My Home

A couple weekends ago I found a historical walk down in the older part of Sydney.  It was a self-guided tour and had some really cool sites.  Our friends Dan, Caylee and their daughter Georgia joined us on our adventure.  It was a lot of fun!

Phil and I got to look across the harbour to where we got engaged.  It was an amazing view.
Plus, we got some bonding time with Georgia! Ha-she was so good and was so excited to hang out with Phil & I that day.

I just love walking around and looking at historic buildings and learning about how life used to be...
so this was certainly ideal for me!

There were odd sculptures all along the way too..

It was a long day and we really learned a lot about Australia.

It was one of my favorite days here so far and I can't wait to go and explore more.

-Good night Sydney-

Growing Pets

For Easter Mom gave us some cute growing pets.

We decided to try them out and didn't know what to expect!

Just put them in water...

...and watch them grow!

After about 48 hours we had little Jo Jo and Philbert.

They were so big and not squishy at all. We were really surprised!

Good ole Jo Jo and Philbert are here to stay!

Jolly's Ranch

We just loved this place!

When Phil's family was in Utah for the wedding, we decided we'd show them a true Utah winter complete with sledding and all. We'd never been to Jolly's Ranch, but mom found it in the newspaper and we decided to give it a whirl. We were a bit skeptical as we drove up there because we saw no snow around us and it hadn't snowed for a while. When we got to Jolly's though, there was enough snow for everyone. It was a blast! They have two groomed hills and since it had been so cold and the hills were so used, the snow on them was topped with a thin layer of ice snow. Ice snow = FAST SLEDDING!

Here is Chantel showing us the hill

And Dad B as he conquers the hill

It was so much fun to watch everyone go down the hill. We started off timid but by the end we were trying to go as fast as we could. We all loved it and it was fun for all ages, the parents and the kids.

 
 

Cute sisters

Tellers and Jo-C

The camera follows Mum B down

Mom with her classic scream all the way down

The Moms

The 'Fiancées'

Here is me coming straight for Phil!

There was a mound of snow at the end of the hill to keep people from going over into this...

which has a small river at the bottom. That didn't stop us! We ended up trying to get over and guess who was the first one to conquer it? ME! I went down on the sled with my mom and the next thing I knew, I was over the mound! I guess I just disappeared behind the mound and they'd never seen Phil run so fast as he ran down the hill to make sure I was okay. :) That was just the beginning of the mound hopping though...

Here is Braden conquering the mound

And then Justin FLEW over it

And here is Rachael after her mount of the mound. She actually stayed on her sled and it carried her down really close to the river.

In the end, Dad B, Kaylee, Phil, Braden, Justin, Chantel & Rachael all conquered the mound and Mom P. helped me accomplish my mount. We had so much fun and were there for over 3 hours. Definitely worth the trip and the cold snow for a fun time with the family!

Temple Square '09

Temple Square is always my favorite in the winter.

We were lucky enough to be able to go with Cole and Jamie this year. It was fun and the night we went on wasn't too cold. Christmas lights with friends is the best!

Loving Phil's gloves!

I love all the different nativities from around the world and the reflection pool is beautiful with the floating candles in it.

Here is a vid of us on the scene..

You Don't Get This Down Under

Oh the Utah snow. I love it, I hate it. I have some great memories growing up the involve snow. Sledding, skiing, boarding, hot tubbing in the snow...etc.

This is a photo we took off the side of the road in my home-town American Fork.

It's beautiful isn't it?

As Phil says in the movie...

"You don't get this down under"

-6- NO 'Thank You Australia'

Oh Boy...

How many minutes of my day do I sit and waste at that dear old red light. I just want to make a left-hand turn, but no;

ILLEGAL

That's right, contrary to popular american beliefs, you cannot make a left-turn in Australia on a red light. You must wait. Even though there are mile-long gaps.

ugh...

...and so you to you, Australia, today I say,

No Thank You.

Dinner for Five

A few weeks ago we had our friends Caylee and Dan over for dinner and some games. We made teriyaki chicken wraps and Phil whipped out some yummy peach slice for dessert. Luckily us adults were able to enjoy game-time as we kept Georgia (their daughter) entertained with our Disney movie collection.

It was the first time we had actually entertained in our place so we were really proud and had to take a picture! :)

Smartie Pants

oh dear philip ross. why are you so smart? you baffle me with your words of wisdom

…

Surprisingly, the results of the recombinant plasmid sequencing did not concur with this inference. Of the 5 known gene cassette sequences, the only one present in the sequence (See Appendix B) of our recombinant plasmid was that of the catB3 (chloramphenicol) gene cassette. From the results of our plasmid resistance profiling it was expected that the oxa2 (ampicillin resistance) gene cassette was conserved, though it did not show within the region of our recombinant plasmid sequenced. The plated cultures demonstrated clear resistance to ampicillin across the entire plate, thus several hypotheses may be postulated to explain this result:

1) Multiple recombinant plasmids were formed and we incorrectly identified the phenotype of the colony we selected for growth and analysis

2) Further recombination occurred after exposure to the antibiotics, during which the oxa2 gene cassette was lost

3) The oxa2 gene cassette was conserved in the plasmid, but moved by the IntI enzyme to a region outside of that which we could accurately sequence

and....

In our experiment, we demonstrate the ability of the integrons/gene cassette system of gene mobilization. We utilize the plasmid pSU2056 which expresses large amounts of the IntI protein, to catalyse the rearrangement of gene cassettes contained in the pMAQ105 plasmid. pMAQ105 (Figure 1a) is known to contain 5 different gene cassettes as well as an inactive form of the intI gene. The inactive intI gene allows us to exert control and prevent spontaneous recombination from occurring. The phenotypes of the gene cassettes are shown in Figure 1b
…

Please do not attempt to read this all at once. It causes overload and a sense of confusion. 

 These are the words of my husband, which I took from his latest lab write-up.

SMARTIE PANTS!

Home Sweet Home

Phil & I are working on making our little place our little home. We've bought the essentials and are slowly building. With one bedroom, one bathroom and our front room/kitchen, we have just enough space for the both of us. We love it here and I can't wait to continue decorating.

We're working on a large area rug for this room and getting our large wedding photo framed to put on the large white wall under our clock on the left side. We also want a new black futon cover. Just small little things. We've also got a few other photos and things that we may hang up in the bathroom...stay posted!

We were so blessed to have found our flat when we did and it's in the perfect location for our work and school. It's still a work in progress but we like it and have made our little home here in Australia.