Wow, so much has happened that I can’t even begin to write about it all. Instead, I’ll just give the bare bones version.

We left Brisbane and drove to Surfer’s Paradise where we stayed for a few days. That was nice and relaxing after the hectic packing and uplift of our furniture. Then we drove on to Sydney. We spent the day with John’s brother and it was great to catch up with them. We drove out of Sydney the next day and nearly got to Canberra when we had to go back to Sydney for family reasons. We didn’t get to set off again until 6pm which was, you guessed it, during peak hour traffic. We were expected at the apartments in Adelaide on the following day. We couldn’t see how we could make it. We usually take ages to travel anywhere as John stops regularly…and really, how fast can a Tarago van, lugging a trailer go? It was my bright idea to not stop overnight and just keep going. My dad told me that Friday was going to be 38 degrees so this confirmed the decision. So we drove and drove and drove until we got here yesterday afternoon. Yes, 33 hours of straight driving!

But we arrived! We were put into apartments but as it was Easter break and considering the large size of our family (Oh puhleeze) we couldn’t get an apartment big enough so the girls were in one apartment and the boys, John and I were in another. We were only there for one week and then we had to move to another block of apartments in the city where we had the same arrangements.

House hunting has been a nightmare. Real estate agents didn’t want to know us just before the Easter break so we felt like we were just ‘marking time’ or sitting on our hands. On Tuesday, we set about looking for rentals in and around the area but they were not suitable for a variety of reasons: price, condition, size, etc. We thought we’d do a drive-by of a Defence house that we initially thought was too far away. We looked at it and decided that it would be fine- a nice two-storey place. John called DHA the next morning, but it was taken. The only other house they could offer us was in the similar area but it is smaller. However, there is a bright side to this house. Our niece and her young family live exactly across the street! Wow, how cool could that be? After being away from family for 6 years, we could be right across the street! 😎 We are waiting to find out for sure if we get this house and if so, when we can move in.

It has been a rather difficult time. Personally I wouldn’t have minded being in the temporary accomodationn if it were just the boys and us. We could easily explore the neighbourhood and do a few basic workbooks but teh girls have wanted to get a start on with their new lives. ‘Miss R’ needs to get settled into a new school and ‘Miss A’ is keen to start her part-time course in fitness as well as get a new part-time job. We have put this off until we knew what area we would be living in. The girls have found it all rather frustrating. Previously we have always tried to embrace each move as a new, exciting adventure and while the girls still do view it this way, they have a sense of frustration. But they have lived in this state of ‘limbo’ for quite some time now so I totally understand how they would feel.

So that is the skeletal version of our life over the last few weeks. Of course it has been fuller and richer than what it sounds, but that’s an overview. I’m still totally convinced, more than ever, that life is education! 😛

Glossary:

Pre-pack – the day the packers come and start packing all our furniture, books and belongings into boxes.

Up-lift – the day the boxes and furniture are packed onto the trucks

Down-lift – the day our furniture and boxes are unpacked from the truck to the house

DHA – Defence Housing Organisation

Edited to add: Just heard from John. Yes, we have the house so we know where we’ll be living! Our down-lift day is next Wednesday. Yes, we have to move apartments again tomorrow but at least we finally have a house and a moving in date! Wahoo!