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!