Aussie BBQ

Jim, and the boys enjoyed an Aussie BBQ yesterday. I know Jim's mouth has been watering over the thought of a "real" hamburger. This will most likely include, fried onions, fried egg, cheese, beetroot, tomato and often fried pineapple as well. I never put any fried pineapple on my hamburger over there but they were quite nice by themselves. They traveled up the coast from Yamba and spent time with his Uncle Bruce and Aunt Denise at Evans Head for the event. Jim said the boys had fun chasing soldier crabs, which I assume is what is in Nolan's hand.

Chipping Away

Nice mild temps today so I thought it might be a good idea to get rid of the ice and snow on the back porch. I wouldn't want to arrive home from Michigan to find a collapsed porch. I used a crowbar to chip through about 5 inches of ice in some spots. Let's just say if our back porch were a lake you could drive a truck on it.......good solid ice! The job is not complete but at least the melting ice will now drain off the porch instead of into our back door. I thought of Jubal and Nolan when I knocked down the mass of icicles, something they love to do. Did they think of me when they were rolling in the warm waves of Yamba? Highly unlikely.

Australia Trip

we arrived at australia and went to my uncle rays and aunt cindys. we spent three nights there and also went to the aussie zoo. Then we traveled to yamba (took 8 hours) and have been going to the beach every day. We are going to stay at yamba ( thats my grandparents place) for the rest of the time we are staying in australia except the last week we are going to some friends place.
from Jubal Gilbert

Just Not Fair

The travelers have left Awaba, NSW and arrived in Yamba, NSW. This is Jim's parents' home and will be their base for the next two weeks. This is the area where Jim spent holidays growing up and he's excited to be showing it to the boys. They are enjoying perfect temperatures. (Jim and Jubal were shirtless during our Skype conversation last night.) Tomorrow, they will again have fabulous weather and plan to go crabbing with Jim's dad, Buddy. Here in Maine, on the other hand, we just had a huge snow dump and there are power outages everywhere. We, thankfully, never lost power so Mom and Dad were over for a couple hours last night to warm up. My friend Deb Fisher was over this morning to shower before heading to an orientation. (It's generally helpful not to smell when beginning a new job.) Don will probably do the same after work and pick up their son Nate who is hanging out at our warm house for the day.

Yesterday, I shoveled out from a foot and a half of heavy, sticky snow and Jim went to the beach........twice. I'm thinking that's not quite fair.

Taronga Zoo

Yesterday, Jim's family rode the train into Sydney for a day at Taronga Zoo. This was one of my favorite memories of Australia so I was glad they were able to go as well. The photo with the Aborigines was taken at Circular Quay where one of the ferries to the zoo departs from. Circular Quay is cushioned in between the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House which, as you can see from the photo, the boys got a very close view of. Jim has been sending photos but not much in the way of written communication. As I get some, I'll pass it along.

The Watagans

I'm making this update into two separate posts because it's nearly impossible to nicely format more than two photos on here.

Jim and the boys took another trip into Cessnock to see Jim's best friend Eddie again. I received this photo of the two of them and instantly knew where it was taken. I had been brought to the very same cliff in Watagans National Park about 16 years ago and now it was the boys' turn to see where Jim had his big fall in '88. (Jim will correct me if I'm wrong on the year.) In his younger days, Jim was an avid rock climber. This rock face is the scene of a 66 foot fall that Jim survived, in part because of Eddie, who never panicked and "rally-carred ", as Jim would say, down the winding dirt road to get medical help. Jubal and Nolan have heard the story more than a few times. After seeing it in person, I believe they will have a deeper understanding of how miraculous God's protection was on that day.

After I wrote this, Jim posted this about the photo on Facebook:

"photo is at the location I fell off the cliff (66ft) over 20years ago. Eddie on the right was the man who saved my life by running down the mountian to a phone to get the westpack helicoptor to lift me out. The boys came up with us. We got infested with leeches all over feet and legs. Took hours for the bleeding to stop from them little suckers."

Kitchen Comments

"Yes, but are they edible?" was Chad's slightly sarcastic comment to my Facebook status announcing that I was baking cookies. Clearly, he knows my lack of kitchen prowess. This cookie recipe, however, does not suffer in my hands, like most. I discovered it on the back of an Andes mint pieces bag. I made a batch to send to my friend Andy for his birthday and he agreed with my assessment that they are indeed, "nicely edible". I highly recommend the recipe, although I add 1/4 cup milk to it before I refrigerate. I found the dough too dry the first time I baked them.

While making this particular batch today, I turned around to see 3 year old Tell pulling the last fork out of the silverware drawer. He had about eight in each hand, looking a bit like Edward Scissorhands. "Um. Excuse me. Where do you think you're going with all my forks?" He put on his most innocent face and said, "I jis take dem". "Tell, What are going to do with them?", I asked again. "But, (He starts every sentence with "but") Because, I play peoples wiff them." He then proceeded to carry them to the table and before long all the forks were engaged in very lively conversation with one another, and I was back to pulling delicious baked goods out of my oven.

Differences and Similarities

Jim, Jubal and Nolan have now had two complete days in Australia. (It's nearly midnight there.) We talked to them through Skype the morning of their first day. Jim sent me a photo of them hanging out with their young cousins who were playing Thomas the Tank Engine. As you can see from the second photo taken at our house on the same day, the boys are finding that some things are not so different over there. (except Thomas' Aussie accent)
This first week they are staying with Jim's brother Ray and his family . This is fairly close to Cessnock, where Jim grew up, so they went to visit Jim's aunts, uncles and cousins with his parents. Jim's family remember Jubal as a 2 year old and have never met Nolan so it's all very exciting. Yesterday they headed back into Cessnock to track down Jim's best friend, Eddie. (Yes, I do mean track down. You can almost bet he's not in the same place you left him.) I know they found him because Jim sent a photo with the caption, "Atira meet Atira" The baby is Eddie's granddaughter. His daughter loved our Atira's name and so when she had her little girl, she used it as well. Atira thinks it's quite special to have an Australian namesake. As a side note, all of us who enjoy having Jim around owe a debt of gratitude to Eddie, who helped save Jim's life when he fell off the cliff. He was primary on Jim's "absolutely must see" list.


On my end, I've had to repost this about 6 times because the photo formatting on the preview is not the same on the actual post. Ugh! I'm also missing a snow-shoveling man around here!

Battling the Vortex

No news from the other side of the globe except for a test email from Jim's mistress* while I was sleeping. (For any of our Aussie friends, Jim's contact number for the next week is 49 59 9957.) I also see that Jubal changed his Facebook status but did not write on his mom's wall! Hmph!

On the homefront, I am engaged in battle with the invisible vortex that roams my house. For those that have wondered, this is the origin of my blog name. I am a sci-fi fan and very familiar with wormholes to other dimensions. This is my explanation for the things that randomly disappear and then reappear in a completely different place. Other things are taken by the vortex and alas, are never seen again. My friend Sandy and I have discussed the possibility that our vortexes have collided on occasion, creating monstrous devastation. She fears her vortex has at times, snatched her sanity. (She has toddler twins.) My first battle against the whirlwind has been fought and won. I have included before and after photos. Jim told me that I could not Photoshop them or move everything to the other side of the room while I took the picture :)

*iPhone

Home

I was Facebooked instead of called. :) God was gracious and gave them a safe journey. Jim, Jubal and Nolan are at his brother Ray's house as I write. My sister-in-law, Cindy, says they are wound up and talking non-stop. It is 12:35 Wednesday morning there. Elianah and Jeshuah have stayed up to see their cousins and uncle and now need to go to bed. I'm not sure how much luck she will have getting them there anytime soon. Jim will email me soon and I will pass things along.

Oz Well That Ends Well

Updated flight information now says that they landed at 5:13am our time, 9:13pm local time, in the rain. I will update when Jim calls with details on the trip and most likely a photo from Sydney.

Last Leg

Although I haven't heard from Jim, their flight to Sydney didn't leave until 7:52. After checking the itinerary I noticed that Jim had the time wrong and their flight to Sydney didn't leave until 7:55, not 6:55. They would have had an hour layover in Bagkok, so no problem. Now they are on the last leg of the journey. I hope to hear from them around 5 tomorrow morning to say that they've arrived!

Wondering

Flight information was finally updated and I found out that they landed safely in Bangkok at 6:52. The bad news is that their connecting flight to Sydney was supposed to take off at 6:55. I haven't heard from them. Updates to come.

Critical Delay

I'm not able to track this flight in real time as I was with the first. I do know that they are in the air but the flight was delayed 20 minutes. They are due to land about 6:20pm our time in Bangkok. With such a small layover window this delay may be making Jim a bit nervous. I'm hoping not to hear from them. If they have time to call, then they probably missed their connection. I will update this evening.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

The trip has gone smoothly. Nolan loved the takeoff and is past the nervousness of flying. Once in the air, the boys had fun and enjoyed the flight. The travellers are now safely in Frankfurt, Germany and have been for the past 8 hours. This was a LONG layover, still one hour left. They were able to sleep in reclining chairs for a couple hours. They took a short ride into the city on train that departs from the airport. Though they didn't get off, it allowed them to at least get a look at Frankfurt outside the airport. They used some Euros that Jim's parents gave them to have lunch at Burger King. Jubal got his regular double cheeseburger but said that it definitely tasted different than here. Now, onto Bangkok. They will only have a 35 minute window to make their connecting flight to Sydney so I don't expect to hear from them until they arrive in Oz.

Arrivals and Departures

Well, the big day has arrived and "the boys" have departed for Australia. For once we were not running late and arrived with a couple hours to spare. Check in went quickly and smoothly, no lines, no waiting. From a distance, I could see Nolan chatting it up with the security personnel at the end of the process. (He's just like his father.) Nolan was nervous and excited about flying. Even though Jubal said he wasn't, I think he was. On the outside, however, he remained "cool". Teenagers have a reputation, you know. There is no way to view the plane taking off so I left for home. I was at the "Revere Beach to the right, Maine straight ahead" rotary when Jim called to say they were sitting in the plane. He emailed me a picture taken by his mistress* who, as a side note, got a nice new case for this trip. I call it her vacation home. As I write this they are about an hour and 45 minutes from landing in Germany.

*For those who are not aware, Jim's mistress is his red iPhone, Lady in Red. I'm in no way jealous of their relationship. We get along fine.

Deadlines

I received our applications for Camp Good News in the mail this week. I always coordinate with my friend, Heather Pendleton to attend the same week. We have been at camp together for over 25 years and I hate to break tradition. This year we've established that we're going Week 1. An added bonus will be my friend, Sue, going the same week as well. I've already started the paperwork. This will definitely be a record if I manage to get everything in by the end of March. I think Donna, in the office, nearly had a heart attack when she realized I was organizing things already. There have been years when no paperwork has reached the office before I show up to work my week. Oops! (I guess it helps to have connections.)

The other deadline which looms much closer is the departure of Jim, Jubal and Nolan for Australia.......3 days and counting!

Hilarious Irony

~6 days until the boys leave for Australia~
I'm testing the send via email feature of the blog...


I've been miserably sick for the past few days and really just wanted to stay at home this morning. However, my registration on the car was (unknowingly) due 6 months ago so out I went. The low fuel light has been on for a few days so I deemed it best to stop at the New Meadow Market first. I'm so glad I did. The Lord knew that a great dose of humor was exactly what I needed to start the day. As I placed myself back behind the steering wheel after filling up I saw a hilariously ironic sight. About 20 yards across the parking lot a man clad in sweatpants was leaning into the bed of his pickup truck with his entire backside exposed. This was not just the typical working man crack problem, but a full moon. I observed this scene in quiet puzzlement. How does one not know that his pants are half down in February? Then the laughter came full force. As he hopped back into the cab of the truck I noticed the signing on the door: FIRST CLASS CONSTRUCTION No joke.

Skunks

I judge the arrival of spring to be official when I get my first whiff of a roadkill skunk. With all this snow, that won't be anytime soon. However, according to Atira, some of those smelly critters have been residing in my home, right under my nose. Jubal and Nolan had three friends sleep over last night. This morning, as Atira and I were getting breakfast, we heard a lot of commotion coming from the boys' room. I heard Atira say, "Oh man. Those boys, skunks." Puzzled, I asked, "Skunks?" "Yes." she replied. "I call boys skunks."

If only they could hurry up spring......
~11 days until the boys leave for Australia~

Dip, Drive, and Dine

We began our full weekend on Friday night in Bowdoinham at Mike and Heidi's. The Morrill, Fisher and Gilbert offspring (under the skillful guidance of Heidi) had spent half the day preparing a feast for all of us....... homemade rolls, Chicken Cordon Bleu, and stuffed mushrooms, not to mention a few desserts to choose from. A job well done! It would have been a perfect evening if I had not had my perfect record sullied with a ticket on the way home. No, I was not speeding.

After all that eating, some physical activity was called for. Saturday morning we all packed in our van and headed up to Rockland to meet Bill, Sue and gang for some sledding. Nolan had his camera with him. We thought he was snapping photos but he also took video......sneaky little rascal. Then it was back to the Batty's for Italians and hanging out. Bill and Sue got married the month after us and I recall we used to have much calmer, more quiet visits in those first couple years.

Sunday marked two weeks until the boys and Jim leave for Oz. We took this last opportunity to relax and spent the afternoon at the Fisher's. I recommend having friends with hot tubs. Jim and Don decided NOT to throw me into the snow bank. (they offered each other money to get the job done, but neither one wanted Rachelle's Repercussions.) They chose wisely. Without the Patriots in, it was even a relaxing Superbowl to end the weekend.

Now I'm thinking of all that needs to be done in two weeks......