The Peanut Butter Trials (Part 1)

What to do at 11pm on a Friday night in Taurima Christian Hostel?

Well I had just finished writing my previous blog and putting things back on my desk now that they had dried after the "Wildberry Herbal Tea" incident.

I then decided what to do and realised that I had to take something back to Caleb, one of the guys in the hostel. This wee trip which was destined to take me to Caleb's room, ended up taking me to the dinning room within our hostel. Caleb was in the dinning room eating a late dinner with a couple of other people and talking.

I sat down and talked with Caleb - I was so excited to tell him about my first donation I had received for my head shave. We chatted for a while and then I felt like eating some toast so I went and put some bread in the toaster and while it was cooking (aka dehydrating), I then debated in my mind what to have on my toast.

I took Honey and Peanut Butter out of the fridge, not knowing which I would have (but certainly not both). Somehow as I was debating what to have, we got onto the topic of what foods or spreads would work well with Peanut Butter. After suggesting a few out loud, Caleb suggested that we should one day have a picnic and TRIAL a whole lot of different combinations.

It just so happened that we had a pen (or two) and paper at the time so whilst I was eating my Peanut Butter toast and while Janina was giving us a Nutritional Report of Peanut Butter, we started to write down possible combinations.

So the list began and continued with things as common as Peanut Butter and jam (aka jelly) to things as strange as Peanut Butter and vegemite! Yes, it is indeed a strange hostel we live in. I must say that even Peanut Butter and Mandarin was on the list of possibilities.

While Kath was so overtired that she was continuing to brainstorm ideas and eat her toast, while Deb was attempting to have success with a Sodoku puzzle, Janina and Caleb we in a dream world of their own. They noticed a bottle of milk was left out on the bench so thought of a smoothie type idea.

This resulted in a Peanut Butter, Milk and then also Milo combination which Deb and I both had already "shot-gunned" to not try. Did we have idiot's stamped on our foreheads? NO!!!

Janina quite enjoyed this combination but Caleb on the other hand did not quite enjoy it as much.Lets just say this did not look neither smell the most appetising. The worst part of this combination was when it came time to do the dishes before lock up around midnight! Crunchy Peanut Butter mixed with milk.... YUMMMMMY!

So now we have a list, and are continuing to add to the list, it is also now 12:38am on Saturday 30th July 2010 so I guess I had better go and get some form of sleep.....

......................................TO BE CONTINUED...........................

Watch this space for more blog entries of "The Peanut Butter Trials", coming soon!

HEAD SHAVE IS ON!!!

Last night one of the guys in the hostel who is one of my "Big Brothers" spiritually (even though he is younger than me), last night asked me after we had finished prayer group if I was still okay with shaving my head in order to fundraise for CanTeen in October. The truth was that yes I was kind of okay but I was slightly terrified. I had been telling as many people about it as I could... my theory was that the more people that knew, the less I could back out of it.

He said that he would offer to shave his head as well if that would help and I said that would be fantastic if he could.

This morning was a very productive morning. I decided that I would call my brother and see how he went about raising funds when he shaved his hair the day after my birthday. I also emailed people from CanTeen Waikato to let them know that I wanted to do this, I had been meaning to talk to Ankia (the contact person) for a while but had not got around to it. After talking to Ashley (my brother), I set about to create a fundraising page and then I also decided to make the shaving of my head, FACEBOOK OFFICIAL!!!!

Also, as soon as I made the Head Shave facebook official, I went over to tell our Hostel Chef and

in less than two hours, I had had many comments on facebook and also had at least three other people who said they would shave their heads. So now I guess I had better show them how to set up fundraising pages. :)

At this stage the date is going to be Saturday October 16th but could change depending what is happening in the life of CanTeen Waikato on that particular day.

It has been an incredible day and I just went onto my fundraising page to have a look at something and I have my first $40 already. My target fundraising goal is $1000 so only $960 to go! Anyone else keen to sponsor or get involved somehow, let me know!

Thanks heaps everyone!

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/KathrynStewart/

Wildberry Herbal Tea!

Tonight as I was attempting to do study, I decided to have a cup of Wildberry Tea. This was a nice tasty cup of tea till I left it on a shelf which sits on my desk. At the time, I had a whole heap of papers and uni books on my desk and I accidently knocked something over.....

A few seconds later it was literally Wildberry Tea - EVERYWHERE! Luckily the tea missed my laptop which was also on my desk but it did soak a whole lot of my papers for uni.

Memo to self, do not leave drinks of colour liquid on your desk at the same time as a whole heap of important papers!

The awesome thing about this though was that somehow this Willberry Herbal Tea incident branched out into an incredible conversation with someone I have not talked to in a long time!

She asked me while I was talking to her if my laptop had got

some tea on it or not and my automatic response (without even without about it) was something a

long the lines of "Nope, thanks God!"

From here we just had an amazing conversation about God

and apparently I gave her some things to think about.

Although the herbal tea incident was not great at the time, what came from that incident was just amazing. It was honestly a blessing in disguise!

My 20th (part 2)

My 20th!

Me feeding one of the Alpacas at Paradise Valley in Rotorua. Feeding an Alpaca is seriously one of the strangest feelings ever.

Scary Kathryn!

The most gorgeous Lion Cub ever, yup you guessed it... its CHASE!

OH MY GOSH!!! Its a Waterfall.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

At Paradise Valley with Chase (I think), one of the Lion Cubs who happened to be 7 months old at the time. He was gorgeous :)

Me, smiling on my birthday because I was honestly so happy! Thank you very much to my incredible boyfriend for making my birthday such an amazing day. I love you so much Nathaniel

A week can make a massive difference :)

A week ago I was sitting in the lounge room at the house of one of my "Life Group" leaders hearing about ARISE Conference in Wellington and how close it now was. I had heard about this for the last few months at church and thought "yea, maybe ill go" and then for some reason, I had still not got around to booking my ticket/my spot at conference (even when the tickets were only like $50 - AH-MAZE-ING price by the way).

I made up excuses such as "ohh I have five hours of class that day" or "I don't think I can afford it" and so on and so forth - not really orignal excuses I know but meh *shrugs shoulders*

I decided last Thursday that I did actually want to go to conference and I knew that it was now getting late in the process and there may not be many spaces left on the bus and I also knew that it would be hard to come up with the money. I prayed and said to God, that if he wanted me at conference, then he would make the funds avaible for me to go.

I talked with mum and dad about re-organising a bit of money in my account, also got an unexpected tax refund and then a late birthday present too! Long story short, a week later I now only have to find about $12 for costs for Conference as apose to about $200 which would have included accommodation, travel to and from wellington, a couple of meals as well as the price of the ticket for conference!

What makes this story even better is that I emailed all of my tutors which I would have had class with on the Thursday and Friday of that week to see if it was okay if I miss class - guess what.... I have heard back from four out of five tutors and they have all so far said yes that is totally fine (even though I have five hours of one paper on that Thursday!!!)

Thank you God so much. You are incredible!

A trip to Wellington means that I will also hopefully get to catch up with my nanny families and see my nanny children from last year - I know they will have grown but I would love to see them all again!

Wellington, I have missed you so much and can not wait to come and see you again in a couple of weeks.

Live for the moment!

First thing is first... uni hostel applications for next year open on Sunday and there are a few of us in Taurima that are wanting to flat together next year at Orchard Park (a self catered uni hostel) if we possibly can. The thing is there are five of us and there are only cottages of 4 or 6 that are available. All us girls had a meeting on Monday night to try and figure out what was happening so we would know when we apply what we are actually doing.

Secondly, there is so much in life that we are afraid of because we fear what is to come. The thing is that that I know for my life personally, God is in control and he will remain in control as long as I let him.

One thing that I have learnt in particular this week is that I need to stop worry or even trying to organise what is happening in the future of my life. Life only happens once and I definitely want to get as much out of life as I possibly can. The more time I spend worrying or thinking about the future, the less time I have to make the most of NOW!!!

A wise friend told me earlier in the week a whole lot of stuff that really made me think. The most of it was that I should not be letting my decisions about next year be based upon what might or might not happen in the next few months. When she said this to me, I was kind of taken back and then as I thought more about it, i realised how much my recent decisions seemed to be depending on what may or may not happen in the future. As I look back over the last few months, there is so much that I have missed out on because I have let my "future mind" influence my "present mind."

This week I have been reminded of a quote that I remember seeing on the wall of the office at my intermediate many many years ago.....

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, thats why we call it the present"

Live for today and not for tomorrow - you never know when life may change drastically or even in some cases come to an end so lets make the most of the time and the opportunities that we have! Be spontaneous, do something that freaks you out, take so many photos, laugh even when you are sad, walk on the wild side of life!

LIVE FOR THE MOMENT!