Australia Part 1

I’ve been working on scrapbook pages for Australia, and I was hoping to have them all done before blogging about our trip, but you’ve all waited long enough. So here is what I have so far and more pictures I wanted to share and will get around to scrapbooking… one of these days… maybe when I have my house back.

So we arrived in Australia to 100% humidity but the sun was shining! For the next few days, we stayed at Luke’s parents house. It rained off and on for the next week, so we didn’t attempt to go to the beach or anywhere really. We enjoyed ourselves by taking walks around the property and up the hills and playing with cousins.

  

More photos of….

Sister love and Miles’s love of trucks

Miles pillow fights with Fyn and Masie playing nicely with Mia

Lyla getting attention from Fyn and Masie saying “beach!”

Girls getting kisses from Uncle Lar and Luke with his brother

Girls racing down the drive and another toad in the road, dead but juicy

 

Taking a moment to pause for a picture: Masie, Miles, Fyn, and Mia

Masie checking out the drain and the kids racing home before the next storm

Home Sweet Home?

We’re home!

Sort of… we’re actually staying in a hotel and at my mom’s house.

The day after we arrived in Australia we woke to frantic emails, voice messages, and facebook messages from my mom. She’d gone to check on our house the day after we left and found a flood. Miles’s toilet runneth over, and over, and over. The hose or float or something in the tank broke lifting up the lid so that water poured out into our house for almost 24 hours. Our whole house was filled with 2 inches of water that raced out of the garage and down the driveway.

I’m sort of glad I wasn’t there.

I couldn’t do anything from my vacation halfway around the world. I got to live in bliss for a week.

We called a friend that operates a restoration company. They pumped out the water and ran fans and heaters for a few days to dry everything out. They had to pull up all the carpet to remove the ruined pad. All of our baseboard had to go. Our IKEA master closet system was pulled out and is now sitting in my bathroom and bedroom. The new floor to ceiling bookcase Luke built for me in my office was detached from the wall so that our office wood floor could be removed. The girls’ wallpaper is toast as well as the wainscoting in Miles’s room.

I’m happy to be getting new baseboards and new paint. We’ll be repainting floor to ceiling almost every wall. They’re telling us that after another cleaning and stretching my carpet can be reinstalled. I’m having a battle with myself whether to fit the bill for new carpet since my insurance will cover the new pad and installation. The tile that is throughout most of the house will be ok after they clean the grout.

From the little we’ve gone through things, it seems all of our furniture will be fine since the water didn’t sit for too long. I’ll have my piano looked at, but I think it was saved because it sits up on little wheels. I worry a some because of the temperature changes in the house going from so much humidity to over 86 degrees when the heaters were drying things out. I haven’t yet turned on my desktop computer that sat on the floor, but I’m sure (fingers crossed) it will start up fine. I’ve got to catch up on business things today, so I’ll soon find out.

The overwhelming and exhausting part is the mess. There is no organization in how the cleanup crew took everything out of all the rooms and threw it in the family room or the master bedroom or boxed in the hallway. There are heaping mounds of drawers, clothes, dishes, toys, and anything else that was in the way of cleaning up the water that went to almost every corner of the house.

We’re hoping that our insurance company will go after the toilet company, so that we won’t have to pay our high deductible. We’re waiting for an estimate on damages.

I’m so grateful that my mom found the flood before it got any worse. She and our neighbor helped immensely. We are so fortune to have their help and support.

The source of all my troubles:

My office without flooring and the detached bookcase with my belongings removed:

 

Girls’ room with no baseboard and carpet pulled up with no pad:

Kitchen with base of cabinets taken off and master bath with closet system that should be in my closet:

Some of the mess in family room and master bedroom:

 

I’ll post some beautiful pictures from our fun time in Australia in a few days.

All Packed

We leave for Australia tomorrow. The kids are packed and ready!

Ok, so I can’t really travel this way, but wouldn’t it be nice?

Get the kids to sleep, zip them in the suitcase, and wake them up on arrival.

I think we’d all be happier travelers. I’ll update gain once we return.

See ya!

P.S. Luke and I went to a Sun’s game Friday night and brought home new bballs for M&M. It was my first game of the season and probably my last since the boys don’t often share their season tickets with me.

 

P.P.S. I know, not a bball, but cute Lyla with a ball :)

Later Gator!!

For Safety Purposes

These beautiful smiling girls greet me every morning with giggles and hugs. And yes, they’re still wearing Christmas pjs. Why not? They still fit and they’re cute, comfy, and warm.

Mischief Monkey Masie has been climbing up everything. Here she is in Lyla’s crib. Masie climbed up and in while I was in the laundry room and Lyla was having her morning nap. Lyla is sitting up on her own and thinking seriously about crawling, so we lowered her crib mattress a bit. Masie can also climb into her own bed, but thank heaven, she hasn’t figured out how to climb out.

Masie has also been climbing up into Miles’s loft bed. She can get up either by using the ladder or by climbing up the footboard. The problem is that she can easily get up, but she doesn’t yet know how to get down.

So we decided for safety’s sake, we had to lower Miles’s bed. Now he’s got a canopy bed with a fun hiding place underneath.

Just a trim

New Obsession

So my obsession lately has been this digital scrapbooking kit.

It's beautiful and fun, and as you can see

has become my new background.

Go and download your own for free!

*Emrie

My Sweethearts

  

Valentine’s Getaway

I left my girls overnight for the first time last night to spend an uninterrupted night out with this hunky guy. I’ve been away from Miles before, but it’s been a long time. (Pictures aren’t the best b/c I was using my cell phone.)

It was exactly what we needed. My mom, my brothers Hansan and Dallan, and my brother Richard and SIL Jena tag teamed as sitters, so our kids were greatly entertained and well taken care of.

We started the evening with dinner at the rotating restaurant atop the Hyatt called the Compass.

We had as an appetizer the yummiest butternut squash soup with pumpkin seed oil and homemade marshmallows. It was like having dessert before our meal. I wish I had that recipe.

Before my main course arrived, our server brought a platter of beautiful and huge handled steak knives and asked which one I would prefer. Have to say that’s the first time I’ve been asked to choose a knife. I chose the one with the pretty pearl handle.

We went from the Hyatt across the street to Symphony Hall for Ballet Arizona’s performance of The Sleeping Beauty. This picture is from when we saw the Nutcracker back in December. We were hooked and decided to go again. The Phoenix Symphony played amazingly the works of Tchaikovsky.

  

The ballet lasted till almost 11 which is late for us early birds. We both got pretty drowsy by Act III, but I caught a second wind during the last Act IV. The dancers were amazing.

From there, we crossed the street again and stayed the night at the Hyatt and slept in. The real reason I wanted to get away.

Thanks to my husband for a wonderful night away with amazing entertainment and fantastic company. Let’s do it again soon :)

Reasons to Celebrate

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl…

1. Another excuse for the kids to go in the backyard and play.

2. Australia Day with this great family

3. Which isn’t complete without Lara’s yummy Aussie food

 

4. My little brother’s birthday

5. String cheese!

6. I’m not just celebrating Richard’s birth, but also his new job (just a few hours a month) as my office assistant! I am the luckiest girl. He’s going to be taking a huge load off my back. Thank you!

 

7. Curls!

&

8. Uncles!