Goodbye November

It is hard to believe I have already been home a month! After a week of feeling a good bit of jet lag I began to get back into the swing of things. Good thing because I had much to do!

Election Day
The day after I returned was election day and I wasn't about to miss that! It is my privilege as an American citizen to make my vote count. It is a choice too. In Australia voting is required, so I appreciated having the freedom to choose. After casting our votes...Larry and I returned home to watch the drama play out... Obama was not my choice but I guess as Sarah Palin said.... the people have spoken.


Our AnniversaryNov. 6th was our anniversary and we went to our favorite place, St Martins on lower Greenville, to celebrate our 38 years... It was a beautiful evening and so wonderful to be able to celebrate that with my honey. I had my favorite... filet mignon with champagne brie soup and some beautiful vegetables...and....key lime pie for dessert. Larry had the scallops that he loves there. All and all a very nice evening.











off to a romantic dinner

The Wedding
The rest of the month was mostly devoted to our godson's wedding. We sent out invitations to a couple's shower we were hosting for them before I left...so there was preparation for that right away. The first Saturday I was home I attended a bridal luncheon for the bride to be at a lovely tea room... It was nice to meet Krystal's family and friends and spend some time with the groom's mother and grandmother who I am very close to.











Bridal Luncheon










Ann & Elaine


Veterans DayWe also took the time during out busy schedule to go to a Veterans Day program at our grandson Justin's school. Never too busy for a grandchild. :-) Larry was honored as a Vietnam vet and that was really special to share that with Justin who was very proud.









Our daughter Lara, Larry & Justin


The PartyThe following Saturday we hosted a dinner party for them and that was such fun. They had a nice crowd of friends and family who all came together to bless this young couple with love and gifts. Larry prayed a prayer of blessing over their upcoming marriage and we feasted on homemade chili rellenos, frijoles, pork tacos and blackberry and peach cobbler.









Elaine & Larry with Michael & Krystal


Rehersal Dinner
Next was the rehearsal dinner at the Bavarian Grill. YUM! We had schnitzel, and dumplings and other wonderful German food... Of course there was the chicken dance and singing and dancing to the accordion with toasts to the wedding couple.













Chicken Dance










Elaine & Ann
with our German waitress



Wedding Day!
What a beautiful day it was! The ceremony was performed by Michael's grandfather and our long time priest Fr. Ted and two other priests assisted. It was such a sweet and happy service... I created them a slide presentation as our present for them and it played through the entire reception... ( you can view it on http://wildirishflower.blogspot.com/ ) They loved that....and loved having everyone there to enjoy their happiness. It was truly a joyful day!










with our godson and his bride


























The Nelsons
Gran & Pa













Mom, Gran & flowergirls
Brianna & Kimberly










Enjoying this special day













Thanksgiving






was just days away....and I hadn't done a thing to prepare for it with all the month's excitement! Larry and I shopped for our ingredients so we would be prepared for cooking day. I do most of mine on the Wednesday before but he prepares his on Thanksgiving morning.... He is the turkey master and when I say master....I mean careful preparation. I had to watch the Good Eats chef with him on turkey prep and baking... We also have the book thanks to our son Josh. The end result was a beautiful turkey and my dressing and sweet potato casserole, pecan and lemon pies turned out pretty good too. Everyone else brought the rest of our meal and it was a wonderful feast and we were truly thankful that we were able to be together to share it. Missy and Wes called and we passed the phone around so everyone could talk and wish them Happy Thanksgiving. It is not celebrated there as a holiday but Missy and Wes had 6 people over on the weekend and treated them to an American Thanksgiving Feast.











Gathering for prayer










Jeff & Dee Dee, Lara & James & Luisa










Johnathan & Josh










Katelyn, Jimmy & Pierson










Ashton & Justin










Johnathan & Sassy


Thanks giving kicks off the holidays.... and we enter into that time of expectation
of the birth of the Christ Child.
















This Christmas may you hear God’s love through the Christ Child, His Word of Love.
“The Word became flesh and lived among us.” John 1:14

Wishing you a Season of Peace!

Elaine & Larry

Deep in the Heart of Texas

The stars at night are big and bright....










Yes, I made it back home safe and sound to the great state of Texas! I am at my home computer desk and bless Wes, he has his trusty laptop back in his possession now.... :-) Little Sassy is curled up behind me in her old spot in my computer chair and she is a happy Sassy to have me back home.


Away from home computer spot...

thanks to Wes





















Home computer spot







The Trip


After a sad good bye to Wes, Missy & Wally ( who was on his way to the vet's for a suspicious looking bite... more later on this ) I was off to the airport with Missy. I muscled my two wheeled bags, my wheeled carry on & 2nd carry on...disguised as a purse.....like a pro traveler, got through the Australian protocol...found my gate and settled down to coffee and a macadamia nut something or other. That was my first chance to get a good look at the monster that would be flying me back home to Texas. I suppose all the people at the window taking pictures of it was what got my attention. I made my way over to the glass to take a closer look. It sat there all alone prestigious in the grooming and attention it commanded. I felt like a NASA astronaut waiting to board the vehicle of my destiny.










A little about this monster..... It is the largest and most technically advanced aircraft ever built. It is the A380. It is quieter, more efficient...and more powerful than any of the largest jets built today. It is also the most green in emissions and environmental friendly safety measures.


It is LARGEST jet I have ever personally seen... and it was ready to launch me into outer space!! Before I knew it though I was finding my seat in the monster.....and discovering the amenities. It had all the bells and whistles... Personal movie screen ( not a tiny one either ) with games and other entertainment venues, a large comfy seat, roomy personal space and everything was brand new. It even had the new smell. I liked it! It was a very powerful take off. You are immediately impressed at it's command of the runway. It was very smooth though and probably the best flight I have ever taken. The food was good too....and contrary to the trend on most American carriers.... they were offering you food, snacks and something to drink about every hour....or less! Due to a flight cancellation on another LA bound jet, the row I thought I had to myself was also occupied by two men. They turned out to be nice and very courteous. That means they didn't try to talk to me, they were gone alot ( it is a large jet and you are encouraged to roam both levels....and visit the snack bar or lounge ) , they always made sure I didn't miss any of the zillions of hand outs and stayed out of my personal space. :-)


After watching a couple of movies....dinner and many snacks...I took a sleep aid and slept until daylight. I was amazed that there was only 3 hours left of flight when I woke up! It was a whirlwind in LA and before I knew it I was touching down at DFW. Home!



It was a wonderful reunion with Larry and he zipped me off to a Mexican Restaurant where we talked our heads off over Mexican food and happy hour margaritas.












Driving down Wynn Joyce street felt wonderful again....and soon my little Sassy Belle was hopping and leaping around....so happy to see me again. I sent an email to Missy to let her know I had arrived safely and we settled down to seeing all the things I brought home from my far away visit.








a hug from Sassy

Larry taking it all in

After catching up on a little news about the elections and nodding through a bit of Saturday Nite Live with Larry I finally headed off to bed. I was amazed that I slept all night! Daylight and Sassy woke me up feeling surprisingly rested. I guess with all those prayers I shouldn't have been though. :-) I answered a few email and Larry & I headed to the polls to cast our votes.

Sassy in my chair. Does that look say....and where have you been! :-)

Thank you again for your wonderful prayers....and for taking my journey with me....

May the " Son " smile on you today!

Blessings, Elaine

ps: Before I left for home....Wally managed to devour at least 1/2..maybe more...of my HUGE Cadbury Chocolate bar....and get bit by a possum. I am not kidding! He had to have his stomach pumped for the chocolate...they said it was more than a lethal dog dose. He would have gone into renal failure in about 24 hours! Oh btw...Wally managed to not only get into my big bag ( purse ).... but he had to partially unzip the thing to get the chocolate! As for the possum bite.... one thing Wally loved to do was go in those deep shrub like trees and worry those possum by barking at them after dark.

Judging by the big cone to keep Wally from bothering his bite...I guess the Possums let him know they didn't like that.... I guess all things considered.... it was the price poor ole Wally paid for some guy fun...

My Last Days in Australia

Sunday, Nov. 2nd

Hello! This will be my last blog in Australia!

It is hard to believe I am at the end of my wonderful visit with Wes & Missy in this beautiful place.

I have SO much to write about and no time to do it! I'll do my best though. :-) The closer I am to my return to the Great State of Texas....the busier I get! Let me jump right into the last few day's events.

Friday...Oct 31st Monster Bash

A mild curious version of that anyway.... Aussies recognize Halloween but not with the hysteria that we do in America. With all our much labored over goodies Missy & I headed up to her office in Camberwell. After meeting everyone it was declared time for cakes. I think that means refreshments. About fifteen people came in and seem to thoroughly enjoy all the festive food. I had an opportunity to visit with many of them and they were all very friendly and seemed glad to meet Melissa's Mum ( as she is known professionally).


Missy's Office

At lunch time Missy took me back to the house for some much needed packing while she finished up meetings and work for the rest of the day. We went to dinner at Fierelli's....and there is no guarantee I am spelling that correctly. It was fabulous! I had a wonderful chicken breast stuffed with feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes....and an amazing Sticky Date Pudding. I LOVE Sticky Date Pudding!!! :-) Y'all expect me to roll off that plane don't you! haha! It was a wonderful day!

Out to Dinner for the evening

Yarra Valley Nov. 1st

I had no idea what to expect and that made it such fun. The Yarra Valley would be like the Nappa Valley or Northern Italy wine region. Beautiful mountains that are covered with wineries and vineyards. They are very different mountains...not coastal or nearly so rugged. It is actually not far from Melbourne..perhaps an hour at most ....through charming little towns. If I lived in Australia this would be where I would want to live. I loved it there!!

Yarra Valley

There were trees of every sort. There were also olive groves and they sold olive products in the wineries too.... We stopped in at many of the wineries to have a look....and a taste. :-) They do not charge you there to do that.... and the Australian specialty seems to be the Shiraz ( pronounced with the familiar Aussie aaahh sound as in wahh wahhh that they put on most everything :-) and sounding out the Z) very Australian sounding. Missy of course could only have a sip a few times.... since she is expecting....but it was fun and interesting learning all about the wines and how they are made.

Next we went to an animal sanctuary. It only took me about 3 seconds to revert to a child. OMGosh!!!

Animal Sanctuary

We seemed to be there at the perfect time. Sanctuary assistants were walking about everywhere which brought out the animals.... They were in typical no hurry no worries Aussie fashion....and told you almost anything you ever wanted to know about these amazing animals. That spelled pure heaven for me...curious person that I am. We saw a Duck Billed Platypus...which is an endangered species now.... Wow!! The platypus, we found out, had developed a trust relationship with the trainer...and came out to show off. He said it was very aware we were there..... and played through a little underground jetty of water....over and over.... and did all kinds of playful things... Loved it! We saw Dingo...which very much looked like a dog,

Dingo

There was also the reptile section. ....shiver.... that was Wes' favorite place. It had a Taipan Snake .... which is one of the most deadliest snakes on the earth. It kept tapping it's head on the glass at Wes....and it was like a " Moment " with his deadliest foe.. A guy thing I think....but was cool to see him enjoy it. Ewwww! :-) We also saw a really dangerous lizard/ reptile/ dragon looking thing.... GROSS! Wes liked that too. :-)

Lizard

We saw Koalas again....this time up close and personal. These animals were not caged like a zoo ( with he exception of the dangerous ones ) but were free to roam about. I didn't hold the Koala...but I was close enough to. :-)

Koala


I finally got to see Kangaroo!!! One just feet from me. They were so amazing! Lazy and somewhat bored with our silly excitement they did an occasional reshifting for comfort that drove us to paparazzi excitement! :-)

Kangaroos

Kangaroo pose

There were also Wallabies. I got to hand feed this one....and pet it. No trainer about.....just the Wallaby.... humoring us. :-) There were other marsupials..... that we did not see.... The Opossum Tasmanian Devil and Wombat. I think they are marsupial anyway..... but they were hiding...and were likely nocturnal as most Australian critters seem to be. All in all....it was sheer bliss to make our way through that lovely sanctuary and be kids for awhile.

I am feeding the Wallaby grass

Missy & the wallaby

Our last stop was another winery, one of their favorites, where we had an amazing assortment of cheeses and a few more tastes of wine. We took the beautiful drive home through the Christmas Mountains....and once in Ashburton had dinner at Sergios. I had lamb kebabs with pita and a Greek type salad.... Another food home run....in a charming little homey Greek run restaurant.

Winery

A cheese plate with our wine



St Kilda's Beach Nov. 2nd

We left early today to go by St. Kilda's Beach. It is right off of downtown Melbourne. They have a beautiful boardwalk with lots of little booths of crafters and things to purchase. We found just the items we were looking for and after a pose or two on the beach headed off to the Gold Class Movie. ...the ultimate in movie experience. :-)



St. Kilda's Beach

Missy & Wes at St. Kilda's Beach

It is a bit like our Studio Movie Grills in Dallas. We ate dips and bread ( like hot sauce and chips in Texas ) and pizza. The thing I liked best was the recliner seats.... and they will even bring you a blanket and pillow if you get cold... Not bad!



Wes lounges for the movie at the Gold Class Movies.

Getting comfy

Well that's it.... I am now finishing up my packing and getting all my travel details together. I would sure appreciate it if you would pray for me during my travel. It makes all the difference!

Travel Info for prayers:
Monday, November 3rd ( It will be Sunday evening for you )

Flight QF93 Departs 12:10 pm ( just after noon Aussie Time ) so about 7 pm ( daylight savings time ) Dallas time.

I arrive in LA after a 15 hour flight at 7:30 am....the same day!!! It will actually be...on the clock... the same morning I left Australia...hours on the clock before I actually left!! I am flying into the sun so I gain a day instead of losing one.... Crazy!

2 hours later at 9:50 am I board flight 2440 from LA to Dallas and arrive in Dallas about 2:55 pm.

Pray for

• Safety on every part of my journey home


• Good weather the whole way home. It is raining here now.


• Good seats. They are assigned this time..but pray they are good


• Good travel companions. I would be OK with a vacant seat next to me for more room. :-)


• Health....I will start my Airborne immune tabs today and would like not to have or acquire any travel related illness. They are common on long flights with recirculated air.


• Rest.....on the flight.....helps with the prevention of jet lag


• No Jet lag. I managed to be only a tad bit travel weary for my flight over and would love to repeat that. :-)


• God's protection for me and every part of my trip

Thank you for sharing my trip. It made it such fun to have you on the other end. :-) I will meet you again on the other side of the world!!!

Blessings,

Elaine