Chinese garden

We went to the Chinese garden... it was beautiful and relaxing, but not worth 6 bucks each. We thought it would be a lot larger than it ended up being. My favorite part was watching the huge fish follow people as they walked around the pond.

The Best

My mom is the best because:

• she sends me something in the mail almost every week... and it gives me something to look forward to!
• she waits around on the internet, just in case I am there.
• she always knows what I want and need!
• she makes me laugh... a lot. 
• she is so excited for my baby's birth... even though it will take place on the other side of the world.
• I know she thinks about me all time and always hopes for the best!

Last week my mom sent me a package that almost got lost in the mail (really it was just at the post waiting for me to pick it up) and although she was panicking that my goods would never come... she still managed to send me another one that I got today! In total she has sent me 4 maternity shirts, one dress, one skirt and a pair of convertible pants! She also sent me a book (belly laughs) which I read in about a day and an adorable picture drawn by my lovely niece Lily! I would be struggling without her... Mom, you are the best! THANK YOU!

P.S. everyone should vote on the baby gender poll to the right of the page.... even if you have already told me what you think!

Dear Australia

When referring to piece of boneless meat (fillet), it is pronounced fill-a not fill-it. Check this out:

white chili

Last weekend, I made it my goal to think of foods that I thought I could eat without getting sick. Last night was a huge success! Tyler made me his famous white chili (well...the recipe came from my uncles...thanks Jimmy and Rocky!). We were both very impressed with the meal on a count of, not having the actual recipe, not having measuring cups or spoons, and the fact that Australia apparently does not make half and half. It was delicious, and the first real meal we have had in months!

16 weeks

We went to the see our Dr. at the university health center today. I have been getting headaches almost every afternoon and wanted advice, since the medicines here all have different names, I have not felt comfortable taking anything. We found out that Panadol is the same as Tylenol. The best part was when we got to hear our baby's heart beating for the first time! It was very faint, but the best sound either of us had ever heard (145 beats per minute)! We also learned that our baby can now hear my voice; finally, I will have someone to talk to during the day!

Butterflies

We went to a butterfly sanctuary! It was a fun way to get out of the rain. Hope you like the photos.

Darling Harbour Fiesta Festival

This weekend we made it out in the rain to go to the Fiesta Festival! It was a festival celebrating everything from Spain to Mexico, and South America... there was latin music, dance and food booths. We had the best churros ever! They reminded me of the donuts you can get at the fair. I was so excited to buy a little Peruvian nativity scene for only 3 bucks! Now, I will have a nativity scene for Christmas!

Dear Australia

Why would you ruin such a good thing? Dog the Bounty Hunter replaced with Vampire Diaries, seriously? Monday nights just will not be the same for Tyler. He is beyond consolation.

the irish nun

So last weekend at church Tyler was approached by an Irish nun. She suggested to him that he could not be a day over 18. Tyler laughed and told her that he was 25. I had been walking to our seat, when I looked back and saw that Tyler had been stopped. As I walked back to them, she looked at me and said, "are you guys together or..." I interrupted telling her that we were married with a b... but before I could finish my sentence she was already telling him "I bet she is a good wife, but tough as nails when she needs to be". We walked away giggling as we found our seat. A few moments later, she found us and sat right next to Tyler. She was so funny... talking to Tyler throughout the mass... telling him all about the priest... letting him know when the priest forgot to say something.... the best part was after the Our Father when she shook his hand and said "peace be with you handsome". We will never forget the funny Irish nun that sat with us at mass in Australia.

15 weeks

I am now 15 weeks pregnant! Our little bub is now the size of a naval orange and is looking more and more like a little person. This week the baby is working on forming all its joints.... let's hope that they work better than mine! Once all the joints are formed baby will be wiggling and squirming like crazy!

At this point, you may be wondering why I already have such a bump. I am not over eating, I promise! And I still fit into my pants! I just think that since my torso is so short, the baby and its home (the uterus) have nowhere else to go but out! Don't get me wrong, I love having a belly... just don't judge me for it!

Thank You Meghan

My sister Meghan sent me a beautiful necklace and I just wanted to say thank you! She also sent us a very cute baby blanket for swaddling our little papoose!

dust storm

Last Tuesday we found ourselves waking up to a red glow in our apartment. When we looked outside and all we could see was a red haze. The wind from the night before blew in a thick mess of red dust into Sydney, originating in the outback. By late afternoon the dust was all gone and the city was clean again. Apparently this happened again a few days later... but we did not see anything.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

King's Cross

Satellite Image: Dust moving across Australia

Satellite Image: Dust moving out to sea

Dear Australia

Don't trick me into buying my husband a giant sized popcorn, only to see the look on his face when I hand him the smallest bag of popcorn I have ever seen at a movie theater. Why do you call a child size popcorn a large, a small a giant, a medium a jumbo, and a large a maxi? How hard is it to call them their actual size?

swamp cooler

As the weather gets hotter everyday.... we realize that summer is going to unbearable. So we went to the local shopping center in search of some relief. We found a swamp cooler! Tyler carried it all the way home (30min)! It works really well and will make the summer heat more tolerable.

14 weeks

I am now 14 weeks pregnant and into my second trimester! Our baby is now the size of a lemon (while my uterus is about the size of a melon). Our little bub is busy sucking its thumb, wiggling its toes, making urine, and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys, and spleen continue to develop! It is also starting to grow hair. They say that the more heartburn you have, the more hair your baby will have. I hate the heartburn... but I do want a baby with a full head of hair!

UP!

After some persuading, Tyler finally decided to take me to Up! Neither of us had ever been to a 3D movie and were excited to try it out. I got a Chock Top ice cream... it was good, but I missed having a good old american movie snack. Ice cream at the movie just doesn't feel the same, as sharing a huge popcorn! We were amazed by the 3D, it looks so much better than the original 3D. The movie was very good. It definitely put big smiles on our faces! I love Disney movies!

the mall

This weekend we went to the big mall. Tyler only brought one pair of flip-flops and they broke. We were on a mission to find him a new pair. To get to this mall we have to walk to the bus stop in Kingsford (15min), then catch a 400 bus to the big mall in Eastgardens (15min). It is not a bad trip, as long as the bus isn't packed to the max. The mall is huge, a bit overwhelming, and always crowded. We went to several stores and finally found him a good pair. However, the most exciting part of the shopping trip was that I found a pet store. They had lots of cute puppies for me to look at. Most of them were pug-mixes... I am not a fan of the pug... but who can not love puppies.

Dear Australia

So, we decided to start a weekly post about everything australia...

If you get a question wrong on a game show... don't say never mind when they tell you that you are wrong, they are not going to give you another chance.

*almost everyone says "never mind" when they lose*

spring?

When Tyler left for work this morning, he told me that it was supposed to be around 85 degrees today. I needed to go to the store for food, so I got myself up early and was out the door by 8:30 am. I thought I would avoid the heat of the day. It was so HOT outside, even that early. I was sweating from head to toe and was sure that it had to be at least 90 out. When I got home I checked the weather and it was supposedly only 77. Which got me thinking, it this is what 77 feels like, what will 90 feel like. All day I was dying of heat. I drank 6 bottles of water, kept a cold washcloth around my neck and took a cool shower. Nothing seemed to cool me down. Finally Tyler and I filled the tub with freezing cold water and stood in it for a while. It is not even spring yet. We need to get a cooling system ASAP!

Royal Hospital for Women

The Royal Hospital for Women is one of Australia’s foremost specialist hospitals for women and babies. Each year the RHW delivers more than 4,200 babies in the homelike environment of the birth center. All mothers are staffed by midwives, who provide prenatal, labor/delivery and postnatal care. They promote normal, active or water birthing. 


We have met with a midwife during our "booking in" appointment last week. We went over a ton of information and left with 10+ brochures and a birthing book to read. I am looking forward to starting an exercise class and a "having a baby" class.

We will get a new midwife for our next appointment and should have her as our provider for the duration of the pregnancy and the delivery. She will also come to visit me once a day after the delivery, to help with the baby and check on my health. At first we were a bit uncomfortable with the idea of only having a midwife, not a doctor. However, the more we learn about this hospital the more comfortable we feel.

the first look at our bub

When I was 9 weeks and 5 days, we went in for our first ultrasound appointment. The clinic was very nice, with huge flat screens on the wall to view your baby. It was the most amazing sight! We saw our little baby kick its legs and stretch its little arms! We did not get to hear the heartbeat, but we saw it working hard at 150 beats per minute! We were on cloud nine! We should have asked more questions to the ultrasound tech... we thought that when we met with our midwife, we would go over things a bit further. Next time we will know. We love looking at these pictures and imagining how different he/she looks now. In this photo the books say that the baby is about the size of a medium green olive and now at 13 weeks the baby should be the size of a peach!

movie night

Tyler took me out to a movie for the first time since we have been here. We walked over to "The Spot" (an area packed with restaurants, bars, movie theater, etc.), and we had such a good time. I love getting popcorn when I go to the movies and, of course, we had to get the biggest one. However, it turns out that in Australia the cool thing to do is get ice cream cones for your movie treat. I felt so jealous. Everyone in the theater had really good looking ice cream cones. We didn't even put a dent into our giant popcorn, and are still eating it at home. We went to Inglourious Basterds and really enjoyed it. Sitting behind us were some Germans, which made us feel a little awkward given the subject. Overall, it was the best date I went on this weekend. Coming out later this week is Up, which I really want to go see. On December 3rd, I will be attending Where the Wild Things Are if anyone wants to come you are more than welcome to join me.

seeing a doctor

We were not sure where to start so we started with the University Health service. We met with Dr. Salmon and she was very nice and gave me lots of advice for fighting morning sickness. She set us up with an ultrasound appointment and gave us the number to call for the hospital to make our "booking in appointment".

I should mention that our hospital (the Royal Hospital for Women) is only a few blocks from our apartment. It is closer than the grocery store, the bus stop, our church, our post office, etc. When things work out like this, it really lets us know that we are truly being looked after!

the harbor

The day we made the movie at the park, we walked for an hour looking for a nice quiet spot. It was a beautiful day and we took these pictures of the harbor.

"morning sickness"

My mom was never sick, my sister-in-laws were never sick... I was not sick with my first pregnancy... so I never even considered the thought of feeling sick during pregnancy. It all started around week 5 or 6, I would crave something make it and then think "I can never eat that again in my entire life". One week I ate an entire jar of pickles... now the thought of them makes me gag. This went on until I ran out of meals to make. The smell of anything cooking made me sick. Food on commercials made me sick. The thought of any veggies, meat, cooked pasta, rice, or cooked anything made feel like I was going to die. I would lay in bed trying not to barf all day and night. It was torture. I have never felt so sick in my entire life. I could safely eat bread, bananas, apples, kiwis, and popsicles. I am only a little nauseous now, and have incorporated some new food groups. I could not have made it though this time without Tyler, feeding me breakfast in bed, checking on me at lunch, doing the shopping, cleaning and being patient with me (because I could not have him cooking or eating anything that made me sick).

"maybe I am"

When we were in Cairns we went on a hot air ballon ride at sunset... as we were driving to the launch site, we had to watch a safety video. After the video our guide said, "one more thing, if you are pregnant now would be a good time to tell your partner and us, because the landings can be rough and we do not recommend continuing if you are pregnant". It was then that I thought... "could I be... maybe I am... how long have we been here...". I did not say anything to anyone, because over the past two years, I have thought these things almost every month. The difference this time was that (for the first time in two years) I had absolutely no idea... I had forgotten all about it! We landed in a big grass field as smoothly as possible. We got home three days later (18th of July) and found out that yes, we were going to be parents!

video fix

if you are having trouble seeing the video or the controls for the video... you can click this link to watch it on YouTube!

blessed!

If you want to put a big smile on your face, I suggest that you watch this video we made for you. It works best if you can make it full screen (click the second button from the right at the bottom of the video) and high quality (click the third button from the right at the bottom on the video). We will post more on the subject within the next few days!!!

song: Blessed by Brett Dennen

idea stater: Melanie Blodgett (check out youaremyfave.com for more inspiration)