Surprises

What a great day and a great surprise! Raymond and I had chatted last night and he was toying with the idea of coming out to Ashern to see me today... I thought I had him convinced to stay home and work on his projects and study for his exams.
As I was taking a break from decorating the tree and playing on my computer, in walked Raymond! What a lovely surprise!
He'd brought his laptop to work on his projects, and he was able to help me wrap the lights around the tree!

What fun!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas

Christmas is Coming and the Goose is getting fat! Please put a penny in the old man's hat! If you haven't got a penny then a haypenny will do! If you haven't got a haypenny then God bless you! I love December it is my favorite month!
A friend of mine had created one of these (see above) and I love it! It is a great way to procrastinate! Hope you enjoy it!

Life Has a Way of Working Out

You know for all the worrying, and wondering, and effort I put into things, especially my life. Things have a way of working out, and usually better than I think they are going to. Take this weekend for example, I escaped to my mom's house, I thought, no internet, TV only if I turn it on, no one phoning because they don't necessarily know where I am! I thought I'll get so much done! I'll be so proud of me! However, my life seldom goes according to plan, unless of course, I leave the province for two months, and then I become the master of my own destiny! (This rarely happens, in fact this summer is the only time I can recall it ever happening!)

I got home late on Thursday because a co-worker wanted to talk with me, and then I had to finish prepping for my sub, and then I'd forgotten my rings at home which was interesting, because usually as soon as I step out the door, I'm like oh I forgot my rings, and I made it through the entire day, and it wasn't until after school that I noticed that they were missing! I finally got home around 9PM. Visited with my mom, read scriptures with Raymond over the phone and went to bed!

Friday dawned bright and early as usual somewhere around 5:30AM. I got up and finished a book I'd been reading called the Christmas Box, excellent quick read (in case you were wondering) good story! I took my car to the garage, and found that sadly, the winter tires I had for my old Ford Focus, would not fit onto my new Ford Focus. Curses to the Ford company! Oh well. I went home and the mechanic called and said he'd found tires in Brandon and if I'd go pick them up, he could put them on for me, on Saturday! Yeah.

So my mom and I jumped in her car and drove off to Brandon! Keep in mind I haven't been to Brandon or shopping for awhile! We got the tires, we went to see the Elsie lady!!!!!! We took her shopping to Wal-Mart and up to the Mall and then we had lunch and went home! Where I proceded to not work, but read a book! It was the third and last in my series! I couldn't help myself, I mean the last one ended with the girl jumping out of a moving car, trying to escape from the mob boss who had her, and her being in the hospital and the last thing you see is the mob boss looking down at her... you got to find out what happens! I hadn't quite finished it, but House and Bones were much more interesting, even though I did miss the last 10 minutes of Bones, I fell asleep, sadly... what was even more sad was when I asked my mom what happened, she couldn't tell me! I guess it is good that Raymond likes Bones, and can probably tell me!

Saturday I woke up around 6AM finished my book around 8AM went upstairs, had my ultimate favorite breakfast on the planet, a Denver sandwich made special by my mommy! And got down to the business of marking! Around 11AM Karen Beaumont called! She is the Stake Relief Society President, and she is also like a sister and another mom to me! She is great! I spend a lot of time with her family! Anywho, she wanted to talk to me and do a bit of training with me for my new calling! So we scheduled time for after lunch! Mom and I both went out, and my mom visited with Marvin and Mackayla, and Kendra, and I got trained! Yeah, because I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing! Training is good! Then my cousin Erin came home to their house (yes I'm related distantly by marriage to this family!) And she had the newest addition to their family, Taylor Paige with her! So we couldn't just leave then, we had to visit, oh and see how the sock puppets turned out, it was funny more on that another day, because it is a post in itself!

Got home just before 5PM, had supper, made homemade oreo cookies!!!! Yummy! For potluck and for the Missionaries in Brandon, and had some left over for the Wendy lady and Danny aka Walter! And for the Beaumonts! Yeah! Also made egg salad sandwiches for potluck! Did some more marking, watched the end of What Women Want, and the beginning and ending of How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days! Read scriptures with Raymond in the middle! :)

Went to bed, and got up and got ready to go to Church in Dauphin, left at 7:50, I overestimated the amount of time it would take, so I was early! It is actually nice to be early, I can turn on the heat, put out Hymnbooks, and put on Prelude music because we have a phantom organ! I love it!

We had Stake Visitors today, a High Councilman, a member of the Stake Presidency, and two others, so Brother Anderson, President Oler, Brother Cramwell, and Brother Burgess!!!! Church was good! We had talks on Tithing since Tithing Settlement is coming up! A talk on the Plan of Salvation. Our Sunday school lesson was out of the Ensign and Brother Cramwell taught it, and then we had Relief Society, where I was the one woman show! I conducted, both the meeting and the Hymns, I taught the lesson, the only thing I didn't do was pray! For my first Sunday I thought it went pretty well! My first counselor has been called, and we're working on a second! Life is good!

Now I'm home and life is still good!

PS Thanks for the update Becca! I'm glad you're my blog stalker! It makes me want to write knowing that I have an audience!

Stop the World I Want to Get Off

Life has been really busy lately! Who thought the addition of one or two things could add so much to my life, but I guess it all adds up.

I was released from my calling as Young Women President and 1st Counselor in the Relief Society, and in their place I've been called to be the Relief Society President, not even sure of the time committment that is going to take! I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I've started dating a great guy (not complaining about him) but he does add to my time, we spend on average 1 to 1 1/2 hours talking, reading scriptures, praying, etc. And I spend a lot of my weekends driving back and forth to Winnipeg, but I wouldn't change that. He has been such a blessing to my life!

I'm escaping tonight to my mother's! I'm going home to work on report cards! I've taken tomorrow off! And what a great day to take off! Friday's I have library, spelling test, math, lunch, double prep, and then a boy in Grade 6 is giving a 2 period trapping presentation and skinning and doing the entails, and then the day is over! Woot woot!

I'm also away next Wednesday, not as fun a day to miss, as I have ELA, Math, Grade 7 Science, Prep and Literacy buddies! Hmm..... oh well.... I'll survive.

Report cards come out next Friday and Parent/Teacher interviews are on Monday, staff meeting Tuesday....... hmmm........ any end in sight...... well.... YES.

I finish school December 18th. I leave either that day or the next one to move into Raymond's parents for a week, before heading home Christmas eve to my mom's for a week! 2 weeks of time with Raymond! Sounds wonderful.

Well Becca, my lone follower, I must pack!

I love you!

Something Old and Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue!

A popular wedding phrase, but today I'm using it in reference to my callings.

This morning I was released from the two callings that I had in Dauphin Branch. I was released as the Young Women's President, and as the 1st Counselor in the Primary. I'm happy to not have two callings now, but sad because I was going to be getting a new Young Woman in a month, and I was excited for that, and because I was just starting to get into the Primary groove and be able to teach a lesson the my ever changing class! So those would be the old and blue things!

As for the new, well with releases from callings, come callings to callings, I am now the Relief Society President in the Dauphin Branch... and my faith is lacking, because I'm scared out of my tree... I don't know how to be a Relief Society President, I don't even go to Relief Society, I've mostly been in Primary and Young Women... It will all work though, one of my counselors has accepted the calling and will be called next week so that makes me smile! And I'll borrow the faith of my friends who know that I'll be able to pull off this calling. Heavenly Father will help me, I know He will! So that would be the new and borrowed!!!!!!

Content!

I would have to say that today I'm very content. Who knows what the rat race of tomorrow will bring, actually I do know what part of tomorrow will bring... more on that tomorrow... perhaps! But as for this minute... I'm content. I worked last night past my working point... I guess what I read once was true. I read that long after you think you can't keep going anymore you can! Which I guess is kind of like my life.

My hair is cut (Thanks Danielle)! I like it! No pictures to follow none were taken :P

And I've spent a wonderful day with my fiance. I can't wait until we get married and every day is like this!

For tomorrow the rat race will catch up to me... but I will get through it, I always do!

Balance

Balance

As Dr. Covey stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.”
Then he pulled out a one-gallon wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Next, he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, Is this jar full?
Everyone in the class said, Yes. Then he said, Really? He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel.
Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”
By this time the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.
Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”
“No!” the class shouted.
Once again he replied, “Good!”
Then Covey grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. As he looked up at the class he asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”
“No,” Dr. Covey replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
What are the “big rocks” in your life? A project that YOU want to accomplish? Time with your loved ones? Your faith, your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or mentoring others?
Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you’ll never get them in at all.
So, tonight or in the morning when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the BIG ROCKS in my life or business? Then, put those in your jar first.

I have always loved this! According to my birthday I'm a Libra! I like things in balance I do... I notice when my life is out of balance, and I strongly dislike it!

According to someone, Libras, loathe cruelty, viciousness and vulgarity and detest conflict between people, so they do their best to cooperate and compromise with everyone around them, and their ideal for their own circle and for society as a whole is unity. I'd have to agree with that too! I hate conflict it doesn't sit well with me! I guess that is why I'm so easygoing! Anywho! That is my thought for today! I'm off to be Superwoman. Work, driving and helping my in-laws move!

I'm Getting Married!

Yup It's Official

Raymond proposed on my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!

Raymond and I met about 12 years ago, most likely! We're not sure how we met originally, since I have been friends with his cousins for almost 25 years. However, we think we met during a Youth Dance in Kenora on the Paddleboat! This time around we met up in Dauphin at Church. Raymond had a co-op ed work placement working in Riding Mountain National Park, and was living in the park and so he was going to Church in Dauphin, and that is where I go to Church, so we met up again there in May.

We would hang out a bit after church, and I went to the Park a few times to visit, and honestly I think we were both looking for a friend, and nothing really more. So this relationship kind of took us both by surprise. Father's day weekend, I invited him to come my Father's Day family beach picnic, just so he wasn't by himself all day. Little did I know that later that evening we would start going out.

Raymond's mom told us that she knew from the moment that she found out I was in Dauphin and Raymond was in Dauphin that something between us was going to happen!

Living in the crazy world I do, 9 days later, I packed up my car and drove off to New Brunswick for the summer. Thankfully Raymond was willing to wait for me to get back. :) And we continued to get to know each other over the summer!

As of this moment, we really don't have a lot of plans! We know we are getting married! We know we want to get married in Cardston at the Cardston Temple. And likely we'll get married in the summer or fall or at Christmas in 2010. Who knows! It'll happen when it happens! Until then we're enjoying the ride!

Books I've Been Reading

My friend turned me onto the author Jodi Picoult! I'd have to say that I'm addicted! This is the first book of her's that I've read! It was such a page turner! Being a teacher this book hit close to home. It goes along the theme of Columbine or Taber, a school shooting.




Plain Truth is the story of an Amish girl who has been accused of murdering her own child, oddly enough she has blocked the entire pregnancy out of her mind in her






Keeping Faith was super great! It was about a girl who is able to preform miraculous healings. She brings her grandma back to life, and cures a baby born with AIDS.






This book was super good! It was about a child who was born with brittle bone disease. The amount of breaks that she had was amazing. It is the story of a court battle between friends one the mother of the girl with brittle bone disease, and her friend the doctor who was treating the mother when it was discovered in utero. Tough choices abound in this book.



Complete shocker ending, what a twist! Loved this book. It is told from 4 perspectives. A mother, who has lost daughter and second husband, to a stranger Shay Bourne she had allowed into her house; the convict in the cell next to Shay, a Priest who actually had sat on the original jury that convicted Shay, and a legal aid lawyer trying to help Shay. It is very gripping!



My Sister's Keeper is the story of a designer child, created to ease the life of an older sister with leukemia, she's been poked, prodded, and given and given, until one day she says "NO!" Yet another shocker ender, which left me grumpy, grateful for the book and its story, but grumpy for the ending!





This is the strangest Jodi Picoult book I've read. I'm not sure I liked it, but it was interesting.







I just finished this book today! I'm not sure what I was expecting from it but it wasn't what I was expecting, I guess I was expecting the total shocker ending, and when it didn't come well... The tale of a young couple who grew up practically inseparable from birth until a secret comes between them too big for Emily to deal with. This book deals with suicide and the effect on those left behind.

The World is White

This morning I woke up and discovered the world was very white! It had snowed an incredible amount over night! The snow on my window sill was at least as high has my hand. The calves in the field were going crazy, and who knows what the peacocks were doing!

I anxiously waited a for a call telling me that school was cancelled or closed, but to no avail, I phoned a friend to complain only to have her son say, you don't have to go to school! I jumped for joy and returned to bed! See the picture, that is from my division and that important notice says May 15th, ALL SCHOOLS CLOSED DUE TO SNOW AND SLIPPERY CONDITIONS!

It is now 4:36PM and I've spent most of the day between my couch and my bed reading a book, which I've now finished!

The world is still pretty white, but it has melted off of the trees which is good, because the limbs were struggling under the burden of the extra weight. There are now tracks of mud in the snow from vehicles (not mine- remember I'm still in my house, in clean pjs I put on this morning in anticipation of doing nothing today!)