Some Kind of Life Metaphor

Hey guys, ok so for community chapel yesterday (every Wed, we get together with our dorm and our sister dorm for chapel instead of with everyone) we had a lady speak to us and I just wanted to share with you something that she said to us.

She was talking about this one time she was at one of her really good friends' bachelorette party. She was sleeping in a couch with a girl she didn't really know well but she just felt compelled to ask her if she thinks this marriage seems right. Her answer was no. They both recognized that their friend was rushing into things and really only wanted to get married for the sake of being married... Well the story didn't end well-they got married anyway, the guy ended up having various affairs but they never split up and they're possibly fairly miserable.

Anyway, she said that someone once shared with her a vision-that we're in this huge place with a bunch of rooms. And each room has piles of different gifts all wrapped up and lying around all over the place. And we're all in one of these rooms right now, possibly a lot of us in the "Single" room, and we don't know when we leave and go into our next room or what even the next room looks like. But we have a choice, we can sit here and wish and plead with God, whining and complaining, "ohhh I want to be in thaaat room!! ohhh I want to be in the "Marriage" rooom! ohhh I just want someone to take caaare of me and love me" etc etc. Maybe eventually just getting up and going to the next room like the girl up there ^. Missing out completely on all the wonderful gifts in our current room that will benefit us in the rooms to come. OR!! We can party in the room we're in and open all the gifts that are set out for us, really enjoying them! Things like an increased reliance on God or ooh an opportunity to serve in a missions trip far far away! And then be that much more surprised and joyful and thankful when God calls us to our next room!

I'm a really visual person I think so I find this really helps me. And like I think it works on many levels other than the singleage vs. marriage concept but those were the examples she gave. Anyway, it was a good reminder for me to stop longing for home so much and worrying about what I'm going to do in the summer/fall/the rest of my life etc. I have a tendency to indulge in the futile thought of "Life will be good once _____ is over with/happens" (assignments/exams for now possibly??) It was awesome of God to bless me with a little reminder of what I'm supposed to be all about this year, a support for the path I'm on, and a further encouragement to keep opening these gifts in the place I'm at right now :)

Here Goes.

Heeeeey. So it's Thursday night... practically the weekend really! I want to say I'm going to be diligent with my studies but I'm too distracted by my swing music and Kirstie and the internet and my burnt out brain. I'm also expecting a call from ma famille ce soir so I'm really excited about that. I found a Toby hair on my jacket today in choir and I missed him terribly. Speaking of music though. Here's The Life of Chantal - A Musical. It's one of those 3 hour long ones that boys don't like to watch hahaha Amber.

Sleepy. (This is the Theme Song)
I Need Some Sleep. Eels.

Deliriously Happy.
C r a Z y. Gnarls Barkley.
Hysteria. Muse.
Cells. The Servant.
As the Rush Comes. Motorcycle.
Island in the Sun. Weezer.
Amazing. Andy Hunter.
Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Belle and Sabastien.
The Green Room. DJ River.
Singin' in the Rain. Gene Kelly.
Feeling Good. Michael Buble.
Anything Michael Buble really.
Moulin Rouge Soundtrack.
My Cuban Music.
My French Music.
My Opera/Italian Music.
Savage Garden!
Relient K!
Greg Sczebel.
Anything from Aqua.
Anything swing!
Seriously the list goes on for miles. I'm sorry about that.

...Oh man I forgot I was still doing this, it's been like 4 hours, ok resuming...

Angry/Frustrated.
New Medicines. Dead Poetic.
Pitiful. Blindside.
Anything Right. POD.

Sad/Depressed/ish.
When I Go Down. Relient K.
Heartstrings Come U n d o n e. Demon Hunter.
My Immortal. Evanescence.
Hurt. Johnny Cash.
Simon. Lifehouse.
Tisbury Lane. Mae.
Every New Day! Five Iron Frenzy.
Someday We'll Know. New Radicals.
Frail. Jars of Clay.
The Way I Feel. 12 Stones.
Closer to You. Wallflowers.

Alone. (This is where it sometimes is right now)
Never Alone. Barlow Girl.
Symphony of Blase. Anberlin.
Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. Andrew Lloyd Webber/Phantom.
Everything Sucks When You're Gone. MXPX. (The video makes me laugh quite a lot)
We're So Far Away. Mae.
All Those Silly Love Songs.
Home. Michael Buble.

I could go on but I'm bored, I can't even imagine how bored you must be. Phone call home was nice but just makes me miss home more maybe. Oh well though, only a little over a month :) Let's tag Amber though with this assignment, it's a lot harder than you think. Well probably only if you're a girl and have a million conflicting emotions and such. Alright! Enough procrastinating life.

Somewhat of a Better Day. Finally!

Hey guys. First of all I just have to tell you of my accomplishment today. I managed to not go on the internet all day. Until now, of course, but my little pact with myself was to not go on the internet until my stinkin huge essay was done-well it's not but it's beyond my control right now so I'm rewarding myself a little. But I have 655 words-so almost halfway done... and tomorrow's gonna be the same with the sans internet and essay writing goodness. I also sang for an hour straight. Getting ready for my huge recital oh man je suis nervouse. But I had such a fairly great day really! Such a wonderful change from the past week. Went out for breakfast/tea with my PG friend Sarah and we ended up talking/praying for 3 hours!! It's just so amazing how much sharing your heart and soul with a wise and godly friend completely shifts your focus, eases the weight of your burdens, and lifts your spirit all the way up :) Comes hightly recommended.

Well with that said... I can't even get to my song list now cuz I was just told I've been on here way longer than 20 minutes and that I need to now do some more essay to redeem myself. Bad me :( Roommates are so good for keeping you in line sometimes. Well anyway. I'll work on The Life of Chantal - A Musical. Get back to you at Christmas cuz the next month and a bit are stupid-busy. Ok bye.

Possibly on the Scattered Side of Things

Well I know that when I woke up this morning (after being asleep for an hour and a half maybe) that I really wanted to know what kind of mad scientist I would most likely be.

Thank goodness the internet can tell me.

I took the "if you were a mad scientist..." quiz on gURL.com
		I am... Dr. Terra A mad scientist with a sunburn? That might be you if our hunch is correct that you spend as much time outside as you do in your lab. Read more... What mad scientist are you?

Sounds like fun. Just so you know though, no matter how much I tamper with html, I can't figure out why there's a huge space above that thing. So I'm just gonna embrace it even though il est tres laid. Anyway, so the deal is that I can't put pictures on here-the connection keeps pooping out. And I can't explain my life without them... so I don't know what to tell you. Other than that I wish you were all on xanga instead of here and um I had a good birthday and a nice time at home. Ya that's right, good and nice. The most boring words in our entire lexicon. I only did that to let you know that I'm slightly cranky--seriously only slightly though because I keep getting too tired and distracted to remember that I care--right now but if you want though, Heather, you can choose some words to go in there. Here, here's a game.

1. What would I describe my birthday to have been?

a) Insanely stressful, as I was writing papers, not getting them done (on time at least), not eating, and not sleeping almost at all
b) Extremely dreamy, as I was showered with surprising gifts, sometimes wrapped in toilet paper, sometimes wrapped in Little Mermaid socks or Sailormoon bags, sometimes wrapped in flower-wrapping-paper or bubble-wrap envelopes and delivered from distant lands.
c) Amazingly special, as well... family and friends made me feel really special by saying and doing nice things to me (I'm way blessed).
d) All of the above

2. Home?

a) Bittersweet, basically all of the above, and even more.
b) I don't want to play this game anymore.

Ok so I miss home. I've been away for what, less than a week? And I'm already done. God is good though. Teaching me tough little lessons that hopefully I'll be able to remember for the next times in life.

Whoa ok but let me just get this out before I forget. I was thinking possibly late one night-don't recommend it usually. But here's what you should do. Member my walls in those pictures up there? How they're fairly barren? I have a request. Well I hate asking this actually but can you do it? Can you guys all take pictures at Young Adults and Amber, at Columbia, and send them to me so I can get them developed and put them up so I can see all your beautiful faces and feel not like I'm missing so much?

And if you want something to laugh at, here are my friends. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BLB88

Well this is already way too long and boring for an entry with no pictures. Sorry bout that. Post you later!

I Should Be Homeworking

Well. It's been almost officially a month here. Um I miss you. I keep hearing about the really cool things you guys have been changing to make Young Adults super-I'm really excited for it and I'm praying for your ministries. I can't wait to come and visit :)

I don't think I have all that much to say really. I can introduce to you my roommates kinda. I'll get better pictures as we're having a photo shoot soon once the skies are sunny and we don't have a million tons of homework (never). But here's Ashley.

She's a beauty queen I know. I'll get a better picture soon. One of the funniest people ever too.

This is Chelsea.

Hilarious girl really. The best facial expressions ever. Chelsea and Ashley are both from the states. Ashley from Cali and Chelsea from Nebraska. They are very proud. And they say rum instead of room. And ben instead of been.







So this is my actual roommate on the way to dinner. Those ones up there are just connected to our room but actual roommate's name's Kirstie (KEEHR-stee) and she likes cowboys and Nickleback. Ew. But no, despite that, she's pretty cool. She's gonna be my accompanist for all my vocal recitals and stuff. And we're in choir together. And she plays acoustic guitar. And when she laughs, there's like this big explosion and then you wonder if it even happened because her face goes instantaneously back to emotionlessness-it's absolutely amazing, I don't know how she does it. She keeps her side of the room INSANELY clean... every single moment of the day... which is in deep contrast to my side...

Wonder which one could be mine?!

In other news. I'm sick. And it sucks cuz I'm getting no work done cuz I'm tired and icky feeling and I can't practice singing for my voice lessons cuz I have like missing notes in my range because of the sick and ugh. It's actually kinda entertaining, next time I'm sick there I'll show you cuz like I do scales and it just mutes for a note and then hits the next one super hard. Pre-pubescent boy style. Ok it's prolly not as funny as I make it out to be. But I laugh.

Oh I'll show you some more pictures ok. This is when Toby didn't want me to leave him. "No Chantal, you just can't even go. Chantal please! No! At least take me with you! Lookit how good I can fit with your clothes!" That's what he's saying. Poor little buddy, I miss him. If you ever feel inclined to, go to my house and give him a walk for me. I guess I had a bit to say afterall.




Well the ladies are coming to pick me up for dinner. Love you all-see you soon enough :)

Missing Mountains

So. I'm in Saskatchewan. In the lovely "village" of Caronport. Sooo much has happened in the past week and a half it's nuts. But overall, I've been having an insane time with my old PG friends and plus my new roommates. And my classes are AMAZING. It's a pretty surreal feeling to actually want to read your textbooks; that you want the class to never end! I'm getting so overwhelmed with how much I'm learning, I'm not sure if any of it is sticking but I'm feeling pretty excited about it. So I wrote out an adventure I had involving the "Freshmen Games" but I'm looking at it now and realizing it's waaay long. I know I wouldn't read it. So just know I had a great time and our team won a plastic double-fretted guitar.

So weird thing. The boys' dorms have this rule. Where they can't date/practically even look at a girl until October 1st. Or they either get stripped down to nothing and get shot with an airsoft or they get beaten with the "Uh-Oh Stick", depending on the dorm really. So the "Freshmen Rush" will happen officially on October 1st and I'm kinda freaked out! Haha anyway.

Well anyway, I'll post some pictures maybe sometime. If I feel like it. I hope you guys are having a fantastic time over yonder! Love and hugs.

The fruit of a Spiritual Overload, Enhanced by Starbux Mocha

Heeeey... so I'm in Van again-not sleeping again. Mikayla is, however, sleeping soundly about 3 to 4 feet away from me. We had a great time the past couple days. She's such an amazing woman of God-I feel stretched and challenged in so many ways in just the short time I've been visiting. I feel at peace in who I am in Christ. I feel challenged to pursue/rest in that more-God's grace and love despite my complete inability to do anything good without Him. I feel challenged to put the talents God has given me to use and not give in to the temptation of not even trying because of the lies I love to believe. I feel challenged to live more selflessly and doing God's works with His glory in mind. I feel challenged to keep working at the bitterness and desire to hold onto resentment for the pain in my life-to forgive, finally leave it all in God's hands. I feel challenged to act in wisdom no matter how hard my will fights that. I feel a strong desire to serve and love the people close to me now-cherish them and reach out to them, make myself vulnerable and not worry about the consequences. Support and encourage them, sacrifice time for them. I'm so inspired. I'm so full-of gratitude for the people God has placed in my life this past year. There are the ones that have been there for me in tough times-just simply making me laugh and helping me to forget worries for a little while. Ones that I could enjoy getting close to-learning from and being inspired by them and just loving life with them. Also there are the ones who, no matter what, always ask me how things with God are-sharing with me what He has been doing in their lives and spurring me on towards love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24) and always drawing my eyes to Jesus. I'm so blessed! It's going to be hard to move while all of this is still starting to grow and be nurtured but I know that God was preparing the way for me when I moved to Kamloops and He is preparing the way for me for when I head off to Saskatchewan. I can rest in His faithfulness for sure. So that's fairly in-depth but maybe expect that on nights where sleep comes slowly cuz a lot of the times haha I just can't sleep cuz aaaall of those thoughts are running around and bumping into each other like 5 yr olds playing soccer. Anyway, hopefully I can put all this inspiration to good use. I'd say feel free to let me know if you don't see any of these changes but heh I guess you guys won't be seeing much of me this year. But oh well. Let's keep in touch anyway k? K deal. Well maybe I should try the sleep thing again. The glow of caffeine miiight be starting to wear off now.

Vancouver'd

Well I'm in Abbotsford. God's totally taking care of me-as usual. And as usual in His own way. Here I was originally supposed to go to Vancouver to stay with my best friend Mikayla but funny story. I call her and tell her what I'm doing and she's like sweet, see you in a few hours and I'm like well maybe ask your Mum first so she did and she's like... uhh well I have no idea what Mom's problem is but you can't come tonight... So I was like uhh ok well I'll just go with my mom to Abbotsford and just call me when you want me over. And then we never get a call till like the next day at around noonish-haha oh man so turns out this guy that's interested in her flew up from North Carolina Tuesday night as a late birthday surprise and asked her over a fancy dinner at the Boathouse (on the roof no less! how romantic) if she'd enter into a courtship with him!! Saying stuff like, Mikayla I just wanna know what makes you sad, angry, and what I can do to make you not sad or angry. I wanna know what makes you happy and joyful and what I can do to keep you like that. I just want to know you, Mikayla. Adorable!! He apparently talked with her Dad for a whole long time the last time he visited and he's practically the most amazing guy ever. So I got to meet him today-yep he's great, he composes songs on his guitar so he played/sang one for us today and it made Mom and Aunt Jackie cry, so beautiful. He's so passionate for God and you just can't help but want to worship when you're with him. Totally approve. Anyway, haha aw I love love stories. I'm so happy for her. Except this ruins my plan to go to Thailand with her next summer-if I know her like I think I do they'll prolly be married by then. Weird. But oh well. I will travel the world no matter what. Ok well I'm losing interest in writing so I'm gonna like go I guess. Thanks Amber! Aw she called me today guys! Isn't that lucky! I'm practically her love.

I can't sleep :( don't even read this

So... it's not really all that late, pretty sure Landon's gonna be up for 2 more hours watching tv so I'll prolly join him in a bit but I'm just not as young and regenerative as I used to be and this whole insomnia thing isn't really working out anymore. I'm just too excited, I can just tell when I'm gonna have a sleepless night cuz I feel... tingly haha um sparkly? I don't know, I can't explain it past that-but my mind is not shutting down and everything's going like a million miles an hour-that's pretty fast. I'm nervous about Bible college but mostly suuuuper excited. Nervous about like the courses I picked, what if they're not the ones that I really need to take-what if I picked out not-so-great teachers. And I mean... this last year at TRU was prolly one of the worst years of my life haha I'm nervous about being in school but away from my parents and everything familiar... I'm gonna be on my own. I know it's going to be good though, God's gonna stretch me and mould me and break me and put me back together-the way He wants and it's gonna be fantastic. Just nervous. I know what you mean, Amber, it's coming up so fast and I'm not prepared at all-so ya I don't think about it either. Well except for tonight apparently. Among other things.
So ya my family's back and I'm excited about that, it's good to have this huge empty house filled again, even if only for a few days. I wanna go to Prince George so bad... And Vancouver. I just miss my old life. This Kamloops life is wonderful at many times but I miss familiarity! The people I grew up with who know me-inside and out-who have danced with me when I was overjoyed and who have held and prayed with me when I was too broken to even talk. Ok I was talking to an old camp friend about being lonely in my house and he was like go to Prince George, be spontaneous, otherwise you'll just sit in your house depressed. And I want to, but I'm too safe all the time. I miss having the friends that make me come and have crazy adventures with them. Don't even give me a choice, just take me along. Like the time we ran away from camp (ok so we got permission) for a night and ate chinese food and dragged me through a water park with all my clothes on and Ben gave me his extra pair of worker pants to wear cuz I was cold and when I changed out of my wet pants Bryce stole them and whipped off his pants in the middle of the gas station and put mine on-veeeery much too small for him, and then we went and climbed a huuuge sand mountain and carved things into it and drove back listening to Aqua very loudly with the windows down in very dirty clothes. But now... I can't even justify driving to Dairy Queen when it's dark to buy a blizzard. I mean I'm sure Bible college is going to cure me of that but I don't want this summer to be forgettable-which it kind of is. All I can remember, aside from the occasional bbq or gathering of friends, is putting my hand in toilets and cleaning that bathtub (one of the many that doesn't drain) that someone peed in and then put towels in-that's my favourite. So hopefully Walmart calls back soon so I can start planning a trip...
Oooh I'm starting to get tired again, but I don't know if I'm quite there yet. Oh well my battery's dying anyway so I'll just go make some food (haha had a blizzard for dinner tonight...) and see what show Landon's watching.

Hey

Hi. I don't think I have much to say but I wanted to say something anyway cuz I forget about this often and now that I've remembered, I want to seize the opportunity before I forget again. Um so ya I guess Fern Gully night #2 seems like a semi-popular idea so I'll try and get onto planning that. Cookies would be great, Amber. Oh you know what I've always wanted to do-though my mum would probably not be as much of a fan of it-is have a group baking day! Or like a cookoff!! Iron chef style! Oh and I want to host a dinner party! Like fancy too! With weird food and shrimp cocktails and french music and everyone wearing dresses and suits. Basically I love cooking/baking. Ok I might need to go. It's possibly late and I have to play with kids in the morning. Poor me.

Aw Hey :)

Well Andrew, I came here because you reminded me that I had one of these so this is for you. I was so happy to see 5 whole comments! I love odd numbers. Well in response to some mild astonishment, yes I did indeed have my Fern Gully party... I assumed you guys would hate it so... I didn't invite you. But as I was in Rogers the other day with mon petit frere (that's little brother) making a fool of myself knocking over things and forgetting to bring the dvd case that's *behind* the cover case to the desk lady, I caught out of the corner of my eye the second Fern Gully!! Jim you probably knew that already because you are so up to par in the Fern Gully department but the point is that maybe after I fail all my exams, we could have a certain Fern Gully marathon... maybe like Fern Gully the first one, then the second one, then the family fun games from the first one, then video games cuz I really really miss video games. Also Sharon, I have no objections so far in being included on the YA thinger.

Ok well new news. I got really bored jumping on that stupidly boring trampoline. So I don't do it anymore... but I still don't wear deodorant... not on purpose mostly. I just get so bored of exercising, running down a street or repetitively lifting heavy objects, ya it just doesn't appeal to me. I think I want to dance cuz that's the only thing I could do for hours but I'm not really in a dancy mood in the mornings as I'm asleep until about 8 in the evening. Oh and aquafit, but mostly people don't go to that anymore and Anrew deceived me saying that he'd instruct it except when the time comes, he's no where in sight. Anyway, if there's anyone out there who likes dancing-maybe some cool like hip hop or some like fitness-esque salsa, tell me and maybe we could join some classes and cut some rugs or something.

Well I'm all out of brains to write much else so I'll blog you later :)

Woah I'm Here Guys

Well I decided to succumb to the blogger fad temptation. I must admit I felt a little left out slash I wanted to join your cool club. I'm fairly spontaneous and my moods change with my jelly belly flavour preferences so I have no idea how this thing's gonna turn out.
So I'll start with this amazing discovery I made. This morning, I was jogging on our little trampoline to some sweet Aqua beats, and then I showered and forgot to put deodorant on which really isn't that much of a cataclysm because as some may smell, it happens fairly often. But!!! I don't stink at all! I mean I really got my nose down there and I really actually don't stink. It's totally from that trampoline-it's practically magic, I won't ever have to put deodorant on again! But seriously, Mom read up on it all and said that just 2 minutes of bouncing around on this thing? Ya it drains your lymphatic system so I imagine that's how it works. So ya, I'm really pumped about this, but just in case, if you ever get some bad whiffs e v e r, just let me know before I throw out all my deodorants ok? Sweet deal. So that's my amazing discovery.
Man, Friday nights at my house are insane, reading blogs and writing about how I don't wear deodorant. So I just shared this very blog story with my family and their friend here and they told me to share their great stories, women, don't wear your husband's deodorant because it stinks and if you ever forget deodorant on a business trip, use the perfumed soap in the hotel room, you smell pretty the rest of the day. Great life lessons right there. But what's most disturbing about that story is that my parents have a friend over and I don't. Someone take me out, I need fresh air.