For Cohen

Cohen

I am so desperately heartbroken for Megan and Brent.

I have not returned to my blog since I heard the news about sweet baby Cohen. I have  had no desire to blog about recipes or movies or minutiae when there is such sorrow about.

What is the etiquette in this blogiverse we inhabit? When is is disrespectful or undignified?

Megan feels like a friend. She has emailed me and commented on my blog. She has shared her journey with me (with all of us), from trying to conceive, to the miracle of Cohen's life, up to today.

I am sure we all responded in different ways to the passing of Cohen. Those who are mothers no doubt clutched their babes to their hearts and whispered prayers over them.

I am at the very start of the road to motherhood - just starting to try for a baby. Megan's loss has touched me and filled me with a sorrow that I did not expect.

I mourn for Cohen and I am gripped with terror for the little souls I wish to bring into the world. Such uncertainty.

I hope that Megan and Brent truly understand how inspiring their strength and courage have been.

I was unsure about how to re-enter the blog world. I have had this post sitting in my box for days, unfinished.

Today I read about the Blog Silence for Cohen on Send Love to Cohen. This is the perfect tribute to a beautiful family that I met through blogging.

1 July starts a bit earlier here in Australia and I will be posting the Cohen banner for the whole day on both sides of the world.

Please join me and all the friends and family who have loved and lost Cohen through Megan's eyes.

A Wonderful Weekend

I had a really lovely long weekend. I felt refreshed and recharged and ready to face the week. The I got to work and my zen disappeared in about 7.3 seconds. Anyhoo.....

On Saturday night hubs and I went to see Date Night again. It is rare I will see a movie twice at the cinema. Date Night was so funny and we both enjoyed it so much, we saw it again! We will definitely buy it when it comes out.

On Sunday night we had a Champagne Games Night. Two of my girl friends and my cousin Rosie came to play Pictionary with hubs and I.  He was a very tolerant token male!

Pictionary is always hilarious. None of us has any artistic talent which added to the hilarity. Some of the pearlers I had to draw? Tiger Woods (I dare you to draw that without offending someone!), hallucinate and inventor! Who can draw that??

Jess and I are undefeated champions, despite the other team having hubs, Tanya AND Rosie.

On Monday Hubs had a man-date with his oldest friend Andrew. Two men in their mid-30s spent the day playing video games! Andrew's wife Rae texted me that they were very well behaved! I spent the day doing laundry and catching up on recorded shows. My DVR was about to explode!

I like a short work week. Even shorter for me as I am off on Thursday for.... another physio appointment! Plus some other medical appointments.

Some random thoughts:

My favorite show is Dance Academy. It is aimed at tweens and set in a fictitious Sydney ballet school for teenagers. Is that weird?

I have more clothes in the dry-cleaning pile than in my closet. Must attend to that or I'll be wearing my ballet clothes to court.

I have been sooo hungry lately. Are you hungrier in cold weather?

I am planning a 4th of July Party. This is weird because I am Australian... However it was on 4 July last year that my sister moved to America. Also we want to have a party, so why not?

Have o go cook dinner now. A woman's work and all that!

Meatloaf Madness

What is meat loaf? A loaf of meat? It is not something we have in Australia. We have loads of other ways to use ground meat but never in a loaf.

It is so American. In TV shows there is always meatloaf for dinner. Hubs tried it a few times when we we in America. My sister and her husband REFUSE to eat it. They assume it will be bland or dry or just basic sub-par cuisine.

Hubs loves all things Pioneer Woman (I almost think they are closer than she and I are) so I thought I would give hers a go. I made it for hubs on Thursday and he has eaten leftovers three times since then!

I made a half size version of the Pioneer Woman recipe and hubs will be eating it for a week! This is my half size version:

Take three slices of bread and soak them in 1/2 cup of milk for a few minutes.

Mix in 1 pound of ground beef, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, seasoned salt, 2 beaten eggs and flat-leaf parsley (I used dried as I had no fresh. Mental note - grow herb garden)

Take off your wedding ring / college ring / motorcycle gang ring, wash your hands and mix away!

Let me tell you this is a super fun job for a squeamish vegetarian....

Shape it into a log and cover with strips of bacon. I think baking it open on a tray like this is a great idea. I once made meatloaf in a  loaf tin and it dried out and was yick.

Slather the loaf in the tomato sauce (ketchup, brown sugar, mustard and hot sauce) and bake for 45 minutes.

Slather on some more sauce and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Here is Meatloaf in all his shiny gooey goodness. Hubs used the rest of the tomato sauce as a dipping sauce.

My husband loved this meatloaf and wants to have it again (lucky since he will be eating leftovers of this loaf for a year).

To all the Australian readers - I dare you to cook this. Walk on the wild side. Embrace foreign cuisine. Live a little. Broaden your pallet.

Whatever - it was good!

Stephen & Rebekah

This week I met a man. A man called Stephen.

Stephen touched me. He touched me on a deep level.

At first when we met I thought it wouldn't work. Stephen was hard and he hurt me.

You see, Stephen is a masseur.

I have had a tension headache for a fortnight, so on Thursday night I hightailed it to my favorite massage place at  local the shopping centre. If I say massage parlour does it sound dirty? This is a 100% legit remedial massage centre and the massage therapists are all fantastic.

I go there often. It was the first time I had met Stephen. He looked a little like a man-child. He was a tiny boy / man and I initially thought he would not have the strength to unfold my rebellious muscles.

WAS I WRONG! For a little man-child that guy had some clout.

He gouged his elbow into my muscles like a demon. My eyes literally watered. I may have even yelped a little.

I actually thought of grabbing my stuff and running out. It was not pleasant.

Then suddenly it went from excruciating to bearable to pleasant. When it was finished I actually left a literal weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Sadly a VERY BAD DAY on Friday cancelled out all Stephen's hard work so I hit the physio this morning. 

My physio is a tiny girl named Rebekah. She is a tiny slip of a girl (woman) but I have seen her make grown men cry (my husband included!). I have two more appointments scheduled for next week. Hopefully after that I will be able to do crazy wild things like turn my turn to the side and lift my handbag....

Thankfully we have a long weekend in NSW. I think it if for the Queen's birthday. Now I am a republican in the true sense of the word. In any country but America republican means doesn't want the monarchy.

However I will happily take the holiday on Monday in support of Her Majesty!

The only royal I love is Crown Princess Mary of Denmark / Australia. If she was the monarch here I would totally be a monarchist not a republican. She is a whole other post!

Have a good (long) weekend!

xx elle

Baby Cohen

Today the Marshall Family welcomed baby Cohen to the world. It is such a magical, fearful, wonderful day.

When I first started reading blogs I knew I was searching for something. I was newly married and felt like I didn't fit in with my life anymore. I had work / career friends. I had single girl friends. I had older married friends.

 I did not have young, married friends interested in decorating and baking and babies and still looking cute. I went online in search of this community and I found it. Strangely I found it amongst a group of women in Oklahoma! (Pretty far from Sydney Australia).

This is how I found Megan. I loved her blog right away. She was gorgeous, had a beautiful home, a career, a great marriage, loved cooking and clothes. She was the type of friend I wished I had in real life!

When I started blogging this year she was so sweet. She commented on my blog and gave me a shout out on hers! I won a competition on Megan's blog and she was so sweet about sending the prize. We emailed a few times and I was AMAZED that she found time to focus on blogging and on a random stranger from the other side of the planet when she had so much going on in her own life.

I have been praying for Megan and Cohen (and also Brent and Elton!) I speak to my husband about them like they are people we actually know.

I will keep praying as I know today is just the beginning. Megan is a wonderful soul full of joy and love and she deserves wonderful things in her wonderful life!

Love Story Chapter 3

I know you will all be horrified that I did see Slipper Man again. We had a pleasant  awkward dinner and a movie and one very uncomfortable viewing of a football game at my house.

It all came to a crashing end in a telephone call when we both stammered out our mutual weirdness and non-desire for things to continue.

PHEEEEW! I dodged that bullet.

I was so horrified by the awfulness of telling him I was not interested. I was worried I would accidentally end up married to the man as I was too scared to hurt his feelings! Luckily it was all mutual and it ended amicably.

How do people date casually? I was done. Enough dating for me.

I had a call with my two best girlies one night. I announced my decision:

"I am finished with dating. I am just going to ask my parents to arrange me a marriage. Maybe sell me to a Sheik or something."

I was deadly serious and not in the least bit dramatic.

"I know the perfect guy for you!" This was Tanya. Best friend. Mocker of my dating ability. Rock through my break up and saviour during my single time.

"We have been talking about it and we want to set you up with a guy from Tanya's work." This was Natalie. A goddess whose life I always envied and whose advice I would readily take - usually.

Needless to say I was skeptical about the prospect of match making. It NEVER works and I did not want to be the plot in a cheesey rom-com (unless maybe J Lo or Katherine Heigel or Reese can play me).

"OKaaaaaay. What is he like? Why have I never heard of him before?"

"He is great. Just like Dawson from Dawson's Creek". I honestly cannot remember if that was Nat or Tanya but I remember the comment.

Just like Dawson? In looks, or in the broody, moody overly sensitive way?

"A bit of both!" they chimed.

Hmmm. I was not overly confident.

They filled in some more blanks: G is a guitar player, has worked in the music shop FOR EVER, had a brutal mullet perm in the 90s when the girls used to buy piano music, he is a couple of years older than me, had a serious relationship that ended a few months ago, a total health nut who goes to the gym every day.

They had put some serious thought into this.

"What will you tell him about me?" I asked.

"You are a lawyer?"

That was all they had! I get a total bio on him including horror hair styles of the past and all they can think of to advertise me is that I am a lawyer?

I was still unconvinced about whether or not I wanted to be match-maid at all.

However I went to bed dreaming of how this mysterious guitarist (who I had never seen or spoken to) would serenade me, write me songs and sing to me at our wedding......

( ..... and he did! Keep reading to see how it unfolds).

House Guest

Tomorrow my cousin Rosie is arriving at my parents' house. She is coming for an indefinite stay.

Rosie's mother was my father's sister. She passed away some years ago. From about the age of 10 Rosie grew up in South Australia with her dad and we hardly ever saw her. For the last 20 years it has been mostly funerals and weddings. I hate when family gets so detached.

Rosie has spent time overseas and is keen to reconnect with family. I am so excited to have her close by. We are a few years apart and I am sure we will be good company for each other.

My parents are so stereo-typically Australian ("she'll be right") that they have not gone to any trouble at all. No -REALLY. Hubs and I went by there tonight and they have not cleaned all the junk out of the spare room. There are random clothes hangers, boxes and a dead computer monitor! She arrives tomorrow people!

I took a leaf from the book of the glammest housewife there is. Whitney and her mother always make the most beautiful guest baskets. I decided to make one for Rosie. I put in some lollies, some practical toiletries and some fancy indulgent ones. I also included the bus and train timetables so she can get around.

I put in Rose lip balm and bath salts because her name is Rosie! I hope she likes it. I also got a big bright arrangement of flowers for her room. I hope she can find them amongst all the junk.....

On a random note: on Monday the Hubs did some laundry. THANK GOODNESS or I would be wearing either my wedding dress or my bathrobe to work this week. One of the loads he did was towels. 

He replaced the towels in the en suite....with these strange green towels. I swear I have never seen these towels before. I do not own these towels. I am positive I did not purchase these towels, nor was I given them. Very strange. Needless to say I replaced them straight away.

So if you are missing some pale green old looking towels - I have them and I'm sorry! My husband probably stole them from your washing line.