Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

Yesterday it started snowing and it hasn't stopped yet. This was this morning at 11 am.



And a couple of hours later, it looked like this.



I'm sure by morning my truck will be buried!!!

My wonderful friends that I'm staying with had fun playing in the snow.







So much fun ... well, it was for me watching from the warmth of the indoors!

Later in the evening we celebrated their oldests birthday. Happy 5th Birthday, Buddy!



Lightning McQueen cake? Wow, what a lucky boy. The things our mothers do for us when we're too young to appreciate it, hey? To all you mothers out there, I salute you. I remember (through pictures mostly) the cakes my mom made for me and they were fancy too. Thanks Mom, in case I didn't say thanks back then.

And I just had to put this picture in of his little brother because it's so darn cute.



Oh, Amazing Race is on. Gotta go! Enjoy the snow, everyone!

Tattoo #4

It means, Enough. Here's the story.

This tattoo has been almost 2 years in the making. When I was in Malaysia in Jan/Feb of 2005, I started reading the book The Sacred Romance, by John Eldredge & Brent Curtis.

This book totally rocked me. At that point in my life I wasn’t feeling much love and was going through some “stuff” with my family. This book was exactly what I needed. God used Monica in a big way by having her pick it out for me as a going away present for my trip. It was the first part of why I got this tattoo. Like I said before, I wasn’t feeling much love or like I was worth much at that time (insecurities abounded) and the title even scared me a little. The Sacred Romance. I thought, “Sure … romance. Haven’t had much of that in my life, so this should be an interesting read.” I could give you a play by play of every chapter because I was in tears by the end of Chapter 1 and wrote madly about every chapter in my journal, but I’ll just give you the main points. He talks about how we always look at God as the Author of the Bible and also the Author of our life story, instead of the Hero of our story. Here’s a little of what I wrote in my journal. “God fights for me, woos me, never gives up on me and most of all, He died for me. What more could I ask for? I need nothing more than You.” On Pg. 81 he says, “God is the one pursuing us … He will not give in.” Ok, wow! I’d always said I wanted to be pursued and here was the greatest pursuer ever, staring me right in the face and I didn’t see it like that. Isn’t that the greatest romance? John Eldredge likes to use a lot of movie analogies, and that’s another reason I really related to this book. (You’ll always get me if you relate things to movies.) On Pg. 91 he talks about Helen of Troy and how she was so pursued that she was stolen by one man from another man who launched a thousand ships to get her back. God launched the greatest campaign in the history of the world to get us back. He sent His Son to DIE for us. Not for our outward beauty, but for our hearts. How great is that? I could go on with many more “a-ha” moments I had from this book, but I think you get the idea. God pursues me, woos me and lets me know that I’m worth His effort. He is ENOUGH for me.

Right when I got back from Malaysia, I bought the Jeremy Camp CD, Carried Me.

I’m not sure who wrote the song, but #3 on the Album is titled Enough. Need I say more? Unfortunately, he didn't sing this song at his concert last month. :( Here are the lyrics:

You are my supply

My breath of life

Still more awesome than I know.

You are my reward

Worth living for

Still more awesome than I know.

Chorus:And all of you

Is more than enough for all of me

For every thirst and every need

You satisfy me with your love

And all I have in you is more than enough

You're my sacrifice

Of greatest price

Still more awesome than I know.

You're my coming King

You're my everything

Still more awesome than I know.

Chorus

More than all I want

More than all I need

You are more than enough for me.

More than all I know

More than all I can see

You are more than ENOUGH for me.

And the third reason for me getting this tattoo came when I read Donald Miller’s book, Searching for God Knows What.

On Pg. 46 he writes,

“Imagine, a Being with a mind as great as God’s, with feet like trees and a voice like rushing wind, telling you that you are His cherished creation. It’s kind of exciting if you think about it. Earthly love is temporal and slight so that is has to be given again and again in order for us to feel any sense of security; but God’s love, God’s voice and presence, would instill our souls with such affirmation we would need nothing more ...

And why do we need nothing more? Because God is ENOUGH!

Ok, the story may be kind of long to tell some random person on the street who asks me what it means, but the short version is: There's a song we sing at my church that says, "All of you, is more than enough for all of me," and that means that God is More Than Enough for me. Sure, if these people aren't Christians and don't understand my beliefs, they might think I'm crazy, but it could be a good conversation starter. :)

Where is this tattoo, you may ask. Take a look at this. It sounds more painful than it was.

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Boot Camp/Work Out Routine Update

So, Boot Camp officially ended on Friday and although I'm glad I did it and I would recommend it, I didn't lose any weight. I did lose 3/4 of an inch off my biceps and 1/2 an inch off my thighs, but my clothes don't feel like they fit any different and I don't look any different. Oh well. It was fun to try. I might try it again in the Spring/Summer when it's not so nasty to be outside.

But since it's over we needed to try something else. Tonight we started using our two week free tryout at this gym in town. We got the tour and then looked at each other like, "What do we do now?" We were so used to having someone tell us what to do that we didn't know where to start. We started walking on the treadmill and then someone told us that there was a spin class at 5:30 that we should try. Neither of us had done a spin class before, so we didn't know what to expect. Well, expect the worst and sometimes it really is as bad as you expect. My thighs were burning soooooo bad. After the class a couple of the girls told us we should stay and do the Body Toning class because the spin class just works the legs and now we need to work our upper bodies. Really? Well, we were stupid enough to stay and now my biceps and triceps were burning. We were there for 2 and a half hours! What were we thinking? I said to Bren just a few minutes ago, "You know it's not good when you can feel that your legs are sore and all you're doing is sitting." Not good.

Here's to another two weeks of hell. :)

Sunday Thoughts

I know I titled this "Sunday Thoughts" and it's now Monday, but I was too tired last night to write about my day, so I'll do it now.

We had a guest speaker in at church named Jamie Lash and he spoke on Stage Fright. At first I thought, "Wow, this is a great topic, but how does it relate to God. Seems more like a class you would sign up for to help you get over a fear." But here are a few of his points that I wrote down:

He talked about how it doesn't matter if you have a large audience or if you're just talking to one person, but you can be nervous either way.

Nervousness is a sympton of having the wrong goal (namely, to impress or avoid humiliation). In both cases, it's all about me. It should be my goal to bless the audience, not impress the audience.

He told a story about a Youth Pastor who said he was never nervous in front of the kids, but was always nervous when talking to their parents and the youth pastor said he realized it was because he was trying to impress the parents, but trying to help the kids (intention of your heart).

The intention of your heart gives birth to your behaviour. We should not be trying to impress people. On judgement day, we will be shown WHAT we've done and WHY we've done them. Scary thought? I know it is for me.

To help you get over your nervousness and to break that hold the other person(s) has over you, say to yourself, "I don't live for you, I live for God." Freedom comes when we live for an audience of one.

Do not put on another performance, but an act of love.

We're always so worried about what others will think of us. Instead of coming across interesting, come across interested!

He left us with this thought, "Will you be a person that God can use to impact/change people around you? Think about it like this: Would that person benefit from knowing a love so amazing that it would fill that hole in their life? You won't be nervous if your intention is pure. It may have the domino effect. You'll never know until you get to that judgement day. Don't let stage fright get in your way."

Then in the evening I went and saw Babel.

I'm having a hard time "rating" this one as well (not a very good movie critic, am I?). This is how it's described on the internet. "Babel is a film about the chaos of misunderstanding that often afflicts the world and how it can plunge us into confusion and tragedy. It's also an argument for truth and sympathy in a dangerous world." This is a true description of the movie, but I don't completely agree with how he went about portraying it. There were definitely scenes that didn't need to be in there and I wish I hadn't seen (almost all of the Japanese storyline). I also don't agree that those scenes needed to be in the movie to tie them together with the other story lines. It's not a fast paced movie by any means, and it jumps around quite a bit, but the underlying idea of the movie is great. I haven't figured out if I recommend this movie yet, but if you've seen it or know someone who has, I'd love to know their opinion. The acting was great and it definitely gripped my heart and I felt for the characters, but there was still "something" that holds me back from fully recommeding it. If you're someone who can't handle heartwrenching scenes with children, don't go see this movie (Rachel, that would be you).

On an aside, there's a little boy in the movie who totally reminded me of my nephew in Malaysia. There's a scene where he's crying and I lost it in the theatre. Really made me miss Sydney, Ashtyn and Jackson. It's hard to be so far away from those kids and to miss out on seeing them grow up.

My Weekend In Review

FRIDAY NIGHT

On Friday night, Bren, Lori, Rachel and I went to see Stranger Than Fiction. Now, I knew that it wasn't one of Will Farrell's normal comedic roles, but I thought it was a little slow. Definitely an original idea for a movie and it did have some funny parts, but I thought it was a little dry. Just my opinion. I didn't particularly "feel" for Will Farrell's character although at one point he started crying and I did get a little teary eyed myself. Also, I was pretty tired after Boot Camp so I actually closed my eyes at one point and my hair was wet and there was a massive cold wind blowing right beside my head so I had to put my hood on and pull it tight, so that might have added to my "not so great" experience of the movie. When Lori and I got home, we tried to explain the movie to Dwain and we both said it was weird and didn't know how else to explain it. I said I was indifferent. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. If you see it, let me know your thoughts.

SATURDAY NIGHT

On Saturday night, Bren, Karen, Carmen and I went into the city and saw the Body Worlds 3 exhibit at Science World. WOW!!! I still have a hard time grasping the fact that those were real bodies in plastination rather than plastic figures made to look like real bodies. It was amazing. We weren't aloud to take pictures in the exhibit, but this is what one of the bodies actually looked like.

They've pretty much peeled off the skin to expose everything inside of us to show us how we function inside. How anyone can come out of that still believing in the Big Bang theory is beyond me, but again, if you've seen this exhibit and have an opinion, let me know. I can't even explain all that we saw. Muscles, tendons, lungs, livers, hearts, bones, blood vessels and "somehow" they all know how to work together to keep us alive. Crazy. You should go see it.

We did walk through other parts of Science World and had some fun there too. Here's Karen pulling up 1/3 of her own body weight.

And Carmen and I had a race in the wheelchairs. Ok, shouldn't my muscles be somewhat used to being strained since I've been doing bootcamp? Yet, my shoulders are sore today and I'm pretty sure it's from this race. How you feeling, Carmen?

Thanks for a fun night out, ladies!

SUNDAY NIGHT

On Sunday, Bren, Carmen, Kato, Rachel and I went and saw The Prestige. I can't really give a full review of this movie because I don't want to give anything away, but I thought it was really good. The acting was great, the settings were dark and mysterious and it was one of those movies where you stand around and discuss what you thought really happened and a few of us had different ideas about the ending, so that was cool. Makes me want to read the book and get more details. Also, the previews made it look a lot scarier than it actually was, so don't let that hold you back from seeing it.Well, that was my weekend. Man, I should look into becoming a critic. haha

GIRL'S WEEKEND - Entry #2

Of course on our weekend away, it wouldn't be complete without some shopping. We hit the Alderwood Mall (if you haven't been there, you MUST go) and our first stop was Sephora. Now, I'm not a huge make-up girl, but this store has so many fun things, that we could spend hours there. We always end up leaving with a few perfume samples and of course either the newest fun things in hair care (this time it was to make your hair really shiny) or the latest Philosophy Body Wash fragrance. Seriously, it's a very fun store. Here's a picture of Jennie as happy as can be after getting her perfume called Falling In Love and a few other purchases.

We also have a regular stop at the See's Candies store. YUMMY!!! I once got a box of chocolates from someone I house sat for and there was no index of which chocolate was what, so I was very afraid that I would bite into something that I wouldn't appreciate (being the picky person that I am), but I was incredibly surprised that I loved every single chocolate in that box. That's a good testimony to a great candy store. Thanks See's Candies for making us all smile!

Mmmm, a glass case full of chocolate!

And I made my favorite purchase of my "Inspired" T-shirt from The Gap. If you haven't heard about the "Red Line" of products, please check out this link. http://www.joinred.com/ Bono was on Oprah not too long ago and him and a friend launched the Red Campaign. They got a few different companies (Gap, Motorolla, Converse, Armani, etc) to agree to put out a line of products that a percentage of each purchase will go to help fight Aids in Africa. Can you guess what I'm going to be wearing to the concert in December? :)

It was a great weekend. Concert and shopping ... some of my favorite things. Thanks girls!

GIRL'S WEEKEND!!! Entry #1 More to come

This weekend I went with my girlfriends down to Seattle for the Jeremy Camp concert and of course to do a little shopping as well.

Carmen, Natasha and Bren

Me and Jennie

The concert was sooooo great. It was better than I thought it would be and much more worshipful (if that's a word) than I thought as well, which was great. I cried twice. Crazy! I could totally sense God there and when he sang the songs from his worship album, you kind of forgot you were at a concert. It seemed like a worship evening at church. Very cool. He talked a lot too, which was great. He seemed very genuine in his love for God and he talked openly about his stuggles too, so he seemed like any normal person. He brought out his wife and daughters and ok, that was very attractive. Not that I was coveting another woman's husband (ok, maybe a little) but mostly because it was so amazing how cute he got with his daughters and you could just see how much he loved them. I know I've said before that I don't know if I want to have kids, but seeing a guy act like that about his family made me think twice about it. Anyways, enough talking, here are some pictures.

His wife opened first and sang about 5 songs. She has a beautiful voice. Then a Canadian band named Hawk Nelson played. They were very fun. Kind of a mix between Blink 182, Green Day and Good Charlotte. Very skater boy type. A lot of the younger crowd (yes, I'm officially old) seemed to know their music, so they seem to be doing ok. Go Canada! Jennie bought their CD for her son, so we'll have to give it a listen. Man, I'm really sounding old! :)

I took so many pictures that I had to make them into collages, but here are a few of my favorites that I had to put on alone along with a couple of videos.

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He ended the concert by bringing out his wife and playing a few songs with her. It was great. They make beautiful music together. It was an amazing concert. Thanks Jeremy! :) Listen to the words of this last song. "You can have all this world, but give me Jesus!"

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Aaaah, hockey. Canada's game!

My friend Jennie and her kids asked me to go with them to the Canucks Super Skills on Sunday. Although Jennie had a hard time with the fact that Bertuzzi was not going to be there, she made it through somehow. :) It was great to watch the speed skating, puck handling, 3 on 1 and also watching the little kids play with the big boys. It must have been so nerve wracking for those little kids to receive passes from Naslund, Linden, Salo and the Sedin twins. I was a little sad that Morrison wasn't there, but hey, have you seen some of the new guys? Hello Willie Mitchell, Taylor Pyatt, and Kevin Bieksa (my new fav because he's #3, although he might not be new, but whatever)!!! Yes, I was there to watch the "skills," but how could I not appreciate the beauty that God made? They're all at least 5 years younger than me you say? Again, just appreciating ... is that a crime? :) A guy I went to High School with MC'd the event ... Dan Murphy. He's an actual sportcaster for Sportsnet, so it's probably not a big deal to him, but it was cool for me to see him "working." What a great job! Thanks Jennie and kids for taking me. I had a GREAT day!




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West Coast Women's Show

A couple of weekends ago a few of us girls went to the West Coast Women's Show. We got many fun taste tests and free samples. There was also a scary booth that I honestly thought was just a nice smelling lotion booth, but it was for something I won't mention here. As I was standing in line to get my free sample, Carmen politely pointed out what I was standing in line for. OOPS!!! Thanks Carmen. hee hee Also, on the main stage was Nik Manojlovich from Savoir Faire. I hadn't heard of him before, but Natasha and Bren had. I think Natasha actually had a little crush! She was so cute! Here are a few pics of him teaching us napkin folding and table decorating. Natasha went up to get an autograph for her sister who was sick at home, and when she told Nik that, he said, "What's her phone number? I'll call her." She was too sick to even answer the phone, but he left a great message for her and told her to Make Every Day Entertaining (his tag line). Now that's a good sport. Thanks Nik!

Videos

Just figured out how to post some videos, so I thought I'd start with some videos of my time at So You Think You Can Dance. I know it was awhile ago, but these were my two favorite dances, so I want them on my blog. Enjoy! Note that both dances include my favorite man, Travis. :)
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Movie Night

Last night I went with my friend Lyn to see Catch a Fire. I had seen a few previews, but didn't know much about it. Wow. It was very hard to watch, but very good. It was a true story about a South African man who becomes a freedom fighter with the ANC after a brutal run-in with a government terror squad. (Can you tell I took that description from the Internet? haha) Anyways, the poor guy was really trying to stay away from anything political and really minding his own business, but then got brought in for something he didn't do. They beat him very badly and even tortured his wife. This sent him over the edge and then things went bad (don't want to give too much away in case you want to see it). It just REALLY made me feel blessed to be born in Canada and reminded me of how good we have it here. Both characters had good and bad things about them which made it really hard to know who (if anyone) you were supposed to be sympathic to and cheer for. Very weird feelings leaving this movie, but I would definitely recommend it. Sometimes we can get a little too sheltered about what's going on in the world.

P.S. Tonight's Boot Camp was hard, but I must say that I'm noticing I have WAY more energy than I used to. For instance, I used to be in bed around 10 pm for sure, but the other night I went to bed as usual and I laid there until I realized, "Hey, I'm not at all tired." I stayed up until midnight (that's late for this old fogey on a week night, sad but true) and thought I'd pay for it the next day, but I was ok. Well, I haven't seen the inches drop yet, but heck, it's only been a week and a half, right? :)