i have no problem with that

10 things we love about Ethan

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:42:00 +0000

Hard to think that it has been 11 years since Eth entered the scene - time sure does fly! Anyway, here are some of the things we love about him.

1. He's hilarious and gives us the giggles regularly.
2. He's great with young children as we have enjoyed seeing on our many different church visits lately.
3. He loves his sisters and is very protective of them. e.g. "who said that to you Sophie -I will hunt them down".......not really..i assume......
4. He is full of enthusiasm for whatever is going on -even the more girly activities.
5. He encourages us with his love of Jesus and His word in the bible -and thinks hard about what it means to apply what he has heard.
6. He moves on and forgives when he has had a fight with his sisters.
7. His sensitivity when it comes to animals who are hurt.
8. His massively adventurous streak and inquisitive nature.
9. His boyish cheek, which he can also rein in when needed
10.Love that he is still happy to hug and kiss us in public and give his grandparents a cuddle too!

Long time, no write!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:23:00 +0000

Hi again - haven't been around much lately, but I guess being back in Sydney we don't have to document everything for the grandparents as we can see them in the flesh! Its been a flurry of activity during our time of deputation (visiting churches to talk about our mission to Fiji) and , being a huge introvert, all I want to do is lie on the couch and watch telly to recover. It has been fun and encouraging in lots of ways, but will also be good when its over and we can actually get on with the stuff we have spent so long talking about.

A nice interruption to it all was my dad's birthday and Ethans birthday. We had a very excited little birthday boy....and Ethan enjoyed it too! ha,ha! We prefer to refer to it as The Birthday Festival here because it seems to stretch out way beyond the day. Anyway lots of fun was had as the pictures show. First though, a couple of pics from our trip to Vaucluse House/ Nielsen Park....enjoying our favourite parts of Sydney while we can!

Birthday boy and his breakfast waffles

The first of many birthday desserts -Bombe Alaska!

Birthday with the Wrights(cake no. 2)

Boys outing to watch some famous player play some game at an oval somewhere??

And last but not least, the Heard celebrations with cake no. 3......we like our food in this family! Below the new pet mice-Lulu and Potsie.

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 12:18:00 +0000

It's been a busy few weeks! First a busy run of birthdays, then Tony off to Fiji to speak at a conference, then a weeks trip to Perisher for our first family ski trip (thanks to my VERY generous in-laws!!!)Now back home and ready to keep going with our deputation at St Albans Lindfield -where it was so good hearing Tony preach again after a bit of a break. Currently feeling very full after a big day of eating celebrating Fathers Day- also feeling very thankful that my heavenly Father gave me a great dad and gave my kids a great dad too.

Geared up for our first ski

Re-fuelling with a hot chocolate and bacon and egg rolls!

So cold she couldn't feel her cheeks but still smiling!

Tony and his parents

Dumplings for Fathers Day lunch

Suva

A possible house for us in Suva

Hannah's birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:54:00 +0000

Well, better late than never! Hannah's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we now have a 13 year old in the house!! Here's a bit about our girl Hannah:
1. She has a very dry humour which I appreciate.
2. She has gorgeous green eyes.
3. She is a natural with kids.
4. She is a sheer brilliance on the netball court
5. She likes neatness and order...yeehaa!
6. She is a talented designer and drawer.
7. She selflessly puts others before herself.
8. This year in particular she has demonstrated a strong and robust adaptability.
9. She looks after her brother and sister.
10. She is a caring and helpful daughter.

We are very thankful to God for her! Here she is waiting to get her ears pierced with friends.

Pretty nervous at this point!

Cake at Grandma and Papas with the cousins

More cake with friends......and her very "secure in his masculinity" brother....

Cuteness

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:01:00 +0000

Soph recently won the Target colouring competition and the prize was a $50 gift card from Target! Seeing she has been off school all week with an ear infection, we headed off to Target to see what took her fancy. (once the antibiotics kicked in!).Here is what she came up with. Seriously, how cute -I want to eat her! Well, that's $18 down and $32 to go!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:03:00 +0000

Computer is finally up and running again -we're back baby!!! Actually there isn't a whole lot to say after that big build up ,now I think about it. We have entered birthday season around here -most notably in 3 short days Hannah will be turning 13! Years of waiting for facebook and pierced ears are about to pay off ! In between sickness, locking ourselves out of our unit, getting used to not having a dishwasher and pretending to enjoy my new gym membership, we have pretty much been putting together prayer letters, display boards for our presentations at other churches and emailing schools in Suva to work out where to send the kidlins.Tony is heading to Fiji on the 16th to speak at a conference and after that to look at schools and housing options for us which is great and not something many (if any)missionaries normally have the chance to do -so we're thankful! Some recent snaps...

Out to watch the boy cousins play soccer

Now you see it.....

Now you don't!

Open Day at school

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:34:00 +0000

It's all been a bit quiet here lately blog-wise. We've been busily travelling all round the countryside (ok, the central coast...) as part of our deputation ( speaking to other churches about Fiji, raising awareness, supporters and financial support) and enjoying meeting some super people. Tony also got to speak to some students from Moore College about what we will be doing in Fiji, which was fun and encouraging.....and a great chance to meet up with friends for a coffee,,,or three...or four...!
Other than that, we have celebrated Tony's 38th birthday- pretty quiet really, but not without an enormous amount of sugary goodness! Of course he looks 28 still....and I have no problem with that....

Looking after Pepper at the Lakes camp

Canoeing at camp...bbrrrr...

Powerhouse Museum

Daddy's birthday pancakey/waffley breakfast!

Birthday walk down at Clarkes Point

Playing puppies

I think he was disobedient and was turned into a horse....

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 08:22:00 +0000

This week has largely seen Tony and I dishing out panadol and wetting facecloths for our sick kids. In between all that though, we had our first week of full time work in at the CMS office in the city. We were basically learning how to present for our time on deputation with the 4 churches that we get to visit. Not feeling too panicky about it yet, but give me time..... Anyway, here are a few pics from the last few days.. and as always,food is a major theme in our activities!

A bit of holiday baking!

Mastercheffing it up with friends.

"Tropical Surprise"- the winner on the day.

Playing hairdressers with Daddy.

A wonderful surprise in the mail for Soph -a pen pal set from her new pen friend Gracie in Melbourne!

Back in Sydney Town

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:12:00 +0000

Well, we've been back home for a couple of weeks now and it's been a flurry of activity - setting up in a new place, visits with grandparnets and cousins, but mainly just sickness! Tony sick on the lounge for a week(which never happens!) and now Ethan has taken his place on the same lounge with the same temperature and bottle of lucozade next to him on the coffee table. Poor thing- you know its bad when he can't even watch Horrible Histories because his eyes are too sore! Very much hoping it doesn't last as long as his dad- there are too many fun holiday activities planned with his cousins while Tony and I are in at the CMS office for the week.
Some highlights of being back are seeing relatives from NZ, being back at St Albans, being part of family birthday gatherings again, rather than via skype and, excitingly, going to see YTT live at Chatswood. Realised my childhood dream of being in a large dance group holding a microphone is still very much alive!!

Bye Melbourne

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 05:50:00 +0000

Me with a beautiful 7 year old gal

Ethan back from camp in one piece!

Me with my beautiful 12 year old gal

Attempting to pack everything we own into the car boot!!

Never too old for merry-go-rounds. Giddy-up!!

I'm writing from freezing Canberra- which means we have finished at SAH and our time in Melbourne has come to an end. We had a busy and emotional last week of the course and really didnt enjoy having to say goodbye to everyone. The graduation ceremony was a fantastic way to end though and we loved sharing it with not only our classmates but also our great friends the Bakers, the Prices and my cousin Melanie. Praying now that we will take and use all that we learned in the last 5 months -not only the "book stuff" but from the infornal chats from a wonderful staff team. Now to enjoy some quieter time before the craziness of deputation, in between catching up with some old friends in Canberra.

Albert Park

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:20:00 +0000

A place we wish we had found earlier in our Melbourne stint would be Albert Park. Gorgeous shops, cafes, parks etc.. and near a lake. But especially fun with the Fabulous Bakers -our wonderful Sydney friends whose company we are completely milking while we can!! Could have happily sat in this cafe for hours chatting away.

In other news, we are down to our last week here at SAH...unbelievable. These are some of the things we will miss when we leave, including the gorgeous little boy in the photo(they train 'em young down here)!!
1. Being cooked for EVERY NIGHT! Have I already mentioned that??
2. The excellent staff and the other students- washing dishes, praying, setting tables, holding babies etc together.
3. Tilly the resident cat.
4. Living in a space where I can vacuum the whole unit using one powerpoint. (I'm fairly easy to please!)
5. Singing with people who wholeheartedly get into it.
6. Being around people who are about to have a major life change similar to us and don't think we're "ruining our kids futures"
7. Friendly Melbournians on their bikes. It took me a while to realise they didn't "mistakenly think they knew me", but were just being plain friendly. Go figure!
8.The massive array of books to read in our library.
9.Having Coles and K-Mart right next to each other.
10.Having not much of a social life outside of SAH , hence alot of time together just the 5 of us.

Will be great to be back in Sydney though...see y'all soon!

The farewell par-tay!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 11:44:00 +0000

A few snaps of the kids farewell party yesterday. All went well -and praise the Lord for the wonderful space we have at SAH...perfect for x-box dancing, the chocolate game, dress-ups and photo shoots and cupcake decorating.....we didnt even notice that the rain didn't stop! Here we go....

The gorgeous Yr 2 girls

The hipster-ish (?) Yr 5 guys

The hip and cool Yr 6 chicks

The home stretch..

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 08:47:00 +0000

Here's "crazy Ethan" on CC-RR-AZY HAIR DAY!

Two weeks left and gettin' excited! Just a few classes about things like deputation, communication etc.. and our farewells, final dinner, graduation ceremony- fun stuff like that! Not to mention the kids combined farewell party next weekend...watch this space! I always thought I'd have alot more to say on a blog, but apparently not huh? Anyhoo, here are a few photos from the last few days.

Never actually went here, but have a thing for red doors

The brilliant Brunetti's- partially responsible for alot of my clothes no longer fitting.


Sunny Lygon Street

Will miss this view as we set the table for dinner each night

Enjoying a Sat. morning treat with our fellow students

A fun Sat. night dinner with our lovely friends The Prices!

A little bit of good ol' Tom Foolery!

The dad's getting in on the boy fun.

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sun, 27 May 2012 10:38:00 +0000

Well only 3 weeks to go now and we are starting to get excited, and also sad. Very keen to be back with our families and friends...but sad to leave the brilliant people here at SAH. This week we are facing our final CMS panel and will hopefully be given our final " thumbs up " and be good to go.

Apart from the people we live with, what we will miss is having time to do stuff that we never seemed to have time for in Sydney...well, not nearly as much time or energy in hectic Sydney.We have loved our "family drawing time", going to cafes together and baking. Yes baking!! I never had much success in the kitchen and felt particularly inadequate about that as a "ministry wife" ha, ha! But we actually had a great time making a rainbow cake on Saturday, and am feeling pretty darn good about it too, so heck, I'm gonna go right ahead and pop it on the blog to show off my (I mean OUR..) colourful creation together!!

4 weeks to go...

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:14:00 +0000

Our time here at SAH is soon over unbelievably. How time flies!! One of the main things we will miss about Melbourne are our dear friends the Bakers. It has made our transition here much smoother, knowing they are only 20 minutes away and it's always a treat spending time with them. Here are a few highlights from our dinner at their place on Saturday night.

Yummy tacos!

A wonderful gymnastics routine by the girls in pink!

Our very talented Master of Ceremonies

And, of course, 10 year old boys like to relate in a different way!

Fun,fun,fun

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:35:00 +0000

Just come to the end of a lovely family weekend, with mum,dad, Dave and Manda and the boys down here for 3 days. We went out for a beautiful birthday lunch at Port Melbourne on Saturday and then church and Brunetti's on Sunday. All of our family get togethers seem to revolve around food, and this was no exception.....hence me not being able to do up my jeans properly. It's a good thing I just bought leggings the other day! Anyway, here's a few photos....REALLY must learn to format them properly one day.

Thursday night dinner on Lygon St

Friday night dinner at SAH

Mums birthday lunch at Port Melbourne

Beautiful Hansie at lunch

The happy couple at lunch

My lovely Mum on her 70th!

Back at our place for cake and singing!-amazing how many people you can squeeze in!!

Brunetti's for Mothers Day morning tea

Last night shananigans!!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:16:00 +0000

You know those people who can make ridiculously good birthday cakes for their kids....well I'm not one of them! But I'm trying to remind myself that the kids don't actually care about the finished product as much as the time you spend together. Well the cookies didn't turn out entirely as planned, but as Soph and I scraped the burnt charcoal off the bottom of the oven tray and opened the windows to let the smoke out, there were a lot of laughs! I like to think that times these create a whole other set of special memories...am I right? Anyway, we did manage to eventually make an edible lot -so here are some before and after shots!

In other news, this is what Tony got up to on Saturday -a day of 4WD driving as part of our cross-cultural training. He loved it! Fiji won't quite be Africa, but still good skills to learn and generally good fun.

Not all fun and games!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:42:00 +0000

We only have 5 more weeks left here at SAH and so I thought I'd start to get some photos of actual life at St Andrews Hall, rather than what we do on our days off. So first up is Tuesday "work afternoons" from 2-4pm. I'm usually working up in the main house and Tony outside, when he's not at Bunnings!

Such joviality!

With the lovely Sharon

Gorgeous Amy (and her toilet brush..)

The Twelve Apostles..and other fun stuff !

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:15:00 +0000

Just got back from a wonderful weekend at Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Rd. We managed to score a cute little cottage across the road from the ocean.......and even seemed to cope with no internet connection for 2 days ( the shaking and sweating has pretty much subsided now......!). We missed not being with Grandad (Tonys dad) for his birthday on Saturday,but wrote his name in the sand at the beach in his honour. The weekend included skate parks, uno, movies and most importantly, the discovery of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream! How did my kids come to have such expensive taste?? The highlight for me was seeing the Twelve Apostles- God is amazing! Anyway, the photos may not do them justice, but here they are.
I MAY have gone overboard with the number of photos here......

A little girl with plaits

Yeh?...watch me.

Great way to end the weekend.....gorging on marshmallows and left over ice-cream

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:16:00 +0000

A few photos of the last couple of weeks. First Soph enjoying her new 'onesie' -and me enjoying the fact she is still little enough to wear one. Going to need to start putting a brick on her head to stop her growing! We also found a playground that resembles a hippie commune/ youth drop-in centre/ great place for kids 5 and up to trampoline,play with guines pigs,paint, feed chickens, dress up,play table tennis etc.... everyone loved it -and its free, and provides fruit for all to eat. One of the rules on the door are that parents are not to interefere with kids creative play or imagination or they can be told to leave! Quite refreshing really!

Also Tony and I got to have a night out on the town recently -we went to the Melbourne Comedy Festival and then had dinner at Federation Square. Fun night out and is always good to know that we have plenty to talk about still that doesn't involve the kids/parenting! Anyway, we are about to head off for a weekend of fun at the Great Ocean Rd -got the chocolate, Justin Bieber movie and ugg boots. ALL SET!!

Back in sunny Melbourne!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:56:00 +0000

Well , back in Melbourne again and staright back into it! Starting with a 2 week language learning course. Am hoping my "rainman" tendencies begin to kick in to help me learn. Surely there has to be some better use for them than learning peoples number plates..or mathematical pi to 9 digital places....yes,sad but true! Anyway, good to be back! Mum and Dad came as far as 2 hours from Sydney to have breakfast with us, but it definitely wasn't at McDonalds because Dad would never be seen eating there...so let's call it "McRogers". Anyway we enjoyed sitting in our cosy booth with a hot drink on a cold and overcast morning before facing the next 8 hours in the "torture contraption" that Soph so fondly refers to as our car.

We are also aware that our time down in Melbourne is more than half over, so we wanted to get out and see some sights while we can! First stop was "Artplay" which we had to have booked for, so we thought we'd find a nice park...which the kids were too hot to play in! Ah well, things started looking up when we found some sushi for lunch and "Pancake Parlour" for dinner. Can't win 'em all!!

Here's Dad NOT having breakfast at McDonalds!

The Yarra River-which I can't be near without singing Happy birthday Helen

Some shots at Federation Square

Catching up with the lovely Catteralls!

"Dinner" at the pancake parlour. Nutricious...

My attempy at being arty with the camera!

This is another test ...

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:38:00 +0000

Trying again.

This is a test ...

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:01:00 +0000

This blog is a test to see if the email subscription I have added to my blog works ....

Easter in Sydney!

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Despite what it may look like, we did actually leave Sydney and move to Melbourne for 5 months...we just don't seem to BE there very often. No, slight exaggeration, but we have just spent another 9 days in Sydney over Easter which has been fantastic!! Tony was supposed to be at a conference in Fiji, but given both the airport and his hotel were under water, it was postponed. Thankfully Fiji is recovering and the predicted hurricane never showed up - and the kids wre happy to have daddy around for the fun holiday activities! We head back to Melbourne tomorrow though -excited to see all the wonderful people we have been missing, and excited to finish the course. Here are a few snaps of our holiday in the meantime..

Lunch at Eden Gardens

My beautiful Mum at Eden Gardens

Ethan and Alex bushwalking

Easter Sunday lunch at Manda and Dave's

Our 'Jesus is Alive' cake after lunch- and then below after Jesus rose and the tomb is empty!

Dad looking super cool at the park

Brothers in hoodies

At the park waiting for their milkshake order

noreply@blogger.com (Susie) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:55:00 +0000

Yesterday was Palm Sunday (Sunday before Easter Sunday) and in Fiji, this is a big deal. Obviously we are not in Fiji yet, but our Fijian church in Coburg made a fuss - and it was a great morning. Everyone was very dressed up, men wearing their traditional skirts (sulo), kids performing songs and bible readings and Tony got to preach. Him and I were made a fuss of -and had to sit in special velvet chairs down the front of church......note to self, don't wear jeans and thongs next time there is a Palm Sunday service.... Anyway, Tony did well -loved hearing him preach again, the kids did remarkably well, given THEY were singing in Fijian and we had a beautiful lunch afterwards -fish heads in coconut milk, king prawns, cassava and an enormous sponge cake. The kids were all given a massive chocolate bunny and bag of eggs. Anyway here are a few photos...

All good fun- even though 11am church started at 12pm......I have no problem with that.....
In other news, today was Kids Fun Day at SAH, where the focus is on preparing the kids for mission work in a fun way. The staff went to heaps of trouble getting the kids to make passports, get them stamped, pretend to be on a plane trip, make memories scrapbooks and heaps of other things including a kiddy party lunch with potato gems, party pies etc.. so fun and the kids loved it...which the next few photos may not do justice to. Anyway, here goes...