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There has been a lag in posting again, but not for lack of motivation! This time it has been serious lack of time and opportunity. We've been very busy lately. With the last rain storm, the flood came in through the ceiling instead of the floor. After our inspection, we received two letters from the estate agent. One was the inspection report, which infuriated me with comments about our "relatively clean" oven and the "slightly greasy" hood when there was a freaking flood in one room to contend with. Grr. The other was a letter that infuriated Markus: an official notice that our contract will not be renewed, so we are now officially moving. Grr twice. I haven't moved within a location since high school. At least we aren't changing countries again, but still...it's rather un-fun. So on Friday, I saw four houses. This Wednesday, I saw two more. There just isn't anything out there right now. Most family homes become available in the spring, as family moves tend to happen over the summer while kids are out of school. It's nearly winter now, so most people are staying put. The search continues. Although we have no desire to drag out the process, we also don't feel the need to appease the slack owners with any kind of rush on our part.

On Friday, Ellie's class hosted corroboree, so we were happy to attend that. The name "corroboree" has an Aboriginal origin, and the school uses this word for their school-wide show and tell. Parents are invited on the days their children's class hosts, so Friday was our turn to see. Corroboree is always a bit lengthy but heavy on the cuteness when the hosting class does a presentation. Ellie's class recited poems, painted their faces and shared facts about lions with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as background music and sang another song about how Australia is the best place on earth (See, Americans aren't the only ones who go for homeland brainwashing!). Ellie is always so proud to see us there.


This past weekend was beautiful, so we were out and about quite a bit. We did a fair bit of socializing over meals, and then on Monday (Foundation Day in WA), we visited the museum to see the Pompeii exhibit. The entry point was a brief, 3D movie about the destruction of the city. The girls had fun trying to figure out the glasses.


We didn't see much of the exhibit (very small room, lots of people, squirmy kiddos), but we were all affected by the plaster casts of some victims on our way out of the exhibit hall. If you know much about Pompeii, it's likely you have seen images of these plaster casts before. I had. But seeing them in person was incredible. And so sad, in its way. Unbelievable that it happened nearly 2000 years ago, yet these were people so much like us! Incredible.

On Saturday, I had my hair appointment with a new hairdresser to get my color fixed. I just wasn't happy. I wanted her to make it lighter, brighter. I was thinking all over pale, strawberry blonde. She told me there was no good way to get there from how dark I was, so she spent hours (seriously, four hours!) making a very natural-looking transition from what I had to this:


You may not notice much difference (Markus doesn't), but I'm really happy. I don't even feel the need to go back to blonde anytime soon now, which is a pretty big change in me for a pretty small change in hair color. Of course, if you look closer at the photo, you will see this:


Both girls have kicked up the crazy a few notches. For a bonus, Stephanie didn't sleep last night until almost 3am. Ellie was up by 6; Stephanie followed at 6:45. I got about 3 hours of sleep. Then, Stephanie only napped for an hour (usually it's 1.5-3!). Thank goodness the week is short, because it has been intense!