A lot can happen in a couple of days. So Wednesday was supposed to be the day Pete went to sign the lease agreement on the house. All very exciting that it would soon be ours. However, when he got there to do the inventory on the state of the house he found quite a few things wrong with the place. So we had to ask for repair guys to come in before we would sign. Some of the items were significant, like the doors on the back of the house didn't lock – very secure! So then Thursday he went back to check over everything and it was all ok, thankfully. Still not clean, so we don't intend to leave it spotless when we vacate. We're hoping to get a cleaner in on Friday before we actually move in, but we're paying for that. So after checking the house, Pete went to the real estate agent's office and signed the papers. Yippee!! We have a gorgeous new home! Now we're just praying that nothing breaks whilst we're there as we have to deal directly with the landlord, which comes with risks. But it's a fairly new build (2004) so hopefully nothing too disastrous will happen.
I have had a rather up and down couple of days, revolving around the terrible twos. I took them both to the Alaska Museum which has a section called Imaginarium. It's a science section which usually means lots of buttons for kids to press and they can see fun things happen. We'd been to Scienceworks in Melbourne before we left and it was brilliant (parents in Melbourne with young kids who haven't been, I highly recommend it). However, I was slightly unimpressed. It just wasn't as big as I had hoped. Obviously some of the exhibits require reading the signs and having some understanding of how the world works, and following the instructions to see the cool thing happen. So those ones go over Naomi's head. And unfortunately at this place that didn't leave many things for her to play with. There was a specific young kid's play area but it was almost a bit too young for her and she got bored easily. So it didn't take us long to be finished, which worked well as I needed to give Lydia her solids. So we made our way to one of the museum cafes and I started to feed Lydia. So of course Naomi took this as her cue to run off and out of sight. I had to keep going to find her. She was never far but I still wanted to keep her in my sight. When I announced we were leaving and not going back into the exhibits, she had a massive tantrum in the middle of the quiet atrium. The tantrum included a kick to Lydia's head so she was screaming too. Highly embarrassing. So I had to walk through the museum with two screaming children to get to the exit. Once at the car, I must admit I also decided to join the girls in having a little cry. I'm finding it really hard dealing with Naomi's playing up (even though I understand it, it's still hard to cope with).
Thankfully Pete came back to the hotel for lunch, so I was able to regain my sanity. We all traipsed off to the social security place to get our numbers. However, it turned out that only Pete was eligible for one so it was a bit of a waste of time for me and the girls. However, I did get to chat to Phyllis (our relocation consultant) and Shell has agreed to get her to buy the things we need in the house that we cannot rent. So I was able to give her a big shopping list from beds, to hand towels, to saucepans to pillowcases. Think it would be a fun shopping trip for her – I wish I was allowed to do it. But it's awesome that Shell is helping us out in getting settled before our shipping container arrives.
I also went to the first week of a 4 week class at church called Starting Point. It follows on from the welcome event we went to at the weekend. It breaks down some of the principles that the church lives by. Was quite interesting and good to have some time away from the hotel on my own. I had also missed having that time to study God's word during the week. I read my Bible every day but studying it and talking it out is very different. Think it made a difference to how I faced the following day. Pete will go to the class next week and hopefully we can both attend the following two weeks.
I went back to the play centre with Naomi today and she was very well behaved and didn't kick up a big fuss when I asked her to leave. Was good to get some energy out of her.
And a final point. You'll all be pleased to hear, that I now have straight hair again! Woohoo! My straighteners arrived and they are beautiful, complete with their own special little bag. Aaahh – life is good!
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