Here I am - what a busy little while it's been. I don't even know where to start, but Alastair has gone to a Church Council meeting and I'm determined to update my blog while he's gone. Oh... I guess I should do the dishes too. :P
Since I last posted we have mostly just been working hard. The pharmacy work has been such a blessing, and has enabled us to throw a lot more at Alastair's loan (which became "ours" when we married)... and we can actually see it coming down now. It looks like we might have it paid off earlier than we thought too - we were doing some projections last night, and we may actually be debt-free by our first anniversary if we're very strict with ourselves!
Our landlord, Jim, is such a blessing to us also. He's looking after us so well with this little place to live in so that we don't have to spend all we earn on rent. He had a knee replacement four and a half weeks ago, so since he's been home (two weeks), we've been keeping an eye on him and making sure he's got milk in the fridge, etc. :)
Yesterday, we went to the funeral of our dear friend Donna's mum - Caroline. Last year, when I stayed with Donna a couple of times a week, I got to know her mum quite well. She was a very faithful saint with a beautiful personality, and was diagnosed with CJD about five weeks ago, so the end was very quick. She was only 63... both her parents are still with us, so it was the first death in that family for quite a while. Donna spoke at the funeral and did a fantastic job of keeping it all together.
My brother turned 21. My little brother. All the way over in New Jersey. And that was that. It didn't feel like he turned 21...
We have had lots of visitors, and done a bit of babysitting; we've watched the last of the AFL games for the season, and I've got my wedding dress back from being cleaned, preserved and boxed up ($275 later!!); I had my student concert, and Alastair took me to see The Pirates of Penzance at the Opera House for my birthday; we ran a night of Youth Group at the church, and planned our U2 trip to Melbourne in December; I (for the first time ever) gave Alastair a haircut, and then took him to the barber to have it repaired; Meaghan took me to see "Wicked" as an early Christmas present, and I ruined my perfect driving record by getting my first ever speeding fine on the way :( (stupid variable speed limits!); Alastair has been doing lots of study and research on Christian doctrine and we've been doing lots of thinking and talking about what we believe and why; I've been having success with using my slow-cooker, and we've been to two baptisms of friends' children. So as you can see, it's all varied stuff.
Alastair called me just before. We were planning to head up to Sydney for his mum's housewarming on Saturday night, but she just rang to say that her Dad (Alastair's grandad) is very unwell down in Benalla hospital - fluid on the lungs and trouble breathing. So who knows... a rush trip to country Victoria may be happening on the weekend instead...
