Charlee and Toot, soon...ha:)

Ow!

Sitting in our comfortable loungeroom, i can't understand why the UFC

fighters do what they do for a living! Why!?

A Wedding and a Funeral

Wow i just came home from work, having had the most...heartbreaking...and also the most lovely shift. One of our patients who is 38 is dying of cancer and is barely hanging on- she has 4 kids with her partner and today they decided to get married.

They has planned on doing it later but her condition changed for the worse this afternoon- so they called in the celebrant who came running in with his wife..and they got hitched! It was so beautiful and so heartbreaking- everyone there was crying from happiness and grief at the same time. Her poor husband just kind of looked stunned- he still hasn't really grasped how badly off she is and i think that it must have been the worst and the best day of his life.

She looked beautiful, so beautiful, and graceful and peaceful and so pretty!

I was so overwhelmed being among those nurses- they went from being everyday people to being superwomen, who's powers of love and grace and creativity just lit up the whole building.

The team came together to give this couple a precious moment in time that the family and the husband will always remember and fulfilled her dying wish. I'm so proud of the men and women that i work with, and feel so privaleged to have been a part of it.

I know today will always stay in my memory.

Feeling hard done by? Want a new toy?

If anyone ever doubted or felt hard done by, it doesn't take long into this article to realise how wonderful this country is:

http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Lots of people that I've talked to who have travelled to 3rd world countries have said how happy the individuals are, and how generous they are with what they do have. One lady from work just came back from Vanuatu where her son is volunteering in a remote village, she said that people just smile all day- they have very little, but they are so happy and so generous with the little that they do have.

I want to be secure and to be able to provide for our family and i wouldn't ever advocate for being foolish and just breezing through life without being smart with your money or contributing etc, but i never want to find myself going to the extreme of spending very little time with the people who are so important to me for the sake of that extra few dollars.

I know all to well from work that when your time is up, it's not your bank account that you want to see, or your assets that you wish you'd spent more time with.

I'm so glad that my best friend feels the same. We are so much in love- we have so much food - we live in a very safe country - we are warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot - we can drive to the nearest hospital in 10 minutes and be treated within a day - we laugh all the time - we have time and enough money to enjoy the things that we love - we have so many options for work and workplaces that are equal and safe - we have family and friends who love us when so many are lonely - there are so many things that we are grateful for, the list will never ever stop!

Pinaroo Point

Back to Kiting today yehaaa! The wind was light and consistant, the water mostly flat, heaven.
Im keen to try out Safety Bay and i think that i will get a private lesson and practise down there where i can so easily stand up and walk to my board instead of using all my energy chasing it in the surf!

I learnt today that i need to get some more experience with knowing how much to 'power up' my kite- to make it respond better in lighter wind. There was one guy there who's kite i helped launch and it was 15 metres! - i almost got caught and went up with it! Thats more than twice the size of mine, so no wonder it was hard to move with mine. So that made it a bit tricky to stay going for long, but i did manage to get up and cruising a few times. It's just like golf- all you need is one good cracking swing and you'll always come back for more no matter how much time you spend looking for your ball in the scrub!

It was such a gorgeous day on the water. We live in the best country in the world xo

Movie

We watched The Boy in Striped Pyjamas tonight. It was so moving- i think that we can all know what happened over there from the history books, but to see it on film and see it happen through Bruno's eyes made it more real and so much more devastating.

What i find hardest to digest is that, i can understand that Hitler was what he was- but what of the thousands of soldiers who did have a conscience? How could so many people choose to be so blind and so full of hate and cruelty for so long? How can that many people continue day after day after day without waking up?

Christmas, already?

Both of us are shaking our heads at how fast time has gone this year. Christmas will be over before we know it.
I'm learning how much i need to have balance between work and play- it gives me so much more energy and life to get into the next round when i do things that i really love in between times. Not just relaxing but doing stuff i really love to do. I find that this is often even the most simple things - like quietly enjoying a sunset and resting in the breeze is so refreshing and invigorating. I've always been most at home in nature, i guess its just that i'm learning about being proactive about having that balance.
And yay our roses have started blooming!

I have just finished reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, who dedicated the book to his friend JR Tolkien- i did some background reading and found that they both worked at Oxford Uni and used to share each others unpublished works, and JR Tolkien was a major influence on Lewis' choice to pursue Christianity.
The Screwtape Letters were excellent. The insight into human behaviour left me squirming sometimes, and i loved the humour, so clever! I would love to have had even just an hour with Lewis to pick his brains about it. Awesome.

Family

Mum and Dad are staying tonight, ate a lovely dinner and they are still walking around (can't got too wrong with bangers and mash- and Matty cooked)! Thats a good start! Has been so nice catching up, love family time! xoxo

Close up of the Sun!

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the things you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. (MARK TWAIN)

Hippeastrums

In Love with the Simple Things

Something that always catches my breath; the sun and moon on the water.

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive - Eleonora Duse.

Summer

The kiters are coming out of their winter closet and dotting the coast, butterflies starting in my tummy!

The P word!

Phil and Deb gave us a book called "The Power for True Success, How to Build Character in Your Life." Its a very unassuming book but is so full of incredible wisdom! We read last night about Patience and i thought this analogy was really good:

When the chrysalis of a butterfly finally splits open, the butterfly must quickly free itself. The pressure of this struggle inflates the butterfly's wrinkled wings with vital fluids. Without the struggle, a butterfly's wings harden into misshapen stubs (Page 143).

"Patience is staying in Gods crucible until His purification is finished."

xoxo

The Race

So excited that a new Amazing Race has started!

Helping more

Washing the dishes

Saul and Matty

Hey hey!

Sunset Augusta

Augusta Sunset on the River

Charlee Helping

"Whats more important- completing Tafe work, or scratching my belly?"

Gardening and Floating!

We have lots of work to do this weekend outside! The sunshine is so delicious, and has highlighted all our weeds and mess! I would like to find a way to have the feline members of our family earning their keep, but if i try to strap a weeder onto Charlee's paw, she just does Floppycat (what she does best).

I am overwhelmed by the richness in our life. The poverty of spirit and loneliness that i see so much of at work and in life, is heartbreaking. And then i come home to the most wonderful man who humbles me with his kind heart, and makes my knees weak with his handsome smile and yummy cuddles. I could never do enough in a thousand lifetimes to earn this Grace!

I'm still floating around after being immersed in the beauty of the Southwest, awesome, Thankyou Lord! xo

First Blog Ever- working in Emerg Dept. SO quiet!

Spent a weekend down in Augusta. Such beautiful country, breathtaking! Spring flowers have begun!

Tried surfing again- got to go with my little Bro! Managing to stand up but need to be brave and try bigger waves so they last longer! Must stop looking for fins all the time too :(

Went fishing and WON with 4 x 20cm sand whiting! That must be a record of some kind?

Went driving with Sauly, got bogged on beach and drove through Karri country.

Lovely weekend with Rogers Family and extra bonus to see my awesome, yet tragically short, brother:)

xoxo
.