2 Months Along this Road of Life

We have again reached a marking point of our marriage. Although not large, 2 months have gone by, but it feels like 2 weeks and 2 years at the same time. The first month seemed to be more about finding each other's idiosyncracies while this month was a little bit more of how to deal with them. We have grown just that little bit more patient and just that little bit more in love with each other as well.

I haven't posted for a little while, but now I am going to share a few things that have recently happened. I got a laptop!! My very own, and it's brand new! Blake's been wanting to get me one for my wedding present and we finally did. :D

It's an Acer Aspire 5738G. Full numeric pad (my biggest pet peeve with laptops is not having them), blueray disc drive, HD 16:9 screen, finger scanner (freakin awesome!), virtual surround sound, etc. I think I shall call him Octavius. But for short, we'll call him Gus. :) For those of you who like looking at the specs.... you'll have to look them up cause I don't want to type them all out.

I also got spoiled last night for our 2-month anniversary. With what you say? Well, again my honey knows what I like/want, so we went shopping and bought.....

A hand mixer with dough hooks, and...

A blender! :D

Personally I think this was as much for his personal gain as my enjoyment as I will now make stuff that requires such machinery, but I don't mind. :D What can I say? I like it when tax returns come in and my hubby likes spoiling me.

Sinfully Delicious

After much practice, creativity, and love by the mouthful........ the idea to open a dessert shop called Sinfully Delicious came to mind. As you may have noticed, I like to cook. Moreso, to bake. The other day Blake was craving hot fudge and I was craving chocolate cake, so I went online. Allrecipes.com is a big friend of mine. I was just looking up hot fudge recipes, but what came up was hot fudge cake. Well, now I couldn't resist that. I threw the first batch together and... well... it was gone quickly. It's best to cut the recipe in half if you're only making it for 2 though. This is a picture of a full batch.

So, to fill our "shop," we would create cleverly named sins to represent banana cream pie, cinnamon rolls, lemon rolls, hot fudge cake, and lace pancakes filled with strawberries/raspberries (or a little raspberry jam)/and cream. Any takers? :)

As we continue to keep a steady schedule with our gym downstairs, we'll be adding to the menu. If you have any suggestions of things to try, let us know.

The Way to a Man's Heart is His Stomach

The past couple days have been a ...quest... to my man's heart through food. On Sunday, I needed to make cinnamon rolls for my primary class as we were making a birthday gift for one of our missing girls, so I made a half batch and half sized rolls. In otherwords, 1/4 sized rolls. They were a pretty fun size and leftovers were very much desired and enjoyed by the family.

He then also wanted to make an impression on the boys at work, so I made another batch today for him to take back to work. However, half was lemon and half normal so we had to make sure they tasted good and he didn't want to take any to work. So, he took enough for the guys around him and I "hid" the rest. Hopefully they'll actually last a little while.

The other night we watched Masterchef; which is like Top Chef in America, and saw a pretty awesome dish. It was a lace pancake/crepe that you ate with shredded up curry chicken. It didn't receive the very highest rating, but it was the most normal dish and something unique. Therefore, it was dinner tonight. :) Making the pancakes was pretty fun, albeit a little messy. Eating it is also a tich messy, but not bad. You tear up the pancake and grab some meat and eat it with your hands. We also thought it would be amazingly good with chocolate flakes in the batter with fresh berries to grab... To warn you, it takes just as long to make as crepes and is a bit more messy. I used an icing bag, but I'm sure there are other ways as well. Looks pretty good don't it. :)

By the way, this was Blake's latest challenge. Orange, Pink, and Purple, with the theme "Good Luck". First thing that came to mind was Little House on the Prairie when Laura painted the little house pink and purple.... It turned out alright though.

Ode to the Machine

Some day down the road of life, the projects I attempt actually take shape (hopefully a correct shape...). My latest and greatest, and time consuming, experiment has been sewing without a machine. Sheesh! How did those women do it back in the day and get anything done??

First off, Blake and I went shopping and bought him some nice work pants. However, they were a bit over 3" too long, so... hemming time! To be honest, I never enjoyed hemming, but watching my mom do it for years, I figured it couldn't be that bad. And, well, it wasn't if you consider it an all day activity. I had 4 hems to do and it took me about 6 hours or so to complete. However, not a stitch you can see from the outside of the pant! Think I can charge $20 an hour Mom? ;) So, Honey, I'm glad they fit and you like them!!

My last completed project was a temple bag. I have a shoulder backpack that I've used, but it wasn't very nice and was big and bulky, so I used some of my remaining fabric from my sister's bridesmaid skirts and made myself a pretty nice bag if I do say so myself. I won't, however, tell you how long this took to sew, but I hope you like it as much as me. :)

I still need to add a ribbon threaded through the loops and make a colorful lining of some sort, but that will have to wait till I find a fabric store and get one of those handy dandy-save you a lifetime-machines.

Coming home

So, i thought i better post something here otherwise it'd just be jess's blog! People might start wondering where i'm at...

Well, what to post about is the real question, i've just arrived home from work, jess is cooking us some tasty fried rice for dinner, and well.. it's been a long day and it's wonderful to come home to jess, in refelection of the last few months it's been a crazy time but worth it, finally getting to the point where we can actually enjoy just being with each other and not having to worry about going anywhere.

Things at work are going well for me, greatful to have employment when i know so many of my friends dont. So as long as i'm prayerful and keep at it as much as i can with 100% effort, i know we wont go without.

We have this awsome pool down stairs in our building, (that's filled with tourists) from about 5-7... but after that it's pretty empty, about a 21 metre pool i think, and... HEATED. So that's nice to get a swim in now and then when i'm not working.

Im' running some contract jobs at home too, trying not to do this to much as i want to spend more time with jess when i get home, but it keeps up with the spending money and little extra things, so we don't "sit around and stare at it each all day" (NAME THAT MOVIE!!) hehe...

But anyway, i didn't really post anything did i? Kinda random... but hey i posted!!... Mmmmm and dinner smells really really good.... I love jess with all my heart... and stomach :)

Well until next time... :)

A Burning Desire

Yesterday started out as a normal Sunday. I woke up, cuddled with my hubby for a little while, made breakfast (we'll make up for it next week.. :S ), showered, and then it all began.

I don't have a curling iron yet, but the other day I had curled my hair with my straightener and decided to give that a try yet again. Everything was going great until about halfway through. I have no mirror behind me, so I have to 'see' with my hands. Unfortunately, I 'saw' my straightener a little too closely with my left thumb. I now have a line a little longer than an inch and about a quarter of an inch wide down the middle of my thumb. After cooling it down a bit, I had to finish as we were now running late, so I hurried through the rest of my hair and we went to church.

Upon returning home with a hungry husband, I decided to make some good ol' chicken noodle soup with a kick. This was a first, but I figured it'd be pretty simple. Adding some rosemary to the chicken as it was cooking turned out great, but I also wanted it a little spicier, so out came some chili flakes again. Definitely did its job and gave the soup a kick. However, in the process of trying to dump the chicken and veggies (all cut with my Happy Chopper!!) back in with the noodles, I smacked my right pinky on the side of the pan. DOH! Took a few deep breaths, cooled it off, and dished up dinner.

The savory smells and the excitement of eating this enticing experiment with some leftover naan prevailed over some basic common sense. Soup just taken out of a simmering pot is still hot! Go figure. Alas, my tongue joined the damaged ranks of the day. *It did taste really good by the way*

Lesson learned: If at once you burn yourself, don't don't DON'T touch anything hot the rest of the day. :)

Once Upon an Independence Day

Fireworks, bbq's, and late night movies or games surrounded by friends and family. What can make a better 4th of July party? It's not just about the fun and games though. As I no longer reside in the good ol' USA, I realize much more my desire for independence. For those of you who know me, I am not one who likes to have my freedoms restricted in any way. Being here in Australia, some little things have come up that make me miss having all my rights, or being told I have to follow certain rules, even if I already do. I just don't like being told that I have to do them.

• Helmets are required whenever on any form of a bike.
• Any student loans are automatically deducted from your paycheck as the government pays for your schooling... sorta...
• You're not allowed to turn left (same as our right) at a red light.
• You can't wash your car or own a hose actually.
• There are speed cameras that can mail you a ticket without pulling you over.

Here are also some things I just miss about the US that are different here:

• You have to pay up front at a doctors and then go get everything reimbursed at a Medicare or insurance facility instead of having the insurance billed up front and paying a co-payment.
• Every store layout is different. Even from one Woolworths to another Woolworths.
• There aren't stores that carry everything, so you actually have to go to multiple shops.
• They have bottle openers and stoppers everywhere, but no pastry blenders, magnets, or nice rolling pins, etc.

Things I do like better here:

• Cars stop for you at crosswalks!
• Tax is included in the retail price so you know what you're paying (Mom, you'd have to reevaluate your final ticket price guesses, but may give the rest of us a chance).
• Everyone has a laid-back attitude.

All in all, it's great being 'down unda', but I hope all of you in the US recognize your rights and freedoms and honor them, because without them, life just isn't what it's intended to be.

Oooh... Pretty Pretty Pretty

Everyone knows how much dread comes from an invitation to a Tupperware party. Do I go, it costs so much, it's my friend, yada yada yada. Well, this time around, it was all for me! My sister-in-law and new cousin decided to throw me a Tupperware bridal shower when we got back, so people donated to my cause as well as I earned all the hostess gifts for throwing the party. Wahoo! Free Tupperware! That's one thing I cannot complain about. So wanna see what I got? :D

What you see above:

(2) 1 liter rock-n'-serves

(1) microwaveable jug (I have a recipe for an 8-minute chocolate cake for it....)

(1) Happy Chopper (onions, you're goin down!)

(1) Quick Chef II with basket (oscar/sauce mixer/salad spinner with funnel)

Now, this doesn't seem like very much, but the retail worth in AU$ is approximately $235 give or take a tich. Now you might agree with me that free Tupperware is definitely great stuff!

Btw: I am addicted to creating new backgrounds and the like, so hope you enjoy as they get tested out! This was Blake's challenge, black-silver-white.

One Month Down......Looking Forward to Eternity

We made it! So, the 1 month mark isn't all THAT impressive, but it has been a great learning experience for both of us.

Things Blake has learned about me and our marriage:

• "Dont ever ever ever ever tell you what to do; just suggest it gently."
• "You love the color red." (something I didn't realize actually)
• "I can almost read your mind now at what I've forgotten to pick up or clean up. All you do is have to glare and I look at the floor for what I've dropped."
• "I gota be careful about mentioning the words 'Video games'."
• "I've learn't no matter what I do, you can snuggle next to me in bed and tell me you love me no matter what I've done."
• "You can surprise me and get me excited like a little fat kid with candy with CUP CAKES!!"
• "It was worth the wait, all that time apart was definitely worth it."

Things I have learned about Blake and our marriage:

• He can tell when I'm stressed and tries to do something helpful for me.
• Hanging up the towel after a shower will take some time to learn.
• There will be facial hairs in or surrounding the sink at any given time.
• I will always get a kiss when he leaves and when he comes back.
• We can go to bed early some nights and stay up till 1:30 talking on others.
• He will love me even when I get sick or grouchy.
• He's simple to please. Just buy him a cupcake. :)
• We work well together in finances, cooking, cleaning, etc.

To celebrate, we went to Hogs Breath for dinner (great steak for me and a huge burger for him) and I bought him a cupcake for dessert. Notice how his was almost gone before I could take a picture? :)