We are water-logged where I am.  I am so so so sick of rain.  Every time I think it might actually dry up a bit, more rain.  Supposedly next week it’s going to start drying up.  Supposedly.

But then, there is always a silver lining.  At least it’s not dust.  I think I would hate that more.

On the East Coast of Australia just had a massive red dust storm.  The biggest in 70 years!!  Many cities along the coast are covered in dust.  On Facebook, we have family in Sydney and the Sunshine Coast complaining about dust.

Florida Girl in Sydney blogged about it and below is a photo of the Sydney Opera House.  You can barely see it there is so much dust!

And to think that most Australians would have gone to bed with their windows open, only to wake up with a fine layer of red dust all over everything!  How annoying would that be!

This photo is on www.news.com.au, along with others.

If you read this and are Australian, Hamish and Andy are probably not a surprise to you.  However, if you are outside of Oz, and haven’t heard of them, they are hilarious.

They are often on Rove McManus’ show, Rove Live, in Australia…who is also pretty funny in my opinion.  They have recently however been on Jay Leno.  My Mom asked me if I’d seen them.  Admittedly, it’s been a while.  Then, my sister-in-law told me about this particular skit of theirs and so I had to find it.

It’s one of my faves.  This might be bad karma actually posting this…I fear my own boys doing this to me one day.

My sister-in-law is visiting from Australia, hence the hiatus in postings.  She’s been spending lots of time with our boys and we’ve spent hours, after they go to bed, drinking and laughing and telling stories and just general, catching up with her.

It really nice when family from Australia comes to visit us in between our own visits over there.  It really makes it so much more bearable and is also so nice for them to see where and how we live and meet our friends and visit again with my family.

Since our oldest son was born four years ago, we have been over to Australia three times.  My in-laws have came over to the U.S. twice and now my sister-in-law.  That is more than some kids see their grandparents that live in a different state, much less a different country!

We feel very fortunate that we are able to do this.  Granted, we probably won’t be able to keep up this same rate, but our traveling will also get that much easier as our boys get older…so, you never know.  We knew when we got married we wanted to make it a priority for our family to do that one day, so that is what we are trying hard to do.

Next week my posting will get back to normal, I think…whatever that is.   I am planning a revamp of my blog too, so stay tuned!

Now, back to fun with my sis-in-law!

Some of the things Australians do to save money are not quite the same as in the US.  I mean, there are the general, “take your lunch to work“, etc that of course is pretty much the same everywhere, but there are some things that are quite a bit different.

There are no coupons for example!  That’s right, no coupons for grocery shopping.  This, I think, my send some people around here into cardiac arrest.

But, they do advertise sales frequently and do things like mark down fresh items substantially right before closing on certain nights.  I wish we had something like that.  I would make a routine of it and stock up my freezer on marked down bread or whatever.

This site here has more of what some people do in Australia to save money.  I found it very interesting with some good links for things like watching movies for free (still don’t see how it’s legal, but whatever), and the Australia version of Freecycle and another site called Freagle where you can also get things for free.

As I was reading to my son last night I was thinking about the books he chose.  I always tell him to pick three books and I never know what he will bring.  It’s always different, which is why I like to have loads of books for him to choose from.  Neither of us ever gets bored.

Last night one of the books he chose was Why The Emu Can’t Fly.

As an expat-Australian, my husband (and his family) are mindful of still keeping our kids aware, if not immersed, in Australian culture.

They have been given many Aussie stuffed animals.   Crocodile, emu, platypus, gallah, kangaroo, koala, echidna, etc not to mention the animal’s biggest advocate….a Steve Irwin doll!

We sing Australian songs.  Big D knows the words to Walzting Matilda and Home Among the Gum Trees, among others.

We read Australian books like Bilby Moon, Possum Magic, Bananas in Pajamas, and How Koala Lost It’s Tail.  Also other books like Adventures of the Wishing Chair and The Magic Faraway Tree, that are not by an Australian author (British author, Enid Blyton), but that many Australian children grow up reading.

And we talk about Australia a lot.  Big D can point to Australia on a map.  He knows we are going to have a hot Christmas this year since we will be in Australia.  He knows to call koala and kangaroo babies, “joeys”.  He has lots of shirts advertising Australia and will tell tell others who lives there if asked (like his Nana and Grandad and Auntie or cousins that he might be talking about at the time).

We use Skype and the computer camera so we can see and talk to people in Oz, and they don’t feel so far away and faces are always familiar to the kids.

It’s funny to me that our kids will grow up thinking that Australia is just a place we visit all the time, not really thinking much about it or how far away it is.  Going there from the US will be normal to them, like going to Alabama or Florida was to me.  That is just amazing to me.

Just like anybody whose family lives far away, whether in another state or another country, it’s hard for kids to stay connected to grandparents or family members when they don’t see them all the time.  We have to make an effort.  It’s something we talked about a lot before we got married.

We knew we would have to make sacrifices in order to afford travel when we had kids.  We knew we wanted to travel once a year to the country that we weren’t living in so that our kids could know their family and culture in that country.

So far it’s been great.  My in-laws from Australia have also visited twice in 3 years, and my sister-in-law is coming for a visit next month.  So far, we’ve been able to keep everybody really connected and familiar.  We also have a personal blog that I post photos on all the time, which the Aussies (and the Americans) love.

We have dreams of travel around Australia as the boys get older.   Like, loads of camping trips, travel to the West Coast and Tasmania, among other places while we are there, possibly take a year off (or at least the summer) and travel around Australia in a caravan….heaps of plans.  One day, when they all get older, I would even like to take my nephew and niece with us on a trip too.

How we are going to fit this in with our plans for travel around the US is beyond me, but we will work it out!

What kinds of things do you do to keep your kids connected either to another culture or family that is far away?