About time...

It has been a long time since I last blogged anything. So much has happened too. It's been crazy. I can't even remember last time I blogged, around our one year anniversary I think. Thats over 6 months ago now. Wow! Between now and then, I have visited family in QLD over Christmas, had our families come to visit us, been through the Black Saturday fires and had to evacuate, had prac teaching during the fires and evacuation, been camping together first time since we got married, got back into the study, become a St Vinnies volunteer and lots more. Its been busy. I haven't really felt like writing or thought I had much to write about, but I guess I do.

I just got back from Brisbane after visiting my family, my Dad has just turned 50 and I flew up there to celebrate. I had a great time seeing family again. My parents are staying in this tiny cottage that has only got solar power and a generator. It does not have a flushing toilet but a compost hole toilet. Its not that backward though, the inside of the place is very nice and homey. It was an interesting time though as they didnt have curtains and there is only one room. So my sister and I slept in the lounge/kitchen/dining part of the cottage. My Dad snores, so this was rather frustrating trying to sleep. It didnt matter too much about no curtains because the place is out in the country with no houses nearby, although it was hard to sleep in as it gets so bright early. Lucky I brought my ear plugs and eye cover thing, it helped.
We had a party for my Dad's 50th on Sat night which was alot of fun. We got people who were there to share stories about my Dad. My sis and I shared some funny stories about him. There were some people who were from my Dad's first ever church from Wellington NZ (they live in Brisbane now). Anyway one of the girls told a story about my Dad from when she was little. My Dad used to come around to their place to give Bible studies (her and some other kids), this particular afternoon they didn't want to have Bible study, so they blocked the door with chairs and hid. Well my Dad arrives unsuspectingly and tries to get inside, knocks on the door, but can't get in. The girls are all hiding and giggling. My dad keeps knocking and trying to get in, but to no avail. There is a piece of the window broken near the door handle, so my Dad puts his hand through the hole to open the door. One of the girls seeing this, crawls over and bites (yes bites) my Dad's hand. My Dad is like, what is going on? She keeps biting and I think he eventually goes away. I had never heard this story and neither had the parents of these girls. When everyone heard this story, they all just burst out laughing for ages and ages. I couldn't believe it! It was so random and funny! They said that my Dad was just like another youth and that they had been taught to respect the pastor, but my Dad broke all the rules. It was so refreshing and funny to hear.

I also got to catch up with one of my high school friends G, whom I hadn't seen in like 3 years or so. G's Mum and my Mum are really good friends and we were next door neighbours when we lived in NZ. It was really good to catch up with him. We had a really good catch up, talking about high school days and such. He is also good friends with one of my ex's D (as am I) and we talked a bit about D. He didnt even know the latest news about D, it was funny. I had chatted to my ex D more than G had. Even though D is my ex, we are still really good friends and have a deep soul connection.

Evacuating

My husband and I and our cat evacuated 3 times during the month of Feb after Black Saturday. It was a crazy, stressful time and took me a long time to get over. In fact I still feel like I am month behind in everything and cannot believe that April is nearly over, the year feels like it has just started in some ways. We stayed with church members for the last 2 times and got to know some really nice people and their kids. One couple had a really flash house, well it was more like a mansion. It was huge! We slept in a little separate part to the house, that had our own bathroom, bedroom etc. It was like staying in a hotel, it was great. The house had 5 bedrooms, 3 living areas and I think 4 bathrooms. It was massive. They had it set up really nice too, with bits of modern and antique stuff throughout. The yard was huge too, kinda like a country setting but in the suburbs, with trees, and lots of privacy. Even though the places we stayed at were great, it was still a strain on us to have nowhere to really go and not knowing if our house was going to be there when we got back. We also got quite a few phone calls from people around Australia that we knew asking to see if we were ok. It was nice to know that people were thinking of us and worried about us.

By the end of it all I was completely and utterly over it all and just wanted to go home and stay there. During all this upheaval I was also prac teaching at school and had barely any time to prepare lessons, and get into the mind frame. I felt like a zombie for most of my prac, just doing the bare minimum to get it done. I still got a good mark, but felt like I had barely done anything at all. I was so glad when it was all over, it took me about a month to feel settled again and to get into my study. I am rather behind now, but glad that its over.

Op-Shopping

Recently I have been doing lots of op-shopping, mainly to increase my winter wardrobe as I did not have enough last winter to survive the cold weather. I have found so many wonderful bargains, it has been so much fun! I have been thinking about photographing some of my finds and blogging about them, but there are now so many it would take so long so I may just put a few up from now on.

Some recent finds though are:
black leather knee high boots in my size for $5
a black bag with floral imprints $5
woollen lined coat $6
2 pairs of really nice curtains $8 pair
a table with 5 chairs $50
argh its hard to explain it.

I find it alot of fun to go op-shopping because I never know what I am going to find and I can buy lots of stuff for hardly anything at all and still look good. Its great. I have decided that I am going to buy most of the clothes I need/want from op-shops unless it is impractical or hard to find in a op-shop such as underwear (gross!) or socks or singlets. Those kinda things are hard to find and a bit gross to buy second hand. Mind you I have found some bras that fit me from the op-shop but always washed them before wearing with canesten wash.
I am now also a volunteer at the local op-shop, doing window displays, its alot of fun. I haven't done much lately as I have been away this last weekend, and the weekend before it was Easter so was closed for some days. This Friday I will be getting into it though and having lots of fun doing up a display. Its kinda hard volunteering there now because I pretty much always find something when I go in to do work, its good though because I get to see stuff as it comes in.

That about sums up parts of what has happened lately. My husband and I are happier together too, not that we weren't happy before we have just improved a few things and feel more happy together, its great. He's a sweety.