A few days break...

I am finally feeling better! Not 100%, but much better than I have in 5 weeks, so that is great.

I have been in Wollongong since Saturday night, and it's been just lovely. So it started with me ending up being allowed to go out to dinner with Alastair's family, and I ate an enormous, delicious burrito. :) That was the start of a nice break. We went to Alastair's place first, and then I drove down to Donna's (and she's had me four nights in a row!). When I came back here the next morning, we just had a gorgeously lazy Sunday morning - our first, I think, since we've known each other! In the afternoon, Alastair went for a ride with Smorrie, and I spent a couple of hours with Kerryn (Smorrie's wife) and getting to know her - she's lovely. :) Alastair preached at the evening church service, and we came home and watched a movie... I think. I can't really remember... I was so tired I just kept falling asleep!

The next day when I came back from Donna's, I made my fiance's lunch and took him to work. :) When I came back to the house, I went to bed, and slept until lunchtime! Then I went down to open a joint account with Alastair during his lunchbreak, and got some things for dinner on the way home. I cooked a chocolate cake, and picked Alastair up from work, and together we made chicken schnitzel with vegies for dinner with Peter. It was actually pretty good. :)

Tuesday... pretty much the same thing - slept here til lunchtime, then got up and did stuff... tidying up, washing, and cooked an apple pie. :) Late in the afternoon, Joel and Katherine arrived to stay for a few days... it was pretty weird letting them in for the first time! I picked Alastair up from work and we had dinner here all together (spaghetti bolognaise which Peter cooked), and then we went down to Donna's for a game and dessert. I was so tired...

This morning Donna dropped me back here, and I walked in to a cozy lounge room with pyjama-clad people lounging around and the heater on... it was nice. :) Dropped Alastair to work, and then Joel and Kat went off to get Kat's tooth fixed, which has been giving her grief. They just got back, so now I'm going to be sociable!

I've had a lovely, restful few days... going home tonight after Alastair finishes work...

So guess what...

Yeah... that's right... I'm still sick. :(

And I'm not allowed to go to the footy tomorrow. :(

And I'm not allowed to go out for dinner with all Alastair's family tomorrow night. :( And they're going to the best mexican restaurant ever, too. :( :( :(

What an exciting weekend!

I'm still sick and trying to take it easy, but I had a WONDERFUL weekend! So until I can actually get my thoughts sorted out and in order enough to blog (because I really, REALLY want to!), this can tide you over:

 Carla and Alastair's Engagement Party!

My friend Bethany is an amazing photographer, and I'm so thankful to her for all the gorgeous pictures she's taken!

So guess what...

I'm still sick. :(

And now Lachlan has glandular fever. :(

Our family is battling four major, life-changing events all at once. The last few weeks have been hard.

The FGYO concert on Saturday went well, and Lachlan played well... he had to push himself through it though, as he was already going downhill quickly. I had pushed too hard... at the end I knocked a pot of flowers off the stage, and just cried and cried and cried. Our weekends have been so full and busy, I can't wait for life to settle down.

Yesterday marked my last day of teaching for Term 2. Public schools have another week, but the two private schools I teach at break a week early, so I gave the others an early mark too. That means I'll have 3 weeks off, which will be such a blessing. Last night after teaching, I went down to Wollongong, because it was my last opportunity before our engagement party. I got progressively sicker throughout the evening, and by about 10pm, Alastair suggested he take me up to the hospital. I couldn't breathe properly, couldn't stop coughing and crying and stuff...... but eventually settled down, and he took me down to Donna's for the night.

I was all worried about taking sickness into her house, but she was still up when we arrived, and was her usual sweet self welcoming me in. I got ready for bed, and Alastair tucked me in, made sure I had tissues and a drink and medicine and everything - he took such good care of me. I am so blessed. This morning I was feeling much better after a good sleep, and Donna took me back to Alastair's place. He went to work, and I pottered around doing some ironing and straightening up the place for him and his dad. I even picked some flowers and put them on the table. :)

Coming back home was weird. Mum has to be beside Lachlan most of the time to make sure that he keeps his fluids up, so that he doesn't have to be admitted to hospital to have them intraveneously (sp??) :P and Dad has an ear-ache. Megs is really holding the place together as Mum calls off all Lachlan's planned concerts, as well as looking after him, as well as planning the party on Saturday. It's a subdued kind of crazy here at the moment... weird.

So many people just have such BIG things going on in their lives... I'm praying for Donna, and for Danielle and Lauren... as well as us. There must be more stuff going on in other friends' lives too... but keeping up with everyone has become a physical imposibility lately.... ahh dear...

Urgh...

I am STILL sick. :( I just can't shake the last of this cold... it's *very* frustrating. 

Perhaps if I actually stopped for a minute and let my body rest, it might get over it more quickly... but there's too much to do.......

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......

I am still sick...

I took my first "sick day" for the year today... I cancelled 17 students. I hate having to do that sort of thing and muck so many people around, but it just had to be that way today - this morning when I woke up I felt disgusting. I ended up sleeping until lunchtime, and feel a bit better now... I will be glad when I'm better!

Megs is sick too... we don't even have half a voice between us. Mum found it most amusing when she overheard a coversation between the two of us... I couldn't see the funny side, myself. It's actually highly annoying. :P

The only other thing of interest is that Mum and I did a lot of planning for our engagement party today, so it's good that that's underway. I need to sort out two things asap: colour scheme, and cake.

Oh, there's one other thing. On Sunday after church, Alastair was talking to Gav and Liana, and ended up offering for us to mind their little boys all day on Saturday..... hehe! What fun! Keegan (3) and Ronan (1) are gorgeous kids and lots of fun... I'm sure we'll be kept on our toes!

I am sick...

Well, I've been sick. I spent all of Thursday and most of Friday in bed with a fever and terribly sore throat... now though, I feel fine - but my voice has gone! I sound like a boy. :(

In other news, Alastair and I are thoroughly enjoying our first weekend where we haven't been rushing from one place to the next the whole time. Yesterday all my family were out, so we leisurely made our way around a few reception venues, and found the loooooooovliest one! It's even available on the 20th March... so then we took Mum and Dad out there for a look later in the day. I hope they decide to book it!

Last night Donna, Alastair and I had a really good chat. Some of the things were topics I'd not thought much about before, others I'd put a lot of thought into over the years, but they were new concepts for Donna. Overall, it was very thought-provoking, and we are truly "iron sharpening iron".

This morning I went to Alastair's church, and afterwards there was a Church Council meeting, so I came back to his house to have a cup of tea with Peter. We had a good time - he'd brought in an old organ, and as soon as I finished playing Amazing Grace, it started smoking. (hehe) :) But it settled down, and he got out a big pile of old music books with popular old songs in them and I played through them... I think he enjoyed a bit of music in the house. Then Alastair and Tim wanted to watch some silly TV show, so I watched Peter make truffles, then we rolled them into balls together. It was good, we got to have a nice chat.

It's FREEZING cold!!! I have a scarf AND a jacket on. INSIDE! :P

Anyhow, I might go and see what all the boys are up to now... ciao! xo

Wedding plans...

Wedding plans seem to be coming along, which is exciting! We have a date, we have a church, we have a minister, we have a bridal party, we have a reception venue (which may or may not be definite)... one thing I would love to have sorted out is the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses - I feel that when that's organised, and we have a theme/colour to go with, that other things will be able to be planned more simply... 

Today was a big day - I left to teach early this morning and only just got home. It was worth it though. One of my precious bridesmaids is moving house, so I went to help her clean and tidy after I finished teaching at 6.30pm. We got a lot done but ended up pretty tired. Tomorrow morning Megs and I have to be on an early train in order to meet Nanna in the city - she wants to buy us each an outfit for the engagement party! How lovely is that??? :)

In related news, I am just overwhelmed at how very generous everyone is being towards Alastair and I - it's such a blessing, and has completely blown me away.

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!