The Green Crack

So the other day we were in a store and Teagan had his hands down the back of his pants. I said, "Teagan, what's wrong?" and he said, "I'm itchy." So I said, "Show me where...and I kept pointing and saying,"here? here?". Teagan kept shaking his head. I was worried that maybe his diaper had been on too long or something. Then he stopped and yelled, "No MOM... it's itchy in my crack!" I hurried and looked around in all directions hoping no one heard that. A lady had walked by right when he yelled "CRACK" and snickered as she walked by.

By golly... like father like son, eh? (love you jer)

Steffan Smiles

Here it is. I couldn't find this cute smiling pic of this little guy the other day. Doesn't that little smile just melt your heart?

Comments

I know you are out there. I can see you looking. I love comments! Otherwise I feel lonely on this blog by myself. :)

I Earned It Myself!

As many of you know, Teagan is our very head strong child. He is so smart and studies everything. However, he tends to get bored easily as he doesn't find things to keep him challenged or interested. We felt bad that he was always in trouble or picking on Tate.

So, when we moved here we started something new with him... A chart! Every night we go over all the things that he did good like,
*Resting,
*Helping,
*Being nice to his brother,
*Eating all of a meal (he NEVER eats - mostly because he never wants what i make because he is picky, but it drives me nuts),
*saying prayers,
*sitting on the potty (which he did for awhile but has now lost interest- - any ideas here?), etc.

After we go through each item he gets a sticker for all the ones he has done and also earns coins for each item and/or time to do what he wants to do. We were very generous with the money at first because we wanted him to understand how it works... You do something good, you get money and then you can get something. Well, this pic was taken the first day he earned enough money to go buy something.

We started off and went to Target and BigW (like our Walmart) and he of course wanted all of the toys that were $30-50. I kept telling him, you don't have enough. You'd have to save up for a loooong time to get those. It was killing my mom through this whole process. She wanted to just give him the money, but of course didn't. Normally a trip to the toy aisle would always result in a humongous fit if we left with out a toy and I would always try to avoid walking by them. It started to be that way with anything (candy, toys, movies, small rides, you name it). But now I can tell him "Yes" to everything if he has enough money. I had enormous satisfaction when I saw how quickly he changed his perspective when he was spending his own money that he worked hard to get. He wanted to get candy and when I told him he could get candy but wouldn't have enough money to buy the truck he wanted he chose not to get the candy. Then we saw a little coin ride that he could sit on for $2 (yes a total rip off) and when I told him how much money that would take away of his, he decided not to do it. I've never had one fit since he has his own money. In fact, the other day he asked if he could go to Toys R Us and just LOOK at the toys. He said he didn't want to buy any, just look. Since it was on the way to where we needed to go, we stopped. And he didn't throw a fit when we left empty handed. And of top of it, he has even tried to buy toys now and still have money left over.

The satisfaction this little kid had when he bought these trucks was amazing! All day long he kept saying, "I EARNED it myself!"

The next Family Home Evening we had was about tithing. He had no clue what we were saying but when I asked him for his money to give to the Lord, he handed it right over. He was so proud and so were we. You are growing up little T-man!

Some more updates

Black Mountain Tower
A couple of weeks ago we went up to Black Mountain Tower. It is similar to the Space Needle in Seattle or the CN Tower in Toronto. It overlooks all of Canberra, ACT. It shows you how beautiful it is here. There is a revolving restaurant in it, however, we didn't go since we have kids. (Going out to eat in nice restaurants just isn't what it used to be with them) My mom and I were going to go eat there last night until we looked at the menu online and couldn't find anything that we dare try. I know... we are not very adventureous. However, we did leave the boys with Jeremy and went to a Chinese restaurant that I am relieved to say that we liked everything we ordered.

The Chinese Restaurant
As a side note I find it emotionally draining every time I go out anywhere because everything is different and I always feel like an outsider that doesn't know what to do. It's stressful to have to figure things out. For example: At the restaurant we went to, it was in the middle of some casual shops here in Kingston, so naturally you'd think it's one we can just walk in to and eat at on a whim. But, you needed to have a reservation to eat there or eat on the outside tables, which is what we decided to do. I found that the "Entree" is actually the appetizer and at this particular place they brought each course out in a different bowl and then put the food on your plate. We had many people ask us if we wanted a drink. (We are definitely the odd people out here since we don't drink.) We also sat next to some guy that didn't like Americans and kept talking about them to his wife through out dinner. When we were done eating we sat there FOREVER. The people that worked there kept coming out and looking at us but would never say anything. Finally we asked them if we could get the rest of our food for "Take Away" (which means "To Go" here) and they finally brought our check. The whole time I kept wondering if they were just waiting for us to ask for the check or what. At any rate, it's just little things like that. I really need to start getting more involved here and hanging out with people that are from here that can show me the ropes.

Weekend Plans & Our New Cars
On Friday this coming up week, my mom and I will be joining our Relief Society for an overnight retreat. I'm actually really looking forward to it. I've never been so excited to be involved in things at church. I really like our ward and want to try to find some place to live permanently that will remain in this ward. Our ward comprises of about 30 cities right now (but all the cities are VERY close together), so it is likely we would still be in the ward. We've decided to stay living more north in the main city even though Jeremy will be driving to work about 20-30 minutes south each day.

We found out that we could get 2 vehicles through his work that are almost new and that his work pays for all maintenance and gas. All the payments we make are pretax and we actually pay the same as if we were going to buy ONE older vehicle and pay for all of our own gas and maintenance. We have been SUPER blessed every step of the way on this trip... just as we were both promised numerous times in blessings we received while preparing to come here. The guy we bought vehicles from has even let us use a van for the last month at NO CHARGE until we figure things out. Who does that? What an awesome guy? It saved us almost $1,200 that we didn't have to pay in renting a car. We were going to buy this particular van at first and found out that we couldn't get a loan for it since we weren't Australian citizens. And although it was annoying that no one helped us with that info from the start, it actually benefitted us in the long run that we got to use a car for free that held my whole family, plus my mom during her stay, AND we get two vehicles for the same price. Jeremy got a little black 2009 Kia Rio and I'm getting a 2009 white Hyundai IMax (a large 8 seater van). It's wierd that we are going from a white 2009 van in UT to a white 2009 van here. At any rate, we are very blessed. I will post pics soon.

Not to vere from our weekend plans, but we are also going up to Sydney next Sunday and staying in our timeshare up there for a few days. I'm so glad they have timeshare resorts here and that we can still utilize it. I'm way excited! Jeremy already went to Sydney this last week -over Valentine's Day :( -for a few days for a training at work and said it was awesome! I can't wait to see it. I want to go to something showing at the Opera house before we go. We wanted to try to go to the Sydney Temple while we are there but found that they don't do clothes rentals there. We packed our temple clothes because in Utah you can just rent them. So, we will have to wait for our stuff before we go. We also found out that there is a hotel right next to the temple that is run by the church. If you are going to Sydney to visit the temple, you can stay there for $50/night. Isn't that amazing? In the future when we go, Jeremy and I can go with our kids and stay there and alternate who goes to a session while the other one stays with the kiddos.

"Good On Ya!"
On a funny ending note: Teagan said to me yesterday, completely out of the blue, "Good on ya mum". My mom and I burst out laughing. That is soooooooooooo Australian to say! Everyone here says, "Good on ya..." I can't believe that he's already picking things up.

Here is one of the commercials that I always have the tune in my head here. It's a bread commercial. They actually make this particular brand of bread about 3 blocks from where I'm living right now. This is probably where Teagan got the "good on ya" saying.

The four men in my life

This picture was taken the first week we got here. I can't believe in the short amount of time how much all of the boys have grown since we arrived.

Binky & Wuby

Tate has clung to "Binky & Wuby" since we moved. I think it has been his way of coping with all of the changes. We can't bring ourselves to take them away yet since we know we are moving once more. He only wants this same blanket and bink... no other bink and blanket will satisfy his security. Thank you Holly for this blanket. You bought it for Teagan when he was born and it has been the biggest lifesaver right now for Tate. I also think Tate is missing our doggies. When we went over to our new friends home (Dennis & Angie), Tate just hung out with one of their little dogs along with "Binky & Wuby". These picture break my heart a little. :(

Australian Mint

A few weeks ago we visited the Australian Mint Factory. They make all of the coins for Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Samoa and I'm sure for a few other places. Teagan and Tate got to have their own 2012 coin stamped and made right there for us. It was really cool to go there. The boys are holding up their big coin postcards. We are going to have them write themselves a note and send it home for when we move back.

Not too bad

Why don't we have more public restrooms like this? I can't vouch for the cleaniliness because it was occupied but it's definitley a step up from the port-o-pots you see in Utah. I thought it'd be funny if the guy came out while we were actually taking the picture.

Fashion Crime

Now I don't claim to be the most fashionable person, but this is too much for me.

Speedos for toddlers?

And yes, this was in the boys section. It is not a bottom for a girl.

Random Stuff

There are just a few things that I wanted to mention that are different that you might not hear from others if they go on vacation here.

1. if you didn't already know, since we are on the other side of the hemisphere, the water spins down the drain the opposite way than what we are used to.

2. the light switches are different

3. all the light switches can be turned on and off individually to save on electiricity. and on that same note, Australia is trying to be one of the first "green" countries.

4. if you go shopping anywhere you must pay .10 - .20 cents extra for each plastic bag you request to take your stuff home.

5. the door stops are on the back of the doors and not on the base boards.

6. the toilets all have two buttons (not a lever) to push to flush. there is a "Full Flush" and a "Half Flush" (ha ha - dare to use your imagination to figure this one out)

7. the toilet water doesn't really swirl down the drain... it's more like a half/full water full coming from all sides of the toilet. lol

8. the plugs look like this:

You can also see what the light switches look like and also what the switches look like above the plug outlet to turn each outlet on or off.

9. the voltage that runs through the electricity is at 220 volts compared to the 120 in the USA. therefore, you must bring a power surge protector for anything you bring over or it will blow out.

10. a new word i learned is that they call baby binky's/pacifiers, "Dummy's"

11. i still can't quite figure out how to use their ovens. the first week or two i managed to burn everything or not cook it long enough. this is because the oven is in celsius as you may remember from my previous post. but the biggest reason is because i have no clue what the "bleep" these pictures on the dial are supposed to mean when choosing a 'cooking option'. i finally got smart and googled an oven manual to help me. do any of these mean anything to you?



12. things are spelled here like the British spell stuff. for example: tire is tyre, defense is defence, recognize is recognise, center is centre, theater is theatre. i used to be a pretty good 'speller', but probably not over here.

13. the washer and dryers here are half the size of what we are used to. we already had to do 1-3 loads A DAY and now it is MUCH more often. bless my sweet little hubby for doing the laundry. he is much better about doing it than i am.


14. each of the larger/main city's here have their own city centre. they have EVERYTHING there. the biggest one is the Canberra City Centre which is three blocks long and 4 levels high. it has everything a mall would have plus all your restaurants, grocery stores, kmart, target, bars, banks, tax offices, some churches are held there, you name it. (but it still closes down between 4pm and 6pm along with everything else... strange!)

15. they give you shopping carts, or should i say "trolley's" at the city centers so that you can push your kid around in it or all of your bags at all of the stores you go to. they should do that at our malls in the states.

16. not really a fan of any of their red meat here. it tastes different. not super bad, but not good either. however, it's probably a good thing cause it's better for me if i don't eat it anyway. my favorite was a big, all American cheeseburger, but it will have to wait 'til we get back to the good ol' USA. actually a lot of the food just has a 'twinge of different'. i also don't really like eating out anymore just because i haven't found anything i think is too fabulous (which is probably the best thing that could've ever happened to me

17. they do not mess around with the traffic laws here. there are cameras EVERYWHERE. i rarely see people speeding. i also think it's against the law to talk on the phone while driving. (haven't asked anyone yet about it)

18. if you get pulled over for drinking and driving, it is an automatic suspension of your license with a $10,000 fine and jail. if it were this strict everywhere, i bet less people would do it.

19. some lady got a ticket here for smoking in her car with children in her car that were younger than 18 years old. she then got a ticket for swearing at the cop because you're not allowed to do so around the children. (now i'm not sure of all the details and jeremy will probably correct me on this one)

20. if you see people driving with a letter "L" or "P" stuck to their car, it means that they are "Learning" or have just gotten their "Permit".

21. did you know that the Seinfeld episode where Elaine says, "I think a dingo ate-chyour baby" is a real story from Australia? they have the bracelet from the baby that got eaten by the dingo in a museum here.

22. instead of dialing 911, you dial 000

The First Fender Bender

So... It wasn't too far off from happening. Tom Jr will not be surprised to hear that it was NOT ME that can report the first fender bender. If any of you have ridden in the car with Jeremy, then you know exactly what I'm saying here. (I love you baby. lol) But, I'm just as stressed out sitting in the passenger side here with him as I am when I'm driving on the other side of the road myself. Yes... it happened this weekend when we were at his work. Jeremy backed up into someone else. Luckily no one was hurt and no damage done. Pheww! In his defense though (very small defense), I will admit, it's hard to turn your head the other way and see what you're doing when you're used to turning your head to the right and now have to turn it to the left.

Gulp... and I don't mean Big Gulps

Remember that they charge by the litre... What does this equate to in gallons? The answer is $5.64/gallon. Good thing Jeremy's company pays for all of our gas while we're here. It cost $101.00 to fill our 20 gallon tank up.

Catching Up: Going Away Party Pictures

This was the easiest way to put these up was by doing a few collages. Thank you Scott & Kara for throwing us a Going Away Party! It was just what we needed to send us off overseas.

The Daily Stand-Off

Tate has already learned to play his cards right as the younger brother. He cries when Teagan merely touches him as he passes (even though Tate has good reason to cry most of the time).

Tate rarely smiles for any pictures, but he is the one that is usually smiling. This picture shows a little bit of how silly he is. He LOVES wearing sunglasses!

Who wants one?

Look how big these are. Jeremy and I walked by one at Costco and we looked at eachother and started laughing. We had to get one. They are 1/2 lb each cup.

My 3 boys

I always knew I'd have Boys, Boys and more Boys. I love them more than I could ever explain. I even love that tonight as we were doing our Family Home Evening about "Loving One Another" that Tate was screaming because Teagan was taking his toy and pushing him over.

We get the blessing just for having the FHE though, right?

Steffan

This little baby is not so little anymore. I still need to find a pediatrician here to take him to check ups (kind of dreading finding all new doctors, dentists, etc). He is so rolly-polly. I LOVE it! He will be 11 weeks old on Wednesday and is growing very fast, just like Teagan. He looks just like Teagan too. He has white skin and bright, carrot red hair. (See the pic at the bottom of the back of his head)




Steffan is starting to smile heaps (they say "heaps" in Australia all the time instead of saying "a lot"). Of course I can't find a pic right now that he is smiling in. He has even giggled a couple of times and everyone but me has heard it. Steffan is a lot like Tate was and wants to be held ALL THE TIME. It's hard to do anything else, but I'd rather hold him than hear him cry. I read a study that says it actually helps them sleep better later on and Tate sleeps like a champ. So, let's hope it has the same effect.

The Roos

A week or two ago Jeremy said, "Ya know, we haven't seen one kangaroo since we've been here." Everyone had told Jeremy at work that you never have to worry about hitting the 'roos' in the day time and that they only come out at night. I remembered seeing the "Kangaroo Crossing/Warning" sign on our way to Costco and since it was about dusk we decided to see what we could see by the signs. We drove up to a large field that was all fenced in. The lady that lived next to the field happened to pull up while we were there and she told us to just walk on in to go see them. She said you could get pretty close to them.

When we started through the gates we could see literally HUNDREDS of kangaroos. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. They would let us walk up to them and be about 10 feet away before they'd hop off.



I tried to attach a video Jeremy took from his phone but it was too big and wouldn't load. Maybe I can have Jer figure out how to make it smaller for me (and turn it so it's not sideways).

So, we went back to see the roos the other day again and saw a big tour bus of guys coming in to see them also. Jeremy, being the friendly little bugger he is starts talking to them and finds out that it is the Sri Lanka Cricket team. Cricket is their big sport over here and Jeremy said that coincidentally the Sri Lanka team was the team he watched the first day he watched the sport when he got here. I happened to get a pic of them with Jer.


I thought Jeremy was sleeping but he came in and made the videos smaller for me, but they are still sideways.

What is this?

The other day I was wiping off the leather couches here and there was something brown and hard stuck to it. I said out loud looking over at Teagan, "What is this?" He was watching T.V. and looked over at me and then back at the TV again and said in a monotone voice, "Could be chocolate, could be poop" as he shrugged his shoulders. lol What a funny kid.

Where we are at now

Have internet now ...but sorry to say that our internet is slowwwwwww! So, it's hard for me not to lose interest before the blog page loads. ha ha

We are just staying in temp furnished housing right now since our furniture and other stuff is still not here (Grrr). Our shipping company was supposed to send it in November and didn't actually ship it until AFTER we were already here. And since it takes 2-3 months to ship, we will be in temp housing until the end of April. Therefore, we can not really get permanent internet yet. Plus they won't let us set it up without a permanent address and the temp housing place we are staying doesn't have it set up yet to offer. I also can't get anything more than a pre-paid phone with out having a permanent address that we can show a utility bill for proof. And on top of it, it's hard trying to get things done over in the US when we are 18 hours ahead and don't have good internet.

For the first couple of weekds we were staying in a 2 bedroom/ 2 bathroom hotel suite in the middle of the city. It was Australia's national holiday, "Australia Day" (like our Independance Day) on January 26th, so Jeremy's company was unable to secure housing for the full time in one spot due to all the places being booked out.

Last Saturday we moved into a 3bed/2bath apartment in Kingston, which is about 5-10 minutes from where we were at in the hotel. It is much cozier and feels like a home. It's the first time we have been able to somewhat unpack and feel like we are in a "home" since October.

Here's some pictures of the place we are staying. You can click on it to enlarge it if you didn't already know that. :)

There's not much of a view like at the hotel. (Pic of the view from our hotel room before)

We were on the 7th floor overlooking everything before and it was Awesome! Now we are really close to the lake. The area we are in now is a new area and has lots of construction going on around us. It will be really nice once it's done. It would be awesome if we could stay in this place the whole time we are here but we are about 15 minutes too far north of where Jeremy will actually be working. So, we want to move a little closer to his work. We want to keep to one vehicle while we are here and I don't want to take time out to drive him back and forth so far with the kids.

Jeremy was looking up prices of our Kingston home and found that it would cost $1.3 MILLION dollars to live here. Holy Crap! What the? I mean, it's nice and all, but for $1.3 mil in Utah, you'd be living in a massive house. This place doesn't even have a garbage disposal (which I'm finding most places don't). Something else that is rare to have is an ice maker or water dispenser in your fridge. Isn't that crazy? We are living in the lap of luxury in the US at great prices and don't even know what we have there. I continue to feel grateful for everything we have back home.

No Internet

So we just moved into our new place for the next 3 months and we don't have Internet right now. I'm posting this from Jeremy's work phone. We are ging to try and figure it out this week so we can get Internet. Who would have thought the Internet wouldn't be easy to get???