Have I Changed?

Of course I have. To be on this journey and not change would leave you either psychotic, catatonic, demonic or safely back on American soil. Some of the changes are small, barely noticeable inner changes, some are linguistic or turns of phrase and some are in your face, you really REALLY live here kinda changes, like this one:

No...my change is NOT that I now have a tiny cute perfect cellulite free baby bottom, I wish tho! My change is that I am generally and historically uncomfortable, and one might even say opposed to naked babies/kids at the beach, a very very very VERY common occurrence here. I am not a freakish prude, my issue are the real freaks that could be watching my baby, and the high exposure of UVA/UVB rays to their perfect skin. I am also opposed to the people who clearly knew they were going for a swim but can't be bothered with a proper swimming costume. 

Today we got our first glance at a real clear blue sky in days, we rushed to the playground at the beach in the late afternoon to soak it in. One kid was dying to go in the water so the others followed suit in their undies, until one of mine pulled off his undies and that fad caught hold like Tickle Me Elmo. 

The same guy who also started the "no undies Tuesday fad," had been a bit(EXTREMELY) "backed up" ALL DAY and poo'd the biggest poo I have ever seen right there on the shoreline. Think large for an adult. I almost died. I was laughing, crying and mortified all at once. I literally froze and could not get a plan together for what seemed like minutes. I scooped it up in the undies that no one was wearing anyway and threw it away, undies and all. We hit up a little shoreline saltwater bidet and we were all in again! If you told me a GIANT turd at the beach would not deter our fun I would have never believed you. 

Now, please do not read this and think I am suggesting Aussies poo at the beach on a regular if ever basis. I am just saying I am a bit more relaxed about certain aspects of life than I ever imagined possible. 

Grate'full' for Ozgivings and Thanksgivings

No that is not a typo, just my failing attempt at a clever wordplay. A few Thursdays past when all of America was busy lighting garages on fire with flaming hot turkey oil, eating like it may be their last meal, rehashing the same old family arguments and drinking enough wine to make it all seem fun, it was just a regular ol' Friday here in Oz. Now, in typical American spirit, we will not let a little thing like "actually not a holiday here/way too hot/not the right foods available" get in the way of stuffing ourselves to the point of new stretch marks. Oh no, not us, we are loyal to the flag Yanks!

We celebrated the entire weekend. Literally.

First, we gorged ourselves at an Oz Giving Feast. An Australian take on the traditional holiday. Think tradition in a different way, pecan dip, fruit turkey, heaps of snags (a bunch a sausages, some turkey), turkey burgers, quinoa salad with pumpkin, you get the idea.

The 2 cutest turkeys I have ever seen!

There is a real American luxury in this pic that you may not notice straight away...a red solo cup!
Believe it or not, as much as they love to party outside, this cup has not made it big down unda

We are thankful for great friends!

CM is thankful for cute blonds.

More cute turkeys!
Who is the cheekiest?
It appears each child in this pic has met their match!

Still thinks stealing a ball from a girl will impress.
Or perhaps, older women are more his style?

NO Oz Giving is complete without a pumpkin pie eating contest.
Thank you Costco! 
You have made this country a better place just by being here. 
My love for you knows no bounds.

For real? I am at a pie eating contest beside a cute girl in a bikini? 
Is this real life? Yes...it is???
Oh, This is soooo cool!
If 3 year olds posted status updates, this would so be one.

Another favorite...in traditional Oz Giving fashion...pin the tail on the roo!

We had barely digested our turkey sausages when we were off to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving feast, complete with ham, turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn bread, homemade pumpkin pie and apple pie.

My beautiful Martha Stewart/Donna Hay friend made the most delicious apple pie. EVAH!
She tells me it is sooo easy...HA! 

CH's hero, Big C

One big bird that required much TLC! (we won't say which one)
I will say, you are looking at a semesters worth of tuition on the rotisserie. No turkey BOGOs here!

Beautiful friends!

I thought this was a cupcake?
Seriously? Who forgot to frost the corn bread muffins?

There were two factions at this party, the big kids and the little kids.
 CH really wanted to be with his hero in the bigs...it was not to be.
But really... how cute are the littles?

This could work, one likes blonds, one likes brunettes.

A food coma looks the same in every country.
But the view does not!

It is hard to believe that this time last year we were meeting these people for the first time.

My husband moved into a new DMG

If you have any idea what I am talking about, you and my hubby will be fast friends and I will politely excuse myself for another drink while you discuss DMGs.

Only a few things about his age get to him. One is when we are the same age. In the 11.5 years that I have known him, every year he revels in the most wonderful time of year where he is 6 months younger than me, he tells anyone who will listen how old "we" are. In the 6 months we are the same age. SILENCE. crickets. nothing. about. age. evah. Fine with me I will revel in my cougarness.

He is nonplussed by turning the traditional numbers that people get worked up about. Howevah, this birthday was a bit of a toughie for him. Why? Because in the marketing world's eyes he is "OLDER." He is now in a new demographic marketing group that is targeted for responsible things like life insurance, mutual funds, safe yet "sporty-ish" cars with 4 or more doors and family vacations to places with water elevators and pools the size of the Vatican.

The boys were so excited about his DMG move that they literally ripped cards and presents out of his hands to open, they announced the few surprises we had for him and told him where his gifts were. They even told Momo that their birthday was last week. Poor LK, even his big DMG move day had to be shared! Luckily he got to go to the Hunter Valley on Friday for a mini break. More on that later.

CH pulling out LKs gift from Mom and BD(see left hand).
CM eyeing the unattended parcels.
Lk is looking at the "surprise" drawings the boys did for him and
once completed announced that they "drew him a surprise!"

Having to hold the bag to keep the interlopers at bay.
They were nothing short of ravenous.

What's with his ugly cake?
He has been dying for a Costco apple pie since we were in the States,
sadly he did not get an apple pie there and his heart still pines for one.
Even though I really wanted to make his dreams come true our car was in the shop
 and Costco is a helluva a walk! I bought this locally at a tasty little shop, then
 walked to about 5 other stores while this bounced around, hence the shape.
Then the top would not brown so I turned on my broiler,
 then someone needed me and I forgot! Disaster!
It tasted OK and it was not the shape or the brown mucking things up,
 Costco has it by a mile on this one.
The only thing to save the day was Maggie Beer(brand not flavor) Ice Cream

They love a good celebration! 

We put streamers on the door and that was about the coolest thing for them.

"aww mate don't let the number get ya down, your as good as evah"

Oz can still shock

We have lived here long enough now that rarely are we shocked by daily life and the cultural idiosyncrasies in Oz.

Today was different.

Today we saw this...

There are so many things you could say about this...I would love to hear your comments.

One thing is for sure...if I was looking for a marketing professional for my business, I would look no further than the Dunnys R Us Marketing Director.  

I did notice the truck is painted with "Dunny 1" I am pretty sure they meant to put a 2 there.

Red Sky Tonight or The Cowds R Pink

Sometimes I feel like blogging. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I feel like blogging but the angel on my shoulder says clean up this pig sty. Then sometimes the devil wins and I sit with lunch boxes in the sink, laundry piling up and surrounded by what looks like a Toys R Us post-natural disaster. Today is one such day and the devil in charge of domestic maintenance has won.

I won't show you a pic of my house. Too embarrassing and what goes online stays online for eternity. I will show you the sky last week in all of it's glory. The boys came running in around dusk to tell me the clouds had turned pink! I love how the colors change, the lighter ones are to the East towards the ocean the darker ones were to the South as time progressed. I am curious to know...which is your favorite?

 

Hunter Valley Uncorked at Balmoral

Hunter Valley Uncorked at Balmoral Beach has to be one of my favorite events. It is a wine tasting that is within walking distance from my house. Need I say more? Last year we happened upon it and had the kids in tow, sadly they do not appreciate the nuances between a verdelho and a semillon so this year they had a "friend" (babysitter) come to play while we went out to "play." All parties were considerably happier with their respective arrangements.

The weather was so very very hot and scald your skin sunny and then... it wasn't.



It poured rain, Noah's Ark worthy rain. Just when you thought it would let up so you could escape your table fort it rained even harder. Then it stopped raining. Yeah, Hooray, we can continue the fun! Nope! The event was shut down, just as soon as it stopped raining? Hmm??? The security personnel that informed us were dry as a bone?

Lest you think we are low class and were sitting under a table  on the ground, I must clarify.
We popped our table up on chairs and then scooted chairs for sitting underneath. Brilliant. Kinda.
Not our idea, those Inventive Australians were at it again!
At 6'3 LK was not as tickled with the arrangement as we were,
not to mention his back was out in the driving rain and our table had some holes,
 and the table cloth acted like a rain downspout and you could barely drink your wine...
note I said barely, of course we gave it our best effort.
Doesn't it look like I grew a sweet mutton chop with my hair all crazy like that?
Maybe I will give it a go for Movember?

One of our first and favorite friends who
has the nerve to be moving back to the good ol USA.
Oh... I will miss her!

No one in our crew is the give up, wilt in a little thing like a driving rain storm sort so we persevered and kept the party alive giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "under the table."

A Spanish Buzz and THE REAL Buzz

Ahhh you thought this was a drinking post? It is a Happy Halloween post so of course there was a bit of that, but that is not the main subject.

We had a great and simple no fuss Halloween. In my opinion, there are a lot of of positives to the simple way Halloween goes down here in Oz. The costumes are very basic, usually picked by the kid and created by the kid. There is zero costume pressure, none of this expensive or labor intensive costume madness that sometimes consumes us in the States. At $4 a costume ours may have been the most expensive and elaborate on the block. These costumes were the kind that used to make me feel bad for the kid wearing it, you know I would think, "oh their Mom does not have time/or money to get them a good costume how sad." How stupid of me! My kids LOVED their cheap costumes. They really thought they were Buzz Lightyear and Spanish Buzz Lightyear. The only people giving out candy are the people who really want to do it, so they are super cheery and engaged. Not every house gives out candy so there is a bit of a hunt to it. And it is over pretty quickly, but who has ever eaten all of their candy and how long do you really need to trick or treat?

So about A Spanish Buzz and THE REAL BUZZ LIGHTYEAR. CM really wanted to be Slinky The Dog for Halloween. Although making his dreams come true is top on my list, I knew this would be a stretch, literally and figuratively.

Then at the last minute(5 minutes before trick or treat) he wanted to be Jesse. Despite the fairly obvious problem of dressing a 3 y.o in drag, and the obvious personality differences, he hates wearing jeans and tight things and hats so this costume was out before it was in.

What became clear to CM's Daddy was that he did not want to be the exact same thing as CH. For some reason they both think that CH is the REAL Buzz Lightyear. It could have something to do with CH"s dead on impression of the Buzz stance. So in a brilliant parenting move, LK took a page from Toy Story 3 and CM was Spanish Buzz. If you have seen the movie you see the genius, if not you just think we are crazy.

The Buzz Lightyear Signature Stance

Discovering all his buttons!

Is it just me or does he look a little bit like and Ewok?

The stance made it's appearance all night.

More of The Stance. 

A little pre-game hesitation on buying into being Spanish Buzz to get candy.

On discovering that yes, I said trick or treat and thank you
and now I am the owner of new candy!
Is this real life? What's the catch?

Still amazed, almost paralyzed with the realization that this is REAL LIFE!
 But wait...is CH getting something I need?

White Chocky is a no go!

Yes, this is how some people gave out their "lollies." In the States I would have said, "H No my kids are not eating from that," here, "take two kids!" 
I will say we all went down with a bit of yuck after Halloween.

Brotha, we have got it made. La Dolce Vida!

Brotha, Is it possible we gave it too much gusto and ummph initially and burned out too quickly?

Answer: YES

The man who does not eat chocky is still going strong

Contemplating how his strategy of eat everything he received may have failed him.

We ended the night with post game pizza at Rosso Cavalino, the best pizza in our hood in my opine!