Camping and Fun Adventures

 I had planned to write this blog soon after Halloween, and suddenly a whole month has gone by. Oh well. As promised here is the synopsis of some of our October adventures. 

CAMPING

Some friends were going camping for a long weekend, and so I arranged to join them even though Matt could only come for one night due to work. We stayed at the Kenilworth Campgrounds, which is about 1.5 hours North West from where I live. 

I managed to pack everything, including all of the stuff on top of the car. My neighbour was a bit startled to find me on top of the car strapping things down!

The first night we set up the tent and gazebo and had sausages at the fire with the Waterson's until the Ardern's arrived late. We set up their camper trailer late at night. I was just glad I managed to get Sakura to go to sleep even if it was really late. 

The next morning we went to the local doughnut shop. I bought a few gluten-free ones for Sakura, but surprisingly she didn't want any. I ate too many doughnuts in the end. 

We went to Booloumba Falls and did Figtree Walk. I was surprised none of the boys was keen on climbing inside the tree on the walk, so I tried to see how far I could go while pregnant. Sakura had a great time at the little pool. It was a bit too cold for her to want to get in, but I enjoyed it, and she loved throwing rocks with her new friends. 

It was a bit of a different camping experience as we had portable fridge/freezers, and cooked meals in a camping kitchen of sorts. The result was some delicious meals!

On Saturday we had a chill morning before we headed out to Cotton Tree Beach. It was an hour drive, and I seriously needed a nap, so it was a bit of a difficult drive. Sakura had a marvellous time catching fish in her bucket with the other kids. After some resting, I went for a swim and tried to cross to the island nearby...turns out that was a bad idea. The current was so strong it just pulled me farther down the shore. I was a bit nervous as I couldn't touch and was running out of stamina. That taught me to take a bit more care with what my pregnant body was capable of. 

We had fish and chips, ice cream, and then drove back to camp for a nice relaxing afternoon. We played some campfire games like black magic and mafia. Matt arrived that night. I had really missed him. I had plenty of support and entertainment for Sakura, but I am used to always reviewing my day with Matt, and it was odd not having him around. 

Sunday we hiked Kondalilla Falls. It was beautiful and very crowded. We thought we could do a bit of a swim, but the water was FREEZING! Matt wowed us all by climbing a tree and jumping into the water like some of the other adventurous people had done. Sadly no video. I got in and had a bit of a shock. Still, it was refreshing. When we got back, we played board games and had pulled pork before Matt had to go back home. 

Our last day, we packed up and visited the dairy. We went to Maleny, a small nearby town for lunch. It was only midday, so I decided Sakura, and I would go on a hike before getting home. Our final act was hiking Mt. Ngun Ngun. Sakura was such a trooper for doing the whole hike mostly by herself. She also did really well rock climbing. Many were shocked to see a pregnant woman and a two-year-old at the top climbing around. 

SEA WORLD

We bought a season pass to the local theme parks including Movie World, Sea World, Wet N' Wild, and more. Our first visit was to Sea World for their special Halloween night. Sakura LOVED the different animals. The biggest hit was the stingray exhibit. She was super nervous at first to touch them, but after a while, she was putting her whole arm in the water to touch them. I don't remember ever being able to feed stingrays before, and it was a fun experience. 

We were a bit disappointed with the Halloween night experience. All of the special activities you had to pay extra for. The dolphin show was pretty much the same as the original one as well. It was a really long day, but we all had a good time. Next time we will make sure we bring swimmers though!

SAKURA IS 3!

We did basically nothing for Sakura's birthday. She had childcare that day, but she knew the day was special because she got everything she asked for, and I would say "Ok because it's your birthday." She asked for some chocolate that night and told Matt "Daddy, it's my birthday. Can I have some chocolate?" She got some fun gifts from family, though! Our swingset gift is still sitting in the garage, though. I want to mow the lawn first, but that required fixing the mower. I got it fixed, but now it's a matter of time and manpower. Anyway, she still had a good day. 

HALLOWEEN

I still had my Halloween party this year. This time it wasn't all about Sakura's birthday, but it was one reason I did nothing for her actual birthday. She happily ate cupcakes and watched movies, so all good. We didn't have many shows up this time as there were quite a few other birthday and Halloween parties going on. It was still a fun night filled with good friends and great board games. Next year I hope to have more success at making a costume. I didn't want to make an effort to make a pregnant worthy costume when I didn't know if I could ever use it again. 

A sad part was we couldn't really do pumpkin carving this year. Few places had pumpkins and sold out early. Apparently, some farmers decided not to grow any at all because last year they had a surplus and lost a lot of money because there wasn't enough demand. So sad. We did the next best thing...

MOVIE WORLD

Matt happened to have a day off when I had arranged to go to Movie World with my friend Lee-Anne and Sakura's bestie Cristiano. They had a grand time! We put Sakura on a car ride where they get to actually push the pedal and steer. The result was her just sitting there refusing to move. Luckily she liked all the other rides. It turns out as a pregnant lady I can't even stand on the carousel and am required to sit down. They have a tiny kids area, so I think it is the kind of place best for just a few hours. 

Matt is taking work off late December for a month, so he can help when the baby comes. We have plans to stay at an Airbnb for 4 days (cheaper than camping this time) on the Gold Coast so we will likely visit all the theme parks at that time. All the walking will be good for me. 

I'll have another blog with other updates, but this one had so many photos I wanted to keep it separate. Hope you enjoyed it!

Third Trimester

 Things got busy for me quickly for the last few months. I also got very slack in writing in my daily journal and planner, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't possibly recall everything since my last blog. This morning as I pondered what I should be doing, I felt prompted that I needed to write my blog. I was reading in my scriptures, and they talked about the importance of writing down our experiences, so I will strive to be more diligent with this. 

Third Trimester

I have now reached my third trimester! All is going well, although my diet could seriously use an overhaul. Many of my appointments are over the phone, but my last midwife appointment they felt the baby was a little small so had me do an ultrasound. All is fine and apparently if your baby isn't exactly at the 50% normal range of measurements some midwives feel it's a concern. I may have gestational diabetes though. I find out this week. They had me go in for a blood test, and my glucose was a bit high, so I then had to return for the long test. That test you have to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. having fasted since the night before. They take your blood, give you a glucose drink that is 75g of pure glucose, retake your blood 1 hour later, then again at the 2-hour mark. It's not too bad, and I got a bit of reading done, but I felt bad for the poor girl that doesn't normally have sugar so her body kind of went into shock after having the drink. We have a healthy baby girl due to arrive January 5th, and all is well. 

Another Semester Done....or Not Done?

I finished all my courses for the last semester. This semester was awesome learning about how to do psychological assessments and ethics in psychology. Psychologists really are expected to uphold to very high ethical standards, some of which make running a business tricky. For example, psychologists (at least in Australia) aren't allowed to have any testimonials advertising for their business. The other class was also really interested as it repeatedly demonstrated the importance of understanding the core contributors to a person's problem to assist in coming up with appropriate treatment. For example, many people with sleep problems have depression symptoms. Instead of treating the depression, it may be more appropriate to treat the sleep issues first and see what issues, if any, remain. Here is a website with some good sleep suggestions. It seems to me, we could all use a lot of help when it comes to getting better sleep. 

I was overjoyed my last week of classes that I would finally have time to catch up on house things I had been putting off. Unfortunately, the last week our marks for final assessments were released, and the results sparked a lot of frustration. Without going into too much detail, we had an assessment worth 40% of our final grade. I had studied a lot and felt confident in my ability to get a minimum of 70% on it, although the nature of the assessment involved some subjectivity. It was a shock to receive 47%. In truth, I wasn't that upset at first and actually laughed. I had felt the exam was a bit subjective, and my grade proved my point. Later, I was more upset when I discovered many others also did poorly, and it seemed nothing was going to occur to rectify the issue. For some students, such a poor mark and therefore, poor final grade will greatly reduce their chances of getting into a good post-graduate program to become a psychologist. There is not really a good system for making anonymous complaints, and many were reluctant to do anything fearing it would hurt their future chances. I filed a formal complaint, and another student anonymously collected all those that were dissatisfied with the assessment to make another formal complaint (2/3 of the class responded). Now we are waiting for the decision to be made. It's so unfortunate because I really enjoyed the class, but that one assessment has somewhat ruined the experience.

Work

This month I discovered that I don't value myself enough. Working for Matt's company and a friends psychology clinic as a bookkeeper and more I thought would be simple enough. I thought once I got things set up, it would be easy to work just one day a week, but that has not been the case. There are e-mails, phone calls, and other tasks like getting paperwork ready for new hires that pop up. It hasn't been overwhelming, but I was not changing my pay based on my actual workload. I finally rectified this when an HR company confirmed I was paying myself below the base wage for someone in my role. I am now recording my time spent and paying myself an appropriate wage. It's been such an interesting learning experience! Hopefully, we will be able to continue to find ways to systematise as much as possible so things won't always take as much time and thought as they are at present. If anyone is thinking of starting a business, I suggest you start doing your research now. There are so many legal requirements to be aware of from tax obligations, record-keeping, work health and safety, and other industry-specific regulations. I'm grateful I am learning all of this because these are skills that will be useful for life. 

Sakura

Sakura turns three this week! I have been told 3-year-olds are the worst age. If Sakura's behaviour over the last month is an indication of things to come, then I can believe it will be a challenging year. Her tantrums have become much more extreme, and things are often 'it's my way, or the bomb explodes'. We have read and tried to practice positive discipline techniques as well as other beneficial parenting tips, but have not mastered anything. I am getting better at keeping calm, but it is never fun when your child has a 30-minute tantrum because you shut a window they wanted open. Or when it's time to go somewhere they run and hide from you. I have not found any means of predicting what will upset her, so I just have to try to listen carefully, acknowledge her feelings, and help her work through the issue. My least favourites are days and times where I can't take the time I would like to help her calm down, so I have to forcibly change her nappy or buckle her in the car seat. Mum life sure can be rough!

On a more positive note... this girl has really picked up on her communication skills and found many more ways to be absolutely adorable. She loves to sleep in and regularly will shut the door when I try to get her up early. Today she didn't get up till 9:30 a.m. even though she went to bed around 8:30 p.m. Some days she happily watches a movie while I take much-needed naps. She is also keen on helping with everything! It takes a lot of time and patience, but I enjoy her helping me cook, clean, fold clothes, and whatever else. She will only wear dresses and refuses to wear pants or shorts. Luckily, my homemade pattern from one of her other dresses has helped me create slightly larger versions. That's all she wears right now, and I'm glad it only takes a few hours max to make a new one for her. Half of them are badly stained already too. Someone needs to teach me how to get oil stains out of clothes because my efforts ended up slightly dying the material - whoops! 

I have been taking Sakura swimming at a big heated pool lately and have been very impressed with her enthusiasm for swimming. The first time I took her it had been nearly 6 months I think since we had gone swimming in a pool. She was hesitant to swim without me holding her, but after about an hour, she was happily jumping into the pool and kicking and paddling to me. She kept yelling "Go Back!" for me to go farther away for her to swim to me. Unfortunately, she can't hold her breath as long as the distance would require so I meet her as far as I think she can hold her breath. I wish I had a video to document it. 

Chickens

Out of six chickens, five of them turned out to be roosters. One mysteriously disappeared one day. We slowly started killing them once one started crowing. WARNING: Do not read the rest of this section if you are squeamish or against killing chickens. It sort of became a Sunday activity for a while as that was the only time Matt could do it. Ginger was his favourite, so that first one to go was a bit traumatic for him. Well, as part of our self-sustainable learning process, we learned how to go through the process of killing and eating your own hand-raised chickens. I killed two in the end because they were soooo annoying!! Rapunzel was our gympie legged chicken which turned out to be VERY aggressive once he became the alpha male (we only had two left at the time). Somehow he managed to travel very quickly and would peck at my legs. He bit Sakura once, and I decided it was time. It was a traumatic experience for me because I wasn't good at holding the stick at his neck with enough pressure, so I had to try 2 more times. Sakura was right next to me laughing hysterically as Rapunzel flapped around and she kept saying "Is it funny Rapunzel? Is it funny?". I also killed Tiana, the last one, who finally found a voice and would not shut up. That time I also cut off the head afterwards so it would be ready for Matt to finish when he got home. That experience taught me that I will never try to kill a chicken by cutting off its head. Tiana was already dead, but I can't imagine what that would have been like if the chicken was still living! We now don't have any chickens and won't get any more until Matt finishes building the chicken run (it has been two months and not much has happened on that regard). Next time we will get sexed pullets. I loved having the chicks, but I don't have the time or energy to devote to them like I did and if they aren't sexed it just isn't worth it. 

Other Events

Father's day!

I have had a lot of other things going on, including social get-togethers. I think these experiences have really helped me with my mental health! I haven't had major depression or anxiety episodes in a while, and I think a lot of that has come from doing things with great friends. I have had some fun nights reading plays including The Importance of Being Earnest, and most recently The Puffs play. It has made it very evident that I am terrible at doing accents. 

I had a girl's night out with strawberry ice cream cones and a musical with a large group of ladies. Then a cultural food night and played telephone pictionary (can't remember the actual boxed version name). It has been a lot of fun! COVID made it a little difficult because for a little while they restricted us to only have 10 gathered at a time, but now it is 40 people so all should be good for my Halloween party on Saturday! 

Sakura and I had some fun outings and playdates. Most notable was our last trip to the zoo before my membership expired. She had a lot of fun, and I was so proud of her for walking the whole time. 

I had some other big events like a fun camping trip and Sea World, but I decided those would be better to cover in a separate blog. So wait for the next blog to hear about camping, Sea World, and Halloween!

COVID Life Continues

I've been slacking on blog writing so apologies for the length. I started doing some quick journals in an app on a regular basis. My family also all got on Whatsapp so I regularly keep up to date with them. This has led to me not having a lot of motivation to put the time into a blog. Realistically though, I am more likely to review my blogs to remember how my life was so I guess I better get back to writing!

June 26 I became an Australian Citizen!

Pregnancy Updates

I am currently 19 weeks pregnant! Luckily in the 2nd trimester I stopped feeling sick all the time with a sensitive tummy. My favourite memory was puking in the car in the McDonald's drive thru, and was very grateful I found a bag in time. The best part was Sakura in the back going "Are you ok mommy?" 

Other than that occurrence, things have really calmed down. I really struggle to take my supplements, but most days I feel ok. Just a daily nap and making sure I eat often enough. My biggest issue is that my stomach doesn't seem to be satisfied with certain foods and therefore I feel sick. I have felt the baby kick a few times, but not much. In a few weeks I will get an ultrasound and confirm the gender - we expect it to be a girl. My mom and sister have planned to come for the birth January 5th so we hope they won't have flights cancelled. 

(P.S. Matt took heaps of photos and this was the best one)

School 

I finished my last semester of Psychology Honours and didn't do as well as I had hoped on final exams, but all things considered, I think I did well enough. The new semester has started now and it is so much better than last semester! This semester we are learning how to do psychological assessments and all about the ethics of being psychologists. We watched the video below in class :). We have a lot of great discussions and very applicable to actually working as a psychologist. It's a bit daunting though as we are learning how complex it all is. My friend Jared is also in class this semester with me so it is nice to be able to discuss topics further together. 

Work

Matt's business took a dip at the beginning of the Coronavirus situation, but luckily this allowed us to qualify for some government assistance. Now we are actually doing better than before for the most part! It has been such a relief to not stress about the business finances for the moment. I did start doing bookkeeping for my friend's psychology clinic In Mind Therapy Pty Ltd which has been quite difficult to get things up and running. It has tested my knowledge in many ways, but as of July I finally got all the books organised with the software program and am just trying to finetune things. They are a growing business so the books are much more complicated to keep track of than Matt's, but it feels good to help organise this stuff for them. It will save them so much time, money, and potential liabilities in the long run. Seriously, if you have a small business - get yourself a bookkeeper. I cringe when I hear people doing all their business finances manually in a spreadsheet. My consultant that helps me for tricky bookkeeping tasks is looking for more clients if you are near me in Australia https://www.invisionbookkeeping.com.au/. 

Sakura

Sakura is still the center of our universe and likes to take advantage of that. She has reached a stage in life where her demands are constant and in many cases telling her "No" can result in a 20-30 minute meltdown. Here is a recent example: At a playgroup in the park the leader came and told us we would do music time in 5 minutes. Sakura was very excited about this and told her best friend Cristiano "C'mon it's music time!" as he was on the swing. When he got off the swing a minute later she says "I need to go on the swing." When I told her we were going to go do music time instead she lost it and decided to scream and cry then began to run away. Running seems to be her favourite coping style so I just watched her as she ran down the bath circling the park. I have learned following her sometimes makes it worse so I wait for her to cycle back. She eventually went on a path that led to residential houses so I went after her just in time for her to trip and fall and cry harder. She calmed down after that. Another example: "Do you want eggs for breakfast?" Sakura: "Yeah I want eggs." By the time I start making them she has decided she doesn't want eggs and won't eat them. Sometimes she does the same things with multiple alternatives too. It is excessively draining. I have also discovered this girl is a sensory seeker and for whatever reason loves to be a little too touchy for my liking. To explain, she frequently will rub her face all over my face, likes to step on my feet, will kick and put her feet all over me while we sit next to each other, and plants wet kisses on my lips at random times. It's cute, but a bit overkill for me. Nevertheless, I love how she laughs hysterically as she watches Wreck It Ralph or tells me every time I pick her up from childcare that the lamp post is the moon. At the end of every movie she has a dance party so at least she isn't a couch potato. She's a bit addicted to watching movies right now, but with everything going on in my life I don't have the energy for her meltdowns when I restrict her movie time. Oh well. I will just own the consequences that come. Right now she only wants to wear one of her dresses (thank you Laura), refuses to let me do her hair, wear pants, jackets, or socks. I managed to make a dress for her, but the brown apparently wasn't a big hit - I'll post a picture next time when I get it on her. We have had so many fun moments that I figured the best way to highlight it all was in a movie so here you go!

Chickens

Matt has yet to finish the chicken run so our chickens roam the whole back yard. The result is a disgusting looking patio and I avoid going out into the backyard for anything. If we leave the trampoline net open they like to wander on that and poo too. Gross. One of our hens disappeared one day, and then Matt's favourite rooster "Ginger" starting crowing. We are not legally allowed to have roosters so we had to either give him away or kill him. Matt opted to get the maximum use and so one Sunday we said goodbye Ginger. I apparently traumatised some family members with posting the pics and videos I took of it all so instead here's the photo of them all prior. It was a good learning experience and although there was little meat the bone broth was very high in collagen. Soon after another rooster "Moana" took charge and had to go as well. We are now down to three and we know our gympie one is a hen, but not too sure about the other two. Time will tell. I refuse to get more chickens until Matt finishes their run so who knows when that will be. Sundays are his only free days right now. 

New Car

I bought a new car! This was a very difficult decision for me, but I learned a lot from the process. I really struggled to decide what mattered most to me so I missed out on some good opportunities because I took to long. It all worked out though. A Honda CRV with a perfect service history popped up and I organised to test drive it the following day. As I arrived someone was already out with it! I put a hold on it with a plan to purchase if all went well with my mechanics pre-purchase check. All went well. Unfortunately, the guy that test drove it before me offered to buy it if I didn't so I had NO negotiating power and could not get the price I hoped for. The result was paying about $1000 over market value, but considering how good of a condition it was in and the high demand of small SUVs I feel I did pretty well. So far I have been loving having more space. 

The best part was selling my old 2005 Honda Civic. Because it needed major repairs in the next while I couldn't get a roadworthy certificate (this makes it harder to sell). My mechanic said I might get $1000 and after some research I listed it for $1500 and was honest with the major repairs necessary. To my surprise I had multiple calls and e-mails within 5 minutes of posting the ad! The 1st guy that arrived was the best case scenario. He was a wholesale dealer so could just change registration to the dealership even though the car didn't have a roadworthy certificate. We couldn't find the back headrests and he didn't mind and paid the $1500 cash on the spot. He also registered it within a few hours of swapping paperwork. I was ecstatic. Apparently, lots of people buy these types of cars needing work, fix it up themselves, and then re-sell it. 

Social Fun

With easing COVID restrictions I finally got out and had some fun with friends. One night I went to a girl's movie night at a friend's house and we had delicious soup, snacks, and desserts and watched the newest version of Emma. It was hilarious! Another night I went to San Churro with two others. The best part of that night was I made a new friend. I had known Kelly before when we were in the same ward, but I never had much time or conversation with her. The three of us chatted so much we were just talking in the car well past midnight! This led to us later organising a girl's movie night to watch David Copperfield at the theater which had a surprising turnout of about 9 women and many I hadn't seen in a very long time! We went to San Churro's afterwards and stayed late catching up. It was after that experience that I reflected on how much I have actually been struggling because my social needs weren't being met.

I'm so glad there are other's out there like Jennis willing to make the effort to coordinate activities and bring people together. Additionally, it has been awesome making new friends like the Watersons. We had an amazing Mediterranean dinner with them and the Arderns one night and I was pleased to find the majority was gluten and dairy free! I went to an end of financial year work dinner for the psychology clinic and got to catch up with Brianna who I haven't caught up with in a really long time. Later we met up again for a belated 4th of July party at my place to watch 1776 - the musical I watched growing up for the 4th of July. I'm not sure everyone loved it, but I'm glad I was able share it with them anyway and provide a different part of US History rather than what the new musical Hamilton provides. Last night we had our first normal games night since COVID and had a blast. It has been wonderful spending time with amazing people! Sometimes it just takes one person to organise something. I just need to get better at taking photos when these things happen!

What's In the Pot with the In Mind Therapy masterminds

Pilpel Restaurant in Redcliffe with Arderns and Watersons