New News

Okay, so it has been forever and a day since I've posted a blog. I'm sure there is old news, but I will just jump into it with new news.

New News #1: I have a new job! Which is pretty exciting!! I work as a reservations officer for a tour company. I have been there 2 weeks now and really like it. Plus I am making good money doing something I like, which is always a plus. Once I am done being the new girl I will be even happier- I hate being in training and not knowing everything. :)

New News #2: Chris and Jacqui are here now! I got to pick Jacqui up from the airport 2 weeks ago. Chris has been here for almost 2 months. We have had a lot of fun hanging out. They got a house 4 doors down from us so we see each other a lot. But its okay cause Eric and Chris get to hang out while Jacqui and I hang out. Its been a while since we've had married friends who we got to socialize with. I'm really enjoying it!!

New News #3: We are finally starting to plan our Europe/US trip. I can't wait! We will be traveling in May, and I am so excited. Now we just have to get all the cities and hotels and cars and whatnot worked out. So still a lot of work in front of us but it is really going to happen. Yay!

Well thats it for now- dinners about ready and I have to go change the laundry. They only gave me two work shirts and I have to wear one tomorrow to work. I will post more info later!

Quick Update

We're back! From vacation, that is. We've been home for almost a week now. My aunt is currently visiting (we met her in Sydney) and flies out tomorrow so I don't have much time to write.

Vanuatu was AWESOME!!! We had so much fun. The food was fantastic, the people were friendly, and the snorkeling was wonderful. It was a great place to visit, and I will post more about the trip in the next couple of days. Sydney was a lot of fun, too. We did a lot of things in Darling Harbour and Chinatown since that is where our hotel was.

In other news... I have been let go from my job. We lost a contract with another business and so the loss of revenue meant that I was out of a job. I was pretty bummed but I knew about it before we left for Vanuatu, so I've had some time to adjust. I've decided its a good time to go back home and visit family, so I will be heading to the US for a few weeks and then coming back here and looking for a job. I shouldn't have any trouble finding something as there are tons of openings in the paper.

So life is pretty good right now, and I will post more about our trip (and photos!) soon.

Camping Pics

Here is a big rock that we saw a couple of miles away from our campsite...

Some rock paintings we saw - this is the 'roo

And the final one...

That was on the ceiling of the overhang we found these in. It was awe inspiring to look at these and wonder how many years they have been there. We didn't see anyone for miles around this area and it was pretty far off the beaten path. It was the highlight of our trip. We hope to go back this winter and spend some time in that area again - I'm sure the hiking will be more pleasant in the winter time.

More pics to come after our Vanuatu trip...

Countdown to Vanuatu, again!

So its time to start counting down again. This time we are really really going! Although I am a little bit nervous about the whole earthquake situation- they had one a couple of weeks ago. Now that I have trip insurance I am not as concerned, because at least we will get our money back. We are set to leave on April 28th. Less than 3 weeks to go, yay!! I can't wait. I am hoping we will get to do all sorts of fun things- including abseiling, snorkeling and maybe some jet skiing! Port Vila here we come...

While preparing for this trip we finally downloaded the camera to the computer. The drawback to having a huge memory card is not remembering to download things right away. So I will add some pics from our camping trip (months ago). Stay tuned!!

UPDATE: Not in Vanuatu

Well, I can't really go into the long version of the story, seeing as the internet is not anonymous, and there are private details. But we ran into some last minute issues with going to Vanuatu. Luckily the travel agent let us reschedule our trip (for a fee) and so we are now rescheduled for the end of April. Yeah, we are pretty bummed about it. Only because April seems so far away right now. Worse things could have happened, though, so it is always good to be optimistic. We will eventually go, just not this weekend.

That's it for today... Just wanted to send out an update. More to come on life in general - stay tuned!!

Count down to Vanuatu!

So we leave for Vanuatu in just 3 weeks! February 10th we head out. I am so excited! I cannot wait to get to see the beach, hang out on the island, go snorkeling... you get the picture.

2 weeks ago we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Wild to believe, but we've made it through 5 years of marriage. The trip to Vanuatu is our present - no jewelry this year, just lots of memories to be made! I keep hoping the book I ordered on Vanuatu arrives soon from Dymock's (the bookstore). I ordered it the week before Christmas so you would think that it would be here already. Not that I'm impatient.

In other news, we have had lots and lots of rain in the last week. The weather has been cool- its quite strange considering this time last year was boiling hot. We are not used to the humidity though... today it was cool and sunny so not quite so much humidity, which is nice. The air conditioning has been a lot more effective since the humidity has gone down.

Well that's about all for now. I will post more before we leave for our trip. I can't wait!

Almost Christmas

Well here is an early present- I am finally putting another blog up. If it gets cut off its probably because I am at work.

I have been a total slacker and haven't posted in nearly 3 months. How terrible! We went camping at the beginning of October and I meant to put that post up, but you know how it goes. October rolled into November... we had a fabulous Thanksgiving with another American family... and November rolled into December. So here we are, 19 days left until Christmas. Have you finished your shopping? I haven't finished all of mine but I have everything for Eric, which is good.

We do not have a Christmas tree up yet but I'm hoping that gets done Friday. We have a pretty jam packed schedule up until Christmas- several Christmas parties to go to, and other random activities. Also, Eric's birthday is Sunday so we will be celebrating that however he chooses. (may very well include lots of sleeping and playing some games on the computer. It's his birthday, he should get to do what he wants!!)

I am getting ready to work on our Christmas letter. Yes, I hate being impersonal but I just don't have time to write a personal note to every single person on my list. I can't justify putting the cards in the envelopes and mailing them off without some sort of correspondence, so I am comprimising and doing the Christmas letter. It will also update most of the family and friends who don't read this blog! I hope everyone enjoys the picture as much as I enjoy sending it to them.

More to come, and it won't be three months again this time. I have some cool pics from camping, ect. that I will take time to put up. I have the week of Christmas off of work so will be able to catch up on random things like that. Hopefully I can get some of our scrapbook done, too!

Have a happy holiday season.

Pics of Cairns... finally!

Well I have to be up early but Eric is at work so I thought I would post some pics from the trip. For those of you who read this- sorry its been a little slow! Hopefully this will perk you up.

Happy Monday!

Here is a gorgeous pic Eric took from a lookout on the side of the Captain Cook highway on our way to Port Douglas (where we went riding on my birthday!) I love how the mountains and rainforests come right down to the Coral Sea.
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This is one of the cute marsupials we saw on the Rainforest Tour- it is a green ring tailed possum, I think. It was only about 6 feet away from us and Eric managed to get a good shot of it eating. I love the stripe down his forehead!

This bloke is a red tailed black cockatoo who happened to find my ponytail holder quite attractive. Just so you are aware this is a big ass bird and when it lands on your shoulder it can be a somewhat frightening experience. I tried to stay cool though- they can sense fear! Eric took this one at the Wildlife Rainforest Dome in the city. Its a really cool place! We went back (tickets are good for 5 days) the day before we left and got some really good pics. Also its at the top of the casino, so we had to go in that night and win some money! It was a great way to end a great trip.