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!

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. 

    
   

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!