Seashells.
I can finally tell the story about the fun adventure Rick and I had the last day he was in Australia. He had been looking for the perfect souvenir for Haley the whole time he was here, but hadn’t had any luck. He had an idea on our last day to gather a bunch of shells and make a necklace or bracelet for her. So we were on the hunt to find the perfect shells. He found one really neat, shiny one and thought it would make a really pretty pendant. I was like, um, you fly out tomorrow morning, and I’m not so sure we have quite the right tools to do this, but things usually just fall into place for Rick. So I didn’t stress too much. We left the beach and he said he wanted to find a chain, so we headed up the coast, keeping our eyes out for a jeweler. We passed up a couple sketch places and decided Surfers would likely have jewelers and lunch.
After a yummy meal, we started walking around the shops. One jeweler said he couldn’t help, but he directed us to this little Chinese man down a dark alley that does jewelry repairs. After a little bit of translation issues, we were finally able to convey what we wanted to have done. The man drilled a hole into the shell (was harder than it looked), put a chain on it, and polished it up. It looked fantastic! Such a fun gift – I hope Haley loved it!

Artist.
Some of Ty’s artwork was sent home from school on Monday. I quite like his style, but question his captions…
“I made footprints from dogs.”

“I painted the Easter Bunny’s stuff.”

Girls.
Monday was not a good day for the Shearer girls. My back flared back up – I think that it was feeling pretty good this weekend and I might have overdone it. I could barely move this morning – sitting and standing both hurt, so I stayed home and alternated between the two. I managed to get a decent amount of work done, too, which was nice.
Lily’s teacher called and said that se was having a really rough day. She rarely has a bad day, so when she showed signs of discomfort, her teachers were concerned and called to see if we wanted to come get her earlier. Want to? Yes. Could I? Ugh. This is the worst part. My daughter needed me, just wanted to cuddle with mama, but I was scared that if I got her before Jay was ready to come home, she would need me to carry her. :(. I knew my back couldn’t handle it. I waited as long as I could stand the guilt before going to pick up the kids. Ty was a big help, and Lily slept in her swing until Jay got home. Snoring. Poor thing is drooling, snoring, constant runny nose, and in pain. :(.

Words.
Smoco = break (smoke & coffee)
Pluto pop = corn dog

Better.
Tuesday and Wednesday were better for the girls. Lily seems to have gotten past the super painful part of getting her new teeth. My back has felt better the past couple of days – but I am taking it pretty easy. Great news, though…I got my new chair!! Unfortunately it is still too big for me, so they are replacing it with an even smaller and shorter model in the next couple if days. Thank you, Geisler-side, for my midget legs.

Riley.
Riley gets on a plane on his Wednesday and will arrive in Australia at 5:00 AM in Friday (Australia time), which is 2:00 PM on Thursday in the US. I am spelling this out for my mom who still struggles with this time zone thing. :). We are sooooo excited for him to arrive! He will be here for just about a month – so we should have some fun times ahead!

Under 8s.
This week has been “Under 8’s” week in Australia. Well, I think it is a national thing, but it is quite possible that it is just a thing at our daycare. On Monday the kids got to wear their pajamas to school. Ty thought that was pretty silly! Mondays are his News Day, so he brought his camera that Sundie, Brad, and Lucia gave him. Judging by the pictures, it looks like all of the kids had fun snapping photos of each other. The daycare has a rule against posting pictures of other kids on social media, so I can’t share them.

Tuesday was kite making day for Ty, and Grandparents Day for Lily. :(. I know that her grandparents would have loved to have been there, but there are many more in the future to attend.

Wednesday was costume day. Ty went as Bob the Builder, complete with a hard hat and safety goggles (safety first!). Lily has outgrown her bunny costume, so she got to be an Iowa State cheerleader. So cute! And nope, I didn’t take pictures. Sorry!

Have a great rest of the week!