Better Late than Never!

Preface: I wrote everything below and then never was motivated enough to enter pictures and complete it. Needless to say, it's old but I suppose it makes no difference if you don't hear from me often anyway. 

Three weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. Now that I work regularly I struggle to separate weeks and I can't remember how long ago things have happened. Luckily I have at least kept a list of interesting things to put in my blog. So here's a list of some interesting things.

First of all, Matt and I have officially applied for permanent residency! Thanks to a loan from my mom we were able to get the funds faster so we could complete the application and start uploading the required documents. This means we now officially have bridging visas and can stay in the country until we get a result from our application. We have uploaded almost all of the documents except for our US police checks, which we just got yesterday and need to be certified first.

Unfortunately we discovered I also need to do a police check for when I was living in Argentina. I was not aware of this and have started the process. I have to fill out a form then meet with a guy in the city to do the fingerprinting and then they send it to Argentina or something to get it processed. The form is all in Spanish and although I am fluent, that doesn't help me know legal terminology and which option I should choose for things. I originally thought I would have to go to Canberra, but the good news is there is a representative in Sydney and it appears the process will only take a month. Hopefully this won't hinder our permanent residency application.

On another note, Matt and I had a fun activity with the youth where we made props for the kids in primary for their music time. Matt was very proud of his sun.

We also had to say goodbye to our friend Whitney who left back to the US. Before she left we had dinner at an indian food restaurant and dessert at Max Brenner's. It was a fun last night to say a 'temporary' goodbye to a good friend. Hopefully she will come visit or we will visit her in the future.

Recently we had a long weekend because the Queen's Birthday is a holiday and took place on a Monday. The Saturday before I had documents to sort and whatnot so I didn't do anything exciting. I did help my friend Cate with her Chemistry homework and later discovered that I forgot to take my keys and couldn't get in my house. Despite my attempts of getting in through the bedroom window on the roof I had to admit defeat and Cate took me back to her place. It was nice though as we got to went to dinner and caught up on life and then I watched a movie at her place while she studied.

That weekend Matt and I got into playing Super Mario Bros again. The back story for this is that we used to play a lot and even unlocked the final special level. It took a while and Matt used to get really frustrated with me because I die a lot and often got in the way. One time he got so mad he punched the wall, which luckily didn't harm it. Since then he refused to play because he didn't want to get upset with me. This time he hasn't gotten mad at all and it has been a fun bonding time for us. It's funny how well we bond over video games! I guess I'm glad we are both nerds.

Last week I went to the doctor for a pap smear because a year ago I got one and they found an abnormality so I had to get another one in a year. It was good timing because I had also run out of birth control - has it been six months already? Additionally, I decided I should talk to the doctor about my depression. In the end I came out with anti-depressants, birth control, and an appointment for the following week. Originally I really didn't want medication for depression because I was afraid of side effects and felt confident I could handle this on my own. The reality is that I'm not handling it on my own and the medication is just a short-term boost to help me find the strength and motivation to get help, exercise more, and do all those things that I know will help. Not many have probably seen the effects of my depression, but my husband certainly has. I am often lethargic, I struggle to keep commitments, I'm more disorganised, I often don't want to be bothered with social things, exercise always seems to hard, really good food is the best mood lifter, and I can get anxiety about almost anything. This isn't my normal behaviour at all and I think sometimes that makes me more frustrated with myself. At this stage I need a third-party to help me be accountable and work on the things that can help me get better. Stay tuned for updates?

To be more proactive about depression I have started reading my depression book again and have been listening to the audio book version of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I feel a renewed hope in my situation and although I am currently surviving as I am, I think that when I can finally overcome my negative thoughts I will become a better and stronger person overall. I highly recommend these two books to everyone, even if you're not depressed, as the tools mentioned apply to everyone and for every aspect of life.

Another interesting event is that we had a family history activity in the ward last Sunday. I discovered that one line of my family is linked all the way back to Adam and Eve! That's amazing that someone was able to do that! I also went on to my Mom's family history website and found all kinds of neat things and stories. My grandpa helped create the website and as I read his biography on there I felt sad that I haven't tried to get to know him better. He has published his own auto-biography and yet I haven't read it. Well this experience created a new spark within me to try and do more with family history. For years I've just left if to the many other members in my family, but perhaps I have more to contribute than I previously realised. More on this story to come, if all goes as planned.

Some other occurrences were the day I walked to the bus stop and found a house on fire. It had probably been going 10-15 minutes and I was the third person to get there. Two others had already made sure the owner was out and had notified the neighbours. The owner was a 30-something man who was covered in black smoke. Do you remember Mary Poppins when the boy sticks his face in the pipe and his face becomes black? It was almost that bad and you could see he had cried from the tear streaks on his face. While I was there a fireman car came and helped move the guy's car and ask a bunch of questions. Realising there was nothing I could do to help I decided to leave and saw the fire truck right when I got on the bus. The next day there was tape in front of the house and there were still ashes on the ground. For the most part the house looked in tact, but the fire was in the back and I'm betting most of it was charred.
Click here for the article on it.

Last night was a fun work night because we had another celebratory dinner for a good month of sales! We went to the Hunters Hill Hotel where it is pub/bistro. The food was great and the sales guys are always entertaining. This time I wasn't the new one as our new sales rep, Mark, was there too. I'm so glad I love the people I work with and can have a good time with them outside of work too.

This weekend has been difficult because our cat, Shade, has been sick. Thursday he didn't eat his last few meals of the day and seemed very lethargic. He usually greets us at the door when we get hope, but that day he didn't. The next day I tried to get him to eat some wet food and I knew it must be severe when he wouldn't even touch the wet food. Matt took Friday off work to take him to the vet and watch him. Shade's blood work came back normal and the vet gave pills to help him eat. He still wouldn't eat though and when we tried to give him his second pill his mouth filled with saliva and he spit it out. This morning I took him in again and this time they are going to keep him over the weekend with an IV to make sure he get fluids - he hasn't eaten or drank anything in nearly 3 days! They are also going to give him antibiotics and possibly do an x-ray. When a cat doesn't eat it can cause liver damage and ultimately organ failure - more so than dogs and people. There's not much we can do but pray and hope he gets better.
Update: Shade is fine! We had approved surgery for him and the morning of surgery he had pooped and was eating again. We took him home the next day and now seems hungry all the time and is spoiled because we feed him lots of wet food to make sure he gets enough fluids. 

You can see where he was shaved on his chest
for his blood test, and the two shaved sections
on his arms from where he had the IV.