love and marriage!

So on Friday a very good friend of mine got married to her beau! it's so exciting! she is the first of our group of friends from school to get hitched. Simon her HUSBAND now...is from the UK and so they went to Melbourne and got married! it is such an exciting time and a real achievement! Well done Clare and Simon for making this big step! i look forward to celebrating with you VERY soon! xx

coming to an end

So i am happy to report that school is done for 2008. it's been a good, busy, changing, frustrating and sometimes long year and i am glad to have finished last week for the year. don't get me wrong, the students at CC are wonderful but it does get emotionally draining saying goodbye to people.

it has been imminent. we have been celebrating with Tim's brother Luke and his wife. they are having a baby, Luke graduated and got ordained, his family (mum dad, sister and brother in law) have been and gone and now their house is packed up, along with some other friends that are going out into the world outside of Adelaide...
change can be really hard and i often struggle with people leaving my life...well not leaving for good but saying goodbye and moving far away...some people fight as a way of dealing, coping...or not coping with people leaving.

i guess it's a good leaving because God willing we will see them again in this life time.

I am tired though, all these things have made me tired...i should watch less felicity and go to bed earlier... x

random happy snaps

There have been lots of happy times lately!

i bought a digital camera, and have been taking some photos, below are some of the happy things that have gone on! xx

Do I have something in my teeth!?

the expo for brides!

yesterday me and my mum went to a bridal expo that was held at the showgrounds here in Adelaide! when my mum first told me about it i WAS NOT keen to go, shopping alone gives me the itetates after an hour and a half let alone going to a show that is dedicated purely to spending LOTS of money on one day!

ok sorry that's a bit negative

but it was actually pretty good. I mean other it was funny. we went to lots of different stalls and got lots of different cards and brochures for places to have the reception, photographers, flowers, bomba...whatever those things are called that you put at peoples places! i was talking with one of the ladies from that stall and she asked me when i was getting married. when i said July next year she said...oh that's not long...IT"S MORE THANK 8 MONTHS AWAY!!!

we went past the celebrant stall too and the lady asked us if we would like a brochure, when i told her my dad was a minster and Tim's was too...she said "well i think you have that sorted!" she was cute, and she was wearing a cute hat!

there was even a fashion parade so now i have heard of some shops that actually sell dresses, so i don't have to wear jeans and cons on the "big day" :)

congratulations and welcome term 4

today was the first day back at school for the term. and it was lots of fun. i was a little bit sluggish this morning after having wonderful sleep ins last week but got there and i had emailed the staff to say that Tim and i had gotten engaged and there was lots of congratulations emails and lots of hugs and kisses today!it was wonderful!

in chapel Pastor Peter asked me to come down the front and he sort of interviewed me and asked me how my holidays were! it was fun and everyone clapped and cheered! it great! lots of smiles and lots of showing the bling off!

some year 8 and 9 boys came and said congrates it was sweet!

so welcome term 4 and congratulations!

Fiance

i'm n longer a girl friend...
but a Fiance!

Last night Tim asked me to marry him...
and i said YES!
we are both thrilled! and can't stop smiling!

knitting...

this winter i have been enjoying some knitting...i started off great guns really inspired to make a blanket... knitted a few squares and had a few weeks off but started again tonight.
tonight a friend was here and jek was teaching her to knit...she left a couple of hours ago and TIM has picked it up and has continued on with the knitting...

TIM my boyfriend...crap he must have sensed me writing something about it cause he just put it down...

it was cute while it lasted! :)

Olympic madness

it pretty much happened 4 years ago...when it was sydney's turn we were at the most northern tip of Australia...so we didn't see much BUT we did see Cathy freeman win gold in the 400 metres. I am totally addicted...why is it that the olympics is such a time suck...i had a day off from work yesterday and i was fighting not to turn the tv on and just watch it all day...ESPECIALLY when the diving and gymnastics are on!

when the athens olympics were on a friend and i joked about what we could train for in the next 4 years to be able to go to Beijing...first we said table tennis but we were kidding ourselves..i think the national sport for china is table tennis...and then we thought badminton but clearly again asian countries are just so good...so we obviously threw that idea out the door!

so i find myself sitting in our lounge room watching it on the set, sucking time and being mildly affected by the stupid inspirational ads...darn you!

hope you've been able to either enjoy some sport or stear clear if you hate it! :)

another post

it's been a while and i don't really have much to say...
i'm out of practice and don't have much time these days between...facebook, email etc etc
i'm not a big fan of being on the computer much...

i've been watching gilmore girls a lot...
it's winter it's cold...
looking forward to summer

happy day to you!

Op shopping Galore!

this morning Jek, Bec, Courtney and I set out to the op shops in the north eastern suburbs of Adelaide. I haven't done a lot of op shopping out there and so we rang our friend Kirsten who did a paper on op shopping at Uni. she got very excited and listed off around 7 places for us to check out!

we started at the save the children shop. and my it was a GOLD mine! I haven't had much success when it comes to op shops in recent years. gone were the days when i would go to the Bundaberg op shops and come home 3 bags heavier from all the treasures we had found, i think i actually had a dream about that this morning as i was waking up! :) we only actually made it to two shops cause lost steam but the lull has gone! perhaps i have knew taste and i do appreciate bric a brac alot more now then i used to and i found a couple of very pretty plates! And a great pair of chord jeans, a necklace, a bag and some great earrings!I am off again on Monday with Anna, who couldn't join us today but is in need of some Op shop love!

one other news I went to the Foo Fighters concert in Melbounre last weekend...aaahhh far out it was ripper! they put on such a good show. we went to melbourne because adelaide was sold out and in the end it worked out better cause it was such a good trip. we stayed on night in Warnambool with friend and had a great time harrassing her at work (Toyworld) the next day :) and then drove the great ocean road and arrived in Melbourne. it was a wonderful break before school went back.

i wanted to load some photos up but they are taking an age...there may or may not be some photos of the things i got from the op shop today! ok so one worked...and it was one of the plates...

it's been a while

it's been a while since posts,
as predicted in the last post 2008 HAS indeed started VERY busy!
in the final week of term i find myself filling in for the school counsellor. it has been as interesting experience. and i'll be glad to see her back!

Tim and i celebrated a year together and that has been a wonderful year.

work has been very busy

we had a heat wave here in SA and we are now seeing the final parts of summer i think

mmm my brain is fried...
another post another day i think!

new year!

2008 and been a busy year to date.
visiting tim's parents in brisbane
roading tripping in a group of 18 over the nullabour plain, around perth and the south west of Western Australia
doing a week of service with local churches in the area i work in with the youth group.
starting my 3rd year in my job


i think 2008 is going to busy but a blessing. i have a new joy about things. i turned a corner during the week of service. i was being a bit of a negative nelly.

God bless you duirng 2008

x

it's Christmas!

A very happy and blessed Christmas to all. May the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ be a reason for you to have joy in your heart and to celebrate whole heartedly!
love to all x

4 things to post about!

the last couple of days have been eventful! they might not be so exciting or sad for you but they have been significant to me all the same.

firstly...my Tim has gone back to Brisbane for the Christmas break. he left yesterday and when we got to the airport his flight was delayed for a little bit. which was ok, but we kept hearing announcements saying sorry this flight has been delayed even more which was ok because we got to spend some more time together. 2 hours after his original departure time he left. so i have been keeping busy this past 24 hours and i am looking forward to seeing him in a weeks time. he is such a sweety.

secondly while we were waiting for the flight we were browsing the Adelaide airport and i stumbled across the latest frankie (www.frankie.com.au) magazine. and they have a free poster in every issue so i looked at it and my it was delightful! so i picked it. little did i know the artist is a London based artist and i had been checking out her stuff through Anna's blog...if you follow the link to her blog the link is on her blog...and it is such nice work. so i learnt a bit more about her work and i am excited to check out her blog and online shop more often!

thirdly the other day i watched stranger than fiction with Will Ferrall and Maggie Gylanhall. i really enjoyed it and liked the characters. i also enjoyed Anna's (Maggie's character) tattoo on her arm!

fourthly, and possibly most importantly, it rained in Adelaide today. and not just a pissy rain where it rains for 10 minutes and spits...this was fairly heavy and for a number of hours! Praise God! i hope some farmers got the rain too!

and now i am at my parents house ready for dinner and tomorrow my sister moves in with me!

much love x

Holiday Fun

the last couple of days have been filled with holiday fun!



Thursday night i got to go and see reel big fish and less than jake. ltj have been a band to allude me the last 5 years. they played in Brisbane the night i graduated from uni and my parents were up from Adelaide to celebrate, i couldn't very well blow them off for a ska show...well i could have but it wouldn't have gone down so well! :)



they were so great. Tim was sick and couldn't make it so jek stepped in to use the ticket. and it was a skankin fiesta! listening to ska music makes me want to dance and makes me smile! it was fantastic to see reel big fish again, they don't disappoint. they played a few new songs which i had no clue about but there were the old favourites like Beer, take on me and of course to finish the set sell out! seeing that band always makes me want to be a trumpet player and wish there was more of a ska scene in Australia!



less then jake they opened with the song i wanted to here so i was thrilled. the bass player was celebrating his 31st birthday and made some crude comment about wanting visitors at his hotel rooms that had boobies. for some reason i am always disappointed when bands get smutty. i don't know why but it always annoys me! other then that they were ace and i was very happy to see them! AND i remembered to take ear plugs! so no ringing ears for me! YES!!



the day before i got to hang out with a good mate of mine Megan who was down from Brisbane doing an info session for the company she works for. CCUSA they do summer camps in the USA and so i got to enjoy her company. she is wonderful and it was indeed wonderful to see her again.



another holidays treat was a visit to the movies in the city. Tim is unwell and is having trouble sleeping so we thought we would go do something to tire him out! so we went to see "into the wild". it was phenomenal. wonderful and brave. This is what Margaret from the movie show on the ABC had to say about it:

Just so everything is out in the open, Sean Penn is one of my favourite filmmakers. He’s not prolific, but every now and then he comes up with a gem.INTO THE WILD is only his fourth film since 1991’s The Indian Runner. It’s the story of Chris McCandless, based on John Krakauer’s 1997 account of the true life adventures of this young man who rejected his middle class upbringing, his chance to go to Harvard and instead donated his savings to Oxfam and hit the road.

EMILE HIRSCH plays Chris.The people Chris met along the way, when he was calling himself Alexander Supertramp, are intrigued by this young man. And none more so than octogenarian widower Ron Franz, played superbly by HAL HOLBROOK.The story of this young man who went seeking some sort of transcendental experience can be taken in a number of ways and the film allows you that freedom.There’s a cruelty, a selfishness to his freedom. He didn’t contact his parents played by MARCIA GAY HARDEN and WILLIAM HURT or his sister played by JENA MALONE and yet there’s also a beauty in the landscape he discovered and an homage to the gentle, enquiring spirit of Chris himself.There are no intimate connections on his journey but there are significant ones.VINCE VAUGHN, CATHERINE KEENER, impressive newcomer BRIAN DIERKER give the film depth with their performances.It’s what you can expect from a Sean Penn movie. He waited patiently for 10 years to get permission from the McCandless family to make this film.He’s written a beautiful screenplay and taken risks with the direction, which all pay off, and he’s elicited magnificent performances, especially from Emile Hirsch.It is so close to being a masterpiece, but then as I said at the beginning of this review, I’m biased.

this summed it up and i would strongly encourage anyone who reads this to check it out. i thoroughly enjoyed it! and i think most people will, the story is brilliant!~ if you do get to see it, let me know and i hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

happy days to you x

happy holidays!

it is a happy time...
i am on holidays! for the first time since August last year! and it feels great. i am not doing anything in particular like going to a far off destination but just hanging, eating, exercising, hanging with my beau...and family and just getting up late.

i am relaxed and happy and feel like i could do this more often! :)

later in my break i am going up to brisbane (over new year) to meet timothy's parents. I am excited to go to see old friends and to meet his parents too but a little nervous also.

and now i am going shopping with my sisters it's a hard nut life!

something for the QLDers tounge in cheek! :)

EARTHQUAKE APPEAL

A major hurricane (Hurricane Shazza) and earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit Gympie in the early hours of Friday with its Epicentre in Mary Street, Gympie. Victims were seen wandering around aimlessly, muttering "Faaackinell". The hurricane decimated the area causing approximately $30.00 worth of damage...

Three areas of historic burnt out cars were disturbed. Many locals were woken well before their Centrelink cheques arrived. The Gympie Times reported that hundreds of residents were confused and bewildered and were still trying to come to terms with the fact that something interesting had happened in Gympie.

One resident - Tracy Maree Sharon Britney Madonna Smith, a 15-year-old mother of 5 said "It was such a shock, my little Chardonnay-Mercedes came running into my bedroom crying. My youngest two Joachim and River slept through it all." Apparently, looting, muggings and car crime were unaffected and carried on as normal.

The Australian Red Cross has so far managed to ship 4,000 crates of Bacardi-Breezers to the area to help the stricken locals. Rescue workers are still searching through the rubble and have found large quantities of personal belongings, including Health Care Cards, jewellery from Kmart, and Bone China from Big W.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? This appeal is to raise money for food and clothing parcels for those unfortunate enough to be caught up in this disaster. Clothing is most sought after - items most needed include: baseball caps, tracksuits, singlets (blue & white) white sport socks, reebok boots and any other items usually sold in Priceline or The Reject Shop. Food parcels may be harder to come by, but are needed all the same. Required foodstuffs urgently needed include: Microwave meals, baked beans, Ice cream, Chips, Fizzy drinks. Donations $15.00 will be taken to buy a packet of winny blue 25s and a lighter to calm the nerves of those affected.

**Breaking news** Gympie Uniting Church has cancelled their local "Nativity Display" due to their inability to find three wise men or a virgin. Please don't forward this to anyone living in Gympie - oh, stuff it, they won't be able to read it, anyway!
:)

Pictures of the Vietnnam

some more photos of the trip...but this time i actually looked and worked which ones i wanted instead of randomly picking! ha hope you enjoy them!

back from the big V

well i've been back for three weeks and it has been an interesting 3 weeks at that! getting back in to busy work, debriefing after the trip and working through australian culture shock!

had a safe trip home and left my passport at the airport! whoops! good thing it was in Australia so i could just get it!

hopefully i'll be able to load some photos for you now!

ahhh didn't rotate...will try and be less lazy and get some cute kids up on here

much love

Sin Chau!

I'm in the big V!
yes! i'm here in Vietman and the heading of this blog is how you say hello!
we (as a team) have been trying to learn a new word each day on the way to the build site!

so we left saturday mornign and flew an 8 and a half hour flight to Kualar Lumpar and stayed the'r the night.got up and flew to Ho Chi Min city where we got to go and look at the markets. we stayed there sunday night and got up at a lovely 4.15AM on monday to make our way to Rach Gia and here we have been! first few days were a little frustrating and tiring...getting here and then checking out the sites! and meeting the people have been great. we visited an orphanage on monday and the kids were CUTE! and LOVED having their photo taken and then looking at the photo!

this one is quick BUT i thought i would follow Adrian's lead with you know you're in!

So you know you're in Vietman when...
1.you order a chicken dish and you get the claw and beak included
2. Hello Moto isn't the start of the motorola ad...it's actually hello fatty ( a kid said that to anna and I today!)
3. You watch someone skin a duck for dinner
4. a hat cost 80,000 dong (around $5.50 australian)
5. you have to squat to go....i'm going to leave it there!
6. you are driving down the road and motorbikes are coming towards you...and not getting out of the way....and driving without a helmet!
7. when you cross the street...you don't wait for the traffic to stop you go...and hope they dodge you :0

much love and will update when i am back!