THANKSgiving

No Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
No Turkey roasting in the oven.
No stuffin muffins.
But what we do have is THANKS.
We are thankful for our health, we are thankful for our family near and far, we are thankful for our friends that have been made across the world, we are thankful for food that can nourish our bodies so that we do not go hungry and we are thankful for the roof over our head. We are thankful for this life experience here in Australia and for clothes on our backs. I am thankful for a husband who loves me, who takes care of me and our 2 beautiful and healthy children and for the fact that he provides and supports us during these years where I am able to relish in the time of being able to stay home to raise these remarkable little human beings. I am thankful for technology; something that allows me to see the faces of my sweet niece and nephew, have weekly conversations with my mom and dad, visit with my sisters and yes talk with my cat Trigger who I am convinced talks back.
Yes, we have a lot to be thankful for when there are so many that don't have half of what we have.
I feel lucky and fortunate for my life. there may not be stuffin muffins or the rockettes with high legs dancing in front  of Macy's but the holidays will come regardless.

my elves decorating the tree

My husband has been surprisingly very un-hum buggy this past week. He has picked out Christmas movies for family movie night, willingly picked out Christmas songs for lullabies with the kids and even put the tree up ON Thanksgiving. He knows November through December is my happy place. It makes me feel good and puts me in a good mood. Even if its in June, if i'm having a bad day nothing perks me up more than a Bing Crosby song or even better an up tempo Michael Buble or Mariah
Carey Christmas melody. Infact, I had the name Bing on my boys name list (among Ret; gone with the wind and Humphrey (Bogart)) for Logan because in my eyes he is a Christmas God but Jerrod put his foot down, and in reality that was probably a good thing.
Saturday (tomorrow) there will be a turkey in the oven...a 5.5 kilo turkey to be exact (it will be around a 12 lb bird). We will be hosting a Friendsgiving with our 2 best family friends here in Exmouth, People that we want to share this super awesome thankful holiday with. It will be the first Thanksgiving for them. So here's praying my gas stove doesn't mess up my apple pie, pumpkin log or over cook the bird and I wish you all a very happy holiday season and cute comfortable elastic waisted pants.

I'm Back!

The long wait is over...we officially have the internet! One can only take so many instances of paragraphs upon paragraphs of in depth posts complete with pictures and captions all typed up on my itty bitty cell phone touch screen only to have it mysteriously vanish right before the 'post' button is pushed....needless to say that is the reason for the long hiatus.

It was a long road, and many hours spent on the phone with the local internet company but we finally locked them down with what they owed us! Thank god that is over.

The next joyous news...our large shipment of what I call 'our life in boxes' is due here this week! it has been roughly 3 months without all of our things and part of me wants to say 'no, no take it back! put it in storage with the rest of our things!' (minus my sheets, blankets, Christmas tree, bikes and a handful of favorite toys) we have survived this long without all of it and are functioning and living normal without needing anything extra. This has been quite a humbling experience. With all the tears I shed narrowing down the books to be packed for the kids because of our weight constrictions, and crying because they would be without special items that they have had since birth (which were clearly more important to me) and not being able to bring my jewelry hutch with my jewelry and only selecting 4 necklaces and a few earrings... it is so clear how people can live with nothing and not complain. It has really made me realize the importance of the non material things; us being here as a family and living in the moment everyday, making relationships with other families and spending most days running around at the park, splash pad, playground or at the beach doing picnics and barbies.  The things I am most anxious for in this delivery; my pictures. I want to be able to see my mom and dad every day on the wall and I want the kids to see all of the cousins constantly.

Our honeymoon phase is over. At this point we are LIVING. we have our daily routines and things aren't new anymore. We are no longer the 'new american family' in town. With this comes the reminder that we are in fact living on the other side of the world and we wont be going back any time soon, thus leading into the occasional pangs of homesickness. No different than the ones I would get in Arizona or Jersey, but at least they were broken up with quarterly trips home or visits from my mom or sister in law.
I find myself more and more anxious for when the time comes for us to have a real home of our own. One we wont have to pack up and leave every 4 years or so. I know people say its not that great, you have to fix it all yourself and it is expensive, I get that, and in reality I  know that once that time comes for us we will probably be itching to move every so often and wondering what else is out there. But I miss my family and I miss having close friends (physically and emotionally) the kind that you don't go into the relationship knowing there is an end date. There are only a few handful of friends that I can safely say have stuck by me even with all my moving and not being around and I appreciate them more than they will ever know. As a military wife we tend to collect people. we have scattered friends all over the world and the one thing we have in common is we all get it. Our spouses have different schedules week to week and they can miss anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to a year being sent to who knows where. We are forced to be strong even when we don't want to be and hold together the family and make a house a home with every move. Sometimes I wish for the normalcy that people have, but then I wouldn't be having adventures to NYC, exploring the Grand Canyon, Philadelphia, Sydney harbor and hand feeding kangaroos in the outback of Australia. One day we will settle down, and when we do we will be able to look back at this time and know it made us as a family stronger and we will have incredible memories to tell our grand kids and anyone else who will listen.