Home!

We made it!!!  Woohoo!!!!  Dorothy hit the nail on the head when she clicked her heels together and said that there is no place like home.  Let me bring you all up to speed on what has been happening.

Moët.

Ania was crushed when she realized that our time in Sanctuary Cove had come to an end before she had a chance to say a proper goodbye.  Two years ago I was in desperate need of a massage, so I googled “massage hope island”, which led me to Ania’s adorable little massage therapy office.  One of my worries moving to Australia was whether or not I could find someone halfway as awesome as my QC masseuse, Janey.  Never fear, Ania is here! Not only did she work miracles to relieve the tension in my neck and back, she relieved the tension in my mind.  For 60-90 minutes each month (she never kept an eye on the time), she listened to me jabber on about this or that, and by the end of the hour(ish), I always felt 100% better.  When Emily came along with her stellar back, Ania spent even more time with the two of us, and has become a very dear friend to the both of us.  She brought her adorable twin daughters to the Novotel to have one last dinner with Em and I.  She came bearing gifts – some presents for the kids (waiting for Christmas to open them), and a bottle of Moët champagne for Em and I.  She was hoping that we could drink the bottle at dinner but got told no, so we found the last little remaining space in our suitcases and packed it in.  More to come on this…  Ania, we hope to see you and your girls on this side of the pond someday soon!

Airplanes.

After a restless “sleep”, we were finally on our way to the airport.  Amazingly, the next 24 hours were incredibly uneventful.  Long.  Super hella long.  But I will take super hella long over eventful any day of the week.  The check-in went well.  We were worried that a couple bags were pushing the weight limit, but the Qantas lady was really nice and helpful.  She gave us all Express passes to get us through the customs line in Sydney quicker, and didn’t give us any grief about our heavy bags.  The first flight to Sydney was quick and easy.  The layover was just the right amount of time to get us on the plane to Dallas.  

We had strong tailwinds so our flight time was reduced by 30-40 minutes – just about 14 hours in total.  The kids did so well on that flight.  Jay sat in between the two kids and I sat on the aisle across from Lily.  Ty slept for a few hours at the start and finish, and watched heaps of movies during the middle – content as ever, with zero drama.  Lily had a harder time getting comfortable, so she spent most of the trip in either Jay or my lap, but we didn’t mind the cuddles.  Emily was living the dream in Business Class – really glad we had enough points to upgrade her so that she could lie flat to keep her back from seizing up, otherwise we would have had to wheelchair her through the Dallas and Des Moines airports.  

My favorite moment on the flight was when we were coming in for the landing and for just a few seconds I could see the good old American flag flying at the end of the runway.  To the person that decided to put up that flag pole, thank you.  God bless the USA.

In Dallas we quickly found a table at a Mexican restaurant, ate chips and queso, drank fountain Pepsi with heaps of ice, and realized that we only need to order one kids meal for both the children.  The kids had a little play in the kids area, we all got freshened up, kids put on their trackies (sweatpants), and it was time to board our last flight.  We went from an A380 MASSIVE airplane, to a teensy tiny little regional jet to get us to Des Moines.  Lily fell asleep before we backed out of the parking spot and didn’t wake up until I woke her when it was time to get off the plane in Des Moines. 

Observation: I was surprised at how funny the Midwest accent sounded to me.  It has been a while since I have been around that many Midwesterners.  I used to think that we didn’t have an accent.  Now I can say with confidence that we do.  

We were nearly the last ones off the plane, then we had to make a potty stop, and then we headed to the baggage claim.  We knew that a few people were going to meet us at the airport, but whoa.  There were a lot of people there!!!  As soon as we saw the crowd, it felt like I couldn’t get to mom fast enough.  I managed (somehow) to hold back tears of joy while hugging everyone.  We were home.  God, it felt good.  We headed to baggage claim to pick up our seemingly endless amount of bags – enough for everyone to take one.  :). I have a million happy moments from the welcome crew, but probably my favorite was getting my arm caught in the hug between Emily and Ray.  It nearly broke.  Those two are best mates, and it was obvious to everyone how much they missed each other this year.  

Party.

After I retrieved my arm, we got all of the bags and people loaded up and convoyed over to Jess and Jason’s house for a little welcome home party.  Pickle wraps, Caseys pizza, Ruffles with dip, Busch Light…yum. Kirk popped the cork on the bottle of Moët that made it without a scratch, and as we didn’t have enough champagne glasses, we all had a little bubbly in red solo cups.  Classy as…  The kids were not even a little bit timid about anyone or anything, they just settled right in to life at home.  I snuck away and took the best shower of my life and put on my new flannel pajamas (pre washed with love by Sherry).  You know you are home when you can party in your pjs.  The first night was pretty good for all of us, a bit of jet lag, but not terrible.

Cars.

 Jess woke us up at 8:00 the next morning (Wednesday).  Kirk and Sherry rode with Jay and I to Davenport to pick up our two new cars – a BMW X5 diesel for me, and a Subaru Outback for Em.  While Jay was filling out the paperwork, Sherry and I went to Verizon to get a phone for me.  Next up was lunch at Hooters.  OMG was that good…  Jay went to Neckers Jewelers to get a replacement wedding band figured out and went to the credit union to deposit some AUD.  We all met up at our home where we picked up a load of things we might need before we get everything moved into a new home – winter clothes, vacuum, snow shovel, etc.  we filled up 3 SUVs with stuff, had a lovely chat with Paul and Mary, said a quick hi to Gary, and off we went.  Despite the night driving, the jet lag, and the fact that I haven’t driven on the other side of the car and road for two years, we had no problems getting back to Jess’s house.

Kids.

Jess and Emily had watched the kids while we were in Davenport, and boy did they have fun.  They went to the coop where Jason works and got the VIP treatment.  They got to test moisture levels of corn, drive a semi, and unload.  They loved it.  They went to Walmart and rode around in style.  Em, bless her heart, went through almost all of the suitcases and organized them to figure out what we need for the next week, and what could store at Jess’s until we get to the rental home.   

    
    
 We finished the job when we got home and tried to go to sleep that night.  Ty did great.  He slept from 10:00-6:00.  Lily, and therefore the rest of us, weren’t so lucky.  She wanted absolutely nothing to do with sleeping.  Poor kid.  She eventually fell asleep around 1:00 or so, after my horrible attempts to tell her stories of the 3 Little Pigs and Goldilocks from my sleep-deprived brain.

Farm.

Em took the kids first thing in the morning to the farm.  Ty was patient, but persistent about getting on the road ASAP.  He needed to help papa do chores, you see. They had an awesome day.  Chores, “gator” rides, farm toys, goodies to eat.  Two happy kids.  

    

    
    
    
    
 Observation:  Ty is happy.  I mean REALLY happy.  He has had zero meltdowns, no crying, no whining, no drama.  He is happy as…  It is amazing to me that someone so young can recognize and appreciate what “home” really is.  He has missed the US for two years.  He talked frequently about what he wanted to do when we come back to the US.  It makes sense now.  He really and truly missed everything and everyone that makes a “home”.

Work.

Jay had a full day at the office on Thursday.  I went in at lunchtime to meet up with my new boss, find out where I will be sitting, get my new laptop, and meet a few people who I will be working with.  I have CRUNCHY ICE just a few steps from my desk.  I can literally see the crunchy ice machine from my desk.  Praise the lord for crunchy ice.  An endless supply.

I was hoping to get out of there a bit early, but my compute transfer took a while, so it was about 5:30 before I could head out.  While I was waiting for my computers, I tried updating the software in my new phone and it basically crashed on me, so I had to go to the mall to the Apple Store to get it fixed.  

Home.

Finally everything was sorted and I could go to the farm.  Mom had made the most delicious French Dip sandwiches I have ever eaten, followed up with a Klondike bar.  Even Ty ate it, and he rarely eats anything.  He ate Nana’s beef with juice for 3 days straight.  I was wiped out, so we all went to bed at about 10:30.  Lily woke up around midnight (which is when most of this blog was written), but thankfully fell back to sleep.

Houses.

Jay and I spent all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday looking for a home.  We have ruled out 50 homes…ugh…  Too small, too expensive, too fancy, too boring, too small of yard, too far away, crappy bedroom layout (not kid friendly), too much work to fix, and on and on and on.  There wasn’t a single one that we both walked in and thought, yep, this is the one.  We kept a few homes on the short list, but are hoping that a few more come on the market after the holidays.  We talked to a builder and have a new home in mind as a backup plan, but prefer not to have to go that route as I don’t want to wait 6-8 months to get settled.  :(. We still have a little time, but need to make a decision in the next 2 weeks so that we don’t have to extend our rental or find another temporary home.

Leaf Lake.

Finally, someone has fallen in love with our home in Davenport.  After a few days of negotiations, we finally agreed on a price that makes everyone happy.  We have some paperwork and approvals to wait on, but things are coming together on the home sale side of things!  We have to have everything moved out of the home before 15 February.  It will go into storage until we settle on a new home.  Jay went to Davenport to meet the movers and get a few more things from the house.  His best friend, JR, surprised him with a 10:00 knock on the basement window.  Scared the crap out of him.  :). So glad he had a buddy to help get things taken care of.  

Rental.

Once again, we have packed up our things and loaded them into the cars.  We are moving into our rental home in the morning, and let me tell you, I cannot wait to get out of these flipping suitcases.  I need some organization in my life.  I am getting tired of saying “I have no idea where that is”.  Despite all of that, I would say that I have fared pretty well throughout this ordeal…so far…  We have told the kids we are moving into another holiday home for a couple months.  They have been troopers and have just rolled with everything. 

Thank you!!

I cannot put into words how thankful we are for everyone who has chipped in and helped us out over the past 2 weeks – watching and entertaining our kids, giving us a few beds to crash in, feeding us, doing our laundry, moving our things around, keeping our spirits up…  As overwhelming as all of this feels at times, all of you have made it manageable.  Thank you!!!  Just look how happy these kids are…

    
    
    
    
    
 Recollection.

I have had a lot of time to think about things during the last week or so.  Here are a few thoughts that I cut out of my first draft of my farewell speech simply due to time constraints, but didn’t want to delete.  

What have we learned about Australia over the past two years? People really do say “G’day mate” and “no worries”. There are, in fact, kangaroos hopping around on the side of the road. Supposedly there are koalas in trees, but I never saw one outside of Currumbin. The beaches really are that awesome. Thank god for the beaches because it gets smoking hot in the summer, yet many Aussies are super tough and don’t bother with air conditioning in their homes. Because the power bill is flipping ridiculously expensive. And when the air con breaks, good luck getting a tradie to come fix it. So while waiting for a tradie, you go to the pool or the beach with a pocket full of 100% waterproof Australian dollars. Yes, it really is waterproof.  

Did you know that when we first arrived in Australia, I wouldn’t put Lily down on the floor until I was certain that there were not any spiders or snakes lurking behind the chairs just waiting for a baby for dinner? I wouldn’t open my sliding glass doors for fear that something would sneak in and kill me. I still won’t walk through the grass barefoot, but I have lightened up quite a bit. And weird, we are all still alive.

Here are a few things that I never thought I would say or hear come out of Jay and my kids’ mouths.

Dad, I want a yabby pump for my birthday.

Be careful, the Sharks might bite my toes.

Mom! The sea turtle pooped out hundreds of eggs! Did you see it?!

I just got bit by an ant. And it hurts like a son of a gun.

That palm leaf almost landed on my head.

Look at the python under that walkway that just ate a wallaby.

OMG! There is a sea turtle swimming right below me!

Um Nicole, how did you manage to not notice that the tide had gone out while sitting on the boat? Oopsy!!!

Hey babe, my wedding ring slipped off my finger and went into the shark infested canal when I threw the crab back in.

Let’s go to the beach after we finish unwrapping Christmas presents.

So that pretty well brings you up to speed on where we are at in the process of repatriation.  I have left out all of the fun Christmas festivities from this blog – will post that separately.  G’day mates!

Today was a really tough day.  The office organized one last morning tea for us.  I knew that saying goodbye to my workmates was going to be incredibly difficult – ugh.  Sandi warned us that we would need to bring tisses and she was right.  Speeches from both Sandi and Cheryl, a beautiful slideshow of photos from our last two years set to tear jerking music, a sweet little thank you to Emily (which got us all crying), a perfect gift box, and then I had to try to talk.  I knew I would be emotional about halfway through so I prepared a speech ahead of time.  I wasn’t prepared to already be crying when I started speaking.  Thank goodness I wrote it all down ahead of time.  For my friends in Crestmead, I will never forget you.  Thanks for an awesome two years!

*** 

Thank you so much for organizing this Last Morning Tea.  One thing that Australians do really well is morning tea.  It hasn’t always been easy to adapt to the tea tradition, like the first time I tried a scone but didn’t know if I needed to put the jam or the cream on first, and Harry had to interrupt the department meeting to make sure I did it right.  Did you know that it took me almost an entire year to try a sausage roll?  I was imagining that it was like a hot dog – what we call pigs in a blanket in the states.  Cheryl’s sausage rolls taste NOtHiNG like pigs in a blanket – why the heck didn’t I try them sooner!  The first morning tea I tried to organize for Order Fulfilment was “interesting”, or so I was told.  Apparently caramel apples and veggies with ranch dip are not common morning tea items.  I was just trying to mix it up a bit!  Nobody ever complained about my brownies though, or Jay’s buffalo chicken dip.  :). 

My kids are forever going to expect a daily morning tea and afternoon tea.  Kids don’t have “tea” in the US – they have “snack time”.  I would love to see the look on Ty’s new teacher’s face the first time he asks when morning tea is.  She is going to think that we give our children actual tea to drink.  

Or imagine the first time he makes a mistake when drawing and he asks his teacher for a rubber.  We call those erasers in the US.  A rubber is something entirely different and may get him sent to the principal’s office.  Google it.  This will be similar to when he tells his teacher that he can’t find his thong.  Hopefully he doesn’t make a mistake on his artwork when he loses his flip flop, or I will most certainly receive a call from the teacher.  

If any of you have ever been to the corporate office in Moline, there is a skywalk between the East and West office buildings.  I was 7 months pregnant when Jay sent me an IM to go for a walk to the west office building.  He told me that we had an opportunity to go work in Brisbane.  I looked at my belly, looked at him, and said, “um, are you kidding?!?  Yes!” All before we crossed the skywalk.  My next question was “can I have the baby in the US before we go?”  I can remember laying in the hospital bed with Lily only a few hours old, talking to Jay about details of the move.  Was the timing ideal?  Nope.  But would it ever have been?  Probably not – it’s never the “right” time to do something this major.  We just saw the opportunity, realized that chances like that don’t come along every day, and went for it.  

The two years here have not always been easy for us. We have all been incredibly homesick at various times.  We have struggled with many cultural differences, and it took us quite a while to fully understand how things work in Australia.  For example, there is not a 24 hour Walmart within 20 minutes of anywhere.  Coffee is VERY different.  Mexican food?  What Mexican food?  Despite our little hiccups, we have tried to make the most of this crazy adventure.  We have travelled all over this beautiful country and a couple others nearby.  We have used every hour of vacation time wisely.  And we still didn’t get to see as much as we hoped.  Never take for granted this beautiful country you live in.  Get out there and see it.  

Now for the hard part of this little speech. Probably going to need some tissues.  Each and every one of you has made an impact on my life, and on Jay’s life.  You are all permanently etched into our memories.  While we made the most of our time away from work, most of our time was spent AT work.  Surrounded by all of you.  Day in, day out.  For over two years.  I have learned so much during my time at JDL. I showed up on my first day of work here with zero knowledge of Order Fulfilment, zero knowledge of how a foreign branch operates, zero knowledge of SAP SD.  Zero.  

So my first huge thank you goes to Cheryl.  The poor thing didn’t know what she had agreed to by taking me into her department.  Thank you for giving me a chance, teaching me, challenging me, encouraging me, supporting me, and laughing with me.  I hope that everyone here realizes the depth of knowledge, passion, determination, and genuine desire to make things better that Cheryl has to offer.  You are lucky to have her.  

My next thank you goes to my Order Fulfilment teammates – current and prior. I cannot thank you enough for everything you do every single day.  The volume of work that constantly flows through your desks, the relationships you build with the dealers, the knowledge you have on products, systems, and processes – are sometimes under-rated.  I think that everyone who wants to move up in this branch should do a rotation through OF.  There is exposure to almost every part of the organization – dealers, factories, logistics, warehousing, sales, marketing, JDF, accounting, IT…  Hiring managers – take note of the skills gained by an OF Analyst.  On a personal level, I have developed lasting friendships with my team.  I am going to miss seeing your smiling faces every day.  I am so proud of the way you have all come together and as a team have lifted the quality of the outputs from our department.  

Thank you to Sandi for having faith in Jay and I to come in and do these jobs, for going through all of the headaches and paperwork to allow us into the country, for all of your advice along the way.  And on a personal note, for introducing me to the awesome sport of netball.  Without it, I am quite certain that I literally would have gone crazy – such a great stress reliever!

I could stand here all day and say thank you to everyone in this room, but I realize that I have already taken up too much valuable time.  Please know that I am forever grateful for having had the chance to get to know all of you.  I hope that many of you friend me on Facebook to keep in touch, and definitely let us know if you are going to be in the states.  

We have sold or given away most of our personal possessions over the past few months, but there was one thing that I was not willing to sell, as I knew that I wanted to donate something special to the branch.  And so I leave you all with…our silverware!!  May you never rock up to an empty silverware drawer ever again.  And to all of you silverware thieves, these are fitted with a GPS tracking device and will explode if they leave the office in anyone’s lunch box.  

***

You should have heard the office when I unwrapped the bag of silverware.  Hilarious!  And then Stu said, “Are you giving us yours or are you returning ours?”  Perfect.

   
   
And with that, the tea was finished. Everyone went back to work.  We said a few more goodbyes, held back a few more tears, and then we all piled into our packed van and headed to the Novotel.  The kids paced around like caged animals, so they tried to swim but the water was frigid.  Lily asked if we could go home.  That is when I realized we are actually homeless, at least until 30 December.  Sigh.  

We are all now in “ready to go” mode.  Just waiting for 9:30 tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed for a restful night and an uneventful flight.  G’day mates!

Gracemere.

So many memories were made in this neighborhood… 

 Boxes.

I lied.  Thursday was the most stressful day.  There was still confusion over how many boxes we could actually send, what type of container (or pallet) our stuff was going in, and who was paying for the supposed 6 boxes we were “over”.  I couldn’t sleep at all on Wednesday night.  After about 50 phone calls, emails, talk of having to pull out and leave behind 6 boxes, or us having to go to the warehouse almost 2 hours away to unpack and repack boxes to get down to 6 less (we are only in country for 4 more days), it was finally all sorted at 10:30 PM on Thursday night.  I have moved 7 times during my career, and have never experienced this kind of stress and drama.  Usually moving day is pretty stress free as everything gets put in a truck and there is no worry about not having enough space.  Not the case in this international move.  I am a bit of a perfectionist, I hate chaos so I over-prepare, over-plan, and over-organize so that I don’t have to worry about time-pressure disasters.  I have spent the last 2 months planning, preparing, organizing, packing, sorting, purging, donating, pitching…all so that I could fit our life into two tiny containers.  So annoyed by the whole situation.  At least it is all sorted now, and we can move on…

Cleaners.

The cleaners came to the house on Thursday to make sure the house is sparkling before our exit inspection.  So glad we decided to hire them so that we didn’t have to worry about making sure everything was perfect.  Lord knows I was plum out of energy by Thursday.  

Picnic.

The accounting department had a going away picnic for Jay, complete with a piñata.  :). He has had the pleasure of working with a great group of people! 

    
 Inspection.

We had our final inspection on our home on Friday afternoon.  We have heard horror stories about people getting their bonds (deposits) held back over nit-picky things.  We had hired a painter to freshen up some of the high traffic walls, and to fix a spot on the wall in Lily’s room, but I was still nervous.  Apparently the owner or Hope Island Realty had figured that out house would be completely trashed because *gasp* we had a TRAMPOLINE inside our house.  They have never seen that before, so he assumed we were terrible renters.  At least we didn’t leave a dead spot in the grass…  And guess what… Our house inspection went off without a hitch.  Full bond refund.  Booyah!!!  Big sigh of relief on that one!

Art.

Ty had a blast at art this week.  One of my favorite pieces – a canvas painting of Snapper Rocks. 

 
Tennis.

Ty wrapped up his tennis lessons this week.  He has improved so much this year. Thanks to his coaches for keeping it fun! 

   
Ballet.

Em’s friend Robyn had an extra ticket to see the Nutcracker, so Em got to experience her first ballet.  As you can imagine, she was on the edge of her seat the whole time – absolutely loved it!   

   
Tavern.

Jay and I took the kids to the Sanctuary Cove tavern Friday night.  We had a nice bottle of red to celebrate the successes of the week.  The kids loved running around the courtyard with the other children.  It was a beautiful evening – uneventful but still memorable.  We are going to miss this lifestyle. 

 Brekky.

Saturday morning we had brekky with Miss Steph and Mr Kyson.  Those two…where do I begin?  They have been a big part of our lives for the past two years.  Steph has not only played a huge part in Lily’s early child development at Bonnie Babes, but she and Kyson have allowed Jay and I to have some evenings away without having to worry at all whether or not the kids are OK.  The kids absolutely adore the two of them, and are going to miss them.  We have had some great chats in the late hours of the night – lots of laughs!  We will be following your lives on Facebook and hope to see you in Iowa someday.

Parkers.

Rae and Gary Parker.  Such a beautiful couple.  Do you remember shortly after Em arrived when she drug me out to the wine bar, and I said I would go for only one drink?  Well, we met the Parkers that night, and one glass of wine turned into one bottle (or two or three) which turned into closing down the tavern.  Em has had countless fun nights out with Rae and Gary – me not as much as Jay and I stayed home with the kiddos while the nanny had a night out.  Well the two of them completely outdid themselves on Saturday afternoon/evening by throwing an Aussie Christmas party.  There were probably 40 people there – most of whom I had never met before but wish I had met sooner.  The kids swam.  The food was never ending.  The wine glasses were bottomless.  Amazing.  The highlight of the night was when Santa arrived by boat with presents for Ty, Lily, Chase and Cruz (whose dad is a race car driver if you couldn’t guess by the names), and for Jay, Em and I.  After a few hilarious photos with Santa, Rae gave a sweet little speech, and we were all trying to hold back tears.  It isn’t often that you meet people so randomly and become such good friends.  Blessed. 

    
    
    
    
    
   
Koala.

Can you believe that after the 25 times that we have gone to Currumbin with guests, Emily and I have never actually held a koala?  Sunday morning we had to rectify the situation so we cruised down the coast for one last koala photo shoot.  Love those little critters. 

   
Snapper.

Since we were that far down the coast, we had lunch at Snapper Rocks and let the kids play in the rock pools one last time.  Love watching the endless stream of surfers running by to catch the next wave.  Truly a magical place. 

    
    
 Van.

The kids fell asleep as soon as we got in the car, so we drove all the way up to the airport to pick up our rental van, that is (hopefully) big enough to haul us and all of our bags to the airport.  

Goodbyes.

We went back to our old house to pick up our suitcases and say goodbye to Alicia and the boys, and the Louw’s.  Have I mentioned how much I don’t love goodbyes?  More sweet families that we are going to really miss… 

    
    
 Panic.

We got back to Sanctuary Cove around 6:30 and went into full on pack mode, loading up the van with all of our things.  Once again…we have too much stuff.  After trying really hard to make it fit, we decided to take advantage of the Coen’s offer to bring some stuff home with them over Christmas.  Coen’s to the rescue!!  So it is Sunday night, the bags are packed, van is loaded.  Tomorrow morning we have to stop by the office for our last morning tea (will probably bawl like a baby) before checking into a hotel by the airport for the night.  Getting closer!!  G’day mates!

I am never moving again.  Ever.  Never ever.  

Well, until another exciting opportunity arises that I cannot resist…

I suppose moving is a bit like having a second baby.  You generally forget the crap you had to go through to bring Thing 1 into the world and decide to go for Thing 2.

So here’s how the week has gone.  Monday Jay went to work.  Ty is signed up for art classes with Miss Betty all day every day this week.   

 I packed.  And packed. And packed some more.  10 suitcases plus a few carry ons.  All lining the walls in the old toy room.

Our air shipment pile is looking good.  I am fairly confident everything will fit.  Fingers crossed!  I have a “last to pack” pile of more stuff I can part with without too many tears, but would love to send home if possible.  

Almost all of the items that we sold to people at the office are gone – only exceptions are the bean bags and pool chair for seating.

A couple boxes of clothes and shoes packed for Fiji.  Several bags of clothes and toys for The Sisterhood.

I think I sat down for 5 minutes on Monday, just enough time to stuff a ham sandwich in my mouth. 

 Our neighbors, Alicia, Taj, and Hudson stopped by Monday night to see if the kids wanted to go over for one last play.  Alicia has been such a sweet neighbor.  All of our kids play so well together.  I am going to miss them.  She brought over a thoughtful little gift – some Aussie tea towels and 2 picture frames – one with Lily, Taj and Hudson, and one with Ty and Taj.  I’m sad to think about the fact that those kids won’t be growing up together, cruising down the Coomera river on their tinnies in 10 years…  Alicia kept the kids at her house for quite a while, even fed them dinner, which gave us adults more time to do some uninterrupted packing.  One last play…

Roo.

We are sadly unable to take Roo, our concrete kangaroo, home with us.  She was prohibited from being sent home in the back of the ute, which was our plan when we bought her.  And she is just too heavy for me to feel OK about air shipping home – after working in supply chain for 2 years, I am fully aware of the cost of air shipping stuff, especially heavy stuff.  I was exhausted so I put the kids to bed while Jay and Em loaded up Roo on the buggy and abandoned her in the front yard of the Coen’s home.  Like anytime you abandon a family member in a foreign country, it was sad and difficult to leave her behind, but we are confident she is in good hands. 

    
 Rental.

Tuesday morning Jay stayed home (thank god) to assist with the rental furniture removal, more packing, and helping watch Lily.  Em’s back is a hot mess so she does what she can but we are trying to get her fixed up before the long trip home.  We watched the boys pack up all of the things that we have looked at and used for two years, and put it in a truck, never to be seen again.  Kind of sad…  The beds, the couches, the chairs, the TV (lily wasn’t happy to see those go…), the fridges, the dishes, the pots and pans.  Gone.  By 2:00, the house was nearly empty, the only remaining items were the things to go into the air shipment and donations.  The house echoes when we talk.  Empty.

Tiger.

We handed over the keys to Tiger, our beloved buggy.  This was not easy.  He was sold to our new neighbors, who I have determined are weird.  The wife has been friendly over text messages, which was how the deal went down, but they have not said two words to us otherwise.  Not the time that Em and I tried to strike up a conversation with the dad about his sweet mustang when he was in the garage.  Not the time that we tried to save their dog from either being eaten by bull sharks or running away when we noticed that he snuck under the fence.  Not the time that we went out to the dock to watch a beautiful sunset and they shut their sliding glass door when Lily shouted a few times. Cold and unfriendly.  And far too wealthy.  I feel guilty sending Tiger to the dark side…  Lily doesn’t understand – when she sees it in the neighbors driveway, she says “Me see Lily buggy”.  I sure hope Santa brings her a new buggy in the US. 

 Sanctuary Cove.

We moved into our first of several temporary homes on Tuesday afternoon.  It is a beautiful holiday home in Sanctuary Cove – very comfortable and fitted with everything we need.  It even has a buggy, Netflix and video games, so Ty is stoked.  We got settled in and went to the pizza and wine bar on the buggy for dinner.  It will be fun to take advantage of all that Sanctuary Cove had to offer this week. 

   
Shipment.

The packer showed up at 10:00 on Wednesday morning to put all of our air shipment items into boxes.  He had quite the process – lined up 7 or 8 boxes and just started shoving stuff in.  Like a giant puzzle.  After getting incredibly stressed about how many boxes we could actually fit into our 2 containers, about 50 phone calls and text messages, and wanting to break down and cry multiple times, Beau finished the packing and sent our stuff on its way.  Wednesday wins the award for the most stressful day of the year.  I am never. Ever. Moving again. 

   
After Beau left, I loaded up the THIRD SUV load of stuff for the Coen’s to take away.  This does not include the countless piles of “free stuff” that we have been taking to the office every day.  I swept out the garage and moved all of our suitcases to the garage so the cleaners could do their thing on Thursday.  Miss Steph and Mr Kyson swung by the house to pick up some things for daycare and the Sisterhood charity.  Jay came home from work and stuck around for the painter to finish patching up a few spots on the walls.  And loaded up another car load of free stuff for the office.  By the time I got back to Sanctuary Cove, I was BEAT.  I am never. Ever. Moving again.

Nanny cam.

Meanwhile, Em and Lily were hanging out at the beach-like pool at Sanctuary Cove.  If you recall, this is the pool that we got kicked out of a long time ago…but since we are “residents” this week, we are not breaking any rules!  Yay!! 

   
Beam.

Linda came over to pick up the balance beam for Charne.  This is how we move things in Hope Island… 

 And this is all we have left…   

 Breakdown.

Jay and Emmy cooked tacos while I put my feet up, sipped a glass of wine, and let a heat pack work its magic on my poor aching shoulders.  At dinner we were rehashing the stress of the day and I couldn’t hold it in anymore.  When I thought about how hard I have worked over the past two months to part with SO MUCH of our belongings, and STILL was pushing the limits on our allotted space, the pent up stress finally got to me.  I was crying and Lily came over serenading me with “Let it go” and gave me a kiss and a cuddle.  Love.  

 Boxing.

After dinner we went for a quick little buggy scoot around the marina.  Jay finally got to see some boxing kangaroos.  They actually grunt when they are fighting.  Awesome.  On our buggy ride, we were throwing out ideas for names for my new car.  Kanga.  Hammo.  Snapper (pronounced “snappah”).  I am leaning towards Snappah.

That’s enough for now.  More fun to round out the week…  I’m going to bed.  G’day mates.

As we get closer to our departure date, we are doing a lot of things for the last time.  Pretty heavy and emotional, but we have to get through the “lasts” to make room for new “firsts”.

Cars.

Jay bought two of the three cars we need!  Car shopping from the other side of the world is interesting…we scour the Internet, then Jay emails back and forth during our morning, then we get a response the next day saying that vehicle has been sold, so we start the process over again.  We pretty much have to go with what we know, since we can’t go for a test drive.  I am getting another x5 diesel, similar to what I had when we moved here, only white.  I loved that car, wasn’t ready to give it up.  Em got a Subaru Outback, which she has already named Aussie.  Jay is going to take his time to find the perfect car or truck – he is still undecided at the moment.  Feels good to have two big items ticked off the list.  

   
Sea pen.

We sold the sea pen!  I was getting a little anxious, but a guy came by with cash yesterday.  Sold!!  Thank goodness that worry is gone.  

Sick.

Poor Emmy has been uber sick this week.  She has a flu/cold and has been laying in bed for three days.  She is quarantined to the sick room – I am praying that nobody else gets sick.  I have stayed home this week to take care of Lily and run Ty around.  This nanny gig is hard work.  I have a new appreciation for everything that Emily does during the day.  I am pretty sure I spent most of those 3 days in the car driving back and forth – school, home, gymnastics, home, school, home…

House.

We have a temporary home lined up – we will be in Grimes from 30 December until 1 March.  Fingers crossed we find a permanent home ASAP.  Between Dec 15-30, we will be crashing at either my parents or Jay’s parents.  Relieved to know we have a place to move into after the holidays.

School.

We called one of the schools in an area that we are looking at homes to figure out what we need to do to get Ty started back into a school routine as soon as possible.  Once we have a purchase agreement for a home, we can call the school we think we fall in to make sure.  The kids start back up on 4 Jan, so hopefully we will know where we will be living by then.  The ladies we talked to were really nice, offered to give us their cell phone numbers to contact them over the holidays.  Should be relatively painless once we have a house.

Christmas Carols.

We went to a Christmas carols program at Ty’s school.  He and Lily rocked the new sunnies.  The kids were all a bit silly, and had heaps of fun with the LED candles.  I’m not sure any of them heard the music or sermon, but they had fun.   

    
    
    
   
Christmas Program.

The prep to Year 3 students had a Christmas program this week, and each class did a song/dance routine.  I was impressed with the performances, creativity, costumes…  It was a very entertaining event!  Especially entertaining when baby Jesus’s head fell off during the nativity scene.   

    
   
Artwork.

Ty brought home his art folio.  I am overly conscious of how much space we have (or more appropriately DON’T have) to send stuff home to the US, so when I saw the size of his folio, I panicked.  We sat down on the floor and he showed us every piece of paper.  I set aside my favorites and when we finished, I told Ty that we can’t take everything back with us.  He picked up his giant black folio and said, “yes we can mom.  See, I can just carry it into the plane like this.”  Breaks my heart…  Yes, I teared up.  Had to leave the pile of art and school work for Jay to put in the bin because I don’t have it in me to do it. 

 Saint Stephens.

Ty’s last day of “college” at Saint Stephens was on Friday, 4 December.  He has had a great year of prep, is reading quite well, can write sentences, has a knack for numbers (weird – wonder where he got that from), and excels in art, music and PE.  He has developed strong friendships that I hope will continue even though we are on the other side of the world.  He made Christmas cards for all of his friends in Prep H and I stuck in a note with my contact info.  He has matured quite a lot throughout this year, has confidence, improved behavior, and is an all around happy kid.  It will be interesting to see how he adapts to his new school in the US and how his knowledge level compared to other kids in kindergarten. 

    
    
    
    
 Lunch.

My workmates organized an amazing lunch on Thursday for me.  I was not allowed to help out with anything, and they all brought in something to share.  They set up tables outside with tablecloths, flowers, confetti, music…  It was such a special little lunch, and I am so appreciative of their efforts!  I was not prepared to give a little speech so I blubbered my way through and tried not to cry.  They gave me a super cute new purse, some gold earrings, and a card with so many sweet things written inside.  I am really going to miss this group of lovely people.   

 
   
    
    
 Last day.

Friday was my last day in the office.  I will be working when I can between now and the US, between packing, moving, cleaning, inspecting, etc, but physically I will not be working at JDL anymore.  They are organizing a morning tea on Monday, Dec 14 when we are on our way to the airport hotel, so I chose to not walk around and say goodbye to everyone yet.  I hate goodbyes.  I have a really hard time in emotional situations, and saying permanent goodbyes to all of these people is highly emotional for me.  There were two of my close co-workers that will not be here for the tea that I had to say goodbye to…and I got choked up.  

Zushi.

Friday night we had dinner with the Coen’s and the Osman’s at the Japanese restaurant Zushi in Surfers Paradise.  There were 8 kids at the table and they all had so much fun!  Aside from Ty running off and giving me a major panic moment, it was a great night.  Two beautiful families that we are blessed to have met. 

  

 Santa.

The annual water park Christmas party was in Saturday st Wet-n-Wild.  The kids had a blast running up the ramp, down the slides, over and over again.  They loved seeing Santa and getting presents.  Emily loved seeing Santa in board shorts, sunnies, and flip flops.  🙂 

 
Candyman.

So there is an uber wealthy dude that calls himself the Candyman.  He is in the tobacco business, and has more money than he knows what to do with, apparently.  For example, he drives a gold plated Lamborghini – one of his fleet.  Also has at least one Bentley.  You know, just your average every day drivers…  He lives in the next neighborhood, just outside of the buggy boundaries.  Saturday night he threw a massive party – rumor has it he spent at least a half million on this party.  Helicopters were flying around, lambos, ferraris, bentleys, mazeratis were cruising down Hope Island road, security was at the gate, and as soon as the sun went down, we could hear the music and shouting.  He put on an amazing fireworks display – the best one we have seen here.  So we decided to take a little buggy ride to see if we could see anything.  We found a place to park the buggy that sort of had a view of his backyard – you couldn’t miss it with all of the lights shining into the sky.  There were a few boats in the canal with people stalking the party (just like us), and people in their backyards jamming out to the thumping music.  I can’t believe we didn’t get an invitation…

Sunsets.

One thing I will miss about Australia is the amazing sunsets over the canal.  But I am looking forward to my Iowa sunsets. 

 Boots.

Emily has been mentally preparing Lily for winter in Iowa.  We are making progress but have some work to do… 

 Gymnastics.

Lily has been going to gymnastics at Gullivers twice a week since Em arrived.  She has done so well – is totally in her element at the gym.  She got to show off what she has learned on Saturday morning.  She loves Miss Erika, and spent every spare minute attached to Miss Erika’s hip.  We will have to find someone just like her in Des Moines.  Our little gymnast! 

    
    
           
Joy.

One of our workmates, Joy, had been swapping leftovers with us (again, since Em arrived).  She gets the short end of the stick every time because she cooks amazing dishes.  She invited us over to her cute little apartment for lunch on Sunday.  She reminded me of Aunt Jeanne – enough food to feed an army, every single thing was amazing, and she prepared all of it in a tiny little kitchen.  Butter chicken, pepper steak, sweet and sour pork, chicken wings, cereal shrimp…and just when we were completely stuffed, we got to see her culinary skills in action as she made banana fritters.  OMG.  Might be the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.  Fried bananas – should totally be on the state fair menu.  And THEN she pulls out a homemade mint chocolate cake.  And she had homemade gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate (which they LOVED). Roll me outta there…  She had perfect little gifts for each of us – a superhero lunch box for Ty, a little doll purse that Lily has played with all day, a casserole dish carrier for Em, and the Crabtree & Evelyn lotion and perfume in my favorite scent coincidentally called “Lily”.  Perfect.  I am getting teary-eyed as I write this.  I am going to miss her.  Her name suits her perfectly as she is a complete bundle of joy all of the time.   

         
Pack.

Sunday afternoon was filled with more packing and purging.  Huge thank you to Katie for coming over and taking an entire car load of things I don’t want to pack up and ship home.  The office has a pretty decent pile of free stuff to sort through tomorrow.  🙂

Massage.

Our last massage with Ania…she has been a godsend to Em and I.  She is more than a masseuse.  She is a therapist (mental and physical) and a great friend.  She has worked her magic on me countless times.  Sometimes when I was physically crippled and couldn’t move, and sometimes when I was mentally near breaking point…every time she left here, I felt a thousand times better than when she arrived.  I randomly stumbled across her from a website – completely a cold call – I am so lucky to have found her.  I am going to miss her…my next masseuse in Des Moines has huge shoes to fill.

Night swim.

Jay and the kids went for one last night swim.  This has been the best pool.  So many fun memories were made in that pool.  Cannonballs, big balls, big flips, squirt guns, night swims…my kids pretty much learned to swim in the hot tub.  My next pool in Des Moines has big shoes to fill.

Nanny cam.

As the nanny was in quarantine most of this week, I was in charge of taking most of the nanny cam photos, which is why there are not very many.  I am not cut out to be a nanny… Huge thank you to Linda for taking care of Em and watching Lily on Thursday when Em’s back decided to break again!

    
   
Week.

Big week ahead of us.  Furniture gets picked up on Tuesday so we are moving to a holiday home in Sanctuary Cove.  Air shipment arrives on Wednesday.  Cleaners come on Thursday.  Exit inspection on Friday.  Christmas party on Saturday.  Beach and Currumbin on Sunday.  Last morning tea on Monday and move to Novotel.  Fly home on Tuesday.  Fingers crossed everything goes smooth!

G’day mates!