Ex Cyclones and School Start

Apparently Ex Cyclones are just as much fun as real ones!  Oswald (or Ozzie if you prefer the Australia penchant for nicknames) blasted across the northern part of the state (keeping in mind about as far north of us as LA is south of Portland) and kept trying to reform over the Pacific Ocean.  He never quite got there, but the attempt was bad enough.  Bundaberg, where we visited Christmas of 2011, is still underwater.  Many of the rivers and streams rose phenomenally fast here, but also went down just as quickly.  The high winds caused lots of problems.  Tornadoes in the Sunshine Coast, lots of downed power lines from trees and debris.  We were fortunate that we never lost power, just a few small limbs down and the overgrown thorny flowering bushy thingy in the backyard tore free from the trellis.  We'll be removing that this weekend! Overall the storm kept us in the house for 2 days because of the winds and trees falling.  The kids had a blast playing in the deep water and mud in the yard right before the winds hit!  Figured out the yard drain is plugged as well since the water flowed down the side of the house, through the backyard, and into the yard behind us!  I tried to use the plunger on it, but no luck.  Most likely some critter nested in there so it is plugged and will need snaked out.

At any rate, our schools had power, water, sewer, and were not being used as a storm shelters, so Tuesday meant Game On!  Alex started High School and so far seems to be enjoying it.  She is in a fast track class that does most of their classes together so she is much happier already.  You can learn so much more when the smart alecs are removed!  And yes, I do know that is not politically correct!

The littles are quite happy as well.  One of Alex's teachers moved to 3rd grade and has Annika this year and Ian has the year 2 teacher Annika had when we moved here.  We are all quite happy with the new year!  Here is a picture of the adorables their first day!  Ian is grouchy because I would not let him do a Ninja pose for this picture.  Grump!

Off to swim night with the girls!  Love you all-let you know next week how the transport works with kids in 2 different schools and traffic jams to deal with!