My Commuter Car

So here's my car for getting things like groceries, park days, church activities things of this nature. Here on the front you will see an antenae. This is for the CB unit that is fixed in the drivers side of the car around by my knees. This is incase there is a natural disaster while I'm getting my groceries and I need to converse with the 'outside' world while trying to make it home with my three kids.
You will also notice a sarfari rack on the top, just in case I need to put my children into a time out but don't have the time or the conscience to drop them off on the side of the road. All I do is strap them up on the roof and then proceed on my way home.

Here you will notice the car is lifted about 5 inches. This is exersize for me as it's like climbing the side of a mountain trying to get into the car THEN it's practice for my jumping skills as I almost break my legs jumping OUT of the car when I'm done with said activities.
You will also note that the tires are now HUMOUNGOUS! This is for when I decide I'm not liking the 'traffic' in Moscow and want to take a short cut over a SMALL BUILDING.

Ah yes and the back of the car, my favourite. Here's the spare tire. This is just in case I happen to blow a tire going over the small building and need a spare. They're only around 150 pounds a tire, so I figure between Masaru, Takeshi, Yuki and I we can change this tire RIGHT!!!!
And then we have the back bumper. This is for when I'm in a jam and someone's parked to close to me and I'm stuck. I can just back into, pretty much whatever the hell I want and get out of any parallel jam.
Thanks babe for working on the 'other' woman over the summer so your 'first' woman can be safe behind the wheel!!
Men!!

Indonesian style

This is how they roll over in Indonesia. Except put me behind Dru with the baby in a front pack.
Honestly, when Dru and I were in Bali, this is what we saw all the time. Families of four just hanging out on their 'family commuter' fighting the traffic against and with them.
The kids love it when Dru takes them around the apartment complex on the scooter. So, of course, I had to get a pic.

Fondant

So I've been really scared of fondant and was told by my friend Celeste, who makes great cakes, to try the marshmallow fondant. So I did.
It's yummy and easy to do and here's how it turned out.
Good aye.
So I'm going to do a Sponge Bob Square Pants cake for Yuki, or a Dora, but I think Sponge Bob. And I thought it'd be REALLY good with fondant you know.
So wish me luck.
I knew I had to practice first though before doing the REAL THING in less than a month.
All I did was Google marshmallow fondant and clicked on the first site that came up and followed that one.
Now a new door has been opened for my kids birthday cakes.
Love it.

The three bedroom

So here's a tiki tour of our new 3 bedroom. Dru's still gotta make shelves for the washing room and paint the front of the draw that he built into the entertainment unit for toys and then that's it.
I.LOVE.IT.
I'm so glad we got this three bedroom and just am so grateful to be living here in this unit.
We're still getting used to how small the kitchen is but oh well, for an apartment it's AWESOME for our family.
So sit back, click play, and enjoy the tour, compliments of Melissa Nakaya.

Elise update

So my niece is doing well, so to speak.
They found out she has A L L Type B Leukemia which I guess is the best type to have as a child because it has the most success rate.
She's getting about 3 different types of chemo about 8-10 times this month.
She's moved out of the hospital room and into the Ronald McDonald house with her parents and so got to see her sisters this past weekend.
It was great and exhausting apparently.
They even took her outside for a walk the other day, I mean outside of the Ronald house.
They were thinking of going to the zoo yesterday. I'm not sure if they did.
They just have to be extremely careful of sick people, so public places.
She won't be able to go to school.
My mother is thinking of home schooling her for a couple of hours a day. I told my sister I'D LOVE MY MUM TO HOME SCHOOL MY KIDS.
She's an awesome teacher.
Elise is very smart and will do well no matter what.
The kindness that people have shown my sister is overwhelming for her and I told her "People, on a whole and good and want to help"
Sometimes I think media tells us not to trust and people are bad. But they're not. She's just so grateful for everyone and their prayers and help these past 2 and a bit weeks.
Amazing.
They'll re-evaluate at the end of the month how things are going and make a further plan then for the next 2 and a half years.
So I'll update us at the end of her stay there.
Thanks for your concern. (Evette, Laura, this was mostly for you, as you seemed to be concered LOL)

Idaho vs Utah

So you all heard my vent on Utah's medicaid.
Turns out they never did accept us onto food stamps.
Well on Monday I went in and filled out a form here in Moscow for medicaid and food stamps and had food stamps money for our family the next morning to use.
Idaho 1
Utah A BIG FAT ZERO

Trying to be creative

So this is what happens when you see a creative shot and try to do it with three kids.
"Look at your father"
"Yuki are you looking at your father?"

"Masaru and Yuki LOOK AT YOUR FATHER"
"Masaru is that a nappie you're holding?"
"Yuki LOOK AT YOUR FATHER"
"Takeshi has no neck, hold him up a little"
"Masaru get rid of that nappie in your hand"
"Melissa are you going to hold Takeshi out?"
So much for being creative.
It had so much potential, yet very little outcome.
SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Water Piggie

So Masaru was going up and down the lake beach like golum from Lord of the Rings.
I'm like "Masaru, what are you doing?" and he says to me "Mum I'm being a water piggie"
I was cracking up for ages.
Man this kid and pigs. Will he ever give it up?

Water+nappie=

A BIG BOOTYLICIOUS BOOTY!!!!

Trip back

So you all know that we didn't make it to Boise. We just made it to McCall. We left at 8:30am and didn't get to McCall till about 7pm. McCall is around 7 hours, straight drive, away. Yeah that's right people, it took us almost 12 hours!!!!!
Stopping to eat, stopping to fill up, stopping to pee, stopping to play.................................. you get the drift.
We weren't in too much of a hurry though.
This is a panoramic shot of the beautiful lake in McCall were we decided to swim the next day. We went to eat, that night, at a place called Lardo's. Apparently the guy got offered a cool million to relocate AND have his shop paid for to rebuild, just so he'd be away from this flash resort place. HE TURNED IT DOWN. That guy is either my hero, or an idiot. So I had to eat there just to see why he thinks he's so special.
The food wasn't that great. Hmmmmmmmmmm must be principle.
So we get the kids to bed and the baby fed and Dru and I had high hopes of relaxing in the hot tub. It was around 10pm and Dru looked at me and goes "Let's just go to bed"
So we did. I know, romantic aren't we!!
Dru's mate, Dave, let us stay in his place there. It's a nice, roomie place. We were very lucky.
The next day we went to a pancake house for breakfast. THERE'S NO FAST FOOD PLACES. Just Subway. Can you believe it? Plus it's super touristy!! Good for them.
The breakfast was wonderful. I'd go there again.
Then we decided to find a park. Turns out the park wasn't the hot spot for the kids it was the lake beach. It's why the kids are in there clothes in the bottom pictures and then in their togs in these pictures. We swam, then went back and fed Takeshi and then swam again.

This is what Takeshi did the whole time at the lake beach. Good little boy. Look at that hair. And that massive widows peak! So cute.
They found some clay and decided to write all over themselves. This is how much I'd let myself get written on.
Here's what they did to dad.
Yuki's art work.
Dad did what he always does when he's doodling and drew kanji on Masaru. I'm pretty sure this is Nakaya.
This might say Masaru.
Hang on, maybe this is Nakaya.
Who knows what this is. Maybe warrior.
Takeshi taking a break from his hard life of eating, and pooping.
We found some others who had TONS of beach toys. So Yuki did what any normal kid would do and went up and helped herself to them.
The mum was fine with it and she played to her hearts content.

Masaru did what any normal boy would do and tried to move rocks, showing me his big muscles while he did it.
He moved one and didn't have a chance with the rest.



Here's the kind mother who let us borrow her stuff, oh yeah and she played with Yuki was well.


After swimming and getting the car packed and the baby fed we ate some ice cream at this place called 'ice cream alley'
It was REALLY GOOD.
We left McCall at around 3pm and got into Moscow at around 6ish.
Man were we glad to see our apartment. Too much time in the car if you ask me. I was going crazy by the end and so were the kids.
Actually they all did really well. We're really lucky they traveled so well otherwise it would've been MORE of a nightmare.
I can't believe we're thinking of doing this again at Christmas!!

Oh yeah

When I got back to Moscow we had to get eggs, milk and bread.
When I got the bread, guess what the first thing is I put on it?
That's right baby, vegemite.
Three months is way too long for a kiwi girl to go without vegemite.
Never again.

Purse

Yuki, finally got her first purse EVER, the other day. My mate Tiffany came, bearing gifts for Takeshi and made this for Yuki. It worked out perfect as Masaru was away with Dru and so he didn't feel like he 'missed out'.
She LOVES it. This was the best picture I could get of her with it. Sorry. It's going to help us out at church I think. I'm going to fill it with little things and hopefully it'll be a life saver during sacrament.
Thanks Tiffany.
Yuki has a few dolls and that's about the extent of the girlie stuff, for toys. So this is PERFECT.

Horse Dog

So our mates, Pugs and Stacey have a dog called Lando who's is ALMOST the size of a horse.
Dru and I joke around that he's a horse dog.
Well Masaru thinks he's ACTUALLY A HORSE DOG and goes around calling him so.
"Mum I like Lando the horse dog"
"Mum are we going to see the horse dog?"
"Mum, look, there's Lando the horse dog"
I don't know how to tell him he's actually not, literally a horse dog. It's not a problem now but maybe it will be once he starts school and is writing about this horse dog.
They might just think it's his imagination and leave him alone.
Who knows.

Medicaid

So Dru and I are on Medicaid in Idaho and we love it. It's free and it's great coverage. I don't have to worry about our family and we're not getting into more debt than we have to during law school.
I know people have their opinions about government help and that's great.
Mine is, if I can use it, why not. We've been paying taxes for 7 years and once law school is over, will be paying taxes for the REST OF OUR LIFE, including interest on our student loan.
I don't feel bad about being on food stamps and medicaid ONE BIT.
Soooooo back to the point.
So turns out Idaho won't cover us in Utah EVEN THOUGH Dru's doing an externship FOR IDAHO LAW SCHOOL.
They consider us LIVING in Utah, therefore won't cover us.
Usually I wouldn't care EXCEPT WE WERE PREGNANT AND DUE WHILE IN UTAH.
So we had to apply in Utah for Utah medicaid so we could be covered for our birth.
We STARTED the application on JUNE 1ST.
THEY JUST ACCEPTED US TODAY AUGUST 19TH, THE DAY WE WERE HEADING HOME.
People, it's been a NIGHTMARE, to say the least.
I guess they've been cutting down on people to save money and not assigning case workers for people.
Basically your forms just go into a BIG PILE and random people look at it and see what else you need to do to get approved.
It's not a good plan. One hand doesn't know what the other is doing and it's frustrating as hell.
It's the government at it's best.
My experience with government run things is that the little people at the front desk are useless at helping, you have to get PASSED those people to the ones higher up.
Then THOSE people are great and can get things done for you.
The trouble is GETTING passed the front desk peeps to the back HIGHER peeps.
We would do everything they said and then wait for 5 days ONLY TO BE TOLD we needed to send in more stuff. Then we'd send it in, wait for 5 days ONLY TO BE TOLD we needed to send in more stuff. Then they never got it. I faxed the same forms 12 TIMES PEOPLE, count it 12 TIMES. Times this by a million and that's what the last three months have been like working with these retards, I mean people.
FINALLY two weeks ago we got PASSED THE FRONT DESK peeps and a lady in the BACK DESK PEEPS listened to our story and me bawling my eyes out and decided to help us. She got us in contact with the medicaid supervisor and it's all done.
I was so stressed that we'd have to pay 12K and how we were going to do it on top of our law school and student loan.
I'm surprised I still have all of my hair.
As Dru's mum put it "So my tax dollars are going towards running this operation?"
But I'm glad we're approved and don't have to pay a dime.
Thanks government, and thanks to all of you in Utah who pay your taxes so Dru and I don't have to come up with 12K which we don't have, much appreciated.

Ok so turns out

Ok so turns out we're not gonna leave till tomorrow early morning.

Maybe being late isn't all me

So we're suppose to leave today right?
We're were planning on leaving at around 10ish.
It's 2:30pm and the car still isn't packed.
I go outside this morning and Dru's still working on making the wheeless trailer.
Hmmmmm, maybe a sign that today's not going to work out like I had planned.
And they say I'm late for things.
Then I get all the stuff packed and look at all of it and am thinking "Dru's a good packer, but he's not that good, we've got WAY too much stuff for our car"
So we decide to hire a U-Haul for the way back.
So Dru doesn't have to make the wheeless. So if we had just decided this a week ago we'd be on the road by now.
But between Dru and my wonderful judgment of what we think we can build, fit and do now we'll be lucky if we make it to Boise before midnight.
Plus last night Takeshi did horrible and I'm running on maybe, 2 hours sleep.
So I'm a little moody, which means I shouldn't be blogging.
So I'll finish up here.

Shauna

Shauna is my mother in law and I love her.
We started off a little rocky with her busting Dru and I making out in his room LATE one night WAY back in 2001.
She went upstairs and asked her daughter and daughter in law "Did you know those two were getting together?"
They both replied "We suspected"
Shauna said "I had no idea"
I almost died and didn't want to see her ever again.
Well that obviously didn't happen.
Shauna is a wonderful woman and a great mother in law.
We've only had one argument and we got over it pretty quickly. I'd say that's pretty good for me.
I know she loves me and she loves her grand kids. Personally I suspect she loves her grand kids more than she loves me, and I'm alright with that.
I'd never lived with her for longer than a month and at the end of the month I was ready to leave.
So this summer when we were going to be staying for THREE MONTHS I was a little worried.
Now here we are, about to leave tomorrow and I have no feelings of being DONE, no feelings of I CAN'T WAIT TO BE OUTT'VE HERE no feelings of I'M SICK OF DRU'S PARENTS.
It's a miracle! And the miracle is Shauna.
She basically did all the cooking, A LOT of cleaning, she's been EXTREMELY patient, and very giving.
I don't know what I would've done without her around for Takeshi's birth.
Truth be told Dru's been spending a lot of time on the land cruiser and not really at home with me these last 2-3 weeks.
So Shauna is the one that has been doing the MAJORITY of the work with our kids.
She'd feed them, dress them, change Yuki, make dinner, tidy, fold laundry, play with them, take them places and the list goes on.
I honestly think it must be HER that's thinking I CAN'T WAIT TILL THESE GUYS ARE OUTT'VE HERE, MELISSA DOES NOTHING!!
I'm alright with that as well. I think she deserves to be thinking such things.
I know she'll miss the grandkids but I think she'll be happy to have her house back. I mean who wouldn't want there house back after having us there?
We're not the tidiest. Ask any of Dru's siblings. I think all of them would have us as house guests LAST out of all the siblings due to our untidiness. But I think we make up for it for how fun we are to have around? Right Les, Brooke and Kristin? Come on, back me up here girls.
Anyway this post is a huge THANKS to Shauna.
The best mother in law around. A girl couldn't ask for a better mother in law, mother and grandmother to her kids.
Here's to no negative feelings on my part and me being worried about NOTHING for this summer.
I'm sure she'll tell a different tune but I had the BEST TIME this summer and most of it was due to HER being the BEST.
Thanks Shauna, I love you.