Laura's Visit and The Second Trimester

All throughout my first trimester I looked forward to the second trimester where things would be easier. I have been happy to find things have been easier (for the most part).

25 weeks 

Matt and I have officially settled into our new home. This does not mean that we have finished unpacking, just that everything is liveable now. We had to do a bit of rearranging to determine where we would put things with a different layout. Luckily due to the end of financial year sales we were able to get a much needed rug that fit the space for half the price!

I had extra motivation to get things organised in our new home because my best friend Laura came to visit from Oregon! You know you have a good friend when even though there are long gaps between visits, it feels like you can easily just pick up where you left off.

For her first day we went to Redcliffe, which has the nearest beach to where we live. We didn't get in the water, but just talked while walking around on the beach and at the nearby pool. Later Matt went with us to the shopping centre where Laura was able to try her first waffle with ice cream at Oliver Brown. She also decided to take log of the different flavours of Tim Tams so friends back home could tell her which ones they wanted to try. I think this resulted in something like 40+ packages of Tim Tams in the end!

The next day we went to the Gold Coast and chilled on the beach at Surfer's Paradise. It still wasn't ideal beach swimming weather, but Laura felt it was perfect and the temperature was only a little cooler than summer in Oregon. We had organised an AirBnB place to stay that night so we could see the nearby glow worm caves at Springbrook National Park. We got there at the perfect time because right as we were leaving loads of Asian tourist groups arrived. One bus carried at least 70+ people and there must have been 6 or so more groups that we had seen on the trail or at the start.

Glow worms picture

View from our AirBNB

Surfers Paradise beach

We decided to go back to the same trail the following day. It was a completely different experience to see the falls and the surrounding area during the day.

the Natural Bridge glow worm cave

Instead of heading home after that we took a different route that would go past Fingal Head, an area a friend recommended we visit. We LOVED it! I was in no great condition for climbing on the rocky cliffs, but Laura took advantage of it. I think it was one of the most beautiful areas I've ever been to. It felt like I was on the coast of Ireland or something, but with warmer weather. I took a nap on the rocks in the sun and decided I would definitely have to come back with Matt sometime.

To finish off our day we met up with Matt and visited our friends Cate and Dan to watch the QLD vs NSW State of Origin game. I figured Laura would enjoy it more if we watched with a bunch of Aussie's that could actually tell her about the rugby league rules and whatnot. It was a pretty good game, but it had been a long day and we were all very tired by the end. I think the best part of the night was just spending time with friends, eating good food, and watching this video:

The following day I slept in a little too long so we rushed to try and make an early session at the LDS Brisbane Temple. Unfortunately the endowment session was full so they couldn't accommodate us. We decided we'd wait to go with Matt on Saturday instead and toured around Brisbane. As I've done in the past, we hired bikes to ride from Kangaroo Point to the botanical gardens on the other side of the river. The weather was absolutely perfect and the gardens was a great place to walk around and explore. Laura even did a live video on her Facebook page to show the awesome trees we have.

We stopped at a place to eat lunch nearby at the Aroma Cafe and it was amazing! It's just a simple cafe but they serve everything from sandwiches to pizza and pasta. I was glad we discovered it as I'll likely go back when my mom comes to visit in October if not sooner.

After riding bikes back across the river we explored South Bank which includes a bunch of fun things to see like the street beach, a Nepalese pagoda, and the Wheel of Brisbane. To finish off our day we ate at my favourite chocolate place, Max Brenner. Although I didn't intend this to be dinner, we were both too full to eat anything else the rest of the day. To finish off the night we went to a West Coast Swing event that Laura had found. Dancing is her passion and so she was very excited to find a place she could attend while visiting. I had no desire or energy for it so I sat and read a book while she took part of the lessons and the freelance dancing afterwords. I'm pretty sure the dancing was her favourite part of the trip so I'm glad it worked out for her to be able to go.

Laura chose to be the "lead" during the lessons since they weren't enough guys.

Friday we had arranged to go to the Australia Zoo and also meet up with a friend of Laura's that she met through Facebook I believe. It turns out the woman lives only about 15 minutes from me! We had fun exploring the zoo with her two boys before they had to leave early. I really like that zoo, but I kept telling Laura she'd get opportunities to take pictures with more native wildlife at the zoo and had forgotten that they really didn't have a lot of options. In Sydney, Featherdale Wildlife Park has a lot more native animals including kookaburras, eagles, and quokkas that you can see up close. Australia zoo didn't really have that much, but at least she was able to see koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and crocodiles. Surprisingly I don't think she got to hear the kookaburras at all while here! Listen to some recorded calls here. When my sister visited us in Sydney she woke up to them at 5am every morning. I think we will have to search around to find other wildlife parks to go to with visitors.

Saturday we went to the temple as planned. I had a really good spiritual experience while there so I'm glad we made the effort to go. Afterwards we headed to the Brisbane Powerhouse Markets. I hadn't been to this market before, but I was expecting a lot of artisan foods and crafts and a good place for Laura to get souvenirs. I was wrong, it was mostly just a farmers market with fresh and organic produce amidst some other things. Oh well, we still had a good time. The rest of the afternoon we split up so Laura could attend another West Coast Swing event that was during the day. She was so lucky they happened to have two in the same week and the second one was better. I was happy one of the dancers was willing to help her with rides because I wasn't that motivated for the drive. Matt and I got to enjoy the afternoon eating cinnamon rolls and walking around the river.

Laura got to try a homemade Aussie pie - seafood style

We had planned to meet up with Laura at Eat Street Markets for dinner. Eat Street is a huge venue with 70+ food vendors, live music, and other shows. The place was amazing and they had so many different types of food from paella to curries, pizza, fish and chips, cronuts, pastries, and much much more. We wandered for a long time not sure what place to try. We finally picked a place right as Laura arrived. It was a lot of fun, but I think the best part of the night was the beautiful sunset!

Sunday was Laura's last day with us and luckily she had a night flight so we could spend the day relaxing from the busy week. After church we pulled out my tiger puzzle that you may recall I have been working on for about 3 years during General Conference. Laura and I used to do puzzles all the time when we were roommates so it was a great way to finish off our time together. The biggest surprise wasn't finishing it, it was that I hadn't lost any pieces amidst all the many times of taking it out, putting it away, and moving it. I definitely highly recommend roll up puzzle mats! We had a wonderful time together and I'm so glad she was able to come visit and we could catch up on life events. Next time I hope I'll have more energy and we can do a lot more things where I won't have to fit in a nap somewhere.

Regular life hasn't been as interesting. We had a visit from our ward home teachers and it turns out one of them used to be an IT and he agreed to help me put my new PC together. We took all of the stuff over to his place and worked on it for about 4+ hours! It was a HUGE blessing because it became quite evident I would've really struggled to put it all together myself. Now we finally have a nice computer that should last us quite a while.

Matt has been able to have sufficient work to stay local in Brisbane the whole month, but we are unsure how long before he has to start seeking jobs out. One of the big jobs he quoted for in Sydney contacted him for a revised quote so we are hoping they will finally go ahead with that. Big jobs are great because they provide a bit more of a buffer between work. Right now funds are getting pretty tight since we have had to pay to get our cars registered in Queensland, my medical stuff including psychology appointments, and lots of other little things we didn't account for. It doesn't help that I don't have an income.

Originally I was going to find part-time work, but the reality is that it wasn't practical as I had no idea what work I could handle mentally and physically. We ended up setting myself up as Matt's employee and I am now his Finance Manager/ Accounts Administrator. I did all of his taxes and paperwork before, but now I make a weekly effort to put things in order and log my hours. This makes me eligible for the paid maternity leave provided by the government. I am now at a point where his taxes need to be prepared and I officially need a professional to help make sure I have all the correct data in the system. It's too easy for accounting errors to compound to become a massive problem and I don't want to have any penalties from the Australian Tax Office. At this stage I'm not looking for additional work and I feel that somehow we will be able to make do without me having to have a regular job.

How do I spend my days you wonder? I'm not even sure myself! Most days are filled with at least 30% watching some kind of TV show or Netflix. Sometimes I'll organise or unpack a box while watching something. There's always some laundry or dish washing to do as well so it's amazing how quick the day fills up. I spend a lot of time on the computer doing something or other like researching how to renew Matt's passport, or how to import invoices into the accounting system. I'm excited because I've finally organised most of my desk and I unpacked my overlocker! Now I'm ready to start unpacking my sewing items and work on some projects.

One weekend we attended the medieval festival just north of us. It was fun and significantly larger than I expected. If you wanted the educational aspect of it you could easily visit the different camps to learn more about the viking way of life, the knights, etc.. We mostly just enjoyed the shows, but to be honest the jousting wasn't that exciting.

The baby is doing well. As many have asked, we had decided on names long ago. Since we're having a girl her name will be Sakura Lily Rose. In my family all of the kids have six letters in their name with the girls ending in "a" and the boys ending in "n". I liked the tradition and wanted to keep it going. When I was young I used to love a Japanese anime show called Cardcaptors with the main character being called Sakura. I LOVED the name and wrote it down in my journal so I could remember it one day when I would have kids. When Matt and I married we had discussed my 6 letter arrangement and to my surprise Sakura was a name he had always liked and wanted as well. Over the years we've had other ideas and we keep a list, but it seemed certain the first girl would be Sakura. To my surprise I just met a woman in my ward from New Zealand who is named Sakura! There aren't too many here in Australia, but she says she loves her name. Matt sometimes changes his mind and thinks it should be something more unique or different like Saqora or Quorra, but I won't let him change it at this stage. At my last appointment with the doctor she said it was so great to see someone who was so healthy and everything is going well. I don't feel like I'm very healthy, but I was glad she was happy with how things are going. The baby likes to move daily and sometimes she kicks quite hard and it startles me. I'm getting used to it. All is well for now!