Service.
So the doctor came to our house on Monday morning and the banker came to our house Monday evening. Talk about service! Mark from Westpac stopped by our house to deliver our debit cards and get our signatures. He was a great guy, stuck around and chatted for quite a while. He got a kick out of the fact that the trampoline is in the living room.

Since I was home with Lily, I had a couple stop by to give me quotes for other services we need done. The lawn guy and his partner (seems to be fairly common that people aren’t married here, met several partners) stopped by to quote lawn care services. I think I will miss doing my own yard work but we don’t have any equipment to use. Even if we did, the lawn is fairly steep in the back do push mowing would be zero fun. I am itching to get out and clean up the garden and hedges but am absolutely terrified of the poisonous critters that are likely living there. So, best leave that stuff to a local professional who probably carries anti-venom in his pocket…

Possibly the highlight of my day was a visit from the housekeeping service. I know, it sounds uppity, but with 2 kids, a full time job, and a gorgeous country to explore, I really didn’t want to spend my weekends scrubbing toilets. I was spoiled with Briana back home (which by the way if anyone in the quad cities needs an awesome housekeeper let me know and I will give you her info). Since everything is super expensive here, I was bracing myself for the worst and trying to come up with reasons to convince Mr. Shearer that the price was totally worth it. But then I got the best news ever. The price was right!! And they use their own cleaning supplies (thank goodness because I don’t know the brands…no Clorox wipes or pinesol here). This is probably double the space as back home so I was figuring the rate would be 3-4 times what I pay back home, but it was only about 50% more! Yay!! Jay didn’t hesitate or argue at all. He even said that weekends are for having fun with the kids. Love him. 🙂

Tinsel.
I don’t know what the deal is, but the Aussies LOVE their tinsel. The holiday aisle for Halloween was filled with tinsel. The holiday aisle for Christmas is filled with tinsel. Ty has to bring in a hanger decorated with…you guessed it…tinsel. They are going to put his artwork on it. Unfortunately I haven’t found any wire hangers at the store, so Ty gets a plastic one. No worries, it should be fine. I am looking forward to seeing his arts and crafts over the next couple of months.

Rolling.
My daughter is advanced. Not only has she cut her first tooth this weekend, but she also proved that she can roll over. She has teased us before with it, but tonight she rolled 3 times! She needs to work off some of her thunder thighs so she will have a rolling over workout plan. :).

Melbourne Cup.
Hold your horses. Nobody do anything. It is race day…apparently the world stops turning on Melbourne Cup day, and everyone becomes gambling fools, and of course horse racing experts. Several of the ladies in the office are wearing their race hats (there is one little one in the picture below – black, towards the left, kind of hard to see). The guy that I am replacing is back on the office today, but “training will be difficult because it is Melbourne Cup day and that puts a wrench in everything”. It’s craziness! I thought I better submerge myself fully so I placed a $2 bet. My horse didn’t pay out, unfortunately, but the race was quite exciting. Afterwards there were fancy appetizers for all to enjoy.

Shipment.
Best news ever. The air shipment will arrive on Thursday!! I was a bit snippy this morning, mostly because we don’t completely have a morning routine, things got forgotten at home, I ran out of conditioner, and every time I turn around I need something that is in the air shipment…that is sitting at the airport an hour from home…but is just waiting on customs to inspect.
Jay called me out on my nasty attitude (sorry love!!) and at lunch today we had a good laugh. Jay said I need to adopt the Aussie attitude of “no worries”. Only he was a bit more dramatic, said in a shouting voice “NO F$&@”/ING WORRIES MATE!!!” I almost peed my pants from laughing. Inappropriate, I know, but laughter (and a bit of swearing) is the best medicine in times like these.

Words.
Mozzies (Mosquitos); tap on wood (knock on wood); quit whinging (quit whining); esky (cooler)