Kriiiiiistal..........I'm waaaaaiiiiiting...........I want to hear news about your baby and you're taking forEVER to post something! Hurry it up, already! Our Canucks lost in a shootout tonight, so I need some good news :(

Hockey, as usual, and other stuff

So here's the deal, my Canucks started playing the Minnesota Wild a few minutes ago, so I'm going to listen on CKNW 98, their Vancouver radio station, and write out some thoughts to steady my heart rate!

I have never been one to expose my personal struggles to the whole world, especially where the internet is concerned, but I feel the need to tell you about my recent events. I have been feeling restless in my life, as I've posted before, but I have not been sure what can be done about it. When I graduated from high school, I had a full plan for my post-secondary pursuits and goals. My friends may remember that I was going to go to Briercrest for 2 years then university for 4 years to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree before I would think of getting married. Due to a series of circumstances, that didn't happen and now I am 26 and an Administrative Assistant in our church.

Earlier this month, Lee and I decided that if there was a part-time nursing program, I could register for some classes while still being able to work. A house mortgage kind of has a way of preventing full-time studies, you know? Well, here begins my stress. The school I would like to go to does not have a part-time option, but one other school does. The problem with this school is that the program goes over 3 years and is only an LPN level. This is not so much of a problem in that there are ways to upgrade from there, but my issue comes from my age. I know 26 is not old, but since I can't start until next January, I won't be finished until I'm 30!! This would be great and all, but my crisis is that I will be 31 or maybe even 32 before we can have our first child, and I'm not certain that this is the right path for me to take.

My mom and I were talking on the weekend and she was encouraging me to pray more for God's peace in this process, and so all last weekend I focused on getting my spiritual life back in line with God's plan for me and by the time Monday morning rolled around I did feel peace...finally. I'm still not certain that this is the perfect situation for me, but I have come to realize that in order for God to be able to give me direction, I have to take a step of faith so that He has something to work with. I've done my part to register and I will study and strive to do well, but a door can close or an "accident" can happen, so I'm just going to have to do my best and wait on God to lead me through this.

Anyway, the Canucks and Wild are tied 1-1 at the second intermission, so I'm going to listen to the rest of the game and unwind before bed.

I am an Espresso??

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Things are fun in fours

Friends are really a huge wealth of information, especially when it comes to blog/email type things. I mean, I would never have started a blog if people like Kristal would not have said it was easy and fun! Well, Kristal posted this short, fun-fact type thing on her blog and I was one of the 4 people she tagged and thought might reply, so here goes...

Four jobs I've have had in my life:
1. Receptionist/Admin Assistant at Beulah Alliance Church
2. Jack-of-all-trades at Scott's Parable Christian Store
3. A variety of different restaurants
4. More baby-sitting than I can remember!

Four movies I would, and DO watch over and over:
1. Anne of Green Gables (OBviously!)
2. Pride & Prejudice (the A&E mini-series)
3. While You Were Sleeping
4. Emma

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Criminal Minds
2. CSI
3. Corner Gas (quality Saskatchewan humor!)
4. American/Canadian Idol (I can't help it...it's addicting)
***as an aside, I have to pay tribute to a show that I miss, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman***

Four places I dream of going on vacation:
1. Prince Edward Island & Green Gables
2. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England
3. Italy, Florence and Venice in particular
4. Antigua

our web sites I visit daily:
1. The Official Canucks Homepage (it's my homepage at work)
2. Google
3. NorQuest College
4. Canada Post (for work, hardly exciting but a definite necessity!)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Anything Italian, I love pasta!
2. Lots of Mexican foods, especially Tacos and Quesadillas
3. Easy Enchilada Casserole (thank you, Nikki!)
4. Lori Hafermehl's yummy and oh-so-spicy chili! (If it doesn't make you sweat, it's not spicy enough!)
***editor's note - Chocolate goes without saying***

Four of my favorite sports to play or watch:
1. Ice Hockey
2. Road Hockey
3. Volleyball
4. Football

Four reasons I don't like mornings:
1. I like my sleep and can never have enough
2. The air is too cold in the house
3. I'd rather stay cozy in bed than go to work
4. I don't want to have to drive and get my car dirty and deal with Edmonton drivers!

There's a brief summary of me. Who's next?

Hockey Battles

It's late and I have to go to bed, but I just HAD to say how much I love my Canucks!!!! They beat Edmonton tonight in a shootout (ahem, take note Brent!!), they have 82 points and are tied for 6th in the West! Woohoo :)

That's about all I have to say on that topic, other than...

Go Canucks Go! (Can you tell I'm sort of a fan?)

OK, So it's been awhile?!

Alright, so I haven't posted anything in about a week and I have a bit of catching up to do, so here goes...

1. My friend Shannon had her baby on March 11th!! This is a very exciting 3rd addition to her and Donnie's family.

2. Lee had his grade 10 boys small group over 2 Friday nights ago for a big all-nighter of movies and video games - I'm still recovering.

3. I'm waiting, waiting and waiting for my friend Kristal to have her baby, and so far nothing on her blog yet...

4. I received a parcel in the mail on Friday. It contained the textbooks and syllabus for a course I'm taking starting on May 10th. I registered for Anatomy & Physiology I at a university in Edmonton, and I'm excited about it!

5. It has snowed here LOTS and I'm getting a little bitter. It's almost spring, and now we have winter weather when I want spring weather. Why couldn't we have had this in January when it's normal! Well, in Alberta, snow in May doesn't surprise me (sense the pouting?)

Hmm, I thought I had more to write after a week, but apparently I have either missed out on the action or else a very short memory! My niece Caedyn and sister-in-law Nikki's birthdays are coming up this week so I have to make sure I get cards mailed out tomorrow. I cannot believe that Caedyn is a year old already!

I'll try to post more than once this week...

By the way, Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!!! I trust you were all wearing green, but if you weren't, here's a big **PINCH** from me!

What a Weekend...

Wow. I am so glad that last weekend is over! It was so chaotically busy that it was not restful in the slightest. Ah well, Bus Stop Day went well and the kids remembered most of their music cues, but it was still an emotional few days. The theme for March is Hope which is really good but it couldn't help but make me think of who I've lost in the last couple of years.

Anyway, the balloon animal teaching deal went pretty well, but it turned into much more of a crash course than I expected. I thought I'd have an hour with each group to go over the process, but it ended up being 25 minutes and really quick! I think the youth all caught on pretty well, once they got over the fear of balloons exploding in their hands :) I haven't even tried to make anything in so many years, but it wasn't hard at all to pick it up again. Just like riding a bicycle...!

So, this afternoon at work I'm sitting at my desk around 4:30 pm, and I look up to see my parents walking into the church! They came up from Three Hills to see a friend of theirs from Briercrest who is battling cancer, actually my sister-in-law's mom, and they came to surprise me at work and go for supper with Lee and I. It was so sweet of them and completely unexpected, but such a lovely treat :) I don't get to see them nearly as much as I would like to, but at least they don't live too terribly far away.

My brother Scott and his wife Carla celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary yesterday. It is so weird that it has only been that long...it feels like Carla's been in the family forever! What's more bizarre is that I was still 13 (almost 14) when they were married, so how old does that make me?! I think I realize now just how young I was then, and soooo immature! I'm glad they loved me enough in my early adolescence to involve me in the wedding - it was SO special to me!!

Happy 12th Anniversary Scott & Carla...I love you!!

I Love Weddings!

I just received an email from my bible school roommate, Cathy, today and she informed me that she is engaged!! How completely exciting! She may kill me for posting this on a blog for all to see, but that's too bad... She has been dating a long-time friend, Scott, who we also were at Briercrest with, and I am so totally delighted for them!

Thank you to all my friends who have been commenting on my last post, I decided to take a risk and if I find out that it worked you will be the first to know! I really do have awesome friends, I'm so blessed.

My Uncle Bill passed away this morning just before 6 am. It is really hard on my Mom because she wasn't able to get out to Ladysmith to see him, he went so quickly. We just found out he had cancer of the liver not long ago, and this is really hard to deal with. He's the first family member that we'll never know this side of heaven if he made his life right with Christ. It makes it really hard.

This weekend's church services are our monthly kickoff in Children's ministry, it's called Bus Stop Day, and so I'm going to be there a lot. It makes for a long, busy, draining and exhausting 2 days, but it's still fun. Did you know that I volunteer in children's ministry? Anyway, on Sunday afternoon, our youth Mexico missions trip team have their weekly meeting, and somehow I was recruited to teach them how to make some basic balloon animals for when they're down south. I've been practicing and trying to remember for a few days now and man, it brings back memories! Right now I really wish I had Erin here to teach them with me, 'cuz she was so much better at it than I was! Care to offer a satellite seminar??!? C'est la vie...

Quarter-Life Crisis

I feel restless. I feel dissatisfied with parts of my life and am looking into my options and debating what move to make next. I would love to explain it but until I figure this out I don't want to delve into details just yet, but I guess I would love for you to pray for me once in a while for some divine direction and open or closed doors. I think I may have lost an opportunity so I'm praying that God will allow me a second try.

I love my friends and I am so grateful that our paths have crossed!

Sad Puppy Story

You will never believe this story I heard on the news last night...it is so sad. This beautiful, 10-year-old German Shepherd dog was stabbed twice by it's owner. She has struggled with depression and was drunk, and just started stabbing her dog. I guess she hit the puppy once above the eye and once in the jaw and missed a major artery by 2 cm. Her husband woke up to the dog's whimpering and was able to tie a towel around puppy's neck to stop the bleeding a bit, though there was an awful lot of blood lost. The dog had no defensive wounds, but why would it? The woman was the master and the sweet puppy was just submissive and docile. Anyway, it was so horribly sad.

I had a music practice after work with Amy, one of the girls in our youth group, for a couple of songs but when I was leaving work my car was covered in snow and it took me about 15 minutes just to sweep off my car. After I left her house I had to sweep off my car for about another 10 minutes and it was coooolllllld :( Now, I fully admit that I am a snow-rookie southern BC driver, but some Albertans drive so fast that it's all I can do to not slide into the ditch! I got home safely, after praying pretty much the whole way :) and now I'm just SO ready for bed! Of course, after I finish watching American Idol and some laundry!

Monday Doldrums

I hate Mondays. I mean I really hate Mondays. It just takes forever for them to end. This morning was snowing and sooo chilly, it felt like -20 (Celsius for all those Americans!). After snow, melting snow, more snow, more melting snow, and now more snow, my poor little car is so filthy and I couldn't go through the car wash 'cuz another car had stalled at the entrance and was waiting to be towed! I had driven to work on the freeway and gotten pelted, and I mean covered, in mud spraying off a semi-truck ahead of me, and I barely even recognize my little Sunfire anymore :( There were a couple of bright spots...I had time to stop for a coffee at Tim Horton's on my way to work, and Lisa from work bought me a second coffee in the afternoon! That'll make any day better, plus it's Rrrroll up the Rrrrim to Win time again and I won another coffee...woohoo! We got home just in time to watch Corner Gas and laugh a lot :) I was born in Saskatchewan, so I think it's priceless!

After work I met Lee for supper and he surprised me with 2 new CD's of Roxette. I go in these waves of listening to classic 80's music, and that's my new sing-along kick - what a sweetie! Now I'll have to choose between those, Nichole Nordeman's Brave and Charlotte Church - choices, choices.

Mass emails can be a pain sometimes, but I realized the other day that they can actually be helpful. For example, I had lost touch with 2 of my Bible School friends, Cathy and Scott, but I found Scott's email address on a mass email and he gave me Cathy's. It actually worked quite well! And my friend Shannon, who I haven't seen in years, is on my email list now too. My goodness, the internet is a wonderful thing!

Until tomorrow, or whenever I post next...

By the way, my husband is very jealous that I've mentioned his daddy's Shelby Mustang and not his, "1989 Camaro Iroc Z Player's Challenge Race Car, originally owned by Richard Dean Anderson [who played MacGyver on the 80's TV series]" and I quote! Oh my, boys and their toys...

Oh, and did you see the closing ceremonies for the Olympics? Andrea Bocelli and Ben Heppner in the same night? Amazing! Really, I'm done now :)

I think I could become an addict!

Well, it's day 2 and I think I could very easily become a chronic blogger! Today we went to church with Lee's dad in Sherwood Park. Phil Callaway is an author/speaker/comedian from Three Hills, Alberta, and he was a guest speaker for the weekend. He was really funny and had many illustrations, but he still delivered a sermon with content. Lee's brother Jeff and sister-in-law Kay came with their three kids, so we had a very eventful and interesting dinner at Boston Pizza afterwards. The kiddies are 4, 2, and 9 months so I'm sure you can imagine...

We just got home after making a quick pit-stop at my father-in-law's business to take a look at his new (at least to him) 1965 Shelby Mustang convertible that he bought in Arizona in January. It's a really nice blue with off-white racing stripes. I've never been a car girl but I married into a car family, so I'm trying to learn! Lee was teasing me about being "all excited to write a new blog," so I see I have to work some persuasion tactics on him...

I was talking to my mom last night and my Uncle Bill called her to say that he has cancer of the liver. Apparently it is very fast growing, so we don't know how much time he has left on earth. He has seriously strayed from God and believes that nothing on earth happens for a reason and nothing happens after death, so my family is really praying for a miracle. We've been praying for him to accept Christ for so many years.

I've been reading the blogs of my friends, and I'm noticing things. For example, Cherylene's sister Wendy is engaged to Tim!! I didn't know she was dating a friend from our youth group...that's so cool!

I think today I feel like cross stitching for the rest of the afternoon. I'm making a stocking for Lee for Christmas, and with my broken arm in November it did not get done in time...too bad...I guess it'll have to be for 2006.

Well, here goes nothing!

I decided that I'll never know if I like blogging until I try it, so I am finally sitting down at my computer and doing just that! You'll have to go easy on me until I get the hang of it...

It is early Saturday evening in snowy Alberta, but it is warm inside my little house. The BC girl in me looks outside and says, "Brrrrr, this is not what I left behind in Abbotsford last weekend," but the slowly-adapting Albertan says, "it's not nearly as bad as it could be." As long as I live in a prairie province I will always be a freezing-fingered and cold-toed BC girl to the core!

There are a couple of perks living here. A sweet husband, the biggest shopping mall in Canada, and Family Day! It's the only long weekend in February, but it's still a good excuse for a day off work! My mom and I flew out from Calgary last Friday to spend the weekend in Abbotsford and Vancouver with my brother and sister-in-law, Aunt and Papa. It was surprisingly windy but beautifully sunny. Mom and I went for a late lunch at Dutch Mother's restaurant in Lynden, an ice cream cone from Edaleen dairy and a quick shopping trip to Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham. It was a whirlwind but fun!

On Saturday, we went into Vancouver to buy shoes for Mom from Ingledews for her narrow feet and over to the Lion's Gate hospital to visit my Papa. He's 92 now and much weaker than I remember, but he's doing alright. Sunday I went to Northview with my brother, Brent, and after lunch Mom, Brent, Nikki and I all went to Papa's apartment in North Vancouver to help my Aunt Bet sort through his belongings before he moves into a different extended care facility. Then Monday had to come, most unfortunately. I just had to see Lana and David's apartment and new baby girl, Noelle, before I flew back to Calgary, but then all too soon it was time to leave. Talk about busy! Hopefully Lee and I can go back for a more relaxed visit this summer or fall.

I think that's all for now, so I'll go and play with my options on my new blog!