it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

so it's true. it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. things are starting to get ridiculously busy. i am looking forward to the fact that on the evening of dec 19th, i'll head off to seattle for Christmas and then on to melbourne. i will be looking forward to the different kind of business that that will bring - i have already been booked in to babysit when i arrive in seattle.
last sunday sandra spoke about the wonder of Christmas. the wonder of God. how we often forget to look for the small, or large, things that create a sense of awe in us.
i have found some this week. i can't remember mondays, but on tuesday it was the fog. it was crazy fog. and in the next few days i think it could be snow. i just heard on the news that there is freezing rain/snow forecast for tonight. brrrr.
but i have to admit that last saturday as matt and i walked through the city, i did get a little excited about having a cold Christmas. i really did. it was nice. of course, that doesn't mean in any way, shape or form that i wouldn't rather spend Chritmas in the heat, going to carols by candlelight at the sidney myer music bowl. i will miss that a lot. but i did get a little excited about the cold Christmas.
anyway, go look for some wonder andstop sitting on your butt and surfing the web.

no pain, no gain, yeah thanks a lot shane

so a few of us have started working out at the community centre where we have church on sundays. it's just a small gym, but it's got everything you need, including shane. shane is our personal trainer. this is all great, especially coz it's free. oh, i mean it's great until the day after you go and see shane. and the day after that too. probably even the day after that. he makes you work HARD.
i went on thursday. he made me do a few different exercises. but yesterday and today i am paying terribly for the squats he made me do. i can feel it when i walk, going upstairs is ok, but you should see me walk downstairs. it's hilarious. well, not for me, for me it's painful. seriously. and trying to sit down. ha. thanks a lot shane. if no pain, no gain is what we are going by here, i must have gained A LOT on thursday.
this afternoon is somali tutor group. we have about 40 kids that come. they are all so sweet. and work so hard. i love them. but it's for two hours and i find it hard to concentrate. thank goodness they are running late today. after that i think i want to go to the movies. i want to see happy feet. geoff took their kids last night and sasha reported back to me this morning that it was very funny.
i also did kettles this morning. i think i may have made over $300 in my two hours, thanks to the very generous man who chucked in a wad of $20's.
have a great day.

pics from seattle

it was two weeks ago today that matt and i went to seattle. that came and went by so quickly. i thought i'd post a few pics from that lovely occassion.



daniel and riley (matt's niece)


kez, hil, daniel, matt and fee



dad and daniel



daniel and darren



hil and matt playing chess

a quick thought for the day

if you ever stop reading or learning, you are in danger of thinking you know it all.

(not really sure where that came from, i'm pretty sure i didn't think it up all by myself, but i don't know who did)

one more quick thought, 5 weeks today i'll arrive home!!!!! I CAN"T WAIT!!!!

same day service

we have started kettles already. for those who aren't in the know - kettles are how north americans do most of their fundraising for the salvos. i have done three shifts already, this morning's being my most successful. the girls are counting how much i made as i type. anyway, as i was standing/sitting at loblaws across from the dry cleaners, my eyes kept wandering to the 'same day service' sign. it got me thinking. how often do we expect same day service. probably a lot. this isn't the age of patience. fast food. fast cars. 1 hour photos. 2 minute noodles. 7 minute abs. broadband internet. blah blah blah. we are used to getting things fast and now. same day service.
thing is - relationships aren't same day service. they take time. you can just expect things to happen instantly. ok, granted, some relationships devleop a lot quicker than others, but they still take time.
so how often do we expect same day service from God. a lot. thing is - this is a relationship as well. it takes time. time for us to change, to learn, to grow. if any of this happens instantly, its usually not lasting. but somehow we still think, even demand at times, God to act instantly.
for some things, same day service is brilliant. but for others, taking time and having patience is much more important.

men in my life - part - um...i've lost count

today is yet another tribute to a man in my life who, though i haven't been able to spend all that much time with, is a very very special boy. his name is daniel kean. yes, he is the younger brother of my boyfriend, matthew. now, daniel is a very good looking boy (some would say, of course, he's a kean, others would say, well matt is so good looking, any brother of his would have to be also...either way). he's also a very talented guitar player (just look at him go in the picture below). i had the priviledge of listening to him play on numerous occassions. he dresses well, works hard and is quite funny. he's also able to have really long, loud, angry, quite pointless arguments with his brother. but then again, that's what siblings are for! i had the opportunity to witness one or two of these aswell.


i also want to acknowledge another man in my life who is one of my two 'adopted brothers'. that's brad. (aaron is my other adopted brother). i want to congratulate brad for making it two this year. i am proud of him. maybe it was the training i was putting him through (all the 'brad, if you burp like that, you'll never get a girlfriend'), and now i have gone, i have released him to reach his full potential. yes, i think that's it. well done, brad.


brad is the sexy one on the right (the sexy one on the left is dustin)

clean!!!

just wanted to quickly share that my short lived time with head lice is now over. thanks to all who showed support. hopefully that phase of my life is gone forever.

should i be blogging about this??? probably not...

i probably shouldn't blogging about this...but seeing as i tell everyone anyway...i have nits (or for those who don't understand - head lice). yesterday morning after waking up from my first night in my bed after our fantastic trip to seattle, i found a bug on my hand.
now, never having had lice before in my entire life (though a few weeks ago i combed a few out of someone else's head) i wasn't exactly sure what it was. my thoughts were it's either lice or bed bugs. out of the two, i would have preferred the lice. anyway, i killed it, then wrapped it up in a tissue, brought it to sandra who comfirmed it was lice and then upon consequnt checking of my head, welcomed me to my full initiation in the area. thanks.
anyway, so my life over the last 24 hours has consisted of washing and blow drying, hair and sheets and clothes. tonight i get to sit there while kanga combs through my whole head. now, thankfully, no bugs were found on my head, just the eggs. but that's still gross. yuk. oh well. hopefully they'll be gone soon.

i had just been thinking recently about becoming complacent. imagine i was complacent about head lice. hmm. don't want to go there. but sometimes, unless something is really pressing, do we really care. if it's not affecting us directly, can we be bothered. do we just keep putting things on the back burner. i am guilty, for many times i have just not bothered doing lots of things because i was too selfish. as a Christian, my life is not about me. it's about living life as God would want you to. and that's not sitting around seeking what's best for me, how i can do this better for me, how things affect me and my world that revolves around me. it about God and others. i forget that sometimes.

who would have thought head lice could remind me of such a valuable lesson!!!

sunny(?) seattle + balance

ahhh, so lovely to see my little daniel again. he's gotten so big...though not quite big enough for daddy's shoes just yet!!!

so, we flew (much to matt's delight) here on friday. thanks to colin and sarah for driving us to buffalo! we had a nice night meeting up with my whole family and also matt's sister, brother in law and their daughter (Zoe, Chris and Riley). saturday we got up and went for a shop/visit to U Village. it was lovely there and there was no rain that day, though when we were trying to leave we stuck stuck in husky football traffic, meaning it took us an hour and a half to get home (NB - trip should take 25ish minutes).
sat night, a few of us went to the justice and worship conference that seattle temple had on. 'the singing company' led worship, and danielle strickland spoke. afterwards, matt, dad and i headed round to kez and hil's to eat krispy kremes. YUM. i love those.
sunday we went to seattle temple and that was really great. the singing company again led worship as did tom freeman. both were excellent. Geoff (Ryan) spoke really well. i think the best i can recall hearing him speak. matt said it was really interesting to hear him and see him outside our context. you know, we just seee him him living out the convictions he was speaking about. ha. it's funny. in a good way. we were proud of him!
one of the thoughts running through my head right now is balance. it's so important for Christians to be balanced people. i'm talking about a balanced focus on all the areas that a Christian needs to be concerned with - prayer, repentance, worship, scripture, the Holy Spirit, social justice etc. all too often i have seen people become too worried about one aspect and in turn become what i'll call an unbalanced Christian. Now, while i don't think i have ever been so concerned with just one aspect that i could be called an extremist, i know there have been times in my life where while some of those areas have been great, some, at the same time, have been neglected. when we go to extremes, something suffers. where it's our relationship with God, or with people, something suffers. balance is the key.

george romero

turns out this movie that i said was being filmed yesterday is being done by none other than the famous george romero. (i hadn't heard of him, but apparently he's pretty famous). all the zombie movies??? anyway, i was with one of our girls and we went to have a look at the filming and george not only walked past me, but smiled at me. i am pretty much famous now. look out for regent park in the movie when it comes out 'diary of the dead'.

(1 sleep till seattle...YAY)

a few things

ah, i have been run off my feet today, one of those days when everything seems to happen and everything all of a sudden needs to be done NOW. so, to give my brain a little rest, i just thought i'd blog.
i've been good recently, despite the weather getting colder, most days are nice and sunny, though not today, it's kind of grey and foggy. but that works well because just outside my house, they are filming some movie called 'diary of the dead' and it's apparently a zombie movie. so i guess the weather fits.
matt and i are off to seattle on friday. i am very excited. i can't wait to see my family and matt's sister zoe and her husnbad chris and their daughter riley (who's jsut a little older than daniel) will also come to visit. darren's coming down too, so it will be loud and hopefully a lot of fun!
i have been thinking about a few different things recently, one of which is how we can sometimes just be so lazy. now, don't get me wrong, taking time out to rejuvinate (did i spell that right) is very important. i'm talking about doing new things. sometimes, we have the best intentions but never get anywhere. sometimes the hardest thing is just to start. but for some reason, that starting bit is just so hard. i was blessed that when i moved to toronto my slate (or schedule) was wiped clean and i was able to prioritise my values and the way i spent my time from scratch and it was brilliant. but now i have been here over 6 months (i can't believe that sometimes) and life is again life. to start something new will mean something else has to be let go of. it usually does. but it's also necessary. anyway, my encouragement for today - if you want to start something new, just do it. get off your butt and try it. and ditch that old thing, if necessary, that is just wasting your time.

before i finish, 2 quick messages
1) to the boys at the gateway, thanks for boosting my daily site hits, i am sure you guys are the reason that canada just took over the states in number of people that visit my blog
2) of course i will blog about you on your birthday brad - bring on new years eve, i will be home then, probably at your house (by the way, can i stay with you guys???), so just remind me in case)

Big Al's birthday too...

i have to mention a special cousin-in-law of mine who also celebrated his birthday on the same day as my brother-in-law. Big Al. Happy Birthday, my tall cousin-in-law. Al and Lou (my cousin) got married earlier this year on Jan 6. It was a lovely day. A lot of fun too. They are a great couple. Generally pretty easy going and relaxed (though they can both get fired up if needs be). They also have great taste in television, including my current favourite Survivor. Al has been known to spend his school holidays down at the caravan watching the series straight through on dvd. I told you he's a great man. by the way, are you guys at home getting the new series at cook islands? it's starting to get to the really great part, really close to the merge! anyway, happy birhtday Al!!!

the last few weeks

i am sure you've all answered the question 'what have you done this week', well, today, to give you some insight into what my life is like, i thought i'd give you a few things that have happened over the last fortnight or so (or for those of you who don't understand that language, the last two weeks):
- i helped, twice, to try and comb lice out of some beautiful childrens hair, it proved to be an impossible task.
- i saw a man pull up next to a woman and then saw her climb into the car (well actually, i have seen this numerous times over the last few weeks) but then this time, as soon as she shut the door, 2 cops came running out of nowhere and it turns out she was an undercover cop and they busted him. that was a nice change from usually just seeing the woman get in the car and they drive off.
- i helped a family move from one apartment to a townhouse. it reminded me to be thankful for the place that i live in.
- i preached at the korean salvation army corps that we (matt and i) and the ignite team attend every second week.
- i noticed my skin is as pale as it has been in such a long time that i can't remember (i am not exaggerating - i honestly can't remember the last time i had no tan lines on my body and it's just about there - scary!)
- i went out and celebrated the birthday of a man who says he's not exactly sure how old he is as his mother never told him
- i celebrated my first Eid, with the somali group that i do tutoring with on saturdays at our office
- i went and worked out my muscles for the first time since leaving home, they coped pretty well
- i took a bunch of ladies from our community to an exclusive spa, verity. we get to go every now and then and they treat us all. unfortunately i missed out on the massage. oh well.
if you had asked me about the last few weeks, i would have said they were pretty normal. and they were, for me.
life is funny. i have been learning a lot recently about how different and how similar peoples lives can be. a lot of us go through the same things, just in vastly different contexts.
have a happy friday.

canada has snatched 2nd place

in the ever-raging battle between the countries who read my blog, canada has now snatched 2nd place from the states. Australia is still a mile ahead in first place. as i just stated, canada gets 2nd place, with the states now relegated to 3rd. coming in 4th place is the united kingdom, followed by france in 5th!!!
have a great day wherever you are around the globe!

i thought it went without saying...

just a little note to add to my previous blog...

i thought it went without saying that a Hailes girl would never date an unattractive man...

apparently not.

Hil is very handsome.