. My next project is to make a new carseat cover for Auron. His one is just plain black and grey, I think it could do with some colour.

That's about it for this week

Just like every other kid I eat my icecream from the bottom

I LOVE to play daddy's xbox. I even have my own controller but I still like daddy's one best

Covered in paint!

This is the hat mummy made me, this photo doesnt do its cuteness justice

Can you see the big bump on my head? I hit it on the corner of the wall

Brushing my teeth