A few new things...

It finally feels like stuff is starting to change and things are happening in life. Does anyone out there know the cycle that I speak of? Months and months will go by with what seems like nothing happening and then all of a sudden everything feels like it's changing!

This weekend we went on a junior youth retreat. We had close to forty 12-13 year olds up at Camp Arnes from Friday evening until Sunday noon. It was a busy weekend (needless to say), but it was also a good time of connecting, reflecting, enjoying nature, learning about God, and, even though it's near the end of the youth group year, learning names. We had the perfect leaders up there with us and the speaker was also a God-send. Last year, Nathan planned the retreat and spoke. This year, we were smarter and brought along Dan Derksen from Winkler EMMC to do the speaking. Much smarter!

When we got home from the retreat, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the entire world had exploded into a green, alive place. While we were gone, grass grew, trees budded, and the world became alive again. It was wonderful to come home to. This is my favorite time of year...

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to apply for a full time position doing reception at the company I am with. It was pretty much the exact job that I've been doing since September (and last winter) but it would be full time hours instead of half time. I thought about it and prayed about it alot and in the end decided that summer was just too important to me and working full time just wouldn't be worth the extra $$. That same afternoon that I declined the job, a friend of ours, Dwight, came by and asked if I would be interested in doing paperwork at the lumber yard where he is the manager. What a great answer to prayer! I hadn't really wanted to be done working all together, but wasn't really excited to be job-hunting either. The interesting thing about this turn of events, is that I'd often thought that it would be fun to work at a place like that, doing paperwork (like I am) or other. Now, my hours are super-flexible, I'm working with a bunch of guys who are very funny to listen to, and I enjoy the work. I started last week, and today was my 3rd day. God is so good!

Today, Nathan and I also took Lennox to the vet. The time had come for him to...umm...become neutral. He went in quite excited about the new place and came out slightly less excited. He has been sleeping and hardly moving since we brought him home. I suppose that is to be expected...

So that is life around here. No huge changes happening, but just enough to keep us on our toes and keep things interesting. It's a good thing too...we were beginning to get restless...

Whew...haven't posted since March, eh?

As I was going through the blogs that I regularly read, I realized that I everyone has posted at least once since the last time I did! I'm getting pretty bad at this. Oh well...when you don't have internet at home, it makes for a good excuse.


Easter weekend was good here in Altona. Nathan's parents and brother and their dog, Sheila, were out for the weekend. It was a short trip, but it was good. It was fun to watch the two dogs play and determine who was dominant. (Most of you can probably picture what that looked like!) The black dog in the picture us our Lennox and the golden retriever is Sheila. They look very calm and well-behaved in this picture, but they had food being dangled in front of their noses. We can count on one hand the amount of hours when they were completely calm through the weekend (except for sleeping). It was alot of fun though. Don't they look great together?

My Creative Memories business is kinda having a slow start. It's been fun, but I definitely haven't reached the "out of the investment hole" mark. It's coming, but it might be a while. I have another Get Together later this month, so maybe that one will help me out a little bit!

A couple weeks ago, I had a consultation with an oral surgeon...has anyone out there ever had their wisdom teeth out? How was it? Nathan was out of commission for at least 3-4 days when he had his out. Other people say they were back to work the next day. I am being put completely under when they do it because they have to cut them out, not just pull them. I'm not terribly excited about it at all. And cost...it is stinkin' expensive to have anyone even look into your mouth these days! We have insurance but how can the insurance company top out at $1000/calendar year? My wisdom teeth alone are supposed to cost $1650! So now we're trying to decide if we can wait until next year and start saving now! It's not like they're a real huge problem so I have a hard time spending that kind of money on it, but Nathan keeps reminding me that it's better to do it now than when we have kids and I'm 40 and we don't have the money and it's harder to take them. I guess. Ick!

Happy Birthday

That's right, today is Lennox's First birthday!!!! He has been a great part of the McCorkindale House. Two pics of him (the first from last fall when we Got him, and the 2nd from just a few days ago.)

What to write about?

Writers block. Does it every happen to you where you really want to update your blog because you're tired of always seeing the same title sitting there but you never know what to write about? That's me.

Random fact: I used to use "writers block" as an excuse to sit and talk to friends all through creative writing class. It worked.

Anyway, so...what did I do today? Well, I came to the church (my only internet access) this morning at 8:30 and signed up to be a Creative Memories consultant. ("YEAH!") I'm pretty excited about it. My kit should be here by Monday. I'm excited to look through it. It's kinda crazy though how people spend so much money on "celebrating memories" when really they could spend a bunch of that money on actually making the memories. I like scrapbooking, but there is a line. I always say, "If I can't carry everything I need to scrapbook for an evening in one load, it's too much stuff. Makes me think about materialism. The speaker at a retreat we were recently at mentioned how North American churches have values that talk about materialism...churches in Africa shake their heads because that just isn't even an issue to them. They talk about other things that we don't even think about. Our culture is so materialistic. Some days I am actually interested in giving everything up and living simply. It would be interesting, wouldn't it, at least for a while?

I had a busy afternoon at work today. I was asked to work a couple extra shifts this week as soon as I walked in. Then, a couple seconds later, I was asked to work an extra shift next week. Then, partway through the afternoon, I was asked to work two additional shifts next week. Plus, for the whole month of April I will be working four mornings a week instead of three afternoons. I accepted all the shifts offered me, of course, because I can handle busy-ness, if I can see the end. At least that's what I tell myself... That, and Nathan and I are saving up for a something. So anyway, all these extra shifts were making me think $$$ (I know, completely counters my materialistic comments earlier) and then, at the end of the day, I was called into my supervisors office and she told me that I'd earned a raise! Whoo-hoo! So that had me pretty excited. It's been a good day. And now, I get to go home to my wonderful husband and watch some Lost (Season 2). Mmm...I love my life some days...

Some news and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

So, even though in my title "congratulations" came second, I must start with that. Congratulations to all my friends with exciting news in these past few days/weeks. Congratulations to my Marsha who is getting MARRIED!!! Congratulations to my friends Tim and Erica who are also getting MARRIED!!! Congratulations to those of you who are expecting (I can count five pregnancies just off the top of my head). Congratulations to those of you who have news that I just haven't heard yet! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

And now, for my news! Drumrole, please...

Actually, it's not that exciting. Forget the drumrole. Maybe just applause at the end...

I think I've finally found my "dream" job! I'll be working from home...whatever hours I want... I can have summers off...I can continue once we have kids...it's got great benefits (though not medical, and I don't think retirement either...)...

I am going to be a Creative Memories consultant! Whoo-hoo!

I must ask, does the beautiful, spring-like weather make anyone else super happy?

Where have I been?

These past couple weeks have been very busy. I checked my blog two days ago, and realized that I haven't updated since February! Now, I realize that some of you are thinking, "So what's the big deal? I haven't updated since January!" And that's no problem! No problem at all... I on the other hand have no kids to use for an excuse.

So what's been keeping me busy? Well, youth has been a big part of it. We were doing a pizza fundraiser (selling pizzas) and two evenings were full with making pizzas along with some of the youth. You can see some pictures on Nate's blog (follow link on the right side of my blog). On top of that, we have youth two days a week. Then, this past weekend was a church leadership retreat at Camp Arnes. It was really good. I came back spiritually refreshed, but not terribly rested. You know? I'm still working three afternoons a week, which is perfect. And other than that, I really have no excuses. I guess being busy all the time just makes me tired. : )

But today is a day of rest!!! And on my day of rest, I am baking buns and bread (both white and brown), doing laundry, cleaning the house, and doing some reading for a class we're taking at SBC next weekend! Sounds relaxing, doesn't it? I just can't sit still if there's work staring me in the face. You all know how it works when there's stuff that needs to get done but won't get done if you don't do it, right? I can't just sit and do nothing one day if I know the next day I'll pay for it!

Amidst this busy-ness, the importance of being still and knowing that HE is God has been made very real. I was having my quiet time the other morning and was watching the trees in our front yard and a verse came to me about God not being in the wind and earthquakes and fire, but in the gentle whisper. When there is such a gentle breeze that the tree branches barely move, it always makes me think of God being right there with me. This particular morning, this specific verse came to mind. When I found it in my Bible, I was surprised to find that it was in the chunk of Bible that I was going to be reading that morning! 1 Kings 19! I always love when things like that happen. It's like God is saying, "See, I am right here. I do love you. Please just be still and know that I am here." Mmmm...ok daddy.

Is summer ever going to be on it's way?

February and March are tough months for me. Why? Well, the winter blues really catch up with me. It's not that I get really depressed (usually) or anything too bad really, but I just come to a point when I feel like if I look at the snow one more day, or have my breath taken away by the cold one more time, I could actually just explode! Does anyone else share this frustration?

Here's some tips on what to do when this happens:

• spend as much time as you can inside your warm house, wrapped in a blanket (preferrably a fuzzy one)
  
• read a book (try Lord of the Rings...that should take you until the weather is warmer)
• go on a vacation (for those of you who have money/time for that)
• plan a vacation (for those of you with less money/time)
• look back through your pictures and be reminded of what your yard looks like those 2 glorious months each year
• go tanning (I know, this is VERY bad for you, but it works)
• think about moving to the southern states and how it just wouldn't be worth it at all (health care, government, hurricanes, etc)

There you go. From one winter-sufferer to another. All the best in beating those nasty winter blues!

Tribute to my Valentine (6 days late)

Nathan. What a godly, supportive, wonderful, gracious, helping, encouraging, caring, fun-loving man. For those of you who don't know Nathan, he's my husband. We've been married for 21 months, and the honeymoon stage is still going strong. He is a youth pastor at the church we attend. He loves big tvs, technology, music, movies, youth, God and me. He is a very gifted public speaker, and is also a great leader. He can lead the youth in worship just as well as in crazy, off-the-wall events. He can make me laugh in almost any situation. He lets me win when we wrestle and even allows me the bragging rights afterwards. We have so much fun together. What a wonderful man of God. He is such a perfect match for me.

(pictures to come)

Under Construction

So, as you may have noticed...I'm in the process of changing the look of my blog. Whenever I looked at it, it didn't show the stars on top (which is what I liked about it in the first place) so I've wanted to change it since I did it, but my internet access is at Nathan's office and it takes me SO long to do anything with my blog because I spend all of my time just trying to figure out how to do it and then it takes the computer a long time to process. So, finally tonight I had some time, so I thought I would attempt to make some changes. It was going good until I ran out of time (see, I have to be home in 1 minute because Grey's is on tv) and I still haven't found all of the links to other people's blogs that I want to put on my blog. So could you guys, if you don't see your name under my "Friends" list, send me the link to your blog? I would REALLY appreciate it! Thanks a bunch! Take care!
p.s-you can send me a link to your blog even if I didn't have it on my blog before because then I just don't have to blog hop as much!!! Thanks!

BFFBNOTSIC

First, I want to thank Nathan for that last post...he posted on behalf of me and did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself! I was so excited that Marsha was coming down! I went to pick Marsha up last Thursday at the Winnipeg airport. I arrived in perfect timing and even made it to the right arrival gate. (This is pretty good because government anything confuses me!) I waited and waited and when it appeared that no one else was coming, I went and checked the arrival times. Sure enough, the flight from Saskatoon/Edmonton to Winnipeg was delayed an hour. Oh well, I happened to have a book with me, so by the time I was done that, her plane was in. It was great to see her again, since I hadn't seen her since my wedding (21 months). I haven't very many of my friends since my wedding, and that is really too bad. We'll all have to get together sometime. Maybe at Cheryl's wedding?! Anyway, so she finally arrived and then we still had four hours to kill before Alicia was off work, because we were going to hang out with her that night. We went and walked around the mall and then went out for supper and then headed over. We had a good visit with Alicia at her apartment and then headed home around 9:30 so that we could be home by 10:30/11:00pm. In the last 10 minutes of our drive, we passed a semi and a guy was hanging out the door, waving us over. Well, we stopped and it ended up that his diesel had all gummed up because of the cold and he had his "wife" in the sleeper and the heat wasn't working back there so she was all dressed up, preparing for a long wait. She came in our car and, after following this guy for a couple yards going only 30 km/hr down the highway, he called a tow truck to bring what he needed for his diesel and we took his "wife" to Winkler to the Tim Hortons. On the way there, we found out that she had loved this man 40 years ago and then he cheated on her once and they didnt' speak again, and recently they met again, after each had been married, and now they are engaged. Cool story, huh? Anyway, as we're driving to Winkler, she asks if we smoke and we say "no". She says, "Good. This is my souvenir for 30+ years of smoking." (She's on oxygen) She tells us about how she nearly died because of smoking and how she saw heaven and how she doesn't have words enough for God's love. And then she found out that I was a pastor's wife...wow! When we got to Tim Hortons she invited us inside and bought us coffee and we ended up talking there for two hours while she waited for her fiance to show up with the truck. It was an interesting time, good and thought-provoking at the same time. We ended up getting home after 1:00am instead of 10:30 like we hoped. But it was good. An interesting start to our weekend!
The next morning, we slept in and then spent the day baking buns and bread. Marsha got the job of mixing everything with her hands. It got pretty messy (in the picture, the mass of dough is Marsha's hand), but it turned out better than our cookies that we tried to bake! I've never tasted chocolate chip cookies so...weird! The next day we made cabbage soup (which we both love) while Nathan could barely breathe because of the smell of cabbage in the house. We had lots of fun. Lots of talking and playing canasta and looking at pictures. I'm so glad it finally worked out for her to come visit. It is always wonderful to get together with friends, especially friends with some history.
Now, Nathan and I are both tired from late nights this weekend. But it was worth it.