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? :)

I'm so proud of us!

Tonight was an extremely cold, clear night. One where you would want to curl up on your couch in front of the fireplace with a hot chocolate in hand and maybe even a hot water bottle on your feet. But where was I? Outside working out! I know, it's amazing. Last week I joined Cardio Core Boot Camp (www.corebootcamp.com) and 3 nights a week I'm running, working my "core" (not just my abs) and pretty much wanting to die every night. Luckily I have my friend Brenda going with me to keep me motivated. Thanks Bren! But seriously, I was really proud of us for being out there tonight. The only thing that would've made it worse was if it was raining. Thank you, Lord, for holding off the rain. Anyways, this is just the start of week 2, so we're not even halfway there yet, but I really hope this helps somewhat. Can't be all flabby on the beach in Hawaii when I meet Bono, can I? :P Also, if any of you want to join us, we're aloud to bring a guest one time so they see that it's "not so bad." HaHa. I mean, come, it'll be fun!

3 Puppies!!!

In case you didn't know, 3 is my favorite number. I'm actually a little "weird" about it ... or so I'm told. Anything in 3's brings a smile to my face. So you can imagine my excitement when 3 of my friends got new puppies. I just had to blog about them.

Meet Sushi,

Sophie,

and Aggie.

Hello Hello! I'm at a place called Vertigo!

If you don't know what that refers to, then shame on you. Just kidding ... kind of. It's a lyric from a song by my favorite band ... U2. Who else? I do admit that I'm a new super fan, but a super fan none the less. So much so that Bren and I just bought tickets to go see them in Hawaii on their last concert of their tour. How excited am I? I want the next 7 weeks to FLY BY!!! I can't wait.

Summer Update - AUGUST - Better Late Than Never

I originally started my blog to keep people updated on my travels around the world, but since that's not happening right now, I decided to just update my blog with things happening around here. I kind of put off updating in the summer, thinking I was going away, so I missed a chunk of "happenings" this summer. This is my summer update. I know it's a little backwards, starting with August and going down to June, but I started it wrong and it takes too long to fix it. Sorry.

I already blogged about my birthday, so I'll skip that.

I took a week off in August and went and visited my sister and her family. We had a lot of fun riding the quads through the trails, jumping on the trampoline, playing with the animals, going to a movie (Step Up), watching the kids on the climbing wall and just chillin' out and catching up. Thanks for having me you guys. Love y'all.

We had a cool thunderstorm like only the prairies can have, and I actually managed to catch some lightning.

This was my favorite picture of the trip because my little niece was so small on this big quad, but she had no problem handling it through the trails. So cute!

One hot summer day I went and asked Dillon and Aidan if they wanted to run through the spinklers with me. We had a blast and then afterwards, we layed out and suntanned. Ok, I layed out and the boys copied me for about a minute.

At the end of August I reconnected with an old friend from elementary/high school days. It was great to see her and her new little daughter, Macy and of course to meet Clay as well. Thanks for contacting me, Lee and for making the effort to reconnect. It was very fun to see you and to catch up and for it to feel like no time had passed at all. Looking forward to keeping in contact.

Summer Update - JULY - Better Late Than Never

For Canada Day a bunch of us went downtown and had supper on the beach. We had great fellowship and watched a beautiful sunset.

There was a picture of Steve and Bren at the restaurant here, but she asked me to take it out and I obliged ... even though it was a good picture!!! What a good friend I am.

Next, Bren, Steve and I took a Sunday drive (even though its wasn't Sunday) over the border and just happened upon the Krispy Kreme store. Darn!! How many dozens did you buy, Steve? I don't blame you. They are goooooooood.

Beautiful baby Hannah was born to James and Karen. Congratulations!

At the end of July we ventured downtown for a couple of the Celebration of Lights ceremonies. They were really good this year. First we went to the Taste of the City which was pretty cool too.

Summer Update - JUNE - Better Late Than Never

In June, Jennie, Bren, Natasha and I went to Seattle to ... what else ... SHOP!!! We've done this a few times now and it's been a great "getaway" every time. I love that I'm so comfortable with all my friends. Can't ask for anything better than that. Our usual circuit is The Seattle Premium Outlet Mall, The Alderwood Mall and downtown Seattle. All GREAT shopping.

The special treat of the weekend (other than See's candies) was going to see Nacho Libre. HILARIOUS!!! Can't get much funnier than this.

Also in June was my wonderful friend Jennie's birthday. Jennie and I have just become friends over the last couple of years. She is an inspiration to me, an encourager, someone to be silly with, someone who is honest with me, someone to cry with and someone to spur me on. I LOVE Jennie and am SO happy that we are friends. I look forward to making MANY more memories together. She's one of those friends that I know will be a friend for life and for that I am extremely grateful to God for bringing her into my life.
My friends Mark and Rachel have these 3 adorable little boys (Dillon, Aidan and Jake). We took the boat out one beautiful summer night and the boys LOVED it. I think we've got some future pro-wake boarders here!

Dancing With God

I'm currently reading my 3rd Donald Miller book and am yet again loving it. This one is the story of him and his friend, Paul, who took a 1971 VW Van on a road trip from Houston to Oregon. At this point they are at the Grand Canyon and they're about to hike down. As they wait for their turn to start their hike, he's imagining the Easter tradition of watching the sunrise over the canyon, and this is what he writes:

Imagining the service reminds me again that life is more than clothes and cars and a new flavor of toothpaste, that it is community and creation and beauty and humanity ... I am getting used to not having any music or television and not pulling over and buying something as a way of feeling some kind of change. There is a serenity in life, after all, and once a withdrawal is felt at having left the lies behind, a soul begins to feel at home in its own skin ... I was raised to believe that the quality of a man's life would greatly increase, not with the gain of status or success, not by his heart's knowing romance or by prosperity in industry or academia, but by his nearness to God. It confuses me that Christian living is not simpler. The gospel, the very good news, is simple, but this is the gate, the trailhead. Ironing out faithless creases is toilsome labor. God bestows three blessings on man: to feed him like birds, dress him like flowers, and befriend him as a confidant. Too many take the first two and neglect the last. Sooner or later you figure out life is constructed specifically and brilliantly to squeeze a man into association with the Owner of heaven. It is a struggle, with labor pains and thorny landscape, bloody hands and a sweaty brow, head in hands, moments of severe loneliness and questioning, moments of ache and desire. All this leads to God, I think. Perhaps this is what is on the other side of the commercials, on the other side of the curtain behind which the Wizard of Oz pulls his levers. Matter and thought are a canvas on which God paints, a painting with tragedy and delivery, with sin and redemption. Life is a dance toward God. And the dance is not so graceful as we might want. While we glide and swing our practiced sway, God crowds our feet, bumps our toes, and scuffs our shoes. So we learn to dance with the One who made us. And it is a difficult dance to learn, because its steps are foreign.

I think that's what I was hoping to find on my trip around the world. A "soul feeling at home in its own skin." For those who know me, I like to watch TV. Ok, I really like to watch TV. I know I could live without it, but when it's right there in front of me, why should I? It makes daily life more fun. But I was looking forward to not really having the choice of watching TV on my travels, but rather forcing me to depend on God and get closer to Him. But why do I have to wait until I'm forced to do it? Why do I find it so hard to do now? Is it wrong to watch TV? These questions swirl around in my head, but I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to them. Others may, and that's great, but right now, that's part of my dance with God. Why do I try to lead sometimes? Is it because I have a lack of faith? Like Donald Miller says, "Ironing out faithless creases is toilsome labor." Sometimes it feels like we're doing a crazy Hip Hop routine beside each other and laughing our heads off, and other times He takes me by the hand and slows me down with a waltz, but either way, I love to dance and I'm having a blast. Yes, my toes get stepped on and sometimes I'd rather "sit this one out," but He's always there waiting for me .. and for that, I'm incredibly grateful for His patience.

Discovering BC's Wine Country

So, this weekend Bren, Karen and I decided to go to Osoyoos for the weekend and get away. Bren's friend and his family own a condo up there and it was great. When we weren't relaxing in the house watching a movie, we sat by the pool, walked down to the lake and sat in the hot tub in the dark and looked at all the amazing stars.

Not too shabby, hey?

On Saturday we ventured out to a few vineyards and I tried my first taste of wine ... EVER! Yes, I'm 34 and had never tasted wine before. I must say, it was mighty good. Bren and Karen said that for my first taste I got a really good one ... Ice Wine. The first place we went was called The Blasted Church and they have really neat art on their wine bottles. The next one we went to was called Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards.

So, although it was short but sweet, it was great to get away. Thanks for some good times and fun memories girls!