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!

Japan

I'm so excited, because my friend Kevin is coming back on Friday from his missions trip to Japan. He was there ministering to children and families with an outreach program at a local church. It sounds like it was so much fun. I totally have a heart for Japan, and it's so interesting to hear what they've been up to. The trip is actually now officially over and they're de-briefing, but you can check out the OMF website for their journal entries and pictures.

The latest news in camp stories: The quiet game is popular! Ahahaha, it's hilarious, because a couple of girls in my afternoon class (who are, incidentally, the loudest) decided it would be a great challenge to play the quiet game. It all started because Monica had been jinxed, and the girl beside her kept telling everyone to say her name so she could talk. My assistant and I conveniently decided to forget her name. After that though, they all decided to try not to say anything for the whole afternoon. It was SOOOOOO quiet. I even reverse psychologized them, because they signed that they were going to do it until snack-time, and of course, I said, "I don't think you'll be able to do it." Which made them try harder, of course. Mwahahaha. So once again, weirdly, the quiet game has prevailed. It is so funny that kids love this game sometimes.

Favorite chant of the moment: Beaver chant! "Beaver one, beaver all, let's all do the beaver call. Ch ch ch, ch ch ch! Beaver two, beaver three, let's all climb the beaver tree! Ch ch ch, ch ch ch! Beaver four, beaver five, let's all do the beaver jive! Ch ch ch, ch ch ch! Beaver six, beaver seven, let's all go to beaver heaven! Ch ch ch, ch ch ch! Beaver eight, beaver nine, STOP! It's beaver time!!!!! Ch ch ch, ch ch ch" And it keeps going over and over, but that's the gist of it. It's so fun! And you can replace "beaver" with ANYTHING! "Kenji one, Kenji all, let's all do the Kenji call!" Ahahahaha.

Family Resemblance

I was showing my family pictures from the 2 weddings I went to this summer, and they commented on the fact that the 2 siblings in one picture really looked alike. The thing is, some people think they look totally different. It got me to thinking about my sister and I. Some people swear we look VERY similar. For example, one guy in our anthropology class came up to us one day and asked us if we were twins! (I may have told this story before, now that I'm typing it...) Alright, so apparently there is some family resemblance. Later on in the month, I saw an old friend at York while walking with my sister. I introduce my sister, to which he says, "Adopted sister?" Ahahahahaha. Apparently we look reaaaaaally different. Who the heck can make up their mind!? I think there's a resemblance, but then, I have a bias because I know we're related. Ahahahaha.

Low moment of the day: Cat attack = slight bleeding = sore arm.

Another weekend update!

It's another fun weekend in the bag! Saturday morning was fun rollerblading times with Ava, Mike and my sister. Mike ran. Mike runs fast. See Mike run faster than Ava and Michelle rollerblading. See sister skating circles around me and Ava. Thank goodness for Ava. Ahahaha. So basically, Ava and I are the slowest rollerbladers in the world. Mike is the fastest runner. And my sister is the fastest blader. Mike and my sister did 12K, although they kept coming back for me and Ava, so it was probably a little longer. Ava and I did 10K. After, we all went to go play tennis. My arm hurts today. Haven't played tennis since grade 10!!!!!!

Today was also really hectic. Church, 2 softball games (YEAH, GO Judges, GO Judges! Judges 1, Judges All, let's all do the Judges call....ahahaha) where I saw a friend from school and talked with a guy who knows another friend from school (hahaha, Chinese Christian community is large, but separation is usually only a degree or two!) a big prayer/commissioning service for my friend Tim who's going to East Asia for TWO YEARS on missions. Oh man, it was so exciting to thing about all the lives he'll impact, the friends he'll make, and the things he'll learn. I am so excited for him! At the service, I saw my newly married friends who seem to be enjoying married life, and I saw Chuck. It was actually good times. The butter tart certainly helped, ahahahaha. Oh man. Food will cure any ailment.

So that's the weekend. Plans for the week? Work. Airport on Wednesday to see my friend who'll be coming back from a missions trip in Japan, Friday will probably be a youth thing, Saturday my friend from Guelph, oh, SORRY, my TWIN from Guelph will be visiting hopefully. Lots of fun stuff. And Happy early b-day Nelson, in case I don't blog that day!

Quote of the weekend: "Maybe guy's gums and girl's gums are different."

P.S. Tom Clancy novel finished; it was fan-diddly-astic

Practicing my ASL!

Happy day, yesterday, I actually got to practice my ASL (American Sign Language). One of the volunteers, who was also a camper, has a brother who is deaf and knows ASL. It was really fun to sign with him, although in the spur of the moment, I found I forgot a lot of my signs. I need to practice more. ANyway, today though, the volunteer comes in and tells me his brother liked meeting me because I was perky! Ahahaha, apparently perky even when signing! And another assistant commented on my perkiness today. Am I really that perky? I felt pretty cruddy today. Wow. Perky. That's me! (roll eyes)

Yesterday was also a staff hang-out day where we went to the Putting Edge and challenged each other to some mini-golf. It was okay, but I had been feeling sick since the afternoon, so I wasn't as into it. And, there's something about those psychedelic little paintings and swirls that makes you dizzy after being in there too long. Eighteen holes seemed REALLY long.

That's about it. Why can't I remember any funny kid stories? I laugh at them all day, and when I get home, I can't seem to remember anything!

Latest read: The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy. AHahaha, I can never get away from Clancy as much as I try.

P.S. I know you're reading this in Romania. Hope your trip is tons o' fun!

What's that smell?

I almost forgot to tell you my story from the Jays game day. I was at work and had sat on the ground and realized that I was probably sitting near something quite raunchy, judging from whiffs of gross odor I kept getting. Anyway, I actually attributed it to the wet ground (you know how sometimes the ground smells a little poo-ey after it's rained a lot). Later on, in the car on the way to the Jays game, I caught a whiff of something again. All I thought was, Oh oh. This has happened to me before, where I complained about a room smelling weird and then realizing that as I moved to another room, the smell was still following me. Anyway, I lifted my foot to my face and noticed there was some "mud" caked to the bottom of my foot. Ahahaha, then I took a huge sniff of my shoe. Well, it was a little close because it sure stunk a lot. I stepped in POO! I proceeded to step in many puddles and scrape my foot along the ground in the parking lot, but still kept catching whiffs at the Jays game. I can't believe how often I step in POO! I hate POO! I hate my neighbours dog that POOs on our lawn! BOOOOOO POOOOOO!

Weekend update with Michelle

No politics here, but I had a busy weekend! Sunday was my friend's sister's wedding! I showed up at their house early to help them prep, but after seeing such hecticness, I decided I should elope. Ahahaha, I bet every bride thinks she should have eloped at some point in the planning process. Anyway, I think something about seeing the behind the scenes process of a wedding sort of ruined the ceremony for me. The bride seemed SO stressed! I was supposed to do a reading during the ceremony, but the bride hadn't given me the paper with the reading on it, so last-minute, I realize this and go ask her where it is. I swear she looked like she was going to cry. I hope I never ever feel that way on my wedding day. If something goes wrong, I want to a) not know about it and b) not care about it.

Anyway, the reception was awesome though. They had it at St. George's country club (apparently it costs a hundred grand a year for membership!!!!!!!), so it was really nice. There's a guy from MCI that works there who was pretty funny. He was a good server. We had another guy, Mark, who we called grumpy Mark because Nancy dropped an hors d'oeuvre and he said, "BE careful," kind of menacingly. AHahahaha. On top of that, whenever we said thanks for filling our cups or what-not, he wouldn't even respond. Most of the other servers would nod, or say, "You're welcome" or whatever. But nooooo, not Mark. Because we felt shafted by Mark, we later made fun of his serving skills. The guy was trying to stack plates with the cutlery on it, so that his pile was all crooked. AHahaha. I think he was new. Anyway, funny server Jeff came along with wine every once in a while, and it was hilarious, because he offered the guy beside me wine, and he said, "Are you trying to get me drunk?" AHahahaha. I also want to share my wine experience. Everyone was drinking wine, so I thought to myself that maybe I had pegged wine all wrong and maybe it did taste good with dinner. So, I had some wine poured for me, and decided to drink it with dinner. AHahahahahaha. You know they came around so many times to re-fill wine glasses and never re-filled mine?! I took a sip, thinking it would taste good and almost spit it out. I just don't like it! Ahahaha, I love how I tricked myself into thinking that maybe it tasted good. It was the same thing with champagne. I figured because it was sweeter, that maybe I'd take it a little better, but after a billion toasts, I was just bringing the glass to my lips and then putting it down. Ahahahahah. I really just don't like how alcohol tastes!

Anyway, the funniest part of the night, and the most touching, was the father-of-the-bride speech. The best part was when he started telling a story about how when the bride was a baby, they were going through the airport and the lady at the ticket counter said, "Oh, what a beautiful girl you have! You're going to need a shot-gun to keep the boys away." Then he said, "Well, we didn't get a shot gun, but a machine gun." Ahahaha, if you've ever met Nancy's dad, you'll understand how absolutely hilarious this is. Anyway, apparently he had also told the groom this story about the shot gun when he was asking for Nori's hand in marriage. THe groom remembered thinking, "It's 10 minutes into our lunch, and he's just told me a story about a shot gun. Where is he going with this??" Yeah, good times. I cried a lot. It was really touching.

On Monday I had lunch with a good friend, and had a good hang-out time. I had a bacon and cheese omelette for lunch, and it was deeeelish. I love breakfast foods. Especially greasy breakfast food. I have to say, it was a very memorable day in more ways than the good lunch. :)

Then the instructing fun began for the week. My kids are fantastic in the morning, not-so-great in the afternoon. But it's been good. Lots of good stories that I can't seem to remember at the moment but will update as soon as I remember! Instructing is super-fun though! So much more control. So much more authority.

Annoyances and triumphs

I had a highly annoying annoying day yesterday.  It rained, so we took the kids in at lunch to see a video in the gallery theatre.  Now, there are gallery rules that we're all expected to adhere to.  For example, not carrying backpacks, not wearing hats.  We review the rules everytime, and the kids usually remember them all and are really good at sticking to them.  Unfortunately, one of the counsellors that was with our group at lunch decided she didn't want to take her hat off (I have SO many other issues with this...i.e. she's SO girly-girl), I think probably because she didn't want everyone to see her hat-head.  Anyway, the kids are all like, "Your HAT IS ON!!!"  And I agreed with them and informed her it was an actual gallery rule.  She made some excuses and didn't take it off.  WHAT KIND OF STINKING EXAMPLE IS THAT TO THE KIDS?!  Grrrrrrr.  She's been driving me insane.  Like, WHO bothers to ultra-match when working at a grubby art camp??  She comes in MacMaster or Roots outfits.  She will NEVER mix Roots sweats with a MacMaster T-shirt.  And she wears lots of pink.  MATCHING pink, matching pink hat, matching belt.  PUKE PUKE PUKE.  Okay, so really, I'm just annoyed at this girl in so many ways.  Ahhh, what kind of example is she setting if SHE doesn't even follow the RULES?!?!?  Drives me insane.

On a brighter note, I had some good bonding time with my dad.  We went to go see the Jays game against the Yankees today.  GASP, we EVEN WON!  It was kinda intimidating because the Skydome was pretty full, but there were SO many Yanks fans everywhere!  But we kicked butt!  It was tied going into the 10th inning, and then we hit a homer.  Yaaaaay Blue Jays.  There's something about really close games that gets everyone going.  :)  It was awesome.  Who knew baseball could be so exciting!  There were these teenage kids behind us too, who kept shouting, "De-rek, Je-ter, De-rek, Je-ter, YOU SUCK!"  Ahahahahah, it was SOOOOOOOO funny!!!!  And then someone started chanting, "Let's go Yankees, let's go!"  So everytime they went to say "Yankees", these kids would shout "BLUE JAYS" super loud over them.  It was pretty hilarious.  Good Skydome times!

Smorgasbord

I rollerbladed almost 18K today.  I am tired.  I took a great fall at the VERY start of the day, as I wheeled towards Ava.  My upper body stopped as I grabbed onto her, but my legs kept going out from right under me.  I expect a bruised bum tomorrow.  I was also kicked fairly hard by someone trying to demonstrate their vertical, and also banged in the mouth with a pop bottle.  I also failed to win even 10 times out of a billion rounds of Signal.  Sigh.  I need my Signal partner back!  :)

So, it was a fun fun fun day!  I'm so sleepy and slightly sore.  I'm hoping I don't have a billion bruises everywhere tmw.

On a side note, I saw Honey, but didn't think it was that impressive.  The kid Raymond is the cutest kid in the universe though.  I also saw Jet Lag with Juliette Binoche.  I was watching the outtakes, and what I appreciate most about actors is when they're willing to laugh at themselves.  It's also just so great when you can tell they're just in a giddy mood and can't keep a straight face.  I really like people that laugh, apparently!  Anyway, Juliette Binoche was laughing a lot, so I really enjoyed the outtakes.  The actual movie, not so much.  I almost think it's what Lost in Translation might be in France.  Only I haven't seen Lost in Translation, so what do I really know!  Ahahaha.  At least I'm admitting I don't know anything.  I also saw School of Rock with Jack Black.  It was an okay movie, but Jack Black/his character just bothers the heck outta me.  He really does seem like a lazy, obnoxious fellow.  What is neat though, is that he knows all these clapping games and played with the kids.  Awesome.  :) 

This week of camp was slightly rough.  I had the 8-10 year olds who are definitely slightly harder to deal with than the youngsters.  More attitude and whining.  More talking back.  Worst of all is how they ask every 5 minutes whether they're done their work or not.  Ahahahaha.  "Am I done yet?"  Our response is always, "No, keep working on it."  Without fail, every camper always thinks they're done/wants to be done before they actually are.  The other counsellors and instructors and I were joking that we should put "No, you are NOT done yet" on a T-shirt and make it our staff uniform.  That way we won't actually have to tell them.

Tomorrow, I'm teaching a Sunday school lesson on helping others.  The lesson outline is sooooooooooo boring for this lesson.  I decided that instead of colouring a boring picture, we should make those gift coupons where you put something you'll do for the person.  You know, like, "This coupon is good for one __________".  Yeah, I figured we can brainstorm ways to help people, and they'll actually end up doing it when people turn in their coupons.  Yay!  I hate teaching boring lessons, so I hope this will be fun!

Toeing the line clarification

Just to clarify, when I challenged people to strive for righteousness, it was in no way meant to imply that you can earn your salvation by doing good works or being a good person.  It wasn't because I think that you can only be a Christian if you're a good person.  I was just pointing out that there are higher standards that we are called to, and frankly, Christian or non-Christian, I see nothing wrong with striving to be better. 

And I also wanted to say that I agree with Keith.  Yeah, we all do have standards or "laws" that we live by.  Mine are probably just different from other people's.  And as for ever knowing the absolute truth, I agree that we're too small to ever understand God completely.  That's why it's called faith, right?  "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)  I believe in God because I've looked at the evidence for Him not existing and the evidence for Him existing, and the evidence for His existence seems more convincing.  It's not just head-knowledge though, I have a personal relationship with Him.  I think it's actually a good thing that we can't understand Him completely though.  Because if we could, wouldn't that make us God?

I want spicy!!

My junior assistant Mike is soooooo funny.  He told me this story from last session, where his group was making nametags.  Thinking he'd try to be funny, he made a nametag that said "Spicy".  The kids didn't really get it, but did end up calling him Spicy for a little.  Anyway, he finally gave it up because the kids really didn't think it was all that amusing for any reason, and he put the nametag in his pocket.  Later on, one of the little girls goes up to him and decides she wants him to wear his "Spicy" name tag.  She then proceeds to try and reach into his pocket, all the while yelling, "I want spicy!"  Not exactly a great picture, but hilarious.  Oh man.  Kids.
 
On another fun note, today I bonded with 2 kids in my group as we sang Abba songs over lunch.  One kid had seen Mamma Mia! and really liked the songs, and the other has a mother who's a big fan.  Who would think I'd be sitting around with 8-yr-olds singing Abba?!

Thought of the day:  God doesn't send people to Heaven or Hell.  He just makes the rules.  We get to choose where we go.

Missions

Today was a hectic day.  We had a youth-led service at church, and there was a lot of last-minute stuff that was done.  The theme was missions, and it went really well.  The kids wrote a skit and put together funny Lego pictures illustrating some popular missions myths.  I semi-led the worship and then did a 15 minute message/testimony near the end.  I thought I'd post the gist of my message here, because it's something I really feel strongly about.
 
Missions:  Spreading the Gospel, sometimes via educational, medical, or humanitarian means; a missionary duty or work; bringing others into a worship of God.
 
I think I started off thinking about missions primarily as a duty.  It was something I did out of obedience.  After all, all Christians have a ministry.  Matthew 28:19 says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..."  Jesus commands his disciples to GO.  Not maybe, if they feel like it.  They're to GO.  And it says further in verse 20, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." He's with them till the end of the age.  Well, seeing as it's still not the end of the age, you have to assume that this is still supposed to be going on.  All Christians are supposed to be GOing to the nations.  So, looking at this command and knowing how many other verses there are about GOing, I knew I should be doing it, so I did things like sharing the Gospel a lot out of duty.  I didn't quite enjoy it.  Granted, there were some good experiences, but it can be rough.  Doing things out of obedience soon gets quite tiring though, and I realized eventually that there were other aspects to missions.  I eventually realized that it had to be out of love for people.  This was fine, except that in this case, I was expected to love everyone.  That included strangers I had never met from the other side of the world.  THat included criminals and scummy people. 
 
Thus, I came to the further conclusion that I had to do missions out of love, but that this love had to be an overflow of my love for God.  If I loved God, I would love His creation, and the closer I got to God, the more passionate I would truly be about the things He is passionate about.  If I viewed Christianity as something that was a bunch of duties and didn't do things like missions out of worship for God, Christianity would eventually become a burden that I carry, instead of a faith that carries me. 
 
So, we get to the point in the present where as you may know, I am passionate about missions.  I think they can never be emphasized enough in a church.  It was so interesting then, to read this quote (This is one of my most favorite quotes ever!).  "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.  Worship is.  Missions exist because worship doesn't.  Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.  When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.  It is a temporary necessity.  But worship abides forever." (Let the Nations be Glad by John Piper) 
 
So anyway, we're all at different stages in how we think about missions, but the bare bones is this:  We are ALL commanded to GO and make disciples.  We are all given a ministry of reconciliation!  How will they hear if people are not sent?  I think if at all possible, everyone should go on a missions trip at least once in their lives.  I can think of a million different excuses not to go.  I don't have money.  I don't have time.  I'm not holy enough.  I don't know enough.  It's too dangerous, etc. etc.  Well let me ask you a question.  Exactly WHO is it that is going?  Is it just you?  Nope.  We're empowered through His Spirit.  He's the one that watches over us.  Don't limit what God can do through someone who is willing to be used.
 
And so, here are some practical applications.  Ahahaha. 
1)  Pray - about the possibility of being SENT, to GO on a missions trip/do ministry somewhere local, international, anywhere!
2)  GO.  Just do it.
3) Support a missionary financially.  Send them on their trip, support them through prayer.
 
To conclude, my friend once said there are 3 types of people in this world.  It was quite convicting:
1) Zealous GOers.
2)  Zealous SENDers.
3)  Disobedient.
 
"How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
'Your God reigns!'" - Isaiah 52:7

Toeing the line

This is another one of my pet peeves that I've been thinking about.  I get into discussions with Christians a lot about controversial Christian topics like baptism of the Holy Spirit, sarcasm, what movies are okay to watch...etc.  Even within the Christian community, within groups of people who all read the same Bible, there are differing beliefs.  Thankfully, most of these aren't anything serious that affect one's salvation, but they are interesting.  A lot of the topics we discuss are sort of gray-area topics.  What I mean by these topics is that there's kind of a gray area between Totally Right, and Totally Wrong.  For example, sex before marriage.  The Totally Right thing here is no sex before marriage.  The Totally Wrong thing is having sex before marriage.  Then comes all this gray area inbetween.  What about everything up to sex?  Is that still okay?  Or even watching movies.  How bad is too bad to watch?  How much nudity/swearing/violence makes it too bad? 
 
Well, these discussions and debates can be helpful in flushing out the issues, but I think it always comes down to this:  Yes there is a line.  No, we should not cross it.  Does that mean we should go as close as we possibly can to it?  Nope.  God calls us to live lives of RIGHTEOUSNESS.  Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."  It doesn't say, "Don't think about totally sleazy things."  That would leave too much open.  Instead, throughout the Bible, God calls us all to live righteous lives.  THAT is a high calling! 
 
So this is my hope.  Whenever you think about doing/thinking something and think to  yourself, 'I'm not completely sure this is a good thing to do', don't do it.  Why spend time debating?  Most of the time, we spend it debating how close to the line we can get without crossing it, when we should really be worrying about how far away from the line we can get.  Live righteous lives, and shine as lights!
 
"Be holy, because I am holy." - Leviticus 11:45

SSS = Super Soccer Skills

At lunch, we play games with our camp kids, and today was no different.  However, the kids decided they would play soccer in the pine tree grove today.  Good idea?  No, not at all.  Mike, one of the assistants, had a fantastic goal where he kicked the ball, it bounced off a kid's head, and then off a tree, and into the goal!  Yay Mike!  Ahahahaha.  The best play of the day was a kid that ran smack dab into a pine tree tho.  He was GUSHING blood from his nose.  Oh man.  We laugh and tease him, but it looked pretty rough.  Art camp has suddenly become a lot more hazardous!
 
So I realized that not everyone knows exactly what I'm doing this summer.  I'm working at the McMichael again at the art camp.  I'm doing 4 weeks of assisting classes, and then 4 weeks of instructing art!  Send your kids!  :)  I'm pretty excited.  We have access to some really neat and hardcore art materials, so these kids will be arting it up. 
 
Other than work, I'm really involved in my church at the moment.  I'm cheerleading our softball team on (YEAH, undefeated Judges!!!!!), working on the missions committee, and leading worship once in a while.  Yeah, I'm actually becoming okay with singing in front of a crowd, can you believe it?  Ahahaha.
 
I think that's about it.  There's my life for you in a nut shell.  I know, what an exciting summer!  Although, I have to tell you the most exciting news of the last week.  I started scrapbooking a little while ago, and lo and behold, 2 sweet ladies from my church bought me a whole fun scissors set!  There are 18 of them on a wooden stand that rotates!  How can I be this excited about scissors?  No idea.  I am in scrapbooking heaven though.  They have all these different edges!  Droooool.  I wish I could post a picture, but my digital camera is nowhere to be found.  But maybe it's better not to post it.  You might all get too jealous.  Yeah.

Annoyed

I really just wish that when people say they'll do something, that they would actually do it. There is a little situation that is now worse than it had to be, and it could have been prevented had someone just done what they said they would, right away. Sigh. I'm ticked off, and having trouble forgiving them. I know I should, because I am forgiven. Sigh. Forgiveness ain't the easiest thing in the world.

"You look like a hot dog!"

Funny story! There's a smart-aleck in my art camp class in the morning and one day, when we were sitting at the carpet he turned around and looked at the boy sitting behind him and said, "You look like a hot dog!" AHahahaha, okay, so name-calling is inappropriate, but it's so funny, because this kid DOES kind of look like a hot dog! His face is so skinny. Now everytime I look at him, I think about hot dogs. Oh dear.

Physical pain

So some of you know that I have a bruised bum and injured wrist. What from, you ask? From falling down my stairs. Is this a regular occurrence? Actually, yes. Unfortunately. Ahahaha. I was dead tired after camp one day and was napping when the phone rang. Of course no one answers it in this house except my sister and I if we're home, so I picked it up, and it was for my dad. So, I start making my way groggily down the stairs to give him the phone when, BAM. I just hit the deck. Hard. My bum is now slightly bruised, and I landed on my wrist so it hurts when I bend it. Sigh. The life of a klutz. I think it hurt so much that I couldn't even think about it for a second. On top of that, I was so groggy that I didn't really get what was happening. It's so funny that it's hard to feel pain if you don't know you're supposed to be IN pain. Ahahaha.

To add to this bum/wrist madness, I went for a long rollerblade yesterday. It was really really fun, but really, my first time rollerblading for longer than a block. I used to "rollerblade" (i.e. for maybe 5 minutes TOPS) but would give up from foot pain. I think my rollerblades were actually too small for me. Anyway, yesterday we did 8km, ahahaha, which is 8km more than I usually do, and I survived, surprisingly. It was a little touch-and-go at the beginning, I think, but by the end, it was fun! After sweating up a storm, we went to the pool (we WALKED there, craziness!) and cooled off. Then we walked home. This is pretty much more exercise than I've done in ...well, a long long time. Needless to say, I was utterly exhausted yesterday, but I'm feeling very few muscle pains today. I was expecting super-duper pain, considering I'm so out of shape. A friend of mine keeps trying to get me out to the gym, and I keep refusing. Ahahaha, thanks for trying though! ;)

So yes, the summer fitness begins...rollerblading, swimming, maybe a little tennis, and chasing after children. Which is most intense? The last one! :)

Let me be a woman, and will you JUST be a MAN??

Let me be perfectly honest from the beginning (as if I'm not honest on this blog!) and say that I think feminism is dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. I refer mostly to the equality issue. I definitely think men and women should have the same rights, but my issue is really with the fact that some women try to be men. We're just not men, and that's a biological fact. It's not about equality in some cases, it's about equity. The porblem is that in the workforce, for example, women are starting to compete with men at BEING men, and not just at the job. If a woman wants to be a pilot, awesome, but she should compete with men in being a pilot, not in being a male pilot! I think over the years, the gender roles have overlapped more and more, and I think it's hard for guys to be guys, and girls to be girls. Ahahaa, don't read anymore if you're going to be upset at my traditional gender role views. But I do welcome comments and feedback.

Anyway, I've been thinking about this lately because frankly, I've realized that I really appreciate gentlemen. I appreciate guys who initiate things, like plans, conversations, whatever. I appreciate it when guys hold open doors, when they do protective things like walking on the side of the street closer to the cars. I appreciate when guys are assured enough with themselves that they can do these things. Albeit, women haven't helped much to make gentlemen these days, as there's probably a fear about us biting men's heads off for treating us like helpless women. The truth is, I really don't think guys view us as really that helpless nowadays, and well, frankly, if you wanna carry my big heavy box for me, thanks! I have puny muscles. Maybe some guys do too, but probably not punier than me. Anyway, muscles are not my point. My point is that I think guys need to stop being afraid of being wimps. They need to initiate things.

Case in point: Relationships. I was reading a really ridiculous book on dating that we were thinking of lending to the HS kids at my church, and it got me thinking. Guys should initiate. Guys should initiate talking about boundaries in a relationship. Guys should initiate the relationship in the first place. I think what I've appreciated the past couple of years is men in my life who have initiated conversations with me about our relationship. Yes, the relationship-defining talk (the RDT, ahahah). We all know that tense point we all get to in friendships where suddenly, you're unsure whether you're just friends or not. The easy thing is to just let it go, for fear of causing weirdness. Sometimes, though, people will let it go because they're afraid of rejection, and frankly, it's easier to reap the benefits of a flirty friendship than to put your pride on the line to lay it all out. I'm so thankful that most of the men I know are willing to do it, willing to lay it on the line instead of stringing the girl along on some wild emotional ride (because that's what it becomes to girls...we're emotional!) where we debate whether he likes us or whether he doesn't, or how much he does, etc. Intimacy should match commitment, and I love it when a guy is willing not to be more intimate emotionally or physically with a girl until there is a definite commitment. Otherwise, you set yourself up for heartbreak. Flirting is bad bad bad! Anyway, I think nowadays, it's become the norm for guys to just sit back and let these women who have all this newly discovered power do the initiating, which is not such a good thing, in my opinion. I think the blame goes both ways though. The more manly the man, the easier it is for the woman to be a woman, and the more womanly a woman, the easier it is for men to be men.

I think it's important for us to figure out our roles as men and women, because I think there are Biblical roles for a man and woman in a marriage, and relationships before marriage are really like training grounds for it. In Ephesians 5, it talks about the roles of a husband and a wife. So many people take this verse out of context, and it drive me insane. I think it's the most romantic thing ever. It says, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." I used to hate this verse, and I used to think submission to a man was horrible. I truly did. But if you read on, things become clearer.

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."

First, what I discovered was that submission is not a weak thing. This verse doesn't mean, "Women, do whatever your husband tells you to do." Have you ever tried to submit to someone? It's tough. You really have to respect the person you're submitting to. And that's the wonderful thing. My friend once said something along the lines of, "I don't think my wife will have any problems submitting to me, because I hope to be the kind of husband that she respects and who honours her above myself." I don't think I'll have any problems at all submitting, if my husband loves me as Christ loved the church! That's really a sacrificial, honouring type of love. I mean, Christ loved the church (us!) so much, that He gave up His life for it! That's love! And that's the type of love husbands are called to have for their wives. Really and truly, I once hated the thought of submission to my husband, but now, I'm looking forward to it with all my heart. (note: submission to husbands is based on their wisdom in leading as God wills)

So that was a long one, but I get going when something gets me. So really, women, will you just let the guys initiate, and men, will you just initiate!?