Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas --- hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!

Christmas is here, let it in!

Yum, stockings

Izzy's present -- a tennis ball bone

Book for Connor

Homemade slippers for Bryn - knitted by Di

For the big thirst

For the big chocolate craving -- Nutella

A new leash for Izzy

A dino pillow for Bryn

An illuminated globe

The world's hardest present to wrap (or unwrap) -- a scooter

Remote control helicopter for Donn

Compact mirror from Auntie Mia and Bruce

Mobile caps and money!!

A swiss army knife, what every techie needs

Super awesome headphones that fit over the ears so they don't get squished

Aquamarine and silver earrings for Chloe from Di and Dave

Bryn's graduation

This is the year for graduations in the family...first Dianna (PhD), then Chloe (high school) and now Brynley (primary school).

We have heard more "now that you are going out there in the world" speeches than anyone needs.

Some pics of our happy graduate!

Bryn, seated on the stage with his class.

Preparing for Christmas

Every year it's a big event when it finally gets to be December 1st, so we can put up the tree.

It's a family to-do and everyone contributes.

Since it's summer-time, first the kids had a play in the sprinkler.  Next, the lights!

First, have a play with the tinsel.

More work with the lights

Some instruction from Dad regarding icicles. 

Sorting out the bling.

Who needs a ladder when you have tall sons?

Our grownup girl

After months of cramming for exams and frantic accessory shopping Chloe has had her graduation and formal dance.

Rather than separate these items in two separate events her high school combines them into one huge gala.

The kids march through in pairs to receive their graduation certificates. If they have a parter for the formal they process in with their formal partner. If not they are paired with a random person.

Chloe and her partner 

Next the graduating students performed a traditional round dance called "the Pride of Erin". Guess that celtic heritage is very present.

Finally, after a speech from the principal, the boring part is over, the parents leave, and the newly graduated "adults" have their school formal.

Are you done yet?

Having a family of 6 people all living in a house with only one shower means you are sometimes told to rush.

Dave, Chloe and I tend to take ours in the morning with the boys taking theirs at night (Brynley under great protest).

This morning I got up to take my shower, took my glasses off and hopped in. As I did I noticed a blurry leaf shape stuck to the side of the tub (remember the glasses?)

I figured it was something left over from Bryn's bath the night before and went about my shower. As I turned my back to the shower head I noticed that the "leaf" had moved!

Giving a closer look at the "leaf" I realized I was sharing my shower with a young gecko who was not very pleased about the whole thing. He was finding the wet tub too slippery to climb up and was not happy about having Niagara-force water pelted on top of his head.

I hurried up with my shower, and told Mr. Gecko to get out at his leisure. :)

What?

Got insurance?

The 000 symbol on the side denotes the emergency number to call.
A common issue with Aussie kids is that they want to call 9-1-1 because
they see it on American tv shows.

Recently we've had a few too many trips to the doctor for emergency care.

First Donnelly was trying to ride a riding lawnmower with no motor down a hill, and it rolled, gashing his chin badly.

So, a quick trip in the "amblyance" to the hospital, and they superglued his chin together rather than giving him stitches.

A few days later Donnelly and Brynley were playing around with an aerosol can and a lighter (yikes!) and Brynley caught himself on fire and burnt the end of his nose, cheek and upper lip. After many visits to the GP (general practitioner) and the plastic surgeon, he seems to be doing ok. Whew.

On top of being terrified at what damage the boys had done to themselves, I was worried about what the expense of all this medical care would be. I needn't have worried because Australia's universal health care system is very good.

The ambulance ride was free because a small tax that is added to everyone's electric bill pays for the service. The seven or eight trips to the GP and the trip to the plastic surgeon were covered by Medicare. We did have to pay for the medicines used to treat Bryn's burns, but the total was less than $100 because they are subsidized by the government via the pharmaceutical benefits scheme.

I can imagine if this had happened in the U.S. that we would possibly be charged $1,000 or more. A friend from back home recently asked me if it was worth the extra taxes to have socialized medicine. I can only say after this experience, that it certainly is.

Happy annivererersary

Our 4th anniversary was this weekend, and we had a great time.

First, I came home from work on Friday to a huge bouquet of flowers from Dave.

Brynley wrote the note attached to the flowers. It reads:

Hi Dianna
happy
aniversyvsiy

Fabulous!

Then Dave took me out to dinner at our favourite chinese restaurant on the other side of town.

And on Saturday we went camping with several other couples at a campground in Rollingstone next to the beach. It was really beautiful.

The weather was fantastic, about 85 degrees.

I brought my guitar and played and sang with everyone. Dave was quite surprised because I haven't played in months/years. Guess some things come back to you quickly.

On Sunday (today) we came back to the house, put stuff away (hate that part) and are back into the grind of preparing for the work week.

It is nice to be home. And the flowers are still hanging in there.

On the usefulness of ladders

When you have a two-storey house, having a ladder comes in handy.

In the last week or so we've had to use ours twice, which is pretty unusual.

First, the kids went off to the mall, Dave and I went on an errand in a different direction on foot, and we forgot our house keys. Both of us.

Since we got home before the kids we were locked out.

The good news is that we discovered that the house is pretty difficult to break into.  After much trying of doors we discovered that one of the kids had left a window open upstairs so Dave made like a cat burger, climbed the ladder and was through the window in a flash.

On a different note, the neighbours to the side of us have been complaining bitterly for the last 3 months about a tree on the side of our house. When the wind blows strongly, little leaves drift off the tree and over the fence where they drop on the neighbours brick patio. And shock, horrors, they have to sweep up these few leaves weekly.

We hadn't done anything about the offending tree limb because it was twenty feet up the tree and was difficult to get to. Short of calling in a tree service we felt there was nothing that could be done.

Donnelly offered to climb the tree and cut off the limb but we were worried for his safety. Finally we agreed, but there was no way we would let him climb the tree with a chainsaw. So, he used a machete and whacked and whacked and finally the big tree limb was severed and fell to earth.

So thanks to a heroic effort by Donn, the neighbours have been appeased. Makes me wish I lived in the country well away from testy people.

Some craftiness

Made out of Australian wool

Eh, Boo Boo!

America pics - part 3

These first photos are for my husband, who stayed behind to watch the kids. Poor guy.

Whenever we watch shows about the U.S. he always comments on how available guns are for the average person. Well here at the local Bi-Mart there are heaps of rifles with no clerk standing around watching them.

Hiking supplies...including maps of back country areas. Don't get lost.

Now, on to more important things like CHEESE!!!!

This is the infamous orange cheese that I know and love. I wish you could import it over here.

And last, but not least, when you thought that McDonald's couldn't make their shakes any more fattening....whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. Bliss.

America pics - part 2

The Lincoln Memorial has always been my favourite of the big monuments. 

Someone said one time about America that rather than building giant cathedrals like Europe that America builds temples to their leaders. 

From the US Park Service:

"The individual responsible for this design was architect Henry Bacon who modeled the memorial after the Greek temple known as the Parthenon. Bacon felt that a memorial to a man who defended democracy, should be based on a structure found in the birthplace of democracy. The final design featured thirty-six exterior columns to symbolize the thirty-six reunited states at the time of Lincoln’s death. The names of those states appear in the frieze above the columns.

 French (the statue's sculptor) depicted the president as a worn but strong individual who had endured many hardships. He positioned Lincoln's hands in a manner that displayed his two leading qualities. One of the president's hands is clenched, representing his strength and determination to see the war through to a successful conclusion. The other hand is a more open, slightly more relaxed hand representing his compassionate, warm nature."

The reflecting pool was nearly drained while we were in DC. The engineers had drained it so that repair work could be undertaken. They left enough water so that you can still see the Washington Monument reflected in the shallow bit of water in the middle. I guess you can't deny all us tourists our photo op.

This photo is taken from the steps of the Lincoln memorial.

(photo from http://havecamerawilltravel.com)

We visited in mid-August, and by Labor Day on September 3 (my birthday!) the renovations on the pool were complete. 

I didn't realize this, but Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech was made from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. This action is commemorated by an engraving directly outside the memorial.

King's speech in August of 1963 was given on the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

This is the World War II memorial. I really like how it has the arenas of conflict separated into Atlantic (European) and Pacific. Each column has the names of one of the states on it.

Seeing the Hope diamond has always been on my "gotta see" list. I finally can mark that one off. Its really huge.

Denise and I outside the White House.

The National Museum of the American Indian. I love how the architecture of the building has the feel of the Great Plains or the southwest. 

The Wright Brothers plane that flew at Kittyhawk.

Lindburgh's Spirit of St Louis plane at the National Air and Space Museum.

You've got to love a museum that's so huge you can hang planes from the ceiling.

I had to take a picture of this Toast-o-lator. We have a family joke about everything being an "entator". So close enough.

Apparently the word "avocado" is impossible to spell correctly. And I loved "micro greens", do you need a microscope to see them?