Fork This 61 - Crackle

This week I forced BJ into making me Chocolate Crackles. I may have eaten one and got a headache and now the fridge is full of them haha.

Enjoy the dance intermission from Coopy and I

PS: It's taken me 2 months to get BJ to put the facebook link at the end of the video... Better late then never i guess.

xx
Smorgy

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Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy *No Spoilers*

BJ and I are both really excited about the final Batman this Thursday. BJ LOVES this trilogy and has been talking about it non-stop for 12 months, waiting it to be out... If you've spoken to him, im sure he's mentioned Batman... A LOT! I too love this trilogy but am excited for another reason. This Batman trilogy is the first new trilogy BJ and I have experienced together from start to finish and I am excited and sad for it to come to an end.

Batman Begins was the FIRST movie we ever saw together. We went to Reading Cinemas in Chirnside Park and it was before we were even dating and only the second time we'd hung out together. Batman Begins was the start of what was to become a very large (and expensive) addiction between BJ and I. We love going to the cinemas and if we could we'd go every week.

Dark Knight was viewed at a cinema in Seattle, WA. It was released just before our 3rd anniversary (Which we celebrated at Disneyland) and we were left with a whopper of a story from our adventure to the cinemas. The day had us walking 5 miles to a cinema only to find they weren't playing Dark Knight, then another mile to the next cinema, walking down the side of a busy road which wasn't pedestrian friendly, only to come out of the movie late at night, stranded, with no taxi's around and the fear of not knowing how we'd get back to our motel.

In the end we got a lift from a very friendly fella who played talk back church radio the whole drive back to the motel and wouldn't accept any money from us. Good times!

And now here we are at The Dark Knight Rises which came out right before our anniversary once again. It will be our 7th anniversary... Oh my, how time flies. We have followed this Trilogy for our whole relationship and we were so excited for the final instalment of what has been a great trilogy.

BJ and I walked out of the cinemas opening night, gave each other a big hug and just smiled.

It's the end of an era.... But I look forward to many more trilogies in our future.

xx
Smorgy

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Fork This 50 - Crazy Wings

This weeks episode of Fork This was not a planned adventure. We went out to dinner with some friends and they started talking about this place called Crazy Wings and told BJ the story about when they tried them (and how hot they are). So after dinner we got in the car and headed over to Glen Waverley so BJ could try Crazy Wings for himself... Boy does he regret that idea.

Check it out

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This 45 - Easter Hunt

This weeks episode of Fork This BJ, Cooper and I did our first Easter Hunt in our house. 



Chocolatey goodness!!

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This 43 - The Maine Gift

This week we received a care package from a friend in the States. Our first international housewarming gift. Check out what we got :)

   

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Two Months

This week marks two months that BJ and I have been in our house. I think we've surprised a lot of people (especially our families) with how easily we've dealt with this huge change.

We both love it! It feels like we've been living like this for ages. Feels like home.

I think people expect us to have struggled with it. Had days where we've been homesick or mopey. But that hasn't been the case at all.

We've just been happy!

Happy to come home every night and cook dinner together while Cooper watches. Happy to snuggle up on our couch and watch TV. Happy to clean dishes, do gardening and wash clothes.

I wouldn't change my life right now, for anything in the world.

xx
Smorgy

Here are some pics for our last two months

Click to enlarge

 Left to Right: First photo at our house, Packing the essentials, First piece of mail, BJ answers our home phone for the first time, BJ vs the wasps nest, Cooper sun baking, Ice cream adventure, Cooper meets Gnome Swanson, Our couch finally arrived, BJ made me valentines cookies, Our second Third fridge, our fourth fridge (yes we went through 3 fridges in less then a month-That story will be told one day), Cooper sleeping (again), Chilling out watching Wipeout, BJ tends to his chilli's, Our housewarming brochures, Us.


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Fork This 39 - Cooper VS The Bug

This weeks episode of Fork This Cooper makes friends with a beetle he finds on the deck. We kept calling him back inside and then when we weren't looking he'd sneak back out the doggy door to find/torment his buddy.

   

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This 38 - No Chicken Was Ever In There

While home BJ decided to make me some cookies because he knew I was having a bad day at work. This is what happens when you leave BJ and Cooper home alone with access to a video camera. 

Fork This 38 - No Chicken Was Ever In There from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fuck Valentines Day

I don't understand why anyone who is in a loving relationship cares about Valentines Day.
You should be feeling the love every day and shouldn't need a specific day just to show how much someone means to you. Each day that ends in Y should remind you of the love you have for each other.

In the 6 1/2 years BJ and I have been together we've not once celebrated Valentines Day... To us, it's just another day. Last night, however, BJ decided to surprise me by making me cookies with little pink hearts on them. It was super sweet of him. It was special because I wasn't expecting it.

But today is just another day... I don't want or expect flowers, chocolates or any sort of valentine surprise. I want to go home and make Taco's for dinner, do the dishes together and then cuddle up on the couch and watch House Of Lies.

Conversation between BJ and I today via text message which amused me:
Me: Someone at work just had a massive thing of flowers delivered.
BJ: Oh yeah? That's nice.
Me: Yeah.. She was pretty excited about it.
BJ: I'm not sending you flowers... Just so you know.
Me: I didn't think you would.

I am soo happy right now. I have the man, I have the house, I have the best puppy in the world.
Nothing can bring me down for this cloud I'm not right now.

I Love This Guy

My world is finally as it should be. I am the happiest I've been in a long time and I mostly have myself to thank for that. I know that sounds silly but if it wasn't for my drive to safe well and budget, I wouldn't be where i am today.

Plus once I started to realise all the things that were continuing to bring me down and make me feel like shit. I was able to remove all that negativity from my life. I'm working hard to focus on all the positive things.

I am in love with my best friend BJ and thinking about that always brings a smile to my face. We've now lived in our house together for a whole month and it's been the greatest month of my life. I've gotten to wake up every morning next to him. I enjoy coming home and cooking our dinner before he gets home from work and I love when all three of us cuddle up on the couch and watch TV at night.

I Love This Guy Too

Next week is our Housewarming and I'm looking forward to having all our friends over to warm up Tom Selleck (Our house) and celebrate this new chapter in our lives. I plan to keep only moving forward from here on. I'm not going back... Ever!

2011 was a roller coaster of a year but 2012 is coming up Milhouse!

xx
Smorgy

P.S: I successfully made my first homemade ice cream cake. Ice cream made from scratch and everything. I'm soo happy that i achieved this without too much stress (BJ might say otherwise) and cannot wait to attempt more masterpieces.

 (Fork This episode coming soon)  

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We Got The Keys!!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Settlement day was very long and dragged out. There were some issues that were out of our control and we didn't get our keys until 2 hours after we were ment to. We we did finally get them we showed up to the property and the previous owner was STILL moving stuff out so we had to sit and wait in our car on the street until they'd finished.

The quote of the afternoon was 'They are ruining my memories!!'

When they FINALLY left, we drove in OUR drive, walked up to OUR door and unlocked it. The smell of bleach filled our nostrils. Don't be fooled though, they didn't really clean anything they just ran a mop over the floorboards and overpowered the house with the smell of chemicals so it seemed like they'd cleaned.

My plan for when we got our keys was to go to the house and have our moment together. Jump... scream.. hug... And just take it all in, before anyone else arrived.
This didn't go to plan as we lots 3 hours of the time we'd counted on having. So the Fork This episode we filmed of us entering the house was literally the only time we had in there before we unloaded my car (which was filled to the brim) and made the calls to let family know they can come over.

The rest of the afternoon/evening was a bit of a blur. My plan was to take lots of photos and honestly, i have none. Everyone came over and started helping us clean and unpack more car loads. I started to feel really hungry and couldn't figure out why. Then everyone left, i looked at my phone and it was after 8pm. That would explain the hunger. At this point there was a moving truck blocking our driving (long story short, we are on a subdivided block and the people in the house in front were also moving out that day) so we decided we'd walk up the road and get some pizza for dinner. We got back to the house with our dinner, sat on the floor (as we had no chairs) and stuffed our faces.

After dinner we decided to unpack the kitchen items as they had arrived in the car loads and all the furniture wasn't coming till the next day. We worked on the kitchen till sometime after 11.30pm and decided we'd better go to bed as the next day was going to be a LONG one.

Cooper didn't come to visit the house till after we've moved all the furniture in. He loved exploring his backyard and barking at every noise he heard.

He decided to munch on some grass and i got these hilarious photos of him.

 Then he wondered off into the bushs and came out covered in flowers and stuff off the plants and BJ had to clean him off.

 

I think he likes his backyard. We got a doggy door installed so he can freely go where he wants.... At least until he barks at the neighbours. Then he gets yelled at and does the walk of shame back inside.

xx
Smorgy

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Fork This 34 - We're In

Sadly, Fork This is running a bit behind at the moment and so is my blog.

The reason... No Internet!!!

We've moved into our house and have been in almost 2 weeks and it has been such a hassle to get the internet sorted. We are HOPING to have it sorted by the end of this week... Cross your fingers.

We have only had our iPhones and a iPad (on loan) to help us keep up with the world. I did try to blog from the iPad but it really doesn't like Blogger so that was frustrating.

I cut together this episode of Fork This and we uploaded it at a family dinner last week. We filmed ourselves going to the house for the first time after getting our keys and you get to see it :)

There will be lot's more house videos to follow


Fork This 34 - And We're In from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

1 more sleep

I've had two terrible nights sleep. I'm sure it's just stress and worry about Thursday. But now, There's only one sleep left and I think I'll actually sleep well.

It's a strange feeling... Moving out of home for the first time and last night is when it really hit us both hard... Really hard!

We've both never lived out of home before and BJ has actually never moved house (not even rooms) before. This is VERY new to us and obviously it is a BIG deal.

We will now be responsible for everything. Paying bills. Buying food. Cooking meals. Maintaining the yard.

The bigness of it all, i don't think will truly hit us for a few weeks. Once we've actually stopped unpacking and people aren't coming by so often to help us... Then it'll hit us.

We will actually be adults!

I've cried most of last night and I can't really tell you why... I don't really know.
I think it's just an array of emotions; happiness, sadness, worried, stressed. All built up to the brim and needing to escape.

I'm soo excited to be moving out. Having my own place. Most importantly I'm just excited that finally i'll be with BJ every day. That's been the hardest part of our relationship. Not seeing each other as often as we'd like. After traveling for 6 months and spending every day together and relying on each other it was hard to go back to our separate homes. It's been 3 years since then... A long time.

But next to the excitement I'm feeling very anxious about everything that's about to happen. Worrying about what COULD go wrong. What IF this happens.

I mean BJ knows of my craziness... But living with me 24/7 is a whole new percolator of fish and I just don't know that he's truly ready for that level of craziness.

I'm currently lying on my bed which is a mattress on the floor. My room has been gutted and very little remains in here.

Today my list of things to do was a mile long. I had to finish packing, do running around for settlement, sort our the plans for Thursday... And soo much more.

I actually have to go into work tomorrow (Thursday) morning for about an hour to do a couple of important jobs... One's I hope I don't fuck up because my brain will not 100% there.
At 2.30pm we will recieve a call and then... We can go get OUR keys!

And with that, I'm going to try and get some sleep. Right this minute it's 15 hours and 7 minutes till settlement.. Till it's ours!!

xx
Smorgy

*I started this blog last night which is why when you see it it might be labeled '2 more sleeps'. Tonight i re-wrote it and of course forgot the change the heading... Well done Smorgy Pin It

Recap on 2011

Top 5 Popular Posts for 2011:

5 The Slackers, The Assholes and The Vent -  Massive vent about money and life
4 When 10 years still only feels like a day - The hardest blog I've ever had to write
3 Tattoo Sunday - BJ and I got matching tattoos
2 Pretty Damn Proud - A blog about my struggle with weight loss
1 We Love Colors Review - I reviewed some awesome tights


Top 5 Popular Fork This episodes for 2011:

5 Ikea - 5,744 downloads

Fork This 26 - Ikea. from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

4 Forken Homeowners - 6,306 downloads

Fork This 25 - Forken Homeowners from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

3 A Midweek Purchase - 6,824 downloads

Fork This 22 - A Midweek Purchase from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

2 A Halloween Nightmare - 7,022 downloads

Fork This 23 - A Halloween Nightmare from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

1 Beggers - 7,807 downloads

Fork This 24 - Beggars from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

My Personal Highlights of 2011:

- BJ and I celebrated 6 years together
- I finally managed to loss weight
- We bought a house
- Say goodbye to all that was wrong in 2011
- Embracing how awesome 2012 is going to be

5 Favourite Instagram Photos for 2011:

(Not best as it's too hard, I post so many. But these are some I really love)

Goals for 2012:

- Continue to loss weight and be healthy
- Enjoy the changes in my life
- Build a lovely home together with BJ
- Grow more in my work
- Build new friendships
- Spend more time with others
- Set myself craft tasks regularly
- Re-build my love of cooking
- Not get tied down with money, worries, stresses
- Smile and love life


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 32

Cheesy clip show to wrap up 2011

Fork This 32 - 2011: Some Extras from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

2 Weeks To The Day

Today is exactly two weeks till we get our keys and move into our house. By this time two weeks from now we'll be getting ready to have our first meal together in our new home.

I am excited about it but got a lot of other things going on that are preventing me from getting as excited as I'd like to be right now.

Today i packed up a heap of boxes and moved things out of my room. I've living in this room of mine for about 13 years and have no space for anything anymore. Trying to pack 25 years of stuff up into boxes is hard work.

On top of the stuff i already had in there I've accumulated other household items since we bought the house. So I've been boxing up kitchenware and stuff as well.

This whole house thing has come up super fast and it's very scary and daunting. I still have soo much to do to get us ready for it.

Cooper has noticed that something is going on and he's behaving like a total jerk. I think he suspects BJ and I are going on a holiday or something because i keep packing things. Little does he know that he'll be packed in a box soon enough and will be coming with us :)

In two more sleeps it's New Years Eve and we currently have no plans. I don't know what will happen for us New Years Eve but i do know that i will be washing my hands of 2010 that night.

I think the hardest part for me this year has been that i haven't had someone that i could comfortable open up and talk to.... And I've really needed that. I've got a couple of great friends in The States who i have confined in but it's soo hard to D&M with them when the back and forth could stretch over days.

So on top of the goals I've already set for 2012..

-Enjoy life
-Less go of my worries
-Remove everything that brings me down
-Be more positive
-Create a lovely home with BJ
-Smile more
-Create more
-Not be afraid of saying what i think
-Eat less junk food
-Exercise regularly

I'm going to try and make more friends. Friends with people who actually care about me and how I'm feeling. Friends with people willing to lend an ear. Friends who want to try and organise something with me and not have it always be me making the plans.

That's what I want from 2012.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 31

Merry Christmas from Fork This.

BJ and I did homemade gifts this year for our siblings which included lot's of delicious treats.

Episode 31 - Merry Everyone from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Cleaning out my closet

Wow! Christmas is almost hear which means New Years is just around the corner and then... We get OUR HOUSE!

It's all coming around super fast and with how this year has gone for me I'm planning to do everything i can to make sure 2012 starts off great and continues to be a fantastic year without any worries.

So between Christmas and New Years, while i have some time off I'm going to be Eminem'ing it and Cleaning out the closet that is my life.

 I DO actually need to clean out my physical closet to because it's sooo full of crap and i need to sort through it all and pack for the move. But I'll also be cleaning out anything else i can think of.

My Facebook is going to get another cull/clean up. Get rid of all those people that were accepted as friends but have not once spoken to since that day and have no desire to speak to them in the future.
The people from my past... from school... who i haven't seen since then and maybe once in a blue moon they'll send me a message or invite me to a group event (which is usually just to tell people that they've got a new phone number).

I'm getting rid of them all. Why be a 'Facebook friend' with someone you aren't actually friends with?!
Would you invite them out for your birthday? Have you planned to hang out with them in any way since accepting them as a friend? Would you invite them to your housewarming?... No.... Then why are they 'friends'?

I'm getting rid of all the negative. All the stuff that gets in my way, and brings me down. All the stuff that makes me feel unhappy or worthless.

I'm getting rid of old clothes that i put aside because 'one day they might fit me again' or 'even though i split something on that top and it stained it was still super cute and i just cant throw it away'.

2012 is a HUGE year for me. Moving out of home, Taking on a mortgage, Being responsible for soo much more. I need to go into 2012 feeling positive and in control.

If you can see past all that hair... That's BJ... The man i love. The man I've bought a house with and have every intention to spend the rest of my life with. I'm doing this all for us. So that we can both have the best 2012.

Some of you may know... I'm one of those people that needs to have a plan. Needs to know what's going on. I have lists for everything. If something goes wrong with my plan, i can become that crazy person crying in the corner. Moving is going to stress me like nothing else. And I'm trying to a stress-less 2012.

Now don't get me wrong... 2011 was a good year. BJ and I went on a family cruise which was awesome fun, we've gone to see some great concerts and gigs, We bought our house and started buying furniture and other items we need for it. But there are been a lot of shit that came with this year too.

There was a pretty shitty few months early on. Which sent me into a seriously depressed state... Then there was that long road of hard work and medication to get me to where i am today.
Just thinking about that period of time gets me quiet emotional and teary because i fear becoming that person again. But I'm not going to let that happen.

So bring on 2012... Bring on the house and the bills and the cooking and cleaning up after ourselves. Bring on the freedom of living in my own house, being able to paint the walls and hang up posters and play music as loud as i want.

Bring on positive thinking and relaxing more and not getting upset if something doesn't go exactly to plan. Bring on spending everyday with BJ and Cooper, Cooking together every night, Shopping for food, recording Fork This (without interruptions), Having people over to hang out, cuddling up on the couch to watch a movie. Bring on having my own crafting space, being able to leave projects out to work on as i please.

2012 is my year... The year of Smorgy! My year of happiness and joy.
And I'm NOT going to let anything change that.

Let the countdown begin

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 30

This week on Fork This while we were sitting having dinner with the family, Josh casually looked up, out the window and says 'Theres a peacock near Megans car'... OMG!!! I run to the window.

For 6 years i've heard about this 'wild peacock' in BJ's street but never have i actually seen it.

I screamed at BJ to grab the video camera, threw some shoes on and started chasing it up the street.

Fork This 30 - Peacock Chase from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 26

Today we went to the new mega Ikea that recently opened here and got some stuff for the house.
I've been sick all week so it was a nice adventure (Event with my coughing fits)


Fork This 26 - Ikea. from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

The Slacker, the Assholes and the Vent

I am embarrassed with how slack I've been lately with my blogging.

The world is just moving soo fast and I can't seem to keep up with everything.

So what's been going on lately... We'll.... BJ and I bought a house. Which is super awesome and exciting. BUT also very stressful. As neither of us have lived out of home we don't have a lot of the important BIG things like a fridge, a couch, a washing machine. It became very daunting thinking of all the things we need.

We've managed to round up a heap of furniture (most of which has been free) and got some other big items we needed. The couch, we decided to buy new... Something nice that we've picked to go with our house, that no one else has 'pre-loved'.

Right now the only things we really need are kitch based (Because there is SO much needed in that room) and cleaning items/products.

We get our keys early January and start making our big move into REAL adulthood.

My brain has been a pile of mush lately. Dealing with the house - Putting in the offer, waiting, and waiting and waiting for an answer, trying to keep our news between us (and imediate family) until it was ready to be shared. Dealing with applications and finance approval and valuations and deposits.
Thinking about all the things we need and want and have to do when we move in.

There is a horrible feature wall that MUST be painted out first thing... So right now we are trying to decide what colour to paint the new feature wall.... Which is just painting over the current one, but painting that one out and changing which wall is a feature. So we actually have to paint the whole lounge room and kitchen so it all matches.

I've had a lot of restless nights lately, we disturbing dreams and i wake up feeling like i haven't slept a wink. My brain just wont shut down. Things are getting to me easily. Stress is taking over.

On top of our great news about our house, this week i got some bad news. For my regular readers/friends/family, you'll know about the car accident BJ had in my car in April this year and all the pain i have gone through to try and get some answers/results.
The last point i was at which was about 3 weeks ago (Before purchasing the house) - The insurance company (RACV) had decided to tell me firstly, that both parties we at fault and then 30 minutes later changed their minds and decided 'Naaar... Your a fault'. I'm sure it was purely to get money because i told them i wasn't going to go through insurance to fix my repairs as it'd be cheaper to do it ANYWHERE else.

SO I've been fighting with them because i don't believe it's fair that they can just change there mind after telling me the 'final decision' and cancelling the claim when i requested it. AND i've been having to just sit around and wait for the lazy-ass other party who was in a big hurry to get his car repaired when it first happened in April but then didn't respond to RACV's calls, texts, letters etc and wasted 6 months of my life.

It got to the point that RACV cancelled the claim because he STILL hadn't done anything to get his car fixed... 'Cancel the claim, but that's great Megan' I hear you say. SUUUUUUUUURE it would be great, If the other party weren't allowed to re-open it at any point over the next SEVEN YEARS!!!

And so of course i stupidly convinced myself that he's probably going to take another 6 months to get of his ass and do something, so i started putting little bits of money aside for the excess BUT this week... When our house deposit is due, he decided to re-open the claim and i get the call 'That'll be $950' - FUCKERS!

He couldn't have waited a couple more weeks so i had the money aside prepared?!

I get really angry about this topic (As you can probably tell) because i've done the right thing since day one and RACV and the other party have both fucked me.

This week i've said goodbye to RACV... And you know what assholes - Now you miss out on my house and contents insurance!! How do you like them apples?!

Oh and this isn't over... I'm going to the insurance ombudsman to make a MASSIVE complaint because this whole thing is just bullshit.

'But Megan, you bought a house!!! Yaaaay!' - Don't get me wrong, i am excited... But i am sooo tired from all this car shit... I'm sick of having to be the one to follow it up, having to take my car to be assessed, having to write the report and draw the diagrams, having to save the money.... It sucks!! It sucks balls... Hairy one's at that.

I'll be glad when the car is fixed, the excess has been handed over and I finally don't have to think about it anymore.

I appologise to everyone that has had to put up with my venting on this subject. It's upset the hell out of me.

xx
Smorgy

PS: My car turned 1 year old last week... It's a shame his face is still all scratched up :(

PPS: Seriously, if you want to donate to help us buy our couch i would REALLY appreciate it now that I have $950 less to contribute myself. Pin It