Chapel Hill

Hello once again! Our family moved to Chapel Hill in July. We moved just about 5 minutes up the road from where we were living. We live on a long and hilly culdesac almost to the circle. The house has a large built in sand box and a basketball hoop for the kids. Rachel has a large bedroom and small bathroom down stairs which she enjoys. Amy and Caleb have their own bedrooms upstairs with built in closets! That's something that they didn't have before. We have two air cons; one in the master bedroom and one in the living room which will be wonderful this summer (December). The kids also have a large back yard to play in and it is landscaped so nicely. The house has lots of large windows to let the beautiful sunshine in and all the windows have screens! Screens and built in closets.....I had no idea how much I would miss them! Our new address is
11 Peebles Place
Chapel Hill, Queensland,
Australia, 4069
For those of you who do not have it, my e-mail is hengst1962@gmail.com
Amy and Caleb are now in a carpool with two girls on our culdesac. Their mom and I take turns driving to and from school which is a treat for all of us. The girls are 6 and 10 and they love playing with Amy and Caleb. They are together almost every day. Caleb does miss his friend who lived behind us at the other house. They were great buds!
The house is wonderful, the neighborhood is great, and Duane and Rachel still catch the bus to get to work/school. We are very thankful that the Lord lead us to our current dwelling!
Amy and Caleb only have 5 weeks of school left until summer break!
Rachel is alright. She is studying very hard for her UQ finals which will be over the next two weeks. After that she will have completed her first year of Uni and will be more then ready to enjoy her summer break. She has really missed reading books for pleasure. She has been very busy with school and working at KFC.
Duane is working at the Milton office and seems to be enjoying his work. He leaves the house around 7:30 and is usually home by 6:00 which is great for the whole family. I love his hours! This week was the famous Melbourne Cup Horse races which is huge here in Brisbane. Duane said that the whole office was called into the Hub area to watch the races and they had munchies and about 20 bottles of champagne in the middle of the day. After the race they all went back to work. Amy said that her class watched the races at school. I'm not sure what they were supposed to be learning.............anyway, it was a major event in Australia.
Let's see....what have we been doing since our last blog? We moved in July and in September we went to visit Hervey Bay and Frazier Island, and we went whale watching on a small tour catamaran. We all had a wonderful time!
In January, we are flying to Hamilton Island, which is part of the Whit Sundays near or on the Great Barrier Reef. Duane and Rachel are looking forward to some good snorkeling among the beautiful coral. I'm just looking forward to relaxing at the beach! Amy and Caleb are looking forward to flying!
Michael's ocean voyage has been extended for two months, therefore he will not get back to San Diego until April 2010. So far he has been to Japan and Singapore. He e-mails us about once a month. He seems to be doing okay. We are all looking forward to seeing him again. Rachel is looking forward to the two of them hanging out and seeing the sights. Caleb has been asking constantly about Michael. We all miss him!
I'll close for now and post some pics of our house and Frazier Island trip.
We miss you all!