Wrapping up

Well, the days after my party were crazy! I had such a full day on Saturday, that I had only about 10 minutes to open gifts before going on to the next event. As it happens, there were 4 events all on Saturday night. The first event that was happening was that my cousin, Alan, and his wife, Emma, were down from Queensland for the weekend. They had wanted to see everyone while they were down, so Dad organized for the whole family to go out for dinner with them. I made an appearance, but had to dash, seeing them for only about 10 minutes. We all decided that it was about time that Chris and I made it up to Queensland because of how pale my skin was looking.
The next party on the list was Ben's 21st. It was in Frankston, so Chris and I had quite a drive ahead of us. We arrived a little late, but that was ok. We were not too late to wish the birthday boy a happy birthday, and even beat a few of the other guys from uni there.
Ben had organized a mechanical bucking bull for the party, and people were trying to ride it. Scott said that I should have a go, and that he would have a go if I did. I told Tom that if I went, he had to go, and I think Tom had a deal going with Kade... and so the list goes on. Anyway, I was brave and had the first go on the mechanical bull. I was hopeless! I fell off in like 2 seconds! There is a video of it, but I don't know if I am brave enough to post it up on here.
Not wanting to be beaten, I got back on the bull, and was promptly thrown to the ground again. That would not have been so bad, except that Scott was next on the bull. He is a pro, and he stayed on for about 16 seconds!! Almost everyone from PDE had a go on the bull, which was a lot of fun and heaps of laughs. Unfortunately we had to leave the party straight after the speeches, because Chris Lyons had his 21st that night too. Chris Lyons' 21st was also at his house, in Selby! That's a pretty long drive that late at night!
By the time we got to Chris's party, almost all of his guests had left. We got to meet his family, and had some kebabs. It was a nice way to end the busy evening for us, and we got to chat with Chris properly because most of his other guests had left. The fourth event for the evening was supposed to be a church sleepover, but Chris and I decided that we really had to just head home to bed.
Sunday was a busy day too, with work in the morning for me, and then going to play mini-golf with the FTG church youth before heading over to High Street Road Uniting Church for their "Nearly NCYC" event. It was lots of fun, but I am a bit scared about exactly how close NCYC is now. It's only a month away. (Prayers go out to all the organizers, who will be stressed beyond belief at the moment.)
Monday I was supposed to work, however I slept through my alarm (probably because I was insanely tired) The rest of Monday was spent running around getting ready for Jeff's birthday dinner party which was in that evening. I also started to write thank-you notes to people after my 21st.
I baked a chocolate cake for Jeff's birthday and we ate it with ice cream! YUMMY! I had a few dramas with the chocolate cake, because I couldn't find the recipe that Mum usually uses, and Jeff is lactose intolerant so I had to use soy milk in everything. The soy turned out surprisingly well, and I was quite happy with the end result.
John and Jeff provided the main course, and cake made up the dessert. Main course was really yummy too, with lots of veggies (my favorite!) I got Jeff a really cool set of serving plates for his birthday, which I think he liked. John and Jeff chose out a cool lamp / water feature for me, so I just couldn't resist setting it up at their house.
Tuesday I had work in the morning, then came home to have a snooze. I was awoken by a phone call. It was Peter calling from Oates Clean (that's a company I applied for IBL at). He was calling to say that my application had been successful, and that they would love to have me along later this year. I was very excited, and promptly told everyone I spoke to about it. I guess that makes my anticipated graduation date over Christmas 2008.
The rest of the day was basically spent working on more thank you notes, and wrapping up all the stuff from my birthday. In the evening, I went on a night hike with the rovers, which was lots of fun. We made a BBQ dinner at the end of the hike.