My 50th post!

That's pretty crazy. I just realized when I logged on that this is my fiftieth post. Wild.

Isn't amazing how God answers prayers that you don't even pray. I mean there are some things that I pray over and over for, and I seem to get no answers, but other things that I don't really feel are worth God's time (if that makes sense) that I don't even mention in prayer.

For instance, that catering job. I have wanted to start my own catering company, and this is a start. Now another cool thing, I have just been hired to paint a house over the summer. I need the extra income during the summer (as there is no school) and without even mentioning it to God, he provides. Painting this house in going to be good cash.

Another example, I have always wanted to do pottery. My grandma decided that me, out of the blue, is the grandchild that will be receiving her pottery wheel. I was telling this lady from town, and she has taken hundreds of pottery lessons, and will give me free lessons if she can use the wheel too. How amazing is that?

And another example (God is so good!) I love to sing. I always have. I have also always longed to take voice lessons, to help build up confidence and just be a better singer. The nearest place to take voice lessons is 45 minutes away, and we only have one car. Needless to say, G needs the car for work. A couple just moved into town, and guess what? The wife teaches voice lessons.

All of these wonderful things happening for me in a town of 500! Here I have been pouting about living in this town, and I am discovering more and more wonderful things about it. Praise God! He is so good too me.

I just got home from chaperoning a school dance. There were two bands playing. Just kids from school. It was alright. I don't have much else to say about that, so I am going to end this here.

Thanks for checking in.

So tired

I know I didn't write yesterday, but I have a good reason. After school yesterday, I hopped in with G and went to Lloyd. I spend the day/night at my brother and sister-in-law's house, babysitting the kids. We had a lot of fun. We jumped on the trampoline, tried to catch frogs, caught some snails, and built jumps for the bikes.

The only problem I had was the huge lack of sleep. I went to sleep at about 11:00 pm at my brothers. He and his wife got home around 12:30 am, and they wanted to visit (we haven't seen eachother in a while). We stayed up and talked until 2:00 am. At 5:20 am, I had to wake up to go pick up G off of night shift. We drove home, and I went to work.

Needless to say, I am extremely tired. I just had a nap, I couldn't even hold my eyes open. I slept from 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm. I would have stayed in bed forever, but I forced myself out because I wanted to get everything ready for supper for tomorrow night.

Another very cool thing, for those of you who don't know, I cater. I work for a lady and we do numerous events throughout the year, and are extremely busy in the summer. I love doing it and it is a lot of fun. Anyway, I just got a phone call today, asking if I, not the lady I work for, but I, would cater a wedding. It is just a cold supper. Coldcuts, cheese, salads, buns, pickles, that sort of thing. Very cool, huh? I am pretty pumped. The wedding is August 12.

That is all for now, folks.

This life

Well another day has passed by. I went to work and came home. I was happy that I got to spend a couple of hours with G before he went to work. We had our bible study tonight. It went pretty good.

I do have to say that over the last couple of weeks, I have become more and more satisfied with my life. Don't get me wrong, I love G. I love OUR life. I have just been unhappy in the town we live in. I grew up here, so it is really hard to find your niche as an adult. I just wanted to say that I have been feeling more satisfied. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a completely pathetic thing. You know, like you settle in a bad relationship because you think you can't do any better. Am I settling for this town? Haha.

That's life. What can you do?

Back to work

I had my first day back to work today. Things went pretty good. I am actually getting pretty sick of my job, though. I think it is time to move on. Both G and I are considering going back to school. G told me the other night that he has always wanted to be a carpenter. I am trying to push him in that direction because I would much rather him be happy with what he is doing. He hates his job right now.

I just got home from music practice. Our practices are going pretty good. We have a few song picked out that we want to play. Well, we already are playing them. We just haven't found anything yet that we all love. Hopefully, we soon will. Shawn, our drummer, really wants us to write our own stuff. That would be pretty darn cool.

I have to keep this short. Buddy is unable to keep his head out of the garbage tonight. We had pork souvlacki for supper and the skewers are in the trash. He wants those baddddd.

I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by Crystal to come up with some weird facts about myself. This should be easy!

1. I have to sleep with my feet out of the covers. If my feet are covered up, I feel like my feet "can't breathe" and panic.

2. My brother's used to cover my mouth when I was a little girl and tell me I couldn't breathe, so to this day, when a hand goes near my mouth, I get very claustrophobic and feel like I truly can't breathe.

3. I can't stand nail polish on my fingers. It makes me feel like my nails "can't breathe." (maybe I had a near death experience as a child or something where I actually couldn't breathe. I feel like such a freak that all my weird things involve me thinking that I can't breathe)

4. I sing all the time and I mean all the time. I was actually born singing. The doctors said it was the first time they have ever seen anything like it.

5. I am obsessed with squeezing pimples. If I see a tiny red mark on my face, I am squished up against the mirror and squeezing away like crazy.

6. I love to wrestle and wrestle hard. I would really like to take a kickboxing class or something. (that's what growing up with a lot of boys does to you)

7. I love pickle and peanut butter sandwiches. And I love pickle juice. Yummy.

8. I love plucking hair (like my eyebrows.) I know it sounds really weird (but you asked for weird) I would love to pluck out G's whiskers. It just looks like it would be a lot of fun to pull out those kind of hairs.

Okay, so I am a total weirdo. I feel so weird looking over my list. I am definitely weird. Everyone else's lists that I have looked at are just normal things. Not me, I am a fully fledged weirdo.

I have no one to tag. Sorry. Crystal is the only one who reads my blog and she tagged me!

The sweet little puppies. 

Just Dreading

I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. I am just starting to feel completely better, and now I have to go back to work. Not much of a vacation I had. Oh well. I am just dreading the 8:00 am staff meeting.

We didn't do much today. We just went to church and then came home and spent the afternoon together. It was actually pretty nice.

I am off to bed, but I leave you with a picture of my friend's puppies. We are super tempted to get one. She even said she would let us have first pick of the litter.

Goodnight.

Ready For Bed

I feel pretty tired today. After a week of being at home, I finally got out! G had the day off, and so early this morning, I went to get groceries.

I am actually embarrassed by how much groceries we buy. I don't know where all our food goes. I have this monster huge cart full of groceries (that is tipping over with every turn I make) and then I watch a mom walk by with 4 kids with half the load of groceries that I have. What is up with that? My cart was actually so full that I was carrying stuff in my arms. Craziness.

Tonight was our church movie night. I went to the church early to get everything set up. We had a big theatre popcorn machine, lot's of pop, and lot's of licorice. More people came then I expected. We watched Narnia. That is such a good movie. It is the second time I have seen it, and it was just as good the second time around. My brother-in-law says that he can't stand the kids that act in the movie. I just love them. They are so healthy and robust looking. I don't know. Maybe it's just me.

It's back to work on Monday. I am not looking forward to it. I was getting so used to sleeping in. I am hoping that my daily blogging won't take a nose dive when I go back to work.

I think I am going to head off to bed. Goodnight.

Emails 'hurt IQ more than pot'

This is from CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/22/text.iq/

LONDON, England -- Workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows.

The constant interruptions reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard.

The survey of 1,100 Britons showed:


Almost two out three people check their electronic messages out of office hours and when on holiday


Half of all workers respond to an e-mail within 60 minutes of receiving one


One in five will break off from a business or social engagement to respond to a message.


Nine out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude, while three out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

But the mental impact of trying to balance a steady inflow of messages with getting on with normal work took its toll, the UK's Press Association reported.

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day.

He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson said. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness.

"Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working."

Wilson said the IQ drop was even more significant in the men who took part in the tests.

"The research suggests that we are in danger of being caught up in a 24-hour 'always on' society," said David Smith of Hewlett Packard.

"This is more worrying when you consider the potential impairment on performance and concentration for workers, and the consequent impact on businesses."

Now I finally know what's wrong with me. Haha.

No offers?

I have received no offers from here yet, but I am getting a lot from one red paperclip trading post.

My house is permeated with the smell of popcorn. We are having a movie night tomorrow at our church, and our big popcorn machine no longer pops corn, it just keeps it warm, so we are microwaving a whole load of microwavable popcorn to put into the machine. Another lady and I are both popping 28 bags each today. You can't do it all at one shot, though, because your microwave gets too hot and it will burn the popcorn.

So approximately every 20 minutes, I am popping more corn. The smell is starting to make me want to vomit.

My sister-in-law Jana is coming over. She is getting very, very close to her due date. She is due at the end of the May and the doctors say it is going to be a big baby. (My brother was 13lbs. Yes you read that right, 13 LBS!)

Oh, and another exciting note, Pat and Jana are looking at buying a newer, fancier digital camera, so I may be able to snag their old one at a great price. Then I wouldn't even have to try to trade the stupid car, although I think I still would. I am having fun with this.

And another one!

Just seconds after I wrote that post, I have someone else who seems interested e-mailing me. This is really exciting.

What this is all about.

(THIS IS NOT OUR CAR. I JUST FOUND A PICTURE ONLINE SO YOU MAY HAVE SOME IDEA OF WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. OUR CAR IS A DARKER BROWN AND HAS A LITTLE RUST. THIS CAR IS JUST THE EXACT SAME YEAR AND MODEL!!!)

For those of you who are too lazy to read any further into my blog, I have been inspired by Kyle Macdonald's One Red Paper Clip.

Now I know that it would totally be lame to copy his idea of trading up from a paper clip to eventually be traded a house. I have, however, taken interest in trading on his trading post.

Currently, we have a 1977 Malibu Classic that still runs well and has a little rust on it. It sits parked in my in-laws yard, and we just haven't got up the incentive to try to sell it.

This is where Kyle's brilliant idea comes in. Why not trade it? So my car is up for trade on his online trading post. I am hoping to get a digital camera. Am I a loser? Yes, I think so.

I think it would be so cool to be on the other end of this trade. "Hey, I just traded my digital camera for a car." That would be pretty cool.

If this trade interests you, or if you have any other cool things that you might want to trade for a 1977 Malibu Classic, leave me a comment.

Another bite

Well, I have just had another trade in offer for the Malibu. This lady has a nice digital camera with a couple of memory sticks. The only problem, she lives in Maryland, USA. I am going to Google Map that too see how far that is away from me.

Okay, if I drove straight without sleeping, it would take me 1 day and 18 hours. That is 42 hours of straight driving.

I think I will just take the money that I would have had to use to pay for gas, insuring the car, hotel rooms, and food and just buy myself a digital camera.

Unless she is willing to come here and pick it up. Now that would be cool.

My trade.

I think I may have someone somewhat interested in trading my car. That would be super cool. He is from Edmonton, so we wouldn't have to go that far. I am trying to make the trade for a nice digital camera. The car is just sitting there, and this saves us the work of having to get it ready to sell, etc. Plus, I really want a digital camera. It does sound bad, trying to trade a car for a digital camera. Haha.

One Red Paperclip

Okay, I just heard about this guy on the radio. He started with a red paperclip, and he makes trades. He hopes to be able to get a house or an island. So far, from that tiny red paperclip, he has traded up to one years free rent in Florida. This is so wild! Check it out:

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

He has an online trading post, so I was trying to think of something cool that we could trade. I ended up putting on our old 1977 Malibu Classic. It runs good, but we just have it sitting in G's parent's yard. Hey, maybe I should see if someone would give me a digital camera for it!

Another rant, but of a different kind

Crystal, for a little more privacy, I am stealing your idea of calling my husband my the first letter of his name. I hope you don't mind.

So G is having a little bit of trouble at work. One guy has already quit so now they are working 5 on 3 off. While that sounds better then an ordinary workers week, all shifts are 12 hours and rotate between days and nights. He is now working 60 hours a week.

Anyway, the reason the one guy quit was because he was moving to another job, but on the same site. He had to have a urine test done to see of there was any drugs in his urine, and he failed. Now he is no longer allowed on the job site. Now the head guy (not G's boss, but the guy above him) is insisting all of the guys have urine tests, and as it sits right now, G will probably be the only one with clean urine.

I just found out G works with guy like that. How safe is that? Some of the guys come to work high and they work with equipment that puts your life in danger everyday. So not only are they risking their own lives, but they are risking my husbands as well. One of the guys has even been doing it at work! What you do on your own time, whatever, but at work, come on!!

So needless to say, I am a bit frustrated. G is starting to feel like, "Is this they way the rest if my life is going to be like in the oilfield?" Maybe we should both go back to school again. G would really like that. He isn't much of a school man. He did his share and I probably wouldn't be able to force his back in for anything.

My Tuesday

Okay, so last night I am still sitting in my pajamas at 3 pm (give me a break, I am still sick) and I get a phone call from my brother asking if I am going to the supper where my grandma is receiving an award. I had no idea that there was a supper or that my grandma was even getting a reward. I phoned my mom and dad and asked them why no one let me know. They told me they didn't think anyone would want to go, with it happening on the Tuesday after the Easter weekend. Mom even used the words, "No one would have the time to go unless they lived next door." The ironic part of it is, I DO live next door to the awards ceremony. The community hall is right behind my house! My mom and dad are so forgetful.

When I used to live at home, when messages came in, I would pass them on to everyone, and since I left home our family never has any idea of what is happening. So it has been quite a few years now that we are all like, "what? Who had a baby?", "they passed away?" "they got married? When was the wedding?". Yeah, I think raising us 6 kids really did it in for my mom's memory. Haha.

Anyway, so last night we went to this awards ceremony. It was an awesome supper, but then we had to sit though a boring meeting. There were two people receiving medals, Grandma and some other man, for all the volunteer work they have put into the community. It was really cool to hear a lady call my grandma the wrong name, and correct her quickly. For those of you who don't know, my grandma has alzhiemers, and so it is always awesome to see her remember things. Not that she has ever forgotten her own name, or my name, for that matter. It is just awesome to see her brain work that fast. Her loss of memory has really weakened her confidence, so she normally would not say anything, but for her to say (and say somewhat annoyed), "My name is not Doris, Ethyl, my name is Joyce." and laugh! It was so cute! (Her sister's name is Doris, so there may have been some sibling rivalry)

Ken and Jen came out for the evening, and so while the comedian was on, I had to go home for our bible study, but they let me take baby Torie with me. It was the first time she has even been away from mom. I only kept her for about 30 minutes. She wasn't crying, but she was really hungry. Sucking on her hands, the blankets, etc. She is so darn cute. I wish I had a digital camera.

Our bible study went awesome, but there was one time where everyone was talking, and I said something a little inappropriate to Gabe, but right when I said it, the room went silent. A few people heard what I said, and I was so embarrassed. My face has not gone red like that in a long time.

I am enjoying being on days off. I love sleeping in. I keep on trying to stay up late, but Gabe always wants me to be in bed while he is falling asleep. Most people complain of having to share a bed, but both Gabe and I sleep better when we are both in there.

Well I have rambled on about nothing for long enough now. I am going to be having coffee with a friend of mine today, and it would profile be a good idea to have a shower and get out of my pajamas. If only pajamas were socially appropriate to wear everywhere. I would have it made.

Feeling Sick, yet better.

I am still sick today. I am not sure if I mentioned in my post yesterday that I was sick. I woke up this morning and my voice sounded like a man's voice cross a dragon of some sort. Yeah, I sounded pretty sick. I am feeling much better though. Yesterday I could not even stand up and today I have already vacuumed the floor, cleaned my bathroom, and did a couple of loads of laundry. Yeah, no sickness can hold me back.

Tonight we have our bible study at our house. I was going to cancel it, but I think I am feeling up to it. Our pastor is so awesome. He is just one of those personalities that you are able to pour out your whole soul to. It is an awesome thing to pour out your soul. Today I told him things that only a couple people know. He just asked how things were going, and I poured out the whole story. And he listened, and he cared. It was pretty cool. Not many people listen today.

It's amazing how getting things off your chest make you feel so much better. After I got off the phone with our pastor, I cranked the tunes, started vacuuming and singing my heart out.

Things will all work out, they always do.

THANK YOU, CRYSTAL!

Much thanks to Crystal for creating this new beautiful layout for my blog. I love that my background remained black, that was my favourite part before the revamp.

I just got off the phone with my sister and had a much overdue conversation. I guess it is about time I with a few people in my life that I am keeping a blog. I actually enjoyed the privacy. I think I still do. It is so nice. I live in a small town and I am from a big family, so not many things remain private in my life. Maybe I will keep it private, despite that the fact that I have not written to much personal stuff.

Maybe I will start all over. Make a new blog with actual events that have occurred in my life, leaving behind all the random nothingness that this blog has been so far.

This weekend was rough. Whoever told you that the hard part of your marriage would be between you and your partner was lieing. In-laws. Agghhh. That is all I can say.

Why?

Have you ever wanted something so bad, but could never have it?
I feel tired, hopeless, lost, confused, hurt.
I thank God everyday for Gabriel, because I sure could not go through this alone.

I have been listening to a lot of Keane lately. The song, "somewhere only we know" is playing over and over in my head.

"Somewhere Only We Know"

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete
Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me?
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
So why don't we go

This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?

I know I need to learn to lean more on God, but it is so hard. I almost feel a little betrayed. Like I did trust God, and I thought I heard his voice, I really did. But I was wrong. It's not my time, I guess. Will my time come? When? Please, God?

It's been a while

since I last wrote. Last night we finally did our dinner theatre. It went really awesome. The kids all did a great job.

It's kind of a day of mixed emotions. I just found out that one of my good friends is pregnant and another one of my good friends just had a miscarriage. That is a lot to take in.

I also need to take my dog into dog obedience. Today when a friend came over. he jumpped up and bit at her! He even ripped her coat. He didn not get any skin (thankfully) but, man oh man. He is the sweetest dog in the world, but he thinks he has to protect me from anybody new that comes to the house. Have any good ideas what I should do?

I am super tired and I think I am going to go take a nap.

My big rant

Well, not a lot has happened since I last wrote. Gabe never got the job that was close to home. He was a little upset, but I don't think he would have enjoyed that job anyway. It was more of an office job, and Gabe prefers hands on a lot more.

He goes for an interview in Calgary tommorrow. I am not too sure how I feel about this job. It is a camp job, so that means he would be in two weeks and out two weeks. That is a long time for us to be apart. The plus part of this job would be that we would move. I have been itching to move for a long time. The town we live in is too small. I would go crazy here without Gabe for two weeks. I have only a couple of friends that lives in the town that are around my age. Everyone else is way older. It just sucks. It is a really lonely lifestyle that has taken me a long time to adjust too ( I am still adjusting).

It's funny, living in the town that you grew up in. When I left highschool, I swore I would never be back and I would never look back, yet here I am again. I like some aspects of this town, but there are a lot. The town is too small, and people have so little to do with their time that all they do is talk about other people. It seems everyone gets sucked into this mentality. Even at my bible study, someone is always gossipping about someone else. Get serious! It is a bible study.

I know that I have done my share of talking/thinking bad thoughts of others, but I am really trying not too. I have to make a decision everyday, and it is really hard. I think I am somewhat critical by nature. I am trying my best though. It seems as soon as you take notice of what you are doing, it becomes more and more apparent with those all around you.

I'm sick of it. I'm sick of people looking in my windows. I'm sick of small towns.

Sorry for my rant. I am in a little bit of a bad mood, I guess.