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!