We're having a boy!

We're having a boy! And I'm further along than we thought. Baby now due Oct 31st!

Yawning!

Mark's Birthday Pirate Party!

Aaaarrrrggghhhh!

(for some reason the balloon makes him less convincing...)

Yep, that's me.

The jolly pirate Kate. We bake and play guitars together.

One of our pastors, the merry Katie.

The mischievous looking Pastor Scott, husband to Katie and brother of my friend Kate.

Marc. Not sure what look he's going after, but I will say he was fun competition when we went bowling the other night! I beat the boys (Marc and Mark) in both games, with the winning scores of 138 and 139 (no bumpers, of course). Not being an avid bowler, I was very proud of myself. Marc was giving me a run for my money. Marc and his wife Anne let Mark use use one of their cars Wed-Fri on many occassions when Mark didn't have a way to get to work in Donald and Horsham. Thanks guys!

This is Paulie, one of Mark's colleagues. He's from Norway. I think he's trying to go for the 'I'm guilty but trying to look innocent' pirate pose. Paulie also let Mark use his car Wed - Fri on many occassions for months when we didn't have one. Thanks Paulie!

Ahhh, Luke. He's saying, "The next round's on me, boys!" Thanks Luke! Luke has a beautiful wife, Rebecca, and 3 gorgeous little girls. We taught them how to play Settlers, he he he (the evil sort of laugh where I smile and think about my scheme to brainwash all of our friends into playing Settlers with us... Pastor Katie is already addicted to the game!).

The lovely Sarah. She is another of Mark's colleagues. Unfortunately for us, she and her husband are moving to Adelaide this Oz winter, US summer. They hope to start a family soon (woohoo!) and want to be settled close to their families first.

For Mark's birthday we went to a teppanyaki restaurant, one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook the food in front of you! It was a lot of fun. Kate baked some lemon meringue pies for Mark's birthday 'cake.' See below...

In the end our chef wrote this upside down using salt on the grill. Not bad...

Hope you enjoyed meeting some of our friends above.

In other news, in case you hadn't heard already, we bought a car! We got a 2002 Subaru Outback with only 86,000 Kilometres (55,000 miles) on it. It looks good and is in great condition. We think we got a great deal on it and are very pleased to have it. With winter approaching and a baby soon to follow we thought it would be wise to get one sooner than later. Also, with Mark travelling for work 3 days a week, it was getting increasingly difficult to keep borrowing cars. We still bike quite a bit and still want to. I have to anyhow on Wed - Fri when Mark is away with the car. It does make grocery shopping SO much easier, and now we can explore this vast country, at the least take weekend trips! Last weekend we went to Melbourne and watched U2 in 3D at the IMAX Theatre. We both thought it was fantastic, although Mark says the real thing is still better (of course). He's been to two U2 concerts. This weekend we're heading down to Melbourne again, and to Hoppers Crossing for a going away party for our friends Kath and Cliff (the ones we went camping with a few weeks back). They are going to work at a summer camp in Pennsylvania, and then to explore South America and/or Africa for the next 2 years! How fun!!

Now that we have a car ticked off our prayer list, we are focusing on finding a new place to live before my parents get here in 6 weeks! Our house is 2 bedrooms and COLD. We are looking for a 3 bedroom house with central heating, and we think we might've found one... right next door. That house recently sold, and the new owners are remodelling it to rent it out! They are putting a whole new kitchen and bathroom in, and re-painting the whole place. It should be really nice when they're done. Pray that the price is right, and that they accept pets (how could we leave 'pooper and the claw'?? more on that to come). If we have a 3 bedroom place when my parents get here, my mom can help me decorate the baby's room, which I'm sure she'd really love to do!

Another big prayer request is for our permanent residency application to be granted. The main hang-up at the moment is that they want me to have a chest x-ray, but being pregnant that's not a good idea. The thing is, I just had one less than a year ago (to be able to come here) and so I am going to petition to see if that can be accepted, or if they can just wave it for me.

Finally, just thought I'd let you know that the pregnancy is going well. I'm 15 weeks now. I'm still not really showing, although I'm just starting to get bigger. I've been feeling good and healthy apart from the cold/cough I had for 2 weeks (that Mark is now getting over), but other than that I've been fine! Thanks for your prayers. We'll be finding out the sex of the baby in 4 weeks now!

It's all about Rachel.

Yaah! I got to be a hippie last night! Once a month our church has a women's evening called Essence. It's like a mini-church service, just for women, to encourage women... and a bit more 'fun' than church. Anyhow, last night was themed, it was FAD night. When I saw that brown wool shawl thing with beads on it at the thrift/charity shop I reckoned it would be warm (and I was right) and went with it.


Here's the whole lot of us. Besides Kate, I also hang out with Anne, in the red on the left, and Jen, in the the very back on the right throwing a peace sign. Our pastor/pastor's wife is in the nice blue outfit in the middle left. Her name is Katie. We went shopping for our outfits together.

Katie talked about how Jesus isn't a fad... how we can't just choose to put him on at some times, and not at others...how sometimes He's treated as a fashion accessory. It's all or nothing. It was a good, encouraging talk.

Later at home I chilled on the bed and the cat's decided to chill on my lap... the both of them!




I just thought the kitten was so cute sleeping in this one.

In other news I have started playing the guitar again. Kate, my hippie friend pictured above, is on the worship team at church and is trying to recruit me to play with her. We practised a bit today, so hopefully soon I will sharpen my skills once again and be able to use my musical talent however God might deem fit.

Our practise session followed my appointment at the mid-wives clinic which Kate kindly accompanied me to. It was really just filling out paperwork. Just that. Next week, on Wednesday actually, I have an 'anti-natal' appointment which I believe is with a doctor, so I'm assuming they'll do some more interesting things at that appointment. Kate offered to come with me to that one as well! The appointment today wasn't without complications though. Apparently the program I want to get into (Primary Mid-Wife) is a public program, and to be in it you have to have public health care. Well, I don't. At the moment I just have private. I wish I had public because it's FREE, but we won't have that until we're permanent residents, so pray that that happens SOON! They almost didn't accept me into the program which did worry me at first, and though I'm technically not accepted until my next appointment after the doctor confirms my birth is a low-risk one, I'm not worried about it now. I know God's looking out for me. I figure if all else fails Leigh and our 5th year doctor friend Paul can deliver our baby at home!

More baby news next week hopefully.

Camping and Kitties

Hi! Mark is going to do a little blurb for this later, but in the meantime I thought I'd show you some recent photos.

Our latest camping trip to the Brisbane Ranges National Park with our friends Kath and Cliff.

Playing Settlers of Catan.

Just a pretty bird. Not sure the name.

A real live Kookaburra! Sitting in a gum tree even...

An afternoon stroll through a forest of gum trees.

Our new little kitty, Buckey, sitting next to Mark.

Bella didn't like Buckey at first, but now they're pals.

Lazy cat naps...

Too cute! Bella is sleeping in the dead-cat position and Buckey is in mid-yawn.

New Blog

In case you didn't know, we're expecting a baby! I've created a blog in light of this momentous occassion coming soon (well, in early November). I tried to link it on the side but it was taking too long. For now, you can check out: www.babycolviniscoming.blogspot.com if you want just thoughts on pregnancy and the arrival of the baby. If that doesn't interest you, no worries... I've spared you the baby talk! If it does interest you, however, check it out...

I've posted one photo on it so far... a belly shot. No, I'm not really showing yet... the baby is only the size of a blueberry! Mark thinks it's just my belly fat. Well, we can pretend, can't we?

In other news, we spent Easter weekend in Torquay, a surf town just south of us at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. We stayed in a less-than-nice (but cheap and available last minute) cabin at D'Oro Tourist Farm, and watched the Rip Curl Surf Pro during the day.



We watched a number of heats. Below are some shots from the women's competition.

Megan Abubo, an American competing against...

Steph Gilmore, an Australian and 2007 Women's Surfing World Champion Title holder.

Steph Gilmore ended up winning this competition in the finals two days later. Here she is signing autographs.

The winner get to ring this very bell.

That cabin I was telling you about...

The view across from our cabin.

A dead spider I found in the bathrooms at the Rip Curl Surf Pro. Not dissimilar to the two ALIVE spiders I found in the very tiny shower compartment at our cabin. Yah, I freaked. I just don't know if they jump here yet! Luckily the big, scary looking ones aren't AS deadly.


Mark went surfing a couple times this weekend as well. The beach was gorgeous, called 'Jan Juc.' I thought I had my eye on him the whole time. I kept waving at him, he kept waving at me... but when I went to snap a photo of him riding a wave, I realized...

It wasn't him. Mark was wearing a short-legged wet suit. So what's this guy doing waving at me??!

Wilson's Promontory

As promised, photos from our latest camping trip to Wilson's Promontory.


We are so blessed to have friends who lend us their cars. We were able to get away to God's beautiful nature for the 3-day Labour Day weekend. Our campsite was right next to the beach (see below). We simply walked out of our campsite, took a few steps down a sandy path and...



We went hiking (see below), snorkelling, and spent time at the beach.

The view from the top of the mountain on our hike.

Squeeky Beach. The sand actually does squeek. It is white and fine like talcolm powder. It was SO soft. When you scuff your foot, it squeeks! This beach was crawling with internationals.