Introducing......Anne and Bruce

Oh hi there! Haven't chatted with you in a while.

My apologies.

Life is CRAZY right now.

Dallas and I were in New Zealand last week for his sister's wedding and it's taken me several days to get my head around the trip.

First of all, we flew Air New Zealand.

In coach.

For twelve and a half cramped, recycled air, Jesus-I-hope-this-is-just-water-retention hours.

I am not a business class snob. I fly coach all over North America. I have flown Air Canada several times and thus, my service expectations are not that high however, Air New Zealand has redefined the art of cutting corners. And for posterity: any flight over eight hours in coach is just this side of unbearable. Of course, we plan to take the kids (mine and his) to New Zealand for New Year's and since neither one of us is a Rockefeller, I see another ride in cattle class in our immediate future. Hopefully, it will be like pregnancy so that when it comes time to board that flight in December, I will have forgotten all about this last one.

In any case, we arrived in Auckland obscenely early on Monday morning. Both of us stood just inside the doors of customs to compose ourselves before heading out to the greeting area where Dallas's parents were waiting. I had been in a slight panic for nearly three hours by that point. No more text messages, no more emails, just the real deal...face to face interaction. They'd read my blog. Gulp.

And, of course, I worried over nothing. They opened their arms to me the second I arrived and I nestled there for the balance of the trip.


This is Bruce, my soon to be father-in-law. But you can call him "Slim". He recently dropped 23kgs. Umm..for the metrically challenged, that's 51lbs! From what I can gather, he did this by eating nothing but fish oil capsules. I have to admit though, with a wedding dress and a honeymoon that requires swim wear, I might have to choke down a few of those little babies myself. Bruce makes a perfect cappuccino and every morning, before he had wiped the sleep from his own eyes, I was handed a steaming mug. Yeah, easy to love him.

This is Anne, my future mum-in-law. She is grace and compassion and quiet laughter wrapped up in a fit forty year old's body. Seriously. She must exercise in her sleep. You see how her smile reaches her eyes? It always does. She is sincerity personified. In our room, Anne left a beautiful bouquet of flowers, domestic red wine and chocolates. There were gifts for my children and a card welcoming me to the family. I couldn't help but get choked up. Weeks before our visit, her text messages always included me and they always ended with hugs and kisses. After reading the card and seeing the pains that she had taken to make me feel comfortable, I understood that this outpouring of affection was pure. Like Anne. I love her, too.

to be continued