Eating Saskatoon

Mennonite Girls Dance (the Scandal!!)

2007-11-02T20:33:00.001-07:00

So you know I've been taking ballroom dance lessons. Julie and I also took a salsa class together. So at the Harvest Swing dance, we thought we'd practice a bit and record it to prove that we historically 2-left-footed and non-rhythmical Mennonites may in fact be less than hopeless when it comes to dance. Keep in mind that we are the beginningest of beginners and judge us accordingly ;) I think this is a little hard to see - it was so much more visible on my computer! Just use your imagination.

socks!

2007-10-17T11:30:00.002-07:00

I've been off this week (my mom says I'm unemployed and I don't think that's fair!). Actually I'm off for about 6 weeks while God finds another job for me. Hopefully back with my team at Building Health Equity. Anyhow. So I've been loving having time to do some craftiness. I love making things and so often I can't find the time to do that sort of thing. I really want to post all of my crafty stuff, but unfortunately, a number of items are gifts for readers of this blog and so I'd better not spoil their surprises. I have like 10 projects that I've been meaning to finish this week - finally finished a pair of socks I've been working on for 2 years (seriously - I think i started them in South Africa). I'm LOVING wearing them today - so cozy.

wake up call

2007-10-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

I was up at 7:00 this morning. I don't have to work. I wanted to sleep in. Why am I up, then, you ask? Is my life destined to be full of strange events - do these things happen to other people too? Not that I mind them; I'm just wondering. I was happily dreaming this morning. I think it was a dream about teaching in a classroom, maybe? Then, intruding into my dream, I hear a loud knocking sound. A very deliberate knocking. Understand, there is no one else home with me this weekend. I sleep on the 2nd floor, so it's not the door downstairs, because I wouldn't hear that. And thankfully it didn't come from my bedroom door or I might have been quite freaked out, knowing I was alone in the house. So I tried to ignore the knocking and go back to sleep. Then I heard it again, very close to my head. It was coming from my window. So I got up and pulled up the shade warily. Standing on the roof was a grey bunnyhugged youth, rapping on my window. I opened the window and he asked me if Ashley was home. Wouldn't most people ring the doorbell? And the thing is, there is no Ashley living here and there hasn't been as far as I know. I told him there is no Ashley here and he asked how long I'd lived here, because he was sure this was the right house. Then he asked about Alex, who is one on my roommates, but I said she wasn't home. He said he had locked himself out of the house. In my sleep-confused state, I asked if he wanted to come in and use the phone. Which I realize now wasn't maybe the wisest idea. But he said no, that wouldn't work. And apologized for waking me and climbed down off the roof. I tried to go back to sleep, but no luck. So I am up and blogging.

sushi

2007-09-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

I've recently discovered a love for sushi. I don't know if I've actually had anything authentic yet, but the stuff I've tried has been great. The first time I tried it was when Dan brought some into the cottage at TLC. Woolworths is a department/grocery store in South Africa which donates its expired food to charities twice a week, as long as they come and clean out the food storage room before they take the food. So twice a week, we would get flats of random food and flowers. Some were fine, some were of questionable safety. In that case, maybe sushi wasn't the best choice of expired food, but it seemed fine and I think we were all a little less particular considering our choice of food in those days. Rice with bits of gnurply unidentified meat gets old after a few months. But Dan let me have some of his sushi. Mmmm.

Second experience with sushi. Someone at work bought some from Safeway for lunch and shared it and is was soooo good.

Third experience with sushi. Julie and I were babysitting for our little friend Eunice and suddenly, unexplicably, we both had a huge craving for sushi. Remembering the great Safeway sushi, I drove there 15 minutes before it closed and nabbed the last tray of California rolls they had. With soy sauce and wasabi and pickled ginger.....drool....

Fourth experience with sushi. Mark came over and taught a few of us how to make it. So now Julie and I have no excuses for ignoring our sushi cravings and can make it to our hearts delight. Somehow that takes some of the mystery out of it, but I think with the effort it takes to make, it might still just be a special occasion food.

I'm thinking that these probably aren't the "real thing" when it comes to sushi and I need to go out to a Japanese restaurant for the authentic thing. Anyone know a great sushi restaurant in Saskatoon to share?

just can't get enough

2007-08-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

I think I'm addicted. Here's the next. I LOVED Enid Blyton growing up and when I found this Noddy in Scotland kid's t-shirt in Value Village, I knew I had to transplant him. I finally decided to put him on a bunnyhug. I love it. Warm and cozy and uniquely cute.

craftiness

2007-08-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to have room now for a sewing machine because I always have these crafty urges and then I'd go out to Mom's on a Saturday for a marathon day where I'd try to get a project or two done. But I always ended up being rushed and frustrated because I was hurrying and making silly mistakes. It's been so nice to be able to just work on my projects a bit at a time and not be rushed. I've been so inspired by this website I found called craftster.org where, among other things, people post their reconstructed clothing. Very cool stuff. Taking clothes that are just not right for some reason or another and turning them into something wearable with a few (or a lot of) alterations. Joining a couple of things together to make something new and unique. I have a box of bits and pieces and clothes I've been meaning to alter, so this week I finished a couple of projects. I took a striped long sleeved T and some green fabric and added a zipper, the pockets and hood. It's not the most perfect and you know I tend to be too perfectionistic about things like this. It bugs me that the pockets don't quite line up. Which, now that I look at this picture, you can't even tell. Anyhow, it's a little tight on me so I think it'll be given away. Not sure yet to who. Anyone smaller than me who wants dibs on it?? :)
This next one I really like. It was a skirt that I bought in South Africa (Mr. Price, oh yeah!) and I enjoy the beading and the color but it was just too big. So I bought this cheap ($3.33) T-shirt at Michaels and put the two together. I actually really like the end result, although after I added the strip of fabric under the bust, which isn't stretchy like the t-shirt fabric, it became a little hard to pull on.

What do you think? Cute/dressy enough to wear to a wedding or two next weekend? Yes, I have two wedding to go to next weekend. Two great couples - I'm so looking forward to it!!

slipping

2007-07-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Ok. I'll admit it. Facebook has been the evil adversary of my blog. I love posting pictures, but when I've posted them to Facebook, I figure everyone's seen them already and so what's the point of putting them on again. But perhaps not all of my faithful blog readers have joined the addiction that is Facebook.
Summer is flying by much too fast. I feel like I just want to grab onto it and hang on, but it's just slipping through my fingers. "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." That's how this summer has felt. And hot. It has also felt hot. My room in my new place is upstairs and I can literally feel the temperature rising as I ascend the stairs. I've been finding it difficult to get a good night's sleep. I have a little thermometer on my clock radio that says it is 34 degrees Celcius (that's 93 Farenheit for you Americans)in here. So no wonder.
What have I been up to, you ask (or maybe you don't but I shall tell you nonetheless)? Well, I moved in with my dear friend Julie and another A.(Alexandra) Fast. It's so nice to be out of the basement and I actually get to use my boxspring which previously wouldn't fit down the stairs. The only downside is the heat up here vs. my previously perpetually cool basement suite. And being a little farther from the river. But everything else is good. I got to do some travelling to the states to visit some TLC friends and be at the wedding of a couple of them. I did some crazy/illegal camping with Julie (and thoroughly proved my goody-two-shoes status). I've spent some time with friends and done the usual summer in Saskatoon things like Taste of Saskatchewan and BBQ's...And tomorrow, my friend Lucy from the UK is arriving and spending some time here in Saskatchewan. I hope she's ready for this heat! So that's it. Let me know how you're doing too!

attack of the rabid rodent

2007-06-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's 11 pm and I should totally be in bed, but instead I'm thinking and laughing about rabid hamsters. One of the nurses at work today was telling me that a little while ago in one of the schools here in the city, there was a pet hamster. Apparently this hamster got out of his cage one night and was bitten by one of the resident bats in the school. What kind of school is home to bats, I'm not sure. And bats are known to often carry rabies. But I guess in hamsters, rabies is 99.9% unlikely. Which is why, after catching and being bitten by the loose hamster, the teacher who found him called public health and was told to dispose of the hamster, which had fallen quite ill and died a few days after the bite. However, some smart thinking person at the school has already sent the hamster to the vet college for testing. Sure enough, rabies. And of course that means half the school (I exaggerate - anyone who touched this hamster) has to have rabies shots - not a pleasant procedure. I don't know why the idea of a rabid hamster lurking around a school makes me smile, but it does. I'm picturing some sort of horror movie where people's ankles are suddenly attacked by a foaming-mouthed rodent with Jaw-esque music playing in the background. Attack of the Rabid Rodent...

Things I like

2007-06-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I find pictures of things I just think are cool and so I decided to start sharing them with you so you can revel in their coolness as well.

An apple cover - what better use of good crafting time?

I LOVE this dress and I think I'm going to steal the design one of these days.

I don't even like Star Wars and I think these are the cutest.

Wow, who designs a wedding dress out of toilet paper and actual comes up with something quite beautiful?

What is it about itsy-bitsy things that are just so attractive?

I don't know if I'm into making stuffed toys, but if I were, this would be what I would make.

For being made out of yarn, this is amazing - I love the color combination.

This was what I should have been doing during all those boring geo-trig classes in high school...or maybe a good use for the boxes of 96 Crayolas that I could never resist in their perfectly lined up rows - until I started using them and they got dull and broken.

I want a gummi bear chandelier!!

Salt and pepper live together in perfect harmony...la la la

What a cool way to recycle plastic bottles into art.

If anything is as cute as a TLC baby, this comes close!

Facepainting - I love it.

2007-06-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

I facepaint every year at the Northern Saskatchewan International Children's Festival (how's that for a mouthful?) and I LOVE it. The neverending requests for Spiderman...maybe if they quit making sequels we could move onto something else?, the odd kid who wants to be an eagle or have me attempt to draw a cartoon character I've never seen based on their verbal description, the parents who expect me to do a good job painting an intricate Dora the Explorer on their squirming 6 month old, the huge grins when I show them their faces in the mirror, the ache in my back after 4 hours bending forward in my plastic lawnchair, the free pancake breakfast on parade day, having my face painted before we start and wandering around town afterwards while people try not to stare at my face, having a random parent ask me if I want to facepaint at their child's birthday party (I may actually do it), the noise and colors...I love it all.

I's and Feeling's

2007-06-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever just feel out of place? I feel this need to vent. Not in an angry or frustrated way, but more in a sort of sad and melancholy way. I went to a worship night at my church tonight and it was good but yet I felt like a fake. Not that I was trying to be fake or wanting to be fake. But just like sometimes everyone else seems to have it figured out but me. Whatever "it" is. I find myself trying to feel something that I think I should feel and that I want to feel. And it's like the more I try to feel it, the less I do. And I don't want to be "trying to feel" a certain way because that seems more fake than anything. And yet it's like if I want to fit in (and we all do)there is this expectation that I will join in with whatever the general consensus of emotion is. I think I'm coming across as a little cynical, and I don't mean to. These are all lovely people who love God and love others and I want to be like them and a part of this community, because I like who they are. But it seems to me like I'm just trying to fit in and I don't really. I guess I feel like I can't just be me. And I do believe that is my own expectations that I put on myself to be a certain way or I won't be accepted. I don't think others have these expectations of me. Sometimes I think I'm the most socially inept person ever. Realistically, I know I'm not b/c I've met lots of people who outdo me in ineptness...but I expect so much of myself. It's like I have this idea of what I should look like at this age and stage in my life and I know I don't meet that picture in my head. And so I get down on myself and frustrated with myself and focused on myself, when all I really want is to be outwardly focused. I need to let go of self-consciousness and grab onto God-consciousness and not let my fears about being inadequate and imperfect keep me from being genuine. Anyhow, this paragraph is turning into a rambling web filled with entirely too many "I"s and "feeling"s. Am I alone in these thoughts or do others out there connect with what I'm saying?

magic wand

2007-05-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

As much fun as it is to go on vacation, I think it's just as great to come home. Saskatoon has undergone a transformation while I've been gone - it's like someone waved a magic wand over the city! It's so green! Driving down Spadina is like being under a green canopy and my backyard is full of blossoms!

jack sparrow

2007-05-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

Just a little pic of me and Cpt. Jack Sparrow! He managed to find time in his busy schedule promoting Pirates 3 to hang out with me :)

Disney conspiracies and scaredy-cat exits

2007-05-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

The only pic so far with all 4 of us, in front of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland.

The famous Hollywood sign.

Universal Studios

My feet where Sean Connery's were....:)

We've spent the last 2 days in Anaheim/L.A. Impressions? Traffic, scads of luxury cars (I've never seen so many Mercedes and Porsches in one place before), smog, many many Latino people, graffitti everywhere, tourism galore. We spent yesterday at Disneyland, which is a couple of blocks from our hotel (we read an online review calling it the "vilest" hotel...it was fine, although it's "New Orleans" theme was debatable). Disneyland - the best part was the parade and the fireworks. We had a beautiful sunny day and we all left the hotel in tank tops. By evening, we were freezing and were forced to buy Disney sweaters to warm up. I think it's a conspiracy between the Disney empire and the weather men.

Today we did a tour of Hollywood and went to Universal Studios. Yes, we were the quintessential tourists, but what else do you do in California? Our tour driver this time also had a unique sense of humor, but not quite as enjoyable as the last. This one had a habit of repeating "Los Angeles" as many times as possible and saying everything a few times over. We found out he was from Nigeria and he was excited to share a little Mugabe joke with me when he found out I had lived in Zimbabwe. Of course we saw the Walk of Fame with all the stars and I got to walk in Sean Connery's footprints (hmmm, Sean Connery). There were impersonators all along the sidewalk - Elvis, Marilyn Munroe, Freddy Krueger, Charlie Chaplin, Johnny Depp. We tried to convince Stell to pose with Johnny since she is love with him, but she was too shy. We saw the Kodak theater where they have the Academy awards. Hollywood was not what you would expect - it seemed rather scummy, actually, other than some of the theaters etc. We drove by Rodeo Drive, the 2nd most expensive shopping in the states. Didn't stop. Didn't see any stars (not that we really thought we would, but we were looking).
Went to Universal Studios later. We were a little theme-parked-out by that point, but lots of interesting things to see there too. There was this "House of Horrors" that I thought was just a walk through museum of some of the stuff they've done in movies, so I thought it would be interesting and I convinced the "biddies" to go with me. By the time we had walked in 10 feet, I realized that it was a haunted house and I do NOT do well with those. I thought I could go through it, so I walked a bit more. At first there was just dark and cobwebs and some red eye-lights. But then this hand reached out from the wall. I really, really, hate being surprised by things like that and I knew I couldn't walk through the rest of it. So I left by one of the scaredy-cat exits. And my mom and aunts went through the rest of it. Yes, I'm a wimp. They thought it was pretty cool that they did it and I didn't, but that's okay. It wasn't worth my mental health!! By the end of the day, we were pretty tired and ready to order some pizza and lounge. Tomorrow, on to San Diego.

san francisco

2007-05-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

We spent the day in San Francisco today. Very pretty city...exactly how you would picture it. Tall, narrow, pastel houses spaced an inch apart on very steep streets. Apparently the average house in SF costs $800,000! We went on a tour of the city...I think the tour guide was the best part of it. He had the dryest, most sarcastic sense of humor - like Willy Wonka. We tried to take a bunch of pictures of the Golden Gate bridge as we were driving across it and viewing it from a distance, but there was always fog surrounding the top. We of course had to ride a cable car and we tried to hunt down the famous "Full House" house, but didn't find it. We spent some time at Fisherman's Wharf where we ate the famous clam chowder out of sourdough bread bowls. There is a place there at one of the piers where sea lions gather. There were piles of them (literally) lounging around on top of one another and barking very loudly at one another. Our hotel, which ended up being in a rather sketchy area of town is about 85 years old and has a nice quaint character feel to it. Our view across the street is "Frenchy's: Your Adult Superstore" (I tried to post a picture of this and the sealions but to no avail - blogger hates me tonight) and we've run across numerous crossdressers, homeless people and weed-smoking wanderers. Tomorrow, on to Anaheim!

2007-05-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

The Oregon coast

Mount Robson, near Jasper

The girls at the top of "The Column" in Astoria, Oregon.

Covered bridge in hickville, Washington

Just pictures for now...next instalment will share more!

wedding saturday

2007-05-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of pictures from Nate and Abbie's wedding on Saturday. I know, I know, no pictures of the happy couple...they ran away so quickly to take their own pictures and we didn't make it to the reception before we left on our trip. Aren't Em and Addison cute!! Addison actually made it halfway down the isle as ring-bearer or whatever he way. Em found it a little too intimidating, but she looked gorgeous nonetheless. And a girl's pic with my mom and sis.

retro dresses

2007-04-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Mom and I were going through some old boxes of stuff at her place last night and I found my high school grad dress. I wasn't sure what I should do with it, other than try it on! I think I'm going to send it to a thrift store. I can't imagine any occasion where I would wear it again - black velvet is not the most stylish anymore. Actually, I was very surprised that I could even get it on. It was rather snug :) And the dress Mom is wearing was one she bought and wore when she was pregnant with me! Wow - I think it's pretty cute still -I'd wear it if it fit, but I'm not a size 2.

cucumber!!

2007-04-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

I don't think this picture properly captures the enormity of the cucumber I got in the Good Food Box this week. HUGE!! The GFB is a box of veggies and fruit from local producers that you can buy for a good price.

scrabble master!

2007-04-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have to brag. For the first time ever, I made 3 (yes, that's three)words using all my letters in one Scrabble game!! They were: emceeing, gliders, and amending. Final score: 379 to 297. I won. Probably nowhere close to the world record score, but a record for me. Any other Scrabble geeks out there who want to brag as well?

you know you're from Africa when....

2007-04-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

I still think of myself as being from Africa. I think it's because my formative years were spent there. Plus being in South Africa in 2005 added to that feeling. I found this list and I thought I would share it because I know some of you who've been there will identify with these things even if you don't think of yourself as being "from Africa."

You know you're from Africa when...

...it doesn't seem right to pay the asking price on anything in a store. If you can't barter for it, it's not worth having.

...every toothpaste is Colgate.

...every soap is Surf.

...every softdrink is Coca Cola or Fanta.

...black outs are nothing new to you.

...no running water for a day is just another ordinary thing

...40 degrees is cold.

...You can do your monthly shopping on the pavement.

...four cars are driving parallel to each other on a one-lane road.

...The smell of freshly rained on mud paths/tarmac is comforting.

...being an hour late equals being "on time."

...you get car sick because the roads just can't have enough potholes!

... you pass by someones house and you know what they gonna have for dinner because you can pretty much see and/or smell what's cooking.

...you can bribe a cop and get away with it!

...you have an over whelming urge to wash all your salad in milton (baby bottle bleach, supposedly kills cholera) just to get the taste you're used to.

...You know that the police isn't always the safest place to go when you're in trouble.

...Cramming 7 passangers in a 4 passenger taxi is really not a big deal.

...you know never to question what you're eating (even if it does taste good), because sometimes you just don't want to know.

...you invite people for a get together at 7 and they all come at 9.

...football is played with some sort of ROUND ball and WITHOUT hands.

...everyone in your country plays soccer.

...carry Purell like it's your life supply.

...a plane flies by and you just can't help but look up!

... you hate American corn, because it's never hard enough.

...you expect people to tell you they're fine before you ask them.

...someone is riding their bike down the road with corrugated iron strapped width wise across the back of the bike and its taking up more than half of the road.

...you miss rain on a corrugated iron roof; it's so loud you have to shout to be heard.

...you've been proposed to while walking down the street (if you're a girl, that is).

...you know what true hospitality and generosity is...when those who have almost nothing still welcome you in with open arms and are willing to share everything they have with you - even though they barely know you!

...someone asks you how much your sister costs.

...You unwrap all your gifts carefully, so that you can reuse the wrapper.

...you have almost always carry overweight baggage when traveling by plane.

...You only make telephone calls at a cheaper rate at night

...someone offers seven cows for your infant sisters future hand in marriage.

...you learn the native words for "white person" everywhere you go, because you hear it shouted everywhere you go.

...something that would normally take half an hour in the Western world takes a few days or weeks...and if it didn't it just wouldn't be fun.

...you find it completely natural to have burglar-bars outside your windows.

...you known not to question the contents of your food when it tastes good.

...you bought your cellphone through your car window.

...chicken is a luxury.

...you wonder why there aren't any herds of cows and goats walking down the street in North America.

...you can smell the rain before it comes.

...you can look up at the sky and see every star clearly.

...the sunset is something to look forward to.

...you miss the the sound of rain on your tin roof at night, the after-rain smell, and the spectacular lightning shows.

...every white thing you own has permently turned a curious shade of orange.

...everywhere you walk children run up to you shouting, 'how are you! how are you, how are you?' mzungu! mzungu!

...you spend as little time as possible in the toilet, and can hold your breath for amazing lengths of time.

...you always drink your drink straight away in front of the shop, and give them the bottle back.

...when americans tell you that the "chai" you're drinking isn't real because it's not indian, and they think it's tea with milk. It's milk with tea.

... you´re NOT in Africa and you miss everything everybody else mentioned so much it hurts.

....you think of giving up trying to convince people of what it´s really like - even
though they really do try, they often just don´t understand.

... you expect to be able to buy roast corn, fried meat or fish, boiled yams or cassava etc whilst you are travelling on public transport.

...having mud-orange feet is normal.

...you dream about Africa - a lot.

"All I want is blood and gore"

2007-04-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Kevin, Eden and I drove up to Three Hills this weekend to visit Julie. Had lots of fun, laughed a lot ("all I want is blood and gore"), bullied Kevin a lot. A smashing time was had by all. Got to go up in a tiny plane with Julie's dad, Rick, who is a flight instructor at Prairie Bible College.

Gophers=Spring

2007-04-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

I saw my first gopher today. And I wore sandals (without socks). Spring is officially here!

Blind Date

2007-04-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

I went on a Blind Date yesterday (it seemed like it should be capitalized as an entity in itself). I don't know that I've ever been on an authentic Blind Date before. One of my coworkers set me up with her nephew, who, by virtue of the fact that he is about my age and still single as well, was sure to be a perfect match for me, right? He called me last Thursday and I was running out the door and hearing an unfamiliar male voice asking for "Angela," I just assumed it was a telemarketer and I was rather abrupt in asking who was calling. Turned out to be my date, calling to see if I wanted to meet. I was rather surprised that he actually called, since people are always saying they know someone I should meet and that they are going to get us together, but it never actually happens. We arranged to meet Monday night at The Living Room for coffee. We met. What more can I say? I don't know if I've ever met someone with whom I have less in common. Nice guy, but we have completely different direction and priorities in life. Ah well, that's how it goes. I didn't go into it expecting to meet the love of my life, but you never know, right? Good practice anyhow, so if anyone else out there has another potential blind date for me, I'm all warmed up! :)

Green

2007-04-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure no one is bothering to check my blog anymore...it's been so very long since I posted anything. So if you are still looking, leave me a comment! I decided that, along with TV and instant messaging, I would give up blogging for lent. I don't always give something up, but I thought these were things that might free up more of my time for something more valuable. I'm not sure what I ended up doing instead! Anyway, I'm not going to bother trying to write about all the things that have happened in the last while (that makes it sound like there are intriguing things happening in my life...not so sure about that!) But today I went out to my mom's to use her sewing machine (and visit with her, of course) because I always want to make things and I found some pretty green fabric at Walmart that I couldn't leave behind. I didn't have a pattern for what I wanted to make, which was basically a copy of another top I have, so I improvised and made my own pattern. It took a little tweaking and a little frustration, but I finally ended up with something I think I will actually wear! Yay for new clothes I made myself! The light green top is the original that I copied. The wavy green one is the new one. I think green might be my favorite color. What do you think of it?

falling

2007-02-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

As much as I am loving ballroom dancing as I get more comfortable with it and it seems more natural, I'm hoping maybe skating will be the same? At least I was in good company...Seraphine, Eden, and Kevin had not skated before, so we held each other up and minced around the outdoor rink at the Bessborough. All except for Kevin, who, with his usual foolhardy exuberance, took off unassisted around the ice. I think the reason is that he isn't afraid of falling. He doesn't mind taking risks. I think I need a bit more of that attitude in my life too. I want to be free, genuine, me, without worrying about if I'm going to fail or what people will think.

fungus?

2007-02-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else find the idea of crop circles fascinating? The ones I've seen pictures of are beautiful - works of art. I'm reading a book called "The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal" (yes, I know, Ruthie, I always manage to find the weirdest books to read) which basically looks at all the rational explanations behind "paranormal" phenomena. So this is the list of possible explanations that have been proposed for crop circles:
1. Created by aliens.
2. Earth energy theory - they are a message from the earth telling us to stop polluting it.
3. The result of a fungus.
4. Created by underground magnetic or electric fields which suddenly cause flattening of the grain.
5. The result of downdraughts from aircrafts or helicopters.
6. Created by naturally occuring spinning winds.
7. They are all hoaxes.

Now, personally, I side with the idea that they are hoaxes. I mean, fungus, seriously? What do you think?
(I told you I wasn't kidding, G.V.)

keep going, little white Honda

2007-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Aren't these snowpeople great!? They belong to my neighbors and they have been there for a couple of months, probably. They are starting to melt...I cannot believe Saskatchewan weather. Although I don't know why I should be surprised that there can be a 30 degree temperature difference in 24 hours. Seriously, Wednesday was -32 and Thursday was -3. No that I'm complaining. I just think it's weird.

So as I'm driving to a home visit on Tuesday, my car just dies. I know that I haven't taken the best care of it and I'm sorta preparing myself for the inevitability that sooner or later I'm going to have to purchase something different and say goodbye to my dear little Honda. This is the only car I've ever had and I learned to drive on it. It's been through a lot with me. So I'm a little attached and feeling sad about it dying. But back to the story. So I'm driving down 33rd, just by Kelsey, and it just stops responding to the accelerator...well, it sort of surges when I press the gas, but then it stops all together. So I'm on 33rd St. at lunch time and I need to get off. I managed to push it off onto a side road behind Kelsey. And I called my uncle Frank who manages a car repair place. He gives me the number of a tow company and I wait and wait and wait for them to come. Finally, an hour later, the tow truck comes and gives me a ride to Uncle Frank's. And the guy doesn't charge me! Because he knows my uncle. So that was very cool. So Uncle Frank says he will see if he can look at it in the next few days and he gives me a courtesy car to drive in the meanwhile. I leave, and an hour later he calls me to tell me that he's already fixed it. I brought the courtesy car back the next day and he only charged me $20 to fix it - it was the alternator belt (not that I really know what that means - I just know that it's not good if it breaks). So, for the whole ordeal....I only paid $20, including the tow truck, the car to drive for a day and the repair. Wow! So little white Honda gets another chance...

No Valentine's flowers or cards this year :( Maybe next year. Some of us had a little Valentine's party on Wednesday. We made heart-shaped pizzas :)

2007-02-11T19:39:00.000-08:00

What a great day! God was so very present today. In church, our speaker was talking about freedom in Christ and about all the deception wrapped in truth that is so prevalent in our society. All this "spirituality" that talks about becoming the best person you can be. Which is not a bad thing, and so much of this stuff has a lot of truth in it, which is why it so easily deceives people. But it is telling us we can do things on our own, whereas we know we need Christ. Anyhow, I don't know how much of what happened after the service was actually related to the words Sandra spoke and how much was the Holy Spirit working. I suspect much was the latter. There was an invitation to our generation, the younger people in the church, to come forward if they felt they would like prayer, as we are the people who are the next leaders of the church and we are the new generation of Christians. There were probably at least 20 people at the front of the church and the elders were praying and people were crying, and wow, God was there. I'm not usually a touchy-feely sort of person and even though I can be very emotional, I often am reluctant to be so in front of other people. But there I was, crying along with everyone else. Hearing what some of church leaders were saying was incredible....just to see how God has been weaving strands of seemingly random things together in my life. Like how Kelly went up there and read exactly the chapter in Isaiah that Julie and I have been memorizing. And how suddenly one of them was talking about spiritual mothers and fathers and how so much of our generation has come from broken homes and being parented spiritually is so important if we are to be the new leaders in the church. Kelly Wiens had just been talking to me about that exact concept earlier in the week and even lent me a book on the topic. And then I've been thinking about the Bridge kids a lot and thinking that I need to be a mother to some of those girls...they need mothering. I think God was telling me today how much I've been listening to and believing lies that he can't use me. And yet I see the places he's been putting me and I so want to be used, but I feel inadequate. But that's only if I try to do things on my own strength, right? Because if I am just able to listen to God and obey him and trust him with the consequences of that obedience, that's all I need to be doing. That's freedom. And I need that. Good stuff happening today, in my head, in my heart. I don't want to forget it, or let it go.

And I'm so blessed with amazing friends. Julie, Kevin, Eden and I hung out this afternoon. Eden was to braid (plait) Kevin's hair, so we watched her do that and had supper (amazing stew, Julie!) and played a game and then went to an international exchange program's worship night. It was awesome to hear people praising God in so many different languages. All in all, this is the kind of day that refuels me.

nutrition info

2007-02-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

Just a little public health news here for you guys. The new Canada Food Guide came out yesterday! This is very exciting news! There are some changes in it, and it's quite detailed. If you're interested in healthy eating, this is the address:
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index_e.html

Also I found a very cool website that allows you to enter in your daily diet and it will calculate for you exactly how many servings and nutrients you are getting every day. It compares your diet that day with what the recommended daily amounts of each vitamin etc. are. So I found out that I did not have quite enough iron today, but plenty of vitamin C. Maybe I'm a geek, but this kind of thing quite interests me!
Check it out at:
www.dietitians.ca/public/content/eat_well_live_well/english/EWLW_Login.asp?puzzleComplete=

would you rather....

2007-02-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

If you know me well, and have hung out with me for any extended period of time, you've probably been subjected to "would you rather" as I pull out my handy-dandy little gross-out, get-you-thinking book (Zobmondo!! by Randy Horn). I'll share some with you, but I want some answers to the questions, okay?

Would you rather...

- fall through the toilet hole in an outhouse OR be temporarily trapped beneath a pile of dead animals?

- die before your spouse of fifty years does, knowing he or she will be healthy but heartbroken for another twenty years OR watch your spouse die before you after fifty years?

- have regular encounters with aliens without any proof OR have your best friend be invisible?

-be dating (or married to) someone who insists that ever item in your home be controlled by one of those "clap on, clap off" devices OR that every piece of furniture have plastic covers?

- always spit when you talk OR always be spit on when spoken to?

- always show up 20 minutes late for everything OR always show up 90 minutes early for everthing?

- accidently slam your hand down on a telephone message spike OR get just the tips of your fingers caught in a paper shredder?

- eat five extremely green bananas OR eat five extremely overripe bananas?

- for the rest of your life, choose the same drink and same meal to ingest every time you eat OR have someone else always choose your meals?

- be forced to laugh in the most inappropriate situations OR have to say everything that is on your mind?

a vision

2007-01-31T20:40:00.000-08:00

I had a vision the other night, I think. The Bridge kids have been on my mind a lot lately. I was in bed on Sunday night, just thinking, and falling asleep. In that foggy stage betweeen wake and sleep, where you know you aren't asleep yet, but your mind is not your own, I think God was giving me this image. There was a circle of people, a group of girls from the Bridge and the Holy Spirit was there, like a misty presence. The mist sort of had tendrils and fingers that went from child to child, reaching around each one, searching her face, caressing. And as it did it was as if somehow there was an incredible sense of acceptance, adoration, love and pride for each individual child. Besides the obvious, what am I to take from this?

teensex?

2007-01-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

Yay! I can post pics again! I was cleaning out the room they gave me for my nurse's office at Westmount. It has been used as a health room in the past. I found some hilarious things in the cupboards. Including this pamplet copyright 1979 (if you can't read the words, just double click on the pictures and they'll get bigger). Also found sanitary pads from approximately the same era, what appeared to be rat poison pellets under the sink, immunization consent forms from the stone age...very amusing. Like a small time capsule.

Pictureless; posting anyhow

2007-01-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

I can't figure out how to post pictures. My browser won't go to the page. So I'm feeling very disinclined to post anything because I love pictures most of all. But I'm wanting to post something because it's been a while. Nobody actually reads the writing part unless there are pictures to go with it as well, right? Oh well, pictures or no pictures, I'll write something anyway. I had a great week, or last few days at least. I had this very cool conversation/interaction with some nurses I work with and we spent one evening at one of their houses, knitting and sharing pictures and laughing and chatting. This is good. I love being able to connect with them outside of work and figure out who they are as a person, not just as a nurse. And the Bridge yesterday was really good too. I got to share a bit of my life story and I hope that God used some of what I said to strike something in someone there. We have been having a lot younger crowd coming out lately, including a lot of girls. It's been an answer to prayer, having more girls. And because they are younger, they don't seem so hardened and don't have the same walls up. So we've been able to start building some relationships and getting closer to the kids. It was very sweet...we were outside doing an activity for a bit and one of the girls was cold, so she asked if she could come inside my coat. It didn't work very well, but she cuddled up to Julie. And later it was great to see one of the girls sitting on Lenore's lap playing cards (I have some very cute pictures, oh well). So it feels like they are starting to trust us, which is so awesome! And I'm going on the Youth For Christ winter retreat in a couple of weeks as the nurse. Hopefully some of our Bridge kids will be there too.

2007-01-24T17:02:00.000-08:00

Are other people having the same problem posting pictures as I am? When I try to upload pictures, it gives me a connection problem...is this happening to you too?

This is what I do

2007-01-20T07:56:00.000-08:00

I don't write much about my job, but the fact is that it is a large part of my life, and a good part of my life. I recently started a new job as part of a team of nurses and others who are working on a new project in the inner-city area of Saskatoon. Some researchers have been studying the health of Saskatoon residents over the last few years and have found that the health of the poorer population is abominably worse than that of the middle and affluent populations. Something like a 3000% greater rate of certain disease etc. So the idea is that we really need to put our efforts into helping to improve the health of these people. The upper-class will get the information and care they need on their own. One of the researchers was saything that, for example, the immunization rates in the affluent neighborhoods is 98%, wheras in our core neighborhoods, it is about 40%. He would like to see us take all of our nurses out of working with the former neighborhoods and put them to work in the inner city. He thinks that we could raise immunization rates from 40% to 80% in the core and probably only see a 2% decrease in rates for the wealthier people. So they determined which of the city's neighborhoods are experiencing the poorest health and that ended up being 6 neigborhoods on the west side. I get to be one of the 6 nurses doing this work! We are only given one school, so we can focus more on it (as opposed the nurses in the rest of the city who have 3 or 4 schools) and we are doing things differently...actually, right now, we're just figuring things out, but it is exciting (and overwhelming) to be a part of this!

Anyhow, all this to say that I went to meet the pricipal and some of the teachers at my new school, which is Westmount Community School, yesterday. They were so excited to see me. I had already had 3 or 4 calls from the school before I'd even been there. I'm going to be doing a lot of teaching and immunizing and getting involved with some of the community associations, that sort of thing. Plus of course my visits to the moms and their newborns in that area. It's been an eye-opener already. I don't think that most of us middle-class really understand the huge number of ways poverty affects people. I mean, I'm getting calls from teachers saying that their Grade 4 kids are smoking. I do home visits to dark, dank, messy, little houses with a toddler running around eating a hot dog covered in cat hair and the smell of smoke so thick that I leave smelling like it myself. I'm not meaning to be stereotyping or rude but this is the reality of it.

Back to the school. This is an amazing school! It was built in 1912 (which is old for Saskatoon). It is huge and rambling with 4 floors and multiple sets of staircases, hardwood floors and little nooks and crannies all over the place. One of those little nooks is a room on the 3rd floor that I get to use as my office. It's very exciting and I can't wait to get involved!

Ah. Saskatchewan, I love you.

2007-01-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do the forwarding thing because I don't believe that I will be cursed if I don't send a happy face to 10 of my friends. I got this forward today, though, and I thought it appropriately true, especially in light of the beautiful blizzard we had this week.

If "vacation" to you means going shopping for the weekend in Minot
ND while the kids swim at the Comfort Inn), You might live in
Saskatchewan.

If parking your car for the night involves an extension cord, You
might live in Saskatchewan.

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through
8 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will
swim by, You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you're proud that your province makes the national news
primarily because it houses the coldest spot in the nation, You
might live in Saskatchewan.

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work
there, You might live in Saskatchewan.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of
his forehead, You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, You might
live in Saskatchewan.

If you know how to correctly pronounce Forget, Bienfait and Roche
Percee You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you measure driving distance in hours, You might live in
Saskatchewan.

If you know several people who have hit deer more than once, You
might live in Saskatchewan.

If you often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back
again, You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you can drive 110 kph through 2 meters of snow during a raging
blizzard, without flinching, You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you see people wearing hunting clothes at social events, You
might live in Saskatchewan.

If the largest traffic jam in your town centers around an amateur
hockey game, You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows
how to use them, You might live in Saskatchewan

If your town's Christmas lights parade is actually called the
'Christmas Lights Parade' rather than the 'Holiday Lights Parade',
and everyone in the parade actually greets you with 'Merry
Christmas!' You might live in Saskatchewan.

If there are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Wal-Mart at
any given time, You might live in Saskatchewan

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit,
You might live in Saskatchewan.

If you find minus 20 degrees a little chilly, You might live in
Saskatchewan.

If you actually understand these observations, and you forward them
to all your Saskatchewan friends, you must be from Saskatchewan.

2007-01-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

I'm excited for the new world of videos on my blog. So hopefully this works. This is my precious Faith, who is still at TLC. She's so cute. I loved kissing her!

I'm famous!

2007-01-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

This is crazy! One of my friends asked me if I knew my picture was on this website. No, I did not! But I did have a lady email me asking permission to use a picture I'd posted on flicker for an exhibition on skin color at some science center in Minneapolis. So this must be related. Check it out!

http://www.understandingrace.org/humvar/index.html

god's amusement park

2007-01-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

We went tobogganing again this weekend. I love this picture of Eden and Kevin with their makeshift sleds. They look like street people! And Seraphine...it was her first time ever tobogganing. It's like God's free amusement park. I love it. It started snowing and windiness before too long so we went for hot chocolate.

new year's

2007-01-04T22:02:00.000-08:00

I love how God has placed these friends in my life. I didn't go looking for them, they may not even be people that I would have seen as potential friends, but that's what makes it so great. Gifts, completely without any of my own effort.
This was our New Year's time together. Julie and I decided rather last minute to see if anyone wanted to hang out - and people did.
And doesn't Julie's new do bring out her great eyes and smile?

2007-01-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

I got a fish! I said that to one of my friends and he asked if I had gone ice-fishing. No, just to Walmart. Do you think Walmart fish are any less quality fish than ones from a real pet store? Mine seems to be rather lethargic. Most of the time he is so still that I wonder if he is still alive. Maybe he just has too much space. See the little container he came in, and his new spacious home? Mark says that they live in mudpuddles in nature, so they don't like big spaces. He is a crowntail betta. I think he's cute, but I don't really have a name for him yet. He's been going by "Fishy Fish" (should I write a book, J?) and I kinda like that but it is horribly uncreative. Any fish name suggestions? We had a little photo shoot on his first day here and I particularily like the 2nd last picture. I think he looks rather coy.

Romance Pulp

2006-12-30T19:40:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite gifts this Christmas was a box of 30 "Romance Pulp" postcards taken from 1960's and '70's comic books. The pictoral version of Harlequins? I think they are hilarious! I posted some of the best. I hope they make you laugh as hard as I did!

christmas, time off, people I love...what more could a girl ask for?

2006-12-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

How very lovely to have 4 days off in a row to be with people I love! This is the countryside north of Dalmeny, where Mom lives.

Mom and me....isn't she gorgeous!!?

Ruthie and I had our own lovely little Christmas

gift exchange...she gave me the best gift ever...

the first reading of her labor of love, her first book.

Mark looking ever-so-stylish in the Strawberry Shortcake apron I made him.
My handsome, distinguished dad.
My equally beautiful and elegant mom.

Jaq, looking pensive, but probably just anticipating the vereniki feast to come!

Three of us cousins looking triplet-y. Ruthie made Sue and me matching butterfly t-shirts.

fridge poetry

2006-12-20T05:30:00.000-08:00

I have magnetic poetry on my fridge. Most of the time, I don't even see it anymore....you know how that is. You see it so much that it just blends in. But new people who come to my place often make little lines of poetry for me. Here are the current ones:

- mad goddesses always blow their bedtimes
- fluffing enormously in a tiny gown with man sweat under her arms using repulsive language
- never boil tongue
- blood is juice
- two will incubate delirious aching love for eternity
- i manupulate a rose garden of smooth but bitter lies
- summer rains sing of beauty and I want to cry
- stormy moments produce sweet gifts of life
- she is the boyfriend whisperer
- men never stop wanting a mother near
- we will fiddle and rock and live in his symphony
- drooling at my delicate skin like milky petals

"when you bobbed your hair, you bobbed your character, too"

2006-12-19T05:57:00.000-08:00

My friend Bryan thought that I needed to read this book. We were hanging out with some friends last night when he remembered it. The other guys there who had heard portions of this particular book by a John R. Rice chortled and said "Yes, Ang needs to see this." So with that, Bryan trekked off home only to return with "Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers," a classic from 1940, which I'm sure is a treasured part of your home libraries, is it not? My favorite passage:

The modern woman wonders why now she must chase a beau down, as her mother never did. The modern woman wonders why men do not rise up on the streetcar to give her a seat. The modern woman wonders why some men feel so free to curse in her presence, and to use langruage that no respectable woman of the past generation ever heard. Yes, the modern, masculine, pants-wearing, cigarette-smoking, bobbed-haired woman has fallen from her pedestal. She is not reveranced by men as her beautiful and modest mother was.
These days, men have come to feel that if a woman will not fill a woman's place, she shall not have a woman's protection and respect and reverence. Men desert their wives as never before in the world. Very few men nowadays feel reverently about a woman's body. Boys who have dates with these bobbed-haired, smoking, strong-willed, modern girls, expect to kiss them and fondle them as they please, or to kick them out of the car to walk home. The man who marries a modern woman these days marries a woman who expects to vote like a man, smoke like a man, have her hair cut like a man, and go without restrictions and without chaperones and obey nobody. A man who marries such a woman, I say, does not expect to support her. The modern girl is very often expected to work and help make a living...Oh woman, what you have lost when you lost your femininity! When you bobbed your hair, you bobbed your character, too.

Is there any truth in this? What do you think?

mutant molluscs and better-than-sex bars

2006-12-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

Jacqui and Mark hosted a "cocktail" party on Saturday. They did have a few cocktails to offer, but I think mostly Mark wanted to showcase his cooking ability. The boy can concoct!! Wow! You can see the menu on the chalkboard. All of it was amazing, although I think the consensus was that the white chocolate almond bars were the winner. In the words of Mike "these are better than sex, man!"

We counted ourselves lucky not to be not to be enjoying any escargot pate. J and M's fishtank is overrun with snails...I think my new simile will be "multiplying like snails." Did you know snails multiplied so quickly? Neither did I. Apparently they regularily have to scoop out a bunch and send them to a watery grave....although....why would they die? They're probably creating the newest urban legend of mutant molluscs in the sewer system....

these are a few of my favorite things

2006-12-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

I'm never sure why "These are a few of my favorite things" is played at Christmas time. Seven children and their fear of a thunderstorm doesn't seem related to Christ's birth at all. I suppose it's the "snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes" line that gets it into the line up. In any case, I was thinking about what some of my favorite things are....

- stars on a clear night far away from city lights

- homemade oatmeal (the rolled kind, not quick oats) with raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar

- grape, orange or strawberry scented lip balm

- holding a newborn

- finishing a knitting project (that turned out!)

- Ruth Ann's and my tradition of blizzards (the DQ variety - the best ever is peanut butter, banana, brownie chunk) and hashing over old conversations

- spending a day in Dalmeny with my mom

- dancing northern lights

- my African fabric dress

- driving out into the countryside with my favorite music and trying to get lost

- when you can see individual snowflakes on your windshield, with their perfect symmetry

- the thrill of airports

- talking to people from other countries

- magic cookie bars

- camping

- Port St. John's, SA, with its rainforest, monkeys, butterflies, geckos and ocean

- a day off

- acoustic guitar

- The Wool Emporium

- Rooibos tea with soymilk

- knowing I've obeyed God

- Paul Simon

- feeling connected to people

- kelly green

- The Sacred Romance

- Mark's cooking

- watching someone open the perfect gift

- road trips

- peppermint patties

- freshly washed bedding

- starting the 2nd chapter of a great book, knowing there is lots left

- spinach salad with tuna, nuts, raisins, feta, red peppers, carrots, lemon pepper and raspberry viniagrette

- feeling clothing gettting looser (until it is too loose at which point it is just annoying)

- hostels

- oatmeal raisin cookies

- knowing and feeling God's love

- driving a standard

- my mom's vereniki

- The Blue Castle

- soymilk steamers with hazelnut

- making lists!

Congratulations Alli and Stephen!

2006-12-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late on this, but a huge congratulations to my good friend and roomie Alli Baerg and her FIANCEE!!!!! Stephen Siemens! They got engaged a week ago! I'm sure Alli wouldn't mind sharing the story AGAIN for any of you who want to hear it.

Mistletoes (gotta love a great pun)

2006-11-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

The much anticipated Mistletoes Dance. What fun to dress up again and hang out with friends and practice our (well, my) mediocre dance skills! The pink picture above is part of the dance schedule (I'm sure there is a fancier name for it). It lists the songs and what sort of dance we should be doing to each one. I think we are supposed to be able to figure it out on our own, but they kindly help out us beginners. We had an interesting time getting ready (the dress Julie planned to wear decided last minute it didn't want to be worn and she had to pull out plan B). My amazingly talented and generous roommate spent 2 hours doing our hair for us. We froze our toes off on the way to Centennial - guys definitely have it easier in their full body coverage, but then again, as Julie pointed out, they tend to overheat when they have to dress up in summer.

We sat at a table with other people from our class and it was nice to get to know them outside of the weekly lessons. There were something like 600 people at the dance, at 80 tables...and our table went first to the buffet- we thought that was a bit of seredipity - or maybe they were just trying to make up for the fact that we were the farthest from the dance floor. Mostly the four of us the pictures above hung out (Julie, Benindra, Kevin and I), and Dennis joined us later. The truth of these dances is that you pretty much dance with the people you know or came with. Not that you can't ask random strangers to dance, because you can do that too. But as most people come as part of a couple, it would be hard if you came by yourself. So in that way, it was good that we all came together, so we had a little bit of choice of dancing partners, at least. I can't wait to get better at this whole dance thing. Apparently, as Benindra tells me often, I am too tense and I need to be more relaxed and loosen up when I dance. I think that I know I am uncoordinated and want so badly to get the steps right...it's true, I should be more relaxed.
It was a good evening. We took a ton of pictures, so here are a few of them.

TLC reunion

2006-11-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we had a mini TLC-ers reunion. I don't know why we waited so long. All of us are within 6 hours drive, and most of us within 1 hour. We met and spent the whole day together. We laughed a lot and of course the whole conversation was centered around TLC. But honestly, most of us don't know a lot about each others' lives outside of South Africa. In any case, we will always have those shared memories and it is so good to know people who understand that part of our lives. In the picture, in the back row, left to right is Justin, Leah, Colleen and Tasha. In the front is Amber, yours truly, and Alli (my lovely roomie). Justin and Amber are engaged and living in Humbolt, Leah is from here, Colleen is near Edmonton and Tasha is in Swift Current. I hope we have an even bigger reunion sometime soon...perhaps at the wedding?

2006-11-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

These are our guardian angels and the dannycos...Esmerelda and Herman.

Aslan's on the move

2006-11-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

God is working. I don't know quite what he is doing yet, but I can sense him moving...Aslan is on the move! I can see him in circumstances, in the people he's bringing into my life, in the things they say. I know that something has been missing from my relationship with God in the last year. I don't really know what has all factored into my feeling distant from him. Some of it is believing lies, I think. Believing that God only sees my imperfections. Not believing that he loves me intensely, passionately, despite these shortcomings. Focusing so much on my faults that I forget to focus on God and all that he has done and is doing in my life. This weekend has been such a testament to how very much he cares for me and wants good in my life, even when I've been feeling so unlovable. Without any orchestration from me, God has brought friends into my life who love him and point me to him. He has placed me in situations where I know he is so very present. This Friday night I was at the Bridge, this drop-in center that I spend time at every week. There was something unseen going on there...and it didn't feel like a good thing to me. There was this spirit of distraction and discord. We had been praying for more girls to show up because it had been mostly boys coming. The girls did come last night, but Julie and Lenore and I felt like it was pointless us being there for them. Of course I know that is not true. But the girls have no interest in being near us volunteers at all. They come in their packs, or clumps, hang out together and then go outside to smoke pot and come back in giggling and smelling of it. We feel responsible to be talking to these girls and getting to know them, but we can just sense them not wanting us around. It's hard, because we believe that God brings them in there for a reason, and we want to be used, but how, when they want nothing to do with us? I guess we just need to be patient and be there and wait for God to work. Anyhow, so we were feeling discouraged and useless. But Julie and I ended up hanging around with Jeremy and Stephen and having this very cool worship and sharing time. This guy, Stephen, who works full time at The Bridge, is incredible! Just this AMAZINGLY passionate man of God - he's inspiring to be around. So that was Friday and it was good, after all the negative feeling of earlier in the evening, to end the evening on a positive note.

Saturday night, we had a games night at Julie's and had such fun playing Balderdash and Four on a Couch. We had decided to go tobogganing too and we did go, around midnight. The sky was this amazing orangey-purple color and it was so light out, with the cloudy sky reflecting the snow. Why are guys so crazy? None of the girls are standing up and trying to ride down the hill that way, or worse yet, trying to go down standing on their heads on the toboggan (I'm not kidding!!)We spent some time back at Julie's afterwards singing.

And then church this morning was exactly what I needed to hear. Talking about how we focus so much on the negative, the failings in our lives and God loves us despite that. We lose out on joy because instead of focussing on God, we're focusing on the things we need to change. Not that we should be in denial or ignore those things...I feel I'm repeating myself. Anyway. God is good and I wanted to share that.

Mistletoes?

2006-11-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

I ended up going to the Beginner's Dance on Saturday with some of my friends. I wasn't planning on going because I was just feeling insecure about my dancing skills and I didn't think it would be very much fun. But then my alternate plans fell through and I found out that some of my friends were going to the dance and so I gave in to peer pressure and went. I was envisioning the few dances I attended in high school, where we stood around awkwardly until a few of our friends started out onto the floor and then we all finally ended up dancing (if you could call it that) in a circle. Just girls, mind you, no guys involved in this. Of course I realized that ballroom dancing might be a little different from "Things That Make You go Hmmm" but I didn't know how different.
I had a great time. I'm not sure why exactly - maybe it was just finally feeling like I'm getting the basic steps down so I can start to work on the variations they teach every week. And feeling free to just ask anyone to dance is fun. There's this one cute old Asian man who always seems so excited to dance with me (although I think he is the same with everyone else) and so we danced a bit. He always hangs onto my hand after the dance is done, as if he just doesn't want to let it go. And Julie and I ended up dancing with this engineering grad student from Nepal a few times. He actually joined the four of us for coffee at Tim Horton's after the dance. So, all of this is leading me to consider attending the Mistletoes dance in a few weeks. Apparently it's a very formal event at the Centennial (sorry...TCU Place)with a banquet to start the evening. I think if there were lots of beginners there, it could be quite fun. And it would be great to be able to watch some of the advanced dancers do their thing. I'm hoping our whole group of friends might want to go. It would be great to have a chance to dress up again. What's your vote - should I go?

Tick Tock

2006-10-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

It might have seemed from my last post that I don't enjoy my job very much. On the contrary, it is the best job I've ever had (with the possible exception of TLC which wasn't really a "job" and did have the worst hours!). I really do love it. I get great variety every day, I get to see cute babies, I'm not stuck inside, I work with amazingly talented people, I learn new things every hour, and I get to save lives. One of the cool things I get to do is visit parents with their newborns. There is something about a newborn that bring out such maternal feelings in me. It's not good! I see these cute little families and I so hope that one day that will be me. Not to sound pathetic or desperate, because I am definitely neither of those things, but there's a part of me that is scared I'm going to miss out on the whole experience of having a family, having a newborn...Being at TLC last year didn't help much with that either. I think if you can still be interested in having babies when you're taking care of 10 screaming newborns at once, then it might be genuine?

Please, don't poke me

2006-10-24T18:07:00.001-07:00

I have the best job ever! This was my day today:

In the morning, I went to Dundurn (a little country town about 30 min from S'toon) and another country school to immunize Grade 6's. So, the first school does just fine. Sure, there are a few nervous looking kids, but no one starts crying or fainting. They all do very well. Then in the next school, I don't know what these kids were on, but they all were crying and begging us not to poke them and hyperventilating and turning pale and the whole bit. Seriously, kids, this is a tiny little needle and we give the same size needle to 2 month old babies. There was one girl who jerked so much that I ended up scratching her arm with the needle and then still had to repoke her anyhow. I just don't get it. But I guess it is the whole mental aspect of it. They get themselves psyched out that it is going to be horrible. And then especially if the first kid is looking a little pale when they come out, or is the hysterical type, then the rest of them feed off of it. There's just no reasoning with them. You just have to do it, get it over with.

In the afternoon, was in clinic, which means talking to parents about how their babies/children are doing and weighing/measuring them and giving them their needles too. All was well until my last appointment(s). When I looked at the appointment book, I gave a little groan in my head. This was a family of 4 children who were coming in together to all get their immunizations. Family appointments are never much fun because the clinic rooms are small and you have to focus on each of the kids individually and immunize them all. They get there and I realize that these are foster kids who are all way behind on their immunizations. So that means trying to figure out how to get these kids back on schedule as much as possible, and usually giving them a whole whackload of needles at once. I was hoping they would come with 2 parents so I could take one parent and one kid in at a time, but no, there is just one adult with them. So they all crowd into the clinic room: a 5 month old, 18 month old, 3 year old, 4 year old, foster mom and me. My original plan was to immunize them decreasing in age, since usually if you do the older ones last, they are freaked out by the baby's crying and then they don't want the needle. But as soon as we get into the room, the mom asks if we can do the baby first b/c he is hungry and then she can feed him. So, against my better judgement, I agree to do so. And somehow, through all the chaos, the 4 year old ended up being the last one immunized. And all through the appointment, he keeps coming up to me to tell me "please, don't poke me." Oh, seriously, the whole visit was chaos. I didn't get any of them weighed or measured and never even ended up doing any kind of formal assessment of the 4 year old at all. And then when it is finally his turn for his needles, he starts screaming at the top of his lungs, before I've even drawn up the vaccine or come anywhere near him. Then the 3 year old starts crying, and the 5 month old starts crying, and probably the 18 month old too. But the oldest kid is so loud that the whole clinic can hear him. Soon there are nurses knocking on the door, asking if I need any help. So I get 2 of them to come in and help me hold this kid. I hate doing that. And then 2 of the children needed referrals because they weren't where they should be developmentally. Pandemonium! And the best part is, I've got them all booked in with me in 2 months for their next needles! Yay!

what fun!

2006-10-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting site (stole the idea from Heather Wiens)...what fun!

absolutely comfortable

2006-10-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Some of my best friends in the world - Naomi and Erich and their kids came to visit for the day today (I haven't see them for 8 months). Plus my mom and Jacqui and Mark were here for supper. So I was able to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world all at once. (Ruthie - where are you?!) There's nothing like being in the company of people who you can completely be yourself with and feel absolutely comfortable with doing nothing. I love it.

The funniest/weirest thing happened the other day. I was trying to phone Naomi at her in-laws in Waldheim to confirm our plans for today. I didn't realize it, but I dialed the wrong number. A woman picked up and I just assumed it was Rita, Naomi's mother-in-law. So I asked for Naomi and the woman says "just a minute" and then Naomi is on the other end of the line. I just started talking to her, as I expected her to be there. But she's like "where did you just call, Ang?" I said "I called the Petkaus'. Why?" Turns out that the wrong number I dialed happened to be for N and E's friends who they were visiting that evening. I think that's the first time that I have phoned the wrong number and still ended up with the person I was looking for!

And one other thing. I have a new rule. If you read my blog, you have to leave me a comment :) The best thing about blogging is reading people's comments and knowing that I am not just writing into the void of the internet. So please comment!! And I'll try to be better about commenting on other people's blogs too.

Yay!

2006-10-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

An update on the weekend adventure....God is good! The perpetrator (doesn't that sound all legal-ish?!) turned himself in yesterday morning!! Turns out he is mentally ill and agoraphobic (has fear of open spaces) and I think he might be living on the street. So he actually went back to the police and gave back the stuff he took and they have taken him to court. I feel sad for him. Even the policewoman I talked to said he just seemed so pitiful and sad when he came in. Hopefully he can get some help - pray for him - he must have been desperate to break into someone's house. So I got my camera and backpack returned. Alli got a few things but not all (he dumped some things along the way down the alley and we never found them). Just for your interest - the pictures above are what our door looks like now and the one picture he took with my camera. I think it is under one of the bridges, looking across the river. Too bad he didn't take a picture of himself - that would have been interesting!

an interesting, but not-so-good, weekend

2006-10-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking how I wanted to post something new but there was nothing much interesting going on right now. I should be more careful what i wish for!

This weekend was rather exciting in a not-so-good way. On Saturday, Jacqui, Mark and I went to Mom's for supper. I got back home about 10:45. I noticed pulling up that there was a light on upstairs, but my landlords were not home, or at least their vehicles weren't around. I didn't think too much of it because I thought maybe they were home earlier and just left a light on. Then as I walked back to my entrance I noticed that the lights in mine and Alli's rooms were also on and I definitely didn't leave those on. I went in the back door, which was locked, and as soon as I entered and looked down the stairs, I saw that our door was open and the door handle/latch mechanism was not in the door anymore. I was still trying to rationalize this and thinking maybe the landlord needed to get in for some reason and had to break down the door (although he has a key)...obviously I'm not thinking too clearly at this point. So I actually went down the stairs, calling "hello"...and stepped inside our suite. I saw Alli's room was a mess. That's when I got a little freaked out. I ran back up the stairs and over to Stell's house, where I think I scared her a little coming over at that time. She says as soon as she heard my voice over her intercom, she knew something was wrong. So I called the police from her house and they met me back at my place. They checked everything out and there was no one there. They said the guy had got in through the neighbors front door, using a screw driver. He had pulled their closets apart too, but didn't even take some cash that was sitting upstairs...also didn't take my digital camera, which was just sitting out. It all seemed a little odd...unless he had been there when I came and just left when I went to Stell's? So after the police did their thing, I gathered up some stuff and went back to Stell's to spend the night on her couch. I had a hard time sleeping, but finally did fall asleep.

You might think the story ends here, but no such luck...I picked J and M up for church in the morning and then afterwards, I felt like maybe I should go back to my place before we went for lunch, just to see things in the daylight...plus I thought that if the guy had seen what we had, why would he not come back to finish things off? So I went up to the front door and it was now broken...and hadn't been last night. We went around the house and the back window looking into the laundry room was also broken and a pair of my shoes were sitting neatly outside the window, amongst the broken glass. We went in the back door (still locked) and downstairs....there were some things moved around in my place, but still nothing seemed to be missing except my camera. Then suddenly we heard someone moving upstairs...and my place is not very soundproof so there is no doubt about people being upstairs. I grabbed my phone and called 911 again and told them he was back and was there upstairs. We ran up the back stairs and outside and J and I waited outside the front. Mark went to the back alley. While we were waiting for the police to come, Mark saw the guy come out the back door and walk nonchalantly down the alley. He actually got a pretty good look at the guy's face. So the police finally got there, but too late to catch the suspect. So they checked out the house and determined no one to be inside. We went in and found that he had brought the neighbour's case of beer into the bedroom and been hanging out there, smoking and drinking beer, when I guess we surprised him. He peed all over their toilet seat, and had left blood soaked towels scattered around the house. Oh yeah, there was blood all over the place. I guess this time he came in through the basement window and must have cut himself in the process. I haven't been able to talk to my landlords, so I feel bad for them...they're going to come home to a bit of a shock.

I actually stayed here last night (Mom stayed with me). I just feel violated and sort of unsafe. But I am realizing that I have to trust God with my safety. I just finished reading "An Ordinary Man" - an autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina - the manager of "Hotel Rwanda" and I was thinking about how horrible it must be to be in your house, hiding and waiting for rebels to come and dismember you. I guess I had a small taste of what that might be like last night - every little sound made me jump...I just don't feel safe anymore. But I think that I need to take this as an opportunity to learn to trust. So yeah, that was my latest adventure, and hopefully the last of the sort!

Drunken Goat and Mediterranean Feta

2006-10-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

My good friend Stefanie came all the way from Freiburg, German to visit me for a week. Unfortunately, I had to work during the days, but we still had some fun together. We took a walk on Sunday by the river and up and down Broadway. The leaves are splendid! We also did a little wine and cheese party one evening with our assortment of cheeses from The Bulk Cheese Warehouse (isn't that the greatest name for the greatest store?). I think the most creatively named cheese we found was "Drunken Goat" and so we had to purchase it - it was actually quite tasty. I think our favorite of the 6 were the Canadian goat cheese and the Mediterranean feta. Mmm, I love cheese. The picture of Alli, me and Stef was last minute oh-my-goodness-we-never-took-a-picture-of-all-three-of-us picture. So excuse my ready for bed unattractive state! Stefanie is now on to Chicago (where she told me she was going to meet handsome Dr. Luca from ER for me) and then to Ohio. So next it is my turn to visit her - I'm so excited to see some of Europe!

Last Hurrah

2006-09-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Fall is so beautiful! Even though it heralds winter, the colors are amazing, like some last hurrah of fireworks before the barrenness of winter. I just wanted to share some of my favorite nature pictures from last week.

Happy Birthday, Lungy!

2006-09-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's Lungelo's 2nd birthday today. I have no idea where he is or how he is doing. He was the closest I've come to having my own child, and I wonder sometimes if he is the closest I'll ever be? It's strange to have someone be such a big part of your life and then have no contact with them ever again. I guess that is life. People come and go, relationships grow and fade. It's exciting to think that some of the best friends I'll ever have are people I have not met yet. But saddening too, to think that some of my close friends now may someday no longer be in my life. Just the bittersweetness of life, I suppose.

Coordination?

2006-09-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have no coordination. I had forgotten this fact in my princess fantasies of waltzing across the ballroom with my handsome prince. I had forgotten how, when I was 8, it took me a week to learn how to jump rope because I couldn't get my legs and arms moving in sync. Or how I was always three quarters done the workout video before I got the routines even slightly figured out so I could keep in time to the music. You're probably suspecting that this re-realization has something to do with my previously mentioned ballroom dancing lessons. You would suspect correctly.

I took my first dance lesson last night, joined by Julie, Eden, Jonathan, Kevin, Tracy and Dennis. All good sports and good dancers. We "learned" the foxtrot and the jive. The foxtrot was alright - I got that. But the jive...I don't know. I don't think it is meant to be difficult (as they were teaching it the first night). But for me it was. I just couldn't help but look down at my feet although they told us that our feet will stay attached to our legs and we don't have to keep making sure.

I didn't mind so much being uncoordinated myself, but I felt bad when my partner knew what he was doing and I felt like I was holding him back, frustrating him, whatever. We just danced with random people...Julie ended up starting with this odd guy who wouldn't let her go. When we were supposed to change partners, he just ignored the other guys and hung onto her. We call him Creepy Greg, which I suppose isn't very nice, but he also attached himself to Tracy later on and wouldn't let her go either.

So I shall have to practice jiving in the privacy of my home...Jonathan kindly wrote out directions to the dances (that's Jonathan for you - brought along a clipboard to a dance class) so perhaps I can snag those from him, although I'm not sure how much good they will do. The goal was to try new things, so I shall stick with it and hopefully I will improve.

Ballroom Dancing

2006-09-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

I've done something crazy (for me) and signed up for ballroom dancing. Dancing is something that has never been part of my life and I wish that it had been. I think I've been missing out. Seven of us signed up together for a beginner class as new members of the U of S Ballroom Dancing Club. Apparently this club has 1300 members and is the largest dance club in Western Canada. I can't believe we actually managed to find some guys who were willing to sign up with us. Good for them! So we shall see if I actually have some rhythm or not. Julie and I had to laugh at/with Jonathan who listed off his 3 reasons for joining, including his desire to be more agile. I'm not sure if he was trying to convince us or himself.

Seeing as most of us who are joining are Mennonite, perhaps this is heresy? What do you think?

There were a lot of people signing up with us and I think we dance with all the males in our class so we were trying to determine if there were any especially unsavory characters in line with us (or especially savory ones, I suppose). I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into! I shall keep you updated...

Fancy Your Very Own Fruit Fly Frenzy?

2006-09-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is my fruit fly trap. I had this nasty infestation fruit flies that stowed away in a mango that I brought into the house. They quickly multiplied - as you may know, fruit flies create a new generation every week or so. I knew that biology degree would come in useful some time...we did this breeding experiment with fruit flies so we could control the population of fruit flies with either red eyes or curly wings. I wasn't trying to reproduce this experiment, but managed to end up with over a hundred in my trap anyhow. In case you want to create your own fruit fly trap, this is how I did it:

- put a strawberry or some other juicy, overripe fruit in the bottom of a cut pop bottle. Add some sugar and water (I don't know if this is necessary, but I thought it might be more appealing).

-cover the top with Saran wrap and make a smallish slit in it with a knife.

- I originally made a funnel with the top part of the bottle, but the flies were smart enough to get out of the hole so I made it more difficult for them

I still have a couple of flies around every now and then, but the trap is the way to go! Good luck making your own - it's very satisfying to see the little guys buzzing around trying to get out...a fruit fly frenzy...am I sadistic?

furniture updates and camping

2006-09-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Update: so I did find a big strong man (just to help me with the couch)...and still no luck. Unfortunately, my the entrance to my home is just not built to accomodate large, even medium furniture purchases. But it turns out that Jacqui and Mark could use some more living room furniture and so I did not barter in vain. So my cute little loveseat will take up temporary residence with the Dycks and perhaps one day we shall be reunited.

This weekend, my care group went out to Lake Charron (no, I hadn't heard of it either) which is near Humboldt. We had such a nice weekend of camping and getting to know each other better. And I got my non-often-enough star fix. Have you been outside of the city far enough to see all the stars lately? Incredible! I forget how very many there are!! I absolutely love the stars and thinking about the vastness of the universe and God. We basically did nothing all weekend but eat and chat and it was good. I love those people. Oh, the pictures: Julie on the swing - great girl - we share a sense of humor and I had good fun with her. Eden is the gorgeous girl in the other black and white. And then Lisa being chased by Jonathan and Ray - there were a lot of water gun fights!

oh the joy of the rabbit hole!

2006-08-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating the need for a new couch of some sort for a while. If you've been to the hobbit hole, you've no doubt experienced my friendly futon. This piece of furniture was a hand-me-down from Beth to Nathan to me....rumor has it that Nathan may want it back in the future (although I have no idea why!). The metal frame has broken across the back and so it was welded together by the always-ingenious Jonathan and I have wrapped black electrical tape around the welded site to keep it from scratching the wall. Now, as you can tell, the futon is lovely to behold. Its looks would not bother me if the futon was comfortable. Leah will recall many evenings stacking every available cushion under our bums to try stop the bars from dissecting our backsides more than is the normal fashion for backsides.

With this prelude, you will understand why I feel that it would be nice to have a more inviting option for my many houseguests to rest upon. Imagine my delight when, while walking downtown, Stell and I come across a loveseat on the sidewalk marked "For Sale - $40." It seemed in fairly good condition and a neutral chocolate brown (as opposed to the lovely orange/brown wagon pattern common among used furniture). As soon as we sat down to try it out (and it was very comfortable), the lady running the yard sale rushed over to us and begged "Buy it, please! Make me an offer!" I thought the loveseat was a pretty good alternative to the futon and I couldn't resist using my old bartering skills so I offered her $15. She wasn't much of a barterer - she took it right away! And I was looking forward to a little haggle. Her husband even offered to drive it over to my place for me. Oh, and even better - it is a hide-a-bed!

So we got it home and up onto the deck....and then the usual problems began....how to get it down the rabbit hole....Stell and I tried but just succeeded in getting hot and sweaty while the loveseat remained stubbornly at the top of the stairs. Sigh. So I think the legs may have to come off and maybe the door at the top of the stairs as well. I'm just waiting for some big strong man....Oh yeah, I meant to come help me move it. In the meanwhile, it sits proudly on the back porch. Yes, it is kind of trailer-trash-ish to have living room furniture outside on your deck, and I don't think my landlords have seen it yet, but hopefully it will be inside before too long!

Change is good

2006-08-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

It seems it's been a long time since I posted...I guess it has been a month or so. I've been internet-less for the last while and it has been weird to be going to the library to check my emails, where I get a measly 15 minutes...which explains why I have been lousy with my correspondance lately too! So if anyone is still checking this blog, welcome!

My life the last month...it's been a different summer. I feel rather alone, although not really lonely, if that makes sense. I was able to go to the Ex, which is sort of tradition for me and I missed out on last year. And to Folkfest, which was a first - every year I say "I have to go to Folkfest this year" and every year I don't end up going. But this year I did. And I have to say that it's pretty much Foodfest...that's all people do is eat! If you know me, that's okay! I went with Jonathan and Bryan and Crystal and Felicity (Crystal's baby) and we mostly shared food. We ended up at the Philipino, Afro-Caribbean, Scottish, Ukranian, German and Asian-Pacific pavilions. I wished I could have made it to more of the other ones. You wouldn't believe the number of people at the Ukranian pavilion, which I guess makes sense, since half of Saskatoon is Ukranian...but wouldn't you think they'd want to experience different cultures as well? Nevertheless, their food was worth the line-ups...perogies and cabbage rolls. Although my Mennonite tastebuds were comparing the food with my mom's vereniki and cabbage rolls and of course these didn't come close!!
I think these next few weeks are going to be full of changes. I start full time with public health on Monday, so that means a few different duties in addition to baby clinics. And that means that Red Willow will not see too much of me in the next while. Full time work is going to be different - I know, I know, the majority of the world works full time, but I'm used to my days off and it will be strange to have regular hours. Strange, but good, I think. And then next weekend, my friend Alli moves in, which puts an end to my living alone. I'm looking forward to having someone else here, but that is going to be a big change too! And Jacqui and Mark will be moving here next weekend, too. I'm really excited about getting to know them again, because we haven't lived in the same city since their wedding. I enjoy change, so I can't wait to see what adventures this next phase of life holds!!

t and n's wedding cont.

2006-07-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

More pictures that the computer wouldn't let me post on the previous entry.

Tash and Nate's wedding

2006-07-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Pictures of my cousin Tash's wedding to her new husband Nate. Just got back from the wedding and am posting these pics primarily for Ruthie.

where to start?

2006-07-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

I realize that up until now, my posts have been fairly superficial and I haven't really divulged who I am. I want to be a genuine person and I want to be humble. I don't want my pride to keep me from sharing who I really am, the good and the not-so-good. I've been frustrated lately with my lack of devotion/consistency in my relationship with God. I feel like I forget so easily who I am. Why am I so prideful, so reluctant to know and be known by God? Why do I lack trust in him who has never proven himself anything but trustworthy? How can I feel so much like God disappears at times? How can the passion I feel at times at other times be non-existant? Why is drifting so easy and staying close so hard?

I just want to be the kind of Christ-follower others seem to find so easy to be. Is it really so easy for them, or are we all living with the same questions but not humble enough to admit them to each other? I don't believe that everyone else finds it easy all the time either. I think if we were willing to talk about our questions and doubts and downfalls more openly, we could do so much better at encouraging each other. So I guess I'll start with being honest myself.

There have been times when God has amazed me with his presence and has given me what can only be described as supernatural joy and assurance - I know this is real, he is real. How then can I so quickly forget these expereinces, these evidences of God? I know in my heart that God is true, that God is truth...and I know that he will give me great adventures and soul satisfaction that is impossible to find through anything else - if I let him. But I pull away, I turn away. I turn my back. He wants to have a passionate, intimate marriage relationship with me, his bride, but I choose one-night-stands instead, with idols that satisfy me briefly but offer no real intimacy or commitment. I long for intimacy, companionship, unconditional love, devotion, adoration, faithfullness - because I was made for these things. I think I'm scared of what God might ask of me. So, I end up looking for them in another human. I don't think that this is wrong because as humans we are made for relationship and to share these things with others, as a reflection of God's relationship with us. But I primarily need these needs to be filled by God. Because others are only human, imperfect as I am, and will inevitably fail me. Besides, they become idols all too easily. And even when I experience these good things with other people, I still end up feeling vaguely dissatisfied, like it's not enough, it's never quite enough. I don't think this struggle is unique to me - this battle between my human-flesh and divine-spirit. What is the answer? I know the Sunday school answers, but how do I really put them into action? Sometimes it all overwhelms me - where to start?

we eat (again)

2006-07-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

This is our weekend of eating. That's all we did. Eat. We love to eat. Top left is Hannah King with African peanut chicken soup and a fried plantain biscuit (she says it was rock hard) from when we went to Taste of Saskatchewan on Saturday. Great people watching place. On Sunday we had dim sum at Genesis (Sunday lunch is always dim sum). In case you don't know, when you have dim sum, they bring around these carts with small plates full of different foods and you can pick which you like and they add it to your bill...kind of like a moving buffet. So we enjoyed veggie parcel things, steamed BBQ pork buns (our fav), shrimp stuffed green pepper, sticky rice, and lotus paste balls rolled in sesame seeds (see above pics). Also included is a picture of me with the new man in my life. He is stable, solid and dependable - I always know where to find him.

More Lake Time!!

2006-07-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

I love Saskatchewan summers! I love getting out of the city and feeling like a part of nature and a part of my family. My good friend Hannah who I met at TLC was able to come from her home in Vancouver Island to visit me for a week. So because mom and the sisters were doing their annual week at Memorial Lake, Hannah and I decided to go out there for a night. I thought Hannah definitely needed to experience a Saskatchewan lake!! We had a great time just hanging out at the beach, walking around a bit and laughing lots at Santana. That child is seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen, and that includes the TLC toddlers (which is very high praise, indeed). She knows so many words and was constantly asking to go swing or to the "wa-wa" (water). Of course, she knew Hannah's name right away - all babies do (you TLC-ers will remember how all the babies knew her name right away - I love Hannah!) We got to make bush-pies - that's the first picture - like pizza pops for camping - yum, yum! And the forest was so pretty, with lots and lots of dragonflies all over the place and (yay!) no mosquitoes. It was lovely.

beauty

2006-07-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through channels the other night, bored and looking for something interesting to watch. I ended up on Extreme Makeover which drew me in with it's macabre approach to aesthetics. The two people being redone were beautiful. And I mean before their surgeries, haircuts, laser eye surgery, waxing, plucking and all the other procedures necessary to create "beauty." I literally had tears in my eyes listening to the one girl describe how she hated her nose, her eyes, her cheeks, her chin, her breasts. And how she felt unhappy with herself all the time. Honestly, I looked at her and thought she looked normal and interesting. She had character. And she was attractive - she had gorgeous hair and clear skin and eyes full of expression. I found it so sad that she felt she needed to completely change who God made her in order to feel beautiful. I think about God hearing his creation say these things about herself and how that must make him feel when he designed each part to be the way he wanted it to be. I really do believe that everyone is beautiful. I remember once sitting in one of my nursing classes looking around at the other girls in the room, one at a time, and thinking that every single one of them was beautiful in her own way. I hate that women feel so much pressure to look like the same cookie-cutter model. And yet I admit that I fall into thoughts like that myself. There are lots of things about myself that I think I would choose differently if I had the choice. But I didn't. And I have to believe that the way I was created is the way I am meant to be. Unique. And beautiful.

Brushes with bosoms and other small amusements

2006-07-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

I find small things amusing. For example: when I was in Edmonton visiting my sister, I forgot to bring a brush, so I found a cheap one in a dollar store, not looking too closely at it before I purshased it. I figured the bumps on the handle were to make it easier to hold, more ergonomically correct, shall we say. A couple of months later, my roommate Leah laughs at the brush and wonders where I found one shaped like a naked woman!! I had totally not noticed this at all...completely oblivious. And when I looked at it more closely, sure enough. The handle resembles a particuarily buxom young figure completely with nipples and a navel. This makes me laugh...who comes up with the idea to produce something like this? How many other unsuspecting buyers discovered the anatomically correct item only after taking it home?

Other things that have amused me lately:
- Standing in line at Value Village behind a man whose backside, include forest green Jockeys, was on display as half the back of his jeans was torn open. He had, surprisingly enough, a pair of new jeans draped over his arm. An emergency stop at the VV. Also funny was the fact that Beth, who was with me, didn't notice, even though we were behind him for more than 5 minutes. When I told her about it later, she laughed "well, I don't look at men's butts!" As if this is a regular habit of mine...I much prefer arms :)...while other people have a thing about hands (Leah!).

- On the same humorous evening with Beth, noticing to my disgust, in Walmart, that there is now an ice cream made especially for dogs in single serving sizes! Now, what dog needs special ice cream?!? If you insist that your canine friend share your frozen dessert, give him the cheap no-name stuff, for goodness sake! And there are starving children in China....

- Walking home today, I was approached by a rather inebriated older man who slurringly asked me for directions downtown - I think. So I told him and he took my hand and said "thank you, my girl"...but then he wouldn't let go of my hand and kept holding it while he asked if I lived in the city and then asked if I was married or single. Was it wrong that I lied and said married?

Ah, life is interesting.

figuring out computers

2006-07-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

The mysterious world of computers....I do need to try to figure out the intricacies of the blogging world as everytime I try to post and it won't let me do it the perfectionist in me is frustrated.
Hi, this is just a test entry. My friend Beth and I are trying to uncover the mysteries of the blogging world so we just posted some random pics. Is it possible to write around pictures? Hmmm....I am definitely not a computer person. Just in case you wanted to know who/what these pictures are, they are, in no particular order, but I'm sure you can figure it out: Leah at this horrible "mexican" restaurant we never ended up doing a post on, I don't think; our friend Mark from the UK who sent us this horrid picture of him missing a tooth; daffodils at the Mendel conservatory; Santana, my cute little 1st cousin once removed; and finally, the great Ruth Ann, posing next to someone's chalk wisdom that says "smile - it's the second best thing you can do with your lips" - we had no idea what the best would be - any ideas? ;)

Introverted Tramps

2006-07-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

In Bible college, I took a course called "Introduction to Self" (I thought we had already met, but apparently we had not been officially introduced). One of the things we did in the class was take a personality test called The Myers Brigg Type Indicator. I like quizzes and answering multiple choice questions, so this was kinda fun. I found out that out of 16 possible types, I am an ISFJ. These letters stand for Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging. Here's a basic overview of my type (feel free to let me know if you think this describes me accurately or not-if you want to skim over most of this, I won't mind!) :

ISFJs are characterized above all by their desire to serve others, their "need to be needed." In extreme cases, this need is so strong that standard give-and-take relationships are deeply unsatisfying to them; however, most ISFJs find more than enough with which to occupy themselves within the framework of a normal life. (Since ISFJs, like all SJs, are very much bound by the prevailing social conventions, their form of "service" is likely to exclude any elements of moral or political controversy; they specialize in the local, the personal, and the practical.)
ISFJs are often unappreciated, at work, home, and play. Ironically, because they prove over and over that they can be relied on for their loyalty and unstinting, high-quality work, those around them often take them for granted--even take advantage of them. Admittedly, the problem is sometimes aggravated by the ISFJs themselves; for instance, they are notoriously bad at delegating ("If you want it done right, do it yourself"). And although they're hurt by being treated like doormats, they are often unwilling to toot their own horns about their accomplishments because they feel that although they deserve more credit than they're getting, it's somehow wrong to want any sort of reward for doing work (which is supposed to be a virtue in itself). (And as low-profile Is, their actions don't call attention to themselves as with charismatic Es.) Because of all of this, ISFJs are often overworked, and as a result may suffer from psychosomatic illnesses.
In the workplace, ISFJs are methodical and accurate workers, often with very good memories and unexpected analytic abilities; they are also good with people in small-group or one-on-one situations because of their patient and genuinely sympathetic approach to dealing with others. ISFJs make pleasant and reliable co-workers and exemplary employees, but tend to be harried and uncomfortable in supervisory roles. They are capable of forming strong loyalties, but these are personal rather than institutional loyalties; if someone they've bonded with in this way leaves the company, the ISFJ will leave with them, if given the option. Traditional careers for an ISFJ include: teaching, social work, most religious work, nursing, medicine (general practice only), clerical and and secretarial work of any kind, and some kinds of administrative careers.
While their work ethic is high on the ISFJ priority list, their families are the centers of their lives. ISFJs are extremely warm and demonstrative within the family circle--and often possessive of their loved ones, as well. When these include Es who want to socialize with the rest of the world, or self-contained ITs, the ISFJ must learn to adjust to these behaviors and not interpret them as rejection. Being SJs, they place a strong emphasis on conventional behavior (although, unlike STJs, they are usually as concerned with being "nice" as with strict propriety); if any of their nearest and dearest depart from the straight-and-narrow, it causes the ISFJ major embarrassment: the closer the relationship and the more public the act, the more intense the embarrassment (a fact which many of their teenage children take gleeful advantage of). Over time, however, ISFJs usually mellow, and learn to regard the culprits as harmless eccentrics :-). Needless to say, ISFJs take infinite trouble over meals, gifts, celebrations, etc., for their loved ones--although strong Js may tend to focus more on what the recipient should want rather than what they do want.
Like most Is, ISFJs have a few, close friends. They are extremely loyal to these, and are ready to provide emotional and practical support at a moment's notice. (However, like most Fs they hate confrontation; if you get into a fight, don't expect them to jump in after you. You can count on them, however, run and get the nearest authority figure.) Unlike with EPs, the older the friendship is, the more an ISFJ will value it. One ISFJ trait that is easily misunderstood by those who haven't known them long is that they are often unable to either hide or articulate any distress they may be feeling. For instance, an ISFJ child may be reproved for "sulking," the actual cause of which is a combination of physical illness plus misguided "good manners." An adult ISFJ may drive a (later ashamed) friend or SO into a fit of temper over the ISFJ's unexplained moodiness, only afterwards to explain about a death in the family they "didn't want to burden anyone with." Those close to ISFJs should learn to watch for the warning signs in these situations and take the initiative themselves to uncover the problem.

I think so much of this is very true of myself, if not all of it. My interest in MBTI was renewed recently by a friend who is obsessed with it (if you happen to read this, you know who you are!) When I first took the test, I was disgusted to be labeled an introvert, although that was very obviously what I was! I always hated that about myself. I would envy the class clown, the people who could talk to anyone about anything. My sister can do this - make anyone feel like they have known her forever. I decided that I wasn't really an introvert because I enjoy people and I need to spend time with people to feel good about myself. So I decided that I fit that definition of extrovert as someone who draws energy from people. Now I think that it is more the need to be needed that makes me want to be around others. In any case, I've made peace with the fact that I am an introvert. And there is nothing wrong with it.

I've been living on my own now for 6 weeks or so. And it is very easy, too easy, for me to spend time alone. I know that I need friends, and I want friends, but often the effort of making plans with people overwhelms me. Once I am actually out with them, I totally enjoy myself and I'm glad I went, but organizing the get-together is very procrastinatable to me. Anyhow, my point was that I enjoy spending time alone. Tonight I walked downtown to return some library books and check out Tramps. I thought Tramps was open until midnight, but apparently that is only the 8th St. location. I was planning to look for some Paul Simon music (as he is my latest obsession) but got waylaid by the enticing bins of $1 each or 20 for $10 CDs in the entryway. Not realizing that the store was closing in 10 minutes, I took my time looking through them and picked out a few (Tracy Chapman, Rich Mullins, Lisa Loeb, Sixpence)...I didn't even get to go look in the regular section for Paul. Oh well, next time.

I was trying to be friendly to people as I walked, because I want to be the kind of person who is not afraid to talk to strangers. I don't want to avoid people's eyes as I walk by, as most people seem to do. I'm not sure what we're so scared of. So I ended up chatting for a bit with a man who had a bunny on a leash (first time I've seen that), who coincidentally, or not so, was on the lawn outside the psych ward at City Hospital. And I smiled a lot at all the old people who were out in abundance. It was a good walk, a good evening, by myself.

Fireworks

2006-07-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures from Diefenbaker Park at the fireworks that the computer wouldn't let me add to the last post. I was trying the "fireworks" function my camera.

O Canada!

2006-07-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day!!!
Okay, I'm a little late with that. We had an amazingly beautiful day for Canada Day. I ended up going to Wakaw Lake with my mom and aunt during the daytime. We were basically beach bums all day - played Scrabble, waded in the water, ate ice cream (Mocha Almond Fudge for mom, Cookies and Cream for Stell, Chocolate Fudge Brownie for me...mmm..is it strange that all of our choices included chocolate in some form?) I love beaches for people watching. So interesting. I love the variety that God gives human beings. In everything - the obvious physical differences, personalities and attitudes, culture and background. Fascinating. Even just how people act so differently. For example, we were amused (and slightly disturbed) by a young couple about 10 feet from us who provided us with our own soap opera scene. Seriously, these kids were about 16 and they were all over each other as they shared a towel. Now, if that was something I was going to be doing, it would not be on a public beach...but maybe they were of exhibitionist nature. But, an example of how people are different.

We were excited to taste our first Saskatoon berries of the season. I thought I'd include a picture because some of you non-Canadians might not know of these wondrous berries that grow wild. I don't know if Saskatoon is named after the berries or vice versa. In any case, they are good. We raided the bushes. Funny how even though food is no longer officially the subject of this blog, it still ends up being discussed quite often.

In the evening, I attended the infamous Canada Day fireworks at Diefenbaker park. Some of us parked a few blocks away in order to avoid the crazy parking (or rather unparking) problems after the fireworks (one year, Jeff and I took an hour and a half just to get out of the parking lot after the festivities). We were supposed to be meeting Marni and Tracy at the "cotton candy booth" ...well...there were about a trillion people in the park and at least a couple of different cotton candy booths. So we walked around the park a few times, keeping our eyes peeled for purple (Marni wears only purple)...no sign of them. Saw a lot of other people I recognized, but no Marni and Tracy. And I was supposed to be giving them a ride home at the end of the night. So Jonathan and I left Ray and Lisa at the top of the hill and went back down to continue our search for the missing girls. I honestly did not think we would find them, but when we returned to the first of the booths, there they were! The fireworks were as to be expected. The prefireworks band was less musically talented than expected...their rendition of "O Canada" was honestly one of the most pathetically sad attempts I've heard - although it might have been the fact that the whole park seemed to think the song was a round and we could hear people starting each verse at different times. Rather amusing, actually. So thus ended another July 1st. Yay Canada!

Favorite Green and Trees

2006-06-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

This is my new dress! Leah, you of course are very familiar with this fabric :) It came back from South Africa with me. I really like what my auntie did with it. My very favorite green and trees...what more could I ask for? Plus it fits amazingly well - I suppose that is the benefit of having one's own personal seamstress!

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful Boy

2006-06-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

I seem to have trouble posting pictures, especially in the order I want them, and sometimes the computer won't let me do it at all. These were some of the pics of Lungelo I was going to add to the last post, so here they are. Isn't he the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

Lovely Lungy

2006-06-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't got any pictures of Lungelo on here yet!! Lungelo is the child of my heart. Despite the fact that I haven't seen him in 6 months and it is unlikely I will ever see him again. I want to tell you about him, partly to share him, and partly to keep from forgetting him. Lungelo was born on Sept. 23, 2004. That means that somewhere out there, he is just about exactly 1 year 9 months...almost a 2 year old!! I met Lungelo in South Africa when he was about 4 months old. He had been abandoned in hospital by a woman who apparently "adopted" him on the black market and then brought him to the hospital when he started getting sick, unaware that he was HIV positive. When she found out that he was infected, she disappeared. Arriving at TLC, he was deathly ill...being fed every 10 minutes because he'd only keep a few mls down at a time. He scared me at first. He was a volatile baby, a cryer. He would settle with great difficulty and once he was quiet, we would tiptoe past his crib, terrified of waking him to start his wailing again, when we had 8 other babies to tend to at the same time.

Lungelo survived that first scare and got a little stronger, a little bigger. But he was still in and out of the hospital. And in South Africa, people often leave the hospital sicker than they enter. We went to visit some of our babies in the hospital to find them lying naked in the cot with a bottle propped up in their mouth. Lungelo returned from one of his hospital visit suddenly having learned to hold his own bottle. Somewhere along the line, I got over my fear of Lungelo (Lungy) and we forged something of an alliance. When he was a bit older, maybe 6 months, he had another scary episode where we didn't know if he would survive. He was so sick for a while, just never smiled, not active, just wanted to cuddle. And I happened to be working in his area a lot during that while. So I ended up being the cuddler. I'm tearing up right now remembering the feeling of a baby snuggled on my chest. There is no better feeling in the world...at least, I have yet to experience something more satisfying. So Lungelo and I started to bond. He began to be known as my favorite. At TLC, we all had our favorites. And surprisingly, every baby had someone who thought they were the best. Which was good because then those babies got that little bit of extra, individualized attention, and someone to bond with.

Lungelo and I had our battles. As he started to get stronger, he displayed his extreme stubbornness. Because he is HIV positive, he has a lot of nasty, very bitter (I know because I tasted them myself) meds which he has to take twice a day. Needless to say, he HATED these meds and as soon as he started feeling a bit more himself, would FIGHT against taking them. I gave meds a lot at TLC, and so it often fell to me to give him these meds. Now you think, how difficult can it be to get a few mls of meds down a baby's throat? Almost impossible at times. We tried every method we could come up with. We started by taking the teat (nipple) off of a bottle, putting it in his mouth, pouring a little formula in, and then when he started sucking, syringing in a few drops of meds with the milk. The ol' bait and switch. It worked pretty well, until my little smartie pants realized that when the teat was not attached to a bottle, something nasty was sure to follow. So we could no longer use that trick. Sometimes we ended up putting a finger between his gums to hold open his mouth, putting the syringe at the back of his mouth and forcing him to swallow. I hated doing this because his little face would screw up and he would cry so hard that his eyes would get all red. It was so hard to see my baby like this and I ended up crying as much as him. I remember writing emails home to my mom about this and how upset it made me. We eventually found that mixing most of his meds with a little milk in a bottle worked fairly well, if he was in a good mood, but then we had to make sure he drank all of it. When I left, he was finally taking them fairly well straight from the syringe. Maybe he finally realized there was no point in fighting?

Food was another area of contention. Lungelo hated solids to start with. Everything had to be perfectly smooth, no lump or he would spit it all out. He liked squash baby food, but everything else made him gag, so we started mixing things in with his squash. Later on, when he became wise to the fact that if his food was in a bowl, vs. a jar, it was something nasty, we started saving the squash jars to spoon his food into, to trick him. It actually worked for a while. Smart kid.

Anyway, Lungelo became "my" baby. I would take him with me when I was off duty, whenever I could. I spent as much time with him as I could. And unfortunately for the other volunteers, he started to cry if he could see me but I couldn't hold him. So for instance, if I was walking through the room where he was, he would cry to be picked up as soon as he saw me, or crawl over towards me. But often I couldn't pick him up at that moment and then the volunteers working with him would be left with a screaming baby in my wake. It made it very hard to leave him. And leaving him in December for good was heartbreaking. I was leaving in half an hour and went around the nursery, saying my goodbyes to every baby. I left him to last, and he was sitting in his high chair, eating supper. He saw me and reached out his arms, wanting to be held. I wasn't going to pick him up because I thought it would just be too hard for the other volunteers (and me) when I put him down to leave. But they knew how special he is to me, so they just told me to hold him. I picked his messy little self up and just dripped tears on his head and prayed for him, knowing it was the last time I'd see him. When I finally put him back in his chair, he started wailing. I don't know if he knew this was no ordinary goodbye. The last sound I heard leaving TLC was him crying behind me. Talk about a tough departure!

Despite the difficult goodbye and the loss of leaving Lungelo, and all the other special babies and people at TLC, if I hadn't made those bonds, the year wouldn't have been what it was. So I guess the hard lesson is that when you put your heart into something, it makes that experience so much more meaningful, but so much harder to give up. No gain without some loss, I suppose.

Lungelo started walking the week I left TLC...that was incredible - to think of how he was when I came and then to see him strong enough to walk!! And my mom got to meet him when she came to visit, which was an answer to prayer for me. And he has a home now. The hard thing is that he is back with the mom who left him in the hospital in the first place. She came back and decided she wanted him after all. I just pray that she values him for the beautiful being he is.

2006-06-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

There are so many things rolling around in my head right now that I could write about. But I keep thinking about South Africa, Africa, my babies, and how much I long to be back there. Not necessarily at TLC, but back in Africa. Every time I see or hear anything remotely African, I get this sad little wistful feeling. And I want to be there. I miss it. I'm pretty sure that God has arranged experiences and passions in my life to prepare me to go back there again for a longer period. I'm getting impatient in the meanwhile, though. I love my jobs here and I'm trusting that they are somehow instrumental in preparing me for the future. I do work with babies, although I don't get to hold or cuddle them much. And I get to work with kids, especially preteen boys. For some reason, and I noticed this even when I worked on Pediatrics, I love boys that age...they are just amusing....this mix of vulnerability and trying to be grown-up.
I keep thinking about what sort of thing I'd like to be doing in the future...how I could be useful in an eternal perspective. I know that I want to be working with babies and/or kids. I don't want my nursing education to go to waste, but I don't necessarily want to be a nurse, per se. I definitely don't want to work in a hospital. I would love to be back at an orphanage again with babies, but I'd like to be able to do some health teaching as well. Above is baby Isleen (I-not-so-lean) who was one of my favorite girls. Of course those of you who know me well know that Lungelo must feature prominently in some pictures, but I think he deserves his own post....

Disaster!!

2006-06-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit of a crazy day. I woke to the sound of Kitsi crying outside my door. I used to let him in my room at night, because I thought it would be nice to have a purring cat on the end of my bed. If you have figured out anything about Kitsi, you know that he is not a nice purry kitty. His usual habit when I let him in my room at night is to wake me at 4:30 am by trying to suck my ears. So I would bury my head under the covers and try to dissuade this activity...but he would nuzzle under the covers and get in anyway, determined to get at those tasty ears of mine. So I have stopped letting him in my room overnight, except for the odd time when I forget about this habit and feel like company. But I digress.

So, back to the story. He was crying outside my door and this is not unusual...but I think this morning he was trying to warn me of the disaster that awaited outside my bedroom door. I left my room, bleary-eyed, to go the shower....and suddenly my feet and the bottoms of my pajamas were very wet. Apparently it rained really hard last night. I can't hear these things because I'm insulated in the hobbit hole. It has been raining for the last two weeks off and on and I haven't had any problems. But I guess today was the day - my living room was a lake. My own personal paddling pool. My first thought was that Kitsi had knocked over something (this tells you how awake I was) but no...it apparently came in through the drain in my living room floor. The same drain that my landlords cleverly disguised by including an entertainment unit with the suite, placed in such a way as to conceal the drain in the middle of the living room floor. I wondered the purpose of such a drain...now I know...

My first thought is to call the landlords, but my phone is not working. I think the jack must have gotten wet. So I hiked over to my aunt's house. She conveniently lives a block away. I used her phone...landlords not home, no answering machine. And I somehow couldn't find their cell number. So, they are still unaware of this little adventure I've had. My next call was to cry to my mom...yes, I still cry to my mom. What is it about moms that can reduce an otherwise fairly well composed and mature adult into a two year old again? And my third call (this might end up being the hardest part of this day) was to my friend Jolene who was planning on taking Kitsi in fall. I decided that I couldn't have him running around the wet house while I was trying to mop it up and maybe it would just be easier to give him to her now. So she agreed to take him today and she just left with him.

I've mopped up the house to the best of my ability and now I just have to figure out if it is still coming in. And try to dry the waterlogged games and books that were the unfortunate victims in all of this. And get my phone going. It's a good thing I didn't have any important plans today!

Normal Earlobes

2006-06-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

I think I must have a strange body. I've been looking for jeans the last little while. Doesn't seem like we are always on the search for the perfect jeans? I tried on about 15 pairs of jeans today and they all have one of two problems:
1. They are so low rise that when one sits, others see more than they would like to see and/or they produce unappealing love handles over the edges.
2. They have a large gape at the back of the waist.

Now, I assume that I am not a mutant of some sort, as in fact, I have talked to many other women with the same issues. So I have to conclude that the jeans are designed for mutants.
I am not an unusually large person, and size is not the problem. Wouldn't stores do better to sell a variety of styles as to fit a variety of women? No, it seems that if we have not been popped out of the no-hips mold, then we are relegated to continue this fruitless quest for the perfect jeans. I didn't used to have this problem, so either my body has changed, or style has. Maybe a bit of both?

So I ended up buying a couple of CD's and a pair of earrings. At least my earlobes are normal.

2006-06-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

I think some of you might have heard me complaining about my kitten/adolescent cat. Honestly, I think if my upstairs landlords were home more often, they would start to wonder if I had some psychiatric problems. The words "stupid cat!!!...argghhh" are becoming my standard vocabulary at home. As I write, he is again on the table, preparing to jump across to my kitchen counter, his new favorite trick. Sometimes I just get so tired of jumping up to spray his face with water (which doesn't seem to make any impression on him anyway). I feel like the parent of an ADD toddler.
He discovers new ways to annoy me or amuse himself every day. Here's a partial list of his pasttimes:
- knocking over garbages and strewing their contents across the house
- going into my closet at jumping up on and hanging from my clothes
- leaping at my heels as I walk, employing his razor sharp teeth and claws
- climbing into my pantry and sitting in my wok (maybe I should just fry him up?)
- knocking down my paper towel dispenser and unrolling it across the floor, then ripping off pieces to chew on
- sitting on my shoulder and nipping at my cheek and neck
- trying to share my meals off my plate

You get the idea. And just so you don't think I'm overreacting and this is just cute kitten behaviour, be aware that this is CONSTANT!!!! It's not like he does these things once in a while...it is all the time.

Anyone want a free cat? Lively, curious, full of spunk!!

(as I write these words, he has decided to display a rare interlude of purring and cuddling on my lap, oblivious to the poisonous things I've just written about him...I feel sorta guilty...)

2006-06-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Finally I have a few minutes to myself!! While I've loved having people to visit in the last little while (my sis and dad and Ruthie)...it feels like I haven't had any time to just do the normal things of life - clean my house, sit on the back porch, go to the library, read....so I'm excited for a weekend with no obligations (other than the Bridge drop in center tonight, but that's fun). Why is it that we find this strange satisfaction in telling people how insanely busy we are? Why is it not commendable to have enough time to yourself to think?
Posted above are some pictures of Ang and Jacqui (that's me and my sister) and of the deranged cat. Really, seriously, I'm going to have to find a farm to send him to (the funny variety?)...partly because he is driving me insane with his constant destruction of my home and partly because Alli (my roommate for fall) is allergic.
Oh, also, since I guess I need some food related material in this post, Ruthie and I went to Passage to India - not bad food - seemed very authentic. However, I think we might have picked a more enjoyable dish. The one we had had a number of gristly cuts of chicken where you have to pick the little bits of meat off the bone. Maybe I'm lazy or elitist, but I enjoy the ease and non-nasty-surprise-ness of a nice chicken breast. Hmmm...maybe that's why TLC meat was so often unappealing...

Ang's weekend!!

2006-05-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

So this weekend ended up being a little different than I expected! On Friday at lunchtime (I was home for lunch) my mom called to tell me that Jacqui had been in a pedestrian-car accident (since my sister doesn't have a car, I knew she must be the pedestrian). Her foot and a suburban had an unfortunate meeting at a 4-way stop. She's okay, but her foot is not so great. I guess it could be worse - no broken bones, just what they called "crushing injuries" which basically means a whole lot of swelling and bruising and some nasty abrasions. I was going to put a picture up of it (yes, I took one) but I thought since you were coming expecting to read about our latest gustatory adventures, you might not relish the first-aid-class gore. She is fairly immobile and very frustrated with her crutches and their awkwardness. So we hung around their place for the weekend (Mark was working) and I learned to play backgammon and we watched the girly movies that Mark wasn't interested in (A Lot Like Love and Just Like Heaven (is that the name of it??)...for those of you who, like me, enjoy details). Oh, just so you get some food content, Mark made us lovely vegetarian chili on Sunday for Mother's day and his mom, aunt, grandma and sister joined us for lunch in their cramped little living room. Poor grandma - she was sitting on a rocking chair and trying (unsuccessfully) to balance her bowl on her lap. Anyway. I think the pictures worked this time! Yay!! I don't know what was the deal with the other posts. Oh, other news...in case you hadn't heard yet, Leah, my lovely friend and roommate, is planning a trip to Haiti next year to spend some time at another orphanage. I'm really excited for her, but her needing to save money means that she is moving back to Manitoba, leaving me (maybe temporarily) roommateless. So perhaps we will continue with these blogs from our respective dwelling places...maybe it will morph into something different, since it obviously won't be the tale of our eating-out experiences together anymore.

Alexander's and Alexis

2006-05-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

So Leah has commented on the "results" of the first week! I am SOOOO proud of her...and I did okay too, although my 3 lb loss does not really compare to her amazing 5.25! But that's okay...I'm thrilled for her! And with all the low-carb eating out efforts of the last week, I'm glad to have lost anything!! I did go out with my friend Alexis to celebrate the end of the first week. We went to Alexander's, which is on Cumberland (next to the College Dr. Dairy Queen)...I really like Alexander's - they have good food, nice atmosphere and AMAZING desserts (not that I was able to indulge...but I did gaze at them longingly in the display case). I did okay with the chicken wrap and salad with house vinagrette. Same thing I had last time I was there...but always good. It's a spinach wrap with spinach, chicken, tomatoes and tzaziki...mmmm - all my favorite things. Very yummy. Alexis enjoyed the much more carb-a-licious offering of a clubhouse and fries. But then, she doesn't need to worry too much about the carbs!! We had a lovely conversation...she was rather surprised when I pulled out my camera and asked if I could take a picture of her with her meal, but she was a good sport! Oh, yeah, also went to my cousin Ryan's wedding to his lovely bride Laurel on Saturday. I'll post some pictures for those of you who know them and weren't able to be there. Those of you who don't can just enjoy her dress and the strange fascination with other people's pictures (or am I the only one?)

the results are in!

2006-05-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Friday. That meant it was weigh-in day at Curves for me, and also the start of Phase 2 of the 6 Week Challenge, which means we get 1600 calories a day, instead of Phase 1's 1200 calorie limit.

Yesterday at work, Cindy, one of the ladies I work with, had a box of Girl Guide cookies to share with everyone...except me. She was really sorry, but couldn't resist the tempation to share the magic with everyone else. I begged her for one - a chocolate one, of course - but she held firm and told me it was for my own good. I'm glad she didn't give me one. It might have altered my 5.25 lb weight loss into just a 5 lb-er...still an achievement, I think.

I was actually quite nervous to weigh-in...what if I hadn't lost any weight at all?? How disappointing would that be. But anyway, I ended up loosing 5.25 lbs, after just one week!! So that was very VERY encouraging...to keep eating healthily (is that a word?).

So onto Phase 2 and all it's 1600 calories a day glory. We get to add bananas and whole wheat tortilla's to our menu...muchly anticipated. I actually didn't even notice the lack of carbs on Phase 1.

Well, here's to healthy eating and loosing weight! Cheers.

Saskatoon: Much anticipated destination of the world traveller

2006-05-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd add another post that has nothing to do with food...well, not much. My Belgium friends Fred and Isa were here last week, and, as Leah said, the whole diet thing was pretty hard to continue while they were here. What kinds of exciting things does Saskatoon have to offer to world travellers who have just been to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Vietnam? So I was racking my brains trying to think of what kinds of interesting things I could do with them. They wanted to try Saskatoon berries, so I took them to the Berry Barn, where they had perogies (they sadly chose the Ukranian ones vs. the Mennonite ones)and farmer sausage and then Saskatoon berry pie for dessert. What could I have on my low-carb plan? I went for the cabbage borscht, which seemed fairly carb-free, but then, the bun that came with it was definitely not. And I did end up ordering some gelato, which I know is full of sugar, but at least it's somewhat lower fat, right...and I only ate a bit and gave the rest to Fred. So, trying to think of other things to do - we went to the Western Development Museum, which they were actually rather impressed with and to Waneskewin. I hadn't been to either of those places in a while, so it was interesting to see them again, and through a foreigner's eyes, too. We also did a nice walk of the riverbank - up the train bridge, around the university grounds, up Broadway and back down Broadway bridge and back to my place. And fortunately, the weather was amazing (unlike today, where snow is forecast!)- so they got to see Saskatoon in all it's springtime glory. And I think they liked it :)

the weekend

2006-05-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, Ang and I survived the weekend. We had international guests at our place for 3 days, Fred and Isabelle, a young married couple from Belguim who is travelling around the world for 1 year. Ang met them when they were at TLC in September for one month. So I do not know them, but being that I was a former TLC-er, we got along quite well. It was nice to have guests, but it's always a little awkward. Especially when Ang and I were supposed to be eating our 2 ounces of deli ham for a mid morning snack.

So, we have to admit, we went out to eat a bit...first to Tim Hortons, where we had soup and a turkey sandwhich on whole wheat. We tried to be healthy and we didn't even eat the top half of the bun - oh those blasted carbs. How we love you, but how we loathe you at the same time. Then we went to Booster Juice and we all had smoothies, which was a true delight (a first time for yours truly) and THEN we went to McNally Robinson for dinner. Ang and I both had salads. She had her usual Pear and Blue Cheese, and I had a Chicken Caeser. Ang told me that caeser dressing is really high in fat, but I just didn't care.

McNally is always a great place to go. A little book browsing after the meal, listening to some band playing old Johnny Cash hits. AND, to top off the evening, we witnessed something that only happens in movies....Ang and I were browsing in the journals/stationary aisle, when all of a sudden we hear dishes breaking. We think, "No big deal, someone dropped a dish". All of a sudden an irate woman storms out of the restaurant, and yells, "Just so you know, that man cheats on his wife!" I'm not sure if she was talking to us, or just the store in general. Then I guess the cheating man came out after her, and she was swearing at him like you wouldn't believe. F this and F that. The manager of the resturant even came out and asked the cashier people to call the cops. So that was quite the way to end the day.

Now it is Tuesday and we are going strong on our diet...I even had oatmeal and 3 pieces of super low fat bacon for breaky. As much as I love bacon, it couldn't totally mask the flavour of the oatmeal, which I have never been a fan of. Even with Splenda and cinnamon on top.

the first day is always the hardest, right?

2006-04-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well, today is Day 1 of the 6 week challenge. It actually hasn't gone too badly so far. The food itself is fine, and you get A LOT of it. I felt like I ate so much today, truly. The only difficult thing was putting my lunch together last night, for work today. Instead of the usual 10 second left-overs in container method I usually use, I had to look at the calories of everything and make sure I had enough protein, etc etc.

Yesterday at work we ordered pizza, one last "hurrah" for me! It was great, but today I had to watch my co-workers eat leftover pizza (so good) while I ate my 10 grapes and Lean Cuisine, which actually wasn't horrible. I hate how things never look the same on the box as they do in real life. As if the finished products looks anything like the picture on the front, or even could look anything like it.

I'm not sure how Ang has done...we have had international guests with us for 2 days, so I'm not sure if she forced them to eat their 10 grapes and Lean Cuisine's, or if she served them something a little more appealing.

So the challenge begins. We'll see how I feel after the weekend!

Pondering Poverino's

2006-04-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well, our usual "date night" is Thursday, but as the 6-week weight loss agony begins this week, we thought we needed to get one last carb-fest in before then, and what better place for that than an Italian restaurant? Now, Poverino's is not completely new to us, as all three of us (we took Stell along too) have been there before, but none of us had visited the new location on the corner of Idylwyld and 33rd St. And since it was a lovely evening out and we wanted to be outside, we decided to walk over there. Another bonus is that on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, Poverino's offers all of their pasta dishes for $5.25 with a drink purchase, making it a very affordable $23.10 for all 3 of us to eat.
Poverino's is on the 2nd floor of the complex, so we climbed up the stairs and entered what at first appeared to be one long hallway with tables down one side. We soon discovered that the hallway widened at both ends, accomodating more tables. We were ushered in to a huge booth, with room for 8 of us (maybe by the time we were finished our meal, this might be a good thing!) We love booths for their pseudo-privacy and their slide-in-ability. The first thing they did was bring us a basket of lovely, freshly baked, soft and chewy focaccia bread, with the requisite balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping. Mmmm...I think we could have filled up on that alone. We finished the 3 pieces there and the owner pounced over as soon as it was empty and asked if we wanted some more - rather jovial fellow, he. We hummed and hawed, but declined, in anticipation of further culinary delights to follow. He seemed rather disappointed.
Now Stell and I decided to order our usual Lemon Pepper Chicken, described as "onion, red and green peppers and chicken in creamy lemon pepper sauce topped with fresh tomatoes." (I ordered mine with extra lemon pepper - those who know me know that lemon pepper is rarely a mistake for Ang!) Leah chose the Alla Indiana: "tender chicken, sundried tomatoes and pineapple mixed in creamy curry sauce." I was looking for a tomato sauce options, but those seem to be rather limited, so if you are looking for a lower fat supper, Poverino's is probably not the place to go.
Our meals arrived without too much delay and we dug in, hungry after the daily Curves workout, although the bread had slaked it a bit! I must say that the Lemon Pepper Chicken (ordered with tortellini, incidentally, rather than the usual linguine) is absolutely delightful if extra l.p. is added. AND there is enough to eat half and take home the rest, so I'm looking forward to enjoying it again for supper tonight! Stell and Leah also enjoyed their choices, I believe. We took along the camera this time, determined to capture the experience on film (memory card?) but unfortunately the batteries died after we took only 2 pictures. But we shall include them anyhow and next time be better prepared!

The highlight for me (Leah), is of course, the non-stop pop. I impressed both Stella (Ang's auntie) and Ang with my ability to down a whole glass before the bread even arrived. If you are fortunate enough to have the bottomless class of Coke, you may as well milk it for all it's worth. Or would you say, pop it for all it's worth? Oh I am so so funny.

The 6 Week Challenge

2006-04-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ang and I both go to Curves, the "30 minute weight loss and diet centre" or something like that. 3 times a year they offer the 6 Week Challenge, where you go to nutritional classes and learn how to eat better and they put you on a DIET. So, I decided to join in. And Ang decided to do it with me, even though I paid the $99 for the class...but then I get the tote bag that was "specially designed" for Curves, although it doesn't look any different than any other tote bag I've seen. Plus I get the 2 week supply of protein shake, and vitamins AND a T-shirt at the end of the 6 weeks.

So anyway, the High Protein diet. The only carbs we get the first week are 2 crackers a day or something like that! Ang and I are not sure how to deal with this. We love toast, we love biscuits, we love fresh buns - we are carb addicts. Tonight we have to go through our meal options and plan out our next week's menu. Then we have to go grocery shopping to buy everything we will need. I am terrified. It takes an extreme amount of effort to plan everything according to what is "allowed". Chocolate is definitely not allowed. Not sure how we'll deal with this one.

So on Friday we will begin to eat our way to a healthier lifestyle! Not that we are supremely unhealthy at the moment, but it's always good to be re-reminded. Although the whole no-carb deal is kinda strange. The whole plan for week one seems to be a scarily small amount of food, but apparently those who have done it say it's plenty...we'll see! We are trying to be optimistic, but it is daunting. We are enjoying our last week of food freedom, before we become prisoners of the diet world. But don't worry, we have already declared one night a week to be our cheat night, where we will continue to go to restaurants and pick them apart, detail by filthy detail.

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The Subways of Saskatoon...we know them all...

2006-04-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Ang and I went to Subway, on 8th Street. We love Subway, anytime, anywhere. We usually get 6 inch, with either chips or cookies. This time, Ang opted for the roast beef (horrors!), which is quite unusual for her, as she loves her turkey. She asked for honey mustard, but when she bit into that delectable sub, she discovered it was NOT honey mustard, but some unknown, creamy topping - it kind of ruined the Subway experience for her, understandably. I got the turkey, my all time favorite.

Ang chose the Honey Oat bread, like usual, and I got my standard Italian Herb and Cheese. Ang has told me of several occasions where she has gone to Subway, and they were out of bread. Literally. No bread, not for half an hour. I can't get my head around that one.

Now, as for the customer service...the one guy that was helping us was pretty good. He even asked me if I wanted to "steal" Ang's cheese that she wasn't using. Um...no. Thanks anyway. AND he piled on the pickles, which Ang and I both require. A sub is not a sub without a healthy helping of pickles. But then a girl came along to help us, and she was fairly rude...acting like we were a big waste of her time and effort. Not appreciated.

Something new I have noticed at Subway is the drink refill price. I thought they used to be free. Apparantely not. It costs something like 57 cents to get a refill. I think that is crazy. It hardly costs them anything for those fountain drinks. I had Coke, which was quite flat. Ang made her own concoction of iced tea and lemonaid (I think), but the iced tea was far too sweet for her, and she wasn't completely happy.

But all in all, it was a pretty good experience, besides the fact we had to hurry to a concert we were going to, which we were late for anyway. Food is never as good when you are scarfing it down like there's no tomorrow. But Subway is always a classic choice - you can't go wrong. Unless you get Tuna or something odd...you're better off to stick with what you love.

We Live to Eat

2006-04-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems the thing to do these days is create a blog...and so Leah and I thought we would join the trend, not wanting to be left behind! We have this "date night" once a week where we have decided to try a new restaurant each week and we take turns picking which one. So a couple weeks ago was my turn and I decided that we should try Saba's African Cuisine. Seeing as we are both kinda Africa-crazy. It is on 22nd St...next to Genesis. We got there and it is the typical small ethnic, owner-run restaurant. Not much for decoration, about 10 tables. So we really didn't know what to order, cause we had no idea what anything was. They had some sort of sample-platters, so we ordered one of those. And we got samosas as an appetizer. Mmm...they were really good! Definitely recommend those! I'd go back for just them...maybe they do take out....mmmm....samosas. The meal itself took about 45 minutes to come, so we were fairly hungry by then! It came with this plate of "injera." (I looked it up...there are some pictures and a recipe here:www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-injera ...I think maybe I added the link). It looked like roll up pancakes, but it was sort of spongy, covered with little holes, and tasted like sourdough bread. I wasn't too crazy about it, but it was pretty good with the meal. It was basically used to scoop up the saucy/stewy assortment of dishes that came served on a large platter that was covered with another piece of unrolled injera. So, a no utensil meal - that was great fun!! The sauci-nesses were a little spicy, some had meat, some didn't (there was a vegetarian platter option)...all of them were enjoyable, but not something I would feel required returning for. When we paid our bill, Saba was very friendly. We asked what part of Africa the food was from and she said Ethiopia, and Eritrea. So, that would be North Eastern. Definitely different than any of the African food I've had! I have a friend, Eden, from Eritrea, so I asked if Saba knew her, and she said "we all know each other!" Apparently there is only a small community of Eritreans in Saskatoon. So we chatted about that a bit.
Oh, prices...a little steep - the 2 of us paid around $30 for our samosas and platter, no drinks. I would recommend it as something fun and new to try, but I probably wouldn't go back unless it was with someone who wanted to try it.
Anyway...so there you go. An idea of one of our small culinary adventures! Next time, we'll take pictures and maybe we'll come up with some sort of rating system!