house full of estrogen

So, we haven't talked about her much, but our puppy Nacho is 8 months old now and she has suffered with separation anxiety ever since we first took her home. This has been pretty hard to deal with sometimes, especially when her anxiety has caused her to:

* cry non-stop for no apparent reason for hours on end

* cry so much during the night that she ended up sleeping in our bedroom

* get so upset when we'd leave for work it sounded like she was being stabbed

* rip up the newspaper we'd left down for her 'mess' while we were at work resulting in 'mess' all over the laundry

* scratch a huge hole in our couch

After talking with every semi-expert friend we could, the feedback we kept getting was, "she's a companion dog, she needs a companion". We really didn't want another dog, thinking it could end up being double the trouble, but after trying everything else we figured we needed to give it a go. After doing our research we decided to adopt an adult Golden Retriever. We figured Nacho needed guidance on how to be a big girl and a bigger dog would offer her a sense of protection.

On Saturday we picked up the new addition to our family, the lovely Bailey. She's 7 years old and is a purebred Goldie whose owner died 6 months ago leaving her with her daughter, who could no longer take care of her. They were really lovely people and we've committed to keeping them informed of how Bailey is doing in our home.

Bailey is just gorgeous! She's beautiful looking and has a really awesome, relaxed personality. We're both in love with her and so far she and Nacho are getting along well. Nacho is still a bit nuts but we're hoping time and Bailey will help her settle down.

Shan and Bailey on the day she came home with us.

Chillin in the backyard

Nap time

And, just cos she's so damn cute - our little Nacho trying to eat a bone that's bigger than she is.

they call her 'the painted woman'

A few months ago, my lovely wife decided she wanted to get her half sleeve tattoo extended to a 3/4 or full sleeve. She got in contact with her cool tattooist, Tim, and yesterday we went in for the first session.

Seriously, Shan is wayyyyy tougher than she looks!! She sat for 3.5 hours and had all of the outline and some of the shading on her forearm done, including the inside and outside of her ELBOW - the most painful spots to get a tattoo. She'll need another 1 or 2 sessions to complete it but it looks incredible so far. Tim is a genuis. Oh, and when we mentioned we'd seen him at the Tegan & Sara concert, he said he was there at their request and was asked backstage by them because they want him to tattoo them next time they're in town. Yuh, as if we didn't already think he was super cool.

blood...

a lucky lunch with family

I had a meeting on the Gold Coast today so had the pleasure of catching up with my mum and two of my sisters for lunch. I still find it kinda hard to believe how grown up we all are. Out of the 5 girls in my family - 2 have kids, 2 have degrees, 2 are still studying for degrees, and 2 of us are married. I still remember fighting over the front seat of the car, singing to Garth Brooks and Hanson together on long car rides and changing my baby sister's butt when she was a baby. She's 19 now.

Mum with Giselle

Sally and Giselle. Sally is pregnant again and we found out last week she's having a boy!

Hollie with Giselle

And this is how they showed up with Jimmy.

And they say they aren't bogans...

did you miss us?

hey peeps! we're back! Well we never really left but we did give blogging a break for a little while. Between moving house and having no internets at home and having jobs that didnt really allow for blogging, we decided to take a break.

But now, we're in our new lovely house complete with internets and we are back into blogging! I gotta keep this one brief as I need to take Nacho for a walk so maybe she'll stop crying for 10 minutes, but we'll write more soon.

Zanne

Artica

I’ve taken a break from University (some might say “again?!”). I have been studying a Journalism degree. I was studying for personal development, not a career change. With that in mind, and after confirming I already know how to write and I have no passion for journalism, I realised I only intended finishing my three year degree because I like to finish what I start. I might go back to the degree in the future but, after much discussion with my wife, I’ve decided to pursue art.

It’s funny that I never decided to do this before. I guess I was busy travelling or, most likely I might have felt that art is what I do in my free time, not something to make a living from. Anyways, I’m at the point now where I totally hate being a secretary and I am constantly daydreaming of my perfect job… If I could be anything/do any job, what would it be? A tattoo artist. There’s no hesitation in answering that. A big dream, true. But it will be achievable through hard work and baby steps. So I enrolled into drawing classes at the Brisbane Institute of Art. How exciting!

My first class was last night – I’m in love! I wasn’t prepared for the nude model, I was a bit embarrassed to begin in fact, but it was surprising how quickly the model simply became curves and lines and tone. I’m not looking forward to a male model, I have to admit. Ew! I’ve told Zanne I’m gonna draw the male models like Ken Dolls ha!

Anyways, last night was a great experience and I’m totally psyched about this semester. My drawings sucked but I’m determined I will get better. Our teacher seems to think we will all improve in no time – “it just takes practice”. Well then, practice I will!

you and me babe, how ‘bout it?

Well. It seems that Zanne is no longer with us…In addition to her topsy-turvy job (and finding a new one, hopefully free of topsy-turvy), she’s also involved in the creation of a new Australian magazine and has a number of web-based projects she’s hoping to get underway. As well, the Pride Committee is about to resume their weekly meetings (Pride is in June woo!) and Zanne will again take-up responsibility of arranging Brisbane’s Queer Community Awards Night. So basically, Zanne is too busy for us now bloggers. It’s just you and me – how ‘bout it?

vaccine, vacc-iiiiiine!

Our wee family has Puppy Preschool Class No. 2 tonight – exciting!

Nacho had her second vaccination on the weekend. She was very brave!

train, train, go away

There were train issues here in Brisbane on Friday – it took us 3 hours to get to work! Remember how I mentioned the commute to work is killing us? This is why!

and a nurse named Sarah

My Mum had shoulder surgery last Thursday. She was not well afterwards (she had issues in recovery and very low blood pressure until the next morning), which is a difficult thing to witness. By all accounts though, her surgery went well. One surgery down, five to go.

daily photo done

Remember how last year I made a resolution to take a daily photo? Well, done and done. Yeah!!

I hope you enjoyed my pics. I know some days weren't very inspiring but, hey, most of the time I just go to work you know? In retrospect I'm glad I chose to undertake this little project in 2009 because it was such a big year for us, full of change and growth. I'm sure Zanne and I will reflect on those 365 photos in the future and smile big.

There's no resolution/ongoing project for this year at this stage. I was considering an-every-other-day lyric type of thing but nothing has come of it yet - what do you reckon?

Shan

tick tock i love you clock

Our little baby has certainly kept us busy this past week-and-a-bit. Up until Monday night Ms Nacho was waking us up once, twice and three times a night.

Anyways, last night was the second night that she slept all the way to 5am - yessss! Apparently the trick is a big ticking clock wrapped in Zanne's night shirt. Whatever works I say! Fingers crossed the sleeping continues. In any case, we start Puppy Preschool next week so I'm sure we'll pick up a few different tips over the next few weeks.

Shan

PS. Remember how Zanne and I are currently living with my parents? Well it's just lucky that Nacho is super cute and my parents are super understanding cos we haven't been evicted yet...

the newest addition

Meet the newest addition to our little family - Nacho Marshmallow Michaels.

She's 8 weeks old and totally adorable!

PS. Nacho is the sister of my cousin's puppy, Murphy. Remember the puppy Justin got for Christmas?

Twenty Ten

The Christmas break is over and I’m back at work - and back on the internets. I realise we just had 3 months away but, man, it was good to have another wee break. Good to sleep in, good to be just the two of us.

Pre-break we had big plans to have all sorts of adventures but Christmas and its lead-up took care of one week and Post-Christmas my parents were working during the day (yes, we still live with my parents) so we ended up taking advantage of long and lazy days together and spending our nights with family. It was good times. We had breakfast burritos each day, I took up residence at my new sewing machine (all the time complaining about the heat) and Zanne watched all three Lord of the Rings episodes. I like those times, when we have no cares and nothing to talk about, and when every time I catch the gaze of my love she smiles and I smile back because I just like hanging with her.

In addition to all our lazing about we also made plans for this new year (2010 – can you believe it?). We both committed to a budget and we wrote down some joint goals. We have dubbed this year “The Year of the P” as our goals fall under four categories: productive, practical, prepare and pretty.

Productive relates to how we wish to spend our time. Zanne has a number of projects she wishes to spend time on and I have some classes in mind that I’d like to attend.

Practical relates to how we wish to be with our money. We have both committed to being less frivolous so as to reach our financial goals of paying off our credit cards and saving for our own home (fingers crossed we’ll move in by the end of the year!). We were both motivated enough last year to save for our Canada adventure so I think our new goal should be no problem for us. We’re both really excited and I can’t help constantly thinking to myself “our own home, can you imagine!”

Prepare relates to gearing up for a family. We hope to start our family next year(!) but before that can happen we need a home and we need to be healthier, so health and fitness also falls under this category. I will be the birth mother of our children and so I have conception and pregnancy to be healthy for, but more than that, we both want to live long and healthy lives with (and for) our children. My Mum is currently having health issues and it’s a bit scary to be honest… It’s scary to think that Mum isn’t indestructible, and scarier still to know that she is so stubborn she might try to “grin and bear” her pain. My Mum is young (only 46) and it is awful to think of her not being well enough to enjoy her children and grandchildren - which has inspired Zanne and I to resolve to take care of our health so that we might enjoy our children forever and ever. Now obviously stuff happens and all that, but you know what I mean.

Pretty is so named because “creative” doesn’t begin with a “P”. We both wish to actively be more creative this year. I hope to continue with my sewing, and to hopefully improve, and Zanne is teeing up photography expeditions with some of our friends. I’m also hoping to work on my limited fine art (painting and drawing) skills…

Even though we’ve written our goals down, they’re not set in stone obviously, and some goals are more important than others. I just think it’s cool to wake up and see our purple poster and be reminded of the things we’d like to spend our time doing/thinking about. I’ve become a person who likes to accomplish goals, I find it very rewarding. And I like to reflect back on previous goals and know that I’ve ticked them off. For instance, when I was a teenager all I wanted to do was travel. Well, two+ years abroad and I’ve been there, done that. Same deal with my dreadlocks dream (Zanne says she is thankful she didn’t know me then!). You get the idea.

So 2010, I'm excited to see what you have in store for my wife and I - cos 2009 was awesome!

Cheers!

Shan

simply the best

December 31: Well we know NYE is supposed to be the greatest night of the year and all but we kinda feel it's overrated... And anyways we're skint.
We spent the night with my parents and some family friends. We played wii games and pictionary, laughed and got tipsy, and before we knew it it was midnight already.
And so ended the best year of my life.

December 30: OMG! Guess what my cousin and his girlfriend got for Christmas? Only the cutest puppy ever!! Little Murphy is just adorable - too bad we can't seem to convince my parents of that. They clearly have no hearts.

December 29: I've been slowly going about the process of changing my name to my new married name. Today I got my new licence wooooooooo!December 28: Day Two of Zanne's Lord of the Rings viewing - geez those movies are long.

PS. I might have a crush on Aragon. And Arwen.December 27: Here I am with my lovely sewing machine. This is after I had to return to the fabric store so that they could explain how to read a pattern. Funny.

December 26: Zanne's dreams came true today - we both got iphones!

Shan

we wish you a merry christmas

December 25: Christmas Day!
Zanne and I had the morning to ourselves before the rest of my family arrived home.
I got a bike!! Zanne worked with my brother Kris to restore and old vintage style bike she had purchased on ebay. It used to be blue but they re-sprayed it, put new tyres on it and serviced it. Plus Zanne added a bell that says "I love my bike". AND I DO LOVE IT!We spent time exchanging gifts with my family...

...before everyone decided to go skateboarding together. I'm not sure how that came about to be honest. Anyways I reckon a family that skateboards together is effing cool.
PS. Two seconds after I took the photo of Zanne on the left she came off her board. Her hip was bruised for a week :-(

Shan

bless the ocean

December 24: Christmas Eve with Zanne's family. As always Zanne belted out Silent Night and her nephews scored hundreds of gifts.

Zanne's family lives on the Gold Coast. Before the rest of the family arrived home her Dad, nephew and us went to a local lookout to check out the view and eat some snacks.
The Coast is pretty nice eh?

December 23: Totes!

December 22: We went cruising with our friends Tarkel to look at some local Christmas lights and exchange gifts afterwards . Christmas lights are a big deal here in Brisbane and there is a big competition that takes place across the South East.
We saw the second place winner (top left) and it was great (not that you can tell from the photo unfortunately) - it even had a little train for the kids to ride on. The funniest thing was that their neighbour put up just one set of lights that said "ditto". I loved that.

December 21: My Aunty has just purchased a new home in the area we hope to live. This house is on the corner of her new street and we want it!
Do you see the white picket fence??! Too cute.
Zanne and I have been obsessing over our dream of owning our own home so much that taken to driving around and around the streets of our new 'hood.
This photo is now pinned on our wall for inspiration.

Shan

we are all made of stars and oscar winning friends

December 20: We wished Casslina well for Laos and headed home from from Byron Bay. We stopped in at Zanne's family's home on the way though to see her sister Sally (and husband and daughter). Sally and her family are off to New Zealand for Christmas to be with her in-laws.
Today was the first time we'd seen our little niece, Giselle, since returning home from Canada. She's now 4.5 months old and is just so beautiful - check out those lips! Awwww.

December 19: We (us and Casslina) enjoyed a day out and about in Bangalow, drinking coffee and checking out antique stores and such.
In the evening we had a Christmas dinner with Cassie's family - interestingly Cassie received a "Feminist Apron" that had something about a Princess embroided on it. The early Christmas dinner was due to the girls flying out for a 2 week holiday in Laos the following day. Christmas and NYE in Laos - how awesome!

December 18: We spent the weekend at Byron Bay with our besties, Casslina. We all stayed at Milena's parents' house, which her and her family built all by themselves by the by (incredible!!). On this night we exchanged Christmas gifts, drank wine and mostly laughed a lot...

December 17: I agree Mr Moby.
(Zanne at the Limes Hotel catching up with an old friend of hers who is home from Japan for Christmas)

December 16: Dinner with my BFF for her birthday. After she chugged down a cocktail of 6 shots we gave her gifts including an Oscar we picked up for her in the U.S. Her acceptance speech was unforgettable.

Shan

the faggot stitch

December 15: We gay-ed up our car today. Woot! December 14: A couple of days ago I began thinking about teaching myself to sew. You see, I have to cover my tattoos at work and have found it really hot wearing jumpers and long pants lately (it's the middle of summer!) so I thought I might give skirts a go. Surely I can sew a skirt?Anyways I ordered a sewing machine online and it arrived today - isn't she beautiful?!

December 13: As if our nephew Noah didn't already think Zanne is the bee's knees... Today Zanne entertained Noah with her skating skills, and he came up with some moves of his own (bottom right).

He didn't tire of the skateboarding, constantly asking for "more".It all ended though after Zanne and Noah went down the driveway together and came off on the road. Oops. No-one was hurt but we decided to play a different game anyways.
December 12: Zanne and I have taken up squash (there's not much else to do out in the 'burbs). It's very fun and we laugh a lot. But we're very un-fit which means we also sweat a lot... and become very red in the face. Shan

Natmas

December 11: Birthday drinks for Natalie (top left) and she wore very high heels to celebrate. My friend Nat's birthday falls on Christmas Day so she had her birthday celebrations early. Nat has renamed Christmas "Natmas" just so you know.
Zanne and I are pictured here with our other awesome friend, Marie.

December 10: My work Christmas party... It's a laugh to see workmates all drunken. One of my workmates was so drunk she thought Zanne was the IT guy's pregnant wife, Susan - WTF? Zanne played along of course and all night she and the IT guy were referred to as "the happy couple". Funny.
December 9: My parents gave us a belated wedding gift - a mini vintage car! It has pedals!!!
I don't even remember telling my Mum that we like these cars. How does she do that? How does she know me so well??

Shan