What a difference 24 hrs makes! It wasn't the tornado or the delay that broke this camel's back- stuff like that happens; all part of the adventure! What sort of undid me was, when arriving in Auckland, (sleep deprived and 8 and 1/2 hours late) at 5 am, we were informed that we were only on standby for tonight's flight. The Sydney crew could have done, but inexplicably did not book us into that flight even though they told us they had. This may mean we are ...

The adventure has started! We are overnight at Marrickville, only minutes from the airport. All of the of unfamiliar big city sounds are unnerving. There was a real sitcom moment when our local friend was giving me the real lowdown about how unsafe this suburb can be. I was very aware of the kids being in the next room- so through some deft sign language I communicated this and we embarked on a very staged conversation about how very 'safe' we both felt right ab...

We are less than 8 weeks out from the trip now. After a dry patch of not being excited at all, there is now a growing buzz inside me that I am pretty sure is NOT a seizure!!! It is the anxious stage too, where I am starting to double-guess things that may thwart our departure. Today's panic centered around the realization that the 7 yr old hasn't had chicken pox yet. So many choices to tackle this crisis. 1) Find someone with chicken pox and move the 7 yr old int...