I dug a trench today. :D

At the back of the house there is a garden bed that backs on to the house and is too high up. When it rains, the water runs off the garden bed straight under the house. Given that Steve and I have decided that I shall look after the garden's while he does the lawn, the digging of the trench for water redirection fell to my area of outdoors.

It is very hard to dig a trench next to a house, especially when the remains of the plant you have just killed are still in the garden bed. It took me a long time to even take a snip of the hibiscus plants that were in the garden bed. They were so alive and healthy and flowering. It was very sad to have to cut them all back. I was living in a dream where I thought I might be able to transplant them, and it may still be possible, but you really have to dig out a lot of the roots which takes a lot of time.

I contented myself with simply cutting off the pretty flowers that the plants had to offer and putting them in my water-gauge-vase that I usually use for watering my plants.

Last night I notice we have a lamp on and the main light on, so I say to Steve, "Turn off the main light."

Steve does this, replying, "Shall we just use the expansion light?"

It's really not surprisingly geeky of Steve to say such a thing. It was surprisingly geeky of me to understand what he meant. I feel I'm converted and there is no going back.

This is Steve's 25th Birthday Cake. It is a Spawning Pool from Starcraft 2.

The cake is a sponge that conveniently sunk in the middle to give me a wonderful place to put the wibbly wobbly jelly. I lined that with alfoil (thanks to Jenna) to give the cake protection and the jelly a glowing feature. The cake was awesome.

Moving In: The First Few Weeks

Well, three weeks after getting the keys, Steve and I have painted walls, had the floors done, moved in and had a house warming party. It is a crazy crazy world.

This is the kitchen after the floors were done, but before anything went back in.

Thanks to the awesome sauce help of Melissa, Ron, Wade, Jenn, Allie and Andy on moving day, everything got here and nothing broke. Allie came by around 9 to help me clean stuff while everyone else met Steve at Victor street to load up the ute. There was a lot of cleaning to do. The boys and Melissa got here around 11 with a truck load of stuff to be unpacked which happened fairly fast. They then went for the second load of stuff while Melissa, Allie and I unpacked the kitchen and the linen cupboard.

This is everyone in the kitchen once the boys had bought the fridge in!

When the boys returned with the second load of stuff around 1, Jenn had turned up with some awesome pasta for us for lunch. So good!! Andy turned up about half way through. The boys then set about unpacking the ute while Jenn did an awsome job of hanging up Steve's work clothes and my dresses, and Melissa when crazy with the Mr Sheene. :D So good.

Putting things away in the bookshelf.

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted. Everyone headed off about 4 ish and this is what the living room looked a bit like:

Steve was outrageously sunburnt from standing on the back of the ute and was asleep. I also had a sleep once everyone had gone. It was an exhausting day. The best thing about the double bed we have is it's lack of need for screws/screwdrivers to be put together. It all just clips in. So good. Our room with the bed set up and everything lying around on the floor:

On Sunday night, Steve decided it was time for internet. We pulled the phone off the wall and were met with this site:

Yep, under that strange "Main/alternate" switch was a bodgy wire-ing job. Adding to the dodgy cut wire that was taped back together along the bottom of the floor. There was even a wire there that ran from the phone to under the house that was completely disconnected - it was cut at both ends. It's a crazy world. Our internet is a bit slow (thanks to our wire-ing) but it works (hooray!)

We ended up taking Monday off work to rest (I had a pupil free day). I got up early anyway (our new house is very light and i'm not sure we had curtains up at that stage) and did some organising and putting away. Steve got up around 10 and we continued to do little things. We ended up going for an obscenely long drive to bunnings and a second hand furniture place to get a filing cabinet and a few other things, but overall it was a productive day. :)

Our Housewarming party was pretty fun. :D Mum and Dad bought some juice and bread rolls for us (mum also went crazy and bought spinich pie and a zuccini slice over :P) and My work friends did muffins (yay!) while Sarah and her Steve bought some banana bread. I did a huge platter of fruit and we had bacon and eggs as well. It was a hot sunny morning, so we had the tarps over the clothes line and strung up from the side of the house (the bars on the windows are good for something!) It was a really enjoyable day. i was running around like crazy, Mum had taken over the kitchen, but on the whole, really fun. :D

Aroha and Cooper came along later in the day (their car did not start). It was really good to see them. Cooper is doing well. Praying for Aroha as she spends the 2 weeks alone without John.

It's exciting to have a house, though it really snowballs. Not only does moving in take way more than a day (so many things to still unpack) but also, you are forever noticing things that need to be done. The trims need to be done, the window sills. What will you do about the bars? The lawn needs mowing, the weeds need.... weeding. It's a very long and time consuming process to own a house. I suppose that's what I have to remember - it's a process. We'll have everything looking shiny in 30 years or so. For now, it is what it is: Our Home.

This is one of the spare rooms. It has a purple tinge thanks to the strip of material acting as a curtain. Cheala and Daniel were generous in giving us their wedding table cloths which are acting as curtains in all the other rooms of the house. :) yay!

House Ownership

AHH!!! Steve and I own a house!! So grown up and scary!!

For those faithful many following the progress of our said house here is a bit of an update on what's going on. :)

When we got the keys on Monday, we went in and put some test paint up on the walls to decide what colour. The house had a different colour wall for almost every wall (green, pink, yellow, different type of green, white and undercoat) and we were going to change that! We started painting on Tuesday night with Melissa and Ron (such helpful painter-savy friends) and started transforming our house. Here are some fun before shots.

Living Room Before

Dining Room Before

After painting madly for 4 days (JonK and Wade giving us a massive hand on Wednesday (and being rewarded with some not so awesome Sausage Fried Rice)) we began to rip up the carpet squares and the lino underneath the carpet squares. Yucky yucky yucky-ness, but underneath - some beautiful wonderful floorboards!! :D yay!



Do you like our wonderful purple feature wall? Steve wants one in every room... I want a boredom drawing on the living room wall...

Our floor boards are amazing. The floor guys came by today and sanded and gave it two coats of polish. So pretty. :)



We haven't gone in yet really. The floors were dry, but with all of the rain, they were also a bit sticky in parts. The varnish smell was also quiet overwhelming. Hopefully it will stop raining soon enough to have the windows open to get some air happening. On the whole, house having is pretty scary and all, but also fun. :) new life experiences for us! yay!

P.S. My rose bush is thriving! It's grown up so big and has put out 2 flowers! yay! :D

Steve and I went to bunnings and got potting mix and pots for our 2 plants. :) I think the rose bush is really thriving for a plant that lived it's first 4 weeks in a jam jar. Even after repotting the cactus, we have heaps left over. If anyone wants some cactus, we have lots here. You don't need to look after it at all and it grows really well. :D

Sari, StarCraft 2, Cakes and Updates

I have been meaning to write for a while now, but time gets away from you... ahh age... anyway, I guess I'll start from most recent and go backwards :)

Last night was Alex's 21 and I got to wear my sari for the first time ever. :D Hooray! It was so pretty. They are surprisingly difficult to wear because of the pleats at the front, and the many different wraps around. Also, I'm super short, so it was hard to tuck in enough to make it the right length, and then even harder to get consistency with that all the way around. Oh well.



As it was Alex's birthday, I spoke to Alex last night. :) We were talking about what God is teaching us and I told him I was in a valley. I'm struggling with my quiet times, even when I do them I'm not focused. He then asked me "What are you doing to get out of the valley?" How refreshing is it to have someone ask. I feel like we, and even I, too often just console the valley walkers, we mummer that we understand and how hard it is, but we don't ask how are we planning on getting out.

God is so good to have given Alex the wisdom to speak in this way. I was so encouraged by it. I feel in some ways, I've lost that challenge question. I've grown too cautious with people and I don't ask the hard stuff. It was an awesome reminder that I need to, especially of myself. Yes, I can be in a valley. Yes, my times with God can be dry. But I need to remember that though I can't get myself out, I need to be making myself available to God for him to do that.

On Monday night, Steve and I will be going to the StarCraft 2 launch party. Hooray! It's really late at night, so I'm considering taking the next morning off work. All I'd miss would be maths, is that really so bad? I'll have to talk to Amy, the relife co-ordinator, but we'll see. In any case, I've been making a costume to wear (mine took all week, Steve's took about a half hour :P)



Here is a photo, just in case we forget on the might :P Hopefully we won't (btw, uploading these photos - I know we need a better digital camera :O). I'm an awesome looking Drone. I'm not super happy about how the arms turned out - my top spines seem to dissapear, but I could adjust that, if I have time. Steve is going as a Dark Templar and we just have to figure out how to put the glow sticks together to be his psiblade and it will all be wonderful. :D

Last week I made a humming bird cake - it's got pineapple and banana in it. So yummy!



Also last week, at SNL the sermon was on being the Salt and Light of the world. Matthew 5:13-16. It was a fantastic sermon. Something I've never noticed before jumped out at me (which is probably why it was fantastic). Jesus says "No one lights a lamp, and then puts it under a basket.Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house."

It really struck me that if I am the light, and the reason I'm a light is because Jesus has made me that way, then my purpose is to be that light for everyone else. Yes, God saves us because he loves us, but there is another purpose. It's so that we can then share the light with others.

It's really easy to forget that Jesus has saved us with a purpose, and that is to be the light. Sometimes I think I'm doing a terrible job, but then there are days like last Friday (I was on worship for staff devotions and I've no idea what I prayed, but one of the teachers came up and thanked me for it. God's words to her I guess.) where I remember God uses me despite me.

Ahh, I'm so unworthy of the amazing grace that God has given us, and yet I press on to reach the prize that is in Christ Jesus!

Recent life... well busy. Still busy really, such that I guess i'm just uploading photos for you all to see because I don't really feel I have the time to go into what going on with words. Maths marking is calling me.



Steve and I went to Supanova last weekend, the day after Melissa and Ron's wedding. :D Yay! Marriage! My dad took that photo outside the church. It's a bit of a classic Paula and Melissa pose I guess. :D I like it.

I went to Supanova as White Mage which was a pretty fun costume to make. I think walking around it in didn't feel like it looked as good as it does, if that makes sense. Steve's costume (Black Mage) was far harder to make, and it's a shame we don't have any photos of it ... yet! We did get our photo taken quite a bit on the day, but none of those have appeared on the intarwebs yet.



Yay for a fun White Mage costume! I'm looking forward to Supanova next time. :)

Being as these are the final days of my holiday, I decided to be creative with cooking and make an awesome cake of awesome. :D This is the result - displayed on the new cake stand that Amy got me for my birthday (good job Amy!) and served with the awesome serving thingy that Amy got me for my birthday (good job Amy!). It was a White Chocolate Gateau (there is supposed to the a accent thing above the first a).

I made 2 cakes and then put them on top of one another. :D I also initially made them square and had to cut the corners off to get round cakes that looked good on my cake stand. :D yay for left over corners. It was/is delicious :D

Well, now that I'm a full time teacher at Genesis, it is expected that I will attend devotions twice a week (chaple & prayer once a week as well) and, when i'm rostered to, actually do a devotion. When I took over from my predeccessor, I naturally assumed that i'd just take her rostered day for devotions.

When I realised that I would be doing this, I thought about what I would speak about, and it struck me that alot of the time, the teachers giving the devotions were using videos, music etc, and in a sense missing out on giving the devotion. I was honestly frustrated at this, and the judgemental part of me was quite harsh about the devotions I was listening to. Why were we hiding behind a clip of Top Gear rather than really getting into God's word?

So when it came to me thinking about what I would do, it was really on my heart to just speak. Not to have any flashy stuff, but just to speak God's word. Honestly, I was really cautious as I thought about this, becuase I didn't want to get up there and open my mouth and say something stupid like "Get it together people! I'm sick of hearing fluffy stuff - lets really get into God's word!" and have everyone hate me and my judgemental attitude. So I prayed alot about it and God really confirmed with me that he did in fact want me to get up and speak about how there is a need just to speak. That we need to stop hiding behind stuff, excuses and lies, and just speak his word.

So I did! Honestly, it was really amazing! I totally felt like God had the whole situation in total control. I felt like everyone really listened and heard what I had to say. CRAZY!! Afterwards, I had a number of teachers say to me specifically that it had been a good devotion. One teacher even said 'It was not good, it was Excellent!'.

Now thinking about it, I really hope that even though it might have been a "Good Devotion" that it was more than that - that it was a lasting devotion that really spoke God's word.

I'll copy a sort-of transcript in below, but I think it sounds quite ... weak... for want of a better word in the transcript. Imagine me saying it with passion and conviction, and I only did it from notes to, so it was better. :D

---------------------------------------------

Hello all. I don’t have any pretty slide shows or videos for you today at all, because what I want to do today is talk. Just talk. Usually I love to talk, especially about Jesus. Get me started and I could go for days. It seems a bit ridiculous; that talking here should be hard, and it isn’t in a sense. I mean, apart from the fact that I’m up here in front of all of you who I’ve only known for a few weeks and you can all see glimpses of my teaching style, I do know that you are all on the same playing field as me. You love Jesus too. It’s ok for me to talk about Jesus with you.

I’m in a musical at the moment, Pied Piper, (Brisbane Arts Theatre, we play every Saturday, right through the school holidays, great show, bring your kids!) and I’m there, the first day at rehearsals, and I start talking to a girl about what she’s reading and she says to me; “I’m reading The God Delusion by Dawkins because I’m a recent convert to Atheism from a lapsed Christianity.”

Now, if God wanted me to witness to someone during this musical – I guess this is it. What else says “Witness to me” in big flashing letters except a statement like that? And knowing that this is it – God has thrown this person at me, given me the go ahead and is waiting expectantly for my response to it – all I can say is “oh… interesting.” Not “What led you to make that decision?” not “why atheism?” not even “Did Dawkins have any substantial points?” just “ohh…. Interesting.”

What is wrong with me! Why is it so hard that just speaking is impossible! I mean, God couldn’t have made it any clearer right? The cards were in my hands and I passed up the chance to lay them down for him. And, this isn’t the only time it happens.
When I knew I had to get up and give a devotion here, watching others with their music, visual aid and audio stimulus, it got me thinking about just this issue. Speaking. There is a Jimmy Needham song with the chorus, “We can love with our hands, we can love with our deeds, but how will they know if we don’t even speak?” How will they?

I’m also reminded of Jospeh’s response to Potipars wife at her suggestion she lie with him in Genesis. Is his response “oh, I’m too busy now” or “But what about your husband?” NO!! His response is “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Do my answers ever resonate like that?

I was driving a friend home from work, she lived literally a street away, and I knew if she took the bus, she’d have a 2 hr trip, instead of the 10 minute one I could give her. So I waited an hour for her to finish and off we went. “Why did you wait?” She asked me. Was my answer “Because God wants us to love people with our actions”? or even “God has good deeds planned for us”? Nope. All I could give was “oh, it wasn’t really that long, I don’t have anything to do at home anyway.”
Ahh!! When will I stop hiding and just open my mouth and speak!!

On the way to work now, my long 40 min drive after I drop my husband off, I’ve been listening to Ravi Zacceriahas. Something he was saying last week, as I was contemplating this talk, was that we can be trained in evangelism with the most amazing of credentials, but if we don’t have a burden on our hearts for the people we want to reach, it will never be successful.

My problem, I guess, is that I don’t have a burden for the lost. Those people that are out there without God, I know I want them to have God, but if I don’t say something, surely someone else will … right?

I think it’s time we start praying for that burden. That we ask God to put the burden for the lost on our hearts so that we can have the words to say and the courage to open our mouths and speak.

I just wrote a story!

How productive has this week been!! CRAZY!!

The Largaphone!

Thanks to all those committed drinkers who contributed to the creation of my new musical instrument. My fingers are sore and cut and bruised from hammering and they smell like beer, but it's done! It makes a wonderfully fun noise of jingling when you bang it on the floor. :D Hooray!

What on earth do people who don't work do??

After working for 9 and a half hours on Monday, with only a half hour break, and coming home to make dinner for Steve and myself, I stood at the sink and ached. My back ached, my feet were sore, my head was pounding. I had a glimpse of what my mum had to go though when I was a kid. Working all day at school, on her feet, taxi the kids around in the car in the afternoon and then come home to cook dinner for everyone.

It's hard to think that I'm entering that phase of my life where things are starting to ache and fall apart. It's hard to get up some mornings and it doesn't take long to be tired and sore. I don't think there is anyway that I could have imagined this happening when I was a kid. I know Mum said to me, as she stood over the sink peeling the potatoes, "Paula, try to imagine what it's like to work all day and come home and have to make dinner!" but I couldn't. You just can't until you experience it. And now I have.

Strange. So much of life has to be experienced or we'll never get it.

So here's to getting older and feeling sore and achey, now I know what it's like.

"Whom God will use greatly, He will also hurt deeply." - Dr A. W. Tozer