airborne

we're off. we'll be leaving sydney in a matter of hours. we just got back from watching an opera in the sydney opera house. it was rad. We finished some last minute shopping today and still have the airport for those lastlast minute gifts. we'll be seeing you all soon!!

land

we're back on solid land. It feels so good. We stayed onboard a boat for four days and three nights scuba diving. It was incredible. We saw some real cool stuff... the picture above is of a cuttlefish. That was probably one of the cooler things. It changes color to camoflauge itself into the enviroment. We also saw a ribbon flatworm swimming, white tip reef sharks, turtles, parrotfish, a ray... and on and on. It was beautiful. We're still rocking a bit like we're on the boat. Walking in a straight line has never been so hard.
We'll be here in Cairns for today and tomorrow and then we're off to Sydney. There's lots and lots to do while we're there so that will be heaps of fun. Hopefully I'll get to update you on that while we're there too... Sorry about the no family pictures in australia corie, when we get home we'll post some i'm sure.

miss you all..
christina

here and safe

so we're here. we've been here for a while now but thihs is the first chance we've had some extra time. We've been super busy these last few days. We headed out to a wildlife sanctuary for the day and got to do some amazing things. We watched koalas pertched in branches sleep for days... fed kangaroos as they slept on the ground... and fed a dingo out of our hands. It was incredible. After a long day at the sanctuary we walked to a honey factory and a chocolate factory. This chocolate is all hand made and probably some of the best stuff i've ever had in my life.

Yesterday we traveled through the Tamborine mountains and wine tasted. It was fun and we met some pretty interesting people on our voyage. Today has been great so far. We took Surfing lessons from Michael "Munga" Barry today. He's supposedly a great surfer. We all were able to get up and stay up for at least a while. We're off to bake on the beach for a little bit of a calmer day before tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're gonna drive four hours to rainbow beach, a beach were there's all different colors of sand and then take a ferry to fraiser island. Fraiser island is the largest sand island in the world. We'll probably do some 4 wheeling swimming and... napping on the sand.

We leave the Gold coast on saturday and then it's off to Cairns for some scuba... until then mate!!

australia

I'm headed out to the land down under. I've been there once before so I'm excited to go back and visit. I'm leaving tomorrow with my two older brothers and my dad. We'll be gone for about three weeks and headed to three major cities, Brisbane, Cairns and Sydney. As often as I can, I'll be posting updates of our adventures. We're going to try to do everything from surfing to scuba diving to wine tasting. For right now, I'm gonna try and pack...an adventure in itself.

uganda or bust

i started a new blog for our africa trip. Soon we'll have some new postings with updated progress of our trip. Please be in prayer for this journey as we fight to balance life and planning and life...

here's the address to our africa site

ugandaorbust.blogspot.com

blessings

boat shoes?

i've been going through a war these last few weeks. I decided to give some stuff up for lent and well... it's been hard. Not super hard but hard enough. Even before lent, i told myself i wasn't gonna buy anything for myself until africa. (by the way, we bought our tickets for africa and we're leaving on June 5th!!!) I decided i didn't need anything before africa cause i already have too much. Today, i threw that rule out the window. I bought myself some Sperry Top-Siders. They're these wierd boat shoes that dont scuff up boat decks and are great to keep your feet dry when you're walking on boats. These shoes would be amazing if i walked on boats often or thought i was going to be getting my feet wet everyday. I'm not. They were on just on sale... and bright orange. But it doesn't matter when i dont need them.
Since i can remember, i've felt guilt about almost every single purchase i make. It's always impossible for me to ever justify spending any kind of money on myself. This seems funny because i can go on these crazy shopping binges guilt and all. You would think that guilt would make me return the stuff or give it away or something. Nope. i just hoard more crap. Store it up so that i can use it once a year. It's gross i know. We all do it... which makes it even grosser. Some people tell me i shouldn't feel guilty about every purchase i make. Some probably think i shouldn't buy as much as i do. As for me, i'm always caught in the middle. Torn between a world that doesn't own even one pair of decent shoes and a world that tells me "i deserve it." I dont know if my soul will ever be a peace with buying things for myself... i also dont know how much "i deserve it" when there's people who deserve it so much more.
So i might keep my shoes, i might not.

mono

i have mono. i'm not very excited about it all... my lymph nodes in my neck have been swollen for about a month so i thought my body was just figting some infection. Turns out they were fighting mono. I've never in my life cried when i tried to swollow. I seriously avoid at all costs the need to swollow. They think i have mono AND something else...which explains the ridiculously inflammed tonsils. They are also covered in puss and blood spots. Kinda fascinating while at the same time ... hecka gross.

I guess i just find it funny how God works. Like for a couple of months now there's been some pretty amazing people in my life trying to tell my to slow down. I said i couldn't. I said i had too much to do and too many deadlines. Instead God slows me down a bit with some Mono. By the way, when you have mono, all you really wanna do is sleep and die. Not eat. Not drink. Not play. Not study. Not anything. SLEEP and take advil for your achy body and tonsils. Oh, and sometimes spit.

My work load hasn't lightened.. i'm still super busy but i'm learning how to prioritize. So... fortunatley, sleep has become number one!! yay! Just thought you should know that now, if i dont answer the phone it's cause i'm in bed :)

happy heart day!!

happy valentines day everyone.
i know i haven't blogged here lately. life has been super stressful.
i'm the maid of honor in my best friend's wedding. i'm trying to go to Africa this summer. i'm applying to nursing programs throughout california and possibly arizona. I'm working at a church trying to disciple high school students and teach them how to be followers of jesus. i have an amazing boyfriend who lives way too far away and after spending some good quality time together my heart breaks because i have to leave and not see him for a while again. I have this funny thing with the way my heart beats. the doctors say it's nothing... i sure hope they're right. just watched brokeback mountain... they're good actors those two boys.

i probably wont be posting for a while again. things are crazy.... maybe not even slowing down any time soon either. sorry for being out of touch... i still answer my phone though... well... sometimes i do.