The Road to Paradise: June 2016

It's astounding that months can go by so quickly and yet that next holiday planned can take forever to arrive. Weeks go by quickly, but Friday's seem to take too long to arrive during the week. And that last hour of work seems to take an eternity. Nevertheless, in those hours, days, and weeks, a lot has happened. To bring this blog up to speed I thought I would just mention some of the highlights.

INTERESTING EVENTS

Cat Missing
One morning I got up and went to the bathroom and found myself standing in cat pee, after cleaning it all up, changing, and walking out the door to work I discovered I had locked myself out. As I needed my keys to get to work I tried to go through our neighbours yard to get to our back window. They recently decided to block the gate with a bunch of bricks so I had to knock on their door and they don't like me going through the house, but misunderstanding I followed the guy through his house to the backyard. After jumping the fence, taking the screen off the window, and climbing through the back window all seemed well. Later when I got home I found the window open and no cat. Matt had come home earlier and had opened the window but had not noticed the screen was missing. After about an hour of searching and Matt jumping on roofs, he found him in the back yard of the neighbours four doors down. Whew!

Youth Activities
I spent months preparing for an important youth activity called New Beginnings which took place at the end of March. I decided to go with a pirate/scavenger hunt theme ending at the Tree of Life. Although I had my counsellor Jaydene to help me, she was finishing her PhD that month so I just took care of everything. Matt made me a treasure chest and I made pirate maps that we cooked to make them look old. Basically they started with a scripture which gave them a clue to which church room to go to next. Once they got to the room the map gave them a clue as to where in the room the next clue was hidden. I marked all the doors so others in the chapel wouldn't disturb all the activity. Once they all made it to the Tree of Life, they got to eat snacks as I presented the "hidden" items in the treasure chest that represented different things about Young Women's. I had made them t-shirts with the 2016 Mutual Theme on it as well as bracelets to help them remember. It turned out really well!

We just completed another big activity where we played human hungry hungry hippos. I was able to borrow scooters/trolley/dolly from work and a couple of other people. I found ball pit balls for free on gumtree and got some extras for cheap at K-mart. After all that effort I found out that the floors were going to be resurfaced and we may not be able to use the gym that day. Well due to the weather the floor people couldn't come on the Monday as planned, and on Tuesday their car broke down. Divine intervention perhaps? So we had no problems being able to use the gym Tuesday night for our activity. Although it took a lot to get the youth to listen to the rules and instructions, I think it turned out well. I even added balloons on the last couple of rounds for bonus points.

Easter Show
Matt and I decided to go to the Easter Show this year. Although it happens every year, we have never gone. It's basically like what we would call a State Fair in the US, but bigger. The whole thing is run by the Agriculture people so there was a chicken building where you could see new chicks hatching and every breed of chicken, duck, and geese you could imagine. The cattle building had milking cow demonstrations, the sheep building had sheering demonstrations and women spinning wool. We got to touch the wool and pet a baby lamb. They also had alpacas and we learned that you can even get alpaca carpet! They had horse shows including horse training shows where we watched some of the training they do for horses in movies like Man from Snowy River. There were rides like you would see a fair, but we avoided that section completely. There was also a huge lumberjack competition that was pretty impressive. There were cat and dog shows going on and we got to talk to some of the owners that had already competed. Matt decided when we get a dog we will get a Nova Scotia Retriever after that. At the end we watched the Man from Snowy River show in the big stadium and the huge firework show that is right after that. It was a great day.

Home Show/ Mind Body Spirit Festival
Last weekend there was a Home Show that I went to. Matt was working and couldn't go. Basically it is an event where tons of companies relating to building, renovating, etc have booths to sell their products and provide information. I bought some nano spray stuff that is an amazing stain/water repellant, a nifty squeegee that is streak free, and a food chopper. Matt and I hope to buy land and build our own self-sustainable home someday so I grabbed lots of brochures for things I found like the allergy/stain resistant carpet, the mineral pool, etc. I also found a Credit Union, which in case you didn't know, when I first came to Australia I asked about Credit Unions and was told there were only banks. I won't go into the differences between the two, but in general credit unions have fewer to no fees. Also, as an added bonus there was a huge Mind Body Spirit Festival event next door to the home show. Knowing Matt would love that I went there as well. They had everything from vegan chocolate, iridologists, people who will read your aura, Reiki masters, pscyhics, healthy drinks, alkaline water filters, charcoal based lotions, and more. Luckily it was opened late so when I got home Matt wanted to go and we went back together. He had fun and got his aura read and met with the iridologist. Iridology is actually really neat where they take high quality images of your eyes and can allegedly determine your health and minerals from the picture. He was spot on with some of Matt's current health issues. It was fun and events like that have a wide range of interesting people attending.

Vivid Sydney
Matt and I decided to go on a Vivid Sydney cruise this year to see the Vivid lights. We got to the wharf and there were tons of people and I figured they must not be on the same boat. Sure enough about 300 or so people got on to a huge boat, but there were still another 200+ waiting. I had seen pics of the catamaran and saw the boat in the distance coming, but I didn't see how this many people were going to be on our boat. Well to my surprise they did jam that many people onto our boat. Although the online pics showed tables for dinner, they had removed all the tables and just put chairs up everywhere. We had a buffet dinner which you had to stand in a huge crammed line for and they when you got your food there was no place to stand or sit to eat it. Luckily Matt found a spot where we had to jump up to sit. It was freezing, but it was nice to see the lights from the water and not have to be walking around. It was a different perspective and I enjoyed it, but I don't think it was the best way to see the lights, nor was it worth the money.

NEW INTERESTS

- Matt and I got really into a series called The 100 after my sister left. We finished the whole season and haven't yet started the next season. We've watched a lot of movies though including Captain America: Civil War and X-Men Apocalypse. Recently we have also been reading/listening to the same books. We finished Feeling Good Together by David Burns, and now Matt has caught up to me on the Wheel of Time series. I am almost done with Gathering the Storm. It has been fun for me to discuss one of my favourite book series with him.

- So we've starting doing an official date night every Friday night. We rotate who plans it, and the rule is no complaining regardless of what it is. Most of the time we watch movies, but a couple of times we have played video games like Guitar Hero and Mariokart. Eventually I'm hoping we will work our way into a couple organised and planned date nights per month. My last one was a "Night of the Gods" where we ate at the new greek restaurant across from my work and went home and watched Gods of Egypt. If anyone remembers, Gods of Egypt was the movie Matt was an extra in and was part of Set's army. His insight made some parts kinds of funny, but you would never be able to know which soldier was Matt. It was actually a pretty lame movie.

- I made an impulse decision to buy horseback riding vouchers and go by myself. I can do a 2-hr experienced horse ride for $60. It was amazing! My horse liked to trot down hills at times which was unpleasant, but the running was awesome. My horse actually tripped and hurt herself so they had to bring me a second horse to complete the ride. The second horse was even faster although sometimes she would stop kind of abrupt and I would have to grip hard so I didn't fly out of the saddle. I decided after that, that I would try to go more often. I already have more vouchers but am waiting for the weather to get better.

- Old movies are the best because they are clean and funny. I had the youth watch The Gnome Mobile for our movie night in April. I was happy that they enjoyed it for the most part. It's a cheesy Disney movie, but a classic. The youth today have missed out on so many good Disney movies including some of the classic stories like Lady and the Tramp and Bambi. So for our movie nights I'm going to try and introduce them to more classic old movies. My next task is to get Matt to open up to more old movies from the 50's. I did get him to watch Fiddler on the Roof with me and he even liked it, but not enough to be enthusiastic about more movies like it.

OTHER UPDATES

- I started seeing a Naturopath as my trips to the doctor to understand why I was always cold, had joint pain, and bad memory problems weren't helpful. Although we all thought I had hypothryoidism, it turned out I had serious mineral deficiencies especially in Salt, Potassium, and Magnesium. After loading up on mineral and vitamin supplements my wrists don't hurt as much, I don't seem to be cold all the time any more, and I think my joints are better. I'll do another test in July to see how it all has improved. I still seem to have memory issues though, but some of that is still likely depression related.

- In February the church started organising a Stake Trek activity for the youth. This is where youth typically 14-18 recreate a pioneer handcart pulling trek for 3-4 days. There was some miscommunication about who was to be present for the first meeting and I was invited as YW President to attend even though I didn't need to be there. In the end I volunteered to be Trek Secretary and to attend each weekly meeting on Sunday at 5pm to take meeting notes. At first I was happy to be involved in the planning as my insight from the pioneer trek I did in the US had some differences. Soon the responsibility was weighing on me and I kept debating if I should quit, but for some reason I always decided not to. About a month ago the stake was reorganised into two stakes meaning many of our trek leaders were now part of another stake. The new stake presidency had decided to cancel the Stake Trek and focus on the large youth activity happening in January 2017. I was relieved. I felt it was definitely the Lord's plan to cancel it.

- Our friends Josie and Lachie ended up moving about 30 minutes away. We had a big day with the youth and helped them move. It's sad to not have them close by, but we try to organise time to spend together. Lately it seem like everyone we spent a lot of time with has moved away like the Butlers, the Hamsteads, and the Barnett's. We still have friends nearby and have made new friends in the ward, but sometimes when you don't see someone every week at church it gets harder to make plans. My issue is I may think of contacting someone but often I forget when I know we have free time. To be honest I spend so much time organising things for the youth, I am also tired of organising things and wish someone else could do it all the time. Friendships don't really work that way though, each side has to be willing to reach out once in a while to make it work. I'm just hoping we don't lose friends that have moved away due to my lack of reaching out and organising time to get together.

- Shade has had a urinating problem since the beginning of the year. He gets a build up of crystals that make it hurt to pee so he wouldn't go in the litter box. My March it seemed to be better and we stopped giving him the special food to break up the crystals. Within the last two weeks he has been having problems again. Matt wants to use only holistic methods like Vitamin C in the cat's food, but I went and bought the special cat food again. He seems to be able to pee normal again, but still avoids the litter box. Nevertheless he is still energetic and loves to help me with the laundry, organising receipts, and has claimed the electric blanket for himself.

Odin - 8 wks old

- This is nothing in comparison to what my sister had to go through this week. When we lived in Oregon we found a cat behind a dumpster that was almost on his death bed. We rescued him and gave the cat to my sister when we moved to Australia. She has been a better owner than we ever were, but this week every cat owner's worst nightmare occurred. When she got home late she couldn't find the cat and eventually found him under the bed. As she put him in front of his food dish to feed him he just flopped over and she realised he couldn't use his legs. She took him to the Pet ER and they determined he had saddle thrombus. Basically a blood clot gets stuck in the aorta and cuts off all blood flow to the back legs. This is caused typically by a heart condition so even fixed it can often reoccur. It is an extremely painful condition and often ends in euthanasia. He spent a night in the hospital for more tests and to see if he would eat, but by the next day it was confirmed he had saddle thrombus and a heart condition that would likely mean it would reoccur. The options were A. spend thousands to keep him in the hospital to see if the clot can be removed or dissipate (movement may still take months to return) B. take him home and give him heavy doses of pain killers regularly and clean up his bowel movements for him C. euthanise him. After reading about it I told her I think she should euthanise him as it was the most humane thing to do. She did. He was only about 4 years old. I'm sad I don't get to see him when I visit in September, but I'm glad he lived as long as he did and that he had a great life. This is my Ode to Odin: