Moving right along...

Well, not much has happened the past few weeks. Thankfully, we are all together again and life back to normal. I’m sure Jessy will have some insights to add, but for the most part we’re just happy and healthy. The weather is always a good topic to bring up. We’re moving into the spring … well, actually Adelaide doesn’t have much of a spring. It’s pretty much from the dead of winter to the heat of summer. Luckily we’ve hit a bit of a wet spell before getting the exhausting heat, so that will help before the massive water restrictions kick in (which we’ve heard means no watering of the lawns whatsoever …) Everything is pretty green right now which makes for nice walks and lovely frog sounds from across the park in the evening.

Savannah is officially out of school for two weeks on holiday. The third term just ended and I think, for the first time, she is actually looking forward to the break. She recently was tested on her reading and writing skills (standard procedure for reception/year 1 kids after they’ve been in school for 4 terms), and she passed with flying colors. I laughed when I saw that they tested her on reading level 5, since she is on level 22 right now. She also is ready to move up in swimming. She had a tough time when the instructor was watching her go on her back, so she needs to be tested/observed again, but her teacher says she’ll move up and she was just having a bad day when she was observed. We also have to laugh when we watch her at lessons—every time she comes up out of the water, she blows water out her nose like a seal. It’s the craziest thing! We can’t figure out if she sucks it in her mouth and shoots it out her nose, or if she actually sucks it up into her nose and back out, but it’s pretty gross when she pops her cute little head out of the water and then shoots two streams of water out her nostrils! … And another quality ‘Savannah-ism’ that I probably shouldn’t document, but it’s too funny to pass up. This morning we were trying to decide whether to give the kids a bath or shower. We told Savannah that she needed to get clean one way or the other to which she responded, “I don’t stink very bad, but my toots sure do!” Uh, yeah …

Collin has been really excited about kindy lately. He loved the eggs that hatched into chicks and now they have a bearded dragon and a green tree frog in there and he loves it! He came home and wanted to tell everyone about how he got to pat the lizard, but nobody was on webcam. Luckily grandma called to hear all about it! We went on a walk last Sunday morning before church, and we stopped to let the kids roll down the hill across the street. They played for a while, and when we were heading home, I noticed Collin had some bumps by his eye. By the time we got home, they were full-blown welts across his cheek and his eye was swollen shut! I washed his face and put some Benadryl on, which helped some, but he still looked like a prize fighter when we went to church. It didn’t seem to bother him much, except when Savannah said things like, “What happened to your face???” and “Why is your eye so ugly???” I didn’t think it was too bad, but yesterday I had several people from church ask if Collin was “better” because they thought he had some type of infection or something. He also has been funny with his food lately—he never finishes, but he carefully puts his plate or bowl into the fridge for later. And, sure enough, a few hours later (like after he’s gone to bed or some other convenient time), he goes to the kitchen, pulls it out, and eats it cold.

Hunter is just as crazy as always. I’ve found that if I ask him to help me do things, I can keep him out of trouble (kind of). He loves to help out with the housework—sweeping, vacuuming, tidying up. He thinks he has to play the didgeridoo (he asks for it by saying “did-doo”), at least once a day and he also likes to look up the bottom, with spit flying down and all. He loves Jessy’s protein/energy drinks and won’t let Jessy drink one without him. Hunter has been showcasing his mastery at the left foot kicks. He will do a little drop kick by letting the ball just barely hit the ground and then booting it down the hallway. He’s also got a wicked throwing left arm … we’ll see if it sticks, but for now it’s darn right cute! I’m also beginning to think that the kid might be half wolf (gets that from me-J). He has this thing lately where he ‘howls’ at the moon. It’s a kick on the pants. He gets his little lips in an ‘o’ shape and then, well, howls. It’s actually pretty hilarious because he’ll just keep going from one howl to the next … and with everyone laughing at him it just eggs him on a little more.

Things are going well for the adults here, too. Jessy is training for his half ironman he thinks he’s doing next summer in the states. He has the day off tomorrow for a public holiday, so we get to go out for the day—yea! We’ve all had a bit of hayfever this spring with all the flowers and trees blossoming for all they’re worth after getting a bit of rain this winter. We’ve been getting some ugly spiders around. I’m going to post a picture of a huntsman I ran into while cleaning the webs off the clothesline (the picture doesn't do justice--he is quite big when he's all spread out!). He was molting out of his old skin—how gross is that??—when I came face to ugly face (his) with him. I hate the big black ones that come in the house once in a while and we have some nasty spiders and webs out under the sunroof. Luckily, we haven’t had any centipedes or scorpions or other hideous creatures lately (knock on wood). That’s about it for us here—like I said, nothing too strange or unusual.

Oh, and GO CUBS!! This is the year baby and I don’t care that I’m 10,000 miles away --- just as long as they make it to the World Series!

Just a few thoughts on Poland while my mind is still foggy and somewhat remembers what happened while I was there. The flight over was fairly uneventful. All up it was 35 hours from the time I said goodbye to Kelli and the kids in Adelaide until I got to the hotel in Warsaw. The flights were pretty good. I had a window seat on the 13 hour flight from Singapore to Paris which wasn’t very good. Luckily I didn’t have to use the bathroom during the night as it would have required some acrobatic moves to get over the two people next to me. The 777 aircraft I thought was supposed to have decent leg room, but even for a small guy like me it was pretty cramped. That and my headrest didn’t support the weight of my nogger so I only managed 2 hours or so of sleep. The airport in Singapore was extremely nice. It was pretty much like an indoor shopping center and had free internet access everywhere. The first thought coming off the plane was ‘humid’ and the second thought walking through the terminal was ‘curry’ – with an afterthought that in that country I might even be thought of as tall! The flight from Singapore to Paris took us over India, Afghanistan, Iran and the Chechnya region before we hit Europe. It was interesting to look out and see pockets of light here and there highlighting the villages and wondering just what kind of lives the people down there were leading. Sometimes we don’t know if anything is better than what we have unless we know about it and experience it for ourselves. In any case, I made it to Paris and that airport was a dump with nowhere to relax. It was a strange airport with the buses taking you from terminal to terminal and you’re driving right in front of the noses of all the aircraft parked on the tarmac. With nowhere really to sit and relax, luckily my itinerary had a business class seat for the next flight so I had privileges to go in the lounge and relax on the leather seats. It sure felt good, but I still couldn’t sleep.

Warsaw itself was very interesting. My general impressions were of a place immersed in the winter of Communism and yet showing the first signs of budding at the first signs of spring. It really took me back to my mission although that was 10 years ago and this scene showed a lot greater improvement in the outward appearance of the city, and generally the people. Pretty much everywhere you could find the multi-story cement blocks of apartment complexes which weren’t very much to look at. I had a hotel room on the 35^th floor of one of the highest buildings of the city which gave a unique vantage point. Most of the time the weather was cloudy and overcast, but on the last day it was blue and sunny. Outside of the city the landscape, trees and plants were pretty much the same as up in Kaliningrad and in St Petersburg. In the city the streets were generally clean and the people were friendly. The language was very much a Russian-sounding language so although I couldn’t understand the sentences and context of what was being said, I could pick out words here and there that were similar to Russian. With the oppression of Communism though, most people aren’t too inclined to speak any Russian. I was told most of the older generation knows it, but the switch as been made to everyone learning English instead of the language to the east.

You can’t help but feel sorry for the people. Everything they were told turned out to be a lie and everything they relied on for life and sustenance was basically taken out from underneath. As a result, they were left in a society and system which they didn’t comprehend. We toured several different research institutions and universities and for the most part the level and depth of research was fairly far behind western standards. That’s somewhat surprising when you consider that Russia itself has really good technology in terms of air and space. But, we were told they generally kept the European countries in the dark and didn’t involve them too much in those activities. Now that they are working with the European Space Agency and NASA, they are getting more of an opportunity to let scientists and engineers make a significant contribution. It shows in some of the ideas they have floating around … although they still are lacking in resources to make it happen. That made our entourage a pretty popular attraction as we went from place to place. We obviously didn’t have any authority to start collective programs with them or hand over $$ for contracts (which pretty much turned most people off when they found out we were generally just a group of captains with relatively little we could offer to help them out …). That said, they were very cordial and inviting with everything they presented. Most of them spoke pretty good English so it wasn’t difficult to carry on a conversation or just talk about whatever. Hopefully things will continue to turn around for them and in the future they will make even further contributions …

The other side of the visit was soaking in the culture. That involved a lot of food, and for the rest of the group a lot of beer. After the first dinner I wondered how come my bill was higher than the others even though I didn’t drink any alcohol. I figured it out on the second night that the group went through 10L of beer and it cost them a total of 90 PLN (zhlotne – the polish currency) … while we ordered 2L of water and it cost 54 PLN – that’s a ratio of 3:1 for water to beer! I was flabbergasted … but I guess where there is a higher demand there will be higher prices J Even though I didn’t drink it was entertaining to watch the rest of them go through mug after mug. The first two places we ate they first brought out these little pedestals that stood 6” off the table. Then they brought out a 4” diameter tube that was 3’ high full of beer (5L). The pedestal had a little tap on it and well, the rest is history. They went through 3 the first night and 2 the second between ~10 people … and then add some vodka shots on top of that and it made for a lively crowd. I guess I wanted to fit in as much as possible so I found an order for ‘sauerkraut juice’. Now that packed a punch of sourness like you’ve never tasted before. Imagine the power of 10 lemons and those sour candies in one sip of drink and there you go. 6 of us gave it a go and there was still 7/8ths of the glass left --- which we left on the table … The food was part German and part Russian. I had perogi the first night which is a Russian pel’meni with meat or potatoes in the middle wrapped in a light bread wrap. We also had chicken cutlets and a huge shish-ka-bob that was really good. One interesting thing was the appetizer – normally places bring out bread as a filler to begin with – well, at one place they brought out a plate of sauerkraut and mongo pickles. They were actually pretty good, the pickles that is. I’d had enough of sauerkraut with the juice from a few nights back so I left that to the others. So, yes, the food was a definite hit.

The last night we ate at a cool little outdoor place with a live band and fire pit, Then we hit a karaoke bar (luckily the first of our groups didn’t do so hot so the DJ didn’t want to let any of the rest of us get up … ) and then hit a disco where I relived some of my high school glory days J It was 1 am before we got back to the hotel and I was beat. The next morning we met with the US Ambassador to Poland and had a good little chat, after which we visited a museum about the polish uprising. Towards the end of WWII the Poles were sent a proposal from the Soviets to start an uprising, with everyone combining against the Nazi occupants at the same time. The Soviets parked on the opposite side of the river from the city and promised their help. Well, when the Poles rose up, the Soviets just stood there and watched. Stalin had in mind to get rid of any idealists who may want to rise up against on occupant knowing sure well that he would like to occupy Warsaw after the war. After a couple of months ~200,000 Poles were dead and a couple of months later Stalin had control of the city … pretty sad … especially considering they were occupied for another 45 years.

On a lighter note, some of the cool things to buy are amber jewelry and pottery. They were a big hit with Kelli at home. Speaking of which, the flight home was relatively uneventful. There was a minor hiccup with my not having a visa in Singapore. Since I was on military orders you’re not supposed to need a visa, but they are by the book and required an ok from Canberra which took about an hour of standing in line and waiting to get. All in all it wasn’t a big deal and returning home and hearing the Aussie accent was a very welcome sound to the ears. I even had a ginger beer on the airplane and enjoyed it! As always the people in Australia were very nice and it was good to be ‘home’. My mementos from the trip – a Polish soccer scarf and a bottle of Polish water J

Daddy's Home!!

Well, Jessy is back, but since it’s almost 11:00 and he’s not up yet, I’ll do the diary once more. Of course, I’ll be happy to do it because we are SO happy that Jessy is home. Hunter stopped wandering around the house saying, “Where Daddy?” and running to the door if anyone knocked after about two days. Collin was very forlorn and always “missed Dad.” Savannah knew what waiting a week meant, but she still said she wished he didn’t have to go. We were very happy to pick him up yesterday morning from the bus stop after he flew for about 23 hours again. He distributed his presents, which included an Eiffel tower replica and drawing, rugby footies, airplanes, Polish pottery, amber jewelry, a Hard Rock Café t-shirt, and a Polish soccer scarf (for himself, of course). The presents are great and we were so excited to have Dad back, but all he wanted to do was sleep. So, he slept the morning away, I woke him up to get ready for church and thought he was up and at ‘em, but when I went up there about 20 minutes before we had to go, I found that he was completely out—I don’t think he even remembers me waking him up. He only nodded off a few times in church, and did well to go to youth firesides in the evening. Hopefully after the monster sleep he’s having now, he’ll be recovered.

Well, it’s the most beautiful time of the year here in Australia (at least in my opinion). Everything is beautiful and green (water restrictions aren’t in force yet!), and the trees are the most amazing colors! I love seeing the dark purple trees, the red bottlebrush trees, the yellow flowery trees, and of course the white blossoms (all scientific names, of course). There are flowers all over (these weeds they call sour sobs, that are like mini-daffodils are everywhere and they’re so pretty!), and the birds are going crazy with all their singing (even in the middle of the night—I think sometimes the cockatoos fall out of trees)!! Of course, there are not-so-pleasant things coming out of winter hibernation, too, like the ants, spiders (I have to clean the webs off the clothes line before I can hang clothes each week), millipedes and centipedes. Jessy will have to spray this weekend around the house, but I have to admit that we haven’t had nearly as many ants and daddy long legs as last year—maybe because I’ve got cans of Mortein under all the bathroom cabinets and am not afraid to use it! We’ve actually had rain this year, and it’s made our yard look great!

As for the kids, Hunter and Collin were playing while Savannah was at tennis. Of course, they found the only puddle on the courts and, by the end of the lesson, were completely soaked from their knees down and wrists up. It wasn’t so bad (at least they hadn’t fallen into the pool!), until Hunter started sucking the water from his sleeve on the way home. Anything for food or drink!! Speaking of which, Hunter said his first sentence this week, “Cordial…cordial…I want cordial.” (For those who don’t know what cordial is, it’s a syrup to make punch.) He’s also showing me how he’s picking up things from the TV—whenever he hears the “Bob, the Builder” theme song he puts his two pointer fingers up and starts dancing; when he hears the “Little Einsteins” song, he runs into the living room and starts patting his legs (that’s what they do in the show); and whenever Mickey Mouse says “Oh TOOLS!” (or is it toodles?), Hunter answers by repeating “Oh, TOOLS!” He doesn’t sit around and watch it much, but since the other kids have the TV on a lot he is picking it up. He didn’t want to stay at nursery yesterday (darn), but he liked it—just while one of us was there with him. He’s a cutie, who is always humming and singing and trying to get us to laugh, but I can’t get over the amount of mischief he makes!! He is unlike any child I’ve ever known, except maybe Dennis the Menace. He isn’t hyper or anything, and seems quite mellow, but he just does everything he shouldn’t. If he gets a hold of markers, crayons, whatever, he has to write on walls (and the paint here doesn’t exactly wash up well—even the washable markers don’t come all the way off!). He turns the switches on all the outlets and tries to stick things in them. He climbs up on the kitchen table and dances or knocks down flower vases or tips over the gravy boat. He unrolls every roll of toilet paper, aluminum foil, wax paper, or paper towels he can get his hands on. He loves to run with sharp objects in his hands. He climbs up to the computer and deletes whatever is up and resets the desktop and basically does whatever he can to mess it up. If he gets his hands on scissors, he tries to cut his hair. He eats out of the garbage and loves to suck toothpaste from the tube. He tries to climb into the dishwasher and clothes drier every time they’re open. Whenever he gets a drink bottle, he has to take off the lid and stick it in his mouth and run away from whoever tries to take it out. The other kids have done some of these things, but they usually stopped doing it after I got mad at them once or twice, but this kid is seriously a repeat offender!! I just hope he lives to see his second birthday.

Collin has been melancholy this week, missing his dad. He did enjoy kindy, where they had some chicken eggs in an incubator and he got to see one hatch. He also likes going over to his friend Hinckley’s house, where Holly babysits him and Hunter on Wednesdays. After we got home this week, I got this email from Holly called “Overheard Conversation.” It said:

Collin: "Hinckley, don't sing! I'm golfing!"

Hinckley: "But I like to sing songs about Jesus"

Collin: "Oh yeah, well I like to sing songs about Star Wars!"

He is very Napolean Dynamite. He also came in Saturday saying that the neighbor was a bully. I didn’t get what was going on, so I went out and found that the kids had thrown a stick over into the neighbor’s yard and then they were yelling things at him like “Give us back our stick” and “Why don’t you say something?” When he said, “No,” Collin came in to say he was a bully.

Savannah was a good helper while Dad was away. She did get sick this week, which is very unusual for her. We had a big argument over her staying home from school Friday, but she didn’t understand why she should stay home when she wasn’t puking, just sneezing and coughing. She ended up going to school because I didn’t want to have to find 1000 ways to tell her why she should stay home, which is what she would have demanded all day Friday. On Thursday at netball, she wasn’t feeling well, but she still did a great job defending a 7-year-old giant. She managed to get a few steals, and did well at getting open to receive passes. Leanne (her coach and Collin’s kindy teacher), asked if she could keep her when we move back to America so she can train her up to be a Thunderbird (pro netball team here in Adelaide). Savannah’s also very excited about her showbag that some friends brought me and the kids. (The Royal Adelaide Show is a very expensive, very hyped-up equivalent to a state fair. Almost everyone goes, but since it costs $45 for our family to get in plus $10 parking plus $7 per ride plus whatever you want to eat or drink plus your “showbag”, and since I had the three kiddos by myself last week, I didn’t really want to go! So our friends got us our own showbags—the kids are in heaven with their candy showbags!)

Last but not least, and maybe the reason that Jessy slept in so late this morning, is that we bought our tickets to get home in October. I made him stay up until midnight to get them. I was nervous to buy it myself, since you have to coordinate all the dates and times, which is tricky with the international dateline. So I foolishly waited until Jessy was home and it was way more expensive than it would have been. However, it is going to be a miracle if we make it in one piece with all our luggage. Collin likes to know what the planes look like that we travel on, so he’s very excited to know we’ll be traveling on 6 different “brands” of planes on that trip! It’ll be worth it to be there and see everyone, though!

Flying Solo

Well, Jessy isn’t here today, since there seems to be something pressing going on in the world of rocket science in Poland, of all places (not really, just a meeting). He’s just about getting there after 23 hours on several planes with some layovers in between (Singapore and Paris). And, within hours of arriving in Warsaw, they’ve got him scheduled to go to the Hard Rock Café with all his cronies. YEA!!! I’m hoping he remembers to get me a shirt…

Well, this past week has not been dull. On Tuesday, I took the kids to school and Savannah asked if she and Collin could head across the bridge instead of waiting for me to load Hunter in his stroller. Since I’d be two minutes behind, I said yes. They took off running happily. Then when I got across the bridge, there was Collin, holding his kindy teacher’s hand with this confused look on his face. Leanne (the teacher) said that another mom had found Collin standing by himself outside the kindy gate and asked him if he was in kindy. When Collin said yes, she took him into the kindy to find out if someone knew who he was. So, here Leanne was, returning our abandoned child. I wasn’t happy with Savannah and she now knows that leaving Collin by himself isn’t okay, even if you’re really excited to get to Chinese class. Then, when I went to pick Collin up from kindy, he was standing there in his jacket, socks, and shoes, but no pants!! Apparently, he’d had an accident (he was in the bathroom but couldn’t get on the toilet in time—he says it was those “stupid toilets’ fault”), but he wanted to put his wet clothes back on. Leanne had to really persuade him that the other kids wouldn’t appreciate him smelling like pee in the class. So, then he wanted to just go completely nude from the waist down. She was finally able to talk him into wearing “jocks” (boys’ underwear), but not pants. He was telling her that mom would be “really upset” about washing the soiled clothes. In truth, he was really upset that the clothes had to go into the wash—he doesn’t like it when the clothes he likes are in the hamper, waiting to be washed. Luckily, Leanne knows us well enough to know I’m not a terrible mother who abandons her child at the gate and beats him when he has an accident!!

And while we were wondering if we were going to be reported to child services on Wednesday, Collin fell down at our friends’ house and got a huge goose egg that they covered with two super sticky bandaids right in the middle of his forehead. Then, at swimming that night, Hunter got restless and started wandering further and further from Jessy and I. He finally rounded the corner and Jessy got up to go after him, but when Hunter saw him coming, it turned into a game and he got so excited he spun around and ran straight into the pool (a little over a meter deep where he went in). Luckily Jessy wasn’t far behind and grabbed his arm fast enough to pull him out just before his diaper went in. So, Hunter had dripping wet pants, shoes, and socks, which meant that Jessy also had dripping wet pants after he pulled him out and brought him to me. After seeing the looks on the faces of the people at the pool, I’m quite surprised the family services people haven’t paid us a visit.

So, we’ve had a few laughs this week with the kids. Savannah did get a few late birthday packages—who wants a birthday when you can have a birthmonth?—from Grandma and Grandpa Jones and Jenny, Oliver and Rachel, and Travis. She immediately made a bed for Apples, the hedgehog and Peep, the bunny out of a cardboard box and washcloths (thanks for suggesting she give them a good home, Travis!!). I have had to put them down for a nap or two, when she was too busy playing to do so. With these new friends and her tamagatchi (I always am trying to figure out what the heck the thing wants or needs), I feel like I have three more children!! She also decorated her new “dream journal”—I don’t really know what exactly a dream journal is, but she decorated it with the word “dream” and told me she hasn’t had a dream for a while, so she’s making some up to put in the new journal. I guess her old journal will be reality-based and this will be more of a fantasy-type journal.

Other than that, we’re doing well. Savannah’s netball team suffered their first loss, but it was a learning experience and nothing that a few gummy snakes couldn’t fix. Collin is still obsessed with potty language. He also put his arm around me in church just like the newlywed husband in front of us did to his wife. We heard a few giggles behind us, but he didn’t seem to care and took his role of man of the house quite seriously. Hunter is starting to talk much better. He gets lots of sounds in there and even when he just mumbles, his gestures and the tone of his voice make you understand what he’s trying to say. He is cute and I’m so glad he goes to nursery next Sunday—he is EVERYWHERE and into everything!! But he’s cute. He’s also my little door monitor—whenever the screen door is open, he rushes over and closes it. Even when the other kids leave it open, when I yell for someone to close it, Hunter is always the first to respond. Before Jessy took off to travel the world, he played some tennis with me and Collin, which was fun. All the kids got their hair cut in varying degrees last night before their showers. After we got up this morning, I realized we’ll probably have to fix them before their next showers. And that’s about as exciting as things get around here… We’re very excited to be coming home at the end of October—we were surprised to find a more affordable airfare, and convinced the kids they could do it (since it’s two night flights with a trip to the beach in Hawaii in between). Hopefully we can see everyone on that trip!

Happy Father's Day!!

There were a lot of funny experiences and comments from the kids that we tried to make note of during the month of August during and separate from our travels to Uluru, Victor Harbor and Sydney. Hunter, in particular, has grown and developed in leaps and bounds over the past month. He’s really started talking, and as we mentioned in our Sydney diary, has developed a severe streak of stubborn independence … and, he hasn’t even made 18 months yet. We’re just hoping the desire for independence leads him right into nursery without the need for parental companionship. But, leaving the independence aside for a moment, let’s talk about his talking. Just like Collin, and quite unlike Savannah at this age, the boys are inclined to polite manners and saying thank you. Whenever he receives something (particularly food) he gives a cute little ‘dank ooo’ without any prompting. He also really enjoys seeing the big tractors and earth equipment being used in the park across the road and when he sees them out there he points and says, ‘track-ee!’ He also knows the essentials of ‘more’ which comes out more like ‘moe’ and is combined with the sign language – perhaps hoping that the combined effect would provide double the food! He’s also become quite creative with his hand signals. When he has a poopy diaper and he’s getting changed, he’ll wave his hand in front of his nose and then pinch it saying ‘steeky’. He also loves to play pick-a-boo and, as much as they will let him, play with Savannah and Collin. He loves to play with balls and has a wicked left foot (his name for ball is ‘baw’.) The other day at church a lady was passing him and she was trying to get Hunter’s attention. In response to her request he covered his eyes like he was playing pick-a-boo and tried to hide … always playing hard to get. Last and not least, the kid is a muscle monster and has an affinity for the protein shakes that I take after bike riding.

Collin has been up to his quirky ways as usual. He still loves to play with balls whenever and however possible. But, he’s also into the toys and trucks, sticks and bugs --- the usual boy stuff. One thing that he’s definitely in to is girls! Can you believe that? When Savannah had her party, Collin was all shy and everything because there was a girl that he liked in particular but he didn’t think that she knew his name. Well, by the end of the party he had turned his attention to another girl because she was nice to him and paid him attention. He then piped up not too long after that when he has a party he doesn’t want any boys to come to his, only girls. Oh boy … Let’s see, what else? When Grandpa Whetstone and Collin were on a walk recently it was getting kind of dark to which Collin remarked, “Come on fellas, it’s getting dark.” Then on another occasion when we were down at Victor Harbor walking across the causeway and we were talking about something to which Collin piped in, “You guessed it!” On another occasion we were talking about a sports game or something and I mentioned the word referee to which Collin responded, “It’s refe’4’” – he has a complex with being three and I guess wants everything to be 4. The other day Kelli had the kids at the fabric store and there was this fluorescent green tiger fur material – he asked Kelli if he could have it and when Kelli said no, he tried a different angle and said, “Maybe Dad would want it for Father’s Day.” Little manipulator! Kelli also recently told him that he needed a haircut and called him a ‘shaggy dog’ – and then Collin said “no, I’m not a shaggy dog, I’m a shaggy horse!” Identity crisis avoided! The other funny thing was yesterday I was playing on at a soccer game and was on the sideline. I was sitting next to a guy who was leaning back with both palms on the ground – Collin decided to mimic him and did the same thing. Then a little while later I was kneeling with one knee on the ground looking out on to the field. I looked over and right next to me Collin was also kneeling on the ground with one knee – somewhat awkwardly, but it was a pretty funny sight. Collin has also been learning to write his name and has been doing really good at his numbers and counting.

Savannah has also been full of a few creative comments herself. We were watching a tennis tournament in which Rafael Nadal was playing. He’s notorious for picking his bum – which we had a front row view of during the Australian Open. When Savannah so that he was playing on TV she asked Kelli, “Who is the bum picker playing?” She also had a sore throat recently and commented that she felt like she had a porcupine in her throat. Never heard of it described that way, but not a bad analogy. Kelli called Savannah downstairs to look at a Father’s Day present online and when Savannah returned to playing with Dad and Collin, Jessy asked what we’d been up to. She replied, “It’s none of your business, Dad!” Plenty of attitude to go around in this family! She’s also turning into a vegetarian. We’ve mentioned that she likes to ask about which part of the animal every piece of meat is from. Well, recently Kelli asked Savannah what she wanted to have for our Father’s Day dinner – to which she said, “Anything without animals!” So anyway, steadily moving down the path of no meat for Savannah …

Kelli is doing good and keeping busy with the kids, helping out at the school on occasion, trading babysitting with another Mom to get some tennis time in (she is playing doubles and enjoying the time to get out under the sun), and busy with her Relief Society calling. I’m busy getting papers ready for publication at work and transferring into the next phase of work that continue until we depart from Australia. I’ve also been playing quite a bit of soccer with the Air Force base team getting ready for their nationals tournament in Sydney in October and also filling in for a community team that needed some help due to injuries. We’ve enjoyed “cheering him up” (as Collin says) from the sidelines the last two weeks. Always enjoy getting out for some fresh air (even if his body says ‘I’m not 20 anymore’), particularly if it involves a soccer ball.

Anyway, that’s about the gist of how everyone is doing right now. The weather is turning to spring and it looks like we are finally through all of the cold spells. Everyone around says that we are in for a very hot summer, but after our electric bill for heating the house it’s probably something to look forward to! We also saw the complete lunar eclipse last week which was pretty cool.

Today is Father’s Day down here, and after shopping for a spectacularly delicious breakfast, we realized it was fast Sunday! I guess the breakfast will have to wait until tomorrow. Dinner will have to be enough. Kelli and the kids took Jessy his presents in bed—unfortunately Collin can NOT keep a secret at all, so Jessy had a pretty good idea of everything he was getting. Savannah gave him a comb with a card she made in school and a notebook and pen she also bought there; Collin gave him an airplane mug; Hunter gave him an Adelaide Crows blanket (which has already been used for a pretend picnic); and we all gave him a South Australia bike jersey with kangaroos on it. He’s a great dad!!!

We hope everyone is doing well and we hope to hear from you all soon!