Things I really, really, really, really like...

(and just so you know, Suzy, I'm not trying to steal your stellar Friday List thing you got goin on, I'm not a blog copycat! I just felt like making a list right now. Please forgive me if I've offended you :)

(Oh and another thing, if you, meaning anyone reading this, weren't directly mentioned in this list it doesn't mean that I don't really, really, really, really like you or anything connected with you...in fact the exact opposite is probably true! This is just what came to mind right now)

1. Peanut butter and jelly on a toasted English muffin
2. Ladybugs
3. The colour pink
4. Dandelions
5. Cashews
6. Makwa River (it's this really sweet river close to my house with a walk across dam. In the spring you can watch the fish jump up stream! I'm going to convince some friends to go there with me tomorrow, then I'll take a picture so you can see!)
7. Trees, including dead ones.
8. Canoeing with Cory and Anna
9. My dad.
10. Blogs, I'm kind of geeky like that
11. Scrubs. Both the show and the clothing!
12. Be Alive In Me-Abandon
13. Walt's Favorite Shrimp. mmmmm tasty!
14. Camping
15. My friend Jenny
16. Knowing how to administer CPR to people of all ages
17. Waaaatermelon, I seriously eat it all summer long and never, ever get sick of it!
18. The Armstrong Family
19. Listening to Jonathan pray (not in a creepy way though, in a "wow, this guy is filled with passion for God and for people and I know he means what he prays" way)
20. Carrots fresh from the garden that have been washed off with a hose but still have just a liiiiittle bit of dirt on them. Don't deny it, you love carrot dirt too.

"If I ain't busy doing something I'm busy thinking of something to do"

Fall is a busy, busy time of year. Did I mention I'm busy? But I love it, even when it seems insane! God is putting together some great stuff and I'm very excited to be a part of it! I'll tell you all about it later, after I'm finished looking like this from all the rushing around...



Juuuuust kiddin!

Covered in alpaca wool

Today I got to help do alpaca shearing. it was pretty exciting. Before today the only time I've ever interacted with an alpaca was by just looking at them...from a safe distance...with a tall fence between us. Today I was upclose and personal!

First we had to get the alpaca onto the tipping table (which is exactly what it sounds like: a table that tips) I stood behind the table and tipped it over, grabbing the alpacas hips as we eased them onto the table. Ease might not be the best word. There was a lot of flailing and kicking. We basically slammed those alpacas on that table and while I practically layed on top of them 3 other people were tying down their legs and head. I thought about how I would be very disturbed if this is how things went right before I went under for surgery in a hospital...

Then 2 people went to work with large scissors and shears, cutting away all the wool from the alpaca. During this time I pressed against the alpacas back and stroked her neck, letting her know that everything was going to be ok! I'm a nice person like that. When the side started to get sheared my job was to grab all the wool coming off, hug it to me and not let any drop on the floor.

My first attempt was an epic fail.

But I got better! Once one side was done we had to flip over the alpaca and do the other side. Did you know that alpacas have really sharp toe nails...those things could slice you right open!

You know how poodles who are pampered look? Well that's what alpacas look like when all their wool has been taken off, really tall poodles. When we finished 2 alpacas I looked down at myself to discover I was now more hairy then the alpacas themselves!

Small Town

I live in a small town, it's an interesting life! Everyone knows everyone elses buisness, many of the men gather for coffee at the same time everyday, you get your mail even when it has no box number on it (or the wrong box number), children bike around town with no parent supervision and no one worries...it's interesting.

It can also be ridiculous.

I recently learned of a bylaw that is present in my town. You have to tie up your wind chimes after 9pm, if you don't you could get fined. That's a real bylaw where I live!

Someone better tell my dad before he gets arrested!

The moldy muffin day

One day I was babysitting for a lady I am good friends with. I went to her house nice and early in the morning because she had to leave for work by 8:00am. As I was waiting for the little tyke I was to care for to wake up I felt a certain rumbling behind my belly button. Sure enough, I was hungry! So I rummaged through the fridge and the cupboards until I came upon some muffins. Oh how scrumptious they looked! I pulled one out and took a medium sized bite outta it. As I was chewing I thought to myself, "Man, this muffin sure tastes funny...maybe it has extra fiber in it" I took another bite. The self talk continued, "No it can't be fiber, what is that funky taste?" I had only to look down at the now significantly smaller muffin in my mind to find the funky taste culprit. Mold!!!
Realizing that I had already consumed some of the nasty mold my stomach started to churn. I hoped to high heaven it would all come back up. Alas it did not, I digested that mold.
The moral of my story is, make sure you look before you bite.

Something I recently learned

I don't like travelling all through the night to get somewhere. I would much rather stop and sleep somewhere... even if it's stopping at 3am and sleeping only until 9. That would be more preferable to driving all night long.

Sleepless in...my basement

I can't sleep. This happens to me every once in a while and I can't seem to pinpoint what the issue is that makes me temporarily insomnic (I'm not even sure insomnic is a word but bear with me) Is it gastric problems? No. A acting up foot fungas? No. An overactive mind? Possibly. But I can't figure out what it would be overacting on. Doesn't really seem like there's much going on up there considering that I can't come up with anything more interesting to write in this random episode of the bloggity-blog.

What are some ways I could put myself to sleep? So far I tried reading, that didn't work, I just got wrapped up in the story. So then I turned on the tv and watched an episode of "My Name is Earl". That didn't work either, it was funny! So now I'm blogging. I'm not feeling any more tired. Was "any more" supposed to be one word in that past sentence? The popular tv sitcom method of making a person sleepy is to drink warm milk. That just grosses me out.

I just reread what I wrote and noticed all my grammer errors but I'm not going to correct them so you can have some fun pretending to be an English teacher while you read this. I know that if James Ranson was reading this he would have for sure noticed every mistake I made, I apprecate that about him! Who needs spell check when you've got a James Ranson around!

Well I think I'm going to watch an episode of Hannah Montana and see if that makes me sleepy. Thanks for checkin in!

Just everyday life

Well...I don't really have anything to say today but I thought to myself, "I havn't written anything in the bloggidy-blog for a while" and not wanting to dissapoint all of my bloggidy-blog readers, (that's right all 8 of you!) I decided to write something anyway. So now you've been warned, this may not be interesting!

Nothing of interest has happened in my life latley. Just work, starting up youth group, small group bible study and life in general. Oh and I recently completed the Red Cross course to become a First Responder. It was pretty intense stuff but I really enjoyed the course. I got to have my own little dummy to practice CPR on, in case your wondering I named him Bartholemew and we got along qite well, although that might have had something to do with the fact that I saved his life at least 8 times. I also got to experience being strapped onto a spine board, it was a bit unnerving but I got through it, my blood pressure was quite high after the whole ordeal though!

Let me give you some advice if you are thinking of taking any form of advanced first aide, if you don't like people touching you don't take the course!

tea parties and ballarina moves

Last week I had a tea party with my friends 3 year old daughter. It was a marvelous time! She brought over her princess tea set...I drank from the Sleeping Beauty cup. I made ice tea, served some chocolate cookie type things as well as apples with cheese slices. The tea party began! We drank a lot of ice tea, ate he entire plate of goodies and talked about life, from a 3 year olds point of view! After we had devoured all the tea party goodness we turned on the tv to watch the Wiggles. If you've never watched them you should.
We were dancing along with the amazing Wiggles when T. looked at me and said, "Watch me okay, it's going to be incredible!" She did a twirling, tippy toe ballarina dance move...and it was incredible.

That's something new...

So yesterday I had to go to Saskatoon to the eye specialist again (for those of you who don't know that entire journey I plan to blog it soon so stay tuned!) What a scene! I have to drive almost 4 hours to Saskatoon (I also had to leave at 4:30am to get to my 9:00 appointment, grrrr!) then I sit in the waiting room for almost an hour. When I do finally get in to see the doc this is what happens.

He shakes my hand, asks me how I am doing and we small talk for about 40 seconds. Then he puts a flashlight on his head and picks up the little eye magnifier. He puts it to my right eye and says, "Look left...look right...look up...look down...look right again..." Then he puts it to my left eye and says, "Look right...look left...look up...look down...thank you." After that he puts down the eye magnifier, takes the flashlight off his head sits down in his chair and says, "everything is excellent, come back in a year and then after that if everything is still good I won't need to see you anymore." I thank him and walk out of the office. I was in there for maaaaybe 2 minutes! Crazy I tell ya!

Anyway so now I know what I will be doing December 15, 2008 at 9:10am...that's an entire year away! That NEVER happens to me! I rarely know what I am doing 2 days in advance! I don't think I have ever known a year in advance something that would be specifically happening in my life...I don't think! The real miracle will be if I remember I have a doctor's appointment a year from now!

Full of crab meat and content

Today was a great day! First off I had an awesome hair and outfit day, that always makes a girl happy! Then I actually got to go to the adult Sunday School class because none of my students showed up (I know that may be a strange thing to be happy about but hey.) Then during church a whole whack of my youth group friends that I grew up with showed up! (You see my youth group pretty much married each other and now are all related so when one comes home they all come home!)

Then after church Debbie and I went to Rick and Colette's house for lunch. After lunch we wound up just hanging out all afternoon, talking and having a good time. We also wound up calling Cory who as well came to hang out. We hung out for so long that we all wound up staying for supper! (I used the phrase 'wound up' a lot up there, my English teacher would be angry!) We had a crab leg feast! Which reminds me, I think I may be intollerant to shell fish... but that's besides the point.

I love hanging out with Rick, Colette, Debbie and Cory. It just makes my day! it's amazing what a little fellowship with good friends can do for your heart and soul. After today I walked home content and happier then I've been for a few days. We had some good laughs, discussed some important points brought up in church today, I got to hold baby Jordan (he puked on me but that's okay, baby puke isn't that gross!) we played a game and I got to play with Trenace for a solid 20 minutes! It was a good day indeed!

Oh children

I havn't posted for a while. Mostly because I havn't known what to think or say. After writing my big post about finally being happy in Loon Lake I became very unhappy. Why is it so hard for me to be content? I know that if I did leave Loon Lake right now and pursue something else I would be often thinking back to Loon Lake and everything going on here. So why can't I be content here? It's a very strange thing.

Maybe I just need to go on a trip for a little while, I weekend away. Good thing Youthedge is coming up soon!

I've become involved in a lot of Children's Ministries this year. I help out at 2 different Kids Clubs and I teach Sunday School for age 6-9ish. There is also a bit of camp follow up going on that is kid friendly. Through all this I have discovered...I don't really enjoy children's ministry all that much. Now don't get me wrong I like kids and I like hanging out with them but I don't so much like teaching them. It scares me a little bit. Even though their cute, kids can be intimidating! Now that I know this about myself I still need to stick with all thes things I've committed to for the year. And that's okay, GOD can work even through me and my lack of kids skills!

Fake eyes

About 3 0r 4 times a year I put on eye make-up. I take my time getting eyeliner on evenly, I pick out the shades of eyeshadow I think would compliment me that day and I blend it nicely. Sometimes I even put a little bit of mascara on, just for that extra umph. Then I look at myself in the mirror and I think, "Joni. This looks so fake." So I wash it all off.