Since her arrival, it's been belly-laugh mania. First there was a blind date, we'll come back to that in a future post.
Then yesterday walking down the street and see this:
(The sound of the hairspray is from OUTSIDE ON THE STREET! Please notice the chunk of hair standing up proudly.)
And we think the hair standing straight up is sooo funny, so we start laughing in the window, and she poses for us. Classic.
Then this afternoon, after a long day of beach-diving and crocodile wrestling, wind-blown, sandy, and hungry we pick the boys up at school. We eagerly show them the sea-glass we collected during our excursion and we all decide to get an early dinner at our favorite (that's favourite for any Aussies who are confused) sushi joint.
After our massive salmon teriyaki, sushi, and dumpling blow-out extravaganza, I asked for the bill, and was suddenly overcome with a sad, sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong... I was wearing my tiny dog-walking purse, carrying only my mobile phone and keys... my wallet was at home.
And I'm looking up at the front of the restaurant where you pay, and there's a mom (mum) from school there, and a small crowd of people getting take-away (that's Aussie for "take out"). I was going to have to do a sad walk of shame to the register and tell them, "Hi, I know we ordered a completely excessive amount of food for four people, we spared no expense... but unfortunately, I've got no money on me-- so is it cool if I just go home and grab some money and I'll come right back-- I promise-- I really will. I'll leave my boys and my adorable friend The Playroom Keeper here for collateral. If I'm not back in 20, just sell them to the highest bidder-- that should hopefully cover dinner."
But then I stopped, and then I thought-- wow, that super-smart husband of mine is always saying why is this bag, and that bag, so heavy?? And I'm always like-- it's not heavy, toughen up man. But now I stop and think-- husband you are sooo right, this little dog-walking purse is heavy-- there must be TONS of coins at the bottom of it, and who knows what's lurking in all those tiny little Kipling pockets.
And heavens to Betsy, there was money in there-- and as if by miracle only eclipsed by the rapture, our bill was $85.70 and we had $86.10... it was complete insanity as we dug through the bag counting coin by coin, and found $60 in Australian monopoly-style, paper-plastic money (yes, Aussie paper money is virtually un-rippable) and then praise the lord for the $2 coin, of which we had many... one of which, during our coin-counting madness, fell on the floor and rolled away, only to be found later whilst at the register paying and being told that we didn't have enough.
Here's a video we made to document the insanity which nearly led to our first Australian criminal charges.
There you have it, we narrowly escaped incarceration. Woo-hoo.