October

Hey Guys,

Hope you're all doing well. October has been great for us, and things are really starting to heat up here. Today it's 30 degrees, and I'm sure we've each had 4 litres of water already... so hot!

Andrew is doing well with his Masters... working on courses #3 and 4 and getting A's on everything. In fact, he's sitting right next to me, typing up his midterm assignment, so we're side-by-side on our laptops... how romantic :)

Sometimes I find him sleeping (like above) when he's supposed to be reading... some of the stuff he has to read is pretty dry, so I don't blame him!



This has been an exciting month for me as I got my first cheque in the mail from Google. As you might know, I put up Google Ads on my website a few months ago, and every time you reach a certain income they pop your money in the mail to you. It took ages to come as it was from the States, but ordered in Ireland and mailed from Sweden to Australia... I thought for sure someone had robbed it out of our mailbox, but nope, just slow snail-mail.


Since it's getting hot out, I'm making more salady-stuff to eat. Somewhere in my subconscious memory I could "taste" this salad that my mom used to always make and take along on picnics with us to Cultus Lake when we were little, so I tried my best to remember what was in it and copy it, and it tastes great.

If you want to try it, it's just a can of chick peas (garbanzo beans), lentils, large can of tuna, about 30 green olives sliced into thirds, parsley, a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. It makes about 3 portions, and since Andrew won't go near it, I'm good to go for 3 days!



Last night we went to a 30th birthday party for our friend Monty, whom we work with. It was an 80's themed party and people did a great job dressing up. My favorite was Julian's purple mo-hawk (above) and Arno's Super Mario costume... didn't get a picture of that one.

Monty's father-in-law, Ron, did a great job BBQ'ing in a somewhat-80's chef outfit. There were about 30 people there, so he had a big job! The party was really well done with slinkys hanging from the walls, 80's expressions, rubix cubes, and a huge outdoor screen playing 80's music videos. We also had to do a quiz on Monty's life and the winners got goodie bags. Fun times!



Last but not least, our friend Steph from work had her second little baby girl this month, Penelope May, and I went to visit her in the hospital the next day... isn't she cute?! Andrew and I took a meal to her house a few days later and played with her other daughter, Lillian who's nearly 3, so we definitely got our fill of little kids for the week!

Penelope kept on crying whenever I held her, so I got lots of practice jiggling her up and down to quiet her down. I think I got the hang of it after a couple hours.

In other news, we've pretty much got our move organized for December, including a moving truck, carpet cleaner, etc. Hard to believe we'll be outta here in just over 5 weeks... can't wait for the next adventure!

Talk soon,

~Corinna for Team AC

Happy 1st Anniversary, Austin & Heather!

First of all, we just want to congratulate Heather and Austin on their 1-year anniversary this weekend! Hope Year 2 is double as good as the first!

You can see I think of you guys all the time since your wedding picture is hanging on the side of our fridge. It's funny because you mailed us a thank-you card and pictures last year, and it arrived while were in Vancouver at Christmas. Well, somehow our mail got blown out of our mailbox, and since we had all that flooding, the photos and card were in pretty rough shape when we opened the envelope in January after we got back. I think we managed to save one pic though, and that's the one on the fridge (see above).

In other news, remember when we first moved to Rocky last year and I posted a picture of the neighbor's pool? It looked like this:


Crystal blue waters, inviting, wonderful. Well, fast-forward 15 months, and she hasn't used the pool ONCE! In fact, she's totally given up on even cleaning it, and it now looks like this:

Disgusting. There are pretty much lily-pads growing on top of it now, birds regularly wash/poop in it, and there are all types of insects doing breast-stroke across the water. Since our house is a couple feet higher than hers, I don't think she can see the water from her windows, but we have the perfect, un-appetizing few of it from our kitchen window. Gross. O well, only 8 weeks till we move out of here... shall not make a big deal out of it.

Speaking of our yard, here's Andrew enjoying lunch outside today on our patio (and yes, he is wearing pants, not just a necklace!):


This week it went from our winter weather (comfortably warm) to boiling hot almost overnight. We have officially removed the blanket from our bed for the rest of the year and are now just using a thin sheet at night. We're also wearing as little clothing as possible, and have the overhead fans on all the time to keep cool.

It's really nice to have warm temps as long as you don't have to do too much, otherwise you really start sweating. It's 31 today, and pretty much meant to stay like that for the foreseeable future on the forecast.

We haven't had ANY rain in about 2 months now... not that we miss it, but everything is super dry outside, and if even just one yahoo drops a match or cigarette outside we'll be having massive forest-fires. Surrounding towns have already started having them, so sometimes we get smoke blowing into Rocky, which can get pretty stinky.

With all the dryness, my skin is getting totally lizard-y, despite exfoliating and lotioning regularly. I've finally had to resort to rubbing Jojoba oil onto my legs because they looked so nasty. And it's not from being out in the sun too much... just from the dryness.

Finally, a couple pics from our soccer awards night last night. It was fun to get all dressed up with the girls on our team... funny because normally we just see each other in soccer gear, so this was a nice change.


It was basically a dinner (not so tasty, unfortunately) held in a big tent outside our soccer club, and then speeches and awards for best player, most improved, etc. A bit boring since there were a lot of teams there so I didn't know most of the people getting awards, but it as fun when it was our team's turn.

That's all for now, folks... talk soon! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and hope Mum & Dad have fun in Osoyoos, and Mom & Dad have a blast in Las Vegas! Woo hoo!

~Corinna for Team AC