Holidays

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

little girl wailing could be heard, she was not quite like a mouse.


Mom and Dad reassured her that she would see the surprises tomorrow,

alas this did not ease little Jolene's sorrow....




this is taking a bit of time I think I will go back to regular sentences.

Yes,
Jolene was very devastated when she couldn't enter our bedroom due to her father putting together one of their presents. Life can be so hard sometimes :-)

We woke up and opened gifts, had pancakes and bacon...yum yum and then read part of Luke.

Talked to family and realized that we missed the snow.

Later that day we packed up some food and present and headed over to the McEwen household. Oscar and Sarah got back from the hospital the day before (Answered prayer!). We had ham, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, bread, applesauce. Ahhh so good! I made pavlova for dessert, the second one actually turned out ok. Pavlova is somewhat hard to make. If you don't whip the egg whites to the right consistency and add the ingredients in the correct order your in trouble. The first run ended up very flat and very crunchy. The second run was much better although could be improved upon. Josh made some brownies with whiskey and coffee in them, strong but delicious.

The kids opened their gifts from one another then went to bed. The adults stayed up playing my new board game zooloretto and watching "The Office". Good times.

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A little plug for my dad. My dad has a blog, LibertyElm. Musings on history, books, and other insights. Check it out if you are so inclined.

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Abby arrives on Monday! She will be here until June or July. Abby is enrolled at Deakin University for the study abroad program.

On New Years day we will be taking her across the bay to Sorrento to have a New Years day picnic with some of the other RPers. Then we leave on th 2nd for Sydney. We will be house sitting for friends while they are in Queensland. We will get back to Geelong sometime on the 14th. Hooray for a holiday!!!!




The girls in their Christmas dresses, provided by Brandon's mom. Jolene would wear hers every day if I let her!

Someone else who needs some prayer

I was talking to my mom today and she shared this with me.

My little cousin Daniel Mark is needing some prayer as well. He is about 5 months old and has been having mini seizures for several months now. The doctors at first said it was nothing to worry about, that it would probably be something he would grow out of. My Aunt Cyndi has been noticing that his limbs are not working as they should. They went back to the doctor and they now think the white matter in the brain is having some difficulties. I don't much more than this right now. Please add him to the list I gave in the last post. Pray that the doctors could firstly figure out what really is happening here and secondly that they would have wisdom in how to treat it. Pray also for my Aunt and Uncle, Daniel is their only child as of now. Pray for comfort, strength to endure the stress of not knowing what is going on, and peace that Daniel is in God's hands.

M

Prayers of the Saints needed

We have have four groups of friends that could really use a lot of prayer right now. Please remember them in your daily prayers, I know they would be thankful. I haven't asked them if I could post their needs so I won't give any names. Except for Josh and Sarah who sent out an e-mail, so I am pretty sure it would be ok.


1. Our friends who just had a miscarriage. They a month or so ago that they were having twins and were very excited. Two weeks ago the mom went in for a check and they discovered that there had been a miscarriage. Pray for this family as they mourn the loss of their two unborn children. Pray also for their other kids (ages 7,5 and 3) as their parents help them understand what happened. Pray that God would comfort them.

2. Josh and Sarah. Some of you may know them and would know that they had a baby boy on Dec. 20th! Little Oscar shares a birthday with Brandon :-) Josh and Sarah are praising God that He has entrusted this little life to them. The pray is for Oscars immediate health. He is not feeding very well and thus the jaundice is setting in. Pray that feeding would start to go better and that the light treatment for the jaundice would work quickly. The doctors said he could be int he hospital for another four days. I think it would be a great Christmas present if Oscar could come home by Christmas.

3. A girl at church - She just found out that her father has a bad heart condition. I don't know all the details of it yet but from what I gather if he does any physical activity that pushes his heart he could have a heart attack. He has diabetes as well so I think his health in general is not the best. This man is not a believer and we are praying that this might make him think more about death and his eternal state.

4. A family at church. Our friend(the dad) discovered a lump on his shin and had it checked out on Friday. He found out that he has an aggressive form of cancer. This is a major shock to all of us at church including their family. He will be going through many tests in the weeks to come to find out if it has spread and how far. Please pray for this family. He is married and has three children. Pray that the cancer hasn't spread past his leg. Pray for them as it is the holidays and having news would be difficult to deal with. Pray that God would give the doctors wisdom in the best way to treat him. Pray that God would give this whole family strength, comfort, and reassurance from his word. Most of all pray for healing. Nothing is too difficult for our God, the creator of the heavens and the earth.

5. Pray for all of us at church. That God would give us wisdom in how we can best help these people. These people are all going though various trials and they are needing love, care, and encouragement. Pray that we would be faithful in prayer not just in hard times but everyday.

Adele's B-day, our new car, and Youth Group

Adele had her first birthday on Nov. 26th. We invited Josh and Sarah as well as the Kents (Josh's sister and brother-in-law and three kids) over for a bbq and cake. It is hard to believe Adele is one already, time flies. I probably wrote the exact same thing when Jolene turned one, but hey it is so true. We are thankful that God gave her to us...she is quite the personality.



I think almost every present she was given made some sort of noise...thanks guys :-) We are now able to have a family band.

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Here is a photo of our new car. We are really enjoying it. We are both enjoying it even more now that it has rims and low profile tyres on it :-) That was Brandon's b-day and Christmas for the next five years.

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Tomorrow night we are having the youth group over for a bbq and games. We thought we would play human foosball and then link a few Xboxes together for a shoot out. On Sunday we will all go to Palmer's house (they always host for Sunday afternoons). We have been going over the Hand illustration and the Wheel. At the last meeting we were encouraging each other to memorize 2 Cor 5:17. We will see on Sunday if they have been doing their homework :-)

Busy and tired

Tonight I feel like I am uni. Preparing myself to pull an all nighter or something but really it is only 11:38.

Me and my friend Melissa have been working on the Geelong Bible Confernce website for awhile and I think it is about finished. I am up late trying to make a few changes to the registration form. I think it is done...at least for tonight.

Brandon and I seem to be more busy than usual. Something we struggle with is finding the right balance between doing things and leaving enough time open for being Christians to those who are not. If we fill our lives too much then we limit those spontaneous moments where we might have opportunities to witness. For instance last week we had something going on every night of the week. Not good when you are thinking about having non-Christian friends over for dinner and fellowship. When is that goin to happen when Monday-Saturday is already full. The things that are keeping us busy are not bad in of themselves, most have to do with church. But like I said before we need a balance to time allow time for other things...

I am trying to do better at not feeling guilty when there are two nights during the week with nothing planned. "Hello my name is Megan, I'm a scheduleholic"

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This Saturday we are having Thanksgiving with all or our American friends. We will miss being at home but it will be nice to gather together with our church family.

I think I am making the tried and true "green bean casserole" as well as some other salad. Any suggestions? (is green bean one word or two? I can't think right now)

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In our fellowship group we are just about to wrap up for the year, summer break is upon us. We have been going over the "Sermon on the Mount". P M M H M P P P!
That is the acronym for the "Blessed are the..." Every fortnight we go over them and the acronym has helped keep them straight in our minds. I wish I would have written comments on the blog for each of them but I didn't think of it until recently. Sorry, maybe next time. I think next we will be talking about Witnessing so that would be could to post as well. Remind me to post!

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It is now 11:51pm...should I keep writing until midnight? No ok, you talked me out of it. Goodnight!

Pictures

Here are some photos of recent going ons. The titles are links to the Kodak Gallery albums.

The Fair



The Girls Watching



The Hair

Mr. Piccasohead and this week

So I drew this on the Mr. Picassohead site.
It is fun to look through the gallery and see what others have come up with being limited to on a few shapes.


This weekend was pretty busy. Friday morning I had my playgroup over for a play and lunch. We made sugar cookies together which I think everyone enjoyed. Jolene stuck her wet hand into the bowl of sprinkles to see how many she could pick up and eat.
That night we went to Josh and Sarah's for tea and then headed off to our "Growing Kids God's Way" class. Have I mentioned this before? I can't remember. GKGW is a book/class on how to raise children. It seems to be aimed at kids from 3 up but it is still useful even if you have newborns to think about these things. I will write more about this some other time, B needs the comp so I need to finish up here.

Today we went to the fair that Covenant Christian School was putting on. CCS is where a lot of people from church teach/work at as well as several kids that go there. The fair had facepainting, slide, jumping castle, petting zoo, stalls, music, dancing, etc. I think Eleni and Jolene enjoyed the highland dancing and the face painting quite a bit.

Tonight we had the youth group over for pizza and a movie. I think everyone had a enjoyable time. I did learn that it is hard for young boys to sit still during a movie. We almost needed an intermission for them to go outside and wrestle around a bit. Having boys around the house is not something I am used to. My brothers were all really young when I got married.

Tomorrow we have our youth fellowship group. This includes a discussion and lunch.

Random note : while typing the last few paragraphs I sneezed eight times. I like sneezing but this was a bit too much. My throat is a bit sore from it all.


Oh I forgot to mention some other big news.

1. We bought a new (to us) car on Friday. It is a wagon, burgundy color. It has a roof rack and a tow bar which is awesome. We will be putting a back seat in and also putting it on gas. When I say gas I mean LPG. A lot cheaper than petrol although not as efficient.

2. I got a job. I will be web designing from home. I am excited about the prospect. It will be nice to use a few hours a day to work on something that I will actually get paid for and something that keeps my brain active in a way that child rearing doesn't. One job that I am signed up to do could last for awhile. What is nice is that my boss will send me emails every now and then asking for a few extra hours here and there to do small jobs as well. I have been wanting to gain more knowledge in this area because I thought at some point I could possibly start my own business or at least join up with an already existing one. What I needed though was the experience and now I am getting it. Exciting.

Conversations with a toddler pt. 2

Jolene talking to her friend Eleni...

Jolene: "Eleni, do you know, do you know that frogs go la dee da dee da?"

Eleni: "mmmhhhhm yeah they do"

Travel

I have decided that I would like to visit Iceland and preferably before I turn 50. I have been looking around on an Iceland site and am impressed with the scenery. So that is one reason, the beautiful scenery. I think another reason is because it sounds exotic and the last reason would be because they have a cool looking written language.

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Eleni sent me an invite to a place called Stumbleupon. It is a site that compiles cool websites. The cool factor is decided by other users and the sites are separated into different catagories. What I really like is the tool bar you can download for Firefox. When you have downloaded the toolbar a little button appears at the top of you browser that says "Stumble". If you press it a random site comes up for your exploration. You are able to list preferences as far as what type of sites you want to come up. For instance I have science, biology, art, design, shopping, kids, education, etc....coolness.

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Newsflash...parenting at times can be very difficult. Take for instance Sunday. Jolene had four major breakdowns. One of course had to be at church for all to see. Part of it was due to lack of sleep but most due to her sinful nature. I was very sad about all of it. It is very hard to discipline a child over and over and over during the course of one day. I just want to say "don't you get it? If you do this you get into trouble!!!!". Of course Jolene knows that certain actions have certain consequences but she just chooses to ignore. Thus leading us and other parents to pray for heart changes within our children. Sunday night I prayed a lot. I have to say Monday and today have been much better.

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Adele has four teeth now. She has realized that now she can explore the entire house due to her ability to move four appendages at the correct times to propel herself forwards and backwards. No real words yet but I'm sure we are not too far away.

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We are going to start looking for a new car. Our family car is dying. We drove it to McKinnon (1 1/2 hours) and the radiator consumed over 8 liters of liquid. For those of you who do not know cars this is not healthy. Also we drove to Josh and Sarah's one night and heard clanking sounds as we headed down the road. We pulled over and rolling right behind the car was part of a pulley system. Nice. Not only is our car a drunkard for water but it is also trying to lose weight by randomly throwing off metal pieces here and there.
So we are looking for a wagon, black-graphite-or red, lowered, with rims, must have duel fuel system, and a back seat. We have decided that the lowered part with rims although aesthetically pleasing should not be mandatory.


Random picture of the girls

Illustrations

A few weeks ago I went to the Melbourne Writers Festival with some friends. We were going to listen to Alexander McCall Smith speak. He is the author of the "Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books. These are good books to read when you hace a few moments and you don't want to rad anything too involved. They take place in Botswana and are a about a women who starts up a detective agency. McCall Smith also writes children's stories and I was able to get one of those and have him sign it for Jolene. McCall Smith has several other adult series as well. I think my favorite even above the Detective ones are The Von Igelfeld series. This series is about a German professor and his adventures in life. The characters in this book remind me of some of the people I used to work with in the lab. I chuckle when I think about sections of these books and who I used to work with.

While I was looking around the book table I also found a signed copy of "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan. If you don't know of Mr. Tan then you should at least take a look at this book. "The Arrival" is a illustrations only book. It is about a man that leaves his family to migrate to a new country in hope of a better life. I won't spoil the ending, you will have to check it out form the library or something. Anyway, I really like his illustrations. I think the ones in this book are all charcoal. He has a cool website as well, check it out. I bought the signed copy of the book. I decided it was a good memory of our migration and if we have anyone over that can't speak English there will be at least one book in the house that they can still understand.

Victory, thy smell is sweet

The Cats won on Saturday! There was much rejoicing in this town of less than 200,000.
There was also much drunkness and disorderly conduct but I guess I am not surprised by this. None of this tops the riot I experienced at Purdue. Now those were the good old days.

Here are the scores from the game...really no contest as you can see
Geelong: 163
Port Adelaide: 44

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Ok so it is almost 1:30 in the morning and my eyes are burning from staring at the computer screen too long. I and a friend are working on a website for the Geelong Bible Conference. Check it out here...some of the links are not working yet. General Info and Schedule are. I am too tired to finish tonight.

Go Cats!!!

So some of you might remember that we live in the city of Geelong, VIC. Last week our AFL (Australian Football League) team the Geelong Cats advanced to the finals, aka the Grand Final. They haven't been in a Grand Final since 1994 and they haven't won one since 1963. So the town is a bit excited. It is kind of like the Colts getting into and then winning the Super Bowl or the Cubs getting into and winning the World Series. Come this Saturday afternoon there will be a hush over Geelong except for in homes, pubs, bars, or any other place with a TV.

One other thing a player from the team, Jimmy Bartel just won the Brownlow Medal. This is kind of like being named the MVP for basketball. They call it the best and fairest award.

Here is some stuff bout the Cats so all you Americans can get up to speed on the glory this Saturday will bring.

Our Clubs Logo

Our Clubs History

The co-founder of Australia football, Thomas Wentworth Wills, recommended the formation of the Geelong Football Club in July 1859 making it the second oldest club of any code in the world, the Melbourne Football Club credited as the oldest, formed earlier the same year....more history here

Our Clubs Song

We are geelong, the greatest team of all,
We are geelong, We're always on the ball,
We play the game, as it should be played
at home or far away
our banners fly high, from dawn to dark
down at kardinia park!

Second verse hardly sung but is on my mug at home.

So stand up and fight, remember our tradition
so stand up and fight, it's always been our ambition
throughout the game we fight with all our might
cause we are blue and white
and from when the ball is bounced, to the final bell
STAND UP AND FIGHT LIKE H*LL!

The video isn't the best but it was all I could find at the time.

Discovering

Last weekend we went to Dixon's Creek for a working bee. We mostly cleaned to get ready for the upcoming youth camp. After lunch I wondered around as I sometimes do and found some interesting plants....here is the first one.

Pterostylis monticola
Large mountain greenhood
Pterostylis is a genus of about 70 species of terrestrial orchids, most of which are Australian but the genus extends to New Zealand, New Caledonia and New Guinea.



From the Australian Plant website ---"There are 107 orchid genera containing more than 800 species growing in Australia. Most are unique to this country. About ten new species are discovered each year as botanists study these plants using modern technology."

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I also made a discovery at Vinnies the local opshop. I found this great table for our kitchen. We have needed some extra space and this table works great. The best part is that it only cost $1!!!!. I was very excited.

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What else. We are watching the Heroes series. I am trying to potty train Jolene this week. I don't feel like it will be a successful training week. She doesn't seem to care at all and I can't find any undies that actually fit her tiny waist.
Saturday I and my friend Lucila held a baby shower for another friend, Brit. Baby showers are a new thing in this country you don't have any registry type deal as you would in the States.

Count it all joy

I was needing to apply James 1: 2-4 today for two separate occasions, although one I realized than I should have.

James 1:2-4

	Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
	because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
	Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The first occasion: I am going over questions for the Youth Fellowship Group that Brandon and I help lead. Alastair is the main leader and we come along to help as much as needed. Brandon and I are leading discussion groups on these verses. I'm leading the girls and Brandon is with the boys. The discussion questions have to do with these verses. After looking at the questions I realized the second (what should have been first if I had had these verses in my mind at the time) occasion of the day.

The second/should have been first occasion: I was talking to my friend Melissa on the phone today. They just found out that the rental house they just moved into, maybe 3 months ago, is up for sale. They found out through the realtor even though the owners had just been by for a checkup a few weeks earlier (seems like they didn't have enough guys to say it themselves).So every Saturday for the next several weeks there will be an open house that they have to prepare for even though not by their own choice. Talking on the phone to her I said how sorry I was to hear the news. I was especially sad because of the really hard and long time it took for them to find it. They were looking for a place the same time we were and were having the same problems as well (i.e. very high demand + very low supply = wrestling with ten other families for one house). I realized after going over the questions tonight on James 1:2-4 that I should have said something more encouraging and along the lines of this passage.

A new member in the family

No I am not pregnant....we have added a dinosaur to the family. As you all know Jolene is getting older and we felt it was time for her to get rid of her paci (dummy or pacifier). Sunday night I told her that she was a big girl and that we would be throwing the dummy away. She told me "I'm a big girl now, I don't need a paci". "Ok" said I, "no more paci". So Sunday night we put her in bed without it. As soon as her head touched the pillow she was asking for her paci. I told she had said she didn't need it any more. She just looked at me and asked again. No, no paci. That night didn't go so well. I think she cried for an hour or so but eventually fell asleep. The next day I took her to the store and said she could get a special surprise since she gave up her paci. She picked a stuffed triceratops, fondly named her Dora (I have to say the sex of Dora changes by the hour), and now we are a family of five.
The first nap time was terrible even though Dora was there to rub her horns on Jolene's face. Jolene cried for the whole nap time. I almost went crazy. I stood firm though and no paci.

Jolene is fine now. The next night she went to bed without any crying. Brandon told her a story and that seemed to be enough. The following nap time went well too. It seems that stories are a requirement for sleep now as Jolene asks for them every night. Her favorite right now is Daniel in the lions den. That might be due to the fact that she has a stuffed lion as well.


Adele is getting her first tooth! I'm sure the second one is not far behind. She is also "waving" goodbye and making sounds that are very similar to the words. I think she will be talking even earlier than Jolene. Adele is also on the verge of crawling. She goes backwards fine it is the forward motion that stops her. She can get on her hands and knee and puts her little bottom in the air but is just not brave enough or coordinated to get the hands and feet going. Jolene as no idea what will happen in a few weeks time. All of Jolene's stuff will be at the mercy of Adele. Oh joy for me. They already fight now and Adele isn't moving all over the place yet. When I mean fighting I mean Jolene will take a toy that is laying beside Adele and Adele will yell at Jolene. Jolene will then follow suit and yell back only she will raise Adele one and add a shove to make it a combo move. Lovely, who said little children are innocent and can't do wrong? They have obviously not seen Adele when she is angry.
------------------Adele making her pirate face and getting into the chalk----------------------------

What else, oh yes. The flora and fauna of Australia. I took Jolene and Adele on a walk down by the bay today. We found two huge jellyfish (almost dinner plate size), at least I think that's what they were. They had been in the sun for awhile so the tendrils were gone. I wanted to bring the nicer looking one home with us so Jolene and I could dissect it but I didn't have a bag:-( I didn't really want to wrap it up in Adele's baby blanket either too messy. I cut the more yucky one open with a shell to have look. I was surprised at how dense they actually are or at least this type was. It was like cutting really dense agar. Maybe if I would have taken it home and soaked it a bit the composition would have changed, not really sure. I am debating on whether I should go back tonight and get it before the tide comes in. The birds will probably tear it apart before then anyway. So no picture of mine to show you, I know you are as disappointed as I am :-) Here is what I think it is from looking on the web


Blue Jellyfish - Catostylus mosaicus

Spring is here, finally

I thought it would be cool to start documenting all the flora and fauna of Australia that we discover. To start it off I will show you some pics of recent foliage that Jolene, Adele and I discovered during one of our walks around the neighborhood. The weather is warming up. This means beach time! I took Jolene and Adele to Barwon Heads on Saturday while Brandon was at work.


1. Acacia sophorae - "Coastal wattle"
Bright yellow flowers. Reminds me of a Doctor Seuss plant. We refer to them as pom-pom trees. I really like wattles, one of my favorite Aussie trees.




2. Callistemon phoeniceus - "Pink Ice"
Hot pink, spiky looking flower. This one was tree size about 15 feet high or so.


3. Dryandra obtusa- no common name
This flower is so cool, the size of my hand and not something easily damaged.



That is all for now. More some other time.

Whats going on

I like colors!!! This was taken at the Greentown county fair
House-

• We have internet finally.
• Only a few more boxes left.
• Our clothes are still in suitcases because the wardrobes in this house don't have drawers.
  
• Looking for dressers, may be a while.

Brandon-

• Started teaching Sunday school for the highschoolers, going over Judges.
• Got in trouble at Boomaroo nursery the other day because he was doing donuts with the Honda in the gravel parking lot :-)
• Watching the girls all day Saturday for me.
• Started "Growing Kids God's Way", every week for the next 19 weeks.
  

Meg-

• Working on the church website design.
• Working on the Reformed Aussie conference design with Melissa.
• Going snowboarding Saturday with a couple of girls from church.
• Decided to change the look of our blog, not sure I like the colors though.
• Started "Growing Kids God's Way"
  

Jolene-

• Acting silly and cute as always.
• Getting her last three molars in at the same time...ouch!
• Went to a friends ballet class, pretends to be a ballerina every day now. Pretty good at imitating most dance moves. Have not shown her Michael Jackson yet :-)
  

Adele-

• Almost ready to crawl.
• Does not like smashed bananas.
• Got two shots yesterday. Her little chubby legs are a bit sore.
• "Talks" a lot, likes to say "na nanananan nana na" all the time. Need to find a baby translator.

We also talked to the neighbors about the car. She was a lot nicer the second time around. That week was a pretty rough week for her. The day before she found out that a friend riding on a bike had been hit by a car. At the time she didn't know if the friend would ever walk again (looks like the friend will be up in walking as of now). She was also late to work that morning. So I can understand why she was upset and angry. Lord willing we will have them over for tea sometime soon.


Tonight we have Growing Kids God's Way. Josh, Sarah, Eleni, and Jane (the babysitter) are coming for tea. Need to get started on the lasagna...yum!

New house and wrecked car

We are into the new house now, although not without some hassle.

We found out a few days before we were supposed to move (past Saturday) that the realtors did not communicate very well and messed up the settlement date. We thought we would be moving in on Saturday, according to the realtor selling the house. The realtor that was leasing the house told the tenants they had until Sunday, meaning we would not be able to sleep there until Monday. Thankfully the landlords and friends of the old house were not moving in on Saturday thus allowing us to stay those extra two nights.

The only problem was Brandon had Saturday free and could not take Monday off from work to move. A proposal was made that the realtor pay for a mover to come Monday since I would be all by myself on Monday. They were the ones that messed up the dates and we thought it would only be fitting that they fix their mistake.

Well, they were wanting to be cheap and said we should move as much stuff as possible on Saturday into the house. The old tenants still living there of course. Then they would pay to have the left over stuff moved on Monday. They were a bit rude when given the list of stuff that would need to be moved on Monday...."why do you need to keep the washing machine until Monday? You won't be doing any washing over the weekend."

Thankfully the old tenants did not steal anything while they were living with our stuff. Also thanks to our new landlords, Nick helped me move furniture and Nat watched the girls. We are now in and almost unpacked. I think we will enjoy living here quite a bit. The girls have settled in nicely and we are having people over.

We have already met two different sets of neighbors too. One on a good note and the other on a bad note.......


The bad note.

The neighbor across the street backed out of her driveway and promptly hit our car. She put a massive dent in the back panel going from the wheel to the trunk. I came out to inspect and got yelled at because I had parked opposite her driveway. She said it is against the law, I looked it up... its not. Maybe common sense and courtesy say you shouldn't, I wasn't thinking and parked there. It was an accident but she was not happy. We are going to go over there tomorrow and try to talk to them about insurance. Hopefully this will get off to a better start than the first encounter.

Brandon and I were chuckling over the whole thing though. This poor car has been in sooo many accidents. First I took a mirror off because of a narrow driveway. Then the fire melted the front side. Next someone borrowing the car hit another car while trying to park and broke a turn signal. Following that we noticed one of the wheel spokes was cracked all the way through...we think from the fire but not sure. And finally this. Ha by the time we are finished with this car it will be brand new!

What would life be without this excitement, certainly not ours!!!

Conversations with a toddler

Jolene: "mommy, you a dinosaur"

Me: "No, I am a woman"

Jolene: "mommy, you a dino-woman"

Me: laugh

Back home

Well I haven't done a very good job of updating you on the last leg of our trip. Perhaps I will do that some evening within the next week.

Just wanted to say that we made it back ok with all of our luggage in tow. Funny thing though...the "not so nice" customs lady we dealt with on our way over was there on our return! I started laughing, of course she would be there :-) She still had a scowl on her face too! Thankfully some guy called us to his line before she could set her cold, icy eyes upon us. We got through customs easily, a prayer answered.

The girls slept through the night and woke at 7am in the third day. I am very thankful for that. The first morning we all woke up around 4 and laid around until 6. We decided there was no point to laying around any longer and went to the beach to have coffee and watch the sunrise. Brrrrrrrrrr, very cold but enjoyable.

So we are back in Oz, home for right now. It is good to be back and getting into a routine. At church people welcomed us back and made us feel like we were missed. That helps a lot with the homesickness.

The winter weather welcomed us as well. Record lows, oh yeah. I am not loving the laundry thing, but such is life. It has been frosting at night, I am not sure how cold it gets inside but I am guessing it is close to 40 or so. Oz winters.

We have started packing. Daryl and Brit came over on Saturday and helped pack up the things we don't need for the next week. It will be nice to have this all done with in a week. This will be the ninth time we have moved in our almost 5 years of marriage. I don't know how keen I am about adding to that sum, but who knows what God is planning?

We will take pics of the new house soon.

Installment number 2-pics at the end

Alright so more updates.

First, pics of the plane ride over

So where were we...I think I stopped at Hobart.

After regrouping in Hobart for a few days we headed east (pics of traveling around Indiana). Our first stop was at the Fisher grandparent's lake cottage. The back of the house faces the lake and the front faces the corn. We stayed with B's grandparents that night. A good summer day was had by all. Taking boat rides out on the lake, Jolene playing in the lake muck, walking in the corn, seeing fireflies for the first time (for Jolene). B's parents stopped by and surprised me by bringing up the mustang....yeah!!!!

The following day we headed to B's uncle and aunt's house. It was enjoyable catching up with them as well as the other Fisher families that were there for the Fisher reunion. Brandon realized that he hadn't talked to some of them much, due to the fact that in previous years he was young and always playing outside. Now we are "old" and don't run around so much :-) It was good getting to know some of them better. Jolene enjoyed the swimming pool and the trampoline. Back and forth, back and forth for her. We played volleyball, hillbilly golf, and some dart game that is now outlawed because people kept getting impaled by the darts, oh and watched some Aussie rules football.

After the reunion we traveled to Kokomo (drove the mustang:-) ) where we stayed for a few days with Brandon's family. Jolene enjoyed their pool, sandbox, play house, and other things that we don't have. we went to Brandon's brother's house. That was a bit strange. Jacob has a house! I guess we are all growing up.

From Kokomo we drove to Fairland where we stayed for a good chunk of time, eight days. It is nice staying somewhere for that long. It gives the girls time to settle in and get used to things a bit more. It was nice driving the back roads to Fairland, I have missed the corn, bumpy roads, and the green. Australia does not have the same green color we have back in Indiana. Days and nights at the Elder household were enjoyed playing euchre, soccer, swinging, walking to "downtown" Fairland (only half mile away), and water fights. (pics of these events)

One night we drove into Indy and walked along the canal and saw a free jazz concert. That was very nice, we enjoyed seeing downtown Indy again. It has been a while. My parents had the Fishers down for a cook-out that Saturday (BBQ for all you Aussies :-) ), we had a rousing game of soccer, great fun! That Monday we went to a park and walked on the trails to the river. Tuesday evening we drove to Greenwood and met Stacie Shopp (an old friend from SSRP but currently living in Russia) at Starbucks, yum! (pics of those last few days)


Right now we are in Hobart again for the 4th of July. Will write about that and our week at Fishers in the days to come.

In the USA

Greetings!

Long time since we have written anything. We are having a grand time in the States and don't have much time to write. So here is a little catch up on what is going on.

We left Melbourne on June 12th and sat in a plane for around 15 hours. It should have only been 14 but the luggage conveyor belt thing broke and so it took an extra hour to get the late people's luggage loaded. By the time the plane got in the air Jolene was getting tired of sitting :-\ Thankfully the Lord provided a little friend for Jolene, her name was Sarah and she was four. They played pretty well together and it relieved us of having to play with Jolene the whole time. Adele was not so good on the plane. She had a fever the whole time due to an approaching ear infection. We kept giving her Panadol but she was pretty miserable (we were able to get anitbiotics for her in Hobart). All in all the girls probably slept for around eights hours from our door in Geelong to Chicago (28 hours total). We had a eight hour layover in LA. Thankfully our good friends Brandon and Lisa Rigg picked us up and took us to their apartment where we crashed. We were able to take baths and showers and then sleep and last but not least ate! They even got In & Out Burger....yum!!!!!!!!!!!! After the short stint at the Rigg's home we hopped on another plane and headed to Chicago where our parents took us to my grandparents home in Hobart.

Let me say that I have never been so tired in my entire life. I have stayed up till 4am at college, I have stayed up all night, but this was miserable. Dried out from the high altitude, dirty from traveling for close to 30 hours, and just tired.tired.tired. Thankfully all our luggage arrived safely and well we are here!


Oh so I forgot one tiny detail. Before we got on the plane in Melbourne we had to go through customs. Welllllllll, there was a minor problem with our customs lady. She told that Adele did not have the correct papers. We probably looked like deer in headlights...what! She said that in order for us to get back into Australia Adele had to have an Australian passport. At this point both of the girls were getting restless and crying, I was starting to feel a bit tense. You see I had called a while ago and checked on that very thing and the Oz people said that she would be fine with only her US passport, well apparently not. Ahh yes, one more thing. The rest of us villains (as she was treating us) did not have visa stickers in our new passports (new from the fire). We "calmly" told her that the US consult said that they were transferred electronically and that we would not receive new stickers. Strike two! One more and this lady was going to throw us out on the side of the road. Thankfully she didn't care we were leaving, she would have cared if we were on our way back in. God is good!

So this is what has to happen. We, meaning B, Jolene, and I have to get visa stickers in our new passports. This requires us to mail them to Washington DC (we just got them back!). Then Brandon has to drive up to Chicago and setup an interview with the Australian Embassy to apply for a passport for Adele. Blah, more driving. B is actually going up the Chi-town tomorrow. We have been praying about this a lot and God has been good. Everything has worked out about as well as it could and we are on track. So Lord willing we will be getting Adele's Oz passport in about a week. She will no longer be illegal. So that is the mini adventure within the larger one.

As of now we are in Kokomo, but have already been in Hobart and Fairland. I will have to catch you up on all that in a few days. Oh and pics too, we have lots of pics already:-}

Until then.....

Jolene was a Biohazard Level 2 today

So yesterday I was at my friend Sarah's house. We were talking and her daughter and Jolene were in the back room playing. We realized suddenly that it was a bit too quiet, if you know what I mean.

Sarah gets back there first and I hear her say "Jolene!!, Eleni!! what.. oh no, yuck, girls!!!"

I get back there and see Jolene and Eleni coming out of the toilet room.

Jolene's hair is wet, her jumper/sweater is wet, her pants are wet.
Eleni's shirt is wet, her pants are wet, her sock are wet.
Jolene has bits of very soggy toilet paper in her hair.
Eleni has a few bits of very soggy toilet paper in her hair.

Sarah is laughing, I kind of start laughing.

Then Sarah says the walls are wet, the floor is wet, and the toilet bowl is filled with paper.

Apparently the girls had been playing in the toilet. I asked Sarah how used the water was.

I try to be stern with Jolene but Sarah is in the corner laughing to the point she is almost crying. I can't help but break down in laughter when I look at our two plumbers. At the same time though I feel a bit sick when I think about what they have been playing in.

So we whisk them off to the bathtub and scrub them down. Bits of toilet paper floating in the bathtub, yuck!

Well there you go a day in the life of Jolene and Eleni.


That was Jolene's second outfit of the day and it wasn't even lunch time yet. The first outfit was gone by the time I had the laundry off the line. Jolene had found some "cuddles" (puddles) and decided to go swimming.


Only 5 days till we cross the great divide of H2O and NaCl

Bacteria are cool

and when you combine them with bioluminescence you get supercool

Read this article/video


and they can live off the weirdest substances

asphalt

ammonia

We are on the other side now

So a few posts ago I was talking about how hard it is to wait while you are going through a waiting period. I also said how I know God will provide but that it is hard when you are on the one side waiting to get to the other.

Well we are on the other side now. Yesterday our friends from church rang us to let us know the offer they had put on a house in Belmont was accepted. We are very excited. The house is old, but has character. It has hard wood floors, 3 bedrooms, 2 living areas, and a nice sized backyard.

There is one thing you could pray for...the needs to be inspected to see if there is any structural damage (old age and due to the drought), termites (terrible here in Geelong), and other problems. We have heard from a past owner (a daughter of a lady from church) that the bathroom has moisture problems. Pray that the inspection would not reveal any major problems because if there are, the offer will be retracted. Pray that if there are major problems our friends would be given wisdom on whether they should go ahead with the buying or look for something else.

So, we are excited that something seems to be coming together. The timing of it would work out really well, the working of God well. From what Brandon said if everything goes ahead we would be moving in July 27th. We get back from the States on the 19th and our landlords for this house will be moving into this house at the beginning of August. So we don't have to move until we get back, our current landlords won't lose rent money due to an empty house, and our soon to be landlords won't have a house sitting around empty. Hooray!

About two weeks until we leave! We were talking to Jolene about it today, I think she was ready to go now. Actually she started crying when I told her it was time for bed. She kept saying "go on airplane? go on airplane?". I told her two weeks. When I laid her down in bed she looked up at me and held out three fingers and said "two weeks, two weeks". Too bad she can't help with the packing :-)

Yesterday we went to the Melbourne Zoo with our friends Peter and Jeana, and their two daughters Eowyn and Lellani. We also had Eleni McEwen (we were babysitting for the day) with us, it was a girl fest! All of the girls did really well, no major battles of the will and they slept on the way home. We saw lions, elephants, monkeys, butterflies, and some other weird looking mammal that I don't know the name of. Here are a couple of pics, I will post the rest later. Need to help with the dishes now.

Attention Jenn Weiss, you know who you are

Contact us!!!!!!!!!!

This was the quickest way I could think of contacting you :-)
We need to talk about when we are going to get together.
We lost your phone number so I haven't been able to call you.
Can you e-mail it to us please.


For everyone else who reads this blog, sorry this isn't much of a read.
For your benefit I will write this bit of information. We are looking at a house today that may or may not work out. Will keep you posted.

Interesting articles from Wired

Wired is one of our top magazines choices, along with World, National Geographic, and Scientific America.

Here are a few articles I thought were a good read.

1. Disable Your Passport's RFID Chip

"All Passports by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials-and hackers- to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here's what you can do about it. But be careful-tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison."

1) RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover; the chip is embedded in the back.

2) Sorry, "accidentally" leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won't work. You're more likely to ruin the passport itself than the chip.

3) Forget about nuking it in the microwave- the chip could burst into flames, leaving telltale scorch marks. Besides, have you ever smelled burnt passport?

4) The best approach? Hammer time. hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn't invailidate the passport, so you can still use it.

Jeanna Wortham



2. Manhattan Projects

The world's cities are getting taller (click on the "story images" to the left on the home page and you can see the graphics for the story) – and fast. Between 2001 and 2012, almost as many skyscrapers will be constructed as were built in the entire 20th century. While vertical metropolises like Hong Kong and New York continue to mint monoliths, the most dramatic changes are happening in lower-profile places. Thanks to globalization and the steady migration of people to urban cores, cities that once had only a few high-rises are morphing into mini-Manhattans. Miami, for example, had only five skyscrapers (buildings more than 150 meters, or 492 feet, tall) in 1999 but will have 71 by 2012. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, will soar from two in 1999 to 90 by 2012. Here's a snapshot of the world's fastest-changing skylines.

– Patrick Di Justo

3. The Plague Fighters: Stopping the Next Pandemic Before It Begins

"HIV, Ebola, SARS — any of the world's most horrifying diseases are caused by animal viruses that made the jump to humans. Now a UCLA scientist thinks he can stop the next pandemic before it even starts."

4. Race to the Bottom

"A maverick Australian prospector is planning to scoop untold riches - gold, silver, copper - from the bottom of the ocean. Is it a cleaner way to mine or the beginning of an environmental disaster?"

Beginning to feel helpless

I am writing this post out of mere frustration. Writing makes me feel better, a way to get the emotions out.

I found a rental on the web a few days ago that sounded perfect for us. Great location, 3 bedrooms, 2 living areas, large backyard. Yesterday the agent called about 2pm to see if I could be at the house at 2:30pm to look at it. The girls were both asleep and so I had to decline. I really didn't want to wake both of them up and throw them in the car. The agent said we could reschedule for Monday at 4pm, I said that would be great.

Today the agent called at 10:30am to let me know the house had been rented. My stomach now feels sick. Why didn't I just go! Oh well, can't do anything about it now.

So right now I feel like giving up. If I am not willing to bend my schedule hour by hour to the agents' schedules then apparently I will miss out. Is it worth messing up the girls' day just to look at a house that as of right now we don't have the money to pay the bond for?

Yeah, last week two parking fines showed up in our mailbox, $214.00. So we are now $214.00 shy of bond.

I know that God will work something out but right now I am feeling quite desperate and helpless. I guess that is how God wants it though isn't it? He wants us not to rely on ourselves but on him. We are very much at that point right now.

So I guess in a few months I can read back over this post and see how God has worked it out. But right now being on the other side of the difficulty is no fun. Even though I know something will be worked out it is still very hard for me to keep my stomach from tightening up.

Phil. 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus.

About three weeks

We have about 3 weeks till we come home! I realized this a few nights ago and started to panic.
I haven't even started to pack the house up let alone think about packing the stuff we need for our trip. I did get the suit cases out and began to clean the soot off them. One was particularly bad due to the fire, it was black. After about three buckets of water the case began to reveal its colours (ha, Dad look...more Aussie spelling).

What we have to do before we leave.....

Coach three soccer games
find a house to move into
find all the winter clothes my girls don't need right now and give them to friends
pack summer clothes for the girls
pack up things around the house that we don't really need
finish cleaning the suitcases
make a list of things to pack
make a list of things to buy in the States
make a list of things our friends want us to bring back
get rid of op shop stuff



p.s. They spell jail, gaol here. I think that is very weird.

Rental Houses

US 0


THEM 3


Brandon showed up at an inspection the other day in his work clothes and riding his push bike. The lady showing the house didn't want to give him an application. We are now treating these inspections as job interviews, wear a suit and rent a nice car to drive up in. Oh and if it were not wrong, tell them we don't have any kids.

Encyclopedia of Life

As a biologist, I think this project sounds really cool. I am hoping it doesn't take the whole ten years as projected. EOL is going to be this massive database on every species know to man. Several natural history museums, universities, and scientists from around the world will be heading the project. Here is what a sample page will look like. This is something I could waste many hours on. Hmmm lets see what this animal looks like, or where this bacteria can be found. I particularly like the biodiversity graphs, the layout is cool looking. Anyway, I am excited.

Oh just to warn you, the video is a bit fluffy. You almost feel like you should be singing Kumbaya along with it. You have to make those donating money feel good about themselves otherwise they won't write those big cheques.

Happy Birthday to Jolene!

Jolene turned two today.

Here are pics from her birthday party with play group and then the one we had earlier today with friends from church.


Also, here are pics of the girls doing things that may only be interesting to the grandparents. Oh, and pics of our trip into Melbourne with friends Brandon and Lisa Rigg (from LA area).

The hunt is on, the other side of socialized medicine, friends

We are still looking for a place to live. Currently we are looking at rentals and also houses for sale. Friends from church are interested in buying a rental property and then renting it to us. They asked us to keep our eyes open for any good houses, hence the reason for looking at homes for sale. Last Saturday I looked at two rental properties and four homes that are for sale. Tomorrow I am looking at two rentals and one home for sale. Running around looking at all these different places makes my head spin. It is hard to remember which house is which and what I like about this one and what I don't like about that one.
We have realized that we need to up our rental price up a bit to find something that is decent looking. I looked at a house last week that was going for $240/wk. Basically it was a dump. The yard was a pit, large cracks in the walls, and discolored paint on the walls. Sad that some people let their houses end up like this.
This coming Saturday, our friends are taking a second look at a house. I guess this means there is a possibility that they might want to buy it. We shall see what happens in the next few weeks.

---

Today I had my first bad experience with the health care here. Adele had an appointment with the hip doctor at 8:45. I kind of forgot and didn't get to the hospital until 9am. That didn't really matter though because as I was talking to the desk lady I found out that they schedule a bunch of patients for the same time and then it goes on a first come first serve basis. This information was revealed at 10:30, she also informed me that there were six other babies ahead of me. How six other kids got there before 9am I have no idea but they did. So we sat and sat. I was there alone with Jolene and Adele. Jolene was not interested in sitting still after and hour had passed. Thankfully a lady from playgroup was there and she offered to help out for awhile. We took many walks to help the energy seep out of Jolene's legs. At 11am I gave up and called for reinforcements. Brandon came over from work and helped out with Jolene so that I could feed Adele. At 12pm we were about to walk out when they called Adele's name. I felt like we had won the lottery.
The doctor rolled Adele's hips around and then said she had to wear the brace for another two months (at night only). And that was that, out we went with half our day gone but still the same amount of money in our pockets.

I guess the big question we should ask is, is our time worth more than our money?

---

Our friends Brandon and Lisa Rigg, from LA, came and stayed with us for three days. We all took a train into Melbourne on Tuesday to check out the scene. We stopped by the Vic Markets, then had lunch at a organic cafe (the lasagna Lisa had was awesome!), and last but not least we walked around Federation Square (weird architecture) and had a coffee. Jolene and Adele did really well for what we did. Jolene eventually passed out in the pram from being so tired. Adele slept in Brandon's arms.

That night us adults went out for dinner in Geelong at the Le Parisian. Very nice, great food and it boasts the finest wine list in Geelong (you can decide if that is important or not).

Wednesday Brandon and Lisa drove the Great Ocean Road, I coached soccer, and Brandon went to work. On a side note. My girls team won 3-2 even though they were short two players. They were playing the seventh graders but still did pretty well for not having much time to organize them. We only had one practice before the games started up.

---

Today it rained a lot, when Brandon came home from work he took Jolene out to play in the puddles. This is what she looked like.

Back to the old ways...scary

What is going on in Russia. Reminds me to pray for Stacie as she is laboring over there.

'50% good' rule is bad news for Russian radio

Andrew Kramer, Moscow
April 23, 2007

AT THEIR first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia's largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news. From now on, at least 50 per cent of reports about Russia must be "positive".

Journalists working for the Russian News Service were told by the new managers, allies of the Kremlin, that opposition leaders could not be mentioned and the US was to be portrayed as an enemy.

How would they know what constituted positive news? "When we talk of death, violence or poverty, for example, this is not positive," said one editor who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.

In a darkening media landscape, radio news had been a rare bright spot.

Now, the implementation of the "50 per cent positive" rule at the Russian News Service leaves an increasingly small number of news outlets that are not managed by the Kremlin, directly or through the state national gas company, Gazprom, a major owner of media assets.

The three national television networks are already state-controlled, though small-circulation newspapers generally remain independent.

This month alone, a bank loyal to President Vladimir Putin tightened its control of an independent television station, Parliament passed a measure banning "extremism" in politics and prosecutors have gone after individuals who post critical comments on web chat sites.

Parliament is also considering extending state control to internet sites that report news, reflecting the growing importance of web news as the country becomes more affluent and growing numbers of middle-class Russians acquire computers.

On Tuesday, police raided the Educated Media Foundation, a non-governmental group, sponsored by US and European donors, that helps foster independent news media.

The police removed documents and computers that were used as servers for the websites of similar groups. That brought down a website run by the Glasnost Defence Foundation, a media rights group, which published bulletins on violations of press freedoms.

With this new campaign, aimed at tying up the loose ends before a parliamentary election that is being stage-managed by the Kremlin, censorship rules in Russia have reached their most restrictive since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The tactic has been to impose state ownership on media companies and replace editors with supporters of Mr Putin or those who offer a more upbeat account of developments in Russia.

The new censorship rules are often passed in vaguely worded measures and decrees that are ostensibly intended to protect the public.

Parliament on Wednesday passed a law allowing for prison sentences as long as three years for "vandalism" motivated by politics or ideology.

Again, vandalism is interpreted broadly, human rights groups say, and can include acts of civil disobedience.

State television news, meanwhile, typically offers only bland accounts of official meetings. Last weekend, the state channels mostly ignored the violent dispersal of opposition protests in Moscow and St Petersburg.

NEW YORK TIMES

Our trip to the US of A

So here are the dates and where we will be. The schedule is somewhat flexible. Our parents said that you are all welcome to come to their homes and hang out with us there as well.

June 12-14 :
Arrive in Chicago 10pm go to Wineinger's.
Stay there until the 14th to regroup.

June 14 - 16:
Head to the extended Fisher family house in Northern Indiana.

June 16 - 19:
Drive to Kokomo to stay with Fisher Fam.

June 19 - 25:
Drive to Fairland to stay with Elder Fam.

June 25 - July 3:
Will be in Kokomo again with the Fisher Fam.

July 3 - 5:
Will be in Hobart, IN for the Wineinger 4th of July celebrations.

July 5- 8:
In Fairland with the Elder Fam.

July 8 - 10:
Heading to Covfamikoi family camp, whooha!

July 10 - 12:
Back in Fairland with the Elders

July 12 - 14:
Go to Kokomo for two days.

July 14 - 16:
In Lafayette to catch up with friends.

July 16 - 17:
In Hobart then to Chicago.

July 17:
Fly home at 5pm.

There you have it.