My FAVORITE Outback...

God has been SO good and answered a huge prayer for us!  As some of you may or may not know, Tyson and I are technically supposed to stay in Australia until September...which would mean that I would miss the start of the school year, and therefore miss out on a full-time teaching position at the best school in the world.  We've been praying for a long time for direction and guidance on what we should do next year - and God has put it on both of our hearts that I should be teaching.  We feel that even though that means we'll have to be apart for a little while, it's worth the sacrifice if I can teach full-time at OKE.  God is so faithful and has once again, worked it out for us!  As it turns out, the second grade team at OKE has to add another teacher for the 2009-2010 school year...and they want me to come back!  I have officially accepted the position, which means that I'll basically get to pick up right where I left off.  Australia is gorgeous and we have had such an amazing adventure here, but unfortunately, I love an Outback in Texas where I get to work with wonderful friends and precious students on a daily basis...my favorite Outback can only be found at OKE, and I'm so proud and simply blessed to call myself a "Koala" again!

 

Footy, fondue, and SINGSTAR!

Paul & Meg have loved taking us under their "Aussie wings" and introducing us to all of our Australia firsts:  sausage rolls, rocky road (the real candy, not the ice cream!), hot cross buns, scones, cow milking and the list could just keep on going.  But on Sunday, they scored major friend points (especially with Tyson!) by taking us to our very first FOOTY GAME!  Australia Rules Football (aka "footy") is a game unlike any other we've ever seen - kind of a combination of rugby, soccer and American football - only they wear no pads or helmets at all.  And the people here go CRAZY for it!  There are two teams in WA, and the better and more popular one is the West Coast Eagles.  So naturally Paul & Meg came over to eagle us up before the game - they even bought Tyson his very own Eagles scarf! (All of the fans wear scarves with their team's colors for support)  

Here we are heading into the Subiaco Oval - home to the West Coast Eagles.

The field is HUGE!  There are 18 players from each team on the field at once!

From where we were sitting we could've easily caught one of balls from a goal...but none came our way today.

Yay Eagles!

A halftime footy game between little kids.  Too precious to pass up!

And would you look at who our section was named after?!  

The Eagles won!  Smiles all around!

So after the victory we came back to our house and introduced Paul & Meg to Chicken Taco soup for dinner -- yum yum!  And then Meg made us chocolate fondue for dessert!

How perfect is that!?

But the fun didn't stop there - it was time to break out SINGSTAR!  

Meg & I LOVE this game, and although our husbands looked MUCH happier when they were playing Halo, we forced them to sing with us. :)

Team Thomas hoping for a win after singing "born to be wild". 

Told you - we love it.

If we're sitting, it means we're focusing...

But when we stand up, we are SO into it.  We might not sound perfect...but we certainly have fun! :)

Easter on the FARM! Part IV

The last day on the farm was probably the most memorable for me!  I am now a true farm girl.  See the pictures to find out why!

This cow has been separated from her calf for a day and if you notice the size of her utter, she's ready to be milked.

And that's where I come in.  Karis the Cow Milker.  With a few tips from Meg's sweet mom, I was ready to go!

And I'm not quite sure what to think at first....

I have never in my life been this close to a cow...literally!

I started to get the hang of it and the milk was flowing!

Now THAT'S what I call fresh!

Meg was documenting this entire experience.  Here was an onlooker she found watching from the fence!!

 

I am now totally loving this!  Look - 2 hands!!

Another onlooker.  This calf wants it's mom and the milk that's in my bucket!  Is it wrong to be proud of myself for stealing from such a precious thing??  

Just LOOK at all that MILK!!  I have entered into a whole new area of my life.  Farm Girl.  And I love it!

After milking, we were nice and fed some of the cows who stayed around hoping for some grain.

And were they ever hungry!!!

Time to filter the milk before we....

DRINK IT!!! :)  YUM, YUM!  We're having it in an iced coffee here, but we BOTH (yes, huge props to my husband for trying new things!) tried it by itself and guess what?!  Believe it or not, it tastes just like MILK! :)  

This is where I learned my tough farm-girl ways.  Beautiful Meg Middleton is ready to take me out on the tractor to feed some more cows.

Meg's super sweet dad did the driving for us though!

The minute they heard the tractor they came a runnin'!

It's amazing how they just know to come and get their hay....

The cows have now been milked AND fed...my work here is done. :)

It wasn't hard for Tyson & I to understand why Paul & Meg are such KIND people after we met both of their families.  They learned from their parents for sure.  They spoiled us as if we were their own children and gave us chocolate Easter bunnies.

The bunnies felt the need to nuzzle a bit.

Here we are with Paul's mom - the giver of these beautiful Easter bunnies!

K&T on a chocolate high after a simply perfect weekend with simply amazing friends.

Easter on the FARM! Part III

And the fun in Margaret River just keeps coming!  More pictures from Day 3 of our trip!

Easter Sunday started with church and then we were off to the Margaret River markets for some shopping!

A quick stop to see Boranup Forest on our way to the beach!  Although we've since found out it's a myth, there were rumors that the Ewoks were filmed here!  However, it looked just like somewhere that an Ewok would want to live.

The boys did not want to pose for us girls.

Silly doesn't even begin to describe them.

Finally!  3 nice smiles from our 3 handsome hubbies!

And now it's the girl's turn for a little fun! :)

3 amigas!

Hamelin Bay and the remains of a very old jetty!

Look at the stretch of beach behind Tyson...because that's where we were headed next!  We took an offroad adventure to get to a beach back there!

And the adventure did not disappoint!  We got slightly stuck in the sand...

...but a little teamwork, and we were good to go!

Tyson & Paul, being the thoughtful boys that they are, decided that they should do their part to help on the farm with a little "game management".  AKA - Roo Shooting!  Yes, you heard me.  Those guns were used to "manage" the hundreds of kangaroos on the farm...now there is one less of them to tear up the fences & crops.  I'll let you decide who was the shooter.