Gone on a Lucky Country

As some of you may be marking off the days on a special calendar and trembling in anticipation may know, Joe and I are leaving on Sunday the 22nd for an almost 3 week holiday in the States.  Excitement abounds and I am even more busy than usual - what with the packing and preparing...

You would think that being busy would be bad for blog writing; but, in this case, it is forced me to get some stuff done.  I've been wanting to blog about our Easter holiday; but the photos have been sitting - leering at me from my sadly neglected pictures folder.  How do you choose 4 or 5 good photos of the 12 Apostles when you have about 40 photos of them in different shades of sunset?  See... you understand now...

Well, Joe's mom (i.e. the greatest MIL ever) has planned an open house for us during our visit so that we can see the whole family without having to cram a bunch of individual visits into our time there.  We decided to put together a folder of pictures so that people could see where we have been and how beautiful this country is...  Well, actually, I was just going to throw everything into a folder and let it play at random; but Joe has been nice enough to put together something with some heft and depth.  The photos will actually be in order and there will be some labels and explanations as needed.  That will save us from standing next to the tv all day saying - "Yes, this was our trip to Thredbo" - "Oh, that's an Echidna".

Anyway, this whole process necessitated an afternoon on the couch with Joe going through my pictures folder.  I have come to realise that I am not nearly as organised as I like to think I am...  The pinnacle of embarrassment came when I had to show him a folder entitled "Random Australia" in which I had pitched an alarming number of completely random photos.  Add to that the existence of additional random folders in my on-line Picasa account that I had uploaded from my phone; and I am truly feeling sorry for him.  We had many conversations like this one yesterday:

"Oh honey, I don't really like that photo - you should really put up the one of the Botanical Garden"

"Where are those ones?"

"Oh, they are in the folder called Nature - Sydney - Garden"

"That one is empty"

"Oh.....  Did you try Random Australia?"

"Yeah"

"Oh....  Here, let me have the mouse"

click.... click.... click... click...

"Here they are!  On-line in my Uploaded Blog Pictures folder"

"Thanks (almost invisible eyeroll)"

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that we went through all the photos from our Easter holiday and they are now sorted and done.  I was going to have this blog post actually be about Melbourne with some pictures; but now it's sort of long and I don't want to blow everything at once!

Tomorrow my pretties - tomorrow....

But here's an arty picture of the Opera House to tide you over (I know that it doesn't have anything to do with our trip to Melbourne; but I'm feeling guilty for not having any other photos in this post!)

After they left, I basically skipped around the apartment for a half hour taking pictures of boxes (yea, I ended up deleting them - they were very boring) and looking at our unwrapped photos.

Today was full of lasts:

Last Pedicure at V-Spa nails - went with my Mother-in-law, got polka dots, fun for all...

Last shopping trip to Kroger - Quick, sad...

Last American money spent - at Kroger, a buck fifty from the bottom of my purse.  Now all I have left is Aussie money.

Last day of occupancy in my home house - sweaty, exhausting and not as sad as I thought it would be.

Last time driving a car on the right side of the road (or at all since we aren't planning to buy one in Australia) - freeing... worried about the whole relying on public transit thing.

Last time I made payments on some bills - making the final payment on stuff is the best feeling in the world!

Last prescription filled in the states (without insurance) - very expensive!!

Last dinner sitting around with Mom and Dad - Yummy wild turkey tenders, bittersweet.

Last trip to Graeter's  - Sweet, funny.

Well, the clothes are laid out, the suitcases are packed and I don't think I could be any more prepared if I had another week.  I'm not sure if we are ready; but we certainly are prepared!  Please pray for safe travels for us over the next three days (that even sounds insane doesn't it?) and hopefully I'll have an update once we land!

I took this photo on Sunday night before the movers came.  I thought it might be fun to point out ten random things that we are taking to Sydney:

1.) The super fab collapsible basket that my sister Annmarie got for me (it is going to be my "going to market" basket)
2.) A whole laundry basket filled with dryer sheets and Bath & Body Works stuff!
3.) 8 Yankee Candles (Hey, I have to have the necessities of life right?)
4.) My Kitchen Aid Mixer
5.) My mom's sewing box
6.) A beautiful photo frame that my sister Annmarie made for me (Wow Annie! you are rockin' this post!)
7.) The horrifying but sentimental vase that we did our wedding sand ceremony in
8.) A whole rolling case full of scrap booking stuff (evil laugh - and you all wonder what I will do with my time there...)
9.) Hydrogen Perioxide
10.)  Joe's two enormous computer monitors

...Until the movers arrive!  I think I am officially starting to have some mini-freak-outs.  My newest fear is that we won't be able to fit all of our stuff into the space we were quoted on; and we will either have to leave mass quantities behind or we will end up paying thousands more than we have budgeted.

I've stocked up in everything that is advised on all of the ex-pat forums and I feel like we have enough stuff to get us up and running pretty easily.  We'll have quite a bit of furniture to buy once we get there, so I'll have my work cut out for me as far as shopping/bargain hunting is concerned.  We are eating off of paper plates and plastic utensils - the house is getting so barren that I can hear an echo when I talk...  This whole process is so surreal!

Well, all of our applications and paperwork have been submitted. Certificates and letters have been certified, notarized, stamped and scanned. Hopefully, all of the information is correct and our application will go through quickly and with no hold-ups. Now begins the waiting….


I can’t book our flights until I know the VISA is approved so I am anxiously checking the prices and worrying about the fares going up. I also can’t file for a Tax File ID Number (the Aussie equivalent of a SS#) until I have the VISA approval. Without the Tax File #, I cannot open a bank account there and transfer money & Joe can’t work. So, I am just a little (who am I kidding?) worried about how all of this is going to fall into place.

I am a very organized person.  I do not like chaos.  I do not like confusion.

This is my garage at this very moment:















This is the garage from another angle:















Hopefully, 90% of the chaos will be gone after our yard sale on Saturday.  We've decided that it's just easier to sell everything that we can.  I'm not going to lie, it's been hard pricing some of my more favorite items...

At this point, I would give up anything just to be able to see the floor again!