Your Personality Profile |
 You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming! |
I'm on holidays at the moment! I've got two weeks off of TAFE, but I'm still working for Dad. I did 13 1/2 hours of work this week, and I still managed to have two sleepovers, and go to the beach yesterday! It's great having two extra days in the week, and having Mum home. I've still got jobs that I need to get done, but it's nice not feeling like everything's on my shoulders.
Next week, Elyse and I are going down to stay with Kristy. I'm looking forward to it. I get to spend some time with my big sister, and Elyse and I get to put up with each other for 6 hours on a bus. Hehe. Just kidding. I think we'll both be taking lots of books, and projects (I'm taking my cross-stitching) to read and do. We leave next Tuesday, and I come back the Monday afterwards. Elyse won't be back until the day before her birthday. The reason I'm coming back earlier is because school starts back on that Monday, which means that TAFE starts back on the Tuesday. I'm sort of looking forward to going back to TAFE, but it's great being free at the moment.
I've got some issues with my lower back at the moment, which is very frustrating. I'm a person that likes being able to do whatever I want (independent and stubborn :D), but at the moment I have to be careful how I'm sleeping. If I sleep on my side or stomach, I end up in heaps of pain. If I sleep on my back, I don't end up in as much pain. It also makes it uncomfortable to sit down for long periods of time. I'm hoping it will rectify itself soon.
I'm still struggling in my walk with God. It's very hard to constantly be 'on my guard'. To stop myself when I start thinking about something that I know it's unhealthy for me to be dwelling on. To constantly be going to God in everything. It's very frustrating for me to pray for God's presence in my day, and that He'll help me love my family, and then to hear myself snapping at my brother (or anyone else) later on. It's so easy for me to justify getting mad, but when I stop and think about it, I realize that God had so much more reason to get mad (and He did :P), but He still had incredible mercy on us and showed us so much grace by sending His Son and giving us chance after chance after chance to pick ourselves up and have another go.
It's so easy to go back to what I was (and frequently still are) and just give up. However, I know that God can do anything. Which means He can draw me closer to Him, and fill me with His Presence. Praise God.
I'd love to read "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris. The book club that I'm in, was going to be doing it as our next book, but unfortunately Felicity (my youth pastor's wife) couldn't get enough copies to do it this time round.
My sister Kristy, reviewed it here.
However, that's not the point of this post. See, the thing is, I avoid doing hard things as much as I can. Confrontation, meeting someone new, doing something very different from what I'm used to, those things scare me to death.
I'm (slowly) trying to work on it, but it's gonna be a long process because I've been this way for a VERY long time.
On Monday, though, I did something hard. My parents had been telling me for awhile that I needed to do it, and lately I'd begun listening to God telling me to do the same thing. I wrote in my testimony that I hadn't wanted to give God all of me because I wanted to still be in control of certain aspects of my life. This was the biggest one. On Sunday night I gave God all of me. On Monday morning I did what would have to be one of the hardest things I've done.
My prayer (one of them anyway) at the moment is that 'All things will work together for good to them that love the Lord'*
I'm actually quite nervous about this because I have no idea how it's going.
All I want is for God's will to be done. Unfortunately, it's not easy.
Please pray for God's peace in this.
Also, please pray that I will leave it in God's hands, and not grab it back into my own.
*This verse was paraphrased
Sunday night we had a youth service. It was the first youth service that the youth band has played in since April. I think we did a very good job! Once the service had started, it went really well.
I had been asked to give a testimony, and I thought I'd share it on here as well.
Here it is:
I gave my testimony last year at the youth service after youth camp. I talked about how I was having regular Bible studies and memorizing Bible verses and how this was helping me grow closer to God.
However, this year I’ve really been struggling. I’ve felt like God has been far, far away. Like I can’t get close to Him, no matter how hard I try. Then I was reading a book called ‘Lies Young Women Believe’, and one of the lies that they mentioned was that ‘God is not enough.’ I immediately thought ‘I don’t believe that! I know God’s enough! I’ve been taught that my whole life!’
Then the author went on to say that she used to look to friends to fill the emotional void inside of her, and it took some time for her to grasp the basic Truth that God IS enough.
That made me stop and think. And when I stopped to think about it, I realized that I believed that Lie. For quite some time I’ve been asking God to ‘create a void inside of my friends that only You can fill so that they grow closer to You.’
However, what I hadn’t realized is that I have a void inside of ME that only God can fill.
That amazed and freaked me out! And when I looked back over this year, I realized that this year especially, I’ve been turning to my friends more and more to fill the loneliness inside of me. I rationalized it as “I’m very much a people person”.
Which I am, but I’ve gotten to the point where, when I have the house to myself for whatever reason, instead of embracing the quiet and spending that time alone with God, I fill up the quiet with noise and try to find friends that I can go see, or talk to.
After I stopped to think about it, I realized that no matter what I try to fill the void with, it’s never going to be filled by anything other than God.
Also, this year I’ve been struggling with some things, and instead of praying ‘Lord, please show me what you’re trying to teach me through this’, more often I’m praying ‘Why do I have to deal with this? Why can’t you deal with this for me?’
I realized my focus is always about me. However, it should be about God, and what He can do with me.
I tell myself that I’m trying to draw near to God, but there are parts of my life that I’m reluctant to let Him into, because I don’t want to hear what He has to say about it. But God wants to be my closest confidante. He wants to meet all my needs. I am valuable to god, and He cares about the minute details of my life. If I draw near to Him, and allow Him access into all parts of my life, He will draw near to me.
My prayer for this year is that God will fill my life with His presence, and that I will be able to give Him access into all parts of my life. I want to be able to say truthfully: “Whom have I in Heaven besides you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you”
Well, it's been awhile since I last posted, and it was awhile ago that I posted before that!
I'm really sorry. I've been wanting to write, but I just feel like I've got nothing to write.
However, I thought I'd give you an update on what's been happening.
TAFE is going really well. I've made a few friends, and although their language isn't the best, I've persuaded at least one of them to be careful about what they're saying :)
I had been handed an assessment (like a test) last week, and I had told myself that I would do it before I came this week so that I could get onto the next section of theory. However, I put it off on Wednesday, and worked all day Thursday, and forgot about it until last night. So, at 10 o'clock last night, I was just about to go to bed ..... and then I realized "Oh no! I haven't done the assessment!" So, I grabbed it out of my backpack, and was about to head out to the kitchen when Joe walks in and says "Can you check my tests?". Talk about it never raining, but pouring! I told him to ask Lisa to do it, and so while I was doing my assessment, Lisa was sitting next to me asking me "How do I score this? Do I take off 1 point, or 1/2 a point?" The really funny thing is that she talks while she's doing things (like me :P) in order to figure things out. So, she's sitting there going "So, 2+2+1+1/2.....", and I'm going "Lisa, please be quiet. I can't concentrate." So she quiets down. Five minutes later "1+2+1/2...."
Anyway, to cut a long story short, she finished scoring the tests, I finished my assessment, and headed to bed.
This morning I handed it in, and I found out this afternoon that I passed it!
In other news, Joe had an earache this morning, and because Mum's away, I had to administer the onion juice! This is the first time I've done it, and apparently I didn't heat the spoon up enough. It was cold when it went into his ear, and he made a face (embarassing :P)
I'm hoping that this week will go well. It started out not-so-great, but has gotten better. So, I'm hoping it continues to get even better!
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a formal. It was Craigmore Christian School's Prefect's Dinner, A Night at the Oscars 2008. Contrary to the name, it's not just for the prefects, but is for years 10 - 12. I was invited to go as friends with a guy from Year 12, Michael Michell.
Here we are walking into the dinner. It's a very charming photo of him, isn't it? :P There are other, better photos, but unfortunately, this is the only one I have at the moment because I'm having a little bit of trouble getting photos off of people. (I think he must have been talking to Rosie, or something)
Here's a very charming photo of Mr. Barnes (the deputy principal :P)
This is a photo of one of the tables, and in the background was where the red carpet was, and the wall that we stood against to have photos taken.
This is Rosie (the head prefect), Me, Elyse, and Rach.
I had a really good time! As I said, there was a red carpet, chair covers, a very nice meal, entertainment...
Rosie and her Prefect's did a really good job! We had a lot of fun, and Rosie had invited heaps of our non-school friends, which made it even better!
Rach helped with the decorations (she works for a wedding company), and Elyse, Rach and I got ready together at my house. There are so many more photos from the night out there, but I just have to get my friends to give them to me! lol
*Thanks to Rosie for the photos!
I got itchy legs this morning.
So....... this is me now.
Why yes, that is my little sister's finger in the photo above! :P
Very cute, no???
Updated to add: I'd love it if you'd leave a comment! If you don't know how, I posted a tutorial awhile back. Here it is
This morning Mum and I went for a trial run on the bus into TAFE. We've figured out that Tim will drop me off at the bus station each morning that I go to TAFE, and pick me up after he finishes work. In the morning, even if I miss the first bus, I still have another bus that I can take after that which will ensure that I still get to TAFE in plenty of time. It was a really easy run on the bus which calmed pretty much all of my fears. There are still a couple of worries, but that's just nervousness wondering what it'll be like without Mum there. Tomorrow's my first day, and I'm starting to get really excited!
Mum and I got some stationery today. I love stationery! I walked into Officeworks with Dad the other day, and I was in heaven! They have such cool colours and shapes! For instance, there was some sticky notes in the shape of stars in funky colours, and notebooks, and 3-ring binders, and...... so much stuff!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and I hope it goes really well.
I have nothing that I can construct a blog post on at the moment, so you'll get a bunch of little bits and pieces :P
This past week I've been on a houseboat. Mrs. Hogan (my brother's Mother-In-Law) had placed a bid on a houseboat trip awhile back, and had been successful. They asked my family if we'd like to come along, and we agreed (thank goodness :P). The holiday was booked for the second week of holidays (this week just gone), and there were 10 of us that went: Mr. Hogan, Mrs. Hogan, Dad, Mum, Michael, Melinda, Me, Joe, Lisa, and Caleb. We left on Monday from Morgan which is out in the Riverland. Tuesday morning I got woken up before I wanted to (my Dad doesn't understand the concept of a sleep-in, or letting others sleep in), and so I was grumpy. Now that I look back on the week, I was probably grumpy a fair bit. At the time I thought I was justified, but I always think that in the 'heat of the moment'. All in all, it was a really relaxing week, and I'm so glad it happened.
Things that I did over the week:
Assembled a lap cross-stitch frame
Graphed a cross-stitch for Caleb (I'll try and remember to post photos)
Started the cross-stitch
Read 5 books (could've read more, but I didn't have more :P)
Got to sleep in 2 days out of 4.
Got to hold Caleb a fair bit!
Sorry to everyone that was on the houseboat for being a grump.
