525 + 524 + 421 + 420 Weeks

The whirlwind is over!  Tonight we had dinner outside on our patio (yes, a winter dinner outside!) and celebrated with sparkling wine and ginger beer.  We are fully moved in, unpacked and completely settled as of this afternoon.  It has been a crazy few weeks.  From the Coffs Air BnB we drove up here to the Sunshine Coast and stayed in an Air BnB here for three nights.  The kids loved it, and it truly was like a mini vacation because we had just spent 10 days packing, and then we literally had nothing to do until we picked up our new house keys.  The Air BnB was within walking distance to the beach, and it also had a hot tub which we made full use of.  The kids were stoked.  We took the kids on the ferris wheel and down to Kings Beach pool, out to restaurants and to the video arcade.  Carmie fell in love with Queensland immediately.

We picked up the house keys the morning that the movers were coming, and since then we have been unpacking and cleaning (this house was a mess and wasn't cleaned properly).  We LOVE this house.  It is spacious, has a great back yard. has a pool, and is in a lovely neighbourhood.  The kids swam in the pool today.  The pool was cold, but the weather was hot, despite the fact that it's winter, so they braved it.  I can't even think about how hot it will be in the summer.  It will be interesting!  We have barely left the house, except for running errands.  There is a park around the corner, so I got the kids there one day. Another day we got them to a park at Mooloolaba.  But mostly we have been unpacking and cleaning while the kids spent hours on end on various screens.  They have been immensely happy about it too!

Tomorrow we are officially celebrating by going to Aussie World, which is a theme park near here.  The kids are very excited.  I just hope Arley doesn't get too overwhelmed.  My fingers are crossed.  I have told the kids they can have the weekend off (while I catch up on work), and then on Monday we will be starting out with some semblance of a schedule again.  There are so many home schooling activities that we can join. There are so many places to explore.  We have this great back yard to use.  I refuse to let the kids wallow on their screens any longer!

Here are photos from the last two weeks:

523 + 419 Weeks

It has been a HUGE week.  As of right now, we are out of our rental in Coffs, and are staying overnight in an Air B&B in Coffs before we make the five hour trip up north to the Sunshine Coast.  We are exhausted.  Mum and Geoff came back for a few days to help out, and they did all of the outside clean up and packed up all my plants and pots, as well as helped inside.  We are very grateful.  Moving is always stressful, but this time has been so much easier than last time.  The movers only took four hours to pack this morning (there were five of them!), and the kids were remarkably good (Arley was a little off, but we are all stressed, so I still think he did well).  After the house was packed up we took Bella up to a dog cafe that we found and had lunch while she had her lunch on the floor. It was very cute.  We will be picking up our new house keys on Monday morning, and the movers will be arriving to unpack at 1pm on Monday, so we will be staying in an Air B&B until Tuesday.  And then the unpacking madness will begin.

We had a little bit of upsetting news this week. Remember how I tried to get the kids’ blood tested and only managed to get Carmie’s (we knew she is low in iron so we wanted to check it out).  Well, we got her results yesterday, and it turns out she has Celiac Disease.  It is not 100% positive, but the doctor says she has it.  Jeff and I have to get tested too and if either of us have it she is a definite, and if we don’t, she has to have an endoscopy.  We also have to get Arley tested, so that will be a huge mission.  It is stressing me out, but I am trying not to worry.  Carmie is sad and had a good cry about it yesterday, but we are trying not to worry about it until she gets the 100% yes.  She has to continue eating gluten like normal until we know if she needs to get the endoscopy.  Our lives are hard enough already, and feeding the kids is a nightmare, but I’m trying not to think about it until after we are settled in.  And if Arley has it, he will literally be down to eating frozen blueberries and rice.

So, moving on.  We managed to get the kids out this week a few times.  My friend kindly brought her daughters down to the neighbourhood park and asked the kids to join them down there so I could pack unhindered.  Arley got too anxious and came home with me, but Carmie stayed and had a good play.  We will miss the few friends we have made here, and we will definitely miss Coffs and all the lovely places to go.  However, we are really looking forward to our next adventure!

These photos are all out of order.  The bad photo of Arley is in there to prove he exists! No other shots of him this week.

522 + 418 Weeks

So...we have some news.  We are moving to the Sunshine Coast...in eight days.  What??  Yes, that's right. Jeff and I went up on Saturday and loved it up there.  It is beautiful, tropical, clean, orderly, great weather, great restaurants, gorgeous never-ending stretches of beaches.  We looked at a few rentals, just as a way of looking at various neighbourhoods, and we really liked one of the houses so we applied for it.  We were really excited to get the house, but the realtor called the next morning to say we didn't get it.  She said there are 30 to 40 applicants for each rental in our price range.  Then she told us that she had a house that was a little over our price range, but no one had seen it (not even her), and that if we liked it, she would put our application forward for that house before it was advertised.  We did like it.  It is older than the house we are in now, but bigger, and with a fantastic yard and a great swimming pool, and it is in a beautiful neighbourhood with man-made lakes and bike paths and walking tracks.  It is 12 minutes drive from the beach, which is further than we would like, but it has the great yard and pool, so we think that is a good compromise.  We are so excited to move, and so are the kids.  We weren't reckoning on such a fast move though.

It was the kids' birthday on Friday.  They started their day with birthday presents, and then we all (Jeffrey and I, and Lolo and Dida) took them bowling.  It was very loud in there and Arley was too overwhelmed to bowl, but Carmie and Jeff played a game, and then Carmie and Arley played several matches of air hockey, which they love.  Afterwards we went out to lunch, and then had a quiet afternoon at home.  We had cake in the afternoon and then the kids had a tv dinner, at their request.  Much easier than having a big party!  I can't believe the kids are now 8 and 10 though.  It boggles my mind.

Today I took the kids to a park for a belated birthday get together and a going away party.  We met their friends Will and Charlie and Amalie, and their newer friends Katya and Sasha there.  Carmie had a minor meltdown when Arley hit her in the head with nerf bullets and wouldn't stop (the kids were having a nerf gun war).  The kids had fun at the park and it was sad to say goodbye to their friends, and mine too!

Arley has been a bit ornery since Jeffrey and I have been back.  I think he missed me a lot, and since we got home, I have been so busy packing that I haven't been able to spend much time with him.  He seems quite volatile, and I feel like he is building up to another huge meltdown.  Time will tell.

So now we are in a packing frenzy.  Mum and Geoff are up at the Sunshine Coast looking around themselves right now, and they have changed their plans to some stay with us again on Saturday for a couple of days to help us pack and weed the garden and help with the kids so we can actually be ready when the movers come on Friday.  Wish us luck!

Jeffrey and I on the Sunshine Coast

Birthday munchkins

Lolo and Dida's last night.  The kids don't know they're coming back on Saturday!

Park play today

Goodbye and belated happy birthday get together