Scribbles in the Sun

Well, I made it through my last weekend of mayhem. I'm still not quite officially on holidays, going to head back to work for a bit this afternoon and finish cleaning up etc. Things went fairly smoothly, so I'm thankful that there were no major disasters! One small hiccup was during our Christmas party during Sunday School yesterday morning. I had set the projector up to view a movie on the wall, we got it all set up, was working fine, then I turned off the projector until the kids came. When it was time for the movie, I turned it on and fired up the movie. It was going fine and dandy until one of the characters started talking. And they were not talking English, they were talking Chinese. And the mandarin subtitles were even there to help us out! It sounded like an anime movie! So I stopped it, went into language selection on the dvd and chose english. Started it up again....and still in mandarin. Twice more I tried to fix it...to no avail. So I had to run and gr...

Well, Christmas time is once again equalling crunch time. Just a few more things to do before I get to go home and blissfully enjoy doing nothing... -Kids Club Christmas party tomorrow night (will involve baking cupcakes tomorrow afternoon, and setting up crafts) -Friday night have to work at Ten Thousand Villages. Hoping to finish my Christmas shopping that night too! -Saturday morning dress rehearsal for the Christmas program on Sunday. Saturday afternoon working at the church, and then hopefully a reprieve Saturday night...movies, popcorn, hot chocolate...here's hoping.... -Sunday morning Christmas party with the kids at church, after church decorate for the program -Sunday afternoon is our Christmas program and potluck supper...and I'm hoping after that I'm done, done, done!!! (well, besides major clean-up etc) It's gonna be a crazy weekend, but I'm trying to let thoughts of a holiday spur me on! I'll be heading up to Cold Lake for a week at Christmas t...

So yes, I am sick. It's just a chest cold, thankfully no worse...but it still stinks that I got sick. I was trying my best...washing my hands lots, and avoiding people who are super sick...but when you work with kids or have to do Christmas shopping in crowded places, it's inevitable that you are going to get sick. So many people have the flu right now (including poor Dion) so I'm praying it doesn't get any worse than this. On the upside, I finally have the chance to use the new cold and flu products I bought at Rocky Mountain Soap the last time I was there. This store really is my happy place.... I bought their Cold and Flu body and linen spray and their Cold and Flu rub . You can use the spray on yourself or your pillow and sheet and the smell of the essential oils is so soothing to your chest (think eucalyptus, peppermint and lavender). And then you can put the rub on your chest and back like Vicks vaporub. The nice thing is that unlike Vicks, it's all ...

I saw some Kanye glasses for sale at the mall last week. Two questions: 1. What the heck are the purpose of these? 2. Why do I want a pair?

Because I don't have enough on my plate already and seem to have free time coming out my...ahem....I have decided to start a new blog. Plus I'm keeping this one too. Well, I'll try it out anyway. You can visit my new blog here . Also, why didn't anyone tell me that "The Littlest Hobo" comes on TV Saturday mornings at 7:30? I caught an episode last Saturday! Enjoy the theme song and please sing along.

So I did something this weekend that was a little crazy, a little risky, a little stressful...I volunteered with the youth. Right now I'm at the point where I know a number of the youth since they came through Sunday School, but that did not make volunteering with them any easier. I was reminded why I do children's ministry--for me it comes more naturally and just seems easier in some respects. I know that many youth pastors run screaming from ministry to kids...so i guess that's why we do what we do, we are just gifted in different ways. My weekend started out with a youth sleepover at the church. I arrived at 11 pm, thinking that we would be in bed by midnight. The youth were so ramped up and excited to be there that I quickly realized I would be kissing my precious sleep goodbye that night. I got put in the room with the jr. high girls (yes, many of you now know where I'm going with this) and I hadn't been in the room 5 minutes when one of the girls was ...

I love our second hand store in town. It's super small and packed with lots of dusty junk but every once in a while you find a gem. And you can't believe that nobody has snatched it up. Today I stopped in looking for teacups but of course got sidetracked. I found a sweater, that I actually already have...but I shrunk the one I have in my closet and haven't worn it for ages. So I found the same sweater in my size, good as new, and I won't shrink this one. Then I found an L.M. Montgomery book, Emily of New Moon, which I've never read. Next I picked up a super retro wall hanging that is really kitschy but I just thought it was cool and it matches my kitchen. Finally I discovered a little porcelain mini-vase with a horse and carriage scene painted on it. It was marked "West Germany" on the bottom so I knew it would be a collectible and I figured it would be just perfect to display my vintage calligraphy pens from my grandma. I figured they may char...

Sometimes Mondays feel like a fresh start. This is a new week with no mistakes in it yet (kinda reminds me of Anne Shirley). So how am I going to make the best of this week? I have a few ideas...but the problem will be to remain motivated! Last week was a nutso week, with a trip to the frozen north of Cold Lake and TWO trips down to the southern reaches of Calgary! All in one week! This week is looking up...I am only taking ONE trip, up to Edmonton! At least this trip I won't have to drive, I'm going with the youth group for their annual West Ed trip. I have my list of things to do at the mall, it's not too long. First I'll have lunch at Swiss Chalet in the food court. And I will order extra dipping sauce. Next, I will find my way to Bath and Body Works since I hear it's open now. Finally, I need to get to the Waiting Room (although I think the name has changed). It's a little bubble tea shop on the second floor just outside TNT market, and they ha...

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Whoa! Two posts in one week??? Craaaazeeeee!!! Of course there are so many things I could write about, since I've been absent for so long...but some of you know I have a good excuse! My life has been a little crazy/stretched/busy lately. It just so happens that I met a very nice boy...and so balancing that with ministry is something I haven't yet had to do up until now. However, he lives in Calgary, so I'm thankful that I do still have lots of time during the week to get things done. Hats off to all the moms who balance full time ministry with a family...I don't think I could do it with the pace that I keep right now. My family would be terribly neglected, probably eating kraft dinner 5 nights a week and microwave dinners the other two. I've been finding lately that having a moment to just sit and read or watch tv or do some art is hard to come by. I don't want to live my life being so busy that I can't HAVE a life. And really it's not big stuf...

This article is just another reason why I'm glad I live in Canada...

When I went up to Cold Lake a couple weeks ago I asked my Mom to dig out my old New Kids tshirts....and she found them! Here is one instance where my pack-ratishness paid off. I had these 2 shirts (at least one of them is from the Sears catalogue I think!) but I never really had the courage to wear them in public. I didn't want people to think I was obsessed. Which I was. The tshirt below didn't get worn too much either. For obvious reasons.... Poor Rob and Fab.

Have you ever had an encounter with a scary doll? My Grandma once had a conversation with one of those sleeping Ernie dolls. She had it to entertain one of my young cousins, but late one night Ernie started snoring out of the blue, sat up and said "I feel great!!!". Grandma said "Good for you!". There is a doll at the church that I need to get rid of. She has been hanging around for years, and I'm not sure what she runs on because it definitely can't be batteries. If you move her she says "Pick me up Mommy!" Swing her around and she joyfully says "That was fun, do it again!!!" She also say "I love you..." in a super-patronizing voice. But worst of all she has a crazy giggle. Both our secretary and myself have had instances where we are doing something in the preschool room and without even being touched she starts talking and giggling. So a few months ago, I decided to get rid of her. I moved her to my office and ...

I feel that it is finally time for me to stand up, be an adult, and admit to my outright obsession with New Kids on the Block during late 80’s and early 90’s. Those of you who are close to me may remember this, and you may have even shared in this obsession yourself…I’m not here to judge. Now that they are making their “comeback”, I’ve been having a hard time bringing myself to listening to them for fear of rehashing all the memories of my love for them. For example: video taping all their videos off of Much Music as well as any special or documentary about them and watching them over and over. Being a hermit in my bedroom with my pink ghettoblaster. Memorizing every single lyric they sang (but of course didn’t write). Buying every single Teen Beat, and Bop magazine that had their picture on the front cover. Writing letters to Joey that I would never send. Drawing pictures of Joey in my sketch book. Plastering pictures of Joey on my ceiling and in my locker at school. Serious...

Ok, first of all, to follow up on my window washing fiasco (see last post)...if you can believe it, a bird pooped on my window today!!! Of all the insults in all the world...I really didn't need that. I guess the hose will be coming out again soon. I've been so busy the last 2 weeks, I have so much to blog about but just no time! I won't get into all the people I have to see, places I have to go, things I have to do...but suffice it to say, I'm swamped! However, I'm keeping my cool which is great. Usually when I feel the pressure like this a couple times a year, I have been known to have a slight breakdown. But I have been good, been writing my appointments and all my "to-do's" down (or trying to) and I hope I come out next week feeling great. Looking forward to my trip to Regina to visit friends in a couple weeks and especially looking forward to going to the spa at Manitou Beach. Anyone want to meet up with me there?

So I got my window and siding washing done last night, it was an adventure. I think I walked about 3 km going back and forth from the front of the house, to the faucet. This is how it went down...I hooked my spray nozzle onto the hose, hooked the hose up to the faucet and then drug the hose around to the front of the house. I tried spraying but nothing came out. Right. I have to turn the water on. So I walked around to the faucet again and turned the water on. Back to the front. Still no spray. Oh, I forgot to flip the lever on the faucet that prevents water from coming out of the tap. Back around to the faucet. Back to the front of the house. Sprayed down the the whole house. Then I had to go turn the water off so I could put the hose on the window solution bottle. Put the hose on the bottle. Go back around and turn the water on. Sprayed down the windows all the way around the house. Back to the tap, turn the water off, change back to the spray nozzle, rinse all the wi...

Did anyone else see this the other night? I found it amusing...but then again, I love Jack Black!

There is just something about long weekends, isn't there? This weekend seems to be perfect. The weather is fabulous, and I'm slightly more motivated than ususal. Can't quite put my finger on it. Helped at a friend's garage sale this weekend. Realized how cheap people can be. And I thought I was bad! Can't believe that people would dicker over 50 cents or a dollar. Just pay the extra dollar, take your stuffies and tupperware and be done with it!!!! Looking forward to doing some cleaning in my house and tidying in my yard. Not sure if reality will hit me hard enough that I will pull out and attempt to start the lawnmower this weekend, but you never know. Not too many tourist around yet, so I'm enjoying the quiet. Although I did catch a glimpse of one of my neighbour's buddies peeing beside his fence. Lovely. And it begins....

I'm sure that today, everyone in western Canada will be blogging about the crazy weather we're having. I don't think it's stopped snowing since Thursday, or Wednesday, or whenever it started. It's messed up my plans to go into Red Deer today, and to Airdrie tomorrow. I keep thinking maybe it will miraculously melt before tomorrow but I just looked out the window....and yep, it's still snowing. I braved the roads on Saturday night to go to a Brian Doerksen concert in Red Deer...well worth the slippery drive I'd say (well, the highway was clear, just in town was slippery). Today has been a lazy day, just watching the snow. Did some cleaning and Des came over for a few hours. So nice to just sit and visit...I have to enjoy it while I can, she's moving soon! Well, I'm not sure who reads this blog anymore, but if you care to make your vote known, I'll let all of you decide what I should do this week with all of this snow.... 1) shovel my sid...

I found this little treasure at the dollar store yesterday. It was so kitschy that I HAD to buy it. Yes, it's a Jesus paperweight and it was extremely hard to take a good picture of it with all that lacquer. I felt a little weird taking it to the cash register to buy, I'm assuming they don't sell too many of them since it was on sale. At a dollar store. But now it sits on my desk at the church, and I can't wait to put it to good use. Now all I need is a nifty glow in the dark Jesus (and yes, I know where to buy them...it's one of my missions for this summer).

I received this in my mail yesterday. Could somebody please tell The Shoe Company that the 80's called. They want back their....well....quite frankly they want back everything in this picture. Who in their right mind would go out looking like this? Most of us have been there and done that....TWENTY YEARS AGO!!! The only thing she is missing is a head of luscious permed locks, and back combed bangs. Wait, I think I do see some back combing there...

Who decided that all busyness and all matters of craziness would begin in April? My calendar is filling up so quickly...too quickly actually. And I keep thinking that I'm missing stuff. The worst feeling is realizing that you are supposed to be somewhere...a day after the fact. I've also had a bit of a rollercoaster ride dealing with a certain company that I ordered some products from for the church. I was promised the items would be couriered (since they had been holding them in the warehouse for weeks for a reason I won't get in to) and they ended up arriving a week after the fact (and 2 days later than when we needed them). And in the package I found part of someone else's order that I ended up having to ship back. And that, mixed in with some other crazy stories, made me decide to switch companies. I'm a person who is very loyal, but this just took the cake. I'm hoping that this isn't a sign of the coming month! To add to the busyness, I'm ...

Whoah-ho! Two blogs in two days? I can't believe it myself! Tonight I spent some time going through friends blogs making a list of all the ones I have to remove from my links. I have some friends who haven't blogged for a year, so I guess that would give me reason to remove them. I hope that not too many people have taken me off their blogroll because of my infrequent blogging! But as I started reading blogs, I remembered why I used to love blogging so much. Reading blogs gives you just a glimpse, but an amazing glimpse, into the lives of so many interesting people. And you don't have to even know a person to enjoy the bit of life story that they generously share online. I think that for me this week is going to be spent doing some house cleaning here and exploring blogs and stories and pictures etc. And figuring out how to use all the new stuff that Blogger has added! I'm so out of the loop!!!

Well, lately I've been hassled by various friends ( Renee ) and relatives (Lori) to update my blog more often. First of all, I'd like to refer you to the comment I made a few posts back about not feeling guilty about not updating my blog. I don't feel guilty. Ok maybe a little. I love blogging, I really do...I'm not sure why I haven't felt motivated to write lately. So I've been sitting here trying to decide what to write about tonight. I still need to do a post on Venezuela (although it's been going on 4 months since I went!) but I'm feeling too lazy to upload any of the photos right now. Then I thought maybe I'd talk about an awkward conversation I had with someone about the fact that I'm still single. But who wants to hear me go on a rant and rampage, trying to change the view that so many people have of singleness? Yes, I will leave that to another post...Instead I'll tell you about the privilege I have this weekend, to be Tannea...

I've just returned from a 24hour children's pastor's retreat. I always look forward to connecting with old friends and making new ones at these retreats. We had a great time as usual, and now I'm home and taking the afternoon off to catch up on important things...like my blog of course. I have 2 more retreats to go to in the next 4 weeks or so, seems like every second weekend I'm heading off somewhere. My next retreat will be another 24 hour retreat in Canmore. I can hardly wait. The retreat is being put on by a church in Red Deer and I'm excited to be tagging along. Their speaker is going to be Craig Jutila and if you are involved in children's ministry, you might know how amazing it is that he is coming up here to speak to us. I don't know how they got him, but I'm glad they did! Should be very interesting. While I'm in Canmore, I'm hoping to do a little exploring in some of their stores and look at touring (not whitewater!!) kaya...

With the new year comes new year's resolutions, right? I usually don't do resolutions because I'm confident that by the time February rolls around, I'll have failed miserably. Then with that comes guilt and feelings that I have been defeated once again. So I was thinking of changes in my life that I could make that would require minimal effort and hopefully no guilt if I let one slip. So here are five changes I'm making in my life... 5. I choose to not feel guilty if I don't update my blog very often or if I decide to ignore every poke, request or invitation on Facebook. 4. I choose to stop watching Oprah. 3. I choose to be healthy, not skinny. 2. I choose to eat chocolate. Sorry, had to make sure this one got in here for sure. 1. I choose to care less about what people think about me, and care more about what God thinks of me.