Socks and other frustrations

So this may seem lame, but I am so frustrated today! It all started with me wanting new socks. Most of my athletic socks are all worn out and have holes in them, so I decided to get some new ones. A simple enough task.... or so I thought. I began my quest for new socks on Wednesday. It is Saturday and I only have 3 pairs of men's socks. How did this happen? Well, I'll explain. On Wednesday I went to Big W, Australia's version of Wal-mart. They didn't have any women's socks in my size. So I tried a few other stores and ran into the same problem. I was also appalled at how much socks cost here. In the US I could get a 6 pack of socks for $6.00 or less. Here I can't even get 1 pair for $6.00. Thursday night the stores are open late here (by late I mean 8:00 PM). So we went to the mall and I again looked for socks, but could not find any women's socks in a size larger than 8. Today I thought I'd try the sports store next to our house, but they only had men's socks and the cheapest pair was $14.00. I tried another sports store and found 3 pairs of men's socks for $20.00. It was the cheapest I could find and the only ones in a size large enough to fit my feet. I know I have big feet, but I have a hard time believing I am the only woman in the area with feet larger than a size 8. It almost killed me to spend $20 on socks I didn't even really like. All I have to say is these better be darn good socks that last a long time!!

I also find it so frustrating that so few companies in the US will ship goods to Australia. There are so many great things in the US you can't get here. You can look at them online, but you can't have them. It is like a cruel joke =). If we had an FPO or APO address they would send it here though. Shouldn't they send stuff to any American citizen living abroad? They should just require a passport number or something to prove your citizenship.

The last frustration of the day is Annabelle's new ability to wreak havoc on everything. She is just so quick lately. I'll give you a five minute sample of my day. She pooped, so I needed to change her, but she wanted to play on the balcony and crawled away. It was raining, so the balcony was dirty and wet, therefore Annabelle was dirty and wet. I picked her up to change her, which did not make her happy. She wiggled and squirmed as usual, but I couldn't distract her with toys like I normally can. Instead she pulled the a wipe out of my hand, mixed it with the dirt on her hands and painted the wall with mud(I was just glad it wasn't poop she was painting with =)). I finished changing her and she threw all the stuff off the changing table. I set her on the floor so I could clean up the muddy mess she made. I looked down and she had taken the top off the Vaseline she threw on the floor and was smearing it all over the changing table and my pants. I cleaned off her hands and she proceeded to take her muddy clothes and try to "clean" with them. I took them away and she pulled all of her clothes out of her drawers as I tried to clean up the other messes. I just wanted to yell "I surrender." I love that she is so curious and that she loves to explore, but some days it is absolutely exhausting. Here's to hoping tomorrow is a more restful, less frustrating day. Here's a few pictures of my adorable, but messy daughter.

Melbourne

We went to Melbourne this weekend and it was a typical "Ast" vacation =). It was cold and rainy the entire time we were there. Our flight got cancelled, the streets were flooded, there was a major storm during the outdoor penguin parade, the world had a level 4 pandemic flu outbreak..... you know the usual =).

Flooded streets of Melbourne

Overall it wasn't so bad and we did have fun together. We went to Phillip Island, which was absolutely beautiful, even in the rain and cold. We did get to see the world's smallest penguins.

Belle at Phillip Island

They march in together from the ocean at sunset every night to their burrows. It's pretty amazing. There was a huge storm and there is no shelter on the beach, so Dave stayed further up on the boardwalk with Annabelle under a canopy and I went to the beach to see the penguins come out of the ocean. I ran back to Dave and Annabelle just as the worst of the storm hit, but I was soaked. We watched the penguins from under the canopy and then made a mad dash for the car. We succeeded in keeping Annabelle dry and warm, but we were drenched. We drove the 2 1/2 hours back to the hotel cold and wet, but it was worth it.

We also went to the Melbourne Museum, Queen Victoria Market, and the Melbourne zoo. The Melbourne zoo is the oldest zoo in the world and it was stunning. It is set up to feel and look like a rainforest. Everything was completly covered in trees and plants. The paths were all dirt, they had cool outposts and play areas that kids could explore. It was the nicest zoo we've ever been to.

Oh, and I can't leave out the most important stops on the trip. We also got to go to a TGIFriday's, Borders, and USA foods. These places may seem commonplace to those of you in the US, but they are a luxery to us. It is hard to find American foods or large bookstores here and so these places were the highlight of our trip. We loaded up on lots of US goodies and brought them home. Of course they didn't have all of our favorites, but that's what friends and family are for right ;).