Dancing, Darling, Dear

Recently I had some lovely visitors come to my place. It was complete with some dancing, shopping, and playing on the playground and was a delightful time. Him and his mom can come visit anyday...

{video-hope it works}

Sokkie, Saturday, Sweaty

One of my new favorite things to do on a Saturday night? Sokkie!!

Sokkie is a South African way of dancing. And the name refers to dancing in socks instead of shoes. And on a hardwood floor, it also allows for spinning with ease.

A bunch of friends came over and we made dinner together before the dancing commenced. Here, Maia, David and Jannie are busy BBQ'ing on the back deck.
Thankfully, Elle was quite excited to have many friends to dote on her and play with her.
Anne, visiting from Edmonton, enjoyed some chili bites with me. Mmmmm.. probably not so good for the digestive system mind you.


Adri was making her statement about being barefoot in the kitchen cooking. haha.. but the meal was absolutely amazing!! :)
Matt and Chris stopped by to pick up a foosball table and ended up joining us for party of the party which was fun. And even more friends for Elle!

Enjoying the tasty meal together (before death by fork on my part)

Let the dancing/spinning begin!

And here's a video of Dave and Maia.. so you can see just how crazy the spinning gets. Got even faster afterwards. It speeds up in the middle. Enjoy! :)

Twenty-fifth, Treacherous, Tons

Merry Christmas!! And Happy twenty-fifth of December!!! How wonderful to have a white birthday AND a white Christmas!! And not just a little bit of snow, but a ton of it!! :) Yesterday I threw out my back shovelling off a deck with a large metal bowl.. it was pretty fun. Here are a few pictures I took of the beautifully snow covered trees..





Here are a couple of Christmas decorations. i will take more soon!! Shoot!

My ticklish friend Santa and I (Desiree got it for me for my birthday.. we like getting each other things that sing/giggle so it's great! makes me laugh every time!)

For the first time ever, I hate to admit it... Desiree and I had cookies that turned out gross. WEll we thought they were gross at least.. my mom thought they were tasty. We didn't have regular flour.. so we used self-rising flour and the pre-mixed baking powder (the recipe doesn't even call for that) is what threw it off I think. These pictures hopefully express how Desiree and I felt about the cookies...


For my champagne birthday we of course had to enjoy some champagne.. Yay for second champagne celebration of the day!! haha.. This picture of me is really funny I think.. Anyhoo.. Happy Champagne birthday to me!!



Every year, Chris Ewert and I would joke about making snowmen on Christmas Eve if it snowed.. One year we had built one I think and then it became a tradition. last year i was somewhere else and Heather and Chris came and built a snowman in my yard for me. They couldn't be here this year, so I built three in their honor!! :)

We went to the Keg for my birthday dinner and had a great time. Then we came to my house for cake and hanging out. Here's a picture of my Omi and I. Then my mom and I. Then my aunty Esther. Then Kacey, Chrystal and I.




Okay!! Now on to today!! Ooh.. I do have pictures of this morning,b ut am too lazy to get them. Because my back hurts.. But Chad, Lucas, Bobbi, my mom and I enjoyed waffles for breakfast and then opened presents. My favorite moments here were when my mom gave my brother the exact same thing she got him last year.. Hmmmm.. got to start writing things down!! Also, when my brother opened the present I got him, he proclaimed he had bought it a month earlier.. dang.. At least I bought a great gift int he sense that it was something he would have wanted! So I'm keeping it and have to get creative and think of something else to buy him!!

Then we headed to Chilliwack for our family gathering with my mom's side of the family.


And here's a birthday video made by Desiree and I



My mom had picked me up at my house the other day so dropped me off tonight. My walk and area in front of my garage was piled really high with snow. So we decided to shovel it before she left. I only have a poopy little shovel from my mom's so I decided to go meet some of my neighbors and ask to borrow a shovel. So this one man lent me his shovel and I proceeded to bail down his slick icy stairs.. Smack.. hard on my butt-OUCH. But I didn't know the man, felt stupid and didn't want him to feel bad so I got up quickly with a laugh and went on my way to shovel. hahahaha.. After some hard core shovelling I returned the shovel, careful not to slip...

I went into my house and got into my pjs and heard a knock on my door. It was my mom. She had left her door open with lights on while shovelling and her battery was dead. Luckily I had my handy dandy battery jumper box (don't need another vehicle for it) that I got for Christmas from my brother three years ago (knew it would come in handy!). So we pulled it out and didn't know how to work it. Right then my other neighbor that i've never met (but see all the time) pulled up and then came and helped us. His partner got out of the car in her nice Christmas outfit and was walking up their slick driveway with a little slope, hands full of Christmas presents.. and she totally bailed. I felt really bad for her, but at the same time it was slightly humorous just based on everything else that had happened.

Sigh.. So, that is my gong show, treacherous icy Christmas night story.. haha.. Hope you enjoyed it.

And that is all for now folks!! Have a fantastic day!! :) And Merry Christmas to all!!

Twenty-fourth, Twenty-four, Terrific!, Terrible!

Happy twenty-fourth of December! And happy birthday to me!! I'm just waiting til I get to leave for the Keg for my annual birthday dinner. Here are a few photos and I will post more stuff later on!

Yesterday afternoon Desiree picked me up and we went to Arby's. Fun times. haha.. We made a video.. you can watch it down below..


Last night Chrystal and I went for dinner in Richmond to the American Grille which was excellent! A good find indeed! Then we went to Guys and Dolls which was absolutely fantastic-I really enjoyed it!! :)
Then Chrystal stayed for night and we cracked open the champagne this morning to celebrate my champagne birthday!! Okay so we added juice to make it mimosas and to make it taste better since I'm not a huge fan of champagne. Good times!!

Here's a picture of snow out my back porch...


Afterwards I came to Abbotsford and Desiree came over.. and that's a story that deserves pictures and videos that I shall post later on...

But for now today is better than yesterday because:

It's my birthday!!!!!!! YAY!

Stay tuned for more exciting information (that will describe why part of the title of this post is "Terrible"

Video, Vanessa, Video

Once again, if you can't see the video, just flick your cursor to the bottom left of the empty space until you see the play button. Enjoy!

Mexico, Mint, Movie, Mamma Mia

To answer the question in your mind, NO i am not going to mexico.. hehe.. My mom is there right now and so I have the house to myself which is kind of nice. I can have different friends over and pretend that I'm an independent responsible individual (it's nice to be able to fool myself for at least a week).

Wednesday I had my second exam. My prof originally said that if we wrote it in under an hour, we would probably fail. In my own pride, I decided I would make it my personal goal to write it as fast as possible.. and I wrote it in half an hour.. pretty sure i didn't fail, but then i thought it would be kind of funny/ironic if I really did fail.. hehe.. okay, i'm sure i wouldn't be okay with it, but whatever! :)

Yesterday was the last day of classes, so in the evening, Jocelyn came over for a hot tub and we ate a lot of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Generally I don't like ice cream, but last night I really wanted it and mint chocolate chip is the one kind I really like. It was a nice little celebration.

My cousin Desiree and I went for a bike ride today after a long break with no biking. It was great to be outside again! Then we made a video for your enjoyment of what a typical phone message is between us (except far more rowdy and creative than what's on the video..hope you enjoy it though!! we think we're pretty funny...) Then we watched The Lady and the Tramp which was fantastic! Hadn't seen it in a while, so it was good to watch again!

Tonight Chrystal and I are going for dinner in Vancouver and then to Mamma Mia! I'm pretty excited-it should be a lot of fun!!

And here's the quote for the day to give some food for thought:

"I sense that there is something very special about the transformed qualities of faith, love, and hope. This is very hard to describe, and my attempts always feel shabby; but I must try. In their truly contemplative and transformed state faith, hope, and love are tied to no particular ends; they have no object. Contemplative faith is not faith that God exists, that life is essentially good, or that this or that is true. All such things are beliefs, not faith. Faith is, instead, a way of being, completely open, empty, as John would say, of all specifics. Contemplative faith is more like a continual fire of goodness, warming and illuminating every breath. Contemplative love is completey beyond comprehension. It is not love of some things to the exclusion of others, for that would be attachment. True love is like some infinite way of being that we become part of: a flowing energy of willingness, an eternal yes resounding with every heartbeat. And contemplative hope, the transformed hope, is also completely open and free. It is not hope for peace or justice or healing; that also would be attachment. It is just hope, naked hope, a bare energy of open expectancy." -Gerald May from "The Dark Night of the Soul"

And my updated countdown:
NO more days of classes!!!
1 more shift at Starbucks!!
2 more exams!
4 more days until a getaway to Seattle!
11 days until Leslie comes (and Earth Day-woohoo)
15 days until Guatemala!! (ahhh.. crazy!)

Hope you all have a great day!! If the video doesn't show up, just click the big black empty space.. flick your mouse to the bottom left of it and the play sign should show up.. don't know why it doesn't show up on mine.. and it'll come hopefully-be sure to have your volume up to hear our lovely voices!

Cookies, Colored, Crazy

Thursday was my cousin and friend, Desiree's birthday. So, we decided to celebrate in the morning by making JamJam cookies. Lately we have decided to use different cookie cutters depending on the holiday nearby. So we decided to make little chicks. At the bottom of this post are two of our classic singing videos made just for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think! :)
And as you can tell by these pictures, I dyed my hair!! I have never really dyed it before, except for a couple streaks when I was younger, so I was definitely branching out! I have always wanted darker hair, so I figured I'd give it a shot. On Sunday night my mom dyed it, it dried and it was the same color as before. haha. So the next day I bought some more hair dye and it actually worked this time! It has a reddish tinge which I think is a result of the combo of the two dyes, but i LOVE the way it turned out! And it makes my eyes look really blue which is fun!




This weekend has been kind of crazy with having to work lots and sing on worship team at church. I got called a couple days ago to fill in at church this weekend, but it's been a lot of fun so far! It's Palm Sunday and so we have a pretty stellar drumline which peps things up a lot! Listening to the sermon tonight I am once again reminded of the fact that some of my beliefs don't match up with what I know to be true in my head. I need to make it heart knowledge and come to a place where I actually believe these things. So, I am entering into honest dialogues with God. Funny how it's still so hard to be brutally honest to God, yet, I struggle with it.

Anyway, have a happy rest of the weekend!!

My latest countdowns:
Days until Lindie comes to visit: 9
Days until classes are over: 26
Days until my last shift at Starbucks: 29
Days until exams are over: 36
Days until I leave for Guatemala: 44