It has been a little crazy around here, so my apologies for the delay.  Let me see if I can remember everything that I have neglected to write about over the past couple weeks.

Hershey’s.

Emily might be a genius.  She made the kids chocolate milk with Hershey’s chocolate syrup (from Costco!!).  When she reached the end of the chocolate, she poured milk INTO the Hershey’s bottle so that she could SQUIRT chocolate milk into her mouth.  Why have I never thought of doing this before?!?! 

 MEEEEL!!

That is Lily-speak for mail.  She loves going to the mailbox to see if there is anything new.  The kids each got a letter and a picture from Aunt Brookie in the mail.  Lily carried hers around for days. 

   
Wrappers.

They say that what goes around, comes around.  When I was a kid, Steven used to get so “mad” at us when we left our freezey-pop wrappers laying around the farm.  “If I find another wrapper, I am throwing away the rest of the freezey-pops and am never buying any ever again!”  And then the next day he would be at the grocery store and see that there was a sale on giant boxes of freezey-pops and would of course buy it.  I was a good child so I listened and changed my behavior – I learned to throw away my wrappers.  Apparently his threats didn’t get absorbed into Emily’s brain.  Steven, she is still leaving wrappers everywhere… 

 Feral.

“Feral” is a term used here quite often to describe something or someone wild, rank, nasty.  Em and I decided that we will be adding this word to our permanent vocabulary.  This truck depicts exactly what is meant by the word feral – it even acknowledges that it is such by saying it in lights. 

   
Eat.

We went somewhere new in Brisbane – the Eat Street Markets.  Such a cool place!  It is a night market that is made out of heaps of shipping containers.  There are more food vendors than I could count that have set up little restaurants in the old shipping containers.  The place was packed, full of happy people stuffing their faces with amazing street food.  Live bands.  Lily dancing the night away.  Fireworks.  Liquor infused cupcakes.  Twirly potato on a stick.  Cookie batter funnel cake with ice cream on top.  Des Moines needs something like this.  Such a fun way to spend a Saturday night with the family! 

    
    
    
    
    
   
Bandito.

Jay put an ad on Gumtree (like Craig’s List) on Wednesday night to sell the boat.  We were thinking it would take months to sell it, so we figured that even though we want to use it a few more times this summer, we better at least get it out there on an ad. On Thursday a husband and wife came to take a look at it, and wanted to take it out for a ride Saturday afternoon.  Friday night another guy called and said he wanted to see it first thing Saturday.  On Saturday another lady called and said she wanted to look at it that afternoon, as well.  The first guy showed up and Jay took them out for a spin.  He left us with a hefty deposit and a full price offer.  Sold!!  

He wasn’t able to pick it up right away, and told us that he didn’t mind if we took it out for another ride.  Sunday morning we loaded up, picked up Coen’s, and headed out for one last hurrah!  It was an absolutely perfect last day.  We popped open a bottle of bubbly (thanks Coen’s!!), floated around, played at Jumpin’ Pin (even Charlie did on his crutches), went for a swim, pumped a few more yabbies, and had lunch at a new fun place – Harrigans Irish Pub.  Katie braided Lily’s hair like a princess. One thing I do not regret about this whole adventure was buying the boat.  We probably won’t ever have another one (unless we live on the water someday), but in this situation, it was a great decision.  I can’t even count the memories we made on that little bow rider.  El Bandito…you will be missed. 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Yabbies.

The Coen’s used the yabbies they pumped at Jumpin’ Pin to do a little fishing that night.  They caught a fish and put it on the end of their shark line.  The next morning, the shark line with some pretty heavy strength to it was broken.  So yeah, a little tiny yabby basically “caught” a shark.

Leaf Lake.

Our beautiful home in Davenport is officially on the market.  We loved that house.  We brought both of our babies home to that place.  We put countless hours of hard work into making it “ours” – painting, gardening, tree housing, landscaping.  Late nights with friends at the bar, making s’mores in the bonfire, Halloweenies, Christmases, birthdays…  I got a bit choked up when I saw the listing appear online – especially when I saw the kids’ rooms.  I am kind of glad I am not there – it is easier for me to avoid thinking about saying goodbye to that home when I am on the other side of the world.  Someone is going to end up with a great home, and I hope they love it as much as we do.

http://m.realtor.com/#details?property_id=8885488311&rdc_return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.realtor.com%2Frealestateandhomes-detail%2F9822-123rd-St_Davenport_IA_52804_M88854-88311

  
B12.

Apparently B12 is an important vitamin that your body needs.  Like many things, you don’t think about it unless it is missing.  I have felt like blah for a few months.  As indicated by my last blog, I figured it was stress related (not sure if y’all noticed but I might have a teensy bit on my mind at the moment).  One day at the office I was sitting there working away and all of the sudden I started seeing spots and feeling very light headed.  Hmmmm…that’s not good.  That night I felt like dog poo and woke up feeling much the same.  Emily insisted that I go see the doctor, so I stayed home.  For the first time in forever, I just laid on the couch and didn’t do anything.  I thought maybe the stress finally took over and was causing my brain to shut down.  I went to the doctor, expecting her to say that everything was stress related.  She ordered some bloodwork as a starting point.

The next week I was at a conference.  I called in to see if my results came back ok and the nurse said the doctor wanted to talk to me about one of them.  Not urgently, but fairly soon.  Oh crap.  I was going to wait until the next week, trying to stay calm.  That night I had netball.  While I made it through the whole game, It was far from my best effort. I was not well – incredibly hot, light headed, nauseous, weak.  Big thank you to the girls on my team for staying with me and making sure I was OK.  And huge thank you to Em for driving me home and making me drink a Gatorade.  I decided then and there that I better cancel my plans to go to the second day of the conference and get in to see the doctor.  

My B12 levels were pretty low.  They are supposed to be in the 120-600 range, but I only had 119.  The active B12 levels should be over 35 and mine was only 14.  Definitely explained why I have been feeling so drained lately.  Next steps are to get my levels back up to where they need to be by having injections once a week for the next 6 weeks.  I also had to run a few more tests to figure out if there is anything serious that is the cause of it.  It is likely caused by diet (I haven’t eaten much beef here because it doesn’t taste as good as grandma’s beef).  My google-educated diagnosis is that the freaking worms ate all of my B12.  The good news is that I don’t have anymore worms!  And I don’t have pernicious anemia, which is a good thing!  Hopefully we can get my levels back up and they will stay up.  Fingers crossed!  I just want to feel normal again.

Israel.

Jay’s new job requires him to work with some people in Israel.  He joined some of his new co-workers this week on a trip to Israel.  He had a bit of a rocky start, as the Israeli airline he was flying on gave him the third degree in the Hong Kong airport. I can understand why he seemed a bit questionable since he is an American citizen traveling from Australia through Hong Kong to Israel.  Our Australian visas are electronic, so there is nothing stamped in our passports.  The security team at El Al airlines are very thorough, for lack of a better word.  Jay got questioned by several people, had to find the emails with the visa information, got escorted to the basement of the Hong Kong airport, strip searched, and he is pretty sure that he was strategically seated next to an undercover agent.  At least he felt comfortable that their security was not going to let any baddies on the plane.  I was a nervous wreck until I heard from him after he landed in Israel.  And then again when he let me know that Hertz was “I’m sorry sir but I am unable to rent you a car today” even though Jay had a reservation.  So he had to catch a cab and ride an hour and a half to his hotel.  I am pretty sure I didn’t breathe until I saw him on FaceTime safe and sound in his hotel room.  He had a very busy week so we only got to say a quick hello a few times.  He was amazed at all of the places he saw that were so close by – Jerusalem, Nazareth, Palestine, the Dead Sea, the Gaza Strip.  At the end of the week he had a little time to relax on the beach and stare at the Meditteranean Sea for a couple hours.  Such a shame that such a beautiful, historic place is so full of violence that not many people get to experience it.  Em and I and the kids got along just fine, but we were all really happy to have him come home.

Picnic.

We had a little work social club outing at a park  down the road from us, so Em and I took the kids over for a play.  Had a nice time – it was a beautiful day for a play in the park.  Em made her first ever batch of a Auntie Shell’s potato salad – Lily helped. It was amazingly delicious! 

 Birthday.

One of Ty’s friends had a birthday party at Boomerangs.  Lily snuck out of the 2-4 year old area and had a blast on the big kid playground.  Both her and Ty were sweaty messes by the end of it all.   

    
 Ring.

There are a couple new pontoons (docks) being built in our canal.  Em and I were chatting with the guys after we realized that one of them had a scuba dive suit on.  We first told him he was crazy for swimming in that shark-infested water, and then asked him if he wanted to earn some money.  Since he was already diving in that water, would he mind swinging by just right off the dock there to see if he could find Jay’s wedding band.  He said he was happy to give it a quick look, but didn’t feel very confident that he would find it since it has been so long since it went in the water.  I was thinking that would be a spectacular 9 year anniversary present, but unfortunately he didn’t have any luck.  He said as soon as he touched the bottom, the water instantly got murky.  I can leave Australia feeling like we at least tried.  We are leaving a little part of us behind.

9 years.

We “missed” our 7 year anniversary because we were flying to Australia.  We missed our 9 year because jay was in Israel.  We have had a pretty amazing 9 years together.  So many memories.  I cannot imagine going through this wonderful life without my best friend by my side.  Not many people out there could put up with my crap and drama.  Love you Jay! 

    
   
Birthday.

Lily’s social calendar is jam packed.  She has some friends from play group – twins – that had a 3rd birthday party.  Grace and Miffy.  She had a blast with the other kids! 

    
    
    
   
Ninjas.

With Jay away, I didn’t put up much of a fight against the kids sleeping in my bed. They always started the night in their own beds, but every night they would sneak in.  They are ninjas.  I would wake up to find one or two munchkins in my bed.  It’s a good thing they are cute. 

 Barefoot Bowling.

Cross that Aussie activity off of the list!  Our department snuck out early on Friday to go have some fun playing barefoot bowling.  It is a mix between bocce ball and 10-pin bowling, sort of, played outside on a flat grassy field.  The game starts with someone rolling a white “jack” ball to the other side of the “rink”.  Then players take turns rolling their bowling balls down to try to get closest to the jack.  The balls are weighted on one side so they don’t roll straight – they curve back in.  We were just playing for fun, but threw in a little competition for prizes.  I somehow managed to get second place.  Woohoo!!  If I don’t end up getting a job in Des Moines, I suppose I could probably get a spot on the barefoot bowling Olympic team.  Probably.

Hamilton.

Since the boat sold and we need to spend some Aussie dollars (the FX rate is currently crap to convert back to USD), we thought we would go on one last holiday.  We debated a few places, but ultimately decided to go back to Hamilton Island one more time.  It is such a magical place, where we are forced to slow down.  It will be a great place to go to rejuvenate before the mad rush of the international move.  We are all looking forward to it!  We have arranged to have a family photo shoot there, which should be a beautiful back-drop.  We have organized a few activities.  Jay, Em and I were going to take a helicopter ride to Whitehaven beach but found out that our combined weight is too much for the small helicopter.  Should have cut back on my Macca’s consumption a while ago, I guess…  One thing I am really hoping we can come home with is a jellyfish painting.  I remember seeing these when we went to Hamilton the first time around and LOVING them.  The artist is Trevor Platt.  My OCD hasn’t allowed me to forget it.  I am hoping there is one available for a reasonable price and it can be shipped to the U.S.  Fingers crossed! 

 Spooky.

Emily has gone and pretty much invited everyone she knows over to the house after trick or treating next weekend for a little Halloween party.  I was stressing about this at first because I haven’t ever tried to throw a Halloweeny party without Ashely and Rachel before, nor do I have any of my Halloween decorations with me here, so I basically panicked.  And then Jay assured me it doesn’t have to be a full blown Halloweeny – in fact he gave me a budget of $0 to spend on decorations.  So Em and I had to get creative…  We discovered the beauty (and cheapness) of trash bag Halloween art.  I don’t want to ruin it for anyone that comes by to see it dirt hand, but here is a little taste of what we have turned our home into after a day of hard core crafting.  We are pretty proud of what we created with 5 trash bags! 

    
    
 Retail.

Em and I needed some retail therapy in our lives, so we gave Jay a day to recover before leaving him with his children for a few hours so Em and I could do some kid-free shopping.  We found the perfect outfits and accessories for our Hamilton photo shoot, and a few cheap Halloween items.  It was just what we needed. 

 Brumby.

One of Ty’s classmate’s dad is a cabinet maker.  He is helping us out by putting an amazing Aussie wood floor in the bed of Jay’s ute.  We stopped by to take a look to see how he was coming along, and Jay and I were both really impressed with how it looks.  It is going to be beautiful when it is finished.  Unfortunately this means that we won’t be using Brumby to haul rocks…

Tim.

Just a quick update on Tim from Toowoomba.  Em and Tim had “the talk” and discussed the reality of the situation they are in.  While they both obviously adore each other, it realistically isn’t going to work out between them when Em moves back home, so they have decided to let it go easily.  That conversation was a week ago.  He called today and I had the pleasure of listening to her side of the conversation while riding in the car.  She sounds so happy when she talks to him.  Boys back home best be upping your game if you want to have a shot at little miss Emmy.  She has raised her level of expectations significantly – which is exactly what she needed to do.  

Nanny cam.

Super nanny strikes back.  Too much happened since my last blog to caption – a picture says a thousand words anywhere! 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 G’day mates!

Parents.💑

Do I have a couple of good lookin’ parents, or what?!  Mom and Steven had a fantastic time visiting my brother out in Wyoming.  Next time, we are all going with.  This girl needs the mountains… 

 Relo.📝

I am trying to attack this whole “move my family from one side of the world to the other while at the same time selling and buying a house stateside” in a calm and logical manner.  I am trying to take one day at a time.  I am trying not to let my self-diagnosed OCD take over too much and make me crazy.  Trying…  Oh how I wish I could just snap my fingers and WA-LA!!  we are all settled in Des Moines.  *sigh*. Every night we spend time making a list and checking it twice – only I haven’t even started thinking about Chrismas shopping, other than that I have to do it all online this year.  We make late night phone calls to people assisting with the relo stateside.  Then we wake up in the middle of the night, and give in to the temptation to check our phones to find out what new info has come through email.  And then we wake up and do the same.  And then more early morning phone calls.  I have been trying to keep it all organized in a One Note file (amazing software if you haven’t tried it before), which is helping a bit.  What info to send now, what to send later, who to organize to do what, how much to list our house for, how quickly will it sell, how am I going to get a U.S. Notary to sign sale documents when there isn’t a U.S. embassy in Brisbane (finally got that sorted!), what job will I be doing, who is going to do my job here, how am I going to teach that person everything I have learned in 2 years, what house are we going to buy, who is going to list our house, who is going to help buy a new home, who can do a bond cleaning in Australia, what do we need to pack in our checked bags, what do we need to send in our (tiny) air shipment, how are we going to get Brumby home, where are we going to live until we find a new home, what school will Ty go to, what daycare will Lily go to, what are we going to put into storage, what are we going to store at Jess’s house, what repairs need to be made to our Davenport home, when are we having Christmases with everyone, what, when, who, where????!!!!!  The only thing I know for certain is the why…because it is time to go home.  It will all come together.  But I can’t guarantee I won’t go a little crazy before it does.  Apologies in advance…

And on top of it all, work is a teensy bit crazy.  We have testing going on that is pulling my team and I away from our normal work for 2 weeks, we had an employee on leave for 2 weeks, and I was trying to find a suitable replacement for a team member that got a new job – so I’m training someone new, as well.  And I’m leading a project to try and get Six Sigma Orange Belt certified.  So yeah, I might be a little bit overwhelmed at the moment.  Breathe.  Thankfully my team is awesome and have handled it all like champions.  I’m really proud of them.

Nanny cam.📷

This was the second week of the spring school holidays.  Ty went to vacation care a couple days – on cooking day and scooter day.  Em kept both kids entertained the other days.  Not surprisingly, her social calendar is always jam packed.  Play dates, swim parties, sanctuary cove, they didn’t sit around much.  When they were home, Em had a stack of fun new activities to keep their brains working and them all entertained.  And she kept up with the laundry, housework, and cooking.  Have I mentioned before how thankful I am to have her in our lives?  I cannot imagine how hard these next few months would be without her.  Look at how much fun my kids had with Auntie Em this week! 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
School.🍎

I had to choke back some tears this week.  I sent a note to the Junior Admin office at Ty’s school, and I copied in the lady that I got to know fairly well from calling every fortnight for 8 months checking to see how Ty’s progress on the St Stephens wait list was going.  I wrote a nice little note about how sad we are that Ty won’t be continuing his education at St Stephens, and that we hope that Ty’s departure can make another child’s family as happy as we were when we found out we could enroll Ty.  I got a lovely email back and had to choke back the tears.  The first near-tear of what will be an emotional few months ahead.

List.🏡

Thank goodness for awesome in-laws!  On basically a moment’s notice, Jay’s parents packed an overnight back, some DVDs, and hopped in the car on a 5 hour road trip to our home in Davenport.  They stopped and picked up a Caseys pizza for dinner.  

Side track…I am literally salivating at the thought of a piece of Caseys pizza.  Yes, a gas station DOES make the world’s best pizza.  Back on track…

We had arranged for 2 realtors to come to the home to do a market analysis and determine the most ideal list price for the home.  The appointments happened in Iowa while I was “sleeping” in Australia.  I didn’t sleep much at all.  I don’t know why I was so anxious about it – I suppose because it is the first major step in this whole process.  It is getting real, people.  I got updated from Kirk and Sherry at midnight, 3:30 AM, and again at 6:00 AM.  They took me on a FaceTime tour of my own home to see how they had staged everything.  They are amazing.  The house looks amazing.  Someone is going to be really lucky to end up in that gem of a home.  

Neighbors.👥

Speaking of amazing.  Let me just take a minute to give a shout out to a couple people that have made sure the house stayed amazing while we have been away for 2 years.  First, our neighbor and friend, who Ty calls Mr. Paul.  He has mowed our lawn, pulled our weeds, trimmed our fence line, shoveled our snow, checked our house out, kept an eye on our renters, COUNTLESS TIMES.  I know that at times it was quite stressful for him.  Best neighbor ever.  Another reason why whoever buys our home is getting a gem – bonus!! Awesome neighbors!!

And then Briana, the worlds best cleaning lady.  I can say she is the world’s best because I am on the other side of the world and I have experienced the world’s worst cleaning lady.  She has done monthly cleans for us (when the house wasn’t rented), she has been our eyes on the ground when renters have moved out to make sure everything looked just like how it was when we left, and she has somehow, miraculously, kept it looking spotless.  Even after the potheads moved out.  Life lesson – don’t let the Harvard and Princeton degrees fool you.  Apparently they don’t teach cleanliness and respect for other people’s property at those schools.  Picture a pot smoker.  Do you generally speaking consider them really clean people?  (Sorry if this offends any potsmokers reading this blog – just going off of experience and observations here…). If there are some clean pot smokers in the world, the ones that were living in our house for 3 months were NOT the clean type.  Poor Briana almost cried when she walked in the house after they moved out.  Apparently they had 2 big dogs living there, and they did not pick up a broom or run the vacuum a single time while they were there.  She had to empty the vacuum canister 6 times on just the main floor.  And she went through 15 buckets of water to mop the floors.  Normal for us was 3 buckets.  Nasty.  So yeah, she is definitely the world’s best cleaning lady.  QC friends, let me know if you want her info.

Other neighbors have chipped in, as well.  Mike has done some random yard work for us.  Tim and Kathy are taking care of some maintenance issues that need to be done before we sell the house.  I’m really going to miss the Leaf Lake neighborhood.

Garden.🌴

Saturday we decided we better tackle the gardens.  We hadn’t done much to clear out dead stuff since last spring, and apparently we shouldn’t have waited that long.  We spent 5 whole hours on the gardens.  Em risked her life by clearing the bushes along the shark infested canals.  She was fearless about climbing back into the overgrown palm leaves to thin the dead stuff out.  We pulled weeds, we cut stuff, we raked, we trimmed, we mulched.  And we didn’t die. How do I know?  Because I can feel the pain.  This might take a while to get over…  Check out the size of our rubbish pile.  This doesn’t include the 2 big bags of rubbish that Jay and Ty had already taken to the dump.  Incredible.   There is a cute little bird that loves what we did to the place – he has made himself at home when the sliding doors are all open…

    
    
   
Pool.🏊🏻

The best part about doing yard work at this house, is that when we finish the work, we get to jump in the pool to cool off.  It was finally warm enough for Jay and the kids to get in the big pool.  Em and I stayed in the hot tub – for the warmth and the jets on our aching bodies.  I am really going to have to figure out how to get a pool in Des Moines…

Swag.⛺️

Em got to use her new swag for the first time this weekend.  She went to one of her horse friend’s 50th birthday party and camped out.  She is a brave soul.  No way would I sleep on the ground in this country – too many things close to the ground waiting to kill you…  She had a fantastic time at the party.  I love that she has made such great friends here – and I love that they can get a laugh like this one out of her. 

   
Movie World.🎢

Sunday morning Jay and I took the kids to Movie World.  It is so nice to be able to have a season pass to a theme park that is 5 minutes from the house.  We spent a couple hours wandering around, the kids rode a few rides, we had lunch, and came home.  When Jay got home from the gym, the boys jumped in the pool to cool off.  Summer is definitely coming! 

    
    
    
 Grand Final.🏉

I have to admit that even after 2 years I don’t understand the difference between the 2 rugby leagues here.  One of the 2 of them had their championship game on Sunday night – Broncos vs Cowboys.  Jay likes the Broncos, so we all do too.  :). We met the Coen’s for dinner at the tavern and watched the first half of the game.  The kids and I were not that interested in it, and Em was exhausted from the night before, so we went home and called it a night.  Jay and Brian had a great time, even though the Broncos lost.  

Boat. 🚤

Monday was Labour Day in Queensland, so we had the day off.  It was going to be a perfect boating day so we asked Walter, the guy that will be replacing Jay when we leave, if he wanted to go for a boat ride.  Twist his arm…  We went up to Jumpin’ Pin first.  The kids fell asleep, so I stayed on the boat with them while Em, Jay and Walter hiked over to the surf side and played in the ocean a bit.  When the kids woke, we played in the sand and water.  When the tide came in, Lily LOVED splashing around in the shallow water.  Ty was pumping yabbies with some other kids.  We decided to have a late lunch and went to Tipplers for a bite to eat, before heading back home.  Beautiful day.  In the words of Auntie Em…BEACH HAIR, DONT CARE!

   
Netball.🏀

Em and I played netball Monday night, in what was quite possibly the worst showing ever.  We lost.  I hate losing.  Serves us right for having the sun steal all of our energy…

Term 4.

Ty started Term 4 on Tuesday.  I can’t believe he has nearly finished a year of school!  This term he gets to go swimming one day a week with his class.  We also signed him up for tennis lessons twice a week.  Should be a fun term for him!

G’day mates!

I am not a very political person, nor do I consider myself extremely opinionated on many controversial issues.  But in light of the terrible tragedy in Oregon, I have decided to jump off the fence.  I have a bit of redneck in me, and I completely understand and enjoy the adrenaline rush you get when you shoot a gun, especially when you hit a clay pigeon or a bottle off in the distance.  

For 2 years, I have been living in a country that suffered a similar tragedy ONE time in its history, and instead of waiting around, arguing back and forth, making and taking favors, the Australian politicians united and decided that ONE time was too many.  And there was no way they were going to sit back and watch while another preventable nightmare struck its innocent citizens.  So they started over.  They made EVERYBODY turn in their guns.  Now this wasn’t to say that a sane person with a clear background who enjoys hunting for sport or food was not going to be allowed to own another gun.  It simply made it harder to get one.  I know people here in Australia who have a gun.  They have to keep it locked in a safe where ONLY the authorized individual knows the code.  And they do random checks to make sure that nobody else in the household knows the code.  Would you believe that in 2 years, I have never once felt unsafe?  I didn’t realize this until this week, when I really gave it some thought.  I cannot say the same about how I feel back home in the states.  Now it isn’t as bad as most Australians think it must be like in the U.S.  It isn’t that I never feel safe in the states – it isn’t quite that bad.  But there are definitely places that I wouldn’t go.  Heck, I went to university at a school where there was no way I would walk past the eastern edge of campus for fear of being the victim of a drive by.

Yes, there are still crazy people here.  There are crazy people in every society.  You can’t really fix crazy, but you can stop crazy people from having access to something that can kill people. Yes, they still find a way to let out their craziness and hurt others.  About once a week we hear about a crazy person that macheted someone.  But at least with a machete, you have a fighting chance.  Your enemy isn’t sitting 100 meters away looking through a gun sight.  Think about it.  In the U.S., it is a daily occurrence to hear about a random shooting.  It is so common that you kind of become immune to hearing about it on the evening news.  Is that the kind of world we want to live in?  And raise our children in?

I remember vividly a day when I was taking MBA classes at the University of Northern Iowa.  We were about halfway through an evening Business Strategy course, and one of the guys in the class got a text message letting him know that a suspected gunman was allegedly heading to the UNI campus after an altercation with his girlfriend.  I felt trapped.  I felt so scared.  My ears were tuned in to noises in the hallway, praying that the door handle wouldn’t click and open.  I was sitting in the back of the room, farthest from the door, between an ultimate fighter and an ex-army guy, so I thought if someone came through the door I was probably in the safest place, all things considered.  Not that we wanted to venture out of the room, but we were not allowed to leave the classroom until the suspect was detained.  I was conflicted between wanting to run to my car and get the heck off campus, vs staying where I was – at least there was a door sort of slowing him down.  Scariest night of my life.  Amazingly, the professor remained calm and tried to continue on through the lecture, likely to slow down any panic attacks.  I don’t remember a single word she said that day, couldn’t tell you what the lecture was about.  But I can tell you that I never want to feel that way ever again.  And I certainly don’t want my kids to feel that way.  Ever.  

I should hope that our Anerican politicians could come up with a slightly better wording to amend the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, but perhaps something like this would be an improvement:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms {as long as you aren’t crazy}, shall not be infringed.”

The Aussies have proven that a country can fix the root cause of a huge problem, and live in peace…and still have the freedom to own a gun ONLY if there is a good reason to have one, and a good, clean background check.  They didn’t take away a freedom.  Quite the opposite – as people now have the freedom to enjoy their lives without unnecessary fear.  Well done, mates.  Well done.