P.S. I Love You

Monday 21st to Sunday 27th April

That's the slogan of Port Stephens - a clever play on words by the coastal town in the Hunter region. It's where I've been staying for many years now, and where I came to stay once again last week. This time, Soong and I invited Kins and Helen and Phin to join us on a holiday. They said yes and we had an amazing week away.

We watched movies, cooked meals, went out to the bay, went out for a walk, ate fish and chips in the park, had Thai for dinner one night, went to the RSL the other night... It was all really relaxed and fun. We had lots of sleep and lots of rest and played lots of Monopoly.

I can't pinpoint one eventful thing happening, but it was just a lot of little fun adventures. Like buying milkshakes by the bay and drinking them in the sun, or watching Charlie and Lola in the morning with Phin, or eating chocolate and watching DVDs on the laptop because the television DVD player wouldn't work.

I had a really great time.

We got back Saturday evening, and went to visit some friends in Campbelltown for a bit before coming home and unpacking. Sunday I went to the gym for the first time in ages, then we went to church, afternoon tea in Camden and then I visited Erin on Sunday night and played with her InStyler while Soong went out to jam night.

Happy weekend!

Epic Easter Adventures

Easter Long Weekend

Our church is in the habit of eating a meal together and sharing in the Lord's Supper with one another before Good Friday, so Thursday night was a big church dinner. The turn out was smaller than expected, but it was still a great opportunity to share food with each other and remember Christ together.

After dinner was done, we had to rush to Kmart to buy camping supplies before it closed for Good Friday. We purchased a 4 man tent, a lantern, and some food to take camping with us from the Coles next door. Soong is really excited about the lantern, it works by winding it and charging the batteries and is really bright.

Good Friday Adventures
We started the day by dropping a "Happy Easter" cake around to Nan's house on the way to church. Church was wonderful, Kirsty did the kids talk and illustrated how Jesus swaps lives with us in order to die for our sins and present us holy and blameless before God. Peter Lin continued to talk about this, explaining how Jesus takes our debts and nails them to the cross with his death. Praise God for Jesus and his sacrificial death - that he died for us!

After church we packed the car and began the drive down to Moss Vale for our mini camping trip. I stopped by my dad's house to pick up my brazier, but it has gone AWOL since I lived there 2 years ago. I made a mental note to purchase another one from Bunnings in the near future, and hoped it wouldn't be a big deal that we didn't bring our own firepit.

Although we thought we were the last people to leave, we got to the campsite first. Thom, Chris and Bryce soon followed, and then the Matt & Ez with their family. We enquired with the front office about campfires, and they informed us that without a firepit, we couldn't have a fire. Matt and I left the others to set up tents and we went out for a drive around Moss Vale to see if we could find anything at all to use as a firebin.

We returned with an empty safe. It had been lying in the back car park of an alarm factory, in overgrown grass by a bin, alongside a pile of wood perfect for a fire. We piled all of these things into the back of my Jazz. The boys estimate that the safe would have been at least 100 kilos and they struggled to lift it. I have no idea how Matt and I managed to get it into my car in the first place. But great success, we had a fire.

Christine had also bought a 4 man tent from Kmart, however there was one issue with our super awesome 4 man tents. The double mattress wouldn't fit through the door. We had to inflate the double mattress from inside the tent, and then it barely fit! Christine's comment: "Four man? My butt." Then, just to prove the point, we made Bryce, Soong, Matt and Thom all get into the tent.

Dinner was sausages, bread rolls, salad and junk food. I brought choc chip hot cross buns and we toasted them over the fire (it made the bread crispy and the chocolate melty). Thom brought the right materials to make damper and so we toasted damper on sticks as well. We chatted into the night.

The next morning was pancakes, bacon, eggs and muffins. It was so great. Rowan and I played at the playground while breakfast was cooking, and then we did the dishes together so that Matt and Erin could focus on packing up their tents. We had to get rid of the safe, and after initially giving it to a neighbouring camper, ended up driving it back to it's home beside the dumpster.

Soong and I drove straight home and went straight to bed - exhasuted. We had a wonderful afternoon sleep, and then we drove back to Campbelltown to have an Easter Saturday dinner at my Mum's house. Mum taught Soong how to make crumbed chicken schnitzels, and she made us a family favourite - silverside with white sauce, cauliflour and potato bake. Not the healthiest of meals, but a great treat meal! We had an Easter Egg hunt inside the house, and then played a few card games and board games to end the night.

Sunday morning Soong and I went to church. Peter Lin did the kids talk again, bringing back Professor Arthur Anymorcakes to explain how awesome it is that Jesus rose from the dead. Church was great fun as usual. We went from church to have lunch at Dad and Grace's house, then we had dinner with Steph and Jesse. We planned to try Green Peppercorn, the fancy Thai place in Fairfield, but the wait was 25 minutes long so we drove a few streets over to a place we call Pink Thai (I can never remember the name of it). I love Thai food so much and because it was a holiday weekend, I was happy to eat it and not worry about counting the calories.

Afterwards, we went home and hung out, packed a few things for our upcoming holiday, and then ate jelly and kinder surprise with Steph and Jesse.

Planning and Parties

11th, 12th, 13th April

Thursday night Soong and I went to dinner with Mel and Jess, co-workers of Soong's and fun friends. They were some of the crew who came to America with us last December, and they are super fun and hilarious. We ate dinner at Gymea Hotel, where on Thursday nights you can get $15 meals (my wallet was super happy about this!).

Friday was my day with Erin. I took her out for her birthday, which is this week. We went to Liverpool and she got a massage, then we got milkshakes. I ended up spending the rest of the day with her just chilling at her house, playing with her kids, and planning a birthday/Easter weekend overnight camping trip.

Friday evening we didn't have youth group because a whole term of youth group has passed already! I can't believe term one is over. Instead, our group went out for dinner to Guzmen Y Gomez, the new Mexican restaurant to open up down the road. It's super duper tasty and it has lots of gluten free options (which is good for me now seeing as I'm giving up refined flour). It also tells you the kilojoule content of the food you're eating - I love it when restaurants do that!

Saturday morning I was going to go running, but I still have this frustrating cough. Still being unwell plus the rain meant I stayed in bed and enjoyed a sleep in. I then had the morning to just do some household errands and wash my hair and prepare for Jamie's bridal shower.

Jamie's bridal shower took the afternoon up. It was in this sweet little house in Croyden, and it was super fun. There were lots of delicious sweets to try, and some savoury food as well (I love it when people make and bring rice paper rolls to parties). I consumed a lot more than I needed to that afternoon! We played a few bridal shower games, and then we decided to leave because Josie was getting restless and needed to sleep. So Ez, Lana and I drove home.

Saturday evening I taught Soong how to make shepherd's pie, and then we ate dinner together (not that I was very hungry after eating all the junk food at the afternoon tea). He continued studying for his First Aid course, and I spent the evening knitting and watching Buffy and Angel.

Sunday morning church was fun. We heard a sermon on what makes Christianity different, and talked about how Jesus comes to us and it's about what Jesus has done, not what we have done. I was greatly encouraged to remember this!

The afternoon was an epic double meeting, back to back planning for camp and planning for Term 2. Thom is joining us in the youth group leadership team which is awesome news! Very excited that he is on board. We just need another girl leader to help Christine now with her plethora of junior girls. Time to get praying.

We were all smashed after the four hour long meeting, but proud that we were able to get everything pretty much squared away. I spent the evening once again watching episodes of Buffy and Angel and knitting, before Soong and I had a late night snack and read some bible.

Fundraising Fun

4th, 5th, 6th April

Thursday night the Kinsey's spoiled us with a wonderful Middle East Feast. Tabbouleh, lamb kofta, falafel, the works. It was a fantastic night for food, but no so fantastic for calorie consumption. The boys went out and bought fancy desserts to share with everyone as a way of saying thanks to them - so we shared Drumsticks and Lemon Meringue Pie together.

Friday we fixed our hot water system. Yay no more cold showers. That was a win. Then Lana and I went to Costco to buy supplies for the youth group camp fundraising BBQ we were having on Sunday at church. We discovered that aside from plastic knives and forks, all the food is actually cheaper to purchase at Aldi, so we felt like the trip to Costco was a waste for buying supplies, but a great way to hang out together.

Friday night was the last night of youth group for the term. I played a game with the group called "Bring me the best..." and that went well - I will have to remember it for camp and for future! I always struggle to come up with good games, so trying to keep a record of them somewhere for future use.

Saturday I went to Aldi and bought the rest of the youth group supplies. Erin invited the girls over for dinner and a movie, which was awesome. She made pesto pumpkin pizzas with brie - and I ate way too many! It was so tasty. We watched Mean Girls and hung out with Jek and Helen.

Sunday was church, the day of the fundraiser! I was super encouraged to see how many kids were so enthusiastic, and how many kids pitched in to help. We had the youth group boys come early to help set up, the junior youth serving sausages and sauce and salad to people at church, the senior girls chipped in with the clean up, the boys were all on the barbecues - it just ran as smooth as I had hoped for and I was so thankful to God for it. Our youth are a huge blessing to us.

After church Soong and I went for a drive in my car, and he practiced driving manual. He can drive a manual, just prefers not to all the time. But I'm glad he knows how to do it!

Sunday night we went and had dinner with Dad and Grace and spent some time there chatting with them.

Monday I stayed home from work and went to the doctors again. This cough is back and won't go away but my doctor thinks it should disappear this week sometime. So I spent all of Monday watching Buffy and Angel - such great shows!