It had been awhile since I have posted

I am home in Minnesota... sorry for the lack of blogging

But our family's beloved aunt Shirley (my great aunt) died this week

Thus, we have had a tough time, we miss her dearly.....

My sister's wedding is also on Saturday, and I am back in Oz on Tuesday...

I will put in wedding prep photos later.... but right now we need to just grieve the loss of a wonderful lady.

Busy busy busy

Dad and I fly to the states tomorrow, and this week has been VERY hectic (thus, the lack of blogs).

I made it to the airport ok to pick him up(well, other than that I ended up in a pay lot and had to pay $7 for 20 minutes of parking - nice), but missed my exit on the way back (we were stopping to pick up Murray from work). It was another one of those signs that was posted up over a split in the road - but it is SO big and easily viewed from the other road it makes you think THAT is where you should be. Anyhow, we somehow ended up going through the harbour tunnel, had to turn around and go back over the harbour bridge, took a wrong turn again, and finally picked up Murray - he drove home from there. Whew

I am looking forward to going to the states and I am happy that I have a full week to help with the preparations for my sister's wedding and to just see everyone - HOORAY!

Lovely Weekend again

But first - a few more pictures from Murray's birthday - because I got a copy of Helen's photos this weekend
He liked his big yummy double burger!

Massive!!!

What? For Me? I think he liked the surprise - and the singing waitresses!

It looked pretty cool too!

The main dessert was chocolate mouse coated in chocolate - fabulous!

And now - this past weekend!
We enlisted our friends Cameron & Richard (who had just flew in from the U.K.) to come over & help us set up our new BBQ!

It was NOT an easy job! They were told it'd take around 2 hours - it ended up taking 4!!

It took so long that it started to get a bit dark!

And they had to get out the flashlights - but we HAD to finish - because we were planning on cooking dinner on that thing!!!

This is the cleanest it'll ever be I am sure!

A mysterious gap next to the hot plate - we found out the next day that there was an extra piece that fits in there - oh ok - no worries

These stones are 'flamer tamers' to help distribute the heat & hopefully cook the food evenly!

After half an hour to 'cure' the new grills - we popped the food on!

Cameron & Murray working hard !

Then - DISASTER - Cameron dropped a sausage!!

Sneaking it back on the grill - WE SAW THAT!

Finally everything was done and we sat down to eat - Cameron, Me & Richard
(and and notice the new patio table which we also picked up this weekend - we LOOOOOOOOOOOVE it! and got a great deal - fantastic!)

On Sunday we headed to a lovely beach not far from Manly for Zephyr's first birthday party!
Murray, Cassie (Zephyr's Mom) & Me (it was a green themed party!)

Hamish (Zephyr's Dad) & Murray

The gorgeous & tasty tiny cupcakes - SO cute!

Helen with a cupcake, me with a face cookie! They had lots & lots of great food!

Eventually the birthday boy woke up from his nap and had a snack while wearing his king frog cape!

The cake Cassie made - isn't it fantastic!!! The shark even has fish in it's mouth lol - so creative!

I think Zephyr liked it too!

Cutting the cake

And scooping out the blue (coconut) 'water'

Father & son

Murray, Zephyr & Me

Murray & Zephyr watching people try to smash open the pinata!

We got him a few toys from the pinata - he liked the ball, Murray liked the whistle

Hmmmm what is this thing on my wrist?

and how did THIS get on my finger?

We had to take advantage of photo time with Zephyr as of course he was hot property and had to work the room to say hello to everyone:)

Me & Zephyr
Happy Birthday Boy with Helen

It was a fun party - great to see people we hadn't seen in ages, lovely food and a gorgeous & happy birthday boy! :)


and finally a random photo when we stopped to pick up a few more things for our BBQ later that day - just outside the store they were demonstrating a BBQ by cooking a beer can chicken - it smelled SO nice!!! How bizarre to cook AT the BBQ store though - so Aussie!

Friday Friday

Tonight after work we went to see the movie 'Love the Beast' - Eric Bana's movie about his love affair with a Ford GT Falcon Coupe. It was a cute movie - except for Dr. Phil's boring commentary (yawn). I liked seeing the inside of Jay Leno's car/bike garage though - well more like a warehouse - AMAZING!!!

Also - I found a little desk calender in the stationary cupboard this morning and it said each day had a quote - so I set it up on my desk! I read every quote from January 1st up to today and picked out a few I really liked.....

*The Happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

*Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?

*The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessing. - Eric Hoffer

*I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. -George Bernard Shaw

Oh I can do it :)

I added value at work today - finally - it felt good to not feel totally lost - hooray!

Also- good things
*I fly back to Minnesota a week from tomorrow
*tomorrow is casual day at work
*and my Dad arrives on Monday

Happy Thursday!

:)

Back to the grind

Today in the little kitchen on my floor (where you can heat up lunch & get a cup of tea) I noticed on the bulletin board a very creative sign.

It was a piece of paper set out like those ads with little tear off strips at the bottom - which usually hold a phone number regarding the item for sale.

It said 'FREE - strips of paper for writing down phone numbers, or to dispose of your chewing gum, or for spit balls - up to you - price - FREE!

LOL - and most of them were gone - that made me smile - how silly!

p.s. I love that here like in the UK they have a couple of cartons of milk in the fridge & free tea bags & coffee for your afternoon fix (tea with milk hold the sugar for me thanks!) And best of all - free cookies!!! I think I may grow to like this place:)

other good things today - they finally got my badge working so I can go to the restroom without having to buzz the doorbell to get let back onto my floor and they installed a phone at my desk so I don't have to go sit in someone else's desk to make calls - fantastic!

Day 2

So I drove to work this morning.

I left REALLY early and still got caught in traffic (that was surprising!) and made my way there fine. I took all my exits perfectly and followed Murray's fabulous map that was like 3 feet long - a bunch of pieces of paper taped together. I got there an hour before work started (hey - but it was my first time - I wanted to make sure I had LOTS of time). It was good to be early anyhow since this was my first time working at this work site.

Work was fine - I sat in a meeting and understood SOME of what they were talking about, then I read manuals - fun fun fun! Oh the best part of the day was when the guy on my team noticed I had a Dilbert calender and asked if he could look at some of the cartoons (Murray gave it to me as part of my b-day present) :)

Driving home was ok until I got about half way - then I missed my exit (I saw a sign that was my exit, but then just before the exit the sign changed and I thought that exit would mean I was going the wrong way). SO I didn't take it, then got lost, then ended up in the city - opps! So I ended up just picking Murray up at work and we drove home together.

THIS is the thing that I don't like about driving here - the other side of the road - I am getting used to, the roundabouts - fine, but the fact that if I take a wrong turn - most of the time I cannot easily turn around and get back to where I went wrong is SO frustrating!

Anyhow, I looked at a map and I now know where I went wrong and it won't happen again:) And thankfully tomorrow I am back at the site with Murray so we can drive together whew (i.e. he an drive:)

And our little home made pizza was SOOOOOO fabulous tonight - we were too hungry to take photos! :)