Everything Leads to Progress

Here is a review of our last couple months...

CHRISTMAS

My favourite time of year! I went a bit overboard with Christmas this year. I justified getting things for the house and filling the new space as part of our Christmas expenses. It didn't help I didn't do my normal budget because we were in the U.S., and moving, and ...well there really isn't any excuse. 

For the first time since being married we got a Christmas tree! I had so much fun putting it up because Sakura would grab ornaments out of the box and hand them to me. It just felt nice to have a tree. 

We were visiting friends for Christmas Day so we had our family Christmas dinner the night before. It was a late night getting Sakura to bed, but I still made sure I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol!

Christmas morning I made ebelskivers and eggs for breakfast and got to watch Matt and Sakura open presents. I bought everything (including a couple things for me), but as Matt didn't know what I had bought it was fun to see what he thought. Sakura wasn't really into the unwrapping as much as pushing the gifts around.

My favourite part this year was my gift to Matt. I had coordinated with some friends he had in California to get a copy of an X-men game they used to play. They actually shipped it to me while I was in the U.S. and I had been hiding it from him. He knew I was going to try to make a version, but not that I had actually gotten the complete game. His reactions are always pretty mild, but the fact that we played it that night together is a pretty good sign he was excited about it. 

We were invited by some friends to spend Christmas day with them. I'm so grateful because we likely would have been bored at home. This made the day special with a big lunch, games, and just enjoying time with good people. Sakura loved it!

VISITING SYDNEY

After Christmas we had decided to drive to Sydney to visit friends and Matt had some painting work there as well. 

It was so awesome to see our friends again and their babies which are all around Sakura's age. The downside was that it was VERY hot in Penrith. When we got there it was over 35 degrees Celsius. Luckily Matt's job was in an air-conditioned unit.

Best way to deal with a hot day - get WET!

New Years Eve was fun as all the kids had finally gone to sleep and we stayed up playing a game of X-Duels (the game that Matt got for Christmas). It was way past all of our usual bedtime and I think in the future we may just go to bed after the early fireworks show and call it a night.

The best part was that all of our friends have a child Sakura's age and we got to watch them interact. She had a blast with new toys, new friends, and her absolute favourite event - Wet N Wild!

Reading time with Lyla

Superfight - with the Calverts

At the park for a birthday party!

Featherdale Wildlife Park with Jett

I miss our friends in Sydney, playing games, and whatnot, but I love where we live now - everyone just needs to move closer to us! We made sure to take it easy on the drive back and visit some beaches, eat good food, and visit some old friends that moved to Coomera.

Raw Energy - this place is so good! (Gluten and Dairy Free Options)

Port Macquarie

One of Sakura's favourite fruits - Giant sized!

Friends in Coomera 

JANUARY

Matt didn't have to go back to work till the 12th of January so we spent our time after Sydney organising our home. We finally unpacked the majority of the boxes. Through some cabinet donations from friends that are renovating, Matt finally got his juice/appliance bar. He built and put it all together and it has been wonderful!

Now that things are back to normal we are trying to be more social this year. We now have a games night once a week (whether people show up or not). I'm trying to be more diligent with a formal Family Home Evening each week and I am scheduling more social things to keep up with friends. So far we have had some successful game nights and fun playgroups.

Newmarket Pool - only $5!

Playtime at North lakes Library

How I managed to get some work done including a video call.

Exhausted after a long day of playing

Sakura just loves pushing things around! Sahara was not amused.

I am also trying to do more things I enjoy this year such as sewing, baking, and reading. So far for January I sewed a handkerchief skirt, made some pumpkin cookies, and finished reading a book called Leadership and Self-Deception. I've also finished a good audio book called Nonviolent Communication. I'm also almost done with Hold Me Tight by Dr. Sue Johnson. I think it will be a great year if I can just stick with it all.

Australia day we decided to go to an event on Bribie Island. When we discovered they wouldn't let babies go on the mega slide we went to Woorim beach instead. The water temperature was like bath water and so clean and clear! The sand was nice and soft with very little debris as well. It seemed like the perfect beach, but there were blue bottles everywhere! Sakura and I walked for a while on the beach while Matt met us farther down with the car. While walking she was playing with her feet than started crying and wanted to be picked up. She reached towards her foot, but I couldn't see anything and there weren't any blue bottles. She calmed down after about a minute so I figured she might have stepped on a rock in the sand because I couldn't see anything else. We decided to brave the water anyway and watched carefully for floating jellyfish. Sakura loved the waves and was happy to go quite deep. It was hard to convince ourselves to get out of the water. Later I noticed the tell-tale signs of a blue bottle sting, a small line of red dots on the top of Sakura's foot! She definitely had been stung, but either she took it like a champ or it was very mild from her mild crying for about a minute. 

Woorim Beach

Bribie Island

We finished the day by playing games with friends. It was a wonderful day and we hope to visit our new favourite beach much more often!

Not much more to report. Sakura now knows to say "Shade" when looking for the cat and "ump" when she wants to be picked up. Her favourite things are water and slides so I got lucky when I found a $15 used water slide. She now has swimming lessons once a week and has absolutely no fear. She will jump into the pool without me because she is so anxious to get in the water. Sakura also goes under the water with a giant smile all the time. Love it!

I am weaning her, but teething makes it hard. Our new strategy is for Matt to always put her to sleep and I turn the sound off the monitor off at night. She now settles back to sleep a lot quicker and I am a lot better getting 7 hours of sleep. Why can't all the teeth just come in at once? Despite all the pain and runny noses she has four top teeth, two on bottom, and one molar. I am much better at handling her tantrums though and it's a good thing because we are now nursery leaders! She has been amazing with all the nursery kids and she loves singing time. Matt and I feel this will be good practice for learning how to manage multiple small children at once.

Special news - my sister is getting married! I will be going to Utah for my sister, Serisa's wedding from 20 March to 10 April. Matt can't come this time, but I'm so excited to be there long enough to help with some things.

My other sister Carina - she was Sakura's regular babysitter my last visit in Utah

I hope to get much better at managing my time and have a better routine this year so we'll see if I can stay on top of a monthly blog from now on. 

Moved to Griffin

Hello Griffin!

No, I am not randomly greeting a half eagle half lion mythical creature. Griffin is the suburb we moved into mid November. So here's the scoop on how it all went down.

MOVING

We applied multiple places, but this location in Griffin was one of the first. While flying to Utah we were approved for two properties at the same time and prayed to decide which one and eventually said no to both. Later we were approved for another in the ideal location - one that Matt had seen but I hadn't. We agreed to go ahead with it, but then we were also approved for this property in Griffin, which was not our ideal location. I was so unsettled with the property we chose I had Matt draw me the layout only to discover the only way to access the yard was through the carport. I hated this and it made me feel more unsettled and I struggled to sleep. What was the "right" place for us? After getting up early and talking to my mom I decided I really liked the property in Griffin the best, but they would have to get an aircon in the bedroom and a dishwasher for us to consider it. We had to wait many days for them to confirm things with the owner. This was stressful because we were supposed to be out of our place in Dakabin, had most things packed up, and we weren't sure what would happen if the whole thing fell apart. Luckily, we were able to extend our previous place by a week and worked out renting the house in Griffin on the condition an aircon would be installed in the bedroom for an extra $5/wk in rent. We agreed to organise our own dishwasher. Whew!

Lessons learned from this process: 

1. In the end there is no "perfect" place. While renting it doesn't really matter if it doesn't tick all the boxes because you can move again if needed.

2. Always pay for cleaners. Moving is so stressful it is just not worth stressing about the cleanup as well.

3. Organise electricity as soon as possible. We couldn't live in our new place for a few days because I didn't organise electricity early enough.

3. Have a specific day/time for moving plan. Ideally get it ALL out in one day. This allows to organise help, renting cheap trailers off gumtree, etc.

4. Get to know your neighbours early! We found out later that our neighbour would have loaned us his trailer.

RESULTS
We love our new place! It has so much space and Sakura is obviously happier. She is much better at being able to entertain herself with lots of room to run around and push her stroller. I also can go anywhere in the house without having to move her with me (ex: go upstairs or downstairs).

It's taken nearly two months, but we now have 80% or so of everything organised. I'll probably still be moving things around. We have also been busy getting proper closet storage and whatnot. My new favourite place is called the Treasure Market where I got some great furniture for around $4. It's all the items people donate when going to the dump.

Our current frustration though is that there are still some major unresolved issues with our place.
1. There are two drains that have no drain covers! Luckily we have blocked access to them, but you can just imagine the risks or potentially stuff that could be dropped in them.

2. A shed door off its hinges. The whole thing is pretty rickety.

3. Random exposed pipe. I confirmed it was part of the pest control at one time, but was likely installed improperly when the house was built (2003).

4. No aircon in the master bedroom still.
5. Missing keys to the garage door and a couple other things.

We have notified the real estate, but they always seem to say their hands are tied and they've done everything they could. I gave a negative review of the real estate only to have the agent let me know it really reflects poorly on her. Either way, I still can't say I have had a positive experience. This place had severe white ant damage in the garage and although the ants are gone, no one bothered to fix the damage. So much neglect.

We have made some of our own improvements. We put our old aircon unit in Sakura's room so now she can nap in a comfortable temperature instead of the 35 degrees Celsius. We have fans in the other rooms to try and keep it cool. I have finally babyproofed drawers and cupboards as needed. I got a doorbell so I can hear when people are at the door while I'm in the office. And a few other things are still left on the home improvement list.

We thought our fridge wouldn't fit, but it was the exact width!

Our outdoor space is great and we bought a trampoline to make it even better! We just got a cheap used one off Gumtree and Sakura loves it. I try to go out there at least once a day with her when it is cool. She has just learned how to bounce on her own. After Christmas we also got a small pool like we used to have in Sydney. I expect lots of play time in the water over the summer! Out of all of us, Shade is the one that is happiest with the outdoor space. He meows ALL the time to go outside. The only time he hasn't was because I forgot I left him outside and he was out there for 3 or 4 hours. Matt found him waiting by the door to come in.

I'm so excited to finally be able to have people over and host playgroups with Sakura. We are also starting a weekly games night at our place. I decided that I would rather just have an open invitation think with a dedicated day and time because coordinating things with others always seemed to be tricky. I'll never forget the last time I tried to do a monthly date night with friends and no one showed up. This way if no one shows up, it doesn't matter because we can just play two player games. I've finally solved my space and parking issue so my goal is we can have more opportunities to build friendships this year.

Take care all! Hopefully people will get a chance to visit sometime. More about our holidays in my next post!