The Reynoldz

Eric's mom developed some film from an old 35mm disposable camera that we must have used 2 years ago. In the moves the camera was left behind.

She sent us a package and inside were the photos. Such an awesome surprise!

Take a moment to reflect on all the changes that have happened in your lives over the past 2 years...... I did, and all I can say is.... WOW!!





Who would have thunk that we would all be living in opposite areas of the world...
Crazy!! - I blame ILM and Frida!!

The Doucette's invited us over to celebrate Thanksgiving at their house on Saturday.


Lisa cooked the whole meal.. we were only asked to bring wine and a dessert. (sadly, both store bought on our end)


All I can say is.... Oh my gawd the spread was delicious! Kudos to the cook!

Lisa made an awesome dressing with sausage in it, super yummy mashed potatos, baked kumara and carrots, guacamole, and a super yummy turkey!

Everything looked, smelled and tasted fantastic!

The best part was spending Thanksgiving with friends in a nice warm cozy setting! It was so nice!

You can see from the pictures that the kids had a great time! (We did not manage to get photos of the food.. we were too busy eating it! =) Athea and Ronan were upside down crazy crackers.. Haidyn posed on the deck in the sunshine and Liam just charmed the pants out of everyone while he walked around sucking on a turkey wing. The rest of us ate drank and were merry!

Even being sooo far away in a land that does not celebrate Thanksgiving we managed to get together and celebrate the holiday in a true "eat until you burst fashion".

There is an organization out here called the "American Women's Association" http://www.awa.org.nz

They sponsored a huge Thanksgiving feast for all of the USA drifters here in Wellington NZ.

They supplied the turkey and we were all asked to bring a "traditional" favorite.

I am definitely not even close to Jo, Mom, Kate, or Heidi in the kitchen. (just some of the women in our lives who have made our traditional Thanksgiving dishes "favorites" =)...

But, I "attempted" to make:

1) green bean casserole - sans french fried onions. (they do not exist out here)
2) candied yams - using a yam family member called Kumara (it kind of turned a bit green colored after adding the "candied" part)

I was actually a bit embarrassed of the way my dinner contributions looked until I got to see what everyone else brought. We are all dealing with the same ingredients and all the dishes looked a bit off. (whew =)

It was a fun gathering of USA strangers and the food all tasted sort of yummy! =)

In the end, we figured the "REAL" ingredients that we truly "MISSED" were our family and friends.

Happy USA Thanksgiving Everyone!

While in Montana, Pa Pa, Haidyn and Eric got to see the dinosaur bones exhibit at the Museum of the Rockies.
This museum houses the most dinosaur bits and pieces and is a really great place in an awesome mountain setting.

Papa bought a great dinosaur book and little PVC dinosaur skeletons for Haidyn to take back to her class.
Haidyn was really excited about her "news" (show and tell) and the teacher reported back that the class really loved the gifts.

I only found out last night though, that during news (show and tell) Haidyn told her little group of classmates that....
"Dinosaurs are still in America, you can bring shovels and dig dig dig and find them."

One of the mom's told me that her daughter came home to tell her that Haidyn said... "Dinosaurs are still alive in American, they are in the ground and you can dig them up".

Is this how rumors get started?? Pretty Cute!

Museum of the Rockies
http://www.montana.edu/wwwmor/
More info..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Rockies

OK OK so there seems to be a ton of birthday Blogs.. it must be the season for birthdays..

Anyway.. I just wanted to send out a big birthday greeting to my friend Kate Wren Scott!

Now here is the deal... I am married to Mr Eric C Reynolds. He is a computer animator..

All the folks that I know who read this blog already know him.. but for those who do not.. he is a really sweet guy.

When I met the guy many moons ago, he was not animating.. (well eventually he was Anna Mating.. hee hee =) that is the beers I had earlier talking =)

ahhh where was I?? oh yeah...
Getting back to the career that my dear sweet hubby has chosen.. He absolulty loves it!.. Which is Fantastic! I mean how many people really LOVE their jobs??
The big draw back is, that his line of work requires that he spends many many many++ hours at work and not at home. (which pretty much sucks for the person at home and super sucks when you add kids into the mix =)

Now, I bring this up because... I am not the only one in this situation....
In fact, they have a term for us "significant others" at home out here in NZ. We are called the Weta Widows. (Weta is the company where Eric works..)

It is not just Weta that makes widows.. all the sig others at home become widows to the filming/gaming industry at some point.

Again... I bring this up because I have met some REALLY awesome ladies that are stuck being animating widows. (yes the widows are usually ladies.. sadly the computer animation field is dominated by men..)

Anyway.. Kate the birthday girl.. is one of these fabulous film/game industry widows that I have been lucky to meet.

Kate is in LA now dealing with being a animation "widow".. because her partner is busy putting in heaps of hours animating for SONY at the moment.

It is her birthday and I have 3 birthday wishes for her..
1) That she gets to celebrate her birthday with her whole family together. (hubby and kids)
2) That she gets to celebrate her birthday with just her hubby (sans kids)
3) That she gets to celebrate her birthday on her own time. (sans hubby and kids!)

Happy Birthday Kate!

Practicing their toy doll routine >>>>



Hair done with Hair Spray..

Make up. >>

The ballet show was really cute but the big event for Haidyn was the dressing room!
The little ballerinas got to wear their pink ballet costumes, have their hair done, and have make up!

Tomorrow is Haidyn's first ballet show. They are doing the Nutcracker, she is going to be a toy doll. Today was their 3rd big show rehearsal. Unfortunatly, she missed the other 2 while she was in Montana.
I was a bit worried that she may not know what to do and almost opted to take her out of the show all together.. until Haidyn said to me,
"It is OK Mom, I will just watch the others and follow what they do, I will be fine."
That was good enough for me and for her super sweet ballet instructor who was extremely understanding about her missed rehearsals.
The show will go on! Stay tuned...

ARGHHHHH............. BEGIN - MS RANT
MS just sucks sometimes..
I am usually a big fan of the Corporate PC monster that is MS.. (I know, some of you might think that might be my first problem)

Not today... here is the deal.....

I am using an old version of MS Office. MS Office 97 to be exact.
It has been working just fine so I figured why spend 400 bucks and upgrade...
Well...
The other day I got a message from MS that a newer version of Windows Explorer was available so I should update. "O.K.", I thought, that works. I can update my Windows Explorer..... so I clicked the "sure why not" button...

Well right after I downloaded the new version of MS explorer I went to open a MS Word 97 document that I have been working on for Haidyn's school. All of a sudden my MS WORD 97 program does not want to launch. I then get a dialogue box that pops up where I am asked to send the error report message to MS.

I do.. and MS tells me that I have an outdated, no longer supported, version of MS Office running so I need to upgrade. hmmmm coincidence??

The super sucky think is that if I did upgrade now I would have to buy MS Office 2003 and guess what..... MS Office 2007 comes out in the new year... so do they want me to buy it 2 times??.. pretty clever on their part don't you think??

The super super sucky thing is that of course I have promised to get this MS Word 97 document finished and out by today..

ohhhh well I guess my excuse will have to be.. I am having MS technical difficulties..

Luckily I can still use Eric's PC.. his MS Office 97 still launches. He has not downloaded the new version of MS Explorer...

END - MS Rant.. GOTO - Have a great day!

Here are our loved ones who finally returned home from their trip to Montana!

Here are our Montana loved ones that we wish were
brought along in their return luggage.....

This is my beautiful sister Gail...

She just sent me the most amazing package in the mail!

It was a huge heavy box (read major postage expense) with so many wonderful surprises!

Athea and I got it the other day and had so much fun finding all the hidden treasures.

We found heaps of gorgeous clothes for Athea and Haidyn, chocolate bars, all the fixings we do not have here for Kbars, new bras for me and pictures!

Gail is the MOST loving and hard working person that I know on the planet.

She is the BEST big sister (even though I am taller) a middle sister could hope for!

Thanks for thinking of us! We sure do love you!

The fair is over! It raised over $18,000 much needed dollars for the school. (not too shabby)
It was pretty amazing see how is all came together and the amount of people that showed up.

Now I can actually concentrate on getting my house back together and cleaning up all the fairy glitter, ribbon and paint that seems to have taken over...

Best of all... Athea and I have 1 more sleep until Daddy and Haidyn get home!
They just called on the web cam and are packing up at their end so they can catch flight #1 at 1:00pm Mountain Standard Time.

You all know that Haidyn's school fair is coming up..
Well it is tomorrow to be exact. I am helping my friend Michelle run the "Fairy" stall.
This is a stall where we sell fairy stuff..
Above are the paintings that Eric and I did up so I would have something to sell and contribute to the stall...

It was meant to be a fun simple project to force us to do something creative.

Of course it is always easier said than done.
Originally we had 10 canvases to complete.. As you can see, we did not accomplish our goal..

There is always next year! =) (ha ha)

I finally talked to Haidyn last night, she informed me that she does not want to go back to New Zealand she wants to stay at Grandmas. (she does not even miss me =(

Who can blame her.....

Here she is playing with her cousins Finn and Jeb.
(All the photos are courtesy of Aunty Chris.. Thanks Lady!)



We can not get little sizzle breakfast sausages here in New Zealand. It is funny what you miss. =)
They do have sausages but not the kind that you find in a traditional American 2 egg with shredded hashbrown breakfast. (you know the kind =)
Before Eric and Haidyn left we even made an hour trek out to the one and only Dennys (yes they have a Dennys in NZ)... but they did not have little breakfast sausages... (I thought it was part of the Dennys signature dish =)

The pictures above are a little jab at the fact that my dear family can eat these and I can not.. Looks like it is another ploy from Grandma and Papa to get Eric to not want to come back to NZ as well. =)
Sure looks yummy... If I were there, I would be eating the breakfast with a big glass of milk. The milk here has a different taste that I just can not get used to... but I can tolerate it in the coffee =)

It is really hard to find drip coffee down under, the KIWI are very picky about their coffee I have found.
When you go around for a "cuppa" at someone's house most people use a "BODUM Press" to make a coffee or they have their own espresso machines.
It is really rare to see a coffee maker and if you do it usually belongs to someone from North America. =)

I will tell you though, I have started to get a real taste for the coffee around here. It is easy to do when a great past time is to meet friends and chat at the local cafe. (the cafe's usually have toys to keep the kids entertained which even makes the coffee taste even better!)

The pictures above are just a few of the cafes we frequent around our neighborhood.

At the cafe, the coffee that I usually order is called a "Flat White". This is a NZ version of a coffee similar to a caffe latte. (They even sell these at the NZ Starbucks along with white coffee and a long and short black)

According to http://www.espressocoffeesnobs.com "a Flat-white is an exceptional espresso-based drink, rich and velvety in the mouth, and a personal favorite"

Now for you Barista's out there: (Dad, a Barista is the person who makes the coffee ;)
In making a flat-white, the volumized milk is blended so that the foamy part of the milk that forms on the top is folded in to the less-volumized milk at the bottom of the pitcher, making for a rich velvety consistency throughout the milk. This is then poured into the espresso.... =)

For those who are not Barista's, coffee snobs or espresso fans.. if you come to visit me I can still make you a good old fashioned perk coffee =) I even have the appropriate coffee filters, they were sent to me all the way from the States by my wonderful Mom. =)
But I will probably also take you around to a cafe so you can have a taste of the NZ "flat-white."