10 Things

My roommate, Alex, and I used to have a certain tradition: Every day after chapel on the way to lunch, we would compile a list of ten blessings or things we were thankful for that were going to happen that day. I have found myself continuing this tradition even after college and moving to Australia. So, here is my list of 10 Things from the last 2 weeks.

10 Things.

1. Superbowl Parties: I am so thankful that American football spans the globe and the Superbowl was broadcast on Monday morning LIVE. We didn't get all the commercials but it was still a great way to spend time with some of my favorite Americans and Aussies.

2. Cool Breezes: the last few days the weather has been amazing and cool. We have had a break from the hot, humid days.

3. Skype and Facebook: I literally thank God for these two things quite often, because they have enabled me to stay in touch with everyone while I am gone.

4. Thelma: Thelma is this great lady, who goes to Gosford. I get the opportunity to visit her every other week or so. I sometimes take some of the TREK jr. girls with me, but no matter who goes we always end up playing Scrabble!

5. Jamie and Sammie: I cannot express how grateful I am to have two other HIM workers living so close. We just enjoy being together, and we are able to lean on each in so many ways.

6. Tutoring: This week, I started volunteering at a primary school on Thursdays for an hour. I get to help in a kindergarten class doing math groups. I have really been missing teaching lately, so I jumped at this opportunity.

7. Sisterhood: Sisterhood is a bible study with a group of young adult women that meets every other Thursday in Sydney. Even though it is quite a drive for just a few hours, I always leave feeling more encouraged and uplifted.

8. My Car: The starter went out in my car the week before last, and didn't have my car for a week! Not having a car was so hard for my independent self, but I survived with the help of so many friends how gave rides and loaned their cars.

9. Wednesday Nights: I love going to TREK Youth on Wednesday nights. I love getting to just hang out with the teens, while at the same time show them more about God. Afterwards, we all head to Maccas for McFellowship.

10. Packages from home: I have been so spoiled lately with amazing packages and presents from home! Never underestimate the power of receiving something from your home country--it's a great feeling! I am so blessed to have such a fabulous support system.

Watching the Superbowl.

The awesome decorations at our party. I was going for the Colts!

Dan showing off the awesome football plates sent over by my amazing Mom.

Traditional Velveeta and Rotel queso, courtesy again of J. Gray Sr.

I'll Tell You What I Want, What I Really, Really Want

There is no better way to go back to school than with a great scavenger hunt with your best buddies. Which, is what TREK youth did last Sunday afternoon to kick-off the school year. We broke into five teams of 4-7 people to get started.
We had two hours to complete as many tasks as possible. Amanda Edginton and I lead a team of girls: Sara (13), Emma (13), and Amber (19). The first challenge we did was to come up with a team song/chant. Since we had five girls, we decided we definitely should do a Spice Girls song. And, you can’t sing Spice Girls without costumes! (The hilarious video is at the bottom.) We were having such a great time singing, that we barely had time for the rest of our challenges. But, we did manage to roll down a hill (without throwing up), spell out a word with our bodies, go to the beach, re-enact a commercial, and take a picture with a policeman, all the while laughing hysterically. We met up with the other teams at the ministry centre after we reached our time limit. We all had pizza for dinner, and hung out for a little longer. We found out the following Wednesday that we tied for 2nd place!!! Not to shabby for five fabulous girls with a lot of attitude.

Challenge: Take a picture at the top of the Scillion at Terrigal.

Check.

Challenge: Take a picture with someone from church doing something hilarious.

Check. Definitley Check.

Not a challenge. Just a cute photo of two cute girls!

Challenge: Take a picture of someone in a costume.

Check.
We ARE the Spice Girls.

Challenge: Create a team song or chant to show your superiority over the other teams.

Check, duh.

Jumping Castles and Balloons

I had the privilege of being invited to a very special event on Saturday: Tanesha's 5th birthday party! I was so excited, because I love Tanesha. She reminds me a little bit of myself at 5: fabulous and maybe a little bit of a diva. Saturday was forecast to be 40 degrees Celcius (that's about 104 degress Farenheit for all you non-metric users). So, instead of the party being at the Krause's house, it was at the Ministry Centre. The place was decked out with tons of balloons, streamers, and food! Outside there was a jumping castle, or a bounce house, for all the kids to play on in the boiling heat. The grown-ups were nice and cool, sitting inside with the air conditioning. Tanesha opened her presents as soon as people got there with them--she just couldn't wait! After about two hours of running, screaming, jumping, eating, chatting, and playing, everyone was ready go home for a nap, including me!

Three of the four Krause kids: Jacques (10), Sebastian (6), and Tanesha (5).

The Birthday Girl and Me

Caitlin and Tanesha making funny faces

Already best friends

Brother and Sister

Drivin'-In

This past Saturday, we celebrated my friend, Corrin's birthday by going to the drive-in. Corrin is a friend I met through the Brown family. She has done youth work in Australia and the U.K. and just moved to the Central Coast about a month after I did. To properly commemorate the day she was born, we crammed 17 people into three cars with an esky (Australian for cooler) full of cokes and snacks, chairs, and blankets and headed north. After about an hour of driving, we arrived at Heddon Greta 15 minutes before the first movie started. We had just enough time to pop open our tailgates, lay out our blanket, tune our radio to the right station, and get situated before "Alvin and Chipmunks--The Squeakuel" started rolling. The second movie that was shown that night was "Sherlock Holmes," starting at 10:30 pm. Confession time: I was most excited about seeing the Chipmunks! I love their Christmas songs! Between the two movies, we sang happy birthday to Corrin. Nobody remembered the candles for the cake, so we had to use Dan's iTouch lighter application instead. Despite the light drizzle, lack of warm clothes, late hour, and the mosquitoes (I think I got about 15 new bites), we had a fabulous time. I can't wait to go to the Drive In again!

Fun Australian Fact: After you sing "Happy Birthday" to someone, you give them three cheers. One person says, "Hip, Hip..." And, everyone else says, "HOORAY!" Then we do it again two more times.

Trying to stay dry and warm at the drive-in.

We were towards the back of the parking lot, but could see perfect. Before each movie, they had the old snack commericals with the dancing ice cream bars and jumping hot dogs.
Corrin blowing out the candles, I mean the iTouch.

The birthday girl, Corrin.

Annoying American Tourists

That's us! Between Christmas and New Years, I got to do a lot of the touristy things in Sydney and along the Central Coast that I have been dying to do, but didn't have an excuse. But, since Alex was here, I finally had a reason.
We spent 2 days in Sydney seeing all the sights. One day we went to the city with Dan and Mel Mowday and Laura and Cristiaen van der Meulen to go to the aquarium. The Sydney Aquarium is so cool because it is located right in Darling Harbor. We saw tons of fish native to Australia, got to walk through a shark tunnel, and even got to touch different kinds of coral. After the aquarium, our group walked to Circular Quay to see the Opera House and the botancial gardens. We finished up the day with dinner at Pancakes on the Rocks, and then caught the train back home.
The second day Alex and I went to Sydney, we caught the train down to see a matinee performance of the musical, Mama Mia. It was a wonderful two hours of ABBA and tons of laughs. (If you have the chance to see this musical any time, I would definitley recommend it!) While in the city, we also went to Patty's Market and rode the ferry to Manly Beach. After two days of walking all over Sydney, we were exhausted!
On New Year's Eve. A big group of people from church went to watch the Central Coast Mariners (our professional soccer team) play a game in Gosford. Their stadium is located right on the waterfront. Sadly, they lost, but the game was definitely still fun. We sat right beside the "Marinators," who are the crazy fans that lead all the chants and songs. It was crazy! Following the game, we walked down to the water and watched fireworks.
The last touristy thing we did was go to the Australian Reptile Park. This park is like a zoo with mostly Australian animals, but so much better. We saw alligators, crocodiles, dingoes, giant tortoises, snakes, insects, and birds. In the picnic area, there are wallaby, kangaroos, and emus just walking around that you can feed and take pictures with. We even got to pet a koala!

Our whole group at the aquarium (Alex, Me, Laura, Cristian, Mel, and Dan).

Laura and I with Sydney Harbor in the background.

The Opera House.

The Mariners game against Wellington.

Koalas from the Reptile Park.

Alex and the kangaroos.

I'm Dreaming of a not so white Christmas!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog! Once the holidays started, it was a lost cause. Then, I went straight to church camp at the start of the New Year. So, I'm finally back in Gosford and hoping to get back on schedule!
I experienced my first Aussie Christmas this year and I loved it! It was definitley not white or cold, but I still got in the holiday spirit. I set up my own Christmas tree with a star on top, featuring Alex Vogt (my roommate of 4ish years), and did a lot of baking! Of course, I had to make white chocolate covered pretzels! Interesting fact, pretzel are not that popular in Australia and therefore hard to find.
I had my first visitor over the holidays, my boyfriend, Alex Jones. He arrived on Christmas Eve and stayed until January 2nd. He also brought with him a suitcase full of presents and goodies from my family (Thanks, Mom, Dad, and Ally). The night Alex got here, we went Christmas light looking with a big group of young adults from church. Putting up Christmas lights is becoming popular on the Central Coast, but it's still not very widespread. In most neighborhoods, there are only a few house that actually decorate at all. So, we drove all over town looking for the "good houses." We found a few, and even one with a Santa Clause outside!
We spent Christmas Day with 2 families from church. We started off with the Mowday family in the morning. It was a great day of presents, food, kids, toys, dessert, Christmas crackers, and watching “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” I even made my Aunt Mary Jo's famous chocolate-layer dessert to add to the spread at lunch! We ended the day with the Gritten family. We stopped by for supper and to chat, and ended up playing games for 2 hours!
The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, is considered a holiday in Australia as well. We spent Boxing Day with the Brown family. We had a nice meal, opened a few presents, and played Wii. The main event of evening was the Gingerbread Decorating contest. We put everyone’s name in a hat, and then every person drew out a name. You had a decorate a gingerbread to look like the person whose name you drew out of the hat. At the end, everyone had to guess who had which name based on what the gingerbread looked like.
Despite the differences in temperature and tradition, I still had an wonderful Christmas holiday because I was surrounded by friends and family who love me!

My beautiful Christmas tree, featuring Alex Vogt.

Taking our picture with Santa while Christmas Light looking on Christmas Eve.

Whole Mowday family at Christmas Day lunch. We are all wearing our paper crowns from our crackers.

My friend Laura van der Meulen (formerly Mowday) got to come home for the holidays. Laura came and stayed with me for a week or so in 2007 when she was visiting the States.

Getting ready to start the gingerbread decorating contest on Boxing Day!

My gingerbread version of Deb.

Presentation Day

Every year Gosford honors all the students and teachers who participate in the Sunday morning bible classes. Everyone who as been a part of the Bible School receives a gift from the congregation. But before the gifts are handed out, the kids do a play. This year was the story of Jesus' birth. Seeing as we only had one practice with the 30 kids and adults in the play, we were not expecting the play to be flawless. But, this year had lots of impromptu moments, include a real baby to play baby Jesus and a Gabrielle who didn't know he was the angel until about 15 minutes before. Either way, the congregation loved it!

King Herod and all his bling.

The whole cast.

The Wisemen bringing gifts to baby Jesus.

The Inn Keepers

Our impromptu Gabriel.