three sleeps until Miriam and I head off to Australia. It's a first time for her of course, but it's been a whole four years for me. I'm a little nervous for all the travel phase, but mostly excited.
The things I'm most looking forward to are:
* Getting all six siblings together for the first time in fourteen years.
* Celebrating after Lorin and Dean complete their 2,500 mile bike ride across Australia.
* Having a "cuppa" (aka a cup of hot chocolate or some such drink) and late evening chats.
* Aussie burgers, meat pies, sausage rolls, fish and chips (on the beach!), crumpets, salad sandwiches, ginger beer (don't worry, it's not alcoholic), vanilla and passionfruit slices, Dad's custard, and Mum's curried sausages. You can count this long list as an admission that I'm a bit food centric...
* Even more than the food though, I'm looking forward to hiking with Dad, seeing all the bright colors of the ocean, the trees, and the birds (in particular, the cookaburras, magpies, and rainbow lorikeets that frequent Mum and Dad's backyard), and which have become somewhat friendly.
It's going to be great!
In other news...
1. Anne and Ben/Moppy and Poppy came to vissit us last weekend. We hope they'll come again soon.
2. Joe and I had a very nice lunch date yesterday at Red Lobster. The food and company were both great. I'll miss you Joe while I'm away.
3. Miriam can sit up by herself and will be crawling any day now.
4. I'm finally going to make that strawberry lemonade cake today! It was meant to be for Miriam's half birthday, but as it is, it's a few weeks late.
5. I played flute in church today.
6. I'm reading Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games series--Good so far.
7. I'm going to Natalie (Lunt) Haughawout's house tomorrow morning for a visit.
8. I'm super duper uber excited for Kristen and Aaron's four-year adventure living in Okinawa.
I've probably forgotten a few items from each list, but it wasn't as if you wanted to read a novel about me anyway. This is me signing off.
Miriam on an exploratory mission in her winter woolies.
Family picture in front of the St. Marks Lighthouse on the Florida gulf coast. It was the coldest Florida winter in many years.
Miriam on Daddy's lap.
Miriam playing with her new friend, the neighbor's doggy under the Christmas tree.
