olympian welcome

all the olympians have been on a country wide "welcome home" tour to all the major cities. Adelaide turned out to be today, so i hoped on the tram and met justin in down town. they did a parade through the city center and ended at Victoria Sq, which is only 2 blocks from justin's work. after they had their little talking and stuff, all the olympians came down to sign autographs and stuff. being the big sucker that i am for anyone "famous", had to join in with all the little school kids, who should have been in class, to get some pics. I felt a bit awkward standing 2 feet above everyone else in the mob, and being pushed by these little munchkins, of which im pretty sure i could have taken out had i moved at all. not to mention the little brat who was yelling at me for pushing!! i mean where is the respect for your elders son. aside all the mayhem, i was able to snag a few pics with our fav athletes from the games that made it out.

this is steven hooker. he won the gold medal in the pole vault. it turned out to be a huge thing because oz has not won a gold medal in anything track and field in 40 years! he was a rockstar amongst the ausies, so we had to get a pic. this next one is justin and Linda MacKenzie. she was on the olympic gold medal for the womens 4x200m freestyle relay team in swimming, and they were truely the underdog. they pulled out an amazing win at the last second to defeat the americans and snagged a world record. this guys is Brenton Rickard, also on the swim team, he came away with 2 silvers. one in the 4x100 medley relay and one in mens 200m breaststroke.

weekend getaway

This past weekend we flew out to Brisbane (pronounced bris-bin), which is on the east side of the country about half way up, and headed north to the sunshine coast. its an area about an hour north and stretches for about an hour of beaches north of that. we stayed the first night in Noosa Heads, the north part of the sunshine coast, which is alot like the Carmel of Oz. Very nice, expensive and beautiful. We stayed in a cheap, excentric backpaker for the first night and then the rest in a condo traded down in Caloundra, which is at the very south of the Sunshine Coast. We had a blast enjoying the warm weather, sunshine, surf, beaches and all the cool stuff that part of Oz has to offer. We hiked around the Noosa Head, took a tour to Fraser Island, hiked around the Glasshouse Mountains, Justin surfed, and generally just soaked up the sun! What can I say, it was fabulous. Heres a few picks from the trip.

Noosa Heads

Dickey Beach-

named after the S.S. Dickey that ran ashore in 1893

Glasshouse Mountains

Fraser Island-

is the biggest sand island in the world. all the plants growing on it grow in sand, which is amazing considering its a rain forest and the creeks make no sound because there are no rocks. all the water on the island is fresh and crystal clear.

The Colored Sands

train of thought

Since justin is all responsible and got himself a job, i am now at home getting lots of time to myself. my mind tends to wander too much when i have long periods of undisturbed thought, and this was what today held. it started off as what i wanted for breakfast, and ended on the things i love and dont love about daily life. ill spare you the middle. but thought i would share non the less.

things i love:

• sees candy- a wonderful mom of one of our missionaries lives in LA and sent us a box of see's candies. oh so divine! justin made fun of me that i didnt even wait till we got home (or even out of the church parking lot)before diving into the box. apparently i take after my mother who once bought us a box and ate them before we got there and had to go buy another box.
• mail/comments- email, blog comments, you name it, i love it. i usually feel so isolated here especially while justin is at work. i love knowing how everyone is doing, and what the heck is going on back home! thank you those who send me something weekly (to C and chix) it totally makes my day!
• fresh fruit and veggie stands- i go to this great local grower stand in town and stock up on wonderful produce. i dont think i have ever eaten so many great veg's ever!
• running on the beach- i love after a run, just sitting on one of the many benches overlooking the ocean. and if i have to work out alone (im a social worker-outer, i like to go with someone else) this is the way to go. best part of my day.

things i dont really like:

• expensive groceries- WinCo spoiled me! i get so revolted by $7 for cereal that essentially only gives you 4 bowls! wheres my big bag of krispie rice when i need it.
• expensive nuts- a little snack size bag is $7. you can buy 2 lbs. at costco for like $14. i really miss my snack of walnuts, pecans, almonds, you name it.
• lack of sweet cereal- i have such a soft spot for sugar cereals. give me a good bowl of lucky charms, fruit loops, captin crunch, honeycomb, cocoa crispies, ect. and i am a happy girl. those dont exist here. which is really great for my back end but still leaves me missing an occasional pick me up.

this week

i love the sound of: the crashing waves as they roll onto shore after a beautiful dayi love the sight of: an amazing sunset. as the colors fade through the cloudless sky, this simple pleasure of soaking the last days rays makes my day complete. i love the feel of: riding the tram with my hubby as we close our wonderful day in the city. seeing museums, eating at our favorite restaurant. taking an evening to attend the temple.

i love the taste of: a delicious meal for the missionaries. we have been honored to have them in our home weekly and love the company and spirit they bring.

i love the smell of: the earth after it rains

i love our newest activity of playing my sweet hubby in tennis, and occasionally winning

roos, koalas & wombats, OH MY!!

we went to cleland wildlife park this week to see some of the native animals here. we loved the kangaroos. they are just as cool as we thought. i also got to hold a koala (a secret life long dream of mine). it was amazing and they really do just cling on for dear life. their fur id so different than i thought it would be. its so fluffy and soft. we had so much fun hanging out with these animals. even justin had a blast feeding the kangaroo's, they were totally his favorite. also the pelicans are some of the coolest things we have ever seen. their beaks are so neat, and the ones here are HUGE!! they stand above justins waist.

life so far

life in oz is great. justin and i are spending so much time together. considering our lack of jobs, justins light school schedule, and our legs as our only transportation we hang out a ton. and i am loving it. we go play tennis whenever we want, walk to the beach, walk over to town with no hurry to get anywhere. we are so uused to life in the fast lane, its nice having it speed right past us as we watch together.

our little apartment is great. considering it wasnt originally furnished, we have been able to scrounge up lots of stuff to fill it. the wonderful lady we are renting from is letting us borrow all the major furniture we need. she also had some plates, bowls, cups, and a pot and pan. This wonderful family in our ward has let us borrow a tv and vcr. we have been so blessed by the people here. their generocity and pure love of helping others is a true example of love thy neighbor.

another great thing is that the food here is amazing. we have eaten out several times and never once had anything we didnt absolutely love. we have so many things on our list of places to try, and i fear we wont be able to get to them all. i have never been in a place where everything tasted good. its like heaven for my tastebuds.

in case you were wondering... yes opera and dr. phil have made it over to their tv. they also have an ER spin-off, deal or no deal, and the news/morning shows. and no i dont think the toilets rotate the other direction being this side of the equator.

overall, life is grand and we are loving the time we have here. we have been so blessed and know that our heavenly father has been watching out for us. we are so thankful to all the help he has given us, and daily see the impact in our lifes.

well let me start off by saying that i HATE job searching! it sucks. i am no good at talking about myself and trying to look interested on the spot. i really just want some money.

so today was spent taking our resumes all over our little town trying to convince someone that we would be employees worth having. most people said we are about 6 weeks early, that they wont be hiring till sept for the summer rush (so hard to remember). but others, in the nicest way possible because everyone is nice here, said no. i applyed everywhere from a cafe, sports journalist, dr.s office, and curves to a retail store, ice cream place and chocolate shop (i am secretly hoping that one of the last ones pulls through). justin went for a local legal office, sunglasses shops and i think a sushi place. the only one that we have any hope for is the cafe though. it is alot like the resturant i worked at back home, and its only 2 blocks away from our house. it would be nice to have work so close.

we also ventured into the ikea in town. it happened to be right next to the airport with a direct bus to our little town. can you say perfect!! justin had never been, so it was quite the fun. we had contests going to see who could find the cheapest product of what we were looking for. ie. silverware (16 piece set for $4.50), bath mat ($3.50) and the clentcher was a laundry basket ($2.00). considering we are probably going to leave most of this stuff here when we are done, it was nice to know that it doesnt add up to much. we did buy a frying pan from a thrift store that we are going to try and smuggle back into the US. its amazing!

surf trip

today we had our first road trip down to the southern tip of the peninsula we live on. since the beach we live by doesnt have surf because it is so far up int the bay, we had to drive 1 1/2 hours to the closest good breaks. no worries since we have to give the rental car back tomorrow, it was a nice send off.

the countryside here is beautiful. the more we explore, the more we love it.

we spotted our first kanga since being here. unfortunately, he missed the sign above.

home sweet home

we found a house and it only took 5 days. supposedly it was supposed to take longer because alot of students come to adelaide, theres like 4 uni's (university) in the city. we slept in it last night with no electricity. it was like camping in our house, thanks to justin for packing a flashlight! we unpacked today, i brought entirely way to much stuff!

our house sits 4 blocks from the beach, 5 from the main down town of Glenelg. theres a grocery store, cafe, post office, and atm around the corner, and a tennis court just up the street.

Justin started his last year of law school today. he only goes to class tues and wed nights 5-8, three weekends in august and one week in sept. its a pretty sweet schedule if you ask me. we are going to have so much time on our hands. it will be so much less time spent on school studies than what we were both used to.

the weather is way cold. remember how it was like the worst winter in a long time in the states. yea, well the cycle continues down here. and we left summer for this?!? i thought oz was summer time all year! lets just say the 2 pairs of pants are getting a ton of use while the 6 pairs of shorts sit quietly in their new home.the adelaide LDS temple