October/November 2009

Two weeks from today we leave for the US and the Smith family could not be more excited! We have been here 11 months now…in some ways it seems like forever but looking back at all we have done and experienced, it has flown. October was still a very cold and chilly month but there were a few days in between that were really, really nice; thankfully, one of those days being Reid’s birthday. We had a few of his “mates” from his class join us for a “sausage sizzle” at King’s Park. It was a very nice relaxing afternoon. The $90 dinosaur birthday cake was not fabulous but the homemade chocolate coffee cream cupcakes that I made for the “mums” were amazing!!! Reid has made some really good friends at school. They play so well together and I’m just so thankful at how “welcoming” they were when we first arrived. In addition, I’ve made friends with many of the moms and I will miss them so much next year when we are at the new school.

The boys were out of school for the first two week of October and the girls were out one of those weeks. Honestly I can’t remember now what all we did or perhaps I blocked some of it out (i.e. roller skating…the boys were NOT a fan). One of the days I had all of them home I met Tegan and her 5 girls at the park. Tegan and Timon are the couple that my friend Leslie Wright got us in contact with. Timon use to teach Sunday School at Stonebriar Church in Frisco and he is the Worship Pastor at Subiaco Church. A couple of Sundays ago he was leading worship and it was just him and his guitar. I loved it. I was singing and a thought came into my head and then I prayed, “Oh Lord, please don’t let them leave”. That night they came over for dinner and we found out that they ARE leaving. He is going to be the head pastor at a church in Adelaide (Australia), now another place on our list to visit before our time in Australia is over. I was/am SOOOOOOOOOOO sad but very excited that God is using him in such a BIG way.

Clint went sail fishing this month on a “business” trip. I’m not sure I call it business but glad he got to experience sail fishing in Malaysia. He flew into Kuala Lumpur and drove 5 hours through palm tree plantations to get to the fishing town. He had two days of fishing and they caught 17 sail fish between five guys. We went to “family camp” with our church and had a very nice time. We couldn’t spend the entire weekend since I had to be back for the “fete” but met up with everyone on Saturday for a day of bible study, games, crafts and team building exercises. We really just enjoyed hanging out and getting to know people. At one point we couldn’t find Luke and while all reasoning tells me he’s fine I start to panic. Well, I finally found him he was with Emma, one of Tegan’s little girls. I stood from a distance and just watched them for a while…it was priceless. He was holding her hand and helped her climb up onto a log and made sure she was okay getting down. TOO cute!

October and November were busy with the kids’ school and AWC (American Women’s Club) activities. On October 25th, Reid and Luke’s school hosted the biannual “West Leederville 2009 Fete”. I was responsible for the nacho stall. I was very tempted to have velvetta and rotel shipped in from the US but feared that it just may not go over very well here. So I made them the Australian way – bowl of chips topped with nacho sauce and cheddar cheese, put in the microwave, top off with sour cream. I have to admit they were pretty good. The following weekend was the Halloween carnival at the International school. I was responsible for the bake sale put on by the American Women’s Club. Halloween is becoming more and more popular here and it really sickens me that Halloween is something that Americans are known for. I missed our neighborhood in Prosper where the kids dressed up in sweet, innocent costumes. Here everyone dressed up in dark and scary outfits with lots and lots of blood. YUCK! We participated in the “trunk or treat” and made an attempt to decorate the back of our car but we certainly did not win the best car prize. This year for Halloween we had a jeannie, Hannah Montana and 2 jedis. Clint got a lot of comments on his “Tacky Tourist” outfit that he had worn a couple of years ago and I was a cat. We really wanted to go as the cast from Scooby Doo but Reid wanted NO part in wearing the Shaggy or Fred costume.

I hosted the “Welcome Coffee” in November for the AWC. It is something we do each month to welcome new people who have recently moved to Perth. I really enjoy the welcome coffees and Luke is always such a trooper to go with me. I always thank him for going and he graciously responds, “Sure mom, anytime!” I am really going to miss him next year since he will be in school every day. I also hosted a baby shower for my friend Stephanie, who actually just had the baby on Friday. She had to have a C-section because the baby was breech. This was her first baby and my heart went out to her being here without family. We were thrilled to be able to be a part of their experience in becoming parents for the first time. It is going to be really hard when they leave! We’ve shared so much together since meeting in March.

We have heard from many people about the flies in November and we finally got a taste of what they were talking about. We took our bikes up to John Forrest National Park for a bike ride and picnic. Maybe we were a bit too adventurous since Luke just learned to ride without training wheels. We were just starting our ride and there was a huge hill in which Clint told them to get off their bikes and walk down. Luke decided he could ride down and he took a very hard fall and tumbled all the way down. His poor back and arms were so scraped up and bleeding…I felt so bad for the little guy. BUT of course we wiped him off, gave him some encouragement and kept on going with him saying over and over, “Lake Monger is more better!” Lake Monger is where he learned to ride his bike. It is the lake by our house and according to Luke it is “more better” because it is flat and there are no rocks. We rode through this old train tunnel. I was a bit scared since it was pitch black…we couldn’t see our feet…and with all the scary critters in this country I was really nervous. The kids didn’t want to do it either but with the leader of our family being the adventure enthusiast we knew we had no choice. After we got through the tunnel, the kids really felt that they had achieved something and we even heard “let’s do it again!” On the way out on the trail, we were going in the direction where the wind was in our face so the flies didn’t bother us but it was a different story on the way back. These pesty flies wouldn’t leave us alone. They were all over us and Kennedy just completely “lost it!” She displayed some Jim Carrey moves as she tried to swat the flies away from her face. It was actually pretty funny. I think the “attack of the flies” is behind us but the flies that are still around are still quite aggressive. The next weekend we attempted the beach but after about 30 minutes we left because it was so cold. These small challenges have surely worked to build character in each of us. Clint and I got a bit wild and crazy and went to the Nickelback concert. Not something we would normally do but it was just nice going “out on the town” with friends (Steve and Stephanie, Cam and Jacqui and Claire and Rob). I actually spent most of the concert praying as it really makes me sad that the lead singer felt it necessary to say the “F” word every other second. Clint cracked me up that night. I’m sure some people thought he had been drinking. Nope…just being silly! After every song the lead singer would say “Thank you so much”…it really became comical how often he said it. When the crowds got quiet, Clint screamed out “Thank YOU so much!” I’m sure you had to be there but it was really funny. And the night was not complete until Clint did the “gopher dance”.

A few days before Thanksgiving my sister Paula gave birth to twin boys – Jacob and Joshua. They are so precious and I can’t wait to meet them. I sure hated not being there at the birth but look forward to holding them very soon.

Thanksgiving Day was approaching and I was trying really hard not to think too much about it. We had already broken the “decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving rule” and quite honestly I just wanted Thanksgiving to come and go as quickly as possible. Mackenzie was leaving for camp and wouldn’t even be with us on Thanksgiving Day, the kids would be in school since it was just another day here in Perth, Clint would be at work and so that left me and Luke to figure out what to do. But my friend Tegan had it all figured out. I have been here almost a year and she found out that I had never had a sausage roll. She gathered a group of ladies together from church and had a Thanksgiving lunch Australian style…sausage rolls!!!! Since Tegan has lived in the US she understood and has experienced what Thanksgiving is all about. Tegan, Catherine and Jo went out of their way to help me get through the day. What a blessing! But instead of letting Thanksgiving come and go the Smiths had “Four Thanksgivings” on the agenda. On Thursday night we had a traditional Thanksgiving feast with the AWC. It was a nice evening but we certainly missed Grandma Redd’s hot rolls and cornbread dressing. The following evening we went to Timon and Tegan’s house for a non traditional Thanksgiving get together with people from the church, including our pastor who is also from the US. We had a fun evening making pizzas and playing “Catch Phrase”. The next day was the Aggie Thanksgiving and Clint and I signed up to bring Grandma Redd’s dressing. I’m glad we did so we were SURE to get some before Thanksgiving weekend came and went. I think we were a bit over zealous about the dressing. We quadrupled the recipe and ended up with two containers full in the freezer. We had one more get together planned with Kyle and Ragan but the Smith family needed some down time and we ended up cancelling. In thinking back through the week it wasn’t as hard as I set myself up for it to be. It was just another day here and life went forward with everyone doing what they always do. We were sleeping when Thanksgiving was actually going on in the States and by the time we woke up it was all over. So all in all we were okay. Mackenzie got home and had a blast at camp. When she got home she looked just a bit older to me. She reminds me quite often that she is almost in double digits.

On a personal note I finished the Bible Study, David, by Beth Moore. Each morning as I would take the kids to school I would give them the cliff note version of what I had read that morning. One morning they asked, “Isn’t he dead yet?” Another morning I was driving and hadn’t really even thought about giving them the lesson on King David and Luke says, “Okay…King David”. I guess that had been my “intro” each morning and when I forgot he chimed in! I gave myself a goal of having to run around Lake Monger without stopping before I could go back to the US. Luke helped me out with this one. After taking the other kids to school I decided that since he could now ride his bike, instead of going to the gym I would take him to Lake Monger. I would run and he could ride. Well, it started pouring down when we were ½ way around the lake and he just took off to the car. He got out of my sight and so I ran as hard as I could to try to catch him. I wanted to stop but I couldn’t because I wasn’t sure what he was going to do since it was raining so hard. So by the time I found him I had made it all the way around without stopping. I did it again the next day and now I find myself waking up between 4:45 and 5am almost every day to go run. I have never been a runner and quite frankly my body would hurt when I ran. I’m amazed at how great I feel now when I run now. No aches…no pains….I LOVE IT! I am also amazed at how easy it has become. And don’t let me fool you into thinking it is some huge accomplishment. I think it is only 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) but for me it is a start. I continue to go to the gym all the time but quite honestly I’m not getting the results I want. I’ve made progress but I think I am going to have to finally admit to myself that I have to work on the diet part of the program. URRR! I love dessert! Oh…and I went to a Thermomix demonstration this month and took Clint with me so he could see this amazing machine. I want one sooo bad. We haven’t been able to find out for sure whether or not it will work in the US on a transformer. This machine is like 10 appliances in one and it also cooks the food. You can make your own butter, bread, icecream, sorbets, mayonnaise. With making all of your own stuff you reduce the amount of preservatives going into your body and it does all of this stuff in seconds. My friend Machelle sells them. The day of the demonstration she made sorbet, custard, a dip, homemade rolls, coleslaw and risotto. I was amazed at how quick it was to make and how yummy all of it was. You can also cook your rice, steam your vegetables and cook your fish all at once in this thing. Unbelievable. And very little clean up is required. The thing pretty much cleans itself! I think Clint might just get me one so I’ll stop talking about it. If I could, I would bring them back to the US and sell them! I am sure you would want one!!! Unfortunately, we’ve been told that the US taxes the item as 10+ different appliances and therefore, it prices itself out of the market, which is why they don’t sell them in the US. I have found out that they do have them in Canada so if I get one here, I know I won’t be able to live without it once we move back, I can just order one from Canada since they work on the same voltage! We shall see what Santa decides!! I am looking forward to the plane ride home. I will be spending the flight typing our Christmas letter and reflecting on the last year. I can’t wait. Please keep us in your prayers and if you hear the song, “I’ll be home for Christmas”…think of us!

OCTOBER PICTURES



NOVEMBER PICTURES