Anzac Weekend Camping

 Ok so this past weekend was ANZAC weekend which is to commemorate the soldiers who served not only from Australia but also from New Zealand so both my Aussie and Kiwi friends celebrated. The kids at school did a great job in their remembrance ceremony and I was really lucky to get to see the whole thing. Anyway, on Sunday the 25th of April some friends and I went camping at Litchfield National Park and let me tell you it was beautiful. If any of you are planning on visiting I would def take you there because it is a great place to go swimming and its so remote and gives you the true feeling of the Australian bushland.  I enjoyed seeing the beauty of the new country I live in and I enjoyed watching the extreme stupidity that some of the Australians had that were there. Actually I probably would have jumped off the falls on the left had it not been for the fact that I am not currently a holder of health insurance. The camping trip was definitely memorable in many ways but it was a great time to bond with friends.  

The falls were really really strong due to the fact that it is the end of the wet season (Darwin only has two seasons because it is the tropics, the wet and the dry) so some of the places were still closed actually because the water has not receded in all places yet. I have heard that if I go back at the end of the dry season I will see something very different from what I saw this past weekend.  Anyway, hope you enjoy the new pictures from yet another adventure. More to come!

Wow I am a huge slacker

I am so sorry to those of you who are patiently awaiting a new blog. Apparently I am a huge slacker when things get really busy. Those of you who are my good friends need to give me friendly reminders about updating it more frequently. ie Amy, Trisha, Erin. I know you will keep me up on this. What happened well was..........life. Things have gotten busy but a good busy. I am working at one of the Middle Schools full time as their secretary and they just extended my contract for another 10 weeks! Yay! considering I love the job and it is a great place to work. The people are tons of fun to work with. Also the week before Easter I went to the Territory Wildlife Park near Litchfield Park and saw lots and lots of fun and not so fun animals. I got to pet my first kangaroo which was on my list of things to do before I die! I had a great time with some people at my church so enjoy those pictures. For Easter one of my friends went to Melbourne, Victoria for work and invited myself and one of our other friends to go with him to see the city. We had such a great time! There are tons of trams that can take you all over the city and even though my friend Dale and I got kicked off of one they were still incredibly helpful and fun. We went up in the SkyDeck that over looked all of Melbourne and even though my friend Max is very afraid of heights he was a champ and went up with us anyway with only a moderate amount of coaxing. On Easter Sunday Dale and I attended Planetshakers Church in Melbourne and it was amazing. The worship service was incredible and worshiping with that many believers made me think about singing with angels. All praising one maker. Very inspiring. Some of the other things that we did in Melbourne were going to the Melbourne Museum, seeing "How to tame your Dragon" on the IMAX, going to lots of different shops and boutiques, finding gluten-free food for Dale, having an Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning oh and the Melbourne Comedy Festival was on so we hit up a couple of shows and they were excellent! We went to a late night Improv show and that was by far my favorite. We also went ice skating even though it is not really a novelty to me Dale was very excited and it was 80's flashback night so at least the music was good. :) Ok I'll just add pictures and if they need explanation I will comment after that

The other day I had a tour around Cullen Bay and here are some of the fun things that we saw. This is called dragon boating and it is something that I may get into. I would really like to try it and apparently your arms get ripped. Much like rowing but the person in the back steers it and yells at you constantly.

Here is the view from Cullen Bay jetty. We walked out to the end of the point and it was so beautiful. Darwin is known as sunset city and it definitely holds up to its name. I know that pictures of the sky can get a little redundant sometimes but it is so amazing the beauty of the sky here. You just look out and all you see is water.

I have asked around to see what the name of this bird is and no one has given me a straight answer. What I do know is that they are very very sneaky. I know this because I have tried to take its picture before and I was unable to do it. Also I know that they make one of the most annoying noises that I have heard since I have been here. It sounds like a child who is dying. The first time I heard it I freaked out because I had no clue what it was. People started laughing at me once again which I have found is not an unusual occurrence here.The tide system here is really interesting. Mostly this is what it looks like at low tide. At high tide it's mostly up the rocks but sometimes they get king tides and that is when there is a lot of flooding which we might see here in the next couple of days because we have had a monsoon drop over us and the rain has been constant and very heavy. There is also a cyclone warning in effect right now mostly just because the monsoon has dropped on us. Hopefully not though.
Oh! so I went to the beach this day too and this is what I saw. Now you all know that if I were at Jersey shore or Ocean City there is no stinkin way that all of this beautiful beach would look like this. It would be littered with a billion people and stupid seagulls but if you look at the next picture you will see one of the reasons why no one is daring to even get close to the water. I did tempt fate and stick my hand in the water just to say that I did but I quickly moved away because well honestly I am not interested in having a "salty" croc come out of the water after me.
Now you can't blame me for not swimming at the beach right? :) Ok I gotta go. Oh! but one last thing. Just yesterday I saw my first pack of Kangaroos!! I was so excited. I got a picture but 1 it was raining so its really blurry. 2. They move very quickly so I just caught the last one hopping away as I took it but I am posting it because it proves that I saw one. I will def get more pictures of them soon. I have been told if you take bread they will eat out of your hand. That is my new goal! :) ok enjoy and have a great day.

monsoonal rain

Hello there friends today was a crazy day here in the NT. So far since I have been here it has rained everyday but their rain storms are different in they come in quickly and leave quickly. Today however on the weather forecast it was calling for monsoonal rains. It rained about eight times today and some of the storms were very violent. During one of the less violent storms I decided it would be fun to go out in the rain to cool off and get some pictures. Here is what it looked like. Nothing really that cool mostly looks like a rainy day but since I had taken the time to get drenched I am making you look at them. :) have a great day

Tuesday

Well good morning. I am only writing a quick note so that I can add a few new pictures. I'm not sure if you have noticed but I have added some really great pictures of sunsets. Mainly because they are beautiful every night and the colors are beyond describable. Also now where I am living in Larrakeyah I am right on the water and so it's hard not to take a picture of them. Darwin city is known as sunset city. Today I did not get called to go in yet from the agency which is good mostly because I have a lot of wash I need to get done and I am going to try to drop my resume at a few more places to see if I can get a full time position somewhere. I got an email from a woman who works for the Christian School association this morning who wants to interview me so I am really excited to hear about that one. Anyway I know that you are all praying for me because I can just feel the way that God's love is surrounding me. Thank you all so much for your support and love. I know that he has a full time job planned for me so just keep that situation in your prayers. Love from down under.

Some fun and beauty from Australia I wanted to share with you. Some of the things I take pictures of mainly because they make me laugh. The first time I saw these rice bubbles I thought it was so strange. Why can't we all just call them the same things?
In almost every post you will see of me I will be sweating I just wanted to tell you that now. The thing that came to my mind when I realized that this is the way of life here in Australia is how the heck do people fall in love? Then I realized that this is the best way to fall in love I mean if they can love you when you are sweating buckets and buckets they must be in it for the long haul.
This bird is called a Peewee bird and there are heaps of them here. They kinda remind me of our seagulls because they are so sneaky and all of a sudden they are there wanting whatever type of food you have to offer them.
One of the funny things about Australia is that they just let their old war ships and stuff just sit in the water and rust until it sinks. I think it's very strange. You would think that it would make more sense to just pull it out but its so much safer to just leave it in. I was told that it is so much work because the bottom is really murky around them and to go through all the work of getting around the sharks, crocs, stingers and rays its not worth it.
Just another beautiful scenic picture that I wanted so share with you. More to come.

Lord you are good and your mercy endureth forever

Hey Mates! Some of you were pesting me to start a blog so here we go! I am currently living in the top end of Australia in Darwin and loving it. Things here are so different from the states and it's great. I am going to be posting some of my photos and will continue to add them to my facebook too so keep yourself connected with me if you wish. Today was an especially great day and I want to share with you what God has done in my life already since I have been here. I came over to work as a nanny with a family who it ended up was NOT a good match for me as a person. I had gotten connected with a great church and right off the bat I had prayed that God would give me the words to let the people in the church know I was in bad straights and needed some serious prayers which of course he did. The first week I went a woman offered me a room in her house that is her daughters who is away at uni. I wasn't sure if I needed it right away but it turned out that a week later when I had begun to be blamed for things that were not my doing God told me it was time to get out of the situation. Anyway I called her up and she said come on over. A really great couple came and rescued me from the house and I ate dinner with them at their home until she got home. That evening this couple had made plans to go to the cinema and when I got there they changed their plans and took me to mud racing and as all of you know that is right up my alley! It was a blast and I got some pretty good pictures from it. Also as a side note Darwin is known for its beautiful sunsets which for me is a perfect way for me to remember the creativeness of my maker and the beauty He puts in our lives every day if we just take the time to notice these things. Anyway after leaving the family and moving in with the woman from my church I went to work with her to see if I could get myself a new job. Of course lots of hoops to jump through and a lot of things that I should have done before I got here in Aus but I got them done today and by the end of the day I had a job! I had prayed that God would provide for me and He knows my needs and it didn't even take Him 24 hours to do that for me! Jehovah Jireh for certain. I wanted to share what God is doing in my life over here so keep the prayers coming and I will be updating you as much as I possibly can on the happenings down under. Goal for next month which I have been told should be pretty easy to accomplish is to get to hand feed a roo! I can't wait and don't worry I will have my camera ready. I can't wait to post more for you but this is it for now. I am off to have some fish and chips which up here in the NT (Northern Territory) the selected fish of the day is shark since there is an overabundance of them. Love to you all. Enjoy some of these photos and I will add more soon! Ta I must go.