Australian Pickers

As you know, my dad is staying and so blogging has been a little slow – ok, non existent. At the moment the boys are down in the man cave snuggled up with him, watching Spongebob Squarepants. It is the most ridiculous show! Have you ever seen it? My advice is don’t, you would be wasting brain cells! But kids love it. My niece in Aus also loves the show and I have gone from shop to shop trying to find her a hoodie. I couldn’t find one and in the end I ordered it online. The beauty of online shopping here.

During the week we are tied down to staying local as Hamish and Dylan have school and going to Washington to see the sights really needs a whole day by the time you take into consideration the commuting time. (Plus I have not, and never intend on driving in Washington while I am here. I’m not a big city driver). What do we do? We go antique shopping. He LOVES the show American Pickers. He stayed up late one night watching a marathon of about 7 episodes. All new series here that he hasn’t seen. He is in his element.

We find old little houses filled to the brim with all kinds of bits and pieces. Things that really are just junk and clutter, until you see that one piece that takes you and then it seems that all that time spent dawdling around was all worth it. Today we find a counting machine. It has a patent date of 1912 label on it. So purty. (I can’t help but say it that way). I am hunting for an antique card catalogue draw at the moment. The goal is to have one before we leave here too.

The other type of picking we have done everyday is discovering the many and varied coffee houses dotted around the local parts. He has a Starbucks for the first time and marvels over the two dollar cups of coffee and convenient drive thru station. “The land of the drive thru” he remarks as we see an ATM drive thru.

He’s discovered how to order the house coffee with ease and can almost drink a full small cup which is the size of a kids sand bucket. He is now partial to a milk creamy substance over here refered to as “half and half”. He can almost get it out of the jug without shaking it violently, and that’s not even something I can blame on his Parkinson’s. I think I may be building up a lactose intolerance from all my latte drinking, so even I have switched to the black muddy water that I hated so much when I first arrived. So scary how we adapt!

It’s been fun watching him marvel at everything, remembering how we had that same reaction when we first got here too and how it all seems so normal and taken for granted now. The true highlight of the week was fishing a library book out of the toilet (nice one Hamish). Both the librarian and the mother in me cringe for very different reasons. Yes, I think I’ll just tell them I lost it and pay the exorbitant replacement fee. And I’ll have to do it while Hamish is at school so that when I go to the counter he won’t be there to blurt out the real reason I cannot give them back the book.

Today brings no words, and no more freaking library books in the toilet! Urgh.

What a hoot.

I’m keeping this short. I am writing on my iPhone as my iPad has died. My Dad has come to visit for three weeks so the posts will slow down for a bit. On his bucket list of things he wanted to do was see an ice hockey game and go to Hooters. So off they go into Washington for some boy fun. Dad said it was one of the best things he’s ever seen. I asked Dylan whether he liked Hooters better than Applebys, our local Friday night dinner of choice. “Yes, because it’s a maaaann bar” is his reply. Sigh. This is some screen shots of the text messages Fletch sends me during dinner:

Today brings no words, not many anyway until I can get my iPad resurrected! Yes I could go to the computer room but that would involve moving and I am very comfortable slothing in my Hooters shirt on the couch.

Feel the Love Pt.2

Saved! I was feeling sorry for Hamish and was going to take him to McDonalds for a Happy Meal because I knew that he’d be upset when he saw Dylan come home with a bag full of candy and junk. But his preschool had done the same thing. I picked him up and there was a goodie bag ready for him to take home. I had never expected that at his age, his mates would be handing out valentines and candy. I certainly had not prepared anything. “This is my balance-time card for you mum” he says. I didn’t ask for a candy but I wonder how that would have ended.

And Dylan had a party with his class mates. He has a bag stuffed full of cards, candy, toys and even a stuffed monkey! His class is very lucky, they have no allergies so they are a little more relaxed about what can be put in the bags. They have ice cream and play bingo and make bookmarks for the last hour of school.

The cleverest Valentine was one which you fold up and count out. I used to make these ALL the time when I was a kid. You count down the number then read out the message. I loved them. Take a look:

I ran into the mum of the little girl who Dylan has a crush on. I didn’t want to say anything to her in front of Dylan to embarrass him and she must have been the same because she puts her daughter in the car and then she comes over and tells me that her daughter gushes about how Dylan is “such a nice friend”. At this stage he’s run off to the playground and so I tell her that Dylan had given her an extra card too. It truly is like something out of a Charlie Brown comic!

Today brings no words, just some sugary love for you all. xoxo

Feel the Love Pt.1

In Australia, in the shops all the Christmas decorations go away and out comes Easter things right? Well over here it’s Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day items. Pink and red everything, all hearts and chocolate. Aisles of the stuff. A valentine for just about everyone – mum, dad, brother, sister, Aunt’s next door neighbors’ cousin twice removed. There is house decor and flags to fly if you are that inclined. You get my drift, it’s big.

The quintessential American romantic in my memory is Charlie Brown. In his comics he was always looking in his little letterbox that sat on his desk waiting for his cards and making some witty remark on how many he did or did not get. It seems that this is common practice at Dylan’s school too.

And so I send Dylan off to school with his Valentines for his class. He brings home his class list and meticulously ticks them off. He spends hours cutting out stickers and sticky taping them to the card. Some people stick candy and chocolate to the cards. Dylan has a special one written for his teacher with a little chocolate attached. I asked him if he needs a letterbox to collect them in but he says they made one in class.

When I first heard about a school Valentines Day Party my mind boggled. I had to ask the class rep parent what was involved. Do you write out cards for just girls if you are a boy? No you give everyone a card. What do you write on it – surely not declarations of love when you are seven years old. Turns out you just write their name and then sign it with your name.

The closest I can get to a love declaration from Dylan is for a little girl who he deems “extra nice”. She’s getting two cards. Subtle and very Dylan style! Then again he also gave away his favourite card in the pack to his best friend.

And while I have not really celebrated Valentines Day in a long time, I do have a tradition of getting heart shaped chocolates and leaving them on Fletch’s pillow. Actually this week he’s been sleeping in the basement bedroom because I’ve been coughing all night, so being allowed back in the bed should be enough of a present!

Today brings no words, and no more stretching out in bed or hogging all the covers. Well I can’t promise about the covers.

100 Days of School.

Yesterday Dylan celebrated the 100th Day of School. They have little activities and games and he has to bring in one hundred of something. He wants to take lego men but a. he doesn’t have that many and b. I could not bear the whinging if they get lost. So we decide to take pennies. He’s been learning to count in 10’s at school so it is perfect for teaching him to count out 100 of something in an organised manner.

We have loads of pennies. People here don’t seem to use coins, everyone pays with notes. But I must confess, for me it’s also because the coins here confuse me. Their 10 cent is smaller then the 5 cent, there’s 1 dollar coins and notes, so there’s all this spare change just sits around our house. We started to collect coins in special display cases. The boys enjoy rummaging through the change purse, looking for states to add to their collections. Might as well do something useful with them!

Tomorrow Dylan has a Valentines Day Party at school. But that deserves it’s own post so stay tuned…

Today brings no words, just some 100th Day of School fun.