Our Travels

16 Apr 2013 4:11pm Everyone left baby and I alone this afternoon and I compiled an easy listening playlist to relax to with baby. I played an all time favourite in celebration Pale ua le So'o and felt the spirits of my grandma and strong ancestors, the mana of my mother and living supportive family and friends as I danced and sang on my bed and cried tears of joy, pride and gratefulness for the gift of life we have been blessed with once more. I cried that Manumailagi has arrived safely, I cried that he is perfect, I cried that he is strong and I cried for a future with him filled with love, joyful moments and endless possibilities. For this Blessing from Heaven I am forever grateful to our Heavenly Father. And together with Tauilagi I am complete and bask in God's Glory. Faafetai I le Atua.

Boredom So lately I find myself utterly bored! Yep over 7 months pregnant and bored! I wonder if this is my pregnant dilemma. I don't get nausea nor other common pregnant predicaments but I seem to find myself in moments of unfathomable boredom! It's really strange but I guess I might as well dwell in this sensation until pepe arrives and I'll be wondering when I had the time to be bored! I've been reading alot of novels and find TV boring. I've just read a Kate Atkinson novel for the first time and it's fantastic. Now I'm scrambling to find one more of hers so I can get lost in it.  Plans My son has two days holiday from kindy so tomorrow we're going to spend our afternoon at the beach. I'm looking forward to having a swim in the sea but not the sun exposure(mindful of sunspots and all)! Treats Today I came home and hubby showed me more mangoes and avocados that a friend of ours brought back from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Hubby went there las...

I'm now past my seventh month so not long to go before a wee loud person joins this household! I've been enjoying my morning walks on the beach breathing in that morning air from the ocean while the weather is fantastic. Two weeks ago I started pregnant yoga classes. I love yoga generally and am glad I found a good class this time again to join. The instructor is fantastic and is a midwife as well so she knows her stuff. I still find it so weird to be in a room full of pregnant women though! Anyway so I've been enjoying the stretching and waking up with leg muscle pains from some of the stretches which has been very invigorating. Last week however I found myself fighting back laughter(the fob in me at play here) when the instructor had us on our backs holding our legs and then telling us to breathe deeply and exercise the vaginal area. Like squeeze and let go, squeeze and let go. All I could think of was that I was going to break wind plus "am I really being told to e...

I'm way overdue to do my sugar level blood test. I've yet to do one during my pregnancy so I decided to do it today as hubby will be home to pick up Mr 4 while I spend the morning at the hospital. I stopped eating at 9 last night. I woke up to get my son ready and make his lunch yadayada at 6am and normally I eat a quick breakfast with him but today I had to keep reminding myself not to due to the test. I dropped Mr 4 and went for my morning walk with my water bottle but tried not to drink too much of it. I also tried really hard not to think of how hungry I was. I came home showered and drove hubby to his work to pick up his car then made my way to the hospital. They took the first tube of blood when I arrived and given the sugared drink to inhale. Yuck Yuck it was disgusting. The nurse told me I had to have my blood twice in two hours to my utter disappointment. I thought I was only there for an hour and now I had to stretch my urge to eat a horse and a cow to 2 hours! yike...

Yesterday my youngest sister gave birth to an 8lb+ baby girl in Samoa. I added this video of this beautiful song sung by Samoa Teachers Training College from the 50s that we grew up dancing to. I remember the endless Samoan dancing lessons with my mom to these songs on the old Record Player. It brings tears to my eyes that we couldn't be there to welcome our little niece and to be there for my baby sister but this song makes me look forward to the dancing lessons and fun we will have with all this little princess in the future. Praise the Lord for another beautiful gift to our blessed family. Fa'afetai i le Atua.

We're in Kuala Lumpur getting ready for our flight to Auckland tonight on Christmas Eve. We arrived here two days ago and yesterday we spend in Bukit Jadang shopping and just enjoying/getting squashed in the Christmas rush here. The Christmas spirit is very obvious here which is lovely but I guess it's commercialism at it's best. After three hours of walking and more walking my legs had it and so did Master Four. So we hopped back on the monorail which is only 3 stops to our hotel. We went for a quick swim before enjoying snacks at the Club floor which was yummy. Later we went to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant nearby which a friend recommended and it wasn't great. It's a challenge to find local eateries in this area which is a bummer. Now at KL Airport awaiting our Malaysian Air flight to Auckland. One night in AUckland andnthen off to Samoa on Boxing day. Merry Christmas, Manuia le Kerisimasi, Frohe Weinachten from us.

Cyclone Evan has been and gone from Samoa but it left a lot of destruction on the island of Upolu especially in the capital Apia. Many families have lost their homes due to flash floods from heavy rain. About three people died and many families are still at evacuation sites. Just a terrible thing to happen to our beloved country once more. But we have done it before from Cyclones Val and Ofa and we'll do it again, rebuilding and starting from scratch. Samoans are resilient people and they will bounce back once the sun dries up the mud and it's easier to shift all that debris and rebuild their homes. The economic costs to families and the country is going to be immense but they can only move forward from here. Now the awful Cyclone Evan has just reached Fiji and I pray it dissipates soon and not cause so much destruction as it did in Samoa though they now class it as a CAT 4 Cyclone which is just awful.