Fun!

Last night Rachel and I had a 'Celebration of Julia's (my) Graduation, and Rachel's Sweet Sixteenth.' It was so awesome! We went bowling at Elizabeth Bowl-Land, and played one game of bowling, and then afterwards we headed back to my place. I have no idea of who won and lost, except for on the team that I was on, and I don't want to embarass anyone anyway. I didn't lose, but I came MIGHTY close! I had planned for Elyse and Rosie to make a cake each for Rachel's birthday so that she wouldn't find out about it (she came over my house yesterday afternoon), and then we were going to surprise her by bringing out the cakes at my house, and singing Happy Birthday. What I hadn't counted on, though, was Elyse and Rosie planning for Elyse to make a cake to celebrate my graduation!!! I really loved it, even though I was a little embarassed. It really made me feel special :)

Here's just a few photos:

Rosie, Me, Nick, and Kate
















Josh C, Michael, Rosie, and Kimberley G.
















Tim, Annabelle's head, Jimmy, and Paul
















Steph

Sweet Sixteen....

It was my best friend's birthday on Sunday. Rachel is now Sweet Sixteen! Rach and I have known each other since we were at least two (the earliest photo we've found of us together was at her 3rd birthday, which is posted down the bottom:) ). That makes 13-14 years of history! She is the oldest in a family of four kids, is also homeschooled, and has always been there for me. When we were younger, she was always the peacemaker between me and another friend of ours. I wish I could say she was the one that got me into trouble, but I think we both had equal parts in that! Like the time we tried moving her little brother without our mum's hearing us, and almost dropped him (and got caught). We would've been about 4 at the time. I'm not sure which of us thought that one up :) Or the time we went down to the creek near my house, and Rach fell in while we were checking the depth of the water with sticks. We got her out, and then she sat by the creek while I rode my bike back home, sneaked into the house (not easy to do with 8 people in the house), grabbed a towel, and rode back down to the creek without anyone seeing me (I was too scared of being caught to feel any pride at this accomplishment). She borrowed a top from me that was similar to hers to wear to church that night, and when she got home that night, she told her mum what had happened. Me, on the other hand, I kept it a secret for years and never told my mum. Well, not until now, anyway (sorry Mum!:) ). Rach and I have heaps of memories and photos.

Updated to add: This is the photo of Rach and I at Rach's 3rd birthday

The Funeral

My BIL's funeral went really well (well as well as a funeral can go). I could definitely sense God's presence there. I cried heaps, but that was really good. I loved getting all the hugs from people. I felt truly blessed that day.
Thankyou Lord, that we got through it.

My sister, Kristy, has posted a tribute to her husband here.

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow is my brother-in-law's funeral. The amount of people coming down from my church for the funeral, is astounding. Once again, I stand amazed at how much my church family has rallied around us, and continues to support and love us. I'm hoping to sing on stage with the music team in church on Sunday, and I really hope I don't cry. Please pray that God's peace will be on our family, especially my sister tomorrow. Please pray that we will know his presence without a doubt.

Hmmm...

I don't know what to write. I feel like anything I write is going to be taken as coldhearted. This morning I went to church. I thought it would be okay because I haven't cried since we got back. Well, I was wrong. The second song started me crying, and I walked out as quickly as I could. Jason (my adopted brother. long story) followed me out, as did our senior pastor's wife. After I got myself back under control I went back into church and proceeded to cry during the time that they were praying for my family. This time I didn't go out, but instead just sat there with tears running down my face. I proceeded to cry in the next song too. It was really hard, but at the same time good. Hard because of the pain I was feeling, but good because I really needed to cry instead of comforting everyone else. God bless my church family. They are amazing.

Encouraging

The people in my church have been absolutely amazing. We got back on Wednesday afternoon, and we've had meals provided for every night since. It is SO encouraging, and uplifting. At the same time people have been coming alongside us, and... words just can't describe it (but I'll try, 'coz that's just the way I am). Someone will come alongside me, and give me a hug. Without them saying a single word, I know I'm loved and that they are really hurting for us. The good thing is, that I've actually been able to comfort a few people, and tell them that it's ok to cry, and that they don't have to be strong for me. I think it's actually comforted me to be able to comfort others.
I love my church, and I love that they have just come alongside us. May God bless them all, and all of my other friends that don't come to my church.

Please pray

My dearest, darling sister, Kristy has lost her husband, Steve, in a tragic boating accident. He went missing at about 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and his body was found yesterday afternoon by divers.
Please pray for my sister. She is hurting so badly. She has been through so much in her life already, and this is just another blow. The worst part for me is watching her cry. Gut-wrenching sobs that just make my heart break. Please pray for Kristy, but also for Steve's family and my family.

"Father, please hold her up. Undergird her, and show her your presence. Help us know how to comfort her, and when to be silent."

CWCI

This weekend I went to CWCI. CWCI stands for Christian Women Communicating Internationally. It's a conference that they have every year around the same time, and it's really good. I don't get heaps and heaps out of the sessions (a little bit here and there), but I get heaps out of being with a bunch of women all day. Last year and this year we've rented a house for the weekend, and ten ladies from our church come and stay there for the weekend. This year Mum, Kristy, Kristy's MIL, Mrs. Bower, Mrs. Taylor (Wendy), Mrs. Packer, Trudi, Joanna, Elyse and I went. We had a ball! Joanna is English, and very prim and proper. However, she can be a lot of fun! We call her the Crazy English Lady. She's really cool, and fun, and this year we had heaps of fun. It all started with us going out for tea. Elyse and I couldn't finish our food, so we asked if we could take it home. That was fine. Then, Joanna decided to take Elyse's food and hide it. Elyse had no idea what had happened to her food! I hadn't seen anything, but I figured that Joanna was the prime suspect, and I was right. Then Elyse and I stacked our containers on top of each other in front of Elyse (bad move) who was sitting next to Joanna (another bad move). Well, Joanna then decided that it would be fun to take both of the containers! We eventually found them, and headed back to the 'shack' (place that we were renting) threatening Joanna with payback. We got back, and Elyse and I decided that we would hide her handbag and vanity case as payback. Joanna was running around trying to find her handbag (it had her glasses in, and she needed them for the movie we were about to watch). Well, she'd figured out that I had something to do with it, but funnily enough she didn't suspect Elyse. She found her handbag within about ten minutes (we hadn't hidden it very well), but she hadn't missed her vanity case yet. When she did miss it, oh boy, we were in for it! Eventually, Kristy made me go and get it for her (which spoiled the fun) but we had enjoyed laughing at her up until then. Before we went to watch the movie, I had grabbed my phone out of my bag because I didn't trust Joanna, and that was the only thing in my handbag that I couldn't live without for a whole day. After the movie finished and we were getting ready for bed, I found that my suspicions had been confirmed: Joanna had stolen my handbag. However, just as Joanna came back from having her shower, Trudi pulled my handbag out of her suitcase/bag, and asked "Whose is this?" Joanna saw her, and Trudi realized her mistake when Joanna tried to shush her. Unfortunately (for Joanna) I'd already heard and seen Trudi, and so I had a good laugh at Joanna. Joanna then reciprocated by mixing mine and Elyse's clothes up (putting some of my stuff in Elyse's bag, and some of Elyse's in mine), but she also took my thongs (flip-flops) and hid them. I didn't realize until the next morning when I was getting ready to leave, and Joanna had already left for the morning session. Elyse found them in a couple of minutes, but I had to laugh because it was pretty funny. I didn't get Joanna back, but maybe next year???
All in all, it was a lot of fun and craziness.

Review

I posted a review of "Only Uni" by Camy Tang over at my other blog. Please go and have a look, and tell me what you think.

More Camp

I'm very sore, and I'm very tired (hence why I'm writing right now :) ). I woke up this morning sore in places I didn't realize I had muscles! When I leaned over to my side, the sides of me really hurt. Last night when I laughed, I was in mortal agony because my sides hurt so much! My back was really, really sore this afternoon, but in spite of all this, camp was SO TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! I loved camp, and I hope its just as good next year ('coz I'm sure it can't get any better). I think (and so do most of the people that went on camp) that the reason it was so good was because they didn't have our time planned from second to second. They had a few organized games, but there was time to recover, and also time to just go with the flow. There was also plenty of time to muck around in the water (in a good way), and plenty of time to talk. But in spite of all this time, there wasn't much time for mucking up and being idiotic. Which was really good. I can't explain it very well, but I'd have to say that the dynamics on this camp would have had to have been some of the best of any camp that I've been to.
It was a really impacting camp, and I hope that if it's possible, that next year will be even better!