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...

Random goings on...

This morning I babysat my little friend Hamish, at Alastair's house (while he was at work). Hamish was so disappointed that Alastair wasn't here. He kept asking "where's Al?"... and when I told him that he was at work, he said hopefully "but Al will be home soon?" He's so cute. :) He talks to the dog, Matty, too... "watch me, Matty, I can climb up here all by myself!" as he climbed all over the brick barbecue in the back yard. A real little climber, this little guy is - always has been, apparently. The poor thing took a tumble and fell off though, scraping skin of his nose - I felt like SUCH a bad babysitter!!! He was very good and didn't cry much... we washed all the dirt off and joked about how he looked like Rudolph. :)

Yesterday, I started setting up a database for my students. Well, Alastair set it up, I'm really just doing data entry. :P Anyhow, I'm going to use the laptop at lessons and not have to carry folders around. Yay! :)

I have had two enormous quilts sitting around for a million years... which have only needed the binding sewn on. I'd done about half of one. Last night, while Alastair and I watched Episode 6 of Star Wars (aren't I good?) :P I got quite a bit done on it, so I'm hoping to finish that this afternoon, then I'll only have one to go. It's good to get some big jobs out of the way.

Jobs, yes, but not really wedding-related ones, unfortunately. I re-wrote my list of things to do for the wedding last week, and there were only 41 things on it. I thought that was okay... but I only got one thing crossed off! I'll have to put some concentrated effort in this week and next, given that I'll be back to teaching and everything after that.

Only 8.5 weeks/60 days to go! :)

Gradually getting there...

It's been good during the last few weeks to get a few things crossed off the "Wedding To-Do List"... today I got a couple more done, getting our rings engraved and buying ribbon for the cars, (so that Dad can experiment and work out what the best way is before the big day).

I've also been frantically tidying up all the loose ends and helping FGYO to get up and running for the new year, so that I can leave with a clear conscience. :) This week has seen the last of filing of music for me, which is a relief. Today I helped two other members of the committee to organise everything to do with sending out 'start of year' letters (which tell members when their auditions are, when we start back, the overview of the year, etc), so I'm sure they'll be right with that next time. Now I just have to fix up the 'Information for Members' booklet (for the last time!), co-ordinate Audition Day, and help them for the first couple of rehearsals, and I'm done. I'll really miss FGYO... it's been such a big part of my life for so long, and I've really enjoyed it. I need to let go of it, as it's impractical to stay, but it will leave a bit of a hole. I'm just not good at change. Never have been. That said, I suppose that it will be nice to be free on Friday afternoons for once, and I'm sure God has other plans for me... :)

Last night, we met with our minister (Richard) again, and we talked more particulars about the wording for the ceremony. I've started to make the Order of Service - and I'd love it if it was all finalised soon so that I can get them folded and everything before school goes back. It would just be one big job that would be completely sorted and out of the way. Mum and Dad came to meet Richard too, and they like him, so that's all good. :)

Today is Mum and Dad's 31st wedding anniversary, and tomorrow is Mum's birthday - so I'm off to cook a birthday cake! :)

Busy, busy busy!

On Saturday 2nd January, I witnessed my friend Liana have a baby! It was a wonderful experience... and I'm so thankful that she and her husband allowed me the privilege of being with them during the birth. I got to hold Maeve Esther only a few minutes after she was born, and then we went to visit the next afternoon too. She's beautiful, with lots and lots of black hair. :)

Christmas was lovely, but very busy, so we were glad to have a few days off after that. We didn't rest much though, having lots of wedding stuff to get done. Amongst lots of other things, we got the suits fitted for Alastair and the three groomsmen, we sorted out all the details of the Order of Service for the ceremony (now I just have to make the booklets), one of my bridesmaids, Bek, bought us a fridge and so we took delivery of that (she's so generous!), and we had a big Glen family get together on New Year's Day which was really lovely. Now we're watching what we eat so that we can fit into our wedding clothes! :P

On a side note, wedding ettiquette is so annoying! The thing that's bothering me the most now, is that one is not supposed to invite people to the kitchen tea that aren't invited to the wedding, because it's bad manners. :(

Tired out...

So just a quick update: All my students passed their exams on Saturday, so that was a relief. Sunday was spent doing a whole lot of little things that needed to be done as well as church, and yesterday I got to be a mummy for a day, babysitting Mairead and Hamish from 8:30am til 5:30pm. Wow... it was full-on. Two more days of work til it's Christmas Eve (which will be a big day) followed by Christmas Day (which will be even bigger). I'm looking forward to a rest on Boxing Day.

An apology

I wish to apologise for my post "Feeling down" on Monday. I shouldn't have posted that. :(

Sometimes life seems to get so complicated. It's good to know that God is in control of all the mess.

A bit of happy!

Okay, I am happy again now, and thoroughly looking forward to Christmas!

Here's a little of what our last few weeks have held:

~ The beautiful wedding of some dear friends, Garth and Rebecca ~

...where these delightful little people were:

(I love the loving head-lock embrace)

* * * * *

~ A fun weekend of Christmas cooking at Donna's house ~

(Donna and I stayed up til midnight mixing, rolling and baking)

The next day we assembled...

and decorated ...

Until we ended up with this:

and a few mini gingerbread houses...

and indeed a whole town of gingerbread houses, trees, and reindeer!

Little cupcakes I made:

This is adorable Hamish trying to eat a candy cane bigger than his head...

And here he is again, dressed up as Snow White. These poor little guys with big sisters - Lachlan was the same...

* * * * *

Then we farewelled Meaghan, Michael and Jono at the airport as they left to go and spend Christmas in New York with Lachlan! I miss Meaghan...

So that's a bit of what we've been up to in photo form... beside that there's been the usual busy-ness, all the work (since Meaghan is away), my teaching (which has just finished for the year - yay!), I have my students' exams coming up on Saturday (and I'll be so glad when they're over!), we have a fundraiser trivia night at Alastair's church on Saturday night, and then it's the week before Christmas - I'm shamelessly excited! On Monday I'm looking after Mairead and Hamish so Donna can have a day on her own, and we're going to have lots of fun! I am so blessed. :)

Woohoo!

Today, it's 100 days til our wedding! Yay!

Eeeeee!!!

A friend of mine has said I can witness the birth of her baby sometime around the end of December/early January! I'm so excited! I've wanted to be present at a birth for years and years and years, and I will ever be grateful to this dear couple for allowing me to do so! (At least, that's what I'm saying now... ask me afterwards...) :)

On a wedding-y note... I'm putting our beautiful invitations in envelopes right now, and they'll be posted this week! Yay!

A question or two:

As a married couple, will it always be that there are lots and lots of things that we agree on and a few things that we don't see eye to eye on yet, but will come to agree on in time? Is that the way marriage works?