1,2,3, eyes on me...

I'm alive, my brain feels dead but my heart is still beating.  The past two weeks have been nuts, and I am SO tired.  Last Wednesday I started school, teaching school that is.  I have 26 kids is my class, and they are so dang cute.  They are short, noisy, at times whiny, but obedient, sweet and oh so lovable. I have been called grandpa, mom, dad, asked "when is lunch?", "when is recess?", "when do we go home?" so many times, I don't even want to think about it.  I have never said the words "123 eyes on me" or "push in your chair", more in my life. 

Here are some before and after pics of my class.  I can't get them side by side :(

This week we were writing sentences using the phrase "I will...".  As I was wandering I burst out in laughter when I came upon a girl in my class.  Her paper read  "I will ficks my dick."  I had to just walk away at first I was laughing so hard.  I asked "did you write "I will fix my bike?" "Yeah." Ha ha ha ha.  That b is tricky to write. 

Last Saturday I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon.  That is right folks, 13.1 miles.  Don't forget that .1 at the end, that was the hardest part.  Miranda, Bre and I have trained all summer.  If you know me, you know I am NOT a runner.  Turns out anyone can be a runner, you just have to actually run.  Weird.  I am a self proclaimed "slogger", slow jogger (not to be confused with slutty bloggers). 

I didn't finish first, but I also didn't finish last.  The important thing is that I finished.

Growing up

I GOT A JOB! For the first time I have a "real" job, one that leads to a career (I feel weird using that word). I have a job that pays more than minimum wage, one that you sign contracts to do, one that pays for insurance (if I die, someone is gettin' some dough), one that you can keep for longer that three months. Starting this fall I will be known as Miss Murdock to 25 1st graders at Art City Elementary. This school might sound familiar because.... this is my alma mater. That is right, my life has come full circle. I will be teaching WITH people that taught me. Weird.
That's right folks, that is an official badge that proves I am a teacher.


And for some reason the idea of getting a full paycheck has sparked some false sense that I am rich, which I am not. But none-the-less, I bought a car. Yes a car. A car that has (you might want to sit down) AIR CONDITIONING! And all the windows, all 4, roll down. I don't even know what to do with myself.These glasses were found on the porch, they seemed appropriate for a new car.

There are some, including myself and my grandparents, who are sad to the Caddi go. It has been a faithful companion, a loyal escort, a stallion. This luxury sedan has been there through good times and bad. It has earned me the name "MacDaddy", and has generated such comments as "Is grandma here?" Just Grandma Kell! I am sad to see it go, and trying to find a good home for this sweet friend. I'll miss you Betsy.

Just a bit hypocritical

I always get bugged when people don't update their blogs. I mean, how the heck am I supposed to know what is going on with my peeps, my homies, my posse? Do you expect me to call you and see how you are?! Do you expect me to come by and see you? Hang out? Actually communicate? Don't be ridiculous, just update the blogs! Then I realized how long it had been since I posted anything.... sorry peeps.

I went to Moab the weekend I returned to this beautiful country. We went canyoneering, go cart riding, laser tagging etc. The usual, nothing like running around painted ply wood in the dark shooting, what sounds like a machine gun, at my 6 year old nephews.

I am now a little smarter, wiser. Well a paper is coming in the mail in 6-8 weeks to say that I am smarter. I graduated, neat eh? With a 4.0, or 4.4 if you ask grandma. I didn't correct her.

Alina made these announcements. She also made me pose for them.

The family that loves me enough to sit through graduation. Don't be fooled, Ty sat in the hall on his laptop.

Twin Sandwich.

I went and saw Wicked. It was WICKED AWESOME! Thank you Mom and Randa (and Randa's mother in-law who got us 4th row tickets!)

I started working at Utah Lake State Park.... again. I guess I just can't get enough of mowing lawns and cleaning up after people I have never met, let alone like.

I am looking for a job. I put on my shoes today and thought "maybe this is why I can't find a job."

Better late than never.

I have now been home for over a week, and have still yet to post the pictures from out last hurrah in NZ. So I made a video of our tour around the South Island, beware it is long. We started in Christchurch and traveled to Greymouth, Franz Joseph, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin and Lake Tekapo. We spent 11 days just doing whatever we pleased. On the plane back Candace made a list of all the things that we had done. So in a joint blogging effort, here is her list and my video.



flew in plane – rode in a shuttle – went to Coachman’s hostel – walked all over Christchurch – got lost, a lot – ate kebabs and french fries – watched street performers – canoed on the Avon river – ate sushi – played bull shit with Peuce – slept in a hostel – rode on a beautiful train – met Jon… - ate tuna – trekking in the bush – shopping – pizza – big hunks – slept in a penguin hostel – Easter! – boarded the magic bus – jade/greenstone/pounamu – met a goat – hiked to a glacier – hiked closer to a glacier – hiked even closer to a glacier – trekked back to town – got lost – got scared – got lucky – ate pizza – bar… - slept in a hostel – boarded the tragic bus – saw where a glacier should be – sat in a café for two hours – played bull shit with Tim – boarded bus number two – got off bus number 2 – boarded bus number three– southern comfort – Fergburger – Lick – slept in a hostel – jumped off a bridge – luged down a hill – free soup – lick – slept in a hostel – boarded a bus – MILFORD SOUND – wished we were trekking – mexican food – patagonia – slept in a hostel with a German boy – boarded Keith’s magic bus – Cadbury chocolate – walking – Baldwin street – walked – Mcdonald’s lime shakes – internet – slept in a nice hostel – boarded a bus – went crazy on the bus – hiked to Mount John – ate pizza – hot pools – slept in a hostel – boarded our last bus – stayed in a witch hostel – tried to go to church – spent all our money – watched movies – flew home

3,2,1...5,4,3,2,1

Well I realize that I kind of left everyone hangin' with my last post. Good news is.... I AM ALIVE!! I was scared out of my mind but I jumped and I survived. When I got to the top of the bridge my biggest fear was that I would chicken out ... or my legs would break ... or the bungy would snap or I would get tangled as I fell... Okay I had a lot of fears. I got to the edge, said some things I won't repeat, then heard the counting. I felt like Andy on The Office when Dwight starts counting down to make Andy do things. The man just started counting before I was ready and all of the sudden... I jumped. I felt real graceful for about 3 seconds just falling freely, then I turned into a rag doll and was tossed around. It was very cool and I even touched the river below with my hands.

The beeper just told me I only have two minutes left. Hurry... hurry. I am pretty sure this week I have been to the most beautiful places in the world. We went to Milford Sound this week and I think God was showing off when he created it because WOW!!! I think I would like to be a bird that lives there all year. I am loving it and can't believe it is almost over. Candace and I are already planning our next trip back.

We tried to go to church for the second time today. We got up early, showered, got bikes, rode a couple miles only to find locked gates. I guess church was cancelled today. I think it was because General Conf. is watched later here? I guess going to church in New Zealand was just not meant to be. We did however go to a sermon at Christchurch Cathedral. It was interesting.

Sorry no pics, I always hate posts without pics, so just imagine me sitting in a corner of a room on an outdated computer, with a tired look on my face wearing a brown sweatshirt.

Free, free fallin'

Well we have started our 11 day trip around the South Island and it is GORGEOUS! I expect to see Frodo and Sam around every corner. We have been to Cathedrals, lakes, oceans, The Southern Alps, glaciers, etc. It has been lovely.

We are in Queenstown for a couple days and have some interesting adventures planned. In about an hour I am going to jump off of a perfectly good bridge. Why? I don't really know. You know the saying "if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you?" Well apparently I would, because I am. This is where bungy jumping was first invented and we are jumping from the bridge it started on. I hope I survive. If not, I love you all.



This is how I feel right now. Scared and a little apprehensive. This photo doesn't really show it because there are people watching me, waiting for the computer.

My New Zealand Love Affair

Yes you heard me correctly. Today I got flowers, well a flower, from a very handsome Maori boy. He might seem a little younger than expected but still very sweet.


This little boy is so dang cute. He runs in every morning to talk to me. He is always bringing things in. Yesterday he brought me a Fejoa (a fruit here) that he found on the ground. Today he brought me a flower. Averil just cracks up about how much he likes me so she has been snapping pictures when he brings me things. As you can tell I am very interested in what he is telling me.

If you want to be free, be free. If you want to sing out, sing out.

Well words can't really express this weekend. It was one to remember that is for sure. We spent the weekend in Whangamata, where Averil and Stewart have a holiday home. It was a beautiful place, right by the beach. Saturday Stewart and his friend Keith took out fishing. It was a bumpy and fast boat ride. We didn't catch much. One girl caught a spikey orange thing (pretty sure that is it's scientific name) but that is all.

I don't think that I am holding the pole properly. Dad would be disappointed, even though this wasn't his type of fishing. And yes I wear this shirt all the time, don't worry about it. It is the only long sleeve shirt I brought.


Stewart's big catch of the day was his hat, which blew off into the ocean. He LOVES it when I take his picture, can you tell. Usually he ducks out of it, or looks away, but on a boat he had nowhere to hide. He is actually one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He cleans, does dishes, makes and brings us hot drinks and cookies, and when Averil jokingly talks bad about us he always defends us and says how much he likes us.

Everyone hanging on for dear life during the bumpy ride. I swear we were catching air jumping over the waves.

We had tea at one of their friends house. She built this gorgeous house right on the beach front. It was amazing. A friend of their friend came as well and to our delight brought her guitar and singing voice as well. They say a picture says a 1,000 words. I will let you choose those words yourself.Being so close to the beach we thought that we should probably go swimming...... in the pitch black......in our birthday suits. Of course we returned to find our clothes missing, but we managed to scrummage up enough to take a memorable photo.

Candace and I also tried surfing. We thought about doing lessons, but thought "nah, you just paddle and jump up". WRONG! You don't just paddle and jump up anywhere. It was incredibly harder than I imagined. After an hour of drinking salt water we ended up laying out on the beach and getting sunburned. That turned out to be much easier than surfing. This picture was taken from the porch of the Averil's friend's house. I wasn't kidding when I said it was beach front.


"If you want to be free, be free. If you want to sing out, sing out. There's a million things to be, you know that there are."

Whoa oh, we're half way there, Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer.

This week we decided the weather was too beautiful to stay at home so we headed to Raglan. We spent the evening walking along the beach, watching the sun set and eating.

Yes, that is a huge zit on my face. Just focus on the background, pretty eh?


Every year Hamilton has a balloon festival. Balloons come from all over the world. They fly in the morning and afternoon all week, have parades, visit schools and have a night glow. A turtle shaped balloon came to our school. They blew it up and let the kids watch. It is all the kids at school can talk about. Quite honestly I am sick of balloons.


Over the weekend we went on a roadie with Stewart and Averil. We drove along the Coromandel Peninsula and ended up at (drum roll please) HOT WATER BEACH! There is thermal activity along the beach so for 2 hours on either side of low tide you can dig a hole and it fills up with hot water. It was insanely busy (thanks to Lonely Planet) but also very amazing. We dug our hole, relaxed in the hot water, cooled off in the ocean and repeated for about 2 hours.


We stayed the night at a beach motel and our room was SO small I could touch both wall at the same time. We also visited a little social club that Averil and Stewart belong to and I won $66 on the pokies. I don't have any idea how or why I won, I just pushed buttons.

A little note I wrote for those who are stuck in the snow in Utah while I am gallivanting around the beach.

We did a short hike to a place called Cathedral Cove. It is a huge arch carved in the white rock right on the beach. It was beautiful and so HOT there. We had to get our togs on jump in the ocean to cool off. This is myself, Candace and Stewart in front of Cathedral Cove.


Apparently I am just loading this blog down with pictures. Candace and I at Cathedral Cove.

P.S. Could you all please make sure it stops snowing before I come back. Otherwise I am staying here. Thanks.

Why are we the only white people here?

Wow, this week has just flown by. On Thursday we met up with some people from our group and went to an English pub, where Candace, Averil and I danced to a live band playing Bon Jovi. I am pretty sure Candace and I were they only ones dancing who were not intoxicated.

Then Friday we found a Mexican restaurant, which is rare, so we tried it. It was good, but didn't really taste like Mexican food. Our waitress was Indian and the cook was from Cairo, go figure. We then went to a stake dance, with a western theme. I felt like I was recreating a scene from Napleon Dynomite. It was so hilarious. There were lots of old people, and awkward couples all dressed up in what they considered "western" wear. They had a live band, kind of. They played songs from their laptop then strummed the guitar and sang along. There was usually only 8 people dancing, 5 of which were us. At one point everyone was doing a line dance and following a 90 year old woman. We did meet someone from Utah State which was weird. Then (because we hadn't had enough awkward dancing) we decided to hit up a YSA (Young Single Adult) stake dance. I have never been to one of these in Utah and don't know why I was expecting it to be different in New Zealand. It was still the same group of people, and I felt like I was 15. I am not much of a dancer and while I was doing the safe slide-step clap, slide-step clap I was surrounded by Maori girls who were "gettin' jiggy wit it" to the blasting hip-hop music. As if I didn't stick out enough here.

Saturday our group went to see the Waitomo caves with the glow worms. You may recognize them from such films as PLANET EARTH! First we decided to go black water rafting where we suited up in wetsuits, jackets, boots, helmets and tiny inner tubes. Then we hiked across a green field and down into an underground cave.

Brooke, Jaylayne, Candace and I , looking very tough in our gear.

Once we started hiking the cave filled with water. We had to sit on our tiny inner tubes and float through the cave. At times they had us all turn off our lights. It was slightly creepy being in the pitch black floating down the water in a cave. Who knows what little creatures were there (that is probably why they had us turn off our lights).

There was a drop off where we stood at the top, held onto our tubes, looked up and fell backwards. It sounded very loud when people were dropping, but it actually wasn't too far, maybe 8-10 feet. This is me if you can't tell.


We saw glow worms when we were caving, then we also went on a tour through another cave where there were even more. The worms light up the tips of their tails, then secrete these long sticky strings. Other bugs fly to the light then get trapped in their nasty strings. They bring up the string and eat the bugs. The worms form cocoons like butterflies. When they emerge as adults they don't have a mouth, so they quickly mate and reproduce, then die of starvation. Awful eh?
At the end of our tour we took a short boat ride. There were so many glow worms it looked like stars in the sky. It was so beautiful, in a creepy cave sort of way.

Today, Sunday, Candace and I decided that we should go to church. We didn't really want to go to the singles ward (especially after the dancing) so we decided we would just find a church and go at 9:00 am. Steve said he knew where one was so he dropped us off. We walked in, sat down and realized we were the only white people there. We couldn't figure it out until we grabbed the hymn book and it said "Tongan branch". I was laughing so hard. Luckily the speakers were an older missionary couple who spoke in English but the rest of the meeting was done in Tongan. It is amazing that even though we don't speak Tongan, we still knew what was going on and it was still spiritual. I did feel like a missionary for a moment though, in a different country, it was just me and Candace, singing Choose the Right in Tongan.

After church we went on a drive to Pirongia, one of the mountains near by. We went on a little walk and had a picnic. It was beautiful. I wish I could take a picture that would really capture and show what the bush looks like but nothing does it justice.

Weekends here are sweet as.

Well I am a little surprised that no one noticed the last blog title didn't make any sense (didn't noticed myself honestly). I was going to blog about going to the cricket match. We played India and we were the only white people in our stand. Point is we felt like we were in India not New Zealand.

This weekend we spent a night on the town. We ate, bowled, and GAMBLED! This was the first time I had gambled... I lost two dollars very quickly. I got a little bored because I had NO idea what made you win or lose and I just pushed a button for five minutes.

Saturday we went to Cambridge, a little English modeled town. We shopped a little, we have been in used book stores where I have to have serious self control! We drove to the top of a hill to see the view of the Waikato region.


That afternoon we went to Rotorua. Rotorua is very much a tourist place. It is a very large thermal geyser region and also has lots of old Maori villages and cultural attractions. This is a church that we stopped by that was right on the lake.


We went to a Maori village where they put on a welcome ceremony and do a reenactment type show. They do an official welcoming ceremony, even though you know it is fake they are still a little scary. The Maori can make their eyes bulge out like no one I have seen before. Candace and I got a picture with the Chief and the rebel warrior.


We spent the night and went to see the geysers and the boiling mud pits. Our hotel pool said it was open til 10:30, but at 9:50 they told us we couldn't go in. We just sadly walked away, but when Averil heard she left us and went straight to the desk. Next thing we knew she walked out with the key and told us we had 20 minutes in our own spa pool. We love Averil. Rotorua is very volcanic. I would say that I don't know why people would choose to live here because it could blow up any day, but then again I live on a fault line that is ready to burst.


There are also a lot of lakes in the area. We went to Blue lake and walked the trail all the way around the lake. It was so beautiful!

Oh and by the way, Candace just wanted me to remind everyone that WE ARE IN NEW ZEALAND and it is SWEET AS!