Thar' she blows!

We have been enjoying our time with my parents and have been visiting many local sights all over again.  As a special treat, Jay took off work on Friday.  We ate lunch at Murray's Brewery, which was really yummy and then headed out on a whale watching cruise.

This was our second time on the MoonShadow cruise.  While we didn't have any jumping whales this time, we had some great sightings.

My parents enjoyed their first whale cruise, though they had to bundle up a bit from the cold.

The water was rolling quite a bit, though we didn't have a lot of white caps.  It made spotting the whales a lot easier.

We even got to see a little flipper action.  The whales were being quite playful, but they just didn't feel like coming out of the water. 

We had one whale surface right next to the boat.  It then dove and swam under the boat from the middle starboard side and resurfaced on the front port side.  I grabbed a few good pictures before it went down on a deeper sounding dive. 

This picture is not only my favorite from the day, it is probably the best picture from the day.  It almost looks fake, but it's real. 

On the way back to the dock, we got to visit with some harbor seals. There are two in this picture.  Can you find them?

We also got to see some dolphins up close.  We had a few that chose to ride in the bow wave of the boat.

They swam right along with us and seemed to enjoy the attention from all the passengers.  All the boys loved seeing the dolphins up close. 

Random Ramblings

As I sit down to write this, I am listening to a large thunderstorm forming and moving our way.  The sky is fairly split with half of it a beautiful blue and the other half, just as dark and foreboding as could be. 
I thought I'd write about just some totally random things going on.

Valentine's Day- ask an Australian if they celebrate it and the answer is no.  It is very much considered an American holiday.  No parties or little cards at school and very little in the shops besides Easter products.  However, come Valentine's Day, everyone I knew got a little or big something from their someone special.  So, they do celebrate it, but don't want to admit it. 

My someone special got me flowers, and I made him pie. 

I also made moon-shaped ravioli.  Pretty simple, though time consuming.  Jay and the boys ate it up and asked for seconds.  Joe and Tom both proclaimed it was the best meal EVER.

Since we returned from our holidays in the States, we've had a new friend. 

This magpie likes to sit on the deck and beg for food.  We eat outside a lot so he thinks we are feeding him.  He sits and sings to me as well. 

As you can see from the picture, it's raining here.  We've been needing rain and we've pretty much had some rain every day this week.  Some days it starts off raining and then clears to sunny and hot.  Other days, like today, it starts off sunny and hot and should be ending in rain.   

The boys all seem to be settled into school and doing fairly well.  Joe and Tom have been signed up for soccer which starts at the end of April. 

I am finding that three full days off a week is a bit on the boring side.  Yes, yes, I know.  How dare I say that I am bored!?!  I don't really understand why I am bored.  I've done something with friends at least one day each week, but I really need to figure out what I am doing with my life. 

The kids have just come in to ask if they should be worried about tornadoes with the large storm coming.  For the most part, no, but there is always a risk.  Did you know that the entire country of Australia has about 16 tornadoes a year?  The U.S. averages about 1,000 tornadoes a year. 

I don't really have much more to say right now. 

(I had to pause halfway through writing this in order to bring my washing in from the line.  The storm has arrived.)

Jenolan Caves

Friday after school, we drove about 7 hours (including a stop for dinner) to a place in the Blue Mountains called Jenolan Caves (pronounced Ja' nolan).  We stayed two nights in a two bedroom cottage.  The cottage was a bit dated and only had rain water so drinking water had to be boiled.  There was eight cottages in the same place and a nice playground and some outdoor barbeques.  As we were driving to the cottages late Friday night, we actually saw an echidna crossing the road.  Echidnas are very rare and difficult to find.  It was neat to actually see a wild one and one that was not sleeping.  Typically in zoos, they are asleep. 
We awoke Saturday morning to find more wildlife.

The kangaroos would hop a bit away if the kids ran through or made too much noise.  However, if you were quiet and slow moving, then the roos didn't hardly move. 
The kids really enjoyed the playground for the little bit that they got to play on it.  It was raining Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. 
Anyway, after breakfast, we drove the last 8km to Jenolan Caves.  You actually drive through a cave to get to the Jenolan Cave House.

This place is a hotel, restaurant, etc.  The ticket office is near it as well.  You drive past it just a bit for parking.  It was built in 1898, after the original buildings were partially destroyed by fire.  The caves have been a popular tourist destination since the 1860's.  Original tours were done by candle light.  Electric lights were finally installed in 1887.  In some of the caves, you can see where early tourists wrote their names in candle smoke on the cave walls or ceilings. 
Our first tour of the day was to the Orient Cave.  It is an awesome cave, filled with fancy formations.

Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but these pictures are nothing compared to the real thing! 
After the Orient, we did the self guided tour of the Devil's Coach House and the Nettles Cave.  Each of us had a little handset to listen on.  The kids got to listen to a special kids version while we had the grown up tour.  It was a very enjoyable tour and the kids asked to do it again and again. 
After the self tour, it started to rain.  We had to eat our picnic lunch in the car and then had to kill a little time before our next tour.  We drove out to Kanangra Wall, but it was too rainy and foggy to see anything.  We drove back in the pouring rain and had to park and walk through the pouring rain to our next tour.  We were all a little wet as the umbrellas didn't keep us dry.  Poor Jay had no umbrella so he was completely soaked and quite a bit cold on the next tour. 
The Lucas Cave has some very vast chambers.  They even hold concerts in one of the chambers! 

This is my favorite picture from the Lucas Cave.  Unfortunately, we were in a large group and I was near the back.  The guide was trying to move us through quickly and was dimming lights by the time I would try to take pictures of stuff.  The Lucas Cave is the most popular and most visited cave in the park. 
Rain made us change our Sunday plans so we went back to the Caves and booked the Imperial Diamond tour. 

This is the River Styx. 

This is the Gem of the West. 
We had a great time and can't wait to go back and visit some more caves.
I posted many more pictures on Facebook if you are interested in seeing more pictures.

Home again, home again...

As much as I loved my trip home to visit family and friends, I am happy to be back here.  Today is the first of many busy days over the next few.  While I've done really well at reducing my busy nature, I managed to make the next few really busy.
I stayed for a scrapbooking crop in Maryland, but it squished the amount of vacation time left for the boys to only a few days.  They go back to school on Monday, and it is already Thursday.
So for the next few days, I have to unpack the suitcases, prep for back to school, prep for Sam's birthday on Sunday, clean house for said birthday party, and host the party...all this while fighting jet lag.  What exactly was I thinking?
Our trip home was fairly uneventful.  For the first time in a long time, I didn't have to have extra security searches.  I tend to be the one that has bags gone through, pat downs, body scanners, etc.  I guess being the adult with three children has some perks.  Perks were few though.  I was throughly stressed and tired by the time we arrived yesterday.  I am tired today too. 

I think my hand is starting to cramp...

I decided today to start the process of getting the boys enrolled in school here.  18 pages per child later, I have everything just about filled out.  Geez. 
So here is the process for enrolling a child in school if you are on a temporary visa. 
Step 1) Find a home.  You need an address before anything can happen. 
Step 2) Figure out which school you would like to attend based on your address
Step 3) Fill out 7 1/2 pages of the Authority to Enroll form.
Step 4) Visit your hoped for school and have the principal fill out the other 1/2 page of the authority to enroll form
Step 5) Mail all forms, along with a certified copy of passport and visa to the NSW government
Step 6) If your forms are in order, your credit card will be charged 12 months of tuition BEFORE your child is even accepted into a school. (more on this in a minute)
Step 7) Once you get your authority to enroll form, you then fill out the 10 page application to enroll form for your choosen school and return it to the school.  The school will then schedule an interview.
Step 8) Family interview
Step 9) If the interview goes well, your child can now start school!

I went ahead and started filling out the application forms first, not realizing until down towards the end that we need the authority forms first.  So I have filled out almost 18 pages worth of stuff.  My hand is cramping a little.
Tuition:  Since we are not citizens of Australia, we get charged tuition to attend a public school.  If we were on a permanent visa, we wouldn't get charged much, but we are on a temporary visa.  We get to pay $4500 a year for the priviledge of going to a public school.  NGC thankfully pays for this.  Though we will have to pay for uniforms and books by ourselves.

We can't start much of the process until the staff gets back from school holiday on the 19th.  Ugh.  I was hoping the boys could start by then.  Now who knows when they will get to start. 

What we've been doing...

So the internet at our apartment is spotty, at best.  So I haven't been able to up load lots of pictures here.  I have gotten some of them to Facebook, so please take a look at them there.

So here's a rundown of what we've been doing lately. 
Sunday:  We went whale watching in the morning.  The large boats leave right out of Nelson Bay so it was a short 10 minute walk downhill to the marina.  We really had a great time.  The humpback whales swim up to the Great Barrier Reef in order to give birth to their calves.  The water temperature in the Antarctic is too cold in the winter for the baby whales and they would die within hours of birth if their mothers stayed there.  They come up to Australia from May to November.  We were able to see some whales from a distance.  Then the whales swam over to see us.  They got quite close to our boat, about 15 yards or so away.  Really cool!  We also got to see several whales breach (jump).  I got a few pictures of the first two that did it and then the others were farther away and I didn't manage to get any.  It was an awesome experience!  On the trip back into the bay from the ocean, we managed to spot a couple of fur seals lying on some rocks as well as a large group of dolphins.  The dolphins live in the bay year round.  The dolphins came right up to the boat and then very suddenly, they dove and scattered.  Even the captain of the boat said that it was a bit strange how fast they swam away. 
Monday:  Jay went to work for most of a day.  Of course, he took our only car in order to get there.  Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but it rained all day on Monday.  The biggest problem with the rain was that it prevented us from getting any lunch.  We had run out of the little amount of food that I had purchased last week and really needed to go to store or out to eat.  Jay had said he would be home around noon so I wasn't too worried.  Then Jay got held up and wasn't going to be home until around 3.  The rain broke a bit around 2, so I gathered the kids and we walked to the grocery store.  We loaded up two large bags (about 30 lbs each) and then we walked back and ate lunch. 
Tuesday:  Jay didn't work and the plan was to look for a house in the morning and then do a large grocery shopping in the afternoon.  That didn't work out and so I did a large shopping in the morning.  I drove about 10 minutes away from Nelson Bay to Corlette to do the shopping.  There is a larger, slightly less expensive store there. All in all, a successful trip.  It was the first time that I had been out in the car by myself and I did well.  

Doubt

In the days leading up to the flight out here, I had a few moments of panic, but never any doubt that this is an adventure we wanted to have.  Yesterday, I had my first "doubt attack."
We drove from Sydney to Nelson Bay yesterday morning.  Nelson Bay is a little northeast of Newcastle and is where we will be staying for the next few weeks while we set up shop.  We have a nice 3 bedroom apartment that is fully furnished and has a bed for every head.  Our apartment also has two balconies.  We had two lorikeets on our railing yesterday morning and I can hear a lot of them outside this morning.  We spent the afternoon sorta just driving around having a look.  It rained almost all day yesterday and so there wasn't much time out of the car. 
We turned onto a small dirt road in order to drive back to a beach and see the ocean views.  I managed to spot this fellow sitting on a branch next to the road. 

Of course, once we saw this kookaburra, we saw lots of them.  We also had two kangaroos bound out in the road in front of us.  There were two kangaroos bound across the road in front of our car yesterday as well.  Really fast, but completely awesome to see. 

We ate out for lunch, but decided to cook dinner in our room.  This required a trip to the grocery store.  The store we chose was very close to our apartment, but also sorta small.  This is the first time I've ever bought anything in Australia and there was a lot of sticker shock.  Milk costs about $5 a gallon.  This is not organic or anything special.  Just regular 2% milk.  This store did not have any skim milk either.  Most everything else is just a little more expensive than the US, though the price looks steep.  For instance, apples at $3.89 look expensive, until you realize that it is for a kilogram not a pound.  There are 2.2 pound for every kilogram.  So the apples are more like $1.77 per pound.  Apples and melons are about the only fruit available now since it is winter.  The lettuce selection is lacking as well.  Packaged foods are much higher than US though.  I really dislike paying over $9 for a box of cereal.  This shopping trip really brought on some doubt.  As I am standing in the store, tired and jet lagged, with a tired, jet-lagged husband and three tired, jet-lagged kids, and I just need to pick out laundry detergent.  I have never heard of any of these brands.  They are all powders which don't rinse as cleanly out of clothes.  There were no fragnace free brands and I have no clue how my uber sensative skin is going to react to any of these detergents.  I started to doubt.  I started to doubt that up-rooting my kids and stressing out my extended family was going to be worth anything.  I froze and stood there doing nothing for several minutes, completely in panic mode.  At least, I was able to snap out of it and grab a random, small $12 box of detergent.  I am hoping that some of the prices are due to the fact that Nelson Bay is a resort town.  Hopefully, once we settle out of here, it will be a little more reasonable.
We had had such a good night of sleep the first night in Australia that I was hoping for another decent night last night.  Not so much.  Joe woke up around 2 in the morning and went to the bathroom.  Very thin walls caused Jay and I to awake as well.  Around 3, Joe decided to wake up Tom as well.  Once both of them were awake it was hard to keep them from waking up Sam, simply because they kept taking trips to the bathroom, which shares a wall with Sam's room.  Tom managed to fall back to sleep around 4ish.  Jay back to sleep around 5.  Joe may be asleep now at 7, but Sam and I are awake. 
Thankfully, the sky looks clear right now so we will be able to at least get out of the car and wander around. Now, to go eat some $9 cereal. 

Sydney

We drove to Dulles airport on Monday afternoon and arrived with plenty of time to make our flight.  Good thing because we hit a bump while trying to check in.  Somehow, Sam's passport was not eletronically linked to our visa paperwork.  Jay did have a paper copy, but it involved the desk lady making lots of copies and phone calls.  After about 45 minutes, we were checked in and on our way to the gate.  I had trouble at security because my bra had an underwire and my jeans had rivets.  I had to have a more extensive search which involved lots of pat downs, wands and more from the nice security lady.  No real problem though, just lots of questions from the kids about what was going on. 
When we got ready to board the flight, we noticed that Jay, Tom and Sam had been upgraded to first class while Joe and I were still business class.  Jay said that the kids didn't really seem welcome up in first, while Joe and I had a really nice flight back in business class.  Joe was the only one of the kids to sleep on the plane.  The first flight was right around 5 hours. 
In San Francisco, we hung out in the business class lounge for our layover time.  They have free juice, tea, coffee, water, and light snacks.  We all had some veggies, fruit, cheese and jucie while waited.
We ran into another snag as we tried to board our flight.  Still the same problem with Sam's passport.  This time, the lady behind the desk actually fixed the problem. 
For our international flight, we were all in business class.  We had 4 in one row and one in the row behind.  Jay was in the row behind and happened to be sitting on the end.  I was at the other end of the row of 4.  All three kids were asleep before we even took off.  Once we were up to cruising, I pushed the kids' buttons and made their seats into beds.  They slept for a very long time then watched tv and movies for the last 4 hours of the flight.  Over all, we had a really good flight. 
We breezed through customs and immigration once we arrived in Sydney.  The biggest problem was the sheer mountain of luggage that had to be x-rayed and scanned.  We had 10 checked bags, 1 stroller, 4 backpacks, 2 laptop (with bags) and one small rolling carry-on.  So that took some time to get it unloaded from the carts and the reloaded. 
We fully loaded our rental car and then spent about an hour trying to go the 4 miles to the hotel.  We had trouble getting oriented the right way and lots of time going the wrong way.
We spent our day walking and seeing some sights.  We walked about 25 minutes from our hotel in order to see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.  We ate lunch and then rode the ferry around to Darling Harbour.  Sydney Wildlife World and the Sydney Aquarium at located there.  The Wildlife World was really well put together and was very cool.  The whole building only has animals that live in Australia.  We got to see some extremely large walking stick bugs, bull ants, many spiders (including the two venomous ones, the redback and the funnel web), lots of snakes (including the top two venomous ones in the world which both live here in Australia), wombats, kangaroos, wallabys, koalas, and one really giant crocodile.  The croc exhibit was really cool because we were able to go down and see him from the side of his home which was underwater.  It was neat to watch him move up and down through the water.  He was about 16 and a half feet long.  We really like it. 

We then went next door to the aquarium.  There were several school groups that started going through at about the same time we did so it was a bit crowded.  There were some really great things about this aquarium.  They have two large tanks that have underwater tunnels in them.  One tank had the dugones in them and one had sharks and rays.  It was really awesome to watch these animals swim above us and beside us. 

The Aquarium also has a very large Great Barrier Reef tank.  We got to see this tank from lots of different angles and places and then at the end, there is a large viewing window and steps to sit on.  We got to sit for about 10 minutes before all the school kids crowded in and we left.  It was neat because we got to see deep into the tank for this window. 

After the aquarium, we rode the monorail back to our hotel and called it a day.  The kids had baths and were asleep by 5:15.  Jay and I were probably asleep by 5:30.  We didn't get any dinner and that has become a problem this morning.  Poor Sam's tummy was so empty, he started throwing up this morning around 5:30.  We took him to breakfast at breakfast time, and he plowed in his waffle only to throw up on the table.  We had to make him slow down and start with just some toast.  Joe, Tom and I finished and came upstairs 30 minutes ago, while Sam was slowly making his way through his toast.  Since Jay and Sam are still downstairs, I am hoping that means Sam was able to eat some more. 

Monday is fast approaching

I can't believe that today is Saturday.  Monday will be here way before we are actually ready for it.  Our next few days are jammed packed full of things to do and get done before we leave.  It's really crazy that we are finally leaving. 
Our house is finally on the market.  Our realtor will add more pictures and more information to the listing, but at least it's on the market.  Seeing it listed this morning really sent a jolt through me.  This is real. 
We've had several minor little irritations lately with our travel planes.  Poor Jay has to spend a lot of time trying to get them all straightened out.  Little things like finding out our airplane seats are all spread out.  There's no way that my 3-year-old is going to sit by himself.  We got them all fixed, only to find out that hotel room the first night we are in Australia only had a single king bed.  That's really not going to work for 5 people.  We had to switch hotels in order to find something bigger.  We had reserved an apartment in Nelson Bay for a couple of weeks, but then had to switch because of some other problem.  No big deal because the second place is a lot less expensive.  We're handling everything in stride.  No big deal.

Still chugging along

We're still here, just passing time.  Every morning, Jay and Joe get up, eat breakfast and head to the house.  Joe then catches the bus while Jay works until Joe gets home from school.  Tom, Sam and I eat breakfast and drive to the house for a few hours.  They play in the yard while I do a few odd jobs here and there.  They get pretty bored of the yard and tired of playing with each other by about 1pm.  We then eat lunch, go to the park, and the finally head back to the hotel.  The maid is usually cleans our room from 2-2:30 so we stay out until 3.  Since I don't spend a lot of time at our house, I don't feel that I get much done.  Jay is going well though.  We've got the three upstairs bedrooms just about ready to paint.  I plan on painting them on Sunday and Tuesday. 
We are headed to my mom's again tonight.  My brother and his wife will be in town starting late tonight.  We'll stay there until Sunday morning. 
I can't believe that we have two more weeks of living in the hotel here.  In some ways, I think "holy crap!  We are leaving in only two weeks" and it doesn't feel like we have much time left.  Then I think "holy crap! Two more weeks of sleeping in this hotel before we fly to another hotel."  Hotel living is pretty crappy.  The hotel pool opens this weekend so that will be a little better.  Hopefully, we'll get some warm days to actually enjoy it. 

Getting close

So, no matter what, the movers are coming on Monday.  They will arrive whether I am ready for them to be here or not.  So I figure I should just get as ready as I can and then be done.  I haven't been sleeping well for the last few days.  I wake up and want to get to work at 3 in the morning.  That's just a little too early.

Jay and I got half of the attic cleaned out.  We ran out of room and were unable to bring the rest of the stuff down.  I have to clear some space somewhere, and then we will be able to bring some more stuff down. 

This is all the stuff being saved from the first half of the attic (not including the suitcases).  We also have some large piles of stuff on the deck.  One pile of boxes to be recycled, one pile of trash, one pile of give-away and one pile of empty boxes that we need to fill.  While digging out lots of empty boxes, I decided we save too many boxes.  We have saved pretty much every single box that anything has come in.  That's just too many.  We decided to finally recycle most of them because the movers are packing the stuff in their own boxes.  We don't need the box for the scale, the alarm clock, and the toaster oven (plus lots of other ones).  We did save the box for the keyboard, tv, stand mixer and stereo.  Those are useful boxes.  Of course, since it is due to rain, I have to get everything off the deck soon. 
Yesterday, I finally got around to giving the boys a haircut.  Typically we have my friend at the barber shop cut their hair.  They've been asking for buzz cuts though.  If they want a cut like that, Jay or I usually do them since we own a set of clippers. 

Somewhere in Pasadena...

There is a raccoon sleeping off a major sugar high. 
A raccoon got into our trash last night.  Thankfully, there was only one bag of trash since our trash gets picked up on Tuesday mornings.  The bag that went out yesterday evening was some basic kitchen trash and lots and lots of leftover Easter candy.  I picked up lots of empty wrappers during clean up duty.  All I could think was that I hope this poor raccoon isn't diabetic.  It didn't really like Fun Dip, but loved the chocolate and the lollypops. 

Switching gears now...Orginally, there had been some talk about NGC paying our mortgage on our Pasadena house for a few months after we moved.  This was supposed to be some sort of compensation for the fact that our moved got so delayed.  Well, NGC ended up saying no way, so Jay went to the program manager and tried to see if there was any money from the contract that could help us out.  If Jay was going to Australia by himself, our mortgage would be paid, along with lots of other perks and money.  This was offered to Jay, but he wisely turned it down.  No way I am staying here with the boys for several months, trying to sell our house while he lives high on the hog in Australia.  No way!  So we were offered something else that neither of us is real thrilled about: extra time on per diem.  What this basically means is that we can have extra time on per diem and don't have to worry about paying anything additional out of pocket than we would normally.  We'd still pay our mortgage here, but would be renting cars and living in hotels so wouldn't have to worry about rent for a house.  This is a way to stretch our budget in hopes of getting our house sold quickly (unlikely, I know).  What this also means is that we will have an extra week in Maryland and two extra weeks in Australia.  Sounds okay, right?  But here's the rub.  An extra week in Maryland means that we don't leave until the 14th of June, but the movers still come on the 24th of May.  That's three weeks in a hotel!  Granted the hotel we will be staying at has a little kitchen and all, but still, that's just a long time.  Joe will still be in school, but I will have two kids I have to entertain everyday with only the supplies we have in our suitcases.  Two extra weeks in Australia makes a full 4 weeks there.  It's nice to have extra time there because that gives us longer to look for a nice place to live.  The rub on that end is that if we find something we like, we can't rent because our extra funds don't go into effect until we are off per diem.  That means we can't buy a car or rent a house.  How is our stuff going to be delivered if we have no address to give them? 
We aren't sure that we are going to do any of these options, but the extra money would be nice.  Jay just procastinated his way out of $300.  The rental car for after his wreck would have been reimbursed if he had submitted a claim within 30 days of the accident.  Despite many reminders, he didn't do it. 

Still sorting

I am still sorting.  My dining room table is still a mess.  I clean half the table off and then fill it up again.  My large couch is cleared off, but now my small couch is half filled.  I have decided that it's just going to be a nightmare for the next six days.  Yes, we only have 6 days that I am able to work until the movers arrive.  They arrive Monday morning, but I can't do any work at all on Saturday.  Joe has a Cub Scout camp out all weekend.  I'll work on Friday and then on Sunday, we will be gone all day Saturday.  Joe has been really looking forward to this trip so we have to go, though the timing isn't great. 

So I've been thinking in my head for the last several days about what I will miss and not miss.   I just never got around to posting them.  So here they are.

I will miss baseball.  Sounds strange coming from me, right?  I mean, I am not great lover of baseball.  I loved playing it as a child.  My brother Nick and I would play all the time in the yard next to our walnut tree.  I also played on several teams throughout the years.  As an adult though, I have discovered that I can't stand watching it on tv.  It just can't keep my interest at all.  In person is okay, but can still get boring.  At this point, you are probably wondering why I will even miss it.  Well, mostly it comes from this past Saturday night.  Joe had read a certain number of books at school and earned a free ticket to a Bowie Baysocks game.  We decided to make it a family night and I purchased tickets for the rest of us.  There were a few bumps in the whole process of taking a family to a baseball game, but the sheer joy on Joe's face as he jumped up and down, arms over head, screaming and cheering as a Baysock player hit a home run was priceless.  Nothing but pure joy.  Since it was reading night at the ballfield, there were fireworks after the game.  Wonderful fireworks.  I was so happy we got to see some since the kids are a little bummed to be missing 4th of July this year.  After the fireworks, the kids were invited to run the bases.  Joe, Tom, and Sam joined the very very long line of kids and finally made it down to the field to run.  Unfortunately, it was 10 pm and Sam was tired.  He tried to go ahead of Joe and Tom in line.  Joe grabbed Sam and wouldn't let go.  Sam cried and cried.  One of the ushers made Joe and Sam leave the line.  Joe dragged Sam over the stands where the parents were made to wait, then got back in line.  Poor Sam.  He wouldn't stop crying.  He just wanted to go run the bases without Joe holding on to him.  He never got to run them, but Joe and Tom enjoyed it.  I will baseball because Australia doesn't have it and we'll have to wait until we return to go to a game again.  Cricket just isn't the same. 

I will also miss my miniture hostas.  These little plants were given to us several years ago by Jay's grandmother Sue.  We had filled in an old concrete fish pond with dirt and she gave us the plants to fill them in.  They were the first plants we'd planted at our home and I will miss them.

I will also miss Diet Coke.  I have a love/hate relationship with Diet Coke.  I probably drink too much of it, but I won't be drinking any after we move.  Yes Australia has diet soda and even Diet Coke.  BUT, it's just not the same.  All their diet sodas have sugar in them, real sugar.  They don't taste right and aren't 0 calories.  Coke Zero (which I don't like) also isn't 0 calories.  Iced tea is also not very popular in terms of drinks.  I will be able to make that at our house, but when we go out, it will be a problem.  Of course, drinks in general are a problem when going out in Australia.  When you order a drink at a restaurant, it is small.  About 8-10 oz and refills are not free.  Water has to be requested and still just an 8 oz glass.  I am the kind of person who drinks a whole during a meal.  It helps me eat less.  Not that we plan to eat out much, but we will until we have some place to live.

I will not miss cooking dinner.  Yes, I will be cooking dinner in Australia, starting Monday, I won't have a kitchen for about 4-5 weeks.  I won't be able to make good healthy meals with a hotel microwave so I won't have to cook much.  I get really really tired of cooking all the time.  I used to love cooking, but the spark is gone for me.  At least for the last few years it's been out.  Perhaps after a break, I will get it back.

So naive

So, back in January, I actually felt like I had a good handle on everything and was ready to move.  I found out today just how naive I am.  I started with the goal of cleaning, sorting, and packing the dining room and living room.  Well, not really packing as the moving company has to pack most everything, but I need to get rid of everything that I don't want.  I started at about 9 this morning and now, at 1:45, I am tired, frustrating and we have no place to eat dinner.  The above picture is how my dining room looks right now.  My living room hasn't changed.  Unfortunately, the large couch has been covered with stuff for two weeks and looks like it will be covered for at least another day. 

I seriously can't understand how we have gathered so much crap.  (Really no other word that fits other than crap.) We've lived in our house for 8 years, but I do clean and keep things fairly organized and everything has a place.  I am just really starting to understand how many little things that I have kept that we just don't need: little bottles of bubbles, bouncy balls, various screws and nails, random note cards, leftover birthday invitations, etc.  I feel a margarita night coming on.

 Since we found out the news, I've been trying to get ahold of my parents to share the news.  My dad was out of town and my mom apparently doesn't know how to check the voicemail.  I finally got ahold of her last night and shared the news.  My mom seems pretty upset that it is finally happening, which I understand.  I love my family and friends and I will miss them. 

So I thought I would share some other things that I will miss (and not miss).  Maybe I'll do one a day for the next several days.  It goes without saying that first and foremost I will miss my family and friends.  I will also miss our new deck.  When we first moved into our house 8 years ago, our deck was shady.  While it is under the cover of trees, that's not the shady to which I am referring.  The deck was on very tall, too small, rotten supports and actually had holes in the surface of it.  It would sway if people walked on it or if the wind blew too hard.  It's hard to believe that it didn't fall down on its own.  We finally replaced it two years ago and I love our new deck.  It is an extension of our house.  The kids and I spend a lot of time on it and I can't complain about the view.   

 I love this view. 

Now, what I won't miss is the fact that we live on a corner lot.  A "U" shaped lot with about 600 feet of road frontage.  Completely too expensive to ever fence in.  The speed limit is only 25 mph, but other than myself, I don't think anyone ever goes that slow.  We live at the corner of two dead end roads, but yet the amount of traffic is astounding.  Of course, we have a few boat clubs, a restaurant, and a school on one of the roads and a yacht club on the other.  At one point, we asked the county for a three way stop.  Currently, the road on the left has to stop and the road on the right has to stop for left turns.  The incoming road doesn't stop at all.  Probably 70% of the traffic comes in and then goes to the road on the right.  We were hoping for a three way stop to slow down the traffic.  The county did a traffic study.  Their conclusions:  The average speed at this intersection was 39 mph, but putting in a three way stop would slow down traffic too much, namely the buses headed to the school.  I won't miss this intersection.

Moving Date?

So, as of today, May 11th, the movers are schedule to arrive on May 24th. We are planning to fly out around June 2. None of this is in stone, but things should firm up over the next few days.
I am both incredibly excited and nervous. Hopefully, nothing will delay us again as I am not sure how to handle that, but I am being positive and full of good thoughts.
Yea!

So, I think we are moving!

Okay, not the most exciting title, but...
Jay says to not get way too excited until we are actually on a plane, because there is always a slight chance something will happen to screw up the good karma that is going on.
That being said, Boeing signed the paperwork late Saturday. Northrup was signing everything today. Jay has a meeting first thing tomorrow morning to work out some details. Yea!

The movers are getting into their busy season, but they do happen to have some days that aren't too far away. We'll see if we actually get them. Should know more tomorrow.

As soon as Jay told me that things were actually getting signed, I felt I huge amount of relief. Like I had been holding my breathe and waiting. Now I can exhale. Now I can breathe with no problems!

The pressure is on

Jay got an email from his boss's boss last week. Jay was asked to come visit him. The big boss man spent some time trying to talk Jay out of going to Australia. The big boss man seems to be worried that Jay will go to Australia and never come back. Though everyone seems to agree that foreign service is good for Jay's career, they are "grooming" him for big things apparently.
Earlier this week, the program manager approached Jay and suggested that he put off Australia until next January. The manager said that Jay is involved in some really important things here and should wait to go when he is not involved in so much stuff. Jay told him that if he waited until January, he would still be involved in a lot of stuff and nothing would be different.
We want to go and we are ready to go soon. Here's to hoping that some higher up doesn't say "no" to Jay going at all.

Quick Australia Update

Well, April 1st came and when without much happening. Boeing managed to not sign anything, but did extend the short term contract for 3 Northrup people until the beginning of May. So, people have been recalled from Australia and pulled off the job here. The guy that Jay has been talking to about all this told him there's no way that Boeing will wait until May to sign. He says that it will take us about that long to get there, settled and Jay ready to work...so there is no way that Boeiing can wait. Jay answers that Boeing has already missed a payment, missed the end of the contract, and still gets to have 3 Northrup people until the end of the month. We were supposed to be there in January, and we weren't. We were supposed to be there mid February, and we weren't. We were supposed to be there at the beginning of March and we weren't. We are supposed to be there now and we aren't. And so, we wait.