Puffing Billy

Puffing Billy is an old steam train that takes a leisurely ride through the Dandenong Ranges. It just goes from one town to another with several stops along the way. It is often very crowded. During really dry times, they don’t run the train for worry of fires. This wasn’t the case because, hey, it rained. But not too much. It also wasn't very crowded. Maybe because it was a bit chilly. We aren't getting very many nice days for our visitors.

Before boarding, I'm not even sure if this is the train we rode.

Seth, Lilly and I:

Alan, Pennie and Adlai:

Notice we are a little bundled up:

Because there weren't any crowds we were able to get a car back to ourselves.

See where Lilly is leaning in the next picture? On nice weather days the kids sit along this rail with their feet hanging out.

And then the rain came so we closed the window flaps. Lilly got bored and chaos commenced. Good thing we had our own car.

A Not So Great Day

Alan had to meet up with some clients on the southeast side of the city. So we all went that general direction for the day. On the way, Lilly threw up. A lot. It was gross.

So we dropped Alan off and went off searching for a mall where we could purchase some cleaning supplies and a new shirt. Spent some time looking around and Seth picked up his case for his new computer he would be building. Lilly was jumping around and having fun, all was good.

Until we drove home and she threw up again.

But this time we had a plastic container ready for her. Gross.

Rain and More Rain

Time for the Royal Melbourne Show! AKA – the state fair. I know it’s not the same. Other cities have their own shows so I guess it equates to a county fair? Although our county fair was not even close to this size.

So what did we see?

Canadian Lumberjacks:

A chicken:

Another chicken:

And this chicken, too:

A flock of sheep:

A fuzzy Scooby monster truck:

And some crazy guys doing crazy stuff:

(If you can't see him, the bike looks like it is on the building and the crazy guy is doing a handstand in the sky.)

And then it started to rain. And rain and downpour. And then there was the lightning. And the thunder. And more rain. I did not get pictures of the rain. Trust me when I say there was a lot.

And then they closed the fair. Bonus – we were able to get 4 free tickets since we were rained out. We didn’t tell the people in charge that we had been there for 5 hours and were on our way out the door anyway.

She's a Maniac

The only reason I think of this song is because I watched Punky Brewster. In one of the early episodes she is cleaning and sing “she’s a maniac, maniac on the floor. And she’s dustin’ like she’s never dust before.” And while those still might not be the actual words, that’s the way I remember them. And I sing them every time I clean. Thank you, Punky.

So while Seth’s parents are here, we take advantage and send them with the kids to the zoo. And we go back to the old apartment and clean all the nooks and crannies that we never cleaned while we were there. I dusted and washed window sills, cleaned the showers (had to get the bath crayon off of it), cleaned the cubby where the fridge had sat (a long time ago we took off the wheels to the fridge to get it to fit in that cubby, we hadn’t moved the fridge since then), mopped and vacuumed (floors and ceilings). Seth tried to fix some spots where the paint had peeled when we took posters off walls.

And then we had our inspection. The real estate manager walked in and started inspecting corners in the living room, checking window sills, looking for spiders. As he moved around the living I thought it was going to take forever! Then he stepped into the kitchen. And noticed the big hole.

“What happened here?”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“Um, there was a leak in the rubber hose and the plumber that you guys sent over put a hole in the ceiling to find it.”

“Huh.”

Nice. He didn’t know about the big hole. Or the two holes in the upstairs hall. Or even the duct taped holes where the bees were trying to attack. Apparently the guy that had been handling our property was no longer with the company. I’m guessing he either didn’t take notes about the property or thought it would be hilarious to just not tell anyone what was going on.

Needless to say the inspection didn’t last long after that. I think the guy wanted to get back into the office to find out if anyone knew what was going on. He talked to Seth very quickly upstairs (who conveniently covered the hole in the carpet that I had burned while using a heat gun on a project). And that was it.

Seth took one last load back to the new house and then we waited for Alan and Pennie to return with the kids.

I think we got dinner and headed back to our house. I forgot to mention that when our kitchen table was brought over, the legs didn’t get brought over. But our table is far too heavy for a couple of people to lift. So the entire time Alan and Pennie were here, we got to sit on the floor in front of the table. It was fun for the first meal or two. But then it was just painful! Again, my apologies for the disaster of a house on your visit!!

More Visitors

Seth’s parents came to visit and arrived 2 days after we moved. Just in time for us to finish cleaning one place and move on to the next. Unfortunately they had to visit among 100s of boxes, we just didn’t have time to do everything on my list. Anyway, Lilly was on her Spring Break so it was perfect timing.

6 Months!

I didn’t get my rocking chair picture yet but I had to take pictures of this awesome quilt that my aunt made for Adlai.

And if you look closely you can see the kid has a stellar case of cradle cap. He has always had it pretty bad. Now that his hair is getting thicker, it's not so noticeable.

Yum Yum Food

With all the hustle and bustle of moving, I forgot to mention Adlai’s 6 month check-up. It was more like 5 ½, but that’s just how the schedule worked out. The midwife was very excited that Adlai was able to sit up while he was weighed. And then a little puzzled when I said that was all he does. As in, he has no interest in rolling over. She said it was no big deal, all kids develop differently (I wasn’t worried).

We were encouraged to start solids sooner than later (we were told we could start at 4 months but just decided to wait for a little longer) so we jumped into the rice cereal . . . a week later.

Lilly was so excited to feed Adlai!

We’ll see how long that lasts because she was excited about giving him a bottle for just over 2 minutes.

A Change of Scenery

Did I mention we are moving? We looked at a few places. One had holes in the walls and a broken out stain glass window. One had grass up to our knees but it had a boat in the yard. I might have considered it if it came with the boat. But then again, the carpet that smelled like animal urine (I’m sticking to my guns about the source of that one) was overwhelming to Lilly, we couldn’t stay there. And then there was the one that didn’t have room in the kitchen for a fridge.

And we looked at one house just because it was funny. It belongs to a coworker of Seth's who is going over to China for a while. It's funny because it's larger than what we have but a much better price, but at the edge of the burbs. The house was huge with a small fenced in yard (cement and grass). Four bedrooms. Large potential area for a playroom. Two bathrooms (both inside). HEAT and AIR CONDITIONING. And then little things like no holes in the ceiling and no duct tape in the dining area.

BUT it was 20 km from Lilly’s school. And I had subbed in the school close to where this house was. I didn’t like it. Too big and just cold. Unfriendly. This was just my impression, I’m sure it is great!

I didn’t want to like it when we looked at it. But I did. I do. And that’s the one we took. We want to get a head start with moving stuff so I am spending my days running between the two places unloading a few boxes at a time.

Our kitchen opens up to our living room type area. So if we have people over, Seth can be cooking while we play Wii Bowling.

This is the first time that Seth and I have shared a closet in 12 years. This is also the only carpeting in the entire house.

Part of our back 'garden':

The backyard wraps around one side and the back of the house. There is quite a bit of cement but areas of square chunks of grass. There is also a corner for a veggie garden. In the very corner that you can barely see is a tree. A lemon tree!! I don't know what we would do with more than one lemon in a summer but we'll find out some day!

Lilly Made a New Friend

Lilly kept talking about Harry. At least that’s what I thought she was talking about. Her new friend Harry.

I helped out in her classroom and found out Harry was a plant. It was her hairy friend. I helped the students write about their hairy friend. Several weeks later this is what Harry looked like:

I'm a little creeped out by the hair on his face, but I was told by a reliable source that this is what happens when you get older.

Literacy Night

Apparently Lilly’s school alternates years for a lot of their functions. This year it was literacy night (next year they will have numeracy night). The students were encouraged to dress up as their favorite Aussie book character (I wonder if they get to dress up as their favorite number next year). There were wombats and swagmen and more animals and things I couldn’t identify.

What do you think Lilly dressed up as?

If you guessed Bindi the Jungle Girl, you were absolutely correct. Good on ya, mate!

The students went around to different rooms and listened to stories written by Australian authors. The teachers then had projects related to the book.

And Lilly's project after listening to Possum Magic:

Happy Father's Day!

Father’s Day is in September, in case you hadn’t already picked up on that from the title of this post. I didn’t say anything about Mother’s Day because someone in the family was unprepared for it and thought it was the following weekend. But at least I gave Lilly some money to buy me something at the school Mother’s Day Stall. But I’m not bitter . . .

Anyway, I figured we needed to get out and do something so we headed to the city to see some footy action. Sure enough, our beloved Kangaroos were playing. Not that we have a favorite team but again, if we had to choose someone to barrack for, this is who we would pick. Unless they were playing the Geelong Cats.

I wore my Kangaroo jacket (I was a Kangaroo player one year for Halloween) and when we purchased our tickets, we were asked if we wanted to sit in the cheering section. This is like sitting in the end zone. I think they just try to fill these areas up to make both teams look like they have a lot of spectators.

Do you think Lilly has Seth’s eyes?

Happy Father’s Day, Seth! I love you!

And for the record, the Kangaroos actually won! This is the first time I've seen them win. You might remember when my mom was here they got stomped on.

Farewell to Friends

Lilly plays on a soccer team called the Tigers. They don’t win every game but once upon a time they didn’t win any games so they are improving a lot! Anyway, one of the players was moving away. His family was moving to the Phillipines so we had a little going away picnic for them.

Adlai checking out his feet since he usually has socks on:

Lilly signing a shirt the team had made for the boy who was leaving:

The team tucked away in a tree: