October - November, 2013

Hey Everyone,

Can't believe how quickly the weeks are flying by.  Of course, every week down means we're getting closer to our baby being born.  The due date is Nov 20th (which is the 19th in Vancouver), and my last day of work is the 19th here.  We are so excited, and can't wait to meet our little guy.

Here's a really quick update of our Oct and the first half of Nov:

Got together with our Canadian friends at the beach to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.  We had a yummy potluck, and it was great to hear all those accents again. 

Got lots of nice baby gifts in the mail from Gill and Julia- thanks guys.  So generous of you.  Beach Baby Nairn is gonna love this stuff. 

My primary PE students are doing a unit on Track & Field at the moment... lucky me- I've got an expert in guest-teaching a couple classes a week, so I just help out and mark the kids. 

Almost ready for the baby... this was a couple weeks ago at 38 weeks. 

If you want to read more about the pregnancy, you can check out the latest update (39 weeks) on my Busy & Fit site.

We are maxing out our social life right now... lots of dinners at friends' houses.  So nice of so many friends to have us over.  These are our good friends Monica and Graeme, who are moving back to Canada next month  :(

And yesterday we had some crazy-sized hail here... bigger than golf balls.  A lot of cars were damaged (thankfully not ours), and the sound on the roof was incredible.  You wouldn't think that Australia would get hail in the summertime, but I guess it does.

Well, that's about it.  I'm guessing that by the next blog post we'll have some baby pictures to show you.  Stay tuned :)

Hope you're all well.  

~Corinna for Team AC

September 2013

Hi Guys,

Here's a quick update on our September:

First of all, a huge welcome to Steve and Christina's little guy, Alexander Sebastian, born on September 14th.  What a little cutie.  We are thrilled to be an aunt and uncle, and have enjoyed the ride (both pre- and post-baby) with Steve and Christina on Skype.  Love getting updates from them almost every day with new pictures and videos of what Alex is up to. 

Also on Sept 14th was Andrew's birthday... here we are having a BBQ at the beach (see all the sausages on the grill?)  It was tornado-grade windy out, and the chopped onions on the grill were blowing all over the place. 

hanging out with friends at the BBQ

My other two pregnant friends, Hannah and Naomi at my baby shower.  We are all due within a couple weeks of each other.  The sign beside us says "Baby Boy"... we're all having boys, and it's the first baby for all of us.

This one's a bit random, but this is how dental care is done here in Oz for students... a government trailer pulls up outside the school and everyone gets their teeth cleaned and worked on.  Easy, eh? 

Now that we're on school holidays for a couple weeks, we headed down to Brisbane to see our friends Dave and Niki, and went to the Riverfire lights show this past Friday night... it was all set to music with bright laser beams beaming off all the highrises around the city across the river where there was water and mist spraying around the lights.  

Reminded us a bit of the fireworks nights in Vancouver... everyone turns up and it's super crowded, but worth checking out for sure. 

After the show we went to this chocolate cafe at Southbank with Dave and Niki.  Yuuuuum.

And after that, we went to this open-air bar where there was a contortionist performing, and then a huge drum-circle... super interesting to watch. 

That's about it for now.  If you would like to read a bit of a pregnancy update, you can check out my Busy & Fit site for the latest. 

~Corinna for Team AC

August, 2013

Hey Guys,

Just realized (half-way thru Sept) that I hadn't done an August update... so here you go.  If you're on Facebook or Instagram with me, some of these pics are probably old news, but hope you enjoy the descriptions anyways.

 Every year, Andrew's school has a big fair called "Fruhlingsfest," which is German for "Spring Festival."  It's basically a big day to raise money for the school with rides, food, games, etc on the school's lawn.

Andrew got ultra-involved... he was manning a booth with some of his students for a few hours, then on the dunk tank (above) for a while, and finally, a model in the fashion show. 

 I've been busy working on my health & fitness blog, "Busy & Fit," whenever I've got a bit of time (which isn't actually all that often, unfortunately).  I love doing it.  You can check out the recipe for the above Coconut Avocado Cookies and lots of other recipes, products, and workouts on the Busy & Fit site.

 The pregnancy is going super well still... only around 9 weeks to go now.  We are both so excited to meet our little guy.  I have outgrown most of my normal tops now, so had to go shopping for a few mat-wear shirts with elastic in the sides.  Much comfier now.  During the upcoming school holidays we plans to get everything ready for the baby, buying all the gear we'll need.

 At the end of August we did a day-trip down to Brisbane... went to the markets (above), watched some incredible busking (below)...

... had a nice dinner out, and then went to see some live music at "The Powerhouse" (below), which is truly an old powerhouse full of turbines, etc on the Brisbane River, that has been converted into a music/comedy hall, art gallery, restaurant, and wedding reception venue. 

We also rented bikes that weekend and pedaled around our area:

 Good times.  Anyways, that's our month in a nutshell.  Stay tuned for the September update in a couple weeks, including Andrew's birthday.

~Corinna for Team AC

June-July, 2013

Hey Guys,

Here's another quick update on what Team AC's been up to in the past couple months.  As always, I'll let the pictures do the talking, but I'll preface it by saying that we had a super nice holiday in Fiji last month during our most recent school holidays.  Since this was the last time we could fly anywhere, we called this our Babymoon (in 7 weeks (our next school holidays) I'll be too pregnant to fly). 

After arriving in Nadi, Fiji, we got on this shuttle for the 90-minute ride to the hotel... the roads were really bumpy, so you can guess how my stomach took that.  :(

Our view at the breakfast table each morning... hotel pool, with the ocean in the background.  Not too shabby. 

Our hotel from the road... our room was on the left side.  This resort was nice b/c it had just the right amount of guests... not a huge mega-resort, and not eerily quiet either.  We got to know almost all the other guests around the pool throughout the week and had good chats with everyone.  Reminded us of being up at the Idle-O in Osoyoos with the Nairn clan. 

Hotel sign from the road.  Right across a quiet street from the beach. 

Spot the non-Fijian musician.

Live music every night at dinner... these guys had incredible voices, and Andrew brought along his guitar to sing and play with them lots of nights (see above).

Eco Park day (like a zoo)... Andrew was brave enough to hold all the animals... not I :)

Went into the nearest town one day (Sigatoga) with our new honeymooning friends from the resort, Rusty and Crystal.  They got suckered into buying loads of stuff... we left with nothing (on purpose). 

Ocean kayaking from our hotel... there was an amazing reef and crystal-clear water so you could see right to the bottom from the kayak.  Also went snorkeling, but no pics of that... never attractive.  ;)

Foot rub at the hotel's spa... so nice, and we had the best ocean views too. 

Leaving Fiji... flying back home.  Our flight was delayed for ages, so we were super ready to board. 

The day after returning from Fiji we went to the 20-week scan, where we saw...

... this guy.  Look at that amazing little spine.  So much detail already. 

A few days later we had a grad party to celebrate Andrew finishing his masters, combined with a gender-reveal party to tell everyone it's a boy.  We popped a balloon that was full of blue ribbons... lots of suspense built beforehand.  Check out those amazingly tasty fruit skish-kabobs that Andrew created. 

22 weeks.  (I'm 25 weeks now).  Loving the Lululemon top that Gill got me for Christmas.  Love the color. 

Had a good visit when our friends Alan and Erica and baby Zeke came up from Brisbane for the day a couple weeks ago.  These are friends we made at our church in China.  She's from Oz, and he's American but they live here now. 

Find Corinna.  This is a house in our neighborhood, but we were really taking the pic of the "Kate St" sign to send to our former colleague, Kate, in China.  

That's all for now... stay tuned for our August adventures. 

~Corinna for Team AC+

April/May 2013

Hiking up Mt. Ngungun (the first N is silent)... one of the beautiful Glasshouse Mountains near us.  We did this with our friends Matt and Michelle from Andrew's work.  Can you see the ocean in the background?

Hey Guys,

Time for another quick update from Team AC. We'll have to cover both April and May in this one as I didn't quite get around to it last month.  Just a few pics with captions so you can see what we've been up to. 

We've been enjoying lots of long Sunday afternoon walks on the beach.  This day was cool b/c there was a massive tall ship in the bay (you can kinda see it behind us here to the left).  It was full of people and even some people swinging off into the water from a long Tarzan rope.  Wished it was me :)

This is my Grade 9 classroom (like the uniforms?- straight from Little House on the Prairie).  We'd been reading about an Army dog, so I got a real Army dog to come for a visit- this is "Greta," a Belgian Shepard.  Although she's only 7 months old, she looks pretty much full grown, and was leaping all over the place, even drawing blood from her trainer at one point.  The kids loved her. 

My birthday presents and cards from Andrew and friends/family... so nice.  Thanks, everyone :)

On the night of my birthday, we went to a concert of one of my favorite bands, Evermore.  It was such a fun night out with our friends, Mark & Michelle.

We also had lots of work to do addressing some very special envelopes this month. 

Here they are, ready to be mailed around the world. 

And here's the purpose of the special mail... a nice little Mother's Day surprise for our families ;)

I am trying to get better at buying most of our produce organically to make sure we keep super healthy. 

...and doing some light reading to make sure I stay fit, but safe.  Lots to learn.  

 

Finally, I'm enjoying keeping up to speed with all the weekly developments of the baby on one of my iPhone apps.  We're at 16 weeks now... so excited.  

That's all for now... hope you're all well.  Please don't post the "news" on Facebook or tell randoms yet... won't be long now- don't worry.  Just need to inform my work before we make it officially public.  Should be in the next week or two. 

Love, Team AC