Summer Birthday

It has been waaay too long since our last post, so sorry about that! We have gotten back to our "normal" lives I guess! Charlie has gone back to work and I am still searching for a job. Who knows when I'll find one! In the mean time Stella and I have been doing some major bonding during the day. Charlie and I have a routine down now... Stella wakes us up around 5:30am, we let her whine for a half hour, Charlie gets up to take her for a walk and feed her, he leaves at 7, I take over for the day... etc, etc, : )

Friday we celebrated my 27th birthday... woohooo! Luckily Charlie finished with work at 11am (tough job eh?). I loaded up the good ol' Astra (our cute little hatchback) with all of Stella's toys, water, leash, crate, etc. (it feels like we have to pack for a week when we take her anywhere) and then headed off to the beach. Unfortunately the beaches right in town do not allow dogs on to them during the day so we had to drive about 40 minutes north of here to find one where she could run around. It's a big tourist destination since the sand dunes are right there. So we watched camels walk by all day long. Pretty funny.

We had a fantastic day and Stella really seemed to enjoy the water up until the very end when she got swallowed by a wave. After the beach we headed home to clean-up and nurse our sunburns (yes, I got burned too, oops). Then Charlie and I headed out to dinner at a fantastic place called Scratchley's right on the water. I have wanted to go there since we moved to Newcastle. It was definitely a fun treat! I posted the link on the right if you want to check it out.

Yesterday we just relaxed at home since the temperature outside reached 104! Today we will probably do the same. Tomorrow however is Australia Day (like our 4th of July), and it also happens to be our 1st Anniversary... I can't believe a year has already past by!! We will probably head to the beach again during the day and go to the harbour at night to watch the fireworks... fun!


Oh, and for those of you who want to call we FINALLY have our Vonage phone set-up so we can receive incoming calls... just keep in mind we are 16 hours ahead.

That's about it from sunny Newcastle : )

Love you all!

STELLA : )

house photos

I added some pictures of the house to the Hamilton South album. I definitely still have lots of work to do, but at least they will give you an idea of the layout....

...back to puppysitting : )

Hamilton South House

Puppy Madness

It's been just over a week since Stella has been home with us and sure has been a rollercoaster ride. She has tons of energy and requires pretty constant attention. She is sooo cute and loving when she wants to be... the other times she is an absolute terror. Getting into anything she can find and attempting to chew off our hands and feet. After digging through the yard, eating a few mushrooms, bugs, dirt and whatever else she can swallow before we could catch her, she contracted an intestinal infection. So Charlie and I spent Sunday taking her to the vet feeding her meds and cuddling her. By the end of the day we decided she had definitely gotten worse, so we took her back into the vet. She was admitted to the emergency hospital. They figured out that she had an intussuseption in her bowel... which basically means her bowel folded into itself like a telescope. So she went through emergency surgery around 1 am on Monday morning. Needless to say we have not been getting much sleep, whether she's wailing during the night or sick at the vet. It's been a CRAZY week!!

Charlie heads back to work tomorrow after his long break. I think he is grateful to get out of the house for the day : ) I am looking for a job, so hopefully I'll find something in the next few weeks. Although the job market is just as bad here as it is at home right now.

That's it for now from down under! Love you all! Happy New Year!!