merry christmas!

Okay, maybe it's a belated merry christmas. Happy holidays anyway! We were able to make it to both Aitkin to hang out with Josh's family and then drove through the crap weather and made it to Hurley to hang out with my fam--finally got there at 4am Christmas morning. Ouch! Josh's niece Chloe was a super cute little christmas elf, and then there is the picture of all the cousins at the Kutz house. Please note Danny with his hands on Mia's neck in the back row...what's going on??!?!
Don't worry, no Maleahs were hurt in this photo shoot.

Christmas was great, we got to see loads of folks before we leave on Saturday. And now I really must go and pack and clean and organize! Where is the time going????

it's all coming together...

We have plane tickets! Isn't that exciting?? Especially considering the fact that we'll be leaving in 14 days. So all we need to do in that time is pack for the trip, make sure the passports and visas are all set, try to visit everyone we love, pack up the apartment, store everything, do something with our vehicles, get travel insurance, find a place to stay in Fiji, etc etc. Ouch.

Josh is working on getting his holiday/working visa, so that he can work while we're in NZ. Not sure what kind of employment he can get, as we'll be in a town of 11,000. Maybe he can find some seasonal work...

the big adventure!

Wheeeeee! After talking about working abroad for the last three years or so, it's finally going to happen. And you'll get to read all about it! (If you happen to find that sort of thing interesting, anyway.) So here's the scoop: I love to travel, and have always wanted to do some locums (locum tenens=traveling work) work. Unfortunately I was not blessed with an ear for languages, nor do I possess the work ethic to study a language that I don't get to speak on a regular basis. Sad, I know. Therefore, the options were limited to English speaking countries. Both Josh and I were excited about the prospect of New Zealand, so here we are, about to leave!

The very nice thing is that the great company I'm working with does a bunch of the work for me/us. The salary is less, but apartment, car, etc are taken care of. I'm all for paying for convenience. We'll be in a town called Hawera on the north island. Come and visit!!

As of last week, the New Zealand medical council has deemed me appropriate to work! Yay! And our visas should be done soon! That means that we can buy our plane tickets soon. And it's only two weeks before we leave. Talk about leaving things to the last minute!