Our House is Officially Warm

We had our housewarming party last Saturday, and we had a blast. We had about 23 people, plus 6 kids come over for it. Here's a few pictures from the night.

Brett, Colin and Bocky; Brus after Joni styled his hair :)

Kelly, Joni, Susie, Daniell, me, and Alex

The party kicked off around 4pm, with nibblies (thanks to Col and Joni, that included Fiesta dip! :) Then we had a BBQ for dinner (I'll have to post a picture of Colin's new massive BBQ), and of course, drinks all night long. We had a full house overnight, with both guest bedrooms full and air mattresses in the front living room. So, it was a very good housewarming. And I promise, I will get some new pictures of the house posted on my blog - I was just waiting until I have it decorated a little bit.

The last 3 weeks have been great with Brus, and Joni and Sophia visiting. It was really hard to say goodbye again. But... one thing that made it much easier was knowing I'm coming home in 2 1/2 weeks! YAY!!! I get to come home for a visit because I got another part time job at the Cancer Council, and so I will be starting full time work in June. So, my manager is letting me take a few weeks off before I start the new job, and I'm coming home! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

The new job I will be starting is similar to my current job, and it will be 3 days per week. I will still be doing the other job, which is 2 days a week. The new job is in Brisbane, so I will have to commute with Colin at least 2 days a week, but I'm actually looking forward to it because we'll get to see our friends in Brisbane a lot more. Colin plays touch rugby in Brisbane on Tuesday nights, so it works out well for us both to work Tuesday and Wednesday in Brisbane, and spend the night with friends after the touch rugby game.

Plus, with the new job, I will be in charge of organizing the Kids and Teens programs, which I'm really looking forward to. I will also be in charge of the Brain Tumor support group and services, so that will be really good too.

Ok, that's enough for now. I need to start blogging more, so that I don't have to say so much at once! We're off to Sydney for the weekend for our friends Stef and Louises' wedding. It should be a great weekend!

Peas in a Pod

The Australia Day babies finally meet! You may recognize these three cuties...

Sophia, Macey, and Lilly

Joni and Colin arrived in Australia almost 2 weeks ago, and the three babies got to meet each other the next day. We're having so much fun with Joni and Colin here - it ALMOST feels like home. We've been very lucky to get to spend lots of time with them all since they've arrived. This weekend, the 2 boys have been away in Melbourne golfing with 22 of the guys they went to college with. So Joni, Sophia and I have been having a wonderful Girls Weekend. Lots of shopping, talking, walks and wine... I really do miss getting to do that all of the time.

Lucky for me, they are still here for another week, so I'm very excited for that. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to show you, so stay tuned :)

Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival

Everyone told us that it rains every year for the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival, but we thought we'd try our luck anyway, and we got 3-day passes for the music festival last weekend. And it rained EVERY single day. The festival is held on the rugby grounds, so it is all grass and dirt normally. This festival attracted about 15,000-17,000 people per day (it went for 5 days from noon until midnight), so you can imagine, after the first day of rain, it was just a big pile of mud. I have never been so dirty in my life. Luckily Colin had a great idea of wearing my Crocs (rubber shoes), but even then, it took me about 10 minutes to scrub my feet clean at night. The mud was so thick and slippery, by night time, people were just falling down everywhere. It was actually very funny by the end of it.


We got to see a lot of really good Australian bands, but much to our disappointment, Dave Matthews, who was supposed to play on Friday night, cancelled at the last minute. So, we went into the festival with a semi-bad attitude. Then, with the rain on top of it, we were sort of regretting spending $500 on our tickets. But, then it all changed when there was a suprise appearance by Jack Johnson, who just showed up because the loves this festival so much. It was great. And it was a very well kept secret - nobody knew he was going to play until he just appeared on stage. Colin and I were actually at another stage when he came on, and we saw people sprinting toward this other stage (there were 4 stages). Colin and I decided we didn't really want to watch anyone who was playing at that time, so we walked over to the food booths to get some wedges, and just happened to walk by that stage. As we walked by, Colin said "That's Jack Johnson." I thought he was being sarcastic, and I said "That's so lame. They replaced Dave Matthews with someone who's covering Jack Johnson?!?" And then we realized it actually was Jack Johnson - YAY! So, it was a great suprise, and he put on a great concert.


In the end, we had a great time. Here's a few pictures from the festival.


Ben & Colin (before it got muddy); me & Colin after Jack Johnson; me & Mel after a few drinks :)