Heartbreaker

SUNDAY FEB 20

Well what can i tell you about this weekend...um, i guess it was full of experiences. Ya! There's way to describe it! ok so yesterday me, Ruth, and Stacey all biked into town and it took me quite a while before I fully remembered how to properly operate a bike. Ever since my crash with th Beast (my mom's 18 year old bike) and since i got that awesome scar on my left knee I've beenkinda skeptical about biking. Somehow yesterday i ended up crossing the highway when i was trying to turn and ended up on the opposite shoulder...just dont' ask! but we did make it into town successfully.

Once we got there we did some shopping @ Warehouse and (hello-that's from Charlie) some of the little small town shops that were in town. Then we met up with Eric and Mark and we started shopping around with them. All of us were craving deep fried Mars bars & milkshake so we stopped for a snack. Okay a deep fried mars bar may seem a little bit weird to most of you but let me explain it: picture a normal mars bar, dip that thing in a light layer of donut-type batter with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on it, then deep fry the whole thing. It's really really good, however when you eat it you just can'y move anywhere afterward cause the fat content of it is SO concentrated it almost makes you sick. Mark said the word to describe that feeling is "heavy" and i totally agree. After that us girls finished up the day in town by clothes shopping and i bought like 5 new shirts. They were remotely cheap (like $15 and under) so that's pretty good.

That night when we got home (well back to campus) some people went skydiving that day (Erik, Spence, Vicki, Robin, Natasha, and Kalli) and when they came back they told us ALL about it. They even got a litle DVD made of them getting ready to jump and then landing afterwards. If they would have spend about $80 thye could have actually had a video of them in the air and floating but they just got the cheaper DVD. But it was still cool to watch. The skydiving was in Taupo, where Giselle went skydiving when she was still in NZ. After she told me that she went that made me want to go and now that my friends at school went i want to go even more than i did before! Some of my friends here want to go again but they're gonna wait awhile until they get some more cash. It's about $200 to jump but from what i hear it's extrememly worth it. So ya no I really want to go, the question now is just when...

Oh also last night i was gonna practice my saxophone for a bit cause I"m helping lead the worship music for tonight and i didn't get any practicing done during the week. So i was just getting started when Shandall walks in, saw me, chatted with me for like 2 seconds, then went to get her sax so that she coul jam with me. Whenever people here tell me that they've played sax before i also feel so inadaquate because I've only been doing it for 2 years and they've done it for at least 4 and i always feel like i don't know what i'm diong when people tell me those kinda of things. *shrug* but maybe that's just me. So anyway Shandall came in and she was asking me what i was playing and if i was doing improv. Improv?!! Are you kidding! i mean I've heard it on sax before and it sounds cool but i could never do it myself! If you don't know what improv is, it's basically making up the melody as you do along. I could never do that cause I'm so reliant on notes in front of me. However Shandall was awesome enough to teach me how to do it. Cause what i would usually do what just play the bass line, as in the chord note. But she taught me to play the parts of the scale in between each chord so that there was also a melody. According to her it sounded awesome and when we asked Graham to join us so we could hear some guitar chords he said that it sounds cool too. I know how to do improv!! Well, just the extreme
basics, but still, i can play improv!!

MONDAY FEB 21

Um what else happened this weekend...Oh ya! That Shakespeare in the park thing was also this weekday, actually it was yesterday. so ya there was about 20 of us that sacrificed some sleep, got up at 3:00am and travelled to Hamilton (20 min away) to see "Shakespeare's Loves Labours Lost". Funny story: when we got there we walked right through a gazebo without realizing that the gazebo was part of the stage. Good thing we got there just in time or else we would have totally walked in while the play was happening. So ya, we all sat down (some people layed down but they fell asleep right away) and we also had some cinnamon buns and some pina colada type muffins which was an awesome breakfast break from toast and cereal every singlemorning (ya that's all we get for breakfast here at school, not really interesting). So ya the play was pretty good. Some people from school didn't understand a word but once i got back
into the Shakespearian groove I understood it. Good thing that the couples in the play were kinda color coded or else i would have been totaly lost. One of the actors was wearing a spandex outfit which left nothing to the imagination, so that was kinda dodgy (or sketchy as i would
normally say it back home).

That afternoon we had worship team practice and we kinda agreed that I would only play sax for the 2 fast songs. I was kinda bummed about it cause the night before me and Shandall were doing improv to the slow songs. So I didn't feel like i knew what i was doing for the fast songs
and i was just not in a good mood for the last 15 minutes of practice and during supper.

However i somehow felt really awesome about it after supper cause I just felt like God gave me this talent for saxophone whether i was playing the fast or slow songs. And that just shows that God can really change your attitudes if you just let him. It's just that simple. So the actual playing in the worship team was awesome, even though people could barely hear the sax because of the keyboard, guitar and drums...but that's ok because worship isn't about me, it's about God!

After our sunday night service, some of the guys were doing cartwheels and flips in the lecture hall (all the tables and chairs were pushed out of the way) and Hayden was also teaching them and some of us girls how to do rugby scrums (I think that's what they were called). Nick also
taught me, Angeleah, Graham, and Jamie the human helicopter. Basically person #1 gets on person #2's shoulders, person #3 stands in front of person #2 and hooks their arms around person #1's legs. Then person #2 spins arouns really fast and person #1 leans back while person #3 gets lifted off the ground. I know i probably lost some you as soon as i started but I'll show you it sometime okay? deal! ;) Then after we had some fun with that there were13 of us that attempted to do a few human pyramids. Needless to say, they didn't really work too well, but we still had fun.

*sigh* there! That's my weekend. This week our speaker is Peter McDonough and his main topic is "The Doctrine of Salvation" which is the basics of why and how we as Christians are saved from our spiritual death. If you have any questions, just feel free to ask!

Hey again. Kinda bored right now so I thought I'd just write bit to kill some time. Right now i'm listening to my Smash Ups Cd. The song All Fall Down/Get Down/Dive was THE summer anthem at Stoney this year. Every time i hear that song i can picture the videos on the wall in the chapel and all the kids screaming cause they were so excited for camp to start. Aw, i miss camp now. I'll be sure to visit camp when i get back though, don't you worry.

TUESDAY FEB 22

Hey! If you guys are kinda bored and you want to see picture of me on Valentine's day...feel free to visit my friend Charlie's website which is www.homepage.mac.org/perontoc . On his website, he's able to post pictures on there when he goes into town .I don't know how but that's how it works. So ya, check it out!! It will give you an idea of what life is like here at Capernwray NZ.

Man i'm bored, even though really shold be working on my Genesis outline of Ch.1-3. It's not hard work of anything, it's just getting the motivation to do it, that's all.

Dear Dad, send dollar, love girl....I was talking about my lack of money and how I was gonna ask dad to put some more in my account, when Graham randomly said that. And Ruthie told me to put it on my blog. Mission Accomplished!

Oh you may remember that i told you that Matt & Jake came up with the word Meesing and it only applies to me and Stacey. Last night i figured it out, with a little help from Jake and tongiht Stacey figured it out with help from Daniel, Jake, Ray, Mark, Ruth and Me. The defintion of
Meesing is...
UNINTENTIONAL FLIRTING!
So you can't be meesing if you know you're flirting with someone so if you don't know you're flirting then you're meessing. Stacey does it WAY more than me which is strange cause I feel like I"m always flirting with the guys here. But then again it's supposed to be unintentional so
maybe that's why she does it more than me....because she doesn't know she's doing it :)

Oh you guys should also check out another friend of mine from school's website. Check out Dave's sight www.davefirth.com Yay for Dave! And yes that's him in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. English people rock, only because David and Marsha (his wife) are English!

THURSDAY FEB 24

Sorry i didn't update this yesterday...but since you're reading this on my blog that really means nothing to you :) Well yesterday was "work day" here at school. Basically we are split into 3 groups. Group #1 does indoor work, Group #2 does outdoor work, and Group #3 gets to sit in
a lecture. So for the first 4 weeks of school, here's what my "work days" looked like:
-cleaning the Homestead
-mowing the lawn
-lecture
-cleaning the kitchen
See the pattern? Oh fun fact: when me, Katie, Nikki, and Laura listened to Tom Jones while we were cleaning. Mom, you would have been SO proud (my mom loves Tom Jones)! It was fun.

Oh and last night Graham was playing music on his laptop and he played the sweetest song a Canadian could hear...
Hockey Night in Canada!
Yes it was very comforting to hear that again. Haven't really heard that song since me and a few friends tried to put that on our answering machine but my keyboard skills didn't work out too play for playing it. I was SO happy to hear that song that i asked Simon if i could give him a hug cause i was just SO happy :) Graham's playing it again right now. And Simon's trying to dance while kneeling. Aw!

Oh a couple nights ago me and my friend Ray were talking about relationships, as in the dating kind. It seems like everyone is in the same boat as I am.
Cause i want to date someone right now, but i don't really feel ready for it.
I want to have a relationship with someone, but it seems like guys don't want to have that same relationship with me.
I feel like I'm "flirting" with the guys here, but i don't want to lead anyone on in the wrong way.
I feel like my personality may be causing guys to think that I'm flirting with them when really, that's just me being me.
I want to be pursued, but yet I don't want to be "stalked"
I want to date the right guy, but i don't feel patient enough to wait for him.
I want God to help me find a guy for me, but i don't want to wait for His leading.
It's like an internal battle going on in my mind. It's kinda
frustrating.

My friend Becky has a really great "cooking" analogy for
relationships...

So I've been cooking for a long time. It takes a lot of effort and concentration. Its a process to get everything to turn out the way its supposed to.

Take for example the ingredients. Taste varies tremendously from person to person, there are many recipes out there. There are lots of recipes that are nice that have a nice combination of ingredients but sometimes its about proportion of ingredients. A little more of this a little less of that. Things need to be tweaked sometimes.

So you finally figured out the correct proportion of ingredients you need. That's a huge first step. The next task is figuring out how you want to cook the dish. There are many methods for doing this. You want to be careful with open flame, it might make the food taste real good, but you get to close and you might get burned. You also want to be careful in letting it sit in the pan too long, it may go bad before you have a chance to use it. Sometimes certain foods need some extra prep work before they can be heated up, some extra marinating to bring out particular qualities, like tenderness, and spiciness. Sometimes they needed to be slowly roasted in the oven to bring out the subtle qualities, you don't want to over-cook or under-cook. It's important to pay attention and make sure its ready before attempting to eat it. Otherwise it could leave you with a bad feeling in your stomach or a bad taste in your mouth.


When bringing all of the cooking elements together it is also important to watch out for people that like to come by and "help" they may mean well, but sometimes turning up the heat or adding a little extra something just makes the food go bad. You also have the problem of people coming into your kitchen and taking your perfectly prepared food for themselves. Often that is what happens. Sometimes its for the best because that food was not what you really needed anyhow.

Most importantly make sure you are using a recipe for what you really want. That has been my biggest mistake. I think I want something or that if I use a recipe if I cook it just right it will be different, but everytime it turns out the same.

With that said cook responsibly, don't cook up more than you need, its just wasteful. And make sure you have the time and patience to see the dish all the way through, or else you will have a stove full of pots half cooked and no room for what you really want.

I totally agree with her! Cause if you really think about it, that's how relationships work. But in the mean time of dating "Mr.Right", all i have do is trust God. It just sounds SO stinking simple! Trust God! One of my favorite verses at the moment is Pslam 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart". But just don't desire God for the sole purpose of "getting what you want". God will bless you when he knows your ready for it. *sigh* So ya, those are my (and Becky's) relational thoughts of the evening.

Oh today i sang in the morning worship time. Like I've never sang in public before, i mean not counting church choirs and other small singing groups for church. So ya, me and Lance were up there (he was playing guitar) and i was kinda nervous about singing in public cause I've never
really done it before even though I've always wanted to. Like i always wanted to know HOW to sing but no one ever really gave me the chance to. so ya i sang in public and no one complained about it so i guess it must have sounded good :)

Oh one thing that me and my roomies have habit of doing is eating between meals. As in we havea whole bunch of jonk food stocked up in our drawers and we just eat it. Like take me for example, I've got: trail mix, rice crackers, small cookies, chocolate and some Nutella. If you haven't experienced Nutella, it's THE best spread ever invented cause it's made of chocolate and hazelnuts. Yummy! So if you haven't tried it yet go to Superstore right now and buy some and spread it on toast or any other kind of cracker type substance.

Tonight i was just e-mailing a few people when i heard "the Phantom of the Opera" being played in the lecture hall by Mark and Shandall was doing the bass line (on her bass guitar) while Dave was kinda doing drums but more concentrating on his opera style singing. As in he was singing what Christine sings in the Opera...as in really really high notes. Of course guys could reach falsetto (as in Bee Gee type voices) but Dave it such a character. Man, i wish you could have heard him, cause it was super awesome, even if it did sound like he was screeching ;)

But ya since they were playing Phantom music i had to leave my computer and join in this jam session. So i grabbed my sax and all of us jammed together. Even if Shandall and Mark and Dave knew what they were doing and i didn't it was still fun. Cause somehow we all ended up playing "Louie Louie" and it sounded really awesome. I was able to figure out the 3 chord part, cause i only figured out the bass line notes but it was still cool.

But ya i guess that's about it. It's kind of a "free night" tonight which is nice cause it just gives us a break from night lectures. But it's still kinda boring cause i like structure and schedules and other such things.

Hopefully my blogs are getting too too long for you to read. But keep in mind they will still be here on my site until i delete them so feel free to read it like "one day at a time" then you wouldn't feel so bogged down from my blog. Oh and i will put pictures on here when i get the
chance. I'm thinking i might put all my pics on here cause that's a honk load of pics but yet i want everyone to get the chance to see them. Like I'll have them available on CD form so i can bring it from place to place if you wanted to see them and when i post them on the blog
they'll be in chronological order so keep that in mind when i post them.

FRIDAY FEB 25

Did you know that today has been a month since i left home. Do you hear that? I've been gone for a month! Craziness. Have you guys missed me yet? Oh here's some cool song lyrics from Phantom of The Opera (these are played during the credits)

Child of the wilderness
Born into emptyness
Learn to be lonely
Learn to find your way in darkenss
Who will be there for you?
Comfort and care for you
Learn to be lonely
Learn to be a one companion
Never dreamed out in the world
There are arms to hold you
You've always known your heart was on it's own
So laugh in your loneliness
Child of the wilderness
Learn to be lonely
Learn how to love life that is lived alone
Learn to be lonely
Life can be lived
Life can be loved
Alone

But ya...I like that song and i just thought that you guys should read the lyrics cause they are wicked awesome. Well, that's just what i think anyway.

Oh here's an awesome joke that my friend Mark told me....

Three guys are golfing: Jesus, Moses, and another man with a long grey beard. Moses tees up on the ninth hole, and slices the ball into the water. He ponders the situation, then raises his golf club. The water parts, and Moses approaches the ball and chips the ball in for a score of two.

Jesus tees up his ball, and also hits it into the water. But Jesus was using a floating ball. So, he walks out into the middle of the pond, takes out his wedge and chips the ball in for a score of two.

The man with the beard tees his ball up. He is left handed and fades into the water as well. Just as he puts his club back in his bag, a frog dives under the water and eats the ball. An eagle grabs the frog with its talons and flies away, and the frog chokes the ball out to land in the hole for a hole-in-one.

Moses says to Jesus, "Man, I HATE playing with your dad!"

Oh and here's a cool "forward" thay Matt made up about an hour ago...

An odd child is a thing that happens every day
We don't know why it is, but still we think its OK
Its not you see, and we all try, to tell her that shes wierd
An elf hat, a pair of wooden shoes, and especially that beard.
Living with elves can make you batty,
Make your clothes all torn and ratty.
How often has she sung
When all the chores are done?
Singing itself is by nature not evil,
But that manly voice just makes me ill.
So next time you see her, just shreik and point and laugh
Because a woman should be dainty, not an ugly fatted calf.
Dwarf women are quite odd, and usually you see
them coming from far away, to visit you for tea.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO BAN DWARF WOMEN FROM NEW ZEALAND.

1. James Thiessen
2. Francis Hargrave
3. Mary-Ann Collard
4. Simon Peterson
5. Toby Macdonald
6. Matt Schell
7. Paul Henley
8. Rhonda Steel
9. Jesus Christ
10. Mark Otago
11. Danielle Swartzstein
12. Matthew Bergman
13.

I love the person in #9. ;) Sorry for all the little "add ons" today...i just feel like telling them to you :) Here's another one...it's a fun little quote that dad sent me...

My three-year old nephew and I were pounding on the piano together when he suddenly noticed the foot pedal."You stay up here and play," he said as he crawled underneath the piano bench,"and I 'll go down and step on the gas!!"

As crazy as this sounds.........we're having a dance party at school. Yes you heard me....Christians are getting their groove on. Stayin Alive...oh man am I EVER EXCITED for this..LoL! I"ll tell you more later!

So ya the dance is still going on... even though it's only 10:00, I'm SO tired. some highlights of the dance:
-when me and Simon danced he told me not to get too close because
according to him is smelled like urine and pork chops, basically because he
was running around the room banging on the tamborine
-I learned to never teach Graham how to dance becauise he's SUPER
SUPER sweaty after he's been dancing...argh so gross
-Graham and Dan did their own interpretive dancing to "My Heart Will
Go on", i also got some great pictures of it ;)
But ya many many good times. Good thing i burnt a CD with Chicken
Dance on it cause Matt F. really wanted to dance to that song, so we all
danced to it and it was awesome cause i haven't danced (publically) to
that song since Ian's grad in April. Craziness.

But ya i should probably go to bed cause i"m leaving for skydiving in like 6 hours. Oh did I not tell you that? ya I can go diving tomorrow @ sunrise...how cool is that?! Don't you worry I'll give you the details later ;)