Pregnancy and Moving to Brisbane

It’s officially been over three months since my last blog and a LOT has happened! Unlike my usual organised self, I have not been recording important events or anything in my diary since getting pregnant so there is a lot that will be missed.

The Pregnancy

As I bet most who know me are most interested in how the pregnancy has been going. If I could describe my pregnancy in two words I would say awful and overwhelming! I believe in being 100% honest and open about my experiences and I can’t say I have liked anything about being pregnant. Literally the day I told my employer I was pregnant (at 6 weeks) I started to have pregnancy symptoms. I absolutely HATE vomiting and at first, I thought I was lucky because I felt nauseous but wasn’t vomiting much. However, my nausea and stomach discomfort was lasting all day long so I started to think maybe I needed to vomit to feel better. I helped coax my body to vomit once and did feel better, but the same attempt didn’t work later so I gave up trying. Add to all this the debilitating tiredness I was miserable at work. My co-workers were great, and my boss let me go lay down if I really needed it so I was really glad I told them right away. It wasn’t hard for anyone to notice I was “off” and not doing well.

Gluten foods like Pasta are so tasty!

After just a couple of weeks I was hating life. It felt like I had the flu or some kind of sickness and didn’t know if it would ever end. Food was a problem as well. You may recall I was doing a gluten free dairy free diet prior to pregnancy and this was likely a major contributor of me even being able to get pregnant. I quickly discovered that not only was I hungry every two hours, but I had to have something heavy and substantial otherwise I still felt sick so I gave up and bought bread and found it was the first time something I ate had settled my stomach. This was stressful though because I was terrified that eating gluten and dairy would actually harm the baby (the MTHFR gene mutation I have is linked to miscarriages and pregnancy problems). Matt gave me a priesthood blessing and stated that “my body would handle the gluten” and that “the Lord does not take bringing a [child] into this world lightly.” After that I learned that I just had to eat what I could eat and that seemed to be mostly unhealthy foods like pizza or something that sounded really tasty. I had all these plans to exercise and eat well throughout, but quickly learned that during pregnancy I couldn’t control what my body wanted. In the end, I could only do whatever helped me get through the day.

Eventually I started to get general anxiety and have various triggers that would make me feel VERY sick and vomit. There was an app that would send me daily e-mails about the baby and pregnancy based on my timeline. Thinking about the “alien” in my body just made me feel sick so I had to start deleting them. One day at work my boss asked me about what size the baby was and after responding I felt so sick I had to run to the toilet to vomit. Discussing other topics like the new computer I was going to get made me nauseous. The idea of eating vegetables sounded disgusting and there was chicken coconut curry Matt and I liked that I had only a little one day and then after that the smell would make me want to vomit. Matt continued to make it often so I had to lock myself in the room till all the smell was gone. Over time I feared going anywhere because I was so sick and tired and I constantly worried I would vomit somewhere public.

I had my first ultrasound around 14 weeks which I was glad I hadn’t seen one earlier because the baby didn’t look like an alien and that might have made me sick. It was the first time where I really accepted I was having a baby. At this stage I had left work and could finally just take a breather and worry about other things such as our move to Brisbane. I was so glad I had quit when I did because I reached the stage of vomiting mid-meal. Luckily, I made it to the toilet every time (mostly) and was surprised that I was hungry again and could finish the rest of my meal without a problem. It was also nice that I could take naps throughout the day if I needed it. Finally, around 16 weeks my all-day sickness had subsided, my energy improved, and I could eat normal size meals.

14 Weeks

Although the sickness is mostly over, I am now still trying to come to terms with the other body changes. As I started to get bigger I made myself some maternity pants that I can continually expand the elastic and maternity maxi skirt so I have some clothing options. Pregnancy hormones have led to me getting acne all over and experiencing heartburn for the first time. To make things more interesting sometimes when I sneeze my bladder releases a little. Too much information? Well it’s the truth and if I have another child someday I want to remember what I went through the first time. I also get sciatica pains at night so I constantly have to switch sides to avoid the pain. So far, I have struggled to comprehend that women can actually hide their first trimester from people, that some women like being pregnant, and that others don’t experience many of these symptoms at all. Matt pointed out that I have never experienced period pains before so I guess my months of pregnancy pains isn’t as bad as the millions of women that experience period pains monthly. 

This week I got to find out the gender of the baby and for the first time I’m happy about something related to pregnancy. We are having a girl! Both Matt and I were hoping for a girl first. This may seem silly, but neither of us are baby people and have struggled to be excited about a baby on the way. We both felt we would bond easier with a girl at first. People told me once you had the baby it wouldn’t matter, but I wasn’t so sure and so it was a relief to find out we are having a girl. Additionally, this is the first time where I have started looking forward to having a child since getting pregnant. Things will get better and at least now I can say I am half way!  I now feel the baby on a daily basis and I described the feeling to Matt as if I have a bubble move in my lower abdomen. Sometimes it makes me jump because it’s unexpectedly strong. Pregnancy has not been fun, but at least now I am accepting what is happening to me.

21 Weeks

The Move

We planned on moving to Brisbane by the end of May before we knew about the pregnancy. At first it seemed like good timing because I would be near the end of my first trimester when I would be leaving work to get things ready for the move. Unfortunately, as I left work I was still sick and didn’t get near as much done as needed. I started to have anxiety about all that I needed to get done and it just got worse each day. Finding a place was proving difficult as I couldn’t just fly to be at the open house whenever I wanted. My friend Cate could go to a couple houses for me, but my applications didn’t go through. I was really trying to find a house that would have lots of extra space for Matt’s painting gear, our food storage, and hopefully room for all my sewing stuff. In the end, I found a complex of townhouses called Vidorra that would let me apply for an available townhouse that fit the floorplan we wanted. I felt good about the location and confident that it fit our needs at least so although I hadn’t physically seen the place, we organised a 12-month lease for a unit and could finally move on to the other steps of moving.

Before I had a place set up I was able to get a cheap flight to Brisbane. I figured if I hadn’t found a place by that time it would give me about four days to finalise things. By the time the day came I had already gotten the place so it became more of a holiday in a way. I stayed with my friend Cate who had her baby that week and was dismissed from the hospital the same day I arrived! It worked out perfectly because her mother couldn’t be there until next week and at first, she really needed a lot of help. I was so glad to be able to be there and help at such a crucial time. It was also beneficial for me to learn from her experience and watch what needs to be done when taking the baby home for the first time.

I did spend one day while in Brisbane to travel out to our new place and get the keys. It took about 1.5 hours on public transport so it wasn’t a short trip. For the most part I was pleased with our new home, but quickly discovered a couple of real issues – no space for Matt’s painting stuff (without sacrificing the garage), and the phone reception was basically non-existent. Other than that, I felt like most things would work out, but I wasn’t sure how everything would fit until our stuff arrived. The property is brand new so we get to be the first ones to give it some wear and tear. After reviewing everything and taking pictures, I had to eat before heading back. Unfortunately, while walking I quickly discovered there were no food places anywhere within walking distance. I had to use Uber to get to the nearby NorthLakes shopping centre. To my surprise it took even longer to get back to Cate’s place from there so I was gone nearly all day!

Before I left for Brisbane I had organised how to get all our stuff to Brisbane, which proved to be quite difficult. The largest truck we could hire and drive wouldn’t fit our stuff so the next cheapest option was to get it all taken on a backloaded truck. This also posed a problem because the small driveway we lived on won’t accommodate such a large truck so I had to talk to many companies to determine the best solution. We ended up having them send a loading truck to be put on the backloaded truck later. I was never entirely certain how much space we needed because we hadn’t boxed everything yet. We had 44 boxes in total at the end! We had 12 boxes that we had brought from the states, 20 or so that had been dumped and were basically new, and the rest we bought at the hardware store. The free ones were not double walled so weren’t sure how well they would hold up, but the day the truck arrived they seemed to be not be collapsing. Luckily our ward had four new elders that could come help load the truck and we got everything out quickly and it all fit! The truck with our items was going to arrive at our new place before us so I had met with the bishop of our new ward in North Brisbane and had given him a set of keys so he could let the drivers in to unload. Luckily it all went well!

That last week was hard because most everything that needed to be done Matt had to do because I wasn’t supposed to use any chemical cleaners, lift heavy items, overwork myself, etc. We just did as much as we could and relaxed at the end of the day. In retrospect, we decided we should have kept some chairs to sit on at home because sitting on the floor was uncomfortable. At least we were getting a good night sleep on our air mattress. The youth from church came to help clean, but in the end, they only had 20 minutes so the most I could have them do was wipe down the cupboards. At that point, I knew we needed help to get the place cleaned so we decided to hire a cleaner and I had a guy come look at the place to give me a quote. I told him the main needs were the windows, the kitchen including the oven, and the bathroom. From our chat, it seemed like he was going to do that and more so I felt pretty good about it. The catch was that we had to have the whole place gutted for them to clean. The day of the cleaning we literally were rushing to put everything in the garage.

Shade didn't want to leave the bed, even as I deflated it.

It became quite clear we had A LOT of things to pack in the cars! I was really overwhelmed and had to take the cat and fridge stuff to some friends until the cleaners were done. Matt was going to put some of his painting stuff to a storage garage he rented so he could still work in Sydney for the time being. This became an issue because he wasn’t back for the guy to pick up the dishwasher so I had to leave my friend’s place to take care of the dishwasher guy. To my surprise the cleaners finished at the same time which was a good 2 hours earlier than I had expected. I walked through the home quickly and noticed the shower still had soap scum and the screens didn’t look clean. When I asked the cleaner, he said that the screens were old and they can’t scrub them without potentially breaking the glass. I didn’t really like his answer, but he was in a rush to get to another job and I didn’t want to argue so I paid them and headed back to get my cat. It was a VERY long day, but we were able to sell the fridge and dishwasher (way cheaper than we wanted though), the place had been cleaned, and all our leftover items were in the garage and ready to be put in storage or the cars.

The following day was moving day! I had booked a pet friendly place in Coffs Harbour for that night so we really needed to leave by about 1 or 2pm. We had a pest treatment guy coming at 11am so that morning we had to finish anything not cleaned and Matt had loads of painting touch-ups throughout the place. When cleaning the shower, I felt that the cleaners hadn’t even touched it because they could have easily gotten the soap scum off. With a bit of Windex, I was able to get the screens cleaned and felt the cleaner was just making excuses. I decided to take a picture to show how much of a difference it was.

Can you tell which I cleaned? 

They also clearly hadn’t done the windows as we had hoped so I rushed to do interior and exterior windows. By that time the pest guy had arrived so we had no time to really double check anything, just vacuum and get out! I was exhausted and stressed and felt there was a lot of things that needed to be checked and wiped down, but because of the chemicals I couldn’t go back into the house. Matt went to drop stuff off to storage again while Shade and I sat in the garage with our stuff.

I gave Shade a sedative to prepare him for the long road trip and let him explore a bit while I waited for Matt. It was easy to see it was working as he started to walk funny and just plop over. We packed up the cars and could just barely fit it all in. I had my giant Panda bear in the front seat and Shade in the back in his carrier. I tried to organise everything so he would have decent space to move around. We finally dropped off the keys around 3pm and headed out. Luckily when I called the hotel about our very late check in they just told me the room number and said it would be open when we arrived. I was worried I would be tired and desperately needing a nap, but Shade solved that problem. He meowed constantly! At this stage, the sedatives made his eyes all weird and he seemed really unhappy. He was trying to claw and bite his way out of the cage so I opened the cage thinking maybe he would settle if he could roam around. He didn’t. The sedatives made him not very coordinated so he would lose his balance and fall at times and I was worrying he would hurt himself. He sat on me and meowed in my face then tried to claw his way down to my feet. I got him to go back in the carrier, but then he started passing out in odd positions as if he was dead then wake up and whine even more. I decided he was more aggressive, unhappy, and confused with what was happening to him because of the medicine. Not much I could do about it other than bear with it for the 6-hour drive. Luckily the medicine was starting to wear off when we arrived at the hotel and he instantly adjusted to the room without a problem. Thank goodness!

The second 6-hour drive to our new home was a lot more relaxed. I decided no sedatives for Shade this time and although he whined the whole time and was panting, he wasn’t trying to escape the car and hurting himself. We stopped for lunch at Macadamia Castle for pancakes and let Shade have a break walking around. The drive was absolutely beautiful! Matt and I would often call each other and chat throughout or we would try calling family, but the reception wasn’t very consistent. We eventually made it to our new home! There wasn’t much time to absorb things though because we had prearranged to get a fridge at Costco and hired a guy with a trailer to meet us there. When we returned and installed the fridge Shade was happily curled up in his cat tree in the garage so I was happy he seemed to have adjusted quickly to the new space. The worst was now over!

Our Resident Peacocks

The area is pretty nice. The few neighbours we’ve met in the complex were friendly, the ward was nice, and we absolutely love the nearby North Lakes shopping centre. Matt was going to head back to Sydney, but I convinced him to wait and help move boxes since I couldn’t lift most of them. This proved to be a blessing because a member of our church contacted us and had work for Matt! We had only been in the area for two days so this was a big surprise. Within a week I had unpacked the majority of the kitchen and a few other essentials, most of the furniture was in place, and the place was liveable. I had to go to the shopping centre to use the internet for a few days in order to get our internet and some other things set up. We had to buy a fancy router that would work with the NBN, but it was well worth it. Once I got it all set up we now have over double the speeds we had before! Since we have poor mobile reception we also really need good Wi-Fi for making calls as well.

Matt had to go back to Sydney for some work there and unfortunately, I got a bad cold just before he left. Instead of unpacking I spent all my time resting, watching TV, and trying to get better. At least at this stage I had internet at home and could get our addresses changed and do other computer tasks. Matt flew back this weekend for a job here in Brisbane and will go back again on Sunday.  I don’t mind Matt being gone and in some ways, it makes me feel less stressed about what I didn’t complete as he’s not at home to see. I’ve been motivated to cook more and even made dulce de leche and gluten free tortas fritas! Matt calls them fried turtles because “torta” sounds like “tortuga” the Spanish word for turtle.

I’ve been feeling rather anxious about all that still needs to be done, but mostly I am worried about finding work. In Australia, you can get up to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave from the government. There are a lot of conditions to this, and one is that you can’t have more than 8 weeks of a gap between working. My eight weeks from when I left my job is up on June 16^th and I haven’t felt well enough to even consider looking for work. I really want to work from home and considered doing self-employment for renovating, but it seems to get myself set up that way will require me to spend more money to set it up without any money coming in for some time. Other jobs such as tutoring have the same kind of problem. The other option is employment that is casual or part-time, but I’m not sure what I could handle or if they would want to hire a pregnant woman. Another option is for me to be employed by Matt as I already do a lot of his tax work and administrative work. I’m just not sure that will give me the required hours either. I have six days to figure this out. I’m meeting with my GP on Tuesday to discuss my mental health and to start seeing a psychologist again. Maybe this will make me qualify under the “unable to work” category and I can still qualify? Too many questions. At this stage I need to confirm with the government authority Centrelink exactly what they need for me to be able to meet the requirements for this and what option will work best for me. The truth of the matter is I am not mentally well and I don’t really feel fit to work anywhere at the moment.

Despite all the negatives, we are doing well and I am hopeful for the future. I know that we have been very blessed throughout the pregnancy and move so I know that the Lord is watching over us. The weather has been beautiful here in the Brisbane area and I look forward to making new friends and having everything finalised at home. I better get back to unpacking now because my best friend Laura from Oregon is coming to visit in 9 days! Currently our spare room is more of our junk room so there’s definitely a bit to do! 

Changes

February has proved to be an interesting and memorable month.

After my last blog I had an unexpected occurence at work. The operations manager left the company after 12 long years of working with them. I won't get into all the details, but after struggling with the last time he was on leave I wasn't looking forward to doing the operations role long term. Nevertheless, I have been handling the stress much better this time. I had to come up with better ways for me to do the job long term and although there have been lots of issues, I'm managing. My boss tried to convince me to stay to do the job with a payrise instead of moving to Brisbane, but Matt and I both felt it wasn't the right path for us. My hope is that I can still do my best with the time before I go to get things ready for the new operations manager and new admin. To make me feel better Matt and I have gone out to eat a few times... yumm!

Another bit of exciting news is that my tiger research from my Master's thesis got published! I knew it was accepted, but it's now officially published with the Journal of Bioacoustics. You can access the article here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/kbv2mD5NkJC477ZiV9Vd/full.  Although I did all the reserach, my supervisor Jennifer Clarke did all the work to get this published including revisions and whatnot. This was such a blessing! I had gone through depression while doing the research and I don't know that I could have dealt with working on that stuff again.

The last bit of news is the most dramatic. I'm pregnant! I've been off birth control for a long time (maybe a year?), but we haven't been actively trying really. Matt and I just agreed that we were ready to have it happen when it happened. Last week I thought I was late on my period, but I wasn't sure. While at the store Matt and I got a pregnancy test and I figured I would try the following week. When I got home though I remembered I had recorded my period in my diary and sure enough I was a week late! So the next morning I took the test and it was positive!

I wasn't so sure since I hadn't had any symptoms, but by the beginning of the next week the fatigure and uncomfortable stomach issues started full force. I had to stop my exercise schedule at 6am since that was awful with an upset stomach and I wasn't getting enough sleep. I started going to bed earlier too so I could get through work. I don't really vomit, I just have a perpetually uncomfortable feeling in my stomach and its worse when I don't eat, but it doesn't go away when I do eat. Trying to maintain my gluten free dairy free diet is really difficult when if something doesn't sound good it's really hard to eat it. I caved and had a grilled cheese sandwich yesterday. On the bright side, Matt and I found some great dairy free ice cream at the grocery store!

Well no one said pregnancy was fun. Mostly I just don't like how I don't feel like myself. I'm excited for the new chapter in my life, but it's also nerve wracking that my life will never be the same.

Anyway exciting times for us! A short month means a short blog so we'll see what March brings!

No Pain No Gain?

Back Pains

If only all back pains were so simple

After Christmas holidays it was back to work on the 3rd of January. The operations manager at my work was on much needed annual leave and so I was helping organise deliveries in his absence. I was actually quite grateful to go back to work that week because it was quiet and the perfect way to ease back into the regular work schedule. Two weeks later was a lot worse as organising deliveries proved to be quite difficult. Between delays from suppliers, or customers needing to change dates, I felt like every time I came up with the best plan it had to change. I was understandably stressed for two weeks. Unfortunately this caused quite a toll on my back. I didn't realise it at first, but I was tensing my back muscles a lot at work. When I switched back to my normal role I thought all was fine except I was still getting pain on occasion at my work. Later Matt and I attended a personal delevopment conference that is for 3 days from 8:30am - 10pm. This proved to be a VERY bad idea for my back condition. I spent many hours sitting in a chair and let's just say I really struggled to focus and relax when I was getting really painful stabs in my back. It got so bad that sometimes at the end of the day just standing would hurt! It wasn't as bad back at work with my ergonomic chair, but I had to do something about it ASAP. My boss let me take a morning to get helped by a guy recommended to do massage therapy/ acupuncture. I'm not sure what techniques he used, but it did seem to help! It seems that my month long back pains are finally on the mend! I have an appointment on the 21st of February to see my rolfer (similar to deep tissue massage) so I'm pretty sure after that all will be good.


Birthday

So amidst all the back pains I had my 31st birthday. I got sick the week before with a virus my boss gave me. I had a really awful sore throat for about a week. Nevertheless, I went out to dinner at TGI-Friday's a couple times the week before and on my birthday Matt and I played a bunch of games and watched Stargate SG1. Instead of a birthday cake, Matt made me gluten free brownies! Even though I was sick I still had a couple people visit which was nice. Overall it was a pretty good birthday. I didn't want anything special because we had done a lot for Christmas and I had bought a Wii U. It was more fun just to play games with Matt because he has been working a lot and we haven't really spent a lot of time together lately.

TGI FRIDAYS!

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownies

 Australia Day Weekend

I had planned a lovely day off work reading and getting things done, but in the end Matt had the day off work. So we did what anyone would do...we drove for an hour to pick up 20kg of raw honey. The back story is that raw honey has the best health benefits and I was referred to this lady from a woman in my ward. It's great honey and the ants thought so too. We had to filter one of the buckets to get the ants out. Later we went to this large Australia day event in Parramatta. They had load of old cars, a bunch of rides and blow up stuff for the kids, concerts, food trucks, and a whole lot more. We just went for an early dinner and sat on the grass while watching people. It's amazing that the whole thing is free and on such a large scale! It was a really good day!

Stuart Zadel Experience

Last weekend Matt and I attended a three day personal development conference organised by Stuart Zadel Property Education. I won't go into all the details, but it was three very long days as I stated before that took me three days to recover from the lack of sleep. We basically covered mental and physical health and how to have a better positive attitude that will lead to a happier and more successful life. The best part were really the things I learned about myself. Most people that know me know that I am a strict "Follow the Rules" kind of person. Well I learned that this can be a major limitation. I try so hard to do everything perfectly as I am instructed even when it doesn't feel natural to me. In one exercise I found that trying to conform to what I "thought" I should be doing actually prevented me from completing the task. We also had a couple of meditation sessions that despite the back pain I was experiencing, was a great moment to sit and think about what I wanted out of life. I realised that I put so much time into constantly doing things, that I don't take nearly enough time to just sit and really ponder about things. I don't really enjoy meditating, but quiet time to just sit and think is definitely something I should do more of.

Other News

Waiting to pick up Matt's car from NRMA

Matt and I are moving to Queensland! Our lease ends May 21st so our aim is to be out by then. We are looking at North Lakes area above Brisbane or potentially South, but we won't really know until we get closer to May and can really see what is available. We visited North Lakes when we were in Queensland for Christmas and really liked the area. It felt kind of like California. The hardest part is there are so many unknowns. We'll see where we end up, but I'm excited for the change. As for what I'll do when I'm there, I haven't got a specific plan yet. I signed up for a renovating course on Saturday which I know is going to be awesome! So I'm thinking maybe I will just work part time, while trying to get into renovating. Part time work might also be better for me as I've already been told by a few health professionals that the data entry and desk job is not helping my wrists and my back. Next year the plan is to finish my Psychology degrees. I need to do a 4th year psychology degree and then I can do a 4 year Professional Doctorate at the University of Queensland. My hope is that renovating may help me save up money to pay for school. Life is an interesting journey and I am learning that you don't always have to know how to get from point A to point B, just have enough desire and motivation to get there.

Other news is that it's HOT! I like warm weather but multiple days over 40C (104F) is too hot to really do much of anything. See the below message from The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

Today is officially the hottest day on record for Sydney. The mercury hit 45.7 degrees at Observatory Hill at 2.54pm. The previous record of 45.3 degrees was set in January 1939.

Generally hot weather isn't a huge problem except for when it doesn't cool off at night and repeats the following day. As there is no insulation in homes here, and we only have one air con unit in the bedroom, the house is like a sauna and there is no cooling it down. Basically the only solution is to strip and sit in front of a fan, or go somewhere with aircon. Luckily my work is air-conditioned, but unfortunately Matt has been painting a bank and the aircon is turned off. I'll be happy for the heatwave to be over, but if given the choice I would still prefer the heatwave versus the bad winter and cold weather going on in the US.

As a side note I wanted to add a few things from today's lesson from Sunday School that were really meaningful to me. Here are some quotes from Gordon B. Hinckley found in Chapter 3 of Teachings Of Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. Hinckley 

Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve. 

Be believing. Be happy. Don't get discouraged. Things will work out.  

You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen.  

Do not despair. Do not give up. Look for the sunlight through the clouds. Opportunities will eventually open to you.  

There never was a greater time in the history of the world to live upon the earth than this. 

Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured. 

Believe in yourself. Believe in your capacity to do great and good things. Believe that no mountain is so high that you cannot climb it. Believe that no storm is so great that you cannot weather it. ... You are a child of God, of infinite capacity. 

The End of 2016

The holidays were much anticipated for me. I love the break from work, but this year I got to spend the Christmas break with my friend Cate and her family in Queensland. Prior to this there was a lot to get done for the Christmas holiday.

The month started with a big argument between my younger sister and I that got a little ugly (what would Christmas be without some family drama?). All good now, or so I hope.

Matt and I went to my work Christmas dinner at Criniti's in Woolloomooloo.

As I am starting a mostly gluten free and dairy free diet as of 2017 I went a little crazy on getting in my favourite foods. We had Little Caesars pizza a couple of times, burgers, gelato, and even had date night at a Brazilian churrascaria. Needless to say, I am ready for a better diet as I have now gained half of what I lost in the last 3 months.

I did a lot of sewing for my Christmas gifts this year and so each night I worked on the next project. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of what I completed. Matt and I also caught up on a lot of new movies including Finding Dory, The BFG, Secret Life of Pets, and Rogue One. Star Wars was the best!

After all the sewing, movie watching, and daily activities it was finally time to head to Brisbane for our holiday! We decided to do the 12 hour drive over two days and make stops along the way. The day before we left Matt had his car checked and found it was in really bad shape and not even safe to drive! Luckily my car is fine and had recently been serviced so he just left his car at the mechanics for them to do the $4500 repairs while we are away. The message behind this story is to not abuse your car by driving aggressively and to remember to take it in to get serviced regularly.

Friday the 23rd we headed off. We stopped at Wangi Point at Lake Macquarie which is a hot spot for camping right next to the water. Although we didn't get in the water, it was a nice break to walk around, take a nap with the ocean breeze, and eat lunch.

Our next stop was Seal Rocks. We cooled off in the ocean for a bit and Matt decided to go snorkeling. I wasn't convinced it was a good spot for that so only Matt went while I climbed the rocks and watching. To his surprise he saw a huge stingray and nearly collided with it head on! From his description it was around 2 meters wide and made him a bit nervous at first, but it swam under him and he just followed it around for a bit.

By Maksym Kozlenko - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47745580

I had originally planned for us to just sleep in the car at a rest stop, but Matt felt that he needed a bed so when we drove into Port Macquarie I found the cheapest motel available. It was certainly cheap with a small double bed that was a little too short for Matt and no air conditioning. The sink was even a stainless steel kitchen sink instead of a typical bathroom sink. Nevertheless, it had all that we needed to get a good night sleep and move on the next day.

The next day of our trip we stopped at Coffs Harbour which is a popular beach town, but we weren't very impressed by it. The Big Banana is found there and instead of stopping I just took a picture as we passed it. Good enough for me!

Our last stop was Watego's Beach in Byron Bay, which was a popular place for surfers. It was late so we didn't take time to get in the water, but we at least got to watch the sun go down there. Finally, we arrived in Cleveland QLD to spend the rest of the time with Cate.

Due to the time change and no daylight savings in QLD, the sun is up at 4am. I woke up at 5am and was surprised to find that her two daughters weren't up yet (they did wake up soon after though). I got to enjoy my early Christmas morning reading a book and listening to the girls open their gifts from Santa. Cate's family came over and we had a big breakfast before going to church. Since it was Christmas day we just had sacrament meeting and went back home. The kids were eager to jump in the pool while the rest of us worked on preparing for lunch/dinner. We had a wonderful roast turkey and ham dinner and relaxed for the rest of the day.

For the next several days we stayed in Caloundra at a unit near the beach with Cate, her husband Dan, and their two girls. We spent every day going to the beach, relaxing at the pool, playing games like Disney Family Feud and Uno, and watching movies. It was the perfect relaxing holdiay. We went to see Moana and Sing together, and then Cate and I watch La La Land together. Out of the three Moana was my favourite. I liked a couple of the songs in Moana so much I was constantly humming them. The best part of Caloundra though was the beach. The water was very warm, like bath water, and there were constant waves perfect for boogie boards. We had hot and sunny weather the whole time with the beautiful ocean breeze to help cool us off. I am so grateful they let us spend some of their holiday with them and it may for a wonderful relaxing and fun holiday!

Friday we started our drive back to Sydney. We stopped to look at some suburbs we had considered living in and were surprised at how much it felt like California. At the North Lakes Shopping Centre, we found it fun that it had a layout much more similar to the U.S. where the stores go outward from a central point rather than up multiple levels. Somehow it made the area seem more home.

Afterwards we headed to Gold Coast where Matt's favourite crepe place is. When we stayed at the Gold Coast two years prior Matt found this crepe place and he has still not found a better place.

Again we stopped in Byron Bay, but this time we swam on the main beach. It was already past the time when the lifeguards leave so I was a bit nervous as that area has had many shark sitings. The water was crystal clear so I wasn't too worried until as I was swimming along I saw a large jellyfish about the size of my hand float past me. As I didn't recognise it, I wasn't sure if it could be a deadly one or not. Where there's one there are always more so I got out. Further up the sand there is a large inlet of water from the ocean that I decided to lay in and wait for Matt. It was very warm and seemed like a very large hot tub with all the people sitting in groups in the shallow water.

As we grabbed dinner before moving on I decided Byron wasn't my favourite place. The beach was really nice, but the demographic of the area seemed like a lot of 20 somethings that you would expect to be partying all night long. I've been told Byron Bay is very hippy and it was pretty obvious. We did like that you aren't allowed to have alcohol on the beach or the streets, but as I passed a unit where people were clearly having a massive party I wondered if the alcohol staying in the home had it's own problems.

Most places were booked so we stayed the night in a Motel in a small suburb on the way. Our final drive went by quickly with only a long stop in Newcastle to check out the beach. It was so hot that day and as we walked over the sand dunes to view the beach our feet were burning from the sand. I thought if I ran and dipped them in the water it would be better, but as we walked back to the car my feet were burning again. Although we didn't get in the water we really like the beaches in the Newcastle area. Since there are so many, they aren't very crowded. One thing I didn't like about boogie boarding in Caloundra was you always had to try to avoid the other people on boards or body surfing. The beaches we saw near Newcastle wouldn't have that problem.

It was great to finally get home, but it was so hot and humid. I was dripping with sweat as I put all of our stuff away. I had to change before heading to our friend's place for New Years Eve celebrations. Josie and Lachie invited us over and we had pizza for dinner and played games including Chinese checkers. We thought we would be too tired and would leave after the 10pm fireworks, but we stayed up and watched funny youtube videos until the midnight Sydney fireworks. The fireworks show was spectacular and it was a great way to end our 2016 year.

Upon reflecting on the last year I feel like overall it's been a pretty good year for me. Here is just a summary of memorable events for the last year.

• My sister came to visit me for a couple of weeks 
• I saw my friend Cate get married in Queensland 
• Matt and I went to the Easter Show
• I got to see the movie that Matt was an extra in (Gods of Egypt) 
• I had lots of fun times with the youth in my Ward and was released
• Pokemon Go
• Finally met my 10,000 steps a day goal
• Learned about property investment strategies
• Set up our will
• Made some new Canadian friends
• Visited friends and family in the US
• Cruise to Alaska
• Created a habit of exercising 6 days a week
• Visited Melbourne
• Found out why I have had health problems - MTHFR gene

I look forward to the new year and I already have my 2017 goals written out. I don't know what the new year holds, but I know I will do all I can to achieve my goals and strive for a little more than the previous year. Happy New Year! 

A Month of M's

Major Miss

This whole month I have been working on making pajama pants. I got another desk from work where I can now set up my sewing projects and just leave them for when I get time to work on them. My first day I cut out all the material and then a week later I did the pockets and the first seam. I did a few more seams before I went to work a couple of morning, and then today I finally did the last seam to but the two legs together. I excitedly went to the bedroom to see how they fit and discovered they were too small! Unfortunately I couldn't even pull them up over my large thighs. I had a good laugh showing Matt. Well I'll finish them off and hopefully find someone a size 8-10 that will enjoy them. I have enough material to do another pair and at least the second time will be easier.

Minty Fresh

Another fun event this month was our Family Home Evening with the Calverts. We made Christmas ornaments out of salt dough and I brought some of our essential oils like peppermint and cinnamon to add to it. It was a lot of fun, and Matt made lovely Christmas trees.

Music for the Soul

We are also in the ward choir with the Calverts and we have really enjoyed having their 3/4yr old (I think) daughter hang around. Our recent Stake Conference we sang two songs and had to sit behind the Stake Leaders. She was great the whole 2 hours and my favourite part was when we finished singing the intermediate song she started clapping. It was one of those precious moments you want to remember forever. Our final song was I Know My Redeemer Lives and the spirit was so strong there were more than just a few in the choir that were a little teary-eyed. I was so glad we were in the choir and could be a part in bringing the Spirit to the meeting. It made the whole experience more meaningful.

Mystery Disappearance

In my previous post I apparently left out my computer issues. The back story is that I have a Surface 3, which I bought so I could have a better tablet/laptop and switch back from Apple to Windows. I LOVE Windows and the Surface has so many great features. Unfortunately, I have had many issues since purchasing it last year and I would say it's a MASSIVE design flaw that it takes 4 hours to fully charge the thing. Anyway, I have had multiple technicians try to help the lagging and a bunch of other problems and finally they just replaced the whole device under warranty. I was happy with that, but I noticed the new one also seems to have some lagging problems (I have not gotten this fixed yet). Well nothing major was wrong till one day I went to update our Family Goals for the month which I have on OneNote. I hadn't yet opened it on the new computer and it was having difficulty opening my notebook where I keep everything. I keep all of my church calling notes and meeting notes on there, pictures of brochures and things I wanted to save, goals, loan details, and more. Well I was having so many issues I had to get tech support and the final answer was there was nothing they could do - it was all gone. I couldn't understand how this could happen when it is designed to always be synced and saved to OneDrive. Apparently OneDrive has synced the notebook after all of my notes had vanished. I'm not sure if it was my computer's fault, my fault somehow, or OneNote, but let's just say I am now going to make sure I have backups of everything on my OneDrive. I love technology and IT stuff, but maybe I'm just cursed? My one piece of advice - NEVER downsize your computer!

Mmm... Food 

As for Thanksgiving this year we were going to be in Melbourne for an investment conference on stock trading. We had the missionaries over for dinner the Wednesday before and decided to make that our Thanksgiving. We had orange-glazed ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and Stove Top stuffing. Perhaps not your typical Thanksgiving, but it sufficed. I was just sad the orange-glazed ham wasn't near as good as honey baked ham from the US.

Makeup & Skin Products

The next day at work I went to an event from a company called Nutrimetics that has their headquarters in the same building I work in. I got a mini-makeover and a skin consultation with their products. Since I was nearly out of my current products I got their beauty kit with a set of products and so far I have really liked them! If anyone wants any of their products let me know! (Click here for their website) They have a lot of deals for Christmas gifts, and I get 20% off any non-sale items. I just need the product code of what you want. I LOVE their apricot kernel oil, and Matt tells me there is research showing apricot kernels can cure cancer. I like it because since using it I noticed my skin feels way more hydrated.

MELBOURNE

After work we headed off to the airport and to our dismay the flight was delayed an hour. We were lucky that the home owner of the AirBNB place we were staying at stays up late. The next day we took the public transport to the venue for the conference. It was really boring! The first half was about setting goals and being productive to achieve them. The second half had us look at example stocks and what factors to look at when considering a trade. I had my computer and was playing games during the second half. I learned that I liked Spider Solitaire way better than regular solitaire. After a long day we watched Kubo and the Two Strings on my computer before going to bed. Sound boring?

The next day we got through the same type of discussion as the day before and by lunch time we decided we'd get more out of the trip if we explored Melbourne. I was really disappointed with the conference and I felt they didn't really teach the investment strategies in an effective way that people could apply it. It made me think about my years at uni and how many classes had lectures and then a tutorial class where you would practice what you learned. In the end the biggest expense was the flights to Melbourne so it didn't really matter if we left the conference.

The Mormons are indeed coming....

Melbourne has varying weather all the time. We were told to be prepared for anything over the weekend. Sydney had warm summer weather, but Melbourne was really cold in the mornings and didn't always warm up during the day. When we decided to head to the city the weather was actually nice enough that we could shed our jackets. On the hour tram ride to the city we played Carcassonne on my computer, which proved to be the perfect form of entertainment on public transport throughout the weekend. When we first got there we didn't really know where to go, but I had read of the Eureka Skydeck that overlooks the city so that was our first stop. While there Matt saw this unusual camouflage coloured building and we decided that would be our next stop. Melbourne has a lot of unique buildings that had some interesting colour choices, but it didn't seem to have the same impressive views that the Sydney Harbour or the Gold Coast in Queensland has. For most of the day we wandered the botanical gardens and found a neat children's area with lots of fund little pathways. Afterwards we found a TGIF's nearby for dinner before heading back home (we're such Americans). We struggled to get on the right tram home and Matt asked one of the drivers to find out which tram to take and found out there was major construction on the tram line and we had to walk about 20 minutes before we could get to the tram line that was useable. At least we got a lot of steps in!

There are lots of Aboriginal artwork like this around the city.

The lake at the Botannical Gardens

The Shrine in the Botannical Gardens

The home owner Airdrie suggested we do the free walking tour of the city for the next day. Although it wasn't planned we stopped right at the city library where they were starting the tour. It was definitely a great way to see and learn about interesting places in Melbourne. We learned more about the famous Ned Kelly and his last stand in his iron armour.

The guide took us down neat alleys, or laneways as he called them, that despite all the graffiti have many popular restaurants and shops. We saw historic buildings and learned about the massive gold rush in Melbourne and were told many of the stories behind the artwork and building designs. Although we had been to the Eureka tower before, we didn't know there was significance to the colours and just thought it was an ugly building. Once we knew the history, it brought a whole new perspective to the architecture and colours chosen. After the tour we went to a restaurant the guide recommended called Chin Chin. It was too pricey for the portion sizes, but we still enjoyed what we had. We ordered two dishes and the second one was brought out after we had already finished the first. Since it was a spicy chicken I was looking up places to get a milkshake. Unfortunately when it came I still hadn't taken a bite when the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate the building. I figured it would still be there when we could go back in, but it turns out they are required to remove all plates of food before anyone can go back in. I couldn't understand why they couldn't tell us that before we evacuated - perhaps I could have at least tasted it. Unwilling to wait for another plate, we just paid for what we ate and left. At least my milkshake place was worth it.

MILKSHAKES

 

All buskers have to audition to be on the streets so each
performer is pretty talented, including this puppeteer

 

A building reminiscent of the Gold Rush days

Metre Long Pizza

After Melbourne things have been pretty much back to normal. I had my work Christmas party on Saturday which was a lot of fun. We got to spend time walking around the harbour beforehand and saw thousands of moon jellies in the water. Dinner was at Criniti's in Woolloomooloo (yes that is the actual spelling) where you can get 1-2 metre long pizzas!  I'm lucky that I love everyone I work with and I look forward to our dinner's out! Nevertheless I'm excited for my break in three weeks where Matt and I will spend Christmas in Queensland!

MTHFR Gene Mutation
 
There is only one piece of news I haven't yet mentioned. I now know the results of my MTHFR test. I have the MTHFR gene mutation from both parents. This means that the MTHFR enzyme in my body does not function properly and so I have reduced methylation. Methylation is involved in turning genes on and off, detoxifying chemicals and metals via the liver, turning the stress response on and off, and much more. So poor methylation, or undermethylation, can have many negative effects. Conditions that have been associated with this include ADD/ADHD, allergies, anxiety, autism, auto-immune conditions, depression, joint stiffness, infertilitiy, miscarriages, and thyroid disfunction to name a few. As I have many of these conditions, it is very likely the gene mutation is a major contributing factor. To improve methylation I need to avoid toxins, stress, gluten and dairy, and have an organic diet with lots of green veggies, choline, B-vitamins, and Folate. I can't say this will be easy for me, but over the past year I have been really good at improving my minerals and I do eat more organic and gluten free foods. A woman in my ward has eaten gluten and dairy free for a very long time and so she has lots of great recipes I can try. It may be hard to find decent substitutes for my favourite things like pizza, but I have already found a yummy dairy free ice cream I love. In the end it comes down to what I am willing to sacrifice to have better health and avoid having miscarriages or children with one of the many conditions associated with this such as cleft palate. What's interesting to me is how incredibly common this is and that only my naturopath thought to test for it. It's not even an expensive test! Seriously, if anyone wants to check just to rule it out, ask your doctor about getting an MTHFR test and there are more details on it on these websites: www.mthfr.net, www.dramyyasko.com, and https://draxe.com/mthfr-mutation/.

Merry Christmas!!

As I likely won't blog until after Christmas - I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!! I hope everyone takes time out of their busy month to remember what the holidays are really about. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a new initiative called "Light the World" (#LIGHTtheWORLD) where they offer a theme for each day leading up to Christmas and suggestions for how to serve to meet the theme. I highly recommend you check it out!