Cas Cup

Back in March our touch team headed to possibly the biggest touch carnival of the year (for the east coast anyway) - Casuarina Cup. Based down at Casuarina beach, it's a perfect combination of touch and hanging out with friends. For many, it's a tournament to drink and just muck around. Our team, on the other hand, took the touch side of it a little more seriously! 

We booked an awesome beach house and our entire team stayed together. Being the organised team we are, we cooked up huge meals and did a big team shop for food, figuring we wouldn't want to cook after a day of touch, nor would we want to eat take out when we had another day of it! Here are a few photos of the place, would definitely go back there again!

Day 1: We set up our little tent, many a picnic blanket, and settled in. The weather was perfect!

When we weren't playing, we occupied ourselves with handstand competitions, strange faces, eating (a lot) and watching plenty of touch!

We ended the day chilling out in our pool (which turned out to be more of a spa size), watching footy and resting up for the next day.

Day 2: 6:30am at the fields! We had a 7:15 game - quite a ridiculous hour if you ask us! Despite the early start we got an amazing sunrise, and played surprisingly well! 

By day 2, most of us had played about 8 games (between mixed, men's and women's) and the injuries were starting to come. We had grazes, bruises, screwed ankles etc. All worth it!

Again we spent the day lounging around. The little chair in the following pic was Jossy's attempt at buying me a chair for he weekend. Although I fitted in it, it didn't get me very far off the ground. I happily lent it to anyone willing to try and fit their bum in it!

And this was our team. I mix of our usual mixed team, Jossy's men's team, and a few friends of friends we'd never met until the weekend. By the end of the tournament though, we felt as though we'd known each other ages - the team really clicked! We ended up quite comfortably winning the div 2 final, after being knocked out of div 1 after playing the team that won the entire comp. 

The atmosphere at Cas Cup can't really be described... By the finals, teams just sit around cheering on whoever is in them. We were lucky enough to have the VERY loud support of a team we're good friends with. Definitely helped us along. The div 1 final had a massive crowd, and the teams really put on a show!

After all the games had ended we headed back to our place to relaxin our 'pool' with a few drinks. A great way to end the weekend before the long drive back home! If you love your touch footy, I would definitely recommend getting to this comp. No other comp will compare to the passion and enthusiasm at this one. 

Playing Catch Ups

It's been a little while since I've had the chance to blog. Strangely enough assessment time at school takes up a lot of my spare time and the spare time I have had has been filled with so many fun outings! So for the next little while I will play catch up on the blog, updating you on the outings with our puppies, trips to Brisbane and a few tourist adventures here in Bundy. I also have another round of incredible sunset pics to come! You will also have to excuse any errors in my writing - holiday brain has well and truly taken over!

Another Brisbane Post

I often find Brisbane weekends very stressful, this past weekend however was different. Usually we have so many things planned and so many people to see that we're leaving one place as we're supposed to be at the next. This weekend I knew I had marking to do, and hadn't been feeling the best so wasn't planning on going down at all. It was a very last minute decision to go, hence we had nothing planned! We played the whole weekend by ear, just did what we felt like doing. The funny thing was, we did more than we usually do, saw more people, and drove all over town! I wasn't stressed at all!

We had such a great weekend catching up with both our families and as many friends as we could. I think we will take the laid back approach more often!

First up, a quick coffee/juice with Tee at a nice cafe - Tognini's. I would highly recommend the food, drinks and service there, however the atmosphere was very ordinary. For a place with such funky drinking glasses (I was particularly please with my 'jar of juice'), the other customers and space provided were very squishy and flat. 

Next we got see this little man who we haven't seen since our wedding - given he only slept at that point, he's grown up so much! Such a smiley kid! Soccer has always been one of the greatest ways to spend the weekend. Sitting in the sun, catching up with friends and learning the game of soccer. Not to mention the cute kids that come along ;)

Sunday morning we had breakfast with more friends at Ramekin's Cafe - definitely the place to go! Food, service and atmosphere were amazing, and they have lactose free milk! The table decorations were very cute and simple.

Next was touch training for Jossy, and marking on my picnic rug for me. It really was a perfect day!

Just to make things even crazier, Jess and I crammed in a quick 20min sushi date at the touch fields! It's very rare that we actually manage to catch up given both of our hectic schedules. So this was a much appreciated catch up.

Just because we're crazy, we then went to yet another touch training session!

Last but not least was back to Jossy's parents quickly. For me, that meant shooting hoops with Lexi, something I have not done in a long time! Such a fantastic afternoon and weekend.

Another teacher blog

I apologise for all the 'life as a teacher' posts that are going to be popping up, but it's all new and to a degree exciting. It's also probably the only thing I really do at the moment too!

We are now in week 2 of the school term, but it feels like week 7 or 8! Assessment is already beginning to creep up on us and planning is never ending! 

I have always had two little teaching philosophies:

1. I will be creative with my teaching

2. I will form good relationships with all my students, even the most difficult ones. 

The last two weeks I have come to a bit of a reality check. Whilst these things are definitely an important part of teaching, sometimes it's just not possible. I have come home nearly every day this week and fallen asleep by 8pm. I know part of this is getting used to full time work, but some days you are just so emotionally and physically drained from dealing with students. I have two classes and teach each of them for science and history. They are VERY different classes. One is incredibly lively, inquisitive and generally quite a fun class. The other are rude, disrespectful and for the most part, have no desire to learn. Both classes on particular occasions have left me sitting at my desk needing to just take a few breaths before I go to the next class. 

This week, working closely with a couple of incredibly supportive people in my staffroom has made me realise I don't (and can't) always have to be that creative and fun teacher that gets on with everyone. There will be days when I clash with even my best students. Some days, my students don't deserve my creativity and need to earn my respect. It has also been pointed out to me that it's my first year of teaching, and if I 'try too hard' to keep this up, I'll burn out! I have learnt more in the past 6 weeks of teaching than I did in 4 years of uni. Nothing can prepare you 100% for teaching except being in a classroom on your own, with expectations that you teach those students!

Whilst I still endeavour to make my classes creative and build solid relationships with students, I don't put myself down when that doesn't quite work out. As once quoted 'If plan A doesn't work out, there's always another 25 letters in the alphabet'! 

My 'Space'

Thanks to our recent move, I now have my own craft room! As much as I love sport, I have a ridiculously creative side. I have spent many a late night scrapbooking or making cards with Mum. Usually we sprawl everything all over the dining room table until Dad has had enough! Oh the luxury of a craft room all to myself though! 

Aside from the space, and the ease of grabbing something from a shelf right next to me, the thing I've loved most about my craft room is decorating it creatively. 

The other perk is the organisation! I feel like it's so much easier to work after organising everything! Now I can just sit down and make a quick card rather than having to set everything up.

So this is my working zone, the space that I feel is my most creative. My favourite decoration is actually my lava lamp, gets the creative juices flowing!

Honeymoon Adventures

Following my recent post on our wedding, comes a post on our honeymoon. Being close to Christmas we didn't want to have to fight busy locations and airports so opted to go for a quiet rainforest cabin in Montville - Tanglewood Gardens. Whilst Montville itself is quite small, it has more than enough cute cafes, restaurants and little stores. 

Our little cabin was the 'honeymoon' cabin, situated under the chapel. All the cabins are extremely private, surrounded by trees and a good distance apart. 

The cabin was perfect for us. The bed was absolutely huge, waking up in the morning we struggled to find each other! The cabin consisted of a little kitchenette, a spa bath/shower, an extra large TV conveniently situated in front of the bed, and a small couch. Probably our favourite part of our little setup was the spa bath. We had happy hour every day in the spa, thoroughly enjoyable! The other great benefit of this cabin was the air con which we left on permanently. It made a spa in the middle of summer a lot more pleasant!

With our happy hour we did crack a very nice, and well aged wine!

There were a few communal tables around the venue but we had our own little one just metres from our door. Whilst it was a lovely view, we spent very little time eating there due to mozzies!

The complex also had a pool. The view may have been nice but the water was freezing so we preferred to stick to our spa! 

We had perfect weather whilst there and some very nice views in the area.

There isn't a great deal to do in Montville (which was kind of the idea for us), but the main street is lined with parks and little shops. 

There was the most amazing games shop! After walking through the shop and reminiscing many enjoyable gaming experiences we decided purchasing some was definitely necessary for our new home! We spent way too much money at this store.

The other cool thing about that shop was all the colours!

After I dragged my husband through a little boutique style store, we came out to find this seat! I'm fairly certain he would've rather sit there whilst I browsed the shop. 

We didn't often cook at our cabin, but found a great cafe with an incredible view. A big perk for me was that they made lactose free coffees! The breakfasts there were also delicious and very reasonably priced.

The weather, despite being hot, was stunning! We made good use of this and headed down to the Sunshine Coast for a bit of a beach afternoon. 

This was one of our views on the way back from the beach - bliss!

I am a firm believer of all things Christmas, and being Christmas time I needed my dose! As such, we went in search of (and to my delight found) some very cute decorations and lights. The main street had some gorgeous stars, and it just so happened there were people singing carols at a church nearby. The full Christmas experience!

Jossy is not much of carols fan, but in my family it's tradition to watch Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve, so we watched the carols from our cozy bed. We had both bought books at one of the little shops in town so Jossy was able to escape the carols to some degree!

Christmas morning we cooked up a massive brekky of bacon, eggs, pancakes and fruit. Of course we had taken our coffee machine so had the whole package! We even celebrated with our stylish bon bon hats!

Other than our little adventures, we spent a lot of time just reading or chatting. It turns out planning a wedding is very busy and tiring, and by the honeymoon you just want to relax and sleep! We did of course time find to take some selfies, and bask in the fact that we were now married.

And I will leave you with that!