Over the last 18mths, I’ve had lots of changes and drama’s with my blog site but it looks like I’ve finally got it sorted with a little help from a good friend. I’m hoping to get this site up-to-date with the latest info about what we as a family have been up to.

There’s been a great deal going on in our family and I’ll do my best to keep this site current.

Pop back from time to time to see what we’ve been doing and don’t forget to contact us and say hi.

Till next time we chat – stay safe – Shalom!

Mandy

An April 08 Worby update!!! Quite a lot has happened since I last updated our family site…Christmas was excellent and we had a great time with Mum over our holiday break.Michael is still pursuing his fitness training course, he has sat exams for several modules and had good passes.Steve is still pursuing his video editing and has had a few good jobs and still has some good opportunities lined up as well. Luke, Debbie, Jesse & Sarah are all well. Jesse is gorgeous and growing up to be a beautiful young man. He’s stolen our hearts in a big way, and Sarah is continuing to grow into a real beauty. She is 7 months old, a very happy and placid baby girl…and is just getting ready to start sprouting teeth and she’s now crawling…so keeping her mum on the hop. Luke has given painting the flick for the indefinite future and is now fencing for a living instead. He’s enjoying the work and learning lots of new skills and the hours are also better as well. Debbie is going to continue staying at home to look after the kids but will take photography work that fits in with being a mum and we’re so very proud of her.Ian and I are both well, we’ve had a very busy year so far and it doesn’t look like that will change, in fact the entire year is very heavily booked so we don’t see and R&R in the immediate future…but you never know! We live in hope!  Our dogs are as gorgeous as ever but our beautiful big boy Murphy has had 2 malignant cancers removed and we’re bracing ourselves for the innevitable. Not sure when we’ll have to say goodbye to are lovely old mate but we don’t think it will be far away. He’s happy and not showing any discomfort at the moment and he’s got to have a full scan to see just how far advanced the cancer is, so we’ll do what’s right for him when the time comes, we’re just hoping it will be later rather than sooner. Our little cockatiel (Mojo – combination of Joseph and Moses) was lost but now is found albeit with one less wing! He’s made a remarkable recovery and has gained weight and all his feathers have grown back…while he’s still a little skittish about hands, he’s as affectionate as ever he was.We also have 2 new birds, another cockatiel named Toblerone (Toby for short) and a Princess Parrot named Cheeky and he really really is. He’s obsessed with getting his head into my coffee cup and will not be swayed from getting my fruit and yoghurt at brekky time!All in all, we have a menagerie but we certainly have a happy and peaceful and loving home and we know how very blessed we are.Shalom Rav Mandy  

Well I haven’t added anything in the last few weeks so thought I’d better bring you up to speed on the Worby happenings.

At the moment, Ian is in Western Australia…Margaret River actually, which is situation on the south western edge of the country…they’re installing a brand new service for the Vision Radio Network in that area, something they’ve been wanting to do for years. They’ve been restricted due to an embargo on that area for all FM frequencies because of the local TV stations there, but we’ve been able to secure an AM license and so that’s what they’re setting up and switching on. The locals are all very excited because they’ve been wanting Vision for a long time.

Ian’s over there with the I.T. guy from work…Danny…setting the site up and they’re also visiting a lot of other sites and making some adjustments and getting things working even better so the station should be sounding great in our various communities by the time they’re both ready to come home next week.

I took a trip up to the Sunshine Coast with a friend of mine to go to the Eumundi Markets to search for a few Christmas presents. I managed to find a few treasures but not what I was specifically looking for. So while I had a good day out and a great time with my girlfriend, I was a bit disappointed at not bringing home a special present for a family member. That’s ok though, I’ll keep looking and hopefully I’ll find it a little closer to home.

I called in to Luke & Debbie’s place on the way home and got to have a lovely cuddle with our precious little Sarah Anne. My goodness she’s growing fast now and giving us wonderful smiles and giggles. I managed to get some very cute photos of her on my phone, she’s just the most precious little thing, and quite the little chubba. She’s a very healthy wee treasure. Jesse wasn’t there which was a shame but he’s turning 8 on Tuesday and we’re all going to a park after school and work for a BBQ so all the family and some of his friends can be there. I’m looking forward to helping him celebrate his birthday.

Steve is very busy at the moment, finishing a major video project and is also busy with various activities with his church. They’re annual Carols by Candlelight is on next Saturday and Steve is going to sing 2 solos, so I’m looking forward to hearing that. I’ll have the camera out getting lots of pics for sure.

Michael is also very well, he’s had plenty of work lately and has passed the first part of his course in becoming a personal trainer. The first module is on nutrition and he has an exam coming up this week. He’s enjoying the course very much.

My mum is coming up for Christmas this year which will be really nice. She’s going to stay 3 weeks with us and we’ll probably take a few day trips around the place. Ian and I are on holidays as of 5:30pm next Friday for four weeks and we’re sooooo looking forward to the break. We’re feeling quite weary at the moment so the break will be absolutely fabulous.

Well, that’s about it for the Worby’s for the moment….until next time.

Shalom Rav (Abundant Peace)

Mandy

Wow, I’ve just read an article about a Filipino Christian lady named Grace Galindez-Gupana who decided two years ago to make a giant Israeli flag to be a testimony of her love for Israel and the Jewish people. The flag is 2,165 feet long and 330 feet wide and weighs a whopping 5.7 tons! It was unfurled along the desert floor below the ancient fortress of Masada. I guess it had to be laid along the ground because it would have been nigh on impossible to build a flag pole tall enough to accommodate it

Anyway, what a marvelous show of solidarity and love toward the Jewish people and the land they belong to, especially in light of the fact that the majority of the world opposes them at every turn….and very soon the entire world will turn their back on them.

It’s fascinating to watch the unfolding of history as it’s been predicted to happen, all of which is documented in the Bible. Fascinating indeed.

For the full story go to the www.haaretz.com

Shalom Rav (Abundant Peace)

Mandy

Last weekend at work we held our bi-annual on-air appeal. It’s a radio-thon that we call ‘Visionathon’ because the name of our station is ‘The Vision Radio Network’. We’re a listener supported station that operates on L-pon licenses (Low Powered Open Narrowcast) and we currently have 310 relay station licenses around the country. The network continues to grow at a very fast rate. The demand for Christian radio around the nation is staggering.

Anyway, because we’re a listener supported station with a really tiny amount of our income coming from advertising, we rely heavily on the donations of our listeners and supporters, and we hold 2 major on-air appeals each year to help with network expansion as well as balancing our budget. Every one of these events is very exciting but very tiring.

The appeal this time ran for 4 days, starting at 6am each morning and finishing at 10pm on the Thursday and Friday night, and midnight on the Saturday and Sunday nights. When the weekend was over we were all so excited at the outcome and overwhelmed once again by the incredible generosity of our listeners and supporters, but more than that, we were all blown away by the staggering feedback we received from them as well. It’s been a real eye opener to discover the extent the station has impacted and touched their lives.

Our goal is to help our family (our Christian family around the county) connect their faith to their everyday life and judging by the feedback we received, the station is doing just that. That’s not to say we can’t always be improving, because we can, but for the most part our listeners are being really encouraged and strengthened in their relationship with God. The photo to the right is of my slippered feet…(tee hee hee) we spend so much time on our feet that I made sure my feet were looked after…unbeknownst to me, they became the focus of the roaming camera man while I was on-air!

So, we enjoyed a quiet weekend this week because we were still so tired after such a big weekend last week.

Tomorrow I will be traveling up to the Sunshine Coast to spend the day with Rhema FM, the Christian community station their to lend a hand to their team. The photo to the left is of Michael, Steve & me overlooking the beautiful Glasshouse Mountains on the Sunshine Coast taken almost a year ago. They’re incredible to look at, almost a little bit ‘Jurassic Park-ish’, they’re dead volcano’s, great mountainous rocks that look as though they’ve just pushed up through the earth and dot the landscape, they’re awesome.

We have some international guests arriving on Wednesday for work related meetings and on Friday night, we will be attending our work Christmas party, which will be a dinner cruise up the beautiful Brisbane river at night. I’m sure we’ll all have a great time. (It’ll be a little bit of a flash-back for Ian & I to our Hastings River Cruise days….Ian will really get a kick out of it….it’ll probably be like going to work again….but I’m not heading down to the galley!!!)

Steve and Michael are both well and keeping themselves busy, Luke, Debbie, Jesse & Sarah are also doing well.

Yesterday, Australia had a change of government, I tend to think it was a big mistake…but time will tell. It’s hard to understand why the people of this incredibly wealthy and blessed nation would remove the government that delivered the prosperity they’re now blessed with. I guess it goes to show that the more material wealth people have the more they want. I think they’re in for a rude awakening…we’ll see.

It’s almost December and I’ll be looking to set up my Christmas tree very soon. We’ve been so busy of late that I was almost not going to bother but then I thought of Jesse and Sarah and that made me decide to put it up and make it beautiful….Children love Christmas trees and twinkling lights….so I’ll make it beautiful for them. When it’s done I’ll post a picture of it for you to see.

Until next time….

Shalom Rav (Abundant Peace)

Mandy

It’s been busy here in the Worby family of late….Steve has just returned from a week’s break on the Sunshine Coast with his former youth Pastor and his wife. Steve has been working very hard over the last 6 – 8 months and really just needed a rest. He’s in the middle of editing a new video DVD project which he was going to work quite a bit while on the coast but when it all boiled down to it, he only did a little, he just needed to rest. He had a great time with his hosts and talked plenty about the things of God, which is very dear to Steve’s heart. We missed him while he was away and it was really nice when he got back home on Saturday night.

Michael had an exciting week, while working on a job site and demolishing a balcony railing, he lost his balance and went head first over the edge and landed almost face first onto the ground below. He wound up with a good graze on his forehead, a bloodied and bruised nose, and 3 stitches in his shin & a tetanus shot for his efforts.

He’s healing up well and back to work today and it won’t be long before the stitches are removed. It’s just as well he has a mother who prays for him everyday!

Ian had to fly to Sydney over the weekend to attend a combined churches event as they’ve been wonderful supporters of the UCB ministry. He flew down on Saturday morning and flew back into Brisbane on Sunday midday. It’s always a bit lonely when he travels away from home, especially if it’s overnight, but at least this time it was only one night. Still, I had my dogs with me and my bird is such a ’smoochy’ little thing that I was kept good company with my menagerie.

I myself have been battling a head cold over the weekend and a bout of conjunctivitis as well. What a horrible thing that is! So, I woke up this morning feeling like an absolute wreck and felt it a better option to stay at home rather than spread my germs around at work. We have a really big on-air appeal coming up this weekend, which will last for 4 days and nights consecutively. I need to be well so I can play my part.

Well that’s it for the moment. Luke, Debbie, Jesse & Sarah are all well. Luke has been enjoying his camp oven which he’s been cooking in quite often over a fire in the back yard, they’re enjoying their home very much and I’m proud of how well they’re doing.

That’s it for this latest Worby Chronicle. Take care.

Shalom Rav

Mandy

Yes, I know, this site is full of birthdays!!! We have so many of them around the end of the year…and it’s not over yet…Jesse will be 8 in December.

But this time, we had a lovely night out celebrating Debbie’s birthday. Very near where we live, the local shopping centre has a family friendly piazza with a lot of restaurants that have indoor and alfresco dining. We went to a place called Toscani’s and had great food.

It was so nice to see Jesse, he got a little bored after a while and played a computer racing game on Ian’s phone. I got a cuddle with Sarah who promptly fell asleep and slept the evening away.

The only thing missing was the birthday cake so I don’t have any video of the candles being blown out.

Debbie’s mum and dad were there (Malcolm & Sharon) as well as one of her sisters, Krystal. Her other sister and her brother were unable to make it. So we had a lovely birthday and it was really nice to catch up with Malcolm & Sharon. Poor Krystal had had no sleep the night before and was very tired but she looked great regardless.

Next birthday will be Jesse’s in December….and then Christmas!

Mandy

We had a quick get-together over at Luke & Debbie’s place so Luke to use his camp oven that Debbie bought for him for his birthday. He ducked down to the local fish-o (seller of fish and seafood) and got some sand crabs and some green prawns to cook.

Tee hee hee, a sight met me when I turned up at their place…Luke looked so funny, he takes great pride and looking like a complete dag, but he’s so gorgeous! There he was in his bordies (board shorts) singlet and thongs (jandles, flip-flops….in Australia we call them thongs…and it’s not rude ) and his big wide brimmed straw hat to keep the sun off…he’s so gorgeous.

I had some lovely cuddles with Sarah and though I wasn’t able to stay long because I had some guests coming over that night, I did get to see Jesse which was lovely as I hadn’t seen him for a number of weeks.

It was a hot day that day, everyone was sticky from the humidity and we were sure there was going to be a thunder storm. Sure enough later that night, the sky rolled over black, the wind picked up, the lightening started and we had a corker of a storm and around Brisbane quite a bit of rain fell. Unfortunately it didn’t fall in the catchment area.

Anyway, it was lovely to spend some time with them, Ian stayed later and came home after the worst of the storm was over.

How precious is time with family.

Mandy

Wow, October is such a month for birthday’s in our family…in everybody’s family so it seems! Not that that is a bad thing…it just makes for a lot of birthday cake…

Well Ian celebrated his birthday as well, 47 years ago on October 18, Ian Forrest Worby entered the world and we were very happy to celebrate this momentous event.

We had family over as well as some friends and we had a great time together, we had a variety of different dishes and a wonderful birthday cake and you can see Ian blowing out the candles below and you can hear how badly we all sing.

If you look closely you see a quick glimpse if me (Mandy) holding Sarah…the wee little cutey-pie.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Anyway, another year has gone by for Ian, who knows what fun, thrills and adventure God has in store for him over the next year.

Mandy

During our holidays we wanted to rip up the carpet and lay timber flooring in our lounge room. I hate carpet, it’s a dirt trap and if it gets marked you’re stuck with it until you replace it.

So we went to Ikea and bought the timber flooring and then ripped the carpet up and got stuck into laying the flooring. It wasn’t hard as much as it was time consuming and the house looked like a bomb had gone off in it because all the lounge room furniture was piled into the family room. We barley had enough room to think in there.

Anyway, I have to say that Ian did a fabulous job and it all came up looking great. It’ll make a huge difference during the heat of summer and in winter we can all make sure we wear our slippers to keep our toes warm.

So, the lounge room is gorgeous…our backs were killing us by the time we finished but it was well worth it. And of course the dogs had to be involved, they snuggled up in the roles of underfelt that we rolled up after removing the carpet…little darlings.

I’d like to eventually get rid of the carpet in all the bedrooms but won’t ask Ian to do them just yet….I’ll let his back get back to normal first.

Mandy