Helicopters and Havana

The other day I came home from work and wondered what the noise I was hearing was. I got out of my car, peeked in the backyard and noticed a helicopter there.. You know, regular sight-haha.. my brother has been taking helicopter lessons and so he was stopping by to pick my mom up for a ride. She took my camera and snapped a few shots.

Here's the view of the back of our house from the air. Kind of fun!

Laurel and I studying for our Philosophy Midterm.

Chrystal and I for our weekly walk around Mill Lake.

And today I'm off to Cuba!! Hoorah!! here's a couple pics I took of the internet of the place where we'll be staying! We'll be doing all sorts of activities too which I'm super excited for! :) I have always wanted to go swordfish fishing and that is something we will do!! I'm stoked!! Stay tuned for pictures in about a week!! And have a great week-enjoy the sun in Abby!! :)

Update and Up, Up and Away

First off, my apologies for being the world's worst blogger (okay, maybe not the worst...) I haven't been online a huge amount lately and have been working lots and doing lots of marking and school stuff. So here I am. I had a bunch of fun pictures to post, but alas, my camera mysteriously disappeared into the hands of my brother and who knows where it went. Hopefully I find it soon!

My new theme for titles for posts is letters.. all the same (maybe you noticed). hopefully you can figure out how it applies :) (u is a hard letter.. haha)

Had my first and only midterm last week which was nice to get over with!! Now I just have a few big assignments left and it shouldn't be too bad. Every semester I come to this point where everyone around me is swamped with midterms and papers and I wonder why I am not. I'm waiting for the semester of death.. but it has not yet come (not complaining). Maybe I just pick the classes well? :)

Working at Starbucks has been fun! Took me a little bit to get back into the groove and remember how to do everything! it's fun having the regulars recognize me. For Valentine's Day, my friends Kacey, Chrystal and I all got together to play Mario Party and eat candy. haha.. we felt mildly sick afterwards. but it was fun!!

This week I'm counting down the days until reading break!! Only four more!! I'm off to Cuba with my mom, my friend Brooke, her mom and my aunt and uncle, so it should be a lot of fun!! So just a pre-warning that after Saturday I won't be posting until March 3rd or so but I will have lots of pictures to post, so be sure to check it out!!

Hopefully I'll find my camera later and I'll make a pictures post with more stories of what's been going on.

And I will leave you with a quote from my philosophy readings that I really liked.

"The evil of pain is the grit which makes possible the growth of the pearl."

Cocoa, Cappucinos and Canucks

Last night Gab and I went to the Canucks game. They lost 6-2, but we still had a lot of fun and we made it on the big screen, so that always makes all things better!

The other day, I got my longly awaited for package from Germany! Wow.. I was shocked when I opened it to see how much chocolate was inside! Enough for the year! So if anyone wants some chocolate, let me know! :)
Sorry for not posting much lately. I just started working at Starbucks again and things have been pretty busy. Wednesday night i had my first shift and seemed to remember most things. I find myself putting an extra shot in tall drinks by accident.. oops! So if you get a tall drink that gives you quite a buzz, that would be my fault. :) It has been really fun to see a lot of people I know come in and to have a lot of the regulars recognize me from when I worked there a year and a half ago. Yesterday I totally bailed on the mopped floor and landed solidly on my knee, which broke through many layers of skin and now hurts to move and bend, but hopefully that will get better soon!

This week I also got another job as a T.A. at school. I already TA for one other prof, and another one heard that I had and asked if I would do some marking for him. So this weekend I got to mark 50 papers! woohoo! Actually, over the past year, I have been marking lots of different things and taught a tutorial in stats last semester. It makes me kind of want to be a university professor. When I think of anything else I could do, nothing appeals to me. But as I've been thinking about it, teaching in a university would be awesome and I would love it! So perhaps that is what I will aspire to do.. but we will see! Unless anyone else has some random career plans for me.

Tonight I'm going to something called "Walk through the Bible" at my church. It goes through the whole old testament, so that should be pretty interesting!! Other than that, I need to get crackin' on homework!

And the countdown to reading break begins: 13 more days!!!!

Faith

Faith: the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness

"For You cause my lamp to be lighted and to shine: the Lord my God illumines my darkness"
-Psalm 18:28

Visit to the Heartland

For those of you who may not know-Quebec is a place that is really dear to my heart. I went there for Bible School (Capernwray) for two years, worked as a host at their conference center during the summer and led three teams of young people on missions trips in the city of Montreal. Quebec is deeply embedded in my heart and I love it-love the people, the language, the culture, the landscape, everything! For now, I'm here, but I could definitely see myself living there one day in the future. So, when I had a chance to go there during my four day weekend, I jumped on it!

I left late thursday night and took a red-eye flight. Arrived at 7am where my friend Jenn picked me up. As I was landing in Montreal, I was ooking over the city and was so overwhelmed with emotion at being back and seeing this city that I love, I wanted to cry. It was SO good to be back there!

The day I arrived, a blizzard followed me with about 20-25 cms of snow! They already had a lot of snow and this pile I'm standing by goes to show how much there was.. Up above my head! FUN!

Here's a pile of snow int he parking lot.. Compared to the truck, the pile is pretty huge! haha

When in Quebec, one must have poutine. So Jenn and I went after church on Sunday to grab some. On Sunday it was so great to be back at the French Mennonite Church that I had attended there for two years. It's always so neat to come back and see all the people there. And wonderful to speak French again.

I absolutely love all the icicles that form everywhere in the winter!!

Dave and I

Theo
I love the kids at Capes. I was there when a few of them were born and it was such an incredible blessing to be there as they started growing up. Every time I go visit, it's crazy how much they've grown up! I did not get a chance to take any pics of the Thiessen kids (Joshua, Anna and Mary), but I did spend a day hanging out with them and playing with them.. I'm "Banessa" to them as Joshua couldn't pronounce the V when he was younger. :)

Catherine

Millie, Theo and Catherine. I got to go play in the snow with them and it was pretty fun! Great to run really fast while pulling them in the sled too!

Jess sank into the top portion of the snow-goes to show how deep it was!!

Quebec, QC, Qrazy

No posts this weekend (except for this one), because I decided to be random and fly to Quebec for a few days. So I'm here for the weekend and loving every minute of it! So good to see old friend, be stuck in blizzards and walk by snow piles that are taller than my head! YAY! I'm off to play broomball-have a wonderful weekend and stay posted for pictures and stories on Tuesday!