Catch UP!

So, I made this new years resolution and I've done a really bad job of keeping it. Typical! But, I do have some good excuses. I was homeless for a month, and once I was no longer homeless I was without internet... and, at the moment I'm using the internet at my friend's house.

so, we're just going to pretend that this is a post

for January. Just before the new year began I flew back to Australia

with my awesome friend Ashlee. We has so much fun traveling around Sydney and up the coast to Brisbane. We met many awesome people along the way and even gathered a few to join us on our adventures. Here's a little taste of what we got up to.

Ashlee and I attended the National YSA Convention held in Sydney. This was the night of the Ball. We got all dressed up, ready to get out dance on!

After convention Ashlee and I sent out a few texts letting people know we were going hiking in the Blue Mountains. The word spread and over 20 people showed up for the hike. The hike was beautiful and full of fun moments... sometimes we may have thought we were lost, but we made it out alive and leech free!

For our next adventure, we packed my awesome little car Jimmy to the brim with camping gear and four crazy girls. I'm so proud of my car. He never lets me down! Ashlee and I recruited Anna and Danielle for a three night camping trip on the coast of northern NSW. We stayed in a place called Delicate Nobby. Isn't that the coolest name ever!? Reminds me of something out of Harry Potter. I won't put pictures of Delicate Nobby here. I'm afraid it will make you all jealous. Actually, I didn't take pictures - I was too relaxed to pull out a camera.

Ashlee and I had some good plans in place once we got to Brisbane, but none of them happened. Turns out we had just entered a disaster zone. Brisbane had endured a few solid months of rain and to the point where it's damns were up to 195% full. Another rain storm was forecast for the Brisbane area the weekend we arrived and it was just too much for the river systems to handle. A town about two hours away endured massive flash floods and that water slowly made it's way to Brisbane. Roads became shut down and towns were evacuated. I was sent home early from work because the business district was shut down. We were all told to avoid travel at all cost. So, instead of simply waiting at home for the floods to come and go we decided to go 'dancing in the rain.' kind of. We got some skim boards and went to a soaked field and went skim boarding! might as well enjoy it while you can.

As the floods came we spent a few hours helping people move their to the top levels of their homes. This is where the water was when we got to the homes and the water continued to rise another few meters. We later found out that it was a good thing we moved the stuff up to the top floor because the homes we helped ended up having their ground floor flooded.

Ashlee left just before the clean up efforts began, lucky her! hehe. As soon as the waters started to go down the clean up efforts began. Of course, the Morman Helping Hand vests came out. It was so inspiring to see how many people wanted to get involved and help. The LDS church in the area organized some projects for it's members to get involved in and I joined a group of about 30 YSA who went to a street with a few apartment buildings that were flooded. We worked for 8 hours straight with only a few short breaks. We all had smiles on our faces knowing we were helping people who weren't able to help themselves!