A girl can never have too many stuffed toys, especially bears!!! :-)

Let's see...where were we? We've covered footy and other sports. We've covered a small sampling of books and videos Leigh has shared with me, although we've only scratched the surface. There are so many more! We've covered the childhood classics of Kaka the Cockatoo and The Magic Pudding. We've seen some of the toys he's sent to me and...wait! We're missing something very fun and exciting!

Grandma Selm would skin me alive if I left out Yowies!!!

Yowies are sooooo much fun! If we have something like this in the US, I'm not aware of it!

Yowies are chocolate eggs that are hollow inside! Crack them open and inside you'll find a puzzle! Put the puzzle together and you'll find an animal native to Australia! Isn't that cool?!?! Each one comes with a fact sheet so you can learn about the species, which is very helpful if your education, like mine, passed over the animals of Australia.

This is just a small sample of the Yowies we've got. The girls keep theirs in their bedroom. These are just the ones I've pilfered from them for my own collection!! And you should see Grandma Selm's!

How did Grandma Selm get Yowies, you ask?!

Remember when I said Leigh doesn't stop? One time Grandma was visiting when a Leighpak arrived. One look at Yowies and she'd fallen in love! She squealed when she put together her little plastic animal! (Which says a lot about 70 year old children!!) Shortly after I'd relayed the experience to Leigh, Grandma Selm was the benefactor of a Leighpak! A supply of Yowies all her own!! I'm telling you, he's the best! THANK YOU, LEIGH!! The supply of magic is never ending and you have touched so many lives!

And then there's music.

How far will this man go to give me his country?

I'm so touched that he's shared his favorite music with me. They've become my favorites too. I've taken a huge liking to Tina Arena. After discovering her on the tapes Leigh sent to me, I've bought a couple of CDs on my own and they get the highest rotation at the moment. I was hooked on Sorrento Moon from the start but now there are so many favourites (Aussie spelling again!) I just can't choose!

I'm also hooked on Midnight Oil when I'm ready to kick it up a notch from Tina! I don't always understand the lyrics, and it took a time or two through the CD for the group to grow on me as it's ... um ... a little different from American music but I've become a big fan! Blue Sky Mine and Forgotten Years are my favourites. This is great music for driving down the highway! I love to crank it and go!

Like sports and everything else in his life, Leigh's not narrow-minded when it comes to music either. He's shared so much more with me. Styles of music I hadn't listened to before. Artists I'd never heard of. A bit of culture and class for my small, inside world.

I love the exposure.

I really do.

Wanna wrap this up before I get too sentimental....?