One Year On

Last weekend  was the Million Paws Walk, a big dog event held by the RSPCA every year. We convoyed with Will and Pip so that we could find each other once we got there, with 12000+ people plus 4800 dogs it was a bit crowded.

The theme of the day was Superheroes, so this little guy let his alter ego out for the day

After looking at some of the booths we joined the crowd in a 5km walk around the main lake in Canberra. It was a beautiful sunny day and an easy walk which made the whole thing very enjoyable. Part way around there they had some dogs playing a game called flyball, some game where they have to run over hurdles to collect a ball and run it back to the beginning before the next dog in line goes, it's a type of relay race.

Flyball

Photo courtesy of Philippa Prothero

Photo courtesy of Philippa Prothero

Other then that we haven't been up to much, trying to book our flights home for Christmas, which is difficult with rising oil prices, our dollar going up and, of course, it being Christmas time.

We have been in our house now for 1 year so I thought I'd do a recap of before and afters to show what's changed since we moved in. There isn't much change in most of the rooms but it's the little things Andrew and I are keeping track of.

Our bedroom

My studio

Guest room

Kitchen/family room

Kitchen/family room

Lounge

Dinning Room

Deck

Deck

Coopa followed me outside

I can't find a before for this but the yard is much more open and clear than it was

Side yard

From the fence

From the garage

From the garage

Stay tuned to see what changes come along over the next year.

I Could Lie

And say that Andrew and I have been having some mad, crazy adventures since my parents left but it's just not true. In fact, we've sadly gotten back into the swing of things at work and fallen into our usual routine, although it does now include a Tudors episode most evenings.

Thursday night we did go on a double date (how cute) with our friends to see this new movie called Oranges and Sunshine. The movie is by and about this woman, Margaret Humphreys, a social worker in the UK in the 1980s. She runs a support group for adults who were adopted as children and comes to learn about children who were sent on their own to Australia. Once she begins investigating she discovers that many of these children were told that their parents had died when they hadn't, or that they didn't have any family and that was why they were sent away. Once in Australia they were sent to children's homes/missions and depending on where they were some were told around the age of 15 that they had to pay back the mission for being raised. It was a really interesting movie and I would highly recommend it, it's just so interesting what happened.

Since we were busy Thursday I decided to spend Saturday cooking up a nice Tex-Mex meal for Cinco De Mayo. It was great to spend the day puttering around in the kitchen and having a meal that's completely fresh and made from scratch was great. Paul, Judy and Kate came over to join us and it was a really nice evening. We started with a variation of Jess' fruit salsa with cinnamon and sugar tortilla chips, Paul made vegetable empanadas and we had a round of drinks. Dinner was homemade flour tortilla's (I added some allspice and mexican chili spices for some extra flavor) with red onions marinated with lime juice and ranchero pork (slow cooked for 5+ hours) and another round of drinks, this time some Firefly Iced Tea Vodka. We finished with warm sopapilla's drizzled in honey, the perfect end to any day. I would have pictures of it all but it smelled so good we ate it all so quickly, maybe next time.

This morning we got up and headed to Paul and Judy's so Andrew could practice the omlete making techniques that Dad taught him, they turned out really good and we spent some time sitting in the sun and playing with the puppies after eating. Other then that, we've got nothing so I'm going to leave it there and learn to take more photos so this blog is a bit more lively.

The Last of the Americans

Well, as of now my parents are back stateside which means we just have this last blog from them before I have to start writing my own again:

There's no Place like Home...There's no Place like Home...