Time Capsule Pictures

Monday June 29, 2009

I woke up this morning with a very heavy feeling in my chest. I was coughing a lot. It cleared up as the day went on, thankfully.

As we walked into work today, the alarm went off and for some reason, the alarm machine wouldn’t accept Jeff’s password. So it was going off! At work today I worked on the Time Capsule pictures and everything that was going in the time capsule.

Towards the end of my time at work, I started organizing supplies for the balloon day. I thought it might be easier to give each child an envelope with all their supplies, that way they will not be complaining about what they do or don’t have. As I was stuffing envelopes, I ran out of long skinny balloons. I needed at least 88 more balloons to finish the envelops and then a bunch extra in case balloons popped and so that I could use a few balloons as examples.

I called around to different stores seeing if they had long skinny balloons. None of the stores that I called had them. So I called a church member and she told me about a store that had what I needed. They did, but oh my goodness, those balloons were SO expensive. To buy 200 balloons, it cost me $59.95!!!!!! I bought that many balloons of the same kind in the state for only $20! Thankfully I can be reimbursed! WOW! It made me sick to purchase that.

I came home and had shepherd’s pie for dinner with raisin French toast with ice cream for dessert. I worked on some laundry and the pictures for the time capsule. The rest of the night was spent packing and reading. Tomorrow is my last day of work this week. That’s hard to believe. I won’t be on the internet again until next Tuesday. I know my e-mail inbox will be very full!

Preach that sermon yah yah!

Sunday June 28, 2009

Today was my last sermon day. I was nervous as ever about getting up to speak. Usually that is what happens, but God always gives me the strength that I need. When I finished my sermon and after the last song a man – Mark Hubbard- with tears in his eyes came up to me and gave me this big long hug. It felt great to get a hug because I hadn’t had one for a long while. When he pulled away he told me that he was really touched by my sermon and that he thinks I will make a great preacher someday. It made me feel really good to hear that kind of feedback.

My sermon was on touching the lives of others through physical touch, through our actions, and through our words, based on the scripture of Jesus healing the hemorrhaging woman and Jesus bringing back to life Jarius’ daughter.

After first service I overheard some members talking about how good they thought the service was and how good the preacher did. Many many people came up to me and told me how good I did how they are happy for me to be there. I was all smiles all day! So many people wanted to talk to me that I didn’t get to second service right when it started. It was all good though!

My second service preaching went relatively well. I didn’t feel like I was getting a lot of energetic feedback from the congregation as I was preaching, but they all laughed at the right moments!

I came home and had chicken and rice for lunch. I got so full! For dessert we had Florentines. I am really hoping that I can find that recipe somewhere and make it when I get home. I would describe it as like trail mix in cookie form.

After lunch I worked on my personal pictures and also pictures for the time capsule. After we got home today, Rosemary pushed the button for the garage to go down. Jeff was still in the garage and put his hand up to stop the door. The door didn’t stop but got bent up on a shelf they had in the garage. It was really bad looking, but a bit humorous at the same time! After lunch he got it back on its track.

I am reading a new book called Next Door Daddy. I don’t know if I have mentioned that or not, but I read that the rest of the afternoon. I wasn’t hungry so I told Rosemary that I would have dinner after church. Dinner was baked beans on toast. It’s a very interesting concept, and I ate it, well… after church I did.

WE went to church and had a lovely service. It got done in 50 minutes which is unusual. There were about 22 people there. We came back home and I had dinner. We then watched Miss Marple. It’s a mystery detective story. That lasted until 10PM. Tomorrow is another work day. When I think about it, its actually my last Monday to work! I will be in the office on Monday and Tuesday of this week and Monday Tuesday and Thursday of next week. Then I’ll be home. So you won’t see a lot on my blog these next two weeks, but I’ll make sure and post them when I get a chance!

Aussie Footy here I come!

Saturday June 27, 2009

I was so excited for today. Ever since David e-mailed me an invitation to a Footy game, I have been excited to go. I even bought a Collingwood Magpie scarf. I slept in till 8:15ish. That’s pretty early for me to get up on a weekend, but I didn’t know when Jeff and Rosemary would be eating breakfast and I wanted to eat with them. During breakfast I recommended that Jeff buy some cough medicine that has guifenisen in it so that his coughs would go away. While they were out shopping this afternoon, they bought some and for the last three hours that I have been home, I have only heard him cough once! Yay for medicine.

My morning was spent reading. I finished the book The Last Lecture and it brought tears to my eyes. It’s a good book. You all should read it. I then started another book called Next Door Daddy. I am excited to read it. So far I have finished 2 books while here.

For lunch we had soup and toast. I made myself a PBJ. At 12:15 David and Heather picked me up. Off to Footy we go. Heather didn’t want to come to the game, so she went to the Royal Botanical Gardens instead.

The game was really fun! So many people told me that David was a crazy person at the footy, but I didn’t see that in him at all. Maybe he was on his best behavior with me there, or maybe this wasn’t a close game, but he was enjoyable to converse with and watch the game with.

I had a meat pie while at the game. That’s the more traditional footy food. I was given a packet of catsup to go with my pie. Now it may sound really silly to you, but I had so much trouble trying to figure out how to open the thing. I’ll see if I can get a picture for you, but you had to squeeze both ends of the packet and the catsup came out in the middle. So I was squeezing, and it squirted in the air and got all over everybody that I was sitting around. It made a good laugh for those around me. I was a bit embarrassed, but laughed at myself too.

Collingwood won the game 150 to 85. Yay! We left the game and met up with Heather. We drove around Melbourne for a while the stopped at Dockland for dinner. I chose an Italian restaurant because I was really hungry for some pizza. Jake, I haven’t had pizza since I have been here! WOW! Hee Hee.

I had pineapple and ham pizza with cheese and it cost $16.50. It was so expensive! I enjoyed talking to David and Heather and finding out all about their travels and telling them all about the religion department at my school. For dessert I had Gelato. Its basically really creamy sherbet ice cream. Its not ice cream and its not sherbet, its something in between. It was yummy and cold. I thought I was paying for myself. The ice cream cost $10. Its so crazy how much more expensive things are. The check came and I was about to put in my share of the cost, when I was blessed to have David and Heather pay for my meal.

We then strolled along the Yarra River and took pictures of the sights. On our way home we drove through Lygon street which is known as the Italian street. There were so many shops there.

I arrived home at 9:00. I decided to get ready for bed and do some writing. Tomorrow I preach at church. I can’t believe it! I know that God will give me the strength to preach.

Lets eat some trifle

Friday June 26, 2009

I slept in for just a little while this morning. I then had breakfast and got ready to go to the Dandenong Market. We stopped at a men’s suit store. While Jeff and Rosemary shopped there, I went into some of the discount bargain stores. I actually bought something. We then headed off to the market. I personally didn’t think that market was as good as the Queen Victoria Market. We walked around and then stopped for morning tea. I had a cappuccino with a chocolate croissant. The croissant basically has a plain chocolate candy bar in the middle. OH it was SO yummy. I am going to look for that kind of recipe to make myself. YUMMMMMMY goodness!

After purchasing some produce, we headed out to another men’s suit store. For lunch we had leftover sausages. I then called and talked to my mother for a good long while on the phone. I am SO glad that I have that capability. I am not as homesick because I am able to call her and Jake.

I did some laundry and went for a walk. It was such a nice day and so warm. Well, warm like fall warm. It was 16* C. You can do the math to convert it!

At 5:30 I headed over to Mark and Jenny Hubbard’s house. Their 11 year old daughter’s name is Jessica. We had tuna casserole with out noodles. But it did have eggs! We also had a roll. That was dinner! For dessert we had trifle. I thought I knew what trifle was until I had some at their house. Then I began to wonder if it was a new food. I took a picture of it anyways. We all conversed a lot about our lives and I got to meet their dog Sandy. At 8 they brought me back home. I watched a detective show with Jeff and Rosemary before going to bed! It was a good evening.

PowerPoint Frustrations

Thursday June 25, 2009

When I arrived at work this morning I had just a couple of hours to work on the necessary things. I added to my blog, checked my e-mails, printed my sermon, and continued to get pictures for the music video that I had finished timing last night.

At 10 the church staff drove to a tea shop in Brighton. I ordered a cappuccino which for a small cost $3.50. I really couldn’t believe that was how much it cost. I was going to buy some toasted banana bread with honey and almond mascarpone, but that would have been another $6.00! We talked a lot about the prostate thing I went to on Wednesday! So the joke of the morning was walnuts. I tell you I could educate you about the prostate with just a walnut!

After our “meeting” (it was more of a social gathering than to work) we walked along the beach. I had worn my high heels and I couldn’t walk very fast, but I was dressed very nicely for the beach!

We got back to church at 12. At 12:30 we had lunch. I was suppose to have a meeting with the community center at 1:00 but I think we were both confused on if I was coming over to them, or if they were coming over to me. So I didn’t meet with them until about 2:30. At 3:00 I was invited to eat some birthday cake and have afternoon tea to celebrate Rachel’s birthday. All day I was trying to get my sermon PowerPoint together for church. At 3:00 I still wasn’t done with it. My music video was done, but I still had to get my sermon PowerPoint done! At 3:45 I excused myself to finish working on my computer. At 4 I met with Pastor David. I interviewed him for the time capsule and talked to him about my sermon and how to prepare for the Aussie footy game on Saturday.

I was then given the computer that the PowerPoint would be run on. My computer has 2003 PowerPoint, but that computer had PowerPoint 1997. So some of the things that I had on my computer wouldn’t be compatible for that computer. I checked and fixed everything for my sermon PowerPoint (yes I did finish it right at 3:50!), then started working on my music video. I had it all perfect last night. Yesterday I spent the day working on getting pictures. I have 50 slides of pictures. I then spent the evening putting it to music. I had it all timed out and perfect by 11:45 last night. So when I put it on the other computer, the timing was totally off. I started working on it when Jeff came to tell me that it was time to go. I really needed one more hour of work. I really wanted to leave at 5:30 instead of 4:30. Even 4:45 would have been good.

So I briefly talked to David about my frustrations with the music video. I am not sure if I am even going to use the video even though it would go REALLY well with my sermon. So I left work upset. After putting in all that work, I may not even use it.

This evening I had dinner and watched the news. Then I went back to my room and wrote and read my book the rest of the evening – from 7PM till 10PM – instead of watching TV which was my other option.

Tomorrow, I didn’t have any certain plans, but Rosemary invited me to go to the Dandenong market. I thought that would be a cool place to go, so I agreed. So tomorrow we are going to the market! Saturday I am going to a football game. Its going to be great!

Don’t get stressed, Don’t get worried, Just have faith

Wednesday June 24, 2009

I woke up at 2 this morning being really hot and having a really dry and sore throat. I checked my temperature and drank some water then went back to bed. I have had a sore throat all day!

I went to work without Jeff today, he is still sick. He will be back in the office tomorrow for sure. I worked on my music video PowerPoint this morning. I have been procrastinating on my sermon. I know I need to write it, I want to write it, but I am not sure how I want to put it together yet. In God’s timing it will come together. It actually needs to be done tonight or at least half way done tonight. So right now I am taking a break to write on my blog.

I had a lunch appointment with a member from the church. He invited me to come to his Rotary Club meeting. Originally he wanted me to be the guest speaker, but there was already someone assigned to speak. Neville is his name and he brought one of his co workers whose name was also Mary.

I socialized with the other men at the Rotary. Mary and I were the only females there! For lunch we had fish and chips and a side salad. For dessert was this apple filled pastry with caramel topping and whipped cream. Yum – o.

After lunch the speaker got up and announced that he was going to be speaking on prostate cancer. What a strange thing to sit in on! The table was covered with walnuts! Wonderful… So Mary and I sat through the talk and I did learn a lot! Probably more than I wanted to know. I learned that most men do not even know they have a prostrate! Towards the end of the meeting the men started making jokes about the medical procedures that women have to go through so Mary and I left. Throughout the whole talk, the men seemed very uncomfortable. They wouldn’t make eye contact with the speaker or anything. Men are so strange, but I am glad God made them the way he did. That whole lunch was a very interesting experience.

Two hours later, I came back to church and researched statistics and illustrations. At 4 Rosemary picked me up and brought me back home. For dinner we had Chili. As I waited, I worked on the timing of the music with the PowerPoint slides. I still haven’t gotten that all timed correctly, but that can be put off for a day.

I learned two new phrases today:

1. Coffee whitener – powdered creamer


2. Ta – thank you

After dinner and dessert and showing Jeff and Rosemary my pictures from my trip to the city, I went on working on my sermon and they went to the couch to watch TV. I am currently sitting in the kitchen with headphones in my ears. I am now going to go to my room and continue writing on my sermon. Pray for me!

A day at the City, Melbourne AU

Tuesday June 23, 2009

This morning, Jeff didn’t come to work with me. Rosemary brought me to church. I chatted a little bit with David about the internet and about what time he was going to pick me up for the football game on Saturday. I then checked my e-mail. I didn’t post my blog from Monday today because I didn’t bring my computer in.

At 9:15 Jenny Bishop and Suzanne Ashton arrived at the church. All three of us went down to the train station to catch a train to the city – Downtown Melbourne. I had never done anything like that, but I did get a student price. In Australia they call the student price “concession.”

Today we explored parts of the city. We first went to the old exhibition center and then on to the museum. The museum wouldn’t give me the student price because my ID didn’t have an expire date on it! Well…. My ID doesn’t expire! They would have accepted it if it had an expiration date… Oh well. I had to pay full price. The museum was fun, although towards the end I was not as focused, probably because it was 1:30 and we hadn’t stopped for lunch. I did bring a musli (measly/granola) bar with me, so I snacked on that for a while.

At 2ish we rode a tram to a coffee shop. I had a chicken sandwich with a cappuccino. It cost me $13.50. Its SO expensive. We then stopped at a Cathedral. It was beautiful. They had a gift shop and I was going to buy my parents a nativity set (they are collectors of nativity sets) but the one I wanted was $110. The other one that was all one piece was $50. It wasn’t made out of expensive material, but it cost so much!

We went to Federation Square and took pictures of everything. There was this sound thing where these rectangle boxes had lights on it and when you stood in front of it, it would make noise. I am not sure I fully understand the thing though…

I am fascinated with the Eureka tower. Eureka here is connected to the gold mining days. There was a Eureka battle where the gold miners retaliated. Because of this tower’s name, I am fascinated with the tower. I took lots of pictures of it. Jenny, Suzanne, and I went in to see how much it would cost to go to the Sky Deck. Too much for me to pay, so Jenny offered, and I paid half of the cost. Up to the 88^th floor we went and I am sure glad I did. You could see everything from the 88^th floor. There was this glass enclosed box that I could have gone on for another $12, but I didn’t need to. The deck was just as good. The glass enclosed box is a box that comes out of the wall and hangs over the building with see through glass on top, sides, and bottom. I got a lot of good pictures up there and it was really fun. That was probably the most favorite part of my day in Melbourne City.

After leaving the tower we went to the Crown Plaza Hotel and Casino. We walked around and saw a water show. Connected to the casino is a shopping area. We stopped there for a rest and to get something to drink. I didn’t buy anything, I had brought my water bottle and some snacks so that I wouldn’t have to buy anything, although it was really tempting!

We left and headed back to the train station to come back to Cheltenam.

For dinner we went to a chicken restaurant named Nando’s. I had a chicken wrap and chips (Aussie large French fries that have more potato than grease). After dinner we headed to the church for meditation and contemplation. It was a good time and I almost fell asleep.

Jenny then brought me back to the house where I proceeded to tell Jeff and Rosemary about my trip and then go to my room to look through pictures. Since coming home, I have noticed that my throat is sore. I hope I am not catching the sick germ that Jeff has. Maybe I got it from being outside all day. I’ll keep an eye on it for sure! My eye is doing well. No more cloudiness and only sometimes double vision.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. I am basically going to get my sermon done, but I’ll probably have time to socialize with people too!

Here comes another sermon…

Monday June 22, 2009

My morning came way too quickly. I was having a dream that frightened me. Wanna hear about it? I dreamed that me and another child were with our dad (not necessarily my dad – pastor Greg). All three of us were on a frozen lake in a shack on the lake. My dad got out a sword and cut a hole in the ice so we could see into the watery lake below. My dad then put on his scuba gear and jumped into the water and swam around underneath the ice then came back up to talk to me and the other child. He then told me and the other child to put on his scuba gear. I had the goggles. He told us to watch him as he was underwater. After taking a deep breath, down he plunged again into the water. I stuck my head into the ice cold water and my vision got really red. My dad had hit his head on something and was unconscious and bleeding underneath the ice with no way to get out!

I reached in the water and grabbed him out. I then started doing CPR on him. He came to just long enough to say that he loved me and that he wanted me to take care of my sister (the other child). He then died in my arms.

That was such a SAD dream! I couldn’t believe it. When I woke up I lay there thinking about what just went through my head and why I possibly dreamed it. I then figured out why my brain was moving in that direction. I have been reading the book “The Last Lecture.” Its about a 40 year old man who is dying of pancreatic cancer. He is writing the book so that his kids can know about him after he is gone. I think that has been on my mind a lot because I want to live each day to its fullest and I want to accomplish all my childhood dreams before I die. Knowing just how short life is, really puts it into perspective that I need to live today like its my last. Knowing how fast each day goes by, I know that in the snap of a finger I will be in my 90s, watching my grandchildren grow up and possibly having great grand children, and thinking about my new life with my Savior in a whole new world.

So yeah, I was thinking about all that as I lay in my bed this morning. I am not sure I ever went back to sleep, but when my alarm clock sounded, I dreaded getting out of bed. I just wanted 30 more minutes of laying there in peace thinking about life, but the day was calling, and I needed to get ready.

Jeff came to work today. David arrived in the morning to put the church sanctuary back together after last night’s service. I talked to him a little bit and found out about the life of one of the members.

There is a member of the church who is a little bit slow. He comes to the evening service on Sundays and for the past two Sundays he has come to worship wearing women’s clothes. He has girl sandals and a pink sweater.

Anyways, last Sunday – June 21 – this man wore a black wig with a head band, a long black sweater, a skirt, some leggings, and his girl sandals. Without hearing his voice, I would have assumed the person was female.

I talked to David today about him and he told me that sometimes he goes by the name Mary Hues. His real name is Peter. So maybe he has a double identity of some sort. I don’t know why I wrote about that, but there you go. A good laugh for the day!

Today at work, I worked on interviews, pictures, my blog, e-mails, and my sermon. I have a better lead on it and I am feeling really good about it. At 2:30 Jeff dropped me back at home so that he could go to the doctors office. He still has a pretty bad cough today, but he has been given medication to control the coughs and so that he can get better. Thankfully its not contagious!

This evening for dinner we had chicken, roasted veggies and for dessert canned pears with marshmallows and ice cream.

After dinner I worked some more on my sermon. I now have an outline. Its all a matter of me sitting down and actually writing the sermon now. I think I might do that tomorrow, maybe, but I will for sure get it done on Wednesday. No matter what! Thursday I have to get my PowerPoint done. I am also thinking of adding a music video to the beginning or end of my sermon. The song is Hands and Feet by Audio Adrenaline. My sermon title is “Reach Out and Touch Someone.”

Tomorrow I am going to the Melbourne Museum with some members of the church. I am looking forward to a day in town, but I will be out basically all day. From 9AM till 9PM. I am not sure how we are going to stay busy all that time, but maybe the members have some interesting places up their sleeves! If not, I’ll be coming home earlier!

So I think I’ll go read until I fall asleep. Yep. Same book. I am about finished with it. Hopefully I won’t have any bad dreams tonight!

Preaching day

Sunday June 21, 2009

As I ate breakfast this morning, I learned that Jeff was not going to be joining us for church today. He had gotten sick and was coughing a lot.

Rosemary and I went to church. Worship was really good. We learned about changing our perspective on life. Instead of looking at all the negative, we should look more to the positive. During tea time, I attempted to interview people, but they thought my four questions were difficult. I didn’t get as many responses as I wanted, but I did get some. I guess I am going to have to work a lot harder in the next couple of Sundays to get all those together because I need them for the time capsule.

I went to second church as well. After that service, I enjoyed conversing with some of the members. I set another dinner date for this Friday with a family from the church. It will be fun!

We went home for lunch and ate ham and pea soup with crumpets. Crumpets are so good! I then laid down to read, but I ended up falling asleep for an hour. It sure did feel good to sleep!

I then got up and read the book “ The Last Lecture” for about an hour and a half. It’s a very good book, but in a way its sad knowing that the author is going to die. The book makes me think about my life and how I choose to live it.

Rosemary brought me to church again for the evening service. I sang with the praise band, which consists of a piano and some singers. Rachael, one of the student ministers, played the bass guitar.

My sermon went pretty well. I was nervous at the beginning and so I think I spoke really fast, but I eventually calmed myself down and spoke slower. There was a man there named Tom who is in his 90s. He told me that he was going to come just to hear me speak. After the service he came up to me and said that he wasn’t sure he got a lot out of my sermon, but that he really enjoyed just listening to my accent! He also told me that if my boyfriend didn’t hurry up and propose, then he would do it himself! He is really fond of me and always talks to me about Jake. Old men are so much fun!! They make me smile.

On the way home, Rosemary said that she needed to change the air conditioning to prepare for the tip. I didn’t know what that meant. Would you? So I asked her and she said that the tip is basically the same as what we call the trash dump.

For dinner I had left over sausage and apple and onion mixture. It was frozen, don’t get scared. A cool British detective show was on tonight so I watched that with Jeff and Rosemary while eating scones and drinking coffee. It was a good day. Now I need to start thinking about what I am going to preach on next Sunday. The verse is Mark 5:21-43. Look it up! An easy way to do that if your Bible is not handy is to go to www.biblegateway.com.