A New Home Sweet Home

Welcome to my blog! This will be my way of keeping all my friends and family, and anyone interested, up to date on the new adventure our family is undertaking by moving to Townsville Australia!

The back story will come out later, but for now I wanted to share about our first 5 days here in tropical Australia.

The kids and I joined my husband Monday after a number of months apart. The oldest two were delighted to see their dad, while our 10 mth old wasn't so sure about it. She has since warmed up once again to her dad, thanks to his insistent attention and his fantastic ability to play dad even in the moments she didn't yet recognize him as such.

The flight here was a bit of an adventure. Our flight out of Toronto was delayed by an hour and half, which significantly cut into the 2 hrs we had scheduled for transferring planes. Thankfully, on the Toronto end, we had many friends at the airport entertaining and caring for the kids so that by they weren't already crazy by the time we got on the plane. We all felt very loved and supported as we said good bye to our life in Canada and said tearful good byes at the gate. The first leg of the journey was perhaps the roughest as the plane was full and the kids had trouble getting to sleep. Our 2 yr old kept insisting he wanted to go home, which elicited mixed emotions from me, even though all he really wanted was his bed. We flew into LA and transferred without a moment to spare. The gate we needed was right beside where we got off, and they called us to bord immediately. Special treat bags that my sister in law made for the kids were the perfect thing to help them settle into a new plane at 2 in the morning and after some munching on candy and playing with their new little toys, they settled down for a good sleep. My youngest stayed awake through the wonderful dinner they served and then I was able to pop her in the bassinet and we all managed to get a number of hours of sleep before it was time for breakfast.

At our next transfer in Brisbane we were to collect our luggage to go through customs, but only 2 out of 9 pieces arrived so we had to go and report it all lost. The kids were melting down in the customs line, so I gave them all chocolate (as any desperate mother would) and managed to calm them down temporarily. After we went through the xray portion of the check, we looked back to see a glove clad official cautiously approaching a brown blob on the floor behind us. My mom noticed this first, and reassured the official that it was only chocolate. I felt badly that I hadn't noticed to clean it up already, but also had to chuckle at how easily it could have been something else! Again we made our gate as they were boarding, and although slightly stressful, it was a blessing that we didn't have to entertain the kids in an airport!

The house my husband has found for us to rent is great. It is within biking distance to the University and walking distance to the school my oldest will likely be attending. To help the kids enjoy the new place, he had hidden chocolate and little toys around the place for a belated Easter egg hunt. Nothing endears children to a new space more quickly than chocolate and toys and the adventure of finding them! The remainder of the day was spent shopping for enough clothes for the next day or two as we had already gone through what I had in my carry on.

I will post more on this week's adventures, but for now, here is my first shot at blogging...feel free to let me know what else you'd like to hear about!