Nameless post...

Another busy couple of weeks: house-hunting... two new students... a mattress delivery... gift-buying... final payments to photographer and florist... frantic copying out of several family favourite recipes... phoning a thousand shops to try and order more ribbon in the same colour as we've used before... tying bows for the church pews... thousands of other little emails and details... and a few days sick in bed thrown in too (still not feeling 100%). Almost everything is organised now - just the last little things that can't be done more than a week before.

Today I was reminded of how sinful our natures really are. Two couples that I know have been hit hard with the reality of this fact, when an affair took place between the husband of one and the wife of the other. I guess it's when the people we look up to fall into sin, that it hits us the hardest and shakes our very beings. They are the people we really expect more from - but why? Do we think that just because they are Christians, that they are somehow immune to the temptations of this world? And how am I any less immune to them? I'm not! And neither is Alastair. We trust that by the grace of God we will persevere in our marriage... but there are some definite boundaries that can be put into place... more thought required. :)

Wedding-ish things!

I've been busy with lots of things lately... shhhh..... don't tell anyone... but aren't the place-cards lovely! :)

We had a lovely day for the kitchen tea on Saturday - it was a very pleasant afternoon with all the ladies! Mum and Meaghan did an excellent job planning it, and we had lots of help from one of my bridesmaids, Bek. Here are a few of the photos...

The Food

The Games

(See how many pegs you can fit in one hand)

(Wedding dresses out of toilet paper)

And yesterday we had the bridesmaids' dress fittings, which Donna is doing for me - and she has done SUCH a good job! The girls all look just gorgeous in them! :)

Everything seems to be falling into place quite nicely... :)

A bunch of stuff...

I have been hugely busy lately, though to actually write about what I've been doing is proving difficult.

There have been lots of little fiddly things... like finding ribbon for the cars for the wedding... finding little cake bags for guests to take a piece of cake home in... the headache-producing job of rearranging my teaching timetable (par for the course at this time of year)... buying gifts for people helping at the wedding... sorting out more of the FGYO music library (it's about 98% done!)... cutting up the card and the paper and the ribbon and the whatever for the placecards... etc. It's all taken a lot of time and energy, but it really doesn't sound all that much OR all that interesting!

Meaghan arrived back from overseas on Saturday morning, and it was lovely to see her again. She's a little different to how I remembered her - now with dyed brown hair and a more confident air (ooh! that rhymes!), but it's good to be back together again. :) She brought me some cool presents from overseas, a lovely scarf and a pair of little slippers, amongst other little things. She brought Alastair a hideously grotesque-looking carved wooden man from Egypt - which they are both delighted with, especially considering that I will have to have it in MY house. :P

Oh, I had my first wedding dress fitting yesterday. It was great (and fits almost perfectly as it is!), although inside that dress it is dreadfully hot, so I'm hoping that God is kind and gives us a cool day for our wedding. :) My shoes are the part of my attire that I'm most excited about, I think - they look like shoes for a princess!

7 weeks on Saturday...

I had resolved to post at least once a week. Ha. :P

It's been a different week this week... happily busy, and in hindsight, it seems to have gone fast. But while it was happening, it was slow and tedious. And it had a few low points too.

Amongst the good things were: finding rolls of cellophane for only $2 each for our bonboniere (or however you want to write/say that frustrating word), finding narrow ribbon (also for the b-things, and invitations) which exactly matches the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses, actually picking up said bridesmaids' dresses because they arrived at the shop this week (and they are at our house and they are absolutely beautiful and the girls will look stunning!), buying the invitation supplies and getting that sorted, going to the doctor and having her very pleased with my progress and weight gain (7kg since I met Alastair!), having my eyebrows waxed for the first time ever, picking up my wedding band (all re-sized and paid for!), making our Christmas card list and going to Koorong together to buy our cards, and having a very social day on Saturday and quiet-ish Sunday (well, part of Sunday).

The biggest not-so-great things were: having a big misunderstanding with Alastair on Wednesday night over the phone (which is all fixed up now), and a lot of friction between Mum and I over the "secret" parts of the wedding preparations (which is not all fixed up). Sure, I won't be letting Alastair see me in my dress before the wedding - and he doesn't want to either, but I have no worries about people knowing the colour scheme or anything like that. So the disagreements we have are not much fun.

Anyhow, that's about it for now...

6 weeks flies by!

Wow, I knew it had been a while - but 6 weeks!?!? A little while ago I realised that I needed to get a lot of wedding stuff thought about during the school holidays, because Term 4 is always enormous with students' exams, Christmas/end-of year stuff, etc, then Christmas comes, and since some places shut from Christmas til halfway through January (and then it will be 8 weeks til the wedding) I really needed to get a few things definitely booked. :) So I spent a lot of time doing that sort of stuff. Actually, since so much has been going on, I think I'll update in point-form:

• I helped at Alastair's church fete and made a billion sausage sandwiches.
• I performed as part of the Fisher's Ghost Youth Orchestra at our Bowral concert.
• Alastair, Donna and I went to a Sons of Korah concert - they are AWESOME!
• Mum had an operation on one of her parathyroid glands. And she broke her hearing aid. :P
• We got my engagement ring repaired - a corner chipped off one of the clasps.
• Alastair and I did the Spring Cycle in Sydney with his Uncle Jonathan. 40km - North Sydney to Olympic Park. Woo - go me! (I was sore afterwards!)
• Lachlan came back from the US for two weeks and competed in the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition - he came 6th out of 18 or so people. :)
• I made a billion phone calls to bridal hair and make-up people, had trials, and booked two ladies in!
• I ordered my wedding shoes online - it took two goes, but I have them now, and they're sooo pretty!
• We attended my friend Ann's wedding. She married Mark, my friend Bek's brother. :)
• I helped out at a school holiday fun day run by Alastair's church - I got the pre-schoolers. Wow, I was tired after that. :)
• I met with a florist, booked her in, and paid a deposit. :)
• Alastair and I spent an afternoon making a list of all the stuff in my glory boxes, so we know what we have and what we don't have.
• I bought all the vases and candle holders for the table decorations for the wedding. And spent hours picking/soaking/scraping off all the price stickers. :P
• I made an album with the pictures from our engagment photo shoot by Bethany (she's an amazing photographer).

• Alastair and I took Donna to see U2 3D at the IMAX in Darling Harbour - they are both obsessed with U2. :) I fell asleep in it. :P
• Alastair and I went to Melbourne with a family from Alastair's church (Scott, Kerryn and their gorgeous kids Ben and Emily), so that Scott and Alastair could do the Around the Bay in a Day ride - 210km! It was a fun weekend... I love the Queen Victoria Markets! My dear fiance has spent the rest of the week there, and I'm really looking forward to seeing him tomorrow!
• Meaghan did her A.Mus exam - and passed! We are so proud of her!

This week, Term 4 started with a vengeance - it's Friday night, and I've only got half the things crossed off my to-do list this week! Before I finish though, just a quick note to my almost-sister-in-law Carly: of course I don't mind if you comment on my blog! :) (But that game in Canberra was miserable. :P )

Btw, this is my 99th post. I think that's cool. :)

Oh, and we're under five months til the wedding now. That is also cool. :)

For goodness sake: it's 3:30am?!?!?!

I'm awake and I shouldn't be. But I've been coming down with a cold for the last couple of days, so I went to bed at 5:30pm last night, and now that I've woken up, I can't sleep any more. I lay there trying for an hour, but alas, my nose is completely blocked and sleep just won't come. It's very sad, actually, because I'm quite tired....

However, I'm going to be time-efficient, and update my blog. :P

Our enormous weekend (as mentioned in my last post) was just that: enormous. Which is probably why Alastair and I are both sick. :(

Alastair came up on Friday night, and we went to visit some of my friends for dessert, as they haven't had much chance to spend time with and get to know Alastair. It was lovely to see them and catch up - and they cooked really yummy individual sticky date puddings for everyone! When we got back, we watched a funny movie with Mum and Dad, and went to bed late. :P

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and down at the bike track early to meet my friend Bethany, so that she could do some engagement photos for us! It was lots of fun, and B got creative, enjoying the fact that neither of us mind being in front of the lens. :P Here's a sneak peek at a few of them: Engagement Photos!

From there, we rushed over to Woodbine McDonalds where we met up with Katherine and Joel, Mum, Megs, and Bek. We girls and mum (those three are my bridesmaids) went over to the bridal shop nearby, and I showed them the wedding dress I like. Or rather, the wedding dress I love. :) And I think we've pretty much decided that it's the one. Yay! :) Then we all went out to Gledswood Homestead, where we met Alastair and Joel, Dad, and Marelle (A and J's mum), as they were all set up and decorated for a wedding, and they said we could have a look to see what ours could look like. It was absolutely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, and everyone liked it very much. :)

And then we parted company. Sad times. :( hehehe :) Dad went home to mow the lawns, Alastair and Joel took their mum out for lunch, and the rest of us went bridesmaid dress shopping. I had mixed feelings about it, knowing that I'd seen a dress that Megs and I liked, but also realising that the three girls are all different shapes. We went to the shop, put the dresses on, and voila! They looked good on all three, and they all liked them! We even all agreed on the colour! Hooray! :) We went and found some lunch and talked about it, then went quickly to three other bridal shops nearby to check that they didn't have anything better, and then made our decision. It felt soooo good, and I was very pleased with our productive day! :)

Mum and Megs went home from there, as they had Lachlan's birthday get together to prepare for, and Bek dropped Katherine and I at Olympic Stadium where we met Alastair and Joel, and together we watched the Swans lose by only 5 points to... I forget which team. Oops. I'm such a bad footy fanatic. :P It was late by the time we got home, and we were very tired... which meant that we weren't disturbed by Lachlan and his friends watching movies until 4am like Megs was... 

Sunday morning we went to my church, and I got to play with Lachlan for the first time in over a year. It was lovely... except his 11 weeks here have flown by, and it was his last service before going back to the States. :(

After church, Alastair and I caught up with my friend Ann and her fiance Mark for coffee, which was lovely, and we swapped wedding planning drama stories. :P Alastair hadn't met them before, but he and Mark got on really well, so I was pleased. :)

We went back to my house and sorted out some wedding dramas for half the afternoon, then went down to Wollongong for evening church down there, which was good. Kerryn and Smorrie's 2-year-old Emily knows who I am and apparently when they say they're going to church now, she says "Carla?" :) How cute! They were sitting in front of us during the service, and Emmie called out "Car-laa", and Smorrie handed her over for a cuddle... she's adorable. :) After church we went out for dinner with Meg, Tim, and Mini-Meegs, and it was good to catch up with them.

After all that, it was no wonder that Alastair woke up sick on Monday morning, and couldn't go to work. I was glad I didn't have to teach until the afternoon, so I got to spend the morning looking after him. :)

Since then, I think I've caught what he had though. I guess that's what happens when you share the love. :P Yesterday I got all overwhelmed about a lot of things and cried myself silly, which I think didn't help my general state of well-being, as I was so tired out I just went to bed. And now here I am with this silly dilemma on my hands of not being able to sleep, but my eyes are so tired and sore and my nose is all blocked. :(

Later on today, we have a funeral to go to down in Shellharbour - dear Mrs. Powell unexpectedly went to heaven last Friday. Sad for all of us, but no doubt a relief for her, as she had struggled in the past with cancer and ill health. 

There you have it... my week. There's always something major going on at the moment... like Lachy leaves on Saturday morning....... :(

Another post? So soon?

Hello everybody! And yes, I'm back in the land of living - two blog posts in three days! :)

It's the long weekend - yay! Yesterday after orchestra, I drove down to Wollongong. Spent the evening with Alastair at his place, then stayed the night at Donna's.

I love staying there... this morning I was up doing play-dough with Hamish at around 7am - don't get that at home. :) Donna is so welcoming, and she's such a blessing in my life. I wish I could do something for her to show how much I love and appreciate her and everything she's done/is doing for Alastair and I...

I got back up to the Wilsons' at 8am, and Alastair, Tim and I got ready for a bike-ride. (Tim is the boarder that Alastair and his Dad have living with them). There was a youth-leaders brunch (or some such) happening at a cafe in North Wollongong, and since Alastair really enjoys cycling and is doing a 210km ride in October, I've been asking if we can go for a ride. Well... this wasn't exactly what I had in mind... I thought nice and flat, like Camden.... no way. :P It was up and down and all over the place. PLUS, I was using Meags' bike which Alastair is minding while she's in India, and you have to ride it with the special shoes that click onto the pedals. Scary stuff. I fell off the bike three times in the street last night when I was practicing, and another three times this morning! How embarrassment. It's not that I can't RIDE a bike, cos I CAN!!! But these stupid shoes! Man!!! I fell off while I was stopped, cos I had my feet locked in to the pedals... and usually to the amusement of those around us. :P Alastair and Tim were really good with me - they went slowly and didn't laugh at my disembarking habits. We got to the cafe, and had brunch with Meg and Jess... they were the only ones who turned up. Mini-Meegs was supposed to come, but of course she came up with some lame excuse for not getting there - like the alarm didn't go off. :P (MM, if you're reading this, I do love you.) :) I had awesome banana bread. On the ride home, I didn't fall off - not once! When we got home, I was SOOOO stiff and sore. My bum just kills - those bike seats aren't made for boney bums. Once home, we headed straight off to a church working-bee, where we cleaned, sneezed, threw out, sneezed, painted, sneezed, tidied, sneezed, hung curtains, sneezed, etc, all afternoon. And so I am now even more sore. :P But it was a good day, and we got a lot done. We're going to eat dinner now, and then hopefully watch a movie... we'll see. I'm bound to fall asleep in it, and I have to drive home tonight as I'm on music at church tomorrow! Fun times!

Oh, and you know what? I love Alastair more with each passing day!

A week to catch up on...

Sorry it's been a while since I updated... there's been so much going on, and I haven't had time before now to actually sit down and post. As it is, I don't have very long, but I will do my best! :) Cos I really do love blogging... sometimes words just don't come though. We'll see.

Last week (the week before Mother's Day) Alastair and I didn't see each other much. I drove down on Monday morning (since I had a free morning) because he was sick, and consequently home from work. Awww. :) I could only stay for an hour or so, because I had students after lunch, but it was good - I was able to look after him and get him some breakfast. And his headache went away too. :) 

We didn't visit during the week, because Alastair's church had a nightly one hour silent prayer thing going on, which was from 8-9pm. I wasn't allowed to go, because apparently I'd have been a distraction. :P Which is cool, I can handle that. :) But since Friday was the last night of it, I went down and met Alastair at the church when it finished, to surprise him. :) Then we went back to his house with a couple of his friends and talked for a while. 

On Saturday, our Big Weekend started. Alastair did a 30km bike ride, then came up at about 10.30am... then we went for a picnic to the beautiful Macarthur Park, so that Alastair could meet Mrs. Bieman (my adopted grandmother) and Kate, another dear friend. It was just a glorious day, and we had a great time. Late in the afternoon, Alastair took me down to Wollongong, and we had dinner at Kerryn and Smorrie's place... it was so lovely. Their kids, Ben and Emily, are adorable, and we had a ball hanging out with all of them. Then Alastair drove me down to Donna's house... she's now my adopted big sister - I stay with her if I need to when I go down to Wollongong. :) It's so lovely and comfortable at Donna's... I feel so welcome, and she just makes me feel at home... her kids, Mairead and Hamish are also adorable, and they wake me up early in the morning to play with soft toys in Mairead's bed. :) I am soooo blessed by Alastair's friends - they've really welcomed me and made me feel so loved. Hamish is just starting to talk, and he calls me Darla. :P

Anyhow, back on track! Alastair picked me up just after 7am on Mother's Day (I was ready!), and we drove up here for breakfast with my family... then on to Manly for lunch with my grandparents on my mum's side, and her brother and his family. It was really nice watching Alastair get on so well with them all. We had Yum Cha for lunch (which isn't my favourite!), and afterwards, Megs, Alastair and I took my little cousins, Grace and Luci, to the new Cold Rock ice creamery... oh! It was so much fun doing that with the little girls... :) I have loved seeing Alastair relating to all these little people too.... he's so good at it. :)

Anyhow, side-tracked with gorgeously cute kids again! :P Um... during the afternoon we went to Warringah Mall and wandered around there.... looking in jewellery shops.... :) and then we drove to Crows Nest to have dinner with Alastair's mum and her husband, Ashley and Carly (one of his brothers and his girlfriend). They're all lovely people, and I got on well with them - I think. :P I did with his mum, anyway. :) We had Mexican for dinner... and it was very very yummy. We got home quite late... and were very tired.

This week, Alastair has been sick - I think he's run down from all the late nights and busy-ness... poor boy. But he's getting better now. Yesterday after I taught in the morning, I went into the city to be moral support for a friend at a doctor's appointment. Then we went shopping and it was nice. :) I went down to Wollongong after that, and Alastair cooked dinner for us and his Dad and Tim. (Tim boards with Alastair and his dad). Then we watched a movie together, and I drove home.......

Tonight, I'm going down again, but I won't stay late cos I'm really tired. Fae and Keven - an older couple from Alastair's church - have asked us over for dinner, which is really sweet. They're lovely people, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better.

Today, I have so many things I have to do - my list is a mile long! But that's okay... it'll happen. 

I love falling in love. It makes me happy. :)

It's been a while...

Wow... it's been nearly a week!

When I began blogging, I told myself that I wouldn't slacken off like everyone else seemed to. :P But oh well, it looks like it happens to everyone. :)

This last week has been very full, but I've coped much better than in recent times, and I'm really thankful to the Lord for that.

Since I've posted, some of the things that have transpired (nice word, huh? :P ) are:

• I slept over at a friend's house on Friday night, and stayed up much too late. But it was all good fun - one long D&M really, so it's okay. :)
• On Saturday afternoon I had a lovely long chat to my brother, and that was SO good. It had been too long. :)
• And in the evening, Megs and I went to a movie with two dear friends. It was great. Well, actually, the movie wasn't. But the company was. 
• On Sunday, I didn't have to play at church. Either service. That was nice. :)
• In the afternoon I caught up on some things on my never-ending To Do list. My close friends know how much I love crossing things off that list! :)
• One of my stand-in brothers visited late on Sunday night... it was lovely and relaxed and we just chatted about lots of random things. As well as talking about serious things - like going to bed at a decent hour. :)
• On Monday, I slept for half the day, just because I could. :)
• I taught 21 flute lessons this week. Wow, I'm awesome. :P
• Also this week, I had two more people (now known as the mothers of students #24 and #25) call wanting lessons for their daughters!
• My week of teaching seemed easier - for the first time this year, I've felt 'in control' of the lessons I was teaching and what was going on. It's good to feel like The Teacher. :)
• I've managed to get lots of normal, boring things (such as organising, vacuumming, dusting) done this week... which I have not been managing at all this year, so I'm feeling productive. :)

And...

• Tomorrow I have a flute lesson with my new teacher. I've been loving my lessons with her so much! Maybe I will even get to catch up with a friend while I'm out... :)

While all this is good progress... I still ache inside for something....... and I'm tired now, so I'm going to bed. Love you all!

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...