American Adventures // HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!

I told you I'd try and post some photos, didn't I? :) Here we go.

The sun was really cool coming in to Nashville airport.

This is the house we are staying in. We are staying upstairs and the office we work in is downstairs.

Our bedroom.. it's so pretty! I was on the top left bunk. Now that New York Hannah has gone home though, I'm on the bottom bunk. (*cries that Hannah isn't with us anymore*)

Our first weekend Hannah (other AR helper from New Zealand -not to be confused with another AR helper, Hannah from New York) and I went exploring. Franklin is a really cute town about 45 mins from where we are with some cool Thanksgiving decorations and some super cute shops. 

Quote on the mug: "Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of chocolate"

GUYS CAN I GET AN AMEN HERE PLEASE THANKS

Did I mention Franklin has cute shops? This is one selling Christmassy stuff. 

Here's a photo from the basketball game I mentioned here. The other gal with me is Hannah from NZ Everyone say hi to Hannah (*blocks ears from chorus of HI HANNAH*) - you will probably get to see a decent amount of the two of us! :)

The woods around here are SO PRETTY!

Let me introduce you to little Canaan, Mercy's baby. He is seven weeks old and so ridiculously cute! 

I miss little Michael at home... but having Canaan to cuddle helps make up for a bit.

I know it's pretty much winter over here now, but happy fall y'all anyway. :)

Before I go, I want to chat real briefly about American Thanksgiving. Last weekend was my first Thanksgiving (I'm not counting the Thanksgiving we celebrated in China last year) and it was awesome! 

We had around 87 people celebrating the Lord's faithfulness with us! We had a massive midday meal featuring turkey, lamb, roasted veggies, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and all kinds of yumminess. Then people made speeches and toasts giving thanks to the Lord and each other for all kinds of things. It was a fun thing to be part of! We then went outside for the family's tradition of competitions. We had an egg throwing competition (which I managed to stay in for four rounds but then lost) and a tug of war tournament and finally running races. Everyone participated, from the oldest to the youngest! (Well not the youngest because he is only seven weeks old :P). Then we trooped inside for arm wrestling competitions and dessert, which consisted of pie. Lots of pie. And biscuits ('cookies') and cream and icecream and cheesecake. The final item on the agenda was a concert which involved people singing, sharing, acting and making music. I officially love American thanksgiving.

How was your Thanksgiving? What have you been up to?

kind of an A + A // American Adventures + Misc

Good afternoon, friends! Well those of you who follow me over on Instagram will know that I'm still alive and having lots of fun over here in the US. We had a couple of days in San Francisco exploring (amongst our exploring we went over and under the Golden Gate Bridge but sadly it was shrouded in fog so our photos are horrific :/) and then we came on to Nashville.

Today has been my second day of work here, slowly learning the ropes. We work in the Above Rubies office from 9-5 doing things like packaging and sending orders, creating digital art to post on the Above Rubies social media, managing the subscribers database, answering the phone and sending off magazines. It's really fun. There are three other helpers here, one of which is also from New Zealand (we came over together). :)

Tennessee in the autumn (well over here they call it 'fall') is absolutely gorgeous. So many beautiful colours! Winter here could get cold, I'm told. We are preparing for a fun Thanksgiving celebration. Last night we went to watch a basketball game. It was awesome going to a real American basketball game! The other young people living nearby are really interested in Kiwi things... such as our money. I brought a $10 bill with me and some coins and they were a hit! Seeing other people's culture is so interesting. I'm loving hearing all the American accents around us!

Not sure how many photos I'll be posting, but hopefully I'll be posting a bit in the next wee while. Definitely not as often as I was this year, but I'm aiming for once a week. We'll see! There's always something happening around here. Anyway I'm enjoying myself wayyy too much to tell you what's happening (well ok I'm kidding guys just kidding just kidding calm down ok :P). But seriously though America is the coolest. Next to NZ of course. :P Everything is just... very American! Lol.

The rest of this post was created before I left New Zealand. I didn't post it on it's own because it's not very long in it's own right but hopefully with my little US trip update and letting you know I'm still alive, you'll be happy. :P Anyway. On with the awkward and awesome!

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Awkward:
- Going to bed (a.k.a. walking out to the sleepout) and waiting on the deck while Danella unlocked the door... and discovering what looks like an animal (like a hedgehog or something) sitting quietly on the deck next to you. So you get suitably frightened (I mean come on, it had a snout and everything) and both of you hurry into the sleepout to grab a torch so you can see what it is.
It was an empty potato chip packet.
I have no idea how that got there, we certainly do not eat potato chips in the sleepout (and even if we did, we'd put the empty packet in the rubbish like responsible humans).
Once we got over the trauma of thinking an animal was sitting on our deck, it was quite funny.

- Holding little Michael and cooing at him and having him coo and giggle back... then having him suddenly and without warning let loose a mini fountain of spit up all over you. Then he looked at me and grinned cheekily. I couldn't believe it.

- Seeing all my friend's facebook posts after the American election... :O Half of them were thrilled and half were horrified. All elections divide people but this one was the worst I've seen.


Awesome:
- A day trip with some friends to Castle Hill. Guys, this place is the coolest! It's where the battle scenes in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe were filmed. We had so much fun exploring it and taking photos on top of the rocks. We also went exploring nearby Cave Stream (where you can enter a network of caves/tunnels and, following an underground stream, travel underneath the hill and pop out in daylight on the other side of the hill! It's super cool. We didn't actually do the underground caving bit because we didn't have torches.. but we enjoyed adventuring around near the entrance.
Here are a couple of photos....

Some of the really cool limestone formations. They are way bigger than they appear and this is very high up.

It was a beautiful day.

Posing in one of the Cave Stream entrances.

- Having heaps of fun at a trampoline park with some friends. Doing awesome things with friends in the last few days before I leave makes some neat memories.

- Encouragement in the form of letters and cards in the mail. Pretty sure no one has friends as great as I do!

Well that's all I have for your, friends... tell me, what have you been up to in the last week? 
How is your life going? 
What's the weather like where you live?

A + A // life is more awesome than awkward

Recent photos

Before we start, I just wanted to share this article that I thought was interesting. It's Time to Talk About Submission

I thought today I'd share some of the photos we have taken recently. Most of these are from our trip down to Invercargill for Grandad's funeral. Sorry for the bad quality - they are either from my cellphone or Danella's, and since we both have the same kind of phone the quality is equally terrible. :P Warning: there are rather a lot of selfies in this lot of photos.

Stopping in Dunedin to feed the pigeons and ducks in the park is always a big hit! 

These photos were on the way down. We stopped there again on the way back and there were SO MANY more pigeons! They were landing on us while we fed them. It was awesome. I don't have any photos of that unfortunately.

In Invercargill, at a place called Anderson Park. Beautiful big colonial-style house that used to be an art gallery but is now closed to the public. Still beautiful grounds, though. (This was in the afternoon after the funeral, hence why we are all dressed up.)

Anderson Park had a beautiful vege garden and these interesting apple trees that were growing over trellises. I've never seen trees grown like that before.

Jana 

These photos are now from the way back to Christchurch. I was asked by a friend to 'take lots of silly selfies of Danella' so here's one to prove that I at least tried. :P Sorry, Sophie and Danella, for putting it up here... can you forgive me???

How can I enjoy the trip when Danella's legs are on top of mine?! 

We stopped in Timaru. There's a beautiful spot near Caroline Bay that has an impressive structure. You can take a glass lift up really high! Here are my siblings outside it.

View from the top

I have some crazy siblings :P

View of a beautiful park behind me and the sea

Sophie and I 'hanging' out

Sister selfie - a re-creation of  one I took ages ago. Danella's phone is new so she insisted on taking heaps of selfies so she can 'practice'.

Back home again, on our property. We had a bonfire.

And roasted marshmellows and sausages. It was great.

What have you been up to?