happy new year

happy new year to my beloved blog readers.

we ended up having a bit of a party at 'the resort' (also now being called the playboy mansion - for no apparent reason). i am still a little sick and couldn't be bothered leaving the house. various friends came over. some stayed till midnight and some had to go other places and poor jay had to go to work. we had a massive feast, then those of us who were around for the countdown all jumped in the pool together and splashed our way into the new year. and when we finished celebrating the new year, we did it all over again - just for fun.

lots of things are going to happen this year (well duh). but lots of different things. i think it's going to be exciting, scary and fun. we were discussing new years resolutions in the pool. i haven't got one, no one did actually, except for brad who has decided to quit smoking, only problem is that he doesn't smoke. i said there's nothing in my life that i want to change right now and i think that's a good thing.

things are hotting up at the resort

we (annie, brad, aaron and i) have now nicked named our temporary home 'the resort'. jayne and luke have been with us a lot and various other visitors have graced us with their presence. seeing as the tempeature every day this week has been over 35 (about 100 for you americans) and tomorrow is going to be 42 (107 for you americans) we have been very pleased to be house sitting this wonderful establishment. there has been constant pool and spa action with a few barbeques thrown in to keep us well fed.

i have had a bit of a cold since Christmas - ironic seeing the temps - which started as a sore throat and now has me barking like a dog. that's annoying.

i read an interesting article today about some Christians who are doing 24-7 prayer in ibiza. i think they were mainly mission trips, with a few staying there all year round. sounds like hard work to me. i liked it.

boxing day blog

i started this beautiful day with a phonecall from ym family who were celebrating a lovely Christmas in seattle. they all seemed to be having a good time and i think they all appreciated the presents i sent over for them.

boxing day (that's what we call the day after christmas here in aus - i don't think that's what the rest of the world calls it) is a famous shopping day. jayne, annie and i headed to the shops around 12 and proceeded to spend the next 6 and 1/2 hours in a total of 4 shops. we had a great day. i bought bathers, towels, shoes, underwear and pants and all were at least 50% off! (dad, no jokes, i am talking about the price, not that i am missing half of the garments!!!). it was a highly successful day. jayne and i had to work hard on annie's shopping stamina today, but she made it!

we three shoppers finished the day by going to the movies with steve, matt, aaron and luke to see the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. i thought it was good. though i am not sure if i liked it more than harry potter or not! but it was good.

tomorrow is going to be a day of sitting by the pool. we bought new sunscreen for the occassion, though that would have come in handy for aaron today - if you get what i mean. poor little red man.

no serious thoughts for today, my brain got sapped by the shops.

Merry Christmas

today is Christmas. aaron and i were the only ones who stayed here last night and i went and woke him up and we went to see what santa had brought us and guess what, he brought us absolutely nothing. there have been 2 theories developed 1) santa got confused because we moved this week 2) we have been naughty this year - we are still not sure which one it is, though we are going with number1.

we went to church this morning to celebrate the real reason of Christmas - that Jesus was born.

i wish you all a great day. i hope it's a good one.

last night i went out for dinner with some friends (and family) - cath, merf, rick, lou, al, gen, adam and rachel. then we went and watched the carols at gen and adam's and loz popped round as well. nice. had a great time on the way home with rick, lou, al and rach - what lovely singing.

so soon i'll be off to the limo's for lunch then round to auntie wendy's for dinner. hopefully i will be a few kilo's heavier at the end of the day - hopefully not too big for my bathers as there is a spa party planned for tonight!

anyway, that's my Christmas blog. Merry Christmas.

oh and to my family - i wish i could be with you all. a little jealous that you are all together without me (don't cry mum, i am ok), especially for daniel's first one, but in a few more months we will be! and don't worry dad - i am ok with the fact that when you wrote your christmas letter to everyone that you forgot to mention me!!! love you all.

i love my school friends

i haven't written for a few days now and i do have blogger withdrawal. i have just been a bit busy - being down at lorne last weekend, by the way i passed, then moving on monday, Christmas breakup dinner on tuesday then finishing school and picking up lou's wedding cake yesterday. but now i am free!!! on holidays till...oh, well that's a bit scary, officially until 30th jan 2007!!!

today my blog is about my school friends - oh and when i say school friends, i mean those whom i work with - my workmates. i am so blessed. i think it must be a very rare case to work with so many people who truly do get along just brillinantly and have real friendships. to my school friends - i love you all so much and i am sad that i won't see you all 5 days a week next year. last night at before our Christmas breakup dinner, we had a kris kringle with just the girls, though just the girls means about 12 of us!!! and then there's lots of others too. i really never expect to again be in this situation where i work with so many people who i consider to truly be my friends. hopefully, but i doubt it. however it wont' matter, as i believe that the friendships i have formed at vermont are lifelong.

well i am going to go now and enjoy my first proper day of holidays - it is warm and the sun is shining briliantly. i love summer.

have a great day!!!

random thoughts from my weekend...

lorne is beautiful

there is no need to be nasty

His love is like a drop in the ocean

if you play yourself at pool, you win

hearing some random vomit because they drank too much alcohol is nasty

body surfing is fun

body surfing with friends is better

body surfing big waves with friends even better

summer is brilliant

sleeping is good

sleeping on the floor of your bedroom because you have no furniture is average

basketball on the playstation is pretty boring

watching other people play even more so

good friends are great

sleep is what i should already be doing...goodnight

plastic surgery

as it's late, this will only be short - like me!!!

tonight i was discussing plastic surgery with some christian girlfriends and one boy. it was interesting how the conversation went. us three girls all seemed to think that as a christian it's probably not something we would do - some ideas were we should be pleased with however we are made and we shouldn't be doing something to meet the 'standards' of the world. however the only boy in the group goes 'well, it's just our bodies, it's not like it's your soul'. for such an innocent conversation - i really can't remember how we got onto the topic - it created some good discussion. ha.

over moving

eviction date is closing in. less than a week to go. i am over it. moving is hard. moving to nowhere is even harder. well, ok, i am moving to a lovely house. but i'll only be a temporary guest for the next few months till i go to canada. then i'll be a temporary guest till i come home. it's weird, thinking that for almost the next year i won't really have my own home. i am blessed that i will have a few different homes, but it's not the same as having your own stable base. oh well. i think i am just tired and wish that the packing genie would appear (though in all my moving life, this genie has never appeared).

perfect

ahh. perfect. i wish i was. or do i? i don't know. all i know is i'm not. i make mistakes. we all make mistakes. sometimes they matter, sometimes they don't. what i have come to realise over the last week is that you need to be honest with yourself. you need to be able to stop and say bugger. i stuffed (sorry mum - she hates that word for some reason) up. it doesn't really matter if anyone else knows or not, though if someone else is involved you do need to fess up. the point is to be honest with yourself first, then anyone else you might need to be honest with. it's no good walking around thinking you are the only perfect one, and we all do that at times i am sure...unless it's just me.

it's tuesday night and i can tell you that i made mistakes on monday and i made mistakes today. so far i'm 2/2 for the week. while for once in my life i am not trying to get 7/7, i won't be surprised if i do.

i've often heard or picked up the idea that people think Christians are supposed to be perfect. well i'm definitely not. what it does mean to me is that i try not to make mistakes, but when (notice i say when not if) i do, i have a responsibility to recognise it, apologise if necessary, mend whatever i can if appropriate, learn from it and that i can ask for forgiveness from God and man/woman. i'm blessed that God forgives over and over again, coz i sure need it.

(p.s. just wanted to point out that in the picture of me and beth from RAWards, she has dirt on her nose - it was part of her costume!!!)

my 100th blog

so this is it, the big 100!!!! good on me!

firstly, happy birthday mish! wherever you are, not sure what time zone, so we'll just go by my time! hope you have a great day - i think you are going to be in rome, say hi to the colosseum for me, you know how much i love that place! sorry i didn't get to see you again before you left (your present will still be here when you get back). hi mike.

i went and saw harry potter tonight. it was great. loved it. at one point - and no i am not going to give anything away - harry had to make a choice. he was focussed on one thing when another caught his attention. it can be like that for us sometimes, we get so focussed on one thing (often ourselves) that we forget about other things (often other people) around us. it can be an easy thing to do, getting caught up in your own life. but not very helpful or rewarding. people need people. so in this, my 100th blog, i am reminding myself to always look out for the needs of others. most of us come across situations daily where we need the help of others for big or small things. i want to be one of those people who always helps someone when they can. that's a big call - if you think about it - but hey, if i can write 100 blogs, surely i can do it.

me and ruth (sharon) 

aaron annie and beth 

beth and fee 

so much to tell..hope you have a few mintues...why not

if you haven't got much time, just read till you've had enough. i won't be offended. though why not just read to the end...

wow. well friday night we had our RAWards break up Christmas dinner at church. it was fun. tv logies was the theme. annie and i went as kath (me) and kim. i attached some photos of the night (see end of this blog). it was a good night.

saturday i got up and drove down to lorne. i had forgotten just how beautiful it is down there. for those of you unfamiliar with my home state of victoria, lorne is about a 2 and a bit hour drive from melbourne and it's situated on the great ocean road. a gorgeous place. i went down to the surf club to do a little more training for my surf bronze, which i will go back to down to lorne next weekend to hopefully get. we stayed last night and were obviously there again today. i meet some great people with whom i became instant friends, let's just hope they felt the same way! i laughed so much last night that my cheeks and neck hurt from laughing. it was great and the weather was perfect!!! nothing better than being down the beach on a beautiful day!!!

i came back to be a part of our church carols by candlelight. it was great. anne from the latest australian idol was one of the guests. she was brilliant. aaron and i had to do the children's/santa segment. i think we did ok. i do love going to carols, but more than singing them i love mingling and catching up with peopole. i did quite a bit of that tonight.

some of you would know that for a while now i have been in a why not phase. i like to call it that. basically it works like this. if someone suggests to me something i should do, or if i think of something to do, instead of asking why i would, i ask why not, and if i don't have a valid why not reason, then i do it. i am loving this phase. so far, all my decisions based on why nots have worked out well. i think sometimes it's easy not to do things, but, as someone said to me today, the more you put in, the more you get out. that really is true. the more you put in to life, the more you get out of it! if you always have to have a reason why to do something, you don't end up doin as much, so, why not...

we lost

we lost touch footy tonight. it was the first week of the finals and we only had 5 players (you have 6 on the field). whoops. this is my fourth season and this will now be the first one that i haven't won a trophy in. so sad. it's ok i am over it now. it's late and i have nothing else to write tonight. i mean i'm sure there's something, but i'm tired. goodnight.

the bible

during church in sunday night, dave and dave became members of our church. they were both presented with a bible (that they had been given at the start of their membership classes) and the comment was made how as Christians we should be reading God's word daily. i was sitting next to a person who by their reaction, i knew they didn't read their bible everyday. i asked this person and discovered i was right. then i realised that at times i don't either. i'd like to say that everyday i read it, but that would be a lie. i could say that i usually read it everyday. i could say there are times in my life where i read it everyday.
a relationship with God, in some ways, is like any other. there are always various ways to communicate in a relationship and at times some ways are more prevalent than others. right now, my bible reading is not the prevalent means of communcation. but i have made a pact to rectify that today because you know what, i really do like reading the bible. it's thought provoking, challenging, mind blowing, easy to understand, hard to understand, it contains truth and most importantly it's life changing. the one main theme is God's grace and that will change your life. read it for yourself.

and i believe

twice today, randomly on the radio, i heard the song by live that has the line 'i don't need no one to tell me bout heaven, i look at my daughter and i believe' (or something like that).
it made me think about last week when i was out in the bush and looking at the beautiful views from the top of the mountain. when i am surrounded by nature and see all it's beauty and how intracate it all is, i can't help but thank God for it and be amazed. it times like those that i can't not believe in God as the creator. how else could such beauty come about.
i don't need no one to tell me about heaven, i look at nature and i believe.

money

just thought i might add that a while back i think i mentioned that the youth and young adults in the corps were self sacrificing / raising money for one month to donate to africa somewhere. well in the end we almost raised $3000. so we are going to build a school and support a child run family and get some school supplies too.

it's a beautiful day...

this morning annie and i got up with the sun (well maybe not quite that early) and went to line up to get tickets for U2 and we got them!!! yay. the ones we wanted too. the concert sold out within 2 hours. it's going to be a great girls night (annie, beth, jayne, mel and her friend and me!) woo hoo. i am excited.
that's going to be a great week. from the monday to the sunday i have got 4 commonwealth games events and the u2 concert. surely it's going to be one of the greatest weeks of my life! then after that i'll take off to canada. have i blogged about that yet? i don't think so.
i have taken next year off work and am leaving melbourne at the end of march/beginning of april and will head over to seattle for a few weeks then onto toronto for about 5 months. i will be staying there and being a part of toronto 614 (which is a salvo community in regent park). then i'll come home again. that's the plan. haven't exactly locked in dates yet, but will happen.
tonight i had dinner with 3 of my best friends - merf, michelle and cath. we had a great time. ate some great food. i laughed so much my stomach hurt. that's good fun.
all in all, it was a beautiful day!!!

amanda and andrew's wedding

today (well yesterday now really) was amanda and andrew's wedding. it was truly lovely. it is so nice to see two fantastic people who love each other so much get married. they are both great people. everything about the wedding was beautiful - the ceremony, the reception and the speeches were all excellent. so rather than me say any more, here are just a few photos.

amanda and me

the bridesmaids - lauren, mish and emily

amanda and andrew

amanda, andrew and me

weird things

i just had to write a blog about what i saw when i was driving to school yesterday. a man walking along the road. what's so unusual about that, you ask. well, he was walking backwards. i am not kidding you. it wasn't just for a few steps, he was really walking backwards, the whole way down the street. i saw him at first from a distance then he was still going as i got closer and then i passed him, he was still going backwards and then i watched him in my rear view mirror for as long as possible and he was still walking backwards. that was weird. i know i was talking about doing the same old thing just a little differently the other day, but that's crazy. maybe we should try it!?!

good times

wow. so today was the first official day of summer. 33 - nice and hot. i am looking forward to summer. i love it. "they" say it's going to be a hot one (whoever "they" are).
camp was good. the kids were great and were all of a similar ability which was nice meaning the group stayed together a lot more than on previous hikes i have been on. no major injuries which is also good.
last night i was camped up on a mountain - the cathedral ranges in case you are wondering. the view was excellent. the views from the 'toilet' were also amazing.
time out in the bush again made me remember what a beautiful world we live in and how amzaing some things really are.
a quick summary for you.
a kangaroo jumped through our campsite. we saw a massive lizzard during one of our hikes. a magpie/crow tried to steal my lollies. i sang happy birthday to one of the kids. the kids were really quite caring towards each other. i was dressed like a complete loser and loved it. i had to dig a hole. i sat on some rocks with the kids and watched the sunset. i carried a pack with my clothes, food, tent and whatever else about 20km. i didn't shower.
and i came home smiling.
it really is good to get out there and get away from everything, even with 20 kids, in fact, it wouldn't have been the same without them.