Let's go back to the start

What a couple of weeks it's been.  Busy.  Very busy.

All our things are here, and most are now in place.  We're pretty well settled in.  We have a huge amount to get rid of - the consequence of moving to a smaller house - but mostly everything has fit where we imagined it would.

Unbelievably, poor J got sick the very day our container arrived.  She had to spend the day snuggled on the couch at her Nan's, who was luckily available for last-minute nurse duty.  Then A came down with the same bug a couple of days later, and do you what's fun?  Trying to unpack dozens of boxes with two feverish and SERIOUSLY clingy kids underfoot.  Oh wait.  No.  That's not fun at all.

But we got through it and are (touch wood) all back to fine fettle now.

Speaking of, please excuse me this small boast.  I for some reason decided to try on a pair of pants that haven't been even close to fitting me since well before J's birth.  Up went that zip!  Snap went that button!  They were even on the loose side!

This is through absolutely zero concerted effort.  Needless to say with everything else that's been going on, I haven't kept up the 5:2 for some time.  Turns out though, that the magic combo of carting wood daily, stressing out, chronic sleep deprivation, and carrying around two heffalumps really burns the calories!  I'm not far off my pre-kids weight (aka the first time I thought I was really fat *eyeroll*).

So, look out for my book coming out later this year.  I might call it something catchy like Stress, Carry Wood, and Don't Sleep: How To Get Your Pre-baby Body Back By Moving Internationally.

Now, being reunited with all our things, I can finally share the photos I took back when we first arrived.  Looking at them now I can't believe this was only two months ago.  So many leaves on all the trees!  So much grass in the paddocks!  Not to mention all the jobs around the property that have already been done.  It's pretty gratifying to see how much has changed already.

So, here come the photos.  There's quite a few...

Oh look, this could be New Zealand all misty but it's actually one of our last mornings in Perth.  Aw.  Kinda makes me feel a little nostalgic for the place.

Ok now this is NZ.  Bucolic.

The rosemary bush, the small shed, the vine-infested tree behind - all gone.  The driveway has a new load of dirt on it and we've planted a hedge around the lawn.  Not to mention the post and rail fence that now divides the drive from the orchard.

I was, and still am, so enchanted by the mossy, licheny everything.

Apples!

Feijoas! (but - don't tell anyone I said this - blergh)

Hydrangeas!  I walked around so thrilled to have bushes and bushes of my very own hydrangeas.

Yes, Prue, it's lichen.

The leaves were only just starting to turn.  That tank has gone from that spot as well, now I think of it.

Ol' curly top.

Ok this really is too many lichen photos, sorry you guys.

I was really excited.  I said to B, "This is like the soil we've been buying from Bunnings!  And here it is just on the ground!".  He was like, "Yeah".

Yup, very excited.  About everything.  Still am.  Just better able to mask it now.

Photogenic imperfect apple.  But also a sign of coddling moth issues.

Well, that was a very happy trip down memory lane for me.  It's fun being reminded how much of a dream come true this move has been.  I drive down our road and gaze at the rolling paddocks, and the big old mountain, and continue to feel almost disbelieving that we live here.

J calls, "Hi cows!  Hi sheepies!  Hi dee-are [deer]!  Hi fossies [horsies]!" as we drive past.  These are no longer animals she knows from books but ones that she sees every day in real life.  None of this will be a novelty to her, these are her childhood memories being made.

This is exactly what we wanted for our kids, and for ourselves.