All this talk about going back to school...

It seems that everyone around me is talking about going back to school, whether that be high school, or college, or university or whatever! I was even asked if I was excited about going back to school (by someone who was quite mistaken regarding my age). All this packing and shopping and excitement has me antsy! Don't worry, I'm not packing up and leaving Altona. But I do wish that I could be looking forward to something happening this fall. I LOVE changes...and we've been here two years now without a significant change! Well, we bought a house and I've changed jobs a few times, but...does that really count? Where is the excitement? Where is the drama? Where are the shopping sprees and new back-to-school clothes and the new people and all the changes? Routine is good, but doesn't it get boring if it stays the same for years and years and years? What's going to happen to me once I'm an adult? Will I ever have fun again??? *sigh* Please tell me there is hope for a fun and exciting future...?

New hair to match the eyes...

I've always wanted to color my hair to match my eyes (dark brown). I've finally done it. And boy, what a good time to do it, too! My last color had grown out so much that my hair was half my natural color and half the old color. Not so nice at all. I always love getting my hair done, but I seldom make it to the hair salon more than once a year. I always think "Oh, it's too expensive...I can just do it myself." Well, my previous hair situation proves otherwise, SO, yesterday I went and got it done...here's what I look like now!

Oh yeah...

For those of you who are wondering how the St. Laurent trip went for me this year...it was MUCH better than last year. I could feel God working even before I left (as I believe I mentioned). I was actually kinda excited to go on the trip by the time we left early Sunday morning. It was nice to get up a day later, because that made the trip a bit shorter, plus, there was a bit less free time to kill, which I sometimes find awkward and extremely tiring). Monday night ended up being a free night, which was also good...it meant we weren't starting the night as tired and could relax a bit more. The girls ended up staying at a trailer that the church owns. It had air conditioning, which meant good night sleeps. The weather was PERFECT. Couldn't have asked for better. Cooler weather=less tiring. I also was teaching a class (kindergarten, which I LOVE), which right away gave me a place to be. All in all, it was a good trip. Much better than last year.

A week of holidays...

Nathan and I have been home from the wonderful land of St. Laurent for four full days now and boy, are we glad to be home. We are almost in the middle of a week of holidays right now and are loving every minute of it! Monday morning, we started our holidays off with a refreshing sleep-in till 11:00. I can count on one hand the amount of times we have ever slept that late since getting married. (You friends with children can moan with jealousy any time now!) It was a wonderful start and has only gotten better. When I'm on holidays, I relax by first getting things done and then looking at what I did with satisfaction. On Monday, I started the day by mowing the lawn (which was in need of a mow by then). Then, Nathan and I walked Lennox around town paying bills, getting groceries, picking up the mail and doing the things that we hadn't done for a week. We caught up. Then, Monday afternoon, I decided that we'd lived without fresh bread for long enough and I mustered up the energy to bake bread and buns. See, we normally have home-baked bread in the house (because I LOVE to bake our own) but when the house was so hot for the month of July, I didn't feel like heating it up another 10 degrees by turning on the oven. So, after a month of store-bought baking, we finally enjoyed home-baked bread, and boy was it good! We also took some buns and a loaf of bread over to our friends, D & M. What's the fun in baking if you NEVER share???
This morning was another sleep-in but only til 10:00. (parents...this is your cue for another moan) We went and got the mail first thing and then Nathan rented some video games for his new PLAYSTATION 2 and I washed the car. Now, please nobody feel bad for me because I am productive on my holidays and Nathan relaxes by playing video games. Really, I am much more relaxed if I've done something and Nathan is much more relaxed if he just turns his mind off and does nothing for a week. I'd much rather my husband returns to work next week and actually feels like he had a break, than having him do things around the house and him feeling like his holidays were useless. So anyway, I washed the car and then cleaned the kitchen and living room and re-organized our freezer. It was so nice to just sit back and know that the car and kitchen and living room and freezer were all clean and I didn't need to worry about them. Then, this evening, we went out for supper to Boston Pizza with our friends, D&M. It was so nice to just sit at the table for almost two hours and talk and just be with friends. It doesn't happen nearly often enough. Maybe that's because we can't justify spending $35 on eating out all that often...
So tomorrow is day 3 of our holidays and we are heading out for a day trip to Grand Forks, ND. I've never really been there (just drove through) so I'm excited to see what it has to offer. Plus, I have two coupons from Nathan's mom (Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works) so hopefully I'll be able to use them. It's the same distance to Grand Forks as to Winnipeg, so we're going for a change of scenery. Should be fun. But on that note, I should be going. It's 10:45pm and I just came to the church to check maps for fun shops in GF. Gotta get to bed so I can get up EARLY (9:00am) tomorrow morning! So long for now!

Enough of Big Bird...moving on...

I'm tired of seeing Big Bird every time I open up my blog (to check other people's blogs). Time to post again. It'll have to be short, but here's life:
My brother just arrived back in Canada from his 6 month trip to Australia. He landed in Winnipeg, so my parents drove out to pick him up and we had a family supper/evening. That was really good. I always love to hang out with family. They're wonderful. It was also recently my mom and dad's 25th anniversary, so our supper was to celebrate that.
This weekend we leave with a group of about 10 youth to St. Laurent, Manitoba. Every year for hundreds of years (about 18), our church has gone up there and put on a week of VBS for the church there. We did this trip last year already, and, to tell you the absolute truth, I'm not looking forward to it very much. Last year, I struggled to find my place and never really did, so I'm anticipating a long, hot, tiring/exhausting, struggle of a week. I'm really trying and praying for a better attitude, and it has improved ALOT in the last couple weeks, but I'm still not terribly excited for it. So I guess I'm asking for prayer...for energy...for patience...for finding my place there...for not to hot weather, so that we don't die...prayer is so important. Thanks.
The week directly following St. Laurent, we have holidays. We don't have any definite plans for them yet, but both of us are not going in to work, so it will be a much needed break. I'm really looking forward to it.
So that's our summer so far...staying busy, even though we don't have the youth program running...enjoying life, but looking forward to a break soon.