Out Training at an end

Well it is over. I can not believe that 3 months have gone past so fast. Out training is now over and we are preparing ourselves to go back to the classroom and continue with the academic stuff that we need to complete this year.

For us it does not seem quite real having been on campus the whole time and not having to actually come back from anywhere probably makes it a little bit surreal. Then there is the fact that we have not actually left Kilbirnie for good either. We will be going back every Sunday until the end of the year.

But it has come to an end and in some ways I am looking at getting on with the rest of the stuff that we have to study ..... because it means we are another step closer to the end of our training and closer to finding out what God has in store for us next.

It has been great to see Sue, Simon and the girls and Corryn back from the deep dark South.... Emily certainly is loving having Monique back as her playmate and has spent every minute she can with her. We even tried a 3 year old sleep over at our house on Sunday night.... It lasted until about 8:30 when Monique wanted her Mum. We will try again another time.

We now have the task of completing a 3000 word assignment about the 10 things that we have learned while on outtraining..... Watch this space for a more homourous version of my assignment. Most likely to be entitled "The 10 most useless things I learned on out training" or even "The most frigtening things I learned on out training." I'm not sure yet.

The catwalk beckons

Well Friday night saw me and 5 other people from Kilbirnie Corps (+ one person from the fashion store staff) strutting our stuff on the catwalk at the Ballantynes Fashion Central store in Kilbirnie. This was a fundraiser for the Corps who were able to sell tickets at $10ea to the event and all they had to do was supply the supper and the models for the clothing.

What a hoot.... We had four categories of clothing to show off. There was the denim range, casual wear, day wear (for the working woman) and then after 5.

I am pleased to report that there was only one changing room tantrum that was thrown.... hehehe .... not really somebody managed to knock down a whole lot of coat hangers around the place.

There were 70 people there. The only hitch during the whole thing was that the store staff could not get the sound gear working and so there was no music.... Made me feel just that little bit more self conscious.

I do have to admit that I have always thought of Ballantynes as a shop for the more mature woman but I was surprised that some of the clothes were actually things that I would wear if I only had the money. I have to admit to a little bit of a spend up..... Just the important things mind you..... Seeing as I have lost a significant amount of weight since Christmas, I decided that I could justify quite nicely a certain amount of spending.... Maybe .....

It was definitely something different to be doing on my Out training ( a lot different to sorting second hand clothes at the very least) I really enjoyed myself but I doubt that I will have any talent agents knocking at my door in the near future.......

Finding the sermon in the task

So it goes like this.

2 weeks ago I on the Monday I was desperately trying to get my sermon started for Sunday. I had my topic, I had my scripture and I had a whole day to put it all together..... I spent the whole day typing up stuff and then deleting it because it just didn't sound right or seem to say what I wanted to say.... which by the way was "get off your backside and put your talents (gifts & abilities) to work in the church"... perhaps not the best way to make friends.

I finished the day having spent a good number of hours on my sermon and not having got very far... Now for me this was somewhat of a stressful moment (to say it mildly) .... and I did not sleep very well that night having dreams that I was going to get to Sunday and have nothing to say.

I was somewhat reluctant to go to Kilbirnie the next morning but knew that I had a huge pile of clothing just waiting for me to sort (again) ........ So I went anyway and I spent the morning sorting through the clothing and at one point looked at all that needed doing at the family store and felt quite overwhelmed...... chaching ..... there was the beginning of my sermon and the rest flowed from there.....

So if anybody tells you that one needs to sit at a computer and read heaps of commentaries to write a sermon and that is all it takes ..... They got it wrong.....

Also for those who have been told by a certain tutor that it takes 20 hours to prepare a 20 minute sermon and you wonder where you might find the 20 hours ..... then just remember that the 20 hours can include the thinking that you do when you are doing some other task.... Talk about multi tasking at its best............

Tricky First Year Cadets

Well the first year cadets are well and truely on campus. They have really made their presense known .. On the whole a fantastic and sociable lot. We have enjoyed any number of BBQs together and Perry and I have really appreciated being able to get to know them well.

I can see that the college are going to have their hands full with this lot though.... There are already a number of pranks that are in the pipe line and a few that have already taken place. This year is going to be so much fun.

Just a little taste of the fun. A certain male (single) cadet had a dentist appointment recently and upon return a female cadet asked him how the visit went... With somewhat realistic tears in his eyes he groaned and held his mouth..... The female cadet said "Do you need a hug" the offer was accepted and the hug given. It was only then the dentally impaired cadet came clean and said that the dentist had in fact done no work what so ever..... hehehe..... I think that there will never be the offer of a hug again........

Being Real

I had the opportunity again to learn about being real in all situations on the weekend. It was Emily's birthday party and we had some people, mostly from the college campus and from Kilbirnie Corps....

The father of one child from Educare started asking all sorts of questions about how the military ranks work in the Salvation Army and asking about what happens if you come into the army with lots of qualifications and so on... Do you like get a better rank the more you have to start with and so on.

I told him that we are all equal. His next question was "So why do it?". Now by this stage I had the feeling that he might be taking the mickey out of us but instead of laughing it off I thought, you asked for it buddy and gave it to him....

"We do this because we are called by God to serve him in a full time and the college is the first step to that. We believe in God and trust Him implicitly." There was stunned silence for about a minute and then he said.... "That is that best answer anybody who is a minister or priest has ever given to me.". Thank you God that I didn't go with my first instinct to brush off this question as a wind up and give a half baked answer.

And yes I know this is the answer that we are supposed to give but it does not come easily sometimes and judging by his reaction, it does not come that often from those of us that profess to be followers of the living Christ.......

Shopping for 10 year old

I have officially come to the conclusion that it is time to start taking my 10 almost 11 year old daughter shopping with me when it comes to buying clothes.... Just looking at the size of the item of clothing although it is supposed to have some relation to the age of the child has not relevance what so ever any more and just holding them up and looking at them is not a clear answer to my problem either....

It goes like this.. I recently brought a swimsuit for Christina and it was a size 14.... The only problem with it was that the straps were too long and it is slightly on the baggy side but she is growing so fast and the size 12 was just too little in places it needed to be bigger.... Christina is a very small but quite tall for her age. Then it was time to buy one of these rash tops and boardshorts..... So I got a size 14 in the top because being the tightwad that I am she needed to be able to fit it next year (the swimming season nearly over and all that) and holding the 12 up it looked way too small for her... it was perfect fit.

Then looking at the boardshort I decided that a 12 look way big enough for growing room. Got it home to discover that the 12 was like 2 inches too big on both sides of the waist..... In the end I got her a size 8 pair of shorts and these still fall down. This just does not make very much sense to me.

Then she needed pjs and because of the aforementioned mammoth task of getting togs to fit I decided to just go for a size 10 to match her age... Guess what.... way too small.

I have come to the conclusion that it all depends who makes the garments and where we buy it from.... Farmer vs The Warehouse and so on....

Moral of the story .... to save time effort and the embarrassment of having to return endless amounts of clothes.... Christina now comes with me.... I guess this will save the future problem of buying clothes that she simply will not wear because they are just not the thing to be worn... Not that I want to bring on the teenage hassles of clothes shopping just yet.....

Corryn replacement on Campus

Well it has taken a whole year but I have finally managed to lock myself out of my house.....
I think that I must miss Corryn being on campus (subconciously) and the humour that her continual locking herself out causes around the place and have tried to fill that void for all who miss her..... hehehe

Small bit of honesty here I have locked myself out once before but Perry had the other key on him so it was not really locking myself out was it..... Just projecting responsibility for getting back in on somebody else...

By the way Corryn, we still have your spare key and will water your plants for you.....