Barraba!

I had the most fantastic two weeks holiday.
I spent a week in one of my favorite places in the whole world. A lovely little town about an hour out of Tamworth. It not much and has no claim to fame, but as soon as you drive in it's like you're coming home. My church does an annual mission trip to Barraba every year in the September school holidays. It's been going for eight years and this is my fourth year going. This year my friend Flo and I stayed with Nana Jenny (again) and her new husband Geoff. It was a really great wonderful amazing time, they are such lovely people and their house has such joy. (even though they were constantly trying to find people to set us up with/question us about our (non-existant) love lives.)
Here's some photos:

:'(

Everyone on FB's all 'Bridesmaids, weddings, anniversaries, husband' etc


 and then there's me:

Sitting at home on a Saturday night eating Marshmello fluff and nutella from the jar with a spoon :(

I'm Aussie, and DAMN pround of it!

So I finally made it to the Deni Ute Muster!
I went with Dad and Charlie. It was wonderful.

The whole week-end I just kept thinking this is what it means to be Australian.

The hot sun, utes everywhere, great country music, lots of beer (not for me though:( ), loud music, late nights, sleeping in swags, on ute trays, Akubras.

Bleh

Ok I'm back in my philosophy class again. We are discussing, that the fact that it is day time right now is not a universal fact. I so don't care. Naomi ditched me again.  I am really sleepy and full of coffee, (yes you read that right I'm weening myself on to liking coffee) "Truth and facts" blah blah blah. 
Anywho lots of exciting things have been happening lately, God lavished his blessing on me last week. I had a truly lovely week! I did several photo shoots (photos are here), got a job interview at a preschool photography company and got a surprise call from a friend that i have not heard from in while (there's a lot more to that but here is not the forum to talk about it :)  )
What else has been happening lately? 
* I had  my birthday party on 17th August, it was small but fun and largely over catered. We are still finishing off food and drink from the party.
* I gave my 'innate ideas' debate in my philosophy class (I thought really seriously about posting it and then decided not to because if someone stole it off the net after all the work I put into it I would be seriously angry!.... I thought I went well, I was really happy with it, I should get the results back on Wednesday.
* I am seriously excited for Barraba! Three weeks away! and then Deni!! So excited and then the rents go away for two weeks PARTY TIME!
* Kazza taught me to crochet granny squares and I have started on a blanket for a gift.

I feel like there is a lot more that I want to write but I am tired and so bored! And we are only 1 hour into a three hour lecutre whahhhh anyway I will try to write more often I have not got any view on my blog for about 3 weeks :( 

break time!

21 things I've learned in 21 years

Of course I have learned many more than these but I thought this would be a fun way to summarize my 21 years on the planet.
1. God is totally and utterly in control of everything.
2. Crying is totally acceptable(and often necessary) and is not a sign of weakness 
3. Don't buy back packs from Kmart.
4. Procrastination is only a good idea at the time.
5. If it doesn't fit in the store, it's still not going to fit when you get home.
6. Good dental hygiene is important.
7. Never leave food in your car. Or in you room for that matter!
8. Forgiving people is very important, but so is forgetting and letting go of what they said and did.
9. There will always be too many books, and not enough time.
10. Wear what you want, what's comfortable, flattering and makes you feel confident. (not what's 'trendy')
11. It's OK to ask for help.
12. If you want to get to know people you have to let them know you as well.
13. Sing often!
14. Don't make decisions when you're angry, and don't make promises when you're happy. - Unknown.
15. Some people walk out of your life. It hurts but it's okay. 
16. Never ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER, and I mean ever, take the key out of your car when you're driving, or let any one else do it, even for cheap tricks. (Especially if your car has a steering lock, like most modern cars...)
17. Bad photos often have funny stories attached.
18. Never put your self in situation that could be misinterpreted by other people.
19. Don't let other people's opinions taint yours, no matter how close they are to you.
20. Some times you just have to laugh. Even if it's at your own stupidity.
21. You never stop learning :)

This is for you: my friend

I have this friend, who shall remain nameless, other than to say that she desperately  wants to find my blog. So this is for her, dearest friend, thank-you for everything. For your years of friendship, for listening to me whinge about my relationship, reminding me of God's grace and love for me and for always being there for me. It has been a joy to be your friend and watch you grow in your relationship with God, especially over the last couple of years. I could go on but as I've mentioned in previous posts mushiness is not my style (as I'm sure you would have read if you'd found this post and stalked all my post by now) Side note: massive congrats on your recent big news and I'm so excited and honoured to be a part of that event.

Ramlings from philosophy class

Currently sitting in my Philosophy class (yay ..... not). Yes you read that right I'm doing a photography and one of my subject for this term is philosophy.  Joy! ....-_- 

In all seriousness though I'm not too bummed about the subject. It could be very interesting, it just totally not what I expected from a subject titled 'ideas and thought'. I am acutely aware of how much of a challenge this could be for me as a Christian. I stepped out of my first class last week so disheartened and depressed, I knew then that this would not be easy. That is such a feeling of Godlessness in this room, like everyone is missing the whole point.  It's all about making argument and thinking deeply. I had thought originally that this subjsect would give me cause to doubt my faith but I'm finding that in actuall fact it will give me strength. My class mates as far as I can see are not grounded in anything. How can you pass though life without think that there must be something bigger than yourself.
St Augustine claimed that first you must believe than you can explore to understand. But I don't think that this is true, sure I mean blind faith can be a beautiful thing is some senses but in reality it is stupid. You must have some knowledge in order to believe and I think that the church has come a long way in allowing those that want knowledge the ability to question and seek knowledge (and if not I would have been kicked out along time ago)

Blogging while watching this pointless video that is meant to show us what the monasteries looked like in the middle ages, but really it's boring me to tears (not literally) and I think the lecture had nothing better to do for the last 20 min of class....
bored bored bored 

oh yay class is over! 
cya

Disjointed

So tomorrow is the first day for the rest of my life,and today was one of the worst of my life.
I was already dreading today because of a previous engagement and then received the news this morning that my Nanna had died :( I'm okay. My Mum is surprisingly okay, I guess she was expecting it. It's really hard for her because she's the one who will have to hold herself up and get everything organised. Nanna it the first person close to me to die who wasn't a Christian, so that's really hard. Where is the hope in that? I trust God's plan even in my grief.

Tomorrow is my first day of classes at Raffles I'm terrified, nervous, trepidations and ecstatic  all at the same time! 
With all that running around in my head all day I thinks it's time for bed.

Many apologies for this shabby and disjointed post. Here's some amazingness I found on YouTube to make up for it

Much love

Introducing Toby :)

Hey hey world!
This post is brought to you by Toby. "Huh"? You say. World meet Tobais, Toby for short. Toby meet the world. (This is the part where I explain that Toby is my new laptop and you realise that I'm a strange girl who names her tools.) 
Why 'Tobais'? Basically I brought my laptop for school and in doing my course I want to bring glory to God and I want to use this computer as a tool to do that. I just typed 'boys names meaning glory to God' into Google and a Yahoo answer came up with a whole list of great names.But I liked Tobais the best it means "God is good". Which He is and now if people ever ask me why I named my computer Toby maybe it will start a conversation about God. :)
Side note: Tobais was also the name of a character on Animorphs that I thought was super cute. ;)
If you were paying attention there you would have noticed that I did strictly type "boys names" my inner feminist is coming out. You'll be happy to know that my phone's name is Wendy. I'm getting there.. lol :) (don't worry if you don't understand this tangent)
I'm already loving having my own computer again. Awesome things about Toby include: touch screen (so cool) and the keyboard is backlit (handy for lots of last night blogging ... I mean studying ... cough cough...) 
I am quite disapointed in my shallowness tonight I had meant my next blog to be a info post on Occupy Sydney this wonderful organisation God led me to last week. I am sorry I just was so excited about Toby. I promise I will write about them soon.

:)

(Insert witty title here)

 I moved into my aunts house. I have been succesfuly living on my own for a week and a half. I have yet to actuall have dinner here but I'm not lonely yet. 

Loki

He purrs at the very sight of me and sits with me while I study. He'll straddle me feet and knead my blankets purring. :) Am I becoming..... shock horror.... a cat person..??

I recived my offer and confirmation of enrolment I am now offically a student a Raffles college of design and commerce!!

I am currently cramming for my premedical theory exam tomorrow not feeling confident about it at all... :(

I did end up getting Intsagram I haven't used it much I'm not really into it.. I guess...


I went to church winter retreat last week-end. I had a really nice time it was pretty relaxing. It was a shame though that it rained pretty much the whole time.  The speaker was a guy named Andrew Ford and the talks were on the theme of 'running the race'. The most interesting thing that I got out of the whole week-end was when he spoke on gentleness. He described gentleness as controlled strength. which was really helpful becausee I guess I'd always thought a gentalness as weakness. It was really interesting and thought provoking.
Here are some photos from camp :

Flo and I got so ridiculously lost on the way home, silly thumbies!

Love this city!

I finally got around to uploading my photos from vivid with my family and our visit to the opera house step with the bible study girls.
Here you go: