I'm super excited for Mims wedding. Would totally show up uninvited and watch from inside a bush if I was local.
What are you studying Alle?
Good luck with the visa abna. Visas are the pits.
Thinking of visas! Obi has been granted his PR! McFinally! So happy! Now it's onward to citizenship. And for some reason, my math with that was off. Ok, I know the reason. My math skill is shit. Well anyway, the original plan has always been to stay in Oz 5 years and move back after he gets citizenship. We were talking about travel a week back, because him and his mates want to do Japan when they all turn 30, and we were trying to hash out when to go. I'm like "Well 2016 we have D & D's wedding, and seeing your family. I'm not sure you can get more time off than that, but 2017 we'll have an international move to pay for. Japan on top of that might cripple us." and he's like, "Don't worry about the move for now, I have to live here for 5 years to apply for citizenship. It'll be five years in Dec 2016. Do you really think I will have the paperwork through, pass the test and everything by the beginning of 2017? I don't. And it doesn't matter." And he pretty much said he's in no hurry to move back.
The other week he said something that I couldn't help get my hopes up over too. We were talking about something completely unrelated, and he goes "we have to factor in where we will be living. Australia is hot, and we will be here, what 80% of the time? I don't know what our plan is but I figure next time we come back (after three-four years in Canada) we will be here until the kids finish school."
WHAT?! Doing the math, the youngest (Not Selene, the one that comes after) will be just entering school when we come back to Oz. So that's twelve odd years!! More than a decade. WHAT?
Which raises questions like "Why the pluck would we buy a house in Canada only to not use it for most of the kid's childhood?" But yeah. I do feel there will come a time where he will want to just stay here. Then there's visits. I wanted to visit Canada twice this year, but he over-ruled me, because he "feels like we were just there." We were there in October
Anyway... CAMPING
That was an adventure. Friday, the day before we were due to go, the car wouldn't start. We've had a lot of issues with it and the mechanic was struggling to pinpoint why.
Bec lent Dustin her car so he could get to work (she fortunately was looking after her mates car for him) and said we could borrow it for camping, but I don't know how that thing is considered road-worthy honestly.
In the end, Dustin borrowed jumper cables from a mate at work and Saturday morning we jumped our car, left it running while he returned Bec's car, and off we went. We figured that there'd be someone else at the campsite, we'd get a jump Sunday and Monday take the car in to get a battery because at least now we knew what the issue was
Off we went. Kids were great in the car, but the first 2 odd hours after we got to the location were awful. We hadn't planned it well enough and babies were falling to pieces all over the place. I started to think this was a very bad idea. But eventually, we got everything under control. Selene finally went down for a nap, everyone had lunch, we were set up, Isis was playing with her truck and we were all good. Excepting for the horrible mozzies and the pounding heat anyway.
By the time is came to start on dinner, everything was bliss. I hate cooking, but as I stood there at my camp kitchen prepping corn and spuds I was the happiest woman on earth. It's amazing what being eaten alive and sweating your arse off can do for the soul.
Oh, here's a photo from unpacking the car. I was carrying Selene everywhere at this point because she wouldn't stop crying otherwise, and so unloading the car was taking a million years. Then I heard something large coming down the mountain. Kangaroo? No, too early in the day. Then I spotted it. Oh, giant lizard. Thanks for that Australia. I couldn't remember right away what it was, if it was poisonous or if it would be aggressive. So I jumped in the car and snapped a photo.
Lizard man wandered off, minding his own business and I was like "that was cool, pity Dustin missed it" you know, thinking that it was a freak sighting never to be repeated. Oh no.
There was another walking up the path back to our site, just ahead of me, and another coming from the other direction. Dustin was like "OMG Miriam! Look at this!" I couldn't see him yet, but I knew exactly what he was talking about.
They were goannas, if you didn't guess from the photo.
We had waaay too much food for our little family. But that was fine. The kids were adorable all evening, so I took the chance to break some happy news to Dustin, and everything was wonderful. The kids ran/crawled around playing with each other and glow sticks, eating dirt, laughing and just being fantastic until it was time for the bedtime routine, which went pretty smoothly.
We wrangled them into the tent, stripped them off and gave them a Pome shower. That is, wiped them down as best we could with bum wipes. (No offense to my British readers. I know you do actually shower. That's just what it is called. Also, I'm aware that Pome stands for "prisoner of mother England" and that makes us the Pomes not you. I didn't make this bastard language, ok?
)Anyway, the rub-down and being in the tent was very exciting for them, and they both went a bit crazy, running around and climbing all over us and each other. So I took the opportunity to have my own Pome shower. Dustin had gone to get something, so I took the opportunity before he could go on about modesty and such. We'd elected not to put the rain cover on our tent so we could see the stars/easily check on the kids, so anyone walking past could see me in there. But like whatever. There were a few other groups, but they had no reason to walk out our way, and besides I'm a woman who has recently popped out a couple of kids and I look like a woman who has recently popped out said kids. There's nothing to see here. People are only going to groan and avert their eyes. Nothing to worry about imo.
Anyway when he got back the kids and I were playing, and he snapped this photo like a stalker:
Yes, please do admire my flannies lol. But seriously it was the best fun. Getting the kids to actually sleep was easier than expected too. Isis was exhausted, so once Selene started having her bottle, she put herself to bed, knowing the fun was over. Dustin laid with her, held her hand etc. I put Selene down and rubbed her back, patted her arse. And then ten minutes later, at the EXACT SAME MOMENT they both fell asleep, snoring loudly. It was too adorable.
We stoked up the fire, cracked a bottle of my favourite wine, busted out the junk food and read together (that is, he read to me) until we too needed to collapse. We thought we'd go to bed early-ish knowing Selene would wake with the sun, and hoping to do the wild thing, but Selene was having none of that. She disturbed when we came in, and got all excited, crawling around like a giant bug. So I spent the next half hour patting her bum and after that wasn't willing to risk waking her again.
The stars and clouds were brilliant and so every time she woke me during the night, which was more than I'd have liked, I felt blessed and peaceful rather than tired and annoyed. It got a little nippy at 5am, so I pulled her into my bed and held her until just before 7. Didn't get much sleep of course, but it made me so happy anyway. I don't get much one on one time with either baby but it is bliss when I do.
I haven't done a lot of camping, and didn't think about how gross the ground would be with dew, but I wished I had bought real shoes at that point. Selene thought crawling through the wet grass and getting muddy was fantastic though, so at least someone was keen.
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[/IMG]We had a hot breakfast, which Isis proudly helped cook, and then started packing up. I'd wanted to hang around until the kid's naptime, but Isis was "All done a outside. Go blue car. Daddy drive. Go inside! Done a camping" so we figured we'd pushed her far enough. She'd been quite the trooper.
It turned out well though, when they went down for their nap at home, Dustin and I crashed on the unforgiving floor and napped too. Camping is bloody exhausting!!
Surprisingly, Isis has asked me several times now if we can go camping again. She's quite keen for someone so eager to have it over and done with. We want to camp with dad, he's down next week, but it's getting cold and we don't have the stuff for an extra person, so I don't know.
I'm looking forward to his visit too. Hopefully I can advocate well for myself and his month-long stay won't drive me crazy.
Nicole, I go back country camping praying to see a bear or even a deer and it never bloody happens. I'm sure you'll be fine!