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!  

Simple weekends

28th, 29th, 30th March

Thursday evening was a quiet one at home, where I watched TV and Soong played music. We read the bible together and went to bed early.

Friday morning was a rush to get ready early. There was no early morning run, or exercise, but I did drive to Hurstville to help MTS out. Being in the office, it felt like nothing had changed. It was like wearing an old slipper again, comfortable and warm. I did some stuff for Annette to help her out with the upcoming conferences, and then I took Murray out for a cup of coffee. It was wonderful to catch up with him again. I have really missed him.

From Hurstville I headed to Erin's house and helped her bake a cake for Rowan's birthday. I spent all afternoon with her, baking, knitting, cooking, chatting and looking after Josie and Rowan. It was super fun just to spend time with her like that. Relaxing and refreshing. I was meant to meet up with Jess and Eve again but both had other things on.

I rushed from Erin's to pick up youth group kids, and then we went to STAND. Kirsty did an amazing job of MC and James did a fantastic talk on "Somebodies and Nobodies" - that Jesus is the somebody who comes to be with us nobodies. It was challenging for me to think, as I focus on my year of investing deeply in a few, about whether I am spending my time with the somebodies or the nobodies, and who I should be spending my time with.

After STAND Christine invited me over, and so I hung out with her and Thom and ate cake for a while. 

Saturday was a simple day. I got up early and went for a 12km run. About 10km into my run, my chest began to hurt again so I slowed down to a walk. This is where treadmill running comes in second place to running in the wild. If this was on a treadmill, I would have hopped off straight away, however because I was still 2 - 3 km away from my car, I had no choice but to turn around and walk back.

After my run I went home and had breakfast (banana smoothie) and made Soong breakfast (melted cheese and bacon bbq sauce sandwich). Watched a few episodes of Buffy, did some knitting, had a nap with Soong, rehearsed for church music together, and finally bought bedroom curtains (now I just need the hooks). We went to Po and Goong's house in the evening to have dinner with the family as well and watched a bit of Hairspray on television with the cousins.

Sunday morning I had a lovely sleep in (since when did 8:30am become a sleep in?!). Soong and I went to church early for music rehearsal. I filled in for bass as Peter Lin was going to be busy with baptisms on that day. I don't love playing church music, but it is fun to know that I am helping serve and helping people to be able to sing God's praises at church. I only do it when I'm needed, but it is a joy to serve others.

Baptisms are so encouraging. One of our youth group boys was baptised, and so were a few of our friends. Praise God! I also practiced my Mandarin with Jack at church, so now the challenge is to keep learning new words to have better conversations with him and the other Mandarin speakers at church.

After church Christine and I took Ingrid lunch and we had a really lovely and relaxing afternoon. I didn't end up taking Brit and Gab to church in the evening, which meant I got to spend the evening cooking dinner with Soong (massaman curry), and watching Buffy and knitting.

A simple and relaxing weekend.

Cars, Celebrations, Canley, Church, Cabra

21st, 22nd and 23rd March

Thursday evening I had intended for a quiet one at home. However, then Chris & Thom said they were both going to Madness and Chris hadn't been in ages, so I just had to go. 

After work on Thursday I caught up with Ash in Redfern. The area used to be super gross but now it's a weird mix of half gross half hip. We went to this bar called The Dock and got a few drinks and caught up. 

Thom & Chris bought dinner for everyone at Madness. Chicken, chips and salad. So yum! 

Friday morning I went on a roadtrip with Gab to pick up my new car! I ended up buying the Honda Jazz I looked at last weekend. Bright blue, smooth to drive, manual and currently nameless. I really am thrilled to own her. 

I had a cup of tea with Erin over lunch and helped her feed the kids. That was really fun. Rowan knows my name now and knows me, so that makes me excited. I like spending time with these kids, especially as they get older. 

I spent some time with Jess in the afternoon as well and we read and prayed, then I went to hang out and read bible and pray with my youth girls. I visited my dad and picked up some of the toys and CDs that had been in my old car for a year. Then dinner and youth group! Youth was great. 

Saturday I went to Rachel's Runners for the first time in ages. So good to be back there again. We ran the 5km and then we did hills. 

I rushed home to get ready for Phin's 1st birthday party. Super fun. :D 

Ended up exhausted afterwards. Went home and crashed. Watched lots of Buffy, did some housework, and then went to Canley with Soong to buy a lychee shake. I was able to cross V Lounge Cafe off my list of places to visit in Canley, and I finally walked the whole of Canley and wrote down all the places I need to eat. 

Sunday was a massive day. I did welcoming, prayer and ran a welcoming morning tea at church. Then lunch and church AGM. Then dinner for Soong's dads birthday at Cabra and froyo for dessert. A really great night! 

The More The Merrier

March 14th, 15th, 16th

Thursday evening was Helen's birthday. The best thing about birthdays is that it really is a chance to all hang out and spend time with one another. Really, any excuse will do and birthdays are a good excuse. This week I discovered baking and so I baked brownie cupcakes for Helen's birthday. We had dinner on Thursday night with the Bennett's and Pat. It was lovely to spend time with Rowan again and play with her. 

Friday was a mixed bag. I got up early because I thought I would be trying to buy JT tickets, but Soong decided to use his work Internet. Despite it being a faster connection we didn't get them. I had all these wonderful things to get done but didnt do many of them. Instead I read a friends blog all day. Super interesting. Super relaxing. 

Anh came for lunch which was fun. I felt bad because I didn't really have much food in my house to offer her but she seemed content with a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich. 

I thought I was meeting with Jess and Eve in the afternoon but eve was sick. I ran down to McDonalds and back anyway which was good. Smashed out 5km that I wouldn't have done otherwise. 

Youth group is always the exciting part of the week. As my girls put it, the weekend begins with youth group. Kirsty preached on obeying Jesus because he loves us and has saved us for obedience. 

Saturday morning was the very first Pancake Madness. The Bennett's, Kinsey's and Bransdon's all came over and we had pancakes and bacon. Simple and low key but really fun. I got to play with Rowan again and we all had a jam to The Wiggles. How times have changed. 

The afternoon consisted of car shopping with my dad and brother. Good times were had. We drove from my house to Haberfield to Castle Hill back home. Turns out my car is only worth $1500 so that's a bit of a bummer. I thought it would be worth more. Almost bought a sweet little Honda Jazz but it was out of my price range so I walked away. The plan is to now try and sell my car privately because I could get $4,000 for it opposed to $1,500. 

Erin and Matt invited us over for dinner that night so we are nachos and watched The Wiggles DVD at their house. Once again, how times have changed. I was surprised that I remembered so many songs though. 

Julian and Dad got home from watching the football about 9:30pm so I went and spent time with them. We watched a movie, then Dad went to bed so I watched a Pokemon movie with Julian and we hung out for a bit. Good times. 

Sunday morning Helen and Phin came over while Kins went and preached at our 8:30am service. So I had breakfast with them and relaxed. Church was encouraging as always. I met this wonderful Chinese Christian couple who I wish we're staying and not just visiting for the weekend. Kins preached a cracker sermon. So thankful that God expects obedience, so we obey through faith knowing that Jesus has already saved us. 

I spent the afternoon with Isobel, Von and Anh praying and chatting. I really appreciate being able to share the worries of ministry with them and learn from their wisdom and experience. I always feel refreshed after an afternoon with them. 

I walked home, after Isobel and I ran into Mandy, and prepared to settle in for a night of baking banana bread for Soong and Buffy. Instead, Laura and Kirsty invited me to watch television and drink tea with them! Yay people! So I drove my very dodgy car over to Kirsty's house and spent time with them and spent some time talking to Mum on the phone. 

Soong got home from his jam night at midnight so we both had a late one. I suppose I will really feel it come 3:30pm today. I feel quite awake and refreshed right now, but this could change.