years.

once a year. it's the way i roll. when it comes to blog posts. give me facebook and it'll be once a minute checkings, maybe once a day status updates.
SO. let me recap last year in a tidy, summed up sentence. it was a whirlwind of activity, trips here and there (guatemala, peru, winnipeg, oregon x 2), new friends made, good music heard & seen - it was a good year. ok, maybe not tidy, but summed up.
This year has had a brilliant start with good friends and music, the olympics currently happening in our beautiful province which has brought great times together with friends.
This year also promises to be full of grand adventures... i leave for guatemala in 2 weeks and then 2 weeks after i get back from there i head to peru for 2 weeks. in between those 2 times i get to see patty griffin and buddy miller perform which i am super excited about.
May brings the first time that i will be attending sasquatch music festival for the entire weekend.
july and august bring 2 trips to guatemala and a trip to winnipeg to snuggle with 2 new babies and friends as well (if they let me snuggle with them :)
wow. how did my life get so great?
and how many times did i use the number 2 in this post? 7 (or 8 if you count the last sentence.)
here's hoping your year is as good as mine looks to be...

the randomness of my brain tonight.

really? it's been over a year since i last wrote a blog? whoops.
i've had a year. i wouldn't say it was a great one. or a horrible one. just a year. actually, that's not true. i would say that great things happened, and horrible things happened, averaging out to be 'just a year'.

(aside - i ALWAYS double space after a period. i just did it now. and again. now i got just one. and i always go back and fix it right away).

apparently i have grown pretty jaded in the last year... i look back on previous posts and i feel like i was way more light-hearted and excited about life than i am now. what's changed?

there are things to be excited about. traveling, friends having babies, making new friends, going to great music shows... the list goes on...

apparently this is a blog of randomness. something i remembered that made me laugh the other day... when i lived in bolivia there was one time where i was asked to teach a couple sessions of bible stories to kids during a conference of some-sort. so one that i taught on was the armor of god. for some reason, to demonstrate the belt of truth, as a visual i had huge pants stuffed with pillows and a belt on to hold it up (apparently to demonstrate that god's word keeps us from falling apart or something...)
a week or so later i hear from a parent that their child was going around the house sticking out his belly saying he 'wanted to be fat like jesus'.
revoke my teaching privileges please. i am unable to communicate anything to small children.

i've seen and done so many great things this year and in my lifetime. why do i feel like shit?
i know god works everything out for those that love him... it's hard to see in some situations though.

beginning of winter.

it was a mitten day today.
alas, i did not have any on me. so my hands froze.

funny thing happened this morning. my friend's husband was out of town, so i slept over so someone would be in the house with the 2 children when she went jogging at 6am. so she goes, comes back, and finds her children bawling their faces off, clutching each other in the middle of the living, having already placed a tearful call to grandpa... all because their mother has deserted them.
they didn't know i was there. and i'm contemplating calling child services.

i leave for saskatoon & ottawa on thursday. meeting with some churches that are going on some trips. i'm a little nervous. but i think it'll be good. here's hoping.

i move into a new place dec. 1st. friends of mine bought a house and i'm going to live in the top with a couple people. i've painted and i'm going to do a little moving and decorating tonight. i'm excited.

end of summer.

it's officially the end of summer when you wake up and go to work in the dark and it's pouring rain. no good.
but it does mean the start of knitting season... blankets and scarfs here i come! (those don't completly make up for the lack of sun warming me up though...)
i had a good weekend. friday went a girl's bbq... fun times. saturday hung out with friend i hadn't seen in a couple years and ate enough chicken to feed a family of 15. sunday i made gingersnaps cause that's what you do when it's cold and dreary out. you make seasonal cookies. then i worked. and i watched heros. which is very good by the way. i recommend it.
now i'm back to work today and for the rest of my life.
plus fall things start up again, so i'm back to my insanely busy life (not to be confused with my crazy busy summer life). clubs, MOMS pre-school and young adults all start up again... yikes. but i'm looking forward to them... i think :)
ok i'm done.

summer.

huh. i haven't written for a while. really who does anymore, now that facebook has come around. especially people like me who aren't really wordy and therefore can use facebook statuses to update people on how/what their doing, in one single witty line!
all that to say, sorry i haven't written.

i'm doing good though. working at hungry for life, travelling a bit (more to come!) and working at the vid store/coffee shop. and enjoying the heat!!! i do like that sun.

what else? it's vbs this week at church, so i'm busy in the mornings with that. friday is movie night for a friends b-day, next friday is my first and only (!) wedding this summer (different from the past summers where the average was 6 or 7), saturday playland (!!!, I LOVE RIDES) and also fireworks in vancouver. camping maybe the next weekend... this summer is shaping up to be a good one. that's all for now. and probably for a while, i'm guessing.

oh sleep. i miss you.

does 3am sound like a good time to get up?! apparently to my body the answer is yes. for 3 days in a row i have been wide awake at 3. which may sound normal because i'm on the other side of the world and with jetlag and all... but then you consider that 3am here is 12pm in canada. not usually the time i wake up either. SERIOUSLY.

well we left hong kong yesterday. that was an experience. my senses have never been more assulted (and maybe insulted) in my life all at once. there were bright, flashy neon lights everywhere; noise of traffic, every single person on cellphones, and music; pushy people; and the overwhelming smell of cooking 'meats' and MOTHBALLS. i don't think i will ever smell the smell of mothballs again and not think of china. phew.

today we are going to visit one of the orphanages here and i'm not allowed to take pictures. it's killing me!!! i think at the other one we are visiting the gov't hasn't put restrictions on taking pics, so i should fill my quota there.

alright that's the first installment of my china blogs.

china. in 28 hours.

14 hours til my 14 hour flight to HONG KONG. i will try to be diligent while i'm there to update... but if i am not, try checking out www.hungryforlife.org and then click on the 'teams blog' button. there might be a post there. or maybe not.