Its been a while...

I know, I know...its been a while. Lets just say, I had a lot more free-time during my 6 weeks off work than I do know. So I guess I need to do a little catching up. Shortly after my last post I went back to work after my long post wedding break, or my forced break due to immigration laws. Getting back into a work routine wasn't the easiest thing, but finally after being back over 2 months I finally feel like things are back to normal. All sorts of things happened in my absence, which in some ways makes me think I should never leave again, but in just 4 short weeks I will once again be away and hope that my staff will manage without me.

We have settled in nicely to our flat. Its tiny, or for better word cozy. We are a 5 minute walk from the beach and I love it! Our landlords, who are friends of ours are such a fun couple to live next to and they spoil us rotten! Its the perfect place for us right now. I think we'll see how long we can stand living in such a tiny place. Ben says when we get sick of each other, then we can move somewhere bigger. Isn't my husband, sweet?

About a month ago for the long weekend, we traveled up north to visit my brother/sister in law and our adorable niece. It was the first time I had traveled any farther north than Newcastle, so it was nice to see more of the "country." Despite the constant rain, it was still a good weekend away to spend time with Ben's side of the family.

We celebrated my birthday. I'm now a lot closer to 30 that I would like to be. The day before my birthday we had a BBQ with my family here at our place. I love nights like that when we can just sit around outside, enjoying the beautiful summer-like weather. On my birthday my husband spoiled me rotten! Made breakfast, planned a day for us together. We went to the beach, shopping, out for dinner, he even made a super yummy cake for me! It was so nice to be able to spend the whole day with him. As much as I may not love the idea of being 27, 26 sure was a great year so I can't wait to see what this next year has in store!

And...4 weeks from today we will be on a plane, heading HOME!! I can't believe how fast the last few weeks have gone by. I feel like it was just yesterday I said we had 8 weeks to go and now we're already down to 4! And I know how busy they will be and before we know it we'll be at the airport getting on the plane! If you can't tell, I'm super excited! Even last night before bed I told my husband I probably won't be able to sleep the night before we leave because i'll just be so exited. And the fact that its almost a 24 hour trip home, my husband may not want to sit next to me on the plane because i'm pretty sure i'm going to be as excited as a kid at Christmas! Its been almost a year since i've been home, seen my friends, etc. I'm just ready. Ready to see everyone, ready to introduce Ben to everyone and ready to have 4 weeks off work with my hubby to spend with my family. I'm beyond excited :)

So, theres a little update. Life is good. We are extremely blessed. And married life is even better than I could have thought. With thanksgiving right around the corner I can't help but be extremely happy and thankful for all that God has done in my life this last year.


 

Celebrate!

I love to celebrate things. Whether it be a birthday, anniversary, a big accomplishment or even a Friday (sometimes teachers needed to celebrate making it to Friday, with a happy hour!). I've always been this way or at least as long as I can remember. I understand not everyone is like this, maybe it was just the way I was raised. Lets just say my family went a little crazy some years for birthdays etc. For my 15th birthday I believe, my dad's company had a billboard on one of the major streets in Memphis so he decided it would be funny to put "Happy Birthday Lindsey! Love, Mom, Dad, Brad and Lacey" yes...Lacey. Lacey was our family dog! That messaged stayed up for a whole month. Another year for my birthday I came home from school one day to a giant blow up gorilla in our front yard with a sign that said Happy Birthday Lindsey. This gorilla was taller than our house! So maybe that gives you a littler perspective into my love of celebrating things. My husband, however, does not feel the need to celebrate every little thing like me...see that's one of the many reasons we're so good for each other, we balance each other out :)

Today I feel like celebrating. Exactly 1 year ago today I arrived in Australia for the second time but this time I was moving here! At the time I was just planning on a year of adventure, working, traveling, etc. Never in my wildest dreams could I ever imagined all the things that have happened in just one short year. This year has truly been a blessing to me. Of course its been full of ups and downs, lots of laughter and tears, but through it all I've learned so much, met so many amazing people and had so many wonderful experiences. I wouldn't change it for a thing. And to top it off I met my best friend, fell in love and now I call him my husband.

So I'm sitting here in my living room looking out my window at this beautiful blue sky, sunny morning with a tall palm tree in glimpse feeling extremely grateful, at peace, blessed and appreciative. Everyday I feel grateful but sometimes I don't feel like I appreciate it everyday. Some days I let my memories from home take over and I let myself get homesick. I know I'll always have days like that, and they'll get easier but I feel like its been a year now, I've made it. I feel like I can let go a little more and continue to move forward.

One year in Australia down...as one of my friends from college would say, "lets eat cake!" Even though I have no cake, it seemed appropriate :) I do have homemade cinnamon rolls though, but thats another story in itself...stay tuned!



 

this & that

I was just reading on Facebook everyone's status about school starting back tomorrow. I can't believe its already that time again! I'm not going to lie, it's made me a little homesick. The beginning of the school year was always my favorite time of year and I can't believe this is my 2nd year not to be going back to school. I guess it does help being here, since their school year begins in January and its still winter. So August is just the middle of the school year here. I miss teaching, sometimes I miss it just as much as I miss my family and friends. I love my job and I'm so thankful to have it but my heart is still in the classroom. Speaking of which, the school I work at has posted 1, possibly 2 Junior School (aka-Elementary School) teaching positions for the next school year which will begin in January. I've applied and interviews will be held in about a month. Obviously I have a good chance as I've been employed at the school for 8 months now and at the time I accepted my current job my principal knew I wanted to get back into the classroom one day. I can't help but get excited at the thought of teaching again, but I'm also trying not to get my hopes up too much. All we can do is pray, I know that no matter what they outcome God has a plan for me.

We found out today that we'll for sure be coming home to the states sometime in December/January for a visit! I'm so excited but torn. Originally we were planning on coming in October since some of my good friends were getting married but with us both just having time off from the wedding and being having time of waiting for my new visa we just can't do it. But of course I'm so thrilled that we can come home at all! And as much as I would love to have a summer Christmas in Oz, I'm pretty excited to be able to go home again this year for a winter Christmas. It will be exactly a year since I've been home. Its crazy, I wasn't sure I would be able to stay away from the US for a whole year but it's probably good practice because there may be years when we don't make it to the US. Its just part of the reality of being in an "international marriage." When I think of all the things that have happened in a year...I've gotten married, I've had friends get married and tons and tons of friends that have had babies! I think we could spend our whole trip home just visiting all the new babies that have appeared in the last year! I think more than anything I'm excited to bring Ben home with me. I can't wait to introduce him to all my friends and family, show him around where I lived and worked and mostly just show him off :) So now we're on the hunt for decent priced airline tickets, which pretty much does not exist around Christmas and most definitely does not exist for people flying from Australia to the US at Christmas. So please say a prayer that we find good tickets so we don't break the bank trying to come home for a visit!

Two weeks from today i'll be back at work. This time off has really flown by! As wonderful as its been to have some time off after the wedding and to get settled into married life I am very ready to get back to work and see my kiddos! I've spent a lot of time working on my visa application and we go see the lawyer for that tomorrow, so hopefully I can send it all off by the end of the week.

I've been debating on what to do with my blog. I feel like it needs a change. Or maybe its more just me getting bored, I get like this. Last week for example I was so sick my my long hair that I grew out for the wedding, I called my hair girl and made an appointment for her to chop it off. I started my blog several years ago when I started teaching to keep up with stories from my first year of teaching, well I guess it kind of grew from there to include personal things and in the last year its been a way of documenting my move to Australia. I guess I feel like maybe I need to start a new one or make some changes since being married and now knowing that i'll be in Australia for longer than I originally planned. I guess this new chapter in my life makes me think my blog somehow needs a new chapter too. I guess we'll just see.

Well i'm off. My sweet hubby will be home in a little over an hour and I still need to do a bit of picking up around the flat and finish organizing things with our meeting with the lawyer tomorrow. To all my teacher friends out there, Have a great first day of school tomorrow!


 

some days

When I was a kid and even when I was teaching one of my favorite children's books was 'Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day'. If you aren't familiar with the book basically its the story about a little boy who isn't having a very good day and all through out the book he says he wants to move to Australia. At the end of the story his mother says she's pretty sure they have bad days even in Australia. My dad talked about that book in his speech at our wedding reception, I'm pretty sure everyone got a good laugh out of it. He said I wasn't suppose to take the book literally. Yeah...yeah :) Alexander's mom was right some days are bad, even in Australia. Yesterday was one of those days for me.

In about 20 days I will have been here for 1 year. Its so crazy to think about that because in some ways I feel like it was just yesterday I arrived! But even though i've been here for almost a year its still just as overwhelming, scary and exciting today as it was a year ago. This last year has completely changed my life! I've spent the most time away from the only home i've ever known, this is the longest i've gone without seeing family and friends, I've done a lot of things I never thought I would, tried lots of new things, made new friends, started a new job where I had no idea what I was doing, and i'm pretty sure the best thing about the past year was meeting Ben, falling in love and oh, yeah getting married. Everyday I am so thankful to be exactly where I am and so thankful for the many blessings. I know that this is exactly where I and now we (Ben & I) are suppose to be. I know God has great things planned for us. I love Australia. I love the weather, the beautiful scenery, the people, the culture and diversity. There are so many wonderful things here. I'm not saying I don't love the US, because I do and I miss it everyday, but life is just different here. In a lot of ways I feel like life is a little bit simpler here and people here enjoy their lives more and are happier. Maybe thats just my perspective of life in Australia, or maybe it just took me leaving the US to realize some of these things. I'm excited that one day our children will have the benefit of having parents from 2 countries and they will get to experience all the great things that Australia and the US have to offer.

Yesterday I had to go to the RTA to get a new driver's license. Let me just say that the process of changing your name sure isn't easy. I love Ben's last name and I'm so excited to take his name but the process sure is long! And with us I feel like we have so much "extra" stuff to do with visa's etc. I've tried to go to the RTA 2 times before yesterday but needed some more paperwork both times. Well long story, short I walked away without a license for the 3rd time and in tears thanks to the extremely rude lady that pretty much yelled at me right there in the RTA. Its just frustrating, mostly because i've been to the RTA 3 different times and every time they tell me something different or that I need something else. I'm just getting the run around and I don't have time for it, I need a driver's license because mine is expiring soon! So I leave the RTA, get home and cry some more. I'm so thankful for my super sweet husband for knowing exactly what I need after a day like that. He and I were talking afterwards and I was telling him I know maybe getting so upset over a driver's license was silly but it really wan't about the driver's license. Even though i've been here almost for a year, its still hard. When you move to a new place and have to start over its really hard, but when you make that new place be a whole other country on another continent, well thats just about as hard as it gets. Think of it like this...think of your home, where you've always lived, you know how things work, where things are, you know familiar faces, you know what stores have certain things you're looking for, you know how to get places, you know how to renew the registration on your car, you know which restaurants you like, etc. I could keep going...basically everything that you've ever known as your "normal" doesn't apply anymore. You have to re-learn everything. Everything from the smallest little thing to what side of the road you drive on. Now i'm not saying its all impossible, a lot of the changes have been easy to adapt to and now they just seem like normal for me but sometimes I just miss the familiar. I miss things being easy and knowing how to do things. I'm so thankful for my cousin, you can ask her, over the last year i've sent her countless emails with questions on "life in Australia"...how do I do this or how do I get to this place. I know i'm not an Aussie and I never will be, but I don't really feel like a foreigner here. I feel like I fit in pretty well, but I guess its days like yesterday when i'm reminded that although I live here, i'm not an Aussie and i'll always be different. The way the women at the RTA talked about me not being from here and having to get paperwork from the US, it was just rude. I love Australia, I married and Aussie, I live here, I feel like i'm a contributing member of society here, I work here, pay taxes etc, but yet she made me almost feel bad for choosing to live here.

I'm not sure how long will be in Australia or if one day we'll move to the US (which of course I do hope we'll get to do one day for at least a period of time) or if we'll move somewhere completely different. Its hard sometimes letting go of how you thought your life would be. Never did I dream that I would live in another country and get married and possibly have kids. I always just assumed it would all happen in the US. But I wouldn't change how its happened for anything! Its more you just have to change your way of thinking, which I feel like i've had to do a lot over the last year. Just because things are different than you thought or expected isn't bad, its just different.

Some days are just harder than others, some days I miss home, my family and friends so much it hurts, some days I miss teaching so much I shed some tears but everyday I'm extremely grateful for all the blessings, changes and relationships i've made over the past year. I'm thankful for the things i've learned about myself and how strong I can be (even though there may be some kicking and screaming along the day). And everyday its completely worth it.

 

life as a stay at home wife

The wedding is over, all of our out of town guest have gone home, we're back from our honeymoon and my sweet hubby has been back at work for a little over a week now which means i'm officially a stay at home wife. My days have been filled with lots of cleaning, unpacking, cooking, running errands, lunch with friends, watching Friends, staying in my pj's until lunch, lots of laundry, and working on my visa application. It is nice to have a break from the craziness of the last 2 months but I'm not sure i'm cut out for being a stay at home housewife. I miss working and being in a routine but hopefully it will only be for 4 more weeks and I can get my visa application turned in and be back at work as soon as possible! I do really miss my kiddos and my work buddies as well as being able to see my man during the day at work!

I may not love the stay at home part, but I sure do love being a wife! Happy 3 weeks of being married, my love! Life is better with you by my side :)



 

Mr & Mrs

Yep, thats us...Mr & Mrs Fowler :) I can't believe our wedding day has come and gone! With the whirlwind of planning a wedding in 7 weeks, work, moving and having out of town visitors for over a month and now its all over, just like that.

We could not have asked for a more perfect day! We got married a little over a week ago, July 9th or as Aussies would say 9th July. The weather was beautiful and sunny. It was a little windy, so there was a chill in the air but after all it is winter here. Our ceremony was held at the beautiful Hunter Valley Gardens and our dinner reception was at the Crowne Plaza, both located in the Hunter Valley wine country which is about an hour north of where we live on the Central Coast. Our wedding was small and intimate, exactly how we wanted it. It was such a wonderful weekend for our family and friends to get to spend together and relax. Looking back I'm just amazed that we were able to pull it off in such a short time but also just in awe at how perfectly it all came together! It was truly a perfect day and we have so many memories to look back on and cherish over the next many, many years.

Since the wedding we said goodbye to my family and friends who came out for the wedding. I can't even begin to describe how great it was to have my family here. I can't write too much about it or the tears will start but it was the best thing ever. Now if we could just convince them to move to Australia :) Then Ben and I were off to Tasmania for 5 days for our honeymoon. It was a beautiful, relaxing trip. We came home late Friday night and then were up early on Saturday to get ready for our "post wedding celebration" with all of our family and friends here. That was a wonderful afternoon as well! I can't wait to be able to celebrate again with my family and friends when we come to the states in a few months. We're pretty lucky, getting to celebrate our wedding 3 times. Any excuse to wear my wedding dress for a second time, i'll take :) We are so incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people that love and support us, both in Australia and in the US.

Well my sweet hubby is making us breakfast so I better run :) more photos and updates to come!

 

1 week to go!

I really was hoping to be better about keeping up with my blog during our engagement, so one day I could look back and read all about it. I guess I really thought I would have some "free time" during our short, 7 week engagement. I was wrong. But even with all the craziness of the last 7 weeks I wouldn't trade a minute of it because this time next week I'll be married to my best friend and that will make every second of it completely worth it.

The last hour has been just about the only free time i've had. My family is all out doing other things, Ben is out at his parents house and i'm sitting at my new home (what will be our home soon!) surrounded by boxes and suitcases that still need unpacking but i'm going to just try to enjoy these last few minutes, I feel like this is the calm before the storm because i'm pretty sure this week is going to be a little on the busy side.

Besides the wedding planning its been busy around here with work and visitors! My good friend, Clint from college came to visit with a friend about 3 weeks ago. There is nothing better than have a little piece of home here in Australia. Of course 2 days after they left my mom came then a week later my dad and brother arrived. Then this week one of my girlfriends who is also going to be a bridesmaid in the wedding arrived and then this Friday another girlfriend arrives from the states! I feel so bad for my family and friends, they've all been put to work since the minute they got here whether it be wedding stuff or helping me move they have been amazing! I'm not sure I could have done everything without them and I have a feeling i'm going to miss them terribly when they leave.

I'm not sure what has been more stressful, planning a wedding in 7 weeks or preparing to be gone from work for 6 weeks. We're taking 2 weeks leave for our wedding/honeymoon but shortly after we got engaged we found out that i'll have to take 6 weeks of unpaid leave from work to wait for my new visa to kick in. In some ways I think its a blessing in disguise because it will give me time to get things at home set up and kind of get used to be married and mostly a nice break after the craziness of the last 7 weeks. I'm just worried my soon-to-be hubby will get too used to coming home to a clean house with dinner on the table everyday because i'm pretty sure that will not be the case everyday after I go back to work. In the meantime we both have 2 days left of work and then some much needed time off!

The last 7 weeks have been full of ups and downs. If there is 1 big thing i've learned is that when people find out you are getting married they want to give you all sorts of opinions and advice. Some of it is helpful and some of it not so much and some of it I just have to smile and say thanks for the advice. Then there are others who are selfish and think our day is about them. It hurts my feelings that they act like that and I just hope one day they will realize how their actions affect others. But most importantly i'm thankful for the heaps of people that have been so encouraging and supportive during this time. To all of you, I can't thank you enough and we love you guys so much!

A week from now i'll be married to this handsome man and I can't wait :)