Welcome to the family Charli-Anne Watts

We have fantastic news! We've decided to expand our family!

Her name is Charli-Anne and we couldn't be happier! We found her through Halo Rescue which is a not for profit shelter which does not euthanize.

She's a beautiful grey and white long-haired tuxedo. When we found her, she was very docile and sweet. She's 6yrs old and she was given up by another family so we knew she was litter box trained and we wouldn't have to deal with kitten craziness.

When we got her home, she was immediately curious and exploring the house. We had taken her from the shelter in the middle of dinner time so we decided to feed her. She ate an entire can of food! That's a lot of food for a 7 lb cat! She loves her food and she's teeny tiny so we're trying to fatten her up. She loves her food and will eat whatever we give her. In fact, we have to fight her off from our dinner!

She's already settled into the house and has made herself at home. She snuggled us last night and has claimed a spot on the couch.

We're so excited to have her in the family!

 

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Bacon & Beer Chili

For Christmas Eve each year, my family has chili for dinner. This year I was put in charge of the dinner. I found a really yummy recipe but wouldn't you know it, my camera was dead so I couldn't capture the pictures on the initial try of the recipe.

With the weather being a bit on the chilly side this week, I decided to try and make it again. It turned out much better the second time around.

Ingredients include: ground beef (or turkey), bacon, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, beer, garlic, beer, and worchestire sauce, and pinto beans.

Chop up the bacon and cook. Once crisp, add in the onion and garlic.

Once the onions are transparent, add in the ground beef and brown up. Once browned up, add the spices to test.

At this point, I transfer the contents to a pot and add all the wet ingredients.

Let simmer and then enjoy!

Here's the original recipe.

While I was doing this, my husband was attempting to remove a popcorn ceiling in the garage.

Yes, that's a litter box.

 

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Hubby Lifting: Part 1

Now that I'm a married woman, Adam and I has delegated out duties between the two of us. I'm in charge of all decorating and Adam is in charge of the electronics and heavy lifting (aka Hubby Lifting). Where the two meet (like a media center), we have to work together to agree.

While Adam is waiting for the US Government to allow him to legally work, I've provided him with a list of honey-do items. I've got to keep him busy!

One of those items was to hang the didgeridoo that I got for my birthday from the Watts family. Adam tasked me with figuring out how to hang a didgeridoo. After much trolling of the web, I found two options - a purpose made hanger that cost a lot of money and gets sent from Switzerland (really-weird!) or as suggested on a DIY site, use a towel holder. I opted for the towel holder. So off we went to Lowe's. I couldn't really find anything I liked but then Adam found pull-backs for curtains and we thought "why not?"

After some discussion, we finally decided where to hang it and now we have a beautiful didgeridoo to remind me of my time in Australia.

 

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Christmas

This year we were supposed to spend Christmas in Australia but the US Immigration had other ideas.

To help Adam feel a bit more at home we try to incorporate some Australian traditions. We have champagne while we open the presents. We bought him some shrimp (not quite the same as prawns and Morton Bay bugs, but it'll do). We also buy bon-bons to open before dinner.

But this year my mom out did herself - she bought Adam a beach cricket set. Of course we couldn't just let it sit unused but we don't have a beach so the snow will have to do. Adam has spent the evening teaching the family all about cricket. This included hands on learning and the lessons were caught on camera.

 

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Little Girl Brooks

Last year I did a blog about the Brooks family with some of the pregnant pictures I took of Mommy Brooks. This year, I was lucky enough to be able to take some pictures of their beautiful and smart daughter before her 1 year birthday.

I met Gabby over Christmas last year for the first time.  She was two months old and a very easy baby to like.  I then got to meet her again in April when I came home for a visit.  She was older and more interactive but still very easy to like (except for when she threw up on me!).  Now that I'm home, I get to see her nearly every weekend and she continues to be very easy to be around.

Momma Brooks asked me to do these pictures and I had never really done pictures of a 1 yr old so I was had no idea what to expect.  We setup an area in a park using some of the fall decorations that are going to be used for Gabby's birthday.  We must have looked crazy - fall decorations when it was still 90 degrees outside??

Anyhow, Gabby was a pleasure to work with.  Mama and Dad Brooks kept her entertained so I could focus on the pictures and I think they came out fantastic with the color combination!  What do you think?

Maybe we'll keep this a tradition - new pictures of Gabby every year!

Right Side Up

Well, it's done!  I'm back in the United States for good.  That's right - back on home soil.  

It has been fantastic being home.  I'm in love with nesting at the moment.  I've turned into a serious homebody.  

I'm travelling to PA every week for work so I just get a few days at home each week.  When I'm home, all I want to do is be home.  I'm a completely different girl than who I was in Oz.  No more late nights with the boys drinking lots of beers.  Now, its the couch and the TV for me - and I'm ok with that!

First order of business was to redecorate the bedroom.  I had been wanting to do that before I left but felt it best to wait.  I had a beautiful golden brown bedroom set but I was ready for something new.  Something lighter and more versatile.

Old Bedroom:

Old Bedroom

New Bedroom:

New Bedroom

I'm not done yet - I need to find some artwork for the walls, put up the new curtains, and new lamps for the bedside tables.

So excited to be home!!

The city that never sleeps

The week before Christmas, HA and I decided to go to New York. It was a fantastic trip and we'd like to go back. We did all the normal touristy stuff - the Empire State building, a show on broadway, and the Rockettes.

We had brilliant food. You could spend a whole vacation just eating all day and never doing anything else. We had two really beautiful dinners while we were there but one in particular was fantastic. Adam took me to The Palace for dinner. The food was beyond good and the atmosphere had a very trendy vibe. We needed up making friends with the bartender and having drinks with him that night.

These were my favorite Christmas decorations in the city.

We found these on the Brooklyn Bridge and thought they were very cool. I couldn't help myself in photographing them.

I took this picture from the top of the Rockafeller Center right before Adam asked me a very important question....

Of course I said yes! He did a fantastic job designing the ring (yes, he designed it himself). Now we just need to finish all the wedding planning!