it's party time!

I finished my last exam on Monday... what a sigh of relief! To celebrate, a bunch of us went to South Beach and had a chilled out afternoon cooking meat on the barbie, chit-chatting on the grass, played boulez (aka botchi), strolled down the beach, etc.

Today, well technically yesterday, was my birthday, and for the longest time I just didn't want to do anything special for it. I guess I had a lot of insecurities, doubts and just issues in general, but God really just showed me in the last few days just how much He loves me and how much my friends and family love me. My magical twenty-sixth year began at the beach today soaking in some sun rays with my sister and Clare. After much persistent persuasion from my Canadian classmates on Monday I decided to have a luncheon in Freo. I didn't realise it was going to be such a huge affair... ended up lunching with twenty-something people! In the evening, Samn and I watched the end of the soccer match between Australia and Uruguay (yay Australia finally gets to play in the World Cup after a thirty-something year drought!) then hung out with Elizabeth and Conrad before we all cruised over to Mt Lawley for coffee with my cell group. Ah, I have to say I had such a wonderful day, it's just been a real blessing to me, I felt very pampered and honoured to be in the company of such amazing people. Thank you God for everything, and thank you everyone for remembering my birthday and for all the lovely and thoughtful SMS, emails, phonecalls and presents! Thank you, thank you, thank you! oxox

Anyway here are some pictures taken in the last two weeks...

jono in charge of the barbie at the movie night + gabe and his waffle cone ring

vote which movie to watch + at the movies

cott beach + glenn and kelly after darlene zschech's concert

salv the birthday boy and kelly w. + sara

playing boulez + lighting the sparklers on salv's cake

my classmates at south beach + my birthday luncheon

the capper girls + lollies from alice

Currently loving and listening to: Tom Read's latest song "I Will Be Still" (click here to download) & the chorus and bridge of Chris Tomlin's "How Great Is Our God" (the excerpt below)

How great is our God
Sing with me
How great is our God
All will see
How, great, how great,
Is out God

Name about all names
Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing how great
Is our God

no more classes, tonnes of pictures

Finished my last assignment and last class of the course on Wednesday... now I have to get myself into the zone to revise for my final exam that's worth a whopping 50%. Anyway thought I'd just post the happenings taken from my camera in the last few weeks... Think this post might be the most mahussive post I've ever entered...

The Night Out in Fremantle: Started at the Sail and Anchor for dinner, then went and watched Paul Hardy and his band play at the pub, headed over to Benny's where we were graced by Simon and Jay and later Matty J and Matty G, then went to the Newport before declaring it a night. (For more pictures, check elranchorelaxo and Andrea's blogs)

Samn's birthday: Coffee and cakes at Cafe 130, Leederville... highlights of the evening - Samn having to pick up the contents in her bag that spilt underneath the table, and later got wedged between the table and seat in an attempt to return to her seat; Clare was given a mini tape measure in the city and decided to measure everything in sight; roaming around the bookstore... (and a few random photos from other events)

samn stuck under the table and seat + checking out the tape measure

sarah + chantelle

clare + the birthday crew

samn trying to crawl back onto the seat + measuring how far clare was to samn

samn the birthday girl + ann's fringe is back

lunch during the rise conference + kip, deb and napoleon at ampster's party

Rachel Dyer's 21st: We celebrated this bubbly and awesome woman of God's birthday at another friend's house... the garage turned into a disco complete with black plastic sheeting to cover the brick walls to create the ambience, and strobes and smoke machine. Oh and it was wonderful hearing all the classic Rach stories!

birthday cake + the cake ceremony

everyone listening to the speeches + samn sharing stories about rach

jess bryce ann + cathy karina aimee

shazza + jemma bryce jess cherece

rach and marje + ann te-neele

samn writing an essay + sarah melissa grace

the boys competing + clare

coon-ed + candice peeking through the side

Halloween at Capper: My Canadian classmates threw a Halloween bash at their house... they even carved pumpkins and squash to make jack-o-lanterns... decorated the house with spooky spiders (just ask Brandon how spooky!)... and there were some very funky and creative costumes... Had to watch Grey's Anatomy before I headed over to the party (I still don't know how to work the VCR at home... pathetic!) Anyway, I wore the 80s the dress I wore to the YA Retreat disco (it actually brought back memories for one or two of them too! haha) CLICK HERE FOR THE PICTURES.

Spending a day out with Cam and Andrea: My ex-flatmate Cam and his girlfriend Andrea came over to visit Perth from Sale, Victoria... after more than 3 years we finally got to meet up again... it was a lovely day to hang out in Freo, we ended up doing two back-to-back tours at the Fremantle Prison... what a relaxing touristy sorta day!

Clare's birthday dinner: The birthday girl cooked and entertained a bunch of us at her place last night... yummy Thai green curry and really delicious stick date pudding (is really was really really good... darn I'm drooling now!) Some of us hung around until past midnight when it was Clare's actual birthday and surprised her with a cake and flowers...

samn jess andrea + delicious sticky date pudding

adrian + sarah samn jess

paparazzi + clare the chef and birthday girl

enjoying the dessert

is it a sticky date or a cockroach + andrea and her date

clare blowing out the candles

yellow flowers + a tired samn