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!