huh

Yes I still blog...I realize that I haven't kept up with the whole "I'm going to post once a week thing"....blah, blah. I am extremely jetlagged at the moment so please forgive my random train of thought. I HATE Air Canada. In the past week we have encountered not 1...not 2 but THREE mechanical failures in an Air Canada plane which resulted in too many to count delays and 2 cancelled flights. We were put in a hotel that was not informed we were coming and wouldn't take our food vouchers. We encountered broken TV sets on the planes...rude flight attendents and 2 very nasty children that were in great need of a spanking (which I was very tempted to do myself). We had a wonderful and hectic time in Nova Scotia but I must say Air Canada certainly put a damper on the beginning and end of it. I intended to write a strongly worded letter to Air Canada and I will be requesting free stuff...and not free air miles because I don't want to ever get on an Air Crappy plane again...I think I want new luggage...I'm going to ask for new luggage. :) Here are a couple of pictures from our wonderful trip.

Newsboys

Wow, who knew that the Newsboys had so much energy. Just before Christmas our friend Kim asked if we would be interested in going to a Newsboys concert with her and her husband Derek. I said sure thinking that it would be cool seeing a band from when I was a teen. I'm thinking that these guys have got to be old by now and that they have mellowed...oh boy was I wrong. While waiting for the doors to open I overheard people talking about how "seeker-friendly" the Newsboys were...and I thought oh great what have I got myself into.

The concert took a bizarre turn at the beginning because the Newboys were delayed in arriving in Edmonton; so they had to add stuff to the concert to allow time for them to get to the auditorium. It opened with some worship lead by Mark Roberts...very talented songwriter then a guy named Bob Lentz spoke...wow...there was nothing seeker friendly or wishy-washy about him. He blasted the audience with the clearest salvation message I've heard in years and challenged those of us who are Christians to get out of comfort zones and share Christ.

The concert then went to Geoff Moore who I think was popular in the 90s as well. He delievered a powerful set of music. He then talked about getting involved with Compassion Canada. He is very invovled with the organization and had been promoting adoptions all weekend (this concert was part of a weekend long conference called Breakforth) and 1000 children in third world countries have been adopted with past weekend. Not only will their physical needs be met now but they will be taught in christian schools and go to evangelical churches. Awesome.

Okay by this point in the evening the Newsboys were almost at the auditorium but would need time to set up so they gave us a 30 minute break. So after 45 minutes the Newsboys took the stage. It was AWESOME. They were loud, they were energetic and they love Jesus. Who knew that a bunch of 40 year olds could make praising God so much fun. The lead singer also talked about giving your life to Christ does not mean being good, it's all about KNOWING God as your Saviour and then getting out in the world and sharing the good news.

I was so impressed with the whole evening. I love how God used the travel delay to allow Bob Lentz to share such an amazing message. I am so glad that I agreed to go to the concert back in December. I love what I thought was going to be a blast from my past was a real challenge from God in my life. I love that 40 year old men who wear make-up made me realize that serving Jesus can be a ton fun when we let it. God is awesome people...go tell someone today.

Viva Las Vegas...in Edmonton

I'm sorry Cheryl that I am a little behind in my weekly posting. It's not because I forgot it's just that my life is really boring right now. I don't have much to post about; so I had to wait until something interesting happened. Tonight we had a poker/games night at our house. We had a bunch of people over and had a poker tournament downstairs(Mafiz cleaned up) and a "Settlers of Katan" game upstairs (Kim is still the Queen). It was great to hang out with a bunch of people (Christy and Miro, Andrea and Riaan, Doug, Mafiz, Kim and Derek, Barb and Dwayne, Tim and Celia)...the house was crowded but it was great. Christy, Dwayne and I even manage to sneak in a game of Dutch Blitz. What a great ending to a hectic and boring week. Thanks everyone for coming and hanging out. Next adventure will be Newsboys concert tomorrow night...

Comings and Going

Well my dreams of blogging a lot at Christmas fell through...oh well. And I come back to find that everyone is either gone (Lynds, Ash, Taye) or moved (Shan and Kim). So now I am updated as to where everyone is or isn't. My goal this year is to blog once a week. I need to get into the habit so that when James and I start travelling I'll keep up with this blog.

James and I spent 3 hours last night discussing our travel plans and this is what we have come up with:
1. we don't want to travel for 8 months.
2. fewer places is better

So with that in mind we had a tentitive plan for travelling. Leave Halifax at the beginning of June...spent a couple of weeks in Hawaii, then fly to New Zealand to spend a couple of weeks with Sharon C. Then fly to Thailand where we would have 6 weeks to investigate South east Asia and then finally fly to Kenya where we will spend 6 weeks in Africa. We will then return home at the end of September. We decided to cut out Central and South America altogether because it adds a lot time and money onto this trip and because it is fairly cheap to get there from Nova Scotia at a later time. So tomorrow we are heading to the travel agent to book our tickets...hurray.

In other news...oh wait...I don't have other news. :) Classes are back in now so I don't have a life anymore. Okay I'll talk to you all next week.

Finally

Well I guess I am back. What a semester...I think by far it was the worst one yet. But thanks to all of your prayers I have, as of 11am today, finished another term. Thank you all for praying for me while I was writing my papers, I seem to have one emotional breakdown per semester and I definitely had on during all those 10 pagers. Lots has happened over that last little while.James finished his masters program, Laura came to visit with Daniel, James had his final surgery and of course we have been getting ready for our first Christmas not with our Nova Scotia families. We are sad but excited just to hang out and relax in the SNOW COVERED city.
The most recent of new is my friend Julie will be leaving Edmonton to pursue her career in Speech Pathology. The other night she had her grad banquet and I was honoured along with our other friend Adele to be invited. We had a GREAT time hanging out, laughing, etc ;) I guess that is all I can think of to say right now. But now that I will have some free time you guys can count of more posts, maybe I'll even get to do some book reviews.

Please

Hello All,
I do realize that I haven't been a good blogger and for the moment I am not really going to give an update. I really am just asking for prayer. I do realize that my life is wonderful and I am truly blessed with many things but that does not change the fact that I have 2 ten page papers due Friday and neither one are done or even started for that matter. I was sick in bed for over a week and I am SO far behind I could just cry. So please if you can spare a moment please pray that God will give me clarity and the ability to ramble about 17th century print culture and the Victorian Class structure. Thank you all. I promise to update a lot over Christmas.

Sorry it's been so long

Hello everyone, I guess it's been awhile since my last entry. As always I have the lame excuse that I've been busy. School and work have once again taken over my days and made time slip by far too quickly. Since my last post Logan has had his seventeenth birthday.

I cannot believe that he is practically an adult...wow...where did the time go. I'm so proud of my surfer dude nephew. Love you Logan. Lisa has also managed to squeeze in another birthday.

Also, as of yesterday James is offical done his Master program. He presented and defended his thesis on October 26. He did a few revisions to fix it up and yesterday he submitted his final copy to the graduate studies offical. The lady at the office congratulated him and told him he was offically done (he even got a fancy pen). Hurray.

Well, I guess that is all that's been going on. We are now looking forward to Laura and Daniel's visit on the 19th. By the way I will try my best to actually post something about 3 John today. Somebody yell at me if I don't. I'm so bad at this. I hope everyone is well.

It's me Mams birthday

On this day not that long ago my sweet grandmother gave birth to my sweet mother. Happy Birthday Mama. Have a great day. I hope you like your present.

Love you
t.

As days go by

I don't even know how it got to be the 17th of October. Life is beyond busy right now and I don't really like it. I apologize to all of you who have emailed and I haven't responded yet. Cheryl, thank you so much for the picture...it made my day. Shannon, I will respond soon...I love the updates...they make me realize that there is more to this life.
Since the purpose of a blog is to vent, journal, criticize, correspond,etc., I am going to let you all know that I am and have been grumpy for days upon end. It all started last Saturday when I was supposed to have a relaxing day off and then spend an evening with a bunch of my girlfriends. I was told last minute that I had to attend a play for one of my classes in the evening which I must write a 3 page report on...There goes my girls night out. Then I got called into work...There goes my day off. No problem...right?! Work was fine I managed to get through it. Then I went to the play.........words cannot describe what I experienced. Stupid and pointless are just not harsh enough. A complete and utter waste of time and let me just tell you, I am pretty artsy so for me to think a play is stupid I'm sure most of you would have walked out after 5 seconds. I had to sit through 90 minutes of a grown man acting like a crow (I'm totally serious). Then came Sunday...oh dear...I don't even want to go there again. Let's just say I'll be contacting Anne to find out what time their morning service is. Then on Monday morning one of my professors tried to convince our class that "common sense" does not really exist...COME ON PEOPLE, WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO. Normally I can just laugh all of this stuff off and chalk it up to "those academics" but I'm coming to the end of my rope with this stuff. I was somewhat encouraged when, on Monday, we discussed the "Crow Play" in class and my teacher apologized for making us go...she didn't realize that it would be so dumb. She also gave us an assignment to make a list of things we are grateful for (this is a drama class)...so I am thankful for my drama teacher. I am grateful that she restored my faith in mankind (just a bit). Well, that is what I have been up to. I just go to school and work (a lot). James' mom and dad were very nice and put some money in our bank account so that we could go out to eat and go to a movie. It was great to get out and have fun. Thanks Lana and John. I think that is my life right now. Also some breaking news...James and I are not coming home for Christmas this year...boohoo. It was just far too expensive so courtesy of Mom and Dad and their air miles we will be home Feb 17 for a week. It will be sad not to be home for Christmas but at least in February we will actually have time to visit with everyone. Okay I'm tired of typing. Anne and Charmin I apologize for any typos but I just don't have it in me to proofread.

Pretend it is October 7th

So I am a little behind with my blogging...Although I did not forget my dear brother's birthday I feel bad that I didn't get a chance to post a Happy Birthday blog for him on the 7th. So here it is Scott. I hope you have a fabulous birthday. Love ya.

So I freaked out just a bit

As most of you know I am almost always signed into MSN but am rarely around to chat on it, I usually get any messages sent my way before I go to bed. Last night I headed to bed around 11pm and noticed that Anne has sent me a message. My first thought was that maybe she wants to got shopping at "Once upon a Child". But no...all it says is..."u there? I'm so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
My heart starts to pound and I don't know what to do. She has signed off so I cannot reply to this. I start to write her an email and then I think...what if something really serious has happened and she needs a support system right now. Of course I jump to conclusions and think that Trevor and Leah have both killed or injured in a freak accident or something has happened to family in Nova Scotia. So I take a deep breath and resolve to be strong and call Anne regardless of the late hour. At 11:15pm I call Anne...Trevor answers the phone...I am somewhat relieved. "Anne are you okay?" I ask. "I'm fine, I'm just talking quiet so I don't wake Leah"...I am feeling even better now, Trevor and the baby are fine. I ask again if she is okay and she says that she is. "What can I do for ya?" she asks. "I'm calling about the MSN message you sent me" I say, feeling a bit stupid at this point. "What MSN message?" I start to giggle. "The one you sent about being sad" I replied. Anne is also laughing at this point. "I have not idea what you are talking about but you have made my night" was Anne's reply. It turns out that they have some company who likes to use Anne's MSN. :) Besides feeling like a complete idiot I had a good laugh after I hung up the phone. I have also resolved to get the facts before I freak out. By the way Anne we really do need to go to Once upon a Child soon.

Happy Birthday to Emma

I can't believe that Emma is 6 years old today...wow...Happy Birthday dear Emma. I''ll call you later today. I love you.

Happy Birthday Reggie

October is a month full of birthday celebrations for me. Today is the first of them. Dearest Reggie...I hope you have a wonderful day. I wish I could be with you. I love you.

Doesn't he look great!

I'm not good at this

Hey everyone, I hope everything is well in the blogging world. I've been a bit busy with school and I just got a job so I don't have tons of spare time. But I've been checking in from time to time. Can anyone give me advice on my links? I don't know why there is a space before and after Anne's link and Charmin's link is supposed to be there too...but as you can see it is not. What am I doing wrong?

I'm off to have cake and ice cream with James...I'll post more later.

My links are invisible

I know it looks like there aren't any links except for Christy but they are there, you just can't see them. If you click on the white space underneath Christy then you will go to a new blog.

Lisa my dearest Lisa

Thanks so much for calling me last night. You are so crazy...good luck rolling all of your change. I love this picture of us. Love ya.

Livin la Vida Loca

I want to be back in Nova Scotia having fun!with my friends!! But alas I am back in the evil world of academia. Classes that I don't care about (except Drama...oh the fun I have in that class), always having an assignment hanging over my head and worst of all pompous professors. GROAN. I feel as though that being on campus makes me more stupid. For example: the first day of classes I see a tent set up and they are giving out free student planners...hurray, I think to myself and I saunter over in order to get one and save myself a few bucks. The young ,almost prepubescent, man says to me, "What faculty?". I hear "Are you faculty?" I smile and say no. He looks at me with a look that informs me I have indeed said something stupid/wrong. He bravely tries again..."What faculty?" (His voice cracks this time). Then I started to giggle because I realize my mistake and it is not just a quick giggle, oh no, it's one of those nervous over the top giggles. I attempt to pull myself together and between gasps and giggles I manage to say, probably far too loud, "ENGLISH, I'm an English Major...Okay?". I think next time I will just buy my own stupid planner. I cannot wait to graduate from university so that my common sense will return...I hope...maybe I'm too far gone already. Good night everyone. And for those of you out there who are rolling their eyes because I, a member of the English faculty, have no idea how to use puncuation and grammar...go ahead. I'm too tired to care.

My new jacket

My friend Leanne told me before I went to Nova Scotia that she had gotten my birthday present but it was so awesome that I had to wait until I back to Edmonton to get it. Well boys and girls she was right...it is amazing...a Cheri Milaney jacket!!!! Wow!!!! I am including a picture but it doesn't even begin to do it justice! I think it is the nicest piece of clothing I have ever owned!! THANK YOU LEANNE.

oops

So my attempt to add a link was unsuccessful! Just type in www.kylasandulak.com and click on the "songs" tab to find her music.

Kyla Sandulak

In the summer I took a drama class and let me say I had a wonderful time. It was a great class, a great professor and a great group of people. I met a lot of fun and interesting people. One girl that I met, Kyla, I quickly found out had an amazing singing voice. She told me that she sings a lot around Edmonton and has released a CD of original music, she also told me about her website. This brings me to the point of this blog, you all have to check out her music. There are 3 songs on website that you can listen to. She is so amazing.
I hope you enjoy.