Guess what?

This coming Saturday...guess what? MORE SIGNS. :O I think I'll pass out now. (how many, you ask? Eight. Just eight. That's so many.)

Oh, and more setting up. Soooooooooo who can I entice to come and help out?

Please just let the fairs be over already!

P.S. Bruises are forming on both my knees, and my bum/hips from falling. I'm a peach!

Crazy daisies

My life, summarized by Kenji:

you eat alot
you laugh alot
and you get laughed at alot

It's true, it's all true.

Today was a crazy daisy day. I didn't get to bed till late last night (yes, actually being productive), and today was an early morning. Fun worship, some funny out-of-tune-ness, Angie zippering her fly onstage, cotton candy craziness, getting thrown in the snow 3 times, throwing other ppl in the snow, tripping and falling while attempting to throw ppl in the snow, leaning on Laura, "We are not responsible for lost or stolen items" printed on the menu at a Chinese restaurant, Arabian love songs, AMAZING marshmallow and toothpick church building models, reminiscing about high school dances...hey, where did we leave the take-out? Hm...we didn't forget it in the restaurant this time...but where....?

Also, my sister went on a date yesterday. It's funny, my parents don't care as much, so I make up for it. I was all, "HOW am I supposed to SCREEN this guy if I'm not going to be home??" Now she's talking to him on the phone...she likes him. I told her to take it slow, and that ppl are always trying to impress each other on the first date. She insisted that they weren't going to, so then I said, "Oh yeah, are you going to tell him you play stuffed animals?" She shut up after that.

Oh, and would someone post an Oscar update? I missed the whole thing...was Chris Rock good/bad/blah, what, what?? Best dressed, worst dressed, no dressed, too dressed?

Song of the day: Take my life

Take my life and let it be consecrated
Lord to Thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee

Here am I, All of me
Take my life, it's all for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing
Always only for my King
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee

Take my silver and my gold
Not a mite would I withhold
Take my intellect and use
Ev'ry power as You choose

Take my will and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine
Take my heart it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne

Take my love my Lord I pour
At Your feet its treasure store
Take myself and I will be
Ever only all for Thee

Also, on a side note (that isn't that side note-y in my life), communication is important.

Good food (4 meals) + marker fumes + too much painting = long day o' fun

I think I do eat a lot. BUT, I think it's because I've started to work out. Back in first year when I used to work out everyday, I ate a LOT. Nancy and I were constantly scrounging for change to buy food after our workouts, it was pretty funny. We'd work out and then go eat a "healthy" hot dog. Once we tried the vegetarian dog in an effort to be more healthy, but who were we kidding, it tasted awful and veggie dogs aren't super-healthy or anything.

RIght, anyway, I'm so easily distracted, but I ate a LOT today. I woke up, had 2 slices of french toast, and then went out for yummy brunch for Carol's b-day (HAPPY B-DAY CAROL!!!) and had my meal, plus another slice of french toast from Jo's brekkie. Now, in my defense, after that, I didn't eat anything for 7 hours, but then I had pizza. And then I had a sub at midnight, for my second dinner. AHahaha. Can you say Oink oink?

Seeing high school friends was fun today, and we told some stories about great memories from high school. Hahaha, you guys are so smart and nerdy! ;) All those com-tech stories of writing a program that moves chess pieces, lasers that morse code, and ahahaha, a gun, was it, Cary? Congrats to the engineers on getting ring-ed this week, too! Ahahaha, I'm sure I'll be seeing those iron rings for the next billion years or so.

I also spent almost 9 hours at church today setting up for our ministry fair tomorrow. The most time-consuming part of it (Thanks SO MUCH, Kenji, my favourite used-to-work-out artist) was the signage. No more blue or orange paint for me, thanks. We used permanent marker to outline the words, and apparently the fumes were pretty strong, because there were some amusing moments tonight. Some highlights:

• Laura and I doing the running man (and this was before marker fumes...hmm...)
• Kevin attempting to do the running man
• cheap dollar store balloons not blowing up properly
• Thanks for letting me pay for pizza
• drawing faces on dollar store balloons that don't blow up properly
• riding a trolley cart thing
• watching Kenj and Adam play one-eyed balloon volleyball (no depth perception!!)
• finding out Kenji used to WORK OUT! ......I know, that's what I said!
• being meaner (I WIN!!!)

And my biggest biggest HUGEST thanks goes to Naomi who worked her butt off to plan the ministry fair! Thanks so much for all your hard work and organization! I told everyone how brilliant you were at last week's 40 DOP meeting, don't worry. :) If you need parties planned and you need someone, Naomi's great! She takes cheque, credit cards and cash. ;)

And Matt, it's okay, you're not the only one who writes long entries!

ANd thanks Kev and Angie for posting about random songs, because I'm SO out of the music loop. I'm totally listening to oldies (but goodies - Francis Lai's theme from love song!) right now because I just know no new songs!

Ah, memories...

"I'm a big, big, big girl, in a big, big world..." - Emilia (but she sings it slow)

I have such amusing memories of a talent show put on by students in East Asia when I was over there, and there was someone who sang Big Big world, only the version she lip-synched was faster and more fobby, of course. Picture cute asian gal in pig tails bouncing around singing Big Big World. Ahahahaha. That night was classic, including the look on John Hau's face as Cliff planted a fake kiss on his lips. Ahahahaha. Claaaaassic.

Allow us to be Frank

Westlife's newest CD is a whole bunch of old Frank Sinatra songs. Soooo great! I left my heart in San Francisco, The Way you Look Tonight, When I Fall in Love (quick trivia question...what chick flick is this song in?), etc. etc. etc. Soooo classic. I love old blue eyes! Or his songs, anyway.

My first post from in class

I'm in a computer lab listening to a technology in the classroom seminar. I would post my fantastic paint file that I made in Appleworks, but umm...I don't want you to feel bad about your art skills, yeah. That's it. Ahahaha. Quote of the seminar from the slightly balding speaker: "Get out of my hair. Oh, I guess it's, get out of my lack of hair."

I'm dead tired this morning. Learning lessons is good, but tough. Thank goodness for good friends!

The thing that keeps making me laugh right now: The Babysitter's Club. The movie. I loved those books. Ahahahaha.

I've been told twice this week that I eat a lot. I've had many awkward moments where I've thought people were walking up to me to talk to me and I've sorta like, paused, and then felt like a big geek when they were like, "What?" Yeah. I did weights for 2 hours and I died but complained a lot less.

I'm hoping to retain the dutch blitz crown tonight. I'm the defending champion. When you're at the top, the only way to go is down.

Trident citrus gum loses it's flavour and get's really tough. Have you ever chewed gum to the point where it disintegrated? It's disgusting.

Church on the Rock on Sunday...I had a good idea for a devo and now I forget it. Boooo. Oh, wait, I remember again. Ahahahaha.

And the above is a perfect example of why I shouldn't write blogs before 10am.

Michelle Idol and why I almost cried today

i·dol n.
1. An image used as an object of worship.
2. A false god.
3. One that is adored, often blindly or excessively.

Who/what's your idol? Some questions that might tell you what your idol is...
Time - what or who are you spending the most time with?
Talk - what's the thing you talk about the most?
Thoughts - what do you spend the most time thinking about, or what do you rever to thinking about in your spare time?
Treasure - what do you spend the most money on?

We need to hold things with an open hand, and not cling to our idols with tight fists. I evaluated today, and there are so many things that are idols in my life...people, relationships. So many things that I prioritize over God. So many things that I need to loosen my grip on...

Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
- Jonah 2:8

As to why I almost cried today...you can ask me for more details, but I guess it was seeing my blessings in a new, fresh light.

Further randomness during procrastination station

First: Presbyterians is an anagram for Britney Spears. What does that mean?

Second: I had 2 very weird dreams during which I woke up. In the first one, I was a spy and I was at Woodbine Mall. All the bad guys wore suits and were walking around. I was trying to stake them out, for no reason, apparently, because I realized in my dream that once I got close to them, I didn't know what to do. Apparently my dream-spy self did not know how to take ppl down or plant tracking devices or anything. I'm such a boring dream-spy! Anyway, I ended up waking up because I had walked into a store in my dream and sat down on the couch. I then picked up some magazine (it was in Russian, I think) to try to look inconspicuous. Unfortunately, the bad guy spotted me and came over and was like, "YOU! You're one of them! You're one of those SPIES!" and proceeded to attack me. I then woke up. (I think this spy thing comes from Alias withdrawal. I quit the show. I know, the shock, the horror.)

My second dream, I was at school and walked into the science library chewing on my sandwich. Now, eating is NOT NOT NOT allowed in the library, and in my dream, there was some crazy food monitor person who went around staring at people's mouths to see if they were chewing or not. Unfortunately, he saw me and proceeded to SHOUT at me that I was NOT allowed to eat in the library. I stumbled a few words about how I was just chewing and that I had finished eating outside the library. He mocked me and got mad that I was talking back, so he put both his hands on my arms and picked me up, sorta squishy-like, and tried to make me leave. Then I woke up.

So some thoughts. First, why is there so much physical violence in my dreams? Second, why am I obsessed with spy things? Third. THere is no third. I'm going back to work.

In the interest of wasting time...

Okay, I just wanted to share that I have this orange shirt that I always wear at home and I swear I have put this thing on backwards at least 5 times this week. And it's a V-neck, too.
The wonderful world of Michelle.

3 stents and a couple days nearer to H-Day!

So after an angiogram and 3 stent insertions yesterday, my dad is now T-minus 2 days from coming HOME! :) The angiogram went really smoothly yesterday, and the stent insertions did, too. Thanks so much to everyone for all your prayers! I know God's hand was upon everything. It seems so easy to talk about now, but I am so so so so so so so so thankful that everything worked out the way it did. My dad even survived the criminal guy in the next bed (he was discharged this morning, so back to the jail for him)!

In other news...

I'm totally mooching this idea from Kenj. Thanks Kenj! Ahahahaha.

(cue French movie music...)

Michelle is a missionary.
Michelle likes playing Mission Impossible, eating Smartfood and running her fingers through clothing racks at retail stores to feel fabrics.
Michelle dislikes slow drivers, eye krispies and racoons that overturn her green bin every garbage day.

Plus...
I've discovered I'm a big whiner. I mean, Chika always used to tell me to stop complaining, but I never realized just HOW whiney I was till I started working out and having immense muscle pain after workouts.

Sample whininess:
"It's TOO heaaaaaaaaavy..."
"Do I haaaaaaave to do this much weight?"
"Owwwwwwww, my leg muscles hurt."
"Owwwwwwww, my arm muscles hurt."
"Owwwwwwww, muscles I didn't even know I had hurt."
"I can't DOOOOO that many sit-ups."
"I'm hungrrrrryyyyyy."
"How many moooooooore do I have to dooooooooooo?"
"I don't waaaaanna use the bench."
"I hate you."

Ahahahaha. Be thankful you're not my personal trainer. And if you're my personal trainer, thanks for putting up with the whining.

2 guards + handcuffs = ???!!!

My father's doing so so so much better!

But that means he got moved to another room in the hospital. Yes, so my sister, mother and I are tagging along while the guy wheels my dad up, and as we approach this room, I'm wondering why there are two uniformed guards sitting outside, reading their magazines. Now, I've seen enough ER episodes to know that they put guards outside the hospital rooms of CRIMINALS, so I'm a little weary. Sure enough, my sister reports that my dad's roommate has handcuffs on his ankles. AHahaha, I mean, it's half funny, but I'm slightly worried at the same time.

WHO would've thought. My dad, roommates with a criminal.

On the upswing :)

Thanks for all your prayers and support! :)

I visited my dad today, and he was much much better. Apparently in the couple days after a heart attack, you're more at risk for having another one, but apparently he's clear. They'll be sending him to another hospital for an angiogram in the next couple of days. Anyway, it's funny because my mom half sees all this as a good thing, because my dad never listened to us when we told him to take breaks. I guess it took a big intervention to get him to rest, so it's good. Yesterday he won the card game my sister and I were playing with him (yeah, Crib!) and I told him he won a vacation stay in a hospital. ;) Anyway, it sounds kinda morbid, but we had a good laugh. So yep, he's got lots more energy, so he's definitely on the upswing. We'll have to keep waiting for the surgery news though.

And in all things....

It has been such a crazy year. Not just in my life, either, but in the lives of my friends and family. As I reflect on everything, I'm glad I and everyone else made it through okay.

This past week, I was reflecting on worship, especially in terms of what that means in everyday life. Worshipping God in all your actions sounds like a straightforward thing at first, but I guess I didn't really stop to think about what it really meant. I think after last night, I have a much better understanding of what it means to have hope, and to have a deeper inner joy that comes from that hope. And in some way, last night was an answer to prayer...I did ask to learn how to worship Him more deeply. Sigh. But alac and alas, we always learn more in situations of pain and suffering than we do in okay times.

So to summarize...last night was harrowing, I cried, I was confused, dazed, shocked...I was helpless, and all I could do was trust God with everything, which I wasn't doing very well. I asked, "Why?" a lot, and I know there are so many answers...which don't really matter at the moment. I just need to stop worrying about things I can't control.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

House of Flying Daggers

Oh man, so my last Chinese class, we watched House of Flying Daggers. You know, I thought it was going okay until the end. Then it just became ridiculous. Warning, movie spoiler coming up:

So anyway, I'll recap my version of the ending.

Three characters in a field, in the fall. The chick, Mei, who's a part of the Flying Daggers, another guy who's part of the Flying Daggers who loves the chick, and then the government soldier captain man who also loves the chick. Anyway, at this point, Mei and the govt soldier guy are in love, but they've decided to go back to their respective sides. Then of course, they change their minds, so Mei gets on the horse (these horses seem to miraculously appear out of nowhere) and goes after him. Anyway, the Flying Daggers guy who loves her is in this field, and knocks her off her horse, and then blah blah, proceeds to say some stuff about, "How could you do this...blah blah, now I'm forced to kill you." It was the whole, if I can't have you, no one can, thing (insert eye roll here). Anyway, so he stabs her with a dagger, she dies. Enter soldier guy, cue bloody battle. And THEN, this is the best part right here...surprise! Mei isn't dead! The two men are in a stand-off, and Mei miraculously gets up (insert one eye roll after another here)! The soldier guy doesn't have weapon but the Flying Dagger guy does. He's about to kill the soldier guy, but Mei stands up and says that she'll kill Flying Dagger guy before he kills soldier guy. Soldier guy speaks up and says, "No! You'll bleed to death if you pull out the dagger!" Blah blah blah, you can see how this standoff could continue for a while. Anyway, finally, Flying Dagger guy decides to pretend to throw his dagger at soldier guy, after which Mei pulls the dagger out of her shoulder to throw and intercept the first dagger...so she dies. Flying Dagger guy limps off. Soldier guy goes to get Mei, holds her in his arms and cue waterworks. Oh, and I'm sorry, did I mention it miraculously becomes winter in the middle of all this? We're talking blizzard with LOTS of snow. Everything turns white. Oh man.

It was going so well. WHAT was with this ending?? Oh man.

I still haven't seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Hope it's got a better ending than this!

I lift my eyes up

All I have to say is thank goodness I have hope in eternal things.

I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

Secret competitions

Alright, so I'm coming out of the broom closet. I have secret competitions with people. For example, when I worked my gift wrapping job, I would have secret competitions with the other gift wrappers to see who could wrap faster. Another example: last week, we were addressing envelopes for a fellowship dinner, and I was racing the other people who were addressing. I went super-fast. Ahahaha. The best part about secret competitions, of course, is that you generally win because you're really the only one competing. Ahahaha. I WIN!

Where's James?

Youth leaders, minus James. Where is James? At school. He's always doing robotics. Nerd! Hehehe.

This is actually a pic from Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum that we went to in Niagara. So much fun! Another road trip next week to Hamilton! :)

"This isn't a Girl Scout camp..."

Stanley Yelnats has a no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. The Yelnats family is cursed because of his pig-stealing ways. Stanley is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, and one day, when running shoes drop out of the sky, he thinks things are looking up. A couple minutes later, while running home with the shoes, he gets stopped by a police officer. "Where'd you get the shoes," he's asked. "They fell from the sky," he replies. Then he gets arrested. Poor Stanley Yelnats. Then he has to go dig holes at Camp Green Lake. Later, he eats tons of onions. He also almost dies in the desert and almost gets bitten by a yellow lizard (with black teeth and a white tongue). Stanley Yelnats is a neat name because it is the same backwards and forwards.

I LOVE CHILDREN'S LITERATURE! Ahahahaha. I was at the Steacie Library at York today, the science library, where everyone around me was studying a textbook of some sort. In the middle of it all, I pulled out my battered copy of the children's novel, Holes, and proceeded to read it. It is HILARIOUS! I think you have to read it though. I laughed out loud at a line today (the title of this blog entry) and shared it with my friend, but she didn't really think it was that funny. I think you have to read the whole thing to truly appreciate the subtleties of Holes. But yep, by Louis Sachar, go pick it up and re-capture your childhood! It's tons of fun, especially at university. AHahaha. I hope no one noticed how big the writing in my novel was. ;)

P.S. On a more serious note, the only way that someone who has hurt you in the past can keep hurting you is if you dwell on the situation and resent them for it. If you keep resenting them, the hurt just keeps going. We need to forgive and move on.

Working out craziness!

I thought I'd share with you faithful blog readers about my annual workout. That's right, annual. It seems after being a gym fiend first year, I've now become one of those ppl who is extremely unhealthy and sits at home watching TV. Well, that all changed when my sister ganged up on me. She keeps telling me to do cardio. "What if you're getting chased by a dog?" she says. She doesn't think I can run. I think if I had that much incentive to run, I could. But that's besides the point. Enter Cosma, my new personal trainer. They've both ganged up on me to make me healthy. So today, I went to the gym.

Anyway, the first mistake I made was thinking that I (the slowest eater and now also probably the slowest digester, too) could eat my lunch 30 minutes before intensive cardio and not get sick. Well, halfway through the class, just as it's getting more intense, I suddenly start feeling veeeeery queasy. I am also sweating up a storm at this point. Exit Michelle from cardio class. I proceed to go downstairs (practically lost with all the new renovations) and go into the gym. Immediately, I am frozen in complete shock, because they've expanded it, and I have information overload from trying to look at too many machines and ppl in the gym at one time. Anyway, being totally lost and out of it at this point, I stumble over to my faithful inner/outer abducter machines and proceed to work the thighs. Finally, my personal trainer walks in at our appointed time and shoos me away from MY favourite machines, and I proceed to do the most painful and intense workout of my entire life. Ahahahaha.

And actually, as I laugh, that pretty much summarizes a lot of it. It was a lot of laughing, pain, and me saying, "I hate you" a lot. Poor Cosma had to put up with it, and I do apologize. Actually, at one point, I think I was laughing too much, which seemed to make him think I wasn't doing enough weights, so he kept putting more on, and I proceeded to die from pain (actually, this happened a lot...this adding weight and me dying thing). My problem is that I lack concentration, and I also like to look as if I am not exerting myself to the point of dying. Also, I have very bad form. Some from being weirdly flexible. Mostly just from being weak. AHahahah.

To summarize my workout: Michelle is weak, Michelle works out, Michelle is now in pain. Cosma is my new personal trainer, and my mother is my new masseuse. I will start doing cardio and stop eating so close to class.

In other news, quiet Kevin is giving me attitude lately. Apparently he thinks he can school MOI in bowling. RIGHT. Keep dreaming, buddy. ;)

Also in further news, this is the FUNNIEST blog I have EVER read! http://booyahlicious.blogspot.com/ I feel like I think like this girl sometimes. Ahahaha.