Where has the time gone

This was written a week ago...apparently I forgot to hit 'post'.

There is alot on my mind as I ponder the upcoming 11 weeks.
This morning my littlest rode his bike to school. He recently turned 4 and I found myself following along behind him and his big sister as they rode along the footpath together. Up to a week ago he wouldn't have been caught dead riding it. He hates manual labor and struggles a bit with his motor skills so when he asked to ride his bike a few days ago I jumped at letting him. The days are getting cooler making an afternoon walk or bike ride a bit more tolerable. He jumped on and rode around the block. I was FLOORED. Jerrod and I couldn't get over this giant leap from not being able to get his legs to go around in one complete circle to riding around the block with minimal help. Where did my little 2 year old go?
We showed up in Australia with a newly 2 year old strapped to my back on my ergo and a spunky ready to explore 4 year old running ahead. The time has flown by. My children have grown in leaps and bounds. I have found myself even reflecting on the person I have become over the past 2 years. I have changed so much as a friend, mother, a wife, and above all a woman.

I am finding it hard to put into words the mixed emotions I am going through. My heart is truly broken or is it torn? We have made a life here...a home.. We knew this would not last, We knew we had a deadline and for the 1st time knowing these things I threw caution to the wind and wound up finding a family away from family. You know the song Accidentally In Love by the counting crows...ya that happened! I have fallen head over heels for this town, for these people for everything about this place. It will truly break my heart to leave; but I also know we will be back...someday...and until then we will carry with us everything  and everyone that  has transformed us and made us who we are going forth.

Road Trip Days 5&6

Yesterday we woke up cold...very very cold and packed up our very wet tent from a night in cold rain. We didn't sleep well as we ended up with an extra munchkin curled up between Jerrod and I on the queen size air mattress. Luckily we didn't get any rain while packing and we were able to get everything sorted easily and quickly. We loaded up and headed right for the Busselton Jetty not even 12 minutes down the road from us. We parked and enjoyed a gorgeous coffee on the water front admiring whales right off the shore line and basked in some warm sunshine before heading out onto the pier for the  very long 1.81 K walk. We hung out at the end for a bit then caught the mini train for a 20 minute ride back to shore which beat the walk especially since as soon as we boarded it started raining which eventually turned into quite the down pour!

We arrived at Taunton Family Holiday Park in Margaret River by the early afternoon and moved into our cabin unit for the next 4 nights. We stayed here last year and absolutely loved it and have been dying to get back ever since. They have dinner feedings for the animals on the farm at 5 every day and the children couldn't wait to feed them again!  

Today we all slept in (that's a first!) And had our first hot breakfast in a week of eggs and bacon so yummy! Then we hit the road... We were told all about Caves Road and how it was a must to drive on, so we did! It wasn't a disappointment, so gorgeous...the trees were massive and breath taking and we even decided to stop at Jewel Cave and discover it on a tour. It was an hour long and surprisingly the kids loved it! Once again I was blown away with the beauty of this natural wonder... This specific one is the largest Cave on the west coast that you can go into.

We finished the day off with a relaxing walk around the farm and dinner out at a family friendly (as most winery/brewery locations are here) brewery called Brew House. Jerrod and I shared a flight of crafted beers and split the beef cheek soft tacos and a signature burger while the kids had bacon pizza, however they were way too busy playing with the other kids on the playground and running around crazy like than to be bothered with eating dinner.

Road Trip Day 3&4

It is so much easier to catch up every other day than to try and remember every evening... We are currently in Busselton. Let me catch you up.
Yesterday we spent most of the day driving and got into Cervantes (the most westward you can go in Australia!)  Around 4:30 so we headed to the shops and grabbed some sausages, corn on the cob and some green beans to throw on the grille for a good old fashioned Aussie sausage sizzle. By the time we got our tent up (we have it down to 10 minutes flat!) Cooked dinner and done the dishes it was getting dusk and quite chilly. We threw on our hoodies And I insisted on a walk on the beach since I knew our time was limited the next morning. I am so glad we did! The sunset line was dotted with dozens of lobster boats and the kids ran along the packed sand in the pink and orange light chasing each other. By the time we got back and put the kids to bed they were passed out cold.

 This morning we woke up and packed up in record time as rain threatened us and we didn't want the tent and awning to get soaked before folding it up for the day. Then we headed out to the Pinnacles... Pretty much the thing Cervantes is known for, they are giant limestone pillars that have come and formed up and out of the ground! They had a drive around trail so we opted for that and so glad we did. The sky was slightly overcast still from the morning showers and made the lighting perfect for pictures and exploring a bit.

We drove through Perth in mostly rain this afternoon and got in to Busselton to the RAC campsite around 330. Once again I am floored by these sites! We have an Ensuit again at our site (thank you hallelujah)  and this campground has a free mini golf course, a pillow bounce, 2 large playgrounds, a cricket pitch, rugby field, footy goals, BMX course and so much more. There is a family of ducks that visit us frequently now too... That may or may not have to do with the bread we have been feeding them...oops!

Road Trip! Day 1&2

Yep. I have failed tremendously at keeping up with this and that makes me so sad!
Instead of detailing everything that I have not written about in 9 months let's just jump into  the most important things.
1. We found out we will be moving to South Dakota in July
2. I almost died on a tragic SUP adventure that went horribly wrong with my girl T and yes that included many many tiger and bull sharks. ...let's not talk about it.
3.my daughter now snorkels like a champ
 Which somehow brings us to 4. Our current adventure.
We are driving and camping our way down the western coast of Australia for 2 weeks!

We just cuncluded our second day. Yesterday we drove 6ish hours to Denham/Monkey Mia and visited Shell beach, a beach made entirely of small white shells as far as the eye can see! Gorgeous but hurts the feet! The kids jumped in the water with just underwear on and had a blast. Why wait to get your suits out when half of the suits here either go way far up the rear or don't cover near enough to leave you guessing anyways.
Today we visited with local dolphins at the beach in Monkey Mia and we swam
in the much colder than Exmouth water. Brrr....
We walked around town for several hours taking in the scenery and letting the kids play on a playground that I have no doubt would NOT be allowed in any town in America for safety reasons and over protective adults and politics (my 5year old was terrified to go down the slide but little Aussie 2 year olds were throwing themselves down it!) This playground was by far the coolest thing ever and I think they p

layed for over 2 hours straight! After grabbing wood fired pizzas we headed back to out camp site to eat and start pack up. We head out in the morning for another big day on the road towards our next land mark😁

We have talked about doing this for so long I am thrilled it is now a reality and we are actually DOING IT!

Monkey Mia Residents

Shell Beach

Our Campsite for 2 Nights

Shell Beach Underwear Swim

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.

End of the Year thoughts.

Well, we survived a hot Christmas where the temperature reached around 110 F. I wouldn't really know since we never laid foot outside (the children refused the beach; they wanted to play with all the new toys and I don't really blame them) but my sister gave my husband a new indoor outdoor thermometer so we can see the temperature rise before we head out. We spent most of our Christmas morning face timing with family and opening presents in front of the ipad. YAY for technology!

The tree is now bare underneath which is the saddest sight. It looks so empty without the brightly covered presents. The anticipation and build up of the holiday is amazing and then just like that it is over and we wait a whole 364 days until the next one. For the days following Christmas I feel a little lost. How long after Christmas is it acceptable to keep listening to Pandora Christmas channel, or watching Christmas specials on DVD and Netflix? As you know from previous posts I do love my Christmas, but at what point do you hit the pause button on Christmas until the following November? Most people say New Years, I would normally say longer but this year is slightly different for me. In the states at our previous homes we have snow through march, so as long as its snowing and you can drink hot cocoa to me it's relevant to keep up the holiday cheer. This year was a little bit harder for me to get into the spirit. It could have been the 100 degree temps. It could have been the beach days before and after the big day on the 25th. It could have been the lack of Christmas lights in the town (although the ones we did see were pretty amazing). It could have been the lack of Christmas get togethers and parties; but most likely it was knowing that our family and friends were on the other side of the earth. I went through the motions for the kids, but truly honestly it was hard. Christmas Eve service was amazing, we found a little church since our church didn't do eve service  and attended that. It was a good reminder of what Christmas is all about. Addison helped make our annual 'birthday cake for Jesus' as our Christmas day dessert, but this year was just harder than others. It hasn't quite been a week and I look around and i'm feeling anxious to get the house in order and back to its usual look. I usually have to fight with Jerrod to let me keep the tree up a month longer, or to keep my winter dishes out until valentines day; but i'v been slowly already gathering odds and ends to be packed up.
My big job for the holidays is over; giving the kids the best holiday and Christmas season that I could give. As long as it was over the moon fantastic for them then I achieved my parental goal. My daughter told me it was the best Christmas ever, so i'm thinking I achieved that.

Now onto New Years.  At the end of this month we are officially a quarter through our time here in Australia. Mind Blown. I don't want to wish it away, we are having a great time discovering this amazing country and are anxious to take our road trip down south at some point in the new year, but I am even more anxious to see my family again. To sit on my moms deck on a warm day and just chat, to snuggle my kitty in bed, to take my dog for a walk on a beautiful fall day in the leaves and of course take the 4 munchkins to our yearly trip to Storyland (maybe more by the time I get home ::winking at sister::)
I'm thinking about it like this. Only one more Christmas apart. Only one more Halloween and Thanksgiving apart. When I think about it like that it makes it easier. Time goes by so fast. I don't want to wish away this once in a life time experience. I just wish I could fly everyone out here so they can experience it with me! Anyways, that is what is on my mind today.

I don't really believe in New Years resolutions as no one really keeps them after February anyways. The gyms will get over crowded for about a month and half and the salad bars won't be able to keep up with demand but by March everyone reverts back to the way they functioned pre new years. But what I will do is hope to achieve some pretty realistic goals. Continue to stay positive  on this adventure down under. To try and take advantage of experiences that I feel comfortable doing that I will never be able to do again. Travel and see more of this country. Keep raising my children to be fearless, adventuress and kind hearted human beings.

What are some of the promises you will make to yourself for the New Year?

Talk to you all in January

A Little Christmas Nostalgia

It is officially one week from Christmas and I'm feeling nostalgic and a little bit homesick. The holidays are a very special time for me. I LOVE CHRISTMAS! It is not about the actual Christmas day; which is obviously awesome (I mean I got engaged on Christmas morning after all!) but for me it's the season. It's the anticipation and traditions and festive activities leading up to Christmas. I suppose it is my parents fault. I personally think we had the hands down most fantastic holiday season experience. My mother is a little Christmas crazy herself and I suppose that is where I get my love for it at. I couldn't wait for her special Christmas time dishes to be pulled out. She has a setting for 12 atleast (but I'm pretty sure more!) plus every piece of serving ware imaginable; how I love those dishes with the Christmas tree and the little train that went around at the bottom. She had this Santa that I actually believe was made to be a piggy bank...hes old and made of porcelain and I think she once said it came from home interiors, but I love it! Perhaps the best was her nativity which still makes it appearance every year; I remember her getting certain pieces when I was younger. It is gorgeous. larger than a traditional nativity and the pieces are painted beautifully. Today she also displays a nutcracker collection that takes up an entire book shelf. Many years ago we got rid of a piano the once small collection sat on top of it during the holidays and our only thought was where are the nutcrackers going to go at Christmas?
Now my father; his lights were amazing. We had this deck with lattice wood underneath so he would hang those big old C9 bulbs in giant X patterns on the bottom then twinkle icicle lights from the actual seating of the deck. My first Christmas being married we went to buy lights and I insisted on the C9 lights because it was what my dad had always used, after half of them braking against the house that one season and spending a fortune to replace individual bulbs I gave in and let Jerrod buy smaller outdoor lights. The icing on the lights; our old plastic blown light up Santa and his reindeer which still make an appearance every Christmas.
We had so many ornaments we had 2 trees, one real one for the living room which was always bought too big and always needed to have the top cut off to fit in the room and tied to our deck door to prevent it from falling ( do I have to tell you how we had to figure out to tie it up!?). Our artificial tree appeared in the dining room which was great because who doesn't want to look at a beautiful tree while eating dinner plus every homemade ornament from when they were in pre school.
There was a little pond in front of our house that we would spend days skating on. We would spend all day out on that miniature rink and at night my dad would bring down the portable work flood light for us. Today that pond has grown over but my memories are still there (side note-my cats are actually buried right next to it).
Christmas time meant baking. My mother would make what seemed to be 100s of sugar cookies with every sprinkle you could think of and atleast 6 different colors of frosting. The 3 of us kids would sit down and decorate until you get to the point where you stop caring about doing details and you are just throwing on green frosting onto any cookie just to get them all done. Peanut butter balls were always a must, my mom made tons of these as well to give out as Christmas gifts. Leftover balls always got put in a bowl in the fridge but they never lasted too long....they were so amazing.
Ginger bread houses were something my sister and I did together. Yes they were a pre made house and yes that made it awesome because they were ready to go with minimal prep and cleanup work.
Perhaps one of my all time favorite traditions would be getting in the car and driving to town in the evening with the Christmas music playing. We would grab a hot chocolate and ride around some of the bigger neighborhoods and look at all of the beautiful lights and displays. You know what makes this all super awesome, is that when I go home it all still happens. Every thing (minus the skating and PB balls) but every thing else is still carried on when we are able ot make it home for the holidays.
The magic my parents brought into our lives on Christmas morning was phenomenal. I was left believing; really truly believing much later than most kids. The details of a type writer typed tag with our names on special gorgeous Santa paper, stockings over flowing onto the floor. Everything was just always perfect and magical, and just because we are older now there is still that same magic all these years later. If you wake up at my parents house on Christmas morning you better believe cookies and milk had been drank and nibbled on, and yes he has left you a special gift. As much as you can say thank you in the moment of something, I only hope my parents realize what they did for me and my siblings and how much I truly am thankful; so in a way I guess this is a thank you to them for the magic of Christmas, for the memories that will never be forgotten and for giving me traditions to carry on with my children.

My house currently smells like ginger bread (can anyone really complain about that?) I gave in last night and spent 2 hours baking homemade pieces for ginger bread houses. Jerrod made me do it our first year married as his family tradition is making the houses from scratch (nod to aunt lou and aunt peggy for making enough for like 20 people!) and they assemble them all together the saturday after thanksgiving. I have proceeded to make them every year except last year and felt guilty yesterday so busted them out. Not quite stale enough yet to build, hopefully by tomorrow.  Anyways; building traditions and memories of the holidays regardless if snow is on the ground or not with my little munchkins is all I can hope to accomplish. Id say if when they get older and can look back and love the holidays for what we did together and remember the love poured out for them then I did a good job. Now im going to throw my thongs (flip flops) on head out in this 99 degree heat to grab dinner at the store. Happy memory making and merry Christmas to everyone everywhere!



Heres  what you need for Trafton family ginger bread
5 1/2-6 C flour
1 TSP baking soda
1 TSP salt
2 TSP ground cinnamon
2 TSP powdered ginger
1 TSP ground nutmeg
1 TSP ground cloves
1 C shortening
1 C sugar
1 1/4 C molasses
2 beaten eggs

1.Mix flour, baking soda, salt, spices
2.melt shortening; not too hot. add sugar, molasses and eggs in that order. add 4 cups dry mix
3.knead in remaining dry mix. make it firm and add extrra flour if needed.
4.roll out to 1/4'' thick

bake at 375 10-12 minuites and makes ~40 cookies or 2 houses ( i use wilton house piece cutters)

Land of the Flies

I have composed this post in my head probably a dozen times if not more. The temperatures are finally reaching 97 degrees and up on a daily basis and something no one prepped us for, something no one talked about to us nor could we read about in any books or our welcome booklet---FLIES. I'm not talking a pesky fruit fly, but a straight up swarm of full sized flies. They are everywhere, you can't go outside without getting swarmed. They buzz around your ears which I think might be my new least favorite noise in the whole world, they fly under your sun glasses into your eyes, they fly up your nose, in your mouth and land on the corners of your lips. They gather on your back and on your shoulders in the dozens. There is literally no escaping them. I thought they were bad 2 months ago, October had nothing on December. The only relief is a windy day that keeps them at half bay. I have tried every kind of bug dope they have here, nothing seems to work to MY satisfaction which would mean they stay a mile away. The only positive thing I can find is that they do not bite...or at least not yet? they mostly just want our moisture and sweat. (Ummmmm...YUCK!!)
They really should have warned us about the flies. Would it have changed our minds about coming...no...but at least I could have prepared myself mentally. I am officially renaming Exmouth as the Land of the Flies.
End Rant

On a happy note, we have learned the Aussie Jingle Bells song almost word for word and I have posted it here for your enjoyment. It's pretty awesome and is incredibly accurate of life here.
Just click the link below and it will be like you are right here with us!!
Aussie Jingle Bells

Wish to sing along? Here are the lyrics, just sing it to the tune of jingle bells :-)

dashing through the bush in a rusty holden ute kicking up the dust

esky in the boot kelpy by my side singing christmas songs it's summer time and i am in my singlet, shorts and thongs jingle bells, jinjle bells, jingle all the way christmas in australia on a scorching summers day hey jingle bells, jinjle bells christmas time is bute oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty holden ute engine's getting hot dodge the kangaroos swagie climbs abord he is welcome to all the family is there sitting by the pool christmas day the aussie way by the BBQ oh jingle bells, jinjle bells, jingle all the way christmas in australia on a scorching summers day hey jingle bells, jinjle bells christmas time is bute oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty holden ute come the afternoon grandpa has a doze the kids and uncle bruce are swimming in there cloths the time comes round to go we take a family snap then pack the car and all shoot through before the washing up oh jingle bells, jinjle bells, jingle all the way christmas in australia on a scorching summers day hey jingle bells, jinjle bells christmas time is bute oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty holden ute oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty holden ute

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.

Vegemite taste

It's taken 7 weeks, Iv had this jar of vegemite in my pantry for 3 weeks. Today we finally opened it up! Check out our video link below to see if it's a hit or not!

Vegemite tasting

Roo foster mum

It's official i am part of the wild life animal rescue family. This means when foster mums for the baby roos that are rescued need help they can drop them off to me and I'll take care of them! Baby roos are just like babies, they need feeding every couple hours, help going to the bathroom and plenty of sleep and play time. We cannot have them full time in our houses so this is the next best thing for helping out hands on. We also will be helping at the roo pen for the more juvenile roos that don't need such 1 on 1 care. I'm pretty excited about this, seriously why wouldn't I take this opportunity to help and work with these amazing creatures for the 2 years I'm here? Or shall I correct that and say less then 2 years? I am not counting down, but secretly in the back of my subconscious I am thinking about the time I get to see my family again. It will be much easier once we get the internet which hopefully won't be much longer at this point.
We have gone and checked out the camper that is available to us through Jerrods job last weekend. Everyone goes camping here, so we want to try it too. Camp grounds are everywhere and not to mention that is how every one travels here, with a camper since there is not many hotels. It looks promising and we hope to make a few trips before the hot summer heat sets in.

Ugly insects

Can we juat take a moment and stare at the ugliness of the insects here. This creepy thing was attempting to get in my house this am upon returning from dropping my daughter off at school. He was in between my screen door and my solid door. Reason #5,489 why I don't leave just my screen doors open and just use the AC because clearly the creepy crawly  things easily slip under the screen doors. His family will never see him again, let's leave it at that.

Addison started football aka American soccer and she likes it alot. There's about 18 mini roos (4&5 year old players) so they split them among 2 coaches. My daughter for sooome reason thought your supposed to tackle the other players around the waist and drag them to the ground...apparently she's watched too much American football and confused the name? Either that or I need to put her in rugby instead. Anywyas after I explained that's the wrong sport it didn't happen again...atleast she didn't make the boys cry that she tackled to the ground.

We got a call Monday that our unaccompanied baggage (our 500lb rush shipment ) would be here this morning! So what do I do, remembering how it's always been done in the past they say morning and that means 1 day it's 11:30 and the next they show up at 6am, I rushed A to school to get back incase they showed up. 2 hours later still no movers. I'm terrified if I even think about getting in the shower they will show up mid shampoo and I'll miss them, so scratch being clean today. I remembered we needed to return toys to the library so I packed them up and hauled Lo and the toys across the street and hurried back. Still no moving truck. Going on 11am. To me, morning means before 9:30 , after that it's mod morning. It's 11:14  now. If they had said noon I would have atleast ran over to the pharmacy or market to grab groceries. Ohhh well. I'm thankful to know that at SOME point today we will have SOME of OUR things, and this makes me happy :-)

Blown away

Jerrod had today off so we loaded up the truck,  packed up a days worth of snacks plus some (because let's face it kids could snack allllll day ) and headed out to the west side of the peninsula to sandy bay. You would be disgusted by the amount of dead roos on the side or in the middle of the road out that way. They are rather stupid creatures and jump either in front of or right into vehicles as they drive...like they hop into the side of your car. It's really rather sad because you are obligated to "finish them off" rather than let them suffer; it's like hitting  a deer in maine. Then you must check the pouch for babies.
Once we drove the 45+minutes to the beach it didn't take long for us to notice some pretty nasty clouds headed our way.  The beach was dead, and much more windy than we anticipated. Some of our friends arrived and the 3 young girls spent the time in the water playing while logan dragged sticks around in the mud making shapes. After about an hour and a half the black clouds were close enough to make us un comfortable so we packed up and got in the car just as the rain began to pour down on us. So much for our sun soaked relaxing day at the beach! First rain for us since we have been here. .so 4 weeks!  On the bright side,  we should be receiving our unaccompanied baggage by the end of the week! (Our first 500 lbs of essentials) this makes me happy because we will be able to start putting our touches into the house and really making it ours.
I made rice krispy treats yesterday to bring to share at the beach. I recommend if coming from the states and you like marshmallows bring your own. There pink and white marshmallow concoction taste like crap. So if you are reading this, feel free to send a couple of bags my way!