Mars Attacks

Some of you may have seen the pictures of Sydney in all it's splendiferous red glory, but for those of you who missed it, check out www.news.com.au/galleries and look at the Red Dawn pictures. Some of them were absolutely amazing!

Unfortunately, the cause of the red sky (a massive dust storm) moved north and hit us as well. Here are a couple pictures from inside (didn't want to go out in it). Please excuse the dirty doors.

It didn't last all night, but our balcony grout is now officially orange, so here's hoping it rains soon to wash it all away!

Crap, I Always Thought 24 Year Olds Were.... Well.... OLD!

I have reached the point in my life where the age now goes backwards; until you reach 20 and then you bounce back up again.... At least I think that's how it goes anyway. But, although I now officially feel old, I had a pretty good birthday. My hubby is good with always wanting to do the best possible to make me happy. We didn't have much fun money this month though, so it was pretty simple.

Saturday night we went to his mum's and had dinner and ate strawberry cheesecake with strawberry topping. Not quite as good as cheesecake factory, but it was still good. We also got to celebrate with Bree who is now engaged! Yay! They'll be getting hitched at the beginning of next year.

His mum also wanted to get me something, so after much hidden discussion with Blake, I got a Clive Cussler book, Spartan Gold (yes written with someone else, but still really good), 3 blocks of smelly soap (honeysuckle and the like), a small wall/door hanging that says Family is Forever, and a $30 gift certificate to Spotlight (the fabric store/bed bath and beyond).

The party singin-Brandon, Me, Bree, Xander, Kim, Alicia, and Blake behind the camera.

The pie- the year I used up all the candles in the pack.

Me opening my gifts from the family. He took forever taking the picture, hence the "you take it yet?" face.

On Monday, Blake gave me his present at lunch. It was a super cute jacket that we keep passing but never buying. I'm still in the debate of whether to go see if they might still have one size smaller or keep the current one as it still fits, just slightly loose.

I didn't really feel very Happy Birthdayish, so I went and bought some crepe paper streamers and balloons and a table cloth. Made the apartment kinda fun for a while.

After Blake changed out of his work clothes, we went to my favorite fast food joint, Noodle Box. It's pretty much just lots of different kinds of lo mein. The small box is enough to fill you up! Then we went to see UP. It didn't come out till the beginning of the month down here, so after hearing everyone else rave about it, I wanted to see it too. It's definitely a cute movie and made for a fun birthday evening.

Thanks for all the well wishes!

Shakin' It Up A Bit

Today, for us, is Friday. Normally on a Friday we head on down to our local Pizza Hut and get a Hawaiian for me and a Spicy Pepperoni for the hubby. It's a great chance to spend some time talking together as it takes about 10 minutes to walk each way, plus it's pretty cheap considering it generally lasts us 2 meals. This month, however, we have a smaller than usual fast food budget, so because of this (and the fact I forgot) I made dinner tonight.

I am glad I did too. This week has had some ups and downs for me and I felt like crap for 2 days and did.... well.... pretty much nothing. I loved that my hubby took care of me, but he is also pretty stressed with work right now and I wanted to help him out. As a result, yesterday and today I've felt like I have accomplished Wifedom. Cleaning the apartment, doing dishes (which I HATE and he generally does), making meals, cleaning up after..... yeah, I will admit it made me feel pretty good. So, in one of my spectacular Wifedom moments, I decided to make us one tasty meal for dinner. It goes as follows:

Bacon wrapped chicken with cream cheese stuffing

Salad greens with raspberry basalmic dressing

Seasoned rice with.... seasoning?

Above meal received some very satisfied compliments and grunts followed by a food coma (he's just sleep deprived right now though), so ladies, here's how to make above meal. ;)

Chicken-

partially cook bacon in frying pan, still want it flexible

pound chicken breasts till thin, around 1/4"

mix cream cheese with herbs of choice, I used some garlic/onion powder/chili flakes/and a tich of basil

spread cheese filling across chicken, roll, wrap with the bacon, skewer with spagetti (you don't have to worry about removing it like a toothpick and don't even notice while eating), and toss in the oven

cook for about 35-45 minutes at 375 till the chicken is done

*I know I didn't include measurements, but this is truly up to your taste. I used a little less than half a package of cream cheese for a chicken breast cut into about 3 pieces and probably about a half teaspoon of each herb, give or take a little*

**I also want to try it with sour cream instead of cream cheese**

Rice-

chicken broth instead of water

garlic

oregano

chopped onion

butter

and of course, rice

I just threw them all into my rice cooker and it turned out well. :) It looked like the bottom was burnt, but didn't taste it, just a little brown from the broth cooking down.

Salad-

I just had packaged greens and then made the dressing as follows

1/4 cup olive oil

1/8 cup basalmic vinegar

1/4 tsp onion powder

sprinkling of salt

1 heaping tablespoon of raspberry jam

mix with fork till smooth and OH SO GOOD!

It was one of those meals you kind of expect for something fancy, but really not very difficult to make as each leaves you plenty of time to do the next while it's cooking. I started at about 4:15 and finished cleaning up same time as the chicken finished at about 5:40 or so. Give it a shot and I hope you like it!

3 Months Have Gone By And.....

We feel like we're getting somewhere! My visa has been sent in and acknowledged. They are giving me a bridging visa as my current one is up today; which means I can stay until they make their decision on my formal visa. However, I can't work until the formal one goes through, so I have about a 6 month wait starting Sept. 1st. As I mentioned before, this stack of papers was the size of a book. Some of you may think I exaggerated a bit, but here is proof.

I think that's a pretty fair sized book, don't you? The bottom envelope is also full of all my health checks I went through (aka, more paperwork). I am getting my FBI check probably tomorrow and will send that on as well, but it's only 1 page of trouble. But then, I'm done with paperwork!!!! I'll still have to interview and all that jazz, but we are definitely on our way.

Also, to celebrate the passing of 3 months, Blake decided to spoil me. He woke up bright and early and said we needed more medicine (which we didn't) and ran off to the grocery store. About 20-30 minutes later, the store is 5 minutes walk away, he returned with flowers and chocolate and tim tams.

What he didn't realize, the origami box I had been working on was not for primary. Oh no, it was for his present. So, when I finally completed it, I stole off to our room and filled it with a present. I had also made a smaller one earlier and filled it as well. Here's the picture before he noticed them.

Pretty cool huh? Well, in the larger "box" there was a 5 meter network cable that he has been mentioning for a while, and in the smaller box-a pair of skullcandy earphones. He has an issue with the guys at work eating all the time, so these babies are to block out all of those joyful noises. He has promised to not wear them both when walking home, though. Don't want someone honking because they're going to hit him and have him blissfully unaware.

So after presents were handed around, he worked for a few hours, I wrote a talk and prepared my primary lesson, and we got ready to party. Now, we have an issue where he struggles to surprise me. I just catch on way too quick. So, he decided to walk me around a bit. I knew we were going to dinner and there are plenty of restaurants all around the neighborhood, but we crossed the street to the convention center. Walked up to the front, curved around to the side, and got on the skywalk over to the casino. By this point, the 'just wear jeans and high heels' were really getting to my feet. I don't mind walking a little ways, but when you keep going and going...... If we weren't going to the casino, I was gonna make him give me a piggyback ride to wherever it was. Lucky for me, we stopped. Let me tell you, all you can eat buffets are fancy out here. Not Upchuck-a-rama for sure. I have never had lobster before, but it's right there on the buffet. Eat as much as you want. :) Plus there were lots of other great eats all around. Definitely one high-class buffet. After eating, we went downstairs to the theater and sat front row for a Irish dance-Dance of Desire. Not quite Riverdance, but it was still pretty good minus the fog machine putting out in our direction.

It was a pretty fun night all in all. Even better when we took the direct course home. :) Three months have gone by and it feels like no time at all. That's what we have Eternity for! By the way, did you notice our cool rug in the pictures? :D Feels much more homey now.