Life Keeps Moving

We often say that I just don't have the motivation or desire to do something. I've been telling myself I'm just not motivated to write a blog. What can I say? Nothing interesting has happened. Suddenly, I remembered that most of the time you have to do something to get the motivation or desire. Now that I am doing my blog I am remembering that I write this for myself as much as others. I want to remember even the little things that happen. So here's my life so far this year:

- Australia Day fun! Matt and I spent Australia Day at David & Racheal Laugery's place and had a blast. Matt played all the Ascension (board/card game) he wanted, and I played old school Sega games like Sonic and ..... They had loads of great food and although I didn't play as many social games I had a good time and got to catch up with Racheal.

- I am now the Young Women's (YW) president. I love working with the young women as it's challenging and rewarding. Since I STILL don't have a job I can devote a lot of time to researching activities, making handouts, and other things for the YW.

Our first activity of the year - Alayna's 18th birthday party!

Through divine intervention I asked for Jaydene Elvin as my counsellor. I knew little about Jaydene other than she was asked to be chorister so I didn't have to do it anymore and she had no musical experience. So far she hasn't made any major blunders like I did, such as the time I ended the hymn a whole verse early and didn't even realise it. After a few meeting it became clear we would be good friends. We both love travelling, speak Spanish, and love to try new things.

Lunch with Jaydene after going to the Travel Expo

- I'm rock climbing again!  Jaydene invited me to go rock climbing and I'm glad to say everyone's a convert! Her and Whitney want to go regularly which works fine with me! I've really missed rock climbing and it will take a while before I can get to the same level I was at in the US. The scaling system for rock-climbing is different here so I'm not really sure what number level I'm at, but I did a 10 or 11 last time without any problems.

The caves behind the climbing walls are some seriously tight spaces! 

This was a corner where I had to flip around and squeeze through this space.

Me and Jaydene climbing next to each other - it was her first time getting to the top!

- Matt and I have turned in our paperwork to get his skills assessment! It's really tiresome to explain the process for permanent residency so I'll go through it again here by steps:

Steps for a 189 Skilled Independent Permanent Residency Visa which allows us to live and work here indefinitely, and Matt is not contracted to paint with any specific employer.

1. Get Australia qualification for skill - DONE! Required $2500 to get a Certificate III in Painting based on previous experience. 
2. Get Skills Assessment through government approved body - In Process! We turned in 85 glorious pages of all the employment evidence needed including tax documents, bank statements, employer statements and more. All pages had to be certified copies by the way (similar to notarised) requiring Matt to take a day off work and a poor man at the library had to stamp and sign all the documents for an hour straight. It costs $2000 for the skills assessment and we have to wait 60 business days for the result. 
3. Take the IELTS test - This is an English test that although not required, will give us more points toward our permanent residency application and will put us above other applicants. There is an academic and a general version of the test and we discovered the academic one is RIDICULOUSLY hard! So Matt will take the general test on Feb 28th for a total of $330. Even native english speakers need to study and practice writing to do well on this test. If he doesn't do really well, we wasted the money. 
4. Fill out an Expression Of Interest (EOI) - This is your application to be 'invited' to apply for the 189 permanent residency visa. You have to have all documented proof of points at the time you do the EOI even though you don't submit it. Once it is submitted it can take a max of two years to get a response. Basically they have to determine you have the necessary amount of points, have a skill that is needed in Australia, have enough "openings" for that skill, etc. This is not a visa so if we don't get a response by September when our current visa expires, we will have to get another temporary visa or leave the country. 
5. Get police checks and health checks - The actual PR visa application requires police check which can take 12 weeks or more to get from the US. My goal is to get these and health checks done early to prevent any issues once we do get invited to apply for a PR (assuming we do). 
6. Finally, turn in the PR application - If you are invited it is basically guaranteed you will get the visa so it is really getting invited that is a huge leap of faith. 

So Matt and I are moving along with this process and praying that everything will go smoothly somehow!

- As for other news I am still looking for a job, but I have some temporary tutoring type of work for the next two weeks. Originally I was going to the US in late March for my sister's wedding, but now that the wedding is cancelled I will just go to celebrate my mom's birthday and visit family. Other than that I'm reading books, staying busy, and getting tired of the latest conspiracy theory Matt heard in an audio book. Life just keeps moving on.