Chaos & Order

He Is Risen!

2009-04-12T13:32:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter! This has been a great weekend. Friday morning was our good friday service where I had the honor of playing guitar and singing for the music part with 2 amazing musicians which went really well, despite me losing my voice a few days prior. There was also a really neat drama that is hard to explain how it was done but lets just say it was really powerful. After church and until yesterday afternoon my in-laws were here helping us with more house stuff. We finally got a new ceiling put up in the bathroom (The old one was really bad, from the lack of care of previous owners) and got a coat of paint in there, along with the most of the hall way done. In just a few weeks we will have been in this house a full year, and I'm pretty pleased with the progress we've made. We have the bedroom and living room done, with new paint, furniture, curtains, decor, etc. We have an entirely new yard complete with grass and dirt in the shape of the garden I will hopefully be putting in this summer. And now we're moving onto fixing up the bathroom, and then onto the kitchen where we've started pulling the wallpaper down. It's coming along but I will be soooo happy when it's all done! Although that might not be till we're ready to move out in a few years :)

Last night I watched most of The Ten Commandments movie (I missed the first 45 min). It was so fun because I have vivid memories of certain scenes from watching when I was a kid, like the Angel of Death part where all the first borns die and the parting of the Red Sea, but other than that I don't think I ever actually watched the whole movie. Then this morning was church, which was amazing. The music was great, with a brass section and dancing from these adorable little ballerinas, and the serman was powerful. I am reminded today of how, even though its horrible to think about what Jesus went through, he did it for me and He defeated death. He is alive today and with us all and I thank Him for that!

Happy Easter my friends, He is risen indeed!

Nostalgia

2009-03-24T23:43:00.014-04:00

Sometimes I get in moods where I want to reminisce. A few days ago with was with my pcitures; i went through pretty much every photo on my computer which included pics from all my outreaches and early ywam days. It all started when my friend Laura and I were having lunch at this cute little Italian place. I'm not sure how we got started on the subject but I was telling a story from my time in Morocco and it got me thinking about how I really tend to compartmentalize my life. I don't know if it's because I've moved so much and usually in blocks of 5 or so years so that it's easy to wrap up all the thoughts and memories about a place and put it on the back burner or what. But it's weird..and maybe like this for everyone I don't know but I just can't help but think about how if you grow up in the same place your whole life it would feel different because even though you probably have different friends as you grow older, you're still in the same place with probably a lot of the same people.

Anyway all that to say, the other day was pictures, tonight it's music. I'm looking through all my old CD's and having a blast putting a bunch of old school stuff on my ipod. And I'm not gonna lie, my Hanson CD is playing in the background and I am THOROUGHLY enjoying it :) And that's the first Hanson CD with mmmbop, not their new stuff. And Yearbook is by far the best song on the album. Anyone else know what song I'm talking about? Come on..admit it...

Here's some old pics I found that I was like...awww

summer tour 05..i totally forgot we went to DC on this trip!

little Sophia whose like... 4 now? 5?

this pic is hilarious because it is the first picture of Craig and I. We took it on the timer of his camera. This was before we were supposed to be dating lol

the triple L's ;)

Our first real recording! We were so excited. Why do I have braids lol

One of the most amazing nights of my life. I can't believe this picture even exists. Maybe it does so God can remind me that miracles still happen.

Picachu and mario! the Porter kids' dream

I love this pic..it was at something in Winkler, a fundraiser I think? Heather asked me to play a few songs and I was so honored :)

2009-03-16T18:11:00.003-04:00

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today. I don't even know what to do with myself. The new season coming up is helping me feel excited about life again. I was just feeling bored...bored with work, bored with school. But new thoughts and ideas are brewing in my head and I'm feeling excited. More on that to come though :)

Lent

2009-02-25T16:09:00.002-05:00

I've decided to participate in Lent this year. I haven't for a few years and felt like I had missed out so this year I'm jumping on board. I wasn't sure what to give up though - lots of things are going around, like giving up something computer/internet related, which in all honesty would make me crazy - facebook is the number one way of keeping in touch with people for me! I didn't want to do something like give up chocolate because in the past when I've done that then as soon as lent's over I go into a diabetic coma from gorging myself on sweets (okay I've never been in a coma but you know what I mean). So this year I'm doing 2 things, the first is giving up eating anything after 8 pm which is partly a health thing but also i find that is the time when I feel the most out of control with eating. The second is that I'm trying to stop swearing. Anyone who doesn't hear me speak every day might be surprised that this is somethign i have to give up, however unfortunately I swear like a sailor now...lol I hear it all day every day at work and it's embedded itself not only into my language but into my thinking. So I am really going to try and cut this out, although just today I've swore out loud 6 times so I'm not doing great. But I imagine it will take time :)

25 Things

2009-02-14T21:40:00.004-05:00

So there's this thing going around facebook..where everyone writes 25 random facts about themselves and then posts it for their friends to see and do the same. I did it and thought I would stick it on my blog partly as a keepsake for myself to look back. So here are my random 25 things. They are very long but I actually put a lot of work and thought into them.

1. I am an eventual-conformist, as opposed to a non-conformist or conformist. I hold out long enough that it’s ‘old news’ for the conformists, and it’s ‘giving in’ to the non-conformists. Hence, why I am doing the 25 things thing now.

2. I love my family and talk to them all regularly. I realized my parents were cool when I was about 19 and my relationship with them has only grown since then. My brother and I talk over the net weekly if not daily, and I think he’s probably one of the coolest people in the world. He’s got mad skillzzz that I’m jealous of :). I am also extremely proud of him.

3. Music is a tremendous part of my life. I always have a song in my head, always always always. I’ve played the piano since I was 10, guitar since I was 16 and have been singing since I was a wee little one. I’ve been able to record a few times, once professionally which I still hold as one of my favorite moments in life.

4. My brother and I made my parents a CD for Christmas, it has 11 songs on and we made the music and did the vocals for all of them. We started it last April and worked on it all year, it was a HUGE project and turned out amazing. I was so used to keeping it a secret from my parents that I haven’t mentioned it to anyone, until now. I can’t believe I haven’t talked about it more! It’s awesome!

5. Music inflicts extremely strong emotion in me. There have been many times where I’ll be walking somewhere listening to my ipod (or before that, my diskman…before that, my walkman) and a song will come on that brings me to tears and I have to just stop and soak it in. It’s not always the words that get me but there are moments musically where it just moves me in a way I can’t even describe. I’ve also spent many nights where I’m trying to fall asleep listening to music but I end up laying there for hours skipping to all my favorite songs. There is nothing like being completely relaxed, in pitch black and having one of these songs playing loudly in my ears. On the hand though, there are parts of songs that come on the radio or at work that I actually hate. Like, when they play I feel angry and almost sick. It’s crazy and Craig makes fun of me about this.

6. I’ve been in 2 car accidents, the first when I was 17 and the second when I was 20. The first one was serious, causing the death of 2 people, the second only a fender bender. However, it was the second that put me in a deep fear of getting behind a wheel again. I didn’t drive for nearly 2 years afterward and though people knew I wasn’t driving, for the most part I kept it a secret of how intensely afraid I was of dying in a car accident. Driving to me now is normal again, but when it’s snowing out I can panic easily.

7. When Craig is not home for dinner, I eat the same thing almost every night. I mix together black beans and corn, along with some taco seasoning and cheese and fry it in a tortilla. I have been doing this for years and I can’t believe I’m admitting that I still do it to all my old roommates that are probably like….you STILL do that????

8. I’ve only ever had 2 boyfriends before I met Craig. One was for a month my sophomore year of high school, and the other was when I was 19-20ish. I knew I wanted to marry Craig the first day we ever hung out. I immediately imagined a life with him and knew I wanted that. We got engaged 9 months after that day, married one year after getting engaged, and have been married now for a little over 2.5 years and I so look forward to the rest of my life with him.

9. I’ve moved around a lot. I was born in Davenport, Iowa, lived there till I was 5. Then I moved to Waunakee, Wisconsin and lived there till I was 11. Half way through 7th grade we moved to Tomahawk, Wisconsin where I lived till I was 17. The summer after graduating high school, my family moved to Granville Ohio and I went to Vancouver, BC, for a 5 month long program. I came back for the summer and lived with them, then moved to Vancouver till I was 24. Now I live in St. Catharines, Ontario, and I’m 25. That’s a lot of places.

10. Because of my moving around a lot, I’ve been able to experience a lot of different places, houses and sub-cultures which is neat. However it has left me with a feeling that I don’t have a home base like others. For the most part, where my parents live is my home base now because they are there. But all the places I went to school are places where I will probably never return to except for a visit here and there, and sometimes I feel jealous of people who were born and lived in the same place their whole life. I have no idea what that would feel like.

11. I made the choice to become a Christian when I was 14 and it has had a lasting effect on me ever since. Though there were obvious rough patches in my teen years and even adulthood, that one decision has always remained strong in my mind and I feel without a doubt that God is real. There is a clear distinction for me between my old way of thinking and feeling, verses after I made that decision, and even though I don’t always “feel” it, I know I am not alone. I am not one for religion and rules, but definitely believe you can have a personal relationship with the Creator.

12. I wish I made friends more easily. I tend to react to first impressions and write off people whom I could probably become really good friends with. But when I become close with someone, it’s for life. I may not see them any more (from moving away) but still refer to them as one of my best friends and think about them regularly. I also need a group of friends around to hang out with, but without that one or two close close friends I feel lost and if we’re in a fight, I am miserable. I remember in high school when I was in a fight with one of my 2 best friends, life was absolute hell.

13. I started a blog in 2005 and posted pretty much weekly until about 6 months ago. The blog is precious to me, it is full of pictures and moments from the past 3 years, and I wish I could keep up with it like I used to. I don’t know why I don’t anymore, I still think of things I want to post but just don’t get around to doing so. It’s www.chaosandorderblog.blog

spot.com if you wanna check it out.

14. I was never a huge gamer, but I always loved Nintendo, since that was what we grew up with. My brother and I even talked recently about how we loved some video games, but weren’t “gamers” because we didn’t play weird things like World of Warcraft. We really said this exact phrase (remember that conversation Jason?). But alas, I spoke too soon. Some friends at work talked me into to trying the demo of WoW and I was hooked instantly. I have been playing for about 3 months now and it is one of my favorite and most relaxing and exciting past times. I have a level 53 character, who is a Priest that can heal others. It’s an extremely social game and is SUCH a blast; I even got my brother into it a bit. He is a Cow that fights with a big ax lol……. All I can say is, don’t knock it till you try it.

15. I love techy gadgets, which I get from my dad. I am always wanting something that will make the technology I have better, faster, or more convenient. I am fairly computer savvy and try to keep up with the newest things out there.

16. My brother already used this one but I want to say it too cause it’s funny. My mom is so hilarious and gets obsessed with tv shows, movies and actors. She’s always had a favorite thing of that year, sometimes they stretch over a period of years or last a short while. The biggest in my memory was Lord of the Rings. She has several life-size cutouts of LOTR characters in the basement, multiple posters, action figures, and many different copies of the books and movies. It was a HUGE thing in our house for many years. Now, it is smallville. My mom loves smallville and everything superman, which is now the icon you see throughout their house. You can always tell what she’s into by the calendar for that year. The past couple have been smallville, before that, harry potter, LOTR and before that, maybe star trek. I can’t remember. I also grew up riding in our family van with the license plate, “WARP 11”.

17. I have inherited my mom’s obsessive personality and pretty much do the exact same thing. Some of my obsessions, dating back to the 8th grade include: Whoopi Goldberg/Sister Act, Bette Midler (and all her movies but mostly Beaches), Mariska Hargitay/Law and Order:SVU, Harry Potter, ER, etc. Mariska has probably been my favorite of them all, I even have an autographed photo of her, that’s addressed to me and I still read fan sites about her. I have also caught a few of them by-proxy from my mom, such as LOTR and even Harry Potter, which I completely lost myself in for a few years and cried when the 7th book ended because I couldn’t imagine my life without new Harry Potter books coming out.

18. I am long winded when I write.

19. I volunteer at a program called Celebrate Recovery at my church every Friday night. It is an addictions recovery program based on the 12 steps of AA, but with the Higher Power being God, and basing the steps on biblical principles. It is really a neat program where lots of people have been able to recover from various things and then go on to help others.

20. Having kids intrigues me but also frightens me. I can’t believe I could be responsible for another human being in such a real way. I look forward to that day, but in a “im glad it’s not yet” kind of way. Sometimes when I hold babies or see cute baby clothes at work, I want one. But that fades quickly.

21. I’ve always been a borderline pyromaniac. Fire and melting intrigues me to no end. If a candle is near, I must play with the wax. If I’m at a campfire, I must be poking it with sticks and catching them on fire. This semi-obsession lead me to make one of the stupidest decisions of my life that my parents still bring up. When I was like 9 or something, we were camping with another family and the kids were sitting around a fire. My parents had bought this brand new big tent thing to go around the picnic tables and keep the food in, which was made out of this netting to keep bugs out. The coolest thing about it though was that when I took my stick that I had started on fire and poked it through its walls, the netting would instantly melt away into these big holes that kept getting bigger and bigger. It looked really neat and I was amazed at the effect the fire had on it. Needless to say my parents did not share my interest in my scientific discovery and I was made to stay back at the campsite while they took all the kids swimming. It was traumatic and I didn’t understand why.

22. I dabble in artistic things without ever really committing to them. For example, photo editing, video editing, photography, scrapbooking, drawing, painting, etc. The only one I ever stuck to and practiced for the sake of improving was music.

23. I want to help people in my career someday, but I don’t know who or how or what. I have changed my mind millions of times so now I sort of just take the attitude that whatever happens, happens.

24. I feel awkward and tired of talking about myself so I am gonna stop at 24. I'm also going to tag as many or as little people as I want to. Take THAT, non-conformists!

In Remembrance

2009-01-26T20:44:00.005-05:00

Today is an anniversary of something I haven't talked about in a long time, but for some reason this year I feel I should. I feel I should remind people about two lives that were taken 8 years ago on this day. These years have passed by so quickly for me, but for the two families that lost their son/brother I am sure that is not the case. I warn you that this is not going to be one of my normal posts, however I feel it is important.

8 years ago today, we were let out of school early because of snow, which was exciting because that meant our church youth group could leave earlier for our trip down to Winterblast. I was one of the drivers in a line of cars all filled with excited youth off to a weekend of fun. It was me, my best friend Sarah in the passenger seat, and 2 really hyper young boys in the back seat. Cody, 14, was one of my bass players on our youth worship team and was hilarious. Andy, 13, I had recently gotten to know from an earlier trip to mexico, he was a really sweet kid. They both had pretty big, incredibly loving and caring families that all went to our church. About 30 min away from our destination, my car slipped on some ice throwing us into oncoming traffic. My car was literally torn in 2, the front half going into the ditch and the back half was thrown about 40 feet away. Cody and Andy were both killed, Sarah and I walked out of it basically unscathed.

I was looking through my old journals just now, trying to find my pictures I have of Cody and Andy. I can't find the photos, they must be in a box somewhere, but I came across a journal entry I wrote on April 16, 2001, less than three months after the accident.

As my mind unwillingly flows in and out of the accident, I feel the car slipping on the ice... I hear myself shouting for everyone to hold on...I see the other car coming. I know something is not right. I close my eyes as I give up control to nature. My ears ring as I hear the crash. The sound stays in my ears to this day. I remember the dusty air bag, I remember the cracked windshield and the wipers still going back and forth. I remember just staying...how long did it take for me to realize that my life and many others would never from that day on be the same? I finally look to the right of me...Sarah...she is breathing...panicking. I unbuckle myself and then get her out of her seat belt that is choking her...and then, we realize.

Scanned from my Journal, written Feb 5th 2001

2009-01-21T22:33:00.008-05:00

Wow a whole month of not posting! And that was over my break even! Crazy... well unfortunately I think blogging just for the sake of blogging is not what what it used to be.

Here's my thoughts on the way communication has gone with my generation:
first it started out as writing letters. I remember as a kid writing and mailing and receiving letters from friends who lived far away. Then when I was about 13 or 14 I got my first email address: ilovejesus4@hotmail.com. Awesome! Bye bye letters, hello email - still writing individually to people though. This one held out for a really long time as the main way of communication, but then the whole blog thing came about where you could update the masses in one post, as opposed to emailing them personal letters or even newsletter updates. The blog way of communicating with friends was fun and lasted about 2 years - and the personal part of it came with commenting on each other's posts. But, again technology advances and now I believe that the main way of communicating with the masses has now dwindled down into our one sentence facebook status. "Jamie: just got back from vacation and had a blast" or "Jamie: is sick of snow" or Jamie: wants to play World of Warcraft instead of doing homework". The first one is not true (wish it was!) but the others are :)

Anyway thats my thoughts on that. All that to say - everyone should have facebook so you can know what I am doing/thinking/feeling and I can know what you are doing/thinking/feeling by our status updates.

So now that that's out of the way, life for me is pretty mundane. I work a lot less now - even though the business of christmas was crazy for me, I was at least working 40 hours then and now this week I only have 20 because the store is dead. The whole mall is dead really. It really stinks! Work is okay, although now that my responsibilty has increased so much it's definitely not quite as fun as it used to be. It's a lot more work now. But it's pretty good. School started this week, I am taking 3 classes: Human Development, Human Services Delivery, and Attachment and Identity. So far all three seem very interesting, I especially am excited about my Attachment class.

And WoW is going great - got to level 44 today! Let me know if you wanna try it out, I'll send you a friend - referral email with a 10 day trial. It's such a blast! Well, I will leave you with a screen cap of me (my character) flying from one city to another. See how fun it looks? :) For all my friends who like Lord of the Rings and things like that, watch the trailer for the game here - it might pique your interest :)

Looks a lot like Christmas!

2008-12-20T14:05:00.004-05:00

I'm DONE with school yayayayay!!!!!!!!!!!! This semester was by far my hardest.... the classes were harder, plus I'm working 40 hours a week now and I really struggled with juggling my time. And the last month was especially difficult because I started playing World of Warcraft and it's SO MUCH FUN! I know, I used to make fun of all the gamer geeks and have never played anything like this before...so I know what you're all thinking. However this game is one of those games where anyone would love it and you don't have to be a gamer geek to play. Let me know if you want to try it out, I have some friend referrals :) watch the trailer here, its awesome.

Anyway, we had a crazy snowstorm yesterday. It's still going today but not as bad. I didnt go in to work though cause our street is pretty much under a foot of snow. These pics are from about 24 hours ago so there's another 6 inches or so now.I'm also happy because I FINALLY got our little Christmas tree up. I was feeling major Christmas guilt waiting so long! But it's up now... no lights outside because of the crazy snow but that's okay, maybe next year. This year we are staying here for Christmas, and going to my in-laws on christmas day in Cambridge. Then we're going to go down to Ohio to be with my family over New Year's. I'm so excited because I have a bunch of days off in the next 2 weeks, church activities will be on hold AND no school! So now I can catch up on all my emails and phone calls and house cleaning and laundry and haning out with people that i've had to put off in the last month.

Well, hope everyone is having a nice Christmas with lots of fun and family time :)

2008-12-07T16:49:00.002-05:00

On Dec 20 I will have most of my life back because the semester will be done. Then on around Dec 29th I will have the rest of life back because Christmas craziness will have slowed down at work.

Maybe then I will blog. Until then, go here. Its funny.

NC Trip

2008-11-23T21:44:00.013-05:00

Sorry I am sucking at blogging. Part of me wonders if that's just the way it's going to be now... a post here and there, as opposed to a pretty regular one that I managed to keep up with for over 3 years. We'll see... I find I'm often thinking about things I want to blog about but just never getting around to it. It's not that I don't have any free time, cause I do have some..just not much. Next week I am scheduled to be at Old Navy for 45 hours over 5 days. That's a lot of hours. I also still have about 3.5 weeks of school left, and it's hard to keep in the school mentality when everyone else is either done or almost done. But come Dec 19th I am a FREE WOMAN for a month and then it starts all over again.

Okay enough of that. Now the fun stuff --- my travels to North Carolina. I kept telling everyone we were going to Virginia but that is because I forgot my Aunt, who lives in VA, decided to have her wedding in NC where my other 2 aunts and grandparents live. So anyway, about 2 weeks ago Craig and I hopped in the car and drove first to Ohio, where we met up with my dad and brother. Then the next day we all drove to North Carolina (about 9 hrs) and went to the rehearsal dinner. It was in a really nice seafood restaurant, very elegant and dark. I really loved it, and it was great seeing my extended family whom we haven't seen since our wedding. Here are some pics from that night.

My family...waiting for food!

The bride and Groom - Linda and George, and my Grandma

My mom making us all laugh.

The next day was my Aunt Linda's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, very traditional. My gandpa was able to make it, which was great. It was a little hard to see him this time, he's much smaller and more frail-looking and I don't think he recognized me. But I'm happy he was able to be there for the ceremony. My mom and my other 2 aunts were the bridesmaids, they all looked beautiful. The wedding colors were like a green and blue plaid, which was so cool. I loved seeing my mom all dressed up!
Aww how pretty

My grandparents

The Kiss!

The Jameson Family

Afterwords we went to the reception at another beautiful location, and had amazing food once again. It was an afternoon meal, the perfect amount of time really because there were no dancing or speeches so nothing dragged on. Craig and I were at a table with my brother and cousins, so it was nice to catch up with them.
Craig and I at our table

This was so neat - instead of throwing rice or bubles, they had us wave this ribbons at them. It was great.
All the cousins on the Jameson side

The Porter Fam together again! WooHoo:)

God's Facebook Wall

2008-11-12T19:58:00.004-05:00

Innapropriate? Yeah probably.
Funny? HECK YES click to read

One of those annoying surveys.

2008-10-24T21:47:00.006-04:00

Do you like being the age you are?
Sometimes. I think I'd rather be 23 though. 25 is so "mid twenties"

If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to change a mistake?
Yikes...that is a really tough question. I'd like to say that I wouldn't change my past because it's made me who I am today, however there is one situation that I would change over the money (Jan 01).

Miss someone?
Yes, I really do miss so many people.

Song playing?
"Life Gets Beautiful" by The Break and Repair Method

What is annoying you right now?
That I have math homework due by midnight tonight and I am probably not going to get it done.

Would you prefer someone who is romantic or spontaneous?
Romantic. I am not that spontaneous myself so I don't really look for it in other people.

Do you like books?
I adore them. Currently reading "I Know This Much is True" By Walley Lamb, as well as "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt, both books I've already read but love so much I'm reading them again.

Do you wear any jewelry?
Wedding rings, and I have 10 earrings in my ears that I never take out.

Do you have any piercings?
Uh yeah...hence the 10 earrings I never take out. Used to have my tongue, libret and belly button pierced as well.

What were you doing at midnight last night?
Reading

What was something that made you laugh today?
My boss telling me he is going to be a Pirate for halloween

Do you sing in the shower?
Definitely

What's your favorite season?
Spring - means winter is over and summer is coming!

What is your natural hair color?
Brown

Are you taller than your mom?
Unfortunately not...

Do you believe that you can change for someone?
Typical internet survey question..... Yes I think you can (gasp). That doesn't mean you have to change who you are, but growth is always good. If you are doing something stupid and being with a person helps you realize that, then you changed for them and for your own good.

What is the last movie that you watched?
"The Witches" tv movie from the book by Roald Dalh. No joke, it was on a few nights ago and I couldn't stop watching..it was a childhood fave of mine.

Where did you last spend the night other than your house?
My parents' place in Ohio when I surprised my mom for her birthday

Have you ever changed clothes in a vehicle?
Yeah, it's awkward.

What is the last non-alcoholic beverage you had?
Water. I love water.

Is there someone you don't ever want to be out of your life besides family?
The Oates

Where was your profile pic taken?
sitting at my computer desk cause I'm lame and take pictures of myself for profile pics.

What was the first thing you thought this morning?
6:30 already? Damn...

How late did you stay up last night?
12:30 am

Have you met anybody new lately?
Yeah we have some new staff at Old Navy. Oh and I met a girl that goes to my church while at Old Navy.

Have you ever not been able to get someone off of your mind?
Yes I have a very obsessive brain.

What were you doing at 7:45 AM this morning?
Driving to work

What is your favorite candy?
Caramel Aero bar and if that's not available, Caramilk (FEED THE BABY) For all you Amerikins out there, these are Canadian candy bars because in all honesty they have better candy here.

What's your favorite number?
87. I always use it when I'm exaggerating something. Like, "you already told me that 87 times". It just comes out, I don't know why. Either that or any number ending in 7, like 487.

Is there something you want to tell someone?
Um...weird question. I should just delete it but for some reason that would make me feel like I'm cheating. Let's see, yes I would like to tell someone something.

Are you usually wide awake in the mornings?
Not at first, after I have had breakfast and coffee I start to get better. And then I actually am more productive than I am in the afternoon.

How old were you when you started swimming on your own?
Pretty young. I don't recall ever not being able to. I took swim lessons very early on.

Are you hanging out with anyone tonight?
Craig is in the other room watching TV. Does that count?

Does it bother you when you text somebody and they take forever to text back?
Yes actually it really does cause I seriously wait there and stare at my phone for like 5 min waiting for them to text back. I usually give up after that.

Are you currently doing laundry?
No I really really should though

Did you ever read any of the Babysitters Club books?
No, I was a sweet valley kids/twins girl.

Do you have a job?
Yes, Old Navy. I love it. (most days)

Does it annoy you when someone says they'll call but never do?
Same reply as the text question. Yes it annoys me.

What's the worst abuse you have done to your phone?
I seriously drop it all the time. Like I don't even know what my problem is.

If you could go to any place right now where would you go?
I could really go for an exotic vacation. We haven't been on a vacation in a long time..anywhere warm, like an island. Or even a cottage, but in the summer.

If you're being extremely quiet, what does that mean?
probably mad. Or trying to figure out the lyrics to one of the songs in my head.

Are you a patient person?
No not really.

Are you a light sleeper or heavy sleeper?
pretty light, but every once in a while I sleep through a storm that everyone else on the planet woke up from.

Is there any emotion you're trying to avoid right now?
Guilt over not working on my math homework.

Does it take a lot to make you cry?
Yes, unless I see one of those stupid hallmark commercials, or the McDonalds one with the blind girl reading the brail menu....I tear up at the TV regularly.

What do you do when you're nervous?
My stomach gets all funny. I make mistakes.

Do you flirt a lot?
No, I've never really been much of a flirt.

How are you currently feeling?
Glad this thing is over, wondering if anyone will get this far! I wouldn't if it was on someone else's blog...haha

peace.

2008-10-18T00:06:00.004-04:00

Okay so lets see.... update update update...

work = good but just wish I was an actual full timer with benefits instead of a part timer working 35 hrs a week
school = not as fun as last year and more work
church = great
politics = loving it and voting this year, sending in my ballot Wednesday
family = visiting in 2 weeks, i am so excited. first time they will get to see our new and improved living arrangements!
health = pretty good, haven't lost the last 20 lbs I've been wanting to shed but haven't gained back all the weight I lost last fall so that's good
friends = best buddy jessi had another baby which is so exciting and I wish i could be there to meet him!
music = playing around with the digital recording world, loving it....i can play every instrument on the face of the planet now with a click of a button
TV = devastated that Pratt and Abby are no longer on ER, excited that Carter is coming back. Happy that Derek and Meredith are finally together and happy, still loving greys even though no one else does anymore! SVU is ROCKING this season, loved Ellen Burstyn as a guest star.

Well I think that about does it, I will try to come up with more clever things to talk about soon when I am not so busy with homework and everything else.

Back to My Roots

2008-09-26T22:30:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you all know Craig did get the job with the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities next summer, so we will move down there in the beginning of May and come back home at the end of July. For those of you who don't know, the quad cities are a group of 4 cities on the border of Illinois and Iowa, that sort of make up one big city. It is the John Deere capitol of the world, where the headquarters are located and where I was born and lived till I was 5. It will be very odd being back there again!

And I just finished crying my eyes out because I finally saw the season premier of ER tonight and..... omg... did anyone watch? It was one of the most gut wrenching moments in my tv life.

Oh and here's a little snippet from my math textbook for you to chew on:

In general, the fundamental principle of counting can be stated this way. If there are a ways of choosing one thing, b ways of choosing a second after the first is chosen..., and z ways of choosing the last item after the earlier choices, then the total number of choice patterns is a x b x c x...x z.

wtf?

I'm sorry I suck

2008-09-22T11:45:00.007-04:00

Well I have been sucking at blogging lately..I don't know why. I think about posting and even take pics of things I want to post but just don't get around to it. Part of it is facebook, because I am on there a lot and can update most people and stay updated that way. But then I remember that not everyone has facebook and I still really enjoy the blogosphere with my friends. So - I am just going to keep plugging along and try to write a little more often.

First I just want to say that Mariska Hargitay looked absolutely STUNNING at the Emmey's last night.... She didn't win but she still looked great and I just had to post. This is her with her hubby, I really really like her hair... I wonder if I have the guts to do a cut like that...? Maybe in a few months....we'll see! I've always loved the longer-in-front kind of haircut... Oh and I think that our new general manager at Old Navy kind of looks like her husband :)

So let's see what else... I've been busy lately. School started 2 weeks ago and lets just say I am not quite into it as much this year now that I have a life! I keep having to remind myself that I have assignments due.... I had one due last night and totally forgot until yesterday! Then I had to go to work and didn't get home till midnight, so the assignment didn't get done (sorry mom). I really should be doing it right now instead of blogging! Work's good - as I mentioned I worked till midnight last night because we had to do a denim inventory which involved counting all the women's, boys and girls jeans in the store. Extremely tedious and un-fun job but sort of fun to be in the store after hours where everyone is in like sweatpants and pj bottoms and flip flops :)

Church is going well also. Last friday night was my first Celebrate Recovery meeting where I was in charge of the music. Did I mention that on my blog? I can't remember..if I didn't, a few weeks ago I was asked to be the worship coordinator for Celebrate Recovery, which is that 12 step program my church runs on friday nights. I'm excited about it, though it's going to take a few weeks to get used to leading by guitar again. I've been practicing at home a lot and trying to get my callouses again, they are slowly coming back.

Well the last thing I want to say is that Craig is in Moline, Illinois right now at a job interview with PGA! It's just a quick thing - he flew down yesterday, has the interview sometime today and then flies home tonight. If he gets this job it would be a student intern position for the John Deere Classic (golf tournament) for next summer. This would mean we would have to move to the Quad Cities for a few months, which would be interesting! They are interviewing a few people for the job so who knows, but I think the fact that they asked him to come down for an interview was promising!

Well I think that about sums up life lately. Hope all is well with my friends and family out there, though St Catharines is really feeling more and more like home every week I still miss you all and know that I'll never have a replacement for the community I've experienced with you guys.

Surprise!

2008-09-13T22:46:00.006-04:00

This weekend I did something I've wanted to do ever since I moved only 6 hours away from my family: surprise my mom for her birthday. So on thursday I packed up the car and headed down to Granville, OH, and was able to complete our plans that Jason, Dad and I have been talking about for months. It worked perfectly - my mom just thought Jason was going to come get her to take her out to dinner, and that dad was going to try and meet them there because he was flying in from Denver that day. So he told them he might be late and would just come when he got in. But secretly dad and I met around 4:30 at a coffee shop and waited for Jason to get mom and head to her favorite mexican restaurant. We got there first and got a booth, with me on the side she wouldn't see until she got to the table. Her reaction was priceless and I was able to catch it all on tape! Enjoy :)

new look

2008-09-02T21:47:00.002-04:00

Today I got a lot of hair cut off...and it feels sooooo much lighter and nicer! I got at least 6 inches off the bottom and about a foot cut off from the top layers in the back! Even the hair stylist was in awe of how much hair we had on the floor afterwards. It was sooo nice to finally get it cut...It's been about 10 months since last time and it was in dire need.

Just a Taste

2008-08-27T13:20:00.010-04:00

Okay I know I have yet to post pictures of what are house looks like, but that's because I was waiting for a few more things to complete the living room, and yesterday we got them! Craig's parents gave us some of their furniture they didn't need any more and I must say it is all soooo gorgeous. A new couch and chair, as well as a kitchen table. I love them all so much. We still have to get the old couch out of the living room (harder than you think - we have to saw it in half to get it out....we think it was brought in through the window at some point because there is no way it will get through the door ways) but as soon as that happens, I promise I will post some pics of our living room. We've been working really hard in there the past 4 months to get it looking nice and homey. I can't wait to show you the before and after pics!

But for now, a few other interesting house pics. Yesterday a company came and gutted our yard, both front and back. The reason being that it was completely, ridiculously overgrown with weeds and ivy and random things. So we're starting over with new topsoil and Craig is going to plant grass (When we moved in the front yard was all ivy..not a blade of grass...crazy). So here are a few pics of that. This first on is what it looked like before...you can't really see the lawn part but the overgrown hedges and random trees sticking out are there! And the second one is what it looks like now. Our plan is to plant a garden along the stairs and where the mound of dirt is. And then seed the rest to make a nice grass lawn.

To conclude, here are some pics of trying to get this absolutely gorgeous, but humongous, couch into our living room.

How about through the front door? I think not...

We got this far through the side door...i don't think it's gonna fit...

Yay it fit!

Woes.

2008-08-22T23:01:00.003-04:00

**I don't like complaining on my blog. I know I do it sometimes but I consciously try to not use this as that kind of outlet. That said, I would like to just talk about some annoying things going on right now that I feel like writing about.

Computer update: got it back from the shop...the "chip set" is malfunctioning due to extreme overheating. According to the computer guy, running it with the side off and a fan blowing on it should allow me to use it for a few hours at a time. Got it home, got the fan, got the side off, turned it on in great anticipation, and saw it go all wonky again in like 2 min. Turned it off manually, attempted to turn back on and is no longer even starting up, which is new. Same thing when I tried this morning and this evening... I think it really is it this time. And that sucks big, big, big time.

I had a bad day at work today, which does not happen very often.

And I raced home from work to meet a guy who wanted to look at our last spare room open in the basement, who turned out to be a no-show like a surprising amount of others. Why??? Why set up a time if you're not going to come? Why not pick up the phone and say you're not coming anymore or you've changed your mind?

Okay now for some positives so that I don't go to bed angry. I started re-watching greys anatomy again from the beginning and am falling in love again (and yes, that is a positive...its something fun and exciting in my life). Though today was bad at work, usually my days are great and I am blessed with a good job and fun work environment. I talked to my parents on the phone for a while which is always nice. Craig came home from golfing and said that he always looked forward to coming home to me, which was so sweet. And, even though my beloved computer is probably gone for good, I have an old one that was given to us a couple years ago that works and will allow me to start school in 2 weeks without worrying how I am going to take my classes.

2008-08-19T15:19:00.002-04:00

Hi Folks,

Well I haven't had as much computer action as normal because my year-old computer has nearly bit the big one. It is at the computer shop right now but it sounds like the wires connecting the video card to the motherboard have melted and fizzed out. UGH. Sucks. A lot.

Anyway, so I have been working lots, and getting ready for school to start in about 2 weeks. I had to write 2 papers already, which was part of the whole getting credit for my crisis center training thing. The papers were on homicide and cognitive pattern interruption. Feel free to google that last one if you want to know what it is :) But I passed the 2 hour interview on Crisis Intervention, which means I will not have to take that coarse but will receive credit for it. Very cool! This coming semester I will be taking Intro to Human Services, Into to Criminal Justice, Stress and Coping, and Contemporary Math (bleh). The first 3 are going to be great though. After this math course, I will no longer have any more general subjects to take so that's exciting. And if all goes according to plan, I will be able to graduate in 2.5 years. I might have to take one course as summer school though. The reason why it is so tight is because not all my credits moved over from my semester I took at UW Wisconsin, so its going to be tight. But, my goal is to still finish in 2.5 years even if that means taking one course during the summer. Oh and did I ever mention I finished last year's school year with straight A's and a 4.0 gpa? :) Go me.

Cleveland Rocks

2008-08-01T10:56:00.007-04:00

This past weekend Craig and I went down to Cleveland to meet up with my parents and brother. It was great but tooo short! We stayed at a hotel and went to an Indians game and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a blast filled with the usual: good food (and too much), take 2, lots of laughs. Then my brother came up to Ontario and spent 4 days with us here. That was such a blast to have him around. We shopped at Old Navy (a must if you visit me) and watched movies and I introduced him to Jon and Kate plus 8 because he had never seen it!

Craig and I got new curtains which almost concludes the living room. Once they are up and we get some different couches I will post pics. Until then you'll just have to use your imagination! Here are some pics from our trip.

Me and my boys! I'm happy but they don't look quite as pleased. Pretty sure every tourist takes a picture like this...

At the Indians game - my mom has to buy a big foam finger at every game she goes to. Why? Who knows!!! :)

Craig standing outside the stadium before the game.

Jason in front of the Weezer logo at the Rock and Roll hall of fame.

Everyone but my dad (taking the pic) outside the Rock and Roll hall of fame.

Introducing Steph and Terry Wilson!

2008-07-16T11:04:00.020-04:00

I met Stephany when I was in 9th grade and she was in 10th. We were both in choir together, and also in gym class we stood next to each other because our last names were next to each other in the alphabet. I don't remember much but I do remember clicking right away..I thought she was hilarious and sweet and so easy to talk to. We became best friends quickly and stayed that way for a long time, seeing each other multiple times a day (because we were in like 5 choirs..haha) despite the difference in classes. We went to music camp in Madison together 2 years in a row, and basically spent every evening after school together with our other best friend, Sarah. After Steph graduated she went away to college but it was okay because Sarah and I drove up there a few times and she came down often. Then when I graduated, off I went to join Steph in college! We were roommates for a semester, but after that I left school to go into YWAM. It was a blast and when I think back on my high school days Steph is one of the first things that pop into my head!

Steph and I have always kept in touch even though our lives have moved on to new things. I had the immense privilege of having her come to Vancouver to stand up in my wedding, and it was soooo great when she and Sarah were able to become part of my Vancouver life for a weekend. A couple years ago I was so happy to find that Steph had met a great guy and fell in love. Then a few weeks ago I was able to go to Milwaukee and proudly stand up for her in her wedding to Terry! It was great seeing her so happy. Steph was a beautiful bride and I hope you enjoy some of these pictures from her special day!

The Ceremoney site. Absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately the wind blew the unity candles out but thats typical in an outdoor wedding! The weather was perfect and the breeze kept the mosquitoes away :)
Here's Sarah and I waiting while pictures were being taken. They had 2 photographers and I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out! Oh and I must say...these were my absolute FAVE bridesmaids dresses ever! Honestly, I can't wait to see the group shots so I can see them all on us. Black = best.

Steph and Terry with Steph's parents. I was very glad that they were there to see their only daughter marry the love of her life!

The new happy couple. I love how Terry was dressed, it fit perfectly with the laid back and intimate ceremony.

Kisses. I took this picture that was set up by Deidre, their photographer, who was taking her shot from underneath them.

My 2 best high school buddies! So glad we were all able to be together again.

The "cake". I love the cupcake design, although it was funny because Steph had asked them to do white frosting with pink dots on the top, because their wedding colors were white black and pink. When we got there she was like...why are my cupcakes black and orange???? But she was the epitome of calm all weekend so it didn't seem to bother her too much!

At the reception, held in one of their favorite bars. I thought it was neat that for a wedding present one of her friends did all the setting up and decorating! What a burden to take off of the bride! We all just got to show up and it looked great.

Cutting the cake. This was funny because they did it just for the shot - no one else even knew it was happening and it was before we started dinner! I liked that idea because at my wedding the cake cutting thing was unplanned and a bit awkward!

Well there you go, Steph's wedding in a nutshell. I'm happy for her and Terry and wish them all the best for this new step in life!

Time Flies

2008-07-06T23:04:00.010-04:00

I have lots to catch you up on, and for some reason every time I think I should write a post, I feel like I don't want to. Once I start it's fine but actually getting myself to sit down and think takes energy. And lately I've sort of been lacking in energy, hence why you haven't heard from me in a while.

Anyway... Steph's wedding deserves it's own post so I am going to put it off again because I want to dedicate more time to it than I have right now.

Lately Craig and I both have had some early mornings. Well, Craig has early mornings 6 days a week - 4:30 am mornings to be exact... I have 5:15 am mornings about 3 times a week which seems horrible but then I think about Craig and feel like I can't complain. Although he doesn't have it that bad - he gets to golf for free and stays after work nearly every day to practice, so that makes up for his early mornings. On the days I'm not getting up at 5:15 I get up at 6:15 or I don't work (and then I get up as late as possible). Our evenings have filled up as well - softball 1-2 times a week (which is really fun and we've won most our games) or other church activities, like worship practice or the friday Celebrate Recovery thing that I do some fridays. It feels semi busy but not to where I feel overwhelmed. Right now it seems like the perfect amount, where we have some down time but not too much and we have a lot more people-interaction than we used to. Feeling more "homey" each month I think.

We started painting our part of the house yesterday, which I am really excited about. The living room is about half done and I pulled down the floral wall paper border in our room because that will be the next place we paint. Here's a pic of me with that lovely stuff... I think I'll wait to post pictures of the painting until it's all done, because right now everything is such a mess in the rooms we're painting that it wouldn't look that great anyway. But I promise, there will be house pics once we get this place looking nicer.

Oh another thing that happened was that we celebrated our 2 year anniversary by going to the Cheesecake Factory in Buffalo, NY. We had a nice time and ate great food. In some ways the last 2 years went fast but for the most part it actually feels like we've been married for a long time. Our memories of living in that house on 11th ave in Vancouver really do feel like so far away! It will be one year at the end of this month that we moved to Ontario.

And last but certainly not least, as Craig and I left the house at 3:30 today to both go to work, we came to find out that the newly renovated and finished basement had about 2 inches of water over top of the entire floor... long..long story short, it's out now after numerous trips to Home Depot, being late for work (me) and not going to work at all (craig), and a few hours of panic --> frustration. It sucked big time - and we're hoping that all the hard work down there is not ruined...we just need to get a dehumidifier going so that it doesn't mold.

And on that note, I'm off to bed for a 6:15am rise tomorrow.

Wisconsin Part 1

2008-06-26T11:54:00.009-04:00

Well as you know by now, I spent all last week in both Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So this post is about the first 4 days in which I spent with my dear dear friends, Mike and Jessi, and their wee little oat, Kael. It was a very relaxing and invigorating time, filled with reminiscing and discussing deep issues as we always do when we're together. We drank lots of starbucks and shopped at all Gap Inc stores where we used our employee discounts to the max! We also stayed up late and watched a lot of jon and kate plus 8, and a rather fascinating documentary about gay christian worship leaders. During one afternoon Jessi and I went down to the farmer's market on the square and walked around state st, which was a blast from the past for me as I used to live just outside of Madison before I moved to Tomahawk. It was a great trip that I wish could have lasted even longer and I hope that not too much time passes before we get to see each other again!

Mom and son lounging in the yard

At the capitol of Wisconsin

LOVE this kid!

He is laughing there... even though it looks like he's crying.

Typical father and son rough play! Mike is so fun to watch as a dad.

A nice afternoon at the park by their house.

Don't bother me I'm watching Curious George

2 Years!

2008-06-24T15:21:00.011-04:00

I know I owe you lots of posts and pics from my trip...but I'm going to put them on hold for now, because today is our 2nd anniversary! That's right - it was 2 years ago today where I committed myself to my best friend and life has not been the same since. I love you Craig, thanks for making me laugh and protecting me and loving me and cherishing me and respecting me. I look forward to this next year with you as well as the rest of our years together!

And just in time for our 2 year anniversary is never-seen-before pics from our wedding! My friend Steph, who just got married last weekend, FINALLY gave me her pics from our wedding when I went to see her in Milwaukee. So - enjoy reminiscing with me and seeing these great shots she got!

Coming Soon...

2008-06-23T12:54:00.001-04:00

New posts about my trip are on their way! I will do them in 2 parts, first my time in Madison with Mike and Jessi, and second, the wedding. For now if you have facebook, check out my album with pics.

Thunder and Lightening and Rain, Oh My!

2008-06-14T20:21:00.007-04:00

I know, another post already! But I was thinking about something and I felt like it would be a good thing to blog about. I also captured some cool lightening and thunder on my camera last night and wanted to show it (only a minute long but its pretty cool)...

But anyway, today at work one of my coworkers mentioned something about how they had taken religion class in high school, which started a short conversation that went something like this:

J: "You went to a Christian School?"
S: "Yeah, catholic"
J: "So are you a catholic?"
S: "I guess. Are you?"
J: " I'm a non-denominational Christian, not catholic"
S: "Oh yeah that's right, you love church"

Which made me laugh. Because those of you who really know me know that I would probably never classify myself as one who "loves church". And after sort of chuckling to myself, the conversation stopped there and we went about our business. But it got me thinking. And if I were to replay that moment, this is what I would have said. Well, to be honest I probably wouldn't have. But this is what I wish I would have said, and feel like saying now.

I don't love church. I love God. Because he saved me from depression, anxiety, people pleasing, insomnia, an autoimmune disorder. He saved me from missing out on precious moments with my parents and brother, from losing good friends even though we live so far away, from loneliness and from losing skills even though I don't practice as much as I should or don't always use them to his Glory. And, he saved me from death, real death, and also hell. And I praise him for that. And S, if you ever get to read this (which I doubt you will), know that it is not church I love, but God.

A Little Update

2008-06-12T21:30:00.008-04:00

hmmm lets see..

I reread harry potter 7, loved every minute of it, and cried when it was over, again.
I FINALLY started reading the Narnia books for the first time, finished Magician's Nephew and am halfway through the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Enjoying them a lot! (though they ain't no harry potter!)
I leave for Milwaukee on monday where I will go to Madison to spend a few days with my dear friends mike and jessi, then will take part in one of my best friends from high school's wedding (steph) and also get to hang out with my other best friend from high school (sarah). It is going to be an epic week, I'm so excited.
Also coming up on monday - I turn 25! Jeez... time flies.
The kitchen in the basement is nearly done - most of the cubbards are up, there's new flooring and the painting is pretty much all done. It's coming along! Too bad we don't really get to enjoy it though!
It's been HOT here! And we don't have AC...i don't like that so much, but today was much cooler and it was great.
I really enjoy my job, still.
I've sang on the worship team at church twice now and have loved it. I've also met a friend named Laura who has been awesome to hang out with, and have even gone out with a "group" of people a few times in the past 2 months.
Church softball RULES - its a blast, I'm not good, but it's still a blast!
I talk to my brother online nearly every evening and it's been so great. I feel like I am getting to catch up on his life that I've missed out on ever since I moved out of my parents' place. He also introduced me to the new Weezer cd which is seriously good.
Craig has to get up really, really, really early and I feel bad for him, but he seems to really like his job so that's good.
Our license plates expire on monday and I really need to do something about that by tomorrow, since I will be out of town starting at 5 am on monday and Craig still needs to use the car to get to work.
Okay I think that's enough to catch you up. I'll try to get in another post before I go but if not, you can expect a nice long one when I get back from Milwaukee! peace out.

We thought we were free...

2008-06-01T19:04:00.006-04:00

It was exactly 1 month and 1 day ago that we moved from definitely what has been the most annoying and frustrating place to live ever, and for 3 beautiful weeks we were free from any contact with our former landlady. But last week, we got a phone call from her asking us if we had taken one of her fans. We assured her that we did not have it, in fact we had just bought one at walmart the week prior because we didn't have any fans. But being nice adults we told her we would look around and if we found anything we'd let her know. We of course do not have it, and everything is unpacked now so there'd be no place it could be that we would not have seen..anyway... we thought the case was closed but boy did we find out differently today!

I got home from work at 5, and craig said to you..."you'll never guess who i had it out with today!" Sure enough Gladys had called back furious - she basically told craig that she knows we took the fan because she used to have 2 and now there's only one. She said that craig needed to come over and look for it, and when he refused then she said he needed to pay her for it (we're talking about a $19.99 fan from walmart here). He refused once again telling her that we definitely do not have her fan and that he's sorry its gone but we don't have it, and she hung up on him after saying that it was "on his conscious now". OMG...i can't even express in words how I feel about this. All I can say is once again she's lucky she didn't get me on the phone because I know I would have been pushed over the edge this time - how dare she accuse us like that!! Of course we didnt' steal her fan..it is unbelievable. We have decided to completely ignore her from now on, if she ever calls again or tries to contact us in any way we will not respond. It's the only thing I can think of...

Anyway, moving on (because if i don't I'll start swearing or something), this weekend we started painting the basement and hallways (not the parts we live in but the tenant parts). Things are really starting to come together down there, I'll post some final pics when its all done but for now here are a few from yesterday.

2008-05-26T14:08:00.004-04:00

You know what that is?? That's a "dishwasher".... it's this amazing machine thing where you put all your dirty dishes in and then they come out clean!! We are one of the lucky ones to have just received this new invention and I must say..it is amazing!! I highly recommend everyone getting one of these :)

More Contruction Pics!

2008-05-19T15:08:00.004-04:00

I've had to get my head back into school mode today because I have the wonderful opportunity of requesting credits for all my crisis centre training, so I've been working on putting together an essay basically proving that my training and experience covers as much as a class would. It's been kind of neat going through my old materials and looking at all that stuff again - I can remember writing posts on here about hearing my first call on speaker phone and how I cried through the whole thing while another volunteer talked...and writing about actually taking my first call and getting reamed out by the caller who said "what are you, like 16??".... ahh those were the days :) And if I'm lucky, I will be able to communicate all that I learned over the phone in a 1 hour interview that will allow me to basically take out an entire class (4 credits) that I would've had to take! I am also going to try and get some credit (2 credits) for leading my outreaches while in YWAM, though that topic is a little harder to narrow down into a subject and essay. We'll see though.

The house is coming along nicely, Craig and his dad are down in the basement right now putting the rest of the dry wall up. In a few days the cabinets will get here and it really start to look like a furnished basement. It will be nice when it's all done - the guys have really been working hard and I'm sure are ready to be done with it all. I'll post more pictures of our floor once we've been able to paint and get all the pretty (ugly) wall paper off the walls.

Other than that, not too much is happening. Last weekend I sang on the church worship team which went really well, and then afterwards went out for sushi with 2 girls. That was so great to have some girl time and I am really hoping some good friendships will develop from that. Also this Tuesday softball starts, which I am really looking forward to. And I have to go to the dentist tomorrow which I am really NOT looking forward to :(

Whoa!!

2008-05-11T15:04:00.004-04:00

A Warning to Oprah:

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2008-05-10T15:06:00.002-04:00

Today is the first day that Craig and I both are not working and have the whole day (most of it at least, I have church tonight) to work on our part of the house. Things are slowly getting set up and out of boxes but I'm having a hard time putting everything away. It's not that we don't have room, we have a lot more room then we did in our last place, but you know how some boxes you used to just keep junk in that you didn't know what to do with? Well we still have those from when we left Vancouver, and I still don't know what to do with it... but it's not stuff you can just throw away. Yeah you know what I mean right?

So for anyone still confused, we didn't buy this house, Craig's parents did. It has 3 floors, we live on the main floor (the front door you see in the pic is ours) and then we have tenants (3 right now but have an open room still) living in the upstairs and basement, that are separated from us by another stairwell and door on the side of the house.

2008-05-08T22:35:00.002-04:00

I had another one of my reoccurring teeth falling out dreams last night, which means I'm stressed. This has definitely been the most stressful move we've had, because land lords is a lot of work - especially for Craig. We've already been having the knocks on our door for everything from needing to use our printer, to needing a key because of being locked out of their bedroom (3 times in 12 hours, one at 7:00 am). It is still better than living with a nosy old lady, but it's definitely going to take some getting used to. The reno's are coming along pretty well though, the basement is looking great and ready for dry wall to be put up, and our rooms are slowly getting set up. The hardest part about it all is that on top of the craziness of the house, we both still have to work. Craig is doing 40 hours spread over 6 days a week at the golf course so he's gone with the car all day. I've had to get to know the St. Catharines bus system (which is definitely NOT like Vancouver!!) so that I can get to and from work, which now takes me 45 min instead of 15. I think in a month it will all be routine but right now it's just plain hard, hence the stress dreams returning.

On a lighter note, I'm singing on the church worship team this weekend so tonight we had our practice. I only knew one person so I was a little insecure but I'm hoping it will be a good way to meet people. Everyone is really good though..I've never really felt nervous on a worship team (except for when I was like 15) so its weird to feel that again! Luckily I'm just singing this week because I'm still not ready with guitar yet..not playing for 2 years has really set me back! The church has this amazing online system where you have an account on this website where the worship leader can put up all the songs you're doing, so you can download and print the chord sheets and listen to the song over the net - which is great because I've been so out of the worship music loop that I hardly know any of the new stuff anymore!

Well I've got an early morning tomorrow so I'm gonna hit the hay... I hope to have a better update in a few days :)

We're home!

2008-05-03T14:52:00.007-04:00

Well, we're all moved in to our new home. WOW moving sucks... and we have way too much stuff. It took 3 trips of 3 cars and a trailer to get all our stuff moved..it was crazy. Getting the stuff there was only the beginning though. The first 2 days my mom and I basically disinfected our entire floor (there's 3 floors, we live on the middle one). The bathroom will have to pretty much be completely redone, but since that won't happen for a little while we had some major cleaning to do in there ( I can't even post pics...it was too gross). Now it's not bad, just needs a new ceiling. My mom also scrubbed down our whole kitchen and it looks so great! That's the best thing about this whole house - the kitchen... I can't post pics yet because now it's got wood bits and saw dust and tools everywhere, but yesterday it was spotless!! Now today Craig's dad, brother and grandpa are here and they have started the bigger jobs, such as putting in a doorway in our kitchen, and completely renovating the whole basement. Here are some pics, I'll get more up there as the process goes along.

Kyle sawing through the kitchen so we can put a doorway there

Craig and Keith taking a wall down in the basement

Almost done with the doorway!

Beginning the process of putting dry wall up in the basement

Mom standing amidst our stuff (I think she was signing "help" and yes she's totally wearing a shirt that says "resistance is futile")

Whirlwind

2008-04-29T14:08:00.002-04:00

The past few days have been really busy with work, school and packing. Today I finally finished all my school work and handed in my last paper for the year!!! And tomorrow we move to our new house. Luckily I have the next couple days off but Craig still has to work since he just started his new job this week. So our evenings have been full of packing and trying to get tenants to rent in the basement of our new place for May 1st. I think we have 2 officially signed on, with 2 more hopefuls. People really wait till last minute to do things here!

My parents are coming tomorrow too, which is exciting. They'll only be here a couple days but I can't wait to see them. I'm exciting about moving but as most everyone who reads this blog knows, moving is stressful and hard work!! This is really sweet though, today at work I told one of my coworkers that we were moving tomorrow and he asked if we needed help! Wow... someone who actually offers to help move!? That's rare! (Anyone see that seinfeld where a guy jerry barely knows asks him if he'll help him move? And then Jerry says that its too early in their relationship to do that..haha)... Anyway, we wont have internet for a few days but I'll be back next week hopefully with some pics of our new place. I am really looking forward to this summer - just the fact that school is done is a huge load off my plate! And it's cool because I actually got through my first year of college - only 2.5 years to go...

Feelin' Good

2008-04-19T13:43:00.002-04:00

The last couple days I've been feeling good about this next season, and what's to come. There will be no more homework or research papers, no more crazy landlord, a new home with more space and privacy, less financial stress due to Craig's full time job and more hours for me at work, and more involvement at church because of joining a worship team and softball team. I feel like things are finally starting to pick up, and that there will be an opportunity to make some real friends this summer. Also during this summer I will turn 25, Craig and I will celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary, and we will have been in Ontario and full time university for one full year.

I just gotta get through these next 2 weeks...I have a lot of homework due and because we are moving on the 30th, I will need to get it all in by the 29th which is 3 days less than when they are actually due. I'm working on a 10 page paper for my Nutrition class on the importance of Carbohydrates, as well as a paper on the history of graphic design for my art class. I also need to finish up my degree plan, which maps out the entire rest of my years at school, and need to read a 150 page book called "Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution".

That said, I better get back to work!

oh, and last night I had a dream that Craig and I got a dog named Penguin...haha....

2008-04-10T20:48:00.011-04:00

There was a new ER on tonight! YAY! Shows are back!

We move to our new home in 3 weeks from today ---- I can't wait!! And then I don't have to move again for like 3 or 4 years..I can't believe it.... I haven't lived someplace longer than 1.25 years since Tomahawk Wisconsin, back in in 2001. Seriously...so yeah, I'm excited.

Oh and great news, Craig got an awesome summer job with a really nice golf course in Niagara Falls. I'm really happy for him because it's going to be doing something that he loves, and he gets to play free golf at a really nice course that we would never be able to afford. I was thinking about picking up a second job but I am really hoping I can just keep picking up enough shifts at Old Navy to make it around 30 - 35 hours a week. If i can do that, I don't think I'll need a second job but if not, I'll have to find something. We're both excited to have our first full year of school completed...only 3 more to go now, although that seems like a lot. I love my online classes and would highly recommend it to anyone whose not 18 and wants to go back to school. It's a great learning environment for adults. And check out what I learned how to do in photoshop - who knew it had animation capabilities? Not me!! This was my assignment for this week... we had to use our logos we made last week and turn them into an animation :)

2008-04-06T11:25:00.006-04:00

Happy 20th birthday to my little brother, Jason! Can you believe it - 20 years old woo hoooooo!

They've done it again!

2008-04-05T21:48:00.005-04:00

This is the last time skybus will screw over my family ---why? Well, because they've shut down..practically in mid-flight, stranding my poor mother in Florida. JERKS! I seriously can't believe airlines are allowed to do that. I mean, I can understand them canceling all future flights starting in a week or 2, but to leave a bunch of people while half way through their trip is just so wrong! Ugh...anyway, guess I wont be writing about them anymore. You know I've learned a valuable lesson in all of this; if something seems to good to be true, than it probably is.

Anyway friends, you might be interested to know that I've joined one of the worship teams at church. It's not one that plays during the sunday service though, it's one that plays on friday nights for something called "Celebrate Recovery" which is sort of like a christian version of AA but deals with all sorts of things, not just recovery from substance abuse. I went last night just to check it out and it's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to playing again and participating in musical worship.

That's all for now, more later. peace.

Happy Late Easter

2008-03-27T00:08:00.007-04:00

I've tried to start a post like 10 times today... each time I gave up because I just didn't feel like writing. It took some re-reading of old posts from 2005 to spark some interest again, so here I am finally. I love my blog and I love that a few of my friends still blog (though considerably less than they used to!) and I don't want too much time to pass between my posts. Part of it is just for the fact that it is so fun to look back on. I read posts from when Craig and I got engaged and now we've been marred a couple months shy of 2 years! I used to keep a journal all through high school but that pretty much stopped once I started blogging. I guess there's just something in me that wants to record bits and pieces of my life so that I don't forget.

Anyway, I had a good Easter... I sang in a service Saturday night, and then 2 on Sunday morning. They all went very well and I had a lot of fun. I actually left wishing that it wasn't over! That was a good feeling to have. I feel like it started the re-awakening of my love for music. I haven't picked up my guitar in over 2 years. Isn't that crazy? I used to love to sing and play.. I've still got the tape of when Jessi and I played a set of our very own songs at The Royal in Vancouver. That seems like so long ago and I can't even remember the songs anymore. The past couple years have gone by nearly music free, which is odd...but I feel like it's slowly coming back and there's even a desire to play with the worship team at church.

I started reading a book that I read back when I first became a Christian, called "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennen Manning. I know I read it once because I've got all sorts of things highlighted and circled, but I have no memory of it. It's definitely been good to read right now though. I've been feeling a little down lately because I feel like I'm not "doing anything for God". I imagine this is another one of those feelings former-ywamers go through. We go from doing Christian activities every day to all of the sudden just "normal life". At first I didn't even recognize that that was how I was feeling, but while reading this book it's definitely bringing it to the surface. It's so good because I'm reminded that faith is not about works...God doesn't love me more when I'm doing Christian activities or love me less when I'm not. God loves me as I am, where I am, where I was yesterday, and where I'll be tomorrow. I'll leave you with a quote that I kept re-reading last night:

"The danger with our good works, spiritual investments, and all the rest of it is that we can construct a picture of ourselves in which we situate our self-worth. Complacency in ourselves then replaces sheer delight in God's unconditional love. Our doing becomes the very undoing of the ragamuffin gospel."

2008-03-21T11:42:00.004-04:00

Remember how a year ago I talked on my blog about being able to fly from Bellingham to Columbus for $10 on Skybus? Well, we were sooooo excited when Skybus opened up in Niagara falls, because then if we booked early enough, it was cheaper to fly down to my parents' than to drive! They just opened up flights from April - July a few weeks ago, so right away we got on there and booked a flight for me to visit my family in the end of April, and then for me to get to my friend Steph's wedding in June (fly to Columbus, stop over, then to Milwaukee).

Well, just got an email saying that Skybus is "cancelling" their Niagara service as of April 1st - or in other words, they're not even starting it even though everyone's already bought up tons of seats for the whole summer. UGH! I don't understand why they can't just suck it up and still fly the ones that already booked, and then stop after July when they hadn't even opened up any seats yet. It's a big bummer for us. I've got to cancel my columbus - milwaukee flights now too because of it.

Well anyway... I don't have any deep thoughts today. It's good friday, which makes me miss my ywam guys because we always had something going on around this time. We're not going to go to church tonight because I'm pretty much going to be there all weekend because of performing with the Easter choir. It was kind of neat in the practice last night, we're singing with a whole band of instruments, guitar, keys, brass, flute, drums, congos. I think it sounds pretty good. I'll try to get Craig to take a picture so I can post it. That's all for now, gotta get some homework done.

on friendship

2008-03-15T20:49:00.002-04:00

I miss blogging about things other than school, work and the weather... so I'll talk about the one thing on all ex-ywammers' minds: friendship. Or, lack of.

So basically when you're a ywammer, your friends are picked for you. BUT, since each staff member chose to give up all their other plans of career and school etc for varying time periods, and loves God and missions and creativity and honesty and integrity, and is generally a really nice person,etc etc, having your friends chosen for you is pretty awesome. We're all on a similar page, even if it looks totally different. We're also into the whole "community" thing, and use that word more often than most humans. So when one leaves this community and moves to a new city to make a life there, it's a pretty big change-slash-slap-in-the-face. Now, it's not about "us" or "we", it's just about doing the every day things like work or school or raising your kid or whatever. Which is all great things, but that huge chunk of your life that was entwined in all these other people's lives is pretty much gone, no matter how many blogs you read or emails you get. So, why would anyone leave, you ask? Well, some people don't, but they don't have it too much easier because they have to stay back and watch all their bosom buddies leave. And those of us who do leave generally just start to get that feeling that it's time to move on to other things.

I lay all this out, simply for the back story of how I (and I'm sure many other ex-ywammers) feel now. The first thing that crosses my mind is: will I ever find a group of friends that know me as deeply as my ywammers? The second thing: will I ever feel like I'm part of something big again? And third, if so, WHEN? Oh and fourth, how the heck do 'normal' people make friends?

Ready for Spring

2008-03-09T15:11:00.004-04:00

Will this stupid winter ever end??? I'm definitely ready... It was snowing for 2 days straight here, causing all sorts of annoyances. First, the car got stuck in the middle of the road, causing me to be nearly 3 hours late for work. Then, yesterday we were supposed to meet Randy and Don at Missions Fest in Toronto but of course we couldn't get there because of the roads...also not allowing Craig to deliver pizza last night and me to get to choir practice today. GRR!

Okay done with that rant. Anyway, I have 4 days off from work this week which is great because it's allowing me to get caught up with school again. I've finished my nutrition and photoshop work already, but I need to write an essay for history by tomorrow. My classes have all been really interesting so far, with actually a bit lighter of a work load then last semester.

Not much else to report I guess. Just thought I'd gripe about the snow, as you all know how much I like talking about snow on my blog.

2008-03-01T11:15:00.003-05:00

Well the past few days have been interesting. A few nights ago we found out that one of our YWAM family passed away. It was quite a shock because in all her email and blog updates, I never imagined that she wouldn't beat the cancer once again and get herself back to Vancouver. Craig and I were dumbfounded, and the past few nights I've laid awake with that nagging feeling again of how death is so not understandable. My heart so goes out to her family and close friends who are in an entirely different realm of grief then I, because they are the ones who will see everyone else's lives go back to normal while there's never will. There was a beautiful article on the front page of the Winnipeg Press all about Renee, check it out here. Also, for some amazing inspirational words and more about Renee's last moments, check out her dad's lovely blog here.

Other than that, it's just been work and school. I'm a little behind in some of my school work, so I've really gotta kick it into high gear today and tomorrow. Oh I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I joined my church choir! It's only a seasonal thing, so this one is for the Easter service. Last week was our first practice and I have another one tomorrow. I am hoping that it will allow me to meet some people, as well as give me an outlet to sing again. It was sooo fun last week talking about choir terms like diphthongs, allegro, staccato, etc. I sure haven't heard that stuff in a while and it was a lot of fun ;)

2008-02-26T20:12:00.006-05:00

Rest in Peace, Renee. I hope you know how many people all around the world were praying for you tonight. We'll see you in heaven.

In the words of her family, "7:25 pm Renee promoted from pain into glory"

okay okay..

2008-02-26T16:34:00.006-05:00

Wow, I think this is the longest I've gone without a new post! Well... I tried to write one while in Ohio but the internet there wasn't working very well. We had a very nice time visiting with my family - ate good food as usual, played lots of games (well, lots of one particular game), Craig watched a lot of HDTV sports, and visited my brother at his college. Here are some pics from our time. Other than that, just getting back into the swing of things. I've worked the last 2 days and tonight I need to do a lot of homework. I don't like thinking this way but I'm sort of just wishing time would go by fast.... there's nothing that interesting happening in these cold winter months and I'm sick of the snow and homework. Also, we really want to move and that wont happen till may... I've always desired to attempt to live in the moment, but it's not that easy right now to keep that mindset. Oh I did finish the Kite Runner book and movie - would love to hear the thoughts of anyone whose both read/seen the book and movie! I have a lot of thoughts but don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Okay that's all for now, will try and get some posts up more regularly now.

posting posting...

2008-02-12T17:04:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm just really busy with monotonous things like work and school. That's pretty much all I do. The last bit of interesting news was about being able to move out, which comes at a good time because tensions are running high with our current landlady. Let's just say she isn't sorry to see us going, either, so that she can find some little young student who won't stand up to her traipsing through their space whenever she wants. She made the mistake of assuming we were both gone at 9 am on Sunday because the car was gone (I had already went to work) but Craig was home and sleeping; down came Gladys, walking right past our bedroom, through the kitchen and into the Laundry room. It was a good thing I wasn't there because unlike my husband, I do have a mean bone in my body.

On to cheerier things; we are going to Ohio next week to visit my family. I am really looking forward to seeing them and taking a break from work (too bad I can't take a break from school!). We will be gone from Sunday to Friday, barring the weather is okay. It's a blizzard today and we've had mass cancellations of schools on and off the past 2 weeks. Today is another one of those days I guess!

On to more interesting things; in my photoshop class I am learning how to retouch photos. Here was my first attempt. If you have any old photos you want retouched, send them my way and I'll see what I can do!

Old

New

Moving!

2008-02-03T15:42:00.000-05:00

Guess what - we get to move to a new house on May 1st! Yay!

Here's the story... Craig's dad has wanted to buy a home here in St. Catharines that he could rent out to students and have us live there as well, to sort of manage the place. We've been looking every weekend at different houses for the past month, but there was never one that was perfect the for set up we needed (separate entrances, separate kitchens, etc.). But last week we looked at one that, at first glance, did not seem like it could work. Ater looking at it a while though we figured out a way to make it so that Craig and I could live on the main floor and essentially be cut off from the basement and upstairs, which could be made into one 4 bedroom "house" for students to live in. It's hard to imagine but to make a long story short, the house is now officially owned by my pops-in-law and we are moving in May 1st! I'm so excited to get out of this tiny little basement suite with the over-bearing land lady. Here's some pics of our part of the house:

Front of House

Back of House with garage
Dining room with Window!Rest of Kitchen

Living room with HUGE window!There's 2 bedrooms on our floor, each pretty big. Best of all though is that there is lots of light. Living in a dark basement has been harder than I ever could've imagined it would be. Also, we don't have a private entrance and our land lady is constantly coming through our apartment to do laundry or get something. This new home is like a dream come true for me, and because the home is owned by Craig's parents, we will have so much more freedom to decorate and landscape and really make it our own. Very exciting!

Another one.

2008-01-29T21:04:00.001-05:00

Well I really should be doing homework right now but I decided to do another photo background, this time of my mom. You can tell this one is photoshopped a little more but it still looks cool...

Anyway, it's a lot trickier trying to fit in time for school work this semester because I've been working between 25-30 hours the past couple weeks. Even though it's been pretty slow at the store, there are tons of new products that we've been putting out on the shelves. You should check it out - great new spring stuff. I want it all.

Tomorrow night Craig and I are going to look for a second time at a house we might be moving into, but more on that later.

First Week

2008-01-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

Well it's the end of the first week of classes, and so far so good. I haven't gotten all my textbooks in the mail yet though so I'm a little behind on the readings. Hopefully they'll all be in by next week. I got my grades back finally from last semester and I'm happy to report that I'm starting off my education with a 4.0! Yay... staight A's for me! Let's see if I can keep that up (until I have to take math next year...ugh!)

I thought I'd share my first project for my photoshop class. I learned about replacing backgrounds, so here's a pic of my brother looking out over the water.

Orginial:
New Background:

Need New Shows!

2008-01-20T17:48:00.001-05:00

So due to this annoying writer's strike, all my shows are pretty much over with, which I find very sad. And I have been watching older shows, like past seasons of ER and judging Amy that I downloaded, but I've finished all those episodes. So basically what I am saying is, I need a new show to get hooked on! I feel a void...which must be filled. Does anyone have any ideas? Tell me your shows that you follow, the ones where you can't wait to see what happens next week, or if you have the DVDs, the ones that make you stay up till ridiculous hours of the night because you can't watch just one..or 2 or 4. Tell me those shows - I'm willing to try new things!

Some shows I am thinking about getting into:
Heroes (never seen one but a lot of people love it)
Weeds (saw first season, there are 2 more full ones out now)
Dirt (saw first 2 epis, looks like it could be good)
The Unit (saw the first 3 epi's, mildly interested)
Medium (seen a few here and there, always enjoyable)
24 (still haven't seen season 2..but do I want to start that again??)

Any thoughts?

Time with Friends

2008-01-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

I had a great time with my dear friend Jessi visiting the past few days. We stayed up late, slept in, ate lots of food, watched movies, and saw the sites of the Niagara region. It was great to have some girl talk again, which I've missed since I moved from Vancouver. It's especially nice hanging out with someone who knows me well, and has known me since I was 14.

Oh and also, I got my permanent resident card in the mail! I can now officially live in Canada for the rest of my life without having to reapply or renew anything. The only thing I have to do is get an updated card and picture every 5 or so years. All that work paid off!

Here's some pics of us visiting the falls, walking around in a mini-blizzard, sitting in starbucks, and me with my new status as a permanent resident!

mmm...furr...

2008-01-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

Everyone needs to get to Old Navy this weekend...serious sale going on - 75% of all winter clearance! That means 75% off of $100 coats... how can one not take advantage of that? I definitely couldn't!!

Here I am sporting my new Ontario-winter coat.... never had one with fur before and it's soooooooo soft!

2008-01-07T18:11:00.000-05:00

geez....no post for me lately for 2 reasons. First, i've been working a lot. Second, not much has happened worth posting about. Except for one thing - Old Navy asked me to be a permanent employee! Yay...that means no more job hunting for a while. I work six days in a row this week, all starting at 7 or 8 am..... Once my classes start I hope to cut my hours down to 20 a week.

Speaking of classes, not sure if I've mentioned them already or not so here they are:

Human Nutrition
US History 1 (1400-1800's or something like that)
Digital Art and Design (photoshop)
Planning and finalizing my Degree (an actual class... where I will map out the classes I need and declare my major)

I haven't gotten all my grades back yet but I think I did pretty well last semester. I'll post them when they come in the next couple weeks.

Christmas and such

2007-12-30T19:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't gotten around to posting about Christmas yet. I was pretty busy - I worked the 23rd, 24th, 26th and 27th! But I had this weekend off which was great because I am just getting over a cold and needed the rest.

Christmas was great, Craig and I slept in and spent the morning together opening our presents from each other and my family. Then we went to my in-laws for the evening, and we all went out to a chinese buffet which was great. It was a nice one - I had crab legs and a big ice cream sunday that I made myself. Yum. Then we came back home.

On boxing day I worked from 8-3, and then we drove right back to Cambridge for a Church family dinner. It was great, there was probably 15-20 people there and we of course ate a wonderful home-cooked meal by Susan. Here are a few pics of the holiday. The last ones are from our Church's christmas play. Talk about high tech - there was all sorts of art involved; dancing, singing, drama and even painting! Very "wake-touresque" and ywamish. You all would've loved it. And yes thats a person hanging from the ceiling.

lil update

2007-12-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a few days since my last post, but I just haven't really had much to say. I've mostly been doing homework and working, since last week was the final week of school and then of course at Old Navy it's super busy. I'm still loving my job, and really hoping I can stay on after things slow down. I was only hired as a seasonal worker but I'm hoping they decide to keep me on staff because I really enjoy it and have gotten the hang of it all.

Hmm.... what else. I saw August Rush after some of my friends were raving about it. It thought it was very touching and I cried a lot. And I finally started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, which is so far very sad but good. That's about all I can think of. Oh yeah Randy visited us last weekend, that was great!

That's all for now, I've got to work at 6:30 am tomorrow morning, and then again on the 26th and 27th so it's going to be pretty busy! Hope all is well out there and Merry Christmas!

Time for more Snow Pictures!

2007-12-17T18:13:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! As you might have heard, we've been having quite a snowstorm in this part of the continent and it's been pretty crazy. Luckily our city knows how to handle the snow so the roads were pretty good today but hardly a soul was out yesterday (well, except poor randy who was driving to our house from Guelph!). By yesterday evening though the snowploughs had been out doing their thang for hours. It's weird to see all this snow....I'm always so amazed by it. I don't really like it because we have to drive in it to get to work, but if I didn't have to drive I'd think it was kind of cool. Here's some pics.

Our driveway

The Front Yard

Side of house/driveway

Family Christmas

2007-12-13T17:42:00.000-05:00

Hello friends! Craig and I are back from our vacation with my family in Ohio and we had a wonderful time. My mom, dad, and brother opened their christmas gifts from us (we wanted to be there when they opened them!) and we were able to open a few also. It was a great little family christmas. We also went to a Columbus Bluejackets game, which really made Craig happy. AND honestly I think we spent 65% of the time playing Jason's Wii. I got a few pics of us playing and I've got to admit, it was one of the funnest things ever. It's so realistic - especially bowling and tennis (those were our favorites, you could also play with 4 people which was nice). We also played Mario Olympics, which had long/triple/high jump, archery, trampoline, races, ping pong, and all sorts of things. I highly recommend it, even for people who don't like video games (case in point: my parents are contemplating buying a Wii even though jason and I are gone!).

Craig watching the Bluejackets (Our seats were high up!)

Mom's their #1 fan! (yeah right...she just likes those finger things)

Opening presents. I got mom a Happy Bunny calendar and a sweater.

Me, Craig, Dad and Jason playing tennis

Craig golfing

Dad and Craig playing tennis

Dad shooting deer with the paintball gun (see, I told you!)

Vacation!

2007-12-07T12:34:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning Craig and I leave for Ohio to stay with the fam for 5 days. I'm so excited! You might not hear from me much for the next few days, then again I usually do try to get in a post with a few pics while I'm there so I'll give it a shot. (check out the old pic....nice stach dad ;)

This week I worked two 9 hr days and yesterday I worked from 6 am - 10 am. I never knew about all the behind the scenes stuff that has to happen to allow a store to run! Around Christmas time they have employees working overnights to get all the new products out. That's my job so far, "product placement". I really like it too! I can help customers while I'm on the floor if they ask me but my main job is to empty never ending carts of new products all day, and also to set up the displays (yesterday I dressed manikins!).

Those of you who don't watch ER are seriously missing out...it's the last season and they're taking everyone through the ringer before it ends. Just a small recap for those who used to watch:
Abby and Luka got married, had a kid, Luka had to go back to Croatia right away to take care of his ailing father (for 6 months!), Abby fell off the wagon BIG time while he was gone and ended up in bed with the new ER chief (Stanley Tucci...yuck) and is now FINALLY off to rehab!
Sam's kid started their appartment on fire so she put him in some sort of detention centre. She's now slowly starting to hook up with Gates (Uncle Jesse from full house) and she's trainging to become a paramedic.
When Luka was the ER chief and had to fire Kerry Weaver, so before he could do it she quit and moved away. When Luka left for Croatia he left the ER cheif's position wide open and has been filled with various people since.
Pratt is mad that he wasn't made the new Chief, and is contemplating leaving the ER now.
Archie is still the same, silly, comic relief, annoying but sometimes sweet.

a lil' update

2007-12-03T13:39:00.000-05:00

I had my first shift at Old Navy yesterday. It went pretty well, it was mostly just training, watching videos on how The Gap started (Gap owns Old navy and Banana Republic) and learning how to fold things. I work this week on Tuesday and Wednesday from 7am - 4pm where I'll be unloading boxes and setting up displays from 7 am - 10 am , then at 10 when the store opens I'll work on the floor doing random things. I think I am going to like it!

We are going to my parents' place in Ohio from the 8th - 13th and I can't wait. My brother waited in the parking lot of Best Buy from midnight - 4 am on Saturday night, and then stood outside the store in the rain and cold from 4 am - 8am to wait in line for a Nintendo wii. He was one of the lucky ones to get one of the 27 available for the week and I am soooo excited to play it when we get there! Mario party here I come :)

Well not too much else is going on. I am soo ready for this semester to be over with but I still have another 2.5 weeks to go.... I've got 2 papers for my religion class to write still, 1 paper for sex/gender class, and a 300 word essay in Spanish. Ugh! I just want to be on christmas break and not think about it. I registered for my January semester classes, and I'm taking:
Human Nutrition
Digital Art and Design (photoshop)
American History 1
Finalizing and Planning my Degree (this is an actual class where I'll work with my advisor to plan out the rest of my 3 years of school and make sure I get all the requirements for my degree).
I'm looking forward to the change! Especially the digital art class.

Well, gotta get back to work. I'm learning about direct/indirect objects in Spanish.. I can't even remember what they are in English! Adios amigos, hasta luego.

Loving Christmas

2007-11-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

We put up some christmas decorations today and I'm loving the way it makes me feel! All warm and cozy inside..and our stockings are now hung by an actual chimney with care! I love christmas!

Good news - Old Navy called this morning and offered me a job. Finally! I start training this weekend.

Ooh..and did anyone see SVU last night? Whoa it was intense. Elliot has a new baby!

Thanksgiving for 2

2007-11-26T18:37:00.000-05:00

Well, after a shaky thanksgiving week, I was nervous to have my weigh-in this morning, but I'm happy to report that I was down another 2 lbs, which puts me at a total of 22 lbs lost, with 23 to go. Just about half way there! I'm getting nervous though because my only cardio I was doing before was going for a run outside, so now that it's snowy and cold I am going to have to come up with a new way to exercise. Anyone have any good ideas (besides joining a gym - can't afford that right now)?

On thanksgiving day I decided I really wanted turkey, so I went to the store around 3 pm and bought a bunch of thanksgiving type food. I made a rachel ray recipe that was soooo good, I just had to share it with you all. It's cheesy breaded turkey breasts with mushroom gravy, and then I served that with sweet potato fries. For dessert, we had a store-bought pumpkin cheesecake!

Here goes: (serves 4, I cut it all in half to serve 2 and did my own thing a bit, this is my rendition)

- 8 turkey breasts or turkey cutlets
- 1 pound mushrooms, quartered, divided
- 2 1/2 cups breadcrumbs ( i used seasoned breadcrumbs)
- 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
- 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided (I used whole wheat flour)
- 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
- 4 eggs
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 cups chicken stock
- Olive Oil

Preheat a large, nonstick skillet over high heat with 2 tablespoons Olive Oil, and add in half of the mushrooms. Cook on one side, trying not to move them too much, until they are nice and golden brown. Once they are golden, flip them over to brown on the other side. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, remove to a platter and repeat with the remaining mushrooms.

Set out 3 shallow dishes, in the first one add the breadcrumbs, cheese, salt and freshly ground black pepper. In the second dish, combine 1 1/2 cups flour and poultry seasoning. In the third, whisk up the eggs and milk.

Dip the cutlets into the seasoned flour, then into the egg mixture, then into the cheesy breadcrumb mixture. Repeat with the rest of the turkey cutlets.

Heat a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil over medium-high heat. Cooking in batches to avoid crowding the pan, add the breaded cutlets and cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, until nice and golden brown on each side.

In the same skillet the mushrooms were cooked in, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until it's golden in color. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. Cook 2-3 minutes, then add the balsamic, allowing it to slightly reduce. Next, add in the chicken stock and reserved, cooked mushrooms to the skillet. Cook everything down until thick and creamy.

Enjoy!

Giving Thanks

2007-11-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

Here's the view outside our window today ---it's happened every year since I was born, you'd think I'd be used to it by now! For some reason though, I'm always shocked/enamored by it each winter and put like 80 pics of it on my blog... I guess this year's no different! ;)

Sooooo it's thanksgiving...a glorious holiday for Americans, almost on equal grounds with Christmas. I'm sad that I am not once again with my parents and brother, especially because we live so close now. But we're going down there in 2 weeks so we'll celebrate an "in-between christmas/thanksgiving" then. And honestly I totally forgot it was Thanksgiving until this morning so I think I might go to the store and buy at least something resembling a thanksgiving meal. And since I don't have the YWAMers around that made us all go around and say what we're thankful for (which I always secretly enjoyed!) I'll do it on my blog.

I'm thankful for:
- My family- My husband, mom, dad, and brother, K-Dawg, Susan, and Kyle, my Aunts and Uncles and grandparents and cousins, a great bunch to be related to!
- my home - I have a warm home with a bed and food and computer and TV...all sorts of comfort things that I'm lucky to have
- my education - something that much of the world would give up a lot more that I have, for the opportunity of getting an education
- TV shows - they bring me lots of joy
- a new Church - looking forward to getting more involved, the pastor invited us for supper too
- Friends - though we're all spread out around the world, we are lucky to have a spider web of people that care about us. I miss you all - a lot
- my health - it's been over 2 years since I've had any sort of bechets break outs... amazing. I'm also thankful for my weight loss and that I feel so much better in my own skin
- Canadian residency - to know that I will be able to live here forever without having to renew a visa is an awesome feeling

Lots of things to be thankful for. Happy thanksgiving everyone!

The Goose is Getting Fat

2007-11-20T11:47:00.000-05:00

Well, the red cups are out at Starbucks which means christmas is coming! Yay...I love christmas. Not a huge fan of the winter though, which is fast approaching in this neck of the woods. Craig and I were out on a walk a few days ago and by the time we were coming around the block in felt like the beginning of a blizzard! Luckily it wasn't cold enough for it to stick. We tried to get some pictures of it but they didn't turn out too great...you can kind of see the snow though.

The job hunt is still going okay, went into Old Navy this morning for an interview. It's promising, they're looking to hire 15 people but it's only a seasonal position. If offered though, I will most likely take it. The manager said some people will be able to stay on after christmas, so maybe I could be one of those people...who knows! I just keep praying that whatever the right place for me will come up and that I'll know it's where I belong. Until then, I'll just keep doing my part.

Job Hunt

2007-11-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. Not much has been going on this week. I've been dropping off resumes and job applications around the city, but haven't had much luck yet. I've gone in for a first and second interview at starbucks, but they only have 2 positions open and are interviewing 16 people for them, so slim chances there. Craig's boss offered me a job at the pizza place, so if I don't find anything by next week I think I might take it. Not necessarily my life's dream to work at another pizza shop, but at least it's a paycheck, it's close (just a few blocks away, I could walk) and I'd be working with Craig which would be great. So, we'll see if anything else comes up but if not, that might be an option.

Well, lame post but nothing else to say. Anybody see any good movies lately? I just watched "Scotland, PA" and it was awesome...a sort of modern day remake of Macbeth. I also watched Donnie Darko, which was a little mind blowing but definitely good. Anyone seen either of them? What did you think?

The funniest thing I've ever seen...

2007-11-12T11:26:00.001-05:00

Watch this, it's hilarious. Who needs a babysitter when you can just get a dog!

The Middle Name Game

2007-11-11T19:40:00.000-05:00

I keep forgetting that I got "tagged" last week by a few of my friends. Basically the deal is that you have to write something about yourself that starts with each letter of your middle name. Lucky for me my middle name's tiny.... So here goes:

Jamie Lee Church
L - Laugh. I love to laugh, and I love making other people laugh. Especially my mom, she's really easy to make laugh. Hmm..maybe I'm actually not that funny but she just laughs cause she's my mom?
E - ER. I love ER...it's my latest obsession that frequently rotates from show to show.
E - Eat. About 7 weeks ago I started paying attention to what I eat, and tracking each calorie. It's opened up my eyes to a lot of things... I used to feel like I was controlled by food, but I really don't anymore. It's quite liberating.

So there you go, laughing, eating, and ER. Not very deep or spiritual, but all 3 words definitely pertain to my life right now! In fact, on the evenings that Craig's at work you can usually find me eating dinner while watching ER reruns and laughing.

p.s. Got bored with the current template so I went ahead and changed it - whaddya think?

2007-11-08T23:22:00.001-05:00

Oh my gosh did anyone see ER tonight?? Please tell me someone out there is still watching this show... I was almost screaming at my TV. I haven't felt that strongly about something going on in a TV show since Meredith Grey almost died...

Health Update

2007-11-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd give a health update since I haven't talked about it in a few weeks. I had an unfortunate scale issue this past week which messed up my results a bit. I had been using our landlord's scale which was an older dial one to do my weigh ins, but a week ago my parents brought me a nicer digital one and it turns out that the older one was 4 pounds off, and not to my advantage. So in reality, I've only lost 15 lbs...stupid scale. But, atleast I know it's accurate now. Eating and exercising have been going well, I generally jog/walk for 30 minutes (about 3/4ths jogging now!) 4-5 times a week. I used to hate hate hate running, especially on a treadmill (boring!) but now that I've got a nice route in the great outdoors I'm enjoying it more and more. I find also that putting to practice another technique from the Secret is helping with that as well. Instead of telling myself that I hate running, I am now telling myself that I love it, and calling myself a runner. What a stretch! BUT, it's working..my mindset is changing and I'm slowly finding that I'm starting to look forward to these little jaunts. Crazy how we can control things like that if we want to. Here's a nice pic of me lookin all hot and sweaty after my run today (in 6c degree weather! Brrr)

Fall Colors

2007-11-04T21:29:00.001-05:00

Today Craig and I went hiking on a trail near our home. It's about 2.5 miles and really beautiful, especially with the colors in the trees. Here's some pics from our time there. We're going to try and get out there once or twice a week until it snows. It's a nice way to exercise for me because it doesn't really feel like exercise, even though my heart rate really gets going.

Check it out

2007-11-02T16:58:00.000-04:00

That's right - I have been approved for my permanent resident status in Canada! Yay!! I got this letter, along with a real work visa so now I can go out and get a paying job! So exciting.. who ever thought I'd be excited to work? Now I just have to mail in my FBI clearance (which I have here already) and then hopefully I will be getting my residency card in the next month or 2.

Happy 300th!

2007-10-28T16:16:00.000-04:00

This is my 300th post! Wow...I've had this blog since June 2005 and have posted pretty much at least once a week since then. Someday I should print it all out so that in 20 years I can look back on all the pictures and stuff...that would be a lot of ink and paper though.

Anyway, this weekend my parents were visiting and it was so great. They got here friday around 1 and left today around 11:30....it went by very quickly! We played games and ate good food and just hung out mostly. The weather wasn't the greatest, but it was okay cause we pretty must just stayed inside and visited. I'm so happy that they're only 6 hrs away and already we're planning our next visit with them, which will be in early december. Here's some pics from our time together.

My TV Reviews

2007-10-23T15:38:00.000-04:00

Hola amigos. If you're wondering why I don't post as much as I used to is because my days really don't have much variety in them. I pretty much just wake up around 8:30, do school work from 9-4ish, exercise for about 30 min, make dinner, and then watch ER reruns or whatever show is on, and hang out with Craig. Oh maybe that's what I can talk about..my view on shows this season. But first, an update for you: health journey is going well, I am down 17.5 lbs from where I started a month ago. My goal is to continue at the rate of 2 lbs per week until I reach a healthy weight for my height. Slow and steady wins the race... and keeps the pounds off.

So... a few weeks back I talked about the shows I was going to follow this season. Well, my priorities have been compromised due to a growing obsession with past seasons of ER. You see, I've always loved ER and have been watching on and off for years upon years (it's in its 14th season), but ever since I got season 4 for Christmas last year, I have been completely addicted in downloading and watching every epi since then. I just finished season 9 a few nights ago and I am SO SAD that Abby and Carter don't stay together... but I knew they were doomed from the start, being that in the current season she is married to Luka.. but whatever... anyway, all that to say that most nights I don't feel like watching anything but ER, so I haven't given some of the new shows as much of a chance as I would have.

Grey's Anatomy: definitely funnier than the last half of last season, which I appreciate. I enjoy watching but am not a fan of all the new interns... I miss Addison there though, she should've stayed. Oh and the George/Izzy thing irritated me to no end. I'm happy about the turn of events with it though and hope that George and Callie work it out.

ER: As I mentioned earlier, it is in it's 14th (and rumored final) season and doing pretty well. Unfortunately Luka and Abby are on their way out now, which is sad, but if it ends then it wont matter. Since I'm so engrossed in what's happening in past seasons, I can hardly pay attention to what's going on, except that I enjoy watching.

Private Practice: I'm really curious to hear people's thoughts on this show. I have been watching since the first epi, but last week I just couldn't be bothered. Is it just me, or do they keep ending up at the hospital? Wasn't the point of this show to be different than Grey's? I like the cast, especially Amy Brenneman, but the show is just not catching me. I'll be a casual watcher, at best.

Dirty Sexy Money: I watched the first 3 epi's, and really liked it, but decided to let it go a few weeks ago due to the fact that I really just wanted to watch ER.

Pushing Daisies: Super cute show..is anyone watching this? It's really funny and well written. Unfortunately it's on at the same time as my Spanish class so I only see the last half each week.. but I think I might tape them because they are really good. I didn't start off with this show, but my parents did and got me into it.

Law and Order SVU: I don't think I'll ever be able to give up this show, even though I can feel the writers running out of story lines. My guess is that it will last only 1 or 2 more seasons, but it won't be the end for Mariska Hargitay. She's generated a huge fan base and will probably do more films after SVU. Regarding this season, it's been pretty good, slightly predictable, but better than last season.

Okay that's it for my reviews. Let me know if you have any thoughts or if you've gotten into any new shows I didn't mention!

Update

2007-10-16T17:31:00.000-04:00

Okay new post time... I haven't had much to say the past few days. Craig and I have both been really busy with school work, in fact I'm just taking a break from school for 30 minutes before I have Spanish class at 6pm (I started at 9:30 am..!). I've got 2 papers due at the end of this week. The first is a persuasive research paper 5-6 pages long on the Death Penalty and why it should be abolished, and the second is another 5 page paper on the roles of Women in Hinduism and Buddhism. Phew!

Other than that, not much is going on. Last night I went to check out a place I'm going to start volunteering at. It's a horse ranch that holds lessons for disabled children. The program I'm working with is called a 'Therapeutic Riding Program' and my job will be to walk along side kids as they ride the horse and make sure they don't fall off.. last night was my first time and I must say I'm not sure how well I'll be able to hold kids up when the belly of the horse is higher than my head... we'll see though. It was just really fun to be out in the open air with horses, ponies, dogs, a goat and sheep, and a miniature pony. Oh yeah and a cat and rooster. Very fun!

Lastly my health is going well. The weight loss slowed down but that was to be expected. I'm 15 lbs lighter and fitting more comfortably into my clothes, which is a great feeling. And because I love deserts, my recipe of the week is a combination of getting good vitamins and one of your fruit servings, while making it a desert. It's a baked apple, and it's yuuuummmmy and only has about 111 calories and 1 gram of fat!

you need:
1 apple
1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
a few drops of vanilla extract
.5 tsp of margarine

Cut the apple into slices, with the seeds and core cut out
Put the apple back together and put tin foil around it, to hold the shape
Open the apple up a bit and drop in the brown sugar, extract and margarine
Close up tight and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes

YUM! Here's my pic from today.

Skinny Food

2007-10-09T20:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving (late) Canadians! Hope you all had nice yummy dinners... This was the first time in 5 years that I wasn't celebrating thanksgiving in Vancouver - crazy, huh? Well we had a nice time, went to Craig's parents house. That was fun, being able to pop over there for the evening. We had amazing food and I brought the green bean casserole, of course! Can't have thanksgiving without that, at least I can't.

Being that it was thanksgiving yesterday and I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted, I worked really hard today to eat healthily and work off some of those extra calories. So I wanted to share with you an extremely filling, tasty and low-cal, low-fat, and low-carb dinner I had tonight, that I invented. You might think it's crazy, but you wont after you try it!

Shrimpscetti (creative, huh?)
1 zucchini
5-6 large shrimp
garlic clove (or 1 tsp crushed)
olive oil
1 tablespoon Parmesan Cheese
a pinch of basil, salt, pepper, and parsley (fresh parsley would be best, but i used dried).

Now who doesn't like pasta? I don't know many people who aren't fans. But the obvious thing about pasta is that too much puts extra padding around the middle, for most of us (not craig). SO, this part I did not invent, the zucchini replaces the pasta in this dish because zucchini is basically a great vegetable with little flavor on it's own, so it sucks up all the flavors around it and then tastes like them. So you need a zester, or peeler if you don't have one, and you want to zest the whole zucchini, skin included, down to the seeds. You will basically end up with just the middle tube on the zuchini. Put this in the frying pan with olive oil. Add the rest and cook up nice and hot. Trust me, the lemon juice and garlic and spices flavor the zucchini so it takes even better than pasta! Yet you sort of feel like you're eating spaghetti. You could use the zucchini like that with red sauce as well.

Yum-o! as Rachel Ray would say. The best part about it is that I was totally filled up, and the whole thing was only 175 calories! Check out the nutrition facts that I whipped up on Sparkpeople. Here's some pictures I took. Nice and green!

Makin' Progress

2007-10-06T19:36:00.001-04:00

Well I am happy to report that I have lost 14 lbs as of today. It's been a great start, but a lot of weight loss in the beginning is water weight so I know that it will slow down after this week. My goal is to lose around 2 lbs a week now, which is hopefully the healthy kind of weight loss that doesn't come right back in a month.

Other than that, things are going well. I'm settling into the routine of school and keeping up with my assignments. I really like the online environment and I think it really works well for me. I've handed in 4 papers already and so far have A's in each class, going into week 5. Not too shabby! Here's a screen shot of what my spanish classes are like. I sit there looking at this screen with a headset on while talking with around 15 other people plus my professor. The screen changes like a power point presentation and he has some sort of device that allows him to draw on the screen and it shows up on mine. Pretty neat, huh?

Still loving Sparkpeople - it's been a huge help in gaining control of eating. I knew it would be a big commitment, but so far the time spent on that site has been wonderful. I just can't believe that kind of service is free! It really is amazing... I got my mom all set up on there now so we're going to be working on this weight loss together. It always helps to have people "around" you that are working at it too.

Well that's it for me these days. Hope all is well out there in blogland!

A day in the life

2007-10-01T13:31:00.000-04:00

I had to take a break from school to share a story with my blogging friends. This is a snippet of an actual conversation I had with my mother the other night over the telephone.

Jamie: (rambling on about something)

mom: (to dad, in the background) "....Carl there's another deer in the yard!"

(unidentified words in the background)

mom: (to dad) "Are you going to get your gun?"

Jamie: What? Did you just ask him if he's going to get his gun?

mom: yes, there's a deer in the yard! He's gotta get it!

Jamie: Are you serious? You shoot the deer that come into your yard?

mom: Well they eat my flowers!

Jamie: Wait a second.. I mean dad is out in the yard killing a deer right now?

mom: well, not killing, just scaring it with his gun.

Jamie: a real gun??

mom: no, his paintball gun.

And there you have it my friends. My parents shoot deer that come into their yard with a paintball gun.

Just had to share that.

A recipe for you!

2007-09-28T21:07:00.000-04:00

Well I'm on day 6 of being healthy jamie. It's going great... no troubles so far. I don't have a scale so I don't know if I've lost any weight but I know that just from dieting in my past, you usually lose a lot of water weight in the first 2 weeks. I don't really care about what a scale says anyway...it's going to be in my clothes that I'll be able to tell. The reason I feel great is because I'm learning how to only eat when I'm hungry. I haven't really done that in years..sounds funny but it's true. For the past 2 nights I've had the most tasty dinner ever and I wanted to share it with you. This is for those of you who like Tuna but are getting board with just a plain ol' tuna sandwhich. Also good if you're going low carb. You can omit the crackers if you want.

Jamie's Tuna Cakes

1 can of tuna, drained
1 egg (you can use just the egg white if you want to go low-fat)
1 tbs mayonnaise (I used fat free but whatever you have is fine)
1 tsp Dijon style mustard
a squeeze of lemon juice (this adds a ton to it)
Salt and Pepper
4 crackers crushed up into fine crumbs (I used Breton Whole Wheat low fat Crackers)

mix that all together, makes 4 patties. Roll them into a ball, about the size of an egg, then flatten them between your hands, like you would while making a hamburger. Lay down on hot frying pan. Do this to all of them, cook about 3-4 min on each side or until slightly browned.

Enjoy!

(not my photo but similar to what they should turn out like)

Jackpot

2007-09-24T17:10:00.000-04:00

The past week my desire for losing weight and gaining control of my eating habits has increased dramatically. Though I often go through periods of dropping a few pounds and gaining it back (and then some), I feel that this time is different, for a couple reasons. I'm just in the beginning stages, but I think I found 2 resources that will really help me stay on track and I wanted to share it with the world wide web (or the 7 people that read my blog ;)

Anyway, you've all heard of The Secret, right? If not, take a gander around their website, it's kind of cool. I've mentioned it on my blog here a few months ago, but it's been talked about every where from Oprah to the news to Saturday Night Live (making fun of it obviously). Whether you think it's the greatest thing on earth or the most overrated thing on earth, either way it still has some good truths to it. Anyway, this post is not about The Secret.....it's about believing that something is actually possible. I seriously think that I have not lost this weight because deep down inside I don't think it's possible. I've always been on the heavy side for my height (being short sucks...healthy weight for 5ft is only 100-110 lbs) and I just got used to it and accepted that I'd always be fat. But I didn't really realize that I had done this until I heard on The Secret, about how we need to truly believe something can happen before it will happen... take that as you will, but I took it as unless I believe it's possible for me to be a healthy weight, it will never happen and I will continue to yo-yo diet forever. So I've been mulling it over the past couple weeks, and then I came across this 30 min "meditation" on weight loss. At first I did the typical "ooooh meditation...spirits..bad" thing but then I realized that it wasn't that at all. It's simply just stating that you can do this and the more I listen to it, the more I believe it. It helps me to visualize myself at a healthy weight...this was really hard for me to do at first.

The concept of losing weight by "hypnosis" or meditation first came up when I was watching one of those Oprah DVD's. One of her guests she had on the show had lost like 500 lbs without surgery, and he was saying that he was able to do it by changing the way he thought by hypnosis. As I read up on it, I learned that it's not the kind of hypnosis where you go to 'sleep' or walk around in a trance. It's just listening to a message and accepting it, and in this case the message is something to the effect of, "you have it in you to lose weight, eat only when you're hungry, not turn to food for comfort, etc". Judge me if you will, but I must admit I am feeling better than I have about losing weight in years. I feel that I can finally do it. (if you want more info on this tape, email me....)

The second thing I came across is this online community, called Spark People (why it's called that, I have no idea). Because not only do you need to believe that you can do it, but you need a community of people that will help you when you lose momentum. This is a free site which really surprised me, because there are a lot of these out there where you have to pay. Anyway, you sign up, and it helps you figure out your goals as far as losing weight, exercise, and the time frame you want to have. Then it creates a fitness plan for you. If you follow the plan, you will be at the weight you want by the time you need (it tells you if you're being unrealistic). It has a food plan, but if you don't want to use that you can put in your own food you're eating so you can track your calories. It also has a recommended exercise plan and helps you figure out if you're exercising enough to lose the pounds. There are message boards and groups (like facebook) so you have a community of people who are all going through it together. I think it's going to be great... Check it out and let me know what you think! www.sparkpeople.com

Happy Watching!

2007-09-21T21:49:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while since I've posted, but really it's because I don't have a ton to say. My life is pretty routine now, which involves school from 9am-4pm, maybe going for a little bike ride, doing the dishes, making dinner, watching ER. Yes I've been watching the early seasons of ER and I am soo loving it. I started with season 4 last year because Mariska Hargitay was in it, but then I've just kept going and now I'm on season 7. It brings back memories because I was watching these seasons when they were on about 7 years ago.

Speaking of TV (one of my favorite things to speak about...) next week is one of the greatest weeks of the year - Premiere week!!! I seriously cannot wait.. I'm going to stick with a few of the old shows, like:
Grey's Anatomy (of course... supposedly it's going to be a much 'happier' season this year)
ER (This is going to be it's last season...so sad...but they're bringing back all the old stars like Carter and Doug and Carol etc)
Brothers and Sisters (Congrats Sally Field for winning best actress, even though you did beat Mariska..)
Law and Order:SVU (This season will hopefully be better than the last, the season premiere looks really good..it's about multiple personality disorder!)
And for new shows this year I am going to give Private Practice a try, not only does it have Kate Walsh (from Grey's) but Amy Brenneman, whom I totally love from Judging Amy.

So everybody, make sure your tuning in because if you miss the first week you'll be totally out of the loop. Give a new show a try!

What I learned in Church

2007-09-16T12:59:00.000-04:00

Today we went to church. It was actually a really great experience. The church, Bethany Community Church, is a bit bigger than what I'm used to (not nearly as big as Broadway in Vancouver though) and has 3 services, but after being at a smaller church last year I found that being in a bigger crowd actually felt a little more comfortable. For people like Craig and I, we seem to work better in extremely small groups (like one on one or no more than, say, 6?) or larger groups where you don't feel like "the new people". So this church was a good size for that. But, it's not impersonal in the least..there are so many different types of small groups and classes and all sorts of things. It has a little coffee shop in it, and takes mission trips, etc. So yeah, I think we'll keep going.

But anyway, you know how pastors sometimes do a little comedy routine type thing in the beginning of the sermon? Well, the one today was really funny and I thought I'd share. Not sure if it's true, but it sure is funny...

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued this press release...

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy anew car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver, such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed an Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

we're not in Tomahawk high school spanish anymore...

2007-09-13T17:45:00.000-04:00

This is the difference between high school and college... In high school Spanish class, we would have vocab every friday which consisted of no more than 15-20 words. Here is a picture of my vocab words just for the first week! Yikes... and they cheat too, cause it's not just single words but phrases...that shouldn't count as vocab!

I think I'm used to this place now...the newness is wearing off. I remember the first whole month in this house I felt so out of place.. like I couldn't remember where the bathroom was or something, or I guess it just felt like it wasn't 'my' bathroom..or 'my' bedroom. But now it's all normal. It's amazing how well humans can adjust to new places...homes especially. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't take that long. I remember on my outreach to Morocco when we'd travel to a different city each week, I felt nervous about leaving my little homey hotel room (even if it was infested with cockroaches) and starting over.

But that said, I still don't know a soul. Not that I'm surprised, as I haven't been any where or done anything that would allow me to meet someone. I need my brother to come up here and give me lessons on making friends. It's weird because when we were little, he was more the shy one..but in our adulthood it seems that we have switched places. Either that or my time in YWAM turned me anti-social. It can tend to do that to you, if you let it, and I think I let it. Not because it's bad but just because it's too easy to make friends with ywamers.

I think I'll go to church this sunday and see if anyone wants to be my friend ;)

Day 2

2007-09-11T19:07:00.000-04:00

Well it's day 2 of school and day 2 went waaayyy better than day 1...day 1 was a little stressful..a lot stressful. I haven't felt that much stress physically in a loong time... I had this weird heartburn all of sunday and monday. But today....ahh today everything went perfect, I got my spanish class up and running (main cause of stress yesterday - fatal errors and such...) and I'm ahead of the game now in all my classes. I like it so far - it's a lot of work but it's fun work (for the most part). I could ramble on about all the things I'm learning but I wouldn't want to bore you, so here are my top 2 new things I've learned:

#1. I learned how to make spanish letters on my keyboard! All you have to do is hold down alt and then 4 numbers, and bang - a spanish letter! Watch..... alt + 0241 = ñ super cool... ¿¡áéó

#2. This is a direct quote from my Sex and Gender: a Cross Cultural Perspective textbook:

The Vibrator, one of the first electrical appliances, was developed in the 1880's to aid doctors in external pelvic massage. At the time, stimulating a women's genitals was an accepted and well-established treatment for female hysteria and congestion of the genitalia, but was considered an uninteresting and time-consuming procedure. The vibrator produced wonderful results (efficient, practical, fast). Doctors reported that women were so satisfied with the improved massage, that some returned frequently enough to be called "cash cows." Vibrators were seen as so nonsexual that they were soon marketed for home use in respectable ladies journals. In 1918, Sears advertised vibrators as "Aids that every woman appreciates" (Lafont, 1).

Yeah..wow - interesting class!

Welcome to the World

2007-09-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

Last night Craig and I went to Cambridge to help his parents out with an employee dinner they were hosting for Keith's work. We were the 'bar-tenders' but that really just meant opening beers for people...it went well and as always it's great to be able to see family to easily now!

My friend Sarah had her third baby on Sept 5th - how cute is she? Her name is Freya Raine - Congrats to their family! I'm at that age where a lot of my friends and the people I went to school with are having kids. I think it's really neat!

School starts tomorrow....so today's my last day of freedom. I'm not sure what I want to do...maybe just lay around and watch TV or something! I'll let you know how it goes.

Theeeyy're Heeere

2007-09-05T00:14:00.000-04:00

The last of my school books arrived today! I'm all set now to start classes on the 10th. Actually, my classes opened up yesterday so I've been able to read all my syllabuses (syllaby?) and find out the course schedules. Wow... pretty crazy. In my writing class it looks like I've got a different kind of paper due every 2 weeks, and in my Spanish book even the directions are written in Spanish! Yikes..!

I had to do it....

2007-09-02T13:25:00.000-04:00

Please take 58 seconds to watch and see this clip from Miss Teen 2007 South Carolina, as she gives her answer to the question, "Recent Polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate The US on a world map. Why do you think this is?"

2007-08-31T14:39:00.000-04:00

Today I went on a bike ride and man am I outta shape! Plus I haven't ridden a bike in like 5 years so it's taking some time to get used to it again...it's my bike from when I was in high school. Well, I hardly even rode then - more like middle school..before I could drive. It's fun to be back on but now it's for exercise instead of a means of transportation, so it's not quite as fun as it used to be.

Not much else is going on..my days are pretty dull at the moment. Craig's job is going okay, but I don't think he likes it too much. Hopefully he'll get more deliveries once all the students come, which is in the next few days. I'll leave you with a picture of our new duvet cover. It was my birthday present from Craig's mom - nice huh?

Fishing (lack of)

2007-08-26T13:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry for lack of posting but for some reason this past week I wasn't able to post pictures on blogger..anyone else having that problem?

I went fishing the other night for the first time in years. Probably 10 or so. Didn't catch anything but it was fun just hanging with Craig on this cute little dock by our house. I got one bite about 2 minutes before we were leaving, but I lost it. Better luck next time! (we're working on finding free entertainment these days ;)

Also, last night we went to Craig's parents for a birthday dinner for his mom (happy birthday Susan!) and in the car on the way home, we were talking about how happy we are to be so close to our families. We are able to pop over for dinner at the Church's (hour and 15 min away) and my parents are talking about 'coming up for the weekend' in October! Oh yeah and my dad is coming up on the 4th of Sept for business and is going to take us out to dinner. How fun...!

Check out my friend Wade's cooking blog, he featured Craig and I! He has amazing recipes on there - www.diygourmet.ca/
Sunset near our house

New Job

2007-08-24T18:25:00.000-04:00

Craig's working his second 9 hr shift (5pm-2am!) tonight at "HD Pizza", a little shop just about a block and a half away. He's the delivery guy there now ;) Yay for income!

He also made his first batch of beer today since Vancouver. He's been on the phone a lot lately trying to find a good homebrew supply store. He finally found one yesterday in Hamilton, about an hour away. They seem to not be as in to homebrewing beer here, it's more wine making that is popular.

Not much else to report... days pass by pretty uneventfully at the moment, though I'm sure that will all change as soon as school starts. I've got about half my school books and will get the rest in about a week. It's still weird to think that soon I am going to be having homework again and writing papers. Blah Blah Blah....

Summer Reading

2007-08-20T13:03:00.000-04:00

Greetings earthlings. Not much to report, so I thought I'd talk about books I've been reading. Most recently, I finished "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. Excellent book I must say. It's about a 13 year old girl who sues her parents for "medical emancipation", because she was born to be a perfect genetic donor for her older sister who is dying of Leukemia. After years of donation everything from chord-blood to bone marrow, she finally draws the line right before she is about to be made to donate her kidney. It's soo good with a great twist at the end. Totally recommend it.

Second, is the final Harry Potter book. I loved this book sooo much. JK Rowling did an excellent job of tying up nearly all of the loose ends. ******total spoiler so don't read this if you don't want to know**********I knew H was a horcrux!!!! I think his scar should've disappeared though after V was gone...that would've been a cool touch! And I'm glad about Snape... I knew that too, but not quite to that extent!**********************

Anyway, so the next book I'm just starting is called "A Complicated Kindness", by Miriam Toews. Jessi gave this one to me for my b-day. Here's a quote about it, "A 16-year-old rebels against the conventions of her strict Mennonite community and tries to come to terms with the collapse of her family in this insightful, irreverent coming-of-age novel" So that sounds pretty good! Would love to hear about other good books people are reading..I'm on a good streak so far this summer!

Back for real

2007-08-18T11:03:00.000-04:00

Just got back late last night from a cottage up north with Craig's family. It was nice as I was able to read a lot, but unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest for sitting on the beach...really windy and chilly at night. But it's always good to spend a week out side of tv, internet, etc and take in nature. And especially because it allowed me a chance to finish the final installment of Harry Potter! More on that later...

So here are a few photos from when my family came the week before, to go to the falls and help bring some more of our stuff for our house. We had such a great time - not only was it my parents and brother, but my Aunt, Uncle, and a few cousins came too! Very fun.... did all the touristy stuff, which was good since it's not boring for Craig and I yet and helped us get to know the area. Weather was hot but good, and we got soaked on the maid of the mist (first picture, what looks like a little boat but really there were hundreds of us on it!).

Now we have about 2 weeks of downtime before school starts for Craig and I. I ordered all my textbooks (yikes!!) and am looking forward to getting them. I'm a little nervous, but it's still a few weeks away so not too nervous... Still getting to know the area. Don't have to pull the phone book map out quite as much as in the first week! It's weird that we don't know a soul here though.... I'm hoping to find a church in the next couple weeks. I imagine that will be a good place to find friends (I hope!).

Well that's all for now, more later.
peace

The past 2 weeks

2007-08-11T12:02:00.000-04:00

My family left this morning, which was very sad..but we had a great week. Lots of Falls and food and touristy stuff and games and food ;). Wish they could stay longer!

We're getting more used to the new home, it's starting to look pretty good and feel comfortable. Overall it's a bit bigger than our old house in the 'couve but there is less storage/closet/Cubbard space which has been interesting.... Here are some pics from the house:
We had a great time at the falls, and hanging out at a condo there where everyone stayed. I've got tons of great pics, but because blogger sucks, I'll have to post them when we get back...which leads me to my next point. We're leaving this afternoon for a cottage 3 hours north with Craig's family. So once again I will be out of touch for a week with no blog or email, but after that I'll be back and you'll be hearing from me and I'll post a billion photos...

OKay hope all is well out there in blog land! Can't wait to have time to catch up..miss everyone whose not within a 6 hour drive from me...wait, that's everyone! :)
peace,
jamie

I'm Back!

2007-08-09T23:55:00.000-04:00

Well everyone, I'm back in business... just got internet tonight so I will be posting about our lovely first 2 weeks here in our new home. Check back soon!

We made it!

2007-07-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

Well we made it to Cambridge last night. It was a long week, but lots of fun actually. We were able to see Mike, Jessi and Kael for 2 nights in Sault Ste. Marie which was great. Kael is such a cute and happy baby. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but we took a lot of pics with hers so maybe she'll post some :) Craig went to the US side of the city because Mike couldn't cross the border, so we just had some girl time and stayed up reallly late and talked.

Tomorrow morning we'll be going to our new home in St. Catherines. I am looking forward to getting there and settling a bit. It's going to be weird though..so much unknown. I hope I will be able to make some friends. I'm not the greatest at making friends really, YWAM was easy because it was the same group of people for quite a while but it was really hard to make friends outside that group. I will have to push myself to be open and pursue people more than I naturally would I think.

Anyway, we have new phone numbers and such. If you want it email me and I'll tell you (don't want to post it on the blog of course ;) Next week my family comes up for a visit - I am very much looking forward to that! We'll do all the touristy stuff right away because you never seem to do that stuff when you live somewhere. So hopefully we'll get to know the area by doing all that.

That's all for now, might be a few days before you hear from me as we wont have internet right away.

Dreamland

2007-07-25T00:38:00.000-04:00

Just chilling here in Moose Jaw, SK, in Dreamland Motel, where all of my dreams have come true. Well maybe not all of them, but it's come close as they accidentally booked all the small rooms (even though I reserved one a few days ago) so they put us in this big suite with a separate kitchen, living room, huge TV and DVD player, high speed Internet, and Air Conditioning! Oh yeah, and since they had quoted me the price of $59 the other day, they gave it to us for that too. Sweet...

It's really hot here though...and we have no AC in our car (must've broke at some point in the last year...)

Tomorrow we'll get to Winkler around 3ish - really looking forward to that... We'll see Dave, Heather, the kids, and Audrey (and maybe Linds?). I can't wait. Then from there, we'll spend a night in Thunder Bay where Craig's brother will be living this school year. After that we'll make our way to Saulte Ste. Marie for 2 nights where we'll hang with the Oates.

So far, so good. And full of Harry Potter-ness as I'm re-reading book 6 to get ready for 7 when my mom brings my copy on August 5th....ooooooh so excited!!
Okay - bed time...getting up at 6:30 am. More later.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2007-07-22T12:53:00.000-04:00

On Thursday night we had a little BBQ here at the Parizeaus, so that we could see people and say goodbye, in case we weren't going to get a chance to over the weekend. It went well, was a bit rushed though as we had to get out the door to get tickets for the baseball game. The game was just fun just because we had quite a few of my good friends there and I love hanging out with everyone. Here's some pics from that night. Then, yesterday a few of us girls surprised Audrey at La Senza in the mall (she had nooo idea) and had a shopping spree with her from money we collected from everyone. It was so great and I think she was quite happy...........and later in the evening everyone else showed up and we just chilled and ate and played dutch blitz (it's been so long for me that I couldn't remember what I was suppose to yell when I blitzed!!). All in all it's been a great last week for Craig and I. We are really going to miss everyone here and have especially loved the friendships that have developed over the years.

Lasts

2007-07-17T11:46:00.001-04:00

The past few days have been lots of 'lasts' and goodbyes.. that's always fun (not).
- Last time seeing our pastors (for a long while)
- Last time seeing YWAM Vancouver ppl (till April in TX)
- Last time seeing Craig's cousins and their adorable kids - see pic (for a few months atleast)
- Last time eating at 'New India', our favorite Indian Food Buffet
- Last time stuffing YWAM cheques (wont miss that)

That's all I can think of right now. The greatest thing about this week is that my dear bosom buddy audrey is visiting. We've jumped in where we left off over a year ago (last time I saw her was my wedding) and it's been great. I've missed late night girl chats.

9 days

2007-07-14T02:07:00.000-04:00

Well our days are numbered now - and filling up really fast... it feels a little funny and due to busy schedules all around I fear I may leave here wishing I would've been able to see people a bit more before I left. We're having a BBQ on thursday night and invited anyone who wants to come to the baseball game. I think it will be fun even if it's just a few of us.

I'm enjoying living at the Parizeau's. Especially because it feels like sleeping in...I can pretty much roll out of bed at 7:50am instead of 6:50am like I was before. And I can wear my pj's if I want...it's fun. It's hot though.... really hot. Especially in an office full of computers, printers, lamps, etc. That reminds me...did I mention our place in St. Catherines has AC?? oooh i can't wait.
Well, not much else to report. Hasta.

Shiny little Jamie with a Fringe on the top

2007-07-08T20:29:00.000-04:00

10 points to anyone who knows what musical the title is from....

Anyway, so..new look for me. Highlights done at Joji's yesterday (took 4.5 hrs..finished an entire book, "Go Ask Alice" only $50 though) and then haircut today at "revelations" in Metrotown. I'm very happy with it...needed something new, lighter, less. Whaddaya think?

Can't see the highlights with the flash, but the second pic is a little better.

In other news, well, I guess there really isn't any other news. Went to the baseball game again last night. I like going there, it's fun and cheap (go to safeway and get tickets for $6). Okay that's all for now.