Socialising

Do you have any friends that like spending time with and although you have time to hang out, the planning to hang out rarely happens? Well my relationship with friends Dean and Crystal is like that. Matt and I enjoy hanging out with them, but we struggle to make it happen. Last Sunday we all finally set up a time to have dinner and chat. It was a great dinner, but what makes spending time with them so interesting is that we do nothing but talk and hours go by. We all can talk about a wide variety of topics and rarely get bored, including Matt! It's awesome to have friends like that and Matt and I really need to make more of an effort to spend time with people. 

Mutual with the youth was also quite eventful this week. I was so proud of our young men and one of our young woman who actually took the bus to get there. That's commitment! We played a fun M&M get to know you game where based on the colour of M&Ms you took you had to answer different questions about yourself. Afterwards we played "Never Have I Ever." When I told the girls we would play this game, one said "you mean, the drinking game?" If there was ever evidence that I grew up as a member of the LDS church, that was a definite moment of proof. I had no idea it was a drinking game and had always played it with other members of the church. This was the Mormon Modified Version. One person stands in the middle of the rest who are all sitting on chairs. The person in the middle states "Never have I ever" and then states something they haven't ever had or done. Then all those that have had or done that something have to switch chairs. This gives the middle person an opportunity to steal a seat and the last person standing is the new middle person. We had loads of fun playing this game and learned some interesting things about each other in the process. Success!

Wednesday was also an eventful day. After work Matt picked me up and we went to see Evita the musical with Jaydene and her lab mate. When we got there Matt had seen this Udon place for dinner, which was really good!

The musical however, was not as spectacular as we had hoped. We learned it was an amateur production so there were a couple of mistakes, but the real issues I had with it were the main actress. Having seen Madonna play Evita in the movie, I had certain expectations. To see a woman who I thought was not very attractive play the role of a beautiful actress didn't really fit to me. Her singing was good, but I just did not feel she fit the part. In fact, we all found it interesting that the song from the mistress clearly out-shined the main actress. Later, Jaydene found out that this may just be how the live musical was written and that the movie version was changed. I would suggest then for anyone interested in Evita (Eva Peron) to just watch the movie. Matt didn't like it at all, but mostly because there is a lot going on and he couldn't hear the words to follow what was happening. Oh well. 

Nevertheless we still had a fun night and even got to see a little of Vivid Sydney, which had been extended to Chatswood where we saw the musical. 

The following morning I got to see a cute little bunny on my walk to my bus stop. He didn't run away as I got close to take the picture. I thought about petting him, but then wasn't sure how wild he was and if bunnies carry weird diseases. Still cute though!

To finish off my weekend I ended by horseback riding at Sydney Trail Riding Centre with a couple of the YW, Jaydene, and Whitney. Before leaving it was my day to help clean the chapel so I was happily cleaning toilets when Fekita found me and helped until the others came. When we got there we were late so they rushed us onto horses and go started. It was a fairly relaxing ride since it was just an hour long walk, but everyone had fun. It was Jaydene and Fekita's first time riding so they were a fair bit nervous at first. In the end they loved it and had seemed to bond with their horses, even though Fekita's was a bit lazy and stubborn. 

After riding we got lunch at Little Caesar's on the way, which has American pizza! You have no idea how happy this made me! We got Italian cheese bread as well, which was definitely the best part. I even had the foresight to get some waters from the nearby McDonald's and we ate a nearby park which happened to have picnic tables. 

There was a random little museum next to the park so we decided to check it out. It was really neat surprisingly. The museum had interesting historic items and things relating to Liverpool, including a special ANZAC section. My favourite part was the story of a German escapee that Jaydene found and we subsequently had all the girls read. It was pretty incredible story involving him digging out of his own grave, walking from Liverpool to Sydney, and eventually marring the girl he promised in the end. 

Johann Kuhlmann

It was a great way to end the week! 

The Return of the Bus Guy

Early this week I decided I was going to walk to a bus stop slightly farther away. I was leaving earlier than usual and was glad to get more steps in on the longer walk. As I sat on the bench to wait for the bus this guy noticed me and came and sat on the other end and told me "I know your face from somewhere." I looked at him and immediately recognised the crazy bus guy that I had given my number to weeks before and had blocked from my phone. I just shook my head and said "I don't know" and returned to reading my book. Luckily some old woman sat between us and he chatted with her until he suddenly stood up in front of me and said "Yeah, you are that American girl!" Spitting out a quick "yep" I returned to my book again, hoping he would just leave me alone. Then the bus came and I knew he was going to try and chat with me. Unfortunately the bus was quite empty so it would be too obvious if I sat next to someone when there are so many empty seats. As I made my way to the back I found a single seat by itself where there would be no way for him to sit near me. He decided to sit behind me but stood up and tapped me to say "Hey, I'm really sorry for everything" right as the bus started to move. Naturally I said "no worries" and promptly returned to my book and he returned to his seat.

He didn't do anything but make me extremely uncomfortable. I now know that he must live closer to me than I thought so I am more motivated than ever to avoid that bus station and get a car as quickly as possible. He isn't creepy enough that I think he would stalk me, but the experience I had was uncomfortable and awkward enough that I would prefer to avoid future chance meetings as much as possible. Again, the moral of the story is to never give your number out to random people you have a small conversations with on the bus. I would even say just avoid chatting to people on the bus in general. It's a great time to read books anyway.

As for other less crazy events. Shade got stung by his first bee. Poor thing saw one crawling around and tried to eat it. I knew he got stung as he yelped and ran inside, but we didn't discover until a day or two later that the stinger was stuck in his chin. I had felt something, but just thought it was a sore. Surprisingly he didn't swell up or anything. We also discovered that he can return from our neighbor's back patio. He's decided that our back patio is too boring so has gotten into the bad habit of quickly jumping into our neighbour's area before we can catch him. Matt usually jumps over the fence to get him, but he was on the phone with his Mom. Figuring Shade couldn't go anywhere I just left him there waiting for Matt to get off the phone. As Matt opened the back door to go get him, Shade walked inside. Apparently he figured out how to get back over the fence, but I think he hurt himself in the process. He kept licking his paws. Silly cat. We can't let him wander so we will have to find a way of preventing him from going into other's back patios, but I'm glad he can at least get back on his own as well.

Matt had a weird virus/bacteria/food poisoning issue that we never figured out what was wrong. Saturday he went to an AFL game with Brock and ate a bunch of junk then Sunday his stomach was funny which progressed to a lot of pain and discomfort. It didn't start getting better until yesterday. He missed a couple of days of work from it and he tried loads of things to help including a laxative, an antacid, antiviral/antibacterial and anti fungal stuff, other supplements, and a garlic foot bath. Some things helped calm it temporarily, but the issue did not go away. We hope this was a temporary thing and not early signs of something worse like Crohn's disease. Only time will tell. It sucks that someone who actively works at being healthy can have something like that happen.

Now for the most exciting news: Matt and I were invited to apply for permanent residency in Australia yesterday! Getting invited was the hardest part! Once invited and we start the application there is a very small likelihood we will get denied, and we will receive a bridging visa as well. This means that even if my current visa expires we can stay in the country until we have a response from our PR visa. Once applied though we should know pretty quickly so we should be permanent residents before September! I just learned that they may have changed the pricing though so it may cost $7000 instead of the $5000 that we had thought. This is really going to push our budget limit. It's a blessing that Matt just got another side job and that I have work as well. We wouldn't have been able to do this visa otherwise.

Not much else going on other than Young Women's is still awesome and I have a great counsellor who keeps me functioning. Matt has completely finished painting our townhouse. My job is still good and I'm learning and remembering more, but I still get annoyed with myself for the little things I constantly forget. I have yet to find a psychologist, but I may be able to do Skype sessions with one in Utah. Matt gave me a blessing last Sunday, which helped me find new hope that I can overcome my trials and be stronger for it. For the most part, I think life is good. I just finished all of the Maze Runner series and started the Paper Magician series. The Maze Runner series is the closest I will probably ever get to zombie literature. I really liked the last book and was pleased with the end. It will be interesting to see the movies.

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week, but sometimes you will just have to imagine things for yourself!

Still Learning Lessons

It seems that in a blink of an eye weeks go by. 

Over the last week and a half I have had some interesting occurrences...

The Bus Guy

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting on the bus with my headphone in and reading a book. Despite all the signs of 'don't bother me', a guy came and sat by me and started talking. He asked if I wanted some of his coffee and I of course told him no, I don't drink coffee. I tried to continue reading but then he asked about my book, where I was from, and the questions kept coming. The guy was probably late twenties to early thirties, from Afghanistan but has lived mostly in Australia, is a software programmer and DJ. We talked a little about my religion, but mostly about the US and what the difference between a county and a state was. He asked for my number so we could finish our chat over coffee sometime. After clarifying that I was married and he wasn't asking me out I decided it might be a good missionary opportunity and we exchanged numbers. 

Before you decide to judge me, he wasn't a creepy guy so I didn't think he'd stalk me or anything and I certainly wasn't attracted to him for any reason. I genuinely thought it might be a good opportunity to talk about my beliefs. The next day he texted me about getting coffee (apparently he didn't remember I don't drink coffee) and I had to decline because I always have things going on after work and for the most part I just want to go home. The next week he texted me again and I politely said I didn't know if there was ever going to be a good time. Then it all started getting weird on Saturday he sent me another message saying I'm not forced to meet up and if I think he wants something he has "enough woman in Sydney" to take care of that. I simply explained that my schedule was just too crazy. All seemed well, until he called me and starts saying f-this and f-that and how he can "f" with plenty of girls in Sydney, blah, blah, blah. Wow! I told him he just wasn't a priority to be honest and there wasn't a really good time to meet up. This just caused him to get all upset and basically say I was just making excuses and then he hung up. Needless to say I blocked him. 

I was never positive of this guy's intentions, but I felt like a hot chocolate or something would be harmless. I never expected the kind of crazy result and had the guy acted like that in the beginning I would never even considered talking to him further. Not to mention he never could remember I don't drink coffee and maybe he "forgot" I was married as well. The moral of the story is....DO NOT GIVE YOUR NUMBER TO RANDOM PEOPLE ON THE BUS! In fact, I'll stick to my happy "keep to myself and read" philosophy permanently. I'm just hoping I don't run into this guy again. 

As for a few less psychotic events...

The Dentist

Lately I've had a bunch of issues with my back gum where I had a wisdom tooth removed. It got really swollen for over a week so I made an appointment with a dentist. The swelling went down before the appointment but the dentist said that when my tooth was removed the gum was sewn up too high making it prone to get swollen. I was glad to know that I had no cavities and my teeth are great, but not happy to hear I need to go to a gum specialist. I have an appointment with the specialist  in a week so we'll see what happens. 

Young Women Fun

Tuesday we played Jeopardy with the youth based on General Conference. It was all open "phone" so they could search to find the answers. I wasn't sure how well it would go since I knew there were some tough questions and its hard to remember even little things sometimes. In the end, it was a huge success and everyone had a lot of fun. We also had nachos and Dulce de leche in honour of Cinco de Mayo. I don't think it was the preparation or the food that made it good, but the attitude of the girls that were there. Any activity can be fun when you make it fun and have a good attitude. Thank you Young Women for being amazing!

Thursday was fun as Jaydene and I were going to visit one of the young women and our Laurel president (Fekita) wanted to come as well. Jaydene picked me up from my bus stop near Fekita's and without even knowing for sure she could come we went and visited her. It turns out it was her first time ever being home alone and she only opened the door because she heard Jaydene's voice. Plans with the other girl didn't work out because she was at a parent/teacher interview. In the end we decided to take Fekita out to dinner since none of us had eaten yet. It was a blessing to have a nice chat, eat some good Thai food, and rescue Fekita from being alone. 

Permanent Residency

This last week Matt and I finally got his skills assessment back and found that he was successful! That means we are now ready to complete an expression of interest (EOI) to hopefully be invited to apply for permanent residency. On Saturday I went to get the skills assessment document certified only to find that the GPS had me take the wrong bus! It just so happened Jaydene and I were messaging each other that morning and she could come pick me up and take me to the right place in time. Had I tried the buses it might have been over an hour. She helped me get my errands done and I tagged along for hers as well. Blessings!

That evening I completed our EOI! It took me two hours as I had to keep checking I was ticking the right boxes. It says we have 65 points although we should have 70, but for some reason it wasn't counting Matt's employment in Australia. I fixed that and now it says he hasn't worked for 8 years overseas even though he has. Well it's because they only count the last 10 years and he went to school for 5 months and California for a few months so as for as their calculations go, only 7 of his work years will count. We need 60 points to apply so we are fine, but having 70 points would have really pushed us above other applicants. Oh well. The good news is that it's done and if we were invited to apply tomorrow, we have everything read except for passport photos. 

Mothers Day

Today is Mother's day. I feel it is only fair to complete this blog by mentioning what an amazing mother I have! When I was younger she was the voice of reason that I refused to listen to. I once even argued with her about how to spell my name (I was 6). As I got older I soon learned that my mother is almost always right. Nevertheless, she let me make decisions on my own even when she knew I was going to learn the hard way. Instead of an "I told you so," I always get her open and loving arms (more like words since I'm always far from home). She provides the wise advice that I trust because I know that she is frequently inspired of the Lord. Additionally, she is the one person that I know will drop everything and listen when I am in desperate need. 

My mother and I have a special relationship because we are so similar. She is my mother, my best friend, and sister in a way. Frequently we find we go through similar situations although we are thousands of miles apart. There just isn't another person in this world that understands me the way my mother does! I can only hope that I can be more like her and have the patience, charity, love, and devotion that she has. Love you mom!