Falling all over the place!

More of my favorite--crab sand art!

Walking the beach---my man!

If you can see it through the glare---a NASCAR racing machine in the lobby of the local cinema!!! How cool is that???

A lot of you know what a huge klutz I am......it is true. Grace is not my middle name. When we spent a day in Mexico with my brother quite a few years ago I fell off a curb. Yes, one of those "brightly painted look at me I am here" curbs! To this day both of my beloved sons make comments about Mexico and my misstep there. Well I guess I had to add another continent to my klutziness. Friday I went into Townsville, ran some errands and then met a few friends at Betty Blue and Lemon Tart for a wonderful lunch. After that Janette invited us back to her unit for cheesecake so I left my car parked in my primo 4 hour spot and hopped in Ann's car to make the short trek. We had to park on a really steep incline and I have to give props to Ann for her superb skill in not only fititng a huge vehicle between 2 cars on a steep incline but doing it in a manual !!! I was in awe! She said all her years in England were her training ground. (This is my English Ann friend, obviously, not my North Carolina Ann friend). Anywho---getting out of the car on the curbside where I was sitting was fine until I tried to start walking! There was a tiny stream of water going down the gutter and under that tiny stream of water was a green slimey oozy substance. Well, you guessed it. My flimsy little sandals hit the green slime and down I went. The only thing that would make it better would have been if the BMW that I clung to as I went down had had an alarm that would have gone off!!! What a picture I was. I was laughing hysterically, Ann was all concerned, gave me a hand up and then we both were hysterical about how ridiculous that was!!! Well I survived the fall, my bum was a little chalky as Ann drew attention to (bless her heart--you North Carolinians understand that!!) and a couple scrapes on the foot and knee were all that I suffered. But it was one of those moments when you just wish you could go back 3 seconds in time. Note to self---don't walk in slimey water!!!

It's been a couple days since I have posted anything----not much that I can tell you other than I spent a couple days sucking up spiders and cobwebs in the house in Ayr, did a little shopping and have been doing a lot of reading. Today Chris and I got up early and went in to do a little shopping, had brekkie and then went to get gelato and sat by the water at the Strand for an hour or so which was so totally relaxing and lovely. We left there and went to see Frost Nixon and enjoyed seeing that before heading back to the beach. We forged a path to the beach and found a place we could get down without killing ourselves and hopefully the guy that we have lined up to mow the back part will show up soon or we won't be able to see the beach and water soon! With all the rains it has been too wet for us to mow it and now it is way more than our little baby mower can handle. We need the big guns here and also the bushes trimmed----our nemesis wherever we live!!! All in all a great day!

Have talked to a lot of you online and been keeping up----skyped a few of you and that is great too! Sure do feel blessed by family and friends!! Will try to post something more exciting soon! But I will share a few pictures before I go!

Floods, bushfires and frogs...

I am thinking that we are bound for something else to happen because we have been hit by all these natural (or unnatural--not sure what they are!) disasters. Today when Chris went to leave for work he yelled at me to come out---his car was covered with tiny little adorable green frogs. Yes, when they are in their natural environment they are adorable. When they are in the toilets--not so much! Last night when we came back from dinner they were all over the road hopping around like mad in the rain and this morning a ton were on the car he borrows from the mill when we are down in the Burdekin. I couldn't get a great picture because I had the camera on auto focus and didn't have time to mess around with the settings since he needed to leave for work and it focused on the backgrounds and not the frogs....but they are awfully cute.

Lots of rain last night again but Chris must have made it through it to the mills this morning as I have not seen him return! I am going to make a run into town, maybe vacuum out the car, hit the post, find some storage containers to put some stuff in and maybe stop by the grocery to pick up some carrots at the very least for my four legged friends! My life is full!

But seriously, my life is full! I am brimming with happiness today and with gratefulness---so many things happen to each of us on a daily basis that are wonderful. Seeing beautiful little green frogs in the rain and seeing how God has a plan for even them makes me happy! As long as they stay outside.......

What happens to a carrot after spending 3 months in a fridge unattended??

Yes, It is true! Carrots do not do well left alone in a fridge for 3 months unattended!!! I am in Ayr at the house down here and opened the fridge and to my surprise found this little guy who is a mere shadow of his former self. I usually keep some down here to feed my horse buddies that live in the mango grove on the way into the "estate" (honest---that is what it is called!!) and since we had not been here for months my poor carrot shriveled into nothingness. I am so sad! So a trip is planned into town to restock as my buddies noticed me coming in today!Since we have not been here for so long there is massive cleaning to do. The plus side of that is that since we have hardly any furniture here it is easy to get things vacuumed and mopped! So I have been sucking up spiders and spider webs and all kinds of things that I am just deciding to not look too closely at......I don't want to know what it is or what may be more accurate...was. I did learn a pretty valuable lesson at the beach house yesterday though. Dead geckos + vacuum cleaner and heat = big stink! I made Chris empty out the bin today because I thought I was going to gag. Of course the gecko remains came out but not into the bin.....sigh. I also discovered that the few clothes that we have down here hanging up in the closet are mildewed too. Gross. So I guess I will be getting on that!

Cleaning is pretty well done for the moment and I am going to chill out and maybe watch a movie or write some letters or something equally as exciting! Right now I am listening to Donny Osmond in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat" ......am I giving away my age???

And the best thing about being down here tonight??? Chinese for dinner! That is if Chris can make it in ---I had to drive through some water over the road coming in and with this rain it will just make it worse. Oh I don't want to think about it right now!!! I have FAITH that he will make it home tonight!

What's in the News?

I really do not lack for news from the US--granted some of it may not be reported from a US angle but I can usually get snippets of US news from the Australian papers. Thank goodness we now can get CNN and Anderson Cooper and some of the other favorites that we got used to watching in the states!

What does surprise me sometimes is how fascinated some folks seem to be with our political process and all that goes with that. Now the fascination is with the new First Lady and not only does she grace the cover of all of the US magazines now she is also on many of the Australian publications as you can see from the photo. I don't think this a bad thing----i just find it interesting!!!

We had a lazy day today----it stormed early this morning and the power went out for a couple hours so we just kind of chilled out and waited to get our day going till later and then watched movies and read for most of the day. We skyped a couple of people and caught up on things with them. Chris just went back to the bedroom to cool off and I will be headed that way soon. It has started raining again and I hear my "water catchment system" for our leaks (a cooler which has now expanded to include a dutch oven, a pitcher and a bucket as the leaks increase) being filled with little drips! I will be glad when the rain is over but I have a feeling we still have a bit to go! I think we have had more of a rainy season this year than they have had for a few years --kind of like our first winter in Iowa with record cold and snow....hmmmm...what does that mean???

Anyway, another week is starting and I plan to watch the Academy Awards right along with you guys tomorrow at noonish my time. I think we get coverage here because Hugh Jackman is hosting and it makes me happy. We have seen several of the movies nominated and it will be fun to see who wins all the categories! So think of me if you take the time to watch! I will be right along there with you!

Perhaps I am in Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know it is time for Girl Scout cookies but I think I have found something that will satisfy my longing for a box (or 5) of Thin Mints! These lovely little Tim Tams are so divine---never mind that a package of 8 cost $2.88. Let's see--that is 36 cents for each little slice of heaven. Well worth it I say when I can't have my Thin Mints!

Fun Friday!

I had a fabulous day today--not that they aren't all fabulous here in the land of kangaroos and koalas but some are more so!!! Took Chris into work this morning so I could have the car and to those of you who have been asking about his ear---keep praying!! It seems he must have something like swimmers ear called tropical ear where because of the moist (that is the nice word for it) weather it just never dries out. So since he is done with the antibiotics today it is off to the doctor he goes next Tuesday to hopefully get things looked at a little bit better. He is still having some pain and hearing loss so he does need to get it taken care of. He is going to a doctor that was recommended by a coworker so hopefully that will be "our" gp now!

I came back into Townsville and met Gillian and Anne for morning tea --the place we were to meet was closed due to illness so we walked up the street to a cute place called Betty Blue and Lemon Tarts or something like that and had a nice couple of hours catching up. Gillian, for those of you who don't know, is the one who hosts the weekly craft group and since i have had such a hard time getting in there on Tuesdays it has been awhile since we have caught up on things. She is always really full of information that I need so I look forward to asking her things like where to get drycleaning done, where a good picture framer is, etc. Left there to go meet Ann, Janette and Belinda at a cafe on The Strand for lunch and we had a great time there too! Funny how we all have experienced a lot of the same things since we have been here. Belinda and I came about the same time, Ann moved here in January and Janette has been here 2 1/2 weeks so we are comparing notes on things which is great. Had a great lunch and went across the street for ice cream which was WONDERFUL! I chose a chocolate kind, had white shorts on, it was dripping over the sides of the cup and somehow I managed to not get a drop on me! Not quite sure how i did that because white is usually a magnet for me to have spaghetti sauce or whatever there is around on me.

I have to get my passport renewed as it expires in August so I have been trying to figure all of that out and thought I finally had it all together. Went to the bank because I had to have US funds to mail in with it as the exchange rate (and I don't even want to talk about that right now!) fluctuates from day to day so much that by the time they recieved it if it was in Australian dollars it would not be right. So the girl and I muddled through it, I got the funds and headed to the post to get the appropriate envelopes to ship and have it returned to me. I double checked everything and sure hope that I have it all right. It goes to the US Consulate in Sydney so hopefully it will all be done and i won't have lost the passport! Then when I get it back I have to get the Australian government to link my visa to it as it is linked to the old passport number. I am sure it won't be a big deal ---it is all done electronically but it is another thing to do!

I had about an hour before I had to pick Chris up so I finally went to the library and got my official library card!! You know I lived in Iowa longer than I have lived here and never even did that for some reason! Not sure why. I took all the right stuff with my name and address on it to show proof of living here so it was all good and I am now an official library card holder. I browsed and checked out a ton of books and had them recommend some Australian authors so we will see how that goes! But I guess the point is---I am feeling a little bit more settled.

Quiet weekend ahead--hope to go see "Slumdog Milliionaire" if we can find it on someplace and then Monday I will be watching the Academy Awards at noonish right along with you guys!!!

A new animal sighting!!!!

So coming back to Saunders Beach today after a totally wonderful day with the girls I drove over top (it was all good and safe--I backed up and it was fine!!!) an echidna. Now that is the first time I have seen one and I was intrigued by it! Here is a picture of it for you to look at! Pretty cool looking and one of yet another Australian marsupials!!! I was pretty impressed with it and was even more impressed when I read the description of some of the "parts" of it in Wikipedia----particularly the male parts.....I will let you go to that source to find out more.......i know you want to!! The babies are called puggles---how cute is that??? So once you read up about the males email me and tell me YOUR thoughts!!! LOL

Had a marvelous day with Ann and Janette. Thanks, girls!!! They came and picked me up and we went shopping, coffee, met Rhonda for lunch at Stockland Shopping Center before she went to work and just had a great time catching up! I imagine the 3 of us are quite a group----an Australian, an English woman and an American!!! We shopped and just chatted and then they dropped me off to meet Chris after work as he had come back into Townsville in the afternoon so they did not have to bring me all the way home. A great time was had by all!!!

Today Micah got packed up for the big move to Austin. I know he is tired and ready to get on with his life there. Aaron got his car back and is happy that they did a nice job of replacing the bumper where someone backed into him. Chris' ear is some better but I am worried as he has to fly tomorrow so say an extra prayer or two for him. And I am muddling through the passport renewal application----what do I put as my mailing address? What do I put as my permanent address??? Argh! I think I may have to make a phone call to Sydney to ask them how to fill this out! It should be so simple but it isn't for me. I am sure I am just making it more difficult than it should be!

But THE SUN IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!! And supposed to be out most of the rest of the week I think so I am happy and going to hit the beach for a nice long walk tomorrow while Chris is gone! Life is good. Now if I could only get this gecko out of the house.......

A trip to Hospital!

My poor dear sweet husband has had a bit of an issue with his ear the past couple of days. More so than the "what did you say, dear?" type of hearing problem!!! First of all we thought it was TMJ but this morning when he got up it was totally all up in his ear and he was in agony so we decided that a foray into the Australian health care system was in order! Of course we are clueless about it and muddled our way through.

Australia does have universal health coverage called Medicare which is administered by the government. That means that everybody in the country can get medical care at little or no cost depending on the doctor or hospital. The coverage is good but the wait for elective surgeries can be quite long so many who are able to pay opt to have private health care. Since we are not permanent residents we can not use the universal health care but have a private insurance that Chris purchased as a result of being here on a working visa. Actually I think the coverage is quite good with that but we are pretty uneducated on how to access it. I had hoped to spend 2 years here without having to use it!!!

So we went to hospital (one of the things I have had to get used to here is that here you go to hospital--not you go to THE hospital) and had to go to the public one as it was the one with the ER. So.....we waited. And waited. And waited some more. We saw people come and go. We saw more people come and go. And then even more! We saw police come in and question people. We saw mothers with 3 and 4 children waiting. We saw a guy come in with a really really torn up hand / arm wrapped in a bloody towel and you can bet I did not look at that long given my history. And we waited. Two different nurses came out at various times to check on Chris since he had been waiting so long. We decided he should have been more vocal and i should have punched him so he looked more in pain! FINALLY we got taken back by our doctor "Alex" (that is how she introduced herself to us) who looked to be Doogie Howser's youngest sister. No kidding---this girl looked about 11 years old. She looked in the good ear. Looked in the bad ear. Said he had an ear infection. Which we already knew. Went and conferred with another doctor and took about 5 minutes there writing up a script for an antibiotic. We think she was the lowest level of doctor...............though her lanyard did read DOCTOR and I am sure she was she wasn't exuding a lot of confidence. So fortunately the 4 hours we spent in hospital ended up with a prescription that we hope clears in up. I will keep you posted on the progress of the patient who is now napping.

So the moral to the story is that we need to find a GP that we can just go to if we have something like this happen again. Not really knowing the system has made me realize I need to know it. I do think from what I have read that we have to get a referral from a GP before going to a specialist so I guess we need to get on that!

Okay so here are some of the terms I have found out:
Junior doctor = a resident in the US (I bet that is what Alex was!!)
consultant = doctor who is a specialist
surgeon = is called "mister" , not a doctor (but what if it is a Mrs?????)
Nurse = sometimes called a sister with nothing to do with religion
normal body temperature = 37 degrees C
crook = sick
an iv injection = jab or a needle
mononucleosis = glandular fever
estrogen is spelled oestrogen
Caesarean section is also called a Caesar (like a little extra dressing on that ? )
ibuprofen = nurofen
acetaminophen = panadol
aleve = naprosyn and requires a prescription

Okay that is about all I can enlighten you with today. Oh and when we got back to the house after getting the medicine and a bite to eat----the power was off. So we sat outside and cooled off a bit until it came back on. and now....it is pouring rain again. Start sending me the materials for the ark. I've got the geckos covered --don't worry about sending them!

Clint Eastwood Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you all have a great Valentine's Day! Since our plans got changed we got up and went into Townsville to see a movie. Did it right this time---printed the e-tix on line so we didn't have to stand in the queue waiting to get tickets. The movie started at 10:15 am which was unbelievable early but it gave us the entire rest of the day to do other stuff! We went to see "Gran Torino" with Clint Eastwood and it is now my favorite movie-----not sure why it hit me so hard but I really thought it had a great message and of course it had Clint. What a guy!!! It is a story about a relationship that his character has with a Hmong family/ neighborhood and has a lot of great messages in it so I would most definitely recommend it. Some of the language is a little rough but then I can usually block that out if the message is good!!!


Found a nice cafe called Lukebean and had a nice light lunch after the movie before going to the shopping center to pick up a couple of items. Lots of folks out doing Valentine's shopping I guess. Went to several different places and got several things that we needed before heading back to the house. We had a late dinner of leftovers---saving the big nice juicy steak dinner for Sunday when we hope we will be a little hungrier----and popped in yet another Clint Eastwood movie--this time it was "Unforgiven" which we decided we had never seen though we thought we had. Another great movie with good things in it. I guess it is our movie weekend.

On the family front---Micah has found an apartment in downtown Austin and will be moving there within a week or so, Aaron had someone back into his beloved car but is getting a new bumper out of it and I think has that all handled so that is good. They are both doing well---Micah is very excited about the move to Austin and the new territory and job---he should do well. Now to get my car that he was using up to NC so Aaron can keep it till we decide what to do with it!!! Aaron is probably going to Florida to pick it up and drive it back---he is always a very good car person---and he likes to drive so it helps us that he is willing to do this. And Chris is having jaw problems---not quite sure what happened because I swear I didn't hit him but his jaw seems to be out of whack. Very strange......and painful. So we might be finding someone to look at that this week----it is a weird thing indeed. And I have decided that I am suffering from osteomildewsis...........................tho there was no rain yesterday it is still damp, damp, damp....

Rats---Foiled Again!

I had hoped to be blogging from Mackay today but that was not to be!!! Chris picked me up on Thursday night after he got back from checking out the sugar cane fields and I took him into town for a dinner he had to go to. I went to the mall (or shopping center as they call it here!) and spent a couple of hours while he did that. I went back to pick him up and of course by then it had started raining.....again.

I drove to Ayr and we stayed at the house down there and realized from the dust and number of dead mozzies and bugs that it had been 2 months since we had used the house there!!! Of course the air con was not working in any of the rooms so I sweated to death all night and hardly slept. Chris seemed to do fine so perhaps my problem was hormones?????Say it isn't so!

We got up early this morning to get on the road so that we could get to Mackay early enough for Chris to actually get some time in at the mill and get some work done. It was not to be....did I mention it rained...again?? LOL We got a ways out of town and there was a line of cars backed up just sitting so we stopped. Trucks were coming through the other direction so we had hope that it was an accident that would clear. But again---we were wrong. A man behind us, Curious George as Chris dubbed him, got out and walked up and came back and told us it was flooded so we got out of the car and went to eyeball it ourselves. Yep.....it was. We stood around and watched it for awhile and a bloke told us that we had missed our chance if we had wanted to get through . As we watched a semi hauler go through he stopped on the other side and let a car off. Pretty lucrative business for that guy!!! Think the guy said he charged them $100 to load the car up in the empty spot and let them off on the other side!!! Pretty smart! However Chris got on his I phone and found out that it was flooded someplace else around Bowen on the way so we couldn't have made it through that one either. So after mulling it over we turned around and headed back to Townsville. I dropped Chris off at the office, went to the grocery store and came home and unpacked the car again. Sigh. I was disappointed because we were going to spend Sat and Sun and have some fun time but it was not to be. There will be another time. This is the second week Chris has tried to get down there and I think he has about given up on it! Next time he will fly. Though he did try that last week too and that didn't work either!!! I will be glad when the rainy season is over and done. I am developing a bad case of mildew.

So happy Valentine's Day to us and to all of you ( a couple days early) !!! Hope you all have a special day !!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Check out the Koala after the bushfires!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4

A Bit of a Reprieve!

A great day on Wednesday because it was sunny again and did not rain until dinnertime!!! Yea! What a difference a little bit of break from the rain makes! Gave me time to work on the mildew and go out to lunch with a couple of friends and not get drenched!!!

Met a couple friends, Janette and Ann, in Townsville for lunch today and had a great time. So great as a matter of fact that our lunch turned into 4 hours!!!! Both of them are new to Townsville so I am trying to be their "ambassador" since everyone has been so nice to me about making sure I meet people and get acclimated. They are both getting settled in and it was great for me to be able to get to see them and to introduce them to each other since they are both living temporarily in units in town and can get together pretty easily. I did have a great time and it was nice to get out of the beach for a few hours.

Chris is off to the Herbert area today where all the flooding was and will be looking at the mills and going out with the canegrowers to see what the damage is at this point. I know that will be hard to see and hear. The rain has caused a lot of damage of course and the crops will be massively affected this year. We are going to hopefully make it to Mackay tomorrow---going to spend the night in Ayr tonight if all goes as planned so I need to get my act together and clean and get packed today. I think we will spend the weekend and celebrate Valentine's Day that way!

Note to Self (And Anyone Else Who Wants to Read It)

It is not a good idea to:

1) Walk 4 km on the beach when you have not been able to do it for almost 6 weeks

2) Follow that by mowing the yard which is a meter high in places (I might be exaggerating a little bit there)

3) Do all of this in 90 degree heat with at least 500% humidity.

Enough said.

Left overs!

One of my devotionals today was about leftovers and how the writer said that it would speak a lot about her feelings about her friends if she were to serve them leftovers thrown together for a meal instead of preparing something special for them. Of course the analogy was to how we treat God---do we give him our leftovers or do we give him our best. It made me think about that little mental picture and I must say that while I understood the meaning of what the writer was speaking about I also think that there is another side. If my best friends came over I think they would be fine with leftovers----after all it isn't really the food that they were probably after but the fellowship. And in any close relationship there should be that comfort level where you are accepted for who you are and where you are at in that particular time in life. Leftovers sometimes are better than the real thing in my humble opinion! Things like lasagna and potato soup always taste better to me when they are reheated! And nothing beats cold leftover fried macaroni and cheese---a Grandma Bonnie creation! So while I understood the point that the writer was trying to get across I think that I would argue against it and say that God would lovingly accept our leftovers if that is all that we had to offer that day. He just wants a relationship with us and I think that the leftovers may be all that I have to offer Him on some days.

And now there are fires...

Several of my friends have emailed me to make sure that we are okay as the reports of the bushfires in Australia have hit the US news. We are fine but there are a lot of people who aren't. The bushfires are in the state of Victoria (we live in Queensland) and they are devastating. I finally had to stop watching the news this morning because it was upsetting me so much. The last I heard the reports there were 108 deaths as a result of the fires that continue to burn. There were still 8 that were uncontained which is unbelievable. And the thing that is even tougher to take is that they were intentionally set and never had to happen. So while Queensland is recovering from too much water and flooding, Victoria is struggling with out of control fires that are still taking homes and lives with them. It is a difficult time for many here in Australia.

I actually saw the sun for most of the day today and took advantage of the no rain (the first day of no rain in weeks!) to do some cleaning of mildew..ick. One of the downsides of living at the beach is the moisture, the sea spray and the mildew when it has been raining every day. I think I have pretty well decided that while I love living at the beach I don't think this is my lifelong goal! It is amazing how the sea spray just ruins things even inside the house. But it is one of those things that you don't really know until you live in the environment and I am learning a little bit more every day!!!

So life continues to be a learning lesson...each day I learn something new!!! And isn't that what life is all about?? Never stop the learning!!!

A Movie?? Not today!

As the helicopters continue to go over our house repeatedly and the rain continues to pound down we are reminded again that we are in the wet!!! The helicopters are taking supplies and probably volunteers and military to the flooded areas. It rained pretty hard earlier today and in the past 24 hours we have gotten about 121 mls ( 5 inches) and more on the way. It is really pretty amazing how much rain can come down when other parts of the country are so dry.

We decided that there was no way we could drive to Mackay today so Chris booked his ticket to fly out tomorrow. We ventured out to go out to a movie and get some lunch and as we got on the main road we decided that we should just turn around and come back home because the water was rising on the main road which meant that with the high tide the water on our Saunders Beach roads were going to be worse in an hour. I think it was the right call to come back and skip the movie---by the time we had turned around the water on the roads was a lot higher than when we left and it was only 30 minutes! So we came home and I made french toast and bacon and we pigged out on that instead of eating someplace. And Chris canceled his flight for tomorrow!

Another down side of the rain is the effect on the cane crops of course so that is bumming Chris out right now. It will most likely be affected in major ways and there is not much that anyone can do about it until the rains stop which who knows when that will be. So say a prayer for Australia and all the people who are flooded out, the farmers and the ranchers who have lost stock and just for everyone who is affected by the flooding at this point.

Kind of like North Carolina before the threat of a Snow Storm!

We walked through the tall grass (weeds!) to the beach this morning before it was too high of tide to see what it looked like and it is pretty wild how it is changed. Several of the trees are down and more will probably follow in the next couple of days. It is sad but I guess a fact of life.

Our trip out of town to Mackay is still on hold--the roads are still flooded and without a 4 wheel drive we would not make it through. We did decide we needed to go out and get some groceries so off to the store we went this morning and I swear it was just like living in North Carolina before the threat of a snow storm (or a hurricane!)!!! There were probably 20 packages of meat in the entire meat section which is pretty big to begin with. There was no milk --not even the UHT kind in the cartons on the shelves---no toilet paper, a little bit of bread and the cereal aisle was pretty skimpy. Fortunately I have learned a bit of "stockitus" from my mother and had a decent supply of meat and canned goods on hand and really just needed fresh fruits and veg which they had in abundance! So we lucked out on that. We paddled home and had fresh BLT's for lunch!!! YUM! It is those simple things that make me happy!

Talked to Micah and also Joe and Pat Savovic (from our Fair View days!) on Skype this morning so that was cool to catch up with them and hope to catch Dad and Colleen tomorrow if we can rustle them up! Micah is excited about being promoted to Associate Territory Manager for the North Austin area and his official start date is Feb 23rd though he hopes to make it there prior to that. Aaron has started his internship with a local architecture firm as their "internet presence intern" so he is thrilled about getting some practical experience too. We are so blessed!!!

It's hard to take rain pictures!

I have decided that I can not photograph rain! As hard as I have tried none of my pictures have shown what it really looks like around here in the rain! It is coming down pretty heavy out there right now (well it IS monsoon season here) and I thought my pictures would show that but they sure don't! It just looks grey! Trust me though--it is pouring right now. The statistic that they said today on the news was that the in the state of Queensland where we live they have declared something like 2/3rds of the state as a disaster due to the flooding. That would compare to the state of Texas ( and Micah's new place of residence soon--congrats Micah!!). So today I have heard military helicopters going over head continually taking supplies to the various flood stricken areas. Ingham , where there are 2 of the sugar mills that Chris has, has been cut off since Monday I beleive and the pictures on the news are unbelievable. These people have up to 3 meters of water standing in their houses. That is almost 11 feet!! Unbelievable. Today the water levels have gone down a bit so that is good news but there are more storms brewing and that means more flooding probably.

On the other extreme the weather in some of the other parts of Australia is scorching hot and dry. I heard that in Adelaide today it was 44 C which is about 111 F!!!! It is crazy how the extremes are so extreme right now but I guess it is all part of the country and even though the flooding is the worst in 30 years the rain is the normal thing at this time of year for this area. They told me about it but it is something you have to see and live through to understand. Good thing----we have power! And satellite tv!!! My life is so lame!

So more king tides are coming this weekend so those pictures above that show the trees that are uprooted will probably have more next week....we will see. The king tides are going to be over 4 meters high (about 13 feet) so it is really going to chew the beach up more especially since there will most likely be more rain and blowy stuff going on. And yes,,, those are technical weather terms I am using!!

We are hopefully headed to Mackay tomorrow for a couple of days----Chris needs to go to the mill there since it has been awhile so we will see if we can get there. He thinks the roads will be okay by then so we will see!!!!!!!!!!

Thief! My secret is now out!

One of the blogs that I subscribe to is one that sends me a one minute writing prompt every day---kind of a neat idea and something that I really have not done on paper (or even on computer) but it makes me think that I need to start a special place to just write those answers---kind of a mental exercise and I sure need that!!!

So the latest one was to write about being a thief---sometime in your life when you have stolen something. I quite honestly had to put my thinking cap on for this one but I guess I have been guilty of taking office supplies from various places I have worked...there---I went and said it! I am a thief and office supplies are not safe around me. I do remember how important it was to me when the boys were growing up to impress upon them how important it was to not take something that did not belong to you. One time when Micah couldn't have been more than 3 we were shopping at what I think was Hart's at the time. He found a silk poinsettia flower on the floor and was carrying it around. I told him that it did not belong to him and that he needed to put it back in the floral dept so we did (or so I thought). It was just a piece that had fallen off the stem that would be thrown away but it was not his. We went out to the car and as I buckled him into his car seat what did I find stuffed in his pocket but that flower ! So we walked back into the store and I made him go to the service desk and return it and of course the girl there thought it was not a big deal and that he could keep it but I told her that this was something that he needed to learn and that her "cooperation" would be appreciated. Not sure if Micah even remembers this or not but it was one of those moments as a parent when I felt I had a choice and hopefully somewhere along the line it was a lesson that he learned.

So think about that today---have you ever stolen anything and if so did you justify it like I have over the years with office supplies pilfered from various places.....that I used them at home when I was working!!! My deep dark secret is now out.

You have snow days....we have rain days!!!

I could post some more water pictures but the ones I have now are of flooded roads!!! Chris left for work early this morning and then about 15 minutes later he was back home----couldn't get out of Saunders Beach today. Said he made it through 2 flooded parts but turned around at the third because he was worried the Camry would not make it through it and he knew that with the way things are going outside it is just going to get worse and he would end up being stranded in Townsville so he came home and is having a work day in his office here! It is very strange to feel like you can't go anywhere because of the roads being flooded instead of it being snow!!! But I have a freezer full of food, a cupboard filled with goodies (my mama taught me to be prepared) and we will be fine even though our plans for the week are changing by the minute due to the rain!

I keep thinking that this will stop eventually and what they tell me is that when it does it will be miserably hot and humid so I will enjoy the cool breezes for now and not complain about the rain! It really does not matter to me but I know it is frustrating for Chris to not be able to go into the mills and office when he wants to.

So I will quietly sit here and mildew .........more later !