Native animals

We could not help ourselves with this post. We have to take pictures every time we see kangaroos in the wild. We definitely saw our fair share on this trip.



We had never seen wild emus. Cristin's favorite.
I thought these “facilities” on the side of the road were classic.

Farm tour - Bruce and Jenny Longworth, Mungindi, NSW

On our Christmas break, Cristin and I toured a couple of Australian farms ( as you guessed it was my idea). We were put in touch with Bruce and Jenny Longworth through friends made at a Christmas party. They operate an enormous farm near the Mungindi, which is right on the New South Wales - Queensland border. Not knowing anthing other than that we showed up at their door after a couple of phone calls and they put us up in their house for 2 nights and took great care of us.
Their farm was around 20,000 acres!! Their main crops were cotton (above), wheat and chickpeas.
I was intrigued by the irragation system. They order water from the dam. It is then channeled to their storage ponds. They had 3 ponds that were 40, 60 and 80 acres. The water is then channeled to the fields like the 2 pictures above. It is then siphoned out using the 2 inch pipes, seen in the 2nd photo. All water that is not used is then channeled back to to the storage ponds.
On the second day, Bruce needed to move some cattle and by some he meant 400 head! He asked if I wanted to help. This would be my first chance to get dirty since being in Australia because it had been raining for a couple of days and was still raining that day. So of course I wanted to help! The orange clothes were for the rain and to make sure I did not get lost in the 1,800 acre field.
Here we are on our 4-wheelers/quad bikes after the mission was completed. Bruce was freezing cold, but I was nice and toasty in all my clothes. We both had mud all over us and it took lots of washing to get the quad bikes clean. I have to mention that there was a woman on a horse with a few cattle dogs helping us because we would probably still be chasing the cattle if she weren't there.

It made for an excellent memory. I doubt I will ever herd cattle in a field full of kangaroos again!

Coming home...

We have officially set our date for departing Australia. We have booked tickets for Friday, March 30th. This will put us in Tulsa at about 7pm that night.

We are excited to see our family and friends back home, but sad to be leaving Australia.

New Years Eve on the Harbour

On New Years Eve we had a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch the fireworks from a boat on the Harbour. Lloyd took us out his boat for this occasion. We were joined by other Rotarians Andy Britain and Martin Tabone, as well as Andy's wife Pam and Kathi, the Austrian exchange student.

We ventured out for the harbour early in the morning and toured around all of Sydney from the ocean. We then settled in at our spot near Taronga zoo for the fireworks around 2 o'clock. After a good Australian barbecue we were ready for the fireworks. There were 6 barges (I think) full of fireworks and they were lined up down the Harbour. So we were very close to the action! They also set off fireworks from the top of buildings on both the north and south side of the harbour. After the fireworks were finished we drove to a calm area and slept on the boat for the rest of the night.

Cristin and I had a great time. I am sure that we will never forget our 2007 New Year celebration.

New Address... and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The view from our window!

Our New Address is:

1 Lugano Avenue

Burraneer, NSW 2230

Australia

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! And, may God bless your 2007!

Phil, Glenis, Rick, Peggy and us!

It was fun introducing our 'Australian Family' to part of our American family! Thank you, Phil and Glenis, for your extreme generosity to us and our family! We love you!

We're hoping for a New Year's Eve celebration on Lloyd's boat, so stay tuned for more pics!!

Only the 2nd most deadly snake in the world.....

By far the best story from mom and dad's trip to Australia has to be dad's showering experience in the desert by Ayers rock. So dad has been warning me for over a year that Australia has 10 of the worlds most deadly snakes, but I hadn't seen a single snake until he arrived. After the 109 F/43 C weather we were all looking forward to a nice shower to cool off and to wash off the red dirt. Dad went first. As you can see this a community style shower. After dad had already been in the shower for a few minutes I walked in to take mine. As I walked in I saw dad's head pop out of the shower and he was saying "snake!! snake!!". I looked down and the snake slithered out of his shower and past my feet. I couldn't help but start laughing once the snake was not in striking distance. The snake went to the corner of the bathroom and stopped. Unfortunately, there was a guy from Mexico in the last shower! He said "did you say snake? oh.......". We expected for him to get out but he took another 10 minutes before he got out. Then the Japanese guy at the front got out of his shower looking quite confused said "spider?" Management then called up their local snake catchers to take care of the problem. They identified the snake as the Western Brown snake.....only the 2nd most deadly snake in the whole world!!!!!!!!! Needless to say dad didn't quite get a full shower and it took a long time before the rest of us got up the nerve (and came up with evacuation plans from the shower) before we went back in.

The bathroom where it all happened. Dad was in one of the middle stalls when it went straight through his shower!!
If you look closely you can see the snake behind the pipes. I would say it was about 1 ft. to 1.5 ft long.......no matter what dad says!

The proud sideways snake catchers. Scary thing is we don't know where they let the snake go!

The Shelby's in Oz!

Pictures from Ayers Rock, aka Uluru, in central Australia. It was about 109 F/ 43 C, definitely hot! We were told to take a picture of the rock every 5 minutes during sunrise to see the changing colors of the rock. As you can see by our pictures the shade of the rock is always changing.

The Shelby's in Oz!

All pictures are of Ayers Rock in central Australia.

The Shelby's in Oz!

Rick and Peggy in front of the Harbour Bridge Mr. Howard

After getting into Sydney at 7pm on Sunday night, Cristin and I thought it would be nice to take my parents for a nice breakfast in Canberra (3 hours away!) at 7am the next morning! We took them to the National Prayer Breakfast at Parliment. They got to see and hear the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard. After some quick touring and meat pies we went back to Sydney to catch the Rotary meeting - so much for a relaxing vacation!!

Bondi Beach
Bondi Beach

Bondi on a typical weekday....look at all of those people!

Crikey, one of our favorite True Blue Australians!!

The Shelby's in Oz!

Mother-in-law / daughter-in-law interaction
Cristin and Mom enjoying a matinee at the opera house while dad and I are out on the ocean with Lloyd.

Matthew McConahey (sound it out)

While in Port Douglas, Matthew and Kate Hudson were filming a movie called “Fool’s Gold.” The movie was set in Florida, but they were filming in North East Australia. We watched them film this scene about 10 times.
Bananas!!!!!
We had our first bananas since Cyclone Larry wiped out the entire crop.
Daintree Rainforest
We visited this world heritage site near Port Douglas. We also went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef for Thanksgiving and my birthday. We celebrated later with a fresh seafood dinner.
Cronulla Beach

Mom and I on the esplanade by cronulla beach

The Shelby's in Oz!

Australia National Zoo outside of Brisbane my parents petting a kangaroo at Steve Irwin’s zoo.
Watson’s Bay in SydneyOur 1st night of the holiday
This is our ocean view from our apartment in Caloundra. Mom and dad were definitely impressed. We quickly brought them back to reality with the accommodation in Brisbane. The only good thing about it was that it was next to Albion Park – home of Australia’s best greyhound racing.

Sydney University
My parents inside the quadrangle of the Great Hall

Mom and the Sergeant
In the weekly fine session, the sergeant tried to make my dad stand up and sing “Oklahoma” in front of the entire Rotary club (about 50 people). Luckily for all of us, we got mom to fill in and I think she surprised the Sergeant with her effort. For once, he was speechless. They later announced that the fine session earned an extra $40, because of mom’s singing. Good on ya, mom.

Delta Blues is the Winner!

"The Race that Stops a Nation"

I can officially say that I have watched my first horse race! And, even better, I have bet on who will win! And, even better than that, I have won!!!! (well, 2nd place still counts!)

We had heard of Melbourne Cup day, and that, supposedly, all of Australia stops to watch this race. Until November 7, I thought they were exaggerating! All commerce in Australia literally stopped for the 3 minute race, and the 20 minute commentary and recap afterward!

This is the Rotary meeting from the night before the race. I was asked to help draw the horse owners (I still don't really understand how it all works!) . Anyway, I banked about $60 from sweepstakes tickets -- not too bad for a day's work! ;)

On the move....

Hi everyone!
Cristin and I will be moving soon. We are going to move in with a Rotarian couple, Lloyd and Pam Markwell....see pictures of Lloyd from our boat outings. We are both excited. However, we will be returning many of the items we have collected from Rotartians for our apartment. So we will be calling soon!

NSLF and Rotary District Conference

September was highlighted by two conferences – the National Student Leadership Forum and the Rotary District 9750 conference.

The forum was held in Canberra, about 2 1/2 hours from Sydney. The idea of the forum was to examine leadership with Jesus as the primary example. Students came to the forum from all over Australia and some from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The group was very diverse not only geographically but there were many religions, cultures and backgrounds represented. The very diverse group was very significant to the effectiveness of discussion that really brought many different views to the table.

We also had the opportunity to hear from the top Australian politicians. The list included the Prime Minister John Howard (above), the Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson, MP’s Bruce Baird and Anthony Byrne. We were very impressed by the speakers, plus, excited that we could actually here from the top 2 politicians in Australia.Cristin and I were small group facilitators at the forum. Here is our group outside of Parliament, with the old Parliament House in the distance. Believe it or not…our group was a force on the volleyball court. That probably had something to do with Cristin. I’m pretty sure every team we beat (3 total) was quite surprised, but no one more surprised than Cristin and I.

Our group was quite fun. We’ve already met with a few of them from around Sydney twice since the forum. We invited them to our house for Mexican food. We figured that was a safe bet, seeing how they were from all over the world…..except Mexico!

I thought this was quite interesting…The Aboriginal Tent Embassy (above) is a controversial semi-permanent assemblage claiming to represent the political rights of Australian Aborigines. It is made of a large group of activists, signs, and tents that reside on the lawn of Old Parliament House in Canberra, the Australian capital. It is not considered an official embassy by the Australian government (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tent_Embassy).
On the last night, we had a real Aussie Bush Dance. I knew it was authentic when the band members took a break to walk outside to check the Aussie rules football scores. It was held in an old shearing shed. All the songs had dances that the band members taught while they were singing. I think the only one we had ever seen was the Hokie Pokie and it was the Hokie Pokie that I knew

I can’t believe I’m putting this picture on the Internet!

We went to the district conference on last Saturday. It was a good chance for us to talk to Rotarians from across the district, many of them who we met at the first conference. The speakers at this conference were very entertaining. The theme was “Health and You.”

Some of the things we learned from a cardiologist:
· Instant coffee is poison
· A couple of cups of real coffee is good for you
· Soft drinks are poison – it strips your bones of calcium
· It’s ok to eat steak
· It’s ok to eat the yolk
· Burn your pantry….if it’s in a box and has writing on it don’t buy it
· It’s ok to eat non-organic fruit and vegetables, just eat more fruit and vegetables

Our Home is Girt by Sea

All of our “blog worthy” activity…

Eskimo Joes
I have funny story from Uni. This week, I wandered into the wrong office, as I was looking to do a survey for extra credit (which I need!!). I noticed on the secretary’s desk that she had printed driving directions for Stillwater, Oklahoma (not from Australia though and for the Australians – my old uni is in Stillwater). Apparently, a marketing professor is headed to Stillwater in the next week or so to do a case study for a text book on Eskimo Joes (a bar in Stillwater…that sells lots of T-shirts). So I gave him some advice about Stillwater and told him how to fit in with the locals….I told him to say "Go Pokes" and “water” instead of “waduh.” He should be fine.

Birthday parties
We’ve also been busy going to birthday parties. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Cathy Mason’s 50th. The party was 70’s themed. My favourite part was that the party was at the local Lawn Bowling Club. I had been wanting to try this. Phil told us it was an “old man’s sport, for people too old for golfing.” No offence Cathy…..he told us that long before the party. They usually dress in all white and bowl all day. You are even supposed to rest your free hand on your knee while bowling. I guess so you don’t break a hip??? Haha We had a lot of fun and only wished we could bowl longer. The party was also very fun, with a live band and lots of good food. She said her best present was a bunch of bananas because bananas now cost $12 a kilo and only the rich can afford them. Needless to say we haven’t had a banana in months!

Last weekend, we went to a birthday party for one of my uni friends. There were about 20 people there, mainly Germans - since Sebastian is German, but a nice mix of internationals. There was also another person from Oklahoma (another Ambassadorial scholar from OU).

New job
Cathy offered Cristin and I a new part time job. We will soon be helping with her website company. Hopefully, I last longer on this job. For the record, I had 3 days of work as a waiter and my boss has never called me back. After 2 months, I think I’ve officially been sacked.

Rotary activity
I also gave my 5th speech to the Como-Jannali Rotoract club. Rotoract is a club for young adults based on the same principals of Rotary. It was a small club only about 10 members total. I also have my 6th engagement set for next week with the Gymea Rotary club. I am going to give them an update on my bee project and school.

My parents are coming!!
It’s now official that my parent’s will be here for two weeks in November. We have tickets to go to Brisbane, Cairns and Ayer’s Rock. Then they will spend about a week with us in Sydney. We can’t wait!

National Student Leadership Forum in Canberra
Tomorrow, we will leave for the NSLF. There will be people aged 18-26 from all over Australia and even a few from New Zealand, Fiji and other pacific islands at the 4 day forum. The forum is about servant leadership and uses Jesus of Nazareth as the example. Our role will be small group facilitators. John Howard, the Prime Minister and several other key politicians in Australia are scheduled to talk to us at the forum. As you can expect, we real excited about this and will post more about it next week.

Almost Summertime!!

Hello Friends and Family!!

It has been so long since we have posted any updates... sorry!! :) We haven't really been too exciting lately - I keep waiting for something brilliant to happen so that I can write about it! Well, I am not sure if what I am going to write could be classified as "brilliant" but at least we are finally getting some new pics up!! :)

After Bill’s adventure in the outback, he promptly spoke to our host Rotary club in Caringbah. His speech was very interesting and very well received! All the Rotarians agreed that it was a very special trip and a great memory! We are hoping to get a chance to go out there again and continue on with the project. In the picture with Bill is Lloyd Markwell. I think they were doing some sort of “brotherly” handshake! The Markwells have been so kind and generous to us… remember Bill’s fishing adventure and our whale watching adventure? All thanks to the Markwells! Thank you!


These two pictures highlight our two latest “major purchases!” The first required “minor assembly”… and the second required “MAJOR CLEANING!” :)

So, Bill and I decided that since we live about 2 miles away from Cronulla beach (arguably the BEST beach in Sydney!) we should get bikes so we can easily ride to the beach whenever we want! This was such a great idea… until we actually did it the first time! I think that was last week, and I refuse to plan my next bike outing. I think I might just stick to riding around the block next time! ;) Seriously though, it was Tough! There are a few hills that make the trip pretty challenging! Ok, now for you Sydneysiders… I don’t want to hear A WORD until you show me how easily you can do it! Hahahaha… I just know that I am going to hear about this one from our friends! J Maybe in a few weeks I will be able to brag about how easy the trip is now… I’ll keep you posted!

Doesn’t that car just fit Bill to a “T?!!” This is our new car – isn’t she a Beaut! Nothing like driving a car that is 3 years older than my (almost) 14 year old brother Johno! We bought a 1989 Toyota Corolla last week from a lovely Chinese lady who is moving to the States! While it isn’t exactly luxury (or even close to it, for that matter!) the only important thing is that IT RUNS!! Oh, and the air conditioning works like a charm! We aren’t going to get too attached to the car… we will be selling it in just 6 months! :)
Just this past Sunday, Pam and Lloyd invited us out for a trip on their boat again! We always love being out on the ocean! They had recently bought a new "toy" at the Sydney boat show and Bill and I got to be one of the first to try it out! Sorry it is a little bit far - I thought that my lack of tan might blind you all! Better to see it from a distance! ;) The weather was perfect and the water was beautiful!

Bill and I are having a great time and very much looking forward to Spring! It is still officially winter here (even though some days are about 75 degrees!) so I can just imagine Spring in Sydney is just perfect! Bill has two Accounting classes, one Marketing and one Entrepreneurship class this term, so he is always busy! I am getting to conduct some training sessions in the city for my work and I am having a great time learning to do new things! :) Can you believe that we have almost reached the official "6 Months in Australia" date! Its amazing how fast time flies! While it hasn't always been easy, we have completely enjoyed our time here and wouldn't trade it for anything! We are continually amazed by how the Lord provides for us - we are in good hands! :) Thank youfor your continued thoughts, prayers, and emails! We love hearing from you! I hope you have a great day!

Love Bill and Cristin