Yay! Marriage!

As of today, Steve and I have begun our second year of married life together. I must say, I still love it. Being married is really fun! Hooray!

To celebrate our first year of marriage, Steve and I went on an exciting hot air balloon ride over Byron Bay. We had to get up at 3:00am Brisbane time, which was really hard. Then after being picked up and driving to the balloon place, we drove to a place to test the wind and then another location to take off. Here are some fun pictures.

Blowing up the balloon





In the basket


Inside the balloon




We saw (alot of) this, with cows and houses and trees and rivers and what not as well. It was really cool that you could acutally hear the cows moo as you flew over them. Some of them just stood and stared at us, and others ran away scared. :D We were flying at about 600 metres above the ground. It was a beautiful day, although a bit hazy towards the sea. Standing in the balloon underneath the flames was very hot.


We landed in a lady's paddock. Balloons can land anywhere they like (because they don't really have too much choice in some situations), and the traditional thank you for being able to land somewhere is a bottle of champange. The guy who pioleted our flight had been trained by the first ever Australian to fly a balloon over Mt Everest. He was really laid back and nice. One of the guys in the cars chasing us on the ground was a computer design guy who works on adds and movies like "Where the Wild Things Are". Crazy!

Steve was also a super fantastic husband and got me these shiny new earings and necklace. Yay!



After the weekend, I'm pretty worn out, but I love being married so much. Hooray!

Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface. But sometimes, there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.
- Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jed Whedon

Hehehe... it was the quote of the day :D

My arm now acutally hurts to type... *sigh*.

I got stung by a wasp on Wednesday morning. It's been over 2 days since then and my arm is still red and swollen. Acutally the redness has gone down, but now it hurts to move. Not a painful kinda hurt, just an achey kinda hurt. humm hurt.

I just wrote a story, so now my arm hurts more. I had to take a break half way through the story because my arm hurt. I really like this story. :) I think it's good. No names... just titles. And it's only 5 pages. :) hooray! Talk about small. I wonder if I'll ever venture back into long stories... probabaly not. Short stories are faster... and I do like fast. :D

Well what to do now... Hummm.... That's the trouble with holidays a bit. Too much time on my hands to do things. I would do more lesson plans, but that involves typing and I think i've already mentioned that my arm is sore. Humm...

Oh well, back to finding something to do. Maybe last night's washing up...

日曜日　０６・０９・０９　教会で。

木曜日にお姉さんは自転車からおちました。でも、骨を折れなかった。本当によかったね。安心したけど大丈夫だた。２週間くらい右うでを使えません。車の運転はだめです、それから、多分明日から　学校で一緒に行きます。ちょっと楽しみ。

土曜日はお姉さんとお母さんとエミーさんと一緒に　ツウーンバー　という町に行きました。それで、お姉さんの結婚式の花を買いました。ブリスベンからツウーンバーまでは２時間ぐらいかかりました。それで、花をかいたり、ご飯を食べたりしました。すぐ、帰りました。ブリスベンに帰りましたらショッピングセンターに行きました。それでスティーブを会いました。　Invitation の cardboard　を買いました。お父さんのお父さんの日プレセントも買いました。車のDVDを買いました。

疲れました。本当にご飯の買い物は必要ですけど、そぐくつかれましたら行きたくなかった。帰りました。私のれそこにパンとぐんゆがありません。晩御飯は親子丼を作りました。おいしかった。

今日の朝ごはんお母さんのうちに行きました。それで、おいしい朝ごはんを食べてくれました。お父さんの日だから。お姉さんはうでが使えなかったらセンタ浮くものを洗いてあげました。後でお姉さんはお姉さんの彼のうちに行きました。

私とスティーブと一緒に帰りました。１１時４０分ぐらいつきました。１２時にメリサが来ました。三人一緒に他の友達のうちに行きました。

他の友達はジェンさんとウエドさんです。２００７年その二人結婚しました。今日はジェンさんの誕生日です。ウエドさんは食べ物を作りました。中国人から、ぎょうさ　と　spring rolls　を作りました。ご飯も　red bean　ご飯も作りました。おいしかった。ご飯を食べた後ゲームをやりました。私とウエドさんはお皿を洗いました。３時半に帰りました。

メリサさんとロンさん一緒に帰りました。でも帰たら私とスティーブはすぐ教会に行きました。今日教会でスティーブは　power point (visual)　をやります。だから、早くに行きます。今私はバンドの練習を聞きます。これも書きます。

２４・０８・０９月曜日

週末は忙しかったです。

土曜日は友達に会いました。６時に起きましたら友達の家に行きました。それで、お姉さんと妹の一番友達（エミさんという）と一緒にゴルド・コーストの空港に行きました。空港で、友達に会いました。４時間ぐらい開いているだからポイント・デンジャに行きました。ポイント・デンジャは海の近くに queensland　　の州と new south wales　　の州のこっきょうです。

この日は本当に美しい。いい天気だった。スティーブと私何も食べないでした。それは本当に難しかった。早くに起きましたと長い間運転しましたから、それも、ぜんぜん食べなかったら　本当に疲れました。帰るのスティーブは運転しました。

金曜日にスティーブは gym　に行きました。土曜日にうでがちょっと痛いになりました。土曜日の夜はスティーブのうでが動きことができませんでした。心配したね！

土曜日も、スティーブのお母さんが着ました。それから、ゴルド・コーストの帰るにショッピングセンターで会いました。私は本当に疲れましたと買い物が嫌いから、本当に悪かった。

２時ぐらいに本当に帰りました。スティーブと私は一時間だけ二人でいます。寝ました。３時にスティーうのお母さんとお母さんの彼とスティーブのお兄さん私の家に来ました。本当に私はねむたいけど、お客がいますからだめですね！

夜にその三人はフットボールに行きました。さきにピザを食べました。わるかったです。三人が出ましたら私は七年生のテスト　しるしをしました。終わりましたらすぐねました。ずっと１０時ぐらいから８時半までねました。良かったけど、起きたら頭がいいたかったです！

スティーブのお母さんとお母さんの彼は私の家に泊まりました。朝にみんなは遅くに寝ました。１０時ぐらいちょっと買い物に行きました。帰るから映画を見ました。１２時に私とスティーブは食べることができました！やった！朝ごはんを食べましたーギリシャの食べ物を作りました。おいしかった！

一時半ぐらいにスティーブのお母さんとお母さんの彼を帰りました。私は学校のためにポースターを作りました。二時ぐらいにほかの友達が来ました。この友達は最近アメリカに行きました。いっぱい写真を見ました。実はアメリカは興味がありません。まだ私の頭が痛いから、寝ました。

３時に教会に行きました。今週は教会で、私と友たちたちは音楽をしました。私は歌います。マイケルさんはピアノを弾きます。ルスさんはバイオリンを弾きます。ロンさんはギターを弾きます。時々スティーブはドラムを弾きますでも土曜日から、日曜日に腕が痛いからできなかった。

教会は本当に楽しかった。マイケルさんのお母さんが来ました。びくりしました。トピクも面白かった。終わりましたら私の頭が超痛かった。晩御飯を作りたくないでした。でもダニエルさんはレソトを作りました。よかった！私はご飯を作らない！

晩御飯をおわったら友達たちはお皿を洗いました。よかった。スティーブは腕はまだいたいから、シャツをアイロンをしました。アイロンは嫌いです。

１０時半ぐらい寝ました。本当に疲れたからよく寝ました。：D

金曜日２１・０８・０９

やった！明日は週末です！

今週は忙しかった。月曜日はお姉さんの誕生日でした。火曜日と水曜日何もないしたけど疲れました。

昨日は学校の終わりましたら　ガデンーシチーというショピングモールに友達を会いました。友達は私のミュシカルから友達です。久しぶり会いました。いろいろはなしをしましたけど、時間が短かった　かなじょうはアルバイトをしました。残念。

その後、帰りませんでした。ガデンーシチーで妹に手紙を書きました。ジュースを買いました。この週末に私とステイーブは　　　をします。　　は４０時間を食べませんです。今いろいろの国にたくさん貧しい人がいます。この人たちよく、食べることが出来ないです。（食べ物が持ってないから）それから、私たちは４０時間を食べないことがオーストラリアの人達はそのことをしています。

４０時間を食べないことが難しいから　もし病気になります　ジュースを飲むことが出来る。それから、ジュースを買いました。

後でルスの家に行きました。一緒に聖書の勉強に行きました。昨日の勉強はアリの家でやりました。アリさんはレソトを作りました。カボチャ味でした。本当においしかった。勉強はエリザベスという人でした。エリザベスさんは古い人でした。まだ赤ちゃんが生まれなかった。本当に悲しかった。でも、神様はエリザベスさんに　“赤ちゃんを生まれます。”と言いました。エリザベスさんは本当にうれしかった!

時々私達、長い間　ほしい物があります。時々神様は私にあげません　でも時々神様が私に上げます。神様は本当にえらいとかしこいと思います。

帰る時間は遅くでした。９時半ぐらい。ステイーブとちょっとはなしました。その後、すぐねました。

昨日はステイーブと私とお姉さんとエミーという友達と一緒に空港に行きます。それで、アンデイという友達を会います。実はアンデイさんはシドニーからけど今日本に住んでいます。この週末彼は日本からシドニーまでに行きます。ゴルドコーストの空港で給油着陸です。楽しみです。

この週末もステイーブのお母さんはバンだバーグ町から来ます。日曜日にもほかの友達に会います。忙しい！

日曜日１６・０９・０８

金曜日の晩御飯、お母さんの料理を食べてもらった。本当においしかった！てんぷらとごはんとチキン・stew を作りました。皆はてんぷらはフォークで食べました。私はおはしで食べました。日本のなつかしい！

シードニからおじさんは元気です。おばあさんも、元気です。９月に私とステイーブはシードニに行きます。おじさんといっしょに予定を作りました。シードニにウィケドというミュシカルを見ます。私はミュシカルが本当に好きから楽しみい！ステイーブの家族はシードニにもいますから、行くときに会うつもりです。



土曜日はメリサさんとロンさんの家に行きました。私の友達、メリサさんのかれはロンさんです。メリサさんとロンさんは２年間ぐらい一緒でした。まだ、結婚しなかった、一緒に住むしなかった。たぶん、来年の四月に結婚すると思います。今　一緒に家を買いました。ロンさんはこの家に住んでいます。メリサさんまだ、すんでいません。家はちょっと古いですから、いろいろ事が　　fix　します。

それから、土曜日はメリサさんとロンさんの友達は家に行きました。みんなは手伝いました。本当に楽しかった。１０人ぐらいいました。男達庭に　　を　dig　しました。女達は　car port　に　paint　をしました。

９時ぐらいから、４時ぐらいまでずっとやりました。メリサさんの家は本当にきれいです。中に床は青いです。部屋に床は緑です。台所は便利です。本当に良い家と思います。

日曜日は私の家にそうじをしました。洗濯物を洗いました。今日たくさん買い物をしました。お姉さんの誕生日プレセントを買いました。食べ物も買いました。私は買い物がきらいから、本当に疲れました。

四時にルスさんの家に行きました。それで、ダンスの練習をしました。本当に楽しかった。その後きょうかいに行きました。

この週末は楽しかったけど、ちょっと疲れました。明日は学校で、大丈夫かな？がんばろ！

For thoes of you who are slightly confused at the change in language on my blog, i'll take this moment to reassure you, you can still frequent here and find English. I've taken to writing a daily journal in Japanese to practice my... Japanese. :D My Japanese lady at work, Misato, corrects it during the day and translates it to English for her own ... English practice. :D

What i've put up here is unedited and while most of you won't be able to read it, some of you can - which is good practice! (see if you can pick up the same mistakes Misato does!) And, for thoes of you who can't read it - try coping and pasting into google translate. It's sorta correct and it is worth the laugh.

13/08/09 木曜日

今週は忙しかった！月曜日に友達と一緒に振るご飯を食べました。本当に楽しかった。その友達は　学校の時からの友達です。久しぶり会いました。今ヵパレバという学校に先生をしています。英語と歴史を教えます。

火曜日に学校に来ました。ふつうの日でした。

昨日学校に行きましたけど、学生たちがいなかった。先生たちはつずりと文保とすがくをならいました。私と音楽の先生（クリスチンさん）と体躯の先生　（ジェフさん）は違うことをしていました。私たちは行動の管理の計画を作りました。

クリスチンさんとジェフさんは本当にいい先生達と思います。長い間先生になりました。かしこい人たちと思います。でもしゃべることにたくさん悪い言葉がはいています。悪かったと思いました。残念ね。

夜に雨が降っていました。私の車は本当にきたなかったら私とスチイーブは雨に車をそうじしました。ちょっと寒いけど、楽しかった！

今日は五年生ですから、多分楽しいと思います。：D

１０・０８・２００９　月曜日

土曜日の夜にダンスパーチイに行きました。本当に楽しかった！サースバンクに行った、それで、道にいろいろなダンスの会社とスタイルがいます。遅くにダンスをしました。私とスチイーブは久しぶりデートをしましたら、本当にうれしかった。

日曜日に料理をしました。クッキイとスパンジ・ケキーを作りました。その後、食料品の買い物に行きました。

ごごに友達が着ました。私とスチイーブは友達にダンスをおどろいました。友達はマイケルさんとルスさん。ふつ、も二人友達が来るけど、昨日忙しかったら、いないです。マイケルさんはダンスのことが本当に上手です。ルスさんは、最近習いますから、まだまだ。私とスチイーブのうちにダンスをおどろいましたけど　広くないです。ルスさんは背が高いから、スピンの時に手でライトをぶつかれました。ちょっと面白かった。

ダンスの後、四人一緒にきょうかいに行きました。きょうかいの後私とスチイーブの友達（６人）と一緒にご飯を食べました。私の家が本当に広くないけど、８人がはいていた。ホット・ドグを食べました。デサットはスパンジ・ケキーを食べました。おいしかった！

晩御飯をおわたら、私は頭が痛いかったら、友達たちそじしました。やさしい人達！

今日　友達と一緒に昼ごはん食べに行きます。楽しみ！今行きます！

08/08/09 土曜日

昨日本当によかったね。金曜日と体躯の日だった。それも、ふつの悪い子達が来なかった。本当にうれしかった！朝は　プレップ　のクラスを教えました。ゲームやりました。プレップの子供達は　本当にかわいいから、楽しかった。

昼休みにヂウチイをしました。それで、７Bのジョシュとクレートンはハンドボールをしました。私と一緒にしました。私はかった人でした！やった！午後にきょとう先生とミーチングでした。そのミーチングはちょっときんじょうしましたでも、きょとう先生は本当にやさしかった。たくさん　アドバイスをあげました。多分、これから、もちょっといい先生になります。：）

帰りましたら、スチイーブのシードニからおばさんとおじさんがブリスベンに来ました。それから、シチーでスチイーブのお兄さんと奥さんと奥さんのいもうとは晩御飯一緒に食べました。オーマリースというレスタランに食べました。私はおいしいミートパイを食べた。遅くに帰りました。

土曜日にゆくリねました。おきたら、そうじしました。いっぱいせんたく物がありました。お姉さんの結婚式に当たらし靴をもっています。この靴は着る方が難しい！本当に高い、とかかとのことが細い。それから、着るれんしゅをします。今日のそうじとせんたく物の事に結婚式の靴を着ました。

お昼にスチイーブのおばさんとおじさんを見ました。結婚しの写真を見ました。その後　スチイーブとなるとを見ました。よかった！

私のせしょうの勉強

昨日せしょうに勉強をしました。ふつ、四人女と一緒に勉強しますけど、昨日、三人しかいました。その女たちは　ルス　と　メリサー　と　アリー　　　　というです。メリサーさんは　私の一番友達です。メリサーさんとアリーさんと一緒に学校に行きました。享年、大学　で、ルスさんにあった。ルスさんは先生に習います。私たち、同じ協会に行きます。

昨日、勉強のさきに、男たちと一緒にご飯を食べました。スターフライーを作りましたけど、たりなかった！私は本当にはずかしかったでも、大丈夫だった。みんなは、スターフライーを食べました。私は、カプラメンを食べました。その後、別々に勉強しました！

勉強が本当に楽しかった。最初、話すだけ。If someone has a problem, or are afraid, they can tell the others and we can help. It is good for us to talk and help each other. すぎは、勉強しました。

昨日新しい勉強のトピクをしました。ジョシュアという勉強です。ジョシュアは古い最古の人。昔々、神様は　特別の人間を選んでいました。最初のリーダーはモズスというです。モズスは　特別の人間に　神様のことが教えました。その時に、すんでいる場所は危なかったら、新しい土地に行きます。５０年間ぐらいにかかりました。

新しい土地につきましたらモズスさんは本当に古いになりました。それから、神様は新しいリーダーを選んでいました。そのリーダーはジョシュア。
ジョシュアさんは本当にきにじょうするでした。モズスさんは本当にいいリーダーから、ジョシュアさん　いつも、”これは私は出来るかな？” と思います。

ジョシュアさんがきにじょうするしましたら、神様が　“大丈夫です、いつも私がいます”　と言いました。

その話は本当にいいと思います。時々、私たちは　“これは出来るかな？”と思います。でも、いつも、神様がいます。その事が　いいです。

女の勉強は、ちょっと短かった。９時くらい、終わりました。でも、男たちは、ずっと勉強した。１０時までに！みんなはねむたいでした。

I just finished reading Luke and now i'm floundering around while I try to find something else to read. I feel like I'm really pathetic honestly. That my passion and zeal is in a slump. Romans 7 is really resonating:

"For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot cary it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing! Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ... For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but i see another law at work in me waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sing at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

I know what I want to do. I want to study God's word, get to know him more with Quality time, praise him for he is worthy. But I can't seem to do it. I find my self busy, trapped by a cluttered and disorginised life. Even when I wish to be serving God in my work, I find he is the last thing I think of.

How can I do what my heart and mind desire and live for God when this sin inside continually rages against me?

"... Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Despite my failures and continual loss in the battle that rages, in Christ there is forgiveness and love. Through him I have the power to fight the battle.

But how do I get this power? Lord what do I need to do to push aside the sin so much that I can come to you? Yet even as I ask, I know the answer is nothing. Only through you can I do anything. Lord please give me your grace to approach your throne.

I just made a cake! Hooray! I love cake making. This one is for Aroha's 24th brithday tomorrow night. :D Hopefully it will taste as good as it looks. YUM!

My apoligies for never posting... I get busy you know!!

So I've been working my butt off at school making resources in every spare moment that I have and trying my best to learn the 340 names of the kids that I teach. Honestly, it's great to be able to go to the same school every day and follow kids up and know what to expect. I really enjoy being able to go from start to finish with teaching, so getting to start and then give tests on stuff that i've taught has been really exciting.

I spent a bit of time making my classroom look fun - kudos to everyone at musical who has helped colour something in during rehursals. You guys are legends. :D The amount of stuff that has to be made as a first year teacher is incredible. Thankfully (as long as I don't loose anything) I'll only have to make this stuff once.


Repunzel is the most fun I've had on stage in ages. Honestly, it's great to be able to get up and sing my heart out. :D I love it. The people are stellar too. We have a great cast - I've made numerous cakes for people's birthdays and things. Yay for the excuse really. :) Only 8 shows left now, so we are on the down hill run.




I feel like there is not much else to update in my life at the moment. God really takes care of you in the busy times. I was at church the other day when they made the point that in the stressful times the first thing we often decide to cut out is our time with God - which should be the last thing we cut out - especially in the stressful times. It is so true. Even though I've been sick, sleep deprived and tired - God is still providing for me in so many ways. I love it.

I got the contract.

As of Monday, I am offically the Japanese teacher at Victoria Point Primary School.

A part of me is like: "Yay! No more phone calls from TRACER at 6 in the morning!" and a part of me is like: "Really? Woah...". The final part of me says: "I need HELP! So much planning! Behaviour Mangament! How do I start?! Where do I start?!"

But this is what i'm trained for. This is what i worked 4 long years at uni for. This is what i want to do. So bring it on. :) Even if the Grade sevens are ferals. Even if I lose my voice in the first term. (even if the contract is only for a term because one of the Deputy's doesnt' think I can do it :P)

Bring it on.

Earlier this week, Steve and I recieved a letter from Compassion with some sad news. They were shutting down the branch in Thailand where Lek, our sponsor child was. When this happens, they usually try to transfer the kids to another area, so they can still be sponsored. Sadly, this was not possible with Lek and so our sponsorship of her was ending.

I have sponsored Lek since she was 6. Firstly with Sarah, then by myself, and lastly with Steve. Only recently did she start writing letters to us herself - in the past it had always been from her mum, dad, aunt, etc. It was really exciting to be seeing her grow up.

Today I had to write what would probabaly be my last letter to Lek. What was I going to write? I thought, knowing that this would be the last chance I had to say anything to this little girl. What did I want her to know?

This was one of the hardest things i've ever had to do, because at the end of the day, 1000 words on the page would still fail to tell Lek that I love her and that I hope she knows that. That even though I'll never get to see her or even write to her again, I will be praying for her and I want the best for her life. I'm praying that God continues to reveal himself to her, and that she realises that all he had planned for her is good.

Ultimatly, I think this experince has really taught me that when it comes to the last things you have to say to a person, alot of crap that you thought was important, doens't really matter at all. At the end of the day, you just want them to know that they are loved, more than they could ever imagine.

Dress finished!

The Quilt!

Yay! I spent an hour and a half at my parents this morning finishing it off and now i'm pleased to say that it is finished! I ended up pinning and sewing a border around the quilt which isn't exactly even (2cm on the width and 1.5 on the length) but overall it looks great. :)


As you can see, it's pretty small, but it does give the quilt that finished look. :) And here it is on our bed - ready to keep us warm all winter!




Btw, something i left out of the last post was a picture of my shoes after Easterfest - needless to say, i'm throwing them out.


I feel like the photo doesn't really do them justice either....

Easterfest 2009 (AGMF)

I can't believe I have done that, but I hope you people are all happy now :P

Easterfest this year was amazing. :) Hooray! Even though it rained and was cold for the majority of the time; the ground we sat on was always some level of damp; our shoes were permanatly wet and ended up being covered in a few layers of red mud it still rocked.

This year was the latest I have ever been to Easterfest - we didn't get there untill 3:30 or so on Friday afternoon, but I didn't miss any of the acts that I really wanted to see, so it was ok. :) Friday morning started with me shaving Steve's hair into a mowhawk - that's right - mowhawk. I've never done it before, so i'll be happy to admit that it wasn't 100% straight, but i can practice on that. :) We then borrowed gel from Steve's brother and sprayed it orange. It looked STELLAR.

Friday highlights include Audio A - ROCKING the HOUSE - I was so so so happy when they played Underdog. The mosh was going off and I got to jump up and down with it all. Yay! Bec St James, not so awesome... I like her as an artist, but I'm always slightly dissapointed with her live shows. This year her brothers came along, but she did alot of slow soft songs and promoted her own movie and stuff... not so cool.

Friday night also saw newworldson play - AMAZING - They had some new songs (but we couldn't find the new CD to go with that :( ) which were so fun and they played some old favs like Salvation Station and Workin Man! YAY!

Saturday we saw a few smaller bands and roved around a bit - this was the day that the rain poured a bit, but we were chillin in the Big Top, so we were fairly safe. We ate almost consistently all day to stay warm :P Good thing I had stocked up on gingernuts and apples to keep us going. :) Saturday highlights had to be Halfway Out's last show - RIP to an awesome ska band. They were fantastic and their final mosh was legendary. I stood with the bags while everyone else got in and sweaty. Daniel lost his glasses at one point and Steve rescued some other girl's glasses from being trampled too. Crazy times.


Saturday night Paul Colman Trio had a HUGE turnout - possibly even bigger than Audio A, despite the rain and the mud. Crazy! They were super fun to watch though - i've never seen a group of guys just have fun on the stage the way they do. We hung around through Chris Pulson Trio - AMAZING - as we waited for newworldson. Chris Pulson had the keyboard player of newworldson and Complements of Gus come on and they had this massive Jam on stage - it was legendary!

At one point Chris Pulson had his keyboard on the ground to play it. :) We then watched Complements of Gus - deciding to get a CD too - Then we hung around waiting and waiting for the final newworldson set - not dissapointed with it but it was so late when we left.

Sunday was another late day - didn't make it to the festival untill about 1:30ish - just in time to see Jess and Ted perform in the Epicenter. Legendary stuff! We got up and danced like crazy to some of their songs and they had a great all-round performance. :) Steve and I danced like mad to their encore song too. YAY! dancing!


Sunday night would usually see a huge church service at the main stage, but due to the rain, the schedual was changed and they put it in the Big Top. This is something that I love to be apart of at Easterfest which I'd have to admit I was a little dissapointed with this year. Because they put it in the Big Top, they screened it in the SU Cafe, which is where we ended up watching it, but we missed out on all that awesome togetherness atmostphere which comes when people who want to worship God just do it, rather than try to have devisions and lines and "i'm Catholic" and "Prodestant" blah divisions. Instead, we had alot of people who were there to praise, but also alot of people who were using the time to shop and wander around. Oh well.

The final act on Sunday night was Thousand Foot Krutch. I was a bit hesitant because they are heavy rock and I didn't think I knew much of their stuff, but when they started playing - man ROCK OUT!! It was super cool. The mosh (which I was saftely away from) was mad and apart from the first song they played - i knew all of them which was excellent (probably thanks to yrock.org :D) When we finally left it had been an excellent festival with awesome music and lots of Jesus. :) Hooray!

Quilt update: nearly there!

Last week, I managed to finish the handsewing of the patched side to the wadding and then sew the two sides together. After turning it inside out my quilt looked like this:


Very nearly done! The only problem that I have is that because one side is slightly larger, the edges fold over to the other side. This isn’t so much of a problem because it creates the border that I want to have around my quilt so that it has a nice finished look, but it does become complicated when I try to work out how big this border will be (so it is even the whole way around, not thin on one side and thick on the other) and I don’t have any big flat space to actually lay out my quilt and work it out.


I'll be going over to my parents sometime this week for this exact purpose. :D Once there, I should have the space to lay out the quilt, measure, pin and then sew the border and finish off the corners. Then the quilt will be complete! Hurrah!

In the meantime, it's already on the bed keeping us warm. :D

Our friendly neighbour, Joe, just popped his head around the corner and asked if I was making beach towels. Close... but no. :)

Sewing Project Update!

Today, I lay out all the finished squares of rectangles and swaped and rotated untill I was happy (and sick of rotating). It took up all of the spare room floor and the spare bed as well and looked something like this:


The bottom part that was on the floor, looked like this up close:


After I took that photo I realised there were still a few pieces that were not where they should be so I did some more fidling (I think you can see one or two of the mistakes in that photo even). Then I sat down at the sewing machine and a few hours later, I had this:


As you can see - it still covers most of the spare room and the bed, but now all the pieces are stuck together! YAY! This means that both sides of my quilt are completely sewn. :)

The next part of the journey is to hand sew the inside-fluffy-quilty-stuff to one side of the quilt so it stays where it should inside the quilt once I sew both sides together. For this, I've decided to go against tradition, which dictates that you would normaly hand sew with small invisable stitches along the seams, and instead make a feature of it! I'm going to use a green tapestry thread and sew around the squares that were previously visable but are now not so visable becuase i've sewn them all together. Make sense?

In any case, this will take me a while (all hand sewing) so it could be a bit before the next update. It's fun none the less.

Sewing Project update.

I've now finished sewing the 280 rectangles into their squares. :D Hooray! It took a long time - a process which was not helped by the fact that each material needed a different thread tension (I learnt alot about thread tension making these patches) and the fact that I nearly ran out of thread. I literally used 98% of all the thread that i had - which considering i've been hording from mum, Yia-yia and Grandma for most of my life, is quite a bit. Even i'm surprised at how much I went through.

Now I need to lay them all out and put them in an order that I like (ensuring there are no double ups of colours and what not) and sew all of that togehter and then it will be ready for some warm fleecy stuff that quilts are made of! Yay! Laying all of my pieces out may prove to be an obstical in itself though, as I have no where with enough room. If it's sunny on Saturday, I may even bring them to the park and we could do it on the grass there. I'd appreciate the artistic input and extra eyes for noticing things I haven't when it all comes together.

The only other thing to say is that I only sewed one of the squares together wrongly, which is a pretty good effort considering I usually spend alot more time unpicking sewing projects. :P

Well, to take a leaf out of Ron's book, I have decided to update you all on a little project i've ventured into during the idle hours of the days when i'm not teaching in classrooms. :)

2009 Sewing Project 1.

I'm in the process of making a large quilt out of bits and pieces of fabric that i've managed to store up over the last twenty or so years of my life. Mostly because I wanted an excuse to sew, but also because Steve and I don't have a large size quilt for the bed and we currently fight each other for blankets on occasion. I suppose as it gets colder we will drag out the queen (or double) douna that we have, but it's not cold enough for that at the moment, so we are using a single bed blanket and my frog blanket. It's not really enough.

Anyway, I decided that one side of the quilt will be patchworked squares while the other would be larger square blocks. If I were going to be more adventerous, I might have spent time mixing the large blocks with the patchworked squares and have both sides a mix, but I'm not. :)

First thing I did was decide how I was going to make my patchwork squares, and I decided on a simple pattern of rectangles. I need eight rectangles for each square. Each rectangle is 10cm by 20cm, but I cut them with a 2cm allowance around the edge for the seams. Deciding also to make my quilt for a queen bed, and large enough to hang off the sides as well, my quilt will need to be approximatly 3m by 2m. This means that I can fit about 35 squares to a side (7 by 5) and if i have eight rectangles to a square, I need 280 rectangles.

It took me a long time to cut out these rectangles, but i did. :) yay! When they are arrnaged into their squares, they will look something like this:



After I had cut them all, I lay them out and grouped them into groups of 8 that would eventually make up their square's. This is my 35 groups of 8 rectangles waiting to be sewn into squares.


You will notice that yes, i do have some shiny new frog material in there. :) It looks a bit like this up close:
Hooray! Anyway, this morning I managed to sew all of the big block squares that will make up one side of the quilt together and it's looking quite shiny if I do say so myself. :) I've gotten alot better at sewing since I made my last quilt and it's evident even in the fact that the squares are all the same size this time. :)



I also found a new function on my sewing machine which lets me do a straight sitch with a zig zag all in one, so I dont' have to go back over the work a second time to do a hem. Pretty handy. :) I'll have to have a trip to spotlight sometime in the future to get some quilt padding material stuff for it, but other wise, it's about a third done! Yay!

Time to get back to the small rectangle pieces... all 280 of them...

I was sitting at the dinner table with Steve tonight, slurping away at my curry and rice when Steve shook his head at me.

"It's not Ramen," he commented.

"I'm going to be a terrible role model for our kids," I replied happily.

"Yes," Steve agreed, "I'm going to have to shut you in a room and tell the kids: 'Sorry, you have no mother'"

Yes, those are little baby Daddy Long-Leg spiders currently living next to our shower. I'm wondering if I should relocate them to the great outdoors?


This is one of our numerous outdoor spiders. I like to call this fellow the Oreo Spider, because the markings on his back remind me of an Oreo Biscuit. He has gone now, I'm not sure where, but I'd like to think he's surviving somewhere.


This fellow is our local green frog. He was found on the steps outside our unit one night. We often see him around abouts when it is dark - sometimes he likes to suction onto the walls just for a change. He is very green.


This photo has nothing to do with spiders or animals of any kind. This is the chocolate cake I made last Saturday. Yum.

Again I spoke at Sunday Night Live - this time on a personal struggle with Pornography.

www.sundaynightlive.org

We need to talk about issues like this more and more.

Finally.

I had my first ever day of supply teaching today! YAY! It feels like it was a long time in coming, but at the same time - over so fast.

I got "the call" at 7:00am this morning, asking if I could do a day of teaching Music at Holland Park Primary. I said yes. Then called Macgregor to tell them I wouldn't be coming in. That done, I spent alot of the morning agonising over the fact that I was going to have to teach today. A class (possibly many classes) that I had no idea about. SCARY!!

I was at the school extreemly early (10 past 8) where I continued to agonise over my lack of primary school music knowledge. I had a timetable - 2 grade 2 classes, 1 year 1, 2 prep classes and 3 grade 3's (that is so weird...). All these were in half hour blocks. I knew I was going to recycle things for the grades that I had multipul of, but even so - Preps! what kind of music do you teach them!?

In the end I stuck to oral activities and rhythmic dictiation type activities. The music teacher at the school is very vocal, and so almost all the classes wanted to sing the songs they had been learning - the preps even knew like 5 songs. Needless to say i've learnt a whole lot more songs now. :P I managed to work in teaching my "ohaiyou" Japanese song in.

Interestingly, my primary school brass teacher is teaching the instrumental kids at this school. It was a flash back to see him, although he hasn't changed and didn't remember me. :P Other teachers in the staff room did though, one from St Matthews - yay for church! I also met the Chaplin and the Japanese teacher. They have an exchange teacher out from Nagoya Forigen studies University (talk about small world) at the moment. Good times.

At the end of the day I was asked to come back tomorrow and Friday as well. I'm feeling like yep - I can handel teaching - although tomorrow I have to teach year 6 and 7 - and I don't know how that will go. There are no desks in the room and none of the classes I had today had books or even pencil cases. I wonder if the older grades are doing recorder too... if only the music teacher had given me instructions. :P

Yay for supply days and being a teacher. Even though i'd rather have my own classes who I know and can plan for, this will do in the mean time. :)

Now that Steve and I are married, we branched out and got this:

www.leighfamily.net

There is not much there, but if you go to www.leighfamily.net/paula/efolio then you will see my lovley updated efolio... that I should be working on right now.... :D

So I spoke at Sunday Nite Live yesterday, and I was going to copy and paste roughly what I said onto here, but then I thought - why give people sub-standard, when they can listen to what I acutally said online!

So, if you go here: http://www.sundaynightlive.org.au/ you will be able to listen to what I said (click "Paula's Story").

That is all. Ijoudesu.

Arrrrggggg! Pirates!!!!

Some days i feel like i have the best job in the world. :D

So, Steve was at a job interview on Thursday when this question came up:

"So you still live with your parents, then?"

Steve replies to this question with;

"Ahh, no, I live with my wife actually."

"How old are you?"

________________

Man that made me laugh so much. I can just see the interviewer thinking "Are you really an IT geek prepared for this job? Who let you out of the basement anyway?"