New Pet for the Petersons!

It looks like we get to bring another memory from Australia home with us! When Sarah and I were in Cairns up by the Great Barrier Reef, we went to a koala park where we met Tyra. She was a sweet koala who seemed to take a liking to Sarah.

She had a pretty amazing story. She was caught in the middle of a local wildfire back in 2009, but some firefighters found her and nursed her back to health. She's doing great now; well enough, in fact, that the Australian government has put her up for a form of international adoption. The government was running a sweepstakes to raise awareness about koalas, and the winner gets to take her home to their home country.

Sarah and I put our names in sort of as a joke, but we couldn't believe it when we got a call from Australia over the weekend. They said we've been selected out of the thousands of applicants they had! They'll be sending her to us in a couple of months, once we get all the customs forms taken care of. And it looks like it shouldn't be too much work taking care of her anyways. We just need to put up some eucalyptus branches in our spare room. She'll sleep twenty hours a day anyway.

We're so excited to have our very own koala! The Australian government tells us in time we may be able to display her at public events, and train her to go on walks and maybe even ride a tiny tricycle they'll be sending along with her. Plus, they say we may even be able to train her to do simple chores around the house, like our very own little koala butler. We'll be sure to keep you guys posted!!!

Sarah's Half-Marathon

Hey all! Sarah ran a half marathon this weekend! After 12 long weeks of training through the cold Virginia winter, Sarah was finally able to show what she's made of in the Washington DC Rock & Roll Half Marathon.Look at that icy stare of determination.

Here she is post-race (although she remarkably looks exactly like she did at the beginning of the race). She ran the race in 2:12:48. Some of you may be wondering "where was Ryan during all this?" Unfortunately, I injured my knee two weeks ago and the doctor told me I should not be running in the half marathon under any circumstances. So instead I get to go to physical therapy for the next month; but hopefully after that, we'll be back training for our next run. Hooray for Sarah!

We're back!

Hey all,

It has been a long time since I've had the time to post anything on the blog. Sorry about that. It seems like we have been busy ever since we came back from Australia, so I have uploaded a bunch of pictures of what we have been up to recently. Keep on scrolling!

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day around the Peterson household again, which means another awesome home-cooked meal. That consisted of braised short ribs, scallops in lemon cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and fried green beans.

And for dessert, molten lava chocolate cake with coconut ice cream. All good fuel as we train for a half-marathon in March. I love you, chocolate cake. And I love you too, Sarah.

Foreign Service?

Hey all,

I received some interesting news a few days ago. Last summer I took the Foreign Service Officer Test, which is the first step toward working as a U.S. diplomat overseas. I was surprised to learn that I had passed and they wanted me to take the second test, which is a series of essays. I turned those in as well, and was surprised again to find that I had passed. They wanted me to sign up for the Oral Assessment, which is an all-day interview where they test you on the qualities they find most important for a Foreign Service Officer.

I was fortunate enough to receive a passing score on this as well (albeit just barely). So what that means is I now have to pass a security and medical clearance check and I may be asked to join the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer! We're not sure if that's what we want to do, but it's a nice option to have. We'll be sure to keep you posted on any updates. For now, if you would like to find out more about what the Foreign Service does, you can read this article recently published by BYU magazine.

http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2986

November can't come soon enough!

It's been a while since I've done a movie post, so here's a quick one. The new James Bond movie is called Skyfall and it comes out this November. It will be set in Shanghai and India and there are explosions and stuff. Here's the first official image. Enjoy.

Sarah's Birthday(s)

January 26th was Sarah's birthday, but that doesn't mean we didn't spend most of the month celebrating it. We started with a delicious homemade yellow cake with strawberry frosting that we made for her in Arizona.

Next, came some cupcakes at home with friends.

Finally a delicious salted caramel chocolate cake that I slaved over to share with her family. Good thing we're running a half marathon in March! Happy birthday, babe!