The Rambo Syndrome

This last Wednesday I was feeling very motivated. I wanted to ensure that on my husbands up and coming break from work we would have plenty of time to spend together instead of having to do yard work and house work.

So for the first time since we moved in beside that one time when Josh went to get a drink of water, I mowed the lawn all by myself. Despite my capability to change my own oil, fix general odds and ends around the house, mowing the lawn is the one thing Dad never taught/made me do, thus I have always shied way from the big grumbling machines in fear that I would break it. Or it would break me.



Anyhow that is not the point of this story, I just wanted to emphasize the fact of how much I don't like and don't know about lawn mowers. So I managed to mow all the lawns (in my bikini no less, so I got a fantastic tan) even though I had to turn off the mower every time I emptied the catch because I was afraid my hands would get pulled into that perpetually angry motor. Which come to find out it, is impossible to do because they make a safety guard or something, Josh explained this later.


Once I had finished my incredibly awesome lawn mowing job and I was feeling extremely accomplished, it had only taken me half the day (It takes Josh about an hour). I decided I shouldn't stop there, I should weed the over grown flower beds as well.


I got about half way through the flower bed when Aaron, my brother-in-law who lives with us, came home. He was impressed with my efforts for the day and after I was done gloating and being proud of myself I went back to weeding, while Aaron put the lawn mower away for me, because every time I tried to put it in the shed it would roll backwards on top of me.


As I reached down to get another weed, my back (still in my bikini) brushed against one of our little mini palm fronds, and there was instant pain.

This is the little fella who stung me I am presuming, because he is the little guardian.

They're busy rebuilding the nest.

Aren't they kind of cute. I wish I had got a photo of the nest before I destroyed it :(

You wouldn't even know they are there. The middle one is their home.

My brain immediately jumped the worst conclusions, perhaps a mini Australian snake I hadn't heard about had bitten me and I was about to die! or maybe it was one of the MANY poisonous spiders that could paralyze me in seconds. Of course as I was calmly thinking all of this through I was yelling and screaming at Aaron to check if it was one or two dots. ONE OR TWO DOTS AARON! I needed to know if I had merely been stung, because as far as I was aware there weren't any stinging insects that could kill me, but this is Australia after all.

So as my life flashed before my eyes Aaron assured me it was one mark and I informed him to take me to the hospital if I started acting loopie in the next hour.

As I walked back to where I had been weeding I began to investigate who the culprit must have been, a big Green Ant (that apparently only hurt me because I have American blood that isn't immune) or perhaps a bee, which definitely seem bigger in this country.

Then I saw it! A little wasp nest hanging down from the palm frond. They were these tiny little wasps that i had never seen before, all black and almost cute! There were some tending to the nest and some standing guard, there could have only been about 10 wasps in total.

Of course after seeing the little creatures and knowing they weren't going to hurt me again I decided to leave the alone, right? WRONG! I wanted revenge, I quickly called one of my muscles over (Aaron) to finish off the job. He used his sandal to swat the nest down. While the desperate wasps buzzed around in confused despair I justified my actions in my head by thinking, well I couldn't leave them there to sting Douges, that just wouldn't be right. Even though I'm pretty sure those bugs had been there a lot longer than Douges had.

Now here is the point of this rambling story, I went out to have a look at where the wasps nest was yesterday and to my surprise the little fellas were rebuilding their nest. This was their home and they wanted to stay there.

It got me thinking, that we are just like those little wasps. We stay in our own little world, we build, we stay close with those that are close to us, while others work silently beside us. Then the minute someone new tries to reach out and touch us we hurt them before they can hurt us. I'm sure that not everyone does this, but I know I do. I have tried (whether on purpose or not) to shut down people that are threatening to change my world before they even get a chance to say hello. And then by natural human reaction, just like us react like I did and want revenge for what you've done.

There are a million other metaphores I could have got from this like risilience and having faith that God will help you rebuild and blah....but I think this is what God wanted me to take away from my little wasp encounter. So as I itch the little welt on my back I remember that God can use anyone to disrupt our lives to get our attention and whether or not I try to sting them before they even get close out of fear or I welcome them with love is my choice.

Douges decided to do a photoshoot for you all while I was getting photos of the wasps.  

Looking BAMF as usual.

He took some posh tips from Marley.

Ignore his Penis and this is a cute photo.

He got tired of me taking photos and tried to eat the camera.

Moooooom stop taking pictures, I'm shy.

I'm in love with these eyes :)

Snuffles

Bitter Beer Face

Happiness.

Out with the Officeworks in with the Awesomeness

I kept promising my loved ones that I would continue to write (for fun) once I was done with Uni, then once I was done with Uni I promised I would start writing (for fun) once I found a inspiring career, then when I found an inspiring career we needed a little extra money so I started working at Officeworks and there went my time for fun writing.
So here I am, 10 months into marriage and I now have no excuses. With my nine to five jobs and supportive husband who helps me around the house, the excuses are gone.

One of my most favourite photos from our wedding :)

 2011 has been nothing short of incredible for me and mine. It started with a trip to America for my incredible fiance to meet my parents, finally getting to see them not as blurry images via Skype but in person.

Good times with Pau.

Then after meeting the folks we all quickly filed into planes and made our way over to this big lovely island I now call home (Australia, for those of you who don't know).

Tigresses.

My best friend Jessica, was able to join us and Josh's best friend Dion made his way over from London. Why on earth we BOTH have our best friends living on different parts of the planet is beyond me.

Happy

Despite the fact that I still refuse to admit that I wanted a wedding, I have to admit that as weddings go it was a pretty fun occasion, obviously I was too excited to be getting married to the love of my life to notice if everyone was enjoying themselves but it looked like they did. (Thanks Jarred Martin for the awesome photo booth that kept everyone entertained)

Since then I have had three jobs, Officeworks, working at Lightning Brokers with Josh's family, and now working at Women's Network Australia.

This is what happens late at night on a VERY cold camping trip!

Officeworks lead me to meet some odd people, some angry people, and some incredibly lovely people.  Despite the fact that that working there was obviously not living up to my communications degree that my parents sacrificed so much for, I truly believe that is where God wanted me. Considering working there is how i met my current boss, serving her at the register. She said "Honey, why the hell are you working at Officeworks?"

Douges First big trip in the truck.

I know God lead me there because of the people there, I prayed every day for opportunities to show Jesus love to those Nutty people and I think, not by my own efforts that is exactly what happened. When I left there was hugs and kisses, flowers and chocolate and so many "we will miss you"s.

So here I am now, about to embark upon a new year working a few days at the office with Josh and a few days at WNA (Women's network Australia).

This year I have started keeping a prayer journal and although I am not always on task with writing in it, it has drawn me closer to God in so many ways.

Looking back through it I can see how God has answered every prayer I have prayed not only this year but last year, I prayed he would save me from myself and by golly he has :)

One of the many things we acquired this year :)

But I find it ironic, when you have everything you want you finally realise you had the one thing you desire the most all along, and really the ONE thing we need. I love Josh, I love my Dougie, I love everything about my life, but I wouldn't enjoy any of those things without my Lord. And if you don't know what I am talking about then you haven't found IT yet :) But don't worry you will.

This year has been one of tears, adjusting, laughter, yelling, stomping, jumping, dancing, singing, did I say laughing?, biting (douges), baby taradactle voices (ask duncan), and illustrious Happiness.

If next year is half as good as this year I will be one lucky (blessed) girl.

Here's to keeping my first New Year's resolution: writing!

Happy New Year Everyone...

Basket Bits and the Bed Biter

Douges has been such a gem lately that we decided he should stay in the laundry room while we were away at a dinner party on Saturday night.

Our bragging about what an amazing dog he is had definitely clouded our better judgment. We set up a potent cocktail for our furry friend with the following ingredients:

1. Fear of being alone
2. the dark
3. Mommys Laundry basket (that apparently tastes good)
4. our trust
5. and a giant puppy

Josh and I came home from the outing and walked into the house. Josh went to let Douges out and I hear "Baaabe...come here"
I walk around the corner and there are a million little blue plastic pieces scattered all around the laundry room door. Neither one of us wanted to open the door for fear of what laid on the other side.

We finally opened the door and there is Douges wagging his tail and stretching as he greets us....underneath him is a pile of blue bits of what used to be a laundry basket.

We immediately check the walls for damage and find that he has mostly just attacked the door handle, which is easy to replace.

We instantly get angry with him and he looks at us with confusion as to why were upset.

Douges spent the majority of the rest of the evening sitting at the back door looking at us with sad puppy dog eyes while Josh and I cleaned up his ridiculous mess.

While cleaning I even found blood everywhere from his ridiculous chewing frenzy. I hope it hurt him.

An interesting note, Douges didn't destroy any of HIS personal belongings, only mommy and daddy's belongings. The only thing he hurt of his own was he ripped the tag off his bed....which I have told him not to do on many occasions. I am guessing he decided he was already going to be in trouble so he might as well go for it all the way. 

Anyway needless to say....Lesson learned. Douges is now always outside when we are not home and we are working on his abandonment issues.

Photos to come.

Douges Disaster One

Well I said the reason I started this blog was to document all of Douges shenanigans, but frankly I didn't think I'd be able to post a story so soon.

Yesterday was Douges first day spending time alone. Aaron and I tied him up out the back (just in case, because apparently he had a history of running away, cause he was neglected) gave him kisses and said good bye. He was great the whole time Aaron was gone! When he came home Douges was waiting patiently for him. Success!!......or so we thought.

See there is something about Douges that we weren't aware of, our dog is afraid of the dark. We didn't know this was possible, maybe it's the night noises, we're not sure.

When Josh left for squash, he tied Douges up, even though he was only going to be gone an hour. When he got back he walked through the house excited to see his Dougie! As he got to the back he noticed that something was off with the back door screen, it had a giant hole in it.....hmm how could that happen if Douges was tied up....

Hole One

Hole Two

Douges feeling very remorseful.

He continued outside to find Douges walking up to him with his chain still attached as well as half of the patio chairs dragging behind him. In his panic he had managed to rip the chain off the, probably too old hook in the fence, and tangle up the chairs, they were his new sled. Maybe we should take him to Alaska!

Anyway needless to say Douges was very relieved to see Josh and they picked me up later, and Josh shared his story, all things considered it was a good first disaster, the screen will be cheap and easy to fix the only bad thing was that Josh didn't get a photo of him and his chair sled.

Now the little ratbag is laying on my arm snoring as I type this, we may work on the fear of the dark thing tonight :)

Yeah veeery remorseful.

JK-47

Douges Missing his Dad

Douges Misses his Dad very much. He grunted at the door and paced the living room looking for him for a good fifteen minutes after Joshua left. Someone loves his owner :D

Becoming a Barton

I think it is fitting that our Douges (prounced Doooges) came to us on this day of all days. You see yesterday was State of Origin, for those of you who don't know this is a very important day to all Queenslanders and New South Wales residents. It is when their NRL all stars go head to head in a game that only two of the Australian states get to be a part of. I'm assuming the rest of the states don't get to play because they don't like NRL (rugby league) but either way it baffles me a bit that two states can have tons of teams with players from both states playing for their rival state the majority of the year and then once a year for three games they both drop everything, return to their own sides of the border and have it out. It is definitely the equivalent to the super bowl in this part of the world.

Anyway the reason I even bring this up is because when Josh went to pick up our Dougie he just happened to pick the middle name Lockyer (Queenslands ultimate NRL player who retires this year) for him.

So his official name is Douges Lockyer Barton. You may be wondering where his first name came from, well that one was an easy pick for Josh and I...as we were driving home from our first encounter with Douges at the RSPCA, when we fell in love with him, we started picking out names even though we both knew the chances of us being able to get him (we're renting) were very slim.
I like to name animals after their personality and Douges is very lets just say, chill. So we started naming wild animals that could represent this image, we started with wombat, whale, hippo, rhino, tiger (that was Josh's), lion, and the list went on and on, eventually we got stuck in the water creature category and Josh said Doogon (spelling), a Doogon is basically a manitee only I think it looks a little plumpier.

And instantly I said DOUGES! and we didn't suggest one more name after that, it was the one.



When Josh went to pick up Douges from the Noosa RSPCA (if any one is looking to rescue a pet, check this place out they are really sweet and put up with our constant calls about how he was doing with his Kennel Cough), Douges knew immediately something exciting was happening. He did really well on the ride home, no sickness, no whinging, other than sooking to Josh every once in a while for a pat.

Mean while I was sitting at home trying to work and being completely distracted with anticipation, would he be a ratbag? would he love me right from the start? would be be too big to handle?


My worries quickly dissipated when a big floppy eared dog came lumbering toward me.

Douges and I had a great night to ourselves laying on the couch together (the boys went to the game, which I did not mind at all), and although I think he likes Josh better because of the whole alfa male thing, I know he has an extra soft spot for me. But he is currently curled up with Aaron in his bed so we will see who wins the affection race.

I am the one that feeds him :)

I'm hoping this blog will eventually be filled with all the funny shenanigans that Douges gets up to, and document our journey with him. This is the beginning of a new adventure for us and we are all excited.

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JK-47