fiona (hailes) kean

Merry Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T12:18:00.000-05:00

Christmas can be an unusual time. For our church/corps family it is most definitely bringing many things.

Yesterday at just before our service/kids Christmas pagent began, one of our members went into hospital and has since given birth to a healthy baby boy. At the same time, there was a fatal shooting out the back of the school where we where having our service yesterday, and the man was a son of another of our members.

Please pray for both of these mothers this Christmas.

snow snow snow

2007-12-19T10:11:00.001-05:00

you may have heard, or you may even be living in it, but Toronto has a big snow storm last sunday. it had been snowing for the few days before and has been a little bit since. but sunday it was crazy. the roads were all completely covered, well, everything was completely covered. it was beautiful and all i wanted to do was go and play in it. i got to drive, and it was a lot of fun, it was kind of like driving in a computer game where you get to slide and stuff. as long as you were being very careful, it wasn't too bad and there weren't many cars on the 'roads' at all.

one thing i have loved about this snow being around, is how people kick in to helpful mode. for example, our neighbours shovelled a little path to our front door and i've seen many random strangers get together to push someone's car that is stuck. ah, the wonders of snow.

i love this snow

matt at our front door

happy matt

happy fee

the view from our front door

matt pushing a random stranger's car

just walking in the snow

this is the view or river st, a busy downtown road...well, usually, when there is no snow...

matt running through the snow

safely inside out of the cold

12 days till Christmas...?

2007-12-15T10:51:00.001-05:00

Well, there's just a little less than 12 days, but I had to share this anyway...

4 weeks. 1 sleep.

2007-12-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

That's all I have left in Toronto...for the time being at least. I have stopped trying to predict what the future holds. It's too hard. My plans always seem to get changed anyway.

My emotions are mixed.

I am excited to go home. I am excited for my best friends to meet my husband. I am excited to meet all the new babies my friends have had - especially harriet (merf + rick), josiah (dave and ky) and sienna and amelie (michelle and mike) who were just born this week! I am excited not to have to wear layers and long johns and jackets. I am excited to go swimming in the ocean. I am excited to show Matt my home/city/country.

I am sad to leave behind good friends. I am sad to leave behind my Ignite team. I am sad that I will not see the beauty of snow falling. I am sad to leave behind our regent park community. I am sad that we won't have the motorbike.

All this will happen in 4 weeks. 1 sleep.

(It should also be noted that I am thankful that last week Matt got to go to Newfoundland to see his family, and that on the flight back, he slept! and there was even some turbulance! that's some very good news.)

christmas is coming

2007-12-05T23:28:00.000-05:00

i am loving christmas this year.

winter Christmas. ha. this is still a phenonemon that i am getting used to. it's not my first. last year i was in seattle. not snowy, but rainy. and then there was those christmasses in scotland when i was a wee girl. but this december is nothing like last year. this december is COLD. and snowing. now, i do get a little excited by this. those carols and christmas songs about snow and cold make more sense.

but i can't tell you how much i am missing outdoor carol services, which you can take a picnic to. annie would be proud of me. she's probably going crazy right aobut now and has all the local services mapped out, so she knows when to go where. i would go to everyone of those with her right now if i could.

and christmas eve carols at the music bowl. i really wish i could be at those. so many good memories. it's so exciting to be there christmas eve.

i am excited about this christmas. not sure why. i don't think it's because it's matt and my's first christmas together - he's working christmas day anyway. i am just really excited about celebrating the birth of Jesus. i have been tuning in to the radio station that plays carols all day long. i am loving it.

hope you are too.

learning again and again

2007-11-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

i've been neglecting my blog over the last 8 days. not intentionally of course. just sometimes life has much more going on than there is time to share it with the world.

one small thing that is currently happening is that matt and i are preparing to leave toronto and make the move to melbourne. it's basically the other side of the world. check toronto and melbourne on the globe and they are pretty much opposite. that's one (or three) long plane ride. there's lot of things to sort out. at least i have a job!

what else have i been doing...

i've been to the dentist - twice. i've been reading dietrich bonhoeffer. i've been playing scrabble online. i've been to the chiropractor (I LOVE HER). i've been to the trading floor at merryl lynch (or however you spell it). i've talked with my girlfriend who's twin girls are due any day now.i've eaten the best crepes with banana and chocolate. i texted another of my girlfriends to wish her a happy 27th birthday. i bought my husbands christmas present, and my nephew and nieces. just to mention a few and keep you in the loop of my life.

one of the lessons i am learning right now is that sometimes, you will never get the glory. now, don't get me wrong, it's not really glory i seek, but sometimes, it's nice to have a little recognition. but, there are times when you work your butt off and you know you are doing the right thing, and good things, but you are never going to get any recognition for it. this is a great lesson to learn. though at times it can be hard. i've also learned that nearly everything, in retrospect, can be made sense of.

ok, so maybe i've learned these lessons before, but i am learning them again.

miss piggy - singing truth

2007-11-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

last night i went with my team to a salvation army home for adults with developmental disabilities, as two of them were leading christian ed. this is the second we've been and i can't help but smile for most of the time i am there. some of these guys have so much joy it's not funny. anyway, i just wanted to share this morning, one specific thing that happened. they love to sing and so we sing. we were singing 'he's got the whole world in his hands' and one of the residents came in late with his worker. he had with him a dvd of the muppets with miss piggy on the front. he joined in the first verse no worries. but then when it got to the second verse, we all started to sing 'he's got the wind and the rain, in his hands', while this one particular resident, who we'll call 'Davie', began to sing, 'he's got miss piggy and davie, in his hands'. it was so funny, his worker laughed a lot, and the rest of us couldn't stop smiling at the least. it got to the third verse, we were all singing 'he's got everybody here, in his hands' and davie started singing, 'he's got davie and paul, in his hands'. now 'paul' was the resident sitting next to him. it really was quite lovely.

i couldn't help but think that 'davie' really did know what he was singing about. he wasn't just singing words, but singing truth that he knew.

tired. but good.

2007-11-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

it's late and i should be in bed. because seriously, i am tired right now. in fact i seem to be tired all the time at the moment. i have really been getting enough sleep (though i don't know what has possessed me to stay up late tonight...). maybe it's the cold. maybe there's a lot to do right now. maybe i'm getting old....

anyway, tonight i have no words of wisdom, not even any words of wisdom that i stole from anyone else.

but i do have a list of things that i appreciate

- friends who make me laugh
- friends who i can relax with
- when my husband takes the garbage out (i haven't done it since we've been married!)
- my family
- that i am healthy (even if i am tired)
- warm, no, hot showers
- the odd occassion when my husband does some of the dishes
- icecream
- swimming
- the real ocean (oh i can't wait...)
- warm sunny days
- a good book
- sleep ins (maybe on saturday...)
- running with a friend, or two
- freedom

to name just a few. so i guess that even if i might be tired, i have a lot still to be thankful for.

what are you thankful for today?

2 friends (+ running in the snow...)

2007-11-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

today it's a first for the season. it was into the minuses and it snowed. ok, so it was only -1 (i can't believe i just said only) and the snow didn't stick on the ground or anything. but still. and guess what. i went running in it. i met with my friend this morning. and whenever we meet, we usually run. so, i am continuing on with my freak exercising in the winter. i like running with my friend. i will be sad when we can't run together anymore.

then today i bumped into another friend. he really is struggling a lot with health and addiction issues. i love him. i said to him, 'how are you doing?' and not just in a way that you'd say it and not mean it, he looked and me and grabbed me in for a hug and said 'i love you'. it broke my heart. more and more each day, i fear for my friend's life. i pray that he will know God's peace in his life.

two dear friends. i love them both and am so thankful to have met them.

who are you thankful for today?

ignite website

2007-11-14T14:48:00.000-05:00

some of you may know that a huge part of my job is to run the Ignite program here at 614 in Regent Park. in case you want to know a little more about it - check out our website - www.ignitegapyear.com - it's just been updated a little and now has a picture of me on it!!!

new cold canadian experiences

2007-11-09T22:35:00.000-05:00

i might have mentioned already, but the weather got really cold this week. i have worn my winter jacket all week (you might remember that this time last year i realised that there is more than one type of jacket...now i know the difference!). i went running twice this week. a very big achievement for three reasons
1) i have been slack and have not run since the half marathon (though i have been doing yoga once a week and i think i made one appearance at the gym...)
2) the weather sucked both times - which links to 3)
3) there was no way i would have gone out and ran in this weather last year...

the first time i went it was freakingly cold. i got warmed up after a few minutes, but my face nearly fell off because it was so cold. i wished i was wearing a balaclava. the second time, tonight with kathy, it was raining lightly when we left, but by the time we got home it was raining pretty bad. but it was a good run. though it was also weird because we went at 6pm, but it was already dark so we ran along the city streets, which was also a new experience.

while we were running, i saw a person, all huddled up in a bus shelter, that was obviously going to be home for the night. not the first time i've seen this. but with the turning of the weather, it means something more. homelessness is something that gets me in the guts, but homelessness in a toronto winter really makes me feel sick. when i think about what some go through in the winter, it makes any complaining that i do about the cold pretty pathetic. whatever my day holds, i have a roof over my head every night, in a home that has heating. i have food to eat, clean clothes to wear and a place where i can shower with warm clean water. i have so much. why do i complain?

money = freedom

2007-11-08T18:14:00.000-05:00

tonight i was sitting listening to an investment broker discuss her job. a statement she made really jumped out at me. she said 'having money is freedom. it means you can do what you want, when you want'. sure, in some ways this statement makes a lot of sense. this woman is no dummie.
but then i started to think about what freedom really is. freedom to me is not about buying what i want, when i want it. but rather being able to be who i was created to be, all the time. and this is something having money or not having money should not affect.
by western world standards, i really don't have much money. by wordly standards, i have so much. freedom to me, has nothing to do with what is in my bank account. to be honest, i have and earn less now than i have in the past, but i am much more free.

Galation 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

i don't want to be a liar

2007-11-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

following on from my last blog, it turns out that to do this isn't so easy. i have been reading 1 john a lot (well, we were encouraged to study it this week - ie at least read it everyday - at discipleship class last sunday). yesterday i read this 'if anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar' 1 John 4:20.
sounds good. i agree. but try and put that into practice.

today, shortly after i left my home, i walked past one of the local pimps. i feel anger burning up in me when i see him, especially when he's hanging around alone, as i know that must mean one of his girls is working. there's nothing about this man that makes me want to have anything to do with him. and then the verse jumps into my head - if anyone says 'I love God' but hates his brother, he is a liar. arrgghhh. how am i not going to hate this man. only God in me could ever make that possible.

i think it was worse this morning, as when i passed him, i was on my way to the funeral of a homeless working girl that i kind of knew. the name i know her by is natalie. though others know her by different names. at natalies funeral, there were no family, mainly just local workers from all the local service providers. except for one guy who was there in a suit. he was what appeared to be natalies closest, perhaps only, friend. the only downside to this is that we knew he wasn't just her 'friend'. he was her pimp. again, as a few, who i don't know if they knew his full relationship with natalie, consoled him for his loss, the anger inside me raged. again, the verse came to my mind.

i know, i have blogged about this before. the pimps need God too. but, to share Christ with these people who are completely destroying others lives for their own gain is something i struggle with so much. i wish i could share an amazing story about how God has helped me through this one and how i deal with it, but truth be told, i can't. it's something i need help to understand. so for now, i'll just keep praying that God may show me mercy, for i am a sinner too, and that he may show me how to share his love with ALL. for if i love God, but do not love my brother, i am a liar.

breathe

2007-11-05T20:12:00.000-05:00

i could blog about yoga, i could blog about the weather, i could blog about things i like about canada, i could blog about things i learnt today about God, i could blog about the vicious elbow in the ribs that i copped last night from my sleeping husband or i could blog about not being able to decide what to blog about.

but instead of blogging about my own thoughts today, i'll share two things that i heard/read yesterday.

first - from Saint Ireneaus "The glory of God is man fully alive"

second - "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us" 1 John 4:12

If the glory of God is man fully alive, and if God lives in us and is made complete in us when we are loving one another. then it only makes sense that to be fully alive, we must be loving and serving one another. the is no selfishness to be found in a person that is fully alive.
to be alive, to have life, we must have breath. for us to be alive in Christ, we must have the breath of God in us. you can't breathe out if you haven't breathed in. our lives must be constantly refilled, or rebreathed (yes, i know that's not a real word), by God's breath, otherwise we will not be able to be the breath of God in the lives of others. and if we cannot love others, we cannot be fully alive.

be fully alive. breathe God in. breathe Him out. show the glory of God.

straight from the horse's mouth

2007-11-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

i've heard a few lines this week

'the Holy Spirit is off his meds' (from a gentleman i know, who also is off his meds). i could go there with this. but not today. it's an interesting thought.

when discussing why the israelites were complaining of having no water in the desert, the logical answer that was given was 'because they were dehydrated'. (from an insightful friend in bible study). it's also an interesting thought.

the next came from an article about the cambodian prime minister who this week disowned his adopted daughter because she is a lesbian. Prime Minister Hun Sen said this (from the article) “I can educate people in the whole country, but I cannot educate my adopted daughter,” he added. “We sent her to study in the US, but she did a bad job. She returned home and took a wife.” However, Mr Hun Sen asked Cambodia's 13 million people to be more tolerant of homosexuals. “I urge parents of gays not to discriminate against them, and do not call them transvestites,” he said.

when some people speak, though they know not what they say, then can be extremely insightful.
when some people speak, they can be extremely logical, though say something most would never have thought of.
when some people speak, they should realise they shouldn't.

thank God for the salvo's

2007-10-26T19:55:00.000-04:00

the title is a phrase that is often used in Aus. in Canada, people wouldn't know who the salvo's are. however the term came about - and i am guessing it's due to the fact the aussies love to shorten everything - it's a term i love and miss.

anyway, each morning before we open up the cafe and community ministries, we have morning devotions to which anyone and everyone is invited. different staff from both the corps and community ministries take turns at leading. it usually consists of a reading or story, scripture and prayer. during prayer, we always open it up for anyone to make prayer requests and time to make requests for prayers of thanks. this morning, one of the guys who has appeared more and more regularly recently spoke up when it was time for prayers of thanks, he said 'i want to thank God for the Salvation Army, if we didn't have them, who else would we have'.

i was proud when i heard this, and i gave thanks to God for this man. i thanked God that we are doing the work he called us to do. now, i know we are not the only people our friend can come to for help when he needs it, but i am thankful that he does come to us, so that we may have the chance to share Christ with him, which would not happen at all the places he could go to for help. the key here is that we offer (and we need to make sure we do) more than just the items and assistance that would meet his physical needs. we need to make sure we also offer him the way, the truth and the life.

thank God for the salvo's who are doing the work God called us to.

the mysterious disease

2007-10-24T23:04:00.001-04:00

so i awoke on monday morning only to head off to emergency, with my husband, as i had devleoped overnight some strange infection which we seen to be quickly spreading over my arm. i am doing ok now, don't feel sick, the redness is slowly disappearing and the swelling gone. i saw two doctors, 3 nurses and a medical student over two visits to the hopsital, yet i still don't know what is wrong (obviously, neither did they) but the antibiotics are working anyway. woo hoo. but every couple of hours i keep re-checking to see how it's going.

it's funny isn't it, how quickly things creep up on us and can suddenly have a huge impact on our lives and the way we are living. things sneak in, then, bam, are completely affecting how we live, look at life, treat others, etc.

i have never really been one who got into self reflection, but these days, i try to do it more and more as i have been learning what a valuable tool it can be.

got any strange mysterious infections/diseases that are creeping up on you - my advice - treat them as soon as possible. and do regular check ups.

my newest favourite scripture

2007-10-21T14:08:00.000-04:00

1 John 2:3,4,5,6 (p.s. so easy to memorise)
3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

i came across these verses the other day in my devotions. i can't escape them. they are simple and yet so very powerful. verse 6 is my fav (hence the bold). if we claim to be Christians we must walk as Jesus did.

i get tired of Christians without perseverance. i get tired of Christians without discipline. i get tired of Christians without initiative. i get tired of Christians without commitment. i get tired of Christians without passion. i get sick when i think of Christians without mercy.

Jesus perseveres, Jesus is disciplined, Jesus initiates, Jesus is committed, Jesus is passion, Jesus shows ultimate mercy.

i must walk as he did.

facebook. you gotta love it.

2007-10-20T09:58:00.000-04:00

even my mum and dad are on facebook now. is facebook taking over the world???

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

2007-10-19T18:33:00.000-04:00

do you want to find out what it means to me? read on.

respect's a funny one.

some people deserve it, get it, but never command it.
some people derserve it, command it, but never get it.

there are some situations which require it. there are some situations which cause people to lose it. there are some situations where it should be given but is not till too late.

it can't be bought (unless perhaps by people who don't really understand it's true value). it can be found. it can't be forced. it can be renewed.

what a funny thing respect is.

the lifestyle that Jesus lived, while most certainly deserving of all the respect we could ever give, was not really respected by many. there were leaders of the day who never gave him any. some gave and took it away (and probably gave and took it away again). there were only a faithful, who still didn't really always understand what he was on about, who stuck with him.

is a lack of respect becoming more and more fashionable? i have started to feel, let's say, more advanced in maturity recently, when looking at situations which i think, even just 10 years ago would have happened very differently. is the world changing, or it is just how i am seeing it changing? am i expecting too much? hmmmm.

what scares more crap out of you?

2007-10-17T21:02:00.000-04:00

yesterday i was involved in a discussion about evangelism. a comment was made 'speaking to someone about Jesus scares the crap out of me', the response 'does people going to hell scare the crap out of you?'.

it comes down to a decision about which scares the more crap out of you.

take it away keith...

good one.

2007-10-15T12:43:00.001-04:00

i stole this from a friend's blog. had to post it myself. watch.

72nd

2007-10-15T12:25:00.000-04:00

so i ran the toronto half marathon yesterday. in my category (25-29 women) i came in 72nd (out of 361). overall, i came in 1198th out of 3494 that finished. not too bad.

i did 1 hr 53. i am ok with that. when i first started training, my original goal was to try and run it in 1hr 45. but training did not go as planned, things like getting married, etc, got in the way. so i will be content with my 1.53. for now...

now i am pumped to run a full one. i have been meaning to for ages, but never got around to it. but now is the time!!! i just have to find the right race in the right place to run. i am excited.

i am also pumped because my great friends, merf and rick, had a little baby girl on sat (well it was friday here, but sat back home). welcome to the world Harriett. i can't wait to meet her. whenever that will be. what a precious little girl she is.

Catherine Mumford Booth - Top 5 for sure

2007-10-12T10:27:00.000-04:00

After two recent conversations, I was lead to find an article written by Catherine Mumford Booth called Female Ministry; or, Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel (it was also titled Female Teaching at one point).

I will not go into details about the article (it doesn't take a genius to figure out the topic), but I will say this. As a female Salvationist, Catherine Mumford Booth has to make my all time top 5 hero list. I would hope that any female Salvationist would agree. And even the male ones too. If this is not the case, I'd have to reason that it's because you don't know enough about her! Go find out. She was a strong strong woman of God. Quite an incredible woman. Also, of course, a wife and a mother.

I love Catherine.

i'm married now

2007-10-10T17:09:00.000-04:00

ok, so i have been slack for the last little while (i think deservedly so) on the blogging front. but please, do not be disheartened. i will be blogging again. just trying to get back into life now i am back at work and married and living in a new place, blah blah blah. it's all very exciting. here are some snippets to keep you going till i really get back into it

- the wedding was A LOT of fun. for me. i had a great day. will post photos soon.

- i am running my half marathon this sunday

- darren is coming to visit TOMORROW

- i am changing my surname to KEAN

- matt and i got a new computer (laptop) yesterday (his old one busted just before the wedding)

love you all. will blog very soon...

God's Politics (Jim Wallis) - choose to fight

2007-09-21T10:54:00.000-04:00

i have been reading this book for forever (it feels like at least). i will quite readily admit that i am not one who has ever gotten into politics, let alone american politics. however, while taking a long time to get into it, this book is really quite good - though mentions a lot of 'current' events that are already getting alittle dated, but the ideas behind it will always be current. i have had the time over the last few weeks to get some good 'chunk' time of reading in, and this has helped. so yes, i recommend the read.

the more i am becoming aware of justice and surrounding issues, the more i am learning about how to fight them. though i still feel really quite useless in the whole wider scheme of things, i am reminded daily of the difference i (well, God through me) can make in the lives of those around me. these days we all have the knowledge, we just have to make the choice to fight. unforutnately, we can tend to be a pretty lazy people. we are too comfortable, and seem to hold the idea that for poverty to be reduced, our lifestyles don't really need to change. i disagree. how can we expect the balance of wealth to be re-distributed, yet our lifestyles remain basically unchanged. in short, we can't.

choose to fight. choose to re-address the balance. realise that this can only happen if you are willing to change your lifestyle.

9 sleeps...

2007-09-20T09:22:00.000-04:00

ok, so you may need to forgive my lack of blogging over the next 2 weeks or so. it's only 9 sleeps till i get married and things i think are going to be a little crazy over the next little period!!!

but today is

MY MUM"S BIRTHDAY - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM.

it is also

Kerryn and Hil's wedding anniversary (5 years...i think) HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

the weather was so great yesterday, we went swimming in the lake and spent some time outside in the sun and then we all went and climbed this tree - which could easily hold all 5 of us that were up there. sweet. i'll post photos later.

there are times of joy in life, some of which i have just mentioned, but amongst these, there are also times of sadness. this week, one of my good friends lost her mum to cancer. this is my second good friend (actually both are ex-housemates) to have lost a parent to cancer this year. i sometimes wish i could stop this evil disease. i can't. i thank the Lord that they both had faith. and i pray for my friends, and their families that are left behind. may you know His love, peace and comfort.

room in the army

2007-09-18T15:38:00.000-04:00

this is just a quickie - my life is getting ridiculously busy right now. my brain in starting to hurt...

anyway, this morning an old (salvation) army chorus popped into my head. it goes like this 'joy, joy, joy, there is joy in the salvation army...' BUT, for the life of me, i couldn't remember what the word 'joy' was. i convinced myself it was the word 'room'. 'room, room, room, there is room in the salvation army'. later i figured out that missing word was actually joy.

however, then i started to think. yep, we do have so much joy in the salvation army, but you know what, we have a lot more room than we do joy! i kept thinking - maybe instead of being consumed with our own joy, we should be consumed with filling up all that empty space we have for people in the army. and you know what - while there remains one dark soul without the light of God - there's going to be room in the army...

the wise in God (+ years)

2007-09-17T21:44:00.000-04:00

i really appreciate those who are wise in God (and years). last night we went to the local salvation army (georgina), where the congregation was more advanced in years than us. (though they also thought i was 20 and too young to be getting married, when i informed then i was 28, i think they thought that was plenty old enough). i was reminded of how much i have come to value the older generation. we have so much to learn from them. i loved the times i was able to spend with those a little older than me at my old church, to sit and talk and learn from their wisdom. it's a special thing. and sometimes something that us younger people don't value as much as we should.
so, to the younger people out there - find the older ones and get some of their Godly wisdom. drag yourself away from your peers for even just an hour and hang out with someone who you consider to be wise.
and to the older people out there - realise that we really do love to hear your wisdom and if some random - or not so random - young person wants to spend time with you, do it.

this being said - here's the other thing - a 30 yr old is old to a 18 year old, yet a 40 year old is young to a 65 year old. so we can nearly all fit into both categories!!!

now i just need to figure out how much longer i get to stay in the "young" category...i guess i can stay for a long time...i just need to keep finding someone who is older than me. i think i've got a few years left.

language

2007-09-14T10:20:00.000-04:00

adam is from sweden. he'snot officially part of the ignite team, but he's up here with us, checking out what we do, as he is part of the new S2S (saved 2 save) training school that is opening soon ingotland, sweden. adam is a great guy.
anyway, last night we were playing phase 10 - just adam, drew and i. we have been trying to learn to count in swedish. i am pretty good. i can get to 12 now. with the exception of 7. 7 is a very hard number for a native english speaker to say. if you know someone swedish, please ask them to say 7 for you. anyway, drew and i were repeating this number, which if we tried to spell it phonetically it could turn out something like qwhooo??? we couldn't even figure that out. so we kept repeating this number whne eventually adam said stop. we realised that for quite a substantial amount of time, we had been sitting there saying '7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, etc'. it was quite amusing. seriously, find someone swedish and ask them to say 7. then try it.

language is a funny thing. the igniters have had (dr, major) bruce here this week, teaching them bible. we've been looking at the language used and how it differs between the gospels, translations, etc. (check out cowboy jesus in matt 21:7).

language is fascinating really. and it is such a powerful thing. words. words have power. (but God has more).

i need to use my language, my words wisely.

real scrabble

2007-09-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

last night for the first time in a long time i played real scrabble. not just the fast kind which i have been doing on a regular basis for a while now. it's a bit like life (well everything is if you think about it enough). we are not all dealt the same pieces, we do not all have the same gifts. some get the x's and the q's without u's and others get the blanks. but we all have the opportunity to make the most of what we have. we all have choices and decisions to make. some will get us triple word scores while others will get us nothing extra. sometimes our moves will help others out and leave the way open for them to achieve, and sometimes our moves will look mean, as we seem to block the only way for another to go, though we couldn't have done anything else ourselves. yes, life is more like scrabble than you've probably ever realised. luckily for us, we have something better than a dictionary to lead and guide us through this 'game'.

go and play your best scrabble today!

Psalm 86
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

(p.s. did anyone realise that the other day, i actually used capital letter in my blog!)

balance + priorities

2007-09-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

so when you put a new team of people together, make them live in close confines, stick them in classes together, make them eat together, play together, you get the idea, throw in some brain overload and tiredness, you are going to come into some times of fun. somethings that shouldn't be big deals are and somethings that should be big deals aren't. the world gets a little twisted.

life is a bit of a balancing act. some figure it out faster than others. it's a balance between things you need to do on your own, things you need to do with others, things you need to do for others. again, just to make this a little more confusing, i don't think the balance is necessarily the same for everyone. there is no balance prescription or schedule to follow.

i think i am at the point in my life, where i am getting a pretty good idea of what the best balance is for me (though i guess my life's about to change again, so it might be back to the drawing board shortly). i know how much time i should spend with God so that my relationship is doing (ha - that makes it sounds easy, fyi - it's not as simple as i've made it sound, but anyway), i know how much time and in what ways Matt and I should spend our time for our relationship to be pretty good, i know when i need to hang out with others, i know when i should be serving. blah blah blah. but, as i said, i am about to hit a new phase of my life, and just as i think i have been getting to a pretty good place, some aspects are going to change again!

isn't that the beauty of life? i think we sometimes get scared of change. but i have learnt that during times of change, when we get to start all over again, our slate is clean, we can re-prioritise our lives. it's actually a really sweet thing. and when my priorities are in the right order, when i have the right balance, this is when i feel most alive. and what is this secret to feeling the most alive i've ever felt - it's when God is given priority over everything and my relationship with Him is deeper and stronger than ever.

priviledge and responsibility

2007-09-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

Sept 11. A day that most people will be able to tell you what they were doing in 2001. You can't deny that this day changed how our world functions now. Whatever the reasons (whether good or bad), the justifications (whether just or not) that are given and without ignoring the hurt, the anger, the pain that is associated with this day, I pray that today, that all world leaders will look for truth (all truth belongs to Him), look at their own (their personal and their countries) faults, and seek to rectify the true injustices of this world.

Colossians 1:28,29 'We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.'

Wow. This is a huge responsibility and priviledge. To proclaim, admonish and teach. These are no easy tasks. And to do these with wisdom. I think it can be easy to get caught up in your own little world, to focus on things in your own life and to almost forget about others around us. It can be easy to put the blindfolds on. It can be easy to think that we have it tough. That we are the ones who have suffered. But if we know Christ and are truly allowing Him to reform our minds, renew our spirits, these verses in colossians will be our goal. No more blindfolds, no more self obsession, no more self pity. If's God's power is in us, working in our lives, we must carry out these commands. It's our responsibility, our duty and not to mention a wonderful priviledge.

just letting things float by....or not

2007-09-10T14:45:00.000-04:00

the weekend flew by so quickly. i went back to toronto on friday night, as sandra and kim had come up to jackson's to lead a holiness weekend. i was glad to have the break and do a few wedding things, sort my room a little, go running with kathy, see matt a tiny bit (of course, when i come back for the weekend, he's working...). it was nice. anyway, that's just a quick update.

here's today's real thought.

'Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blotout my trangressions. wash away all my inquity and cleanse my from my sin' psalm 51:1,2

i am reading through the psalms at the moment. i won't kid you, there's a lot of them. sometimes i think they are not really worth reading, at other times, i think that they are the greatest. sometimes i get distracted thinking oh these are just little poems or songs written by people...whatever. but at other times, the couldn't reveal any more truth about God and man. it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it really just comes down to my attitude. (Lord, please forgive me).

anyway, these verses are part of what i read yesterday. it could have been easy to skip over, not really think about it, just take it as part of the song david wrote. but there is so much in these two verses. we are full of sin and all God wants to do is love us. he is able to be in relationship with us because he sent his son to die, to take away our sin, to cleanse us. he did this just so he could be with us. this is the basis of christianity, the basis of a true believers relationship with God, but sometimes ,just like my reading of the psals, we skip over it, don't really think about it, appreciate, or even respond to it.

my prayers today are that we will always take the word of God as something we can learn from, never taking it for granted.
and that we all realise what this is talking about - and that we think about it, pray about it, take it on and respond to it.

peace

2007-09-07T09:08:00.000-04:00

i am so thankful that God's peace is beyond understanding. yesterday, i wasan't feeling very good at all, but then after spending time with God, there was this peace. i don't know how it works. everything doesn't have to be known to experience it. i think we think that to have bpeace, everything needs to be ok. but with God, it doesn't.

by the end of the day, i knew some of the answers to some of the questions i'd been asking, and i didn't think that this was even possible. and i will just trust God for the rest.

matt and i get married in 3 weeks and 1 sleep, this is exciting, and scary (in a good scary kind of way, don't worry). all we want to do with our lives is whatever God wants us to do. now, that may sound kind of cliche, and you know, who cares, anyone who claims to follow Christ should be saying this. we want God's best. sometimes it's easy to figure out, sometimes it's harder. and sometimes we stuff up along the way. but as long as we seek God, keep our eyes on Him, it will be ok, and even sometimes when things aren't all ok and you don't know all the answers, you still get to experience His peace. That's sweet.

Thank You Lord.

seasons of life

2007-09-06T10:56:00.000-04:00

isn't it funny how at some times in your life you really can't imagine life being any different. then you look back later and see just how much things have really changed.

this is good. i mean really, imagine things always stayed the same.

this is also sad. some things are so great and it's really not fun when they end.

regardless things can and do change. i pray that when we are in control of these, that we make the right decisions. i pray that when we are not, be have the wisdom in how to deal with them.

have a great day!

superbad is superBAD

2007-09-05T22:12:00.000-04:00

so the other week matt an i wasted our time, money, breath and brain cells seeing the worst movie i have seen in a long time - superbad. it was just that, super super bad. it was bad, not funny and not even slighty entertaining.

i know this is short - i have just arrived up at jackson's point with the new ignite team for training. we got here yesterday and so far i have swum in that lake twice. i really missing heather being here with me. i also taught the new guys how to play wizard and my old fav - fast scrabble.

the wedding is less than 4 weeks away and matt and i are doing well, though would appreciate a lot of prayer at this time.

will try and blog a bit while i am here.

ahh...miss teen america

2007-08-29T13:10:00.000-04:00

the other day i was at matt's house and miss teen america came on. we watched them annouced who made the final 15. then we changed the channel. a few minutes later, we turned back to see the first 'item', it was each miss prancing around in a bikin...how has the competition changed?
i am still quite bemused that competitions like this exist. i know they make all those claims about how they are different now...whatever.
two things that don't change my opinion
1) the prancing around in bikini's
2) this. you've probably all see it now anyway.

seriously. i am pretty sure there are better ways these girls, and all of us for that matter, could be spending our time, money and talent(?).

thanks tim hortons

2007-08-25T18:31:00.000-04:00

all canadians know what tim hortons is. it's a coffee shop. according to some, THE coffee shop. as a non coffee drinker, i don't care about the coffe, but i love their donuts, bagels, choc milk and hot chocolate. so i visit there a bit. usually with matt (or in the old days, heather, also known as miss horton.
anyway, get this for service. last week i was in timmy's with kim and some of the girls from the korean corps. we had a big-ish order, as we were getting some drinks for others too. anyway, it was quite busy, and it took quite a while for us to get to order. we ordered and paid and began our wait for our order to be ready. i had ordered my favourite, a cinnamon raisin bagel toasted with butter, and usually these take the longest (compared to drinks). anyway, we got some of the drinks, got my bagel and we were waiting for the girl to get just two more drinks, when i happened to notice that the girl who was serving us was walking out the store with her bag on her shoulder. she'd left. it was time for her to leave and though, in the middle of our order, she went. now i assume she just accidently forgot two of our drinks. but whatever it was hilarious. there was one guy left serving, with at least 8 or 10 customers in the line.

ahh....service these days...

good one timmy's.

the surprises of life

2007-08-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

sometimes life brings us surprises. sometimes these are pleasant. sometimes these are not. sometimes they cause things to change forever. sometimes they don't. sometimes they are even expected (can you suspect a surprise?), usually they are not (this is what makes it a surprise).

i had have a few pleasant surprises this week. i was expecting one, some of my friends got engaged. another one i wasn't. one of my friends told me that she had found out the sex of her twins due later in the year. and then a cousin of mine told me he can come to my wedding.

i've been told before that life is about action, not reaction. however, there are some circumstances, these surprises, that are all about your reaction. it's quite easy to get excited when the surprises are pleasant, but when they are not it's all about how you react.

do we react with grace? compassion? mercy? rational thought and word? do we react in a way that is helpful? to others, to ourselves?

the way you act in life can speak volumes, the way you react speaks even louder.

God is bigger than a language

2007-08-18T15:40:00.000-04:00

i am sitting up at jackson's point. it's a lovely day. the sun is shining, and i really should be outside. i will as soon as i finish this. matt and i the guest speakers at the korean corps retreat - well for the youth anyway, the adults have their services in korean. we have been attending the korean corps nearly every second week for a while now. we have made some good friends here. kim, who has just finished up her youth pastor responsibilities is now a good friend of ours. she actually gets married in 4 weeks (2 weeks before us), then is sadly (for us and the corps) is heading down to california to live for a while.

anyway, this morning before the session started, kim's dad David (one of the elders o the corps) came down to pray with us. He told us before he started that he was going to pray in korean, this didn't phase us at all, some of them in the EM (english ministries, youth service) still pray in korean. but then he started praying. i had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but i have not felt God so strongly in a long time as i did when he was praying. i was blown away.

God is so much bigger than we often give Him credit for. this was no exception. i thank God for David's faithfulness and his prayers. and i praise and thank God that is bigger than any language.

Leeland

2007-08-17T13:18:00.000-04:00

While we were in Newfoundland, Daniel, Matt's brother, introduced us to a new band. They are called Leeland, you can listen to samples of all their music online.

They are Christian. They are phenomenal. Seriously. My favourite song is called 'Tears of the Saints'. The first time i heard it i almost cried, no, actually, i think i did cry. My other favourite song is 'Carried to the table'. I haven't bought the cd yet, but i most certainly will get my hands on it asap.

Their music is awesome, and the lyrics are amazing.

You need to check them out. Seriously. Phenomenal.

forgive me

2007-08-16T16:55:00.000-04:00

forgive me.

how many times do we hear that? how many times do we say we forgive? how manyitmes do we actually mean it?

i haven't blogged recently due my newfoundland holiday which you will know about if you read my blog. but near the end of my holiday i found myself saying 'forgive me'. i was in church. i suddenly became acutely aware of how desparate God is to be our friend and for us to be in relationship with Him. i claim that i am a christian, which means to me, that i have a growing, dynamic relationship with God. that's the most important part of it all. everything else that needs to follow, will.

yet on my vacation, i didn't forget about God, but i certainly did not give Him the attention that you would give a friend with who you went on holiday with. i felt sad. i felt like i'd let a friend down. and i felt like i had missed out on sharing special times with a friend.

forgive me.

why do we, who call ourselves christians, at times, act like God doesn't exist?

the biggest detriment to God being seen by all for who He really is, is christians. i am sure of it.

yet, He forgives us. time and time again. He never turns away. He never stops loving. He is always there with mercy and grace. sure, the sun and the rain still fall on us all.

I thank God for His consistency, His faithfulness and His forgiveness.

badger's quay - newfoundland

2007-08-07T12:28:00.000-04:00

i'm in newfoundland. home of the newfies. some are confused. newfoundland is an island off the east coast of canada. it's a province (state), and is the home of my beloved. it's a beautiful place and the whole island is like a small country town. in the part we are in, there's 2800 people, spread out along the bay. everyone knows everyone.
the thing i like about here is that everyone is treated the same. you are introduced once, then you are family.
while at times, i have thought that some of the lifestyle here is a bit old school, really, in some ways, it's a model society. if you need something, someone else will give it to you. you don't need to lock your doors. you get eh idea. sure, it's a bit colder than i'd prefer, but that's just my preference.
anyway, we are on the internet in the public library (really it's the high schools library), so i have to be quick.

here's my question to think about today...what would an ideal society look like these days?

newfies, lululemon and pimps

2007-08-02T15:00:00.000-04:00

tomorrow matt and i are off to newfoundland. the crazy island/province where matt origniates. yes, it is officially part of canada, but they are their own breed. some of you will know what i am talking about. they call everyone 'by's' and shorten everything (in a different way to australians), example, 'like that' becomes 'l'dat' and 'what' becomes 'wha'. but they will be my people. i will be half newfie. or as the newfies say, i'll be 'arf an 'arf!!!

another canadian thing i am thankful for is lululemon. it's a sportswear (running/yoga, etc, etc) store that is the greatest ever. their stuff, while expensive, is made so well and are the most comfortable pieces of clothing i have ever worn. now, i just got a gift ceritficate for my birthday and just purchased my first pair of lululemon pants. i am so excited. unfortunately, the needed shortening, as do most of my pants, so i haven't got them yet, but the best thing is they do it for free!!!! woo hoo.

as for the serious part of my blog. i've been really challenged of recently on my idea about who's 'worthy' of being shown God's love and grace. now, we know, head knowledge, that everyone is. and that we should treat all as equals. but really, that's not how we do it in reality. we are so quick to judge who needs what, and who we should and do help and who we won't. this being said, to cross from our current state of thinking into changing our action is an extremely hard thing to do. if you disagree with this, you are either surrounding yourself with people who don't really need Jesus/who Jesus wouldn't hang out with, or, you are lying. the other week i mentioned about one of encounters with one of the pimps in the area. this is what has sparked my thinking. it would require a huge shift, and coming from a completely different angle, with a totally different mindset, for me to show God's love and grace to him. what do you think?

What's your theological worldview?

2007-07-29T08:28:00.000-04:00

Brad had done this on his blog, so I did it too. I am apparently strongly alined with the evangelical holiness/wesleyan theology. Yeah, I'm pretty sure if William Booth took this he'd be the same...oh, for some reason I couldn't get the pretty graph on my blog, I was not technologically savvy enough to fix it. So if you want to take the test, go to brad's blog and the link is there.

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 96%
Emergent/Postmodern 71%
Reformed Evangelical 71%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 61%
Classical Liberal 61%
Neo orthodox 57%
Fundamentalist 54%
Modern Liberal 46%
Roman Catholic 32%

been a bit busy

2007-07-28T21:37:00.000-04:00

so i haven't blogged for a little while. apologies to my faithful readers. things have been quite busy. between work, wedding plans and trying to exercise there's not too much spare time in the week, hence no groceries in my house..must find time to go shopping.

i've had more great news this week. two of my friends are pregnant. for the time being they shall remain nameless. though kylie (from work) annouced hers on facebook, so i think it's ok to mention her name. the other will be a mystery for now...but great news for them both!

after last week mentioning about one of my newest friends from the neighbourhood, i was maddened and saddened by an incident that matt witnessed this week. matt was walking down the road and saw three men being very rough with my new friend, whom he also knows. it took him a while to get close enough to realise they were undercover cops. to cut a long story short, it looks like they busted her for drinking on the street. last matt saw she was cuffed and in the back of the car. i'm not sure what happens now, i haven't seen her since that day. i guess it depends on a few different factors.

i'm reading the alchemist at the moment. i'm finding it not that exciting...yet. i am hoping it's going to get better. i've heard numerous people say it's a good book. we'll see. but it has got a message across so far about dreams. living them and waiting to see them fulfilled. about the choices we make and roads we take. i hope my new friend can make some good decisions and get a few breaks this week.

a new trend & a new friend

2007-07-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

one of the latest trends about the place is to be aware and fighting against human trafficking. a new (well, it's getting a little old now) trend. one thing that amuses (and saddens) me about these kinds of trends, is that they really are that - they come and go. how canwe be so stupid. anyway, some of my more consistent blog readers would remember that not so long ago i blogged about this issue a little. i have been determined not to let this just be a following the trend thing in my life. raising my own awareness of this issue is a little easier than figuring out my real ability to be able to make a difference.
so my efforts, i decided, you may remember, were to make a difference on my own backyard, or more literally, on the streets where i live and work. truly befriending some of the girls that are working in the industry. i thank God for the opportunities He has brought me so far, and for at least one relationship in particular.
one of my newest friends has been on the streets and in the industry for a few years now. she's just 21. i am thankful that she now knows my name and knows that she can, and has, come to me for help. just yesterday though, matt and i had a conversation with her that left me feeling sad. while befriending her, i don't have any interest in befriending her 'boyfriend' (also known as a pimp). this cuts me though, because i know he needs just as much help, if not more?, in his life as she does in hers. yesterday when we were walking with her, she tried to get her boyfriend to say hello to us. he knows who were are and wasn't very interested in saying hello to us. he was also with another girl.
my new friend, i sometimes imagine what her life could have been. i prefer to imagine what it still could be. she really is just a young girl, who wants to be happy and free and live life. but she's caught in a trap. pray for her. pray for me and my relationship with her.

one life at a time.

my birthday

2007-07-18T14:20:00.000-04:00

last night we (me, matt, geoff, sandra, zoe, colin, maeva, grace, rob, anya and asheley) went and saw a midsummer's night dream in the park. it was good. well, at first it was good, then it got a little boring, then it got pretty good, thenit was hilarious. so end result. it was good. it was nice to do something different. and fun that lots of us went. that was yesterday, but monday, my real birthday, was just as good. we had ice cream cake at work for my birthday and i got a lovely summer's dress from matthew for my birthday. then that night matt and i went and saw the new harry potter. i liked it a lot. i love harry potter.

well, tonight i am off with julie to do the running room 20 minute challenge. hopefully it will be fun. the half marathon training is going pretty well. i have done a few longer runs now (14kms last sunday) though i am not running as fast as i'd like to be (i'll blame it on the humidity...which will be gone by oct). hopefully i'll fix this soon.

have a great day.

my first happy birthday phonecall

2007-07-14T11:09:00.001-04:00

so one of my best friends, jayne, was the first to call me to wish me a happy birthday. i awoke this morning to ring of my phone. she sounded so excited to be wishing me a happy birthday. it was midnight and she was going to be and realised if she'd called she'd be one of the first to wish my a happy birthday. so she enthusiastically then said i've got the right date don't i...i nearly said yes. but i said no. doh. it was the 15th where she was and i had to tell her it was the 16th.
but it's a good way to start my birthday celebrations anyway.

thanks jayne. love you!!!! having birthdays in different time zones can be confuzing!

p.s. for me 2 sleeps - for any australians, 1 sleep.

a mouse in the house

2007-07-13T15:45:00.000-04:00

to my horror - there's a mouse in our house. i saw the evidence before i went to bed last night. and so delayed bedtime to clean and tidy my room. after getting to sleep very late, i awoke at about 3.30am. i heard a noise in my room. i tried to block my ears. i tossed around in my bed to make noise. i took my hands off my ears. it was definitely a mouse. aarrgghhh. i turned on my bedside light. i stood up on my bed. petrified. i jumped little to make more noise. i was sweating. my heart was racing. then, out the corner of my eye i saw the offender scurry across my room. aarrgghhh. i freaked. i couldn't move. though it was obviously trying to go away to wherever it's been hiding i knew if i lay down and went back to sleep it would come back. i keep jumping on the bed. frozen. sweating. heart still racing. what could i do? i managed to work up the courage to put one foot on the ground so i could reach my phone. would i really do it? yes. a really concerned 'hello', 'everything's ok honey, except there's a mouse in my room and i am stuck standing on my bed'. what a brilliant fiancee. turns out he comes over to rescue me. by this time i had made it downstairs and found the mouse traps. matt set them for me, then i proceeded to head down stairs to sleep. what a man. comes over at 4am to save me from the horrible mouse.
so now, i am about to head home, hopefully it will be dead in the trap. i will clean every inch of the house - well until i have had enough of cleaning. why clean? well surely a clean house won't have any mice. and while i clean, i'll stomp around loudly and play loud music. this is all irrational i know. but so is my fear of mice. whatever.

btw - 3 sleeps to go...

THE CAT EMPIRE

2007-07-12T15:29:00.001-04:00

last night i went and saw a melbourne band - the cat empire. they were SO FANTASTIC!!! i love them.
their music is really great, lots of fun. i went with mike and esther. and some other of mike's friends. i was proud to be australian and even more proud to be from melbourne! my hometown boys.
the only slighty disapointing part was that they didn't bring their regular brass section. my friend ross plays with them, so it would have been good to see him. and i think kieran (who went to school with my brother and ross) also still plays for them. anyway. they were brilliant. their skill was mezmorising. (is that how you spell it?).

after they played, michael franti and spearhead were on. they were no way near as great as the cat empire. but they were ok. actually, some of their songs were pretty good and they had a great guitar and bass player.

well guys, only 4 sleep still my birthday.

empty nest + racism

2007-07-05T15:57:00.000-04:00

today i helped the last of my three igniters out of the ministry house. steph left today. she's heading to NZ before heading home - then hopefully she'll come back. i think i will have a bit of emtpy next syndrome over the next few days...
a few wedding things have been happening.
my dress is in.
i got my shoes (thanks mish).
we purchased my wedding band (as in my ring, not a group of musicians).
that's 3 things this week. not doing too bad.

anyway, back to wonderland. it was so awesome. I LOVE rides. my favourite was TOP GUN. on this one your legs dangle (just like the lethal weapon at movie world on the gold coast). but then there were so many others. the fly - forwards and backwards, the sky ride - where you are harnessed in standing up!!!, tomb raider - where you are harnessed in lying down!!!, and then all the regular ones too - the vortex, some mine ride, dragon fire, cyclone, death trap, blah blah blah. i LOVED it. there were so many rides to go on! i didn't even get on them all. though i did make it on top gun three times! ahh. great times.

there was one event however which got my mind racing about racism. how prevalent it still seems to be in our society. this event lead to a discussion on our 'natural tendancy' to be racist. and how unless we are conscious of it, most people tend to be more racist than not. i would like to think, no, actually, i do think, that it's not our natural tendancy at all. rather it is our sinful nature that leads us to be racist. when we are living for God, or living as God intended, race doesn't play a role. we are all one. i am not naive enough to suggest that all non-christians are racist and all christians aren't. far from it. but i do believe that racism is intrinsically involved in the fight between good and evil in this world.

i had to check my thoughts on this yesterday. and i will continue to check them.

where are you at?

baseball

2007-07-04T20:01:00.001-04:00

so i started the baseball day really well, i caught the first dude out. seriously. i did. there were cheers of aussie aussie aussie filling the ground (well, kind of, it was just rob and sasha).
then when i went in to bat, i made it to first base. i think i may have got out then, only because it was 3 out. i never made it home. it was a fun day. unfortunately we lost our first two games, which meant we were out the comp, but i was quite ok with that because
1) we actually played pretty well (really should have won at least one game, doh)
2) we then got to go and have bbq and go swimming in the lake
so it was good.

today i went to canada's wonderland. i will have to blog about that tomorrow - IT WAS AWESOME. I LOVED IT.

got to go.

fee.

roots time

2007-06-28T16:30:00.000-04:00

this weekend is our SA ROOTS. things are crazy round here right now. it'll be good to get away to jackson's point and have this weekend and of course, go swimming in the lake.
also, this weekend, it's canada day. so the day after ROOTS, we have the annual salvo baseball tournament. so this means my second game of baseball ever!!! woo hoo. let you know how it goes.
have a good one.

swimming along

2007-06-27T14:35:00.000-04:00

i made two new toronto discoveries yesterday. well, i am sure a lot of people knew about them, but i had never been to either till yesterday.
1) the keg mansion. cheryl and i went to celebrate our birthdays. her's was last month and mine is next month (16th to be exact - don't forget). i have sirloin oscar. it was so delicious. YUM YUM YUM. steak topped with prawns and scallops. sweet.
2) the Donald D Summerville pool. so it's like just about the only outdoor olympic pool in toronto and of course it's only open june-aug, from 10am-8pm. (this is a big transition from having 4 olympic sized swimming pools within 20mins of my home in melbourne, all of which are open from ridiculously early in the morning till very late at night). anyway, it was so nice to finally swim in a 50m pool and the bonus was that it was outdoors. oh i am going to go there lots. i swam a 1km last night, so that's the minimum from now on.
btw - serious half marathon training starts next week.

whoops - it's been a week - and a bbq one at that!

2007-06-21T09:45:00.001-04:00

to fill you in on the last week of my life
fri,sat, sun - we spent up at newport, about 2 1/2 hours north of toronto. with the igniters on their final retreat and a few friends they had invited. and with lots of bugs - mosquitos and black flys. i got lots more bites. woo hoo. at least this time they weren't on my face! we had a good time together.
sun was also father's day so as a church, we had a bbq
mon - i spent the day doing wedding stuff, then julie cooked us a bbq
tues - um...i can't remember, then we went and had a bbq with guys from the korean corps
wed - i spent some time working on my sermons for this weekend (i am preaching twice this sunday), then went to buy some gifts, went to the beaches with my squad and ate pizza, then went to celebrate sherry's birthday - with a bbq!
this afternoon i am off to a bbq at the ivany's with the team, then after that, i am going to a gateway bbq.
hmmm.....what a good week!
p.s. yesterday my friend kim quoted to me a line that keanu reeves said in a movie, she thought it was sad that she was quoting him, but i thought it was lovely.

weekend retreat - the end is near

2007-06-14T08:31:00.000-04:00

this friday (tomorrow), myself and the igniters, and a few friends they have invited, head off for their final retreat. then the following weekend, we will celebrate their graduation. i can't really believe it's been 10 months since they arrive. i still remember picking steph up from the airport (zoe and i couldn't find her for ages) and grace, with her mum's help, moving in, and kingsley arriving in the office.
this team will always be special. they were my first. and i lived with them too. they are all so different in some ways. but we all get along well.
so this weekend we are heading up to newport for their final retreat. they were allowed to invite some friends, so sherry, iris, cheryl, sean and mike are coming with us. what an unusual bunch, as in, who'd think, a jamaican, 2 australians, an el salvadorian, and a few canadians (and one of those born in hong kong), ranging in age from 17-40. i can't wait. the weather's going to be nice (it continues, woo hoo) and i am going to go swimming.

aunt sarah + the beaches

2007-06-11T16:24:00.000-04:00

last friday night matt and i went out to dinner with aunt sarah. who's aunt sarah some of you may say. well she's basically one of our adopted grandparents when we lived in scotland 20 years ago. darren went to her house for lunch nearly every sunday for lunch and she would often have all three of us there or be with us for whatever reason. she's come out to canada to visit her nephew and some family out here. so they came and picked us up and we al went out to dinner on friday night. it was a good time. so nice to see her.

today at work, it was a hard day. we went down to the "beaches" (for the confused and/or geopgraphically challenged, toronto is located nowhere near any sort of ocean, we are on one of the great lakes, however, you can't swim in lake ontario it's so badly polluted...). we had a great time down there. it was volunteer appreciation day. we have over 70 people who volunteer in community ministries and so we went and has a barbie and played beach volleyball (my team won 2 out of 3 games) and got a little, ok, a lot, of sun. what a great day. the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have been at a real beach where we could have swum....oh well.

an interesting riding suit.

2007-06-08T14:09:00.001-04:00

Here's a true story that should bring a smile to your face. The other day I was walking down River St, that's the street that our office building is on. I was walking along, minding my business, when i looked up and saw a cyclist riding towards me (i was on the footpath and he was on the road). it looked like he had his shirt off. this struck as a little strange, seeing as it was kind of cool weather. he got a little closer and i suddenly realised that not only was he wearing no shirt, he in fact, had on no clothes at all! a completely naked man riding a bike. i averted my eyes (he was a littler older) so i wouldn't see anything i really didn't need to see. then i didn't know what to do. and then i realised there was nothing to do. so i turned around and there he was merrily peddling his way down the street. then i began to giggle. how does that work anyway - you know - a boy cycling with no clothes on....whatever. that was a first for me - seeing a nude cyclist. funny times.

woo hoo for the wedding

2007-06-06T08:50:00.000-04:00

yesterday we got a few more wedding things done. so that is good news. matt and i both had the day off work, so first of all we went to get his computer fixed and then it was like 'what now?'. i said that i wanted to go for a run and that he could maybe ride a bike along next to me. his response was 'don't we have to do wedding stuff?'. so, excitedly, but also sadly, i have found a way to get matt really excited about doing wedding stuff - present him with the option of exercise...hmmm.

small beginnings. everything big had to start small at some stage. you can't despise small beginnings. if james naismith had given up on his passion, where would the NBA be today? if william booth had given up on his passion, where would the Salvation Army be today?

follow yours dreams.

persist. perserver. strive. endure. hold on.

hmm...maybe i can still get matt running one of these days...

hillsong united

2007-06-03T21:10:00.000-04:00

imagine it. 12,000 people. in an amphitheatre. all singing in one voice. jumping up and down. going crazy. i was part of it. last night...it was awesome.
last night i went to the molson amphitheatre to see hillsong united. (in case you don't know) they are a worship team from the hillsong church in sydney. i love these guys. i pretty much love every one of their songs. and this is my favourite way to worship God. singing and dancing and jumping and going crazy. it was so much fun. and most importantly, God was there.
i was proud to be a christian. i was proud to be australian. you can't get a better combo than that, unless you are in australia with all that going on!
it was encouraging to be a part of the wider church. while it's good to be focused on what your role is, on your part that you need to play, in your own church/community, every now and then, to be reminded of how huge God really is. i was so blessed last night. thank you God.

marathon plans foiled...but new ones are born!!!

2007-06-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

so i really was going to try and run a marathon this year. this has been a goal of mine for a long time now. but the wedding plans have spoiled this. there are two marathons in toronto, one the day after my wedding, the other two weeks later. so i have postponed those plans and instead just signed up for another half. the half is part of the toronto marathon two weeks after my wedding. we'll see how that goes. i really want to train hard and do a PB (i'm setting my sights are set on 1hr 40)...we'll see. i'll fill you in on that as time goes by. i've just printed off a few varying training schedules, so i'll flick through those and work one out.

i just have to welcome a few new people to the world.

Avery Keana (my niece, through upcoming marriage - Matt's sister Zoe and husband Chris) was born on Wednesday.

And

Jessica Lee was born to my friend from school (as in teaching) Jodie (aka truckie/desk buddy) and her partner Brett.

woo hoo. i am excited by these births.

the home of facebook

2007-05-31T09:38:00.000-04:00

aparently toronto is the home of facebook - e.g. more people are on facebook than anywhere else in the world (at this stage). but this morning, to my joy, it appears that facebook is beginning to crack australia. i now have a few friends who have discovered it. oh what a beautiful day. not that i really care, but it's nice and can be fun at times.

here's my two cents worth for may 31, 2007 - are you a smiley face or a straight face when walking down the street?
these days i do a lot more walking than i used to. a lot more. i like to smile at people when i walk past them. i don't always do it, but i like to. it's kind of like saying 'hello, we are part of this world together'. sometimes people smile back and sometimes they pretend they didn't really see you. or then there's the straight face. they stare straight ahead and your existance is completely ignored by them. i don't like it. but, it's a slap in the face because sometimes i do that too.
there are some situations, i feel, that require the straight face, though i know there are some that would disagree. but i also know others who hardly ever do the smile thing.

which one are you?

this week

2007-05-30T13:09:00.000-04:00

thanks to clint, vanessa and shirl for commenting on my last blog! good to see who's reading the thoughts that i share with the world. to extend the story on my bites, this week i was finally eligible to get ontario health insurance. soi went in there on monday, filled in the forms, showed them my documents and great...nearly...till they ask me to stand with my back next to the white wall and want to take my picture!!! i couldn't help but laugh. now my health card will be a permanent reminder of the youth councils and for the next little while, i will have photo evidence (more) of my bites!!! as nana would say 'at least it gave them a laugh' (all the ladies at the counter when i expressed my joy of having my picture taken with the bites!)

it looks like the poll i posted has a convincing winner, most people think of the beach when they think of me! sweet. i can't be happier with the result. (though i did get to choose all the answers, so it' a little biased to begin with).

this week the weather has been great. i've been out exercising everyday (i got new running shoes last week - thank goodness - i've been meaning to get new running shoes since i left home in march '06...).

so from this post things seem like a pretty ordinary week. well, it is. but that's nice. things have been so crazy recently. this weekend is shaping up tp be busy. we have a garage sale at the office on saturday and then off to see hillsong united on saturday night (whom daz actually boarded onto their flight the other day).

there are a few wedding things that need to get done asap too. so i am slowly working on those!

last weekend

2007-05-28T11:24:00.000-04:00

i spent last weekend with the ignite team at the ontario east youth together. we had a great time and the weather was way better than last year. clint houlbrook (editor/publisher/the man for www.sendthefire.ca ) was the guest speaker (and a friend of ine - it was good to see him) and drew brown and his band lead worship.

now, the weekend was good, except i got bitten by a spider? (this is still up for debate) in my sleep on friday night so i woke up saturday with

3 massive big red swollen lumps on my face (and maybe a few little ones aswell). my little biting friend, whatever it was, made it's way up, or maybe down, the left side of my face! thanks very much. i think they have gone down since then, but are still kind of big. check out this really attractive picture of myself to see what i mean! remember - it's very unattractive!

hopefully you aren't eating or anything.

i have to head out to the post office now. i will have to walk. i am relegated to walking for the entire month of may while my ontario drivers license get's processed! hopefully by this friday...i have to take a road test! then i can drive again! YAY!

enjoy the sunshine. and don't worry if you can't where you are - i will for us all!

Sadie

2007-05-23T11:49:00.000-04:00

Matt drying off Sadie after her bath.

Matt and his little girl
Sadie having a drink

Last night as Matt was walking me home, we heard this little 'meow'. This tiny tiny little kitten came out from under a parked car and sat at our feet. What were we supposed to do? Leave it there?

So Matt picked it up (I wouldn't - it's a cat!). And we carried it back to my house. Matt then wanted to keep it. (note - he has sworn black and blue to me that we are never allowed to/going to have pets...). I named her Sadie. We tried to give her some milk, only a little interested. But then we gave her some tuna, and she scoffed it down. She was SO SKINNY, she must have been starving. Then Matt gave her a bath. She was pretty stinky and scungy.

He took her home, but then decided to take her down the road to the humane society. He left her there. And when he rang to tell me, he was so sad. Poor Matt. He's convinced that the only love Sadie had ever received in her life was from him. Maybe it's true.

So he left her there but has said that in a few days he's going back and if she's still there, he's going to take her home!

We'll see...

By the way today is a beautiful sunny 26 degrees in Toronto! YAY!

growing old gracefully

2007-05-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

i was appalled last night stumble on a tv program that was all about an anti aging conference. now, while the main guy seemed to be promote good things, healthy eating, exercise and proper sleep as a means to aging well, he then went on to discuss and promote the ideas of anti-aging medicine.
i (roughly) quote him (should have paid more attention to get his name) 'it's good and well to say that you want to grow old gracefully, but that's a defeatist attitude, and i'm not a defeatist'
i couldn't believe my ears.
now, call me old fashioned, but i think that growing old gracefully actually takes more effort, self control and discipline that this guy will ever have. we are all created to be who we are. one of the spokespersons said 'everyone should feel as good as i do, everyone should wake up and smile and have energy'. well, yes, of course they should. but they also shouldn't be pressured into trying to look 20 when they are 35 or trying to look 30 when they are 60. there's nothing wrong with growing old, that's what we are meant to do.
i love the dove campaign that's out right now. the one with the women who are 'too old to be in an anti-aging commercial but that's ok because they are not'. it's the pro age campaign.
as my mum always has said 'your age is what you make it'. my sister just turned 30 on the weekend, and someone said 30 is the new 20. and in one sense it is. people are longer constrained by age-stereotypes, in my opinion.
don't get me wrong, it's not like i can't wait to go grey and get all wrinkly, but i am not going to let that stop me from living a full life. only God can give me that. i already know that my nearly 28 year old body is not the same as my 22 year old body (and that's only 4 years ago...). so deal with it.
however, this one thing i urge you all, grow old gracefully, and that means naturally. do all you can to look after yourself. eat well, exercise and sleep well. and most importantly, love life and have fun. and remember as someone wise once told me 'your age is what you make it'.
have a fun day - whatever age you are.

Happy 30th Kezza

2007-05-21T01:37:00.000-04:00

Today is kezza's 30th birthday - hence the reason for my quick trip to seattle. last night we had a masquerade ball which featured dinner, a quiz by me, a ballroom dance instructor, a mask judging contest, cake and more dancing. all in all a great night.

see for yourself...just a few pics

kezza cutting her cakes...(proud mum looking on)

christie and jonas

dad (looking a little less scary with the mask off)

mumma
hil and daniel...

some of the dancing (notice far right - kez and daniel)
stacy and rob

i love new york city

2007-05-17T10:43:00.000-04:00

i am back in toronto now. but i can't stress how much i love new york city. it's so fantastic. we spent all day saturday downtown. we arrived at the world trade centre subway stop. that was moving. reading the tributes. i blinked back the tears, still not really being able to imagine what it would have been like. it was moving. from there we went to chinatown (canal street) - i loved it, then to central park - i loved it, then to times square - i loved it, then to soho/noho - i loved it. one fantastic place was in soho, it is called rice to riches on spring st, they had about 20 flavours of rice pudding and they come in cute reusable containers (even if grace thinks the design is flawed...). i got caramel and loved it so much, when we went back on sunday, i went there again! don't miss it.
the scottish in me came out, with my scottish (now new yorker) friend mhairi. we saw this one, good lookign well dressed guy handing out free maybeline lip gloss, so we all got one. then i heard the guy say there were 16 of them out in the city. mhairi and i went on a hunt, which meant looking on the next few street corners and managed to get ourselves 17 free lipglosses. we were so excited. (n.b. i am only keeping 4 in my possession - the rest i have already given, or am planing to give, away).
sunday we went back in and went to a few of the same places (we were split up on saturday and not everyone got to see the things i did) and we also went to steve and barry's shoe store and also watched the most intense game of (wall) handball i have ever seen - guys diving on concrete...
to sum oup - I LOVE NEW YORK!
i've noticed the length of my blogs has been on the longer side recently, so i will stop for today. but stay tuned...i have more adventures coming...tomorrow i have to be at the airport at 5am...

new york, new york and answered prayer

2007-05-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

i am blogging from new york - this is a first. we drove here from toronto on monday. the trip was good. heather and i sang a lot of the way - i am sure the igniters loved every second of it. we stopped at niagara falls on the way, which, by the way, everyone pronounces ni-ag-ra, not how it's spelt, i have taken it upon myself to correct the world and am now pronouncing it ni-a-gar-a, as it should be. please join me in my efforts. anyway, we stopped there and if you have read my blog before, you'd know my feelings towards these falls, yet i came to appreciate them in a new way, as this time i actually went to where the water actually gushes over the edge. now i found that pretty amazing. kind of crazy actually. so, i have a new appreciation for the falls. don't be confused though, i will not be making any attempt to visit them anytime soon, if it's up to me.

so we've been in new york now for a few days now. we are visiting our friends at project 1:17, a youth training program run at the school for officer training here in NY. i have learnt some things and had some thinking provoked. that's good. not the time to blog about these. that may or may not happen. wait and see...

one thing i have been reminded of is how God answers prayer. i used to think people who said 'be careful what you pray for' were a little loopy. but i now know they were wise. however, sometimes it's better to pray in ignorance. three big prayers i have prayed over the last few years include:
- that i would go anywhere and do anything that God wanted me to do. obviously over the last year, God has only just begun to answer that prayer...and i believe He's going to keep answering that one for the rest of my life.
- that i would find a strong Christian husband. well, that one has well and truly been answered. matt is at least as strong (and stubborn...oh oh) as i am. ok, so i give that we aren't yet married, but seeing as it's less than 5 months away, i'm going with that.
- that if God wanted me to become a Salvation Army officer, then i only would if i was married and my husband and i were called to it. tick. God got me on that one too!
God does answer prayers. like i said, i have been praying the three above, literally, for years. sometimes it takes time and it always takes faith. so i add myself to those wise people who will tell you, be careful what you pray for. on the odd occassion, i think to myself, why did i pray those prayers, as all of them have some drawbacks at times. but seriously, i wouldn't take back a single one of those prayers, i wouldn't have it any other way.

a productive day

2007-05-05T16:02:00.000-04:00

once again the sun is shining in toronto, though i am still waiting for it to get a little warmer, this is a good thing.

today i went for a run and this was the first time in a long time that i just wore t-shirts and shorts. sweet. and i run a lot further that i have in a while. then i came home and cut both steph and grace's hair. then i just spent the last (nearly) 2 hours tutoring at the somali tutor group we do here at the office. now i am about to go and buy a bridesmaids dress. not for me, but for michelle for my wedding.

did i mention i am going to new york on monday? a few weeks ago we had the guys from project 1:17 come to visit us and this coming week we are going to visit them. i am hoping it's going to be a great time. and we get to spend at least one day in the big apple. i love new york city. heather's coming with me and the team, and sean too. then she's only got a week till she'll be off to australia. she got her visa this week, so will be heading to melbourne to work for dave.

hope it's a sunny day where you.

did you fill in my new poll question yet?

new poll

2007-05-03T18:22:00.000-04:00

see to the left...i have a new quiz. please take it. even if you don't know me personally, you know my writing, so just choose.

i want to tell you that yesterday as i was walking to matt's house, i saw a woman walking down the footpath (sidewalk for the north americans) wearing a helmet. no bike. just walking along wearing the helmet. hmmm.

speaking of helmets...yesterday was my first day back on the bike. the motorbike that is. well, as a passenger. matt's bike is up and running, and he didn't even have to get new battery as feared. i was on it again today. and learnt a huge lesson. things aren't always what they seem. looking out the window, or even standing outside in a sheltered spot in the sun, you would have thought it was a beautiful warm sunny day. but riding the bike. WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY. it was freezing. like to the point where we went back to my house just so i could put on a warmer jumper and my big jacket.

things aren't always what they seem.

i am thankful that the sun shines. it really does make me happy.

sorry this isn't going to be any longer, grace is leading bible study tonight and it starts in 2 mins. got to go.

Human Trafficking + more

2007-05-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

One of the passions that is growing in my heart is about the issue of human trafficking. Over the past little while, this passion has been growing, and slowly, yet surely, I am getting more informed. And you know what, there's only so much you can know before you either give up, or get to the action stage. I am thankful that God has given me this desire and I am reaching the action stage.
Just last month, I was supposed to attend The Salvation Army's conference on Human Trafficking Awareness, but then I came down with the stomach flu (see earlier blogs if you really want more information). Most disappointing was that I missed Victor Malarek, author of the book 'The Natashas' that I recently read.
On other fronts, I have seen two provocative/inspiring movies/documentaries that are related to these issues. The first was Amazing Grace. The story of William Wilberforce and his 20 year battle to abolish slavery. The second, I watched this afternoon. It's called 'Born into Brothels'. A documentary about children born into the brothels in Calcutta, India and the work of one woman to try and do something about what she found.
For anyone, interested in the issue or not, I would highly recommend and plead with you to read The Natashas and watching both Amazing Grace and Born into Brothels. At the least, your eyes will be opened.
As with anything, with this passion that is growing within me, I felt the need to start in my own backyard, in the words of maria 'a very good place to start'. I know the names of some of the working girls on the street where I live and work. But that is not enough. I need to do more. I need to have real relationships with them. So after praying and asking God for an opportunity, I got won (as I always say, be careful what you ask God for). I almost didn't take it, but I knew I had to. And I pray that this is just the beginning.
God, give me the courage, the wisodm and the perserverance to not just be a consumer of information, but an activator of change.

the more important things can wait

2007-04-30T10:26:00.000-04:00

i've had a really great few days. really great. i've learnt lots. and things are going well. i really need to blog about some of the stuff i've been thinking about, but for today, seeing as it's sunny and i love my homeland, i stole the following from a facebook (yes i'm on it) group called 'you know you're Australian when...' (i had to edit a few here and there as i didn't entirely agree...)

1. You're familiar with Neighbours, Home and Away, Playschool, A Country Practice, Norman Gunston, Barry Humphries, Blue Heelers, Ray Martin, Bert Newton, Lisa McCune, Jon Burgess, Number 96, Molly Meldrum, Kerry O'Brien, and of course, Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch.

2. You know that Burger King doesn't exist. It's Hungry Jacks.

3. You know that snow is a memorable and freakish occurrence. Sometimes it's even fake.

4. You know the difference between thongs and a G-banger

5. You know that "stubbies" are either short shorts or small beer bottles, a "gimp", "bogan" or "geezer" is a random idiot, someone in trouble is in "strife" and you're liable to burst out laughing whenever you hear of Americans "rooting" for something.

4. You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in -o: arvo, combo, garbo, kero, lezzo, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto etc.

5. You know that some ppl pronounce "Australia" like "Strayla" and that's ok.

6. You know that there is a universal place called "woop woop" located in the middle of nowhere... no matter where you actually are.

7. You know that while we call our friends 'mates', we don't use terms like 'sheila' and 'shrimp on the barbie', contrary to popular belief.

8. You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer because it tastes like crap. But we let the world think we do. Because we can.

10. You resent people who succeed over others- everyone should do the same thing, so we all get a "fair go"; a kind of 'American-dream' in reverse. This is why we actively like not liking Americans.

11. You've seen Gallipoli, Crocodile Dundee, Young Einstein, Muriel's Wedding, The Castle, Beneath Clouds, Strictly Ballroom, 40,000 Horsemen, and maybe even Wolf Creek.

12. It makes you happy when someone in Hollywood is actually Australian... Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrman, Elle MacPherson, Olivia Newton-John, Midnight Oil, ACDC, INXS, Greg Norman, Cathy Freeman, Dawn Fraser, Pat Rafter, Ian Thorpe...

13. One word: Skippy.

14. You know that Sydney 2000 was one of our proudest moments in history. We just rock.

16. You know our country has never been conquered by a foreign nation (you don't count 1788).

17. We know that the Metric system will always be better than anything inches, feet, pounds and farenheit will ever offer

18. You drive on the left-hand side of the road.

19. If you're a pedestrian and cars are stopped at a red light, you will fearlessly cross the street in front of them. 'Hit and runs' just aren't cricket. Because aussies stick together.

21. You know that New Zealanders are basically our naive country cousins, who have a weird fush-and-chups accent, and for some bizzare reason, think that they invented pavlova. Bastards. They are to be pitied and laughed at. They have no hope of gaining the upper hand in the endless sporting rivalry between our two nations.

22. You know that you can't eat Fantales alone... Otherwise who will you play the 'Who am I...' game with when you're reading the wrapper?

23. You know that Sydney (or Melbourne) should be the capital because Canberra is a hole.

24. You know that Americans think we're all Steve Irwin clones. And crickey, they couldn't be more wrong.

26. You have some time in your life slept with Aeroguard on in the summer. Maybe even as perfume.

27. You feel obliged to spread salty black stuff that looks like congealed motor oil on bread... and actually grow to like it. You've also squeeze Vegemite through Vita Wheats to make little Vegemite worms.

28. You believe that democracy means the freedom to draw charicatures of good ol' Johnny Howard

29. You think footballers dressing up in drag on TV is funny.

30. You have the ability to compress several words into one - ie 'g'day' and 'd'reckn?'.

31. You've ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, rad, sweet - to mean good. And then you place 'bloody' in front of it when you REALLY mean it.

32. You know that the barbeque is a political arena; the person holding the tongs is always the boss and usually a man. And the women make the salad.

33. The private lives of footy and cricket players become more important than local and national news stories.

34. You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not.

35. You know what fairy bread tastes like, and you can't imagine your childhood without it.

36. You know the first verse to the national anthem, but still don't know what "girt" means. And you're ok with that.

37. You've drank your tea/coffee/milo through a tim tam.

38. You know that backyard cricket is a nice way to bond with family and the rubbish bin. And the 'one bounce, one hand' rule always applies.

39. You know that we are home to the just about all of the world's deadliest of animals. That's why if anybody messes with us we'll get some funnel webs on their asses.

40. You see people walking bare-foot on the sidewalk and don't scorn.... because you're doing it too.

42. Sausage rolls and meat pies. End of story.

43. You firmly believe that in the end, everything will be ok and have offered advice that included the words, "she'll be right, mate".

45. You own a Bond's chesty. In several different colours.

46. You've ordered a steak the size as your head and only paid $5 at your local RSL

47. You know that Italy should never have been granted that fateful kick in the 2006 Soccer World Cup.

48. You know how to slip, slop, slap like it's nobody's business.

49. You've heard the Prime Minister dismiss anyone who disagrees with him simply as 'un-Australian', and that's enough to make us sit down and shut up.

And right now you feel bloody awesome.

funny things

2007-04-26T09:52:00.000-04:00

i have laughed so much over the last few days. so many weird, as in funny weird, things have happened to me.
they include:
- having a whole set of blinds fall down on me while i was trying to dust
- getting stuck in a lift when following my brother and mother out, and instead having to go back up and down 14 floors because i was holding a box and couldn't hold the doors open or press the button
- losing it when my brother scored an all time record high in phase 10, after thinking he was going to win so easily when he picked up three wild cards, instead he went down like a ton of bricks. it was magic

the common element in all these stories is that in most of the situations, you had to be there. don't you hate it when you are in hysterics laughing at what had happened, but then you try and tell someone and they look at you like you are the least funny person in the world. oh well. it was a laugh for me (and in each case, mum and daz too).

i guess this sense of feeling dumb (when trying to relay the stories) is how some people feel when trying to communicate sometimes. i clearly remember being in italy on the amalfi coast with michelle and not being able to communicate with some guy who was telling us, we think, that we couldn't park our car where we parked it. and we couldn't get the message across that we were looking for our hotel.

it reminds me that at times, we don't understand each other at all. when speaking of things that are deep in our hearts, like our faith, we can't always just tell people about it in the same way. we have to think about how we communicate. how to make it so people who don't understand you, do. anyway, that's just my little ramble.

oh, and i just randomly met the general of the whole salvation army. shaw clifton. he and his wife and canada's national leader just popped into the office. crazy.

Remembering

2007-04-25T18:49:00.000-04:00

Today in my homeland we celebrate ANZAC day. It's a day of national pride and rememberance. Anzacs in our eyes are heroes.

Here's the info (thanks to wikipedia)

ANZAC Day - 25 April - marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as Anzacs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only thirteen years, and the new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The plan was to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. They landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war. Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Constantinople and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as an "Anzac legend" became an important part of the national identity of both nations. This shaped the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

Here is some of an article that appeared in the Herald Sun today.

AUSTRALIANS at the Gallipoli dawn service were urged to use the Anzac values of endurance and courage to "shine light into the dark corners of the world".About 9000 people attended the solemn ceremony at Anzac Cove to mark the 92nd anniversary of the landing of troops for the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915.
There was heavy security, with Turkish commandos patrolling Gallipoli's World War I memorials following warnings of possible terrorist attacks.
But the warnings did little to deter the thousands of Australians who gathered in the pre-dawn gloom, many swathed in Australian flags or wearing green and gold T-shirts and beanies.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson called on Australians to use the inherited legacy of the Anzacs. "The sun will soon pierce the night sky," Dr Nelson said.
"Let us as Australians shine that light into dark corners of the world as an outward-looking, compassionate and confident people imbued with the Anzac spirit of endurance, courage and selfless determination to help others." Dr Nelson was choked with emotion at the end of his speech. "Robert 'Mac' Calder, of the 14th Battalion, heard a voice calling from no man's land, 'Have you forgotten me, cobbers?'
"He didn't . . . We won't . . . We never will.
"We are young and -- we are free. Lest we forget."
For first-time pilgrims, it was an overwhelming experience.
"You look at the terrain up there, right?" said Dan Freeman, from Bendigo. "Then you just imagine coming up from here, out of the water and . . .
"I'm no good at this," he said, unable to go on.
Peter Robb has made the trip to Gallipoli every year since 2001, but still becomes emotional.
"You think of what those poor bastards had to put up with . . ." he said.
In the hours before the service, crowds gathered on the slopes around the ceremonial area to watch documentaries about the battlefield that gave birth to the Anzac legend.
Hours before the service began, Turkish air force fighter jets could be heard patrolling the Dardanelles in a show of force. And Turkish blue beret commandos armed with automatic weapons began taking up hidden positions in the ridges overlooking Anzac Cove and North Beach as a security screen was thrown up to protect the visitors.
The Turkish troops were occupying the same positions as their ancestors when they began repelling the Anzacs nearly a century ago.
It was just after 4.30am on April 25, 1915, that the first of 16,000 Anzacs splashed ashore on the first day of the disastrous 8 1/2 month campaign in which 8700 Australians were killed.

Talking of rememberance, it was one year ago on Monday that Nana died. It was really good to be around my family this last week. One numerous occassions we quoted and talked about Nana, and laughed at some of our manerisms that are they same. It wasn't intentional, it just happened. We all loved her so much, and still, though she's not physically with us any more, is very much a part of our lives.

Both what that Anzacs and my Nana did in their lives have had profound effects on my life. The Anzacs affected a nation, my Nana affected everyone who knew her.

Thanks. You will never be forgotten.

stomach flu...again - the bad and the good

2007-04-18T16:17:00.000-04:00

i am very thankful that i have always been a healthy kind of person. granted - i do try and look after myself, but that doesn't guarantee against everything. so, it's been very frustrating these last three months since i've been back from Aus - i've never been as sick so many times in such a short space of time in my entire life as i have been in the last 3 months. yesterday i woke up in the middle of the night to find i had come down with the stomach flu again. that's the second time since jan. and i've also had the regular cold flu as well. man. it sucks. to feel so crappy. and let me tell you, when i get the stomach flu, i get it good. in all ways - if you know what i mean. fortunately, these bouts have only lasted a few days at the most. so, while i am complaining about my bad health, i am thankful at the same time that i have been blessed with a pretty healthy life. but man, it does suck when all you do is spew, poo and are bed ridden. on the plus side, i have a fiancee who doesn't mind sitting down and watching numerous episodes of friends with me when i can't do anything else. i love you matt. what a wonderful guy.

LOVED IT

2007-04-14T21:19:00.000-04:00

last night matt and i went to the movies and we saw 'Blades of Glory'. it was absolutely hilarious. i haven't laughed so much in a movie in a long time! i'm not going to say anything about it coz i'd hater to ruin the movie. but it was so funny. i can't wait to see it again.
i love movies where you laugh out loud and i did laugh out loud, over and over and over again.
my recommendation - get your butt to the cinema right now and see it!

oh yeah, and so i rang cath (last night) as she got married today. i looked at the clock here and thought it said 8pm, so i rang her thinking it was 10am on her wedding day, turns out half way through the phone call i realise it was 7pm not 8pm so i rang her at 9am instead of 10am. whoops. oh well. they were all sleeping in. luckily she was already awake. goodbye cath daniels and hello cath shanks.

can someone email me some photos of my best friends wedding...

too much self esteem? selfishness?

2007-04-13T16:38:00.000-04:00

i taught the ignite class this morning, they always have class on friday mornings. it was good - i think. we talked about transferable principles from what they've been doing this year to what they may do in the future. we also looked at goal setting. we had class at home today. grace hasn't been all that well, so we switched locations for her.
i had a quick chat to beth last night. sometimes i really miss being home and the friends and the culture of Aus. over the last few days i have also been reminiscing about my teaching days. i look forward to teaching again, i am sure i will at least for a little while. i think mainly of the kids i taught rather than the subjects or the classes. the relationships that you build and what you can teach a kids through those. there were a lot of fun times and the bad times, well, those disappear over time.
relationships are really what it's all about as far as i am concerned. programs, admin, blah blah blah, sure they are all necessary, but it's just not my favourite bit. but it's also the hardest. what do you do when you think there's no way you can help someone anymore but you know you can't give up?
so here's my rant. i know that i am naturally a selfish person. if i am not careful, all i can become concerned about is me, me, me. how this affects me, what i want to do, what i think is right or best, who i want to do things, how i want things done. this is dangerous. i have seen some examples over the last few days of people who think they are all that matters and who think the world should revolve around them. their words and behaviours made me both mad and sad. i've heard it said before that the kids today have been almost too empowered. problem is, they believe what they've been told - that they can do anything they want - and so they do do anything they want, just in all the wrong ways. what's wrong with teaching self discipline? what's wrong with teaching self control? what's wrong with teaching delayed gratification? what's wrong with teaching about realistic goals? nothing. so why does it seem that we don't do this anymore. yes, yes, i am making sweeping generalisations and of course this isn't always the case. but in some ways, this almost seems to be the path we are heading down. i'm all for children knowing how to express themselves and being in touch with their emotional sides, but i'm also all for children who can figure out how much change they should get at mcdonalds when they had over a $10 note.
well that's probably about all i can hold your attention for. so i am going to go and have a nap now. (erin and i did go for a walk this morning - in the freezing rain, which i would just call snow). have a great friday...or saturday if you are in Oz.

not much to report

2007-04-12T22:13:00.000-04:00

not much to report this week. it's been pretty quiet - very nice for a change! the weather SUCKS. it's got cold again. man i have had enough of this. squads were ok. grace and i do a teen girls one on wednesday. i run a 8-9 year old girls one on thursday afternoon with two women from Verity (a women's club - they have it all and do everything). matt and i checked out wedding bands (as in rings) and also started the process of a gift registry. it's now a countdown till mum and dad arrive next week and also kez and daniel too. that will be fun. i have to get up and go on a walk with erin at 6.30 - this will be the second time we've gone this week - what good girls. so for the anonymous person who left the comment the other week about my health kick and how it wouldn't last - well it has. i've been running a bit again and my eating isn't too bad - it's definitely improved. that's all for today. sorry for the boring update. i'll make sure the next one is very exciting...stay tuned.

random thoughts on the last week

2007-04-09T10:21:00.000-04:00

firstly, i want to welcome little josiah ian collinson into the world. ok, so he is nearly a week old now, but i haven't blogged since he's been born, so i think that's ok. hope all is well with dave, kylie and big brother noah.

complacency is a killer. it's comfortable, i won't argue you there. it's easy. it's nice. but it's a killer. to leave things the same, not to work on them, better them, improve them, test them, usually means they will die. but it's hard. it's not always easy, it's not always fun. sometimes it is. sometimes it's great. but you can't afford not to just because it may be hard, or not fun.

so this easter was a little weird for me. over the last few years, when i have spent Christmas and Easter away from my family and long time friends, its really been quite different. i haven't had the usual Christmas and Easter celebrations that go along with these times. in some way it's been good because it's forced to me to really think whats been going on during these times. but i have also really missed the celebrating with people who you really know and love, and who really know and love you back.

i got to speak with meredith yesterday and that was great. we haven't spoken since i have been back here, so it was so good to hear her voice. i will however maybe get to speak to her again later this week as CATH IS GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY!!!! i can't believe it. on of my long time best friends (see pic of me and cath below), who've i've had the pleasure of sharing many many single years with - ok, so we weren't always single, and there were some long time boyfriends in that mix, and i guess it would be more appropriate to say 'with whom i've had the pleasure of sharing many many years of dating experiences with - is getting married. and i'm not going to be there! DOH! and she's not even going to be at my wedding. DOH. i'm so glad we didn't jinx ourselves my last summer at home. we ended up starting to date matt and michael at about the same time, got engaged in the same week. but she sure got the jump on the marriage thing - i still have 5 and 1/2 months to go. but that's all good. it's so exciting. love you guys.

emma and chris

2007-04-03T13:07:00.000-04:00

i got so carried away this week that i forgot to mention that a highlight of my weekend was having a 2 hour breakfast with Chris Lewis. Chris the husband of Shirl who got the birthday mention last week. So, if you aren't up to date with reading my blogs, you wouldn't know that i stayed in his house for a while just before i moved here to toronto. besides that, our families are great friends. i don't think chris and i have ever been out before, with just the two of us, but it was really grea tot see him and chat. he's a great man! (and he paid for my breakfast!). thanks chris. (shirl - can you tell him i blogged about him as he said he can't read blogs on his computer).

now, i also want to blog about emma (chris's daughter) as well. it's her birthday next week - so happy birthday em. early as it may be. but i've been talking about her a little this last week. emma made a list of 100 things she wants to do this year. check the list out at here.
it's really good and i have been discussing it with various people this week. we are all inspired em. i am going to do my list someday soon.

anyway, it's my day off today, so i am going to go into the eaton centre and walk around the shops. have a good one.

my rambling thoughts on the last year

2007-04-02T12:46:00.000-04:00

i left home over a year ago now. i departed melbourne on march 31st. i didn't arrive in toronto until april17th, i spent inbetween time in seattle. so it's kind of weird now i have been gone from home for a year, but not yet been here a year. a lot has happened.

- i got engaged
- i am as white as i've ever been
- i've grown a lot closer to God
- nana passed away
- matt and beth got married
- cath got engaged (and will be married in less than two weeks)
- mills moved to sydney (i know i'm not there, but that's still weird for me to think about)
- i went to the grand canyon
- i went to newfoundland
- bec passed away
- i've lived in three different bedrooms in the same house

just to name a few.

my thoughts have been evolving and developing on lots of different issues and i'll never be the same again. all of this in a good way - as far as i'm concerned. there are lots of things i do miss about home. mostly still just the people. my friends, church family, school family (vermont that is) still enter my thoughts a lot. i desparately miss the weather. and the australian way of life. i miss the beach (including the house at mccrae and the caravan at safety beach), black forest chocolate and raspberry bullets and caramello koalas. i miss running in shorts in winter. i miss being able to swim in a 50 metre outside pool - year round.

i thank God for the experiences i've had over the last year. i thank Him for bringing matt and i together. yet again, i feel truly blessed.

my town ROCKS

2007-03-29T11:27:00.000-04:00

so melbourne is currently hosting the world swimming championships. i know that if daz and i were home right now, it would be consuming our lives! i also know that i would watch numerous sessions with jayne and that the three of us would have done our absolute best to get into the stadium in any way possible.
they built the pool in a sports arena that seats about 15,000. watch the clip below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niJb6fv8-I0

you've gotta love MELBOURNE!!!

thoughts and learning

2007-03-24T16:51:00.000-04:00

i've been getting itchy feet this week about my learning. i feel like i have stopped. and i've just noticed this. i need to read more. i want to learn more. about so many different things. if you don't make this a priority, it's something that can easily slip away. go by unnoticed. but the feeling i am feeling now is where to start. there are so many areas that i am interested in. arrgghh. i am wishing there were more hours in the day. goals are important to have. i think i need to write down some tangible goals and some out there goals, just to help get my head sorted about which areas are really the ones i am going to pursue. i am also going to start eating better and exercising properly again come monday. i have been slack the last few weeks. the snow is all gone now, so i can start running outside again.

i got some great news today. my grandma and auntie mary are coming to my wedding! i think dad said they are booking their tickets this week. woo hoo. i feel very special that grandma will be at my wedding. i remember when our oldest cousin paul got married, she kept commenting that the rest of us had better hurry up and get married before she dies! well since then only kerryn and louise have gotten married. grandma didn't make it to kerryn's wedding, but made up for that by visiting at daniels birth. so i'll be the 4th grandchild to get married (she's only got 9 and after me, there's one promising relationship but who knows about the other 4 boys...). so i guess that's why i'm priviledged enough for her to fly to the opposite side of the world! by that stage, she'll be 85! but she's going to kick on forever. yay for grandma.

also, i missed a birthday this week. kat mellody turned 21. oh i wish i could have been at her 21st. she's one of the funniest girls i know. love ya kat, happy birthday. (kat is 2nd from left - pictured with emma, annie and miriam - left to right).

birthdays birthdays birthdays

2007-03-21T10:46:00.000-04:00

Today is a day to wish more birthday wishes (and there's more to come this week!)

seth, jodie and me

Tuesday was Jodie Lomer's birthday. Jodie is a great friend of mine. Wife of Jay and mother of Ethan and Seth. She's a strong pray-er and always up for a chat. She's been a long time friend of mine and i was priviledged to be in her wedding party (all those years ago - ha ha). She loves and cares for people well. She's a constant.

Today is Shirl Lewis' birthday. Shirl is an extremely busy woman. Wife of Chris and mother of Emma, Dustin and Jake. Shirl is also a great friend of mine. She's like family. Both Darren and I have spent time living with the Lewis family and both of us had a great time there. Two Christmases ago, while I back home, the Lewis family were in Seattle with my family. We love them a lot.

Happy Birthday to both of you!!! Wish I could be there to celebrate (and to swim in your pool shirl - i am still wearing my winter jacket and mitts - much rather be in your backyard with my bathers on!).

shirl is in the blue

My week is going well, though i am getting tired. After march break last week, with these guys here from new york this week, while it's fun and going well, i am getting less sleep than i did on camp and have more responsibility. but thats all good. got to go.

exhausted

2007-03-19T19:37:00.000-04:00

so i am still feeling very tired after my last 10 days or so. i slept for a long time last night, but still need some more sleep. i am now sitting in my office waiting for the next storm to arrive. this storm consists of 13 people from the Project 1:17 Team who are here with us for a week of mission. i'm responsible for them. so that will be a lovely time i am sure. no seriously, i am looking forward to it, but it is a little stressful and busy!!!
our new ignite hoodies arrived today so that was a nice little surprise. i like them. i will take a picture soon and post it so you can all see!!!
it's matt's birthday on sunday, but he's going away with geoff down to illinois on friday and won't be back till monday, so that will be sad that he's gone, but we can celebrate when he gets back. i know what i am getting him, but i can't tell coz sometimes he reads my blogs, as do some of the other gateway boys and i'm sure it would get out. i hope he likes it. i can't wait. i think it's great! ha ha.
ok, well have a nice day. and take my new quiz. come on. don't be scared, just do it. nice to see that heather power is in the lead as she and cath (cate) called me and matt a long time before we even met!!!

long time no blog

2007-03-18T13:39:00.000-04:00

so it's been a while. last weekend i went to our church's 6th anniversary. it was a good time. i didn't get much sleep though...but that's another story...not my fault this time either.
then after that i spent the whole week at march break camp. basically, canadian spring break. so i was up at jacksons point with about 60 crazy kids and even crazier leaders (crazier because we volunteered to go and look after the crazy kids). it was a hard time, yet really great. i was looking after the teens and i got to spend some good quality time with them, but also got to have a lot of fun as well. i also realised after playing ball hockey with them for an hour and a half on tuesday that i am possibly nt as fit as i should or could be. i must get on to that. it will be easier as the snow is nearly gone. i can't wait.
anyway, just wanted to give a quick update. this will be a busy week too, i am looking after a mission team that is coming up from new york tomorrow. ahh things are never quiet round here.
mum and dad have confirmed their trip here too. so that's sweet. they arrive on april18th and will be here for a week. daz might be able to squeeze in a trip also while they are here, so that will be great!
also, it was merf's birthday yesterday, i haven't had a chance to call her yet and say happy birthday, so if you see her, tell her i send a big hug and kisses. i love you merf. happy birthday.

options options

2007-03-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

life is all about options. there are always choices to be made and sometimes we can make decisions that can affect our lives hugely. yesterday my husband to be preached the best sermon i have ever heard him preach and the best one i've heard in a while! of course, as it always is the case, when it comes to God, we are the ones who have to make the decisions. in our lives we can be presented with many opportunities, and while sometimes they can be great, they may not necessarily be God's best.
i can remember a few clear moments in my life when i knew i was about to make a decision that would alter the rest of my life.
more recently one was in october 2005 when i decided to move to canada. i didn't know how much at the time, but i knew my life would be different because of this. i also knew things would never be the same again. last year, my mum was around late july and at that stage when i decided to not go back to vermont this year but to stay here longer, i knew again that was another major decision that would alter the course of my life.
these decisions are becoming more frequent in my life at the moment. i could look at that as being scary, but i find it exciting. i feel blessed and want to make the most of these opportunities and life. to quote (with a few little adjustments) the founder of TSA, william booth 'my days, at the most, cannot be very long, so i must use them to the best of my ability for the glory of God and the benefit of my generation'!

bec

2007-03-02T10:27:00.000-05:00

this is just a quick post. i have a pic of bec smiling! some other tributes to bec on blogspot can be found by emma and our t.c. (jim knaggs) (australia southern).

celebrate life today!

Bec (Rebecca) Philp

2007-02-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

this is Bec. she was a special girl in my life for what now seems like such a short time. early last saturday morning she passed away (epileptic seizure in the middle of the night). she was just 17. i will always remember her smile. she was a beautiful girl. we spent some good times together (and some harder ones too). she would pretty much tell me what she thought, though sometimes it would take some prompting and i'd first get the shrug of the shoulders and the 'i don't know'. but she always did. she always had an opinion. and it would come out. she searched for truth, and she wasn't fake to me. i wanted the best for Bec, I truly did. I wanted her to have a fantastic life. to live and to love. even though she was only 17, i do believe she had experienced life and love. she loved her family. loved to talk about her brothers to me. and her friends. and her parents. she loved them all a lot.

i don't know, and never expect to know, in this life, why things like this happen. but they do. it's a broken and imperfect world.

bec, i will miss you. i wish i had seen you when i was home. i am sorry. i pray and believe that you are in a better place than all of us left here.

this is regent park.

2007-02-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

so most of you know i live in regent park. here's a bit of insight to where i live. joy, from our church, 2 of her sons are the singers and some of my squad kids are featured. this is my home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PyF3E3aDZ8

the unexpected.

2007-02-24T11:50:00.000-05:00

i got some unexpected news yesterday. one of my youth from my church at home passed away. she was a beautiful young girl, just 17, with so much to offer. i loved her a lot and all i wanted for her was the very best. i will write more later. but i'm just feeling a bit out of it today. my heart goes out to her, and especially her family right now. what can you say.

Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

My fiance is so sweet. i told him not to do anything major for valentines day, and he went and got it to SNOW MASSIVELY. how lovely and clever is he. it actually started last night and hasn't stopped. since i've been back from Aus, there has been snow on the ground and just on sunday and monday the snow was starting to clear and i saw a few patches of grass and some sidewalks that were cement, not snow. and now EVERYTHING is covered. here's some pics to get the idea.

now, these aren't pics i took this morning, and the one of the street doesn't have enough snow. here, the cars are still covered and as i walked to work this morning, at one point there were no footsteps to follow and i pretty much sunk in the snow up to my knees. i cross the road, someone had cleared, or tried to, the footpath on the other side. thanks honey. next year, i hope you get me a beach with real salt water and real waves and 28 degrees. but the snow is pretty (or it will be for a few days, then it will go black and grey and worse, yellow!).

'it'll work out'

2007-02-09T21:43:00.000-05:00

MUM

mum has always had this catch phrase 'it'll work out'. she'll use it in almost any situation. it will often bookend 'i don't know how just yet, but i just know it will'. i couldn't tell you how many times she's said that to me, or used it about other situations. funny thing is. things always have. sometimes quickly, other times slowly. but they do, they always work out. i remember in one particular situation just last year when she comforted(?) me with those words, she later admitted that she really didn't know if it would, but it did anyway.

theres a verse in the bible that it makes me think of ..and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him... now for me, this is true. obviously, good things happen and things work out for those who don't love God either. but that's not my story and i'm just telling you my story right now.

so, i guess, if anyone's facing anything right now, and you're not quite sure what's going, just know it'll work out. i don't know how, i don't know when, i just know it will. it'll work out.

school friends

2007-02-04T09:53:00.000-05:00

These are the girls from school - work that is. most of my girlfriends are pictured here (merf is also in this gang, see previous blogs about her - the crazy dress up ones). through my 5ish years at vermont, we all formed a pretty close bond. we were in a similar boat - young, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful, caring teachers (ok, so that's what we were all striving to be). but through all the countless days of classes, meetings, assemblies and even surf and ski camps, we managed to find time to have sleepovers, coffees and dinners (albeit at 3.30pm on friday afternoons), hen's nights, weddings, baby showers, quilting clubs and gym visits. we knew how blessed we were to be working with such a great group of friends. we also knew that it wouldn't last and that one day we might never have again what we had at vermont. but the friendships will last. thanks girls for making my time at vermont so wonderful. as most of you are back there now, to start another year, make sure you take some time out to interupt someone else's free period when they are supposed to be working and hang out, or better yet, find nat's biology class and run through it with a mexican sombrero (not sure how to spell that) on for me (you can usually find them in stevo's office). love you girls. hope to see you soon.

the wedding dress, the beach and the cricket

2007-01-31T19:09:00.000-05:00

it was great having daz here over the last few days. he arrived sunday morning (way too early, but that's ok) and then his friend (and mine) dan came up from london (ontario that is, not UK) on monday. they are good guys (and for the ladies - single too). they actually helped me shop for a wedding dress. which, by the way was a successful mission (it may or may not look like the picture below....). anyway we had some good chats about life and God. it was fun to hang with them.

my wedding dress???

....more posts from my holidays.

the beach - annie and i went down the beach for two glorious days. we sat on the beach, swam in the ocean, ate fish and chips and chocolate, and watched many episodes of sex in the city.

the cricket - i went to a twenty20 game of cricket. it was actually fun. i mean i like cricket. but this was fast and thrilling. cricket is always a good time to socialise as well. while my photos only show myself, jayne, aaron and luke - cath, merf, rick, gen, shanksy, etc were all there also. it was a lovely evening. except on the way out - we got stuck in the traffic. but thanks to some cheeky cross country driving in the lancer, we did alright. but not as good as the white car which jayne threatened (in fun) to beat up if they tried to keep pushing in (which they did a better job of than us...boo hoo). good times.

the real world

2007-01-30T07:55:00.000-05:00

what is the real world?
i've had a few conversations recently which kind of related to what's the real world and what's not. sometimes i refer to my current situation as not being in the real world. but that is just my perception. in truth, my current living situation is better than most in this world in which we live. i mean, i am actually quite blessed, i have a place to live (even if we do have a few mice issues), i have a bed to sleep in, food to eat, clean running water to shower, drink, cook, clothes to wear, i have a job, etc, etc. what is your perception of the real world? do you consider yourself to be living in the real world?
did you know that the life expectancy in zimbabwe, mozambique, angola is under 40 years of age. I would be closer to the end of my life if i lived there, rather than maybe 1/3 of the way through it (God willing).
did you know that in Eritrea and also in the Congo, more than 70% of the population is malnourished?
did you know that in the U.S. there were over 1 million legal abortions in 1995 (ok so that date is old, but it was the same for 1985, and 1990, so i am guessing that the trend hasn't really changed all that much).
Unemployment in macedonia is at 36%.
Over 90% of the population in Mali, Nigeria and Zambia are living on less than $3 a day.
just to name a few things.
now, i ask you, what is the real world?
am i living in it?

things i love and things i hate

2007-01-29T09:56:00.000-05:00

i hate mice. i really hate mice. a saw one in our house on friday night and i freaked. l do thw whole screaming and jump up on whatever is closest thing. i really do. and that's my natural reaction. i hate them. so matt bought us some traps on the way home from work and we set them. we had one dead mouse by saturday morning. sweet. or so i thought. i bought more traps on saturday afternoon. i set them sunday morning. we killed another one maybe an hour later. then, when grace and heather got home from church, grace was walking up the stairs and heard the trap in MY ROOM go off and then she heard squeaking. it was caught by it's leg. they put a bucket over it and a heavy book on top. matt stopped by on his way home from work (meanwhile, i am out with Daz having an absolute blast night toboganning at the local park that has a MASSIVE hill - it was so much fun!!!) and had to take it outside and kill it. then i set the traps again when i got home and bang, before we went to bed, we killed another one. YUK YUK YUK! i hate them. daz got to sleep in my bed, and i slept on the couch because i am too freaked out to sleep in my room. if we catch one more, i am calling the exterminator. in fact, i might call anyway. I HATE MICE.

on a lighter note, my car, which I LOVE. is now up for sale. my little lancer has done me well over the last 5 years. it's been a great little car and i have never once had any problems with it. so thank you little lancer. i hope you go soon to a new family who will love you as much as i have (p.s. if you are in melbourne and want to buy my car, let me know).

i thing i hate is miscommunication. i one thing i love is justice.
two more things i love are my brother (who decided to come and visit - and is here now) and toboganning. one more thing i hate is when it's -15 and you are doing anything but toboganning.