Vacation time

This summer has continued to be very busy. I have this week off of work for a bit of vacation time and I'm excited to say that I get to spend it out east. Rachel Langton is getting married on August 5th so Luke and I drove out to Nova Scotia this past weekend to spend a week here, then we'll head to Fredericton on Friday so we can be there for Rachel's wedding.
I just love it out here. Yesterday Luke, his mom, and I went for hike along Duncan's Cove. The ocean was just absolutely amazing! Last night I was able to participate in a crazy fun time of eel fishing. :P I didn't catch anything, I mostly just took pictures, but it was pretty fun to watch. Unfortunately we caught more catfish than eels, but it was an adventure nonetheless. This week will probably be pretty busy and I hope we can get another trip or two into Frenchy's before the week is over. I'll have to give a better update when I have more time. I can say that I'm not looking forward to going to work after this week of fun. :P

My mom's birthday was this past week so my brother, sister's and I went together and bought her a rottweiler puppy! He's super cute and a lot of fun, but he loves to chew, so we're going to have to keep an eye on him. His name is Orlando.
This was my mom's reaction when andrew gave her the pup. lol You can get any better than that. :P He was very timid and afraid at first, but he's really making himself at home now. He likes to bark at 5:30 in the morning too. :P I guess it's not too bad cuz I get up shortly after that to get ready for work, but I do lose some sleep because of it. Oh well...he'll get over it...I hope. :)

So a lot has happend over the past month. Luke's sister Rachel came and spent a week here. We had a lot of fun. Luke's birthday was that week, so we took him out for dinner. Before she went home a group of us went to Wonderland for Christian Day. If you want the whole scoop on that weekend, read Dave's blog...he's got some great pics. :)

I'm excited to say that my room has expanded by about 44 square feet. :P I no longer have a little bedroom. I'm happy it's bigger, but now I need to figure out how I want to paint it and organize it. The house is looking so different. It's like trying to find your way through a maze almost. I've taken the wrong turn a few different times. lol

For the Canada Day weekend Nic, Crystal and I went to Belleville to hang out with Luke and Matty. We got to hang out with Karen, Victoria, Nicole and Chantal as well. It was good to hang out with Drew a little bit too. He's now gone to West Virginia, so who knows when I'll get to see him again. I'm glad he's able to get his papers and such to go live in the states and finally get married! Congrats Rebecca and Drew! I'm happy for the two of you!

I would like to say that I learned how to change the oil in my car this weekend and I'm very happy about that. I was a mess by the time I was finished (an '02 Sunfire is not a fun car to try and change the oil filter in :S) but it was pretty fun! Saba came on Saturday night and we went to see Pirates of the Carribbean 2. I really enjoyed it, but I didn't like the fact that it leaves you hanging...I didn't realize there was a number three coming out soon. :P

It's been a good summer so far and it continues to stay busy. I haven't been to the beach yet...I should put that on my list of things to do. :) I'm enjoying work, and I'm getting a pretty decent tan too! It's nice to be out in the sun all day. God bless, I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.

Working hard or hardly working....

...a week ago it was the latter, but not anymore! I got a job! :D I started working on Monday with Green Tree Landscape Contractors. It's a pretty sweet job, aside from all the politics involved between my boss and those who hire him. The people I work with are awesome too. God provided this job for a reason, and I'm not completely sure what it was. Perhaps it was so I could witness to those I'm working with and for, or maybe he has a few things he wants to teach me...probably both. He's been trying to teach me a lot recently, and I've been doing a great job of ignoring him. I get really down when I'm not reading my Bible and praying, yet I still don't do it. It doesn't make much sense. I saw Saba tonight and we had a great chat about this. It's just so easy to fall away from that relationship God has for us. You have a few days, or weeks even, when everything is just grand, things with you and God are great, then boom...it's gone just like that. Why is it so easy to slip away?

One day at a time

Thank you to all who were praying for my grandpa. He's been home for over a week now, and he's healing up quite nicely. He's still in quite a bit of pain though. On Monday he went back to Toronto for a couple of tests, and he has to go back again to get a biopsy done on a section of his bladder. There's a thickness on his bladder, and they aren't sure what it is...they say it could possibly be cancer. We won't know for a week or so what it is.

So I've been home from school for almost a month now, and I'm still not working. I thought I had a job lined up, but this guy I was supposed to work for basically stood me up. So I've been out and about handing out a million resumes! I guess looking for a job takes time, but it's super frustrating because I had all these plans for when I started working, but now I can't do most of them because they require money and I am broke. I've been trying to keep myself busy at home. I've been helping my mom do some landscaping out back. We're building a retaining wall and a patio. It's a lot of heavy work, but I'm enjoying the exercise. I actually made a new fire pit too, and I would say it's probably the sweetest fire pit I've ever seen! It's about 8' x 4'.

From up on the deck by the house, it looks like a glowing eye. :P So yeah...I'm pretty excited about it. You should all come over for a campfire sometime! :D

May has been a busy month. I've been to Belleville a few times, and to Peterborough a couple of times. The three Nic's hung out on the Saturday of the May 2-4 weekend. We had a lot of fun!

After Nicole left on Saturday, Nic and I went to the movies and saw Mission Impossible 3. The next day we met Dave at the movies and saw The DaVinci Code. I think we watched 4 movies within three days. :P Two at the theatre and two at Nic's trailer. It was a great weekend, a little cold though. (Snow in May...that's just ridiculous.)

My weekdays have been mostly boring. It'll be nice to get a job and get on with my life. Right now I'm just taking it one day at a time. I guess that's all I can really do anyhow. God is in control. It's been really hard to leave this job thing in His hands, but I'm trying, and I'm trying not to get very discouraged about it. It would probably be a little easier if I had a life here in Barrie, but I don't really. Luke comes to visit every so often, so that's been fun. Other than that I don't do much socializing. There really aren't many people around Barrie that I'm good friends with anymore.

I hope you are all enjoying your spring/summer so far. This humidity hasn't been fun, but the thunderstorms that follow it are quite enjoyable. It was thundering pretty good this morning when my mom and I were working outside. We also discovered that we have a snake living on our patio. How lovely...

Update

Thank you for all of your prayers! My grandpa isn't out of the woods yet, but he's doing fairly well. The surgery went well, and he was awake and talking for a little while. His colour is good, and the nurses are quite surprised at how relaxed he is. They said he may be moved to his own room tomorrow. The fear right now is of blood clots and hemorrhaging that could cause him to have a heart attack or stroke. It's been hard on my grandma, but she seems to be holding up well. She's saying she wouldn't have felt as much peace today if it hadn't of been for everyone who was praying for her. Considering the severity of this surgery it's amazing that he made it through so well. Once again thank you for praying, and please continue to do so as there could still be complications. :)

Prayer Request...

I guess I'm probably writing this a little late, but my grandpa is going in for surgery tomorrow (Monday) morning. He was born with Marfan's Syndrome, which makes him more susceptible to other problems, such as aneurysms. A few years ago he had triple by-pass heart surgery. He survived that well, coming out with a defibulator (pacemaker) to keep his heart beating at the proper rate. They kept an eye on him and found a few more aneurysms that need to be dealt with. The most severe one is on his thigh. Apparently this surgery will be more critical than the heart surgery he had previously. He basically has a 50-50 chance of surviving. If they don't do the surgery the aneuryism will basically burst (tear the vein) and he'll die. That could happen at any given time. He's at peace with whatever the outcome will be. He just had his 73rd birthday, so he's not that old and we'd like to have him around a bit longer. :) We would appreciate all your prayers! We know that whatever the outcome is, it is all in God's hands. Thank you!

An Adventurous Weekend

I'm so very happy to be done school now! I really don't miss the stress at all. I've been home for a few days just getting stuff done around the house. I spent a couple of days cutting and stacking wood, I cut the grass, cleaned up the yard, and just kinda did some random stuff around the yard. I've still got a lot more to do, but it'll take time.
I'm actually waiting to hear from my boss to know when I'm supposed to start work. I figured I'd be starting by the beginning of next week, but he hasn't called me yet. I got a landscaping job, mostly doing gardening and such, and the guy is even giving me a truck to drive around in! That's definitely handy seeing as the jobs will be all over southern Ontario. Until I start I guess I'll just have to keep myself busy at home. It shouldn't be too difficult with all the renovations we're doing. I brought so much stuff home from school and I have nowhere to put it right now. My bedroom is full of stuff my mom is temporarily storing, and it'll have to stay there for a few more weeks. Once it gets moved out my bedroom will be expanding and then I can reorganize and move all my stuff in.
I'm beginning to miss some people now. Last weekend, after grad, a bunch of us hung out and it was a lot of fun. We went to the zoo, grabbed a bite to eat, then headed to the Salman's to watch a movie with Chris and Amy. Crystal, Danielle, and Maria all came for grad and spent the whole evening hanging out with us.

Nicola, Matty, Lucas and I decided to hit Timmy's after we left Chris' house...it was getting a little late and we were definitely overtired! I spent the the night with Nic and her parents at a nearby hotel. Sadly she had to head home the next morning. Here are some pictures that we took at Timmy's...we were a little nuts. :P

We had a lot of fun, and I miss them like crazy!

I was lucky to be able to spend a few days in Belleville with Matty and Lucas before I had to head home. We had some fun adventures, including mini-golf (Luke won), a trip to Kingston to pick up Luke's car, exploding bottles of diet coke, and even a visit to the carwash to wash our cars. (duh, what else do you do at a carwash...:P) It was a blast!

It is good to be home now, enjoying some time with my family. I think this is the first time I'll be home for an extended period of time since two years ago. I'm sure this summer will probably be packed full of fun seeing as there are so many people that I want to visit! For now I need to start work so I can afford to do some travelling around. I plan on blogging a lot more now that I'm done school. We'll see if that actually happens. :P For now I'm off to watch some Best of Chris Farley. Buhbye! :)

Quick update

So this is just going to be a quick update. There are only three weeks of school left. :S I'm praying I'll survive them. We just got back from our Northern PAG trip. We went all the way up to Timmins and just got back today. It was a long weekend, but definitely enjoyable. I got to see Nancy again which was really exciting. I haven't seen her since grad last year. She's engaged and getting married in September. She'll be moving to the States and probably won't come back to Canada for a couple of years, so that's sad, but I'm really excited for her and it was awesome to see her again.
Tomorrow morning, which is really today, the second years are heading out for Practicum. I'm quite excited about it. I'm sure it'll be one of the highlights of the year. I'll try and post some pictures when I get back.
I haven't heard back about that job yet. It would be nice to hear something by the end of this week, but for now I'm just trying to leave it in God's hands. He knows where He wants me this summer, I've just got to wait and see.
Things for the Nicaragua trip in the fall are getting interesting. We just met this week and got more info about it. I'm getting excited about it. I hope it all works out, but once again, only God knows what will happen and I'm trusting Him to lead me in the right direction over the summer and fall.
I guess I didn't have anything very interesting to say, but things are super busy here with the end of school coming. It'll be nice to be done and get into a routine at home. I'm off to bed now. God bless and good night. :)

So close, yet so far...

I'm home right now, but only for the rest of the afternoon. I came back for an interview, which went well. It sounds like a job that I'd enjoy, and the guy who interviewed me was very friendly and said he was "pleasantly surprised." I take that as a good sign that I could get the job, and he told me if it didn't work out, then he knows of another place that's hiring and he'd try and get me the job there. My sister works next door to this place, and it was because of her that I got the interview, so thanks Dawn. :D
Only 5 weeks of classes left. :S I'm torn between being excited and depressed. I'll be glad to be done, but I've got a truckload of work to get done by that time...actually probably more like 5 truckloads. :P The only way I'll survive it is with God's help. It'll be a lot of late nights I'm sure.
It's been a difficult semester, but God's really been teaching me a lot. One of the big things has been contentment. I need to be content where He has me right now, even though I don't know why or where I'm going from here. He's shown me that unless I'm making Him my priority nothing will be clear. I hadn't been spending much time with Him, and I was getting frustrated and discouraged all the time. I decided to push aside the other things that were on my mind and try and just focus on my relationship with Jesus Christ. It was very refreshing, especially for the first week. After that it got a lot harder. This past week I really struggled with the frustration and discouragement again. It's so difficult to completely trust God with things and to know that He has a plan for my life. I've been reading in Matthew recently, and the Sermon on the Mount (5-7) was very encouraging. I learned a lot from it and was challenged to work on areas of my life that weren't very Christ-like, such as being loving to everyone. :S There are a few people that I just have a hard time appreciating, so I don't always respond very kindly. I know that it's not right, and I shouldn't judge them, so I'm trying to love them more and I'm learning to appreciate them and treat them as Christ would. It's a good jolt to the pride, but much needed.
There's an opportunity for me to go to Nicaragua in the fall as well, so I'm praying about that right now. I'd love to go, and I think it'll be good for me. We'll see what happens over the next little while.
The past few weeks have been busy and mostly enjoyable...Brooksy was up for the Carpenter's Box conference during the break and we had a blast. We just had Focus this past week, so that kept us busy. The Performing Arts Group had been travelling around a fair bit. It's about to get really busy. Our schedule is pretty full for the next few weeks.
I'm off to do something productive. God bless :)

Spring Break

It is time for another break...a much needed one at that! It's hard to believe, but there aren't many weeks left of school, maybe around 7 or 8. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. I've survived so far...now comes the real challenge. It's getting a lot harder to be at the school now. I find it's a lot more difficult to deal with people and some of the silly issues there. At times I'd just like to be done! But once it's done that leaves the question of "what comes next?" I wish I knew. :P
I've only got one more day at home before I head back to Peterborough. I'll be helping there with the Carpenter's Box leadership conference. In no time at all classes will start up again and it will be crazy busy again until school is finished.
I've really enjoyed this semester so far. The school work has been a lot more intense, but I've enjoyed the friendships a lot more. I guess it takes most of the first semester to get to know people, then by the second semester you grow a lot closer. We've had a lot of fun crazy times. :) Well, I'd like to write more, but I'm super tired. Sarah, Luke, and Jordan are coming to visit me tomorrow, so it'll be a busy day. I hope all is going well with everyone! If you haven't read through Philippians in a while, I would suggest it. :) I've been learning a lot from it lately! Bye for now!

I'm alive...

I should have posted earlier, but I kept putting if off. So yes, I am alive, and keeping very busy! It's been great to have Luke back at KLBC again. Nicole, Gordie, and I picked him up at the airport the Friday after classes started. It was pretty fun, and we got to be on tv too, because one of the guys from Team Canada was flying in right after Luke's flight. There were 5 or 6 tv cameras there, so that was exciting, especially because it looked like we were waiting for this hockey guy, and we weren't. Nicole manage to get his autograph too. lol Fun times. :)

So the following night we had a party for Luke. It was pretty fun, and it was great to see a bunch of KLBCers from last year. The game of snow soccer was awesome! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was sad when they all had to leave. I really miss the group from last year.

Most weekends have been busy. We went to Crystal's house for one of them. ("We" being Deanna, Luke, Gordie, and myself) I think we were only there for 27 hours or something, but it was a lot of fun. Ever heard of the game "Hit and Run"? It's a PS2 game with the Simpsons...let's just say that Luke really enjoyed it...one of those games where you can just randomly beat up civilians. Here he is...beating up an old woman.

We played some games, made some pie, visited the General Store, the West Montrose covered bridge, and went to the St. Jacobs Farmer's Market. Unfortunately we missed the cow auctions. Not that we planned on buying a cow, but they're supposed to be fun to watch. It was a great weekend.

There were some issues at home for a while. Just over two weeks ago my little sister ran away from home. I'm glad to say she came back on Saturday, though things will be tough at home for a little while. If you think about it, then she can use your prayers right now. Just that she would be content with what she has, and that she would open her eyes to see how focused she is on herself. I really hope things get worked out soon.

I was able to go home this weekend because we had our first Performing Arts Group performance in Orillia on Sunday evening. Luke came with me, and aside from boring him to death on a shopping trip, the weekend was good. Played some nintendo, watched a couple of movies, had Melanie's birthday party, then went to Orillia. The performance went very well, especially after the way the practices had gone. Oh! Dennis and Val had their baby!! So congratualtions to them! :D Dennis had to miss our first two full-out practices because of it, but things went well considering. Now we just need to do some fine tuning...a lot of fine tuning actually.

Well, that's basically been my past month. I'm still struggling with my school work and motivating myself to get work done. Things should get better after this week. I just have a little bit to get caught up on. We have a bunch of modular courses coming up in the next couple of months. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to some of them. I hope I'm able to keep up with everything. I'll have drama, the Performing Arts Group, yearbook, Bible reading, and all my class readings and assignments, PLUS socializing time. :P It's just going to get busier and busier. Anyhow, I'm off to get some reading done. God bless!

I would just like to expand on what Sarah and I are doing in the pictures...because I'm sure some of you may be slightly confused. That lovely person we created represented the old year. So, basically we were burning the old year away! byebye 2005! It was quite fun, with gasoline, sparklers, and fireworks...can't get much better than that! Thank you Ecuador for introducing such a fun way of celebrating the new year!! And you too, Luke, for suggesting it. :) Happy New Year to all of you! I love you all. :) God bless.

Yo-ho-ho... part deux

So after the T-ree shirts we listened to some BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. It was really something.

It WAS really something.
I am tired.
But.... moving on. After that we had to make our man.
We sewed and sewed and sewed.

It was very challenging...especially when we started at different ends to meet in the middle, good times let me tell ya. After we sewed him up we took him outside and then...well you can see the rest for yourself. I don't like to talk about it. You get really attached to these guys ya know.


we had fireworks and and and sparklers and and and then we drank some lovely ginger beer (yuck) and and and he burned up big and fast like a choo-choo train on a full tank of gas... on the choo-choo train... if it was burning ... it was a late night. I almost couldn't finish my puzzle. Which will remain in the closed and hidden files because it is too beautiful for you to see like those princesses who people couldn't look at or they would be beheaded. Obviously metaphors aren't working for me today. After that we watched a movie and didn't get to bed until after 3. We woke up and went to church like good little girls and that is all. We had beans for lunch.... they were yummy. Nicki's mom is a good cooker.

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of Jamaican Ginger Beer

It is the new year and we (Nicki and I.... no Nicki does not have multiple personalities... it is I, Sarah - or Captain Sarah as some call me ;) ) brought in the new year with firecrackers, sparklers, trail-mix, large burning objects dosed in gasoline, t-ree shirts, hot boys lipsinking to oldies, amazing records, and of course a BRAND SPANKIN' NEW PIRATE SHIP for yours truly.

So.... the night started with candy, and candy, and more candy. We ate it all before the camera was busted out... our apologies. But everyone knows what candy looks like.

Then we did our T-ree shirts. What are t-ree shirts you might ask? Well my dear friends THESE are T-ree shirts.

As you can see (if you look closely) they are trees... or are they-dun dun dunnn.
After emersing the trees in water they begin to transform (AHHH!!!) into t-shirts.
Since some of you are visual learners we put together a little something-something for you.
It is a play-by-play of our night avec commentary for all of ye.
So if you cannot read then you can still know all about our wonderful life. Remember boys and girls discrimination is bad.



As you can see it was a long grueling process but in the end we were victorious!!

You can see we started by unwrapping the t-ree shirts and then turning on the sink to get water into a bucket. We then placed the t-ree shirt into the bucket of water. Then we splashed in the water because that is what mermaids do. Following that we proceeded to unravel the shirts and dewrinklify them. We then wrung them dry.... almost dry.... wrung them damp? Anyways. We posed with our wet t-ree shirts and laid them flat to dry because that is what the package said. Of course it took FOREVER for them to dry so.... ya skip that part. Then we put them on. As you can see we were very excited about them. Only we have to remember to wear undershirts with them or batman will show. That was the first section of our night. We do have pictures for the rest of it as well but they can wait for a minute or two.

Wow, it's already almost the new year. I had a very enjoyable Christmas and am wishing the Christmas break was just a little longer. It's been nice to be home trying to relax, although I've been sick with the flu, or something similar, for almost a week now. That part hasn't been much fun. Hopefully I'll feel better for the next couple of days because they'll be pretty busy. I haven't completely figured out what my plans for tomorrow are. Sarah is going to join me for a New Year's Eve celebration. My parents are having a bunch of people over, so we may end up joining them, for part of the night anyhow. On Sunday we are having a huge family New Year's dinner. One of those things we do every year. It should be fun, though I'm sure by the end of the night I'll be almost insane from the noise and the kids. lol It's nice to be able to see all of the family again though.

On Tuesday I head back to school. I don't really feel excited for it though. Perhaps it's just because I've been sick. Maybe as the day draws nearer I'll be more excited. I do miss everyone, and it will be good to find out how all of your Christmas' were! Tonight is going to be an early night for me, so I am going to go do some things before I head to bed. I hope the remainder of the break is enjoyable for you all. God bless! I love you all. :)

Home for the Holidays

I am now home for the holidays. The last few weeks of school were absolutely nuts and I am glad they are now over. Two weeks ago we had our Spiritual Life Emphasis Week. When I say "our" I am referring to the 2nd year students. For that entire week we read through the chapters of "Desiring God" by John Piper and discussed them. I absolutely enjoyed that book. For those of you who haven't read it I would definitely recommend it. It gives a different perspective on living our Christian lives, and what we should and shouldn't be seeking after. Some things caught me off guard, but it made me think about what he was saying. Oh, and that picture is from that week. We got to go out for breakfast with Dan. I really enjoyed it.

The Christmas banquet was fun. It's a lot of fun to get dressed up. I ended up not singing with Christian. He had to go home that afternoon and we weren't sure if he would be back in time, so we decided not to do it. Matt put together a fun slideshow as well. All in all it turned out well and everyone looked great. Oh, and Luke decided he wanted to come, but because of the slight problem of him being in Ecuador he wasn't able to make it in person. We did enjoy the pleasure of his "presence" though. Cole brought him along with her. Here is a picture of the three of us.

So I am home now for a couple of weeks before it's time to head back to school. I did my Christmas shopping all on Monday, which surprisingly enough didn't take as long as I thought it might. My mom and I did a ton of Christmas baking the other day. It's going to be difficult not to eat too much of it. lol We experimented and tried some new recipes. They turned out great! I'm excited about them. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve day...wow...so hard to believe!!! Time just doesn't go as slow as when I was a kid. I remember being so anxious for Christmas to come! And when it finally did it was the biggest thrill ever. Christmas day would last for forever. Now, before you know it, it's Christmas day. Presents get opened, turkey dinner is enjoyed, then next thing you know it's New Years and back to your normal routine again. I guess that's why it's so important to enjoy the things of life when they come, rather then rushing through them and pushing them aside. They only come once.

So tomorrow night my family was asked to sing a song or two at Northside for their Christmas Eve service. I'm excited to be able to do that. Last Sunday was the Christmas program at my church. I was able to play the bass for most of the musical things we did, as well as sing with Dawn, and then with my cousin Ben. The Sunday School did a skit, called "The Whipping Boy," which turned out well. I enjoyed it. Basically, since I arrived home on Saturday, I've been non-stop busy. But I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

It'll be good to go back to res again in January. Right now poor Andrew is there basically by himself, well, aside from Josh and Lori. I'm sure the peace and quiet is nice, but pretty soon it'll be a zoo there again. lol Something to look forward to. ;) Well, I'm off to go practice a song for tomorrow. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!! Enjoy your time at home, and remember the Reason for the season. :) "God bless us, everyone!"

I would like to inform everyone that our volleyball team for intramurals won a game on Tuesday! Three of us on the team were on the same hockey team earlier and we didn't win a single game, so we're quite pleased with our somewhat victory on Tuesday! Looks like we might have a chance this time. :D

This week has been busy. It's so hard to believe that there are only three weeks of school left this semester. I've got quite a bit to get done in the next few weeks. I have a lot of reading to do this weekend for Leadership, which starts on Monday.

Dennis asked a few of us, being Courtney, Jay, Christian, and I, to be a part of a worship team for Westmount on Sunday morning. We had a quick practice yesterday to figure out the songs we're going to do. It actually came together pretty good...though anything with Jay playing the guitar sounds pretty good.

Tonight is our first drama performance! We had three hours of practice this week. We've got a pretty good handle on our skits now, though they could still use some refining. I think as we go along we're going to try and add in a few new ones. I hope tonight goes well, though.

The Christmas banquet is in a week! Time certainly does fly. Christian and I were asked to sing a song for it. I'm still not 100% sure what we're going to sing. There was a Christmas song in Spanish he was going to teach me, but I don't know if we'll have time now. It should be a good night though. I hope we get to go skating afterwards. That's the most fun part of the evening!

That was my quick update of the week. I should be off to get some work done before it's time to do drama stuff. God bless!

Pride does not listen. It knows. - Vanhoozer

A much needed break

Alright, I tried to blog twice this week and both times my computer froze...we'll see if it actually works this time! Here's a fun picture, from intramurals...I'm sad to say that our hockey team lost...we didn't win one game! lol Not too surprising with me in net...and I'm sure the purple hair helped lots too. ;) We're now on to volleyball! Hopefully we'll have a better chance at that.

Right now it's midterm break, aka, hunting break. It's great to be home for a little while and just relax, and try to do some homework. I haven't spent much time at home over the past year and a half, so it's kinda nice. I head back to Peterborough on Sunday night, which I'm excited for, just because I get to see people that I really missed over the break. There's less than a month of classes left too, which is quite insane. Christmas break will be upon us before we know it. This next month will be very busy with assignments and readings. I won't be able to spent much time socializing.

Things at school have been quite busy since Thanksgiving. Student's Council is now up and running, which means we actually have student activities on Thursdays now. I made the difficult decision not to run for it this year, but a lot of my time will be freed up, so I'm quite happy about it. The drama team is up and running now. We've had a few practices, but our first "performance" is on Friday, so we're going to need two or three practices this week in order to be ready for it. I'm pretty excited, as are the rest of them on the team. Dennis has been working pretty hard trying to get "choir" ready. It's changed this year so it's no longer choir. Matt wants to call it the Performing Arts Group. We'll be doing some dramas with a message in them, and there will be singing, and things like that. I'm excited to see how it turns out!

Martie Salmans took me out for lunch a few weeks ago for my student interview, and it was great! We talked for 2.5 hours. Last weekend she took me out for breakfast and we were out for 1.5 - 2 hours. I really enjoy talking to her, and she's been helping me with some things I've been struggling with. One thing we got talking about was the sovereignty of God and how not many people acknowledge that He is sovereign. It's something I had been thinking of a lot over the past while. All my life I've heard people telling me how God is immutable, He's omnipotent, He's sovereign, so it's one of those things that became second nature to me. It wasn't something I was acknowledging and coming to a realization of on my own.
When you grow up hearing the stories of the Bible, like David and Goliath, Noah's Ark, Abraham and Isaac, Elijah, and all those other stories, that's just what they seem like...stories. In our Major Prophets class we've been going through the book of Jeremiah noting the struggles that he went through in order to reach the Israelites with God's message. As I was thinking about it, the reality that that is the same God we have today just hit me...I mean, sometimes it seems like it was so long ago and it doesn't really affect us, but it does. Our God is immutable, He's never changing. The God of the time of Noah, of the time of David, of the time of Jeremiah, is our God! He is still reigning and is still as sovereign as ever. Today we don't seem to acknowledge Him for who He is. We kinda know He's there, but we like the way we're running our own lives so we don't give Him the worship and praise that He deserves. God has the power over everything, yet He's given us the freedom to make our own decisions. In turn we choose to push Him completely out of our lives, and treat Him as if He has no control over anything. He's the Creator of the entire universe. He created us, and we still choose to ignore Him.
At church today we had a speaker by the name of Ray Luff. He gave us some interesting information about the Hump Back Whale. http://bibledoor.blogspot.com/2004/08/song-of-whale.html That link has the whole story, but it basically shows how God's creation gives Him praise even though we often don't recognize it as that. It's sad that we have such a difficult time worshipping God, when a whale is able to!
That's been something that's come to my attention a lot lately. Perhaps it just sounded like a bunch of rambling, but I needed to say it. I'm so thankful God brought me back to KLBC this year. I need it so much even though it can be difficult and I hate doing homework! :P I've been learning a lot and I'm hoping to use this opportunity to strengthen my relationship with Christ Jesus!

Well, it's come to my attention just how much homework I have to do this week, so I must be off. It may be quite a while before I post on here again, but we'll see how things turn out! God bless you all! I love you lots and hope all is going well. Remember to remain in Christ...He is the vine, we are the branches. Without Him we can do nothing!

Life continues on

It has been a very busy week. Last weekend was busy. We had two large Thanksgiving dinners, as well as a birthday dinner. That's a lot of food. :S The pie was great though! I love pumpkin pie. I also made a new friend. His name is Larry (thanks Courtney.) Here's a picture of us, and my pie.


I brought Larry to school with me. Aside from being kidnapped one night, he seems to really be enjoying himself. I'll have to have a chat with Courtney and tell him that Larry doesn't like being kidnapped, or beheaded for that matter. I think it must hurt him to regrow his head.


I've been enjoying second year so far, though as hard as I tried at the beginning of the year, I've managed to slack again. Of course that would happen. I'm getting frustrated with myself. This weekend will be dedicated to homework. I have a lot of things due this week, so if I end up slacking more, then it's going to ruin me for then next few weeks.
My favourite course is still Major Prophets. I really enjoy how Dan teaches. I'm hoping he'll give in and teach us a class next semester. I've been learning a lot from that class, and from IIBS as well. IIBS has been so beneficial in many ways. It's been showing me a ton about Bible study and the steps to take for it. It can be very time consuming but it's definitely worth it.

My own personal devos have not been happening much at all lately. That's probably part of the reason I've been getting so frustrated with myself. There seems to always be something to do instead. I try and get as much sleep as I can in the mornings, and then the day just gets so busy I don't do them. I need to get on top of that. As difficult as I know it's going to be.

I really like the group here at KLBC this year. We've all been having a lot of fun together [probably too much fun and not enough work :)]. We now officially have two couples together. David and Angel started dating a couple of weeks into school and now Trevor and Sarah are dating. :) I'm quite happy for them. Sarah is hopefully moving into res. within the next few weeks. That will be a lot of fun. I like her, and it will be great having her around.

My parents 22nd anniversary is tomorrow! So happy anniversary you two. :) I hope you have a great day.

It is now time to do some homework. I hope everyone is doing well. If you ever have any prayer requests just let me know. :) I love you all very much!! God bless.

"O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive, it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." - St. Francis of Assisi
(Thanks for that, Colin)