Alex's Graduation

We are in the wind down part of the school year here Down Under!  Alex's class had their graduation ceremony late last week.  She is excited to be done with the primary years of school and looking forward to more challenges in High School.  I think she would have been happy to have been challenged more this year as well, but I have a feeling that she will have plenty next year to make up for it!  Below are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Megan, Laura, Alex and Rachel

Alex and her sunny smile!

Family pic!  Thanks for being a goof Ian!

The kids have a crazy schedule the last couple of weeks.  Break up parties for Aerofit for both, SchoolAerobics for Alex, the usual Friday night swim club for both, class break up/Christmas parties, etc.  The end of the school year and Christmas really makes this time of year HECTIC for everyone!  But, I also have finished all the holiday shopping (WHEW) and the tree was put up this past weekend.  The gifts are wrapped and ready to go under once we run the vacuum to get all the needles the tree shed!  Alex also had a testing day at her new HS this morning, an orientation day on Thursday, and we got her uniforms this morning as well.  Supplies are already stacked in her room and the rest of the stationery order was put in last week as well.  School resumes the last week of January!

In other family news, we finally had to buy a lawn mower.  Since we have a very small yard that is mostly dead, I opted to get a manual mower!  I remember the one we had as a kid and how glad Dad was when he finally bought a gas powered one.  The kids love this one-Ian was even able to mow quite a bit by himself.  The newer model has a disengage when you pull it backward, so no toes will be removed.  We also found out we only need to maintain the landscape to head height as per our rental agreement.  Lyle was removing a dead vine and got wacked in the face-nice line down from forehead to mouth that twisted his glasses all up-thank goodness he had them on or we would have most likely gotten a trip to the hospital out of it.  The kids love to play "pick up the palm fronds" and "pick up the sticks and put in the bin" so that is good for all of us!

It is also officially Summer here as of December 1.  To celebrate Mother Nature started the week with 85+ temps and humidity.  Hoping a storm breaks it a bit tonight and Tuesday is forecast to be over 90.  Just for reference, 40 C is about 100 F here.  Unlike the desert climate, we do keep the windows wide open here during the day-closing the house up just makes it hotter and more humid inside.  The breeze keeps it pretty tolerable, and we will be firing up the AC I bet for the first time tonight so everyone can sleep well.

Love you and miss you all.  It feels too hot to be thinking of Christmas!

Aerobics Spring Challenge!

We had a great weekend up in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland for the girls and their Spring Challenge aerobics competition.  Pictures at the end of the post!

Alex and Annika have been doing aerofit aerobics this year.  This is coached by 2 of the teachers at the school as an after school activity that is independent of the school but allowed to use school facilities.  Alex did the school version of this March-July and enjoyed it, and had been doing this version purely as a way to keep up her fitness for swimming, but ended up getting into it more than she had expected to.  She was placed on a 6 person team that did their routine for the judges and they got 2nd place!  Annika's team also got second!  Both have informed me that they will be continuing this activity next year-which I told them both that they have reached their activity limit for my budget for both time and money.  What will I do when Ian starts up with either Aussie rules Touch, or God Forbid, Rugby!  He wants to be a ninja-still-so karate lessons after the new year will most likely be in our future for him as well.  You should have seen him with the christmas paper cardboard tube-using it like Little John's stave and wacking the heck out of everything until it fell apart.  Boys!

Ok, so here are the pictures!

 

Annika stepping out!  Yes, this is supposed to happen!

The awards presentation

Our pre competition line up!  Maddie, Annika's friend and her mom joined us for the weekend as well. Ian also had to get in the picture!  I told Alex to smile and that I'd use the pic even if she didn't.  Hah kid!

Alex is second from the Right.  They're all together!

And the big finish!  On her knee on the left of the picture.

Whoo Hoo!  All done and medaled!  Big smiles girls!

This is where we headed after the competition.  Flat and empty all to ourselves for the most part.  Light breeze and perfect waves to play in.

We were super lucky to have Bronwyn and Maddie join us for the Friday overnight before the competition.  It is a 2 hour drive out of Brisbane to Noosa and we did not want to do that early on a Saturday!  So we got a great holiday apartment with an extra bedroom and friends to share it with!  The kids had an awesome time and so did we.  Lyle had just literally gotten off the plane from Gladstone and I had packed his stuff and we rolled him into the car and took off.  He was still suffering the after effects of several days hovering over molten aluminum pots in hot summer weather, so he dozed and drank a LOT of gatorade and water on the way up.  Tucked him in the same time as the kids!

After the competition, back to the apartment for a change into swim togs and off to the most wonderful beach ever!  Soft fine grained sand, tide was out so the beach went on forever, breezy and still warm.  The kids played in the waves for over an hour and then we met up with other Camp Hill families for fish and chips on the river in town.

We enjoyed it so much were were able to book 3 nights over the Christmas break in the same apartment!  Looking forward to going back and enjoying the summer sun and waves.

It's Been Awhile!

Hello all!  I am sorry this has been awhile since I wrote, but things do get busy (and alternatively lazy!) around here!

The school schedule has settled in.  The kids are super busy, which means mom's taxi is running overtime and sharing rides on Friday is the only way to keep our sanity and everyone where they need to be on time.  Thank goodness for friends with kids in the same activities so we can juggle them all around!

We hosted Julie and Paul from Wenatchee for a couple of nights and gave them the grand tour of Brisbane.  We all took the bus into town to do the weekend markets at Southbank and enjoyed shopping, a swim at the lagoons, a ferry trip around town via the river, and a walk through the botanic gardens.  It was a nice day capped off with an Aussie BBQ!

Annika has decided to start swim club as well and has enough skill, albeit barely, to get from one side of the pool to the other.  She did all 4 strokes last week and the pictures below are from her first night of swim club 2 weeks ago!

Annika did a great job and we are so proud of her!

In more swim news, Alex is now swimming the 50m for all of her strokes!  She hit the breaststroke AND the butterfly on the same night and was so pleased she leapt out of the water at the end!  Despite having her goggles get knocked around her neck she finished her breaststroke and totally drove herself until the end for her fly.  She is amazing!  She also got moved into the last lanes for her practice time-which is a huge deal as that means she is nearly ready to train with the high school aged and very fast 7th graders.  I won't go into the complications THAT would do to my after school taxi schedule!

Ian LOVES swimming now and is working to get his arms and legs all moving together.  We still need to keep a hand under his tummy, but he is churning away and blowing bubbles like mad to swim.  It helps that his private lessons are with a buddy from his class and his class does lessons weekly at school.  What a nice change from the wailing fits we would endure last year!

The wet season is trying to get a toehold here as well.  The humidity is inching up as are the temps.  So far, so good though and the fact we have AC in the upstairs will make sleeping so much better this year during the hot, sticky yuck.

Love you all-until I write again!

4th term crazy!

     4th term is upon us!  The schedule is hectic and the countdown to summer has begun.  It can't get there soon enough, believe me!  Alex is leading the charge with swimming and aerobics, both 2 days a week after school.  Annika is doing 2 days of aerobics and swim lessons on Saturday.  Luckily Ian is only doing swimming lessons on Saturday, and is a trooper hanging out with mom while we wait for the girls.  Here's a rundown of what this looks like.  Now that we are living farther away we also have a 10-25 minute ride home depending on traffic!
     Monday:  8:00 Alex choir, Aerobics at 3:30 Annika and 4:15 Alex.  We try to get home by 4:45.
     Tuesday:  Alex swimming at 4:15 to 5:15.  The coach does not watch the time and they are often out after 5:30.  Well, this mom has plenty of other things to do like supervise homework and make dinner, so this year I am going down to get her if they are not out by 5:20.
     Wednesday:  Alex swim 4:15 to 5:15, Annika aerobics 4:15 to 5:00
     Thursday:  Alex aerofit at 3:30-4:15
     Friday:  8:00 Alex Recorder band, Annika Girl Guides 5:00-6:30, Alex swim club night 6:45 to when done (8:30ish)
     Saturday:  Swim lessons Annika and Ian 8:30-9:00
     AND this term all the kids have pool time for PE, so I have to make sure Ian and Alex have their swim bags ready on Wednesdays and Annika on Mondays.  All I can say is THANK GOODNESS for calendars on the iPhone and alerts to remind me what is going on when.  I have started hauling a backback of after school things to do.  Books, deck of cards, Alphabet card deck I made, knitting, iPad, coloring books, handball, etc.  Ian and I played a wicked game of Go Fish with the alphabet deck and other kids on Monday while waiting for the aerobics to end!
     I am also working this week in a second grade for a teacher who is gone for a week of training to see if she may be interested in getting a principal's certificate so she can teach and do admin work in what they call "Small Schools" here.  Queensland is quite large geographically and many towns have a one or two room schoolhouse and have need of qualified teachers who can do both.  They really go after those who would like this kind of job, often relocating the teacher's family at state cost.  The typical teacher who does this is either just a few years out of school, no kids, and wanting a professional challenge, or a teacher who is 5-10 years away from retirement and want to do something a bit different once their own kids are out of the house.  I think it is a great blend for a teaching job!  You get administrative experience AND still get to work with the kids!
     Next weekend we will be having houseguests from the USA as well.  A friend of Lyle's from Alcoa Wenatchee has been working in the middle east and his wife is still in Wenatchee.  They are meeting up for vacation in Australia and will be coming through Brisbane on their way to the Sunshine coast north of us.  We have a fun day planned for them going to Southbank to meander through the parklands, wander through a museum or two, and take the now FREE ferries on the river to go to New Farm park, and shopping in Bulimba, and to just enjoy the city views!
     Have a great week everyone!  Summer is starting to come on down here.  Getting light at 5 am so Ian and Annika are up by 5:15 or so EVERY day.  Groan!  The birds are also awfully cheerful that early too.  Temps have snuck up into the high 70's and low 80's and humidity is coming up a bit too.  On the flip side, it has been super dry and there have been several fires in the vicinity the last few weeks.  We also had a cold snap (think low 40's at night and barely 60 during the day-Cold you know!) that did bring SNOW to the higher elevations south of us on the New South Wales border.  So fun to see and read the reactions to snow around here!

Ahh, School Holiday!

     We are in the middle of the 2 week break between terms 3 and 4.  Just in time I think too.  Ian's last week was sheer torture for all of us-he was so tired every night he would just melt down and scream and cry from about 6:30 until 8:00 when he would pass out next to me on my bed.  Reminded me of colic, but almost worse as not only could I not comfort him, but he could get really nasty with his words too.  On the plus side, I was able to take off Thursday of that week to get him into town to get his passport renewed.  More on that later.  Friday was the last day for all of us, and wonderful to not have to do anything at all this last week.  Sleep is getting caught up, the weather has been beautiful, and we really like having all the room in the new place!
     OK, passport time.  Renewing a USA passport when living overseas (at least in Australia!) turned out to not be such as big of a deal as we had expected.  Definitely have to pay attention to dates, but the process was pretty easy overall.  We first contacted the US Consulate in Sydney back in May to be put on their contact list as they make a 1 day trip up to Brisbane every couple of months for citizen services such as passports, birth records, and social security applications.  We ended up having to pass on their trip in July as once the application is submitted, you don't get the passport back until the process is done.  Seeing as Ian needed his for the trip home in June, this one was a no-go.  So, contact again, back on the notification list, and go for the one in September.  We got the application done as soon as we got back in June and sent in July when they opened the window for forms.  We had to send in our passports, copies of everything, and they sent them back within the week.  Keep in mind, this was all happening while we were moving and I was on a teaching contract full time as well!  It was crazy time around here.
     So, that Thursday I dropped the girls off at before school care at 7, walked to the bus stop with Ian, and headed into town.  Lyle had left at his usual time and was meeting us there.  We had to find the Queensland University of Technology building Z, third floor, room 301 by 8:40 am.  Believe it or not, we got there by 8:10 and they called us at 8:15!  Never have I been in a government office that not only ran on time, but EARLY!  Awesome!  Only problem was that Lyle wasn't there yet, so they said to let them know when he did get there, they'd pop us right into line.  And they did!  Seriously took only 2 minutes-we had to sign the papers in the presence of the consular official and that was that.  We walked Lyle about halfway back to work, stopped in to deposit a check at the bank and went out for pancakes for breakfast.
     Back to school holidays-doing absolutely nothing is wonderful.  Figured that we took our holiday when we did Cairns, so we are being lazy sloths and taking in the kids movies at the theater.   Saw Hotel Transylvania, a Tinker Bell movie (did you know she has a sister??), Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Madagascar 3.  Cheap entertainment.  So is going to the local parks, packing a lunch and snacks, and hanging out all day for the kids to run.  Have I mentioned that I love the weather around here?  Most days have been in the mid 70's, a few have been drizzly (and the rain is much needed so no complaints) and sunny, perfect, days.
     Miss you all!  

Cairns

     First, of all, it is pronounced Cans.  As in kick the.  Now that is out of the way, on to hearing about our week up in North Queensland!
     We left on Tuesday, 4 September.  We were supposed to have a morning flight, but it was cancelled and we were rebooked onto the afternoon flight.  It all worked out.  Kudos to the rebook folks too-we were still able to sit together.  Last time that happened on a stateside flight they had us scattered all over the plane and we had to ask/beg individuals to swap seats.  Can't imagine they didn't want to sit next to our charming kids under the age of 10 without a parent!
     The flight up was so easy.  I love traveling with our kids now.  They buckle up on their own, know the safety lecture by heart, and relax to enjoy the flight.  I have to laugh though-the little ones both asked where the TV's in the seats were-not on the domestic flight kiddos!  They liked that it was a "short hop" instead of a sleeper flight.  But still complained about the lack of personal TV.  Spoiled!
     We had a transfer to our apartment, which was quite close to the airport, as the planes taking off at 6am all week long would attest to.  The apartment was very comfortable-tile throughout, nice size, and right next to a good pool!  The kids liked it!  I also went on cooking strike all week-so we ordered from the Italian place attached to the resort.  Nothing special about it but the price!  Close and convenient counted for it today.
      Nothing was scheduled activity wise until Thursday, so we hopped the shuttle and went into town on Wednesday.  Nice sized place, and the driver was a wealth of information.  We got the grand tour, picked up some groceries for breakfasts, snacks, and lunch, and retired to the pool for the afternoon.  Met a fun family from Melbourne up for holiday as well.  Both are police officers.  He is a motorbike officer doing official motorcades and has met most of the heads of state who have come to Australia!  He preferred the dirk bike version for search and rescue work.  She works in a country town outside of Melbourne as well as in the middle of a stint at the public relations office in Melbourne CBD.  They have 2 kids, ages 8 and 10, so all of our crowd got on well!  Met up with them intermittently as activities allowed and had a great last night there together as well.  Pizza, wine, and clean out the fridge for all!
     Based on advice from the shuttle driver, we rescheduled our reef trip until Friday as the wind was pretty steady and the waves pretty good sized.  We wandered through the botanical gardens behind the resort area as well as the park.  No swimming signs everywhere due to crocs!  They were not kidding about it either.  Didn't see one, but really didn't want to either.  And back to the pools!
     The reef trip was fine.  I have decided that Chinese tourists really need a cultural educator to lecture before they go anywhere.  Cutting in line is a no-no.  Stuffing your face for lunch and then cutting in line before you have even finished the first plate is also a no-no.  On the other hand, the Japanese tourists were so sweet!  Alex and Lyle were the snorkeling pair-Alex loved it again.  She got some nice pics of the coral and a swimming turtle as well.  Here's some pics!  I'll caption them so you know what the story is!

A classic beach shot of the two littles.

Alex and Lyle coming out of the surf from their snorkel.

 Kiddos at the Baron Falls stop.  Everyone had to get this shot!

 A Cairns Birdwing at the butterfly pavillion.  Native to the area-the wings are as big as Ian's hand!  They move fast so nearly impossible to get a shot with open wings.  They are lime green bordered with black.  Beautiful!  The Ulysses Birdwing is grey and black under with bright blue wings and they moved even faster!

Alex with the black headed python.

Annika with the python.

No hesitation for Ian to get his picture with the snake too!

Walk like an Egyption kiddo!

 Isn't she getting big?  So stylish too. . .

Imagined a T-Rex pounding down the stream?

Ahhhhh!  It's going to get me!

These ladies fell in love with Ian!  They were trying to get him to smile all afternoon.  "Are those girls talking to me?"  Yes!  Finally got a picture with them all at a gondola stop.  They loved it!

Alex took this one of a green sea turtle.

And this one of her dad!

 Who returned the favor.

Trees were so tall!  200 ft or so for most of the tallest.

Gnarly growth on this one.  Neato!

Patterns on the ground level leaves.  Beautiful!

General photo of the ground level.

 The boardwalk through the forest.  Felt quite primitive.

 The pitcher plants were pretty cool!

Here's an up close of the pitcher plants.

The view coming over the last hill on the skyway gondola over the rainforest.

     We really didn't schedule much more.  The reef day and the rainforest day were the only organized activities we did.  The objective was to look around, which we did, and relax, which I say we did pretty well.  Lots of time by the pool, I didn't cook a single meal, and everyone slept well, which is a rarity.  Cairns is a very pretty little city and a fantastic area to visit and we would love to go back!

     Have a super week everyone!  It is the last week of the 3rd school term, so the kids are ready to have a break.  Ian has to get his passport renewed this week, so I have to take a day off school and Lyle will meet us downtown to meet with the consular officials.  Sent it all in last month, but have to sign in person in front of a consular witness before they will take the forms to process.  Hope to have it back in about a month, so to travel outside of the country in the meantime.  Darn!  We had so much planned too!

     Love ya!

Better Now. Yay!

     Ok, so the rant is done.  The bond is not back in my bank yet, but should be on the way as of tomorrow.  If it isn't, game on is all I can say.  I took extensive pictures and video.  They are worth 1000 words.
     The rodent situation is at least under control as of Saturday.  The pest guy had a good look and said the evidence was old and they had moved on.  The critters have done extensive damage in the lower attic above the garage-chewed all the wood beams all around to the point where the door lintel into the laundry is loose as it has nothing to hang onto, but they have moved out for summer.  He tossed several wax based baits that are good for several months and when they eat them, they will DIE a painful death.  Hopefully NOT in the house anywhere!
     Alex's Peace Bursary performance went quite well.  They placed 2nd and were pleased.  She is more pleased to be done with it, and missing the performance at the music concert next week is not upsetting her one bit.  I get the feeling she is ready to be done with choir at this level.  Something about having to sing "little kid" songs too many times!
     We are going to Cairns next week for a family adventure!  We have a snorkeling day out on the Great Barrier Reef, another day out in the Daintree Rainforest with a rail journey and village visits, I get a spa day at the resort for my belated birthday gift, and a few days to do whatever we want.  This time of year is supposed to be good as the stingers (jellyfish) are blown out to sea and the weather isn't totally oppressively hot and humid.  We have been told to not swim on the beach as the saltwater crocs do like them.  Um, yeah.  Think we'll follow that advice!  Also there is a species of conch that we call the attack seashell.  Turn over with sticks and make sure nothing is living in them and even then don't touch.  Apparently they pack quite a whollop and can be deadly, so don't play with the shells either.  So, beautiful beaches, but don't play on them is what we can do.  Good thing the resort has several nice pools to enjoy!
     Lyle has a 10k race this Sunday, Father's Day here in Australia.  We are having a family sleepover-really!  One of his workmates is also running in it.  Now, the race STARTS at 6 am.  They live on the north side of town and that means at least a 1/2 hour drive over this way, so we invited them all over to stay and BBQ Saturday afternoon and Sunday breakfast for the dads when they get back from their brisk jog.  I'll be getting up waaayy too early to drop off at the start and they will be able to catch a bus back to the house.  Thinking about doing a breakfast casserole in the crock and pancakes in addition ought to be pretty nice.  So nice to have enough room to do this!  Alex will vacate her room as she has a double bed and kick Ian out of his.  Kai (their son) and Ian will get an air mattress in the lounge area upstairs outside of the bedrooms and have a boy sleepover of their own.  He is so excited!
     Ian and Lyle had a Father's Day get together at school today.  They played basketball (think short plastic hoops!), golf, tic tac toe (naughts and crosses here!), hopscotch, little reading time and a good time had by all.  Ian's class have been planning this for ages and has been all we heard about school for the last month!  "I can't tell you, it's a surprise!  But you'll really like it Daddy!"
     On a personal note, I was closely examining my hair in the mirror this week.  I have this slightly crazed sort of hair going now.  The grey is pretty disguised by my still natural blonde, but is coming in crazy curly.  I am starting to look a bit like a frayed Q-tip.  And on that high note, have a super week everyone!

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Don't read if you don't like negativity. Or a few swear words.

     Just a warning here.  This is not a positive entry.  If you are looking for happy, just move on.  This is not it today.

     So, all the stuff is in the house.  Boxes in every room but Ian's at this point, but still getting through a few a day.  Less time to unpack than we wanted as we just can't seem to shake the old place yet.  I do have to say that we were warned.  Landlords here act just like that-LORDS of the manor and expect a place to be returned exactly in the condition you started with.  They seem to forget that clause in the contract that says excepted normal wear and tear.  Lyle and I spent 5 hours working on the place last weekend cleaning, vacuuming, washing, etc.  What we do when we leave a place, and more than most we have PLENTY of experience leaving a place!  Granted, the paint did not quite match when I touched up the scuffs on the wall, so having to redo those today did not burn my ass.  Burning it right now is that the counter in the garage by the laundry hookup is "dusty" and there are water marks on the tiles and on the fixtures in the bathrooms.  Yep.  The place is a year old and there are water marks on the fixtures!  So, after redoing the scuffs with the proper color paint that the maintenance guy dropped off for me, thinking I was done and locking the keys in the house, I get to put the kids in daycare for another afternoon so I can go scrub and paint the marks I missed in the garage.  The Garage!  But, I can get out of it for $150 off my bond payment.  As I said, this is really burning my ass right now.
     But, it gets more fun.  The place we moved into.  Fantastic space and use of it as well.  Not so on the electrical outlets and lighting-imaging a single electrical outlet pretty much no matter the size of room.  Not one per wall, but one per ROOM.  I can live with that.  I can also live with the edges of carpet being nearly black from the pest treatments that have to be done every year if you hope to stay ahead of the roaches.  I don't mind the traffic noise or the gun range.  What I will not live with is the maggots and rat shit that came out of the garage ceiling this weekend!  Yep.  Read that right.  Maggots and rat shit.  These are some big rats going by the size too.  Management was informed immediately and the owner came out and had his look too.  Have not heard from either regarding scheduling an inspector to come over and have a look around, so they will be called tomorrow and informed they have 1 week to get someone out or I start proceedings to break the lease and they get to pay for my move and deposit on the next place.  See, we learned with this last place we lived.  Being nice does not really get you anywhere as a renter around here.  We put up with "the parts are backordered" and bent over backwards to allow access to fix the issues with plumbing, smoke alarm that had not been wired, noise complaints about the appliances outside and all it got us was roasting in our own juices in the summer heat.  And nit picking on the wear and tear on the place.  Considering we had 3 kids in there, I was pretty pleased with how it looked!
     I detest renting.  I'll say it again.  I DETEST RENTING.  We don't trash the places we live.  The kids are really good about keeping their grubby parts off the walls and they don't put weird shit in the carpets.  I don't like having my money held hostage until every little bit is dealt with when normal wear happens.  I don't think it is helping that the landlord is preggo and suspect she is nesting as she is due in a month.  I really don't have any sympathy though.  My blood pressure is skyrocketing and I am just pissed.  I need to go finish my glass of wine and set the alarm half and hour early.  Alex has to be at school at 7 am to catch a ride down to Logan for the Peace Bursary, a group performance by the schoolkids for some reason or another.  She's not really thrilled and has been rewriting the lyrics to the Kermit the Frog Rainbow Connection song as she is royally sick of singing it.  They are fairly rude (for her at any rate!) but funny considering!  And yes, she is old enough that I told her they were funny.  She gets it.
     So, sorry for the rant.  I feel better.  If it still isn't satisfactory then I will request mediation by the tenant representatives to get back my full bond.  I don't feel like being nice anymore.  And is it a bit mean of me to hope the next renters are not so nice and trash the place?  I don't.

Moving Week!

     My apologies for dropping off the net for a few weeks.  I was hit with a terrible cold, had finally started shaking it off and then got hit with strep throat.  Lots of fun, that one.  I ended up texting the doctor on a Sunday morning asking for an out of office visit if at all possible.  It was BAD.  Fortunately he was able to meet me at the office, script for antibiotics, lots of rest and fluids and I was on the mend. Lyle stayed home on Monday to do the school runs-thats how bad I felt.  As luck would have it, I got a text Sunday night asking me to work for the week for a teacher I was going to do a week for as she was sick too!  They cobbled together subs until I could start on Thursday, and as the next week was my contract week, they just started it early.
     I spent the last week doing a 5/6 combined class.  They were a handful.  Thats all I'll say here about that!
     Whilst working, we were also gearing up to get the move done.  We got the keys a couple of days early and have spent the last 2 days making 12 trips to the new place with fully loaded Nissan X-trail.  Amazing what you can pack in there and how much can get moved when properly motivated!  The garage just has the big furniture and odds and ends now, the hall closet is empty, and much of the shelving in the kids' rooms are also empty.  Computers, kitchen cupboards, closets with hanging clothes-good thing we have Wednesday as a public holiday-more time to move!  The more we move, the less we have to pay the movers, so time well spent for sure.  We got the gym work out in this weekend multiple times over.
     Hope to have power to the place on Monday, have to drop off the entry report of house condition (plenty of notes there), another trip (maybe) and so forth.  On the negative, the internet service is poor at this location.  We will have to switch to mobile broadband, which means we'll have to limit our net surfing and gaming as it is more expensive.  The house next door has the service available, but not our place.  Boo, Hiss!  We should be able to make the internet phone service work through the computer, and skype is still able to be used!  No more endless Facebook surfing for me on non work days.  We are also canceling the land phone line as the only reason we had it was for the internet connection.  So, we'll save that much at least.  Now to continue all the address and phone updates.  And did I mention it is tax season in Australia?
     The location of the house is a bit out there, it is pretty much as far as you can go and still be in catchment for Alex's school!  You can clearly hear the shots at the gun range across the highway, which doesn't bother any of us in the least!  The road noise from the motorway is also audible, but not in the back yard.  Worth it for the price AND the space!
     So, busy weeks ahead.  I'll be working until the end of term at Camp Hill with the kids, and we are taking a week to Cairns in September.  Looking forward to being in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.  Annika is looking forward to doing a few more Girl Guide badges and Alex the snorkeling!
     Until later-pictures in the next couple of weeks-hopefully!  We have a LOT of unpacking to do!

Ramblings for the week

     This isn't a write out about anything in particular.  Life continues to flow, whether we want it to or not.  I think I am finally learning to go with the flow of it, but then something comes up and I prefer to try and become the diversion dam.  On the good note, not much of a diversion dam needed this week!  All is mostly right with our little world.  Or at least as right as it can ever be!
     3 weeks until we move!  Soooo excited to have space again.  While dreading it, we need to unpack the boxes of toys we have stashed in the garage and sort out.  I may actually have a garage sale-icky thought as I have been able to avoid these with donations to Salvation Army and family toy and clothes giveaways, but I just can't haul it all back in our suitcases next year!  This week and next will be address update week and I have to remember to get utilities hooked up in our name and cancelled here. We are planning on getting keys on Aug 13, doing the entry report and a few token items (like the bikes-boy those take up some room!) done.  Aug 15 is a public holiday here, Ekka, which is like a massive state fair, so we will be moving lots of stuff on that day ourselves, then the movers will be here on the 16th for the rest of the stuff and the furniture.  They are planning on 7 hours to get it all done.  Hoping it takes less, and pretty sure it will.  Not too much to pack up quite honestly.  Most of it is in the garage still from last year, so we have some books, kitchen, closets, countertops, which really isn't much.  Bet we have most of it done on Wednesday, so we will be living out of the new place as of Thursday evening!  Then the weekend will be cleaning the old place so it is available to lease on the 23rd or 24th if they can get someone in here.  I saw it was listed on the rentals website, so official then!
     Alex is gone all this week for school camp.  This is the year they get to do the national capital tour!  She and I got up at 3:30 this morning (UGH!!).  I took her to a friend's house to drop off at 4 am for the drive to the airport and we'll pick them up on Friday night.  Figure the toll to cross the bridge is $4, parking is free for 30 minutes (but it will really take 45-60, so $10) and the toll back, why go individually if we can share the trips?  A cab ride is $80 from here and the train impossible from this side of the river at that time of day, so car it is.  Their flight left and landed on time, so they are off and running.  Sydney Monday (Opera house, zoo, The Rocks), bus to Canberra Monday late afternoon, National Capitol stuff and their snow experience (big deal here, trust me!) lasertag on Thursday night, then wrap up and home late on Friday night.  Apparently Alex was not much help supporting her teachers' efforts getting the kids to bring their thermal underwear to this trip.  You know how you turn to someone you KNOW will agree with you, only to find out they don't?  Yeah, that was my kid.  Teacher-"I know Alex agrees with me since she comes from a snowy climate, right Alex?" (or something like this)  Alex, "Um, no.  I don't even own, and don't think I have ever owned thermal underwear!  Besides, it just isn't that cold were we are going!"  Bada Bing!  It will be so strange with her gone!  Miss her already, but she will have a wonderful time.
     Annika is loving Girl Guides (scouts in the USA), but mostly because there are many of her friends in the troop.  This kid is the social one for sure!  She submitted a powerpoint of pictures and descriptions of our trip to the USA and will be getting her Travel and Computer badges for it!  She needs to finish her report for the patrol excursion they did a couple of weeks ago over school holidays and then will have her Nature badge as well.  She is so proud of her outfit and sash and can HARDLY wait to get her badges for me to sew on for her!  Here she is getting her official guide book, certificate, and pins.
     Ian is counting down to year 1 so I will enroll him in Ninja classes. Every night when I pick up the girls from their aerobics practice I am reminded by him that he will be a ninja next year.  Thanks kiddo, I got it!  He also gave me a picture this week.  See below!  And note short "boy hair" on him and the longer do on me!  He also wrote me a note along the lines of "I love you my mommy."  Precious!

     We splurged and got year long tickets to another set of theme parks too.  Dreamworld is a very Aussie version of a theme park.  Decent rides, ones Annika can go on as well!  She is thrilled as Movie world rides were really for the really big or really little kids.  Ian loves the ball play area and stayed there 2 hours on Saturday.  I was content to sit in the sun, relax, and make him leave once in awhile so I could do some rides with Boo!  She was doing several on her own as I could watch her from my seat in lines and on rides, and she is really good about checking in with me after every ride.  Growing up!  Ian is driving a converted Model T in this picture.  They have them on the tracked road you can see in front and to the side.  He drove these a dozen times-no kidding!  Kept getting back in line for it.  Loved taking mommy around the track-I had to sit in the back seat so he could be my driver.

     This is their White Tiger (forgot his name!) at Tiger Island at Dreamworld.  They also have 2 cubs right now and several adults.  This guy was roaming about scenting his territory with the glands on his feet and urine sprays.  He was also pretty vocal while we were there.  Didn't stay for the tiger show-it got cool and rainy, so we called it a day.

   Let's see, other events going on?  Grandma's birthday is tomorrow (but I won't tell you how young she is!  A lady never tells her age, right?) Lyle's mom has her birthday today, as well as our 18th wedding anniversary!  Busy week!  We decided to renew the contract for another year, so all is good.

  

 Miss you and love you!  

We got a House!

     Yay!  We signed the lease on the house last night and will be moving in starting Aug 13.  We will be out of the townhouse by 5 pm on Aug 20 and we are all so excited!  Now the moving stuff just needs to be done-you know the details like forwarding address, changing addresses with everything, geting utilities moved.  Blech!  But soooo worth it.  The house is HUGE-a bit bigger than the one we had in Wenatchee, with a bedroom for everyone and space all over.  The yard is smallish and we'll have to take care of mowing and the garden, but for the price I got it for, well worth it.  The kids are old enough to be learning how to take care of the house, so chores will be shared around!  The rent is only $10 more per week than what we pay now, which is still at extortionist levels in my mind, but if we wanted 4 bedrooms and a house that didn't look like it was falling apart, you gotta pay for it here.
     With the move, Alex will be able to enroll without issue at her chosen High School!  If I don't get a call to work I will go down there today to take care of the paperwork to make sure everything is all in order.  The transportation plan for next year is to drop her off at school, then get the littles to their school in the morning.  After school Alex will take a bus to Camp Hill and meet us there.  Since she wants to continue with swim club at CH, that works out very well.
     This does add time to Lyle's commute, but we figure we can work around it.  Dinner will be a bit later, he leaves at about the same time in the morning, and on those nights when we do swim club and after school late pickups for activities, he may just meet us at Camp Hill and ride home with us from there.  We'll figure it all out!
     With the impending move, Lyle has switched gyms to be closer to the new place.  I went ahead and signed up with him.  Started back this week and sooooo sore!  Now that Alex is 12 she can watch the youngers for a bit while we work out.  She's keeping track of her time and negotiations are underway for proper compensation.  She likes money and extras like having a friend or two over "just because" rather than waiting for a special occasion.  Also iStore apps for approval to download and Amazon.com books are good too!
     The girls are continuing this term with Aerofit and I have promised Ian that he can do karate when he starts year 1.  He wants to be a ninja so bad!
     Have a great week everyone!  Love you all!  I'll send the new address to my family.  If you want it, let Dad, Mom, or Megs know, or just email me.

House Hunting and Rainy School Holidays

     So, the lease is up the end of July and we want to get into a bigger house.  I spent the last week of school filling in lease applications and worming my way into house showings.  Things are done a bit differently around here.  Open houses are for 15 minutes (seriously, that is it!) and if you like it, you take an application, feverishly fill it in with every bit of personal info you can imagine and the promise to hand over your firstborn, then hope you get it in before everyone else!  I found a place right away, got in the papers in and was told there was an application in ahead, but there had not been a deposit made.  So, we lost that one when the deposit was finally put on the place.  Grr!  It was perfect!  Yard, 4 bedrooms, as a bonus it was all on one level too, and next to a stretch of bushland that would be great fun to play in!  The agency that had it listed had taken our application, and everything was approved, so when they had a place come onto the market just down the street just days later, they called!  I was thrilled!  It has not even been advertised and I love it.  2 stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and an enormous kitchen dining room.  It has 3 times the space of this apartment!  Hoping to hear today what the final rent charge will be, but as long as it is in budget, I'm taking it.  It's in catchment for Alex's High School, in a nice neighborhood, and did I mention the SPACE it has!  Now the invite is open for any visitors who want to come over and stay for awhile!  We're less than a kilometer to a bus stop that gets you into town in just under an hour, so Brisbane annex is open for business.  Same rules apply as anyplace else we've been.  24 hours please so we can make sure you have clean sheets and towels and can flip to see which kid gets booted for the time being.  Hope to write about it more next week!  It's not available to move into until August 6ish, but our landlord is willing to work with us.  Thank goodness!
     On the negative, the weather here has been pretty sucky.  Rain for six straight days, and of course, school holidays started on day 2 of the deluge.  Think Seattle/Portland in March and you get the picture.  Cold, rainy, blech.  Today was the first day we had seen the sun, so I took the kids to Movie World.  Apparently, so did everyone else!  The girls were in line for 90 minutes for 1 ride, Ian and I managed to get in 2 bumper cars and 1 merry-go-round.  It was insane.  So, we ditched and ran for home.  The weather is supposed to be beautiful for the next week with temps in the 60's and sunny.  Yeah!
     Lyle will be doing his first half marathon on Sunday on the Gold Coast.  It's a flat course, so he's happy to give it a go for the first time.  We're staying until Monday so he can use the hot tub at the hotel.  Spoiled!  Let you know how that goes next week too!
     Love you all-

Oh, yeah.  There was a birthday this week here too!  I hit the big 4-0 on Wednesday, and at my insistence, did not let the family make a huge deal out of it.  I took a night off from domestic duties and picked up KFC for dinner, and make a yumm-o crock pot chocolate carmel cake. Bliss!  I informed Lyle that my gift will be an entire day to myself at the spa in September when we go to Cairns.  Massage, facial, mani and pedi here I come!  I also went out to dinner with several of the moms that run the fundraisers at school.  Mexican and Latin American fare-Meg's tamales are hard to beat, but this place did a wicked chicken enchilada en mole!

Home Sweet Home, and back again

     We just returned Sunday from our 2 week visit home.  It was soooo worth it!  So nice to see everyone and catch up, even with blogs, Skype, Facebook, email, phone calls. . . you get the picture.  There is just something about actually getting to HUG everyone!
     The trip started with a taxi ride to the airport at 7:30 am.  We had to call for a maxi taxi-minivan!  Us and our bags made for a perfect fit though.  We flew to Sydney, where we were able to board the Airbus 380, a fantastically huge airplane.  They are so big they can't fly out of Brisbane, and the 747 service was not flying on Friday.  Oh, well!  Ian and Annika had some trouble with their ears, but they both have been running colds for a few days, so not unexpected.  It hurts!
     We got on the flight to LA just after noon.  Dinner, lights out, try to sleep!  Most of us fell asleep about halfway into the flight, but Alex, who stayed up the entire time.  The kids all enjoyed the in flight entertainment systems on the seats in front of them.  They got to choose their own movies, TV shows, and even computer games!  Heaven!  We landed about 9am LA time (the same day we left Australia!  Love the international date line. . .) to howling kids-their ears REALLY hurt now!  We have to manually transfer bags in LA to the domestic flights, clear customs, and then start security all over again as you have to transfer terminals by leaving the buildings.  This took nearly 3 hours of our 8 hour layover!  LA is one seriously messed up airport.
     No one slept at the airport, but read books, colored in their books, ran about, snacked, talked, you know the drill.  We boarded the flight to Boise, and Ian and Annika promptly fell asleep.  You go kids! Nice to get in a bit of a nap before we go see family.  We were met at the airport by Baba, Gramma, Megan, and Sarah.  Sarah was so excited she could not contain herself!

     We visited with the family for a couple of hours, and collapsed into bed.  Nearly 30 hours up, and we were exhausted!  Annika kept us up most of the night coughing.  Bad sign.

     Saturday was a nice day to relax and get adjusted.  We were up and a normal time-about 8 am, and spent the day going to Costco (fieldtrip!) and reveling in being HOME!

     Remember the all night coughing Friday night?  It was even worse on Saturday.  I took Annika outside to see if the night air would be any better.  Tucked her into the gravity chair and propped it back, I crashed on the hot tub cover with the dog.  It was as uncomfortable as it sounds, but being so exhausted, didn't really matter.  Got more sleep that way and awoke at 6 am.  A trip to the Doc in the Box was in order, so we traipsed down there at 10 am.  Would you believe a horrid double ear infection with eardrums nearly bursting?  And she claimed that her ears didn't hurt at all!  The pain tolerance this kid must have is amazing.  So, antibiotics for the ears and an inhaler (puffer here) for the cough, and antihistamines for the drippy stuff going down the throat to trigger the coughing in the first place.  Oh, the joy of traveling with kids!  It explained the ears on the flights.  Sunday Mom and Dad hosted a whole famDamily BBQ and we got to see everyone.  It was wonderful!  Here are the kid cousins-trying to get a picture of the whole crowd of them at this age is impossible, but here is the best of them that I got!  Note Ian hiding from the camera and Ryan just trying to make a break for it.  Love them!

     We left on Monday to go to Oakridge to see the Cunningham side.  It was a great trip through central Oregon.  I love the sagebrush flats!  There were some great rainstorms we drove through.  Alex took pictures out the window the entire way there.  One of my favorites is this one-the tunnel of green and the rain pouring down.  The tunnel on the west side of the Willamette Pass was closing at 8 pm, so we stopped briefly in Bend for shopping.  We made up for it in Eugene later that week!

     Typical for the time of year, it rained nearly every day!  Wednesday was the nicest day, and there were rainbows, flowers, and family.  It was good to see everyone.

     We spent 4 days in Oakridge visiting and relaxing.  We took the kids down to the Greenacres park where the bridge picture above was taken.  Lyle did an 8 mile run while the kids played and walked through the trees.  I got some spectacular shots going up the treetrunks.

     On Friday we went to Newburg to visit with Lance, Susie, and the girls.  My, how everyone has grown!  We had excellent burgers for dinner, plenty of drinks and a great time catching up with happenings.  Lance got the Costco Death by Chocolate cake and we managed to get through half of it with all of us.  I think that old age and being more health conscious brought us down here-in the past Sunriver days we would have polished off the whole thing!  Lyle and Lance did a run Saturday morning and we all enjoyed a yummy breakfast.  The girls spent an hour having a water fight in the back yard in 60 degree weather.  They were nuts!

     Saturday we spent the afternoon with my Uncle and Aunt and their family.  I got to rub Steph's belly for luck and can hardly wait to see pictures of the baby when she gets here this fall.  Lyle and Eric always enjoy each other's company and Paula had some store buyer samples which I love! Just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit here to wear them!  We stayed at one of our favorite hotels and went swimming at the hotel pool.

     Sunday we returned via I-84 and stopped at Multnomah Falls and Bonneville Dam.  It's been awhile for all of us since we stopped there!

     The falls were running pretty heavy, but it is spring!

     Herman the Sturgeon, still big and ugly.  At least he doesn't look at the kids like they are lunch like the tigers at the zoo!

     We had Trish, Greg, and the girls over for some of the BEST ribs Dad has ever made!  All the kids had a great time playing in the yard and eating RIBS!  We also hosted an impromptu movie night with me, Trish, Meg, and Rosie.  The Princess Bride is still as funny, and we are still annoyingly good at saying the lines together!  We did a candy run to Walmart where Meg asked a random guy, forever to be known as "Random Man" to take our group photo.  He was pretty scary looking, and his girlfriend got a huge kick out of him doing it!  The fun could not stop, so Rosie and Trish tracked down a copy of Real Genius (Val Kilmer is still so hot!) right before Hastings closed at 10.  Must have been all the Whoppers, M&M's, Skittles, and such, but with all that sugar coursing through us we all made it through the movie.  I had to laugh at the multimedia present as well-smartphones were humming with texts and postings to FB as we shared our fun.  

     We had a picnic sandwich lunch at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Ralph and Carol joined us, as well as Aunt Carol, cousin Catie, and Kim spent lunch as well.  Curt came over to mow the lawn and fix the microwave before we left.  

     Of course, we had to have gun day.  Momma can still shoot pretty well, Alex has a natural eye, and the two littles built rock piles and played in the dirt.  Ian had to pose with his shotgun, so we got a picture of everyone with the guns!  Meg and I also got the grandkids to sit for their group photo.  Here's the result-pretty good looking group of kids if I do say so myself!

     Alas, time runs out and we had to leave Friday night.  Flights were all on time and LAX is still the worst airport I have ever been in.  Of course, I have not been through Heathrow, which I understand is even worse. . . not planning on going there anytime soon!  We landed Sunday morning and made it in time to go to the school fundraiser walk.  Only way to beat jet lag is to get out and play, so we did.  Lunch, naps, back to the park, and a movie.  We all passed out on the couch in a big pile and Lyle and I woke up when we started to snore.  Off to bed, and school Monday for the last week of term 2.

     I'll write about adventures in house hunting next week!  We had a super trip home, and plan to be back about the same time in 2013!  Love you all!