Happy Thanksgiving!

Well...... I did it! I made an entire Thanksgiving dinner, minus a few very important dishes, for 15 people. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving isn't such a big deal here, obviously, because I made everything, had it all ready and out of the oven at the same time and went to bring it out and no one was here. Hahah, we put it all back in the oven and warmed it until our guests arrived. Let me assure you, they were late, I was not early. However, it all turned out PERFECT! I made a whole turkey filled with homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, maple and thyme roasted sweet potatoes, rolls (ok, I didn't make those), a green salad, and chocolate cake for dessert! We had a fun night and the only difference here is that the Australians would rather drink instead of eat. Hahaha, needless to say we have a quite a few leftovers but it will make for the best turkey sandwiches.The biggest "Chicken" they had ever seen. This was the initial response of all the Aussies and Kiwis.

It was great to skype with my family. I got to say hello to my grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins, one of my three sisters, niece, and my sister's in-laws and sister-in-law! It was really nice to say hi and tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving all the way from Australia. Now it is off to work. Brett left early this morning for the boat and we both work a double. Bummer we don't get to watch football or relax but hey, we got to celebrate Thanksgiving our way and now it is on to Christmas!

We miss everyone and love you guys! Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

Well, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow! We get to have Thanksgiving one day earlier than everyone at home and I am so excited about it! This will be my first Thanksgiving cooking the whole meal and I am nervous but very confident in my skills. Just think... If I can make an entire Thanksgiving dinner in this very ill-equipped apartment there should be no trouble for the future holidays to come! We have invited about 15 people to join in on the American holiday. Yet, none of them are Americans so it should be interesting. While I am cooking a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, dessert, rolls and a few salads they are also bringing something so it should be a nice mix of Thanksgiving our way as well as an Aussie BBQ! I'll do my best to take pictures!

Brett and I have been working a lot which is great because it is allowing our bank account to grow before we get back on the road. We have exactly one month until Christmas and about one month on our lease here in Port Douglas. Ahh, I don't even want to think about it. I will be so sad to leave this town. However, we are excited to get on the road and pick up Casey, from CA, on January 7th in Brisbane. He will than spent about 16 days traveling down the coast with us to Sydney. He flies out January 24th!

As many of you know, Brett got accepted to nursing school in Denver so it looks as if we are headed somewhere new yet again! School starts May 10th, so we are planning to be home sometime around the middle of April to see everyone, get packed up again and drive over to our new home in CO! We are really excited and it will be fun to be in another new city for 12 months!

We hope everyone at home is happy, healthy and excited for the holiday season! We miss everyone and love everyone!

love, B and K

Jordan Heacox Rosato

My oldest sister Ann had a baby boy on Monday November 16th! He is very cute and I get the feeling Lucas is very excited to be a big brother! I am not positive of his stats but I know he was about 6 lbs 10 oz and around 19 inches long! Ann had him around 10 Monday morning! I am so excited to have another nephew and I cannot wait to meet him when we get home!

Baby Jordan Rosato

A few more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/editphoto.php?aid=2044286#/album.php?aid=2044286&id=39200194

It is really hard to be diligent about updating when there is not a lot new going on. Let me see if i can dig some stuff up...

I heard on the radio yesterday that it was 6 weeks until Christmas. What??? Instead of thinking about presents, snow, family dinners, and decorations I immediately thought about the lack of time we have in Port Douglas. Our lease is up December 22nd which means we are in the process of making plans for Christmas. We are thinking a hotel for a night or two which would make it a little less depressing than being in the van. I cannot believe our time here is going to end so quickly. That is only 6 more weeks of work, 6 more weeks of American football at Marty's and 6 more weeks until we are on the road again. I am very excited to get back in the tourist mode! I want to see, see, see!

Brett and I are both working about 4 days a week however his shifts are basically all days while my shifts are all nights. Opps. That is what happens in the sailing and restaurant biz. Oh well, we will have every single stinking moment together once we are on the road. Plus, we will take money anyway we can get it! I worked last night in the pizza kitchen. My usual job is to answer the phone, take orders, cut pizza, take pizzas out to the restaurant and put the garlic bread into the oven. Haha, that's what I thought. As of last night, I have officially worked in all areas of the restaurant except kitchen. I was delivery girl!!!!!
This little car was so much fun to zip around in and I finally got to drive a stick shift on the left side of the road! Hahahaha, it was hilarious!

Brett and I are busy organizing our travel plans. Our rough idea of to see a ton more of Australia, head to NZ for a couple weeks and than head to Asia for a month or so. We want to go to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong! However, we are unsure of the travel months so far but we are still scoping out places to stay and means of travel! If anyone has any recommendations or places to go or see please let us know!

It rained here all day Thursday, which was actually kind of nice. The wet season is slowly approaching and I think we are going to be happy that we are heading south. We are excited to see some new things!

Thanks for reading, whoever you are! We miss you and love you. Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

Love, BK

iNtErViEw for Denver

Brett had his interview today, finally!!!!! He feels really that it went really well and he is also very excited to have it over with! He was up with the sun at 445am getting ready and waiting for the call on skype! I was banished to the van to ease the pressure and give him alone time! :) Brett is happy to report that the professor doing the interviewing was very nice, professional, helpful and responsive to his questions. All in all I think he had a very successful interview! Letters are being mailed out Monday but we might be able to report before they reach home! We will keep everyone posted...

As of now, the little plans we have made and discussed are as follows:
If Brett gets in we are planning to be home sometime in early to mid- April so we can get to Denver around May 1st. School starts on May 10th.

If for some reason, which I cannot see happening, he doesn't get in than we have no plans to come until our visas run out in September and they have physically kick us out of the country. There are other schools he will apply to but that is to be determined.

Ok, I am off to enjoy the day! It is sunny and bright! Love you all and thanks for any prayers, good thoughts and fingers crossed while he was interviewing!

"Our little muffin all prepared for his Skype interview"

Love, B and K8

I have a feeling I have lots of mini stories and updates so here goes:

Brett has his interview tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 6am our time so those you trying to figure out when it is your time... good luck. I am pretty sure it ends up being 1pm Denver time and noon Seattle time. Lots of fingers crossed and prayers would be nice! Regis also informed Brett that they would be sending out acceptance letters the week of November 9th so, Dick and Bo keep your eyes peeled for that little piece of mail that will determine our future and chances of seeing everyone next. Brett said his status should change online so we could know sooner than the mail. He has been practicing a lot and he is pretty excited to get it started and over with!

Brett also has a new job! He got a full-time job on Sailaway, which is the sister-boat to Shaolin. He loves working on the boat, meeting people, going to the reef everyday and once again wearing boardies as his uniform! He is doing the daily cruises about 4 days a week and a couple of sunset sails a week! It makes for long days, about 12 hours, but he loves it! Now he is the one cleaning up the puke and not me. Amen for that. He calls it his nursing preparation...

I am still at The Beach Shack and I love it as well! I usually work one day a week in the pizza kitchen and the other 2 in the restaurant. I finally got my own section last week and it was so much fun and went so smooth! As much as you wouldn't think it would be restaurants in Australia are so much different so it has been a bit of a learning curve. I think I am finally there! I also got a call yesterday from Andy about Bel Cibo opening up again after the fire. It should reopen November 18th and there is a chance I will work the last month we are here!

We met a guy from Tahoe, who ended up being Brett Schussel's little league coach, and he informed us that he was leaving in a couple of weeks. No offense but Brett and I got to talking and realized that if we were in his shoes we would ditch the real-life once again and stay. AKA. we are soooooooo not ready to come home. We miss everyone and love everyone but seriously it was so sad to think, "That could be us."

Not much else new to report from Port Douglas. The stinger net is officially in the water but I am not sure there are actually any stingers in the waters yet. They say they should be here after the first BIG rainfall. Apparently these last few rains that we consider big are actually quite minor. Rain in Far North Queensland puts Gig Harbor to shame. The weather is still wonderful with a daily average of 82 degrees. We have not had any rain in the last few days but it looks as if a bank of clouds might be rolling in.

We hope all is well at home. Hopefully everyone is healthy, happy, warm and enjoying November! We missing you and love you.

Love, B and K8