Hometown Glory

It has been almost two months since my last update and quite a bit has happened here! 

We have moved from Sydney to Raymond Terrace, Andrew's hometown. We are currently camped out in his parent's house with them and Andrew's sister Jenny and her family (husband and three children). The whole move went smoothly and we have settled into our own living space, the entire bottom floor with ease. The pace of Raymond Terrace compared to Sydney is huge! RT definitely has a "small town" feel with prices being cheaper, pubs closing closer to midnight than 3 am, and friendly, genuine people. Reminds me of Rhinelander a little bit sometimes!

I have been applying to jobs here to no avail, YET. Places are beginning to hire for Christmas work so I am on the prowl. I have been spending my days either walking the dogs, three living here at the moment, down by the river, helping Jenny pack up her old house to move, or painting. I have painted the three kids all little canvas paintings for their new house and am currently working on a big canvas that will hang upstairs in the dining room! Considering I have not really done any painting like this before, I am pretty proud of my progress so far (pictures to come when finished!)

Some other feats since being here:

Chingy Concert

-I attending a Chingy concert in Newcastle (a bigger city about 30 minutes away). For those of you who don't know Chingy, he is a rapper with hits like "Right Thurr" and "Holiday Inn". Not typically my kind of music but the people watching there was pristine! There was quite the onslaught of groupies and girls scandalously-clad trying to sneak up to VIP after the 30 minute concert. My highlight of the night? I got to high five Chingy!

Big Buck Hunter with Andrew's Dad

- Dave, Andrew's youngest brother left for a 2 year trip to London in mid July. We celebrated his last weekend with a big pub crawl. At one of the bars I went undefeated for a 10 game streak in Big Buck Hunter. Pretty proud of my Wisco "Bar Kid" heritage there :)

-August 1-3 Andrew and I went to Melbourne for a weekend. He was asked to be the godfather for his friend's son there and we made a weekend of the Christening celebration. We stayed in the city Friday night and explored around the HUGE market, the shopping, the city, and a bit of the nightlife. Saturday we went to the city zoo (think Andrew has had enough after 5 zoos since I've came here!) and then to his friends house. A lovely, but exhausting weekend. 

Lining up for City2Surf

-August 9-10 Andrew I and returned to Sydney to run the 14km City2Surf. With only training 5km at a time and a late case of shin splints on Andrew's part, we aimed for a 100 minute run. We ran the course in 89 minutes and considering all the bobbing and waving through the hoards of people (80,000 in all!) I was extremely proud of our strong finish! We also got to go out in a section of Sydney considered the "Red Light District". We had a blast with Andrew's boss, Phil, both nights we stayed there, and with his other boss, Gene, and coworker the other night. 

-August 11th, upon arriving home after the two hour drive, Andrew said "We're home, but we're not staying here. Grab what you need and we're going again." A bit unsure of what we actually doing, I grabbed the things I needed, including a nice dress, and we went to the Hunter Valley, a region close to RT with hundreds of wineries. We arrived at a little Bed and Breakfast where we had our own cottage with kangaroos in the front yard! We went to one winery and bought a delicious bottle of red before tucking into the cottage for the night. Long story short, after we danced to "Longest Time" by Billy Joel, Andrew proposed! Of course I said "yes!" and kissed him so hard I accidentally gave myself a bloody nose! We enjoyed the rest of our little one-night getaway with a scrumptious breakfast and then drove back the 45 minutes to RT. 

Our cottage

Those have been the highlights as of late! Although we are struggling a bit with jobs/money we will pull through and its been great being around his family over the last month and a half. Also, I'm nearly half way done with my time here! Time sure is flying! Couple of things to look forward to in coming weeks, a one week trip to Cairns (the Great Barrier Reef) Sept 6-13, spring starting in Sept, and Litzy and my parents coming in November. More adventures to come!