Sisterly Love

Day 2:

A picture of you and the person you have been closest with longest

This is my little sister Taina!! And today its her birthday :) Although she isnt my sister by blood, Ive been there with her since the day she was born!! I remember when she was just a baby she reminded me of the baby on ice age! When she was around 4ish, every day she would say..."I love you so much" but, now shes the 7 year old who groans and says.."yeah yeah love you too" its amazing how fast she has grown up.

We expected her to be this big tomboy who would love to play sports and do all those active things, but to our suprise she turned into a big diva like her mama!! She is most talented in dancing and I remember the first time she did the splits which was like age 5 I knew shed be an amazing little dancer! Its amazing what a strong little girl Taina has been, always so independant and strong willed. Although I am halfway across the world from my little sis I miss her everyday!!

<3 you so much Tai!!

30 Days + 15 facts

So on facebook..I keep seeing all these posts of people putting up pictures of something for 30 days and it goes a little something like this ....

Day 1. A picture of yourself with 15 facts
Day 2. A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
Day 3. A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
Day 4. A picture of your favorite night
Day 5. A picture of your favorite memory
Day 6. A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day
Day 7. A picture of your most treasured item
Day 8. A picture that makes you laugh
Day 9. A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
Day 10. A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with
Day 11. A picture of something you hate
Day 12. A picture of something you love
Day 13. A picture of your favorite band or artist
Day 14. A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
Day 15. A picture of something you want to do before you die
Day 16. picture of someone who inspires you
Day 17. A picture of the cast of your favorite show
Day 18. A picture of your biggest insecurity
Day 19. A picture and a letter
Day 20. A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel
Day 21. A picture of something you wish you could forget
Day 22. A picture of something you wish you were better at
Day 23. A picture of your favorite book
Day 24. A picture of something you wish you could change
Day 25. A picture of your favorite day
Day 26. A picture of something that means a lot to you
Day 27. A picture of yourself and a family member
Day 28. A picture of something you're afraid of
Day 29. A picture that can always make you smile
Day 30. A picture of someone you miss

Now at first I was thinking...how lame is this..who even does that? Then after I thought about how cool itd be to blog I decided..well let me just be lame as well and go with the 30 day adventure.

                                                

                                                   
                                                            DAY 1: A picture of yourself with 15 facts

1. I cant swim (can you tell?)
2. I moved halfway across the world JUST to be a nanny
3. I am currently a maori in training
4. Secretly, I like to practice my dance moves in the mirror
5. I never take off my CTR ring
6. If I lose my Ipod I go mental..literally
7. I like to record myself singing for my private practice lol
8. I find it entertaining to make people feel awkward
9. I hate my appearnce but, love who I am inside:)
10. I <3 the book of mormon
11. I act tough just to prove a point
12. Photographing my life is a must
13. I eat way too much chocolate...but could care less
14. I love saying hi to strangers!! (creepy i know)
15. I hate high heels with a passion.

:)

Thats soo Maori...

Ok..SO Ive found myself among a crowd of maoris..and yes I am in australia. Lately, Ive been told "oi, C your learning the maori ways"...or ... "oi, thats so maori".."Oi, your learning the ways" So, hey why not blog my new maori ways!!



                                          So, I remember this to the day..where When I first
                                          had an eating with the maori family I am living with...
                                          We had gotten fish&chips and they had bread out on
                                           the table. which apparently is a normal thing...to have
                                          bread out for every meal!! Well...they picked up a piece
                                          of bread and put chips aka fries in it with "sauce" aka
                                          ketchup. It didnt end there..they put sausages, fish,
                                          chicken..anything that goes in a piece of bread and
                                          they eat it!! Little did I know...these people arent only
                                          crazy..but genius!! I have now converted to the bread
                                          with anything diet!! (no wonder I gained weight)

                                            The 24 hour rule!!! According to one of my maori
                                            friends theirs a rule when you drop your food to where
                                            you could eat it within 24 hours still. "soo maori" as
                                            he would say...but, then again he wants to live in a
                                            bush so who knows if thats a maori thing or his thing!

                                             One night at "tute" ..I was standing their minding my
                                             own in my typical wear with my tennis shoes with no
                                             laces, and big sweats! A friend looks at me and goes..
                                             "oi, thats so horey??" You know to this day I dont under
                                              stand what that means but, of course in the end he says..
                                              "thats so maori" hahaha!! I think I have found my kind!!

 

So..I go to this rugby game one day and just was pretty

fascinated that everyone just walks around with these cups

of chips and sauce!! Apparently thats normal, but not for me

the american haha All i know is ive never eaten so many chips

in my life!! And no its not just a maori thing but an oz thing as well!

                                    
Not only do they have diff ways of doing things but, also they have THE most cool slang!! America is just plain boring when it comes to their slang!! One day me and a friend were talking and I asked her..."why do you call jehova witnesses jdubs?" and she goes...oh because you know when you type on the internet dub dub dub. facebook.com!! And I go...??? huh? ....She goes..you know dubdubdub.com?? ...Me..You mean http://www.com/!! haha not only was that the funniest thing ive ever heard but the most retarded "sorry maori peoples" But, also they say things like.....

• Churrr Bro...(still trying to understand the meaning of  that)
• Oi...
• Hard
• True
• Choice
• Mean As!!
• Hiding (beating)
• Shattered
• Yeahhh naahhh
• Suss!!
• Crack up
• Far out
• Hardcase
• Sweet as bro!!

So on and so on...So much more to blog about these maoris and their "ways"!! All I know is I cant get enough of it haha so much to learn!! And one thing I learned while being here is that.... "Hell, and Damn" are not bad words!! Unfortunately the utahn ways are stuck with me and I still am in shock when I hear the word haha!! First day in church..as someones standing at the pulpit..or next to me while taking sacrament..or in my ysa class...HELLL DAMNN hahaha classic!

                                                        "SOOOO MAORI"

Catching up

Time to catch up!!!
These past couple of weeks I feel like I have been doing so much and having "blog worthy" moments BUT its not blog worthy without a photo!! So since I decided to leave my camera at a friends for the past couple of weeks I have now got it back and its time to update!! I dont even know where to start...I guess we can start with RUGGGBYY:) So once apon a time....I used to live in a country where it was alll about football (aka gridiron) and now I live in a country where its hardley even played...like really people dont even know how to throw an american football..what is this?
So, I went to my first official rugby game..I assumed that little ones I saw back in utah didnt count. And all I can say is that those rugby fans were.....DRRYYY!! haha its a good thing I was with a crowd who made it a bit more interesting!!

                                                           New Zealand Blues VS. Emirates

                                              Clayton in the back there (with the evil laugh) was the
                                              interesting part of the game. He decided to sit in the
                                              blues maori section and as you can tell...hes an
                                              aussie cheering on the emirates...shame.
                                                     

                                           Jessie Rae is an Emirates fan and Tane a Blues fan..
                                           As for me...I was just the American lost in the crowd

First rugby game experience??? = Success! One thing I saw too was that they eat chips..aka fries at their games...and once I told them we sell popcorn and nachos at ours..they thought we were crazy. I dont think I have ever eatin so many chips in my life since Ive been here in OZ!

Up next.....Blast from the past!!! So we had a YSA decades dance the other weekend n I must say I was just all over that place!! Considering I havent danced in ages and I looove to dance I was just having a ball!! I have nooo idea what decade I was from but, hey you can fig that one out for yourself. :) I literally danced the night away for like...2 hours straight haha had to let it all out!!

                                                 Me n the famous charles...Hes prob got the best
                                                 imitations of an american accent..always mocking
                                                 me this one.

                                                          awww shameee...hahahaha
                                                          Tane was busting out his wild moves
                                                           alll night long!!

                                                              

                                              This guy...sorry michael already taken hahaha
                                               love this kid sweet as! One day michael asked me
                                              whats one thing you want to do while in australia?
                                            And I shot up excited as ever and said..."I want to go
                                            on a safarrrriiii" ...He looks at me as if im the most
                                            retarded person ever and says..."thats in africa?"
                                            hahaha how sad..already busting out my blonde streaks

                                          Grace in the middle there has found herself a Utah boy
                                          and will be moving to Utah!! I keep telling people here..
                                          "just go to utah and youll be married within weeks" and
                                           if thats not the pure truth idk what is!! haha

                                                  Myra n Liz!! <3 these girls to death!!

So...I know I am summing up my past weekends but, hey a photos worth a thousand words. So..next stop..is random adventues with Liz, Ginny, And Laurence. We went to this pioneer tribute which was sooo amazing, the spirit was felt very strong!! Afterwards we went on an adventure to this river place..I have no idea what its called..but it was sweet as!!

I love Piano Pictures!!

                                                          Laurence, He is the kind of guy who
                                          literally wants to live in a bush...He goes camping out
                                          by himself all the time!! Brave much!!

                                          I find it insane that parrots are just flying around every
                                          where here in OZ!!

                                                                      <3 these guys

This place was I must say the prettiest Ive seen since Ive been in Australia. Everything else is just desert but, hey theirs nothing bad about that it reminds me of home:)

Another thing people here do often is go to karaoke!! And usually when id do something like this..the people id be with all sucked....but, this time they all are amazing!! But hey, I still like to bust out a tune o two every now and then still:)

                                         

Well, I have one more weekend to update on...but we will save that for another post considering I have just summed up 3 weekends in one blog..as crappy of an explanation as this one is at least I got some kodak moments from it :) Next up....

KUMBAIII AHHH MY LORD!!!! :)

Lights..Camera...ACTION!!

:) This is little TANE..And he looovesss to dance!! ... so does Ngakina haha!! Tane is the sweetest little boy you turn on music and next thing you know hes busting out the next big dance moves!! One day I believe he will be apart of australias next top dance crew..(if theirs such a thing lol)

Hes only 2 years old and of course thats the stage where everytime you hear them speak you tend to say.."aww how cute" and since I have that reacction with him every single day..of course I had to blog these moments!! He has big green eyes and everytime he says .. "Loove you" it literally makes my day complete!! Beware..in all reality with those big puppy eyes and cheesy grins he will take control lol!!

This would be a little group of the YSA..I think every event I attend they are around doing their "jam sessions" and I honestly cant believe how much talent I have seen here and the beautiful voices I hear all around me. I took this as a sign that I am destined to learn how to sing :) And it is official I have had my first singing lesson this last week and am a work in progress!! This was recorded at YSA sunday...where all of perths YSA got together for sunday and their were about as many people as there would be in a family ward back home! I know going back home to heaps of YSA will def be a huge transition, I will definitely be missing my little Perth YSA crew!!

The healing power...

 

---

Living in a forgeign country I must say has challenged me to take on new opportunities, such as making up a WHOLE new blog :) I havent exactly filled my last blog up with as much as ive actually experienced here in Perth, so I figured it would be a refreshing start to make a new one!
                                               
                                                             "The healing power, of a new beginning"

Obviously thats as blunt and as deep as I can get with this one. Let me just spill out my feelings here on blog..because well hey its my journal I can do and say what I want right?
So, as most know I have moved here to Australia and have been here for almost a whole whoppin two months now! Suprisingly enough, I have managed to be the independant person I was always aiming to be within these two months!! Of course, me being me, I still depend alot on family & friends love and support in things that I do..its only human. So lets begin with the start of my Journey....

Never in my life did I picture myself taking on the challenge of being a "Live-in Nanny"!! And it still phases me that I actually did it! Not only did I choose to tend to kids all day every day, but I chose to do it halfway across the world!! 9,749 Miles to be exact :)
Its quite funny, because I met this beautiful family who I am now living with through an online agency..and really how much more sketchy of a job could that be? Here I am...never in my life met this family...skype was basically our closest way of actually meeting! So, I meet this family online and of course I am thinking in my head that wow..I am going to hop on board with this one!! But, unfortunately my family had a different vision for me and as protective as they tend to be they convinced me..Nah..I will just stay home and go to college, get my education done..work and get finances together! So I had turned down the opportunity with the family!!

Later down the road..I felt a real bad gut feeling about turning down that opportunity!! So who do you turn to when you lose yourself in decision making? ....... Our father in heavin of course :)
As I spent my days & nights on my knees I had the STRONGEST feeling ever that I should not of turned that family down!! So, I got contact of them and thank goodness they hadnt found someone in place of me!! Next thing you know...I was packing up my bags, telling the world "IM MOVING TO AUSTRALIA"!!!
Its true what they say..Time flies!! Because after what felt like 1 week later, but was 2 months later, I was giving my goodbyes!! At the time I was thinking to myself how horrible goodbyes are and spent my first couple weeks in OZ being homesick!!

2 Weeks spent being weak.
2 Months later spent..being the strongest Ive ever felt!

Now, I know I may talk about the gospel in like...EVERY post...But, thats because without it I wouldnt be who I am today!! Like I said..
                                                     "The healing power, of a new beginning"

Being here in Australia where the lord has placed me couldnt of been better timing! Its healed me, strengthened me, and helped me find a part of myself I didnt know exsisted!! Now, I couldnt exactly put that into words of how..its more of the way I feel!! ( oh gosh, here I go talking about my feelings lol)
Basically, I have found myself surrounded by a group of people living the gospel, in a country where it hardly exists. My first sunday attending church I walked in expecting to be in a YSA ward..when really I found myself in a family ward! Come to find only about 10 YSA attended my ward. I couldnt believe how small of a ward of YSA I was in!!
I can tell you though that..this small army of god have been stronger, and more mighty in strength than any big army of god ive seen or been apart of. These people here are a family.. They are true brothers and sisters.. True christian soliders!
All I know is that ive been healed here in the gospel...Noticing the changes in my values, standards, and lifestyle I couldnt be more blessed :)

                                                                    Perth, WA Temple