I always mess it up.

Well, one thing about me is that I always decide to keep trying. I keep telling myself that one of these times I’ve got to succeed, right? I am really picky about if I mess up. I miss a day and that’s it – I failed.

I started again on my birthday, May 18th. So far I’m 10 days in and I haven’t failed. Maybe if I share the photos each week it will help me remember to take them. Would you like to see my photos each week?

Here are this week’s 365 photos.

Day 1: A Mathemagical Birthday

Day 2: The Corner of the World

Day 3: Homemade Pizza

Day 4: A Light In The Darkness
(Josh got me a cool desk lamp for my birthday!)

Day 5: Zoya Skylar

Day 6: :)

Day 7: Lesson Planning

Of course, the camera was with us…

The beach is always gorgeous.

There were some beautiful rocks. I tried to take an artsy shot of some moss on a rock but realised later that my finger got in the way of my amazing photo. I was really upset. Josh says I was just being a lazy photographer. He’s probably right.

Josh and I took almost the same photograph here when we took turns with the camera. Great minds think alike. Which photo do you think is better? I won’t tell you who took which picture.

There goes Josh along the beautiful coast. We snap pictures of each other when we aren’t looking. Evil, I know.

Hey, he did it too! He did it a lot more sneakily than I did! He hid behind a bush and then jumped out at me right after this shot! Now that’s evil!

I told Josh I would put him out to pasture with these horses because his jokes were getting bad.
We started making bad horse puns like “of horse,” “yay and neigh,” and “of horse you would say that.”

This place is beautiful.

We went to go see the seal colony. Aren’t they cute? They were out sunning themselves. There was only one other person there that day. It was so peaceful. When I took my parents here it was during school holidays and it was also a lot warmer so it was packed.

This is my favourite picture of the day. I find it amazing that we are so far in the corner of the world that the only two places pointing right are places still in New Zealand.

This is Josh’s best picture of the day. He’s a pro with the camera, too. ;)

Gorgeous sunset on the way back.

Another of Josh’s awesome pictures. He stole the camera at this point since my ankle was a bit sore.

I posed on a rock that was on the side of a cliff. Carefully, mind you. I was pretty scared but it was worth it for this beautiful photo.

Last night I decided that I was going to bake cookies for morning tea for the staff today since it was my birthday. There had to be a celebration! I made Snickerdoodles. They were a big hit. So many people had never even heard of a Snickerdoodle before let alone tried one so I was glad I made them.

I went into school this morning and my students started flowing into my classroom with goodies. I may have accidentally let it slip somewhere that it was my birthday and word spread quite quickly. One girl in my house class (yes, we have a house system like Harry Potter in my school) gave me these earrings that her mother made as well as a huge block of chocolate! I got more chocolate, too! Just when I thought it had stopped, a girl from one of my other classes marched in with not one… but TWO CAKES that she had made. She even decorated them with circles and triangles since we are studying geometry right now. My desk was full of sweets not even 15 minutes after I walked into the door!

Besides the sweet treats, I got some very sweet cards and gifts. The amount of time and effort that went into these beautiful cards really meant a lot to me.

This one really made me giggle – get a load of this: “We made you this dice so that u can count how many times that we made you smile.”

My friends gave me lots of presents, too! I didn’t expect anything except to maybe have a few drinks with them after school for a special occasion today instead of just for no reason like we do every week. They all got me presents, though! Beautiful, thoughtful presents!

I had an incredible birthday. Also, I think that I am entitled to have an amazing birthday day again tomorrow since it will be my birthday in America. What do you think?

I think everyone should watch it over and over until they find themselves saying these things with confidence, too.

First there was that little problem of not having money which definitely puts a stopper on trying to buy things. As most intelligent people realize, having money and having a credit card are two extremely different things. Being the intelligent folk that we are we wanted to wait until we actually had the real money.

The other factor stopping us from our shopping trip was the fact that we live in such a small town that every time we want to do some actual shopping we have to drive a couple hours. When the heck do we have the time to do that being that we each have a full time job (and sometimes we even work on the weekends). Also, New Zealand seems to not want to keep their stores open very late at all compared to what I’m used to. If I even tried to leave after work I wouldn’t even get there by the time the stores closed.

Even when we do find the time to go, this costs us a great deal in gas which brings us back to problem number one. Petrol (gas) prices in NZ are about $2.20 per litre. That’s the equivalent of about $8.14 per gallon. With the currency conversion that’s $6.62 USD per gallon. You probably don’t feel so bad about paying what you pay for gas anymore, do you? Well, maybe not. I definitely feel bad for complaining about gas prices when I lived in New York.

I am slightly off topic, though. My point is that Josh and I finally did go shopping. We got some money and allotted some time and away we went. Yay for us!

I couldn’t help myself and went a bit crazy in the office supplies aisle. I got a bunch of great things for my classroom – some of which I probably didn’t need but will definitely use and some of which I truly needed.

Josh picked out these great new things for out kitchen. It was what he went there for, really, because there was a sale and this was some great cookware that we got. He also talked me into getting another knife (the man loves his knives) and got that cool metallic knife rack you see mounted above the stove. That little green one that you see there is the knife I have dubbed MY KNIFE. Josh’s mom gave it to us last Christmas and I love it so much. I use it for nearly everything even when I probably should be using a knife that is more appropriate for what I am cutting. I am not very good in the kitchen but at least I know when I feel comfortable using a certain kitchen tool. I’ll let Josh wield his big knives.

I picked out this new bedding set. We needed a winter duvet (blanket) and new sheets and pillowcases so I got tan/brown ones to match. I am extremely happy with it but I don’t think Josh likes it very much. He mentioned right away that we will need multiple sets and it is a good start. Oh well. I guess it’s a little girly but at least I didn’t get one with pink and purple flowers or hearts on it – it could have been WAY worse. The middle just has a small design with little blue birds.

What does your bed look like?

http://www.anzac.govt.nz/significance/traditions.html

The job actually ended up turning into a disaster and took almost the entire day instead of just being a quick job (even though it was a bit out of the way) and not only was the sun going down but Josh was a bit exhausted from spending all day on a job that just decided to go wrong at every turn.

Well, we were already out of town so we took a shorter ride than we originally planned still in search of an adventure. Josh pulled up to a tiny local restaurant near the water and surprised me saying he wanted to take me out to dinner but continuing with the day’s luck it was closed for a private function.

Caity and Josh never give up, though. We were not going to come all this way and go back with nothing! That’s when we saw the sky all lit up with the most gorgeous colours. We wandered down to the water which was only a block away from where we were.

You can never go wrong with a walk along the beach.

This little gap was actually quite wide. Josh hopped across the rocks with no problem at all but I had to jump and grab his hands to get across and I almost didn’t make it without getting my sneakers all wet. It’s not warm here, guys. Remember it’s the opposite seasons and we’re going into the colder weather. As the sun is going down, it’s starting to get really cold especially because there are mountains right on the other side of us.

Oh, and on the way back, my sneaker definitely went right in and my socks got wet. Oops.

Josh loves to take artistic pictures of the patterns on the sand, so I let him.

At high tide, the water is past these rocks but it’s low tide right now so you could walk to them.

There’s Josh, admiring the sea as I admire him and take his picture. :)

These clouds are insane. The visibility is so amazing that you can actually see so far that you can see clouds disappearing over the curvature of the earth. My camera really can’t do it justice. It’s so incredible. Those are the clouds’ shadows up there.

I told you the mountains were right there!

:)

Their relationship has taught me about love and given me insight about the more delicate things in life.

Their love for each other and for me and my sister has been something I have never once in my life doubted. I’ve always believed in it and been proud of it – and proud to call them my parents.

Okay, so maybe that’s a little bit of a lie. COME ON, DAD! Why are you taking this picture here? This has nothing to do with New Zealand! We didn’t even eat here! You look like such tourists! You’re EMBARRASSING ME! GOSH!

Seriously, though. I love them to pieces. They’re great. :)