The scars and stars of Christmas

I had the slight mishap this morning of waking up at 11:15am, 15 minutes after my church service actually starts. Needless to say, I didn't make it, so I decided to catch a sermon on TV. Now, all TV sermon guys are NOT created equal, so I'm always slightly weary when I flip the stations. This morning, however, I stumbled upon a guy from Love Worth Finding, and he was doing a sermon on the scars and stars of Christmas. I think the thing that struck me most was his illustrations. One of the things I hear people say is that a good God cannot exist if there's so much pain and suffering in the world. What I found really clarified his point for me was when he talked about how we as humans survive. If something causes us pain, like a wound or something like that, we usually attempt to withdraw from the cause of pain. If we didn't FEEL that pain though, we wouldn't withdraw, or even know we were being hurt. Lepers are like that...they have no feeling in their legs, feet, arms, and they end up hurting themselves because they can't feel the pain. Pain is actually a good thing, because it will stop us from doing things to hurt ourselves or others. Therefore, pain is actually something God thought up to keep us from further injuring ourselves! I really like the leper illustration, because it's true...I saw a woman being interviewed on TV, and she said the worst thing about being a leper was that she couldn't feel anything and that she hurt herself so much. :(

He used the other illustration to explain why God came to earth as Jesus. He asked the parents to think about a situation where they were on a vacation in some paradise somewhere, and to imagine that their children got hurt in some way. He asked the parents whether they could stand to stay in that paradise vacationing while their children were hurt. My answer would definitely be NO! I'd fly home as fast as I could to be with my children. And the thing is, that's what God did. There He was, in heaven, seeing His children shooting themselves in the foot, and He wanted to be with them. So what did He do? He went to them. And because of Jesus, we can be with Him.

I thought it was a good reminder of the Christmas story, and I realized how much illustrations really clarify things for me. I had a good Christmas, but it wasn't as festive as other years. We had the traditional Japanese friends of the family dinner and I got to see my high school friends. It's weird though, because as we grow older, I can tell there is some drifting apart. It's neat how you can gather at Christmas though and just celebrate friendship.

To close, I wanted to ask you to keep a couple of my friends in your prayers. Carol's been diagnosed with colon cancer and it was caught early, so the doctors will be operating in January. My other friend's father is still in the hospital with brain injuries, so please pray for his healing too.

I'm praying you all have a meaningful, loving, refreshing Christmas season!

Meet the WHOS?

I went to see Meet the Fockers today, and it well, I guess it was okay. I haven't been to a silly movie in a while, so it was a nice break. Best line of the movie? Ahahaha, I'm TOTALLY laughing as I type this: "Hello my brother from another mother!" But even better, imagine DUSTIN HOFFMAN saying that! I think that'll be my new greeting. AHahahahaha. Oh, rib burp. Ahahahaha, the reason I'm laughing so much is I'm stuffed from all-you-can-eat ribs from Montanas. Eating till I'm really full makes me laugh uncontrollably. I'm laughing even still. Okay. Enough. I'm going to try and work off these ribs while laughing!

Believe it or not!

Oh la la! Such a long time since the last update! So what can I tell you about?

Friday was a fun day at my school with the gr. 5s, where we had our party. I'd like to declare that I am the eating-M&Ms-with-chopsticks champion of the class. :) Yes, that's right. First person to eat 10 M&Ms with a pair of chopsticks wins, and I WON! Woo hoo! Now, the thing is, I do have a good 10 more years experience than them in eating with chopsticks. I eat EVERYTHING with chopsticks. And once again, I'm overjoyed to win a competition where I compete against kids. Ahahahaha.

Saturday was an AWESOME trip to Niagara Falls with my church youth group. We started off at Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, where I saw many a 2-headed animal. I think the lowlight was watching the gross sword-swallowing video, which also included the drilling-int-the-nose segment! Blech! The highlights include getting sick walking through that spinning tunnel thing (they had it at the science centre once, too) and discovering that the mirror we were making faces in at the beginning of the museum was actually a 2-way mirror. Then we headed out and decided AGAINST MY WILL, that we would all go in a haunted house. Now, I should tell you something. These are basically like the ones at Screamers at the Ex during Halloween, and I should tell you about the one incident where, I think it was Diana, Aniko and I, we went through one of the houses, and I was first. I remember rushing through this thing until we caught up to the group in front of us, and I was honestly CLINGING to the jacket of this stranger in front of me. I just grabbed on, closed my eyes and followed. This was also the same house in which we went too fast and Aniko got left behind, which resulted in her crying. So anyway, I really don't like them, and no, I can't handle the people popping out of the walls and no no no I do NOT want to go into Frankenstein's Castle or whatever the heck it was called. Anyway, it ended up we could only get a group deal if we all went in, so we all went in. Needless to say, there was a LOT of clawing and grabbing on my part as I struggled NOT to be last in the group I was in. LAST means ppl CHASE YOU!!!!! Being in the front means people pop out at you first. I was clawing to be in the middle of the pack. The worst was 1/2-way through when I just was SO out of breath from screaming and just half-laughing and panicking. Ahahahahaa. And the problem is, screams are always a chain reaction. You don't even have to SEE what's popping out....if one person screams, we all scream. Okay, by "we" I mean the gals. So Kev really was not a great help at all in our group because he kept going, "AHHHH, what's THAT?!" AT NOTHING (!!!) after which I would scream and then Jess and Jen would scream. Ahahahaha. I was SO out of breath and SO sweaty by the end! It was funny looking back on it, but definitely not during the whole thing. I also half-pulled off Jessica's hood on her jacket in a moment of sheer panic. Dear oh dear.

After haunted screaming mansion, we walked around for a bit. Jen and I pretended to know things about WWE in the WWE store, which didn't last that long. I did, however, notice the Hulk Hogan stuffed dog thing, and was quite pleased with myself that I recognized SOMEONE in the store. Ahahahaha. We then had yummy dinner at Boston Pizza, although I kept thinking about the bug my sister found in her soup there once, and then we had a really good devo time afterwards. It's hard doing it with so many people, but we talked about Ephesians 5:8-20. We're going to be doing some studies on purity after our 40 days of Purpose in the new year, so we wanted to challenge them to walk in the light. That was good times.

Then, of course, we went to see the falls. It was warm, so it was SO muddy! Ahahahaha. I love my youth! I was SO tired by the end of the day. All I wanted to do was sleep on the way home, but I was shotgun, which means keeping the driver company (which means, STAYING AWAKE, Matt! Ahahahah!), but that wasn't that bad because I found someone else who has seen Mannequin. Ahahahaha, such a cheesy 80s (90s?) movie.

Sunday was fun because I got to see lots of old friends at our Christmas service. The Omuras are SO funny. Ahahahaha. I also got to have a yummy birthday dinner with Ava, for her Grammy's b-day. It was rather hilarious because I ended up talking to myself a lot of the night, because she was sick and was having trouble hearing me. I'd turn to her every once in a while and say something, and get absolutely no response. Ahahahahaha. I was just talking to myself. I also bonded with Gabrielle when we worked together to hide a bun thing from another guy who obviously doesn't CARE about the 10-second rule on food hitting the floor. Ahahahahaha. Oh man, good times.

Today was a good 7 hours of shopping at Fairview, Yorkdale, Orfus Road (HELLO good deals at ROOTS, SO much better than the Woodbridge one!) and Wal-mart. I'm so tired. But I got to hang out all day with my sister and my friend Dan, who now works in Cali, so I don't get to see him most of the time. He is SO funny, and so LOUD! AHahahaha. I kept seeing ppl I thought I knew, and he would keep yelling their names out SO loud. Everyone kept turning to look. Ahahahaha. Excellently fun times!

And finally, today, the most exciting news of all....there is a new version of Tontie!!!! Treasure chests....lasers, too, apparently! And bosses! So fun! And there's some new game, Pel Pet or something like that. It's a cute blob that moves. OH, AND there's an online DDR! It's called Flash FLash Revolution! AHahahahaha. It is SO funny. I have discovered that I have absolutely NO rhythm, and I remembered why I don't do DDR in public. AHahahaha.

Trivia question of the day: What Disney movie is Scrump in? (I know, I know, "WHO is SCRUMP?!" you say?)

Gunther?

So after spazzing over my cell phone for the first little while, I'm slowly beginning to appreciate it. Now, the big decision is, what do I name it now that it's grown on me so much? My friend, whom I will dub "Bad nicknamer" suggested the name Gunther. I absolutely refuse to name my phone Gunther. His next suggestion was Gertrude, which doesn't seem as bad. I know, where do I come from, thinking Gertrude isn't that bad?

Let me test it out...

"Hey, Gertrude's ringing!" "Oh, that's Gertrude!" "Gertrude's got a voice mail!"

Nah, I'm not feeling it. I need some better ideas. Any suggestions? I promise I won't dub you "bad nicknamer" (can't be any worse than Gunther, anyway!) ;)

What's Christmas all about?

Today, we had our annual service at the Momiji residential home for the oldies (but goodies!) and the Sunday school students did this cute play about the real meaning of Christmas. Basically, little Matthew is all confused about what Christmas is all about, so he asks his friends at school. One tells him it's about great gifts, another tells him it's about food (ahaha, but isn't it??), and then...classic answer, "Christmas is the birthday of someone very special! It's SANTA'S birthday!" Oh dear. That one was so funny though. But anyway, it does go into the real meaning of Christmas, and their teacher tells them that it's the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus and explains why he came to earth. Anyway, the girls in Chrysalis also sang, "Mary did you know", which I absolutely love.

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Did you know
That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you’ve delivered
Will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Did you know
That your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know
That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little boy
You’ve kissed the face of god

Mary, did you know?
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
And the dead will live again
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the lamb

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy is lord of all creation?
Did you know
That your baby boy will one day rules the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy is heaven’s perfect lamb?
This sleeping child you’re holding
Is the great I am

It's amazing that 2000 years later, a lot of people still celebrate Christ's birth. And I keep thinking lately, how amazing would it be to see Jesus walking on water?

Is it over yet?

So I think it's all over. I really hope I won't have to call the cops again. It was a stressful month. I don't think I'd want to do it again. Too much fear, uncertainty, sadness, stress. No no no, back to the happy bubble once again for me.

My birthday was pretty funny (although not at the time). I spent all day teaching and got lots of nice cards and phone calls from lots of you guys and gals...thanks so much for helping me realize it's something to celebrate. I forget that a lot because it's in the middle of exams.

Anyway, I also got a cell phone last Friday, for not great reasons. Well, basically for safety, in case of an emergency. It is unlimited for the first 6 months tho, so perhaps I will be using it a lot. Or ahahaha, perhaps not. On Monday night, I get home and decide that instead of studying, I will mess around with more phone options. Like the security options. Well, I'm reading the manual that came with the phone, and not the SIM card one, so I don't realize the default PIN is 1234, and not 1111 like it says in the manual. I proceed to enter this PIN in like a billion times (okay, it only took 5), but of course, you know, as a safety feature, it locks the phone after 5 wrong PINs. AHahahahahaa. So now I have this absolutely USELESS phone! Ahahahaha. And I've only had it for 3 days. Anyway, so fine, I decide I will try to get help by calling customer service. Now, when the phone's locked, it asks for the PIN Unlocking Key (PUK), but there's also the SOS option. AHAhahahaha, so in my panicky-phone-is-locked-mindedness, (this is a good one guys...wait for it......) I hit the SOS. AHAhahahaha, next thing I hear is "Police, fire and ambulance emergency response, how can I help you?" I QUICKLY hit the hang up button. Now my phone is locked AND I've accidentally dialed 911. At least I know it works. Ahahahaha, but now I'm worried because you get fined if you crank call. Does that count as a crank call? How much do you get fined? I have no idea. So at this point, I'm aboslutely freaking out because I can't seem to do anything right. I ended up calling the nice customer service man who I had a good laugh with about locking my phone. Oh, but here comes blonde moment #2....I've managed to set the password for my phone so it won't turn on without the password. I had turned the phone off after the horrendous 911 moment, so when I turned it back on, it was asking for the phone password. Unfortunately, I was trying to enter in the PUK and it wasn't working. The scary thing is, if you enter the wrong PUK 10 times, the SIM card locks and you have to get a new one (BOO, lots of money). So here I am, trying to enter the PUK, and wondering why it's not working when I say, "I don't understand. It's asking for the phone password..." Click. And the light goes on. Ahahahaha, sheepishly, I enter my phone password and THEN enter the PUK. The customer service guy has a good chuckle at my blonde moment. My phone finally unlocks. I vow never to touch the security settings again.

And that was my birthday. I got a total of 4 long-distance phone calls, which was kinda neat! :) I love you, friends!

P.S. I feel much less blonde today. And I put up the Christmas tree. And watched too many hours of TV while celebrating my exam done-ness. Bring on the Christmas baking and crafts.

The most random conversation ever

So I have one friend with whom I have the MOST odd, MOST pointless and yet very much amusing conversations on MSN.
Sample (my comments in brackets were not in the MSN conversation):

For we cannot say enough about You says: your intergluteal cleft is SHOWING! (think about what THAT means!!!!!)
Ha Bumhug says: yes
For we cannot say enough about You says: Mahahahaha
Ha Bumhug says: hm, how'd you know
For we cannot say enough about You says: Hmmmmm...how DID I know?
For we cannot say enough about You says: You live on the first floor. (this is me trying to sound creepy and stalker-ish)
Ha Bumhug says: ah...true
For we cannot say enough about You says: Mm hmm.
For we cannot say enough about You says: And I know where you live. Big mistake #1. (still trying to sound creepy)
Ha Bumhug says: that is true. I have to be more careful
Ha Bumhug says: but i have mastered intergluteal cleft travel
For we cannot say enough about You says: hmmmmmm...THAT sounds sketchy.
Ha Bumhug says:...ya... pretend i didn't say anything
For we cannot say enough about You says: AHahahahahaha
Ha Bumhug says: what happens on MSN...stays on MSN

And there you have it. THis is how I spend precious hours of my time. :)

Juliet and Romeo and some rocks

Yesterday, I took my grade 5 class downtown to see Juliet and Romeo at what used to be called the Young People's Theatre. It was true to the original so it was a good thing my class had already studied most of it. Most of the class understood what was going on. What hit me as I was watching it was how DIRTY that old SHakespeare guy is. Honestly, the connotations of some of these lines is atrocious. All I thought to myself was, "Thank goodness this is in old English and the kids don't understand a thing." What they did understand was actions, so of COURSE we got the laughter and giggles everytime Romeo and Juliet kissed. There was a big, "EW!" when Mercutio smacked Benvolio on the lips, and also another "EW!" when Romeo spoke a little too vehemently and spit all over the Friar. There was also an audible gasp when Romeo came out from Juliet's room without, GASP, a shirt on. At that moment, I really really wished he would have just kept that darned shirt on so I wouldn't have to explain it. Thankfully, no one commented about that later.

Question of the trip: "Miss O, why were Romeo and Juliet always kissing?"
My response: "I think that's what couples do when they're in love."

It's just so funny to see the grade 5 reaction to it all!

Later on in the day, I had my grade 1 class draw some pictures of things or situations that made them feel a certain way. The first feeling they had to draw for was "hurt". As I walk around the class, I notice several of them have drawn lumps. I ask what the lumps are. The response? Rocks. AHAHAHAHahaha. Well, of COURSE rocks would make you feel hurt. AHahahaha. Oh man. The most hair-pulling part was seeing one of the girls who drew a happy face for EVERY situation. For hurt, for astonished, for irate and for cheerful. ALL happy faces. This is, of course, the girl that actually answers, "Happy" to every question I ask. Ex. "Who can tell me a synonym for the word LIVID?" (yes, my grade 1s REALLY know these words!) This girl's response: "Happy!" Oh man, this is why I only pick on her when the answer is SUPPOSED to be happy. Ahahahaha.

Most hilarious conversation

The best part is that this ACTUALLY happened.

Scene 1

Child lays sprawled across work table.

Adult: Okay, Billy, I'm going to count to 3, and you need to be off that table.....1......2......3.

Child doesn't move. Adult ignores child and works around him. Adult eventually tires and tries another strategy. Thinks to herself that she'll be leaving soon, so she doesn't mind lying to Billy.

Adult: So Billy....I've never told you this before........but I'm Santa's helper.

Child's eyes open wide.

Billy: Really?

Adult: Yes. ANd do you know what this week is, Billy?

Billy doesn't respond, trying to appear disinterested.

Adult: This week is when we report to Santa about all the children. I need to send a letter to Santa about you, Billy. And actually, the other day, he was JUST asking about you.

Billy still lays sprawled. Adult goes to bag to get a piece of paper and a marker.
Starts to write: "Dear Santa, I saw Billy this week."
Billy peeks over. Recognizes his name.

Billy: What does that say? What does that say?

They read it together. Billy finally gets down to work.

Suddenly, Billy stops working. Adult takes out marker and uncaps it very deliberately. Billy pauses and sees the marker poised over the letter. Goes back to work.

{fade to black}

Okay, WHO goes around telling misbehaving children that they are Santa's helper?! Ahahahahaa.

Big-time bubble popping

I lived in a big bubble. Now my bubble has popped and it sucks. I really liked my bubble. I used to trust people and I used to be really nice. Now, in my bubble-less world, I'm suspicious and cranky and grumpy and stressed out. I hate it. I want the bubble back. What's so bad about a bubble, anyhow.

1200 again??

Hm, so after being introduced to the world of anti-spyware via Matt and the computer-savvy police guy, I've been nuking these..whaddaya call 'em? Data miners and Malware thingys. Yeah. I've been zapping them right off my computer (okay, I've done it twice). This has actually been quite therapeutic for me, taking control of my computer. It seems it's hard to control other parts of my life these days. Anyway, the first scan I did turned up over 1200 critical whatchamacallums (yes, that's the technical term for it), and Matt was really surprised. Apparently that's really high. So, you know, I scanned last night so I was expecting you know, maybe less than 100 to appear today when I did it. My little eyes bulged when I saw 1200 AGAIN. Yeah. Is my computer a malware magnet? Well, I am running ME. Ahahaha, so there's problem number one. But otherwise, come ON, stop attacking my computer, will you sneaky things??! Honestly. It takes FOREVER to get these things off and away. Plus everytime I run ad-aware, my GMT crashes, whatever that is. I know, I'm probably going to find out it's like the most important thing ever. Sigh. Silly Windows ME. Who the heck thought of this version, anyway?!

Totally unrelated, but nice:

"Relationships gain strength when they are stretched to the breaking point and do not break." - Phillip Yancey

Cannot Say Enough

Cannot Say Enough - Mercy Me

What can we say to describe just a glimpse of Your Glory
How can our words portray but a thread of Your Majesty
But still we praise our Savior in Spirit and in Truth
For we cannot say enough about You

What can we say to describe just a glimpse of Your Glory
How can our words portray but a thread of Your Majesty
But still we praise our Savior in Spirit and in Truth
For we cannot say enough about You

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

But still we praise our Savior in Spirit and in Truth
For we cannot say enough about You

Oh we cannot say... enough about you
Ohhh we cannot say...

The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1

He is the one that sustains me when everything falls apart at the seams. Thanks, Lord.

Absolutely Apalled

I was flipping through TV shows today when I came across the normally very tasteful Oprah. Shockingly, today's episode was about a topic that I view as quite Springer-esque. She was doing an episode about swingers, which was an eye-opener for me. I had NO idea what a swinger was, but I find it shocking and disgusting and so sad all at once. Basically, she had all these people on her show who go to clubs and have intercourse with OTHER couples. These are MARRIED people. I had no idea this happened, and I can't even believe it. The thing that saddened me most was that these people insisted that their sex lives were enhanced as a result. My jaw is just down to my KNEES. There is such a breakdown in marriage and family values nowadays...I'm frightened at how this next generation is growing up. I can't can't can't even believe it. At this rate, why should they even bother getting married anymore???

Teachers can be bullies, too

We've been talking a lot about bullying in my education class, and recently, we discussed the idea that a teacher can be a bully, too. Most students think about bullies as the kid who smokes or wears a leather jacket, etc., but in fact, I think most of us know that bullies come in all shapes and sizes. Which brings me to the focus of my blog: Teachers can totally and definitely be bullies, too. It's so MEAN! I semi-tutor this one guy from my church because he needs help in English. Unfortunately, he hasn't been doing well, so I had him go ask the teacher what he could do to improve his mark. She basically told him quite bluntly that he would never get 80%, and that 70% was also impossible. He said that he had always been a bad writer, and she basically agreed with him. Gee guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but somewhere along the way, teachers are, GASP, actually supposed to TEACH students. I mean, I know, some kids are slackers, and I'm not going to defend my kid any, but come on, she seems so MEAN! I totally and honestly think she's a bully. She totally belittled this kid and basically told him he sucked in English and that he'd never succeed. Way to empower the student. Sigh.

I'm glad we talked about teachers as bullies. It'll make me more careful not to be a bully to my students.

Mean bully teachers are so bad!

Is it too much to ask?

I've had a rough month, not only because of my school workload, but also because of some harassing phone calls and e-mails I've been getting. The creepy thing is that this guy seems to know certain details about me that I assume only someone that I'm at least acquainted with would know. Thus, I've decided not to do any one-on-one hanging with any guys. My problem is that I trust everyone....only most likely, this creepy person IS someone I know. Problem? Yes. If I make an exception for one of my guy friends, then I'm prone to make an exception for all of them, frankly because I don't really believe that it's any one of them.

Alac and alas, some people have taken offense. I'm sorry, but frankly, I'm not going to wait until I'm out with someone to find out that they're the stalker. What's the problem with hanging out in a small group, anyway? Sigh. But really, I do understand why you'd be pissed off. I'd also love if people could appreciate where I'm coming from, I guess.


In HILARIOUS news, I had my grade 5 students do an assignment for me. It was to make a poster depicting the services offered by ONE level of government. Now, I realized after getting the posters back that I really should have explained this further. Most students just picked a level of government and gave me information and pictures about it. The winner of the most unrelated and hilarious prize goes to Jenny, who made a poster about Provincial Servants. She has a picture of Dalton McGuinty and his wife. The funny thing is that well, first, she states that Dalton McGuinty is our Prime Minister (don't worry, she got it all straightened out by the test), but then she somehow felt she had to go on to prove that the woman he is holding hands with in the picture is his wife. First, she made a note that said, "Circle means example". Ahahahaah, which is when I noticed that she had circled 1) Dalton McGuinty's left hand and 2) The couple's hands clasped together. Then I read the notes: "Example 1 - The ring on Dalton McGuinty's left hand, second finger. Example 2 - They are holding hands." AHahahahahahahaahah. How unrelated is THAT?!?!!? Oh man. I still laugh when I think about it. It's just so absolutely unrelated. So Dalton's married. Ahahahahaha. Oh Jenny, Jenny.

Fountain of Youth

Kids have so much energy! I went to observe the D.D. class again at my school, this time for outdoor play time. It was great because they all just run around chasing each other. The most hilarious moment happened as we were gathering by the gate to head in. We all turned away for a second and when we turned back, the "Eww" kid (from last week) was leaning, peeing out the fence. All I could see was a kid with a stream propelling from him. He looked like a little fountain figure. Oh man. All I thought was, 'I am NEVER going to touch leaves on the ground again.' He was peeing into a whole pile of them. Ooooh man. Kids!

brainjims and ew

This past Monday, I had the opportunity to visit the developmentally delayed class at my school. It was amaaaaazing. I'm not sure exactly why some of the kids are in the class, but it was neat to see everything they do. I got to see circle time in the afternoon, where they do Brainjim, which is a CD song thing where they do different activities. THe point of the activities is to coordinate the two sides of their brains; thus, the name Brainjim. Or maybe it's Brainjam. The lady has a European accent. Anyway, the kids rubbed their earlobes, tapped opposite knees, etc. It was fun to watch. I think I'd love to work with them, but it would be so challenging! Anyway, towards the end, one of the little boys walked over to me and was staring at me. Then he said, "Eww." All the teachers were like, "Oh no." Apparently he said the same thing last week after he soiled his pants, and sure enough, he had. They kept telling him he had to tell them sooner, before the Ew. Gross, and yet really neat. So that was that. I had a good Monday, and on Friday, I'm visitng Queen's Park with my grade 5 class! Dalton McGuinty, here I come!

And it just gets better and better...

So a couple weeks ago, my car was keyed because we park the car right outside York on a side street, which is fairly close to Jane and Finch. Apparently ppl think it's a great past-time to ruin other people's cars. Anyway, yesterday, I get to my car around 1am, and what do you stinking know, both my right tires have been slashed. Unbeeeeeeeelivable. Inconceeeeivable! (ahahaha, Princess Bride). But really, I was quite upset. My car has a spare, but no jack. The gas station that was a second away had no jack. No one pulling into the station had a jack for a while, but we finally found someone who did. Hah, then we couldn't check the tire pressure on the spare, so that was great. Oh, but this is all as we're thinking that only the back tire is punctured. We get it fixed, thanks to Andrew and Melissa (I will always and forever love chivalrous guys and handy girls!) and I drop them off. As I'm nearing my house, I realize that my car is VERY slanted, and that my front tire is now also flat. I pull into the driveway, and sure enough, totally deflated. Craziness. At this point, I'm quite upset, especially because I'm really tired. In addition, I have now drive from Jane to Kipling on a flat tire which is VERY unhealthy for my car, I'm sure. So yep, there ya go, I'm not very impressed with the hoodlums around York at this point. Sigh. What things like this always teach me is grace. Beyond anything, if there were some way to track down whoever did this and punish them, I would love to. In my mind, I'm upset enough to think they really don't deserve to go to Heaven. But that's when grace comes in. No one really deserves to go to Heaven, and I have to admit, that if this hoodlum person made a genuine decision to follow Christ, I'd be seeing them in Heaven. It seems so unfair to me. And yet, that's because my love is limited. I really can't love this stupid stupid STUPID person right now.

In more exciting news, I actually got to my car late because we had gone in someone else's car to Guelph, to see the I Agree with Graydon presentation. It was pretty good. I think there were around 400 people that came out, and Graydon spoke about his beliefs. There were some people dressed as Satan in the crowd, and others carrying signs that said "Hell no" (in response to the question "Do you agree with Graydon?"). It was an interesting mix, and they had a question/answer period after where a lot of interesting issues were raised. What annoys me to no end is people who take verses in the Bible out of context, however. ANNOYING ANNOYING ANNOYING! But yeah, overall, a well-executed event.

Blond moment of the week: I see some people on their bikes and think back to my recent bike-riding experience, where one leg of my pants kept getting dirty while cycling. I ask my sister, "Hey, why is it that only ONE pant leg gets dirty when you cycle?" She responds, "Was it the RIGHT pant leg?" I'm surprised she knows. Then it dawns on my. Duh. Chains are only on one side of the bike. Sigh.

Controversy and excitement

I'm off to Agree with Graydon tmw at Guelph! I'm excited. It's been a pretty controversial thing at Guelph. I get to see my friend Rebecca, and all the cows that apparently hang out around Guelph. Moo cow.

Hey, did you know that the Jesus Week at Guelph was once rated in the Top 10 University events in some magazine??

Things that matter...

I wrote a 6-page paper last night after much hesitation. Things happen in life that we can't control, but I appreciate the things that help me to keep everything in perspective. Some things just make you realize that school isn't the end of it all.

Today, I'm grateful for friends and family.

Dear Bloggie

Dear Bloggie,

Nancy has suggested a stake-out on my payphone stalker. What do you think? I think it might just make us ultra creepy, and there's no telling which payphone in Brampton or Cooksville he'll be at. I wonder, dear Bloggie, what to do. I guess we'll see if I can find out payphone locations. We'll have to bring a scary boy.

Till next time, Dear Bloggie,
Your faithful blogger.

AHahahahaha. I stole it, only I modified it. I'm briiiiiiiilliant.

Bloggie is my Blog's name. That's right. And I've named my snowflake robe Snowflake. Only, it's complicated with the robe, because when I put it on, I actually become Snowflake and respond to that name. That's right. Hm. I seem to have regressed. I'm naming things again. Sigh.

The House that Crack built

One of my education teachers loves picture books. He has an extensive collection, and this past Tuesday, we were talking about censorship, and how we as teachers censor many of the materials in our class. He pulled out this book and told us that he has never read this to any children, and you'll see why. It's a powerful book. I've put the verses on here, but check out The House that Crack built for the pictures. Read it slowly, it's really interesting.

1 This is the House that crack built.

2 This is the man who lives in the House that crack built.

3 These are the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

4 These are the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

5 These are the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

6 This is the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

7 This is the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

8 This is the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

9 This is the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

10 This is the Boy feeling the heat, chased by the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

11 And this is the Crack that numbs the pain, bought from the Boy feeling the heat, chased by the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

12 This is the Girl who's killing her brain. smoking the Crack that numbs the pain, bought from the Boy feeling the heat, chased by the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

13 And this is the Baby with nothing to eat, And this is the Baby with nothing to eat, born of the Girl who's killing her brain. smoking the Crack that numbs the pain, bought from the Boy feeling the heat, chased by the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

14 And these are the Tears we cry in our sleep that fall for the Baby with nothing to eat, born of the Girl who's killing her brain. smoking the Crack that numbs the pain, bought from the Boy feeling the heat, chased by the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man WHO LIVES IN THE HOUSE THAT CRACK BUILT.

I almost cried. The saddest thing is that it's all true. :(

Interesting...

So you Looers, have you been to the site? I just visited, and the discussion forums are pretty intense. I'm half laughing at the people who are complaining about all these things, because some are quite ridiculous. I think it was a really really good advertising campaign, and yeah, it simply advertised Byron and agreeing with him. No one forced anyone to agree with him. I find it interesting that people get so riled up over all this. I think I almost like ppl riled up than really passive and not caring about it. I think it's something people should think about. I'm glad there's an open forum for discussion.

But really, honestly, what do these posters say? They just ask if you agree with Byron. Please, cramming God down people's throats. How does that happen unless these people seek out information? Unless Byron is God, I don't see it happening. It's sad that when people get really upset, they lose all sense of logic.

And oh please, as if every campus in Canada isn't littered with advertising and postering for hundreds of random causes, clubs and products. I think it's an awesome campaign, because I mean, they haven't even advertised the site, and there are all these ppl visiting it. Ahahaha. Anyway, the T-shirts come out tomorrow! We'll see what happens with all that!

P.S. Mac guys, I'll be there on Oct. 29th! Oh, do you agree with Dave? Ahahahah.

I Agree With Byron

I agree with Byron

Now you know! AHahahaha, wasn't the advertising great?!

And the world is on fire.

Mich mash

Humans and love get complicated sometimes, n'est-ce pas?

So guess, oh, you'll never guess just WHO won the Battle of the Bands at church today. Ahahaha, yes indeed. The Sc-Hotties. We won! And we were really just formed this morning, too. Ahahahaha. We were talking last week about forming a joke band to be totally dumb in the competition, but we didn't talk about it again until this morning. I saw Naomi come in and I ran over to ask her what we were doing. She had no idea. Neither did Emika, who was the 3rd member of this fantastic band. Anyway, we finally decided after many many MANY silly ideas, that we would be a performance art band, who danced and sang and rapped. Amazing, I know. We're so multi-talented! Ahahahaha. Part 1 of our amazing act was a dance-off. We're talking about the revival of many an 80s dance move. Then, when the winner couldn't be decided, we went for the musical chair-off, where Naomi and I competed to win a game of Musical Chairs. We're amazingly cheesy. Anyway, then came the rap that I accompanied with my great (ahahahahahah) drumming skills. The grand finale was a song dedicated to the man who inspired our band...Sc-Hott. Ahahahaha. Last weekend, we made up this pretend fan club for Scott and we kept joking about how we love him so. Anyway, so what better way to pay tribute to the man we all admire than by dedicating our band to him. Yes, it was all for him. AHAHAHahahaha. It was hilarious. We were SO BAD. But the thing is, the judging was done by audience cheering, and for some random reason, ppl cheered the loudest for the Sc-Hotties. Sigh. So we won, and now we'll be defending champions next year. Craziness. It was great fun, though, to be super-silly again.

I rediscovered this song on a CD my friend forgot....
Turn your ear
To Heaven and hear
The noise inside
The sound of angels
The sound of angel's songs
And all this for a King
We could join and sing
"All to Christ the King!"

How constant
How divine
This song of ours will rise
Oh, how constant
How divine
This love of ours will rise
Will rise...

Turn your gaze
To Heaven and raise
A joyous noise
Oh, the sound of salvation come
The sound of rescued ones
And all this for a king
Angles join to sing"
All for Christ the King!"

How infininte and sweet
This love so rescuing
Oh how infinitely sweet
This great love that has redeemed
As one, we sing...

Do You Agree With....

Hey you Waterlooers, do you agree with Byron?

Why I love love ministry!

So I wandered up to the CCC office today, and was sitting around when a guy wandered by and was all, "I'm looking for some information." I couldn't even believe it. It's pretty rare that anyone comes to the office who just wants to engage in a conversation about spiritual things. Anyway, this guy asked some goooood good questions. All those tough ones about the Bible's authenticity, homosexuality, and salvation! It was so exciting just to sit around and talk with this guy who's just genuinely interested in Christianity. Anyway, I loved it! This is totally why I love university ministry! I also had my first Bible study yesterday, and I baked muffins for it! Only one person ate one tho! :( The Bible study went really well otherwise, except for some slight difficulty with 2 of the girls whispering in the corner. Inside, the teacher totally came out in me and I thought to myself, "If these girls weren't in university, I'd ask them to split up." AHahahahaha, I chuckled as I realized my classroom management strategies surfacing in my Bible study! Crazy, I feel like teaching is really taking over my life.

I had a stressful moment at school today in the multimedia language centre. It's basically a computer lab for students learning different languages, and I was in there for Chinese. Anyway, there's one part of the program where you have to speak into the mic to practice your pronounciation. The only thing was, when I walked in, it was DEAD quiet. I played around with the program for so long, all the while avoiding the pronounication practice. Finally, I sucked it up and started to do it. Unfortunately, the mic didn't seem very sensitive, and the computer kept asking me to repeat my words! Ack. This one guy turned around and looked at me as I was speaking into the mic. Sigh. I've decided not to go there on Fridays anymore. It's all about going on a busy day when more people are doing pronounciation drills.

I feel like there's not as much to update in my life lately. Although, big news, on October 29th, I'll be at either MacMaster or at Western for the CCC weekly meeting! Yaaaaay! I'm actually hoping Mac because it's a long way to drive to London. I'll see the respective bananas then!

Super Summit Summary!

Whew, so I had an awesome awesome weekend! I wish some of you had come along. Actually before I start, let me tell you about last week. I feel like ever since I went on a missions trip to East Asia, God's been calling me back. Anyway, I finally worked up the nerve to ask my dad what he thought about this, and he waid he'd think about it. Anyway, a couple days later, he said, "So, when you get back from East Asia, what are you going to do?" Mahahaahha. That's good enough for me! I was surprised he wasn't overtly totally against it all. Anyway, I figure I am old enough to start making decisions about my own life, and I guess he's started to realize that, too.

Which brings me to this weekend. I love these CCC retreats and conferences, not just because I get spiritually fed, but also because I get to see a lot of old friends. My friend Russ, who was over in the Orient last year was back, and I got to have a good chat with him. I also saw Maria and Rebecca, who I was on my missions trip with! :) On the last night, we always bond over praying together, and it's awesome that we're continually encouraging one another. There was some good Dutch Blitz games late night with hot-hands-Wickens, this random guy from Queens who rocked at Dutch Blitz (lemme know if you haven't played this...it's the most fun game ever!). There was an awesome speaker named Rick James who was HILARIOUS. What spoke to me most about what he said this weekend was when he spoke from a passage in Luke 9 about the cost of following Jesus. It struck me because I was thinking about leaving next year for the Orient, and how I'm petrified of leaving behind my family and friends, but also because I feel like I'm leaving behind a posh (ahaha, somewhat posh?) teaching job. My logical, play-it-safe part says that I should stay for another 2 years to teach so that I can get my permanent teacher's position, but I know I'm not supposed to, so the only reason I would is to chicken out from stepping out in faith.

I also got to see Jen and Graham, who have a new cute baby! SOOOOOOO cute! Amazingly cute. She's totally adorable. It's funny to see Graham as a dad, but he totally seems to love it. Jen's awesome as always, and it was good to see them after not seeing them for 2 years! Another highlight of the weekend was the Campus Challenge competition. The metro team (U of T, Ryerson and York) totally sucked at the beginning of this competition, so we weren't kicked off (this was played Survivor style, where universities got to vote other unis off). Finally, we actually made it to the final 3, slipping in under the radar, and it was the Fear Factor eating competition. I volunteer for this, thinking it will just be a battle of wills to eat something totally disgusting. I find out later on that it's actually who can eat ridiculous amounts of normal stuff the fastest. This had me in a bit of a fix, because as most of you know, I AM the WORLD'S SLOWEST eater. SLOWEST. Literally, food is pure liquid in my mouth before I can swallow it. Thankfully, there was soup, so I volunteered for that. I peered at it beforehand and thought it looked a little strange, but didn't pursue it further. Anyway, the teams were tied as the soup eating began, and I took the first bite and realized that it was CONDENSED mushroom soup with some spicy sauce in it. It was absolutely DISGUSTING. Lucky for me, soup requires no chewing, so I kept swallowing. At one point, one of my teammates patted me on the back and encouraged me, at which I almost gagged up everything. I managed to keep it down and here's the big surprise............GUESS WHO FINISHED THE SOUP FIRST?! I know. I know, it's unbelievable, but I actually did. Everyone else was gagging big-time on it. Apparently it was too spicy. Anyway, it was totally fun, and because we won that competition, Toronto actually gained immunity and made it to the final 2! We actually won the final vote, too, so we won a scholarship to the Winter Conference. Amaaaaazing, eh? Yep. Totally. We're so strategic. "Pretending" we suck to get into the finals. Ahahahaha. So that was fun competition time.

I have to say this was my most favorite Summit ever. I think being old, it was just nice not to worry about anything and to just hang out with everyone. I love the frosh and newbies at CCC this year. They're so fun! One of my favorite parts is the worship on the dock, too. It's beautiful to hear 50 voices all singing praises to an awesome God. Someone brought bongos and the beat just carries across the water beautifully. The moon was out...it was just amazing. I had a good talk with Melissa, too, and we just thought over what it would be like to leave our families. I got a chance to pray for her, too, which was awesome. I totally love Mel to death, and I'm so amazed at her spiritual growth over the years. It's amazing to get to mentor someone who's so teachable! :) Thanks Mel!

Wow, that was a long update, and that doesn't even begin to describe what the weekend was really like. I attribute a lot of my spiritual growth in these past couple of years to these retreats, conferences, and the ppl I've met. I'm going to miss Summit!

Sick...

Got back from an awesome retreat, but I don't have time to blog about it right now. I'm so sick. :( Can you pray I get better?

Humour me...

Okay, humour me for a couple of minutes. I want you to think about your funeral. Morbid, perhaps, but just humour me. You see your funeral, with your friends, family, relatives gathered around. Then the eulogies start. One of your friends gives a eulogy. One co-worker gives a eulogy. Finally, a close family member gives a eulogy. What do you picture them saying? Consider this really carefully....do you hear them saying that you were a loving husband, caring friend, loving mother? What you want others to say about you at your funeral is the kind of person you want to be remembered for being. It's the kind of person you want to be. So now you have the end in mind. Think about the present though. Are you there? Are you the person you want to be right now? And the next question is, do you know when you're going to die? So why not start now? You know what the end is, and you know what the beginning is. Start right now to become the person you want to be! This death and dying course is really making me think about death. However, there is a bright side. Thinking about death automatically makes you think about life and how precious it is.

Anyway, I had a good day of connecting with old friends. I met a guy today that I had approached last year doing a survey about The Passion of the Christ cuz he's friends with my friend. I had forgotten how much I hate it when guys check out girls, but honestly, he kept saying things like, "Oh, she's hot." He was talking about a girl we mutually know, and he said, "Nah, I don't really like her, I just like to look at her." DISGUSTING. I don't know. I mean, it's one thing to say that someone is pretty or good-looking. But to say one is hot is so much more sleazy. It really seems more like objectification. It seems like such a male-pig thing to do, to sit there with "the guys" and check out girls. What annoyed me even more was that he insisted that if I ever met his friend Justin, that I would just think he was incredible. Honestly, do I look that shallow? Frankly, I don't care how big his muscles are. That kind of stuff just isn't attractive to me. It really is so much in the personality. Looks don't last forever, but a person's character does. Sigh. Anyway, today, I was reminded of male piggy-ness, and it was disappointing.

I had a better meeting with a girl I mentor with Campus Crusade after. She's so awesome! :) It's amazing to see how much she's grown in every area of her life since I've known her. It's her last year, too, so we were talking about what we wanted our last year to look like. I'm excited, but rather sad about my last year. I wish I had more time to make more of an impact, to do all the things that I want to do. On the other hand, I'm really rather glad to get out of money-sucking York. I will miss the ppl, though. But I'm really praying for the ministry this year, that it will keep growing and be self-sustaining. I know the York ministry will be huge someday; I guess I'm just impatient to see it happen.

Thought of the day (thanks Ian!): Complaining is all about pride. It implies that you know better than God how things should be and that the current situation just isn't good enough.

WILLS!!!!!!!!

"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? My name is Michelle. I'm trained in first aid. You need to get up. Get up, get up." Ahahha, so how many times did I repeat this today? A LOT. But I can now treat you if you aren't breathing, are unconscious, have no circulation, or have any severe lacerations or amputations to your body. Oh, and if you have a heart attack or stroke. Yep! It's actually really useful to know what to do. Tomorrow we move onto asthma, diabetes, and other diseases. My class is pretty small and my instructor is easy-going and amusing. He went off on this random tangent about pickpockets in Europe and told us about Ben Johnson getting pickpocketed. He tried to chase the robbers but couldn't catch them! Apparently it was big news. Ahahahaha, I said maybe he couldn't catch them because it hit 10 seconds and he couldn't go anymore. Ahahaha. Anyway, overall it was a tiring but good first aid day. The best thing was that I learned that it's good to eat slow (one point for me!), to eat 4-6 mini-meals per day (another point!), and not to drink while chewing food (and Michelle finishes with a big THREE points!). It pays off to be slow guys! Ahahaha. You'll all be coming to me for slow-eating pointers, soon! ;)

I also went to a Rexdale Alliance service today, because I miss my chuch service tmw. GUESS who I saw there? Mr. DALE! I was going to say something, but thought he probably wouldn't remember me anyway. It's good to see he's doing okay though. I think about him every winter when we start shovelling the snow and my dad goes nuts shovelling fast and hard. Now that he's running on the treadmill, that probably won't be so bad, but my dad just used to go from doing absolutely no physical exercise during the year to busting his butt shovelling.

Anyway, I also saw some other ppl I know, but most notably, I got to see my friend who's been in Malawi for the past year. WILLS! Actually, that's her last name, but it's so funny, the way we interact is when we see each other, we scream out each other's last names. It's good fun. Actually, if any of you remember my fantastic "It's Raining Men" dance from when I went to China, she is the choreographer of that hilarious dance. Apparently one of her friends had her do it at a wedding!!! Ahaahah. It's just filled with the biggest 80s dance moves EVER (think running man, pastel hairbands, side ponytails). Another high point was actually after she finished yelling out my last name. She said, "You're not wearing plaid." Instantly I picture Joey Lawrence (circa Blossom era) and his tacky plaid shirts that were SOOO cool back then. Then I realize she's referring to the fact that they called me the "Plaid Patrol" and "Bad in Plaid" back when we were over in China, because all the PJs I used to wear happened to be plaid and pink. I came home that summer and realized 90% of my PJs were plaid. Ahahahahaha. Anyway, it was sooooooo great to see her. She always cracks me up and has the most hilarious stories from Malawi. I'm glad she's back, and that I got to see her!

The service was actually really good, too. It was entitled, "Who Killed Jesus?" and the Pastor talked about people watching The Passion of the Christ and coming out thinking that a certain group killed Jesus. For example, there was all that controversy over the anti-Semitic stuff, but he talked about the fact that if we walked out from that movie and thought Pontius Pilate or the Roman soldiers or Judas or whoever killed Jesus, that we had missed the point. He concluded that basically, all humanity was responsible for Jesus' death, but also that God was (Acts 2:23,24).

"This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."

Looking at the cross always helps me put my life in perspective. I think today as I thought about the crucifixion, I thought about my pride and the sin that's in my life and I thought about how everytime I get angry or...whatever it is, I mean, that action is the reason Christ died. Everyday, it's us that nails him to the cross. I think that's also what Mel Gibson wanted to convey when he had his cameo in the film nailing Jesus to the cross. It's Mel's hand that lifts the hammer. But through the blood and suffering, it's amazing to think that even if you were the only person on earth, Christ would still have died for you.

"It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished.....His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished." - Stuart Townsend, How Deep the Father's Love

Veritas Daily

I was checking out this button at the top of the screen, you know, the one that says "Next blog". It takes you to some random blog and once in a while, you get an interesting one. Anyway, I happen to stumble across this blog, Veritas Daily Journal run by two brothers from Louisville, Kentucky. Not that I know them, but it's funny because one of them currently goes to the same seminary as Uche does. They also go to the same mega-church that I checked out when I was down there. Of all the blogs to stumble into, it's one from Kentucky. Ha! Anyway, what caught my eye was that it said "One truth - all else is false" at the top of their page. It's a bold statement, but one that I agree with. Anyway, it's an interesting page. For those of you interested in theological debates, etc. and hot religion topics of the day, it's an interesting site. Uche and Mel have some good pages, too.

You know, I always wonder as I write blog entries whether ppl find them boring. It's funny, because sometimes I'll look back over what I wrote and realize how boring it is, but I'll post it anyway. Hahaha, it's my secret torture for all of you. Maybe I'll purposely try to post a reeeeeeeeeeeeaally boring blog one day. "This morning I woke up at 7 am. Then I went downstairs and had some yogurt for breakfast. It was maple-flavoured yogurt, because we make homemade yogurt so I pour maple syrup into it to flavour it myself." Blah blah blah. Ahahaha. Ppl don't REALLY have blogs this boring, do they? Hm.

Rip-off of the week: Dexit cards. Stupid things charge you $1.50 everytime you want to refill with money. Booooo Dexit.

Random trivia of the day: How many ridings are there in Canada (ie how many seats in the House of Commons)? Oooh. Exciting question, I know. Ahahahah.

Extramarital icky!

If you don't watch the Gilmore Girls, you probably won't care about what comes next: I was watching the season premiere of the Gilmore Girls today, and I had totally forgotten that in the cliffhanger episode last season that Rory had slept with Dean. DEAN IS MARRIED. They're both like, what, 19 or 20 years old! I couldn't even believe it. It just ruins the whole little love story for me. Dean and Rory would be cute together, sure, but Dean is stinking married. Anyway, she sleeps with him twice, but it seems like the guilt is taking over, so hopefully that storyline will be over soon. The Lorelai/Luke love story is pretty funny and cute tho. They're both so funny! Anyway, don't you love how I'm talking about this TV show like it's real life? Hah. But honestly, it just disgusts me that there's this AFFAIR going on in the Gilmore Girls, and it involved RORY, of all people. But really, I feel like TV shows nowadays just work to desensitize me. Murder? Pshh. Extramarital affairs? Normal. :( Makes me sad. When will it all stop??

Amaaaaazing Race

So Chip and Kim won the Amazing Race 5. This one was actually pretty interesting. I can't believe it all came down to one flight. I think Colin and Christie should have won, just because they were good at playing the game. Chip and Kim got so back-stabby at the end of it all. And all I can say is, I cannot believe Brandon puts up with Nicole's whining and complaining. He totally spoils her! And Colin yells too much at himself and Christie. That's it. When's Celebrity Mole coming back?? :)

Furious = Happy. It's going to be a long year.

So guess who thought they LOOOOOVED primary grades (up to grade 3) but has now decided she doesn't really like the grade ones??? Ahahahaha. They're cute, but it's way too frustrating. Today was all, "Yes Ms.O, furious means happy." Some of them get it, and some of them just DON'T. Ahahahahaha. I just didn't know what to do!I mean, part of it is teaching them....but honestly, I think itdepends on the class and how it's managed by the usual teacher. And yes, I mean, I know my job as a TEACHER is to teach them, but I've decided I'd rather teach something like patterning than drama to grade 1s.

On another note, flies have spawned somewhere in my house. EWWW. My mom thinks they're coming out of the drain. I have no idea. What I do know is that these flies are really stupid. They're reeeeeally slow and stupid. I can swat them with my hand and they get knocked out. Ahahaha. I shouldn't laugh at such killing, but they're just such BAD flies. I mean, flies are supposed to be good at flying around and evading enemies, but these ones justsuck. I guess this is why the ones with the good genes survive? Hm. Anyway, we've managed to eliminate most of them, so yay. No more annoying flies!

Okay, time for some work. My homework tonight is to write out 10 Chinese characters 10 times. It was so funny, we're learning the pictographs, which are the characters that were taken from their iconic sort of drawings. Anyway, our teacher draws out a sun, moon, person, tree....everything looks like the character. Unfortunately, then she gets to the character "heart". She drew it as a picture, and no one could tell what it was. As she was drawing it though, I realized it was the character and when she asked what it was and everyone was dumbfounded by this horrendous picture, I called out, "heart". She was like, "YES, that's right!" as if her picture was so obvious. Everyone was like, that's supposed to be a HEART? Ahahaahah, I have no idea how in the world they got that character from heart, but there ya go. Now everyone thinks I'm good at interpreting random scribble-y pictures.

Man On Fire, Drenched in tears

My weekend was pretty good. The highlight was seeing Man on Fire with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning. I didn't really expect it to be good, because I didn't hear that much about it when it came out in theatres, but it is amazing! Basically, it's about Dakota Fanning having a bodyguard (Denzel) and their relationship...except she gets kidnapped partway through. And spoiler coming up in .....3...........2............1.........oh, actually, I can't bear to spoil it for you, although it is slightly predictable, but still pretty interesting. Anyway, it made me think about how corrupt the police are in Latin America, and about how horrible it must be to have your child kidnapped. Do kidnappings for money happen in N. America anymore? Actually, maybe I'd prefer kidnappings for money, rather than kidnappings for the crap that goes on up here. :(

But it's a good movie, and it has a good ending.... I bawled my little eyes out. It was THAT sad. Sniff. Dakota Fanning's just so darn cute.

Annoying moment of the weekend: Annoying Pizza Hut operators who charge you $7 extra for some stupid crust, when all you want is regular oven-baked crust. Only noooo, she won't give it to us because apparently you can't have this crust if you get a certain deal. Well, we did 5 minutes later when we called again to double-check and we got a nice Pizza Hut operator. :P!!!

Reason # 20049 for why technology stinks sometimes

Ha, this entry reminds me of an editorial essay I wrote back in....grade 12, was it? I wrote it about how technology sucks. Apparently we don't get along. Anyway, as I was debating changing the very girly colour scheme of my blog, I realized that one entry that I thought blogger ate a while back actually ended up appearing, so now I have 2 entries in a row that talk about the same thing. Sorry loyal bloggie readers. Not my fault, it kept giving me an error msg, and really, that could mean anything from, "Bob in South Dakota now has your blog entry", to "Your blog entry is lost forever." Stupid technology.

Death and Dying, Life and Living

So one of the courses I'm taking this semester is the Psychology of Death and Dying. Sounds morbid, you say? Actually, it's been quite interesting. Today we talked about how children perceive death, and we discussed how their grief process is different from an adults, depending on how developed they are. We watched a video of a kids support group, for children who had lost siblings or parents. It was just heartbreaking to hear them tell their stories. They also do some art therapy, which was really interesting. Apparently one of the most powerful acrtivities is to get the child to draw the weather outside on the day of the funeral, and then draw the weather inside them. Most of them drew rainclouds. Oh, it was tough to watch them. You just want to reach in and take away their pain.

I started tearing up a bit during the video, but really shed a couple tears as I did one of the readings for today. The textbook talks a lot about 9/11 in the introduction, and there was a small box with a transcript of a phone call from a man on one of the hijacked planes to his wife. The thing about death is that it really makes you appreciate life.

"This is the reported message that Brain Sweeney, a 38-year-old passenger on United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower, left for his wife, Julie, on their answering machine shortly before 9 a.m. on September 11, 2001.

'Hey Jules, it's Brian. I'm on a plane and it's hijacked and it doesn't look good. I just wanted to let you know that I love you and I hope to see you again. If I don't, please have fun in life and live your life the best you can. Know that I love you and no matter what, I'll see you again.'"

:*(

Potential Jobs

I thought it might be amusing to post the many jobs that I have considered doing throughout my life (keep in mind that not all of these are actually feasible or even realistic):

1. waitress at a Japanese restaurant
2. artist (whatever that means!)
3. teacher
4. child-life worker
5. author of educational tools and manipulatives
6. professional quilter (whatever that means again)
7. children's book author
8. missionary
9. English teacher overseas
10. fashion designer
11. professional calligrapher (like those ppl that label the grad photo composites!)
12. professional organizer

That's all I can think of for now, and I'm pretty sleepy. When I think of any more absurd ones, I'll let you all know!

P.S. I know, eh, Matt! No one updates blogs anymore. I think they're actually busy diligently completing schoolwork. Gasp. :)

Unitedly Untied

I found some random blog, and really liked this:

The difference between 'United' and 'Untied' is where you put the 'i'.

She was talking about being in relationships.

Like a deer in the headlights

I have noticed a pattern in my life. When I encounter adverse situations, I either freeze, or if I can escape, I try to run in the opposite direction. Take for example, my teaching placement for the year. Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will LOVE my grade 5s, but at the moment, I'm petrified because I'm not exactly sure what to expect. I hate failing. Now, in a situation that I feel uncomfortable in, I normally try to run in the other direction, but as I am trapped in this placement for the year, I just freeze. I'm supposed to be planning a "get-to-know-you" activity for my class, but I really really just don't want to. I'm doing everything else besides planning it. I'm sure once I get it over and done with, I'll be fine, but I really really don't want to do it right now. My host teacher is super-strict this year, which is good to see, but at the same time, she's SCARY! Aie aie.

On a side note, while very much avoiding planning my activity for tomorrow, I have whipped up an 8-foot banner for my Campus Crusade retreat this Oct 1-3. Is anyone interested in going? We have groups coming from most universities, so it'll be easy to get transportation. It's nice to get away for a bit. :) Anyway, it's $99 before Sept. 21, so lemme know if anyone wants to go. So yes, as I was saying, this banner has helped me realize that I really like banner-making. I'm going to start another one as soon as this first one dries. If you're at York anytime, check out my banner handiwork in the Student Centre. :)

P.S. Why aren't ppl updating their blogs as much these days? Goodness, so dedicated to school and work. Look at me, the slacker updating pretty much everyday! But yeah, I enjoy hearing what's up with you people, so update already, will you???

Blogger BOOO

Blogger ate my last super-long entry. No more long entries, forget it. This blog will be done in random point form (it's mostly about last weekend).

• Oh, I think I boasted about how I beat Mike at speed. Big-time. Mwahahaha. Okay, but, admittedly, he did kick my butt after in strategic war. STRATEGIC war, you say? Yes! War is just so unchallenging, so I decided we should be able to look at all the cards in our hand and decide which card to play. It's pretty hilarious, because you end up kicking yourself for putting out bad cards. It's also pretty interesting when you have a war.
• It was so neat visiting Steph and Mike's places. Mike, I don't know how you survive living across from a MALL!!! Last Christmas when I worked in the mall, it was brutal cuz I just kept going shopping on my breaks!
• I did a lot of assembling Ikea furniture. Also quite fun. Oh, and we blew up the big inflatable queen size bed! The one that comes with a stand, even, that they advertise in all those commercials. For those posh campers.
• the wedding was really nice. They had it in a winery, which was absolutely beautiful, and the bride was beautiful of course. She has red hair and blue eyes! Isn't that amazing!? I had tons of fun hanging out all weekend in London with old friends, and new ones!
• Happy birthday (for tmw), oh cake-hating, fuzzy-tomato-eating one. You know who you are.
• I got to drink Koolaid on the weekend, which is so neat because I never have Koolaid at my house, not even the Jammers!
• I wore a strapless black dress ($20 at the Gap!!!!), only I had horrible tan lines from camp so I had to wear my hair down very strategically to cover. Ahahaha, I'm such a loser!
• the Godfather skit at the wedding consisted of the father of the bride talking like the Godfather. It was hilarious. It started off, "Martin, it has come to my attention in the past hour that you are showing considerable interest in my youngest daughter, Kathleen. Now, I'm ready to make a deal with you. I may need a favour in the future, and I know you own a large array of power and construction tools. I may even need to borrow your cement mixer...." etc. It was hilarious. :)

So that was the good 'ol weekend recap very quickly.

Now it's time for the most hilariously ridiculous story in the entire world.

My sister knows a guy, and he has 2 brothers. They all love cars. One night, they decide to go to the BMW dealership at ONE AM to look at cars. This BMW dealership is across the street from a police station. That is brilliant move #1. They drive to the dealership in their brand new car. Brilliant move #2. So, they get to the dealership and are scoping out the cars in the middle of the night, when a police cruiser pulls up. They think nothing of it and continue to peruse. Suddenly, more cop cars are pulling up around them, and they're actually ARRESTED and put into the back of the cruisers! Why? Because the first cop car ran their plate because they were kinda suspicious (3 grown men, checking out BMWs in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT). Turns out that because the car was so new, it wasn't totally properly registered yet, so they thought it was a stolen car. What is even better is they asked who was driving, and they all said the youngest brother was, even though he wasn't, because the older brothers had outstanding parking tickets and stuff. Brilliant move #3: Youngest brother had forgotten his license in a friend's car. He phones his friend who proceeds to hang up on him because it's late. It was just hilarious. First of all, really, WHO goes to check out cars that late at night, ACROSS from a police station. And then all this bad luck. Ahahaha, it was hilarious!

Placement praise!

First day of my teaching placement at Jane and Finch. It was so tiring, but really interesting and amazing. I'm intimidated because my teacher is big on collaborative learning, and she's really good. I know what I have to teach first term already, so I have to prep for that. Ed3 is going to be a LOT of work. But she's really good with classroom management, which is good for me because my management style is SO geared to grade 2s! Now that I have a grade 5 class...oh man. Pray I survive! But yeah, overall, I'm totally ecstatic about this placement. I've heard horror stories about really bad host teachers, but she doesn't seem too bad. She called herself a harda$$ tho!

On a sidenote, I have to teach government to the kids. Any tidbits of info you all want to give me would be great!

On another sidenote, when ppl stand in a circle and push someone around inside, it's called Nerdball. Who knew?! I'm no bully.

This blog is SO random.

Everyone's leaving for school. Or for some foreign land. Sigh. So sad. It makes me think about what it'll be like for me if, well, when I leave. Oh waterworks central. :*(

Still slightly sicky from camp. Phlegm level is going down. Cough level is going up. I'm regaining my voice, and the bruises are less purple.

I might as well give the weekend run-down. I went to a fun wedding with a fun skit with a fun friend and had a fun time! Then I had more fun times with more fun friends at a fun church and fun mall and fun apartment with assembling IKEA furniture fun! I also kicked Mike's butt in Speed. And then he kicked my butt in STRATEGIC war. See, we started out playing regular war, which is totally pointless because you just draw random cards. In strategic war, you get to look at all the cards you have and decide which one to play. It's pretty fun. The best part is when you have a war and can put out crappy cards and then fight with a good one. Unfortunately, it goes on forever if you both have pretty good cards. But yes, try strategic war. Guaranteed to be more fun than regular war.

I got to see my friends' apartments, and one of them lives across from a mall. That would be SUCH bad news for me. I also realized the London Asian Christian circle is very very tight.

Lots of random thoughts to amuse or, not amuse, random minds.

First day of school tmw! Am I excited?! I have 13 hours of class first semester and 10 during second semester. Do you hate me? AHahahaha. I'm proud of my hard-working friends tho. Go meddies (this is my new made-up name for med-school students).

Violent fun at camp

Why am I so fun to pick on? One of the things I love to do is sleep on the dock at camp. Unfortunately, dock activity has been high this year and all the kids go swimming. Ultra super unfortunately, people seem to enjoy threatening to throw me into the water. One pair of high school guys decided they were gonna throw me in, but I managed to escape via excellent whining skills. Ex. "Nooooo, pleaaaaase, I don't wanna get wet today, noooooooooooo....come on, please? Get me wet another day, come oooooooooooonnnn........" Steve finally decided to give up. He said my whining was getting too annoying. Mwahahahahaa. Those two kept threatening to throw me in, but never did.

Then Rudy decided to try to throw me in because I had wet him slightly during a camp water fight. He originally had a bucket of water, but I overturned it so he decided just to throw me into the water. It actually got quite violent. He was wrestling me and dragging me across the dock by my feet. Wasn't fun, and actually hurt a little. But anyway, I managed to escape, yes, call me Houdini, and ran to my cabin. I finally changed back into my wet water fight clothes and let Rudy soak me because I didn't want to run from him forever. I just didn't have enough energy.

Some more violent fun came from the game wink. Basically, the gals sit on chairs in a circle, and the one guy stands behind each chair. One chair is empty. The guy behind the empty chair winks at a girl, and she has to try to get to the empty chair before being caught by the guy behind her chair. Very fun times, but I bruised my knee TWICE trying to keep my partner from escaping. I smashed it into the chair.

Bruise count: 2

Oh, we had a good softball game against our church team, and I got hit with a softball. The funniest part was that the best player threw it in from the OUTFIELD and it even bounced before it hit me by home plate, but I still got a huge welt.

Bruise count: 3

Some more mystery bruises appeared along my shin.

Bruise count: 4

The worst bruise came when we were at a campfire. Some ppl thought it would be fun to form a circle and push ppl around inside it. It looked like serious bullying, but was actually hilarious until they decided I should get pushed around. That was semi-funny also, until the shoved me into a log and I smashed my knee into it.

Total bruise count for the week: 5

And this is from someone who does not bruise easily at all. Call me the peach.

Voiceless and exhausted

Hello faithful bloggie readers. I'm so tired. And yet I'm up in the middle of the night, but I'm having a good spiritual conversation with one of my friends.

My week of camp was amazing. I don't even mind that I missed the closing ceremonies for the Olympics (does the wedding dance really look like the death one??). There are so many stories to tell, so many memories, but I'll start with the fact that I have pretty much lost my voice in the upper 2 octaves from trying to win spirit points for my team, and also for leading worship at camp. Apparently I sound like Marlene Dietrich, Kathleen Turner or Demi Moore. All husky-voiced and sultry. AHAHAHAHAHAhaha.

Oh, wow, there really is a lot to say. I'm just going to list the stuff I want to talk about, and then I'll probably spend the next month blogging about it all. Ahahahaha. Welcome to camp central.

1. Little Adam who was a terror at first and softened by the end.
2. A billion and one bruises on my legs. And I do'nt bruise easily.
3. Water fighthing fun.
4. Rule of three.
5. Fantastic food. This one is self-explanatory, unless someone wants a gastronomical explanation of the food we had.
6. Amazing worship.
7. Japan stuff.
8. Campfire farting stories.
9. Rainbow.
10. Good talks with campers.
11. Flirty boy campers, tsk tsk.
12. Skunk.
13. Other. Ahahaha. Anything else I randomly remember will go into this category.
14. Me sucking at sports and wanting to play for fun but not being able to because I suck.

I think I'll just tackle these one by one slowly. I have lots of stuff about this weekend too. Fun central!
1. Wedding fun.
2. Ikea fun.
3. Speed fun.
4. War fun.
5. London expert.
6. I love Koolaid. That's it, actually. Oh, well, that and I'm usually deprived of Kool-aid at home, which is probably why I like it so much.
7. Another other in case I've forgotten something.
8. Oh, yeah, tan line plus strapless dress dilemmas.
9. Fun Godfather skits.

Don't all these just sound so exciting? Ahahaha, stop rolling your eyes.
Okay, so totally briefly: Adam was a little 7 year old who was brilliant and has amazing reading skills. My first encounter with them was sitting next to him and his cousin Matthew (same age) during our first main session. The first thing he says (this kid is like 3 feet tall) is, "Wake me up when it's over." Ahahahaa. I GASPED. Ahahahaha. SO much attitude! And then, he was all, "Kill me now." Gasp AGAIN! Then Matthew pipes up and says, "This is so BORING." I totally thought that it would be a horrible week of attitude from the both of them, but eventually, the shaped up. Adam was hilarious because he randomly break-danced all the time. Once, I was standing 2 feet away from him and asked him about breakdancing, when he suddenly screamed, "Get away from me!" at me. Ahahaha, after that, everytime I saw him, I said that to him. It was quite funny. He hunted me down eventually and said, "I'm going to kill you" in a really creepy voice. He's SO random! Later tho, he and I had a date at the swings. He wanted to see how good my under-doggy was. Ahahahahaha. He rated it, "Okay." THe best thing about Adam though was that he was so bright, but also that he understood the Gospel. One session, he just burst out with, "We all need God, that's the answer." Such an advanced little thing for him to say. We gave him a Bible, and he wouldn't put the thing down. This SEVEN-yr-old!!! He was showing me how he was going to read all these different sections about Jesus' death and resurrection. It was crazy! He carried it EVERYWHERE for TWO WHOLE days. He was such a cutie. I can't believe he couldn't put it down. THat's total child-like faith, and it was so inspiring. I should be this excited about my Bible!!!

That was just number one. This is going to take forever. Let's hope nothing interesting happens these next couple of days so I don't have even more to blog about.

P.S. Read Uche's blog about PETA. So hilarious.

AWOL

Got a haircut this morning, now I'm packing for camp!

I'll see everyone in a week with great camp updates (will I make the senior guys dress up like girls again?)!

Insanely tired.

On my top ten list of most horrible days, this one comes in at maybe number five. First I was rudely crank-called this morning. Honestly, if I was a swearer, I think I may have told the person off. But I didn't. I'm so passive. Ahahah. But seriously, it was freaky, unpleasant, and I want to unlist my number. THe creepy thing is that it was multiple calls from different pay phones. Creepyheads.

The second thing is that I finished painting the hoarding and then it rained and the paint I put up this morning washed off. I hate hoarding more than ever.

The third thing is that the morning instructor left me with EVERYTHING to clean up today.

The fourth thing is that it was stinking humid and hot, which did not aid in my clean-up.

I am a big grumpy mcgrumpy-pants, especially because I'm physically tired from this morning. I am so MAD!!! :(

I'm glad I get to escape to beautiful Fair Glen for a week. Pray for my church camp! The baptisms are on Friday! :)

Purity

I've been reading a book on keeping kids sexually pure, and there were some things that stood out to me. First, the author talked about having a strong marriage as a model for children to look up to. I really liked the part when the author prayed that God would make her a wife. She was 40 and was a foster mother to her niece and she really felt a desire for a husband, so, not only did she pray for a husband, but she prayed that He would make her a wife. I love that because I always say that dating or courting or being in a relationship isn't about finding the right person; it's about becoming the right person.

The second thing that stood out to me was a story about a chastity necklace. Some parents get their children necklaces or promise rings and ask their children to remain sexually pure, explaining the reasons why. The ring is supposed to be a symbol of that promise. I thought that was kind of neat. I just wondered what it would be like if your child said, "No, I can't promise that." Scary thought.

Definitions of the day: Mercy - when God doesn't give us what we do deserve
Grace - when God does give us what we don't deserve.

The number of times I've said either "Matthew" or "Michael" today: one hundred BILLION times.
Annoyance level: one hundred BILLION.
Why can't they just be quiet and work, and why must they always complain???

Hoarding the Inukshuk

Hoarding: [English] A temporary wooden fence around a building or structure under construction or repair.
[Michelle's language] PAIN in the BUTT.

Our big project of the session is a series of five 8' x 4' boards that are around the Inukshuk that every class is in charge of painting. We started yesterday but can't seem to finish. THe kids all whine about it being too hot, they paint unevenly so we have to go over it anyway. It is indeed a pain. Today I was at work till 6pm painting, and I'm still not done. On a side note, it has been super windy and dusty which has aggravated the allergies that have weirdly appeared just this week. My nose is itchy, my eyes are itchy, my throat and ears are itchy. And then of course the mosquitos decided to attack me while I was busy painting, so random red spots on my body are also itchy. I'm a big combination of hating hoarding, paint and itchiness. It WILL be done tomorrow though, and really, it does look fantastic, so it doesn't matter anyway. I think the kids are super-proud of it, and it'll be in the art show on the 25th of September. Btw, if anyone is interested, I can get you in free the art show day to come to the gallery (or, well, I can get you in free anytime, really, but the kids' art show is super!) to look at the camp stuff. They did some Amaaaaazing stuff. You'll be impressed, I promise. I'm going, so I'd love company, either way. I'll try and post a picture of the hoarding, anyway, once I get my camera properly hooked up to my computer. Hint hint. Still hinting.

My new fave food: my mom's cinnamon buns.

P.S. Cary, thanks for encouraging me in blogging! Ahahahah.

Muscle-y aches and pains

I had a super-tiring weekend! It started off with 2 birthday parties on Friday night, where I got to hang out with my youth group, and then with my high school friends. This of course included excellent food, so I was quite content. I saw some of the girls I'll be counselling next week up at my church camp (at Fair Glen) and it was so fun to hang out and bond with them. I'm praying I'll have lots of energy for next week; I really want this to be a special camp, full of impact. This birthday party was really neat because there was a program to it, and there was a lot of stuff that other ppl did (singing, performances, speeches, etc.) for the birthday people. I was really encouraged because it was really centred around their faith, and all the speeches had a big emphasis on how the person had impacted others spiritually. Anyway, I also had good talks with some of my high school friends about various theological issues, and I discovered...oh, what is it called? Dyna-flex or something like that? It's weeeeird. It's sort of a ball you hold in your hand, and you get the inside spinning. The inside is weirdly weighted though, so once it gets going, the ball sort of moves in your hand. It's kind of a creepy feeling, but uber-fun. :) I don't know what it's for. My friend says it's to induce CTS (carpal tunnel syndrome). AHahahahah. What else? Oh, my friend has a beautiful backyard complete with working fountain and tent to sit under. Friday was tons of fun!

Saturday: 6 hour canoe trip on the Grand River. Paddling craziness! Ahahahaa. I went with Ava and Ian in one canoe on a trip with lots of ppl from Ava's parents' church. There were tons 'o cute kids, Darrell is still quite the same old Darrell and my arms were DYING afterwards. It was the internal bleeding kinda muscle pain and I was sooooo afraid of how I would feel on Sunday. Fortunately, actually, only my shoulders hurt, and it was a lot less than Saturday night. I love canoeing! If only I could d-l the pictures to my computer, but my computer seems to be ignoring the USB cable I keep plugging into it. I don't understaaaaaand!!!! It used to work fine, but nope, no more. Any volunteers to help a poor, technologically inept girl out? Hint hint, my engineer friends. AHahahah.

What else did I do this weekend? Oh, I saw some co-workers' apt and we watched "Taking Lives" with Angelina Jolie. Not the best movie. I think I'm in romantic comedy or spy mode lately, so I can't appreciate thriller/suspense films.

Moving onto other muscle aches and pains, yesterday, I played some intense Capture the Flag with my morning class. Today my leg muscles hurt. Who is out of shape? Oh, pick me, pick me! Anyway, I came home and decided to try out the new treadmill that's been around for almost a week but has seen no use by me. Now my legs are more sore. Ahahahaha. I'll be in shape at some point and this won't hurt as much anymore, right??

Camp news: The quiet game makes a comeback! Reverse psychology works great on these kids. "Oh, come ON, I don't think you can all be quiet until break. THere's noooooooooooo way." So of course they bend over backwards being super quiet until break. Mwahahahaha. Oh, and in more exciting news, we made Chia-pet-like grassheads today, only all in a row, so they're like caterpillars. The kids were SO excited about them!

Quote of the day: "I LOVE HISTORY! First something happens, and then something else happens. SO SEQUENTIAL!! I love history! Thank you first guy for writing history down!!!!" - Old Navy commercial (Kenji swears I act exactly like this girl)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

Space Cadet Central

Two boys in my afternoon class are driving me INSANE. INSANE, I tell you. One of them I have dubbed the Space Cadet, and the other one is just mischievous. Yesterday, Space Cadet ate SOAP. They were carving soap, and Mischievous had said, "Hey, I ate soap before." (another brilliant comment from the short corner) Space Cadet then actually EATS some soap while I have my back turned. He ends up with a soap crumb by his lip, which I don't want to brush off for fear of getting too close to Space Cadet spit. I let him know that he had a soap crumb, and I totally expected him to brush it away with his hand, but nope, out came the tongue, and he just licked it off. Honestly. This kid is TEN YEARS OLD. WHO EATS SOAP?!?!?! Oh man. Then Mischievous finds a glue gun stick and proceeds to CHEW it. CHEWING A NASTY PIECE OF PLASTIC. I just shake my head now, whenever they do anything. It's just so hard. Space Cadet really just is really spacey. Today though, I actually convinced him to run around a tree 10 times. It was HILARIOUS. I was like, "I bet you can't make it to 10." Ahahahaa, then he ran around. It was so funny. Silly kid. Silly Silly Silly.

THey're funny, but they're still driving me nuts.

The worst part is that I have this habit of turning ppl's comments around on them. For example, if someone says, "This stinks," I would say, "YOU stink." I do this a lot, with anything. Even, "This looks like a alien," gets turned into, "YOU look like an alien." Space Cadet CONSTANTLY says stuff that can be turned around. He keeps mentioning throwing stuff out, actually. He always says, "I wanna throw this out," to which I always so badly instinctively almost reply, "I wanna throw YOU out." Ahahaha. Or they'll say, "This is BORING. This is DUMB." You get the idea. It's sooooooooooooooo bad. Good thing I always catch myself before I say anything though!

P.S. LaserQuest ranks: 2nd in the first game, NUMBER ONE IN THE second game. OOOooooooh yeaaaaaah.

Harvesting with a few labourers

I just got an e-mail update from my friend who is doing global aid stuff in a closed country in Asia. He may be pulled out come October if other people don't volunteer to go. As I was praying about it, I remembered this verse, one of my favorites and one I think we don't pray enough: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -Matthew 9:38. I remember praying for more workers in the harvest field every night at 9:38pm while I was on my missions trip in East Asia, and it was so inspiring to think about all the workers that were in the field at that point. Whenever I think about this though, I just start thinking, "When, Lord, when?" When will I see Revelations 7:9???

Baby Einstein

I saw another family friend's baby today, and discovered Baby Einstein. Disney puts out these DVDs, toys, etc that are all supposed to be educational to some degree. Anyway, apparently these DVDs mesmerize your child, and sure enough, the 8-month-old just stopped and watched so intently when they turned it on. The most hilarious part of the whole thing is that the DVD is just shots of random toys, puppets, food, etc. moving. It is HILARIOUS. There are spinning metal toys, balls, random fruits and bean sprouts, EVERYTHING! And the babies just STARE at the TV. The mothers love it because it gives them that needed 10 minutes to take a shower, pee, clean, whatever. Apparently the older baby watches this DVD for up to an hour! I don't know how I feel about extended TV watching, but man, seriously, when I have a baby, I'm totally getting baby Einstein Dvds.

"Maybe they can help you."

Last night, us art camp staffers went out for some Laser Quest-ing fun! We all get 2 for 1 deals at Laser Quest because of our work IDs, so we went. It was my first time ever, but it was so fun being covert and shooting other people. It was all the staff, plus 3 other little kids. One of them kept crouching down and covering his laser targets! Cheater! At one point, I went to shoot him, and he bent over, so I said, "Hey!" and he ran away. He kept shooting me; he was pretty good. Alac and alas, David came in first. That guy is so stinking competitive. But GUESS WHO CAME IN SECOND?!?! You'll never guess, so I'll just tell you. ME! Yep! Yaaaaaay for Michelle's covertness! I loved this one spot because I could hide there and hear ppl coming down the stairs, so I just ambushed them. Mwahahaha.

The fun continued after Laser Quest when we went for food. Then we came back, hoping we could play a team game. Unfortunately, we couldn't. We walked out, hoping to go home, when Kate and David realize that BOTH their sets of keys are locked IN the car. David was soooooo mad at Kate. Anyway, so 4 of us girls went to go trek to the gas station to see if anyone could help us. The guy at the station said he couldn't, so we asked him if he knew where we could go to get help. He thought for a second, and then pointed out the window and said, "Maybe they can help you." We all turned to look, wondering who he could possibly be talking about, and pulling in was a bright red fire truck. Amaaaazing! Ahahaha, we walked over (they must get girls approaching them all the time, they all seemed apprehensive) and asked if they could help. The guy said he would (and on a random side note, I found out that Montreal has green fire engines, and we have some yellow ones because they thought they would be more visible that way. AHahaha!), and then we stood around, hoping they could give us a ride in the cool fire engine!!!!!! But no. So we walked back and he said he'd meet us there. We walked back and told everyone who was waiting for us that we had the fire department coming, and they were pretty amazed. Anyway, the fire guys were going but failing, when all of a sudden, they see a tow truck driving by. The fire guy yells, "Hey, Howie!" and the tow truck driver pulls in. Amazingly crazy. The fire guy knows the tow truck guy. Anyway, the tow truck guy proceeds to pull out the biggest case ever (it looked like a rifle case, no joke, and it probably was!) and extracts some long wire things. They go at it for another 5 minutes, and voila, the car was opened. Man, thaaaaaaank goodness for the fire guys, I tell ya! Yaaaaaay firemen!

So that was about the extent of my excitement for the summer, except for the free pancake breakfast they fed us this morning. And the moment this afternoon when Robert (the little brat!) whined and said, "I'm never coming back here again," to which I replied, "Okay." Ahahaha. He probably thought I was joking. But I wasn't. He's sooooooooo whiney and NEGATIVE! The kid draws death symbols all morning at art camp. Skull, "666", etc. etc. It was crazy. He was always okay in my class, but always negative. Anyway, it was the last day of this session today, so YAAAAAAY! Next 2 weeks will be assisting in the morning and instructing in the afternoon. Yay for pay!