Today is the First Day of the New House

Sigh...we're here.  Today we sign the lease and get the keys.  The movers come on Saturday so we're spending the rest of the week making as many trips as possible to get a lot done so hopefully the movers will just be moving the heavy stuff.

I've moved a lot in my life.  Much more than most people.  My entire life I've been asked if my family was military because we moved around so much.  That's humorous because I married a man whose family was military. There are a lot of downsides to moving...a LOT but there are some good things.

1.  Fresh Start.  There's something revitalizing about beginning again.  You can reinvent things and do things differently if you chose.  It's a physical and mental cleansing I guess.  Every time I move I try to do something different.  This last move I had to learn to do more things differently than I was comfortable with but in the end change can be good.  I still haven't seen the inside of the new house and I'm a bit giggly inside trying to imagine what it could all be like.  What wall can I place things on - how will I set up Connor's room.

2. Ritualistic Cleaning.  There is nothing like the feeling you get when you're throwing out at least 10 garbage bags of stuff.  I've given a ton of stuff away to friends and to charity.  I found a drop-off box that is solely for Aboriginal families and that has eased my social conscience mind a bit.  Well, a little bit anyway.  Not saying it makes up for things...just that I feel like I've done something - not matter how minuscule.  But there still is a lot to get rid of.  I've really inherited my father's pack rack abilities; but I am trying.

3. Seeing a new area.  We're moving from Normanhurst to Hornsby Heights.  Not very far from each other but enough that there are new people. new shops, new parks and new things to see.  I will have a beautiful view of the bush - forest to my American readers.  That is one of my favorite landscapes and when I daydream of my lottery money house it always has a few of trees.  Not bad.  Something new and beautiful.

Here is my last post for a few days I'm sure.  The moving frenzy is about to overtake me and I'll be cursing and swearing with the best of them.  I will post pictures of the house as soon as I can.  I can't wait to see it too!

Return to Basics

Of sorts anyway.  The move is in full swing and while there is always something going on with that until it's over...I mean really...who wants to hear about how I back a box or throw out the Build a Bear box behind Connor's back?  Seriously, I just bored myself typing that.

So a new topic today.  One I know.  Children.  I won't say I understand them, but I have them.  I listen to them talk and I can repeat what they say.  Well, some of it anyway.

Today's topic:  Siblings Need to Fight


Let me just start off by saying this, these kids are insane.  Not your normal average kid who test boundaries and try to define themselves in the workings of a family.  No, I firmly believe that my kids are special and suffer from an unique brand of lunacy.  That has to explain it.  Really it does.  These kids are nuts.  This is not my fault and my role as a mother is not to lovingly nurture them but to survive and keep the house standing...and laundry apparently one of my covenants is to laundry.  Hmmm, that might be tomorrow's topic.  But I digress.

Fighting.  I remember fighting with my brother as a child but in all honesty, he was an idiot and deserved everything he got.  Note to Fate - "No, I am STILL not sorry for taking the wooden train over his forehead.  Maybe that's why you keep coming at me with a 2x4 but I don't care.  You've met him.  You know he earned it"  So when we decided to have kids I really wasn't shocked at the idea that brothers and sisters fight.  What I was not prepared for was WHAT they will fight about.  I grew up fighting about important matters, burning issues that ensured my role in the family and ownership over my own belongings.  I was staking claim and protecting territory.  Noble things, quest-like honor involved here.

My kids?  Tessi and Connor fought the other day about which box they would put their Polly Pocket toys away in.  The two boxes are.exactly.the.same. They have fought over who gets to name their baby doll Baby Zoe - after a friend of theirs.  Teddy and Connor have fought over whether or not Shun is all-powerful in Bakugan.  Teddy and Tessi have fought over who can tell Connor she can't watch a show.  Connor fought with be about loving the Shrek movies but had to be told to sit and watch them.  Then she argued that even if she didn't like them she still loved Shrek 4 and it is her favorite movie of all time...and she hasn't seen it.  Tessi then cried that she didn't want to go see Shrek and when I said fine, she didn't have go, that I would take the other two during school holidays she threw herself on the ground sobbing hysterically that I didn't love her and that she had to go.

I take Panadol and/or Nurofen (Tylenol and Advil) almost every day in case you were wondering.

Tessi has screamed at Connor for selecting the wrong spoon from the drawer.  Yesterday Teddy yelled at Tessi for letting Connor tell her how to color in her princess homework book.  Both Tessi and Connor have bellowed indignantly for applause and thanks for helping to create meals - meaning they stirred the pot on the stove - and then cry that the food was too yucky to eat.  And last night, Tessi argued with me about whether or not she argues or not.  The good part about that was it got the Monty Python argument clinic sketch stuck in my mind and that distracted me from climbing over my seat in the car to get at her to wring her neck.


There's no way this is normal.  I don't believe it. 

Odd Moving Vibe

 I've moved a lot in my lifetime.  A lot.  I used to get asked if my family was military.  We just moved.  So, I do have a little experience with moving and I know what's coming.  What's suprising to me is how little I am stressed about the move right now.  I have never in my life been LESS annoyed about packing things up, throwing stuff out and tripping over boxes in my life.  It's an odd feeling.  Or I should say it's odd not to have the feeling.

With a move less than 2 weeks away I should be marginally hysterical now.  Fighting with Ted over the need to save items that most rational people would have thrown out or desperately trying to find people to give some of the kids stuff to because I can't bear the thought of moving it somewhere to sit on the floor.  Or maybe just trying to buy less food and supplies because I don't want to move, or know that I can't move it but still buy enough to be able to make stuff and not have to order out.  I'm doing of lot of this stuff but not stressing about it.

Our last move was a killer one.  But not the packing up bit.  We had movers pack us.  The stress in that came from getting rid of stuff they wouldn't pack (propane tank, alcohol, cleaning products) and of course the stuff we wanted to get rid of.  That was a nightmare.  I lucked out though and had some great friends help us out by getting stuff out.  The real nightmare was the landing in a foreign country and being overwhelmed by the differences and figuring out how to do things.  That and also try to raise children.  Not good.  Not fun.

But this move...well this move is different.  For one thing, the new house is 20 minutes away.  That's it.  Not everything has to go into a box.  I can just pick up clothes on the hanger and chuck them in the car and drive them up and hang in the closet.  Done.  Poof.  No unpacking.  We don't have enough boxes for all our books.  Not worrying though because we can just take the ones we have, unpack and bring them back and reuse them.  Wow.  What a thought.  As for learning the new neighborhood, all the major shops are the same and I know how to drive back and forth.  All done.

We have friends willing to help us take car loads of stuff over a few days so we have less for the movers to do and therefore less to pay the movers.  We've been packing stuff up for a month so there is a lot packed up or toys that are large enough just to be carried in a car.

So I am well on track for moving and not concerned at all.

Which is starting to scare the Hell out of me.  I mean, I live my life from one disaster to another.  I'm not one of those live and let live, smell the flowers, enjoy each moment because I know damn well that something is in fact, hiding around the corner just waiting for me to come close and jump out and get me.  No, I'm not paranoid, just practical.  As a former Girl Scout I'm just trying to be prepared.  At least that's what the voices in my head tell me.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that the obligatory glitch for this mission was the actual finding of the house and that finally, for once, we will be able to get through this without most of us sitting on a box of glassware and crying.

VICTORY! THY NAME IS MY HOUSE!!!!

In a more calmer voice, we have found a house.  Not just a house but it is not the 3 bedroom, 1 bath, with iron bars, an 1hour drive from school and no heat slum that I was starting to think we'd have to get.  No, no, no.  We got a H.O.U.S.E!!!

It's beautitful.  At least it is from the outside and the pictures on the internet.   You see, I haven't actually been inside the house.  On the day of 7 open houses that one was in the group that Ted did by himself.

Sidebar: When cracking up and having a snarling, pissy, hissy fit about doing every god damn thing about finding a house and demanding that your spouse get off of his ass and DO SOMETHING try not lump the house you end up getting in his group.  Just saying...

Anyway.  I could tell it has a roof, a kitchen, is off of a main road and Ted can walk to the bus to get to the train and get to work.  So honestly, I don't care.....but...THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!!!  There is a pool.  Yes, a swimming pool!  The yard is twice the size as the house AND there is a gated park right accross the street.  The owner is leaving his POOL TABLE because it's too heavy to move!!!!  He's also leaving a desk and some book cases in the study because he doesn't want to move them.  There is a work shed and 2 carports.  It is completely gated...the kids are TRAPPED...er, um I mean secure.

This house is amazing!!!!!  It's incredibly expensive and we'll be cutting back even more on things BUT I DON'T CARE.  We have a house and we get the keys next week!

Here We Go

A debilitating head cold, an agonizing wait to hear about the house we want plus a 4-soon-to-be 5 year old looking for a fight are not the elements to a harmonious life.

Tessi's Horse Party

I have made the rain stop!!  By the shear force of will and mind powers I stopped the onslaught of rain in Sydney!  I think we had 7 days straight where it rained daily and then about 3 weeks where it rained at least 5 days in the week.
But not today!  Nooooo, not for Tessi's outdoor horseback riding party.  It threatened..the skies wanted to open up but NO!  I stopped it!  I swore, stomped my feet, pouted, shook my fist and then in shear desperation turned my back to the sky and ignored it.

Obviously, I was not to be messed with today.  We got through the riding and everything and the girls were happy and oh yes, they were DRY!  HOT DAMN!

Let's just hope my will has a bit left over to make us get the house I want to rent.

But no matter, my baby had her party today and she was thrilled.  She got to ride a horse, she got to eat cake and she got presents.  Life is good.

Anyone Know Any Good Swear Words that I don't Already Know?

After all the hassle of getting the application for the house in 5 days before the open house - trying to snake the house away from anyone and I learn to day that the real estate agent is holding our application until after the open house so all the apps can be sent together.  Why?  Well because the owner of the house is overseas and they don't want to spend the money on more than one contact.  Ummm, We sent our applications in by email.  I know, I know, FORWARD THE EMAIL we sent on to the owner.  NO EXPENSE.

I need new curse words.  The ones I know just aren't filthy enough.

As I Txted to Some Friends Last Night...

Whether it's God, Yehway, Vishnu, the Easter Bunny or Our Lord Jack Daniels, please offer up some positive thoughts for us.  I turned down a house we were approved for - it wasn't good, it was waaaaayyyyyy out and the house wasn't great, for a chance for a fabulous house.

I don't know when we'll hear.  I have no idea.  But I WANT THIS HOUSE.  Please, please, please, please.  It's perfect for us.

I'll suffer my oncoming head cold with unprecented grace, style and silence.

I'll be super sweet and nice to every moron that crosses my path.

I'll recycle more.

I won't use the dryer for 2 weeks.  At all.

I won't point out that Teddy's an idiot when he trips over his shoe laces.

I will gleefully watch High School Musical and Big Cook Little Cook.

I start calling the dog Sasha again, rather than Damn Dog.

Please let us get this house.

More Homes Less Choices

Ah real estate in Sydney.  I love it.  Well, actually I don't.  I grit my teeth every time I head to the computer.  I marvel at real estate agents and how they act here.  Each office is just responsible for a certain area.  If you know what area you want that's great.  If you don't, well, learn which one you want and quickly.

It's definitely NOT a renter's market right now and it shows.  Realtors don't return phone calls.  They don't worry about open houses advertising what time they'll be on.  They have that blase attitude that is humorous...or bloody annoying if you're in a hurry to find a house. 

I called about a house yesterday and was informed that an application was in and she would call if it didn't go through.  She asked if I was willing to spend more a week because she had another house to go online.  As we have already upped our maximum I said no.  Then she  said ok and we hung up.  Today I checked online and that same office, that same agent has listed another house and it's UNDER my price limit.  She had to have known about it but didn't see the need in mentioning it too me.  UGH.  I'm going to call this woman back and swallow my tongue and my toes to keep myself from asking her if she swallowed the entire bottle of stupid pills or if it was natural.

1 have 3 houses that I'm desperate for 1 to work out.  One is really far out, but nice and huge.  1 is nice, medium distance away, the last is a little far away, no yard but brand new.  I have never been inside any of these houses and right now I want to put applications in on all 3...site unseen.  Desperation is a bad, bad thing.

Real estate agents in Hornsby area - here is what I need.

House large enough so that my children have space not to kill each other.  That means 4 bedrooms.  Please.  I need at least 2 bathrooms.  Not the laundry plus spare toilet.  2 bathrooms.  I need some kind of yard.  Doesn't have to be huge.  Has to exist.  Must be in walking distance to train or bus.  Real walking distance.  Not something that Cain would look askance at.  I'm not a snob but can use a stove larger than a hibachi grill.  I can live with an external laundry. Let me keep my dog.  I'll put her outside.  Just let me keep her.  It must be within 20 minutes of Normanhurst Public School.

Come on out there.  SOMEONE must be getting ready to rent my house!