Busy week this week!

     So, several things are happening this week!  Alex was asked to sing at the all school music festival this Wednesday as part of a trio.  Have to get her to the Corparoo Auditorium at 5 and the performances start at 6.  Lyle will leave work a bit early so he can make it!
     The rental furniture will be picked up on Thursday, and cross your fingers that our container clears and can be delivered on Friday!  We get updates from the shipping company as each step is happening.  Today is the 1st inspection, tomorrow customs gets to have a go at it.  We have a short list of things to get to tide us over.  Think basic camping gear-air mattresses, paper plates, plastic cutlery, cups, etc.  At least we have food and a fridge!  Roughing it, luxury style!  I will not think about the customs nightmare stories we keep hearing-taking 3 weeks to clear instead of 2 days!  Once our things get here, it will take several days to set things to rights.  So very glad we found a place with a 2 car garage-1 space for the car, the other for the boxes of stuff and furniture we can't fit in here!  It will be very tight.   Also, not enough electrical plugs, so running the computer and TV will be interesting.
     We went to Movie World on Sunday.  The weather finally gave us a break from the rain, so we took off.  Nice place-enough to do in 1 day and not be totally exhausted.  Love the off season-the kids did ride after ride after ride!  Do have to put in a plug here though-these are NOT Disney caliber.  But, once you've been to Disney, nothing is ever going to be as good!
     It has been so nice having our local phone number for family to call.  My sister Meg calls when her middle of the night lunch break allows.  It's early evening for us, so we can have a real conversation!  Skype has been great too-the kids love seeing their grandparents and telling them everything they are doing.  I figured out how to call Australia numbers from it as well as they are part of the phone package. You have do dial 011 (tells the system overseas)  61 (Australia code) 07 (Brisbane exchange) then the local number.  Works like a charm!  Alex can now call her friends' local landlines and can borrow my cell to call a local cell to avoid overseas charges for them.  Phone numbers here are different numbers based on the type of business or phone.  Government and most business landlines are 6 digit, or for a free call start with 1800 then 6 digits.  Brisbane numbers start with an 07 then 7 digits, cell or mobile numbers in this area start with 0404 or 0405 and then 8 digits.  Lots of numbers, for sure!
     Lyle will be traveling Sunday to Wednesday next week.  The school is having their Art exhibit that night and the cab may be dropping him off at school with us so he can make it!  The campus has added 2 life sized painted cows that the students entered at the Ekka festival a couple of weeks ago.  They took home awards, and the cows.  Interesting, yes?!  I'll get some pics once they are installed-they are very colorful!
     My Grandpa Gene is celebrating his 91st birthday next week!  Happy Birthday Grandpa!  I'll give you a call sometime over the weekend!

Reality check

Seems like we are right on schedule for a reality check. I've been blue and teary all week. Been greeting Lyle after work with tears, snot, the whole package. Definitely not the usual me! Reflecting on this all though, it's going swimmingly. It's been about 6 weeks, and that's about when vacation feelings end and the desire for old routines surfaces. We're not talking about a gentle rise for a puff of fresh air either, a full scale Blue Whale out of the water breach that rocks everything. So, yesterday was the end of it. I'm done with the blues, at least until the next scheduled happening!
With the return of our Internet connection we can visit with family once more. We Skyped mom and dad and I've used the Vonage to call as well. Had a nice long talk with Gene and Louise this morning and it was so nice to hear their voices. We also called grandma Claudia before going to school-heaven! Meg called during her 3am lunch break last night so at least we can talk to her on a normal evening. I know we are going to use the phone a lot!
Some good news on the house selling front as well. I sent back the offer signed and accepted, so hope that progresses to closing. There were 2 families interested, so they each gave us good offers and we took the best one. I think that is what really made the blues hit so hard-the house was the last physical tie to Wenatchee, and we loved the house, neighbors, kids schools. You know how hard it is to leave something you really love. . .
Annika will be going to a birthday party this Saturday and Lyle will be trying a run too. He did "something" to his calf last week-pulled his run up short and walked it back. He seems to be much better-he'd better heal fast as he has a 10 k Bridge to Brisbane in the next couple of weeks! So, we have not decided on an adventure for the weekend. The weather is going to be rainy and windy most of the weekend, so we'll see what we end up doing.
Several big breaths, chocolate, and a nice glass of wine tonight. All better! Also on the all better bit, I have continued to shed some extra weight. Not really sure how much as the scale is in the container, but none of the pants I brought fit anymore! Stress and anxiety are at least good for something.

Weekend!

     Seeing as we already have season tickets we decided to put them to good use!  The crowd ventured down to the Gold Coast just north of a little town called Surfer's Paradise for a day at Sea World Australia! We can now claim to have seen 4 Sea World parks-San Diego, San Antonio, Orlando, and now Gold Coast!  It is very much the off season here, so very few people and some attractions closed for repair, but a good day.  Few people = no lines for rides, and boy did we take advantage.  Annika is now just tall enough to ride some of the  more thrilling rides-they have a Jet Sea Rescue ride that is a blast-55 mph on a roller coaster jet ski.  Yikes!  Lyle was too tall for it, and Annika was at the height where she had to have an adult next to her, so yep, the Non Adrenaline junkie had to go with her.  Next time Lyle will wear his 5 fingers since his shoes put him over the 200 cm mark and he gets to ride with her!  Maybe.  Ian is still thrilled with carousels and putt putt rides, much more my style!  Alex L-O-V-E-S the big coasters along with her dad.  I'll hang with Ian, thank you very much!
     It rained a bit in the afternoon-a soft rain, more like a heavy falling mist.  No big drops, little breeze, not much.  The kids were doing the log flume ride over and over and over and apparently not getting wet enough.  So, brilliant idea, to head over to the Castaway Cay area for the pirate ship water battle.  Great idea guys!  Alex and Annika happily boarded with Ian leading the way, (Lyle not so happily, but an adult had to go with Ian!  I called NOT IT first ;-) )  Then the fire hose hand cranked water cannon fight was on.  Spectators from the side shot Lyle all up-he was soaked in minutes, Ian huddled next to Daddy and stayed fairly dry.  Alex had brought an REI jacket that the water at least mostly ran off of and loved the fight.  Annika, well, this was more than she bargained for.  By the end, she was as tear soaked as water soaked, and that is saying something.  We got everyone back into the car (free parking by the way!), turned on the heat and they were out within minutes.  It's about a 45 minute drive back home for us, so expect we'll be getting our use out of these passes this year.  Movie World (think Universal Studios Warner Brothers) is on our agenda for another weekend, but most likely not this one upcoming.  The weather forecast for the next 10 days is rain, rain, and more rain.  Rained for 1/2 the day today, with intermittent sunshine and has been raining most of the evening.  Love the sound of my rainwater tank filling up-free water to flush the toilets and wash the clothes!
     Other notes this week-our internet will hopefully be up and running sometime Tuesday (Monday for those of you at home)!  One more little wire to tie into our phone board and finally we can Skype and talk!  I think all of the bouts of homesickness this week have been because of the continually dashed hopes for the last 2 weeks getting this all up and running.  I had a fantastic temper tantrum Friday when I finally got put through to the technical scheduler to get this connected, only to be told via auto voice that the guy was unavailable and that his voicemail box was full, "thanks for calling, goodbye".  Ian was impressed.  In retrospect, I was too.  Haven't had one like that in about 11 years.  Felt pretty good.
     Also, our cargo container will be making port in the next couple of days!  According to the preliminary schedule, it should be delivered 1 September.  Which is good, as that is the day our rental furniture is scheduled to be picked up!  Let's see if something will schedule as planned for this move!  Nothing else has, but hope springs eternal.
     Thanks for the email and FB notes about my homesick mess this week.  We're getting through it-big breath and take 1 day at a time.  Hoping that in a few months we'll look back on this and giggle, and everyone says that we will.  In the meantime, I have a huge rack of laundry hang drying in my living room, 2 exhausted kids passed out upstairs, Alex getting ready for bed, and the grownups relaxing and gearing up for another week.  Ian gets to visit a Prep classroom tomorrow-he starts school in January and can hardly wait to get his uniform!  Miss everyone-

Our Ekka Holiday

     Seeing as we went to Ekka already this week, we took our day and went exploring.  We decided on going to the Daisy Hills Preserve area, about 20 minutes from here.  It is a great area of native bushland, and about the only area that is still native in the Brisbane area.  No houses for about 1000 hectares (about 3500 acres), but bordered by koala friendly housing developments.  This is one of the few areas koalas can still live in their natural setting.  Every other koala we have seen has been in a zoo type setting.  We didn't see any wild ones today, but plan to go back to see!  We did see a wild kangaroo though!  The area is riddled with walking, biking, and horse trails and we can hardly wait for the bikes to get here now.  It appears to be mostly dirt roads, some terrain, and nothing technical to ride.  It rained a bit and was quite cool, so we only stayed for a few hours.  Annika and Ian both fell asleep on the ride home!  Nice for them to have a midweek nap.
     The kids are home again on Thursday for a teacher comp day.  The plumber is coming to do the water conservation certification for the unit and the electrician will be back to see why the front porch light is not working AND to connect the phone line to the phone company box.  Then maybe, just maybe, we can have our internet connection working!  Skype, here we come!  To be able to call home on the Vonage and TALK to someone again-glorious!
     We decided to splurge and buy passes for everyone to some of the theme parks down on the Gold Coast.  Wet and Wild water park, Sea World Australia, and Movie World (Warner Brothers) are included.  You can visit as many times as you want until June 30 of next year.  Sweet!  We're hoping to go to Sea World next weekend and break these things in.  Seeing as we are 45 minutes away, we figure we will get plenty of use out of them over the next year.  And the beaches down there-apparently some of the best in the world, so planning on relaxing there whenever possible as well.  Bring it on!

Ekka

     What the heck is Ekka?  Or Ekker as the locals say.  Think State Fair times 40 and you have Ekka.  It is a local celebration of Queensland agriculture-complete with animal barn where the kids can pet all sorts of farm critters (we got to hold baby chicks!), learn about different breeds of horses, sheep, and dairy cows, and don't forget it is election season so lots of politicians strolling about too.  They have a great food pavilion with tons of gourmet goodies and simple things like grilled cheese sandwiches.  The midway was very cool-lots of huge rides (we passed these up this year) and a section called the Showbag Pavilion.  This was perhaps the most unique part of the whole day.  Imagine if you will, a huge expo hall filled with booths that sells themed bags filled with all sorts of stuff.  Candy, toys, games, you name it, they most likely have it!  Check out the stuff at www.showbags.com.au and you'll see what I mean.  Annika got a Barbie bag with backpack, slippers, stickers galore, drawstring bag and a 3-D dress up paperish Barbie.  Ian got a Spiderman bad with lunchbox, comic book, mask, catch toy, and I think a coloring book.  Hard to tell as the pieces are scattered all over the living/dining room right now.  Alex got a shoulderbag with a necklace, bracelet, pencil or makeup bag (I'm delusional-it's a pencil bag please!) and I think a small vial of perfume.  Lyle and I got fudge-oh, yum!
     Now, I have not been to the Western Idaho Fair in years.  This is so much bigger.  They also have a metro area of 3 million to draw attendance from, and I think nearly all of them tried to get in to the Showbag pavilion today.  I kid you not, shoulder to shoulder and barely moving at all.  I had a death grip on poor Ian and people would try to get between us-they just don't look down!  We were all glad to get out of there and enjoy a cup of cookies and cream ice cream sitting on the curb of a closed off street.  Whew!
     We took the train into town today-drove the car out to Murarrie station and took about 35 minutes to get into town.  The way back was even free as it was included in the price of admission.  There is a station right in the middle of the expo grounds and we had to transfer at the Roma street station downtown.  Discovered the train line stops in South Bank where we can catch a cheap movie and play in the pools and the performing arts center is there as well, and it also stops a few blocks from the Gabba where Aussie rules football is played, as well as Cricket.  Parking the car at the station is the way to go!
     As we are nearly a full day ahead of everyone here, I have to wish my cousin Jennifer and her new husband congratulations on their wedding today!  Dad emailed a beautiful picture of Jen and her Dad to me.  Wish we could be there beautiful!
     The kids have Wednesday off of school for the Ekka holiday and Thursday is a teacher work day.  Yes, that is how strongly they feel about it in this region!  The outer suburbs and towns are taking Monday as their Ekka holiday and I understand that both days will be even more crowded than today was.  Lyle is going on his first travel trip Monday and Tuesday.  The cab is scheduled to pick him up at 4:30 am and he should be back about 6 pm on Tuesday.  He will also be gone for 3 weeks in October to visit 2 sites, but is pretty sure he will be home on the weekends.  Glad for that!

New home issues, teacher certification

     Anyone who has ever moved into a new home knows that working the kinks out takes a few weeks.  We get all the fun of the kinks with this one!  The dishwasher flooded the kitchen floor the first time we ran it, with no problems since and under the sink in the master bath has a drippy leak, but has been fine since the first couple of days.  Not that we think they have healed themselves or anything, we have towels out and calls into the manager requesting a plumber come and check things out.  The smoke alarm upstairs is also not connected to the main power so the backup battery died and then went off the other night.  So, the builder will be sending his guys over "sometime today" to fix them up.  Sigh.  Ian and I wanted to do another walk through the Reserve, midweek grocery shopping, and go to Parade (assembly) for Annika today.  Guess some will get done tomorrow and Parade will have to wait until next week!
     I have also started the process to get my teaching credentials for Queensland.  This will be fun!  I have to send my fingerprints back to the FBI for yet another background check, have a background check done here, get copies of all my transcripts and diplomas, have them notarized (the notary here is called a justice of the peace, our version of a JP is a magistrate), copy my identification, and finally send in with about $150 and wait 10-12 weeks for them to clear.  Looks like I will be spending lots of quality time with Ian and finding volunteer work at school that I can bring Ian in for!  I looked at preschool for him-costs between $55 and $70 PER DAY.  Australia has a great program where average wage earners qualify for child care assistance, but since we are here on temporary worker visas we don't qualify.  Ouch.  On the plus side, I can enroll him in before and after school care once he starts Prep in January.  For $35 per day for before and after.  Add in Annika, and you get the picture.
     Again, on the bright side, once I have my certification, I can look for a teaching position or sub for a while.  I was told that subs make about $300 per DAY here.  WOW!  Teaching positions are filled differently than at home.  The entire state of Queensland runs a teacher database and you go where they tell you to based on your qualifications, seniority, and what is needed where.  This means that younger teachers tend to be placed in outback schools and have to work their way into cities, or they take the less desirable inner city schools.  Since I can't see myself commuting Outback, subbing may be just fine for me!

Settling in, sort of

     So, have been in the house for a whole week now.  It's a newly constructed townhome and very nice, if small.  It has 3 bed, 2.5 bath (sort of anyway), 2 car garage where the laundry is located.  There are also 14 stairs to get to the living/dining floor and another 16 to get up to the bedrooms.  Who needs a stairmaster?  Just live here!  Sounds big, but total square footage is about 1200 sq ft.  MUCH smaller than we are used to, and with neighbors all over, trying to keep the kids at a reasonable level is difficult.   We have a nice park only 50m downhill from here, the kids love it.  Good thing too as when they need to run, it has some play equipment and plenty of open grass!  We spent an hour or so there yesterday afternoon after our hike in the Whites Hill reserve and exploring the park and running/biking paths in the area.  The wild lorikeets were chattering up a storm!  Lyle loves the bike paths here-many many kilometers of paved trails going through park areas and following Bulimba creek.  I look forward to getting our bikes and taking Ian with me on the tag along while the girls are in school for a few trips!
     We took Saturday and drove about an hour up to Australia Zoo.  It is an amazing place and glad we went.  Admission and concessions were in line with what we had expected to pay, so no big surprises there.  The crocs were just as amazing as we have seen on Animal Planet!  They had opportunities to touch many types of wildlife and talk with the keepers.  The kids loved the baby American Alligator and the Burmese Python.  We even splurged for a family pic with the snake in the studio!  It may show up on our Christmas mailing this year.
     On my list this week, apply for an Australian tax ID number, look at Kindergartens with daycare for Ian (they call 4 year old preschool Kindergarten here), and get my teacher certification application finished.  The teacher cert may take 12 weeks to process!  So, in the meantime, I will also be looking for a job doing something to keep me busy and a bit of extra money.  My working will make the difference between having to really stick to a budget and being able to be a bit looser with the cash for fun stuff.  Not only that, having to pay a ridiculous amount for rent and the house still up for sale in Wenatchee makes things pretty tight right now.  Good thing we planned for it, but will not be able to do this for the long term.
     Internet will take about 3 more weeks to get going.  We miss talking to family and friends!  You may want to bookmark this site-it is a time zone converter so when you call, you can see if we are possibly around or not!  http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Miss everyone tons.  Looking forward to emails and comments-they are keeping me sane right now!

Home, finally.

We are in the house, finally!  Rental furniture was delivered today-3 twin beds for the kids, queen for us.  Couch and loveseat, dining room table and seating for 6, coffee table, linens for the beds and towels.  Kitchen place settings for 6-8 and basic cooking gear too.  I think I will make it until our stuff comes now!  The next hurdle, getting the internet hooked in permanently and figuring out what we will have to keep boxed in the garage.  This place is so tiny compared to the homes we have owned and even with downsizing our stuff, we still have waaayyy too much coming.  As much as I despise garage sales, I may just be having to have one!

List, shmist

OK, so didn't get everything done on my list for today, but excepting for number 5, the rest are ticked off!  We'll pay for the furniture rental tomorrow AND transfer several bags to the new house.  We will check out of here on Thursday morning and finally be in our place-with furniture!  Love, Love, Love the Nissan and feel much more confident driving as it sets me up a bit more off the road than the Lancer did.  Managed to drive right to the carpark for the rental drop off downtown!  Ka Ching!

The girls are loving school, but both saying it is too easy.  I know the first week everyone is feeling each other out, and they are technically finishing up the school year again, so I am not too worried.  They are making friends and happy.  That is all that matters right now!

Have a mobile broadband USB for the computer to tide us over from the hotel access to home access.  Wish I knew about these earlier as they would have been much cheaper AND more useful as we gear up to travel around the country a bit!  Lesson learned.  Those lessons will be a whole post, or series later on!

Car today!

On the docket for today, picking up the Nissan X-trail up north at the dealers!  Now, don't get overly excited as here's how I have to do it.
1.  Get girls to school south of town.
2.  Go downtown to the Central Business District (CBD) to drop off the car.  Think any major metro downtown-super tall buildings, lots of 1 way streets, and a GPS that gets confused amongst the tall buildings.  The carpark is on a different street than the rental office. . .
3.  Walk to the bank branch downtown to get a bank cheque for the car.  Goobye another $40 for bank cheque fees.
4.  Call dealer-someone will come downtown to pick up me and Ian.  Hurrah!  No need to get a bus up North.
5.  Drive car back to furniture rental office and put deposit on temporary furniture.  We'll be reimbursed for it.  They should deliver on Thursday!
6.  Find a mobile internet provider-may take up to 20 working days to get internet connected and working. And, just to keep it more fun, they will be sending updates via email.  Really, while I have no access to internet?
7.  Somehow set up online banking (still don't have pin numbers) and get our 1st installment for our rent paid on Friday.

Anyway it goes, it is getting better by the day.  Normal is simply a state of mind, right?