Finished, finished, finished!

Incidentally, when I was typing that title, I kept typing 'Finnish' instead of 'finish'....got Nightwish on the brain!

I had my last day of prac today! I taught the whole day all by myself. The teacher was in the room but she was right up the back getting all of her assessments ready. I love teaching kindy...even though some of the kids still don't know how to sit up and listen! I go in next week for a half day, just to get my final prac reports and say goodbye to everyone, but I don't have to teach anything cause I've already done all my hours. It's so strange to think that I've done all of my prac ever, and the next time I will be teaching, it will actually be paid, qualified teaching. Crazy stuff! Although I'm not trying to get casual work this year - it doesn't really work since I currently live at uni and want to work at schools in Liverpool. I'll wait until next year, there's no rush.

I have class tomorrow but at least I get to sleep in

2 days left of prac!!!

How the Trojan Wars relate to Scrubs

This is just something I was thinking about....yes, this is the kind of thing I think about.

Menelaus was the king of Sparta, and many of the Greeks fighting in the Trojan War were Spartans. The Spartans were a Dorian people.
On the other side, Troy was located somewhere around Turkey.

So, essentially, and I laughed when I worked this out, the Trojan War was really a battle between....the Dorians and the Turks!!

Yeah, if you haven't watched Scrubs you will not get this post at all!

Saturday afternoon amusements

Never underestimate the joys of watching the Simpsons with close friends....particularly close friends who can quote as extensively as you can. Sean and Fi came over to college on Saturday to watch dvds. Shan was invited but apparently he had assignments to work on. It was very fun, lots of insane laughter as we watched Season 1 of the simpsons - that rocked cause they never show those on tv anymore. Incidentally, at one stage, Sean was laughing so much he turned kind of purple. We also played Uno. 

I wish I had more holidays, but I will be content

My first week of holidays was taken up by doing prac....very interesting to say the least. Kindy kids get funny in the last week of term. One of them was running around with his library bag on his head, and some of them just flopped on the floor during group time. It was fun, although it means I only had this one week of holidays...which should have been taken up with doing assignments. I use the term 'should have'. I have got some of my weird Maths assignment done 

(by the way, a quote relating to this assignment:

 

Stine has just read through the assignment questions

''are you sure you picked up the right assignment?"

that shows how random it is)

At the moment, instead of blogging, I should be researching the myth of Theseus and also creating a symmetrical artwork of sorts. What happened? I used to study education!!

Thinking about next week, I'm wishing that I had an extra week of holidays, but after women's day, I'm trying to be content anyway. Women's day was wonderful. It was really challenging in parts, but great to be so specific, really thinking about what makes me discontent and how I can work at being content. One thing that challenged me is taking things to God in prayer first, before I run to my friends or my family. I love my friends and family, and I really value all of you, but I have to be careful I am not putting you in a position above God, because then I get discontent when I am not with friends, or when relationships are not perfect. God is perfect, and is always with me, so it makes sense that I should rely on him first and foremost. Another thing I loved about women's day was its femininity. This sounds obvious, being a women's day but it really was lovely. I have some awesome guy friends, but it was good just to be with girls, doing girl things. Things like making clay models of things we are discontent with, and then smashing them, and listening silently to a song as it played. Also, having Maddy mc most of the day with Izzy on her hip, and having Myfanwy accept some plastic food from Amalya's shopping trolley while giving her talk. I wonder what the guys did at men's day, some kind of blokey fun, as it said on the flyer. Praise God for both men and women, that he created us male and female. 

Youth group camp starts tomorrow...please pray for us.

Apparently, we're back!

I was randomly looking around on the internet, and decided to see if anything was happening in blogland. I'd found out just a little while ago that Kate made the decision to close her blog (or keep it private, whichever it is), but I've just discovered that Ali has started up again, and so has Matt. So, here is my blog post.

I'm teaching prac tomorrow...with kindergarten kids. I'm kind of excited about my art lesson, cause I get to introduce Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso to five and six year olds. I'll be turning my little kiddies into expressonists tomorrow. The thought that I could be teaching full time next year is crazy. It's partly exciting and very scary, but it's slightly better knowing that pretty much everybody is finishing up or getting busier at this time. It was lovely seeing everybody at Bec's party, I will miss all of you next year.

In response to Ali, I am also ill and teaching...and I think that Tom is a very lovely brother in Christ, but not so much hot stuff!

Yes, I'm still here. I realise that I haven't posted any blog entries since September. But I randomly thought of my blog so I decided I might aswell write something. If anyone is still reading these things.

I'm back at home, which has its joys and has its incredibly challenging and annoying aspects. Both Stine and Dad are not so good at the moment and its very hard living with them sometimes. And that makes me feel stressed. But God is good, and I'm feeling a bit better today.

Next year is looking to be a year full of weddings! Of course there's the exciting news about Tom and Alison getting married! And this week I received invitiations to Heather and Rohan's wedding and Moses and Grace's engagement party. Also last Saturday, I went to the wedding of Theresa and Jerry, a couple who go to my church. The wedding took place in the church garden which looked beautiful. Fortunately it was not raining, like it was later in the day. I went to the wedding because I was singing in the service, but it was generally just family and close friends. But, with two Islander people getting married, 'just family and close friends' is still a *lot* of people!! Ah, weddings are exciting...but the excitement of the wedding day shouldn't overtake the fact that the two people are committing to share the rest of their lives with eachother. That's why I liked the simplicity of Theresa and Jerry's wedding. And Theresa's dress was beautiful.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas, as you all reflect on how Jesus became fully human in order to die and rise again, to give us forgiveness and salvation!

I am a nerd!

I got an HD in my EDUC262 class test....woohoo! Hey, I thought that test was really hard, but obviously I did better than I thought!!!

Bella and twenty-three crazy kids...

This time last year I was working through that particularly challenging prac, the one that made me transfer to primary. Transferring to primary was such a good decision for me. I'm doing prac at the moment and it's busy but great. This week, I'm spending most of my time with 23 year 1 kids. I did a visual arts lesson today...initially had some issues with behaviour management (!) but eventually worked that out. I really like primary teaching though.

My phone had to get repaired and I finally got it back...but the memory got reset so now I don't have anyone's phone number! I'll have to get all your numbers again when we go back to uni. The bizarre thing I realised is I don't know any numbers off the top of my head - well, only my home number, college number and mobile. I don't even know my mum's mobile.

Youth camp is coming up this weekend. We're taking the kids to Cawdor Uniting Church, so they can run around and make heaps of noise. There's a small cemetery there, so I assume the kids are going to come up with all kinds of made-up ghost stories. The topic of the youth camp is the Holy Spirit, so we'll be looking at who he is and what he does and (controversially maybe) how we can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Yaaaaaarrr...pirate related fun

It's international talk like a pirate day!! Ahoy there, me hearties! I be talking like a pirate all here day. Yaaarr!


Why are pirates cool?
- They aaaaarrr

What is a pirate's favourite letter?
- aaaaarr

What is *really* a pirate's favourite letter?
- P....it's like aaaaarrr but it's missing a leg.

More piratey fun can be found at www.piratejokes.net

I'm really not writing in this blog very much anymore. I've been writing in my journal every night for a while, so I guess I don't feel like writing everything out twice. But, there have been some fun things happening over the last week.


Last Friday was the RMC ball. We got all dressed up and went into the city which was completely empty because of APEC. I always think its fun to see everyone dressed up and looking beautiful, and I took a lot of photos which should be on the internet sometime soon.

The weather has been awesome recently....sunny but not too hot. Perfect weather for frisbee and lazing around on the grass. I've done some of that but I've also been working busily on my TEP291 assignment. Indigenous education is actually interesting...except for the government policies. It's handed in now, and I'm on holidays. I move back home tomorrow.

There are lots of fun parties coming up: Roxi's, Fiona's, Ali's....plus women's/men's day and probably my small group social. Celebrating Conception Day at college was fun...from 7:30 in the morning, we were having a bbq breakfast and generally relaxing. There was footy, cricket, a skipping rope, a paddling pool and dodgy 80s music. I didn't even go to the proper Conception Day, I was just happy to hang around college for that.

I know there have been some amusing quotes over this week, but I can't remember many of them. I'm sure one must have related to Doug's card tower - see Kate's blog
One amusing thing I can remember is from my college bible study. We were looking at the 10 Commandments and asking a question about each of them. Awesome bible study, by the way. The guy who wrote the questions, wrote them pretty quickly, and failed to notice the amusing flaw in the question that said:

'Adultery is an aspect of Christianity that the world fights against...'

De familia Simpsonum

I can't work out why anyone would need to look at this article. Even so, it is fun to read and try to translate...the randomness increases.

http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons

And there's more where that came from.

Friends vs study....hmmm, I wonder who will win

The thing with me at uni is I see spending time with friends so much more important than completing uni work. Today was supposed to be the time where I started my TEP291 readings for the assignment. I was intending to do that after the CU meeting, after hanging around on the grass for an hour. But it was lazy weather so I sat around for a bit longer, talking to Roxi, Helen, Kathryn, Ali Weaver, Allie Eldridge, Maddy, Izzy and other such awesome people. The weather was too hot for Izzy though, as she has never experience hot weather before, ever. Poor bubby. After most people went, Roxi, Helen, Kathryn and I went to the caf to get chips. We hung around, and came up with the idea that the name Ignatius sounds like some kind of bodily fluid, and that Roxi needed to go to the doctor because her ignatius was pink and purple. Also it was contagious and infectious, making it infectious, contagious ignatius. Just as I was contemplating going to the library, Topher arrived and asked if people were hanging around for another hour. As I value spending time with friends more than doing uni work, I decided to hang around. I hadn't talked to Topher much for a while so it was good to catch up. Pappy also rocked up and we had some good conversations. I *finally* got into the library and was further distracted by Ashlyn and Nick (testify) from studentlife. I don't know them that well, but that in itself is a reason to talk to them and get to know them better. Hehe, I managed to get about half an hours worth of reading before coming back to college for dinner. Praise God for friends but also pray for concentration!

Third wheel

This week I've been out spontaneously three times. First on Monday when I went to the Teahouse after the GAP night, then on Tuesday I went to see Knocked Up with some college friends. There was way too much swearing in that movie and a few other questionable things, but generally it had a sweet message. On Thursday I went to Veronica's party that I only found out about on that day. I went with Sean and Fiona...hehe, I'm still trying to figure out how this three-way thing works. We hung around at the Mac Centre and were generally idiots...then they politely tried to suggest that I have dinner at college to give them time by themselves. It's alright. It's better then them having time by themselves when I'm still actually around. There were a few little uncomfortable moments and I do feel like a third wheel sometimes. But Sean is a sweet friend and Fiona is becoming a really good friend too. Fiona wants to set me up with someone so we can double date.....not entirely sure how I feel about that. Otherwise, Veronica's party included karaoke! I got up and sang Evanescence's Bring Me To Life, and Robbo did an awesome rendition of Can't Touch This by MC Hammer.

God is doing so much for the youth at my church at the moment. We've been back for three weeks this term....the first week we had seven kids come, then we had twelve and this week we had sixteen! Praise God! This was the first week we broke off into two groups - older kids and younger kids - and that worked much better. I'm leading the older kids group which is something different for me but I enjoy it cause I get to talk to the kids on a deeper level. As well as having the talk about why Jesus died (essential, heart of the gospel stuff so it was awesome) we also had a time where kids could share what God's been doing for them personally. It's encouraging to hear kids talk about how God is actually real to them. And for the first time, two of our church kids brought their friends along. Lots of things to praise God for.

There are a whole lot of things going on that are all coming together, and getting kind of overwhelming. I'm really tired, I think emotionally more than physically. But a bit of that aswell. The thing that sucks is I live with a whole lot of people who I know only on a superficial level, so it's like I have to pretend everything is good. Lots of things are good, but at the same time lots of things are not.

Cheap and goodlooking...and more serious stuff

It is amazing how people can bond over shared problems. I realised I am going to struggle financially this term with college fees. I was talking to Mum about that, and felt pretty annoyed at Centrelink. Then I went to the common room, and found someone who was having equally annoying financial problems. We talked about all our financial problems and managed to have a decent conversation. Hmmm...it's interesting how that works out. This is a cool part of semester at college, when I'm still meeting all the new people.

Hanging around with friends is awesome fun, and the main reason why uni is so enjoyable. I guess everyone has heard the exciting news of the week, about Sean and Fiona. Aaaww, they're so sweet. They're both such good friends to me, so it's lovely to see them together. I'm really happy for them, but I'm kind of now thinking again that I want a boyfriend, and eventually a husband. I know that my comfort and strength is found in the Lord, and I tell myself that. The fact that I'm twenty-two and have never had a boyfriend, I'm pretty okay with that mostly but sometimes I really wish that I had someone that I could eventually marry. But I am so blessed with friends, both girls and guys, so I am thankful to God for that.

Hehe, today Roxi, Manda, Katie and I accompanied Chris to the Mac centre to buy sunglasses. Chris shared his philosophy on what to look for when purchasing items: Cheap and goodlooking.
Then we wondered if that translated over into other aspects, such as choosing a marriage partner. In the end, Chris got some sunglasses that were both cheap and goodlooking, so the shopping outing was a success.

Simpsons quoting is the best fun ever...but I'm in need of Ventolin

This week has been lots of fun so far. I like the first week back of semester, it's generally pretty laid back and I get to see everyone at the CU stall. It really is awesome seeing everyone so soon after MYC. Hehe, yesterday was particularly fun hanging around the CU stall with everyone, generally making a whole lot of noise. I love that everyone in CU is crazy in their own way. And after class this afternoon, I went back to the caf and had a fun, loud Simpsons quoting session with Chris, Sean and this other guy from my lecture. Oh, I really do love the Simpsons. But quoting it like that with other people is almost more fun than watching it. Yes, you can imagine, we were being *very* noisy. Both today and yesterday I have laughed so hard that I've needed to take Ventolin.

MYC fun and craziness

I'm back at home after an awesome MYC, and I have to pack again to go back to college tomorrow. MYC was so much fun, and really amazing in terms of being challenged and encouraged in my faith aswell. A little segment of conversation I particularly liked seems to encapsulate the main idea of the talks, in addition to the craziness that is CU...

Bella (to Sean): You're a complete Christian even if you stand on ladders cutting basketball hoops with knives.
Sean (to Bella): And you're a complete Christian even if you go around spraying people with deodorant.

Such crazy times. MYC is always great cause I get to spend lots of time with all my friends, and build deeper relationships. But I've also met so many new people that are really cool, and I look forward to seeing everyone again this week. I also look forward to seeing all my 2nd year education friends at 9am this Monday for an EDUC262 lecture, hehehe won't that be fun?!

At other MYCs the talks have been full of different ideas, related to eachother but different. This time, though, it seemed like there was one main idea repeated and elaborated and reinforced over and over again. But that idea is the most important in the whole world. If you were only going to know one thing in your life, it would be that salvation comes only through faith in Christ and not through our own works. I thought it was awesome that we did spend so much time dwelling on this amazing truth and praising God for it. I also really liked Scott's answer to the question I asked during question time about whether having the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are different things.

'We don't get more of the Spirit. The Spirit gets more of us.'

It is a challenge to be daily offering my life to God, and to be offering more and more of my life to him. God is so awesome and completely worthy of all our praise! I've been reinspired to live for God, and I pray that this passion doesn't fade, but also that I'll be faithful and joyful even when I don't feel like it.

I think it's pointform time now, as I reminisce upon all the wonderfully crazy and sweet things that happened over this week.

* The Bens, Bec and Sonny wearing school uniforms on the first day and having prefect elections.
* Amalya and Isabella being there.
* The black nails club - Sean, Shan, Ali, Roxi...for some reason I had trouble convincing others. But then the nailpolish looked like it was going to run out so I stopped trying to recruit new members.
*Playing twister with Roxi and Ali, and also watching other people play once I had changed back into my long skirt.
* Watching Sean attempt to cut the ropes of the basketball net with a kitchen knife. Not so much funny as scary. But a little bit funny.
* Having tea with 6 sugars one morning and watching everyone elses reaction...then watching my reaction. If you noticed carefully, I didn't do that again.
* Shan's death metal Galatians performance. I walked in and had that hilarious look on my face because I knew *exactly* what was going on.
* When we were voting at the AGM, Fiona wanted to put a simpsons quote on her form. So she decided on 'One for Martin, two for Martin'. She didn't want to write it while Heather was standing next to us collecting forms so she waited, but by the time she'd finished the forms had already been taken into the next room, so she ran to the other room and gave it to the people there. So, unfortunately, her 'one for Martin, two for Martin' wasn't as anonymous as she hoped it to be. It was pretty hilarious at the time.
* Thankyou Manda for your commitment to serving us through music. I know there were heaps of issues to organise and work through. Thanks heaps. And also thanks for talking in small group.
* Singing Kumbaya in a circle of girls, and sounding beautiful all together.
* Going to the beach on the last night...having good conversations, witnessing craziness and Roxi telling me my theme song which is 'tale as old as time' from Beauty and the Beast. Other people got theme songs too.
*The emotion and thanksgiving that was in the open mic time. Then it made me all emotional. Hehe, I'm a little emo. Not really.

Just because I'm getting really, really bored

For some reason I was reminded of the underpants game - that one where you take wellknown sayings, titles or quotes and replace one of the words with the word underpants. Oh yes, its a classy game. It's a very fun game to play, anyway. I've realised that the titles of the Harry Potter books are particularly hilarious. I was laughing out loud just thinking about it.

* Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Underpants (or the underpants stone)
* Harry Potter and the Underpants of Secrets (or the chamber of underpants)
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Underpants (or the underpants of azkaban)
* Harry Potter and the Underpants of Fire (ooooooooooow - or the goblet of underpants)
* Harry Potter and the Order of the Underpants (or the underpants of the phoenix)
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Underpants (or the underpants prince)
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Underpants (or the underpants hallows)

Or Harry Underpants, or Underpants Potter...

Hehehehehe....ah, I am so bored. See, this is the kind of thing I think about if I'm left at home for too long. Yes, the underpants game is fun.

I love this song

We've started singing this song at church and it's one of my favourites at the moment.

What the Lord has done in me

Let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich
Let the blind say I can see, it's what the Lord has done in me

Hosanna, hosanna to the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.

Into the river I will wade, there my sins are washed away
From the heavens mercy streams of the saviours love for me

I will rise from waters deep into the saving arms of God
I will sing salvation songs, Jesus Christ has set me free.

Hosanna, hosanna to the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.