and then there were seven...

In total now I have had thirteen fish. And guessing by my title, you have probably rightly assumed that i only have seven remaining. Yoko was the first to die, followed by Wanda and the fish that had replaced Wanda (we call her no-name fish), then Jerry, then Ebony and poor little Oswald. And yesterday I finially discovered how to clean my tank properly. A gravel filter really does wonders! there was solid black water coming out. Needless to say, the fish are happier, except for Coco, who I expect to die any day now as he lies lifeless and sideways at the bottom of the tank. I must simply wait for him to die though, because if i flushed him down the toilet (not that i would ever flush a live fish...) he would clog it because he's big. Just thought I'd give you the update on the fish. Deek, Kaia, Leslie, Oscar, Pinky and Gabby are doign great though. They're enjoying the new little shark figurine I added to their tank community.

tribute

I write this post today in memory of my oldest brother Leon, who died five years ago today. As I write this, I can't believe that five years have actually gone by without him and it seems as though he was part of a different life in a faraway memory, or it seems like it was just yesterday that we were hanging out together, enjoying life.
He always lived life to the fullest and enjoyed every moment, not necessarily caring what other people thought.
He loved biking and would do anything on his bike. He died in a motorbike accident, doing what he loved.





I miss you tons Leon, in good times and hard times. In victories and defeats, my desire is always to share what's going on, because I know you would rejoice with me! And I can't wait for the day when I will see you in Heaven! Hope you and Dad are having a blast!

booked!

Well, my mom and I just booked a cruise to Europe for ten days in August!! I'm so excited! We'll be going through Greece, Croatia, Turkey and Italy!! I've never been on a cruise and I've always wanted to go to Greece especially, so I"m super excited for it!! Yay for my summer of travels!

close call

Last night driving home, I had a close call with a nearly severe car accident. My mind was off thinking about something and as I was driving through an intersection I had to wonder why there was a jeep going through the other way.. Suddenly i realized the light was red and we were both going really fast and he was about to hit me right on the driver's side. Thankfully, I sped up and he slowed down, and everything was fine. Praise the Lord for keeping me safe! The suddeness and shortness of my life definitely flashed before my eyes in that moment and it really made me think about a lot of things. May is always the time of year my thoughts are brought back to life and death especially because saturday marks the fifth year since my oldest brother Leon died suddenly in a motorbike accident. Memories of our last days together are happy but mixed with sorrow at missing him. I pray that I would continually be able to grieve freely and to let stuff out. So you can all think of me this saturday.

I'm tired today. I've worked six days straight and have three more to go. But I am looking forward to having three straight days off! Yay! (and i will be sure to push decline if work happens to call...) Hopefully i'll have some good pics of whatever I decide to do on the weekend. Hope you all have a good week!

it's official!

It's official: i quit my job! I'm actually quite sad about it, but it feels so right at the same time. I will miss it to be sure, but i'm excited for the two months I will have off. I said I would work until the end of June to help cover some vacation time and then i'll be gone. I think I'll try and go back in the fall if they'll take me though while i'm going to school.

I figured this was my last summer completely free and I want to take full advantage of it. SO I will travel away! I'm goign to Quebec for three weeks and then hopefully I will go on a cruise for two weeks with my mom to the Greek Isles. I'd like to do a road trip to Calgary and perhaps one down to the states as well, but we will see how everything goes!!

It'll be good to just step back. I dont' say no enough and so at work I would just get loaded down with a lot of random hours, especially on my days off. and it'll be good to remove myself from some of the stuff that frustrates me there... always good to take a step back for sure.

So anyway, that's the latest for me. if anyone has any trip suggestions let me know!!

adventures galore!

Yesterday was fantastic! We drove to Whistler and on the way stopped at a bunch of provincial parks, mainly to see waterfalls (check out my pictures blog, there's plenty on there!) We stopped at Shannon Falls, Brandywine Falls (which was named after two railway guys wagering brandy or wine as to how high the falls were) and Nairn Falls. It was all beautiful and amazing! We even saw a couple of black bears along the way! THey looked really nice and fluffy, but we decided it might be best if we didn't go over and pet it.. Figured he might not appreciate that much!

It was amazing just to be outside yesterday! Surrounded by creation! Fantastic really and I continually stand in awe of the beauty of it all. It's astounding how powerful the water is that flows and how everything is formed so wonderfully! Hard not to praise God upon seeing His marvelous creation. And to think that all this that He's created is only a tiny reflection of how beautiful, majestic and glorious He is!! It blows me away sometimes. What a great God we serve!

This morning was rough going back to work. And the idea crossed my mind to take the summer off, enjoy life, travel and just be. See lots of stuff, take lots of pictures. It would be an adventure to be sure! But I'm up for it.. I just need to decided whether or not I should quit my job... Any thoughts?

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the long weekend! I'll be working! But it's supposed to rain, so I don't really mind too much because my days off were gloriously sunny!

a full day

So today started with Sandy, Lindie and I driving to the skytrain station to pick up Ryan, a guy from Australia who is in Canada for a year and has been in Vancouver for a week now. Sandy met him on her plane ride back from California. Then we drove to Golden Ears Provincial Park where we hung out at Alouette Lake.

We had our hearts set on kayaaking, but unfortunately the boat rentals were closed... but luckily I had kites in the back of my car! Some of them didn't work too well,b ut in the end to make them longer, we tied five different kites together and flew them.. they were pretty high in the end and the string was pretty hard to hold on to, because of the wind drafts up top, but it was a lot of fun! My favorite moment was when i accidentaly let go of our string of five kites and it started flying away. Ryan got up and started madly running after it all the way down the beach and he ended up catching it! Yay! I think we lost our Dora kite on the way however.

Then we went hiking for a couple of hours and went to some nice waterfalls in the park. After the hike we drove back home and enjoyed some Red Robins for dinner and then went to the drive-in movie theatre where we watched the ending of Mission Impossible 3 and Failure to Launch all fromt he comfort of my brother's pick up truck.

All in all, it was quite the fun day, I am a red lobster and ready for bed! Pictures from the day will be up hopefully tomorrow or the day after!

flying kites...

Tonight there was no wind, so my friends Karin and I went kite flying. It was pretty exciting and we had to run really fast to get them to fly. Can't wait for it to be windy for sure!!!

I have the next two days off and I"m so excited to have a bit of a break and just enjoy life! Went to Cascade Falls today and tomorrow we're heading to Alouette Lake to go kayaaking. Should be fun!!

winds of change...

So I just found out today that I've been accepted to attend Trinity Western University in the fall! Yay! I never actually thought I would go there, especially not right now, but it goes to show just how much things can change from our expectations! And on top of it all, I just found out today that I get a 3000 dollar academic scholarship from the school for the year! Yay! It just keeps coming! I'll be entering into the Psychology program and will major in that and hopefully go on to get my masters in Christian Counselling! We will see where it all goes!!

So that's news I guess. I'll be sticking around here for a while. I'll be heading to Montreal for a few weeks in July though to help out with Youth Mission International's SOAR program that they have there every year. Should be exciting! So that's what's new with me! And Lindie is coming to visit tomorrow! Yippee!! What an unexpected but so delightful surprise!

happy birthday!

yesterday through drive-thru it was someone's birthday, so i started singing them happy birthday while we were waiting for their drinks to get ready. then today this guy was coming through the drive-thru and when i brought his drink up, he's like "Hey, how's it going? i have to come through here on my birthday.." i was a bit confused and asked why and he told me he had heard me singing happy birthday. i assumed he was in the car behind and had heard it.. he then proceeded to tell me that he was filling up his car with gas (which is about five buildings away and across a very noisy and full parking lot..) he said he saw me too and i was moving my arms and stuff.. hahaha.. i laughed very hard! didn't realize that i sang so loud!

to top things off, a little while later, i was walking with a venti cup full of iced chai latte and my manager turned and ran full on into me sending the drink flying all over me! i was a bit sticky to say the least. just a couple fun stories from work! ciao!

The Cascades

Welcome to my 100th post! Today was a gloriously sunny day and I had a day off so I decided to start my summer plan of discovering new places I've never been! So today I went to The Cascades which is a park with a bunch of waterfalls in it! It was absolutely beautiful! The big waterfall was amazing and watching it shoot down was beautiful! Then I hiked a bit more to the Upper Pools and there sat on a rock in the middle of the rushing river and enjoyed the sounds and sights around me as well as the sun baking me! So nice and warm! As I sat there I read my bible a bit and spent some time simply being still before the Lord. With the overwhelming sound of the water rushing around me and the beauty of creation around me, I kind of forgot that life outside of what I was surrounded by existed. It was me, God and His creation all around and it was fantastic! What a wonderful day! To see more pictures, check out my pictures blog and let me know what you think!

may already?!?

Crazy that may is here already! Seems like things are flying by. Lately my focus has been on making my life full rather than busy. I get swept away in busy. Rather in the fullness of life, I can enjoy it all walking with the Lord and depending on Him throughout it as I live a healthy balanced life before Him.

I have the next two days off and I'm pretty excited as I haven't had two days off in a row in a while! Should be fun! And GOd is good and keeps blessing me daily! Have a great day all!