The Perfect Fit

I was confronted with a strange thought the other day... the idea of moving back to Texas scares me. But why?

My life here has gotten easier lately. I have made some new friends and am finally settling in to our home. Chris and I have built a routine and I'm growing to accept rather than despise all those things that are different. It used to be that I grasped at any excuse or reason for us to move back to Texas one day...and then it was "well, if I have to be here, why can't we move to the city." And then I realized that moving to the city would mean sacrificing the support system we'd built here in the Mackay region and starting all over again...and I found that I could actually be quite happy settling down in Sarina.

So which is it? It feels like no one place is a perfect fit.

Reasons for The City:



Pros:

• I know that in order for me to get a degree and for Chris to pursue radio full-time we'd have to move to a city someplace....unless some unusually convenient circumstances popped up.
• Properties in the suburbs are much more affordable than in the Mackay region
• Convenience factor. Our kids would have every resource imaginable right at their fingertips, most state resources are centralized in the capital cities.

Cons:

• Unless we moved to Brissy, we wouldn't actually know anyone in any cities. We'd have to start over again. (BIG con.)
  
• Too many distractions.
  

Reasons for DFW



Pros:

• All of my family is there, including most extended family. BIG PRO.
  
• I'm familiar with the culture, the system, the politics, all of it. BIG PRO.
  
• Cost of living is exponentially more affordable. i.e. If we bought a house there and paid it off while on Chris's current salary, it could easily be paid in full within 5 years. Less if I get full-time work. That would just be impossible with any and every property here unless we lived on baked beans and tinned spaghetti. ;) You can feed a family of 4 on under $100/wk where we struggle to do less than $150 for 2 people here. (rarely do)
  
• Education is valued far and above Australian standards. This is more important to me than it is to Chris and I think that's just my inability to shrug off my culture than anything else. You don't really *need* the same degree of education in Australia as you do in the USA, but I can't move past how low the standards are. It's shocking to me!
  

Cons:

• My credit score is horrendous. If we planned on moving, we'd have to mortgage through an Australian bank or we wouldn't stand a chance. We'd have to set up a plan so our assets by the time we moved would cash in to buy at least one family car (shouldn't be a prob if we sell our Aussie cars and buy in the states...but still a con.)
• Chris would have to start all over. Everything that makes it hard for me to live in Aus. would make it hard for him to live in DFW. He'd have to find new employment before we could even think of moving and we don't even know how that would begin to work. BIG CON.
  
• The health care system is crap compared to Australia. We have the security here of knowing that if anything was to happen to one of us or our children that it wouldn't be a financial burden, I don't know if that will ever be true in the USA. This is a BIG con for Chris that he can't move past at the moment. We both definitely like the form of government here better than the USA.
  
• The economy in the U.S. is really unstable right now. No job is safe and that's an environment we don't really want to be a part of. Australia's managed to escape this whole global financial crisis unscathed thus-far and it feels a bit reckless to leave that security on a gamble.
  

Reasons for Sarina:

Pros:

• We would be near most of Chris's closest friends and some of his family. His parents would be about 2 hrs away (considered close by Aussie standards. ;) ) My closest friend in Oz, Ashleigh, would be right down the road. If I have to have babies in Oz away from my Mom and sisters, I want to be as close to Ashleigh as possible. She's a super mom and super friend and I get really excited thinking about our babies playing together. :) That support system is invaluable!
  
• It is only 25-30 minutes outside Mackay and Mackay is growing fast. It will have most of the convenience we could ever want in a city, while living in Sarina would give us the benefits and culture of a small town. It's the best of both worlds. :)
• I always wanted to settle down on a block of land in a country-style home. This would be living my dream. :)
  
• If the going got rough financially, Chris could always get a job in the mines short-term while we worked our way out of that rough patch.
  

Cons:

• We have no idea where either of us would work at this point. Chris wants a full-time job in radio which, in theory, could be done from home or by renting studio time at a local station. Especially if his show was formatted in similar way to what it is now. We just don't know how possible that would be financially at this point. In the mean time he would still have to work as an electrician and he's not really very excited at the prospect of doing that forever.
  
• There are no universities nearby. This affects both me and our kids because they'll inevitably have to move away to go to uni and statistics say they won't be coming back. :( Most kids who go to uni. end up moving away to whatever capital city they did uni. in. It's the way of the world here and I hate the idea of that. I'd also be forced to get a degree online which isn't impossible or anything, it would just be REALLY difficult for a person with my traits to stay motivated with online classes. I'd just have to make it work of course, but it's def. a con.
  

Those are my thoughts. The common denominator between the 3 is employment, where would we work? And my degree. So, I think I should just suck it up and try taking some classes online rather than just assuming I would fail at it because erasing that factor from everything would make the choice a lot easier in the long run of things.

I think I'm scared to move to DFW because I'd have so much more responsibility than I do here. I'd have to teach Chris everything from A-Z and maybe even wear the pants for a while and I don't want to have to do that. Call me old fashioned, but I like that he's in control, making the plans, and bringing home the bacon. The idea that I might have to have that role for a while if we move to DFW is scary. We also have a security here that would take a decade to build up in DFW and that's scary too.

Bottom line is that, while part of me kind of does want to move to the city, most of me is happy to move from Moranbah and stay in Sarina forever. I think I would only move back to the USA if Chris got an amazing job opportunity and it was secured and signed for.... so much to think about. It's a long time before we have to go down that road though. :)

Fun!

It's only 55 degrees tonight, but it feels freezing compared to the 90+ degree weather we so typically have every day, most nights only get to 75. It's really fresh, and lovely outside at the moment. :) We bought some logs and built a fire in our Weber. lol If you didn't know, fireplaces don't come standard in Queensland (hell, heaters don't come standard!) so we had to make do with what we have. :) We have about a 8'x8' slab of concrete out back where presumably a shed used to be and so we're thinking about building a fire pit in the middle of it like this one


This is the how-to video, they said that if you line the inside of your retaining wall with fire-proof bricks you don't even need the steel fire-pit bowl. But I've found some reasonably priced ones online so I think we'll order one. They look so nice!



This looks like a very basic project and might be a fun project for any of y'all in the southern states of Australia, or later on this year for the rest of my friends and family in the states. :)

BRR!

It's cold in Queensland! Only at night... it's still about 80 during the day. But still, the weather's been BEAUTIFUL! It's actually a bit chilly in the shade during the day, I'm loving it. :)

I've been going out to the pub every Friday night I'm in town, and it's been amazing for my social life! In this town, the only thing to do recreationally, other than making your own fun at home, is to go to the pub (google a map of Moranbah, Queensland and you'll see why. ;) ) I've met SO Many new people! It's always fun, and always a good time. It's nothing flashy, and their idea of a fancy cocktail is Vodka-redbull, but it's fun. I've met enough people now that I think I can start having house parties once a month for girls only and that would be a fun time too. Who knew that the pub would be the social hub of the town?

Petra is doing SO much better, praise God!!!! She has a case of Nutritional Secondary Hyperparathyroidism, which is a skeletal condition that occurs due to a diet low in calcium. The only cure is to pump her full of nutrients so she is on a strict twice-a-day dosage of laxatives as well for the next month to encourage her system to become regular again at which point she will have a check up at the vet where they will determine whether to continue twice-a-day treatment or if we should start to wean her off. I am over the moon that she is okay for now! Being confronted with the thought of her tiny lifeless body was so overwhelming for me, I just don't think I could have handled that... she's not out of the woods yet though and I found this story of a kitten with the same condition, and its progress sounds a lot like Petra: http://www.americancat.net/otto.html This worries me because, even though the vet hasn't mentioned it, if she has another constipation episode, the only cure is to repair her pelvis surgically....hmm. I think we need to buy pet insurance. I don't know what road we're going down.

Iiiii just remembered it's Sunday...which means we have church in 6 hrs....it's definitely 3:30 am. At least I'll get a good 5 hrs sleep in. That's not so bad. But I should go. haha

byee!

Sad.

I feel really guilty. And sad. After venting about Petra's pooing habits yesterday I noticed that she was trying to go, but nothing happened. She started bleeding from the effort and I deduced she must be constipated. She must have been constipated for days, hence the little poos here and there and I had no idea. I feel awful I regret being annoyed and not paying closer attention. The vet said that she could have a possible pelvic deformity which narrows her pelvis and causes chronic constipation. In this case she would need to be on laxatives and have a weekly enema for the rest of her life and would be in constant pain...so we would have to put her down. Another cause could be a deadly virus, in which case she may only have a couple months to live while her system shuts down. :( The final cause could have been something she'd eaten causing the blockage...but they didn't mention finding any blockages on the phone so I just don't know.

I feel so upset. I picture at least 10 years with this baby. I imagine our kids playing with her in the future and how she and Bean would be close friends and play mates. I'd made her a part of our family. I know if she is terminally ill, having her put down is for the best but I just don't want to lose this little kitten. She didn't do anything to deserve this. I love her.

WHY

I keep finding little kitten nuggets all over the place. WHYYY?? Why is Petra the most difficult kitten I've ever had? I've NEVER had a kitten have trouble potty training. It's their instinct to use the litter....but I caught her today. She was sleeping and then woke up with a little nugget poking out and went and pooped in the corner on the floor. WTH?!?! Does she have a problem? She didn't have any problems the first week (other than the diarrhea issue) and now she has solid poops but has them all over the place. Ugh. I'm going to put like 5 litter boxes in her room and hope she uses one of them. Bean has been caught using her box so maybe she is just being possessive. Maybe she is just persnickety...either way she makes the whole south side of the house stink like poop and I'm sick of it. Hopefully the basquillion litter boxes solves the problem.

I know, I know, I'm talking about poo...but I had to vent!! Where else could I say it??


In other news we celebrated Cinco de Mayo at our place tonight with some beef fajitas and margaritas. YUM! I think I just wanted an excuse to have a margarita. hehehe The fajitas were so yummy though! I tried to make guac but my avos were too ripe and wouldn't mash. boooo!!

Haven't heard from the dentist yet. Applications close Friday so hopefully I'll get a call after that. Pray it works out!

RE: F21 into Sweatshop Labour?

In response to Ashley's post on Forever21 running sweat shops in LA

I feel pretty conflicted about the whole sweat shop boycott thing. I mean, at least some of those women are admitted illegal immigrants…they’re breaking the law just by being in the country, they aren’t even legally allowed to hold employment in the USA, but they’re complaining about workers rights? It feels more than ironic to me. F21 shouldn’t get away with running a sweat shop period, and definitely not with employing illegal immigrants….but still. Call me ignorant, but it feels an awful lot like when that guy who bought a stolen designer watch from a thief at 40% of its actually value (knowing it was stolen) then tried to sue the thief because he found out it was a fake Rolex. The irony...it's laughable. When you break the law, don't you get what's coming to you? Am I alone in this? I get a little passionate when it comes to immigration for obvious reasons....so maybe I've missed the point.

At the end of the day, I dunno. One of the big problems that blog had with F21 is that they rip-off designer styles. Even though I never really shop at F21, here I am over here loving unique-vintage.com even though I know that a lot of their dresses are blatant rip-offs of more expensive designs. Part of me justifies that since I would NEVER spend $500 on the Jovani gown, buying the $80 knock-off isn’t actually losing them any money and, in turn, I accept that the gown I get will be of poorer quality details and materials. But I also know that if they’re not getting any royalties for the design it’s still wrong either way. I know it’s wrong, so why do I do it? Why do we do that?

Doxylamine Succinate

I love the swift sleep you give me, but hate waking up in the early afternoon with medicine head and the whole day wasted.