Week #2

Sooooo.....this has actually turned out to be quite the week! I'll start from the beginning.....Monday was probably the toughest day for me. We had found a car for Josh, but wasn't able to pick it up until Wednesday night. So, his first day of work was on Monday and he had to take the car. This left me home with the kids without a car, with still only our luggage (NO air shipment has arrived yet), in a house without any of our own stuff and nothing to do!! Needless to say, it was a LOOOOONG day! Fortunately, it wasn't raining yet (it's rained here the past 5 days or so straight) so we walked to the park. But you can only do that for so long!

Tuesday was better because Josh came home at noon so we could take Grace to her school for orientation! For those of you who don't know, the school year here is divided into 4 quarters starting from February - December, with 4 breaks. The latest break was from early July - July 25th. So it worked out perfectly for us to come and be able to have a couple of weeks to get things figured out and used to the time change before she had to start the 3rd quarter. The bad/awkward thing is that we had to decide if she should repeat the end of 1st grade or skip ahead to the end of 2nd grade. It was a very hard decision to make, but ultimately we want her to come back to the states in 3 years as if she'd never left. So she will be doing the end of 2nd grade here in Australia and then starting 3rd grade in February!! YIKES! I know she will do great, it's just a feeling of rushing my little girl to grow up that I don't like. The day went really well and she was able to meet her 2nd grade teacher and see her classroom! That made her much more excited and less nervous for Monday. We also picked out all the pieces of her uniform, art smock, backpack, hat, library bag, etc....and purchased those. Whew! Pricey! We've never had to do uniforms before, so this will be different, but she looks really cute in everything! :) She did some testing as well and we tied up loose ends, so she's all set to go! It was a fun day.

Wednesday Josh also came home a little early so we could pick up his work car - that was HUGE! Now we at least had a way to get around with the rental car while he was at work. Pictures of the car to come....

Thursday we finally had a car to leave the house! We ran some errands and then came home and the kids baked Lance's birthday cake for his birthday on Friday. They couldn't wait!

Friday was Lance's 4th birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANCE!! Unfortunately, the presents we had bought him to open on his actual birthday are on the air shipment, which still hasn't arrived yet. :( He was a good sport, though, and didn't seem to mind. They couldn't wait to go to the Library and get library cards and check out books, so we went to do that. Meanwhile, a woman that Josh works with, has a sister who's daughter is in 2nd grade at Grace's school! So, long story short, we'd emailed a couple times and she called me on Friday to see if we wanted to come over so Grace could meet Brielle (her daughter) before school started. That way she would see a familiar face! So sweet! So after the library we drove over to Brielle's house (thank goodness for GPS!) and met her mom and 2 sisters. The kids had a great time and Bronwyn (Brielle's mom) was so nice and very helpful with all of my questions! I thought that was so sweet of her to invite us over. After the afternoon "tea", we drove home so we could take Lance out to eat for his birthday.
Here's where it gets a little hairy.....while we were at the library, Josh called me and informed me that the house we were supposed to move into in September backed out!!!! That's right, we no longer have a house.....the people decided they didn't want to move anymore, so we are officially house hunting right now!! Needless to say, it ended up being quite an eventful day.

SOOOO......Saturday we have started house hunting. We saw 3 houses today and will see one more on Monday. One was a definite "No", and another one we kind of like, but it seems too small and the backyard isn't great. The third one we saw is great with an amazing backyard, but the house is a little dated with some "cosmetic issues". Some fixable, some not so much. We have to decide after Monday if we want to pursue the third one or keep looking. I'm really trying to pray and lean on God for his guidance in all of this. I'm trying not to be too stressed about it. I know it will all work out in His way and His timing. There's a reason for everything! Well, that was our slow to start, but crazy finish to our week! Always an adventure! We will keep you posted and I will post more pictures tomorrow. Good night!