I'm Baaackk! Stop, It's iPhone-Recap Time!

Hey friends! Thanks so much to all the lovely ladies who have been filling in for me for the past week, seriously, if I could give you an e-round of applause I would! All of those lovely ladies are actually sponsors of mine, and you should check their blogs out, along with all the other incredible ladies on my side bar now! If you're interested in seeing your face there, check out my sponsorship options here!

This past week has been a million kinds of crazy. Last Monday we packed all of our stuff into the car, and skipped town. I said goodbye to everything I had grown to love about Coffs Harbour (and the only place Trent has ever lived!) which was hard in so many ways. It's easy to get comfortable with such amazing people and places around you, but we both knew it was time for an adventure!

We drove for about 5 hours (through the pouring rain) before we stopped in Newcastle to see Trent's sister. We had a pretty excellent day, even though it was pouring down. They showed me the sights and we drove all around the city, checking out all the headlands. We stopped for tapas at The Depot, which I  highly recommend  they were delicious! After that we headed to Harry's Pies for dinner, not quite as delicious as the tapas. Actually, I was really disappointed. I definitely think these pies are more of a drunk food than a sober dinner! We ended up getting some really decadent chocolate desserts and settling in for the night watching bad tv and having a laugh! Breakfast the next morning was good - not great - but the company was awesome! I don't know what I was doing, but the only photo I have from the entire day we spent with her is this one of my Tiger Pie:

After Newcastle, we drove about 7.5 hours south past Sydney over to Albury. Albury is literally RIGHT on the border of NSW and Victoria, which was super exciting and nerve wrecking for both of us. We stayed the night in a cute little caravan park, and even got our groceries from Victoria (Trent wasn't very happy with me when he say the Welcome to Victoria sign). I felt pretty trailor-trashy, having my Budweiser and my steak with my ripped jeans in the trailer. It was fun! By the time we left, the rain had stopped but it was still crazy flooded everywhere!

Finally it was time for the last leg of our journey! The home stretch! We got in the car for one more long haul. We drove another 6ish hours even further south to get to Apollo Bay. Thing got pretty dicey, but then we saw the sign for the Great Ocean Road! It was so exciting to know that we were so close, and even in the pouring rain know that we were in a place so beautiful! (All of those photos are on my camera, coming tomorrow, I promise!) We finally made it into town and met up with our new boss. She was super nice, and even let us park our car in her driveway so all of our worldly possessions didn't get wet! Turns out, I was scheduled to start work the next day... yikes! We found a backpackers to spend the night in, and took a tour of the town. The next morning, I woke up bright and early to start work. 

After a couple of days of staying in the backpackers we were getting restless. All of our stuff in boxes? No thank you! We were also starting to run out of clothes... We went apartment hunting and finally settled on this little one bedroom unit in what we now know is "the Apollo Bay ghetto." Let me just tell you, this "ghetto" is the nicest ghetto I've ever seen. It's cheap and cheerful, furnished, and power is included. Wham bam thank you ma'am we have a new place to live!

I guess we were just going with the ghetto theme, because we bought a box of goon and had nachoes as our first meal in our new house! We're still getting things out of boxes and trying to find homes for everything (with very very little storage I might add) but for the most part we've settled in!

Being in Apollo Bay is completely different than Coffs Harbour, in so many different ways. I'm so so beyond excited to keep exploring this amazing place, AND everything in Victoria around me!

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People Rock: My Surprise Birthday Dinner!

You know how I said the other day how amazing it is to be reminded about what great friends I have? Well having great friends frequently surprises you and makes you feel so awesome. Like when they throw you a surprise birthday dinner. AWESOME.

I'm not usually a negative Nancy, but the first thing I said when I noticed all the people standing there was "are all of these people here for me?!" It was just a shock for me, being all the way across the world and having so many people show up just to surprise me!! No one has ever done something like this for me, surprise parties make you feel so warm and fuzzy!

They tricked me under the ruse of going out to dinner with Trent and his parents. Trent's mom Chrissy told me to dress for warmth because we would be sitting outside... and then when I walked by wearing jeans and a flannel shirt she gave me the once over and said "Are you going to change?" So naturally I decided to really dress up, just to make sure I wasn't under dressed! And I'm so glad I did. I actually said about 20 minutes before I left that I didn't want to go because my hair wasn't doing me any favours!

It was such a great night to spend with my closest friends! Zana and I split a bottle of wine (okay, she had a glass and I drank the rest of the bottle) and we girl gossiped all night. I was sitting on the very end of the table, which meant I couldn't talk to anyone except for Zana and Trent! That's okay, they're my favourites anyway (sorry to the rest of you awesome people!) On top of all of my surprises and delicious Thai food, Out they came with a Toy Story birthday cake! (!!!!) If you didn't know already, I kinda sorta have this little tiny Toy Story obsession. Like I dressed up for the premier of the third movie... on a first date. We probably shouldn't talk about that one though! 

I have to thank, above everyone else, this lovely lady. This is Trent's mom, Chrissy! She's literally the sweetest person I have ever met. She's been like my Aussie mom the whole time I've lived in Coffs Harbour and has made me feel so at home! Thanks for everything Chrissy! (And Gazza too!)

Thanks to everyone who came out and of course a super special thanks to my bestie Zana and my fave boytoy for managing to keep a huge secret from me! 

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A Day at the Beach

One of the most incredible things about living in Australia is the beach. Duh. Since I've been in Australia, it has been "winter" which essentially means I wear jeans and tshirts, and occasionally a sweater (or jumper). In the last couple of weeks it has warmed up heaps! We've been able to go out to the beach and do a little sunbathing and swimming which is so so exciting! It still gets chilly once the sun goes down, but being able to go to the beach is so much better than sitting indoors all day. Last week, Trent and I took his red border collie Jagger to the beach. Jaggy is such a sweetheart, and he loves to play fetch!

I've been having all these weird... "woman feelings" lately. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm growing up or my internal clock is ticking or whatever, but lately I've been thinking about babies. Now don't freak out mom, I'm not rushing to get pregnant and pop out a couple sets of twins (although maybe I could get a sweet tv show deal out of it...) but I've been feeling super motherly. I'd love to get a puppy, something to take care of. I love imagining what my life will be like in 10 years... I hope I have a house and a baby and a white picket fence and all of that.

Playing with Jagger is always fun, he's such an energetic dog, and he loves it when we take him to the beach. He's a bit scared of the water and after a while of playing he likes to cuddle. Whenever I watch movies or tv shows I find myself relating with the parental figure, as opposed to the child. I'm at a junction in my life. I've crossed the threshold of adulthood (in some ways, in others I'm still a big kid!) and although I'm not prepared in any other way for a child, maybe I'm emotionally ready. 

I want to be married when I have a baby. I want to be in a stable job, in a safe environment. I want to have travelled the world. I'm not saying that my life will be over after having a baby, but while I'm young and selfish and life is about me and my needs I'm going to fully take advantage of that!

For now I'm happy with my selfish amazing life, but it's funny how time changes your perspective!

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The Gold Coast aka Sun, Sand, and Sizzler

After our lovely amazing time at Splendour in the Grass and jumping out of a plane on my 21st birthday, we decided to not end the fun right away and head up to The Gold Coast for a couple of days!

^^Queensland is pretty awesome because they don't have a sign saying welcome they just have this big red thing (which I googled, and I still have absolutely no clue why it's there. But, it's cool)^^

^^In case anyone was wondering what our trip looked like, it was something like this! Except that's all highway driving which means it was probably less straight and more out of the way round-about-y!^^

^^ After 4 days with nothing but rain boots and mud it was SO nice to be able to take my shoes off and dig my toes into the sand. PS, can anyone recommend a good self-tanner? Look at those white feet!^^

 ^^ We stayed at Vibe Hotel in Surfer's Paradise. It was a nice-ish budget hotel, pretty much all we wanted was a nice shower and a comfy bed. It was walking distance from everything in Surfer's Paradise, aka party central! Our room even had a great view of the river!^^

 ^^One afternoon we went to TimeZone which was AWESOME. 4 hours of non-stop fun for just over $50. We even walked away with prizes! We got one of the packages which included bumper cars, a bagillion games, and laser tag which I kicked ass at! I ended up getting first place at laser tag (against Trent and 4 strangers) which surprised all of us! Unfortunately the only picture we got was of me awkwardly busting out my DDR moves!^^

^^Another World's Largest Thing!! Yay! I can't believe there are so many giant things in Australia! Watch out Texas, I'm pretty sure everything is bigger down under! (he he he)^^

^^Blah, soo full after the yummiest dinner at Sizzler! Not gourmet by any means, but they have this gigantic all you can eat salad bar. YUM. That's the most excited face I could muster because holy moly was I full!!^^ 

^^This is on the way back home to Coffs Harbour! They actually burn the fields of sugar cane to make it easier to harvest! It looks so cool to see all of the smoke and the big field on fire, and it smells like candy too!!^^

We stayed in Surfer's Paradise for 2 nights, the first day was mainly spent exploring and at TimeZone, the second day we went to Dreamworld (!! I'll post about that next yay!), and the last day we went and did some outlet shopping on our way home! 

One of the most memorable (and the scariest!) things that happened during our trip was on the way to Sizzler. We got into a car accident!!! We were driving along and a lady pulled out to our left. She proceeded to drive diagonally across 3 lanes of traffic straight towards us! I was on the left side of the car (remember, this is Australia where things are backwards) and I started to freak out because she wasn't stopping! Trent laid into the horn but she obviously did not get the message and her car intersected with the aluminium tray of Trent's truck! Luckily, that tray is virtually indestructible and neither of us were hurt. We pulled off at the next turn and the lady took off! I was so shaken after that, but neither of us were hurt!

The Gold Coast was super fun, and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of it, hopefully our next trip will be a bit longer (and include a pub crawl or two!)

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Shit Gets Real at Sunset

Okay, this rant isn't really at sunset, I just wanted something good to offset the bad. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing it all wrong. And by it, I mean everything. Seriously, even the good things in my life I feel like I'm messing them up. Where shall we start...

My Blog

I love blogging. Blogging is so super fun to me, but I never feel like I'm doing it right. I want people to read my blog! I want to be part of a blog community! I try so hard I swear! I do all the things you're supposed to. I read so so many blogs every day and most of the time I leave comments on them. I follow so many people on Bloglovin, twitter, facebook, every inch of social media I follow a million different people. And yes, I'm whining and complaining because no one's reading my blog. I've had this blog for over a year now and I'm only just now hitting my groove. Ok ok, not to say that I haven't met a handful of amazing people, and call me selfish but I know all of your stories, I just want someone to know mine!

My Job

I love working... and right now I'm not. At all. Working is so much fun to me, and I'm going absolutely stir crazy. It's a 2nd year visa requirement for me to do 88 days of regional farm work in Australia. I have been applying for jobs like crazy, I check online to see if there are new jobs 5, 6 times per day. I apply for every single job that even sounds remotely possible. For the past 2 weeks. I have received exactly one email saying thanks but no thanks, and exactly ZERO phone calls. No one I calls picks up. No one I email responds. I'm so stressed out because I have next to no money and bills to pay and I need to get this job before October.

My Time in Australia

I love Australia. Well, I love what I've seen in Australia. Which is almost nothing. When I was planning my trip, I thought I would live in Coffs Harbour for 2-3 months and then continue on my travels. It's now been 6 months and 10 days and I NEED OUT. This is NOT what I wanted. This is NOT what I signed up for. I want to see this amazing country and if I don't manage to fruit pick all I will have seen will be Coffs Harbour. Coffs is beautiful, yes, but I want to see the Opera House. I want to go 4WDriving on Fraser Island. I want to see the big rock in the middle. I want to walk the great ocean road. And yet, I'm still here. 

My Relationship

I love Trent. we are so good together, when things are good. We make each other laugh, we comfort each other when we're unhappy and I can't see a future without him. But lately, things have been bad. Not always, not every minute of every day bad, but we fight. We fight about stupid things like why the pizza crust didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Yeah, that seems silly right? We both know it's silly but we can't help it! We're so stressed and so upset and so freaked out by all of the things not happening around us, and we take it out on each other.

I didn't know if I should post this or not, but in the interest of being real I thought I'd let you see a little bit more of who I am. I'm insecure, and right now I feel like I'm drawing a lot of first world shit straws. I just want everything to be fixed and perfect and lovely, but that's not life is it. That's not real. I just need to sort myself out and make a plan. I'm in control of my own destiny. My life is the way I choose it to be. 

Thanks for listening. 

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Best Birthday Present: Skydiving!

*Warning, this is a very picture heavy post. I have a video but I couldn't get it to work and I really wanted to give you the full experience!*

For my 21st birthday I not only got to go to Splendour in the Grass, I also was lucky enough to go skydiving that morning!! So super exciting! This was Trent's 5th jump, and my first. I was so beyond nervous butso amazingly excited!

^^About to get on the plane! Look how small it is! I was trying to hard not to think about the fact that I was about to fall from 14,000 feet. Ahhh!^^

^^ Look at that view, so amazing! The skydiving place we went to was called "Skydive Byron Bay on the Beach." We skydived out of Ballina and landed on a field. BUT, that right there is Byron Bay(ish) and I suppose there's a beach...^^

^^ This was the scariest freaking moment ever. My legs were whipping through the air and I was trying to remember the instructions (just act like a banana) and realizing that oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die-oh-my-god"

^^And then I was falling...^^

^^ I'm not sure if these are in order but this was the free fall. 60 seconds of pure amazing adrenaline amazingness. I don't even know how to describe how incredible this felt. I was so astounded by the world around me and the fact that I was falling so fast but I knew I was safe and experiencing something amazing. It made me realize, in those 60 seconds just how precious life is, and how we need to stop wasting it.^^

^^And then we (and by we I of course mean my awesome skydiving instructor) pulled the chute. Wow, what a different feeling. There was a little pull in my stomach and then all of a sudden I was floating. It's like I was perched on a cloud, observing the world below me. I felt... powerful. Like I was in on a secret no one else was privy to. I'm not sure if that makes any sense but all I'm saying is just go skydiving and you'll see what I mean.^^

^^ Landing was so weird, he told my to put my legs up and pull them towards my chest. Awkward my core isn't very strong (like at all) and so I was barely able to do it. Yikes. Whateva, we landed in the soccer field, which was so so weird there were kids playing on it (!!) and my legs were jelly, my arms were sore, my face hurt from smiling, my eyes had a ring around them from the goggles and my ears were popped for hours. Just saying, it was FUCKING AWESOME.^^

^^ This is me, enjoying my celebratory birthday/skydiving/generally being a badass bitch beer!^^

Seriously though, go freaking skydiving. If you've been thinking about it, do it. If you haven't, do it. If you've done it, do it again. Just do it. I'm going to try and solo skydive, I'm going to have to do 10 more jumps and a whole lot of training but it's on my need to do to make my life awesome list! It's also on my 21 before 22 list, sweeet!

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