Rice/Root Beer Belly

I brought home a little souvenir from the Philippines.

Right away we figured out that if we were going to stay on budget we were going to have to eat like the locals. We had easy access to a lot of familiar foods from the US and Australia but they were much more expensive than other foods. So we ended up eating a lot of rice. Probably not a lot compared to what most Filipinos eat but we ate it 3 or 4 times a week. To someone like me who grew up eating rice 2 or 3 times a month that was A LOT! After a while I noticed that I was developing a rice belly. I tried and tried to work it off but nothing seemed to help.

I can't blame only the rice. We also had a lot more soda than we are used to drinking. There was Taco Bell, TGIF, Chilis, Pizza Hut and lots of other restaurants. Since we've been without some of these American chains for the last year and half we were so excited we had to go to them at least once (some of them a few more times). With eating out comes drinking soda. We could (and did) get bottled water sometimes but it was pretty much the same price as getting a cup of root beer! Sometimes it was too tempting to pass up. In the grocery stores we could buy root beer for $1 for a 1.5 liter bottle. Compared to $1.50 a can in Australia that was a bargain. Drinking lots of root beer = root beer belly.

Its been over a month now since we've been back in Australia and I still haven't been able to get rid of this rice/root beer belly!

Probably because I brought back another little souvenir as well...

Baby blank #3 at 13 weeks, 6 days. (I'm due July 21)

Rice/Root Beer/Baby belly

Dress Up

We never know what crazy costumes these boys will come up with but they always crack us up!

A Few More from the Philippines

I was just looking through pictures and found a few more that I haven't added yet. These would all be from our last week there.

They moved the ward Christmas party so we would be able to go. Everybody brought food to share and each auxiliary performed some kind of song or dance.

Relief Society

More RS sisters. They couldn't agree on doing a folk dance or a modern dance so they did 2. They are dancing to Nobody by Wonder Girls. This song was so popular while we were there.

Our Bishopric!! This was hilarious...not that they were bad dancers, just that they would get up in front of the ward and do a hip hop type dance! Everybody loved it!

Cute Primary kids on their recorders.

This little boy was dancing along with everybody. It was so cute!

Someone from church owns this tricycle. Jonas couldn't resist the thing. A couple of times Nate found him outside on/in it when he was supposed to be in class.



We became pretty good friends with this family. Had dinner together, went to the animal park, they took us into Divisoria so we could buy fabric to have clothing made. And they both served in the same mission as Nate (just at different times).

Good times.

Boys with Sticks

We went to a park a few weeks ago with Nate's old department from school (just before leaving for the Philippines there were some changes being made with the departments and Nate ended up in a new one). There were a couple of little boys there who Liam and Jonas have played with before. Almost as soon as we arrived Jonas found some sticks to play with. It wasn't long before they all had them and they went "hunting" in the trees and bushes. It was so cute watching them have fun and explore.

How Was the Philippines?

I have been asked this question so many times since returning from our trip to the Philippines. I usually start with a little laugh and then am not sure where to go from there. Did we love every minute of it? Not even. Did we have the best island hopping vacation ever? Probably. I feel like I would have to explain for hours for someone to understand what it was like but most people don't want to listen to hours of explanation. So I guess it boils down to this - It was a great experience for all of us. We got to live in a culture completely different from what we are used to and that was good for us to do together as a family but I am so happy to be back in Australia!

Here are some things I miss about Philippines:

1. Friends we made at church. Makes me thankful for Facebook so we can keep in touch more easily.

The whole Primary and leaders after doing their Primary presentation in November.

2. Taco Bell (maybe it is sort of sad that this is something I will miss but it was so nice to have one around! Bean burritos and fiesta potatoes...my mouth is watering while I type!)

3. Inexpensive living

4. Green everywhere (It was pretty shocking to come back to Australia in the summer. We had forgotten just how dry it gets here)

5. Rain to cool things down

6. Not being cold - ever! The first few days back I kept wearing a jacket because it felt cold to me.

7. Mangoes

8. Being able to spend more time together. Already it seems like most nights/days there is something going on. Life was a much slower pace there and we got to do so much more together.

9. Inexpensive haircuts. Nate and the kids got their hair cut at the barber the whole time we were there. Now we are back to mom doing the hair cuts. I think I have mentioned before how much I dislike giving haircuts. Just before we left I got my hair cut one last time. It was the equivalent of $5 including a tip. I was little nervous at first because the guy giving the haircut had a perm and a mullet but it all turned out fine.

10. Ice cream varieties. The ice cream flavors in Australia are so lame. You basically have a choice of vanilla, chocolate or a combination of vanilla and chocolate. I am only slightly exaggerating.

11. Clothing Stores. I never actually bought any clothing while we were there but I had a few stores I loved to walk through and look at - Jellybean and Kamiseta. The shirts were so cute and inexpensive! Do they have Kamiseta in the US?

12. Sis. Cristy's Tocino. A lady in our ward had a little home business seasoning and selling meats. Her tocino was amazing!

13. Ladies who come twice a week to clean bathrooms and sweep floors. I had forgotten how gross it could be sharing a bathroom with 3 boys because I was so spoiled!

So Much for Quiet...

Remember how I said I was looking forward to a quiet New Years Eve? Didn't happen. A family from our ward ended up inviting us to go with them to one of the local high schools to play around. The husband works at the school and has access to the gym and all of the sports equipment. There were about 15 kids and 12 adults. They played indoor soccer, wacka ball (sort of like soccer but instead of kicking the ball you hit it with foam bats), belly ball (sort of like kick ball but the bases were huge gymnastic mats that you had to dive onto with your belly) and volleyball. And there were gymnastic rings and ropes the kids could swing on and drop onto the mats, a climbing wall and trampolines. It was a lot of fun, especially watching Liam and Jonas running around with their little friends.






I hadn't planned on even staying up until midnight but we ended up staying at the school until just after 11. By the time we got the kids home and into bed it was almost midnight anyways so I think I made it until around 12:03. Does that make me old?

Catch up

I am so embarrassed it has been so long since I've last posted! I guess I have been busy - moving back to Australia, finding a place to live here, moving into that new place and getting settled in, getting Liam registered for school, reading the entire Twilight Saga. All pretty time consuming/important stuff.

The trip back from the Philippines was a long night/day. Our flight left at 8:30 pm, so we had most of the morning to finish up packing and weighing our luggage. I have to brag on myself for just a minute. We were only aloud 4 pieces of luggage (one each) and they couldn't be more than 23 kg. If we went over we had to pay something insane like $125 for 5 extra kg. We were very determined not to have to pay anything extra. I managed to pack each bag so that they were just barely under 23 kg and we didn't have to pay any extra. Of course one of our carry ons was probably 20kg because we kept transferring all of the heavy stuff into that one. It was a small suitcase with wheels and Liam was in charge of wheeling it to check in. I think having him pull that saved us because they didn't even bother to weight it but I am pretty sure I saw them weigh the guy in front of us in lines carry on. So we made it onto the plane without any major incidents. Always a stressful time though.

I really hoped we would have individual tv screens for each seat on the plane (like we did on the flight to the PH) but we didn't. It was the middle of the night and we were all really tired, so maybe it was for the better. It was a smaller plane so we weren't all able to sit next to each other. Nate and Jonas sat in the chairs behind me and Liam. Liam and Jonas fell asleep pretty quickly. I think I might have gotten a couple hours off and on of sleep. Nate didn't sleep much at all because Jonas can't sit still even while he sleeps. Every time Nate would start to doze off Jonas would kick or twist again, waking him up. I still think I got the worst of the plane ride though. Right as we were landing in Sydney Liam turns to me (looking pale and sickly) and pukes all over me. I think it took about 4 times for me to wipe the shock off my face and remember that there are motion sickness bags in the back of each seat. By that time he was mostly done. Thankfully it was a little cold for me so I was wrapped up to my neck in a blanket. So I was able to wrap the blankets and a pillow up inside one of the blankets and walk away with hardly anything on me. I tried to warn the flight attendants about the mess but they just said to leave it there and the cleaners would take care of it. I would hate to be one of those cleaners!

After our flight we had to catch a bus ride to Canberra. We have done it before and it was never a big deal but this time the bus was full. We bought 4 tickets but when we got on the bus there were no two seats together. I walked on with the boys by myself trying to find something. The best I could find were two empty seats, one in front of the other. I was ready to send Liam into one while Jonas and I took the other when a man offered to move so we could sit together. I figured someone would be willing to move rather than sit by them self next to someone else's child. For the next 3 1/2 hours Liam, Jonas and I shared the 2 seats. I am really annoyed that we paid for 4 tickets and only got 3 seats. Nate didn't have much more fun. The woman he was sitting next to took up a large chunk of his seat as well as her own. Then the man in front of him reclined his chair back right into Nate's knees and stayed there the rest of the ride. It was pretty much awful all around. I almost cried when we were a few blocks away from the bus depot just because I couldn't wait to get off. Okay, I was probably also happy to be back in Australia too! :)

Our friend who was keeping our car on her property while we were away met us at the bus depot with a box of food to make dinner and snacks. That was such a huge relief. We were so tired after our travels that the last thing we wanted to do was find a ride to our place and go grocery shopping. We booked a little cabin in town to stay at for the night so we headed there and rested for a while.

We had grand plans to find a place to live the weekend we returned so we had to start making calls right away to set up house viewings. We looked at a few (along with 10-20 other hopefuls) and were starting to get discouraged. There wasn't much listed, probably because it was so close to Christmas. The second night we were home (and for the next week) we stayed with some friends from church. They were leaving to go on a family vacation so we stayed at their house and fed their animals, watered their plants and made sure their trampolines kept their bounce. There was another family from church who was moving out of their townhouse that week. The wife's parents own the townhouse so we made a few calls and were able to move into their place the weekend after they moved out. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 level place. The bathroom and kitchen have both been updated recently. There is a very small backyard and a little bit bigger courtyard in the front. Plenty of space for the boys to run around and ride their bikes and scooters around in circles. And a little bit of dirt to play with their trucks and dinosaurs in. It is quite a bit smaller than the house were were in before and hardly has any built in storage space so we've had to get a couple dressers and things so we have places to put all of our junk. We are still trying to work out where to put everything. For now I keep piling more and more into the third bedroom so I don't have to look at it anymore. Settling in has been a little bit slow but its getting better.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas morning at home and then got together with a couple of families from church for a bbq dinner that night. I am looking forward to an even quieter New Years Eve tonight.

I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas! I am excited to get back to blogging and keeping up with all of your blogs again.

Happy New Year!!