Hey Mark and Spally!! Wanna meet up for breakfast/lunch/dinner/whatever in Sydney when I'm over in about a month??

So I went into work this morning to sort out this debacle with the rosters and my four shifts next week are cut down to 2! YAY!!! Then I handed in new availability forms that let them know I'm going away for 3 weeks in December. I know they're not happy about it and I may have to quit, but I'm praying it won't come to that and they'll sign off on the forms.

I also emailed two of my tutors requesting extensions. One is still getting back to me, she wants to go to the unit coordinator first. I'm working on the assignment now and have almost finished part 1 of 4. The trouble is that I need to put a student through this lesson I'm creating, and I can get time next week, but this week is looking a bit tight! It's due Monday, 26th of October.
The other one IS the unit coordinator and was quite happy to give me an extra 4 days! So yay for that. Was due the 2nd, now it's on the 6th of November.

So yes. I feel like I'm getting more control over these things. The third assignment is almost done and is super easy anyway. I've done all the readings, I just need to write up the summaries of the last two. It's due in 2 weeks, but I'm hoping to get the summaries written ans handed in asap so I don't need to worry about it.

Everything's coming to a head. I'm glad I have time now to work on this assignment away from the distraction of housework and even other study buddies. Study buddy time will come during study break :) I also called my parents and they come down to Perth next week for a night. Mum is going to cook me some meals and bring them down with her, as well as a bag of rice! Isn't she lovely?

Matt 6:25-34
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Edit: about 6mins into the Shepherd's Song by Beethoven, the music swells and it's just so beautiful!

I went on the MTS Challenge Conference on the weekend. It's for people considering mission/ministry work in the future and would like some help and direction on that path. I started the weekend feeling anxious, frustrated and confused.

I was anxious because Josh was there it brought up a lot of self-worth issues remaining from the breakup. Stuff that I'd put to one side once I was over the biggest sad part of it. Like, am I worth anything if the guy who was meant to find me most precious dumped me? Am I worth loving? Apart from God loving me and having inherent worth in my very humanity, what else is there to me? I had a chat with Clare about this and felt much better afterwards. If she'd said it's because I can do [this, this and that], what is that saying about people who can't? Rather, my worth comes from God and I need to get my perspective right. But it was said with loving care and tact. So that was a hard and necessary conversation to have in order to get my innards right on the issue. And I feel much better about it.

I was frustrated because there's so much ministry that I want to be doing at MCU, but I can't because I'm also studying and simply cannot do more though I want to! But while I was on the conference, it was a good time to reflect on what I have done and am doing anyway now. I also helped work on this ministry project that myself and another bloke are trying to get off the ground. So that was very helpful.

I was confused because apart from knowing I want to go into ministry/mission, I have NO IDEA what my future holds for me. The conference didn't give me a 10 year plan, but talking about the options was helpful.

So I left the camp feeling much better about all those issues. Alas, I have new issues now.
I went home and had a good hard look at my timetable. I have managed to get the remaining 2 years (after this one) left on my degree down to 3 semesters without overloading - which is a great blessing and I'm rather excited by it. Something that came up on the conference was my desire to do MTS and go to theological college straight after my degree. However, it was strongly advised that I go work instead and build up some savings to carry me through those times. So I've thought very hard about going to teach remote for 4 years. I'm excited by this prospect but also nervous.

Teaching for 4 years in a remote community is a big deal. It means being away from family and friends in an entirely new community on my first year out without anyone to hold my hand. And although I want to do it, another part of me doesn't because I want to get married and have children and settle down in the suburbs... you get the idea. I know I'm not there yet, but it feels lonely already and that's kinda scary. So I'm torn. I'm torn between the comforts of this world, and between giving most of it up for the purpose of bringing Christ to this community (and earning a stack of money to get through theo college and MTS - a good aim). When I put it like that, it seems an obvious choice. But it's scary nonetheless.

Furthermore, I feel like this plan is actively putting the hope of marriage on the shelf for now - which is also scary. And by "for now", I mean, for the next 6 years. I was bringing this to God earlier and I need to not ever think about my age. It will mean that I can bring this hope back down from the shelf when I'm 29, which seems awfully scary all the way back here from 23. I know that it's a stupid thing to think! But still... it makes me nervous. Particularly as it seems EVERYONE'S getting married at the moment.

But this time is rather used for preparing me for it if it's God's will. This time now is helping me prepare for ministry. And I'm really excited by it! But I wish I weren't shivering a little in my shoes.

I don't really want to go back to Perth. And although I'm looking forward to MYC, he is going to be there and I much prefer not thinking, seeing, talking, hearing about or talking about him and the break up. I've enjoyed being up here. I also really like being involved in the community and the thought of graduating and spending a few years teaching in the country, getting involved in the community, in the local church, sounds really appealing. I'd thought about it prior to Josh. I'd thought about it while going out with him, and now I'm thinking about it again. I still need to graduate and that's not for two more years, but I like the idea of it. It'd even be nice to come up to Carnarvon and stay with parents when I'm teaching.

But anyway, those are my thoughts. I might like to go to Theological college later too. That might be nice.

Mission has been great. It's totally exhausting and right now I'm a bit sick and fearful of loosing my voice (I'm MC-ing, which is concerning). But I'm still having lots of fun.

I intend to get my HR licence so I can eventually learn to drive a bus. Spoke to Steve (staffworker at MCU) and he reckons that'd be alright. Now I just need to get my act together and work it out! :)

Alright, a run down of what I've been up to and the events that led to a total burn out.

I went on this 4 day camp to Moore River to plan for Murdoch Christians United (MCU) because I'm on the committee. We achieved all we wanted to and I returned Friday day. Parents were at my house till Monday morning, which was nice, but meant I couldn't really relax properly. I had a list of jobs to do from the committee meetings and I had Monday and Tuesday to do them. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday were dedicated to MCU. We wanted a presence in Murdoch Village and various overseas students would have started arriving then. So we ran two BBQs and a games evening.

On Monday, the Murdoch Orientation week started. MCU has a stall throughout the week in order for 1st year Christians to sign up to our weekly emails, Bible studies and social events if they'd like. I'm the stall-girl for this year and by default, I was kinda the o-week stall-girl too. On Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday, I gave my job of setting up and packing down to Ben and went to Kickstart, a camp that runs for all first year Christians from all the Perth Universities. Friday of that week was Festival Day which is the busiest of the week. All the clubs have stalls out, there's free food, handouts, typically mad-packness. Friday evening I was rather tired from the big week trying to squeeze in o-week and Kickstart.

Saturday I really wanted to chill out and relax, but I'd agreed to prepare dinner for the MCU Launch Party that night. So I bought a stack of veggies and 5kg of lamb mince to make lamb kofta. I also had to do follow up on all the sign ups we'd had through out the week. Josh, Cathy and Ben came over at 4:30-5pm to help me with the salads that needed preparing. At 6ish, we took all the food to Steve's and proceeded to mingle and meet new students. It was a pretty good night and many people came to check out MCU and have a good time.

When I came home afterwards, I needed to clean the kitchen up because we'd left it looking like a bomb had hit it. I decided that I really needed to get out of Perth and away from responsibility. However, when I woke up on Sunday morning, that was the last thing on my mind. I was so exhausted from the Village stuff, the o-week stuff and all the work required on Saturday for the food. I slept sporadically throughout the day, but that meant I couldn't get to sleep until 4am. I had no energy at all, not even to watch TV or read a book, so there was nothing to distract me from being depressed. That was no fun. I was all anxious and feeling sorry for myself and trying to sleep - but couldn't. I couldn't wait for the day to be over, but it kept on going.

Yesterday was very lazy. Ben came over because we were leading the MCU Launch Service that evening. All that really involved doing was planning the programme and delegating jobs. Josh came over to hang out with me and that was SO nice after the craptastic day yesterday. It really lifted my spirits. Then we went to the Launch Service and afterwards, I took Boyfriend to Mystery Date! I bought the tickets a fortnight ago and told him to keep the night free. It was pretty cool all the lead up to it (which wasn't much except me asking Josh if he was excited lol). It was a Monty Python double feature at the Burswood park cinema. I didn't expect it to be so cold, but we got through The Holy Grail just fine. Half way through Life of Brian I was suddenly very tired, so Josh said we could leave and I'm glad we did, because I nodded off very quickly once home.

Today was my first day back at uni. I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and boy am I ever glad to have the busiest part of the semester behind me! I'm so thankful to God for blessing the work of our hands. Many first years came along to the Launch Party and Service and seem really interested in sticking around for Bible studies - which is super encouraging! But it was hard work and I'm glad it'll be smoother now that we're up and running.

Josh has been such a help during this time. Volunteering much of his time to helping prepare food for MCU stuff and giving me a shoulder to rest my head on when I'm weary. God has blessed me with Josh!

This is for the purposes of Bustrip participants. If you did NOT go on bustrip, please ignore! :)
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Back home from bustrip. We arrived in Perth at about 2pm yesterday, cleaned the bus COMPLETELY so now it's totally clean! clean clean clean. Rowena came and picked me up, I had enough time to check important emails and dump my stuff before heading to the beach. Beach was SO GOOD! I was pretty tired from lack of sleep on the bus, but I hadn't had a shower in 2 nights (sounds better than three days) so it was so very refreshing to be pummelled by the waves; to be washed clean by the salt water and choppy water. I don't think a bath or shower would have done quite the same thorough job. To alleviate all you worrying about how Kat gets clean, I did have a shower afterwards with soap and shampoo. I made a pasta bake for dinner because it's easy and does not require effort. It also means I do not have to worry about lunch for the next few days. Yum! Then I went to bed at 10 and slept SO WELL! Today I need to unpack, do laundry, clean house, find cat.

Apparently Atticus has not been seen by Heather for a few days. I am not yet worried, but last time Atticus went missing, I wasn't worried until too late. So my track record with not getting worried isn't so good - boo to me. I will pray and continue to call for him.

Mission on bustrip went pretty well. I met tibbycat and spally and they are both very cool people! People that I would enjoy meeting again IRL. Yay! I had heaps of fun.

I probably ought to get ready for church and put on a load of washing before I go. *dies from apathy*

Here in Sydney for mission. Drove here from Canberra, had dinner and meeting at the church then went home to billets. My host family are very friendly and helpful. Apparently the two girls were booted out of their room so Helen and I could stay there (mwahaha). At there church, there's a computer room, so this morning I've been up to typical geeky activities whilst waiting for everyone to arrive.

I'm giving my testimony to a bunch of kindy kids - which I'm a bit nervous about given their age, but it should be fine. Catching up with friends pages is going to be hard and methinks that I will only pick a couple of friends to catch up on, so if anything particularly interesting, noteworthy or constituting huge news has happened, lemme know please? :D

Ok, more details.
Over on the bus, we'd all been getting to know one another a bit better. It wasn't until sightseeing that we sorta started singling eaach other out as people to go around this and that touristy thing together (eg. we walked around the National Museum and Art Gallery together). We spent all day Friday together from breakfast to dinner - here's a photo of us at dinner on Friday night - and all day at the conference together on Saturday too (the conference goes from Sat to Wed).

On Sunday I was a bit concerned about how much time we'd spent together because I figured that by this stage, if he didn't know I was interested then... :P too bad. And I wanted to guard my heart from getting too attached if he wasn't interested. Turns out he was also avoiding me and had spent a great deal of time praying about whether to ask me out or not. So Sunday night after dinner, we were walking up to the common room together when he pulled me aside and said as best remembered (*these are actions and thoughts*):

J: I've been praying about you and us and I think you've noticed we've been hanging out a fair bit recently
K: *no really(!), stay calm Kat*
J: So I want to ask you out
K: Is that what you're doing now? Asking me out?
J: yes
K: finally! *dances a jig*
J: *confused*
K: oh, yes!

We've discussed things and it's a formal, official, leading up to marriage one day kind of relationship. We're both very concerned with being intentional in what we do and being Godly. I'm both nervous, excited and a bit overwhelmed that it's come to this stage. It definitly the kind of relationship that I want, and I very much like Josh (as you LJ friends will know), so... yeah. I don't really know what else to say about it.

Right now I'm at an internet cafe because I need time away from the conference (people have renamed it Spot Potential Relationships To Explore, instead of South Pacific Regional Training Event) and time to myself. I also wanted to check my updates.

Tonight is my last at home for the next 3 weeks. I am going to Sydney/Canberra for SPRTE and mission. I am being driven over on a bus with just under 40 other people on it. I will probably not sleep much and I may have one or two opportunities to update when I can.

Today was a rukus. There was a meeting in the morning to sort out logistics for bustrip, I had to leave just before we closed in prayer :P because I was nervous about getting to work on time. It took much less time than expected, but I made up the extra minutes by trawling the car part for a spot *sigh* It was SO SO busy! I was put into jewellery and personal care (of all places) to make up for lack of staff. But they'd have been better off without me as I know NOTHING about those areas. I can do clothes and shoes. That is all. It was so busy that there was a line at my register by the time 5pm came around and I spent the next 10mins trying to get through them quickly. Then another woman had the gall to join the queue 5mins into this shop-has-closed, get-customers-out time. So I told her to piss off (well, I asked her politely to go to the late register :P). So I finished work 15mins late, but I will call up soon as I can and get my hours adjusted on my roster.

In between parking and starting work, I bought a new four piece luggage set because my current suitcase is super big and I was told too big for bustrip. So I needed something smaller and didn't fancy my chances and finding something to borrow at such late notice. I also needed a bag of sorts to carry on to the bus with me. A small suitcase and bag would have cost more than the 4 piece ($80). So now my carry on bag is packed up, but my suitcase has a while to go yet. It didn't help that it rained today and my washing is still a little damp. :P I have made my lunch for tomorrow (salmon sushi) but have no morning/afternoon tea to share. I have fully intended to make jam slice, but if that is still going to happen...

My entire cd collection has now been ripped onto my computer and is stored on my mp3 player. Finally. I think that is all. Finish packing and sleep for me now. :)

My Uncle John has a new ad for his music store and it's here if you're interested.

I'm definitely going on SPRTE as I paid the conference fees on Tuesday. Cannot back out now. I'm hoping that work will take it well as I haven't handed in notice of leave yet. I don't want to quit in order to go, so I really hope it doesn't come to that.

Ummm... what else is going on? Tuesday was such a beautiful day, I went to the beach in the afternoon after I'd ridden home from uni. Then I had a gin and tonic with my dinner and it was lovely sitting watching tv during a warm evening drinking G&T.

I cannot seem to get my hands on the Susumu Hirasawa cd that I want. Amazon doesn't sell it and neither does Hirasawa's website. So I've ordered one of his cd that IS available. I listened to a couple of tracks on youtube and they sound good.

Finally: What the hell is with Twihards relentlessly comparing Twilight to Harry Potter?? And thinking it's better!? No, it isn't. And I'll tell you why. Note, paragraph points are underlined.

The characters in Twilight do not evolve. There is no character development. You could argue that Edward and Bella both become better people over the course of the 4 novels, but this is simply not the case. They already were good people at the start of Twilight. Bella was already generous and selfless (*cough*), demonstrated by moving to Forks to give her mother space and not wanting to draw attention to herself. Edward already had self control in bucket loads, demonstrated by him not tearing his classroom to pieces on that first day he met Bella. What actually changes in their characters? They find out about each other's love and properly fall in love? That isn't character development, that's a plot point.

Conversely, characters in Harry Potter develop. Hermione ceases to be quite the bratty know it all above everyone else and turns out to be fiercely protective of her friends, using her knowledge to help them. She goes from being a straight-down-the-line do gooder, to bending and breaking the rules when she deems necessary. She becomes less self obsessed and is an important ally in the war against Voldemort.

Which brings me to my next point. There are proper battles in HP. Meyer, in Breaking Dawn, builds up this tremendous expectation that all hell's going to break loose and it ought to be pretty interesting because of all of the different powers and characters involved. But then everything is resolved because the two (seriously, only two??) most powerful fighters the Volturi have managed to amass over their centuries of power mongering are no match for Mary SueBella's awesome trumps-everything power that she only just managed to get control of yesterday in order to protect everyone. I think one person died and the reader has no sympathy for her anyway. Then everyone dissipates once the Volturi decide to go away because no one could possibly trump Bella's power. What a BORING battle.
Other potential battles in the Twilight series include the werewolves, which we never actually see because they chase each other off into the forest and then comes back out afterwards. I will concede to the battle at the end of Eclipse. But that's one. One out of four.

On the other hand, Harry Potter is full of battle. In every book there's some kind of challenge that Harry and his friends have to come up against and some kind of battle that he must face. The suspension is drawn and JKR delivers. In every book. That's seven out of seven.

OMG EDWARD IS SO BeAuTiFuL!!!11! *sigh* he's beautiful because SM says he is. And this makes him a Gary Stu. As Meyer has said time and again, she wrote these novels because of a dream she had about a sparkly vampire. Edward is the most awesometastic fantabulous amazing boyfriend/husband in the whole wide world and his only character flaw (it isn't portrayed as a flaw really) is his bipolar disorder. Bella's only character flaw is her clumsiness, and even then it only gives Edward the opportunities to be her shinning white knight in armour as he comes in to rescue her.

The characters in HP get so whiny sometimes. All of them have been very obtuse, dense, jealous, etc. They seem to me, to be possessed of some character depth. They are not wish-fulfilling characters. In fact, Harry really bugs the hell out of my with his emo whining sometimes. But I know that JKR constructed him that way and I can deal with that. I have much more trouble dealing with "perfect" characters.

If you want to gouge your eyes out and wash your brain with steel wool, then go watch this.
In response to it I say, HP had romance, action, gorgeous mythical creatures (in fact, it had SO many more mythical creatures than Twilight could spit on!). Then it claims "Twilight has so many characters too." The clip lists Jasper, Emmet and Edward... *facepalm* Yeah, HP had so many more than that. All of which gave me the impression that they had lives when they weren't next to Harry, Ron or Hermione.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that for now. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the Twilight series. It kinda felt a bit like a PWP, only, maybe a RWP (for romance). It was a light easy read and because it was written in 1st person POV, it was very easy to insert myself into the story as Bella and get all that love and attention, and still be humble and modest. I think that's why a lot of readers love it. Because they substitute Bella for themselves and it's easy to do that. Because Edward isn't described in specific appearance terms, fans can insert celebrity-crush-of-choice whenever Meyer says he's "beautiful". It's an easy, light read that doesn't step on anyone's toes. Twihard fans step on toes though, when they blindly insist Twilight is OMG tha best booook eva!!1!

So I've decided that I want to go on SPRTE, but I called Dad last night and he's not willing to pay for it as he, Mum and sister are going over east during January and are saving their money for that. :P

I reckon though... I could probably do it on my own. I need to stop spending money on things though. Then I'll be able to afford it. I guess we'll see how it goes. :)

Yesterday was the Perth Women's Convention. It was good. The food was great! It was kinda exhausting though, all the sitting, standing, singing, chatting &c. Afterwards I went home for maybe 30mins, before I had to go out again to have dinner with Mum - who'd come down from Carnarvon for the convention, and Laura - who'd been dragged along by Mum. Dinner was really nice. It was at my favourite restaurant - Bin 305. I had the fish and sweet potato & eggplant lasagna. It doesn't sound so good, but it actually tasted terrific! It was such a good lasagna. And dare I say it... even better than meat lasagna! I must try and make this for myself. What a good vegetarian meal it'd make for my vegetarian friends!

After dinner, Mum, Laura and I took a bit of a walk through the city then I went to get on the train. While I was waiting on the platform, nicwhite86 sent me a message asking where I was. I told him I didn't want to go because I was exhausted, but I ended up being pressure into going because many people had piked. In coming out of the station, I swipped my smartrider and was charged $1.29!! For sitting on the platform!!! Transperth needs to change the rules because that is wrong!

So I went into Northbridge with Nic and that was surprisingly better than I'd expected. We mostly chatted and I made it an aim to talk to someone I didn't know, so at some point I met a guy named Damien and we chatted to him. I then caught the 10:45 train home and went to bed. I also talked to some "maggot" guy on the train about religion. But it wasn't a very good conversation because he was drunk and didn't let me answer any of his questions. So upon alighting the train, he declared that he'd won. *lolsigh* He'd never even read the Bible, just made assumptions about it that were completely incorrect, so I encouraged him to read a gospel and prayed for him once I was home. It would be nice if you Christian readers would also say a prayer for the drunken train man. :) And also for Damien, who hadn't read a Gospel before either.

...since I posted something. MYC was last week and it was fantastic! Every year we look at a topic and this year was the Trinity and it was just amazing. I feel like my relationship with God is much deeper now because I know more his nature. It really is amazing. I hope to write up a more in depth thing on the Trinity on my blogspot, maybe this evening or tomorrow. I also hope to continue pulling apart that book I was reading for the sake of exposing heresy.

I did some more gardening on Saturday and put in broccoli, lettuce and onions into the big patch and sage, thyme and chilli into the herb bed. I also laid down a couple more paving stones and did some more weeding. The paving stones are so heavy, I can only do 2-3 in one day before I'm pooped. But that's ok. I don't want to overdo it, but I'm having fun with what I'm working on. People at church suggested that since I'm in a rental, I should plant things into pots, but it's much more fulfilling to put it into the ground, and so what if I move out and someone else gets my veggies? Yay for them. I just hope they take care of them well. I'd just have to start all over again, which still carries a sense of accomplishment with it. It's a bit funny that on one hand, it would be nice if Heather and I found men to marry, but on the other hand, I'm quite happy with the arrangement we have and the effort I get to put into the garden now.

I passed Learning Through the Arts. They haven't found one of my assignments, which is why they gave me a NA. But I gave my lecturer a call and he says they'll look for it. But even without it, I've received 57% for that unit, which is a pass. I won't pass Primary Curriculum I though. I still don't know whether that means I can continue education or not yet.

This morning I watched West Wing, which I only started watching recently. Before I started, I was all "politics, American politics, bleh!" but it's actually really good. I don't understand some of their systems, but it's full of dry humour and I like watching the characterisation and the way they deal with various issues that come up. Also, have the entire first season means I don't have to wait a whole week for the next episode to come out and risk loosing interest in the series. That happens with so many TV shows.

Funny story: there used to the this show called Ocean Girl when I was in Primary School (about yr 4-5). Each week I would rush home from school and be so excited about it. I got so incredibly head-rushy excited about it. It was my absolute favouritest tv show in the whole entire world!!!1!1!! But I don't ever feel that way any more, about most things. I think it's just that I can contain my excitement about various things a bit more. Maybe the opportunity to be that excited doesn't arise that often. Bu I guess more to the point, was that I don't ever get that excited about TV shows. But in watching a tv show like I am West Wing, that is to say, in watching it without waiting a week for a new episode, I get more emersed into it and can feel more excited about it when I leave.

So that was a fair bit of introspection for me, I feel as though I should now balance that with something inane. So... like.. hair. Totally.

Anyone have a favourite TV show from when they were young with a Wikipedia article about it?

Yesterday I weeded a patch of garden. It felt good to get the soil all prepared for planting. Then this afternoon after church, I stopped off at Bunnings and bought some seedlings and planted them. I had also weeded my herb patch, so I put in some coriander and ... green... stuff. Name escapes my head. Parsley I think. Afterwards, I put in the pak choy (slightly taller than bok choy) and tomatoes. I hope they grow!!

I'm very excited about this. I also tidied up the far end of the patch. In Jan/Feb, with the help of friends, I'd moved the paving stones from this area and used bricks to create a border, but it only went around two of the three edges that needed a border. So today I put bricks into the third edge. The forth edge is the shed wall. I also moved the paving stones to create a small path around this third edge. I intend on making the path extend to the compost bin, but haven't gotten that far yet. The paving stones are mightily heavy!! I was very diligent with bending from the knees and not my back.

MYC is happening next week from tomorrow. Mid Year Conference is the best Christian camp of the year (maybe NTE is also good, but is more expensive for travel reasons as it's held in Canberra. I've never been). It's being held on the Trinity and I'm rather excited. I'm also hoping to work some more in the garden the following week before uni starts again. Speaking of which, I need to contact the uni regarding my units for next semester. My results still haven't been released - due to the education units running on a different timetable. So that needs sorting out.

I'm also thinking that if I don't do well next semester, I may not finish my degree. I don't want to spend 6 years on a four year degree for a vocation I only intend on spending 4 years max in anyway. So I'm thinking about other options. But I guess I'll see how it goes with this semester before making a big decision like that.

Hello

I was on MYC last week. Was on the resurrection. Was good. I understand stuffs now. w00t. I will probably blog more on this topic when my brain isn't so mushy with sickiness and stuffs

Then I got sick. I was sick on camp, but I think God held off the sickness for the camp, and then the virus kinda raged in my system after camp. So Saturday and Sunday I was kinda dead to the world. But greygnome came over and made me chicken soup coz he's a big sweetie! *hugzor*
I slept and read Harry Potter and slept and read and slept and watched some movies and slept and read some more until today. I had to work today. Wasn't good. I felt faint a bit, and it was busy. But hte business kept me distracted, so that was good I guess.

I know what happens in Harry Potter! Go me!

I washed Ziggy the dog today. Now he smells like wet dog, but as he dries, he's smelling less like wet dog and more like not-bad. Yay! And I took him for a run (bad idea when sick btw) and gave him hugs. So now he is feeling better I think. He was a bit mopey when I returned home from work. I think he misses the family.

MYC was great. yay. God is awesome! Yay!

so I was wearing my "I'm blogging this" t-shirt after work today and I popped into woolies to grab some foods for Lise and I to eat before Bible study tonight. I was standing in line for the quick express lane thingo and the guy who swipped my foodstuffs told me that he liked my t-shirt. Ah-hem, yay! t-shirtage gains me a new eljay friend. w00ty w00t. although, upon seeing my own eljay, he'll run away or something.

Dinner went well tonight. I've made normal mash potato and sweet mash potato, but tonight I tried red sweet mash potato (red skin, white innards) and it tasted really good! could have used more milk or something, but still good. And the lamb cutlets were yummy too.

Bible study was good. We're looking at Micah. I did Micah in the MCU bible study last year, but I think am getting more out of it second time round.

Unichurch weekend away is coming up this weekend, as is my moving out of this house I'm housesitting and my first girls Bible study leading thing. Steph has led the Bible study until now, but I'm doing it. I'm feel pretty confident. I need to call the girls tomorrow arvo and let them know it's on, and then do some prep for it. Should be good.

oh, someone on the tv right now is updating their blog. lol. I have a blog. w00t.

Oh, and work was going well today. Last night I did all the night prep I need to do this morning, so when I got to work, I had not much to do. And then the rain kept people away and lunch rush wasn't busy. So after we'd cleaned the store, I did tomorrow morning's prep. Yay for all the work getting done without customers! lol

OMG!
So, I'm now at home *sleeps*
I'm going to get food and then continue to update. Lol. Nope, can't be bothered. And also, there's nothing in the fidge... cept for some old old grapes. :P

SO! Last weekend was the youth group camp. Very intense. I went to work until 4, drove around like a mad chook buying some paint, drove to the Law's (name changed) to pick up Rachel and Nic for camp. Drove to church hall. Also, made subs for Me, Rach and Nic for dinner. Spent an hour or so faffing around getting ready, then drove to Moore River for the camp. It was stressfull and VERY busy, but oh-so-worth it. I think the kids got a lot out of it. And it was a lot of fun. We went rafting and did a bunch of games. We had a talk on Saturday morning and then another one in the evening. Ali and I had a group of three girls, and on Friday and Saturday nights, we prayed with them. Ali and I shared a room, and it was really really nice spending time with Ali. Because Ali is just the niceset sweetest person (right up there with Anna... don't ask me to choose. They're both so very lovely). A couple of people I didn't expect to be there were there too. Like Chelsea and Shiloh. But I'm glad they came, and hope they got a lot out of it.

We drove down on Sunday after cleaning the place. My team totally pwned the floors (sweeping and mopping)!! :D The got back to the church, unpacked and got Rach, Nic and myself back to their house, where I lived with the kids and Lise for a week while their parents were in Mauritius. I love the Law kids to pieces. They are awesome. Andrew is in yr 2, Simon yr 5, Nic yr 7 and Rach in yr 10. So big age range, but it means Lise and I only really had to worry about Andrew and Simon. It was very exhausting though. Straight from youth group camp to babysitting the kids. And when I wasn't looking after the kids, I was at subway. GAH! But Lise had it no better with work (two shifts I think, as opposed to my 5) and also uni assignments to get through. And she had to miss out on a couple of lectures too. :(

But we had lots of fun (exhausting fun) and we both dearly love those kids. Makes me want to have a family one day.

On that note. I have no idea what I want out of life anymore. I know that I want to be a teacher, and I know that wherever I am and whatever I'm doing, I want to be praying and reading my Bible and continuing in my relationship with God, because He's the awesomest and I love Him SO much. But, anything else, I don't know what I want.

I'm going to be housesitting a house from Monday for 5 weeks and I'm looking forward to it. It's a really nice house in Nedlands. The backyard looks like a cottage. They're kind in the middle of renevations. So there are some light fixtures that don't work and there's only some planks of wood on stands to serve as the kitchen bench, but I think it's very quaint and I love it!

So today is my recoup day after my extrodinary week of insane business.

Oh, Down With Love is a very charming movie and I recommend it for a fluffy romantic comedy with a fun twist. It's very stylised and overacted - but on purpose and the end effect it great.

Relient K new cd is very good. I'm listening to a couple of songs over the interwebs. They're good. I hae their last two cds, so I might have to get this one too.

hey check out these articles.
This one is on transplanting lymph nodes which could be very useful for aids and cancer patients.
This article is on recycling CO2 and using it for fuel.

I :heart: my New Scientist news updates. It's encouraging to hear of people trying to sort out problems in the world. And it's all very ground breaking stuff.

Anyway, I'm off to work, and then to drop stuff off at babysitting house where I'll be for a week with Lise. Then I'm off to youth group camp. Pray for me yeah?

Edit 9:07
man I hate packing for camps. And I'm not just packing for camp, but for the following week too. I suppose it's not too important as I'll have time to go home on monday... but still! *sigh* packing is teh suck

I went to 2 21sts last night. Both were just great, and I wish they could have been on different nights, because I hated rocking up late for one, and leaving early for the other because both of them were just awesome! and there was a Mars hanging out and drinking night last night, which I popped in for an hour or so on my way home to say hi. People there, said hi and then left. All good.

The issue from Mars is getting resolved. There's a thread on the forum board that's been started by Gene, just saying that intolerance isn't tolerated. And that's made things better for me. I'm hoping that the newbies will be aware of what they're saying in future, and will make discussion, rather than bashing, a common feature of this year's Mars.

Youth Group went well today. I had the church history spot, in which I tried to cram in as much about Cranmer as I could in 5 mins. Heh. I completely glossed over he theological reformation that was going on at the time, to look at the social context and hopefully encourage the kids to stand up for the sake of the Gospel truth. Also, we met afterwards to discuss the youth group camp which is happening next weekend. Should be jam-packed full of learning and activities. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to all the work involved. But I am looking forward to building relationships with the kids and other leaders some more, and learning stuff myself. And I think it'll be good for me to have that kind of experience in helping to organise a camp. I'm very glad I'm not Jeesh or even Steve, who have massive responsabilities. I'd like to take on more, but honestly don't know if I'd have the time. And I don't have the experience, so probably for the next camp, they'll have me doing more. But right now, I'll just be glad for the not-much-work I'm doing, and I'll keep a look at out at how it runs from this side of a camp so I'll be better prepared for next time.

Jesus as my Lord is going slightly better than before. I've tackled some big sin issues in my life, and I might have them under control. But I'm not about to get complacent about it. You never know when they might sneak up again and attack me. So I'm still wary, but feeling better about the situation in general. So yay! \(^o^)/

And now I'm going to lead Sunday School today. Heather has ben doing it for the past couple of months while we get back into routine. Last week she gave me the material, and today I'm leading. It's not too difficult, so I'm feeling good. But my throat's been giving me some grief today, so I hope it wont fail on me. That would be bad.

I played guitar hero for the very first time today and went, average. And I was pleased enough with that (^o^)