Hello again!

Well its been pretty busy lately...assignments, bit of sickness and most excitingly, a trip to SYDNEY!!! which we loved! This was just a quick few days as Tony was graduating with a Masters from Moore College on the Monday night so we decided to make a weekend of it. Highlights were seeing family and friends, our cat and being back at St Albans on Sunday morning. Oh and Tony graduating of course...that was close!! Here are a few snaps of our time away.

All good fun -and very excited to be going back at Easter, while Tony is at a conference in Fiji! Meanwhile, we are happily learning as much as we can here at SAH and, most of all, enjoying the relationships with the others here.Highlights this week have been our family of 5 running our community church ( Wednesdays at 5pm), our prayer group time on Tuesday nights, yummy dinners (did I mention that I dont cook EVER?!) and loving the research I'm doing on mental health as a missionary. I have been interviewing people and so far, it has been fascinating and frankly, a much needed dose of hearing about the realities of living in either a developing country or any foreign country really. Very thankul for peoples honesty and willingness to answer my questions. Anyhoo, off to fill my hot water bottle yet again -Melbourne frostbite is setting in.

The long weekend..

We are still loving our time here at SAH - particularly the super people that we get to live with! Highlights this week have been:
1.Learning about how to cope with difficulties/annoyances in a godly way.
2. Support groups with the other girls -talking about prayer and hearing the different ways that people go about it.
3. The book I'm reading on burnout and expectations as a missionary-very helpful...and not at all scary...much.
4. My girls date with Hannah! A new Country Road bag (thanks Grandma) and some morning tea at Brunetti Patisserie. Yum!
5. Afternoon tea with my cousin Melanie.
6.The 5 of us spent an hour or so, sketching in the backyard and then reviewing each others work (an idea borrowed from the lovely Jane Baker) Quite an array of ideas, ranging from princesses and rainbows to the carcass of a dead bird.!! Nice to have time to do stuff like this that we would never have had in Sydney with sport, millions of parties etc..
7.Looking forward to a public holiday tomorrow - playdate for Soph at her friend Milla's house, Harry Potter for the others. I have set aside a few hours for study........which in theory I will be doing, but in reality will most likely be at Highpoint Shopping Centre ( my replacement Macquarie Centre).
8. Most exciting of all is that we will be heading to Sydney on Friday arvo for a few days!!!! YAY!!! Tony is graduating on Monday night so we thought we would make the most of it. Cant wait!!! By the way, the middle photo is our model of " Paul preaching in the synagogue" in Acts 9 -a presentation the 5 of us have to do in community church soon.And below, Ethan excited to have perfected the towel head look !

sophie's guest post

What i like most about Melbourne is the school i am going to which is princes hill primary. The teachers and students there are great!! I am practicing a concert with my freinds. The song we are doing is called "price tag".My teachers names are Rita,Kevin,and Ethan which also happens to be my brothers name as well...Ethan! I am very,very,very excited abut the BIZZARE!!! The bizzare is a really big festival that my school has every year. It has lots of food stalls and tonnes of rides that are really fun and exciting! Where I am staying is really cool its called ST Andrews Hall there is a very good cook and heaps of people here that are really nice and freindly. I love writing on the white board in mum and dads classroom and hanging upside down on the swing set in the yard! i am really missing scarlett (our cat) so it is nice having tilly the othercat that lives here around to play with! My new house is starting to feel like home! 5 sleeps until Sydney i can't wait any longer see you soon!

Rainy day / sick Hannah stuff

Hi all, Not too much to report, just a few ordinary parts from our ordinary week. We are still just enjoying the classes, reading non-stop, preparing class presentations, even writing essays!!! Hannah has been sick -and that combined with a bit of rain has meant a fair bit of indoor time (help me Rhonda!!), but also time to play cards and draw our own family portrait, pictured below. Other new things have been that I tried kangaroo for the first (and last...) time, Tony is now wearing glasses and we are excited that a new season of Amazing Race is on. Simple pleasures! Anyway, here are some photos for you to enjoy...

Another thing we do is play up/down, where everyone has to give the good thing(up)of their day and also the not as good (down) thing of their day. So here they are for today.
Hannah- Up is loving Mondays at school coz of sport, Art and Italian. The down was missing a party coz of sickness.
Ethan -Up is sport and Italian and down is hurting his calf muscles jogging with daddy.
Sophie -Up is playing cat and mouse at school and down is falling over on the gravel
Susie- Up is laughing with new friends here and down is stepping in cat vomit.
Tony -Up is boy fun with Ethan (movies and jogging) and down is our ridiculous car breaking down on a freeway ! (get it back tomorrow).