aww #2

I went on a date tonight. With my friend Christina. For my birthday. And I was blessed.

We ate at Ichiban (spelling?!). They make all of the food, incredible food, in front of you. On a huge grill. Fire. Muhhaaha. The chef kept throwing things. He wanted to throw a knife at me. Because it was my birthday ; )

Then we went to the Casino on McPhillips. AKA: Hell. Wow, it's depressing in there. But they had a grandeur staircase. We didn't stay long. We didn't spend any money.

We picked up the most amazing Italian desserts from a place called Goodies on Ellice. It was amazing! I love Goodies!

Then, my personal favourite, we went to the AIRPORT to watch the planes come and and fly out. We talked, ate dessert and drank yummy Timmy's.

Thank you, Christina! I'm so blessed and I loved our birthday date tonight!!! I'm so happy you're in my life! Could I ask for more!?!? Really - I am truly blessed!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BECKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is my awesome friend Becki's 21st birthday! She's awesome and I'm excited about the adventure she's on! HAPPY 21, BECKI!

Today I went to the chiropractor. Yesterday she took x-rays of my back. Yikes. My back needs some help. My neck is straight. This sounds good and normal but your neck is supposed to have a ) shape to it. But mine is simply straight. No ). If you could pray for alignment and healing. That would be great! I also have some hip issues in there, too. I'm also a little wary of going to the chiropractor and having them crack my body in crazy places. It's kinda scary.

Praise Jesus for health insurance!!!

Tonight is housegroup. I'm pumped about getting my mind blown by God. Weekly. Daily. It's awesome!

Have a great February 23rd everyone!

Awww!!!

I got back from my lunch break today to find flowers waiting to be opened on my desk!! My friend Becki bought me flowers for my birthday!! The card said "Because we're women and it's our birthdays!" (which is what I told her a few weeks ago) Becki's 21st birthday is on Feb 23rd.

I feel so blessed! Thank you, Becki!

Birthday blessings!

Yesterday my sister threw me a birthday day. It was fabulous! She picked me up just before 10:30 and brought me to her house for a lovely breakfast of waffles, white sauce and berries. It was amazing!



I enjoyed every single bite of it!

Then Kristi and I headed off to YMCA to do Aquafits. Pretty much it's an aerobics class in the water. It's better for your joints and muscles. We usually love our weekly aquafits class but this week was frustrating. We both couldn't keep our dang shoulders out of the water...Supposedly it means we have to much muscle mass. : )

After our exercises were done, we headed off to see Pride and Prejudice at the cheap seats. It was a good movie. I had a dream the night before that I got married and this just fueled my love for love. ahh. What a classic chick flick. The best type of movies to watch with your sister.

After this we headed off to Kristi's Spa. In the comfort of her very own bathroom. We had foot scrubs while drinking chocolate milk and eating a carmel roll/cinnamin bun. Mmm. Then we painted each others toes. We now have very beautiful toes and soft feet.







Then we headed off to Red Lobster for an incredible meal together! I like it there! I think I can count on one hand how many times I've been, but everytime I do go I'm impressed. There bahumma momma (totally wrong spelling!) drink was the best EVER!! After eating we decided to go back to Kristi's to "gather ourselves" and decide what to do next. This should have been a warning in and of itself...it's just the two of us on this date...who else do we need to gather????

Well, low and behold when the door to Kristi and Shane's apartment was opened to my surprise many people whom I love said "SURPRISE!" And, dang, surprised I was! Thank you to everyone who came to hang out on Saturday night. You are all such a blessing in my life. I'm pumped about this next year, what it will hold, and getting to know each of you better. Thank you to Kristi and Shane for planning and hosting a surprise bash! Kristi, you made my day!



And that was the official end to my 21st birthday celebration!

SURPRISED???

Heck yes!!
Okay guys, you got me! Thanks for coming.
Kristi, you're the bomb, baby! Best sister ever! Thanks for all the planning.

Official post about my birthday party when I'm not so party-pooped.

Today has been such a good, weird day.
I got a call at work from a guy doing some survey. We ended up talking about church, missions and health. It was so interesting. I got to share about the Vineyard, Sanctuary and my desire to do missions. He goes to Springs and is apart of something called Usana. (Re: Supplements, nutrition and health) Again, interesting.

Then I prayed for my boss vai e-mail. That made my day!!!

Check out www.facedown40.com.
Pray and Fast - it works!

Tomorrow my sister is taking me out for my birthday. I'm very excited because part of it is a surprise. I love surprises!

God what are you up to?

21 years ago...

...on a blustery, winter morning at 6:45, on my mom's 28th birthday, I was born. Now here I am at 21, and she's 49 years old. Man, does time fly by! I love sharing a birthday with my mom! It's such a joy to share a special day with someone I love so much!

Summary of year 20:
Last year I spent my birthday in Kansas City. It was a great, mind shaking, heart shifting, crazy, awesome way to spend a birthday - and with such a great people, too! The rest of this past year has been such a journey, a learning experience, undeniably God-encountering, joy-filled, fire-filled, hard, beautiful and stretching year. I can't believe where God has (and is) taking me! I can't believe that a year ago I caught fire! (Actually, I can't remember where I was on my actual birthday...I spent the whole week celebrating and this part of it just seems to stick out)

This 20th year I...
*I saw my first birth - it was incredible!
*I went on some sweet road trips
*I went on my first, real winter vacation.
*I lived in three different houses. (I'm done with moving for a while)
*I went on my first limo ride (x2)
*I saw Niagra Falls for the first time - it's gorgeous...especially at night with the all the mist.

Goals/desires for year 21:
To know Jesus more.
To love more, to love well.
To take time for the little things in life.
To dance all kinds of dances.
To continue learning and stepping out in singing; spontaneous, prophetic and singing songs. To step out in obedience no matter what it sounds like or feels like.
To learn how to play guitar (yes, Jason...I do want to!)
To learn how to make pottery. To paint more. To photograph more.
To see more of this beautiful world!
To learn another language (hmm...spanish)
To have greater vision. To see with God's eyes.
To continue learning how to cast aside the things of this world and store up treasures in Heaven.
To take better care of myself. To care for others better.
To hear the voice of God more clearly.
To learn true humility and meekness.
To be confident in His love.
To be generous and have compassion.

Hello 21 - HERE I COME!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Puerto Rico Trip - Day 8 & 9...

...and the end to an incredible trip...

Friday was our last full day in Puerto Rico. We woke up at 9:30, had breakfast and headed off to the pool. We did aquasizes (which was hilarious in itself!), headed off to the Starkey store to get some free merch, went on paddle boats in the Caribbean Sea, had a photo shoot and swam in the Sea (hee hee), took more dance lessons, played musical chairs, then got pretty and headed off to the Farewell Dinner! It was a relaxing day of simply enjoying our surroundings and the privilege of being in Puerto Rico on a vacation.























ps. For more details on Paradisus Puerto Rico check out: www.puertoricoparadisus.com

On Saturday (Jan 14th) we got up, had Room Service bring us a yummy breakfast by 5:00 am and headed off to the airport to catch our 3 planes home. We flew all day long and man was it good to be at home, if only for the sake of not being cramped in an airplane many feet in the air.









THE END.

Puerto Rico Trip - Day 7

On Thursday Kristi and I headed off on an adventure to the El Yonque Rain Forest. It was beautiful! I don't have any pictures of it because I took my Canon Rebel with me instead of my digital camera. We saw waterfalls, stick bugs (the long skinny insect from the movie 'A Bugs Life' that looks like a walking stick), the tree that makes Chanel 5 perfume and many other beautiful things! Man, God did a tremendous job of creation! It amazes me! Kristi and I also got to go swimming in a waterfall pool, which was the highlight for me! SO FUN! SO BEAUTIFUL!

We got back to the resort and still got to hang out and ... go dancing!





That evening we headed off to our reservation at Bamboo. This was an Asian restaurant where they make all of the food right in front of you! It was soo cool. Once again, we had every single desert on the menu.





That night we headed off to the pub to dance and say good-bye to our friend (the dancer instructor) Noel. Kristi even invited him to come and stay with her and her husband if he was ever in Canada. Noel told us a bit of his story...he's living all alone in Puerto Rico. His mom and five sisters moved to the States a few years before, his dad died when he was three and his grandpa passed away a few months before. Pray that he finds a godly community to be encouraged, supported and loved by.




...and then we had one last merengue...

Puerto Rico Trip - Day 6

On Wednesday I went to a business meeting. I woke up, got ready, left Kristi sleeping in her bed and ran out the door to the conference rooms. I asked the concierge where the Starkey meeting was and he pointed to a door. So I walked in, sat down and felt really nervous. Then I realized that I was in the Telus Mobility meeting room. OOPS! So I packed up my stuff, walked farther down the hall and, to my relief, walked into a familiar group of people waiting for the meeting to commence. It was so interesting being in one of the tech meetings. It was totally different than I had expected.

We all got out of the meeting early (around noon), so Kristi and I hit up the pool and dance lessons once again! Kristi and I had received official cocktail invites the day before so we headed off to primp and get pretty before the party started.



This is what happens at official cocktail parties: You mingle. You eat. You drink. You shmoooz. You mingle. You laugh (even if somethings not funny). You shmooz some more. You laugh again. We had fun.




(Kristi, Brita and I)

Kris and I ducked out of the party early and headed to the main lobby area. We hung out, sat on some comfy couches and waited for the dancing to start in the pub area. We got to the pub and saw one of the women from the cocktail party so we hung out with her, her husband and her daughter, Brita. This family was hilarious! They really thought it would be a good idea for me to marry their son, Paul, who was back at home in Saskatoon. I asked them if he loved Jesus and they said yes. Crap, my one excuse was gone. We also told them a bit about the House of Prayer and they thought it was so awesome that they should tell their pastor! They were so awesome and even joined us in introducing UGLY DANCING to Puerto Rico. Now that was funny!



This guy kept asking us to "dance sexy" because we "had the moves" but we kept telling him to DANCE UGLY! So he'd start off trying to dance sexy (which was hilarious) but he'd always end up doing the disco or something UGLY along with us!
Sigh. I love ugly dancing because everyone can do it!

Puerto Rico Trip - Day 5

Kristi and I woke up bright and early and headed out to the Atlantic to go sailing and snorkling. We ended up heading out to Demolition Island (I believe that's what this Island was called) which was a crucial part of the Spanish-American war.





Kristi and I had never gone snorkling before. The highlights: My incredible imbalance when wearing flippers. Kristi's hilarious hyper-ventilation in the water at the thought of putting her head in the H20 and breathing. Seeing 4 sweet star fish. The salty salt salt (did I say salt?) water!











In the evening we headed off on another fun excursion! We went bioluminiscent kayaking. I had never been kayaking before and it was radical! We started off in the ocean and made our way through a narrow canal before we entered the lagoon.

I had total dejavu in the lagoon; I had a dream when I was like..8 or so..and I was in a lagoon like that and was on a boat but had lost my family and there were crocodiles and it was scary. But this was real life and soo much fun!

The cool thing about this lagoon is it's famous bioluminescent planctin. On a pitch black, moon and starless night, when you put your hand into the water and swish it around, thereby disturbing the planctin, the planctin glows. It looks like fairy dust under the water! SO COOL!

Kristi and I stayed to the end of the line when kayaking and chatted with our guides. We learned a lot about Puerto Rico itself and what Puerto Ricans think of Canadians. They like us Canadians because we are laid back, humble, cool and relaxed...like the Australians. Sweet!

Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States of America. One of our tour guides referred to Puerto Ricans as "the spoiled brats of America". Because they're not a state they cannot vote for President but they also do not have to pay any taxes. Sweet. Puerto Rico was booty in the American-Spanish war. Also, they love it when we drink their rum, their light house is very important, for every 110 people there is a cop, and they have a crazy little frog (cokey frog? coo-kee) that sounds like a bird.

Day 5 was an awesome day!

Other things on my mind:
-I'm almost done posting about Puerto Rico .. yippee.
-Two friends of mine got married on Saturday. Crap, I'm getting old...speaking of..IT'S MY BIRTHDAY IN ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!! I love birthdays!
-the book of Genesis has been coming alive to me and I'm loving it!

Puerto Rico Trip - Day 4

January 9th - It rained.
I went for a walk on the beach, read my Bible and had some alone time while Kristi had a nap in our room. I ended up falling asleep on one of the huge over-stuffed coconut-pillow-hut-things.









I ended up waking up from my nap with this little guy hanging out by my head. eeks.



In the evening we headed out to Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, wih my boss' and Winnipeg Peeps. We ate at a place called The Parrot Club. We had fried Plantain and Yuko's (?) with a mango sauce and the best slushie/punch on the trip! It was great! The colours in the restaurant were vibrant and beautiful.





Isla Del Encanto means...Island of Enchantment!
What's a trip to a foreign land without a picture of a foreign license plate?!?



Old San Juan was gorgeous with it's cobble-stoned, narrow streets and lights everywhere. It was very cool "listening" to the flow of conversation all around me and not being able to understand a word.

There was a HUGE cruise ship docked nearby. I couldn't believe how massive they are!
There was also a Starbuck's just outside of a tiny courtyard. I had to take a picture for my 'Buck's fans in Winnipeg but it turned out pretty blurry.

It was good to get off the resort (even though Kristi and I were pretty beat) and see a piece of what the "real" Puerto Rico is like. I liked!