The last week has been a complete whirlwind, but we have accomplished quite a bit. We spent last Tuesday house hunting and after looking at about eight properties, we found one that we are really excited about and feels like it will be a great home away from home. It is a 4bdr, 3bath, 1 car garage home. The family who lived in the house prior also had two smaller children and were just transferred to China for a five year ex-pat assignment so they left several appliances such as a refrigerator, washer/dryer and gas grill behind which was an added bonus. We signed the lease this morning. We are in a suburb of Sydney called Mosman. It will be a 30 min (short in Sydney terms) bus ride for Matt to North Sydney in the morning for work. For those familiar with Sydney it is where the famous Taronga Zoo is located. We are just a short drive to the family-friendly Balmoral Beach and a short walk to Mosman Village/Military Road where there are many shops, cafes, fitness centers and small grocery stores. There is also a small fish pond in the front of the house that the kids are excited about. I think those fish will be overfed.
We toured three different preschools/early learning centers for Paige last week. Again, we were incredibly lucky to find a four day spot for Paige in a great, small early learning center. She is taking the spot of a little boy whose family is also moving out of the country. Most places just put us on a wait list and said they would contact us in a few months if a spot opened up. She will start shortly after Cade starts "Kindy" (Australian kindergarten).
We have both been behind the wheel a few more times, but it is still so unnatural. The kids are now clapping and saying "good job mommy" or "good job daddy" at the end of a trip. The lanes are very narrow, there is a ton of traffic and it is difficult to cross streets. I haven't been comfortable driving by myself yet and I still need some guidance and an extra set of eyes. Hopefully it will become more natural in a few weeks.
I miss US Internet access. Internet is charged by the GB and frequently just stops working. I am hoping it will be better once we are in our house as we will have more bandwidth than the temporary housing. We were without Internet for the past 48 hours because of one long Google Plus session on Sunday with the Wildman's that sucked up most of our bandwidth.
Last Friday, Sydney recorded the hottest day on record - 114 degrees. For most of the day, I thought it was just typical Sydney summer weather until I watched the news that evening. Thank goodness. It was brutal.
We will start the moving process this week and our air shipment arrives tomorrow. Could be another month before the sea shipment arrives. More excitement to come:)
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