Summary of 2009

As 2009 draws to a close and 2010 edges ever so near, I can't help but reflect over this past year and what it has been to me.

2009 was a lot of different things. Started with an amazing Summer, including a trip to Kingston SE to visit a friend and enjoy the country/ beach. Also enjoyed a weekend in Melbourne around Valentine's day to meet a whole bunch of people and see friends again that I know from a great little forum called Gush. Seeing the path of destruction the Victorian bush fires left was something I'll never be able to forget. After my Summer break I started University, doing a course called Foundation Studies which taught me many things that I am now able to use practically. I wrote my very first HD (High Distinction) graded paper, on koalas.
Summer seemed to drag on a bit longer well into March. I experienced my third year at SYG, State Youth Games, where my team from Happy Valley placed second over the whole weekend.

I fell hard for a boy I had met on Gush and talked with online on many occasions since mid-2008. With my stimulus package from the government I was able to suprise Elliott at his work a couple of days before Easter. Over the Easter weekend we went to Toowoomba for Easterfest, a Christian music festival. Before long, Elliott and I were soon a couple, enjoying many times chilling in the Chai Tent drinking Chai.
Between leaving Queensland and Elliott coming down to Adelaide to visit me I volunteered to lead on a Lutheran youth camp where I was shaped and encouraged to find God's love beyond where I am.

Before long, Winter had settled in and I escaped to the sunny tshirt and shorts weather in Queensland again for a whole month. Elliott whisked me away to the Gold Coast for my birthday and spent a day at Dreamworld. The day that I almost lost my voice box on the Tower of Terror.
After my awesome Queensland trip and I had started semester 2, I had dropped out of uni as I found my passion from it had disappeared. I also celebrated my 21st with friends and family a month after my birthday where we sung our hearts out thanks to my friend's collection of SingStar games.

September brought Spring, along with another short trip to Queensland to see Relient K and friends, bringing back with me Elliott for keeps.
I spent weeks upon resumes upon interview upon callbacks to find a job but with no luck. Still I enjoyed life and having Elliott in Adelaide with me. November I volunteered again, for Schoolies Festival along the coast at Victor Harbor. Through the events of that life-changing weekend I decided a pathway for my life that I would be passionate about walking along. Not too long after I had applied for Bachelor of Youth Work at Tabor Adelaide and GOT IN!

I am glad for what I have gone through this year. But at the same time with all these happy thoughts, I still have some regrets which I want to try to change for next year and beyond. I want to try to be someone who is genuine, to be a person people can rely on, to be someone who will be passionate about what I'm doing and to be truthful about my faith, to others and myself.

2010, here I come.

Reading Update

Been a little slack on the whole reading *insert number here* books before the end of the year. Mostly because I didn't know where my library card is and didn't have any money to buy any books.

So today I motivated myself to get a new card at the library and borrow as many books (on the list) as there were available on the shelves.

What I came away with....

At the moment, I am reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (almost couldn't manage to put it down last night!) and Life of Pi.

Cupcakes!

I found this recipe on BestRecipes.com and had a lot of people saying they want this recipe too, so thought I might share it on my blog seeing as it's a good place of record. They were definitely the best home-made cupcakes I've ever made from scratch. ^_^

(Cupcakes I baked for a baby-shower, take credit for the icing too =D)

Ingredients
1/2 cup custard powder
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
125g butter, softened
3 eggs (I used 2)
1/4 cup milk (I accidentally put in about 1/2 but it made up for the egg I didn't put in)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (vanilla paste is good also)

Method - Line patty pans with paper cases (I used reasonably good sized cupcake cases in a muffin tray).
- Sift dry ingredients
- Combine all ingredients with electric mixer and beat until changed colour.
- Fill patty cases approximately 1/2-3/4 full with mixture.
- Bake at 180°C for 15-18 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

And I also made about half the quantity of this recipe for Butter Cream Icing.


Ingredients
165 grams butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
40 ml milk 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 drops of food colouring

Method
- Place butter in microwave for a few seconds if it is not very soft.
- In a medium bowl cream the butter, icing sugar and milk until it is light and fluffy. This may take up to 5 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and food colouring, and beat until well combined. Fill piping bag with icing, and decorate your creations.
- Any leftover icing will keep in a tightly closed container for a few days, simply melt it in the microwave before use, or let it reach room temperature on the kitchen bench.

Love is the movement.

"Hey Guys.

Each week, Lindsay from our team sends an email to the entire TWLOHA team. When we open this email, it's a time to reflect on some of the messages and emails that have come in over the last few days. Some of the messages are heavy and hard to read. Others are full of hope and encouragement. Life is both and everything in between.

Lindsay sends these messages to remind us of our mission, the heart of the matter. Each week, as we read the messages she includes, we're reminded where this started and we're reminded why we do what we do.

Today, "TWLOHA Day", is one that our team didn't come up with. We don't know a lot about it, to be honest - not sure where it came from or how it spread to so many people. But perhaps that's been true for much of our story - we've seen the best of passion and communication. We've seen people share and build something beautiful together.

With today in mind, i want to share one of the messages that Lindsay sent to us yesterday:

"My name is Taylor and I am 22 years old. I have been an addict for the past six years of my life and have been looking at getting into rehab for awhile now. I should be checking in sometime this week I am just waiting for my federal aid to come in. I wanted to thank you guys for doing what you do and being there. I haven't personally ever talked to anyone with your organization but my sister heard about it somehow. My sister is 18 years old and has never used a day in her life. Ever since I started using I haven't been there for her and we kind of live two completely seperate lives. We haven't gotten along. Today my sister picked me up from my house and said she had a surprise for me. We went and got love tattooed on our arms. She has never had a tattoo so this was a big step for her. She started crying, I haven't seen real emotion from my sister in a long long time. She told me what you guys were about and expressed what she has felt about my use and the way I have made her feel. I made a promise to her to stay clean, something I have never said to anyone. Every time I look down at my arm it will remind me of what a commitment my sister has made to me and to helping me stay clean. I just wanted to thank you guys for helping her understand and helping her accept me and not frown upon me. Your organization has really made an impact on both of our lives and I really wanted to express my gratitude."

Thank you so much for what you guys do everyday and what your organization will continue to do for so many people, you guys really do save lifes.

Thank you so much.

All the love and respect in the world."

If you decide to write the word "love" on your arm today, please remember the heart of the matter. The goals were never "cute" or "fashion". Our title, "to write love on her arms", was born as a goal and it remains a goal. We're inviting people to fight for their lives and for the lives of their friends. We're inviting people to believe better things.

If you want to help us spread the word about hope and help, we would be honored. If you want to tell people that they need other people, that every story matters - again, we would be honored. We say these things because we believe them to be true, and because too many people live alone under other lies.

Let's continue to fight to figure out what this word "love" means. Let's aim for how it looks and how it sounds - maybe something like humility and confidence and kindness, maybe honesty and compassion...

We're in all these things together. It's bigger than cute and louder than fashion.

Thanks always for your support.

You matter very much.

jamie and the entire TWLOHA team"

I think, what concerns me, is that probably more than half of the people wearing 'love' on their arms wasn't even aware what it was actually for. I have nothing against it, in fact I also wore love on my arm yesterday. My issue is that you should take a step back to look at something before deciding upon doing it.

I chose to write 'love' on my arm, because it reminded me that there are millions upon millions of people who probably don't get enough love. They NEED to be loved, to be rescued from their situation, to gather enough courage to change themselves, to have a positive outlook on their life.

It doesn't just stop after 13th of November, I think it is vitally important we continue to love those who feel like they aren't loved enough.

If you've got a spare couple of minutes, I don't think it'd go astray if you gave the story behind To Write Love On Her Arms a read. It might change your whole perspective of the word 'love'. http://www.twloha.com/vision/

Books

I currently have no employment or school work at the moment, so I've thought I might make a list of books to read before the end of the year is out. I'd rather be somewhat proactive than wasting time fiddling around with Facebook FarmVille trying to level up. Hahah.

Currently I have...

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'engle
HP & the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Ps, I Love You by Ahern
What's So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey
The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks
Black by Ted Dekker

Any books you could suggest?

I will keep an update to check off books that I've read and possibly give reviews on each book as I go, so keep an eye on this page. ;)

Wake Me Up When Sept- wait...

September already?

Time has sure flown by since I blogged last, I honestly thought it wasn't that long ago. My life seems to change a fair bit even in the sparse of just four months.

Change is such a frightening thing, yet such a wonderful and amazing adventure that is life. To tell the honest truth I am glad to be where I am right here and now. To be in freedom again, with no university to worry about while I defer for a year, with the prospects of Elliott moving to Adelaide in a little over nine days and with my hair just a few inches longer.

With my newly found freedom I've had a lot more time to spend reading books (Time Quartet series by Madeleine L'engle), watching The Office season 2 and possibly start walking again.
I've also had more time for friends and family, which is a very positive bonus for me in my period of freedom. But it also means I am consuming just that little bit more of coffee weekly and digging into my parents pockets in this time I don't have a job.

I've dug up one of my old passions from home ec high school days, baking sweet things. In the past few weeks I have baked 2 batches of muffins (the first one was about 25), 2 batches of scones (with dates and the other with sultanas) and it's getting more progressive as the days roll on.

Being through all of this has made me come out a person with a more positive outlook on life, I know at times it won't be as easy, and even in this time of great change I have had struggle, but I will just persevere.

This is a world of dreams and reverie

'...Where I felt the stars explode around me'

Whilst spending this evening listening to Owl City and discovering how much I really enjoy their music (so far), I'm actually thinking about how much I am liking life right now.

Moved house last week which was an epic task that took quite a few days, even when all of our stuff was here there was piles and piles of boxes. Thankfully my mother is very organised and right now pretty much everything is done. Today I bought a new desk and a computer chair, because my old desk does not fit in my room with my double bed and my stool that I used for a computer chair was pretty bad for my posture.

I am now officially on university break, with a whole 4 weeks to relax and not stress over assignments or attending lectures. For three of the four weeks I will be in Brisbane, reunited with my significant other whom I have been without for over two months now.

Very soon after returning home I will also be going on camp with about 100 others to spend time in fellowship with each other whilst also consuming awesome food of the spiritual and physical sort and relaxing before going back to uni the following week.

I think my aim for life right now, while I am at a break off of uni study, is to continuously

Two Thousand and Nine

Gosh, well I'm sorry for the American travels blog that got cut short. I guess I sort of ran out of time and was having too much fun in the states and then pretty much the day after I got home it was Christmas (quite literally, I rocked up at Adelaide aiport at around 8pm on Christmas Eve). So I was considerably tired on that Christmas day, although enjoyed being back to a familiar place again where I didn't get charged extra at the checkout, drive on the wrong side of the road or deal with a very different climate.

Nonetheless my time in America was excellent, my highlights were Orlando in Florida, where I spent a few days by myself just wandering through Disney World and Universal Studios and braving the biggest rollercoasters I've ever been on in my entire life. Before that I was in Alabama, in a pretty little city called Huntsville. I experienced foods of different varieties throughout my whole trip including Red Robin (massive burgers with a generous serving of chips that they refill for free if you eat them all :o), Outback Steakhouse (which was a hilarious experience for me btw) and various other take out places. My trip from Huntsville to Orlando couldn't have been any more nerve-wracking, with my flight to Atlanta that had to turn back to Huntsville half way through because of a storm in Atlanta, had to get my flight changed to leave from Huntsville to Washington DC (which is completely the opposite direction from Atlanta and Orlando) and then to Orlando from DC. It was a good adventure though, because at least I can say I've been to the city with the White House.. even though I spent approximately an hour there, only just enough time to find out how to get to my terminal (the airport was excessively huge, there was a train shuttle running between terminals!) and grab some food.

Anyway, so here I am back home and I think I'm ready to go back there again in winter of 2010 for a few months!

A lot has happened between now and then...

I started uni (Foundation Studies) at UniSA which has been quite a journey, I'm almost at half way mark and haven't dropped out yet (good sign). Seem to be getting along pretty well in my study, for a majority of my assignments I have been getting distinctions or credits (with the exception of a couple of high distinctions and one pass 1).

Over a month ago I started a relationship with a boy named Elliott from Queensland, after meeting him officially at Easterfest Music Festival in Toowoomba. Already I am planning to live in his town for a couple of months from August of this year and then hopefully he is moving here in Adelaide permanently as from December. So things with him have been coming along exellently.

Haven't been working since I quit my job at Brumby's before leaving for America late last year. It's been quite a challenge for me, surviving on the little amount of youth allowance I get. Infact, so small that it's not even worth budgeting for. But leaning towards some sort of employment before the year is out, just so I can start some sort of savings towards the future.

That's about as updated as I can get.

=]