My New Baby!

Haven't blogged for a while coz I've been lazy and have recently been slightly obsessed with Facebook!

But now it's time to return to faithful Blogger and post an entry.

As most of you would probably know by now, the most recent and exciting thing that I have done is buy a new car! I really didn't want to give up my other one, but the poor thing was falling apart and all the little things started to go wrong with it, which would've added up to a large bill to get fixed.

Anyway, if you haven't already seen it, here are a few piccies of the new addition:




It gets Biz' approval! It's 2006 Nissan Tiida, and was a demonstrator model so it has only done a few thousand kilometres! My bank balance is a little lower now than what I would have liked it to be, but it was a good deal and it was too pretty to pass up!

It has a 1.8L engine (which is bigger than my other car), CD player, electric windows, about 6 cup holders (!), and the boot is about the same size as my other car, so I can still fit a fair amount of shopping into it! Plus, it has pretty wheels! :)

So there it is. I have also included some pictures of my old car, so she won't be forgotten! She was in the family for almost 15 years. It was like saying goodbye to a family member! She had a good run.

I can only hope my new car does as well as my old car did! :)

Grrr....

I have finally managed to stay on the internet for more than 5 minutes with out being booted off this time. Mind you, it's been about my 7th attempt! Internet is faster now but I can never get on it!

Just had to have a whinge.

That is all. Thanks for listening. :)

Hooray for broadband!

We have broadband now - YAY! Liv got a trial thing from Bigpond from her work or something, and I think it's ment to be free for two months or something, which is cool! I still don't understand the whole 'megabytes downloaded' thing and how it works by that and not hours (we've had pre-paid internet in the past), but I guess we'll see once the bills start coming in!
Still, after experiencing broadband, I don't think I could go back to dial-up. I can see videos now without it taking hours to upload!

Anyway, that's enough of my rant. Nothing's been happening so I haven't blogged. This is the most exciting thing that's happened to me recently - I've joined technological age!

I thought it was about time that I shoved something on here, so here are a few new words for 2007 (I got the email back in January):

* BLAMESTORMING. Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a Project failed, and who was responsible.

* CUBE FARM. An office filled with cubicles.

* PRAIRIE DOGGING. When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.)

* SITCOMs. Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".

* SINBAD. Single working girls. Single Income, No Boyfriend And Desperate.

* PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE. The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

* ADMINISPHERE. The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" - needless paperwork and processes.


* 404. Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found" meaning that the requested document could not be located.

* OH - NO SECOND. That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all').

* MONKEY BATH. A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: "Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!".

The latest craze...

Last sunday, Nick bought these cool stilt thingys to church that he got earlier in the week. They're mad - I've seen street performers on these type of things before and you can do all sorts of tricks on them. They're specially designed for jumping and stuff like that. You can get some height on them too. Eddie has a pair as well and ran/jumped on them all the way from his place to our cell group at the Horwoods on tuesday night!

Anyway, on sunday, Nick let me have a go at them! I'm not the most balanced person in the world, but the results could have been much more embaressing - at least I could stand upright on them with Justin's help, and I didn't actually fall over, although I was close at one stage (thank goodness I was standing near the pole!).

I can't stand up on my own, but I could walk around for a bit with Justin's help. It looked more like we were dancing though! They're kinda heavy to lift up properly too, so that made it a bit hard. But they're fun! It would be awesome to get the hang of!

As Naomi requested, here's a picture of me on the bizaare things! I have a little video, but I don't know how to put that on, and the other pic Liv got is of me almost falling over, so this is all you get! :)

It just goes to show how short I really am though, seeing as I'm on stilts and still don't actually look that tall! :(

They're very cool, but I don't know how the guys can walk around on them by themselves though!

PiRaTeS oF tHe CaRiBbEaN 3!

Last weekend, we went to Orange to see 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At world's end'. Was very amusing! It was a little long, and I'm sad to say, not as good as the second one, but still worth the money! Jack's entrance onto the screen was very amusing! There's not as many laugh out loud bits (except we were in hysterics when Jack swaggered on!), but the action sequences are cool. It starts off a bit dark and depressing (definately not a little kid's movie!), and the actual plot is a little hard to follow, but I still loved it. It'll definately be joining my DVD collecting!

GO SEE IT!! :)

Intensifire 2007

Last friday and saturday, Amy G, Amy C and I went over to Orange to attend Intensifire, a youth and young adult conference. While we were possibly amongst the oldest people there (besides the youth leaders and pastors!), it was an awesome experience and, from my end, totally unexpected.

I must admit that when I said I would go, I wasn't expecting much from the conference because I thought it would be too small, etc, having really only attended the larger conferences at Hillsong and Planetshakers. But as it turned out, the smaller size of the conference was perfect. The sessions were much more personalised and the prayer and worship at the end of each were much more intense.

The three of us had a great time, meeting new people and such. The presence of God was in the place in every session, and the experience was like none I'd ever had before. The speakers (Ps Luke McMartin and Ps David Hall) were truly anointed to speak to young people (and hilariously funny!), and re-install a passion for Christ and to do God's work.

Anyhoo, I can't quite explain it, but it was a weekend well spent and I've come away from it with an awakened passion and spirit for God!

There's a larger version of the conference in Liverpool in October sometime, and they have the same speakers plus Ashley Evans and a few others, so that would be awesome to go to aswell!

Anyway, I just had to share a little bit about it coz it got me all excited and I had to let everyone know how awesome it was (even though we had to sleep in a freezing room and the younger girls didn't go to sleep till 3am)! Amy G is using some of what we learnt at the conference as part of her study tonight for cell, so it should be inspiring!

Another random thing....

I was tagged to do this a while ago but have been too lazy (sorry guys!), so here it is for you now:

Wikipedia

The rules are:
1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays
5) List two deaths
6) One holiday or observance (if any)
7) Tag 5 other bloggers to complete

THREE EVENTS:

1792 - French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
1981 - In his last fight, Muhammad Ali is defeated by Trevor Berbick.
2000 - Real Madrid football club is awarded 20th Century's Best Club award by FIFA. Also, the song Warning by the popular band Green Day was realesed.

TWO BIRTHDAYS:

1843 - Robert Koch, German bacteriologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1910)
1981 - Hamish Blake, Australian comedian (I wanted to put in American actor, Rider Strong, but I thought I should be patriotic!)

TWO DEATHS:

1282 - Llywelyn the Last, King of Gwynedd (Wales) (Just cuz I like the name!)
2006 - Elizabeth Bolden, American, oldest verified person in the world at the time of her death (b. 1890)

HOLIDAY/OBSERVANCE:

Argentina - Tango Day, Buenos Aires (Hehe! I love that they have a day set aside for a dance! How could I not put that one in!)

TAG 5 OTHER BLOGGERS:

1. Zarna (coz I like picking on ya!)
2. Katie (Same reason!)
3. Kim (Because I can read your response now!)
4. Anyone else who hasn't done it
5. I think I've covered all the people I know already!

FOUR!!!

Naomi tagged me to do the 'four' thing, so here it is ->

1. Four places you have lived :

1. Bogan Gate (I know, how embarressing!)
2. Parkes
3. Bathurst
4. Parkes again!


2. Four tv shows you like to watch:

1. CSI & CSI: Miami (NOT NY!)

2. NCIS

3. Numb3rs

4. Spicks and Specks

3. four places I have been on vacation:

1. Frazer Island - QLD

2. Gold Coast - QLD (plus the Sunshine Coast almost every year to visit family)

3. Great Ocean Road - Vic

4. Barossa Valley and Adelaide Hills - S.A

(How sad - I've never been out of the country!)

4. four of my favourite foods:

1. Chicken Parmigana

2. Mum's baked lamb dinners

3. Pizza

4. Almost anything chocolate - EVERYTHING Cadbury!

5. four places you would rather be right now:

1. Disneyland would be fun!

2. Sitting in a forest somewhere, listening to nature (and not the dog next door that keeps barking!)

3. In a giant shopping plaza with an unlimited amount of money (I can dream!)

4. And right at this particular moment, I want to be ice-skating! Don't ask me why! But I love it.

6. four people to tag:

1. Zarna, because I don't think she's done it yet

2. Kimi - come on, I know you haunt my blog sometimes! Where's your's?! :)

3. Katie - whenever she gets back on the net and happens to see this post!

4. Everyone else I know has done it (I think!), So I'll tag Liv for when (if ever!) she gets a blog! :)

Tori and Sam

A couple of weekends ago, I got to travel up to Newcastle to visit Ruth and Tim, some mates of mine from uni. I'd never been to Newcastle before so it was cool to be able to go there and get shown around for a couple of days.

It was also cool because I got to see Victoria again. Tori is Ruth and Tim's baby girl and she is soo cute (as you may be able to tell from the pic on the left!). She's almost 8 months old now. I last saw her when she was about 5-6 months old. While it wasn't that long ago, babies sure grow up fast! Tori's now crawling around and giggling away to herself! She's also learnt to growl, which was most amusing for the rest of us! She's a people-baby too, so it was nice for me to be able to pick up a baby and not have them cry at me!

The trip was also good because I was able to catch up with Tanya too (She's in the photo on the right, with Tori). Tanya is also a mate from uni and helped keep me company while I was in Bathurst last year! Tanya drove which ment I didn't have to negotiate the Sydney traffic or try to keep up with Ruth in Newcastle! Plus her car is much more comfortable and roomy then mine, which ment lots of room for shopping (of which we did plenty of)!

We did quite a bit of sight seeing in Newcastle. It's not a bad place really. It kinda feels like an overgrown country town (traffic wise) and because we were staying pretty much in town, everything was easy to get to. Our hotel was right next to the beach, so there were lots of cool evening walks and much eating of fish and chips!

The tankers in the bays of Newcastle also amused Tanya and I. At any given time there were at least 40 of the monsterous things just dawdling along the coast, and at night when they lit up, it looked like hundreds of tiny little cities just floating off the coast.

On the way back from Newcastle, I got to drop in on Amanda and Matt, some more uni friends in Bathurst. They are also new parents, and it was great to catch up with them for a little while and see how much their bub has grown.

Samuel Christopher is about 10 weeks old and he's a big boy! Very placid though and let's his parents sleep for more of the night. He is also very personable, and didn't cry when I held him! He was born with that thick, black mop of hair too! He's the most awake baby I've ever come across too! He doesn't like to miss out on much!

I get to see Amanda and Matt again next weekend, as they're having a naming ceremony or something for Sam on Saturday.

Both bubs were suprises, but both families are doing well and couldn't imagine their lives without them!

More slide night...

Ok, now because I can, I have put on a few more photos of our holiday away! Not that they're that interesting, but simply because I can! :) ........

This is a pic of the cool adventure playground in Ballarat I mentioned in my other post. It was awesome! It had stuff to climb up and over and through and everything! Of course, I had to test it out!

This is a sign that simply amused me on our way down the Great Ocean Road! They had them stuck everywhere! It's not that amusing now, but it kind of surprised us at the time when we first saw the signs!

This formation is called 'The Arch' (funnily enough!) and is part of the 12 Apostles scenic route. Not very exciting, but I liked the picture! One of the small moments that the sun decided to shine that day too.

This is 'The Grotto'. Another moment when the sun decided to shine. It was really nice down there and they had a little cave you could wander into, etc. This is also on here purely because I like the picture!

This is 'The Blue Lake' in Mount Gambier, South Australia. This is where we spent our 6th night. Not a bad little city actually. I think the lake is the town's water source and is, as you could probably guess, perched inside a rather large creater. It looks blue in the photo, but in reality it was much bluer than that! The depth of colour was amazing. Apparently, it goes a dull grey during the winter months, and then turns the brillant blue during the warner months. Something to do with the algae and tiny microbes circulating in the water (eww!).

This cute little cottage was perched on the hill behind our hotel in the Barossa Valley, S.A. It was so cute and the photo captured the arfternoon sun brillantly. The whole area was very pretty and 'old-worldly'. We stayed in a small town called Anguston. Very pretty drives and only a stones throw away from the Adelaide Hills. And, of course, the place was full of Vineyards and all the big name wineries.

Handorf, in the Adelaide Hills, is very cute! Everything has a German feel and there are about 5 Lutheran churches to each little town! Very much a tourist town, it is all things German, so we fitted in very well with our last name! There was even a little man dressed in lederhosen playing polka on an accordian in front of the little stone pub! There's heaps of tours that run around the place is old-fashioned cars like this. We happened to go on a sunday so everyone was out and about!

After our two day stay in the Barossa, we headed home. It was an awesome holiday - relaxing with just the right amount of stuff to do. Plus we got to see a fair chunk of this great land of ours. And there were quite a few amusing things to be viewed along the way too!

Speaking of amusing, we found a town that uses plastic grass instead of real grass in their town's beautification!!

This, believe it or not, is plastic turf! When we drove into Murray Bridge, S.A, it was night time. I was looking out the window and said, 'Wow, dispite the drought and the dryness all around, this place has managed to keep their grass so green!' When we stopped to get dinner, I got out and just had to have a feel of the lush grass, but then discovered that it was so green because it was plastic! It's a great idea really - from a distance you'd never know it was plastic, and it certainly gives the place a healthy feel about it! Plus, the council doesn't have to worry about mowing it!

In contrast to the green grass, this is what the rest of the place looked like naturally................!

So plastic grass is a good idea to me!! :)

SoMe HoLiDaY sNaPs.....

Hi all!

Well, I finally won - with a lot of patience and a couple of hours to spare (!), I managed to get some photos uploaded onto my blog! *CHEERS*!!

As most of you have observed by now, we have returned from a cool, relaxing holiday. We were only away for about 10 days but did a lot of travelling in that time (The last quarter of the trip alone clocked up over 2000k's on the the trip metre!). It was cool though - saw a lot of the country and managed to visit places in three states!

We obviously saw some places in New South Wales, and then we headed down to Victoria before heading across to South Australia before coming back home.

Here are a few snaps that I managed to upload to make the story telling slightly less boring!!....

• This is the paddlesteamer Emmylou. We spent our first night on the road in Echuca, which is just on the Victorian side of the Murray river. It's a gorgeous little town - very touristy. Has a very nice looking hospital if I ever decide to move down there...!! As nice as all the other places we visited were, Liv and I were probably most taken by Echuca - just because I had no expectations of it and it was really cute - old worldy because of all the paddle steamers. Plus, I love rivers! We had a hour and a half river cruise on this little baby - it was fantastic. It was just nice to relax and watch the world float by. Beautiful day too.
  
  

• This is a pretty boring pic but it was taken in Ballarat, where we spent our second night. The picture ordinarily would be of a lake, except it is all dried up because of the drought! All the way back, to the line of trees, used to be water! They have boating ramps and everything! It was used for the rowing in the olympics when it was held in Melboure - I cant remember the name of the lake now though! The drought is bad in Victoria - everything is so dry and this pic just proves it. the park around it was pretty though, and it had an awesome adventure playground that I couldn't resist running around!
  
  

• (Liv and mum are gonna love me for putting this one up!) This is beautiful forest walk on the other side of Apollo Bay, on the Great Ocean Road. It's called Mait's Rest, and it's so peaceful and quiet. I love foresty areas, with all the birds and insect sounds and the earthen smells. There are enormous trees in there that have been growing for centuries. I always feel really close to God in areas like this because they are so peaceful and full of God's beauty. The walk is supposed to take about 30 minutes but I think I spent just under an hour in there - just meandering around and taking it all in.
  

• This is a pic of Port Campbell, where we spent our 4th and 5th days. It's right on the Great Ocean Road and in between all the popular lookouts, like the 12 Apostles, etc. It was a cute little coastal town that basically survives on tourists. The town population is only about 500. It's got the perfect little sheltered beach and everything. This is taken from a lookout high above the town in the hills behind it.

• This is from the beach of Gibson's Steps. Although it wasn't a beautiful day (in fact, it was blowing a gale and freezing!), I like this picture because it picked up the colours of the stormy sky pretty well. The ocean was so wild - it was so cool! The coast down there is just huge cliffs that break away into the sea. This is my fave photo for some reason!
  

• And of course, here's a pic of the 12 Apostles. This was taken on the same day as the photo above, so it was still blowing a gale and freezing! When we had past it the day before, it had been a beautiful afternoon but I couldn't take any photos of them because the sun was just in the wrong place and the it was all glazy and shone right in the lens! But this is still a pretty cool pic anyway.

Well, that just about covers the first half of our holiday. When I get the patience and a couple of hours free again, I will post some other photos and wrap up the rest of the holiday! :)

The Colour girls returneth...

We've been back for a few days actually, but I've been busy unpacking from last weekend and repacking for my holidays this weekend that I haven't had much time to post!

The 2007 'Colour Your World' women's conference was awesome! It was soo much fun, and holding it at Acer Arena made so much better because of the amount of women that were there!! I've already booked myself and my family in for next year coz 2008 will be even better!
The presence of God was everywhere and you could see the speakers stirring up something in everyone. Some of the messages were simple, but sometimes a person needs to be reminded and re-inforced! Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend away, not to mention the fun we had crashing at Katie and Deborah's flat! It's an awesome little place, nice and central, easy to get to, and close to KFC and the railway station!
The games night we had for Deborah's birthday was truly memorable! If you want more info, look at Naomi's post!

This saturday I am going away on holidays with mum, and Liv. It should be good. Well, lets face it, any holiday where you actually leave the town you live in is always good! We're going on a meander down the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and then if time permits, we'll head into South Australia for a while. We're only going for 11 days, but it'll be cool (11 days without the internet? What will I do?!). I will do a holiday post after I return (I can tell you're all excited about that, the same way people are excited when someone says 'lets have a slide night...'!!!).

Today is my dad's birthday, and while he doesn't have the internet or read things like this, I just have to say: HaPpY bIrThDaY dAd! :)

Fun Things To Do In An Exam!!

Ok, I know we have all finished our schooling and will probably never have to take class exams ever again, but I was cleaning out my cupboard the other day and came across some 'useful exam strategies' my Biology teacher gave to us just before our HSC exams! They may provide some entertainment for you!

• Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say 'They've found me, I have to leave the country' and run off.
• 15 minutes into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell 'Merry Christmas'. If you're really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every 15 minutes.
• As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.
• Every 5 minutes, stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, and continue with the exam.
• Come into the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 minutes, put on a white mask and start yelling, 'I'm here, the phantom of the opera' until they drag you away.
• Try to get people in the room to do the Mexican Wave.
• During the exam, take apart everything around you. Desks, chairs, anything you can reach.
• Do the entire exam in another language. If you don't know one, make one up.
• Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.
• If it is a maths/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative.
• Bring balloons; blow them up, start throwing them around like they do before concerts start.
• Bring cheat sheets for ANOTHER class (make sure this is obvious - like history notes for a maths exam) and staple them to the exam, with the comment 'Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit'.
• Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.
• Stand up after about 15 minutes, and say loadly, 'Okay, let's double-check our answers! Number one, A. Number two, C. Number three, E...'

To all you kids out there, this is not to be taken seriously! Although it would be fun to see someone ELSE do it one day! ;op

Some of these were very tempting to try during the HSC!

Just thought I'd help you waste about 5 minutes of your time!! ;op

FuN gOoDiEs!!!! :)

Last saturday, Naomi and Peter graciously hosted a party in honour of my return to PARKES!! :p

Well, it was more just an excuse to have a party, eat junkfood and play games, but that's as good a reason as any!

Naomi has already posted about the random night, but as I need another post, I will ramble on about it too!

I got a huge bag full of various delicious goodies such as salt & vinegar chips, Cadbury Snack block, a bag of fun sized Pinics and a huge bag of Maltesers!

All my favourites! Apparently, Liv was supposed to get Jaffas and M&M's Mix-ups, but she let the team down and forgot them! Not that they were needed anyway! There's always wayyy too much food at these things but I'm sure Naomi, Pete and the kids don't mind left-overs! :)

Our attention span on the night was quite short, and we managed to play Emperor - scum and Trivial Pursuit without actually finishing them! Trivial Pursuit is my game, and while I love trivia and useless facts, my version is a little too brain-draining to play and you have to be really lucky with the cards to get questions that you know the answers to.

One game we did manage to finish was Cranium (the picture on the left appears to be the Danish version or something!).

This would highlight how cool and awesome the game actually is.

I love it cause it's got all sorts of different categories, etc, so you can't really get bored in it. If there's a category you don't like or aren't good at, there's bound to be another one that you can do. It pretty much seems to have rolled about 5 games into one!

Plus, it comes with groovy purple play dough :)

There were also some interesting internet ramblings involved too!

Technology compounded with tiredness, sugar and hyperactivity makes for some very interesting reading the next day!

These experimentations with internet codes, etc, were, for some reason, hilarious at 2 o'clock in the morning! If you want a glimpse of what was going on, take a peek at my Cbox (Nomes, you're a classic!)

It might be a case of 'you-just-had-to-be-there' to fully understand the hilarity though... :)

I would put pictures of the event on here if I could, but I didn't manage to take any photos. Plus, my computer or internet or whatever doesn't seem to let me post photos. It does, however, let me post pictures of stuff I have found on the web, hence the very enlightening photos you have before you.

The next picture I am about to upload is an old ad I found for Maltesers. I hope you find it full of wealth and encouragement, just as I did. Girls, it's a good sign for us all.....Too-rah!

Bored blog

Am blogging at the moment because I have commented on everybody else's and have nothing else to do now!

Weekend with Liv was good. We went to the Jenolen Caves on saturday because neither of us had been before. It's pretty there but we probably picked the wrong day to go because it was so hot! It's also annoying because it's so expensive. You have to pay $4.50 for parking and then to get in a cave for an hour, it costs $22. And that was the cheapest and easiest cave!

It was nice underground though. Looking at natural wonders always makes me wonder how people out there don't believe in God. All you have to do is look around and there's your proof!
I panicked a bit before we went in though coz it was a narrow cave and I wasn't sure if I was gonna get too claustrophobic, but it all turned out all right once I was in and looking at the cool structures.

After we came back we caught up with my friend Tanya, and had dinner at La Porchetta before coming back here to watch some movies. Sunday was just spent hanging around my place after a bit of shopping. All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Today, I have had two lots of people come through to inspect the flat, which means I spent yesturday and today furiously trying to get the house tidy (not that the seemed to look anyway!). I was a bit spun out after the last couple left though, coz it turns out the guy was a childhood friend of mine that I haven't seeing for at least 7 years! I didn't recognise him, but he walked in and said, 'Which one are you, Olivia or Karin'? I just stared at him coz I had no idea who he was! He looked so different since the last time I saw him (guess I haven't changed much!) but once he said who he was, I was like 'Oh yeah, hey, how are ya'?! Bit strange but I love moments like that in life!

Tomorrow I'm going round to a friend's house to visit her and her new baby boy. Ahh, I love holidays!

Hey y'all!

Time for another post I suppose!

It's been storming here all afternoon, which inspired me to post about last weekend's storms, but sadly I can't seem to get the photos up for some reason, so you'll have to use your imaginations!!

We had a deluge of rain last weekend and Bathurst pratically flooded! There were rivers of running water every where! It was so cool to see. Liv and I weren't actually in Bathurst when the storms started but we saw the result coz when we cruised into town, it looked like it had snowed! It was amazing (have photos, but alas, can't get them on here?!). The hail was so fine, but thick, and it covered the paddocks on the outskirts of town. There were 'drifts' banked up against houses everywhere and 'snow' on the rooftops! There was about 2cms on the ground so we had a mini ice fight! I'd never seen hail that looked so much like snow before - it was exciting (I'm easily amused)!!

I had some old school friends up last weekend and it was good to catch up with them and see where their busy lives are taking them. Much eating of junk food and watching bad movies, what a way to spend a weekend! Mostly things ended up with us just chatting though, as is usually the way when a bunch of girls get together!

I am currently kitten-sitting a gorgeous little ginger thing for a friend while she is away. I had the job of going to collect the kitty from her home as she is a present for another friend. Needless to say, Kitty wasn't very happy yesturday and spend the afternoon hiding and wailing miserably. I hate being the first one to take them away from their mum! But she settled down eventually and is currently snuggled up beside me while I write this. I love how she has morphed into 2 modes now - sleep and play! That's it! I can't believe how long I can entertain her with a piece of ribbon! Much longer than I can be entertained anyway!

Liv is coming up again this afternoon, as it will be the last time she'll be able to do it (with all my furniture anyway!). We have a weekend planned of doing very little! Plus a little bit of junk food...!

Well, that's it for now. I will continue with my photo-uploading endeveour!! :)

Praise point!

I've been meaning to blog all week but I've managed to run out of time until now!

Tomorrow is the last day of my post-grad. It will be kind of bitter sweet in a way, because this last placement at district nursing has been really interesting and all of the girls there have been so good with helping me and giving me information, etc. But I will still be glad when tomorrow afternoon comes!!

Anyway, there was a purpose to this blog! Last weekend, my sister and mum came up to keep me company and we had organised to catch a show in orange. I dragged a couple of friends along too and we had a fantastic night. Laughed way to much and had a major belly ache from it at the end!!
Anywho, we had taken Liv's car to Orange while I left mine parked on the road here for the day (coz I let Liv have the garage coz here car is better than mine!). We didn't get back here till about 12am that night and as Liv went to go down the driveway I happened to glance over at my car and saw that someone had broken into it!! What a way to end a great night!!

While this might not particulary sound like a praise point, things could have been a lot worse. For instance, if I had've taken my car, it would have been Liv's car that got busted, and she only just got the front fixed! There was also very minimal damage done to my car too. 3 doors were unlocked and the front passanger one slightly open, and both the front windows were down, but besides the front passanger door lock being wrecked, there was no harm done to the car. Thank God too, because I had just gotten the windscreen replaced. Things had been shifted around in the car but nothing was stolen (nothing worth stealing in there anyway!).

So I consider myself very blessed that my car was not stolen or damaged too much. God was definatly looking out for me that night! :)

50 Questions Thing!

1. NAME: Karin Wagner
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I don't think so. It was the only name mum and da could come up with that they both liked! Pretty sure it was dad's idea seeing as it's the European spelling
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? At my cousin's funeral
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? No! It's horrible scrawl that I can't seem to fix
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? BBQ chicken or left over roast lamb
6. KIDS? Not at the moment!
7. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE A KID? When I was four, a tennis player! Then a vet or a cartoonist for Disney (even though I can't draw!)

8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? No. Tried to keep one for a while at school, but they never lasted long
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? I think I do, even though I probably shouldn't
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes, but I wish they would take them out!
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No way! I'm not hurling myself off a brigde with a piece of string attached to me for anything!
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I eat Apricot Weet-bix Bites things, but, like everyone else, I would prefer Coco-pops! Or Froot Loops!
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Mostly I don't bother to untie the laces (No wonder I need new shoes all the time!)
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY? Neither! That's a hard one for me to judge myself on....
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Choc mint or boysenberry. Gelato is better than ice cream though

16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Whether they attempt to be friendly or not. In physical appearences, their smile (or lack of)
17.RED OR PINK? Neither! But if I have to pick, maybe a fushia type pink (Pink like Zarna's bridesmaid's dresses)
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My lack of fitness and skin
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Whoever is not with me at the time that I want them to be
20. FAVOURITE ACTOR AND ACTRESS? At the moment (my tastes change from month to month, depending on good movies!), Johnny Depp and Julia Roberts (only coz I can't think of anyone else at the moment!)
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Dark blue, rustic jeans and no shoes
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Purple of course
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Rain, Clean sheets, Chanel No 5 (coz mum wore it when I was little) and roast lamb!
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mum, coz I was on a break this morning and was bored, so I annoyed her before church. Liv was too busy getting ready to talk to me!
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?Nobody sent it to me, I stole it! But I like all the people who have it one their blog that I stole it from!
26.FAVORITE DRINK? Golden Circle Tropical Punch soft drink, Coke and Cherry Cheer

27. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Gymnastics, Ice skating and NRL
28. HAIR AND EYE COLOR? Red/auburn?! and bluish/grey (blech!)
29. FAVOURITE CHILDHOOD TV SHOW? So many: Snorks, Art Attack, Sesame Street, SuperTed, Freakazoid, Animaniacs, and almost any cartoon (I will also quietly add A Country Practice and MacGyver too! But I was little!)

30. MUSIC CONCERT OR THEATRE? Both, but concerts have more audience participation!
31. FAVORITE FOOD? Mum's baked dinner, pizza, nachos and lamb korma
32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy endings
33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Dodgeball at last night's open air cinema down by the river, here in Bathurst
34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Pale blue
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer (when it's in the mid 20's degree range!)
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Trifle and chocolate sponge pudding with custard
38. ARE YOU TICKLISH? Anybody who know's me will know the answer to that!

39. WHAT SUPER POWER WOULD YOU WISH FOR? To be able to move things with my mind 40. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? I very rearly only read one book at a time. At the moment, I'm slowly ploughing my way through 'U2 by U2' and 'San Sombrero' (If you haven't heard of it, it's a hilarious book that rips off travel guides. The pictures and captions are very funny!)
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I'm mouse pad-less
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV LAST NIGHT? I watched a DVD - Blackadder II
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Summer bugs, birds (whip- and bell-birds especially), rain on a sleep-in morning, the clicking sound my clock makes when I disable the alarm!
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Adelaide (how depressing!)
46. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I don't think I do...unless you count being late for EVERYTHING (even if the event is in the afternoon) and being the last one to leave as some sort of talent?! (Probably more annoying actually....)
47. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 11th December 1984, in the Maternity unit at Orange Base Hospital.
48. TRAVEL THE WORLD? I'd like to (just gotta get over my irrational fear or aeroplanes)
49. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? You know, the usual: Earn lots of money without having to work too hard, be able to buy lots of nice things, get married, kids, etc, etc. Have enough money stashed away to be able to retire early and go caravaning for the rest of my days!
50. HOW DO YOU FALL ASLEEP AT NIGHT? Listening to soft music and the fan, trying to push all the thoughts out of my head that are keeping me awake, and I usually only end up falling asleep once I've laid on my side and back numerous times, before I give up and just sleep on my stomach!

Monster Name Decoder!

My friend sent me an email the other day. It had an attachment to a website where your name is decoded according to your initials and the type of picture you choose to go along with it. Anyway, I was mucking around with the monster name decoder and this it what my name stands for:


!!!!! I was so amused by that! I guess Liv could vouch for the redhead-injuring part! Anyway, that was the only reason I decided to post this. It's pretty accurate (I love Kitties and would abduct them all if I could!). Chucked about my name meaning for WAY too long (think I'm over-tired!)

If you want to give it a go, here's the site - http://monster.namedecoder.com/

Enjoy!

This is for Naomi!

I don't really have anything interesting to post, but to keep Naomi occupied, I will write something!!! ;)

Work has been going ok, but it's been killing me coz it's been so hot!! Most of the client's don't have air conditioning in their homes, and the only refuge I get is in the office, so I don't actually mind hanging around there at the moment!!

I caught up with my friend, Tanya, today. Didn't do much - just went to the movies and then had dinner down by the river, which was nice (but hot!)

We saw 'The Holiday' at the movies. It was pretty cool - one of those romantic comedy things. Liv would've love it!! ;p Again, it was nice to be in air conditioning for a couple of hours!
If you haven't heard of the movie, it's basically about 2 women (one in L.A, one in London) who are unlucky in love. One has just broken up with her boyfriend and the other is in love with someone who doesn't love her. Anyway, long story shot, they end up meeting on the net and swap houses for the holidays. As it's a romantic kind of movie, you can pretty much guess the ending. Not real exciting, but good enough to spend a couple of hours watching. The fact that Jude Law was in it also helped (don't like him in real life, but he is a good actor and oozes charisma!).

Anyway, that's about it for me (it'ds past my bedtime now - stupid morning shifts!). Thought I'd keep you up to date with my oh-so-exciting life!!

2006 survey

Ok, so I'm a little late with the quiz, but here it is anyway, just to fill in time and combat boredom!! I seem to have lost a question too somewhere along the line in my copying and pasting - if you find it, let me know!! ;)

1) Where did you begin 2006? Hanging at Amy C's place with liv, Amy G and Katie.

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day? *sigh* single

3) Were you in school (anytime this year)? Nope, glad that's all over!

4) How did you earn your money? Working in different places during my post grad - St. Vincent's hospital, Macquarie Care Centre, and St Cathrine's Aged Care Facility in Bathurst.

5) Did you have to go to the hospital? Everyday! :) Only once as an inpatiant though - sedation is fun! I acted so drunk after it. Mum said I kept saying 'I don't remember putting my shoes on' and then laughing histerically!!

6) Did you have any encounters with the police? I got breath tested once, but that was routine!

7) Where did you go on holiday? Sydney and Canberra a couple of times. I can't remember going anywhere else!

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000? My furniture package from Fantastic Furniture. It may have been just under actually.

9) Did you know anybody who got married? Seth and Claire. I think that was the only wedding I went to!

10) Did you know anybody who passed away? Yes, my cousin's husband just before Christmas.

11) Have you run into anybody you left high school/primary school with? Yep, often in the most bizaar places!

12) Did you move anywhere? Only partly to Bathurst!

13) What sporting events did you go to? I don't think I went to any.

14) What concerts/shows did you go to? Lee Kernagan (Or however you spell it. In my defence, I was guilted into going by a friend. On the upside, I got a free roadtrip!), and, more importantly, U2! They were awesome! Also went and saw 'Pirates of Penzence' at the Canberra theatre.

15) Are you registered to vote? I am in Parkes, but lately Bathurst has been trying to get me to enrol in their electorate!!

16) Who did you want to win Big Brother? Didn't watch it.

17) Where do you live now? Bathurst, NSW (mostly!). Not for long though!

18) Describe your birthday. Had to work - was my first day with district nursing. Liv and mum came up that afternoon and stayed the night. Went out for dinner and spent the arvo playing with our new digital cameras! Was pretty good. Went ut for dinner (again!) later on in the week with friends.

19) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2006? Probably everything! It was a tough year for me but I made it!

20.) What's something you learned about yourself? I can actually get up at 5:30 in the morning and cope well enough to not need a nanna nap in the arvo! Not bad for a night owl!

21.) Any new additions to your family? Nope

22.) What was your best month? December - birthday, Christmas, and everyone is in the holiday mood!

23.) What music will you remember 2006 by? Scissor Sisters - I don't feel like dancing and anything from U2, coz I saw them in that year!

24.) Who has been your best drinking buddy? Don't really have one. Probably Liv coz it tends to be at home.

25.) Made new friends? Not really. Everyone at work is in the 'older' adult bracket!

26.) Best new friend? Don't have a best friend - I like spending my time with all my friends.

27.) Favorite Night out/in? I'll take games nights with the crew over anything, everytime!

28.) Any regrets? Nope

29.) Did you get ur nails painted? Not professionally, no. I paint my nails every week though - only with nail hardener coz my nails are so darn soft, they break at work all the time!!

Ok, that's it! Hope this year brings better surprises!

Hooray for games nights!

There is nothing better than stuffing you face full of delectable goodies and beating friends at random games all night!!

On monday night, Deborah organised a games night at Nick's place (thanks Deb!). Well, actually it was supposed to be a movie night to check out Nick's awesome plasma TV, but we all felt in the gaming mood instead! It was also a 'bring a dessert to share' night as well which ment there was lots of yummy chocolates, ice cream, sticky date pudding and wafer sticks!! Talk about over indulgence! But what are games nights for?! I was gonna put a photo on here of all the cool food we got to eat, but Amy didn't want me to put it on coz she's in it! It's a cool photo though!

We got to play 'Cranium', which was cool for me coz I hadn't been able to play it since Liv got it for Christmas. It's an awesome game! For someone with my attention span (or lack of it!), it's the perfect game coz you've gotta have general knowledge, use english and puzzle skills, use your creative side and you get to act stuff out and hum tunes!! Needless to say, it makes for some very entertaining scenes during the night!

It was also cool for me coz I got to catch up with Katie, which I hadn't really been able to do while she was at home over Christmas. Our team for Cranium consisted of me, Liv, Amy and Katie. We did very well for ourselves during the night - we managed to bet Naomi, Deborah and Nick twice!

After Cranium, we moved onto 'Absolute Balderdash'. While I can't say I'm a huge fan of the game (it involves too much creativity and thinking for me!), there are always memorable moments created by playing it (For those of you playing at home, remember the hilarity created by such initals that turned into 'Peas And Corn', and the meanings created for the word 'natterjack'!). I'm always amazed at how bizaar some of the answers can be (it is illegal in texas to drop candy on the ground?!).

Ok, so when is the next movie/games night?! :) Make it a night that I can get to - I've missed too many fun nights this year!!!

I need your comments!!

Ok, I know that sounds needy, but I have been fiddling with my blog settings (as you can see by my much cooler colour change!) and now when I look back at all my older comments, they all say they are from 'anonymous'!

I don't know what I've done and I'm not sure how to fix it, but if somebody comments now at least I'll be able to tell if it just applies to my older comments or whether I'm gonna have to delve deeper into the technology world to try and fix it for future comments!!

Cheers!

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

G'day all! I know this is late, but I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year!!

I had a great Christmas - Santa was very good to me!! The whole weekend before Christmas
was great as I had if off and got to catch up with friends who had returned from uni, etc. The Christmas Eve service at church was also very nice, as it is every year. Just a great time to relax, enjoy the meaning of the season and catch up with old friends. We got to have candles in this year's service too - that was exciting!! I didn't get to Christmas lighting this year after the service though coz I spent too long afterwards chatting to people!! Oh well, I had seen most of the lights the night before (even though it was pouring rain!) and talking and lazing around is always better!!

Woke up later than I usually do on Christmas this year, probably coz Liv slept in too (She seems to be my alarm clock when it comes to things like birthdays and Christmas)! It was a great day, even though it went far too quickly as I knew I had to head back to Bathurst that night to go to work on Boxing day. None of our family live around our area so we did our usual Christmas thing and caught up with family friends for a huge, traditional Chrissy lunch. It is really the only day of the year I turn into a complete carnivore - turkey, chicken, ham, lamb, pork.....Mmmmm, I love it! Plus all the yummy roasted veggies!! And lets not forget that extra pocket your stomach grows just for dessert! There's nothing better than trifle and ice cream christmas pudding!! The rest of the day was just spent milling around, reading my new books and watching my new dvds!!
I managed to convince (guilt?!) Liv into coming back with me to Bathurst so I had some company in the car, so the trip back was prety good too, except I probably left Parkes a little to late to get sufficient sleep for a 7am start! We didn't get back to Bathurst til midnight, but I was able to struggle through the next day alright!
For those of you who may not know, I have now started my district nursing component of my post grad - my final rotation! I've only got a little over a month left to go, and then I get holidays, yeay! Anyway, I turned up to work on boxing day and the girls asked me how my Chrissy was. I said it was good except for arriving back at midnight, and they said I should've taken the day off as I was only an extra anyway! How annoying! If they had told me before I turned up, that would have been helpful! Anyway, we ended up having a good day as most of the patients were away and we managed to finish at 1:30, which ment I could hang around with liv for a bit before dad came up to take her back. So while it wasn't my normal boxing day, it was still pretty good.

New years eve was a bit of a bust for me too this year as I had to work new years day. It was also annoying because I actually had plans this year. So I missed out on the party at Zarna and Justin's (Sorry Zarna) and from reports from Liv, it was a fun party too! :(
But, I managed to entertain myself. My friend, Tanya, was having a BBQ get-together at her place for new years eve, so I tagged along. My intention was to basically just go for dinner and be home by 10, but of course that didn't happen! After an evening of milling around, talking and watching the fireworks, I managed to see the new year in with little side effects present for the next day at work!

Work has been going ok. Today was my first day unbuddied, so I had to try and remember all the little things I needed to do by myself, but it went ok. I thought I was going to be running very late but I manage to finsh on time, surprisingly! I wonder who I missed....!

Anyway, that's about it for me. Catch ya later!

PS I know I said in the last blog I'd write about the rest of my 2 week holidays but I never got around to it! We went to Canberra the second weekend to take mum to the theatre for her birthday. We saw 'Pirates of Penzence'. Very daggy operaetta type thing but very funny and purposefully over-the-top. Was even funnier that the main pirate dude was ripping off Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribean! Good for a giggle. Also did a large bulk of my Christmas shopping while we were there! The Canberra Centre is huge - took us two days to get through the whole complex! To the shop-a-holics out there, it's worth the trip!