The Advent

I feel down right frantic. Packers come on Tuesday. Christmas is 18 days away. The list really does keep getting longer and longer. I think that the reality is sinking in, we really are moving to Australia. Honestly, it seems a little crazy. BUT some how in the midst of it all the girls seem to be fine. With a great deal of help from a few friends, I put together our traditional Christmas advent. I even have a plan so we can keep counting down when we are between houses. We have cut out snowflakes for the Church party, made a gingergread village, watched a Christmas movie, eaten Christams cookies, read stories, etc. It is amazing how pausing for just a few minutes and celebrating Christmas as family each day has really settled the girls.

The List

It is has been a crazy month, but really isn't November always busy? I have been working and working to get everything arranged for the move. I feel like I wake up every morning and work all day and most of the night and yet it doesn't seem like I am making much progress. The problem is everyday things get added. So far this month I have checked off:

• doctor (3 visits each, company dr., private doc, and follow up)
• dentist
• hair cuts
• inventory the entire house with replacement values (almost, just my room left)
• get on Facebook
• find house in Australia (found one, room for all of us, dog ok, close to school and good commute for Adam. It is in the Ascot/Hamilton area of Brisbane)
• teach class, still have 2 more class periods and finals
• arrangements for Olive, thankyou a MILLION to our friends who are helping us with that and have volunteered to keep her for a few months
• sort and organize house, some stores, some ships, some goes air
• start Christmas advent for girls (I can't give up all traditions just because we are moving this holiday season)
• shop for Christmas
• buy clothing and household items for next few years because Australia is expensive and I refuse to pay $35 for mascara that I can buy here for $5
• figure out how to furnish and outfit house that is 1/3 the size
• sell cars/boat/appliances
• complete literally HOURS of paperwork, I have signed so many things that my signature is totally unrecognizable now
• keep house SPOTLESS for showings

AND believe it or not I still have things on my list. Two weeks from today, we will move out of our Cypress house. GULP!!

Olive

This is is Olive. With some serious help from friends, I gave her to the girls and the hub for Christmas last year. She has quickly become a big part of our family. Weighing in at just shy of 7 pounds she is one tiny bundle of love. She loves to run out in the back yard and chase the squirrels. They tease her like crazy, climbing just low enough that they are just out of reach. She also loves to bound up the stairs in the morning and wake up the girls. She knows the routine. We wake CB up and then half hour later the other two. Sometimes she likes to sneak up the stairs and get them early. But my favorite thing about Ollie is her bell. When she has to go out, she just rings her little bell on the back door and waits. It makes me so happy. I never thought she would do it, but she is very smart and quick and teachable. . .

AND now she has become a bit of an obstacle. Australia is very strict about what you can bring into their country. I won't go into the possible items for quarentine list. Let's just saw it covers everything in my whole house.

Today I talked with the pet transport people and learned that Australia requires Olive to stay out of their country for 180 days after she gets a "clean" blood test. UM. . . .that's 5 months and we are leaving in 6 weeks. How is this going to work? Not to mention the fact that I was counting on Olive to be part of the girl's support structure. I won't even metion the cost to get her there. First you wouldn't believe me and second you would think I was crazy. BUT you would do the same. She is part of our family and we love her and I don't regret her for one minute. Ok well when she was a puppy and she cried and peed, I regretted it some, but now she is ours, just look at her. . .and if you think she's cute now, you should see her giving loves to my girls. It makes my heart melt.

People

I always thought it would be great to have people. You know, people who work for you and make your life easier. People who follow you around and tell you just what you want to hear. I used to joke that my kids were my people. I knew at the time that I was really theirs, but it was funny. It made me feel important-ish. Well now I have people and it really is not all that I thought it would be. The hub and I have 8 different advisers who are helping us with this move. We have a door-to-door person, a tax person, a house person (actually 2 of those here and there), a group of doctors, and some more who file passports and visa documents. I have a stuff person who is in charge of all of my household goods. I actually have 3 of those the one in charge of the survey, the one in charge of the storage and the one in charge of the container that we are shipping. Are you confused? I am. Every day I open my email to about 20 emails from the people who work for the people. I spend hours on the phone trying to give the right info to the right people. I haven't even mentioned the school people or the pet carrier people. Basically, I have decided I am done with people. I just want 1 person to do this whole move across the world for me. Any takers?

Down Under

It has been a crazy roller coaster of a week and just so you know I am not a big fan of roller coasters. The Hub got a dream job. He will help the company he works for develop a huge natural gas field and pipeline. It is a great opportunity. The only catch, the job is in Brisbane, Australia. So we are moving yet again. This time to the land down under. I am very excited for this new adventure. This is an expat assignment for 2-3 years and then back to Texas. We have been doing tons of research and are anxious to find the right schools, neighborhoods, and church. The school year in Australia begins in January and runs pretty much all year, with breaks every 8-12 weeks. Our hope is to get there before school starts. We are all sad to leave so many dear friends, but feel grateful for technology that will make it easier to stay in touch. A few years ago my grandfather said to me, "You move so much, we should've bought you a motor home for your wedding."...that was 3 moves ago. I guess he was right.

Shoes

The hub volunteered to take the oldest shoe shopping last Friday. He is braver than I and surprisingly patient when faced with a preteen melt down. Off they went in search of shoes that were comfortable and cute. I have been searching for those shoes for years now, but they seemed confident they could find them in the hour before dinner. While on the shopping adventure, the hub sent me this text, with a note that said, "Do you know that your daughter loves to put on high heels and run around the store in them?" I laughed because this is actually a little game that CB and I have played since she was little. We always try on the craziest shoes and then try to run up and down the aisles in them usually talking in silly voices. If you have never done this grab your daughter and go and if you have no daughter call me because it is totally silly, but really fun.

ps:She almost talked her dad into these, she is awfully hard to resist, but at the last minute his sanity returned and they came home with some much more practical all WHITE tennis shoes ;)

Grammar Lesson

Today, I had to teach another grammar lesson. Grammar is not an easy subject for me to teach and while I can logically understand that it is important to understand the fundamentals of the English language, I am just not sure that it really matters if my students can name all 7 subordinate conjunctions. So I really geared up today and over prepared with all kinds of "fun" activities and attention getting techniques. I even played the oh so familiar Conjunction Junction video from school house rock. You remember the one at the train depot, with the really catchy, albeit slightly annoying song. "Conjunction junction, what's your function?"



I must admit, I was pretty excited and thought for sure my students would love it. I played the clip and waited for the reaction. But they just sat there, I think somewhat confused, definitely not entertained, and clearly not appreciating the iconic school house rock. I even had to explain what it was and tell them that there used to be a programing requirement that Saturday morning cartoons be somewhat educational. School House rock was developed to meet that federal requirement. Again blank stares. I resisted the urge to play Bill on Capitol Hill or Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get your Adverbs Here. You remember those, all part of growing up in the 80's.