This Egge's Adventure

No, I Have Not Been Kidnapped or Eaten By A Shark

2006-12-08T02:12:00.000-05:00

SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!

I know it's been well over a week since my last post--well, maybe even 2. I've lost count. I have a really good excuse, I promise!

We are back in Sydney and are finally settling in, but we still don't have regular internet access. Brian has been practicing patience this week as he's tried to calmly deal with the idiots, err, internet providers. They're telling us it should be up by the first of next week.

So my real excuse is I've barely had time to breathe let alone blog in the last week. (The week before, I have no excuse other than just not taking the time--hey at least I'm honest!)

Since Thursday of last week, we have rented an apartment, moved in to said apartment, picked up the cats from quarrantine (3 hours roundtrip), furnished entire 2 bedroom apartment, including washing machine & refrigerator (that'll be the topic of another post--the strange things we've found about renting apartments in a foreign country!), bought a car, interviewed for jobs, put together all the furniture we bought from Ikea and are still rounding out our purchases with things like sheets for our bed (yes, I know, one would think I would've bought those first, but well I was a little stressed!)

Anyway, for now, I just wanted to let you know we're alive and share a few photos of our apartment with you--well, the view anyway! (The inside is just your typical apartment--white walls & tan carpet) The picture up top and the ones below are what we see from our living room & kitchen.

The ferry you see in the photo is the Manly Ferry. We live in the suburb of Manly and take a ferry to the city of Sydney--it takes about 25 minutes and we pass the opera house everytime!

Caversham Wildlife Park

2006-11-21T01:19:00.000-05:00

On our first full day in Perth (Western Australia) we set out to do the one thing we both really, really wanted to do. If we didn't do anything else on this one month Australian adventure, we wanted to hold a koala or at least touch one.

Well, we didn't get to hold one (we're still looking for a place to do that), but we did get to pet one--AND we got to feed kangaroos and hold a wombat. I don't know which part we liked best, but we had a blast. We were like 2 kids at Christmas, running from one animal to the next, standing in line long before the animals were available to hold or pet. By far, this has been our favorite day in Australia!

Here are the highlights:

Brian petting the koala. In the 'koala encounter' there was 1 male koala named Rocky, his 5 wives and 1 joey. This is one of his 5 wives. We didn't know what to expect, but they were very soft to the touch. At the time, this koala and Rocky were the only 2 awake. Later on, more woke up for a few minutes, but for the most part, slept!

Here's Rocky. Notice his head tipped back and his mouth open. He's squealling and grunting like a pig--this is his call to anyone who can hear that he is the dominant male and these 5 koalas are his. We were told it was a warning for us and the female koalas. From what we understand, a male koala will mate with several females but then have nothing to do with them or the joeys afterward. In fact, they have to protect the joeys from the father as they grow and get older.

One of the females eating. It takes them forever to eat one eucalyptus leaf!

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The joey sleeping. Babies of any species are cute to watch sleep!

Both of us holding a wombat! By the way, I'm looking at her that way because she just pooped on me! She was still cute though! We're holding her under her front paws with both arms because she wiggled a lot, but we were able to pet her on either side as we held her. Like the koalas, she was very soft. And yes, she's a little tubby--but don't tell her that!

This was one of the more interesting animals: A spectacled flying fox. They were of course, asleep as it was day time and they are nocturnal. They look much like bats, only their wings are huge! One of them opened up and stretched while sleeping and we were shocked at how big they are. While sleeping, they tuck themselves inside their wings and cover their eyes.

A tasmanian devil! He was really entertaining to watch and reminded us of the cats: he ran the exact same pattern in his habitat about 8 times in a row at top speed before crashing for a quick nap. Occasionally, he would veer off of his path a litle, but as soon as he realized it, he'd backtrack and get back on!

Feeding the kangaroos! These were just some of our favorite shots. Lots more photos of our time at the park are on the website (as well as our other adventures) Feel free to wander over and check them out.

Brian kept the food in his pocket and he had a 'friend' following him. When he took the food out of his pocket, his friend was waiting patiently for him to hand it over!

This kangaroo needed some dental work! As far as we could tell, this was the only tooth he had, so it took him extra long to chew, but he certainly was cute and very photogenic!

Kangaroo yoga! Actually, he was scratching, but it was hilarious to watch!

More photos to come! I promise!

Photos, Photos & More Photos!

2006-11-16T06:15:00.000-05:00

Below are many photographs from Sydney--I'll do another posting with more photos from Perth and another one with photos from Alice Springs/Uluru. I'm not going to actually write much in this posting--just captions for the photos. I'm just trying to get caught up with all of our photos and descriptions!

The Shangri-la Hotel in Sydney. We stayed here our first 2 nights in the country and we also stayed here on our honeymoon. We'd live here if we could--we could see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from our hotel room window. It was a nice place to recover from jetlag! If you look closely at the picture you'll be able to see a large block of windows near the top--our room was located just left of the top left corner of these windows.

Me at Target! It's so comforting to know I can go to Target here! It is a little different than at home and not nearly as large, but hey, it's still Target and they still have cute shoes and clothes for cheap!

The Sydney Aquarium--I'm happy to see many of these animals behind the glass!

Duckbill Platypus! They remind me of the penguins at the zoo--they pop up on land, dive in and streamline as fast as they can around their pool. They also chase each other, knock each other off the rocks, etc. I was surprised at how small they were though---they're only about 18 inches long and maybe 8 inches wide.

We found Nemo & Marlin!

And Dory too!

Jellyfish (not Box Jellyfish though)! Don't worry Dad, they were behind thick glass. . .we'll take you to see them, you'll be safe, promise!

Cool Stingray, huh? This is an eagle ray, the largest in the ray family--their wingspan can be as large as 8 feet, pretty impressive!

Shhhh--ark! (This is what one of my students used to call them as he was learning to read the word shark!) As scary as he may look, Jaws does not, in reality like humans for food. They are some of the tamest sharks in the sea. Have yet to see a great white, but am looking forward to it!

My birthday on a Sydney Harbor Dinner Cruise! I realize I look a little like I'm forcing a smile. Trust me, I'm not--I was just really drugged that day, trying to get over a really bad cold (Meredith, I totally understand what your birthday was like!) It took everything in me to be sitting upright, but I had a ball--who wouldn't with a sparkler in her cake?!

My last visit with the cats before we headed off for our 3 weeks of travel. Lily warmed up right away (I think it was the Vegemite treat that did it!) She sat next to me and took a little nap and was happy to have her chin scratched, then wanted to play and by the end was ready for another nap! Bastet took a little while--she spent the majority of my time there inside the hut, but by the end, she was ready to cuddle!

More photos to come shortly!

Our Great Train Ride WITH PHOTOS!!

2006-11-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

Finally! I am able to post pictures. Here are the photos from our Indian-Pacific train ride from Sydney to Perth. I'll put another posting up with more photos from this week and our time in Sydney in a few minutes.

The train! There were 15 cars on the train that included the engine, luggage car, daynighter cars (think airplane seats), 4 or 5 sleeper cars, 2 lounge cars, 2 diner cars, and 2 cars on the end for passenger vehicles.

Our 'berth' by day. It was two rather comfy arm chairs with a wall table. We had a sink and running water that folded down from the wall behind the door. Sorry the picture isn't so great. We were standing against the wall across the hall from our room. What does that tell you about how much space we had?

Our 'berth' by night. The bottom bed folds down from the wall (one chair folds over, the other acts as a footboard). The top bed then lowers down from about a foot from the ceiling. It can only be lowered when the bottom bed is folded down. The ladder made too much noise during the night. Brian first tried to sleep with it but found it took up too much room in his bed. We eventually managed to carefully squeeze it under the bottom bed. We usually found ourselves in bed early, this was for 2 reasons: 1) Once it was dark, the amazing scenery was gone, nothing left to see and 2) The train manager would usually start making announcements and playing commentary between 5:30 and 6am--and we had no way to turn it off!

A view of the eastern side of the Blue Mountains from our window. They're quite amazing--they are called the Blue Mountains because the trees look blue--they are Eucalyptus trees and give off a blue haze.

Brian is watching for kangaroos from our berth window. He sat like this for several hours throughout the trip--kind of like a kid waiting for Santa Claus! Fortunately, we saw 6 or 7 kangaroos (see picture below!)

Kangaroos!

Entering Western Australia. This part of the train ride is considered to be the longest stretch of straight railway in the world. I can believe it! It was actually the smoothest part of the trip too! This was the 'red' part of the outback. Other parts were yellow and/or had more trees.

We're planning to take my dad here when he visits next month. Bring your clubs Dad! You might want to practice with your wedge though. . .seems to be a lot of sand to get around. . . :)

The "Super Pit" in Kalgoorlie, WA. They are drilling holes in the ground so that in a few hours they can blast and mine for gold. This is a nightly procedure at the Super Pit.

Our last morning on the train. This is the dining car. . .they served cold "snack" meals as well as hot meals. Surprisingly not your typical 3 day junk food binge--quite good food for transportation food!

Driving away from the train. . .our first experience driving "on the wrong side of the road". Not as difficult as it seems. The biggest challenge is not turning the windshield wipers on whenever you need to use your turn signal. 5 days into it, we're still struggling with that one!

The Sun Came Out--And Left Again!

2006-11-07T20:09:00.000-05:00

The sun came out for a few hours yesterday afternoon, but went under clouds again, where it seems to be staying.

Brian had an interview yesterday afternoon, so I went to visit the cats one more time before our cross-country trip begins today. He seems really pleased with it and is hoping to hear from the company soon--it was a final interview of sorts.

The cats were much happier to see me yesterday than last week--they both cuddled with me and purred for a few minutes (of course, when their attendant came to feed them, I was chopped liver--they could've cared less who I was, it was dinner time!)

Yesterday was my 28th birthday in Sydney! Today is my 28th birthday in the USA--I think I should celebrate twice, don't you? (thank you to everyone who sent e-cards and birthday wishes, it was a nice surprise, especially considering it wasn't even the 7th in the US!) We didn't get a chance to do anything together to celebrate until last night, but we took a dinner cruise around the Sydney harbor which was quite amazing and could've only been better if the sun had been out so it could actually set over the Opera House. Oh well, we live here now, I'm sure I'll get the chance to see that magnificent sight many times over!

I'm thinking now I'd like to take a narrated harbor cruise sometime so I can know all the buildings I saw last night. Guess that'll have to wait until we get back.

Plenty more stories to come after the train ride. . .I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about then. And I PROMISE, we'll figure out a way to upload photos when we get to Perth on Saturday to go along with those stories.

Not much happening

2006-11-05T04:24:00.000-05:00

Hello!

I wish I could report we're having a grand ole' time in sunny Sydney. But we're not. Well, we're having a grand ole' time in Sydney, just not sunny Sydney. It's been pouring down rain and freezing cold for 3 days straight now! What happened to that beautiful Sydney weather all the tour books talk about? "Only 12 days of rain per year. . ." Well then, by my calculation, there should only be 9 days of rain left until next November!

We are having a good time though. . .we just haven't done much outdoor sightseeing. I don't even have pictures because they would be full of raindrops. We did take a bus tour today and got a pretty good feel for the city and it's suburbs. I have to say, even in the rain, it's a pretty cool city.

We are here in Sydney until Wednesday. Here's our itinerary after that:

Nov. 8-11 The Indian-Pacific Train from Sydney to Perth
Nov. 11-17 Perth & surrounding areas
Nov. 17-23 Alice Springs & the Red Center. We'll be taking this tour.
Nov. 23-27 Darwin & Kakadu (up north)
Nov. 27-30 Melbourne
Nov. 30 Return to Sydney (and hopefully an apartment--we'll be doing some hunting in the next few days before we leave!)
Dec. 2 Pick up the cats from quarrantine (won't they be happy!)

Blogging will probably be intermittant thanks to limited access. It's interesting, you ask around for "wi-fi" and they have no idea what you're talking about. There are very few hotspots here in Australia.

I promise to take more pictures and actually post them next time (sorry Mom!) The only one I have so far is me standing in front of Target--but we haven't downloaded it yet!

We Made It!

2006-11-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to write a quick post and let you all know that we have arrived in Sydney! We made it through immigration and customs without any problems--they even said "Welcome Home" as we came through. Kind of a strange thought!

We spent our first day travelling to and from the quarrantine facility to visit the cats. They seem to be adjusting well, Lily sat in the corner and growled at us the entire time (this is normal--she does it every time we move, so we think she's doing quite well!) Bastet was still in her cage when we arrived (7 hours after she did). The quararantine attendants said they tried to get her out but she hissed and swatted at them, so they just opened the door and were letting her come out on her own. She finally came out when we got there. She immediately found a small hiding place--which is normal for her. All in all, we think they'll be fine. Brian is going to take some Vegemite with him next time we go--they should be ready and willing to forgive us with that!

We'll be here in Sydney until next Wednesday, so hopefully I'll have a chance to post some more.

Cheers!

P.S. One good bit of news: they have Target in Sydney! The big red bullseye is all over they place. Those of you who know me well know that this has made me really happy!

Off to See the Wizard (of Oz)!

2006-10-31T10:11:00.001-05:00

This will be my final posting here in the United States. Brian and I keep discussing how it doesn't really seem real that we are actually going to be living in Australia. Rather it seems we're just headed off on another part of our vacation. I don't know how long it will take until we actually realize we're living there and not just visiting. Maybe never. . .maybe what they say is true and the Aussies are on a perpetual vacation with a little work in between. We leave out of LAX tonight at 11:43 pm and arrive in Sydney on Thursday morning at 9:15. 14 hours and 35 minutes on a plane. Brian keeps threatening not to talk to me the entire time--he bought himself a Nintendo DS (a glorified gameboy I think--sorry to those I've just offended with that!) to keep busy with. So far it seems to be doing the trick (and we're not even on the plane yet!)

Last time I wrote we were in Cheyenne, WY with Brian's parents. We moved on to Colorado Springs for 3 days, where we visited my brother & sister-in-law and my two nephews, as well as Brian's uncle & his wife and his cousins.

We had a great time with both families. My brother decided that Bastet is demon posessed and needs to be exorcised and/or she needs a visit from the Dog Whisperer (he tried to impersonate him, but surprise, it didn't work!) Of course he made this accusation after he chased Bastet around RV, patted her belly and cradled her like a baby (none of which she is particularly fond of and certainly not by a stranger she's terrified of because he's been chasing her for 10 minutes!)

After Colorado Springs, Brian and I had 2 days to ourselves for travel. We headed south and west in Colorado to the Royal Gorge. I'm not usually afraid of heights, but it took a lot for Brian to get this picture of me standing next to the edge of the bridge (think wood bridge suspended over deep hole in ground, built too many years ago. . . cars still driving over it) I was much happier in the middle of it!

We kept going and headed to Mesa Verde National Park. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so we didn't get to do much climbing around (they have discovered 'ancient civilizations' that exsisted from 600 A.D. up to approximately 1300 A.D.)--especially since I slid down the stairs (not on purpose!) and gave myself a large black and blue tattoo that has made it uncomfortable to sit, stand or walk (which made for an interesting ride in the RV!) All in all, I think we spent about an hour and a half driving into the park and about 10 minutes looking around. Either way, it didn't matter. The park is breathtaking and it was even more amazing in the early morning as the fog was lifting.

Here's one of the cities they found (I think it looks fake in the picture--like it's some sort of model, but it's really quite amazing!):

Onto the Four Corners. This is the only place in the United States where you can be in 4 states at one time. Looks exciting doesn't it?

Gotta keep moving! Next stop: Grand Canyon. Once again, we were in and out of the car in about 10 minutes. For one, it was FREEZING! Isn't it supposed to be warm in Arizona? Apparently not since we hit an hour long sleet storm outside of Flagstaff. We also didn't stay out too long at the Grand Canyon because the sun was setting and you know, there's not much to see in the Grand Canyon when it's dark. But I've never seen the Grand Canyon before so I was happy to see any of it I could. Sadly, my Brady Bunch fantasies of riding a mule down the canyon will have to wait.

Next we headed to Mesa, AZ (a Phoenix suburb) to spend 2 days with my grandparents and their next door neighbor Pete (we've kind of adopted him as another grandpa). Our highlights of the time in Mesa were playing dominoes (although we lost terribly) and going to the Organ Stop Pizza. There's no other way to explain it but to say it's Chuck E Cheese for old people (Grandma & Grandpa, we like it, it's just the easiest way to explain!)

We made it LA on Saturday night and spent the day Sunday cleaning the RV and taking it to a dealer who's going to sell it for us. It's been pretty unexciting since then--we've been running errands and packing since we arrived. (We did take a few hours out to have dinner with Van & Sara--where Matt, you'll be pleased to know the conversation turned to Book 22).

Today, we're finishing packing, tranquilizing the cats, mailing boxes and going to the airport. Not much time for fun in the sun here in LA, but we'll have plenty of that when we hit the land of Oz.

G'day Mates!

Greetings from the highways of America!

2006-10-13T13:15:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, Brian & I set out for the first leg of our trip (Iowa) to visit my parents, grandmother and watch the Iowa Hawkeyes win their Homecoming game against Purdue (which they did! It was Brian's first live football game and I think he's finally realized I really do love football!)

We spent our first night at the Gaslight Campground somewhere near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border. It was uneventful and rather short. It was the first time we saw the cats since starting our journey--Lily sits under my chair and Bastet sits under the couch while we travel, only coming out when the RV is parked.

Friday night we slept in the RV in the parking lot of the Heartland Inn in Cedar Rapids, IA (my parents were staying in the hotel--we offered to let them stay in the RV with us, but they surprisingly weren't too excited about the idea!)

Saturday was the game--it turned out to be a beautiful fall day and a great game (thankfully, Iowa didn't give it away in the 4th quarter, despite trying!) It was pretty exciting right at the end when one of the freshman intercepted the ball on the 2 yard line and ran it all the way back for a touchdown, setting a new U of I record--college football doesn't get much better than that!

Sunday was my Grandma Rachel's 91st birthday. We celebrated with her by having Godfather's taco pizza (this is our favorite pizza outside of New York, by the way) and birthday cake. She's a pretty amazing little lady--at 91 she still drives (though Mom has convinced her maybe that's not such a good idea and she's getting rid of her car now--it's a little scary when all you see coming at you is this giant blue car and a puff of white hair up over the steering wheel!)

On Monday, however, our trip took a minor setback when Brian had to fly back to New York to tie up some loose ends at work. I stayed in Iowa with the cats and my parents. I really enjoyed my time with them--my dad had Monday off so we spent the day together and saw a great movie on Monday night (Facing the Giants) which I'll tell you about in another post--it deserves an entire post to itself (but go see it if you have the chance)

I've pretty much spent the week doing mundane errands (the RV is getting fixed--we ran out of time in NJ to get it all finished before we left) and repacking. Yes, repacking. About 2 weeks ago, I went to a jewelry making class and when I came home Brian had opened up all the suitcases, unzipped all of our shrink bags and pulled random things out of the suitcase stating "We don't need this" (note: "we" meant me--they were all my clothes!)

Once I got over my extreme anger and frustration, I told him I would be willin to go through everything and take some things out--but next time ask first! (I had spent the 3 previous days folding & packing our entire lives ALL day long.) So now, I have everything repacked (I didn't have enough time to unpack, go through and repack before we left NY) and I am rather impressed with myself. Not only do I have weight restrictions for luggage (as one would expect when flying) we also have luggage size to worry about.

Today, we start the next leg of our trip--the South. We'll be headed to Tulsa, OK this afternoon and onto Lubbock, TX tomorrow to visit Brian's sister, Jenny, and her husband, Tory. Brian's brother, Mark, is flying in from Bozeman, MT to spend the weekend with us as well and he'll travel with us from Lubbock back to Denver in the RV.

So that's where we are for now. Sorry, no exciting travel stories yet. The only interesting thing we've seen so far is the "Live Fish" truck (a flat bed semi with 4 giant fish tanks). Maybe after this weekend we'll have more!

Have a great day!

Into the Unknown

2006-09-05T21:18:00.000-04:00

Today I want to introduce you (some of you anyway) to a very good friend of ours: Anadara. Many of you already know and love Anadara, but just as many of you may have never heard of her (but today you will) Either way, I want to tell you about her--well her music anyway!

Last Tuesday, Anadara released her debut album Into the Unknown (Spring Hill Worship) and I am going to unashamedly and unabashedly promote it! You can buy her music on iTunes or you can buy direct from her website.

I'm not going to give you a formal review of her album--I'm too biased anyway--she'd be getting 20 stars out of 5 if I did! (but if you want, you can find a great review here.) Nor am I going to go into "all about Anadara"--you can find that on her website. I just wanted to write today to tell you how proud Brian and I are of Anadara and how much we love her and her music--and hope you will too. She and her husband Rocky are very special friends of ours and are incredibly blessed by that friendship. It is our pleasure to share Anadara and her music with you and hope you love it as much as we do.

For the last 5 years, Brian and I have listened to Anadara's music. She is an amazingly talented singer-songwriter. We've heard both the good and the bad, the outstanding and "not the song you want on the album" (hey, every artist has them--we hear she has a new one called "Horizontal Spaces" about her love of filling counter space. . .) We've seen her grow both personally and musically over that time and this album proves it--you can hear her heart and soul in every song.

You can hear her single "Go" on her website (you'll also be able to learn more about Anadara, sign up for her mailing list to find out when she's in a town near you performing and order Into the Unknown)

Did I mention you can buy her album at www.anadara.com and on iTunes? It's only $9.97. . . Hey, I told you I would be unasbashedly promoting her album!

Overheard in NY

2006-08-23T15:27:00.000-04:00

When I started this blog, I promised I would have plenty to write about, especially the goings on in NYC. I haven't been very good at writing yet--I'm not in the habit--but I certainly have plenty to write about. I'll be out of town for the next few days and won't have a chance to write until next week, but for now here's something fun:

Every morning there are 2 free newspapers published here in NYC (actually, these papers are published in most major cities around the world, they just change the local news section). One is called Metro and the other AM New York. They are both put out by the same publisher and basically print the same stories (they just switch a few paragraphs around or maybe publish the full story in one paper and only a blip in the other.)

One of my favorite columns as of late has been "Overheard in NY". Which actually isn't really a column at all. They take quotes from the website http://www.overheardinnewyork.com They've even published a book of favorite quotes. If you haven't figured it out already, they basically have 'spies' (you too can be a spy if you want). All you have to do is tell them what you 'heard' while out and about in NYC. If you've ever wondered and/or worried about the state of our current society this site only fuels the fire.

Here's a sampling of a few of the current quotes:

Logistical genius: If the power goes out and we lose the air conditioning, we can always use the fans.

--SoHo

Mother to infant: I'm so glad you're getting a personality now! You used to just sit there and bore the f**k out of me. I wasn't sure if I was going to love you! You're not going to remember that, are you? [to friend] Is she?

--Water St & Hanover Sq

Cop, arresting a man: I understand that, but you know it's not really about being a good guy or being a bad guy. It's about you taking that nice woman's wallet.

--Rockefeller Center

20-something Intellectual: Facts are such a distraction from the essence of what's really happening.

-- Private Party, Brooklyn

Chick: How come we're always talking about how the Jews were
persecuted? Lots of people have been persecuted. My people have been persecuted, too.
Professor guy: Um...This is "Introduction to Jewish-American
Literature".
Chick: ...Yeah, but still.

--Waverly Building, Waverly Place

I'm thinking of submitting something I overheard yesterday on the M15 bus going uptown on 1st Ave. around 34th St. What do you think:

Cast of characters:
Woman 1 (sitting in 'priority seating' aka elderly, disabled, pregnant). Mid 50's, very obviously mentally handicapped, slightly overweight.

Woman 2 (standing in front of woman 2) Late 60's, early 70's. Talking on cell phone. Way too much rouge and lipstick; slightly overweight.

Overheard:

Woman 1 : Excuse me, I need to get off the bus (head down, speaking quietly, but loud enough for those around to hear)

Woman 2: So get off the bus (goes back to cell phone conversation)

Woman 1: Excuse me, I need to get off the bus. Could you step that way?

Woman 2: You are so rude! Can't you see I'm talking? I moved already, get out of my way.

Woman 1: I'm sorry. I can't make it around you (now it's visible she's not very steady on her feet). Could you just move a little more?

Woman 2: (moving ever so slightly) I can't help it that your such a fat, ugly b**ch and you can't get your big, fat, ugly a** around me.

Woman 1: (as she finally gets to the door of the bus) And I can't help it that you're such a rude, mean, old woman.

Okay, so Woman 1 could have used a better comeback line, but I give her kudos for not apologizing to the woman for being an inconvenience! (Yes, I know the nice thing to do would have been to just get off the bus without saying anything at all, but COME ON! By the time she got off the bus, I wanted to say something--not that I could come up with anything--but I really wanted to yell at her, as did everyone else on the bus.)

So what have you overheard lately?

What do you want?

2006-08-06T19:09:00.000-04:00

Brian and I had the opportunity to visit a new church in Manhattan this morning. What an amazing experience! Not only is church "shopping" interesting in and of itself, its pretty intriguing how 2 people can go to the same church service and see totally different things. (We were in the same room, right?) I think most people who have gone through this experience know what I'm talking about--"Did you notice how they passed the offering buckets?" "I loved that worship song--I've never heard it before, but it was really annointed!" "Who picked out the artwork for this place?" (not to worry, that all took place BEFORE the actual message started!)

Anyway, the important thing is, we did hear the same message and I want to share a bit of it with you because I really feel it's an important concept that we all either need to learn, be reminded of, or encourage others in.

As Christians, we are constantly seeking God's will for our lives. 3 years ago when we first talked about moving to Australia someday, Brian and I spent a lot of time discussing whether or not God wanted us to move to Australia. Was it His will for us to move there? What do we need to do to find out? If it is His will, when do we go? Do these questions sound familiar? Let's try this one: "Is it God's will for me to marry that person?" or how about "Which job is God's will?"

When we tell people we're moving to Australia, the first question is always "Why?" And we always answer, "Why not?" We often follow that answer with "Well, we've always wanted to go and think now is the best time to do it." We never say "It's God's will for us to go" (even though we think it is) we simply say "We've always wanted to go".

Most people say one of two things following our response: Either, "Wow, that's amazing! I would love to be able to do something like that" and they continue on asking us questions about our plans for when we get there and so on. Or they say "Oh, but you've prayed about it and know that this is what God wants for you. . ." Well, yes. But it's not just that. Read on!

In Psalm 37:4 the Bible says "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". It doesn't say 'Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you whatever it is that He wants you to have.'

I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but as Christians we need to take our question of "What is God's will for my life?" a step further and ask ourselves "What do I want?" I haven't met many people who say "I prayed and God showed me I should be a doctor, even though I really wanted to be a pastor" or vice versa. While at first, the task of being a doctor might have seemed daunting, a few years down the road, those doctors can't stop talking about how much they love being a doctor. It may have been a long, difficult road with hefty prices to get there, but not once did they say "I really wish I could just do what I wanted".

See, God gives us the desires of our hearts because He has given us those desires in the first place! His desires become our desires and we often don't even realize it's happened! In fact, we get so used to thinking "I want to be a doctor" that we forget to take it to the next step and think, "Well it's my desire to be a doctor and if I really want to be a doctor, maybe that's God's will for my life."

Now, don't get me wrong, there are times when what we want is NOT what God wants. But that's the catch in the verse above. It says "Delight yourself in the Lord" that means follow Him--not the new hot guy/girl at the gym. Verse 5 of that chapter says "Commit your ways unto Him, trust in Him always, and He will bring it to pass." If we aren't living in sin, but following God, seeking after Him we are delighting ourselves in Him. And therefore, He has promised to give us the desires of our hearts.

Here's what I want to encourage you with, start thinking about God's will for your life in a different light. Stop asking only "What does God want for me?" and start asking "What is it that I desire?" If you can answer that question, you are well on your way to knowing what God wants for you!

Starting a New Life

2006-07-31T11:27:00.000-04:00

Later this afternoon, Brian and I will close on our 1 bedroom condo we've lived in for the past 2 years. (He's lived there for 4!) This closing comes with both great excitement and a little sadness as its not just the closing of any house, but it's the sale of our very first home together. The exciting part is it's the beginning of a whole new life.

For the past 5 1/2 years, I have lived in and around New York City. I moved here at the age of 21 and had great plans to become a high-powered ad agency executive, only to find myself hating the entire industry after a mere, oh, 5 hours. (Okay, maybe not that short of time, but it only took a few months for the glamour to wear off and me to realize this was not what God had called me to do!)

At the time I moved here, I was starting a new life, so I guess I'm coming full circle. The only difference is, this time I'm starting it the right way--I know what I want to do and I know who I am. I also have far fewer fears than I did in 2001. The last go around, that's what I was searching for--me. Thankfully, over the course of 5 1/2 years, I have found myself and a new career path (I'm a teacher!) Not to mention, I found a wonderful husband (new life #2) and life became normal (as normal can be in New York City), peaceful and full of joy. Something, I'm not sure I ever really knew as an adult.

Fast forward to today. Brian and I sold our condo in Jersey City and have moved into a temporary apartment in Manhattan (with mostly just our clothes and our cats--plus a few sentimental items I wrestled away from Brian as he headed to the trash can!) We will be staying here for exactly 2 months while Brian finishes some projects at work. As soon as he's done, we'll trek cross country for 1 month in our 30 ft. RV visiting friends and family along the way until we reach Los Angeles. On November 1st we will board Qantas airlines bound for Sydney, Australia where we will begin a whole new life. . .

My Very Own

2006-07-28T15:16:00.000-04:00

I'm not quite sure how I've stumbled into writing my own blog. Thus far, I've been perfectly content to simply read 3 blogs: Grin and Barrett (written by my brother, Matt), Eat Eggs (brother-in-law Mark provides his view of the world) and most recently Rocky Mtn Mom written by my sister-in-law, Deann. Between the three blogs, I keep myself updated on both sides of the family (sad but true!)

But other than that, I've never entertained the idea of writing my own blog. I'm certainly very opinionated (no comments Matt, I'm admitting to it!) and love to write, but until now, I could never even imagine publishing my thoughts. What if people don't like them?!

So the question is, how then, did I end up, all of a sudden, with one of my own? Well, it's simple. I went to post a blog on Deann's blog and they wouldn't let me do it without signing up for a blog of my own. (Why do they do that?) And here we are!

Now, I do realize that I could've simply signed up, posted my comment and left it at that. But I figure, I should at least give it a try. Besides, I live in New York City, I'm sure I can come up with something to blog about!

So now I have my very own!