Cooling Off

Perth tried its best to kill us all with its heat over the past week. We had 3 days in a row at 108F, which needless to say was miserable. The house was so hot we'd sit as still as possible on the couch under several fans and get up only when necessary. Nights were the same way. In the morning (when it would get down to the 80's outside) I opened every window possible to let cooler air in the house and didn't worry much about the windows without screens because we don't see a lot of bugs here. Forgot about other creatures that may fly into the house!

This pretty little yellow and brown bird was fluttering around in one of my artificial plants in the living room and knocked himself silly trying to find a way back out of the house. We set him outside out of arms' reach of four curious hands and let him recover.

This was our saving grace for the last few days: a portable air conditioner! It brought the temperature in the living room and kitchen down to about 81 so the sweating was at a minimum.

And it was a nice place to cool off. Alex figured it out really fast. His language is improving daily and he learned "cold" from standing in front of the "big loud fan", as Ben affectionately named it.

Thankfully, the winds finally shifted yesterday and we're back in the regular pattern of an ocean breeze every afternoon and comfortable temperatures. I can see how you could live most of the year without a/c when the winds are favorable because the house stays really nice when the breeze comes through. Only now our dishwasher is broken, too. When it rains it pours! Luckily we do have terrific landlords who live right around the corner and try to get things fixed as promptly as they're able.

It's been nice enjoying being at home again! Like watching Ben having fun on the potty because he found a good way to bring an audience. I told him no toys on the floor since it has a tendency to get showered on occasion so he invented a great solution using the door handle.

The boys have been able to go outside and paint again because with the two of them playing off one another it's way past an indoor activity. A few minutes later they were head to toe in colored paint and we now have some pretty purple handprints all along the wall.

Today we walked down the beach to the playground and enjoyed a gorgeous morning. Ben decided he wanted to wear silly shoes and put on one of each color.

It's pretty great to enjoy a nice playground with the brilliant blue ocean right behind it.

Back at home Ben noticed the water spigot on the side of the house and naturally both of them were drenched in seconds.

That's right, Alex, get your hair nice and clean!

Sweet soggy boy!

Next Tuesday is Australia Day so Matt is taking off Monday and we're taking another road trip this weekend. Just found out it's more of an 8-9 hour drive than the 6 hours we were told, so it should be an interesting trip. Stay tuned for pictures from what will hopefully be an amazing beach in Esperance.

Heat

As many of you know, I've struggled to enjoy Perth. It's lonely, it's isolated, the people have lots of personality but aren't particularly friendly, and the work ethic here is not exactly high. The laid-back Aussie attitude doesn't exactly fall in line with top-notch customer service. Where am I going with all this? We got back into town and found our air-conditioner isn't working. Keep in mind, this is the middle of summer here. We called the landlord and he arranged for the air-conditioning company to come check it out first thing last Monday morning. The repairman concluded that the unit needs a new motor and told me someone would be in touch when the part arrived. Okay, I can accept that. But as the week went on and the temperature got higher and higher each day I began to get a bit sweaty and anxious. Finally on Thursday I called to check on the progress and found out they hadn't even written up the work order or submitted it to the landlord for payment, both of which needed to take place before they would even order the replacement part. This was January 14th and they were still working on orders from Christmas!! That's what gets me SO frustrated. There is no urgency or overtime here. Nevermind that this was the hottest weekend in two years here, with the high yesterday at 109F. Here is our thermometer in the shade at nearly 100F.

And the indoor thermometer was a balmy 83F. We spent as much time Saturday in air-conditioned places and even went to the grocery store just to cool off. Of course, since it's Perth, we got kicked out at 5pm when they closed.

Of course everything here is closed on Sundays since Western Australia is still in the dark ages so we couldn't even hang out at a mall or anything. We did find a roller rink that was open and decided to check it out. The boys thought it was pretty cool to wear skates for the first time. Ben never seriously tried to skate but had a great time thrashing around like a madman.

Alex was actually pretty good and found his balance rather well. He really wanted to skate well with Daddy but one lap around the rink was enough for Daddy's back!

The indoor entertainment was still good enough. We finally had to head home for a sweaty naptime and suffer through a long afternoon under all the fans we could assemble. When the shadows finally cover most of the yard I take the kids out to the wading pool too cool off since that's the best I can do for them.

Thank goodness the humidity is low here and the house is well insulated (except for the windows) but it was still 85 degrees inside when we went to bed. And since it was 98 degrees outside at 9pm, we had to sleep with the windows closed all night. I let the breeze in this morning to "cool" things down in the house to 82 at 7am but we're facing another scorcher today with a forecast high of 104. The problem is that the hot wind is coming from the deserts in the east instead of a cool breeze off the ocean and it's going to remain hot until the wind turns. I'm praying that it will be very very soon! In the meantime, I'm hoping that the ridiculous people at the air-conditioning company will realize that this is their busiest time of the year and start busting their humps to get some work done. Otherwise the Kirkham family may be residing at a local hotel until this heat wave passes because this is almost unbearable. I'm doing just the bare minimum to get through the day without moving too much or straying too far from a fan and the poor kids are red and sweaty.

But here's a happy little something so my post isn't all complaining. This was the first time I ever saw Ben tickle Alex!

Christmas in Texas

The best part about our wonderful New Zealand adventure was that it wasn't sad to leave because we were SO excited to get to Houston! It was a long day, especially since we departed Auckland at 7:15pm and arrived in Los Angeles at 10am on the same day...wrap your head around that one. We also had a big scare because the travel agent booked us to LAX on one ticket and from there to Houston on another, meaning we couldn't check in for the entire trip and had to retrieve our bags in Los Angeles (which we would have had to do anyway to transfer to domestic flights) and get them retagged and sent very quickly to our connecting flight, and go through security again in less than 2 hours. As it turned out, everything worked out beautifully, all the bags made it, and we got to take advantage of the family line at security and skip ahead of everyone. I love that most airports are doing that now because our trips are long enough without the special torture of standing in long lines with two exhausted kids.

We all made it to Houston in good shape and the kids did amazingly well on all the flights. We got a great surprise at the airport when Ben heard "ten hut, maggot!" and immediately recognized Grumpy's voice. That's his special Marine salutation for Ben and it stopped him in his tracks. It was wonderful to get hugs and kisses and catch up while we collected our bags and rental car, then we were off the Grandma and Grandpa Kirkham's house.

Ben's puppy immediately made a friend with Koko. She's a bit of a senior citizen now and did more sleeping than playing this year but she was a great sport.

Alex made a beeline for the Christmas tree and climbed all over those presents for days.

Ben was pretty interested in the treadmill, too. We didn't let him play long because he doesn't need any extra exercise! We spent the whole trip trying to fatten him up with milkshakes, ice cream, and Christmas candy. I think it worked better on me, though.

Alex learned how to ham it up for the camera and kept asking to have his picture taken. It's hard to say no to this cute little face!

Hugs for Grandma!

The kids still enjoyed watching their cartoons on fun new chairs and beanbags and Koko remembered immediately that these little people drop lots of crumbs.

Sweet boys giving Grandpa kisses before bedtime. They were just basking in all the attention.

After Grandma and Grandpa left for the Alabama house, we hauled all our stuff over to Grammy and Grumpy's and spent one night there before flying out to Alabama ourselves. Alex was in love with the dancing snowman.

Ben was so happy to be reunited with his favorite kitty and barely let her out of his sight the entire time we were there.

Food is always an important part of our home leaves and I had to get a picture of Ben's first trip to Luby's. He loved picking out his food and pushing his own tray. I loved my fried fish and fried okra!

It was the coldest winter Houston has seen in a long time, with temperatures falling past freezing nearly every night (and we were fortunate to leave before it dipped into the teens several times) but we still enjoyed ourselves outdoors.

Nothing says brotherly love like walking all over your little brother.

For anyone that may have noticed Ben's eyes look a little different, yes, we've noticed, too. It became much more obvious to me right before we left Perth but I didn't get the chance to take him to the doctor until yesterday and we can't get into a pediatric ophthalmologist for 6 more weeks. The GP didn't want to speculate but identified that his left eye is turning in. We're praying it's something that will be easily corrected! Ben was extremely fortunate to make it through his premature days without any lasting eye damage so this is probably totally unrelated.

We met Santa at the airport! I felt bad for never taking them to get pictures this year so this was better than nothing. We took a quick flight to Mobile and drove a couple of hours to meet up with the Kirkhams and see Great-Grandpa. Unfortunately he was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia so the kids didn't get to spend time with him but he did improve and get to return to his nursing home before we left.

The two little buddies were so cute on the tiny sofa watching their little TV when the big one was on Fox news for too long.

Our first (of 3) Christmas! Alex didn't know what to think but got some help opening gifts from Aunt Amanda.

Didn't take long before they were totally engrossed in their new toys and had forgotten there were still more to open.

They played so well together! There was still quite a bit of wrestling over the little couch but the guys were so good.

On Christmas day we were back at the airport and headed to Houston again. I love the Mobile airport because they have a great little playground for the kiddos.

Ben got to meet the pilots and press a few buttons. I was afraid Alex would tear up the cockpit so he missed out.

At Grammy and Grumpy's the kids got to catch up with Aunt Stacey and Uncle Jason.

We had Christmas #2 with gifts from the family, including a nice new drill and safety goggles.

It never ceases to amaze me how kids can immediately find the buttons on toys and go straight for the max volume setting.

Ben loved the glow-pad and it remains the winner for favorite gift this year. Both boys love playing with it and it was a lifesaver on the plane back.

The day after Christmas Santa visited the house (shhh....don't tell them he was late!) and brought more goodies.

The boys even got yarmulkes from Grammy and Grumpy's trip to Israel earlier in the year. Alex looked pretty darn cute in it!

Ben made sure to show all his new toys to Abby, but she was a lot more interested in the tissue paper.

"No pictures!" Ben got tired of the camera and didn't want me watching while he drove Grumpy to the jungle with his new steering wheel.

Alex helped Abby play with the new toy Santa brought her. For those that remember her at our old house being pretty ornery, that hasn't changed but she was amazingly patient with the kids. Alex was too busy to bother with her much unless he was chasing her around but Ben was playing with her constantly and she was actually pretty nice to him.

I was terrible about taking pictures (as usual) and didn't even think to get a group shot before Stacey and Jason left, but I did get Ben with them. Baby French is due in June and we found out after Christmas that it will be a boy!! Three grandsons...Christmas will be even louder next year!

We did keep the ducks well-fed at the park and even saw two visitors this year. The two tree ducks stayed for about a week because they had a nice pond and free food.

Ben helped Grammy stretch after a walk. I love how at this age everything can be exciting.

Abby's favorite place in front of the fire made her a constant target for affection and attention.

We took the kids to Incredible Pizza one night and all had fun playing games and skee-ball, but Alex had a lot of trouble understanding that we don't get to keep the balls.

Grumpy showed Ben a little about the air rifles.

We caught up with the Vara family, our old neighbors who are in the middle of moving themselves right now. Hopefully we can be neighbors again one day so these kids can grow up playing together.

The did better eating together than playing, though! We also went to Double Dave's and enjoyed some peperoni rolls.

We got to catch up several other friends and their kids but I forgot to take a single picture. Sometimes it's not worth the time to pull out the camera if we're having too much fun enjoying the moment. I did get some pictures with the grandparents before we had to leave, though. Couldn't get one with everyone looking and smiling but at least it's a group shot!


We had a wonderful time with everyone but like all good things, it had to end. We packed up and headed to Singapore via Moscow. It's a direct flight but we still had to get off and go through security again in Moscow, which was interesting. It was in the single digits in Fahrenheit and COLD! Our bags were still freezing hours later in Singapore.

Again, I forgot to take a single picture in Singapore but we had a wonderful stopover there. We arrived at 6am and went to the Dulaney's house to catch up with them. We played, Lou Anne took Ben swimming while I napped with Alex, then sweet Lou Anne had scheduled a massage for me while she watched the kids. There is nothing better after a 23-hour flight! We invited several old friends to swim for the afternoon, then met up with several others at Newton for dinner over tiger prawns, roti prata, and barbequed squid. Ahhh, bliss...how I miss Singapore! It felt like I'd only been gone a few days and came back to old friends and familiar surroundings. But we still weren't home. So we packed up one last time and got on the 5-hour flight to Perth the next morning after a little dim sum at the airport.

Home leave is wonderful but it's a lot of work and the jetlag is so hard! I think we're all getting better at it each trip, but it took 6 nights here for everyone to sleep all night until 6am. I think we're all pretty much back to normal now and settling back into real life again.