The week was kind of a blur. Jay had month end, so Miranda and I were on our own in the evenings. Every night I packed a little bit, trying to chip away at the thought of packing for 3 weeks. I was planning of shopping (a lot) in the states so I wasn’t too worried about forgetting anything. Ty was excited to finish packing and get to the United States.

Brumby.
The world’s largest souvenir arrived at our doorstep this week. After what seemed like months of negotiations, hours of phone calls with Murray (g’day Jay), and over a week of transport time, Brumby has arrived from Western Australia. Ok, I admit it, it is pretty cool. The interior needs some love, but the outside is pretty sweet. I love the body style, and yes, the paint job is a teensy bit loud. I am not crazy about the Australian army stuff on the rear tailgate, nor some of the stickers in the window, but overall it looks good. When we get back from the states, Jay has to get it inspected before it is street legal in Queensland, so he could only drive it down to the roundabout and back to park it in the garage. It is loud. I mean, like, really loud. So loud the neighbors were popping their heads outside when Jay started it up. Oh boy… Ty loves it. Jay does too. Sweet ride, mate. I will have to get some pictures of the whole thing when we get it out of the garage in the daylight.

Cookies.
Miranda needed something to keep her entertained during the day, so she decided to start a business. She stayed up Wednesday night baking a bunch of chocolate chip cookies. Thursday morning Ty woke her up early and told her, “you can’t make a million dollars in your sleep.” She put the cookies in ziplock baggies and took them up to the front gate. Tradies start lining up and have to wait until 7:00 to come into the neighborhood, so she hit them up for a gold coin per bag ($1 or $2). She only sold one bag and I think her motivation plummeted. She slept through morning tea and was laying out at afternoon tea, so she didn’t sell any more. So much for her million dollars… But we got to eat some yummy cookies. 🙂

Morning Tea.
Friday morning Ty’s school hosted a morning tea and brought in 3 ladies from the public schools to talk about the transition from kindy to prep (like preschool to kindergarten). It was a really helpful discussion. They have us a checklist that lists out all of the things that a child should ideally be able to do before going to big kid school. I think Ty can do most of the things on the list, will be fun activities to try out and see what we need to work on. He is really young as his birthday is near the cut-off, but he is so stinking smart.

The ladies spent a lot of time talking about special needs, and how the most important thing is to know your child’s special needs, and to let the new teachers know in advance. I started wondering about what I would need to tell a teacher, trying to think about what they might need to know – and them I started worrying that I don’t know of anything that might need extra attention. Hold that thought.

I asked the parents if I am the only person that isn’t sure where their kid is going to school in January. Half the parents raised their hands and said they are in the same boat. Some people recently moved to the area and are on wait lists, some are having a hard time finding a public school that their kid can go to (they don’t live in the right catchment area – school district), or the schools in their area are not great. Made me feel a little better that I wasn’t alone.

After the meeting, I talked to Ty’s teacher, Miss Tu. I started to ask her if there were any special needs that Ty has that I might need to pass on to a big kid teacher, and she laughed and said, “no, nothing at all. Ty is so intelligent, and confident. Might just need a gentle reminder to use his gentle hands during active play, but that’s it.” Phew!! Then one of the administrators came over to give me some options for schools in our area, and she told me that Ty will be successful wherever he goes. That 10 minute conversation eased a lot of my concerns/doubts about whether or not Ty was ready to go to school. Now we just need to get him into one. They mentioned that many times people will not get their kids into their school of choice right away, so they go with their backup plan, and then 2 weeks later spots open up at the top choice. They have to hold spots for 2 weeks,typically, and if kids don’t show up, then they offer the spot to the next kids on the list. The worst part of this is that you have to buy uniforms at both schools – even public schools have uniforms. I am hoping we get confirmed at our first or second choice schools before the school year starts.

I worked from home Friday afternoon and finished up the last bit of laundry. Friday evening I got the rest of the bags packed. 4 checked bags (3 empties tucked inside for all of our cheap and wonderful US goodies), 2 carry ons, laptop backpack, stroller, backpack baby carrier, diaper bag, purse, and Miranda’s bags. Jeepers, we don’t travel light. The Coen’s stopped by for a little bit Friday night to bring us a US laptop power cord and to give them the buggy keys to use while we are gone. Then it was early to bed. 4:00 wake up, last minute packing, hurry up and wait for the 6:15 shuttle to arrive.

Miranda.
Now is probably a good time to talk about Miranda. Her trip to Australia wasn’t as exciting as we intended – jay was sick, traveling, and working, the kids weren’t totally healthy, and we were busy getting ready for the trip home, so she didn’t get to do as much cool stuff as we had hoped. But I think she still had a nice time. I think Australia was good for her soul. She arrived with a lot on her mind – it is not always fun to be a 17 year old girl, especially in small town Iowa. But after week 1 – getting a lot off her chest, sunshine, and no drama, I saw her start to smile more. By the end of her stay, smiles came easy, laughter rolled out of her, and the tension was gone from her shoulders. Let’s hope she is able to stay this way for a long time. We had so much fun together, she was a great house guest (she even organized my pantry!), the kids loved having her with us. Such a great time – went by too fast.

Travel.
I won’t bore you with all of the travel details of the seemingly endless trip home, but here are the highlights. Ty got to ride in the front seat of the shuttle bus, which he thought was awesome. Brisbane to Sydney. Quick layover.

Sydney to Dallas. The kids did awesome. Lily slept most of the trip, never once fussed. Ty didn’t puke at all!!!! I actually got to watch a couple movies and read a book. I couldn’t sleep, but Jay and the kids did.
6 hour layover. Thank goodness for the kids play area in Dallas, and for Chilis chips and queso, bottomless Dr. Pepper (with ice!), and a bill that would have cost us over $100 in Australia was only $57!! Dallas to Omaha. Too easy. Memaw, Papa, Staci, and Riley waiting to greet us – wasn’t expecting to get so emotional, but after going strong for about 30 hours I guess the exhaustion got the best of me, and I got a bit teary eyed. So good to be here…

We drove through Freddy’s on the way home and got a cheeseburger (delicious), got to Farragut around 11:00, kids played, Jay got my temporary phone number installed, bathed Lily, took the best shower I have ever had, and tried to get the kids ready for bed. 1:00 AM bedtime stories and both kids didn’t seem like they were going to be able to sleep. Ty stayed in his bed for 2 minutes before going up to Memaw and Papa’s room. Lily fell asleep in our bed. Ty woke at 7, we woke at 8. Not bad…hopefully we can stay awake and get adjusted quickly. So good to be in Farragut. So good. More to come!