Happy Birthday Jesse!

Nine years and one week ago, I fell in love with an American boy who lived 10,000 miles away. If I was being honest, whilst my heart longed for my dream to come true - I probably wouldn't have believed you if you told me that American boy would become my husband. 

But here we are! And whilst the last nine years have certainly had their challenges (long distance goodbyes are NOT pretty and we never could have imagined just how much work a visa application would involve!), they have been really ridiculously good to us - and there are so many things about Jesse I celebrate every day - not just today on his birthday!

It might sound ridiculously cheesy and cliche - but I married a guy who makes me laugh every single day. 

I cannot remember a single day where we've not laughed together at least once. In fact, we laugh so often that my family happen to call Jesse "the chipmunk" because he has an infectious kind of laugh that you can't help but laugh along with.

He is my greatest support, biggest cheerleader and will happily go along with whatever crazy plans I come up with. 

He married a girl with crazy dreams and a spirit of adventure and we've ridden elephants, had a private yoga class in Bali by the pool of our villa (where I got pooped on by a bird mid savasana and we laughed until we cried), hurtled down hills at a million miles an hour when we went zorbing in New Zealand, we taught ourselves how to do furniture restoration projects and grew our own veggies in our DIY raised vegetable garden and we travelled to the US, Norfolk Island, New Zealand and Bali.

Oh and don't think he's just dragged along on these adventures. We started a bucket list a while back and put "Get Married in Vegas" on the list as a joke - but Jesse has already set the wheels in motion and we're getting remarried by Elvis later this year! 

He's converted me to loving road trips and driving for HOURS because I know there's always a memory to be made. 

He is an incredible friend and loved by everyone.... literally everyone. 

I've never met a person who is so universally liked.... and he doesn't even realise it! 

He "gets" me and never complains about the fact that coeliac disease often stops us from going out to restaurants or cafes - but will do everything he can to make it happen when it's a possibility. 

....and will grill chefs on my behalf because he knows I don't like to bother people. 

He'll happily dress up in matching Christmas costumes just for a laugh and LOVES the fact we have a list of holiday traditions that's a mile long. 

He totally embraces all of the photo shoots and events and meetings and craziness that comes along with being married to a wife who is a blogger and working in the media industry. 

He gets me and we really do love to spend as much time together as possible. We often have people tell us that they don't know of any other couple who is always so happy to be around one another - all the time - but everything is better together. 

Being married to your best friend is pretty much the best thing you could EVER do in life! 

And he is totally the best not-quite-official Australian ever.... just wait until I record him saying maaaaaaaaaaaaaateeeeee. 

But tell me, what's on your bucket list?

And how do you usually celebrate your birthday? 

We keep birthdays simple in our house. Usually it's a Gold Class Movie (we saw Beauty and the Beast yesterday which was AMAZING) or a special day out, cake and a special dinner and today we're off to the markets to get Jesse a hugeeeeeeeeeeee tomahawk steak for his birthday dinner tonight, haha.

    

   

Celebrating Three Years of Marriage!

Eight years ago today, I thought I was head over heels in love with a boy on the opposite side of the world, racking up ridiculous phone bills and constantly living with my Hiptop/Sidekick in my hand so I could talk to him through AIM. 

Seven years ago today, I knew I was definitely in love with that boy on the opposite side of the world and my heart ached knowing I wouldn't know when I'd see him again. 

Five years ago today, I was counting down the days until that boy would return to Australia once again, knowing that this Christmas was going to be the best one yet as we'd finally spend it together - and we'd finally be reunited after two and a half years apart. This was the boy I was going to marry and those plans started now. 

Four years ago today, I was still in love with that boy and once again waiting for him to return for three months. This time I had a pretty little engagement ring on my finger and was frantically sorting out visa documents so together would finally be our forever. 

Three years ago today, I had this incredible sense of peace and calm (the polar opposite of what we thought), knowing that today would be the day I would finally marry that boy I fell in love with eight and a half years ago. 

And today? Today I'm even more in love with that boy than I was in all those years gone by - and so proud to call him my husband. 

Today doesn't need fancy gifts or raucous celebration because I married the person who makes every day incredible. Someone who makes me laugh, without fail, multiple times a day, someone who "gets" me, someone who I am completely content with doing absolutely nothing with - as long as I'm by his side.

Today is another day to fall in love with that boy from the other side of the world all over again and a day I am so so thankful for. 

Happy Anniversary to my best friend and the one who makes me whole! Here's to a million more and a perfect day of just being together - whatever the weather decides we'll do!

And for those of you who may not have read our story - be sure to check our About Us Page which has everything from how we met to How We Survived Five Years in a Long Distance Relationship right through to our Wedding Recaps!

But tell me, what were you doing three years ago? 

How about eight years ago? 

    

   

Happy Birthday, Jesse!

Today is my best friend's birthday! He's also my husband, but he was my best friend first ;) 

Six years ago, we celebrated our first birthday "together" whilst 10,000 miles apart, not knowing where our relationship would lead or what was ahead of us. Today, we're spending our his second birthday here in Australia, happily married and so so grateful that we achieved what we dreamed of for so many years. 

He might not like celebrating his birthday, but he's married to the birthday queen. The first mission of the day is heading out to get the things to make a last minute pumpkin pie. Jesse was looking at the blog last night when the featured recipe slideshow on the sidebar flashed up a picture of his favourite Healthy Pumpkin Pie and he said "Ooh! It's fate! Forget the brownies, I want pumpkin pie for my birthday!". 

Pumpkin pie he wants, pumpkin pie he shall have! 

I thought it'd be fun to share Jesse's all time favourite recipes blog, because after all, he is the number one taste tester. You mayyy just see a little pattern in his favourites ;P Be sure to click the links under the pictures to get the recipes! 

Jesse's New Shades

Jesse has worn glasses full time since he was a kid, but he's never been able to wear sunglasses he could see through - unless he wore sunglasses over the top of his glasses and that just became a bulky, uncomfortable mess. 

Just after he first moved here permanently, he needed new glasses so we went to the optometrist and got him some - and that's when he spotted the prescription sunglasses. 

From then on, everytime the sun shone - I heard about it. "I'd go walking more with you if I had prescription sunglasses" "I'd be happier to drive if I had prescription sunglasses" - the problem was, the prescription sunglasses they had were either butt ugly or hideously expensive. 

This, my loves, is where Alex Perry steps in (actually, Alex Perry should step in - I'm sure he'd write a nice guest post - AP, I'm ready when you are!). He's just launched his prescription sunglasses range which is exclusively available at Specsavers and they look awesome. 

Jesse got the AX-RX09 which are an aviator style with gold trim - and they only cost $199 from Specsavers - but let me tell you, the smile on Jesse's face since we picked them up is absolutely priceless. All of a sudden he wants to hike in the middle of the day, never touches the sun visor in the car and never complains when I want to drag him out in the middle of the day.

Now the problem is getting him to take them off. 

If you're interested, here is the full range of Alex Perry's Sunglasses which you can pick up at your local Specsavers store. 

Bargainista tip: if you have private health insurance, depending on your coverage, you should be able to get one pair of regular glasses and one pair of prescription sunglasses under your cover so you won't pay anything for them!

But tell me, do you have a specific style of sunglasses you like?

And if you wear glasses, do you have a pair of prescription sunglasses? 

Wedding Frustration

Totally feeling like this
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So the reception venue search is still on - and we're having issue after issue. 

If it's not a venue owner googling my name and discovering the blog (and getting intimidated by the publicity instead of excited over it as you'd think they would do), it's prices being ridiculously inflated as soon as the word wedding is mentioned. Or they don't do gluten free food whatsoever and won't allow for external catering. 

But going back to those inflated prices, here is a phone conversation I had today:

Woman: "Well, it's $3000 for a private function - or $12, 000 for a wedding reception"

Me: "Oh.. um... wow.. does that include anything extra?"
Woman: "No, that is just the price to hire the space - it doesn't include anything other than the space..... oh but you must have security and staff as well, so that's an added $5000 minimum" 

Me: "So essentially I'd be paying 4 times the price, yet receiving exactly the same thing?"

Woman: "Well it is a wedding" 

Am I the only one who can't understand how this is fair? If I have a "private function" with 100 people for x number of hours, I am charged one price - yet to have the same for my wedding reception, you have to pay four times that amount? 

And I know I'm not the only one - because I've had the same complaints from other past brides and brides to be - and I had this same conversation four times today whether it was through email or over the phone. 

One solution is to book everything as a "private event" but then what happens when you rock up in your wedding dress on the day? To me, that's entirely dishonest and also makes things incredibly difficult to plan as you're constantly having to withhold information. 

And I'll tell you what, I definitely am not paying $12, 000 for some space for a few hours.  

I think I'm starting to understand Bridezillas.... 

So tell me, did you have/are you having the same problems planning your wedding?

and who wants to start protesting with me?! :P 

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Playing Hooky

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So... I didn't go to work today. Don't worry, my boss won't kill me - because she's absolutely wonderful...... yeah....

Actually, I am my boss as I run my own business - but technically I still played hooky! 

Today Jesse had the day off as he's about to go away for work for a couple of days - so we decided to take advantage of "Cheap Ass Tuesdays" and go see a movie. This bargainista loves Cheap Ass Tuesdays because you get tickets for almost half price - and make sure you sign up for each cinemas rewards club as they also have cheaper member tickets for a selected movie each week (at Event Cinemas, they're $10!).

But enough with the bargain tips! 

This morning we got up (with no alarm, heaven!) and then decided to go and see a movie. It was a toss up between The Internship (which I really want to see) and After Earth (which Jesse really wanted to see) but in the end the ultimate decider was made by the bus and train timetables. Since we don't have a car and my parents had both taken theirs to work - we either had to catch the bus or the train. 

We decided on catching the train so we could walk down to the train station (as it was a gorgeous winters day) and ultimately the train timetables decided that we were seeing After Earth. 

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I'll be honest, I didn't have high hopes for the movie at all. I'm a girly girl who loves chick flicks, family movies and comedies (as long as they're not gross comedies) and whilst I love The Day After Tomorrow and a couple of others like that, I wasn't sure I was going to like After Earth with all of its creepy aliens and evil animals. 

I was actually really surprised and the movie was really good. It takes a lot to hold my attention as I would much rather be busy doing productive things than watching a movie - but this movie managed to keep me interested the entire time (and don't worry, those creepy alien things weren't too gross). 

The movie is set 1000 years after humans were forced to escape from Earth. General Cypher decides it's time to be a father to his son after years away from home on an extended tour of duty and takes his young song, Kitai on a mission with him to reconnect. On their way their craft is damaged and crash-lands on Earth - only Earth and the creatures on it have adapted to kill humans. 

I'm not going to tell you anymore because I don't want to ruin it for you - but ladies, if your man wants to see this movie - don't tell him to go see it with his friends, go with him! It has drama, suspense, action and it pulls at the heart strings too. 

I'd almost say that it doesn't follow your typical sci-fi storyline in that it's not filled with too much nonsense (which I'm sure some sci-fi fans wouldn't like) but Jesse actually really enjoyed it - so it was a win win for all! 

And to finish off our day of playing hooky? I introduced Jesse to the local Second Hand Charity Bookstore (all of the profits from the sales of the books go to local charities) and we picked up some books for each of us. 

I've just made a cauliflower pizza crust after many many requests - so soon I'll be able to tell you if it's a big hit or something you should avoid like the plague! :P I'm testing it on Jesse and myself - so you know you'll get an honest answer! 

But tell me, when's the last time you "played hooky"? 

What did you get up to? 

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Compromising and Exercising

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I get lots of emails from lovely readers looking to know what I do for exercise - and more importantly, how I get Jesse involved. 

First things first, what do I do? I tend to walk most mornings (I say most as you won't find me walking if it's raining - or if I'm not feeling well) for about 15-20 minutes. I walk around our local park and it works out to be about 2 1/4 km or 1.4 miles. I do walk quite fast as that's my natural pace - I have long legs and I've always been a bit of a speedy gonzales. 

The walk is quite short, however, it's perfect for me. I don't need to lose weight, I can't run to save my life, I'm not a marathoner - walking clears my mind and gets me ready for the day ahead - and it also helps with my chronic fatigue. 

My morning walk is more about making time for me than exercising - as it's a time where I centre myself, pray, think and be thankful. 

When it comes to getting Jesse involved in being active with me - it's all about compromise. 

Ladies (and gentleman), you can't expect your man to want to do exactly what you do - just as you can't expect your friends to want to either. You need to find something that works for both of you - and that's when you find the happy medium. 

You see, Jesse doesn't walk fast at all - and that's why I always walked by myself. Now we've made a compromise and I will slow down to his pace (if you're a fast walker, you'll know how hard this is - and oddly how much it hurts to slow down your natural pace) but we walk a little bit further. Instead of walking 1 1/2 miles, we walk 2 1/2 miles - and we take much much longer than I would on my own - but it's so much more enjoyable. We stop at the lookouts and look at how beautiful the world around us is. Sure, I'd love to have him walk my pace - but I'd rather walk with him at any pace than not be able to. 

We walk together on the weekends and during the week I walk by myself (as Jesse has usually already left for work). We've also been looking to start a karate or taekwondo class as I used to do karate when I was little and Jesse has always wanted to try. Problem is, we're struggling to find somewhere where we can do it together (and preferably without a uniform haha). Unfortunately where we live, the options for gyms/fitness centres etc is quite limited - and whilst we can find running and cycling groups, there aren't many other options unless you want something like a boot camp (which we totally don't want). 

As with anything in a relationship - it's all about compromise! You can't expect your man to do everything you want - just as he can't expect you to want to do everything he likes - it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your relationship! 

I do think it's really important to enjoy being active with those around you - whether it's your boyfriend/fiance/husband or your friends! It's a healthy habit that will make you super happy as well. 

So tell me, do you exercise with your partner or your friends?

What are your favourite ways to be active?

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