60s slideshow

For posterity's sake (the main gadget slideshow will change over time), here is a slideshow of some pictures I dumped on PICASA for now so you can get a taste of what fun we had at our 60th birthday party. Click to play the slideshow.

Layout changes

I've made some basic layout changes to this blog to incorporate what I think is a better design to the layout and also splash out some slideshow gadget stuff for the combined 60s party Kat and I had. Hopefully Kat won't object to these modifications - please let us know if this site is too slow with the changes!

Brief catch-up (AKA castration times)

Hi everyone (uh, I mean, mom... and that guy who stumbled on this site by accident)

Okay, so I'm back from Mozambique - what an amazing experience!! I thought I'd die, but thankfully I held out until Thursday morning before I started to contract Moz-lung (it's not that well known, but it started to spread like crazy in our team of 34). I've been out of action for about a week - still coughing now even - but life is looking good.

Will catch up on the 24 voice messages I have, and get things in order (and get used to work again, and this awful commercialised capitalist society we live in), and then try to post more information.

In brief:

1. Mozambique was awesome
2. I had a very busy Sunday night at church - counted money (very low turnout on the finances side), prepared burgers (we did a special cheese & pineapple deal this week), served coffee (we did a special hot chocolate and marshmallows deal this week), and gave a testimony in the sermon (I should be in line for a St.'hood ...)
3. Speaking of St.'hood - check out http://brattex.blogspot.com/2009/07/stefan-terblanche_16.html for the antics that a bunch of guys got up to in Mozambique. It was inevitable that we'd talk about sport, and it was inevitable that I'd bring up Stefan Terblanche, and it was madness how everyone got involved in the conversation and we came up with our very own meme! Check it out! (Rumour has it that Stefan himself will view the page soon; in the meanwhile the Sharks players are ragging him about it or something)
4. My little Max puppy (his full name is Texas Maximillion the Third; based on him being Tex, and me being Brat, so it's Brat+Tex, and his nickname is Max, and he's my third dog) is having his balls cut off at the tender age of 9 and a half! I feel so guilty and so awful, but he's had a good innings. I guess now he'll just be using his pillow to sleep on in future :-/

That's my brief update! Kat's been doing okay - been an awesome help having her around to look after me - she came back a day after I did from her stint in the 'Berg for Duncan's birthday (with the family) and she was exhausted! We're looking forward to some fun times ahead though; with me bringing back from Moz what I've learnt, and for us to start taking the next steps in our journeys through life, whatever they are!

Ciao for now!

Eeek a week apart!

Oh dear, so I see neither of us have been particularly informative of late so I'd better feel you in on latest events. So Bryan is off on the Westville Baptist Church Mozambique mission tomorrow morning early early....I'm staying at home after much confusion about whether I should be going or not. I've decided to stay as I don't have leave available and would have to take unpaid leave and there is loads of work to do in my new job. Feeling very sad though that we won't be sharing the experience together especially as it has so many momentus memories for us...first mission we went on we were broken up so you can imagine the torment, second mission we got engaged on the Costa da Sol beach, third mission we were married...the Mozzies must think we are loopy! So seeing as we love sharing experiences that grow and challenge us it's crumby that I'm not going. Anyway enough moping, am hoping that I have made a good decision and if not then I will just have to learn from it...I have already learn that I tend to jump to conclusions and worry about making decisions based on my assumptions so from now on I'm going to work on not jumping so far ahead and trying to wrestle with imagined decisions that may never need to be made...I know this probably doesn't make sense but it is my weakness to jump the gun and I need to learn to investigate all the realistic options first and go step by step.
So anyway, I'm rising early to drop Bryan off for the mission (aarghh serious lack of sleep this week) and am going to be totally lonely for the week but am also looking forward to going to bed early, organising and tidying our home (this is what I keep myself busy with when I'm lonely or bored and have had enough sleep), taking some time out for just me and keeping everyone on mission prayfully in mind.

Have loaded Bryan up with snacks and goodies for the trip seeing as they are really going rural this year and am planning big meal tonight, hopefully we get him all packed and ready so we can enjoy a relaxing evening.

Bryan is also preaching on Sunday morning after a long drive on Sat so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers...am so proud and excited for him!

Got to go do the work...bye peeps!

Withdrawal symptoms

I know a lot of you out there are desperate to know what's going on with the Johnstons, so I'm sorry for not keeping you updated.

A lot of stuff has been happening, and we'll do our best to blog about it at some point - in a nutshell:

1. Kat's 30th birthday happened
2. Kat and my 60th birthday party happened
3. I'm preparing to depart on a week-long mission to Mozambique (tomorrow) - check out my personal blog for more details

Until later, then!!