Friday, April 15, 2011

When Life Lobs Lemons at You....

... fall to your knees and pray it won't hurt too much!!

Rule of thumb to follow:  NEVER say "Bring it on!!" because it will be brought.

This morning began like any other since we got here.  Steve rolled out of bed and out of the house (stumbling and looking for things while I glared at him, hoping I could go back to sleep) and I rolled over and fell back asleep - until 9:00.  I was actually surprised.  Why, I don't know, because that's what has happened most mornings since we got here. One advantage to no school. :)

I got up, made sure the kids weren't killing each other, and then did my morning "catch up and read everything since I last read the newsfeed on Facebook" routine.  Then I got to gather all my kids and call my family on Skype!  Skype is the best invention ever.  Really.   From thousands of miles away I got to see my family in my parents' house just as clear as could be (for the first hour... then it got fuzzy).  The kids were ecstatic.  The little ones didn't know what was going on but Heidi DID remember everyone and was trying to get to the computer screen.

When my brother-in-law asked me if we had a house I told him that we didn't but that we would be hearing back any time.  The next wave of family came in (We have 38 - I think -  total people in my family so they had to go in shifts) and while I was talking to them, Steve called to tell me we got the house in Garran. Yay! We were excited. Great neighborhood, great school, amazing location. Woohoo! And we could finally call a school and get started on getting the kids enrolled.

We continued talking. Cousins showed off lost teeth and everyone was making funny faces.  After being disconnected and having my computer run out of power once, we talked again for a while. I got to my last sister (while the others made burritos that I'm STILL craving) and we were talking about everything from the bookstore to what we were going to do this weekend and then the phone rang again.  It was Steve again, letting me know that the lease couldn't be signed on the house because we may possibly move.

Wait, what?

So in the process of one phone call (well, 3 because of the disconnections - and granted, it was a 2 hour phone call...)  we went from no house, to a house, to possibly moving...

I talked for a bit longer and then decided I should probably eat breakfast - or lunch since that's what time it was.  We cleaned and packed and cleaned some more.  The maintenance guy came to fix the lights and the cleaning lady came to get towels and rubbish (I still think that sounds cooler than garbage...).  The lady said "So, you move out tomorrow?" Um, no.  We have another week.  I told her the room had been paid for up to another week and she just kinda shrugged and left.

30 minutes later I got a phone call from reception saying they hadn't heard from the company and that they couldn't possibly keep us after the 20th... OH and we were being charged every day since last Sunday. $350 a day....  I told them I'd talk to Steve.  Luckily SMS hopped right on it and got things worked out within minutes after I talked to him.

But before I heard back from Steve about things being worked out, I had a meltdown. And yes, I did say "I want my mommy!!!"  I really did. You can ask my mom because I told her that on msn messenger.  I chatted with her and my sister until I was able to calm myself and think about the good parts of the day.

What were those?  Let's see.  I did get to talk to my family.  That was a HUGE bonus. I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I like those.   My kids wreaked havoc on the house and wouldn't help me clean when I asked them forty times.  Oh wait, that wasn't a good thing.   But there were good parts of the day.  And I got to talk to them about some of the things that had been bugging me.

I have loved Canberra.  Its grown on me. Its green, its hilly, I love the shops and just everything about it. I REALLY wanted it to work out and find a good place.  But in our search for houses, we never found "The House".  The one we just had to live in. The house that I would be devastated if we didn't get.  There were gorgeous houses, huge houses, cute houses, scary icky spidery houses, old houses,  nice houses.  But none that I had decided was the one.   It disturbed me.  Where was that house? Which little suburb was just calling my name?  None of them felt right.

So I kept wondering if this area was the right place for us.  When Steve told me we could possibly move I felt a slight hope that maybe in one of the other towns here we could find "The House." Instead of freaking out that we were going to be uprooted I was actually excited.  I was sad because we've made some great friends, we just bought 2 year season passes to an amazing museum and I just love the city.  But I knew that Steve had a better chance of finding a project - two had fallen through here - and we might have better luck finding a cheaper house and a school elsewhere.

Steve waited to hear when he and his boss would be meeting and then talked with them.  They were going to wait until Monday and I thought my head would explode.  Luckily we were spared the yuckiness and they decided today.  Melbourne it was!!

I was very excited.  I'd heard so many good things about the city.  Its been on the top 10 list of Most Liveable Cities in the world for the last 10 years.   True, it has 3 million people and I grew up in a town of 650 people but I can handle that..... right?   We even found a school that's a boarding school for grades 5 and up.  Jakob was very interested. I'm not so much. For some reason the boys didn't want the Presbyterian Lady's School.  Silly kids.

So on we move to the next adventure.  Oh, I almost forgot.  How did we celebrate this momentous day? We went out to an Italian restaurant (L'unico Ristorante) and ate a $211 dinner... Guess that won't happen much.  $40 of that was Fanta drinks.  Apparently refills aren't free. :)  The food was amazing though.  Steve had a pizza and I had salmon pasta.  Three kids had chicken nuggets, one had lasagna and one had Italian sausage.  Each kid's meal was $9.90...   Heidi ate whatever we handed her.  And ice cubes. That she pulled out of my drink without me knowing it - until she dropped one and it slid down my arm.   The dessert was an amazing mousse. Yummy!   We ordered three so Steve told the waitress we wanted three mice.  She laughed.

Time to start packing. Again.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry it was a horrible roller-coaster of a day! It was really fun to skype and chat though and I'm very happy that it all turned out well in the end. Good luck with your next move! Oh and you should probably get to bed soon - I see that you're still awake in that awful day. =o) Tomorrow will be better! You have a great attitude about the whole thing. Love you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't believe how crazy this has all been for you! Melbourne really does have a good reputation, so I really hope things work pout better there for your family, and that you'll find a home that feels just right for you! Sometimes you have to live in a place a little while before you get that feeling. I love our house here, but to be honest, I don't think I would have picked it at all, even though it's in an excellent area. I'm so grateful now though! Some things need time. All the best! Hope we get to say good-bye at church tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete