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