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!

Lost teeth, forts, and lots of RAIN!

We have had a couple weeks of adventures and gear up to starting back to school NEXT WEEK!

The weather has finally warmed up and with it the humidity has skyrocketed.  At least for our perception of if!  The temps were hitting 90 regularly with tolerable humidity, but the rains have begun and with it the moisture level goes waayyyy up!  The AC has been a HUGE relief, especially at night so we can sleep.  I try to not run it during the day as it gets super expensive really fast, and as they only bill you every 3 months here, a $900 electric bill is small potatoes in weather like this.  Me, I prefer to not have those, so ration the comfort.  We just shut the doors to our room and the kids can sleep on the floor in air conditioned comfort!  Just have to watch for them if you have to get up to pee in the middle of the night.  They move from where they started!  With the rising moisture the cicadas really have tuned up as well.  They are deafening at times and go on all. night. long.  Yet another reason to worship the AC!  Shut the windows and turn on the unit and the white noise drowns them out somewhat.

A momentous occasion for Ian this last week!  He lost 2 teeth before our trip to Newcastle!  On was finally pulled out on Friday night, the other on Saturday night.  We were thrilled as was he.  The tooth fairy delivered his dated silver dollars and we traded them for Aussie gold $1 coins for him to spend.  He has been hauling the money around in his pocket for the last week agonizing over what to spend it on!  Here is a pic of the second tooth which he pulled in the bath.  Little dental floss and lots of tugging and out it popped!

This is the first tooth out below.  Please note that he is shirtless because it is really pointless to make him wear much more than a pair of knit boxers in this weather!  When we go out, he does put on clothes. . .

On the change front, Lyle has been working a LOT down in Newcastle, which is about 2 hours north of Sydney.  We spent a week down there with him so we could check out the area as they are interested in having him come to work for them permanently.  It would be a nice position for him as he would be running their technical department.  It was downsized the last couple of years, but they are looking to ramp it back up and want someone who knows what he is doing to get it back.  It is also a facility with plenty of room for improvements which he has been helping with.  It isn't as warm and humid as Brisbane, and some new territory to explore in Sydney!  So, we wait and see what is going to come of it.  In the meantime, things keep trucking along here, and if it doesn't work, we will do just fine here!

I have to close with a picture of Alex's new boots!  She absolutely loves them (frankly, so do I!).  I love her sense of style with them.  She wears with a short pair of shorts, tank and messenger cap.  Thankfully they have zippers, so she doesn't have to do all the eyelets and hooks.  Also, a blast from the past picture here of Alex.  This was our first Christmas in Massena, NY on her bouncy horse.  She was all of 19 months old here!

The weather has been interesting these last few days.  There was a cyclone (hurricane) way north of us that crossed the peninsula above Cairns named Oswald, and with the Aussie penchant for nicknames, it is known as Ozzie.  It is now following the coast and heading south, not quite reforming into a cyclone, but wreaking havoc as a tropical depression/storm.  Lots of flooding in it's wake and some confirmed waterspouts and small tornadoes on the Sunshine Coast.  Just happens to be Australia Day weekend and a big BBQ weekend.  Think 4th of July being rained out for the week and you get the feeling!  Needless to say, we are doing our cooking indoors!

Next blog topic, back to school!  Alex starts High School and the littles continue at the primary.  Pictures will be put on FB, emailed, and put up here next time I write!

Love you all!

Hot!

Well, the summer heat waves and fires that plagued the northern hemisphere have certainly continued Down Under!  Around Melbourne it has been over 40, which is 104, consistently and headed that way here.  Outback stations are reporting temps of 45 and higher.  The national weather service had to add new color bands to their forecast maps as the predicted temps in some inland areas are going to be ABOVE 50C!  These are Death Valley CA temps people!  Unfathomable hot.  Fires have been torching Tasmania.  There is even a picture going around in internet of a grandma and her grandkids taking refuge in the lake clinging to the pier with smoke so thick you can hardly see the people. Grandpa took the pic just a couple of steps away.  They lost their home, but everyone was safe.  Many have lost everything in these wildfires in Tasmania and other Australian states this week, with no end in sight.  Locally there are several fires of concern and the air is quite smokey smelling and slightly hazy, but nothing like Wenatchee was last summer-fortunately for us here.  Brisbane hasn't hit such crazy high temps as Melbourne, but it is trying.  The high so far has been about 95, but indexed for humidity and such feels more like 102.  I'd prefer the low humidity desert 102 to the sticky one any day!  But on a positive note, have finally found an underarm deoderant that actually works!  Nivea has a loyal user for the rest of my days for sure!  Keeps this sweaty person smelling sweet all day long!  That and wearing as little as possible.  Ian has been running around in his knit boxers, Annika in not much else and Alex in string tanks and bike shorts.  Me, I wear flowy skirts with tanks and indecently short, light dresses.  Along with everyone else!  When in Rome, right?

2 1/2 weeks of summer holiday left for us poor saps here.  Swimming starts back up next week and I plan to have the girls swimming most every afternoon to relieve the heat if nothing else!  May have Ian in lessons for those 2 weeks as well, but his session is in the morning.  Bet they'll let him hop in the pool in the afternoon for a quick dunk to cool off though!  He will for sure be back in lessons for term 1 of school in addition to whatever swim schedule they work out for the PE time!  He loves the water now and I am so glad!

Alex now has all of her school uniform elements and school supplies and is ready to go.  The other two fit their stuff still (have I mentioned how I LOVE school uniforms?)  I will be selling Alex's stuff to friends and to the uniform shop for their second hand racks to get a bit back as well.  I'll post up the traditional 1st day of school pics as school starts Jan 29!

Australia Day is Jan 26 (their 4th of July) and the official public holiday is on Jan 28.  Lots of patriotic Aussie stuff going on sale this time of year.  If you have any requests, I can most likely find it!  I plan on scoring beach towels and a plastic backed picnic blanket this weekend!  Fun, Fun, Fun!

Christmas 2012

Hello everyone!  We survived the end of the school year with break up parties, goodbyes, and hello to summer break!  Alex went to a fun party where the girls took the bus to Southbank to play in the riverside swimming pools and then had dessert at Max Brenners, a divine chocolate themed shop.  The girls were smearing their lips with chocolate and dipping them into sprinkles!

Our adventure started with Lyle able to catch an earlier flight out of Newcastle so we were able to get up to Noosa at a very reasonable time.  By the way, things have really heated up for him around here.  Lyle was on the road all three weeks prior to the holiday and was READY for some time off!  Back to Noosa--

3 days of beach and relax with NO COOKING for me was just perfect!  We were able to stay at the same place as last month when we did the aerobics competition with the girls, just a short walk to the beach.  Even got the same apartment!  Ian got so into using the body boards for the girls we stopped in at Target and got him his own.  He LOVES taking the waves into shore and running back out for the next one.  We enjoyed a lunch at the local surf lifesaving club that overlooks the beach (we had to go back to get cleaned up and changed though!  no swim attire allowed!) and a sunset walk along the boardwalk and into the forested areas and back into the shopping district.  The kids were tired!

We built our Gingerbread House while in Noosa.  I think I just prefer gingerbread cake!

A general beach shot here.  The surfers worked the area off the point on the left of the photo and the swimmers were kept to the left out of the photo.  We got to watch the surf club do a mock offshore swimmer rescue with a helicopter and a tethered rescuer dropped in to get them!

This was built just off the boardwalk.  Candles in the alcoves made it very pretty at dusk as we were walking by.  Popular to sing for money on the street, build castles, etc.  Also saw plenty of kids sleeping on the beach.  Relaxed to say the least!

We had to get back in time for Santa to visit the house and to get ready for our lunch guests on Christmas day.  Santa and parents did not disappoint either!  Ian has a good supply of Star Wars and race cars now.  He got a batteries not required race track he cranks and it shoots his cars on their track!  Love!  He and Dad built the Tie Fighter together and he flies it around shooting bad guys.  Annika scored on the craft kits and can hardly wait to make her soaps and bath salts.  Alex got a lot of iTunes music and sock monkey makings.  We all got awesome t-shirts from my family with assorted animals on them-Lyle a bald eagle, me an owl (thanks for the Hooters Dad!), Alex a guinea pig, Annika a meerkat, and Ian a great white shark.  They look great!  We had a lovely family over for lunch that we enjoyed eating a visiting with last year at their home.  I made a roast turkey breast, steak, lots of cold salads, and assorted desserts, including an American Pumpkin Pie.  I was thrilled to have the taste of home here!

As we were recovering from Christmas we got a call from Lyle's workmate, Chris, inviting us down to Byron Bay for an overnight stay at his father in laws place.  Yep!  We'll be there!  The house is right on  the beach just behind the dunes and we had a great time.  Played ping pong, Uno, played on the beach (but not as much as Noosa.  The rips are notorious on this stretch so knee deep was all we allowed) and took a nice drive into the hinterlands to look over a waterfall and enjoy the scenery.  I am still amazed at how green everything is!

This is a goana-a native lizard.  It was about 3 feet from nose to tip of tail!  It was just off the observation deck down about 3 feet on the rocks on the edge of the cliff.

The view looking over the edge.  Vertigo for sure!  This was over 100 m up from the gorge bottom.

We didn't do much for Lyle's 43rd birthday, but relaxed and enjoyed a play at the park.  We made frosted brownies (yum!) which we all enjoyed.  We also have gone to the movies a few times-the whole family went to see the Hobbit in 3-D and were riveted.  Can hardly wait for the other 2 movies to come out!  Lyle and I went to see Skyfall on New Year's Eve.  Loved it!

Lyle is back to work on Wednesday (tomorrow) and heading back to Newcastle.  Looks like he will be traveling a LOT for the first quarter of the year, so we will be looking forward to getting him home every week!

Have a happy and safe New Year Everyone!  Much love!

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!