Meet Elizabeth

May i introduce you to my new niece, Elizabeth Marie Sterling. born on Feb 14th at 31 weeks gestation (3lb 12oz). this is the niece that no one knew about. my brother kept this secret for months. at least he gave her mine and my mom's middle name. However, this has thrown my family into interesting times. my mom just found out yesterday. i found out the day before, my other brothers and sister found out in January and my dad has yet to find out. the reason's for my brother doing this are his own, but all that can be said is that, that ship has sailed and there is nothing that can be done about that now. the child is here.... am i disappointed in him?... yes.... for numerous reasons. 1: is that he now has 2 kids, is 25 and has no money. hasn't finished school and has just made choices that will not make his life any easier. 2: is that he kept this from us for so long. that is just sad. 3: is that she was born premature. i believe that she will pull out of this with flying colours, but the possible problems are extensive. anyways i'm feeling ok about all of it now, not as upset as i was at 2:30 am Sat morning when i found out. i have given it to the lord and i trust him totally that he will work this together for good. i am also certain that he has us all in his hands, so everything will be ok..........

update on Liz: she has Jaundice, so is under the blue lights, she is accepting milk now, so they are hoping that she will start to gain weight, which will be good

V-Day

yesterday was V-Day. yes valentines day..... do i have any thoughts on this? not really. did i feel lonely or overwhelmed by the lovers around me? no..... did i feel some sort of disconnection with what was around me? no..... did i feel anything at all? not really..... i was way too busy to really notice. i knew it was v-day cause of a meeting that i had to attend about the new church building...lol.... in the city i did see people with flowers coming from work and i thought oh how sweet. lol.... i then decided to buy myself roses since i had no one to send them to me. lololol... they also reminded me of when Antoine sent me roses out of the blue. it was a huge surprise and the first time i was sent roses by anyone. it reminded me of happy times. so as u can see my roses were absolutely beautiful and i was thrilled with them. the day came and went and all was well. i do adore my roses though, i love flowers. i don't buy them enough. i'm gonna have to change that.

today i also went to the pond in vic park and saw the eels again. those things are huge. i also realised that they have humongous carp in there as well. its crazy. i tell you every day you learn something new. the above pic is of Bunny, who i'm sure i have mentioned before. he is our pet, really Peta's, but he is like a dog. he rules the backyard. so there he is....

John Butler Trio Weekend

Last weekend i went down to the Hunter Valley with Peta and Amelia for the John Butler trio concert. it was a really good weekend. sadly Peta had a really bad migraine the whole weekend, so she wasn't up for lots of whine tasting. however Amelia and I were up for the challenge. some really great wines, and of course purchases.

the concert was really good. the Waifs were excellent. i hadn't really heard alot of their music before, but i liked what i heard. then Mr. John was just great. he looks like Damian Marley, with his long dreds and facial features, but he is Australian. he doesn't sound Australian when he speaks, though and that threw me off. anyways, good concert. my favorite song was Oceans, which was an instrumental that simply stirred the soul. mmmm, an all round great weekend.

Dinner with Jawad

yesterday i had a brilliant time with my friend Jawad, who has moved up to Newcastle. i haven't seen him in a while and i miss him. Cameron, Elle and Kristi was there as well. we all work in Westmead, but we never really get to see each other as we are all in different departments. it was so good to catch up. as would be expected when interns and friends get together, the main topic of conversation was what has, not only been happening in our lives, but things that have been happening to us at work. so it was all fairly medical. but so good. we went italian, and man they served us so much food it was crazy. neways, i'm beat, but just had to share that bit of news and pics with yall.....