The Tea Cup

I just got this in an E-mail............and I simply must share it:

There was a couple who used to go England to shop in a beautiful antique store . This trip was to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary .

They both liked antiques and pottery , and especially tea-cups . Spotting an exceptional cup , they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them,; suddenly the tea-cup spoke, "You don't understand." It said, "I have not always been a tea-cup . There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, Don't do that . I don't like it! "Let me alone," but he only smiled , and gently said; "Not yet !!"

"Then. WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it ! I'm getting so dizzy ! I'm going to be sick !', I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly; 'Not yet .' He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then.......

Then he put me in the oven . I never felt such heat . I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door . " Help ! Get me out of here !" I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not yet '.

"When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, he opened the door . He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf , and I began to cool . Oh, that felt so good ! "Ah, this is much better ," I thought.

But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag . 'Oh, please; Stop it, Stop it !!' I cried. He only shook his head and said. 'Not yet !'.

Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven . Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate . I begged . I pleaded . I screamed . I cried . I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up . Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf , where I cooled and waited ------- and waited , wondering What's he going to do to me next?

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said 'Look at yourself.' And I did.

I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful !"

' Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember , then,' he said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up .

I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel , but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled .

I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven , but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked .

I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.

Now you are a finished product . Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this:

God knows what He's doing [ for each of us ]. He is the potter , and we are His clay. He will mould us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.

So when life seems hard , and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance ; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink ", try this.... Brew a cup of of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter .

My Night on the Town

Well my goal for tonight was to go to McNally to check out a Brazilian Jazz band that was playing. So i went thinking this will be a great opportunity to listen to live jazz music, have a mocha, eat cheesecake, and maybe even look at some books. So i get there and the place was packed! i mean there was a line up for the restaurant. Crazy go nuts!! so i thought "Though I've never really been but I'd sure like to go...Oh Moxies!" so i went there, and agian with the line ups! Maybe it's just getting closer to the Holidays and people wanted to go out 2day....i dunno. So i decided to to go Calories and get cheesecake there. However i ended up ordering a salad, which came with bread, a mocha and an extremely rich slice of Toffee cheesecake. It was amazing! I was just by myself and to the untrained eye the situation could have looked like this: lonely girl eating all by herself or independent girl who just wanted to take herself out. I prefer the latter.But now i know why the place is called Calories!! It's almost like i can feel my fat cells growing..........heheheh! Anyway I'll talk 2 ya l8er!

My Day

hey one and all! what's up? Well today was a fairly good day. First of all I had a saxophone lesson @ 9:00 am.........i know that' sounds early but i'm a morning person so i can deal with it. It was good. Kim said "Cantelina" was coming along good, that's my slower song. However i really gotta work on "Two Bourees". Argh! oh well, if you guys wanna pray that I my daily practicing goes well and that i can get my breathing, dynamics, style, and other details like that worked out in two weeks that would be super cool. Thanx!
So that was all done @ about 10:00. Then i got home had some cereal, then a letter came for me. See I'm going to New Zealand for Bible school in Janaury and i gotta fill out a Student Visa form. Here's the story of my visa : So i got a visa form from Capernwray, filled it out, sent all the info they needed to Ottawa, and thought "Yay for me that's done with!" However I got a letter back from NZ High Commission saying that the form that i filled out was out of date an that I had to fill out a new one (which was pretty much the same thing). So i filled it out, bought quite expensive envelopes so that it would get there the next day (it's reccommended for these kinda of things) and send it away again before the deadline the High Commision gave me of Nov.20. Then i get a phone call from NZHC on Monday Nov.22 saying that they didn't get my student visa forms. Uh-oh! that's not a good prize! So i was like freaking out and trying to find my receipts so that i could trace this thing on the Internet and guess what i found on my kitchen table..........my expensive envelope with my forms all filled out. Turns out i put the thing on our table thinking "Oh! I'll send it later, I've got lots of time!" Procrastinaion is not the answer people!! I was not very impressed with myself. So i sent it on Monday............and then today got a letter from NZHC............I GOT MY VISA!! Hooray!! Basically it's a sticker in my passport that says I'm not allowed to work in New Zealand and it gives the dates to which i can stay in the country. I did an extreme happy day when i opened the letter, if you would have seen me you probably would have been embarrassed ;)
Then i went to work as usual. My friend Amy stopped in with her mom and we all had a quick chat. Turns out they were on their way to "Les Miserables". Oh i wish! I would LOVE to go to a live musical. I'm SO excited for when me and my friends go see "Phantom of the Opera" in December. Hopefully we're all gonna dress up all fancy like and maybe even go to the Bez an take pictures. And that's just a movie! Then again I get pretty excited about anything interesting to me.........that's just how i am! Wel I'll blog ya l8er!

Upgrading for the Holidays

Hey! Well yesterday i went home to help dad find a computer for the family for Christmas. He ended up getting one with DVD player, CD burner, XP, and High Speed. Of course there's other cool stuff on the compy but those are the only things that matter. It's cool cause the CPU even has blue lights on it (oooh! High tech!). And somehow one of us mentioned to the salesman that i needed a digital camera cause I'm going to New Zealand. So he showed us a Fuji E510 model which has 1 minute video, b & W photo option, sound, convenient travel size.......and some other cool functions. Dad was like "well if we're gonna get both we might as well get it @ the same time." Are you kidding me!!!! I mean i'm still pretty much in shock. So in the end we got a computer AND digital camera. Like WHOAH! So that's my cool story of the day.

Hey! Sorry I haven't really written anything in like a week. So..........the past couple of days have been an information overload blur. Here's the story: So I went to band last week and Mrs. Bates must have known i was coming cause she had this folder fro Brandon University and it had tons of info about auditions, the school, and an Open House event that they were gonna have on Nov. 15-16. Mrs. Bates suggested that if i wasn't working I should go and check out the University. So i was able to get those 2 days off work and after work on Sunday me and my dad left Saskatoon @ 10:00 pm. I was worried that dad wouldn't be able to drive in the middle of the night but since he said he was cool with it i guess it shouldn't have really bothered me. So we got to Brandon at about 5:00 am, had an hour or so nap and went to the University. Well dad dropped me off and so i was basically left with a bunch of High School students to learn all that we could about Brandon University and it's School of Music. I came in there thinking that I'd probably end up @ U of S cause everything just seems to work out nicely being there (friends, place to stay, close to home etc.). The Open House was really good, we got to sit on a Music History class and learned about Stravinsky, I sort of learned about the different styles of repeats in a Theory class, had a lesson with the Sax prof there he said that I had good sound on my horn and he also gave me some practice techniques, got to stay in Residence (McMaster Hall), got to see some student and faculty concerts (which were EXTREMELY good), so most of this was in the Queen Elizabeth II Building. There was just SO much info thrown at me that i can barely process it all. So i migh auditon by tape to Brandon, we'll see. I'm seriously considering U of S. Let's just pray that God will just show me where to go, cause he knows what's best for me.
 

This is appropriate cause I've been pretty much driving around for the past 24 hours. Can't really complain though,went to the bank, saw my crazy band people, had supper at home, went to Spalding, had ice cream in Naicam with the girls, went to see my cousin before she leaves for New Zealand/Australia, went home, slept, drove to Saskatoon.........and i think that's it. Okay, so it wasn't THAT much driving but it felt nice to just get out of the city.  

Frustration on the Western Front

ARGH! Computers frustrate me.....now i supposed you want me to explain. Okay, so like I said before i was all excited to go home for a day or so. So i go home expecting my parent's computer to work fine, but no the thing's gotta screw up evertime i use it .I personally think it's against me moving away from home and neglecting it. But anyway, the colors all wonky and the settings are too large even though i put them back to normal last time i was home. *sigh* I'm fine. I'll manage. Just breathe.

I"m cool now. So....what's all happenin where you're at? I'll blog ya l8er!

Thanx

This is a shout out to my friend Kevin, cause he pretty much taught me the details of this blogging operation. THANK YOU!! You know, if i could buy you lots of cheese i would as a token of my appreciation. Thanks again man!!

This is Larry the Cucumber. As you can see this is a very fitting picture for me. First cause i have a extreme obession with VeggieTales. Secondly th whole teacher/ school setting because i want to be a teacher. And finally the polka music which gives the impression of nerdiness. Which is great ;) 

Whoo-hoo Blogging Success

Alright so I'm still new @ all of these things, forgive my blogging ignorance. However this will come in handy when I go to New Zealand for Bible school.....less mass e-mails...........meh, who am i kidding I'll still e-mail all you guys ( and girls). So...somebody tell me a story! I like stories :) Um, I guess I'm going home 2morrow. Yay!! Basically I'm going to see all my band people again and to go out for supper with all my girls and possibly visit my cousin who's leaving for New Zealand and Australia right away. Man, i wish i knew how to put my Strong Bad pics on here. Man, he's SO cool. If i was a cartoon character.......i might date him. Maybe. Depending on whether or not the Cheat was available. ;) Hey, is geekiness a bad thing? See I've kinda always been the nerdy-type. I mean who else watches Simpsons and Jeopardy but keeps score of how many questions they get right for a whole year. Yes that was me in Grade 10. But then i sadly started having a life like taking Dance in Humboldt, Piano in Watson, Band in Lake Lenore, school in Naicam. Argh. The life of a farm kid *sigh*. I actually miss all that now that I'm in S'toontown. I'm currently workin @ Midtown Plaza. At a store. Called Eddie Bauer. 'Tis a good job, good people, alright pay. Can't really complain. Anyway I'll probably post something more intresting a few minutes, bye 4 now

1st Blog Ever

Well this is it people..........I have now officially become a geek. even though alot of you saw it coming from miles away. Yay, I'm blogging now. I feel so, not early 90's. 'Tis a great feeling. Alrighty let's see this thing work.....