Hot, Hot, Hot

This song says it all...

(and thanks, Grammy and Grumpy, for the valentines cards! the dance continues...)

We've been without air-conditioning for a week and a half now, naturally during the middle of the hottest summer on record in Perth. We saw higher temperatures temporarily last year (again, when our air-conditioner was broken) but we've had hot, humid weather with no respite for weeks now. It feels like a Houston summer. The house averages 85 degrees and that's with a rented evaporative unit upstairs which is mercifully keeping it tolerable in the kitchen and living room. But we were fortunate to get an appointment to have it fixed next week IF the parts arrive from Sydney in time. The company doesn't stock parts here. And they don't work overtime. And they're scheduling service up to 4 weeks out now so if we miss our chance it may be a loooong time until we stop sweating. So let's pray those parts get here next week and we can get back to normal life! All the day-to-day duties sap my energy and it's all I can do to get the laundry done and food on the table. Then I have to sit under the fan for a while and recover. Thus, I've taken 4 entire pictures to share this week.

Nothing like a little body art to start the day...


Ben's school is going really well and he's happy to go each morning. This is why we tend to be late more often that not....two boys who take half an hour to get dressed.

(and of course one mom that wastes even more time getting pictures of the silliness)

Luckily, we're planning a long weekend in Margaret River with some friends so we'll hopefully be escaping the heat for several days. I'll definitely get more pictures there!

Bali Getaway

I had talked to Matt about taking another trip to Bali while we're on this side of the world and he wasn't interested in taking the entire family so he encouraged me to make it a girls' weekend with some friends. Little did he know that I would take him up on that offer! Didn't take me long to talk a few friends from Singapore into meeting me there for a wonderful long weekend. I got in late Thursday night, slept in Friday morning, and we all lounged by the pool and caught up since I hadn't seen them in nearly a year. By mid-afternoon, we'd finally mustered the energy to get dressed and do some shopping. We stopped in a few places in Seminyak then made our way to Ku De Ta, a beachside bar and restaurant, to catch the sunset.

Anne was enjoying the bliss!

Laura, Kim, and Anne. We're all American, have been overseas for 3-4 years, and had our youngest children in Singapore. These two girls made great travel companions because they're so much fun and so easy-going. Anne was our tour guide so she did a fantastic job of organizing our excursions and Kim was our official photographer so all these pictures are from her. I just showed up with wine and Tim Tams...what a slacker!

We didn't even have to leave the comfort of our table to haggle with some hawkers over cheap dresses.

Our sunset dinner was perfect and even more enjoyable because we got to eat at our leisure without yelling at kids to eat, breaking up fights, getting more milk, yada yada yada...


Bintang tattoos! The best kind to get.

On Saturday we slept in again (more bliss!) and then headed straight to Ubud for lunch at Casa Luna.

A little more street shopping...

...then a couple of hours at the spa! The best thing about traveling in Southeast Asia is cheap massages. We got 1 1/2 massages and body scrubs for about US $15.

Indonesia is predominantly muslim but the island of Bali is buddhist. Buddha is all over the place and he's always decorated.

Next stop was Tanah Lot, a centuries-old temple built on a rock on the water. At high tide it is a small island.

Gotta love the long-arm self portraits!


It was a great place to catch another sunset.

Anne braved the waves for a little yoga!

I think this wave caught her by surprise!

Finally, we headed to Jimbaran on Saturday night for a seafood feast by the water. This place was a total surprise to me because our driver dropped us off at the restaurant, we walked through the building, and then out on the sand they had all the tables set up by the crashing waves. It was an amazing experience.

Cracking into some crab.

We even got serenaded by this roving band. They had some US top-40 in the repertoire and sounded great, but their English was hilarious. It would be like me learning the syllables to a Japanese song off the radio then trying to sing it back when the words meant nothing to me. Like when they were singing "Stand By Me" it went something like "whenever you're in bubbles won't you stand by me".

We didn't fly out until Sunday afternoon so we got to enjoy a nice brunch at the St. Regis. Rooms start at about $500/night so we could only pretend this is where we stayed!

The grounds were absolutely gorgeous.

We didn't exactly leave right after breakfast because it was too fabulous!

Good thing we had flights to catch or else I may have still been sitting right here:

Bali will probably always be one of my favorite places!

Thanks, Matt, for holding down the fort at home and letting me go play for a few days! It was refreshing and relaxing and so great to see old friends who are traveling a similar path to me.

Up Hill Both Ways

We are almost through our first full week of school and so far it's going really well. Ben is coming home tired but happy at 3pm. He's enjoying school and has made some new little friends. How cute does he look with his uniform and huge backpack? It only has a lunch and hat in it but he's proud to carry it around, especially with the Texas patch that Grammy sent for it.

I'm happy with his school but it's very different from a US elementary. There is no bus service and no drop off point. I have to take Ben and pick him up every day and take Alex along through the entire process since we have to go all the way to the classroom. I'm trying to use the morning drop-off as my daily workout since it's over a massive hill and definitely gets me sweaty. Here's how it usually starts out - one happy to ride in the stroller and one complaining that he has to walk.

We start our hike up the hill into the hot morning sun.

I ward off the whining while pushing Alex and dragging Ben (who's usually holding onto the stroller) and we finally make it to the top and start down the other side. Have to allow a few extra minutes for the flower-picking.


Then we conquer the next big mountain, the pedestrian overpass that crosses two busy roads and the train tracks. I ignore the requests to be carried (Alex) and the request to drive next time (Ben) and we finally get into the school yard.

It's a lovely school with lots of different buildings and the pre-primary tucked right into the middle.

This is completely fenced off from the big school and has its own playground for recess.

Alex enjoys a few minutes on the playground every time we're there.

Once I've hugged and kissed Ben and extracted Alex from the playground, we head back over the bridge and towards home.

Back up the hill.

I do enjoy looking at all of the beautiful houses on the street, like this one that has been lovingly restored.

Some are the old original bungalows. Many of these have already been torn down to make way for more modern houses, and usually two narrow ones in the single lot.

And there are a few running in the $10 million+ range that can't help but catch the eye.

Finally, back at the top of the hill and the view is always rewarding.

Back down the big hill to sit inside and cool off for a few minutes before we're off to our other activities. Whew!!

It's only been 4 full days so far but Alex and I have enjoyed spending some one-on-one time together.

A couple of other fun pictures from the week...
We had a valentine's party with some of our American friends and the kids enjoyed all the candy and cards, since they don't do anything at school here.

Alex was more interested in the apple juice. This kid never gets tired of it!

Smart, Ben! Let your woman do all the work.

I've tried to start waking up at 6am to enjoy a few quiet minutes before the boys are around and to try to work on my Bible study. This has been the result on many of those days - lots of company and their entertainment.

We had a swim playdate yesterday in our new inflatable pool. It's pretty great but kind of a pain to drain and clean. Still not sure it's worth it but the kids love it. Notice that Alex went back to his trusty old bucked in the background, though!