Sleepover Party

Mairead and Hamish came for a sleepover last night. Donna brought dinner, which was lovely, then I gave the kids a shower (Hamish couldn't believe that we don't have a bath!) - and they even cleaned the shower for me! :P It took them ages to go to sleep - we sat down here and listened to lots of giggling, thumping, etc, and got up several times to settle them down. I ended up having to sit in there with them (and nearly went to sleep myself!). So we woke up at 6am this morning (since they were sleeping in our room), and I brought them down to watch ABC Kids. Alastair isn't feeling great, so I'm being lovely and letting him sleep. :) It's 9am though... perhaps the kids want to jump on him... :)

Out of the mouths of babes

A conversation between Hamish and Alastair yesterday, prompted by Hamish cuddling the wooden toy lizard we gave him for Christmas... which has lost all its legs...

H: Look at my lizard!
A: He's got no legs! He's a snake now!
H: No, he's still a lizard.
A: Yes, he'll always be a lizard in his heart.
H: (all forlorn) But his heart is broken...
A: (laughing) What happened to his legs?
H: (looking around for inspiration) Um... he grew out of them.

:)

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... :)

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. :(

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. :)

Wow, it's been nearly a month...

My goodness... I knew it had been a long time, but I didn't realise just how long! Our weekends have been enormous, and our weekdays filled with trying to stay afloat with all the usual things... So in an effort to catch up on a billion and one things that has happened, this is going to be a rambly, newsy post without much direction - cos that's the way I think and it makes it easier. :P

The weekend after I last wrote, Alastair and I went up to Coffs Harbour, so stay with some of his closest friends... Richard and Suzanne are lovely lovely people and their children are gorgeous. :) I feel blessed to count them among my friends now - and add to that: Richard is going to marry us. :) I think that's really special. So anyway, we went up there so that I could meet these people that Alastair kept telling me about - and I certainly wasn't disappointed. They made me feel so welcome, and we spent the weekend sharing over cups of tea, doing a jigsaw (750 piece, with 5 extra pieces and no edges at all!), resting, fishing (ew!), cuddles with the little ones, a movie at the quaint Sawtell cinema, lunch by the beach, and other fun things. It was truly a blessing to get away for a bit of a break.

During that next week, I tried on wedding dresses for the first time! Oh. My. Goodness. How awesome is it, to put a dress on, look in the mirror, and go "Wow. I look like a real bride." It was amazing, and I really like the ladies in a shop only 15mins away. We did look further away, but I have a really good feeling about this place in Leumeah. :) Mum and Megs came with me the first time, and I took Dad and Lachlan back another time to see if they liked the two dresses that I liked... and this weekend, it's worked out that I can get the opinions of my other two bridesmaids - yay! It's an amazing feeling to be in a wedding dress... kind of makes it all real.

The next Saturday was Dad's birthday, and we had a family picnic out at Warragamba. It was just lovely... the six of us having a barbecue and just hanging out together, in a way we haven't been able to very much. So we had marshmallow throwing competitions, kicked the footy (and Alastair split his pants! hehehe...), ate birthday cake, and just generally enjoyed our time together. It was nice and relaxed, and a very special time. I love my family. :) The next day we got up early and drove to Canberra with Ashley and Carly, because the Swans were playing Melbourne (Carly's team)... it got to a maximum of about 6 degrees and it was miserable and rainy and yucky. But at least I was with my wonderful fiance - that makes anything worthwhile. :)

The last week in July for me was full of trying to get 14 students enrolled for AMEB flute exams... filling out all the forms, getting fees from parents (which is still happening... grrr), organising a student recital as performance opportunity for them, as well as all the normal teaching and stuff that fills my life. Like being the best fiancee I can possibly be. :)

So then we hit August running... it started with me driving down to Donna's after orchestra on the Friday, and we had a 5th and 2nd birthday party (brother and sister) to go to the next day. It was fun... and even had a jumping castle! Do you know how long it has been since I got to be a kid on a jumping castle?? Too long. Liana handed me her 18month old son, and said "There you go Carla, an excuse to get on!" hehehehehe - yay! So I got on... and when all the kids got off to play Pass the Parcel, I stayed on... and did some flips and just generally got rid of some energy. :P That afternoon we drove up to my home. Alastair took my Dad to the footy (which he REALLY enjoyed, of course!) and Megs, Lachy and I went to an ABO concert (Alastair's mum is the receptionist, and had given us three free tickets in the dress circle!). It was a good night... except that when we got home late, Alastair and I had to spend time sorting out a little problem we had with each other on the way in........ such is life. :) My church the next morning, Alastair's in the evening... this is why we are so tired - trying to live two lives!

Last week was full with a whole bunch of general stuff, sorting out a heap of music for orchestra, getting up to date with all the filing here for Dad, contacting students' parents over and over... and stuff. On the weekend, we went down to Minnamurra for our "Growing Together In Christian Marriage" course, which ran from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. There were six young engaged couples, and the older couple who were running it, and we were staying in a retreat house... it was just the right number of people to be cosy, and we all got on well. Alastair and I got on particularly well with Stephen and Rochelle... and we've purposed to keep in contact and become better friends. :) What was really cool, was that it's the first time we've met new people as a couple. Up until now, all the "meeting" has been us meeting each other's friends... which has to happen, but the lopsidedness can be tiring. But we were both starting from scratch, and that was a pleasant experience. We learned a LOT... I came away feeling rather overwhelmed, but as we've "unpacked" bits and pieces and talked more about it, I'm feeling better. :) It was excellent (run by Anglicare), and I would highly recommend it. It's given us lots of food for thought, and skills to help our marriage run smoothly - at least, that's the idea. :)

This week has been the usual... which I won't go over again :P and we're gearing up for another enormous weekend. Today is Lachlan's 20th birthday, so that's exciting! Alastair and Michael are coming for our family dinner, cos they're part of the family. :) Yesterday I took Lachy out for coffee, and it was great to spend time with him... I've been busy, and he's been quite sick a lot of the time, so it was nice to chat about all sorts of things, do some shopping, and then I gave him a driving lesson in the manual... which he found rather exhausting... hehe. :) I do love my brother very much, and will miss him again when he flies back to the States on Saturday week......

So... that about brings you up to date. I will endeavour to not leave it as long between posts from now on! I'll have a heap to write about after this weekend anyway, I'm sure..... 

I love you all very much! (But especially my gorgeous fiance! xo)

Awe and wonder...

The last time I was at the Kiama blowhole, was on Saturday 24th January... one of my stand-in brothers and I went for a drive and ended up down there. We stood at opposite sides of the lookout, watching the powerful waves crash against the rocks, each absorbed in our own thoughts... him pondering forbidden romance, and me the lack of romance in my life. I stood there, and basically felt as lonely as I've ever felt.... and I wished that I was there with someone who loved me - Michael does, but only in a fraternal sense, thankfully. :) As I stood there, tears came to my eyes... and I said a quiet prayer.

Yesterday I was there again... but this time with my fiance standing close behind me, as we gazed from the lookout and marvelled at God's creation. The wonder of God's love is amazing and so undeserved... He has planned out the intricate design of our relationship, in ways that we can never understand.

Our weekend was big and busy... minding the boys on Saturday was oodles of fun! In the middle of the morning, we took them out to the shopping centre for donuts, battling car seats, prams, trollies and rain, which I found enormously amusing. Then when we were eating lunch, Keegan (3) sneezed three times into his hand then said "yucky" as he wiped it all over the table. That was gross, but Alastair's reaction of shock had me laughing uncontrollably for several minutes. Both boys were up from their sleeps when their Dad arrived home, and I think we did pretty well for ourselves. :) In the evening we went up to Sydney for the footy - the Swans played the Magpies, and Katherine and Joel came down from Gil for it. We picked them up from Kat's parents' place in Campbelltown, and had a hilarious trip in... Joel played his ukelele in the front seat with Alastair on kazoo and U2 on the iPod. :) Ashley and Carly met us in there, so the three Wilson boys were there with girlfriend, fiancee and wife, on a triple date! Hehe :) The game ended up disappointing, but we're good sports. It was a late night, then we got up and went in to Sydney again to meet Alastair's mum and Michael, Uncle Jonathan and Esme, and Nan for brunch. Nan was up from Benalla and I hadn't met her, and Jonathan and Esme were off to Italy/France for 6 weeks, so we caught up with them all and it was pleasant. Once back home, my family wanted to go down to Kiama, so off we all went and had a lovely afternoon (even though I was feeling *sick* :P), then we came home and watched movies. I'm tired, but happy. :)

A couple of pictures from yesterday......

A week to a view...

Oh my goodness, it's been a week since I posted and so much has happened! I'm on the go all the time these days, and when I do have a spare minute, I have to prioritise and use it for more important things... not that keeping up with you isn't important...... I hope you know what I mean.

I've loved being busy, but I'm really looking forward to next weekend (13th/14th) when we don't have ANYthing on... yet. :P This weekend is shaping up to be as busy as ever - I'm sure it'll be lots of fun though. :)

Since I blogged... on Friday night Alastair picked me up from orchestra and we chilled here... then on Saturday we left early and went down to Canberra for a Swans game. Joel and Katherine came down from Gilgandra for it too - it was SO good to see Katherine again! I'd post a link to Alastair's blog here because it has a photo of him and I with Joel and Kat, but there's a really hideous photo on there of me which is ewwy, so I'm not linking it. :P We came back via the Axelbys', and it was just lovely to spend time with them - and be able to introduce Alastair to them! Their home is always open to us, and I love visiting them... was so pleased when my fiance came away feeling like he'd just made 12 new friends. :) He even managed to cuddle Michael... 

Photo courtesy of Rachael

On Sunday morning, Alastair got up early and went for a ride with Jonathan. We all got up early too, and went in with stand-in brothers Michael and Jono to meet Lachlan who was arriving home from the US! It was a loooooong wait, but so good to see him again. (Of course, I cried). We went in to Circular Quay and had brunch there all together... it had been too long. Alastair dropped in on his way back down to Wollongong in the afternoon, so my brother was finally able to meet my fiance in person. :) Lachlan brought us a beautiful hand-blown, hand-painted vase as an engagement present... he carried it all the way from PA in his hand-luggage. :)

At Circular Quay...

It's so hard to get a picture with everyone being normal with these guys!

A random pose Michael had the brainwave of and I made everyone do. :)

Btw, Alastair gets on so well with all my family. I really love that. :)

So this week we've been working hard of course with all the usual things... work and teaching and organising and all the rest. I've got an hard-back A4 book with lined pages and on the front I've written "Engagement/Wedding Stuff"... it's a place where Alastair and I can write anything we like... from guest lists to gift lists... and other things... like random stuff we're thinking about that we don't want to forget, just so we don't have to have a whole bunch of random papers lying around that will get lost. All our engagement invitations are out, and I've had 29 'yes' RSVP's already, so that's exciting! Nanna is taking me shopping in the city next week for a dress to wear to the 'party', which is really lovely of her. 

Besides all that, I've been down to Wollongong and stayed the night at Donna's twice already this week - and tomorrow will make thrice! On Monday I went down to watch the church netball game, and afterwards Alastair and I had a bit of 'us' time... we don't often get it! So that was lovely - we went to a little Italian place in Figtree before I drove to Donna's and slept like a log. Tuesday I taught all day and Bek came for dinner afterwards, which was great - life has changed for both of us in the last little while, and we don't get a lot of time for that sort of thing. She's also one of my bridesmaids, so she, Megs and I discussed colours for a little while. Still undecided. :P

I was in Wollongong last night too, as Dale and Cass (there's a gorgeous photo of her baby on there!) invited us for dinner. Alastair went to school with Dale - so they go back a loooooong way, as they're both old. :) I felt amazingly comfortable with them, and their kids, Callum and Annabelle are just gorgeous! Call me clucky, but man! I'm in my element down there with all the babies and toddlers that Alastair's friends have! :) I got to give Annie her bottle after tea and she went to sleep and snored in my lap. :) Back to Donna's for the night, and I came home this morning to have a day of doing normal stuff, sorting through boxes of wool/spinning supplies, making FGYO flyers/programmes/etc for our next concert, and working for Dad. Tonight two of my youngest students made their debut at their school solo night, so I went an accompanied them on piano. They did so well and I was so proud of them. :) When I got back, there was still a heap of work to do with Dad, and being tired, I didn't handle it brilliantly. The highlight of tonight was, of course, talking to Alastair before he went to bed ages ago.... and since then I've been finishing work off, replying to emails, and stuff like that.

Tomorrow I'm off down to Donna's for the night again, as I'm helping out at a working bee on Saturday morning at Alastair's church..... and there are lots of other things planned for the rest of the weekend too.... but for now, BED! I need to get there ASAP! I hope I haven't forgotten anything I should've written! Anyhow... right now I am feeling very blessed. God is good to me.

Love you all! xo

A couple more photos, just cos they're there... :)

Lachlan and I outside the Opera House looking over the harbour...

Daddy and his girls...

A photo...

Wow... life is hurtling along at a crazily wonderful break-neck pace! I love love love it, but I'm so tired! And it means that I don't have a huge amount of time to blog about everything... maybe soon... Here's a photo of us at my very first football game on Sunday - I had a spectacular time!!!

Last Sunday we went on a picnic...

On Sunday we went for a picnic with some of the people from Alastair's church... in honour of Mick and Clare's youngest daughter Ingrid's first birthday. I love Alastair's church family, and there are lots of babies and toddlers to cuddle! It was a lovely day, and here are a few pictures...

* * * * *

Kerryn with her daughter Emily, and me with Donna and Dave's son Hamish. He's absolutely adorable, and I love him to bits. :)

Me with Hamish... he usually smiles.... 

Alastair and I with Hamish and his sister Mairead. Gorgeous kids. I stay with them if I need to stay in Wollongong overnight, and they've become like extra family. :)

Across the duckpond...

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. :)

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... :)