Bloody hell. I log in and realize I haven't posted in over three years. Three short years in which a lot has happened.
Looking back to where I was when I last posted it is hard to think where my head was at the time. I had moved my children from their home in Colorado to a new life in Canberra, Australia. I was acclimating to a new life living in my homeland, realizing I was like a square peg in a round hole, I just didn't fit very well anymore. I have said to anyone who will listen that for the first year in Australia I suspected I had made a very big, expensive, mistake moving back. But then I began to have friends I enjoyed hanging out with and the kids had found friends at school. Life began to take on a degree of normalcy that allowed us all to enjoy living in Australia.
By early 2012 I heard rumblings that the Aussie government would bring down a very tight budget, opting to balance the budget rather than spend on projects. I began to seriously save my money to offset the chance of having my contract not extended. This turned out to be a wise decision as I finished at my contract by end of July. Rather than sit and worry about the future I opted to fly back to Colorado the next day to gauge just what the next move should be. B had already told me he thought living in Australia was good for the kids. I wanted to see if our move should be permanent or not. It didn't take long being back in my home in Colorado to realize that my marriage had ended quite some time ago and that we had just been functioning on auto pilot. I voiced my desire to officially end our marriage and B requested I bring the kids back. Well, I guess that gave me direction. I had never intended to permanently separate them from their dad, the intention was to give them their two years residency in Australia so that their citizenship there would extend to their own children. A quirk of citizenship by descent is that you can only pass it on if you live in Australia for two years.
For the next few months I tried to find a contract in Canberra to carry me over until the move back to Colorado, which could not occur before the end of the year as the kids needed to finish their school year. Nothing suitable became available and I enjoyed my time as a stay at home mum, walking kiddies to and from school every day, baking cookies (with the help of thermie of course) and relaxing. I was also looking for a job in Colorado and applied for a position at Progressive Insurance. That was in September and the application process dragged on due to some interesting twists and turns. Ultimately I wanted to leave Canberra before school started for the 2013 school year, February 5th. In fact that was the day we flew out as I received an offer at Progressive in late January. That was also E's birthday, so she was able to have birthday pavlova with her Aussie grandma for breakfast and then have birthday cake with her American grandma for dinner all on the same day.
Within three days of arriving I had the kids enrolled in school. Within a week I was at my new job. Presto chango and we are living in the US like nothing happened. But something did happen, my kids discovered that their mum isn't really all that weird when you get her in her homeland environment, and that there is a possibility of living happily outside of the comfort zone they once had. Two things made returning to the US easier than I expected. 1. Miss Millie travelled ahead of us and was waiting for us at home with her tail wagging, excited to see us. 2. I managed to snag a Thermomix from Canada and it was waiting for me. That is a story in itself and I'll save it for a separate blog.
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Friday, 22 July 2011
Looking forward, looking back
Electric blanket on, check. Dishwasher turned on, check. Teeth brushed and makeup chiseled off, check, check. Now I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for my 5 year old and her sleep over pal to fall asleep so I can turn off the tele and hit the sack myself.
So I sit and wait and dangerously ponder just what I'm doing here. Did you see Austin Powers? The part where Dr Evil has his cronies gathered around him and he is maniacally laughing over his fiendish plan and the camera keeps rolling. Eventually the laugher subsides to an awkward silence. That is how I feel now, the excitement of the move to Australia and adjusting is over and now I'm looking around me feeling a tad bit awkward.
Maybe it is more like reaching the halfway point in your journey, when you know choosing to go onwards or backward entails the same distance to travel, just the destinations are different. It feels so weird to be back in the position, but now there is so much more at stake than just myself and a suitcase. Now I have to think about my family and their ability to adjust.
This goes as much for any geographical journey as it does about the journey of life. At 44 I will be very fortunate if I am now half way along, and I know I can't go back in time but I can choose to remain safe and stable doing what I've done successfully. Or I can choose to do something new and exciting and taking a risk and move forward. I think that is why I've chosen to apply to the Department of State for a position working in the US Embassies around the world.
Wish me luck, and I'll post any progress I make beyond managing to get the application lodged online.
So I sit and wait and dangerously ponder just what I'm doing here. Did you see Austin Powers? The part where Dr Evil has his cronies gathered around him and he is maniacally laughing over his fiendish plan and the camera keeps rolling. Eventually the laugher subsides to an awkward silence. That is how I feel now, the excitement of the move to Australia and adjusting is over and now I'm looking around me feeling a tad bit awkward.
Maybe it is more like reaching the halfway point in your journey, when you know choosing to go onwards or backward entails the same distance to travel, just the destinations are different. It feels so weird to be back in the position, but now there is so much more at stake than just myself and a suitcase. Now I have to think about my family and their ability to adjust.
This goes as much for any geographical journey as it does about the journey of life. At 44 I will be very fortunate if I am now half way along, and I know I can't go back in time but I can choose to remain safe and stable doing what I've done successfully. Or I can choose to do something new and exciting and taking a risk and move forward. I think that is why I've chosen to apply to the Department of State for a position working in the US Embassies around the world.
Wish me luck, and I'll post any progress I make beyond managing to get the application lodged online.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
What's It All About, Alfie?
I've threatened to do this in the past, and I've finally broken down and created a blog. A place I can brain dump when I need to, or laud my latest thermomix efforts or whatever.
So why today? What spurred me to actually create my blog today? Two things, it is bloody cold and I'm waiting for the electric blanket to heat up my bed and a discussion today at work about the housing market in Australia.
The electric blanket should be self explanatory, so let's just jump right into the housing market. Having been back downunder for just over a year I am constantly looking at the housing ads, as like all Aussies brought up in this country I was taught to believe that renting is bad and I should own my own abode (and possibly a second one to rent out). Luckily logic now guides my actions, not these ideas from my childhood, but even I sometimes swoon over a house, and I am becoming immune to the sticker shock of half a million dollars for an average 4 bedroom house in the suburbs until I look at the mortgage calculator and gasp in shock at just what the repayment per month would be at the current interest rate. Let's not even look at 10% or, gasp, 17% as it was in the early 90's.
The cost of housing has increased so much since I left in 1995, and there seems to be this belief that the appreciation of property at roughly doubling every 8 years is sustainable. I think not. Having had the break from living here that I've had I now look around and what I see is pretty troubling. 20 to 30 years ago having 2 incomes in the household was a luxury that allowed some families to buy a lot of home for their money. Now I look around and 2 incomes is absolutely the minimum needed these days for a family to get into a home, and that isn't a luxury home either, that is a handyman's special. I personally think that the cost of housing is approaching the point where a two income family wont be able to make the repayments. All the potential increase in house prices has finally absorbed the additional income of the second income. Throw in a couple of children and daycare and that is pretty much breaking point. All for the sake of owning a home. The only income potential left now is to put the kids to work, either down a mine or serving fries and a coke. I guess there is always the potential for getting grandma and/or grandpa to move in and use their pension money, but then where is the paddle when they are no longer around?
I believe that there are more factors at play here than just two income families going head to head over a choice home in a desirable suburb, but the rant stops here. This is the kind of stuff I think about, this and cute fluffy, chubby puppies.
So why today? What spurred me to actually create my blog today? Two things, it is bloody cold and I'm waiting for the electric blanket to heat up my bed and a discussion today at work about the housing market in Australia.
The electric blanket should be self explanatory, so let's just jump right into the housing market. Having been back downunder for just over a year I am constantly looking at the housing ads, as like all Aussies brought up in this country I was taught to believe that renting is bad and I should own my own abode (and possibly a second one to rent out). Luckily logic now guides my actions, not these ideas from my childhood, but even I sometimes swoon over a house, and I am becoming immune to the sticker shock of half a million dollars for an average 4 bedroom house in the suburbs until I look at the mortgage calculator and gasp in shock at just what the repayment per month would be at the current interest rate. Let's not even look at 10% or, gasp, 17% as it was in the early 90's.
The cost of housing has increased so much since I left in 1995, and there seems to be this belief that the appreciation of property at roughly doubling every 8 years is sustainable. I think not. Having had the break from living here that I've had I now look around and what I see is pretty troubling. 20 to 30 years ago having 2 incomes in the household was a luxury that allowed some families to buy a lot of home for their money. Now I look around and 2 incomes is absolutely the minimum needed these days for a family to get into a home, and that isn't a luxury home either, that is a handyman's special. I personally think that the cost of housing is approaching the point where a two income family wont be able to make the repayments. All the potential increase in house prices has finally absorbed the additional income of the second income. Throw in a couple of children and daycare and that is pretty much breaking point. All for the sake of owning a home. The only income potential left now is to put the kids to work, either down a mine or serving fries and a coke. I guess there is always the potential for getting grandma and/or grandpa to move in and use their pension money, but then where is the paddle when they are no longer around?
I believe that there are more factors at play here than just two income families going head to head over a choice home in a desirable suburb, but the rant stops here. This is the kind of stuff I think about, this and cute fluffy, chubby puppies.
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