milkshakes and banana bread

I met up with Kym, Ruth, two of Ruth's gorgeous boys and the lovely baby 'E' today for milkshakes and banana bread = YUM! Here are a few pics I took...

hi, my name is nixter........

....... and I am addicted to Australian Idol...

I wonder what my 12 steps would be if I were considering* giving up?!?!?!


*I'm not considering giving up, in fact I am more considering who can tape it for me when I am on my holidays?!?!? What a dilemma!

my fav australian idol so far

pictures of the lunar eclipse

Here are some pictures we took tonight of the lunar eclipse - it was really cool ;) Won't be happening again until Dec 2011, but I guess that isn't too far away!

beautiful jasmine grace and our weekend

blanchette plays dylan

How bizarre! She is tipped for an Academy Award nomination for this movie....

Check it out here!

5 more sleeps

Yes folks, only 5 more sleeps until our holiday and boy do we need it! Each weekend goes by so fast, we are tired and NEED this holiday so much!!!

We had a lovely but quick weekend with SP's family, we got to see our beautiful niece (not being biased but she is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen), she is getting big, she has BIG blue eyes, long eye lashes and the chubbiest cheeks you ever did see. I am going to post some pictures up tonight, I got some lovely shots of her...

It is always relaxing going to SP's parents house, we went to the fruit and veg markets, had coffee, watched football, played tennis, cuddled one cute little girl, showed our wedding DVD and generally had a good time. I love my in-laws so much, they really are such a blessing....

If you could please pray for my Nan who is in hospital, she is having trouble going to the bathroom, she had bowel cancer a number of years ago and is now suffering from a form of dementeur which has her on many drugs. So now she is in hospital, the doctors seem to think she will be fine, they did some checks and didn't find anything serious which is good. I think after what happened to Mrs S a few months ago I am worried that something like that will happen, I think I am especially worried as I know we are going away. It's hard being so far away and it makes me wonder - have I seen her enough, do I call them enough etc. I spoke to them both last week as it was their 57th wedding anniversary - impressive huh! But as you grow and as you start your own family things change, I am not the little girl that used to spend nearly every weekend at their house, making cherry and apple pies but still I am their grand-daughter and I do love them dearly, it's just different (esp living on the other side of the world). I have more to write on this, I want to capture some of those memories I have so I can share them with my kids... Please pray for her if you can! Also pray for my Gan-Gan (grand-dad) who looks after my Nan pretty much by himself - it's a tough job but he does it!

Not much else to report but only 3 more days at work which is an exciting thought, knowing that should get me through the week....

say what???

how men talk to women....

..... or how not too ;)

we wish england was australia!

Even though this is dissing my home country, it's still a bit funny!

mts challenge 2007

I edited this video - my first one, it's not great but it's a start.

i forgot

I totally forgot to post about the lovely Saturday we had last weekend, we went to a beautiful reserve not too far from where we live and had a lovely picnic, the weather was 24 degrees (IN WINTER!), the sun was shining, the food was great and time with SP was great. We chilled out, ate yummy food, has some lovely white wine and read Harry Potter while basking in the sun.

Note to Self = Do this more often!!! Enjoy these few pics! Check out the naughty seagull that kept trying to steal our food!

new zealand here we come

16 more sleeps until we go to New Zealand and I am most definitely counting down the days!

Soooo a couple of weeks ago we booked our flights and most of our trip to New Zealand and I cannot wait!

We leave Australia on in on 2nd Sept and fly to Christchurch where we have a couple of hours lay over before catching a flight to Queenstown, we will be spending 7 nights in Queenstown... It looks so breathtakingly beautiful!! We have planned a couple of trips while we are there:

- Milford Sounds - we have planned a day trip to Milford Sounds, we leave Queenstown and take a coach trip to Milford Sounds where we will get on a boat and see the spectacular views. It's a full day trip but it will be awesome. I can't wait to take some pictures! We also get a picnic lunch -Yay!

- We are hopefully going to ski for maybe 2 or 3 days while we are in Queenstown, we are going to see what the snow is like when we get there and then book a few days skiing and ski hire.

- If we get chance I would also like to go and visit Wanaka - Shania Twain has a house there apparently, a friend told me that - don't know how they know that! This is about an hour out of Queenstown so we might be able to take a day trip there.

We leave Queenstown (we have hired a car for the second week) and head to do a Fox Glacier hike. We are going to go on a 4 hour hike which I am a bit nervous about but I think it will be fun fun fun! And how often do you get to go walking on glaciers?? Errr like not very often! We spend the night there and then we start our driving week.

For the second week we plan on 'making it up' as we go, see where we end up. We want to end up in Auckland at the end of the holiday as this is where we fly out of, so there will be a fair bit of driving involved to get all the way up there. We will have to get the Interislander Ferry from Picton to Wellington to go from the South Island to the North Island.

The plan next is to either go to New Plymouth (where our friend's parents have a farm - I would like to see them) or go to Rotorua, apparently the drive to Rotorua is a lot more interesting and at Rotorua they have Geysers, Mineral Baths, Lakes and lots of wonderful things BUT we only have two weeks and we can't do EVERYTHING so we need to make a choice about that.

We hope to end up meeting up with one of my our dear friends who was one of my house mates in London, she is a Kiwi and lives in Auckland and so we hope to hang out with her for a day or two.. It is her family that live in New Plymouth..

Anyhoo, I am very excited as this is our first 'just the two of us' holiday since our honeymoon - and you know on honeymoon you need to relax after organising and planning a wedding and also if like me you got sick - then it's not much fun! So yay for holidays. We are really ready for it but not too many more sleeps to go!

the chat room tv

This website The Chat Room has a series of videos of Kel Richards and Phillip Jensen discussing various and relevant topics from a Christian perspective, there are only a couple up at the moment, one on Eastern Mysticism and the other on Pornography but that are several more to be uploaded very soon, including one on divorce. They are also going to air on the Australia Christian Channel from 1st November.

Check them out! And keep a look out for the new ones to be uploaded soon.

godparents

I am pleased to announce that Ruth and AB have asked SP and I too be Godparents to beautiful baby Hannah!!!!!

I can't tell you how excited I am and how honoured we are too take on that responsibility. We see it as a big responsibility but also as a great joy and privilege... I was all teary when AB asked me on Sunday night and I literally RAN to go and tell SP who was meeting up with a friend at the pub before church.

I love Ruth, AB, their four boys and their brand new 'fresh out the oven' baby girl!!! We are delighted, very proud and extremely excited! It's going to be fun.

We love all the Barry kids and are glad that they are all part of our lives!

My Godparents are still really involved in my life and have been since the day I was born, Willy and Trudy who live in Worcester are great and I love them to bits. They are good friends with my family, Willy was best man for my Dad and my Dad was best man for Willy, they used to play football (the English kind) together.


We obviously don't see each other as much as we did when I was younger and their daughter and I (who my Mum and Dad are godparents too) used to always play together. I saw them when I was home, they came out for a family dinner with us, they got to meet Scott, we swapped emails, mobile numbers and have since been in much better contact - Trudy even joined Facebook and writes me messages (I am very impressed!)

Anyway godparents can have such an impact and involvement on a life, my godparents have. There are also the responsibilities to pray for the child, to nurture the child and to encourage them in their relationship with God. Pray for SP and I, that we might be faithful in praying for Hannah and that we might take on the responsibility seriously but that it will also be fun! fun! fun! I know it will be.

America's Got Talent

How on earth do they do this?

simpsonized

Go here to get Simpsonized.

waiting only upon God

After the talk on James 4:13-5:6 Sunday night it made me think a little of what I had a read a few days earlier in my 365 days with Spurgeon and so I thought I would share it.

"My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Psalm 62:5

We must mark God’s providence leading us; and then let us go. But he that goes before providence will be very glad to run back again. Take your trouble, whatever it is, to the throne of the most High and on your knees put up the prayer, “Lord, direct me.” You will not go wrong. But do not do as some do. Many a person comes to me and says, “I want your advice, sir; as my minister, perhaps you could tell me what I ought to do.” Sometimes it is about their getting married. Why, they have made up their minds before they ask me, they know that; and then they come to ask my advice. “Do you think that such and such a thing would be prudent, sir? Do you think I should change my position in life?” And so on. Now, first of all, I like to know, “Have you made your mind up?” In most cases they have – and I fear you serve God the same, We make up our mind what we are going to do, and then we go down on our knees, and say, “Lord, show me what I ought to do;” and then we follow out our intention and say, “I asked God’s direction.” My dear friend, you did ask it, but you did not follow it; you followed your own. You liked God’s direction so long as it pointed the way you wish to go; but if God’s direction led the contrary to what you considered your own interest, it might have been a very long while before you had carried it out. But if we in truth seek God’s guidance for us, we shall not go wrong, I know.

Charles Spurgeon

worship

I am reading a book for bible study on Revelation called 'Apocalypse Now and Then' by Paul Barnett - it's not to thick and daunting so if you want a good but not too 'full on' commentary on Revelation I thoroughly recommend this one. Anyhoo, I was reading it this morning on the bus and found a really cool definition of 'Worship'. Here it is:

"Worship is not to be thought of, primarily, in either aesthetic or emotional terms, though aesthetics and the emotions may be involved. Worship is the expression of agreement by the people of God about the truth of God. Worship is based on the evangelical declaration about who God is, and what God does."

Paul Barnett

the weekend

We had so much fun this weekend, it was a busy but full of great things.

- On Saturday morning SP got up early to go to a Men's Breakfast and talk at church, I of course stayed in bed till around 9.30am - NICE! When he got home we got ready to head over to pick up my friend (the one who has been really sick recently, but is on the mend) to take her for a birthday coffee and lunch. The sun was shining, the cafe we went to was lovely, the food was great and the coffee (CAMPOS!) fantastic!!! It was nice to see my friend is on the up after being so ill for a long time.

- We got home chilled out for a little before getting all dresses up to go to a black tie 30th birthday party of a friend I know from England (the one who I play tennis with on Thursdays). It was Dinner and Céilidh (Scottish Dancing). It was soooooo much fun, I haven't laughed like that in a long time - I love laughing so hard you almost wet yourself (I don't like wetting myself and I haven't for a long long time but I do love laughing so hard). It was a late night but totally worth it.

- Sunday morning was to the movies to watch 'Amazing Grace' - I lurvvvvvvvvved it and so did SP, it made me cry, esp the bits with Albert Finney (John Newton) - he is such a good actor. I am amazed at what he achieved and his passion and determined mind to stop what was such a hideous injustice.

- Sunday arvo we watched the AFL (Aussie Football) and our team won - Hoorah!

- Sunday night was a very convicting message at church on James 4, well done Matty D.

- Today is back to work day and also the day Ruth has her 5th baby, she may have already had it, I am just waiting for the message. Please pray for her and AB...

boy, does God know what we need to hear and when we need to hear it!

This was in my 365 days with Spurgeon devotion today. God certainly does know what we need to hear and when we need to hear it - this is absolutely what I needed to hear and when I needed to hear it, Enjoy!

God in the Covenant

“I will be their God.” Jeremiah 31:33

David sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior
from violent men you save me.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
"The waves of death swirled about me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the LORD;
I called out to my God.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears. 2 Samuel 22:1-7

Child of God, let me urge thee to make use of thy God. Make use of him in prayer; I beseech thee, go to him often, because he is thy God. If he were another man’s God, thou mightest weary him; but he is thy God. If he were my God and not thine, thou wouldst have no right to approach him; but he is thy God; he has made himself over to thee, if we may use such an expression, (and I think we may) he has become the positive property of all his children, so that all he has, and all he is, is theirs. O child, wilt thou let thy treasury lie idle, when thou wantest it? No; go and draw from it by prayer.

“To him in every trouble flee,

Thy best, thy only friend”

Fly to him, tell him all thy wants. Use him constantly by faith, at all times. Oh! I beseech thee, if some dark providence has come over thee, use thy God as a sun, for he is a sun. If some strong enemy has come out against thee, use thy God for a shield, for he is a shield to protect thee. If thou hast lost they way in the mazes of life, use him for a guide, for the great Jehovah will direct thee. If thou art in storms, use him, for he is the God who stilleth the raging of the sea, and saith unto the waves, “Be still.” If thou art a poor thing, knowing not which way to turn, use him for shepherd, for the Lord is thy Shepherd, and thou shalt not want. Whate’er thou art, where’er thou art, remember God is just what thou wantest, and he is just where thou wantest. I beseech thee, then, make use of thy God.

inmates do thriller