This Punk Loves That Punk

Courage

2012-01-13T04:31:00.000-08:00

What is courage?

The cricket was playing tonight and Warner scored his century. The commentators were raving about the courage he had to face the ball.

I scoffed.

You call that courage?

I think it takes more courage to pull a roast chicken out of the oven. You open the door and your eyebrows almost get singed off! It's 180 degrees in there!

How can they call it courageous that a man stares down the pitch at a ball coming his way?

Cricket has nothing to do with courage. They should save the word for someone who's earned it otherwise its meaning is empty.

12

2011-12-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

I've realised that I share an affinity with the number 12.

I was born on the 12th day of March.

I spent 12 years being educated.

I've spent 12 years working.

And with the year 2012 looming it would seem that another life change is in order. What will 2012 bring for me?

I already know it will bring me excitement, tears, happiness, pain, and large doses of fear. It will also bring me challenges, victories...

...and motherhood.

In July 2012, Cam and I will become parents.

And this I tell you in the 12th week of my pregnancy in the 12th month of this year.

Happy new year!

Too much

2011-08-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

Personally, I am quite bored when I see friends' Facebook updates constantly talking about their young children's achievements such as:

Monday - Baby X now has four teeth!
Tuesday - Baby X now has five teeth!
Wednesday - I tried XYZ formula but think I'll try ABC formula.
Thursday - Success! Baby X loves ABC formula!

I think that after the first and second tooth appearances it's not as exciting to the general population, or at least me. It is of course lovely to see parents being so proud of their children, and if the parent is a repeat Facebook baby status offender then I usually just scroll past and ignore it.

But I think I've reached the limit on how much information parents should share.

Here is a selection of what drove me to blog:

"Baby X has done poos in the toilet again tonight !!!!! so very proud of her..."

I don't care that a parent's child has just done their second poo in the toilet! I'm not sure anybody else does either!

Now, the child that pooed on the carpet as soon as the nappy came off, that was funny, because the parent told it in a comical manner and sometimes I'm a bit childish.

Do people want to hear about adult daily activities?

Monday - I have 32 teeth!
Tuesday - Clipped my toenails.
Wednesday - Tried a new Indian dish tonight.
Thursday - Indian doesn't agree with me. Just did my second poo in the toilet!

Just sayin.

Locked out

2011-08-26T04:40:00.000-07:00

We're locked out!

Here's the story. Cam's parents will return to claim their castle on 22 October. We told the builders months ago that we wouldn't be ready to move into our new digs until October. Because there are many tradies out of work at the moment, they've been able to complete their jobs at our house almost right away (because they had nothing else to do anyway!) instead of making us wait weeks like normal.

And so that explains why our house has gone up as fast as an Amish barn!

But now Cam has had a chat to the builder about it. Everytime they reach a new stage of building our Amish barn, they then send us an invoice requesting many thousands of dollars. Well, the more moolah we borrow from the bank, the more interest we have to pay back. So it just makes sense that we delay the borrowing for as long as we can to avoid excess interest.

And they are WEEKS ahead of schedule!

So Cam has asked them to slow down. So they have. And it's muuuuurrrder waiting! We're so close!

But we must wait..... like regular non-Amish folk.

It feels a little bit like being engaged. The wedding date draws closer ever so sloooowly.

But the builder has reached lock up stage and won't be giving us a key until the hand over date, which incidentally is 14 October 2011!

The only way to enter the dwelling at the moment is to go on a weekday - that ain't gonna happen with our jobs. So on weekends, all we can do is peek in through the windows.

It's tres exciting!!!

So until we get the keys, the rest of the progress will remain a secret. Sssh!

Here's one last pic to tide you over. Au revoir!

Splish splash

2011-08-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

The tiles have now been laid in the wet areas!

We were worried about how they would end up looking because we had to choose the wet area tiles from the builder's range which was very limited with our budget. But the lady at the shop suggested a few ideas to us and as we couldn't think of anything else, we went with it.

Cam got to go to the house today to have a look because it was his show day holiday. The tradies were at the house so he got to go in. It's been at lock-up stage for a few weeks now so the best we've been able to do previously was look through the windows.

The floor tiles haven't been cleaned yet, so no, that's not a slate floor you're looking at; it's a dirty floor.

This is the ensuite. The long wall in the shower is grey, and the other three walls and floor are white.

Another ensuite angle.

I desperately wanted a red glass splashback in the kitchen but it would have cost $2000.

$2000!!!

So we went with this instead as suggested to us by the shop assistant. The grey section is directly behind where the free standing gas top cooker will be. The benchtops aren't green either in case you're wondering.

They've just got protective film on them.

The shower in the main bathroom. Another idea suggested by the shop assistant was to

have this strip here. I don't love it yet but I'm sure I will when I get to see it properly.

Cam says it looks great in real life.

The shop assistant really was very helpful. She suggested we tile the bath like this.

It's a big risk to take when you can't see exactly how it's going to turn out before you sign on the dotted line, but we both really like how this has turned out now.

The laundry!

It's my show day holiday on Wednesday so I'll get to go and see it for myself! The painter was there today, so I'll have some more updated photos to post then. Anyone wanna come with me?

What's cookin?

2011-07-31T03:05:00.000-07:00

Whilst I was away on my fabulous trip to Rockhampton this past weekend, I was unable to go to the house to see its progress, but Cammy went and took some photos on his phone. The garage door is now in place (which brings us to the 'enclosed' stage so he climbed in through a window!) and the kitchen and bathroom cabinets have been installed. They don't have the benchtops yet though as they're coming later. Maybe this week I'd guess.

He forgot to take pics of the garage door for me.

Le ensuite

Main bathroom

Kitchen sans benchtops

They'd cut the man hole too small because we'd paid for a larger one (easier access to store my millions of Christmas decs) so they fixed it and this is it now. One day I'd really like to get this:

Here's another photo that Cam took on his phone at the same time.

We agreed a couple of months ago that we'd get a new car when this current one got to 200,000 kilometres.

I've been dreaming of one of these....

But we can really only afford one of these...

So we'll just make do with what we've got for now!

We got gypped

2011-07-24T00:54:00.000-07:00

Gyprocked, actually! And it's making me feel walled in.

This is our kitchen, living area, and part of the alfresco.

Le garage

The view from our bedroom

The 'man whole'. Oh illiterate people, you're so funny :-)

The man

Haven't we done a fabulous job landscaping our side yard?

The other side

La cucaracha!

2011-07-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Me: "Did you see that cockroach?"

Cam: "Yeah, I killed it."

Me: "Why didn't you pick it up?"

Cam: "To warn all of the other cockroaches!"

xoxo

2011-07-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

A random thought that just came to me...

What if we acted the way we typed? Specifically, what if we kissed and hugged people when we said goodbye to them in the same way we write letters to them? I think we would think more carefully about the number of Xs and Os that we type! Otherwise it'd end up in a physical kiss, kiss, kiss, hug, hug, hug.

Haha. That would be funny. And stranger than European.

Did that even make sense?

Ciao
xxxooo

;-p

Bricks and mortar

2011-07-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

I had a plan.... and it failed. But it was nice to think about.

Basically, the idea was to hope like crazy that the builders would brick our house with the wrong brick. I was not going to go to the house during the bricking process so that I wouldn't see the brick too soon and feel compelled to advise the builder that it was wrong before it went too far. The genius in this is that by them using the wrong brick I could demand that the builder render over it at their cost. We can't afford to pay for the rendering ourselves yet so I've spent the last several months waiting for this stage and crossing my fingers that they'd mess it up.

Well it was a nice dream. Sadly, the builder got it right. Sigh.... Why do they have to be so good?

This is what it looks like now.

The windows and external doors have all been installed too.

The air con is ready to go!

so is the gyprock

All wired up

2011-07-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

Last week the sparky wired up our house.

We asked him to do a little extra wiring for us. Being an Orth, a 'little extra wiring' actually means a LOTTA extra wiring.

And then Cam, Daniel, Ryan and I went to the house on the weekend so the boys could wire up stereo cables into the rumpus room/home theatre.

We found this giant possum in our roof . I'll have to call an exterminator :-)

Cam was the unfortunate one that had to climb around in the roof to place the cable while his brothers below passed up the wire and took many opportunities to torment him with a piece of wood they found. I have a photo of that but it won't be making an appearance here as it's not fit for their mother's eyes :-)

Also being an Orth means that particular attention is paid to the home theatre. We now have wiring in preparation for eight speakers in the home theatre. Why yes, I did say EIGHT SPEAKERS in the home theatre.

And then they generously allowed me to have one speaker in the living room, one in the dining room, two in the alfresco and one in the multi-purpose room. That's five to service the rest of the house, and EIGHT in the home theatre alone.

The builders have also wrapped the house in insulation material. This is our backyard at the moment. We'll figure out exactly what to do with it eventually. There's a three metre easement from the back fence so we can't build any lasting structures on it, and a drain pipe too, which really throws a spanner in it cos we'll have to cover it somehow so kids don't find their way down there. All they have to do is lift the grill and then out to the ocean they go!

And LOOK!

We have a new tree out the front!

We met some neighbours too. The neighbours on our left are a young couple about our age and their house is a whopper! It's at roughly the same stage as ours but will be ready several weeks ahead of ours. But at the rate ours is going, who knows? We're just not ready to take it until October because we'll still be renting here at Cam's parents' place until then. The neighbours have two young sons who were little cuties when I met them and I'm sure will get along very well with our nieces and nephews when they come for visits. And then there was a middle-aged couple moving in across the street whom Cam borrowed a pair of scissors from so we're already acquainted with them now.

It's pretty cool building in a new neighbourhood where everyone around you is doing the same thing. You can stop and ask each other for advice and ideas on how they dealt with particular issues, which is exactly what we did.

I REALLY hope the initial neighbourly feeling continues in the neighbourhood because we plan to be here for a while. I'd hate to end up in a dispute. Anyway, optimism will lead for now.

It's a grey day

2011-06-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

Gunmetal grey in fact! That's the colour of our new roof.

The inner workings of a roof - very busy.

Kitchen drain pipes

One of the neighbours who came for a visit

This week down on the block

2011-06-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Tuesday

You can see above that the middle section of the roof frame hasn't yet been erected.

Meet Jason the carpenter.

And his apprentice, I think.

Saturday

The roof is now finished although it's not obvious here since you can't see the whole thing.

The roof tiles are ready to go!

That poor tree.

We've been framed!

2011-06-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

See if you can work out which rooms we're in.

Come inside. Pull up a piece of cement and make yourself comfortable.

Graffiti on our property!

2011-06-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

They poured the slab today! Yay! Couldn't help ourselves and went there again to check it out after work.

It's looking great!

So happy with it. We left something behind too...

A momentous occasion where we left our mark upon the foundation of our home.

Right on the corner of our bedroom. It will be hidden by the brick wall and maybe a bit of the carpet and even if we sell the place, it will still be there! Yeah! Punks forever!

PS. Dontcha love my red coat! :-)

PPS. Did you like my sensationalist post title? Something worthy of the Courier Mail, I think!

Dirt and styrofoam!

2011-06-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

Well the builder hadn't called us for weeks and we were waiting to hear about the construction start date for our house. It was supposed to begin within 12 months of settlement which was 30 June last year. What a pleasant surprise when Cam called Wayne, the site supervisor, today to get an update.

It turns out that Wayne received the plans for our house last Thursday. He was able to get somebody on Friday to cut the land. And now the slab is going to be poured tomorrow! Yippee!

So after work tonight Cam and I drove down to the block to have a look and take a few progress shots. When Wayne said that the land had been cut (levelled out etc), I imagined that we were simply going to see that the land was now level! Duh!

So it was a great surprise to pull up and see this!

Ok it was quite stupid of me to imagine that there wouldn't be anything there. Did I expect that they would just start pouring cement onto the dirt and it would miraculously take shape and flatten itself out so our house could then magically start building itself?

So here we have in the pictures some piering for support, some styrofoam for the special things that styrofoam does, some plumbing and those steel rod thingies, all encased in some beautiful sleepers forming the slab frame (in my own words). And tomorrow they are going to cover it all up with cement.

A lady at work warned me not to go see the slab because they always look TINY. Boy was she wrong! The thing is massive!

The water tank goes on this part here after they pour the cement.

Some pictures are blurry because it's quite hard to focus at night when you're not really trying.

Anyway, I wasn't keen on walking around with Jet (my camera) when I couldn't see the ground properly so I'll have to wait until next time we go there to take more photos. The frame might even start going up this week! EEEEKKKKK! So exciting!

Oh and remember that little tree that I thought was in front of the driveway? This is it now :-(

YOU STINK

2011-06-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

Dear smokers,

You stink. Literally.

I was walking up the street on my way to work and caught a whiff of cigarette smoke. No biggie. Then as I went to inhale again, I discovered there was no fresh air to breathe in, just somebody's secondhand smoke that had already entered their body and was now going into mine. I looked up to see a girl ahead of me holding her cigarette out from her body whilst walking as if she was a glamour queen.

Immediate anger welled within me.

There she was, five metres ahead of me and yet her polluted exhalation was still reaching me. Oblivious to my disgust she continued on her way whilst I tried unsuccesfully to block myself from her nicotine cloud and cover my nostrils.

I ran past her in an effort to be in front but I guess the poor little dear was in a hurry because she kept overtaking me and blowing her filth into my face.

And then I remembered the time that another woman was carelessly exhaling her nicotine-filled lungs out to the side and not even looking where it was going - right into my face. She appeared horrified when she realised what she'd done, but I didn't excuse her.

And then there was the time I was passing a group of smokers on my way to work. A woman took a drag and then carelessly flung her hand behind her. That hand was holding her cigarette. She didn't even notice that she almost flung her hand right into me and I had to jump out of the way.

And then there are those smokers' corridors. The ones I have to pass through on my lunch break because all of the smokers are outside together socialising in the same spot and I have no choice but to hold my breath and walk through. I could cross the road, but there's another smokers' group right across from it.

Oh and also those smokers who don't even stub out the butt before putting it into those ashtrays attached to public bins. The whole thing sets on fire and the stink is horrendous.

Smokers - you offend me. I find blatant selfishness on the city streets where smokers are concerned. Sure it's your right to do to your body what you feel you must. But it's not your right to pollute the air of others. It's not your right to cause an asthma attack or harm a woman's unborn child.

You stink.

Dirt taking shape

2011-05-08T03:01:00.000-07:00

I initially began this blog to keep family posted on the progress of our house to be built. Well, it's still not there yet! We bought the land back in January 2010 with plans to move in when Cam's parents returned from their mission in October 2011. So, it was due to begin work on 1 April, but we were a bit slack/unable to find the time to get to all of the paperwork (there's only so much progress you can make when you work Monday to Friday and the builder head office is only open Mon - Fri. I'm sure you would have read how crazy busy my job is! I feel bad just for taking a sick day!).

So I forced myself to take a day off during Cam's school holidays and we finally went to the builder and finalised the colour decisions etc. Amazing that they simply can't pour a house slab until you tell them what colour you want your interior walls to be!

Anyway! So we got the letter this week from them to advise us that they will soon advise us of the construction start date. Yeah.

We went two weeks ago to have a look at the area again and there has been a huge load of progress in the neighbourhood. The first day that we went to look at the land, we had to go in a 4WD to drive around the estate. Now the roads are all finished and several homes have been completed and are now occupied. It's really exciting!

We've also been told an unconfirmed rumour that there is a young LDS couple that have built a home just up the street from us so we might have some neighbours in our new ward.

Although these pictures don't really give much away as our block is still just dirt, there's a retaining wall on the right (which shows that there will be a house on that side soon) and we have a neighbour on the left.

There's our block with the back now fully fenced and a retaining wall on the right which was built by those neighbours. I think that tree is actually in the way of where our driveway will go! It was planted by the community planner people so they'll move it for us.

That's Annie sitting on the retaining wall that marks the boundary to our block right behind her. Just another progress snapshot so I can show our kids in years to come what the area was like before they came along.

That house is our first neighbour on the left.

And that's our car that we will probably still have when our oldest son goes on his mission.

And that's the latest :-)

Blessed

2011-04-10T01:30:00.000-07:00

I have the travel bug.

It's a virus that sits in the bloodstream and there is no complete cure for it, only treatment to calm it down whenever it flares.

Symptoms include:

Crying at the airport

I used to do this as a child. Not because I was devastated to be saying goodbye to someone, but because I was devastated that I wasn't going too!

Buying travel guides
Heck I even bought one for Australia!

Buying self-teaching language books and dictionaries for any country just in case you go there one day
I have one in Finnish!

Stopping outside the travel agent to stare at the giant map on the wall.

Feeling sad whenever you look at your passport because there aren't enough stamps in it.

Unable to look at your family and friends' travel photos because you want to be doing that so badly too
I kid you not, this is real! And it's not just me that it happens to!

But I have been blessed! I have been able to go to a couple of countries to pacify the bug inside me and as much as I try to ignore it, it never lets me forget it's there, waiting for the moment when a good travel deal will present itself and then it will STRIKE ME LIKE A STARVING MONSTER!!!

So I have decided to upload just a couple of my travel photos to pacify myself with so that whenever the monster tries to claw its way out, I can simply look at my blog, wherever I am in Brisbane, and be reminded that I have indeed been to a few places.

My trip to America took place before I got my first digital camera, so I will simply load photos of American places I've been too.

That oughta calm the beast for a while.

AMERICA 2004 - 2005

The shot above and then the ones below are from NEW ZEALAND 2008

Milford Sound

Queenstown

That will do for now until I can find where I've parked the rest of my pictures!

Jealous

2011-04-07T03:33:00.000-07:00

I tried over and over again to write this blog, because I just had to say something. It was just like you see on the movies - writer types out a line, then erases it. Types another line, then erases it.

Eventually scraps the whole thing and starts again.

So that's this blog. Just writing stream of consciousness now really. Until I go back over it again to check my puncutation and spelling... I mean punctuation.

Anyway. I'm jealous.

I'm jealous of the women out there who have the time to pursue their interests. I'm envious of the women out there that have the time/money/circumstance to improve their photography skills.

There! I said it!

I'm jealous that they get to do what I'd rather be doing!

I am VERY grateful that my job allows my husband and I to pay our bills and build our future home. I do not take this for granted.

But I just wish that I could stay at home and pursue my interests, and research/study photography more so that I can hone my skills to be the photographer I want to be. And with that time I might even be able to scratch together a decent dinner now and then. Or fold my laundry instead of letting it sit there in the basket until I pick it up to iron and wear to work that day.

I know there are women out there who would like to trade places with me, but this isn't about them. I'm being selfish here. This is about ME.

Wah wah wah. What a sook.

Perfect

2011-03-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever dreamed up something that would be absolutely perfect for you? I did.

I dreamed up the perfect job that would utilise my current skill set. I dreamed up a payrise to go with it. I dreamed that I would enjoy it. Then I dreamed that somebody would call me out of the blue and offer me that dream.

And they did.

That's how I know Heavenly Father is listening.

He knows I'm too shy/lack the self-confidence to go for a higher paid job when there are so many other people out there that I tell myself can do it just as well or even better than me.

There I was, sitting at my desk, bored out of my brain, and I literally had a job search website open on my computer. Not that I was ever intending to actually leave my job, I was just browsing. My boss was too good an employer to desert without a good enough reason. Besides, I was too scared to apply for any jobs that might come up anyway (that self-confidence thing again).

So there I was when the phone rang. It was a lady whom I had worked with a few years earlier who was to be the Executive Director of a new Commission of Inquiry that was being set up for 12 months. She was going to need an office manager to do all of the things that I had listed in my skill set dream to Heavenly Father. Did I want it? It was Tuesday and the job was to start the following Monday.

YIPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

So that was two months ago. The only way I can describe my new job is CRAZY BUSY!!!

Oh yeah, I even dreamed that the position would be called Office Manager, after considering my skill set. That's exactly what I got.

It's great! I am getting a whole load of job satisfaction out of this, and the simple act of her calling me really boosted my self-confidence and I feel like when this gig ends (10 months to go!) I'll have the self-belief to apply for other jobs that will keep me on the same pay level or to go even higher.

And that's where I've been for the last two months. The time has absolutely flown by at the speed of light! And I had made a promise to deliver some fund raising ideas through my photography (as a side note, photography is still one of my dream jobs (along with being a movie star and a traveller), but office work is what I'll do until we start a family). I've just been so busy that I haven't even had time to blog at all (tonight is a forced effort!). I'm usually pretty tired at the end of the day now, but it has been really satisfying in my job now. So happy!

So here's my pledge. 10% of the profits from my LDS product sales will be donated to charity at the end of 2011. No, I'm not talking about tithing either! The charity is yet to be determined as there are so many causes that need help. I'm wide open for suggestions!

And now to the reason that drove me to blog tonight when I should have been doing other things instead. See the pic below? That was dinner tonight - Shepherds Pie.

It was pretty YUM!

And look who made it!!!!

I was so surprised! And impressed! He's never made anything like it before. I think the most complicated recipe he's ever made is spaghetti, yet he surprised me with this when I got home from work.

I'm so proud of him.

I think it was more potato than anything else, but that's because he knows I love my spuds :-)

Craft auction for Qld floods

2011-01-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

What can I say about the flood disaster that has devastated much of my state? I can't. I guess I'm speechless. No point looking back, only forward. Forward to how I can help. I spent a night sandbagging until 3am, and since then, due to circumstances I have been unable to help and it's killing me!

How can I help? I thought that as a photographer I'd be quite useless. Wouldn't it be more useful to be skilled as a tradie like an electrician, like my sister-in-law, Andrea; or in the army, like my brother, Matt?

But I am now coming up with a few ideas which I will be able to give you in a week or so.

So for now, Christy is holding three auctions to to raise money for the flood appeal. Please head on over to see her wares cos they are so cute!

Auction 1 - Hair Accessories

Auction 2 - Baby Clothes and Accessories

Auction 3 - Handmade cards and embellishments

The auctions close at midnight on 24 January AEST.

Also, http://www.flooddiscounts.com.au/ lists companies that are offering discounts to flooded residents and businesses to help them get back on their feet.

Hey good lookin'

2011-01-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

Whaaaaaatcha got cookin?

I've never really been into cooking, but I'm just about to enter my fourth (and last) week of holidaying and have found that I really don't mind it so much when I've got ample time to prepare food for dinner. It's kind of... alright!

It's nice when I have hours to think about it and can just mosey on up to the shops whenever I feel like it, instead of squishing the shopping time around my 9 to 5.

I haven't made any show-stopping meals, it's just that I don't view cooking with as much horror as I usually do when I'm working my office job full-time and doing my photography on the side.

So anyway, Dalli Cottage Collection is giving away a really cute apron, and I want it!

It's a shame that the competition runs for all of January because if I win, by the time it flutters into my letterbox, I'll be back at work anyway and back to hastily prepared meals that don't really need a protective covering for my clothes. And besides, it's just so darn cute that I wouldn't want to get food on it anyway!

Have a look for yourself!

Click here

Thanks Christy for the heads up!

Peace.

10 - Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

2010-12-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Happy - upbeat music. 'Soul sister' by Train

Sad - Nothing in particular.

Bored - the radio.

Mad - None really. Music makes me happy. If I want to be mad, I'm not going to turn on mad-defeating music! Better to calm down first.

9 - Something you’re proud of in the past few days

2010-12-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

My husband.

On Tuesday he graduated!!!!!!

I am SO PROUD of him.

Hello double income!

8 - Short term goals for this month and why

2010-11-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

December
Here's my job list of photo work to do:

Edit 2 weddings
Edit 5 portrait sessions
Shoot 3 portrait sessions
A secret plan
Continue with another extra secret, extra awesome product I'm developing
Source a few product suppliers
Fix my website
Print a few products

Attend:

Dinner party
Birthday party
Engagement party
Christmas parties
Family get-together
Dentist

Here's my other life stuff to do:

Spend four days at Hervey Bay
Spend four days somewhere else
Christmas shopping
Make Christmas presents
Birthday present shopping
Read more of the Book of Mormon
Make a few craft items
Find a boarder. Know of any female YSA looking for a room? We've got a spare one up for grabs.
Relax in my time off work.
Overhaul my house to create better living areas.

Rain, rain, come my way

2010-11-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

Heavenly Father made it rain on me on purpose today. And I'm grateful for it.

This morning was another one where Cam went to work early which meant I would need to walk 1.5kms to the bus stop. It was overcast and I've lost my umbrella again so I asked Heavenly Father to hold off the rain until I got onto the bus.

He's kindly been quite compliant this week for every time I've had to walk without my brolly and it hasn't rained on me once.

I follow a main road all the way and then turn right into a street where the bus stop is. I can't see the stop at all until I turn into that street.

I left the house with plenty of time to get to the bus stop. I was still on the main road and only a couple of hundred metres away from the stop when it started to spit ever so slightly, like a nice mist, certainly not enough to make me speed up. I usually run the last few hundred metres in case I miss the bus but I checked the time and saw that I still had about six or seven minutes to spare and decided that I would continue walking at my leisurely pace.

As soon as I made this decision, the rain started. It wasn't heavy, but it was enough to make me run the rest of the way.

As I turned the corner and neared my bus stop, I saw my bus coming.

I felt very definitely that Heavenly Father sent me the rain so that I would run and make it to my bus on time. Had I not run, then I would have missed it.

It's the last bus of the morning so I would have been in for another 40 min walk to the shops to get another bus.

The rain stopped soon after I was settled on the bus.

Sometimes Heavenly Father lets it rain on us for our benefit.

7 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on me

2010-11-24T17:26:00.000-08:00

Someone

Something

6 - Favourite super hero and why

2010-11-24T01:58:00.000-08:00

That's a tough one. I'm not really into the super heroes like Superman etc. But honestly, in the real world, my husband is my hero. He rescued me from the things that made me afraid and turned me into some kind of super woman who isn't afraid of the baddies anymore. He gave me confidence. That's an amazing thing about love - it makes you fearless.

5 - A picture of somewhere I've been to

2010-11-23T18:36:00.000-08:00

Last year I was lucky enough to go to Singapore. This is the Merlion.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

2010-11-22T02:37:00.000-08:00

My hair and I have been together a long time. We've done so many wonderful things!

We pretended I was Rapunzel

Tried to pass for Magnum PI

Been windswept

Gone hippy

Reminisced about the 80s

And been confused about what they meant by sweeping to the side

But now, to cut a long story short

We've straightened things about between us

Now what to do with the leftovers?

Think I'll keep it for when rat tails get popular.

Didn't Christy do a great job?

4 - A habit I wish I didn't have

2010-11-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

I am lazy.

I hate folding the laundry and I don't enjoy exercising unless it's based around sports or dance.

I wish I was motivated to fold laundry.

I wish I got my kicks out of stomach crunches instead of stomaching crunchies.

The Hunger Games

2010-11-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

I've only given a review on here for a book that left me so unimpressed that I had to say something about it.

This time, 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins is a book I couldn't put down! I finished reading it last night (neglected my night-time photo editing work, had an extra late dinner etc cos I literally couldn't put it down), dreamt about it, and then went straight to the book store on the way to work to purchase book 2 in the three-book series.

It's been a while since I've hidden a book under my desk at work to read when nobody is watching but I couldn't resist!

The suspense! The mystery! The emotion! The oh my gosh what's gonna happen now?!!!!?? And of course, how on earth did somebody come up with such a brilliant story!??!!!!

Sigh. I am happy now. Another good book series to add to my shelves.

Read it.

Addition to my Bucket List

2010-11-15T15:18:00.000-08:00

I've thought of something to add and am surprised I've never put it on the list before. Below is the revised version to include no. 8.

1. Make every single recipe in the recipe book we were given for our wedding at least once. That's over 400 and I've only done about four so far.

2. Sky dive

3. Write a novel

4. Learn another language (Spanish if possible)

5. Attend General Conference at the Conference Centre in Salt Lake City

6. Bungee jump

7. Join a Kapahaka group so I can learn more of my own culture

8. Give humanitarian aid in a poor country.

I don't feel the need to justify my preference of going to a poor country rather than staying here to help others.

2 - The meaning behind my blog name

2010-11-15T03:00:00.001-08:00

It was hard to come up with a blog name - as I'm sure you experienced when coming up with yours. Cam and I both have a common nickname for each other. It's 'Punk'.

I think before we were even together (not a huge window of time as we met one month before we got together), he had met up with me on my lunch break (the signs of interest were already there). After lunch he walked me back to work when he did something funny/dumb/silly to me (I think) and I called him a punk. He said I couldn't say that because he calls people punks. The flirty banter followed and from there, we called each other 'punk'.

I really love that we have the same nickname for each other. I always think of him as 'my punk', or I call him 'Cammy punk'.

This blog started out as our family blog and I called it 'Punks', then I finally thought of 'This Punk Loves That Punk' - because I love that punk and he loves me.

3 - A picture of me and my friends

2010-11-15T02:58:00.000-08:00

I am very blessed to say that I feel I have many friends in the truest sense of the word. Here are some of them.

1 - A recent picture and 15 interesting facts about me

2010-11-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

1. I am a photographer in my spare time.
2. I once spent New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York. Then we slept at the bus station.
3. I have no idea what I am doing in my church calling but somehow it works - with a lot of prayer.
4. I have 8 sisters and 2 brothers. I'm the best one :-)
5. I really want to travel the world.
6. I love Christmas decorations and this year put mine up at the end of October. I couldn't wait any longer.
7. I followed Hanson around Australia in 2005 and went to all eight concerts.
8. I love to swap my photography services for other mutually convenient services.....
9. It takes six months for my big toe nails to grow out from the root. I painted them once and waited.
10. I love thrillseeker rides.
12. I am 13 months and 9 days older than my husband.
13. I have been to Australia, New Zealand, America, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore and it kills me that that is all!
14. I am half Maori and half Australian with Welsh and Irish blood.
15. I love to dance.

That was an incredibly hard list to come up with. It took me days!

Live and let live

2010-11-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

The 11th Article of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints states:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

I wish others would do the same for us.

30 days of me

2010-11-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

I've just copied this directly from Christy's post who copied it from somebody elses. For 30 days, not necessarily consecutive, this is what you're going to get from me, with a sprinkling of other random thoughts as they pass through my brain. I would start right now but since I'm at work I don't have any recent pictures of myself. So tonight then.

I have to say though, days 13 and 24 seem rather personal. I don't know what I want the world to know about those subjects. I could be honest and say what's in my heart, but it's very personal. I'll probably just keep it light. We'll see when I get there.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.

Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name.

Day 03- A picture of you and your friends.

Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have

Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to

Day 06- Favorite super hero and why

Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why.

Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days

Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Day 14- A picture of you and your family

Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

Day 16- Another picture of yourself

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have

Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them

Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future

Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else

Day 23- Something you crave for a lot

Day 24- A letter to your parents

Day 25- What I would find in your bag

Day 26- What you think about your friends

Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge

Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned

Day 30- Your favorite song.

Blackout

2010-11-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

At work we have sensor lights that turn on when there is movement in the room. They turn off after 15 minutes if no movement is detected in that time. I guess I have been quite still because they just turned off.

And then they turned on again when I moved my hands to type.

Random happening for today.

Drinking and driving

2010-10-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

My eight-year-old niece was picked up by a friend's mum to go to the same friend's birthday party on Saturday. After she returned home we were chatting about the party and I was pleased to know that she understands drink-driving to be dangerous. However...

Paige: "I was very uncomfortable because Kristen's parents were drinking Coke and driving."

How cute is she?

Her concern was too cute for any of us to correct her beliefs on the alcohol content of Coke. I just smiled and memorised her words to write down later :-)

A good week

2010-10-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

Even though I was sick this week, I still found time to have fun!

I did a little decorating

Played a prank with my housemate

on our husbands

We laid a trap

and laughed manically while we waited.

I attended a Pink Party to raise money for Breast Cancer research

where we burned a bra!

I took a balloon bath

Had a girls' night with some of my sisters (photo to come!)

and finished a stitchery that I started one year ago!

And now I feel much better!

Whether this or weather that

2010-10-20T02:33:00.000-07:00

There was a period of about two years where it rained on almost every holiday I took. Whether it was a nice solid break, or just a day here and there, it rained.

But the clouds parted over that period and the weather returned to normal where sometimes it rained and sometimes the sun shone on my holidays, but it was indiscriminate.

It seems as if the rainy holiday is back now.

I went camping a few weeks ago. My first full week off in about 11 months (except Christmas which never counts because that's compulsory at my work). And it rained on me. Of course.

I have been sick for the last few days and stayed home from church on Sunday, and from work for the next two days.

How was the weather?

GLORIOUS!!!!!!!

Of course.

Of course it will rain when I'm ready for fun and shine when I'm not well.

Well, weather. Do you know what I did?

I still went outside and enjoyed you anyway!

No near-death experience is going to stop me from enjoying the sunny weather when I'm not working.

HA!

Ten tips tried and true

2010-10-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

1. You are walking through the city and along your way you pass five different clusters of people desiring to sell you something for charity / sign you up to fund their charity / ask you where you get your hair done.

You have either already donated to one of them or you don't have the money or charity yourself to give to them. How to avoid it:

Pull out your phone and start talking. They won't bother you now.

2. After cooking a meal in your oven on a cold day, leave the oven door open while it cools down to let the heat into the room.

3. You've just been swimming at your gym's pool, or just got out of the shower and the gym changing room is freezing cold.

Check that the sauna's not in use. If it's free, get dressed in there.

4. You're on the bus/train home and sitting next to the window. It's been a long day and you start nodding off. Whatever you do, DON'T rest your head against the window!!!

If you have a closer look at it you'll see that many other people have had the same idea and left their greasy hair marks all over the same spot you want to put yours.

5. When travelling in foreign countries or even just the seedy areas of your town, conceal cash and valuables in different areas of your clothing. That way, if your handbag gets snatched, you'll still have cash in another pocket or other hidden area.

6. Don't be shy about going into shops you can't afford to buy from. You never know what is waiting for you on the clearance rack/table at incredible prices.

By the same token, subscribe to websites etc for things you're interested in. Even if it's expensive, they occasionally send out awesome deals for subscribers only and suddenly your wish becomes reality.

7. To save money, buy your clothes in the off-season. Be prudent with sales. It's okay to spend $100 on items that would have cost you $400 at full price (according to your circumstances, of course).

8. You board a bus and all of the window seats are taken, meaning that you will have to sit next to a stranger. For your own comfort, look for someone skinny to sit next to. If you sit next to a particularly large person then you will have less seat for yourself and your leg may end up supporting you every time the bus turns a corner, or for the whole journey, not just corners.

9. Sing along with the radio at the top of your lungs in an Australian accent. It's even better if you've got friends there singing with you too.

10. Pose in photos - it keeps them interesting.

How soon is too soon?

2010-10-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

I just want to take a moment to ask a very serious question that could affect my life for the next few months...

How soon is too soon to put up my Christmas decorations?

:-)

You see, I buy my decorations in January every year during the post-Christmas sales. It's fantastic!!! It's a risky business waiting for the prices to go down. You jus don't know what will be left but I always find something that makes me look forward to raising the tree just so I can hang that decoration on it.

I've been anticipating the decorating time ever since January! It's killing me!

Why is it the accepted social norm to only be festive for a limited period every year!? Why can't the world encourage peace, joy and hope all year round?

I just want to walk into my lounge room to see the twinkling fairy lights all the time! Christmas makes me smile.

When I think of the Christmas season, I think of hot summer nights, time off from work, old Christmas movies on TV, singing Christmas carols, the 'I can't believe I haven't done my shopping!' moments in the week leading up to Christmas, the inevitable gorging on Christmas day and subsequent recovery, and everybody being just a bit nicer to each other because some of us remember that Christmas starts with CHRIST.

So if my reasons are valid - that I want to celebrate Christ and the season and decorations make me happy - is it too soon to put up my decorations?

That umbrella

2010-09-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Remember that umbrella?

It was another morning where I had to walk to the bus stop because Cam had already left for work with the car. We still haven't rectified the problem of not owning an umbrella so I had two options: walk to the bus stop in the rain with that umbrella or walk there without it.

I weighed up my options. The trek takes me approximately 15 mins to walk. The rain was falling heavier than I'd have liked so I was going to get pretty wet. This wasn't a warm day and I had the prospect of a freezing cold 45-minute bus ride awaiting me.

So I opted to take that umbrella.

It's not really so bad because there are very few people out walking on a rainy morning. I was lucky enough to make it without crossing paths with anyone else, and as luck would have it, there was nobody else at the stop when I got there. So I didn't worry about which direction those logos on the umbrella were facing.

D'oh!

After a minute I turned around and there was another guy there who had snuck up behind me like a thief. Dang it. I know he saw it too. He was a split-second too late in composing his face so I know he saw it.

Fast forward to 5.00pm that day.

It's time to leave the office (more like speed on out of there like I'm being chased by a heat-seeking missile) and it's raining heavily.

There are hundreds of people on the street now. Hmmm. What to do?

Easy.

Hide that umbrella in my handbag and just get wet.

Winter, how I love thee

2010-09-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

Now there's a line I never in a million years thought I'd be uttering.

Me love Winter? I must have a screw loose. But all with good reason.

Here's why:

- Cam lets me snuggle closer to him when we sleep
- No cricket

Hmmm, I thought my list was way longer than that. It must have been because I also have reasons to hate Summer that I never had before.

Here's why:

- Cameron doesn't let me anywhere near him when we sleep because it's too hot
- Cricket

Oh. That's explains it then. I had both lists in my head at the same time instead of just one. I'm sure you can see where I got them confused as one.

Ella!

2010-08-31T02:28:00.000-07:00

Ella arrived late to Atea's birthday party on Saturday. As she approached I yelled out "ELLAAAAAA!!!!!"

All the kids on the huge tire swing followed suit in yelling out to her too.

But the birthday boy had something to add to "ELLAAAAAA!!!!!"

For his greeting, he called out, "ELLA! Give my my present!"

Dear Pregnant Women...

2010-08-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Pregnant Women

You are not fat; you are beautiful.

You carry within your womb a human being who is a spirit child of God, an "heritage of the Lord". You have been blessed with the privilege of giving a body to and raising a child with infinite potential.

Your child is capable of loving, serving, giving, compassion, forgiving, laughing and bringing you endless joy.

Heavenly Father is entrusting you with the care of this child. He has sent it to you so that you will rear it in love and righteousness, provide for its physical and spiritual needs, teach it to love and serve others, and to observe the commandments of God.*

Your baby has been waiting to meet you. For its first few years, it will see you as its universe. You will be its source of life, love, refuge and warmth. It will look to you for guidance, for comfort, for care.

Your body holds everything vital to this child's well-being. It's there in the nourishment you give, in the character and strength of your mind, heart and spirit.

You are not fat.

You are beautiful.

*A Proclamation to the World

Four years - Bring it On

2010-08-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

That's what I posted on Cam's Facebook page the night before our anniversary.

Our fourth wedding anniversary was last Thursday - woohoo! I love my punk!

But, as life goes these days, we didn't really have much time to spend together so we scraped together the bits of time that we could to celebrate together.

On Thursday night we had a lovely dinner together. Friday night we went to a movie - 'Salt' - it was pretty good.

On Saturday we went jetboating! It was good fun! Unfortunately there's nowhere to put a camera while you're being flung around in the boat so Ebony to stay on land. But here are a couple of pics from before and after.

The boat behind Cam is one belonging to the company we went with

If we had stayed at a Gold Coast hotel then they would have picked us up in the Super Jeep

I wish I could have taken a pic of us in our black ponchos and life jackets but they were quick to take them from us after we arrived back and before I could get Ebony out to take a few images. The ponchos looked like they were bought from the same store the Grim Reaper shops at.

The sea salt in my hair acted better than hair spray and kept my hair sticking up after the wind had done its damage.

This was an hour after the ride and my hair looked exactly the same.

The sun brings out my freckles. I had to delete the close-up photos of my face because they were UGGGGLLLLLLLYYYYY!!!!!

I had the hugest smile on my face for the whole ride. So much so that my cheeks were hurting afterwards. I was so happy I almost started crying :-)

I realised while we were out there spinning around and getting sprayed with the water that the things I most love to do in life require some sort of safety equipment. I suppose that if there is a slight element of danger then I am happy to be there :-)

But after a while I got used to the driver racing us towards beacons on the water only to spin the boat around it at the very last second. It was so close that I actually thought the driver was going to hit his head on a beacon as the boat did a quick turn around it.

Also, there was a pretty young girl on the boat who got scared so I know the driver was taking it easy for her benefit. Rather than get too annoyed (I must admit I did feel slightly annoyed), I was simply grateful that we got a two for one deal on our ride. We only went out for about 45 minutes instead of a full hour which is what we had expected and I'm sure it's because the little girl was scared. So it wasn't really so bad that we didn't get the full ride, but I do wish we'd gotten to experience the scarier tricks that I'm sure the driver was capable of pulling off. Now that we've done it, we probably won't do it again. On to the next adrenalin-pumping activity, thanks!

So after we got home, I attempted to drag a comb through my hair - no such luck. That salt wasn't budging without the aid of shampoo. So I gave up and went for the ugly but simple bun to go to my sister's and cousin's dance final - Bring it On 2010. It was such a busy day - no time to shower just yet!

They were awesome! Darren goes to Bayside College and he pretty much opened his school's routine.

It's hard to see him because he's wearing black but that's him at the front with his tongue sticking out. Security told me to put the camera away so I'm glad I got this shot at least!

It was a pretty tough competition, well from most (some of the schools' dances looked more like aerobic workouts), but Maraea's high school came third overall. I thought that was pretty good as the top two schools were awesome too.

That's her there at the front. They put on blindfolds but hers came off. Luckily nobody else in her crew saw it anyway! They were the last school on so I positioned my niece on the arm rest next to me to try to cover my camera in case security came back. Hehe.

Paige and I both have red Chucks. I think mine are almost as old as she is.

Out of the wardrobe

2010-07-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

It's been many, many years since I read the Narnia books in primary school and I haven't seen the movies either, so I can't be analogous about the storylines. In fact, I barely remember anything at all, but I must have enjoyed them to read the whole series. What I do remember is that whenever the children went through the wardrobe, time moved at a completely different pace. The outside world kept going without them.

This is how I feel whenever I go to work - that the outside world is moving on without me.

Everybody's lives continue but I have no idea because I'm stuck on my office chair in the cold air conditioning.

To me it doesn't feel like much time has passed since I last spent time with my friends, but then I'll look at the calendar and realise that it's been MONTHS!!!!

My pregnant friends have suddenly become mothers; missionaries have returned home; and I'm still here doing the same thing day after day.

BORING!!!!!

Maybe that's why the White Witch is a witch? She just wants to get out into the world and have a life!!!

Hopefully it won't be much longer before I get to "bust up this chiffarobe"* and catch up with the rest of you :-)

*From one of my favourite books - To Kill a Mockingbird

The White Witch is cool.

Who else would think to use polar bears to bust themselves out of a wardrobe?

Dirt update

2010-07-27T04:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we spent a couple of hours at the estate where we will build as they had a fifth birthday celebration for the community, and we wanted to show some siblings the display home we've picked for our design. It's a great community and I'm excited for what awaits us there! Fitness classes in the park, community celebrations and movie nights etc.

We finally went to the park and got to have a closer inspection and I am really impressed with what I saw. It's a wonderful park and I can't wait to send all the littlies there to play because they'll love it.

I also FINALLY remembered to take Jet (my DSLR) with me to take a few progress shots. It's not really obvious that much has been completed since I last posted photos of our land, but since then, all of the underground work has been done and the roads have been poured. It's now ready to be built on.

The photo above was taken from the back of the lot to show its depth which is 32m.

We're standing by the pegs that mark the boundaries of our 25m frontage.

We're standing by the pegs that mark the boundaries of the back - 19m wide.

We have five neighbours (two along one side, two along the back and one along the other side) and one has already built a fence. Fingers crossed they won't ask us to reimburse them when we finally move in!

I'm a bit worried about how the fences are going to work. What if a couple are built with the frame facing us and the others without the frame facing us? It's going to look pretty stupid. But if we're lucky enough that we won't have to pay for any of the fences then it won't bother us so much; but it will still look stupid!

This is me coming off second best after picking a fight with a sculpture.

Fat chance

2010-07-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Alright. Since I started my new schedule I have obediently risen at 5.30am on week days and gone to the gym. I've come home from work and done what I said I would and made an effort to be in bed by 10pm. It's been mostly successful.

One of the benefits of exercise is getting a good night's rest after having used up your energy stores. I remember the last time I obediently slogged it out at the gym and this was one of the effects.

So what the heck is happening now!?

Why am I having trouble getting to sleep to start with? And then waking up two or three times a night?

Grrr. Maybe my body is telling me it likes itself just the way it is and I should give up on the healthy lifestyle.

FAT CHANCE.

Man in the Mirror

2010-07-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

There are two trains of thought that have led me to where this post is going.

ONE - Ok that's it. I've had enough of what I've let myself become. I am lazy, overweight and undisciplined. I'm surprised Cam has put up with me this long.

and

TWO - Thirty seconds of introspection yesterday made me realise that I live to work. Nowhere near the other way around. I leave home for 11 hours each day because of work! Not because I enjoy it but out of necessity. I need to make a change so that I am happy with the life I have so that this working thing is a little more balanced out by other activities that make my time spent at work worthwhile.

I am now setting myself a challenge. A schedule to balance out the madness and get myself fitter and more organised.

I will start with one working week. If I can do it for one week then I can do it for another and another. I hope I have the willpower to carry on because I will be happier at the end of it.

Anyone want to join me on this self-disciplining, life-improving exercise? Tailored to your meet your needs, of course.

This will be tough to start with and stick to, but it will be worth it. I'll be an improved version of me :-)

As this guy once sang:

"I'm gonna make a change

for once in my life

Gonna feel real good,

gonna make a difference

Gonna make it right"

Ok I've taken those lyrics way out of context, but it starts with the man in the mirror.

Dirt and soil

2010-07-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

The inspiration behind starting this blog was initially to let others know of the progress of our new home that we will have built for us. But then I realised how few and far between those updates would be and I would be likely to forget that I'd even started a blog, so it quickly became our family blog. But then Cam hasn't ever posted, so it's really just my blog. I'm hoping one day he'll tell you something....yeah...we'll see.

Months ago I showed some pictures of our patch of dirt. Well, we now officially have the mortgage on that dirt. It settled on 30 June so now comes the money-scrimping. Not that we were living large without it, it's just serious now.

- Pause for serious moment -

We've picked the design for the house, had the soil test done and commenced proceedings with the building company.

Not that I always want to have a whinge, but my gripe is that I think it should be law for a developer to conduct a soil test before selling you the land and the results of that test should be there for any prospective buyer to see.

For those that don't know (because I didn't before), a soil sample is taken from the land you want to buy and is graded.

If it's graded as stable then the house slab you put on the land will be a relatively decent price. However, if the result is that you have reactive or highly reactive soil (What does it react to? A bad hair-do?), you now have to get your slab engineered with extra piering for support etc and this can cost thousands more dollars.

You see where I'm going with this?

My problem is that the developer isn't obliged at all to test the soil before you buy, therefore, you have to spend $1500 of your own money to find out. Some people pay for a soil test before buying; but we found this good size block of land for a good price and every other block around us that has already been built on is graded as stable. We figured we'd be the same.

WRONG.

We bought the land and then had the soil test done. The result is that the soil is highly reactive (to bad hair-dos).

Well this caused us some stress. One builder we had previously been to told us that the difference in slab price could be $20,000. Please pass the tissues to dab my husband's teary eyes.

It's like hidden fees! You don't actually know what you're getting until you've signed on the dotted line. What do you do? In our situation, the land hadn't been developed or registered yet so we had to buy before getting the soil test done.

Thankfully, for some reason, with our builder, it's only going to cost us a couple more grand than we had anticipated so the stress soon evaporated. It simply means that we will go without the extra luxuries in the house that we'd been hoping would fit into the budget.

As I thought about it a little more, if we'd known that the soil was highly reactive from the beginning (and being new to the house-building business we didn't know our particular builder wouldn't charge us too much for the slab upgrade, therefore we would have taken the previous builder's word for it and assumed it would be an extra $20K) we probably wouldn't have bought the land in the first place.

We were also under a teensy bit of pressure to decide whether or not to buy as the estate our block is in was selling very fast.

But now we know better. So whilst I believe that a developer should have to tell you upfront what you're buying (so that you can factor it into your costs) I'm also grateful that we didn't know, otherwise we wouldn't have bought the land.

What is my man becoming?

2010-07-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Maioha: "What colour have they picked?"

Cam: "It's sort of white but not quite."

Maioha: "Off-white?"

Cameron: "Pistachio white."

Fitness diary update

2010-07-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

I've been to the gym twice since my last fitness diary. I was planning to play squash with my handsome husband tomorrow but he made other plans. So I'll have to figure something else out.

I actually forgot to weigh myself a couple of days ago anyway. I doubt I've lost any weight yet because my calory intake hasn't been very, uh, desirable. But I am at least trying to get the trend started with myself where I enjoy exercise; see a couple of benefits and then really start to enjoy those benefits and continue the exercise.

And that's why I've written this boring post today - to start recording my little journey as a reminder to myself to keep it going until I've reached my destination.

Funny quote

2010-07-01T04:46:00.000-07:00

Maioha: "I'd like to get a GHD one day, Cam. It's a really, really good hair straightener."

Cam: "I know. I speak Prada."

I'm a finalist! Please vote for me

2010-06-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well what an awesome surprise I got when I opened my emails this morning to see Canon informing me that I am a finalist in the Canon Keeper competition! There are four categories for which they received 13,301 entries in total. In each category there are ten finalists and they liked my picture enough to include me as one of them!!!

So please vote for me! I'm so excited to be a finalist!!!

To vote you have to register BUT!!!! What I usually do when I have to register to vote, is give a junk email address and then unsubscribe after I've voted. Cheeky but effective.

Here's the link:

Maioha's finalist picture

You are most welcome to get your friends to vote for me too!

Voting closes on 12 July.

Fitness diary

2010-06-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, here goes. I don't actually want to do this, but I will. My gratitude diary kept me on track with being grateful for even small things and taking a few moments to ponder them.

So, being inspired by Jessima (I can't think of my own diaries), here I am, ready to chronicle in public my new goal of fitness and weight loss. Why in public? Because if I think someone might be watching my weight with me then maybe I'll be a little more inclined to get rid of it.

Plus, I came across an old friend on facebook last night whom I haven't seen in years. I almost didn't recognise her! She's lost loads of weight and has such a hot body now! Good for her! In the couple of years that I knew her she was overwieght. So if she can get herself a bikini body, I can at least get back to my pre-marriage weight.

So anyway, the plan is to go to Zumba tonight if I make it home on time from work. If not, I'll just go to the gym and try to find something that inspires me to want to sweat.

I wasn't going to say so, but I want to lose 9 - 12 kilos, and also gain some muscle. I miss having toned arms. I sure did take them for granted. What's a reasonable timeframe to lose that much? I could say 12 weeks, but I've only ever once lost a kilo in a week. So I think instead that I'll just aim for one kilo at a time.

Should I tell you my current weight? Of course I don't want to. Maybe when I reach my goal I will tell you what I used to be. I just can't bring myself to do it right now.

Who wants to join me?

R n R

2010-06-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

Cam and I don't often get to spend a lot of time together - just us, that is. Usually our holidays are spent camping with his family. The truth is that we are both too budget-conscious to really let go and enjoy ourselves. Doesn't that just suck?

But it came to the point where I needed a break and my boss told me I had too much leave accrued so I was going to have to do something about it. So we pulled out Cam's uni schedule to see when his holidays would be. We thought the best plan would be to have a break together after his uni exam had finished and before the school holidays began because he works more then.

For some dud reason, the one exam that Cam had was held on the last day of the exam period. Weeks of exams and they put his one exam on the last day. Yes, I was so put out that I had to say it twice. That's seriously cutting it close to the holidays. We couldn't have our break before his exam because that would put a dent in his study hours. So the exam was held on Tuesday of this week; the week before school holidays start.

Poor me. That meant I would only get three week-days and the weekend to spend with him instead of a whole week like I'd hoped. Well, better than nothing and it meant I'd get the work leave balance down a little.

In light of our tight-waddedness, we decided that rather than go away somewhere and pay for accommodation and then do nothing because we are too tight-wadded to pay for activities as well as accommodation, we employed a little wisdom and instead decided to stay home and go out to do fun things that would cost a little more than we would normally spend, but would make up to or less than the cost of accommodation.

So on our first day of couple time we went to the Temple together. I have come to realise over the years that there have never been grand visions, fireworks and trumpeting angels to herald the arrival of revelation for me. Rather, things the Lord wants me to know are given to me in such subtle ways that it's more of a gradual understanding. I think this helps my testimony as I learn bit by bit and am strengthened bit by bit to the point where my knowledge is sure, strong and solid. So whilst I attended the Temple with a prayer in my heart hoping to receive a few answers; I didn't get them right there but am confident that I will. Perhaps that was my blessing for attending that day - assurance.

The night I received my endowments. A few weeks before we were married.

I loved those shoes, and that waistline.

Then we had Nando's for lunch - another place we don't normally go to because of the price. But the Indian restaurant we had planned to go to was shut for refurbishment. Then a movie. I recommend 'Prince of Persia' - it was great.

Day two saw us drive down to Tamborine where we did a high ropes course at the Adventure Parc (don't ask me why they spell it like that).

They have three different courses for you to do starting with the easy, then medium then hard. The very first rope walk had me nervous even though it was only about a metre off the ground. We were harnessed so there's never any danger if you do fall, only some discomfort while you try to get yourself back up.

I had such a great time with Cam as we adjusted our balances and made it through each individual challenge (about 76 in total).The ropes got higher off the ground as we progressed and each challenge got even harder. The beauty of it is that you don't realise just how much your confidence is growing until you get closer to the end. That little metre-high rope at the beginning was nothing compared to the eight-metre-high (or thereabouts) rope at the end. And by then I was so confident with that particular challenge that it wasn't even a challenge anymore.

As I said, there was never any danger. Our harnesses were hooked up to an overhead cable that we could reach out to to balance ourselves if necessary, or cling to for dear life if you felt you were going to fall. I couldn't help but think of the Iron Rod during the course. The cable gave me reassurance that I was going to be okay as long as I was connected to it. It was a matter of life and death to make sure that I remained secured to it. If I forgot to keep it secured between challenges, then one wrong step could have landed me in the emergency room.

Knowing that I was secure gave me the absolute confidence to step out into the middle of the air to reach a far-placed step; the confidence that even though I might have been ten metres up in the air on a platform standing precariously on the edge; I was always going to be okay.

That's what faith is. Taking a step out into the middle of the air and knowing that Heavenly Father won't let you fall.

There were many challenges and I'm proud to say that I only slipped once. But the harness kept me safe.

The Iron Rod is the word of God

'Twill safely guide us through

The course was so much fun and was a great whole-body workout. My arms and legs were aching by the end of the day and for the next two days, my abs were hurting. But I'm so happy that we did it because it was something different and something I've always wanted to do. I'll be happy to go and do it again except for the two challenges where you had to pull yourself uphill using only your arms. I almost died on the first one and piked out of the second challenge. There were only two challenges that I didn't complete but my Cam did them and he was great. From his description of the difficulty factor, I made the right choice in piking.

I wish I could have taken my camera but I haven't used my little compact in so long that I don't know where it is and Jet and Ebony are too big. So I'm sad to say that there are no pictures from the course itself but here's one from the front of the park.

I look forward to going back there one day - as soon as the memory of the burning pain in my arms from pulling myself uphill and upside-down has faded.

Cam had to work after we got home so after that we got Indian food and saw the movie 'Grown Ups' which was pretty funny.

Day three of couple time saw Cam sleeping a lot. I had to get some photography work done anyway. But we eventually got in the car and drove up to the Sunny Coast where our friends, Jonny and Jessima, are dog- and house-sitting. We had a good night with them. We have a regular dinner together and didn't want to miss out just because they were at the coast. You can't let location get in the way o a good gathering! So that was good that nobody had to leave to get home - we just had to go to our separate rooms when we got tired because we stayed the night. We played a couple of board games which is always fun. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I am trying to tone down my competitiveness, and I think I did okay. Jessima gave me freedom to compete which was nice, but I actually don't think I'm that bad after all - maybe just some times.

Day four - well we had stayed the night so we were still at the Coast. We were planning to go and see Ryan and Andrea but Andrea's sick right now so we didn't do that. We played a few more board games and then we and the Munros went out to play putt putt. I came last - but my competitive nature didn't mind in the least. It was fun to play it although I got a little dizzy throughout. Strange that the worst of my dizziness actually hit at the very end after we'd finished and were sitting down...?

It was especially cute to see Jenna (21 months) cheer on another young boy (about six or seven) when he got the ball into the hole. She cheered when it went in and even called him a "good boy" - how adorable!

Jessima had her camera so the proof will be on her blog soon.

Just one more day (tomorrow - Sunday) to finish off my great week. I'm expecting to have another enjoyable day as I've got a fun singing time lesson planned out to do with the primary kids.

I'm just REALLY happy to have been able to spend time with my punk and do things that we don't normally have the time to do. I wish I had more time to spend with Cam so will look forward to family camp in September - the moments when I can wrestle him away from his brothers, that is.

Oh yeah, in the time since my boss asked me to take leave and the actual taking of leave, my leave balance has already accrued so that even though these last few days have been debited from the balance, I've already accrued enough to tip me over the desirable balance again. Haha. Maybe my next break is sooner than I think.

Other Powers That Be

2010-06-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

Further to my recent post where I hung up on a Minister, I think I also hung up on a Director-General today at work.

Maybe the Premier will call tomorrow and I can hang up on her too.

Fundraising photography specials

2010-06-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

Dear photogenic friends and family

I'm currently running a photography special to help raise money to send the youth in my ward along to EFY next year. I remember how much I loved EFY when I was in youth and know how important it is in developing testimonies and friendships.

I've been pondering the last few months what talents I have that I could give to the church.

I'm not a singer - scratch that idea. I'm a good dancer but way out of shape and when does somebody dance at church anyway? I'm not a motivational speaker nor do people call me up for advice on how to do anything skilled.

Thankfully, somebody else thought of something I could contribute - photography sessions whereby the proceeds go to the ward EFY fund!

FINALLY! Something I can do. And I'm very happy to be doing it.

So if you'd like to book a photography session, they're going very cheaply at the moment. Please support our youth and book a session. They get to go to EFY and you get to have some beautiful portraits.

See my Onyx blog for further details.

The Powers That Be

2010-06-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

So last Friday I hung up the phone on a Queensland Government Minister. Whoops!

Boy was I in a tizzy! I work as an executive support officer to a pretty high ranking official and somehow the Minister came through on my line to speak to a higher ranking officer (HRO) than my boss. The HRO wasn't in his office so I tried to put the Minister through to the HRO's mobile, which he didn't answer. Then I tried to put the Minister through to the HRO's support officer who also wasn't there. So I tried to retrieve the call which didn't work. And suddenly, the Minister wasn't there anymore! Eek! I ran around like a lunatic trying to find the HRO.

Eventually, after phone calls and continued lunacy, I found a solution to placate the Minister.

When the Powers That Be are on the phone to you, you drop everything and move everything to answer their request. That's just how it is in government.

I wonder, if everyone treated Heavenly Father with the same accord, how much happier we would all be!

If everyone moved everything just to fulfill their callings, how much stronger would those we know, and ourselves, be?

We are as the army of Helaman

We have been taught in our youth

And we will be the Lord's missionaries

To bring the world His truth

Aren't we just so cute together?

2010-06-16T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Queen's birthday weekend

2010-06-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

The long weekend has come and gone. It's the last State public holiday until Christmas. What's with bunching them all up in the first half of the year and then cruelly ripping them away for the next six months? It's like crossing the desert. You can't see the other side and the bits in between and dry and hopeless.

'Tis mean, I tell you.

But 'twas a good weekend!

Our Stake ran a Touch Footy competition on Saturday. I'm not sure why I signed up but I did it anyway. I think it was for the sake of supporting the ward; going to a Stake event; spending the day actually doing something; getting a little fitness opportunity in there; and having a little fun.

So that was kind of how it panned out.

There were 11 women from our ward signed up to play. That's good because there are only six on the field at a time. Plenty of subs meant plenty of breaks. Well, that's the idea.

Only three of us showed up.

Two other women (Liz and Blaze) from our ward came along to watch and kudos to them because we talked them into playing with us even though they weren't quite dressed for it. But that only brought us up to five!

So the game started.

It was HORRIBLE!!!! We played against Cleveland who had been practicing for weeks already (I only heard about the comp 1 week earlier!) and they had a few subs too.

So we had to do the whole 20 minutes without any subs. Thank goodness for just one more lady (Evelynn) who came to drop off her son and saw us so jumped on the field too. So now we had a full team but no subs.

I've always wondered how people vomit after too much exercise.

I found out. It happened to me.

Too much exertion and no break. It was so horrible.

Anyway, so the game ended and we lost. Hallelujah! It was over!

So after that horrible effort, we still had four more games to get through.

We decided that we were going to forfeit. How could we do it without any subs? Besides, Evelynn left after the first game. So that was that. We were just going to forfeit our games if nobody else showed up to play in our team.

Or were we? We devised a plan that would maximise our opportunities to score points. As we had already decided to forfeit, rather than completely give up, we planned to show up to our next game and hope that the opposing team would forfeit. Then we would get the winning points just for showing up! But if they did want to play, then we would forfeit anyway and save ourselves another horrendous game to play.

Clever, huh?

So we turned up to our next game and the team had forfeited! Woohoo! Winning points to us! Haha.

It turned out, that due to more forfeits (from which we gained more points) we only had to play one more game. By then, another of our team mates had shown up and she knew how to play Touch. We roped in another girl from somewhere else to play with us. Liz and Blaze had left. And then Leanne unwittingly sat on the sideline and called out to support us. That was her mistake. 30 seconds later we had her on the field with us. Hahaha. A full compliment of six again.

Anyway we drew. And then we didn't make the final. But it's all good because I REALLY didn't want to play another game again.

That's a very long story and it's only half of my day.

The point is though, that if you make a commitment, you should stick to it. You never know just to what extent you may be letting someone down.

In our case, we were let down because we didn't have enough players. Therefore, no subs to give us a break. One team member really wanted to be there but was let down by lack of support.

I really don't enjoy Touch that much, because of all the running. It's just too much exertion for me. So next year, if it looks the same, I don't think I'll go back. That's another reason why people should stick to their commitments - because half-hearted people probably won't give it another go.

But aside from the game itself, it was a great day with friends. We often see church members in their capacity as leaders fulfilling their duties. There often isn't time to spend socialising on a Sunday because we're all running in different directions. It was great to just be there and chill out together for once.

Alright, all the other good parts of the weekend was the time spent with friends. On Saturday night, we went to Ben's house with other friends for dinner. I learned there that I am competitive in board games. I had an inkling about it a few months ago and then confirmed it at the dinner. I really just stick to the rules and fail to understand why others don't/can't. I mean, if we're going to take it easy on the losing team, what if they end up winning because we give them a break? Then they will rub it in our faces that they won and the outcome could have been different if the rules were simply adhered to. Fair's fair.

And I also learned a lesson in trying to be Christ-like at ALL times. I had a weak moment where on reflection I am very surprised at how I behaved for just a moment. I'll be working harder to keep my guard up.

Sunday night, dinner with more friends from our ward.

Monday lunch was a picnic with other friends we rarely see so that was really nice.

A great weekend. And happy birthday to the Queen - maybe she could have a word to our country's leaders about spreading out the public holidays more evenly.

Anyway, 'twas a good celebration.

Blog Bleugh

2010-06-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not so keen on blogger offering new designs and then not allowing you to go back to what you had before. It's a wee bit frustrating. Maybe I'm blog-stupid but idunlikeit. I don't want to have to keep resizing my pic just to get them to sit right. Grrrr.

And now i've ended up with something I don't quite want.

Grizzle finished now.

Picture this

2010-06-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a great deal for photo prints and wanted my family to benefit. So I invited them to my house for a quick photo session and then spent many hours editing and preparing for print. My sister in particular doesn't have access to facebook right now which is where I uploaded them, but she can access this page. So everybody gets to look!

In case you wonder, the white borders are because the prints will be on canvas and wrapped around the wooden frame. This allows the pic to remain fully on the front and not have any main features get lost on the sides.

Who am I?

2010-06-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

Jess has blogged about words to describe herself.

I liked it.

Now I'm going to do it too. And just like Jess, I'm fighting the desire to justify each of the words in my list. These are ten words that I think describe me and are taken from The Hub. Perhaps you have a different view of me? (Perhaps you are related to me :-))

OPTIMISTIC

COMPASSIONATE

WITH INTEGRITY

OPEN MINDED

SENSE OF HUMOUR

PLEASANT

TALENTED

INTELLIGENT

LOYAL

PATIENT

The list is far bigger than that and is filled with words that I'm trying to achieve.

Anyway, you should do it too. Be brave enough to tell the world who you really are and be brave enough to believe it yourself.

Dance as though no one is watching

Love as though you have never been hurt before

Sing as though no one can hear you

Live as though heaven is on earth

Hide 'n' Speak

2010-06-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

I played hide 'n' seek with my three-year-old nephew tonight. He went into the room and I eventually got off the couch to find him. I went into the room and in my best I'm-gonna-find-you-and-tickle-you voice....

Me: "Where's Atea?"

Immediately followed by

Atea: "I'm hiding in the blanket."

Haha. That game never takes long when playing with him.

On the other hand, I wonder how long Teare spent looking for me the time I told him to go count and I would hide.

He went to count....

..... and I got in the car and drove away.

Gratitude diary - day 31

2010-06-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

I made it!

For a while there things were looking shaky and I wasn't sure where I was going to get any inspiration from for feelings of gratitude. Not that I'm an ingrate (it means one who is ungrateful, to those of you who tried to correct me on that once). Like I said, my life is same ol', same ol' pretty much all year round unless I take a holiday.

So for the last day of my gratitude diary, I'm grateful for the Institute lounge at Mary St in the city. Sometimes my work requires me to read through gruesome details of acts that mankind has committed. It's heart-breaking, horrifying, sickening and pretty hard to get through. I've had a couple of days of having to read this stuff.

Today I met up with a friend at the lounge, and as I left work to go there, I remembered that I was going to a place where the spirit is always present, filled with good people and where good things happen.

This is the place where my relationship with Cam really began. The place where I've beaten him a couple of times at pool or ping pong, and he has beaten me countless times in the same activities.

This is the place where my friendships have strengthened; where the couple missionaries do their best to make you feel welcome and loved; where I have found sanctuary from the world.

And today they had free lunch :-)

Gratitude diary - day 30

2010-06-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

Again, touching on a few repetitive things to be grateful for.

I'm grateful for my health today. Yesterday was awful. You know how you call work and take a sick day and then not long after, for some (honest) reason, you feel okay again?

Well it didn't happen to me. I spent the entire day feeling awful. And that was good because then I didn't have to feel bad about a miraculous recovery and taking the day off.

I'm grateful again for opposition in things. After an awful day, I smiled for most of the next.

And my wonderful husband? Well, he forgot to save me dinner.

So all is back to normal then.

..................

Just wait until he reads this ;-p

hehe

Gratitude diary - day 29

2010-05-31T02:53:00.000-07:00

Major cramps, backache, stomach pain to make you cry and vomiting.

Who could not love or be grateful for a husband who rubs your back when you're moaning all through the early hours of the morning; goes outside into the cold to get you a bucket; and goes out again to get you a glass of water after you've used the bucket?

And every time he finally drops off to sleep again, you start moaning in pain again, waking him up again, and he patiently rolls over and rubs your back again.

And then he brings you breakfast in bed.

This is why I'm grateful for my husband.

Gratitude diary - days 26, 27 & 28

2010-05-31T02:43:00.000-07:00

Day 26 - this was Friday last week. I thought I'd be spending the night at home on the computer while the footy played in the background.

It was SUCH a happy surprise when Cam told me we were going out for dinner and a movie. Hooray! I'm grateful for his thoughtfulness.

Let's be realistic. A man without any sisters is less likely to think of these things, but he came through for me.

Day 27 - Without going into detail, there is an opportunity for me to get a problem that I've had for many years, fixed. I'm thankful for friends who think of me.

Day 28 - I'm grateful for my Patriarchal Blessing. It is my own personal compass and reminder to me to do those things which are righteous.

Music that moves you

2010-05-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

Does it move you?

Does it soothe you?

Does it fill your heart and soul....

Lyrics from my favourite band, Hanson.

Why are those boys still my favourite band 13 years after 'Mmmbop' has faded from many memories? Because the above lyrics still describe the happy feelings I get when listening to their music, the same feelings I got the first time I heard 'Mmmbop'.

And making me happy today is the fact that I can share a little with you. Hanson is releasing a new album next month which pays homage to their musical roots - 50s and 60s. It's called 'Shout it Out'.

I've pasted a banner in the sidebar which you can click on to get a free download. Hooray!!!

Why should you listen to Hanson too? Because I never heard a Hanson lyric that I felt I should turn down in case somebody got offended. Good, clean music - how it used to be. Plus, they are INCREDIBLE playing live.

Mmmbop!

Gratitude diary - day 25

2010-05-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

I have no doubt that Heavenly Father has a sense of humour and know that He saw fit to pass it on to us, well, most of us.

Today, on the ground floor foyer of my building, standing directly in front of the entrance, at the busiest hour of the day (lunch time), stood a lady wearing one of these.

The sign hanging around her neck read:

I'M A LOSER

I LOST A BET

NOW I HAVE TO WEAR THIS STUPID HAT

I have no doubt that the Lord gave this woman a sense of humour. Good on her.

I'm grateful for humour and the relief it provides. That woman certainly brightened my day.

Funny quotes

2010-05-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

Cam was pulling out a piece of chocolate tart that I had made.

Cam: "There's too much baking paper, babe. How do I get rid of it?"

Me: "Chew around it."

Gratitude diary - day 24

2010-05-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

I've ALWAYS been interested in photography. So much so that it was positively years, no, decades, before I realised it was something I could actually do for a living. I always took photos for fun!

It was always one of those things that I couldn't do because I needed to be serious and have a serious job so that I could pay my bills. I was brought up knowing that if I didn't have any money, it wasn't going to be given to me without any effort. Fun would have to wait until I was financially stable.

So off I went to be serious and take jobs that gave me no satisfaction but did put a roof over my head and food in my mouth. I'm grateful for all of the jobs I have had (except for the paper run when I was 11 years old. Talk about slave labour. The wages were disgusting and my parents shouldn't have let me do it for so little).

I spent many, many hours trying to decide what I would like to study outside of work. Something that would be satisfying and make me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. I spent a year going to TAFE part-time and earned my Cert IV in Public Relations. I actually found that quite simple. I enjoyed it but it wasn't what I ultimately wanted.

I applied to do a course in film and was put on the standby list. But I did accept that that isn't what I wanted either.

After getting married, I thought about it again, and realised that I'd love to try my hand at photography. I'd always taken decent pictures. I'd always had a vision for an image but couldn't get the camera to do what I wanted.

So then I bought Ebony - my first baby. She is a Canon 400D and this is where I started my photography explorations. I really had no idea what equipment I should get, but knew a few friends that had this model camera, and had also seen two photographers use this model to shoot weddings, so I figured I couldn't go too far off course with this one.

The next year I signed up to a photography course which really helped me to use my camera more effectively. Unfortunately, as good as Ebony had been to me, I realised that she didn't quite cut the mustard as far as more quality images went.

It's true, it's the photographer that takes a great photo, not the camera, but I have to say that a nice piece of equipment really helps your cause. So after a lot of saving and then reaching nowhere near my target amount, my husband kindly did some haggling, and we soon brought home Jet, my second baby. He's a Canon 7D.

As a result of having both Ebony and Jet, I've been able to slowly hone my chosen craft. I still have a LOT to learn, but I'm so happy that I get to do it. I am quite spoiled, but it's not to say that I didn't earn it.

Now I've started taking bookings and have a few weddings under my belt already. I've sort of started my business which I don't actually intend to really get going until next year, when Cam will hopefully be working.

It's a bit difficult sometimes trying to meet clients' expectations and juggle my full-time job, calling and life at the same time, but it is satisfying :-)

I'm grateful to have found something that I love to do.

I suppose I should throw in a plug for my business, huh? I have a blogsite for it - Onyx Photography and a Facebook fanpage too.

Crafty Christy

2010-05-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

I really think you should have a look at these hand-made cards that Christy made and is selling. The prices are more than reasonable. I should know - I'm a tightwad.

A Christy Production

M
xxx

Gratitude diary - days 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 & 23

2010-05-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Where have I been???

Well, I had trouble thinking of stuff for days 18 & 19 and then I had the next four days off work.

So, thinking back REALLY hard, for day 18, I'm grateful for good music. I've been rehearsing the latest Primary song in my head for weeks now (it's a medley and the music is SO different) and it always leaves me with a peaceful feeling.

Day 19 - I'm grateful to have a boss that encourages me to have a proper work-life balance. Pretty much, he told me to take some time off work because my leave balance has almost reached the allowable limit so I have to use some of it up. Sometimes I don't realise I need a break until I've reaching breaking point. So I took leave on days 22 & 23. That's why I haven't logged in to update over my four-day weekend - I was busy relaxing.

Day 20 - It was my niece's baptism and family was very much involved with it. My SIL helped with the catering; my seven-year-old niece choristered the congregation (it was adorable!); my husband played the piano; my BIL conducted the service; and I choristered the children's musical item.

It was pretty cute when Ryan announced Emily as being one of the children who would be participating in the musical item (she is who choristered for the day) and then she said to me "I don't even know what a musical item is." I thought it was cute and funny and explained it to her.

After the service was completed and everyone was gathered around eating the delicious morning tea, I looked around at my family there, all doing various activities, and had a very content feeling just being a part of them. I'm grateful for my family. Both the one that I was born into and the one that I married into.

Day 21 - My reasons for gratitude may be based on a few repeat items, but I'm grateful for them each time I list one. I also don't remember everything that I've already posted about on gratitude.

I'm grateful for church. I'm grateful for my testimony and for my calling. I love spending Sundays with the Primary children. Sometimes they're a little difficult to handle and sometimes they are little dreams. I was especially happy on Sunday with the kids because the song I've been teaching (actually, re-teaching them - it's a medley with harmony so they've had to throw out what they'd already learned, overcome it and take on something new) has been coming along really well.

I'd never heard this medley before finding it on the internet. The music is so different and the two songs are ones that the kids already knew in their original state. I just loved listening to the senior kids singing along to the verse as per usual, and then they seemed to effortlessly switch to the alto harmony for the chorus. It was lovely and I'm looking forward to putting the seniors and juniors together at last to listen to the entire song.

Day 22 - I'm grateful to have time off to relax. I was a bit sick so that was annoying. Cam is sick too so neither of us could go and play squash which is what we wanted to do. But it was just nice to be at home for two extra days. I generally don't like to take time off unless I've got something planned (working for so many weeks of the year makes me want to make my free time worthwhile) but in this case I actually enjoyed doing nothing. Well, most of the time. I was bored every now and then, especially with Cam just spending all his time in bed. It's not often that he and I actually have how mutually available time. But it was still good.

Day 23 - I'm grateful for where I live. We live on acreage and it's beautiful. There are wild animals everywhere. The wallabies come out at dusk, often close to the back verandah but they'll jump away if you try to go near them. In the right seasons there are koalas, possums, magpies (Cam feeds them so they never attack), kookaburras, snakes (!!!) and stone bush curlews, among other native animals.

The trees are beautiful especially those currently changing their Autumn colours.

Cam's dad planted a passionfruit vine a couple of years ago and it's now heavy with them. Many are still green but many were also ready for picking so that's what I did.

There are many on the ground that have been eaten by the wallabies but I enjoyed seeing that, knowing that we are helping to contribute to their health and keep them in the area. And there are plenty of the passionfruits to go around anyway.

It was really nice to spend a few minutes outside picking fruit and doing something so far removed from the pace of the world I usually exist in. I felt just a little bit closer to nature.

And then I walked through a spider web which only reaffirmed it for me :-)

Day 24 - This isn't the gratitude post for day 24. After such a lovely weekend of not really doing much, to my amazement, when I got on the bus this morning to return to work, for some crazy reason, I felt comfort in doing that! What!?

I guess it was comfort in returning to my old routine. I guess I managed, for a brief moment, a glimpse of how it must feel for mothers on maternity leave who want to go back to work. Many of us work for so many years that it must feel strange to not get dressed every morning for the purpose of travelling to work, carrying out the duties, and returning home several hours later. This is my 11th year of working in jobs that don't inspire me (I'm only here to pay the bills). How strange that a part of me was happy to go back.

Teensy weensy spider climbed up the rear view mirror

2010-05-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

You may remember my post about the Assassin Spider that tried to off me a few months ago. It didn't come back, rather it sent one of its little buddies back on a recon mission to scope out the scene.

Really, it was teensy. What I want to know is, why do spiders like the interior of our car? I got in this morning and there it was, making itself at home, or a home from the rear view mirror down to the radio controls.

What's with that? And will I have to worry about all of its relatives coming for a reunion?

Mercy got a hold of me and I let it live.

Gratitude diary - day 17

2010-05-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

The simple things in life are often the best

- so true.

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.

2 Nephi 2:11

- also true.

Where am I going with this?

The first thing I do every morning is jump in the shower. That's a lie. Actually I just step into it.

This morning I marvelled at the warm water. Our hot water system is solar powered, so in the last couple of weeks I've had to sporadically endure lukewarm showers due to:

a) clouds masking the sunlight.
b) usually being the third person to shower in the morning.
c) we have a switch to turn on the electric heater for the water but sometimes we forget about it (I rarely think about it since I'm not even home during the day to watch the weather there). So when nobody thinks about the switch, out comes the lukewarm water.

So when A, B and C are combined, there isn't often much hot water left. (It's even worse for Shiki who showers last)

As I was marvelling, I realised that for all I know, it could be another cloudy day today, I may be the third to shower tomorrow, and possibly none of us would think about the switch tonight. So what did I do?

I turned the cold tap mostly off and simply enjoyed the hot water coming out of the spout, hoping that it would keep me warm all the way through my next lukewarm shower.

Whilst marvelling and enjoying, I also pondered the scripture that there must needs be opposition in all things. Without those lukewarm showers, I would be taking for granted those blissful hot showers. I'm grateful for hot showers.

Mind you, I tend to get my opposition immediately upon exiting the shower since the air is so cold these days anyway.

All the more reason to stay in even longer.

Days 14, 15 and 16

2010-05-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

I'm having the same problem I had last week. In a fairly monotonous daily routine, it's hard to come up with something new to be grateful for. Not that I'm ungrateful for what I have, I've just probably already commented on it.

So for day 14 I'll say that I'm grateful for my husband. We love each other madly, we get mad at each other, we just don't understand the other one at all and yet it somehow works out between us. I just can't imagine spending my life with someone else. I'd truly be settling for less than the best.

Day 15 - Hmmm. I think I thought of something and then forgot it.

Cam tutors a young friend in Biology which is probably a great help to him, especially as Cam is going to be a Biology teacher. I'm grateful for service. Both when I receive it and when I am giving it. I really enjoy being able to help someone because I feel great for having done it.

Day 16 - This one's much easier. Today I had a health assessment at work. I was preparing myself for the blood test because that's what they did last year and I've somehow talked myself into getting nervous about needles. It must be from the one time the nurse put it in wrong and it gave me the cold sweats and other symptoms.

So I got there and even had the buttons on my sleeve undone ain preparation only to find out the worker would only be pricking my finger, taking my blood pressure, checking my weight and taking a few measurements.

The results are in - I'm awesome! Well, my health is great. I don't know what the numbers mean, but she said they're all good except one. you may not care what they mean, but I'm putting them here anyway as a record.

Blood pressure - 114/70

Total cholesterol - 3.9

Blood glucose - 6.2

Resting heart rate - 55 - an athlete's heart rate (when I told Cam he told me that most people have an athlete's resting heart rate. Hmph.)

Still, can you see me in one of these outfits?

http://memorabilia2u.com/images/cathy%20freeman%20sydny%202000.jpg

Body Mass Index - time to lose some flubber!

Waist circumference (it was actually my girth that she measured (why does that sound rude?)) but the results were that I'm well within a good size range. (Yes I have embarrassment at naming those numbers in public)

So I'm grateful to have my good health.

Gratitude diary - days 11, 12 and 13

2010-05-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Day 11 - I'm grateful for others that share their secrets. Abby posted about her $20 food parcel. What a fantastic opportunity to stock up your pantry for so cheap. On Saturday I went and bought one of these parcels and even though some of it was out of date, I was quite happy with the buy. Cam's not a fan of buying stuff out of date (understandably so) so I won't go back there. When I get home tonight I'll post a picture of everything I got.

Day 12 - I'm grateful to have been able to spend the day at home and get a couple of those 'someday' jobs finished. We lost our pass to Wet'n'Wild so stayed home instead. Shiki and I did odd jobs around the outside of the homes which really contributed to killing a few annoyances. Like the palm tree next to the steps to the house. It's been overgrown for months now and we always walked around or ducked under it. We trimmed off the overgrown fronds and now have full use of the entire width of the steps.

We also cleared up a little jungle area of pot plants that we always had to walk around to get to the front door. We moved them and now it's clear. We're very happy with it!

Day 13 - I'm grateful for all of the gifts we were given for our wedding. My bucket list includes cooking every dish at least once from the recipe book we were given as a wedding present (over 400 - with the obvious exception of the alcoholic beverages). So I dug it out and had a go at a slow-cooked greek lamb roast. Well the lamb didn't speak greek so I'm not really sure that its title is correct. It took FOUR HOURS to roast! That was the plan, but four hours. Can you believe I actually got the timing right and it was ready when our guests arrived? First time ever!

It was nice but tasted just like every other lamb roast I've ever had before. The gravy was gross! Yick. I was glad to have tried a new recipe though.

I also made a white chocolate cheesecake that I wanted to try (not from the recipe book) and it was a success. I'll prob make that again because Cam loves white chocolate. I'm proud of it because it made Cam happy. I love him.

Gratitude diary - day 10

2010-05-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ten days! I've made it this far. I'm a bit worried that I'll have trouble on my working days but it's still a good exercise to look for the positive in each day.

Day 10 - I went to the gym and swam laps. Then I found a rectangle piece of flexible foam by the side of the pool and used it to do laps only using my legs or my arms to isolate that muscle group. I made them hurt.

What kind of sick person makes themselves hurt on purpose?

Somebody who needs to work off the flubber - that's who! ie: ME.

So whilst I was feeling the acid run through my (small) muscles, at least I had limbs with which to feel pain. I am grateful for my body.

My body is not supermodel material, but all of my limbs are intact and it functions as it should. I should really be more grateful for it and look after it better than I do - but that's why I was at the gym in the first place, to try to reach that goal. I am grateful for my physical abilities.

I am trying to change my bad habits and make exercise and healthy eating regular habits. That's my goal.

Gratitude diary - day 9

2010-05-12T23:16:00.000-07:00

Day 9 - this one is really tough. What did I do on day 9? Went to work, came home, cooked dinner, photoshopped and went to bed. Just like I said I would.

So what am I grateful for today?

Well. Um..... look! A bird!

Because I had copyright stuff stuffed into me at my tafe course, I found this birdy at http://img1.loadtr.com/b-409969-Animated_Bird.gif

Tapping the keys here. tttttttttt - see?

Scratching my chin. Ah.....

I am grateful for ......

...still digging for something...

AHA! I've got something!

I'm grateful that day 9 was productive at work. Because I was busy, this made the day go faster, which let me get home sooner, which let me eat, photoshop and go to bed, which has brought me to day 10 to think up something else to be grateful about.

FYI: I tend to write the diary the day after the event, to allow the full day to unfold and let all things worthy of gratitude to happen. This also gives me time to think up stuff that will help to avoid entries like today's.

Phew! Glad that's over! Now, back to the monotony.

Gratitude diary - day 8

2010-05-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

My weeks go by quite monotonously. There isn't usually much to report on because it's the same ol' thing, day in, day out. So I began this post desperately trying to think up something to be grateful for for day 8.

My life is fairly predictable - work, eat, photoshop, sleep. Reset.

As boring and bland as it may seem sometimes, I'm grateful that my life is boring and bland.

Imagine living in a war-torn country. Imagine being one of those children on the World Vision ads. Imagine being a refugee, spending nights in a rickety boat sailing the ocean, just hoping that you'll get to another country safely; and then after arriving there, not knowing whether you'll be sent back to the place you fled.

I'm grateful that I have a home to go to, clothes for my back, food for my belly.

Gratitude diary - Day 7

2010-05-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

Last night we had family home evening at my mum's house and the missionaries were invited too. There were only three kids there but in a small house, boy can they make some noise! As usual, I enjoyed myself but I find that we are always, quite literally, shouting over the top of one another. Someone will always give someone else a good reason to be annoyed; a child always cries; we always find something to laugh about.

I'm grateful for the good times I have with my family. We didn't often have good times as children but as we've grown and matured, we all get along (mostly) quite well.

My mum was also given a blessing by the missionaries and my beautiful husband (he doesn't like it when I call him beautiful, but he is!).

I'm grateful for the power of the Priesthood and that my husband holds it worthily. It's comforting to know that it is there should we have need of it.

What's in a name?

2010-05-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

Mine is not a name that I would bestow upon any of my posterity. I just wouldn't do it to them. I've had so many variations and mispronunciations of my name that it's ridiculous. Some people that I've known for years have never got it right, and now and then, when I fling the spirit from me, it becomes a point of wild frustration. However, I'm grateful for the amusement it sometimes provides. Today I had the following phone exchange (with a few obvious edits):

Me: "This is Maioha calling from....."

Caller 1: "What was your name?"

Me: "Maioha."

Caller 1: PAUSE. "I'll just put you through."

Transfers me to someone else.

Me: "This is Maioha calling from....."

Caller 2: "What was your name?"

Me: "Maioha."

Caller 2: PAUSE. "I'll just put you through."

Transfers me to someone else.

Me: "This is Maioha calling from....."

Caller 3: "What was your name?"

Me: "Maioha."

Caller 3: "Thanks for that, Majorca."

For the record, my name is pronounced 'My-or-ha'.

Before I kick the bucket

2010-05-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

My sister has a bucket list that she is making her way through, so I'm going to start one too! It will be tough because my dreams involve travelling, but given that I'd love to see every single inch of the world and therefore writing that particular list would take at least a year, here's a list of the non-travel stuff in no particular order (it takes a lifetime to do these things you see).

1. Make every single recipe in the recipe book we were given for our wedding at least once. That's over 400 and I've only done about four so far.
2. Sky dive
3. Write a novel
4. Learn another language (Spanish if possible)
5. Attend General Conference at the Conference Centre in Salt Lake City
6. Bungee jump
7. Join a Kapahaka group so I can learn more of my own culture

I've spent weeks trying to come up with this list and this is as far as I got. I'm sure I'll update it in the years to come. Hopefully I will both add to it and cross some things off the list.

M

Gratitude diary - days 4, 5 and 6

2010-05-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

I missed these days because I like to spend as little time on the computer as possible over the weekend. After all, those are my days off! I get disappointed sometimes when I realise I've spent a lot of time on a Saturday afternoon on the computer. Sometimes it's necessary as I'm photo editing, but spending time blogging and Facebooking - nuh-uh.

Day 4 - I'm grateful for the relaxed feel of a Friday. Casual dress at work; team morning tea; lots of people leaving early, so hey, why not me too?

Day 5 - Cam and I spent the morning together looking at display homes. I'm grateful that we've finally settled on a house design. We'll initiate the building contract and subsequent building early next year.

Day 6 - Sunday. I'm grateful that Cam was released from his calling as Young Men's President. He loved his calling and I loved that he loved it, but Im happy that he'll be spending more time at home. I'm sure it won't be easy for him as he's served in various capacities in YM for over five years now. I bawled when I was released from YW after only 18 months.

However, Cam will now be serving with me in Primary as the pianist so I'm very grateful to be working side-by-side with him now. I'm also very grateful that he will be right there whenever I need to discuss Primary things with him.

I'm grateful for my calling because now instead of the latest radio song playing in my head all the time, I have the newest Primary song that I'm trying to teach the kids. This helps me to feel the Spirit as I ponder the lyrics and consider the best ways to teach.

I'm grateful for the Sabbath when I have the opportunity to feel the Spirit more closely than I do on most other days. I love its strength at church; when the kids are singing a beautiful song; when I take a little time to try to play primary songs and church hymns on the piano. It refreshes me and fills me up so that I know that Heavenly Father loves me and gives me a little more strength when my own is waning.

25 random things about me

2010-05-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

This is from one of those random viral notes that goes around Facebook. I got sucked in and posted this over a year ago. It was hard to think of 25 things about myself but interesting to read again after all this time has passed. I loved reading everyone else's at the time too.

1. I LOVE to travel. It's fortunate that I have a sister in America, two sisters in New Zealand, one sister in Cairns and one brother in Townsville as it makes for free accommodation whenever I visit these places (the rest live in BrisVegas). It's unfortunate that I can't afford the airfare to get to these places of free accommodation.

2. I met my husband in McDonald's and we fell in love very quickly and easily. There is no better person for me.

3. If I could, I would pack up and spend five years travelling the world experiencing different cultures and learning other languages. What an ideal way to broaden your horizons and open your mind. And what a great way to appreciate the things you have and the people who love you and whom you love.

4. I love photography and hope to one day study it and then have my own business. My digital SLR camera is named Ebony. Update: I upgraded and my new camera is called 'Jet'. Me, Cam, Ebony and Jet are a very happy family. Here's a link to show you what we do together.

5. I have a real appreciation for people in the defence force. I am a wimp and certainly couldn't do it.

6. I love Hanson and I'm not ashamed to say it. Give them some credit, 'Mmmbop' isn't the only song they released. I followed them around Australia on their last tour here and had the time of my life. I'll do it again if they ever come back. Update: I just bought their new album and am listening to it now whilst blogging! It's excellent! It's called Shout it Out!

7. I love the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. A lot of people don't and a lot of people do. Some people think it's a bandwagon thing but I genuinely think Meyer's talent is incredible and her imagination goes further than anything I could have thought up.

8. I cannot decide what my stage name will be when I become famous. All suggestions are welcome. I just don't want Oprah to stumble over my name on international TV.

9. If the colour RED was a man, I would have married him. Thankfully it isn't though, so it wasn't a tough choice when Cameron came into the picture.

10. I don't like to eat bread crusts or pizza crusts. My bro-in-law once didn't like it when I didn't eat my pizza crusts in front of his kids. This from the man that doesn't eat his VEGIES in front of his kids.

11. The only thing I've ever regretted about returning to Brisbane after four and a half years of living in Sydney is the effect the humidity has on my hair.

12. I am trying to be less selfish. I'm not a selfish person by nature, but I can always have better appreciation for what I've already got.

13. Here's my favourite quote:

"Dance like no one is watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like no one is listening, and live like it's heaven on earth."

- William Purkey

Some people add in the line: "Work like you don't need the money." But if you don't need the money, why bother working? Wouldn't you be off fulfilling your life's ambitions? I think that's a silly line.

14. I love being married. I also loved my single days before Cameron because I LOVED the fun times with all my friends. Getting ready to go out; crashing on someone's lounge room floor (usually Alana's); deep and meaningfuls; spontaneity; borrowing each others clothes and make up; dancing around the house all over the furniture; and all the other things that go with having close girlfriends.

15. I used to live with Frances and even though we had our own rooms, the two of us would sometimes have sleepovers in the lounge room.

16. Sometimes I think life is bittersweet. Whilst you are happy for your friends when they move on and get married, have babies, travel etc, it's sad that you can't just freeze the wonderful times you are having and stay in them forever. Everybody grows up and moves on/away and progresses and you can't quite capture the moments again because now they have husbands/wives/children/responsibility. I guess that's why they say to cherish the time you have with your loved ones because it's just not the same.

17. I don't see the point in being serious all the time.

18. I secretly want to be an actress, a professional dancer, a travel presenter, an adrenalin junkie (don't know if I've got enough guts though) and write a novel.

19. I don't really like chick flicks. I can handle them but would rather pour acid onto my eyeballs than be forced to sit through the latest version of Pride and Prejudice again.

20. I'm pretty good at finding bargains. I believe it is my super power; sometimes they just come to me. Cameron complements me in that he, too, is a tightwad :-)

21. I was once fluent in the Maori language. That was when I lived in New Zealand as a child. But then I moved to Australia and lost it. A dentist once told me of a woman who was sedated in the dental chair and started speaking her native language (whilst sedated) which she believed she had lost as she hadn't spoken it in years. I hope for this to happen to me! Except not at the dentist and I'd like to be fully aware and comprehensible when it returns.

22. I don't take enough interest in politics. It bores me even though I know it's important.

23. I love camping but have been spoilt by the Orth style of it. I'm now accustomed to having the laptop, fridge, TV and electric frying pan there with me alongside the tent. Truth be told, it's not really camping. It's everyday living but you sleep in a tent and walk a little farther to the shower.

24. I wish I had more time to spend: with my husband; at the beach; with friends; getting to know my own family better; living.

25. I once won a trip to Japan. I cried almost every night because I missed Cameron who couldn't come with me because of uni. Even now, two years later, I gave up a trip to America because I would still miss him just as much now as I did then. Love does that to you.

My birthday in 2006

Gratitude diary - day 3

2010-05-06T05:55:00.000-07:00

Well I almost missed out on my entry for day 3 because we've just arrived home at 10.30pm. I got a call late this afternoon to see if Cam and I wanted some spare tickets to Sheldon College's 'High School Musical' production. And that's what I'm grateful for.

I had really wanted to go but the tickets were sold out. So I put a message on a friend's facebook page saying that I wanted tix.

Hooray for Emmalee! She let me know she had spares so we got to go after all!

The production was fantastic! There were six boys from our ward (Capalaba) in it and a girl from Cleveland ward. I know that Cam, as YM President, was especially proud of them and their achievement. Every one of them was wonderful in their performance and we had a great night. I was proud of them too. So much singing and dancing!

After the show we got them all to sign our ticket stubs. It'll be a nice memory to keep. I love to see the good relationship that Cam has with them.

Autographed by Brennan Cross, Danny Baptista, David Baptista, Josh Williams,

Dallin Williams, Dakota Striplin, Briarna (from Cleveland) and some kid named Chad.

I'm grateful for the talents that we are blessed with. I hope to be able to magnify mine because I don't want to say that one day I used to be able to do this or that. I'd rather say that I was so good at it that I wore out my body doing it, and that's the reason I don't do it anymore :-)

I've just got to figure out what they all are.

Sing with me now..... We're all in this together!.... la la la

Gratitude diary - day 2

2010-05-05T03:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I only wrote one thing that I was grateful for about the day. But I had many other reasons to be grateful as I looked for them. So why stop at one? Silly, really. Here are more reasons that make me grateful today.

- It's pay day! I'm grateful to have an income that supports Cam and me while he studies. (I'm also grateful that this is his final year of study!)

- Fingernails. Oh. my. goodness. The midges and mozzies at our May Day camping trip this past weekend had a feast on my arms and ankles! I am grateful to have fingernails to provide me with the sweet relief I needed after my socks and pants hem irritated those bites while walking to work. I know you shouldn't scratch, but I don't scratch the actual bites themselves, just around them.

More to the point, I am grateful for a Heavenly Father that provides us with the means to solve many problems on our own.

- I am grateful that it didn't rain today! I walked home from the bus stop tonight and am very happy that I didn't have to bring out that umbrella. I really must go and buy one I can be seen in public with.

Gratitude diary

2010-05-03T17:20:00.000-07:00

Ami recently blogged daily for a month on things she is grateful for. This has been a great example to me and a reminder to look for positive things in my daily life. There are lots of things to be grateful for, I just hope I remember to think about them each day and to blog about it, because I'm much better at blogging than I am at keeping my own diary.

So here comes Day 1.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the roof. Normally Cam drives me to the bus stop in the morning but in this case, he had an early shift and was already gone. So with him gone I would now have to walk. I don't usually mind the 1.5k trek but we lost our umbrella two months ago and I've been lucky up to now with getting picked up whenever it rains. So with no umbrella, my prospects for getting to work dry weren't looking so good.

Today, I am grateful to have found an umbrella in the back of a wardrobe. The umbrella is not ours but I sure was glad to see it there!

The funny part is that it wasn't until I was already on my way to work that I noticed the logo on the brolly read 'Viagra'.

Oh well, I'm still grateful that I got to the bus stop and work still dry.

Best deal yet

2010-04-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

Cam and I are not rich and I'm not certain that we ever will be. Rather than attract money, we tend to attract awesome bargains and deals. Today, I trumped them all!

Better than just getting a free lunch, I actually got paid to eat it!

Bless the marketeer that invented market research. My belly is now full and my wallet a few dollars heavier.

:-)

I belong

2010-04-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about posting about my faith because I believe in it strongly. What to write? What to say to those who don't know what I know?

I teach music time at church to the children aged between 3 and 11. This month we are learning a song that sums it up neatly in a nutshell (and goes along to a pretty catchy little tune). Here are the lyrics, and this is where I'll start:

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I know who I am

I know God's plan

I'll follow Him in faith

I believe in the Saviour, Jesus Christ

I'll honour His name

I'll do what is right

I'll follow His light

His truth I will proclaim

If you want to know more, ask me! Or, go to this website: http://www.mormon.org/

I have much to say about my feelings about my beliefs, but I will hold off for a little while longer while I gather my thoughts.

Trendsetter

2010-04-15T16:47:00.001-07:00

I'm not one to usually start a trend. Two of my previous housemates were both fashion-conscious while I languished in the fashion stakes. I would look on incredulously at their attire, disbelieving that to be something I would ever wear, only to find myself looking for similar items two years later. That's how far behind I am.

But, today, I predict that everyone will follow my lead in roughly a month from now.

What is this mystery item of fashion I claim to have ahead of the pack?

My winter coat!

How can I be the only one to feel the cold? Why are women still bearing their flesh on these cool Autumn mornings?

Nutters - all of you.

M

Before you ask

2010-04-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

This entry is for the ladies. On Behalf of those in particular who are married without children.

Before you ask me if I'm pregnant or when I'm going to have a baby, I'm going to throw a few possible answers out there for you to think about.

You want to hear either "Yes" or "No".

This is what you might hear instead:

- I'm in the first trimester. If I miscarry (possibly again), should I ring you to let you know? Or should I not tell you and just deal with it when you want to know how it's going?

- We've been trying for a long time to have a baby but it hasn't happened yet. It's very painful for us to deal with.

- I have serious health problems and don't even know if I'll ever be able to conceive. Thanks for reminding me.

- None of your business.

- I hate children.

- I can't have children. Please don't bring it up again.

You might think you're just being friendly but it's actually a very personal question you're asking. Sorry if you don't like this entry, but sometimes a girl just has to bite. And like I said, it's not just for me.

http://www.dhrramalaysia.org.my/dhrramalaysia/images/stories/psychcousnl/180901tears.jpg

Best Easter Camp!

2010-04-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

The Orth Family has enjoyed a traditional family camp over the Easter break for years now. The problem with this is that it rains every single Easter. It's wet and miserable. Ok, it's wet and I'm miserable. Mostly because I hate the cold and who wants to be stuck inside a tent on their holiday because the weather's too horrible to go out and have fun?

So last year, we employed a little wisdom and moved the traditional Easter camp to the sunnier month of September. This was a success!

But this Easter, Cam and I decided to go camping with his brother, Matt; Matt's wife, Desiree; their kids and friends. All in the name of getting away for the holiday.

Easter started out as Easter usually promises to be. Wet. Matt, Desiree and co arrived a couple of days before us where it poured so much that it was too wet for them to put up their tent. They spent the first night sleeping under their tarp. Poor Ashley was frightened by the horse stampede that passed close to their tarp during the night.

We left for the camp on Easter Friday. It rained along the way - no surprise. It rained while we were there - no surprise.

And then the biggest surprise of all - it stopped raining. It didn't rain on Saturday, or Sunday, or even on Monday! Not even when we threatened to pack up our gear and eventually came good on that threat and actually packed up! In fact, the sun even came out to fare us well.

So, like my last holiday blog, I'm not going to write every single moment down. Instead, I'll use a few dot points to give an idea of what we got up to.

- We had to drive through a creek to get to the campsite. I wish we'd known we'd need a four wheel drive for this! I DID NOT like hearing the rocks molesting the underside of our car :-(

- The port-a-loos were DISGUSTING! You had to try to avoid mud to get to the rusty tin port-a-loos closest to our campsite. Then you had to make sure nobody was going to surprise you while you used the one without a lock on the door. Add to this the fact that the loo is DISGUSTING and if you sit on the seat you'd prob walk out dirtier than before you walked in.

If you wanted a slightly nicer box to do your business in, you had to walk THROUGH the creek to get to them. If you wanted indoor plumbing, you either had to drive there or make sure you had enough time to walk up the hill, through the horse yard, and down the hill to get there.

Your best option was to hold it as long as you could.

- There was this great swing there that the kids had fun on. Then somebody took it down.

- The country stars. No light pollution to cloud the view. HEAVEN. Literally.

- The camp fire! A real one! There was no electricity so we finally got to camp the way it was intended!

- Toasted marshmallows. I don't really enjoy these as much as I used to as a kid but it's tradition so I do it anyway.

- Unfortunately, we made our campsite right next to this spot that the trail-bike riders all thought would make a great jump. They had a great time. Over and over and over and over...you get my drift. After a couple of days there, we discovered that the riders were breaking the rules by riding excessively around the campsite so I applauded when Matt parked his car in the way so they couldn't do it anymore.

It was a great place for dirt bike riding though so I wish I had a quad bike and I'd go and have fun there too. But in the designated areas and during the designated hours.

- Ashley was gorgeous to play with!

- There was horse riding which looks like fun. Cam and I are busy saving our $$$ though so that wasn't on the cards this year.

- It's always fun when there are other families there too. And it was especially good that they had kids so that our nieces could spend time playing with them and all occupying themselves.

- You know how camp fire smoke always follows you? For the first time, it was actually predictable and for most of the time, blew in the same direction all weekend so it was safe to just park yourself on one side of the fire and you had a good chance of your eyeballs not being smoke-stung out of their sockets.

- The Easter Bunny. Cam and I don't usually observe the easter egg tradition. We don't have any kids and we buy chocolate whenever we want anyway, so what's the point? Cam in particular doesn't usually spend time thinking up romantic stuff for his wife (he has no sisters) so imagine my surprise when I climbed out of the tent to find this waiting for me!

And my even greater surprise that HE was the Easter Bunny!

I have to admit that I actually thought Desiree had been very sneaky by getting into the annexe part of our tent to drop it off without making a sound. Whoops!

Brownie points to Cam for getting it past me. I didn't get him anything for Easter because it just didn't occur to me! De-merit points to me.

- I know I've already commented on it, but the weather was so fantastic! I couldn't believe how great it was! That's probably what made the camp so good for me. The fact that we were dry and able to sit outside all the time.

I had a GREAT WEEKEND!