Weekend of Elsewhere

This weekend I was lucky enough to go to Surrey and White Rock.  My good friend Lisa is wedding planning.  I was so blessed to go and be part of her planning and just hang out with her, her fiance, and her family.  I had no idea how much I love wedding planning.  Helping with hers is making me think of what I might like one day.  A little preemptive huh?  But it really was a lot of fun.  We went to White Rock and walked the pier.  I saw amateur crab catchers for the first time ever. That was actually pretty interesting.  And Lisa's fiance and his best friend are super interesting. I think I'll have to make a habit of this trip.  We also played ultimate frisbee with some other friends who met us there.  It was a pretty eventful weekend.  

I also bought a dress for the weddings I'm going to this summer!  I'm so excited about it.  I won't post pictures because I like keeping it a surprise... but it was less than half the price of other dresses I saw like it, and it was less than a quarter of the price of the next nicest dress I've tried on this summer.  I think that means I got a good deal.  

Nothing Much

I have barely anything to say, but that I bought some professional clothes this weekend.  I'm actually pretty proud of my finds.  Hidden on the sale racks in sears with some really ugly stuff I would normally not even look at.  My shopping skill has gotten much better with requirement!  I also found this super cute dress.  Unfortunate things were a not quite right fit and a funny zipper in the back. But it was such a cute party dress.  :(  Too bad. I will just have to find another.

 Have a good week!  

A Survival Story

I've survived my first day of doing both a graveyard shift and a day shift consecutively.  It actually panned out to be 12-8 at one place, home for a shower etc, and then 10-6 at the other.  I survived pleasingly well.  I had a harder time concentrating from 3-4 but I think I remember what we talked about, and then from 4-6 we were driving so I'm not surprised that I was tired.  However, the mistake I made was to "have a nap" when I got home.  I don't even remember the alarm I set... I slept right through until quarter after one this morning.  Good news is I know that seven hours seems to be the amount of sleep I need.  Bad news is that it is now almost two and I'm blogging. More good news is that blogging seems to putting me back to sleep so I should be snoozing again soon. 

I'm really liking the corrections job, the research isn't overly difficult, just time consuming and the pay is amazing.  Better than any job I got in Alberta.  And I am learning a lot about Criminology and stuff that I actually didn't learn anything at all about in school.  So this is really going to expand my horizons. And I really like that.  

Lastly, I went with work to New Westminster yesterday and had the chance to be a little bit of a tourist.  They have some pretty old buildings and cute shops on Columbia street (i think that was the name).  We ate at the Spaghetti factory. Walked by the keg. Saw some beautiful brick building exteriors. And there are about 10 bridal shops on a 3 or 4 block strip! The history of the area seemed very rich and its right along the river so our parking stall had a view!  I really need to go back and take pictures.  

But now I think I will do my best to sleep again, and I will think ahead better in the future and not let myself sleep all evening so I wake up in the wee hours.

Lots of Work

So work has kept me busy busy busy.  Tonight i finally had a chance to go out and check out a new path I heard about nearby. It goes through an undeveloped area that I'm sure has a story behind it.  There is a street that goes up halfway... and stops with a little spot where I'm sure some kids have been having a nice illegal time.  Along the way though there were tons of daisy's (or maybe they are the camomile stuff that is a horrible weed in Alberta?) And I found a rose plant that looked very out of place in the undergrowth but was beautiful. I'm wondering if they didn't start development and that is how rose got there?

It's going to be an interesting week. I start one day job and end up working a double shift.  But if I've done my calculations right working graveyard shifts for the next two weeks is going to make me $1000.  I think loosing a bit of sleep now won't seem like such a big deal when I'm in Slovakia at YWAM.  

Lastly, we also watched Book of Eli this weekend.. and I didn't get to watch the end of it, but the part I watched was really good.  If you can stomach alot of hand to hand combat and bloody grossness you will really like this movie.  It has an interesting story line (although I'm not sure if the ending makes up for the number of heads I saw looped off).  And we ate cinnamon buns with chocolate chips in them. It was amazing!

Weekend

So this weekend we had visitors: Dave and Andrew!  We had a lot of fun playing games and driving them back to the ferry.

Leah actually made friends with a goose, which you aren't supposed to feed but she doesn't seem to care.

And we also had ice cream on Sunday and I needed to take a picture of that.  

The pic is supposed to be black/white/green but it seemed to make everything green.

A Good Day

I worked again this morning, and I think this job will get better with time.  I cleaned much faster than the last two times I worked and it is getting much easier.  And I've started settling into this job just in time.  I got an email and a call from two other places that wanted me to come in for interviews.  I could confidently say no, I have a job already.

The bad part of this job is that I sleep through the sun.  It actually was nice today and I slept right through it. So I went for a walk this evening to the new little trail I found and took the pictures you will see below.  Then at midnight I'm off to work again and then again tomorrow.  I actually work 5 days this week

Apparently these are Salmonberries. I didn't taste them because I wasn't sure if they were edible when I saw them. Maybe I'll taste one next time I go for a walk.   (I'm not sure if the flowers are actually for these berries but they are pretty) 

First Shift

I've officially started one of the jobs. This is at a residential treatment program for aboriginal teen girls, most of which are in foster care and aren't there by their own choice.  Very big difference from where I was volunteering during the school year.  I can already see really cool differences and ways to run a program like this.  Last night I worked graveyard from midnight to 8am this morning.  And it was cleaning for pretty much the whole time.  They clean the whole house every night which is amazing to me that the vacuum doesn't wake the girls up in the middle of the night.  Although we did get to wake the girls up for school and make and serve them breakfast so I did get to kinda meet them, even if it was in a groggy state.  As for working graveyard, it wasn't that big of deal. I came home, made my phone calls, went to bed for a couple hours. Then i got up and had something to eat, stayed up for an hour and slept for a couple more hours.  I could totally get used to this. Its supper time and I'm sitting in the sun on the front porch typing my blog.  This is the life!

However, my tune might change.  Right now I have 113 hours on the schedule this month which is about 20 hours a week.  But with the research position I was offered at corrections canada I'm hoping to fill that out for June with some 9-5 hours when I can, and then get to a normal week of those hours with less of the graveyard stuff. Hopefully God can sort it all out because I really like both jobs right now.

So tonight I'm going to be cleaning again, and it will go much faster than last night because I don't need instructions on everything.  I'm excited because there are all these binders of procedure I'm itching to read.  I'm a geek aren't I? Wanting to read procedure?  It must be a sign that this is the stuff I am interested in.

Update

In the last couple days I've had a whole bunch of fun.  We had a party with hot tubs and duck barns (which smell by the way) and a cemetery and peanut butter pie.

Saturday night was a great get together with all my friends here, and their friends from high school that are fast becoming my friends.  They are really great. We always seem to have a lot of fun. This time it was socializing, a trip to someone's duck barn, some hockey, and hot tubbing.

Sunday I went a little emo and walked down to the cemetery at the bottom of the hill.  Its kinda cool to see a cemetery that is more vertical than horizontal.  And it was old too.  Over 100 years old.  I kinda just sat under a tree in the middle of the cemetery as it rained.  It was really nice. But then i realized its pretty vampire-like to sit in the rain in a cemetery.  But I think its my new favorite place to sit by myself.

Then yesterday I was so excited to see a friend from University that I haven't seen in two and a half years!  A whole bunch of us dressed up and went out for dessert to catch up. We talked until after the restaurant closed about everything from memories to two upcoming weddings.

I don't think I was ready for this picture.  I hope someone else has a better pic. :)

Sermon Sunday

So it isn't Sunday anymore, but I heard a sermon that made me think yesterday and I actually spent some time pondering it and now I've decided to share a little bit of what God has made me think about.

The sermon was meant to be on giving, but what I left with was more about choices and exchanging.  It is about exchanging my image, provisions, and priorities for God's.  How often do I care too much about how something would affect my image?  Or do I use my resources in a way that brings glory to the Kingdom? Or do I put my sleep, friends, job, or even being entertained before things of God?   Its sad to see that really I haven't exchanged my ways for God's.  And sometimes it seems reasonable to act in a way that really is more about me than God.  Shouldn't I make sure I'm keeping my good reputation?  Don't I deserve to be able to go out for sushi with money that I have earned? But perhaps those things stop me from stepping out in ways that God is calling me to.  Perhaps I could have loved more people if I wasn't worried about my reputation. Perhaps I could have made an amazing difference with all that money spent on Starbucks.  Actually, that isn't a perhaps.  That is a fact.  The amount of money I spent on Starbucks in the last year could have made a huge difference to someone, somewhere.  And I barely can stand to imagine how much time I could have spent reading God's Word if I hadn't watched any tv and movies in the last year.

When you think you aren't doing to bad, a good serious questioning of these things are pretty humbling.  I guess I have a good project for the rest of my life, cuz I figure its going to take that long to get all these exchanges done.  Good thing I'm starting early.

Catching Up

So I have been neglecting giving any real information on my blog mostly because I haven't been putting time aside to write how things are going. Today that changes.  I've learned a few things since coming to BC:

It does rain as much as everyone says.  I just happened to get two weeks of beautiful weather when i first got here. Now the weather is done showing off for me and has settled back into raining all the time or at least being overcast all the time.  My tan might not actually get as much work here as it did in Alberta!

Also, I am not in shape. Or at least not as in shape as all my friends here. I should have trained to come be their friend!  Although they may whip me into shape.  Frisbee, hiking, climbing HUGE rocks, climbing mountians and none of those at a leisurely pace!  Although, if I get in shape it will totally pay off. Especially with three weddings to look good at, and one swimsuit to buy (because I use it 10x more here! which makes it worth buying a new swimsuit that fits and looks good). I tried a uber cute bikini on today on a whim (because it was over $40 per half and I would never pay that) I loved it but I think I'm going to do the superstore steal route instead. *I just looked to see if I could find a good picture of it to post but the pics I found don't do it justice. So imagine a cute plaid 50's dress and cut the dress off the top.*

Anyways... what else has happened?  I got another job!  WOOT!
However, it leaves me in the difficult position of negotiating how I can work both or maybe I can't.  But this new one is working for Corrections on Abbotsford doing research on Women in Custody.  But mostly its just stats and stuff on the data they already have somewhere.  And I'm not sure how much more is confidential so I'll leave it there. But it should be a normal 9-5 cubicle job so that will be super nice.  But I want to help out at the first place that hired me because I like the job experience there because its working in a residential program.  Oh well.  God gave me both.  Hopefully he can make them work together.

I also ate my weight in seafood this week.  Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I made shrimp and scallop fettucini alfredo on Thursday with a friend.  Then yesterday it was scallops, prawns, and crab with Shay's dad's.  I think I've had more butter in two days than the entire previous year!  Kinda gross when i think about it.  But it was tasty.

Lastly, I found a long lost relative this week!  Who knew I had two dentists in my family?  NOT ME!  But here i unsuspectingly find my dad's cousin in Abby with his dentist office next to the medi-clinic I went to to get a clean bill of health for work.  The doctor asked me if I was related to the dentist next door.  I figured I wasn't but went and chatted up his receptionist anyways.  Yep, he is some second cousin or whatever.  My brother figured I should go ask him for a job, but now I'm all set so no need to go beg from the relatives.

So that is all I can think that needs to be written about.  Do you have questions?  People keep asking me how things are going, but I don't really know what they want to hear!