July 4th in Oz

Another bench mark holiday has come and gone...July 4th, Americas celebration of Independence....something so many people forget about much too often. You know the part where we are supposed to be able to have free speech without being torn apart because we may not believe in the same thing...or just having the freedom of being yourself without being judged... I am in no way a political person, so I will leave it at that before someone attacks me on just that little blurb of MY words and thoughts.

This year we celebrated in Australia with our hodge-podge adopted family. We are made up of Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and even the Dutch...and I wouldn't have it any other way!
I love learning about the cultures from around the world and have even failed miserably at trying to learn some Dutch phrases, and on the flip side I love sharing our holidays and such with all of them!
As per the usual we had way too much food.... jalapeno poppers, cob loaf (warm dip in a bread loaf), an american flag taco salad, empanadas, 3.3 kg smoked pork shoulder, smoked corn silver side, sausages, 2 home made bbq sauces my hubby made for the meat, broiled green beans, brownie tart-lets with white chocolate cream cheese filling, red white and blue trifle, blueberry cobbler, potato salad, cole slaw and of course festive wine spritzers!!! We finished the stuffing ourselves holiday with sparklers thought I found at the IGA for like $2 which the kids went crazy for! This was the first year my kids both really used them and got excited which was very entertaining to watch. Holidays are always made so much better with family and i'm super thankful that we have a family here in Exmouth that love us as much as we love them.

homesickness is so real

For no reason at all today I feel homesick. I find myself drifting off in thought about every family gathering I can remember. I am eating home made french onion soup for lunch and I started to think about a lunch my mother threw together for my family right before Jerrod deployed and my aunts made amazing soups (random I know but if you have not realized it yet, I am a very random person) This past year has flown by here in Exmouth, I mean we have almost been here for half of our tour! But the reality of another full year for some reason hit me hard today. I started thinking about our annual lobster bake with the extended family, something I look forward to every august and perhaps have only missed two or three in all my years. Maybe it's the talk of Christmas in July but it has me yearning for our crazy family Christmas party and all of the hectic chaos that comes with it that I secretly love. As I literally started to feel tears well up in my eyes over lunch with the kids the song Eye Of The Storm. came on and I was border line breakdown/relief...possibly the hardest mixed emotions I have ever felt. Now, if you know the song please be aware that my children are doing fine and we are not flat broke or losing our house  but the under lying message that I am not the one in control of my life and that someone else much greater is making my plans for me and will take care of me is what I am referring to. Some days are just harder than others. I want to hug my mom and dad. I want to have my nieces and nephews over for camp outs and I want to go bowling and have pizza with all of siblings. Soon enough. For now I will settle for as much facetime as I can. Now I am going to enjoy this yummy soup and try not to cry my eyes out as I know it will pass as it usually does....eventually....I think...kinda.

Whale Shark Festival Recap

the local whale shark car

 It has been exactly a week since our first whale shark festival. I meant to update all week, but once again time got away from me. The weekend started off with a fancy dress (costume) fun run early Saturday morning where a small group of the hash house harriers running club got together and dressed toga style. after the run we headed to our town oval (the footie field) for a day full of food trucks-can you say AMAZING BBQ PRAWNS (shrimp) ON THE BARBIE!!!, craft vendors, baby roos, conservation tents, bouncy houses, arts and crafts, live music and performances all day long and so much more! When we felt like our legs just couldn't walk anymore we loaded the kids up in the wagon and head the short distance home. That arvo we held our first official big BBQ at our house fit for 12 adults and 10 kids. I am loving my new and improved private backyard and I am so happy we pushed for the fence as now we actually spend time back there and not feel out in the open to all of town. Then it was time for mums night out where us ladies took to Cadillac's the local honky tonk  ( my first time at this establishment) for a live rock band concert and drinks.  Always a good night out with the girls and even better because the whole town came together for the festival. Sunday Jerrod worked leaving me and the kiddos to recoup from a morning to night day before. Tonya picked us 3 up around 4 and we headed to the yacht club for the closing of the whale shark festival weekend with live chill music on the beach and hot chips covered in gravy. Perfect end to a perfect weekend. I can't get over how small and tight this town is. It really is a home for us, which I'm thankful for as it could have been the opposite and we could be miserable, but we are not. We have found our little slice of heaven.

 











Also, can I take a moment and show off my sons newest treasure. This is his new froggy urinal! It came in the mail today and he is so flipping excited. It was a crazy impulse purchase on amazon for a mere $12. No more pee on the floor! He was just a little too short for the big potty and too tall for his kids potty causing pee all over my floor since he will only stand now since he learned how camping a few weeks ago.

Goals

It's easier for me to be motivated when I have a goal to obtain. I can't help it, I have always been this way for as long as I can remember. Making a sports team, earning a starting spot on that team, getting into college, getting the guy, losing the weight, getting the job,saving up for something I want really really bad....if I have the goal in sight even if at first it doesn't seem possible I will work my ass off to accomplish it because I do not like failure and I don't like to admit that I gave up on something.

I have put off taking care of me for too long. My body is not anything like it used to be. My knees have been taking  over by arthritis that can tell you when the weather is about to change simply by allowing or not allowing me to get up and down off the floor with my kids. Years upon years worth of running the court and banging around with sports have left my ankles weak and since I graduated college I have been diagnosed with crazy asthma that has me sucking wind with  aerobic workouts or hot humid days if my super cool inhaler is not in my bag. But this is finally my time. I may be 31 but I deserve to feel good about this mom bod. I have been weight training during Logan's nap time in my living room and running in the evenings when Jerrod gets home. I started at 2.5 miles and have worked up to a full 5k at 3.2 miles in just over 6 weeks. My body is feeling better, I am feeling better and I am actually proud of myself. Sure my 5k is nothing like it used to be...but that was also at quite literally half my age. I no longer push my body to the max past my limit, I no longer need to pass out at the finish line or puke my guts out 2/3 through a course, I know my body, I know my limits. My current mantra when I'm running and I feel like I'm running out of steam "your not that old. You. Are. Not. That. Old. You are not old!" This seems to push me through. Keep in mind my playlist  relays heavily on the best of 2000s pop genre, add in some j-lo remixes, basement  jaxx, a little 90s hip hop with a casual pop punk song and you find my rhythm. My love of running has been restored!  It's something that can't be taken from me, as long as my legs work I will get them moving. I want to do a 10k, I will slowly add in more distance now that I have a solid 5k down. I told my sister in law we have 18months until we can run the half marathon at Disney (my favorite place on earth!) She is a casual runner as well so I think an 18 month training plan is completely do able. Once again, it all comes down to goals and willing to put in the work. I now look forward to my evening runs. The weather is finally a cool 75 at 6:45pm and the street lights line most every road of this quaint town. I take the time to check out. I put on my tunes and just go, my only concentration is on the little voice occasionally telling me my mile markers so I know where to turn around or how much further I have. If I can do it anyone can do it, and since the world revolves around social media (hey if I didn't post it it didn't happen,right?) this is where I'm stating my goal. If I forget later on in months to come anyone can now remind me why I'm doing it; it's for myself, because we are never too old to make goals no matter how big or how small they may be.

Catch Up Please

I cant believe it has been so long since my last post....and lets just say us SMITHS have been very busy. Let's do a fun short recap of our adventures since mid march.
My sister in law Jessica and her partner came to visit us down under! It was awesome to have a familiar face and even better that it was part of the family.

Busselton Jetty

During the visit we swam with whale sharks; which obviously I survived! wahoo I did not get devoured in the ocean. The down side is that 3 out of 4 of us got wicked sea sick and tapped out of the last 3 swims.
We flew down to Perth and stayed on our first air b&b. Jerrod and Jessica ran a 10k around the commercial business district. We went to a zoo and snuggled koalas and wombats and saw many other very cool animals. We visited Ferrel Brewery in Swan River Valley. We rented cars and drove south (which we learned Addison gets car sick in 4 door cars as she barfed twice) to the Busselton Jetty and walked out to sea about 1 1/4 miles and rode a cute little train back on the pier. We continued the trip down south all the way to Margaret River where we stayed at Taunton Family Holiday Park. It was a cozy little fully equipped cabin where the kids could feed the farm animals dinner, we had bon fires and BBQs at night. We visited several winery's and brewery's, the chocolate factory, a dairy that made homemade ice cream right from the cows outsid
e the door and Addison even got to go cave exploring with her aunt one day. After 4 days we headed back north to Perth where we stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast before saying good byes and parting ways with our company and they headed back to NY and us to Exmouth.

Next on the adventure list was my trip to Coral Bay. My best mates and I decided we would do a coral bay trip (hour and a half south along the reef) the last week of vacation for the 6 kids. Since we still do not have my van on the road (yes we are going on 10 months!) My friend so graciously threw me in her drivers seat while she drove another vehicle and I drove all the way to coral bay! I was in an Australian car, on the opposite side of the road and lets remember I have not driven in 9 months so this was kind of a big deal. Luckily I only set off the wipers twice going for my turn signal, but we made it safe and sound and I was relaxed and feeling great in the drivers seat after the first 20 minutes. Coral Bay was gorgeous! It is a town about the third size of Exmouth but is pretty much just a caravan park and a hotel resort. White sandy bay, palm trees and tourist shops, it was like a tropical vacation away from our tropical town.

sunset at osprey bay camping

osprey bay camping trip

We have finally taken out our brand spankin new instant tent! it literally takes 5 minutes to get it up and holds 9 people, I thought it would be too big at first but after we got our air mattresses and all our stuff inside i'm glad we went with what we went with. We opted out putting the rain fly on as the chances of it raining ever are about 1 in 90 and we were so glad we made that decision. once we got snuggled in with each designated child we gazed at the bright stars and the milky way right above us in our full ceiling sky light.

My son turned 3 and I threw him a pretty roartastic dinosaur bash party. I was pretty proud of myself.
Lo has also
started potty training, this is the 3rd attempt in 9 months and it finally clicked. The day after he turned 3 he was just suddenly ready and I couldn't be happier, and he seems to be happier too. After a short 3 weeks hes already able to tell me when he needs to go so we can get him to the potty.  He did get a little confused after his first poop where he turned around and asked why a hot dog was in his potty! It was pretty priceless as he was very serious and confused at the same time.


Ok, so although there is so much more that has happened I really don't want to bore you to death.
My attempt to update a little more frequent starts....NOW

Mums day out!

Today was a day where I cast my cares to the wind and headed for total relaxation...ok not quite...but pretty darn close! The husband was off today and graciously accepted the offer of watching our 2 year old son and his best friend (another little 2 year old girl) so that me and her her mum and another dear friend could hit the Oyster Stacks for some much needed snorkeling around the west side on the reef. I have never been to this location, and I have only been out snorkeling twice, both times being in the last month.today we arrived at this spot and the wind was blowing pretty strong, it is by far one of the most popular snorkeling spots as the water never gets too high because of the reef and because of that no really big fish can get in so the little cute fish,rays,turtles etc. can live and relax and not fear about big bad fish (i.e. Sharks) so it made me feel much more at ease as well. The girls just got done telling me this; as they know my fear and as we walk down over the rocks to get ourselves in the water what should we see at our ankles swimming around but a baby reef shark about the length from my fingers to my elbow. Next to him 2 blue leopard printed rays. This little baby shark just wouldn't leave us alone, he kept following us like a little puppy dog.  We finally lost him once we got out. The fish we saw were remarkable. The colors, the shapes....they were like nothing I had ever seen before and they were everywhere! Am I really living here? Sometimes I have to remind myself where we are.   After our hour snorkel and a quick ice cream treat on the way home us mummy's headed home to our kiddos.

This evening Jerrod and I loaded up the kiddos and headed down to the marina to check out the Game Ex weigh ins. Game Ex is a super massive fishing tournament held here every year, people come from all over to it. In the evenings the fishermen bring in the fish to weigh and display them, then there are filleting demonstrations with the fish just weighed in and then we get to take home what they filleted up! We brought home about 2 lbs of yellow fin tuna (which we grilled tonight yummmm) and about 3 lbs of Spanish mackerel (I see fish and chips in my near future!)

Overall great day!

A home for critters

So the good news, yes the good news is that we got a call two days ago letting us know our van was in exmouth (6 month transit exactly). It had been here for several weeks but it did not come with any paper work so no one knew who it belonged to. Some more good news, only seven large dents and chips taken out of my relatively new hood as I had just got a new one on last January from the ass that hit us on Christmas 2015. Now the bad news, are you ready for this? At some point in this trip someone responsible for our vehicle decided to get in and roll all our windows down. Yep you heard me right. And guess what, when I opened the back door to the van I could see dirty black animal prints all over the floor that led to the back where.... wait for it.....we lifted up the third row seats that had been down and sure enough there was evidence of a critter living in our van! The entire carpet is soiled in brownish dark yellow substance....something has been relieving itself and sleeping in it and my god it is a nasty sight. Since the windows were down for who knows how long the entire car is BLACK with grime, dirt, dust and who knows what else....I won't even sit in the front seat because of the condition. It does run though. I had to go buy a battery for the keyless entry control....but it does drive. I am so saddened that someone treated our vehicle this way.
 I keep going back to the golden rule in my head as to treating others how you want to be treated. I don't think they teach that anymore, or else the hurtful and hateful words I see in facebook posts wouldn't be typed and people would take care of each other and each others belongings better.
As I'm sure some of you are wondering what we are going to do, we have already contacted the embassy which will start the claim process and we will go from there. I am sad, but there is nothing we can do.... better the car to have gotten damaged on this journey than one of us....after all it is something that (fingers crossed) CAN and WILL be fixed.