end of my rope

Somehow, right before I go away, things go absolutely insane and there is far too much to do! That is how I am feeling right about now! I have a midterm in sociology tomorrow morning and a final tomorrow night and I don't have much time in there to study! Plus somehow I have ten million things I have to do before I leave and things just mount in insanity! Plus I have to pack! haha! Needless to say, I would appreciate your prayers as I feel kind of overwhelmed! Maybe I should just stop thinking about it all together! But only three more days until I leave and I am super excited! I am just excited for Thursday to be over!!!

words

Saw this on some of my friend's blogs and it is a picture of all the words on my blog. very interesting. i was glad to see that "haha" and "yay" made it in! :)

changes

As I have been putting more time into prayer and intentionally spending the beginning of my day with God, it has been absolutely amazing how much my day and mood/attitude is affected. I don't say this to say, 'wow, i've been praying', but moreso that we serve an amazing God who is incredible. As I start my morning with a newfound focus on God, I find that all the other little things that I made a big deal of before begin to fade away as my eyesight is adjusted. Suddenly I realize that I really have no right or reason to be in a bad mood when I truly look at everything around me. It's just been interesting to see how I have acted differently this past week in such a good way.

Tonight in church we sang a new song I had never heard before. I wanted to post the words of the chorus here, because I found them really encouraging:
You, You are my wholeness
You are my completeness
My soul, my thirsty soul can
Rest in the depths of Your love

Just a good reminder for me of who/what truly completes me and that I can truly find rest daily in the great depths of God's love.

Hope you're all having a splendid weekend!

ironic

Every morning I grow more and more to dislike big trucks (semis and dump trucks) on the freeway. They cut you off, spit rocks on your car (my windshield has two big cracks in it now!) and they always swerve over the lanes.. sigh. i think i will have to get over it though! have to remind myself about love and patience!

So lately I have been really been feeling the urge to pray more and to devote more time in my day to intentional prayer. One of the ways in which to do this is to take the cds out of my car and rather than singing mindlessly, to pray and worship God every day as I drive the half hour to school and back. I have felt convicted of this for about two weeks now but I always forget to take the cds out when I leave the car. Every time I get in and hear the music, I am reminded, but then I think "well, today will be my last day and I will really enjoy it and THEN i'll take them out." right. like that'll happen. so anyway, last night i got home and remembered and decided that i really needed to do that, because it was something that I really wanted to be intentional about and to have my time in my car be time with God spent in silence, talking and singing (without cds). So I grudgingly took them all out. This morning as I started driving, i was going batty with the silence.. so i decided I would ease my way into it by listening to the radio. HA! well, i turn on the radio and it's on 106.5 (Christian radio station) and there is a guy talking on it and he is talking about how we need to make prayer more of a priority in our lives. HAHAHA.. Okay, you got me God! So I laughed to myself at the blatant truth staring me in the face and turned off the radio. Good reminders. :) It's funny, because I keep automatically turning up the volume after I get off the phone, etc. and I realize what a habit it has become. So for now I am driving in silence (I could actually hear the sound of the rain against my car today!) and so far it's been fairly hard, but good at the same time!!

I just finished working out and should head to the shower before an exciting day at school tomorrow. (no sarcasm in there at all.. hehe)

bats

Upon reading my title, hopefully you all thought those were bats in the picture! haha.. they're only crows! the other day i was sitting in my room and suddenly all these crows landed on the lawn. every time a car drove by, they would all fly around in circles. I was trying to avoid doing homework, so I decided to count them and stopped when I got to 100. The picture doesn't do the number of crows justice, but I thought it was a cool picture as they were all flying away. I was going to go downstairs and open the door to take a picture, but I was too lazy and you never know when they might attack. haha

Fun times at the zoo!!

Today Chrystal and I went to the zoo after I got off work at 2:30. I havent' been in forever and it's always fun to be outside and look at animals (even though often they're sleeping or hiding!! haha) But it was a beautiful sunny day and a great time!

Haha.. this camel was getting fairly frothy and I figured out that I should back off before it spat on me. haha.. but i did make chrystal go pose by it. i think it would have been funny had it spat on her (don't tell her that.. haha) but luckily it didn't and we got a nice picture with her and the camel (although she looks a bit apprehensive to be standing beside mr. frothy mouth..)

Chrystal and I were planning on going to a late movie after church tonight, but then we realized that would be really late and the only reason we truly wanted to go was to get the popcorn. So we went to Towne Cinema (which you technically have to pay to get into) and asked at the box office if we could just go buy popcorn, went in and bought some popcorn and pop and then went back to Chrystal's house with Kaeli to watch a movie! haha.. we were laughing quite a bit at the fact that we were actually doing that!

We watched Chronicles of Narnia tonight. I hadn't seen it since when it first came out in theatres. It's such a grand story and watching the kids I would think in my own fantasy imagination land of how grand it would be to have been a part of something like that. Then I realize that hey! I am part of it! some good thoughts. Lucy's character always inspires me. I am challenged as I see her childlike faith and her trusting heart. I love that when Edmund returns to them (after having betrayed them), she is the first to go up to him with a smile and give him a giant hug. I need to do that more in my daily interactions rather than hold grudges over stupid little things. Anyway, good movie and good reminders.

Church was really good too. It was a sharing/praise weekend where people got up and shared from their lives significant moments when God touched them in their lives. It was a way of remembering corporately, as Israel did in Joshua, what God has done lest we forget. Very encouraging and made me think of some of my own stories and moments I can remember in my own life that were really significant and impacting. Always good to think about. And now I'm off to bed so that I can get up and work eight hours tomorrow! Yippee! Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Exciting Purchase!

Now you're all thinking I'm a bit strange because I wrote exciting purchase as my title, yet i post a picture of a stapler. haha. well i'm a bit of an organizing freak and I love stapling things together (especially completed assignments!!) My poor little faithful stapler sadly broke last night and so today I set out to the office store in a trek to find a replacement. I got home tonight excited to staple together a paper I had written. I opened the stapler to put in staples and parts went flying everywhere! so much for that idea! haha..

In other exciting purchase news, I bought a new bathing suit today for my trip to barbados along with a couple of tops! The store was having fifty percent off already reduced merchandise so I got some great deals! And I bought about ten highlighters from the office store because once again, I'm slightly strange. So exciting though!

FRIDAY!

The other day my friend Mandeep and I went to her favorite Mexican restaurant in Sumas called El Nopal-so good! Especially their homemade salsa!

Yesterday was crazy day at school, but I had a group presentation and midterm that went off quite well and things are going good! For once in my life I'm actually ahead of the game for my schoolwork and it's such an amazing feeling! Normally I'm a last minute person, but I'm switching it up and it's so much more relaxing and nice. Changes everything. I highly recommend it! Amazing how much more time you have in the end (and you don't have to worry about all the stuff you have to do within that time!)

Our yard has becomet he home to two squirrels. They're cute, but annoying and they do strange things. They make a lot of noise on the roof as well.

Today is friday and that excites me!! Only two weeks until I go to Barbados to see Lindie! SO excited! I will for sure have a bunch of fresh pictures to post then to liven things up a little. I think fridays are my new favorite day of the week! I don't work, only have one class and it's a good relaxing/catch up day. What's your favorite day of the week and why?

studying

I am studying for an upcoming midterm in my theories of personality class (well obviously i am distracting myself from studying.. haha) when i study i write out all my notes to make it go in my head and then i'm good to go. looking at my paper however i thought it was funny, because i really can't read a word!! haha.. so i thought i'd scan a page of my notes to share with you all! Okay now i'm going out for dinner with a friend! hopefully i'll have some pics to post later!

quote

Another quote from some of the readings I have been doing. These are from Tring, Herts and Walsh and Middleton:
"Evangelicals in this century have a history of going along with culture on the big issues and taking their stands on the smaller issues."
"If the biblical worldview is unique, and if it is radically different from the dominant worldview in our secularized culture, then why do Christians fit so well into our culture?"

Interesting food for thought...

Snowshoeing Adventure

Today, Tami and I decided to venture out to Grouse Mountain and try out snowshoeing up there! It was so much fun! And it was beautiful! The weather wasn't great, but we didn't actually notice that we were wet until we got inside the lodge. It was totally serene up there too and just nice to stop every once in a while and take in the silence and the beauty all around! I didn't take many pictures because I didn't have my SLR, but I did bring my little digital and snapped a few shots while trying not to get the camera wet!!

Power

Kristen, a friend from school and I went for dinner at the Mongolie grill last night and then to the hockey game. It was a great night of hanging out and catching up! The canucks lost (which was Kristen's fault, because she really wanted it to go into overtime, because she wanted to see as much of the game as she possibly could!! haha) We even got on the big screen! Hooray!

This is Sonia and Candice, friends from work. Monday night Candice and I went to a killer cycling exercise class and then we went out for Japanese. We soon discovered that it is not easy to share sunumono salads!! haha!

Last weekend in church, something that was said set me to thinking. A story was shared about a Buddhist woman who worked in an AIDS home for babies with AIDS in Thailand. Some missionaries from our church are highly involved there. Anyway, this Buddhist woman decided that she would fast and pray for ten days and at the end of those ten days, if the two babies she was praying for were healed, then she would believe in God and give her life to Him. At the end of it, the babies went in for their checkups and they were completely healed! Amazing story and it gives me shivers to think of how powerful our God is!

So anyway, the thing that has me thinking is why we don't see God's power manifested that way in our society today. I want to see God move like that. Yet, I have not been willing to seek Him so diligently as this woman in Thailand. I kind of just go through my day and I talk to God throughout it, but it is rare that I fervently pray for something. Why not pray for people's healings and for people to be saved? I am beginning to think that I don't see God moving in His power because I don't ask Him for it. I want to see the radical and I want to see the impossible made possible. I just need to start asking for it fervently. Any thoughts?

More Thoughts

Brooke and I at the Canucks game on friday night. I never ever take pics at the game, so I figured I would this time and it was kind of fun! We even got on the big screen twice!!

Every time Robbie, Rob and i are working together it seems like the fountain in the fish pond always needs fixing. Because Rob has long arms and legs he always gets the job. This time I had my camera so I thought I would document the occasion. I am waiting for the day that he falls in!

Thanks for the thoughts on the last post. As to what I think about being a "deep person." Well, I definitely agree that there are varying levels and types. I think what we are lacking nowadays is stopping and actually thinking about what is going on around us. We kind of just take things as they come and do things even without thinking about the why or the what.

The other night at the hockey game there were two young girls sitting next to me. I wasn't sure how old they were, but they looked like they were about fifteen or so. They were late coming in and had skin tight pants on had safety pinned their shirts up a little higher and had written vancouver canucks on their waists. They had solid green makeup on that didn't look so great and they were just really not pleasant to be sitting beside (yelling "come on boys" every minute in not so sweet voices and getting out of the row every ten minutes). They had stuffed their bras a LOT and you could tell because it was all rumply (which i thought was pretty hilarious). Anyway, as I sat beside them, my heart broke for them. Here are these young girls that didn't really seem to find themselves that valuable (you could also tell this by their conversation) and they were looking for attention in the wrong ways. I really just wanted to turn to them and tell them that they were valuable and loved. Just set me to thinking about our society today and what we are telling girls in particular. The message that seems to go out is that your personal worth is found in your physical features, so be sure to flaunt it and display it for those around you to see. And this doesn't help the guys at all either who can be easily distracted by this and it all leads to other problems. Many young people are becoming products of our society today and it breaks my heart. The question to myself is, what am I doing about it? Sadly, nothing.

tuesday

Tuesday morning I woke up and just about went back to bed thinking that it was Friday and it was my day to sleep in! Luckily I came to my senses and realized that it was only Tuesday! After school, my sister-in-law Bobbi and I hung out for the day. We went for dinner at Milestone's. We were pretty excited about something we were talking about, and it was really funny, because the waitress kept being like "wow, I've never seen anyone so excited to be eating. When was the last time you guys ate?" Maybe she thought we were wolfing down our food.. haha.. I thought we were just enjoying dinner and each other's company!! Oh well! Then we were meeting Ben and Kari to go to a comedy show. Once we got there, we realized that they had got the wrong date and the show had actually been on Monday! So we went out for coffee instead! Then Bobbi and I hung out in the hot tub and then ate some frozen berries and hung out. Late night, but it really was quite a fun afternoon and evening. In the last while I haven't spent an incredible amount of time with my family just because it's been so busy, but I am starting to make it more of a priority and it is an incredible blessing to me!

This is Chad and Bobbi's puppy, Teega-so cute!

And to end this post, here is a quote I read this morning in one of my textbooks. Nicholas Wolerstorff talks about it in his book:
"It is my conviction that the church, and humanity at large, neglects inwardness at its own peril. And when I speak of inwardness I do not just mean motivation for scoail action alogn with the beliefs that undergird it. I mean contemplation. I mean the cultivation of what in some traditions is called spirituality, and in others, piety. It seems to me that amidst its intense activism, the Western world is starved for contemplation. Likewise it seems to me that the unmistakable witness of the Scriptures is that where genuine piety or spirituality is missing, there life as a whole is deeply wounded. Contemplation, spirituality, piety-these in my judgment themselves belong to authentic shalom, with influence radiating throughout the whole of our existence."

And then Richard Foster says in his book 'Celebration of Discipline', "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."
Interesting thoughts and reminders for me. What do you think?

Full Weekend

First off, Happy birthday to Carrie!! It was her birthday yesterday and after she got off work, her Sandy and I had a little shindig. This weekend has been full and I have been getting sick, which hasn't been too delightful, but I will survive!!!

My friend and I were having a discussion the other day about going out and serving in other countries. They said they wanted to, but then came to the realization that in a sense it would be running away from life here (in her case, not in every single one). Anyway, I have been pondering it a lot lately and thinking about how I often think that I need to go somewhere and serve, but why can I not be fully serving God right here today? I do in little ways, but why can't my whole life be a service and sacrifice to Him? If I went to a different country, I am sure my life would look completely different. But I wonder what changes I would have to make in my life here to have it look like that more. The question I think is, what comforts is God calling me to sacrifice? Something to think about..

I had to include this picture just because I think it's so much fun! It is from my trip with my cousin a few weeks ago and this was at our first stop along the way: Arby's! If only my hair were so curly.. haha.. mind you, people might start eating my head if my hair was all like that- and that would not be advisable!!