Those last 2 weeks...

My last 2 weeks in NZ were made busier than expected with events that were out of my control....these needed my time, love and energy...

Jono left NZ 2 weeks prior to us to get the Coconut Oil building on Tanna underway, I thought it would be fine we had done the majority of the packing together and I felt in control but I have to say it ended up being a pretty stressful time!

Having already thought through the title of my blog these events really brought home that my YOLO title was absolutely perfect! And all the feelings I had been feeling about leaving were trumped by the feeling that we had to enjoy and celebrate life as much as we can!

A couple of months prior to leaving, my dear friend Cayley was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer! It was a huge shock and I still can't quite believe it....she was one of my healthiest and fittest friends...putting most of us to shame! She had to go through gruelling surgery and is now going through 6 months of chemo. I think of her daily and even though I can't visit her at the moment I enjoyed a wonderful telephone conversation with her yesterday which will become a fortnightly catch-up. She is an amazing, strong, wonderful woman and I know with the love and support of her many friends and family she will beat this!

A lovely photo of Cayley taken recently having a break in the Marlborough Sounds

About 5 years ago Jono was diagnosed with a condition called CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia). It had taken some time for him and myself to understand and come to terms with this condition so other than a couple of close friends and our mothers we hadn't told anyone about it. While his condition doesn't currently have a significant effect on his day to day life, other than he's prone to infections, longer term he will need treatment. Just before we left NZ Jono discovered the "Shave for a Cure" campaign and decided to participate. He felt that participating was a positive way of telling people about his condition so he wrote a post on Facebook and subsequently a shock wave was sent through our community! Understandably friends and family were shocked so we spent that week talking to people and reassuring them that in the short term he would be fine.

I am so proud of Jono as I know it wasn't an easy thing for him to do!

This event in our life confirmed our motto in life "that you need to live life to the fullest"! 

http://www.leukaemia.org.nz/page/23

The finished result and $1700 raised for the cause!

He likes his haircut now...in fact he keeps getting it shaved...the kids and I are not so sure!

Jack has an ongoing sore hip, he is a tall solid boy and growing very fast he has ongoing growing pains and because of these I have to admit I ignored the hip complaints for some time! But in the last couple of weeks at home the pain got worst for him and the thought of going to an Island with relatively basic medical care sent me in a spin. We went to many people - our GP, Osteopath, Kinesiologist but with no luck at all...in our last week I made the decision to pull a favour with a friend who is an Orthopaedic Surgeon, he fitted us into his very busy schedule and had Jack x-rayed (thank you Andy)! The x-ray didn't show anything untoward so at least we knew it isn't a serious condition. However, Jack is still in a lot of pain so we are really hoping that he grows out of it soon!

My daughters cat, Lucy, ran away! Millie was devastated...not good for either of our stress levels! Don't you hate how cats are so unfaithful and just take off whenever the want?!

Lucy!

Our 15 year old family dog died during an operation...it was one the hardest things I have ever had to tell our children and Jono was in Vanuatu at the time so I had to deal with it myself. Our children were devastated, more than I thought they would be, it was so sad!

Saba - not a great photo but only one I could find for now

Millie had to have some teeth taken out under general anaesthetic. Surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks prior to leaving (while Jono was around), we went in at 7am to be told at Midday that they had run out of surgery time and we would have to come back in 2 weeks! Not possible when in 2 weeks we would be in Vanuatu! They managed to fit us in a week later thankfully but again didn't help the stress levels!

Millie waiting for surgery

I am a list person....I hate to admit it but I can't seem to function without a list! While preparing to move to Vanuatu I decided to go completely electronic and have my lists on line. I purchased the app Evernote and set about creating my notes...it was fantastic...until my notes were somehow not backed up by the system and deleted....argh! I spent many hours on-line with the support team trying to retrieve them...no luck! They admitted they discovered a bug...it was fixed! But I had to recreate my notes! Have to admit though I still love the app!

https://evernote.com/

After everything that happened I probably wasn't going to get the "best Mother in the world  award"! So even though it was hard to say goodbye to our friends, family, Millie's dog, Lottie and pet sheep, Piper and Charlie it was good to get here and start to relax with my family!

Lottie - Millie's mad cartoon looking Labradoodle

Millie's pet sheep - Piper and Charlie

Me - finally relaxing!

Next posts...finally about Vanuatu....