My Weekend in Point Form.

Ahh what a weekend. I'm glad I didn't have to work on Monday because as of last Friday I had come down with the nasty cold going through the daycare. (I thought I'd last longer than a week but apparently my immunity has worn off.) After the crazy weekend, complete with its lack of sleep, excessive dancing, and social madness, I was wiped out.

Friday:

-Off work at 3, picked up new hot dress for Saturday's wedding from mall, went home and gathered everything. Got dressed and 'hottied up' for Erin's birthday party.

- Jason came home at 4:40, jumped in the shower, and we were in the car headed for the coast by 5:10. Don't know how we did it.

- Drove straight into town and to Roosters for Erin's party. Made it in time to avoid the lineup and for the guest list to still work.

- Lots of fun and country dancing. Discovered new way to get rid of annoying drunk guys trying to dance with me. Flash 'em the bling! Erin had to talk her way out of dancing with a few guys (even with her boyfriend there), but all I had to do was flip them the finger - the ring finger on the left hand that is - and they were gone! Ah, I love being married.

Saturday:

-Woke up at 8:30. A whopping 6 hours after going to bed. Jason went to Ikea and I went on a quest to find a black shrug for my dress. Nothing like last minute shopping.

- No luck, had to stop at Haney Place on the way to the wedding to see if Bryan's had one. They DID! phew!

- Witnessed our good friends Tyler (J's best man) and Jenny tie the knot. It was beautiful and the rain even stopped for their outside ceremony. They had an open bar, and I had a delicious margarita in a "Fun Cup" (as the bride referred to them - only 3 were available!) They even had their little pug Mrs. Wiggles (Wiggy for short) come out after dinner for some dancing!) I'm so happy for them and wish them all the best!

Sunday:

- Woke up early to get to church, again after going to sleep very late. A fantastic sermon dealing with some things I had been dealing with prior to and after the move. It answered a lot of questions, and made me feel a lot better about myself. I let some people make me feel bad about my choices, when my choices were entirely God-centred. And God knows that.

- Went to lunch with my dear friend Heather, who I hadn't seen in a long while and missed terribly while she was away. Caught up and heard a bunch of her tales from afar.

- Drove home, and yet again after the toll booth entered the land of Sunshine. I like it here!

Monday:

- Had the day off work to start at second job, but had decided over the weekend to stay at this job full time, as it pays better and has many great possible opportunities coming in the future. I'm excited to see what happens. I'm very interested in continuing with schooling to get my diploma (only 6 more courses) in special needs, and then after that continuing possibly to get my bachelors (over a long while, as I would still need to work and pay as I go. EXPENSIVE) in Child and Youth Care. But that's a bit off topic.

- Very glad I stayed home, as my cold caught up with me and I needed this day to rest. I slept almost 12 hours that night, and then went for a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.

I'm feeling a bit better today, but unfortunately it was a crazy, insane, every-child-off-the-wall kinda day. Very draining. We had 9 infants today, 3 of which screamed almost the whole day (it felt like a Tylenol advertisement) and most of which only had 30 min. naps. 30 MINUTES?! They usually sleep an hour at least, sometimes 2! Needless to say, it was a busy day. But I still came home loving my job. :)

What A Day!!

So I had an interview today at 10am. Went to that, was basically offered another job. (That brings the total of offered jobs to 6) I told her I would get back to her as I had another interview tomorrow and needed to mull it over a little bit. She wanted me to work a 6:30am shift, which I'm not entirely crazy about, but I do need a job so I said I'd get back to her. I have not been to an interview yet where they don't want to hire me immediately. Great for the ego, bad for the decision making process. Until the rest of my crazy God-day happened...

Let me go back a day to Sunday morning. We went to a church for the second time (I'm quite liking this one, it reminds me a little of Burnett...) The first time we had gone, a girl who runs the children's ministry (whose parents GO to Burnett... small world!!!) had said she was looking for someone with ECE. At this time of course I was trying to find something that wasn't ECE. So I didn't think much of it. Anyways, I wanted to go touch base with her and find out details. So as we're leaving the auditorium, their interim pastor who had just given the message says to J and I "Hey, I don't know you, who are you?" (How's that for a welcoming? haha) So he's chatting us up, and asking what we do. I tell him I'm currently looking for something and that I have my ECE. At this same moment, a lady is walking through the door and overhears this. She says "I know someone looking for ECE!!" and gives me her card to tell the daycare owner she referred me to her. Same time as all this, the young adults pastor (who we met last time) approaches to say hello and gets involved in this conversation. He runs to his office to get the daycare's card so I can phone. Apparently she is proposing to lease space from this church to open a second daycare in this part of town, and that's why he had her card.

Ok so back to today. I came home from my morning interview, made myself a glorious cup of coffee and called this daycare. She asked if I was available to come in today and drop off my resume. I finished my coffee and headed out there. (It's a 20 minute drive, but that's the farthest drive you'll get in Kamloops) So I go in, and after talking to the lady for a while, she asks when I'd be able to start. I tell her "as early as tomorrow" because I'd really like to start work asap... For some reason, I decide to take this job. All of the stuff from the day before seems to make this fall in place, and an added bonus - it pays more than what I was making in Maple Ridge. (Very rare in these parts)

So during the interview, a staff member comes in an informs the owner that she needs to go home because her son is quite sick. Now the centre is very short staffed... So I offered to start then if she needed the help! She said yes and I spent the afternoon mostly in the Infant/Toddler room, and then later with the school aged kids.

I've set a new record for myself.... Set up an interview, had the interview, got hired, and started my job - All on the SAME DAY!!!!

And the best part is, if the business proposal at the church goes through, I will be the first to move to that centre - and it's only a few blocks from home!

God certainly knows what He's doing. Right down to my sudden urge to make myself a cup of coffee... He knew I'd need the caffeine!!

Update

Ok so the reason I was trying to post daily (or close to) was because when I don't, I feel like I have too much to say when I finally do blog.

Went camping Friday night with a young adults group we've been going to. It was a ton of fun, except right at the end when we were playing "aluminum foil baseball" (ball was made from all the aluminum foil off of about 20 corn-on-the-cobs we had on the fire) ... By the time I got up to bat this thing was extremely compact. Think of a snowball compressed so much that it becomes an ice-ball. Similar concept. So anyways, I hit the ball, ran around the 2 bases (we had a very small area to play with, no room for a third base) and I got home! Clearly I was safe. 2 minutes later, I very unexpectedly received a blow to the face with the ball of metal. It was painful and I'm just hoping that it does not turn into a welt-like bruise as this coming weekend is full of birthday parties and weddings down in Maple Ridge. Other than that I had a good time and no I do not hold the girl who threw the ball responsible for my injury. She's a very nice girl, albeit perhaps with no aim.

1 wheelbarrow of wood = 5 dollars

Filling it up as high as you can and hoisting it on and off a pickup truck = priceless.

Biggest swingset EVER!

So other fun stuff from this week....... Wednesday was my first day of work at the furniture store. It was NOTHING like I expected it might be. It's hard to explain it all, but basically I picked up a very weird vibe in the way people talk to each other and about each other and about the owners. The lady who had hired me had said in the interview I would be starting full time... but when I started she told me I'd be part time for a while. She had also said in the interview that the I'd most likely be Monday to Friday because that's what the customer service people work... when in fact, the lady who was training me works very regularly Tuesday-Saturday. I wouldn't mind working a Saturday now and then, but with family out of town and such, I'd like to have some weekends available for visiting.

So anyways, I got home and was in tears out of disappointment. This was not how I was supposed to feel on my first day!! The next day I went in with an optimistic attitude, but alas, it was quite the same, only this time with the realization that I was going to be yelled at every day by irate customers. I decided that this was not the place for me. I prayed the whole day that I might be able to find a way to talk to the lady who hired me alone and not have to approach her and her parents (the owners) or other staff members. Sure enough, at 4:30 (I was off at 5) she comes to me and says she would like to see me during the last 15 minutes of my shift. Well that was an answer to prayer if I've ever seen one... So I went to talk to her and she informs me that I've been hired so that they can fire the lady who's training me. But they're not going to tell her until after she's trained me, with her thinking that I'm just hired as part-time help. I'm sorry, but this was the icing on the cake at this point... I did NOT feel right about any of this so I told her I was sorry and that I would not be returning.

I should've been listening to God all along. Of course I would feel burnt out after leaving Pitt Meadows - I was working 12 hour days with no breaks between my two jobs... But I've come to realize that I belong in Early Childhood Education, at least for a little while longer. And I've got a renewed excitement about it too! I've already picked up a part time job with a lady who runs a daycare out of her home but is looking to lease or buy space to open a centre. Of course I will need to supplement my hours in the beginning so I called about 5 or 6 daycares and I think only one of them is not hiring immediately but will be soon. Apparently up here having your ECE certificate is like carrying a Golden Ticket. So basically, I'm not worried, and from now on I'm SO going to listen to God...

I'll keep you posted... I have several interviews this week...

I cannot believe some people are like this. *Rant.

So I decided I would participate in this radio contest where you create a Facebook group and see how many people join it. The person with the most number of people in their group by July 3rd wins $5000 ... Now I didn't make my group with any slight thought that I had a chance of winning, more to just see what would happen if I did try. Because you can't win if you don't enter right? Well, I found out how to check the "leaderboard" for this contest and I'm nowhere near close to the first place entry, although I was impressed at the amount my group grew in less than 24 hours. There are people out there who care enough to join my group, and for that I am touched. However, if it comes down to it, I will tell everyone in my group to transfer their "memberships" to another group, especially if it helps that person win. Because when I saw who was in the lead, I was disgusted. This guy has 989 people and on his "info" section, he put "Screw Money. Lets Spend it on BOOZE!!!!!!!" I am so against someone like this winning... and it has nothing to do with the fact that $5000 could really help us, because I know for a fact that $5000 could help a lot of people. Which is why I'd rather it go to help people somehow. I have no control over this, but I just don't think it's right to spend such a huge amount of money on a booze-fest.

So anyways, I'm just ranting on here because I think it's disturbing how many of these groups had a similar angle to get people to join. What happened to compassion, and the desire to help people who might actually need the money? The girl in second place wants to donate 100% of the money to cancer research, and so if it comes down to it, I will try to get people to join her group instead.

Toronto had a similar contest, giving away $7000 ... I hope the outcome for Vancouver is as heartwarming as theirs. It definitely made me think differently of Torontonians. The winner of that one had a young girl with a disability and her mom wanted to send her to a special camp, but it cost $10,000 to go... Well, she won, and the radio station gave her the extra $3000 to make it happen. Now for something like THAT I would join.

Ok I'm done my rant now.

The Candyman can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good!

Who needs to go for a run when you can just clean a bathtub?? That's what I did today and I think I'm more sore from that than my one hour run yesterday. Let me tell you, this was a project and a half. It gets very dirty very fast when you are married to a mechanic who brings home half a litre of oil and grease on his body every day. yuck.

Speaking of yuck, my spider bite is really gross. I'm not sure what's happening with it, but I had to promise Jason that I wouldn't look the spiders and their bites up anymore because I was worrying myself literally sick by it. (You go Google "Brown Recluse spider bite" and click on the Images tab... mine's not like a lot of those but I was freaking out that it was going to turn into that... you'll see why I was worrying) Anyways, it's starting to hurt now, and I've started my antibiotic pills (4 of them every day) along with the cream. I just want it to get better.

Tonight I went to a young adults group and we ended up in a coffee shop/cafe called Zack's. This is now officially one of my new favourite places here. Half of it is a cute independent coffee shop, and the other half is a gelato and candy store!! And it's all old fashioned, with jars of candies behind the counter, and drawers you can open that have Nerds, Fizz-Pops, Blo-pops, Big League Chew, and a ton of candy I can never find up here in Canada. They even have the strips of paper with candy dots on them!! We used to wrap presents with that back in New Hampshire when I was in elementary school!! I love that store. I bought Jason a Pez dispenser that looks like a truck! It's awesome! I mentioned to some people that I felt like I should be singing a Willy Wonka song. :)

Well, off to read a bit before bed, I will be seeing you all again this weekend!! It's been too long! hee hee

Where'd Summer Go?

It's been raining for 3 days now... What is this, the Lower Mainland?! I thought I moved to the desert. But it stopped raining for a while so I went for a glorious run! It was about an hour long, but I didn't run the whole thing. Seriously people, Kamloops is full of hills. Last summer I took up running on the dykes in Pitt Meadows (this year I guess I'd need a boat) and was able to run non-stop for anywhere between 30-45 mins. Not here. I get a good rhythm going and then suddenly I'm going uphill again! So much work!! So I alternated. But all in all, a fantastic run. And I discovered that it's much easier to run while listening to music! For some reason, my favourite stuff to listen to while running is Hillsongs. (Maybe because of all the hills here??!!) It's just so praise-filled and clappy and when they're clapping to the beat I kind of feel like a football player running onto the field through the crowd of cheerleaders. And that gives me energy. And makes me feel tough when I describe it like that. haha

Tonight we went to a couples' bible study. We've been once before, the people are really great. Tonight I found out that two of the gals there mountain bike as well! So that's pretty exciting. It was a great night filled with coffee, cookies, and chatting. And weird small world story: Some people were talking about Belize, and I mentioned to Jason that I had received an email from Kent and Marion to pray for their country... and this one guy says "Fuller??" He totally knew them from way back when! He lived there for a while, and was helping put cabinets and stuff into the mission house!! So weird.

The Good, The Bad, and The Spider

I AM EMPLOYED!!!! I got a call this morning telling me the furniture store wants to hire me! Thank you to all who prayed for me, I am so excited to start this new chapter in my life. I am not sure when I start yet, my new boss said she would phone me in the next day or two to let me know. I'm a bit nervous though, I hope I do ok at this, since it's somewhat new territory.

Also, could you guys pray for Jason? He's got some stuff going on and we're hoping it all works out. Thanks a bunch...

Today I brought myself to the doctor because what I thought at first was a little scratch, then possibly a mosquito bite has turned into a large, itchy mass... Turns out I was bitten by a hobo spider!!!! EEEEWWW. Apparently they can be fatal, but mine's just itchy. I have antibiotics and some cream so hopefully it goes away. Stupid spider. Yuck.

And that was my day.

Pitt Meadows Day

Ahh what a nice weekend! The drive on Friday was really nice, we took a new route to Merritt with lots of beautiful lakes and grasslands. The whole drive I kept looking at Jason with a huge grin, occasionally saying "This feels just like Christmas!!" Seriously people, I know I've been away only just over a month but you guys are just all so awesome. It felt longer. Anyways, we got to the Gregor's just after 9pm, and had a nice visit with them out on their new patio.

The next morning J woke up early for his bike ride with his dad and some other dudes. I would've been all for this had it not been Pitt Meadows Day! I got up too and had a nice coffee, and got ready until Andrea and Lydia came over. We walked up the parade route, but amazingly this was the first year I didn't really watch the parade! We met up with my mom and Justin, and some other people along the way, which was great! We then decided we were very hungry for lunch, so we went to the Lunch Doctor while the parade was still on. This proved to be a spectacular idea, since we finished at the same time as the parade and avoided the mass number of people wanting lunch...

After lunch we participated in the Pitt Meadows Day festivities by getting tattooed up and streaks in my hair. (I know, I'm such a rock star!) McDonald's had free airbrush tattoos, and a hair salon booth had the "sharpie" tattoos and streaks. These ones cost money but it was for the women's shelter.

After a while we couldn't take the heat anymore (I think your heat feels hotter than ours, I felt yucky and sticky all day and it was "cooler" than Kamloops!) and decided it was time to head back and enjoy pina coladas on the patio. This was definitely one of the best parts of my day :)

Fireworks were great as usual, with the traditional Waterfall!

We then ventured up to the Mellander house for more visits until the wee hours of the morning. We didn't mean to stay up until 2:30, but I'm glad we did. :)

Of course I was glad until it was time to get up for church. That wasn't as much fun. But we even managed to get there a bit early (even before the countdown was up on the screen!! That's unheard of!) It was awesome seeing people at church, and being in the comfort of home. I know one day I'll feel that at a church here, but for now I just look forward to the weekends we get to spend at Burnett and with the people we love.

I just don't know how I'm going to survive without Burnett ... until... next weekend.... yes... next weekend. We'll be there again! Haha we joked that we hadn't found a church yet so we've decided to commute. :)

Anyhow, I'm off to watch some TV and hang out with the hubby. Please pray that tomorrow I hear back from the furniture store and that it's GOOD news!! :)