This week has been chillier. We are still ok in our sweatshirts and at night it is warm enough with our sheet and comforter, but there is a chill in the air, especially at night.  I am wearing my jacket and a scarf out and about usually. The sun warms the air substantially, but today was rainy and overcast.  Thank goodness for slippers, snuggily cats, and hot chocolate.  It is not nearly as bad as WI, but the chill in the house is palpable.  Jax has two oil heaters she is going to get to help.  They plug in but don’t use that much electricity.  We shall see. Hopefully it doesn’t get too much colder because all our warm stuff was either left home, sold, or is still 16 days away (estimated). When our stuff does arrive it will be like a Christmas surprise for me because I have forgotten most of what I packed.  It was so rushed at the end of our time in Wisconsin, that Brandon ended up sorting, recording, and packing up our shipment.  I hope I have more sweatshirts at least so I can layer up.  Overall, I am impressed with our packing abilities and thriftiness; we have made it 14 weeks on still the stuff we brought in our 1.5 suitcases each.  (the .5 was the cats’ crates) I have only bought clothes for work since they had to be a part of our uniform.

This weekend was fun.  Friday, Heidi joined us for dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street that was good.  We all then turned to our usual evening activity of chilling upstairs on the internet +/- me knitting or watching something on TV.  Saturday,  Heidi headed to her parents for the rest of the weekend and Jax picked Brandon and I up for an adventure north to the Central Coast, about an hour away.  Traffic delayed us so we had to post pone lunch til we got there.  The amazement park/barnyard farm we were going to had already closed for the day.  The local historical museum was also closed and the chocolate factory was closing soon.  So we spent some time at the mall where we ate in Wyong and then at Chittaway Bay walking along the lake.  Jax said she will have to take us to the beaches along there because they are awesome.  The whole area was very pretty and hilly.  You could not see much of the coast from the road because of all the hills.  So much of Australia to explore!

Sunday was a catch up day.  We went to church, talked to people back home, cleaned, did laundry, meal planned, and grocery shopped.  I hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day with family! Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome women in my life!  I also was doing business stuff and looking into flights home.  We are planning on coming home in July pending my leave approval.  Flights are a bit complicated for a few reasons.  To maximize our time off, I was hoping to book a flight out of Sydney airport Thursday night, but there are not any straight flights to the US, only through Dubai.  Jax was telling us that since the Sydney airport is so close to residential areas there is a curfew, so there are not many late flights.  So we will have to do our long flight right away in the morning, after sleeping through the night.  Dumb! Oh well.  It is what it is for flying there.  Coming back is a different story.  If we leave on Sat, we don’t get back until Monday or Tuesday.  Meaning, I have to ask for more time off if I want to actually attend my cousin’s wedding. 😉 So much drama.  Our flatmates are laughing at us for taking so little time off and making such a big trip.  We are used to it though since this is how we typically travel since we had limited leave in the US.  Here, I haven’t earned enough of my four weeks of leave since I am on probation for my first three months.  I can take unpaid, which is fine, but I almost couldn’t come back in July at all due to another coworker being off, so we will see.  I am sure it will all work out.  I will keep you all posted.

Brandon’s scarf is coming along.  I hope to finish it this week, then onto his hat.  It is nice to have something productive to do while sitting watching TV in the evenings.  My parents send me a Aussie slang word search from the neighbor and my flatmate thought it was amusing.  So many different meanings and phrases in Australian English that we have had to get used to.  I think me more than Brandon since he works at a company with people from all over the world.  Most clients and coworkers that I have are very much Australian and have the vocabulary to prove it.  🙂 I am going to end there, I need to get my hat and slippers on and then start making dinner.  Hope everyone has an awesome week!