Finally Back Online!!

Hello everyone!!

It has been a long journey. There have been many twists and turns and ups and downs, but we are FINALLY back online at our new home!

So much has happened between today and the last time I posted on this sight but I will not try to catch you up on everything, I'll just keep a record of what happens from today on.

The picture on the left is us in Brisbane right after my immigration interview, which I am happy to say I now have a permanent resident visa for the commonwealth of Australia! It's not a very exciting picture, it's just us on the parking roof of the building, but we were excited people!!

This picture is of our NEW CAR! It's a 2005 Ford Focus with only 60,000 Kilometers on it. Which in miles is. . . .I don't know I'm still to American. It's in the ballpark of about 30,000 miles. Our old car here blew a head gasket and has gone to car heaven, or maybe hell I'm not sure. Any way, it's really been fun to drive our nice new ride. It's a manual transmission so I have had to learn to shift with my left hand. It's weird but Liv's a good teacher.

We just moved in to our new house on Wednesday and so we are surrounded by boxes and stuff everywhere. Our friend Crystal is coming over this morning and we are gonna go crazy on this place all day. Hopefully we'll have it looking pretty "normal" by then.

Tonight is our songwriting night that we have with our music team. Basically a core group of us get together and write for 2 or 3 hours. It's really fun and some good songs are coming out of it. We can't wait to start doing original songs in church.

Liv and I are SO EXCITED to have the internet on at home because it means we will be able to catch up and keep in contact with you, which we have not done a good job of so far. Look for regular posts here in the future and an actual email from us every now and then also!

Fish, Chips And Birds

Last night we went down to Burleigh Heads beach and had our bi-weekly leadership meeting. Normally this means we go to the Pastors house and have a leadership and vision discussion, but last night it meant the beach and fish.

The streets are PACKED full of little shops and "take away" restaurants. By far the best Fish & Chips is found at "Fish Mongers." For 8 dollars you get a giant piece of fish and a bunch of chips. Its enough food for 2 people but, I ate it all. Delicious. They just wrap it all up in a big piece of butcher paper and you are on your way.


We went down to the beach to eat them and there was something else that I have to point out. The birds here. First off, there are a lot of tropical and pretty birds flying around. And they make the strangest noises. Very jungle like. Well every night there are these trees right near the beach where THOUSANDS of birds meet up to talk about their day. It is so noisy, you have to shout to talk to someone. It's crazy.

This is our last work day for this week cause Friday and Saturday are our weekends. Yahoo!!!

Pictures!!

Hey Everyone! Had a quick lunch and I grabbed my file transfer cable at the house. So here are some pictures I've taken in the last few days! The picture to the right was taken at Burleigh Heads Beach. Beautiful!

Driving on the wrong side of the road!








This guy was crawling around the church grounds. He was about 12-15 inches long. You see this kind of thing a lot in Australia. They are totally harmless.








This is the curent "decor" in our living room. Can't wait for our stuff to arrive!









This is our car. A 93 Ford Laser. Runs good and it has A/C which is a must!








This last pic was taken at the 10 a.m. service at church on Sunday. The band and Pastor Ross are up on the stage.

Easter Weekend

I finally am sitting down to blog. Sorry that it's taken so long everyone! We've just been settling in and that means that we've been pretty busy. Ha ha. It's been really good though.

Things are going really well here. We just had Easter weekend which is a really big deal in Australia. I would compare it to Halloween in America in that everyone buys a BUNCH of candy and chocolate for their family and friends. Also the whole town kinda shuts down over the weekend like Christmas in America. Pretty much everyone has Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off work. Totally different mindset to the "go, go, go" attitude we have in America.

The weather is really cooling off over here. When we first got here it was pretty hot, in the high nineties every day with humidity. But it is starting to change in to winter here. It's not at all like a Colorado winter though. The other night we were out at a cafe on the beach having coffee and someone told me it was about as cold as it gets around here. It was about 65 degrees! Ha ha ha! It's funny though, after adjusting to the warmer temperatures it really DID feel chilly.

The beaches here are gorgeous. I have always loved the water and I am really in love with the ocean. White sand and blue water is only a 12 minute drive from our house. Some guys are going to teach me to surf and I am really excited about it. I just have to be careful every time I go out because I am still pretty white. My tan gets better everyday though.

We can't wait for all our stuff to arrive and it looks like it will be here around the first week in May. It will be like Christmas to open all the boxes and get out our stuff. So much of it was practically brand new any way and we can't wait to get our house all set up.

I will post more often now and I also have the ability to put pictures on here so I will put some up tomorrow. I would do it today but I left the cable at home. Oops! ha ha. Talk to you again soon!

It's Official

We are on our way to the land down under. Everything worked out in our talks with the church and now we have to shift in to high gear to get ready to go.

We are leaving even sooner than we thought we would be. They are buying out our lease so we can get there right away. Our flight leaves on the 26th of this month and our crate will be leaving on the 21st. I'll be sure to take pictures and document the whole thing.

Following God is a huge adventure!

Waiting...

Ross had a meeting with the board last night about the dollars and cents of our moving to Australia. We are on edge waiting to hear from him about how it all went. We are hoping for the best but trying not to get ahead of ourselves.

We were at Jon & Crystal's last night. It was fun as usual. We ate some dinner, sat around and talked and then prayed together. I've never just prayed with friends in their home. I've been to a lot of prayer meetings but nothing like this. It was way cool.

Hopefully the next post will be full of exciting news. I really can't wait to talk to Ross. Until then I will be a little nervous and distracted from day to day life.