LOVE THIS

I LOVE this kit-home!!!




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. ;)

Rewind!

Someone from the hs drumline posted this link on Fbook today and I'm amazed at how STRESSED I feel watching it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nituITimRXA#t=5m47s

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


Just some thoughts. :)

Garden!

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!

Ooops!

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.

love y'all!

OH yes!

Update time!

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. :)
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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??
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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.
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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

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!

Houston, we have a problem.

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.