Two Yanks In Oz

America is doing it's 2010 census between now and the end of the summer, and our wonderful country hires civilians just like me each year to go door to door and take census inventory- for $16 an hour ( in the county I live in. Some pay up to $18!). So, I applied and went in to take the employment test. The test had 28 questions and consisted of things like, Which set of numbers is not in order from greatest to least? And, If you wanted to get to point B from point C on this map, which way is the most efficient? Needless to say, I aced it, scoring a 27 out of 28 (there was also a lot of multiplying decimals, and no calculators allowed) which means I have a good chance of being called upon by Uncle Sam to count people. Let's all cross our fingers.

My life right now consists of picking up toys and cleaning up baby barf all day because I've been in the preschools a lot lately. But each time I have to change a poopy diaper or pull a child's lego weapon from their hands, I mutter to myself: "I have to get to Sydney. I have to get to Sydney."

I am taking a course at church called Alpha. It tackles the basics of Christianity, like answering: Who was Jesus? How did he die? Is there more to life than this? What is the Holy Spirit? It's a 10 week course with a retreat in the middle, and we go each week to eat together and hear a speaker. Afterwords, we go into different areas of the church with our assigned small groups to talk about what we just heard. It's really good for me to get back to basics. I think people assume that because of the way I grew up and the family I grew up in, I always had a relationship with Jesus. That's not true at all! In fact, I consider myself a new Christian still. In preparing for this amazing journey He is taking me on, I want to restart and learn who He is. I think sometimes people become Christians and get lost in the beautiful emotion of it, while never really sitting down and learning the facts. Especially people like me, who grew up in the church and heard about Jesus all the day long. It's different to hear the story of Jesus, all broken down into tiny events, as an adult. Much more real, at least for me.

That's all for now! I hope everyone has a happy new year and sticks to those resolutions!