Dolphins.
Sunday night I was up with a fussy baby several times. I finally let her come to the big bed around 4:30 to sleep in the middle – amazing how much better she sleeps next to mama. I know there are mixed opinions out there about this…not trying to start a debate. I just really didn’t want to get out of bed again.
Because it was month end, Jay had to get up on Monday morning and go to work, while I stayed home with the kids in celebration of Australia Day. He went downstairs for brekky, and not long after that Ty woke up and went downstairs. At about 6:00 I heard Jay yelling “Babe!!! Go look out the window!! Hurry!!” I jumped out of the bed to see what was the matter. And what to my wondering eyes did appear but 4 freaking DOLPHINS swimming in the canal. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. At first I thought it was sharks, but then they jumped out of the water and squirted air out of their breathing holes. I checked on Lily (still sleeping…finally), grabbed my phone, and took a couple videos of them. They are on my Facebook page. A.maze.ing.

I googled it today and it doesn’t sound like dolphins in canals is a very common occurrence. A few days ago a family of dolphins was spotted in a canal quite a ways south of us. The article said that in 10 years, they had never seen dolphins. The coast guard was monitoring them to make sure they had enough to eat. The high tides are partially to blame. My professional opinion is that the developing cyclone in northern Queensland is either throwing them off course or making them run for cover. And whatever has been keeping my kids up at night also affected the dolphins. I am sure there is scientific evidence to back up my theory.
I have limited memories of my dad (he died when I was 8), but I do remember that he always wanted to live on the water. He was a die hard fisherman, wetting a line whenever he had the chance. He even made a living out of his passion. I wonder what he would have had to say about us seeing dolphins in our backyard. :). Might have been a little sign from above that even though I might have a not so great day every now and then, to not forget about how fortunate we are right now. Thanks for that, dad.

Australia Day.
So the dolphins swam off, leaving me and the kids to find other ways to entertain ourselves. It was pretty windy out, and on the cooler side, so my plans of going to the pool were nixed. I did a little housework while Ty watched Wreck It Ralph. We wanted to get some fresh air and a “work out”. The last time Ty rode his bike he got a little ahead of himself and took a spill, so he has been a little gun shy about climbing back in the saddle. I somehow managed to talk him into it, and we took off down the road at a snail’s pace. We made it half a block before the fear took over and he said he was done. I convinced him to ride it home, only after promising a special treat. Thank goodness he didn’t fall off. We will try again soon to reinforce his progress. After dropping off the bike, we walked around the block. As soon as we saw our driveway Ty reminded me of the treat (he doesn’t forget a thing), so we had a Zooper Dooper (freezy pop) to cool off.
I fixed a bowl of rice cereal for Lily and started feeding it to her. Ty crawled under the table, and I smelled something stinky. Wasn’t the kid wearing a diaper, unfortunately. So I left my starving baby crying in her high chair to clean poo out of undies, then returned for a few bites before hearing, “mom, I’m done” forcing me to leave the starving baby again, only to realize that toilet paper wasn’t going to cut it. I sent Ty up to get in the shower, finished Lily’s morning tea to stop her screaming (she was probably going to die of starvation), and helped Ty get cleaned up.
After the shower, we went back downstairs and I put Lily in her bouncy chair. She got a little fussy, so I picked her up and my hand went right onto a wet spot on her shorts. You guessed it. More poo. On her, on her clothes, on the bouncy chair, on me. So we got that all cleaned up and decided it was time for lunch and a nap. 2 hours later, I woke up (my excuse for that is that I hadn’t slept for 3 nights) and fiddled around for another hour before the kids woke up. After nap we played Legos and cooked dinner. We were happy to see dad pull in the driveway. It was funny, though. Any other day I would have complained about all of the poo. But then I remembered that we saw dolphins in our backyard. Life is good.

House Hunters.
I have (not so) secretly wanted to be an actress my entire life. I was really surprised when Hollywood didn’t come knocking after my 1996(ish??) appearance as Aunt Eller in OHS’s performance of Oklahoma. Weird.
Back when we first found out we were moving to Australia, I used lots of different sources to find information about the country way far away that we were about to call our temporary home. I talked to co-workers who had worked at the branch in the past, I nearly found the end of the internet, and I even recorded HGTV’s House Hunters International to catch glimpses of what life is like in Oz.
As I watched episodes of House Hunters I thought, hey, we have a pretty cool story. We have a newborn baby, a toddler, and we are leaving small town Iowa for the beaches of Australia. Seems like a good storyline – at least as good as the chic who quit her job in the states and hurried to Australia for her new job as organizer of the solar eclipse…. So what the heck, I sent them an email and a family photo (thanks Ann Steward Photography for the great pic). I didn’t embellish, really didn’t say much more than what I just told you. I didn’t expect to hear back from them.
Jay’s house hunting trip came and went. At one point I had the thought, “I’m kind of glad I didn’t hear back from House Hunters because I wasn’t able to do any of the house hunting.”
Here we are 3 months settled into our new life and I get an email wondering if I am still interested in being part of the show. Um, pretty sure I had said in my original email that we were moving at the end of October. I politely replied that I would have loved to, but we were already moved in, and if our lease runs out before it is time to move back to the US, I would surely let them know.
*spoiler alert!!!*
And then I got a reply back saying, “oh, that doesn’t disqualify you from being a part of the show.” Silly me. How crazy to think that to be on House Hunters you had to actually hunt for houses. Just answer a few questions, send some more pics, and we will see if we can get you on the filming schedule.
WHAT?!?! For real?!?! I knew Hollywood would call someday. I just knew it.
So…don’t get your hopes up (talking to myself here…) because a lot of things could prevent this from actually happening. I have to make sure the company doesn’t have a policy against this sort of thing since we are here for work. We have to make sure the week they want to do filming isn’t during month end, or SAP upgrade testing. And the fact that we can’t go back to Davenport for “pretend that we are leaving Davenport to move to Australia” filming might be a deal breaker. But just the thought of it, and getting a real response back, is pretty stinking exciting.
Surely the dolphins had something to do with this stroke of good luck.

Bottomless Pit.
Even after introducing rice cereal and veggies (so far squash, zucchini, and carrots), my little chunky monkey is still hungry. So, the 2-3 bottles of milk that I am producing in a day isn’t keeping up with Lily’s 3-4 bottles per day consumption. I am admitting defeat (sadly) and starting to introduce a little formula into her bottles this week. *sigh*. I will keep producing as long as I can and be thankful for what I have been able to give her.

Here’s to a great week ahead. G’day mates!