Love

Here in no particular order are some things I'm currently in love with.

- Today is a school holiday. So I'll be spending some quality time with a fat stack of papers. But I'll also spend some time at TJMax with my dear friend Nicole.

- My friend Kristine (Of Blog stalking fame) has started her own blog. Go check her out. She's witty and a bit sassy. You will be able to tell that from the fact that she started a swear jar to help her cut down on her wide vocabulary.

-The crockpot dinner that is currently basking in some amazing saucy goodness. Asian chicken is happening in my life tonight, and tomorrow for lunch!

- Girl Scout cookie time. I have had a thin mint and it was just as good as I remember. I currently have a little purple box sitting on my kitchen table. Yes friends you know what they are, Samoas. None of this Carmel Delight bologna. Yes, I know, it is slighly politically incorrect to call them Samoas. But when I was a girl scout* they were Samoas and therefore what they will be called.

Today is also my brother's birthday. There was a party at his house last night and we had an excellent meal of fondue fun. He is now a quarter of a century old. 25 was a good year for me, I hope it is good to him too!


*My troop had 32 girls in it. We sold so many cookies that we went to Catalina Island.

oh this little car of mine

I am surrounded by good people.

Today a dear friend of mine and I drove over to get some Starbucks - and on getting back to school and getting out of the car noticed that there was a river of green coolant coming from the car.

There had been a small slow week that has been there for about a month. (Yes I know that i should have taken care of it - but time and money put it at bay).

So I'm very lucky that my dear friend got on the phone with her husband. I got on the phone with my dad. And within 10 minutes - AAA was on it's way.

My dad showed up and about 15 minutes after that the tow truck showed up.

While we were waiting about 7 different staff members asked to make sure everything was okay - and that help was on the way.

I love that I work at a place where people truly care about one another!

It made my Wednesday - even though my car doesn't work.

So I'm Back

I feel like there are a lot of things to cover. I will not be able to post it all now, because I'm trying to get back to a normal sleep schedule. After all the first day of school is on Tuesday - first day with kids is Wednesday.

My brain is still trying to get a hold of this time situation. Because it still feels like I should be awake until about 3 am. But I made it to bed at 1 yesterday - that's two hours better from the night before.

The trip was wonderful. I gained 5lbs - but we'll say 2kg because it sounds like less. Why aren't we on the metric system. I mean really - what are we doing with this bologna about feet and pounds. It's a bit to complicated for me.

Here we are at LAX getting ready for our flight. It's hard to think that this was over a month ago. The flight took us 13 1/2 hours to get to New Zealand where we almost had to run to catch another 3 hour flight to Sydney. We got in at 9am Sydney time and had to wait almost an hour to get our bags. It may not have been an hour but it sure did feel like a long time. We got through customs and then we were out to meet the family. Tracey (mother in law) and Liam (brother in law) were there to pick us up. Liam is now taller than Bren. I couldn't believe it, neither could Bren really.



Here is a Koala that we saw at a wild life park we went to. He was loving himself sick with the eucalyptus leaves he was eating.









Here is Tas (sister in law) and Bren at the museum of natural history. This is a taxidermy kangaroo - Bren is pretending to snub it.








ps. I would like to post more pictures but it takes a long time on here and I'm not sure if there is a faster/better way to upload pictures. If you know of a way can you let me in on the secret.

He comes from the land down under

A little over 6 years ago I got married to my best friend.

He and I dated for 4 long years. He was in Sydney - I was in Flagstaff (going to NAU).

In two and a half days we leave to go to Sydney for a month.

We will be spending time with his family and enjoying a long needed vacation.

Here are a few things I am looking forward to:

- Spending time with Family
- The train ride up to see Nannie and Pop
- Cherry Ripe candy bars - think mounds with cherries in it
- Tasty Cheese, this is really the title of this type of cheese, it's not like cheddar and not like jack but somewhere in the middle, and it's amazing
- Walks into the junction - His family lives in a little suburb outside of Sydney and we are able to walk into the local train station to go into the city.
- Public transportation
- The beach - It's winter time so there will be no dip in the water for me, but it sure is pretty.

The last time we were back was in 2006 - so this is a long overdue trip. I should go pack some more and make sure I have enough socks and sweaters. It's a very strange process to pack in shorts and tank top - but be counting the number of sweaters I need to take with us.

How is it Friday already?

I really have loved having a week off. Don't get me wrong I have been very thankful for the week off. But I really don't know how it went by so quickly.

Thanksgiving was awesome. The whole family was at my parents house to enjoy a feast of Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, bread, gravy, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. My Uncle and cousin were able to make it out. I haven't seen Dylan in 5 years. And I don't know the last time we all had a family dinner together. Again, it was awesome.

Today I need to give the dog a bath. This is because she loves to dig in the yard. And because of the watery bit of our yard she has found that it's much more fun to dig in mud than it is to dig in dirt. This means I woke up to a very messy pup today. She looks so proud of herself - the face that says "but mom I was trying to keep you safe by digging up all the bugs." She loves to chase bugs. L.O.V.E.S. to chase bugs - she is amazed by moths - startled by spiders - and wild about worms.

I also have to give her a bath because tomorrow is the final day of puppy class. She will be completing all of her hard work and I want her to look nice. And smell good. She smells very dog like. And no one likes a stinky pup.

So I plan on grading papers and washing a dog. And trying to lengthen the day so that there doesn't seem like only two days left of my week off.