Since it has been ages since I posted a blog and Jay and Em have been begging me for one, I am going to post this one before the weekend is over. Enjoy! 

Nanny cam.  

Despite Lily having a rare type of UTI (Morganella species), she and Auntie Em have had a fun-filled couple of weeks.

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Beautiful.   

I know we are living in paradise, but sometimes I am blown away by how pretty it really is. The sunrises and sunsets are shocking. Not sure what it is, maybe lack of ozone???, but whatever it is is amazing.

    
  Reds.

Ty has been playing rugby after school on Thursdays.  The coach plays for the Reds.  I don’t know who likes it more – Ty, Lily, or Auntie Em.   

    
 Blue Moon.

The blue moon struck our house.  The night of the blue moon (which unfortunately wasn’t actually blue but was ginormous and beautiful), lots of weird things happened.  The kids were CRaZY.  I mean for real.  We decided officially that we want to move back to the US in December, which was a stressful decision.  Lily had about 55 accidents.  And Ty ended up at the urgent care center.  Em was out with the Parker’s, and we were all lounging around watching a movie.  Ty went to lean down on the storage cube next to the couch.  It usually has a lid on it, but every once in a blue moon the lid is not on it.  It was dark and Ty didn’t notice the lid was missing, so he plopped his elbows down on what he thought was the lid, only to go crashing down inside the cube…smashing his lip onto the edge.  And then there was blood.  Quite a bit.  Well crap.  This isn’t good.  We pretty much got the bleeding stopped after what seemed like forever, and it looked nasty.  I googled lip wounds and most sites suggested he might need stitches.  Rae has a doctor friend so after a few text message exchanges, the dr suggested we take him to see the doctor.  As we were making that decision, Lily fell off of her chair at the kitchen table.  I can’t even explain what happened, she just sort of slid off the chair and landed on the floor.  Thankfully there was no blood and she was able to shake it off, but I couldn’t help but think “what the heck is happening?!?!”

Jay took Ty to the doctor and he thought it could use a stitch but the trama and pain probably wasn’t worth it since Ty was likely to rip the stitch out with his fidgeting overnight.  So they came home with some antibiotics and a scar.  Too bad he doesn’t have a good story for it…   

   
Garage sale.

I have been to a lot of garage sales in my life.  But I have never been to a garage sale that has several >$1,000 pieces of artwork for sale.  You know, just hanging out in the garage.  Em had to run back home for some cash.  Not for the art that hangs on the wall, but for the art that sits on top of her head.  She is fascinated by fascinaters, and the garage sale had several to choose from – that even came with the mannequin head for storage.  Deal of the year, folks.   

 36.

I can’t believe I am 36 years old.  I don’t really feel that old – not sure how it is supposed to feel though.  I often don’t act like I am 36.  But, as luck would have it, I turned 36 and survived my birthday.  {enter laughter aunt Melinda}. I really didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but also didn’t want to just sit around the house.  So Em, Jay and I wemt out on the town while the kids had a party with Miss Tia.  

The plan was to take the train to the city and walk a few short blocks to Caxton street.  Unfortunately, when we got to the train station, we were told that there was a track problem, so we would have to ride partway up in the train, then swap to a bus for the last 15-20 minutes.  I hate public transport.  Especially buses.  So does Jay.  So we took the car to Homeworld and called a cab.  A lovely (not) little (extremely) Prius pulls up on the side of the main road next to the parking lot we were in.  So Em and I literally hiked up the ditch in our high heels to get into his nasty cab.  $160 to get to the restaurant.  Kill me.

We didn’t have much of a choice, so we paid the legal their and went to a yummy steakhouse for dinner, Gambaros.  Then we crossed the street and went to our favorite Brisbane bar, Lefty’s (ok so I realize it is pretty much the only one we ever go to but why go somewhere else when I know how awesome Leftys is??).  We arrived a bit early (typical of a person of my age), so we went up to the hidden bar.  Yes, it has a hidden bar that is very different, but equally as awesome, as the main bar.  I mean, check out the decor. It even has an American flag hanging on the wall.  And Jack Daniels.  And Keanu Reeve’s younger, better looking, long lost twin brother as a bartender (who Em was crushing on at her 30th birthday bash).  These freshly juiced Apple drinks mixed with a shot of Jack are AMAZING.  So amazing that it wasn’t long before Em was taking the decor off the walls and putting it on our heads.  And snapping photos of me while obviously looking my best.  I am only posting the pictures to look back in and laugh 36 years from now.  That pirate hat got stolen off my head by some doo-da, so we spent the rest of the night trying to get it back from said doo-da (unsuccessfully).  I guess he thought he needed the hat to pick up chics.  Thankfully Em wasn’t THAT drunk.  We crashed a hens party (bachelorette) that was full of fun girls.  The bride was Canadian, marrying an Aussie bloke.  We all ate about 15 bags of popcorn.  Jay and I got to twirl around the dance floor a bit.  And before we knew it, it was time to head home.  We caught a cab, who told us the ride back down the coast would be $300.  Um.  WTF!!!  So we got out of that cab and into another.  We talked him down to $160.  Crikey…  The driver was super nice and talkative.  He was from India, and recently moved his wife here, but had to leave his 2 year old son with his parents in India.  No idea how they could do that, but it just goes to show how tempting the potential opportunities here are to people.  Em couldn’t believe that the cab driver doesn’t like to eat steak, and wouldn’t let it go until I told her that cows are sacred in India.  Mind. Blown.

So yeah, aside from the cab situation, it was a super fun birthday.  Just what I needed.  Thank you Jay and Emmy for organizing and entertaining a great night!   

    
    
    
    
   
Pirates.

As one might imagine, I needed to sleep more than the 3 hours the kids gave me Saturday night.  Jay and Em took naps and then they went for a little boat ride.  Ty wanted to do some fishing.  The pirate ship from the movie set was at the marina across the river, so they had to go check it out.  This time they could get right up close to it.  So cool!   

    
    
   
Ibis.

The great ibis strikes again.  That plate of peanut butter toast was Ty’s.  Lily waited patiently and quietly pushed her chair closer, closer, closer, until she could snatch that piece of toast from her brother’s plate.  This is a daily occurrence in our home.  No unattended plate of food is safe. 

 Joy.

If this isn’t the sweetest thing ever, I don’t know what is.  Joy baked me cupcakes for my birthday.  THaNK YoU!!!! 

 Netball.

We are right back into the next season of netball.  Gosh, I really love that game!  I am going to have to start a league when we move back home.  We had a late game – 9:20 – and as you can imagine it’s a tough one for everyone to make.  We were down several players so I asked Katie if she wanted to give it a go.  She hadn’t played before but she did great!  Thanks for playing Katie! 

 Birthday.

My actual birthday was on Tuesday.  Emily cooked me her yummy stuffed pasta shells.  Rae joined our crazy family for typical rambunctious dinner and brought a bottle of champagne (which was also yummy and didn’t last long).  Jay and the kids bought me my first pair of Ugg boots which I will definitely be needing in Iowa this winter.  Em gave me a gift card to get a pedicure – looking forward to using that.  Funny, both Jay and Em got me things to make my feet look prettier.  Are they trying to tell me something?  I am probably going to have a foot complex now.   

 Yard.

Our yard was in need of some attention, so Jay and the kids spent a lot of time cleaning it up.  Lily was a trooper and was right by dad’s side most of the day.  I was inside cleaning and organizing closets.  I have started a garage sale corner in the spare room.   

   
Ekka.

The Brisbane Royal Show – aka Ekka, which is sort of short for “exhibition”.  One might say it is sort of like the Iowa State Fair, but that is a stretch.  I shouldn’t even try to compare the two, but it’s impossible for me not to.  It is, well, different.  It is smack dab in the middle of the city, so parking is interesting.  There is a ginormous show arena in the middle of the show grounds.  And everything else is packed around it.  All of the food vendors were in an enclosed building, that was completely jammed full of people and, I’m sure you can imagine how many smells were floating around.  Sensory overload.  

But on a positive note, we ate corn on a cob on a stick, a potato on a stick, a poor attempt at a lemonade, dippin’ dots and a brat.  No funnel cakes, no Beef Quarters roast beef, no Pork tent.  No big yellow slide.  There I go getting negative again.  There was a Stockmen’s, which looked like it could be similar to Stockman’s (but with an E), but we had the kids and didn’t hang out there.  They had some animals in barns that needed some love.  They did have a really great petting zoo – it was huge!  The evening entertainment was a free show that was pretty full on.  Everything from aboriginal dancers to sheep dog show to ute races to monster trucks to fireworks.  It was pretty awesome.  We met up with the Coen’s for the show and the kids were totally entertained.  I was worn out by the end of the day.  

Thankfully we did get to have a little break in the afternoon while Lily slept.  Em had been helping a friend, Robyn, show horses all weekend, so we were able to hang out in the horse barn and rest our legs away from the crowds.  Em has made some pretty great friends here.  I love that they have taken her in and let her play with their horses.  Showing horses makes her happy.  Sleeping in horse barns makes her happy.  She is so weird.   

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Fast Car Friday.

Jay finally drove the old ute to work on Friday. I apologize to everyone at the office for the major distraction and lost productivity caused by Brumby’s arrival on site.  It is a pretty sweet ride. 

 Doodie.

Doodie is deadie.  I am a bit sad, as he was a great little goldfish.  RIP Doodie. 

 Clean.

Saturday morning after swim lessons we all got a case of spring cleaning fever.  Jay finished pressure washing the patio then washed the car.  Em and the kids scrubbed the floor.  The kids might have had a little too much fun helping out and tried to make a swimming pool in the living room, so I had to follow on a towel.  We had some dance music blaring and I have to admit it was kind of fun dancing around on the towel.  You should try it sometime.   

    
   
Hair.

Check out Ty’s adorable new hair cut! 

 
Date.

Saturday night Em kicked Jay and I out of the house for a date night.  We planned it last minute and had a hard time finding a place that wasn’t fully booked.  We ended up going to the fancy Chinese restaurant in Sanctuary Cove.  It was yummy.  We had quail for appetizers, Peking Duck, and scallop stir fry.  And wine – too much.  De-lish!!!!! 

  G’day mates!