I am in my early forties (but I only feel 29!) and my husband and I have been married for fifteen years.  We have a teen-aged son who is 13 years old.  He is our only child (see my Blog entry about having an only child) We live in a lovely, small, rural  town in country New South Wales. 

I am a Christian and our family regularly attend our local Church.  It's a great Church (see me Blog entitled 'Church is NOT Boring-well my Church certainly isn't!). We do all kinds of things in our community, so that people around can see that Christians are down-to-earth, caring and interesting people and that God, too, is worth getting to know.  Recently our Church put on a 'Pamper Day' in our town for the ladies (many are affected by the drought) and 120 turned up!  We even had the ABC radio host as MC!  Last Christmas our Church ('Riverlife') put on a 'Kath and Kim' play (I was Sharon!) to show the need for peace and love between families and friends, especially at Christmas. We've got Mothers Day coming up and there will be all sorts of treats for the ladies there, plus some surprises!  

Sadly, we've also had a miscarriage and a stillborn baby, who we named Katelyn Ruth (see my Blogs about my journeys with grief and loss, but ALSO Hope).  My husband is one of six children, and I am one of three.  I have a twin brother and a younger brother.

I am a primary school teacher, and a I teach part-time.  I work with children who have special learning needs (see my Blogs about my teaching work; and how I believe people can give their kids a great start to their schooling - all before they even start school!). I teach at the small, Lutheran school in our local town. I occasionally teach casually in other local schools, too.

I play the violin and I also teach it, in my home.  I learned violin for many years and I love it.  I taught our own son the violin for four years, and now he has moved onto guitar. 

My husband works full-time at a Cattle Feedlot, in our local town. The cattle are a Japanese-engineered variety of animal, called 'Wague.' This beef is usually offered in top restaurants and the price for a meal is sometimes listed as, 'negotiable'.  The 'wague' beef can easliy cost over $100 per kilogram.    

Our son attends a nearby local high school and is in year eight.  He is doing very well academically and is in all the 'top academic' classes. (see my Blog entitled, 'Top of the Class...and Not Yet at School').  He loves Sports and is currently playing in the 'Under 14's' AFL (Australian Football League) for our local town.  Last Summer he played Cricket in our town's local 'Under 13's' team.  In previous years he had participated in our town's Swimming Club, however this season he decided to pursue Cricket instead.  He loves music and has been learning to play the guitar for three years.  He loves it and now plays in our Church's two youth music bands, 'Sacred Ground' and 'Nexus'. His guitar teacher is a lovely young man, who attends the same Church as we do and so our son regularly sees his teacher sing/play guitar on Sundays during Church services. Jared is also loves going to Church, where he is involved with Youth 'Nexus', Rangers (outdoors oriented program) and he helps out with operating the digital computer screens during Church services.

Our family also loves attending the annual 'Hillsong Church' conferences, held in Sydney each year.  For the last two years I've attended Hillsong Church's Women's Conferences, too; they're called 'Colour Your World'. Occasionally my husband attends mens events, too. 

I've enjoyed writing this and I'll update it from time-to-time.