Birthday Boy & Cakes

Happy 32nd birthday to my amazing, wonderful, handsome, loving husband!!

I love you Dave. xoxo

And in honour of Dave's birthday here are some birthday cakes! He has already had 3 cakes this year (a chocolate mint mudcake, a baked cheesecake and a sponge cake!) so I figured that I don't need to make him another one.

(Dave, feel free to pick one for next year!)

Kit Kat Cake found here

The following cakes are all from Annie's Eats
Tuxedo Cake

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Layer Cake

Tripple Chocolate Mousse Cake

S'mores Cake

Cookies and Cream Cake

This Rainbow Cake is from Love and Olive Oil

Now for some cupcakes!! I don't know anyone who can pass up on these cute, tasty morsels of cake!

The Following are all from My Baking Addiction
Red Velvet Cupcakes

Nutella Cupcakes

And for something a little less chocolaty, Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon-Blueberry Buttercream

Hope that satisfies any sweet tooth's out there. Me, I'm going to jump on the treadmill coz I'm pretty sure I put on 5kg just looking at these pictures!

Happy Birthday again to Dave. I love you with all my heart!

note: i also linked up with Kelly's Korner Show us your life.

USA Travel Update 3

We are now under 5 weeks to departure, and I have no doubt that these last weeks will fly by. I am so excited about all that we will see and do, but since we first purchased our plane tickets I have wanted this trip to be much more than just another holiday.

I want to do more than just see the sights and eat a whole lot of food.

I want to meet people and hear their stories.

I want to marvel at the magnificence of natural wonders and Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and the Smokey Mountains.

I want to make incredible memories with Dave.

I am definitely going to enjoy eating a lot of food (Mexican, New York bagels, ice-cream) and I plan on shopping up a storm since the Aussie dollar is so good.

But I want it to be more.

I want to be changed by the people we meet and the places we see. I want to be drawn closer to God through the experience. I want my marriage to be strengthened by in car sing-alongs, and shared discoveries along the way (and the fact that we will be together for 53 days straight with very little time to ourselves!) I want to deepen our friendships with the Lum's and O'Kelly's.

Admittedly, I am really looking forward to not feeling cold for 7 weeks too. Being able to wear shorts and summer dresses will be bliss!

I have also added another scenic stop to our trip - hopefully we'll be able to fit it in. Antelope Canyon, AZ. The pictured on the web are incredible. Luckily it's not too far from the north rim of the Grand Canyon, so we should be able to see those stunning rock formations in person.

I cannot wait to give my camera a good workout - I'm so glad we purchased a DSLR to take with us. I can't wait to start putting up photo's that I have taken of famous landmarks, the places I have been dreaming of for so long.

We feel so blessed to be able to make this trip!

A Great Many Things

My sister and I watched Little Women about a million times when we were growing up. The version with Susan Sarandon, Claire Danes and Winona Ryder. We watched it so often that we wore out the video.

Yes, the video, back in the day when videos were the height of technology.

So we wore it out. We taped it off the TV once onto a blank video. We wore that one out too.

We eventually bought it on DVD.

None of that is the point of this post!

There is one scene in it, where Jo is told by a man she should have been a lawyer.
She responds with "I should have been a great many things."

Growing up I wanted to be a great many things. I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast, a doctor, an interior decorator. When I got a little older I thought I might like to be a psychologist.

Even now I think about all the things I might like to be; a writer, a photographer, a mother, an advocate for orphans, maybe work for an aid organisation, make a difference in this world.

Sometimes in the thinking about the things I could have been, or all I could be, I miss the great many things I already am.

I'm a wife, a sister, a daughter, a friend. At work I am a counsellor, a teacher, an encourager, a social skills instructor, and an organiser.

There are a great many things any one of us could be and it can be daunting to think about what it is that God wants us to be doing. I know of a number of people who have felt like they couldn't make a career move for fear of it being wrong, fearing that it wasn't God's plan or the thing He was calling them to.

And if I'm honest, I have struggled with knowing what God is calling me to. But I think why I have struggled and perhaps even gotten it wrong is believing that He only calls us to one thing our entire lives. I think He actually calls us to be a great many things.

I have been a Sunday school teacher, a youth leader, a singer on my church's music team. I have helped out with administration and organising events and I have been on prayer teams.

Our lives are a journey, and I don't know that God calls us to do one thing, but to a great many things during our journey here on Earth.



We can do a great many things, and we should do a great many things, and not be afraid of failing or getting it wrong.

At least we can rest easy in the truth that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

All the options of what we could do can be daunting, but each one of us can do a great many things, and be a great many things!
 

 
Have a great weekend!

Randomness

6 Weeks until we leave for the USA!!!! So excited. I have started to put together a list of things to pack, things I need to get before we go, things to be done around the house before we leave. It is getting pretty long!

We celebrated a 4th birthday with a party on Sunday afternoon - our niece Ruby.

She had such a good afternoon!

Dave had to get stitches today after cutting his hand on a light at work. He's now all annoyed because the school is making him fill out all sorts of incidents forms like it was a big accident!!

I have been having trouble sleeping for the last week or so. I keep waking up with all sorts of things going through my mind - our holiday, things to be done, work - it's really exhausting me! I am going to leave a notebook and pen next to my bed tonight so every time my brain goes crazy with thoughts, I'll write them down and hopefully I'll be able to rest.

The leaves have been turning reds and golds over the last few weeks and the mornings are sooo cold! I love the trees when they are in all their colourful glory, but I am so looking forward to the American summer in 6 weeks!

Enjoy the rest of the week!