It's late, oh-so-late.

When I'm tired.
I drink chai lattes from a packet,
and listen to rap music while I study,
and talk to myself
alot!
I eat a packet of skittles,
until there is a pair of each colour left.
I arrange them in rows, like little soldiers,
and I eat them one by one 'til
there's only one of each colour left!
Then I arrange them in rainbow-betical order
and gobble them up the wrong way 'round.
I write lyrics and quotes in my margins
and often catch myself daydreaming.
And I take slow, careful photographs with the macro setting on high,
because you just never know.

...

Grateful for the beautiful weather today :) the sky was the loveliest hue, and the breeze and the sunshine gave one the feeling of being at the beach, even from the veranda. Grateful for sweet treats to see your brain through the late nights into early mornings!

Study hugs to you, darlings,
Lise xx

Still No Camera

Photos will most likely resume at the end of the exam period :/
[or when things calm down a little, study-wise!]

Grateful for my growing ability to stand up for myself and for not flunking [hopefully!] my chemistry exam.

Also, for those beautiful people who make you smile and laugh after the worst days. StTch-Tch Jazz on a Tuesday night is always a classic ;) I love you lot!

Goodnight, loves. Sleep more than me.
Lise xx

Forgot my camera today. :(

Grateful for the beautiful work of Mrs Jodie Cheesman! Her style just amazes me, I adore all her things!

Grateful for the delightful children at dancing, their facial expressions and 'new and creative' moves!

For reaching some understanding of math and chemistry.

And, for real smiles and laughs :) you can always tell when someone is REALLY laughing, completely genuine, and its a nice, nice moment.

Now, have to go! Its time to CHEM!

Formulae and fun times!
Lise xx

Strike A Pose, Loves.

Grateful for a grand afternoon with the lovely Miss Jodie and her 'urban dance shoot'. My gosh, if only I could steal away her beautiful photographing skills and have them for my own :)

It was really lovely to hang out with the dancing girls outside the studio, still in a dancing context, but a lot of fun was had and jokes made and legwarmers admired :) Just a really nice time.
To check out Jodie's beautiful, beautiful work, have a peek at capturedbyjodie.blogspot.com or look it up on Facebook :)

Study time now, loves. I must depart. Mwa!
Lise xx

Brain Food?

Grateful to have gotten a lot done today.

Got some more hours up for my teaching exams, studied a considerable amount for my school exams [still doing so!]. Now only one module behind on my distance education course :/

Grateful for, pictured, that sugar hit you need sometimes, and an afternoon nap, and chai lattes, even if they are out of a packet.

Grateful for music and keeping calm and having a graphics calculator that functions! [haha. lame]. The place looks like I imagine a uni student's abode might look like - certainly, mine may be similar in a year's time!

Grateful to be going to bed soon, and most surely for those people who remind you of your priorities...dance assignments, for example!

Sleep tight, beautifuls. If you're studying - drink water, don't stress, think hard and let it go. I have that written down, right beside me :)
Love and luck and lollies!
Lise xx

Havin' A Grand Ol' Time

Grateful for fun, and for help with math in biology (Lizzie, you saved my life), and for general mucking about :)

Also for that scrumptious feeling in the pit of your stomach when something is just so. darn. unbearably. beautifully. nostalgic. Watched THE MOST gorgeous video in the world today, on our English teacher's computer with Rere, which she had made. My god, it was just beautiful :) there was also a photo of me in the video which I rather liked - I looked a little like a hippie, we all did; barefoot by the local swimming hole, a whole group of us, at the Folk Festival. Good vibes from that picture :)

Grateful for understanding things when I study, and having people around who are willing to give me a hand when I don't :) you're magical, you guys are.

Lots of love, and a head full of equations
Lise xx

[woa-oh-oh] The Sweetest Thing! :)

Grateful for beautiful handmade gifts :)

A pillow from HollyJorge, and bracelets from Lizzie, and a poem from Rere.
Nawww!

You are all such darlings - you make me feel very loved and it gives me such a warm glow inside that you put time and effort in just for me; it makes it all the more special. Thank you, beautiful ladies, I love you all dearly!

Much love and gorgeousness and giant hugs of appreciation!
Lise xx

Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. Walking up and down the street!

Shoe swap :)

Grateful for coffee, of which I've had a fair bit today, and for silly friends who make the world a better place :)

Grateful for poetry, the beautiful words that move through your soul like water, like music, words that make you feel and want to feel, words that express what can't be said.
Leonard Cohen, oh, I love you.

Grateful to be home and off to bed as soon as possible. It's been a long day :)

Love, peace, giggles and glitter,
Lise xx

Oh.so.tired.

Wish I could be doing this, instead of sitting cramped up at the table, in front of the computer. My, my. I do wish.

Grateful for a hot shower to calm the aching muscles and a cup of tea to see me through my study.

Also, those funny foodstuffs that bring on nostalgia :) and friends who tolerate your moods. They're the true friends :)

And plums, too! Oh, plums! Delicious! :D

Quick tonight. Lots to do.

Lots of speedy love,
Lise xx

Just keep swimmin'

Grateful for final swimming carvnival of my high school life! So...ever! :D
Glad that I went in all the events. True, I may never walk again and I came last in everything [except the relay; second!], but I'm grateful that I had a go, at least :) it was a fun day :)
Glad to hang out with a slightly different crew, to just chill out with friends and, of course to learn everything I shall ever need to know about the differences in music genres, specifically techno, electronic and 'dubstep'. Thanks Steele, for the crash course :) [and there, you're on the blog! ;)]

Grateful for the sunny weather, which stayed until about the relays :) and that our team won for our final year! Yay Barrine! :)

Hope your days were full of fun and sun :)
Lise xx

The Feral Lawrence/Bell Clan. We Crazy! ;)

Grateful for my wacky family :)
They're nuts! But so much fun.
The family celebration for my birthday today, barbeque and afternoon tea. Was grateful for all of them, they crazy! I love them ! <3
Grateful for the laughter and love and general jolliness of the afternoon and evening.
Grateful for a grand mood, which I'm in :)
Grateful for a chat with some friends who I haven't spoken to in yearsss.
Grateful for all of you!
Lise xx

BIRTHDAY! :D

Hip hip hooray! Birth-day! :D
Had a very lovely day indeed.
Opened presents this morning, although of course the main one this year was the amazing trip to see Wicked! Lovely handmade cards from the siblings and such :)
Went and watched Will play his first football game of the season, ate frozen cups and got a bit sunburnt. But, it was fun :) stopped for coffee on the way home [lovely :)] and cruised on home for an afternoon of reading and laying about.
Just a nice, quiet birthday. Family coming over tomorrow night for a barbeque and such, and had some lovely online birthday wishes today :)
Thank you all of you who wished me a happy birthday. My day was a delight, though I still can't quite believe I'm seventeen. Much too old! :)

Sparkles and sunshine and love to youu!
Lise xx

The flower Will picked for me at the Coffee Works. Nawww, what a little gentleman :)    ----->

A whole lotta fun, and an Asian feast :)

Grateful for a niceee night out with some groovy, groovy people :)

Us March birthday-ers and friends went to the local Chinese restaurant, and ate deep fried ice cream and discussed obscure topics and moshed without music in the carpark :)
Group hugs! Radness :)
Passing around the $555 that was to pay for our dinner, just to see how it felt to hold so much money :)
Generally gallavanted about and had a grand time :)
Thanks, you guys! It was an awesome night :)

Asian Love!
Lise xx

Homeworkin', yo.

Grateful for additional sleep today. No school for me!

Also for 'the zone'; that space that you get into where you are entirely focused and concentrated, and hours fly past while you work, and you can resist the call of online social networking :P

Not much done today - I have been in the same spot all day. So, that's all from me tonight :)

Dream sweetly.
Lise xx

Sinus disease. Razor blades in oesophagus. Hurrah.

Grateful for resilience, and the things that bring people together.

Resilience; the power to get through the day. To sit through exponential functions for an hour when you just want to go home and sleep off the flu, surviving school and then five hours teaching without giving up or giving in. Believe me, I was grateful for resilience today.

The things that bring people together. Sometimes so very obscure, yet we are all connected by something :) A favourite book, a movie we loved when we were a kid, that friend we kind of know and only occasionally talk to.

Rere and I are also planning a weekend photography project; tis all very exciting :) was grateful for that :)

Hope you aren't sick, dears. Although from what I hear, 'most everyone's got it.
Love and vitamins!
Lise xx

Connect Four! :D

Grateful for yet another chance to be involved in leadership-ish things :)

Myself, the male school captain Ryan and Sophia, the student association president, went out to a Grade 7 leadership camp and talked about our 'leadership journeys'. I improvised my speech as the whole thing was VERY last minute, but received some nice compliments on my speaking skills, which was very, very lovely :)

After the more formal speaking and all, we went and shared some biscuits and apple and cordial with them and had a chat :) It was great to talk to all these kids, most of them aspiring to be leaders in high school, carrying on from their primary school role, etc. I sat at a table with four students from Atherton Primary, and we chatted about what they wanted to be when they grew up and later played Connect Four. Twas sooo much fun :) I had an architect, a zoo-owner, an aeronautical engineer and an anthropologist sitting with me. Their ambitions were amazing - I didn't even know what an anthropologist was in grade 7! I always thought it was someone who studied arthropods, in my naivety :)

That took until about eleven thirty, then the primary school leaders had to get back to their camp activities. So, we responsible student leaders went to the lake and had milkshakes and chips with the deputy principal and discussed the senior formal, student association, leadership programs for the younger grades, and other such things. Solved the world's problems, you know :)

Well, that was my fairly splendid day. I hope yours was also pretty splendiferous :)
Love to you!
Lise xx

Dancerinas :)

Grateful for the lovely little people that I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays :)

The ones who dance like old men at weddings when we play 'freeze'.


The ones who can bend themselves in half like I used to be able to :)


The ones who look mightily confused but know exactly what's happening.


The ones who tell you they understand, then you find out later they were LYING!

The ones who hug you at the end of class.

The ones who sing along to the music and do their own thing [even though this sometimes makes a teacher want to tear their hair out!]

I love them all, even the crazy little sometimes-troublemakers! Gosh, they do make me smile :) No photos, for obvious reasons.

Lise xx

BrisVegas, dahlings.

Well.
What an AMAZING weekend :) Friday Saturday and Sunday [early] morning in Brisbane with Mum and Grace, a kind of joint birthday present for sister and I :)
I simply cannot describe the awesomeness of this weekend or the warm, bubbly feeling I get thinking about it. So, I shall do as I do; revert to lists and montages :)
*ahem*
grateful for..

Wicked! The stage show. POSITIVELY AMAZING!

Giant wheel!

Arctic corroboree in a gondola [we turned up the 'elevator music' which happened to be of a didgeridoo. And the air conditioning. Greatly scared the operator fellow when he came to open up the door again :)

Amazing conversations over GIANT BOWLS OF CHAI! About everything from abortion and the definition of feminism to the Woodford music festival and university :)

Friendly shop assistants and free postcards :)

Pretty vintage things and buttons and badges.

Wandering about, grooving on the sidewalk to music no one can hear :)

SPRAY CANDY! :D

Catching up with old friends.

Spending time with mother and sister.

Max Brenner's chocolate bar. The most heavenly place on earth, I daresay! See waffles above!

Shopping :) Vegetarian cookbook from the Oxfam shop!

The diverse, amazing people that fill the streets :)

....and a whole lot of other stuff! I am just grateful for the entire weekend and every single second within it. They were all so, so marvellous :)

Kate and Andrew, it was simply grand to see both of you again :) I loved just hanging out with you again, it was great to just talk and wander and catch up. Love you both muchly! :D xx

I hope you are all well, lovelies. Right now, I'm just grateful for the world :)
Lise xx

Tis a small world, after all.

Rere took this photo today, of some friendly little finches near our Biology classroom. I enjoy it :)

Ideas,
are like sparrows,
they dart down the hall,
in the chimmney and 
out of the spout.
Down a wormhole
and back out my mouth.
                   -Fionn Regan, Hey Rabbit.


Prefectly meeting today. It was nice to be with everyone and hear their ideas :) I love the fact that all of us are comfortable to say what we think and in general get along pretty well :)

Grateful for connection :)
There are so many connections in the world. Two nights ago I was admiring some blogs recommended to me by a friend in Brisbane. It belonged to a friend of hers, and as I looked through the people that she follows, I saw a familiar face. Turns out, it was a friend of mine from my childhood in Mount Isa. What're the odds? :)

G.R.A.T.E.F.U.L to be up at 2:30 tomorrow morning to be flying to Brisbane! Mother and sister and I are going to see Wicked the musical. So excited! :D also excited to be [hopefully!] seeing two lovely people who I haven't caught up with in some time :) So, won't be blogging again until Sunday night :) I love you all!

Have a BEAUTIFUL weekend!
Lise xx

Hmmm.

[Nothing depressive intended. I liked the emotion portrayed by this simple picture. Even without text, its meaningful :) courtesy of atinyspidermademesmile10.tumblr.com]

I suppose I was grateful for inner strength today. I once heard a good quote, stating that
'You don't know how strong you are until being strong is the only option you have'.
Inner strength is hard to define I guess.
But I feel I needed it today.
Strength is not crumbling when the person you love more than anything in the world just turns their back on you, when they don't let you explain and they walk away.
It's accepting that people change, and not always for the best.
It's learning to see things from a new perspective, having faith and keeping your chin up because you know that one day, something amazing is going to come your way if you work and fight for it :)
It's trusting the beautiful people around you and loving them for what they are, getting to know them and enjoying their company.
Its just...living.
A bit of a sombre note tonight, it seems. But that's ok :) I'm always grateful, but grateful doesn't necessarily equate to a constant state of cheerfulness :)
Goodnight, darling ones.
Dream sweetly of lovely things.
Lise xx

A WHOLE DAY of immensely beautiful :)

Had the best day on the planet :)
Coffee pepped me up from lazy lethargy this morning, motivated to get stuck into my tertiary distance ed studies first up :)

Grateful that, after five years in high school, I have achieved my goal of gaining a lead role in the school musical! :D [So.Damn.EXCITED.] also for the compliment I received on my singing voice. Made me very warm and fuzzy and such :)

Grateful for funny, quirky people, like the lovelies pictured above :) god, this photo made me happy. Don't they look like they're having fun? Good times in Biology :)

Good god, my biggest grateful for the day is for HONEST PEOPLE. I left my beautiful, precious camera at the football grounds today :O ...but lo and behold, when I returned in a mad panic an hour later, a very lovely man who was standing at the bar drinking beer returned it to me! My god, I was so grateful, I could've hugged him. Though I deemed it inappropriate, so settled for profuse thank-you-ing :) Honesty is a virtue, truly. It was the best news ever when he said he'd picked it up! You just neverknow these days, which is sad. Ah well, grateful for the gorgeous honest people that remain!

I was ALSO grateful for a spontaneous coffee/hot chocolate and chat with our delightful school captain :) she's such a great, positive person. Just chatting to her gives me a great feeling about the world, she has an amazing vibe :)

Today felt good. I don't know why, but it did :) hope you are all feeling just as a.m.a.z.i.n.g as I am :)
Love love LOVE to the world!
Lise xx

The picture doesn't do it justice...

...for I can actually see my face in it! :O
[you can too, if you ask nicely.]
Playing with reactions today in chemistry. This little creation is a mixture of glucose, ammonia and silver nitrate and, as the lab assistants deemed them not worth cleaning, we got souvenirs :P
Grateful for friends, who are willing to chat. Who will listen to us cry and fall with us. These, these are the best types of friends.
I was grateful for people who don't judge others.
People who listen to your stories.
Who are honest and open with you.
I didn't specifically meet or converse with any such people today, but I'm nonetheless grateful that they are out there, waiting to have a chat :)

I see your true colours
Shining through
See your true colours
That's why I love you
So don't be afraid
To let them show
I see your true colours
Beautiful like a rainbow.

Gotta love the music at dancing/teaching. Makes me want to groove like an old man at a wedding. Occasionally I give in to the temptation :)
Sleep tight! Watch for bedbugs!
Lise xx

Another Photo-less Day :(

I do apologise, dears. I simply haven't had the chance.
Today was an assignmenting type of day.
And a day to let go of old emotions.
And a day to swim in the rain, and freeze on the pontoon, and talk awhile.
I was grateful for all these things.
Tomorrow, the school week resumes. Swimming early, teaching late. In the middle, the world continues to turn in all its monotony and we carry on with our lives and our learning.

My ship went down
In a sea of sound
When I woke up alone
I had everything.
A handful of moments 
I wish I could change
And a tongue like a nightmare 
that cut like a blade.

I love music *nods emphatically*
Goodnight, darlings. You're all beautiful and you better know it. Tell the people around you. Shout it to the world. Let them know who you are, what you're about. Be the best you can be, because you don't deserve to be anything less.
Now, go to sleep and have sweet dreams. I love you.
Lise xx

A Day Out.

No photo today. Didn't get the chance :)
Shopppppiiiinnnnnggggggg for dresses with the lovely miss Jenna (and mum and Tanya, of course!), to be maids of honour at the Deb Ball this year :) found some gorgeous shoes, marvellous dresses, and some hair accessories to boot. It was very nice to spend the day with the girls, have lunch, all that jazz :)
I was also grateful for an AMAZING chai after alot of walking and when my belly was grumbling, and for a really lovely chat with an old friend I haven't spoken to in years :)
Just a really deightful day. Looking forward to SBS Short Films, 12:10 tonight, so I am told!
Love to all of you, pretty people. It's Chemistry time, I'm afraid.
Lise xx

Octofest!

Oh, such a very nice day!
I love hearing and listening to the thoughts and ideas of kids, or anyone, who haven't yet fully realised, or don't care, that whatever it is they are saying is not perceived as being 'cool'.
Today was 'Octofest' at school, a day of activities and fun for the grade eights, and we prefects dressed up too and went along to help :)


Our theme for the day was pink and princesses/princes.

We did word-finds, chalk drawings, paper plane making, and an assortment of other fun :)

Our chalk drawing was supposed to reflect our theme. One little chap piped up;
"What about dragons! Princesses need dragons to kidnap them so they can find their handsome prince!"
Such a happy little moment.

It was a nice opportunity to get to know the kids on our buddy form classes a little better, and to see tham [generally] co-operating with each other and all that jazz. Nice, too, that at the end of the day they sang Happy Birthday to one of the prefects. Happy Birthday Jarrah! :)



Overall, it was just a really good day :) Hope all yours were splendid toooo!
Lise xx

PS. To your left is a drawing done by our buddy form class of us prefects. Incidentally my fellow grade-eight-supervisor's name is Jake, not Bob :)

Leafy. ? .

Grateful for a warm bit of sunshine after all this rain, and for understanding chemistry, and for Freddo Frogs and getting to know people I don't usually chat to :)
Generally, today felt goood :)
I realise the photo is a little unrelated, but I liked it :) I got nice spring vibes from it, though of course we've just begun autumn. All of the chilly winter to look forward to yet. Stripy socks and tea and such. Delights!
May you all be full of smiles. You should be. You're all wonderfully rad :)
Lise xx

BedBedBedTime.

Bed.
Grateful for bed, and sleep. I don't have the will or ability to write more.
Goodnight dears.
Lise xx

("> Squawk [tis a bird]

Grateful for rain. And smiles. And friends. And feeling so amazing you think you can fly, if you'd only put your mind to it. Beautiful.

I love Tuesday nights :)

Tahlia: So Miss Maree...do I turn out this underneath foot?
Miss Maree: Does a one-footed duck swim in a circle? 

I believe the answer is YES! :)

Also, for these pretty, pretty dears, having a feast in the rain as I left math tutoring today. They were making quite a racket :)

My day was a nice one. Hope yours was too :)
Lise xx