Possum or Opposum? That is the question.

I can't believe we've been here for almost 4 months. Things have changed so much already since we've been here, and I can't believe how much we've been able to accumulate in so little time. Thank God for yard sales!

Last week was chaos. The lead in the nursery at work was gone all week, and I had to take care of all the paperwork, cleaning, etc. It was very difficult. We also had a new kid start on Thursday, possibly the worst day to start. We have another kid that only comes in on Thursdays, and he cries ALL.DAY.LONG. And it's not just, "Sniffle sniffle, I want mommy", it's "WAHHHHHHBLOODYMURDERISOUNDLIKEMYORGANSARETRYINGTOCOMEOUTMYPORES" screaming. Seriously...so for a new kid to start on a day that the other kid is crying all day long, it's distressing for the new kid, AND the teachers. Two days of stressed out kids=stressed out Julie. Anyway, Friday evening was nice. We went over to Graham's place, one of Ben's co-workers, and chatted for a few hours and hung out. We saw a possum!! (Opossum? I feel like I've seen it spelled with an 'o' but that seems silly because if it's going to be silent anyway, why bother with that letter?) We were outside talking and I saw a big, rat-like creature in the tree and I swear my heart stopped for a minute. I thought, "Oh dear Lord, kill me now. There is a giant rat in the tree probably chasing a giant tarantula and I'm going to just curl up and die right here." So instead I loudly interrupted (oops?) "IS THAT A POSSUM!?" It was. And we watched him jump from one tree to another. Possums are creepy and I would not recommend getting one for a pet unless you're trying to scare people away so you can live a very isolated life.

Ben and Graham are working on a design for an airport here in Bunbury. Ben is excited because he actually got to do some design work! Since their company is new and small, Nancy focuses more on management projects because design can be 'risky'. But I think Ben really enjoyed doing some designs last week, and they're really cool looking. If we had a scanner, I would scan them in to show you, but we don't so I can't.

Random picture time.

Best apple juice ever. It's completely organic and comes from a Farm about 45 minutes away:



This is a watermelon we got at the Farmer's Market. They were on sale for 99cents per kilogram. I'll convert it for you because I know most of you are either too lazy to do it yourselves, or you will actually do the conversion and I don't want you to have to do all that work. The watermelon we got was about 6.6 kilos---that means it was about 14.5 lbs!!! And, I think you can figure out 99 cents per kilo, the watermelon was about $6.60AUD. And, with the exchange rate being about 97 cents to the USD right now, that means our 14.5 lb watermelon was $6.40 US dollars. Won't find that in Maine, huh?


Slow cooker lasagna. I found the recipe on Sparkrecipes.com, part of Sparkpeople.com which I joined 6 months ago (and has been helping Ben and me lose weight and be more active and healthy). The picture just kinda makes it look like vomit, but it tastes better than it looks!


These are what I call my 'Mom' sneakers. I finally got myself a pair of good cross-trainers because we are FINALLY joining the gym this week. 6 months of workout DVDs=bored Julie. And Ben would like to get in and do some cardio and weight-training. Anyway, this is the first pair of workout sneakers I bought for the comfort and fit, instead of liking the way they look. They are Reeboks, they ended up being $60 (which is awesome because everywhere I was looking workout shoes were anywhere from $150-200, and I was SO not ready to pay that), and they look EXACTLY like workout shoes my mom would buy. So, this one's for you mom:


We bought a washing machine for $40 this past week! A girl at work asked if we needed one because her neighbor was selling his. It's in great condition and fairly new. It is so nice not to have to go to the laundromat! Also, because we don't have to do our laundry all at once now, we are able to just do a load, and hang it to dry, and it doesn't take up the entire clothes line. Which is nice because the air is able to blow through the clothes better and dry them much more quickly. Here it is:


And, finally, a picture of us. (Awwww). I know, we haven't taken many pictures of the two of us, we just kind of forget because there are so many cool things going on around us--getting a picture of us seems boring compared to Kangaroo joeys and "Give Way" signs.


Next weekend we are going on a camping and hiking trip to the Stirling Range Mountains near Albany. It's a few hours southeast of here, and we're going with a few friends. It's supposedly really beautiful there, so we will have lots of awesome pictures I'm sure! And the weekend after that is our 1 year anniversary that we're spending in Margaret River--plenty of pictures to come these next few weeks. Miss everyone at home. xoxo