Day 10: A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with

Well, unfortunately (or perhaps moreso fortunately) I can not choose just one person I do messed up things with. So here are the top 3...

This is my pal Shauna, as you can tell we are altogether too messed up. Here we are shopping in the States. Messed up things on our list of things done include skydiving (twice) crazy weekends shopping in the States and many more randomly weird things.

And of course, Tiff and Fe. Just the fact that they are my closest friends should say something:-) We are never normal when we are together, and usually always almost pee our pants out of laughter. Life would be soooooooooo dull without these two in my life. Thank You Jesus for these girls!!!!!!!!

Day 9: A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

That would be my mom. She has been there my whole life (duh), she has helped me through all the hard times in my life like being there when I was diagnosed depression, loving me no matter what. Helping me deal with having to give up my dog and all the other difficult things in life. She's been my rock!!

Day 8: A Picture that makes you laugh

Tiffany tanning topless at Assiniboine Park. That was such a hilarious day, I love my girls:-) 

Oops!! Missed Day 7:Picture of my most treasured thing

Oh well, I'm not home over the weekends usually, and yesturday was a hectic day, so it's okay if I forgot to post day 7. But here it is, my most treasured thing ...

That's right, God's love is my most treasured thing. I could loose everything I own and be sad but still go on, but to loose God's love would be life ending.

Day 6: A picture of the person you would love to trade places with just for a day

I'd say thats easy, Yvonne Strahovski

aka Sarah Walker on Chuck.

Of course I would only want to do it for a day that they were filming Chuck and perhaps where there may be a kissing scene or six with Zac Levi. After that I would be fine;-)

Fill in the Blank Friday

1. Black Friday is straight up ridiculous!

2. Christmas shopping this year will include not a whole lot, since I have spent most of my "Christmas money" helping my mom out. So just the ticket present for Shayna.

3. Holiday shopping makes me anxious, uptight and grumpy. I generally don't try going into any mall or store in December. Except now that I work in one I have no choice. But I also will do my shopping at my store while I work:-)

4. This year my Christmas list will include - I don't really ever make a Christmas list, I don't care what I get, I don't expect anything from anyone. I love giving gifts, hate recieving them.

5. Bargain hunter, or full price shopper? Bargain hunter by far. I have a hard time justifying buying anything at full price. Maybe it's the Mennonite in me, or the fact that I had to claim bankrupcy at a young age. At any rate, I have become a severe bargain hunter.

6. The best and worst things about shopping is seeing all the wonderful stuff  available to buy, and the worst is seeing all the wonderful stuff I can't afford to buy.

7. Online shopper or in-person shopper? I would buy everything online if my credit card let me, except clothes, those I like to see in person. Unless the clothes are for someone other then me:-)

Day 5: A Picture of your favorite memory

  Gosh, this is a hard one. And needing to search for a picture of it is even harder. Especially when half my stuff is in Steinbach and the rest is here with me in Otterburne. So, since I can't find the picture I am looking for, I will settle with this memory, one of the top 3. And that is spending time with my dad in the last days/weeks of his life. One particular day it was just me and him hanging out together at home. We were watching music videos on CMT (one of our favorite past times). This song called "Holes in the floor of Heaven" by Steve Wariner came on, and I just started to cry. My dad sat there holding and rubbing my hand to comfort me. It was so special. For Fathers Day this year, the Christian author Karen Kingsbury had a contest where you could write in 200 words about your best "Daddy Day" so I wrote her the story of that day with my dad, and I won out over 100 entries. I got her childrens book "Let's have a Daddy Day". So for now, the picture I have is this one ...

Later when I find a better one of my Dad and me I will insert it here.

Day 4: A Picture of your Night

Well, unfortunately did not have a camera with me last night. But after my grandmothers funeral, a bunch of my cousins met at my cousin Curt's place. It was great catching up and hanging out. I also went home to my place after spending almost 3 weeks at my moms. Since it was Grandma's funeral yesturday, I will put the picture of a poem that my mom wrote which was used on her obituary card.

Day 3: Cast of my Favorite TV show

That would be Chuck!!! The best show on television right now. Watch it every monday night at 7 or at 10 on NBC. If you haven't seen it, I highly recomend it, I have the first 2 seasons if you wanna borrow them:-) And if you wanna get me something for Christmas I still need the 3rd season:-) Watch it, you will find what you've been missing in your life till now. LOL

Day 2: A Picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

My Mom:-) She's my best friend and my mom. This picture was taken a few years ago when we were visiting my brother in Alberta

30 Day Challenge

My friend Joy posted this 30 day challenge on facebook and so I thought I would try it out here on my blog. Basically each day I will post a picture of myself associated to the corresponding purpose. Like for instance Day 1 is a picture of me and write 15 facts about myself, Day 2 is a pic of me with the person I have been closest to the longest...so on and so forth. If your interested in doing this with me, message me and I will send you the list, it should be interesting. So here goes...

DAY ONE: A Picture of Yourself with 15 facts

Fact #1: I love being the only girl in my family, and the baby
Fact #2: I am a closet Backstreet Boys fan (well not so closet-ish now)
Fact #3: I used to dream of being an actress till I was about 20
Fact #4: I have one tattoo, on my back, and want at least 2 more
Fact #5: I LOVE skydiving, but haven't gone for about 5 years and am scared to go again
Fact #6: IF I had the money I would get everyone everything they ever needed
Fact #7: I want to adopt lots of children
Fact #8: My mom is my best friend, and I don't know what I would ever do without her
Fact #9: Dream about finding the man of my dreams almost every day of my life (pathetic, I know)
Fact #10: I hate birthdays - wish I didn't have to celebrate them
Fact #11: Christmas is my favorite and worst holiday of the year, I love the feeling of peace and joy,I hate the feeling of missing my dad since he died on Dec. 24
Fact #12: I am reality show junkie, although not so much now that I am in school
Fact #13: My favorite movie is The Wedding Singer, and I love almost all Adam Sandler movies, crass or not
Fact #14: I love to draw, but never share my work with anyone cause it ain't good
Fact #15: I have the worst self confidence, and I never think I am good enough

Goodbye to my time consuming friend...

Well, the time has come, I have decided to go back to my roots and sign off for good on Facebook. What a crazy and addicting sight it is. Stupidly, the main people I talk to on there are ones I see almost everyday. Otherwise I just sign in, often more then once a day, to see what everyone is writing as their status.

Sad, isn't it? That our world, our friendships can so easily be narrowed down to a status update? I mean, soon our status updates are what they are going to put on our epitaphs, or maybe our epitaphs will just be our status updates and rather then having a funeral when you die, everyone can just sign onto facebook and have a virtual funeral. The same could go for any type of get-together really. Weddings, family gatherings, birthday parites. I mean why not, it seems thats where we all know each other from anyway. Or spend the most time hanging out with each other. So I have decided to put a stop to it in my life.

I want the people who are my friends to talk to me in person, I don't want to be added to a friend list just so I can make the number count go up. I currently have 74 friends in my friend list (a rather small amount in facebook standards) and still only talk to maybe 10-15 of those friends. I challange anyone who reads this (and well lets face it thats no one) to take a look at their friends list on facebook and see how many of those people they actually talk to, delete the ones you never do and never care to, and if you see that whats left is people you see on a regular basis then delete your facebook account. Lets begin to get personal again, face to face, not face to computer screen. Lets not let the virtual world take over our lives.

Anyway, I understand if people want to stay on facebook, its a great way to see what everyone is up to. I am certainly not going to judge those who enjoy facebook stalking. I personally just have had enough of that life, maybe its my age and the fact that I wasn't born in the digital era. But sometimes I think technology can go a little to far. Remember the movie Wall-E? Do we really wanna end up like all those lazy people? Cause that is certainly where we are headed in this techno/digital era. No more letting computers and websites do the work for me, I am going to do my darndest to become more "personal" with my friends because they are all worth it to me:-)

Found something out

So, as I am going through the set up on my blog, I realized something. Why am I so inane about how it looks? Everytime I sign in I fiddle with things, trying to make it look nice. I don't even have any followers. So who cares if it looks appealing or not, its just for my own pleasure anyway. I thought I had at least one, but I was wrong. Oh well.

In Loving Memory of my Grandmother, Violet Wall

Grandma's dream has finally come and she has gone to be with her Lord and Saviour on November 18, 2010.

Grandma has been sick for a long time and spent the last two years living at the hospital and in the end at the Menno Home in Grunthal. It was hard for her to leave her apartment but soon became quite used to her place at Bethesda.

Though this is the way Grandma spent her last years, that is not the memory I will take with me. I will remember the Grandma from my childhood. The Grandma who sang the silly song "Thats what we learn in the school, ya ya" (sung with a high german flair) and we loved it. The Grandma who let me have the spare bedroom with the double bed and made my brothers sleep on the floor in the living room.

The Grandma who used to give us a chocolate bar and card for every birthday and always, always called us on our birthdays especially when she could not be there. She remembered the birthday of everyone of her children, grandchildren, probably every great grandchild and her two great great grandsons. She had an amazing memory for that.

I will always cherish the memory of playing Win, Lose or Draw with Grandma when she painstakingly tried to draw "Russian Dressing" as a Russian Soldier actually dressing. We all laughed so hard I think we had to end the game.

I remember going to Grandma's with several of my girl cousins and wrapping Christmas presents all day for her, we ordered in pizza and had a blast. It was a special time.

I enjoyed spending time with Grandma when she was in the hospital, I tried to make it there as often as possible with my crazy school and work schedule. Of course there were bad days for her, who wouldn't have those when spending day and night for several years in the hospital, knowing your husband is still living at home in their apartment. And then later, when Henry passed away she was more lonely then ever.

I am so happy that I got to be a part of her last outing that did not involve a ambulance or handi-van, when mom and I took her on a car ride. To see the joy and excitement in her eyes when she realized that this was actually possible made it soooo worth it, taking her for ice cream and seeing the homes of all her children. I am only disappointed that we could not take her out to Applebee's for her favorite Oriental Chicken Salad. That would have been the icing on the cake.

It was hard on Grandma to have Grandpa and Henry go before her, not to mention her two grandchildren Harlyn and Gloria, and my dad, her son-in-law. She is finally at peace, no more suffering, no more body that does not work for her.

Grandma, I look forward to seeing you again. I am jealous of you, especially at this time of year when missing my dad seems to be at it's worst, as I am sure the same goes for the families of Harlyn and Gloria. I cannot wait to see you again in your new body, running through the fields in Heaven, hand in hand with your loved ones and most importantly with your Heavenly Father. I love you Grandma!

Wow...

Ok, so I just recently got into blogging, and more recently into reading blogs of people I don't know. One I am really enjoying so far is Single Dad Laughing http://www.danoah.com/. Today (well since it's midnight I guess it was yesturday, Nov.15)  Dan has written such a thought provoking post I just had to share it. You should definately follow the link and take gander at his post. It is long, but most definately worth the read. It is something everyone should read. Very inspiring. And after reading that, I ask, where do you find yourself in the big scheme of things? A good question, and one I don't know I have an answer for yet. Till next time...

Stress Relief or...

Well, here I am, almost one week since my moms double mastectomy. I thought that this week was going to be a hell week, but I have been pleasantly surprised. It has been tough, don't get me wrong, but I certainly don't feel the super tension and stress I've been going through in the past few weeks.

I feel like a big weight, stress wise, has been lifted off my shoulders. Even though this is not the end of the road in mom's cancer journey. But chemo and radiation don't scare me, we've been there before, I know what to expect. There is a new kind of stress or unrest that has been added. I now have to run for everything for my mom. She cannot cook for herself, she cannot bathe herself, do her own hair, put on her own socks, sometimes her own clothes or jacket. She cannot open her medication bottles, get a glass of water if the glass is still in the cupboard, make her own coffee or drive anywhere by herself. This is where I come in. It was certainly nice to not have to go to school and work for the first few days she was home from the hospital, but this past friday I had to be at school for 11:10, stay there till 3:20, come home and get ready to be at work for 5:15. So before I can go I need to make sure someone will be at the house with mom while I am gone, I need to get her dressed, fed and medicated before I can go anywhere. After that there needs to be someone here to fill in for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love taking care of my mom. As a matter of fact, I would sooner jump up to help her with whatever she needs rather then write a paper that is now over a week late. Here in lies my problem, I need to write this paper, but my mind doesn't want to focus. Here I sit, writting on my blog rather then writing the remaining 2 pages of my paper. This is more of a stress release, more "entertaining" and less of a mental block. I thought I would write here in order to get the creative juices flowing and hopefully finish the dreaded paper only to have to write another that was due on monday. So I am not sure if I am relieved or stressed now, I feel like I can sleep, all the time, perhaps catching up on the loss of sleep from previous weeks. Or is it because I subconsciously feel stressed from needing to get homework done. Who knows, this is the million dollar question. One I would like an answer to, and will likely not find till the end of the semester, unfortunately.

1. The most spontaneous thing I've ever done is probably going skydiving. While not a 100% spontaneous, I made the appointment only a week before going. I decided I wanted to and went. Not something I would take on so quickly usually.


2. The best gift I've ever received was the time I got to spend with my father before he passed and being there when the Lord took him home.

3. A time that I was truly and genuinely surprised was my 30th birthday when my family threw me a surprise birthday party. I was not expecting it at all when I walked into the garage at my house and all my friends and family were there, it was awesome.

4. I can't leave the house without my glasses. I can't think of anything else, oh and being dressed, I'm not a nudist. Otherwise things like my cell phone, makeup, and even combing my hair (cause I seldom actually comb it) seem rather easy to forget for me. Well, I guess my hair has to be neat looking.

5. My favorite day of the week is payday because thats a day when I get to do a little something for myself, and then I pay bills and its all gone and I stress again at the lack of money in my account. Thank goodness I get paid every week.

6. Something that can always make me laugh is my friends. And watching Zoolander or Kungpow, funniest movies ever.

7. My perfect day would include sleeping in just long enough that my body feels rested and doesn't hurt, go out for a delicious breakfast/brunch with my mom, perhaps some shopping (where money isn't an issue), get together with my friends for dinner and a movie, or something fun like bowling, rockband or games of some sort.

Rant

Okay, so here's the thing, as I've mentioned in my earlier posts my mom has breast cancer, on monday she is having a double mastectomy as a way of saving her life. This weekend I was thinking about this, and how hard this was going to be for her. She really has no choice but to lop them off. Then I got angry, angry at all those girls who go against the word of God and think that its okay to be a lesbian, or to think that they are men trapped in womens bodies. (And vice versa really, but for the sake of this rant I will stick to women.) To have sex changes, and more importantly have surgeries to make themselves "look" like a man. Here my mom is doing this to save her life, a choice not really of her own will and someone else can casually say take them off, I want to look like a man. This pisses me off. I mean seriously angers me. Who do these people think they are? Why do you think you were born the way you were? Do you think that God messed up and accidentally put male hormones into a female body? If so, why are you taking hormone pills to grow facial hair? And even more so, if you don't even believe in God, how the heck can you even try to explain the reason for why you are the way you are? I mean really, there is no valid excuse for this, none!!! Evolution theory would have you evolve from an organism, but what kind of organism would create a sex mixup? The big bang theory? What, all the sex cells were flying around and when the big bang happened yours were the ones that accidentally mutated together opposite cells? While some people make this decision based on their health and their lives, others make it out of pure ignorance. Thats sad. And thats my rant.