Besties for Life

In the last two years, I moved to Australia, married my lovely husband, had my best friend visit, hook her up with Heath's best friend, and then they get married!! Its pretty crazy how it all happened but I am sooo happy that Courtney lives in Australia with me! Whenever we're together, we can remember the good ol' days, make fun of Australians, make mexican food together, and listen to rap music! I don't know what I would do without her here! Its also convenient that our husbands are best friends so we are able to spend a lot of time together.

This week, we had the opportunity to go to the beach twice together (this is rare).

This is Courtney playing beach cricket. I didn't get a good photo of her in action, but here is her waiting by the stumps (to her right), getting ready to run (the t-shirt is for the sunburn from the day before)

Me and hubby...you know your husband's hair is long when he asks you to put it up for him.

Here's a little video of the boys....

Queenslanders

I have never been part of a natural disaster. I've always seen them on TV and thought "wow, that would be terrible" and move on with life.

This week, I have experienced a flood that has destroyed thousands of homes and businesses just down the street from me in Brisbane, Queensland. Officials have said that this is the biggest clean up since WWII. Our house was fortunate to not be affected directly with flood water but we have been affected by decreased resources, such as water, food, and the means to go to work. I was able to go to the Brisbane River to see some of the damage to the riverside...here are some pictures.

This is along the Brisbane river, I work on the other side near those tall buildings. I was unable to go to work for 2 days because they turned the power off to everything.
The lines you see sticking out of the water are hand rails for side walks that go along the river. I would go running here twice a week with a group of girls. This picture is after the peak of the flood and the water is still 4-5 feet tall.

Here are the steps that go down to the sidewalk.

Here is a dock for ferries that travel across the river. The blue sign used to be standing up. This river must of been flowing pretty viciously to knock that sign over!

This is a traffic light near our house. Heath's football club is just down the street...under water.And in the midst of all the chaos, we welcomed a new baby niece to the world, Lacey! She was born 1/11/11. A drive that would normally take us 20 minutes took us almost an hour to get to the hospital. There were so many flooded streets there. My sister-in-law just barely made it to the hospital before they closed the roads for flooding.

I am so grateful for this gospel and living prophets that teaching us about being prepared. Over the last couple weeks, I have researched food storage and 72 hours kits and how to get started, but I was not prepared for this to happen. We experienced power outages in our neighborhood, risk of water contamination, and stores running out of food! Can you imagine going to the grocery store and seeing no food on the shelves?

As for the title of this post...the clean up for this disaster has been AMAZING! They are turning away volunteers because there is so many! I cannot believe how Australians from all over the state have gone to devastated towns to help clean up. A lot of people have provided free BBQs, shelter, and a shoulder to lean on in these hard times. It is so incredible to see these people put their hands up and help one another out. The "Australian spirit" is very much like the common saying here "no worries, mate"; they put a helping hand out to everyone. It has been so touching to see this in action.

The biggest lesson I have learned is this: Listen to a prophet. They constantly preach to us about being prepared in the last days, and this is one of those things that I wasn't prepared for. I don't think anyone expects something like this to happen to them.

Please keeps the Queenslanders in your prayers!

Summer Lovin

Just a sneak peak at what we've been doing since summer has come around... Southbank! Our beach sanctuary when we can't get to the real thing.


14 more sleeps till we're in AMERICA!!!

Wake up Australia, its Halloween!!

Halloween is not a very celebrated holiday in Australia (I had people at work asking when Halloween was?? What the heck??) so Heath and I decided we would throw a party! To start off the Halloween festivities, we had to carve a pumpkin (thanks Renae!). Heath had a sore ear and had just put drops in so he just took notes :)

Next item of business...COSTUMES! My favorite part of Halloween is coming up with costumes. We thought we would do a Batman theme (thanks for the photos Ben).
David and Courtney aka Dwight and Pippy Longstocking

Avatar, Lady Gaga, and Superman!

Bobbing for apples. Go Julie!
Whats a party without some creepy treats! Thanks Jade for providing the bloody fingers!

Here are the decoration for the backyard (after the party)

We also did a mini Haunted House but I am dumb and did not get pictures! We had a great time and thanks everyone for coming!

Travel Bug

We just recently caught the Travel bug. Here's what we have planned over the next 6 months...

The first stop...AMERICA! Oh America, how I miss your 89 cent, 32 oz fountain drinks, Wal Mart, and MY FAMILY!! This is the trip that I am, by far, looking forward to the most! It has been 1 1/2 since I have been to my homeland and I am so excited to catch up with my family and friends and spend the festive holidays in the cold weather (Queensland is disgustingly hot in December).Next stop, Thailand. This my tour guide aka Hubby. He has been there several times and knows all the great places to go. We are also going with our good friends David and Courtney. We are sooo excited!

And the next place we want to go to...Japan! This is where Heath served his mission. He is currently studying secondary education in Japanese so he continues to speak Japanese fluently.

Till then...54 days till America! I can't wait to see you all!!

Babies!

All of our young married friends have babies! Matt and Jade have Pacey (4 months), James and Amy have Weston (4 weeks), Brad and Lechae have Peyton (5 weeks), and Angela and Alex have Riley, just yesterday! So, as the single married people (does that make sense?), we are the designated babysitters! We love our friends' babies and are always delighted to babysit! (As long as we can give them back at the end of the night)

Recently we babysat for Matt and Jade so they could go on a date. We had dinner together...

We took lots of photos together...

We played together...
And had a really great night! I hope this makes Kim and Ethan a little jealous of what they're missing out on :) Pacey fills the void of the nieces and nephews I left in America. I can't wait to play with all of you!! And meet the little Miss Ava and Miss Ivy

Remember that 1 year anniversary we had 2 months ago? Well I was going through the camera and this is what I found...Our two person spa bath :)MarketsBeautiful beach

And to top off a great weekend of celebrating our first year, we ate MEXICAN! My hubby knows what I love. Unfortunately, the food didn't compare to the authentic Arizonian mexican food, but it satisfied my cravings till December.

Thanks for a wonderful first year (and two months)!!

Netball Grand Final

I haven't blogged about the whole netball season but it has been a lot of fun. We have had our ups and downs of wins and losses, good and bad refs, but all in all, it was a great season! Not to mention we won the Grand Final 32-19!! Here are a few pictures from the Grand Final... Me, wing attack (WA) trying to block someone

Heath and Jade Krok passing back and forth to each other like natural basketball players

Cody and his dreads...love it!!

Heath, scoring us some points!!

#1!!

They gave us glass mugs for winning

Congrats to Team Chaos!! I look forward to the next sport....indoor soccer!