Confetti!

I had the pleasure of watching 'Confetti' on the weekend.
Filmed as a mockumentary with the storyline revolving around a wedding magazine who embark on a competition for engaged couples to plan and undertake the most unique wedding. 3 couples are chosen; Matt (Martin Freeman) and Sam (Jessica Stevenson) want a Hollywood musical style, Josef (Stephen Mangan) and Isabelle (Meredith MacNeill) vie for a tennis theme, while Michael (Robert Webb) and Joanna (Olivia Colman) are "naturalists" and want their nuptials to be done in the nude. Trying to wrangle these three desparate couples into some kind of order are wedding planners Archie Heron (Vincent Franklin) and Gregory Hough (Jason Watkins) ...

Timmy and I watched it as a laugh, and were able to say without a doubt, that we are incredibly happy with the way our wedding shall be, the movie did not inspire us to reach for anything more unique :P

But I highly recommend it, There is so much chaos leading up to the big day, but at the end of it, I actually thought that all the weddings were incredibly entertaining, bliss to watch, with some of them even verging on beautiful.

...

My next wedded installment is to get my hands on the DVD series of 'Bridezillas' - I was motivated by Timmy's comment that i really haven't been stressed about the wedding at all, and he believes that most women probably handle themselves the same. He was telling me that if women are in love then they should be happy right and they'd just be happy to be marrying the man they love, that he's yet to meet a psycho bride to be and in fact, that he was beginning to believe they don't exsist. I had to hug him so hard coz he was just so adorably cute... in a naive sort of way...
So the plan is to use the "Bridezillas" to not only entertain myself, but prove to my dearly beloved that psychotic-wedding-day-perfection-hunters do exsist and that he's so incredibly blessed that I'm not one of them :P thus encouraging him to ravish me with attention and gifts because he's just so glad to have me...obviously my reasons are highly honourable and I'm doing it for his own good, to elleviate any naivity he may have and there is absolutely nothing in it for me, other than some DVD entertainment because...well I'm such a wonderful person and really can't help it...but of course :P

Oh I'm so full of it, I know!The DVD should be a hoot none the less, if only because I can't believe anyone can be so angry about a wedding!

My God of Kindness...

So I wandered back online after my couple of days too-busy-to-get-on with the intention of sharing some exciting news in my life, only to discover that i have been trumped big time by Bec with news of her engagement. Reading about it was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Two people so desperately in love is enough to leave anyone around them feeling smitten, it's beautiful and I want to wish every happiness and blessing to them both. Congrats Bec and Geoff!

So back to my exciting news, which somewhat pales in comparison [thanks alot Bec! :P ]
Today I worked, yes I said it...worked, my very first day at "Western Autism School" in Niddrie, just one suburb over from Aunty Jans place, where I'm staying - so we're looking at approx 10 minute drive to get there, not bad, not bad at all.

It's not a permanent position, at the moment I'm just doing CRT teaching, which for all you New South Whelshmen/women translates to Casual Relief Teaching.
But Just working this one day has boosted my self esteem through the roof. I was at the point where I was utterly itching to be working and now, finally I find myself in the position that I actually am.
The only pitfall of being a casual is that I can't gurantee how much work i will get, I only find out the morning I'm set to begin, with a 7am wakeup call. If I don't hear anything by 8am then I know I can sleep in that day.
But the positives are great. No lesson planning, no staff meetings, I leave when the kids do and all the staff at the school are fantastic and friendly, it's great!

So this won't be a long rambling post, just a quick one to fill you in, and to say a huge thankyou to you for your prayers and your encouragement. Ideally I'm still looking for something more permanent, but for now I'm just so glad to be doing something, and making some money, it's Fantastic. God's looking after me thats for sure.
I pray that he's looking after you too.
Lets share prayers :)

Dust yourself off & get back on

We all know the story of David [1 samuel]


It's been the topic of a million sermons, a million bible studies. I'm sure that we've all heard his tale told to remind us to be vigulent in regards to sexual temptation, but tonight I was reminded of Davids tale by 'Sons of Korah' and utterly captivated and inspired to be like David.

Now don't freak out people, I'm not planning on doing the dirty with someone else's husband, but rather, what I have been inspired by is Davids actions after his devastation, the price of his sin.





For anyone who may need reminding of the whole story, heres my summarised version.





David was King, God had shown great favour and blessed him incredibly by placing him on the throne. Usually David headed off to battle with his army, but one day when the rest of the army was getting kitted up and set to ride off to victory, David decided he was pretty knackered and could use a bit of a sleep in. So the rest of the army heads off and David stays home. After a leisurely sleep in, he decides to go for a bit of a stroll around on the rooftop to get some fresh air and warm himself in the sun.


As he wanders out and begins to look over his kingdom, he notices, on a nearby rooftop, a beautiful woman bathing. Now this woman wasn't just nice looking, we're talking drop-dead gorgeous!


David decides that he wants to have her, he must have her...


Being the king, he is met with very little argument, and upon investigation he discovers she's married to one of the men inlisted in his Army. Wanting to have Bathsheba completely to himself, he decides to use his influence to get rid of her husband, he orders him to the front lines of battle, and pretty soon he's dead - just as David planned.


David has avoided his God, and with it, he feels as though he is falling apart.


One day his friend Nathan arrives and hits David with some pretty full-on truths. David starts seeing the error of his ways- big time! He confesses his sin to God and is granted forgiveness.


But there is a price, Davids sin had caused the enemies of God to show utter disdain, through his actions, David had despised his God. So God strikes the child with sickness. David strips down to a sackcloth and spends the next 7 nights pleading with God for the life of his child.


On the 7th day the child dies.


David is told of the childs death, he picks himself up off the floor of his home, he goes and he splashes his face with water, he changes his clothes, he walks into the house of God and he worships his Lord.





In my opinion this is one of the most amazing stories told in the bible, and it is here, at the conclusion that I am able to say "I want to be like David".


Yes I screw up, yes I get it really really wrong at times. Sometimes I allow my sin to seperate me from God, and in my pride I allow myself to believe that I can float along seperated from him and not feel the pain of that space in between us.


Till I give it up and realise that I need him, so desperately in my life.





But perhaps the even bigger stirring Davids tale created in me, came in his reaction to the death of his son. He begged God not to take him, and his son was taken anyway. David didn't get snotty, he didn't get angry, he didn't reject God. No. He took a deep breath, he prepared himself, picked himself back up and worshipped his God. No wonder God called this guy "A man after my own heart".





I want to be so desperate to serve God in complete faith and love, that even when things don't go the way I want, even when I don't get what I really, really want. I'm able to pick myself up, dust myself off, without anger or disdain, and continue to step out in worship and service to my king - knowing that he has never sold me short, never given me less and that he continues to love me and guide me, in his truth.





I want to live for my Gods way, and continue to lay down my own.


I want to be cheerful through every stage and phase of this life.


Because I am loved and I am watched over. I can trust his word. For his word is truth.


p.s. I recently read a story about Darlene Zchech in which she told of visting her doctor one day while she was pregnant, only to discover that she had miscarried, in her grief as she drove home she felt God calling her to sing, to sing in worship to him. And she did.

This heart of worship is not an outdated concept. Let the heart of David be an attitude we continue to embrace, today.

Timmi comes to town.

I can get really slack when it comes to my blog postings sometimes...

I can also get really slack about catching up with people, now that I'm here in Melbourne. I was thinking about it the other day, and I really haven't seen anyone yet. So mush of my time since I've been here, has been wrapped up in the job hunt during the week and then heading into the city to catch up with Tim on the weekends. I shall have to pull my finger out and get in contact with some Melbournians and do the catch-up thing.

Last weekend was ever so exciting however, a touch of the 'good ole days' came to stay for the weekend.

Timmi, made the treck, first driving from Armidale to Newcastle, then catching a flight from Newie to Melbs.

It was so great to have him here for the weekend.

On friday night, the original plan was to head over to the Corner Hotel for the Blindside gig. My timmy having told us that he knew just where to go, only to get lost and potter about all over the show. By the time we actually managed to find the place, all of us had pretty much lost our enthusiasm and decided to grab a slab of beer and head back to Tims place in Kew. These Melbournians don't know half of the good beers going, with the guys in the bottle shop looking utterly perplexed when we asked them about carlton draught...the carlton brewerly is just down the street!! So we settled for carlton black.

Timmi and I were sitting around in the loungeroom while My Tim got changed and started reading the description on the back of the blacks label, only to realise that it mentions that it's a mocha tasting beer...and whatta ya know, when we took a sip after that, for the first time ever we both actually noticed it!

You live, you learn.

After a while Leah [Tims new flatmate] came wandering out and told us that rather than staying in, we should head out to one of the pubs in Hawthorn, she pointed us in the direction of 'The Hawthorn' and off we trotted.

3 people don't fit across a footpath very well, as we learnt during the short walk to the pub. The boys were fine, but it was me who copped mouthfulls of leaves as the shrubs which lined the left hand side of the path would smack me in the face. But 15 minutes and 16 mouthfulls of leaves later, we arrived and wandered in.

Our initial thoughts, "They must not check ID because everyone looks 12" Obviously this was the trndy spot for 18 year olds set to test out those ID's. But we settled ourselves in and headed out to the beer garden, and after about 20 minutes they closed it and ushered us all inside.

The night was spent in ammusing conversation as the three of us caught up on life and made fun of one another, And taking it in turns to buy rounds. Our lame joke of the evening came in the form of continuing to order schooners of beer, even though the state of victoria doesn't seem to know what a schooner is...what an odd state this is! the perplexed expression from whoever was serving at the bar, continued to ammuse us all night.

Pretty soon Kareoke started and to the boys horror, a bloke wandered up to sing "MMM Bop" by Hanson. To add even more horror to their evening I admitted to once being convinced that I was to marry Taylor Hanson. I used to wear the Hanson ring and everything...they wandered away and refused to come near me, for heck knows how long. So I embraced the opportunity to sing loudly along to the brain-sticking lyrics of MMM Bop.

At about 1-2 am the Hawthorn closed and we all wandered home.

The rest of the weekend was laid back and fun. Timmi was out most of the day, as he was in town mainly for a RPM training course at Fitness First.

But I had the pleasure of a Deep and meaningful with the lad on Sunday night, and enjoyed it thoroughly. He's a great guy, incredibly complex with so many elements which made him difficult, at times to read. Made me appreciate knowing my Timmy so well. I love what I know, I love who he is.

Drove Timmi to the Airport on Monday and it was pretty sad to have to say goodbye. I think he's that close to packing up and moving to Melbourne. It's pretty obvious that the two Tims really miss having each other around.

But all in all it was a great weekend...

Next weekend...Well I'm thinking that I'll be taking my boy over to St Kilda, he still hasn't been, so a lazy afternoon, strolling around sounds like a good day to me.

The Egg Hunt

Like a bunch of giddy children we absolutely obliterated our way through the house in search of our chocolate rewards - each milky find only upping the already sky-rocketing sugar levels to psychotic proportions...

Okay, so I'm over-exagerating slightly, but this year the Easter Bunny came in the shape of my Aunty Jan.

Tim and I had spend the early morning of Easter sunday, meeting up with his brother Jeff and Jeffs girlfriend Ruth as we tooled around in Queen Vic Markets. After a leisurely stroll about the place, we pottered over to a cafe and grabbed some warm drinks and enjoyed a good chat, before leaving the city to head back over to Aunty Jans place for lunch.

It was fantastic to see Jeff and Ruth while they popped into Melbourne for a romantic weekend away.

But alas, we were heading back to Aunty Jans near bouncing with anticipation.

Aunty Jan had hidden 50 mini-solid eggs, 14 medium sized eggs and 1 large egg per hunter [6 large eggs in total] all these eggs were scattered in all nooks and crannies of the house just waiting to be grabbed and scoffed just as soon as Ash and Norma would arrive so we could start.

It was a funny business as we all pottered around the house waiting for the final two hunters, in the days event, to arrive. We were all pretending that we had forgotten all about the hunt, while, as sneekily as possible squizzing around the whole room trying to spot eggs.

Finally Ash and Norma arrived, at around 3o'clock. And the mob of us gathered in the kitchen.

The Hunters Were;

Manda

Norma

Gav

Tim

Ash

& Me

Aunty Jan gave us the rules as we all played up stretching and limbering up before the big race. All eggs were free for all, except the one big egg for each hunter. If you found someone elses egg then you had to leave it where it was and not say a word - Ash mimed smashing the eggs of anyone else he found...I decided that if I eventually got to my egg and found it in a rubble of smitherines, I would know that Ash had arrived there first :P

Aunty Jan went on and on and on an on for what seemed like forever with the rules, to the point that the masses were starting to rebel "...Come on wouldcha! we want our choccy..."

in a fit of laughter Aunty Jan finally yelled "Go!" accompanied by a boisterous waving of the arms.

Everyone shot off in all directions, straight to the spots where they had managed to snoop out the eggs earlier in the day. The chaos was hilarious! who knew that a bunch of...well come to think of it, Adults [not one of us was under 21] could get so excited about easter eggs hidden around a house.

It was the best fun I've had in a long time. Once the egg hunt was over the after pottered along lazily beginning with a BBQ, then some Telly and napping in the sun, stuffed like piglets. At about 8pm Aunty Jan pulled out the Scattergories and we ended the night listening to Gavs ammusing attempts at scoring doubles with ridiculous alliteration. The real star of the show however was my Tim, one day I swear I'll beat him!

So all in all, it was a fantastic Easter. As Tim and I had driven out to see his brother earlier in the day we had prayed that God would stir in us a very personal understanding and gratefulness for what this day meant, and as we ended the evening, we both felt it right down deep.

Christs sacrifice was about communion and relationship, he gave up his life so that we could know and understand relationship with God...today Christ revealed, yet again, the joy of communion, relationship and just a tonne of fun, with our families.

And as far as I'm concerned, thats no coincidence, after all, he's called us to be his friends...to be his family.

What a truely beautiful easter indeed!

Moving House

I decided that it was time I shared some of the happenings of life in Melbourne.

I'm still on the job hunt and still optomistic. So I won't over think the situation, once school holidays are over I'll be a lot clearer of some of my possible prospects. More news to come I'm sure.

In other news I spent the day helping Tim move from his old share flat in Abbotsford, into his new share flat in Kew.














Tim was sharing a flat with Leigh and Alanna and things were pretty dandy, I had gotten the distinct impression that something wasn't quite right about the araangements, which I shared with Tim pretty early on, he could see where I was coming from and did agree, but there was no point rocking the boat.
It was an even split. Tim paid half the bond and half the rent and then they split the bills 3 ways. All was pretty dandy untill about a month ago.
Leigh and Alanna both play in bands, so it was pretty normal for them to be out gigging most weekends and getting in late, Tim had no problem with it, until they started bringing home friends and laughing and carrying on until, he thinks, sometime around 4am when he was finally able to get some shuteye.

The next blow came within days.

Being Tims fiance` we tend to be found within close proximity of one another as often as we can, if we had a chance we would spent less time apart, but we had limited my visits to just weekends. Again this seemed to be working well until about a month ago, when I happened to pop in, over four days instead of the usual 2.
Tim was swiftly approached by Leigh, who said that having another couple around the flat made them feel uncomfortable as though they couldn't fully relax and that I should only come over once a week.
Tim and I agreed that for him to pay half of everything and not be allowed the freedom to have friends around his, supposed, 'home', was ridiculous.
We really couldn't make heads or tales of the whole thing, when we're completely honest. Whenever I came over, we either headed out somewhere else, or we could be found watching telly or movies from his room. We weren't even invading the house. In fact I don't think I barely made a peep when I was there, I can only recall ever seeing Leigh or Alana a handful of times during the whole time I was ever around the place.

I suspect they were on a power trip.

However their issues screamed to Tim "...Don't make this your home, just pay the rent, stay in your room and don't get in our way..."

So we prayed.
The situation between Leigh and Alana didn't improve, they even went so far as to say that this was the same problem they had with their last flatmate, and that because his girlfriend continued to come over more than once a week they had to ask him to leave.
Tim chose to cut his losses and break loose - within the week he managed to find a girl in his motorbike club who's looking for a flatmate. He moved in today.

The whole moving swashbang took, in total, probably 2-3 hours...like ripping off a bandaid, quick and easy.
I had the chance to meet Leah [just to keep things confusing], Tims new flattie and she's lovely, very easy to get along with, open and friendly.
It was interesting that within the first day being in his new place, I helped him unpack all his things, so that nothing is sitting in boxes any longer. While he had continued to live out of boxes the whole time he was sharing with Leigh and Alana. His new place definitely feels more like home to him, in one day, than he ever felt in the 3 months at the other.

Perhaps the greatest part of this whole shannanigan is that Timmy and I have been able to see the positives.

• That flat was needed, it put a roof over his head and was so close to work [5 minute walk]


• For a while there he had no transport, so being so close meant that he didn't have to stress about getting to and from work while he was adjusting to the stresses of a new job.


• He's settled and feels comfortable and happy in the workplace, so moving now means that one aspect of his life is stable, allowing him to handle this complicated aspect more effectively [God never allows more than we can handle ;)]

And the best one...

• We can see the impact our attitude and issues can affect those around us, and seeing Timmy's old home has convicted both of us and encouraged us to make the decision once we're married, when we create our own home together, to make it a place where people feel welcomed and comfortable. We have a better idea of the sort of home we want to build, and it's definitely opened our eyes to the aspects of our own emotions and personalities which can help and allow that to happen.

This whole situation has been a growing time, which is fantastic, God definitely uses all things for his glory! And he whacks the nasty outta them and pumps some good in. Heck knows, Tim defintitely appreciates this new home, and he's actually started calling it that, which is beautiful. This is the first place in Melbourne I've ever heard him refer to as 'home'.

Now he's finally feeling comfortable and happy. Makes me feeling utterly blissful.

Surely, life is never easy - but if we look we're sure to find the good mixed up amongst the trials. They refine us.

Oh for the record, his new place is in Kew, which I've been told is a bit of a poshy area...all I know is it's beautiful, really lovely homes and streets - so green! and the best part - He has a bigger room, more modern and cleaner flat, yet pays less rent there, than he was paying in Abbotsford! - God your a champ!

Obsessive

It seems that a few memes have been passed around the wonderful world of the internet, and thus far I have successfully managed to evade them. Tonight however I noticed that I had been tagged by a certain friend [You know who you are *insert death stare* :P ] and I feel in the right sort of mood to oblige, so here goes...

Obsessions

1) When I was 12 I went to the proper dentist [up until 12 we used to go to the free kids dentist] and discovered that I had 3 deep and long exsisting [he said they were started years ago] cavaties (sp?) I got all three fillings without 'the needle' and since then I have to brush my teeth for at least 4 minutes everytime I brush[usually twice a day]. I realise that it's a healthy obsession as I should be brushing well...but it has to be 4 minutes which means I find myself unable to do the quick brush and dash if I'm in a rush.

2) I worry about having hangers or crud on my face. I'll often ask friends or family "Have I got a hanger" then twist my head about so they can have a good gander. I've seen so many people who have stuff on their face, or a hanger waving from their nostril with each breath and no ones told them. I hate the feeling of 'feeling' something but not being able to get it off, usually only to ask someone and they tell me they can't see anything.

3) Slurpies...enough said

4) If I ever find myself bored or lacking brain power I find that I tend to count. Often without realising. For example, the other day I decided as exercise, I would grab a skipping rope and do that for 15-20 minutes. Before too long I was counting every skip i did. I'll count the number of people in a room, how many have blonde/brown/red/black/no hair, how many are male/female, how many look as bored as I feel. I'll lock in on something, someone is doing and count how many times they repeat that particular gesture/movement. When walking on a footpath I'll count how many normal steps I can fit within each square of concrete before stepping into the next. when driving, I'll use signs or barriers or other vehicles and count how many seconds between me seeing them, and passing them....I'm sure i do more when I'm bored that I haven't even really noticed yet. ;)

Can't really think of anything else right this second - I'm sure there's more things...theres got to be, if I think of them I may add them.

And now, I tag Belle, Fless and Burkie