"Spring" update

Housing:
The house in Camberwell came through for us and we’ve been moved in for a month. The house, which is more like a unit, is quite small, but we’ve managed to fit pretty much all of our stuff in! We got rid of some old beds and our beautiful, huge 8 seater dining table is being ‘tablesat’ by Vaughn’s sister, Simone, until we are in a house that will actually fit it! We absolutely love living in this area. I walk to the station each day – only about 5 minutes – and then catch a train that only takes me 15 or so minutes to get into the city. It’s great! There are heaps of cafes within walking distance and even our local supermarket is only just up the road, so we are getting much fitter by walking many places.

If you are reading this update on our blog page and don’t have our address, just email me and I’ll send you the details.

Work:
Again, work is still the same for me – going really well and very busy, but loving it! Recently one of the PA’s retired due to ill health, so we’ve been one person short in the office for a little while now. A new girl starts on Monday, so we are all quite excited about that. She’s my age, so it will be nice working with someone younger. I haven’t met her yet, but I hope I’ll get along well with her!

A couple of us have decided to set up a Social Club for the Diocese, so that interaction between departments occurs more often. Everyone in the building seems to be excited by the idea, so hopefully it will be a success! Our first function is the Grand Final brekky being held next Friday.

The Anglican Church (in Melbourne) has been without an Archbishop since October last year and we were finally able to elect a new one last month. The Archbishop is being installed in December, so we are all interest to see how the office changes. I’ve met Philip (the new AB) before and he’s a really nice person. I don’t know what he’ll be like to work with, but I’m sure he’ll be lovely!

Vaughn is still cooling his heels from Light FM. He’s been offered a couple of shifts since he finished up, but has been turning them down due to his busy-ness. However, he finally said yes to a shift this weekend, partially for the money and partially so he’s still in the loop.

There is nothing really to report on the business. It’s still going well, with orders coming in without Vaughn having to look for them.

After prayerful consideration, Vaughn has resigned as Small Groups Pastor at Deep Creek. He is keen to move into paid ministry work while he is studying and give up the business. However, Deep Creek weren’t able to support him enough for him to do this and as the business takes up so much of his time, he wasn’t able to do both. Therefore, as he is still keen to find paid ministry work, in the meantime, he will keep the business and continue to grow it so it will be as healthy as possible when he sells it.

Study:
Vaughn is really enjoying his full time studies, even though he is flat out busy getting assignments written. He is now in the Year of Discernment and has been to two information sessions. He has also appointed a mentor, who he really gets along well with and greatly respects. Please keep Vaughn – and me – in your prayers as he deals with the stress/pressure of getting these assignments complete.

Church:
Sadly our vicar, Drew, has left Deep Creek for a calling to another Parish in great need of his wonderful giftings. He will be greatly missed, but I have faith in God that He will provide Deep Creek with someone the parish needs.

The mission trip Vaughn went on a couple months ago, he found very rewarding. Like everyone else he went with, he found it quite hard to adjust being back in every day life. They all went up thinking what they could do for the community but most came back realising they learned so much from them. A very moving experience.

A couple weeks ago, one of the girls from our parish preached and she spoke about the Prison Fellowship Mission she is involved with and the kids camp Deep Creek arrange for the children of prisoners. It reminded me of the youth/kids camps I used to go on and has really inspired me to help lead on the next one. I’m very excited about this (and surprised Vaughn with that fact!), but the next one isn’t until next year!

Recently Deep Creek had a Gala dinner celebrating its 100th year of existence. It was a fantastic evening and everyone who attended had heaps of fun. Our small group organised a table together and we are SURE we were the noisiest table there! We were very loud, just enjoying each other’s company. There were two auctions during the night – a silent one running out the back (where I successfully bid on two items!) and a ‘real’ one where we were eating dinner. They had arranged a local Real Estate Agent to run it, so it was very legit and lots of fun! Our table won the bid on a dinner for 20 people, which we are ‘redeeming’ in a couple of weeks.

Sport:
The only exercise I’m doing at the moment is walking. Camberwell is a great area for this and there are a few ‘leash free’ parks around, where Tess loves to run free and chase balls. It’s a beautiful area to walk around in and it’s quite flat. The circuit we walk the most is about 5 km and has one hill half way around, so it’s quite ideal! We’ve actually ventured out with Tess to the main shopping/café street of Camberwell, wondering how she would react to all the people around her (she loves people, especially those she hasn’t met yet) but she was actually quite unfussed by them and would just walk past without really caring… making it much easier for us to walk! Even when we sat down outside a café to drink coffee/hot chocolate, she just lay at our feet.

The other week, I went to my old hockey team’s last game of the season. It was so nice being back with them. They truly had missed me during the season and were so excited that I had come. We went back to one of the player’s house for a BBQ dinner and it was like I had never left! Looks like it is going to be another hard decision next year as to whether I play again! I really missed them all and I do miss the games (if not the training on Wed. nights!)

My friend and I still haven’t got our act together to go swimming yet! Another friend who lives in Richmond (another close suburb) read that we were planning on swimming and said she’d love to join us, but I haven’t arranged with her either – oops (sorry Bree!). I really need to just get it together and organise! One day soon… honest! All of you who are reading this need to keep me accountable to what I write! Now that would be a challenge to me (but might just work)!

Family news:
As it hasn’t been that long since I last wrote, there isn’t much to report on with the family…

Ben is studying hard and still in the reserves. I don’t think I’ve mentioned before that he and some friends have started a band. They’ve been playing for a while now and do gigs around Melbourne, as well as have travelled to Warrnambool (Western District Coast of Victoria). Although it is definitely not my kind of music, they are quite talented (I think – it’s hard to tell when you don’t really enjoy the music being played!).

No real new news for Philip. Their household dog died a couple weeks/months back, so he is keen to get a couple new companions! He’s having some problems with the Real Estate agent & breeder though (trying to arrange the right paperwork). Ben and Phil are still living together in a suburb not too far from us.

As mentioned in my last update, my dad is celebrating his 60th birthday. I’ve finally sent the invitations out and am now enjoying arranging a special surprise presentation for him. It’s been quite enjoyable taking a trip down memory lane, going through my old photo albums. I’ve really loved going through old pictures of him and his family when he was a boy as well.

My mum (and dad) is currently entertaining some of her friends from the States. They arrived last week and Vaughn and I met up with them at the Ballarat Wildlife Park where we spend the day with them. Vaughn, Dad and I met Dona and Jerry (the friends) on our trip to the states nearly two years ago. They were wonderful enough to pick us up from the airport, take us around their local sights and then we took an interesting road trip with them to the Grand Canyon and onto Las Vegas. They were very generous with their time and driving – lovely people!

Other news:
Being a natural ‘organiser’ I am also organising a class reunion. I met up with an old school mate I hadn’t seen in YEARS on a trip back to Hamilton a few months back. We both agreed that we needed to arrange a class reunion because it had been over 10 years since we’d left school, but haven’t had a reunion since then. So, now I’m enjoying organising a venue and invitations etc. The hard part is tracking everyone down from my year level. It’s slowly happening and each new person I’ve contacted seems to have been able to put me in contact with one other person, so I hope that continues! So, for any of you that are reading this and are old Boxheads, could you please email me with details of anyone you are still in contact with that were in my year level/s at GSC? That would be a great help!

Wow. I can’t believe how long this update is! I wasn’t expecting it to be long, seeing as my last update was only about 2 months ago! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it! As always, may God bless you now and always. With love to you all.