Alberta trip - Part 2

One of the days I was there, we went to Spruce Meadows, which houses all things equestrian. It was a beautiful day and we say a lot of beautiful horses.

When we first got there, we watched a few different races. Ashtyn says to me, "Does it hurt the horses to make them race like that?" I said, "No, but it makes them work hard." She thought about that and then she said, "If it's making the horses work, why do we do it? Why don't we just enjoy their beauty?" Good question, Ash. Didn't I mention that she is a lover of all animals? :)

Beautiful lilac bush. I guess you can tell from the squinting that it was a bit sunny.

This is Ashtyn's foot beside mine. Poor girl. Only 11 years old and she already has size 10 feet. Good luck finding little girl shoes.

They brought out 3 mares with their foals and there was a "Name the Foal" contest. Sydney and I have both entered. Keep your fingers crossed!

Before the jumping started, they let the riders walk around and check out all the jumps and then they opened it up to spectators to go on the course as well. Ashtyn and I stayed in the stands, but this is Sydney in front of the closest jump to us.

And here's someone jumping over that very jump.

It really is very beautiful.

Here's Ian Miller practising on his horse. We left to go eat for awhile and we missed him jumping by seconds ... literally. When I ran in, I saw him crossing the finish line.

But all in all it was a GREAT day! Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us there.

I'm baaaaaaack!

I'm back from having a wonderful time with my family, but before I get to that, I first want to say thank you to everyone who left a comment about my last post and also to those of you who sent me separate emails. You were all so understanding and nice about my rant that I honestly feel closer to you all now. I know that may sound hokey, but it's true. You have no idea how much all your words mean to me. It's nice to know that I'm not alone and I'm not crazy for feeling how I feel.

My friend, Marni, sent me an email and told me this story that her principal had told her class while she was at Bible School. I asked if I could share it with you all and she said yes. Here's the story that has truly inspired me.

There was a man in Australia, who wanted to be a missionary. But for whatever reason (health??) he couldn't go overseas. So he decided to stand on street corners (I think it was Sidney) with a sign with something like "If you died tonight, do you know where you'd go?". He did this for years. And he felt really bad, because in all that time, no one ever paid attention to him. He thought that he'd been a failure. And he died thinking that he was a failure. Some time later, in a church service, somewhere in Australia, they had a time of giving testimony of God's work in their lives. Someone stood up and said that one day, as he was going about his business, he saw a man with a sign on the street corner. "If you died tonight, do you know where you'd go?" At first he didn't pay any attention but day after day, the sign started to really bother him. He didn't know where he would go, but he was afraid of the answer being hell. Finally, he sought out a pastor who led him to the Lord. In the same service, there were several others who stood up after this guy and had the same story. I think it was the pastor who decided to do a study about the numbers of people who had made decisions to follow Jesus because of seeing this sign. It turned out to be in the thousands. So even though this man didn't feel like he had any impact, the truth was, that God used him in a mighty way. He just never knew until he reached heaven!

Marni, thank you so much for taking the time to email me and send me this story. May we all be touched by it and reminded that God can use us even when we least expect it ... especially when we have a willing heart. p.s. Hello to Karis who "outed" herself on my last post. Of course I remember you. Hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by my blog and please feel free to say hello or leave a comment any time. :)

Now for my trip to Alberta. I took a LOT of pictures, so I'll have to do this in a few different steps. When I stepped off the plane, I was so excited to see my family so I rushed past all the other passengers to be the first one through the doors. I burst through those doors to see ...

NO ONE!!!

You see, my parents live about 15 minutes away from the airport, so to save on parking, they want people to call them once they've arrived so they will then leave their house and meet you after you've picked up your bags. Do I understand this? Yes. Was I a tad bit disappointed? Maybe just a little. :) But I got over it quickly enough when my Dad, sister and oldest niece arrived to pick me up. My niece is now 14 and she's taller than me. I know that's not hard to do seeing as I'm only 5' 4 1/2" but she's only 14! But she's still my little niece and I love her just the same. When I walked in the door, my other niece jumped on me from behind and we had another wonderful reunion. She's 11 and is still shorter than me, but it's just a matter of time and I'll be looking up at her, too. My nephew had tried to stay up and wait for me, but with their jet lag and me getting there at 10 pm, he was too tuckered. In the morning, my sister said he was barely waking up and he mumbled to her, "Can I go see Auntie Fiona now?" Too cute. Here are a couple of pics from our first few days.


I had to put this picture in because I like it so much. I had just landed in Calgary and looked out the window of the plane to see this beautiful sunset.



This is a picture of my Dad and my nephew, Jackson (7). Jack is my Dad's shadow and it's adorable, however, he's such a fun kid that the rest of us want to love on him, too. Sometimes he lets us, but most of the time he just wants to be with my Dad. Very fun for Papa.


Jackson took a few minutes out of his busy schedule with Papa to do a Bob the Builder puzzle with me. Jack LOVES Bob the Builder and wants to build a house for him, his wife and their 10 kids when he grows up (which also makes my Dad very proud). :)

These are my beautiful nieces, Sydney (14) and Ashtyn (11). Sydney is full of life, talks a mile a minute and has an incredibly sweet soul. She's nice to everyone and has a great confidence about her. Ashtyn is quieter and has a harder time expressing herself but is equally as sweet. I can really relate to Ashtyn in a lot of ways. I see myself in her and have a special place in my heart for her. Ash has a love for animals and wants to save them all. She's adorable.

Proof that Syd da Kid is taller than me. Scary! But then again, look at her Mom. Jodi's 5' 10 1/2" and her Dad is 6' 2" or somewhere around there. All 3 of their kids are going to be very tall and beautiful.

My sister and I being silly.

My Mom had done a TON of baking. I think I gained a million pounds while I was away. This Tupperware of baking would empty and then mysteriously be filled up again. Thanks Mom ... I think.

Yes, that baking was great, but look what I got!!! PASKA!!! There's nothing as great as a Mom who makes paska even when it's not Easter (p.s. and she sent me home with a loaf, too.) You can eat paska many different ways, but my favorite is sliced up with icing on each individual piece and sprinkles. My sister loves the colored sprinkles while I'm all about the chocolate as seen below (I was so excited to eat it that I had taken a few bites out of my piece before I remembered to take a picture).

Well, I think that's all for me tonight. I'll try to catch up more tomorrow.

Time for some honesty

A couple of weeks ago it was Missions week at our church. The guest speaker was Randy Friesen who's the Director (I think ... I know he's really high up) of MBMSI. He was really good and it was a challenging sermon, however, at the end, there were literal doors up at the front of the sanctuary and he asked anyone who wanted to, to get up and walk through the doors as a symbol of being willing to go anywhere and do anything God asked you to do.

I didn't walk through the doors.

Not because I don't want to go anywhere or do anything God asks me to do ... let me explain. Last April I went to a different church in town one weekend and their pastor was just starting a 3 part series on being a disciple of God and what that means. The first sermon was so good that I went back for the other 2 parts. In the last sermon, he asked almost the same thing that Randy Friesen asked at our church (minus the doors) and I was sitting there wanting to put my hand up like a kid in school and yell out, "Pick me! Pick me!" I was SO eager to go and totally felt like God was going to send me somewhere and I could honestly feel that He was excited that I was willing to go. I went home that day and had a great talk with God and in the end I felt Him tell me, "I'm glad you're willing. Now be patient and wait." Do you see yet where I'm going with this?

Well, it's been over a year and I'm still here. Not that there's anything wrong with being "here." I do like it here. I've moved away a few times and always end up coming back here even though none of my immediate family live here anymore. It's not that. It's that I was SO excited and ready to go and I KNOW and have heard a million times about God's timing, so please don't go there. Logically, I KNOW that. I'm just speaking from my heart right now. I also know that there's always a missions field right where you live and work, but I haven't felt like anything has made a difference there either. When Randy Friesen had those doors up at the front of the church, in my heart I was walking through those doors, but there was that stubborn part of me that was saying to God, "You know I want to go and I'm ready, so why do I have to stand up and publicly declare it?" I didn't want to let myself get excited again, only to be told to wait.

Afterwards I went out for supper with a bunch of my wonderful girlfriends and they were great to hear me out. One of them tried to give me advice and I rudely said, "I hear what you're saying, but I'm not at that point where I want the advice. I'm just venting." I'd like to apologize to her again for being rude. I know she wasn't trying to "fix" me, but I was just in one of those moods where I didn't really want anyone to "talk back" but rather just to let me be a baby and vent. Have you ever been there? Another friend said, "At least you're being honest. God knows how you feel anyway, so it's good you didn't lie and walk through those doors just because everyone else did." That made me feel a bit better. Another friend reminded me that just because we might not see any "fruits of our labour," it doesn't mean that there's not something going on that I'm not seeing and again, I KNOW that, but somehow it just wasn't helping this feeling I was having. I was struggling, to say the least.

Anyways, why am I writing about this today? Well, I'm still kind of feeling like this. I went for a walk with a friend the other day and she asked me how I was doing with the whole single thing. I said that I definitely have my days where I feel like, "When's it going to be my turn?" but for the most part, I'm ok with it. I know that there is a possibility that I might be single for the rest of my life and I've accepted that. (side note: one of the worst things a married person can say to a single person is, "Your time will come." How do you know? Did God send you a direct word? or ... "I'm sure Prince Charming is just around the corner. It happens when you're least expecting it." I haven't been expecting anything for about 5 years now. Anyways ...) I'd rather be a happy single than a bitter one. And I'd rather be happy and single than trapped in a crappy marriage just because I wanted to get married. But then I told her that one of the hardest things about being single for me is the feeling of "I should be doing more." If I'm single, there's nothing tying me down from going overseas and being a missionary for the rest of my life. And believe me, there's a large part of me that would be ok with that ... but I'm not feeling the exact call. And I KNOW that I don't want to be outside of God's will. I would never want that. There are just too many choices. So many places to go and things to do. It really can be overwhelming. I guess it just comes to a point where you have to pick one of the million great options as long as you don't feel God closing the door, and go with it. I know I have a great job, great friends and my house sitting gigs have lasted this long for a reason, so it's not that I'm discontent here ... aahh, I don't know if I'm explaining myself. I've always had a hard time getting my thoughts out. But that's it for now.

If you made it through reading my long rant, I applaud you. :) Thanks for listening. I just needed to put that down ... kind of like laying it down before the cross and walking away. Blogging is a great venue for that.

In a couple of hours I'm off to reunite with my nieces and nephew who I haven't seen in two years, so I'll be AWOL for awhile, but I'll be sure to update you when I get back.

Peace out!

They call me the Queen of Concerts ...

Since I hold that title, I have to continue to live up to it, so ... I've now got in my possession, tickets to 3 (yes, my favourite number if you're keeping up with my blog) concerts in the next couple of months.

1) The Fray - July 29 - Deer Lake Park (they sing the famous song from Grey's Anatomy called How To Save A Life) It will be very cool to see them in an outdoor venue (provided it's not pouring down rain).

2) Daughtry - August 26 - The Commodore (Chris Daughtry was an American Idol contestant and he came in 4th ... I think) He's going to ROOOOCK!!!

3) You're going to have to wait to find out who this one is. Once I get back from seeing my family, I'll put up a new countdown. :)

Do you know what this is?

If you answered ... a sign of how much my Mom loves me, you'd be right. This is my Mom's FAMOUS strawberry jam. Ok, maybe it's only famous in MY household, but it's still famous to me. My Uncle and Aunt went on a road trip and stopped in at my Mom and Dad's place and my Mom sent this jar of strawberry jam back for ME!!! I'm going to go have a few pieces of toast right now ... what? I can't just have ONE piece of toast. Although part of me wants to savour and save the jam, the other part of me wants to devour it ... plus, I'm going to my parents place next week ... so maybe there will be more where this came from. :)

And no, I'm not sharing. Sorry! :P

Adventures of Wendy Walker

As we were sitting on my deck watching Denae enjoy the kiddie pool (see previous post), Colleen asked us, "Does anyone remember Wendy Walker?" Wendy Walker? Of course we remember her. "Well," Colleen says, "the other day I was at my parents place and my Mom gives me this doll and tells me to take it FAR away from her house. This doll has a Billy Rae Cyrus haircut and it's all matted and she looks awful. Well, Denae saw it and loves it. She drags that thing everywhere, but Shane (Colleen's husband) HATES it and wants me to get rid of it. The thing is life size so if Denae leaves it outside on the lawn, Shane comes home and sees this thing laying face down and for a split second thinks it's Denae." We all started howling at this point because we can just imagine how it would look real. So even though Colleen feels bad for Denae, she's decided to get rid of it. After a few more stories, I said, "Oh man. That's too funny. I'm going to find a picture of Wendy Walker on the internet and blog about this." To which Colleen said, "Oh, it's in the back of my van right now if you want to get it." Did I want to get it? What do you think I did?


Look who came to visit? Hello Wendy!


Of course we had to recreate the infamous face down in the lawn scene.

Then we figured Wendy was a little embarrassed (or maybe she was planning her revenge) so she wanted some alone time.

We had been talking previously about people we knew who'd gotten their heads stuck in stair railings, so guess who got to try it? Yup, WENDY!

Then we decided to be nice and let her suntan with us. Ok, really ??? Our stomachs were so sore from laughing so hard that we just had to take a break. :)

The whole time we were dragging Wendy around and laughing, Denae was just looking at us like, "What the heck, people?" Colleen said when she took Denae inside to change, Denae looked at her and said, "My doll funny."

Aaaahh, good, crazy times. Yes, I'm a little weird, but man, was it funny. Maybe you had to be there. Anyways, here's Denae for one of the last times with Wendy Walker. Mommy put her back in the plastic bag head down in the back of the van and now she's on her way to MCC. Bren suggested trying to sell her for a pretty penny ... any takers?

I almost heard that Sarah McLachlan song playing from Toy Story when her doll gets taken away ... almost.

Enjoying the Sun

On Sunday afternoon, my girlfriends came over and we sat on the deck and enjoyed the sun. Well, Colleen brought her daughter Denae and a kiddie pool and I forgot to take pictures of anyone but Denae because she's just THAT cute. Sorry Bren, Jennie and Natasha ... although I'm not sure how sad you'll be. :) Isn't she the cutest? Cute little bikini.

This water was SOOO cold. I don't know how she could stand it.

Then she came around and poured a little water on all our feet to help cool us off. Ok, Bren kinda made it into one picture.

Once the wind started coming, she got all wrapped up in her towel and snuggled with Mommy, making Mommy all soaked. What are Mom's for? :)

My Celebrity Look-alikes

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Ok, at first I was flattered. Naomi Watts ... Jessica Alba ... Reese Witherspoon ... not bad. But then I thought, "I'm going to try it again."

Yeah, look what I got!

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JOHN CLEESE? I look like JOHN CLEESE? I am going for electrolysis for a little whisker action (there's another random fact about me), but he's got a full moustache! And who the heck is Claude Lelouch?

Not very flattering after all. :(

Quote from Bono

In 2006, Bono was invited to speak at a prayer breakfast (view all 22 minutes here) and he was soooo great. I'll just give you a taste. He spoke on poverty in Africa and how we can all do our part and how we are all equal in this world. You should seriously listen to it. It's great. This is how he ended it.

A number of years ago I met a wise man who changed my life. I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I'd say, "I have a new song. Would you look out for it? I have a family. I'm going away on tour. Please look after them. I have this crazy idea. Could I have a blessing on it?" This wise man asked me to stop. He said, "Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God's doing because it's already blessed."

I've been tagged!!!

I've been tagged! I've been tagged! I don't think I've ever been tagged before, so I'm feeling quite honoured. Thanks Sonya. :)

Here are the rules… Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog.

1) I was born in Surrey, but please don't hold that against me. I only lived there until I was 5. haha

2) I had a brother who died before I was born. He was SUPER cute and I can't wait to see him in Heaven someday.

3) I am CRAZY about the number 3. Did you notice that I put this as #3 on my list? :) I can't explain why I like the #3 or when it started, but if I see 3 birds flying in the sky or I look down at my clock and it says 3:33 pm (it happened today, actually), it makes me happy. I'm so crazy that I will add house numbers or license plates numbers together and if it equals a number that's divisible by 3, it also makes me happy. I'm not superstitious about it, just a little wacked. My favorite number also appears 9 times in this paragraph.

4) I have worked for the same Government organization off and on for the past 13 years. I don't know about you, but that's a long time and it makes me feel old.

5) Everyone tells me that I'm the concert queen, but did you know that my first concert was The Beach Boys when I was in Grade 10? My oldest sister and her boyfriend took my other sister and myself and that started it all. I believe it was at the Pacific Coliseum.

6) Ever since I learned Sign Language, usually when I'm talking to someone, I'm doing the Sign Language in my head. I'm not fluent, but if you locked me in a room with my co-worker Shirlee, we could talk all day.

7) I'm considering taking a massage course (maybe even in Asia) and doing that on the side. Would you hire me to come to your house? :)

I know that some of you already knew these things about me, but I pretty much feel like my life is an open book, so if you have a burning desire to ask me a question, feel free to ask me anything you want and I'll try my best to answer it. I saw that Sonya did this on her blog and it was fun to see the questions that people asked and to hear the answers ... but like Sonya, I won't answer any questions by an anonymous person ... unless it's a really good question. ;)

Now I will tag: Lori, Jennie, Sheryl, Nancy, Lovella, Jill and Marni

Happy Birthday, Carmen!

Today is Carmen's birthday. Carmen is the wonderful person who ran the Sun Run with me. I only found out later (or was it during the run?) that Carmen doesn't like being in spaces where people she doesn't know are touching her ... she was doing the run to keep me company. Isn't that sweet? Even though we didn't talk much during the run, it was still nice to have someone there who knew me by my side. Thanks so much, Carmen, for sticking it out and doing that for me. I really, really appreciate it.

Last night we went out to the Spaghetti Factory for supper and then to see Pirates 3. Supper was good with good company. Here are the ladies:

From the left: Narissa, Natasha, Karen, Carmen, Lori, Julie, Jennie, Me, Bren and Nicki.

It's been great getting to know you over the past 2 years, Carmen. I enjoy your friendship and the fun times we've had together. I look forward to making MANY more memories. :) I hope you have a great day!

P.S. Oh, and btw, don't spend the money to go see Pirates 3 in the theatres. It's a renter ... for sure! But that's just my humble opinion.

Puppy Update

I just had to post some new pics because they're SO DARN CUTE!!!

When I got there, this is what I saw. They all scrambled to be picked up. If only I could hold all 10 at once.


Pick me! Pick me!

This one is the biggest one of the bunch and he turned out to be the most mellow, too. LOVED HIM!!!

Ok, I loved this one, too.

Poor Bailey. Once we got them all outside, they attacked her.

I just couldn't resist taking this one of their cute, little bums.

Don't you just melt when they come and rest their heads on your lap? Ok, if you answered no to that question, then there's something wrong with you.

Heeeeey, whachoo looking at, Willis?

Precious!!! Proud Mama.

Keldy with her brood. Proud owner. :)

After I finally tore myself away from the puppies, Bailey and I went for a walk. She is SOOOO well trained. If she started getting a little ahead of me, all I had to say was, "Bailey, come," and she would stop and wait for me. I only tested her 2 or 3 times and then I let her run and play.

Come on! Are you sure you don't want one? I just might come and walk it for you. :)

Change to my Countdown

I don't know if you would've noticed if I didn't point it out, but my countdown changed by almost 3 days!!! The Roaring 20s Reunion isn't happening on June 10 like originally planned (due to NO ONE RSVP'ing - it will happen sometime in the Fall - Date TBD), so I've bumped up my flight to the Friday instead of the Monday. I can't wait to see my sister and her family ... except I'm pretty sure that at least 2 of her 3 kids will be taller than me now. Sheesh! :)