Rae of Sunshine

8 days left!!

2007-07-27T10:06:00.000-06:00

People we're into single digits, do you believe it?! We picked up my dress yesterday....Amber and I were walking downtown Edmonton with this giant sheet wrapped around yards and yards of material..it felt like we were carrying a body. Everyone was looking and laughing cause they just knew there was gonna be a weddin'! haha!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE P.S. we did manage to get the dress home safely, and unless there is a disaster - it should not look like this one. hehe!

11 days!!

2007-07-24T14:58:00.000-06:00

So I'm learning people were actually checking this...SORRY!! I moved to Vermilion and I have no pictures for you.. also, running out of time. But anyways - it's SO CLOSE!!!!

I'm still waiting for that last minute advice everyone.

38

2007-06-27T21:39:00.000-06:00

38 days!!

47

2007-06-18T23:41:00.000-06:00

Okay Ladies...and gents if they have any.

I'm looking for tips! If you've been married, planned a wedding, helped or have any useful suggestions, WE WANT THEM!! As the big day rapidly approaches we keep thinking of little things that need to be done. I want to know your stories or hints as to what things you forgot about or realized too late.. HELP!! This only happens once.. Thanks all!

47 more days!!!!

48

2007-06-17T16:41:00.000-06:00

48 days!!

49

2007-06-16T23:40:00.000-06:00

Holy Crap!!

49 Days!!

50

2007-06-15T21:50:00.000-06:00

How dreamy.

Days to go: 50

Countdown Begins!!

2007-06-14T04:13:00.000-06:00

The big day is actually close enough to start a count down. I could have started one earlier but I thought it would seem like an eternity.

51 more days!!!

Facebook

2007-04-25T22:38:00.000-06:00

Facebook has taken over the world.....

Google account

2007-03-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

I finally caved and got the new google account. I really didn't want to. Ok Lindsay... here ya go.

What I've been up to lately? Well..busy. I recently finished clinical and amongst my 18 credits of courses I'm currently enrolled in, I'm trying to plan a dream wedding on peanuts. hehe.. I moved into a basement suite all by my lonesome until August when my husband will then join me in our fire-engine red basement... all the walls are red. I recently got a job working as an ACW (pretty much an LPN with no licence) - I start orientation on March 31 so I'm not actually working yet. Oh, and our new place is about a 40 minute drive from Kyle's place right now...it's driving from Vermilion to Lloyd. Not cool.

Oh yeah! And I'm getting baptized on Sunday! March 11 @ 4 o'clock. I'm getting baptized at Southgate Alliance church. Our church is in a cafe, so they don't have much of a baptism tank, so we're going on a field trip! I invite everyone to come if they can make it. Afterwards, we're going to have a potluck to celebrate.

I think that's all for now...see ya in 3 months.

"I DO!"...Part 2

2007-01-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

***BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE READ KYLE’S BLOG FIRST BEFORE READING FURTHER***

So as we pulled up to the Keller household, Kyle’s dad was in the driveway carrying his guitar. He was pretending to get into the car and then approached the driver window of the van. Everything he said sounded extremely urgent. He began to explain to us that there was this band that came to Dawson Creek, but there was a car accident. He mentioned something about a rental car and that it was very important that the band gets this guitar. The band was to be staying in The George Dawson Inn: room 208. We were instructed to leave the guitar on the bed.

You are probably all thinking, that story sounds kind of fishy. Well, it seemed legitimate at the time and I never really thought about it to ask questions.

Kyle: that is because I did a stellar-keller job of making sure she thought I hadn’t called her parents and asked for permission, and that I hadn’t yet bought the ring – as we went ring shopping earlier that day.)

Meg: Let me tell the story! As we pulled out of the driveway, Kyle asked, “Do you want to come? You don’t have to.” I replied as he expected, “Oh no, I’ll come. That’s fine.” So off we went. Driving down the streets of Dawson Creek, we headed towards the George Dawson Inn. As we were driving, Kyle said, “I think I’m going to have to use the bathroom when we get there.”

Kyle: It was part of the plan. I didn’t actually use it.

Meg: I thought, “That would be weird!” We arrived.

We took the elevator to the second floor and arrived at room 208. Nobody was supposed to be in the apartment; we opened the door. Much to my surprise, the lights were on in the room! I was startled and jumped back and then knocked as I said, “Hello?!” Kyle reassured me that it was okay and to go in.

As we walked into the room, I was shocked to find long-stem roses and petals everywhere! I thought to myself, “HOLY CRAP! THIS IS AWKWARD! We just walked into someone’s ‘romantic suite’!” Although I was feeling completely weird, Kyle puts the guitar on the bed and takes off his coat. I said, “You’re taking off your coat to use the bathroom?!” I felt so weird and wanted to vacate the scene ASAP! As I kept looking around the room, I saw my computer sitting on the table…this is where I began to get confused. As I walked a little further, there was a large bouquet of about 30 red and white roses, a giant framed picture of my sweetheart and I, and another of just me. There was a bottle of champagne, some candles, two champagne glasses, and some sparkling cocktail juice for me in case I didn’t want to drink champagne.

I looked over at Kyle in bewilderment, and he spoke softly, “I just wanted to have a quiet evening with you away from the busy house. We have it for just a few hours.” (Kyle’s whole family was at home, including a playful three-year old. Quiet time was something that did not exist.) I thought awww, isn’t that nice! So we sat on one of the beds and Kyle pulled out the guitar we’d brought along. He then began to sing me a song: I Will Be There, by Steven Curtis Chapman. It was so beautiful. I love listening to him sing.

I’m still thinking to myself, “This is such a wonderful day…nothing more, nothing less.” The reason I did not suspect anything was because for the previous month, Kyle had been mentioning how nervous he was to talk to my dad about proposing and I knew that he would never ask me unless he’d spoke with my dad first. I had no reason to suspect that he’d asked already because my parents were in Australia and would not be home until later that night and I knew he wanted to ask in person.

After he finished serenading me, he gave me a big hug and then stared into my eyes. He told me that he loved me and would love me forever. Just then, I looked down and saw he was holding a ring box! I lost my breath and took a huge gasp as Kyle said the words I only dreamed of until that moment, “Megan, Will You Marry Me?” I SAID YES!! OF COURSE!!!

Next, Kyle pulled out the computer and we watched a movie he made of us. There were pictures of us and the video ended by saying “Did you say yes??” We just sat there, so excited, staring into each other’s eyes for the longest time trying to comprehend the event that just occurred.

After, we thought about different moments throughout the day that could have hinted toward tonight’s event. At one point, I tried to reach into his pocket to put my debit card in his vest, and he jumped like I’ve never seen before and replied, “Whoa! You scared me!” Apparently, that was where the ring was. Then I remembered what he said just before we pulled away from the house, “You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to.” I asked him, “What would you have done if I said no?” He replied, “I knew you’d come with me. You always want to be where I am.” He’s right.

After talking for a while we cleaned up the room and gathered all the roses and took the champagne back to the future-in-laws as they were all anticipating our return – they were all in on the event. It was by far the most incredible day of my whole entire life. I think I can boldly say the same for Kyle too. However, it will not be our last. We have many, many more happy days to come (not to mention August 4th, 2007…our wedding day!!)

Interesting

2006-12-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

So I had to try about 8 different photos to get any faces to come up.. apparently I don't look like a lot of people, or I'm just not photogenically like anyone else.

What's your Degree?

2006-11-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

What's the weather like where you are? How about outside?....How about INSIDE? I live in a basement suite of a house. This morning when I woke up, my house was approximately 10 degrees in the basement and the upstairs of the house was a whopping 12 degrees. Let me tell you it is COLD! So I layered up with 3 pairs of pants, a long sleeve shirt, 2 sweaters, a touque, my hood, a few pairs of socks, and some slippers. Then I made the ghastly trek through my igloo to the coldest room in the whole house: our bathroom. As I sat down on the toilet seat I think by buttocks were pierced with icicles.

After this, I went upstairs..not a whole lot better. But we found a space heater! So we turned it on, made some hot chocolate, took some marshmallows, so crazy utensils, and plopped ourselves down infront of the heater. So we decided to roast mallows on the space heater for brunch...we too had to rotate like marshmallows to keep both sides of our bodies warm. So this is me in my house...those were the best mallows ever! They were perfectly melted allllll the way through.

They browned so nicely!

So we called our landlord and he said, "the heat is broken? Oh, so it must be cold there, hey? I'm in SUNNY VANCOUVER - EVERYTHING IS GREEN...7 DEGREES!" BAh!! oh man. so we called ATCO emergency. "ah, yes ma'am.. we'll be there within 24 hours"... We could be dead by then. So a couple hours later, they came...not an ATCO job..they can't do it. Call Lennex.. Ok.. so, i'm outta here. And that's where I flew the coupe. Let someone else take care of it. Hopefully when I get home, there will be heat.

BTW - even when our heat does work.. our house is approximately 13 dgrees on a good day. But anyhow... I'm cold.

Textbook Fall

2006-11-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

So, I was coming out of my friend's house carrying a LARGE tupperware container full of stuff. I was walking to my car, tired but in rather chipper spirit when all of a sudden I found my feet above my head and I was lying flat on my back with the LARGE tupperware container now resting on my chest! I slipped on a patch of ice (which my friend's aunt warned us about not an hour earlier) and had no hands to break my fall. As I landed on my back, hurting....all of me, including my tailbone, back, and neck, my friend, who was beside me began LAUGHING HER BUTT OFF... She felt bad after once she saw the tears in my eyes, but I told her I wasn't going to pretend that I wouldn't have laughed, because we both know I would have done just the same. So as I sit here on the couch relatively sore, I do not want to move and would like to summon people to bring me Dairy Queen...
goodnight

Little Presents

2006-11-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm presently working in the maternity ward right now and I love it. There are so many newborns and they are to die for! Honestly, tiny little presents from God. Having a baby looks scary, but honestly, not as bad as I thought. Most newborns aren't that big. They are just too darn cute. Not as blue as I thought and not as mis-shapen as I thought. Yesterday was an experience and a half. We had a lady come in who was 31 weeks. She ended up delivering pretty much in the hallway! She screamed, "I can feel the baby coming!" as she was being pushed into the unit. So the nurses quickly pushed her into another room, one nurse holding a bulge at her groin area (we all thought it was the head), and the other nurse flung the lady onto the bed. As they pulled off her pants, the baby came out with them...breech nonetheless. (aka: baby came out butt first and folded in half). It was nuts...

So Bloody Cold...

2006-10-11T21:21:00.000-06:00

So the other day, I was freezing! And I started to feel this warm draft. I was bound and determined to find out where it was coming from. Low and behold it was coming from the dryer. So I decided to stick my bum in the door and let the warm air drift out and surround my ice cold body. I still wasn't satisfied, so I proceeded to sit back a little further....and a little further yet....until I found that my whole body was then inside the warm dryer. Relief.

Now that I look at these pictures, it brings back a childhood memory. When I was about 3 I think, we were playing hide-and-go-seek. I thought I'd found the best hiding spot...the dryer of course. My dad finally found me....took a picture...pulled me out...AND SPANKED ME!!! Since he just took a picture, I could not figure out what I'd done wrong! Anyways...I wonder what my dad is saying now. "Nearly 20 years later and she didn't learn a thing!"

Response to Mother Hen

2006-10-03T16:57:00.000-06:00

If I start, I'll never stop!

Magnify

2006-09-28T19:23:00.000-06:00

If I was a writer...I'd have writer's block.

One word: MORDACIOUS

M.I.A.

2006-09-25T22:26:00.000-06:00

2006-09-09T11:46:00.000-06:00

Oranges....not lemons. :)

Where In the World is ______________?

2006-08-28T00:40:00.000-06:00

Where are they all? I just got home and I miss my family more now than before I left. My little brother is the only one in Canada and he's all grown up now and going off to Uni in Vancouver. I won't see my sister until January. And my parents until Christmas. It's a pity party. Woo hoo!! Well, next week I'll be back in school and life will be throwing me all kinds of complicated curves that will consume my time so I won't have time to miss them then. But for now, look at those faces. I want them here. I have lemons and those people would be very helpful right about now.

Catchin' Up

2006-08-23T01:31:00.000-06:00

Hey, so my pictures are finally loading. I tell you it was daaang close and I was about to become a 'myspacer'. But blogger managed to redeem itself. So I've added some random pictures from other trips as well just to catch you up on what you missed.

This is Amber jumping during a lovely Fijian sunset.

Toast an' OJ for brekky

Ever shared a room with 36 other people? haha. That's right. All 3 of us were on the top bunks and HOT AIR RISES!!!!

Camel ridin' with my buddy.

Wave Rock

Cayley and her wombat.

Holy Jumpin' Crocs!!
CAMEL RACES!!!

Lil' Joey Koala

There's No Place Like Home

2006-08-20T12:56:00.000-06:00

Get me out

Fiji Bound

2006-08-02T20:56:00.000-06:00

Well, our trip is closing in on an end. Today we are packing EVERYTHING up to head out one last time. We'll leave on the train for Sydney tomorrow morning and then the day after...we're FIJI BOUND! Woo hoo! I need a little bit more of a sunburn to catch up with everyone at home since you've had incredible weather all summer. Now it's my turn. I'm very thankful that my sister has decided to come on this little escapade with us. Our duo has turned into a trio for the trip. I haven't got to spend copious amounts of time with her this summer because she's been working and I've been traveling. But we've been completely spoiled and are able to go together.

We were also able to turn our traveling duo into a family trip when we went to Melbourne. My brother and sister were both able to come with us, so that was excellent. We had many, many Bauer Honking (for those of you who know what that is) moments with the eyes full of laughing tears and the whole enchilada. We got to go to the aquarium, which was incredible and the great ocean road...Oh my word..Absolutely breathtaking. The day ended with a bit of a bump though.

When we got home to our hostel (which was just the 4 of us in the room...not shared with anyone else) we walked into our room and found the window wide open. A bit peculiar because it's the middle of the winter and no one had been in. We didn't think too much about it until we noticed all of our stuff thrown everywhere. Our mess, which was already there, turned into a different mess. Someone had broken into our room and searched through all our bags throwing things out of them. My brother's backpack was hidden waaay under his bed, which had also been searched through, but you wouldn't know it from the outside. It was nicely replaced and zipped back up...however... his iPod was missing. Someone robbed us and fortunately, that was the only thing valuable left in the room. There were also 3 other rooms on our floor that had been robbed..All much worse than ours. mp3's, cameras, credit cards. But all the other people were still in the building. They'd just gone down to the kitchen to make supper or watch TV. So within 2 hours of leaving their rooms unattended, 4 robberies occured. So the police came and all that jazz. My brother, on the otherhand, handled everything very well. He may have been steaming on the outside, but he was calm on the outside. He was a pretty good witness to the other guys I think. They were fuming. Oh the window... we kind of thought that they might have came in through the window because there was a giant ledge..but we were on the third floor. But then realized they probably had a masterkey because of the other rooms.

46 Hours

2006-07-26T01:19:00.000-06:00

Well... we're back! But not for long... 46 hours actually. Cayley and I have 46 hours in Adelaide to catch up on emails, pay bills, do laundry, pack, and grocery shop for the next adventure. Let me catch you up on the last one.

What a time!

Well, we started out with a 24 hour train ride on the famous Ghan to Alice Springs. We packed for Darwin = bloody hot. Alice Springs was....NOT! So with the 2 sweaters...and one extra I brought as a stow away unbeknownst to my traveling companion (thank goodness!), we bundled up and braved the daaaaang cold.

We went to the Camel Cup!! Woo hoo! It was hilarious. Camels running everywhere, people bouncing higher, and winners falling. Okay, so first race, a girl won, but accidentally and disgracefully dismounted her camel just after the finish line. That's right, she FELL OFF! Oh gosh.. I laughed so hard! Next race was the honeymooner race. Camels start sitting, run half way around the track, stop, sit down again, and the riders pick up their wives, the camel jumps up and they finish the race. The first camel didn't stop at halfway. He went BARRELLING through the crowd of people to the finish line. Again - I howled with laughter aka my "Bauer Honk", which by the way is a dominating sound in the background of all the videos I took.

Well, after a day at the markets and hanging out at the kangaroo-joey rescue center (we got to cuddle all the baby joey's. - mine, Jimmy was only 4 months old), back on the train. Another 24 hour train ride to Darwin. Darwin was hot hot! FINALLY!!!

So, we didn't have a hostel booked. We hoped that it would be like everywhere else and there would be a whole bunch of them lined up at the station ready to take you home...Not the case. Pretty much every bed in Darwin was booked. Two guys came from one hostel though, looking for 2 other girls who had reserved beds...they didn't show up. No, we didn't pretend to be them, although, it did cross our minds, haha. Either way, we asked if we could catch a ride to town with them so they didn't go back empty handed. The city was 26km away and everyone was expected to pay for the shuttle $10 we didn't have. So we managed a free ride - and turns out they had beds for us for one night anyways. God was on the lookout.

We got to go to a place called Deckchair Cinemas. It was a cinema on right on the beach with all these deckchairs (thank you captain obvious) and we watched a movie! They provided mozzie repellant and pillows. It was cool and we could bring our own picnic.

We did get to go on a tour one day. We went to a lot of waterfalls and got to swim underneath them. We also saw JUMPING CROCODILES! It was cool. So we had Cayley on the top of the boat taking pictures with rapid fire and me on the bottom of the boat taking videos. It was cool! Crocs are big and scary!

We also got to go to a fish feeding place. There are hundreds of fish and they give you bread to feed them. You put your hand just under the water and the fish come and suck the bread out of your fingers, it feels so weird. There were lots of different kinds of fish. Some were a 1.5 meters long - I think that's a big fish.

God knows we're living on a dime and was most definitely watching out for us. God is a great backpacker - did you know that? He knows how to do it cheap. There was a place where we could get great meals for $1. A nice dish (curry, lasagna, lamb casserole - whatever your liking) with a salad for so stinkin' cheap. Heck, we couldn't even cook for that price. It definitely beat PB&J. I think I'm going to vomit peanut butter by the time I get home. Don't get me wrong - I do love peanut butter, but we're pushing it to new levels I think.

Darwin is known for their sunsets...I think. Either way, they were great, although I'm not so sure they compare to Alberta skies. Our sunsets and dancing northern lights is probably as good as it gets. But we managed to see an incredible sunset go down on the water as we were walking along the beach...my Cayley and I...aww, how romantical. The markets were on that night, so the place was packed out. People bring everything for anything. It was like anyone who had food to sell, junk to sell, or a dog you could pet, they brought it. Cayley and I were in our glory either way.

The week consisted of lots of sunburning and reading. It was lovely. It was much more of a holiday than Perth was. Perth was adventure. Darwin was relaxing. I'm sure there is much I left out, but that's to give you an idea of our trip for those of you who keep telling me you're living through my blog. Don't want to disappoint those and don't want to bore the others.

Right Where You Are

2006-07-12T04:31:00.000-06:00

"And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don't think I'm being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches. "

1 Corinthians 7:17

He knows what He's doing.

Ever Held a Wombat?

2006-07-10T23:52:00.000-06:00

**If you would like to look at pictures - go to the link on the side of the page. Cayley and Megan's Australia Pictures link. Pretty self-explanatory.**

I have returned from the red desert. We were correct...there was nothing but red sand. In hopes to make this shorter and still fill you in on our journey, I'm going to make a list. It will kind of go in chronilogical order if I can remember that way.

1. There's a town we stopped at on the way called Cook. Population 6. That's right. Only 6 people. 3 run the gift shop, 2 sell sausage and onion buns, and the other one was out of town.

2. Rottnest Island. Our alarm didn't go off. We were extremely rushed and nearly late to catch our shuttle at 7am. We took the ferry across the Indian Ocean to this island. We rented bikes. We started out with a lovely tandem bike with a basket however, could not make it work. It would have been a loooong day had we carried on with it. After our first crash, (Cayley was on the back and managed to sneak away with minor injuries) I walked away, luckily, with most damage to my pants and a bruised ankle. So we traded big Bertha in for two young bucks. Cayley's named, Rosie Montegra and mine named, Violet Montee. They did us well for the day. Our 16 km trek around the gorgeous island was a lot of fun. We managed to stop at a few beaches to get a bit burnt.

3. My toothbrush was stolen from the bathroom.

4. Caversham. Cayley and I took the bus out to Caversham Wildlife Park however, we somehow missed our stop. We ended up in the middle of nowhere and had to figure out how to take the bus back to the stop that we didn't know how to find the first time. After awhile, we made it. We arrived at the front gate where there is a courtesy phone to call the park and they come pick you up. Just our luck, the courtesy phone was broken...and actually completely gone. Luckily, we had our mobile and they came to pick us up. At the park, we saw A LOT of animals. Cayley held a wombat named Doza, we saw kangaroos with joeys, koalas and a weeeee little baby one, and WE RODE A CAMEL!!!! It was great!

5. Crazy Road Trip! We met 2 girls from our hostel and decided to rent a car and go on a road trip. So our fancy little Hyundai carried us to Wave Rock. A giant rock that looks like a wave - and then we got lost in the bush. The next day, we went to the Sand Dunes and The Pinnacles. At the sand dunes, it was funny. Everything looked like Napoleon Dynamite when his gramma goes to the sand dunes. There were motorcycles and quads everywhere. We rented sand boards and went sand boarding. It was fun. At the Pinnacles, (a place with all these different sized rocks) and took lots of pictures. Oh yeah! There was chunks of the road that had no speed limit - so it was great..he he. All in all the road trip was good, but we just about ran out of gas twice. The gas light came on and we still had 40 km to go. We made it, luckily. And the next day the gas light came on at 70km - thankfully at 50 km a gas station showed up.

6. The hostel had a hot tub.

7. I wish there were pictures for this but they don't seem to be working. I think it must be blogger. If I'm wrong, and somebody else can load pictures, leave me a comment and tell me what you're doing different. Thanks

I think those were most of the high points. There were many funny moments as well. We definitely felt the wrath of my bad travel karma time and time again though. Cayley is going to realize not all traveling is this chaotic once she travels with someone else. Nothing seems to be an easy road for us but we're always in good spirits. She keeps me in check and I thank God for her being here.

I Spy With My Little Eye

2006-07-01T07:32:00.000-06:00

Cayley: "I spy with my little eye something that is......RED!"

Megan: "The sand?"

Cayley: "Awww...man, how'd you guess?"

Megan: "Just lucky I guess.. Alright, my turn... I spy with MY little eye something that is....also red."

Cayley: "Oh gosh..this is so hard, I don't know. I'm just not sure. Okay, I'm just guessing, but is it.....the sand?"

Megan: "Awww...I thought that was a hard one! But you got it!"

Cayley: "Okay, my turn............."

Now, this is going to be the on-going joke for about the next 6 weeks. Tomorrow, my great friend Cayley and I are embarking on our excursion. We are leaving Adelaide to to explore the rest of the country. How are we doing this? Well, we're poor.. So the train of course. You might be thinking to yourself that it's not that big of a deal, however, Australia is BIG. It is a LARGE chunk of land. Our first journey is to Perth. 39 hours on a train....straight. We'll be heading across red desert...That's about all there is in between. A lot of boring 'I Spy'. Lucky for us, Cayley inherited 'travel Guess Who' and 'UNO: "Cars" (the movie)' for her birthday. That should take care of an hour or so. But anyhow. I'll be outta here for a bit. Our first journey is about 10 days so I'll update on the train ride when I get back.

For Interest's Sake

2006-06-29T08:06:00.000-06:00

Tonight was the night. We went to the drive-in movie and saw Superman Returns. To start the evening, it was a little hectic. We needed to leave the house by 6:30 to be on time for the show however we had to wait for mum to get home from work. (she didn't know we planned to go to the drive-in and needed a car to do so) She finally got home at 6:29. So everyone grabbed the snacks we made, the sleeping bags and pillows we packed, and everyone bolted for the car wearing our sweats, jumpers, and slippers.

We made it. $16 for the whole car no matter how many people are in it. Last time there was a truck full of guys with a couch in the back. Looked like a pretty sweet set-up. Alright, so bring out the popcorn. Homemade - the best kind. Greasy fingers...where do you wipe them? Well your socks of course!

So the movie you ask? Well it was actually great! Lois Lane on the other hand - not a very pleasant person. What does Superman see in her anyways? I guess in all fairness he did leave her didn't he? And something else that REALLY bothers me is why the heck doesn't the world know it's Clark Kent? Just because he takes off his glasses and becomes all plastic like a Ken doll doesn't make him look any different! We can all see it's still him! Down below is a picture of kryptonite I saw at the museum today. Now I don't want this to sound like I disliked the movie because I didn't...just the opposite, like I said, it was good. I would like to add more however I do not want to spoil it for any of you so I'll leave it at that. Now as we were leaving the theatre, we forgot that I put a soda on the dashboard and I started to drive. It was all good for a bit....until I turned a corner. Yep, you guessed it. The open fizzy drink slid across the dashboard like a pair of sunglasses and landed on the floor - somewhere - in the dark. This clown car of ours has been through quite a bit since the kids arrived. What can we say? Well, we all laughed about it.

So I went to the museum today. Wasn't overly looking forward to it, not going to lie, but much to my surprise, it was interesting and I had a good time. There were lots of bones and weird things to look at such as gross things in jars. There were also lots of animals which had been taxadermied. I felt like I was at the zoo and that there were waaaay too many animals in each cage and especially because they did not even go together. For example a beaver and a koala. Most Australians have never even seen a beaver let alone it being next to a koala. It is also funny because they put these animals in positions that they think the animal would do.

For several days now as Cayley and I have been speedily running to the bus stop, we have passed this dead creature that lies right next to the sidewalk and its tail comes very close to being ON the sidewalk. We have been in too big of a rush most times to take the time to have a close look. We would just describe it as 'a fuzzy weiner-like puppy with an EXTRA loooong tail'. But today, we saw one at the museum (also dead) and discovered that our dead furry little friend is a possum. Interesting. Unfortunately, that's my whole story and it's not very funny because it is true. Strange how that works out. Anyways, I had a picture of him but it's not working right now. Feel free to name him.

Battle of the Toilet Paper

2006-06-28T05:24:00.000-06:00

Alright...here's my problem. Cayley and I share the room that is next to the toilet. (I say toilet because it is in a different room from the rest of the bathroom) People get up to use the toilet in the middle of the night and when they tear the toilet paper off of the roll, it sounds like a motorcycle is driving through our bedroom. It is SO loud every single square wakes me up.
So this is my plan of action. I have already politely asked everyone to use the roll of toilet paper that is on the floor next to the toilet. Problem persisted. I then proceeded to remove the roll of toilet paper and placing it on the floor before going to bed. This is my present attempt...today, I created this sign. One other problem I encountered while making this sign is that we have no tape or fun-tac or any sort of removeable adhesive...so I used a glue stick. I justified this action by the fact that the walls are terribly made and that the owners are completely demolishing this house once we move out. If my friendly sign does not work, my next move will to be COMPLETELY remove ALL of the rolls of toilet paper and hiding them until morning. Or else get a screw driver and remove the roll dispenser. I will be forced to take action and do whatever means necessary to get a peaceful sleep. This madness has got to end!

Love Is...

2006-06-25T09:12:00.000-06:00

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.
1 Corinthians 13 The Message

I love these verses...in all versions of the Bible, but especially this one. People sometimes get the wrong idea of love, but here it is. We tend to get caught up in the selfishness of life. We try to find someone who 'fits us'. But that isn't how God told us to love. He told us to 'care more for others than self' and 'isn't always "me first"'. Who is it that you fit TOGETHER with rather than who fits YOU? What do you have to offer the other person, rather than what does that person have to offer you? Love is having the best intentions for the other person in mind. Wanting what is genuinely best for that person with no selfish motives. It is stated so simply here...and it is! Yet so wonderfully complex!

'Love doesn't keep score of the sins of others'... Thank goodness. God loves us and therefore - doesn't keep score of our sins. So if God doesn't, then why should we?

'Love puts up with anything'. We are impatient. We can have short tempers. We are so quick to judge others. Love puts up with anything...God loves us, and therefore PUTS UP WITH ANYTHING. If you love someone - you put up with anything. anything.

Love never gives up. Love never dies.

I can't get over these verses. I just want to read them over and over and over again.

Leap Of Faith

2006-06-21T21:39:00.000-06:00

If you think God is telling you to take a leap of faith - don't hesitate. Just JUMP! Go already! What are you afraid of? We serve a huge God. He's way bigger than that gap you think you can't make it over.

Keep Recognizing Jesus

2006-06-18T08:51:00.000-06:00

This passage is taken from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest. It is exactly what I was struggling with and needed to hear. God knows everything, including the right timing. This smacked me right in the middle of the forhead. Here it is.

"...Peter...walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid..." (Matthew 14:29-30)

The wind really was boisterous and the waves really were high, but Peter didn't see them at first. He didn't consider them at all; he simply recognized his Lord, stepped out in recognition of Him and "walked on the water." Then he began to take those things around him into account, and instantly, down he went. Why couldn't our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves, as well as on top of them? He could have, yet neither could be done without Peter's continuing recognition of the Lord Jesus.

We step right out with recognition of God in some things, then self-consideration enters our lives and down we go. If you are truly recognizing your Lord, you have no business being concerned about how and where He engineers your circumstances. The things surrounding you are real, but when you look at them you are immediately overwhelmed, and even unable to recognize Jesus. Then comes His rebuke, "why did you doubt?" (14:31). Let your actual circumstances be what they may, but keep recognizing Jesus, maintaining complete reliance upon Him.

If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you. Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?" Be reckless immediately - totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything - by casting your all upon Him. You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him. You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness - being willing to risk your all.

Here it goes...

Can I Be the Side Kick?

2006-06-16T07:50:00.000-06:00

Builder and the Wrecking Ball

2006-06-11T19:32:00.000-06:00

How can one thing be both the builder AND the wrecking ball? He would have to be the Almighty One. Only God can completely destroy your life and rebuild a new one. That is what I hope for. I want Him to completely destroy the life I live to know as my own and rebuild it full of Him. Less of me and more of Him. Take out every ounce of life in me that I had anything to do with and fill those gaping canyons with God. The life I live is not my own...I was bought at a price. The ultimate price.

His Better is Better

2006-06-09T07:21:00.000-06:00

Why do I think I know what's better for me than God does? He has a plan set up for me yet sometimes I seem to think that I can do a better job. Not so. We are like kids asking our dads for something. We are in a store throwing a hissy fit screaming for something that we think we 'need'. Our father has something better in mind for us, but we are so consumed with what is right in front of us, we can't see past that. He can see the bigger picture and wants something better.

God does everything in his own timing (thank heavens) and so when he finally reveals what he has in store for you, I think most of the time, you can look back and see why everything happened as it did. You look back and think, "man, I was such a child. He knew the whole time." It's like wanting an ice cream cone at the mall, parent says no, because they are taking you home to have ice cream cake at home. So much better. The parent can reason with you all they want at the mall - but you aren't going to listen. Maybe that is part of why God works in mysterious ways. He knows that some of us are just too stubborn to reason with. Plus - he's God, he shouldn't have to.

We think we know better but God's better is better than our better.

'For I know the plans I have for you' says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster. To give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

He says yes or no all according to his plans. Can you possibly imagine what life would be like if God said yes to all of our prayers? How do you spell DISASTER! I cannot even fathom that world! God knows better than me. I say again, God knows better than me. God is not a mean God who wants us to have an unhappy life. But always has the best intentions in mind for us. If he says no - there is something better coming. I try to think back on things that God said 'no' to in my life and I praise him for those no's! Things would have been terrible if he'd said yes to some of the things I asked for.

Praise God for NO'S! God is good ALL THE TIME!

On a different note - saw my first big spider tonight.

Cayley was walking down the hall to our room and came skipping back into the living room screaming "spider!!". We all thought, 'daddy long legs.. what a chicken'. Then Wade (my brother's friend) goes down the hall and comes running back screaming louder then Cayley did! So we all rush to the hallway to see this thing. This spider, probably 3 or 4 inches (or a baby cat as my brother would call it) went speeding up the wall and closer to the ceiling. We all went bug eyed at the size of this grey-brown furry thick spider who was faster than any bug we've ever seen move before. As my brother ran for the broom and dust pan, I ran for my camera at the same time. We met back in the hallway, I took some shots, switched to video mode and he started swatting. As it fell to the floor, he chased it down the hall as Wade was screaming. He finally managed to scoop it up and Wade ran to open the door. He opened the inside one but not the screen one. He then decided to get brave and grab a jar thinking he was going to trap it! Stupid kid. But my brother started shouting, "it could be poisonous, you idiot!" He dropped the glass jar on the cement floor and thankfully, it didn't break. So after a long haul, many screams, laughing our heads off, and a few pictures (one below), we got the spider outside. Phew..

Welcome to Paradise

2006-06-08T02:57:00.000-06:00

Hey Everyone! Here we go again!

So, we have finally arrived in Paradise! (that's the name of our town). I'm going to write about events leading up to our arrival though.

1. The toilets actually do not flush in one direction or the other. It is more like a fountain of water that just gushes down! It doesn't swirl.

2. We went surfing! As we were getting ready to go to the beach, we put on winter coats and toques. Okay, so to give you an idea of my luck, here's how surfing went. The instructor gave us each a suit. Mine was wet - has anyone tried to put on a soaked wetsuit? So I got it on, turned around for someone to zip it up for me, and everyone started howling with laughter! I thought, what? There was a giant hole in the rear of my wetsuit. Sheesh! So I got another one after I finally got the other one peeled off. Got the other one on. Turned around and hear "AHAHAHAHAH!!!!" What the heck happened now?! You have another hole! This one was like a stretch of hole across my buttocks. So the guy decided to just give me another one to put over top. It was a shorter one, but then I was wearing 2 wetsuits. It was getting a little thick and touching my toes became a difficult task. So we had blue shirts to go over top to tell all the other surfers "beware! NEWBIES!" Ashley and Cayley's were huge...mine.... too small, to go over my double wetsuits to boot. Then the whole lesson, the instructor called me "double". Needless to surfing was incredible. Hard but great. Half way through the lesson, the sun went down and it started to rain. AWESOME!

3. We went to a place called "the farm". I don't know why it's called that, but it is. It was this incredible beach. What a view! The waves, the sky, the sand, the cliffs! Amazing! I stood there on the sand with my pant legs rolled up (after my Aussie friend so nicely pointed out "HOW WHITE ARE YOUR LEGS?!" with the accent of course!) just awestruck at the landscape before me. As I watched the waves barrel over and over again, I couldn't help but think how powerful they were. Then just imagine - if the waves are powerful, how powerful is our God who created those waves! It is far beyond my comprehension. As we were leaving, I needed to wash my feet off because they were covered in sand. I stepped closer to the water and with one wave - it was all washed away. That is what God wants for me. He wants to take away all of my fears and burdens and anything that gets in the way of Him and I and with one breath, He can wash it all away. What an amazing God we serve!

4. We went into Sydney finally and sightseed for the day. In the evening, we went to an actual opera in the actual Sydney Opera House! Everyone goes to see it, but who goes to an opera! So we did that. It was all dancing - some weird - all cool - it was a great time. Sydney at night is also an amazing sight.

5. So finally - we are starting our trek to Paradise. We got to the airport and had a bit of a scare. Cayley and I had kept our passports in the same place so that the two were together. Somewhere between switching bags, mine got muddled into a less obvious place. So while we were trying to check in for our flight - Megan's passport is missing. Holy crap. Only me! I think Cayley panicked more than I did. I knew it had to turn up somewhere. Same thing happened at the beginning of my trip. My auntie lost my passport - but it turned up. Anyways - found it, we once again laughed. Her and I are good for that.

THEN I SAW MY PARENTS!!!!! Wonderful. And then my brother. Oh lovely lovely family.
And on a side note - I think my parents are even more in love than when they left. They are so cute!

I had many pictures to put up, but there are technical difficulties.

My First Purchase

2006-06-06T04:50:00.000-06:00

Well... we finally arrived to Sydney. My first Australian purchase was A TOQUE! Australia is bloody cold and I'm not even joking. Everyone's first response is, "But you're Canadian!" Sorry, but I do not live in an igloo! The difference is, when it gets cold in Canada, our houses are at least warm. Here... you just suffer and cannot get warm. I'm sleeping with a winter duna, flannel sheets, and 2 other blankets. I'm wearing sweat pants, 3 shirts, a sweater, and a toque as my bedtime attire. I have never been so cold in my life. So if you are sticking to your sheets right now because you are so hot in Canada...I don't feel sorry for you. However - I'm having a fun time. :)

More stories to come.

Cold one in Australia.

And So It Begins

2006-05-31T23:54:00.000-06:00

You are not going to believe this. I think I just have bad travel karma. For me and whoever is so unfortunate to travel with me. But anyhow.

Adventure #1. My wonderful friend, Cayley and I started our journey to Australia today. Needless to say, we did not make it very far. Our first flight leaving from Edmonton was delayed. Not by much, but a little. So we arrived in Vancouver at 6:38pm. Our next flight took off at 7:27pm. We had just under an hour to get off our plane, retrieve our bags, check in to a new airline, and make it through customs. As we RAN through the terminals going from domestic to international, upon arrival we were informed that the gates closed an hour before take off so we would not be making our flight. Only Me... and I drug Cayley into this. ha! So, logically, the way our ticket was set up in the first place, we had no hope of ever making our flight. Travel agent's mistake. It would have been the same thing in L.A. We were only suppose to have one hour there too. So if it was not Vancouver, it would have been L.A. Fortunately, it was Vancouver. So after waiting around.. making A LOT of phone calls on my parents calling card..(and later realizing it is not them who pay that bill anymore.. it is the Australians living in my house who pay it. oops!) trying to get numbers of my Uncle, who lives in Vancouver, he came and picked us up.

We need to be back at the airport by about 4:00am to re-begin our journey. The airlines re-did our flights, so we will still make it to Sydney, and because someone big is definitely watching out for us, they waived the 'change fee' because it was not our fault. We just arrive that evening instead of that morning which, as it turns out, works much better for the friend who is picking us up.

God is obviously coming to Australia too (not that I had any doubts!). There is no doubt. I'm so thankful to be travelling with the great friend that I am with because we are both in great spirits, are having a great time already and laughing our heads off at these silly mix ups. I fear if it were anyone else, there'd be anger or something unpleasant. So I cannot thank God enough for her.

Pray for us.

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

2006-05-30T12:17:00.000-06:00

Australia...tomorrow...Holy crap.

Has it actually hit me? I doubt it. But things are weird temporarily because I have moved everything out of my house - food and all. I have nothing here. I have no bed - slept on the couch. I have no food - don't know what I'll eat. I have no car - under house arrest. I have no clean clothes - just an empty suitcase. All I have is my laptop and a guitar, so here I sit. I'll make music later.

So I'm clearly not ready to go. My bags are not packed and I am not ready to go, as the song dictates. However - I am still expected to leave on a jet plane tomorrow. I feel weird. Torn between two worlds. Still going to the other one, but I think my heart will still be here. Actually, I'm sure it will.

Well, let's look at the otherside. What waits for me in Australia? OHHH!! WELLLL!! Only the greatest family in the whole world! Except my parents are going on a houseboat without me (gawsh!) so I won't see them for a few extra days. My little brother - the greatest brother in the world - who misses me.. aww. But - Sydney waits for me. An old friend. Another friend who is going to take me surfing and 4x4. The chocolate factory in Melbourne...and Adelaide (hehe). Funny plug-ins. Accents. Also, I have a job interview waiting for me in Adelaide. Which I need but do not want. Mostly because I would love to be lazy and bum around in Australia for the summer, however, I must work to go to school next year because I'm poor. The good thing is their minimun wage is crazy. My brother is making $14.50/hr at K-mart!

Well - I'm starving, so I have to go steal food from my roommates now before they get home. :) Stay tuned for more Aussie/Bauer adventures!

(cannot take credit for the photo at the top)

Through GOOD Times and Bad

2006-05-18T12:11:00.000-06:00

People seem to think the hard part of this phrase is 'through...bad times'. I find it is the complete opposite.

Why is it that when things go good in life, that is when we find it the hardest to draw near to God? When we are sad, we immediately go to Him for a shoulder to cry on, but when life is good it takes a little more reminding. We tend to forget we need Him when things are looking up. This is when we start to think we can handle it on our own. You've probably noticed that several of my blogs are about 'leaning on Him'. I just think it is so very important. There are so many things in this world that can send us on a detour so I just need to constantly remind myself of that. God is not a vending machine. He wants us to come to Him for everything - thanks, praise, confession... not just requests.

When things are good it's not because of anything I've done, that's for sure. Don't go to Him just in the hard times, praise Him for the good times too.

Draw near to Him through the good as well as the bad. He wants to be part of it all. What an amazing God we serve.

A/C or Windows Down?

2006-05-16T12:16:00.000-06:00

So what do you prefer? Windows down or A/C ("artificial cold" as someone once told me)? In my last car, there was no air conditioning, so there just was no choice. But now, in my new car, it has windows AND A/C!! Soo... I think I am a both. I enjoy the windows down and the wind blowing my hair all crazy, but wow.. It's nice to have the option of "artificial cold".

Hallelujah

2006-05-11T13:24:00.000-06:00

There's a song that has spoke to me a lot lately. It's by Bethany Dillon (some of you are probably not surprised). Here are the lyrics.

Who can hold the stars
And my weary heart?
Who can see everything?

I've fallen so hard
Sometimes I feel so far
But not beyond your reach

I could climb a mountain
Swim the ocean
Or do anything
But it's when you hold me
That I start unfolding
And all I can say is

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
Help me to sing hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
I'll choose to sing hallelujah

The same sun that
Rises over castles
And welcomes the day
Spills over buildings
Into the streets
Where orphans play

And only you can see the good
In broken things
You took my heart of stone
And you made it home
And set this prisoner free

It just reminds me that I should praise His name through everything I do. He has given me life, and not just any life, but the life that he has so perfectly crafted. Mine is not like anyone else's. That is amazing to me. How can there be 6 billion people in the world... and I'm not like any of them. I should be so thankful for everything and that is what I want to do every single day of my life. I want to get up every morning and sing Hallelujah wherever I go, no matter what happens. Praise his name! That is why I am on this earth is to give Him all the worship. I don't want to waste a second.

I want to fall in love with Him more and more every day of my life. I want to get out of bed BURSTING with His love. It should spill out of me everywhere because I just can't contain it anymore. There is just an abundance, more than I can possibly ever comprehend.

People laugh when I'm walking down the street listening to this song on my mp3 player because I just can't help but smile and dance a little...or sometimes a lot. But I don't care. It's one of those songs that if you had to pick a soundtrack to the story of your life, this would be a nomination. He puts a bounce in my step and I'm just so happy that the bounce is Him and not anything or anyone else. I LOVE HIM! I'M IN LOVE WITH JESUS!

I've just felt so blessed and loved by him this past while and I just want to praise Him for that.

Alone?

2006-05-01T21:55:00.000-06:00

I think this is another one of those blogs that I would like to be anonymous, but I need somewhere to throw all my thoughts down without knowing what's to come next. That's my disclaimer.

Do I feel alone? Perhaps. I know better though. I'm not. I have a great God who is looking out for me day and night, week after week, every up and EVERY down. Again and again and again. I thank Him for that because I don't have it in me to carry on alone. With Him though, I can do it. And well. In my own strength, what good am I? You know that crappy old shoe you threw out awhile ago? Without God's strength I'm that shoe in the garbage. Useless.

Do I have ANY excuse to be out of strength? No. I don't. "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." He lets us and wants us to come to him for our strength. He wants us to use his strength and not our own. If we are out of strength, we should be going to him to re-fill our tanks. OFTEN. There's no excuse for us to be out of life or energy for life because we have an incredible God.

Is it hard? It shouldn't be... But for some reason, we wait...and wait....and wait until we are riding on the red line. Why not fill up? 'Oh, but I can make it a little further with what I've got.' WHAT AM I THINKING?!?! This gas is free!! Not like the $1.10 we pay for our stupid cars! We don't even have to leave the stinkin house to fill up. Just open that hole in your face and talk! 'Ask and you shall receive!'

I don't know where this is coming from. I feel like I got on a rollercoaster last night I think. Got on...meh, I'm alright. This morning, well...tired, but it hasn't gone down the hill yet. Now? WHHHOOOOAAAAA!!!!! You know those butterflies you get in your stomach as you are barrelling down the other side of that hill you just climbed? I'm in the middle...the car has gotten stuck on that ramp...I'm looking way down, face first onto the ground that is so far away. I'm just waiting in fear for the ride to start again with a jolt and I will fall the rest of the way down.

What happens when I finally get to the bottom? He'll pick me up. He doesn't want to teach me a lesson at 'the end of the road'... The road IS the lesson. You learn through the whole thing. Again... the road IS the lesson. The whole thing is the learning process. Not how I'm going to come out of it on the other side. How I will be transformed by him.

See that bump on the log over there? It has a face on it...I think it kind of looks like me.

You know that rollercoaster? Yeah, I know which one you're talking about. Funny, cause tomorrow, I'll be more than half way up again. These things don't last for long. It's all strange.

Took a break....

Had some laughs, chatted with my fabulous roomies. I have the greatest roommates. I love them. God places people exactly where and when you need them. I have learned that a lot over the last year.

Geeses and Gooses

2006-04-26T18:56:00.000-06:00

Can anyone tell me what the difference between Canadian geese and Austrian geese is?

CANADIAN

AUSTRIAN

Austrian ones don't like their pictures taken.... HE BIT ME WHILE I WAS TAKING IT!!

I think everyone should leave me their best 'Why did the goose cross the road' joke.

Don't Wanna Be Another Statistic

2006-04-25T19:02:00.000-06:00

This one's for Henry Hamburger.

Puppy Update: 4 weeks old

2006-04-18T00:33:00.001-06:00

I don't think the pictures really do justice to their cuteness though.

One Year Anniversary!

2006-04-17T23:55:00.000-06:00

My goodness... I think there will probably be at least 50 other very similar blogs posted today. But, exactly a year ago, I met some of the most amazing people in Europe. Most of us are going through withdrawls right about now and trying to plan our next trip back.. One of my best friend's lives in Chicago and I haven't seen her since then... I miss her dearly, and being away from her is actually getting harder and harder. This is my Gisela... I miss her a lot.. she's beautiful.

Today, however... I got to spend some time with one of my friend's from Austria! It was nice when we realized what day it was.. awww... We had chinese food, took pictures, (we don't know how to take any 'good' ones) and chatted..we caught up on our Capernwray gossip a bit.. haha.planned some road trips..couldn't ask for more. We got to webcam with one of our buddies from Oregon. That was nice... Tyler has white white teeth.. hehe. good to see his smile.

Tauernhofer's... I miss you all so much..

Little Orphan Girl

2006-04-11T13:02:00.000-06:00

These are the ones that I love...but they are no where to be found.

How much is that doggy in the window?

2006-04-06T20:59:00.000-06:00

These are my new babes.

Would Anyone Like to Go for Coffee?

2006-03-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Back to the Tuba

2006-03-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

So for reading week, I was very fortunate to be able to go to Manitoba again to visit my sweetheart. My mum graciously gave me her airmiles so I could go. It was really nice to see him. I also met some more wonderful girls. This is Jannalee in the library. We got told to split up in the library because we were too noisy...hehe.
And here we have Emily. She lives in a loft that is the size of the average bathroom. And the ceiling is exactly the height of us. Unlike her DerkaDerka, who is like 6''5.
These two girls, along with the wonderful Carla, whom I don't think I have a picture of, are some of the funnest girls in the world and throw a killer dinner party. I'm excited to see them all again.. By the way...this page was more for the girls in it because I realize the rest of you probably don't really care. I told Jannalee she could make the blog.

Couching!!!

2006-02-17T01:15:00.000-07:00

Couching...anyone ever been? One couch-2 skis-approximately 10 people = FUN

So tonight just happened to be the only cold night of this winter, and also the night we chose to go couching. We went to Connor's Hill. It had been completely iced over between some rain and now cold weather.. Perfect. Helmets were of course a requirement to ride the couch.

This, below is our trusty chariot...it slowly got demolished.. We'd ride it down, and push it up.. Nearing the end of the night...we got a little lazier, and decided to pick it up with the truck and drive back up. A few of the boys would ride on it to keep it still. My goodness, what a crazy night.

Deer Run

2006-02-17T01:03:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged. But I've been busy....hitting deer and what not. Anyways, this is what happened. Thought I was out for a nice drive to Vermilion at about 6:00. The sun was setting and I just came over a hill, when a deer jumped out from my blind spot right into my car. Now oddly enough, the first thing I thought was, "My gosh..I don't think I've ever really screamed before!" Because the sound that came from my mouth was so foreign. So, I don't know if the deer died, however it did roll a couple times, and leave a lot of itself in my car.

a
Now, when the deer hit, it managed to push the fender onto my tire so I had some difficulty driving. I pulled over, and (didn't have a phone..) was upset and unsure what to do. When God sent me a couple good samaritans.. THANK YOU!!! Two guys stopped and were able to pull out my fender just enough so I could drive. They also gave me their numbers and said they would call me in 2 hours to make sure I got there alright. God definitely sent me an angel that night, thankfully.

So anyways..I now have to crawl in through the passenger door because the driver side does not open. This has gotten me into a lot of funny moments already. I was in the mall parking lot, and there was a car parked directly infront of me, facing my car....and a man sitting in it. So I then proceeded to unlock the passenger side and get it.. I sat there for a moment, and then jumped the stick shift when the man suddenly got a blank look on his face.. and started to laugh.. So I waved politely and drove away.

Well, I think that is enough on the deer bit for now. (ps..I don't think the pictures do justice to just how much damage there really is.)

WRESTLING!!!

2006-01-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

So the other weekend, (actually it was a few weekends ago) I went to a college wrestling tournament. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Now, the first picture, here the ref is (between these HUGE guys!) wiping their arms to see if they are too sweaty.
In this picture, it's a CHICK FIGHT!! Oh gosh, all those people in singlettes, and girls wrastlin' each other...I laughed my head off the whole time. The guy we went to watch actually got bronze out of quite a few guys. So it was pretty cool. But man, what a goofy sport. They tap each other on the foreheads to try and make the other person blink so they can move... You might already know this stuff, but I just thought it looked like a bunch of monkeys picking fleas off each other.

Goggles Improve Everything!

2006-01-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

I've been told this is the latest greatest way to play your guitar....The face helps.

The snorkel was an important part of the costume.

One of my roomies was concerned that her chem goggles weren't cool enough...So I showed her they will always look worse on someone else!

Cold Lake Times

2006-01-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

So over Christmas break, I got to go visit a crazy friend in Cold Lake. We were sitting upstairs thinking, 'hmm, what could be crazy and fun that we could do?". We decided to steal my manfriend's car, go to the military base, and take nutty pictures! We saw airplanes, guns, dead birds and shoehorns!

Is she licking that dead bird?

This is a shoehorn.

"Home Alone"

2006-01-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today was another one of those outrageously sad days. I feel like Kevin McAllister in "Home Alone". Last week, my parents moved to Australia for the year. My sister also went back to BC where she lives and my brother moved out, not that we saw him a lot anyways. The week flew by and I survived without the parentals. Today, my sweetheart went back to school in Manitoba....unfortunately, when it comes to 'goodbyes' I am a cryer. I wish I wasn't because I know that it just makes it that much harder on the person leaving. However, I cannot control it. So...I cried. I then went to visit my puppies, whom I had to leave with another family that I don't really know, and when I got there, no one was home, but I could hear my babies barking. That was sad, they were there, right there and I couldn't even see or touch them.

So I then loaded up all of my crap and hauled it to Edmonton to move into my new place with 5 other girls...which I'm sure will be great, but I don't really know them yet. It took me 5 hours, but I got most of my stuff unpacked and I'm too pooped to do any more. My fishes are fabulous... I got new ones for Christmas.. Lionus and Leopold and soon-to-be a new edition... Leroy. They are my company. They are perfect and beautiful and wiggly.. Oh, and Matthew, apparently the fish at my house downstairs is not dead...it just can't float. Odd I thought.

Well everyone... I'm on a bit of a low right now and working hard to get out of it. So I really ask for all your prayers. I'm just a small girl but I know that big guy will take care of me. G'night

Real Live Nativity Scene

2005-12-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

We're home for the holidays. There were about seven of us who thought it would just be a normal Sunday morning at Parkview Alliance and never dreamed that Diane Ellard would approach us with a 'favor'. She came around and individually asked each of us if we would be in her 'nativity scene' for her work at the nursing home in town. We all agreed, to what...we weren't too sure. But if it involved Ellards and Bauers, it's bound to be a good time right? Ha. Just like Christmas Morning. It's a tradition. Bauers go to Ellards all wearin' their new duds and Ellards stay in their jim jams and get to show us all their presents and Diane and Pat my wife saver for breaky. Excellent. Grand tradition.

Anyhow, we all showed up at the nursing home, and Diane says, "You guys can be whatever you want!" We're thinkin, what? Alright, I want to be a sheep...no sheep.. so I was Mary. We all just started to put random clothes on and I found face paint. Great idea! A nativity scene with face paint! So I started to draw a beard on my sister. In revenge, she drew me mustache looking lips...and fish tail eyes for all the girls. We had wonderful looking kings as well...Check out the chest hair on this one!

We were now dressed, and so away we went. My Joseph (role casted by my sweetheart, Matthew) led me through the swirly twirly gumdrops and the candy cane forest to a town called Bethlehem, you know the story. When we got there....I was frantically looking for the 'fetus' I was to give birth to on the stage! And found it under the manger, so I managed to pull off a relativly real looking delivery as I pulled out my stuffing.

After all was done, we magically became a choir on the command of Diane. We sang carol after carol and we laughed and I cried...cause my eyes water when I laugh. And that wrapped things up for the afternoon. It was eventful. Just wanted to blog as a memory. Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Jungle of Procrastination? Funny, I Didn't See It That Way

2005-12-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished writing my Anatomy Final..It didn't go so well. And I'm waiting for my Dad and sister as she is flying in today. I thought, what could possibly be more useful to me right now than making a candy jungle of paper and play-do. Yes, I'm 20, yes I have another final tomorrow. Was this beneficial to me? OF COURSE! Why else would I have done it?

So right now, I'd like to take you on a little tour. Buckle your seat belts, and for the love of your arms, KEEP YOUR HANDS INSIDE!!!

Well, first off, at the top, you see the shot taken from the airplane. That gives you just a bit of an overview of what we will be seeing today.

Next, let's take a small walk into the BEAR CAVE!! That's right folks, a bear cave..However...there are no bears...What we do have for you are lions, hippos, (yes i said it, hippos in a cave), and an elephant. They've become friends. Rent is cheaper that way. Can you blame them?

Next, we're going to go visit the pond. Here we have...OH, oh,, please.!! Be quiet! You sir, with the toupee! Shush!! They will get you and your little dog too! As I was saying, here at the pool, live the Applegators.. They're fierce, they only live with other little aligators which are hiding behind them right now. Oh, we came on a good day!! Let's zoom in here now, and watch the action.

No sudden movements now!! This is getting scary, Oh my word! What has he got?! Why it's a tucan, Oh, the feathers are flying and the bird is squawking!! My goodness that's a dreadful sound! Oh Mr. Franque! Please no! Do not try to lick him!! AHHH, NOO! This isn't happening, I'm not going to get my 'accident-free-bonus'!! Please stop, don't eat the eyeball! ...................

SANAPPPP!!! CHOMP!! GUSH!! POW, KAZAM! WHOOSH.....GULP.. (Help! -cry from in the applegator belly)

How unfortunate...We lost him, I was going to buy a new broom with that money...You know, the really good brooms... Guess the floor will have to wait until next month and we can only hope still.

Well, I think it would be safest if I wrap up now after that little incident. Ummm, so this is the candy jungle.. If I fail physiology tomorrow...I'll at least have this blog to remember.

Please have a further look around if you'd like, admire the detail...Watch yourself.

The Bacon Bitters

2005-12-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

Oh welcome to the show! We are a new band that has recently formed as a result of ridiculously stupid nursing exams. If you're lost, join our fanmail group and you can receive our newsletter. Thanks.

It all started out with our lead guitarist. Turns out she does not have any rhythm and we're not sure how she made the cut. But anywas, the band then decided that we needed a little something to keep the beat, and that banging on the wall just was not going to cut it any longer. So, we went to the next level and invested in another instrument.. My dear bandmate went upstairs of her grandfolks house and got our newest band member....She came back with a jar of bacon bits. The problem was they were unopen so it did not shake very well. We can fix that...so we dumped half of the jar out onto a piece of paper. Excellent, now it shakes like jello!

Now, I would like to introduce you to the band:

On the right we have the fabulous, most gorgeous nursing student number 1. STEPHANIE GREEN MCAULEY!!!! She likes chicken, no dessert, and long walks on the U of A campus. She comes from a small town called Vermilion in a house that her wonderful friend's dad built!

On the left, we have the very green, stressed out MEGAN GREEN BAUER!! She enjoys desserts of any kind, as long as they do not include pineapple, and her new camera. She also comes from this small peanut town called Vermilion.

As you can see, we weren't feeling very well that night, and that's why our skin is a little discolored. hehe.

So please, support us and buy our new record when it is released in 2010. Join our fanclub, and send us fanmail! GOODNIGHT UNIQUE NEW YORK!!!

"Are You Single, Seymour Butts?"

2005-12-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow. I had an interest/fun day/night. First off, it all began at 3:18AM! (I thought this was all a bad dream, until I woke up and looked at my call ID). At exactly 3:18 AM according to my phone, I got a call last night. I rolled out of my sleep and to the other end of my bed, picked up the phone and heard a male voice on the other end...

It said, "Hi is Don there?" .... you've got to be kidding me. If I wake up in the middle of the night to answer the phone someone better be dead, or I better have won something big, really big. I was like, "Uh, no, you have the wrong number. grrrr". He said, "Oh, were you sleeping?!". Uh I surely was smarty pants!
Then....not only did I not win anything, he then begins to hit on me!!!! Can you believe that!? He wakes me at 3:18 AM and hits on me! He says, "Oh you're sleeping? Are you alone? Are you single? How bout some company?!" ...................I hung up. Thought it was all a bad dream until this morning. I'm just going to end that story there. Retard.

Now, Nursing class today was fun. I MET Seymour Butts! The famous Seymour Butts. Have a looksee. On the left, there I am trying his goods on, and on the right... we zoom in on the name. You can just see the beginning there by the hand. Hey everyone, leave me your stupid stories, I wanna hear them!! If you send me pictures via email, I'll post them for ya.

N95 Mask Fitting

2005-12-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well, in addition to my other blog today, I would like to give you the update on the 'N95 Mask Fitting'. Quite the ordeal it turned out to be. They take you in, give you a little respirator mask and make you 'fit' it. As I filled out the form, one of the spots said, Do you have difficulty smelling? And so then I had to talk with the guy, and he's like, do you eat a lot of spicy food? I was like, not on a regular basis. Well can you taste? And I said, Sure I can taste! He's like, good, you'll be able to taste this stuff. Sweet, away we go. Not quite.

They put this 'hood' thing on you so you feel like a space man, and then they pump a 'milder' form of this crap into the little hole that is on the front of the plastic. It tastes awful. Bitter and your mouth feels like crap. So then, you put on your little mask, and then they pump strong stuff into the 'hood'. And they ask you if you taste it. Well, not at first. then she says 'deep breaths'.. OH GROSS!

Okay, so they threw away that mask...Let's try a different size, you have a funny shaped face! Why thank you! That's why I came, for the compliments...not so much. So they go and get a new size. (By the way, everyone else usually only takes one shot at this). New mask, here we go again...Into the hood I go, and they start pumping this crap.. I made it to like, the third exercize.. There are like 6 you need to do to pass. I failed... So, they throw out the mask...Now we're onto this 'special' mask for 'special faced' people. I get it fitted, and under the hood I go. I make it through all 6 tests...breathe, deep breaths, turn your head, nod your head, read this thing,...and so on. Then, she says. YOU PASSED!! YESSSSS!!!

After having all of this crap pumped into this 'hood' I was wearing, it got hot and sweaty, and gross....I finally passed. So that's how it all went down.

English is Crappy: Wish I Were Austrian

2005-12-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's 8 o' clock AM....I should be sleeping. But I'm not. I'm sitting in crappy English and the teacher, Ilona Ryder, (almost too close to Wynona Ryder...coincidence? I don't think so) is talking about something soo boring, I need to blog to stay awake. What's she talking about? I wish I could tell you. Why did I come? So I could get a blog done. Hah!

Well, my day has begun boring, and doesn't look promising. However, this afternoon, I have to go for a N95 Mask Fitting...Sounds strange hey? This is the description I was given: "They put this GIANT hood thing over your head and pump it full of crap! And ask you if you can smell!!" Now, this could be very boring, or ridiculously entertaining. Because if you know anything about me, you are aware that I have a 'broken sniffer'. This does not mean that my nose is broken, it means that my SMELLER is broken. I do not smell things...ever. Flowers, rain, farts...nothing. HOWEVER, I got my adenoids (a particular type of tonsil) taken out when they took out my tonsils, well, they tried. But oddly enough, I didn't have any. Well, since I got my tonsils taken out, I could sometimes, possibly, smelll some things. But it's never in a pattern. I smelled popcorn once...almost barfed. It was just so overwhelming I thought I was going to die. But other times, I do not smell the popcorn. All very strange.

So I'm curious as to whether I'm going to be able to smell these things this afternoon. I'll keep you posted. I might puke in the hood, I might be a new creation she's never seen before. Hah!

Well, after I do that, I think I'm going to opt out on studying, hehehe... I wish I could.

Oh, about the "Wish I Were Austrian" part...I don't want to be in English, and if I spoke German I wouldn't have to be here, or wouldn't be expected to understand what she's talking about. And then I'd be back at Caperwray....

God Answers Prayers

2005-11-30T23:53:00.000-07:00

We all know that God answers prayers. I just wanted to write a blog about some of the prayers he's answered in my life recently. I really want to write them down so I can keep remembering them.

First off, He found my dogs a temporary/semi-permanent home until August! There is a family in Vermilion who has a few kids and would like to take care of my dogs. Also, on weekends, when I come home to stay at one of your lucky little homes or my grandparents, I can go pick them up for the weekend. It's like I have visitation rights to my children. Hey, better than nothing. So I just really praise God for that. Time was running out, and I was getting anxious.
Aren't they sweet?

Big one, HUGE. I've been in the process of moving out of residence. God has done everything in his own time, which is great because that's what I want. He's taught me so many lessons through the process: patience, releasing my fears, giving everything to him, thankfulness. Throughout the process, which has been a slow one, he has shown me how to be thankful. I had several meetings with people downstairs, and everytime, it was such a small step. If God had just signed me out the first day, I'd have said thanks...but probably just once. This way, I have had 3 meetings over a period of 2 weeks, and everytime I came out, I was a baby step closer to getting out. And every time, I was so thankful. I would thank God all day long for that one small step. So after all these meetings and emails I have received, I have thanked God more times than I can even think.

Not only did God get me out of residence, he also found me a place to live. I'll be moving into a house with 5 other christian girls, which I am just so excited about. I've met a few of them, and they seem so great.

God provides. He knows what we need and He provides. You just have to remember to ask. And ask with an expecting heart. When you ask God for something, have the faith that he has the power and strength and that he is ABLE to do it. He can do anything. If you think it's small, who cares. Ask. He wants to hear them all.

They Are Not Invited

2005-11-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of studying at the same stupid desk, in the same stupid room, in the same stupid uncomfortable chair. So......tonight was the night! I decided to build a new study room. I built myself a fort! Yessss, I love forts! Love them. Tonight's fort is a special one though, not just ANY old fort, but MY fort. I used double sided tape to stick my bed sheet hiiigh up on my wall, and then I tied another end to my closet, oh darn, one side just fell...grrr. And then the other side is weighed down by a huge nursing book (i knew those would come in handy some time!) on my bed. Speaking of the bed, it has been stripped of its formal title..it is naked and bare, and same goes for my poor papasan (bowl) chair. I have taken the cushion off of it, laid it on the floor, taken all my blankets, sheets, pillows, and all, and thrown them in a magnificent fashion onto my floor, into my fort.
There I sat, for most of the evening, and there I will sleep tonight, because my room is like a frying pan, and hot air rises right? So I'm hoping it will be cooler.

As for all my bad days, God is the first one I run to, without a doubt. I'm begging and pleading and giving all of my problems to Him. I thank Him for what I do have. But tonight I'm also going to give Him my worries and fears and anxiety. These things can sometimes be the signs of not trusting God, and I do, fully. So tonight, I've left them all outside of the fort. They are not invited.

The fort is not only the 'Anatomy House', but tonight it's a symbol of what I'm trying really hard to do tonight...Just the same as my fort, I go into the world, and leave all my worries outside. God's bigger than me, what seems like the end of the world to me, is less than a mere splinter to Him. As a very intelligent man told me this evening, check out Philippians 4:6. He also said that it's important to be reminded of and retold of things that we already know.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Well, time to go back to the fort. Always new mysteries to be uncovered.

--Anonymous

2005-11-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

I wish you could post an anonymous blog on your own site, cause then no one would know it was you...

I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a crowd screaming and no one can hear.

The Daveo Photo Smile

2005-11-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

This blog is going to be a little out of the ordinary, if you're confused, see DAVEO's link on the side. He asked everyone to make a Daveo photo smile and take a picture. This is my best attempt. I know, they're fabulous...
I feel like Zoolander in this one...not quite as ridiculously good-looking of course.

Note the double chin in this one...

I believe this last one is definately one of the better attempts...

Well, that was entertaining for a short while. So, I hope you at least laughed a little. I call it, "Woman who wears lots of hats and looks so darn good of course"...work of art really.

Suicidal Fish

2005-11-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

My fish is suicidal...can anyone help me?

So I've been telling people for quite some time now, that I think I have a depressive suicidal fish...I don't think anyone believed me. He is a fighting fish and unfortunately, can see his reflection in the bowl. So he fights with this strange fish in the glass, and fights all day long until he is completely exhausted.

Last night, Charlie (my fish) looked a little extra depressed. He was moping on the bottom more than usual and on his side, which is out of the ordinary. He was breathing very heavily, almost a wheeze I would say, and I was quite concerned. His water was getting a bit cloudy and so I set some water on the counter to sit for the night and I would change it in the morning.

I did just that. In the morning before my class at stupid o' clock in the morning, I changed Charlie's water and he was back to the go lucky fighting fish that he never is. However, when I got home at 11:00am, I just happened to look in on my delightful man of a fish to see how he was doing, and I couldn't find him..

He likes to play tricks on me and hide under the rocks, so I took the bowl into the kitchen to get something to delicately poke the rocks around to free him from the trap at the bottom. I poked and poked and started to panic. I could not find my fish anywhere!!

THEN, I decided to look on my desk, maybe, like in the movie "Amelie", he tried to commit suicide and jump out, I thought. I was thinking, my goodness that would be horrible to see my poor little fishman lying lifeless on the desk. So I went to look, and I SCREAMED!!!! There lay my poor motionless purple fish on the desk. I was mortified!! And shouted at my roommate, "Pick him up!! Put him in the bowl!!!" She reassured me he was dead and did not think the bowl was a good place for a dead fish. And I insisted he be put back in his home. So she did....AND HE MOVED!!!!!
(Those are his shmeg remains he left on my desk)

Charlie is alive. He is beyond traumatized, but alive. All we can do now is pray, and hope that Kyle doesn't have to write a fish-o-bit for Charlie.

The Story You Never Wanted to Read

2005-11-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a princess.
and she lived with a dragon. (fully aware this is not a sentence)
the dragon was so studley it actually hurt him, but he loved her more than words, or fire could ever express.
Unfortunately, this princess was not pretty enough for the ever so studly dragon, and could not bring herself to hindering his potential of finding a gorgeous princess.
However, what the princess didn't know was that the dragon was legally blind, and her apparent lack of beauty made no difference to the feelings he stored deep inside his armoured chest.

And then one day, a man invented 'brail for humans, not words' and delivered it to the door, causing the dragon to 'brail' her face, and it had a huge zit on it.
Fortunately for the princess, the dragon needed a daily dosage of puss in order to cure his blindness... that was ironically temporal, therefore negating the need for brail on her face in the near future.

So, the princess decided to make dinner for the dragon consisting of only poison pea pockets.
The reason she chose to make him this dinner is because she desperately wanted to re-enact the closing scene of "Romeo and Juliette" with her true love.
As Mercutio she decided to cast the molding jar of hummous to be the actor.
She wanted to re-enact the modernized version of the play and when the time came to "make out" with the molding jar she had to plug her nose and smooch away.

And seeings how, Mercutio was her cousin, her mother killed him and ate the hummous.
the mother then started shaking violently. She was turning into a dragon!
This was a good thing so then the dragon could then have the original of the ladies!
but he was still in love with the princess, and he could never love any other.
So the princess fell in love with the dragon that was so passionately in love with her.
and then a strange thing happened. The moon slowly faded into the starkness of the night while casting its shadow delicately upon the two undaunted lovers.
There were mini crabs that then came from out of no where and began singing, "shalalalalal EAT THE GIRL!! shalalala,"

And as a off-key seagull swooped down to pluck her life from this planet, the dragon snatched her first and launched powerfully into the crisp, clean, autumn air.
Finally, a woman was swept off her feet!
and she loved it... but as they were soaring gracefully through the still air, the curse was broken... the dragon became a handsome prince, and they both tumbled into free fall screaming relentlessly.

But, the man was amazing so of course he had an umbrella in his back pocket and they gracefully soared to the ground landing in a pool of spaghetti.
but the spaghetti was in the bowl of the Giant of Juniper Pass, who was about to lower his gigantic spoon in the bowl for a bite to eat.
The prince then screamed up and asked, "Do you have any alfredo sauce to go with this?"
and the princess said, "if you think i'm going to be doing all the cooking in this relationship you can think again!"
Well, we'll just have to take this giant home with us to cook then won't we?

"yes, my love" she replied, "we can get him to do all our cooking while we gaze into each other's eyes and sing 'For My Love' to each other all day and night."
Hey, why don't we just stop by B.D's house on the way home, and let her sing while we gaze for a ridiculously long time into one another's eyes?
ya, that's a great idea honey. i can't believe i called you "honey"... that must mean we're... in LOVE! ! !
for my love
THE END

I'm sorry you had to read this if anyone actually got this far. This was a story written by mindless msn'ers one night.

Quiz of the Mini-Poo

2005-10-30T01:01:00.000-06:00

**WARNING to MALES: I'm not sure what I'm going to write in this blog yet, but YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED that there are possibilities of unwanted, graphic descriptions to the male species!!**

Well, I have decided that nursing is hard. I'm going to love it when I get out of school or at least into clinical, but the research and book work is awful. Anyways, this weekend, my research topic was the Third Trimester of Pregnancy. Holy crap! In crude unanatomical terms, there is a lot that goes on to make a little person inside another person! But, lucky for me, a member of this prestigeous fellowship I belong to, the Queen Poo is growing a Mini-poo. All it took was a bribe with a combination of a form of pickle and chip and she agreed to answer questions. (She just so happens to perfectly be in her third trimester)

I learned all sorts of things from her, that twix bars are only good for one week straight, a jar of pickles CAN be consumed all in one sitting, and that I'm terrified of having my own baby!! Oh my goodness! I could handle being pregnant, but what the heck happens when it's time for it to come out?!?! I really do not see how that is going to work. Being in anatomy and all those good courses, I've studied how the body is structured and it's just not happening!!! You know when there is a little scrawny kid being picked on in the wee corner of the playground by this GIANT of a bulley, being realistic, let's say 600 lbs, and the scrawny kid with these toothpick arms, is trying to get past the giant but just physically cannot because the cracks under the giant's legs and arms are not nearly big enough? That's having a baby. The scrawny kid (baby), no matter how small and scrawny it is, is NOT getting out the....exit. It sucks because the whole situation is gonna hurt like there's no tomorrow.

Boys, if you're still reading this, no matter how much it hurts to be...misplaced....in the...... .......hmm......wrong spot, you do not win. Nothing could possibly hurt as bad as having a baby, and I have not even been there.. Just the logic of it is propostrous!! Kidney stones, boys...big ones. Those are your only comparison... If you have further questions on that topic, clarification can be made.... in the comments box even, that could be funny.

Back to mini-poo's. After all I said, I am very much looking forward to the day down the road when I will become a mother of my own child. On a different note, there is a little girl in Romania who stole my heart. Actually, they all did. When we went on a missions trip there, we went into the children's hospital.... God broke my heart for those kids. We walked up 8 floors to the top few floors and the whole floors were full of babies under a year old. They had all been abandoned. No names, no identities, simply left on a park bench. The most unfortunate thing about these kids, is that they cannot be adopted even. They stay at the hospital until they are big enough to go to an orphanage. They can't be adopted because they don't have signatures from their parents, whom most were drug addicts and didn't have a right mind most of the time, unfortunately. People can't adopt babies without identities because they can't just HAVE a baby and have no idea where it came from.

On these several floors of babies, there were around a total of 60 babies. Staff? There weren't really. There were maybe 5-10 volunteer staff who came in to hold and take care of them. These babies, for instance, the one year olds, who should be crawling and moving all over the place, still could not support their own heads. They don't get held enough to build the strength to do it on their own. A baby can't gain strength by sitting in a basket all day.

Well, some day, my dream is to help at least one of these children. I would love to care for a child that has no hope in the world. Give it my unconditional love forever and a day, just as Christ has done for me. We don't deserve that love but because God is so good He has done that for us. The difference is those kids all around the world DO deserve that love. They have done nothing wrong to deserve the situation they are in. God can love us, who are undeserving of it, so I want to share everything God has given me with a life less fortunate.

For Ramona

Dust of His Feet

2005-10-24T22:16:00.000-06:00

"Behold, He is coming with clouds..." Revelation 1:7

"In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3) They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds - He does not come in clear-shining brightness.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child - a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. Until other people become shadows to us, clouds and darkness will be ours every once in a while. Is our relationship with God becoming more simple than it has ever been?

There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Until we can come face to face with the deepest, darkest fact of life without damaging our view of God's character, we do not yet know Him.

'they were fearful as the entered the cloud' Luke 9:34. Is there anyone except Jesus in your cloud? If so, it will only get darker until you get to the place where there is "no one anymore, but only Jesus..." Mark 9:8; "

I wish I could say I wrote that, but we all know I'd be lying. That's a page from my favorite book "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. This is one of my favorite devotions from the book. I shared this with you today, because when I was at Capernwray, each morning after breaky, we would have "storytime with Oswald" where I would read my roommates and adopted roommates the page from this book.

Right now, school isn't all the fun and giggles everyone makes college out to be and so I'm just really missing Capernwray right now. When no matter how you felt, when you were forced to get up and eat the same nasty bread at 8:00am, you knew there was someone that wanted to hug you for a random reason when you got there. I miss the cozy world.

Fight to the Death

2005-10-24T16:17:00.000-06:00

Recap: Janet wants a Ukranian Chinese man with other stipulations aside. Wong has come into our lives and tried to win Janet's heart. In the process, Daveo, a British Chinese, has joined the race. So we are in the makings of a contest! Wong has two eyes, Daveo can cook. Who will it be?

Well, Miss Janet and I gots to talkin' about Sir Wong on 'A Shade of Keller', (link at side) in the blog about another man. We decided to make the chart crawl and make it reach 100....we succeeded by the way. Fabulous... Whilest doing so, the drinks were flowing, milk of course, because we love the cheese, Wong turned into a thong, songs of Wong, we're cutting a record, all great. Come to the end of the evening, Wong has magically stolen this other cowgirls' heart. Soooo........

THERE'S GOING TO BE A DUAL!!!! JANET VS. MEGAN
where? HERE! In the comments box!
why? Wong
when? 12:13am Thursday, Oct. 27
That's all you need to know!

This is so black market, dual under the table. Bring it on! Haha

I FOUND HIM!!

2005-10-23T17:49:00.000-06:00

JANET, I FOUND HIM!!! He's Chinese...AND BRITISH!! Not Ukranian, but your babies would be Chinese-Ukranian. He has a british accent, I met him at Capernwray, he's in Bible school in England. HE'S THE ONE FOR YOU, THE SEARCH IS OVER! Sorry, Wong, too slow. So Janet, pack your bags and go!!! You could be England bound by the morning! haha.

Your Love Is Extravagant

2005-10-21T00:17:00.000-06:00

I was driving from Home 2 to Home 1 today and as I listened and wailed to music to keep myself awake, a song came on that I have recently fell in love with. It took me into a place with God where I just worshipped Him and sang all of my praises to Him. The song is Your Love is Extravagant by Casting Crowns. Here are the lyrics:

Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate
I feel like moving to the rhythm of Your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place
Your love is extravagant

Spread wide in the arms of Christ
is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known
You considered me a friend
Capture my heart again

Your friendship, it is intimate. That's so true, it's what we all strive for as Christians to have that intimate relationship with God. It just reminded me that if we let Him, he comes flooding in. He wants us to curl up on His lap like we're little kids. He wants us to have the heart of a child. That's something I long for, for things to be simple. Children believe everything you tell them. 'God is good' . A child would never doubt that, if that's what it was taught. We, as adults, have wandering minds, we question, we doubt, it's never simple.

No earthly thing can love us like He can. Love that covers sin. That's huge! We won't find anything like that anywhere else. Today, was one of the many days God captured my heart. Just like every girls' dream man, he whispfully swept me off my feet and carried me around swaying back and forth as I gazed into His eyes.

Needless to say, it was a good drive home. His love is extravagant, like nothing else. He's the one that makes my heart skip a beat.

SUSHI, PICKLES, AND ICE CREAM

2005-10-19T01:08:00.000-06:00

This evening, I dined with some of the coolest people I know. We stuffed our faces (some more than others, some FASTER than others) full of food. Janet liked the quiche. After we were so full of appetizers....we then MADE our own sushi. It was amazing. We squished the rice on, we added veggies, Rae Ann and I enjoyed the tangy zip of miracle whip, and then we rolled and rolled. We sliced them up, and they looked juussssssttt, perfect! We mixed our wasabe in our soya sauce....well most of us did. A certain someone, decided just to squeeze the tube of wasabe directly on top of his sushi.. Soon decided that was not the smartest thing he'd ever done. As his face burned and burned with agony, we all proceeded to laugh....and I videotaped! Fabulous

JOKE: What did Sushi #1 say to Sushi #2??

**He said finish reading my blog to find the answer!**

So supper was great. Then came the present....Now in this present came 'the Flurp'. Only the greatest invention ever cause it's been around since like the 80's! Now you know those little plastic containers with the goopy crap in them, and you squi sh your fingers into the goo to try and make the most hilarious sound ever.... sounds like a Fart! (poofer...i can explain later) After that, it was continual. Someone always had the Flurp in hand after that. Janet makes really nice faces to go along with it... Imagine if you will.... "UUUNNNNGHGHGGG" "OOOWOLLUSUUUU" "GOOOOOOOOOOOD!!" With the face with the scrunched nose and the wrinkly lip etc.

A friend went home to get the cake and so while we waited, we began discussing the cake and strange things. Some how pregnancy came into play and one of the girls (the married one) decided when she got pregnant (which is NOT now) she would tell her family by making an ice cream cake and put pickles in it!! Because that's something I guess us women will crave while we're pregnant. Interesting combo. But somehow, we hoped there wouldn't be pickles in the cake she made tonight! When the cake arrived, it was the most delicious thing ever...Ice cream cake with mars bar and all kinds of good stuff. While we ate cake, we all got these amusing little hats. Janet's was the nicest of all the hats... she was a beautiful bouncing butterfly! (for visual, see picture above) It's my favorite.

Anyways, now that Janet has decided to go to the internet to find her husband, I have decided to help her. I'm going to send that picture to ALL the dating websites: UKRAINIAN GIRL SEEKING CHINESE MAN TO MAKE A NEW BREED
We discussed it, and I told Janet that she can't expect to find whatever she makes up in her head. Now, assuming you've all read her blog, I think she's come to the conclusion that men aren't made to do all those things and be exactly that way. It's not like buying a puppy. You have to find the breed and train it. So she can go get her Ukranian Chinese and her borscht with wontons, but she'll have to work on the other stuff after. For now, it's hot dog sushi (which Janet claims is real!) Well, I've ranted on, and on.... so now the answer to the joke??

What DID sushi #1 say to sushi #2? WASSSSSUUU------BEEEEEE!

Gramma's

2005-10-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

So, right now, I have two ladies over 45. They wanted to come back to college for a night. One being say 47 and the other even older, sleeping in my apartment right now. My auntie is sleeping in my kitchen on a cot and my gramma is sprawled across my 'not quite a normal sized double bed'. So where do I sleep? Not quite sure yet. I'm more than likely going to have to crawl over her in the middle of the night, fall, wake EVERYONE up, stumble into the bathroom and mistaken my gramma's dentures for my retainer. I really hope that doesn't happen.

But anyways, I'm trying to by pass the time denture free and OH! SOMETHING EXCITING JUST HAPPENED! So I was on msn with a person, believe it or not. And this other person was trying to be inconspicuous (***READ NO FURTHER***) in trying to find out who was in the other person's picture. So this person asked me. I then asked the other person and turns out it was she, the very person. So we began to talk about how hot she is, and only the coolest person ever. And now we speak of sushi, and shrimp ring, and mini quiche, stuffed mushroom caps and wow....I think I'm tired. Until I get good at this blogging thing, I feel like I'm on msn all by myself. Man, that's the worst thing ever.

Elevator to Nowhere

2005-10-16T23:15:00.000-06:00

Normally, I don't respond well to demands, but in this case, I'm going to try and be a people pleaser and give them what they want! So I had a loooong ride in an elevator the other night. And by long...I mean long. It was 2:00am and I just got off of msn after I had gone in for the night. I just thought I would poke my head out into the hallway and meet one more person before I went to bed. So I did, her name is Danielle. We decided to go for an elevator ride. As we entered the steel box with the sticky floor, we looked at eachother and said, "Where to?". We stood there gazing at the buttons and an abnoxious intoxicated male got in and pushed a button.

He asked where we were headed and we said "nowhere". When he got to his destination and realized no one was there, he decided to come "nowhere" with us instead. Nowhere ended up being up and down the elevator a million and a half times. People constantly came in and out of the elevator that we had made a home in on the floor. We decided to meet people in the building and let them come to us for the rendez-vous. So we had short enough talks with people to learn where we could find them again in case we chose to do so. Every floor, a new specimen of wierd. At approximately 3:48am, we began to descend down and down and down to *MAIN. We thought, "who pushed main? What creature would be joining us next?! A clown, a frog, a wierdo, or a normy?" Who knew! The door opened and it was our worst nightmare. Unbeknownst to us, one of the many oddballs who joined us for a short escapade managed to push her booty against the 'emergency call' button. A place we had never gone before. So standing on the otherside of the door on main, was the end of our fun. The SECURITY GUARDS!!!! His name was Wes and he had a wild thick accent, as he scolded us and said, "We have call from campus security, they call us come check out problem! We here now, and tis you sitting on floor, going for fair ride!! Sometime, there will be real emergency and we will not come then, we will not help them." The male thing that was riding with us looked up and said, "can we go home now?" YES!! So without any names drawn or any criminal records, we escaped up to the eleventh floor, and I went and checked my blog comments at 3:51am!!!!!!

These crazy blogs, soon I'll become one of you, escape into the scandelous world of the black market of blogs.

Short and Sweet

2005-10-15T01:10:00.000-06:00

Well, a friend of mine suggested that I need a blog...more so for the fact that he wants to 'comment' on me 'anonymously'. So, I have created a blog tonight..at 1:12am, I write my very first blog. For those of you who are actually going to read this, I am not a writer in any way shape or form, but sometimes I need to put my thoughts down without reply. So with that said, they will definately be short and hopefully sweet. I doubt my blogs will be anywhere near the depth of my friends', but that'll be alright. Hey, maybe I'll just plagarise. Just kidding. But anyways, here's an invite to whoever I choose to give this site to, to read my thoughts a bit.