Animals...of course!

That's me...I was maybe 3 years old, talking to a kangaroo! It seems I've always bonded with animals more than humans. :)
Anyway...Melbourne Cup today. I was at work. It was rather amusing the way everyone stopped in the mall to watch, but other than that, I'm not too interested in seeing which animal can get from point a to point b the fastest. My animals would get distracted by a shiny object after 5 steps, so it's probably a good thing I'm not competitive!
Tonight I watched RSPCA Animal Rescue. It's one of only a few shows I watch. It kind of makes me mad though (ask my Mum, she doesn't want to watch in the same room as me anymore because I yell at the Tv too much!) I don't understand how or why people can mistreat animals. :( The other thing that bugs me, though, is the way the RSPCA itself acts. Who are they to decide that an animal is better off dead than with a less than perfect owner? Of course it's bad when an owner isn't able to provide proper medical treatment for an animal, or struggles to keep up with cleaning and feeding- but isn't an animal better off alive with someone who cares about it, than not alive at all? I'm pretty much against euthanasia. If an animal is old, in pain, and has no chance of recovering, maybe there's a reason- but just because it can't find a home...when it already had a home, but they took it from that home because it was "cruel" to keep an animal in those conditions? Well I think euthanizing the animal is more cruel. Humans love to play God, huh? But even without that... there are kids dying in Africa due to lack of medical care and food- nobody wants to euthanize them! Why are animals so different? What if God created all creatures equal? Sure, humans are a more intellegent species, but why do humans assume that this means we are "better"? Or that it makes it ok to eat animals, or kill them in the name of "kindness"? Why do people think of them as less than we are? To me it just shows a disrespect for life. I know my views on this are probably unpopular, but any other way doesn't make sense to me.
*Sending love to all* from me (Jacqui) and Missy. oxoxo

I can't believe it's....November!

Happy Halloween for yesterday! We actually didn't have any trick or treaters last night! (Well, except me, Mum let me have some of the candy!) So it was pretty uneventful. I was too tired from cleaning (finally finished, for now), to dress up or decorate. I had some pumpkin soup from a can for dinner- did not like it. But in other news, I do like tomato soup.
Everything else is just driving, waiting on applications, thinking about moving, Christmas approaching...it's busy, but that's ok!

Cleaning.

I've spent the past 3 days cleaning. I'm exhausted, and my hands hurt. I'm trying to sort through my stuff now, so that whenever it is that we have to pack to move, it'll be a more simple matter. That is, just stacking stuff into boxes, rather than having to decide what to pack with what other items, what to keep and what to throw out, etc. So far, I have learned that:

Everything always takes longer than you think it will.
What it takes me an hour to organize, it takes Missy 10 seconds to cover with seed.
When your Mama said to keep receipts, she didn't mean all of them, from 5 years ago. They are the reason it was so hard to open and close your drawer.
When you move the foot rest (aka, cardboard box of junk) you had under your desk for 10 years, your feet will still subconsciously try to look for it every few minutes.
Don't play with a tube of black paint. Ever. It may seem fun to squish it between your fingers, but when the lid pops off, you'll have a heck of a time cleaning the carpet, your pants, your fingers...

Ouch...again.

I'm always tired around 4-5pm. More so if I'm at home than at work. I don't know why, suddenly I have no energy and concentration, and then I get some more for a few hours later. This time yesterday, we were about to go for a driving lesson, but I somehow managed to fall off the curb and land on the road between two parked cars. I twisted my ankle and scraped my knee. I'm fine, and Mum hasn't laughed that hard in a long time- but I really had forgotten how much that hurts!! I have a Pooh Bear bandaid now, which makes it all a little better, though. As a kid, I had scraped knees every second day...I went through so many pairs of stockings!
In other observations, this weekend has gone so fast. I finished re-reading the Shack...it really is a great book. Very touching, and thought provoking, even if you're not sure what you believe in. I hope God really is like that. If He's not, I don't know where I stand with my faith, but perhaps those questions can't be answered in this lifetime. What do you do if you believe in God, and need God, but feel He's too harsh and cruel to love or worship? Do you live in fear? Do you try to stop believing? It seems like a choice between those two a lot of the time. Well, maybe I don't want to define who I am with a religion. It actually seems pretty ignorant, in a way, to assume our beliefs are right. What if we're not? People of all faiths die for their beliefs, and most of them probably didn't need to. Anyway, I am who I am, He is who He is...what is, is, what will be, will be. I'm at a point of being too tired to care. I'm sick of being judged and sick of analyzing and being cynical about everything. Just sick of trying and failing over and over, I guess. I wish I could give up on it, but I can't. I can at least try to think about less, though. I know I ramble about it a lot, sorry.
Well before I go attempt to get something done, here's a blog post everyone should read:
http://nataliegrant.com/2009/10/24/your-10-can-set-thousands-free/
It's about donating to the Home Foundation to end human trafficking.

Summer is coming...

Things I like about Summer in Sydney...
Not being cold
My hair drying within 5 minutes of washing it
The laundry drying quickly
Blue skies, flowers...
Ice cream!
The pool (would prefer the beach, but it's over an hour away!)
Christmas :)

Things I don't like about Summer in Sydney...
Waking up in the night because it's hot
Waking up because after removing my covers, it's cold
Waking up because I'm hot again after putting covers back
Waking up in the night because the owls, frogs, cicadas make noise all night outside my window
Waking up because I drank a lot of water due to the hot day and now have to pee
Getting sore ears after swimming
Bushfires :(
When it's too hot to put things in the oven...

My list could go on. I generally love Summer, everyone seems more cheerful and less serious than in Winter. :)
Today I did the laundry, had a driving lesson with a practice test which I managed to fail twice, in the same test! I swear I'm not stupid, the test is just really stupid! There are things you have to do in order to pass that are totally petty and irrelevant to road safety. It's making me crazy, I'm having nightmares over this! So this morning wasn't great. Then I walked up to the shops to get lunch, came back, watched Friends with Missy, and then spent the afternoon swimming with Matt. I haven't had a chance to see him much lately, since he works long hours and night shifts.
I asked him where Arabica is, as in Arabica coffee...he said "It's imaginary. Like Poland." LOL he's amusing. He also started talking about "British and Waleish people"...err...Welsh people.
Then we had pizza for dinner with the whole family, and Mum and I attempted to explain the internet to Opa. He nodded, stood up, and walked away muttering "www dot shit!" He's such a cute old guy!

This is so cute...

Watch it. :)

http://www.andiesisle.com/GoD_and_DoG.html

A home...

"A house is made of bricks and stones, a home is made of love alone."

We're getting ready to sell our house and move. I know change like this is necessary to life, but I've never liked it! It's making everyone a little moody, Dad is fussing with the garden, Mum is...being Mum...you can imagine. I'm just trying to remember that a house is only a building. As long as I'm with all the people and animals I love, it doesn't really matter where we live! It'll still be hard to leave though. I've lived here for over half my life and there are so many memories here.
I drove past the house we lived in before this one, today. That was my first home, and we left when I was 9. It just looked so different, actually smaller than I remembered it (probably because I grew!) It just made me think.