Leaping into the Unknown

Catching Up

2011-04-06T23:35:00.003-05:00

Well after feeling near comatose for the last 5 days I feel back to myself and oddly enough awake after 11. I have had some domino effect issues in the past couple weeks but the last several days have been interesting. Very low iron or whatever it was... it didn't feel good.

But regardless I have been feeling like blogging but then realizing I haven't in a while so there's lots to catch up on. So I will do some little point form about what I've been up to.

In the last bit I have...

- Gotten very close to perfection on my multigrain foccacia bread. Divine. Have to have a very good reason to make it otherwise I eat too much.

- I have made a non-Chinese but very good lemon chicken.

- I not only got the camera I wanted for my birthday but Steve bought me an air compressor to which I then purchased a nailer and I have been having LOTS of fun with them. Projects galore are made so much simpler with heavy duty tools.

- I have started a bunch of projects. Key word being started. I HATE the feeling of a whole bunch of unfinished business.

- I have started a whole bunch of bibs for the St. Norbert Y Neighbours Used Toy and Clothing Sale on Saturday. Pam and I are having a table with goods from Tiny Treehugger (including my sewn lovelies)

- I was gifted a new-to-me mitre saw and had it fixed this week and now that I'm feeling better I am ready to rock and roll with getting stuff done. No more hauling my wood to Steve's brother who has graciously let me use his tools for the past while.

- I went to the Steven Curtis Chapman concert on Thursday with my beautiful cousin Twylla and her friend. His story is so powerful and he is a testament to what God will do when you draw close to God in times of sorrow.

- It was Spring Break. It was nice not waking up to the phone call with my daily assignment. I was very busy though. On the Tuesday Steve was off and we took our little dude to the pool. Fun fun.

- Speaking of the phone. I was really hoping to get a leave that was coming up for the end of the school year and to know where I was going each day instead of living in uncertainty. But I found out that God has a different plan and I wasn't chosen.

- I will continue working out my desire for stability and trust that God has a plan and that within this plan he has me as a substitute right now. Whether it is to touch the lives of many children or to teach me humility, patience and trust, I do not know the full purpose of his plan but his timing is perfect.

That's it for now. As that phone call is only 7ish hours away and while I feel full of energy I will not if I neglect to sleep.

Cheers,

Krista

Evangelized by 9:30 am!

2011-03-03T16:13:00.002-06:00

There are definitely ups and downs to the world of subbing and today definitely had both but more ups than downs. Today I had a student in the class I was subbing (Grade 2) that blew me away.

Here's our conversation:
Child (yelling from across the room): "Hey Mrs. Smith, do you have the Son of God?"

I didn't quite know how to answer that. There was no left field alert. I mean I do have the son of God. He's quite the guy. I just legally can't really talk about that. Nor did I want to just flippantly say no or ? .... so I say

Me: What are you talking about? (I did want to know why he was asking)
Child: You know, God's son. He saves you and gives you life. (And this is where he starts quoting scripture including John 3:16 and another verse I need to look up I was just blown out of the water)
Me: Where did you learn those verses?
Child: Awana

I just find this so crazy and awesome all rolled into one. A tiny little 7 year old evangelist. He also might have been my most interesting child of the day. Spunky.

Another one from today which was so great.
Child: Mrs. Smith I really like you as a sub. You have a great attitude.
Honestly, best compliment I've received in a super long time. Spoke right to my heart as my attitude is something I am constantly mindful of.

So that... is that.

Cheers,

Krista

Thoughts for a Sunday Night

2011-02-20T22:45:00.002-06:00

Living joyfully has been a struggle many times in the last couple of months. I have struggled through so many emotions and still find myself so much in the valley.
I have been struggling to be who I am and figure out who I am in a state in which I don't always like myself. I look in the mirror and don't like what I see on the outside especially after gaining 10 pounds in only a couple of months. I have been struggling with knowing whether it is my voice or God's I hear and knowing how to respond.

Struggling with hearing the word wait.

I am struggling with friendships and feeling like I want deep and strong friendships with people that are around and available. Friends that will be lasting and want to spend time with me, with us. I am struggling with believing (some days) that God has a job for me.

I want to feel important.

I know in my head that the valley I'm in is only a portion of the journey that God has planned for my life and that the journey will be worth it. I know in my head that there are people out there that love me outside of my parents and my husband. I know in my head that God has a plan for my life as a teacher and that subbing is where he wants me right now.

But my heart and my head are not in the same place right now. I deeply want to follow God and his plan for my life. I want to follow his will. I just don't want to have to feel like I don't belong and that I am not worthy.

Krista

Bye Bye Football

2011-02-13T18:02:00.003-06:00

Okay so I didn't really know what to name this post. We did bid farewell to football this week (perhaps that is what I was celebrating at the Superbowl party last Sunday). We had a big party which was lots of fun but was overwhelming at times. I was so afraid that there wasn't going to be enough food, etc. By the time the game came I was pretty wiped.

Then Monday I got the sweet surprise of waking up at 5:45. ON MY BIRTHDAY. I didn't get called to sub so I could so have slept in. Oh well. I did have a couple short naps in between cleaning and other things that were generally relaxing. Steve and I celebrated my birthday by going to Earls St. Vital for supper. A couple months ago we went there and I had a pasta that was fantastic as well as their grilled foccacia and one of their red wines. I liked it so much when I had it then that I ordered the exact same thing. It was very good.

And I know you're on the edge of your seat wondering if I bought the air compressor or the camera. Welll...... the camera won out for right now even though I had to shell out for the remainder. My brother and SIL bought me the memory card for my birthday so that was one thing less I had to buy. And here's the best part! Steve is going to get me the air compressor as a birthday/Valentines' gift next time it goes on sale because unfortunately we missed it this time round. The camera has been super fun to play with. I have taken a couple hundred pictures already (with many being deleted already) just to test out the different features. Like this one feature that will only take the picture once you smile. Very fun.

I had an interesting week as far as subbing. I went as far as St. Adolphe this week and also had a day in which I taught high school and Kindergarten in the same day. Do you want to guess which was a walk in the park and which wasn't? I also had some moments this week where I felt really low. I was feeling like I was giving and giving and giving and my well was running dry. Thankfully through my devotions and my awesome cousin I realized that you have to live without seeking return. Unfortunately, because we are imperfect people we do not always get back what we give out and God can use our humble hearts and generous spirits even when we feel dry, because he will fill us up again. Thankfully this weekend has been nice and calm and just what I needed.

And if that's not enough. It is our two year home ownership anniversary. Yay! As a look back at how our home has transformed in the past two years I integrated one of my old slideshows with some new pictures (that I took with my new camera : ) ) While I often get really caught up in what needs to change it's great to see where we are and stop and be thankful. God has provided us an awesome house that is perfect for parties and for hosting cell and so many things. While we maybe should have looked at more than one house when we bought this house it all worked as it should and God set things in place for us.

So here's the slideshow. The one I put on FB has actually captions if your curious. Cheers!

Choices, Choices

2011-02-02T13:59:00.003-06:00

My birthday is a mere 5 days away and I am pumped. I look forward to this day all year actually. Since Christmas I had been planning to buy this camera with the birthday money that may or may not come my way. Chad got this camera for Christmas and there's been awesome reviews. It was on sale several times before Christmas for under $200 but it has been back to it's regular price of $279 recently. Which is a little high.

In comes the Canadian Tire flyer (duh, duh, da) and a 8 Gallon Air Compressor with Nailer on sale until next Wednesday (not exactly the same as this picture).

Oh the dilemma. On one hand I do want a new camera because my current one is not good at focusing, or indoor pictures or outdoor pictures.... A camera is something I would use LOTS. But the one I want is not on sale... (and I'm not going to pick another one. Not even an option)

But on the other hand the air compressor is on sale, for almost the same amount as I usually get in birthday money. I know of so many ways I would use this. I am wanting to redo the baseboards in several of my rooms and the trim outside and in some rooms inside the house. I would be able to use it when constructing furniture and almost best of all with a sprayer I could use it to "spray" paint my furniture and the trim that I would put in and my doors that I painted last year that still look gross I could redo. All giving things a better and more professional look.

I know that if I get the air compressor and with all the home projects that we need to do that buying the camera might get pushed very far into the future. The air compressor may go on sale again. After all it is at Canadian Tire and none of these projects need to be done now. And it would be likely that we would still buy this item within the year because we will need it for stuff this year.

In other "news" my culinary challenge is going well. I have been tasting and adjusting spices, I have made a lemon chicken that was horrible so on to another recipe and I have been working on my breads. In fact I have a batch of buns in the oven right now.

I have been looking online at books I am interested in buying to focus myself on the foods that I want to perfect.

This one called Laurel's Kitchen: A Guide to Whole Grain Breadmaking sounds like just what I'm looking for.

There's also this Mexican book that looks like something I would love to read and cook from. It looks like all of Rick Bayless' books are great Mexican cooking tools.

Well my buns are beeping, well not the buns persay, but I better go. Let me know what you would do. Air Compressor or Camera?

Cheers,
Krista

Culinary Challenge 2011

2011-01-21T20:29:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I was out with a friend for coffee (well actually London Fogs) and she asked me if I could work on one "thing" Decorating or Cooking/Baking this year which it would be. I thought about it and decided that because many if not most of the things I want to have done decor-wise are done or not a huge priority. So I picked Cooking/Baking. Together her and I made goals for ourselves in Cooking and Baking for the year. It's more focused than a 101 list and doesn't take nearly as long. So I have a whole year to work, perfect and hone the skills I choose. And I think it will be AWESOME and super divine.

Baking
1. Make amazing breads- a variety of great breads with different grains especially working on using whole wheat. I would be very interested in making focaccia with whole wheat after my attempt failed this weekend and in making ciabatta, and so on and so forth.
2. Find MY perfect brownie, chocolate chip cookie and other favourite recipes.
3. Make a double layer GORGEOUS cake.
4. Make a real deal Tiramisu

Cooking
1. Work on making my own dressings. In particular Caesar dressing.
2. Make homemade pasta
3. Make sushi
4. Work on honing my skills in my two favourite cuisines. Mexican and Asian
Mexican- make amazing Enchiladas including homemade enchilada sauce
learn to make tamales.
Asian- make a mean Lemon Chicken and a Honey Garlic pork or chicken or ?
-perfect making stir-fried veggies- in particular timing. Either they are ready too early
or get mushy.
-learn to make Pho. It's a Vietnamese soup. I had it roughly 3 years ago. It was the last
thing Renee and I ate together. Maybe I will try to make it on the 3 year anniversary of
her passing or her birthday.

Theme Ingredients- Like the Iron Chef but a little less intense
1. Work with more spices and learning what to add, how much to add and how to to make dishes pop with flavour with the right combination of spices.

Spices/Herbs I want to work with more- Cumin, Corriander, Ginger Root, Garlic, Rosemary, Flavoured Oregano, Saffron and I want to successfully grow basil, thai basil and cillantro.

2. Potentially roast some of my own spices and get a mortar and pestle to grind them and use
them in my dishes.

Things I will need to buy or acquire in order to complete these challenges
1. A mortar and pestle. I don't know if I will get an expensive one because I don't know how much I will use it.
2. More baking pans, for breads and such.
3. Serving dishes including a cake stand for the double layer cake
4. Sushi making stuff
5. Books about great breads, Asian, Mexican or spices. (Recommendations would be fabulous).

I want to take notes on my recipes so that I can adjust them. I have found WAY too many times that I use a recipe from online that has great reviews and then it sucks. And chances are if I made some tweaks that it could be okay but if I go back to it most often I don't know what I didn't like about it.

I am hoping to come out in the end of 2011 with my signature dishes that are flavourful and even a little bit healthy.

So here's to a year of good food!

Cheers!

Krista

Aced

2011-01-19T21:03:00.002-06:00

(Warning- Andrea this one might not be for you)

If life is a test, I think we passed our pop quiz today.

We had the Dude today and soon after Steve got home from work, said Dude, started puking. Complete projectile vomiting. It caught us quite off guard and we definitely had a look of panic in our eyes. But, we were able to stay calm clean him up and strip him down after the first round, then bathe him after round two (bonus points for the tub being a fairly contained area to clean if round 3 came). We stretched out the bath for a long time based on this (plus he was having fun).

Finally, we hung out with him a little bit more and unfortunately round 3 came. So we decided to bundle him up and take him home (we had him because our SIL was sick and Steve's brother was OOT). While I got the vehicle ready Steve was able to get the dude into his snow suit all by himself. : )

Why am I talking about all this? Because it feels awesome to know that when the time comes with our own kids that we can handle it. We can stay calm and handle the bodily fluids. I know that we can work as a team and deal with anything that comes. Now when the time comes I know that we won't be able to bring our kids somewhere else for night but we'll handle that when we need to.

Until next time!

Cheers!

Krista

All About the Dude

2011-01-15T23:53:00.011-06:00

Dude, Buddy, Spud. Whatever we choose to call him on any given day Steve and I adore our little nephew Rylan and last Wednesday he turned one. What an exciting day to remember a year ago when he was born and how much he has learned already and how our lives have changed in the past year.

Wednesday they had a small family party with the grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles. So a whole bunch of adults with Rylan as the star of the show. He decided to show off his walking and walked almost everywhere. He loved using the unopened gifts as drums, sneezing on several of his guests and had a great time making a mess of his cake. (case and point)

Just to look back... here is Rylan and I,
January 12, 2010 and then January 12, 2011.

Looks like we've both pretty much kept the same hair style although this is technically his second crop in 12 months. My hair is shorter but the same colour. Last year I was in the midst of my Grade 3 year and had just returned from Mexico. I was lighter than I am now by a couple of pounds. He was considerably lighter last year. : ) This year, well I talked about that a couple of posts ago. No need to rehash.

While Rylan may not smile for the camera
(rare smile caught in this picture)
or get all excited he has definitely developed a super awesome personality in the past couple of months. He does get super excited about some things. Often he gets super pumped to see his Uncle Steve (especially if Uncle Steve has yogurt) and he loves soft things. At our house he loves this awesome faux bear blanket that we have. He cuddles his face into it and gets all happy. He also loves squishing his fingers in our shag rug. Rylan likes shopping and seeing himself in mirrors (which is easy entertainment when we're doing the former).

He also (and I don't think that it's just my unobjective opinion) recognizes that there are pictures on the wall of Bridget and him (which excites him) and he definitely knows when his name is being called. His favourite place to go at our house after his cuddle with the blanket is the Tupperware cabinet. He knows exactly where that is and can empty it in no time flat.

Listen to me ramble about this boy. I just love him to bits. In a year that had it's ups and downs he has been my up all year. Often if I had a rough day at school I would call Rachel and ask if I could come to play with Rylan. Just seeing his cute face lifts my heart. And because I was off for the summer and now with subbing I've had more time than I would have, and because Rachel's been on Mat leave there's been time to shop, have breakfast and have coffee. I've seen him at least once a week for all 52 weeks that he's been here and I am SO very excited to see all he's going to learn and do as he marches to two. By this time in 2012 will he have a name for me? Will he be mischevious or obedient? Will he have a case of the terrible twos? What will make him laugh and what will his favourites be?

Happy Birthday Rylan! Maybe one day, on your fourteenth birthday maybe I'll pull this out just to prove to you that I was crazy about you all along!

Oh Yum!

2011-01-10T11:45:00.003-06:00

I think most of you would know that I love to bake, cook and eat. So it should come as no surprise that I have been doing just that recently.

This weekend I tried a new bread recipe, though I can't say that I have made a lot of bread in my baking career, but this one was SO easy that I have to share. I made a delightful foccacia bread and we had that with cream of broccoli soup for supper. It was really good. Soooo tasty. The huge massive bread is... gone. Well I am bringing some of it along with the soup to our friend's who just had a baby boy. So it wasn't all Steve and I.

For this recipe I used my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer with the dough hook which was very helpful during the kneading portion but I think it would be completely doable by hand. I used dried rosemary but I can't wait to make this in summer when I have fresh rosemary. I have also seen a very similar recipe at $5 Dinners. That one has eggplant on it too and I would love to make that sometime that recipe website was down when I went to make my bread the other day so I had to look for an alternate which happened to be the allrecipes.com one. I have high hopes for this bread. I can imagine making it with a nice pasta and salad for company. I could make it with the eggplant parm that I used to make quite often. I could make it with the eggplant stacks that I love making from Rachel Ray. That with a caesar salad out on the patio in summer. DIVINE. I better go eat something before I head to the grocery store.

Tonight for supper I made sweet and sour porkwith veggies and the Pioneer Woman's Sesame Noodles. It was sooo good. I bought some Asian Wun-Tun noodles but could have easily used a spaghetti or angel hair. I also used cilantro instead of green onions because I'm sensitive to green onions and I love cilantro.

The Sweet and Sour Pork was divine. I made it loosely based on this recipe. I used pork tenderloin because that's what I had and coated it thinly with cornstarch which really helped it brown. I also made the sweet and sour sauce that I make when I make chicken balls which was only slightly different. The one thing about this meal is that you have to serve it right away. This was my problem. It seemed like it would all take awhile but once I started going it was quickly done. I had it ready over twenty minutes before Steve walked in the door. It still tasted good 20 minutes later but things weren't as crisp as they should have been.

I didn't take any pictures of the above food because, well my camera isn't very good. I have my eye on this beauty which I am hoping to buy with my birthday money in a couple weeks. My brother Chad just got this one for Christmas and it has amazing reviews and if you've seen any of his pictures lately you know that it's working for him.

Anyways. I think now that supper is over I will go camp on the couch and hope that the dishes fairy will be along shortly.

Cheers!

I'm just not into that

2011-01-09T11:53:00.002-06:00

For several weeks in December and now the first week in January 11pm on Wednesday night has been "date" night for Steve and I. A little late if I say so myself but sometimes there's not many options. We've been watching the Penguins/Capitals 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic on HBO. While we both like hockey (Steve might be on the love level) I don't think I would have watched this had it not been for my hope of seeing my cousin featured and getting an insight into the everyday life of professional hockey players. Quite interesting actually. The documentary follows both teams and talks about the daily ins and outs of hockey. The highs and lows of winning and losing, Sidney's horrible moustache and they did actually feature Eric on episode 3. They showed Eric and his wife Rachel giving back by sponsoring a family through the Salvation Army and giving them Christmas presents. Kind of cool.

But what WASN'T cool was all of the swearing. Four years ago when I was serving I probably wouldn't have thought twice about all the swearing. I was so accustomed to it then. It was part of my daily life and while I didn't necessarily agree with it, I wasn't sensitive to it. Fortunately, things have changed. Through being an elementary teacher, being involved with mainly people from church in my circle of friends I hear very little swearing in real life. And I'm totally okay with that. I am glad that I have re sensitized to the unnecessary and vulgar nature of using expletives instead of real words in a conversation or to express to someone that you're not that happy.

Unfortunately what I watching didn't carry that same value. In Episodes 1 & 2 the swearing was intense. Lost a game, lost your cool, things are going well... swear about it. I wanted to do a vocabulary lesson with them to teach them some words they could use instead of the F word. That may be part of their everyday life but fortunately I was a little taken a back listening to it. Episode 3 either they edited out the swearing or the players and staff actually swore less... we'll never know. It might have had something to do with the Capitals coach's mom publicly saying that she was embarrassed to hear her son swearing a blue streak. But Episode 4 everyone was back to their old tricks. While I was really interested in the content the swearing just totally turned me off. Being HBO which is all about that there was no bleeping and they are all about the shock and vulgar aspect. In all I'm glad that while that negative and vulgar language isn't part of my life and find it so disappointing that other people are so consumed with it being part of their life. And that's what I have to say about that!

Looking into the past and forward into the future

2011-01-05T18:38:00.003-06:00

Hello blog... haven't seen you in a while.

It's been about 7 months since my last post on this old blog and I thought I'd give posting another go. Would this be happening if I hadn't given up FBing for the month of January? Maybe not but here it is.

So here's a look at what has been happening in 2010 and a look into the year ahead.

2010 started with two joyous events! Meeting our niece Bridget who was born on Christmas Day 2009 and soon after the birth of our nephew Rylan who was born 51 weeks ago today. Watching them in the last year has been such an amazing joy. While Bridget doesn't live very close to us we have enjoyed watching her grow and watching her personality develop in the past year when we see her on holidays and when Sarah and her visited for night in October. Christmas was a great day as she turned one and both Rylan and her experienced their first Christmas. Craziness.

Rylan on the other hand I have seen at least once a week for the past 51 weeks and being able to be so close to him has been outstanding for both Steve and myself. I know if I looked back at my status' for the last year that many would be about him. He is a great little almost one year old. Not easily excitable but so wonderful and his own little character. We have this great picture from the family pictures we had done for Steve's parents for Christmas with both Bridget and Rylan and in it both Rylan and Bridget's personalities shine through. The mischief in his eyes is so evident. This mischief has led to some baby-proofing and quite often in finding my Tupperware cupboard fully emptied on the floor. Uncle Steve and him are quite fond of each other and Steve even babysat him by himself this week while Rachel and I went out for breakfast. We came back to see them both in front of the TV, with one of them fast asleep. It wasn't Steve... We are looking forward to his first birthday next week and getting to see what he will learn in the year ahead.

But as much joy as those little people have brought to our lives in the past year we have had our share of struggles and challenges. Just before Spring Break I found out that I wasn't going to be hired permanent in the position I was in last year due to many different things one of them being that after two full year terms, under MTS regulations, a teacher hired into that division again needs to be hired permanent. Because of some struggles that I had during the first half of the school year and many other factors they chose not to hire me permanently. This was hugely discouraging and then with nothing else coming up last spring for this current school year also dealt a large dose of struggles and feeling like being rejected. But despite this reality I had a great end of the school year. I fell in love with my students more every day and finished strong. During the summer I was hopeful that a position would open up and I would get a call... but that too didn't happen.

So since the beginning of the school year I have been a substitute teacher which has been challenging and humbling. But it has also been so much fun and in many ways I have fallen more in love with teaching. I have subbed everything from Kindergarten to High School Foods and Cosmetology. I have met amazing students, teachers, principals and other staff in this division. I have kept pursing positions (after the start of the school year I could be hired term again) that come available but so far I am still a substitute. One of the best joys that this has provided is that I have been able to continue some of the relationships with students and staff at the school that I worked at last year. I have been able to see and received so many hugs from my students from last year. It has been truly life changing actually. The first time I was back there in this school year I was overwhelmed with the joy that I saw in my students eyes when they saw me. I felt as if I had not just been a passing wind but that I had made some difference in their lives and that was really a huge answer to prayer and so exciting.

The end of 2010 also brought a new job for Steve. He is now working at Furniture Plus and is loving his new role and the new challenges that it brings him. He has moved from quite a small company to a bigger company and the change has definitely been good for him.

The other major thing that has happened in my life in 2010 is that through the struggles and the changes and all that happened that both Steve and I have grown in leaps and bounds in our relationships with God. The struggles have grown us closer to Him but also to each other. We have learned so much from the teaching at our church, from the people that we have met and from our cells (Bible study). We started the year in a large worship cell that was led by one of the pastors of our church. It was great but we had initially wanted a smaller young couples' cell and in May one was starting and we jumped in. We actually offered to host the cell (while another couple leads) and it has been great. Along with the young couples cell I also go to a Teacher's Cell (which also includes EAs, substitutes and others) Wednesday mornings before school. Through the struggles we have learned to trust God because He is good. Not sometimes but ALL THE TIME. We know that through our struggles and through choosing to walk closer with Him instead of walking away that He has a plan for our lives that is so much more than we can do with our own strength. He has brought us so much joy in following Him in the past year and I am excited to see what He has in store for this upcoming year.

So yes... looking into 2011 as I see it right now.

This month we have not only Rylan's big birthday but it is also Prayer and Fasting month at our church. Not that every month shouldn't include prayer and fasting but this is a fresh start to a new year. I felt God was asking me to give up Facebook (currently just for the month) so I did. It's been 5 days and the urges to go on have been less but then there's also been times like when I heard about my cousin's engagement and I wanted to go quickly congratulate them, or the excitement that I felt the other day with my cousin having a huge game in the outdoor Penguins/Caps game, or wanting to contact people for whom I don't have email addresses or that I still think of FB status' throughout the day. I also have been struggling with not filling the time that I would spend on FB with other online things. In addition to all these things I'm hoping that I will work yet this week as I feel like I've had enough time at home and would love to get "back" to school and into the world.

In February I will be turning 28 and we will be celebrating being home owners for 2 years. Yikes. Time has flown but we love it here in Steinbach 98% of the time. I say 98% because sometimes I wish I was closer to the city, or that I could go shopping on Sunday but the pro's definitely outweigh the cons and one of the big pros is living so close to our gorgeous nephew (and his parents too). We will also finish the month with a retreat with our cell group to an Encounter God retreat.

As for the rest of the year. Looking ahead I don't know what is going to happen. I guess I have hopes and dreams. One of them being that we are hoping to become parents in 2011. Another being hired for a teaching position. While I do enjoy subbing I would love to be in a classroom of my own, if only for a couple of months now at the end of the school year. We would also love to keep working at paying off our student loans so that we can be debt-free ASAP but we'll see how that goes. My goals don't necessarily all "fit" together. Other than that it feels like my life is open to whatever possibilities come my way. The title of my blog still seems to work as we are still in the unknown, but the great thing is that God knows and that's okay with me!

My heart's goal for 2011 is that all who I encounter will be encouraged. I hope to be a positive beacon and that will take some work but I will work on it!

So... that is my reflection of 2010. Longer than a status update but if nothing else it will be something for me to look back on next year and see where we were and where we were hoping to go and where we actually got to. Life truly is good!

Cheers!

Krista

St.Patrick Snipet

2010-05-07T19:38:00.001-05:00

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First post in a while

2009-11-25T13:37:00.004-06:00

Life has been very busy but I really have no excuse for not blogging. Right now I'm home with the tail end of a migraine while my students are at school with a sub. I have a really hard time calling in sick. I know that sometimes it's better for me and my students but on a day like today I knew that I "could" make it through the day but I really wanted to get this migraine over with because I know that yesterday I suffered through the day and no one was the better.

My last several months have been really busy. I am many days into teaching Grade 3 and I am enjoying Grade 3 overall but it's definitely not without its challenges. I have lots of amazing children in my class. Some that pray for me, some that encourage me, some that challenge me on a minute to minute, second to second basis, some that make me laugh. I even have twins that have said on the carpet "let's change the topic to hockey". I work with an amazing staff that has been super supportive during the challenges of the last couple months. In our school student-led conferences are tomorrow and I have just finished grade 3 assessment and report cards.

But what else have I been up to?
I have gone to my SIL's parents cabin (September Long)
Joined Biggest Loser Niverville which unfortunately hasn't been going well for me
Went to Vancouver with Karyn to see Monique (and meet her boyfriend)
Went to Minneapolis with my mom and some friends for shopping and the Women of Faith conference
Have done a bunch of little renos and decor stuff in the house
Are still ANXIOUSLY awaiting our two nieces and or nephews due December 25th and January 20th. (My ticker says only about 30 days until the first one is due to arrive!!!)
Got a class pet, that died and now we have another one.
My grandma passed away (sad for us but now she's in heaven)
Been enjoying our new church in Steinbach
I looked today and updated my 101 list and I have 70 items completed!
Totally re-did the guest room
Had our first guest stay the night (Karyn) followed by our second (Chad).
I have been doing lots of little crafts and sewing projects for our pending nieces and/or nephews

Recently I have been dealing with huge amounts of stress due to school and dealing with some matters of the heart that are very difficult. Prayers would be very appreciated.

Well that wasn't a very exciting post but if you've been wondering what I've been up to, now you know!

Krista

ps. If you want to see some of my creations for these babies on the way check out http://presentsforlebebes.shutterfly.com/

Summer has almost come and Gone

2009-08-17T22:44:00.004-05:00

School is coming so soon and although I am excited I am also TERRIFIED to teach Grade 3. And I am so sad that summer is coming to a close because it doesn't feel like it has even started. This week I'm trying to get in just one more breakfast with several people and I am going to a teahouse with some of the teachers from my new school.

But I've also been racking up the 101 dones...

Specifically-

20. Go on a plane with Steve.
We were visiting my cousin and her family in Sioux Lookout on the August long weekend and it was the Blueberry Festival there and they were having float plane rides. And... you guessed it, we went on one. It was super fun and Steve actually liked it. He even got to ride in the co-pilot`s seat.

29. Cook a meal for my family.
Yesterday my whole family was over plus my parents neighbours who have become like family. We had steak (brought by my parents), roasted potatoes, a wonderful blueberry feta salad (brought by Rachael) and a blueberry cheesecake for dessert. It was good. And it was Chad`s first time at our house.

95. In cure no late fees at the library for one year.
This day has come and gone. Yay for me!

In progress.
36. Go on a hot holiday
We are most likely going somewhere hot and wonderful for Christmas. We`re in the researching location stage right now. Maybe Mexico or Jamaica or ?

77. I have been shopping at the Farmer's Market a little bit and I need only one more time to get this one checked off.

98. Get a pet
I'm going to cheat on this a little bit and get a CLASS pet. I'm getting a fish for our classroom. I think that's as pet like as I can handle with 22 8 year olds.

As for not biting my nails. It's actually getting harder and not easier like I thought it would. My magical 4 month date is just around the corner.

Well for now I need to get to bed so I can get back on schedule to get ready for school.
Cheers.

101

2009-07-09T23:37:00.002-05:00

As of today I am ALMOST half way done my 101. I have 50 things checked off my list and some others that are close to completion. And I'm not even half-way done my time. I still have 22 months left to finish all of this. Piece of cake!

Well maybe not cake, but there are a couple of things that will take a little bit of time... that can't be done in a motivated moment...

On another note did you know that we're expecting... two niece(s) and/or nephew(s)? Late this year and early next year we will go under the alias' of Uncle Steve and Auntie Krista and we are very excited. What's making me even more excited is all of the crafty things I can make for these babies, all the things I can buy and etc. I was looking at some sweet fabric today and was a little bummed that I don't know whether they are boys or girls (or one of each of course). There are so many adorable fabrics that are just not gender neutral. And here I am with all this free time to sew and make things. I guess I will have to make a trip to the fabric store and see what cute things I can find that I can make now without knowing.

Anyways, that's enough of my babbling.

Cheers!

Happiness is...

2009-07-08T14:05:00.003-05:00

I have to say life has been pretty great lately! The school year came to an end and everything got done. My classrooms got cleaned, my report cards went out and I was able to get to my new school to see everything before they closed up for the year. Got some "light" reading for the summer on Grade 3 things.

Since I said adieu to Kindergarten I have had some great relaxing and productive days. We celebrated Father's Day with my dad on Canada day followed by the Goldeyes game. We went to our friend's cabin this last weekend and I've had my breakfast out on the patio.

And to make life even more grand... we got a new car! Yesterday we bought a 2008 Mazda 3 in Charcoal.

So now happiness in pictures...

My new Zoom-Zoom

Fresh banana raspberry bread

Peonies from my garden

I am so thankful for time to refresh after the year of Kindergarten and get excited for Grade 3. I am having fun kicking back and relaxing. Next week I am going up to Beaver Creek Bible Camp.

But don't think I am too busy for you... because I'm not. Call me up, lets have some fun!

Cheers to summer and to life!

19 days

2009-06-01T22:19:00.002-05:00

Well I am very grateful to know what's going on next year but yet am trying to get through the rest of this year as I have 43 report cards to write and so much assessment to do to write them.

So I'm bringing in my secret weapon tomorrow... the Steve Smith to be known tomorrow as Mr. Smith. My assessment helper!

But at the end of the day, I only have 19 days left of Kindergarten. In that is 4 field trips, one kindergarten show, a whole whack of birthday celebrations and Fathers Day.

Then it's onto... summer. So far there's not much planned for my summer. I'm going to camp for a week, camping at least a couple times, and I am looking forward to tending my garden.

Have a good one!
Krista

News

2009-05-27T21:08:00.004-05:00

So today I found out what my plans are for next year. After waiting and waiting, and waiting some more. (They said they were going to hire early this year... but I got hired 4 days later then I did last year...) I will be teaching Grade 3 next year!!! I am very excited, although I know nothing about Grade 3. I will be going to a different school but such is life. The principal is great and I heard he is amazing at supporting his teachers.

I will have to do lots of learning to teach Grade 3 but I am confident that I can do most of it from the comfort of my patio this summer. Now that I'm wireless and life is good.

Other then that I seem to have many different projects for the house on the go. This week I finally installed some storage in my office so that my multitudes of books are not a clutter any more. This picture seems to be shadowy but you get the drift. It's a floating Lack shelf from IKEA.

I'm working on a couple of my 101 right now. Specifically...

60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months- this is a hard one. I've tried breaking this habit many times since I started in my childhood. My mom tried many different tricks but none of them worked. I would always stick with it long enough to get my "prize" and then go right back.
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months- so far I've lost two pounds. Not much but it's a start.

Also I'm only one book away from reading 10 non-teaching books and we are tilling the garden tomorrow so I should be able to start my garden on Saturday.

Have a delightful day!
Krista

Life

2009-05-02T23:27:00.003-05:00

Well it seems as if we have become the type of homeowners that have a new project to tackle each weekend. This weekend it was the garden and the lights. I weeded the front flower bed and am very excited to go buy some plants in the next couple weeks. As for the garden in the back... well after the snow melted we found out it was a sandbox a really big sandbox. However, upon further inspection we realized it was sand on top of a tarp on top of the previous garden. Whoo hoo!! So with some muscle from Steve this week we hope to get the sand off and expose the garden.

Today Steve's dad who is an electrician got around to coming to replace our lights and it was a little bit of a bigger procedure then we thought.

For before pictures look at my previous pictures of the kitchen and living room.

New Pendant fixture from EQ3 for the dining room.

New pendant for over the sink and track lighting both from IKEA. Next mini-project is painting the ceiling where the old fixtures were as it's a different colour there. Some paintings I did for the entrance area.

Art that I did for the living room a couple weeks ago. On the left you see a big mirror that is my next project. There were two mirrored closet doors that were left in the house so I thought I'd make at least one into a big leaning mirror. I popped off the frame tonight and now I need to get wood moldings to frame it.
We also have a new entrance light but I didn't think to take a picture of it.

Anyways, have a great weekend!
Krista

#9

2009-04-15T22:36:00.002-05:00

Well I just completed my 40th goal on my 101. It was... Get a new computer! So here I am blogging from my new computer. Our old one just wouldn't go any longer. To the point that we couldn't even get it to work in Safe Mode. So we were only without a computer for 2 days. Thankfully we had already started looking already when our old desktop gave out.

So enough rambling. We got a HP laptop and the screen is just as big as the screen we had on our desktop. Sweet.

Well, have a happy spring all!

Making the House Ours!

2009-04-04T16:17:00.001-05:00

Makeover items and Opinions Needed!

2009-04-04T15:28:00.005-05:00

Alright, I'm having some problems posting pictures in here so I'm going to do a slide show. But I need your opinions on my lamp situation.

These are the lamps before. My dad bought them in the 70s. They do have peacocks and butterflies. He was sad to let them go but alas they felt into my paint happy hands.And after... I spray painted them with a hammered silver finish but my problem is I bought shades that were smaller and more contemporary and I am not 100% confident that they look right. (the plastic is still on so I can return the shades if necessary)

Thoughts.... opinions? All are accepted.

101 as of Today

2009-04-02T23:15:00.010-05:00

As of today I have 39 of my 101 done!! I have had a really busy spring break which has included quite a bit of shopping for the house. I bought a coffee table and end tables, curtains for the living room and bedroom, I painted the bathroom and the pink stripe in the computer room. I have also re-arranged the living room and installed a new mirror in the bathroom and new accessories (towel bar, etc). Tomorrow is going to be my first relaxing day on Spring Break I will try and post pictures tomorrow of the bathroom makeover. It's a whole new look.

My List
1. Buy a house
2. Get a full-time permanent job

Purchases and Creations
3. Buy a new coffee table
4. Get a label maker
5. Buy a new TV stand
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer
7. Get a food processor
8. Buy a bike
9. Buy a new computer
10. Buy a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's- I have my eye on this http://tinyurl.com/4f34gf
11. Make an upholstered headboard
12. Make pillows for the couch
13. Make a gift for a friend
14. Sew 4 things 4/4
15. Buy a new(er) car (I would like a Mazda 3)
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)
17. Get two new games 2/2... I got Scotland Yard for Christmas and Steve got Deal or No Deal (our household acquired two new games)

People and Places
18. Go to New York with Steve (I've been twice, and he would really love to go)
19. Go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building
20. Go on a plane with Steve (he's been on a few planes, I've been on more but never together)
21. Go to camp for two weeks (not necessarily in the same year)
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
23. Go camping with just Steve
24. Go on an anniversary trip (probably won't include #23)
25. Go on a road trip longer then 6 hours away
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months
28. Visit a new state
29. Cook a meal for my family
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment) - By not saying entire family I am completing this 09/13 for my Mother-In-Law's bday- there will be a couple family members missing but we invited them all.
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31)
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 3/3
35. Buy 3 friends flowers
36. Go on a hot holiday
37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring
38. Email or call Monique once a week for 3 months
39. Email or call Karyn once a week for 3 months
40. Go on a date night once a month 9/32
41. Invite a new friend out for a meal
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
43. Take my parents out for supper
44. Have pictures taken with Karyn and Monique

Out and About
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 5/5
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
47. Go to a Goldeye's Game
48. Go to two Bomber Games 1/2
49. Eat outside 10 days in 3 weeks 0/10
50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month
51. Go to a concert
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 4/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17

Healthy Living
53. Get a gym membership
54. Go to the Gym 3 times a week for 6 months
55. Eat vegetarian once a week for 6 weeks 0/6
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months
57. Be in bed by 10pm for 2 weeks
58. Wake up before 7 am for 3 weeks
59. Watch no TV for one month
60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months Started May 5th
61. Reward myself for not biting nails by having one manicure a month for every month without biting 0/4
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months 1/2
63. Drink only water for three weeks

Home to Stay
64. Create a sports room with Steve
65. Paint a room in our house by myself
66. Create a welcoming guest/Karyn + Monique room
67. Have flowers waiting for overnight guests
68. Start a garden
69. Buy a Christmas Tree
70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt
71. Install new lights, one of which must be done by me.
72. Buy or make curtains for the upstairs 6/6
73. Repaint the blue squares
74. Repaint the stripe
75. Get couches for the basement
76. Get two new pieces of art/mirrors 1/2
77. Shop at the farmers market 3 times
78. Paint the bathroom
79. Read daily for 15 minutes, for one month
80. Install a wet-bar downstairs
81. Host a party in the new house
82. Install dishwasher
83. Replace the mirror in the bathroom
84. Refinish one piece of furniture for the house
85. Honour Renee in one way in our house

Organization
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
87. Frame three pictures I have taken 0/3
88. Start and Finish our wedding album
89. Make a new list by May 12, 2011- by then the list may include... kids...

Can't Put it in a Category
90. Take a cooking class
91. Take a dance class
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC- started with season 3- 09/12
93. Start putting money into RRSP's
94. Read 10 non-teaching books - 9/10
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!
96. Watch a sunset
97. Watch a sunrise- I drive into the sunrise every morning
98. Get a pet
99. Go credit card-less for one month
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months

Breathe in, Breathe out

2009-03-19T21:34:00.002-05:00

Well I haven't necessarily been avoiding blogging lately. Life has been crazy. I had a Norwex party and our housewarming party, I went on a girls weekend to Fargo, and teaching has had it's ups and downs. Today was not an up.

This whole week one thing or another has led me to feeling very out of control.

But there has been some silver in the clouds. I got to meet baby Hudson, I went for coffee with a friend who lives in Steinbach and spring break is only 6 teaching days away.

Oh spring break come closer. My plan is to paint our bathroom, get new curtains, organize, organize, organize. Sleep... and maybe even drive into the city one day.

But for now, good night!
Krista

Who's on the Phone?

2009-02-27T21:28:00.002-06:00

I'm thinking of calling it quits on this blog. While it has been a somewhat useful form of communication I'm really not seeing it's point as of late.

I do like the fact that I have "somewhere" to track my 101.

Maybe it's because I do not know who is reading my blog, or how often. I had my ticker which I deleted by accident...

I think I'm having the same problem with my blog as I'm having with my life.

One Year Ago

2009-02-25T20:54:00.002-06:00

A year ago tomorrow we lost Renee. At 6:35pm Central time (for she was in New York) she left the earth for heaven. Oh how I miss her. Some days more then others, but she will remain a part of my heart forever.

I don't know what to expect from tomorrow. I know it's been a roller coaster of emotions this week leading up to the sad anniversary. I have also had a couple of migraines and rowdy students which haven't helped.

In the year since she past there has been a void, in the foursome that we were (if you're lost in all this look here) in the celebrations of life's victories and challenges, and who I was because I knew her.

She was one that I loved, my cousin and my friend.

I miss her laugh, her craziness, her smile and even her complaining.

Cheers to you little one!

Oh say can you see?

2009-02-25T18:34:00.002-06:00

My blog?

When I come into my blog I can see the header and side stuff but no posts. Is that the same for you? Has anyone else had this problem? I can still access my posts by selecting them individually from the side.

Let me know...

100 Posts!

2009-02-23T18:18:00.002-06:00

This is my 100th post and my first one about living in the house.

As you can see from the pictures below we're starting to get a little more settled into our place. We've planned a date for the housewarming and I just made cookies in my new oven!

I am really enjoying the short commute to work and right now we are dogsitting for Steve's brother and our sister-in-law and have really been enjoying little Sophie. It's definitely been giving us the itch... to get a dog.

I've also had the opportunity to do some 101's. Some in progress and some completed.

11. Make an upholstered headboard. - You can see it in the picture of our bedroom. It's not quite completed to my liking but we could leave it the way it is now. I need to mount it yet and put on nailhead trim.

37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring

50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month- this has gotten a lot easier since moving into the house.

62. Don't eat fried chips for 2 months. - this one is hurting. I might even cop out and find a loop hole and do one month and then another month. It will be one month on Thursday.

72. Buy or make curtains for the upstairs 1/6- This is my mission right now. I REALLY dislike some of the curtains in the house. In particular the bright pink one in the office and the venetians in the living room. Bleck.

There's a bunch on the list that I plan to tackle on Spring break, and purchases I would like to make when in Fargo with the girls in just two weeks!

For now, signing off from Steinbach!

Cheers!
Krista

Our House!

2009-02-23T18:17:00.001-06:00

2 More Sleeps

2009-02-11T21:56:00.003-06:00

Until we're home owners. We've done all the most important things on my list of to dos. We've given the big check to the lawyer, we've signed all the papers, I have finished all my report cards, almost everything is packed. The table has been taken apart, the bed has been taken apart (for which I needed to use my new drill YAY).

Tomorrow I am having two Valentine's parties complete with goodies, finishing packing and then to bed and when I wake up it's off to Steinbach to get the keys to the house, to prime and paint the master bedroom. Back to Winnipeg to load up the truck and then officially move.

It's so close I can almost feel it! And what's also great is my parents are coming out on Monday and my mom hasn't seen the house yet!

Cheers!
Krista

What's Up?

2009-02-03T21:49:00.002-06:00

Well I have
- one set of report cards done
- the others well on their way
- 7 commuting days left : )
- a whole lot of boxes packed
- our address changed at Canada Post
- I bought a killer pair of jeans this weekend (and got a teacher's discount!!)
- Moving Truck (thanks to Henry) ready to go. Movers still appreciated on either the Steinbach or Winnipeg end after work on Friday the 13th (let me know...)

and today while Steve was making himself chicken fingers I heard "man I can't wait to have a convection oven". And yes, most of our appliance selections are finalized (and I didn't pick anything that was all done by dear Stephen)

Still left to do
- call Shaw and figure out whether we are going to go with them or figure out who we're doing cable/internet through
- call Dufresne's and tell them about our chipped chair, I know if we call after we move they are going to blame it on the move.
- pack all the other boxes, clean
-Finish second set of report cards, meet with parents from first report cards
- Buy paint and painting supplies
- Meet with the lawyer to sign all the papers
- So many more little things.

Oh and celebrate my 26th birthday this Saturday. How did I forget about that?

That's how life is going right now! Things are falling into place slowly but surely. However, I still haven't figured out why we CHOSE to move during report cards and winter... Oh well. It won't kill us, but maybe make us stronger!

Cheers!
Krista

No Time to Blog

2009-01-21T18:34:00.002-06:00

Things have been pretty busy lately between teaching 44 little people, packing and getting everything sorted out for the move and oh yeah report cards for those lovely little people. Plus other general life things.

The move to full-time has been going pretty well (excluding today). I have been noticing that I'm a lot more tired and more and more I cannot wait for the move and only having to drive 5 minutes to school. Yeeee haaaw!

Well, time to get back to the report cards!

Cheers!
Krista

New Years...Resolution?

2009-01-01T22:09:00.003-06:00

We had a New Years unlike we've had for many years last night. There was only 5 people at our party and that included us. We rang in 2009 with my cousin Monique and her really good friend Lynne who is now a mutual good friend (we've just started doing things together even when Monique is gone) and her boyfriend. A good time was had by, I think, all.

The new year always strikes a chord in me about who I want to be in the next year. In 2008 I wanted to be more self-disciplined. I don't know that it happened but I did attain my goal of running the half-marathon that in my mind was linked with self-discipline.

This year, 2009, I want to be a kinder, softer and less critical person. If anyone has any good suggestions on how to do that I'm all ears.

Cheers to love, life and 2009!

Falling Into Place

2008-12-30T11:30:00.002-06:00

Today it feels like things are falling into place. We have acquired some basement sofas which I'm going to pick up tonight, someone is coming to see our apartment today and someone is coming to see my sewing machine that I have for sale tomorrow. I have started packing, picked out our master bedroom paint colour. I do have quite a bit of school stuff to do but for now I'm going to be happy with this progress.

Christmas...

2008-12-26T16:25:00.005-06:00

So our Christmas wasn't exactly what we were expecting this year. We had a rather dramatic Christmas day and I'll leave it at that. I'm thinking Mexico next year. Today is a day of recovery (ok and retail therapy). But as crazy as our Christmas day was I got a lot of fabulous presents that satisfied quite a few of my 101.

I did get the KitchenAid I was wishing and dreaming about from my parents and I think I'll do some baking tomorrow. I got a label maker and a drill from my in laws. Whee.

Here's my updated list.

My List
1. Buy a house
2. Get a full-time permanent job

Purchases and Creations
3. Buy a new coffee table
4. Get a label maker
5. Buy a new TV stand
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer
7. Get a food processor .... on my Christmas list
8. Buy a bike
9. Buy a new computer
10. Buy a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's- I have my eye on this http://tinyurl.com/4f34gf
11. Make an upholstered headboard
12. Make pillows for the couch
13. Make a gift for a friend
14. Sew 4 things 4/4
15. Buy a new(er) car (I would like a Mazda 3)
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)
17. Get two new games 2/2... I got Scotland Yard for Christmas and Steve got Deal or No Deal (our household acquired two new games)

People and Places
18. Go to New York with Steve (I've been twice, and he would really love to go)
19. Go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building
20. Go on a plane with Steve (he's been on a few planes, I've been on more but never together)
21. Go to camp for two weeks (not necessarily in the same year)
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
23. Go camping with just Steve
24. Go on an anniversary trip (probably won't include #23)
25. Go on a road trip longer then 6 hours away
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months 2/6
28. Visit a new state
29. Cook a meal for my family
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment) - By not saying entire family I am completing this 09/13 for my Mother-In-Law's bday- there will be a couple family members missing but we invited them all.
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31)
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 2/3
I brought my SIL (in Steinbach) a birthday dessert 09/11
35. Buy 3 friends flowers
36. Go on a hot holiday
37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring
38. Email or call Monique once a week for 3 months
39. Email or call Karyn once a week for 3 months
40. Go on a date night once a month 2/32- we went to the Forks tonight 08/08
41. Invite a new friend out for a meal
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
43. Take my parents out for supper
44. Have pictures taken with Karyn and Monique

Out and About
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 5/5
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
47. Go to a Goldeye's Game
48. Go to two Bomber Games 0/2
49. Eat outside 10 days in 3 weeks 0/10
50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month
51. Go to a concert
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 2/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17

Healthy Living
53. Get a gym membership
54. Go to the Gym 3 times a week for 6 months
55. Eat vegetarian once a week for 6 weeks 0/6
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months
57. Be in bed by 10pm for 2 weeks
58. Wake up before 7 am for 3 weeks
59. Watch no TV for one month
60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months
61. Reward myself for not biting nails by having one manicure a month for every month without biting
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months
63. Drink only water for three weeks

Home to Stay
64. Create a sports room with Steve
65. Paint a room in our house by myself
66. Create a welcoming guest/Karyn + Monique room
67. Have flowers waiting for overnight guests
68. Start a garden
69. Buy a Christmas Tree
70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt
71. Install new lights, one of which must be done by me.
72. Buy or make curtains for the upstairs 1/6
73. Repaint the blue squares
74. Repaint the stripe
75. Get couches for the basement
76. Get two new pieces of art/mirrors 1/2
77. Shop at the farmers market 3 times
78. Paint the bathroom
79. Read daily for 15 minutes, for one month
80. Install a wet-bar downstairs
81. Host a party in the new house
82. Install dishwasher
83. Replace the mirror in the bathroom
84. Refinish one piece of furniture for the house
85. Honour Renee in one way in our house

Organization
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
87. Frame three pictures I have taken 0/3
88. Start and Finish our wedding album
89. Make a new list by May 12, 2011- by then the list may include... kids...

Can't Put it in a Category
90. Take a cooking class
91. Take a dance class
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC- started with season 3- 09/12
93. Start putting money into RRSP's
94. Read 10 non-teaching books - 5/10
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!
96. Watch a sunset
97. Watch a sunrise- I drive into the sunrise every morning
98. Get a pet
99. Go credit card-less for one month
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months

Packing, Purging and a little more Christmas

2008-12-22T21:36:00.002-06:00

Today, my first "official" day of Christmas holidays I did put out some more Christmas ornaments, I went to my mom's for coffee, I went grocery shopping (oh me oh my what a gong show), I attempted to purge some of the excess stuff out of our apartment (which of course Steve is not inclined to feel as excess), I cleaned, I washed the floor, I made supper and cooked a pumpkin that has been sitting in my storage room for way too long. All in all a very successful day.

it might not look like Christmas...

2008-12-17T21:45:00.002-06:00

But it feels like Christmas. And I am not referring to the world around us I am strictly referring to our apartment. With the plan being to pack up most of our worldly possessions over Christmas I did not want to haul out the ornaments and then put them all away. So instead we have one... solitary ornament hanging from the chandelier. But under the chandelier is our table, which is full of presents.

I have shopped for... my 22 students, my parents, my brothers, Steve's parents, the two people we have on Steve's side, my mentor teachers, supplies for Steve's presents and the person for whom I'm a secret Santa at school.

I have made presents (Strawberry jam and other things) for... some little ladies, my carpool girls, other friends, and my husband.

Steve went shopping today too for ME. Yes, the only person he is responsible to shop for.

Some things I'm excited for this Christmas-
- Celebrating Christ's birth
- Giving the above said gifts
- Spending time with family and friends
- Having my Christmas party with my students on Friday
- Singing Christmas songs (although I decided today I really don't like We Three Kings)
- Having two weeks to "relax"
- Having two weeks to get ready for having two half-time classes
- Having Monique home for at least a couple days and going Boxing Day shopping with her
- Packing up this apartment because it means we're that much closer to getting into our house
- Having Kurtis' girlfriend at our Christmas dinner (this Saturday)
- ... okay getting gifts....

It may be super duper cold but I am very excited for Christmas this year (and even more excited that the next time I need to go shopping is on Boxing Day)

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers!

Cheers!
Krista

More good news

2008-12-02T21:48:00.004-06:00

So tomorrow morning all our conditions will be satisfied and they can finally put the sold sign on the house. I'm so excited that this long week of stress has come to an end. And part of what makes the financial stress go away is that I was offered a second half-time position today, which of course... equals full-time. YAY! I will be teaching a second Kindergarten class in Mitchell in the mornings and then coming back to my afternoon position in Steinbach. It will be very busy but it should be "fun". It will become a little easier when we move (on February 13th) and I don't have that hour and a half to commute every day. I've subbed in that class a couple weeks ago and it went really well so I'm expecting all to be well.

So my 101 can now be updated-

My List
1. Buy a house
2. Get a full-time permanent job

Purchases and Creations
3. Buy a new coffee table
4. Get a label maker
5. Buy a new TV stand
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer
7. Get a food processor .... on my Christmas list
8. Buy a bike
9. Buy a new computer
10. Buy a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's- I have my eye on this http://tinyurl.com/4f34gf
11. Make an upholstered headboard
12. Make pillows for the couch
13. Make a gift for a friend
14. Sew 4 things 4/4
15. Buy a new(er) car (I would like a Mazda 3)
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)
17. Get two new games 2/2... I got Scotland Yard for Christmas and Steve got Deal or No Deal (our household acquired two new games)

People and Places
18. Go to New York with Steve (I've been twice, and he would really love to go)
19. Go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building
20. Go on a plane with Steve (he's been on a few planes, I've been on more but never together)
21. Go to camp for two weeks (not necessarily in the same year)
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
23. Go camping with just Steve
24. Go on an anniversary trip (probably won't include #23)
25. Go on a road trip longer then 6 hours away
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months 2/6
28. Visit a new state
29. Cook a meal for my family
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment) - By not saying entire family I am completing this 09/13 for my Mother-In-Law's bday- there will be a couple family members missing but we invited them all.
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31)
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 2/3
I brought my SIL (in Steinbach) a birthday dessert 09/11
35. Buy 3 friends flowers 2/3
36. Go on a hot holiday
37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring
38. Email or call Monique once a week for 3 months
39. Email or call Karyn once a week for 3 months
40. Go on a date night once a month 2/32- we went to the Forks tonight 08/08
41. Invite a new friend out for a meal
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
43. Take my parents out for supper
44. Have pictures taken with Karyn and Monique

Out and About
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 5/5
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
47. Go to a Goldeye's Game
48. Go to two Bomber Games 0/2
49. Eat outside 10 days in 3 weeks 0/10
50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month
51. Go to a concert
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 2/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17

Healthy Living
53. Get a gym membership
54. Go to the Gym 3 times a week for 6 months
55. Eat vegetarian once a week for 6 weeks 0/6
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months
57. Be in bed by 10pm for 2 weeks
58. Wake up before 7 am for 3 weeks
59. Watch no TV for one month
60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months
61. Reward myself for not biting nails by having one manicure a month for every month without biting
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months
63. Drink only water for three weeks

Home to Stay
64. Create a sports room with Steve
65. Paint a room in our house by myself
66. Create a welcoming guest/Karyn + Monique room
67. Have flowers waiting for overnight guests
68. Start a garden
69. Buy a Christmas Tree
70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt
71. Install new lights, one of which must be done by me.
72. Buy or make curtains for the upstairs 0/6
73. Repaint the blue squares
74. Repaint the stripe
75. Get couches for the basement
76. Get two new pieces of art/mirrors 0/3
77. Shop at the farmers market 3 times
78. Paint bathroom
79. Read daily for 15 minutes, for one month
80. Install a wet-bar downstairs
81. Host a party in the new house
82. Install dishwasher
83. Replace mirror in the bathroom
84. Refinish one piece of furniture for the house
85. Honour Renee in one way in our house

Organization
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
87. Frame three pictures I have taken 0/3
88. Start and Finish our wedding album
89. Make a new list by May 12, 2011- by then the list may include... kids...

Can't Put it in a Category
90. Take a cooking class
91. Take a dance class
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC- started with season 3- 09/12
93. Start putting money into RRSP's
94. Read 10 non-teaching books - I've read False Witness, and Good-Byes are Always Hard
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!
96. Watch a sunset
97. Watch a sunrise- I drive into the sunrise every morning
98. Get a pet
99. Go credit card-less for one month
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months

What did you do today?

2008-11-24T21:32:00.002-06:00

Because I(we) bought a house... (Steve would like me to add that it is subject to inspection and financing)... ps it's hard to blog appropriately with him looking over my shoulder...

Anyways! We're super excited, Steve's excitement isn't coming exactly the way you would expect but I think he's excited none the less. He's worried about all the little stuff.

Anyways if you want to check out our new abode, we get possession on February 13th.

http://www.riverbendrealty.ca/database/display.php?display=4145

Still waiting

2008-11-23T21:23:00.001-06:00

Waiting, waiting

2008-11-23T08:18:00.001-06:00

We are waiting... I think you can figure out why... more details to follow once the waiting is over.

eeeekkkk

2008-11-13T21:53:00.003-06:00

I'm going to see this house that I'm a little in love with tomorrow morning. I'm a little excited! It's this really cute starter home. Perfect for two (and whichever company comes our way). We're not quite ready to buy (maybe two months, maybe one...) but it's been on the market for a while, so it might be for a little bit longer. If not I will kind of know better what to look for in a house.

Oh, and tonight I was at a fabulous event with my friend Lynne. It was at Vandenbergs and it was a Ladies' Night. An evening with wine, appies, and trying on fabulous jewelery. With that jewelery came a "wish" list. I know I'm not getting jewelery this year but it's sure fun to try on diamonds and pearls. Lynne found a fabulous ring that she would love her BF to put on her finger. I guess time will tell.

And tomorrow, after the showing, and after school, Steve and I are going to a Jazz concert at the Art Gallery.

To that I say,
Life is good!

one by one they fall

2008-11-08T20:59:00.006-06:00

16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)- I made Honey Whole Wheat Bread
100. Watch our Wedding Video
Now that was an interesting experience. It was over three years ago. So many of our little people and even Chad look so much younger. I realized for the first time that my bridesmaids walked down the aisle wrong (all at the same time), and Steve relived the horror of having to hold my flowers while I sang in the worship team. We sat through all of the speeches (which were mainly about Steve) and were very long... my apologies to those who sat through them the first time. I cried hearing the speech by my cousins and my parents. Even my brother's speeches were wonderful. I don't know that we'll watch it again but now we've relived that occasion once.

In progress currently--
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months 2/6
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31) - ordered
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 2/3
I brought my SIL (in Steinbach) a birthday dessert 09/11
35. Buy 3 friends flowers 2/3
40. Go on a date night once a month 4/32
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 2/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months- Started Sunday November 9/08
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC- Have watched Seasons 1-3
94. Read 10 non-teaching books - I've read False Witness, and Good-Byes are Always Hard
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!... update- I thought I renewed all the books I took out for my classroom. Turns out I forgot a few. Re-started November 4.

So right now the ones that are done are--

14. Sew 4 things 4/4 I not only hemmed pants for myself, I mended some of Kurtis' clothes and sewed three totally cute take home bags for my students to take home some memory games I'm making.
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)- Made Honey Whole Wheat Bread
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment) - By not saying entire family I am completing this 09/13 for my Mother-In-Law's bday- there will be a couple family members missing but we invited them all.
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 5/5
Niko's- 08/17/08
MJ's with my SIL 09/29/08
Joey's 10/11/08
Lacoka
CHOP 11/09/08
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
51. Go to a concert - we went to Ron Paley at Jazz under the Rooftop 11/14
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
96. Watch a sunset- I've driven into many lately
97. Watch a sunrise- I drive into the sunrise every morning
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months - 8 weeks out of the 10 since I made this goal were 3 post weeks so I am going to count this as done since my goal was really just to do it more consistently.

And the ones I hope to complete or start soon--

70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt - maybe one on sale around Christmas
And hopefully #1 in the early new year.

And the ones on my Christmas list
4. Get a label maker
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer
7. Get a food processor .... on my Christmas list
17. Get two new games 0/2... Killer Bunnies and Scotland Yard are the two I'm wanting

I hope to have 20 done by the first day of 2009

Home

2008-11-02T22:20:00.003-06:00

Mom, surprisingly, got out of the hospital today. They said they were going to keep her in till Tuesday but now a complication means she can't get her angiogram tomorrow so they let her out and she'll do it outpatient instead. I went to visit her this morning and only a couple hours later she called to say they were letting her out.

Please pray that she doesn't overdo it now that she's home and no longer on bedrest.

Correction

2008-11-01T14:59:00.002-05:00

So it's congestive heart disease not congenital. They still don't know why she got it because she hasn't had typical symptoms and she's not a typical candidate. She is doing well, even on bedrest. She should get home tomorrow and then will have to go back for an angiogram and other tests this coming week. Thanks for your prayers!

Matters of the Heart

2008-10-30T22:51:00.002-05:00

Hey all- I would appreciate if you could pray for my momma. It seems like a traumatic health year in the Reimer family. First Chad had pneumonia, then dad had a pulmonary embolism and now my mom has been sick for the last two weeks and she went to the hospital today and has been admitted.

She has congenital heart failure and cardiac myopathy. Essentially her heart isn't working the way it should and they believe there is some damage. They believe she must have contracted a virus at least a month ago that attacked her heart. But she wasn't sick a month ago, so who knows.

So she's at St. B. Different doctors have said different things about the severity of the situation. Essentially it is not likely to be life threatening. Sanity threatening though. She's on bed rest and for those who know my mother... she's not a fan of sitting still for any length of time so she is not looking forward to this. Not like she would be if she was otherwise a sitting duck.

I've had a crazy busy week as I have been subbing all but one morning and have two Kindergarten classes to take care of tomorrow for Halloween.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers I know will be sent our way.

Eight Months

2008-10-26T21:21:00.003-05:00

Eight months ago today we found out that Renee had passed away. In the last eight months so much has happened in our lives but not a day has gone by that I don't remember her smile and her belief in hope. So today I will leave you with part of a prayer that she kept with her in her last months of life.

St. Patrick's Breastplate
I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the
Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession
of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.

I arise today through the strength of Christ with His Baptism,
through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial
through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.

I arise today, through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me,
God's host to secure me:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right,
Christ on my left, Christ in breadth, Christ in length,
Christ in height, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

9 Pages

2008-10-21T23:12:00.003-05:00

Does that sound excessive for a guest teacher to read before they are "sufficiently" prepared to sub in my class? I just realized that's how many pages I have for my sub tomorrow. To be honest 6 pages of it are my general sub information that will be going in my sub binder including an index but no appendix and 3 are specific to tomorrow. It covers all my routines from duty, to behaviour, to bathrooms, to snack (hmm... right beside bathroom in this list), and how to properly send my children home (after all they can't just go home with anybody).

Neurotic? I'm not sure. I mean if someone had never met your kids before and they were going to be with them for 2 1/2 hours and had to get some very specific things accomplished wouldn't you leave a list that was even longer? I wonder some days how being a parent is going to compare with being a Kindergarten teacher. In a way it's different because I feel like I have 40 parents who trust me everyday to protect their little person. While if it's your own child it's your own flesh and blood that you are protecting. Guess I'll wait a while to blog about that.

And in case you were in suspense. The dairy farm went well today. Going on the bus was a big thrill for those of my students for whom it was the first time. We got to pet the calves, watch a cow being milked and we even got chocolate milk in convenient little cartons. Not straight from the brown cows this time.

Cheers!

Hmmm... not too much going on

2008-10-20T20:53:00.003-05:00

Despite life being pretty busy it doesn't seem like much is going on. Just the usual.

I called in sick for the first time on Friday. I was feeling pretty worn out from my crazy day on Thursday. I have never felt more baffled. Maybe baffled is not the word but despite having all my students at school on Thursday there was not one time when we were all in the same roomat the same time. I had an EA pulling out kids for work, a volunteer doing some finish up with kids, and then they did all of my kids hearing and vision screenings in the same afternoon. It was nuts. I could have easily lost one and not known it till home time.

Despite really needing a sick day I wasn't sure how my kids would do with a sub. I felt a little like a mother hen, a little protective. However, my sub on Friday who is my room partner reported this morning that all had gone well and my kids had been great. Phew. I was glad that their first sub was someone they see quite often. She's usually working in my class in the afternoons while they are there so she wasn't a stranger. And today I started preparing them for their next sub. I have to go to a Kindergarten inservice on Wednesday and my room partner is going too, so they will have someone different. Hopefully they're good for her too.

But tomorrow we are going to the farm. Watch your feet, and hold your noses. Heading to the dairy farm. I am subbing in the morning and going to a meeting and then a banquet after school so I will definitely be bringing at least one change of clothes. It's not that I don't like farms, after all I was a farmer this summer, but I do not want to smell like one.

That's all the excitement I have for now.

Cheers

So many thoughts!

2008-10-15T22:20:00.002-05:00

Right now I am sitting at my computer with so many thoughts running through my mind. None of them are thoughts I can actually do anything about. Thoughts about our future, where to live, where to buy, when to buy, to buy or build, feeling like I'm picking one family over the other, what will happen if we move, will we make new friends and still be able to maintain our current relationships, what will happen with the housing market, will I get more subbing, another half-time position, a full-time position next year, what financial decisions to make now so we benefit in the future....???

I was talking to a friend about being patient tonight. Neither of us are good at that, but yet we "must" be because we cannot change the situations we are in. We just have to wait and see what happens.

Is it the culture that we are in to not just live and trust that God will make things happen? Are we so anxious and high strung that we cannot just be still and know that things will work out? When will I learn that God will take care of it if I let him?

Cheers to God's infinite control, and being able to have some one to give it to.

Thankful

2008-10-13T00:38:00.003-05:00

I have so many things to be thankful for today so I'm going to make a list. (Thanks for the inspiration Dayna)

- God, whose love endures forever
- My wonderful husband- who has a plan and a vision for our life
- my family biological and in-laws
- Great friends who love me even when I screw up
- Family which fits into the friend category too
- Karyn and Monique (and 23 great years with Renee)
- A job which I love most moments (and a carpool to get there)
- A roof (even though there's neighbours up there) over my head
- a warm bed
- Steve's new job
- food... mmm cheese, cheesecake, bread, cupcakes, and so many wonderful things
- Reading
- My shoes
- shopping online
- Dreaming
- Digital Cameras
- Dutch Blitz, Killer Bunnies, Scotland Yard and the good times around these games
- Having people over
- Hugs (man this should be higher up on the list)
- Birthdays
- Christmas lists
- Wine
- The freedom to try and be who I want to be
- Celebrating
- Life

For all these things and so many more I am very thankful. Yes life may be stressful some times but maybe I should just remember in those times "I'm to blessed to be stressed".

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Poems

2008-10-11T22:28:00.002-05:00

These are for Pam and Tammi and anyone else that thinks poems are funny...

First one- The Turkey

The Turkey is a funny bird
It's head goes wibble, wobble
The Turkey only knows one word
and that is gobble, gobble.

(with the appropriate head bobbing and emphasis)

The other- sung to Frere Jacque I believe

Turkey Dinner

Turkey dinner, turkey dinner
Gather round, gather round
Who will get the drumstick?
Yummy yummy yumstick
All sit down, all sit down

Turkey stuffing,
Cornbread muffins
Pumpkin pie, with whip cream

All of us were thinner
Before we came to dinner
Me oh my, too much pie. (with appropriate exaggerated stomach grabbing)

And I do not share these with my room partner, not that I wouldn't be willing to share. They actually came from my cooperating teacher the year I was in Kindergarten. She lent me all of her poems already written out (yay!)

Anyways, as you have too much pie think of this poem and say Me oh my, too much pie.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Scared and hoping for the best

2008-10-10T23:15:00.003-05:00

Although I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving I am also scared. Steve and I have a plan. A plan that's very doable to buy a house but with the market crashing... my head is swimming with thoughts of what this will mean for us, for the people around us. Never mind wanting to go cross-border shopping. That definitely won't be happening with the dollar. All in the midst of elections both sides of the border. Here's for hoping and praying that something... anything... will fix this situation.

Pumpkins

2008-10-08T19:15:00.002-05:00

As Thanksgiving approaches and Halloween is around the corner we are "studying" Apples and Pumpkins in KKS. This week we've mainly been talking Turkey and pumpkin pie with some really funny poems. My favourite poem ends with the phrase (and appropriate stomach grabbing) "All of us were thinner, before we came to dinner. Me oh my, too much pie".

Well I brought in two pumpkins yesterday and today my students were very interested in their presence in our classroom. One boy was quite certain and convinced that we should make something out of them. He suggested one recipe... or something like it... including sticking pencils in it and eating the pumpkin. Not quite sure how that would work. But that's the same student who tried to convince me he went to the Icefields in Florida and who when I ask what they did over the weekend says he went to Edmonton for a week. Love him but his facts are kind of wonky.

On a very positive note- my prayers are starting to be answered in one area. I was really hoping for some subbing work and low and behold. Two mornings already this week. This morning a teacher got really sick after she got to school so it was very last minute but that was fine.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. Mine starts tomorrow at my Reimer gathering. I have so much to be thankful for this year (like every year). God is good.

Cheers!

More and more...

2008-10-01T22:26:00.004-05:00

My List
1. Buy a house
2. Get a full-time permanent job

Purchases and Creations
3. Buy a new coffee table
4. Get a label maker... on my Christmas list
5. Buy a new TV stand
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer ... on my Christmas list (hint hint Kitchen Collection, Albertville, less then half price... Black, Chrome, White, anything but pink or red) ps. Love you Mom!!!
7. Get a food processor .... on my Christmas list
8. Buy a bike
9. Buy a new computer
10. Buy a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's- I have my eye on this http://tinyurl.com/4f34gf
11. Make an upholstered headboard
12. Make pillows for the couch
13. Make a gift for a friend
14. Sew 4 things 1/4 - I hemmed a pair of pants 09/04/08
15. Buy a new(er) car (I would like a Mazda 3)
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)
17. Get two new games 0/2... Killer Bunnies and Scotland Yard are the two I'm wanting

People and Places
18. Go to New York with Steve (I've been twice, and he would really love to go)
19. Go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building
20. Go on a plane with Steve (he's been on a few planes, I've been on more but never together)
21. Go to camp for two weeks (not necessarily in the same year)
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
23. Go camping with just Steve
24. Go on an anniversary trip (probably won't include #23)
25. Go on a road trip longer then 6 hours away
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months 2/6
28. Visit a new state
29. Cook a meal for my family
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment) - By not saying entire family I am completing this 09/13 for my Mother-In-Law's bday- there will be a couple family members missing but we invited them all.
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31)
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 1/3
I brought my SIL (in Steinbach) a birthday dessert 09/11
35. Buy 3 friends flowers 0/3
36. Go on a hot holiday
37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring
38. Email or call Monique once a week for 3 months
39. Email or call Karyn once a week for 3 months
40. Go on a date night once a month 2/32- we went to the Forks tonight 08/08
41. Invite a new friend out for a meal
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
43. Take my parents out for supper
44. Have pictures taken with Karyn and Monique

Out and About
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 3/5
We went to Niko's- 08/17/08
Went to MJ's with my SIL 09/29/08
Went to Joey's 10/11/08
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
47. Go to a Goldeye's Game
48. Go to two Bomber Games 0/2
49. Eat outside 10 days in 3 weeks 0/10
50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month
51. Go to a concert
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 2/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17

Healthy Living
53. Get a gym membership
54. Go to the Gym 3 times a week for 6 months
55. Eat vegetarian once a week for 6 weeks 0/6
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months
57. Be in bed by 10pm for 2 weeks
58. Wake up before 7 am for 3 weeks
59. Watch no TV for one month
60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months
61. Reward myself for not biting nails by having one manicure a month for every month without biting
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months
63. Drink only water for three weeks

Home to Stay
64. Create a sports room with Steve
65. Paint a room in our house by myself
66. Create a welcoming guest/Karyn + Monique room
67. Have flowers waiting for overnight guests
68. Start a garden
69. Buy a Christmas Tree
70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt
71-85- To Be Determined once we buy a house (#1)

Organization
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
87. Frame three pictures I have taken 0/3
88. Start and Finish our wedding album
89. Make a new list by May 12, 2011- by then the list may include... kids...

Can't Put it in a Category
90. Take a cooking class
91. Take a dance class
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC- started with season 3- 09/12
93. Start putting money into RRSP's
94. Read 10 non-teaching books - I've read False Witness, and Good-Byes are Always Hard
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!
96. Watch a sunset
97. Watch a sunrise- I drive into the sunrise every morning
98. Get a pet
99. Go credit card-less for one month
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months

Sneak Peak at the Pictures

2008-09-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

http://b2photo.blogspot.com

Feeling Better

2008-09-30T19:29:00.002-05:00

Thanks to those of you who have prayed and commented. Although not much in my life has actually changed physically since Sunday I feel better on the inside.

What has changed is those family members I said weren't calling me called last night. Not because they read my blog, but because they were out of town last week.

Today we had family pictures taken, and some of just Steve and I. I am very excited to see how they turn out. They were taken by an old friend of mine who does photography on the side and is amazing. I will definitely show you once I get them. We did the shoot outside in the exchange and my fingers are still numb, but it was worth it.

Cheers!

Feeling Low

2008-09-29T18:36:00.004-05:00

Well if you are my friend on FB you may have noticed that my status last night was less then inspiring. It was downright depressing, but that's how I felt. Last night I was feeling very lonely and depressed after Steve fell asleep. My smile and optimism were broken at best.

If you stop reading right here I will never know. That's the thing about blogs.

I felt last night like I've been trying so hard to be positive and optimistic. About life in general and about some specific things. Like our quest for a house. I feel like I've been singing a false hope tune for two years now as I have believed we would have enough at the end of the month to save and put in our down-payment fund but I was only fooling myself. Even now it feels like we are so far away from our goals. I feel useless because I accepted a half-time position and there is no morning subbing opportunities to be found. I feel like I'm running around in circles and getting no closer to our goal. I feel so much pressure being in a room with another teacher who spends way more time there then I do.

I wish, and I long for someone who lived near by that would be to me like Karyn and Monique. They are too far away for a coffee, or a quick phone call. And as much as I wish that situation would change, it is simply not reality. I can not wish them back for my own sake.

I have not written this for pity, or for applications for a new best friend, but maybe as a prayer request. This is not the first time I have struggled with this but I hope it is the last.

My mind is running and my heart is heavy. I feel spent...

Edited- 10-10-08

More 101

2008-09-28T09:52:00.003-05:00

To be completed this week-

Today I made Steve breakfast in bed... he had gotten up 2 hours before me (6am on a Sunday) so he went back to bed to eat his breakfast. #22

We are having family pictures, and pictures of just Steve and I taken on Tuesday #31 + #33

In Progress...
#45 I am going to the restaurant CHOP tonight with my friend Lynne, apparently they have a 24 layer chocolate cake. Edit- not happening- Lynne is sick... maybe another time.

#94- I have read 2/10 non-teaching books- The first one was False Witness, second was Good-byes Are Always Hard both from our church library. Next I hope to read Blue Like Jazz, and a friend at the restaurant is going to borrow me this book she says is amazing.

On another note... Steve is giving his two weeks notice tomorrow because he got a new job. It's not in radio but we are very excited about it.

Cheers!

If it was YOUR goal

2008-09-26T11:26:00.002-05:00

I was looking at my 101 and one of my goals is to go credit card free for a whole month. Today I noticed a snag. Our Yak and Free Press both go on the credit card. Now... if this was your goal. Would you count it as not complete, or complete if you had made no (unscheduled) purchases?

Just looking for opinions. I suppose if I changed both of them from "my" card to "Steve's" card (joint) it wouldn't be on my statement.

Give me your 2 cents...

Cheers to Friday!!!

First Field Trip

2008-09-25T22:08:00.002-05:00

Today was our field trip to the Steinbach Library. It was pretty good. A couple snags, a couple frusterations as walking in pairs behind another pair, on the sidewalk, without leaving huge gaps was clearly too much for my kids to do all at the same time. They looked like a clump walking down the sidewalk (or on the grass...). The Library is about 4 blocks away from our school and I was so happy to have a glorious fall day to walk there. And we even did some learning along the way talking about the leaves, evergreens and deciduous trees. I even let them feel the different kinds of trees. But their favourite part was the stories. The librarian read us two hillarious stories and she had some great character voices to go along with them. And the kid's "second" favourite... when the librarian gave them suckers.

The mother that I had with me asked me at the end. "How do you do this everyday?" (and she used to be a teacher !?!) to which I replied "With love and patience." I may have to say the same thing 30 times a day but I imagine that as the year goes on I may only have to say that 20 times in January and 10 times in Spring. They have already learned a lot so I know that my work is worth it. Even for the petit paycheques...

Longing

2008-09-20T22:43:00.002-05:00

This week has been full of lots of longing... I miss Renee. I long to pick up the phone and call her, to hear her voice, her laugh, her opinions, even her silence. To pick her up at the airport and have cheesecake. To talk to her about life. I think in those last couple months I was too scared, too cowardly to talk about anything of real importance and now I wish I could have asked her what she was feeling, how she was doing in her head, in her heart. It comes up so much more when I sit down and think about her, when I look at pictures and remember her laugh.

I have talked to Karyn and Monique several times in the last couple weeks. It seems there is so much going on. We had a phone call together last week when Monique was in Jordan with Karyn. We've had many FB conversations this week over a book being made about Renee. We were hesitant, after all this was the girl we loved so fiercely and miss everyday. How could someone who didn't know her interpret her and get it right? We had so many fears about trusting this writer with our memories. To me it felt like we were giving the part of our hearts that held our love for Renee to this author without knowing if she would get it "right"... But then we found out more about this author. When I read about her I felt like this was someone who seemed like a girl after Renee's heart. Someone with common experiences and loves. She just might be okay.

So I poured out that part of my heart and mind that holds my love for Renee into words. I wrote until I could write no more. Tears pouring down my face, a refreshing change, a healing change. I wrote about her loves and quirks, her passion and her hope. Renee from my eyes. And what I got in response from the author calmed my fears. This author had never met Renee, but when I got an email back from her it felt as if it was right, her soul was so passionate much like Renee's. It felt as if she could really understand Renee. She wrote how my tribute had brought her to tears... but her response to me brought me to tears as well. It felt as if we could really trust that our memories were in good hands.

Renee died almost seven months ago and at the time my heart ached but there were almost no tears. I lived in that sense of denial and shock for the first while, I wanted to feel but yet I did not allow myself to. I find myself still in shock sometimes, like it can't possibly be true. But it is. This week the tears have flowed. It seems as if the fear that was holding them back has crumbled. My heart has gotten to the point where I am allowing myself to feel and I am no longer numb. There were so many people who loved her so much, she was a great friend and had great friends. I am looking forward to seeing how this book is formed, how all those memories will be turned told. We will have to wait and see. Although we will never get to talk to her again, we may get to see her in a new light as the story of her life is told.

The last line of the tribute I sent to the author was-

She was hope, she was love and she was the smile that we'll never forget.

Maybe the Most Bizarre News You've Heard All Day

2008-09-17T09:51:00.002-05:00

I have some good news, but not just any good news.... Krista the heifer became Krista the cow when she gave birth to a bouncing baby bull named Milt last week.

Confused? Bewildered that I had a baby and didn't tell you? Wondering what a heifer is and how it can turn into a cow?

My aunt has a diary farm with her husband in Ottawa. They named their heifers (female bovine before they have a baby) after her female family members (in sequential order). So four little heifer calves became Krista, Karyn, Monique and Renee and so on and so forth. And to further the biology lesson, when a heifer becomes pregnant and has a baby it becomes a cow. So Krista the heifer (and Karyn the heifer I should mention) became pregnant earlier this year and became mom's (cows) last week. We both had boys (bulls)

And to make the story even sweeter... my aunt named the baby bull Milt.

So... I do not think at this point that it would be appropriate to name my first son (child) the same name as my first bull and that's not just BS.

Cheers.

(flowers and homemade meals are not necessary for the birth of my first bull. Although if you really feel elated go ahead bake me something... hehe)

Getting More Done

2008-09-12T20:53:00.002-05:00

Here is my updated list- I have 12 in the works, and 5 done (as of tomorrow). Today I went into school early and organized all my files. I love this list! For me it is a way of living consciously aiming towards what I want to do, and who I want to be.

My List
1. Buy a house
2. Get a full-time permanent job

Purchases and Creations
3. Buy a new coffee table
4. Get a label maker... going to be on my Christmas list
5. Buy a new TV stand
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer
7. Get a food processor .... going to be on my Christmas list
8. Buy a bike
9. Buy a new computer
10. Buy a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's
11. Make an upholstered headboard
12. Make pillows for the couch
13. Make a gift for a friend
14. Sew 4 things 1/4 - I hemmed a pair of pants 09/04/08
15. Buy a new(er) car
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)
17. Get two new games 0/2... also going to be on my Christmas list
(I selectively used the word get in some places as you never know what people are going to want to buy me...)

People and Places
18. Go to New York with Steve (I've been twice, and he would really love to go)
19. Go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building
20. Go on a plane with Steve (he's been on a few planes, I've been on more but never together)
21. Go to camp for two weeks (not necessarily in the same year)
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
23. Go camping with just Steve
24. Go on an anniversary trip (probably won't include #23)
25. Go on a road trip longer then 6 hours away
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months 1/6
28. Visit a new state
29. Cook a meal for my family
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment) - By not saying entire family I am completing this 09/13 for my Mother-In-Law's bday- there will be a couple family members missing but we invited them all.
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31)
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 1/3
I brought my SIL (in Steinbach) a birthday dessert 09/11
35. Buy 3 friends flowers 0/3
36. Go on a hot holiday
37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring
38. Email or call Monique once a week for 3 months
39. Email or call Karyn once a week for 3 months
40. Go on a date night once a month 1/32- we went to the Forks tonight 08/08
41. Invite a new friend out for a meal
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
43. Take my parents out for supper
44. Have pictures taken with Karyn and Monique

Out and About
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 1/5
We went to Niko's- 08/17/08
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
47. Go to a Goldeye's Game
48. Go to two Bomber Games 0/2
49. Eat outside 10 days in 3 weeks 0/10
50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month
51. Go to a concert
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 2/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17

Healthy Living
53. Get a gym membership
54. Go to the Gym 3 times a week for 6 months
55. Eat vegetarian once a week for 6 weeks 0/6
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months
57. Be in bed by 10pm for 2 weeks
58. Wake up before 7 am for 3 weeks
59. Watch no TV for one month
60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months
61. Reward myself for not biting nails by having one manicure a month for every month without biting
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months
63. Drink only water for three weeks

Home to Stay
64. Create a sports room with Steve
65. Paint a room in our house by myself
66. Create a welcoming guest/Karyn + Monique room
67. Have flowers waiting for overnight guests
68. Start a garden
69. Buy a Christmas Tree
70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt
71-85- To Be Determined once we buy a house (#1)

Organization
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
87. Frame three pictures I have taken 0/3
88. Start and Finish our wedding album
89. Make a new list by May 12, 2011- by then the list may include... kids...

Can't Put it in a Category
90. Take a cooking class
91. Take a dance class
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC- started with season 3- 09/12
93. Start putting money into RRSP's
94. Read 10 non-teaching books
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!
96. Watch a sunset
97. Watch a sunrise
98. Get a pet
99. Go credit card-less for one month
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months

My German Kids

2008-09-10T21:52:00.003-05:00

Two of my German boys, who I sat beside each other in hopes they could help each other out in German... have now finally discovered that they speak the same language and were helping each other fool me into thinking they don't know what I'm saying. They are conspiring against me and being silly in the process. Sheesh, five year olds... hehe

Today

2008-09-09T22:32:00.002-05:00

Today was my first day with all 22 of my kiddos. It went really well... considering. My crying child from yesterday only cried for half the day today (half of the half day I guess). He even had snack. There was couple other tears, but each of the criers was very quiet about it. There was no huge emotional outbursts.

Every once in a while I try to make up some German to try to communicate with my 5/6 that really have no clue what I'm talking about. For the most part they are able to interact (enough) with the other children and follow the crowd of children when I give an instruction but I feel so bad for them. They will learn English eventually... I thought that the German kids would interact with each other more but they really don't. They are so quiet that they probably don't know that there's others who speak their language.

Today was also the first day the kids came to and left school on the bus. I was there to greet them and so were some of the moms. Some of the moms sent their child on the bus and then drove to school to see them come off the bus. Now that's love. I definitely thought of my friends Andrea and Crystal who also sent their big kindergarten kids on the bus for the first time today.

Well time for bed, got to get ready for tomorrow!

The Criers Came Today

2008-09-08T21:10:00.002-05:00

I can't really hold it against them. One child cried the whole day but this child did not speak any English and it must have been a scary place to be. This child didn't even want to have a cupcake. Life has to be really rough to not want a cupcake.

That's my solitary thought for the day.

2 More 101s Done

2008-09-07T20:50:00.003-05:00

I've been working on a surprise for a while now. A surprise birthday party for my mom for her 50th birthday. Thus fulfilling my #26- Plan a birthday party. There was roughly 75 people there. It was incredibly frigid (we had it at a park) but she was somewhat surprised and after being really stressed out all week about it, it is now behind me and I can relax... and worry about my students. She definitely did not make it easy but it was worth it.

And #46 to celebrate my first day of teaching we went to my old Boston Pizza on Friday. It was weird because I had not been there since I left and I was wondering how it would feel. Not being there for so long definitely created some separation and so it felt like I knew a lot of people but not like I should still be working there. And BPs now has a multi-grain pizza crust so I got to try that and it was AWESOME.

Cheers to life- and crossing things off my list.

First Day as "The Teacher"

2008-09-07T01:02:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was my first day actually teaching. I had only part of my class- 7 kids, and I'd like to say. I could totally get used to only having that many. The other half of my class is coming on Monday and hopefully it will be as successful as my first day.

There were... no tears (if the parents cried it was after they left), the parents didn't stick around, no accidents, and everyone remembered to close the door when they went to the washroom.

There was a minor fiasco when one my students couldn't find her outdoor shoes and so I sent her to her bus in her indoor shoes. Except we solved the problem before she left and SUPER MRS. SMITH got the right shoes on her feet before she got on the bus.

It's all in a days work...

Cheers!

Welcome to my Classroom!

2008-09-04T22:23:00.001-05:00

I've been...

2008-09-02T21:04:00.002-05:00

Meaning to take pictures of my classroom... I've brought my camera many days. Except... today was the first day it looked good and complete.

Today was my first day "on the job". It was the first day I had to be there. We had meeting, and more meetings. And then it was Meet the Teacher night and I thought I'd meet a lot of kids but... Only 7 of my 23 kids came. I suppose it makes sense as they all have individual conferences with me tomorrow and Thursday.

Well, I will plan to take pictures of my class again tomorrow. But we'll see what happens!

101 in Progress

2008-08-24T22:09:00.004-05:00

I'm trying to get some of these done, so this weekend which was possibly the most BORING weekend ever. I worked on a couple.

42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5- Done- it pays to comment. I delivered goodies for the 3 Pams, Melissa and Andrea
- Four people are receiving Random Acts of Baking tomorrow morning. I made Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Rhubarb Struesel Muffins and this awesome Cinny Bun Loaf. Should be good. I would be doing five but I couldn't think of anyone else on my drive to Steinbach. Hopefully all my intended targets are home. I may pack a fifth for my room partner.

86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
- I've started with my school files. Since they are all new it's much easier!

Have a good week!

Cheers!

PS. And as incentive to comment on my blog more often- the people I have chosen are my most frequent and darling commenters!

Just What I Needed

2008-08-22T11:13:00.003-05:00

Once again last night I was so utterly tired, I went to sleep and couldn't fall asleep. Off to the TV I go. But the difference last night was that I was working at home today. So once I got to bed, I did not set the alarm and I just slept. So now I'm up, I feel fabulous because I finally slept well. So despite the incredibly long list that I have for today I feel like everything is under control.

Cheers to Friday!

Somewhere between Wide Eyed and ZZZZ

2008-08-20T23:17:00.002-05:00

Today was another very busy day. I was in my class, by myself this time which was great, all day. I drove home and we immediately got in the car and drove to Morris to the in-laws. While we drove I cut all of the laminating I did today. I was beat, spent, just like yesterday. We left the in-laws at 8pm because of how tired I was. Now that we're home and it's finally bed time, I'm not tired. Stupid second wind. Happened last night too. Sooo frustrating. Oh well, there are bigger problems in the world.

First Day in my Class!

2008-08-18T22:16:00.002-05:00

Today, I woke up bright and early. Loaded my car and... went back to bed. I didn't want to be a super keener. I did have to load the car early though because I had to get it out of the parkade as they were sweeping it. So after I slept for a little bit more (after all I didn't want to be there at 9am on the first day possible) I headed in. Turned out I came at the perfect time. My room partner came in just before me and we figured out our room configuration for the year. We think. It's hard to know what's going to work. In our very packed room we managed to eliminate 2 pieces of furniture. Yay for less clutter!

It was very overwhelming though. I sat there and wondered what I was supposed to do next. I brought way more work to do at school then I actually needed so I ended up bringing a lot of it back home with me. And I did a bunch tonight!

But what is sure to turn out to be an AWESOME help is my former cooperating teacher whom I finally connected with tonight. She taught K for one year and is now a behavioural consultant so she's allowing me to use tons of her stuff!!!! So exciting! She has units and all sorts of stuff for me to borrow. Between that and the other K teachers at my school I should have some great resources. But at the end of the day it's just me and the Kinders....

I got my student files today. The first one I opened was... tendency to cry. I don't know if I'm ready for the criers.

I'm back in my class Wednesday and Friday. Here's to some good prep days. Oh and today I saw the superintendent of the division and part of me wanted to call out "Hey, come back here, I still need another half time position"... but I didn't. Hopefully he has ESP and got the brain wave I sent! lol

Cheers!
Krista

My 101 in 1001

2008-08-15T21:49:00.007-05:00

I've been reading as Pam has been checking off her 101 in 1001 in the last couple months and now I want in. It seems like a great way to get those little things that you want to do in life done.

Here's the idea
The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days? Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Some common goal setting tips:
1. Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.
2. Stay Focused. Any goal requires sustained focus from beginning to end. Constantly evaluate your progress.
3. Welcome Failure. Frequently, very little is learned from a venture that did not experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.
4. Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your commitment.
5. Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently, and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.

My Start date- August 15, 2008
My End date- May 13, 2011
Goals in Bold are Done
Goals in italicized are in progress

My List
1. Buy a house
2. Get a full-time permanent job

Purchases and Creations
3. Buy a new coffee table
4. Get a label maker
5. Buy a new TV stand
6. Get a KitchenAid Stand mixer
7. Get a food processor
8. Buy a bike
9. Buy a new computer
10. Buy a piece of jewelry at Tiffany's
11. Make an upholstered headboard
12. Make pillows for the couch
13. Make a gift for a friend
14. Sew 4 things 1/4 - I hemmed a pair of pants 09/04/08
15. Buy a new(er) car
16. Make bread from scratch (And it has to taste good)
17. Get two new games 0/2
(I selectively used the word get in some places as you never know what people are going to want to buy me...)

People and Places
18. Go to New York with Steve (I've been twice, and he would really love to go)
19. Go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building
20. Go on a plane with Steve (he's been on a few planes, I've been on more but never together)
21. Go to camp for two weeks (not necessarily in the same year)
22. Make Steve breakfast in bed
23. Go camping with just Steve
24. Go on an anniversary trip (probably won't include #23)
25. Go on a road trip longer then 6 hours away
26. Throw a birthday party - My mom's 50th bday party- 09/07/08
27. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months 0/6
28. Visit a new state
29. Cook a meal for my family
30. Cook a meal for Steve's family (I think this will have to be after we buy a house, there's not room for all of them in our apartment)
31. Have photos taken of the two of us
32. Send out Christmas cards (most likely including #31)
33. Have family pictures taken with my family
34. Visit 3 out of town family members 0/3
35. Buy 3 friends flowers 0/3
36. Go on a hot holiday
37. Sponsor a missionary we're not currently sponsoring
38. Email or call Monique once a week for 3 months
39. Email or call Karyn once a week for 3 months
40. Go on a date night once a month 1/32- we went to the Forks tonight
41. Invite a new friend out for a meal
42. Bake for 5 friends 5/5
43. Take my parents out for supper
44. Have pictures taken with Karyn and Monique

Out and About
45. Eat at 5 new restaurants 1/5
We went to Niko's- 08/17/08
46. Eat at my old Boston Pizza (for some reason I just haven't been going back)- Went 9/5/08
47. Go to a Goldeye's Game
48. Go to two Bomber Games 0/2
49. Eat outside 10 days in 3 weeks 0/10
50. Eat at the dining room table every day for a month
51. Go to a concert
52. Try 5 new flavours of gelati 2/5- first new flavour tried was Blood Orange 08-15, Pink Grapefruit 08-17

Healthy Living
53. Get a gym membership
54. Go to the Gym 3 times a week for 6 months
55. Eat vegetarian once a week for 6 weeks 0/6
56. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off for 6 months
57. Be in bed by 10pm for 2 weeks
58. Wake up before 7 am for 3 weeks
59. Watch no TV for one month
60. Quit biting my nails for 4 months
61. Reward myself for not biting nails by having one manicure a month for every month without biting
62. Don't eat fried chips for two months
63. Drink only water for three weeks

Home to Stay
64. Create a sports room with Steve
65. Paint a room in our house by myself
66. Create a welcoming guest/Karyn + Monique room
67. Have flowers waiting for overnight guests
68. Start a garden
69. Buy a Christmas Tree
70. Buy a Christmas Tree Skirt
71-85- To Be Determined once we buy a house (#1)

Organization
86. Label my files in my filing cabinet at home and at school
87. Frame three pictures I have taken 0/3
88. Start and Finish our wedding album
89. Make a new list by May 12, 2011- by then the list may include... kids...

Can't Put it in a Category
90. Take a cooking class
91. Take a dance class
92. Watch all the seasons of SATC
93. Start putting money into RRSP's
94. Read 10 non-teaching books
95. Incur no late fees at the library for 1 year (this may be hard)- Started August 16 with a clean slate!
96. Watch a sunset
97. Watch a sunrise
98. Get a pet
99. Go credit card-less for one month
100. Watch our wedding video (yes, it's been 3 years and we haven't watched it)
101. Blog 3 times a week for 2 months

That's my 101 minus a couple. Here's to the next 1001 days!
Cheers!

Krista

Camp Pictures

2008-08-14T22:57:00.005-05:00

Here's a couple pictures from camp. The one where the water is red is the actual Beaver Creek. My aunt said it looked like stained glass and that's really looking at it in a positive light!!!

And then there was hope, when you look for it you can find it everywhere you look!!!

What's the Deal?

2008-08-14T16:27:00.002-05:00

Big Pout...

I know there' s a lot of you visiting! Where's your comments? There'll be no more posts until I get at least 5 comments. Consider me on strike.

Camp

2008-08-10T22:12:00.002-05:00

I cannot even start to say what going to camp meant to me this week. I took my books with me to do as much prep as possible and I am glad I didn't say no because God definitely had a great plan when He prompted others to ask me to come. It was a very emotional week, possibly one of the most emotional that I've ever experienced but it was hugely healing to my heart. Days prior and especially once I got there the memories washed over me like an uncontrollable flood. Everywhere I looked I saw Renee and it was once I got to camp that I realized that our shared love, that was unique within our four was camp. It was here that we had so many great memories together. Not only during the week but also hanging out in between weeks of camp on the weekends at her parents house. The camp has changed a fair bit building wise since I was there last but the spirit and the memories were exactly the same.

It's funny, and I've found this in other situations, how you can almost completely forget what was a huge portion of your life. I had forgotten about so many great things that can only be found at camp. Like cup games, encouragement notes, cabin/bunk graffiti, the food, tuck time, rec. I was amazed by the fabulous staff at camp this week. So many awesome kids, including my brother Chad who was working with one of the kids with Down's Syndrome that used to be my mom's daycare kid. Five of my mom's former and current daycare kids came up, four of which have different special needs. It was so fantastic to watch them really love camp and get involved in everything.

Going back to the graffiti, which is just notes and names that people have written on the bunks throughout the years, one of the counselors found something that Renee had written on one of the bunks. That was so special that I tried to find more in other cabins but I didn't find anything else. And on the last day I wrote something "back" to her. There were several times during the week that I was really prompted to remember and at one point I wrote a letter "to" Renee. It was part of this letter that I wrote on the bunk. It was such a great way of synthesizing my thoughts and my memories.

As I had said in my post before camp, one of my former campers is now an assistant director and I also had another former camper there on staff. It was such a great little reunion. They have grown into amazing women of God and I am so proud to say I was their counselor.

It will definitely not be another six years till I return to camp again. Now with being a teacher, I can definitely say I will try to go back next year. I don't know if I'd do the kitchen thing again. It wasn't too bad, but there's no sun in the kitchen and that's definitely a downfall.

So now it's back to regular life. Lots of prep to do this week as well as pack all my stuff to move it into my classroom next week. It's also our anniversary (#3) on Wednesday and this week (the evenings anyways) are definitely filling up quickly.

Cheers to camp, cheers to hope and cheers to life!
Krista

Heading to Camp

2008-08-03T20:32:00.003-05:00

So much of my summers as a teenager were spent at camp, Beaver Creek Bible Camp to be exact. It's a wonderful camp, about 2 hours north of Winnipeg, past Gimli, past Riverton, past Grandma's and a little jaunt up the Pine Dock Road (a gravel nightmare where I hit the ditch for the first time). I went there for the first time as a camper when I was 7 and my mom cooked in the kitchen. Every year since then my mom has cooked in the kitchen, first with me and Kurtis, and then with Chad and now whenever it works. As I grew up and out of life as a camper I took Leader Development Camp and became a counselor. I spent the full season, five weeks out there one year, another year I spent four weeks there and now my youngest brother Chad has done the same. This week will be his last week of five. This coming week the list of campers was looking awfully sparse and my mom is cooking so my mom got five of her former daycare kids to come to camp. A couple of them have special needs and so she asked me to come along to help them when necessary and be in the kitchen the rest of the time.

So, seeing that I was only going to do prep this week, and I don't work at the restaurant until Friday I thought I'd go. I've been camping all weekend and tomorrow morning we'll leave at 6am to go to camp. I anticipate many memories flooding over me as we drive up the drive way. I met my first boyfriend there, I met so many fabulous kids including one young lady Katelyn (who is now dancing on heavenly soil). Renee and I spent so much time together at camp, we never counseled together (as in the same cabin) but we definitely taught drama together, and had so much fun. Including hiding our least favourite song "Arky, Arky" which unfortunately we were too honest to hide for too long.

And now as I go back- it's my brother's generation that are the counselors and leaders of the camp. One of my former campers who I counseled when she was maybe 10, is now the assistant director! It will definitely feel a little bit different and I guess that's okay, seasons have come and gone since I was there last. I'm definitely glad though, that God is bringing me back.

Cheers!
Krista

House Hunting

2008-07-29T13:33:00.002-05:00

We're not quite ready to buy but I've been definitely looking on MLS regularly. And time and time again I am surprised by what I see. I understand that there may be different priorities in selling a house from Winnipeg to Steinbach but I definitely do not see this level of... I don't know what to call it... professionalism, editing, trying to actually sell a house... when I look at listings from some of the real estate agents in Steinbach.

Some of the things I have noticed as a future home buyer that reallllly turn me off

- one ad I looked at today had this in the listing "in mittle off town" aka in the middle of town. You must have someone else in the office that can look at your ad before you put it on MLS

- no pictures with an ad, I personally probably would not go look at a house unless I saw pictures online

- however no pictures might be better then looking at pictures of people's mess. If you're trying to sell it- make it look worth buying. This includes putting your dishes away, making your bed, arranging your furniture so it looks presentable.

Ok, rant over. I was going to blog on something else today, but I guess I'll do that tomorrow or maybe if you're lucky later tonight!!

Cheers!
Krista

Updated again

2008-07-08T23:06:00.002-05:00

My dad got out of the hospital on Saturday and has been taking it easy at home since then. I have been at the strawberry farm working picking delicious berries. It's a good place to work, you can eat whenever you want. I eat strawberries all day. If you're into strawberries come pick at La Salle Valley Berry farm, we are picking tomorrow- call 261-4155 for a good time...

Another Update- Updated

2008-07-03T21:38:00.003-05:00

So things seem to be looking up. Dad looked better today, he was off of oxygen, off the heart monitor and off saline. He is still in observation and has not gotten a room but at least he is not in the hall. They want to keep him until Monday when he's been on the blood thinners for a week, but as of today his blood was at the levels they wanted it as far as thinness and he passed the first part of the heart/stress test. The clot "could" still move, and they do not have results back from Mayo yet and probably won't for a couple days. He will have to take it very easy this summer, no lawn mowing, etc.

So my mom may have to mow the lawn... She hasn't mowed a lawn in 35 years and someone was surprised this week to hear that I had never mowed a lawn. Well... I may have mowed my grandparents lawn on the farm, but I don't quite remember. I know I drove the lawnmower and tipped it in the ditch (only once I believe), but I don't know if I was actually mowing the lawn or going for a "drive". But I digress.

The prayers have been much appreciated, keep them coming as now that he has had this once it may happen again.

Update- Karyn also remembers me hitting a rock or a tree when I was driving the riding lawn mower. As for my parents- it doesn't look like lawn mowing will be a problem for my dad

Update

2008-07-02T20:23:00.003-05:00

Not much has changed, he's still at the Vic waiting for a room. There is one big clot and several small clots at this point. It's the large one that they are very concerned about, as if it moves.... It's all a big waiting game as he waits to have the medicine start to diminish the clot. He'll probably be transfered over to the Health Sciences tomorrow just for some tests and then be transfered back. The doctors at the Vic sent some of his blood to the Mayo Clinic in the states for some additional testing on whether there is a condition that is causing these blood clots. While we wait, continue to pray.

Prayer Request

2008-07-01T20:16:00.002-05:00

This time it's for my dad. He is in the hospital because he has a pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in an artery in his lungs. He "should" be okay, now that he's in the hospital and on blood thinners, but there is one large clot that they are concerned about. It all started with huffing and puffing during a bike ride and some chest pain, then he came home early from work yesterday and went to the walk-in to have it checked out. The walk-in sent him for testing at the Vic where he is now, in the ER waiting to be admitted.

Because everyone is doing it!

2008-06-17T22:42:00.002-05:00

Now I'm not like the others in that I did not bold three things I haven't done. Instead I will put some things in italics that I would LIKE to do

1. Touched an iceberg- nope but I've been on a glacier in Alaska
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been a part of a hockey fight
4. Changed a baby's diaper
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Swam with wild dolphins
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a tarantula
10. Said "I love you" and meant it
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game - one of the Grey Cups, Steve could tell you which one
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty- been to NYC twice and I have only seen the statue from the sky.
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables- herbs are veggies right?
19. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
20. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Bet on a winning horse
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping- I only went for the first time in my 20s.
27. Taken an ice cold bath- why would anyone want to do this?
28. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Ridden a roller coaster
31. Hit a home run
32. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
33. Adopted an accent for fun
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Felt very happy about your life, even for just a moment
36. Loved your job 90% of the time
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Watched wild whales
39. Gone rock climbing- not real rock climbing but at a gym
40. Gone on a midnight walk on the beach
41. Gone sky diving
42. Visited Ireland
43. Ever bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited India
45. Bench-pressed your own weight
46. Milked a cow - does a game with rubber gloves count?
47. Alphabetized your personal files
48. Ever worn a superhero costume
49. Sung karaoke
50. Lounged around in bed all day
51. Gone scuba diving- snorkeling yes (in Venezuela) scuba diving no
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Done something you should regret, but don't
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Been in a movie- Terror in Bergen Hall 3
60. Gone without food for 3 days
61. Made cookies from scratch
62. Won first prize in a costume contest
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Been in a combat zone
65. Spoken more than one language fluently
66. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
67. Bounced a check
68. Read - and understood -- - your credit report
69. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy-
70. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
71. Called or written your Congress person
72. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over - we're doing that soon
73. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
74. Helped an animal give birth
75. Been fired or laid off from a job
76. Won money
77. Broken a bone
78. Ridden a motorcycle
79. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
80. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
81. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
82. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
83. Eaten sushi
84. Had your picture in the newspaper-my engagement announcement
85. Read The Bible cover to cover
86. Changed someones mind about something you care deeply about
87. Gotten someone fired for their actions
88. Gone back to school
89. Changed your name
90. Caught a fly in the air with your bare hands
91. Eaten fried green tomatoes
92. Read The Iliad
93. Taught yourself an art from scratch
94. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
95. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
96. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
97. Been elected to public office
98. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
99. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
100. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you-
101. Had a booth at a street fair
102. Dyed your hair
103. Been a DJ
104. Rocked a baby to sleep
105. Ever dropped a cat from a high place to see if it really lands on all four
106. Raked your carpet
107. Brought out the best in people
108. Brought out the worst in people
109. Worn a mood ring
110. Ridden a horse
111. Carved an animal from a piece of wood or bar of soap
112. Cooked a dish where four people asked for the recipe
113. Buried a child
114. Gone to a Broadway (or equivalent to your country) play- Monique, Renee and I went to Rent in January
115. Been inside the pyramids
116. Shot a basketball into a basket
117. Danced at a disco
118. Played in a band
119. Shot a bird- no but I'd like to
120. Gone to an arboretum
121. Tutored someone- kind of tutoring, kind of respite
122. Ridden a train- the train at the zoo is great!
123. Brought an old fad back into style
124. Eaten caviar
125. Let a salesman talk you into something you didn’t need
126. Ridden a giraffe or elephant
127. Published a book
128. Pieced a quilt- not a whole quilt but quilt blocks
129. Lived in an historic place
130. Acted in a play or performed on a stage- I was Rizzo in Grease
131. Asked for a raise -- and I got it, before the nervous breakdown!
32. Gotten a hole-in-one...only in mini-golf
133. Gone deep sea fishing
134. Gone roller skating
135. Run a marathon- the half marathon
136. Learned to surf
137. Invented something
138. Flown first class
139. Spent the night in a 5-star luxury suite
140. Flown in a helicopter
141. Visited Africa
142. Sang a solo
143. Gone spelunking-
144. Learned how to take a compliment
145. Written a love-story - I used to write very sappy, love stories when I was 11 till when I was about 15
146. Seen Michelangelo’s David
147. Had your portrait painted
148. Written a fan letter- to a pastor
149. Spent the night in something haunted
150. Owned a St. Bernard or Great Dane
151. Ran away
152. Learned to juggle- in my education phys ed class
153. Been a boss
154. Sat on a jury
155. Lied about your weight
156. Gone on a diet
157. Found an arrowhead or a gold nugget- I went panning for gold in Alaska (it was only fools gold though)
158. Written a poem
159. Carried your lunch in a lunchbox
160. Gotten food poisoning
161. Gone on a service, humanitarian or religious mission
162. Hiked the Grand Canyon
163. Sat on a park bench and fed the ducks - I hate ducks so that would be a no
164. Gone to the opera
165. Gotten a letter from someone famous
166. Worn knickers
167. Ridden in a limousine
168. Attended the Olympics
169. Can hula or waltz
170. Read a half dozen Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books
171. Been stuck in an elevator
172. Had a revelatory dream
173. Thought you might crash in an airplane - over the Bermuda Triangle
174. Had a song dedicated to you on the radio or at a concert
175. Saved someone’s life
176. Eaten raw whale
177. Know how to tat, smock or do needlepoint
178. Laughed till your side hurt
179. Straddled the equator- When I was in Venezuela I passed over the equator. I did not stand and straddle it though.
180. Taken a photograph of something other than people that is worth framing
181. Gone to a Shakespeare Festival
182. Sent a message in a bottle
183. Spent the night in a hostel- only way to travel baby
184. Been a cashier
185. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
186. Joined a union- I will in September, I've been a student member though of MTS.
187. Donated blood or plasma
188. Built a campfire
189. Kept a blog
190. Had hives
191. Worn custom made shoes or boots- I wish, I wish, I wish.... unless Grandma making me slippers counts.
192. Made a PowerPoint presentation
193. Taken a Hunter’s Safety Course
194. Served at a soup kitchen
195. Conquered the Rubik’s cube
196. Know CPR
197. Ridden in or owned a convertible
198. Found a long lost friend- cheers for facebook.
199. Helped solve a crime
200. Responded to a NJP newsletter

Cheers to life!

Just a little Sunday Run

2008-06-15T15:49:00.002-05:00

Just before 6am this morning I started with breakfast. But not just any breakfast, this breakfast had to last me 13 MILES. So I hadthe breakfast of champions, a baked potato, chicken, and Coke. Yum.

The Marathon was today (obviously) and it was better then I expected. To start both Steve and Rochelle left me in the dust, then I was passed by a good couple thousand people. The first half of the race was great- I felt great and I paced myself perfectly. At Mile 6 was the first relay exchange and since my mom was running in the Marathon with her relay team "Pushing 50", she was there with her teammates as well as my dad, and so they got to see me running . That was cool. I continued on a good pace till around mile 7 when my knees started to hurt so bad. The second half of the race was a little more trying, I did spend some time walking but because it was just because of my knees I was okay with that. I ended up finishing at my target time which was 3 hours. On the way in one of the recovery people asked if I had fun and I said "no, that was torture". It wasn't really, but it felt like it at that point. Finishing the half-marathon was such a great experience! My in-laws were there on the last turn around the stadium and took a picture of me. And when I asked them if they had seen Steve- they said no. I was very confused where Steve could be, I knew I didn't pass him or Rochelle (who also ran the half). I went into the tent and found Carissa (who ran the relay) who said she hadn't seen either. I thought maybe something had happened to Steve. And do you know what happened to Steve.... he ran the half marathon in 2 hours. He had also been targeting 3 hours because he hadn't trained much so I was so astounded at his awesome accomplishment. He finished so fast his parents didn't even see him.

And now... I feel like an old woman. I feel like I need a double knee replacement and a new hip. I am so sore. In pain. I can barely walk around the house. We walked to Alto's for brunch with Steve's parents and we took about 15 minutes to walk what would usually take us 4. One of the neighbours asked if I had hurt my foot, to which I said "I hurt everything, I just ran the half marathon". She laughed at me.

So I don't think I'll do that again. I would definitely, definitely run the relay but I don't think I'll ever do this to my legs again.

To everyone who ran today, in whatever way...
Cheers!

Running 21K

2008-06-14T22:05:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the half marathon. 21k. Holy moly. I really hope that I am able to run at least half of the time, and finish...even if it's walking. I am aiming to finish in around 3 hours, not going to go for any world records but then again, I have had serious delays in my training. I'm blaming wheat. I am going on wheat (almost) free for a week and will hopefully see the doctor this coming week. I'll let you know how the race goes tomorrow.

It Gets Worse

2008-06-12T19:02:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry, this is a post in which some self-pity may happen. But... my diamond in my engagement ring is chipped. And the chip has been spreading. This is not good. I'd rather never have any cookies for the rest of my life then have this problem. I took it to the jewelers where we bought it and our other rings to get checked out because it's been snagging things like towels, etc. We don't like our jeweler, she was fine when we bought the rings. Very helpful even, promised us free engraving, etc. But then, she said she didn't. We instead had to pay for everything she promised us free. So back to the chip. It is in one corner near one of the prongs, and spreads to the vicinity of the prong. The exact prong... that needs to be worked on. So I can either have them fix the prong at the risk of the diamond cracking apart and being ruined, or not get it fixed, and have it continue catching on things at the risk of losing the diamond completely. We don't have my ring insured separately and as far as I know tenant insurance won't cover this. So for now, I'm just not wearing it until I make my decision.

Cheers!

Wheat-free- Day 2

2008-06-09T22:21:00.002-05:00

Today was my first dose of torture. My plan was to go shopping first thing in the morning, as I knew I was subbing in the afternoon, until I got a call for the morning as well. So I had a couple rice cakes for breakfast, went to foodland and got some yogurt and rice noodle soup for lunch. However, this was not enough to keep me full at all. I was hungry and cranky all day (not a particularly great thing while subbing, but I tried to keep it together). Which continued after supper as we went grocery shopping and I had to read every label. There was apparently some wheat in the peanut sauce I had and I was feeling pretty rotten while we were grocery shopping which lasted until I ate another supper when we got home.

But, as of right now I am feeling better. I have lots of food at home that I can eat. Lots of things made of rice and meats and veggies. Snacks of crispy minis, rice crackers, and some candy. Thank goodness there's no wheat in candy.

Karyn was lamenting with me tonight about the cinnamon buns and other stuff I would have to cut out. But there are a lot of my favourites that I will not have to eliminate and Karyn pointed out that I might lose some weight in the process and I'd be totally okay with that.

Cheers!
Krista

Trying an Experiment

2008-06-08T21:37:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately I cannot see it being fun. I think that I may... have Celiac's (I'll bet some of you thought I was going to confess to a pregnancy). I've been having some stomach issues as of the last five weeks. I've been feeling very uncomfortable, bloated, nauseous, mixed with a couple other things primarily after I eat. It has really affected my training for the marathon and I was thinking I had some sort of deficiency but when I told a friend the other day, who has Celiac's, she said it sounded like that. SAY IT AIN'T SO. Celiac's is a disease in which part of your intestine is damaged and therefore cannot absorb gluten in wheat and makes it into a toxin which causes these symptoms. Friday when my friend told me this might be the case for me, I wasn't ready to think it could be that. But yesterday after a big roll kuchen (mennonite fried bread) lunch at my parents I was more uncomfortable then ever.

So today I started my experiment. I'm going to try to go wheat-free for a week and see if some of my symptoms disappear. So far I'm on day one and I feel a lot better then I have all week. I really hope it's something else (and not something worse) because I would be very sad to miss out on so many wonderful foods like bread and baked stuff. I know that you can make these things with modified recipes but I will have to change the way I eat. I know this week we'll be having lots of meat, rice, potatoes, salads. And like so many other things in life right now... we'll just have to see what happens.

Cheers!

The Next Step?

2008-06-05T15:32:00.003-05:00

Moving to Steinbach... yikes! Unfortunately the specific plan that we had with buying in the new development (see land below) is not going to happen. Once the houses actually went on the market and we found out some details that weren't available earlier it doesn't look like something that is as desirable as thought. And we're also not ready to buy a different house at this point. So we've been thinking about renting and then saw a classified ad for something that might work. We're going to go see it tomorrow. But today I was very apprehensive about everything. I've gotten myself all excited about moving and such but now that it's actually a reality it is pretty scary. We'll be starting over in a new city and life will be very different. Winnipeg isn't far away but you can't always just drive in for whatever, it takes a little more planning then that. Not helping is the fact that I've had too much time to sit and think as I haven't been working very much. I did however, just get a new serving job which should keep me busy a couple nights a week and help with a little bit of extra cash.

May you all have a fabulous day!
Cheers!

The Last Week in Pictures

2008-06-03T13:59:00.000-05:00

Lovin it!

2008-05-28T22:19:00.003-05:00

This has been such a great week. Thursday night the long awaited surprise visitor arrived. Karyn came home for two months from Jordan!!! See my cousin's post to see who that is if necessary. Then Friday I got my job, on Saturday Monique came home and we shopped and went out for lunch. It was fabulous! Sunday we went out to Mennville to see Grandma as well as my aunt and cousin who are in from Alaska. Grandma was tickled pink to have almost two whole benches full of her family in church. We also brought Monique's friend with us who is from Australia and who is living in Vancouver currently, but working on a project here in Winnipeg for a couple months. This was her first experience with a large family as she has less people in her entire family then were there just for Sunday at Grandma's. Last night Karyn, Monique and I went to Renee's parents (our aunt and uncle's) for supper and Karyn came over for night.

I don't think I have to tell you but I love having Monique, Karyn (and when she was alive Renee) home. They all left Manitoba before they were 20 and I... stayed. I don't regret staying because this is my home and staying led to me meeting Steve and starting my life with him. I know I was meant to stay here but I miss them when they're gone. However, that makes it so much sweeter when they are here. Even when I know they are in the province it makes me happy. But what makes life even better is that tomorrow at my grad party, my friends and my cousins get to meet. Now when I talk about my friends to my cousins and vice versa there will hopefully be a face to the name.

Alright, I should head to bed so I look all fresh tomorrow for Grad!

Cheers!

Employed!

2008-05-23T23:04:00.003-05:00

Today the call came! I got a call from the Superintendent in the Hanover division who said that there was another opening that (not quite how he said it) was mine if only I could impress the principal and I was willing to take the position right away as I was the only one being interviewed for the position. So I took another drive to Steinbach for my interview. It went very well and later in the day while I was in the spice aisle at Superstore I got the job!

So now you're wondering, where and what. Well it's a half-time afternoon Kindergarten. Currently it's a term position but because of numbers it may become permanent and the superintendent said that I'm at the top of the list if a morning half-time position becomes available. And with the growth in the division I'm not too worried about getting another position next year. It's in Steinbach and is only 2 minutes away from the picture above which is where hopefully our future house will be. The phase is not for sale yet though so we need to wait a little bit longer.

The pieces seem to be falling in place- this is the official I have a job and we're moving to the country post I suppose. And that picture was taken with my new camera!
Cheers!

Ode to 29

2008-05-22T18:16:00.010-05:00

Today is Steve's 29th birthday. His first 29th birthday at that! And where is he on this day? Why he's heading with his parents and sister to Kansas for his cousin's wedding. But we did get a chance to go to Carlos and Murphy's for his birthday yesterday. And then off to the mall so he could buy a new Bomber hat to go with his jersey that my parents and I got him.

So to honour my wonderful husband on his birthday here's a couple pictures. I promise I didn't chose the worst. This is just how pictures go with him...

Runner Up

2008-05-22T15:56:00.002-05:00

I finally got the call that I'd been waiting for at about noon. Except that... I didn't get the job. Boo. But I was the 2nd ranked candidate- so the runner up. But this cloud isn't all rain showers, there is a very shiny silver lining. It was the superintendent that called me and he said my interview was very successful and that there was new positions coming up next week which he will be calling me for. He couldn't tell me what those positions were but if he wants me back it looks like this will turn into a job somehow. Patience right?

I did soothe myself with a little retail therapy. I got myself a grad present today- a pretty, new camera. It's an Olympus FE-310 so hopefully I'll be posting more pictures.

Cheers!

An EXCITING week ahead!

2008-05-19T13:36:00.005-05:00

This week could be a huge week. But regardless of that it will be exciting! And not only this week, next as well. Tonight we are heading over to Dana and Cody's for supper. Dana was one of my bridesmaids and recently got married herself. Wednesday I have an interview (eek) for which I will find out the results later in the day. Thursday is Steve's birthday which we are celebrating Wednesday night because on Thursday Steve is heading to Kansas for his cousin's wedding. Thursday I will be going to the airport to welcome home someone who cannot be named at this point (it is a surprise for someone). Saturday I welcome home Monique who is home for a week from Vancouver and we'll spend the day together. On Sunday, Monique and I as well as her friend who is here as well from Vancouver will head out to Mennville to spend the day with Grandma as well as our aunt and cousin who are in from Alaska. Fast forward a little bit and my Graduation and grad party are on Thursday the 29th and then family camping with the Reimer's out in Hecla. Oh and in there somewhere I will be getting my first paycheck! Hopefully I'll be subbing some more... And if I get the job we could be making some movement on housing. I may be getting a little too excited and a little ahead of myself but can you blame me?

Cheers!

The Sicko is Coming Home

2008-05-18T17:05:00.002-05:00

Chad called my parents today to say that he's on his way home. Being sick and trying to plant just wasn't working for him. That's all I really know for now. I know no one responded initially so I don't know if anyone actually read about it but thanks if you did.

Cheers!

Pray for Chad

2008-05-14T22:34:00.002-05:00

My youngest brother Chad (also referred to as Stinky- although he does not) is tree planting in the bushes of Ontario as of this week. Which I suppose would be fine, except that before he left he got pneumonia. (Well really he was sick for a while, ignored it and finally found out before he left that it was pneumonia) And it's not the better kind to have because the antibiotics have not helped him. Tonight he called home and talked to Dad. He is not feeling any better, and he is having a really hard time planting trees because of it. Which means he's barely planting enough to pay for room and board and really not making any money at this point. Pray that he would feel better and that his pneumonia would clear up, or have the courage to come home to recover. I don't think he wants to come home and follow in my footsteps of abandoning ship.

What I'm referring to is the summer after high school graduation when I moved to Banff and became a housekeeper at a hotel there. I hated it! I was sick and I knew no one, plus the people I lived with didn't speak English. The scenery and great shops that I couldn't buy anything in were not enough. So after three weeks, I had broken even with my room and board and plane ticket and my seven month adventure got significantly cut down as I took the bus back home. I came home, went to camp for the rest of the summer and then got my Boston Pizza job. So who knows what would have happened had I stayed in Banff.

But back to Chad. Please pray for him! I know he would really appreciate it.

Cheers!