Wow...

Wow.

That's all I needed to say.

Actually. I'd also like to say that God is so amazing*... He truly does have all the details planned out just right*... and He has a sense of humour* too.

*full story at a later date :)

xoxoxox to all my beautiful friends...

Okay, okay, okay!

... I will share what has made today particularly weird....

I got a message from a guy that I randomly met at the wedding I attended on the weekend... asking me out for dinner... lovely Christian guy... but... wow???

This wouldn't have been the way I'd have planned it..... 

God...???

Hmm...

Something a little weird... strange... exciting... - and all those sorts of words - happened today. Which I can't really talk about at the moment. But if you think of it, please keep me in your prayers. I would certainly covet them.

Just thought you might like to know...

It is a rather unfortunate situation when one knows too much.

Easter 2009

Easter was a little different for me this year... I think I'll tell the story in pictures this time.

On Good Friday, I played for our church service, before taking off with Alicea and Louise for our trip out to Dubbo/Gilgandra for Katherine's wedding. Here we are in the car:

The normally 4.5 - 5 hour trip took us 7 hours... this is why:

The cabin in which we stayed for two nights looked like this inside:

I was blessed to be able to catch up with Jemima and Bede for a few hours! They've just moved to Dubbo, and don't have long until their 2nd baby is born... and they live in a beautiful old house:

Katherine and Joel's wedding was on Saturday. I did Alicea's hair:

Dear old Mr. M. was there too:

It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful church, and during the signing of the register a quartet sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You from the balcony:

And it rained:

Here's a funny sign we saw in a Gilgandra service station window:

Alicea, Louise and I just before the reception:

The cake... they're both musicians - how awesome is it?!?!

Joel played his ukulele and sang a song he wrote for Katherine as part of his speech - it was so sweet:

FGYO girls:

Me, riding the hippo sculpture outside the venue:

What some girls get up to when they go away... having my hair coloured at midnight:

On our way home, we stopped at a reserve for lunch. My tomboyishness (which I hadn't seen for a while) came out in full force... up a tree:

... and swinging from the rafters of the picnic shelter:

Alicea and I... just so you can see my new brown hair:

And that's it! Today I've had a nice relaxing day... :)

Off I go...

Just to let you know that I'll be away for the weekend... I'm travelling up to Dubbo with two friends for another friend's wedding - the four of us were pretty close in our bygone orchestra days... all had our 21sts within a few weeks of each other and stuff. So I guess it'll be special to see Katherine and Joel get married, and great to spend time with Alicea and Louise too - we rarely get to now, as our lives have taken different courses...

Today was a weird day... I flapped around and shopped for winter pyjamas and an outfit to wear to the wedding this morning - and I only had the hour Meaghan was having her lesson to do so. Oh, and I had to find underwear too... joy of joys - I do not love underwear shopping. :P Why does it all seem to wear out at once... does anybody else's do that?? Anyhow, for the wedding, I found a skirt - the only one in the shop - reduced from $69.95 to $19.95... and it fit me perfectly! PTL! Then I bought a black top, which unbeknownst to me was 30% off - so I got the whole outfit for just over $30. I was very pleased, as I love a good bargain... and it turned out to be the high point of my day. :)

Then I rushed to get all sorts of things done, (mostly orchestra-related)... and drove to Burwood for my lesson. While in the area, I had to pick up some music for camp next week from our conductor, and drop some off so that he could have it couriered back to the place we hired it from. But I forgot my half of the deal. I was SO cross and annoyed with myself. :( Then I had my lesson (which was good), and rushed home to rush through a whole lot of work before Mum and Dad left for bible study... man, I just feel like this term has been a permanent rush. :P After doing the dishes and folding the washing, I practised the piano for tomorrow's service and Sunday night's service, since I'm rostered on to play then... then I rushed to get all my stuff packed to go away for two nights. 

Something else weird happened today too, but I still haven't worked out what I think about it, so I can't talk about it here... it was weird enough to make me cry. :(

So many feelings, thoughts and emotions... I don't want to go away... I don't want to watch yet another friend enter the state of marital bliss while I am left alone... I don't want to watch three particular friends go through the heartache they're going through.... I want it to be Monday already. I just need a big hug.

xx

I'm freeeeeeeeee!

Today, I taught my last lesson for Term 1, 2009 - the 227th one! Wow.

I'm so excited to have two and a half weeks without teaching!

Friday Fun. Saturday Stress... and Smiles!

The last two days have held lots of mixed emotions. I totally thought I was getting better at handling said emotions, but alas! I am not. :P

Yesterday was a little bit stressful in general, but after orchestra three friends came over and we had an absolute ball! We ate beef stroganoff, watched Bend It Like Beckam, and played on (used? I don't know what the proper lingo is!) one of our stand-in brother's Nintendo Wii - it was hilarious! Until Meaghan smashed a glass water bottle off the table and onto the slate. Actually, that was just as hilarious, but then maturity reigned and we cleaned it all up beautifully. Two of our friends went home just after midnight (in the middle of a huge storm!), and the other stayed over... and we stayed up talking til after 2am.....

...which was great, but not such a good idea...

Because this morning at 10am, (or yesterday morning rather, by the time this gets posted), we (Megs, biggest-stand-in-bro, and myself) were playing at a friend's wedding. I won't go into ALL the details... suffice to say, the disorganisation and miscommunication made it a less-than-pleasant experience, and we finished up at 4:30pm, after being there since 9am, feeling cranky, used, and quite sad.

However, after that was all over, things picked up. :) Megs and I went into the city with three friends (a married couple and a girl the same age as me - LOVELY people), to watch our biggest-stand-in-brother do a gig with one of the bands he plays with. It was great! Well... you know. I loved seeing all the boys get into it and look like they were enjoying it, and we met other friends in there and showed our support together and that was really nice. But it was VERY loud. :P That's cool though, I can get over that. :) Afterwards, 15 of us went and had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Leichhardt - they put us out the back at a big long table because there were so many of us! And it was SO nice! It was so relaxed, and we all just chilled out, and got to know new friends and old friends even better... I really enjoyed it - and it was just such a great way to end the day. Then we walked up the street and got gelatos.... I had two flavours: choc-mint and boysenberry....ooooooh! It was so good! And another lovely thing was that I didn't have to drive home. I am feeling blessed tonight - I know so many wonderful people, and I just keep meeting more! One girl I met, Michelle - she is so so SO lovely... I liked her immediately. I've met her briefly a couple of times, but getting to spend quality time with her was great... I think she's a kindred spirit. (She even has blonde moments like me!) :)

And now, I'm SOOO tired! I'm going to duck off to bed - and turn my clock BACK an hour because daylight saving finishes, yay! :) Another big day tomorrow, with church in the morning, and an Easter hymn service all afternoon... but I'm sure it'll be nice. I love being involved with nice people, and that's what tomorrow will be. :)

A wedding rehearsal...

My sister, one of my stand-in brothers and I are playing for a friend's wedding on Saturday morning, and last night, we had the wedding rehearsal. It was long. It was boring. It was extremely disorganised. And I ended up wanting to deck the minister. Thankfully I had two people there who know me very well, who at regular intervals kept telling me not to say anything, and not to do anything. :P It was SO annoying though... we'd been there since just after 6.30pm, and we had our little run-through just us musos, then the girls arrived at 7.30pm and did their walking up the aisle thing a few times (amidst much skipping, dancing and laughing), and THEN, the guys and the minister arrived at 8pm, and they sat around and talked for AGES, so we were just hanging around waiting and waiting (and we were tired and hadn't had any dinner) and then the minister got stroppy with us for fiddling around practising our parts when he was talking. I was really cross. Anyhow, we made it through and got to leave at 9pm... and we made our way down to Subway. It was nice to hang out for a little while and de-stress.

It's been a while!

I just wrote an introduction to this long-overdue post... and then deleted it. 

It really was quite pathetic.

So in an effort to get back on track... in the last nearly-two-weeks since I last updated, some of the things I have done are:

• taught 42 flute lessons to gorgeous girlie individuals... and it wasn't as hard as it used to be! I think I can actually do this... :)
• had an awesome evening with  friends I don't know all that well, but with whom I can completely be myself - and they offered me honorary membership in their family! I particularly love the dad in that family - he is such good value. :)
• attended a friend's engagement party - and felt again the feeling of still being alone when all my friends are getting married.
• paid a phonebill (oh the joys of being a grown-up)
• had too many late nights (more joys of being a grown-up)
• booked overseas flights for myself, my sister, and my two stand-in brothers to go and visit my REAL brother at the end of the year! Countries we plan to visit are: USA, England, France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Egypt. (Am mildly scared about the Egypt bit, but I'm sure it will be okay...) :)
• played in a great concert with the Fisher's Ghost Youth Orchestra... and even managed to play a piccolo solo [mostly] in tune!
• watched the Training Orchestra - at the same concert - play their little hearts out so brilliantly, that my teacher's heart swelled with pride as I clapped and screamed and whooped after every piece they played :)
• ached over a few friends who are going through really rough times... and felt torn as I struggled with wanting to be there for them with a listening ear and an everlasting hug, and needing to let them learn to trust the Lord for themselves.
• played the piano at two church services... and even improvised around a few chords as background music before the service. Huge step for me to actually do that in public...
• ate a whole block of Club Peppermint Chocolate.... and a whole block of Milky Bar... Mmmm.... I will get fat.
• done two weeks worth of filing in two days... and a huge amount of ironing.

Of course, there were lots of other things that have happened and that I've done, but those are the things that come to mind as I glance through my diary. I hope to be more posty from now on! Tonight I am tired, and I'm missing my real brother. I want to talk to him. :( But on Sunday, it will be 8 weeks til he comes home! Yay! :) 

Love you all!