Snowboarding!

Well, the weather finally decided it was time for winter and so Jeremy and I were able to go snowboarding on the weekend. Yay! As promised, here are some photos (although they're not very glamorous)....

Me at the top of the mountain, delaying strapping into my board. Doesn't it look like I have a moustache in this photo?! Hehe. Don't worry, I don't...

Jeremy and I on the lift. It was actually snowing by this time...see all the snow stuck to us?!

That would be me, coming to the base of the mountain.

Me again.

Jeremy coming towards the bottom of the mountain.

Jeremy again!

And that's it! Pretty exciting stuff huh?! On a side note, I am actually really starting to get the hang of this snowboarding thing. On all previous snowboarding trips, I had been unable to turn "toe-side" (turning to face the mountain), which meant that I would constantly be turning "heel-side" (turning to face down the mountain) to slow myself down. Not only did this absolutely kill my legs, I looked like a gimp because that's so not the way to snowboard. Anywho, yesterday I finally began to master the art of switching from heel-side to toe-side (which is what you see all good snowboarders do...they turn one way and then quickly carve the other way), which was a huuuuuge accomplishment for me! I ended the day feeling great - my legs weren't sore because instead of fighting the mountain I was actually letting myself coast down without being afraid! Poor Jeremy didn't have such a great day...he fell getting off the lift and hit his shin on his binding (actually, the skier next to him pushed him forwards and he lost his balance), and then he fell another time (I think my board went over the front of his board) and twisted his knee. But, ever the trooper, he got back up and by the end of the day he was fine. He's a much better snowboarder than me, probably because he's not afraid to go super fast. So, that was our Sunday...fun, fun, fun!!!

Back to Saturday...Some of our good friends, Eric and Shannon, are expecting a little baby boy in February (actually, their due date is the 28th, so keep your fingers crossed he'll pop out a day early and we'll have the same birthday!), and so on Saturday I went to a baby shower. We had a lot of fun playing "The price is right" for baby items and some other crazy games. It was so great to see Eric and Shannon again (we don't see them nearly enough), and to shower her with gifts for the baby (whose name, by the way, will be Chase Maximilian - how cute is that!).

And that's all our news. Oh, it finally snowed here last night, so now everything is a wintery white (and all the roads are icy as heck! Aaarrrghh!). Yay!!

Christmas, New Years, and everything else

I know, it's been forever since I wrote on here. I meant to do it after Christmas, but then I figured I'd wait until after New Years, and then I just never got around to it. But now, due to popular demand, I'm finally knuckling down and getting it done!

As many of you already know, Jeremy and I made the long trip to Chicago to spend Christmas with his family. We packed up the dogs, drugged them up with Dremamine (to stop them from getting carsick), and made the 12 hour drive to the windy city. We were there for about a week, and kept very busy with Christmas, family and friends. Jeremy's parents hosted Christmas day dinner, and so after opening all our pressies we were running around like mad people making sure that everything was done by the time aunts and uncles started arriving. We had the usual Christmas meal - turkey, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, and finished it all off with pie. Mmmmmm....delicious! The day after Christmas (nope, it's not Boxing Day over here) we ventured into the city of Chicago to spend the day with some of Jeremy's good friends, Nicky and her husband Corey, and Julie. We had such a great day - walking around the city, riding the "L-train" (called so because the tracks are elevated above the streets instead of running through tunnels), eating and drinking. Here's some pics...









Jeremy and I looking over the ice-skating rink at Millenium park.











The giant bean at Millenium park - why they have this in the middle of the city I have no idea!


From left: that's me, Jeremy, Jessica (Jeremy's younger sister), Julie, Nicky and Corey




After dinner, all 6 of us piled into Corey's BMW to drive to a bar. It sure was cosy!! Speaking of dinner, while we were in the city we ate some of the best food ever! We ate lunch at this funky little place called the Bongo Room where the wait is never less than 30 minutes and where people line up in the street to eat on weekends. It was so delicious! Then, for dinner we ate the best tapas I've ever had! We had delicious things like octopus with french fries (no, not calamari, but real octopus with tentacles and all), chicken, cheese and ham broquettes, mussells...you name it, we ate it. It was so incredible! Wash it all down with a mojito and you're good to go! Mmmmmm!!

The next day Jeremy and I just lay around the house, and hit the mall for a little post-Christmas shopping. The day after that, we got to go and visit good friends of ours who had moved from the DC area back to Chicago after they had their baby. It was so great to see them, and to play with their adorable baby girl Keira. She is a really sweet baby - always smiling, with chubby little cheeks! Don't believe me!? Look for yourself!



Then it was back to DC in time for New Years Eve. After such a hectic week, we weren't really in the mood to go out and party, so we made reservations at a restaurant by us. We had a couple of drinks, and some delicious food, and then came back home to watch the ball drop on tv. Not very exciting, but still it was nice.

Then it was back to work as usual, and nothing much has been happening since. It's been unseasonally warm here over the last couple of weeks, but yesterday the weather finally decided to act like it's winter and temperatures have dropped. It's been dropping below freezing overnight, and not getting much warmer during the day. It's pretty darn cold, but I'm so glad it finally is because it means one thing - we get to go snowboarding again! Woo! Maybe this time I'll actually remember to bring a camera so we can get some action shots! Haha. I'll have to try my hardest not to fall down when the shutter clicks!

Sports, sports, sports!

Who would've thunk that I'd be so into going to sporting events?! It's ludicrous to imagine little ol' unathletic me actually enjoying watching a team play. I guess it just goes to show how much I've changed over the last 2 years.

So, this weekend Jeremy and I not only scored tickets to see ice hockey, but we also scored some tickets to an NFL game. Woo! On Saturday night we went to see the Capitals play the Buffalo Sabres - what an AWESOME game! It was crazy! There were a couple of big fights (a couple of players got sent off for the game), and some awesome goals! I'll do my best to re-cap one of the most awesome goals I've seen yet...So, after the first big fight both teams were penalised. Sometimes when a penalty is called, they do this thing called a "power play", where the team that was in the wrong has to play with one man less than the other team for a certain amount of time. So, after the big fight both teams had a power play, but the Sabres had one man less for a longer period of time seeing as they started the fight. Now, if a team thinks they will benefit, they are allowed to pull out the goalie and put an extra man on the ice. So, the crazy Sabres pulled their goalie in the hopes of scoring against the weakened Capitals. Hehe. BIG MISTAKE! So the puck is all the way at the other end of the ice, and someone hits it, it bounces off a Capitals player, and ever so slowly starts sliding down the ice. The Caps player and a Sabres guy both take off skating in hopes of catching it, but apparently the puck was sliding just a little faster than them. Slowly but surely, the puck just barely glides right into the unmanned goal. Haha! It was the best goal ever! Hilarious (although I'm sure my story doesn't do justice to the brilliance of such an event - go here and click on "John Erskine with an empty netter" to watch)! It was the best game ever. LETS GO CAPS!

Oh, and did I mention that Bob's $14ooo worth of season tickets to the Caps games also gets the bearer into a swanky area called the Acela Club? Well, we discovered that they do, and so Jeremy and I spent most of the game sitting at a candlelit table with a bottle of wine, with an awesome view of the ice. Sweet!

Then, after our exciting night at the hockey, on Sunday we went to our first pro football game. Holy cow! Crazy! The Washington Redskins were playing the Atlanta Falcons. The stadium was huuuuge and it was packed! I've never heard such a loud crowd in my life. It was pretty cool. The game was average, and considering I don't really care much for football it was pretty boring. Plus, NFL games take forever, because they have to regroup and discuss strategies and all that jazz in between plays. But it was still kinda cool. Once again, Bob had awesome tickets. We were on the "club" level, which means that we had access to a whole level of bars, with a Hooters (yes, that's right, Hooters!) and all that fun stuff. If we wanted to, we could have stayed after the game for a post game party, but we decided to high-tail it out of there in an attempt to beat the crowds. We didn't get any good photos, but here's the two that I did take...

The next picture, however, is a classic. Our cute (and mostly pain-in-the-butt) dog, Adelaide, has had some weird growth on her side for a couple of months. The past week it seemed to double, or even triple, in size, and then the other night it burst. I know...EEW! So, we didn't want her licking, biting or scratching at it, and so my crazy Jeremy had this wonderful idea (NB:that was sarcasm)...

Yep, that's right...he put one of his t-shirts on our poor doggie! Haha. She sure looked ridiculous, and the picture doesn't even do it justice. Oh well. She didn't seem to mind too much, but in the morning when Jeremy got up to let her out she had somehow managed to get it off of herself. See what madness I have to put up with!!? Haha. Oh, and we took her to the vet but apparently she's fine. She has to take some antibiotics to help the busted thingy heal, but other than that she's back at home, being her normal annoying self. Lucky us.

And that's about it. It's getting pretty cold here - at the moment it's -2 degrees Celcius outside. I guess winter is finally upon us, which is both good and bad. It's super good because it means that Jeremy and I will finally be able to put our snowboards to good use (the ski places are making snow as we speak, and will hopefully open sometime this week). It's bad because it means that my little fingers and my little nose will feel like icicles for the next 3 months. But oh well, we love winter, and I absolutely love the snow! So be on the lookout for lots of snowy pictures in the near future! Hopefully we'll get some good pics of us snowboarding this season, so you can all be jealous that we're so awesome! Haha.

Christmas already?!

Yes, I know it's been a while since you guys have seen anything from us, but I don't know that we've done much that's been particularly news-worthy. Mum is always saying that we're ALWAYS doing stuff, but that stuff isn't much more than dinner. Oh well. Here goes...

Over the last few weeks we've seen Halloween come and go (we had a miserable 4 trick-or-treaters at our apartment), gone to an ice-hockey game to watch Will play during the break between 1st and 2nd period, had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant (as opposed to having it with family and friends, like most normal people do), and pushed and shoved our way through the mall on one of the biggest shopping days of the year (the Friday after Thanksgiving, curiously name Black Friday). And that's about it really. We've both been working hard (or not so hard, but shhhh...don't tell anyone), and are currently enjoying a loooooonnng weekend together (we have off from Thursday through till Sunday for Thanksgiving). Other than that, not much else is new.

At the moment, Jeremy and I are seriously considering moving to a new city. Our top choices at this point are Portland (Oregon), Seattle (Washington) and Denver (Colorado). We would really love to buy a house sometime in the near future, and if we stay in the DC area that most likely won't happen. Housing prices are ridiculous around here - friends of ours bought a 1-bedroom condominium last year for just under $400,000, and that's about 40 minutes outside of the city!! If we buy a house, we would love for it to be big enough for us to stay there for at least a few years, and hopefully it will be big enough for us to raise a family when that time comes (don't worry, it's not coming for at least another 3 years). Moving to a new city will hopefully allow us to find such a house, and at a cheap price relative to the prices out here. But we'll see...moving is such a huge deal, and if we move at all we most likely won't do so until after the wedding in April. In the meantime, we'll keep slogging it out here in DC.

Speaking of money, it's so weird working for a family that is so incredibly wealthy. It blows my mind to think of how much money is floating around the area that they live in. For example, this house is just around the corner from Bob's place, and look at the price! It's crazy! I look after a 15 year old girl who has at least half a dozen pairs of jeans that cost $200 each, and we recently found a pair of Dolce & Gabbana boots in Will's closet. Caroline and Russell go to a school that costs $20,000 per child per year, starting in kindergarten! Can you imagine paying that much money for a 5-year old to play and eat glue?! It amazes me that so many people have so much money. I try my hardest not to get jealous, and am constantly reminding myself that Jeremy and I are really doing pretty damn well for ourselves, but still....it would be so nice to not have to worry about money. Oh well. I guess we'll just keep working hard, and one day it will all pay off!

Trick or treat!?

Well, I think it's safe to say that I am now officially an "American". Today Jeremy and I picked up some pumpkins so that we could make our first Jack-O-Lanterns together. After not finding any pumpkins at the grocery stores (apparently it's time for them to put our Christmas stuff), we made our way out to a local farmers market stall to pick some up. They had hundreds of the things...big ones, teeny ones, wrinkly ones, moldy ones. So many to choose from! We eventually found our perfect pumpkins - big and round, perfect for carving. Jeremy also insisted on getting apple cider and powdered sugar donuts (somewhat of a tradition for him at Halloween). Then it was back home to get friendly with our pumpkins....

Other than that we've had a pretty lazy week/weekend. Oh, we went out to dinner on Saturday night, to a pretty nice place called Sweet Water Tavern. It was really nice, and the food was awesome, except for one thing. Jeremy was eating his coleslaw when he chomped down on....wait for it.....a piece of glass! Crazy!! Luckily he didn't hurt his teeth or cut his mouth, but that was pretty freaky! We both got fresh meals, and then the manager gave us a gift card to use next time we ate at one of their restaurants. And THEN, I looked at my cocktail shaker that my drink had arrived in, and we saw that it had a big ol' crack running down it too! I'm telling you, in between all our car drama and getting glass in our food, I swear that one of us broke a mirror inadvertantly or something. Oh well.

PS - the absolute best thing in the world is a steaming cup of hot apple cider! Mmmmmmmm.....so so good!

Cars and wine

No, the two definitely don't mix. And don't worry - this post isn't about drinking and driving!

This past weekend the weather was so incredible, Jeremy and I decided to make a day of it and head to a local winery. After doing our tasting, we bought some bottles of good ol' vino and settled at a table in the sun to enjoy good food and better drinks.























I think that was probably the pinnacle of our not-so-exciting weekend. On Sunday we went out to brunch at this quirky place called Eggspectations. It's this small restaurant group that I had read about in the newspaper. As would be expected from a restaurant with such a name, it serves all day breakfast, with menu items like "Egg-chilada", "Oy Vegg" and "Yoke around the clock". It was pretty good, but it was nowhere near as yummy as our regular brunch haunt, Harry's Tap Room.

Now to the "car" part of this post. On Wednesday (the 18th) Jeremy and I once again scored free tickets to the Caps game in DC. I was driving our Jeep into the city, when all of a sudden we see police lights in the rear-view mirror. Bugger! Our tags (registration) had expired in July, and in DC that's a big deal - they usually take your license plates and impound your car!! Luckily, we have a sticker on the back that lets people know that the car is owned/driven by a cop (0r in Jeremy's case, and ex-cop), and so we got off with a warning. Thank goodness we had that sticker, because my license is in the process of being renewed (immigration stuff...don't ask!), which is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of 6 months in jail and/or a $1000 fine. Oops! By now I guarantee Dad's sitting there going "Rebecca! You shouldn't be driving at all if that's the case!!". Yeah, yeah..I know it's bad, but I can't not drive!

Anywho, so after that little incident we decided that Jeremy should drive the Jeep until our registration was renewed incase I get pulled over again. So, for a few days I was driving the rental car we got given while the Mustang is being repaired. Then, on Monday, I was on my way to take Caroline to ice-hockey practice. We were driving in peak hour traffic (which in DC is ridiculous!) that was pretty much stopped on a 4-lane highway. There we are, stopped behind another car, when all of a sudden I look in the rear-view mirror and see a car flying towards us. Next minute - BANG! Some wanker (pardon my language, but there's no other way to describe him) had decided that he could drive that fast when everyone else was going at a snail's pace. Anywho, we pulled off the highway to swap information, and he convinced me that I didn't need to call the police (which would have led to me getting in trouble for my license anyways), and I've never been in an accident so I didn't know any better. Yesterday I got a call from his insurance company to hear my side of the story. The stupid guy had told his insurance company that I had missed my exit and was reversing when he hit me! Aarrggh! Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing - reversing in the second lane from the left, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, to an exit that was at least a mile back! Grr...I'm sooooo mad! I'm still waiting to hear from the rental car insurance people, so nothing's been resolved yet, but if they come after me for money when I've done absolutely nothing wrong than there'll be hell to pay! Stupid bad drivers! I guess the good news is that the damage was minimal, and neither Caroline nor I were hurt (well, my neck's been sore but it's feeling ok today).

And that brings us up to now. It's cold cold cold here! It's not winter yet and the last week it hasn't gotten above about 55 degrees (about 12 degrees celcius). Brrr!

One of the things that I love about living over here is bearing witness to the change seasons. At the moment we're getting into the full swing of fall (or, for all you sticklers, autumn), and it's beautiful. The weather is quickly cooling down (and the humidity is all but gone), and the leaves are turning yellows and oranges and reds. Fall is so beautiful over here - I wish that everyone back home could experience the change of seasons like we do over here. It's so different from home - over here there are four distinct seasons, unlike Australia, where there's just "stinking hot" and "not so hot". Here we have hot summers with lots of humidity, cool fall when the air is crisp but the sun is still warm, freezing winters with lots of snow (well, not so much snow here), and then spring, with lots of rain. It's pretty cool. I took some photos of our view from our apartment, in an attempt to share some of the fall beauty with you all (although the picture doesn't come close to doing it justice)...

Now, to get my head out of the clouds....This weekend has been fun, but tiring. On Friday night I invited Carina and Marisa over to our house for a sleepover. Woo! I had been missing them, and decided that it would be fun to have them spend the night. On Friday I collected them before I started work, so poor ol' Will had to put up with them for the afternoon (I don't think he really minded that much). We played at Will's school for a good hour or so, then it was off to the bakery for cookies shaped like jack-o-lantern's and donuts smothered with orange frosting. After the kids had filled up with sugary goodness, we made our way to a small toy store by Elizabeth's house so I could find some things to keep the girls entertained, and then we headed to the park armed with a soccer ball and ready to play. After that busy afternoon of "work", Jeremy and I took the girls out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. The nice thing about Macaroni Grill is that in order to keep the table's clean without much effort, they lay a piece of white paper on top of the tablecloth. Then, for whatever reason, the waiter's write their names on the paper when they first come to serve you and leave the crayons behind. So the girls got to spend the night eating spaghetti and meatballs while drawing all over our table top. Jeremy and I were exhausted, but at least the kids had fun. Then on Saturday morning, after we had chocolate pancakes with blueberry and strawberry syrup for breakfast, I took the girls to a local "Fall Festival". It was pretty much just markets, with a moonbounce (jumping castle) and a few other kids activities. The girls came home loaded up with "goodies" - wands and crowns, water-balloon yo-yo's, balloons, stickers, and face paint. Wow. What a day. I was so tired by the time I dropped the kids off with Marianne in DC, but it was fun.

On Saturday night Jeremy and I went out to dinner (again!) with all our friends that we hadn't seen in 3 months. Most of our friends had been off training in Georgia for the SS, and so it was great to finally get to see them all again. We went to a place in Maryland called Mike's Crabhouse, which was right on the water. We ordered 2 dozen crabs to share (there were about 20 of us all together). Mmmm....crabs! My new favourite food! They're a lot of work, but the result is so worth it! When all you slackers finally decide to come and visit me (hehe) the first place we'll go will be a crab shack. Yum!

Which brings us to today. At the moment it's about 14 degrees Celcius outside (yes, only 14 degrees and it's nowhere near winter yet!), so we've been spending the day lounging around inside. We just got back from the movies - we saw The Departed, which was excellent, although not for the faint of heart (it's a movie about organised crime, so there's lots of bad language and lots of blood) - and now we're in for the night and planning to do nothing at all. Oh, what a fun weekend!!

See! We're still alive!

Yeah, I know....it's been months since I last updated my blog. I really do keep meaning to do it, but then I usually get sidetracked. But I've started getting nasty emails and Jeremy has been nagging me about it for the past week, so in order to prevent a coup, here it is....

Since I moved in with Jeremy things have been great! We've settled into our routines and I think we're both learning a lot about each other. It's fun to discover all those little quirks that you can keep hidden while you're just dating. Besides all the getting used to living with each other, we haven't really been doing too much this past month. Most of our friends are away with SS training, so we haven't been getting together with friends very much. Our weekends have been pretty lazy - mostly we just hang around the house, watch a movie, maybe go out to eat, and sometimes take the dogs to a dog park. Not very exciting huh! The most exciting thing that we've done was to go to a pre-season hockey game the past weekend. We scored free tickets (courtesty of Bob) to see the Washington Capitals take on the Carolina Hurricanes. Bob has season tickets to the Capitals (the Caps) that are in the very front row (also known as "on the glass"). Our seats gave us a great view of the ice, and it was super cool when the players "checked" each other. Checking is when a player slams an opponent into the glass around the edge of the ring. Woo! Haha. Even though I don't know the first thing about ice hockey, it was still pretty cool. Jeremy used to play hockey in school, so he was super excited. Check out our exciting pictures!

Our view from our seats.

A player getting checked! Woo!

My job is still going great! I'm having lots of fun, especially with Will (the youngest). We play baseball and basketball and soccer in the backyard, and he's such a cool kid that he's just a blast to hang out with. Every mother I talk to at school who knows the Schmidt's all have nothing but kind things to say about the family. So it's been great.

And I really think that that's about it. Like I said, we're really not that exciting. But you all asked, so I gave!

Roommates

It's official. Jeremy and I are now roomies! Woo! I have moved all my stuff (junk) in and have plans to stay permanently. It's so great to be finally living with him and knowing that I never have to leave is so wonderful and exciting. It's fun being able to make our home together - on the weekend we went shopping for laundry hampers and groceries. There are no words that can express how great it feels. Yay!!

I also started my new nannying job on Tuesday. It's been a little crazy as the family gets organized after summer vacations, but we've kind of got our routine down. I start working at about 2:30pm, when I pick up Will (the youngest) from school. Then it's off to get a snack from the bakery or the ice-cream parlor and home for some homework. At 3:40 it's off again to get Russell from the busstop, and then the whole snack/homework thing repeats. After that it's time to do some laundry, and get ready for dinner. Usually I get off around 6 or 7pm, sometimes earlier and sometimes later. So far it's been great - it's so much fun to spend time with kids that you can joke around with, have regular conversations with and not have to dictate what they should be doing at any given time. Bob & Elizabeth have been so great - they've welcomed me with open arms, for which I'm extremely grateful.

And that's about all that's been happening here. Not too exciting, I know. So to spark at least some interest, here's some photos I stumbled upon on Jeremy's computer these past few days.


Brisbane and Adelaide (I think this was taken shortly after we brought Adelaide home)


Me at the White House

Jeremy at the White House

Vroom vroom!!

Oh boy! Have I ever had a full week! So much has happened, I hardly know where to start...but I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.

The first fantastic news I have is that on Tuesday (?, maybe it was Monday) Jeremy and I finally received approval to move in together! It's about time! My background check is still in the process of being signed, but now I'm finally allowed to live with Jeremy. I'm so excited and of course relieved - it's such a weight off both our minds knowing that I can move in without him losing his job. Yay!

Speaking of moving in...On Thursday Marianne and I made the 5 hour drive to Stamford, Connecticut to pick up Jessica, their new au pair. We collected her (and her heavy bags) from the hotel in Connecticut and then made our way into New York City for the night. Marianne made reservations for us to stay in the Hotel Wolcott, which was a mere stone's throw away from the bustling center of Manhattan. It was a really cute, old hotel complete with striped wallpaper and floral drapes. Thursday night we rode the subway to The Brooklyn Diner (The finer diner!) for dinner. They had really good food - according to the New York Times they have the best cheeseburger in Manhattan! After stuffing ourselves we walked the 20 or so blocks back to the hotel. Our route took us through the center of Times Square, past Madison Square Garden and along Broadway. Wow! It may be dirty, but NYC is such an exciting place! I love it. I would love to live smack bang in the middle of Manhattan, just for a year or so, just so I could experience everything the city has to offer (although that will never happen - Jeremy hates the Big Apple). On Friday we decided to check out the Statue of Liberty, since both Jessica and I had only ever seen it from afar. So we hopped on the ferry and hopped off onto Liberty Island. Since 9/11 they don't let people go up into her crown, but they do allow you to go up to the observation level at the bottom of the statue. We didn't get to do that though, because they only sell a certain amount of tickets and, of course, we missed out. Still, it was pretty cool to see her up close. After that we hopped back on the ferry and hopped off onto Ellis Island. Those of you who have seen the movie Hitch will know a little about Ellis Island. It's the place where all immigrants were sent in the early 1900's to clear customs and whatnot. It was pretty amazing to stand on the little island that had seen so many thousands of people pass through. They do have a wall of plaques showing the names of every person who has been allowed into the country. It was pretty neat.

Now comes the best news of all! When I was on my way to NYC on Thursday, Jeremy called to tell me that Ford had this great deal going that meant that all vehicles could be bought with 0% interest over 6 years. So of course, he just had to go see if we would qualify for a loan that would allow him to get his dream car - the 2006 Mustang GT. Turns out we did qualify, and so late Thursday I got a message from him declaring that we were now the proud new owners of a cherry red Mustang GT coupe. That boy!! We picked up the car today (Saturday), and I think we're both officially in love with it! It's so shiny and new and FAST! Woo!! V8 engine baby! All leather interior! 6 stacker in-dash cd player! Some nifty gizmo that lets us change the color of the instrument panel to one of 120 shades! Yay!! I've claimed dibbs on it for the last week of work down at Bob and Marianne's, because I know that once I move in he'll be driving it every day to work and I'll be using the Jeep. It sure is fancy though!! Check out the picks!


Leather seats, leather wrapped steering wheel....leather everything!


Soooo shiny!


Twin exhausts, of course!


Imagine this beast coming up behind you!


Oooohhhh...


Pretty flashy, huh?! By the way, that's Jeremy's (and soon to be my) apartment complex in the background. Notice that black SUV in the background? That will be my car.

And I think that's all the news. I start work with the new family on the 5th of September (wish me luck!). I'll be moving in with Jeremy next weekend, after I make sure that Jessica and the girls have settled in and everything's organized. How exciting!!

I want snow!

Well, this week and weekend have been fairly uneventful. I`ve spent the entire week trying to get my assignments done and have been lazy about other things in the process. I may have been crazy trying to do study at home. Oh well. I`ll just keep on trucking through I guess.

Anyway, I guess you`re all wondering why I want it to snow so badly. The reason is....and it`s the best reason ever....Jeremy and I bought our very own snowboards this weekend! Whoohoo! I`m so excited! One of the snowboard stores by us was having a big clearance sale, so we went for a look and came home with boards and bindings (for those of you who don`t know, bindings are the straps that hold your foot to the board. Check it out!


The backs of the boards. Check out the cool woodgrain finish on mine (on the left)


That'd be the topside of the boards.


This is just a close up of the graphics on my board. I love it!

Pretty exciting stuff huh?! So now everyone has to come over during the winter so we can take you all snowboarding with us. Woo!

Finally, some relief!

The disgusting, sweltering heat of summer has finally left DC. Thank God! After a week or two of 100 degree, 100% humidity-filled days, we are finally getting some beautiful weather. The temperature has dropped a good 20 degrees, to a balmy 80. The humidity seems to have left us for now (you guys think Brisbane is bad, try putting up with days that are so humid that the air is hazy), and we've been blessed with some absolutely gorgeous weather. I can finally walk from the house to the car without becoming drenched in sweat. Yay!! Hopefully the summer days are over, and fall is on its way in. Autumn over here is so beautiful - days are filled with the oranges and reds of leaves preparing to fall, and rainy days are few and far between. It is truly wonderful how the seasons change over here. It's as though you can almost tell exactly to the day when one season ends and the next begins. It's much more drastic and exciting than than the seasons back in Australia. I don't think that "hot" and "not as hot" really qualify as being seasons!

Anyway, Jeremy and I took full advantage of a beautiful day on Saturday by spending our afternoon at a local winery. We decided to pack a picnic lunch and head on out to Chrysalis Vineyards for a tasting. Being that we'd never picnicked (hmmm...that word doesn't look quite right...) before, we first had to find ourselves a fancy picnic basket. Well, apparently people don't believe in picnic baskets anymore. We searched online and then at two stores without any luck. Finally we settled on a picnic bag from our favorite outdoors store, REI. Although I had my heart set on getting a basket, the bag is pretty damn cool. It's all decked out with plates, cutlery, and wine goblets for two, as well as a cheese board/knife, a wine cork, and an insulated bottle holder. Woo! I guess we did pay a small fortune for it, so if it didn't have all those extras I'd have been disappointed. After picking up some food we were on our way. The winery about 30 or so minutes from Jeremy's, at the base of the Blue Ridge "mountains" (I'm not convinced they really are mountains). It was so nice, picnicking with our fancy backpack and our bottle of wine. We left with our stomachs full, and with 3 bottles of wine. What a great day!!

Then, on Sunday Jeremy and I both woke up feeling less than perfect. I'm not sure if it's just because of the sudden change in the weather, but we both have pretty minor headcolds. So we spent the morning sniffling and feeling sorry for ourselves, and then decided to head out to brunch. We decided on Harry's Tap Room in Clarendon, which is about 30 minutes drive from Jeremy's place. We had been there before for brunch, and the food is so delicious! I had the Crab cake Benedict, and Jeremy had an omelette (with a Bloody Mary, of course). Mmmmmm...What a good way to spend Sunday morning.

And that brings me up to now. It's Monday morning, and for some unknown reason the kids woke me up at 6:15 with lots of yelling. Apparently they had thought it was ok to go downstairs and turn on the tv/computer, which had inevitably led to a fight. God knows why they would do that, seeing as they both know that they are supposed to stay in their beds until 8am. Boy was I mad. Especially because they aren't even allowed to watch tv because they slept in their parents bed instead of their own (which is something else that makes me incredibly mad, but oh well), and to top it all off I had barely any sleep because of my stuffy head. So now I'm tired and a little cranky, and the girls are both tired as well. I'm thinking that they might be taking a nap after lunch today, whether they like it or not. Oh boy, I'm so mean!

I know, I'm slack!

Yeah yeah...I know it's been two weeks since I last wrote on here. Last week I kept meaning to get it done, but I kept getting sidetracked and before I knew it it was Friday and there was no point. But now Jeremy's been bugging me about getting it done, and so I figured I had better put in some effort!

So...to fill you all in....Last weekend (as in July 29/30) Jeremy and I were in Cleveland for his grandma's 80th birthday. We got on the road Friday night, and arrived Saturday around midday. Thank goodness we weren't driving the whole time. By about midnight Friday we had had enough, and decided to stop at a hotel for the night. Boy, was that a mistake! Imagine, if you will, the most uncomfortably small bed you've ever slept in and you will have some idea as to how we spent the night. Poor Jeremy was miserable. So after much tossing and turning we left on Saturday to finish the drive. Cleveland is a little over 6 hours from our place, which really isn't too bad of a drive. Anyways, after a hectic hour or so shopping to find me something to wear, we all got ready and made our way to mass. Jeremy's uncle is a priest, and so we stayed in the Rectory of his church (by we I mean me, Jeremy, and Jeremy's parents and sisters). After church we headed over to a hall for dinner. Most of Jeremy's mum's side of the family was there, so it was really nice to get to meet them all finally (although a little confusing!). Sunday we went out to breakfast at a pub right by the Rectory, and then it was home again.

Monday I was exhausted. The weekend had just flown by, without stopping for so much as a hello! But of course it was work as usual - in 100 degree heat!! Man, last week was absolutely disgusting! It was extremely hot and humid all week. The girls have been in swimming lessons, so I had to sit outside for an hour everyday sweating my butt off. It was pretty gross. Thank goodness it finally rained here last night/this morning, so most of the humidity and heat is gone. But really...yuck!!

Then this weekend just gone I went out with one of my aupair friends who is leaving in a couple of weeks. It was good to have a girls night out (much to Jeremy's disgust), and I'm sure I'll miss her when she goes.

And that just about brings us up to now. Tonight I bought tickets to something I have wanted to see for years and years. Cirque du Soleil is coming to town and Jeremy and I have tickets!! Yay!!!! Tickets went on sale yesterday and, although most of the good seats were sold out, I still managed to get us seats 5 rows from the front. I'm so so so excited! I've wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show since forever - I always used to watch it on tv when it was on on a Sunday afternoon. And now that it's coming to DC of course I couldn't let the opportunity go by. So mark your calendars for November 3rd - it's likely to be one of the best days of my life! WHOOHOO!

On a completely different note, I have been looking very hard for a snowboard/bindings/boots. I'm so excited to get my own gear this year, and I can't wait for the snow season to be here. Jeremy and I are thinking of getting season tickets to some ski resorts that are close to us, and I'm looking forward to going as often as we can. I wish summer was over so that we could hit the slopes!! Yay for snowboarding!

And that's about it, I think. Nothing too exciting has been happening over here really. Only two more weeks and then Jessica, the new aupair, arrives. So it's only about three or four weeks until I move in with Jeremy. Yay! That's something else I'm excited about!

I guess I'm just excited about everything tonight!

I am the smartest woman alive!

Remember that ridiculous Statistics class I was whining about not too long ago? Well, I just got my results and I'm proud to say that somehow I've managed to get an A. Yay!! I'm so relieved to know that I passed it, and now I'm all the more confident. I mean, if I can take a stats class online and pass, then I can do ANYTHING! Woo!!

Not such a great weekend...

Well, this weekend was fairly uneventful. Friday night my poor fiance was up all night with a stomach bug. Yuck! But now he's better, so that's good.

Saturday we went to the movies to see Nacho Libre. Jeremy had been wanting to see it since it first came out, and because he was sick I decided to humor him and go. What a waste of time and money. It was probably the worst movie I've ever seen. Don't go see it when it comes out over there.

Saturday night we went over to Mark and Lauren's place for a bbq. Most of Jeremy's old workmates will be leaving the area soon, so it was one of our last chances to see everyone together. But because we'd been up a lot of the previous night, we didn't stay too long.

Sunday we lazed around at the pool for a bit, then went out to lunch at a great restaurant right by Jeremy's apartment. Nothing too exciting there...

And now it's Monday night, and I'm back at Bob & Marianne's miserable with a fever. I guess I caught some of Jeremy's germs. I just hope it goes away soon because I feel like crap!

So much fun!

Wow!! What a weekend we just had! We've been pretty busy this weekend, and it's been so much fun. Have I mentioned how much I can't wait to actually be living with Jeremy and seeing him everyday?! Spending this week with him has been so great, and I wish I didn't have to go back to Bob and Marianne's. Oh well. Only two more months to go...

Our week was pretty uneventful. Although I had the week off, Jeremy still had to work. All I did was sleep in and sit around watching MTV, waiting for him to come home. How exciting! Tuesday was the 4th of July, so Jeremy had the day off. We didn't do a whole lot during the day - we went shopping for a bit, nothing too exciting. For dinner we went into this gorgeous part of Virginia called Old Town. It's very old, very expensive and very pretty. The houses are pretty much all row houses, like this, but are huuuuge and can cost up to $3 or $4 million (did I mention that the people I'll be working for live there?). Anyway, we went to a really nice restaurant down on the water called the Chart House, which is known for its seafood. My food was average, but Jeremy raved about his, so at least one of us was excited. Afterwards, we staked out a place on the dock to try to watch the fireworks in DC, but to our dismay there were trees blocking our view. So much to Jeremy's disgust, we left Old Town after missing the fireworks. And that was our 4th of July.

Friday night we joined some friends in Baltimore, Maryland for a night at the symphony. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is doing a Sounds of Summer concert series, so we made our way there for the Best of Baroque. It was really nice - I had never been to a symphony performance, so it was certainly something new for me. Afterwards, we went out to dinner where our friends lay a huge surprise on us...our good friends, Eric and Shannon, are having a baby! It's so exciting!! Shannon's 6 weeks along. We're all so happy for them - they're wonderful people and I'm sure they'll make great parents. I'm so excited!! Another baby to play with!

Saturday we spent the day lounging around, watching movies and recovering (we got home after 2am). Then today, Jeremy and I went to Kings Dominion amusement park. I was so excited! I can't even remember the last time I went to an amusement park! And the parks here are 100 times better than anything I've ever been to. We went on 6 rollercoasters, 3 of which were old-school wooden coasters, 2 water rides (Jeremy and I got soaked!), and walked about 100 miles. It was soooooo much fun! My favorite was the crazy Hypersonic, which uses compressed air to launch you straight up in the air, and then you hurtle straight down and around a little bit. Oh my god! I never, ever thought I would want to go on a ride like that, but I'm so glad we did. It was the most awesome thing ever! Woo!! Poor Jeremy blacked out up the top, that's how fast we were going. I kept my eyes open the whole time. It was sheer craziness!


The Hypersonic, baby! Yeah!


Me at the bottom, waiting in line to go on...

And that brings us up to now. It's 7pm on Sunday, and I'm exhausted after a looooong day at Kings Dominion. Now I'm dreading going back to work, but at least I have lots of good memories from this past week.

Oh, and in case you can't tell by the photo above, my hair is now back to dark. I decided to get it colored back to my natural color, so I can let it grow out and not have to worry about roots showing. It cost me half a fortune to get it done at the salon, and now I'm adjusting to it being so dark. But it looks really good, and I'm excited to know that I won't have to worry about dyeing it any more!

Late edit: I had my first ride on Jeremy's bike tonight! Yay! We rode it only a couple of blocks to Chipotle for dinner, and then to the gas station. It was sooooo much fun! Although we were only going about 45 miles/hour, it felt like we were zooming along. Now I really want to get my motorbike license so I can drive it too!


Jeremy on his monster bike!


Me

Take me out to the ballgame...

"Take me out to the ballgame,

Take me out with the crowd.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack

I don't care if I never get back.

Let me root, root, root for the home team,

If they don't win it's a shame.

For it's one, two, three strikes you're out

At the old ball game."

So if you haven't already guessed by the song, on Saturday night I went to my first Major League baseball game. The Washington Nationals were playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and we got free tickets through one of Jeremy's friends. Tim (the guy who got us tickets) is friends with the announcer for the Devil Rays, so he managed to score us great seats and a couple of Press passes. Even though I just barely knew what was going on, it was still really fun. We went with a few of Jeremy's friends from SS that we hadn't really seen for a while, so that was good. Afterwards we went out to bar for some drinks with the guy who had got us the tickets. We ended up back at home sometime around 3am. It was a great night.

Jeremy and I in our seats. What a view!

Other than that, not too much is going on here. Marianne's son, Joseph, is visiting from New York for the summer. He'll be here for about a month, which is great because it means that the girls go to him when they want to annoy someone instead of me! Haha.

Also, I have this week off (YAY!). Marianne has taken the girls and Joseph to visit family in Florida, so I'm spending the week at Jeremys. He's still working though, so really I'm spending my days with the crazy puppies. Tuesday is 4th of July, so we're trying to decide what to do for that. We're considering going into the city to watch the fireworks, but there will be people everywhere so we're not sure yet. No doubt we'll do something fun!

And that's about all the news I have. Not very exciting, I know, but hey! You all say you want to know so I'm telling. It's still storming here on and off, although it's nothing like the 14 inches we had last week! I'm still trying to send some over there, but I'm not sure it's working.

Oh, and for all you car buffs....Guess what car we saw on Sunday night after dinner? Parked right next to us was a Maserati! That's right, a car that's worth almost AU$250,000 was sitting right there in the lot next to us. Just goes to show how much money is floating around the area where we live.

Dave in the rain

Yesterday we went to the concert of one of Jeremy's favorite bands - the Dave Matthews Band. It was my first real concert experience (unless you count John Farnham when I was 12 and Human Nature when I was 14) and it was so much fun!

We got to the concert venue early for a long-standing American tradition - tailgating. Tailgating is essentially drinking beer and grilling burgers and hotdogs out of the trunk of your car. Although it's not exactly legal to drink beer in parking lots, we got around it by drinking it out of plastic blue cups. Woo! High class right there! So anyway, we got to the Nissan Pavilion at about 3:30pm, ready for a fun afternoon with friends. We met up with some friends of Jeremy's - Bill and Kathleen (Bill works for the SS), and Keith (who works with Jeremy at CACI). One of the great things about tailgating is that everyone's there to have fun, and so you end up meeting so many random people that by the time the concert actually starts you have a dozen new friends when you started out with just three. By the time the concert began, I had become old friends of Gina and Jason (Jason's like a savant when it comes to numbers), Jill and Brandon (who have an adorable 1 and a half year old son), Josh and his girlfriend (Josh was the reigning champion of all beer games), and some guy in a blue checked shirt. After a long afternoon of beer and chips and hotdogs, and after staking out a prime viewing position on the lawn, much to our dismay it starts bucketing down rain. And I mean buckets and buckets and buckets. It was ridiculously wet and I was ridiculously cold. Luckily Jeremy and I had bought some stylish ponchos ($1.29 at Sports Authority) that actually kept us pretty dry. Good thing too, because I was wearing a white tank top, and everyone knows what happens when a white shirt gets wet! Still, I somehow managed to come home covered in mud (probably due to the mud-slide that some crazy kids beside us had made) and scratches (at one stage I was in the bushes - don't ask!).

Rain, mud and scratches aside, it was a great night. I had so much fun even though I didn't know any of the songs they played bar one, and seeing Jeremy so excited was priceless. We met some great people, drank a lot of Budweiser, and went home soaked and covered in mud. What a great night!!


Kathleen and I


Jill, Kathleen, Gina and me


Kathleen and Bill


Awww...we're so goodlooking!


Bill and Jeremy


And I'm posting this much to Jeremy's disgust because I think it's hilarious.

On a completely unrelated note, yesterday (Sunday) saw even more torrential downpours. The rain was so bad that roads were flooded all around the DC area. It took me 6 hours to get home from Jeremy's place! The highway I usually take home had been cut off by a huge mudslide (they reported as much as 5 feet of debris), so I was sitting in traffic that was dead still for hours. To make matters even worse, I had turned off the car and once traffic started moving again it wouldn't start. So here I am, at 10 o'clock at night, in the middle of the highway with a dead car! It was pretty terrible. What really made me mad was the fact that absolutely no-one stopped to help me. It's not as though people were actually going anywhere - traffic was crawling along - and yet people just went around me, gave me dirty looks, and continued on their way! Finally, a knight in shining armor (well, he was actually in a U-Haul rental truck) stopped and pushed my car off onto the shoulder. Much to my disgust, once I was out of the way I tried to start the car again and, what do you know? It started right up. So I was back in action. Not that it really did me any good to be moving again - we went about a mile and then were dead stopped again. Finally, (I'm talking about 3 hours later) I made it up to the site of the slide, when I was re-directed onto the other side of the highway going back in the direction from which I had just come!!! It just keeps getting worse...wait for it! So I figured I could go back to another highway that I knew would get me home and just take that route. So I'm driving along, through DC, in rain so heavy I was going a mere 20 miles an hour on the highway and I still couldn't see a thing. And then, to my utter dismay, the highway I was on was closed as well!! So we were re-directed yet again, except this time I was put onto some road I didn't know and had no real clue how to get home. So I just kept on driving, hoping to see a sign pointing me in the right direction. Finally I came upon a state highway that I knew, and managed to find my way slowly-but-surely back home. By this stage I'm utterly exhausted (especially after our big night out on Saturday), and can't wait to crawl into bed. Poor me! I got to bed at 3am. Good thing it's still rainy out today, so I can just laze around the house and not do a whole lot of anything.

If only I could've sent the rain your way! Then everyone would have been much much happier!