that's exciting. i like feeling better. i have cleaning this morning. that's not so exciting, but i get to chat with (or be chatted to by) my Grandma. She's a funny lady. I love her lots. She's just so "Maxine", and she's an absolute cack. i wouldn't have her any other way. and my grandpa's rorting (spell check!) the rta system. he's 85, and failed his driver's test twice, but his license doesn't expire til 2006, so he can keep driving as long as Grandma's in the car. if he failed his test again that'd be it, and they'd cancel his license... but instead he's got it sussed, and he'll keep driving for another 3 years. yes, i feel safe on the road :)
it really is like that tissue ad! but even aloe vera tissues (which i said the other day were the bomb) become very sandpaper-like after the amount of times i've had to blow my nose the last three days... ooouch!
i have this friend who makes me really sad. she struggles so much with life. it's not surprising to get inaudible phonecalls from her, or surprise knocks at the door, with her in tears, gasping for a breath because she's so distraught - simply (or complexly) overwhelmed with life. not that there's anything visibly wrong or challenging about her life. she has a stable, well-paying job, she has a friendly family, she has all the material things she'd need, she has a good support network of friends and church family, but everything gets on top of her so often. she's so unpredictable. and it's sad she has so many issues. and can't seem to get better. i don't understand it myself, but i want to be able to help her. being an ear and a shoulder is helpful, but it doesn't often feel like it. i'm not good at dealing with other people's pain or discomfort. i know that if i'm not having a good day, or if something traumatic happens to me, i don't want to see people or hear their words. i don't mean that to be rude, but i really don't. that's where me and my sister differ immensely. and so people will run to her when they're in trouble and that works fine for me, but sometimes i feel a bit of a meany, or insensitive, that people might think i don't care. i do care. i just don't know how you want me to help, or how to help in any case. good thing my sis is there though.
does anyone have/listen to michael w smith's worship?? do you know what bible passage is read out in the musical interlude of the song "let it rain" (or whatever it's official title is)?? some people tell me its from revelation (i can't find it in there), some tell me it's from psalm (around the 60s but i can't find it there), and others say it sounds isaiah/jeremiah/ezekial-ish. any ideas out there???
whinge whinge whinge... thats me when i'm sick i think. oh well. i had yesterday arvo off work - which was nice. I'd worked an extra shift on monday, and depending on how i feel i might pop up there tomorrow, but yesterday was not an afternoon that the cafe would have been jenny-friendly, or that jenny would have been cafe-friendly. i'm not sure how long i'll work today either, but i need to go in morning coz i don't know if anyone else will be there, and it's slack for sheryl to rock up, and be there by herself. i have to do the devotion i think. i'll find something. maybe jeremiah, and God saying it's not for a man to direct his path stuff. that sounds good. and then we'll pray... for the "usual", it's become. but also for ki on her 'holiday'. kaia i do hope it is a holiday! and that you aren't too sick, and don't work too hard. and then i might bail on snow, but i'll have to message her if i do that. i also haven't learnt my memory verse very well this week - naughty! 1 chron 29:11 - "Yours O Lord is the ...." and there's majesty and glory and those kinda words. very naughty jenny.
blogcity just doesn't seem to want to get the time right on my blogs. ah well. by my watch its 7:37pm and i still live in sydney. go figure.
not enjoying the onset of sickness - not howie sickness, no no, debbie sickness. love that continual feeling-like-i'm-about-to-sneeze feeling... grrr. but debs and mum got over it in about 2 days, so i look forward to a short illness. still, yuk.
today has been jubilee celebrations at my church - 50 years of TCBC. i didnt go to morning service, coz morn and night same, except for worship. i enjoyed listening to the singers though - they are really good. brett's such a cack. i love sitting with people like james, luke and chris, because clapping is fun. we had an 'extra' worship segment after supper, which was awesome. jayne, libby#1, snow, me, tamara and laura had lots of fun worshipping our great God. i wonder sometimes about fun and worship - how much is distractory. there's worship as a corporate thing, and as an individual thing. and i find often i get distracted in the corporate by the people around me, and conversations or laughter during songs. actions distract me. but i don't know if that's all bad?! i'm enjoying worshipping God, and when I'm doing that, i'm there to do that. if that makes sense?? i don't know if there's a particular balance to find, or if it's always ok as long as your heart and attitude is right. hmmm... but it's been two great weeks of worship, and two weeks in which i think i've needed and appreciated it. not that worship is focussed on me, but God, but we get blessing out of it too.
looooove the blue mountains. me and tim spontaneously went on a trip up there today. it was a bit miserable - but we got to watch a cool lightning storm as we drive up there... only we got to katoomba we went to a few lookouts, as it continued to sprinkle. but then it stopped, and even got sunny! so we went walkies at the three sisters. and it was very beautiful. the giant stairway wasn't open coz of a big landslide - but i didn't really feel like walking down all those stairs, only to have to walk all the way back up them! - too unfit. but one day hopefully :)
i haven't been up the mountains much, but it's very nice. clouds and trees are two of my most favourite things. apparently there were all these huge hailstorms up around springwood - phew coz they missed us in katoomba!!
i wouldn't want to overcrowd this blog with phoebe, but she's so captivating!
i am so excited! i got to put her to sleep today. granted she'd had a feed and would fall asleep whereever (you'd think) but i got to hold her as she fell asleep, and keep holding her for over 40mins. ooooh, she's so gorgeous. so small and lovely. so that was for sure the highlight of my day!! my week!! she's a sweet little baby girl - she sure has a voice on her though!!
i'd just like it noted that i have blogged 8 days straight - record much?! just saying.
it's very strange at the moment, can't seem to make up it's mind. and i can't decide what to wear. oh dear.
i really enjoyed work today. me and ki felt ultra productive. it just seemed we got lots done. which is good, and necessary. prayer time in morning was good too, with Kaia sharing a verse from Kings about not sacrificing what costs me nothing, and then with Sheryl. and we had morning tea food from our secret stash which was even more exciting. we have much more potential for productivity tomorrow as well, with a bit of a to do list.
tomorrow will be fun as we have birthday lunch for dana and me, and PHOEBE's coming!! hehe.
my little puss cat, xander, is back from the vet hospital this evening. oh the poor little thing. half his face has been shaved, coz they had to [insert word i can't remember here] the absyss that was growing back on his cheek. he doesn't seem very happy, and he's still a bit spacey from anesthtic (spell check?).
and the car men fixed my car, which is a bit of the phew. all under warranty etc. spark plugs, water, oil, i dunno. sure is a car.
i don't like how my blog updates itself when people make a comment. i think it's strange. but you get that.
i officially turned 22 about 7 minutes ago by my watch (6:44pm). 22. jeepers, that's old. 22 really isn't as exciting as 21. but i feel special with all my lovely friends and family being so nice to me. i'm not gonna talk about the fun of this morning in the car dealership. coz that was painful. but work was fun. we had a cake, for dana and me. and we sang happy birthday. and we ate the cake after blowing out the candles.i like my work buddies. you guys are the bomb. mrs mc also bought me flowers hehe. and at cafe, joely went and bought me a pop gun and bubble blower from gowings. and i thought that was lovely and sweet of him, and very fun!!
and now home is fun. and my family are fun. and my tim is fun. yay. early night tonight though. cleaning and car picking up tomorrow. woo. and my poor putty cat is in hospital tonight - mawwww....
thanks for birthday greetings to ryan. you have a blog. and you know howie. goodo. but cheers!
that'd be right - silly car is very sick. i take it to the dealer tomorrow morning for him to check out properly (and other work they have to do on it to start with). but so that's heaps good. ba baow. but lovely tim came with me for moral support this arvo. i hate doing things like that (not going places with tim, but complaining or making a fuss maybe). i don't know why. i feel stupid? i feel annoying? i don't know. it's a bit strange... i think there's too much concern for what people think of me. i dunno.
you know when you have these real quality times with people you like and don't see heaps much. i enjoyed that yesterday. not that we did anything all that exciting, but it was nice to be with these people again. we went for a picnic at Bobbin Head - great day for it! - which was a fun mix of people. some of it was a bit random. but it was good to spend time and conversation with people that are important to me, but i don't get to spend much time or conversation with. then we went back to lukeE's (eight of us) for a swim, which was fun, if not painful. boys in pools are funny. and it doesn't matter if you're a girl - you get decked too.
there are just times that aren't really all that exciting if you're telling someone else about it, but that are really valuable to have.
i've also really been enjoying the company of tim, luke and matt - which is a complete reversal on many years experience. i got to drive them three to supper last night in the pouring rain.
oh, and church rocked last night. it was a special communion service - very powerful. great atmosphere of reverence, rememberence, sorrowfulness and thankfulness. very moving. as we moved through the service with reflective songs of worship, after supper we came back for some more lifted tone worship. quality time!
i need to get my butt more in gear with Jesus. becoming very ho hum. need moment by moment conscious reliance.
And as i read the below comment part of me went "yeh, i guess", but then thinking about it...
i don't have a right to sit here in my nice kooshy house, in a nice kooshy suburb, in a relatively kooshy country, and write about my judgements on other people. I don't have a right to MAKE judgements on people (not that that stops me, or you i'd assume, from doing that). I don't believe that God wants us all living in poverty. I believe He can use poverty in huge ways to grow people and challenge them about what's important. I believe that the accmuluation of material wealth for selfish reason is wrong. And i struggle to see the accumulation of material wealth as being a non-selfish thing. Notice the word accumulation. I think that's the crux. Gathering more and more stuff. This isn't an attack on people who are the "have's". I'm just saying that if God provides you with money, perhaps there are better things to spend it on that a car that's top class. I'm not saying you have to walk, or buy a bomb to be right with God (and i choose my words and thoughts carefully after my parents have just bought me a second hand, but quality car). But simplicity is an important godly discipline. I liked what Kevin said about praying that peoples heart stay guarded. Coz that's important. Worldly wealth, amongst many other things, is dangerous because we let our guard down as we become comfortable. No longer relying on the provision of God, we rely on our own abilities and capabilities to provide for ourselves. Using the word 'we', i don't like doing that. Its like using the word 'you' - when really meaning 'me'. anyway. i digress.
I'm also not one for arguments. We all have a right to believe what we believe, not meaning we're always right. There will be different perspectives and convictions. We all have different life experiences. I think in my line of work too, I can't afford (excuse the pun) to be aiming to accumulate wealth, coz i'm never going to be able too. I don't think God thinks us better coz of the material sacrifices my workmates and i make, and sometimes it won't even stop the focus on money matters, as we stress about cashflow and resourcing, but i think that for some people, material wealth brings about weakness.
But anyway, there are much more significant issues than this in life. But I did want to just say something about all that. Maybe I'll just go read my Bible for a bit, and ask God what He thinks I should think.
And blessings don't always have to mean material. I think I'd rather other kinds of blessings anyway!
Kevin's comment:
"I just find it hilarious that a number of Christians think that God
wants his people broke and busted. Jesus said "the love of money" is
evil. If a person has a heart for the things of God and doing His work,
there will be blessings that follow. It's a natural law. It's because of
the poverty mentality that there are people around the world still
hungry because the church has made people belive that it's wrong to
accumulate wealth. We as believers shouldn't have to ask the world for
anything. If a christian leader had purchased a broken down vehicle would that
have made him more "Godly" in the eyes of Christ? Why don't celebrate
what God is doing in his life and pray that his heart stay guarded.... Let's pray for him to continue to be
blessed financially because it's when we are blessed that we can help
ministries further the message of salvation around the world.
kevin"
firstly, tim took me to manly last night for my birthday. not that manly is all that exciting. But we got to walk in the rain for about half an hour (i LOVE walking in the rain - seriously - except my jeans were gross after), we got to eat dinner, we got to see pretty lights from north head, we got to listen to coldplay on his new stereo, we got to watch a strange little ol' sunset, we got to talk and laugh and all those nice things. and it was lovely. yay for birthdays!
i do make life difficult for him though! i don't like restaurants (so our birthday dinner was him eating burger king and me having grilled fish and chips, coz he doesn't like fish, sitting on some sculpture-y thing). i also have blood sugar issues, so i get grumpy if i don't eat at regular intervals. sometimes i'm too simple. no fancy-shmancy stuff for me. good in many ways, but not heaps helpful sometimes. but he's stuck in there for almost 19 months - he'll be right!
another exciting and unexpected thing was to see mark commenting on my blog - hi mark!! i like mark. he's tops.
another exciting thing is i got 11 hours sleep last night - much nice.
another exciting thing is it's a sunshiney day. summer is coming! beach is coming! woo hoo!
not so exciting is that tim has mega the uni work to do today, so no beach fun with him. maybe i can play with ebs instead. hmmmm...
aaand also exciting was the expo day yesterday at TCBC. i got to play with a grumpy sarah (not so fun, she wasn't having a good day). seemed to be lots of people (i was only there for 2 hours in arvo). and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. i'm glad it went well. lots of people put in lots of work. but you do wonder about whether it was heaps effective in getting INTO the community. i dunno. outreach can be a very tricky thing i think. it can be hard branching out from inside those walls.
and it's sunday, which is exciting. coz i like going to church on sunday night. but i don't like 4pm sundays. i get bored, and its painful.
but its all good!
uaaargh... love that seedy sleepover feeling. why do i keep doing this to myself. last night deb, me, tim, luke and walker 'slept' in the church activities centre guarding all the art & craft stuff while cath, chris, lach and sharon guarded all the expo stuff in the auditorium. in the AC, we got it all figured, and slept in the hallway, and covered up the bright green exit sign, so we could all sleep good. of course, we forgot that right above our heads was the mother of all skylights, so at 5am we all woke up with the sun. and we didn't go to sleep til after 2am. so right now is yik. need a shower, some breakie, and that'll do me. it was fun but. i miss luke and sleepovers. hehe. hope the expo goes good today. lots of cool stuff up there - lots of memorabilia from the fiftys to noughtys - not Christian or church related most of it. So i recommend if you happen to read this, to pop up to 15-17 duffy ave thornleigh for a jolly good time. there's also a petting zoo and fairy floss!
sorry but no real time to blog. and blog-city is a bit tempramental sometimes. dial up is fun too. and i'm on my lunch break (just to justify bloggage in middle of weekday)
tims car now goes doof doof. him and brad spent 10 hours ripping it apart, installing stereo and speakers, and putting it back together over sunday and last night. i'm sure it was worth it. must be primarily a boy thing though.
i got to hold phoebe last night!! yay!! she's so cute. it was heaps good just to spend a couple of hours with steve & bel though too. i miss them! so catching up was good. i'm glad they're all going good - with the expected levels of sleep with a new baby and stuff. i think phoebe knew i was there and wanted to hold her, so she kept sleeping just to spite me. she slept for 5 hours, and woke up 30mins before i left.
and my leaving was very funny coz i didn't want to reverse out their driveway in the dark and rain (long skinny driveway), so i tried reverse turning and so much ba baow, so steve had to move his car for me to get out proper. how embarrassing! i felt like such the woman driver. ah well.
sooo much junk mail in my junk mail folder - everyday there's like 40 new. it's gross, and so very annoying!
but meanwhile i love the magic of email. i often feel like i never get to see any of my mate's anymore. probably as much my fault than anyone's. i miss the days of old - the golden times of 1999/2000. but then again, i wouldn't swap now for anything. but email does come in handy for keeping in touch in some cases. but it'll never replace a good chat, and a big laugh, and a time of utter silliness. those times i miss with some people. but you get that as people grow and move on and get into more of life (whether positive or negative).
i think i need to work on being a better friend to some people.
for someone who doesn't regularly attend the cinema, i'm patroning greater union twice within 14 hours over this weekend. tim and i saw gettin' square last night. he liked it (i knew he would! - YAY!) and i thought it was ok. david wenham did a tops job with his character - some very giggly moments. And love sam worthington since his bootmen days.
and this morning i'm off to see bad boys II with sammy. we've only been waiting about a year for it to come out, and then another 3 weeks since it began screening in Oz. But we're finally there! although i'm not all that heaps excited to be losing 2.5 hours of my life. 143mins is a lot of bad boys i reckon. but we'll see how it goes.
and it's phil's birthday today. happy birthday phil.
got married yesterday at the farm. it was a lovely (albeit chilly) afternoon. the wedding started at 1:30pm, but me and tim got there at 12:30 coz he's a muso, and at 1pm me and Joel were driven to the farm entry to usher people in the cars through to the house. it was good i got to chat with joel for about 40mins, which was something i don't get to do much. but we had to walk back to the house and i got the mother of all blisters on my foot - stupid sandals :p
it was a rather unconventional wedding. mime's aisle was a peach row... but that was awesome! there were four dancer girls (incl my sis!) and then the three bridesmaids and then mime and her dad. And mime wore a white top and bright orange skirt! The bridesmaids had white dresses with red around the base. the other significant difference was all the dresses were made of PAPER!! but they all looked so beautiful. the rest of the ceremony was pretty straight forward as we moved from the orchard to a marquee for the worship, vows and message. then it was reception time including hilarious speeches, before they choofed off about about 6pm?! Jemima was so gorgeous. and it was a pretty cool wedding.
And i got to sneak usage of the proper toilets instead of portaloos - yay for Snowbell being a bridesmaid.
And Matty had the tinest digital camera i have ever seen - ben got it from japan. it's tiny weeny. and matt's a heaps good photographer (ba baow!)... hehe.
we've got a new toilet. that's exciting. it's got half flush or full flush. it's white. and we can't use it for 24 hours coz the cement needs to set. Only one problem - we only have one toilet in our house! so that makes life interesting!
i liked our old toilet. it was a brent. it was pink. and it had character. oh well, rip brent.
silly blog admin was down... grrr is the word.
went and visited phoebe at westmead yesterday, as well as steve and bel, with kaia, dana and howie. Phoebe is such a little cutie. She was in her little ICU crib with tubes everywhere, and a big bruise on her head, but she's soo small and soft and smooth. She's absolutely gorgeous. And that's not just coz she's a baby. But praise God that she's doing well, and today she's awake and stuff, which is even more exciting. We get to see her again on Friday. We're having our team meeting at Westmead Children's Hospital !! Why not!
She's just so little, with cute little ears, and little lips, and a little nose, little tiny fingers, a belly button, and cute little bottom :)
Clucky much... hehe.
the word that captures it is 'shock'. one of my sister's high school friends, Kathryn, died yesterday of a heart attack. she would have been 20, or maybe 21. how insane is that! unbelievable. so, understandably, everyone is in shock and disbelief. i can't imagine what her family is going through. it must have been a pre-existing condition, coz you don't just die of a heart attack when you're 20. so, my sis and her friends from school are spending today together. i didn't really know Kathryn, so it hasn't hit me in a big way. i feel so sorry for her family and friends though. and i pray for them. coz that's all i can do. i'm not sure where she was at with God, and moments like these see people taking stock of their lives. i pray God uses this to bring people to Himself. that He will be glorified in some way through this.
baby phoebe went into surgery about an hour ago to remove her tumour. it's supposed to be about a 2.5 hour operation. again, leaving her in God's capable and loving hands.
and my great aunt had a heart attack the other day - but she's fine. had a little balloon-ey thing put in her artery to keep it open so blood flows - i can't remember what it's called. she thought she had indigestion. my great uncle knew better. so she's out of hospital today.
all these things going on. it's all that kinda stuff that happens to 'other' people. I just remembered too it was the anniversary of Darren's death the other day too. that's sad. i miss him. i don't understand how he can't just be here. why he had to go away, and why it had to be like that. hmmmm... there's a lot of things i don't understand. but i do miss him.
i dunno but nowadays i find lazy days incredibly boring! weekends can be so painful! i need a hobby. or friends who aren't busy :) Although the next few weekends are jam packed full of weddings, birthdays, kitchen teas, more birthdays. so I guess that adds a bit of excitement to it all.
Scottie and Mime get married in less than a week - isn't that wonderful! Scottie must be so excited! As would Jemima :)
Wonder implications for youth group - who knows whats happening this term?! Me, Ez and Gareth will have to meet up with Phil and check all that out. The last few weeks of last term were rather small, and I've been thinking about that. It's funny looking at a brand new set of kiddies and trying not to compare their commitment and journeys to our one's 4 years ago. Much seems to have changed, which is kinda sad and disappointing in some ways (like level of commitment), but that's looking from a different perspective and stuff. I just want so much for these guys to be passionate about Jesus and about seeing their friends know Him, and seeing them grow and desire to learn. How as leaders do we encourage and nurture that? They're all mostly such good kids. Good hearts. Some just need a bit of a kick in the butt. But don't we all!!
I got a shiny new car today!!!!!! Omigoodness!! Well, my parentals bought me it. It's a 1996 Ford Laser, for about $12000. I have to pay all the rego, insurance and other ongoing costs. But I now have a car (that I pick up on Wednesday). Isn't that insane!! Mumma and Dad sprung it on me when i got home last night. And we went car shopping today. And done and done. Quite the left field. But how exciting. Not that I have any money though. But you get that. So I have a car. Wow!
Wow! :)
Back from sunny Poatina (actually suprisingly sunny, although snowy too) yesterday. Very tired. Full-on week! I was so well behaved on both plane trips. Kaia was more jumpy than me on the way home. Some people are so very funny. I had much a laugh over the week. Jero is a cack. And so many cute bubbas and little kiddies. Hehe.