Australia Day, America Day.

In my last post I forgot to add that we were flying out on a very significant date to me. It is my Australia day. A special little celebration of the day I arrived into the country as a 21 month old baby.

My parents decided that they wanted to adopt a baby from another country for no reason at all except having a need to share love with someone who really needed it. Intercountry adoption was such a long and expensive process back then, (it still is) and I am so grateful that I was the end resullt. We’ve always believed that I was put here on this earth for them, that it never was a random lucky dip. And we fit so completely as a family that I would’nt believe anything else.

My parents love telling me that when I arrived at the airport, even as a baby I instinctively picked them out of a group of waiting parents. In my parents time, the Korean babies were bought over to Australia chaperoned and were handed over at the airport on arrival. There were no pre-exchange meetings. They had a black and white picture of me as a new born and that was all. They take you into a room to do all the paperwork and you are not supposed to have contact until that process is complete. According to my mum I was not going to have any part in these formalities and when they wheeled me in I took one look at them, held my arms up to my dad and decided they were mine. I had to have them then and there and everyone was in tears with hugs all round, no waiting for this baby.

My lovely little niece also came into the world on this day many years later. We were all so excited to have another family member celebrate arrival on this date. And now as this Australia day also becomes my America day, I am so excited about the possibilities that the future America days bring. I would love to inspire my beautiful niece, infact everyone I know, to explore this amazing world and all it has to offer. So Jessie my love, this post is a dedication to you and “oh the places you’ll go”.

Today brings no words, just a special birthday wish to a special little girl. May she find and conquer the world in her own individual way.

Thankyou, my friend.

This week has been busy with saying goodbye. I find myself reflecting on this with the move almost upon us. Friends – old friends, new friends, kids friends, school friends, work friends, neighbourhood friends, all my beautiful interesting groups of friends. Friends who nurture us and our varying interests in life.

I have lived in Canberra for a very long time now. When I first moved here I was from a very small town where you could walk down the local street and know almost everybody. I never thought that I would feel that sense of community upon moving here and yet it has slowly crept up and embraced my family and I. It is sad to be leaving our friends and I also wonder what friendships will develop in the future. Will Americans be guarded to foreigners or will they be open to finding out what these crazy quirky Aussies are all about.

Sometimes, with such a busy day to day schedule I feel as though hanging out with friends is a guilty luxurious pleasure, that one should only indulge in small amounts. I relish the time spent with each and every one of you and appreciate you for all the happy times and memories. We have days of appreciation for this, that and the other. Today I dedicate this post to you and the sparkling, intelligent, humourous insights that you’ve contributed to my life.

Very soon they will be calling us to board our plane. The boys first trip overseas going business class, they have no idea how lucky they are. The six year old wants to see
Legoland and Disneyland and the two and a half year old wants to see monster trucks and batman. They woke up so excited, possibly more excited than christmas day.

Today brings no words, just lovely beautiful depictions of life as we know it.

The things you own…

Wow, packing up is such an arduous task. We are getting removalists in on Wednesday to pack up things going to America. Then more removalists to pack things going into storage here on Friday. They do a pre-inspection to look at how much is coming with us and the gentleman seemed a little distressed that we were traveling incredibly lightly. A few kids toys, no clothes except for what’s in our suitcases for the much anticipated coming summer. (Yes that’s a little brag). No cooking or kitchen items, furniture or bedding. I felt like I had to justify to this stranger that we weren’t going to deepest darkest jungles of Africa. Most of our items are a mashup of handme downs and leftovers from first living together. It’s old stuff and I am looking forward to having some new matching furniture and decore.

We’ve thrown into a huge skip bin alot of old junk and given to goodwill and friends loads of outgrown toys and clothes. It’s such a cleansing feeling and it makes me think of the saying that goes something along the lines of owning your things and not letting your things own you. I have stuff that I love, some things I am very attached to, but my house, furniture and cars are not really part of that. I find it makes the move so much easier and I wonder if it’s completely the opposite for children. My six year old has squirreled away nearly any and every piece of junk and when he saw some things that we threw in the skip he couldn’t believe that we were throwing his things out. I had to explain to him the concept of “goodwill” and giving away things to people less fortunate or things that we just plain outgrow. I think it is a life skill that is very important to teach children. Either that or I am just horrified that he’ll be on one of those “hoarder” tv shows.

Today brings no words, just lots of healthy culling and decluttering and it feels great!

PS. depending on internet access and time, this may be the last post until we touch down in America so an update will follow of the whole “getting there” experience. Fingers crossed all goes well. 30th is fly day.

Isn’t that Pinteresting.

As you may or may not know, I am a Librarian. I find stuff for people, they in turn are happy and I feel satisfied that I have helped them uncover new, exciting and amazing things. Lately this has splashed over into my private life via a brilliant website called Pinterest.

Pinterest is a site where you go and make collections, or “pinboards” of things that you like, your hobbies and interests. You can have numerous pinboards and you can view other people’s pinboards and add their “pins” to your own pinboards.

It’s a visually stunning medium and I love it. When I go into my pinboards, I see  these beautiful collages that represent a little bit of me, who I am, what inspires me, things I want to do, places I want to go, things that make me laugh – all made entirely from information that is out there in the vastness of the Internet. I’ve made great meals, sewn kids costumes, found wonderful gift ideas and most excitingly, inspired others I know to take a look and do all these same things too. And this is what I get a kick out of the most – in having a little fun discovering, finding, researching things for myself I’ve uncovered little treasures for others too.

Today brings “no words, just beautiful, fulfilling representations of life”.

You can find my Pinterests at:

http://pinterest.com/curiouskym/

I warn you though, it’s addictive.

An introduction is always polite.

Well, being a first of firsts, lets explain a little about the purpose of this blog and that in turn will explain a little about me. It took me a little time to find a title for my blog. The inspiration came from my beautiful two and a half year old son and his not so beautiful swearing phase. Yes, you all know what I am talking about, the age  when those “terrible two” tantrums stop and are replaced by them verbalising in one form or another their feelings and emotions. After getting very upset that his Duplo tower had fallen over he exploded in frustration “F*** F*** F***” (complete with little foot stomping). My husband and I talked to him about it and he stopped saying it. He was so proud of himself that he would come and tell me:

“Mummy, today I say no f***ing words!”

So with a little encouragement and praise I now have trained him to say “no words” without any little f’s slipping out at all.

In this blog I will be verbalising my thoughts, hopefully not needing to use too many profanities as my family and I embark on a trip to live in America for two years. Yes, goodbye Canberra, Australia and hello Washington DC. I want to share with you all the weird and wonderful little things that a different but similar culture have to offer. I am in some respects reinventing and discovering myself anew, as I won’t be working in a 9-5 paid career of choice. So you will be able to see how that all works out. The countdown is on, in two weeks we’ll be on our way. Today brings “no words, just tummy butterflies”.