At least one of us looks good!

So there is this family inside joke we have. A few years ago, someone who will remain nameless, told me that I had a great figure for "leggings and an oversized shirt". Yah, Nice.

"Oh Natalie, know what you would look great in? Yes girl -leggings and an oversized shirt! It would be so great! What? You don't have any leggings or oversized shirts? That's madness, MADNESS I say! Why when you have just the PERFECT figure for leggings and an oversized shirt?! We really need to get you some, it would just be Heavenly! You say that last sentence while simultaneously performing "stink eye" -I will have my sister Katie demonstrate what stink eye is, if you don't already know, in a future post. For now, suffice it to say that one eye is open and the other eye is half open and half closed with the lid fluttering, a gesture used to signify EXTREME significance or importance.

This might not be as funny as it would have been before "leggings and an oversized shirt" came back into style somewhat. Or at least skinny jeans with an oversized shirt. However, I just wanted to post some pictures showing that at least Gabe looks good in his leggings and oversized shirt! The matching shirt for these jammies was MIA, so I threw this one on and he is rockin' the look!

I also wanted to post some better pics of my little eater. Those other ones from the last post are so weak in showing the magnitude of how this boy puts down the food.

Don't forget to notice the white-trash high-chair, i.e. a "borrowed" bumbo sitting on top of chair "borrowed" from Ben's office {-Yeah, their not getting that beauty back! Shhhh, don' tell} We also finally have a table as of a few weeks ago when Ben also "borrowed" a side-table that belongs in a hall from the office.

I must be crazy!

I went grocery shopping today and saw this and just for shits and giggles decided to buy it {Oh, no worries mate, words like hell and damn and the s-word are not swears here -it's cool...except that I'll have the mouth of a sailor when I come home! Jason told us that when he was here, he honestly heard the Bishop say over the pulpit Sunday morning, "We sure had a hell of a ward party last night didn't we?! -on more than one occasion}

Anyway, back to the Kangaroo Mince, I am now I am wondering what the hell I was thinking! I know this is just going to sit and sit in my freezer because I am growing more terrified of it by the minute! I'll let you know if the fear ever ceases I actually make some Kangaroo burgers!

Feeling silly

So we walk into church Sunday {late} and we haven't been sitting down 2 minutes before poor Laine just loses it and pukes all over me. There was so much that I didn't think she could possibly spew more, plus it was pooling in my lap, so I didn't stand up an walk out as I now realize I should have. Instead I sent Jason Norton for some towels {friend / Ben's boss in town with the company} But of course she wasn't done and I was then forced to stand up and run out, cradling my puking child in the middle of the sacrament. She did one more big one for a total of 3 before I could get her outside. My shirt was so covered that I had to just strip right outside the foyer. So there I was in my white, sleeveless undershirt like a wet t-shirt contest with my garments hanging out for all to see, which by then was a lot since we had gathered quite a crowd by then as you can imagine.

Our ward friend were so great! Women rushed out of the meeting to help me. My friend Linda had her beach bag in the car and ran and grabbed towels, others grabbed wipes. One helped strip Laine down and wrapped her in a towel. All of this while Ben did his best to clean the pew. Everyone just told him to leave, that they would take care of it. Poor Girl! She was asleep before we reached home, which was only 10 minutes away. I am so happy to report she is finally back to her happy, cheerful self as of yesterday.


In other news I am really ready to finally get down with the local lingo and customs so I can stop feeling like people think I am slow. People are always saying things and I have no idea what they are talking about! When I was signing Laine up for school they were telling me about "Morning and Afternoon Tea." I thought that was so refined of 3 year olds to be having tea, but was still very confused as to why. After asking several questions about the tea {that they must have thought were so ridiculous}, I came to find Tea means snack or meal here.

As a culture, you kind of forget that you speak a certain way that is unique to you as a culture only. It is completely out of our realm to consider it as unique. We as humans live in the here and now of our own existences, and we fall into assuming {or ashyooming as they say here} that everyone knows how things are done and said as we do them and say them.

I am probably being too hard on myself, but it does make you feel stupid to constantly not know what is going on or what the simplest of things mean! The first time we filled up our car with "Petrol", Ben walked into the station to pay and grabbed a drink as well. He put it on the counter and said "and I have gas too" -they guy just looked at him and must have been thinking, "so did you want me to point out where the gas-x is, or were you just making conversation?" since it is not called "gas" here.

So many times I have had to have people spell out their names because I can't understand them. And it is really wierd to say certain names because they say them with an accent and you feel the pressure to say things the way they say them but at the same time you feel ridiculous speaking in this fake accent. And it isn't just people's names, it is all sorts of things that they can't understand you saying unless you say it in their accent. Ahhh! What an adventure!

Puke Beard

I don't know what is going on at our house. I threw up two days ago, Ben has been nautious, Gabe smells like something crawled up inside of him and died, and now this. Some of you may think I am possibly the worst mother in the world to take a picture of my girl at a time like this but that's how we roll. Last night when at 1:15 in the morning I hear some whimpering and then "Mom, Mom, I'm spitting!" I ran in to see her hunched over tossing her cookies {literally, Clara had given her chocolate cookies}. I rushed her to the toilet and told her to stay there and I went to her room to start the cleanup process. After I was done I went and gently rubbed her back and asked if she was okay. Then she turned around and I saw her chocolatey puke beard and I just lost it. It was so hilarious, I am not sure if it will translate quiet as well on the blog. We had a good laugh together and then showered and she was so sweet, she just needed some Mama cuddles.

Today we got Happy Meals and I took the kids to the park to eat and play. But she just puked again poor girl! Since Laine wasn't hungry, Gabe decided to polish Laine's meal off as well. Okay, I know this is going to sound funny, and I mean no disrespect to person's who have this disorder, but I seriously have to wonder if my son has Prader Willi Syndrome! The kid really puts it down! If you are unfamiliar with Prader Willi, it is the disorder in which the person doesn't have the mechanism in their brain that tells them they are full so they constantly feel like they are starving. Sad. Anyway, I am going to have to keep and eye on it with Gabe. Those of you who have spent any amount of time with the kid have probably wondered yourself!

All the latest...

Supposedly we are hearing that the boat containing the container that contains all of our earthly possessions has indeed arrived in Sydney. It still needs to clear customs and quarantine but we could possibly have chairs / plates / towels / toys / clothes and the like soon! 3 cheers for somewhere to sit!!

In other news, our next door neighbors are Korean and they are great! The parents don't even speak English, it is fabulous! There are Kimchi pots and Hot chilis everywhere! Here is a pic of their front porch, which is huge!

Clara, the daughter-in-law is so great, she had us over for dinner the first day I met her. She has this hilarious high-pitched laugh and she is so so 100% Korean, something only my Asia friends might understand.

Yesterday I was in a jam, I had obligated myself to make lunch for Ben's entire office. I ran over to see if she could help me with the kids and thankfully she was really excited. Later when I got back she told me Laine kept telling her that she was going to a Party. Clara thought this was so very continental of a 3 year old. She was very impressed until she realized that Laine was speaking with an American accent, not Australian, and that she was trying to tell her she needed to go POTTY. I got to hear that great high-pitched laugh and some hearty claps when she related this story to me.

She is obsessed with Gabe and he loves her right back, it is so cute!

So here are some pics from the weekend. They were supposed to be of us with Kangaroos, but whatever. Those of you who know me well, know that I am PAINFULLY Optimistic. On Sunday we went for a drive to the country and I was just positve that we would run into some kangaroos. My thinking was along the lines that if we drove out a ways to the boonies and parked the car for a while we would have Roos swarming. Okay, it didn't happen. I guess that they have Wallabys close, but you have to drive a bit further for the actual Kangaroo and nighttime is the best time to spot them. People keep telling me to just go to the zoo, I was like, I can see a kangaroo at the zoo in Utah, what did I come all this way for?!

In any case, since we had our camera we thought we'd catch a few shots of us in the country stopping at road sides stands. They have all of these Mom and Pop stands of fresh produce with prices written on them and you just put your money in a cup. It was absolutely gorgeous. Since Laine took most of the pictures, these were the best we had.

This Is Totally Real!

Okay, I was totally kidding but leave it to Lindsey to take it to the next level. You're awesome, thanks!

Kangaroos, Koalas, Kookaburras Oh My!

Okay, it is seriously a JUNGLE here. I love the warmth but I am going to need several thousand dollars worth of therapy and some hypnotism treatments post haste. I hate REPTILES, but I love the tropical weather! What is a girl to do?! Today I saw a lizard in our yard just a few feet away from myself, it was quite small compared to the large iguana sized one I saw climb into the sewer when I was on a walk. FYI I was only next door to Laine's school at the time, freaky...

There are SERIOUS kookaburras and they are very, very loud. If you were into birding you would be in heaven. The birds are everywhere all of the time. Yesterday a bird landed in one of our trees that I swear I could have sold for thousands of dollars if I could have caught it, they are beautiful!

We haven't seen any kangaroos yet, we live in an area that is too urban. However I heard that it is not uncommon to see them around in areas that are only 20 kilometers away, can you imagine?! That would seriously be awesome. I will find one and put Gabey in the pouch and take a picture. If I were good at photoshop I would doctor up a pic right now, Lindsey M. help a sister out!

Possibly the world's most random post ever...in the history of the world

Many of you are already aware that the most crazy, stupid, random, hilarious things happen to me. Here are a few that haven't been mentioned yet.

1. The other day I was shopping for produce at Freshworld and a guy {yeah, perfect stranger} walks up to me and asks me to read some text messages from the girl he is dating. He wanted my expert opinon on whether I think she likes him or if she is just being polite when he continues to ask her on dates as she always has an excuse why she can't go but would really love to take a raincheck. He proceded to give me their complete dating history. I continued to wonder why this guy thought I had the time to just listen to all of these tiny, inconsequential details about 2 people I have never met! Even though he is a man, I told him to read the book "He's Just Not That Into You"

2. Ben and I were on our way to a car lot and ran into a major wreck. Traffic was going no where so we hopped the median and turned around, hoping our GPS would re-route us. I was driving, and listening intently as the directions told us to make a right and then an immediate left. When the light turned green I proceded right and then got in the far left lane so that I could go left. There was a pretty long line-up of cars, so I was thinking the must be a pretty popular road we were turning onto. We waited for a while and the light turned green but no cars went. After 3-4 lights we were getting rather furious that we hadn't moved at all. Traffic must be pretty bad up there we thought! Then Ben, the genious of the bunch appearantly, realized that even though the cars were in a lane of traffic, they were all parked with no one in them! Idiots! By that time we had seriously been waiting for like 10 minutes or more.

3. Last night we went to the movies. We stood in line to by tickets and as we got up to the front of the line there were two handicaped teenagers standing there. The girl, who was dressed in a gothic fashion, out of no where grabs me and throws her arms around me {VERY tightly} and just starts crying and saying that she is very scared. As I got her to talk and loosen up her grip on me, she said that she and her brother were waiting for their Mom, who said she would be right back. She was just crying and crying and holding on to me and saying that the crowds were making her so scared. I just held her tight right back and tried to reassure her that it was all going to be find and that there was nothing to worry about. Ben bought the tickets and even though our movie had already started we felt bad just leaving her there so we waited a few more minutes for her Mom who finally came. Even though she was wearing a dog collar with spikes around her neck, she really was so sweet! {I just reread that, K it was the young girl, not the Mom who was wearing a dog collar}

4. It would be really great if our stuff would get here sometime soon. My entire body is incredibly sore from sitting on the ground. All of our 5 dishes are perpetually dirty so we ususally have to resort to using my blender or my food processor bowl as a cup, or bowl for that matter. I also am using Gabe's shirt as a washcloth at the moment.

5. Yes, those are the gloves that my Dad made me for Christmas, they so do inpire me to get this house clean! Thanks Dad!

6. Here is a picture of the view from my bathroom window, I love the tropics! And needless to say, that is Ben and the kids in front of the house. We'll get more pics soon!

FYI We are doing much better since the last post. The babysitter I had arranged wouldn't allow me to pay her and a woman from the ward heard about my day and showed up that afternoon with dinner, dessert, and chocolates just for me. Everyone has just been so great. The next day the A/C people came and we are all fixed up. We really love it here, and even though it is so hard and stressful at times {even the happy good times are stressful at times!} we know that this is where we are supposed to be and we will get over this adjustment phase and we'll be laughing {to borrow and Australian expression}