A Second Week of Firsts

Our second week in Brisbane was more bringing in of the new. One of our biggest prayers before arriving in Australia, was that God was preparing friendships that would be ready to be realized upon our arrival.  Thankfully, our God is good and that's exactly what has happened!

I didn't get to take as many photos this week because of a nasty sinus infection that chose to catch up with me.  I fought it all week long before breaking down to see a doctor on Friday who kindly prescribed me some Augmenton (sp?) that finally took care of the pain.  So, Monday I was in bed all day feeling bad and Tuesday I bucked up a little to go over to our new friend's the Strachan's and Browne's house for our first Aussie BBQ.

The Strachans are Cory's parent's friends who have kindly taken us under their wings to show us a bit of the ropes here in Brisbane.  Jeanette has been driving us around to show us different areas as I mentioned in last week's post.  The Brownes are John & Jeanette's daughter, Louise, and son-in-law, Jacques, who are living with them until they move into their new house close-by.  They have two little ones a boy who is almost 2 and a brand new, sweet baby girl.

Here is a photo of Cory and Jacques grilling.  You could feel the comfort of home wash over Cory as he stood in front of the grill with a beer in his hand!

Jeanette made this yummy pasta that the kids shoveled up in two helpings each.  I have to get the recipe so that I'll have a new stand-by favorite in my Australian kitchen.  I'll be sure to share once it's in hand.  Here she is in her kitchen being silly!

Hallie had fun meeting their Chocolate Lab and we all felt heartsick missing our favorite Lab, Chessie back home in Texas with Cousin Dan.

We ate out on their beautiful covered deck - which is a standard fixture on almost every house we have seen here.  I don't think many people actually eat inside often.  The breezes are fantastic, and it's just perfect to sit outdoors and eat with friends on a cool evening.  Here is the table they prepared for us - we had sausage (always a hit with the kids) and grilled kangaroo.  Yes kangaroo!  It was awesome!  Just like steak.

Wednesday we met a new friend named Anna.  She is the sister-in-law of the family we met in the park last weekend.  She's studying real estate now that her youngest child started prep (Kindergarden in The States) and she has a passion for helping people.  She came to our apartment and walked us through another round of information on areas in and around Brisbane and other odds and ends she thought would be helpful. She was kind and down-to-earth, and Cory and I both remarked that she was so easy to be around that it was like we were old pals.  Such a huge blessing!

Thursday was another first  as Cory and I set out to conquer driving on the wrong side of the road.  We got a rental car and, WATCH OUT AUSTRALIA, started driving ourselves around.  This is Cory getting behind the wheel for the first time.  It should be noted that he did a great job getting us where we needed to be and braved the winding streets of Brisbane without so much as one complaint.  And, he only hit the curb twice!

I'm sorry I didn't get my own picture of us driving our first car.  It was green as green gets and a wagon! Our friends the Ecob's said it looked like Kermit the Frog.  You get the idea. Here is a photo from carguide.com.au. Haha!

Thursday night, Grandma Pat treated us to one last night of babysitting so that Cory and I could go out for dinner to celebrate our upcoming 7th anniversary.  Cory chose to book reservations on the Kookaburra Queen riverboat, which is a dinner cruise that spans up and down the Brisbane River at night.  It was such a beautiful ride, with breathtaking sights of the city at night.  Too bad the food was the worst I've had yet.  I truly ended up eating rice with butter.  Even dessert was terrible.  Please tell me how you can screw up dessert?  I think a do-over is in our future!

Here are some shots I took before and while we were on the boat.

Friday was another bad day for me, as I clearly was not getting over my sinus infection.  I broke down and went to my first AU doctor - thankfully there is GP office in our apartment building so it was easy to figure out.  They do 10 minute consultations here, with absolutely no regulations on what doctors can charge.  I paid $65 for a 10 minute consultation, which I hear is pretty reasonable for the city as some have said they have seen doctors charge $155.  Of course we will be reimbursed by our health cover here, but I thought it would be an interesting tidbit to include.

By Saturday morning the antibiotic had already started taking effect so we headed out as a family to see some new areas of Brisbane and look at more houses.  It was a great day for many reasons, not the least of which was that we saw this as we were driving...

Yep, that's right, our first Mexican experience in Australia!  It wasn't half bad, even though it paled in comparison to the Tex-Mex we have back home.  Of course, I had to try the queso...small, different, but better than no queso! I do believe we'll be back when we're feeling a bit homesick.

Everyone's all smiles!

Sunday we headed South, about halfway to the Gold Coast, to meet some friends who were introduced to us by our old Champions neighbors Glen & Sharyn.  Tracey and Matt Ecob used to stay with Glen & Sharyn when they came to The States for Matt to play as a pro in the Championship Golf Tours.  When we told Glen & Sharyn we were moving here they introduced us by e-mail to the Ecobs and they were a huge help in getting us information while we were still in Houston.  They invited us out to their house for another Sunday BBQ and the kids were in heaven getting to know Mackenzie (9) and Lauchlin (sp?) (5).  It was clear that Caden had been in desperate need of some rough and tumble boy time as the two didn't stop the entire time we were there!  As we pulled out that night, the two boys would not stop yelling "Bye!  I love you!" until we rolled out of their driveway.

Here is a photo of me and Tracey.

And, while the Ecob's drove us around to see some of the Gold Coast neighborhoods we had our first officially random Kangaroo sighting.  Just like deer on the side of the road in Texas, these roos (actually Wallabies) were just grazing away.  We were the only cars that stopped to look, it's just a normal thing around here apparently.  Note to self - need a better zoom lens for this sort of thing.

And so our second week in Brisbane drew to a close and we got ready for Cory to start his new work at URS.  I must say after all the kiddo crazies these past few weeks, I'm a little envious of his new purpose!  More about week three to come soon!