Going to the outback, and not the restaurant…

We’re spending New Year’s in the outback: Grampians
We are going with another family, so it should be fun. And it’s only 4 hours away (by car) anything is better than 21 hours by plane.
So a Happy and Healthy 2009 to everyone, I’ll be back on the 2nd with lots of pictures and hopefully no stories [...]

Easy to misread

As humans we communicate in many ways: by speaking, writing, body language, and so on. We all know that even when we are face to face with someone, it is easy to misinterpret what they are saying. I am finding it hard to rely on the limited ways of communication I have with family and friends to [...]

Happy Christmas from Down Under

I’m trying to fit in….they do say “Merry Christmas” too, but not as much as I have heard “Happy Christmas”. It feels like they are about to say “Happy Birthday”, it is confusing to my brain. It’s sort of like hearing someone say “Merry Birthday”. And then I said “Happy Holidays” but that doesn’t work [...]

Ramblings

We had a great weekend in Tootgarook: the beaches were amazing and the boys really loved it. The bayside beach was calm and shallow, perfect for the kids to plop themselves down in a little pool and splash around. The oceanside beach was probably the most perfect beach I have ever been to in my [...]

Off for the weekend

Being that Australia is such a big country (around the same size as the US) we have a lot to see while we are here. Although Craig & I have already been when we visited back in June, we are going back to the Mornington Peninsula for a long weekend with the boys. This time [...]

Productive day at the playground

After naptime yesterday, we were just hanging out at home, doing nothing much. So I thought of a few things we could do: walk to the beach playground, go for a bike-ride, and then I decided we could ride “downtown” to get a movie at the video place. So we loaded up on our bikes and [...]

Emotional

I know when I write things like my last post, they are going to hit some of us pretty hard, namely my sister & mom. But I didn’t expect for my nephew to be affected the way he was. It makes me sad that he was upset, but at the same time, it is nice to [...]

Eleven

I can remember it so clearly now, I was spending the weekend at the Duffy’s in Brick, NJ – your Uncle Craig and I weren’t even engaged yet. I got a call from my dad, your Pa, on Friday night, December 12th, telling me that your mom was in labor, but that it would be [...]

On the other side of the world

There are times when I don’t even feel like I am over 10,000 miles away from…what?.. from home, my family, my friends, the life I have always known. There are things that are similar, and my mind is tricked into thinking this is still America. Look – there’s a Coke sign across the street! Oooh [...]

Modern Conveniences

Things I never realized how much I love: and I’m not saying I want to find them here, or that I can’t live without them:
Nestle Toll House ready-made cookie dough (family size!); Dunkin Donuts drive-thru (not just for coffee, but munchkins, bagels & muffins too); the $1 section at Target; GLAD trashbags (the ones you [...]