2 Months into our Australian adventure!

Pieter on boat to Rottnest Island with his teacher, Mrs. Harris, and friends Ryan and BJ.

Sunday School BBQ down in Wandi.

Enjoying the warm weather with dinner on the deck.

Ella with her friends Natashia, Olivia, and Samantha. Our house and fun yard in background.

Amelie with her friend Mia at our pool.

The sun is rising over the trees making them all orange. The tropical birds outside are having their usual morning pow-wow outside trying to wake us all up. It worked for me!

Well, life continues to be absolutely rich with blessings here with God truly providing for our every "need". I use the term "need" loosely because of course we could do without. Our pastor, Andrew, has hooked us up with a 2nd car for the year!! It's an old manual Subaru with sheep skin seats, but a car none the less...my car:) Here I thought that I'd never attempt parallel parking in this country and suddenly I find myself parallel parking a manual car using my left hand on the stick shift!! If you need to challenge your brain at all come to a country that drives on the opposite side of the road. There is NO time for day dreaming as you roll along. Ella has also started to take acoustic guitar lessons. She is loving it. In order for her to practice we "needed" a 3/4 size guitar for her. Liam, Andrew's son, has a guitar that he's not using at the moment and has lent it to Ella! Basically, I don't know what we would do without the Duncan family, not only have they become our incredible friends, but they have also let us borrow so many things!! Andrew also gave Rob his first kite surfing lesson last week, but I'm sure Rob will share that experience with you in his own blog post.

Another good reason to move to another country, is that it allows you to start new routines with your kids and for yourself! Now (almost) every morning we all have breakfast together at about 7:00 am. What a nice way to start the day. Then, the kids help to clear the table, get dressed, brush their teeth and make their beds. Morning used to be like running a restaurant back home. Everyone would eat something different at different times and I would stand at the island serving them. Then sometimes we'd be running for the bus and someone would say "But I haven't had my breakfast!" Woops! At night time everyone helps to set the table, we eat, and do our (simple) family devotions. The kids are now helping to clear the table, including their own plate, and helping to load the dishwasher. Maybe you all do this with your kids already, but we never did. The kids are happy to help and mommy is less stressed:) Rob has also gotten in a routine of doing some form of exercise everyday at lunch time. He is loving the variety of running, swimming, touch footie, etc... and I'm lovin' the results!!

Pieter started school a couple of weeks ago. He is going Monday and Wednesday all day. We walked into school the first day and met his teacher Mrs. Harris. She is amazing! She has this fantastic energy and is very animated. The kids just love her! The assistant, Mrs. Thompson, is just like her and they run this fun, well behaved class. I couldn't believe that when I picked Pieter up 6 hours later they were still as "on" as when I dropped him off. He loves school and has made several friends. Yesterday his class went to Rottnest Island which is a 45 minute boat ride away. Pieter (and his mommy and daddy) was a bit anxious about the whole trip until he saw his teachers and his face lit up! They had a great time and he even saw a dolphin on the way over(!) and 3 quokkas (little native-to-the-island fury animals) on the island.

The weather has turned beautiful and warm here. The kids have been having a fabulous time in the pool and it's been great fun inviting lots of people over to swim. It's also been nice walking to school without the fear of the sky opening up any minute.

We went whale watching a couple of weekends ago and saw 7 humpback whales. It was pretty incredible! We drove 10 minutes to the boat, hopped on and were on our way. It's so amazing to have everything right here. Two of the males were having a bit of a rivalry and one wound up "growling" loudly at the other one, bumping into him and twisting his body out of the water! It was a beautiful (85 degrees) calm day and the water was completely flat. Wow!

One of my personal goals for Australia was to start taking tennis lessons once Pieter started school. Last week I started my lessons with 7 other "beginner" women. We're not first time players, but we all have a lot to learn (or unlearn in my case). I can't believe how horrendous my technique has been all these years! I had no clue how to properly swing the racket for any of the strokes. I love my class and finally had the excuse to buy a new racket. I love my racket! Rob and I had bought $15 rackets from Walmart when we were first married and we still use them. Thankfully we left them is the US where they belong. After tennis we all go for tea and coffee together. I think my mom did the same thing when we were little. There is actually one American woman (from Texas) in my group and she has hooked me up with a place to do a little Halloween stuff this weekend for the kids. Personally, I'd be happy to skip Halloween, as they don't really do that here, but the kids would be very disappointed.

The Australians' incredible hospitality has continued. We've been invited to lunch and dinner at several people's houses and they always consist of some form of a "barbie" (BBQ). These have been a lot of fun and a good way to get to know people better. We went for a walk to the river with our friends, the Grants, following lunch. On the way back to their house they pointed out this house made out of tree, wood and lots of windows that had been used on a set for a movie. This man, Peter who lives in this house, came out of his house as we were looking up at it and invited us in! This house has been here for 8 years and had always peeked the Grant's curiousity and suddenly we were invited into his home. It was this wild home that I honestly can barely describe. It looked a bit like a tree house and was pretty. I think the guy invited us in because he wanted to share his philosophy on "what's wrong with this world" with us. He also said in order to change the world that kids need to think differently. Rob, in particular, had a great time talking and listening to this man.

This weekend we had a Sunday School 'barbie' following church at Cynthia's house. She is the coordinator for the little kids SS. She and her family live on this amazing piece of property 30 minutes south of here in the bush. They have 4 horses, chickens and a pool. Ella, of course, spent most of her time with the horses and chickens, and Amelie and Pieter, of course, spent most of their time in the pool. It was great fun.

Rob (men's) and I (women's) have both been participating in separate Bible studies (on different nights). It's really fun how we've been doing it. They happen once a month and are hosted at a different person's house each time. Each person coming is responsible for bringing part of the dinner whether it be appetizer, side dish, main, beverages, etc... The discussion happens while we are eating and then we pray during dessert. We've both been amazed at people's willingness to be open and candid with each other (both men and women).

We're looking forward to our first guests arriving here in just under 4 weeks. Rob's parents, his sister, Emily, and brother, John Ross, are all coming out for 12 days. Emily is actually in Iraq right now due to come home just before she leaves to come Down Under. We can't wait to see them all. We're afraid we won't have enough time to do everything!

Well, I think that is it for this entry. Lots of love to you all and we love hearing from you. Marileen

Fitness in Australia Episode 3: "Touch Footy"

Friendly Bernie (aka Pool Boy Bernie, the murderer): Hey guy, good news, the boys are playing "touch footy" today at lunch. Gotta hurry though, or we might miss it.

Gullirob: Touch whatty?

Bernie: Touch footy, champ...you know, Rugby, but for gentlemen (translated: small Americans with very little body mass)

Balsa Boy: (Skeptically) Will this be played anywhere near the pool?

Bernie: C'mon big boy (translated: little boy), just join right in, you'll pick it up.

Quick overview: Run in a straight line, at a slight angle, unless you can't run in a straight line and then just run in a crooked line. Advance down the field waiting for someone to throw the ball to you (yeah, right), and when (if) you get it, throw it behind you (huh?). If someone touches you while you (theoretically) have the ball, immediately stop, unless they were 5.37256 meters southwest of you at the time...in which case, run some more. Keep running until you get touched (translated: slammed deep into the earth by some guy called Dirk or Lachlan or Mick). At that point, stop (as if that were optional) and roll the ball (backward again) between your legs, (assuming they're not both broken) to Dirk or Lachlan or Mick. If you roll it to another American, you will be "touched" again. If (by some miracle) you happen to catch the ball that someone threw (backward) to you and there are no other players between you and the goal (3 and half kilometers downfield) run down there and touch the ball to the ground. Congratulations, you have just scored a "try"....(that's it?! Cheating death, and all I get is a "try").

After the game...

Bernie: So, how'd you go?

Little fella: I ran alot, but I never actually saw the ball...

Bernie: That's because it was behind you, mate!

some more pictures of up North and Pt. Peron

Term Break - part two

Early in the morning seems to be my most motivated time to blog. Pieter keeps waking up at 5:56 am ...why????? At least today he didn't wake up his side kick, Amelie. He seems to think that if he's up she should also be up.

Right now the sky looks like it's going to pour, but the sun is out. There are lots of rainbows around here. The first days we were here I think we saw a rainbow everyday. We've had amazing weather for our school holiday. The kids have been in the pool several times and have had friends over to swim as well. It is so fun to be able to share "our" pool with others. It's still a bit too cold for me :)

Ella and Pieter did Grasshopper Soccer the first week of break. Pieter walked around with the flyer for weeks talking about how he was going to do this. It made me realize that he REALLY wanted to play. It was 2 hours a day and the kids were broken up into 2 groups. Pieter was in the 4 and 5 year old group and just loved it! He actually let me leave him there a couple of days so Amelie and I could run off and do some errands. He also made lots of "friends". He has matured so much in the past couple of months and I feel like he's definitely ready to start Kindy next week. Ella also had a great time, though she missed having Anna, Sidney and Brynn with her. I got quite a few compliments on her soccer skills, which was fun. I also found out about a soccer club that she can join in the end of Summer (Feb) that has a lot more girls. There were only 2 other girls in her entire group at camp.

One day we went down to Rockingham (45 minutes south) to pick Rob up from work around noon. He met us at a playground right at the beach across the street from all the shops and restaurants downtown. Garden Island, where Rob works, is connected to Rockingham by a 3 km long causeway. We need to have a special pass to go onto the island as everything is top secret there :). The beaches and water surrounding this area were beautiful and crystal clear. We then drove 5 minutes to Point Peron which is just south of the causeway. The coast at Point Peron is made up of huge limestone rocks and cliffs and there are walking trails throughout. There are also a lot of little coves where you can go snorkeling and the beaches are filled with sea glass, shells and coral. We all had so much fun collecting as much as we could. We had plans to send some of our great finds to friends. When we got home we wrote lots of little notes and packaged up some shells and sea glass for people. We went to the post office all excited with the custom declaration forms filled out about our "priceless" items. Then the post office lady told us we couldn't send shells, etc... because of the agriculture laws as there might be spores on them. Ahhhhhh!!! We were so disappointed.

On the weekend we took the most amazing 3 hour trip up north to the town of Cervantes to see The Pinnacles. Our drive made us realize how vast this country really is. Everyone says that 80% of the Australians live in the cities (and suburbs), but you don't believe it until you see it for yourself. We drove for about an hour through suburbs, Perth and Swan Valley (the wine region) and suddenly we were on miles and miles of open road. The landscape was desert with low brush and rolling hills the entire way. We were probably about 5 miles in from the coast. This is wildflower season so there was this yellow, blue or pink hue for as far as you could see. We saw quite a few kangaroos who didn't quite make it across the road along the way.

We arrived in Cervantes around 2 pm and were told to head to the Pinnacles for 5:00/dusk. The sun was setting at 6:20. The kids swam for about 2 minutes in the ice cold pool and then played some soccer in the grass in front of our little apartment with some other kids. We then drove the 17 km into Namburg National Park to go to The Pinnacles. The Pinnacles are made up of 30,000 year old limestone peaks/spears sticking out of this amazing orange sand. There were thousands of them in all shapes and sizes. There was a 4 km unsurfaced loop to drive through them. The "road" was the same orange sand defined by some small limestone rocks. Right when we started on the loop we saw a wild emu walking through the pinnacles. It was absolutely amazing. The sky was bright blue and the sun had set enough that it was casting this orange hue on the already orange sand and pinnacles. We felt like we were in a different world. We opened the rear of the minivan and the kids sat there with their legs dangling over the edge, singing "I've been working on the railroad" and loving life. Every once in a while they'd yell "STOP" and run off into the pinnacles to check something out. As the sun was setting the incredible full moon popped up over the horizon. We had a great time trying to get the perfect picture and exploring.

At dinner we ran into some other Americans (from Illinois) with 3 boys who are living down in Rockingham for 3 years because the dad got a teaching job down there. The mom is also a physical therapist and is able to work here as a physical therapist assistant without being certified. She is working in Fremantle so we are hoping to get together for tea sometime.

The next day we went to Hanson Bay Lookout. There you climb up 70 steps to get a spectacular view of the ocean and Lake Thetis, which was where we were heading next. On our way down the steps we spotted a few wild kangaroos grazing in the brush. These were our first wild (live) kangaroos that we'd seen since we arrived! It was awesome. Ella, in here desire to get just that much closer, stepped into a nest of bull ant. Bull ants are about an inch long and are venomous, aggressive and give an awful bite! One went into Ella's croc (lesson #23: Don't wear crocs in the bush!) and somehow one got up her shirt and bit her on the tummy. She was terrified. Ella is never afraid of anything. Afterwards she said "I have never been afraid of an insect before, but I was scared!" I think it was actually a good experience in the end because now Ella "gets it" a little more and will be more cautious of where she steps. She wound up with a little painful welt on her skin which eventually turned itchy. Fortunately, we didn't need to inject her with the epipen:)

We then went to Lake Thetis which contains living Stromatolites and Thrombolites. They kind of look like giant (1 meter wide) cow patties in the water...hahaha. Apparently they are some of the oldest living organisms in the world. The lake was only 3 meters deep and is 1.5 times as salty as the ocean. Next we went to Kangaroo Point to see some more wild kangaroos, but we didn't see any. This brought us out to a beautiful, white, sandy deserted beach. Ella and Rob came across a Blue Tongue Lizard (Skink) on the beach. They are about a foot long and look completely prehistoric. She, of course, picked it up and thankfully it didn't bite her. On the way back to town for lunch we saw another emu walking on the crest of these incredible white sand dunes. Wow!

We had lunch at a Tavern and right away Amelie and Pieter found some other kids and they just sat in a circle telling stories to each other until our lunch came. It's amazing how open they've become (especially Pieter) and just make such quick friends. The drive back was pretty uneventful with the exception of the burned down camper that we saw being pulled on a car trailer (seems quite common around here) and the dead echidna on the side of the road. We stopped at Swan Valley on the way home and went to one of the vineyards called "Sittella" and bought a couple of nice bottles of wine. Then, for the kids, we had to stop at Margaret River Chocolate Factory and have free samples of chocolate and get ice cream. What a bummer :)

The second week of break was a little more low key. We met some people at a park, had people over for tea and swims, and had play dates. Amelie and Ella went to the Double Decker Chocolate Bus one day which is put on by our church. I think half their school was there. They went on this double decker bus for a few hours which took them to various parks and beaches, they had morning tea with scones and a Bible story and lots of chocolate! Pieter and I met up with them at a park for a BBQ. It was great fun for them. We also went into Fremantle one day where they have daily activities for kids during break. The kids went in a jumpy house and did some crafts and then we went to 2 Scitech shows. The shows were fabulous. One was about slime and Ella was one of the volunteers making slime hair for a skeleton. It was hilarious. The next show was about liquid nitrogen and that was great as well.

Yesterday Ella had her long awaited play with Olivia, who has become her favorite friend here. She had woken up with a bit of a tummy ache, which she claimed had resolved. 2 hours into her play at Olivia's I got a phone call from Olivia's mom that Ella had vomited all over her floor!!! Poor Ella and poor Lee, Olivia's mom. Fortunately Lee is a nurse and all "that" isn't foreign to her. Ella felt much better after that, but had to come home and was quite disappointed! She didn't eat much for the rest of the day, but woke up today feeling fine. Quite strange. Amelie had her friend, Maive, come over and they had a fantastic time. Amelie was thrilled.

Well, that's that. Sorry for the rambling, but we are also using this as a journal for ourselves. Lots of love! Marileen

3rd Term Break - part one

In Australia they do things a bit differently as far as school vacations are concerned. The Christmas/Summer break is only for 6 weeks. Instead, they spread out some of the breaks throughout the year. The school year is broken up into 4 terms and between each term they have a 2 week term break. So Ella and Amelie, having had just 3 1/2 quick weeks of school here, are now on a 2 1/2 week break (9/25-10/14)!

On the last day of school they had another amazing assembly with the theme of "Dancing with the Football Stars" as the following day was the Australian Rules Football Finals. It was performed by the 7th grade and they did an excellent job. There were all different dancing numbers performed by groups of either girls or boys. They had 3 judges: an Australian, a French and an American. The American judge was very loud and obnoxious (that's our reputation around the world - aren't we proud??!!). Even though it was absolutely hilarious, I couldn't believe how mature and coordinated these kids were (even the boys) and what a great job they did. I wish that I had video taped it. Ella got a Merit Award this time for "Promoting the children's interest and understanding regarding the life cycle of a garden snail". Totally sounds like Ella doesn't it? I was so glad she got one because Ella, who usually is the one to shine in the eyes of her teachers, was feeling a bit jealous of Amelie who had gotten 2 gold slips and 1 Merit Award. For those of you High School Musical 2 fans, Amelie and Ella got a great kick out of Amelie saying "I got a gold slip and a merit award and, golly Troy, I've only been here for 2 weeks...uhn, uhn!"

After school we went to a playground/park with a bunch of other families and celebrated the beginning of break. All the playgrounds here are amazing. I can't believe that my 9 year old daughter, and her younger siblings, can happily spend 2 hours at the playground playing on the equipment. Also, every playground here has tables, some sort of covering from the sun (usually sails suspended overhead) and BBQs. Every BBQ looks like a big rectangular block with a flat stainless grilling surface and is hooked up to propane. When you click it on it will stay on for 20 minutes and then shut off automatically. You can then restart it if you need more time. When you're done you clean the surface for the next people. It's amazing! This way people can get together all the time for BBQs and you don't have to clean your house to get ready... The US really has some things to learn from the Aussies.

Ella and Amelie were invited to a birthday party at the Dark Zone where they have laser tag. Amelie was a bit intimidated by the whole thing so she didn't do it, but Ella loved it!

We also went to the Perth Royal Show by train. This is an annual "show" which is a bit like an upscale county fair. "The Smoke Free Perth Royal Show is Perth's biggest community event attracting 400,000 visitors from the city and the country every year. With a rich history spanning 170 years, the Show is an iconic social and cultural event which showcases WA agriculture, small business and entertainment." It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun. A big attraction at the show are the "show bags" which are either "lolly" (candy) bags or theme bags. Ella got a lolly bag, Amelie got a littlest pet shop bag and Pieter got a teenage mutant ninja turtle bag. There was a petting ring where Ella was in her glory. She was petting a calf who then relaxed so much that he lay down and proceeded to fall asleep with his head in Ella's lap. She just sat there for half hour. There was also a tent set up by the Australian Navy. Inside it was one of the MK 48 torpedo that Rob has been working on with the Australians! There happened to be a guy who just entered the tent when we did who started up a conversation with Rob and had all kind of questions for him. It was really cool for Rob to be able to answer all his questions (without giving away any classified info, of course...haha). At the end of the night there was a big show in the middle ring (where they'd had horse show jumping all day!) with BMX bikes and motorcycles. The motorcycles were going up these huge ramps and then jumping 50-70 feet to the next ramp. They did all kinds of tricks in the air like handstands, holding on with only one hand and the rest of their body flying off the bike and doing back flips with their motorcycles in the air!! Pieter got so excited over this that every time they did an amazing trick he had to hug both Rob and me. He didn't know what to do with himself. We missed our train stop on the way home because we didn't know we had to hit the "open" door button to get off. Fortunately the next stop wasn't far and the return train was on the next track, unfortunately, in my haste I slammed Pieter into a flower planter. He's fine now:)

We had a nice breakfast at Zephyr's on the Swan River with the Duncans. There is a great playground right next door, of course, so the kids ran off to play while the adults got to hang out and chat. I love the ages of our kids that they don't need us on top of them all the time anymore. We biked to the East Fremantle Oval where the Sharks play Aussie rules football. Rob's bike has a tandem hitch for Pieter. When we got there it turned out the Mushens were playing today. See attached photo. We won, by the way.