One Year Anniversary Of...

...our life in boxes! It's true. On this September weekend last year, we packed up our lives, rented a moving van, and delivered our goods to some friends in Colorado. They graciously allowed us to dump our belongings in the corner of their basement. Additionally, we stored items at three other houses. We knew that our things wouldn't see the light of day until at least May when we returned from Australia (from September through December we lived in a furnished ski condo in Frisco, near Breckenridge). Did we ever anticipate that they'd still be packed away one year later? Not quite.

After one year without our things, here are just a few things I miss most.
#1. Sleeping in our own bed (we've slept in four, not counting hotels & hostels, of course).
#2. Eating off our own dishes.
#3. Using the red kitchen aide/all other appliances.
#4. Knowing where miscellaneous items are located (purses, vases, pictures, etc.).

Thankfully, we are a lot closer to buying a house than we were one month ago. Who knows, maybe we'll have some exciting news in the coming weeks?! I sure hope so. As much of a blessing as it's been to have a free place to stay (w/ the in-laws), we are a little bit ready to move out on our own:)! \

Bon Voyage, Hartanovs!

My sister and her husband, Travis, left the country on Tuesday morning for Uganda. They will be living there for six months. Ugh. Of course I am really excited for them:). It'll be an sweet adventure and they'll be making an awesome impact on lives there. I am just really really sad. I have been spoiled this summer by living so close and seeing her nearly every day.

If you want to follow their adventures, their blog is: travisandleah.blogspot.com. They don't have much up right now. In fact, we haven't heard if they are alive & well on the continent of Africa yet. Hopefully they'll update soon:).

Here are a few pics of Leah I took before they left. She decided to go for a new short haircut since she's not sure about the shampoo/shower situation. I love it!

Triathletes

Er...not entirely, but kind of:).

My sister and I competed in our first ever mini triathlon this weekend! What started as a random Rockwood Bakery idea while reading the Inlander's list of races this summer turned into a full-fledged weekend of real sweat, tears (only of joy, thankfully) and great memories.

No world records were broken, but my sister did win third place in her age group, thus winning this sentimental gift of recognition: a specially engraved wine glass. She plans on bringing it with her to Uganda since she leaves next week. I, sadly, did not receive any special awards for my effort, although Leah and I did finish together. Her age bracket wasn't quite as competitive as mine. Grrrr.I am now a huge fan of mini triathlons. I'm seriously considering making this a yearly event - whether the Wenatchee Apple Triathlon or any other in the Northwest. Anyone that wants to join in the future, just let me know! It was so much fun to train all summer towards a goal and then do something so entirely different than I've ever done before.

Here are a couple pics of our day...
We were pretty much the only ones without wet suits, but the water wasn't too bad. We also got to wear some nice yellow swim caps. I felt like a real racer chick. This was my sad attempt to capture both of us with our bikes (using the self-timer on the top of the Forester). It gives you a glimpse of the scenery surrounding the event. Again, all those of you on the edge should now consider doing a sprint triathlon. Just think about it:)...

At Last!

At last...I am posting again. Yes, it has been a long time coming. No, I don't really have a good excuse regarding my long hiatus. Mostly I've just been lazy, but we can call it an "adjustment period".

At last...my husband is an employed man making a pay check! I am no longer the sole bread-winner in our family. Yes, it's true. He got paid for the first time a few weeks ago. We thought briefly about framing it instead of cashing it, but of course we need it too much:). Instead I decided to take a few pics of Jonathan posing with his first official paycheck. I guess it is the normal progression: go to school forever, get a job, get paid. It just seemed SO FAR away at many points during this journey. I can't believe he's actually "arrived". AND, he likes his job. That's the best part. He loves the variety of patients he sees & all the great people he works with. Yeah for job satisfaction + paychecks:)!
At last...I have a teaching job! Yahoo!!! I will be teaching 6th grade at an elementary school in a really cute part of town, adjacent to one of our favorite parks. I am very excited, even though the thought of teaching 6th graders is slightly terrifying at the present moment:). It'll be a good challenge, though. There's definitely potential for madness, but also potential to make a big impact on lives with the older kids. I am practicing my mean face and mentally preparing myself for the challenge:).

Here are a few things we've been up to lately...
*Spending time w/ family at Priest Lake (a week w/ the Vaughn nine & a long weekend camping with the Hooks, a weekend up there with Carly & Neal and the boys + numerous other misc. time at my favorite place on earth)
*Running, biking and swimming about every day with my sister as we train for our mini-triathlon (http://www.triwenatchee.net/) I will definitely post after our race. It's next weekend and we are so excited! I've never been to Wenatchee & neither of us have done anything like it, so we'll see how it goes...(this picture documents a first: all four Vaughn children going on a run together!)
*Reading lots of books, including many at the sixth grade level in preparation for this coming school year.
*Catching up with friends in the area w/ lots of dinner dates & time hanging out.
*Enjoying a visit from my good friend, Andrea. I have to document this one because it was so entirely random. On a rainy day after coming back from the lake, we decided to do what any normal twenty-five year olds would do. We decided to make skirts. Wow. Eight hours after our start time, we came out with these original masterpieces. (sidenote: Andrea paid $8/yard and I paid $1/yard - not sure I'll go for the shimmery look next time around)
All in all it has been a great few months. It hasn't been an entirely easy transition. We are so blessed to be living with Jonathan's parents, although we are dying to be in a house soon. We are saving like crazy to meet our down-payment goal and hopefully we'll be able to make an offer on a home by early this fall. We are just so ready to settle into life here, and we're currently extending our "out of boxes" stage to almost a year. Whew! We know the Lord's timing is perfect, so we're very much resting in his arms. Love to you from the Hooks!

Ode to Colorado

I know it's been a long time since I last posted. Life has been a bit crazy on the Hook front the last few weeks. Here is a little update....

We arrived back to the states on May 10th and spent the following two weeks trying to fit everything we could into our last days in Denver. Here are a few things we did:

*spent lots of time (and late nights) with family & friends*moved all our belongings from the six separate storage locations (thank you friends and family) into one house & eventually the moving truck
*drove to Colorado Springs for an overnight w/ Andrea & an Australian celebration with her class
*went to my classroom at Bergen Valley for an Oz Presentation + clean-up & goodbyes
*took one last trip up to the mountains in Summit County, including a quick stop at the Silverthorne Outlets (one of my greatest downfalls)
*Had about a dozen breakfasts, lunches & dinners out with friends & family (two trips to the Rio...the greatest Mexican restaurant of all time...how I've missed it!)*took a few walks & runs around Wash Park
*Jonathan wrapping up school & GRADUATED. He's officially "Dr. Hook" now. Pretty impressive, huh?!*Enjoyed two home Rockies games...both were W's!*Hosted a little graduation/going away party

It was a whirlwind. We love Colorado. We love our friends and family in Colorado. We love the weather in Colorado. We love the mountains and endless opportunities for adventure in Colorado. I loved my job in Colorado (teaching at the best school in the history of the world:)). (Here's my school. I got to see the continental divide every day on the way to school)

So, in honor of the state we both love, here is just a SMALL glimpse of our lives in Colorado over the past three years. Just a few of our favorites.....So, we moved away from Colorado. You might have gathered that already (or know it already). Why did we move away from this state that we love, you may be asking? Well....it's because we love Spokane, Washington too. It may have really long, gray winters, but is has absolutely gorgeous summers & falls. There are amazing lakes everywhere in the northwest (including my favorite place in the entire world: Priest Lake - see first blog post ever, Leah's wedding). There are many amazing places within driving distance (the Oregon coast, Portland, Seattle, Leavenworth, the sound, Vancouver, Banff, Glacier National Park, etc.). Most importantly, though, it is "home" because it is near family (and friends too). We are happy to be back in the good ol' northwest.(Yes, we took the "long route" and drove through the Grand Tetons + Yellowstone. I love the buffalo picture. These massive beasts came about two feet from our vehicle. Wow!)

The next few weeks and months will consist of a few things...
*Jonathan studying for his PT board exam
*Jonathan starting his JOB at a PT clinic on the south hill on July 7th!
*Me looking for a teaching job
*Both of us looking for a house (hip, hip, horray!)
*Both of us trying to organize our out-of-control lives

I'm not so sure about my role in the blogging world at this point. The "adventures" of the Hooks will continue, but we are no longer living on foreign soil and we're childless (two blogging musts)...I'm not sure if I should keep this up. As you can see it's been a bit harder to post these past few weeks. Maybe it's just the MAD transition? Hmmm....

The Best & Worst of OZ!!!

Okay. It is now 3:08 in the morning in Australia and we leave the country at 3:30pm the afternoon. This is my last post on the continent of Australia - and sorry that I've updated all four of these last posts at the same time. It just didn't happen for me before now, so we'll see if I can stay awake long enough to finish this list in its entirety. After hours of thoughtful deliberating on the ride back from Sydney, we, Jonathan & Amy Hook, have agreed on our top ten lists. We'll start with the "worsts" first...

The Ten Least Desirable Things About Australia (according to the Hooks)

10. Vegemite. Okay, we know it's a bit lame. No one forced Vegemite down our throats or anything. We were just having a hard time coming up with #10 and thought we'd give our opinion on the soy sauce-type mixture that people like to spread on toast around here.

9. Lack of Drip Coffee. Although the espresso here in Oz is great, the availability of drip coffee is a huge bummer. I love lattes & flat whites, but I wish the plain ole drip was an option as well. It's quite a bit cheaper too. Those lattes hurt the budget & the presence of the filtered variety could have helped out a bit!

8. Drivers & Their Pedestrian Etiquette. I think it may say somewhere in the law books here that drivers should yield to pedestrians, but one trip across the street will prove otherwise. Without fail, we'd hear the vrooms of the engines as cars passed instead of stopping for us. We justified their actions by saying they were just trying to pass faster so we could cross sooner:).

7. Aussie Foul Mouths. I think that during our time in Australia we heard more profanity on the streets, in the shops, and on the beach than in our entire lives combined. Seriously.

6. Unfamiliar Groceries. Going to the grocery store was fun at first, and I do appreciate some of the new foods over here, but it was also a nightmare at times! I can't tell you how many nice old ladies I stopped in the aisles when I couldn't find a certain product (black beans, egg noodles, half & half, whipped cream, corn chips, molasses, the Mexican section - which doesn't really exist, cornmeal, corn syrup, etc!).

5. Australian Tax Law. I didn't earn much of an income to begin with, so when I found out a week ago that as a non-resident I owe 29% of my income back to the Australian government because I'm a foreigner, I was not pleased in the least!

4. Closing Early. I really like the idea of shops closing early. All the employees go home to their families and snuggle up by the fireplace for some hot cocoa and a bedtime story. Or...I guess it's Oz. They go home to a cup of tea and biscuits or scones. Anyways, we just hated that there was nowhere to go after five pm when all the shops closed. We miss the coffee shops in Denver that stay open late!

3. Internet/Phones. Both of these services are a bit sketchy (or dodgy, they would say) in Oz. Everyone has to pay so much for Internet (even wireless - you pay per download) and therefore no coffee shops offer free access. Similarly, our cell phone plan here was pretty bogus. Even Martin & Romana, on their family plan, cannot talk to each other for more than five minutes or they pay 40cents/minute. Ridiculous, I know!

2. Poor Road Signs. This one is near and dear to Jonathan's heart right now especially since his $250 ticket (thus the reason we slept in the car, as explained in our Sydney blog)! It might not be entirely fair to blame the road signs in Oz, but we have noticed considerably different (that's a euphemism) signs when it comes to clarity, size, and the degree to which they give advanced notice.

1. Expensive EVERYTHING. Or almost everything. We had to get over this difference pretty quickly or we'd go crazy. We did the best we could, but it was sure hard not to wince each time we checked out at the grocery store or paid at a restaurant. It would have been better if the exchange rate were a bit more in our favor (the American dollar reached an all-time low while we were here and continues to decline!) A couple random prices we saw recently (Maybelline mascara: $14.30, one powerbar: $4.52, vitamin water: $3.48. You don't believe me, do you? Here's a picture:

Now that you are probably thinking that we don't like Australia, we'd better follow-up with all our FAVORITE things.

The Ten MOST AMAZING Things About Australia (according to the Hooks)

10. Muesli & Pineapple. It's a tie. We love muesli for breakfast. It's quick, healthy & delicious and I've been recently inspired by Romana to make it myself, like she does, when we get back to the states. I don't know if it'll be the same. Pineapple is a huge love of ours & we definitely ate our share during our time here, both fresh & frozen in smoothies! Delicious.

9. Friday Night Footy. Almost every Friday night, we'd cozy up to the TV and enjoy a little Australian rugby. Jonathan was hooked right away, both for it's similarities to football (or gridiron, as they call it) and it's sheer insanity. Although we still don't know all the rules, we've improved in our understanding of the game. Going to the live match in Brisbane was a definite highlight as well.

8. Seafood. Coming from the land-locked state of Colorado, it has been wonderful to be close to the ocean and experience fresh & delicious seafood. We've enjoyed our fish & chips experiences, our yummy restaurant seafood selections, and our amazing crab day!

7. McDonald's 50 Cent Cones. Yes, you read correctly. A soft-serve vanilla ice cream cone is 50 cents (it was only 30 cents in Sydney!!!). With food prices sky-rocketing all over the place, the cone has somehow come through unscathed:). We never could figure out how everything else on the McDonald's menu was much more expensive than in the states, while the cone was so cheap. We weren't complaining though. I have no idea how many of these cones we consumed during our four months here! :)

6. Wildlife. It has been so fun seeing the abundance of wildlife Australia has to offer. In the wild we've seen koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, snakes, lizards, geckos, dolphins, kookaburras, dingos, and countless other creatures that we can't even begin to name (plus many more animals in the zoo like the wombat, another personal favorite). There is nothing quite like waking up each morning to the crazy calls of the birds in the rainforests surrounding us! (ironically, as I write this the first kookaburra has awoken. It's 4am)

5. BBQs. Aussies truly do know how to BBQ. They NEVER "throw a little shrimp on the barbie" because they only throw prawns (we were set straight on this right away). We've especially loved the clean, efficient, accessible BBQs on all the beaches and parks. They are everywhere and people use them all the time. We will miss that.

4. Scooter Rides. We have loved scooting around the coast in our little adventuremobile. Although it was a bit of a nightmare on rainy days, it was so glorious to zip along the coastal roads while feeling the wind on our faces, smelling the salty sea air and soaking up the sun:).

3. Surfing/Swimming/Reading. This is a large category, I know, but it's basically "beach activities". Jonathan fell in love with surfing during our time here and it was really fun to watch him improve (except on those four-hour days when I couldn't catch his attention to make him come in:)!). Swimming in the ocean was just heaven (most of the time), and reading was a huge highlight for both of us. I wanted to make "reading Harry Potter" a category of its own, but Jonathan said it wasn't very "Australian" and I suppose he's right. We both read the entire series for the first time while over here (in about a month and a half) and it was a serious highlight!

2. The Beach! This category, unlike the last, is just the general presence of the beach. It's glorious! Granted, you can't really separate the beach from the beach activities listed above, but it was just too big a category to all fit together. Since neither of us have lived near a beach before, we loved every second of sunsets, walks along it, beach sports, and just the general beach atmosphere.

1. Relationships/GoodLife. As great as everything else was in the country/continent of Australia, relationships easily top the list. We have been absolutely blown away by the amazing people we've met here and their kindness, generosity & loving nature (above is a scanned copy of the front of the church bulletin last week - a funny picture of our home group). It's impossible to think about our time here apart from these relationships. We'll certainly come away from this experience with a bigger view of the world and of the body of Christ. We only pray that our paths will cross again someday with all the people we've come to know and love!

Wow. It's 4:40 and I am heading to bed for a few hours at least. I hope that my strategy worked & that I sleep through the entire plane ride!! We'll be on American soil in just a few long hours.