Happy New Year!

The past month has been hectic (what's new?), but overall good. Our month old brand new-to-us $3000 car DIED (we are borrowing a car from a friend until Jan. 20th), I had ingrown toenail surgery on Dec. 6th, we moved from Hoppers Crossing (near Melbourne) to Ballarat on Dec. 15th, friends from England stayed with us for Christmas (Dec. 24th - 30th), and our phone and internet lines are not properly working yet-- hence part of the reason why we have not been in touch (though we noticed a lot of you bloggers out there have been slacking as well. Must be the holidays!). I say things are overall good because Mark is enjoying his new company/job and is seeing excellent results with the technique they use (NIP). It's also nice to finally be getting settled into a house and into a job for me. I'm moving to full-time at Starbucks next week. I started my training for Supervisor today, and was also told by Starbucks' District Manager that he was arranging the date for my Assistant Manager interview for me today. Hopefully that will indeed happen soon (in the meantime I'm still looking for/open to other options). Oddly enough the most difficult times for me are when we go to church. I get really depressed/emotional. I think it's because I miss my old churches (Jubilee, SBCC, etc...) and the Christian relationships from them. I prayed for deep, passionate, and meaningful Christian friendships for both myself and Mark in Hull, England and the Lord provided. I need to pray the same for here. Pray with me!

Above: for New Year's Eve we went to Matt's house (in the Starbucks photo below). He's my co-worker in Port Melbourne. He had a little party. Then we left and met up with some friends at Waterfront City in Melbourne for the fireworks! They were fabulous. We brought a blanket and had front row seats. The Lord blessed the evening as well as we sat by a man who just got back from Uganda. He works with Watoto (a children's choir). My friend who was with us also recently went to Uganda and so they were excited to talk to each other.

Matt did a beautiful job of making my favourite drink for me, a toffee nut latte with extra whip and extra toffee nut sprinkles. I won't be having these for a while though... I've given up dairy and wheat/gluten for a month to see if my skin improves. After only a week it has improved, but we'll see how it goes after a month. It used to go up and down anyway. Of the two I think dairy is the real culprit... I'm hoping it's not both as I enjoy eating both!


Above: Katie and James, the highlight of our Christmas. These are two of our friends from Hull, England, still currently travelling around Australia in a van (they're in Sydney at the moment). They decided to come to our house for Christmas! We had a fabulous time. It was SO good to be with people we knew that knew us, and we got to know each other even better. We played games and watched movies and went sight-seeing together and had some good conversations. Thanks for the great visit!

James and Mark went to a Cricket game on Boxing Day. Australia vs. India. I think the 5-day game ended in a draw.

Our backyard. Sorry it's so small. I'm not sure how I can make it bigger for you. It's small, with cemented area and a clothesline in the middle, and it's surrounding by trees (which I love!). The weather has been great and I've been able to lounge around in a bikini tops and skirts! Hooray for summer! It was beginning to feel like Narnia for a while with a never-ending winter.

Our back porch looking into our backyard. Notice the shed in the backyard, the dark doorway which leads to an outdoor toilet, and our dryer which is in our laundry room, also outside of our house. The door to our kitchen is just past and to the right of the air con unit on the right wall.

I'm considering starting another blog to share thoughts about my passion: ethical consumerism. There is so much I want to do with this passion, which will really start after the house is fully unpacked and sorted (we're almost there!) and the internet is up and running. I'll let you know when it begins...

Hope all is well with you!

Again, our new address: 3 Duncan Street, Ballarat, 3350, VIC, Australia.