A + A // Sunbathing Saturation + Jana's First Words

My awkward and awesome posts are the most popular of anything I post. Ever! It always stuns me and I wonder why that is. I still haven't quite figured it out. But obviously you guys like them, so who am I to argue?! I'll keep them coming. :)

Awkward:
- Biking along to work when all of a sudden you feel a crawling sensation on your hand. So you look at your hand and are absolutely horrified to discover a spider that has the audacity to be crawling on one of your limbs! I mean, seriously? So you flick him off (with, I must confess, a rather loud shriek!) and as you keep biking along you reflect on the faults of arachnids in general, the chief imperfection of which is picking you to crawl on.
- When Jacob accidentally knocks his [full] cup of water over - right into your lap.
- Starting to speak at the same time someone else does. So you both sort of stop and awkwardly look at each other and you both say, again at the same time, "no, you go".
- When you decide your legs need to look a little less white. So you spread out a towel on the beach (this was while we were on holiday, by the way) and lie down on it in the sun. You have a lovely little sunbathe for a while then you decide to go sit in the shade because you don't want to really burn your legs. However as you get up off your towel you start to notice that your rear end and back are quite wet. And then you touch the towel and discover it is soaking wet. Yes, the sand was very damp. And so was the back of me, for quite a while afterwards.
- Playing I Spy with Jacob. Granted, he has improved dramatically, but when we first used to play it with him it was rather difficult. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with... hmm... E." So we try to guess it. And can't. Eventually we start guessing random stuff. "Vacuum cleaner?" "Yes!"
- Trying to play a piece when you haven't seen it before and most of the orchestra has.
- Jacob looking at himself in the mirror: "Do I look artificial?"
- Mum explaining to Dad just why she's sure he looks like the ancient Egyptian pharoah Tutankhamun. So hilarious.


Awesome:
- Going skydiving!! (I won't dwell on all the details here because I'm busy writing a post all about it to come up later in the week. :) ) Here's a bit of a teaser photo for you.

- When you haven't been at work for a while and you come back and get told that some of the regular customers have been asking after you. One customer in particular regards me as her favourite person to make her sandwich. :)
- Lots of chocolate, according to Sophie - and I couldn't agree more.
- Hearing Jana talking! She says (in her cute wee voice) "uh-oh" and "Ma-ma" and "Dad-da".
- Going to the rabbit hutch to feed the rabbit and as you fill up the pellet container you notice the rabbit isn't there. Your heart sort of skips a beat as you remember that time a few months ago, how you discovered the previous rabbit's death by noticing she wasn't in sight. So you go around to the enclosed part of her hutch, worrying that all you'll find will be a dead body. And you open the back door to the hutch and see a very alive rabbit looking at you with a very surprised expression. *Phew*
- Warm cinnamon buns straight out of the oven.
- Names backwards. Don't you think Einnob has a certain ring to it?
- When you write a poem and you just know that it's good and you love it as it is.
- And when you do a drawing and you just know that it's good and you love it as it is. (Neither of those happen often, sadly, but when they do it's awesome!)
- Finding a 'kindred spirit' in someone else, as Anne of Green Gables would say. It is very awesomely exciting.

Psalm 16

Psalm 16


 Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.


 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.


 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.


 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

I'm Back! And Guess What's Updated!

So as you may or may not have guessed from the title, yes, I'm finally back, and I've completely updated two of my pages - the Meet My Family page and the About Me page. It was high time both those pages had new text and new photos, don't you think?

A sneak peek at what's new....

Check them out and let me know if you like them!

Meet My Family
About Me

Tagged

It's been a while since I was tagged in a tag or blog award so I was quite pleasantly surprised to be tagged by Sarah in the 'You are amazing and so is your blog' award.

Thanks! :)

The Questions:

Do you ever run out to get the mail?

Sometimes. It's not anyone's job as such, it just gets done by whoever. It's quite fun bringing in the mail. Even more fun when you discover a letter for you.

Do you like cold or warm?

Cold or warm what?? Lol. Depends what it is. If it's icecream, I like cold. If it's the weather or a hot pudding, I like warm.

Do you like playing around doing different do's with you hair, or are you the kind of person to keep it the same?

I have a bunch of hairstyles that I do. Each day I generally just leave it out long or pick one. I also very much enjoy experimenting on other people (my sisters!) as well.

Have you ever wondered how many times you have said the same word in your life?

Yes, I have! Some words I say a lot more than others... It would be interesting to know the exact numbers. A bit mind-boggling though.

Do you write?

I do write; generally diary entries, poems and the occasional short story.

What is your favorite thing to cook?

Curried eggs.

If you were snow bound all winter, what would you do for activities/keeping warm?

We don't get much snow where I live. It's a big event if it snows. If I did ever get snowbound, however, I would put on lots of warm clothes and play lots of card games.

Are you a changing person, or a person who likes things to stay the same?

I don't really like change. It's something that I'm working on with the Lord's help at the moment! I like to know everything is going to stay the same, however I'm learning that change itself isn't scary. It can be an adventure.

Do you like drawing your own drawings, or would you rather use a coloring page? 

It's so much more fun to design your own drawing than to colour in someone else's! Besides, aren't colouring pages for younger children?! I like drawing my own drawings. I'm very particular when it comes to drawing. My favourite medium is pencil, I do sketches on A4 white paper. :) I love drawing but I don't do it hugely often. 

I'm not going to tag anyone or think up any of my questions because I don't think I know of enough bloggers who answer tags. But if you are reading this and you'd like to give it a go, by all means do it. :) I would suggest answering the questions I was asked.

Have a great!

A + A // My Terrible Sense Of Direction + Valentine's Day

Awkward:
- Shopping with my Mum at a big second hand clothing shop, just browsing through a rack. Saw something that looked like it might be suitable for what I had in mind so I pulled it out and held it up. Mum and I both gasped (quite loudly) simultaneously, "Oh! Perfect!" Then another lady who was quite near to us looked at us and smiled and Mum and I looked at each other and had a bit of a giggle. It was quite funny.
- Becoming well known for my terrible sense of direction.
- When you're at work and your customers are in a big, big queue. They finally get to the front of the line only to decide they don't have a clue what they want to order. Like, seriously? Dear sir or madam, couldn't you have decided what you wanted while you were waiting?
- When I saw someone I hadn't seen for two months and their voice sounded different to how I remembered it. It was deeper and sounded a little raspier than I thought it did. I wondered about it for a while before mentioning it. Turned out they had a cold and their voice was just croaky.
- When your feet are bare in the house. And someone else is wearing heavy shoes. And they stand on your toes.
- When you spend literally AGES putting your hair up in bobby pins before bed so you will have curly hair in the morning, but go to bed and decide you can't sleep because it's too uncomfortable. So you yank out all those hundreds of bobby pins (yeah, it's only a small exaggeration - there were rather a lot) and undo all those curls you spent yonks doing. And sleep. And wake up to straight hair in the morning. :( Bit disappointing really!



Awesome:
- The new family tradition we have of sharing funny stories about our day around our dinner table. Great family memories and lots of laughs are had.
- Hearing cicadas chirping away outside. Because we live in a semi-new-ish subdivision (15 or so years old) we're only just starting to get cicadas. It's lovely hearing them.
- When everyone does the dishes together. It gets done so much faster!
- Decorating my room for Valentine's Day. I must confess something here, folks. I love decorating my room and any excuse will do! It's so much fun. :) Oh, and while we're on the subject....

- Palindromic dates. So satisfying.
- When Jana is making little cooing noises to herself and you come up beside her and start copying her cooing noises. She starts laughing as hard as she can while still trying to coo. It's hilarious!
- Researching a bunch of heart hairstyles for Valentine's Day and getting to practice them all on Lydia. I should take some photos of them to show you, shouldn't I, because some of them turned out really good.
- The smell of double delight roses...


Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day?
What is your favourite smell in all the world?
Do you have a good sense of direction?

Christmas 2014 photos - sorry it took so long!

Hello everyone!

So sorry it took forever to get these Christmas photos up! I didn't realise we had any until I found them by accident... well long story short you have them now. :) Better late than never, right?

They are just a random conglomeration of photos taken on Christmas Day 2014. Have attempted to explain what each one is. 

Excuse Jacob's weird face.... :) here's our Christmas tree. 

Christmas lunch

Daddy with some of his gifts. Those green glasses were really popular especially with the little kids.

Lydia with some of her gifts

We had our cousins over for dessert in the evening. They brought with them this awesome gingerbread house they had made! Isn't it so cute and amazing?

Another shot at a different angle

The dessert feast

Abbie took some photos of Mum and Dad together on Christmas evening. 

This wasn't taken on Christmas Day but it's Christmassy and I love it!

Another one of Jacob, this time taken by Abbie. Such a cute photo. :)

And one last one to leave you on, another view of the lunch. Boy was it amazing. :)

Apologies again for the lateness of the photos!

Walrus Exercises

Oh my goodness! You seriously have to watch this!! It is the funniest, most amazing thing ever! The bit when the walrus does sit ups.... I want a pet walrus....


Oh, and before I go, here's my newest favourite quote (completely off topic sorry!).

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. 

- Winston Churchill

Happy birthday, Jana!

Today our precious Jana is turning one year old!

Sorry to burden you with an absolute bunch of photos, but I love them all and besides, who can resist cute photos of a little girl?

It's crazy how fast she's grown. Seems like yesterday I was holding her in my arms for the first time! And now she's a whole year old, crawling everywhere super fast and not too far off walking! Wow. The time goes so fast.

This is Jana a few hours after she was born

On the way home from the hospital

Jana and I on the day I saw her first

A few days old

I think she was about 6? months old when these photos were taken

A wee cutie!

Awwwww....

And now, a recent photo of Jana. Daddy's little girl!

Jana is so sweet and an absolute blessing to our family.

I love you, Jana banana! Happy 1st birthday!

-------

And also, happy 19th wedding anniversary to my absolutely wonderful Mum and Dad! You are amazing parents and I pray God's richest blessings on you in the 20th year of your marriage.

<3

P.S. I'm away from today until the 18th of February so all posts between now and then are scheduled.