I've been keeping busy...

Yesterday was a busy day... meeting up with a friend to discuss the music for her wedding (which I'm organising for her!)... paying bills... photocopying music for orchestra... and battling with Powerpoint trying to get the FGYO Information for Members booklet looking okay. So when a friend asked me late in the afternoon if I wanted to go and watch her play soccer, my immediate reaction was "I'm tired. No, thank you". However, the idea grew on me, and to cut a long story short, I threw sensibility to the wind (for the second time in a week, yay!) and decided to go. 

I got hit with a soccer ball as we were walking in, too - ouch. "Carla, can't you just keep your eyes open and look at what's going on around you so you don't get even MORE hurt?!?!", one of my stand-in brothers who was there, said. :) We sat on a picnic rug and watched the game... it was nice to be out in the fresh air. The people who were camped nearby were talking rather loudly - we tried not to eavesdrop, but they made it almost impossible sometimes. They kept us laughing anyway, quietly to ourselves of course. :P 

And afterwards, we went to see Valkyrie. It was a bit scary - I covered my eyes a few times - but that's just me, the others didn't really think it was that bad. :P Overall though, it was a good movie, and I thought it was well made.

Today was even busier. Man, I'm so dead right now. This morning I woke up feeling sick as well as stiff and sore (I've woken up stiff and sore for the last, oh, say, five days :P)... then I had to make a multitude of phonecalls to sort stuff out... fix up and finalise the booklet thingy... grab all my orchestra stuff, and head out the door at 12.30pm to co-ordinate 49 orchestra members' auditions until 7:30pm tonight. It was fun meeting all the new people and helping them with different things and making sure people were getting ready for their auditions at the right times... but I must've done about 50 laps up and down those stairs... I am so tired!

And now for some strange reason, I just want to cry.

So that's what's been going on around here...

An update...

I am actually more stupid than I had originally thought. My friends tell me fairly regularly that I'm a lunatic, but this tops the cake:

Last night, I again participated in the rather barbaric sport of sock-wrestling.

Just thought you might like some pictorial evidence on how my bruises are progressing... and to see the big new one coming up on the inside of my elbow...

Just thought you might like to know...

I absentmindedly just put my mobile phone on the mouse-pad and started using it as a mouse, wondering why the cursor wasn't moving. Am I tired or what?!?! I've been up late sorting out an Information for Members booklet for FGYO.

And also...

I am weird and random enough to notice that out of 15 posts in January, 13 of the titles have ended with a "..." 

I wonder why I do that all the time?

I am weird and random enough to present...

A Bruise Which Even A Boy Would Be Proud Of!

I got it while I was sock-wrestling with my sister on Sunday night... when my mum saw it, she said "and you're how old, again???"

Feeling uninspired...

I don't know why I'm feeling particularly uninspired... I shouldn't. I've spent a lovely weekend with a whole bunch of lovely friends - up here on Saturday, and down in the Canberra area on Sunday and Monday.

We had a great time with the Axelbys... I'm in love with the whole family, but particularly their bouncing, dribbling, baby boy and their second-youngest who is one of the cutest sweet peas you will ever come across. :) It was lovely to be able to catch up with them before the term gets into full swing, and even though we were at their place for less than 24 hours, we were able to cram in all the things we love doing together... games, chatting, eating, table tennis, movies, pajamas, junk food, hugs... and we added a new one, sock-wrestling. :) I think the girls were slightly mortified at the thought of it at first, but they got into it after a while. :)

Then on yesterday for Australia Day we went to a picnic, where lots of our friends were, so we were able to touch base with them all before the year starts properly. It was a good day, but different to our usual Australia Days, where we all go down to the parade in town, have a bunch of people over for lunch and then all traipse down to watch the fireworks... and usually Lachlan is here too...

Today I started teaching, though only six lessons. It was good to get back into that again... I can see a couple of potential Little Miss Personalities coming up, but time will tell.

So... that's it really. Still feeling really unsettled about other stuff that's going on around here and everything. Even though it was hard, it was probably good for me to put it all behind me for a day and a half and try to act normal...

Happiness is...

...silently watching the waves beat against the rocks time and time again with the wind in my face, and feeling pleasantly tired at the end of the day.

They tell me...

Apparently, patience is a virtue. 

Why are such virtues so hard to cultivate?

Just thought you might like to know...

As well as my occasional "Happiness is..." posts, I am also planning to do the odd "Just thought you might like to know..." as a random post.

So:

Just thought you might like to know...

I am feeling extremely hot today. Like, in the temperature sense of the word.

Oopsy!

Today, unfortunately, I've been a bit scatterbrained. I'm not sure why... maybe other things are playing on my mind...

It started out innocently enough... I went to meet a friend for coffee at 10am. When I got to Gloria Jeans in Camden, right on 10, she wasn't there, so since I needed something in the newsagency, which is next door, I sent her a message saying I'd be a few minutes late, and went in to find my display book refills. It took me a bit longer than I thought it would, (because I couldn't find what I needed...) but I knew that didn't matter - my friend was a bit late for me last time! When I got back to GJ's, I was surprised that she wasn't waiting for me. So I pulled out my phone to give her a call, and saw on my phone "message sending failed". How annoying. So I rang her, and started babbling on about how I was late and I'd tried to message her and blah blah blah, when she said "I thought we arranged it for next week... I'm at work right now!" so you can imagine how blonde I felt then. Oh well. :P 

I then had a bit of time to spare before dropping by another friend's place, so I thought I'd go to the shopping centre 10 mins up the road to get the things I needed at a different newsagency. Fine. I got that out of the way, and walked past a shop with some clothes on sale. I took five or six items into the change room, and was standing there in a long, flowing, teal-coloured skirt wondering why on earth the size 8 was so huge on me. Well... this was my second blonde moment in an hour. It turned out that I hadn't seen the '1' beside the '8', and was standing there in a size 18. It was never going to fit. In fact, Meaghan and I could have both fitted in it. I wondered if the woman behind the counter knew that that skirt (the only one of its kind in the shop) was a size 18, and if she thought I was weird for taking it off the rack. It was a nice skirt, and well-priced too... but it was going to need excessive alterations if I was ever going to wear it. So I left it there.  Oh well. :P

Then, when I was nearly at my friend's place, I got a call to say they were 15 minutes away. That was cool, it's a hilly area, so I went and practised my hill-starts in our new manual car. All was going well, and I was practising in what I call "sets". (I do one "set" per hill. It just means that I don't sit there and rev the guts out of the car in front of one house all the time, when I've done three or four hill-starts in one place, I go and find another hill and give some different houses a turn of watching/listening to me. :P ) So it was going fairly well... it's a little bit hard without someone there to give constructive criticism, but I was doing okay. That is, until my last set. For some reason, I all of a sudden got really bad at hill-starts. I just couldn't work out why. And then I smelt a horrible, horrible smell. So, I put the car into 1st gear. Then I thought to myself "WHAT did I just DO??? I put the car into 1st... that means I've been trying to do my hill starts in 3rd gear... oh dear..." so yeah. That was my third blonde moment in two hours. I was glad for the hug when I got to my friend's house.

Bits and pieces...

Today held bits of everything... among them, some bad news which I'm still digesting, and a lovely visit in Katoomba with a dear friend I hadn't seen for two years. Isn't it funny how sometimes we go from such "up" times to such "down" times - in the course of a few short hours?

Happiness is...

Every so often, I want to do a "Happiness is..." post. 

And so I present my first one...

Happiness is: being with a friend when they get good news, and getting excited together.

(Yes, this is my last post today... and no, I'm not addicted to blogging already. :P )

Today...

For the first time ever, one of my students called me Miss Glen. Wow. I'm so old.

I invited my sister and myself to stay over Sunday night at some friends' house. I'm so bold.

I got soap in my eyes while I was washing up. I'm so... weird.

Umm...

Okay, so maybe "cesspool" wasn't exactly the greatest word to use in my very first post... :P

I just taught a flute lesson to an eight-year-old, and during the lesson, quavers finally clicked. It was so rewarding. Then I was so hungry (cos I hadn't had lunch and it was 4pm) that I went and bought myself a foot-long roast beef sub. It was extremely yummy. And guess what? I'm also thrilled to bits with the fact that I actually, for the first time in my entire life, finished a foot-long sub! Are you proud of me? :)

That's all.

And it was very good!

I was going to post last night, but I was too tired. :)

Yesterday I had a really lovely day! Good company, good food, good fun - what more could one ask for? Let me elaborate a little...

Good Company ~ I love people. Really, when you think about it, people are what life is all about. God creates and loves people, Jesus came to earth and died for people, and our lives are about how we interact with people on a daily basis. Last night, we had fourteen very special people here to celebrate Meaghan's birthday. Fourteen people who are very much a part of our lives, who know us back to front... each and every one is such a blessing to me.

Good Food ~ Meaghan is our resident cook, but since it was her birthday, we didn't want her having to do it, so I took it on. Anyone who knows me at all well knows that over the years I've certainly had my share of calamities in the kitchen... well, I am pleased to report, that I escaped catastrophe yesterday. Out of my oven came a chocolate cake, and a pavlova (which worked!)... and I also made some rocky road. Oh, and we had fruit salad and ice-cream, and marshmallows too. I'll see if I can share a picture of the cake. One of our stand-in brothers came over early to help decorate it, and his creative side came out in full force - it was actually really fun to watch. :) Do you like my butterfly?

Ooooh! It worked - I'm such a geek. :P

and...

Good fun ~ Since it had been a hot day, we knew it was going to be warm enough to play with waterbombs. I love waterbombs. We filled a whole bunch up before everyone arrived (and tested a few out!) and everyone seemed to enjoy the game we played... before randomly pegging the rest. We also had the table tennis table set up, and a game of badminton happening in the backyard at the same time. After dessert, we all played Jenga (which was our other adopted brother's birthday present to Megs), Take Two and more table tennis. It really was a lot of fun.

And here's a picture of Meaghan which I took yesterday. Isn't she cute?

And now I really must go and hang out the washing and get some other stuff done... I have four students this afternoon too, so definitely getting back into the swing of all that... and I got the FGYO first term repertoire list yesterday, so I hope to get some of that organised while I'm at school this afternoon, before I start teaching. So that's it for now...

Just for fun...

Goodness me, that was a loooong post! Ooopsy - I didn't realise I'd written that much. I'll try to be more concise in future!

Anyhow, I just wanted to do one more thing. All those meme thingies and email forwards that go around that I've never participated in... I have secretly wanted to complete one. So here it is:

Well, at least, here I thought it was! For some reason I can't copy and paste into this silly thing.

Trying again...

and again...

it still doesn't work. So I guess I'll re-type it and get someone to help me another time...

Factoids ~ A Blog Post With 15 Weird Random Facts About Me!

* I am in the middle of holidays, and I still feel as tired as I did during term time.

* Some of the most awesome people on earth call me their friend.

* Jesus has saved me from my sins!

* I do not love my blonde hair.

* This year, I plan to take much more care about what I eat.

* I get sunburnt very easily.

* I hate getting sunburnt. Like, really hate it. It makes me cross.

* I wish I could play the piano better.

* When I turned 18, I stopped biting my nails overnight.

* I am told I have an expressive face. I don't think this is a good thing.

* In 2009, one of my goals is to learn to control said face a bit better.

* I miss my brother very much.

* I ran over a turtle when I was on my L's.

* When I get cravings, I crave cheeseburgers, 2 minute noodles and mint slice biscuits.

* I am capable of crying at the drop of a hat for no reason. It is quite an unfortunate situation.

* When someone hugs me, I feel very loved and it makes my day.

* I love to sew, but I don't get a lot of time these days.

* Happy babies in shopping trollies make me smile.

* Sometimes I eat too much chocolate.

* I can now drive a manual car... thanks to some very patient people.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that...

...and you shake it all around (clap clap clap)... Yay! I love the chicken dance. Seriously.

Okay, so that was a weird way to start My First Real Post... aside from My Obligatory First Post.

This blog scares me a little. And for several reasons. I won't go into them all, but my main fear is that I am "copying". I used to dislike it so much when my sister copied me! Now I know that imitation is one of the highest forms of flattery, but between the ages of about 7 and 17 I totally couldn't think of anything I found less flattering. Anyhow, my dear friend Danielle, who told me today that she wants to convert the world to blogism, said that if I had a blog, whe would read it. So she helped me to set one up... she held my hand (figuratively speaking) each step of the way (as I asked an astronomical amount of silly questions). And so today begins a new chapter in the life of Carla.

So... what does one write in one's blog? How do you all know how to write such interesting posts, which are so much fun to read? Does one get better at it, as one goes along? I'm feeling slightly intimdated, in case you hadn't guessed.

Perhaps I shall start by telling you that it is my sister's birthday tomorrow. I love birthdays! Although, truth be told, these days birthdays in our house are a little different, since my little brother is on the other side of the world. Oh hey, maybe I should tell him that I have a blog now, and that he can read it if he likes! Actually, that sounds like a good plan to me. I just miss him so very much! But you know what? Since Lachlan left, I now have two extra little brothers (well, as far as age goes... one is little, and the other might as well be my twin) ~ but they are friends of ours (and Lachy's) who have stepped in to try to fill the void he left. And I must say, they're doing a pretty awesome job.

Anyhow, back to my sister's birthday! Tomorrow, she will turn 23 - I can't believe she's that old! I can't believe I'm as old as I am either, but that's beside the point. After dinner, we are having some special local friends over for dessert and games.... we've planned the menu, want to know what it is? The birthday cake will be a chocolate cake, then we're having pavlova with cream and ice cream, fruit salad, and rocky road. Being the fantastic big sister that I am (haha), I already have the pavlova in the oven. My organisations skills rock. Haha again. Dear me, I am such a strange person. What I think is the best thing about tomorrow though, is that it's all about Meaghan. Not about me. Not about anyone else. Just her. And I want to make sure that she knows that.

Tonight in church my mind started wandering. Does that happen to anyone else? And do you hate it as much as I do? It was very warm inside, I was rostered on for playing piano (which tends to stress me out a bit), and I had a sore neck. It makes me cross when I don't take in the sermon like I should. Anyhow, I started to wonder what I will look like when I grow old...

I think this must be The Most Random Post Ever.

Deep breath...

This is me... jumping into the cesspool of the blogging world.

I hope I can stay afloat.