Bachelor.

Wowza!  I knew a lot of people would be interested in Em’s little bachelor story, but I didn’t think that it would nearly break the Internet!  I have taken a beating for not giving any other details, but when I say that I wrote that blog a month ago and told Em that I was just going to copy/paste/publish as soon as she said “go”, I meant it.  You’re lucky she didn’t wait any longer.  So to answer a few common questions from people…

No, poor Tim from Toowoomba has no idea about this blog.  Remember, he isn’t on Facebook, and she has not previously told him about the blog.  Give her another month and she might cave.  Serves him right for not being on Facebook (I hold a bit of a grudge because I can’t do any research on him).

Yes, she is still talking to him.  The nightly phone calls have cut back to a more normal level – about every other night. 

Yes, they have spent more time together since the first date.  She took him to a friend’s birthday party, and she spent a day at his place.  Jay and I were both jealous of her day at Tim’s.  They rode 4-wheelers, dune buggies, and considered going for a plane ride but it got cloudy.  Tim also doesn’t know that Em gets motion sickness, so I hope that if she does go up in the air with him, that he has a puke bag or two…

No, Emily will not be staying in Australia forever, nor any longer than December. Can you imagine the number of people that would hate me back home if I don’t bring little Emmer-Demmer back with me?!?!

Another interesting bit of information that I have learned about Tim the Pilot is that he also does a little dabbling in livestock.  He has a couple horses and a few sheep.  And the fences aren’t great so the sheep get out quite often.  Sound like someone else we know?  Weird…

And another crazy fact…Em knew only one Australian before moving here – a saddle maker named Ty Granger.  Em has been to a few horsey things with Ty and his family.  Last weekend Ty was telling her about some Outback show that he was in years ago (still trying to figure out more details on this – sounds fascinating).  Literally the day after Em heard this story from Ty, she was talking to Tim and he mentioned that he has a Ty Granger saddle.  Em has never talked to him about Ty.  Sure enough, she saw it with her own eyes – one of Ty’s saddles that he got because they WORKED TOGETHER 15 YEARS AGO ON SOME OUTBACK SHOW.  Seriously, people, I can’t make this stuff up.  

There.  You have more scoop on the situation.  And now that the secret is out I can include updates in my normal blogs.  Happy?  🙂

Tennis.

I received an email from the people that run the tennis courts in Hope Island saying that they were running a 3-day tennis camp over the school holidays.  I asked Ty if he wanted to do it and he got really excited, so I signed him up on Friday night.   Em and Lily got him squared away on Monday morning.  When she picked him up at noon, he was smiling from ear to ear and dripping in sweat.  The coach said he was a natural, and that he had done really well.  He earned raffle tickets for good behavior and cashed them in at the end of the day for some candy.  Day 2 he had another great day, and this time when he cashed in his raffle tickets, he chose a mini basketball and orange tape to wrap a tennis racquet handle.  Hmmm, I guess that was a clever way to talk us into buying him a tennis racquet (he has been using a racquet ball racquet).  The third and final day of camp, Em bought him a new racquet and signed him up for lessons twice a week when school starts back up.  He loved it!  He learned a lot, got some good exercise, and had a blast.  Yay!

   
    
    
 

Swag.

What the heck is a swag, you ask?  It is a coffin-like tent for one or 2 people, perfect for camping or sleeping in horse barns.  Em has slept in a friend’s swag when she has helped out at horse shows, and raved about how awesome they were.  Jay and I have been keeping an eye out for one to give to Em as a thank you gift for everything (and more) she does for us.  Jay happened to be out shopping and got an email from the local camping store saying swags were 20% off.  Perfect.  The look on Em’s face when Jay carried it inside was priceless.  She forgot to take it with her to a horse show this weekend, but we couldn’t resist setting it up to check it out. Ty insisted on sleeping in it most of the night.  Nice swag! 

   
47 pages.

I put together a power point listing of everything that I could think of that we need to sell when we move home.  It was a 47 page document (2 or 3 items per page)!  As soon as I sent it out to the staff at work, my email blew up – things flew off the shelves.  We probably only have about 20% of the items remaining to sell.  Feels good to have a big thing ticked off the list – should make packing up easier.

Swim.

This week Ty got to ring the bell and move up the Level 4 at swim lessons!  He was getting pretty bored, so I asked the instructor what Ty needs to do to move up. She told him that if he could show her his best swimming today, he might get to ring the bell.  He did great!  He just needed a little motivation.  Way to go, Ty! 

   
Good choice.

I am not going to go into a lot of details on this topic for the sake of the other kids/parents involved, but this week we had a huge win with Ty.  During the last week of the term, Ty chose to walk away from some mates that were about to make a really bad decision.  He ended up getting several smiley faces and a couple kung-fu pandas that day – heaps of positive reinforcement.  On Friday, Jay got a call from the Queensland Child Protection Agency about the incident, as Ty’s name got brought up in the investigation.  Thank GOD he made the right choice or this blog would have gone a completely opposite direction.  He got a super awesome Lego set for that one.  Way to go Ty!

Date night!

Since Em was off at another horse show, we decided to see if Miss Steph and Mr Kyson would want to spend their Saturday night with the kiddos.  They said yes!  So Jay and I cashed in a gift card that we received for giving a co-worker a bunch of Lily’s baby girl clothes.  They sent us to a restaurant called Seaduction in Surfers Paradise.  OMG.  Best. Meal. Ever.  The gift card was for a degustation experience, which I didn’t know anything about before Saturday night.  FAN-CY!  We didn’t have to think about a thing.  The only decision we had to make was whether or not we wanted the sampler or full size wines to go with the 5 course meal.  Um duh.  Easy decision.  And then plate after plate of amazingness just appeared in front of us.  I ate things that I would never have tried otherwise, and it was all the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.  Except for the fois gras, which does not stand for “fake grass”, nor is it anything like the “balsamic ice cream” description I got from the waiter.  I took one bite.  Nearly gagged.  Never again.  But everything else was simply incredible.  The very best part was the kettle corn that was served with dessert.  OMG.  Our sweet waitress brought out a little dish of extra popcorn to finish off the meal with our coffees.  Incredible.    

Riding in style…

   
Didn’t read the menu before the food arrived…

 
Can you believe how many forks and knives are on the table? 

 And the award for the most idiotic move of the night goes to the lady that had already had 3 glasses of wine.  I was so proud of myself for not stumbling when I walked to the toilets, that I completely misinterpreted the symbol on the bathroom door.  I didn’t even see a second door, and my brain obviously didn’t process that the picture on the bathroom door had a triangle with sort of broad shoulders.  I walked in and thought, hmm, that’s strange, is that a bidet?  And then as I was using the one stall, I realized that holy crap, I’m in the men’s room.  I started laughing hysterically.  Thank GOD there were no men that came in while I was in there.  Humiliated…  Serves me right to have that 3rd glass of wine – guess 2 is my limit. 

   
And this is what happens after 5 glasses.  Random shopping… 

 Surfers.

Since we both drank our way through our dinner, we caught a cab home Saturday night and left Brumby in a secure parking garage at Surfers Paradise.  It gave us an excuse to go back with the kids on Sunday. We did a little shopping (check out Ty’s crocodile Uggs), ate lunch at Hard Rock, walked through Ripleys Believe it or Not (Ty got a kick out of that), and had a quick play on the beach.  The kids and I took a good, much needed, nap when we got home.  A great ending to the weekend. 

    
 Nanny cam.

Em has had lots of fun with the kids during the first week of the school holidays – morning tea at the marina, dress up with Demia, park with Addie, living room tents with the kids, shopping with Lily, games and educational activity books with Ty, play date with Harry and the twins.  Her job doesn’t suck.  I can’t believe Ty only has one more term of Prep left.  

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
G’day mates!

So I have been forbidden by Em to say more about Sunday, August 16, 2015 until given the green light by her. If you are reading this post, then red has turned to yellow has turned to green. Yay!!
This blog is a copy/paste from what I wrote back in August.  🙂
So I failed to mention in my “What the H-Ekka” post an important detail. Emily met a guy. At Stockmen’s. Not Stockman’s, but the Aussie version of the fantastic State Fair watering hole. This was our first text exchange after meeting the fellow.

  

So I couldn’t stalk him. Damn. But I figured he was just a passing bloke, probably would get a similar message the next night of another handsome fellow that captured Em’s eye.  

But the next day I sent her this note, just to see…

  

Well well well. Little Emmer Demmer was playing it cool. Interesting. Knowing her like I do, and reading between the lines, that translates to “oh god, he’s really cute and awesome and I hope he calls”. I knew she liked him.

Next night, Stockmen’s is blessed with Em’s presence again. And this transpired.
  
Looks to me like little Emmer Demmer didn’t really care about the auctioneer at all. She was pissed that Tim the Pilot didn’t call.  

The next day was Sunday, the day that Jay and I were taking the kids to Ekka. She didn’t say much about the situation, as we were too busy being amazed by the randomness of Ekka. And then this happened. The scene was straight out of a movie. There was instrumental music playing over the loudspeakers in the show arena, a happy, slightly romantic tune. And Em’s phone rang. You couldn’t wipe the smile off her face if you tried. 

 
For the next week, I could have taken several pictures like this in different outfits at our house. I haven’t seen anyone talk on the phone this much since high school. Em’s phone would ring, she would look at it, smile, say hello, and then she would disappear into her room for hours. HOURS!! And if I would happen to pop my head into her room, she would get all blushy and tell me to get out.  

I knew right away that this was a good dude. In this day and age, not many guys take the time to call. Yes, a text message or a Facebook post is sweet and stuff, but there is little substance and is too easy to hide behind. But a phone call. You have to be interested in getting to know a person to call them. And again. And again. Good on ya, Tim the Pilot.

After a few of these phone calls, we learned that Tim is more than just a pilot. He is a heavy equipment mechanic that has a plane so he can fly out to remote areas of Australia to fix broken down equipment. And he has a repo business (Brooke will be excited about this as she is fascinated by Dog). Sounds like a guy with his head on straight.  

Keep in mind that while we all now know his last name, he doesn’t like the drama of Facebook so I haven’t been able to do any proper stalking. Crap.
We were thinking about taking the boat out on The following Saturday, so Em invited Tim to come along. He wasn’t sure if he could make it because he needed to work, but didn’t tell her no. As the week went on, the weather forecast wasn’t looking great for the boat. Em sent him a text to let him know that boating wasn’t going to happen. He used text messages effectively by replying with, “Movie?”
I wish I would have had my camera on her face at that moment. Priceless.
He did have to work on Saturday, and since he lives a couple hours away, he planned a day date for Sunday. Here’s how the day went.
Lily woke the house up at 4:00 AM.
Emily’s excitement kicked in and she was wide awake.

She showered, dressed, did her makeup, dressed again, fixed her hair, dressed again, fussed with her hair some more, and still wasn’t feeling cute enough. It is now 8:38 AM. I made her try on one of my shirts that she said “sooooo isn’t me” but made her look like Barbie. 9:05. Tick tick tick tock.  

I don’t know what we did for the next 3 hours, but just kept trying to stay busy. She was so nervous. “This is what I am 30 and still single!! I hate feeling this nervous!!!”

Finally, Tim showed up a little after 12:00. Jay won a little side bet we had going. I thought he would rock up in an SUV, maybe a Land Rover. Jay was convinced it would be a Toyota Hilux flatbed ute with a tradie box on the back. Jay won. Nissan instead of Toyota, but damn good guess. I snuck in this photo when they weren’t looking.

  

He walks up to the door, looks a little nervous, as he should because Emily looked like freaking BARBIE!!! So poor Tim. He didn’t know quite how protective I am of my family. And he didn’t know that since our mother and stepfather are 10,000 miles away, I had to ask the tough questions.  

“Hi Tim, I’m Nicole.” (Good strong handshake)

-“How are you feeling?” (Nice one, Tim, since you happened to be on the phone with Em after Jay and I went out to dinner and I might have had a teensy bit too much to drink.)

“Ha ha. I’m great, thanks. Was just a little happy last night. So, since I have never met you before and couldn’t stalk you because you aren’t on Facebook, I have a few questions.”

*groans from Emily*

“Are you a serial killer?”

-“No. Not yet.”

“Are you married?”

-“No.”

“Any kids?”

-“No.”

“Not that it matters if you do, but I need to know these things. And…are you going to bring her back safe and sound at the end of the day?”

-“Well, that is up to her.”

“Well OK. Now. Just in case she doesn’t come home safe, I need to have some evidence for the authorities. Look at the camera and smile.”

What a good sport.

  

Seriously, doesn’t she look like Barbie?!?!

This is just the beginning, folks. This dude, Tim from Toowoomba, planned a whopper of a first date.   

 I told her that I needed photo updates throughout the day so that I knew he hadn’t dropped her off in a ditch somewhere. This was the only one I got.

  

Em and I are big fans of The Bachelor, so I couldn’t resist this:

  

So yeah, the last part of the adventure was an apple pie from Yatala pies that he bought for Jay, the kids and I (well played, Tim from Toowoomba, well played), followed by the freaking drive-in movie. Complete with red wine, real wine glasses, and chocolates. Who is this guy? And how will he ever top this date?

So as I am writing this, it is Monday, 17 August, 2015. At this point I have no idea what will come of Em and her amazing date with The Bachelor From Paradise. But even if he doesn’t call her again, or take her on anymore amazing dates, I am thankful that she had one day, where one true gentleman showed her what it feels like to be appreciated, and respected, and treated like a princess. This, Emily, is why you are 30 and single. You don’t deserve to be told you are “a part time job” or that you make a guy “feel like he is in high school”. You deserve to be the center of one man’s attention. All day. Every day. Love you, sis!!

After keeping a secret for what seems like an eternity, I can finally let the world know where we are moving to in the U.S. !  Drum roll…………

DES MOINES, IOWA!!!!!!

  
We have been trying for several years to find a way to move to Des Moines so that we could be closer to our families, but it is difficult to find 2 jobs at the same time.  Jay is going to be working in the Cotton division, and he is really excited about the opportunity.  We are still working on finding a job for me – more to come on that in a later blog.  I am not too worried about this, as I am certain things will work out just fine.  

So now the fun begins.  We have to sell our house in the Quad Cities.  We are all a bit sad about this point, as we loved our home, our friends, our life, in the QC.  It should be interesting to try to sell a house from the other side of the world.

And we have to find a place to live in Des Moines from the other side of the world. I love looking at real estate, so I don’t mind the fact that I have to add a few Realtor.com searches to my day, but I don’t think I can actually buy a home until we are back in the U.S., which means we will have a temporary home before getting settled in a final home.  

And of course there are all of the normal move considerations – school, day cares, doctors, cars, etc.  I am surprisingly calm about it all (at this point) and am looking forward to getting started on the transition now that the news is official.

It should be an exciting few months!  

G’day mates!

So yeah.  The kids and I have worms.  No, unfortunately that was not a typo.  WE HAVE FREAKING WORMS IN OUR BELLIES.  This was NOT something that we were warned about before we came.  I have read heaps of books about Australia, watched several episodes of “Australia: The Story of Us”.  I am well aware of all of the dangerous creatures that lurk around every corner and try to kill you here.  But I was not aware of worms.  I have a vague recollection of some kid at daycare having worms, and I remember thinking NASTY!!! But I never in a cazillion years did I think we would get them.  So here’s the backstory…  Lily has been having a few accidents, which I know is fairly normal for a young girl who is potty training.  However, when the second assumed UTI test results came back negative, we wondered what was causing the accidents.  Em was talking to some other mums and they asked Em when the last time Lily was wormed.  Um.  What?  So I worm my dog, and I remember worming the livestock in the farm.  But people?  Apparently it is totally normal to worm entire families here every 6 months.  O.M.G.

Warning: this next section is graphic and not for the faint of heart.  And probably TMI, but I cannot hold back on this one.  While not completely convinced, but willing to see if it helps Lily, we gave the kids their worming tablets – which was basically a couple squares of a chocolate bar with meds.  24 hours later, Ty pooped out worms.  No joke.  Little tiny white threadworms.  I then proceeded to do some research and decided immediately that I was going to take a dose of worming meds that night.  Much to my dismay, 24 hours later, I did the same.  And that evening, Lily did as well.  SO DISGUSTING!!!!   

 Em and Jay jumped on the deworming bandwagon.  Somehow, they managed to evade the slimy little bastards.  How I ended up with them and not Jay and Em is beyond me.  I wash my hands 50 times a day.  I never share drinks or food with the kids.  I never eat anything unless it is on my plate.  Em is around Lily all day long.  Jay ends up sleeping with both kids most nights.  I am totally jealous of their anti-worm situation.  Totes jelly.  Ugh.

For any Aussies that are reading this, humans getting worms is not a common occurrence in the U.S.  

Enough about that…

Aunt Taci.

I am so far behind on my blog.  I haven’t written since Staci was here.  Have I mentioned how much I hate saying goodbye?  This one was only slightly easier because we are moving home in a few months, but it still sucked.  Choked back tears, lots of hugs.  

Legs.

It just so happened that the morning that Staci was flying out was the same morning that our friend Brian’s mom was flying in from the U.S.  They had their 3rd broken leg the night before (crazy long unbelievable story), so I was able to pick up Kate from the airport.  We helped out as much as we could – they were also moving into a different house that weekend (seriously – I couldn’t make this up).  Despite all of their drama, I have been so impressed with their positive attitudes, perseverance, and ability to remain calm.  I can learn a lot from them.  :). 

Scissors.

You know that temptation that you sometimes get when you are holding a pair of scissors and you see something that would be fun to cut?  Well, Ty felt the temptation and couldn’t resist.  Unfortunately the object of his desire was his school uniform shirt.  These are NOT cheap.  And we only have a little more than one term of school to go.  So I was pretty upset about the situation.  Ty spent a lot of time in his room, and he got a big lecture about how mom and dad have to leave him every day to go to work to make money to buy him clothes, food, a place to live, toys, and holidays, and that he completely disrespected us by cutting his shirt.  His punishment was to earn money to pay off his $40 shirt by doing various chores around the house – one gold coin at a time. Until it was paid off, he couldn’t watch TV or play on the iPad, 2 of his favorite things.  It took him 2 weeks, but by golly he got that shirt paid off.  I quite enjoyed those 2 weeks.  I got to sit down and relax while Ty washed dishes.  Awesome. 

 Athletics.

Ty had an athletics carnival (track meet) at school.  This came with much anticipation as he showed some sprinting abilities at the start of the cross country race a few months ago.  We practiced sprints and long jump the week before the big day.  The boys lined up for their race.  The tensions were high.  Ready. Set. GO!!!  Super fast!  Ty won!!  Oh yeah!  He did well in long jump and high jump, as well.  Proud of my little athlete. 

    
    
    
    
 Watching the videos after the race was almost as intense as seeing it live… 

 Swim.

My little fish are cute. 

    
 Fathers Day.

We celebrated Fathers Day by spending the day on the boat.  Both kids fell asleep on the ride to Couran Cove, so the adults got to enjoy a beer and the sunshine for a bit.  We headed into the restaurant just as the storm clouds rolled in, and the storm clouds rolled out as we were finishing up.  Good timing.  Ty made some pretty awesome gifts for Jay.  I bought him an Endless Summer print to remind us our time in Australia.  It was a great day with the world’s best daddy. 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 Party.

One of Ty’s friends, Charne, turned 6 and had a royal ball party.  Ty put on his suit and looked just like Prince Charming.  Em and I stayed for the party, and I couldn’t get over the amount of cuteness in one place.  Such a fun night. 

   
Sale.

We started going through all of our belongings to identify what things we do not want to (or cannot) ship back to the U.S. We spent most of Saturday taking photos, cleaning things, and putting together a flier.  I have just a few more things to add, but should get it out to coworkers and friends next week.  If anyone is interested in some good deals, let me know.  

Crabby.

By the end of the day, Em was crabby as, so I sent her to the hot tub with a beer to try to cheer her up.  

 Road trip.

The hot tub didn’t quite do the trick, so on Sunday, the boys went north to a car race show, and the girls drove south.  We were hoping to see some whales, but got distracted by a roadside attraction called The Farm.  Of course we had to stop.  It was  such a cool little place, unplanned and unexpected.  There were adorable barns, a restaurant, fresh fruits and veggies, Scottish Highland cattle, heaps of chickens, and a fun playground for the kids.  There were heaps of people there, just relaxing and enjoying the day.  It was lovely.   

    
    
    
 Byron.

We headed into Byron Bay for lunch, shopping, and a play in the worlds most beautiful park.  This is exactly what Em needed – to go for a drive through the country.  When we were leaving Byron, I got on the interstate headed in the wrong direction.  I was worried about where I was going to be able to turn around, and was relieved when I finally found a spot.  It turned out to be the most beautiful scenic overlook.  The lush green countryside, with the deep blue sea beyond, and the clearest blue sky above.  Breathtaking.  Definitely worth the wrong turn. 

 Gymnastics.

Lily had her first gymnastics class.  She rocked it. She had so much fun, copied what the teachers did, showed a lot of strength.  Will definitely be continuing with more of this.   

   
Nanny cam.

Here are some random photos that Em took over the past 2 weeks. 

    
  
That’s all for now!  G’day mates!!