Hi, you're still here!

Hi Blog, glad to see you're still here. I'm still here too! Australia that is -3rd year at the Beautiful Leura garden festival this year, oh and I'm finally allowed to stay in the country -well at least for 5 more years, then more paperwork... I think it will not end until I'm dead -and then it'll keep going but be someone else's paperwork. We are on house #4, year #2.5, visitors from the USA: 3 family, 2 friends so far, and once again it's springtime -hooray for beach weather!

Leura Garden Festival

Last year I went to Leura in the Blue Mountains for an annual Garden festival. I got to hear a Flute group, see an art exhibition, and visit 7 gardens, all flowering in God's beauty. I also experienced a bit of rain, some gorgeous waterfalls, and a teapot museum that sold more coffee than tea.

And it's that time again! It feels very strange to be going again to something that happens annually in Australia. Almost like I actually live here.

My good friend and her baby are coming along this time and I'm so excited. Well, I was excited until I saw the forecast is for rain and 8-13 degrees C (~46-55 F). I am going to be optimistic though and hope tomorrow works out and I'm enjoying a beautiful day trip outside of Sydney. That's what long weekends are for right?

This time last year I was boarding a plane for the USA

Has it already been a year since I left for the USA and my best friend's wedding? Happy 1st anniversary to you two! Has it been nearly a year since I've seen my family and friends in person? Thank goodness for Skype. I'm a big fan, and am constantly amazed how I can make a video call to a foreign country cheaper than I can call on my mobile to a friend only 5 minutes away. Winter already seems like it's slipping by too, but maybe that's just because it was really sunny today.

Time is the longest distance between two places. ~Tennessee Williams

I'm not really sure what to post here now, but I hope to figure it out. One of the people I wrote this blog for is gone now. I miss her very, very much. But I have to be sure and not take my days, my family for granted.

I've got a lot of projects going right now to keep me from zombie-ing out in front of the TV in the evenings after work. Sometimes it seems like too many projects, and so I'm going to set myself to a different task every 2 weeks. I'm starting with scrapbooking and I'm very excited to be accompanying a friend to a scrapbooking class day on Saturday for making cards, a scrapbook page, and to have lunch and tea together. Hopefully I'll learn some new techniques and get even more inspired to work on my albums.

2008

I can't say I'm sorry to see the end of 2008. I hope this new year brings happiness and good health to all despite all the crazy American financial situation. Hey, it's still January. I can still be optimistic. :)

My mother always used to ask my sister and I to write a year-in-review every year. They were typically about a page long and written in pencil on lined school paper when we were little and in strange-colored pens when we were older. I usually was working on mine frantically up until the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31. (It might have helped that Mom bribed us with a small amount of cash so that we did this every year.) They are so fun to look back and read now that we're a bit older.

I won't bore you with a whole page of details, just a little list of some things I'll probably never forget about 2008. And yes, it's already a bit into 2009, but some things (like me being late) never change.
Without further ado, 2008 in review:
*Moving to Australia in January with just 2 suitcases!
*Our puppy Roland snapping a tendon in his leg *groan*
*Getting involved with the wonderful church here in Australia
*Moving into our very first rental house
*Hosting my first Australian BBQ -American themed!
*Celebrating our first wedding anniversary
*Getting my first "real" job in Australia
*Flying back to the USA and seeing all my beloved family (Parents, Sister, Grandparents, Aunts, Cousins, etc. you know who you are) and heaps of friends!
*My best friend finally got married
*Meeting 2 new little cousins for the first time and being with my cousin after his open heart surgery
*Walking along the beach with my husband and dogs
*Camping trip with my husband's cousins
*Moving into our second rental house, and 4th house lived in during 2008.
*Worrying about my family back home, especially my grandparents health and happiness
*V's work-injury surgery
*Buying our first car together (and my first non-Mustang, sniff!)
*Planting our first garden
*My sister's beloved Moonshadow passing on to kitty heaven
*Choosing our first Christmas tree and decorating our home for the holidays
*Spending New Years eve at the Sydney harbor fireworks where V proposed to me 3 years ago

Happy 2009 everyone!

Quick Hello

I'm quite happy this week -I finished my coding project at work -woohoo! I'm learning heaps about C# and Xaml. Hopefully the next project will get done even quicker now.

V and I are enjoying having some American backpacker visitors from back home with us. V's been playing tour guide and I tag along when work permits. It's been great fun reminiscing about old friends and the Mexican restaurant we always ate at Sunday after church... Great fun -but we are so going to need to catch up on some sleep after they leave. Backpackers like to get up by like 6 or 7 am to go see the sights! They've been on ferry rides, to the Opera house, hiking, to lighthouses, and today they are in the Blue Mountains. I hope they're enjoying themselves as much as we are.
I'm not going to get political on my blog, but I wanted to share with you an article I really enjoyed...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7600000/7600592.stm

Long Overdue Update

Hi everyone!
Has it really been several weeks since I last updated? Sorry.. Life has been good. We officially had the first day of spring a few weeks ago and suddenly "boom": perfectly gorgeous weather that makes you ache to go outside all day long. The time of cold is over and won't be around again for a long time... I'm already wearing t-shirts and it's only spring. *fingers crossed that summer is mild*. Other than beautiful weather, spring has brought with it allergies. I've never really had spring allergies before, but now I've got really itchy eyes. Thanks weird Australian pollen.

I work all week and keep meaning to update blogs/e-mail family and friends on the weekends but I keep having interesting, event-packed weekends. One Saturday I went on a bus with the church group to Canberra -Australia's capitol (about 3 hours away). It was great fun. We went to the national war museum, ate a picnic lunch in the park with black swans and pink cherry trees blossoming, took pictures of the parliament house (which they do not like you calling the Capitol building, by the way), and a lookout stop at Mt. Ainsley. The drive home was a treat also as we saw HERDS of wild kangaroos! I loved getting to be a tourist for a day. I've got heaps of photos and will upload some of the better ones when I get a chance. Unfortunately, all the kangaroo pics were out a bus window moving at around 60 mph as we drove by.

This weekend I'm looking forward to Mountain biking in the Terry Hills area with the church group. It's lovely weather, and it should be beautiful in the scenic bike trails around there. Australia has lots of national parks and scenic protected areas, which is nice.

The other main thing I've been occupied with is house hunting. Our lease ends next month and we needed to find somewhere to move to. Considering how big of an effort it was last time, I was very anxious. This time, with the help of a good reference from our current real estate company and my super-organization of necessary documents, we got in at the first place we applied! It's a long lease too which means we won't have to move again soon, thankfully.

Next stop, car hunting....
Cheers and have a great weekend everyone!

SciFi into reality

I'm at work facing the same problem experienced in nearly every other office worldwide, and most homes too.  I'm freezing!  I'm wearing an undershirt for warmth, a long-sleeved sweater, and a jacket -while drinking a cup of boiling hot tea even.  Meanwhile, the guy next to me is wearing a t-shirt and has turned the airconditioner on.  

Yes, I could bring a portable heater from home up to work.  But, it just doesn't make sense to turn on both a heater and airconditioner in one room does it?  Not to mention, quite a waste of electricity.  

So, someone smarter than me please hurry up and invent personal space bubbles that each individual is in control of their own surrounding temperatures please.  I don't want to dress like I'm going skiing just to go into work!