away to awenda

this past weekend, 9 of us 4th year girls went up to Awenda for a weekend camping trip. it was so much fun. you just can't beat girl friends. period.

my favourite moments were...

1) getting lost on friday night when the estimated travel time of 2.5 hours turned into 4. it's just so funny in restropect. plus it was good bonding times at the time. then there were becky's awesome camping soundtracks. the intersection of lafontaine and "concession 16" will forever be rememebered.

2) going to the beach on saturday, and going "swimming". it was more like wading, but what the hey; my first and last swim of the summer. the water was so clear and beautiful. just couldn't help praising the Lord for His creation.

3) snuggled up all cozy and comfortable under my down duvet while it's storming outside. the wind howled, and the tent was pelted by rain and acorns, but we were so warm.

4) just being with all of the girls overall. what a treat! and what a blessing!

praiseworthy and blogworthy

it took me way too long to blog about this.

last tuesday middleton and i went sharing, and we saw someone come to Christ. the best part of this story is that for the 45 minutes beforehand i had gone sharing with ashley d., and i was just an incoherent, babbling, ...something. then with 15 minutes left until class andrew and i figured what the heck, let's keep going, and we saw eun come to Christ.

it's awesome how God uses us. not what we do for Him, but what He does through us.

the next morning i got to follow-up with eun, and she came to morning prayer at her own request in the same week. we're still meeting up for follow-up, and she's coming to Summit. it's all too exciting.

the rebelution

check out this site: the rebelution

it's a blog written by 17 year old twins alex and brett harris challenging young people everywhere to live by high Biblical standards instead of our cultural sub-par ones. it's extremely well-written, Biblical, and encouraging. they really exemplify the verse 1st timothy 4:12.

refreshment

ontario isn't alberta, and rockwood isn't the rockies, but it's still beautiful nonetheless.

after two weeks of craziness i was finally able to get away for some much needed alone time to rejuvenate. i spent about 3 hours at the rockwood conservation area which is 20 minutes outside of guelph. i "hiked" (after scaling beehive mountain, this was not a hike.) up to this escarpment which overlooked the lake. this is the view from it. i want to go back when the leaves turn colours. although most of the trees there were non-leafy ones. i don't know the technical term. so it might not be that spectacular.

no incidents today. no major incident. a lady asked if it was safe for me to be by myself. oh the things i can't do alone just because i'm a female....like go live in the rockies for a week. so after that comment i started to get paranoid especially since i deviated from the main trail to follow a smaller unofficial trail. worst case scenarios came to mind. i.e. meeting a vicious snake. and i did meet one...except it was 1 cm wide and about 1 foot long sprawled across a log. i get the heebie-jeeebies just thinking about it now. i bolted it out of there after that.

then i drank two gulps of water from the tap near the campsites. it was very piney tasting. blegh. made me long for the fresh spring water from the mountains.

milestone: going grey

when do you think you'll get your first strand of "grey" hair? 30? 35? 40? 50?

i was thinking of maybe late 30's for myself. i've been faked out a few times where i thought a strand of hair was white because of the way it was reflecting the light or because it was so bleached. but tonight it was a different story. as i looked in the mirror...there it was. one solitary strand of white lying amidst a mass of black. there was no way to mistake it. twasn't the way the light was reflected. twasn't because of bleach. it was just nature taking its course at 20....well almost 21, but i won't go there. it looks exactly and feels like fishing string. i could use it to go fishing.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
proverbs 31:30

i always added a lil twist to it that i heard in second year "beauty is fleeting, but it's good to have while i've still got it." i thought i would have it for at least 15-20 years, but it seems like i could be wrong. ah well a piece of humble pie never hurt anyone. always been too vain and proud about my looks anyways. it's a good reminder to really really start being serious about character development. that and hope this white strand is just an anomaly.

fishing anyone?

new year's resolutions

september always seems more a new beginning than january. here's to turning over another leaf.

1. i will try not to skip class.
2. i will eat healthy balanced meals.
~ i will avoid fast food as my main diet. limit: max one time a week.
~ i will not skip breakfast.
3. i will be in bed by 11:30pm every school night.
4. i will be up and running by 9:00am the latest.
5. i will exercise...somehow.
6. i will make time for devotions at the beginning of every day before doing anything else.
7. i will diligently make time to keep in touch with friends and family.
8. i will be disciplined in my school work.
9. i will stay on budget.
10. i will be gracious when i am tired, cranky, and in desperate need of a nap and alone time.

milestone: last first day of class

today september 11th, 2006 was officially my last first day of class. (the winter semester one doesn't count.)

in celebration of this momentous, never to be repeated occasion, becky, katie, ashley, napier, turnbull, and i went to the metro toronto zoo.

'twas a beautiful day to be walking about, enjoying the sunshine, enjoying the company of good friends, and being amazed at God's wonderful creation. i can't wait for heaven when there will be no bars between me and the cute baby giraffes and the fluffy white polar bears. (sidenote: polar bears have THE cutest bums on this planet.)

the moment of the day was when becky accidentally dropped her nalgene into the kangaroo pen, and ashley came to the rescue by jumping in. huzzah!

but i actually did go to a class today at night. History of the Islamic World. i couldn't hear the prof properly, and when i did i didn't quite understand her pronounciation. i kept hoping that the textbook will come through and clarify things. nevertheless this will prove to be a valuable class.

milestone: of paddles and tennis rackets

friday night becky and i got home around 2am after our last, first september weekly meeting after chilling at east side's and kirsten's. becky went straight to bed while i dilly-dallied. around 3 am in the morning as i drifted off to sleep i heard footsteps coming up the stairs along with sounds of muffled voices. at first i thought it was becky, but then i realized that one; the voices were too low and two; there were voiceS not a voice. there were guys in our house....outside of our bedrooms.

but i was prepared. i was ready for such an incident as this. i went to my closet grabbed my dbr paddle, woke up becky, and gave her my tennis racket. and that's as far as we got...i pictured myself bashing the intruders over the head with my paddle, but we were both too scared to go downstairs. so after deliberating for a bit, we called the po-po's on my cell phone which had a weird siren thing go off, which is why this is a "milestone" post. it was the first time for both of us to call 911. the lady on the other end was somewhat rude and condescending and so were the police who finally came after 40 minutes. if we were really being attacked, we would've been dead by then....

but i suppose this makes for a funny story.

the moral of the story? always remember to lock your front doors.

edit------------------------------------------------------------------
sorry to have left you all hanging. somehow i assumed in my mind that you all knew what had happened. it turns out that they left. we're assuming that they were drunken boys who went into the wrong house after a kegger or something. we were not robbed.

an ode to becky

ten top reasons why becky is a "hen hao" housemate and a rockeriffic "pengyou"

1. becky is a greaat listener.
she listens to you, empathizes, and asks good questions.
2. becky has a great and diversed taste in music from hip-hop to country to pop to indie to....
she's also a broadway star.
3. becky is very considerate of other people.
4. becky's "hen hao"'s and other oex tidbits...
5. becky's very generous with her time, energy, material things, etc...
6. becky's a good cook and a fabulous hostess.
7. becky keeps stuff tidy.
8. becky loves Jesus.
9. becky is weekly meeting coordinator. therefore you get to preview all the vids before their official debut. w000t~
10. becky is fun period.

900+

grab highlighter.
grab red pen.
grab real life kit.
throw into mesh bag.
repeat until the materials are gone.

it was gone in a record 1.5 hours. guelph had borrowed 600 real life kits from waterloo, and it flew out of our hands in 90 minutes. graham and trevor had to go to fort superior to get 300 or so real life kits that were left over from last year. those were gone too before we had to close up shop at 4:00pm. we never left before our alloted time was up. well....at least not in the years i've been here. we also ran out of ice and syrup for the free snow cones that we were giving away. and to think i was somewhat discouraged that our booth time was cut significantly this year.

as for SIQs we have stashes of them. and by stashes i mean STASHES. follow-up is going to be quite the task.

i also ran into a friend from high school that i haven't seen in three years.

praise God. praise God. praise God.

a stroll down memory lane

tonight becky, kirsten, and i took a stroll down memory lane down to briarlea and cole road to the establishment formerly known as "awesome house". twas nostalgic as we walked there as we would most likely never make it again. we went to bring back the BBQ that becky and i inherited from the newly married mr. andres. oh what a blogworthy trip it was.

first of all when we reached the said establishment the lights were on, which came as a surprise since we had heard that no one else dared to spend a year of his/her life there since the departure of former AH tenants. we knocked on the door to come face to face with the mysterious landlord, poochkie (sp?); who was actually quite friendly.

it took a bit of time to get the BBQ down from the patio and onto the driveway, but we managed to do it and in a few minutes we were happily rolling the BBQ on the newly paved road back to bling bling. however we didn't make it very far. we got to the intersection of ironwood and cole (about two minutes walk from AH)where three boys waiting for the bus to go to the bar, hollered after us, inquiring after the price of the BBQ. they thought we were going to throw it out. so they came after us and offered a sweet $20 for the BBQ. after much debate between the three of them, a few f-bombs, a phone call to housemates who lived down the road, the BBQ exchanged hands for a nice green bill. it took a while and i with a bit of OEX bargaining savvy at one point pretended to walk away impatiently, but in the end it was worth it. plus one of them called us beautiful. ;)

then came the dilemma of what to do with a crisp, cool $20 bill. what can one buy with $20? first we were going to be pragmatic and buy a shoe rack for mass of shoes cluttering bling bling's hallway, but then we decided to celebrate and went to DQ's. a shoe rack might still be purchased though...

a few years from now we shall reminisce about the night we sold AH's BBQ.

what a night.

ready, set, GO!

last night was the kick off, welcome back BBQ for the upper years at 403 scottsdale drive, now re-dubbed "le house". (will it stick? only time will tell.) becky and i arrived 30 minute lates because we underestimated the time that it would take to shuck 4 dozen corn on the cobs (approx 35 minutes if anyone's curious.)

around 30-35 upper years attended. most of whom were second and third years. it was weird being the oldest except for turnbull who was visiting...or maybe brandon and amber. this year's bbq wasn't as intense as last year's because there was less people to catch up with. no older upper years and there weren't that many fourth years either...sad. quite a few non-graduated people have dropped off too...

but the enthusiasm and the excitement for this coming year was really encouraging. so many new people have stepped up. it was cool to see the room slowly turning red as people were buying the new c4c t-shirts.

the pep rally was fun and sombering. this year a whole bunch of us went down and crashed the boogies. and we didn't just crash one; we crashed a few. i went for east, johnston, and lambton. it was so funny because the OV's really thought that we were first years and were trying to pump us up.

but it was sombering at the same time to see that whole sea of people using their God-given creativity, energy, health, etc... to coordinate these cool formations and dances, but refused to acknowledge Him and give Him the glory for it. that's the one image that's going to be burned into my memory to spur me on this year and for years to come...

servant team retreat

this past weekend the servant team comprising of andrew (prayer), ashley(ksl), becky(weekly meeting), rachel (women's min), sam (admin), silas (ksl/men's min), suz (evangelism), and me (send) went to guelph lake for our retreat. we booked the campsites for two nights, stayed there for one, and ended up relocating to bling bling (becky's and my house) for saturday night/sunday morning as the weather became too unbearable.

friday night we set up camp.
memorable moments:
~ watermelon seed spitting competition
~ foraging for firewood-> watching graham and jamie knock down dead trees
~ vanessa's awesome s'mores skills

saturday during the day we sat under a tarp telling each other our testimonies with a few breaks in between.
memorable moments:
~ ashley: "silas!" when a biker passed our campsite
one of the other girls: "ash, that's a 50-year old white man."
~ andrew's ice cream story
~ swapping project stories

saturday during the night we hit up bling bling for warm food and fun games.
memorable moments:
~ playing things in a box
what are you scared of: "eskimos"
what NOT to say to C4C staff: "i feel like God's calling me to father your children."; "hi my name is andrew. i like vanessa. who do you like?"
"acceptable" pick-up lines: "i'm pretty much God's will for your life. let's get married."; "hi my name is andrew. do you want to go for ice cream?
"what would you put on an apron: "if you can lean then you can clean."
what not to rename the weekly meeting: "jihad"; "the pick-up"

sunday we (minus sam) piled into my honda civic and headed to calvary for church where we took up an entire row.
memorable moments:
~ pastor robin: "aren't you glad you're not camping right now?"
~ becky cradling suz to and from church in the front seat of the car.

most popular phrase of the weekend: "christian conscience"
next bonding activity...winter camping.

something borrowed, something blue

now that you've recovered enough from your shock to read this...

yes, that's me in a real, honest wedding dress.

no, today was not my wedding day.

silas, kirsten, jamie, vanessa, beth, bahy, and i went around guelph today filming a video to promote summit. for one of the scenes i got to wear vanessa's beautiful wedding gown. i was kinda scared that i'd do something to it, being the accident-prone person that i am, but it's still white and in one piece! funny, i never thought i'd ever wear an official wedding dress before i was engaged.....or even before i have a boyfriend. hahaha

it was a hilariously fun time. c4cers always make me laugh so hard. (yup i'm using the correct terminology now...) i'm so glad i get to share this year with these people. this is definitely a sign of things to come. going to soak up this year like a dry sponge during a torrential downpour.

last night beth and i had a RO---TIC night. pronounced "roe-tick". romantic without the 'MAN'. get it? isn't that so witty? hehehe compliments of the lovely beth fisher. we chilled out eating ice cream, went to the pub for her ultimate team's season-end partah, and then we went stargazing in the country. ....except we couldn't figure out how to work the telescope. so we saw stars, just not through the telescope. they made it look so easy in "A Walk to Remember"! the moral of the story? boys if you ever try to woo a girl by taking her stargazing...make sure you know how to make the telescope work.

my dearest becky is coming home tomorrow! i'm so excited. ashley got back today, and it was so good to catch up. tis going to be a good year. a good year indeed.

i like salad randomness

1. being in front of a computer for an extended time makes me really cranky and anti-social. i've just realized this.

2. last night i dreamt that i was sean preston's nanny. (fyi: sean preston's the offspring of pop princess britney spears and her hubby k-fed. *shuDDer*) i love babies and i'd love to have a few kids...but THAT was just disturbing.

3. the pages in my nkjv are falling out like leaves during autumn. the more i tape together, the more that falls out.

preach it sistah!

now that i finally have some free time to read blogs to my heart's content, i've started to go through the archives of Solo Femininity by Carolyn McCulley. the good thing about it, is that i'm not reading pure drivel, it's solid stuff. i feel like i should be taking notes. actually i probably will be taking notes soon.

this is an excerpt from carolyn's post "How to be 'Just Friends' When You Want More". click on the link for the full post. the context of this excerpt is that a girl wrote in to ask for advice about a guy that took the "buddy approach" to dating.

And in the future, when a man wants a lot of undefined time with you, you can gently let him know this isn't acceptable though you’re not trying to make it difficult for him or be unkind to him. As a man, his role is to define and lead, and if he is unsure at this point about what that looks like, you could say you are willing to give him the time to decide...but that this will not happen while he's monopolizing your time and affections. That, however, is hard to do graciously. :) But I'm sure that God will be faithful to you to help you find this course and to keep your peace before Him.

Side note to any men reading this answer: Yes, we women are responsible for guarding our hearts and we are often fumbling in this area. But one way you can help us is by clear communication of your intentions at various points in any friendship or dating/courting relationship. Just as godly women try to guard men’s eyes by dressing modestly, godly men can help guard our hearts through clear communication, coupled with the realization that lots of time together and conversation is how our hearts are hooked. I’m not bashing you men here—I like you lot very much and hope to be able to love one man in the near future! But I would appeal to you to avoid the “buddy approach” to dating. By this I mean undefined one-on-one relationships, not group activities with the real goal of cultivating friendship—I’m all for cultivating friendships between brothers and sisters! Though this approach may seem safer at first, it reaps a harvest of habits and hurts that I think most wise, godly men would rather avoid. Finally, I also hope you appreciate that I am urging women to resist bitterness, thereby giving you the opportunity to truly pursue a previous “buddy” in the future IF that’s what you are convinced God is calling you to do. It’s not a “one strike, you’re out” policy in the kingdom of a merciful God. And aren’t we all eternally glad for that?!

hear hear!

i also found this tidbit in one of her responses interesting. it's in response to a man who wrote in to say that the marriage system doesn't work the way it use to. click here for the full article.

As a sister in the Lord, however, I want to encourage you to get out there and pursue! Even if you face rejection, keep trying! It's a masculine form of trusting God, just as the feminine form is to trust Him in the wait.

i wonder if guys see it that way. i've asked a few guys if they would pursue a girl they liked even if she was intimidating. only one guy in my memory responded with a hearty "YEAH!" it never really occurred to me how scary rejection is.

until the cows come home...

relationships, relationships, relationships...

one thing us twenty year olds just can't stop talking about. ah well, might as well sit back and enjoy this ka-razy season of life. instead of waiting until we're middle-aged, married, living in a house with a white picket fence, with 2.5 children, and a pooch, let's just laugh at ourselves now. well i'll just laugh at myself now anyways. so silly.

and i say this with no bitterness.

seriously.

it's so funny. it's like a circus...sort of.

here's the consensus from a Christian viewpoint.
1. marriage is good. [point b]
2. single people should get married unless they're divinely called to a life of celibacy. [point a]
3. guys should take the lead....

that said. here's the diagram of where we are...

[point a]------>---?????????????????????????????????????--->------>[point b]

[????????????????????????]
is the part that people debate about until the cows come home, and they haven't yet....even though i live in guelph. :P it's so fun reading these articles. for your reading pleasure; the articles and the rebuttals.

ok so here's that first one:
Rethinking the Gift of Singleness

here's the theologian's rebuttal:
A Theologian's Take On The Gift of Singleness
the way he addresses the way that the author debbie maken uses scripture to back up her reasoning brings to my mind the verse about how not everyone should assume that they should be teachers. dum dum dum.

and another review of that said book...
30 and Single? It's Your Own Fault"
tsk. harsh title, eh? sounds like something an azn mum would say. "aiiiyah. 30 years old an' still no marry. own fault la! i arrange meeting with auntie so and so's daughter, but you no want. susie is nice girl. you not get younger. i want grandkids!" ahem...so in the review, the author says that one of the reason single women are unmarried is because of the lack of men as shown by a survey, BUT...

survey SAYS
There's Plenty of Men to go Around
*struggling very hard...not to...make...a...crack..about....guelph.*

then there's the lady who suggests pulling a ruth
Pulling a Ruth Part 1
Pulling a Ruth Part 2

so my point? i think we're just going 'round and 'round in circles. but it's fun watching.

what irks me is that some of these articles insinuate that praying and waiting isn't enough. life is complimacated enough as it is. can i not just wait, pray, and trust God to honour that prayer? granted 'tis may be harder for guys as your future wife doesn't have a glowing fuchsia "wife" sign on her forehead to let you know so you can initiate...on second thought maybe it's a good thing. but like honestly what about all those men who had revelations about who they're suppose to marry. i've heard quite a few real life stories. my nose has not been stuck in anne of green gables.

another random tidbit. heard from someone who heard from someone else who heard a missionary who remained single say that God heard her prayers, and God had sent, but the person sent refused to obey. is that valid????

tut tut

solitude and silence

i've been craving solitude of late. and by solitude i mean being away from people and being away from civilization. not that i hate people or that i hate the city, but it's just so refreshing to be by myself, left alone with God and my thoughts, and serene silence. for this reason i wish that i was still in calgary where the mountains are an hour drive away.

i don't know of any place outside of guelph where i could go for a one day nature retreat. that's why i'm really looking forward to summit where i can stay up, looking at the stars on the docks, or rise with the sun in the mornings, watching the mist lift. if you've read the Sacred Romance by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis, you'll know what i mean when i say it's in those times when i can feel the Romance calling out to me. our God is pretty much an awesome God.

backlog: food for thought

been mulling on these two thoughts for a bit.

1. sometimes one of the reasons that people write blogs is to make themselves known to others. regardless of whether this is the primary motive or not, when reading someone's blog you get to know a side of the person. in the same way isn't the Bible sort of like God's blog? He wrote it so we could know Him, and we get to know His Person more by reading it. except He doesn't update it anymore. (much like darren lung, but dlu isn't God. ok this is where the analogy breaks down.)

2. you know how when you're walking around and looking at the things people wear and you go "ouch, i can't believe he/she is wearing that"? (ok this is more for girls than for guys) it's my theory that no one goes out the front door of the house without being ok with what they're wearing...unless the house is burning, but i digress. i think most people leave the house, thinking they're attractively presentable even the person with the lowest self-esteem that slouches, and dresses in sweaters that look like potato sacks. this just blew my mind one day when i was being judgmental about people's sense of fashion. whatever they walk out the door with is what they're ok with; provided with the resources that they have. i.e. selection of clothes. bottomline: beauty or the "lack thereof" REALLY is in the eye of the beholder.

night life

just got back from toronto about ooohhh...20 minutes ago? went into town today to chill with some peeps that i haven't seen since winter conference. awesome time talking, chatting, catching up, and laughing!!! then decided that i would drive back at midnight to avoid toronto traffic. i'm definitely losing the torontonian in me. well at least the torontonian driver in me. i cannot stand driving in that traffic. it's just brutal. it's enough to make me want to pack up and move to saskatchewan just because of kirsten's description of the lack of traffic there. even coming back late at night wasn't that cool. people were gunning it and changing lanes like a madmen.

i was looking forward to enjoying a night drive. it was fun driving around a deserted guelph after i got off the 401. i want to do it more often. there's just somethine serene and peaceful during the hours of 10pm-8am. there's no mad rush to go somewhere or get something done. my heart just feels settled and quiet. a very restful feeling. maybe that explains why i'm struggling to stay awake even though there's nothing to do while my eyelids are leaden with sleep. it's enough to make me want to switch my schedule around.

one thing i learned about myself this summer...i am most definitely NOT a morning person. that's why i'm second cup's best customer.

oh and red bull doesn't work on me. what does that say about my caffiene immunity?