Monday, September 29, 2008

Good For A Laugh

1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000 Anybody who knew me growing up, knows I did NOT look like that in the 80's, 90's or 2000...which is infact the year I was married. But it's still fun to see these pics. If you want to try it go to www.yearbookyourself.com and have fun! :)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Big Book List

I am on a campaign to read some decent, classic-type literature. I used to read more for fun and relaxation, which means that nine times out of ten if you had a look at the book I was reading it was probably some kind of light-hearted "fluff"- chick-lit, that sort of thing. Then when I went to school, most of what I read was nursing related (lots of journal articles for research and required readings. I never seemed to have time for me books anymore. And now that I'm a married mother I seem to gravitate toward parenting and marriage books but seeing how much others have read (even my husband), I got inspired to up my reading-level. I found this book list ona blog I read and it looked like a good place to start and catch up on all the classics I apperently missed or didn't make time for. I was horrified to see that I have only read a few of the books on the list and think I may have read others but can't remember. Good grief! So I am thinking Ill try working my way through some of them, in an attempt to become more educated and academic ;-)The list I mentioned is a meme kind of thing and the deal is that you:1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.2) Italicize those you started but did not finish.3) Underline the books you LOVE - on blogger can't underline :(, so I made them red for "love".4) Highlight green-the ones you still want to read but just have not had a chance yet.5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 or less and force books upon them.
1. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis (Hubby owns them and I see them on the bookshelf everyday...guess I should read them)
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White (I'm going to read this one to my kids)
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (we did the play in high school)
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (we have seen the movie, but I'm also going to read this one to my kids)
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (my mom has the book and me husband read it but I have yet to)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (saw the movies)
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott (and we picked up Little Men free and I plan to read it as well)
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (saw and own the movies)
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery (and saw and own the movies)
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert (this one sounds familiar but I can't remember if I read it or not)
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (I think we read this in high school, but again I can't remember)
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Friday, September 26, 2008

A Must Read

I recently finished reading this book, The Shack, and know that I am DEFENITLY going to be reading it again (and probably again & again & again...). There were so many things that were revealed and truths and lessons explained that I often had to ask forgiveness for my own lack of faith. It defenitly changed the way I see God and things that we assume we understand. Have you ever asked, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" or "How could God let this happen?" ? The answers in this book will transform the way you see God. I don't think I've ever understood the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) better than I do now. And rather than God being a far off being that I want to be more intimate with, I saw Jesus for the first time as a down to earth friend that is always there with us where we feel him or not. I don't want to say too much that will give away the plot but with every page, the complicated do's and don'ts that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away and a I was able to see God in a new light. If you haven't yet, I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book and read about what Mack learned when he went to the shack after receiving a suspicious note, apparently from God. I hope you enjoy it and have your own "Shack experience"!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Broken

These songs are the cry of my heart:

She's smiling on the outside
But she's hurting on the inside
It's getting hard just living anymore
And the shadows she has clung to
Painful things that she has been through
Have left her feeling worthless, Lord...but


You change worthless into precious
Guilty to forgiven
Hungry into satisfied
Empty into full
All the lies are shattered
And we believe we matter
When You change broken into beautiful


We live with accusations
Sometimes heavy expectations
That tell us we can never measure up
And yet You repeat with mercy
That in Your eyes we are worthy
At last we see how much we're loved cause

Chorus

Though we can't see how we can stand before you Lord
And feel valued, priceless and adored

Chorus

~ Gwen Smith

I'm just a well dressed wreck
I'm just a made up mess
Working hard trying to keep everybody impressed
All the while I'm falling apart on the inside

I look around to see
Is anyone like me?
First glance tells me I'm all alone in the sea
Then I look again a little deeper

And we're all in the same boat
We all just need to know

We're all broken
We're all broken
And we all need a Savior
Broken
We're all broken
And we all need a Savior


'Cause we're all broken

This is a fool's parade
The way we masquerade
Trying to make everybody think it's all okay
When the truth is we're all living a story

What if we all got brave?
Enough to take away
All we're hiding behind even just for a day
And let the scars show even a little

But I know the honesty
Will show us all to be

Broken
We're all broken
And we all need a Savior
Broken
We're all broken
And we all need a Savior


We don't have to pretend about it
We don't have to keep acting like we're all okay
If we lift our eyes to the cross
We'll see the reality

That we're all... broken
And we all have a Savior
Broken
We're all broken
And we all need a Savior
Broken
We're all broken
And we all need a Savior
We all have a Savior
We all need Jesus


~Steven Curtis Chapman
And a song that we sang in church this week says it so well - "I wanna hold the hand that holds the world!"

My Bratz is 5 years old!

The invitation

Autumn climbing the rock wall
Pearl (a friend from school) & Autumn
Liam (above)is climbing & Wynn (below) too...my little monkeys

The crew on top of the bouncer slide
on the slides that are at the top of the 3 level playstructure
The adults looking on while the kids play
partners in crime
group picture
present time
The cake, I took a coloring page to Sobey's and they put an edible image ontop of the cake
birthday girl
girls with their feather boas
and the guys with their ties
Hannah Montana
more presents
new bike and notice...no training wheels
modelling one of her many new clothes

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Seven Deadly Sins

I saw this on Gill's Blog, here are my responses:
(I must admit, some of the questions made me think and were hard to answer but I so like these kind of quizzes/ memes and wanted to try myself...)

WRATH
1. Who did you last get angry with?
My kids. They are each going through similar stages where they don't listen and do what ever they feel like instead. (First thought that came to mind was my husband by I think that situation I was more annoyed than angry...see #5)

2. What is your weapon of choice?
Words

3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex?
NO! I think the only member of the opposite sex I've hit would be my son's when disciplining them.

4. How about of the same sex?
I have, when the occasion has warranted it, smacked my daughter on the bum, does that count? Other than that, no.

5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you?
Um, I think it would have been my husband. My child pulled the PS2 off the dresser and it landed on the floor and jammed the door shut with the game CD still in it. He got mad at me as I was the one that gave my son the game controller. I tried first to get it out but couldn't, my husband got angry with me and after a while he did get it open and it worked fine (unlike when he told me "you drop a computer...you break it...like duh!... It's broken, it's nothing but a feather weight now!") The reason I got "annoyed was because after he got so angry at me and I could see fire in his eyes when I suggested I try to fix it, my oldest son explained how daddy fixed it and all was well now. My first thought was daddy must be a hero (sarcasim), only heroes do the impossible which apparently that was.

6. What is your pet peeve?
Um, this question made me think...I guess there isn't just one thing I can think of, instead the first things that come to mind are ignorant and racist people; bad eating manners such as slurping your soup, smacking your lips and eating with your mouth open (I don't want to see the food in your mouth); nails on a blackboard; telemarketers who keep asking for money even after you say NO; channel surfers watching several different things at once when you are trying to watch a show...just to name a few....contrary to this list of ranting I'm really a nice person...

7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily?
Oh Yes! I can carry grudges for a long time...too long. What is that saying , "...women forgive but never forget"

SLOTH
1. What is one thing you’re supposed to do daily that you don’t?
Exercise (and it shows!)

2. What is the latest you’ve ever woken up?
On a regular day...around 11:00am. However, if you count after working a night shift and then come home and sleeping, I think the latest was around 5:00pm but usually I only sleep till maybe 2:30pm.

3. Has anyone else noticed that this meme is missing Sloth number 3?
???

4. What is the last lame excuse that you made?
I honestly can't remember.....

5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through?
Nope. I rarely get time to watch a movie or real show let alone infomercials.

6. When was the last time you got in a good workout?
"a good workout"...I guess that would prob be back in the winter (February maybe), I was doing step aerobics and riding the exercise bicycle each morning after my husband went to work and before my kids would get up.

7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today?
Today doesn't count as I came home at 8am and slept till after lunch. The last time I used my alarm clock would have been Friday and I think that I hit it three times that morning.

GLUTTONY
1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice?
Just recently I've had a fruit smoothie (can't remember the name) at Starbucks a couple of times and really enjoyed it.

2. Meat eaters: white meat or dark meat?
dark meat

3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you’ve had in one sitting/outing/event?
4 or 5 coolers (Bacardi Breezers, I especially like the pina colada and orange/mango twist flavours).

4. Have you ever used a professional diet company?
No, I'm too cheap, plus I don't like the idea of using pills. Anything that seems to good to be true, probably is.

5. Do you have an issue with your weight?
Well according to my BMI, I'm overweight and I'm defenitly much heavier than I'd like myself to be. However, my weight is not that much that is is causing any health issues.

6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy?
I like them all, especially sweets and spicy foods. (but not together ;))

7. Have you ever looked at a small house pet or child and thought “lunch”?
EWWW, NO!!!

LUST
1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)?
none

2. How many people have seen YOU naked (not counting physicians/family)?
Not counting my kids...none I hope. I know my hubby keeps telling me to close the windows at night, I just think he's paranoid....

3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of the opposite gender during a normal conversation?
Frequently!

4. Have you ever kissed two people in one night?
my kids & hubby...does that count?, that's 4!...I know, I'm boring ...

5. What is your favorite body part on a person?
I think it's got to be the eyes. They say so much about a person. Same sex or opposite sex alike.

6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute?
NO!!!

GREED
1. How many credit cards do you own?
Two too many

2. What’s your guilty pleasure store?
I find it so hard to spend money on myself, so I'm not sure, but times I have been encouraged to do such a thing, I enjoy places like Fruits & Passion and La Senza

3. Would you rather be rich, or famous?
I’d HATE to be famous. Rich I could definitely do!

4. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks?
Probably, yes. I'd pick a dull, boring, predictable job over something stressful anyday, and if it brought in mega-bucks I would be as happy as a pig in poop :)

5. Have you ever stolen anything?
Yes, as a kid it would usually be candy that I stole at the convenience store.

6. How many MP3s are on your hard drive?
None. I don't have any MP3s. Infact I still have cassesttes I listen to in addition to my CD's

PRIDE
1. What’s one thing you have done that you’re most proud of?
Become a wife and mother of three lovely children.

2. What one thing have you done that your parents are most proud of?
Which parents? I know my mother is proud of the fact I've taught overseas. As for my dad, ...I'm not sure (isn't that awful of me, guess I should ask. But I hate asking such things, cause then I'm told I'm fishing for compliments)

3. What things would you like to accomplish in your life?
I’d like to be a good mother, a wonderful grandmother and a relatively harmless mother-in-law one day. I’d like for Cliff and I to continue to be loving companions to one another for many, many years to come. I’d like to age gracefully. After seeing the people I look after at work, I just hope I retain what mind I still have.

4. Do you get annoyed by coming in second place?
Oh no, second place suits me just fine.

5.Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors?
I can keep dreaming, right?! NO definitely not.

6.Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score?
Defenitly as a child, I'm guilty of cheating on tests to get a better mark.

7. What did you do today that you’re proud of?
Got out of bed. Just joking!

ENVY
1. What item or person would you most want to have for your own?
I’d love to own a Victorian style house with a wrap around veranda, beautifully landscaped yard, and a huge flower garden

2. Who would you want to go on “Trading Spaces” with?
Lots of people, I'm not even going to begin to name names. Their houses are so neat and everything has it's own place. Unlike my cluttered little home. Unfortunatley, most of these people don't have kids living in their house so once it is clean, it stays clean.

3.If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you be?
I’d still be me, thank-you very much, but if you could arrange for me to be a me with perky little boobs like Paris Hilton and a bod like Kate Hudson and and a smile like Katie Holmes ........

4. Have you ever been cheated on?
I hope not! Honestly, no, I don't think so.

5. Have you ever wished you had a physical feature different from your own?
Yup! See No. 3!

6. What inborn trait do you see in others that you wish you had for yourself?
Confidence; self-confidence and confidence in their relationship with God.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Mosaic-Maker Meme


I saw this over at Gill's Jottings and thought it was really interesting and a fun meme to do. :)
This is what you have to do:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.
The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favourite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favourite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your flickr name?

Photo credits for my mosaic:
1. For Rachael,
2. big ole ice cream cake,
3. Oromocto river in emerald.,
4. Light Shining,
5. Tom Cruise Top Gun,
6. The Piña Colada,
7. Pieces of Europe,
8. key lime pie,
9. Here are some of the Steps which will helps you to become debt free.,
10. Friends & Family,
11. Naive youth,
12. TOAD

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Friday Fill-Ins #89


To visit other sites and read their responses just click on the link above. Have Fun :)

And...here we go!

1. I enjoy ...ummm, where do I start...gardening, spending time with my family, baking and/or cooking when it turns out, chatting on MSN with my friends, reading, taking pictures, being creative...just to name a few.

2. How come we never seem to get out of debt, where does it (money) all go?!? is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew that was the right thing to do.

4. Take charm, add a little attitude and you end up with my kids (see next fill-in).

5. Life has gifted me with a beautiful family of red-heads.

6. Anywhere I go without my kids in tow is an instant vacation (I only work part-time but I call my days/nights at work a "paid vacation".

7. And as for the weekend, tonight my plans include working the night shift, tomorrow I'm looking forward to going to an annual staff potluck and not having to cook and Sunday, I want to stay awake long enough (after getting off night shift) to go to church!

Monday, September 8, 2008

My Trip To New Brunswick

As much as this trip back home was different from my earlier trip to New Zealand it had enough similarities that I found myself comparing it to NZ and calling New Brunswick the " New Zealand of the North" or rather "up over" instead of down under :) I forgot just how beautiful is is out east and as beautiful a city as Winnipeg is, it's just not the same. I really understand what they mean when they say "you don't appreciate what you've got till it's gone" One reason for me going out to NB on this particular week in August was to attend the wedding (re-affirmation of vows ceremony) of a friend

(& bridesmaid) of mine I haven't seen since my own wedding 8 years ago and at the same time I was able to stay with my bestest friend (and Matron Of Honor) whom I also haven't seen since my wedding eight years ago. I finally got to meet her whole family including her 4 children I've NEVER met and the grown up 8 year old boy who was like 4 months old at my wedding. What a beautiful family you have BJ :D!
The only thing missing was for our kids to be able to meet each other and play together on the beach. It was such a rushed visit trying to do both wedding and visiting but we managed.
BJ & I went on a overnight trip to Halifax and stayed in a Victorian Bed & Breakfast...it was awesome.

I was so excited as I've never been to Nova Scotia. Halifax was also beautiful...maybe I could even convince my coffee loving hubby to move there as these people drink so much coffee (& beer) that they are "the city that CAN'T sleep". LOL! In Halifax, we went on a tour of downtoun via road and water.


Getting there was not without it's unexpected detours such as missed exits, driving in diamond lanes ( ;) ), and a lousy co-pilot with no sense of direction. But it is all these little unexpected delays that make a trip fun & memorable. We left for NS on Wednesday amd returned back in NB Thursday in time for the rehearsal party at the lake. Wedding was Friday, it was so fun to get dressed up and see so many faces I recognized from over my time in NB and see how people I remember as children have grown into young adults. The last day before I left, The entire Edwards clan & I (8 of us) went to St Andrew's by the Sea. Another place I never did visit while I lived in NB for 14 (?) years.
It was beautiful. We had an awesome picnic lunch then walked out on the sand & rocks just before the tide started coming in.



On the way home to BJ & Greg's house we drove through my old stomping grounds and even though it was getting dark by the time we went past were I spent most of my time growing up, I still recognized alot and was amazed at how other placed had changed. I found the memories flooding back and me reminicing about what used to be and I remember when... As I kept saying such things as: we used to swim down there...; so and so lived there and..., I also was hoping that Greg & BJ weren't getting annoyed and rolling their eyes as I felt myself sometimes doing with my mom when we were in NZ and were visiting where she grew up.

With flying and airport times factored into my trip , I was actually only in NB for 5days....Defenitly NOT enough time to attend a bridal shower, rehearsal and wedding AS WELL AS visit and catch up with (or my husband says "have a cackle session") a precious friend whom I haven't seen for EIGHT YEARS!!! I so wish I could have stayed there longer.
BJ & I have agreed we will never let that many years go by again between visits...Heck in eight years, never mind the fact I'll be in my forty's but my oldest son will be 15 and her oldest will be driving age!!! NOT happening!! We are already trying to figure out when we can have both our families meet each other.

Thank you Greg, BJ & Little Edwards for letting me stay at your beautiful house and your own little piece of heaven on earth,
Ellie thank you for letting me sleep in your bed, Damara thank you for joining us on our trip to Halifax. Luke, I'll never look at power poles the same now (however I must be honest I can't remember all the names, guess we need to visit and you can remind me :). Brett you are so fun and have such a keen eye for finding things - jellyfish, frogs, crabs.
And Cole you are so mature and a great big brother to your brothers and sisters. Thanks so much for the awesome boat rides Greg - you are a great chauffer (boat & van)and BJ thanks you so much just for being my friend and for being you! I had a great time and can't wait till we can do it again.