words of wisdom

So here we are in Oz. Our goods came and it has been like christmas! I love opening the boxes and seeing all my things. BUT we have way TOO MUCH! We got rid of sooooo much before coming here knowing that we were going to be living in an apartment and we still have too much. I wish I could throw stuff over the balcony into a waste bin and be done with it. Trucks are not usual here except for city maintenance vehicles and thus borrowing a truck is not an option. YOu can rent trailers from some petrol stations and then you tow them behind your car. Also as far as we have heard there are not city dumps where you can go dump your trash, so making wise purchases is key (our heads seem to be dense these days).

The biggest lesson we have learned this weekend would be stuff is just stuff. We have actually come to that conclusion over the last couple of months living with less than a weeks worth of outfits each, a pot, a pan and a few plates. Now seeing things as we open makes me just want to hurl it. Quite frankly the simple life is a happy life. Of course I am glad to have more clothes, more cookware so that I can use the oven, etc. But next move we are just taking bare essentials. And slowly here we are going to be getting rid of things.

Turns out our couch that we bought the week before moving here would not fit into our apartment, like they couldn't get it through the door. It is too long and the angle of coming around the corner into the apartment made it impossible. So the couch we never enjoyed is now sitting in the car park (parking garage) awaiting us to sell it and now we must buy a new smaller one. Lesson learned, smaller is better. Even our car that we got which is a sedan is large it seems. Parking here is tight, lanes are not as wide and its harder to manuever around. We bought a toyota camry and it is a big car for here. Think suzuki swift and ford focus, and VW Golf as the most commonly size cars seen here. Everything is just smaller and more compact. I am glad for these lessons, but sometimes I wonder why we always seem to have to learn the hard way. But we will definitely keep our wisdom for the future andventures we encounter and hopefully we can pass the word on to others who move overseas or even downsize in their dwelling. Just get rid of it, you dont need much. And there are few things of sentimental value that can be kept but when you dont have much space just be picky.

So you live and learn, hindsight is 20/20, and it would have been nice if we could have had someone here to kind of let us in on what city living would be like here. Ikea dimensions are truly what it's like here, so I am sure they may be our saving grace. The bed we originally bought used here for Erik as well will be replaced, it wasn't too big but we think we got worked over and it seems so unsteady and unsafe even with everything being all tight that even when he is ready to have his mattress off the ground we won't feel safe. Luckily there is no hurry for that we just slowly throw it out piece by piece and wait to get something different.

Oh the things you learn in life. I had to laugh today, the irony of some of our experiences here. I don't want to think too hard about it all otherwise that smile might turn to grimace.

If anyone knows anyone in Oz that wants to buy a brand new leather sofa off us, let us know!

Fun Weekend...Kind Of

We set out to complete a 5K race this weekend, which Lindsay set as a goal on his way to completing a 10K race later in the year. The race was held in Mooloolaba which is a little over an hour North of Brizzy. It started at 7:30am so we found a hotel deal online. One of the Aussie websites has "Mystery Hotels" where you pick a general area but don't know the actual hotel until you pay. We ended up at a 5 star hotel in Twin Lakes which was amazing. We only wish we had more time available to enjoy it. Since we had the race, and other obligations later in the weekend, we only enjoyed the sea food buffet and Jacuzzi. The biggest shock was when we were walking to our room in the dark and a Kangaroo came hopping down the walkway, then turned into the bushes. Here is an aerial shot of the resort. It had rained overnight but the weather was great for a race that morning. Lindsay ran the race hard, trying to set a personal best and I pushed Erik in a jogging stroller that we borrowed from some friends. We didn't get to see the course before hand, but figured that it couldn't be to rough since it followed the ocean. When we stood at the starting line, and no one else had strollers, we found it strange but weren't worried. When people started asking which route to follow uphill to the lighthouse, we started to worry.
Nearly one third of the race was uphill. It took everything I had just to finish. Here is a picture of the beach we followed before running up the grassy hill, to the lighthouse in the distance. We descended the back and then climbed it again. An insane run with a stroller by any means. We all felt accomplished at the end and Lindsay set his best time of the year, 23:57. He has made great improvements since last year. Next stop is the Brisbane 10K in August. Lindsay can have the stroller for that one ;-)

A new Season

For most of you who read this blog, you just celebrated your first official day of Summer. Part of me is completely jealous, by the time our winter is over we have been living in almost an entire year of winter. Not that the winters here are horrible or shut you in, so I am not complaining too much. But the fact of the matter is we have not had summer activities for almost a year! It is too cold here to go swimming and have bbqs and lay outside all day. We are blessed that it is warm enough here that we can still go outside and play, but its cold enough Erik's gets a runny nose. And you need some type of jacket. Well ok, so Lindsay can still wear shorts with a long sleeve shirt. I need pants and a jacket. So I am missing having yummy cherries, and berries, and missing the lake (although I have missed that since we left Spokane), and camping. I am just hoping that when we leave Oz that we get the reverse.....a year of summer......ahh that would be nice. Although to be quite honest I am a little nervous about the summer here, the hot, sticky, and super humid weather. I have never lived in humidity so it will be new and I am pretty sure my hair is going to hate it, I already tend to have a bit of frizz in my hair but its going to be a lions mane. It is humid right now, but not much. We noticed when we first arrived, but are used to it now luckily.

This last weekend we visited a local koala sanctuary. It was amazing, we bought annual passes (two visits was the same price) and spent a few hours seeing koalas, emus, wombats, bats (they are huge!), snakes, birds of prey, sheep herding, and of course kangaroos and wallabys. We got to feed the kangaroos and it was an amazing thing. Erik loved that they would eat out of our hands and how it tickled. The roos are very gentle and would let us pet them while we fed. Once the whole herd of them got up and ran away and that was cool to watch. It was like a stampede of them bouncing into an area where visitors werent allowed. Wallaby's look like a kangaroo but are smaller and have slightly different color to them. We didn't even visit the whole park. We figured with it being so close and having passes that we would come again to see the rest. Also our passes get guests in for a discount so if anyone does make it down here or any of my Oz friends want to go, we will get you in for cheaper!

Also recently I took my hand at cutting Erik's hair. I did a little more the next day after this picture was taken to even some things out but I think I did ok. It definitely wasn't anything like a pro, but he's two and will never know. Plus if others notice we could just pretend he got a hold of the scissors ;) He loves the clippers and think they tickle so the back neckline was where it looked the most choppy. Every time I got the clippers on his neck he would squirm and giggle thus making it hard. But I am excited to try more and get it right so that when he is old enough to have it matter more, it will look great. He loves to put mousse into his hair too so we like to style it.

The picture below from a really silly morning. We were all playing in Erik's room and Erik was taking pictures so I made a silly face. When Linds played the pictures back for him Erik laughed hysterically at my silly face one. So they would rotate through to regular ones and then hit the funny one and Erik would belly laugh. So then he started trying to make the face and so we took pictures of all of us doing it. What a goof. Soon after that I put a mud mask on my face before jumping into the shower, linds had left for a workout and Erik called me the lion king. What a goof ball. Good thing he has a sense of humor!

Erik has also gotten into a phase where when he is not sure if he is allowed or knows he shouldn't be doing something he goes into his room and shuts the door. Usually its not really anything, he has something he thinks is forbidden like a cord that is unplugged that he drags around like a snake or something but every once in a while he is doing something naughty.

This weekend Lindsay and I are going to run in a 5k race. I haven't run in months but luckily since we are so active here I surprisingly was able to run still so I have been training in the last few days and I am sore but it feels good. I am such a happier person when I am exercising regularly. It's hard to get out the door and it is hard sometimes during the workout but it feels soooo amazing afterward. Mostly I just feel empowered that my body can do such a thing and proud that I am healthy enough to do it as well. Running is not a strong suit of mine. I will never be fast or be able to run as far as lots of other people but it works and it takes me where I need to go. My heart is getting a good workout and same with my bones and muscles, it helps with digestion, and lifts my mood. So even it may be one of my least favorite exercises I am learning to love it.

A few days after we arrived in Oz my Dad had a huge heart attack..emergency heart surgery and all. A couple of weeks later he had another surgery, and there will be yet another one after he is healed and ready for the third. My mom's side has heart disease mixed in as well as Diabetes and so I want to prevent/prolong those things as long as I can. One specialist has already told me it's not a matter of if but when I get diabetes because of my family medical history and pcos. So I want to not only keep myself as healthy as I can for as long as I can. I also want to set a good example for Erik of a healthy lifestyle so that as he grows and creates habits that he is healthy. I understand that he has free agency to make his own choices but if I can give him a one up then I will. So are running in a race this weekend on the beach and hopefully it will be the first of many here. Lindsay starting really getting into a healthier lifestyle at the new year. He looks great and feels so much better than he did prior to that. He wants to eventually do a triathlon but is training smart. Just building small steps at a time. He is racing this weekend to see how fast he can go. I jumped into the bandwagon too late this time, so I will be pushing Erik and just hoping to get a similar time to my first 5k last november.

It's nice here because healthy lifestyle and food are abundant. It's common to exercise regulary there are tons of parks and playgrounds and sports available to all ages to get your heart rate up. Food is mostly healthy here, or at least much more available and affordable than in the states. Most of the beef is hormone and antibiotic free. Free range eggs and chicken are available just as easily as the others. And there are many more options of everything else. And the healthy options are usually the same price as the non healthy options, so while its expensive in general to buy food here, its not more to eat healthy. For that I am grateful. Beef is super expensive though and so lamb and chicken and pork are more common meats eaten. Linds and I have eaten even less meat here than in California and love it. THere is much more yummy seafood and sushi is cheap! You can find it as kiosks all over shopping areas for about 2.50 a roll. You order quickly and then eat the roll whole, they dont slice it for you here you just take bites slowly eating your way down the roll. So for 10 bucks Linds and I can get 2 rolls each and call it lunch. Erik usually tries it but hasnt aquired the taste for it yet. Plus their sushi choices are different which makes it fun. They offer the same typical ones but also will do different veggie ones, or mix eel with a veggie in it or something, it is really yummy. mmm, makes me want some right now.

HOpe you all enjoy your summer and please do lots of fun things for me since I am still in winter mode.

House Tour

Ok So I know many have been patiently waiting to see our new digs and while we hardly have anything in our new place and hopefully will have our home goods here next week I thought I would share pics. I will share better ones later once we have it looking like a home but this will suffice. We finally have internet hooked up at our place with more data so I was able to use data to load the pics (you wouldn't believe how much it takes). This is in our bedroom. We have one full wall of windows (on the right) and a half wall (left) and its amazing. We pretty much leave the shades open all the time. We are high enough that we dont have to worry about people seeing in. Plus you can kind of see our balcony which is huge. It is where our dining area is going to be.

Our bedroom. To the left is a walkthrough closet that leads into our master bath. And guess what, there has only been 2 days that I have not made the bed since living here. I am pretty proud of that fact, compared to my old habits! It's part of my transformation into becoming a more prepared and organized person with more routines. I am working on it.

This is a view standing in the kitchen looking into the living space. Eriks room is on the right. Our bedroom is the cracked door on the left. There is a closet just outside our door. There is a bathroom next to erik's room and a laundry room to the right of the kitchen that you can't see.

Erik's room with his new big boy bed. We wanted a loft bed from ikea originally, the one with the cool little tunnel thing on it. We ended up buying this one used and wish we had stuck to our original plan. This one is nice, has a desk underneath and shelf which will be nice storage space since we can't put holes in the walls but it's much higher than the ones for younger kids. oh well. Erik also has floor to ceiling windows/slider out to the balcony. He thinks his new digs are great!

Erik's /guest bath. Nothing fancy but it's nice.

The kitchen with a view of our front door and into the laundry. We now have red bar stools for the island that we love. I just wish it didn't have carpet right there because food always ends up on the floor.

This is how you typically see us hanging out. Erik always has full posession of the back pillow and will try to kick you out if you sit there first. Luckily he doesn't run the house so he doesn't always get his way ; )

This is one part of our view from the balcony. This is downtown brisbane. If you look to the blue light on the right, right below is a half circle. That is the huge ferris wheel at South Bank that is pretty well known here. South bank is one of our favorite places to visit. And we usually get there by ferry. But seriously the pictures dont do this view justice.

Crazy thing is if you were to buy our apartment...you can rent or buy here...you would pay almost half a million dollars, yep you can pick your jaw off the floor and be thankful that you most likely live in an area that is not as expensive as Australia. Granted we could have gotten a much bigger place out in a suburb away from everything but after living in the middle of the desert for 3 years we were so ready to live in the city. Plus we wanted to really be able to experience living in Australia with the culture and everthing. We love love love our little place. It suits us!

It's been interesting living in an apartment complex again. Our front door is actually inside a building which is nice for heating but took a bit of getting used to. We love how secure our place is. You have to be buzzed in and have to have a swipe key to use the elevator among other things. The other cool thing is just because I have a swipe card I cant use it to get to into the other tower of apartments, only to get to the pool deck, and managers office, otherwise I have to be buzzed in as well to other people's apartments and levels in our tower. So although crime here isnt like most places in the states its nice to know that we are safe when Lindsay is out of town (yes he went on three trips the first month we were here, short luckily).

Now that things are continously settling for us I am hoping to get back on the blog bandwagon.