roots time

this weekend is our SA ROOTS. things are crazy round here right now. it'll be good to get away to jackson's point and have this weekend and of course, go swimming in the lake.
also, this weekend, it's canada day. so the day after ROOTS, we have the annual salvo baseball tournament. so this means my second game of baseball ever!!! woo hoo. let you know how it goes.
have a good one.

swimming along

i made two new toronto discoveries yesterday. well, i am sure a lot of people knew about them, but i had never been to either till yesterday.
1) the keg mansion. cheryl and i went to celebrate our birthdays. her's was last month and mine is next month (16th to be exact - don't forget). i have sirloin oscar. it was so delicious. YUM YUM YUM. steak topped with prawns and scallops. sweet.
2) the Donald D Summerville pool. so it's like just about the only outdoor olympic pool in toronto and of course it's only open june-aug, from 10am-8pm. (this is a big transition from having 4 olympic sized swimming pools within 20mins of my home in melbourne, all of which are open from ridiculously early in the morning till very late at night). anyway, it was so nice to finally swim in a 50m pool and the bonus was that it was outdoors. oh i am going to go there lots. i swam a 1km last night, so that's the minimum from now on.
btw - serious half marathon training starts next week.

whoops - it's been a week - and a bbq one at that!

to fill you in on the last week of my life
fri,sat, sun - we spent up at newport, about 2 1/2 hours north of toronto. with the igniters on their final retreat and a few friends they had invited. and with lots of bugs - mosquitos and black flys. i got lots more bites. woo hoo. at least this time they weren't on my face! we had a good time together.
sun was also father's day so as a church, we had a bbq
mon - i spent the day doing wedding stuff, then julie cooked us a bbq
tues - um...i can't remember, then we went and had a bbq with guys from the korean corps
wed - i spent some time working on my sermons for this weekend (i am preaching twice this sunday), then went to buy some gifts, went to the beaches with my squad and ate pizza, then went to celebrate sherry's birthday - with a bbq!
this afternoon i am off to a bbq at the ivany's with the team, then after that, i am going to a gateway bbq.
hmmm.....what a good week!
p.s. yesterday my friend kim quoted to me a line that keanu reeves said in a movie, she thought it was sad that she was quoting him, but i thought it was lovely.

weekend retreat - the end is near

this friday (tomorrow), myself and the igniters, and a few friends they have invited, head off for their final retreat. then the following weekend, we will celebrate their graduation. i can't really believe it's been 10 months since they arrive. i still remember picking steph up from the airport (zoe and i couldn't find her for ages) and grace, with her mum's help, moving in, and kingsley arriving in the office.
this team will always be special. they were my first. and i lived with them too. they are all so different in some ways. but we all get along well.
so this weekend we are heading up to newport for their final retreat. they were allowed to invite some friends, so sherry, iris, cheryl, sean and mike are coming with us. what an unusual bunch, as in, who'd think, a jamaican, 2 australians, an el salvadorian, and a few canadians (and one of those born in hong kong), ranging in age from 17-40. i can't wait. the weather's going to be nice (it continues, woo hoo) and i am going to go swimming.

aunt sarah + the beaches

last friday night matt and i went out to dinner with aunt sarah. who's aunt sarah some of you may say. well she's basically one of our adopted grandparents when we lived in scotland 20 years ago. darren went to her house for lunch nearly every sunday for lunch and she would often have all three of us there or be with us for whatever reason. she's come out to canada to visit her nephew and some family out here. so they came and picked us up and we al went out to dinner on friday night. it was a good time. so nice to see her.

today at work, it was a hard day. we went down to the "beaches" (for the confused and/or geopgraphically challenged, toronto is located nowhere near any sort of ocean, we are on one of the great lakes, however, you can't swim in lake ontario it's so badly polluted...). we had a great time down there. it was volunteer appreciation day. we have over 70 people who volunteer in community ministries and so we went and has a barbie and played beach volleyball (my team won 2 out of 3 games) and got a little, ok, a lot, of sun. what a great day. the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have been at a real beach where we could have swum....oh well.

an interesting riding suit.

Here's a true story that should bring a smile to your face. The other day I was walking down River St, that's the street that our office building is on. I was walking along, minding my business, when i looked up and saw a cyclist riding towards me (i was on the footpath and he was on the road). it looked like he had his shirt off. this struck as a little strange, seeing as it was kind of cool weather. he got a little closer and i suddenly realised that not only was he wearing no shirt, he in fact, had on no clothes at all! a completely naked man riding a bike. i averted my eyes (he was a littler older) so i wouldn't see anything i really didn't need to see. then i didn't know what to do. and then i realised there was nothing to do. so i turned around and there he was merrily peddling his way down the street. then i began to giggle. how does that work anyway - you know - a boy cycling with no clothes on....whatever. that was a first for me - seeing a nude cyclist. funny times.

woo hoo for the wedding

yesterday we got a few more wedding things done. so that is good news. matt and i both had the day off work, so first of all we went to get his computer fixed and then it was like 'what now?'. i said that i wanted to go for a run and that he could maybe ride a bike along next to me. his response was 'don't we have to do wedding stuff?'. so, excitedly, but also sadly, i have found a way to get matt really excited about doing wedding stuff - present him with the option of exercise...hmmm.

small beginnings. everything big had to start small at some stage. you can't despise small beginnings. if james naismith had given up on his passion, where would the NBA be today? if william booth had given up on his passion, where would the Salvation Army be today?

follow yours dreams.

persist. perserver. strive. endure. hold on.

hmm...maybe i can still get matt running one of these days...

hillsong united

imagine it. 12,000 people. in an amphitheatre. all singing in one voice. jumping up and down. going crazy. i was part of it. last night...it was awesome.
last night i went to the molson amphitheatre to see hillsong united. (in case you don't know) they are a worship team from the hillsong church in sydney. i love these guys. i pretty much love every one of their songs. and this is my favourite way to worship God. singing and dancing and jumping and going crazy. it was so much fun. and most importantly, God was there.
i was proud to be a christian. i was proud to be australian. you can't get a better combo than that, unless you are in australia with all that going on!
it was encouraging to be a part of the wider church. while it's good to be focused on what your role is, on your part that you need to play, in your own church/community, every now and then, to be reminded of how huge God really is. i was so blessed last night. thank you God.

marathon plans foiled...but new ones are born!!!

so i really was going to try and run a marathon this year. this has been a goal of mine for a long time now. but the wedding plans have spoiled this. there are two marathons in toronto, one the day after my wedding, the other two weeks later. so i have postponed those plans and instead just signed up for another half. the half is part of the toronto marathon two weeks after my wedding. we'll see how that goes. i really want to train hard and do a PB (i'm setting my sights are set on 1hr 40)...we'll see. i'll fill you in on that as time goes by. i've just printed off a few varying training schedules, so i'll flick through those and work one out.

i just have to welcome a few new people to the world.

Avery Keana (my niece, through upcoming marriage - Matt's sister Zoe and husband Chris) was born on Wednesday.

And

Jessica Lee was born to my friend from school (as in teaching) Jodie (aka truckie/desk buddy) and her partner Brett.

woo hoo. i am excited by these births.