Tis the Season of Reflection

It hasn't been a full month since my last post so my hopes are that this one won't be super long.

This seems to be a time for self reflection and discovery. I have been reading and thinking about a lot of things lately. Lately I have had a lot of feelings of despair and sadness. I feel as if I work so hard to minimise my flaws, but the reality is they are always there. Additionally, I constantly feel lonely even when I am with loving people. These feelings will pass, but it has lead me to realise that I always seek joy and happiness externally instead of internally. Now I just need to find that joy within myself....

Below are 10 quotes from things I've heard or read recently that have been enlightening or useful to me that I wanted to share.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Unknown

"Our thinking another person is 'the problem' makes us 'the problem'." Justin Coulson, 21 Days to a Happier Family

“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." Russell M. Nelson, October General Conference

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

"We make our family happier by making ourselves better." Justin Coulson

“Perfection' is man's ultimate illusion. It simply doesn't exist in the universe.... If you are a perfectionist, you are guaranteed to be a loser in whatever you do.” David Burns, The Feeling Good Handbook

“There is only one person who could ever make you happy, and that person is you.” David Burns

“The more people we can find to agree with our side of the story, the more justified we will feel in believing that side of the story.” Arbinger Institute, Leadership and Self-Deception

"Children do better when they feel better" Jane Nelson, Positive Discipline

“One of the best ways of becoming an effective parent—or, for that matter, an effective human being—is to understand the perceptions of other people, to be able to “get into their world.” Jane Nelsen, Positive Discipline: The First Three Years: From Infant to Toddler

SAKURA

Sakura LOVES singing and will often randomly sing the ABC's, the baby shark song, or some other nursery rhyme. This often happens at the top of her lungs as well.

She also had some really fun play dates and got to meet some baby rats. She asks about her friends "Nano" and "Sahra" on a regular basis.

Sakura is also becoming quite the kitchen helper and will scramble her own eggs, and help me make dinner or smoothies.

We also went to a public pool in Newmarket where they have some water slides and lots of areas for the kids. I went there once when Sakura was much younger. She loved it! After going down with her on the slide, then holding her hand, then going down just before her, she finally gained the confidence to go down herself. I just sat at the bottom and caught her and then let her get out and go do it again. I eventually got her to actually swim a little to me at the end. I was so impressed! Unfortunately I have no pictures or videos as I was by myself.

SEWING STUFF

I finished a blanket for a lady that had her baby ages ago. And I finally finished my dress I was working on with Brianna. As you can see in the picture. It doesn't fit. I went to a seamstress that helped me with my sister's bridesmaid dress and she basically said to cut the top off and redo it. :( Can't say I'm motivated for that! I also am finally finishing a red skirt I started for Halloween last year. I made many errors, but was determined to finish. One error was so bad though that I had to unpick a lot and redo it. Oy!

OTHER STUFF

In case you are wondering, we did nothing for Thanksgiving, but I did make Turkey sausage patties and cauliflower mash in honor of the event. It tasted much better than it looks.

Matt works 70+ hour weeks still so not much to report there. Matt randomly was able to get some cabinets from a job sight. He painted it them and one has moved in to where Shade's cat tree was. Feng shui is real! It felt so good having some of that stuff tucked away.

We have had some interesting events though with our shade sail falling down because the small metal pole holding it up snapped in the wind. Also, there are lots of fires going on as we are experiencing a drought. We are lucky nothing has happened around our area but they have banned open fires multiple times in the last month or so.

CHRISTMAS PLANS

This year has proven to be a memorable Christmas season already. My ward Christmas dinner and talent show proved to be more eventful than I had thought. The week of my friend Kate asked me to participate in a skit for the event. I was struggling with a lot of anxiety and depression but agreed anyway and it was just what I needed. It was totally out of my comfort zone but we had lots of fun practicing and it turned out well I think. We did a synchronized swimming skit. At the beginning when we jumped into the "pool" I did not have padding since all the mattresses were too far down. I still did the jump and roll but landed with a big thump on the hardwood stage and received a bruise on my lower back and tailbone that took a few days to heal. Could have been much worse, and it was still totally worth being a part of. Thank you Kate!

We expact to have a fun Christmas this year. I overspent on gifts (Facebook Marketplace, Aldi, and Costco are not safe for me to browse). I have no regrets just feel sorry for the other people I had originally intended to give something that won't. We were also invited (or kind of self invited) to a friends Christmas where the requirement is I must be willing to sing and play lots of board games. Sounds like my kind of party! As I won't post again till after the holidays, Merry Christmas everyone!

Slightly updated version in case you saw the original. 

Life with a 2 Year Old

Sakura is now two years old!

To start this blog off right I need to talk all about my munchkin and her endeavours.

She now know her letters and numbers and can recite the ABC's - she just randomly started doing this. She also can sing nursery rhymes with about 1/3 of the words on a regular basis. She loves helping mommy with everything such as watering the plants. She will even try to pour her own cereal and milk in the morning.

 

She has had her first kiss (See video).

And has had lots of fun playdates!

One day while drawing she decided to paint her fingernails (Video).

I decided for her birthday we would do a Saturday party (Halloween themed) in the morning for toddlers and young kids, and in the evening for us adults and older kids to party. I even made my own invitations using Canva.com - which was surprisingly easy and I was able to get them printed cheap too!.

For Sakura's actual birthday we got to go to swim class, have some fun at the library baby rhyme time and play time, visit the pet store, and play on the playground. She passed out on the floor after all the fun. Also this was her last swim class with the Infant 2 class because she has passed all the criteria so she graduated and is moving on to the Infant 3 class on Saturday mornings. They even gave her a medal!

Halloween
Sakura and I had a fun day with her friend Cristiano although playing with pumpkins was a flop. My favourite moment was when Cristiano hurt himself and sought comfort from Sakura. She initially didn't know what to do and then decided to give him a hug and pat on the back.

Sakura helped me carve my pumpkin in time for trick or treaters. Unfortunately she REFUSED to get dressed. I was afraid we would miss trick or treating entirely so I forced a dress on her and headed out. She enjoyed knocking on the doors and getting treats in her tiny bucket. Anytime I put her down though the was like "Oh wait, I hate this dress!" She fell asleep as I walked back home and went straight to bed so still a successful night.

The Birthday Parties
Before going into detail about the parties I have to give a HUGE shout out to Dan and Brianna Biddle who were a big help with preparing for the parties. Matt was working so much that I could not have done it without them. Also, thank you to Lawnton Country Markets who had free pumpkins on November 1st so I could happily have more than enough pumpkins for people.

The toddler morning party started out with us unsure we would have a space at the park. A lovely family said they were just leaving so we had two tables and plenty of space. Sakura refused to let me put her down so it was a blessing the missionaries randomly showed up and helped Brianna and I set up. One family showed up and I couldn't even socialise because Sakura was so cranky - she wanted to be in the swing with no shoes and while I was holding her, which of course wasn't possible. Another family showed up and so we got started on some pumpkin painting. After that Sakura was pretty good. I did get thoroughly painted though. Sakura made some new friends and had a blast so although we only had one more family show later it was still successful. I was just glad I had another party that night to be able to reuse the food.

The night party was mostly what I had hoped it would be. My goal was that people would be able to come and enjoy themselves, dress up, eat good food, and that Sakura would be able to have fun. I think I met that goal. We had something like 15-20 people total and the majority of the food was eaten. In case you were wondering - everything was gluten and dairy free except a pumpkin pie. It IS possible and still tasty. The kids were not impressed with my dark chocolate mix or coconut cream caramel to dip apples in though.

 The cake turned out great with special note to Lorelle who made the decorations. I made the cake with simple gluten and dairy free box mixes from Woolworths as it was easier. It came with frosting powder so I just had to add my coconut cream and nuttelex to make it dairy free. I also added charcoal to the cake and chocolate frosting to make it black. We did a strawberries and coconut cream mix between the layers and it turned out pretty tasty. I was glad we were able to get rid of most of the cake, but sad the next day when I realised we only had a sliver left.

Sakura had an absolute blast the whole night! No costume again, but she was happy. She enjoyed her gifts and jumping on the trampoline with the big kids. Jennis even got out her face paints! Lots of fun! It took us a couple days to clean it all up thoroughly, but I look forward to doing another Halloween party next year (not a birthday party) and improve upon things I learned this year.

Shade is Gone

On a sadder note. We said goodbye to Shade Friday November 15th. Every since Sakura came into our lives we have struggled to give Shade the attention he used to get. I would still play with him often and Sakura used to try and help as well. When we moved to the new home he wanted to go outside a lot so we let him. This was our big mistake. I only learned recently that to let your cat roam is illegal, but the real issue was in the last month he was frequently coming home with new scratches or injuries. Some are definitely from a fight, but when he was limping I think that was actually from scaling fences. Worrying for his safety I tried to train him to be more indoors again. This resulted in him meowing CONSTANTLY and in the middle of the night. We have airbnb guests often and cannot have Shade disrupting them. So we often caved and let him out. If we didn't, he would then pee on something to show his frustration. One place he's chosen twice migrates to get onto my giant panda bear. That is the WORST thing to try and clean sufficiently. I've tried different things, but if you smell the area it still smells like cat pee. BAHHH! This began to be frustrating for the whole family. Matt was ready to get rid of him. I was trying to think of what I could do to help the situation like cat proof the yard or play with him more, etc. I prayed about it and felt that the best thing for Shade and the rest of us would be to find him another home. Although this was not what I wanted, I recognised it was the right thing to do. I contacted a vet who suggested a pet rescue organisation CKs Paws. In less than a week they found a foster home for him and I packed up his things and dropped him off. The organiser feels confident they will have a forever home for him by Christmas. He'll love the foster home too as the lady has a large patio that has mesh all around so it is a cat proof outdoors space. We got Shade direct from a Bengal breeder and have loved and cared for him for the last 6 years. This has left a hole in my heart and I hope one day we will be ready to have another cat and perhaps a dog. For now, I think it is safe to say our focus is on Sakura and work endeavours and we shouldn't be dedicating any efforts at the moment to a new animal that requires us to entertain it.

All About Me
BIG NEWS! I got accepted to two schools for the 4th Year Honours Psychology Program. The University of Sunshine Coast was my second choice as the campus is 15-20 min away, but the University of Queensland I had spoken with people that were willing to work with me for a doctorate so they would be ideal for building connections and starting something that I could build upon. I won't hear from UQ till about December or January. Surprisingly though, I was praying about it and felt the strong impression that I needed to attend USC. I thought this was crazy because UQ was the logical place anyway. After a few days of pondering this I received enough confirmation to feel that USC would be the best for me even if I didn't understand why right now. So I am working on coordinating more details with them and I am excited to see what next year brings. I haven't mentioned yet that I have NO idea how I'm going to pay for it though.

My VIPKIDS contract was up for renewal. I am so tired of teaching 4-5 classes Monday through Friday at this stage so I was considering just not renewing. I don't make that much money. In the end I realised I don't have to open up any slots if I don't want to so when I start school I may just not teach any classes for a while or I will just open 1 or two slots a week. I'd rather have the ability to keep doing it if I want to. After this month though I seriously need a break.

I've also been trying to make sure I go and do something fun just for me. So in October I got a massage, toured the city, and went to dinner at East Street by myself. Another night I went to a Painting class I got from Groupon. It was a lot of fun! My only regret with the class is that instead of trying to mimick the artist who was demonstrating, I should have just gone with what I felt would be better (then my pink zebra would have been more proportionate). Still well worth it, and it was good to get out of the house.

For November my friend invited me out to do some rollerskating. I got rollerblades as I think rollerskates are just weird, but had a blast. I forgot what it was like rollerblading and it was harder than I thought to keep my balance. I'm definitely more into ice skating, but it was so nice to be able to chat with good people while also do something active.

Other Updates and Events

We made a couple of beach trips when Matt didn't have to work. The first time it was very windy so Matt made a giant hole that blocked the wind. The second time was great until you got in the water and the wind made it freezing.

Our oven kicked the bucket and while waiting for the owners to consider replacing it, Matt happened to find a good one for free on one of his job sites. The owner approved the replacement and install by a professional. We are so happy! The new one is very nice and I now don't have to worry about burning my baked goods as easily.

General Conference was a bit tricky to keep Sakura entertained. Matt played a game while Sakura watched and we had conference on at the same time. I got very sleepy and closed my eyes a few times. It was a great conference and I am still re-reading at least one talk a day. I felt the overarching message was that God wants us to have JOY! Not just after this life but right now. Another interesting part of this was our Airbnb guest at the time turned out to be a member. He didn't tell us until his last night when we had dinner with the missionaries. He watched part of conference in his room - I'm not sure why he didn't just come out and watch it with us then.

As another side note:

Current favourite recipes are...
Almond butter chicken with zucchini noodles
Cajun-style steak with spicy mango glaze
Both are from Paleoleap.com so if you haven't seen or used their website you should check them out. They have Keto recipes too!

Until next month! P.S. Apologies for what are likely many grammatical errors as I ran out of time and didn't want to wait to review it later.

Long Time No Speak

Wow! I hadn't realised it had been as long as it has since my last post. How can I possibly condense three months into a readable post without boring anyone? My apologies that you will miss out on much from the last few months, but hopefully I can at least mention those things that are important and interesting.

UPDATES:

Exercise 

Boxing routine

I was .1kg off from reaching my goal of 2kg of muscle mass gained from my 6 week program. The deposit was then put towards a 10 week membership (of which I have used little). Ultimately, I feel stronger and energised! I love exercising again! The only thing I still don't like is the time commitment. I found it way easier to work out at home so I have tried harder to do that every day. Matt and I even did boxing together one night and had a blast.

Psychologist
I stopped seeing my psychologist. She was helping but I had received a prompting that some of my issues were more biological. I started taking my supplements for pyrolluria and was a little better. Then I remembered a guy who has an orthomolecular clinic. We contacted him and it just so happens he was on his way to get a fancy bioresonance machine and told us to contact him in September when he received it. The appointment blew my mind!!

Here's a succinct description. The machine sends a frequency out to midpoints in the body and the body send a response back. It is almost like echo location. The machine then compares this information to what is considered ideal and rates the cells on a scale from well to unwell basically. When it finds issues it goes deeper and for one tricky portion of my duodendum it went all the way into the makeup of my dna for the cell and found an issue. It can find and identify bacteria, viruses, fungi, cancerous cells, mood problems, blood flow issues, etc... Aside from the diagnosis it can then do various treatments where the machine will replicate the exact frequency of an herb or crystal for example and you can watch as the response in the cells can change from unwell to semi well or the like. It was AMAZING! There is so much I could say about this, but that is sufficient. If you want to learn more you will have to contact me. We learned I have an issue in my ovary and that untreated it would like turn in to ovarian cancer. He did Matt as well and our first step for treatment is a natural antibiotic to remove the bacteria that is causing harm. We haven't taken it long, but watch this space for updates!

VIPKids
I'm still doing online teaching and went from just a few classes a week to 20+! Now that the Chinese students are off their holidays they are filling up my slots from 8:30pm to 10:30 most of the time. Doing four classes at night is a lot, but when I see the earnings I feel it is worth it. If Matt isn't home from work to take Sakura I just work to put her to bed in time so I can start my classes. I miss doing fun things at night, but this is a sacrifice to help me pay off my student debt. Mostly it just sucks because some days I don't even see or talk to Matt.

AirBnB
We still get bookings on a semi-regular basis and have had some really great experiences. Our last long stay was an amazing Irish couple and we loved getting to know all about Ireland. According to them, avoid Dublin and spend your holiday on the west side of Ireland where it is more beautiful.

Garage

During...

Hooray our garage white ant damage has FINALLY been repaired, plastered, and painted. They moved our shelves back but we now need to reorganise. I'm so excited because now that it is starting to get hot, hopefully I can park in the garage and won't have to put Sakura in a sauna when I go out. You can't tell by the pictures how much better it is, but there's a lot more space now.

After

Finances
I have finally sorted out our finances with the help of Essential Spending Planner. My review is on her facebook page so I will not cover all the details. I will say I felt strongly Sherri and her business was going to help me so I finally contacted her at a point where I was basically using spending as my coping mechanism. Through her help I finally had the knowledge, motivation, and strength to change my mindset about money. If you ever catch yourself saying "I deserve something nice" just STOP! I now make a plan for spending on the things I want and don't have to worry I will be taking money from something else to do so. The spending plan software has its pros and cons, but it is better than my attempts of doing the same forecasting type of thing in a spreadsheet. I still have lots of finetuning, but we are doing way better financially not just personally, but with the business as well. Sherri can give an intro and do a skype session with anyone if you are interested in learning more. I only wish I had done something sooner because I think we would have paid off my debts a lot quicker.

In case you are wondering if this is accurate and current... it is not.

What else? 
We still try to dedicate Saturday night's for games nights. Sometimes I have to cancel, but we have had lots of fun. I'm hoping people will continue to come! I'm also starting up a once a month craft group so we will see how that goes. Next week is the first meet up.

As if my life wasn't busy enough, I added more to my plate. I spent weeks doing research, updating my CV, and speaking to professional psychologists so that I could apply to the University of Queensland Psychology Honours Program. Hopefully I will hear about the results soon. I just learned I missed the deadline for one of my backup Universities.

Also I started to volunteer with the Red Cross where I call a participant once a week for about half an hour. My participant is a lovely older woman with a lot of mental health issues and many people constantly tell her she just overthinks things. Having suffered from anxiety and depression we get along just fine. It makes me feel good that I can help her talk to someone who truly understands what is like to get anxious over something that seems silly to everyone else.

Another big update is that we have been released from our calling in Nursery. I will be perfectly honest and am not afraid for others to know... I asked to be released. I loved the kids with all my heart, but I still couldn't find joy in the calling. I dreaded going and when I was really sick, then Sakura, then Matt it was a pain to constantly find subtitutes for us. It was getting to the point where I struggled attending church in general. I still miss the kids, but it is a relief to not have that responsibility. I find being around toddlers to be rewarding but draining. Thank goodness I have not chosen to work in childcare! I still have to remind myself I am not a failure for asking to be released. In the end I knew for their sake and my own it would be better to let the bishop know I was struggling. My plate is pretty full already - especially since Matt has been working 80 hour weeks for months so I'm not sure what calling I will get next. We will just have to wait and see.

Sakura's a Chatterbox
Over the last months Sakura has blossomed in terms of language development. She talks all the time and usually with intelligible words you can understand. She also speaks in full sentences often like "Where is Shade" or "Where'd it go." Her favourite book is called "Oh Dear" and to our suprise one night she could basically read it herself. She also loves counting and can easily count to 10 and she recognises what the numbers look like. I heard her doing the ABC's in the car the other day as well. Instead of just dancing to nursery rhymes she also will sing sometimes and will do all the words to Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes. It is so amazing to watch her grow! She's constantly saying words we didn't know she knew and her comprehension is really good. Toddler tantrums still happen often and teething is a constant issue, but for the most part we love being around her and the joy she brings to our lives. I'm already planning her 2 year Halloween Birthday Party!

Sakura's Playdates

Sakura and her playdate Cristiano meet twice a week and the bond between them is so fun to watch. The last few times Sakura cries when I take her home because she doesn't want to leave her friend. Here are some highlights of their times together:

 Other Stuff

Cooking!
I had to add a not regarding my cooking endeavours. I've had lots of success making healthy and natural meals. From making homemade applesauce, gluten and dairy free empanadas, risotto, cinnamon rolls, and more. The biggest hit this month was the pecan caramel cheesecake bars. Matt said it was the best thing I had ever made! When you remember that Matt is not a great compliment giver - that makes his statement HUGE! Basically they tasted like caramel cookie dough ice cream bars. Super yummy. I also perfected the homemade coconut yoghurt so it now has the perfect yoghurt texture. Also, now that I know homemade applesauce (no sweetener added btw) can be so easy and amazing in a pressure cooker - we will be making that often! My favourite recipe this month though was the Almond Butter Chicken Salad. This was an amazing dish that tasted like it would have come from a thai restaurant and was super healthy and yummy!

Homemade applesauce

Bacon burgers with gluten free buns

Roast chicken and vegetables

Veggie fritters (before)

Veggie fritters (after)

Pecan Caramel Cheesecake Bars

Family Photos! 
Sakura's childcare was offering a family portrait session with a professional photographer. We just wanted the free big photo. So we went and tried to coordinate outfits. The guy from Natural Light Portraits was AMAZING! He got spectacular smiles out of Sakura in every photo. It was only 10-15 minutes but we knew at least a few would be good. When I showed up to look at the prints ALL of them were amazing! He was also cheaper than some of the places I've seen advertising so we bought the whole package. I do not regret it at all. I am so happy with them I think we may get family photos from them in the future.

Sewing
I haven't done too much sewing, but Brianna and I started on our shift dresses and have only done the first steps so nothing to show for it. I did however hem one of our guests jean shorts and taught his partner how to sew in the process. We then later went to Costco so she could buy her own machine! I'm excited to see what she creates in the future. I also finished our hall tapestry divider although I stayed up past midnight doing it one night. It was so satisfying to finally finish it! Sakura has enjoyed playing with it and it definitely does help divide the space like we wanted.

Not so great stuff...
Not everything was amazing the last couple of months. We had an electric bill that was 5 times our normal size. We decided it was due to a faulty heater we had in Sakura's room and got rid of it. Since it was the end of winter we managed to get a super fancy wall heater for only $25 to replace it. That heater I can even control by an app so I can turn it on and off as needed without going into the room. Woohoo.

Also, one day I was about to take Sakura to visit her friend Cristiano and my car wouldn't start. His mom came and picked Sakura up for me and I had to get my car towed to the mechanic. $1400 later the car was fixed up. Unfortunately the car was dead again yesterday and we jump started it to get it going. As it has a new battery I'm not sure what is wrong.


Another time I was about to take the two kids to a playcentre only to discover I had misplaced my keys. I searched EVERYWHERE. I was getting so frustrated and stressed about it. I prayed and felt they were somewhere close and I would find them eventually. In the afternoon I went to a doctor appointment and on my way walking back with Sakura I noticed my keys sitting on top of the car! They had been missing from 9am to about 4pm! Geez.

8 Year Anniversary with fruit and chocolate

Matt and I also had our ups and downs because we haven't been able to talk much with me working at night and him working 80 hour weeks. This is just disaster waiting to happen due to miscommunication. We worked through it, but what we both need is TIME! Important discussions or decisions really need time to be worked through and not get snippets here and there in between watching the kids or getting ready for bed. Marriage is so much harder than you think when you are single. I still love him and we had a good 8 year anniversary this month, but there are days.... :)

Then there was also a day I got a call from my bank about a suspicious $23 transaction. I looked up my bank transactions to find that someone had my card details and had spent over $2400 that day. Luckily we sorted it out fast enough and I was able to get all of that money returned within a day or two. The worst part is I'm still not sure how my card details were obtained. Bad things just happen so you can't always prevent them.

FUN EVENTS

Ekka!
Matt had to work so since I had already gotten a ticket for him I asked Brianna to go with me to the Ekka show in Brisbane. We had a great time! Going to those things with Sakura just makes it so much more fun. We got there really late in the afternoon so didn't have time to explore much, but at least we stayed for the whole night show and fireworks.

 

University of Queensland Open Day
Matt and I went to the University of Queensland so I could get some questions answered about the psychology program. Can't say the trip was super helpful other than I was told once again how competitive the program is. Nevertheless I felt confident that they had the program I was looking for. I need a professional doctorate in clinical psychology. Sakura had lots of fun and even had a little dip in the pond with Matt so it was a fun family day in the end.

Ariala's 
Matt and I had planned to go to another all you can eat place called Ariala's, but then he decided he couldn't afford to have any gluten at all. So I made it a ladies night and invited anyone that wanted to come! We had a group of seven in the end. The food was great, but my favourite part was actually seeing some ladies I had not really talked to much before and getting to know them a little more. I also decided restaurants should invest more in round tables so that no one is ever on the very edge and left out of conversations.

Comic Con
We went to the comic con four our anniversary and used last year's halloween costumes. Thank goodness Sakura could still fit into her pikachu costume. She was so adorable some people just wanted a picture of her. Others knew we were Ash and Serena and wanted the whole family. It was fun, but underwhelming as I expected it to be a much larger affair. The best part was actually the sewing patterns of costumes I got that were on sale for $5 each! Dressing up was fun too.

It was also fun to see Jennis and her family there!

Farewell Katie
One of the youth I taught in Parramatta is leaving to serve her mission in Canada. I am so excited for her. Her family lives in Coomera so we left after church to go see her. When we arrived we had to pee and when we discovered the local servo didn't have a toilet we went to the chapel nearby. There we were surprised to see friends from Parramatta! They had moved to the Gold Coast area way before, but we lost contact. They didn't know we were in Queensland and it turns out we are on their way to family. It was crazy and amazing to run into them in that moment. They are amazing and I hope we can organise a few get togethers. Their son turns one on October 31st the day after Sakura. I told her he should come to her party and we can have two cakes or something.

After a long chat we finally made it to Katie's. We were there all day and didn't leave till night time. I love that family! We had so much fun. Sakura loved the dog, the trampoline with the dog, playing hide and seek, and playing with slime. One time during hide and seek she hid so well no one found her. She just randomly appeared in the hallway so we don't know where she actually hid herself! It was a good long day! We even got chiropractor adjustments from Elise who basically proved to me the four chiropractors I've seen earlier in my life were not good enough. She even did Sakura and we had lots of giggles in the process. I hope we can visit them more.

Not much else to report! Here are some more Sakura moments though: