The Heart of the Matter

I really wish I had kept up with this blog while living in Australia. Though, I think I pulled away from it because we were so bored and unhappy there. As therapeutic as it might have been for me at the time, it would have been a disaster for Derek. Even now, I won't put our whole story out there. Those of you who know it, know it, and those of you don't, well, feel free to contact me. I will say that as events unfolded and people showed their true colors and as they did we were always shocked. Though, towards the end I'm not sure why. Some people are just aren't good people, and some events in your life are just necessary for growth.

Now being back in the States since September, I've come to understand that we really did have some great things and wonderful friends over there. I hope that the negative feelings about the experience continue to fade as forgiveness continues to grow within me.

The song Heart of the Matter says it beautifully, 

" The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning them again
I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it's about forgiveness.
Forgiveness."

We now miss our wonderful, beautiful friends; Laura and Eddie, Leah and Warren, Emma, Jude, Peter and June, Heather and Dan and their gorgeous children, Celeste and her family, and Miss January. We miss the Spice of Life, and familiar faces. We miss the small school Landon went to, the great beer, the way we ate out at least once a day. We miss the fact that Derek didn't have to market himself; patients just walked into his Chiropractic office. I don't think we ever really understood how hard it would be here just to get people in the door. We miss having a car.

And though, we do miss things about Australia, I'm very happy with where we are now. I love the States. The move really made me more patriotic and more proud to be an American. It made me realize that I have to be within a reasonable hour flight to my family. 15 is just to long a flight and too expensive!

So with this adventure behind us, a new one begins, as it always does. People move forward, and one with life, as we are. I'm very grateful for the experience, I learned so much about people, the world, my family and myself. Time to move on...

Cozy Cabin: 4 Bed, 2 Bath

Everyone wanted to know about the house, well, the first week we were here I took these videos. I finally got around to uploading them, and I think it makes for a great virtual blog. Cheers!





Update: We bought the car from Billy. Actually, the deal should be finalized this week! So, that is our car! :)



Update: The fridge and pantry are a little bit more full than that now. Landon has no hair anymore! AND Derek, Landon and I did walk on that path in the backyard. We didn't see any animals, though we heard a few. It actually leads to our water tank, so anytime we need/want to check the water tank we have to venture on that path. Yay! lol!



Update: I still have yet to see a fish in that pond.



Update: I meant to add this in the video, but didn't because the camera's battery was dyeing (sorry). BUT, where the blinds are in the upstairs guest room or the "Orange Room" as we call it, there is no window. It's actually a loft and if you pulled up the blinds, and stuck your head over the ledge, you'd see down into the kitchen.



So that's all! Now you know where we spend our days and nights. I suppose it might be more comforting to be able to picture us here. It always helped me to have a visual on the place where my family lives. Now, come fill the guest rooms and VISIT!

The End. :)

"That's God's Country Up There."

The best description about the town comes from a few different emails… Let’s see what I can paste together.

What can I tell you about the town? The schools for LT are WONDERFUL. They are small and intimate. There is a "No Hat, No Play" rule for the kids, the sun is so strong here that they have to wear a hat outside.There are two on the mountain to choose from, I think we are going with the smaller of the two- about 280 Students total K-7th grade. LT's second language in school is Japanese because we are so close to Japan, and there are a lot of Japanese people who immigrate here.

The town is more crafty than artistic because it's very touristy, but there are some good artists in the area. TONS of galleries. Every winery and beer garden has one in addition to all the lone galleries. Everyone you talk to is a photographer or painter, though they all take nature photographs- pretty flowers and stuff... I haven't figured out what I want my body of work to be up here yet, but I'm staying away from flowers.



There are two markets a month on the mountain where people sell arts, crafts, jams, vegetables, and other things. I'm going to bind journals and sell them there with some other things, like my prints (eventually). I’m just waiting for all my supplies to get here via boat.

They are huge on the environment, the water we live off of is rain water, they have things like "half flush" for the toilets, they are big on gas powered utilities and no one uses microwaves, along with a dryer- I'm mostly hang drying the clothes. It's kind of cool.You have to go to the butcher, the baker and the green grocer (for fruits, vegetables, and eggs). The grocery store closes at 6 every night if you need anything else. There are two street lights in the town and no traffic lights, only roundabouts. There are about 6,000 people total in the town. These are just a few of the huge changes we've been adjusting to. Although, everyone seems to help everyone out here, and when they hear that you are new in town and from America (though everyone initially thinks we're from Canada) they are so excited.

The mountain (rain forest) has 9 national parks in it, waterfalls, hiking trails- all that fun stuff. It's dark by 5:30 the latest (because we're still in winter... we came from Summer, and it was light till 8pm.) What's the coolest is at night, you can see the Milky Way Galaxy.
There is almost no crime- I think the worst I've heard about is teenagers shutting off peoples water supply (It's a switch in the front of the house).

The people are great. In fact, Derek just got his first gift from a patient on Sunday. It was a pumpkin, a full grown, organic, fresh off their farm pumpkin. We were even given some tips on how to avoid the sobriety checkpoints, which might occur at 8 on a Sunday morning. We’ve already encountered one, Derek had to pass a Breathalyzer test- standard. Honestly, there is no way we would have made it up the mountain with the wicked curvy roads and inclines if we were the slightest bit tipsy. (Btw, it takes 20 minutes to get down the mountain.)

We are about 40 minutes from the beautiful beach. On the weekends Billy is letting us use a studio of his down on the beach in Pottsville (for free- awesome!). You can hear the ocean from it. Just walk out to and there it is!

F'ing Animals!!

There are so many animals in Australia that can kill you- 7 poisonous snakes in our area to start out with. Though, all the locals say that’s nothing because Gold Coast has 20 poisonous snakes. So, I’ve concluded that if anything is going to kill me out here it’s going to be a heart attack. I am going to scare myself to death from stepping on a twig and thinking it’s a lethal Brown snake, and oops, there goes my heart. Thank you Australia.

Honestly, who can blame me with all the animal interactions I’ve had in the first 3 weeks of living here. Seriously. Let’s start with the 7 foot (or ~2.2 meters as they would say here) snake that was just chilling one night on our front patio area when I got home. If you tell anyone in town that there was a python just chillin’ on your doorstep they make the funniest faces. Turns out that most of them have lived here and never seen a snake, or have lived here for a good 25 years and have only seen 2. Well, good, I’ve seen my share (and I won’t call it fair). So now I don’t need to see anymore for as long as I live here! Luckily, the python was more afraid of our car and slithered back into the bushes. That’s right snake! Run! Yeah right, I wouldn’t even get out of the car. In fact, as Landon was unbuckling his seat belt to see the snake I was yelling at him to put it back on as if I was going to speed out of the driveway doing 80km/h. What if that thing decided to come for us?!? Yes, I know, I could have run it over with the car if it came to that. Whatever.

In the last week I’ve come to come to terms with that snake because he ran from me, unlike some of the other animals. First there was that mouse that had set up camp in our vacuum and decided to high tail it out of there when I turned it on. Only, it decided to go when I lifted the vacuum head off the floor- I couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t lie flat on the ground. Well, it was because there was a mouse holding it up! All right, a mouse is a mouse, they are everywhere in the world, but I’ve never seen one before. I blamed it on Australia, and we bought a mousetrap. As Derek put it Us: 1, Mouse: 0.

Then we have the occasional bird fly into the roof of the house, okay who am I kidding. They do it ALL THE TIME. So often now that we have all gotten used to it. While I was downstairs, Landon was upstairs playing and I heard a huge crash.
“Landon? Are you okay Baby?”
“Yeah. I think it was just a bird crashing into the roof.”
Yeah, that is how used to it we all are. I have no idea what is wrong with them, it’s a big TIN roof! I don’t know… But hey the birds aren’t the only things that we know that hang out on the roof. The other night around 3AM Derek and I heard something wrestling on the roof right above our heads. Then we heard what Derek describes best as, wait for it… “a baby being killed by a cat.” Just take a moment and try to imagine the sound. Derek and I clung to each other out of fear and I kept thinking, “Dear God, please don’t let what ever that is fall through the roof onto the bed.” The next morning Derek and I looked for blood. We didn’t find any in that area, but we did find some from those stupid birds flying into the roof. We later came to the conclusion that it was most likely our two opossum residents – either fighting or mating. Last night, actually, a similar event happened. Only we heard the opossum slide down the side of the roof, and fall off while trying to dig it's nails into the tin roof. It was clearly a failed attempt. This time we both laughed.

We’ve seen other animals. Our fair share of spiders, two big lizards, rabbits the size of Landon, some smaller opossums with big (cute) eyes, a rat, and there are wild turkeys everywhere. I think the most horrific experience for me was being attacked by a Magpie. Oh man, seriously. I took Landon to this park across the street from Derek’s office to swing and hang out while Billy and Derek talked business. Landon ran down to the swings while I very slowly strolled, one foot in front of the other, down a fairly steep hill when Landon started yelling at me, pointing. “MOMMY! BIRD!!”
The next 30 seconds were the longest of my life. I ran a little thinking the bird would just go away, but it followed me, dive-bombed me and then hovered over me. I threw my car keys at it thinking it would freak it out, but NO. It just made it more aggressive. After running into the parking lot, under the swing set, being pecked on the head and slapped in the face by it’s wing (it actually broke skin on my forehead) I started to scream. And all the skater boys at the park started to laugh along with Landon. After a good 30 seconds it flew off to a tree and watched me for the next 20 minutes while Landon played on the playground. When I told Derek and Billy about the terrifying experience Billy said, “Yeah, that will happen, it’s happened to me twice.” Great. Those were his words of comfort?

Many of you have heard these stories already, but I figure that the stories are good enough to be told again. It’s always good to laugh in the face of fear. Well, in my case, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, and laugh later. Like now. Lately I’ve come to terms with nature, after all, I am the one entering their territory. Hey, tonight, you’d be proud, I even went to go investigate a weird noise our backyard. I figure I’ve had my fair share of scary things, so bring on the good stuff!

The first 24 hours.

In a totally upside down world it was nice to have some friends from the land of right side up. Billy and Cathy. They are really one of the biggest reasons we choose not to go with TLC. For those of you who don’t know, TLC is Total Lifestyle Chiropractic, a large Chiropractic company that Derek spent two weeks with here in Australia after taking the boards. Actually, Billy used to work with TLC, which is how Derek found him. He was and remains TLC's “Model Chiropractor” even after leaving the company. Derek is in good Chiropractic hands when it comes to starting and running a business.

They met us at the airport with their two children. Wil, 8 (almost 9) and Erin, 7. Also a breath of fresh air. I don’t know if they had a family meeting about how to make us feel at home before we arrived, but that is just what they did. In the car Landon, Wil and Erin were fast friends playing with Transformers in the backseat while Cathy and I chatted it up in the front. There were many things we all discovered we have in common; it wasn’t just that we were both from America.(America, that’s what home is called here, though, I’m not from America, I’m from the United States of America. Big difference if you come from a military family because there is a South, Central and North America. We are of the UNITED STATES. I mean my Dad and brother both went to USNA, not just “NA”. Apparently, JC and Brendan (Billy’s brother and cousin) also went to USNA, and played soccer. JC graduated a year before Ryan, but helped him start the Soccer UN-Club (because they weren’t able to have a soccer club there). And Brendan and Ryan just ran into each other at the bar the other night. So it turns out that we are all bit more connected than we originally thought. Right side up or upside down, it really is a small world after all. That Walt Disney had it right from the very beginning.

The initial drive up the mountain I really didn’t even notice how curvy, narrow and steep the roads were. I was too busy exchanging life stories. Really though, every time I drive down them with Derek I think about how the road would probably make my Mom feel a little sick. So I’m not sure how I didn’t notice it on the way up. Finally after too many hours of travel we arrived at our new [temporary] house. It is gorgeous, and big (for us). A rusty cabin that reminded me a little of the house my family rented on our legendary ski trip to Oregon. Billy and Cathy showed us around and then took us out to the backyard to educate us on poisonous spiders and where we would find them around the house. This was the beginning of my phobia. What they failed to tell us was two things, 1. They weren’t out yet, and 2. There is a chemical you can spray that will either kill them or keep them away. Two very important pieces of information considering how many interactions we were about to have with spiders.


After the kids played on the stairs for a while- Landon’s new favorite toy is the stairs now. We went to the Spice of Life Cafe downtown to get some breakfast. Ugh, it’s bedtime! Not breakfast time! You mean we have to stay awake an entire day- again?! So, we sucked it up and had breakfast served with a mild side of vertigo, and then ventured down the street to Derek’s new Chiropractic Center. Exciting! (Totally deserving of it's own blog. So you'll just have to wait on those details.)

The rest of the day was filled with heavy eyes and a whiney child. Once our new friends headed home we had to keep ourselves entertained. While Derek and I hung clothes in our new closet, Landon napped. And that was the end of Landon. He’d had enough. I don’t think we ever got him fully awake again. We did get him into his cool flight jacket Ryan had made him for his birthday and then into his stroller for a walk, but I don’t think he was fully awake still. He did look like a grumpy, old veteran sitting there in his slightly oversized jacket though, it was quite comical once all the crying stopped. Once we were home Landon went to bed for the night without dinner (his choice). I think it was about 2 weeks till Landon actually had dinner. He always chose to sleep over eat, on his own!



Those first 9 days Derek and I lived on coffee, tea and a late night fire to keep us warm. Of course by late night I mean 7pm because I don’t think we ever made it past 8:30pm.

Every story starts somewhere.

I guess I should know where to start when it comes to Australia. I should know where to start sharing about a new town across the world, but that’s just it.... I have no idea where to start. While on the phone I usually wait for a question from the other end of the line to mark my starting gate in conversation. I guess I could start from the beginning. I’m sure there will be many details that are forgotten, but the important ones will make it in I suppose. Bare with me.

August 3rd to the 5th: Saying good-bye to my brother and parents; probably the hardest thing I have ever done. Honestly, the tears were less than I thought they would be, (that's probably because my tear ducts were almost dry from all the crying the weeks before) but finally having that last hug or giving that last wave was heart wrenching. And as we took steps towards our first gate in Ft. Lauderdale something my Dad said to me resided in my head, “Don’t walk. RUN to that plane! This is such an opportunity, and it’s a HAPPY one.” Though his words helped me smile, they didn't quiet the fear.

Throughout the day, sitting side by side with my guys, there were naps, hunger pains, and a few moments where Derek and I would look at each other with fear in our eyes. We’re pretty fortunate to be able to look at each other, not only in times of joy, but it times of complete fear and know with absolute certainty that the other person is thinking the same thing. That day it was, “What the fuck are we doing?!?!”
After a few deep breaths, some tears, and some big laughs we were okay again.

Once we got to LAX we were more than happy to be off the plane for a short while. AND we had the pleasure of being met at the airport by two great friends. Just what we needed for the transition. Craig and Noah entertained Landon a bit (thank you) while Derek and I played musical clothes with our 13 bags. Nothing could be overweight. We transferred clothes from this bag to that one and then back again. What a pain in the ass. After we enjoyed Noah and Craig’s company at a restaurant bar and grill (which only served beer), we said good-bye, and headed to our gate. This was it, last chance to bail, but still Dad’s words were in my head… and run was what we did, but not out of excitement. Landon had to pee and our flight was boarding!

Finally after a FULL day of traveling Derek and I were on a plane that reminded me of the horribly offensive, yet hysterical, movie Soul Plane. (Do not rent this movie; I fear it could change your opinion on who I am as a person.) There was a green neon lit bar and a bathroom that played Bob Marley songs. Cool! The people were already friendlier and were talking funny with strange accents. Oh wait, they were ALL Australian! Alas, we were there, on the plane, the doors were shutting and I was getting ready to shut off my shitty T-Mobile phone forever when my Dad called (2am EST). One last “lud you” on the side of the world that’s “right side up”. Once I’d hung up, that was it for me, the tears came again.

The 15 hour flight was much easier than I thought it would be, physically. We all slept for most of it, and when we were awake we could watch TV, movies and play games in the back of our seats. Perfect for Landon. I still can’t get over how good he was on the plane. Derek told me that he kept waking up thinking, “There is still time to turn back if we want to, we’ve got one more plane.” And then he would panic, because, nope. This was it mate. No turning back now, at least not today.

I can’t remember much else about the flight, only that at one point while I was half asleep a stewardess came by to ask me about food and my response to her was something out of a zombie movie, “uuuuuughghahaahmmm…” and I’m pretty sure I might have had a little bit of drool on my face too. Yup, there, I said it, it wasn’t pretty. Anyone in my family can tell you I can be a heavy sleeper. Hours later after I’d been a sleep and then awake for a while she came by again and her little Australian accent asked me I’d had a good sleep. I said yes, smiled, and she walked away laughing to herself. Oh well, there were other Australians to impress.

Once we arrived we had to wait in a customs line where Derek had his butt sniffed many times by a dog looking for drugs before our passports were stamped. I was a bit nervous; I kept picturing Landon unknowingly walking through the line to the other side, and then being jumped on (like a rugby pile on) by security. What is it about those guys that make you so nervous; really, the only thing they took from us was our Almonds.