A busy weekend (and a long awaited update)

This weekend Jeremy and I were probably the busiest we've been on a weekend for a long time! Saturday wasn't quite so hectic, but we did spend a lot of our day either in the grocery store or in the mall. We considered catching a movie, but knew that Sunday would be absolutely insane so we just hung out at home Saturday night.

Sunday began super early for us - 4:45am!! I can't say that I've ever seen what a Sunday looks like at 4:45am, and now that I've seen it I'm ok with not ever seeing it again! Anyway, we had to get up so ridiculously early because....drumroll please....we were running a 5km race! Jeremy and I had signed up for the George Washington Parkway Classic waaaay back, and after a few months of running regularly (actually, it was mostly irregularly) it was finally time to race! We've had absolutely beautiful weather here lately - sunny, deliciously warm and sometimes even hot - and then, wouldn't you know it, Sunday was cold and overcast. The race started down by the water, so for a good hour or so Jeremy and I got to enjoy the wind and the cold that large bodies of water usually bring. Standing there in my shorts and long sleeve tech shirt I felt severely underdressed, and wished that I had the sense to dress like a giant banana like one of our fellow runners! Finally, everyone moved to the starting line and we were off! We took the run really slow, as I had not been running very well recently and I wanted to make sure I ran the whole thing. Thank goodness we did start out slow, because it meant that we could blow past all the people who had started out too fast! It felt so good to be running and actually PASSING people! I'm probably the least athletic person I know and here I was, running 5km on a cold, nasty Sunday morning for FUN! And it really was fun - I'm so glad we did it and I'm so excited to push myself even harder in May when we run our 10km race. We ended up coming 588th & 589th out of 867 people. I wasn't too happy with our time - a pitiful 34:55 - but I felt really good at the end, almost like I could do it all over again. Next time we'll beat the pants off that time! They had professional photographers there taking pics of people as they crossed the finish line, so keep your eyes peeled and I'll post those pics once we get them.

After our race we quickly grabbed some food (they had yummy bagels and granola bars and fruit) and dashed back home to relax for an hour or two before we had to head back out again. Jeremy had scored free tickets to a baseball game - the Washington Nationals were playing the Chicago Cubs! Being that he's from Chicago, Jeremy's team is the Cubs so of course we couldn't pass up free tickets! The weather was still pretty miserable, but luckily the tickets we had allowed us access to the "Club" level, so we escaped inside and sat by the bar instead of freezing our butts off outside. Here are a couple of pics...nothing too exciting.

At the entrance to the new, fancy Nationals stadium

Hanging out inside at the bar

Our view

Jeremy's teams' logo spray-painted onto some guys head!

On our way out

Then, after the ballgame, we headed back home to feed the dogs and then it was back out to meet my girlfriend Melyssa and a couple of other people for dinner at PF Changs. After catching up and enjoying a delicious meal, we finally made it home for good at about 9:30pm. Whew! We were both so exhausted, we decided to live life on the edge and sleep in till 5:45am Monday morning (instead of the 4:45 that we usually wake up at), and then it was back to work as usual.

Other than our super-busy weekend we haven't been to busy lately. Now that we're homeowners we've been trying to cut back our spending a little, which means we don't go out quite as much as we used to. Over the last month we've still managed to fit in Marisa's birthday party, a few dinners out and a round of mini-golf, and we've enjoyed many a margarita on our balcony now that we've got a grill and outdoor setting.

This weekend we're planning on having a nice dinner to celebrate our 1-year anniversary. Can you believe it's been one whole year already??! It seems like only yesterday we were up at Maleny praying that it wouldn't rain! I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun - this year has certainly been wonderful and exciting, and I'm so happy!! Life is definitely good for me right now - I have the most handsome and kind and loving husband in the world, a beautiful house and two annoying dogs! What more could a girl ask for?!

Joe & Anne's visit

Well, today is Sunday and we've said farewell to our Aussie visitors. We had such a wonderful week with Joe & Anne! We saw so much of the city (even some things that neither Jeremy nor I had seen) and are now thoroughly exhausted! Here's the lowdown of our week:

Tuesday night
We ate a big roast turkey dinner - turkey, stuffing w/sausage, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, carrots, asparagus & gravy. Mmm mmmm mmmm.

Wednesday
Jeremy had to work, so I took Joe and Anne into the city on my own. After searching and searching for a parking spot at the train station, we finally made it into DC about lunchtime. Then it was time to eat at Cosi, where Joe & Anne had quite the experience ordering - they definitely weren't ready to deal with a busy lunch at a sandwich shop!! Then it was off to the Museum of Natural History and then the Air & Space Museum.

Oh, and the most exciting part about Wednesday - it snowed!! Joe & Anne got to witness white fluffy snowflakes! What a lot of fun they had...and I thought I was a big kid in the snow!?

For dinner we decided to order real delicious American pizza (sorry Eagle Boys, you don't even come close!) which was yummy!

Thursday
We woke Thursday to a beautiful (but cold) day with lots of sunshine, so we decided to make the most of it and hit as many monuments as we could. We saw -

• Arlington National Cemetary
• Iwo Jima Memorial
• The White House
• the Korean War Memorial
• the Lincoln Memorial
• the Reflecting Pool
• the World War II Memorial
• a tiny memorial for George Mason
• the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Phew!! Somewhere in between all that we took them to our favorite Americanized-Mexican joint, Chipotle. Then, after a loooooong day in the city, we headed home to eat lasagna (made with rice pasta for Joe), garlic bread and salad.

Friday

We had an early morning Friday, which was slightly impeded by a layer of ice that had formed overnight. Joe & Anne were delighted to watch Jeremy scrape the ice off the car - that sure doesn't happen often in Toowoomba!

Then it was back to the city to go up to the top of the Washington Monument. Unfortunately it was an overcast day, so the view wasn't all that spectacular, but it was still a fun time. After that it was off to a much less fun time at the Holocaust Museum, which turned out to be a horrifying, sickening, and incredibly humbling experience. I definitely won't ever forget what I saw there, although I don't think I need to return any time soon.

After that sombering hour and a half, we headed to one of our favorite breweries, Gordon Biersch, for lunch and a beer. The minute we pulled into the parking spot we got a call from Greg and Colleen saying that they had arrived in the city, so they decided to come join us for lunch which was really great! I hadn't seen them for years, so it was a nice suprise to get to catch up with them.

After lunch we headed across the street to the Spy Museum, which is always a fun time. After all that we decided to take Joe and Anne to one of the big ol' malls close by. We were all pretty exhausted, and the shopping didn't last very long, so we decided to head home for the night.

Saturday

We slept in a little on Saturday, then headed out to find a bookstore (for Annie of course!), a CD store (for Joe), and a couple of other things. Then we drove into Georgetown for a little more shopping and then to go see the National Cathedral (an awe-inspiring sight!).

On Saturday Joe and Anne kindly shouted us to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Sequoia, as an early birthday treat. To our delight we discovered that the restaurant still had their "Restaurant Week" special running, so we got a delicious 3-course meal for $30! Bargain!! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and of course the company was even better!! Thanks so much, Joe and Anne, for a wonderful, wonderful time!

It was so great to spend so much time with them, and I hope they had a fantastic time exploring our great city! We sure had a great time being tour guides for a week - what a fun job!

Here are some pics to entice all you other Aussies to come visit us!

Joe & Anne's visit

Running

Well, after reading a discussion on my new "favorite website to spend a whole lot of hours perusing", Runners World, I have decided to begin posting the miles I run and all that fun stuff on here. That way, all you non-believers can see just how well I'm doing at this whole "running" thing! Here goes...

After a miserable two weeks of running where I couldn't get past a mile without getting a stitch, I had a miraculous breakthrough last Tuesday - I ran the entire distance of a 5k race without stopping once! I've never been able to run that far in my life - I have never been a good runner, except for those couple of years when I was eleven/twelve where I ran the 800m in school. Anywho, since last Tuesday I've been on a roll (even though I've been slack and have only run twice since then). The following Thursday I ran 3.38miles (for you Aussies, that's almost 5.5kms). And then, yesterday I ran a whopping 4 miles!! That's 6.43km! Holy cow! I was so darn excited and proud that I could do something like that. I even upped my speed a little, knocking 30 seconds off my mile/minute time. At this rate I'll be flying when it comes time for our 5k race in April. SWEET!! I'm even considering signing up for the Army Ten Miler in October - we'll see how training goes.

On a completely different note, Joe and Anne arrive today! WOOHOO! I'm excited - it will be a really fun week. I only hope they don't freeze! The forecast is calling for some snow while they're here - it probably won't be much at all but still, it will be fun for them to be here when it snows. I'm thinking we may have to go shopping for some coats as soon as they hop off the plane....

See, we're still here!

I figured I had better write something on this blog of mine before people started throwing things at me, so here goes...


Wow, I guess I haven't written anything on here since Thanksgiving!? How time flies! And yet, I still don't really feel like I have all that many interesting things to say...hmmm...I guess I'll just start where I left off.


Christmas
Jeremy and I had a very quiet Christmas at home - just us and the dogs. It was definitely a big change from what both of us are used to. Usually Christmas day is busy, busy - lots of relatives, lots of presents, lots of wine and good food. This year (or should I say "last year") we woke relatively early - it would have been much later except my darling family decided to call us at the crack of dawn! - and opened our presents with Christmas music playing in the background. Then Jeremy made a delicious omelette with fresh asparagus and blue cheese, and we watched "A Christmas Story" on TV. The next day it was back to work for both of us. Actually, neither of us took any time off over Christmas, so that too was a big change from the usual! But at the same time, it was kind of nice to have a quiet, relaxing Christmas - our first Christmas in our own house!


New Year's
Our New Year's Eve was spent over at our friends', Brian and Gina's, house. Here are a couple of pictures...



The boys - Brian, Mark & Jeremy


The girls


Hmmm...I forget who these two are?


The group


The group doing a shot of tequila.


I had an especially quiet night because I was on antibiotics for pneumonia! Yuck! So there was no drinking for me (except one glass of wine and, of course, a sip of champagne), which meant that for once Jeremy was allowed to drink all night. Haha. Nah, he wasn't too bad at all. It was a fun night!


January
Mid January Jeremy's parents came to visit us for a weekend. They had originally intended to fly out Friday night, but got stuck in a snowstorm in Chicago and had to postpone their flight to Saturday morning. They arrived mid-morning, and we just hung around the house and hit up a couple of stores. Poor Larry was a little under the weather with a cold, so we had a quiet dinner at home and I taught Sheila how to play Viva Pinata on our XBox. Sunday morning turned out to be a little more eventful...Adelaide had made her way into the guest room and had discovered a bag of Hershey's Kisses in Sheila's purse. I went upstairs and found her with her head in the bag! After inspecting the room to make sure she hadn't destroyed anything else, Sheila came to tell us that the bag had actually been pretty full - by her calculations, Adelaide had probably eaten about 25-30 pieces of chocolate!! Worried that she had gone and poisoned herself, Jeremy called the vet and they said to bring her in. So Jeremy made a trip to the emergency room, where they induced vomiting to get all the chocolate out of her system. Even though the vet was astounded that whole chocolates came up (with foil wrapping intact and everything!), Adelaided came home none the worse for wear. Phew! After that episode, we all went out to our favorite winery, Chrysalis Vineyards, for a wine tasting. Then it was off to the airport, where we said goodbye for now to Larry and Sheila. It was great to see them, and exciting to have our first guests stay in our new house!


And that brings us up to February. This weekend Jeremy painted our bathroom a pale green to match our bedspread. Oh, and I forgot to add in to January's section that we painted our lower level a pretty taupe color. Before it was a hideous shade of limey-green - it looks much better now! I think Jeremy's plan is to eventually paint our main level the same as downstairs, but after discovering just how hard painting really is (my arms were soooo tired from the roller) I think I may boycott any future attempts and leave it to the man of the house! I'll delegate myself to being supervisor! It's fun to make little additions to our house that make it more like a home to us - no more worrying about getting permission to paint or hang things on the walls.


My other piece of exciting news is that I've signed Jeremy and I up to run a 5km race in April! CRAZY!! I've been getting up at 4:45am and using the gym at work, and yesterday Jeremy and I ran 3.7 miles around our neighborhood! Well, we didn't really run that far - we probably ran about half that way - but at least it's a step in the right direction! All those out there that know me, now's the time to pick your jaw's up off the floor! I'm even keeping an eye out for other races that might pop up in between now and April - I'm really trying to get into this whole running thing, and I'm actually kind of enjoying it! I'm sure it will become even more enjoyable once my distance improves and I start running faster..we'll see. I may actually be semi-athletic yet!


And I think that just about catches the blog up. Work is going well for both Jeremy and I - I have a new Vice President starting in our divisions tomorrow so I'm sure it will be an interesting and busy day. We're also very excited to have our second Aussie visitors - Joe and Anne will be arriving in a little over a week! Yay! It will be great to see them and to show them around DC - knowing Anne-Maree I'm sure that she'll have a fantastic time immersing herself in all DC's history and museums and monuments. It will be a fun week!


I promise I'll be back after Joe and Anne depart to tell everyone about our time together! Until then, stay safe!

Oh, and by the way...

We're finally almost all unpacked in our new place! Yay!! Here are photos now that (almost) everything's in it's place...

Our house - UNPACKED!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So this morning when I woke up I decided to write on here what I was thankful for. My list ended up being obvious things, like how I'm thankful for my wonderful husband and for my family. Then, while I was in the shower, I realized that I really should give thanks for all the things I take for granted every day. It's so easy for us to get caught up with what we "want", we lose sight of all the wonderful things we "have". So here's my list of what I'm thankful for:

• I'm so incredibly thankful that we have a warm, safe place to come home to every night. - Jeremy and I always look at the huge houses in our area and say "I want a house like that!" or, now that we own a place, we're always looking for ways to make it "better". Then I think about the millions of people in this country who sleep under bridges or in shelters, and it makes our house seem like a palace. To some people, owning a house like ours is a dream - we stay warm and dry, it's clean and sturdy...it really is our very own castle.
• I'm thankful for clean, running water - we recently watched an epidsode of Extreme Home Makeover where the families didn't have running water in their house. Instead, they had a hose coming in their kitchen window. I can't even imagine what it would be like to not have long, hot showers, or water to wash our clothes and dishes with or, most importantly, clean water to drink. Running water really is one of our little luxuries, and it's certainly one we take for granted. I don't even think twice about hopping in the shower, or filling a pot of water for spaghetti. Imagine what it would be like if simple tasks like these didn't happen so simply...
• I'm thankful that we have enough money to buy winter coats, and hot coffee, and shoes and socks - since it's started getting cold out, every day that I walk to work from the Metro station I grumble to myself about the cold. Then, when I walk over the top of the grates that lead down to the Metro and feel a rush of warm air, I think of all the homeless people in the city who sleep on those grates in winter so that they can stay warm. And here I am, in my $200 coat, with a scarf and gloves, on my way to my warm office to drink some hot coffee, and I'm complaining about being cold!? How dare I?!
• I'm thankful that Jeremy and I are healthy - we have our sight, our hearing, all our fingers and toes, and we never have to go to hospitals. How many people can say that? So many people spend their lives in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices. I can't imagine the toll something like that would take on you eventually - physically and emotionally. I pray that we remain healthy for a long time.
• I'm thankful that we always have good, healthy food in our house - we are never without the foods we want, even though we often complain that we don't have anything or that we're so sick of eating the same stuff. On another episode of Extreme Home Makeover, a family received enough frozen chicken to feed them for a year. When they heard this, the father broke down in tears. When you see that a freezer full of boring ol' chicken is enough to reduce a grown man to tears, you realize how good you have it when you can afford to by fresh, exciting foods every day.
• And finally, I'm so, so, so thankful that I grew up surrounded by family and friends who love and support me - there are millions of kids in foster homes, or living on the streets, who don't have a strong foundation to build their lives upon. Every single opportunity that has been afforded me has come about through what was and is provided to me by my wonderful parents and my brother, my grandparents, my extended family, and my friends. Nothing that I have done would have been possible if I didn't have them to look up to, to provide me with endless love and support, kind words and even harsh words when I messed up. They helped me accomplish everything I have and, for that, I think I'm the most thankful person in the world!

(PS - And I give thanks to Kathleen, for sending me these fun Thanskgiving pictures!)

It's Official!

Jeremy and I are now officially home owners! Woohoo!! We closed on our house on Thursday afternoon, have given in our keys to our old place and are moving in! Well, we've already moved everything into the new place - now we're just slowly wading though the piles of boxes, trying to get everything in it's place. Jeremy and I have both decided to never move again - moving is the absolute worst! Not to mention a health hazard - I was certain that Jeremy, myself and one of the moving boys were going to die yesterday as we moved the couch. Imagine the position they were in - Jeremy and the movers had somehow managed to squeeze our rather large couch up to the top of the stairwell (which was no easy feat, let me tell you!). However, once the guy who was going backwards up the stairs reached the top of the staircase, he was faced with a dilemma - there's only about 4 feet of room between the stairs and the wall, and to get into the living room you have to take a sharp right turn. Of course, an oversized couch doesn't lend itself well to taking sharp right turns. So there they were, couch wedged in our staircase, Jeremy and the moving guy bracing themselves against the bottom of it trying desparately not to lose their grip and face certain death by couch-squashing. The boys decided that the only way to get the couch into the living room was to stand it up on one end and just kind of slide it around the corner. Geez!! Here I am, standing at the bottom of the staircase, and all I see is a giant couch slowly but surely raise up to stand on one end - a scary sight! All it would have taken for the couch to come crashing down on my poor husband and his helper (and ultimately myself at the bottom of the stairs) would be for one of the boys to slip or lose their grip. My stomach was doing somersaults the whole time - I was certain that we were all going to die terrible deaths!! But we didn't, and the couch eventually made it to it's designated spot in the living room. Good job boys!! Jeremy has now decided that when it comes time for us to move again, he's either cutting the couch into pieces with a chainsaw, or he's pushing over the balcony. Both are excellent ideas.

So, after many (many, MANY) trips up and down stairs, in and out of doors, and a whole lot of grunts and groans, we are in our new place. We slept here on Friday night on the floor - not the best idea but oh well. We had champagne and take-out Thai food last night as a celebration. Now today it's more unpacking and putting beds and futons and desks back together, as well as a little grocery shopping and all that fun stuff. Woo!

Here are some pictures of us and the new place - you'll have to forgive the fact that we look like homeless people in some of the photos (12 hours of moving can make you look a little disheveled).

Our house!

Everything else is going great. I've been at my new job for going on three weeks now and I love it! I'm busy all day long, which is nice, and the people I work with/for are great! I'm really enjoying it. Now all I have to do is find 10 people to refer so I can get a $40,000 bonus. Ooooh yeah!

Jeremy also started his new position on Thursday. Well, I guess Monday is really when he'll start, because on Thursday he spent his day meeting people and going out to lunch (and then left early to go to closing) and he had Friday off. I think he'll really enjoy it though - he's mentioned that the people he's met so far have been nice. Hopefully it will all go smoothly!

New beginnings

Well, as most of you probably know by now, Jeremy and I a smack-bang in the middle of buying our own house!!! WHOOHOO!! Well, it's actually a townhouse, but it will most definitely be our own! Here are some pics from the web...

Front

The kitchen

Kitchen again

The living room

Master bedroom

Second Master bedroom - don't worry, they painted over the blue walls to match the other Master bedroom.

It's the perfect place for Jeremy and I to start out in. All three bedrooms have a bathroom and there's also a half-bath off the kitchen; it has a two car garage which is almost unheard of in townhouses in this area (unless you buy a $700,000 one); the kitchen has upgraded appliances; the paint is fantastic; there are surround-sound speakers built in to a few of the rooms; it has an alarm system; and the neighbourhood is wonderful!! It will be the perfect neighbourhood for Jeremy and I to start a family (don't worry, it's still not going to happen just yet!) - there are great schools literally a half-mile from our place, there are lots of young families in the area and they're building a town center with restaurants, grocery stores and shops just down the street. Our realtor and mortgage broker are cutting us an absolutely unbelievable deal - Jeremy and I will be out of pocket a total of $1100 - which is great because without their help and understanding we wouldn't be able to buy this place. But we can and we are and we're both sooooooo excited!!! Hopefully we'll be in by the end of this month. Woo!!

The other new beginning is for me - I'm starting a new job at Jeremy's company, CACI, on the 22nd. I'll be an administrative assistant in the Government Compliance and Internal Audits divisions. I'm excited to start there - it seems like the job will keep me busy, and the VP of the divisions told me that there is definitely room for me to grow while I'm there. The people I'll be working with are all lovely (so far) and Jeremy always raves about how fantastic CACI is.

And that's all our major news. Now I have to go take Adelaide to the vet because she's having ear issues - she keeps scratching at them and shaking her head around, which gets particularly annoying at 2am. Yuck!

Camping

Last year for Jeremy's birthday I got him all set up to go camping - with a tent, sleeping bag, chairs, pots and pans, etc. This weekend we finally got to use all our gear - we headed out to Shenandoah National Park to camp over the Labor day long weekend. We couldn't have picked a better weekend to go - the weather was absolutely perfect and the park was amazing! We took the dogs along with us and, much to our surpise, they were actually pretty well behaved! In fact, we think that they were among the better behaved dogs there. It was so nice to just sit around reading and staying warm in front of the fire. We also hiked a little - we did a 1.7 mile hike the Saturday we arrived, and then a 4 mile hike on Sunday. The hike we did on Sunday took us out to Rapidan Camp, which is where President Hoover used to go to relax and unwind. Here are the photos!

Camping

And that's about all that we've been doing this last week or so. Jeremy starts his new job in two weeks, which is very exciting. We've been researching houses on the internet, and hopefully will go talk to the bank and to a realtor sometime soon (fingers crossed!).

Oh, and I've decided that for our one year anniversary/honeymoon (since we didn't get to have a honeymoon after our wedding in Australia) Jeremy and I are going here (Bora Bora). Pretty sweet huh!?

Our first Aussie visitor!

Well, Jeremy and I finally had our first visitor from across the seas! Ben arrived shortly after midnight on Monday (or should I say, Tuesday) and left us on Saturday. We had a great time showing him around, even though it was stinking hot and humid. Hopefully he had fun too - he did seem a little worn out from all the sightseeing we did!

Tuesday
- Jeremy and I both had to work, and I figured that Ben would probably just want to catch up on some shut-eye anyway, so he spent the day at our apartment.

Wednesday
We had a busy day Wednesday! We saw
- the White House (from the front, and the back)
- the Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial
- Reflecting Pool (which is what Jenny ran through to get to Forrest in "Forrest Gump")
- World War II Memorial (although they were doing maintenance, so the water was all drained)
- Korean War Memorial
- Museum of Natural History
Then it was home, where I made Ben a traditional turkey dinner. Well, we didn't cook a whole turkey, just a breast with the bone in. But it was still delicious!!

Thursday
Jeremy had Thursday off as well, so it was back into the city to see
- Arlington National Cemetery (my favorite place in the whole city), and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
- Iwo Jima Memorial (my favorite memorial in the city)
- ESPNZone for lunch and some drinks/games
- Georgetown, where we had some drinks that some old guy paid for (Ben and he became old friends) and some barbeque dinner at Old Glory

Friday
Jeremy worked a half day, so Ben and I had to fend for ourselves in the morning. It was back into the city for
- International Spy Museum
- Chipotle for lunch...mmmmm....Chipotle
- Air and Space Museum, where Jeremy met us
- Ben's first Major League Baseball game, Washington Nationals vs. the New York Mets

Saturday
Ben's flight was at 2:45pm, and after a few beers the night before we weren't up to doing too much. We went to
- Tysons Corner mall, so Ben could get a true taste of Americana
- Great Falls National park. **Fun bit of trivia - they constructed a channel with "locks" so that boats could make it down river without having to navigate the rocky rapids. Once they reached their destination, the boatmen would dismantle their boats, sell the lumber and then walk the 190 miles back home. Whoa!!

And that was it! Phew!! We certainly had a busy few days, but it was a lot of fun!

Here are the few photos I took...

Ben's visit

Yummy!

Jeremy and I have taken to making our own pasta sauces, instead of buying the bottled stuff from the store. We decided that it's better for us, and we don't particularly like the fact that one of the first ingredients listed on the store bought stuff is "corn syrup"...eewww. Anyway, I usually just make it with a big can of crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers (capsicums for you Aussies), mushrooms and sometimes sausage (Aussies, that'd be Italian sausage, not regular sausages) and a splash of red wine. Tonight I decided to try a recipe out of the "Cooking Light" cookbook, and it turned out to be sooooooooo delicious I figured I would share the recipe with all you other wanna-be chefs!

Three-tomato sauce

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
4 Roma/plum tomatoes, diced
1 14oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes in oil (I used closer to a 1/2 cup), drained and chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 box (13oz) of pasta

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. I used the oil from the sundried tomatoes for extra yum! Saute the onion for about 5 mins, or until opaque. Add the garlic, saute for about 1 minute. Add the sugar, salt, pepper, and all the tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium/medium-low and cook for about 20 mins, or until the liquid is almost all evaporated. Add a couple of tablespoons of the water from the cooking pasta (this is a trick I learned from watching many cooking shows - the starch in the water helps to "bind" everything together, and makes the sauce extra thick and yummy). Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce, add the fresh parsley and eat! Yummo!! The recipe also called for 1/4 cup of goat cheese to be mixed in at this stage, but we didn't have any and it was just as tasty. We served it with garlic bread and parmesan, and a glass of slightly chilled Shiraz.

What a GREAT dinner! Jeremy likes my other sauce better, because it gives him more sauce to dip his garlic bread in, but I loved this sauce because it was so much more authentic (and delicious). It's a myth that Italians eat their pasta with a lot of sauce...it's usually just enough to coat the pasta. I think that everyone should make their own pasta sauce...it's so much better for you, and it's just as good!!

And Jeremy wanted me to post the other recipe I made on Sunday, which was also absolutely delicious! We've done pretty well choosing recipes these past couple of days!

Turkey Cakes with Sweet Chilli Sauce

2 cups cooked chopped turkey (or chicken)
1 cup cooked basmati rice (yum!)
1/2 cup chopped water chesnuts
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 egg whites
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
ground black pepper
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

Mix everything together, form into six patties and cook on medium/medium-low in 1 tablespoon of oil until browned on both sides (about 5 mins per side). Serve with sweet chilli sauce. Mmmmm...tasty!

These were a big hit at our house...hopefully someone else will get some good use out of them too!

Chicago and Jimmy Buffett

What a combination! Yesterday, Jeremy and I returned home from a 4-day trip to Chicago and Lake Geneva for the Jimmy Buffett concert. We had a very busy couple of days, and are still exhausted.

After dropping off the dogs at their doggy hotel, we left early Thursday morning for the Windy City. We arrived at our swanky hotel - we stayed at the Hilton - and off we set for some fun! We walked down to Lake Michigan, stopping at the Buckingham Memorial Fountain, and then made our way down to Navy Pier. Navy Pier was a lot of fun - we went on a giant Ferris wheel, walked through a pretty greenhouse, and ate ice-cream from Ben & Jerry's. Then it was back to the hotel to get dressed for our dinner cruise on the Spirit of Chicago. We got all gussied up - I wore a cute dress I had bought especially for the occasion, and Jeremy donned his suit - only to find when we arrived that most people on board were simply wearing cargo shorts and t-shirts!! I guess they didn't read the dress code, which calls for "business casual to dressy". Oh well. In the same vein, our food left much to be desired and the DJ was kind of tacky. But the views were beautiful, and the Blues band that was playing on the upper deck was actually pretty good. All-in-all, I definitely wouldn't recommend paying the money, but it was still an ok way to spend the night. After the cruise, we headed back to the Hilton and had a couple of drinks at Kitty O'Shea's, an Irish pub attached to our hotel. They had a (real Irish) lady and a man playing Irish music and they turned out to be excellent, which made our night much better.

Friday morning we woke up relatively early and, after breakfast at the Artist's Cafe, we decided to hit the Art Institute before heading up to Wisconsin. If anyone is ever in Chicago, make sure that you reserve at least a day (you'll probably need two) to explore the museum...it was amazing! We'd been to the Corcoran Gallery in DC, and I had been to the National Gallery of Art in DC without Jeremy, but they simply don't compare to the Art Institute. It was incredible...it's hard to believe that right in front of you are pieces of priceless art by Monet and Renoir and artists from all over the world. It was beautiful. I just wish that we had more time to spend - we only had about an hour and we only got to see 3 of the 15 collections (and that was without taking time to really read about each piece). Oh well...I'm just grateful we got to see any of it at all.

After that it was off to Nikki and Corey's place before heading up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We arrived at our hotel, unloaded our bags, and headed down to the bar for a cocktail and a light lunch. Then we walked around the town, which was very similar to Montville or Maleny in that it's touristy and family-oriented. We had dinner at a cute little Italian bistro (and sat next to a group of middle-aged people who tanned waaaay too much and enjoyed a little too much plastic surgery), and then it was off to Hog's and Kisses for some drinks and dancing. We finally made it home and curled up in bed, ready for a big day at the concert on Saturday.

We arrived at Alpine Valley at about 2pm, and set up for an afternoon of tailgating. Tailgating at a Jimmy Buffett concert is absolutely crazy - there were some amazing set-ups and a lot (and I mean a LOT) of very drunk people doing very silly things. We pretty much just hung around our car, drank margaritas and beer, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The concert was a lot of fun, even though we were stuck at the very back and couldn't really see or hear Jimmy. We somehow managed to beat the rush of people leaving, and got to bed sometime around 2am (after wrestling with an inflatable mattress that needed four D batteries that of course we didn't have).

Sunday morning (well, it was really about noon but it felt like morning to us) Jeremy and I left and drove back to Jeremy's parents house to spend the night. After 3 days of staying up late and drinking a few too many drinks, it was nice to finally unwind a little and just relax. We ate a delicious dinner at Rosebud, which is a restaurant that has hosted many famous guests - photos of Frank Sinatra, Robert DeNiro and many other celebrites grace the walls. Then it was in bed early, up at 4am, and on a 6:45 flight back to DC and back to work. We had such a great long weekend, and are still buggered. We took a total of 150 photos, so I pulled out the good ones and have posted them on a separate website.

Chicago and Jimmy Buffett

Oh, and a huuuuge congratulations to Andrew and Christie AND Matt and Mel on their recent engagements! Wow!! Two at once! We wish you all the happiness in the world!

Happy Independence Day!!

Well, it's the day after the 4th of July, and Jeremy and I are dead tired from going into DC to watch the fireworks last night. We rode the Metro (DC's commuter train line) into the city at 3pm, to make it to a dinner reservation at 5. After a couple of mojitos for me and beers for Jeremy, it started to rain. We hung around for a bit hoping it would stop, and then decided we should probably just go home. While we were waiting at the Metro station, the skies parted and sun once again shone through. Woo! So we made our way to the Mall (no, not a shopping center, but rather a long stretch of grass/park that connects the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building). Of course the ground was wet from the rain, so we had to steal an old box from one of the stalls to sit on. Classy. The fireworks started at about 9pm and went for a good 20 minutes. Leaving the Mall was like taking part in a mass exodus - there were hundreds of thousands of people all going in the same direction. At the Metro station, people were lined up all along the platform, at least 3 people deep the entire stretch. The trains were full by the time they got to our platform, so we had to squish on. I felt like a sardine. Yuck! Oh well. We finally made it home shortly after midnight, and now it's back to work as usual.

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

After the rain...so beautiful!

Still waiting....

Nope, no fireworks yet...

Our stylish accommodations (I look like a hippy in this photo)!

Jeremy getting sleepy...

These kids were adorable! They sang and danced to some patriotic song...fun! Check out the tiny little ones on the far right...they must have been no older than 3!

Finally!! A little blurry, but you get the gist. The fireworks were absolutely amazing!

Wow, have we been boring these last few weeks or what?! I apologize for not writing on here sooner, but we really haven't done anything especially noteworthy. We're like an old married couple! Haha. No, seriously. Here's a list of the few things we've done over the past few weeks:

1. We've gone out to eat (what a surprise) at Sweet Water Tavern, Chili's, and Sequoia.

2. I hit the outlet malls with my girlfriend from work, Melyssa, and spent a little too much money.

3. We finally cleared out the pile of junk from our living room that had been there since we moved (2 months ago!).

4. We've been to the movies to see Knocked Up and Live Free or Die Hard. Knocked Up was actually a really great movie, and Jeremy is still grinning over how "awesome" Die Hard was (it really was ok - much more of a boy's movie than what I like).

5. Jeremy found out that his resume has been passed onto the hiring manager at the US Forest Service (for a police/investigator position), and he's planning on taking his FBI agent interview sometime in the near future. In the meantime, he's been doing great at work - he's pretty much taking over responsibility for his team when the "team lead" is out of the office.

6. I had an exam in DC for my Motivation & Emotion class. We'll see how well I did - I didn't get to read all the books I was supposed to.

7. Jeremy and I had our immigration interview to prove that we did in fact love each other. That was weird. We had to answer questions like "What do you love about each other?", "How did you meet?" and "What was your first date like?". Those questions seem easy, but those types of things are sometimes hard to quantify. It's hard to list the reasons you chose to marry someone - it's much easier to simply recognize that they exist.

And I think that's about it. We've just been working and going about our day-to-day. I wish we were more exciting for you all. Oh well.

Oh, and check out the cool slideshow I did up to show our wedding pictures. Yay!

Our wedding photos...

My work news

Well, I guess I can tell you all my (kind of ) exciting work news...

So, I'm kind of getting a promotion... One of the lady's in Accounts payable is leaving and guess who's getting her job? Me, of course! I'm going to be doing both my original job in Contracts and the Accounts Payable job. Wow! Two jobs at once! My boss in the contracts department figured that since I wasn't terribly busy all the time, I could handle taking on the extra responsibility in accounts. It's not anything too difficult - just invoices and ledgers, that kind of thing. But, it's a fantastic opportunity to learn more and to expand my resume, plus I'll most likely get a pay increase, which is always nice! Go me!!

A grown-up bedroom

I'm so excited - Jeremy and I finally have a real, grown-up bedroom! Yay! No more plain old boring box-set! Woo! We bought a whole bedroom set last weekend and had it delivered yesterday. It was actually quite a steal - we bought the floor stock, which meant that we could get a bed, dresser, mirror, nightstand and a stool for the foot of the bed, all for about the price of just a regular bed. Sure, the dresser has a few scratches on top, but it's nothing too noticeable and, for the price we paid, we sure can live with it! Here are some pictures...

Notice the beautiful linens, courtesy of mum and dad. Thanks a million - they are gorgeous!

Our crazy Brissy hiding under the bed. It's her favorite spot, probably because Adelaide is too big to get under!

Yesterday Jeremy and I went to his work picnic. It was hot as heck and ridiculously humid outside, but his work had booked a pavillion at Burke Lake Park, so at least we were out of the sun. They had it catered by a delicious Mexican semi-fast-food place, which was yummy! It was nice to finally meet some of Jeremy's workmates, although I felt a little out of place - we were the only ones without kids!! Maybe we should work on that...(just kidding mum! You'll have to wait a few more years yet)

Last night we went out for dinner and drinks in DC with some friends. We went to this amazing Mexican restaurant called Lauriol Plaza. The restaurant is in this huuuuuge warehouse type building, and there was still a line out the door of people waiting to put their names on the list for a table! It was crazy busy. But the food was delicious, and the margaritas were pretty good. We went out to a bar afterwards, and I ended up having a few too many drinks. Oh well. It was a fun night.

And that's about it. Today it's been raining lightly all day (sorry guys, I don't mean to rub it in!), and we just been laying around recovering from last night. Oh, I may have some potentially exciting work news to tell everyone, but you'll have to wait a couple more days. So keep checking back in!

So beautiful!

Well, we got our wedding photos yesterday and, being the show-off that I am, I just have to post a couple of our favorites! Ben did a fantastic job - every picture is breathtaking!

Colorado

So, out of curiosity, I just GoogleEarth-ed Colorado Springs to see what the area we might potentially move to looks like. And, after seeing these pictures, I am ready to move!! Oh my gosh - it looks so incredibly beautiful! Jeremy and I will hopefully take a trip out there soonish to scope the area. Bring on the mountains!

Kids stuff

It's so fun to act like a kid sometimes! Yesterday, Jeremy and I bought the most awesome XBox360 game ever - Viva Pinata. I'm officially hooked!! It's such a cute game - the gist of it is that you're given this plot of land and you have to create a garden that will attract Pinata's to come and live there. You are given this plot that's covered with bad soil, weeds and trash, and you have to start from the ground up (no pun intended), planting grass, buying seeds to grow, building houses for the resident pinatas, calling the doctor when a pinata gets sick, etc. You also have to get your resident pinata's to "romance" each other, and then they will have baby pinatas. The aim of the game (even though it has no end), is to fill your resident pinatas with enough happiness candy that they are sent out to parties to make little boys and girls happy. I love it!! It's so much fun! So far my garden has 3 pinata houses (for my Whirlm's, Sparrowmints and Bunnycombs, of course), a pond, an apple tree and two hazelnut trees, and about a dozen different types of pinatas. Woo!!

And if that wasn't childish enough for all of you, last night Jeremy and I went to see Shrek 3 with one of my friends from work, Melyssa, and her boyfriend Dave. It wasn't that bad - it was much better than the second one, but still not as good as the first. The theatre we saw it in showed it in Digital projection, which meant the picture quality was unbelieveable! The only bad part about the night was that we had an obnoxious little boy sitting behind us who kept burping through the entire movie. Yuck! He was clearly forcing them, and his parents did nothing to stop him (except by saying "Stop burping", to which he usually replied with another one). It was disgusting!

By the way, the new Transformers movie looks sooooo AWESOME! Seriously, it looks fantastic! I can't wait until it comes out!

Now, back to the land of adults. Jeremy and I are pretty much all moved in to our new apartment. We did a bunch of unpacking/cleaning last weekend, and managed to get most of our pictures hung. Here are some pictures (don't mind the mess - the cleanliness doesn't usually last long!) -

From the outside...We're the apartment on the top floor, middle door on the left.

This is our living room/desk area.

Living room. We have a real wood fireplace (on the left)!!

Dining room.

Kitchen. It's kind of old, but we didn't want to pay an extra $200 a month for a renovated one. At least everything works (kind of).

This is our resident beaver! Jeremy found him one day when he was walking the dogs. He lives down behind our apartment building, in a little creek.

Our dog's new favorite pasttime is to lay on the back of the couch and look out the window. Isn't Adelaide so cute?! Usually Brissy lays up on top in the sun.

They love laying on our little deck in the sun!

It's an ok apartment - it's older than our last place, but it's clean and the neighbourhood is nice, which is all that really matters. We are hoping to buy our own house by April next year. We would love to buy one sooner, but it makes more sense for us to wait. Our apartment complex belongs to this company called Equity Residential, and they have this program where 20% of our monthly rent can be used as a downpayment on a house if we build/buy from one of their registered builders! It's a really nice deal, and by April next year we'll have about $7000 from it that we will use to help buy a house. We're also planning on moving out of the DC area by that time (don't worry Anne and Joe, we're sticking around until after you come to visit!) - we're thinking seriously about Denver, Colorado or maybe somewhere in the Chicago area. Houses are way too expensive in this area for us - around here $300,000 will buy you a 2-bedroom condo (if you're lucky, most likely it would only be 1-bedroom), or a dinky old townhouse, whereas in Denver or Illinois you can get a 4-bedroom house for about $200,000! Crazy!! Melyssa thinks that we should move to South Carolina (which is where her and Dave are planning on going sometime soon), so we'll see. We're keeping our options open, but are very excited and keen to move someplace new!