It’s been a rough couple of weeks but I finally feel like I can start to relax a little bit more now. I love how my apartment is finally cozy and looks livable. I still need to add some pictures/art on the walls which are naked right now. My cat has finally settled as well. Every evening she likes to nap on the far end of the couch while Tim and I watch the tube. However, right now she’s napping in an empty moving box.

Now that I have some more breathing room I’m really stoked about cooking some side dishes for Thanksgiving. I’m planning on putting together a vegetarian sausage stuffing, along with a maple glazed sweet potato side dish, which I will post the recipes and pictures on here later.

This past week has been non-stop action, what with moving, buying things to setup our new apartment with and starting a new job. I haven’t even had the chance to fill my fridge and pantry with much of anything. I’ll wait to take/post pics of the place once everything is settled and looks less like a storage space. Hopefully by this weekend, things will start to settle down a little.

I also discovered that my work is only a mere 5 minute walk away from where I live! I have no idea how I lucked out on this. If you know me well enough, you’d know that I have always lived far from anything and everything. It would always take me an hour to an hour and a half to get anywhere. Even when I was a kid, the nearest playground/park or corner store was a 15-20 minute walk!!! And so with that I must say that I’m really liking this new arrangement. I especially like my mornings (i was never a morning person before), as I sip my morning cuppa tea out of my Jamie Oliver mug that says “Big Fella” on it, I step out onto my back porch and there right in front of me is the beautiful Ipswich River.

My cat is definitely not as jazzed as I am. For the past 4 days she’s been turning away from me every time I tried to pat her — probably thinking I’d move her to some other strange place. She even started drinking her water by cupping it with her paw first. Only tonight when Tim and I put together some furniture and laid down a soft rug did she start to get back to her old self. She’s sleeping beside me right now.

The only thing that’s really missing right now is sharing these new experiences with my friends and family who are far away Hopefully some of you will come and visit!

When I moved down here I was prepared to wait for at least 3-4 months before I would even be able to start looking for work, and up to 2 years before I would even see any signs of my green card. But, within about 2 months of my wedding, I was able to get my work permit, a job offer, and a green card. This is a lot of change and a lot of excitement all at once. I even found the perfect apartment to move into. Things are really looking up. Let’s just hope I don’t jinx everything.

As soon as I received my green card, Tim and I drove up to Canada to surprise my little sister on her birthday. It was the best timing alright! We couldn’t stay for long but it was worth making the short trip. Can’t wait to go back again.

In food making news: I tried the Jamie Oliver Killer Mac N Cheese recipe and it was a huge success (even the family’s African Grey Parrot loved it). It was gone so quickly that I didn’t even get a chance to photograph it. The recipe called for 10 cloves of garlic, but I went with only 6 and that still kept it quite tasty. I also used shell pasta instead of elbow macaroni and cut down the amount of tomatoes from 8 to 6, which was more than enough. Other than that the instructions for the recipe and the ingredients are all a great match! Next time, I might add some sundried tomatoes, a little extra cheese or maybe even some different cheeses. I know I say this often lately, but this is the perfect meal for a rainy autumn or winter’s day.

Tomorrow I’ll be making a vegan mac n cheese and a pumpkin pie so I’ll have more to post later on.