Seattle, Selebration, Stormy, Seasons

First off, I want to let you know that I indeed do know how to spell celebration.. was just using my artistic license. A few weeks ago, my friend Alisha and I headed down to Seattle for a celebration weekend! We had both quit our jobs and were celebrating the start of new seasons in our lives, excited for what is yet to come and thankful to our jobs for having brought us together as friends! We went to see Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat which was fantastic. The character development of the brothers especially was great. I liked some of the different things they did with it to add flair.

Although it had been quite stormy, it was good that we had nice weather for the time when we were there! All the fall colors and leaves everywhere was stunning! :)


We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch after which I didn't need to eat dinner.. or early the next day either!! haha.. SO good!! :)
So all in all a fabulous weekend away and definitely a blessing to walk around and chat about life and God, etc. Very encouraging and inspiring indeed! And that picture is of a monster salad that Alisha had!! haha

The next weekend, I had a hotel booked because I had bought my mom tickets to the Billy Joel/Elton John concert in Seattle that weekend which was unfortunately postponed but i was left with my hotel! My mom was going away so opted out of going, so my friend Theresa said she was able to come which was fantastic! The view from our hotel was stunning!! It was funny though because the hotel we were in was so "structurally sound" that it sways when it's windy. haha. So all night we could hear the walls creaking which in actuality was the hotel moving. I could not stop laughing every time the walls creaked even though it felt like our hotel might fall apart!!
It took us awhile to get out of the hotel back to the parkade on the evening we were going out. So we found the basement with all the danger signs posted. We decided it was picture worthy of course. :) We left the hotel, drove around, realized it would be far easier to just walk there and drove back to the parkade and walked. hahahaha

All in all, another wonderul getaway to Seattle! Nice and relaxing and just fun to get away with people I don't normally go away with!

Haha, Happy, hopeful

So I just looked at my last post where I talked about the fact that I would blog more in my free time. And then I went and blocked my blog. hahaha.. Sorry about that. Well, not really, because it was intentional. I'm just trying to decide whether I like the idea of blogging or not. WEll, I like it well enough, but then I don't like that people can know all about me without ever having to talk to me and such. It's an interesting society we live in with facebook, twitter and all that other technology that we dont' even need to interact with people anymore yet we can know all about them. That doesn't always sit well with me. However, I like to blog and I like people to read what I blog and so forth, so I guess the pull will be to keep doing it. :) Just be sure to say hello every once in a while.

And for now, I'm off to the pool to swim some laps but hope this finds you well on this fabulously rainy Friday! Enjoy your day! And I will probably blog very soon again so stay posted! :)

Burntout, Break, Bye

Friday was my last day at work. I left really suddenly, more suddenly than I would have liked, but that's okay. And no, I wasn't fired. :) I gave my two weeks notice on Friday but they said I didn't need to do my two weeks which is fine by me. The only sucky thing is that my shift ended at 1:30pm on friday and i found out at 2:00pm that it was my last day. So kind of weird to just leave and not really have any mental prep time/closure. So that's a bit odd.

It was really hard to leave and I'm sad, but I think I've made the right decision. I've been running myself into the ground for a long time and i decided I need to decisively stop and take initiative to go the other way! So this year will be a year for that. A good break.

So one of my plans is to blog more. I hope to read a book a week and blog about it, as well as some of the other things I will be up to. What I ask of you, my readers, is that you interact with my blog. I blog to have readers obviously, but it's nice to have feedback and interaction. No, this doesn't mean you must comment on every one of my posts, but here and there, offer some feedback, etc. so I know who is reading and so forth. otherwise it's not really that fun to blog because then i'm just writing stuff to a big void. So those are my thoughts on that. So all in all, comment, and I will blog more :) And if you think commenting is stupid, please feel free to let me know. hehe..

Have great day!! I'm off to Whistler for a couple of days!

Thanksgiving, Threes, Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!! Just got home from a family gathering and am always reminded of what wonderful family I have been blessed with! On Saturday night, we got together with my dad's side of the fam and enjoyed a Moroccan themed meal which was fantastic and great fun and company as per usual.

Tonight was at my mom's and it was great to see aunts, uncles and cousins! :) My mom had to work in the barns, so my aunt and I finished up the turkey dinner while she was in there. Okay, we pretty much sat around talking until the food finished cooking.. but we like to think we contributed significantly to the creation of the masterpiece! :)

So, since it's Thanksgiving, I figure I will list a few of the things I'm thankful for:

-I am thankful that we have an amazing God who loves me deeply. And daily He creates amazing landscapes for me to enjoy and stand in awe of.
-My family: My mom is amazing and has been and is always there for me. I love my brothers and am thankful for their friendships. I'm thankful for my great sister-in-law: it has been fun having a sister and having girl time together! I'm thankful for my nephew who is so precious and makes me realize how precious life is. I'm thankful for all my extended family and that we can all be close and have a great time together.
-A great new (to me) church that I'm becoming connected with. I'm a youth leader and so far I love the youth kids at the church and am blessed being part of this community that I am getting to know.

-I have amazing friends who are always there for me-whether it be to serve as a listening ear at any time and to share with deeply-such a blessing!

-I am thankful to have a wonderful home-to have a wonderful place where I can welcome people. And to have a place where I can be creative and make it my own!

-I am thankful to have a job that gives my mind a break from being burned out from school. I am thankful for the amazing new friendships I have developed as a result.

-I am thankful for my ability to swim. Okay sounds corny.. but there's something about the feeling of being in water and flying through it-there's a freedom within it.

-I am thankful for the ability to sing.

-I am thankful for many more things but these are the ones I list for now!!

Hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving everyone! :)

Romans, Rapid, Readers

First off, for those of you who may have been confused as to why suddenly my blog was updated rapidly from the last few months.. It's not that my blog is malfunctioning, but moreso that I like to change the dates of my posts to make it seem like I am a faithful, consistent blogger.. :) Also, when I look back, it's easier to keep track of when I did things and spaces it out! Based on my long break from blogging, does anyone still read my blog?

A passage of scripture I have been contemplating of late is from Romans 12:1-2. It has always been one of my favorites but over the last few months, it has taken on new meaning for me in its practical application.

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

I have a lot of different thoughts that run through my head daily, some of them welcome, some of them not entirely welcome. Yet there they are and I have to figure out what to do with them. It's funny, because there are certain thoughts that I want to banish. Certain ways of thinking and attitudes that I want to get rid of. So I try to fend them off, yet they seem to come back to me stronger.

Something I have been learning and practicing has been to welcome the unwelcome thoughts. To accept them as my thoughts and acknowledge that yes, I do think this way and these thoughts are in fact in my head. And from that point, I realize that I, in my own power and effort, cannot stop them. And from that point on, I need to turn to God in surrender and ask Him to transform and renew my mind. He is the one who can radically change the direction of my thoughts and transform the way I think. If I allow Him to and if I surrender it to Him. But first I have to be honest about the way I think.

Just a few thoughts. Feel free to agree or disagree. :)

And happy Thanksgiving to you all!! :)