Enough with the boxes already

Our new house is coming along. We're almost done unpacking, and we're ready to be done with the boxes.

Student of the week...second time

Benjamin was recognized in the school assembly as 'student of the week' just four weeks after his first 'student of the week' award.

Student of the Week

Presented to

Benjamin Stepan

for always working to the best of his ability.

Way to go Benjamin!

Footy

Aussie's love sports. Rugby, soccer (yes, it is called soccer here), and Australian Rules Football (or just plain Footy for short). We took the two oldest boys to a Brisbane Lions Football game. The 24 hours before the game were the wettest 24 hours we've seen here. It rained like you wouldn't believe. I thought for sure that the game would be cancelled. No way! Rain or shine these people are serious about their footy. Lucky for us the rain stopped when we arrived at the stadium.

I knew nothing about Aussie Rules Football when we arrived. Confession: I was at the game to be with 3 of my favorite guys. The field is HUGE. I'm not exactly sure, but it has to be at least 1 1/2 times bigger than an American football field. I'll admit, I was a little lost. However, I don't feel too bad. We talked to a guy a church who said that he's been watching footy his whole life and he still occasionally wonders what is going on. In any case, I was amazed at how quickly my guys caught on to the game. They loved it. It has to be a guy thing.

Footy is a contact sport and players can tackle.
Players can kick or run with the ball but there are all sorts of rules on how the ball can be handled.
I do know that when the ball goes between the middle posts the team scores 6 points. If the ball goes between one of the outer two posts, the team scores 1 point.

The funniest part of the evening was when I was with the boys at the footy shop during half-time. One of the workers came up to me and asked me how much time is on the clock for an American football quarter. I laughed. Totally random. I asked her how she knew I was American and she said she heard my accent. I told her we'd have to ask my husband. 15 minutes- but it's not a continuously running clock like in Footy. Now I know.

We may have a Footy fan on our hands. She couldn't get enough of this ball. Maybe it's an Aussie born thing. (BTW, Sara was a superstar during the game. I was nervous to leave her with a sitter for the first time but she slept the entire time. Way to go Sara).

I overheard our boys outside the other day playing "Bruvi Rules Football". (Translation: Brother Rules Football). My very favorite game.

5 months

Dear Sara,

Who said you could grow up so fast?

Love,

Mom

Luke-isms

Luke is three and so full of energy. He has an opinion about most things and he is hilarious. He knows just when to plant a kiss on my cheek and say, "You'wre the best mom everw!" Here are some of his latest quotes:

*Luke, Sara and I were at our new house while a truck load was being delivered.

Luke: "Mom, I want to go to the old house."

Me: "Why buddy? Your bed and all your toys are here now."

Luke: "Yeah, but the frwidge isn't!"

*Luke asked me a question this morning.

Me: "I don't know".

Luke: "Yes you do. You'wre the mom. You know everwything."

*Luke was waiting for me to get him a snack.

Luke: "Hurry up! I'm SO NOT patient. I losted those."

Me: "You lost what?" (Just to make sure I had heard correctly.)

Luke: "my patience!"

*Luke was being silly.

Me: "Where did we get you?"

Luke: "Straight from England."

*We were at the grocery store recently and Luke kept asking me for sugary treats. When I kept saying 'no' he said, "Why do you always say no?... you just lost your prwivilege to be my mom."

*Our family was driving home one evening a couple of months ago and everyone was sleepy. The 3 oldest kids fell asleep on the back bench seat. Luke and Sara were asleep on the middle seat. We went over a big bump and Luke shouted out, "Stop it Mary!" And just like that he fell back to sleep.

Nine times

Dinner is served

This is our ninth move (tenth... if you include the car-loads of wedding gifts we took to our first basement apartment) in 12 1/2 years. One might think that I've got moving figured out by now. Not so! If I had moving all figured out;

*Luke probably wouldn't be sleeping in his clothes tonight.

*I wouldn't have combed Mary's hair with my fingers after her shower.

*Todd would have a pair of shoes to wear tomorrow.

*I'd know where my make-up is.

*We wouldn't have had to search for the box that contained Todd's contacts.

However, I had to remind myself not to panic. It's not as if the forgotten items are now on a ship for the next two months. The boxes will be in our new house tomorrow and then Luke will have pajamas, Mary will have a brush, Todd will have shoes, I will have make-up...and life will be back to normal again. Whew!

Cupboard under the stairs

I haven't been very good about posting the details of our recent house hunting. We looked at several houses. One of our favorites was a house on a small farm with an orchard, 3 llamas and a horse. While it was fun for a few days to think about feeding Tina, in the end we decided to move to the suburb closer to work and school. We found a great house that we are excited about. It's official... we picked up the keys and the moving process is underway.

I took the kids to the new house after school so they could run around and choose their bedrooms. Michael is begging to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs like Harry Potter. I think he's conjuring up a spell to put on me because I have storage plans for that space instead.

Census

We were part of Australia's census this year. I think that's pretty cool since it only happens every hundred years. It's amazing to think about how census data was collected one hundred years ago compared to the online census of today.

When filling out my data, my favorite question was:

In the last week did you spend time doing unpaid domestic work for your household? (include all housework, food/drink preparation and cleanup, laundry, gardening, home maintenance and repairs, and household shopping and finance management).

a) No, did not do any unpaid domestic work in the last week

b) Yes, less than 5 hours

c) Yes, 5 to 14 hours

d) Yes, 15 to 29 hours

e) Yes, 30 hours or more

I giggled to myself that the choices stopped at 30 hours. I went with option 'e', of course. And I wouldn't have it any other way for these people: