seven things you just might not know about me...

Well, it looks like I've been tagged by my dearest roomie Erica... Really it's a good thing cause it's about time i updated this thing... Ok, here is goes...

7. My favourite colour is purple... that deep, almost navy/purplish colour... although i don't own any clothing in this colour and have viritually no items displaying this colour, when I see it in a picture or painting something in me really enjoy's it...
6. i dream if being a hippy... of living in the country and living off the land, and riding my bike, and not really working cause i don't need to because everyone in the little community i live all helps each other... really it will be bliss...
5. i really only look at blogs with pictures... which is funny cause i rarely put pictures on mine...
4. i took piano lessons all of my growing up years but now feel like i have lost most of this ability which is unfortunate cause I was actually kinda good...
3. i worked at taco time... not for very long... it wasn't my favourite job in the world... but i do have to say before i worked there i didn't like there i didn't like the food at all and after i worked there i did... isn't it suppose to work the other way around???
2. I really am not too fond of animals... i would like to have a fish... and if a dog is well trained then i think i kinda will like it... but the thought of having many animals run around my house just doesn't appeal to me...
1. and finally, i am making a bit of a life change in the next while and have decided to go back to school... as of this fall i will no longer work at the most wonderful organization on the face of this planet (much to my sadness)... instead i have decided to join the ranks of many and wander the campus of the university of saskatchewan... my goal right now is to become a teacher... and the more i think about it the more i am very, very excited...


so there you go... i don't expect many people still read this considering that i update like every 3 months... however i do wonder which of things surprised you...

oh and now i tag oliver (or dana), matt, cam, simon, brendan, and evan... basically the dalmeny crew...

Can I tell you how much I hate this new way you have to sign in to blogger.... uuurrrggghh.... i'm annoyed....

Ok, I feel like I have ranted enough in the title of this post as to how dumb it is to sign into this thing... geez, do they not want people to post anymore... cause I won't... no let's be real.. it's all hollow threats and we all know I would, and it wouldn't have been so hard if I just would have remembered my password... so, really, it's my fault... ok, bloggers not dumb, I am... are we all happy now...

Alright, this is what happend when you spend Sunday evening at home alone trying to avoid cleaning your room. You kinda go crazy... so sorry about that...

But I thought I should update a bit cause I haven't in a while...

I started to think about Africa the other day. There is a plethera of reasons I began to think about it really, it could have been the international worship service I went to where the African's sang and danced like nobodies mother, it could have been thinking of my friends who in Africa as I type, it could have been having our AIDS cordinator at MCC this week and being able to talk and hear stories of this dear place, it could simply be that it is cold here and I wish I were in Africa where it is hot. It could be a number of things really but the bottem line is this place and these people have been on my mind lately.

I started telling Erica a story that happened when Carly and I were in Tanzania and I found I just wanted to keep telling story after story. I think I have underestimated the way my short little visits to Africa have changed me. So here are some of the things I miss about Tanzania tonight:

I miss...
* eating ugali and beans all the time
* wandering with no agenda
* standing in the kitchen visiting with Mama
* the sound of latisha, our sheep, when it was lonely
* going pee in a squatty
* listening to rap music that was blaring out of the store fronts
* laughing with Anna
* playing chasing games with the kids in kili
* hearing the voices of kids singing and getting shivers up and down my arms
* being hot and sweaty
* standing up in the back of the truck when we went to and from town
* going to the market
* trying not to reck the truck as I drove it through fields and so called roads in the serengetti
* going to church
* being able to take pictures at every turn
* eating freshly roasted peanuts and coffee and milk in the morning
* speaking the few words of kiswahili we learned
* the way baba and mama took us in as their own kids
* laughing, laughing, and laughing some more
* the smells and sounds of the city
* the sound of the rooster's early in the morning
* just being there

And I could go on but I won't so here's a few picture of that wonderful time...
Someday I will go back and let it change me some more....

The best game ever...

Didn't want to stay up this late again tonight, but for some reason no matter how much I want to go to bed earlier I just cannot... nothing makes me want to crawl into my bed right now, so instead, I will update... I just got back from being gone a couple of weeks and have so many thoughts swirling around my head right now. All I can say is when peace comes it's a good thing. I will however tell you a little about my evening...

I had a full day of work and errands and ended up getting home just in time for Kids club. Two weeks away and I find myself really missing those little gaffers (how do you spell gaffers anyway??) So it all started with a bit of a game. I found a little toy, coralled them into one room, hid the toy in another part of the apartment and then told them whoever found it would get a prize... it was fun, for a few minutes and then the majority got bored and went off to do their own thing. But somehow Ali thought this was the best game to be invented. Ali, who usually doesn't really talk to you but would rather be roughhousing with his older brothers, this Ali decided he wanted to hide the toy. So he did and I found it, and he hid it again, and I found it. By this point you're probably thinking that I must be pretty awesome at this game, like the best finder ever, but no it was the simple fact that he was 5 and hiding it that gave it away, he practically just told me where it was. He would sit on it, or put his hand next to it, or tell me exactly which shelf to look on. And yet every time I found it it was as great as if I had been looking for hours. At once point he hid it and then forgot where he hid it and we looked and looked but to no avail... this time he didn't hide it on the shelf he had hid it on for the last 8 rounds of the game... It was great fun...Ali and I hung out all night... it was good quality time... we made a sweet fort and big race track... all in all a successful night.

Now not that I have these deep thoughts alot during silly moments in life but tonight as I was playing this 'hide the toy' game with Ali I wondered it this is a little bit of how Jesus works. It's like there's this good, and beautiful life out there that is life to it's fullest and then we get restless and unsettled and start to whine. And we look and we look for the thing that is going to right this life and really Jesus is like Ali. He is sitting there with his hand on the toy waiting for us to find it. And when we do it's going to be just as awesome as if we looked for it for hours or days or years. Cause the points not the looking but the finding. So ya, don't know if that makes sense just a little ramble for the evening...

Oh summer... where art thou???

Alright, I was realizing that I don't like blogs without pictures and so I thought I should put up a few pics. So I was looking through my pictures and memories of my kids and this summer were fresh in my mind. How I loved this summer... Winter blues have seemed to hit hard this year and the only reason I can think is because the summer was just so beautiful... So here are a few pictures of my lovely children and neighbourhood and a little bit of this past summer....

Things that make me smile today...

Alright, I was realizing that I don't like blogs without pictures and so I thought I should put up a few pics. So I was looking through my pictures and memories of my kids and this summer were fresh in my mind. How I loved this summer... Winter blues have seemed to hit hard this year and the only reason I can think is because the summer was just so beautiful... So here are a few pictures of my lovely children and neighbourhood and a little bit of this past summer....

what happens in apartment #307 when Erica is grumpy...

So do ever have one of those days that just seems good... you get laundry done, clean the bathroom and finally realize the sink is in fact a pearly white, have good conversations and times with friends, lunch with the fam, and even work out... yes people that was my day. One of those good ones. After a busy week of Bethany missions, I just relaxed and caught up on stuff around here. All was good... I was sitting here after being out for the evening chatting on msn with my dear Brazilian friend and then my dear, sweet room-mate walked in... I have not seen her really in the past few days. Kinda forgot what she looked like really. I got home good and early to spend some time with her when she got home... but... she didn't have a good day... and when erica doesn't have a good day nobody has a good day... so instead of a joyous greeting I was greeted with a grunt... I tried to stay out of her way... but I didn't want to be rude and make her day worse... what to do... what to say... 'oh no, I thought... she's a ticking time bomb, please Jesus, don't let me set her off.'... so i say a few things... she calls me a priss... and then it happens I through caution to the wind... I know I shouldn't, but I laugh at her... I laugh at her cause a few weeks ago she told me how 2000 and 'heaven' was going to be the best most positive year... she proceded to tell me how she would no longer be negative... and where as I knew she meant it, I knew it just is not possible to be a positive person all the time, so I laughed... cause ha, I told you so...

Sigur Ros - Untitled #1 [aka vaka]

I should call this night 'oh to sigur ros night'. I think they are geniuses...

Sigur Ros - Glósóli

Watched this today and was once again reminded at how much I love this video and song. When I first watched this I was sure there was some hidden meaning. I never did find it, but today something clicked in this my head and it came to an all new meaning... so, my question is what this make you think of?

people who know you...

Merry Chritmas everyone...

Just had a lovely evening with friends from home last night. Wendy had a little party full of food and people at her house for the second year in a row. It was really just great to get out in the country and visit with 'home people'. I was thinking about how unusual it is that we all get together and have stayed in touch so much, and how much I really do love those people. From what I see not too many people do that when they have been out of school for so long but there's something kinda special about it. I think deep down inside most of us would love to all move back to Dalmeny and live the quaint, small town life, but out journey's have all taken us to all very different places. So as much as I think loving home is awesome and as much as I truly do love the place I came from, i was also having a wonderful chat with Matthew and we were both saying how it also makes life a bit more complicated. It makes our hearts pull in more than one direction when we are deciding on love and life and how we would like our lives to look. It's crazy cause really, when it all comes down to it you want people who know you around you. People who understand and care. And that's what 'home people' are, people who know you and love you. So I don't even know what my point with this whole thing is. My mind is still just thinking about all Matthew and I talked about last night. All I know is that I've gotta believe that God has some sort of big plan, cause sometimes certain things just don't make sense to me... haha, this isn't a very merry christmas message is it? Sorry, merry christmas everyone. I hope these next few days bring time to sit and be and love and be loved and to just know that there is a bigger plan that we have no idea about...