My New Years

January 2nd - Fearless

By Max Lucado

"Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never save a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that. People who refused to consult of cower to their timidities did that."

For new years my family come down to Wagga Wagga for a visit. They arrived on the 30th of December and we spent the afternoon chatting and having a BBQ.

On Tuesday we went out to visit Junee, a town not far from Wagga but is well known for the famous sports stars that come from Wagga, including Laurie Daly.

Junee is also home to a haunted house, Monte Cristo. It's pretty much just an old house that had many terrible deaths and brutalities happen there. It is a beautiful old home restored to what it would have looked like back in the 1800s. Walking to the top floor and onto the balcony and looking over the landscape you see a few houses, the town of Junee, and some farming equipment. I tried to envision what it would have looked like back in the 1800s, with just the rolling landscape, beautiful scenery and the calmness that it would have been. 

After looking through the house and the stables and keeping Punky and Zee occupied while we were there we all jumped in the car and headed to Junee Licorice & Chocolate Factory for lunch.

It was great. Very yummy, and they even had a vegemite sandwich on the menu for Punky. After enjoying lunch we decided to take a tour of the factory. Which was very interesting.

Its started at 2 and we went through and had a look at the machines where they make chocolate coated licorice and walnuts and many other chocolate coated goodness.

The tour was basically just a very interesting talk about the history of how the Junee factory came to be, back in its roots when it was a flour mill and how it came to be a Licorice Factory, one reason being that licorice is 1/3 flour. 

If you are down this way Junee is a wonderful small town to visit.

We ended up spending new years eve in, and having a lasagne and playing game until mid night, it was such a big day in Junee we thought something low key at home would be good and was it ever!

New year's day was a bit different, did not hit the predicted 35 degrees, it was overcast. We went over to S grandpas house for a swim in the pool and a BBQ to catch up with some friends. Then spent the rest of the afternoon vegging out, and had pizza for dinner, as you do.

Thursday came along and I was off to work at 10 and everybody was off on there way back to Sydney by then.

It was sad to see them go but also nice to relax in the quietness haha, my family can be quite loud and Punky is getting to be the loudest, it's going to be very interesting when she starts to talk!

Hope all your ny's went well!!

1st of January 2014

Ok so this post is a little late, but that's ok. 

When I first started this blog I thought it was going to be so cool and I would have so much to talk about, turns out what I have to say is very little and not post worthy, or so I thought.

I didn't make a new years resolution this year, though I never have so its nothing new. Despite this I have decided to be more on top of things, do a little bit of everything everyday. Little bit of reading, little bit of cleaning, little bit of knitting, crocheting or cross-stitching, my new addiction.

This comes from looking back on my year and realising that I pretty only cleaned the house when there were people coming over and that it seemed to overwhelm me when it happened because there was so much to do.

But this year I've decided on one thing, and thats to use this blog more often. And the way I'm going to do that is by using some help from Max Lucado, and his calendar for the year named Fearless.

I'm going to back track from 1st of Jan to now so that'll be fun :)

FEARLESS 

1st January

"Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Matthew 8:26"

Although it's quite a small verse but it is a great way to start the year and I'll tell you why.

This verse was said by Jesus to his disciples. Disciples who had been with Him for a while now, had seen Him do miracles on strangers, heard Him speak the truth through the wickedness of the religious folk and lived with Him, saw His character and felt His presence, yet, on a ship, in the middle of the sea, they were all scared from the dangerous winds and storm approaching. They had seen how God had protected Jesus, they had seen the miracles Jesus had performed and yet they coward in fear when something as natural as a storm hit.

These men saw the Son of God, they lived with Him, all they had but do was ask "Are you our saviour? Our messiah? Are you the Son of God?" and they would have heard the answer from His lips.

Yet they still feared. This was before Jesus died and defeated death, so they did fear, so how much now, knowing of satan's defeat, should be not be afraid, and yet how much more are we afraid.

I am afraid, I'm not going to pretend I'm not. But when I am afraid, I remember, God is bigger, God is greater, God is more important then the tiny challenges I face everyday. Jesus knows my fear and He takes care of me, He knows I am weak so He is strong.

Why am I fearful? Because I forget God's promise, He loves me, He died for me, and I am forever protected in His arms, as His child, to live a life free from sin, free from condemnations, free from what keeps many hearts captive, free to live a life in Him and with Him.

This is was I take out of this verse, what do you think?

The Vampire Diaries

Have you watched The Vampire Diaries???

It's my latest addiction.

I would say sorry but I'm not. It's actually has some pretty good story lines.

Though I do, unfortunately admit that I like Twilight, the books, not much of a fan of the movies though!

Vampires have been around in history for a very long time, whether it be your attraction for the undead, the seduction of a pretty face or your love of authority, which ever your reason for liking vampires, it's your own, even if you don't like vampires.

My reason for liking vampires is that they live forever, and imagine how much history you could see.

My reason is because you can see all the history first hand.

History is funny, though because at the time history is being made, most of the time we are unaware.

I'm sure that when Germany elected Hitler to lead their country they wouldn't have foreseen the history it was making.

Or that an assassination would lead to the great world war.

Or what an icon the Beatles would be when they started playing pubs in Liverpool.

But even so, it would still be pretty cool to say that you witnessed it.

There a those moments in history that you can remember where you were when it happened. Like September 11 2001, I remember being woken up by mum to come look at the tv, it was a school day, I was almost 11 and really didn't know the significance of the event that was unfolding, I just remember wishing the news would stop being on so I could watch 'home and away'. Two things I'm not very proud of.

I don't remember when Princess Diana died I wasn't yet 7 then.

Though I remember where I was when I heard of Heath Ledgers and Michael Jackson's death.

My love affair of history wont stop any time soon, just knowing something was made over 100 years ago amazes me!

I hope one day I'm able to go to England and see the rich history there, and most especially Rome, a place with over 2000 years of rich history. I would like to visit Egypt but for now I might put that destination off.

Do you remember any significant history making events in your life time? I'd love to hear them!

But for now, I'm going to watch some more Vampire Diaries and live vicariously through the history of the characters.

Photo Source

Anniversary in Melbourne

It has been 1 whole year since it was a blistering 40 degrees and 90% humidity. 

I can't believe it has been a whole year since our wedding, since feeling so nervous and tired on that day, it was such an experience and I wish I could relive it to remember it more clearly but I'm also glad its over, no more of those nerves!

This time round, it was a beautiful 30 degrees spent in Melbourne.

My first trip in Melbourne, on Sunday we got up around 9 and went shopping all over Melbourne CBD. Lots of shopping and buying clothes with christmas in mind.

We walked around the whole day, clothes shopping all morning, had lunch at Nando's and then went to the Queen Victoria Markets, where I bought an awesome pair of aviators, which S thinks are too big and silly but I like them :)

What do you think? 

For dinner we took a walk down to the river and tried to look for a restaurant to eat dinner at. After looking at about 10 restaurants, umming and ahhing over where to eat, we just chose the next restaurant because we were over looking, turned out to be the best restaurant. 

The food was crazy and weird, way more fancy then what I usually eat, I didn't understand a word on the menu but just found the first thing that had chicken in the title. 

While we were waiting for dinner a band started setting up outside the restaurant. And as the drummer and piano player were setting up the guitarists did a few acoustic songs. 

The first song he played just so happened to be the song S and I danced to at our wedding!!!

We couldn't believe it, when the first few strings were played we knew exactly what song it was, we just laughed hilariously, it was the perfect night, simple and to add the song being randomly played, awesome!

Too finish, here's the song we danced to. 

It's beautiful hope you like it.

University Life Versus Real Life

As I sit here typing I am counting down the minutes until I have to get ready for my last university class for 2013.

I have...

1 essay
1 laboratory class
2 exams
1 week - 40 hour placement

left before I can say I've finished my first year of uni.

And tell you how fast it's gone! 

Mind you I probably have spent more hours on holidays then at uni, but thats uni life.

I've always wanted to do something in medicine, and I think it's because it's always fascinated me!

The smarts, the confidence, the ability to help people.

Initially I wanted to be a doctor, this probably came from watching too many episodes of ER and Grey's Anatomy, but I thought I'd never cope and wasn't smart enough.

This usually arose from being in the higher classes which I shouldn't have been in. I was in class with kids who had been studying since primary school, I didn't even know what study was. They got 90% in every test, in every subject.

I got a few good results on a few tests so they thought, alright, we will chuck her in with the smarty pants.

Probably the worst thing ever.

I did not flourish, instead I just compared my 80% to their 90% and decided I wasn't capable and didn't want to try.

It's amazing the environment in which you are, can determine your attitude and mindset.

Next year's nursing subjects will be a bit more in line with what I always thought nursing was, working in a hospital, dealing with life and death situations.

Next year I will be going on placement in a hospital in Sydney, on a medical/surgery rotation and I will be given my own patient load...

If that doesn't sound scary I don't know what does!!!

I mean, taking a BGL on a person this year was hard enough and it was only drawing a little bit of blood, I'm not sure how I'll cope next year honestly.

It's such a huge task, but since the course is only 3 years it has to happen sooner or later.

S commented last night that they will teach me everything I need to know before I'm let out on placement. 

And yes sure enough they will teach me and tell me everything I'll need to know before I go, but the difference is the setting.

I don't have a supportive teacher telling me what I'm doing wrong nor do I have a dummy to practice on who wont go ouch.

I will be dealing with real people, real problems, and real emergency's that I will need to react to without fault. Which frightens me.

I'm not quite sure if my natural response is flight or fight yet, usually my brain just shuts down when trauma happens and I can't think things through when high adrenaline situations happen.

Hopefully I will move past that with experience and learn how to keep a cool head in extreme situations!

Anyway. As I sad, I still have an essay to finish, which is due tonight and a lab class to get ready for, and a big scary arse science test on tuesday!!!

Hope all is well and I shall see you after exams!!!

P.S. This is a photo I took at the start of the year when I got my nursing uniform.

Birthday!

It was my birthday yesterday.

I am now 23.

It was a great day.

Spend the morning at a nursing home singing songs and a devotion.

Then worked from 12-5, not so much fun but its only 5 hours and my only shift all week so yeah.

Came home to a clean house, thanks to my sis E.

Had lasagne and garlic bread for dinner while we watched Star Trek 2, that my hubby bought for me.

He also bought me season 6, 7 and 8 of F.R.I.E.N.D.S dvd in the same style cover as the dvds of friends I already had. I am so lucky to have my husband!!!

I almost forgot it was my birthday a few times yesterday, how uneventful birthdays are nowadays. Ahh to be a kid again. Going to school with anticipation of going home and opening presents with the whole family there and going out to dinner.

Looking forward to spoiling my kids the same way too, one day eventually haha.

I got lots of other presents from my in-laws, who are amazing! Very lucky.

An outdoor setting for our newly paved patio, and pot plants with some very nice plants! So stoked to drive in the driveway to see them!!!

I will take some photos next week and post them up. It has been a very hectic week with family visiting, and heading up to Sydney tonight for my dads 60th birthday party tomorrow. Also as I type my assignment is due at midnight tonight... And I've barely done any of it, so I'm off to finish my powerpoint presentation and hopefully submit it before lunchtime! 

Wish me luck.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend? What are you up to on this fine school holiday weekend?

I am flogging my blog over with WithSome Grace for FYBF

I can't do it again...

How did I do it last time?

I lost a lot of weight leading up to the wedding. 

I didn't touch chocolate or fast food in almost 5 months.

And when they wedding was over, I pretty much packed all the weight back on, and then some.

I'm not saying I'm obese or anything, but I know this isn't the size I want to be.

Especially coming into summer, when last summer I bought new clothes, and this summer I can't fit into them!

But I just can't stop eating chocolate. Its frustrating me. I think, I'm doing really well, when for a 5 k run yesterday, haven't eaten too much bad food today.

Then I get into the chocolate and before I know it, the whole block is gone. What is wrong with me.

I know the only person who can stop me is me. But really, it's my own fault for letting myself go after the wedding. 

I really hate myself for doing that!

But alas, there are people worse off then me.

So I will savour this last piece of chocolate for the day. And go for a run tomorrow and try and start again.

How on earth did I do it last year!