Wildcat, Weekend, Weddings

I am incredibly thankful for my friends. And lately I have been so grateful for the new friendships I have been building in Langley. A few years ago, when I felt like I needed to stay around and put down roots, I never would have imagined it would be so great as it is so far. To build community and invest in it is a beautiful thing and I am blessed.

The weekend (as you can see by the previous posts) was full of dance parties, BBQ's, hanging out with friends and playing with puppy.

Sunday night, we had a braii, which is a South African version of our BBQ, where everyone brings their own meat and a sharing dish. As always, the meal was amazing, the company wonderful and we played some fun games aftewards too.

Cooking away in the kitchen

PUPPY!! (who is presently howling in the bathroom. oops)

I found some time for cleaning and organizing this weekend. Saturday morning I cleaned my deck which has been on the to do list for two years now! Scrubbing the mildew and gunk off all the railings took about three hours and I only sliced one of my fingers open on the scraped back metal. But now it's sparkly clean and it reminds me of how I should be concerned of how obsessed I am with cleaning. But somehow cleaning stuff on the outside makes me feel like life is more orderly and clean on the inside. Or something.

puppy!! because she's cute. :)

Heather and I decided to drive out to Chilliwack to visit our friend Kristen at work, at the Wildcat Grille. With a quick stop to visit Elle's godparents, we were on our way. Heather was the "cat" in Wildcat an I was the "wild". We had fun having a running commentary on Kristen's stellar waitressing. :) She's my favorite waitress for sure hands down.



Anne and I embracing ourselves. (there was a context to this.. I just don't remember it)

Enjoying some very very late night cards. And then slumber party!!

A few people stayed for night and then we enjoyed playing some cards this morn. In the evening, Dave, Adri and I headed to my mom's for a BBQ and some hot tub and swimming action. It was wonderful. We BBQ'd salmon and enjoyed wine and cheese by the hot tub.
Once again, another very full, but very blessed weekend! And a bit scattered in the explaining through a multitude of posts and missing large chunks where I didn't have a camera with me.

As I was sitting in the hot tub today, I thanked God for the fact that He is sovereign over all. I started going to a random church in Langley. And in that perfect timing, I have met a lot of wonderful people who bless me incredibly and make my life even more richer. They are becoming like family to me and I am so grateful! So this is me, expressing my overflowing heart of blessings.

Some things I'm looking forward to right now:
-Couple days in Seattle with Megan to see Fiddler on the Roof!
-Couple days on the island as a getaway with Jocelyn and going to Alex and Ryan's wedding!
-Road trip with Bethany to Calgary, seeing Calgarian friends and Jacquelyn and Ross' wedding!
-Church Camping Trip!
-Birthday Extravaganza Camping/Hiking Trip!
-Roadtrip to Portland with Laura (it's official now that it's on my blog... :) )
-Missions trip to Mexico
-Desiree and Joe's wedding
-Trip to Zambia (Victoria Falls) and South Africa
-Possible trip to New Zealand and Australia!
-many many more BBQ's, swimming parties and random fun adventures!

Excitement, Evening, Elliptical

Do you ever have an overwhelming feeling of intense excitement? That things are wonderful and even more wonderful things are coming?

I had no pictures to include in this post, so I took the liberty of taking some shots in photo booth to intersperse in this post and I truly hope you enjoy them. And perhaps they will get you a bit excited too.

Here are some of the reasons I'm excited:

Last night I went for dinner in Vancouver with a couple of friends that I used to work with at the gym in Abby. We hadn't seen each other in over a year but it honestly seemed like we were together a week ago. It was delightful to hang out and chat for a few hours. I left inspired and excited about what is happening with their lives and them sharing parts of the journey that they're traveling on. And even despite discontent and dissatisfaction, looking ahead to what's coming.

Every day I am loving my job more and more. It is a blessing to be there and to connect and build relationships. I love it and learn a lot from it. I feel richly blessed. And although I love where it's at right this minute, I'm excited as I get more grounded and move forward and make more plans for the future.

My relationship with Hans is improving. Hans is the elliptical for those who forgot. I usually never watch tv (except select dvd sets with a couple friends), but i have been watching glee while on the elliptical. 45 minute episode makes for 45 minutes of Hans quality time. Today I wanted to watch the next episode, so I went for another 45 minutes. I already feel my body regretting it though! haha..

I love my new blog and the freedom it's given me in being able to write about my experiences and thoughts and to be able to inspire and encourage others hopefully. I have no idea where it will go, but for now I am really enjoying the process of writing it.

I went to a great concert the other night and just bought tickets for a couple more: Jack Johnson and also Simon and Garfunkel (who i absolutely LOVE)

There are a lot of great and incredible musicals coming up which I am stoked for!

I love my church. It's far from perfect. But I absolutely love the community there and the people I have met who daily enrich my life. I am so thankful for new friendships that I never even expected. And it is just the start of it. I am excited because I keep meeting new people through my new friends and they are all amazing people that I can learn a lot from and who encourage me in different ways and I am grateful.

For the last little while I have felt at a standstill in my prayer life. Basically I haven't really known how to pray. Well, sure if I wanted to pray something, I could say a nice prayer... but I came to a point where I realized that I couldn't just depend on my "ability" to pray.. I wanted it to truly be from the heart. And so it's been a struggle connecting with God, because I come before Him and am often just speechless. Slowly though, as I have been learning more honesty and transparency, I am relearning how to pray from the heart.

I love my home and the renovations. I love that I can have people over and welcome them in. It is incredible to be able to have my own place that I can open up to others.

More and more I feel at home in Langley. I feel more distant from Abbotsford. When I go out in public now, I run into people I know. This may seem like a strange thing to be excited about, but you have to know that in Abby, every public place I go, I run into about 10 ppl I know. In Langley the weirdest thing was not knowing anybody anywhere. But this means I'm putting down roots and that's pretty cool.

I have lacked vision and purpose in my life for a while. Since graduating from school, I felt like I was simply burned out and not able to give from that place. However, lately I have been feeling renewed and refreshed, with a new vision that feeds my passions and gives life. Not sure entirely how this will look, but inside of me feels hopeful and looking forward to what is happening in my heart and mind as I see a bit more of the picture of how God is using me and will continue to do so.

I am starting to volunteer more hours in prison apart from M2W2 and am excited about those opportunities. I also started volunteering with power to change as an email mentor.

I am finally starting a photography business! Moreso to sell my shots of travel stuff, but also if people want me to do sittings with them. Feel free to join my facebook group, 'Vanessa Maree Photography'. I will be posting more stuff in the near future on that. :)


I feel more rested and content where I'm at right now. Generally I have a strong urge to travel all the time and be elsewhere. But now I hesitate to travel because I am so excited about what's happening here and now all around me. There is a lot of the world to see, but I have traveled a lot so far in my short life and am so grateful for that. So not saying that I won't be traveling in the future, but the pull isn't there as strongly anymore.

So that's that. A few of the things that are exciting to me right now. Life giving. Fueling my passions. There are more things as well that I won't mention right now, but more so, I feel like this feeling bubbling within me can't even be fully expressed in words in order to do it justice.

So I leave it at that. I'm excited. :)

Fall, Future, Familiar

Sorry for my lack of blogging lately. I have been consumed with school and most of the time I feel like my mind is in a haze that doesn't function optimally. Soon perhaps I will post some photos.

I have been trying to decide what to do after graduation in a little over a month. Sometimes I wish my decisions could be made for me because there are far too many out there! So here's my plan for now: Start working full time after my last exam (April 14th) at Premier Agendas (same place Chrystal works). I will work there until October and take one class in fall at school (needed for grad school). Then I shall travel in the new year, work again for the summer and go to grad school in the fall. Or I will get a job as a border crossing guard or corrections guard and go that route. I guess time will tell.

Things I'm excited for after graduating:
-Being able to read non-textbook books. It is my goal to read the books in my library and hopefully I will be blogging about them a lot more!
-Being able to go have fun with no guilt of having to do homework
-Having a job and coming home and not having anything related to do at home.. so my free time is my own!
-Having the chance to paint more rooms in my house!
-Being on a regular sleeping pattern!


That's all I have for now!! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Creepy, Crazy, Creature

So here's my next promised post. No pictures of the Christmas decorations yet though because i'm too lazy to turn on all the lights, take pictures, upload the pictures and then post them. ha. but soon. but i'm posting since you commented and i included a beautiful picture of myself down below for your viewing pleasure. I'm just that attractive.

I have kind of gotten back into the groove of going for daily walks. When I first moved in, I was walking every day for the first two or three weeks. Then I got sick and life got crazy and I would walk about once a week. The last four days I've gone for walks and it's been wonderful (except for the huge blister on the bottom of my little toe). Saw a large dead rat covered in flies yesterday. That was lovely.

Lately I wonder what in the world God has for me and my life. Right now I could list off ten possibilities of things I could and they would all seem to be good but I'm in the dark. I hate being in that place, but at the same time I feel brimming with excitement and hope over the good things I know will come. I'm learning to dream big. There's a psalm that says "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it". I have decided that I want to dream big. Because however large I open my mouth, that's how much God will fill it-so I determine it. Thankfully I have an extremely oversized and large mouth. haha.. But that's exciting because great things are in store for me and I'm excited for how God will use me. Right now my dream is to be a travelling speaker/writer. And that's all I have for now!

Thanks for listening to my thoughts. I will try to post more often!

Productive, Prison, Possibilities

So, in a quest to post more on my blog I will post right now.

I just finished reading 80 pages of a really difficult book on the history of the prison system and then wrote a paper on it. I just have one more 12 page paper to write before tomorrow. I'm leaving to pick Lindie up in 30 minutes, so I'm not entirely sure when I will write that, but hopefully I can fit it in somewhere.. It's just filling the 12 pages up that will be the problem. haha..

So yay for productivity on my Sunday morning!! I am always happy when I get to cross stuff off my to-do list!

I have been thinking lately of possibilities of what I should do after graduation. I could get a job. Or go to school for my masters. Or take the year off and work intermittently and travel. Hmm.. Any suggestions? Anyone have an ideal job they think of when they think of me?

Here's some fun trip possibilities for the future:
-Somewhere in the Caribbean with Lindie during my spring reading break
-Mystery graduation trip with Chrystal somewhere fun to celebrate (Disneyland, cruise, carribean?)
-Scotland, Wales and England with my mom next summer
-Ontario next summer for my cousin's wedding
-Quebec next summer for a pyschology conference (and visit people after)
-Road Trip next summer because they're fun... somewhere in the States- North Dakota perhaps?
-Australia to visit Dave and Karin perhaps.. not sure when but I would love to go visit!
-South America explorer with my mom in January 2010 with a few extra days to go to Antarctica (my dream come true)
-Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia
-South Korea to visit my friend Hannah
-India

Okay, enough dreaming. Any you guys think I should absolutely go on? :) hehe.. it's fun to think of all the different possibilities! I just have to co-ordinate them with the hundreds of weddings happening next year!!!

Anyway, thanks for listening to my ramblings, I'm off to the airport!