"Why build these cities glorious

 if man unbuilded goes? 

In vain we build the world, unless

the builder also grows."

- Edwin Markham

September and early October 2014 have been and we did some things in them. One of these is we started reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people by Steven Covey to help us be more effective as people. It's a real thought provoker. We're still sort of towards the start - actually haven't got to the first habit yet, but we're looking forward to it. One good lesson from what we have read is that to be effective we need to value principles, or truths about the universe and effective human behaviour. If we consciously or somewhat unconsciously are influenced by the world to value something that's not a true principle - for example, "to maximize happiness and peace I need to be rich" - then we won't get the results we're after. This is one reason we're glad to hear messages from general conference (being viewed widely in Australia today) - they remind us of true principles.

This past month we also welcomed Dan's brother and sister-in-laws new bub Jacob into the world, welcomed Dan's brother Aaron home from his mission, and welcomed spring by taking a nice walk along the coast.

Bri with Jake

Bri surveys the Pacific Ocean

"The Gap"

View of the westward, harbour side of the headland, with the city and harbour bridge on the horizon

    

"Don't we share like 99% of our DNA with a tortilla or something?" -- Brianna

So not much has changed in the last month or so. Patterns of uni, work, eating and sleep have remained relatively stable. Bri has a new calling in our ward as youth Sunday School teacher, which she'll be great at, and Dan is the new ward mission leader, which he's excited for. Speaking of excitement, things we've eaten recently have included:

1. Steak

2. Salmon (making a conscious effort to get more Omega-3 in our diet)

3. Protein powder

4. Pretzel salad

5. Mushroom soup (Brianna and a friend bought a 10kg box of mushrooms from the market recently)

6. Crackling

Today is Father's Day in Australia, so everyone went over to Dan's brother (Nathan) and sister-in-law's house to celebrate the fatherhood of Dan's dad and brother. Many of the gifts they received were edible.

In other news, a few weeks ago we went out to the Blue Mountains (specifically Lidsdale) where Nathan's mother-in-law recently bought a house that looks small from the front but actually stretches quite far back on a long property, and has fruit trees and a chicken shed. While we were there we went to see a 400m long abandoned (never used?) train tunnel that was cut through a mountain and had been taken over by glow worms. Pretty amazing.

Also here's another thing:

Last Sunday was stake conference, and Dan's mission president was the visiting general authority. He talked about how we can keep becoming better day-by-day over the course of our lives, through the Atonement. Also, how if we feel like we've not been feeling as much of God's power or influence in our lives, we can pray for that specifically. So those were good things to hear. It's great to have people in your life who motivate you to be better and set an example for you to emulate. If you're reading this you're probably one of those people, so thanks.

Lots of love, Dan & Bri

                                            A card-tower tribute to Dan's dad on Father's day.

Dan's shed

On the wall of a town in the Blue Mountains that has a thing for non-recent advertising

Indiana Brianna about to enter the cave of doom

When we got to this tunnel entrance we thought it might have been the glow worm tunnel so stopped the car and Nathan walked down to check it out. Less than a minute later Nathan came running out followed by beams of light from a from the car behind him. Wasn't the glow worm tunnel.

The view from inside the glow worm tunnel

Dan surveying the land

The other week we listened to a Freakonomics podcast about the upside of quitting. Amongst other things, Steve Leavitt and his buddy whose name escapes us suggested that it's not a good idea to keep on going with something just because you've already invested a lot in it. If a dog is waiting in a particular place for its owner to bring it food, it doesn't say to itself "I've already invested so much time in waiting here, I'll stick with it so all that time isn't wasted". Instead, it is likely to go wait in another place or try something else. They didn't necessarily mean that when things aren't working out we should always quit, but sometimes it's good. Here are some things we've quit that have been for the best:

1. Our Netflix subscription

2. Living in Canada

3. Not sorting out our insufficient water pressure problems with our landlord

4. Eating the lowest quality ice cream (if you're going to get a treat, get a treat)

5. Worrying about money (Dan has since started again but it was good while it lasted)

6. Using shopping bags that don't quite fit the bin as garbage bags instead of real garbage bags

7. Brianna's travel consultant job at Flight Center

And most recently, it's looking like Dan is going to withdraw from his phd to pursue clinical psychology training.

Also relatively recently (i.e. in the last couple of months) we celebrated the Queen's birthday with some bangers and mash, saw the musical The Lion King, and went for a >18km walk from our house to Darling Harbour.  

Bangers and mash in honour of the Queen

L to R: Rafiki, Brianna

L to R: calimari, chip, octopus, fish, oyster mornay and oyster kilpatrick...lunch on the way to Darling Harbour...sorry for all the pictures of food - we don't have any kids yet

Lots of Love,

Dan and Bri

A Sunburned Country

In December Bri's family had been feeding and sheltering and entertaining and providing us with competition in Ticket to Ride for a month or so, and so mid-month we hit the road again.

We said tearful goodbyes to Bri's dad and Bryce, then drove down to Albuquerque, New Mexico to rendezvous with Bri's mom, sister Lindsay, bro-in-law Andrew, and nephews Riley and Tanner. Tanner had just been born so it was good to meet him and see how much Riley had grown.

Bri and Tanner (and Riley minus head)

The next day we drove to Las Vegas (via Hoover Dam) with Bri's mom and hit the town. The lights shouted at our eyes, everything was bright, bustling, over-the-top, plastic-y and awesome. We had dinner at the Excalibur buffet and saw the fountain at the Bellagio dancing to first "Time to Say Goodbye" (Andrea Bocelli) and then the Messiah Chorus.

Hoover Dam 

 Bellagio

Bellagio fountain

  The next day we picked up a rental car, had breakfast and conversation about the ratpack, said tearful goodbyes to Bri's mom, and headed across the Mojave desert to LA.

In LA we went for a walk on Venice beach, stayed at a hostel/hotel that felt more hostel than hotel, then the next morning flew to Hawaii, where the sushi is expensive.

Morning after that we flew back to Sydney, Australia, where the temperature probably hasn't been below 76 Fahrenheit since we've been here.

Brianna at the airport in Oahu. She likes murals.

Bri's started school again, Dan's working at the uni library and waiting for school to start, and we've been looking for a place to live. We've also been going to the beach quite a bit and the other week went on a walk through the bush from Manly to Clontarf beach.

One of about 20 lizards we met between Manly and Clontarf

L to R: North Head, Dan, Bri, South Head

Benji's holidays