Our Great Adventure

It feels like we haven't done a blog in forever! Matt is away on a road trip and the baby is asleep so I guess I may as well do an update. There hasn't been too much going on but i'll update you on the last few weeks.

The Spectres have been doing well, they won their last two games so hopefully they will keep it up and win the two this week.

For Easter we went about an hour away to Phillip Island for the weekend. We stayed with some of our new friends Meagan and Ducky and their daughter Mia, and Matt's coach Craig and his girlfriend Tash. It was great to spend some time away from basketball just relaxing. Easter morning Mia and Andi had an egg hunt which was great cause I got to eat all of the chocolate eggs she found!


The Monday after Easter we went to our first Australian Rules Football game, better known as Footy. It is a huge sport here (there were almost 70,000 people at the game!), it is kind of combination of rugby and soccer. Imagine soccer with your hands, a ball similar to a football, a lot of tackling and no pads! I think the players have to be crazy. At one point during the game one of the players dislocated his finger, it was at a complete 90 degree angle and he just had someone pop it back into place. Never even left the field or anything!! Super tough man!
The people we went with are huge Hawthorn Hawks fans so of course we had to go for the other team, the Geelong Cats. It was a really good game, and the Cats made a late comeback to win! Our friends weren't too happy about that :).


Other than that Andi is the only one that has anything new going on so we will make the rest of this post about her:

She is now a few days away from 6 1/2 months.

At her last checkup she was a little over 16 lbs; both her height and weight were in the 50th percentile which disappointed Matt. Of course he wants her to be a giant, but I think average height is just fine!

She can sit up unassisted.


She smiles all the time and loves to laugh at us (but we usually have to do something stupid to get her to do it!).


She is eating all kinds of stuff but pumpkin and apples are her favorites. She also likes the Veggie rusks that she can chew on forever!

She still doesn't have any teeth but she slobbers nonstop and chews on everything so I feel like they are not far off.

Her main form of transportation (besides me!) is rolling. She gets her knees and hands in crawling position but she can't quite get them working together.

She is very interested in everything going around. She doesn't like to nap much because she wants to be involved in the action.

Mom and Dad left this morning.....It's a funny thing when they come visit us while we are over seas. It is always great when they are here but only makes things harder when they leave.

I don't know exactly how they feel but for us it was a GREAT week. We got to experience a lot together and they got to see A LOT in a VERY SHORT WEEK. They flew in on Sunday, March 21. We left the airport and went straight to the gym and they got to see us get BLOWN OUT, ended up losing by 28, and that wasn't the game I wanted them to see being it was the first time they had seen me play in almost 3 years. Monday morning we headed out for the drive down the 'Great Ocean Road', just a really scenic drive down the coast of Australia.  It was over 10 hours of driving but we saw some things that can only be made by God. I told my dad at one point that God did some really good work along the coast of Australia because with some of the views I couldn't help but seeing God everywhere.

The next big trip was on wednesday. We went to Phillip Island, only about 1 hour from where we live. We did a lot of stuff there. Started the day off having a picnic on the beach at Cape Woolami, one of the most popular surf beaches in the country. From there we drove up to a big animal park where you can hand feed the 'Roos' and see all of the Australian animals. Day ended up with a seafood dinner and sitting on the beach watching the "Penguin Parade." At this certain beach (don't know the name of it) every night around dusk the smallest penguins in the world swim to this beach and walk to the grassy area just off the beach to sleep. It was a really cool thing to be able to sit there and watch part of nature.


Saturday we had another game and I REALLY wanted to send them off with a win. After such a terrible game the last weekend we were all ready to redeem ourselves. The game started and it wasn't looking good for us from the start. Skipping to the end, we were down 17 points with 3:58 seconds to go in the game and we all feeling like we were running out of time in a hurry and that's when things got really Nutty. Tommy Greer, our starting 4 man, scored 12 points in about a minute and a half, I hit 2 threes after that and we look up and are tied with 20 seconds to go and are fighting to get a stop on the defensive end to send the game to overtime.  8 seconds to go in the game we get a steal and get fouled on the fast break, we make 1 of 2 from the line to go up 1 point with two seconds to go and win the game.  It was hands down the greatest comeback I have ever been apart of and one of the best that you will ever see AND it was a GREAT way to send mom and dad back home. The following morning they were back on a plane headed back home.

One week was not NEAR enough time but spending time with family is something we have really learned to cherish and we had a BLAST seeing them.  We are very blessed to have the opportunity to travel the world and experience the things we get to do and it only makes them more special when we can share them with other family members. GOD IS GOOD!




thanks for reading.......

Not much going on lately, just normally daily life. Practice, Practice, Practice and the baby and I hanging out. Matt's parents will be here in the morning and we have some sightseeing planned so that should be fun.

Here are some pictures of our adorable baby for your viewing pleasure :)

The season kicked off this weekend with a HUGE double header for us. First game was on Saturday against the Knox Raiders, the defending champs of the league, on a night when they were unveiling and hanging their championship banner.  Second game of the weekend was against Brisbane, the team that had the best record from last season and finished 2nd in the league. So needless to say we had a BIG opportunity to make some noise early in the season.

Game 1: Game one started and it was easy to tell that it was both teams first game. The shooting percentages for both teams was terrible. We were 30-80 from the floor, NOT GOOD, and they weren't much better. I want to say they shot it at about 38%. We had a few guys step up and play really good for us. Shane McDonald, our PG, really held us together. he had 22 and was the only real consistent offensive player we had. We also got a big spark off the bench from PF Paul Flynn, known as Flynny. We were 10 down with a few seconds to go in the 3rd, we hit a 3 at the buzzer and it seemed to really change the momentum and we owned the 4th quarter. Ended up winning by 3.

Game 2: Our shooting struggles carried over from Saturday to Sunday. As a team we were 9-22 from the foul line. It is next to impossible to win a close game when shooting that bad from the line! We came out very sluggish to start this game and got into a big hole early. Going into half time we were down 17.  The 3rd quarter started and we had more energy and were making some good defensive plays.  We got a big spark from our bench half way through the 3rd and starting making a big come back.  With 5 minutes to go in the game we were down 8 and it got interesting from there.  We really clamped down the D and had it to a 2 point game. Just over a minute left we are down 2 and had 2 opportunities to take the lead or tie and couldn't get over the hump. They hit a back breaking 3 with 35 seconds to go and that sealed the deal. Ended up losing the game by 3 but took a lot of positives away from the Loss. Only giving up 24 points in the 2nd half was one of the them.

On a personal note, it was NOT the start I was hoping for personally and felt like I let the team down a bit. I had 10 points, 8 rebounds in game 1, on a POOR 4-14 from the floor.  Game 2 was a little better shooting but didn't get to the boards good enough for the team. I was 5-10, 13 points, 2 rebounds. The only bright spot for me was a 3-3 shooting night from 3 point land against Brisbane. I know that it is a long season and things could have been much worse. We are all new and are still learning each others games. I think it is going to be a very exciting season personally and more importantly I think the TEAM will be very successful.

Thanks again for reading........

We played our first pre-season game on Sunday.  It was a game of Ups and Downs for us.  We lost the game by 8, we played without a key starter and were also missing 2 guys who will play lots of minutes off the bench.  It was very nice to get on court and get that first game out of the way. It always seems like a lose-lose situation playing your first game for a new team.  If you come out and play great you're expected to do that every night with out exceptions and if you play bad people are saying "we need a new import!" Saying that, I played a pretty mediocre game, no official stats were kept but I had somewhere around 24 points and 8 rebounds. I came out really slow but picked it up toward the end of the game.  

The league here is probably the tightest officiated league I have ever played in.  There are NO HANDS or ARM BARS allowed on defense at all. If your player has the ball and you touch him it is a foul, no questions asked. It will really take some getting used to.  It really plays into the offensive players hands and I can't say I'm upset about that! But most of you reading this already knew that!

We play our first regular season game saturday, there is a lot of buzz around the league about the game.  We are supposed to be the surprise team of the year and Knox is the defending champions, I can't think of a better way to start the season than a win against the defending champs!

On a different note, today I started my 3rd week of lifting everyday with Bruce. I am just now over the soreness of the first week and hoping to get back to feeling normal before the 1st game but Bruce says he won't let me feel normal all year! I am trying to get him to re-name his gym the "House of Pain" because it is so much more fitting than the "Body World" title it has now but he insist that it would be bad for business.  I have put on 2 pounds, I know that doesn't sound like much but coming from a guy who is ALWAYS trying to put on weight that is something I get excited about.

This season is off to a great start, I haven't had this much fun playing ball in a long time and it feels great to have a real passion for the game again.  We are all hoping for big things!  Thanks for reading......

This season we are EXTREMELY happy to be in an English speaking place, but that definitely doesn't mean there is no language barrier! There have been quite a few times that we have had to ask someone to repeat themselves and then finally just try to give the generic "uh huh" answer or laugh because we have absolutely no idea what the heck they are saying! This happens sometimes because words are different or just because their accent is so thick. Cursing is also much more acceptable here, pretty much everyone uses words regularly that we have been taught not to. In church yesterday we heard a group talking in the foyer using words I would probably have gotten my mouth washed out with soap for using, but to them it was no big deal.
Australians seem to love slang and nicknames too. As if saying the whole word is too difficult, they shorten everything. Everyone goes by nicknames too, Matt told me all of the guys names on his team and then when I met them I had to relearn what they actually go by.
We are going to dedicate this post to try and teach everyone some new words:

mozzies-                 mosquitos
caesar-                    c-section
brekky-                  breakfast
cot-                         bed
pram-                     stroller
Mackers-               McDonalds
biscuit (bikkie)-     cookies
chips-                    french fries
boot-                     trunk
dummy-                pacifier
singlet-                  jersey
jumper-                 sweatshirt
nappies-                diapers
bob-                      baby
Air Jordan Boots- Air Jordan basketball shoes
bloke-                   man
esky -                   cooler
chook-                  chicken
docket-                 receipt
"Good Onya"-     good job
lollies-                  candy
"No Worries"-     No problem
prezzy-                 present
rubbish-                trash
petrol-                  gas
snag-                    sausage
sunnies-                sunglasses
tea-                       dinner
whinging-            whining

You can pretty much assume that with any word with more than 3 syllables it will be shortened too (university is just "uni"). It has been funny having conversations and learning to understand. It definitely gives us an icebreaker and something to laugh about with new people.

This weekend Matt had Friday and ALL day Saturday off! Whenever he has time off we always try to take advantage of it and go somewhere fun. 

Friday night we just wanted to get out of the house so we packed a little sack dinner and went down to the beach. It had been a warm day and it turned into the perfect evening. Not too windy and a comfy temperature. We spent about an hour and a half just relaxing and watching people skim board and play in the sand. I think those were the best PB & J's I ever had.

Today for our big adventure we decided to go to Maru Koala Animal Park and Phillip Island. The animal park was about 30 minutes away and had a bunch of neat Australian animals. It had kangaroos, wombats, koalas, tasmanian devils, wallabies, peacocks, emus, alpacas, sheep, dingos, a crocodile, turtles, and all types of birds. We even got to hand feed the kangaroos. I had done this before but I don't remember it being so scary! Matt and I were the only people in the whole pen with about 30 roos and they swarmed us! They would come over and pull down on our arms and hands trying to get to the food. One even left big scratches on my arm!! Other than that they were fun, and really cute. One had a little baby in it's pouch. It was fun watching them bounce all over.

                                      

After the animal park we drove about another 20 minutes to Phillip Island where we went to a beautiful beach. It is one of the best surfing beaches in Australia, but I think only stupid people would try to swim in these waves, they were huge!! The beach was really pretty though, it had natural dunes, sand cliffs, and some big rock formations. It was pretty windy though so we didn't stay long. Phillip Island has a lot of other things to do but we are going to wait until Matt's parents come visit next month to do them all.

                                      

It was such a nice day. We love getting to see new things especially things like Woolamai Beach that show the awesome power of God, it is amazing to see what he can create.

Tomorrow we get to go to church for the first time here with a man from Matt's team and his family. We are really excited to get to fellowship here and hopefully get to know them better. It will be a great ending to an already great weekend.