Dance Dance Revolution

Tonight a few friends from work came over for dance dance revolution and it was great! So much fun! My calves are really sore though! Things have been really good of late and I've really been enjoying living life to the fullest where I'm at. Things for the future are a bit blurry, but I know I have to keep trusting in the Lord! And putting my own feelings and emotions aside!

If you want to see some more amazing pics of ddr, go check out my pics blog (link on sidebar)

cruisin'

The other day Liz and I went cruising around for over four hours and it was great! We drove to Cultus where we sat and skipped rocks for a while. Then we went on to Hope where we went to Othello tunnels. Then back to abby through harisson and mission. it was a beautiful day and being in a convertible and seeing the mountains in the wide open spaces was great! You could see it so much closer it seemed. it was beautiful and so relaxing! Yay for mountains in BC!

another day

today work was once againf rustrating for reasons why it shouldn't be, but then it got better as I ignored the other things.. frustrating though to be sure! for a second right now i thought it was like midnight and i asked myself why i wasn't in bed.. then i realized it's not even ten yet.. but i do have to work at 4:15 am tomorrow morning.. lucky me!

and tonight liz honeyford arrived!! and she'll be staying a little over a week. mainly visiting her daughter, but i'm excited to see her and spend time with her as well!

i came on here with something specific that i wanted to write about, but i forgot.. so i shoul dgo get ready for bed and i'll talk to you later! God bless!

signs of life

Today all throughout my day I kept seeing signs of life and it was so great to be able to continually praise God for His life all around me! this morning at the grocery store, an elderly lady walked up to me and started telling me how she was having trouble finding a card for her husband for the 64th anniversary! so we started talking about how they probably dont' have that many cards for that, and when she got married everyone thought their marriage would only last six months, but little did they know! Anyway, I was so blessed by this lady, in a way that i couldn't even understand, but it just filled me with joy to interact with her!

then i was parked in the safeway parking lot eating my dinner (in between things) and the truck parked in front of me had a younger boy in it.. he was sitting there i think randomly singing really loud (i could just tell by his facial expressions..) then he suddenly noticed i was in front of him, so he took off his seat belt and hid... then a little while later i kept seeing this little hand shoot up and wave a little. it was so funny! but once again a source of joy and a sign of wonderful life! and this amazing life that Christ has given us to live and enjoy! Oh and also in the same parking lot an older women with all her groceries had to double check her license plate to ensure she had the right car!! it was great! :)

had my first night at divorce care for kids tonight and it was so good. i was a bit apprehensive at first, but God is faithful, especially through my weaknesses! Next week will be a bit more different now that I have a thought of how things run, but my heart is already stolen by these precious children. and I know God will continue to do amazing things and I'm excited to get to know these kids better and pour into their lives!

God is great and full of life and I'm excited to be filled with that life day after day! Thank you Jesus!

farewell wanda

So for the last three days, wanda, my beloved bubbly/cartoon eyed fish has been simply sitting at the bottom of the tank, barely moving. she seemed so miserable, but i waited with hope taht she would perk up. this morning as i saw her stuck to the filter suction, i realized that maybe she wasn't going to perk up.. so i scooped her out of the tank and took her to the pet store where they're keeping her by herself to watch her. so she is not dead, but she is no longer a member of the fish community in my room (the smelly fish community i might add!)

To replace Wanda, we have a new goldfish. However, it is a bit of a different breed than Wanda was, because it has bubble eyes. I am still trying to get used to them because i miss seeing wanda. The first picture is one of the goldfish i've said goodbye to and the second one is a picture of the newest addition to the thank. and once again, i need a name for this fish! since dan named wanda, i am going to give him the dubious honor (if he even reads my blog) of naming this new fish. so we can all await this new name!

so that is my sad news of the day, coupled with some happy news about a new fish.

filling up fast!

Well, as of tonight, I officially have four jobs! Whee!! I am working at Starbucks, picking up shifts at apollo, cleaning and now tutoring! all are quite different and add a lot of variety, so that's kind of cool. Yesterday I was tempted to get overwhelmed with a bunch of stuff that I have to do, when I realized that I simply need to take a step back and just focus on the Lord and rest in Him. He can take care of it all and He's big enough-I just need to continually maintain an eternal perspective.

I finished reading a book called 'feminine appeal' and it was great. it's geared for mothers and wives, but it's for single people as well and i was very challenged and encouraged by it. i'd like to share one of the quotes from it that really challenged me.

Carolyn Mahaney quotes from one of her husband, CJ's books:
"When I become bitter or unforgiving toward others, I'm assuming that the sins of others are more serious than my sins against God. The cross transforms my perspective. Through the cross I realize that no sin commited against me will ever be as serious as the innumerable sins I've commited against God. When we understand how much God has forgiven us, it's not difficult to forgive others."

This was a great reminder for me, especially as Easter is coming up. But just to continually remember what Christ did for me and view all my relationships and interactions through that.

renewed

this morning i was kind of frustrated over some things and i decided to go to my prayer room (took my long enough to get there over the last few weeks). and it was so wonderful to simply be still before the Lord. and to simply rest in His presence and to simply BE. i miss out on it so much but it's so important! and it was so great and refreshing to simply spend time at His feet. I forget too that I can be in this place throughout my whole day.

It's interesting, because over and over again I work I find it so hard to be mindful of God. I kind of go to work, forget about God altogether and then remember Him afterwards. but I know my days at work would be SO much better if I included Him. something to work on remembering for sure!

Off to bed as i have to work in eight hours. and i get to go to the canucks game tomorrow night! yay!! Go Canucks go!

refreshing

So I slept for a few hours and I feel way better now. Just thinking through some stuff and refocusing. I've just been busy with guests from out of town plus working a lot and then getting now sleep. Not a good combination! Tomorrow I work for ten hours between the two jobs, but it should be good and I'm looking forward to it!

I've been thinking about the verse "Whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is holy, fix your thoughts on these things." okay, that might not be the exact wording, but the idea. I often think of these verses as me needing to set my mind on these things throughout my day, which is true. What I've never thought about though is setting my thoughts on these things where other people are concerned.. After a while I tend to focus on the negative and will pick it out in people and dwell on it and that just makes me unhappy. But I need to be focusing on the things that are true, pure and holy in others and praising God for those things and praising Him also because I can see Him through those things in other people. Different mindset and it will lead to transformed thinking.

exhausted

Right now I continually wonder why I always bring myself to this point in my life: the place of exhaustion and burning out! Argh! It's this vicious cycle I"m stuck in and I don't want to drop everything and run right now. Maybe it's my lack of focus, who knows.

I just got off work this morning and I think I'm going to go sleep. perhaps things will improve from there on in...

first day of spring!

Today was the first day of spring! And as I sat looking out my window, I was in awe at our amazing Creator and how He is the ultimate lifegiver! Just looking around at creation as everything springs to life is amazing! And the sunset tonight was awesome! There were dark gray clouds, but on the horizon it was all bright yellow/orange contrasted with the clouds. it was absolutely beautiful. so often we get caught up in the beauty of the things around us rather than the beauty of the one who created it for us to enjoy. what an amazing God we serve!

following

Well, the weekend has been good so far! Worked my first opening shift at 4:15am this morning! That was fun times to be sure! And tomorrow my friend Judith from Germany is coming to visit for a few days, so I'm really excited to see her!

Tonight at church the sermon was of following Christ. The thought that struck me was what/who am I following? Am I truly following Christ and making Him my destination or am I following something I've made up in my head to appear really close to being like seeking God? It's been really good to refocus of late and just look at what I'm focusing on day to day through everything.

And the winner is....

Brittany!! She wins the fish naming competition. Thank-you to everyone who joined in the competition-it was fun to hear all the different ideas and suggestions. Thanks for your help in naming my fish, because I'm not so sure I would have been able to name them all myself. Following I will list the fish, their new names and the people who contributed them!

The Big Black Fish: Ebony (Debbie)
The Big Gray Fish: Jerry (Carrie)
The Big Brown Fish: Coco (My mom)
The Red Capped Oranda: Gabby (Brittany)
The little black one with a gold stomach: Deek (Brittany)
The little black one: Oswald (Amy)
Bubble-eyed orange one: Yoko (Brittany)
Bubble-eyed, black finned orange one: Wanda (Dan)
Little red one: Oscar (Kaylen)
Big red/gold one: Pinky (Jon-his middle name is the brain!)
The orange, red and blue spotted oranda: Leslie (Leslie)
The spotted, smaller oranda: Kaia (Chrystal)

So thanks for your contributions! And Brittanie, if you want to get my email from either Amy or Leslie, I will mail you your prize!!

Have a great evening everyone!

mindlessly working

So I've really been enjoying work. I love the customers and the environment I work in. I foresee some thing that might start to bug me after a while, but as long as I can foresee them and keep surrendering them to the Lord, it's all good.

One thing I've noticed while at work is that I'm busy. I'm always doing something. At the end of my day when I suddenly realize that my eight hour shift is over, I realize that I have not thought about God much during those eight hours. It was as though i stepped to the side, did my work and came back. Rather than consciously allowing God to work in and through me, it's as though this is "my thing" and I don't include Him. My desire is to be more mindful of God during work and to have it so that everything in me, from my thoughts to my actions will reflect the glory of God as I am in constant communion with Him. This is my desire, yet my actions are so far from it. But I know that I can't try harder, because that won't be good. I just need to keep surrendering it to Him.

On a completely different note, sorry for the delay with the fish names. I will announce them on monday. Although I know there are many people who look at my blog who have not yet put in a suggestion! (or at least i'd like to think in my own head that more people look at my blog.. usually when people suddenly know random things from my blog and tell me them when they see me, I would just assume... maybe i'm wrong!). Anyway, put in your last guesses!! Remember you can put in up to 11 names!! Because there are eleven fish to be named (my mom named the 12th one which she bought for me through my adopt a fish program... having pet fish vicariously through me-I thought it was an incredible idea..). Anyway, guess away and I will announce the names and the winner on monday!!!

Fish and Lack of Sleep

I bought six more fish! So I now have twelve! The water seems a bit cloud on the tank though and some are just sitting not moving much. Perhaps they're sleeping...

God is continually so good to me. I realize so much though that I always look to the blessings and not the one who provides it all. It's been something I've been reminded of over and over again... When I'm not feeling good, I cry out to God to make me feel better, but when I am, I don't thank Him. If I have car trouble, I aks God for help, but once I arrive somewhere safely, I don't thank Him for being faithful and providing for me. When I'm in a troublesome relationship, I ask God to fix it, but don't thank Him when it's totally repaired. Do I love God because of the blessings He gives me or do I love Him because He is God? He loved me first. Do I return that love?

Help!

Today I bought six fish to put in my big 40 gallon fish tank. But they need names! I decided I would make a competition for whoever can think of the best names for them! So I've posted pictures of the fish (the pictures with two represents two different fish). And so there's six names in total, I'd love to hear some suggestions. Whoever has the best suggestions, will win a prize that I will mail to you! So please everybody participate, even if it's only to suggest a name for one of the fish! These pictures aren't actually of my fish, because I'm too lazy to take some. But I will post photos soon enough! I think the filter sound is going to keep me up all night! :)