Firstly we are loving the country!! Loving having our own home to do things with and loving having our own Church that we can start to mould and grow.


Andrew :- is doing scripture in 3 local schools now, Blayney, Errowanbang & Millthorpe and is enjoying getting back into the schools. He has also started arranging Youth activities and this term they are joining with the local AOG church a few times, heading down to Lithgow Bap's for their evening cafe church and a few nights up at Martha St (the church property). We had a Church family picnic last Sunday (Australian MOTOGP at Philip Island was on so it was not a long one) which was well attended and a nice way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. He is meeting with the elders once a week and is really valuing these Men and their hearts for the church and the community, he always comes home really blessed. He is getting a lot more opportunities to ride the Ducati which is great as 3 minutes from our front door he is in 3 different 100km zones and out on the highways.

Caitlyn :- Survived her 1st Term at Millthorpe and is now into her last term off Kindergarten. Other than some slight nerves on her first day she loves her new school and her teacher Mr Morgan. She has made friends in her class however I think it will be a very long time before she has any close friends like she did at Windsor, but that was because she grew up and Tahlia, Brianna and Hayley, where here she is the new kid. She has not started up Gymnastics again and we are not sure if she will, she would like to have piano lessons however we have been told that at the moment her fingers are still too small so we will see. She has grown up so much and is doing really well in her reading and learning. Millthorpe PS have paid for students to have unlimited access to "Mathletics" an online maths program and she loves to get on there and earn herself Awards that are presented at school assemblies. She has received a merit award for class contribution and 2 home reading awards. The entire school holidays every day she would ask how many days till I go back to school, she just thrives on learning and loves it. She also lost her 2 bottom teeth during the holidays so had something cool to tell for news when she got back to school.

Philippa :- has grown up so much since the move, she was not exactly happy about the new house/church/life and for the first few weeks spent every day asking to go back to here real home. But all is good now, she has adjusted to sleeping in her own room with out Caitlyn, but now visits us on a nightly basis sometimes more than once. She is enrolled in Preschool for next year and will be going Tuesdays with the 3yr olds and Thursdays with the 4 - 5yr olds which I'm hoping will extend her a little. She is very intelligent and somedays craves extra stimulation and having grown up with a big sister she loves playing with older kids. Her eyes recovered from the operation back in June fabulously and are now perfectly straight, however he vision has gone backwards so we are back to drops and patching till we see Dr Rowe again in mid November. She got her first big girl bike for her birthday and powers on it, as she has longer legs than Caitie she has been able to reach the peddles and has the strength to push them.

Both girls are loving having a toy room where they can play when they want and also a backyard where they can play on the swings or trampoline or ride their bikes in the driveway. They have spent more time out there playing in the 3 months we have been here, than the entire time they were at Windsor. They both also love playing with the dogs and the dogs love the attention most times.

Me:- I'm really enjoying the slowness of life here, there is no more racing from here to there, we get back from school and the girls head straight outside and it is just lovely to not have to rush. I have been trying to get to the gym as much as possible to kick start my weightloss again as I would really love to loose atleast another 10 - 15kg, but it is so much harder when you don't have the constant accountability that doing 'Super Shape Me' with the girls did and the incidental excerise of walking every morning with Merrillie and Lauriann after dropping the girl at school. I have made a good friend in Alison the church secretary which is nice, we have been doing canteen together twice a term and see each other every afternoon when picking up the kids. Her youngest is in Caitie's class. I have been really busy with Lizzie & John's wedding which is less than a month away now, so I have done lots of trips back down to Windsor for catch ups, dress fittings, kitchen teas, I will be back down on the 31st for the Hen's night and then I will be picking Caitie up from school on the 11th Nov and heading back down till Sunday 15th Nov. I'm hoping to get to church that Sunday to see everyone before Christmas. The local AOG ministers wife arranged a 'Welcome to Blayney Jo' morning tea for me last week which was lovely and a chance to meet some people from the other churches. I also had a 'Meet Me on Queen' (our house is on Queen St) Ladies coffee and dessert night back in Sept and it was really great, we had 19 ladies come and they all enjoyed themselves which is always good. I have also orgainsed a Ladies Christmas Dinner for the 28th Nov which everyone is excited about, now I just need to arrange it, should look at doing that this coming week, I'm just trying to get all the Hen's stuff done and Andrew is off to his renewal retreat the day I get back from the hens for a week.

Well that is kind of it for now, its late and Andrew is home so I will sign off. I will try and upload some photos to this tomorrow.