As I haven't written lately I have quite bit to tell you all!



The latest development at Whitties is our short film festival - Reel Life Film Festival. Michael is working on at least one entry - I can't wait to see it!



Our Life group has taken to having bring and share themed dinner at the end of the month, the first being Italian (complete with authentic home made biscottis and tira misu, oh, did I mention I was a dessert girl?) at our house and the second a beautiful spread of Mexican. With the good cooks in our group (not to mention a home economics teacher) it looks like a great trend!



Creative ministries rehearsals are still a highlight of my week, I am play "keys 2" or the backing keyboard part at Whitford.



I finally received my Mander Jones certificate & got dressed up for the photos. You can see the results online soon - well soonish! I'll blog when I put up the photos.



I had the best weekend on the 24th and 25th of April. For starters my friend Kyleigh & I went out for lunch at Room 19 and then shopping at Koorong. Ky bought some books while I enjoyed browsing. Ky reads a lot more than me - well I just read journals etc and proofread stories by Mike & Lauren. Ok, I do read other books but as I've still not read Return of the King by Tolkien, I've got a way to go to catch her!



Any how Room 19 was better than I expected and not too crowded. Ky and I were impressed by the all WA produce, it was delicious! The bread was very fresh & tasty; I had the beef fillet, cooked just to my liking. Of course we tried their chocolate fondue (Margaret River Chocolate Factory Chocolate) was served with Turkish delights, honeycombs and strawberries with a lit candle underneath the fondue to keep it warm. Amanda personally served our fondue - and she is just a likeable as she seemed on television.



We were blessed by having Brooke Fraser play at our Church on Anzac day Sunday was wonderful too performed and led a few songs. She was in Perth supporting John Mayer. She has a gorgeous voice and is a skilled guitarist as well. Then we went to Nan & Pops for a family lunch… then back to Sunday Shift - I played "keyboard 2" with Mike B on "keyboard 1"



Mother's day was lovely, dad and I were rostered on playing in the AM service, so Mum didn't get a sleep in but we did manage a few gifts - the highlight being a new mobile phone, which she has mastered wonderfully well.



The 15th of May was the second ever HerNights - Mum, Lauren, Kyleigh and I enjoyed chocolate fondue, served by our lovely waiters - yes that mean you Josh, a little of Lauren Carroll's life story among an array of other interesting and fun features.



I've got nearly two months before head into another semester of Uni, this time Project Management, Professionalism & Ethics. This is a subject with no exam (hooray) but it does include a large group project (prayer appreciated on this one!). I've now got 3 units to do - after this one the last two should be easy!

My 22nd Birthday

For all of you who are asking here is the full run down of my birthday:



I had the Golden Key International Honour Society Honorary members breakfast with the ECU Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and other honorary members plus the committee at Observation City. This year we had it in the stunning Ocean View Room a beautiful venue. It was a great event as usual thanks to Kim Beckett's organisational skills. Our Administration Advisor spoke on marketing and it was really interesting, he had a few case studies about businesses in Perth over the last few years. I also got to see some of my friends wedding photos!



Mum and I then headed to Koorong and managed to get a parking spot right at the front door. As Perth people know this is quite an accomplishment. We then headed to Harbour Town for a bit of shopping. I got a lovely pinstriped jacket for work, some new sunnies, gloves and a couple of shirts.



In the afternoon I cooked a cake to take to work. I was also present with two handmade cards from Lauren and Caitlin.



I had a great day on Thursday too - but ended it by slamming my head in the door of the car. OK, what actually happened was that the car door closed while I as getting in (I still have a sore head 24hrs & three Panadols later!). Never mind!

Good Friday

We had a great day today, we managed to remove the sliding door to the laundry and put in our new washing machine - it is so quiet!



Nan and Pop came over for lunch which is also fun. Showing them the new things we have got in the last few months just reminds me how blessed we are! Of course lunch was delicious we had hot cross buns (plain and chocolate), Easter eggs and cake for dessert. We topped it off with a walk to the Helena River. At the moment there is one puddle - never mind, winter is on its way.

Another great weekend! Saturday night I went out with Amberley to the inaugural HerNight at Whitford.



Sunday morning we had the One for All big band playing, then Lauren's friends over for lunch (part of her late 13th birthday celebrations!). Mike and I then went to see the Passion of the Christ.

What a beautiful day we had on Sunday the 22nd of February.



We spent the whole day with Sarah and Miriam (our cousins) and Miriam's friend Naomi. They are currently over here from Wagga Wagga, NSW. It was a great day - we spent the whole afternoon catching up and talking about everything from career prospects to music to state of higher education!

During the past few days the Golden Key International Honour Society - Asia Pacific Conference has been held at the Sheraton in Perth. My small part was 4 hours - setting up the Chapter Cafe Display, about the dual award winning newsletter (what else?) and included breakfast plus a discussion forum on the Constitution & Chapter Standards (which honestly was very interesting). It was great to be there even for a short time, I met so many interesting, inspiring people.



I've put some photos online now. Look out for the report in our next newsletter! Thanks to Ainsley :)

Exciting news here, though somewhat more trivial than my last post:



A. My brother is a genius (we already knew that!)

B. My new computer is working

C. The two are not connected



To expand on B. I bought a new computer from Discount. It is quite nice: 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 120Gb HDD, 17" LCD monitor. It was going really well until I booted it up on the second day, after leaving the Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0 installation CD in the drive. The computer would not boot from the hard disk and after a lot of testing here we figured that the Master Boot Record was corrupted (we could access the drive as slave but couldn't boot from it). So, I now have a new HDD in the new computer.



The only side effect? (Apart from 1 week without my nice black & silver computer.) I had to activate Windows XP Professional over the phone!



So that is my little story, hope it didn't bore all my non-techie friends. I'll have a nice human type blog in the coming days, I'm sure.

I has such an inspiring time at PlanetShakers. I went to the night sessions from the 7th - 10th of January. This year, for the first time, it was held in Perth (usually PS only runs in Adelaide). On the last night we had 5 000 people jammed into Challenge Stadium, they even had to open up seats behind the stage. You can see some photos here.



More than the music of the legendary PS band, the excellent speakers (Russell Evans, Reggie Dabbs, Jurgen Matthesius and Glen Berteau and more I didn't get a chance to hear), I loved the feeling of being among so many people who are totally devoted to the One they serve.