Cassie's Cuddles

Lemons, Laminate and Love.

This week has flown by, I don’t think I can tell you what day it is…oh, that’s right, Thursday. On Monday we went to visit Jared’s G’Parents in Buln, Buln. I hadn’t seen them for ages, so I felt almost guilty walking in. We had a lovely lunch and chat, then I zoomed off to pick up Steph’s supervisor for her “1000” steps chalenge. Then after preparing tea, I was off to Lygon St at Koko Black with the student wives from the Pressie College. It was a nice night, but is so not me, going off to have a “Girl’s Night”. I would rather be home, but I did enjoy the company, and the cake (it was $13, I could feed a family dessert on that!).

The L stands for lemons!four bags full! My sister in-law has an abundant tree, the children asked on my behalf if I could have some, they came back with alot. So we have made some lemonade. Ikg of juice to 1Kg of caster sugar, heat slowly in a saucepan, it will thicken slightly, and then yum. Add some to a pitcher, then add water, very refreshing. I am thinking that I might have to preserve some in salt.Jared’s parents sent Jared a parcel from QLD. It isn’t Jared’s birthday, but I didn’t open it. I spoke to Jared at lunch time, and told him about the parcel, so he said that we could open it, it was full of toys. Scoobies, batteries, clingy little men, a hat, a moose on a chain, and this cool lego torch. The torch was intended for Jared, Jared shares 😀 We have done school, finished two more quilt tops. Steph did the bright one, I finished the safari one. I have come to the conclusion that I am not good at putting colours together.Ok, so it needs an iron.We have also been cutting cards. I have cut them all out myself. One night in one hour in the car I cut 700 cards. I have thousands of cards to cut. This is half of them done.Actually it might be a third, ugh!This is Stephanie doing her “community service” as part of her bronze award for the Duke of Edinb. I stalked her, and gave her a bit of a fright..naughty me.

Do you know the Ten Commandments? Well, Lachlan does! A student in his class was asking if anyone knew the 10th commandment, the teacher said, “Let’s see if Lachlan knows” “Do not Covet” Lachlan answered. Then someone said “what number is the one , do not kill?” Six, he answered. Good on you Lachlan.  Don’t you love this imagine? It’s from a very creative woman’s blog, take a look at http://www.fionacarter.typepad.com/

Do you ever have that feeling, that you mean’t to do something, but you didn’t actually do it? We, I have only just discovered that I have actually done something before,  in fact, three times!! This is what happens when you shop at midnight! Oh man, how could I order something twice? I have done it three times!! Shhh, don’t dob on me, I don’t think that Jared wil find it funny.

This is my house at the moment, it will only get worse. I am very thankful that I have helpful children. Do not visit me, seriously don’t! Unless of course, you want to cut, or sweep :D, then you will be most welcome.What else have I done? School, visiting (a friend of my had an op), vistors for tea (some missionaries), I always love hearing about where peope live, and what is on their heart. Um, er…what else?Look what I found in an op shop on Friday. A whole bag of new Australian wool! 7 Balls, with knitting needles, for $10. I will keep it for Steph for Christmas (does that sound cheap?). At least I know that she would like it.  Steph just loves crochet, she is working on a blanket for Thailand at the moment, she also just finished a little scarf…if only she could choose some clothes that match it.Today we took Lachlan to sport, he threw a shotput three times, and then we drove home…via Knox City. I have discovered that Steph and I should never go to the pokies together. There was a little toy dispenser (you know the ones that you put $2 in, turn the knob, and get a toy?)well, to cut a long story short, we wanted the train to give to someone, but ended up with five carriages, some tracks and a bridge! I spent all my money!! Steph was saying, one more, the next one will be the train. What is wrong with me?? No wonder my husband doesn’t give me a credit card. This mag is the best! I found it in the op shop for $1, I haven’t seen it in any newsagency, but I have seen it on Melissa’s blog, she is the editor.http://www.melissagoodsell.typepad.com/I can’t see where you can subscribe to it though.

Today I had to drop off the VW to get a little service. It was raining, and I had to find my own way home. Last time I walked home, it took me nearly two hours (it is very hilly), today I decided to catch a bus.It was freezing, What’s with the bus stop seats being metal, you may as well be sitting on the fridge! It took us two buses and a train to get home, we should have just walked.

Alycia was my travelling buddy. As we walked up the hill to go home, we passed a cafe, and she said “We have nearly lived here for three years, and we have ever gone into this cafe”, so in we went and bought a hot chocolate each and  some raisin toast $12.50 later (trying to think of this as bonding time rather than a rip off).

While we were in the cafe I overheard a couple speaking, she said “People believe in the government rather than God”. I could leave that alone, I struggled within myself whether to say anything. After a couple of minutes, I turned to her and said “excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear what you said, I just wanted you to know, that I trust in God” We had a little conversation it ended up that they were Christians, and they were doing some kind of study. I should have spoken up to the Indian man who was dressed in bright orange, with a red dot on his forehead instead. Another missed opportunity to share the gospel.

On a different note, here are a couple of other quilts that we have been working on.This is the one I did.Steph did this one, and Alycia sewed the next one up. Now we have two more to do!!My sewing machine, actually needs a service now, it won’t sew properly.

Tonight the girls had a Princess party for Girl’s Brigade. They all looked lovely dressed up.Tonight I am watching The Passion of the Christ. I don’t really like these kind of movies, I would recommend reading the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, if you want a better understanding of why Christ died. Growing up, I knew Christ died for sinners, but it didn’t mean anything to me, after all, People die every day. Innocent people are killed every day, and some might even die for others. So why does Jesus death mean so much? Because there is so much more to it, the fact that he is perfect, without sin, that he knows us, even before we are born, he knows our hearts, He is God. Only he could be the lamb without blemish who could takeaway our sin, and give us his righteousness in it’s place. So much more. Please search the scriptures yourself.The opposite end of the spectrum.

So It’s not so big, but it’s proof that I’ve either been hit, or been to the dentist.Yesterday I took Stephanie to check out the ACEY school. She can do her VCE  over two years by attending once a week, how cool is that. Thankfully she is self motivated, I’m sure that she will do really well. We sat in on a year 11 English class, it was interesting..memories. Stephanie was asked a question, she answered it really well. On Wednesday afternoons she is volunteering at our local library for an hour every week. She was asked by someone if she knew where something was, and she said “No, sorry, I’m just doing community service” What?  Now they are going to think that she is a criminal.Look at this cute book that I bought for Cassandra today.Don’t you think that the pictures are cute?

I went to the dentist yesterday, I knew that I had to have a tooth removed. I was in pain all weekend, but it was just bareable. I got an appointment for 2 in the afternoon. It was my wisdom tooth, 80 mins later my tooth was out, but that was after some brutal pushing and pulling, and the dentist saying half way “Ok, now we are doing surgery”, I prayed all the time, asking God to be with the dentist, and of course with me. When the tooth finally came out, he looked worried. He held up my tooth, and said that he would keep it in a bag, for a while, huh? Then he said to me that he may have cut a nerve, or maybe just bruised it. He repeatedly told me that I may be numb for three days, or if he had snipped it, I could be numb for 3-12 months! I wasn’t angry, I knew it was difficult to get out, he was nervous. I went home (eventually), and was still numb, and I thought, why me? Am I going to dribble for a year? Then I thought “Why not me?” Am I so special that these things shouldn’t happen to me? No. So I hoped that God would sustain me instead. Saying that, as 6.30pm I got my feeling back, I am amazed. I have had two phone calls from my dentist, one at about 6.35pm, and then another in the morning. I guess he is happy now too.

My mum came over today, which was nice, I felt loved. It is always unsettling when you are sick as a mum, because noone looks after you, in fact people are actually happy to have a day off school. Children don’t understand. I remember my mum having operations when I was a teenager, and I don’t think I helped her at all, how selfish was I? I wish I had helped her. 

I now know that one Pandeine Forte is plenty, two makes it a bit scary..

Encouragment, shouldn’t be a rare thing right? Think about it. Even if you think someone doesn’t deserve it, a nice comment (that is truthful), doesn’t cost anything. Remember to have the law of kindness on your lips, it makes the world a lot nicer to live in don’t you think? So thanks mum for visiting me, it was a visit that I needed. Love you.

ok, well not quite, but give us a couple of hats, and we might pass for them. Seriously though, these are my friends Litsa (doing the trendy youth think, making a loveheart sign), and Gail. We had a lovely day of fellowship today at Cranbourne Presbyterian Church. Jared preached, then we went back to Gail’s for lunch, where she prepared a feast fit for a king, yum! Thanks Gail. When the chaps went off for the second service, we spent a bit of time chatting and checking out some web sites, such as this one.http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html

This site is so cool, if you enjoy the American Dolls. We bought Stephanie one of these dolls, Kit, when we came back from a 6 months stay in the US. Alycia got one this year, Josefina. I really enjoyed the books, the DVDs, not so much.

Yesterday we went to a birthday party of  a husband and wife, who both turned 40 this year. We were asked to bring a plate of supper to share, but I wanted to take a little gift too. Considering that they are normally living overseas as missionaries, I made up this.It is suppose to be an Aussie Bouquet. It is made up of Carmello Koalas taped on sticks, crunchies, a bit of Gum tree, and a couple of badges. It’s hard to get a good pic here….

This week we have broken two laminators, thankfully I was able to get my money back for one of them. Jared and I tried to pull one apart to fix it, but it was a waste of time.

The highlight for the week for me has been the fact that I climbed the 1000 steps in the Dandenongs on Wednesday. I said to Steph, that I wouldn’t climb if there was a bus load of students to watch the fat lady climb the steps….but I got there, and the determination clicked in. So up we went. I said to Steph. Alycia and Camden that they could go ahead, and I went up with Cassandra.

I’ll be honest, it was a challange, but everyone else going up (all dressed in the latest gear), looked just as puffed as me, except….for one man who ran up four times in the time that we went up, but he’s a freak right??Do I look hot? The children came back for me….yay! Before we went up, I said that they should look at this like a marriage, when one wants to give up, you don’t go on without your partner, you stay and encourage them to go on with you.

The weird thing was that there wasn’t a tap to refill our water bottles at the top. Going up was easier than going down, but my legs feel ok two days later. We will do this every week…I think 😀I put the border on, I think that it works. We have three more quilt tops to finish by next week.What do you think of this hat? Do you think that the child might get a hang up about having big ears? Can you tell that this pic is Lachlan? This is Jared. You can go to this site, to insert your own photo into many different pics.http://www.faceinhole.com/Here is the badge that I put together ready for Dayspring Day to be held in September, September 29th.

Haha, I’m so funny!! Ok, I might be a little crazy, but not for sewing. This weekend was one of the busiest yet! Friday there was Youth Group for Lachlan, and then I drove to drop Stephanie off for a Girls Brigade camp. Sat. morning was a soccer game in Hawthorn. Then I dropped Lachlan home and picked up Alycia to attend a sewing bee to make quilts for children who live in an orphange in Thailand. Agh! I was sooooooooo out of my depth, they all looked so professional. I had an internal meltdown. Does anyone else have those, you know how it goes (am I the only one without talent, can’t I do basic “women” things??). I found a few little squares, and I thought, well, I can at least arrange these and sew them. Once I arranged them into a little pattern a lady said to me that they were not equal squares!! Me being me, said to myself (as you do), I will sew it anyway. This is it so far.I will be adding a yellow border, and then larger floral squares. I actually like it, although Steph thinks that it is gross. Steph made this one (it still needs a border)and this one, Alycia I sewed together.

the quilt.

If you would like to make a quilt or even a quilt top and pass it onto me, just email me at cassie@hoodfamily.org.au

After the sewing bee, I got home, made tea and then took Camden to a Boys Brigade fun night. Alycia and Lachlan came with me. Boy, it was alot of fun, but super busy. We were all impressed with all the indoor games, including lasers, soccer, mini golf, knock the cans, and comando. So fun, but I do think some of those boys need a good lesson on basic manners, they all seem to rev eachother up too.This was my group of boys, Camden, the boy with the white T-shirt and his hands in his pocket is my son. There were four other groups, we came third.Just before we left for Boys Brigade, Cassandra hit Camden with a bat, nice eh? Three days later, he still has a nice little black eye.On Sunday we went to Church, had a fellowship lunch, picked Steph up, and then the girls made this cushion with Ellie our neighbour. Cute huh?

And now we start again, oh, I nearly forgot, I have something else to show you. We were given a lovely fish tank by one of my parent’s friends. They were so generous. Jared grunted at first, but now he is actually enjoying the fish. (now I know that anyone that knows us is saying “Oh, no, not another pet”, but perhaps this one will survive?