Well just in case someone doesn't know this yet.....
we are expecting our second child this November (I think).
I guess we will have to start another poll on the sex, weight, etc..
We are going to have an Aussie child! Actually I am kind of jealous because he/she could have citizenship in both countries.
In other news we finally found a house to rent!!!! It is in the suburb of Herne Hill. It has four bedrooms, a living room, a playroom, and two bathrooms (not two toliets, two bathrooms). Plenty of room for everyone to come visit us!!!
The house was a little more than we wanted to pay per week ($250/wk) but we will be renting from a Christian family which is a great plus. Also they are going to let me paint and redecorate some. What is great is that they will pay for all of it because they can claim it on their taxes! Can't wait! We will be moving July 1st and the Harts are getting home on July 3rd, I think. God's timing is good!
Today is Saturday and Brandon is having to work all day :-( The company who is ordering the machine needs it by Friday so they are in crunch time right now. He has been pulling some long days and it will probably continue into next week. I guess I don't mind too much because the extra hours are going to go towards a trip we are planning to Sydney with a few friends.
I guess that is all for now, sorry that I don't have anything in the current events, or social events to talk about right now. I will have to go to some reading for next week.
Laters,
Meg
29.4.06
19.4.06
Dixon's Creek - aka "Dikko"
As true to aussie style even the camp's name we were at this weekend was shortened. We were at the family Dixon's Creek camp from morning till Monday afternoon. They call it Dikko for short just for your info. The area around the camp is beautiful. Rolling hills, little streams running everywhere, grazing cows, meadows, vineyards everywhere you look. A great place to visit.
The camp was great fun! Brandon, Jolene, and I stayed in a tent along with many others in the tent city. Jolene took her half of the tent with the pack N' play : -)
The theme was adorning the gospel, with special focus on the home, work, and church.
The food was great, thanks to the McEwen family. They had volunteered to do all the cooking and they did it quite well. I will have to say that it was much better than any food I have had at Covfamikoi but of course this was only for about 100 people not 250 or so.
Several sports were played, soccer, footie, and frisbee. The younger kids played on the playground and in the sandbox. Jolene loved exploring. If we would have let her she probably would have crawled into the forest without a care in the world.
All day Saturday and some of Sunday it rained. That put a damper on some of the activities but we still managed. I was getting a little tired of being cooped up in the hall by Sunday, especially with Jolene. Every time we put her down she would make a bee line to the outside door. I really did not feel like having a mud baby for two days straight. Thankfully the weather cleared up Sunday afternoon and everyone was able to get outside and run around.
Brandon and I took a walk Sunday afternoon and saw some kangaroos hopping around with the cows that were grazing in the field across from us. It was a strange sight to see. There were the normal grazing cows and then there were these brown furry things bouncing up and down behind the cows. At first I was like "what in the world" and then I remembered where we were.
We went on a hike in the woods, led by Dave Feldman, to see the fern gully. It looks like something from Jurassic Park. There is a gully that runs behind the camp that is home to these really old tree ferns. I guess if you keep walking down the gully you can see some really big ones that are hundreds of years old. Pretty cool looking. Dave said that the gully is one of the few remaining places in Victoria that the ferns still grow. We also saw a wombat running through the forest! It was pretty big. I guess I had pictured something the size of a pot belly pig. This one was probably three times the size and moved pretty quickly.
Saturday night we had a theme dinner where the different duty teams had to dress up in certain colors. The team I was on was the pink team, Brandon was on the blue team. So we all tried to dress up in a crazy way, some doing better than others. After dinner we tried some line dancing and square dancing. The music was provided by several at the camp and had a bluegrass feel to it. A good time was had by all.
See below for more pics!!!
Kodak Gallery
14.4.06
I wish I could put my brain on hibernate
This Easter weekend we are going to Dixon's Creek for camping. It is going to be a great time and we are looking forward to wearing our op-shop made outfits. We will explain more about the outfits and the camp when we get back. I am supposed to be helping Brandon with packing right now : -) We are supposed to leaved in an hour and Jolene still needs breakfast.
The past two nights I have "woke" up and asked Brandon about programming problems I have been having recently with designing the website. At 4 in the morning I will ask him about the "background" and the refer to the highchair or bed or something strange. I don't know why programming does this to my brain at night, but it is annoying sometimes. When I took C programming at Purdue Univ. I had the same problem. I would get stuck on a specific programming problem and then my brain would keep working on it at night. Brandon says he would wake up at night and I would be talking in my sleep about programming. "sigh" I wish my brain would hibernate at night, I don't feel like I get quality sleep when this happens. I used to keep paper and pen by the bed in case something came to me at night. Actually a few times I did think of something good but last night was a mix of html, DNN, and baby stuff. I'm not sure of those work together as someone's dad has said before "they are not compatible" : -) I may have been wound up about leaving for the camping trip too. I always getting excited about traveling and going places.
When I get back I will also have to write about a recent article I read in Wired Mag. They were talking about China as the next superpower. It was pretty interesting...until then have a good Easter weekend. Oh and thinking of Easter it is sad to see people running around trying to get the best choc. bunnies to buy and forgetting about the real reason Easter is here.
Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Although as Christians we should celebrate this every week I think it is good to have a special weekend that focuses on it even more.
Later peeps,
Meg
The past two nights I have "woke" up and asked Brandon about programming problems I have been having recently with designing the website. At 4 in the morning I will ask him about the "background" and the refer to the highchair or bed or something strange. I don't know why programming does this to my brain at night, but it is annoying sometimes. When I took C programming at Purdue Univ. I had the same problem. I would get stuck on a specific programming problem and then my brain would keep working on it at night. Brandon says he would wake up at night and I would be talking in my sleep about programming. "sigh" I wish my brain would hibernate at night, I don't feel like I get quality sleep when this happens. I used to keep paper and pen by the bed in case something came to me at night. Actually a few times I did think of something good but last night was a mix of html, DNN, and baby stuff. I'm not sure of those work together as someone's dad has said before "they are not compatible" : -) I may have been wound up about leaving for the camping trip too. I always getting excited about traveling and going places.
When I get back I will also have to write about a recent article I read in Wired Mag. They were talking about China as the next superpower. It was pretty interesting...until then have a good Easter weekend. Oh and thinking of Easter it is sad to see people running around trying to get the best choc. bunnies to buy and forgetting about the real reason Easter is here.
Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Although as Christians we should celebrate this every week I think it is good to have a special weekend that focuses on it even more.
Later peeps,
Meg
11.4.06
Kids Free Zone - Is having kids in public the new anti-social behavior?
The Geelong Times just ran an article with this title last week. It was pretty interesting and at the same time sad. Here are some of the main concepts presented....
"parental intolerance is slowly emerging as a social threat to parenting and could act as a deterrent to future generations to make the choice to have children and add to the emerging lack of understanding of those who value the ideology and rewards of parenting."
"The reality of "no children" signs at hotels and restaurants in up-market seaside towns and affluent metro suburbs is confronting for any parent, but are becoming more frequent and more accepted"
"If the World Childfree Association (WCFA) - an incorporated body in Australia since May 2003- gathers enough signatures and support to form a political party, "no children" signs may not be restricted to dining venues and could become as common in the future as a no smoking sign."
The association, which needs to gain 500 signatures before it can from a political party, is pushing for the introduction of a child tax as opposed to child allowance and proposes that for every newborn an increasing levy should be paid, with a user-pays toll on roads leading to primary schools and playgrounds."
"The WCFA believes "the childfree should not have to pay for the other peoples' hobby, that is having a child, and there should be non-parental leave introduced to co-exist with parental leave, so the childfree could spend more time on their hobbies."
"The association does not address the reality of an aging population, consequences of fewer tax payers in the future and the many positive benefits, including happiness and the unique perspective that "hobbies" do not provide, but children do offer those who love them."
"The WCFA also fails to acknowledge that parents are making a vital contribution to Australia, a factor any government, right or left would support. However its beliefs and claims do help explain one of the reasons being a parent is becoming more challenging in the 21st Century."
This article was written by Alison Martin
if you are interested in reading up on these crazy people here is their site
I am watching US news right now. They are talking about all the illegal immigrant problems right now. Australia doesn't really have that problem, probably due to the fact that we share no borders. This guy is saying that the possible new laws will hurt the US and immigrants. I think this is a crock. We need to protect our borders. If people want to live here fine but you have to register and pay taxes, them are the rules. This sneaking over our borders is silly.
It is interesting to hear what people think about the US. There are many hear that hate the US for some reason, many I think are a little weak, but some that are valid.
Here are some of the main complaints...
1. The US has its hands in too many countries - this also goes with the Iraq war
2. The US is very wasteful and if they didn't consume so much others around the world would be living better.
3. The US has no population control
4. I guess many hate our foreign policies period
One last thing...I promised a review of the Magic Oven. It was a little mom and pop place. The decor wasn't great but that was ok. I think if we would have ordered the pizza it would have been better. I had the veal and it was pretty tough. Brandon had the carbanaro pasta. I think they named it that because everything in had a high amount of carbs, bacon, eggs, noodles, and sauce.
that is all for now,
Meg
"parental intolerance is slowly emerging as a social threat to parenting and could act as a deterrent to future generations to make the choice to have children and add to the emerging lack of understanding of those who value the ideology and rewards of parenting."
"The reality of "no children" signs at hotels and restaurants in up-market seaside towns and affluent metro suburbs is confronting for any parent, but are becoming more frequent and more accepted"
"If the World Childfree Association (WCFA) - an incorporated body in Australia since May 2003- gathers enough signatures and support to form a political party, "no children" signs may not be restricted to dining venues and could become as common in the future as a no smoking sign."
The association, which needs to gain 500 signatures before it can from a political party, is pushing for the introduction of a child tax as opposed to child allowance and proposes that for every newborn an increasing levy should be paid, with a user-pays toll on roads leading to primary schools and playgrounds."
"The WCFA believes "the childfree should not have to pay for the other peoples' hobby, that is having a child, and there should be non-parental leave introduced to co-exist with parental leave, so the childfree could spend more time on their hobbies."
"The association does not address the reality of an aging population, consequences of fewer tax payers in the future and the many positive benefits, including happiness and the unique perspective that "hobbies" do not provide, but children do offer those who love them."
"The WCFA also fails to acknowledge that parents are making a vital contribution to Australia, a factor any government, right or left would support. However its beliefs and claims do help explain one of the reasons being a parent is becoming more challenging in the 21st Century."
This article was written by Alison Martin
if you are interested in reading up on these crazy people here is their site
I am watching US news right now. They are talking about all the illegal immigrant problems right now. Australia doesn't really have that problem, probably due to the fact that we share no borders. This guy is saying that the possible new laws will hurt the US and immigrants. I think this is a crock. We need to protect our borders. If people want to live here fine but you have to register and pay taxes, them are the rules. This sneaking over our borders is silly.
It is interesting to hear what people think about the US. There are many hear that hate the US for some reason, many I think are a little weak, but some that are valid.
Here are some of the main complaints...
1. The US has its hands in too many countries - this also goes with the Iraq war
2. The US is very wasteful and if they didn't consume so much others around the world would be living better.
3. The US has no population control
4. I guess many hate our foreign policies period
One last thing...I promised a review of the Magic Oven. It was a little mom and pop place. The decor wasn't great but that was ok. I think if we would have ordered the pizza it would have been better. I had the veal and it was pretty tough. Brandon had the carbanaro pasta. I think they named it that because everything in had a high amount of carbs, bacon, eggs, noodles, and sauce.
that is all for now,
Meg
6.4.06
My playgroup and other interesting things
A balloon we saw at Dixon's Creek Camp
Well I went to the playgroup that I was invited to last week.
These women are very nice and talked to me about why I was in Geelong and so on. They have all have different backgrounds which will provide some good conversation I'm sure.
Jolene is getting her middle, top two teeth. Today was not a good day for that, she hit her head on the door, then I hit her head on the car door, and then I scratched her leg with the laundry basket handle that is broken. I am trying to make her forget about all the pain in her mouth : -) Poor girl, it has been a long day.
Brandon and I are going out on our first date since we have been here. We are going to a Turkish restaurant called the "Magic Oven". Sounds pretty impressive doesn't it, I will write up a review tomorrow.
One last thing. Jolene is starting to learn that animals make noises. This is what happens.... (me) "Jolene what does a dog say" , (Jolene)"woof woof", (Me) "Jolene what does a bird say?", (Jolene)"woof woof", (Me)"Jolene what does a bear say?", (Jolene)"woof woof". "sigh" she stills has a ways to go before she gets that zoology degree :-)
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