Home, Home on a Plane....

It was a long flight, very long, but we made it home safely. Dog and cat have been most happy to see us, and mooch around us as often as possible... cat rarely lets a lap be un-sat upon!

I've updated some of the posts I made whilst we were away with some photos. The rest of the photos are on my facebook account, so those that don't know how to see them, leave me a note and I'll send you the details.


After some discussion, we decided to give into our wii craving, given it had not gone away and we both felt it, and bought one duty free on our way back into the country. It saved us about $30 - not huge, but better than a poke in the eye!

We also wanted a wii fit, but they didn't have any at the duty free shop, so had to settle for getting one from the local shops the day after we got back. Wii has been somewhat of a focal point of our attentions and energy since we got back especially with the rain we've had. Both Friday and Saturday nights we ended up having nights at home with family, and the wii.... they all want one now too!

We managed to spend some time in the garden on the weekend, doing some weeding, and scattering of some lawn seed in the hopes that it might take root in the midst of all the rain.

I've also started on my post-wedding project - the budget - or at this stage, just simply tracking how and where we spend our money. I really want to get on top of this so that we can set and meet financial goals so that we can do somethings around the house, and even save up for another trip. It was heartening to work out today that despite spending at will on our trip, we were a grand total of $42.07 over budget for it - it is worth the money to not worry about it for the duration!

It is good to be home, I'm looking forward to moving on with our lives together. :)


P.S. Wifey, if you read this, I completely forgot when you asked about cool wedding presents to mention the gorgeous hand-made quilt my Aunt made for us - it is stunning and is WAY up there - just have to work out if we hang it or put it on a bed!

A Match Well Made

At about the same time as we moved into our house, a collegue of BabyCake's put his 4 bedroom house in the suburbs on the market and moved into a one bedroom inner city unit. This worked well for us, as we managed to buy all kinds of stuff from them at well below replacement cost - mostly tools.

It took a while, but the weekend before last, the pick up was effected and in the space of hours we had a beer fridge, lawn mower, more power tools than you can poke a stick at, spades, loppers, assorted hardware, an extra work bench, ladder and more. Given our exciting new (to us) toys, we planned a day in the garden for Sunday. Then it rained. Yesterday, however, it did not rain, and we had a huge day in the garden.

The pictures are some examples of what a couple of people with lopping tools (and an overgrown garden) can do in a few hours...

We have had a lot of fun making decisions about what happens in our garden, confident that we get the final say for everything we do - very cool after years of shared spaces and rental gardens where we've had to deal with other people's poor choices... now we can make our own poor choices! All with the added bonus of being physical movement, and a profitable way to get a sweat happening!

Retraining....

BabyCakes and I started on the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet on Monday. The first thing that hits you as you prepare to start (by going shopping), is how much food there is... It is hard to believe that one could feel hungry by following their plan - but I do. I think it is because I've been very carbohydrate heavy in my eating style in recent years and this is a low carb, low fat, high protein eating plan. I try to balance the occasional hunger pangs with drinking more water, and keep in the forefront of my mind not only my goals, but that it will take time to retrain my body as to what is enough food. BabyCakes is finding it pretty easy to cope with, and is only hungry in the lead up to dinner time.

What am absolutely excited about is the fact that the meal plan has been designed so as to include all one's vitamin and mineral needs without the need for supplements. It is nice to be able to think that I do not have to cringe every time one of those two-and-five ads come on TV, each time I hear another thing added to the seemingly endless list of things one *must* do each day to remain healthy/sane/whatever. I can be confident that some scientists have done my thinking for me on that front!

BabyCakes' dog also moved in on Monday (which was not especially coincidental), and he keeps us honest in so far as our 20 minute daily walk, to be ramped up as we all loose a bit of spare tyre.

We had a lovely gentleman named Mark build the last required fence for us which enabled the transfer of Dog to his new home. Dog was very disoriented on Monday eve, having only had one home since the pet shop, but seemingly is much more confident of his place as the time goes on. We also decided to try and create the illusion of more height on a worryingly low fence, and created with our own gloved hands and chicken wire and star picket height extension which seems to be doing its job thus far. I have to plant the passion fruit vines (one each of black fruit, yellow fruit and red fruit) once we get a shovel, to beautify and bountify it!




On Sunday evening we had a delightful dinner with BabyCake's parents and aunt. The roast lamb (those Australia Day ads work) was very tasty, the conversation was interesting



Saturday saw us put our wedding bands on lay by (mostly so they can store them in their safe, and we don't have to worry about them at home)... another tantalizing step closer to finalising all our plans.




I Intended to write more on this post... but got sidetracked, so shall post what I have anyway....