This IS the adventure....

When we started telling people about our move to Australia, the word ADVENTURE usually popped up.  "What an ADVENTURE", "Make the most of your ADVENTURE", and so on.  Because I have never been out of the United States let alone lived outside of the United States, the idea of Australia was an adventure.  However when I hear that word, I conjure up images of grandeur, thrill, and excitement...you know BIG things.  So when I decided to write a blog to chronicle our ADVENTURES, I thought I could only write about our travels or eating weird foods or seeing HUGE spiders.  And for a while everyday was so new that things were easy to write about, I always had ideas.  But as we settle into life, I was getting worried that our ADVENTURES were being few and far between.  The ideas of what to write were not coming nearly as easy.

....and I then came to the realization that LIFE IS OUR ADVENTURE!  So while we may not be petting Kangeroos or traveling across the ocean or catching gross 8 legged crawly things, our days are adventurous.  So now I feel like I can write about our daily lives and what that means here in Perth.

So this week was busy....

Monday is swim for Addie, so right after school we eat a snack, get dressed and head to the pool.  Lucky for me, two of her friends from school swim at the same time, so I have moms to chat with =)  Addie is doing really well with swim, and does not let the COLD water deter her at all.  We bought her a wetsuit so that helps keep her warm.  She has done really well and is learning a lot.

ALSO on Monday, I went shopping for Dustin's birthday present.  Now this was an adventure because I drove on their freeways for the first time.  I only got lost once and had to one illegal U-turn to get to my destination, but it was worth it.  The navigation on my phone crapped out halfway through the trip, so I had to rely on good old sense of direction....clearly this was when I got lost ;)

Tuesday is swim for Morgan, but because we had to get ready for Dustin's birthday and she was starting to not feel well, we skipped it and went shopping for a homemade cookie cake.  I googled how to make a Great American Cookie cake, but that requires Caro syrup....they do not have that here, nor do they have Great American Cookie Company.  I settled for making a chocolate chip bar cake.  I was lucky enough to find decorative frosting, but the store was out of chocolate chips, so I had to use chocolate buttons....they melt much easier, so the cake was a bit different on consistency.

Also on Tuesday Morgan and Dustin went to the Father / Daughter breakfast for school.  It was at a local restaurant. Dustin said they sat with some really nice dads and that Morgan had a great time.  She seems to be right in the thick of it with friends and being a normal silly 8 year old girl =)

Wednesday was a big day for Morgan and I.  We went to the zoo.  It really was so much fun to see her with her friends.   That silly Morgan that we are used to has finally arrived in Perth.  She was able to be herself and her friends really like her for it.  I was in charge of 8 girls as we walked around and took notes on the Bushland.  Their assignment was to take notes on the habitat's characteristics and make connections with how the habitat suited the animals that lived within it.  They will then create an animal of their own that could survive in the Bushlands.  Pretty impressive what these 8 year olds could do!!!

Many of the girls wanted to see what words we used in American versus their words here in Oz.  The word they are the most enthralled with is "ya'll".  To funny. One little girl asked "Now is that short for you all?"  She then tried to speak American like me...she tried to imitate my "accent".  We had lunch on the lawn and the girls played for a bit.  After walking the zoo for almost 4 hours, I was EXHAUSTED when we got home.  Morgan was too, and actually wound up getting sick =(

Thursday she stayed home and we make a cookie cake for Dusty's birthday.  The one we bought ingredients for on Tuesday ;)

Thursday night we celebrated his birthday because I did not have anywhere to hide the cake....so out of necessity he got his presents early!  The girls also made him a poster for his special day.....

On Friday, Dusty had the day off.  We got his haircut, and then just hung out while the girls were in school.  We went exploring at a new mall for us.  Still unsure of the brands over here and what is our style.  In time....all in time.  

Morgan went to school because she had music camp to get ready for her Winter Concert on Wednesday.  She is in the Petit Chorale and loving it.  When I picked her up at 6 that night though, she was wiped out and had a fever =( Poor thing.   Needless to say she did not do Netball on Saturday.  

Today we are just being lazy and resting!  

Whew, we had a busy week.  I really am going to try and write every Friday about our week, unless something blog worthy pops up earlier in the week =)  

Hope everyone is doing well.  Missing you all like crazy.

All our love and hugs!!!!

She shoots and she SCORES at Netta =)

Every term at school, the girls get to pick a new sport to participate in.  The first term was swim, the second term was either Minkey (hockey), Netta / Netball, and multi-sport training.  None of those are sports that are really played in the States, so we were really surprised when Morgan came home and said she wanted to try Netta.  Sure why not?  

I must say that Dustin and I were just proud that Morgan wanted to try something new!  Netball is a rather big sport here for girls, so I was beginning to get a bit nervous since none of us have any idea how to play or what to expect.  As with everything else, anything can be researched on the internet.  So we went to youtube to at least see how to play the game.  The rules on the other hand, well that will have to be learned along the way.  

So our first Netta experience was this Saturday at 8:15 am.  Let me start from the beginning....Year 3 is the first year that girls can play organized Netball, so it is called Netta.  Every year there after it is called Netball.  The game seems to be a mix between soccer and basketball.  The first piece of advice we received was to arrive at the court EARLY because parking was limited and that fields are BUSY.  Not knowing what to expect, we got to the game at 7:40.  When we arrived, I was shocked to see how many courts there were...OUTSIDE.  Morgan was on court 34. Okay now to explain the game....I am not sure how to start, so please bear with my rambling.

The court is split into three parts with a basketball goal on each end.  The difference is that there is no backboard on the goal.  The court has lines similar to a soccer field.  There are five girls on the court at one time and they are each assigned a specific position...Goal scorerer, goal assist, center, defender, and assist.  Similar to soccer, you must stay in your assigned area as well.  The ball cannot be dribbled, instead it must be passed.  If you have the ball, you cannot run with it....you can pivot on one foot to move around though.  

Morgan played GS (goal scorer), GD (goal defense), and GK (goal keeper).  The only people that can attempt a goal is GS and GA.  So when Morgan was GS, she was able to try MANY times to score....she scored once.  Now that is one more time than I would have scored because there was no backboard.  She did a great job with passing, defending, and catching the ball.  When she went to shoot, she was so excited that she often overshot the goal.  Overall though she did AWESOME, and we cannot wait to see how she progresses this season.  I think she is going to really enjoy it!

Below are some pictures:

They all clustered together...always

No backboard

A couple of the other courts

All the different courts there

Morgan in the front right

She was goal keeper.  Defended the other teams goal

Talking to the coach about what to do as Goal Scorer

Shooting....

She made it!

Shooting again....

After the game getting "lollies" (candy)

Can you hear the music???

Between taking the girls back and forth to school and running errands I spend a lot of time in my car.  I usually have the radio on and have been flipping through channels to find my favorite station.  One station  plays "oldies".  The radio was on this particular station when a song came on that gave me flashbacks to one of MANY nights spent dancing in  my garage with Gretchen ;) ....the song?  "Flo-rida's Low.  I realized that many of my memories could be associated with a certain song or bang.  For example:

"Rolling on the River"...Kelly Kyle and I used to ALWAYS sing this song while riding on her scooter.
"Diddy by Paperboy"....Katie Grothoff and I would listen to that until we got EVERY word right.
Any Pearl Jam song...Kevin Martens, you were obsessed with Pearl Jam.
"Getting' Jiggy with it"...Spring Break when I met Dustin ;) (with LeeAnne and Angela)
"Chicken Fried"....The Breaux Family because I tried to sing that song at the Crawfish Boil...I knew SOME of the words
"Tik Tok" by Kesha...Courtney Terry, sorry Addie taught your daughter the words to that one.
"Stayin Alive"...Andree Falast, it is your favorite!
"Rumpshaker"...Andree Falast, because we shook ours in college!!!
"Temptations"....Lynn Collier, she loves any song by them!
"Old Time Rock and Roll"...this reminds me of my parents because we would listen to their old records and at Camp Goddard in 5th grade I sang this.
"Broken Road by Rascall Flats"....My brother and Michele's wedding song.  I can see them dancing ;)
"Eye of the Tiger"...I have two memories....2nd grade in New Jersey listening to the band play this while sitting on a metal folding chair....AND the halls of Hamilton Middle School.

The list could go on and on...because there are SO many songs and so many moments that I can recall.  That is the beauty of music...no matter how technology changes, music will always be around.  The format may change, but the song does not.

Know that I may not talk to each of you everyday, but rest assured that I do THINK about everyone.  It may be at the most random of times, but it happens.

Oh and do you have a song that reminds you of me?  I would love to know which one.....

Hugs Always