January 2011.....

Well we have officially been here for one month and most of you have read my updates so you are all pretty much up to date for the most part.

It was an interesting month, especially for Bruce and I, kind of like coming back to a new country. The world continues to turn and we now have to find a way to fit back into it again being the different people that we are now.

We landed in Melbourne a little early so we came out and Mum & Dad hadn’t arrived yet. We headed out to the other side of Melbourne and had lunch with Maureen (Bruce’s mum) then down the freeway to Geelong, we dropped into to say a very quick hello to Kristy and family then another stop at Trudy’s (sister) before heading down to Ocean Grove for Fish n Chips with Mum and Dad. (Raelene and family were away camping)

Woke up to a nice morning the next day and mum made bacon and eggs for breakfast before Bruce and I headed off to start moving into the house. Ross, Elise and Brad arrived at the house around 11.00 and the boys went off to the container to do the first load. Elise and I got in the car and drove around a little then over to Tracey’s to say a quick hello. Back to the house around 12.30 and the unloading began also including washing everything….I had old musty grandma smelling house for a few days. (being in storage in the warm and cold etc for 4.5 years will do that to stuff.) there were some things that didn’t make it out of the box – BIG YUK!!!

Pete arrived for the next load and Tracey not long after that with some lunch stuff, the container was empty after three loads and the house and front looked like a hoarders place….you can imagine how happy that made me.

By the end of the night all the big stuff was placed but there were boxes everywhere!!!! Bruce grabbed a pizza a we sat on the musty couch and took a break, Bruce started back at work a couple of days later and me, emptying boxes was my job for the next few days or so. The boys came home the next day and finally realized that their rooms weren’t as big as they’d remembered DER! Pretty funny though, Bruce and I were laughing at the little let down when they went bounding down the stairs then again when they went into the back yard and went nuts!

We officially took over Pocket Angels Australia from Nic, all the stuff arrived and Bruce's office looked like that bomb had hit again, I've got most of it put away so it's not too bad now Conner will be doing our some of our production so we are back to building this one (cross fingers he's works his magic on Aust too)

Liz and Al Bell arrived home the next day and Liz and Sophie came over to visit me, it was great to see her so Bruce jumped into the car and went up to the shop to see Al. We went over for dinner that night for Nicks birthday so that was a nice easy transition which made Bruce and I feel a little more reconnected. We are really lucky to have other great friends here too and Ros (Livingston - Conner's best friends mum has lent us her car) so I’ve been out and got a lot of the boys school things, my list is getting shorter, the only thing that has to wait is Jamieson’s uniform, his schools store is only open the day before school, cross fingers they fit. Liz & Al asked me to work in the shop on Thursday’s so that will give me something to do.

Trudy and Raelene’s birthday came around and we went for a BBQ at Trudy’s place so that was something we haven’t done for 4 years which was nice. (Still haven’t got the whole family together yet?)

Then the rain came!!!!

As you have seen on the news there is flooding in QLD (which is 1200 miles north) as the days go on it's getting really serious (as you've probably seen on your news) flash flooding yesterday through a town called Toowoomba - they are calling it an inland Tsunarmi - it hit hard and fast. The rain is hitting most of the east coast we have had it pretty much for the last 3 days so as you can imagine the boys are going NUTS!!! So much so that Conner just went to the local shops with Bruce to get out of the house. (A lot of the water in Victoria was moving around the state through the overflowing rivers, most places managed to sand bag and had the time to build levies so the devastation isn’t too bad, although there are a lot of people with flooded homes, it was not where near as bad as it should’ve been)

The boys haven't had a chance to catch up with friends so they are climbing the walls especially with all the rain, they are waiting patiently for basketball to start (summertime all the stadiums are closed for floor polishing). Bruce is getting up at 5am everyday so it's early to bed for him a lot of days as you can imagine, fortunately I’m not that far behind but I’m still not sure why I'm so tired.....

The house is getting there very slowly, we have a lot of stuff to put under the house (storage) but with the rain it's too hard so it's taking up my hall way. Our view is gone so that's a huge bummer Bruce is not a happy camper he can't go out in the morning with his cuppa and look at the view - the sad thing is that they are pine trees which means they grow hundreds of feet high if they can - again NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!!! It's feeling very bare, as I said before there are things that didn't come back in so big parts of nothing where projects want to be done, we have everything we need and are waiting patiently for my NEW cool stuff to come.....I have been doing a little recon on pricing of stuff and house stuff, decor etc double the price of what I could get it for in the US so that will be a couple of shipping exercises to see if it's worth getting it in the US (also a bonus that no one else will have it) my walls are bare and I'm imagining where to put all my pictures etc although there are a couple of cool things for us to put up for now.

It's good to be home to catch up with friends, although I think some are staying away to give me space to organise that house which is good some days and not good others. I am seeing Elise a bit which is fun, she got her college placement, she wants to go to our University here in Geelong so we are all wrapped ( means -excited – I thought I’d educate you on some Aussie slang when I can) Rhys is now around 6 foot 4 and his voice is deeper than Bruce's, it's still really weird to see and hear him, he's waiting to hear if he got into his first choice College in Melbourne. He did get into a college in Ballarat (an hours drive North from here) So all of Ross and Tracey's kids are now out of high school driving and going out to night clubs and drinking like adults!! Bruce and I find ourselves talking and calling US home in our conversations, which will change over time I suppose, I think we will always have two homes....things will get better once school starts and the routine sets in, we do feel like we've come back to a couple of years ago again I suppose that's a time thing too.

I’ve spoken to Karen on Skype (and the boys have spoken to Kevin) and it makes me homesick for Elk Grove. ***Reminder for you all - join skype so we can chat and sometimes video... xxxx

My other sister Raelene came home from her holiday, so her and her boys Oscar and Felix came over for the afternoon, which was lots of fun. Her boys have grown so much and Conner and Jamieson enjoyed hanging out with them again. Mum and Dad are 15 min drive away so we are trying to head down for a visit once a week (mum hasn't been feeling well so she's not going anywhere) Bruce was on the road 2 days last week and got some good information to help us deciding where to take the business from here.

We went down to Torquay for a bbq with the Livingston's which was lots of fun, (pics on blog) they wanted to know all the stuff you guys did I suppose (just in reverse) Bruce headed off to his pickup basketball game Sunday morning’s and is having a good time (he's enjoying getting a good sweat up) and the exercise he's loving too. (yes! Timber, sprung floors – very good for your joints – just couldn’t justify this on the concrete courts in the US!)

Poor Jamieson - we have no real contact information for his buds so he's just waiting sometimes not to patiently, Conner would love to spend more time with Ashley but they are camping down at Torquay and he is a volunteer surf lifesaver so his days are kind of full. As a result they had enough and asked to go and stay at Grandma's so that's where they were for two days. They got to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa, Grandma took them to the pool and they went over to Auntie Raelene’s and played with Oscar and Felix. Bruce and I had a night out which as you all know we went to try the Mexican, definitely not the same but not a bad substitute.

We finally have internet and phone connection and my mobile FINALLY works - it took over a week for them to get my texting working properly (you can imagine how happy that made me) it's all good now and I am loving the I Phone very much. Elise and I just sit around going through apps etc which is good fun. I get different ones because my phone is linked to Bruce’s US iTunes account so she’s not happy which was even more fun!!

We have reconnected with Liz and Al Bell which has been lots of fun (I will put up a pic so you can see their faces) because I will talk about them a lot, we see them a few times a week and it's been really fun laughing with them again, great one liners.....

Lets see how we finished the last part of the month…..

Liz an I went off to pick up the kids text books and then went shopping in town for the afternoon (town would mean Geelong where they have a Westfield shopping center)

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY – it was a quiet morning for us with Bruce working then in the afternoon the Leaders (Mark who Bruce used to play then coach with, Jill, Rachael & Jess) all come over for afternoon tea then after dinner we went to the top of the hill to see if we could see the fireworks at the bay – couldn’t and the mozzies came out so home we went. We ended the week with Hultgren/Bell Friday night pizza at our place, Conner went down to Torquay to the camp ground to spend a couple of days with Ashley and Liz, Sophie and myself went into the night market for a look around. The weekend arrived with more heat and we went over to the Leaders for dinner. Yum…caught up with all the Leader happenings from the last couple of years, Mark is no longer coaching, the girls are trying out for state netball teams and Jill is now the head coach for their netball club. So they are busy and loving it. We watched the ladies Australian open final which was actually a reason good match with not much grunting at all. Conner came home with some sunburn poor thing. He put sunscreen on but not his back and went swimming – oops!!! So he was a little delicate for a couple of days, DON’T TOUCH OUCH!!! Then on Sunday Bruce and I went into Geelong for a look around and over to Mark & Nicoles for homemade pizza for dinner –SOOOO YUM!!! I have the dough recipe and I am going to try it next week (I’ll let you know if it works out and share the recipe) January ended with a 40c (108F) day OMG it was hot! We don’t have air conditioning here so the top of the house can get hot…it’s not all the time here so it’s not a necessity, we have the breeze come down from the coast so the house cools down pretty quickly.

The house is what you could say as good as it gets for now, just waiting for all my pretty stuff so it can feel more like home...the weather has been a little bit better than a couple of weeks ago.

***Make sure you get a map (Victoria, Australia) or Google earth up so you can track when I talk about stuff. If you get on Google earth we are at 6 Triumph court, Highton, Victoria, Australia and you will see the house.