I just bought a new coat and had it shipped to Texas so I won't freeze!! I haven't bought a coat since 2007 when I was a size 10...so I think it's time to accept that it doesn't fit and just buy a new one. Gap Inc. makes clothes in tall size (woot!) They've made the arm-holes come down lower so you don't get that tightness across the shoulders....in theory. Also, the arms are longer as is the overall length and the waist is set lower too! This is the first "tall" proportioned item I've ever bought so I'm really excited to see if it makes a diff!!
It's not like, the coat of my dreams or anything.... although The Science of Sexy says the Peter Pan collar is very flattering for me. :P And the buttons are ugly...I'm going to change them to gold or brass buttons. Or maybe just white ones. Depends on what the store has. lol But it was only like 50 bucks so who can complain?
One day I will have a gorgeous wool Burberry herringbone a-line coat....but I'm gonna have to wait until we live somewhere it actually gets cold regularly. Working on that one. ;)
Okay, so maybe that wasn't really my last blog post. bleh.
So, 2 months ago I lost my passport. It was in my lap in the car and fell out into the parking lot without me realizing it. I assumed it'd just fallen in the car somewhere and didn't worry about it too much...but it turns out it had been mailed to the consulate in Sydney. Sooo I call the consulate. They tell me that, since I am married now, I need to travel in my new name... okay cool. That was October 27th.
November 9th we applied for our marriage certificate and received it back November 26th. I tried to contact the consulate to figure out what to do from there but I assume they closed for Thanksgiving because I heard nothing back. It was a busy weekend what with Chris's bday and all that coming Monday....on that Monday Chris told me we should apply for my new passport. So I filled out the form that the consulate told me to....but then I realized that I had to include 2 U.S. passport sized photo (.5" bigger than Aussie photos) and the post office only takes aussie sized photos....so. We hold a photo shoot in the bathroom, I edit the photos to be the correct size and meet all their specifications, we go to print it and NOOOO the printer is printing at a super low res. We couldn't be sure but we assumed it was because of the generic ink and paper we'd bought to save money during wedding planning...and the only shop that carried the right ink and paper was closed now (at 4 pm. gotta love rural towns.) So, I jokingly said "Look, I don't think 1 day is going to make that much of a difference here, let's just go out and enjoy your bday." But, Chris had to work until 6:30 the next 2 days so it was actually 3 days before we got our photo printed, our money order ordered and everything in the mail by next-day express post....We get a call the following Tuesday the our money order is in the wrong ammount, it is $7 too much and we need to correct it according to the current exchange rate rather than the one on their website. WHAT?! UGH! He did assure us that everything should be taken care of in time for my flight on the 21st if we mailed it that day though, so, we fill out a new money order, express post THAT to the consulate and don't hear anything from them again...that was last week on the 8th. They didn't mail my passport until the 14th. (WHY? Why.) Annnd because we live in a rural area it takes 3-4 business days to arrive here....only the damn post workers union decided to strike in the middle of the week throwing all the letters off by a day or so which means 4-5 business days.....or Monday-ish. When I was supposed to be flying home.
::sigh::
So, here we sit.... it feels like that part of Benjamen Button when he's saying "if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by...." If it hadn't been Thanksgiving, if we'd had the canon ink for the printer, if it hadn't been Chris's birthday that day, or the shop had been open later than 4pm, if the union hadn't gone on strike or if I'd used the current exchange rate....I would have had my passport as early as Tuesday this week, we'd be $1600 richer and I'd be on that flight Monday morning. "But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control" it all happened exactly how it did and there's nothing we can do about that now.... but it's interesting to see how all the different variables come together. Okay okay, so at the end of the day "If I had not lost my passport" tops the list, and I probably shouldn't be comparing missing my flights to a person having their leg crushed....I mean, it's not THAT bad. But it was hella expensive and totally unneccessary.
So I'm now leaving Wednesday morning instead of Monday morning. The great part is that I get to travel with my Beebs now!! We are on the same plane from Mackay to Brisbane, only I had to book into first class because it's all there was left. lol I would have just booked a diff. flight but it's the ONLY one that leaves early enough for us to make our VAustralia flight. Oh well! It's only an hour flight. We get to sit by each other on the VAustralia flight, but once we get to Los Angeles we're on separate flights altogether. Mine has a layover in Austin and doesn't get into DFW until two hour after Chris's does. BOOOO! So less than ideal. It would have cost like $600 to change his flight to be the same as mine though and I'm not so rediculous to insist on that.
Ah well. I'm still going shopping on Christmas Eve. I don't even curr!
This is my last update until... I'm not sure. But for quite a while anyways. I'm super popular and just don't have time for trivial things like blogging now. (HA!)
So, I'm a chronic procrastinator... it seemed much too early to start packing or cleaning or anything like that last week...but now it's dawned on me that, even though my flight leaves on Monday morning, we're driving into Mackay Saturday morning which gives me 4 days to clean the house, do all my laundry (those of you who know me best know why this is a big deal time-wise) and PACK.
You know, until I counted the days just then, I didn't even realize it was down to 4 days. It's only Tuesday! I thought I had like a WEEK...gah. Beebs has to work Monday morning which is why he can't see me off at the airport. I'm pretty sad about that actually, I hate saying goodbye before I actually leave...but I guess that, in this instance, it's only goodbye for 4 days instead of like 4 months so I suppose I'll survive.
It's not that bad....
I'm really excited about traveling! Most people gawk when I tell them it's like 30 hrs of travel time (I got pretty short layovers this time!) but, honestly, it flies by. For me anyways. I've got this thing down to an artform at this point and, honestly, it's kind of therapeutic--except for the whole sore-tailbone thing, I wouldn't call that therapeutic. Anyways. This is not your domestic airplane:
You have your own tv in the headrest in front of you.
There's always new-release movies on the flight and dozens of recent and even some older movies on top of that.
There's also HUNDREDS of tv-shows. I'm hoping they have Glee. Everyone's gushing about it and I have only seen the first episode so it would be convenient to get to knock out my Glee marthon on the flight instead of on Hulu at home.
There's arcade type games like Bejewelled, Tetris, Scrabble and so on that you can play too! There might be more video game type stuff but I've never bothered playing.
You have a lot more room to yourself than on a domestic flight! The seats are wider and the rows are farther apart. Your seat also reclines a lot farther back since the rows are farther apart (not a WHOLE lot, but enough.)
Two words: unlimited "refreshments." ;)
The food is actually really good! It's never super filling, but it's not like you can't bring nibblies on the flight if you want to.
We all sleep most of the flight anyways! It's really easy on the LAX to BNE flight since those always leave really late at night....not as easy on the BNE to LAX flights that leave in the afternoon though....I plan on bringing sleeping pills just in case. ;)
Also, I have my own little rituals down now. For some reason my flights ALWAYS leave from the same gate (give or take a gate) so I've really gotten to know that part of the airport now. I play in Duty Free forever in Brisbane testing pretty much every perfume in the stores, and then I have my nachos and Presidente margarita waiting for me at Chili's when I land in LAX. On the flight I always have:
a new book that I've saved just for the occasion,
my fleece blanket for my top half (I use the airline's blanket on the bottom half since you never know how often they clean those!)
my slippers in my carry-on so I can change shoes right before we board
my cushy neck pillow and my pillowed eye-mask that blocks out 100% of the light.
ear plugs
noise-cancelling head-phones to wear OVER the ear plugs. I don't play music in them, I just turn on the noise cancelling part ;) Can you tell I'm a light sleeper?
The flight itself is only 12-13 hrs. Sometimes 14 if we have to fly around bad weather. Mine is 8pm-9am CST this time and "lights out" (when they turn all the lights off and suggest you try to sleep) will probably be at 10pm and then we'll have breakfast at 7am...so most of that time you are sleeping. Or at least people as super prepared as me are sleeping. Everyone else is waiting for the baby to stop crying and wishing the person next to them would turn off their reading light. ;) Okay so, if we're being honest, I've never been able to sleep the whole time. BUT I hadn't discovered Doxylamine Succinate(the active ingredient in Nyquil that makes you sleepy...that they sell in pill form here ;) ) before either. Muahahaha.
OH! I'd also like to add some breakfast things to my Fat New Year food list:
McDonalds breakfast burritos AND a sausage patty
AMERICAN BACON. CRISPY GREASY YUM.
Chick-fil-a chicken biscuit/sandwich
Plain glazed donuts...No icing. No sprinkles. No drama. Just donuts.
Things to do (i.e. EAT) while in Texas for the holidays:
Chipotle (always my first stop from the airport)
Olive Garden Breadsticks
Chili's presidente margarita and grilled shrimp alfredo.
See Avatar in 3D at the Harkins Southlake while eating Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake we smuggled in with my purse. HA! (it's a big purse)
Buy that Eagle Flatts queso dip from Wal-Mart and go to town....and try and figure out how to make it myself!!!
Texas de Brazil buffet! whaat?
Del Frescos, just for Beebs.
Take Chris to Six Flags Holiday in the Park, just for fun.
Ocean Water and Jalapeno poppers at Sonic.
Go to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science.
Razoo's Rat Toes!
Go outlet shopping with Amelia (because she's the only shopping partner who has the same "shopping-pace" as me....and I love her most.) which includes that trip to Dallas we've always talked about since I've never gone to those stores.
Holiday Lattes at Starbucks!!
Order a Honeybaked ham for Christmas
Go to QT every single day and have a fountain drink, just because I can.
Drive until we find snow. Hopefully it's not in like, Maine or something.
Drink eggnogg and watch White Christmas with momma.
Actually go out on New Years Eve instead of watching the ball drop at home like I have for the past 22 years. (anyone down to join me?)
Go to that ice thing at the Gaylord Texan.
Cuddle Ender and make sure he knows I still love him.
So....it's that time of year. :) I think I enjoy shopping for Christmas gifts more than the average person... The lines and the crowds just add to the thrill of the hunt for me (although I can't say the traffic is all that thrilling on any front.) My primary love language is Gifts which is probably why I take finding the perfect gift for each person so seriously. A gift from me is the utmost expression of love, so I don't take it lightly. I usually like to go shopping with people and pay careful attention to the things that they like...That said, I feel tremendously crippled over here! I feel confident enough waiting to shop for my family back in the states in a couple weeks when I get there, but we're meant to be having "Christmas" with Chris's fam. next week and, so far, the only person we've bought for is Annette! This family is REALLY hard to shop for. In my family, no one is shy about giving a Christmas List of things with varying price points and letting each other go from there, but his family just does not share what they want!! They all say "nothing." I'm just like...hey. I'm going to be getting you something anyways, so it might as well be something you like!
Annette is easy enough to shop for because I've kind of learned her taste over time and I have ideas for everyone else....but it doesn't make it any less tough! The kicker is that I have to do ALL of this online, and Australian e-commerce is seriously handicapped. Chris always gets his mom the same thing: a gift card to the garden shop. But I like to be a bit more thoughtful than that. I like for people to not know what to expect......so, "let the hunt begin" I suppose! His mom's bday is next week as well....maybe we can do a BIG bday/christmas gift for her. Maybe.....Maybe I could go "browsing" with Debra at Green Tree Frog (gardening) and just pay close attention to the things she likes.... she has this whole feature of concrete lizards in her garden...but they look expensive. uggggh. Wish me luck!
Last year there weren't ANY frozen cranberries at Cole's, just cranberries soaked in apple juice....which have a totally different flavor. Like the difference between frozen peas and canned peas soaked in water....anyways. They had cranberries at Cole's this weekend!! Not fresh ones because they're out of season, but this recipe needs frozen ones anyways so HURRAY because I LOVE PUMPKIN CRANBERRY BREAD. I'm gonna make like, a basquillion loaves of a it. That's right JILLIONS.
I think Australians would call this "cake" or a "pudding"....but, by my definition, it's too dense to be a cake and not wet enough to be a pudding. SO it's bread.....'cause I'm American and that's how I roll. hahaha ::boing::boing::boing:: (me bouncing in my seat with glee)
Libby's® Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Rated:
Submitted By: Libby's® Pumpkin
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour
Ready In: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Servings: 24
"Try this festive recipe for a delicious holiday treat!"
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure
Pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
Directions:
1.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.
2.
Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.
3.
Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
We want to move somewhere where it's cold all the time. Like, fireplace lit every day, rainy snowy "bad weather" kind of cold all the time. Preferably in the mountains. Seriously. Where is someplace where the highest high in the summer is like 65-70 degrees? I want to move there. I hate the heat. I hate the beach. I never want to sweat again. I SO look forward to winter and dread the days I have to pack up the sweaters and boots....so why not have year-round autumn and winter temperatures? So, where is this place? Is it like, Canada? Not like, Alaska or anything....someplace where it's cold all the time but not snow all the time.
Let the search begin!
Thredbo, New South Wales
Okay, so this is like the Aspen of Australia. Situated in NSW's Snowy Mountains, it averages a high of 20*C-22*C in the summer which isn't bad! And in the winter it's, well, cold and snowy. :) Problem? It's hella expensive. Like whoa expensive. $1.5 million for a 2 bed/2 bath. Here's some $2.5 million 5 bed/ 3 bath eye candy:
Okay now, I'm not even joking over here, you know how when you play Sims sometimes you'll build like your dream home? I SWEAR my dream home ALWAYS has this lodge look to it with that huge stair-case and balcony thing in the main room. That said....for 2.5 million it sucks that it's a fixer upper. It's VERY dated and needs a lot of love and sledge-hammering. Anyways, just an inkling of what exists up there! There are places really nearby with reasonable prices (if you can believe $800k for a 4 bed/3 bath is reasonable ;) ) Maybe this will be our retirement dream. :)
It was not as good as I thought it would be.... ::tear:: But I tried! I made it with coconut Italian buttercream frosting and covered it in coconut....it's really good, just not like mind blowing or anything. I'm just not good at cakes! lol I tried to write "happy birthday" on the cake...only the dessecated coconut kept pulling up and it turned out looking like a squiggly "hoopy" and so I gave up and just wrote "happy 24." lol ohhhh well. I was too embarrassed to take a picture. At least it tasted yummy. :)
People have been saying things to me this past year like "your hair always looks so good," "you always look so cute when we go out," "I know I have to make an effort when I'm around you or else I'll look rediculous." I've officially become High Maintenance. I've become That Girl. I ALWAYS have my hair done, I ALWAYS have some variation of makeup and I ALWAYS put a lot of thought into my appearance even if it's just to go to the grocery store. Why?? I blame What Not to Wear!!! Seriously!! Stacey London and Clinton Kelley have changed me for life and I don't think there's anything I can do about it. People ask me "how do you get your hair to look good all the time?" Um...I style it EVERY DAY. It's not like I roll out of bed looking like it took me an hour to get ready....it probably did take an hour. Or more. lol
Oh, can I just say that the UK What Not to Wear is HORRIBLE???? I don't know WHAT possesses those women to think that the things they are dressing their guests in looks good but it's painful to watch! So I don't. And I miss Stacy and Clinton. :(
One of the things that's been hard on me moving here to moranbah is that NO ONE makes an effort! Everyone is so low-maintenance when it comes to their appearance and I just stand out like a sore thumb. I always feel over-dressed and over-done. So I've been trying to play it down a bit lately... This is why, just for fun, I've made a What Not to Wear special for myself. Even if I can't play in a dressing room every week anymore I can still try to have some fun!
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Okay, so one of my fave things is mvm.com . It's tons of fun! You get to make a 3-d model of yourself and then try on all these clothes and it REALLY gives you a good idea of what NOT to wear and I have actually been very very surprised by some of the things that look really good on me. I love studying shapes and fabrics and how a ruffle here or a pouf there can really add balance and shape in a good way and how a metallic sheen or a shoe strap in the wrong place can look just HORRIBLE.
Here's some fun What Not To Wears and What TO Wears that I put together for my model. :)
What NOT to Wear: On a Date
WHY would I wear this?? Maxi dresses are REALLY popular right now. I think some of them are great and some of them are awful....the one I tried on here is one I actually really loved on the model; it doesn't have a dust-ruffle hem, it's belted at the waist, it has a lot of movement instead of being your typical sheath style, and the colors are REALLY pretty. I think this one is also a little more dressy and wouldn't be out of place at a nice al-fresco cafe at the harbor which is a place Chris would likely take me out. It would also be nice and cool which is important in summer here.
But apparently I just can't pull off the Maxi look. I'm not even going to try...they ALL look frumpy on me. They look frumpy on a LOT of people actually...I wonder if they know how bad they look... The accessories I chose are things I actually really like, but the pendant necklace combined with the length of the dress is just too much going on. I love those bangles too, but they bring attention to my wide hips which is not what we want at ALL!
Wear THIS: On a Date
The second look is probably a little bit shorter than I should wear, but the style is awesome! I think a lot of people make the mistake of wearing drape empire-waisted dresses thinking that they hide their fat, but they can really add a LOT of pounds that are not there (see my maxi dress for an example.) This style has a lot of structure and emphasizes the fact that I really do have a waist. The necklace I chose brings attention to my top half, the smallest part of me, instead of dragging the eye down to my middle the way a longer necklace would. I love this
What NOT to Wear: Shopping With Girlfriends WHY would I wear this?? Hey now, this would be a seriously comfy outfit to wear on an outing for holiday Starbucks lattes and maybe shopping and a movie after! The whole 80's look is really on-trend and the ballet flats would be super comfy if we were doing a lot of walking. The tights would keep my legs warm and are usually worn with these tunic dresses which is why I chose them. I wouldn't have to think about weather my rolls were rolling out when I sat down and I would be SO cozy and comfortable and that's important when your with you're girls!
Okay, okay, so looking at this you're probably thinking "WOW. That is REALLY bad." BUT people wear stuff like this all. the. time! As you can see, the whole Oversized look is BAD if you are not seriously skinny! It does make us feel safe because we can let it all hang out and no one will see and yes it would be sooo comfy....but it just looks awful. It's an all around bad idea. I love the sweater, it's very festive and metallic but the empire waist and chunky knit just add 20 lbs that I don't need and in all the wrong places. The tights cut my legs off at the ankle and draw attention where they would otherwise just blend and this adds a lot of heft and makes them look really short. The pendant necklace just drag the visual interest down down down to my tummy and hips which just isn't a good idea here at all. The bell sleeve would normally be a good idea for me, but not even they can save this serious fashion disaster.
Wear THIS:Out With Girlfriends Okay now, THIS is something that I love and do wear absolutely all the time. I've got my fitted tank with a wool shrug to emphasize my waist and also to add balance between my shoulders and hips. I've got my dark-wash boot-cut jeans because I KNOW light washes and whiskering just make my hips gain weight in the worst way. The scarf does all kinds of awesome things here visually; besides adding a pop of color, it draws the eye up and in which automatically slims and trims because people are looking at the smallest parts of me instead of my hips where I carry all my weight. The metallic flats aren't doing anything special other than looking cute and fun as opposed to a boring black flat or WORSE running shoes.
Tangent: For some reason people in Texas think it's okay to wear running shoes with absolutely any outfit. I don't know if people do this everywhere but it is like a PLAGUE in Texas. I used to be guilty of it when I was growing up, but I was young and clueless....I assume that everyone who continues to do this just doesn't care or couldn't be bothered putting on other shoes. I think you can get away with it if you're doing the J-Lo track-suit look and your shoes are clean and fresh....otherwise it just looks messy. Maybe if you're going to the grocery store for like, 5 minutes because you're in the middle of a recipe and they were the first shoes by the door....but really it's not hard to throw on a pair of cute flats or sandals instead. Make an effort people! You never know who you're going to meet....
Okay, I have to admit, the outfit I feel SAFEST in is just t-shirt, jeans and tennishoes:
I used to wear some variation of this EVERY SINGLE DAY until I got sick of being mistaken for a 16 y/o at 20 and decided I should probably start dressing more appropriately for my age. I always had a few things ready for when I wanted to dress up...when I worked at David's Bridal I had to buy a lot of business casual type clothing which allowed me to start seeing myself as an adult. I can confidently wear heels with jeans now and not feel like an idiot which is saying a lot. But I suppose I shouldn't judge those who just aren't there yet, should I? At the same time, we all have to grow up at some stage if we want our peers and society to take us seriously so I'm glad that I've made that leap now rather than trying to wrap my mind around a heeled shoe at 30. lol
Long time no update! Sorry 'bout that. I've been siiiick. :(
We had a good Thanksgiving, for what it was. I tried really hard. It's really sad when you're used to it being cold outside and for there to be a parade on TV and to be surrounded by extended family... It was 100+ degrees on Thursday and I was by myself in the kitchen all day until Chris got home at 6:30. I got pretty overwhelmed, but I made it in the end! People here don't understand that being alone on Thanksgiving is a lot like being alone on Christmas....but I did get to talk to momma for a little while that day! And then, the next day, I got to video-call my grandparents and my whole family when it was Thanksgiving for them so that was really nice! Grandma and Grandad loved the video, and I hadn't talked to them in so long so it was awesome for me to see them too. :)
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I just watched a show on MTV called "16 and Pregnant" and it's about, well, being 16 and pregnant. This episode was following a high school senior who is 17, gorgeous, good student, a varsity cheerleader...and she's pregnant. For some reason watching the show was really emotional for me....for some reason high school students scorn pregnant peers like they have the plague or are whores or something. I watched as her friends dropped like flies and, the thing that really killed me, was how hard her mom was making it on her. I mean, at the end of the day, she IS a teenager so there were a lot moments that proved just how much she really doesn't get it... but she did decide to keep her baby and finish her high school credits at the community college and get a full time job which is a LOT of stress...and then she's having a tour of a delivery room at the hospital to kind of get a feel for things and her mom and sister are with her and the nurse asks them who's going to be staying in the delivery room with her and both of them are full on refusing to be there because it would be uncomfortable for THEM...uhh hello, your daughter/sister is giving BIRTH, get OVER yourself! And then at the end, when she was actually delivering the baby...I'd never seen anyone have a baby before! It was emotional for me to see her do that. I think EVERY high school student should have to watch this series to see what their peers go through when they have babies and that, if they're having sex, they're not any better than these girls and they could very realistically BE these girls one day soon! Anyways, the show just really touched me and makes me feel for the teenage mommas who were at my school in a way I never have before. Instead of feeling sorry for them, I feel respect for them for not getting an abortion and for sticking it out whether that meant adoption or raising their baby themselves...it was inspiring, and I just had to share how it made feel. :) _______________
It's Chris's birthday today! He's actually having a pretty awesome day. Usually he has to be up at work at 6am, and he was today BUT they decided to send him to a course in town. SO. I was sitting on the computer playing The Sims 3 (fun!) and I heard the door to the house open...naturally I totally freaked out because NO ONE should have been coming in our house!!! So, of course, I grab something heavy and go to see who's there and if they needed to be beaten, but it was my BEEBS! Yaaay! He didn't have to be at his course until 8am, so I made us some iced-coffee and we got to hang out for 45 whole minutes. :) And THEN he came how for a whole 45 minutes at lunch time and we got to go to Subway and have sandwiches and cookies! Oh my gosh! It's only 1:45 and he just came home for the whole day! I haven't even made his bday cake yet! ahhh! I have to go! hahaha
It's very much a classic "Queenslander" but with a modern twist. I LOVE the huge wrap-around verandah. I also love how it gives the impression of a traditional high-set except the first floor is actually a part of the house. It's quintessential Australian architecture and it's beautiful. :)
While I'm not as big a fan of the exterior of this next one, I do really love the interior a lot more than the previous and it still has a beautiful verandah! The model has also been built in the middle of the rainforest which is something Chris and I daydream about all the time. The views through the windows are spectacular and it's easy to fantasize about buying a plot up on Mt. Tamborine with views like that. I can almost hear the birds singing. :)
It's been styled very clean and modern inside, which isn't really my style, but I love the layout. I love how open everything is and I can't believe it's a kit home! A home like this would actually be fairly expensive to build, but would be far more affordable than it would to buy once it was already on the market. It's 5+ bedrooms though which we would absolutely never need but I know that they'll shrink down the plans to suit you so I'm sure we could get it in a 3 bed + study if we wanted. I don't see a lot of purpose in buying/building a huge house with a bunch of rooms you're never going to use anyways. :)
We're planning on starting with a kit home and, maybe one day, we can build our dream home in the future. We def won't be buying/building anything until we save a 20% down payment. That could be 2 years, 5 years or even 10 years. We don't know what they future holds, but I'm not in any real hurry to buy a house. I don't understand the popular desire of newly-weds to run out and buy a house right away. It's as if women feel like they can't have children if they don't own a home...maybe there is a logic behind this unbeknown to me, I'm sure if there is someone will enlighten me. lol I know plenty of people who rent and have children and are happy waiting to buy a home later when they have saved a larger down-payment even if they weren't happy waiting to have kids in the meantime, but I know many more people who really want to own that house before they have kids. It seems like it would be really difficult to take on so much debt and then start having babies right away to me....like maybe it would be overwhelming? That's just my thought process. I don't know if we'll have kids before or after we're home-owners but it's no big thing to me either way. I know I wouldn't wait to have a baby, if I was ready, just because we didn't own a home but I also wouldn't mind having him/her grow up in the same house.
It is undoubtedly fun browsing homes either way though. :) I do LOVE Texas architecture a million times better than Australian though, I have to admit that. Maybe we could purchase plans from or hire an American architect to build a house for us in the future....I think it'd be painfully expensive to build houses that would be affordable in Texas here....just an impulse. My favorite house is one I've never seen the inside of. We've driven past it a bazillion times though so I was creepy and clipped the google-maps picture:
They don't really build houses like that here...I just love how the stone contrasts with the brick and how they've done the front porch in timber. It's just beautiful in an unassuming sort of way. I have a creepy crush on it. ;)
I can't believe I used to obsess over music that way...so many days spent in rehearsals. THOUSANDS of hours of my life....I feel like it was kind of a waste. I wish I'd done more in high school than just band. It seemed so incredibly important at the time but I don't really have that much to show for it now.... I used to be able to play some of my scales as fast as like 300 bpm or something...it was like a reflex. I was noticing yesterday that my arms look completely different as well...I used to stick out my arms and have this huge and prominent forearm muscle and now it's not noticeable at all. No wonder I was so skinny! lol I remember being committed...but never comitted enough to take things to that next level. I would always freeze up in auditions no matter how well I knew what I was playing and I'd just lose confidence over time. It would have been fun to just continue on to become a music major in college...but that route just never seemed very practical to me and I couldn't imagine how someone would make money with that degree after college without having to become a band director (DEF not something I EVER wanted to do) and I just wasn't brave enough to find out either way.... I also knew I didn't stand a chance in hell of making it into UNT's music program since I could never really play anything well other than Marimba and auxillary and I didn't care enough about any of the other instruments to study them intensively enough to put together a respectable audition....and I was afraid I'd just choke at the audition anyways. Lucky for me I kind of forced myself into a hiatus from school and any efforts would have been completely lost regardless. :)
Anyways, I suppose it wasn't a complete waste of time because I learned a lot about work-ethic and leadership that I never would have otherwise and I met my best friend through band and I don't think we would have been close at all if I'd chosen to do choir, art and drama instead. I def. think I would have been a lot happier in school if I'd escaped the stresses of drumline, especially that year I did winter-drumline (hello 40 hours of weekend rehearsals on top of school, on top of 10 hours of daily rehearsals on top of private practice. UGH.) I can't say I would mind buying a marimba at some stage and picking up the mallets again for another go, just for fun. Too bad they cost like $10-$12k USD, I don't even want to know what they'd cost in Australia. I don't know that the bars would go very well in the heat besides and we don't have central air. Maybe when I'm like 60 and our kids are all grown up and out of the house I'll be able to start again. But maybe I'll have arthritis or something at that point and won't be able to. LOL
Our lawn is coming up beautifully! The native grass is this really thick bladed breed that makes a soft cushy carpet, it's surprisingly shiny as well which I've never seen in grass. :) Unfortunately it is REALLY hard to keep up with the watering and that when there's so many water restrictions. I wish we could use mulch instead of grass in some parts of the yard but the rental company doesn't allow us to use mulch in case termites come. Boo! So, some of the yard is just dirt at the moment. I'd like to lay down gravel, but it can get expensive....so we just rake the dirt and make it look nice. lol It's actually more like dust....I doubt anything could grow in it. It's pretty and red anyways, yay Australia!
The little space we've been working on on the side of the house is coming along quite nicely! We will probably wait until after Christmas to order the gravel in, but I found some pictures kind of like what we want to do:
I like this path. Ours would be a bit more modern with black gravel (looks like dirt almost) and square tiles. I want the square tiles to create a path
Our tiles look like exactly like those, same color and everything except I'd put them much farther apart than that like this:
I LOVE that path! We won't be having a curb or anything though, but that's the first all-gravel pic I've been able to find and the gravel is the exact size we'd be using. Those shrubs on the left are actually really drought hardy, and would be awesome if they'd stay that size but they get HUGE and I don't really want to buy any plants we can't keep in pots so that we can take them with us if we move. We're also laying down plastic before we lay down the gravel so: #1, we can easily pack it all back into a trailer if we move and, #2, it won't sink into the dirt over time and need to be replaced. We can tell that one of the other tenants had put gravel down at some point because we can see the remnants of it all over the place, but there's not much left. Maybe they scooped up as much as they could and took it with them, or maybe it just sinks into the dust over the years, either way I think laying the plastic down is a good idea. We're not planting anything in the gravel so it shouldn't be a big deal.
I'm just pondering and playing at the moment. :) I'll take pictures when everything's done!
If it wasn't for Facebook, I swear I would have TOTALLY forgotten it's Thanksgiving on Thursday. hahaha Lucky for me everybody's talking about it in their status updates. What would I do without facebook? We bought a pre-roasted turkey (at least I think it's pre-roasted...) and it doesn't have any legs or wings or anything so it's just the yummy white meat. I also found cranberry sauce in the sauce aisle which was NOT there two months ago so that was exciting! I have to make my pumpkin pies from scratch because they don't have canned pumpkin here...only I don't have a food processor so that could get interesting. Maybe I could borrow one from someone...
Anyways! Our Thanksgiving will be fairly basic. We're having roast turkey with cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato mash and pumpkin pie. I'm still dieting so I don't want to go *too* crazy. It's also Chris's bday on Monday and we're going to have cake then so I gotta pace myself. ;) I should probably ask him what he wants for dinner....I dunno if we're going out or what the plan is. There's not many restaurants in town...and none of them are all that impressive anyways. Okay, I just asked him and he'd like to have the family over on Monday for his actual bday and then go into Mackay the following weekend and celebrate just the two of us. Sounds nice. :)
He really likes chocolate...so I'd like to make a chocolate bday cake. I'm not as crazy about chocolate (I'm more vanilla ;) ) so I don't really know a good recipe...maybe I'll just buy a box cake and mix a chocolate swirl into it or something....I'll figure something out! He's watching Dragon Ball Z at the moment and is WAY into it. hahaha
I think I'm getting a head cold or something. I don't feel very well. :( I might go to bed early tonight.
We went to the beach/Mackay this weekend so Chris could get his car serviced (HELLA expensive btw, I hate that but it keeps us safe I suppose.) We wandered around the mall from 9-11am and got REALLY bored so we took a taxi to see Twilight New Moon! Woot! It was SO good. I don't know if someone who hadn't read the books could appreciate it in the same way but I loved it!
::SPOILER... if you don't wanna know what happens in the movie....don't read the next paragraph::
The part where Edward leaves Bella was really emotional for me. It reminds me so much of when I visited Chris here in Australia the first time and went back home without knowing when we'd see each other again. I was in that head-over-heels puppy love stage of the relationship and coming home without knowing when we'd be together next just made me feel this enormous amount of grief...it felt as if he'd died. I was just numb. I know people say it, but food literally had no flavor anymore. I didn't really feel like seeing friends or pretending to be happy when it was the furthest from how I felt and it seemed like everything around me echoed with the absence of him.....Bella said something poignant, and I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was so TRUE and along the lines of that their relationship felt like a dream...so unreal like maybe it didn't happen. I got to a point after it had been 4 months or so since we'd seen each other that, if it wasn't for pictures, I don't know if I'd be able to believe I'd actually met him, touched him, and that he had loved me. It felt like a dream or something completely intangible. It was really hard, so I can only imagine if he'd told me, like Edward does, that I'd never see him again. That he didn't want me.....I think I just really empathized with that. It was sad to watch, but harder to read in the books.
::END SPOILER::
All in all the movie was really great and I wasn't disappointed! Granted, I'm not that person who's read the books like a basquillion times (I don't really see the point of reading them one after the other after the other all the time.....but I am to the point now where I'd read them a second time :) ).....So I don't remember all the minute details of the book to the extent where I could tell you how true to the books the movie was or wasn't. I do think it was a lot better than the first movie. The first film reminded me a lot of the 1st Harry Potter film; the director is trying SO hard to create the world that all the fans have seen in their heads for years and to stay true to the characters and not offend them that you lose some of the plot in the mix. This movie seemed to relax a bit and, even though it may not be 100% true to the storyline of the books, it's close enough that I fully enjoyed the film and didn't notice at all. Hurray!
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Thanks to those of you who are following my weight-loss blog! I feel more enthusiastic about using it now that I know I'm not just writing it for my own benefit. lol I mean, I probably should be enthusiastic either way but it helps knowing that I might be able to motivate someone else or that other people will know if I fall off the bandwagon again. Thank you!!
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Okay, on a completely different note, I found out that 10 years ago the house that we're renting would have been purchased for only $10,000......that sounds more like what it would be worth. Now it would sell for $475,000 which is ludicrous, so it makes me feel better to know that the market here hasn't always been crazy. They have a new rental agreement between the unions and the mines now that will help lower the house and rent prices though so that could be great for us! We could get into a newer house that actually has insulation. (You can see sun shining through the cracks between our floorboards at the moment.) Instead of leaving it up to the workers to find accomodation and wait for approval from the housing commission, the mines are going to put together a list of pre-approved houses and who qualifies for each one. They'll be doing all the negotiating themselves so that we just have to pick from the list and move in. Easy peezy! If the price on a house or on the rent is too high, it won't make the approved list and they owner will either have to drop the price or no one will move into it. Ta da! Problemo solved. :) ______________________
I got to see Ashleigh and Angela this weekend. Yay!! I had so much fun catching up with those girls, I love and miss them to peices. Beef had a bbq at his place and it was so great to just hang out with everyone again. I miss socializing. It reminded me how hard it would be to move to one of the cities and leave all of them behind. The friendship wouldn't be the same...but honestly with as often as we're able to see each other at this point, it may not have as big of an effect on our relationship as I think....I dunno. We'll see. :) Ashleigh's baby was due yesterday but still no birth! We're all holding our breath....I hope it's a little princess. I would spoil her as if she was my own little beebs and it would make it easier for Chris and I to wait to have kids. I know, I know, selfish. :P But who said I was perfect?? ______________________
I got the information about the R.E. program today! It looks really interesting and, at the moment, they only have 2 other teachers for the secondary schools so they're really keen to have me on board. It would only be once a month because they don't have enough teachers to commit to things weekly which makes things a bit easier. I'm hoping the older kids will respond better to me than they do to the middle-aged teachers since, hopefully, it will feel a bit more peer-to-peer. I also like to thing I'm capable of keeping things from becoming monotonous and to speak in a way that's relatable to them. Hopefully I won't be embarrassing myself. lol I've also agreed to get on board with the chaplaincy commitee so that, when the chaplaincy is up for renewal next year, I might have the opportunity to apply. It's going to be really great to get involved and get to know the kids. I'm really looking forward to it! Hopefully they don't make things too hard for me. ____________________
Our inspection was moved to this Tuesday now, so we have to tidy up the house again. ugh. No, it didn't stay spotless for long. :P Chris and I are just messy people, what can I say? So I better go get started on that. I love y'all! I'll update again soon. :)
Nothing new really happened today... I got to talk to Kara for a little bit which is always awesome. :) We don't get to catch up as often as I'd like. I have a Skype date with Amelia on Wednesday at 4:30am (12:30pm CST) that I'm excited about too. It's good to wake up when it's still dark and the birds are sleeping and have a nice cup of coffee before the heat of the day has a chance to set in. :)
Beebs and I cooked some dinner together tonight. We had chicken. mmm I had mine in a greek salad and his was more of a garden salad. It was fun and yummy. I love when we cook together, even though our kitchen isn't really set up to do it very easily. He had picked up some low-cal icecream at the store to suprise me and, even though it tasted like glorified frozen CoolWhip, it was pretty yummy.
Speaking of food, the single mango that survived the possums, fruit bats and bugs has almost completely ripened! I'm excited. It is literally the only one that made it, so it's kind of a big deal. I'm going to be pretty upset if we cut it open and it's anything less than perfect. Next year we'll spray as much of the tree the hose can reach with pesticides and anti-fungals. The tree has a LOT of fungus, I'm not quite sure how this mango escaped it when none of the others did. None of that will keep the fruit bats away, but hopefully there will be enough ripening (like on other trees I've seen around town) that they can't eat them all.
I've been discreetly soaker-hosing our flowers a couple times each day. It's too early to know if it's making much of a difference, but time will tell!
Bean has been recovering nicely from his surgery. He is already noticeably less feisty, but he now sleeps an even larger part of the day than before...annoyingly so! He still likes to play fetch though which I'm happy about. I like playing with him. He hasn't had any psycho moments recently (where he runs full tilt through every room of the house and over all the furniture) though so that's a definite plus!
Oh! I started a weight loss blog to catalog my weight loss, that's something new! I've been trying to lose weight for years now and, while I'll have a few small or even big wins here or there, I always gain the weight back and then some. I'm finished yo yo dieting and want to make a life change. Hopefully my blog will help keep me accountable and will also give me an outlet other than this blog since I know some of the people who are interested in my life in general might not be so interested in the details of my weight or diet. There's a link in my profile if you want to follow!
That's all I got today. Hopefully things will get more interesting!
I only have trouble sleeping when Chris is in the bed with me.
He gets up for work, I sleep no prob. naps in the afternoon? No prob. Same bedtime= BIG problem! This is so annoying. I've always had sleeping problems and was just getting the hang of how to sleep normally by myself and now I've got this other person in the bed to add a whole 'nother variable to the sleep equation. We have a king bed so essentially there's tons of room for me to have just to myself. I even have my own comforter because I like to cocoon and he likes to keep it tucked in. I have the room nice and cool so it's not a temp issue.... it's psychological. What is my damage? I'm going to start playing the brown noise again and see if that helps. Maybe I'm just having trouble getting my brain to shut down or something. Maybe the air conditioner is too loud and I can't get past it. (I tend to fixate on noises.) Some nights are totally fine, I'll go a couple weeks of normal and then it'll get all screwed up again.
This story is to be continued once I've tested some of my theories.
Santa Clause is coming! hahaha I LOVE this song! I love that it's Christmas on my blog! I love this illustration I found of a glowing Christmas tree. :) Something about it just captures the magic for me. There's a few fun songs I added here, I hope y'all enjoy it! (There's no Thanksgiving here so I get to skip straight to Christmas hehehe)
We don't have a Christmas tree yet. There aren't any places in town that sell them so we have to wait until we go into Mackay to pick one. :( I think we might be going in next weekend though so maybe we'll find a good one! I'm debating whether not to get a white tree and go for something chic and cool or do a green tree and keep things more natural and homey. It's an exciting decision I've never gotten to make before! When I was growing up my family never had a "theme" for Christmas. We always used the same old ornaments, a lot of the handmade, year after year and we all had our favorites. It made things so special as we decorated the tree to have our favorite ones peek out of the boxes every year. The older we got the more jumbled the boxes of ornaments became and the more surgery we had to perform on our old friends. I'll never forget the year Kaitlyn decided to hot-glue my FAVORITE ornament (that was a gift from mom) onto her stocking.... sad day.
But that was one of my favorite parts of Christmas....opening all the boxes of decorations and ornaments and figuring out where each thing was going to go that year...so I think we won't be doing themes year after year either. We'll start building our ornament collection this year and buy our nativity set and the lights and the tree....it will be fun accumulating all the stuff. I'm thinking maybe a green tree will be more versatile. We'll see what we can find for sale. Sadly there aren't live trees in the "Tropical North" so that's not even an option. But we never had a real tree at our house until I was like 16 or something so I'd be lying if pretended it was like, a huge deal not to have the choice. ;)
I'm going to have to turn the air conditioner on full blast, put on cuddly pjs and watch White Christmas with beebs! yay! I bet we could even find some egg nogg.... ooOOoo! They have stuff here called like...brandy cream or something....yeah, or something. lol But no one I've asked has every had egg nogg. They're missing out. hahaha
Okay, so the margarita mix here (Jose Cuervo) is gross. So I tried to make my own last night and it was REALLY yummy! It turns out that lime-juice cordial is EXACTLY the same thing as sweet-n-sour mix! This means that I can just ask the bars in town to use lime-juice cordial instead of lemon juice in my margarita (yes they use lemon juice....I don't know why.) and have an yummy margarita every time! I mean, I can't keep the tequila from being crap...but I'm not going to taint a good thing by getting all technical.
ALSO, I found MISSION tortilla chips at Cole's today. YEAH!! I about freaked out when they started carrying the Mission tortillas, but now I have REAL tortilla chips too! I could die! Up 'til this point the closest thing resembling tortilla chips was the plain Doritos (without cheese powder) and the only tortillas were Old Elpaso (git the rope.) If you can't tell, my relationship with food is very dear and having some of my favorites nearby again with the Dr. Pepper and the tortillas and chips and them actually carrying jalapenos at the store now...it's all a big deal for me! They even had Hass avocados at the grocery store today! I think maybe I've just been out of the country when all of this stuff was in season before now. I've never been here for the summer before...well, I was here for 6 weeks Jan-Feb in 2008, but I wasn't cooking then! If there is an Angel of Food, God has sent him my way and I'm loving every second of it. This is pretty cool! It would just about take my breath away if I walked into Cole's next week and saw Hidden Valley Ranch dressing on one shelf and A1 on the other.....I'm just sayin', if there is an angel...just sayin'. ;)
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Let's see....what's been going on lately....hm. We saved a green frog from Bean on Friday! I was just about asleep when I heard this TERRIBLE noise!! I'd never heard it before and I freaked out because I thought it was Bean and he was choking or in trouble or something! Chris said it was a frog's distress call and that we had to save it. We found Bean cornering the frog under the washing machine and it made a RACKET that resonated up through the washing machine every time Bean got close. It took disconnecting and lifting the washing machine out of the way to save it, but I think our little green friend will live to see another day. Chris OBSESSES over stuff like this....whether it's an ant or a spider or, in this case, a frog he will do everything to try and save it. He's just so empathetic he can't stand being responsible for the death of anything with breath. It's kind of adoreable most of the time....but the rest of the time it gets annoying. lol LET ME SPRAY THE SPIDER!! No...he must escort it outdoors to safety....I don't mind saving the frog from Bean though. Hopefully it doesn't hop next door and meet the Staffy that's moved in there!
We've watched a couple good movies: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist which I had already seen but thought would be fun for a Friday night, and tonight we watched Fireflies in the Garden which I thought was horribly disappointing but Chris just loved to pieces....so. Of the two I'd recco Nick and Norah, but obviously Beebs would disagree. lol Your pick!
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Love ya'll! I'd like to write more, but I'd better go to sleep. Church in the A.M.!
I had to have boring hair for the wedding so I could look glamorous. Now, four months later, my hair is STILL BORING!! I went to brisbane with beebs two months ago and dropped a LOT of money in a salon...only to leave with a cool cut (even if not what I wanted) but BORING color still (they totally didn't get what I was trying to say I wanted.) So....I'm ready for something fun and different again. I don't remember the last time my hair was the same color for more than 3 months, so this 10 month thing is CRAYZAY for me! I'm ready for a change. I've been every natural color under the sun at this point, every level of blonde and brown (even black)....but I haven't explored red yet. Maybe it's time.
I know that I look better with dark hair than with light, but I just LOVE this color and how it fades from dark to light in the front...maybe we can do something similar but toned down a couple levels. I also love the haircut. It's super modern and full of texture and would thin out some of this heavy mess on my head while keeping the current length. I've had a variation of this cut before but the color was black at the time so it was a little more Joan Jett than I would have liked.....We'll see if I can stand to wait until I get to dfw to try this cut and color out. I think there are like 4 colors in there so it could be expensive....it looks like a medium brown with chocolate-cherry lowlights in the back and then a medium-light copper with blonde highlights in the front. I don't know how easy it'd be for me to go from my current level to such a light copper so I'll just have to talk to a colorist and see.
I was reading some entries from my old blog.... It's interesting to see the world through the eyes of my 19 y/o self. It's exciting to return to this turning point in my life and in my faith and see the doubts fade and my footing become sure. I just want to go back in time and SQUEEZE me into a hug and say how proud I am of me for not just accepting things blindly and, even though it was hard, to listen for direction from God first and foremost. I was so excited to find a blog post cataloging the day that I decided to follow Christ and his will for my life. This was the first day in my life that it made sense that I wasn't just calling myself a Christian because I always had but because it's what I'd chosen for myself. I think I could take a leaf out of my teenage self's book today actually...it's so cool to relive that moment. I don't blog about the exact moment but I remember it well...I was sitting on my bed just crying out to God to TELL ME the answer....and then I was silent....and it all just clicked. It was like a button was pushed somewhere within me and it all made sense. Here are the entries: _____________________________________
May 28, 2006
Okay so I've just had a breakthrough..... I babble on about these doubts of mine but in the end, they are not even relevant to what is the true root of my struggle; am I following Christ because I love Him or am I following Him because I believe just enough to fear not following Him would lead to eternal suffering?
The problem was that I had only ever looked at my faith in this light. Therefore, I had no idea if I was a "true" Christian or not, knowing all along that God would see right through me if I have been faking it all this time...And so today, for the first time, I looked at all this in a different light.
I reworded that question of mine into an even more important question; If there was no Heaven and no Hell, if there was no reward or punishment for choosing Him or rejecting Him, would I still follow Him? And so there I sat, wondering...imagining. And it was then that it dawned on me that I could never give up my life as his disciple because He is my life. Even if I would suffer no punishment to say Goodbye to Him forever and go about my life just like everyone else....I couldn't imagine a life without Him in it. What would be the point? And my heart smiled and swelled with pride at that thought that I am truly His, and yes! Yes, it was all by my choice! Of course there is no choice when you are looking at it as a life or death decision....but that's not what it is. It's a life decision. Period. The choice is not to choose whether to live or die but to choose HIM. Or not. And the punishment isn't really a punishment at all.....after a person dies their spirit has to go somewhere, after all and, since this person has denied and rejected God and wants nothing to do with him, the only place in existence where that is truly possible is in Hell.
I've had this issue with worship for 2 years now....the idea that God would create us only so that we might bow down before Him and tell Him how great He is....well that's not what worship even is is it? It's a choice just like everything else.....it's just all the people who have chosen to love Him coming together to visit their father and thank Him for all he's done for them and given them. It's like..let me tell you a story.
You are lying on the side of the street naked, starving, thirsty, impoverished and dying. Just as you draw what you believe will be your last breath, a stretch limousine pulls up not two feet from where you lie in the dust. A man in a white linen suit emerges from the car, lifts you into his arms prepared to give you new life. First he takes you into his home where he makes you a part of his family. He clothes you and feeds you. And then, when you have strength and life again, he places a check for 15 billion dollars into your fist and tells you that "you are now strong enough to be free to go out and make a life for yourself in whatever way you choose." You stand there looking at Him, jaw agape, in awe of the goodness of this man and you ask him, "What can I ever do to repay you? I never deserved any of this. I was a wretch, I was worthless, I--", it is here that the man cuts you off with a smile and a wave of his hand. He shakes his head at you, his eyes shining with unconditional love and he takes you into an embrace while saying this; "All I ask is that you come by and visit me once a week, just one day every week that we might spend together, just you and me." You smile into his shoulder as two tears run down your cheeks and you say "Thank you Father."
After all this man has done for you, would you not visit him once, even more than once, every week bringing gifts and singing his praises, all the while never letting him forget just how thankful you are and what an amazing and wonderful person he is?
I feel as though our relationship with God is parallel to this story.Except of course we are more than simply indebted to Him. We owe him our very existence, our world, our family.Everything. Imagine if the man had let his only son die for you so that you might live? How much more grateful might you feel towards him?
I finally understand that liturgy that I always thought was so corny, until now. "It is right to give Him our thanks and praise"
The Truth
Relient K
And I've collected all these thoughts And I'm dying just to lose them And if your words are true or not I'll die trying to prove them But I'll just have to accept That my mind is so inept And the only thing that's left For me to do is to trust you
Convince me Because I really need your help Oh convince me Because I can't see this for myself
I'll put the emphasis on the evidence Begging for the proof Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth
This is so unnerving I know you've never lied to me before But the things you're telling me I can't yet believe Yet can't ignore But I'll just have to accept That my mind is so inept And the only thing that's left For me is to trust you
Put the emphasis on the evidence Begging for the proof Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth
It's a world full of cynics Who say to stay alive in it You gotta stick with what you know But the soul is always aching For the heart to start taking A chance by letting go
So let go Let go Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth Attempt to place our lives into your hands Confide in what you'll do Cause sometimes when you're trying to sleep And all your doubts and your faith don't agree its cause Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth
Ahhhhhh....I love when everything just comes together. And all I had to do was look at things in a different way. :) Today is a landmark day. I have to go spend some time getting reacquainted with my Father, I'm sure you can understand. :)
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June 19th 2006
Updates;
2 years ago I began running in circles around the inside of circular pen; a pen with walls built from my own doubt and disbelief. Everyday I ran around and around that pen, just staring at the beaten path in front of me...never looking up. I was determined that this path, my path, was the only path worth traveling and would surely lead to an exit if only I followed it long enough. After a couple years, I changed tactics. I was so so tired of running and, as I staggered from the path and collapsed in the center of the pen sobbing and gasping for breath, I cried out to God, "This isn't working!!! This stupid path doesn't even go anywhere!!!" As I sat there staring at the ground, my breath steadied and, so softly as to be almost inaudible the words "Lord, show me the way....I want to know...I need to know the way....." escaped my lips. I had asked for help before as I ran along the path, but this time was different because this time I stopped and took the time to listen....after a while, I heard a soft reply, "Look up." My lip trembled with shock and relief at the voice of my Lord and as I obeyed, I saw Him standing next to an open gate that led off into the meadow. "I've been here all along.", He said. "All you needed was a change in perspective." I had spent two years of my life running in circles when, all the while, my God had been standing at the gate to the pen; the gate I had never noticed because I was too busy staring at my own two feet to look around and see. I climbed to my feet and stumbled out the gate. I stared into the face of my Lord as He took my hand. And as He began to lead me along the new path, He said "I am the way."
Intense eh? haha I love writing metaphors and that is the metaphor for the last two years of my life. Less than 24 hours after I hit rock bottom three weeks ago, the Father showed me what should have been obvious all along; He is the answer to the question, He always has been The Way, The Truth and The Life and all it took for me to fully realize that these are more than just words but TRUTH was a change in perspective. :)
If you want to know the full story of me coming to find the Truth, read my May 27 blog entry on Myspace. :)
Endings;
I know people say it and rarely mean it when I say it because I really have no reason to continue; This is my last and final Xanga entry ever. I've worked out what I needed to and see no reason to continue. Find me on Myspace!
Love, Mel
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And that was 19 y/o me. :) That was when I decided I was going to make a difference in the lives of youth. Granted, I didn't think it'd be in Australia. lol But it's still taken me this long to begin to understand God's plans for me. It's great to be able to see where I've been and get a glimpse at where I may be going. Funnily enough, I met Chris not 1 month after that post.... and the post before it was about being frustrated at being single and how I knew the "textbook" answer was to "put God at the center of your life and, when you find yourself content in HIM you'll run into the man He has planned for you when you least expect it." I was SO frustrated by that "rule" so to speak....and yet it seems to be how things worked out for me. It wasn't an easy path, but it's the right one. I'm glad I made the right choice.
Okay, so yesterday was just a WEIRD day. I was like...crying all day long for no apparant reason. I don't know what my drama was. Maybe it was just home-sickness like mom said. I just felt this overwhelming need to get OUT like I was trapped in a box and couldn't find an exit. Anyways, as sporadically as those sad feelings come, they have gone now. Hurray!
Okay, so today I'm super excited. :) Check out my Kangaroo:
I saw him through the window of a new store called Australian Country Living that just transferred to Moranbah from Mackay and I WANTED him. :) He's just hanging out on his little shelf here in the living room now. For some reason his tail is detatchable...it's magnetic. Maybe for storage purposes? Anyways. He's pretty much awesome. I guess it's a she and not a he since there's a little joey in there too. She's a mumma. :)
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ANOTHER reason I am excited is because I have TWO episodes of Gossip Girl, TWO ANTM, 1 Bones and 1 Medium to watch on my iTunes. :):):):) That's a lotta happy right there.
_________________________________ Bean got "fixed" yesterday. I felt so horrible that we did that to him but he doesn't seem to know it was our fault. They did the procedure completely different than they did with Ender or Tigger....there are no stitches and they shaved his whole behind area. I don't remember Ender being shaved at all....his little booty looks VERY amusing at the moment. He was high on drugs when he came home too which was sad. He would scream if we left the room and couldn't figure out how to find us. It must have been very traumatic for him. :( He's just been resting up a lot since then. He did a number on the vet tech. too...he gave her a nice bite on the back of one arm and scratched up her arms and face and scalp...they said it happened while he was going back into his cage and I just don't understand why they didn't hold him by the scruff of his neck so he'd freeze up. He's been labeled as dangerous now on his records and that makes me sad because he's not!! I mean, I'm not happy he attacked the technician but I think he was just scared. He's been fixed and had all of his shots now though so hopefully we won't have any reason to need to go back any time soon. _________________________________
We planted a WHOLE bunch of new flowers that are just dwarfed by the ones we planted a couple months ago. I hadn't realized how much the other ones had grown. Actually, only about 4 of the petunias are just huge and thriving and then a further 8 are just living and are about half the size of the other 4....I don't know why those 4 would be doing so much better than the others. Maybe they are getting more sun? Or more shade? They are all on one side of the garden. I don't know! But they look pretty!
________________________ It has uncharactaristically been POURING rain on and off since yesterday morning (it's now 4pm.) This is SO exciting! We put a lot of fertilizer on the grass and the flowers two days ago so it's perfect timing for showers. I wish it would just rain all the time....I should have lived in Seattle. lol
I don't have much to talk about today other than those things. If I think of anything else I'll stop back in!
Today is a bad day. I just feel trapped. I feel like a bird in a cage. I could never be a small town girl....I could never live here, or even in Mackay (still small town by my standards,) forever. I get too restless. I'm tired of not having options. I'm tired and I've only been here 6 months. ::sigh:: I'm already over it. The more and more I read about all the stuff there is to do in Sydney and Melbourne the more and more restless I get. I can see why most people live in the capital cities here...I've only ever "met" (online) other Americans who've moved to Sydney. Nowhere else in Australia...they all just move to Sydney. I don't think they know how frickin easy they have it...not that I'm bitter or anything. :P
I guess I'm just not at all a small-town girl. I'm too high-maintenance and maybe even too prissy. It's not that I think I'm "too good" for Moranbah....I just feel like I'm having to re-evaluate all the interests I've developed over my lifetime like fashion, culture, food, shopping, etc. and replace them with gardening, crafts, and bird watching. I guess I also have an affinity for being surrounded with convenience. I don't ever want to have to drive more than 15 minutes for absolutely anything with very very few exceptions and I CERTAINLY don't want to drive 2 hours just to see a movie or go shopping. I think I just managed to pick one of the most difficult place in the country to transition from the USA and I'm trying not to resent the town at the moment because of it....
I sound like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum and maybe I am. I don't want to live in the middle of nowhere anymore. blehhhh I know I grew up with more convenience than even the average American which just comes with living in such a huge metro (4th largest metro in the country with something like 6.5 million people vs. the 6,000 in Moranbah) so I'm not surprised things are so different...I just didn't expect the difference to affect me so much. I guess I'm just that spoiled.
There is a possum and her baby living in our trees. :) I took a picture just now to show you! She may have eaten one of my roses.... we'll hope not. She had a leaf of something in her mouth anyways.
The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs is illogical. How would you just make the jump from scaly reptile skin to feathers and going from running to flying? Why would you just, all of a sudden, grow feathers?? I just don't get it, it boggles my mind why that would make sense to anyone. Why would they decide that a dinosaur just hatched one day covered in feathers when the rest of his friends had scales and then go around touting it as scientific fact? Anyways.
"According to evolution theory, birds should not have been around at the time of the dinosaurs. This is especially true of the parrot, which is supposed by those who believe in evolution to be a more highly-evolved bird.
A fossilized parrot's beak was dug up 40 years ago, but ignored. It was recently rediscovered at the University of California, Berkeley, by a graduate student. The problem for evolutionists is that they date the rock in which the beak was found as coming from the Cretaceous period when the dinosaurs lived and birds had not yet evolved. X-ray study of the fossilized beak shows that the beak has the same blood vessel and nerve channels as a modern parrot. But it is not just one parrot's beak that has been found in rocks from the age of dinosaurs. Loons, frigate-birds and other shore bird fossils have also been found in rock that was supposedly laid down during the time of the dinosaurs!
Fossils are remains of living things rapidly buried, we believe, at the time of the Genesis Flood. However, it is perhaps not too surprising that bird fossils and dinosaur fossils are generally not found together; indeed, bird fossils in any part of the earth's strata are extremely rare. This is because while dinosaur bones are very robust, bird bones and beaks are extremely fragile and would not have survived the turmoil of the Genesis Flood. The very few that have been fossilized tell us of very rapid and deep burial that would be expected during the Biblical Flood." -creationmoments.com
EVERYTHING I could ever possibly want to create yummy yummy Mexican/Tex-Mex food here! They have an online store, can you believe it? A woman moved to Australia from Mexico and was home-sick for Mexican food and so she made it her business to bring "a slice of Mexico" to Australia. They have fresh corn tortilla chips and everything! I don't know how far they would make it....but I'm excited anyways. :) It's good to know that I can order the spices I need to make steak and chicken rubs and even have REAL Salsa. I swear all they have in Moranbah is Old ElPaso and Doritos brand. (Did someone say "Git the rope?") I've never really been able to make any salsas other than pico de gallo before (since the have fresh jalapenos here sometimes.) But this place has fresh salsas the make on-site and ship to your door so it would save me the heart-ache of trying to find the fresh ingredients I'd need. (Not gonna happen out here.)
Anyways, it's just a glimmer of hope in the sea of Thai, Indian and Chinese spices and produce I'm surrounded by daily but don't know how to use. I've been learning a bit of Thai (I'm still not really sure what the definition of a "Curry" is though...which I think it pretty important to know. ) but I don't know anything about making Chinese or Indian food. I might stick with Thai when I can't get Mexican, some of the ingredients are actually the same except Thai food uses coconut a lot where Mexican doesn't. I can make a yummy coconut rice now, which is more than I could before!!
Yayyy!! So, we used to just have that entertainment hutch and nothing else. Over the past few months I've bought those two shelving units, the bowls and plates, the arch candle-holder set, and the painting. Grand total: AUD$78. ($70 USD) WOOT! I'm so excited because it finally feels finished for the time being. Eventually we'll get one of those plasma tvs and will have to get a new hutch or wall mount or something to suit it, but for less than $80 our house feels more like a home and you can't beat that value. :)
This is the 1950s vintage diamond ring I bought for FIVE DOLLARS! woo! It's 18k gold as well. :) The diamond I'd guess at no more than 1/10 carat. There are a lot of factors to consider but I'd guess it's worth no less than $100 USD, depending on the weight of the gold, the quality of the stone and whether it's mounted in silver or platinum (def not white gold since there's no yellowing and this ring is OLD.) Not bad. :) I'm hoping to make it a gift for someone since it doesn't fit any of my fingers but my pinky. I thought it's maybe a size 7, but I wear a 7.5 and I can't even get it over the second knuckle on my ring finger so it's probably closer to a 6/6.5.
I'm starting to love garage saling! Debra and I should do it every weekend. :) It's nice to get out and see all the different bits and peices.
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I found Dr. Pepper at the gas station this morning too!! I haven't had a Dr. Pepper in forever and it's just so beautiful. :) I bought all the ones they had in the fridge, and I swear everyone there thought I was insane. I was going in to get a red bull and looked over the DP first because it wasn't what I was looking for...and then I did a double take. And then I started pulling them all out of the fridge one after another after another until my arms were completely full and I was just laughing maniacally and saying "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!"
They *must* be ordering stuff up from USA Foods in Melbourne because they had Cherry Coke a couple weeks ago and they also have things like Tootsie Rolls and Reese's pieces too and I know you can't get those here unless they've been imported. Either way it's really cool to have a little slice of home every now and again. :) ________________
We bought some new flowers!! We'll be careful with the roots this time.....also bought a new rose bush, a pink one. Not sure of the breed but it's PINK. Also got a little hibiscus bush and it has pink leaves. WOOT. We'll plant those tomorrow, it should look very nice.
That's all I have to say for now! Really just wanted to update on our little wall in the living room and how cute it is. :)
I recently moved from Big City Texas to Small Town Queensland to marry the man of my dreams. To be honest, I spend most of my days doing absolutely nothing...this blog catalogs the nothingness. About Me: I'd rather have a night filled with good food, good wine and good company than one in a smoky bar with over-priced drinks and sore feet any day. I like to cook but I hate to clean. I love to travel but hate to fly. I love cats but hate litter boxes. I really love all things girly; fashion, makeup, hair, you name it. I wouldn't like to see how much I spend on fashion mags every year... I am also passionate about starting a ministry for youth and children someday...not sure of the deets yet, though time will tell. There's too much about me to fit in this little box. That's what the blog is for.
