Happy Belated New Year!!!

Happy Belated New Year everyone!!
I, in my true fashion, am a tad late in the salutations but better late than never!! In this past year so many things have changed...big changes! I got married for one...pretty big deal. And then moved to the other side of the world...quite literally! It has certainly been tough, on both me and Steve, but we have made it! Next month is our one year anniversary and I just cannot believe that it has been that long since we tied the knot. By coming up on the year mark we have been focusing more and more on getting prepared to go to the Temple together and be sealed together for time and all eternity. Brother Frank Cooke has started us in the Temple Prep class during Sunday School, and we are about half way through with that. Brother Cooke also has given Steve and I the Melchizedek Priesthood class which was extremely helpful for Steve as he didn't know very much and me as well...Bishop submitted Steve's name and this past weekend at Stake Conference Steve's name was read out and sustained and then he was set apart by Brother Cooke, Bishop Bowley, Stephen Rechter Sr and Jr, Mitch Rechter, and Mario Sedlar. I was so happy for Steve and he is very excited to learn more about the responsibilities that he now has. We are also excited as this means we are one step closer to the Temple. 

    We were really looking forward to Stake Conference and the talks that we would hear, however we must not have been meant to hear those messages just yet because the live feed was interrupted several times and then remained very jumpy, so much so that the Area Seventy member that was there decided it was affecting the Spirit and that we would all be better off just hearing it at a later date. They are going to get DVD copies sent out to all the wards, and I am hoping that it doesn't take long because I was very interested in the talk by Elder Scott on the sanctity of womanhood. 

   Another bit of good news for THIS year, we finally were able to secure a rental here in Bendigo! So we moved in on the first of Feb and we are loving it! We are slowly building up the house and everyday it looks less and less like a frat house! :) I gave Cathy and the kids a Skype tour the other day and Clay asked me "Where are all your pictures?" and I had to reply "I am working on it buddy!" haha even my 4 year old cousin notices the lack of decor here!! How sad am I!? But we do have frames, I am just working on where I want photos and what not....it is way harder than you think!

  Steve is still working for the Hazeldene's farm, making fairly decent money, he was promoted again recently and if the supervisor gets his way Steve will move with him to a brand new farm later this year, and with his great track record he might possibly be looking at another promotion! We can only hope, because with each promotion is better pay and he accrues his paid leave quicker!! I am working for Coles Express/Shell. Coles is a supermarket here in Australia, a very big one. And they also partner with Shell Gas Stations. I work there about 15 to 20 hours a week, which is fine with me! I don't really want a full time job right now...the money I make from there helps out with rent, and we live off of Steve's pay for everything else. We aren't rolling in the money but we aren't going hungry either. We are really rather blessed...because there are lots of people out there, here in Australia and back home in the States that are doing it much tougher!

   I hope that I can really keep up on this blog thing, and if everyone reads it, it would really save me from having to repeat myself like 80 times haha sometimes I don't mind but other times it is nice just to be able to put it in one central place...and there is definitely more space than in a Facebook status or something....

Lots of Love

Mandi