Tag Footy Messes You Up

Friday, October 24, 2013

Charlie has always complained about walking when we are out.  I just figured it was a little kid complaining about walking.  After our trip to Sydney, where the complaining was at an all time high, and he showed us where on his foot it hurt, we decided it was time to have it checked out.  On Thursday we had an appointment with a podiatrist and he has really flat feet.  It is causing all his pain because it shifts his ankle and knee and hip joints.   He gets fitted next week for orthotics.  He never complains about pain when he is playing outside or running around with friends.  We think that is because he is preoccupied with having fun that he doesn't even notice. 

Charlie!  See the bruise on his nose?  It happened at recess today. 
He was playing "tag footy" (tag football) and he ran into someone. 
I think this picture of Charlie look alike!

There are some major brush fires in New South Wales.  The brush fires are a big deal around here.  So far the fires have stayed away from our area but we are to have a family plan for evacuation incase it is needed.  Last Saturday there was a haze over Canberra.  It was the smoke from the fires in NSW.

 I went to buy laundry stain remover the other day.  I stood in front of the stain remover section and examined a plethora of brands I had never even heard of.  I've never had that experience before.  I was standing there completely clueless as to which brand to pick. I read each label to see what they claimed they could do.  I looked at where it was made.  I checked out how to use each product.  I was spending WAY too much time picking a stain remover. I ended up buying the only one I had seen an advertisement for on TV.  The power of advertisement at work.  And then I went and did the same thing all over to choose a tub and shower cleaner.

For the most part, school drop off has been going well.  I kiss the kids goodbye in the parking lot (car park) and then I walk them to the playground by their classroom.  We usually get there with about 5 minutes of play time before it's time to line up and go into their classroom.  I've started saying goodbye about 40 feet away from the classroom door area.  And then I turn and leave.  I've found that if I stay until they go into the classroom like most of the other parents, that is when the fits start.  This process of me leaving right away has been working for about 5 weeks.  In that five weeks, there have been two times she has had to be physically taken into the classroom while yelling and resisting.  Today was one of them.  It's a tough start to the day. 

My Random Thoughts and Observations...

• All the schools around here have swim lessons in their curriculum.  The kids have had swim every day for the last two weeks. They take a bus to a local indoor pool. Today was their last day. 
• Last night Chaney and I played a game of Chutes and Ladders.  (She won.) Do you remember that game?  If you land on a ladder you get to climb up and go further towards the winner's square.  If you land on a slide, you have to slide down, further away from the winner's square.  Chaney let me know that they have the same game here but they call it Snakes and Ladders.  On the game board there are snakes instead of slides.  I feel like this is quite appropriate in this land of killer snakes (and killer sharks and killer jellyfish and killer spiders...).  Hey kids, play this game and slide down the back of this killer snake.  Have fun!
  
• While Chaney and I played Chutes and Ladders, Erich and Charlie played HORSE with the indoor basketball goal.  I heard Charlie say, "Daddy, you have haitch and O.  I have haitch." ("Haitch" is how the Aussies say the letter H.)
• We call the rear storage area of a car the trunk.  The Aussie's call it a boot.
• A common phrase is, "Good on ya."
• Another common phrase is "How you going?"
   
  
  
   

No Dummies

Tuesday, October 22, 2013 

I miss having a garbage disposal.  I did not take offense to my Australian friend who said people who use garbage disposals are lazy.  I didn't...  Okay,maybe I did just a little bit.  But I still like her.  I did learn that garbage disposals are actually illegal here.  If you have an old one,  you can keep it.  But once it dies you can't replace it.  I wonder if there is a black market for garbage disposals...

The city provides us two bins.  One for trash and one for recycling.  The trash bin gets picked up every week and the recycle every fortnight. (I'm even using the lingo now.) The trash bin holds about two tall kitchen trash bags. It is small. When we moved in I thought there was no way we could get our trash for a week to fit in there.  We are doing such a great job with recycling, that we don't even fill it up every time!  Schroeders 1.  Pollution 0.

The light switches here all make a loud click sound when they are turned on and off.  Pretty annoying when everyone is sleeping and I need to turn on the bathroom light. I guess I even miss the light switches in America.  But,  I'm learning to embrace the change and really appreciate the U.S.! And when I say embrace the change what I really mean is that I tolerate the change until I get used to it.  Some things are easier to embrace than others...

Chaney was sick this last weekend.  She is better now and back to school.  Over the weekend Erich was invited to the family BBQ for the squadron he flies with in the Royal Australian Air Force.  Since Chaney was sick, I stayed home with her and Erich took Charlie.  They had a lot of fun.  They got to tour the plane that Erich flies in, there was a bouncy house, and a petting zoo.  At the entrance to the petting zoo was a sign with the rules.  One of the rules was "No dummies."  What??  It took us a couple of days, but we found out that is what they call pacifiers.  Now it all makes sense.

 

At the petting zoo.

Everything is going well here.  We are getting settled into the house.  The kids are enjoying school. We are starting to settle into a routine. 

The kids running on ahead to our neighborhood park.

Charlie and Daddy practicing the bounce pass.

 

My Random Thoughts and Observations...

• Instead of signs that say:  Start Line Here or Wait Here for Next Available Cashier, they have signs that say, "Queue Here."
• Chinese Restaurants don't have Cheese Rangoon or General Tso's Chicken on their menu.  What?!
• I miss refrigerator crescent roll dough.
• Every month I look forward to the monthly game of Bunco with the other American ladies.  Good times!
• They don't call them popsicles.  They call them "ice blocks."  

False Advertising

Monday, October 14th, 2013

Back to School!

Today was the first day back to school to start the beginning of Term 4.  They have new "summer uniforms" and part of the required uniform for school is a hat.  This is to protect them from the sun and from attacking birds.  No, I'm not joking. Attacking birds.  Of course in Australia they call it "swooping" and not "attacking."  But let's just call it like it is.  Attacking.

Allowance

This past weekend we started giving the kids allowance.  We are giving them $3 a week. (In Australian currency) Fifty cents of their allowance is put into "savings" and fifty cents is set aside for "giving."  Well of course their $2 they had left was burning a hole in their pocket.  Erich took them to the mall to shop at the cheapy store. (Like a dollar store but since everything here is more expensive, it costs more than a dollar) Below they are showing off their purchases. 

A New Word

I was searching a website of an Australian store.  When I went to narrow my search, I saw this:

Haberdashery?  What?!! What a funny word. I had to look it up.  Apparently it is a word not commonly used in the U.S. (you don't say).  It has a couple of different meanings.  It could be a store that sells sewing goods like thread, ribbon, buttons. It could also be a store that sells "men's furnishings."  (define men's "furnishings" for me)  Now, maybe all you guys already knew the word.  This gal didn't.

Bacon

You might remember my post about bacon.  Bacon is different here.  So when I saw this,

I got excited.  I mean it has an American Flag on it!  It should taste like American bacon, right? It sorta smelled like American bacon.  It kinda looked like American bacon.

But I am here to tell you that I have NO IDEA why there is an American flag on that package of bacon.  It didn't taste like American bacon at all. AT ALL!  FALSE ADVERTISING! (I couldn't even eat it.  But everyone else did.)

Dream Come True

Saturday, October 12, 2013

More pictures from our weekend in Sydney:

Endless fun in the hotel elevator!

At the aquarium:

SHARK!!

 

My Random Thoughts and Observations...

• Do you know what TV show this is from?  "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."  I used to watch that show all the time!  It's on here every hour of the day.  They love their Law and Order.
• You have to check out this article.  It is written by an Australian living in the United States. The article is called 18 Strange Observations of the U.S. The article made me laugh and gave me insight to the Australian people.  A must read.  http://www.confiscatedtoothpaste.com/australian-living-in-the-usa/
• Around the corner from our house is the Belconnen Soccer Club. If you think the club has something to do with soccer, you would be wrong. It has nothing to do with soccer. Nada. But it is located near a soccer field...  Our neighbor is a member and she, along with her kids, took me and the twins there to play on the club's nice playground.  The best part of the club is the shaded tables beside the playground and the bar right inside.  And we can walk home! As my son would say, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  It's like a dream come true.

Sydney

Thursday, October 10, 2013

We had a great time in Sydney last weekend.  We are now back in Canberra.  The kids have the rest of the week off and I'm enjoying my time with them.  Erich is back to work. I am going to share with you everything we did in Sydney!

We took a train into Sydney.  The kids loved it and said it was one of their
favorite things about the trip. This picture was taken as we went over the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

 

We went to the top of the Sydney Tower.  It was incredible!

 

The Sydney Harbor Bridge

 

It was the Royal Australian Naval Fleet Review.  Several different nations sent ships to participate, including the U.S.  It was really cool to see from the tower.  This also meant lots of crowds.  One news channel said there were over a million people attending the naval review.

Since the whole country has holiday at the same time, lots of places do extra things for the kids.  The Sydney Tower had a table set up for kids to make a picture and turn it into a kite. Charlie drew a picture of himself by the Sydney Opera House.  Chaney drew a princess.

 

The Sydney Opera House.  This was as close as we got to the Opera House. 
We didn't feel like fighting the million people that were there. 

Aboriginal Street Performers

Sharing a cool drink.

There were several of these large yellow snails around downtown Sydney.

This was taken from the Sydney Tower and if you look in the middle of the
 picture you can see a yellow dot. That is the yellow snail in the
previous picture.  And if you look really closely at this picture, you can see the kids waving.
(just joking.) You can also see the shadow of the tower.

That night there was a huge fireworks show down at the harbor.
 Our hotel room was on the 8th floor
and could kinda see the fireworks.  Kinda. If you look
really close, you can see the fireworks on the horizon.

And that is just day one in Sydney!  I'll share more another day!

 

My Random Thoughts and Observations...

• Erich wore his KU Jayhawk hat as we went around Sydney.  On gal told him the bird on his hat was cute. Cute.  I think I would use the word tough to describe the mighty Jayhawk. The Aussie at the Sydney Tower ticket counter asked, "Did you go to Kansas?"  He watches U.S. college basketball. Rock Chalk!
• One of the nights we had a booking for dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Every other table was there for the same conference.  We felt a little out of place.  But we met an American couple from Illinois!
• This last weekend we set our clocks ahead an hour for daylight savings time.  So now we are 16 hours ahead of the U.S. central time zone.
• In Australia, white goods refers to appliances.
• While in Sydney, I saw a sign in a shop window.  It was an advertisement for a "bikini and 1/2 leg wax."  I'm trying to figure out what half of the leg you would wax if you were also getting a bikini wax...  Hmmm...

How Is

Friday, October 4, 2013

We are in Sydney!!  We are visiting for a long weekend while the kids are on "holiday."  We picked a busy weekend for Sydney.  This is the Australian Navy Fleet Week AND the National Rugby League Final (I've heard it compared to the Super Bowl) both of which are here in Sydney.  Fleet Week hasn't been done here for 100 years.  Prince Harry is here and lots of different nations have sent ships to participate.  Big crowds.  BIG.

Our adventure was to start at noon sharp.  Our luggage was loaded, the kids were buckled in, and we were set to pull out of the driveway right on time.  But then Erich went to put in the hotel address in the GPS.  It didn't recognize the street.  Huh?  Let's just say we pulled out of the driveway about 20 minutes later then we intended.  But we got here!

Photos from our journey:

Pardon the glare. (can you see my watch?).  This was a huge field of yellow. 
I'm not really sure what it was.

This is something you don't see in America! Wombat crossing.



Charlie and Chaney spent part of the three hour drive watching movies.

Sydney or Bust. (Please don't look at Erich's sunglasses.  He doesn't
want anyone to see him in them.  He doesn't like them but the are
they only prescription sunglasses he has.  So don't look.  Don't.)

We aren't sure what these are. ??

Who doesn't like driving through a tunnel? 
The kids thought it was cool.  I did too!

Sydney!

We are staying at a Marriott hotel in a suburb of Sydney.  Erich found this place through the guy he replaced.  The train station is nearby and its a 20 minute train ride into the heart of Sydney.  The hotel has shopping and restaurants nearby.  We got a room with a loft.  The kids are sleeping on a sofa bed and Erich and I are upstairs in the loft.  It's a really great room. 


Checking out the view from our 8th floor room. 



When we first got to our room, we couldn't get any of the lights
to turn on.  And then we spotted this near the door to the hallway.  You have
to insert your room key to get the lights to come on.   

This was in the hotel room guest book.  Erich and I got a good laugh. 

We went to dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Since restaurants in Australia require bookings (reservations)  I had to make the reservations before we got here.  Tonight's restaurant was Ribs and Rumps.  It was a good dinner (I didn't like my fish but everyone else liked theirs).  The kids' meals came with free ice cream. 


The cups the ice cream came in reminded me of Granddad's martini glasses.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel. When we get on the elevator, one of the young gentlemen said, "How is?" 
"Pardon me?" I asked.  (Thinking I must have misheard or missed part of what he had said.)
"How is?" He responded.
(pause) "Yeah," I respond. (My standard response when I don't understand) (pause) (my brain is trying to process what "how is" must mean.) (pause) "Good,"  I reply late.
"Good," is his response.
We got off the elevator and I had no idea what had just happened.  I'm still not really sure...

My Random Thoughts and Observations...

• They have dandelions in Australia.  Our backyard is full of them. 
• This morning we woke up to see a hot air balloon out the back windows of our house.  Totally cool.

  

  The kids watching the balloon through the rumpus room window.

  
  
  

 

• In the morning, while Erich and I got ready to go to Sydney, Charlie and Chaney had a great time playing together.  At one point Chaney was a cowgirl and Charlie was a horse. Giddy-Up.

You might notice the wadded up paper.  Charlie is making balls for
you (or anyone else who wants to buy a ball for $1) to shoot
at the trash can.  (or "trash bin" if you are Australian.)

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