Random rant

I interrupt the regular report on news and events and ongoings of our families to rant a bit about Oz....now honestly there are so many days where I think someone needs to pinch because I can't believe we live in such a beautiful and awesome place. We get to see so many things and are just in aplace where some people only dream about. But some days some things just get to me....our area is quite behind the times with some things compared to the states.....one thing that just chaps my hide sometimes....the internet. It is slower and when everyone is on it it slows even more or doesn't work. Like on christmas day when we were trying to call on the computer back to our families. I will not sit and complain more because we could all complain about a lot of things. But there is so much more to be thankful for....just had to rant a bit. And thus it might explain why I hesititate to update more often. Although if I really stayed up on the happenings it probably wouldn't cause such a problem.

Rant done...thank you

Washington trip

So getting back to our hometown was quite the ride. We had an awesome couple days flying. When we landed in Seattle we still had a 6 hour drived ahead of us. We were debating staying overnight and driving in the next morning or driving through the night. We decided on the latter. My throat felt a bit scratchy but just thought that maybe it was because of all the recycled airplane air and going from a humid climate to dry. we drove through the night, arrived at my parents house and all slept in late the next day. My throat was killing me. I was disapointed that maybe I was getting a cold. As the day wore on I was freezing and sitting by the fire my dad had made, everyone else was warm and super cozy....I had a fever.....blah! I was bummed...there were so few days we were going to be with family and I didn't want to be laying on the couch like a potato for those few days. Through the night I got more sick, vomiting, and the next morning my throat worse than I have ever felt. I went to the doctor and lucky me.....I had strep throat. Then I was worried Erik and Lindsay were going to get it, that would be bad news. But luckily I got antibiotics and some good nurturing from my mom and I was well on my way to recovery. Well to be honest it still really hurt to eat, talk, swallow, but I didnt want to let that hold me back.

So onward and upward....Erik and his grandma made cookies

I sat with my dad and went through some family history documents

Erik was a bit of a goof

Then we went to Lindsay's family's house and Erik reunited with his bestie and cousin Zoey. They played the piano and she tried to sing but got very frustrated that Erik was loud and obnoxious while she was singing sweet church songs.

This is her scholding him for his boyishness....how cute!

Lindsay got to meet a nephew that Erik and I got to meet earlier in the year when we were here. Landon is exactly what I imagine a son of ours would look like if we had a biological child. Is it not blaringly obvious to everyone else that these two look alike? Even Landon looks like Lindsay did as a baby. It was fun to see him interact this trip.

The two after a long day of playing and craziness settled in for a movie. These two were so comatose sitting there and Erik was obviously very relaxed.

Lindsay enjoyed a game of Jenga with his youngest brother and they got it all the way until they basically won. There were no more levels to build or take away from....pretty impressive

                              
We had a thanksgiving celebration with both sides of our family which was so nice even thoguh it was early. Haley did the turkey and was a bit unsure about pulling things out of the carcass.

The twins again

It wouldn't be a thanksgiving celebration without some relaxing

Wendy and Isaac.....and we met her newest baby Summer for the first time this trip, unfortunately we didnt take pictures of her sweet face.

The adult table feasting! It was so much fun. These are the major pictures from the trip but we also did some shopping and lots of hanging out. We spent some time with Lindsay's fmaily and even got to visit with his sister and her family one night. Ahhhh, it was such a nice trip. Well then Erik got sick vomiting one night which wasn't very fun but no strep throat...well until we got home...Lindsay got it then which is a whole other story...

To get home we it took us more days than we anticipated. To make a long story short.....we spent a few days waiting in Seattle....flew to Hawaii....spent a day there....flew to Sydney...stayed a night there in a historic bed and breakfast that was over a hundred years old.....flew home. It was one big awesome adventure. And I am only saying that because now it is over and I dont have to worry about how many more nights we will have to pay for a hotel or where we are going to sleep or how to get a ride where we need to go. Hindsight is always 20-20 so they say.

Best flight ever

So back in October Lindsay came home one day and told me that he had a trip coming up. No big deal this is a normal occurrence. I was a bit surprised he was telling me so early because normally he wouldn't know that far out (3 weeks), well ok sometimes he does but it always seems like I find out last minute. I like to prepare mentally for all these things so I was glad to have the insight early. He recieved a few phonecalls from people about the trip  through the week when he was home from work for the day that I thought was a bit odd, but still didn't think anything of. Then about a week later I got a sweet message from my sister-in-law that spilled the beans (to her credit......she did NOT realize it was a surprise for me). And Lindsay could have easily covered up the slip up but decided to explain. He was setting up a trip for our family to fly back to the states for 10 days! And not only the states but the plane was supposed to be landing in Washington...all we would have to do is drive from Seattle to Spokane and we were home free (and pretty much literally).

That is where the true adventure began

This story in entirity will be done over a few because it was a long fun jam packed trip with lots of twists and turns...er..adventure!

Just in prep for the trip which we wanted to keep as a surprise for our families (other than Lindsay's brother and his family who knew) we ended up telling everyone due to trying to gather everyone together and some people were on trips that we wanted to give the opportunity to come home to see us, etc. Anyhow... we finally packed our stuff, had our shopping lists of what we wanted to bring back from the states, lists of the things Lindsay's co-workers had already been sending to his parent's house for us to pick up afterall there are perks to flying on a military flight. Such as the weight limit for you baggage is more lenient than commercial and for this particular flight we could pretty much bring back whatever we wanted on the plane. Our only holdback was fitting us and the stuff back in the car to get it to the plane. But we were excited.

We woke up super early one fine saturday morning in Australia and drove to the base. Everything was in order and good, we even took off on time. We were stoked that we would be free to roam the plane to play and had heard they would bring cots out to sleep on partway to the flight. The plan was to stop in Hawaii and stay a night and then continue on to Seattle. Fair enough.

 We took off, and about an hour later we heard over the intercom that we had a "bird strike" and needed to turn around land, have the jet checked out and then re-evaluate take off. We were fortunate at this point that the bird that we obliterated hit the side of the plane. and not an engine. The base took care of all they needed to for the bird strike and we were allowed to re-take off without too long of a delay.

 I was still a bit nervous about all the flying with a two year old...did I have enough toys...kid friendly snacks....entertainment....battery life on our electronics...etc,etc.

 The flight was the best I have ever been on. Turns out they did set upthe medic cots for us and we all took turns sleeping. Erik slept a good amount in his car seat and then I moved him to an open cot to extend his rest out some more. The food was better than any plane fare I have had, we could stretch way more, lay out, and Erik is obsessed with planes anyway and so he was in heaven. He played, slept, and played some more....such an awesome traveler-totally made up for some of his crazy days at home :) My whole plan for the trip since it wasn't going to be a real long trip was to just let our bodies adjust how they wanted...no fighting jet lag or too much adjustment....I just wanted to enjoy family and feel rested with all the days of travel I knew we would have (little did I know how many travel days)

And finally we ended in Hawaii, landing just after midnight. That was hard just because nothing was open and we weren't renting a car to drive anywhere where things would be open. We got a taxi to finally come and get us-he took forever....took an hour and half to get to our hotel room.......should have taken 20 minutes-maybe.....drove to the room which was a 5 minute drive (luckily the cab driver was a very nice man, just slow and confused) only to have our keys not work. Lindsay saw another passenger we flew with in his room and ran out real quick to use his room phone to call the front desk. So then we waited another half an hour for someone to give us a key that worked.

And you know the first words I heard out her mouth (I do know it was late, and it looked like she had been awakened for this service call but still-hospitality please?) were "Don't you have a car to come get the keys?" in her young crabby voice. I replied calmly and sincerely..."no, we just flew in and came in a cab, we do not have a car parked here." Although in my head I was thinking " dont you think if we had a car we would have driven right over so that we could have had the key in less than half the time it took you to get here...I do have a two year and its now 2 in the morning? But I was nice, which took her aback and she changed immediately into her nice sweet self which I am sure she is most of the time and let us in. We settled in the best we could and slept for a few hours before waking and needing to get up to catch the next flight.

We walked with Erik riding one suitcase down a ways to a McDonald's or Makka's as they call it in Oz that we had seen the night before so we could use their wi-fi to call my parents via skype to update them and let them know we arrived and tell them what the next leg should look like.

***TIP**** when traveling into a foreign country where you don't have a cell phone plan...buy a PREPAID PHONE as soon as you can, that would have saved us a lot of stress early on. Eventually we did buy one on our trip to help out with travels home but it should have been one of the FIRST things we did.

We made it to the base and onto to the next flight with a few hours delay (and no way to tell the rents) and landed at 12 am Sunday morning. There was a bit of drama once we landed at the base in Seattle because their passenger terminal was closed on the base for a few days and there was no way for us to get from the flight line to the front gate where my parents had been patiently waiting for us in the dark info wise. We talked a young airman that drove the crew to take us there (He will receive blessings) and we reunited with family. So our saturday was lived two days in a row and we continued to drove through the night to get back to Spokane 6 am Sunday morning. Crazy and exciting! We had made it!

Quick home tour...

So there is nothing ultra fancy about our little unit....other than the fact that we call it home and we are in love with it. Yes, it is cramped...yes, one more room would be nice just to store things.....BUT we know from experience it is a rare occassion to find a perfect home even when you are looking to buy. We all know we can't have our cake and eat it too, there is always compromise. We are lucky to have secure parking that is covered with visitor parking. So everything that we would store in a garage has had to find a spot in our unit...well ok, mostly out on the balcony. Our home is still a work in progress, we have purged a lot, continue to purge, and are so much more thoughtful to what we purchase, it's been quite nice actually...in more ways than one!

Below is the balcony. I need to figure out how to take better pictures of it. Our dining room set is out there, a day bed, our huge metal shelving with most of the clutter (I "forgot" to take a picture of that so you won't see the major clutter), and stroller, bikes, and other modes of transportation...a la ttrike and scooter. It is big enough for Erik to ride in a circle around but also we have pathways in our common area of the complex to take him down to as well.

 The day bed (with crap stored beneath). I will say that just since these pics have been taken things look different. But those pics will have to wait for another day. The bed is large enough that if you took off the cushions its like a twin size bed but longer. Totally comfy and awesome in the beautiful weather.

 The kitchen, we love the countertops (aka.."benchtops" in Oz) and overall like the kitchen. We do have a lovely pantry next to the fridge that is really deep and I am actually having a hard time figuring out how to fill it correctly because I hate pulling things out from behind, but I will figure it out. The oven is small...couldn't fit my largest baking sheets in there nor my pizza pan...so got rid of some of my large cooking items (we are getting to that point anyways, with most our stuff being almost 10 years old and wearing out, so we will treat ourselves when we move back...IF we need it. It's been amazing how much we realized we could live without. Our fridge is small as well but there is a larger spot for it. If I had the hindsight I had now I would choose a larger fridge just due to the fact that the humidity makes everything moldy so FAST, I mean SO FAST! I keep nearly everything I can in there. Especially bread! But we lucked out with buying it off the guy who moved out of our unit and we didnt have to move it, so I am NOT complaining....what's the saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"....yeah I really like that saying.

The view of our main living area from our bedroom doorway. You can see we have bar stools at the counter. The three doors you see are from left....laundry, entry, and small broom closet. OUt of the picture on the left is the main bath and Erik's room. We have amazingly big and beautiful windows but they all sit on the same side of the unit so back in the kitchen can seem a bit like a cave on some days. I am just glad our windows are so huge and beautiful!

Opposite the couch

 The couche and entry into our room, a linen closet, and the balcony..Sweet thing....each room has their own sliding door to the balcony....well ok, if I could keep Erik from trying to come through his when he doesnt want to nap :)

 Our serene master bedroom, with a little maniac bouncing around

 To the left of the above picture is the walkway to our "walk through" closet. On one side is a "built-in robe" as they call them here...or as most of you would know- a closet with sliding doors. On the other side is our new dresser that I absolutely love from IKEA. and then you walk through to our bathroom or "ensuite." There I just taught you some more Aussie lingo without realizing I was going to.

 Our laundry room. I can't tell you how stoked I was to have not only our own laundry room, but have it in our unit. I hated having it in our garage in our last house. The complex provided the dryer, we bought the washer from the previous tenant. I will tell you that majority of washers/dryers here are about half the capacity of a typical american appliance. You can pay top dollar for larger capacity but it's not common. Plus our unit would fit one anway....what does that mean you ask? Double the laundry. But I would rather it be how I have it now, than a large capacity in my garage...is that crazy? I LOVE having laundry in my house and it helps me stay up on it better. Plus there is a door I can shut....DOUBLE BONUS!

 Erik's room, he doesn't always keep his toys in his room, but he DOES help clean up quite well. Since we have paired down he knows that each toy has a home and where it belongs, he knows how to put his books away and where most of his clothes go. He is such a good helper. It's hard to tell in the pic but behind where his fan is, his room is really deep. There is a cut out alcove that has been great for storage and things. Ideally I would love to set it up more as a structured play area, but we are ways from that, so for now it's great storage.

 across from Erik's bed is his dresser and his books have actually moved in front of the closed shade by his sliding door to help block his mind from trying to go there...plus Santa may be bringing something that needs the spot next to his dresser...but we will have to see what the leves have up their sleeves.

At the end of his bed are the toys that we have out at any given time. I have been really good about rotating toys here. And I really got choosy with which ones I kept and which ones I thought he has grown out of. Those we donated to friends, sold, or to donation centers. It's been hard to get rid of so much knowing we may have another child. But we have really taken on the mantra of only keeping what is absolutely necessary. In the event of another child we have a car seat, pack n play with bassinet and our bottles, the nice burp clothes and few other basic needs items. Luckily our new nephew has most of Erik's old clothes in rotation in his closet and will be kept in strage at his house, but toys and young books will have to be rebought along with a few other things. Oh well, we are happy as clams without the clutter.

All in all, I have realized this little unit is perfect for me as  a homemaker. Yes one more room would be nice for space. But I am not a fantastic housekeeper and this unit has helped me get better and better because its easier to clean and quicker. I am hoping that I will train myself so well that when we go back to a larger dwelling I will keep on with my new habits. And I have also learned, I don't think I ever want a really big house. I think I am happy with a small home. We can make do when visitors come, no doubt about that, so this unit has taught me quite a lot...Thank you to our little happy home!

slow and steady wins the race

I am obviously way behind on updates with our family. We have had a lot of sickness and trips and just overall life happening lately. Instead of trying to take the time to do one post with all the updates (which I will never get the time to sit and do in one setting) and overwhelm myself. I am going to start just posting a few pics with brief updates until I catch up until present days.

So Halloween was a blast. We had a few different parties to attend. We weren't sure what to dress Erik up as, he loves his dog costume and pretends to be Simba from the Lion King, but I was leary that it would be far too hot for our weather. Plus the biggest party we went to was going to have a bouncy castle and trampoline among other things, so I knew he was going to get hot and sweaty on top of the warm weather.

Luckily a few days prior to Halloween we went to an amusement park we have passes for and found a great batman mask and cape. Erik is starting to get into super heroes and I thought perfect, he can keep the stuff for pretend long after the holiday ends. We added rain boots (which he demanded to wear every day for at least a week following Halloween deeming them his batman boots) and I quickly made a batman shirt out of hot glue and felt on a white Hanes tee. Voila, our little crime fighting hero.

 The night was beautiful and since Halloween isn't typically celebrated here the family who set up the party had a route of 7 houses of willing participants to hand out candy. Perfect number for Erik!

 at the shindig. Lots and lots of people, lots of un, and yummy food.

Need I say more. Erik actually wore his cape and mask one day (over his eyes even) on our walk to the shops and I am pretty sure he made at least a dozen people's day. Nearly every car that drove by smiled, well ok the drivers. And he got lots of comments, and he just added his funny personality to the mix by singing the batman theme song and walking with his arms a little bit back to make his cape fly better. What cutie. This one has a lot of personality I tell ya