Where has the time gone?

So, our plan of writing a regular blog has definitely gone by the way side as I just realized that our last post was during my first week of school and now I'm 6 weeks in. As Jon put so eloquently...."we suck". :)

Lots has changed since we wrote last. I have suffered through 3 midterm exams and 1 essay with success and will be starting clinical placement preparation next week for two weeks after which my fist clinical placement starts. I have 3 (two or which were assigned to me and 1 of which I volunteered for...I know...nerd). Oddly enough, all of my placements are in beach towns - Dee Why, Mona Vale and Bondi clinics. I'm very excited and a bit nervous to get started. I went out shopping today to update my professional wardrobe...ala Australian style....so I should be all set. The program is great, yet very demanding. I'll be looking forward to a break in the near future.

So, we both have had our birthdays since we wrote last...thank you for all your emails, phone
calls, cards and gifts. They were all greatly appreciated. Jon has REALY been enjoying his new BBQ - I think we've cooked on it every nights since his birthday. Jon has been asking me to bake a cake on it...but really, in my opinion....why??

A little crazy excitement the other day....Jon was out walking Kona and noticed a large-ish spider hanging out on our apartment building's door mat, caught it (in one of my Tupperwares!) and looked it up online. Turns out it was a male, funnel-web spider which is considered the deadliest spider in Australia and one of the most dangerous in the world. I was asleep when he brought it into the condo and wrote "DANGER" on a piece a paper that he placed over the Tupperware container for the night. The next day, Jon brought it to The Sydney University of Technology where it was handed over to their spider guy who will either keep it for research or send it away to get "milked" for the creating of anti-venom. Good thing I'm not afraid of spiders...cockroaches...well that's another story of which I fully blame on my brother Scott who used to catch cockroaches in Saudi Arabia by putting squished up bananas around the holes in the manhole covers over the sewers. Scott - expect a hefty bill from my therapy sessions. ;) Thankfully we do not have any in our unit, but this childhood "trauma" makes me jump and scream whenever one crosses my path on evening walks with Kona.

The weather here is starting to cool down with highs in the early twenties with cooler evenings. It's funny how quickly we have acclimatized to the warm weather and that this now feels cold - I know...we'll likely not get any sympathy in this department!!

This week-end we will be changing our clocks and "falling back". This is not great news for Jon and it now makes it much harder to have overlapping work days with Ottawa. This week, he does have a 4:30am meeting!! Not being much of a morning person and being quite the night owl, he's likely going to have to make some adjustments to his sleep schedule to survive it.

Otherwise life is good. We're pretty much settled into our new condo. We certainly don't have as much time to explore this beautiful country as we would like at this point, but that time will come soon enough. The people are very friendly and relaxed here. There is sooo much to see and do and we're really looking forward to making plans to explore. BTW - we're on Skype, so feel free to call us so we can chat - you can find us by searching for our full names - location - Sydney, Australia.


As always...we miss you all terribly! Hugs your way!
Lori, Jon & Kona