Happy 4th of July!!!

Hey everyone!!  I haven't been good about updating this as often as I planned-- but we also haven't had a whole lot of excitement to share!  Just the enjoyment of everyday life in Australia :)  I have had the pleasure of getting to see multiple friends from Houston this past week, Brie and Scott Kelman and also Anna Hyde and her boyfriend Justin!  So it was fun touring the city with both of them!!  I'm still very new here so am NOT the tour guide, both Scott and Justin knew the city better than I do so I got to learn from them!

In other news, we have a very exciting couple of weeks-- Finally, on Wednesday our shipment is going to be delivered!!  Hallelujah!  I have really been needing more of my warm clothes!  I wear the same jacket and scarf practically everyday!  Its been 3 months with only the suitcases we brought and a few extras in an air shipment we got a few weeks after we arrived here!  Plus, I couldn't more sick of this rental furniture-- it feels like we have been living in a hotel for 3 months.  It is also very good timing because I planned a ski trip for Thursday!!  I will have only one day to start unpacking, organizing and mainly, searching for all our ski gear!!  I'm pretty sure I will need a few things for the trip too so I will also have to shop for gloves, etc!  Its going to be a busy day!

We are going to Falls Creek, which is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Melbourne.  Its kind of crazy to me that we live at the beach and we can be at ski mountains in only 3-5 hours!  I will post pics from our trip next week!

When we get back we have the most exciting news!!!-- Brody will be here!!  He leaves Houston July 11 and gets into LA.  Then the next day, after he has been all sealed up in his crate and approved by the USDA he will be on the long flight down under!  He will arrive here July 14th but unfortunately, he will have to go to a quarantine facility for ONE MONTH :(  I am still upset about that, but that's the way it has to be....  We can visit him but they say only twice a week (we're going to shoot for more and see if they allow it!-- at least he'll be in Australia with us!!)

A few people have asked about our living situation so I guess I'll fill everyone in.  In May we moved in to a townhouse on a very vibrant Chapel street (thats a picture above)!  There are a million shops and cafes and actually the townhouse is above a shop (well not really because the shop is up for lease and is empty- but it will be a shop)  Now the problem is, since we are right on this very busy street, it is CRAZY LOUD!  The street noise is pretty bad, with the trams and whatnot but the real problem is a very popular Irish Pub right across the street!!  They play   blaring music until closing time which is 3am and then the crazy drunk people are yelling and chanting nonsense until way after that!  It's not every night of the week but a majority of them!  As it turns out, we need to sleep-- especially Brian, and he is definitely struggling with the noise.  So...... after the first weekend at the house, we told the property manager that we would like to get out of the 24 month lease (and obviously pay some sort of fee) but that's not allowed-- there is no way to get out of lease except to work something out with the owner and he doesn't have to come to any agreement if he doesn't want to!  So basically we are pretty much stuck-- but we are currently working out a deal with him (hopefully***)  On top of that, the heater broke (its the middle of winter here) after living here for only one week and they just fixed it TODAY, 2 months later!  AHH it's so hard to get anything done around here, the property managers are NO help, if they even return our calls!  I just took a few pics of our house from the street (ours is the pink one on the left!!!!) and one of Bridie OReillys-- our arch nemesis bar haha

Even with the craziness of our living situation we are very happy and are really enjoying Melbourne!  We are meeting lots of new people and have plans with some friends to celebrate the U.S.A. tonight with a burger a beer!  (I wish Brian had the day off but oh well!)  This past weekend we went to a BBQ on a rooftop patio in the city!  It was fun and I really got a kick out of a few things-- 1. we had chili dogs and one of the aussie girls was eating the chili and said "This is really lovely what is this called?"  I said "It's chili" (I didn't realize they wouldn't know what chili was) and she said "Its so good I could just eat it out of a bowl.."  YUMM of course you can eat it out of a bowl!  and 2. sooo they don't have velveeta but we found a pretty good substitute and we bought a bunch of cans of Rotel at the USA food store, to make a queso for the BBQ.  It was seriously just heated up cheese and Rotel, the most basic way to make it and everyone was raving-- they even said I should go on Masterchef!!  hahaha they are really missing out not knowing about QUESO-- the best food ever!! Anyways...... I have fun talking to the Australians even if we look at each other confused a good portion of the time! :)

We miss everyone so much and hope you are enjoying our blog!  We love hearing from you and seeing what everyone is up to on facebook!  Let me know if anyone has Skype and wants to chat!  Have fun in the sun everyone-- Ill be jealous! :) :) HAPPY 4TH!!!