Days 1 and 2

So I decided to combine the first 2 days of our trip to the Northern Territory....why, you ask? Because all we have done is drive and drive and drive some more...

Since we haven't hit any major historical, geographic, etc landmarks I've just included a couple pictures of places we've been through on our drive...

Click here for another map that shows you how far we've gone and where we are now!

Let's start at the beginning again...

After lots of help from Sam's family and a late night (4 hours of sleep for me, none for Sam) we finished packing everything we owned and starting out on our adventure. At this point we were stressed about leaving because we had no information about the company picking up our stuff and shipping it to our new house...but we decided to just take a deep breath and go.... so that's exactly what we did!!!! Here's what happened on our resulting trip.....

This is our final pile of boxes to be shipped to NT at some unknown date and time...

The car is completely loaded down, minus room for the dog in the back. We even have Sam's 'girlfriend' Zoe (his mountain bike) and our solar panels on the roof.

Some place we've never been before! Sam and I drove over the great dividing range. It was beautiful, even with the burn off and the resulting black and white trees...

Trying to get Snoopy to rock climb...

Success!

End of Day 1! We stayed at a caravan park...complete with showers, water, and toilets....not roughing it too much!

All we did on Day 2 was drive and drive some more.... we found a fabulous free caravan park with electric BBQs and public toliets! AWESOME! If you ever stop in Lameroo check it out!!!!

More to come in the next post! Hopefully we will do something more exciting soon! ha ha!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Okay...I know I am WAY behind with the blogging...I'll do my best to catch up!

So here's the low-down on how Sam and my New Year is starting off. I guess we should start at the beginning.... Sam and I have been considering places we would like to work and live for several months as we looked forward to Sam's graduation. After considering all our options we decided that our first choice for a teaching job for Sam would be in the Northern Territory. Several things led up to this decision.

1) We were ready for some freedom and adventure

2)Sam studied Aboriginal education in undergrad and feels a strong desire to teach in an Aboriginal community. Northern territory has a huge population of Aboriginal children and is therefore the perfect place for Sam to try his hand in an all Aboriginal school

3) The NT has GREAT benefits! They provide us a fully furnished house (rent free), all utilities, free transport for us and all our stuff and more freedom in Sam's teaching program

When we looked at all the benefits we decided it was the place for us.

Sam had several job offers but in the end we accepted a position in Wugularr (Beswick) a very remote Aboriginal community about an hour SW of Katherine. It is going to be a huge change for us. We will be immersing ourselves in Aboriginal culture and living in a completely different (and HOT) part of the world! Despite the challenges we will face, we are excited to immerse ourselves in this new community and grow in our appreciation of a different and beautiful culture of people.

Here's a map of the journey we are about to make from our old home in NSW to our new home in Beswick, NT. We will be updating you on our progress as often as possible! (Yes, we are already on day 3 of our journey but I am getting updated...promise)

To celebrate our new job and say farewell to friends and family we had a farewell lunch at church and a farewell BBQ at Sam's parents in the days before we left. I've posted some pictures of all the people who have supported us and been our great friends this past year!

Our friend Josh holding our little niece Hayley at Wallagoot lake

Okay...my nephews are going to kill me for posting these but they went swimming nude and I thought this picture was adorable! This was the swim we went on before the BBQ at Sam's parent's house

Sam in the new rashie I got him for Christmas

At the BBQ...Sam's dad, Mark, showing Liam how to count to 7 on one hand... uhhhhh.....does that work?

With our great friends Jasmine and Josh

All smiles with Sam's nan and pop

At the church farewell (put together by Bev...THANKS BEV!) with Sam's other nan

Sam and Adam

Louise Nadin (I love her), me, and Frank Gillies

With the fabulous and talented Mandy Wright!

Danielle Nadin ready to dig into the pavlova

Me with Halen, one of my adorable primary kids

And last, but certainly not least, with Louise Wright, who is one awesome girl!

I already miss our friends and family back home! Thanks for the great farewell! We love you all!

Next post I'll update you on our travels thus far! Thanks for checking out our blog!!!!

Christmas - A belated update

Yo yo yo! I missed the Christmas season to put up pics so here's some from Sam and my first summer Christmas in Australia. We opened presents with Sam's family on Christmas morning, went home and opened presents from each other, and then went over to Christmas day dinner at Naomi and John's. It was a busy day but we loved the chance we had to chit chat and hang out with Sam's family! Enjoy the pics!!!!

Mikey and Brea

Toby giving Sam his present

Hannah and Mitch

Cymmon and Chanel

Stick um up! Me in my new hat from Sam!

John cooking Christmas Day dinner

The Chandler family

And it feels like freedom....

We have a TON of things to blog about but we'll start with first thing first....

SAM GRADUATED!!!

Hallelujah! He now has a Graduate Diploma in Education and can officially whip other people's children into shape using extreme times tables and advanced spelling...

No, but in reality he will be an amazing teacher! He connects with kids so well because he listens to them, respects them as individuals, and knows how to keep them engaged ... It is time for the university part of our life to finally end and a whole new adventure to begin.........

Sam with his graduating class and staff

Sam's mum, Debbie, proudly showing off her two graduates

I am SOOOO relieved uni is over! I missed QT with my hubby through-out the year...

but it was well worth it in the end.....

Sam's little sister Naomi also graduated this year with her diploma in education!

Great job Sam and Na! We are all so proud of you!!!!

So.... now that uni is over and there is no more homework (YESSSSS!!!!!!) it is time for Sam and I to finally sit back and enjoy the beautiful area we live in!!!!!

It's summer here and the weather is getting hot so our first plans were to hit the beach with Sam's sister Naomi and her 3 kids....

Our little 1 year old niece Hayley showing off her stylish new swimsuit!

Naomi's kids (Liam, Hayley, and Dominick)...aren't they cute?

Sam and I out in the ocean working on my body boarding skills... (and yes I am all decked out in my sexy new pair of goggles....because I'm cool...and that's that)

Catching a wave in!!!!

And finally...since Sam is now the young mens' president of our branch he decided to plan one last hurrah by taking the young men on a hike up Jingera, which is a 2,200 + foot 'rock' out near Wyndham. Our troop was made of Sam, 3 of the Wright boys (Jared, Ammon, and Joe), the missionaries, and....me (the lone brave female!)

Oh...and one other thing....Jingera has no marked trails....just 100% bush walking! Party on!

There had been a recent burn-off so the boys used the soot off the trees to put on their 'war-paint'

(Joe and Ammon)

Climbing rock face number one!

Our fearless leader and a veteran Jingera climber, Jared.

Elder Yu

Check out these awesome teeth! I brush twice daily (oh...and there's Elder Ziegler in the background there)

Victorious! At the top!

Thanks for checking our blog again! We are about to embark on a craaaaaazzzzy adventure starting January 1! We will be moving the the Northern Territory....but that is another story for another post at another time...

Don't shut down that computer! Updates will be coming on a daily basis! We will be posting info about our new location and trip as well as posting pictures from each leg of the journey! That's 2 weeks of updates (because we are taking a 2 week road trip from one side of Australia to the other)...or about 15 new posts! So stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!

Mo-vember

Like daddy, like doggy..... ha ha

okay, okay....so really Snoopy's funny 'above the nose' hair is my fault...it's summer and time for his bi-annual shave...I decided to save some money and do it myself but after 2 hours with dull clippers Snoopy decided he had enough... and the result was his mo-vember hair! Don't worry...November is almost over...we'll shave both mustaches soon enough... ha ha

Torturing the dog...this was only 1 hour into it and he was asleep at this point I think... or just numb from the vibrations....