I feel like it’s been forever since I wrote last. It’s been a little crazy. Lily hasn’t been well since Saturday. We took the Coen’s out to Couran Cove on Saturday, and as the day went on I got more and more worried about Lily. She had mucus oozing out of her eyes (came on out of nowhere), had diarrhea, and slept a ton. Despite my worries, we had a fun time with the Coen’s.

After Hours.
When we got home, I started googling to find out what might be wrong with Lily. Side note…how did moms back in the day survive without Dr. Google??? It was looking like conjunctivitis, and it was recommended to see a doctor ASAP. We didn’t have any cash on us so we couldn’t use the Med Call home dr service. It was about 6:30 on a Saturday night, and I found an after hours care clinic in southport about 20 minutes away. We loaded up the kids and off we went. Both kids handled the LONG wait really well. Ty watched a Bond movie, Lily slept. Jay and I watched people. Quite an interesting crowd, I must say. A crack whore and her bikie boyfriend, a teenage boy that had some sort of crotch problem, a grown man that played video games with the volume cranked on his phone, and a sweet old lady that told me her life story in 2 hours. After we finally got in to see the doctor, my suspicions were confirmed, and then some. Conjunctivitis, sore throat, and ear infection. Jay had me run into the after hours chemist while he stayed in the car with the kids, wishing me luck to not get macheted (not shot because there aren’t any guns here)… it seemed a little sketch from the outside but was quite nice inside. I got Lily’s meds and off we went to home…and the start of a week’s worth of no sleep. And that’s basically how the week went. I worked every day except Friday, Jay stayed home with Lily on Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesday and Thursday we had thought she was better so we took her to daycare, only to find out that by late afternoon her eyes were oozing again. :(. Thursday night she had a fever, which carried over into Friday, and again on Saturday. Jay and I decided to take her to see our doctor on Friday. Her ear was still infected after a week in meds, and she figures she has a virus that just needs to run its course. She took a swab to make sure it isn’t something else – won’t hear the results until Monday. The doctor gave us a different type of antibiotic to try to fight the ear infection. Since this is the 5th or 6th ear infection in Lily’s short life, she referred us to a doctor to get tubes (they call them grommets) put in her ears. She couldn’t get in for the consultation until December, but is on the cancellation list. At this point I am willing to do whatever it takes to prevent these ear infections. 😦

Bell!
Saturday morning Ty had swim lessons. Jay stayed home with Lily (good thing because she puked all over him) and I took Ty to swimming. He was doing really well and then scratched his leg on the pool steps. He was halfway crying, acting like he wanted to get out of the water. I had to fight back the urge to run over and kiss his leg…and acted like it was no big deal. After a few minutes, his swim teacher was able to talk him back in, and he finished the lesson with a bang! He had done so well that his teacher told him he could go ring the bell and move up to the next level – L3!! In that class, they swim the whole length of the pool. The more advanced swimmers do the crawl and them switch to their backs and back and forth. I am excited to see him grow over the next couple of months. He rang the bell and everyone at the pool clapped. So fun!

Mic.
I had to go to the mall to get my iPhone 5 battery replaced, so Ty and I headed that way right after swimming. We rarely get to spend time together with just the two of us – we had a great day. He was such a good boy. We went into a lot of toy stores and I offered to buy him a few games, but he said he didn’t want them. Then he saw the Build-A-Bear store. He hasn’t been in one, at least not with me anytime in the recent past. But he was walking around, scoping out all of the outfits and the machine to make a bear. Then he spotted the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bear. Well, since he suffered through a trip to the mall with mom and had been so good, I thought, why not. He picked out Michelangelo, some pjs and slippers and nunchucks (because who doesn’t sleep with their nunchucks), a red heart, and a noise maker that songs the Turtle song. He was eating it all up – must be at just the right age to get a kick out of the whole process. So yeah, a $35 “bear” quickly turned into $85. Good lord… He better pass that down to his children someday. Welcome to the family Mic. Hi-YA!

As a side note, I wish I had invented Apple. That store is always packed, but runs amazingly smooth. “Stand by the headphone” and someone magically appears with answers to all of your questions and fixes for all of your problems. There are like 50 people working and they are all busy. You can literally see dollar signs floating in the air. What a deal….

Hair.
It’s official. Lily has hair. Well, enough to be able to put in a hair clip. Woohoo!

B.
This week Ty has been learning about the letter B. He wanted to write letters when we got home. His favorite B word was baseball, so that is what he wrote. Pretty impressive!

Spring.
Saturday was a beautiful spring day and it got us in the spring cleaning mood. We didn’t want to do too much so that Lily could rest, but we were able to pressure wash all of the patio around the pool and the back of the house. It looks so much better! I decided that I probably need a pressure washer when we get back to the US – talk about immediate gratification. I could have washed the grout all day and been totally content. Jay and Ty puttied some of the nicks in the walls (oops). I organized the pantry (again – yes Miranda it was a mess already). Then Lily and I gave ourselves pedicures before she fell asleep for a nice afternoon nap. Jay grilled steaks for dinner and Ty watched Transformers before we called it a night. Another restless night for Lily as she continued to try to fight off whatever it is that is making her unwell.

Day of Rest.
Sunday morning we went to the marina for breakfast then came home and watched the Iowa vs Iowa State game. Hooray for a Cyclone victory!! I thought it would be best to keep Lily home and relatively quiet, so Jay and Ty went and picked the Torrey’s up for a boat ride. Lily and I had a lovely day. She took a good nap in my lap while I talked to my cousin about her trip down under in November. After lunch (I gave Lily ketchup for the first time and she loved dipping her sausage in it) we went for a nice long walk around the neighborhood. It was sunny and probably 75 degrees, light breeze. So nice. When we got home I sat on the patio and blogged while Lily explored. I love watching her waddle around and listening to her little feet stomping the ground.

Lily fell asleep again and I got to watch an entire movie uninterrupted. Imogene. Not great, not bad, but a good movie for turning off my brain for a couple hours. Unfortunately she woke with a temp of 101, not real happy. 😦

The boys got home around 4:30 and it sounded like they had a really fun day with the Torrey’s. They went to Tipplers and had a good time feeding the wallabies. Ty made sure to put barbecue sauce on the French fry before giving it to the wallaby.

Jay and I whipped together a delicious lasagna for dinner, then after quick baths we went on a buggy ride to check out the life size samurai ninja statue that Lily and I spied on our walk today. Oh yes, it’s awesome. Hoping for a good week ahead of us, with everyone healthy and happy. G’day mates!

Sausage Rolls.
I have been in the land of meat pies and sausage rolls for almost a year. I had attempted to embrace the food culture early on when I tried the meat pie… Unfortunately I found it to be quite disgusting. I have avoided the sausage rolls because they reminded me of pigs in a blanket. I assumed they were just like hot dogs wrapped in a pastry. This week, the jet lag was making me quite hungry in the mornings. Around morning tea time, I was starving, considering going to the vending machine to buy a packet of cheese and crackers, when my boss appeared with homemade sausage, fresh out of the oven, for Matt’s birthday. She put them on the desk next to me. I was smelling them, starving, and eyeing them from a distance. Everyone was eating the bite size pieces up like candy, so I thought, what the heck. I will do it. Oh my gosh. They were delicious. Like SO good. It isn’t sausage in a casing, like I had imagined. It was ground sausage, mixed with all sorts of things. I ate 3 of them. I will be learning how to make these, and I will share the yumminess with friends and family in the US when we go back. Shouldn’t have waited so long to try them. 🙂

Visitors.
I think I may have mentioned that Kirk and Sherry are coming to visit at the end of September. They will be here for 7 weeks, which is AWESOME!!

My cousin Jessi, Mark, Johnny and Alice booked their flights this week to come visit in November. YAY!!!! When I was pregnant with Lily, we were able to go stay at Johnny and Alice’s beautiful condo in the Florida Keys and had one of the best vacations ever. I am so glad we have the opportunity to return the favor.

Show Day.
Friday was a holiday on the Gold Coast (but not at work which is not awesome). It was Gold Coast Show Day, so most of the schools and businesses are closed in an attempt to encourage people to attend the Show. What is “the Show”? I can’t really figure it out… I looked at the calendar of events and it seemed to be all sorts of random things – dancing and singing, carnival, horse race (like a for real horse race), pig races (what the heck?)…. Maybe it is like a fair without the 4-H livestock shows?? I don’t know, so confused. Probably should have gone to check it out.

Someone with knowledge, please chime in and explain to me what the deal is with Show Bags. My understanding is that you pay admission to the Show, which is $45 per family. And then you pay extra money to buy a show bag. I THINK these are bags filled with trinkets and samples (ie junk). These are the types of freebies that we would pick up for free at booths at the Varied Industries building, and that I would never pay extra money to get. If it is what I am thinking, then why are people paying money for businesses advertising trinkets? So confused…

Movie World.
Since daycare was closed and the office was not, and Jay was still doing month end, I had to play Stay at Home Mom for the day. I knew both kids would be a wreck if I didn’t get them out of the house for a bit, so I took a half day of vacation and took them to Movie World. I never would have done it by myself, but Katie Coen had been contemplating doing the same thing. We figured that the 2 of us could manage the 5 kids. We had such a fun day! We spent most of the time in the kids rides area. They rode some of the rides over and over and over again. The bumper cars were a hit. We watched the motorcycle/ute stunt car show, which was awesome. I needed to get home to squeeze in a half day of work, so we left the Coen’s early, and had some ice cream before heading out. Lily got quite crabby when I pulled the milkshake straw out of her mouth. Ty fell asleep before we left the parking lot… Great time!!

State Fair.
Mom posted a bunch of pictures that she had taken at the State Fair. Enjoy!

Sleep Training.
For as long as I can remember, we have been in the habit of letting Lily come into our bed if she wakes in the middle of the night. She isn’t exactly a peaceful sleeper. Quite the opposite. She ends up laying sideways at the head of the bed, her head pushing me off the bed, her feet kicking Jay off the bed. I have loved getting lots of baby snuggles, but I need my sleep back. We decided that it is time that we break the habit. Thursday night I started the fun… Lily woke around 11:00. I normally would have just taken her our of the crib and brought her to our room, so she was not impressed when I have her a hug and a kiss, told her good night, and laid her back down in her crib. She cried, I patted her back, she stood up, I laid her down again. Repeat. When she seemed settled, I tried backing out of her room, one silent step at a time. She could sense it and cried when I made it to the hallway. After about 45 minutes, she fell asleep. She woke again around 3:00, and this time it only took about 10 minutes to get her settled. Friday night she woke once and jay didn’t have any trouble getting her back to sleep. Hopefully the next few nights will be successful in making a new habit – and giving me my sleep back.
Update…Sunday night sucked but Monday she slept all night!!

Swimming.
Saturday morning we got Ty back into swim lessons. It has been a couple months since his last lesson, so I was worried about how much he would have forgotten. Turned out that I had nothing to worry about. He hadn’t forgotten a thing and did great! He woke up Saturday morning excited to go swimming. He said he remembered how to do everything, and he did! It was nice to get back into that Saturday morning routine.

Sizzle.
We needed to go to Bunnings (like a Lowes), so we stopped on our way home from swim lessons. Jay was looking forward to the sausage sizzle… Yes, they sell sausages on weekend mornings. And yes, jay and Ty love them. I thought that since I had had such good luck with the sausage roll, I would give the sizzle a go. Ugh. Jay loves it. I did not. Oh well, I tried. One interesting thing is that sausages are served on a slice of bread, not on a hot dog bun. I prefer a bun – better bread-to-meat ratio. In any case (no pun intended), I won’t be eating the sausage sizzle again…

GFACE.
Monday was Labor Day in the US, and just another typical workday in Australia (bummer). For the past 6 (??) or so years, the Geisler family has gotten together over Labor Day weekend for a family reunion that we refer to as GFACE – Geisler Family Annual Camping Extravaganza. We actually started out the first couple years in tents, but have become more high maintenance over time and have upgraded our lodging to cabins. We are mostly sprinkled throughout the Midwest, so we have met up at a few different places to try to make the travel equitable. This year the GFACErs chose a little town in Illinois that is about a half hour from our house in the states. Even though it was sad for me to not be there in person, I felt like I was there in spirit. I was kept in the loop on the long list of memorable quotes (there are always heaps), tagged in pictures, and even got to say hi to everyone via FaceTime. I was happy to see that everyone survived the weekend without my famous meals spreadsheet. Not sure how, but they did. I am so lucky to have such an awesome family, and that we all make an effort to put our crazy busy lives on hold to spend time together. Dad would be proud.

Hot Dogs.
Since the theme of this blog seems to be all about cased pig, I figured I better end with one more. Australians celebrate Fathers Day in September – this coming Sunday. The daycare hosted a Hot Dog night (no moms allowed) so Jay got to go play with the kids and eat hot dogs. They played and did some craft projects. If I haven’t mentioned it in the past, I am really glad that we found such an awesome daycare. Bonny Babes is fantastic. Always going above and beyond to make memories for the kids.

Cyclones.
We may be 10,000 miles from Ames, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tailgate for the Cyclones. Go State! We made some snacks, dressed up in red and yellow, and cheered on the Cyclones to what ended up being a loss (boo) with the Coen’s. So we may have spent more time eating (hot dogs), chatting, chasing kids, and trying to get Apple TV to work than we did watching the game, but when you know the outcome of the game before it starts, the suspense isn’t really there. :). Game or no game, the kids and the adults all had a great time. So fun!

Maccers.
Ty got to go to his first birthday party this weekend. One of his classmates turned 5 and had a party at McDonalds. He had a great time, and even though his belly was crammed full of nuggets, fries, lollies, shakes, cake, and more lollies in 2 hours, he pretty much managed to control himself (and didn’t puke, which is amazing). He was excited for Emma to open up the pink horse Legos he bought for her. I chatted with the other moms while the kids ate and played games. He looked pretty cute in his crown.

I think that is about all for the past week – been a busy one! G’day mates!