In Memory of my friend

It was a year ago tomorrow that my childhood pet, Ginger passed away. She was one of the best friend's that I ever had. She was with me in good times and in bad. When I was sick she would sit by my side. She was a good pet. She was a beautiful cat and I think of her often. We miss you Ginger!

Australian Bound??

What would you do if your hubby had an opportunity to work in Australia for a period of either 3 months, 6 months, or 2 years?? On Monday, Ryan's work group was introduced to this idea that the Australian office is in desperate need of some help. Our interest has been intrigued and now we are just waiting to find out if he will be asked to go or not. There is quite a few that have a interest so it may not even come to Ryan being asked.

It is a scary thing to think that we could be moving away from here, and very far away from home. When I said to my mom that we could be moving she said, "I hope closer to home." I responded by saying, "actually it would be about 22 hours further away from home, by air" Yikes! We are so lucky right now to be close to family, and family is a big deal to both Ryan and I. So that would be a huge change. And yikes, to think of the phone bills!!

I really think that this would be a good change for Ryan. So I would want him to go. However, this could mean that we would be separated for some time and that would suck. I mean we lived through the summers apart in university, but we always got to see each other either every weekend or every other weekend. If he was to go for 3 or 6 months, I would try to go out for some length of time, but I highly doubt that work would hold my job for me, and then you have to think if risking my job is worth me even going over. Ryan says he does not want to go and leave me behind. It is all so confusing. Then if he got offered to go over for 2 years, that would mean selling the house, selling the cars, and putting all of our furniture into storage back in Canada. A lot of work, but maybe that would be easier in the long run because I wouldn't have to worry about my job. We also have no kids at this time and no pets. So that would make it easy.

We have always wanted to go to Australia, but we figured it would be for a vacation, not as a new residency/ work reasons. As well, Ryan would be starting work by the end of May, at the latest June 1st. Any advice? If anything, it would make for great blog-tales.

Congratulations Ryan

Ryan finally got good news yesterday; he got a promotion. Ryan is now a Senior Consultant.
I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard, and has been patiently waiting for this reward.
This came at the best time, as he was honestly feeling a bit unrecognized and under appreciated. This has given him a good boost for his morale and confidence. Well, yesterday I took him out to celebrate to Pizza Hut. Congratulations Ry, I am so proud of you!

Two Ducks out for a walk

Here is a photo of the two mallard ducks that were out for a stroll yesterday in our backyard. I saw a pair, a male and a female sleeping on our lawn on Monday morning when I left for work.

Images of Spring time

Here are some photos from our beautiful weekend. It was heavenly to finally feel the sunshine on my skin. We spent the day in our hammock, reading our books and enjoying the beauty of warmth and mother nature.

The legend of the ol' green sink lives on

Yes, you heard it right! Our old green sink with the ugly, tarnished faucet and the old "cottage-like" cabinet just got picked up. We put the garbage out at 5:30, and about 5 minutes ago we were sitting on the couch, Ryan watching Tiger Baseball and me reading my book, and I heard a car door shut.
"Ryan, someone is taking our sink!" Now, the background on this goes like this. Ryan SO called this event; He said when he put it out to the curb that it would be gone by morning. I was like no way does someone want this old sink, with toothpaste still in it. Well he was right.
As we watched the white van pull slowly away out we dashed to the curb and like magic the sink/cabinet is gone!
We laughed and then thought - geez maybe we should have kept it, thinking that if someone wanted it that bad it had to be a prized possession.
Live on green sink, live on!

A good recipe

On a lighter note, here is a good recipe that I made on Saturday night. I got it out of the May issue of "Everyday with Rachael Ray". It is called "Janet's Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake"

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and remaining 1 cup sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in the sour cream and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture, in 2 parts, until just combined. Pour half the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar and half of the chocolate chips. Spoon the remaining batter as evenly as possible over the filling, spreading gently. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.
3. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Very yum-o! Lets just say I made it Saturday night and its all gone!