A museum and a little turkey

It's Thanksgiving here, but not since they don't celebrate. I'll give you the scoop on our celebration later as it hasn't happened yet.


On Tuesday Lilly and I took off for the day to Scienceworks. It was a lot of fun! They have a sports exhibit but instead of baseball, they have cricket and they had their own version of football. I'm not even going to attempt to explain this one, maybe next time the season rolls around again.

The museum has an entire exhibit geared towards 3-6 year olds. Perfect for Lilly. They had quite a bit on simple machines. Lots of pulleys and the like. Then they had a pretend cafe. I think the food and where it came from was the 'learning' point in this room. And then there was the player piano. Just sitting in there. I had fun with it while Lilly made me an apple with toast.

It was a good time. I have to admit, not as nice as COSI but I have to compare everything to that silly place. There were a lot of hands-on exhibits, I'll just have to spend more time exploring them. We did get a family pass so we can go back whenever we want. The pass is also good for several other museums so I am hoping we get some good use out of it!

Have a good one and gobble, gobble!

And now for today . . .

I'm sitting here avoiding surfing the internet. I'm desperately trying not to find out the results of the OSU/Michigan game. We are still looking to download it and watch later today.


This has been one of the worst weekends in terms of weather. It has rained more than it has the entire time I have been here. So last week when i said it rained longer in the one night, it has been raining even more. The wind has been terrible, it's cold and there has been hail. Our apartment is freezing! We turned on Lilly's heater in hopes she would stay warm (and keep her sleeping all night long)!


Yesterday we needed to get some errands done so we heading to another shopping center. Seth had to return his phone to see if it could be fixed - the buttons just don't seem to work on it. We had to pick up diapers and some other stuff at KMart.


Then we headed home and after rest time we finished the cookies we made together. It was a family project this week. I'll post pics of the final product next time (or have Seth make a folder with them). We iced them before dinner and Lilly ate quite a bit of the icing. Since it's all powdered sugar she was lovin' it!

Ok, off to avoid the rest of the computer. Would love to hear from you!

Have a good one!

And this one on 21-11

This week hasn't been too exciting. Saturday we spent the morning collecting meats, veggies and fruits down Sydney Road. This is where all our smaller shops are located. Not too many chain stores.

In the evening we were invited to a birthday party for one of my teammates. He works at Ford. We took a train and tram to the park close to the CBD. We watched everyone play a game of cricket (which I still don't understand). Later we played a little game of soccer. There was a very small play park with a swing and slide shaped like a dragon so Lilly even got to play.

Sunday we spent the day at a shopping center trying to find a place to get a haircut. We never did find a place that we could agree on and ended up leaving with a filter for our camera and a wooden puzzle for the kid.

I did have what I can only categorize as food poisoning on Tuesday. Whatever was in my stomach needed to be out and then I was fine.

I saw three child care centers this week. I was told there are waiting lists everywhere. Just in case I want to teach this coming year I need to have a plan and it has become a difficult task. One center did ask if I had family around or if I was isolated. I said I was isolated and she said there is preferential treatment for families in this situation. Still don't see this helping with the long waiting lists I saw. We'll keep looking.

Conversation between Seth and Lilly as we crossed a field by our house:
L - What are they playing?
S - Cricket.
L - Why are they playing cricket?
S - Because they enjoy it.
L - They should be playing baseball.

Written 14-11-08 (That's Nov 14)

We had a massive thunderstorm last night. I was woken by the thunder and even with my eyes closed I could see the flashes of lightning. It didn't help that our bathroom has a sky light and it looked like someone was turning the light on and off. It rained very hard for a long time and even through this morning. It was the longest rain I've seen since I've been here. It was raining a bit when it was time for Seth to go to work so he drove. Lilly and I chanced it and walked to the library. It was considerably cooler than it has been the last two days - it was in the 90's. For the next week it's supposed to be in the 70's. After story time we had coffee with some of the people we had met in playgroup. We walked home and about 5 minutes later the rain started up again (this time was very brief).

Last night I went to a Moms Night Out for the American Women's Auxiliary. They met at a restaurant called Bouzy Rouge. Sounds totally like a drinking establishment but upon arrival it was a very classy place (I felt underdressed in my jeans). I met four other women, so it was a start. However I could only stay for 20 minutes because I had a soccer game.

Off to the game which we lost 1-2. It was a good game and a disappointing loss. On the way home I was battling Thursday night traffic and getting a little grumpy. I turned on to a street in the CBD (aka downtown) and had a good laugh at the x-mas decorations strung across the lights above the road. I'm guessing their Christmas parade is soon. I get irritated about Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving but they don't have that one so there is nothing stopping them from starting early. I also noticed on the way to the library that the stores had holiday pictures painted on their windows. I would says its way to early but if I wanted to send any gifts back home, I should have done that by now.

Photos now online to view!!!

From Seth...

I finally got around to posting some photos online where you can view them. I will be posting more as I get around to it. Be sure to click on the map view on the right hand side as I plan to put as many pictures on google maps as I can. Yes, I'm a geek (but you already knew that).

Here's a start:

Watching the Footy

NGV and Southbank

Nice bike ride by our house

Comfort food

Yesterday Lilly wanted toast for a snack. I personally really like hot chocolate when I eat toast, it is total comfort food for me. Lilly had to eat hers just like mommy, complete with dipping. The pictures don't show her practically inside the cup licking out the bottom. I think she would have if she could!

For the record, she did have two pig-tails in her hair, but this was after nap, and she refuses to remove the rubber bands until bed time!

Today Lilly and I are going to meet up with another American. We may walk to a park to let Lilly play, or we'll go get coffee/hot chocolate. I might try to talk her into going to a shopping center so I can get my hair cut, I'm looking a bit shaggy right now.

Have a good one!

We left the city!

I'm handwriting this while I begin my journey to the soccer courts today. I have decided to skip the driving and instead do train to tram. It will take me about 1 hour and 20 minutes door to door. Why would I do that when it only takes me about 35 minutes by car? Because that is 30 minutes of not worrying about the stupid turn my GPS tells me to make that I can't seem to find. Then I'm stuck holding my breath while it re-calculates only for it to tell me I just missed my next opportunity to turn. It has become rather stressful so I opted to skip.

Besides, it is just me today. Seth and Lilly are going to a birthday party. The little girl is the little girl of Seth's co-worker and is turning three. Their family is French as we still haven't started hanging with the locals yet!

Let's back track to last Tuesday, November 4th. This was the Melbourne Cup - a horserace. A state holiday [imagine moving the Kentucky Derby to Friday and giving the entire state the day off]. ford employees had Monday off also and we had talked about doing an overnight camping trip but the weather wasn't very nice. So we settled for a day trip that turned into an afternoon trip.


At noon we piled into the car and headed southwest for about an hour. First stop was Serendip Sanctuary and lunch at the picnic area. We then walked on a few of their little paths. They had kangaroos and Wallabies in large pens you just walked through them and stayed on a path. These two types of animals were separated which was good because I wouldn't have known the difference between the two. Then there were several buildings where we could sit and check out the different ducks and geese. We even saw a magpie goose which looks just like a magpie with a longer neck and legs. The park closed at 4:00 so we had to move along. I don't think we saw all the paths but there was a bit of construction so I'll be interested to go back and see what else they do with it.

Load back into the car and the next destination is only several kilometers away. Our second park destination was call You Yangs Regional Park. This place said no cars admitted after 4:30 so we figure that it won't close but since we are in, we are good.


After a snack we set out on a 3 km hike. the sign said it would take 1 1/2 hours. I thought no way! We can't be that slow. I didn't read any info but the first half of the hike was all uphill to a look out. So yeah, it took us quite a bit of time cause we stopped at the top for a while. I carried Lilly in our hiking pack on the way up and we made her walk back down. She was a bit mad but she got over it.

On the way home Seth and I agreed to find an 'Old McDonalds'. Businesses around Coburg would be closed and we were tired. It was all for the convenience.

Thursday Lilly and I went to our first play group! There were about 7 families there. The ones I talked to were all Aussie - finally hanging out with the locals! I even got a phone number to meet someone at a park. Then at story time the next day, one of the 'mums' remembered me and invited me for coffee!! So, I only had a hot chocolate, still felt like I was one of the cool crowd!

Then there was the weekend and not much happened. Seth got a couple new computer games sent from the states (thanks, Alan and Pennie, especially for the hot chocolate!) so he played a lot. We made it to a shopping center (a mall) but didn't get much accomplished there. And that brings me to the soccer game, which our team won and I scored one more goal!

In order to make this up to date as of me typing. Today is Monday and I went to another play group. This one was structured although there were only 2 children. Lilly enjoyed it and the group is designed for those children who don't get into 3 or 4 year old kinder (pre-school). There has been such a boom in the children population the council can't keep up. There aren't enough kinder programs or even day cares to keep up with all the children.

Ok, I'm going to see if I did the layout for this entry correctly. Hope it isn't too confusing. I didn't really edit too much.

Have a good one!

A weekly update

I seriously don't mean to wait a week and then write everything at once. It just seems that is how it works. Of course, that also means that I tend to skip around and miss out on things that we have done. But, my aunt sent me a note and pics of a cousin's wedding and she happened to mention that other people think I should be blogging more often. I'll work on that!

First, the weather. I believe it has been in the 60's and 70's as of late. I was told that it would be quite dry around here but we seem to get rain about once a week lately, although it is cloudy and dreary more often than that (seems more like fall to me than spring). When I first arrived it was rainy for about three straight weeks. Australia in general needs the rain so I shouldn't complain. We are on strict water restrictions but I can't tell you what that means. Once I find out more about it I'll let you all know. Something about we can only water our gardens/yards for two hours twice a week. I don't know, and since I never watered before, I don't feel like I need to water now.

Our oven is finally fixed. I think the guy came back on Wednesday, but it could have been Thursday. We still haven't used the oven but I plan on making some cookies this week, maybe today.

We don't know if anyone came trick-or-treating on Friday. The family ended up going to a special story time at our local library. Lilly was excited that she got to wear her pajamas.

Yesterday was our big day for the week (Sunday). We took a train into the city and Seth ran to a computer store while I looked around the outlet for shoes for Lilly. I don't think she has outgrown her shoes but she has been complaining about her feet hurting. I'll be happy when it's warm and she can wear her sandals again. We met back up and jumped on a tram to take us to another part of the city to meet up with some friends. This was the family that Seth stayed with when he first moved down. We had lunch with the mom and two youngest children. We then stole the youngest and took her and Lilly to the Melbourne Aquarium. It wasn't as big as Seth was expecting but we definitely saw a lot of different fish! And I'm sorry but after seeing the size of some of those things, I don't know that I'll be getting scuba certified! We'll see. Lilly wanted to find a 'Nemo fish' and kept talking about finding one. Well, she found one in about the third tank she looked in so that took out a little of the fun. She really enjoyed seeing the fish and got very excited about pointed out all the different fish. We watched some divers feed sharks and manta rays. That was pretty cool but Lilly was freaked out about the size of the manta rays. The first picture is one of Seth and I from Lilly's point of view, then we have the sharks getting fed and finally a big redish-orangish fish.

After the Aquarium we hopped another tram and took it south of the city to my soccer game. We had a lot of guys that didn't normally play with us but we still did really well. I am happy to say that I was able to score again. It was a one-on-one against the keeper and I am thrilled that I didn't just chip the ball into his hands as I'm known to do.

Finally, we hopped on the tram back to the city, caught a train and headed back to Coburg. I was exhausted as was Seth so he stopped at KFC for dinner and I ran into the grocery for milk and bread. We had to walk back home and it was getting colder and it had been raining. Overall we were happy that we managed everything without having to move our car!!

Seth and I had been talking about getting a Wii for a while. We finally got one this weekend (Seth was trying to cheer me up while I was down in the dumps about not being with my family and missing my cousin's wedding). We have had fun playing tennis and bowling. We even got Lilly in on the action. We got the Wii Fit and I have been laughing so hard at some of the activities. Anyone have a Wii? What's the best you've done on the hula hoop workout? I'm not too bad but I'm sure if there was a real hula hoop involved, it would be on the ground a lot more!