A new experience

So yesterday Sonia and I had the opportunity to attend the marriage of a couple who live in our ward. It was a lovely wedding, in a beautiful part of Brisbane known as the Samford Valley. The location they had chosen for both the wedding and reception was at a function centre set up on a hill with a magnificent view over the valley.

The bride was radiant, the groom was looking fairly calm and relaxed, and they both looked very happy. I have known this couple for about 6 months, and like most of us, they have had their share of challenges. It was wonderful to see them finally make it to the altar (figuratively speaking, as there was no actual altar) and 'tie the knot'.

What made it especially interesting for me was that I had the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony for them. It was a great experience, and I felt honoured to take part in this way. I look forward to seeing them enjoy a long and happy life together.

Feeling the iLove

So this month is bonus month at my work. We have a fairly good annual incentive scheme in place, and I received a nice bonus this year. We bought a new bed a couple of months ago, and also had roof restoration work done on the house. After paying for these things out of my bonus, I had a little left over.

By a very happy coincidence, this month also happens to be the same month Apple released the New iPad. It's a lovely device, with a slightly better processor than it's predecessor the iPad 2. The New iPad also features a new Retina display, having 4 times as many pixels as iPad 2.

So by now it should be fairly obvious where this is going. After spending tons of money last year on new gadgets for most of the children, buying our kitten and all the stuff required for him, as well as most of my bonus this year on important stuff for the house, I finally got to spend a little of my hard earned cash myself. Yes, I bought a New iPad.

Ostensibly it's to help my productivity in my calling, and by all means this is largely what I will use it for. I find I do a lot of reading and study, and using the new online tools the Church has created for leaders. Being able to do this during my commute time to and from work is great, as I don't need to spend so much time doing these things at home, typically after visits or interviews in the evening.

I'm definitely feeling the iLove right now...

Procrastination

So. About time I wrote something again. It's been not quite a year since my last blog post...

We've been in our house now for exactly 1 year. What a year it has been. About six months ago we had a fairly big re-organisation within our stake - practically every ward had a boundary change, and a new ward was created as well. Our bishop was released, as he was moved out of the ward by the boundary change. Bigger change yet - I was called as the new bishop in our ward. What a life changing experience this has been.

So I guess I have had a pretty good excuse for not blogging the last six months, as life has been fairly hectic adjusting to life as a bishop of a good sized ward. Not really procrastinating at all... We won't talk about the 5 months or so before that.

Now that things are settling into more of a routine again, and I am getting better at delegating more stuff, seems I might have a bit more time to write a note now and then.

Life is still good here in the Sunshine state