Crikey!

When people said, "You're so brave!" as we set out to move our family over here -- I never felt it was anything but exciting and fairly easy... until I started seeing some of this stuff in person. All the admonitions to "check your shoes" are starting to ring true after our discovery last weekend. Good thing we're one street over from the hospital for any emergency anti-venom needs. Sheesh.

Let me expound...

Australia is home to 7 of the world's 10 most poisonous snakes. These ones live in our area: King Brown and Tiger Snake. Advice: Wear good shoes, make lots of noise and carry a stick while "bush-wacking" (walking) in tall grass. My neighbor said on any given night 10 snakes go through your backyard. Saweeeet.

We also host a majority of the world's most poisonous spiders. The smaller, the more dangerous. We are learning to always check anything left outside for a while. The Redbacks we have on our patio haven't killed anyone since the anti-venom came out in the 80s and most people don't react with more than a painful itch. Still gives me the creepy-crawlies though. Not to mention those hairy monsters I photographed in our living room HERE... In fact, they estimate 80% of the spider species here aren't even known to science. It's a fascinating figure too that 80% of all plant and animal life that lives in Australia exists no where else.

What a crazy cool country.

But let's continue...

Big Bugs: they're just plain bigger/hairier/creepier here. The bull ants (below) have a red mid section and are almost an inch long - they're everywhere and give a very painful bite. Not sure what got me, but I had 26 bites on one foot the first week we got here and the itch is JUST now fading away as the spots shrink. That's one way to slowly go insane, I tell you what.

Kenna found these crazies and about jumped out of her skin when they disappeared from their cocoons after this pic.

And as cute as those boxing kangaroos looked, we learned from our neighbors to give them space, and keep dogs chained up or inside. They will kill your dog by holding it against a tree with their arms and clawing its guts out with their powerful feet. Nice. Apparently, they come down to our yard at night - so that's what those large deer droppings we've seen are. Neighbors have hit them on our street in their cars, causing $3000 worth of repairs on average. Duly noted.

Saw these babies on a walk last night - no idea.
The worms & crawlies around are endless.

Speaking of dangers and money - there's a serious speeding racket here. I swear it's more for the money than the safety. They have speed cameras all over, but particularly in the places where it's tricky to adhere to: bottoms of hills and sections where the speed limit drops for a blip before going back up. Oh, and they get you - everyone warns me. I'm nervous every time I get the mail now because it's just inevitable. Reason I'm nervous? Speeding fines start at $150 and go up from there.

Of course there are the crocs, sharks, jellyfish and the Outback itself to be concerned about too, but we feel a bit removed from those threats.

The SUN however, is not to be taken lightly. The UV rays get up to 15 (never seen anything more than 10 on North America) so even on cloudy days you can get terribly burned. Sunscreen, hats, and long, loose fitting clothing to absorb the heat will actually keep you cooler than tank tops and shorts. Not exactly intuitive, but good to know.

Lastly, well, I'm sure it's not lastly and this will end up being a shallow overview. But, I keep hearing about the magpies that attack you at certain seasons when you're walking along unwittingly too close to their nest. My neighbor warned, "oh yeah, they'll take a chunk outa ya" and Darren's coworker got swooped twice, head bloodied and all. I guess the advice is to carry umbrellas and glue funky antennae on your bike helmet and such. We'll be looking forward to THAT season. (I'm picturing that old Hitchcock film The Birds...)

So Welcome and Come Visit - but don't say I didn't warn you.

Of Houses, Hats & Carnivals

SCHOOL. Bless it. Forget the notion that our move precipitated this blog. I, all of a sudden, find myself staring down 6 virtually uninterrupted hours each day while my three children are in school. (The same school, with the same schedule, I might add.) Brilliant.

Aren't they just cute?? (Kenna wasn't thrilled about not having packed black shoes.) Due to the hole in the ozone being directly above Australia, it's actually law that children must wear sunscreen & these funky hats anytime they're outside during school hours.

We toured four schools the day after we landed, and were equally impressed with each. Great education system. We chose a private Catholic school down the street with vegetable gardens, chickens to feed and a kitchen for cooking classes. I have to admit I like the idea of having them experience something totally different than they would otherwise have. Uniforms, agriculture, religion sprinkled in. I'm liking it. We may be heavily focusing our FHEs this year on the LDS Articles of Faith to avoid any doctrinal confusion, but I think there's great potential for enriching life experiences there.

The first day was actually their Swimming Carnival. We were bussed to a pool for the day for games and races and they made some cute friends as we sat with and cheered on their "house" participants. Yes, they are assigned houses, like at Hogwarts and it actually makes for some great school spirit activities.

Monday was their official full day and they did great. Well, except for Annie who cried about 5 of the 6 hours. She's still pretty young for "kindie" but barely makes the cut. Kenna's been a sweetheart to play with her on breaks but I think she'll be fine once she makes some friends. They all got real nice father's blessings Sunday night and we talked up how lucky they were to get two in one year (hoping they won't realize that they also never got a summer break...) Kenna and Will bumped up to year 2 and 3 and are so responsible, setting their alarms each night and getting dressed right out of bed. It's pretty cute and they seem to be adjusting well. I think I heard the words "best first day of school ever" in fact.

And me- I'm just home propping my feet up eating bon bons. (wink) I have yet to work out a schedule, but it's worth mentioning that Summer is at that delectable stage where she can sit and play on a blanket with toys for quite a while between naps. She officially "crawled" the week we arrived, but hasn't caught the full vision of being mobile just yet, which I'm a-okay with. Bless her sweet little heart.