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Fire Safety II
Just a short note to let people know that we haven’t been affected by the most recent fires in southern Californian. Though they were much closer than last year the winds directed them away from our place. Given their regular recurrence it is easy to be motivated to have emergency plans in place. We discuss…
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ITIN, you TIN, no TIN
As mentioned previously, one of the main aspects of moving internationally is becoming a part of, and learning new systems. Inevitably, one will encounter the tax system and figuring this one out can be a major achievement. Australian, Dutch and German tax systems were, for me, relatively straightforward. I have pretty simple financial affairs and…
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One Year Here Again
Well it’s that time again — that’s right, the one year anniversary[1] of shifting to another new country. The transition this time has been easier in many ways but it’s never as plain sailing as one would wish for. Of course there is the fact that you are in a new culture — and despite…
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More on Micah
Micah is growing fast. In fact he is probably our largest baby at this stage. He’s a good feeder, pretty decent sleep and is already wearing clothes for 3-6 month-olds at his 2 month mark. He’s quite strong, doing a good job of supporting himself with his legs, and is also very smiley. He’s been…
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Baseball with the Angels
Recently a good friend invited Joshua, Elijah and I to join him at an Anaheim Angels baseball game. Now baseball isn’t something I grew up playing with softball being the generally preferred option that is closest. In the past, I’ve tried to watch the US-based ‘World’ Series at least twice and found the games like…
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Announcing the Sixth
After almost 8 months of expectation we are very pleased to announce the arrival of our sixth child, Micah Frederick. After a couple of weak false starts, Gaynor went into labour proper Wednesday 16th of July around noon. True to predictability, Gaynor’s parents — who are visiting for a while to help out with the…
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Language Update
Of course, one of the challenges of moving countries is the language barrier. The shift to Germany meant an obvious difficulty but the move to California has brought its own subtle problems. In Germany the challenge was to learn a whole new language, in California it’s retention. Retention of both our Australian dialect and our…
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More Room to Read
Well not actually more room to read as more more room to place some of our reading material. One of the things about moving internationally with very little is obviously fitting/filling out the new place. Gaynor has had pretty much free reign in this regard, though probably a bit slower than she would have liked.…
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Ari and Fenton’s Theme Park Trip
One thing southern California doesn’t have in short supply is theme parks. Apart the the big and well known ones — Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm among them — there are plenty of smaller ones scattered about the place and all seem pretty popular. Recently, Ariana earned herself a free pass, from a Jump Rope…
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Week 19, 2008
Sorry, no catchy title for this post — it is simply an update on recent goings on. Remember, you can always check out our published calendar of activities with the “comings and Goings” link on the left hand side of this (and every) page. Firstly, Gaynor is hanging in there with the pregnancy. She has…