u_name_it

Just an update

2008-09-25T21:52:00.004-05:00

Man, I think as we age time speeds up, we enter some sort of time warp where times just passes and we don't even realize it. Being back in college makes me feel old...not that I actually think I'm old, I just really see the difference the past 6 years has made in my life. Sometimes I still think I'm that 18 year old off to university...but I'm really not, at all.
School is good, college is so different from university. Much more practical that the theory of academics in university. For the first time in years, close to 10, I'm getting straight A's! I'm so much more motivated to do the work and do it well(even if class isn't all that fun). To go along with school, I've got myself a part time job at the aerospace museum, cataloguing in their library. I haven't actually started yet, but I'm excited about it! It'll be great experience for the future.
I counted the other day...I know 30 women that have either had a baby in the last 6 months or will be having one in the next 6 months...can we say Baby BOOM! hehe so exciting. And for those that may wonder...I'm not included in that 30, nor will I be for a least a few years. A job and a house are needed before I can join in populating this planet. For now I'll just have to live vicariously through friends and family. I can't wait til November when Mary is due, yay for a new niece or nephew!
Ok...off to sleep, another reason I don't feel like a teen or a student anymore...I need to go to bed early to get up early...no more late nights for me!

Far too Long

2008-08-12T13:43:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure if people even read my blog anymore...its been so long since I regularly posted. Married life has definitely changed my life, I don't have the time I used to, to blog. Facebook has also taken over from the whole blogging thing. I don't have to post pics on my blog or say whats going on because I can just post it on facebook. But since I'm currently bored, I thought I'd give a quick update on life since marriage.
1. I quit my job and went back to school. I'm studying to become a Library Technician and will be graduating in May. It's an accelerated program and my summer has been filled with classes. I've had 35 hours of class all summer and then homework, test and assignments to deal with. Its a lot, and I can't believe I did it. Right now is exam week and then I get two weeks of vacation!
2. I have a husband...weird. I'm Mrs. Volpe now...weird.
3. Mary is pregnant with her third child, I'm so excited! She told us shortly after the wedding that she was expecting, but we all suspected since Brooke was telling us that she had a secret about mommy but that she couldn't tell us yet.
4. My best friend from back home is about to have her baby...like she could be having her baby boy right now!
5. My mom had a heart attack...she's doing really well now, but it was still very scary!
6. My husband is a fisherman...so we fish a lot...he caught a 27' inch pike and an 18'inch bass this past weekend.
Hopefully i'll blog more, but i promise nothing!

Mr and Mrs Volpe

2008-04-10T10:05:00.002-05:00

I got MARRIED!!! March 29, 2008.

:(

2008-02-07T15:44:00.000-06:00

As my wedding quickly approaches I have many dreams regarding the big day. Some are good, some are bad...some just don't make any sense at all. A week after helping my mom and future mom-in-law pick out their outfits I had one dream that kind of threw me for a loop. I had this elaborate dream of helping Aunt Betty pick out her outfit. She was really excited to pick out something new because she had lost some weight. The dream was really detailed and long. I awoke realizing it was a dream, but then continued to wonder about what Aunt Betty would be wearing. She always did a great job of picking out things for her neices and nephew's weddings....after about 10 minutes of thinking about it I remembered...she wouldn't be there. I was so shocked with myself that I would forget she was gone. I really miss her and I'm really sad she won't be there to see me walk down the isle.

Coming to a blog near you!

2007-12-11T10:11:00.001-06:00

So its been months...for that I'm sorry. Its not that I have nothing going on in my life to share, its that there is too much. So, I promise that by the end of this week I will post some pics to show you what's been going on since August.

Betty

2007-08-22T10:54:00.001-05:00

Wow, summers almost over! It makes me sad. I only realized it was summer in like July! I'm not really sure what to write right now. My last post was happy and exciting, but what happened only days after my engagement was really quite hard. My Aunt Betty passed away. Cancer. She had battled tongue and one even tho she was left with scars from it. Due to later complications she was hospitalized again, and in the months that it took the doctors to help her improve the cancer returned much worse than before and it invaded her bones and lungs. This news we partially expected as she was experiencing unexplained pain in her legs. Non the less we thought she was getting better. On July 18th Chris and I were on our way to eat dinner with Chris' siblings when I got a call from Uncle Bill. The doctors had just informed him of the cancer spread and gave her 48hrs to a month to live. I needed to call my parents as they were up at camp with Mary and Richard. I called Dad right away and since it was already 7pm there was no point in coming down because it was a 7 hour drive. He planned to come the next morning. Chris and I sped off to the hospital to see Aunt Betty because we didn't know how long she'd last and we hadn't gotten to tell her about our engagement yet. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I was nervous and so glad I had Chris with me. She acknowledged us and when I told her we were engaged a huge smile crossed her face and she said "Oh, I thought I'd be dead." She knew she was near the end...its just hard to hear the reality. I was so glad we went to see her when we did.
When I woke up Thursday morning Uncle Bill informed me that she was gone...I was in shock, even tho I had seen how low she was it still hit me hard. Now came another one of the hardest things I"ve had to do...call my dad. How do you tell your Dad that his sister is gone, when she was suppose to be on the mend, when the last time he saw her(less than a week before) she was doing so much better. I did my best to compose myself and called..."Daddy Chris and I went to see Aunt Betty last night. We got to tell her that we were engaged and she was able to acknowledge it. I'm sorry Daddy but she passed away at 5am." He replied "What a blessing, what a blessing for her." The funeral took place a week later as my Uncle Don needed to fly in from Zambia and things needed to be arranged. Sometimes I almost forget she's gone and then it all comes flooding back. The other day I had a dream she'd come to stay with us as the cottage because she had sold hers. I'm so thankful I got to see her, I'm so thankful we brought her happy news. It's kind of weird being the last visitors, but cool too. Now she's with the Lord, her maker. There is no better place. I miss her.

Engaged

2007-07-30T10:40:00.000-05:00

So as some as you have already heard..Chris and I are ENGAGED!!! Would you like to hear the story?! Of course your do.
We had spent the weekend in Smith Falls visiting Gloria and her fiancé Josh. It was a fun weekend and on the way home we stopped of at Lime Lake where his grandparents have a cottage. We spent the afternoon with his great uncle and family, skiing and chatting. Then in the evening we took the paddle boat out onto the lake. We fished for a bit but then wedged the boat against a log and to watch the sunset. We started reminiscing about out relationship we had first "noticed" each other and then when love came. The whole time I was like is he going to propose? But I kept telling myself he wasn't, cause if he didn't I'd be disappointed. He played with my true love waits ring and asked what I'd do with it when it came time for another ring to take its place. Then he told me that he loved me, and loved that I was a nice girl and that I could just hang out with his family even though I'd never met them before. Then he placed my hand on his chest and asked if I could feel his heart, I couldn't so I put my ear to his chest. "You make my heart beat fast" he said, then asked me what I was thinking...I was thinking about the huge dock spider behind us, so I asked him what he was thinking. He said "I'm thinking that I've decided I want to spent the rest of my life with you, but we can't continue our relationship until you get something." Then with a beautiful sunset behind him, he proceeded to get down on one knee(not easy in a paddle boat) and pulled out a ring box. Inside was this gorgeous ring just for me. I started to cry and said yes. We hugged, he said I love you and I managed to sob out I love you too.
I'm still kind of in "I can't believe this is real" mode, but loving it! We're planning for March 29, 2008 right now, woohoo eight months! YAY!

2007-07-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

So, I'm in disbelief that it is now July 5th. It seems like yesterday April was ending, people were graduating, business office was scrambling. I got to spend Canada Day weekend with my family, all of us, which was really nice. My nieces get cuter by the day and are so much fun. Next week I'll be taking my first vacation. I figured after a year of working it was about time. I'm just going to the cottage, and then to see Mary and Richards house, but that is vacation enough for me. Anyway, I don't have much else to write about right now. My life is pretty low-key at the moment.

Timeless

2007-06-25T10:38:00.001-05:00

So, I've gone watch-less for nearly two months now. And I've got to tell you, it is a freeing experience. I realized that having a watch and constantly knowing the time only fed my time-freak-ness. It caused some stress and was almost like a handcuff. Now its not that i walk around not knowing the time, but I'm just not really run by it so much anymore. I still have a general idea of the time, but I'm not itching to know what it is. I've started to except being only "just on time", or even 5-10 minutes late. Stuff happens, you can't always be exactly on time and its just too much stress to constantly be checking the time.

Lyrical Slip-up

2007-06-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

Everyone has done it. You're singing a song and someone points out to you that you have the lyrics wrong. These to me are some of the funniest mix ups cause most of the time it either doesn't make sense yet we don't question it cause its a song. Anyway, here are some samples of these instances that I've experienced with friends and family.
- when I was a kid our family listened to a lot of southern gospel. There was a song that i called the fish song. The words of the chorus were "Daddy sang Bass, Momma sang Tenor and little brother would join right in there." But I misheard it as "Daddy sang Bass(as in the fish) Momma sang Tuna and little brother would join right in there."
- A few years ago when Charity was home from college for a summer we over heard my mom singing "Shabang shabang"....we quickly realized that she had misheard he lyrics to the Ricky Martins song "She bangs, she bangs". We corrected her and she never sang it again...with good reason.
- When we were kids growing up in Sunday school we would sing a welcome song to new people. It went like this "Welcome, Welcome to our Sunday school, Jesus loves you and we love you too. Won't you bring your bible each Sunday before noon, for you welcome to our Sunday school." One day, when she was still quite young she asked my mother 'why don't we eat beef on Sunday like the song says?' Confused my mother asked what song? "the welcome song, it says won't you bring your bible, each Sunday beef for noon!"
- A few months ago Chris and I were hanging out reminiscing about camp and camp songs. he was convinced that there must be a song he knew that I didn't. So he started naming off songs and I would sing the first line of each to prove I knew the songs. Then thinking he'd thought of a song i for sure wouldn't know he cried out. "well what about 'Old Hymens Goat'?!" I burst into laughter, "You mean 'Old hyrums goat'?" Then came the awkwardness of him not knowing why hymen was so funny for him to mix up!
- I tease my sister a lot about messing up lyric, because it happens a lot that I catch the mix ups. a few years ago we were driving listening to Jamiroquai and the song Canned Heat came on. The song is about having so much pent up frustration that all you can do is dance. One of the lines in the chorus talks about this frustration as canned heat in my heals, hence the dancing. She started laughing and said"Mom didn't get what Candy in my heals meant." I, thinking she meant that mom thought the lyrics were candy in my heals laughed saying "that's so funny how she mixed up those words." Charity was like"No she didn't mess up the words she just didn't get it!" and then I caught on"No Charity the words are canned heat in my heals, like the title."
-Just today I quoted Timbaland's "the way I are" on Charitys facebook wall and she went to continue the song on mine. Here's how the converstaion went. Me -"I ain't go no Visa, I ain't go no Red American Express. We can't go nowhere exotic but I'm the one that loves you best! Talk to me girl."
Charity - "Oh, baby, it's alright now, you ain't gotta floss for me" ok, um so since when does music promote poor dental hygeine other than gold fillings....
Me- I think its flaunt, not floss....do you have candy on your heels?
Charity- hey... i looked up the words online! LOL. I'm hopeless! And yes. I have candy in my heels. and I'm having sunday beef for noon.

Anyway, I hope you found those stories amusing. Please share if you have stories like this too!

Its the small things

2007-06-01T07:40:00.000-05:00

This week is best described by the words of my neice when she forgot her show and tell and her mom got a flat tire "nasty." Between being stressed out at work, finding out I can't take the vacation I wanted, having my car breakdown and therefore drain my savings and having a family friend die I felt the need to write about it. Only I don't want to rant or pout, I've done enough of that. Instead I'd like to share some of the small things that make my day or have made me smile this week.
-Seeing a school of Gar Pike feeding right under my canoe
-Listening to Brooke sing Away in a Manger over the phone
-Eating Reginos Pizza and playing mad-gab with Chris, Rach and Jeff
-Having lunch with two of my best friends Ashley and Rach every day
-Listening to Stanley Walters speak at Tuesday Chapel
-Petting two 12 week old dashounds.
-Having a plethora of paperclips at my disposal

Time is tickin' away

2007-05-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

Time, I could write a million things about time. How complex it is, how we waste it, how we hoard it and charge for it, and how much cultures can be run by it. It's widely known that the western world is very much run by time. Most of the population carries the time on them or with them on their watch or cellphone. I often feel helpless when I don't have my watch on, its almost like a handcuff. Its been on so long I feel almost helpless and without control without it, then after a day I start feeling free, but inevitably my watch as a shackle to societies expectations is put back on, chaining me back into my ways.
Those ways can be extreme at times. Those that have lived with me can vouch for this. I cannot handle being late, or the idea of being late. When I say I'll meet someone at a certain time or I'm going to leave(or would like to leave) home at a certain time I'm always ready and waiting at least(and I mean that quite literally) ten minutes early. My roommates could never understand why I would do it, and they often watched me deal with my frustration as I would wait for others who were only running ten minutes late, but with my added ten minutes of earliness it was like 20 minutes. I know, I'm crazy, and i do try hard not to be so anal when it comes to time. Living with roommates that ranged from occasionally to consistently late has helped me work through some of this, so has dating Chris...who doesn't share the same desire for punctuality as me. I'm better than I was, but I'll admit to my flaws, I'll also admit that I'm very much following in my fathers foot steps. My Dad is the king of "get there early" and "leave with an extra half hour to spare". My sisters and Mom can vouch for this. My whole life we were half an hour early where ever we went, in my head being on time was like being late, because normal for our family was being early. I remember I picked this up quick and there were Sunday mornings I would be waiting with my dad for my sisters to get ready for church. I picked up the thought that if you were leaving you did it right then, no dilly-dallying, and so it really irritates me when someone says we're going and I'm ready waiting and they're still taking their sweet time. Probably doesn't help that I do have a temper(although often well hidden from the general public). Either way, its strange how something like time that I have absolutely no control over can control me so much and only because I let it.
Am I alone, or are there others out there like me? Share your thoughts, I'd like to hear them.

2007-05-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

It's been a year. A year since I graduated and had no clue where my life would take me. So far I haven't gone to far, I'm at Tyndale still, just on the other side, the staff side. It's still a little weird working everyday and not going to class, but I enjoy it, most of the time. I guess I'm just blessed to work at the same institution as my best friend. Rachel and I get to eat lunch together nearly everyday, that way we can keep each other sane. Recently Ashley has joined us now that school done and she's working full time.
I feel bad that I haven't kept up my blog, but life had been busy. I've had good ideas for posts, and even started some, but things got in the way and soon the unfinished posts seemed irrelevant. Then I was introduced to facebook, and well that has taken over most of my personal computer time and since I don't have internet at home my blogging time was severely diminished. Either way, with the slight nudging and friendly reminder about my blog, by Shannon, I've decided to make more of an effort. At least once a week, I'll make a post. Hold me to it!

What's your pleasure?

2007-04-12T10:52:00.001-05:00

We all have them, often are ashamed of some of them, but feel bonded when we discover someone else shares them...Guilty Pleasures. So in the interest of wanting others to know they are not alone I will fess-up to my top 5 guilty pleasures in no particular order.
1. Aspartame: you know, its that lovely sugar substitute in drinks and foods. Personally I think it has some addictive quality to it. I prefer diet pops and drinks just because of the taste...mmm aspartame.
2. The Hills: most people detest this show, but for some reason I love it. I think it's funny and therefore entertaining. Also, my life runs pretty low on the drama scale so i need to get that some where right?
3. Justin Timberlake: Okay, so the N'SYNC 'er has officially grown up and I'll admit it, I like that he's brought sexy back. I'll even admit to breaking down and buying the album...so sue me.
4. Facebook: nuf said.
5. Rainbow bits icing(or just about any icing): I eat it right out of the tub with a spoon. It's better than a tub of ice cream after a bad day, it even could rival chocolate.

My Celebrity look-alikes

2007-02-21T15:57:00.000-06:00

To make you laugh

2006-12-14T15:52:00.000-06:00

So my cousin Rachel inspired me. To me this is hilarious and I couldn't help but share it.
Merry Christmas!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=20e3e6a1074fa3b587c8dc0G06121410

Four Month Shuffle

2006-11-28T15:45:00.000-06:00

I've been feeling restless lately, and I think I've figured out why. I've been working in my current job for four months now, and it feels like I should be gearing down here, and up to something else, only there is nothing else. Its because I'm used to the four month shuffle. Let me explain more. When I was in University my life changed every four months. I was in class for four months, then switched to four more months of, usually completely different, classes, and then worked for four months in the summer and then back to classes. My year was broken into changes every four months. I liked it, it kept my life interesting. I've also never had a job longer than four months. Not any longer. I'll be here for longer than four months, I just have to get used to that.

Green Grass and the other side

2006-11-09T15:06:00.000-06:00

Most people have heard the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side.” The more experiences I have, the more I realize its true, but only if you let it be. These days most of my thinking has been consumed with missing my past and looking forward to my future. I’ve forgotten at times to enjoy my present. I feel I’ve been waiting a lot lately, for what I’m not sure. Its like I’m waiting for school to start again, my year is all messed up because it’s already November and I still haven’t written a paper or done text reading. So, waiting for school to begin is only part of my waiting, what else is it I’m waiting for? I don’t really know. It’s like I’m seeing everything else, everyone else’s lives are “greener” in some way than mine. I miss school….its true, I miss it. Six months ago I hated it, I couldn’t wait until I was done and working. Now I’m working and remember the fun it was. So, I proposed to myself to stop waiting, stop comparing my “grass” to everyone around me and enjoy the stage of life I’m in. I even started scrapbooking again to exercise my creativity, fill some of my spare time and enjoy my life thus far. Taking a look around, the grass is pretty green, I like it.

Jimmy Cracked Corn

2006-11-03T15:34:00.000-06:00

For some reason this song keeps coming up..on tv in conversation, in overheard conversation, but if Jimmy cracked corn and no one cares, why is there a song about it?
Anyway, life had been good. I got to go to a leafs game at the ACC and sit in the Gold section for free! It was sweet, except for them loosing. Other than that nothing too exciting has happened, Christmas is fast approaching(exciting), but then so is the snow(not as exciting).
This weekend should be interesting, so hopefully I'll actually have something more interesting to write about, because lately all I've been thinking about writing are my pet peeves of riding the TTC and that doesn't seem very uplifting, maybe I'll write that rant on another day.

Finally...some pictures

2006-10-16T07:42:00.000-05:00

So I've finally gotten around to posting some pictures for your viewing pleasure. They range from events in the summer to Thanksgiving. Enjoy!Here is Chris just after he caught a 28 inch Pike, trying to get it untangled from the net.

My favourite Fisherman

Chris and the girls on my birthday.

Chris and I at Ashlee and Mikes wedding

Ashlee and Mike on their beautiful day.

Date Night!

A few artsy pics from a weekend in SR

Chris helped Dad bring in the dock.

It's a new Brooks tradition to play frisbee golf over Thanksgiving. Here is Matt rescuing a stray frisbee from the freezing cold water.

Standing around with our frisbees.
Not only did we play frisbee but we celebrated Chris and Mary's birthdays with rainbow cupcakes...mmmm.

You're name is Liar..because you tell lies!

2006-10-06T12:52:00.000-05:00

That's me folks. I make grand promises of picture posts and updates and I don't follow through. My apologies. As I again don't have much time and too many things I could share, I'm simply going to share a list of things that made me smile this week. These are my favourite posts to post.
-Fridays
-Free food
-Diet Pepsi
-Cookies
-Looking forward to thanksgiving(all that food!) and seeing my family.
-Putting pictures up in my office and at home.
-Praying with my family.
-Kids laughing
-Watching frosh interact(especially opposite genders)
-Being with Chris
-The sun shine and changing leaves
-Working and taking lunch with Rachel everyday
-Russian chamber choirs
-Bamboo
-Seeing the Chow Chow being walked every morning

School with no school

2006-09-06T16:18:00.000-05:00

Wowza, I can't believe its September. Where did summer go? So, it's been nearly a month since I last posted. Life has been interesting these last few weeks. They including, a wedding, my birthday, trips to the cottage, the catching of a huge pike, a visit from my nieces, bridesmaid dress shopping, moving to my uncles, going to camp and continuing the adventure of my first "real" job. Later, when I have and better internet access I plan you update you all with some pictures, cause I do have a lot of them right now. I'm looking forward to October, because then weekends will be relatively free, and work will be a little less crazy! It's weird being at school, with the frosh but not going to class and buying books. Overall things are good though, life is good! Oh and even better God is good! Yay for Marco, who becamse a Christian last week....Nice(in Borak fashion)

Its August already?!

2006-08-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

Picture Update Time!! So, over the past few weeks I've had some fun, whether it be at a cottage, at camp ABK or taking care of my neices. Here are some pictures to show such events. Above is Chris and I suntanning on the dock at Stacey's cottage in Haliburton.
Tim with his Bass.
Stacey looking beach cute...she's an excellent boat driver.
A turtle skeleton we found.
Baby bear at the dump, we saw three cubs, but no mama.
My boyfriend...he's so cute all skiing.
Stacey showed us all up...who knew she was soo good.
Here is Hope...she is too cute for words. I felt so lucky to have had the chance to take care of my fabulous neices.
Here's Brooke riding her bike on the driveway.

Now I'm back at work, only its a new job. I'm now the Accounting Assistant in the Business Office at Tyndale. Hooray for having a real job, with benefits!

Random bloggin.

2006-07-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

I guess there just isn't much to report. That's a bit of a lie, now that I think about it. I'm moving first of all. Gloria is moving out, so Sara and I have to decide what we're going to do. I'm still working at Ends, but now in the Beach and more full time. I"m waiting to here from two other job opportunities though that would make better used of my business skills.
I've been enjoying the summer, sleeping on boats, almost catching fish, getting sun burnt, and hangin out with people all while not feeling guilty because of the homework left to do...yay for being done school.
I bought some crocs..awhile back before they became this craze. I'm surprised at the amount of strangers that will approach me about them, I got into a discussion about them with three other ladies while waiting for the bus on my way home from work. Its was funny, and random. They're just comfortable shoes...I don't care if other people think they're ugly or not. I can wear them at work for 8 hours and still feel good.
Anyway I don't have much else to report, except that I can't believe how fast the summer is going...make it go slower please!

Charity and Matt June 10th 2006

2006-06-19T19:12:00.000-05:00

At the Bachelorette dinner
Morning of, after hair done...yah!
On the lakeshore
The married couple so happy!
The whole wedding party. L-R

Mary, Nathan, Heather, Chris, Me(Joybeth), Matt, Charity,

Kieran, Katie, Andrew, Nicole and Mark.

Brooke helping Charity

Charity dancing with Dad.

First dance as husband and wife

Sneek Peek!

2006-06-17T10:48:00.000-05:00

So, its official, Charity and Matt are married and off in some foriegn land enjoying each other. At the reception I missed placed my camera, and haven't got it back yet(although I know where it is) so pictures to post are few at the moment. However I was able to receive one pic via my mom. This is me and Chris! More pics to come later so stayed tuned.

Not Quite 9-5

2006-05-24T19:51:00.000-05:00

So I'm working at this store called Ends downtown. It's ok, much better than wonderland, but its not what i want to do long term. The people are fun, and the people who come into shop of fun too. We have some cute things in, and its hard not to spend money while i'm making it.
Tomorrow I go to pick up my bridesmaid dress. Charity gets married in less than 3 weeks.
Chris and I celebrated our 6 month on the 15th, and he gave me a cell phone woohoo. Its exciting, its my first one. It's got iTunes on it, so I can listen to music on my way to work.
Anyway thats just a quick update on my life.

Picture update!

2006-05-11T17:22:00.000-05:00

So it's official, I graduated May 6th 2006. Here are some pictures of the day.
Chris and I
I got hooded!

Yesterday I had my first day of work, but I have a nasty cold and was fevering a bit, so left early. The thing was that Chris and I were going to a ball game at night and I didn't want to go home, so I went to the Bay and slept on one of their display beds. Then Chris and I went to the game and met up with Sara and her brother Jason.
The four of us having fun.
The dome was open, which meant it was windy and therefore cold, so we didn't stay for the whole game, I didn't want to get sicker, and Chris didn't have a coat. So we went back to my place and watched Waynes World.

I'm DONE! Finished, finito!!

2006-04-26T12:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finished my BA, I wrote my last exam at Tyndale, and this is my reaction! OOOOOO!
YAAAAHHH!

Charitys Shower!

2006-04-26T12:23:00.000-05:00

On Saturday night Nicole and I threw a personal shower for Charity at Montana's. It was so much fun and Charity gots some really nice stuff.

I still can't believe my sister is going to be Mrs. Wilkinson!!! Ang and Katie
All of us!
Katherine and Nicole
Charity and Heather

100th Post...let's make it a cute picture post!

2006-04-19T09:25:00.000-05:00

Mary and Me
Hope
Hope and Grandpa(my Dad)
Me and Charity
Brooke and Mary
Me and Hope
Beautiful Brooke

Hope again, looking cute

The beautiful tulips that graced our Easter dinner table

Things that make me smile

2006-04-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

-the sunshine
-the birds singing
-blue sky
-making people laugh
-making dinner for Chris
-when Chris calls
-hanging out with my roommates, and/or having dance parties with my roommates
-when friends call just to say hi
-when my mom tells me i look fly, even though she's not sure what that means
-when dad calls to say he loves me
-when i hear that my neice misses me
-having only a week left of classes
-graduating exactly a month today
-wearing tank tops, flip flops, jeans and sunglasses
-hearing my roommates sing worship songs while they're in the shower
-eating chocolate gelato with strawberries

Spring Banquet 2006

2006-04-01T19:29:00.000-06:00

Spring Banquet 2006

Wow, what an evening. Last night was Spring Banquet and it was sooo much fun. In my books it was the best banquet yet. This could be for many reasons, such as Rachel Boadway and Mike Jones speaking, Dr. Bodner coming back, for me it is the last as I'm graduating and the fact that we had a table full of fun girls. Anyway, it really was a great time, here are some pictures from the evening.

Ashlee, Lauren, Heather, Joybeth and Rachel
Me and Heather

Sara and Nicole
Gloria and Sarah
Rachel giving her reflection
The lights
A little artsieness
Rachel and Me
Shannon, John-Mark, Brad and Me
Shannon and Me
Rachel, Dr. Bodner and Me
Ashley and Me
Ian and Lauren
Lauren and Me(thanks again for the dress!)
The roomies
Chris and Ashley, a pair of presidents
Mike and Ashlee
Ashlee and Me

Showers, Floor Hockey and Jenga oh my!

2006-03-29T16:29:00.000-06:00

Ashlees Personal ShowerAshlee and her roomate Sarah(above)
Elea and Gloria
Lauren and Beth

Floor Hockey

Go Black Go!

Jenga Night at the Boadways

Concentrating Chris

Intense moments

The beautiful sunshine

Long Days, Short Weeks

2006-03-28T15:00:00.000-06:00

It's crazy, each day seems long, most times it drags on. I'm bored in class, avoiding doing work, and thinking about how its nice outside, but I'm stuck inside. Yet somehow the weeks are speeding up. I can hardly believe March is almost over. Easter is on its way, which means I get to go home(the first time since Christmas) and see my neices(also the first time since Christmas). Anyway, that's all I really have to write, just about how life seems slow and fast all at the same time.

I miss my family!

So close, yet so far!

2006-03-23T15:40:00.000-06:00

The end of school is almost here, it's so close I can nearly taste it...oh wait that's just my gum. So anyway, here I sit counting the days. Even though i only have three weeks left of actual class I have a whole lot to do. For example next week alone, I have 5 papers and 2 presentations...ooh and a job interview which I'm very excited about! It's also floor hockey playoffs! It all makes for a very busy week, and the rest are continuing the trend.

That's really all my life is consisting of right now, doing school work and trying to fit in time to hang out with Chris and the roommates. Oh, but something nice...and yet not so nice, is finding out that the bridesmaids dress I wore in Rachel's wedding no longer fits. I was going to wear it to Spring Banquet, but tried it on the other night and it fell off. I knew I had lost weight, but aparently I lost a lot more than I had really realized. Either way I have to find something else to wear, which is disappointing cause I love that dress. Rachel is going to wear it now and she's excited because she loved them too, only didn't get to wear it.

Alright, I'm off to dinner with Rachel. It's here Champagne birthday so I'm treating her to Swiss Chalet..a classic ha!

Random Pics

2006-03-10T13:01:00.000-06:00

A while ago a couple of us went out to Montanas after youth and Jay's concert.

Here's Gloria, Jay and Sara
Katy Me and Chris
Ian and Chloe hanging out at our place last week.
Chris on Santa's lap in a toy store.

To save you from further scare

2006-03-09T13:57:00.000-06:00

So, those pictures previously posted, were...well, kind of disturbing now that I think about it, that's why I thought it was time to write a semi-real post in an attempt to push the pictures down and not scare people visiting my blog. Yet now I'm at a loss of words, I don't really know what to write. There's a lot going on right now. It's the season of wedding showers, floor hockey, presentations, papers, exams and job hunts. In some ways I can't wait for it all to be over and in others I can wait. I mean, I'll be done my undergrad, but I still don't know what I'll be doing after. I'm looking for a job that I'll hopefully be at for an extended period of time. I'm just so use to finding a job for the summer.
Floor hockey has been good this season. I play defense and last week got my first goal, I felt pretty special even though we still didn't win...it helped that Chris was there to see me score, made me look more athletically inclined that I really am. Yesterday we played and we were severly low on man power. We only had seven players, meaning no full line changes. The other team had their entire team and we took a gulp at their smirks...they thought they had the game. Only we were like so what if we don't have the extra people, we are taking this game, and we did. It was amazing, everyone was playing full on and even though I took a shot to the knee and the pain is still shooting down my leg, I played hard. The score was 6 to 3. We were pretty excited...and sweaty, it was so much fun.
Well that's all I got right now...more stuff is going on I just don't have the time to write witty rant posts anymore. Later this week I'll probably post some more pics...one's from Ashlee's shower and other random shots that have been taken over the course of the past few weeks.

If we were men

2006-03-07T22:01:00.000-06:00

The other night, in the strange moments before heading to bed, Gloria and I decided to accentuate our facial hair with mascara...The result, looking like scary men. Please note, from previous photo posts that Gloria and I are actually attractive women.

Charity's Shower

2006-03-06T13:27:00.000-06:00

Valentines Day

2006-02-21T15:19:00.000-06:00

This Valentines day was so busy, that Chris and I had to postpone until Saturday. I was the one planning it(because Chris always plans our dates, so I thought it was my turn) and it was a lot of fun. First we made Cherry pie together, and then cleaned ourselves up and TTC'd our way downtown to the CNTower. Chris brought me a flower for my lapel...it was really sweet. It was a surprise and Chris was left guessing until we reached Union Station and headed toward the Skywalk. I had made reservations for 360, the revolving restaurant at the top. It was a beautiful view, and delicious dinner. We had our own booth looking over the city. We got to see the sun set and the city lights come on. Afterwards we went back to my place to watch Hitch...all in all it was an awesome day. Yay Valentines! A nice ad for Robin Hood.

Our beautiful Pie.

The sun sets and the city lights come on.

All dressed up.
In our booth.
Atlantic Salmon
Tomato Risotto
Yay us!

NASA called...and I found five bucks

2006-02-10T16:16:00.000-06:00

This week has been same old, same old. Played some floor hockey, won some, lost some. Went to school, came home, hung out with roommates, and Chris. Two occurances made my week though. I found five bucks in my board shorts when I went to play hockey...yah money, but the most interesting thing was NASA.

It was a regular Friday afternoon, Gloria and I were eating lunch together and the phone rang long distance. I answered to hear a recording saying "Sorry for the recording, but we've been trying to reach you. We can't disclose anymore information at this time, but please call this number as soon as possible.." So I wrote down the number curious about this, and told Gloria. She's like I'll call the number and find out. So she did, they answered. "NASA Canada, how may I help you." Gloria-"Yes, um I just got a message to call this number." NASA-"What is the number that you were called at." Gloria-"...."(gives our number) NASA-"Ah yes we're looking for Joyce Brooks" Gloria-"We don't have a Joyce Brooks, but we do have Joybeth Brooks." NASA-"Is the last name hyphenated?" Gloria-"No Joybeth is the first name." NASA-"Oh, I'm sorry we must have the wrong number then." Gloria-"Who was this again?" NASA-"NASA Canada." Gloria-"Alright thanks, bye."

So anyway that was our excitement. NASA mixed me up with some specialist and the VP of BIG(Blacks in Government).

Two pics to wet the palette!

2006-01-26T21:23:00.000-06:00

Me, Brad, Shannon and Andrew, enjoying fresh eucalyptus

All of us at El Patio, enjoying Conquistadors

Pop in a bag!

2006-01-18T22:36:00.000-06:00

Christmas and New Years

2006-01-05T12:52:00.000-06:00

Christmas was really good this year, actually it was pretty awesome. Mom was able to come home on the Friday before, Mary, Rich and the girls came that night and Charity got in late Saturday night, so that we could all be together, around this our beautitul Christmas tree, on Christmas day. Because Mom wasn't 100% Dad, Mary and I pulled together dinner, and the Christmas baking, it was cool. Oh and Christmas is so much fun when you celebrate with children. Brooke and Hope were so cute, and definately added a new dimension to the morning. Especially when Brooke came to wake me and Charity, and shortly afterwards had Mary looking for her, because she was suppose to be going to the bathroom, not wake us up.

This is the view in our backyard, it reminded me of Narnia, it was beautiful.

The Brooks sister together. We certainly are a goregous bunch.

This is my cousin Richard with his girlfriend Katherine, she's cute.

This my Dad, with his brothers and sister. Ed, Bill, Betty and Don.

This is one of my favourite pictures from the holidays, it's my Grandpa and Grandma Brooks. They're great, and I don't say that enough.

Of course these are my neices, and mom holding Hope

This is my amazing family all together, which is pretty rare these days. In the back is Richard, Mary(holding Hope) and Me. In the front is my Dad, Brooke, Mom, Matt and Charity.

There was no tobboganning or polar dips this year, but Christmas was fun, it was nice to hang out, watch the kids play, and enjoy each others company.

New Years!
New Years is always different for me each year. I don't think I've ever done the same thing twice. This year I came back to the city and then headed north to a cottage on an island in Lake Simcoe. The only people I knew were Chris and Sandra...so I knew it would be an adventure.

The adventure started with us all taking a ferry across in the ice covered lake. This is Tim, one of Chris' best buds, on the ferry, looking cold.

This is me, Sandra and Chris, who decided that waiting in the semi-warm car on the ferry was a better option.

The Cottage was huge. Five bedrooms, two living rooms, both with a big TV and satellite, two full bathrooms, a dining room and kitchen. This is the group of us, ready and counting down, it was taken two seconds before 2006.

This is me and Chris just after midnight, I'd say we're pretty cute.
Tim and Chris, toast to the New Year.
Tim and Sandra...need I say more?
Me and Sandra, I was so glad she was there, we had fun together that weekend. And of course had a little dance party while the guys had their cigars...I still don't get that.
In the pink shirt is Greg, he was pretty excited about the New Year.
2006: Year of the Blazer. At least that's what Glenn kept saying, hence this picture, of Glenn, Tim and Greg in their blazers.
This pony represents Sunday, New Years day. This is because we never were suppose to see this pony. We were all going to go to the arena where Tim works to go skating. Only the ferry ran late, putting us an hour behind, then Tims car broke down, we had to just push it to the side of the road and then squish Tim and Greg in the car with Chris, Sandra and Me. Then we were off except we made a wrong turn and drove in the wrong way for 40 minutes. Realizing this, we decided that it was now too late to try to make it the arena, so in trying to find our way home we came across this pony. Tim and I were more excited about it than the others so we got out of the car, hopped across a creek(in which Tim got a soaker) and then fed the pony sticks and pet it. Then we headed back to catch the last ferry back to the island, only to learn that the ferry wouldn't be running the next day and it would be wise to leave the vehicles on the main land. So we did, and went back to the cottage for some controversial games of Risk and Monopoly.

Since we were smart and left our cars on the main land we had to figure out a way to get back with all our stuff. Luckily there was a hovver craft taking people across, so we piled in and went home.

This picture is blurry because it was a little bumpy in the craft. Over all even though I went only knowing two people, I had a blast. In a way it was nice to meet new people and bring in the new year with them.

2006

2006-01-04T10:27:00.000-06:00

Whoa, so I really can't believe that it's 2006. Christmas was awesome. Mom made if home from the hospital and everyone made it safely home. It was so much fun having Brooke and Hope with us. Brooks family Christmas was awesome as well....so much fun, I have a great family I must say. New Years was fun too, I went to a cottage on Georgina Island with some peeps. So either way this is just a quick update to say that the break was fun and that in the next couple days I'm going to put up a lovely post about all the fun with pictures for those visually inclined.

Cottage fun with Chris

2005-12-30T21:32:00.000-06:00

The family cottage
Me trying to drill the slushy ice
Chris and Me

Ding Dong Merrily on High - An update on me!

2005-12-23T08:59:00.000-06:00

That song has been stuck in my head for the past 20 hours...I can't get it out, but I'll survive.

Christmas is only in two days, and my Mom in in the hospital, she's been there a week. She went in for a test, and they found more things wrong. They're hoping she can come home today, or at least for Christmas hopefully, so Dad and I are cleaning the house, and this afternoon I'll be Christmas baking.

I got through the end of school, it was a busy and possibly the most stressful week of my life. The teacher who yelled at me and my group apologized to me, saying he was too hard on me and not on the rest of the group, which was nice, cause I felt pretty low after all of that. It's amazing how an apology can restore respect. Even with the apology it was a lot in one week, and I'm hoping that all goes well in my marks. Luckily I had lots to look forward too, like wedding dress shopping with Charity, meeting Nuna, going to the choir concert and carol sing, going to see Narnia with Chris, Charity and Matt(yah double date!), and coming home with Chris. We got dumped with tonnes of snow and therefore went sledding. The two of us on a kids GT was dangerous, yet soooo fun. We also did a lot of relaxing, enjoying the north and hanging out with my Dad and Aunt Betty. He left this morning to head back for a family party.

Mary Richard and the girls are suppose to be down tonight weather permitting, which I'm super excited about. I still can't believe its Christmas already. This year went by so quickly, and my life has changed quite a bit. For the better of course.

Well thats the update on my life right now...Merry Christmas everyone!

Stress Ball

2005-12-13T19:04:00.000-06:00

Whoa, it's been a while since I last posted anything. Mainly this is because life has been hectic to say the least. Currently I'm simply taking a break from my life to write this post. It's really a venting post this time, so take no offense, if I become offensive. Let me start with sharing the stress that is my life right now. First, exams are always stressful, papers are also stressful, put them together and you have stress squared. In two weeks, I had six papers, a presentation, and four assignments, all before my exam week. Those stressful days were increased with the added stress of being late for the presentation because of car trouble and then having the prof yell at me, in front of the class saying if it was the real world I would be fired and a lot of other not nice things. Further, in an email later that week I received a two page single spaced list of things I did wrong in my paper for that presentation, and that if I didn't fix these things by this Thursday i would fail the class. Now for those of you who know me, you know I don't fail things, let alone do papers that are so horrible as to be criticized like that. If I don't pass this class I don't graduate. The prof doesn't like me, which doesn't help the situation, and a number of the notes of things 'wrong' with my paper seem nitpicky because he doesn't like me. Now, rewriting a 25 page paper is no simple task in itself, not to mention trying to finish other papers and studying for exams on top of it. So basically I just can't wait to be done. I just need to make it through to Friday afternoon and I'll be alright. God's pulling me through this, I'm not sure how I'm still functioning, as sleep is hard to come by because when i am sleeping my dreams are stressful and wake me up. Either way, I'll make it through, and hopefully my next post will include the more happy and exciting things that are going on in my life.

Lakeshore Pics

2005-11-30T12:25:00.000-06:00

The city sky line
Chris and I
The huge swans in the park
Me and the dinosaurs
The goregous sunset we enjoyed

Costume Party Pics

2005-11-30T10:44:00.000-06:00

Charity and Me as Sundin and Eve
Scuba Steve(Chris) and Napolean(Marco)
The Ambercrombie and Fitch Models (Mark and Nicole)
The Cat in the Hat(Sara)
The Ballerina and Miss-eltoe(Sandra and Gloria)
Mrs. Clause, Hippie Chick and Green M&M

(Heather, Lauren and Ashlee)
Joe Dirt, J-lo, and Superman(Ian, Jason and Dan)
Christina, Chris, Ian and Sandra

Congratulations Matt and Charity

2005-11-25T08:40:00.000-06:00

Wow! Hooray! Yipee! Matt and Charity are getting married! Congratulations, and welcome to the family Matt.

Check out Charity's blog for more details on the extravaganza!

Oh Those Mormons

2005-11-16T15:37:00.000-06:00

Saturday night I met a pair mormon 'missionaries', under interesting circumstances. I was having an important conversation with Chris walking home and at the crosswalk the two guys infront of us turned around and started to tell us about God's prophets, and how the book of mormon is the word of God...both of us politely listened as we walked, both frustrated at being interrupted. They told us that they would like to take time with us, about 20 minutes to share the book of mormon with us to see if we too believe it is the word of God. I said "Well, we're both Christians, and have our own strong beliefs about God and what His word is, so no thanks." They said okay, asked our names and bid us goodnight. We both joked that someone should teach them to recognize when people are having a serious conversation. It was the first time I'd ever met a mormon, and it was rather amusing. So anyway, today I went to Chapters with Charity, to watch her stuff while she had a job interview, before that we went to A&W for some lunch. We sat down and I started to tell her the story, I got to the part about saying no thanks, and was about to launch into making fun of them interrupting our serious conversation when one of the guys at the table next to us leans over and says "That's a great story!" We look over confused, and then I say his Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints name tag. Mormons...here we go again. So anyway, he went on a shpeal about prophets and the book of mormon and how it is so great that mormon missionaries had already talked to me and how it was so ironic that I would be talking about it when they were sitting next to us...ironic alright. So anyway, they asked us what church we went to, gave us this thing to get a free mormon video...and when they left we couldn't help but laugh. I didn't know whether to be embarrassed at the fact I was talking about/making fun of/sharing my annoyance with them and they were right there, or if I should laugh..I chose to laugh.

Only You

2005-11-14T12:15:00.000-06:00

Today I fell into pieces, broken at your feet.
I know the change to be made, yet I hold tightly to my faults.
The life I led was makebelieve, some fantasy now unveiled.
I see myself for what I am, confused, scared and ashamed.

Only you can lead me out, put me together, lead me on.
Only you can lift me up, make me whole, show the way.
My life belongs to only you and I want to live for you my God.

Today I found you, you never left my side.
I now know who I am, I am your child.
The life I lead is yours to use, please be here with me.
I want to be real, and share your love, I'm unashamed of you.

Only you have loved me, put me together, led me on.
Only you have lifted me up, made me whole, and shown me the way.
My life belongs to only you and i want to live for you my God.

Today and tomorrow I know I'll struggle
But now I know you'll never leave me alone, or give up on me
Take control oh God, lead me through today
Give me strength to make it through, you are the faithful One.

Only you have loved me, put me together, led me on.
Only you have lifted me up, made me whole and shown me the way.
My life belongs to only you and I want to live for you my God.

That's right, I write

2005-11-07T16:40:00.000-06:00

A while ago I had a post about the top ten things people don't know about it. I found it amusing to write, and the people close to me had fun remembering those things, and learning new things. It has come, to my attention that I missed something important in that list. A part of me that I never share, and I don't know why I don't.
I write...more than just on this blog or papers for school. I have a journal specifically just for poetry. Each summer I usually write a short story or two, sometimes I finish them, sometimes I stop when school starts again.
Last night I was confronted and questioned by someone who just didn't understand why I wouldn't share that part of myself, and I didn't have a reason. So, I've decided to change that...not to an extreme, but I am going to post one of my poems. It's short, fun to say out loud, and not suppose to be 'theologically' correct. Here goes;

Angels watch, through a notch, in heaven where they live.
They see us blunder and they wonder at all we take and give.
To hear what angels think of us would be something quite profound.
For they sing and laugh, but we don't even hear a single sound.

Soon to come

2005-11-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

Soon I'll write about the party on Sunday night, I'm just waiting on some pictures to make it more interesting. For now though I thought I'd write a quick post about my week. It's been stressful but still full of awesome surprises, including the fact I can run again. I went the other day, only for 20 minutes, but I was able to go with minimal to zero pain in my leg. I think I'm going to go again this afternoon. It helps that the weather has been really nice this week. Yesterday it was up to 17 and I walked to work without a jacket. After work I took a walk and found this tree in a huge field. It's branches drooped down around it, and it still had most of its leaves. The colour of the leaves was this amazing mix of lime green and lemon yellow. I just sat down under it and took time to think. I was there for close to an hour, when I realized that it was dinner and I needed to go grab some grocerys. I miss that about home. In the summer I could just go off and be by myself, it's not something I do in Toronto, in fact that's the first time I've done that, especially since living in the apartment. I think I'll start doing it more.

Missin' the Escapades

2005-10-28T15:23:00.000-05:00

It's been way to long since Rachel and I had any escapades together. It could be the whole not living together thing. So anyway, last night Rachie came over and I made her dinner, the classic chicken, mashed tators, and corn. Then we made pie, pumpkin pie to be exact, which neither of us had ever made before, meaning it was open to a lot of laughs. We started out, and were talking out loud as if we were the amature cooking channel. This was rather amusing as we made the crust and ended up getting flour, vinegar all over ourselves and the table, not to mention the tea towels we shoved in our shirts because we didn't have aprons. Either way, we pulled it off, and it tasted really good. It was just really nice to hang out with Rachel and hear whats going on in her life, cause you can't really share much on the 15 minute break from worldview class we have together.

In other news, my stereo is broken. Kyle came over to try and fix it, but he didn't have the right tools, so now it's in many pieces, it's innards exposed, on my living room floor. So much for listening to music this weekend. Ah well. Good news though, I'm eating again, and it feels mighty good. Woohoo appetite. I went out for lunch with Allison from the lake yesterday as well. It was fun, and really good to hear what she's doing. Either way, enough for now. I'll write more after Sunday night(woohoo partay!)

Arrogant, over-fed, and unconcerned

2005-10-25T14:06:00.000-05:00

Today was an interesting turnaround. All week I've been in a strange funk, not able to eat properly, ideas swirling around my head, disturbing my sleep, messing with paying attention in class, with an added unmotivation to do school work. The whole thing I feel has come to a head today. The time I spent in classes thinking about things other than what was being taught, gave me some new insights into my life, into myself.
I realized that I'm a strange sort of control freak. I purposely don't study for tests, because then its my own control that causes me to do poorly. I don this in a great many ways in my life, this is just one example of how I try to control my life in a twisted backwards kind of way. If I really try, or really put myself out there(in life in general), then I taking a risk, in that I won't necessarily be in control anymore. The lack of control in my life right now has manifested itself in some pretty scary ways. Now those of you that know me, know that I enjoy food. All kinds of food, from meat to vegetables to fruit, to bread, to desserts. I really do enjoy food, and will usually give most things a try. The scary part comes in where I've lost my appetite. I eat just because my stomach won't leave me alone if I don't. Then when I do eat, I can't eat regular portions simply cause I start feeling sick after like the second bite, I eat less than half of whats normal, and often just don't feel hungry and will then skip meals. Usually stress brings me to eating more, generally in the junk food category. So anyway, the point of telling you this is just to say that I'm feeling even less in control than usual. I've felt God using this to show me something.
The turning point comes in the realization of how I'm not suppose to be controling everything. I forgot about God. It's as simple as that, even though I was praying, I still forgot. I was busy asking for direction, but still doing my things, still relying on my own strength, still trying to control things. It was only today that I realized the idiocy I was pursuing. God is in control, and I have so much trouble trusting in that. A hymn thats been playing in head over and over, and is constantly moving me, is Great is thy Faithfulness.
In chapel today we had a speaker who spoke about a serious problem in our society. It was about HIV aids. He approached it really interestingly, because we all know the problem, we hear about it all the time, but there is something more. The northamerican church has an issue. There is huge social injustice going on, and here we the church sit, saying oh thats so sad I wish we had a miracle drug. We've become arrogant, over-fed, and unconcerned about the poor, the widowed and the orphaned. Over and over again the Bible teaches us that we are to be helping the poor, taking care of the alien(refugee) and the widow. I was hugely convicted....as soon as the words, arrogant, over-fed and unconcerned left his mouth, all that is inside me wretched. I knew he was describing me...Now feeling truly out of control I simply cry to God, I have no words, but I don't believe God needs my words. My problems of control are supremely insignificant in the greater scheme of things, how can I complain about being unsure of myself, when there are those unsure about how long their life is going to be, whether they'll even reach my age before the pandemic of HIV aids(and a great many other factors) ends their life here on earth. Where to go from here...I don't know, I don't have the answers, but I know God does, so this is where I stop writing and start living, without my self-involved control

Wine and Cheese Please!

2005-10-22T09:41:00.000-05:00

My Friday was an interesting day. I went from sleep deprived, bum dressed, mid-term writing student, to well dressed(and hott), professional, business student. In the morning I had my Business ethics exam, I don't even know why I was stressed out about it, it was much easier than I had anticipated, and I even had room for some humour. Even though I was late to the mid-term i was still the first one done, so i headed home to stress about the night to come.
On Tuesday nights I have Micro-enterprise development class. In that class we're going to Honduras with Opportunity International, to see the work being done, meet the people being given a hand-up, and help build a house or two. As such, we're taking the time to really get to know Opportunity International. Last night was to be a wine and cheese reception held by Opportunity International to inform potential donours and intestors about the work being done and the further need. Three students(including myself) and my teacher from that class headed down to check it out, meet some powerful people, and get some more information. I was nervous, I mean since when do I, the small northern ontario town, girl, go mingle with millionaires. So i took the time, made myself pretty, and had fun and learned some more. I met some people too, and it was cool to be the youngest people there, but at the same time a little weird. Anyway, that was my experience with my first wine and cheese.

Side Note: Wine and cheese for the wealthy is really good, even if you may be allergic to one of the orderves.

Bum leg

2005-10-19T11:19:00.000-05:00

Today i tried running...it didn't go as great as I had hoped. It started out alright, I had to go slower, and my right leg had to make up for the left. Then the pain set in, but I kept going "it's not that bad" I kept telling myself. I soon noticed that my left leg was dragging a bit, and was very tired, so again right leg had to make up for lack. I ended up having to walk the rest of the way home, with my leg feeling odd the whole way home. This whole thing makes me sad, I was really hoping to get back into running soon...guess I just wasn't ready. I'll try again later.

A flood, a party, a concert and late nights

2005-10-17T11:08:00.000-05:00

Thursday night I was home alone-actually doing homework, believe it or not. I had been in my room for about an hour or so, and came out into our living room to clean up. I walked over to our couch that separates our living room from our 'dining' room. That's when I felt the squishy wet sock feeling. Knowing that i had not spilt anything liquidy, and that I was alone in the apartment I quickly knelt down to see if I was going crazy or if there actually was a wet carpet under my feet. The carpet was fully soaked, and I followed this puddle/river of water to the far corner of the dining room. It was coming from the radiator, and we had a mini lake covering about half the room. I quickly grabbed a towel, a bucket and the phone. I rolled up my pants, took off my socks and called the superintendents. After 45 minutes of mopping up water the supers brought me a shop vac...a little late. Then the plumber dudes came and turned it off.meaning no heat. At least a guy came on Friday to fix it...that's the quickest anything has ever gotten done in our apartment.

Friday night we had a birthday party for Sara. It was a lot of fun, we had about 30 people over, a few random people that none of us new, but it was amusing. It was a late night, and all of us had to get up early on Saturday. I got up early, and hung out til I went out to lunch with Mom, Dad, Charity, Gramma and Grampa, and Uncle Bill, for Grampa's birthday. We went to Eastsides, and then back to their condo for cake. Saturday night I drove downtown with Jay, Paul and Ian to meet Sara and go to Jay's symphonic band concert. It was good, and fun and we had some pizza afterwards...another late night. Sunday was church in the morning as usual and in the afternoon Sara, Heather and i hung out and then Gloria came home with Amanda and we napped. In the evening Lloyd, Chris, Ian, Jay and Amanda came over and we hung out. Some people played settlers and the rest of us hung out. It was another late night..especially cause I really just couldn't sleep...I just had a bunch of stuff running through my head...no bad dreams though!

Thanksgiving

2005-10-13T18:07:00.000-05:00

Awe, Charity and Matt are soooo cute!
Dad and Charity traipsing through the bush
Mom, in the bush
Charity, demonstrating the 'stance'

Thanksgiving went really quick this year. It was like a whirlwind. Matt, Charity and I drove up to Mom and Dad's and met Richard there for thanksgiving dinner(pictured here, minus cousins Richard who took the picture). Before we ate we enjoyed a good game of disc golf...in which I'm pretty sure I lost even though we didn't keep score. After dinner we played catch phrase, and Charity and Matt had to head back to the city. Sunday morning the power went out, so we went to church in the dark and cold. Richard spoke on thanksgiving, and we had left overs for lunch and dinner. I came back to the city on Monday, and did work til my roommates came home and then we went to the guys house to watch the Leafs and Senators game.

The bruise of many colours

2005-10-04T13:12:00.000-05:00

So, it's been brought to my attention that I may be scaring away readers with the nasty picture of my bruise. So I'm writing another post so that the bruise isn't the first thing you see anymore. It is starting to heal now...its turning different colours and what naught. I'm still finding it amusing showing people who haven't seen it yet. I've gotten some interesting reactions that for sure. Most people ask if I went to a doctor...the answer is no, what are they going to tell me, other than what I already know...I have a huge bruise. Anyway, it still hurts and is really the only interesting thing in my life right now. Oh except that I went to the Markham fair with Rachel, Jeff, Jenn, Bridget and Shawn. It was fun, and the candy apples and cotton candy were good as always. Thanksgiving is coming up and that should provide some interesting stories to write about at a later date.

Bruce

2005-09-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning was a normal rainy day. I woke up with a cold, and wasn't too sure I wanted to get up and make my way to Wesley Chapel for the morning service. I slept through my alarm, but still managed to pull myself together enough to eat breakfast and look decent enough for church. As we (Heather, Gloria and I) were leaving our apartment I began to tell them how I was feeling as though I should have stayed in bed, because I was just not feeling good. They assured me that I looked nice and that helps to make up for not feeling good. I took a step down the stairs, and fell, most of the way down the flight. I just got up and went to church anyway, but later saw how I should have stayed home with ice instead. Here is the pictures of my bruise from Wednesday night after class.
Ian named it Bruce, hence the name of my post.

Dad?

2005-09-21T21:55:00.000-05:00

Your Daddy Is Darth Vader

What You Call Him: Daddy-o
Why You Love Him: He's the Mack Daddy

Who's" Your Daddy?

I saw this link on Julia's blog, so I tested it out and laughed.

Remember that time?...

2005-09-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

Remember that time I was taking six courses and working and was therefore stressed out and broke. Oh right, thats now! yah, so 120% course load is a lot, and it's only the second week, what was I thinking. It also drains the bank account even more, having to pay more tuition and buy more books. I had the unfortunate and embarassing experience of having my card declined when buying the last of my texts...no reading or eating for me. Hurry up OSAP! One thing that is totally is awesome is that I'm going to Honduras. Woohoo! In January we(my Micro enterprise class) head to honduras for a week with Operation International...we have so much fundraising to do though. We're seriously trusting in God for this one.
Anyway, so much is going on that I don't even really know where to start. So maybe I won't. I'll store up creativity and when something huge...or just so funny I can't help but write about it...happens, I'll dazzle you with my writing skill.

2005-09-15T11:43:00.000-05:00

Me and Gloria at Lauren and Ian's wedding.

I'm sitting on Lester B. Pearson's lap...in Ottawa, good times.

Me, fixing our camp fire, so we could make dinner.

Charity manning the canons in Quebec City

Charity not falling in the well in the jardin botanic (botanical gardens)

The Oratory and the view.

I decided since a lot of my trip pictures were on Charity's blog, I'd only put a few previously unseen pics on mine.

So Long Sweet Summer

2005-09-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

So it's official, summer is ending. In two short hours I will have my first class of the semester. Looking back over the summer I smiled. It started out not so great, but really brightened. i was amazed at how the amount of alone time I had really helped me to figure things out in my life, and really how me just figure myself out..why I do the crazy things i do etc. It was also cool getting to have a more grown up relationship with my parents, even though it still was parent to youngest child.
The last couple weeks after the road trip were random, and filled with not a lot. I chilled on the beach. Slept over at a family friends new cottage(she had surgery and didn't want to be alone), and I got my G licence. I was so nervous to get it, but I did well and didn't have to do any parking...It was a bonus that I had a really nice tester. On the long weekend Mary, Rich and the girls came down, and Charity and Matt came up. It was awesome all of us getting to hang out and stuff. I love my family. Anyway, that's just a quick update on my situation...and I know I've promised more pictures I just don't have the time(i'm job searching, and dealing with the Canada Revenue Agency right now) or the creativity to put together an interesting picture post. I will eventually get around to it though, but for now enjoy my sister Charity's new blog, she's got tonnes of pictures.

The Sixers

2005-09-08T09:44:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken at Lauren's Wedding. I guess the next time we'll all be together again won't be til Ashley's wedding. From Left: Emily, Nora, Me, Lauren, Heather and Ashely.

Sudoku

2005-09-05T20:21:00.000-05:00

Since it was thought that Sudoku was Yoga, I decided I should have a post to clear up this misconception. In short, Sudoku is a number puzzle that the Toronto Start started printing at the start of the summer. My dad was the first to play and forced me to try...so we raced, and I won, and that was how I became addicted. Now everyone plays and is fighting to be the fastest. Really I'm tired tonight, and the computer is super slow because my rents only have dial up, otherwise I'd put more effort into this post and add an example. Instead here is a link to a sudoku site that tells you how to play and gives different strategies, and another link to a site where you can play hundreds of sudoku's for free(I'm all about free).

Oh and on another note...I'm sad summer is over :(

The Things I've Seen

2005-09-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

I've seen a great many things in my short 21 years, today I feel I must share the animals I've seen(or nearly hit with my car) this summer(not including those I saw at the zoo or the biodome)
Bob Cat- saw it Wednesday night, in our driveway next to our cottage
Bear- almost hit one, saw bear road kill and saw them at the dump
Racoon- hit one with my car, saw them a couple times after
Porcupine- almost hit one, went back to watch it
Deer- not uncommon to see a few whitetails on the roads at night
Snapping Turtles- saw them in our lake, almost hit one on the road
Bats- saw a few at the dump when looking at bears(none in the cottage this year)
Birds- I see tonnes of birds, herrins, hawks, ducks, gulls, woodpeckers, jays, finches and the list goes on.
Fish(mostly bass)- when you live on the lake, you're bound to see fish not very exciting.

Triptastic

2005-08-30T21:53:00.000-05:00

So much to write about, and so little time or space. Therefore my road trip will be broken up into days, and I'll try to keep it short, sweet and funny(like me!...jokes, jokes)
Monday: Charity and I drove to Montreal, the drive was filled with car dancing, and playing "Would you rather." On the way we saw this restaurant called "logos land" it was shaped like Noahs ark, we did a double take on that one. When we got the Montreal we slept until Rebekah got home, she made us dinner and gave us a map, showing us where we should go, and transit. She's an awesome hostess. Funniest moment of the day...making meat sandwiches from our trunk outside a burger king, and going inside for mayo...and straws to drink apple sauce...we were so budget.
Tuesday: We got up early to get in as much sight seeing as possible. First we took the Metro to St. Joseph's Oratorie on Mount Royal. It was huge and beautiful, and gave a good view of the city. We were there only an hour or so and Cris called us. So he, Thomas, Flo and Murielle(the girl they were staying with) came to pick us up. Murielle grew up in Montreal, and also happened to know Rebekah from Cegep. Anyway the six of us went to the Olympic Tower, which was an even better view of the city and then wandered through the Biodome. It was full of randomness, much of which you would have had to be there to find funny. After that we went home to Murielle's for tortillas. It also was good times, Charity and I headed out again as we were going to hike up Mount Royal but it started raining, so we went to a cafe in the plateau instead. That night we stayed up talking with Rebekah, and playing more would you rather. It made me miss Rachel.
Funniest moment of the day singing country music at the top of our lungs in Lafawndah(Cris's car)
Wednesday: Again we got up early, this time we were back on the road heading to Quebec city. The drive was pretty, and so was the city. It was goregous, but the streets were crazy. Being in Old Quebec city was like being on a movie set or something. We walked along the board walk up to the citadel, it too was beautiful. We went into the Chateau Frontenac and went to the top floor to get a view. In our travels through the shops and cafe's we came across two americans trying to get directions from people...in their non-existant french. It was amusing to watch, but we helped them out...you should have seen the relief on their faces when we spoke to them in English. We ended our time in the city with some gelato and a visit to the chocolate museum. Funniest moment of the day sitting at a stop light, returning a smile and waving at the cute red beret on the military bus beside us, turning away to tell Charity, turning back to find the entrie bus load now on our side smiling at us...what had they never seen Ontario girls before.
Thursday: Another early morning, and another beautiful day, we really were blessed with the weather we got. That day was our spending day. We first Metro'd ourselves to the botanical gardens, which were beautiful, and gave us a nice break from the craziness of tourts. Then we headed over to look for the planetarium, on the way a security guard saw us looking lost and showed us where to go to grab some lunch...which just happened to be the Eaton's centre..ha. So off we went, on our way we saw that one of the roads had been blocked off for fundraising go-karting. So we watched that which added to our random fun. We ate lunch at the food court and headed back outside. We came out a different exit and found this huge and beautiful Cathedral. Now if you know me, you know I love Cathedrals, and of course Charity, the art major and designer does too. So we went inside, and I can't even begin to describe to you how beautiful and big it was inside. We were both in awe. Then we went to the planetarium, which was fun, and of course had someone snoring. After that we walked ourselves to the Old Port to be like true tourists in Montreal. We took in the sights and by then we both were fading and needed food. So we treated ourselves(as it was our spending day) and went to Jardin Nelson. It had no roof, yet had walls, or rather large windows, and large umbrellas and trees. it was beautiful inside and the food was good to. The meals was filled with lots of Mmmms and ooohs. When we were about finished Cris called, they too were at the old port so we walked to meet them. We spent the rest of the evening with them, and of course ended up at a Tim's drinking Iced caps. Funniest moment of the day thursday was the day with possibly the most funny things happening. 1. A random guy from Montreal pulling up in his white unmarked van, asking us if we were having a good time and then offering us a joint. 2. The Bob Hoskins look alike wanting to keep Charity out til three am. 3. Teaching Thomas and Flo a little salsa.
Friday: We slept in on Friday, but still didn't get all that much sleep. We packed up the car, and headed downtown Montreal one more time. We crossed the St. Lawrence river to the island, and were pleasantly surprised to find the Molson Indy in town. We didn't get super close or anything, as there were massive amounts of securtiy every where, but we did get to see the race cars go by. Then we drove to Ottawa and went camping. Only we got lost, and didn't get to our camp site til it was dark, which meant good times putting up the tent in the dark. Also we managed to set our tent up in what was probably the most uncomfortable ground ever...as soon as we lay down we knew it would be a rough night. Funniest moment of the day calling dibs of not having to talk to the scary, burly, hairy man fishing at the end of the ferry(headed back to Quebec) warf to ask for directions...and Charity coming back holding in the laughter at the fact he talked like a lady.
Saturday: Another early morning, Charity and I packed up, showered and had left the camp ground before 8:30. We were headed for a day in Ottawa. We parked at the art gallery and walked up to Parliment Hill to see the changing of the guard...it was good times. Then we did up the whole art gallery, also good times, as we both love art. In the afternoon we again met up with Cris, Thomas and Flo. Cris went off for ice tea and icecream with the former Columbian embassador, so Charity and I took Thomas and Flo around to see the Parliment buildings. It was amusing, Flo told us of how when they were at the Empire State building he was tackled by security guards over a knife he had in his backpack. We went up the peace tower and in line for security check Charity set off the alarm and got swipe searched. After that we went and looked at some statues and met up with Cris again. I found a random gate that led to a long wooden staircase...the end of which we couldn't see, so we went down it, and found it led to a path along the Ottawa river, it was a nice walk back to the gallery and our cars. Then we started out journey home...which again including car dancing and would you rather. Funniest moment of the day me spilling my entire case of powder eye makeup in the car, therefore turning my hands, jeans and feet metallic pink and five minutes later Charity falling of the half-wall we were sitting on waiting for the guys.

Soon

2005-08-28T21:40:00.000-05:00

Soon I'm moving back to the city. Soon summer is over, soon school starts. I'll make a post about Su/do/ku and my road trip soon!

Montreal here I come!

2005-08-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

I had a good last day of work, and the best birthday dinner ever! My Dad cooked steak, and my Mom made mashed potatoes and stirfried broccolli. They even went as far to buy Wild Vines Raspberry Zinfendal(sp?) to go with it. It was so nice, and for cake we had my favourite, my Mom's Black Forest Cake...ssoooooo good. The only bad thing about the day, is that it poured rain all day, no summer sun bathin for me.
Charity's coming home tomorrow night, and then Monday morning we're getting up early to head to Montreal...YAH! Sister road trip! Anyway, that's all I have to write right now. Have a good weekend everyone.

Surprise

2005-08-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

Ever since my sister Charity's sixteenth birthday I've wanted a surprise birthday party. Last night I got the closest. I barely suspected anything. Sure I saw Mary decorating cupcakes, but I just knew that it made sense because Mary and the girls wouldn't be here for my actual birthday. I also watched dad clean up the living room. I did think it was little weird that we all had to finish Su/do/ku's before we got to eat the cupcakes, but that's my family. When i finished my su/do/ku and still wasn't allowed to have my cupcake I still didn't suspect anything, instead I asked Brooke, who was eating her cupcake to ask if I could have one. "Gamma, Gampa, she have a cupcake?" She asked in one of the cutest voices. The answer was still no, so I took the girls to the living room. Eventually I went to the bathroom and when i came out the living room was full of Taylors(a family that owns four cottages in our bay). More and more arrived, and so did Dave and his daughter Kendra, and Cris and the Bovarians (Thomas and Flo). I was overwhelmed, mostly because I was tired, shocked and a little intimidated by so many people in the living room for me. Kendra(who is 4 yrs old) wanted to sing me Happy Birthday in french, but was to shy to do it infront of everyone, so she came over and I sang it with her, and we gave each other a high five when we were done. Anyway, I was touched that dad would do that for me, I felt bad I wasn't more social. It made me realize that I don't do as well as i would have hoped when it comes to surprises like that. It also for some reason made me really miss my roommates more.
Later that night I went to say goodbye to Cris, Thomas, and Flo, because they were heading to NYC this morning. They were going to the dump to see bears and invited me to come. It was raining so there weren't as many bears to see, but we had fun singing country songs...and listening to Flo take a solo, he did really well for someone who doesn't fully know english. They invited me to roast marshmallows with them, but I declined...I needed to try and sleep, since sleep has been hard to come by lately.
Two more days I'll be 21...even though everyone thinks I'm only 17...sometimes even 15. Two more days of work, and then three weeks before school. We'll see if Montreal works out.

Just a Quickie

2005-08-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I don't have much time, but here's a point form rundown of my life to date:
-My 3hr. drive turned into 5hrs because of a traffic accident Friday night.
-I forgot my dress for the wedding at home.
-Gloria took me shopping for an early birthday gift, so I'd have something to wear to the wedding.
-Lauren and Ian's wedding was goregous and tonnes of fun.
-I miss my roommates, current and previous.
-My neices are super cute.
-Charity and I are planning on road tripping to Montreal for my birthday.
-I'm not ready to go back to school.
-I'm not ready to take my G licence test.
-I need to cut my hair.(How short should I go)

I Hurt Today

2005-08-10T10:26:00.000-05:00

So last night was a huge storm. Tornado warnings were advised for most of the north, including my area. Apparently there were some funnels that hit the ground around North Bay. When it hit we were just finishing out homemade blueberry pie out on the porch and suddenly our phone dinged three times(it always does when lightening hits) and then these dark clouds rolled in, and then it poured rain and the trees were swaying and loosing limbs. We lost our power so we chilled in the dark waiting for the storm to pass. Charity and I were on the porch reading and doing Su/do/ku's and the rain let up. Chris came to tell us a bunch of peeps were swimming in the rain and asked if we wanted to come. So we went down and we ended up playing water ball. Now first I must explain that water ball in our bay is not just water ball...you may as well call it murder ball, because there's only one rule and that is, don't actually kill anyone. So we played hardcore for about an hour, and the longer we played the more people came to join. I took a fist to the face, but luckily I only have a red bump on my cheek. Eventually it got to dark and we couldn't even tell who people were anymore.
So I dried off and decided it was time to head for town. The mist on the road was bad and as so I turned down my highbeams so that I could actually see. As I did two raccoons ran out in front off me. I wasn't about to swerve so I ended up going over one...not with my tires, but it got caught up in the bottom of the car...not fun. So there you have it, the first raccoon I've killed, and really the first animal I've hit, except for perhaps a chipmunk. Anyway I got home, and couldn't sleep...at all. I tossed and turned, and found it useless so I got up and watched some TV, then read and tried to sleep again. Eventually I fell asleep, but kept waking up, I think I slept for about 4 or 5 hours, which isn't enough for me...I like a good eight. When I woke up to my alarm and went to sit up I groaned. My body hurt so much, mostly my arms and back. Treading water for long periods of time when you're not use to it, or tackeling people/being tackled, is painful in the morning.
Today is dark again...we may get another storm, if we loose power again I'll have to leave work, as this week is photocopy week...and I can't very well photocopy if there's no power. I could use a power outage right about now...because I could use a nap.
I started the Chronicles of Narnia the other day. I'm on the third one "The Horse and his Boy." It's good...an easy read, yet interesting too. I haven't read much of C.S. Lewis's stuff, so I figured I'd start with that. Other than that not much is new, I'm done my job soon, I'll be 21 next week, and I'm going to Lauren and Ian's wedding this weekend, hopefully I'll have some fun stories about that to share.

Summer Soundtrack

2005-08-05T03:37:00.000-05:00

I’m a big music person. I don’t know much about bands, and I can’t sing harmony(or hold the melody when Gloria starts to sing harmony), or play any instruments very well, but I love to listen to music. Music plays a big role in my life. I grew up listening to my mom play the piano, as well as my dad playing the guitar. I was introduced the radio when I was eleven, and I’ve never stopped listening. Sometimes I even prefer the gritty sound of the radio compared to the smooth sounds of a CD. Music plays off of how I’m feeling, and when I’m driving I have to be listening to a good mix. This summer has been interesting both in the semi-randomness of my life, and in the music I’ve been listening too because I’ve been driving a lot more, and therefore needing music. There's even surveys that have been done to show that if you're listening to good music you're a safer driver.
When I started working at Wonderland I had my parents ’97 Ford Escort Wagon…not exactly what you’d call hot, but hey it got me around. There was only two sad things about this car, the first, and probably most annoying was that it has no air conditioning, or rather that it does, but its broken and would cost $1800 to fix…and that’s money I just don’t have. The second sad thing about this car is that it has no CD player. It’s radio or tapes for me. So since I couldn’t find any of the mix tapes I made when I was 13, I was just listening to the radio. It was good times, but my sister’s boyfriend made it a whole lot more interesting when he gave me a bunch of his old tapes. They ranged from Bob Marley to Hocus Pick, and some random mixes he had made about 6 years ago. I listened a lot to Bob…so I jammed all the way to wonderland and back. Then I ventured out and started listening to the mixes. One of the tapes was so random, even more random that the tapes I’d made myself years ago, more random than the mixes I’d made for my sister. The songs ranged from the Star Wars theme song, Bare Naked ladies, Will Smith, James Brown, News Boys, the dance version of the Cotton Eye Joe song and a rousing version of “Say you Will.” This tape kept me amused until I finished at Wonderland.
Coming back to South River meant leaving behind the variety of radio stations, for two, Easy Rock and The Fox. These are the stations I grew up on…mostly the Fox, because Cheesy rock just should not bear the name rock at all. The Fox is the rock station for my part of the north. It plays the classics and the hits, and generally will make me laugh at least once a day in their selection of songs to go in the same sets. The morning is full of games, which amusines me and gets my brain working, and reminds me of the mornings in highschool that I would get up, and turn on the radio. Anyway, just like any radio station they’ll disappoint me, but generally I’m quite happy driving and listening to the Fox. Only there can I listen to U2, White Snack, ACDC, Bon Jovi, K-Os and Audio Slave in the same set. So, in tribute to the appreciation of the music I’m listening to this summer I’ve compiled the 20 song soundtrack to my summer, each song is one I just plain enjoy listening to, but also has a brief explanation of why I like it past the sound.

1. U2 - City of Blinding Lights: This song doesn't have anything really significant about it. I just really like the beat, and it's got some good lyrics too. Mostly this song is first because I love U2. They're a band I can listen too anytime, very good driving music.
2. The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done: I like to sing along to this song. It's fun for driving, or just getting ready in the morning. It's fun to dance around to sometimes too.
3. Bob Marley – Could You Be Loved: I don’t know why, but I just love this song. It’s got a good beat, fun lyrics, and is an excellent summer driving song to groove to in the sunshine. This song is best complimented by singing "I shot the sheriff" with Gloria.
4. ACDC – Back in Black: I don't feel like I need to explain this song. The CD wouldn't be complete in representing the music of my summer without an ACDC song and it's the last one I heard.
5. White Snake – Here I Go Again: A classic right here folks. More 80's rock, it fits as every weekend on the Fox is a classic rock weekend. I can't explain why I like this song...I just do.
6. Bon Jovi – Wanted Dead or Alive: Charity and I love to rock to this song...we sing as loud as we can, ..because we can.
7. Audio Slave – Be Yourself: It seems that every summer there's an Audio Slave song that I love...mean while they aren't a favourite band of mine. This summer's song "Be Yourself" I love because as I grow-up(scary!!) I'm learning to be myself more...because it is all I can do, no more fakin'.
8. Low Millions – Eleanor: Low millions has a unique sound, and I got stuck on this song after a break up. "I won't call ya baby anymore!"
9. Jack Johnson – Sitting, Waiting, Wishing: Good old Jack, he's got the mellow sound I love. I also love this song, mostly because there's situations where I can relate to the lyrics, and sometimes I get tired of sitting ,waiting, and wishing for things, or people. Surprisingly, not as many people know him as I'd expect...listen to him people he's good!
10. Cold Play – Speed of Sound: This song like City of Blinding Lights, is just a good summer feeling song. Plus I just really like Cold Play
11. K-os – Crucial: Hmm what to say about this song. First of all I think K-os is a great musician, and it's cool that he's Canadian...a unique Canadian at that. I have mixed feelings about the lyrics in the chorus. "I don't want to change the world, I only want to stop pretending." Personally, I to change the world, and that includes stopping pretending.
12. Rolling Stones - Give Me Shelter: I heard this song this morning when I was getting ready for work. I used to love it in highschool, but could never remember the name, and I definately couldn't sing it so someone else could tell me the name.
13. The Trews – Fleeting Trust: I like the Trews, I'm sad I won't be in Toronto to see them play on the 16th at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. This song doesn't hit me any special way, I just like to sing at the top of my lungs to it.
14. High Holy Days - Not Ready to Go: There's a lot of reasons I like this song. One it's got a good beat, I sing along with it, and it always manages to be on when I'm not ready to go somewhere. Like to work, home from the cottage, to South River from Toronto, back to school, into an exametc, etc.
15. Lover Boy - Working for the Weekend: Yet another classic, I mean could I really make it through the whole CD without another hit from the 80's, the best decade, because that's when i was born. This is such a summer song, because in the summer everyone, including me, really is working for the weekends. Also a great driving and singing along song.
16. Britney Spears – Do Somethin’: Whenever I hear this song I'm reminded of the road trip to Virginia with Heather. Also, I like this song, cause I hate it at clubs, or wedding dances where people just sit and watch others dancing and having fun. "Get off your seat and Do Somethin.'"
17. Rob Thomas – Lonely No More: I like the more upbeat version of this song. It's fun to sing to, plus Rob has one of the only male pop voices I like.
18. Dixie Chicks - Landslide: This song has a lot of meaning for me...mostly because of it chorus. I am afraid of change, and each summer since I left home I've gotten stronger. I'm still not a fan of change, but I see that it is good. Also, this song being on this list is huge...because I used to hate country, it's still not my favourite and I can't listen to it a whole lot, but thanks to Gloria, Heather and Charity, I have an appreciation for country music.
19. Gwen Stefani – Holla Back Girl: It's true I ain't no Holla back girl and this song is bananas! What can i say, I like to spell out names of fruit(jokes). Really I can't always listen to this song, but its fun to sing in the car with Charity while on our way to gelato.
20. Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy: This song makes me laugh "You gotta, Prada, bag with a lot a stuff in it, give it to your friend, lets spin." Need I say more? I can't always listen to it though...that's why its last on the CD.

Disclaimer: This CD does not actually exist, it is purely a written representation of the CD I would like to have. If any one wants to make it for me I will not object

Things That Made Me Smile This Weekend.

2005-08-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

-My 2 year old neice telling me I was awesome.(actually on thursday, not quite the weekend)
-Getting off work an hour and a half early.
-Tracking Charity down at Pioneer so we could go visit Mom in the hospital, and listening to Bob Marley on the way there.
-Beating Dad at Su/do/ku when I didn't even want to play.
-The way the sun was out when I got up Saturday morning.
-The puffy clouds.
-The weekly Bay BBQ, so many people, so much food, so much good conversation.
-The sound of the congregation singing without accompniment,Sunday morning.(I love summer visitors!)
-Not having to get up early Monday morning for work.
-Watching two angry sea gulls repeatedly divebomb the annoying seadooer.
-Reading a my book on the beach.
-Talkin' on the raft with the ladies of the bay about everything from, easy meals to cars, to border crossings.
-Watching all the men and boys in the bay catch the snapping turtle.
-Watching the snapping turtle try to jump out, makin' the ladies squeel and jump back.
-Realizing I will be legal in all countries in less than three weeks.
-Mom coming home from the hospital.

Please note: I was intending to post another entry, but this one seemed more appropriate for how I'm doing right now. Maybe later this week you'll have the priviledge of reading the other prepared post.

The Amazing 2 for 1

2005-07-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

So, let me be honest here, even though in my previous post I said I should start writing more meaningful things, I still love to write about the amusing things too. Further, when I swell up for no apparent reason I need to tell people about it. Therefore in honour of both the random funny and the deeper meaningful things in life, I'm writing two posts in one. First is the funny randomness, of the last week, second is the meaningful aching of my heart.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
So where do I start with the amusement? Maybe I should start with the fact that I drove to Owen Sound for the first time(the good), and for three of the four hours I had to pee, but everywhere I stopped the bathrooms where either being cleaned or the place was just plain closed(the bad). Finally I spotted a Tim's and did some crazy driving, and then a painful I-have-to-pee-so-bad-I-think-I'm-going-to-die run across the parking lot, which in retrospect is funny, but at the time was ugly.
I got to Owen Sound safely and got to spend the whole afternoon and evening with Ashley, talking, swimming, playing water ball, and eating ice cream(good). Then Amanda and Gloria arrived around 11pm, and we headed out to our get away in the middle of nowhere. We talked til 3am, and decided to head to bed. Only Ash and I who were sharing the master bedroom stayed up for another hour and a half talking. It is in that conversation that I got the nickname "cagefighter". Still not sure how that works...but hey, its amusing right? Anyway the next morning we got up and had a really good impromptu devo time(good, and will be discussed in more meaningful part of post) Even though it was threatening to rain(bad) we went to Sauble Beach. On the way on one of the back roads I had to drive around a snapping turtle(random, and increasing my dislike for snapping turtles...bad mems) who was crossing the street, ironically enough it was crossing at the turtle crossing sign, shoulda taken a picture. The beach was packed even though the weather wasn't nice. Then we headed back to our retreat for some water ball, it was funny, but really you had to be there.(more good) We had decided to go to the drive in that night, but when we got there it started to rain(bad, and ugly), so we went to the regular movies instead. Even though we knew that there would be some form of crude jokes in the movie of choice we still went and saw Wedding Crashers. It was worse that we first thought though. There were some really funny things that happened, but they couldn't redeem the inappropriate things.(bad and ugly) Christian boys, as your sister in Christ I strongly advise you not to see this movie. Anyway home we talked about how our society cheapens marriage and sex, and how sad that makes us. During our talk a deer ran out in front of us, startling us all. Thankfully Gloria spotted it and I was going slow enough to advoid hitting it. We went to bed, yet still contemplated both what we had discussed that morning as well as after the movie. Sunday morning we went to Ashleys church(good). Then had lunch and then Glo and Amanda had to leave.(sad) I stayed a little longer and Ash and I went to good old Wally's(Walmart) to get our pics developed(good). We puttered around for an hour waiting, but upon our return they told us that they're machine was broken and our pictures wouldn't be ready until the following night(bad). I was just kind of shocked and said that I live four hours away. Anyway, we figured something out, Ash would pick up my pics and mail them to me(good). So then I said goodbye, and headed home. Yet again I was met with more wildlife on the road, this time in the form of a bear running in front of my car...what is with the animals attempting suicide with my car?!
I got home safe, and my week was rather dull until Tuesday night. I had to drive to OPC to give my sister a car(good). All day my hands had been itchy, and it got worse on the way to OPC. When I had dropped off a car for Charity and got back in the car with my dad, the following conversation took place a short while down the road.
Dad - Am I going the right way? I think I missed the turn.
Me - No, this is the right way, I remember passing this house. -scratch scratch- Man, my hands have been itchy all day, and they're really sore now.
Dad - Huh, weird
Me - Yah weird, itchy and....SWELLING, my hands are swelling!
I was having some sort of allergic reaction(ugly), to what I still don't know. So we rushed ourselves to Walmart to see if they were still open, so we could get some Benadryl. When I got out of the car the first thing I saw was Mike and Nora(good). The conversation goes as follows.
Me- Nora?!
Nora and Mike- Joybeth?!
Nora- What are you doing here?
Me- My hands are swelly!

So my dad ran in and got me my drugs while I got to chat with Nora and Mike. It meant that a bad and ugly thing, got turned into a good thing...yah seeing friends! Anyway I got home, all hopped up on Benadryl .
On Thursday night I drove to Toronto. For dinner I stopped for Mickey d's, and since they took forever making my nuggets, they gave me an apple pie thingy for free(good). I got to T.O. and hung out with Sara and Gloria who were watching Gidget. Friday I got have lunch with Rachel, which was really good I miss her. Then I went shopping as that night I was to attend a surprise shower for Lauren and didn't yet have a gift. So that night Gloria, Nicole, Heather, Tiffany I drove to Guelph to surprise Lauren(good). It was probably one of the best showers I've been too. Saturday I expected to be another day of good hanging out time. Sara, Gloria and i went swimming(good), but when i got out of the pool the following conversation insued.
Gloria- Hoober, are you allergic to your deoderant?
Me- No, why?
G- You've got bumps on the edge of your armpit.
Me-Thats weird, are they any where else?
G- a little on your back.
So we went inside, to look in a mirror. Gloria went into our room. Sara jumped in the shower and I looked at my bumps(ugly). Then my hands started to tingle. I rushed into my room to find Gloria.
Me-Glo...Glo! my hands are swelling!
Glo-What?!
Me-Look at my hands.
Glo-Whoa.
So I downed some Benadryl, and put cream on my hands in an attempt to reduce the swelling, and get my ring off(bad...bad and bad). It was stuck, but I finally managed to wedge it off with much pain. Then the bumps started appearing on my wrists, so I took off my watch hoping that my arms weren't going to balloon up too. We called Telehealth and I talked to a nurse, and she told me I had hives, and told me what to take and to see a doctor if i started to have trouble breathing. As I talked to her I watched as my stomach broke out, it was weird. So anyway, I slept most of the afternoon away, thanks to the Benadryl. When I finally woke up I was still out of it, not quite thinking all that clearly, but Sara Gloria and I went to see The Island(good), anyway. It was good, I would go see it again. The whole night was filled with fun, mostly Glo and Sara laughing at me and how I didn't get their jokes and what naught.
Sunday morning I got up early(ugly) and booted it up north to make it to the 11am service at my hometown church(good), which was totally worth it. Gus spoke on the temptation of Jesus and it was really good, I always enjoy when he speaks.
That brings us to now, and not much is different, I can't sleep because of my faulty dream works(bad). Instead of giving me nice dreams to keep me asleep, I wake up numerous times in the night from nightmares, or nightterrors(ugly), whatever you want to call them.

Where is the Love?

So now on to the more serioius blogging portion of the amazing 2 for 1. The past few weeks have been hard, not because of missing the city and roommates, or adjusting to living in my smalltown with my parents again, but for another reason. I've been watching a lot of the news lately, and reading more of the paper since I've moved back to South River. It along with my own realizations of my selfishness, had made me realize that I live in a bubble of me. I used to avoid watching the news, because it would make me sad. Really when I see how the world is full of hate, evil, war, bloodshed, revenge, and lies, I feel sick inside, and I know I have to do something, but what? Where do I start? It's after I asked this question that I shut down, and go into my disgusting habit of playing victim.

I have done it for years, and probably will continue to battle it. I play the victim to myself, to others. I want sympathy, I want people to feel bad and therefore excuse my bad behaviour. I do it when I treat family or friends badly, I blame it on not enough sleep, or a bad day at school/work, or the fact I've been "going through a lot lately." Really, I need to start asking myself why I can't just take responsibility for my actions, for my procrastination, my lack of studious behaviour, my snobby habits, my unfriendly attitude, for snapping for no reason. Yeah sometimes life sucks, and it makes us mad, grumpy, and generally not fun people to live with, but what happened to being humble, and sincere apologies, without the over emphasized excuses. What ever happened to saying "Sorry, I messed up, I didn't do what I was suppose to/I did something I shouldn't have, would you forgive me?" Now it seems I spend my time saying "Hey man sorry, but life is crappy right now, so really its my circumstances that made me act, or not act a certain way." I'm not saying if you loose a loved one or a job, if you fail an important course that you tried so hard to pass, that you can't be angry or frustrated, because that's not realistic. Life is hard, and it effects us emotionally and spiritually. What I'm saying is, think about more than yourself. So you haven't had a great day, but there's a lot of other people out there that have had worse days, and even if you have a bad day it doesn't give you the right to treat others poorly.

Now is where I really ask the question, where is the love? I figured it out, the love I had for others and God decreased, and my love for me increased. Collosians tells us that we need to bear with each other, to cast out our impurities, and to bind ourselves together in love. I know I haven't done this. I am a representative of God, therefore the words issuing from my mouth should reflect as much...but lets be honest...a lot of what I say is not Godly, and I have trouble bearing with others when they are not...fun to live with. It's the same with my passion, I get all consumed in myself, and forget about the whole serving and loving other people. I have the personality that feeds off of other people passion. If you're excited about something and show that, then I'll more than likely get excited about it too. I used to use the excuse that I didn't know what my passions were, but I know, and I've learned them well this summer. I'm passionate about wanting to serve God, and strive to be better in Him. I'm passionate about helping people, making this a better world for everyone. Now obviously there is not much I can do in stopping the wars that plague many countries, but I have so many outlets to help even in my small town, in the GTA, in my circle of friends. I like to help, I am a behind the scenes type of girl, I don't like being upfront, but just because you don't see me, doesn't mean I don't want to help, or mean that I am not doing anything. My fight for this year, is to get people excited about helping people other than themselves. I want to get involved with the missions team this year. Last year I never knew what was going on, this is because of a lot of factors. I was a commuter, and didn't try super hard to find out, but I don't remember advertising for stuff either. Hopefully this year will be different. I don't know how yet, but I want to get Tyndale excited about makng themselves known in the GTA for wanting to serve in the name of God, because there are so many opportunities out there for the students to get involved. Anyway, I guess I want missions events to be as big as student council events, I want the focus to be on both students and the community around. I want to break down the bubble. It'll be hard, it'll be a fight, but I'm ready for battle.

*Take note that this post took nearly a week to write, partially because my internet kept messing up and I lost half of it five times...so if its not flowy, I'm sorry.

Coming Soon to a Blog near You!

2005-07-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

So, this weekend was quite the weekend, its was unbelievably fun, and at the same time very convicting. I don't yet have all my thoughts together, but I'm working on it. It's time I posted on something more than what things I do in daily life, something deeper, as that's what I intended on doing with this blog in the first place. So stay tuned, I will be sharing my change of heart, my conviction and my blessings that all came from this past weekend. Read Collosians 3:1-17 if you get a chance, as it has a little to do with all of it.

Wednesday News Flash

2005-07-13T10:34:00.000-05:00

*Cough* Sputter* Hack, Hack*….That’s what I sound like these days. I’ve developed some sort of nasty chest cold. It’s all in my lungs, and when I breathe it all rattles, blah. It also means that I have raspy man voice to enjoy. The humidity isn’t helping, it makes it hard to breath, I feel like that old man I sound like. At least I’m not suffering alone, my mom has the same thing, so we hack and cough together.
Other than being sick, I’m enjoying myself up here in the north. I like my work, and I like lying on my hammock reading and sitting on the beach on my weekends. The other night I watched Jaws on CBC with my Dad…good times. My best friend Kristin from high school came over for a bit. She drove her fiancés Toyota Celica, it is really nice, it got all the dads in the bay wishing they could trade in their mini-vans for a sports car. She’s getting married in 2007 and she asked me to be her maid of honor. I’m honored; yet a little nervous…that’s a big responsibility. It was weird the other night she called and she was telling me about the plans she and James (her fiancé) have together, about wanting kids soon after and saving for a bigger house. So weird thinking about her being a mom, cause I’ve known her since kindergarten and we’ve been best friend since 7th grade, we’ve each seen each through just about everything.
I am feeling lonely though, I miss my roommates. Charity was here for bit, but now she’s at OPC, and is at this moment on a canoe trip with a bunch of city kids. I miss her. Mary, Richard, Brooke and Hope were down for a wedding on the long weekend. It was good to see them, Brooke is so fun, and i love that she's not people shy, if you'll play in the water with her she'll like you. I miss them. I also miss doing city stuff, like randomly jumping on the TTC to see what’s going on downtown, going for Gelato with Charity or watching old movies at the harbor front. I think the solitude is doing me some good though, it gives me a lot of time to think…or at least that’s what it should be doing…right? Anyway, this weekend I’m driving to Owen Sound to see Ashley. Gloria and Amanda are going too, so it’ll be great to see them. Unfortunately, I’ll be driving a car with no air conditioning, and gas is flippin’ expensive. Oh well, it’ll be worth it for sure.
You’ve probably all heard about the London bombings by now, and if you haven’t, watch the news will ya! My Dad watches the news after dinner every night; we eat dinner early so that he can watch it. Therefore, I’ve been watching a lot of the news. Mostly its about how stinkin’ hot it is, and about the bombings. Last night as I watched with my dad, they were doing an update about how they raided suspects homes and stuff. I asked him if he thought Canada would be the next of the G8 to get attacked. He said yes, so then I was like, well is it gunna be Toronto, or some other city. He said Toronto…and that was the end, like we both knew…like I knew, but I needed someone else to say what I was thinking. Will it happen, I don’t know, I won’t be surprised if it does, I’ll be angry though.
Well this is getting long. So I’ll end with saying, any of you Toronto peeps that want to visit feel free, next week I have the cottage and house to myself…woohoo! Come visit, or I'll die from lack of people contact.
Stay Cool and leave a comment.

What You Don't Know

2005-07-01T10:22:00.000-05:00

Long after I had come up with the idea for this entry, and had compiled the whole thing, I remembered that over the last two months it's been a trend to have a Top 10. I hesitated for a moment, not sure I wanted to join this trend, but decided I didn't care, because this Top 10 is completely different than others I've seen, and all of the top ten will be in this one entry.

The Top Ten Things People Don't Know About Me (aka. TMI)
10. The So called "town" I grew up in, is actually a village(because it's sooo stinkin' small, I'll admit it, I'm part Hick).

9. At my apartment I'm louder than Gloria, but not Heather.

8. I was born with a cleft lip, and therefore have had plastic surgery, a double baby tooth, and an extra adult tooth.

7. I once did an airband to a Spice Girls song in front of my school.

6. When my Barbie's weren't crashing their cars, loosing limbs, or running away from evil Ken, I was using them as nunchucks against my sisters.

5. I'm obsessed with punctuality, so much so that my watch is set eight minutes faster than real time, so that I'm always early, never late.

4. When I was five I either wanted to be a ballerina, or a prostitute(there's a good explanation behind that one).

3. When I was little my Mom called me Goozie and Joyzobetho.

2. I watch shows like "For Love or Money" and "Beauty and the Geek" with my Mom, and movies like Clint Eastwoods " A Fist Full of Dollars" or any James Bond, with my Dad, and love it too
bits.

And the #1. Thing that people don't know about me, is.....

I have an innie, but I can make it an outie.

P.S. Happy Canada Day

Long Awaited Pictures

2005-06-25T15:27:00.000-05:00

Possibly the cutest picture ever!!

Rachel , Jeff and their gorgeous cake.

First kiss as a married couple

Amy, Joanna, Rebekah, Bridget and Me, holding Jeff. (And no I'm not grabbing his but!)

And of course the pictures wouldn't be complete without a picture of me looking pretty.

Would you like a Shirley?

2005-06-20T18:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Sunday, Father's Day, and Charity and I spent it together, since we couldn't spend it with our Dad. We went to the meeting house, I took her to get her prescription filled and we went to Swiss Chalet for lunch. For some reason we decided that the three course meal was a good idea, and therefore started on a journey of gourging ourselves. Soup, then a full meal and pie at the end...we left there moaning. Half way through our meal Charity's friend Nathan came in, we were surprised to see anyone we knew because we were out in Oakville. He didn't see us when he came in, and was sitting the other way, so we tried to think of a way to get him to look over at us. Finally, I told Charity that she should order him a Shirley Temple and get the waitress to tell him it was from us. The waitress gave us a funny look when we asked her too, and Charity tried to tell her that in fact we did know him. So she did, the look on his face was priceless, and I've never seen someone go that shade of red before. So he came over, and was like "That was awesome, you guys got me soooo good!" It was fun. Charity and I always have fun together.

Today I worked, it was boring, I was doing Leather again, but the Chuppa Chup machine was unplugged and therefore I was happy. Ha, I also saw this kid walking with his map out in front of him, and he fully walked into a garbage can knocking it over and falling down with it, I couldn't help but laugh. Oooh, for those Canadian Idol fans I also saw John Dore, and the camera crew, they were taping some stuff for a later episode. Anyway, Mary, Brooke and Hope will be getting here in a bit and i need to finish picking stuff up.

Should I stay or should I go?

2005-06-16T16:05:00.000-05:00

I'm torn today, I have to make a decision about whether it's time to leave the city for a job. I have an interview next week, near my home town, it would be nice to be at the cottage again, but I'd miss Toronto and my roomates so bad. I feel like Toronto is my home.

Monday after work, Charity and I hung out, we went to the mall, and then out to a movie with Matt. We saw "The Longest Yard", it was funny, and I do so much enjoy Adam Sandler. They're were some crude parts...not something I'd watch with the rents perhaps, but I kind of expected that.

Tuesday I had the day off, so Gloria, Charity and I hung out. We went for a drive around the Bridal Path area, where all the mansions are. It was crazy, how big these places are. It made me realize that they are two Joybeth's, the first is the one that dreams of living in a huge place like that, with my Jag sitting in the driveway, and a "cottage" up in the Muskokas, as an escape. Then there's the Joybeth that couldn't imagine having that much money, the one who could only see herself just making it by, working for non-profits, and giving her extra money away, enjoying the smaller things in life. Here i sit, in the middle of these two, not really sure what to think of money.

After our little drive around Gloria, Sara, Adam x2, Ryan and Kyle and I went to a Jay's game...they lost brutally, but it only cost $2. It was fun, it was nice to do something Torontoie.

Anyway, nothing funny has happened recently...Charity is sick so I took her to the doctor, since I got called and told not to come to work because of the weather. Now I work tomorrow, and Charity has viral bronchitis, and an exam tomorrow. Other than that, life is plain.

Heat Wave

2005-06-12T17:36:00.000-05:00

Okay, so its been awhile, a lot has happened, and it is unbelievably hot!
I'll start off with sharing a little about last weekend. It was Nora's wedding, it was beautiful, emotional, touching, and oh so much fun. Emily came up, and Ashley came down, and we danced the night away. It was really cool getting to see Mike and Nora show their love, and get the chance to share in that.

This week was hot, each day hotter than the next, each day I reached a new level of sweat. Yet even with all the sweating, and eating of freezies it was an awesome week. Thursday was Rachel's bachelorette party, we went to Milestones and had an amazing dinner in a private room thingy. Then we went back to where Bridget works for desert and games, it was so much fun. Friday was spent decorating the caf at Tyndale for the reception. That night was the rehearsal and it too was fun. Rachel gave gifts to certain people who helped out. She gave me two necklaces, with my birthstone in them, which is really cool cause before she moved out we'd talked about how I've never had anything with my birthstone, so it was really special.

Saturday was crazy yet soooooo amazing. Rachel was goregous, and the day went well, everything came together. The bridesmaid dresses were beautiful and suited everyone really well. The ceremony was beautiful, and I managed not to cry. It was also a very hot day, we all had sweat running down our legs. The reception was also beautiful, the decorations worked well. It was fun and so cool to be there and be standing for Rachel. The whole day just kind of seemed surreal, like every once in a while, I'd have to remind myself "hey this is it, this is their wedding day, their kids are going to look back on these pictures and wonder what their parents were like then." The speeches were emotional, both Jeff and Rachel cried, as well as made other cry. It'll definately be a day that I'll never forget. Now their in the Dominican, drinking pinacoladas(sp?) and soaking up the sun, as well as each other. Anyway thats the day in a nutshell, really there is so much more I could write, but it's hard to put it all into words. All I know is that I love both Rachel and Jeff and pray that God will bless them in their life together.

I'm in the process of trying to get picture, so that I can share with you visually what the day was like.

Psst..your fly is down.

2005-06-06T23:25:00.000-05:00

Todays post is a question to you the reader, so please if you read this take time to share your thoughts.

Twice in the last week I've been faced with the dilema of whether or not to tell a male (a teenager) guest that his fly is down. The first time I didn't. I thought I would embarass him and therefore let him leave the store with his fly still down. Then when I got home I asked my roomates and house guests, what they thought. Most of them agreed that I should have told him. So today I had the same situation arise, and I told him only he didn't hear me, and I had to repeat myself three times, getting louder until he heard me, and he was embarassed, but in the end I think I saved him further embarassment. So, now what is your opinion, would you want a stranger to tell you if your fly is down, or not? Leave a comment to let me know, I'm curious.

2005-06-02T21:11:00.000-05:00

Brooke and Me - May 28th 2005

Quite the weekend

2005-05-30T12:39:00.000-05:00

Charity and I left Friday afternoon and headed to good old South River. We got there around 3:30 and snuck inside while my Dad was sleeping. he didn't know we were coming and so we wanted to think of a way to surprise him. So we got Mom to tell him she was going out for more brown sugar for rhubarb crisp. Then we went outside and knocked on the front door, so he had to come downstairs. When he answered the door we yelled surprise and I've never seen him look so startled before. We nearly gave him a heart attack. Anyway about an hour later Mary came and surprised him too. It was fun.

Hope is the cutest little baby ever. Brooke is the cutest 2 and a half year old I know. My neices are great. I'm so glad we were able to go see them. On Saturday we had a birthday dinner for my Dad, steak and shrimp, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, salad, and cake for dessert. It was soooooo good. That night we played what could possibly the funniest game of pictionary ever. My family is oo crazy. Then we watched "hotel Rwanda" it was so intense and sad.

Sunday we went to church and then had a last meal together. Charity and I drove back to the city and then I picked up Gloria and we went to a Jack and Jill shower for Rachel and Jeff. It was fun, we got there late though, but we still had fun.

This morning I had to call in sick to work. I think it was the food from yesterday. Since we got there late the food had been sitting out for awhile, and I think thats what got me. Blah I just feel so sick. Hopefully it'll get out of my system by tomorrow, I hate that I can't work.

Chuppa Chupps, Ex's, and Detours

2005-05-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

It's official, I never want to here the Chuppa chups song ever ever again. On Wednesday at work I was tending the leather engraving stand, which is actually really fun, except when people don't like the way you engrave things. Anyway, right behind the stand was this chuppa chupps dispenser. Chuppa Chupps are those suckers with gum inside. The dispenser was massive, and every five minutes would play this really annoying song. It was deep male voices singing "Chuppa chuppa chupp-a-doop-a-doop, chuppa chupps...LOLLIPOP."(Thats the shortened version) By the end of the day I was ready to smash it to bits.

So that was the annoying part of my Wednesday, the weird part is that I saw Jamie...yes thats right folks Jamie. He didn't see me, but he walked right past me, and part of me was like I should say hi, but the other part was like, are you crazy, what are you going to say..."Hey, haven't seen you in a year and a half, since you treated me like crap at that stupid curling tournament." Over all I'm glad I didn't say anything, cause shortly there after I saw that he was there with his new girlfriend...whew, wouldn't want to have to deal with that awkwardness. What would I say to her, "Hey nice to meet you, here let me engrave "your name, 'heart', jamie" on your bracelet. " Okay, so just needed to let that out, now I'm good. It was just weird, never expected to see him there.

Today on the way home from work I forgot that the two right lanes are forced to exit at Allen Road. Ha, so unaggressive me decided I'd take a different route home instead of fighting my way back onto the highway. Really it took me the same amount of time, because the highway was moving so slow. I really need to work on being a better city driver. I really was made for country driving, but there is no such thing here in the city. At least I know my way around enough that when I do get forced off the highway I know how to turn around, and find other routes.

Tomorrow I go home, I'm so excited, but I can't believe that my Dad is going to be 60. That just seems odd to me, I don't think of him being that old. I'll get to see Mary, Richard, Brooke and Hope, which I'm so pumped about. Wonderland wanted me to work tomorrow night, I said no, because of going home. I would have worked, if I hadn't already planned to go home. Oh, funny thing. When I was chatting with Pamela today while our tills were being audited she was asking where I went to school, and she actually new Tyndale. Then I was talking about where I grew up and I mentioned Huntsville, and this security guard who was walking by was like "Huntsville...where?" and I was like "S.R." and he knew it, aparently he went to a wedding or something, and he asked if I had a cottage there, and I was like "Well actually I grew up there, and usually people don't know it." It was funny, I guess you had to be there, or at least from a small town. Anyway, that's life right now, I'll write again when I get back from the north.

Joybeth no function sleep well without!

2005-05-22T22:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I just ripped off a Simpsons line for my title. Who could forget those immortal words of Homer "Homer no function beer well without." Mind you I had to change it to fit my situation. As I function fine without beer, but sleep is another thing. Let me share my tales of little sleep.

Before I begin to regale you with the lack of sleep stories, I must not forget to tell you about getting hit, well actually my parents car, with me in it, getting hit. It's not all that exciting, on Thursday I was in a parking lot at the grocery store, and this woman in an SUV fully backed into me. Luckily there was no damage to either of our vehicles, and my parents didn't dissown me for having the car less than a week and getting hit. Either way I left the parking lot a little shaken, and a might po'd. When I called my rents to fill them in, it was just my mom home. She said "If you didn't have training tonight, I'd suggest you have a glass of wine." Which really I could have used one, but instead I settled for her second suggestion, a cup of tea. (Mom I know you're reading this, and I love you...you make me laugh!)

Friday was my first real day at work. As per usual, on the night before a new job starts, I couldn't sleep. I didn't get to sleep til about 12:30 or 1am, and then for some stupid reason I woke up at 5:20am and couldn't get back to sleep. Now some people I know can function perfectly on only 5 hours of sleep. I, on the other hand, can't...I need a good 8 hours to be of any use. So anyway, I get up, get ready, and I must say I do look hott in my uniform (please note due sarcasm), and go to work, ready to serve. I get there, and they over staffed the store I work in, therefore I got sent to this little kiosky thing on my own, where I stood for eight hours watching people debate about whether or not to go on Top Gun. Now I don't know about you but that's my idea of a great way to start a long weekend. (again please note sarcasm, and the slight bitterness against those who had more sleep, and more fun than me) One of the guys I work with kept coming by, cause he wasn't on cash, he was just doing errands and stuff, but I felt bad cause I really was to tired to be very social, so I let him talk on and on about himself, which he didn't seem to mind. Finally at 5:15 my manager Adam, whom I made add makes working there a little more worth it, came and told me I was done, we counted off my till, and I made the drive home. I was in bed by like 10pm and read for awhile. I was suppose to go to the guys across the street with Heather when she got home, but I was just out of it, and knew that I'd be no fun, as my sentence structure disappears when I'm tired, and therefore I couldn't be my usual hilarious self(haha). I slept for a good 12 hours, something I haven't done in ages, possibly since Norwalk. Even with my long sleep I still was out of it, luckily I was out for night of fun on Saturday night. I met Charity and Matt at the Colossus to see Star Wars Episode III. (We chose the Colossus because that's where Charity and I saw episode I when it first came out way back in the day...another funny and eventful story for another day.) It was good, and when we got back to Matt's place we watched Episode IV A New Hope, and it was completely different from all the other times I've seen it, it made so much more sense. Anyway, we ended up just hanging out, watching tv, and teasing Charity til the wee hours of the morning. The ironic thing, is that we went to bed at like 5:20am...ha same time I got up on Friday. Matt had to get up like two hours later for church, and Charity and I got up at 10:30am to go the later service. So now here I sit, trying to read over what I've written, trying to make sure it makes sense. I think I'll call it a night, and we'll see what the rest of the long weekend holds.

Finally, I'm not broke

2005-05-18T00:57:00.000-05:00

YAH! Doing income tax is so worth it...that is when the government owes you money. I got my income tax return today, and they gave me over $100 more than I was suppose to get...woohoo. Now I can buy fruits and vegetable so that i don't get scurvy.

Anyway, nothing else is new. Gloria visited last night, and she's moving back in like a week and a half, so I'm excited for that. Oh and if I work this weekend I might see Mary and Rich.

By the Book

2005-05-17T15:22:00.000-05:00

So it turns out that taking the train early in the morning is cause for absolutely no excitement, and me being as tired as I was, had to energy to create any. Further work was okay, it was training. Unfortunately I won't be able to share funny stuff that happens at work, because of their confidentiality and privacy laws. And since I'm "so by the book" as Heather likes to reminds me nearly everyday, I won' be breaking those laws. One sweet thing though, is that I can get into the park free, woohoo, rollercoasters when I'm done shift...too bad I'm a big chicken.

So right now life is pretty non-climactic. In other words boring. I have more training tomorrow and Thursday. Then its the long weekend, which will be super busy at work. Last night I went to one of Rachel's showers, it was the church shower, it was fun. Joanna came from Montreal for it. Then i slept over again, it was fun. Now I'm wasting time til I have to go watch Melanie for Heather.

Oh funny thing...so I have this theory about when I eat random things before bed, I have weirder dreams. My dreams are usually odd, but they grow exponentially weirder with foods. So anyway, this week has been filled with multiple weird dreams. The latest to the addition would be from last night, I ate marshmallow chocolate fudge before bed. So anyway, I dreamt that I was part of the Friends gang and made out with Joey, but we kept it a secret from the others...who were actually Tyndale people, it was so weird, and incredibly hilarious when I woke up and was like "What was that!"

Officially an employee

2005-05-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Woohoo!! I'm now an employee of Paramount Canada's Wonderland, so people if you're at the wonderful park I know work for, look for me. I start Sunday morning at 8:45am. It should make for a more interesting summer. Although I did have to take time to mourn the fact I'll no longer be a bum.

I leave tomorrow, I'm catching the 8:55am train home, so that I can pick up my parents car. Otherwise I'd be taking a two hour transit ride to work everyday, not my idea of a good time.

Anyway, I'm so excited to go home, I haven't seen my family is so long. I'm sure I'll have some train stories to tell when I get back, and no doubt I'll have stories to tell about my new job.

Addicted

2005-05-11T18:53:00.000-05:00

It's official, I'm addicted to 24. For those of you who have been so unlucky to have never seen it, you are soarly missing out on a truly suspencful show. Sara and I are working our way through season one, borrowing it a disc at a time for the guys downstairs. It's a good thing we're not in school, cause there would be a serious lack of work getting done.

I have another interview. Woohoo Canada's Wonderland! It's only for two months, but we'll see how things go. I'm nervous mostly because I have to take TTC and then YRT. As a small town girl I don't like taking transit to new place, I prefer my bike.

I miss Gloria, Jenn and Rachel. Although I do love my new roomies. Glo went home to Smiths Falls, she calls often though, which is good so she can talk some sense into me over certain situations.

I stayed the night at Rachels, the other day. It's great there, so open, it has a skylight too, which is nice. It made me a tinsy bit jealous, cause even though I love my apartment, its a little sketch. We had fun, it was great cause we don't have to do stuff to enjoy each others company, that's what happens when you live with each for so long.

Last night I spent seven hours in emerg with Heather. She's alright, but I worry about our health care system a bit. Seven hours, and some people waited longer. Luckily I'm naturally funny so I was able to keep us entertained. (Wink)

I finally went grocery shopping for the first time in weeks. I decided that KD was not a balanced diet. Note to self: three straight meals of KD does not sit well for your system. I'm still waiting for my tax return to come in...so that I can buy all sorts of fantastical fruits and veggies.

Well, I'm just killing time until Sara is done some work so that we can watch more 24.

Another day

2005-05-06T15:30:00.000-05:00

Still no job, still no money. I may have to go home if I don't get a job soon. I don't understand why no one wants to hire me, and why I can't find jobs that I would be good at or like. Oh well, if God wants me at Tyndale again He'll provide a way.

Heather came back on Wednesday, and she's still moving her stuff in. She's mostly moved. Sara's all unpacked. It's great having roomates, although I miss Rachel and Jenn. It's weird cause I'm still here, but it's different people. Gloria went home, cause she can't afford to stay here, as she can eat for free at home. I'm going to miss her.

Nothing too funny has happened to me lately, my lifes been pretty normal. So I may as well wait until something exciting happens to keep writing. Something exciting might be my "moondoggie" finding me. (Watch Gidget and you'll understand)

Comfort in His arms

2005-05-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

So it turns out that the phone bill actually hadn't gone in, and therefore I was super short money, Mommy to the rescue again.

Over the past few weeks I've been on not so great terms with God. I don't know what happened. I guess I thought I could take the all the credit for the things I did this year, including getting through exams and the pre-exam week of craziness. I also was kinda mad about the whole no job thing, and I other stuff, and so instead of going to God with my frustration I decided to leave Him out for awhile. You'd think I'd learn over years of the same thing, that God's right, I need Him, and things don't work when I leave Him out. So Sunday morning was a breaking point. Instead of going to church I stayed home and had some good me and God time. Telling Him about my fears, what I'm mad and stressed about. Then finally thanking Him for how He's really blessed me this year, even though I feel I'm in a hard place I had to remind myself of the things I take advantage of everyday. It's so much better to be on good terms with God. I hate being in fights with friends, I just feel crappy, and get sick of avoiding them all the time. It's the same with God, I need Him in my life, and He never leaves me, and when I leave Him, He waits patiently for me to return.

Just plain depressing

2005-04-30T18:50:00.000-05:00

Today is just as the title proposes, depressing. First of all it's raining, for like the 7th day in a row. Any rainy day is a recipe for having a grumpier day. Rachel also left this morning, I couldn't even focus on the fact that she was leaving, instead I focused on how Gloria would be moving in, and how we should set up the room. I was doing okay until Rachel came to say goodbye, and thats when it hit me. I miss her already, and even though I know I'll see her again, and we still get to hang out, it won't be the same. I'm the last person to live with her while she's still a Carson. Gloria's all moved in now, and she's just putting the finishing touches on the room, it looks a lot different, but I like it, it's a nice change, and it's clean. The third reason today is depressing, is the phone call I got from my mom. I had forgotten about the cheque I sent into Bell to pay for internet and phone, it was around $100, meaning that when my mom was looking at bank stuff she noticed that I'm about $50 short for rent. My mom is going to give me some money, enough to cover the $50 I'm short, which is so incredibly generous because they're already making due as it is. My problem now is food, the problem with food is that I won't be eating any, since my bank account will be empty. I guess for the next month will be stetching the three boxes of KD, and half a package of capellini, a potatoe and a serving of peas...no meat or fruits for me. To be honest I'm scared, I'm gunna search for placing that buy used clothes. I'm also going to hand in my resume at Value-Mart, it means saying goodbye to my weekends, but I need to eat. Anyway, i get more stressed out about it the more I write, so that's enough for now. Hope your day is better than mine.

Talk about sad

2005-04-29T18:54:00.000-05:00

This is it, the apartment is breaking up. Jenn left this morning, she'll be back on Sunday to sleep, but her room is completely empty, it echos and it weird. Tonight is Rachels last night, we're packing the rest of her stuff up tonight and then tomorrow at 9am is the beginning of the actual moving. Last night it was sad watching Rachel and Jenn say goodbye. I played one final joke on Rachel, by placing a picture of Stiller's head over Jeffs face in the picture they got taken together last mother's day. If was a good laugh.

I had an interview for a job today, and it ended with a math test. It was interesting, seeing as I haven't tested my math skills without a calculator in awhile. I think it went all right, but I'm not sure if I want that job. It involves a lot of switchboard work, which isn't my favourite thing.

I had a really bizarre dream last night, and I can't even fully explain it unless you've read the Ted Dekker trilogy. It started off at my home in SR, Mom, Dad Charity and Mary were there, and there was some sort of meteors, slash comets raining down creating pools of fire and damaging the house. We had to run into the bathroom for some reason, but there was this bad guy in our house too, and he tried to stop us, and then tried to molest me, but I kicked him in the groin and ran away. Then I was at the beach, and my roomates and the Ramsays showed up. This is where the Ted Dekker book comes in. We were "clean" but everyone else was scabs, and we had to infiltrate the society and blend in. It was so weird, and then we were at this mall and still trying to hide ourselves, but we had to go through a security check and almost got caught. Then we were at a club with my friends from highschool in a similar scenario. Then I spent a large portion of the rest of the dream looking for a bathroom, which made sense since when I woke up I had to pee.

Anyway, I'm tired, and therefore can't think of anything more meaningful to write right now. Ta ta.