Happy New Year!!

Today is the last and final day of the year 2005!!

It has been an AMAZINGLY AWESOME year!! So much has happened!!

- 6.5 months in Australia, with 2.5 months in California in the middle.
- New friends (no I'm not going to try naming you all, just in case I miss someone)
- Goals achieved
- graduate from SFYL
- make it home safely from Oz
- climbed to "The Big Cross" 4 times during the North American summer (as opposed to the Australian summer)
- overnight kayaking trip with Bart!!
(those are a few...many, many more)

Everyone have a very Happy New Year!!

I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys 'R' Us Kid!!

Do you ever feel like you might be older than you thought? Or that you are older than you think you should be? Do you ever feel like suddenly things are "different"?

I had a couple of moments like that recently.

Firstly, a number of my friends will finish university this year. They are about the same age as me, and it is weird to think that they will have degrees and will be starting full-blown careers. And now I'm looking at starting to pursue my calling to Officership in the Salvation Army. That means being an ordained member of clergy (a huge privilege, but also a huge responsibility) and entering into the rest of my life (at least until retirement...which is 43 years away...almost twice as long as I've been alive so far). It makes me feel old.

I also received word that one of my friends that I worked at camp with this past summer is now engaged. She's the same age as me and getting married!?!?! Yikes!! Seems so young, and yet somehow it seems old enough...which maybe means older!!

And I also received word that someone I used to be friends with has recently had her first baby.

And now, as I was typing this post I discovered that two more of my friends got engaged last night!! Wow!! Okay, definately feeling old now.

To all my friends that are my age out there: WE CAN'T GROW UP THIS QUICKLY!! SLOW DOWN PEOPLE!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Congratulations Leslie & Quinn and Lindsay & Michael!!

My Time in Australia

Hey everyone!!

I'm home, working and active in my church again!! It's been nearly two weeks since I got back and I've finally got a bunch of pictures from my time away posted. There are lot of pics, so you need to scroll down to the place where Archive links are on the right side of this page and click on November 2005 (NOT November 2004), and then you'll be able to see them all on one page. I've tried to include a variety of pictures and I've made an effort to try to explain the picture in the caption...hopefully I've done an okay job. The pictures start from the start of February and run up to the graduation on November 13. There are also pics from the two and half months I spent in California at the Salvation Army's Camp Gilmore in the Malibu "mountains." Having seen the Rockies I don't really think they are mountains, but geologically they do qualify...but they just look like big hills to me. So yeah, there are about 70 pics. Enjoy.

Take care all!!

My first picture of the Australian coast...taken only hours after arriving in Australia.

Glenn and Alicia looking out over the ocean on the day we arrived in Australia. 

A stingray swimming in the seagrass in Lake Munmorah. 

This is Bartholamew Ian Virtue, his name sounds quite distinguished, does it not? 

Bart at the drums in the classroom. 

Myrtle, Chris and Alicia at the computers in the school library. 

This little plaque was near an intersection not from the school...it makes me think, "What will I be remembered for?" 

Alicia with a guy who works at a Starbucks in Sydney, Australia...apparently she had promised a friend that she'd get her picture taken with an Australian Starbucks guy. 

Cameron and Bart playing on...well, I'm not really sure what it is. 

Bart cutting his birthday cake on his 18th birthday. 

Myrtle and me playing on the swings. 

Judith, Myrtle (the arms sticking out from behind the guy walking by), Anita, and Alicia doing old people excercises. The two guys walking in are Paul and Simeon, the leaders of the Mission Team in the Salvation Army Australia East Territory. They were coming to speak to us about mission. 

Me, Matt and Chris having our picture taken during Lorelle's birthday dinner. 

Myrtle, Heather, Lorelle, Alicia and Anita posing for pictures at Lorelle's birthday dinner. 

Our Speechcraft graduation cake. Speechcraft was our public speaking course. 

The staff and students at our graduation from our public speaking course (Josh was sick that day and isn't in the picture). 

Me standing in front of the Sydney Opera House shortly after sunrise. 

Alicia, Heather, Chris, Anita, Myrtle and Judith at our ANZAC Day picnic. ANZAC stands for the Australia/New Zealand Army Corps. The day is a holiday to remember the invasion by Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War II. 

This is Issabella, Matt and I spent a day with her and her parents in Airlie Beach after attending a youth councils in the northeast part of Australia. 

The SFYL group on the top of Big Nellie, near Hanam Vale. 

Myrtle and me at the "Big Cross" for the first time. I would make the trip 4 times during the summer. Once with Adam and Myrtle, once with the staff group, once with Leslie and one more time with Myrtle. 

Bart, Myrtle and Chris at the "Crags Cross" 

Don (the Camp Director), Adam (Program Director for Camp Wilderness) and Myrtle setting out to clear a new path. 

Some of the 2005 staff from Camp Mt. Crags, Camp Gilmore and Camp Wilderness up by the "Big Cross" in the Malibu Mountains, California. 

One of our favourite activities to do with the younger boy campers was to take them down to the creek for moss fights. Campers vs. Counselors!!