Our Lives, According to Great Bands

I had a friend fill this questionaire on Facebook and it intrigued me, so I gave it a whirl. The band I chose was Simon and Garfunkel, and these are my answers.

Are you a male or female?
I am a Rock
Describe yourself:
Think Too Much
How do you feel:
Why Don't You Write Me
Describe where you currently live:
Somewhere They Can't Find Me
If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
My Little Town
Your favorite form of transportation:
Slip Slidin' Away
Your best friend is:
The Boxer
What's the weather like:
Leaves That Are Green
Favorite time of day:
Wednesday Morning, 3 AM
If your life were a TV show, it would be called:
A Poem on the Underground Wall
Life to you is:
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Your fear:
Fakin' It
The best advice you have to give is:
Keep the Customer Satisfied
Thought for the Day:
Go Tell it on the Mountain
How you would like to die:
Late in the Evening
Your soul's present condition:
Still Crazy After All These Years
Your motto:

I Know What I Know

I figured it would be funny to see Blake's as well, so he chose New Found Glory with these answers:

Are you a male or female?
Boy Crazy
Describe yourself:
Taken Back By You
How do you feel:
Tell Tale Heart
Describe where you currently live:
Familiar Landscapes
If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Radio Adelaide
Your favorite form of transportation:
Boulders
Your best friend is:
Oxygen
What's the weather like:
I Don't Wanna Know
Favorite time of day:
Winter of '95
If your life were a TV show, it would be called:
I Do It For You
Life to you is:
Never Ending Story
Your fear:
Standstill
The best advice you have to give is:
No News is Good News
Thought for the Day:
All Downhill From Here
How you would like to die:
Black and Blue
Your soul's present condition:
The King of Wishful Thinking
Your motto:
Over The Head, Below The Knees

It's a bit of a fun game. Try it out with one of your favorite bands and see how creative you can get. :)

A Pretty, Lucky Day

On Saturday Blake and I had a pretty good day. We started off by waking up at the crack of dawn to get ready to go to the temple and made it for a 10:15 session. Only about 12 people were there, so it went pretty quick. After completing an uplifting morning, we headed out shopping for a little while. We found me a cute pair of shoes and..........

.......

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

A Pastry Blender!!!!!! :D :D :D SO EXCITED! Now to find the shortening to make pastries with. :)

After our successful exploration of the local shopping centers, we started heading home through Robina, land of the roundabouts and I saw this:

Now, I haven't mentioned how many times we had to go around said roundabouts to get this picture and how dizzy/sick we both felt by the end, but it's a pretty sunset and was definitely worth it.

I Caved...

With both of my sisters having short, cute hair, and my sister-in-law just cutting hers as well, I've felt a little pressure to fit in. Okay, not really pressure, but I think they all look super cute and I missed my short hair. Getting headaches daily and having to always wear ponytails to keep my neck cool were also contributing factors. So, I gave in. I decided that I would do it. Here's where my hair was prior to the 'new do':

Yeah baby, check out that natural wave....

So, as you can see, it was getting quite long and to straighten it (not to mention just drying it) takes forever. I haven't had hair this long since I was in about kindergarten, and even then it was probably just because my head was small. I was pretty nervous because although it's a pain, I wanted to see how long my hair would grow. Thank goodness it never stops so I can keep trying and play with fun hair styles in the meanwhile.

I also was trying to stick to a close to natural color for my wedding. I didn't want my kids to look back and say... why do we have blonde hair, Mom? But now... my hubby's pretty partial to my hair being dark. He met me with dark hair and really likes it, so I decided to do that as well. Unfortunately they don't have the same hair dye as they do in the states. My hair pulls reds really easily, so I go straight for the ASH. Here, the best hope I had was Natural. :S It pulled red, but it's different enough that it will show no matter what as it grows out.

Now for the final unveiling.....

And the back...

As you may notice, there are no double mirrors, so this did take a while, but at least I used real hair cutting scissors this time! They were a little dull by the end though. :S

I think I look a little like Alice Cullen... Gives me an opportunity to be a little more spunky. :) It will take some getting used to, but my neck will be cool and so far, I'm headache free! No complaining about that. Oh, and the hubby likes it. That's always a plus. :)

Wake Me When the Drama is Over

If only I could sleep through this wonderful process of getting a visa. We started the process back when I first entered the country, and would you know it, it's still going on. I just want to share a little bit of the frustrations discovered. Not so much for pity, but perhaps to vent a little steam and convince you all to never move to another country. :) It makes perfect sense to leave your family when first married (although across an ocean is a little extreme), but to leave your friends, freedoms, interests, money... It's not an easy thing to wrap your brain around. So, here begins my visa saga.

Step 1. Print and fill out 23 pages of 100 questions about my personal life, my family's personal life, and Blake's personal life.

Step 2. Convince Blake to fill out his own 15 pages of questions about his personal life, his family's personal life, and his financial security.

Step 3. Sigh at relief in completion of above book.

Step 4. Contact immigration to see what else needs to be included. Received checklist.

Step 5. Groan.

Step 6. Contact Mom for birth certificate. Received.

Step 7. Call immigration to find out if the "if applicable" items are required or not. They are.

Step 8. Figure out where the closest approved health clinic is for my Health Check. Thirty minutes north. (btw, I do drive around now. Thank goodness.)

Step 9. Take $310, fill out 2 more required applications, head north, miss turn (lots of construction makes it near impossible to see, lack of street signs makes it completely impossible), drive around 20 minutes or so, find a familiar street sign and figure out my way to the clinic after about 1 hour.

Step 10. The clinic takes above mentioned money and applications, takes my picture, attempts to take some blood, tests my vision, checks height and weight, tells me to go to another location for an x-ray the next day and come back in a week for a full physical.

Step 11. Attempts to find uniradiology center, does a few u-turns, goes inside, gets x-rayed, walks out 15 minutes later to drive the 30 minutes home again.

Step 12. Prints out all necessary information to get my Criminal Check. Finds police station (luckily across the street) to finger print me. They steal $24.95 and 45 minutes of my life.

Step 13. Cringe at the $18 the FBI charges to process prints. Call FBI office at 11:30 pm here and asks how to expedite or send fingerprints. Tells me it will take 3-4 weeks from time received. Also tells me the fingerprint sheet won't be accepted. Panic... They talk to supervisor, it will be okay. They ask for FedEx packaging and account number for return.

Step 14. Sign up for FedEx, look up rates. Blake does CPR, discuss rates again. Succumb to the $80 there, $80 back fees. Breathe deeply, take sheets to shipping office. Get charged $12 for the "drop off" of the package.

Step 15. Sigh at the amount of work still left to do.

We have to make photocopies -and have them notarized (costs around $50 for the Justice of the Peace's time)- of all our important documents: passports, birth certificates, Blake's tax information, wedding certificate, etc

We have to have 2 Australian Citizens who know us well make a statutory declaration (also JP signed) about our relationship.

We each have to write our own declaration about our relationship, from start to current.

We also have to include documents that "prove" that we are committed. (an insane asylum certificate may come in handy at this point) For example, bills with both our names, proof of joint bank accounts, joint loans, etc.

We then have to hope my FBI returned fingerprints with the stamped "no record" comes sooner than September 3rd.

Once we send everything in, we get to wait with baited breath and crossed fingers in hopes that they don't deny the application and kick me out of the country. Without refunding the $2500 application fee I might add.

If I get this visa, I think Blake's going to put me back to work to earn all the money this visa process took from our savings. It sure has made a dent. But until that visa is approved, I'm not allowed to work, so hopefully it won't take up to the possible 1 year to go through.

All this in the effort to live in a socialist country... I do love it here though and really hope that everything works out smoothly and quickly so I won't be making a quick trip back to the US in early September to renew my temporary visa. At least when we make our move to the states it won't be quite a hassle as Blake is a dual citizen and will only cost us the fee to get a social security number.

:D