Nine. Yep. And we're not done yet. Although, luckily we have been told we can stay in this cottage (paying nightly) until we find a house so that means we should stop at Move 10. As long as we're lucky and actually find a good house that doesn't try to kill us...
After the move to the apartment, we stayed the weekend and then had to move downstairs for a day before moving back to the cute little cottage. This little cottage feels more like home than anywhere else has! All two bedrooms of it. Two days after we got to the cottage we left again because of the holiday (Queen's Birthday and it was already booked, so what can you do?) and stayed at an apartment that is owned by a friend of the lady we've been renting from. That apartment had a lot of room but I'm pretty sure we were living in mold, unfortunately. But we still loved it. It was very very nice. While we were there we did more searching, went to church, went to a museum and Steve went to work.
After THAT move we moved right back into the cottage. Which is where we are now. Like I said, we've been assured that we could stay here until we have the house. We were also promised we could have the car we've been borrowing until we get a house. So happy for us!
Even better than that, Steve got two projects. We think, at least. Steve has been trying to take this exam for a long time and everything that could happen has happened to prevent him from taking it. He was warned that he better take it or else. So he signed up for the test and left an extra 1/2 hour early just to make sure he was on the train. His train time came and went. And he kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. He watched four trains go from the city to Frankston - the opposite way from where he wanted to go. He found out that power had gone out on the tracks a few stops down and they were waiting for another train to be ready. So there went another chance to take the test. He came home and picked up the kids and took them to school instead. Then he headed to work where he got to explain everything that had been going on.
By the end of the day, he had a project that starts in a week or two and when he got home that evening he got called for another one that lasts a week (which, since then has been shortened to two days...). We were very happy. How did we celebrate? We went to Ikea. Yep, we celebrate big. We had dinner and then wandered through and got a couple of things for the nonexistent house that we may or may not get sometime. :) Ok really we got mattress pads and crates (and Ethan managed to get some trains in the cart too but as they were 4.99 we let him get them). The crates are to help control our bags of stuff we have to take everywhere.
Saturday morning we were very happy to be going to a baptism. We made it just in time and enjoyed it. Andy had such a big smile afterwards, knowing that he has just over a month before he gets baptized. He told me he was willing to miss school so he could get baptized on his birthday. :) That's what his friend got to do but as his birthday is on a Monday that probably won't happen!
Afterwards we went house hunting. We went to a very large home that I was excited about because across a field was a primary school for the kids. But the house was a mess. There were tears in the carpet over where the tack board was so one wrong step and you'd have holes in your feet! There was electrical tape over a hole in the window and a few other miscellaneous messes. I'm sad because it was a very pretty house but we both felt it wasn't the right house. Darn.
We went to the next house and barely missed it. We were one minute late but no one was there. I'm wondering if they'd cancelled the showing or something. I did get to help an older couple move a desk to their house. I thought it would be just across the street but it ended up almost a block away! I'm glad we were able to help. They were hilarious to talk to and they thought it was awesome they were "being helped by the Americans" and invited us to come and visit them whenever we wanted. We may not have seen the house but we got to meet very sweet people!
The kids wanted to see where we'd lived when we first got to Melbourne and then they wanted to see their old school. Then Ashley needed to use the potty. We drove all over to find both a gas station and a potty (figuring they'd be in the same place). We found the gas station but no potty (and Steve got chewed out for using his cell phone while pumping gas - even though there is NO proof that anything can happen while doing so) and then headed off. The Woolworths we tried to go to had a "not an entrance" sign and yet we could not find the actual entrance. So we kept on going and just decided to drive. We finally came upon a huge shopping center where not one but three kids used the potty. We also found me a belt, Ashley a hat (it was buy one get one free) and Andy some shoes. Then we wandered home and had yummy spaghetti - a nice way to end the day.
Sunday, which is Father's Day in America, was just a normal day here in Australia. I still wished Steve a Happy Father's Day and sent him and Jakob off to church. The rest of us stayed at home and laid around blowing our noses and coughing up a storm. We must have coughed really hard because man, is there a storm out there today!!!
Back to yesterday though. After leftovers of spaghetti and chicken soup, we headed off to the beach for a few minutes. It was cold and we had colds so we didn't spend much time out there. I have some awesome video that I need to post. The ocean is a magnet for Heidi!!
Steve decided that he wanted chicken sandwiches for his Father's Day dinner. Worked for me! He went to Woolworths (a different one from the aforementioned one) Saturday night and got the leftover chicken and brought it home. So for dinner we had yummy chicken sandwiches followed by scrumptious ice cream. We also watched A Wrinkle In Time which was fun.
Today Steve took Andy and Jakob to school and headed off to work while I stayed home and cleaned, did the dishes, laundry and hung out with the younger kids. I got to talk to my mom and dad (and Georgy) on Skype. We got pictures of Heidi and my dad on screen so that I have A picture of my dad and Heidi. I cannot believe we never got pictures of the two together! She adores him and remembers him so I know they've spent plenty of time together!!
Now I'm going to bed so that 1. my kids will stop jumping off beds and laughing hysterically and 2. I'm tired. And maybe if I go to bed I won't keep having nightmarish visions of the windows breaking from the windstorm out there. Wait... isn't night time when you have nightmares???
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