Sarah Had A Little Lamb

A friend mentioned to me a few weeks ago that Buntine seems to be the hottest tourist destination right now. What's the main attraction? Duncan of course ;)

It's lambing season up there at the moment but unfortunately there are always a few casualties - orphaned lambs whose mothers died in labour and ewes who had stillborn lambs. So sad.

These latest photos were taken on the 16th June when Jane and I went to visit Duncan (hi Janey if you're reading this).

A ewe who lost her lambs is now mothering some orphans.

Jane had a little lamb too.

Can I take her home? Please...please?

Our Easter Holiday

I never got around to showing you all the photos I took over the Easter long weekend. As I mentioned in this post, Duncan and I were in Dunsborough, his home town, and I got to meet his folks and a number of his other rellies for the first time. On Good Friday, we went to Busselton Baptist Church and then had lunch with our friends, James and Suzie, who used to go to my church but now live in Busso. Smiths Beach was rather windy and choppy in the afternoon and wasn't so good for swimming which was a bit disappointing. We also caught up with my auntie and uncle who were holidaying in Dunsborough on Saturday and on Easter Sunday went to Duncan's old church where his parents still go, Dunsborough Church of Christ, before heading back to Perth on Sunday arvo. It was a great holiday and just what I needed.
















You can't visit the South West and not visit the Margaret River Chocolate Company - especially the day before Easter (it was packed with people).

About to enter the chocoholics' paradise.

I was in chocolate heaven. And no, they weren't all for me ;)

On our way to Margaret River, we saw a cow lying down in a paddock. Initially it wasn't moving so Duncan thought it was dead but then it moved and we realised it was in labour.

By the time we headed back, it had a calf.

The Joy of Cancelling

As I mentioned in my last Friday Funny post, my stress and tiredness levels were getting pretty high. Then on Friday night, I hit rock bottom.

After arriving home on Friday night utterly exhausted, I collected my mail and was greeted by a letter from the real estate agent I rent my house through. The letter said I had not notified them of my intention to renew my lease and they were threatening to relet my house in 48 hours. That was the last straw - I completely lost it during phone calls to Duncan and my dad (my dad is a real estate agent and he told me that they cannot just kick me out - that's illegal). Thankfully, Aimee and I managed to sort everything out the next day.

After that, I quit! I decided I wasn't going to see anyone or do anything on the weekend. By that stage, I was feeling pretty sick and was struggling to sleep properly. Oh, the joy of quitting! Do you ever get that? You feel like you're never going to make it through all your commitments so you just pull out - and then feel the tremendous relief afterwards. I was madly preparing for my first ever Sunday School lesson but I wasn't feeling well enough so I didn't even go to church. A friend kindly did it for me. I cancelled a Saturday night dinner invitation that I was looking forward to but in the end, I just couldn't face people. My people-pleasing streak seemed to emerge when I said to Duncan, "Do you think people are going to judge me for just throwing it all in and not turning up, for taking a break?"
He replied, "I doubt anyone would think that and if they do - that's between them and God."
He was right of course. I cannot be ruled by other people's opinions (or perceived opinions).

So I veged and slept and watched telly and got an early night's sleep and I slept right through. And now I'm at work, feeling better than I have in a long time. I might just be able to kick my newfound coffee habit.

I'm going to blog more later about burnout and how I'm sick of the way it's so trendy and encouraged in Christian circles.

New Arrival

Congrats to my friends Tammy and Alistair who had their first child on Wednesday night - a girl named Naomi Grace. I know Tam reads this blog although she obviously won't be for a while.

Finally there are girls starting to be born at church after a long run of baby boys.

Isn't she cute!!!

Friday Funny

After a week of little sleep, a bad nightmare on Wednesday night and a gazillion commitments, I am feeling quite stressed and drained and badly in need of a few jokes. So here's a few.
Happy Friday!

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, "dam."

Two peanuts walk into a bar. One was a salted.

A jump-lead walks into a bar. The barman says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says, "Sorry, we don't serve food in here."

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

A man walks into a bar with a slab of tarmac under his arm and says, "A beer please, and one for the road."

Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning."
"I don't believe you," said Dolly.
"It's true, no bull!"

An icecream man was found lying on the floor of his van covered with nuts and hundreds and thousands. Police say he topped himself.

Two fish are in a tank. One says to the other, "I'll man the guns, you drive."

A Year Ago Today

It may not seem like it, but it is. Exactly one year ago today, on the 19th June 2006, a young enthusiastic (and slightly naive) blogger burst onto the blogging scene. This was her debut post.

Woohoo! I'm a blogger!

Stay tuned for more interesting posts ;)

As I celebrate the Sedshed's first birthday today, you be the judge. Has Sed said more interesting things over the past year since that hastily typed post one year ago?

The word 'journey' is bandied about so much today but it really is the best word to describe my past year in the blogosphere. I remember typing that first post and then checking my blog almost every minute, utterly convinced that I would have at least 10 comments in no time from established bloggers eagerly welcoming the new kid.

I had a lot to learn.

After quickly coming to the realisation that it is better to give than to receive, I began to comment on blogs that I had secretly been lurking on for the past few months. Some of those bloggers came to visit the Sedshed, others did not. Gradually the direction I wanted to my blog to take began to form in my mind. While I am largely a 'personal' blogger and a ruminator, I started to develop series such as Sarah's School of Dating, Calling All Theoblogians, Hey! Check Out My Blog, Get On Your Soapbox, the upcoming Sarah's School of Etiquette and I also became a regular partaker in other blogging activities such as Blogthings, Friday Funnies and Photo Friday.

Over the past year, the blogosphere has heard about some of the best moments of my life and some of the worst, my often less than eloquent opinions and the things that make me tick such as Jesus, Duncan, friends, family, pets and of course the mighty mighty West Coast Eagles.

I have encountered some wonderful bloggers and also some complete twats. My life has been so much richer with my own piece of cyberspace and I am grateful for the people who have visited over the past year, those I know in real life and those I have 'met' in the blogosphere. You know who you are.

The potential for blogging is enormous for good or for bad. So many people live online these days. I am hopeful that by visiting the Sedshed, people might not only get to know me but also a bit more about the one who made them, loves them and died for them - Jesus.

So if you visit this blog today sing 'Happy Birthday' and remember 'Sedshed - no-one's better in the blogosphere' (I obviously need a healthy dose of humility ;) ).

Photo Friday - 'Active'

This is my friend Ali having fun on an exercise bike at the South Perth foreshore.

18th March 2006

Quote of the Day

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbour.
– Eric Hoffer

Housemate Prayer Answered!

Regular readers at the Sedshed will know that I've been on the lookout for a new housemate since my old housemate Emma got married a month ago. Now I have one...finally! Thanks to God and The Advocate (a free newspaper put out by the Baptist church).

I got a shock when someone rang me about my ad the same day it appeared in The Advocate. I was bracing myself to wait for months but by the next day I was showing a girl through my house. Then the next day, another girl rang up and she also came through my house last Wednesday.

Both were nice people but I decided on Potential Housemate Number 2 and she was only too happy to accept. She's moving in this weekend!!!

New housemate's name is Aimee and she's a high school teacher who's lived in New Zealand and various African countries so she has a very cool mixed Kiwi/Zimbabwean accent. Since she has a queen size bed, she's going to take the master bedroom (which was formerly the study) so I've been busy shifting my furniture and making Emma's old room into my new study. Yesterday, Emma and Peter came over to move the last of Emma's stuff. It was a bit sad but there's still a few things that she's missed - including a chocolate rabbit from Easter that's still in the fridge (no, I wasn't even THINKING of eating it, I swear).

After Emma got married, I was horribly lonely because it wasn't like she was on holidays. This time she wasn't coming back and I could be living on my own for an unknown period of time. Thank goodness I had Ebony for company but there's only so much you can say to a cat. Now I've adjusted to it being just Ebony and me, it's a bit scary to be letting a stranger move into my house. Kind of exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Please pray it works out okay.

Praise God and thanks to all those who prayed or who helped with advertising. My finances are starting to look a bit dire but I must remember that I'm still richer than the majority of the world.

If you're Christian and looking to share with other Christians, then I recommend advertising in or checking The Advocate. You can advertise for free but ads must be 25 words or less. That way you reach 15,000 Baptists in West Australia. 15,000 Baptists I tell you :)

BOO!

I had a bit of an embarrassing moment at work yesterday....

I was sitting at my desk and staring out the window, resting my eyes from the computer screen (in other words, daydreaming) when a workmate decided it would be very funny to sneak up behind me and lightly brush the top of my ear with her fingertip. After a bit of a delayed reaction, I jumped and let out the loudest, most bloodcurdling scream you ever heard. I'm pretty sure that whole floor of the library heard it!

Within seconds, a whole group of my work colleagues had gathered, thinking the ceiling must have collapsed on my head or something.

I was shaking and embarrassed and the workmate who had touched my ear was embarrassed. She said she felt really bad that she had nearly frightened me to death. I know it was just a harmless joke but I've already been suffering from random bouts of uncontrollable shaking this year so her little trick didn't exactly help with that.

It was pretty funny looking back but I'm never going to hear the end of it from those I work with. They quickly spread the news by email and complained that I had given THEM a fright and that they were suffering from whiplash, heart attacks and headaches. They asked if a supply of earplugs could be ordered for the office and that people should email me before they come and see me so I don't get a shock. I told them loud stomping would be sufficient.

Yes, I scare easily and can jump a mile. If anyone ever mugs me, the whole neighbourhood will no doubt hear me scream. When Emma lived with me, she had these woolly slipper things and when she wore them, she could walk so quietly I couldn't hear her. Then suddenly she'd appear in the doorway and I'd shriek. I told her she'd make a jolly good burglar wearing those things.

Here's some wisdom for today - if you want to sneak up behind me, be prepared for temporary hearing loss.

Photo Friday - 'Purity'

The meaning behind the white wedding dress.

This is my friend, Rhianon, on her wedding day at Kalgoorlie Seventh-Day Adventist Church on the 3rd October 2004. She was the first of my schoolfriends to tie the knot.

Invitation Politics

This is one of those blogposts where I'm going to be asking for advice. So if you have anything to say about this topic please do as I'm really unsure what to do in this situation.

I'm going to start off with a scenario that will be somewhat familiar to most people out there. Imagine you're organising a wedding, engagement party, birthday party or some other kind of gathering. You're all excited and are looking forward to catching up with everyone. Then comes the hard part - you have to work out who is going to be invited to your fabulous event....and who isn't. You want to keep it to a reasonable size and have all of your loved ones there. But when the time of the gathering comes around, you've got a guest list that contains the names of people who in your heart of hearts, you really don't want there. Sound familiar?

I've seen people doing it so many times and I admit that I've done it myself. They know exactly who they want to invite but instead they invite people who they are secretly hoping will decline the invitation. So why invite them in the first place? Here are a number of reasons:

• Pressure from others - "Oh no, you have to invite Sally. Even though she's a pain in the butt and will ruin your special day."
• Guilt - you've invited everyone else and don't want to appear spiteful by not inviting someone.

If you're reading this and have ever come to a social event I've organised and are thinking "I wonder if Sarah actually wanted me there?" - don't worry. Chances are I did - very much. It's usually only a very small minority that I um and ah about.

Why do we do it? Why not bite the bullet and not invite people we don't really want? If they going to ruin the occasion by being difficult or demanding or they've been treating you like crap in the lead up to the event, why risk having a terrible time ourselves for people who don't give a toss about us?

The 'difficult' people who we feel so pressured to invite often fall into one of the following categories:

• Family - they get an invite simply because you share blood but they can cause a LOT of strife. Maybe they complain about the food and venue and try to make it all about them. Or maybe they never bother to see you any other time but expect to get invited simply because they're family.
• Estranged friends - the friend who has been treating you like crap or the absent friend who never puts any effort into the friendship. Then they waltz up and just expect to be automatically invited.
• Partners of friends/family - they get invited simply because they're someone else's partner but otherwise you wouldn't have dreamed of inviting them because they are rude or obnoxious.
• People who are part of the 'clique' you belong to (e.g. at church) so you feel you have to invite them because you've invited nearly everyone else.

There are two types of people I dread inviting to my parties - 'negative toxic people' and 'drama queens'. Negative toxic people are the type of people who turn up to events in the most dreadful mood and generally ruin your fun and the whole atmosphere with their sulky manner and sullen glares. Drama queens show up to events and try to steal the attention away from the host by making it all about THEM. An example would be single people who turn up to weddings and wail so that the attention is on them instead of on the bride and groom. This really makes my blood boil. For heavens sake, I know it's difficult to be single but for ONE DAY you'd think they could concentrate on being happy for someone else for once!

I want to be the courageous one who only invites who I WANT for once. But I know I won't because someone always says "why haven't you invited so and so?" and then I feel bad.

Why am I discussing this? Well, as regular readers of the Sedshed will be aware - my birthday was last week and I want to have a bit of a celebration in late June (I'm a bit busy at the moment).

I want to only have people I love at my party. As you can read in the Changes and Challenges post, it's been a tough year in some ways and I've had to put up with a lot of 'difficult people'. Here's the question I'm posing to you all - should I invite the 'difficult' people to my party? And by 'difficult' I mean people who have hurt me consistently with their words and actions - not just one errant word.

You might think I'm crazy for even considering it especially after what I've said earlier in this post. But I've been reading a lot in the Bible about loving enemies (sadly even Christian enemies) and doing good to those who hurt us. It's so easy to love people who love me - anyone can do that. My reasons for inviting them would be so that by showing undeserved kindness to them, it might lead them to repentance.

Here are the pros and cons for inviting my enemies to my party:

PROS
They might repent and the relationship be restored

CONS
The enemies will wreck my party and I'll have a crap time

I don't particularly WANT my enemies at my party. But I want to do what's right - loving them even though it's hard. I'm not sure inviting them IS the right thing to do so that's why I need your advice. I wouldn't not invite them out of spite but rather to protect myself. The mere presence of some people can make me very stressed and I don't want to feel like that at my birthday party (I'm feeling tense now just thinking about it).

What would you do? Have you been in this situation yourself? Please leave some advice in the comments section - even if you want to be anonymous.

Photo Friday - 'How I See Myself'

A bit of a kid at heart....a bit of a wannabe muso....

"Sing me a song I'm the piano woman..."

(no I'm not drunk!!)

Taken August 2005

Friday Funny

This one got emailed to me a few years ago. If you like Billy Connolly, then you'll find it hilarious (as I did). Even if you don't like him much, it's still pretty funny. I edited out the swearing because a) I don't want swearing on my blog and b) it's funny without swearing.

BILLY CONNOLLY'S 13 THINGS I HATE ABOUT PEOPLE

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time....I know where my watch is pal, where's yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their arse to search the entire room for the TV remote because they refuse to walk to the TV and change the channel manually.

3. When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Too right! What good is a cake if you can't eat it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?

5. When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". No tosser, I paid 10 quid to come to the cinema and stare at the floor.

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?" Didn't really give me a choice there, did you sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it.

8. When people say "life is short". Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that's longer?

9. When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks, "Has the bus come yet?" If the bus came would I be standing here, Knob head?

10. People who say things like 'My eyes aren't what they used to be'. So what did they used to be? Ears? Wellington boots?

11. When you're eating something and someone asks "Is that nice?" No, it's really revolting - I always eat stuff I hate.

12. People who announce they are going to the toilet. Thanks, that's an image I really didn't need.

13. McDonalds staff who pretend they don't understand you if you don't insert the 'Mc' before the item you are ordering..... It has to be a McChicken Burger, just a Chicken Burger gets blank looks. Well I'll have a McStraw and jam it in your McEyes you McTosser.