Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Washington part 1

So in May we realized that Lindsay was supposed to be out of town for 7 straight weeks. I was having a little bit of a hard time and that time seemed daunting so we decided very last minute to fly back to Washington to spend those long weeks with family. In the end, Lin's work all got changed and he desperately needed a break from it all and ended up joining us last second for a few of the weeks. So fun!
 
One of the first things we did upon our arrival was Erik helped Papa mow his lawn. With Erik's asthma symptoms and allergies we put a bunch of protective gear on him.
 this picture came on out of order and I didn't want to mess with changing it all up. But Papa had an awesome scooter that the kids loved getting pulled on and riding on their own down small inclines.
 Some of the things that Erik loved when we got to Washington was that he was not confined to our 800 sq. ft. apartment (that includes our balcony). He could be on an entire different level than me, outside while I was in, etc. He thoroughly enjoyed the space and freedom to roam. It really made me excited for the time that we get to live in a neighborhood again. But I have absolutely no regrets about living in our little flat in the city. I have loved every bit of it.
 We had a weeny roast in Nana and Papa's back yard for dinner.
 Nana wasn't grumpy but she was mesmerized by the flames!

 An American hot dog! It had been a long time since we had indulged in one of those. Hot dogs in Oz are longer and a bright orangey pink color, or you get a sausage. Even when you find one that says "American Hot Dog" on it, it's not quite the same. So this was a great treat.

 Then cousins came for the long Memorial day weekend...

 Erik shows off his newly acquired skill of rolling his eyes.


 one of the favorite play spots at the house is the old fashioned mail slot that goes into the house. Before Church the kids were delivering goods to one another. THey loved to pass things through and ring the door bell.
 We had to get some cute pics of them all dressed up for church.

 On Memorial day we attended a traditional bbq at the park with members of Nana and Papa's ward at church. And that evening he held a special family night lesson about the meaning of Memorial Day

 He spoke about the members of the family who had served and why its important to be patriotic. We said the pledge of allegiance and sang some patriotic songs. It was lovely!


 Loved the look on Erik's face on this one! We had fun singing some old school songs like Yankee Doodle Dandy and waving flags.
 The kids tried on Lindsay's grandpa's uniform from World War II
 Then we held a small parade. That part was lots of fun too!
It was a great end to a great weekend. Just writing this makes me miss family....and it's only going to get a bit worse while I document the rest of our trip. I absolutely love it here in Oz, I really and truly will miss my friends and so much of this place. But family is where it is at my friends. There is something so fulfilling about being around family. One day we will live closer (and that's not too far away)

attack of the monster

 My dates are all a bit messed up I think this was in late April but it may have been early May. I had a few friends who were all due with babies within a few weeks of each other. On this particular occasion Erik and I brought home his little friend after we visited his mum and baby brother at the hospital. Once Linds got home from work he dressed up as a bad guy/monster and we had a little knight and batman defending the city.
 The knight was a little freaked out in the beginning (who wouldn't be?) and then the boys got right into it.
 Backed into the corner of the kitchen but giggling...
 They caught him and start taking him down
 Unmasked.....the good guys won!
Fun times in the moon house!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Family Preparedness

 For a long time I have wanted to get our 72 hour kits ready, and I mean fully ready. Not just we have everything or most everything but its in a billion places around the house, I wanted it ready to grab and go. When we first moved to Oz major floods has just happened. Our building had flooded, all the units were safe and dry (although the power went over for a time) but our car park had flooded and our lifts (elevators) were not working. Knowing that we were in the flood zone and just having the urge I finally put my foot down this year around April. It's hard when you move every few years to want to put them together to only pull them apart and start over but I wanted to put a plan into place that would help with that in the future.
 when looking online into what you can put in, the options and advice are endless. I read through a few and then turned everything off and just started making a list of food that would be easy and that our family would eat. I made a master meal list and master shopping list. We had nearly everything on hand but all the food. So Erik and I went and did the shopping and for Family home evening we assembled one night.
 First we did the food. I layed everything on the table and we did one grocery sack for each day for each person. I called out what to grab and everyone filled their bag. We put a sticky note on it to say who's it was and what day. Lindsay and I each took a bit of extra food for even snacks and what have you.

Next we did clothes and other necessities. Erik loved this part as well because we had gotten him a rolling suitcase for his pack that was spiderman. He was asking for an emergency so that he could use it.
 It's hard with a child with clothing because they grow so fast. But we just made sure it was all a bit big. And plan to change out or pack food and check things each General Conference time (april and October) and so we can reassess then.

 This assembly process took us longer than I thought, you can see we started in daylight and ended in night) but I think it will only take that long this initial time and from now it will just be rotation of things.

And since it was family night we had a treat after the activity. And there is nothing that can stand between this little man and his chocolate.....Don't even try
 What a goof
Funnily enough, our complex had a fire alarm happen late at night, and the building evacuated. Erik was pleased as punch that there was an 'emergency' and Lin let him take his emergency pack downstairs with him. Then they practiced a few more times over the next week to time and see how well he could do toting it around. It was super cute!

Preschool at Home

 
 I have been teaching Erik preschool stuff at home this year. To send him away to preschool (or Kindy/Kindergarten as they call it here) is ridiculously expensive plus its just not necessary. I know it's so common place in todays world but not needed. While I definitely have my days where I would love to be able to drop him off for a couple of hours for the benefit of both of us, I have come to get used to teaching him at home and coming up with fun things. And we do so many other social things, he is balanced just fine.

This day we worked on fine motor skills and put dry spaghetti into homemade playdough and it was extra special because I got a small box of fruit loops and let him put them on the noodles and of course snack on a few. It was a major hit.
 There are numerous websites that have so many amazing printables and great ideas for preschool and other home school grades out there. I use those sometimes and this day we worked on gluing fun pieces onto a superhero.
 I also started writing in a journal with him. I write whatever he wants and he draws a picture. Behind him you can see a board, its a day of the week and calendar/season/weather board that are not perfect at updating but he really likes it. He now knows that days of the week by their assigned color. So he knows the order of the colors but doesn't always know the name. Its funny, he also knows that if Daddy is in town that he will get to be home on purple day (Saturday) and he LOVES purple day for that reason.


Singapore and Malaysia with the RAAF

It has been quite a process for Lindsay to get all the approval he needs from so many different people and offices to get to go on any of the overseas trips other than back to America. But he finally had all the stars align and earlier this year he was able to go to Singapore and Malaysia (I think that is where he was, seriously he has been gone almost half the year this year). They went to this restaurant where you get meat on a stick. The challenge is to eat 100 of them.
 As you can tell the group was a large group. The man who owned the shop let them order in sets of 10 I think. To give himself time to cook and to see how many would really be ordered. The group told Lin to break his sticks after eating off of them otherwise they will get re-used (so gross!). So they got to somewhere around 75-ish. I am so bad to be blogging this so late, cause now all the details are foggy. Anyhow, the man ended up cutting them all off and saying no more. He didn't run out of food but wanted to save some for other customers. I thought it was funny!

 This was a random market shop along the street where you could buy a variety of different seafood products.
 And some more military style pictures. Couldn't tell you any real details about these.