Texas.

We made it. We have been in Texas for almost three weeks now and in our house for almost two weeks. There have been many rough days with lots of tears for everyone. Jet lag is hard. Leaving friends is hard. New schools are hard. Arranging a new life is hard. But TODAY has been a great day.

Today, the littlest two played dolls without crying, and without fighting, for two hours. This was a first since we have moved. Today, the swingset got set up. Today, the balance bike arrived. And today, I got to see my Aussie bestie face to face thanks to modern technology. TODAY has been a great day!

We will continue to adjust, little by little, back to our American life that was nearly forgotten. While so many things are the same, I had forgotten how much was different. My two little ones, who have no memory of America, remind me daily of the things that amaze them. Here are a few of my favorites...

"The chemist has a drive thru. It is just like Maccas!" (That is McD's to you Americans - and the only drive thru we know in Sydney.)

In response to seeing the swingset... "Mummy! We have our OWN park now in our OWN backyard. Can we go there whenever we want? We don't even have to drive!"

A place to call home...

Well, it has been a few weeks since my last post and in that time we have been unpacking boxes and trying to get this house settled. This move was by far the hardest of our moves to date... then again, this is the first move without my mommy AND with four kids! This was our 8th move in 12 years. That is a lot of cardboard boxes and rearranging furniture. For all of our recent moves - since we have had kids - my mom and dad have been part of the mix. Even with our move to England, my parents were able to come over and lend a hand. Usually the men piddle with the electronics and drill holes in the walls for pictures while my mom and I work like mad to get everything put away and make the new house OUR home. So, this move has been hard partially because I have not had them to help. Really, while the extra set of hands is nice, the best part of having my parents around is that we immediately have a sense of family and a whole new set of memories to start our new life, in our new house. So, we miss you mom and dad and can hardly wait until your first trip "down under!"

A sample of what many of our boxes looked like when they arrived...

Sadly, many of the things in the boxes were not so great either. Yes, that chair is missing a leg and it never did turn up. Perhaps we can find it floating around Sydney's port...

Aside from unpacking and reorganizing, we have also celebrated the littlest one's first birthday! Wow - this year has flown by. It is amazing to me that she is a year already. A lot has happened in this past year. The lucky little one got to celebrate her first in beautiful Australia. While we don't know a lot of people here, we did have a little "party" for her. We have gotten to be friends with one family here that came over for pizza and cake. We'll call that a party!

No shirt, No Shoes = Service

We have been in Australia now for 5 days and it has been wild. We have seen a remarkable number of men with no shirts on. Every where we go, people are half dressed. Shoes also seem to be optional. Even in a cafe or a store, people walk around with no shoes and no shirts. After all, we are in Oz!

We have been very busy trying to get our new lives in order here. We have been house hunting, car hunting, appliance hunting, car seat hunting and more. I had forgotten what the expat money hemorrhage feels like. We just spend and spend and feel like it will never end!

Speaking of things that never end... the refrigerator beeps. and beeps. and beeps. Every time the temperature drops it starts to beep again. In fact, not only does this lovely appliance serve as a cooling device (sort of) it also serves as an alarm. Three nights in a row, we have been awakened around 2 am to reset the fridge! Of course we have called the agent for the house and she is working on it but it looks like things are not done quickly around here. The earliest appointment for service at the time is Tuesday. Looks like a 2 am wake up beep is in order for a few more nights!

All this beeping makes me wish for a place to call home - so we have been house hunting. But, house hunting was disappointing on the whole. We only had 7 houses to look at and only 4 of them were within a 20 minute drive to the kids school. We looked at a few on Manly beach which were nice but would have been about 30 minutes to school. And, with 2 campuses to drop off and pick up at, I think that would mean about 3 hours a day in the car for me and the babies. Not ideal by any means. Several houses were just a lot smaller than what we wanted or were in poor condition as well. But, in the end, we found one house that is very nice and should work just fine for us. It is about a 10 minute drive to school and about 25 to work so the location is great. Plus, it is just up the hill from the beach and has a park at the end of the block. Unfortunately it lacks any sort of dining room but it has enough bedrooms for our brood (in fact this is the ONLY house that had 5 bedrooms) and has a great pool. It even has a basement with space for a guest room and a play room. So pack your bags and be on your way...

the house

the pool
(this is an old picture and it is not currently
covered but is open to the Aussie sunshine)

the kitchen

the view

Now that the house is settled, we need to buy two cars. Now, for J that is pretty easy. Something to get him from point A to point B that has a/c and that is about it. But, for me, the task is more difficult. Fitting 4 child safety seats in one car is a challenge - especially with the strict regulations here in Oz. So far we have decided to be law breakers and continue to use our American car seats although we have been told by many people they are illegal. But, they are safe even if they don't have "the sticker" on them. Maybe I should start selling approved by the Australian gov't stickers to other poor souls like me. I just can't justify $1 200 Aussie for 2 new car seats when we have ones that work just fine and are arguably the safest seats you can buy. Speaking of new careers, I think I will become a car designer in my next life. All these car manufacturers really need a mom on the design team. The problem seems to always be that the seat with the anchor points for the car seat is also the only seat that slides forward for access to the back row - which of course cannot be moved if a car seat is actually installed! This makes finding a car that we can use while the 4 seats are in it very difficult. We have narrowed the search to a Volvo XC90, a Mazda CX9, a Ford Territory or a (GASP) Chrysler minivan. Let's hope we can pass a clone of "Liz's Van" by and make something a little more exciting work! I will let you all know what we settle on.

All frustrations aside, this week has gone by very well. The kids seem to be adjusting well to the time. Only little W is waking up at night and this morning everyone slept until 6:30. The weather is beautiful and the area is amazing. We have visited several parks and beaches to let the kids have some time to run free in between all the house hunting and shopping. I am looking forward to getting all the little details settled so we can just start living life!

G'day Mate!

At DIA with a lot of luggage! Believe it or not, we packed light!

Greetings from down under! For my first post from Australia, I thought you all would like to see some pictures of our temporary house and hear some first impressions. But first, our long flight... We flew from Denver to LAX and then on to Sydney. The first flight was only 2 1/2 hours and passed fairly quickly. Although, we left at 6 pm so the babies were pretty tired and grumpy. We got off the plane to discover our stroller was missing a few wheels. Not a good sign of things to come - or at least this seemed to be on par with the way this relocation has been going. Nothing has happened with out issue this move. Fortunately it was the center wheels on the double stroller so we were able to make it work okay to get through the airport. Unfortunately for us, United Airline's policy is the following - "United does not assume liability for normal wear and tear to baggage which includes damage to or loss of protruding baggage parts, such as WHEELS." We still plan to follow up but I think the outlook is grim on this one!

So, it was on to our long 14.5 hour flight. We did not have seats together but after some begging, we were able to get some people to move so that we had 6 seats together. Little W fell asleep before take off and slept for a good 6 hours before waking up. C and M fell asleep fairly quickly while the big boy could not wait to start watching movies. He watched a few and about 3 am Denver time, he fell asleep and slept for a very long time! It was about 3 am Sydney time when we all started to stir on the plane. C was bored and got a little wild - we had to go to the potty at least 10 times an hour but fortunately we were seated right next to it! And also fortunate that the flight attendants thought she was cute and did not get too annoyed. After we deplaned, we made it through immigration and customs with no issues and basically no wait time. Our only loss was the one small ziploc of trail mix -no nuts are allowed in for fear of some disease. All our baggage arrived with no problem and our ride was there as well. We got to see a little of the city on our drive to our new rental house and even got to cross the amazing Harbor Bridge.

Sleeping soundly on the flight to Sydney.

Our rental house is an old victorian in a great area. We have beautiful views of the Harbor bridge, the Opera House, the CBD (central business district) and of course the water around Sydney. What a fabulous spot. We have a pool in the yard that we were able to try out yesterday. Looks like it is going to to be a fun final few weeks of summer here in Sydney.

Last night we all slept great. The kids were all asleep by about 7 and I was asleep by about 8:30. The babies woke up about 5:30am and the big kids followed a little while after. Not too shabby for an 18 hour time change! Today, we are headed to the kids school where A has an interview with the principal. Then I think we will go in search of some necessary items like a blow dryer, Australian approved car seats, two new cars, and many other things. Of course we will not achieve all this in one day but hopefully we can make a start. I am sure I will have many stories as we start trying to make our way around Sydney and get settled! Stay tuned...