one week to go

We are flying out in one week.

One week?!

This is crazy.

Life has been SO full the past few months, and this next week is busy. Crazy, hectic, chaotically busy. But good busy.

The past month we both celebrated our birthdays. I'm sad to say I failed at documenting our 13 Days of Birthday as well as  we did last year, but we enjoyed lots of yummy meals, quality time with friends and family and the buzz of turning one year older. Buying a gift for someone who is whittling down their possessions to a mere 30 kgs is tough, but we both rocked it.

We made Smurf Haus look all pretty for his future humans, and we're waiting to hear back if the agent has got new tenants. I suggested that we hold interviews with everyone who came to the inspection but apparently that's not how things work. There's something special about your first home together, and Smurf Haus has been such a charming little fellow.

We've been emptying him of furniture at an impressive rate. Today we packed up most of our kitchen gear. I'm drinking LL&B out of an old coffee cup and we'll be using our camping utensils for dinner tonight. How the two of us have accumulated so much stuff is beyond me.

Apart from packing, we've been doing all the other 'getting-ready-to-move-overseas' kind of things. I challenged Will to a neck-pillow-blowing-up race, only to discover I get really light headed, really quickly. Will has been practicing his impressive Kenyan accent and stealing packing boxes from behind a large shopping complex. We've also done the grown up things like getting a joint bank account and our visas and vaccines.

We still need to properly pack our bags, and clean the house, and another 30 odd things on our To Do list. But it's happening, slowly, quickly, crazily.

I may not be on the blog again before we go, but we will keep this little journal for our new adventure, so keep an eye out for some jetlagged rambles and cheesy photos with African wildlife.

april snapshots

Little bits and pieces from the month that's almost gone...

 

We spent a day in costume filming silly videos for our work. There is something hilarious about seeing a 6'5 Sudanese man in a Flintstones outfit and mullet wig, I only wish we'd got a photo.

We also left home at 7am on Sunday for a rehearsal before morning church. A feat worth photographing given we get up no earlier than 8am on weekdays.

   

Aneela and Jeremy got married and their wedding was just delightful. We have a new sister and she's gorgeous and we will be talking about that delicious beef for many many years (more photos to come later!).

   

Family time. Uncle Will in his element. Thank you Paul and Lauren for making such sweet little people.

   

Our new, less-expensive habit is to bring in a homemade lunch and then get coffees together after. Working on the same street is a gem. And getting stuck in dreadful traffic is made so much sweeter when we're getting stuck in dreadful traffic together.

   

A perfect piece of art for Smurf Haus that is begging us to buy it. 

   

Hello French cooking in the slow cooker. Hello leftovers for lunch.

 

Copious study notes and nervous phone conversations. Fingers crossed.


 

 And five months in and (some of) our wedding herbs are still alive. We're way too proud. And a Saturday brunch with these beauties always makes me smile.

Sweet tooth

Do you ever leave a bowl of sweets for your rental agent when it's house inspection time?

 

Is it awkward that they all said things like 'Phone me', 'Kiss me' and 'Be mine'?

Alien foods

I'm going to blame it on the fact we are both tall, and bending right over to peer into the bottom shelf of the pantry just doesn't happen regularly enough.

  

 

j + a + Smurfette Haus

We're counting down the days until Jeremy and Aneela tie the knot and we get a new sister. 63 days to be exact. (Aneela told me today, so don't be weirded out that I knew that ;) J + A are one of our favourite couples, and given we'll soon all be family, I have a feeling they'll still be favourites 50 years from now. I love that about family.

And family are turning into neighbours as these guys have a house not too far from us. Jeremy moved in today and we popped in for a visit. Their pad is very, very cool*, with an awesome back yard, and yes, it's blue. So of course, we've named it Smurfette Haus and are so excited that Smurf Haus has a new sister. Or girlfriend. Or whatever the relationship was between Smurfette and all those blue boys :)

 

*Yes. An awkward family photo and a bath tub in the backyard. We just can't compete with that kind of cool.

oh hello february...

... when did you arrive? We're now in our third month of marriage - 2012 is flying!

Here are some little memories I'm shall we'll treasure down the track.

coffee, hot chocolates and dreaming about adventures..

 

our puppy, lucy, who now lives on our lounge room wall..

 

exploring the neighbourhood where Will grew up. stealing starfruit like he did as a kid..

 

cleaning, clearing, mowing and sorting..


 

new lunchboxes, packed lunches, and unusual additions in our salad..

 

the only takeaway indian worth eating (masala art) and grape fanta. so purple it'll probably kill me..

 

February, we like you.

Blessed

And now to take a moment to pause and count our blessings.

After the breakdown of our gifted second-hand washing machine, and a call out on Facebook to friends who might be selling one, we are now the proud custodians of a beautiful brand new washing machine, kindly lent to us for free from a very lovely and generous couple.



We did two loads the first night we got it and spent the whole time saying 'It's a real washing machine!' I think we both had visions of months of either hand-washing or carting our clothes basket to our parents every couple of days. Thank you very lovely and generous couple!

And on the topic of things around the house, I wanted to make a joke about ‘How long does it take two intelligent newlyweds with four university degrees between them to clip the toilet freshener in the toilet bowl?’ but we spent waaaaaaay too long trying to figure it out the other night that I had no energy left for being witty.

Our first Christmas Eve

I went a little snap happy on Christmas Eve, but it was our first as husband and wife and I'm so glad I captured a few of the special moments.








We ate pancakes on our front deck, listened to the rain come down, spent about an hour in a very cool kid's store, did our supermarket shopping, moved some furniture around, ate corn chips and discussed a fun business idea with PC, finished painting our DIY chalkboard, returned to the front deck to eat cheese, watched thousands of bats fly over, lit candles and exchanged Christmas gifts, listened to Christmas carols, cooked Tom Yum, chilled out to Modern Family and baked some special red velvet Santa Hat cupcakes.

It really was the best Christmas Eve ever.