Boys Night In - Good 'ole Aussie BBQ

Last night was the boys' turn for possibly the last Aussie BBQ before departure. 

Alex hosted and along with his brother Arnold, Dad, Ken, Jerry, Tim and his son Ashley was there with Steve and Stefan. 

Jerry had chicken in his webber, Alex had the steak and snaggers cooked to a tee, and a 'bonfire' with marshmallows kept them all warm.

Chicken cooked in the webber

Arnold and Ken

Dad and Alex

Thanks guys, it was great night and we'll certainly miss the good 'ole barbie!

Shantel turns 5!

Today, Sunday, Shantel turned 5 years old! Five years ago she changed our lives as there was a 9 and half year gap between her and Stefan. A very excited little girl awaited her gifts before breakfast.

A brand new bike!

After church, we had the grandparents and her ''bestest" cousin Megan over for coffee.

Oma H and the birthday girl!

Oma B and Shantel

Megan and Shantel

Anthea made her castle cake as requested!

Our princess and her castle cake!

Shantel with her presents - very spoilt!

Shantel's was the last birthday here in Australia before we leave in four weeks time.
The next one in line is Taleesha, but she will tell you her birthday is in America!

Hope you have a lovely day Shantel! We love you lots!

Miss Maud's

On Friday night, three of the H. brothers together with their wives went to Miss Maud's in Perth for the overnight package of dinner, bed and full breakfast. Four of us did some window shopping as we awaited the last couple to arrive by train.

Carillion Arcade in the background

 After some pre-dinner drinks, we headed to the restaurant for our dinner. Dinner was a great selections of prawns, oysters, and a few more prawns, followed by main course and yummy dessert.

Enjoying a delicious dinner

Miss Maud Restaurant and Hotel

The gals!

The lads

Breakfast was a full continental breakfast of croissants, pancakes, bacon and eggs, cereals, yoghurt and fresh fruit. No lunch needed that Saturday!

Thanks guys for a great night/morning out. Will miss you all.

House Photos

Yesterday, a photographer from the real estate managing our house while we are away, took photos for future internet advertising if ever needed. So after spending many hours, we have had an immaculate house. Here are some of the (thumbnail) shots.

Girls night in - Gourmette Dinner!

Last night we had a girls night in with Mum, Anthea and Jaclyn as well as my sister and 3 SIL's. Pumpkin soup was first course, followed by a selection of meats and vegies all ready for cooking! It was delicious and well planned! After dishes and clean up, it was time to relax with a cuppa and sticky date pudding. Thanks for the farewell dinner girls!

Just a couple of photos:

How it all began......

So just how did this all come about? In early February, Steve received an email from Darryn in Lynden USA. The last line of the email briefly mentioned that they needed a new teacher at the start of their new school year (Aug, 2013) and maybe it would be something Steve would consider.

Steve forwarded the email to me, not really thinking anything of it. That night we went for the nightly walk around the block and we toyed with the idea of if we went.....then this would happen etc. For the following week many scenarios were aired, many aspects were considered: elderly parents, Anthea, pulling the secondary kids out of school, kids not seeing their friends, Jaclyn's job at KFC which she loves, sell or rent the house, learning the imperial system :(, kids missing out on seeing their cousins/growing up etc etc.

Finally, we decided, along with the children, that such an opportunity was too good to miss and an excellent learning experience and gave the school in Lynden a 'YES'! From then on it's been go, go, go. Flights were booked, accommodation secured, visas and passports activated, as well as cleaning and going through all the cupboards and deciding what to take and what to store. It's been a busy 3-4 months and doesn't look likely to let up soon.

We had our visa appointment our the US Consulate at the end of May. It was just the day it turned winter! It was raining and freezing cold. We went by train and got there in good time. First we had to put all our belongings through the scanner and then we all got frisked. Then we had to head to elevators and up to the interview rooms where they checked all the documents, had our fingerprints electronically taken and finally got told that all the paperwork was in order and our applications passed! Yeah, another (BIG) tick off the list. A lovely warm coffee/hot chocolate at the DOME finished off our excursion! The following day we received all our visas by express port. What service!

Things are getting real now. Just under six weeks. I've nearly tackled every cupboard, drawer and shelf. Once that's complete, we can start packing the things we need/would like to take along depending on how many boxes are allocated either for that room or type eg books.

And then we also keep in mind that while we make plans, God alone will bless them.

Six weeks to go!

With our adventure becoming more a reality, so is the work that goes with it. Going through your life and deciding what to take, what to store and what to toss is a time consuming job! The council wheely bins are almost full the moment they're empty and trips to the goodies are numerous! They even recognise me everytime I come!

We now have a sea container where we'll be storing our possessions that are staying behind.

The sea container

Our packing boxes have also arrived. We did request for more as we didn't really get enough, particularly the book boxes (all Steve's school books need to come!).

The packing boxes and butcher's paper

PS this is my first ever attempt at blogging. It's learning as we're going along!!