Our Night Sky

Jonathan took this picture from our balcony on Halloween night. This is overlooking the city. You may notice in the top right corner that the moon in AUS looks more like a bowl or umbrella instead of the curves being to the left and right.

Sawyer the Baker

Sawyer helped me make brownies for our 'Morning Tea'. We had Laura and Kristin, the 2 Peabody wives, over for tea and goodies. They brought their kids and Sawyer really enjoyed playing with them. We both really enjoy having visitors. We had a great time!

Cruise Ship

Sawyer and I heard about a cruise ship that was docked at Bretts Wharf, which is located just across the river from Bulimba. So, we went to check it out. It was scheduled to leave the wharf, turn around in the river, and head back out into the ocean. While watching all this, the locals were talking about seeing it on the news. They said it came within inches of scraping the bridge above. It had to leave at exactly 6:00 because that was when the tide was the lowest. The ship was absolutely huge! Sawyer enjoyed watching it, too. There is also another close-up picture of the ferry that Jonathan takes to work everyday.

Bulimba Park

After church we spent the day at our park. Sawyer played, and we also enjoyed Shakespearean activities as well. Sawyer liked the fencing. It was very hot, so we took a dip in our pool. Very refreshing!

Took a train to Cleveland

After doing some shopping downtown Brisbane on Queen Street, we decided to take a train toward the coast (East). We ended up in a cute town called Cleveland. Even though we went to a coastal town, we didn't know how far a walk it would be to the ocean, so we just enjoyed ourselves around town. The pictures above are of the Cleveland Bay. The train does not go through our town, so we got off at South Bank in Brisbane to take Sawyer to the park before catching the City Cat (ferry) home. We had a good day!

Twin Boys are Here!

Above is Connor Jackson and below is Andrew Scott
April went in Monday morning for a regular doctors appointment and they admitted her to the hospital to try and stop her first stages of labor. Keep in mind that she is not due until December 31st. She has had soaring blood pressure which was diagnosed as preeclampsia. The only cure for this is to give birth. So, for April's sake the babies were born at 9:33 and 9:34pm Monday evening. They were both just over 15 inches long and weighed 3 lbs and 2 lbs 15 oz. They are in the NICU for 6-8 weeks, and on respirators for at least another day. April and Jason did get to touch them today, and are expected to get to hold them tomorrow. They are very excited and so are the doctors that the babies are doing as well as they are. Despite this being a huge shock, everyone is doing GREAT! Congratulations April and Jason on your two little blessings, Andrew Scott and Connor Jackson!

April at 29 weeks

April is now almost 30 weeks along with twin boys. She has been put on bed rest and is getting very bored with that. Doctors are saying that she might be having these babies much earlier than expected, so please be praying that the babies will be healthy and gain more weight in these last weeks. As you can see in the picture she has only gained weight in her belly. I wish all of us were that lucky! April, you look great and take it easy. Jason can be a great waiter! ha ha

Meat Pies

Upon arriving to Brisbane, the thought of eating a meat pie sounded disgusting. They are similar to our pot pies, but they can come with some very unexpected ingredients like avocado if you want it. They don't ususally contain chicken, peas and carrots like ours at home. They are almost always made with shreaded beef, or mince meat along with other fillers. These are not just something you take out of the freezer and bake, they are homemade. They are served with mashed potatoes, or mashy mashy peas on top. Jonathan and I even had a discussion about why anyone would want to eat a pie with meat in it instead of apple pie, or chocolate cream pie. Sawyer and I decided to give in and try one for lunch. We went to a place located on Oxford Street where all our town's shops, restaurants, etc. are located. We ended up loving it. That prompted me to research the 'Best Meat Pies in Brisbane'. I found out that a chain of restaurants called 'Dad's Meat Pies' is rated #1. We come across one every now and then, but have never stoped until today. They really do have the best meat pies, but ours on Oxford street is pretty good too.

Picnic Point

Sawyer took another great picture of us!



We went up to Picnic Point to look out over Table Top Mountain and see the city from the top of the mountain. It was gorgeous! Sawyer also played with lots of other kids at the last park of the day. He really had a good time.

Toowoomba City

Sawyer was acting like a Koala bear in this picture

by eating the green garnish.We went to Toowoomba this weekend. It is a 2 hrs drive west of Brisbane. The city is located on top of a gorgeous mountain. Sawyer enjoyed 3 different parks, although there were many more. We ate at a cafe on Main Street that was very good, and Sawyer even ate the green garnish on the side. He said he was a Koala Bear. It was so cute. I also found a sewing machine there! Yeah! As you know I had to get an AUS machine in order to not burn up my US machine with the voltage difference. I am very happy with my purchase. It has almost all the bells and whistles that my Juki from home has, except this one is a 3/4 machine instead of a full size. I think for the price difference I can live with that for 2 years. It was on sale for $150 less than I had seen it advertised everywhere else plus we paid with US money, so we saved another $150. I am thrilled, and can't wait to get our sea shipment so that I can start sewing.

Sequel to the Cable TV Saga

You will not believe this one! As you know we have had a hard time with our cable TV. It seems to work fine until about 6:00 pm every evening. If you read the previous post you know that we have been given some pretty weird answers to our legitimate cable problem. They suggested to change the light bulbs which we have not done, but just simply not turning on the lights before or during 6:00 pm will do the same thing, and of course it did not work. Since the last post I have called twice about this reoccurring problem. We are just trying to get to the bottom of this. The first time they said that the train that goes through our town is probably interfering with our cable, and that it must be on a 6:00 pm daily schedule. My response was, you mean the boats that go down the river, because we do not have a train in our town. She said, "Oh, I don't know then. This is a tricky one." A few days later I called again and the guy said, "You know, I bet it is your neighbors refrigerator door." I said, "Are you kidding me?" He said that the opening and closing which turns on the light inside the refrigerator was messing up our cable. I could maybe understand that logic if my neighbor is on a very strict schedule of only opening her fridge once a day at 6:00 pm even on weekends. Not likely! I guess this won't end here, so until next time. . .

Sea shipment went to China

Yes, that's right! Our sea shipment was supposed to be here a couple of weeks after we arrived in AUS. They packed us up the second week of July. Now, we are not expecting it until early to mid. November. Yes, you calculated correctly that is 4 months without our stuff. We have heard so many different things about where our stuff went. We do know that it has traveled all across the world including China. They are now saying it will arrive in Brisbane tomorrow. Yeah! Who knows how true that is because with our experiences we don't know what to trust. If it is true it will take our container a while to get in the port and unloaded, then another couple of weeks to go through quarantine and customs. Then they will schedule a time to deliver it. We have been living with the things we packed in our luggage, and 1 box of things from our air shipment. We also rented furniture so that we wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. We have 2 beds, a couch, TV stand, and a desk. Along with our great patio furniture we purchased. We have been waiting patiently up until this point and now we are pretty aggravated about the whole situation. Keep in mind our dear friends Kelly, Bill and Ella Frey that moved to England a week after we moved have had their sea shipment for a few weeks. Kelly, I guess you are more lucky than us Mitchells! Hopefully it will arrive sooner than later!(The picture above is a container ship similar to what our stuff was shipped on.)

90% It's a Girl!

We are very excited! Both the doctor and the ultrasound tech agreed that our new baby will be a girl. Our baby wasn't very cooperative, and seemed to be very modest during her ultrasound. I'm not complaining about the modesty part, but I wanted to be more than 90% sure it is a girl. So, yes we will be buying pink, along with red and yellow. We don't want her closet to look like a sea of only pink. Well, we were all wrong. Sawyer has said from the beginning that our baby was a boy, and Jonathan and I both had the same feeling. I guess we can only find out for sure on March 5th which will be our baby's birthday (scheduled C-section). I am 19 weeks pregnant, and this is my 1/2 way point in my pregnancy because my C-section is scheduled a week before my due date. Below is a picture of Sawyer sleeping with Curious George. They have taken naps and slept together since he was one.

Across our River

This is a picture from our balcony across the river when a storm was rolling in. This weekend we took a ferry across the river and just went for a stroll. We found an antique store, mall, boutiques, coffee shops, and restaurants all within walking distance of the ferry. In the mall there is a baby super store called BUBS. It is the biggest baby store I have ever been in. I'm sure we will be shopping there quite a bit for the new baby. The boutiques were very exciting to find, except it was the kind of place celebrities would buy their clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc. If you can afford at least $300 for a pair of shoes, then I will take you there when you come to visit, but I won't be purchasing anything. We really had a good time though.