Champions.

Our Wednesday night netball team were the champions!!!  Woo hoo!!!  Most of the team were able to get together at a little cafe on the Broadwater in Southport on Sunday afternoon for wine, tapas, and a little impromptu awards ceremony for our FREAKING AWESOME MEDALS!!!!  I have collected a few pretty awesome Australian souvenirs, but I am most proud and excited of this one.  Have I mentioned how much I am going to miss netball?  Do you think there is any chance I can start up a league in Des Moines?   

    
   
F-ing Butthead.

The day has come when Lily has decided to hear a bad word and repeat it.  Over and over and over again.  I have no idea where she picked it up (possibly Ty – who likely heard it from big kids at after school care – trying to get her in trouble???), but after listening carefully to see if she is saying something else…packing, maybe???…we are certain we have translated.  We all panic when she says it.  To date, we have been ignoring it.  Surely she doesn’t know what she is saying?!?  We are taking the “don’t make a big deal out of it” approach, hoping that she forgets it soon enough.  She is such a little pistol.  I might have to resort to Santa Claus bribery.

Why?

We have officially entered the “why?” phase.  Why? Why? Why?  No matter how good my explanation is (or how obvious), she follows it up with another “why?”  While I admire her curiousity, this might make me crazy.  I wonder how many times she will have to ask why before she is satisfied that she has gotten down to the root cause.  I am getting a taste of my own medicine, as I have asked my coworkers “why?” about 200,000 times.  Paybacks…

Nanny cam.

Just a few random pics from the nanny cam before vacation. 

    
    
    
   
Brumby.

Jay drove Brumby to work one last time this week.  We dropped the old ute off at the Port of Brisbane on Wednesday, 25 November, to load it on a big ship.  It is due to arrive on the east coast of the US in early February.  Hoping for calm seas, no icebergs, and no pirates.  See you on the other side, Brumby. 

    
    
 Vacation!!!

Why not pack in one more mini vacation before heading back to the frozen tundra in the good old USA?  We flew to Hamilton Island on Wednesday.  Emily thought we were landing on the water – close!  I love this “landing selfie.” 

    
    
  We grabbed our bags from the baggage tram (which is a free for all), hopped in our buggies, and off we went to our holiday home overlooking the marina. *sigh*.  The home is called Uisce – beautiful home, beautiful views.  I love Hamilton Island.  We got ourselves settled and then went out for a cruise.  We had a little late afternoon snack at the tavern (Sherry – had to have some chicken fingers), and then headed to One Tree Hill to watch the sunset.  We put on our swimmers to go for a little night swim at the pool.  The water was perfect.  The full moon looked spectacular through the palm trees.  Giant bats flying above keeping the bugs away.  Fun night! 

        
  
    
    
  
  
    
    
    
 Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving on Hamilton Island is far from traditional.  Morning family photo shoot, beach, cuddles with a sleepy Lily on the beach, a picnic on the beach, pool.  We took the kids to the Clownfish Club for some little people fun for a few hours while the adults went to the swim up bar for some big kid fun.  

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

Family photos.

Em and I went and viewed our photos from the morning shoot, which turned out surprisingly well considering everyone was hot and the kids (and Jay) were not into it at all… They are no Ann Steward Photography, but I do like quite a few of these!

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
After we picked up the kids from the kids club, we got cleaned up for dinner at Romano’s Italian restaurant.  The kids were so well behaved, despite being incredibly tired.  Both kids were asleep by dessert.  Happy thanksgiving!

Friday.

We had breakfast with the koalas on Friday.  I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  Yes, the two koalas were incredibly cute and adorable, but the food was nasty.  One of Jay’s birthday presents was to go off and do the ATV tour around the island, so he got to go play after brekky.  Em and I took the kids to the pool, where Ty and Lily did approximately 5,749 cannonballs.  We thought we would see how Lily would do without her swim vest in the shallow pool.  It didn’t take her long to figure it out, and she grabbed stuff off the bottom of the pool over and over and over again.  She is such a little fish!

Jay took Ty mini golfing while Lily took a little nap.  Ty really wanted to go back to the kids club for an afternoon of bowling, so Jay dropped him off and made a pit stop on the way home to buy me my super awesome jellyfish painting!!!!  Thank you Jay!! 

    
    
 We took Lily to the beach.  Em and I went out for a snorkel and SWAM WITH A SEA TURTLE!!!!!  Seriously cool.  They are such beautiful critters, she didn’t mind a bit that we were hanging out with her.  It was a loggerhead turtle.  As she came up for air, she brushed up against us.  Epic.   

   
While Jay was having a go with the snorkel gear, Lily and I were wandering around the rock pools as the tide was going out.  We saw lots of fish, and I’m pretty sure I saw a small reef shark.  I picked up Lily out of the water but it wasn’t big enough to do any harm.  Looked just like this. 

 We picked up Ty, got cleaned up, and went to Sails for dinner.  The kids had a party in the main lobby.  Lily loved the Wi dance game and the hula hoops.  Ty liked the ping pong and basketball hoops.  They were hot, sweaty messes when it was time to go home.  Good times! 

   
Saturday.

Happy birthday Jay!!!  The day started off with Jay cooking us brekky (which was a billion times better than the nasty $105 koala brekky), then Jay opened his presents.  I found a “G’day mate” license plate for Brumby.  Em used her connections and somehow managed to get an Outrigger staff uniform shirt from her Fiji friends for Jay.  He was SO excited!  Ty made some little toy guns out of packing materials.   

 We got ready to head out on a boat ride – first stop Chalkies beach, where Jay, Em and Ty got to swim with a sea turtle.  I was SO proud of Ty for venturing out far enough to see the turtle.  It can be a bit intimidating to swim in the ocean where you can’t touch the bottom, but he did it!  Em watched the kids while Jay and I went out for a swim.  No turtles, but quite a few pretty fish.  

Second stop – Whitehaven beach.  We had a little picnic on the beach, went for another swim, played catch, watched the sea planes come and go.  So beautiful. 

    
 We went for a little dip in our hot tub and then Jay and Ty went go-karting.  Em, Lily and I walked through the shops.  Then it was back to the pool to cool off.  Lordy it is hot!   

    
   
When we got home I thought I would just try to see if we could arrange to have a babysitter come watch the kids as they were both so sleepy and wouldn’t have enjoyed going out for dinner.  As luck would have it, one sweet little gal, Sarah, gave up her evening of a few drinks with friends to come play with Ty.  Lily was asleep pretty much the whole time, but Ty stayed up to watch Shrek.  Apparently they had a lovely conversation about how Ty’s favorite food is vegetables (WHAT?!?!  The dude won’t touch veggies) and fruit, and of course chicken nuggets.  What a goofball.

Em and I had dinner at the seafood restaurant.  We had prawns (Em learned how to clean them), scallops, trout, mahi mahi, and Jay had a steak.  Em and I ate clams – they were ok, but I wouldn’t order a plate of them.  After dinner I managed to pour hot coffee over ice cream all over the table (classy chic) but what was left of it was yummy.  We cruised around the island and ended up sitting on the beach staring at the nearly full moon for a bit.  I’d say Jay had a pretty great birthday.  Cheers to heaps more!! 

   
Sunday.

Ugh.  Last day of vacation.  Ugh.  We packed everything up in time for check out, but had 4 hours to kill until our flight home.  What to do?  What to do?  I reckon we ought to go back to the beach one last time…twist my arm.  We grabbed a couple kayaks and paddled out a ways.  We watched a couple turtles come up for air, but couldn’t see the turtles under the water.  We were about to give up and headed towards the shore, when a fellow kayaker pointed to where a turtle was playing not far off the beach.  It was fantastic!  Lily could see it!!!  We hung out with him for about 15 minutes.  Perfect.   

 We got a bit cleaned up (as much as we could with beach showers) and headed to the airport.  So sad to leave…I think I might retire to Hamilton Island.  So incredibly beautiful.  Until next time, Hammo…

Smooth flight home, Lily slept the whole way.  Ty crashed as soon as we got in the car.  We got the lawn mowed, suitcases unpacked, laundry started, photos uploaded, groceries bought (thanks Brian!!!), and blog posted.  Ready for my last full week of work in Australia!  Bring it on.

G’day mates!!

After being away from the US for 3 Thanksgivings, I have a new appreciation for the holiday.  I used to take it for granted – the turkey, the ham, the cranberries, grandma’s mashed potatoes, French silk pie, and most importantly, family.  This year we spent Thanksgiving on the beach at Hamilton Island.  No turkey.  Family photos in the morning, beach, pool, Italian for dinner.  Definitely not traditional, but am thankful for the precious time with my family.  As we wrap up our time in Australia, I have given a lot of thought to things that I am thankful for.    In no particular order…

I am thankful for having had the opportunity to become fully immersed in the Australian culture for 2 years.  Before getting on the Qantas flight back in October 2013, what I knew of Australia I had learned from Crocodile Dundee and one of my most favorite movies – The Man From Snowy River.  And a few children’s books that we had been reading to the kids to mentally prepare them for the change.  I used to think that I could recite all of the lines to the Man from Snowy River, but it turns out that I actually couldn’t understand about 10-15% of the words until I developed an ear for the Aussie dialect.

I am thankful that none of us got killed by all of the spiders, snakes, toads, sharks, stingrays, and other creatures that I read about in those children’s books.

I am thankful that we were able to travel all over this beautiful country – and a few other countries nearby.  In 2 years, we packed in more mini holidays than we ever have.  We made the most of every free moment.  We travelled to South Island, New Zealand, Fiji, the Great Barrier Reef multiple times (Agnes Water, Cairnes, Whitsundays), Hamilton Island, Port Douglas, Bundaberg to watch sea turtles lay their eggs, Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, the Snowy Mountains, the penguin parade on Phillip Island, South Stradbroke island countless times, Fraser Island, Noosa, Coolum, Tambourine Mountain.  What an amazing country – jaw dropping beauty everywhere.

I am thankful for all of our family and friends that made the LONG trip down under to visit.  I have lost count of how many guests we had stay with us.  We loved every second of everyone’s stay.

I am thankful for Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.  Not many people get to pet kangaroos and hold koalas.  When my son Ty was a baby, I took pictures of him every month with his sock monkey so that I could see how much he had grown.  Lily’s version was slightly different – she had her photo taken with a real live koala about 20 times in 2 years.  

I am thankful for Bonny Babes, the daycare that our kids went to when we first moved here.  The staff there was first class – passionate about their jobs.  We have made lifelong friends with a couple of the educators there. We will miss you dearly.

I am thankful for Saint Stephens College.  Ty has learned so much in his first year of school.  He has grown up a lot – maturity, confidence, and personality.  He is developing interests in so many things.  It has been an awesome first year of school.  

I am thankful for Emily.  Lord knows that I would have survived without her, but only just barely.  I could write an entire blog on reasons why I am thankful for her, but will keep it high level.  Lily is an expressive, smart, cheeky little thing.  She is a social butterfly, very active little thing.  She has been allowed to blossom with Emily by her side.  My house is clean, dinner is cooked, laundry is put away, kids are (usually) happy.  Super. Nanny.

I am thankful for my husband.  There are not many people in this world that can handle me and my little bit of crazy.  I cannot imagine going through this wacky life without him by my side.

I am thankful for my children, who are both healthy, smart, beautiful, curious, funny, and talented.  They have made me a better person.  

I am thankful for my manager, Cheryl.  She also understands my little bit of crazy, and lets me (usually) run with it.  I know that she probably felt like she was getting “stuck” with me when we first moved here.  She has taught me unmeasurable amounts of things.  The branch is lucky to have her knowledge, skills, and passion.

I am thankful for my team (current and prior) who all went along for the ride.  I know that I am sometimes a bit full on, that I am relentless in my desire to make things better, and that I drive changes that aren’t always popular or easy.  I am so proud of the work that we all accomplished – together.

I am thankful for Treasury, who once again has come to my rescue and is willing to take me back for another learning opportunity.  I HAVE A JOB!!!!  so happy I don’t have to scrub toilets in Des Moines.  Prior to coming to Australia, the 4 years I spent in the Treasury department were the most mentally rewarding and challenging years of my career – and I LOVED it.  In prior jobs I executed the funding plan.  This time around I get to learn about how the funding plan actually gets created.  I can’t wait!  

I am thankful for our good friends in the Quad Cities who have made sure that our beautiful home remained in excellent shape while we were away.  I know it has been stressful at times, and lots of extra work – your dedication and friendship means more to us than you will ever know.

I am thankful for our families back home, who have supported us on this adventure, have never complained about watching Ty and Lily grow up through countless FaceTime calls and thousands of Facebook pictures, and never once showed doubt in our decision to leave home for 2 years. 

And I am thankful for this blog.  I am sure that everyone who reads this has gotten a little taste of my crazy side, but for me it has been incredibly therapeutic.  I sometimes have a hard time expressing verbally how I am feeling or what I am thinking (because I end up just crying like a baby), but getting everything out of my head and onto “paper” has been a stress reliever.  It will be so fun to print this and read it to with the kids.  Thank you to everyone that has followed along on our adventure!

I know there are so many other things that I am thankful for – but it is time to get up and go to the beach…

G’day mates!

Pistol.

This just about sums up Lily all week.  If only this blog came with sound…    

  And then 5 minutes later she has to go and be all cute and silly and stuff… 

   
And then 10 minutes later, she crashes…

Chain.

I come from a family of paper chains.  We made paper chains for everything when I was growing up.  Somehow, however, Emily has never actually made a paper chain herself.  Oh Lordy.  This story is a doozy.  So she has a great idea to have her and Lily make a paper chain – pink to show the number of days until Hamilton Island, and then blue to show the number of days that we are in this house after we get home from Hamilton – but not the number of days until we actually leave Australia, which is slightly confusing but an interest in approach to paper chain construction.  So Em and Lily are cutting away, making the strips.  And then Em starts taping them into rings.  And then they have to go run off to whatever fun activity they had planned for that day.  Em’s brain thought, “hmmmm, so how do I actually connect the circles that I just taped together?”  When she got home, she realized that she wasn’t supposed to tape the rings unless there was another ring inside it…  Right.  Got that problem solved.  Cut the rings.  Pink.  Blue.  Pink.  Blue.  OH CRAP!  She wanted to do all pink first, and THEN all blue.  Cut the rings.  Start again.  12 hours later, here you have it folks!  Emily’s very first paper chain.  God I love this chica.  🙂 

 Mummyliscious.

This is the netball team that we played with on Monday nights.  Well, what was left of it.  We played our last Monday night game this week. 

 Wine.

Check out the next door neighbor’s wine rack.  Um.  Yes, please.  Do you think I will find a house in Des Moines that has one of these? 

 Marks Angels.

This is our Wednesday night netball team.  We were supposed to have one more game, but our opponents forfeited our last game – making us the champions.  I guess they were afraid to play us.  This has been such a fun group of ladies to play netball with.  I’m going to miss this!  Do you think there are any netball leagues in Des Moines? 

 Spaceship.

Ty made some stuff out of cardboard at school this week.  He had such fun at school that he couldn’t wait to make something else when he got home.  This is his spaceship.  He even had a seatbelt. 

 Sick.

Ty was the first one to complain of not feeling well this week – headache, which was weird because he hasn’t really ever complained of having a headache.  He stated home one day to rest.  A couple days later, I got it.  Not sure what “it” is, either a cold or allergies.  I am thinking allergies – runny nose, sneeze, watery eyes.  It has been about a week and we are still sniffly, but getting better. 

 
Toes.

When I was sick in bed, Lily sat on the bed with me.  For about 20 minutes, she sat there with cards in between her toes.  And then she saw dust floating in the air when the sunlight was just right, and she tried to catch the dust, singing “shoo fly don’t bother me”.  What a weirdo.  She must get it from her dad… 

   
Purge.

We had a lady come do an estimate of how much stuff we have to pack in our air shipment containers.  We are allotted two 4’x4’x4′ containers, which is about 188 cubic (or sq) feet.  When the lady calculated up how many boxes we would need, she said that we have 380 cu ft of things.  Um…..well that’s a bit of a problem.  So we spent the weekend moving everything that is going in the air shipment in the guest bedroom into a space that equals our container space.  It looks like we will just about fit.  But that still meant that we have to leave HEAPS of things behind.  We have accumulated a ton of stuff in 2 years.  We were going to have a garage sale, but our neighborhood isn’t great for garage sales.  As luck would have it, one of our netball teammates is moving to Brisbane and was going to have a garage sale.  She offered to let us out our stuff in her garage.  HUGE thank you to Kel.  HUGE.  Em and I sat there for a couple hours, then Kel sent us off to get more sorting and packing done.  This was our car when we went to Kel’s house.  We came home with only about half, which was awesome.   

 Miss Steph came over and took a bunch of stuff with her to use at the daycare.  And then we just started taking stuff into the office to either sell or give away free.  We are slowly but surely getting down to a pretty empty house.  The kids are doing well with the few toys we don’t have packed up, but are going to get antsy soon. 

Jay took a car load of our shelving units and the trampoline to the office for the people that bought them in the staff sale a while ago.  The old wagon can sure haul a lot of stuff! 

 Beach.

Jay took the kids to the beach Saturday morning while Em and I were garage saling.  They didn’t get to play long before the rain came. 

 SeaWorld.
While Kel was working hard selling our stuff on the second day of her garage sale, the kids were needing a little attention.  So we took them to SeaWorld because Lily had been asking to go for a while – “sea worl-ld”.  It was a nice little afternoon, penguins, Dolphins, sea lions, Dora, Diego, Ninja Turtles.  Happy kids.   

    
    
    
    
   
Gymnastics.

I worked from home one day this week.  I started early and finished late so that I could go watch Lily in her gymnastics lesson.  Em had been saying for quite a while that Lily is totally in her element at the gym.  She was right.  Lily was being a bit of a pistol, but she walked around that gym with so much confidence.  I love these upside down pictures – shows how happy she is.  Our little monkey. 

    
   
Legos.

Since we packed up most of the kids toys, Ty has been getting more creative with his Legos.  I love this Aussie tradie ute.   

 Chain.

I made a paper chain at the office to show how many full days I am at work. The chain is super short. Wowza.
GPM.

This week I spent a lot of time writing up my and my employees’ annual performance reviews.  I got a little choked up as I thought about everything that has happened in the last year.  I am SO proud of the team that I have had the pleasure of working with here.  Despite a lot of people doubting how we would manage through lots of change, staff turnover, and uncertainties, my team pulled together and have done great work this year.  I hadn’t prepared myself appropriately because in my first meeting with one of my employees, I got teary-eyed, and then it happened again with my other employee, and then again when I was sitting in my own performance review.  I have had lots of jobs, and I have been sad to leave most of them.  But this feels so different.  So permanent.  There is a good chance that I will not see many of these beautiful people ever again.  Some, yes, I will cross paths in the halls of corporate, and some I may see when we vacation in Australia.  But I will not see everyone that I have worked with for 2 years in the same place at the same time ever again.  Pretty sure I am going to be an emotional mess when I have to do the dreaded walk around the office for final goodbyes.  Ugh. 

Art.

Ty loves his after school art with Miss Betty.  He’s pretty good! 

   
Model.

Here is another awesome shot of my brother.  Such a little cowboy.  Love Diana Volk’s work – captures the spirit of the Wild West. 

 Update.

We are getting closer to having our Des Moines temporary rental home arranged.  Still haven’t found any of the 3 cars we need to buy.  Still stalking realtor.com and saving properties that we want to look at a couple days after we return to the US.  Job prospects are good for me (can’t talk about it yet but rest assured I am excited about the plan).  Temporary home in Australia is booked for the week that we don’t have furniture in our house – staying in a holiday home at Sanctuary Cove so that Em has some options to keep the kids entertained.  And we got our activities booked for our trip to Hamilton Island next week.  Looking forward to slowing down a bit on Hammo before the craziness begins.  I am surprisingly calm with everything, despite all of the unknowns and uncertainties.  I don’t know if you all know this about me, but I am a bit of a control freak.  There are a lot of things out of my control at the moment, but I am OK with that. For now…can’t guarantee I won’t freak out in the future.  🙂

Nanny cam.

It is starting to get hot.  Auntie Em took Lily to Wet-n-Wild one day.  I am pretty sure they will go back.  Lily is such a dare devil – she went down the water slide about 100 times.   They also went to a friend’s neighborhood pool.

    
    
    
    
    
 
This was a great end to a long week – just what I needed.  And yes, Lily is a goofball.

  

 

Pockets.

Who needs pockets?  They are so over rated.   

   
Teeth.

Ty and I both had to have some work done to our teeth to take care of the cavities that we both had.  Ty was so brave!  He didn’t have to get any novacaine, didnt cry, said it didn’t hurt, and played tennis afterward.  Such a big boy!  I, on the other hand, had to get novacaine.  While it wasn’t terrible, I would just as soon avoid the dentist chair as much as possible.  

   
Art Exhibit.

Ty’s school had an art exhibition to show the artwork of all students, grades Prep to Year 12.  Holy talented kids.  It was so impressive.  The students were walking around with appetizers, parents could sip on wine while looking at the artwork.  Some of the older students had made outfits out of random materials (playing cards, sticks, feathers, paper, etc).  They were awesome!  Here is Ty standing proudly next to his artwork.   

 Super-VISOR!

For those of you that don’t know this little detail about the Shearer’s…we LOVE Halloween.  I went to work the day before Halloween dressed up (because it fell on a Saturday).  I was the ONLY person that rocked a costume.  I sort of was batman – I just threw together a few things kind of last minute.  If I had been thinking, I would have told everyone that I was dressed up as Super-VISOR!   

 Pumpkins.

As pumpkins cost a bloody fortune here, we only bought 2 pumpkins to carve.  This year Ty did one pretty much by himself.  He drew the face and with Jay’s close observation and assistance, carved it himself.  He did a great job!  Em and I made one for Lily, which turned out pretty cute.  Carving pumpkins is not a common thing for Aussies, as Halloween is only minimally celebrated, so it was fun to show others our traditions. 

    
    
    
    
    
   
Halloweeny.

We have been known to throw some pretty memorable (if not blacked out from memory) Halloweeny parties back home. The last one we hosted was when Ty was 5 months old and we dressed up as The Hangover – Ty was baby Carlos. As Ty grew up and Lily came along, it became too difficult to host a party. After Emily’s persistent prodding, we thought sure, why not. She then proceeded to invite everyone she knew to the party.  Jay told us to not go overboard and not spend money.  Excluding the food budget (no idea what that tally was), we spent approximately $20 and 5 trash bags on decorations.  The house looked spooktacular.  The food pretty much all turned out awesome.  The jelly worms and the puking watermelon were the big hits.  A bunch of Ty’s classmates and their parents came to the party.  The kids all went trick or treating on the buggy.  We had a little photo booth set up and had fun taking silly pictures.  Ty wanted Em and I to be Ninja Turtles with him, and Jay and Lily were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.  It was a great time – so glad Em talked us into it.  :).   It was the trashiest Halloween party ever!

    
     
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Swim.

Lily got to ring the bell at swim lessons!  She graduated from level B2.  However since there was only a week left, her last B2 lesson was her last lesson at Gullivers.  She had come a long way and shown great improvement since she started lessons!  She was super proud to ring the bell. 

 Art.

Ty gets to go to Art lessons after school on Mondays and Fridays.  He loves art with Miss Betty.  He is always bringing home fun projects.  This bowl of fruit is my favorite so far.  It will get framed when we move back. 

 Races.

The Melbourne Cup is a BIG deal for Aussies.  It is a horse race that basically shuts down Australia.  I cannot begin to imagine how much money goes into the event – gambling, fancy dresses and fascinators, high teas, not to mention the horses themselves.  It is the social event of the year.  I had to go to work, of course, but I thought I would just go to work a little more fancy than normal.  Lily got dolled up, too.  Dang, she’s cute… 

    
    
    
    
    
   
PB Cups.

The office vending machine has FULL SIZE Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  For real.  We have had plenty of Reese’s miniatures over the past 2 years, but they really aren’t the same as the full size.  When Alana told me that there were Reese’s in the vending machine, my willpower lasted approximately 1 hour.  I brought a package home for Em, who savored every. Single. Bite.  Mmmmmmmmmm. 

 Aircon.

Seriously.  We have had issues with the air conditioner in this house at least half of the warm/hot days in Australia.  Whoever designed this air con system was an idiot.  It sucks.  I am so looking forward to not having to rely on other people to “fix” things in the house I am living in.  Just a few more weeks…

Marketta.

As hard as it is to believe, Lily was kind of a pistol this week, plus it was year end for Jay so we worked later than normal.  Em needed some time away.  We were able to leave the office a bit early on Friday so Em and I went to Miami Beach Marketta.  What a cute little night market!  She has had her eye on a purse at a little shop called Lokoa for a while.  Unfortunately the purse she wants was out of stock, but I found a cute new bag and wallet.  Every bring was 25% off so I couldn’t resist.  :). After we finished shopping we stuffed our faces with yummy market food and listened to the band play.  Then we went to Harbour Town to see a movie in the Gold lounge.  We saw The Dressmaker – Kate Winslett and Liam Hemsworth.  Totally random, but pretty good. It was fun that it is based in a little Australian outback town.   Lots of Aussie references.   

 Birthday.

Addie turned 6!!  I had a haircut so I missed her party, but everyone said it was super fun.  It was art themed, and the kids came home with some pretty spectacular face paint.   

    
   
Brumby.

Brumby is getting a little facelift.  One of Ty’s classmate’s dad, Neil, is a cabinet maker.  Jay got some leftover Australian Spotted Gumtree wood flooring from the next door neighbor, and Neil has been working on laying it in the bed of Brumby.  Not an easy task for a number of reasons – one being that the fuel tank is in the bed.  He has done a fantastic job so far!  It still needs a few more coats of varnish on it – nearly finished!  Just in time to load him on a ship and send him across the Pacific to the good old USA.  

    
    
 Buggy.

The people that are buying the new house next door bought our buggy.  We won’t give them the keys until the week that we move out, by it’s a relief to know that it is sold.  

Boat.

The guy that bought the boat finally came and picked it up.  Now all we have to sell that is a big ticket item is the seapen that the boat was sitting in.  Fingers crossed that someone buys it soon.   

 Pack.

Pack pack pack pack.  Sort and pack.  Sort and pack.  This is what I have been doing in my spare time.   I have a bunch of stuff that we are going to try to sell in a garage sale next weekend.  Started putting “winter” clothes in our checked bag piles.  Stuff that I don’t need now or immediately when we fly home is in the air shipment piles.  A lady came by the house to estimate how much space we have to send things back to the U.S. – fingers crossed everything fits!  

So yeah, things are getting real.  

Jay is booking our flights home this week – 95% sure we will catch the Tuesday, Dec 15 flight home.  Woot woot!!

No, we don’t have a house in the U.S. yet.  We aren’t going to be able to take a house hunting trip – not enough time.  So we will be nomads for a bit.  Hoping to find the perfect home shortly after we land.  

No, I don’t have a job yet.  But I am hopeful that something will fall into place soon.  I honestly don’t have the mental capacity to stress about that at the moment.  Too many other details cramming my brain.

Christmas presents (almost all) are ordered and being shipped to the farm.  Check. Check. Check.

Nanny Cam.

The nanny cam must have been broken this week – not many to share.