Singlets

When we toured the labor ward they showed us all the items they provide during your stay in the hospital. One item in particular we found rather odd and humorous. Singlets - Aussie baby's don't wear onezies, they wear singlets. If an adult male was wearing one I would call it a 'wife beater'. They do in fact sell onezies here, but aren't as common. I guess it keeps the baby cool and gives faster access to the nappy (aka diaper).


Here are some pics of singlets & bibs the girls hand painted at my baby shower!

More Super Exciting Goings On!!!

I climbed up a tree and took some photos of the fantastical cloud formations that have been prevalent lately!!! It was super exciting!!!


Sarah had her baby shower on the 17th, which she tells me was wonderful. Big thanks to Megan and Carol for putting it on!!! While the ladies were busy with their crafty party Joe and I took Morris' Jeep Wrangler and found some fire roads up in the hills to explore. It was very sweet. We also did some wine tasting at the same place my parents and Sarah went to a while back. Good stuff.

Sometimes I see my dream car parked across the street. So nice.

On Saturday I went for a mountain bike ride with three of my coworkers. We started at 7 AM and had the whole mountain bike park to ourselves. It was a beautiful morning.

Later that day Sarah and I took the Forester out on the same fire roads Joe and I took the Jeep out on the previous weekend. It performed well, I was very impressed. Sarah was impressed too, she didn't think it would be able to do some of the things it did.

I took my exam for the Old Testament 1 course I've been studying for the past couple months on Sunday. I think I did pretty well. I knew the material well enough, I'm pretty sure about that, but I just didn't have time to write enough to get perfect marks. I am an engineer, and am not used to essay exams. I solve problems, derive equations, and write succinct and concise technical reports. The total suggested page count was 8, and I got 7.5, so I think I'll be all right. My hand sure hurt afterwards though.

The weather has cooled down over here, and we are very grateful for that. I'm sure it will get hot again, but the relief, however brief, has been delightful.

TWO AND A HALF WEEKS UNTIL DUE DAY!!! SUPER EXCITING!!!

Things Have Been Pretty Quiet Around Here...

I'm taking a correspondence course with a Bible college in Syndey, so I've been reading and studying a lot. Sarah has been quite an avid reader too. Last Sunday evening I was the service leader at church. I was basically the introducer, transitioner, explainer and announcer. I was pretty nervous, but it went quite well. The service was focussed on evangelistic prayer, so I shared some of my own experience with that. I'm glad it's over, but I'd like to do it again sometime.

Being the driest state in the driest country on earth, we don't get too many clouds around here. So last night I was pleasantly surprised to see layer upon layer of them up there in the sky. I climbed up on top of our grapevine trellis and took some pictures.

I've see a lot of pictures like this online lately, so I took some of my own. A late Happy Valentine's day to you all.

The neighbor's roof across the street.

I love my family.

Goodbye Picnic for the Baloghs and Tos

Last month our friends Nandor and Annie Balogh and Tim and Naomi To left us. Nandor and Annie moved directly to Darwin so that Annie could complete part of her medical training there. They'll be back in six months. Tim and Naomi left to travel the world for three months before moving to Darwin for nine months. It was very sad to see them go, especially since they were the two couples we had gotten closest to here. We had a farewell picnic for them in the Adelaide Botanic Park.

Here's the Bromans picnicking like professionals. Craig is the pastor of the 5 pm service that Sarah and I go to.

Nandor demonstrating his fantastic frisbee throwing style. Hoi is demonstrating how to peek out from behind someone else in a photograph.

The Bromans again - Craig, Jonathan, Myrle and Meredith.

Naomi To is on the right, trying hard not to like she's being photographed.

The handsome Nandor and lovely Annie.

Our friend Chris Back. If you're a God-fearing blog reader make sure to pray that God will heal Chris. He has a brain tumor that's not far from taking his life. He's a true inspiration, I wish you could all know him.

F4 A Few More from Aldinga Beach

Here's a few more photos from Aldinga Beach the other weekend. Remember that you can see these and many other photos of us, our friends and various objects on Flickr.

Apparently folks 'round here use their tractors to tow their boats.

Apparently Joe enjoys tossing his sandal around.

I just purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 recently, and I like it.

Where I Work, and What I Wear While I'm There

There's a Baby in There!!!

4 more weeks!

So these last couple of days have been interesting. Let's just say that I believe the 'coughing bowl' is back in use. To explain, my sister is 6wks behind me with her second. She, unfortunately, has been sick throughout the entire pregnancy. Soon after my sister got pregnant her daughter, my little niece, started saying 'mommy coughing' and would sometimes carry a little bowl with her and pretend to 'cough'. If only she knew! Well I think this morning has proved that the coughing bowl and a diet of mainly carbs from the first 20wks, has come back to haunt me. With only 4 more wks left I think I can handle it - it's Brian you should be concerned about.

But on the lighter side - 2 or the 3 orders of cloth nappies (diapers for the Americans) arrived today!! They are so little and cute! Brian and I are planning on using cloth after about the first month. So I had been all nappy talk for a while,but that drove Brian nuts, since I was always changing my mind. There are a million options out there! I'm not kidding. So I finally made some decisions last week and ordered the nappies. It's amazing how little this guy is gonna be!!

Don't worry we'll post lots of pictures and send you all information when the baby comes. :)

Unley

Sarah and I have been taking some very pleasant walks of late in different areas of the city. We drove down to a suburb which I think was Unley last week and sauntered about for while. Very nice.








Sarah and I have been watching the HBO series Band of Brothers on DVD lately. They are extremely good, I would recommend them to any mature viewer. They're hard to watch at points, and they can be depressing sometimes, but they are extremely powerful.

Eagle Mountain Bike Park

On Friday night I recieved a telephone call from Anthony and Gemma, a couple from church with whom I share a love for mountain biking. Their love is older and deeper than mine, and tends to lavish its affection more upon downhill riding than on cross country riding. However, on this occassion they had decided to take a cross country ride at a newly opened to the public mountain bike park at Eagle on the Hill, and invited me along. This place is fantastic, not only in the quality and quantity of its trails and features, but also in its location: only 15 minutes by car from our house! We went for about 3 hours on Saturday morning, and had a great time. Sarah took advantage of my absence by catching up on some much needed rest and knitting 12 new sweaters for our imminently free baby (just kidding).

This is a part of one of the downhill tracks. Absolute craziness. I walked down it with Anthony as he explained the theory of what to do where and when. At this spot the intended action is a high speed jump towards you, dear viewer, off of the rock ramp which you can see in the distance at the center of the frame about 2/3 up from the bottom. This jump would carry you through the air for approximately 25 feet, in between the padded trees, and onto the flat ground at the base of the frame.

Here's Gemma making the final climb back to the parking lot.

Me.

Here's Anthony coming down the backside of a jump.

Gemma showing off some top notch jumping form.

Sudoku

I play it sometimes. It's evil, and I thought this photo portrayed its dark side fairly well.

Another Hot Few

Today our thermometer in the backyard reads 111 degrees Fahrenheit. It's kind of hot. You cannot walk on cement with bare feet. I could barely touch my Weber grill in order to pull it into the shade. It is HOT.

It was hot yesterday too, over a hundred, but we went to the beach with Joe and Megan. We had a nice beach walk and beautiful ocean swim. The water was warm, but not warm enough to make you uncomfortable. Just about right. We played som frisbee, and even saw a small dead squid in the water.

The beach we went to, Aldinga Beach, allows you to drive your car right down the beach. That was pretty fun. The Forester can even handle the soft sand fairly well.

Sarah is feeling pretty well. We're getting down to the last several weeks here - only 6 more to go. We're excited for our baby to come and for Mom and Dad Johnston to visit too! They'll be coming round the mountain a couple weeks after the due date.

This Aldinga beach, with the twin Foresters parked in style on the burning sands of South Australia.

Here's Sarah getting ready to leave the beach.