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!