home sweet home

  By Monday we were ready to be out of the hotel and into our house. Matt met with the agent in the morning and i hung out with the kids at the hotel. Then we headed down with all our suitcases and car seats. We needed the biggest type of taxi they had, the Maxi Taxi! It took 1 car driver and 3 bellhops to load us up. As we were sitting at the stop light Matt realized that he forgot our leftovers from Ciccio's at the hotel. So he hops out, runs down the street and around the corner, and hustles back just as the light turns green. Our cab driver was very nice and friendly. EL loved riding in the taxi. We pulled up to the house and unloaded everything & everyone. Our agent came out of the house with that look on her face that said something wasn't right. A small miscommunication and they forgot to have the power turned on. We hauled all the luggage into the garage and waited for the temporary furniture (it takes 2 weeks for mail, 1 month for air shipments, & 2 months by sea) to be delivered. We call another taxi and head back to the hotel. The bellhops & front desk both looked at us like we were a bit crazy since we had just checked out a couple hours prior.

  1 more night in the hotel and we would try again on Tuesday. We had to be there bright and early since they gave us that nice window of between 8-12 for the electricity to be turned on. A little unpacking, kids running crazy, & hanging out and we had power!! We were home.

I think i can get used to this view!

Go time

  June 20th, 2012. The day we had been counting down to had finally arrived. Sometimes things happen that put everything in perspective. With a new outlook on our move I was surprisingly happy all day and didn't feel weighed down by the enormity of our move. I was excited to be in the same time zone, on the same day as my husband, & starting this adventure as a family. Grandma had a gift for each kid. A special books for each of them that she recorded her voice reading. Nicole and crew stopped by to see us right before we left for the airport.  She brought each of the kids so activities to keep them busy on the trip.
  It took 2 cars to get everyone and our luggage to the airport. And as we unloaded, people stopped and watched us. It was becoming a recurring theme with this move. 15 pieces of luggage, 4 carry ons, 1 stroller, 3 kids, 2 teenagers, & 4 adults! As they started weighing our luggage the suitcases were all within the weight limit. The boxes...a little over. Thankfully the kind gentlemen that were helping us check in didn't charge us for the overage. We hung out in the airport restaurant, had a beverage to help calm all the nerves, Papa took the kids for a last minute candy trip (I blame him for introducing them to vending machines.) Then it was go time!
  I am not big on long goodbyes. Hugs and kisses all around and thru security we went. The kids were troopers and really excited to see the plane. PIA-DFW-BNE. The flights were uneventful. MA loved having her own TV on the big plane. DB watched quite a bit too. EL wanted to be everywhere- on her seat, on my lap, with daddy. MA passes out before dinner was served. The hubs was smart and ordered kids meals. There food was better than our meals. Everyone got a few hours of sleep but were ready to get off the plane in Australia and see our new home.
  Now this was the one part of the whole trip that was making me nervous. 1st getting thru security with all our luggage and 2nd getting cleared thru customs. I had read about what food was allowed and not allowed but until you are there and the dogs are sniffing your luggage you just never know. We obviously declared we were bringing food so they asked a few questions and let us go on our way. There were several kind people that helped us push/pull carts and luggage thru the airport.
  Matt loaded up a taxi with the luggage and the kids and I headed to the train to catch it to the city where the hotel was located. The kids loved the train ride! And the hubs was waiting for us at the train station when we arrived!
  The Brisbane Marriott is amazing. Super nice staff. We put our boxes in the their storage rooms and headed up to take a nap.

A quick nap before we head to the airport

Time to load up

 On the BIG airplane

We have arrived.

The Final Countdown

  The weeks leading up to the move passed by in the blink of an eye. It may have had something to do with the amount of people and activities we packed into it :-) But  I wouldn't have had it any other way. We saw a bunch of softball, my kids ate way too much candy (thanks Papa), drank way too many kool-aid coolers (compliments of the Hargis family.) Spending so much time with friends and family make me appreciate having them and realize how much we will miss them. The kids seem to be slowly understanding that we are moving really far away.
  Nicole (who kept me sane during the whole process) & I filled an entire afternoon at Sam's Club. Several people stopped and stared at us and our 2 overflowing carts. I just laughed and kept pushing.

  Two events stick out in my mind. We hit up a Chiefs game with my family and the Nolte crew and had a great time. Everyone had fun! And just a couple nights before we left Papa loading up the ice cream truck. I have never seen kids get up from a table so fast.

  We quickly decided that being in a hotel was going the only option while the house was being packed up. We just made it our own personal pool and had lots of fun with the fam & friends that stopped by and joined us for a swim!

You just won....

  An all expense paid vacation to Australia! Airfare, lodging, and food included. Only catch, you have to be willing to move your family there for 12+ months. Ok well we didn't really 'win' anything but it kind of feels like we did. I joined Matt in Brisbane for a week to find a house. It was like a second honeymoon! And the calm before the storm :-) it was probably one of the most relaxing weeks I have had in years. we were lucky enough to hae the kids stayed with my family(probably not the most relaxing week for them.) People kept asking me if i was nervous- maybe just a little but not for the reasons you might think. I was nervous for my parents watching the kids!

 The flight was around 13 hours from LAX. That was more alone/quiet time than i had had in months! I sat next to some very nice people on the plane rides. Matt was waiting for me at the airport. We stayed at the Brisbane Mariott. Matt had planned a very busy weekend before the house hunting started. After a quick stop at the hotel to drop off my luggage we headed to Surfer's Paradise to spend the day at the beach. Matt informed me I had to stay awake the entire day, I really wanted a nap! Dinner with some of the friends Matt had made while working here in Brisbane and I was ready to crash. The next day we heaed to the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing! Flying in a small 12 seater plane, seeing the coastline from the air and landing on a grass runway on a tiny island just to get started. After a cruise around in the glass bottom boat it was time to jump into the water. Lady Elliot Island provided some unforgettable snorkeling. There were over a dozen Manta Rays swimming around the area, several sea turtles and hundreds of fish. The coral was really cool too. After lunch we spent the afternoon on the beach before heading back to Brisbane. We did some people watching at Jimmy's in the Queen Street Mall. Investigated a couple grocery stores to see what food cost here. And found the best pasta place, Ciccio's, right around the corner from the hotel. (They knew my order by the time we moved into our house.) The Pig & Whistle and the Plough Inn have some great atmosphere.
 

 

  House hunting went much better than we anticipated. I was really worried we wouldn't be able find a nice place close enough to Matt's and within walking distance to a school for MA&DB. After Day 1 we had seen several houses that would work for our family. The 1st one we saw was at the top of our list. Our agent did a nice job og sorting out the good from the bad before we actually went out looking. One day 2 we went back to house 1, then saw about 7 others. We had narrowed it down to 2 and put offers in on both. We had to make a decision. We liked each house for different reasons. What one had the other lacked. More traditional vs modern. lots of storage vs little. Across from the University of Queensland vs next to a bushland preserve. Flat street vs hills. CityCat vs bus. West vs East of city. Both would be about the same commute for Matt. In the end, the deciding factor were an amazing pool and being able to walk the kids to school. After a couple beers in the hotel bar we picked our #1. The modern house won! For the next day we walked around, rode the citycat and waited to hear if our application was accepted. Finally we got the good news- we got our first choice!

 And just like that, my wonderful week was over and it was time to head back to the States. I will have to say i made some new friends and it was one of the most relaxing weeks of my life. I left with a feeling of excitment for this amazxing experience we were about to have as a family!

The logistic of moving

  Unprepared might be an understatement. I had only been back from my house hunting trip for 2 weeks. Matt wasn't back in the USA yet. I tried to be organized & know what was going where but soon realized I was up a creek! My mom totally saved me that week. She came over whenever she wasn't working to help watch the kids, pack, even clean ( I am sure it was just how she wanted to spend her days.) My sisters and neighbor Katie also were life savers. The kids would just go back and forth between our houses. EL even told me I needed to mow the path because it was too long for her I guess.

  Back story: We have moved 3 times with work so i thought it would be very similar. WRONG!! When you move domestically, they come and pack everything, load it all up into 1 truck and it meets you at your new home in a week or so.
  We decided to sell our home when we moved internationally. Naturally, it made things a bit more complex. Here is how our belongings would need to be divided: luggage on the plane- 3 pieces per person @ 50 lbs a piece, 100 cubic feet air shipment- 5ftx5ftx4 ft- no furniture would fit. & 1 sea container- like the ones you seen in shipyards or on trains. Everything else--> storage. And mind you we picked our house in Australia after seeing a lot of houses and spending maybe 30 mins in the one we picked. So it was hard to know what would fit. What needed to go into which shipment. I distinctly remember telling the movers, " I don't care what goes in which shipment. Just pack it!" I was stressed and beyond caring. If we could live without it for 4 weeks we could live without it for 8 weeks.
  They won't pack any food, so all my stockpile of American food was coming in our luggage. And it was heavy stuff. Something I didn't think about when i was filling all those carts at Sam's. My mom probably cut her grocery shopping in half with all the stuff I ended up giving her. We just didn't have enough room for everything. My sisters probably thought they were at the wrong house :-)
  Professional movers pack fast! Mom and I were packing our luggage in DB's room. As we went in to pack MA's clothes and her closet was empty!! So i did what any logical person would do...waited until the movers went to lunch and ripped those boxes open and grabbed a few articles of clothing out for MA. Carefully putting the tape back on the boxes and pretending I was never there.
  After we quickly grabbed everyone else's clothes it was time to tackle the food. Our process was this: I brought food to my mom. she packed it into the boxes. I lifted the boxes and stood on a bathroom scale (Thanks Morrisons) and we figured out if we were close to the 50 lbs limit.

  Finally everything was packed and loaded. The house was clean. I wasn't sad to say goodbye to the house but will miss the location and some of our neighbors!

Hello, goodbye

Today we did our 2nd airport drop off. The kids knew what to expect this time when dropping daddy off. The first time the kids didn't really understand that daddy would be gone for 3 weeks or just how long that was. Mia cried, Dane was mad daddy had to go and emers gave hugs and kisses and went on with her normal ways. Today, Mia seemed to understand, Dane was quiet, and emers cried. I think she realized daddy on a plane means no daddy at home at night and lots of FaceTime conversations.

The countdown

Well time doesn't stand still. Dane finished preschool yesterday, Mia has about 1 week left of kindergarten, and that means saying goodbye to some friends. I am not one for long goodbyes. Short and sweet helps me keep it together! We said goodbye to Mia's preschool teacher last year and she would have been Dane's next year. Probably one of the most caring people I will ever meet. The moms group I belong to had a nice going away party for several of the members that are moving (I think we are all moving within a week of each other.) some people I just want to pack in the moving truck with the rest of our stuff, so I don't have to say goodbye. Also getting ready for our cultural training days. Should be interesting to hear what they have to say about Australia. Matt is back home for a couple of weeks and it is nice to all be in the same time zone and the kids are thrilled to see him every night when he gets home. Emers asks for him and I say he's at work but will be home after school because she gets this little look of panic like maybe he snuck back to Aus while she was not looking. Some days it still doesn't seem real that we are moving to Brisbane. Example: driving down the road after just leaving my friend's houses it just hit me how much I am going to miss her. I don't think about not seeing people, texting them, or not being able to pick up the phone just to chat. I'll think about those things later. No time to be sad now, off to enjoy the sunshine, kids playing with the neighbors, and the peace and quiet I am pretty sure doesn't happen in a big city!