These days...

Eight random things about life right now:

1. Nathan's little brother is out for a visit this weekend. It's fun to have an extra person around the house...Lennox really enjoys him too. He seems to enjoy both of our brothers alot! Maybe this is a sign that they'll make good uncles when the time comes to expand???

2. It is REALLY cold outside! I plan each of my trips outside so that I don't forget anything and have to go out again. I really dislike the cold. I've decided I can handle Canadian winters and snow, as long as it doesn't get any colder than -10 degrees...windchill factored in...

3. I just baked chocolate chip cookies before I came here but I left the second batch in too long so they are more "golden brown" than "gooey".

4. My sister and I are making a scrapbook for my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary (which was last July). We are putting all (most) of their pictures into one (massive) album. It's been alot of fun to work on together and we are almost done!

5. Nathan is taking a class at CMU this semester and really enjoying it. Being back at school has really reminded him how much he likes to think and learn and be stretched. Maybe I should think about taking some kind of class...

6. I am constantly on the lookout for different decorating things I can do with our house that are cost-effective but that will change the look of our house inside. I think the next project will be painting our bedroom. We got new bedding ("iced pear" sheets with a chocolate brown duvet) a few months ago and it doesn't go great with the color of the walls (deep red). I'm thinking a pale yellow/ivory color. Any other suggestions?

7. I am currently in the middle of reading Kite Runner with Nathan. I am reading it out loud to him (usually while we drive somewhere) and it's a really good book so far! We got it for Christmas from Nate's brother. I would definitely recommend it.

8. The place where I work is in the middle of some renovations! When it is done, I will have my very own, brand-new office! I am pretty excited about that. I am also going to be working more hours because one of the other lumber yards here in town just closed, so we have become much busier! Whoo-hoo! I love my job!

Well, there you have it. A small update on my life. There's not much happening but we're terribly busy. Does that make sense to anyone else?

A stranger visited me this week...

This has been a strange week for me. See, I'm sick. I NEVER get sick! Well, I get the odd headache or stomach cramp or whatever, but days of dizzy-ness and nauseousness and icky-ness just don't usually happen to me! Today I've just felt horrible! And now, for those of you who are putting two and two together, no, we're NOT pregnant! I got my wisdom teeth out on January 3rd and have been struggling to heal ever since. I thought I would be fine...not phased at all! But there I am, four days later, and still not feeling like I can even walk to work on my own, never mind drive! My mouth hasn't given me much grief, but, like I said, I've been dizzy and nauseous and just completely out of it! Maybe my best bet is to stay completely drugged on those T3's they have me on! Lately, since the actual pain hasn't been too bad, I've been trying to wean myself off the pain meds, but the other "icky-ness" has picked up, so maybe it's my body's way of saying, "More drugs, please!" Who knows? All I know is that my body doesn't usually respond like this and I'm sick of being sick. Then again, I can't complain. I have a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me and a dog who looks at me with the most worried expression on his face when I moan and cry in agony. I've got nothing to complain about at all!

So how was everyone's Christmas? Mine was ok. I'm pretty sure I already wrote about it before Chrsitmas was over because it was basically over for me, but the rest of the season also went well. Our youth retreat in Minneapolis went really well. Our youth seemed to love it (the ones who weren't throwing up the whole weekend-poor kids!)...I think it was a wonderful spiritual feast for everyone who was there that weekend.

Since being back, I haven't been up to much. I've gotten my wisdom teeth out and then basically laid around the house. I've had lots of time to think, though, which I usually enjoy quite a bit. I've been thinking about what my youth involvement will look like in 2008. Also, what my Creative Memories business plan will look like this year. (If anyone would like me to come out and do a party or Get-Together for them and some friends at their place, please let me know! It could be so much fun! I have this great idea for some paper folding albums that we could do, great for people who don't scrapbook!) And, because I've been doing alot of my thinking and healing on the couch in front of the tv, I've got a bunch of decorating ideas for our house! *sigh* Unfortunately those take money...but paint and trim can go a long way in the name of decorating, no?

So these have been my thoughts lately. There's still not much new, but it's my feeble attempt at staying current, for those of us out there who are still blogging! Hopefully next time I post I will be slightly less drugged and will make a bit more sense or at least follow more of a train of thought!

Have a great week!

Christmas 007

This year I feel like Christmas is already long gone. On most Christmases I feel like it just flies up, waves maybe once, and then is gone before I know it! But this year is different for me. I suppose it's because Christmas started for me when we were down in California in mid-November. Everything there was decorated for Christmas and there was Christmas music playing everywhere. I came home expecting the same thing and there was barely snow, never mind decorations! And I suppose that's because the Americans get in the spirit as soon as the calendar says November and we Canadians feel like it can't be Christmas without snow, so we wait for it! (Boy, are we ever going to be messed up once global warming really kicks in!)

Another reason I feel like Christmas has come and gone already is because we've already celebrated with both our families. My family celebrated with our trip in November to California (and sorta at my cousin's wedding in early December) and Nate's family was last weekend in Saskatchewan. It was SO good to be out at his parents' place for a few days. We took Lennox and just spent a few days catching up, watching our dogs play, walking the dogs, sitting around, watching the men play vids, hearing about wedding plans (congrats Karis and Jared!)...it was a beautiful, wonderful family weekend! But now that we're home, I feel like it should all be over. I suppose sometimes I feel kinda shafted that we don't get to see family actually ON Christmas day. It makes for lonely Christmases (last year and this year both) but at least we've seen our families in the month of December, which is more than some can say about Christmas with family, right? I'm sorry for any of you out there who would love to be with family for Christmas and for whatever reason that just isn't happening this year.

But, with all this talk about Christmas being done, I can't complain too much. I have a full stocking sitting under our little 5' Christmas tree in our basement at home. That's right. Nathan and I went to the city last night and spent some time filling each other's stockings. (We bought snowboards for ourselves this month as our Christmas presents, but Nathan just needed a little something with surprise and wrapping paper on it to open Christmas day) -As a sidenote, we wouldn't normally have full stockings sitting under the Christmas tree either (how "Christmas-ey" is that?!) but when there are no other wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree, well, there just has to be something, right?

So there you have it. Our Christmas. Done already. Mostly. But now that I'm writing this, I'm thinking about it in a new light and maybe it's not so bad that Christmas is "over" but not actually over already. You see, if there is not much excitement but rather loneliness, how much more is there opportunity to look toward the true meaning of Christmas? Family and gifts and food and tradition is all special and I believe that God wants us to enjoy those things at Christmas-time (and all the time), but when those things have already happened and there are still lonely days off to enjoy, what a great reminder that Christ came to earth to be the family to the family-less and the savior to the saved-less? Hmm...what a great reminder on this year when Christmas was done before Christmas...

Is baking cookies really enough?

I always feel like I should post...I don't have anything significant to say, but I feel like I need to be entertaining...or open...or both. But I wonder if the felt need to post on my blog creates an unrealistic sense of boredom with my life? Do I feel so much more like my life isn't exciting enough when I'm always thinking of something "significant" enough to share? Hmm...interesting thought. Maybe I'll just share one of those "little" moments in my day where life just seemed completely perfect, almost surreal (can it really be that good???). You know those moments? Sometimes they're few and far between, but today I had one and boy was it good!

I was at home this afternoon...there wasn't much to do at work, so I was on my way home (through a snowstorm) by 11:00am. After a bank visit, a mail visit, another bank visit (to deposit a cheque that came in the mail...whoo-hoo!), a movie-rental-place visit (to return a movie from date night last night), shoveling the driveway, I was home for the afternoon. What to do??? I wandered around the house for a while, cleaning this and cleaning that and playing with our financial numbers (because I LOVE to do that!) on the computer, I decided that I would do some Christmas baking. I've never really done this before (Christmas baking specifically--I've done plenty of baking otherwise) but this year I thought, "forget the fact that it's only Nathan and I living here...I'm going to bake many varieties of Christmas goodness and eat them whenever I want throughout the merry season! I started baking and about halfway through the fudge puddles, melted-chocolate-chip cake and supper, I kinda experienced an "out-of-body" moment. I looked at myself, baking tons of chocolatey too-good-to-be-true-ness, supper on the stove, Lennox on his mat beside the island (contentedly chewing on one of his toys), husband sitting at the island working on something, all warm in our beautiful, perfect house and I was amazed. What a perfect moment. It was exactly what I'd always imagined my life to be when I was married. I am so blessed...so what if there's not alot of excitement and travelling and new things happening daily. I have my dream. What more can I ask?

Thank you, Lord.

Picture Post...

As I've been putting these pictures on my blog, they've been automatically adding to the top of my post and not progressing down the page as I had first anticipated...therefore, they are completely backwards as far as the timeline of our trip. So, if you want to see the true timeline, you can start at the bottom and work your way upwards. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy a jumbled version of our trip to California!
This is a picture of my family (l-r: Andrew, Mom, Alicia and Dad) wandering like tourists at Disney Land. They all look so lost...I love it!

We did two days at Disney Land (one in the California Adventure park and one in actual Disney Land). This is a picture of my parents...they think they're ready for this ride, but actually...

We went to Mexico one day (parked in Cali and walked across)...when we were walking back across this was the traffic we saw at the border and we waited for an hour (on foot) to reach American soil again.

This is Nathan and I at Joshua Tree National Park...not many trees, you say? Well, there is some fuzzy-ness coming out of Nathan's head in this picture...that is the top of a Joshua tree.

This is the view from the top of a crew setting up for a Victoria's secret red (aka hot pink) red carpet. The stars on the sidewalk are the Hollywood walk of fame stars. Pretty cool, huh?

This is just a very cool picture of me and Andrew (my brother) at Joshua Tree National Park...climbing the rocks.

Nathan and I with a teeny tiny little Hollywood sign in the background. Can you see it???

Shopping for hot sauce in a farmers market in LA...world's hottest hot sauce - $130/bottle.

On the way to California...all excited to be warm!

Newport Beach, here I come!

This is our destination of choice...nice, warm, beautiful Newport Beach, California!! I mentioned in my last post that we are looking forward to a trip with my family to California. Well, this trip is only four days away! I'm really excited to be leaving the snow that has been falling today and to arrive at a much warmer destination! We plan to do a day at Disney Land and a day in Mexico (as we're only a few hours' drive from the border). Other than that, we don't really have any plans...as far as I know, anyway! My parents might have some fun and exciting things planned for us that we don't know about yet. But if not, that's just fine too! I'm more than ready to relax and spend some time with family! Whoo-hoo!

Life

Life for me seems to be going in a million different directions. On one hand, there's work...this aspect of life is going pretty good, and isn't keeping me TOO busy. Since inventory a couple weeks ago, when I was putting in MANY more hours, life has slowed down and I'm back down to two/three half days a week. I enjoy work, and when there's so much to do, it's a nice break from life. I can just head to work and organize their paperwork for a few hours and then come home and feel organized, even if the house is a mess and I have twenty different things that I need to get done before winter.

Nathan is still enjoying youth. It will always keep us busy...as long as we're youth pastoring anyway. Yup, it will ALWAYS keep us busy! We just had a youth retreat last weekend and we both came home tired from it, but I also think it went well. I'm not much for youth retreats, especially ones that happen when it's less than 20 degrees outside, but as far as youth retreats go, it went pretty well. The youth had fun and we had a great speaker, so overall it was a success.

We are also STILL in the process of putting new siding on our house. It was been going since the weekend before Labor day long. We're mostly done the front though, so once that's done, I'll be ok with parking the project for winter and continuing in spring. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting all of the siding off of our driveway so that we can actually park the car with all four wheels on the concrete! Plus, I think it will do alot for my stress level to not see that stack every time I leave our house or come back.

In the back of my mind (rapidly coming to the forefront though) is a trip to California that my family is planning to take from November 10-18. It will be my parents, my sister, my brother, and Nathan and I. My uncle surprised my parents with the offer of their 2007 air miles and the use of their timeshare condo this spring, so now the trip is almost here! I can't wait to get away for a week! I'm really feeling like I need it.

I also feel like Nathan and I need to just get away together. It's relaxing to get away with the whole family (and I am looking forward to our trip VERY much) but there's something much more relaxing - perhaps less exciting - about taking off with just my husband to a place where we can forget about the rest of the world and just be us. No phone calls. No work. No expectations or visitors or adjenda! Nothing but us together. Mmm...that's what I really feel like I need right now. Oh well. Hopefully we'll be able to take off in the new year sometime! I don't really see it happening before then!

But yeah, that's life for us right now. We're busy and I'm getting tired. But that's life. I'll get my second wind and then two weeks from now, I'll be relaxing in Cali with my family! Whew. Sounds good.

Not much...still blogging???

Hey everyone...so blogging for me has kinda taken a backseat to life lately. Life is just so busy, but with less and less to broadcast to the world, you know? Life is just busy routine with nothing too much exciting happening. Work continues to be good, youth is great, Lennox is wonderful, our house is slowly getting more and more done...not much else! Maybe there will be more to write about soon (if my imagination picks up...) : )

Sitting here...watching the clock...waiting...

Today I am answering the phones at the church. I'm a little concerned that I'm not hearing the phone, because I've only answered it twice since I've gotten here, and both times there were other people here to tell me it was ringing. It is so quiet and I am quite distracted from the phone with my unlimited internet access. (My internet access is usually limited by time...I'm usually in Nathan's office after hours, but needing to go home to make supper or go to bed or something). So today, since 11:30, I've been here at the church, exploring the never-ending world of facebook, and am realizing how people no longer have time for their blogs. It is pretty addicting. BUT, I am not one to become addicted.

This past year, I've been surrounded by engagements and weddings and pregnancies and babies like never before. It is a bit overwhelming at times, but SO exciting too! I am so proud of all my friends who are entering new worlds of marriage and parenthood. I guess it is just that stage of life! So, this post is a congratulations to all those who have had exciting announcements in the past year (hopefully I won't miss anyone).

Engagements:

Counting down with...

Ben and Marsha! Whoo-hoo! Looking forward to it! - April 2008

Caleb and Susan - December 2007

Betti and Andrew - ???

Corey and Carina - ???

Weddings:

Congratulations to...

Terry and Candice - August of 2006.

Betty and Bryce - October of 2006.

Tim and Erica - June 23, 2007

Aaron and Cheryl - June 2, 2007

Charles and Jody - August 2007

Dennis and Lianna - December 2006

Doug and Teena - January 2007

Expectancies:

Looking ahead with...

Peter and Amanda - November

Kendall and Sabrina - November

Matt and Sara - October

Mike and Kristen - April

Tim and Kelsie - April

Steve and Rose - March

Darryl and Sheri - ???

Births:

Excited with:

Matt and Sara - Thaddeus Matthew

Dwight and Marla - Moses Jarett

Trevor and Rebekah - Isaiah Mosali

Ryan and Heather - James Kennedy

Doug and Elissa - Caleb Nathan

Jeremy and Rachael - Ava Bentley

Terry and Candice - Jac Dean

Darren and Amy - Averi Jael

Brad and Carla - Carter Hayden

Bobby and Kristi - Noah ???

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Desperately want to update...not sure what to post...

Does this ever happen to anyone else? You really want to get rid of that old post that has been on your blog for a couple weeks but you have no clue what to replace it with? That's me right now. Despite really liking that picture, I think it needs to go...
So what's new?
We got cable today...well, officially we're being hooked up tomorrow, but we're officially cable-watchers. We've talked about investing in more channels many times before (the most extensive research being done last fall), but we've never been able to justify putting a monthly payment into watching tv. Now that our car is paid off and some work on the house has been done (or at least is in the process of being completed), we both feel like we can afford to treat ourselves to a little extra. It's funny how this decision came only days after we decided that we would try to watch a little less tv and spend a little more quality time with each other. I think that both can be accomplished though. We will be deliberate about what we watch on cable and be sure it's something that we really want to see before the tv has run for hours and we have no idea what we've watched. Hopefully this was a wise decision!
I mentioned in the previous paragraph that work on the house is being done. Well, it certainly is. Too bad I don't have a picture to show you. For the past two and a half weeks, our house has been sitting there with no siding on it but wrapped snugly in brand new insulation. Needless to say, the color of our lovely mint apple green house hasn't changed much (the insulation and our old siding are similar) but I can confidently say that before the snow flies, we shall have a beautiful Stratus-colored house. What is Stratus-colored, you ask? Well...come visit. That's the best I can do to describe it to you.
Youth is starting tonight and tomorrow night (senior then junior youth). We're having games/campfire nights with both groups at two different farm yards. It's really cold though, so we'll need a huge fire to warm us all up! These next two nights are the start to the winter that we already know is going to be crazy busy. BUT...heading into this year of youth, I am feeling the most prepared and excited and ready than I have since we began our work with the youth. I'm really excited about that because at the end of last year, I was so stressed and busy and not feeling it that I was ready to be done with youth completely. This summer has been great for reflecting on who I am and where my place is as Nathan's wife, as a youth pastors wife and even just as me. What are my passions and where do I fit into ministry in Altona? I think that I am ready to say that I do fit at the Hub with the EMMC (and community) youth and am excited to see what this year of ministry is going to bring.