run . baby . run

2009-03-18T22:08:00.002-05:00

i've been reuinited with a childhood movie!!!!
CLIFFORD!

2009-02-16T15:48:00.005-06:00

Hey Everyone! Not sure if you all have given up on my blog! hehe, i wouldn't blame you if you have! but i had some time today & i figured i would put up some pictures. Married life has been AWESOME! Eric is an amazing husband & i feel SO blessed!

(Click on the pictures to get a closer look)

Pictures from pre-ceremony & ceremony

Family & Wedding Party Pictures

Pictures of me & my handsome husband

Reception Pictures

our HOME! (Helen....your gift to us is the second
top picture on the left. the 3 square shelves :))

Here is a video of what i live in! this was taken by some people near where i live. Last week monday EVERYTHING was ice! it was insane! it took me over 15 minutes to walk to work & it usually only takes about 7 minutes. (yes...i time my walk to work)

2008-10-04T23:05:00.001-05:00

i figured since i haven't written since july, i should make at least one more post as an unmarried lady, i think i made the right decision as to what to post about, how about you?

2008-07-24T14:45:00.006-05:00

Hey All,

I have another video update here for you guys to enjoy....if you didn't see my last video, I'd suggest you go watch that one first (it's at the bottom of my post about Eliora's birth)

well, well, well...it appears that although Shiloh may be an impressionable 2.5 year old, I don't have ultimate control over her. Nope, only her mother has THAT power!

2008-07-04T16:59:00.002-05:00

introducing:

Eliora Hope Bergen

(pronouces El-Lora)

July 2, 2008

This beautiful girl is the daughter of my sister, Ruth and brother-in-law, Brian. i don't have any pictures of my own...so i stole a few from Ruth's blog :) you can check out the name meaning & more pictures on Ruth's blog (link to the right ->)

The whole family

Big sister Shiloh

figured i'd throw this video in as well, here is a little something i taught Shiloh a couple of weeks ago :) :) :) enjoy!

2008-06-30T21:55:00.002-05:00

hey folks, i seriously NEED to be in bed right now...but i figured i'd quickly post an awesomely amazing link for you guys to check out. Last tuesday eric and i got together with our wedding photographers to get some engagement pictures done. it was SO much fun & for anyone getting married in the Winnipeg area i would TOTALLY recommend Kampphotography.

clickclickclickclickclick

click on the button "click here to view some super slideshow goodness" underneath all of the pictures to see a whole lot more pictures! you'll like it...i'm sure :)

2008-06-19T19:37:00.006-05:00

BOO

did i scare ya? yep, after a 2 month absence i am definitely back! i hope some people still check back here from time to time! well, what have i been busy with?? i have been living with my brother (sherwood), sister-in-law (joc), and 2 nephews (isaiah and luke) for the last 2 months. i've been living with them as a part-time nanny type of thing. my sister-in-law is expecting their 3 child in the middle of august (although isaiah was born 6 weeks early and luke was 12 weeks early....so there's no knowing when this baby will actually be born!) it has really just been a ton of fun, and time is FLYING by so fast! my days basically consist of me playing with my nephews and then doing a few house hold chores each day. my nephews have asked me a couple of times "are you an adult or a child?" they just can't figure out how i look older, like an adult, yet i just play all day long, like a child. they are just so precious!

other than nannying i have been (for the most part:)) loving planning my wedding! it's 4 months away (4 months from yesterday to be exact). for those of you who don't know eric, let me just say this: he is awesome. it hasn't completely sunk in that i will be his wife soon....but i am super excited for this adventure!

hm, well, other than that i just recently read a book called "The Shack" and it was really really good. really got me thinking about how i view God and challenged me to stop putting him into a box! God is God and yet i manage to create an "image" which i think He should fit into. man, i've still got a long way to go!!

well, i can't think of much else to write, so instead i'll leave it to pictures to fill you all in with the latest happenings of my life!
(hint: you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

Luke hard at work colouring (we do a lot of this!)

Isaiah and his "important face"

Lukester having fun at the zoo

Woo hoo! my sister Ruth and sister-in-law Joc. babies, babies, BABIES!!!

This is what happens to Eric when he comes to visit me.

I took some family pictures for Ruth a couple of weeks ago, enjoy!

Ruth, Brian, Shiloh, and ???

I get lots of loving!

Luke took this picture of himself....it cracks me up every time.

Mr.Lukie

My niece, little miss Shiloh. she is the most "little girl" i have ever met....that statement would make sense if you knew her!

Luke posing for me :)

This last year i took an African dance class with 2 of my friends (Kyla and Char). After my DTS i really felt challenged to try new things...things that i say i can't do...but really i've just never spent time doing it! Dance class was a BLAST! we had SO much fun together....although the closer it got to our dance recital the less fun and scarier it seemed!! here are some pictures from the nerve racking event:
i am saying "yep, they're all clapping for us. we're so awesome!"

Char, Kyla, and ME

my beloved nephews and niece....just joy.

ok, that's it for tonight, folks!! i hope you enjoyed it....because it took a while!

Blessings.

2008-04-14T22:38:00.002-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAUTIFUL BIG (as in older, of course) SISTER!!!

Happy birthday, Ruth! You are a bold, beautiful blessing! I love you!!

p.s.
yes, i stole all of these pictures from your blog.....but seeing as i'm the one who took them all i figured it was a forgivable offence!

2008-03-24T21:16:00.004-05:00

if you:
a) do not live in Niverville
b) do not have facebook
c) do not read Ruth's blog
d) have not talked to anyone close to me in the last 30ish hours

THEN: you may not know that yesterday after church ERIC PROPOSED TO ME!!!! surprised?? maybe not.....but i was!!!! wow, how amazing! it hits me every couple of minutes that i am actually engaged to be married. i will be a wife. a wife!! wow. here are a couple of pictures from the happiest day yesterday:

we're cool

shiloh just cannot believe that i'm engaged!

so how did it happen? well, to be honest...i've told this story A LOT/MANY/TONS of times already...but i would love to tell it again! we had church that morning & immediately after the service finished our friend Char came up to us and said "ok, so i have a hankering for hanging out with you two and a bucket of chicken. so how about we go to the city, buy some chicken and hang out in a park somewhere." i was totally down with that...but Eric didn't seem too excited about it...so i was like, ok, no chicken or whatever! no big deal! but when Char gets an idea in her head....she gets an idea!!!! so she kept on bringing it up & i guess eventually eric had to take her aside & say LET IT GO!! so we slowly made our way out of the church, talking with friends, etc. and then Eric came up to me and said "oh, i just talked to my Aunt Em & she has some sunday school stuff that i need for teaching sunday school next week." i had no idea...so i was like ya sure, let's go there! ****note to you readers, this was all a ploy to get me out to the country near the railroad tracks**** so we're driving to his aunt and uncles house, i've never been there before, which is a good thing b/c it turns out we were going the LONG way there. just before we get to the train tracks eric starts looking at the heat gauge on his car & asks me if it looks like his engine is cold. ok, so i know NOTHING about cars....but it looked pretty normal to me! so i told him it looked fine, but you know, he was so sure it just didn't feel right, so we stopped in the middle of the road (note: it was a dirt road, so it was ok to stop in the middle of it) he popped his hood and then started looking at the engine. "hey, Mel, come and look that this!" so i get out of the car & start looking at the engine. i look at him and realize that he's on one knee and asking me to marry him!!! WHOA! i think i said "are you serious???" a couple of times & then finally YES!

we spent about 1/2 an hour at the rail road tracks...trying to get it all to sink in, we were quite unsuccessful, so we then made our rounds telling family & then friends all the happy news! :)

so there you have it! there will be an october 2008 wedding. xoxoxox

2008-03-11T18:25:00.004-05:00

3 reason i should post today:
1) today is the first day Niverville temperature went over zero degrees celcius
2) i haven't posted in 2 months
3) if i don't post on here i will spend the next half hour wasted on facebook.

i think thoes 3 reasons are suffice! Well, i don't really have much time here. i'm waiting for my sister ruth to pick me up for us to go to quilting class together, but i was just looking at my blog and came to the shocking realization that it has been 2 months already since the last post! seriously....how does that happen?? oh well! i'm back. i don't have any pictures to post right now as i am using crystal's lap top and all of my pictures are on my parent's extremely slow computer. i have no patience for slow computers.

well, the count down is on: 23 more working days at Solomon's Porch and then i'm off to Winnipeg!!!!! wow...only 23!

well, what do you know....i found a few pictures on crystal's computer from the last month...here here ya are!

i think i'm watching Flight of the Conchords in Crystal's room here....BEX and HELEN, do you know Flight of the Conchords?? they're kiwi & hilarious! kiwilarious! if you have..."brett you've got it going" on is my favourite...and if you haven't, "brett you've got it going on" is still my favourite.

Crystal and i on our way to Steinbach. sometimes it's fun to go somewhere other than winnipeg...and steinbach is always that other.

TOBY MAC!!!! i forgot to write about this earlier!!! about a week ago i was invited to go to a Toby Mac concert which was happening about 4hrs south of us (in the US of A)....free tickets to see Toby Mac! oh my goodness! it was SUCH a blast!!

ok, well i have to get going now! see you in another 2 months ;)

2008-01-06T15:27:00.000-06:00

i'm BACK! *phew* i'm sure many of you weren't sure this day would ever come....or maybe you've already lost all hope in me coming back & aren't even checking here any more. i hope not. b/c if it had come to that, then you would be missing this. so yes, i have been a terrible blogger the last couple of months. the only post i've made in the last 4 months was about socks. :S Mmhm, great post, i must say....but still quite sad considering the amount of time that's passed.

ok, so i have a wide variety of picture to share with you all! some go back to september! i know...it was MONTHS ago, but i really wanted to share them with you, especially for you Borgen peeps, i want to give you a bit of a picture of what my fall/winter has been looking like:

Shoshannah & myself on her birthday- early September.

YOUTH:
here are some pictures from the first youth event of this year...we have formal bowling! so much fun! Me and one other lady drove ahead of time and step up a little area in McDonald's. we set up table clothes & candles, with little "reservation" signs for the tables.

Chris- our youth leader serving us our supper!

Here are a few pictures of the Christmas party.

Darcee and Chantelle

A bunch of Senior guys.

Here are some pictures from Halloween. hehe, can anyone guess what i am??

if you guessed "fly in a flyswatter", then you would be RIGHT!

and now.....let me tell you about Manitoba winters....

ok, so i think that picture says a lot. we have actually had a pretty good winter. not too cold...that is if you don't count this last week. every day this week the average temperature has been -40 (with windchill) brrrrrrr! i remember being cold in Russia....but i'm seriously starting to believe that it's colder here.

My beautiful niece and nephews

(shiloh, luke, isaiah)

December 16-20 I went on a road trip with Eric, and Charlotte! we drove 14hrs (pretty much straight, except for short gas & bathroom breaks) i added a little map to give you guys a bit of a picture of the distance we went. our friend sho (picture of her at the beginning of the blog) is doing her SBS (school of Biblical Studies) out there and we decided to drive out there, spend a couple of days hanging out, and then bring her home for christmas break!

here we GO!

(Sho, Char, Me, Eric)

We spent one day in Banff, and decided to go the the hot springs. Problem? we didn't have bathing suits! lucky for us though, they rented out these beautiful bathing suits that must have been make in 1930.

Paul and Myself

we spent one evening with my cousins Jon and Paul. I haven't seen these guys in at least 4 years....so it was so awesome to spend time with them again

sho and char trying to take nice pictures of the 4 of us....eric and i were not cooperating.

and now CHRISTMAS TIME!! I had so much fun this christmas! Spending time with my family & Eric's family-decorating gingerbread houses-going christmas carolling-and just the joy of Christmas spirit! i love this season! what a joy!

Steph, my mom, and joc in the kitchen

Isaiah- he keeps on growing up!

Steph

the 3 cousins- shiloh, luke, and isaiah

me and lukie hanging out :)

all the family stuffed into our little living room :)

so that's all the pictures for now, friends! i haven't mentioned it on here yet, but this summer our family is going to be increasing by 2 new little babies! My sister Ruth and my sister Jocelyn are pregnant!! i will be moving in with joc and my brother Sherwood in April- helping them out around the house & with their 2 little boys. So i'll be living in the big city...which will be something totally new for me. but i am excited for the change!

ok, i'm all blogged out now! hopefully i will return sooner than i have been :) hopefully!

2007-10-30T18:01:00.000-05:00

these are my socks. my sad, sad socks. i don't know if you can tell with the dark shades....but there are 4 holes. why don't i just throw them out? hm, because they're special. they're special because not only do these beautiful warm socks (which i purchased in Finland) have 4 holes in them, they also have 5 patches which lenneke knitted into them for me. lenneke put her heart and her time into these socks for me...spending hours (or was it minutes??) stitching them together for me in Russia. *sigh* i remember those days. but, the day has come. that day is today. today i say goodbye to my beautiful wool socks.

2007-09-23T19:08:00.000-05:00

HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI

Armbruster family '07

"where have i been?" you may be asking....well i have been one busy little bee.

first of all: for the last month i've been working 6 days a week. it's been good....some days it was a little overwhelming!!! a lot of books to be cleaned-ribboned-priced-picked-packed-and then set out! but on thursday we shipped out the last couple (by couple i mean 60) boxes of books and now it's time to rest before i get to do it all over again! :) this week-end my boss gave me a couple of days off and then on Monday we have a holiday! thank God for Thanksgiving!

Every Thursday my friends char, kyla & I drive 45mins to winnipeg to take part in a little thing i like to call "african dance class". ok, so maybe it's not just something i like to call....it's actually what it is. yes, african dance.....and please don't ask any of us to do it for you....we still look like 3 white girls trying to dance like an african man! it's been a ton of fun....and we're learning! hey borgen dts '07.....have you guys been practicing your african moves?

For my friday nights i've been involved as a mentor with the senior youth nights (grades 10-12) This is the first year that our youth group split the seniors and the juniors. so it's been something new...but i've really been enjoying it. being in a smaller group just makes it easier to connect and have good discussions with the youth. about half of the youth on friday night went on the missions trip to vancouver that i went on this july...so it's been good to maintain the connection and because we already have a bond, we can be honest and encourage each other through out our weeks. Yesterday we had our first outreach as a team together. man, it was amazing. i so easily forget how much i love/hate being put into situation where i have to rely on God, b/c there is NO way that i can do it with my own strength! then by the end of the evening i LOVE it, b/c God always comes through and teaches me something new! what we did yesterday was we split into 4 different teams. my team had 5 peeps in it, we drove out to winnipeg to an area called osborne village. for anyone who has never been to winnipeg: to sum it all up it's basically an area where there is a lot of culture, and brokenness mixed together. there is a lot of occult that goes down there and ya, it's just a really interesting area of the city where you see a lot of different people. just living their lives. while on osborne we went to a gas station and asked if we could clean up the place for free. the lady at first looked at us sooooo suspiciously! hehe, who would want to clean up a bathroom on osborne...and why? by the end though she was super friendly and said to me "wow, i can't really believe this....you guys came down to osborne to do this? wow, i don't usually say this....but you are really awesome." then on our way back to our vehicle we stopped to talk to a homeless man who was holding a sign asking for money. through our conversation he mentioned that he was waiting for a liver transplant, so we offered to pray for that and he agreed! i can't really say that i've ever imagined myself praying for someone on osborne...nope, but it happened! sweet God! i had an awesome group of kids on my team as well...they were super willing to serve and this was a first for a couple of them, so it was mightily stretching. i can't wait to see what'll happen next through these guys.

hm, it's 1:30am right now...and tomorrow is a day FULL of family gatherings and food! i'll need my rest now! for those of you overseas....tomorrow is the Canadian Thanksgiving! it's a day where we eat lots of turkey, mashed (or you may know it as "smashed") potatoes, and we thank God for all that he's given us. :) it's a pretty sweet holiday if you ask me!
bless you all!!
love, Mel

2007-08-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

hmm, so it seems quite a few people are super duper interesting in the gift i received from the netherlands. :) well, let me fill you in then! i got a little notebook with a picture of a really cute little girl on the front...with her finger wedged up her nose! at the bottom it says "life delights in life" it's so perfect, i love it!! i also got a stud muffin bank card! hehe...i haven't tried swiping it yet, so we'll see what comes of that!
when i talked to bex and lenneke on skype on friday (which was a hoot, btw) they requested (or was it demanded??) more photos of me....so here you are ladies!! they're not all of me...but they're a few of my favorite pictures from this summer. most of them are taken by crystal (thanks) because my camera was on the fritz for a little while.

Isaiah, Luke & me

Auntie Steph & Isaiah

Shiloh and Me

E-rock and me

Crystal and me
Pst....we stole those flowers from some one's garden.

Crystal and Lukie (roar!)

and that's all folks....it most definitely feels like summer is coming to an end. fall is coming: people are going to new places, doing new things. i'm sticking to niverville...trying to see what God has to teach me this year.

"Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."
Matthew 20:16

well, Good God, so be it :)

2007-08-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

my day was just made

i received a lovely package from a location called
Nunspeet, the Netherlands
Eeeeeeeeeeee! Thanks Lenneke and Bex! i can't stop smiling :)

2007-08-10T16:45:00.001-05:00

random ramblings
warning: this is an insanely boring post...do not read if you are overtired or uninterested in the common life of myself.

well there's 15 minutes left of my friday workday. i'll be out for the week-end and i figured i'd just send out a little hello. my day today has been filled with youtube clips of the office. it's been pretty sweet. last night eric and i went to folklorama, i know that i for sure talked to lenneke about this wonderful winnipeg experience (definitely a plus for coming to visit me in the summer) for all you who don't know what it is, it's a cultural showcase that's up for 2 weeks every august in winnipeg. different cultures have pavilions in different locations to show off their culture. so we went to the mexican one...because it looked really good & eric happened to be wearing his mexican soccer shirt, so you know. and we also went to the scandinavian pavilion....need i say why? ok, it's because i was in scandinavia! the food looked strangely familiar, and although i couldn't understand the language, it made me smile. i love folkorama. i love scandinavia.
ok, i've got to go and close shop. i'm off to the cabin this week-end for a mentor retreat. and then on sunday night jules and i are off to see josh groban :) i finally got some of his music from chantelle....so i'm madly trying to learn some of it before hand. i have to sing along to at least one song, i mean, seriously!

see ya
wouldn't wanna be ya
bahahahaha

2007-08-01T10:21:00.001-05:00

ok, i know, it's time. it's past time. it was time like 2 weeks ago. my only excuse is that i've been house sitting an air-conditioned-but-internetless house for the last couple of weeks and coming to my parents non-air-conditioned-internet house was not very appealling in the +40 weather we've been having. today though i'm at home working & thought i'd take a break and update you all....plus it's cooled down today to a lovely +26. you know something is seriously wrong when +26 is cool. but my final push back into updating this blog was the lovely helen wilson :) i feel really bad about not updating all you guys on the other side of the world. but i'm BACK, and i'm going to try SOOOOO hard to keep this puppy up!

so i suppose the major updating goes back to june 30-july 15. that was when i ventured out to vancouver with the Flying V's (the official name of our mission trip group) ok, where do i begin? maybe i'll start by saying i love our group. Mmm! we were all friends before leaving, but spending this much time together, doing the things we did & having this much fun made us tight. i don't have time right now to talk about what we all did, but i'll post some pictures here for your enjoyment :)

introducing: The Flying V's

and this is the point where i turn 21

p.s. eric made that dessert pizza

2007-06-14T20:55:00.000-05:00

hey all,

i don't really have much to update....it's just that i'm craving internet time right now & i can't do anything but update this puppy & check my e-mail. so i guess i'll just babble. on monday i had a fantastic day with a fantastic friend. JULES. *insert three cheers* it was so much fun. we went to a mongolian restraunt and then we went over to winnipeg's pride and joy: the forks! we were walking around the little shops area when i looked into this window of a store & saw this plate that TOTALLY looked like the russian hand-painting. do you guys know what i'm talking about? like the red with the flowers, etc.basically the reason i'm telling you all this is because it was a russian store!!! basically all of the souvenirs that i picked up were in there also!! the lady behind the counter was talking to another person and i hear them say "privet" oh my gosh! i almost had to hold onto julia to make sure i was actually still in canada! :) it was so insane! and then also today i was at my sister, Ruth's house helping her get ready for a garage sale & i was going through this one box and i found a little wooden cross. not just any old wooden cross...but an russian orthodox cross! with the 3 posts (or whatever they're called) i took it home. do any of you guys remember what the 3 lines meant? anyways, so it was 2 trips down a russian memory lane for me this week.
it's been good. so since i can't read anyone else's blogs for another month....what are you all up to?

2007-06-07T19:59:00.000-05:00

let's just get one thing straight.

that last post was NOT me. not one bit. hacker-crystal did it.

but while i'm on here...i may as well show you what i did tonight. i was helping my mom make roll kuchen (if you're not mennonite, you may not understand) and i got a little distracted. so i started making letter roll kuchen. normally they are big rectangles or triangles (like the one below) but i defied all laws of nature & formed K (for Kyla, a friend that's over) C (Crystal) and M (for Mel & Marge (or is it Mom?))

in other related news: i've renewed my love for switchfoot. they are just the funniest people & their music makes me smile. if you don't know them....well that's just too bad.

and in another related topic: just so everbody here knows: almost 2 weeks ago i started a 40 day fast with people of my chruch and people of the world. you can find out more info about it at this web page: www.fastandpray.com basically i'm staying away from all internet (except e-mail, updating my blog, and skype), movies, and tv. so i won't be reading anyone's blogs or myspace, etc. just so you guys all know. i'm still checking my e-mail so you can contact me there if you need to.

xoxox

2007-06-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

i wanna be a photographer...DO YOU THINK I CAN DO IT????

please...let me know.

5 bucks a shot. reasonable. i thought so.

umm

i love buddy, and mom, and everyone who made this post possible.

2007-05-22T14:54:00.001-05:00

*exhale*

i always have ideas of clever thing to write down here. but those ideas come when i'm not at the computer and then they leave the second i put my fingers to the keyboard. so, i have some random thoughts about things i want to update everyone on, but i don't know how to connect it all. so now is the time that we thank the Lord for bullet points.

i think i've told most people already...but for those i haven't: i've gotten involved again as a mentor with the youth group at my church & this summer (june 30-july 14) i'm going along with them to Vancouver for Mission Adventures! we've been getting together once a week for the last couple of months and it's so exciting! we'll be doing mainly street ministry while we're out there. the group of youth that are coming out are awesome! i'm so excited to be with them & learn with them. it's only 4 weeks away now. crazy how fast time closes in on itself.
on the work front: i'm back at solomon's porch! i've been working there since the beginning of this month every wednesday, friday and saturday. but most weeks i end up working more than just those days. this week i've worked monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday and saturday. i had forgotten how much i love working with books. although it can be crazy & gogogo (like this week) i sometimes like the crazy days, because then i can enjoy the relaxing days so much more.
last night i feel asleep on my back. why am i talking about this? i was laying on my back falling asleep (trying to) and suddenly i had this overwhelming memory of being back in my old room in Borgen. i think it's because while i was there i feel asleep on my back often (i believe this is because i was body pillow-less and so sleeping on my side was uncomfortable) so last night i'm laying there on my back & i could just imagine where Bex was asleep across from me, the desk by my head, Annika playing her music above us :), the sink dripping. everything. then i was thinking about my last evening there. i was packing up all of my stuff. it was 2am or sometime crazy and we had to leave at 5am. bex was asleep. and i was packing up all of my stuff. you know that feeling? like, knowing that you're leaving a place you love. and that you might not go back. hm, i hope this isn't getting depressing. but this is what i all felt while i was lying on my back trying to sleep last night. i miss you guys.
last week-end i went to my uncle and aunt's cabin with my family. my parents wanted to bring my dog along b/c she loves running wild. so, not wanting to deprive my dog of 3 days of bliss, i said sure. the one thing about this that i wasn't too sure was a little 4 letter word. tick. it's tick season. my worst enemy. so i consented to letting my dog run wild through tick infested territory. what was i thinking? anyways, so we brought her home & i half-heartily check her for ticks. didn't find nothing. or wait...i found nothing. didn't find anything. then last night steph and i were hanging out in the kitchen and i was rubbing Buddy's head. stop. what was that? i think i felt something....NOOOOO! a tick had hid itself under Buddy's head and had been happily sucking her blood all week long. *shudder* i had heard that it was bad to just pull ticks off b/c their head gets stuck, other bad organisms get release, you know, all that gross stuff. so steph looked online for what i was supposed to do. this is what it said
Remove the tick properly. Using sharp pointed tweezers, or specially made tick tweezers, grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, as close to its embedded mouthparts as you can. If you squeeze the body or head, you risk compressing the guts and salivary glands and expelling even more organisms through their mouth into your body. Do not twist the tick or turn the tweezers as you pull out the tick. Pull out straight with a slow, steady motion. Twisting may force more organisms into your body, and may result in the head or more of the mouthparts being left in your body.
Do not apply any substances to the tick before removing it - no alcohol or nail polish, no petroleum jelly or other ointments, and do not try to burn it out or otherwise convince to let go of you. It won't let go. It will just happily keep on sucking your blood and pumping pathogens into you.
grooooooss. i hate ticks. they are even more terrible than any other thing. they're little, sneaky, hard to kill, and they suck your blood to get fat. so i decided that there was no way i was going to be able to get buddy still enough to get tweezers near her head & slowly pull that sick thing off of her. no way. so i left it for the night & dreamt about ticks (that is not a joke...totally serious) in the morning i convinced my dad to help me with it. so my dad held buddy down while i went to the root of this problem...but we couldn't keep buddy still enough. SO, i called up the veterinarian & said "WHAT DO I DO?" they said pull it. just pull it. so i did. i got kleenex & grabbed on & pulled that puppy off of my puppy. to end this story i'll just say two words: dead. done. ok, i never want to talk about this again.
i am supposed to be in my room right now. it's calling my name. it's been doing that the last 2 months. just calling my name. a week after i got home from Norway i started redoing it. the combination of three things (me, my room, and redoing) may seem like a simple task....but i'm telling you: it is not! you see, my house is very old, and my room needs a lot of touch ups, then i come along with my perfectionistic ideals and try to get this room looking the way i want it to. it's a big job. for the first month of redoing it i'll admit i exercised procrastination like a crazy person...but this last month i just haven't had time. ever. ok, that's an exaggeration...but the precious time that i have had to my self i did not want to spend slaving over removing paint from my window sill. strange. but true. so i think it's time to go back now. i've wasted enough of my time doing other things, and this was my last resort.

i must go now. my mom is looking at me funny. yep, back to the room i go.

2007-05-14T18:04:00.000-05:00

it's someone special's birthday today!!!
CRYSTAL PYSTAL

speeeeecial :) i love you crystal. i have so much fun with you. you're such a joy to live with. i pray that God blesses you like crazy. especially now that you're the big TWO OH. it's crazy responsibility but i have full confidence in you. you'll be an awesome twenty year old.

yesterday in celebration of mother's day & crystal's birthday my family went to the park. so here are some pictures of my favorite people:

it's my mother's day!!

luke & i were listening to my iPod. he loves Toby Mac's beat :)

isaiah & crystal with their crazy faces

the shi-lar

joc, sherwood & ruth hanging loose

steph, isaiah & luke playing with "worms"....shiloh chowing down on some rollkuchen

2007-04-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

i here to put to test the saying "better late than never"

woofie and i (some time in '05)

three long days ago it was my beautiful big sister, ruth's birthday and i FAILED to make a post for her. ah, i should have known! Ruth (miss queen blogger) admitted to me that she was a little hurt by my failings. so, here i am, tonight, late at night, after a long day, taking the time to say:

RUTH RULES

i will ditto what steph said: thanks for praying me into this world :) and also for continuing to pray for me as i walk around on this world. everything you do, you do with a whole heart. you're a great big sister...even though the line of big sister/mother role has sometimes been crossed, i always appreciate your love and care. you're an extreme person and i love you extremely much. *MUAH* ;)

2007-04-09T10:19:00.000-05:00

i had written this big long post which i was going to entitle: "fear, adventure, and courage: the story of a power outage at 3 on a Sunday afternoon" but our computer FROZE moments before i was going to save it and i lost it all! i think everyone can relate to the frustrating feeling of loosing a post, or an e-mail. i've come to believe it is one of the most character-revealing tests of all times.
so i'm just going to start all over again. moving forward, no looking back! sorry, the story about our power going out is going to have to wait for another rainy day....it wasn't really that interesting. can be summed up in 2 words NO POWER. there. done.

so i'm going to start by thanking ruth, for the thinking blogger award. *snicker* i'm so honored.

so what now? i don't really know. i haven't been up to too many adventures this week. My mom and dad are gone...so i've been filling in the mother role of our household. :) of course, i couldn't do it with out the encouragement of my 2 big sisters (aka: my 2 other mothers) but today, all by myself, i made banana cream cheese cake, and now supper is in the oven just waiting for when crystal comes home at 5. oh JOY! maybe tomorrow i'll make pistachio!
on the job front there is nothing new. i haven't started looking actually. i've been doing a little here a little there, but nothing permanent. we'll see what happens there.
ok, i've got 5 minutes before crystal arrives and i have to warm up the beans!

xoxox
mel

2007-04-02T10:49:00.000-05:00

ok, so it's true. i've been avoiding this puppy the last week. and now the only reason that i'm posting now is because i'm avoiding the mess in my room. :) BUT, now that i'm here i'm happy. it just always takes the first push to get it started.

Ah, home life! so, for all you overseas peeps, i'm going to summarize for ya what i've been up to. my last week has been one of relaxation, hugs, and great food! i've realized that i really need to relearn how to do things on my 'time off'. like, during the dts, we'd had a schedule for everything, and then whenever we'd have time off, we would just lay around, chill, do NOTHING. but now, all the time i have is either hanging out with people or free time. and last week i did almost nothing during my free time!! it was nice for a week...but definitely not something i'm wanting to keep up! so this week is the test...the fact that i'm on the computer before 11am is already a sign that i'm not doing too good....but i'm updating my blog! that's work, right?

well, i guess i haven't talked about my flights home.....it was pretty uneventful. people don't talk to me in airports, i'm not sure if i look scary or what. but anyways, the funniest thing was waiting for my flight from frankfurt to toronto (and by the way, frankfurt airport wasn't as threatening as i was anticipating it to be) so i was waiting for the flight and looking at all of these people waiting for the same flight. and i couldn't believe it. so many of them looked SO Canadian! it was insane! and then everytime i saw a canadian flag on someones bag i was tempted to go up to them and ask them where in that beautiful country are they from.....but i would resist.

what was the first thing i did when i entered toronto? (of course after making my way across the toronto airport, through customs, picking up my luggage, dropping off my luggage, and finding my gate) i went to TIM HORTONS of course! ah, the double double is still so tasty.

it's the roll up the rim to win season and i was SO convinced that i was going to win something. i mean seriously, i've been out of the country for 7 months and i spend i first $1 something on their coffee....so OF COURSE i should win.............nope. i was crushed. i'll be honest, it hurt. but, i won't give up on Tim, never. he'll let me win one day.

and i think that's pretty much all, folks. questions, comments? well, i best get back to my room. PRAY for me! i'll need all the help i can get!

2007-03-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

hello young and old,
i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! for those of you who were wondering where i was: you can check out the link on the previous post. i haven't been posting on this blog because i was in charge of the team blog and really didn't feel like updating 2 blogs. *sigh* so this one suffered.
well, i am back in Norway! i've been at Borgen for the last week, busy graduating :) and now i'll be hanging around the base for one more week before i fly all the way home! i'm excited to be home again. to give hugs to those that need hugs. but for now it's 1:15am and i'm hoping to get some sleep now, i do regret that coffee at supper tonight......

to the Kehler's,
if you guys read this i just want you to know that i love you guys so much & i wish i could be at home right now to support you. i'm supporting you from Norway with my prayers. i love you.

2007-01-10T09:21:00.000-06:00

you guys can now check out our outreach blog for updates

borgendtsoutreach.blogspot.com

tusen takk!

2007-01-06T09:53:00.000-06:00

bonjour bijou! okay, i'm going to attempt to update you on the last 2 weeks. trrrrrry. with my leaking eye, running nose, sore throat, and tired body i might peter out near the end. ok, i'm just being dramatic now....my eye has actually stopped leaking.....but it was yesterday, HONEST!

here's a narrative of my vacation to the tropics of England.
So a trip that really only takes 4hrs of flying time ended up taking Bex and I 2 days. We left Borgen at 10am on the 22nd of December to drive down to Tromsø. Spent the day in Tromsø and then spent the night at Audhild's cute apartment (Audhild is a friend we met during the lecture phase when we had classes with the bible school in Tromsø) Bex and I were SO tired (explanation: because of the darkness our eternal clocks were a little messed & we hadn't been sleeping properly for approx 3 weeks) anyways, so we were tired and ready to go to bed at 6:30pm. We had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch our flight, so we crawled into our beds and waiting for sleep.....and waited and waited and waited......8hrs i waited, until 2am when my body finally decided to let me sleep! so we got up the morning of the 23rd, caught a bus, and were flying through the air by 7am. We arrived in Oslo at around 10ish and our next flight didn't leave until 8:30pm. so we caught a bus into the city of Oslo to meet up with Turid and Cherob for the day. We were SUPER excited to see the sun....here I am searching for it:

THERE SHE BE!!!! i don't think that anyone can fully understand how beautiful and lovely and important the sun is until you're away from it.

Bex sees the sun

I see the sun :)

Bex and I waiting for our train into Oslo. this is how i interpret the next couple of pictures:

"Mel, put the camera down."

"fine, then i'll just be cute."

"take this."

"and THIS"

train station in Oslo. ruffin' it

backpacker bex

and mel

an Oslo park

there's Cherob in the bottom right corner :)

So Cherob and Turid took us around the city of Oslo for the day and dropped us off at the airport a couple of hours before our flight was supposed to leave. It was a really tiring day, b/c of the lack of sleep earlier, but Bex and i prevailed! our flight down to London was supposed to leave at 8:30, but because of the fog issues in London in was postponed until about 10:30pm. so bex and i just hung out in the Oslo airport. took a short flight down to London and arrived there before midnight. we had to wait at the airport until the next morning when Eric's flight came in....SO, we wandered around a bit looking for a place to hide and sleep....almost all of the benches had people on them! it was crazy, finally we found an empty bench and settled in:

we didn't really want to ask anyone to take pictures of us....so you have to use your imagination and imagine these next two pictures together as one. we had 2 seats each :) comfy.

so after our LOVELY evening at Heathrow airport (actually, we were quite blessed, because of all the fog issues they were having they gave us blankets to sleep with, free sandwiches, and cookies) we met up with Bex's friends Mez and Ryan (whom we stayed with in Nottingham) at about 8am, then waited for Eric's flight. He came in, we drove out to Nottingham & then made PIZZA for Christmas eve! now THAT made me happy.

Christmas brunch Mez and Ryan made us a FEAST! So much good food, it was crazy!

We were in Nottingham from the 24-27. Over those days we slept in, and then spent the days relaxing & wandering a bit around Nottingham. like the time we ran into Robin Hood:

the view from our window

playing settlers! YES family, i played and didn't do too bad!

Bex and I...roomies

Nottingham at night

on the 27th we had to go to Birmingham to get Eric a new visa for Thailand. so Mez and Ryan lent us their car & Bex bravely and confidently (as you can see in the picture) drove us there. the Embassy was only open from 8-11:30am and b/c of car insurance issues we only left Nottingham by 9am. The drive was only supposed to take an hour......buuuuuuuuut we got a little lost and after a lot of searching we found the building and rushed in there 15minutes before they closed. the processing only took like 5minutes, so it all ended up good and Eric got his visa.

what my lap looked like on the drive there and back

WHERE IS THIS PLACE?????

after our adventure to Birmingham we came back to Nottingham and then caught a train down to London! here are some of the sites of london:

they don't like you feeding their birds alcohol

haha, ok, so that's Buckingham Palace and i look delirious

you can't see it too clearly...but it's a picture of a cross walk for horses.

LUKE BERGEN: we took this picture for YOU. can you find in it London??

the FRONT of Westminster Abby

sometimes Bex goes into fits of rage and then ends up in tears......ok, really her camera battery died and she was in mourning.

BIG BEN

the Tower of London

the new and the old

the London Bridge

Where's Waldo (aka where's bex?) piccadilly circus...INSANE

didn't want to waste a cent :)

Eric had an interesting convo with Sarah Michelle Gellar, she was kind of rude.

and i met Spider Man

it rained, it poured

Peter Pan!

there was a bag of coins behind the Peter Pan statue...we were confused by it, so we just left it.

Eric left the morning of the 31 & in the evening Bex and i met up with Mez and Ryan again, got dressed up and went to a ball for new years eve :)

we're afraid and intimidated

after the ball we spent another night at heathrow airport & left at 8:30am. we arrived in Oslo and look at little bex, no sleep and she still looks beautiful :)

ok, i'm so sick of working on this blog right now..kafsakljajfdkanvaewklfawjeflsdfasfa.....ok, ok, i'm OOOOOK!

anyways, so we took a train from Oslo down to the Grimerud base for a conference, we were reunited with everyone, i got to talk with other Canadians (Laura Hedlin for example :)) it was busy, but good. on the 5th we all flew back up to Tromsø . yesterday and today we've been getting ready for leaving tomorrow (got that?) and that sums it all up!!

this is what my room looks like right now:

a couple of us caught a bad cold, so if you guys could pray for quick recover, it's appreciated. tomorrow morning we're leaving at 9am for Kautokeino! woo! run run run!!

much love, mel

2006-12-28T16:08:00.000-06:00

hey hey hey!!! here's an update as promised! well....just to warn you, it's going to be a short one.
i've been having a blast with bex and eric in England. after a couple of sleepless nights we arrived in Nottingham on the 24 & ate PIZZA!! so although i was far from home on christmas eve, i still got a bit of the tradition in there :) right now we're in london, today we walked around, saw a bunch of sites, took a bunch of pictures. the next two days look the about the same. i'm going off to bed though......who knew walking around & taking pictures could be sooooo exhausting!
i love you all!! i'll make sure to post a more descriptive & pictureful post when i'm back in Borgen.

2006-12-16T05:58:00.000-06:00

it is quite official now. the lecture phase is done. today was the first day of my christmas holidays & i spent it the way any normal person would spend their first day. slept in, ate chocolate first thing, surfed the net, and then continued on with my day in that sort of manner. it was great. bonus was that it snowed some today! the snow hasn't been staying on the ground....but it's been quite cold the last couple of days, so i'm hoping that it will this time. in other news: it's dark. except for approx. 2hrs of each day where we enter a bit of a twilight zone...the rest of my day is dark. but we try to keep the lights on inside, so that helps :)

here are some pictures:

the faucet in our room drips...like every minute. drip drip drip drip drip. so Bex invented this nifty little device which allows the water to flow down instead of dripping, which then allows us to fall asleep at night.

Thursday night we got spoiled by God. it was 12:30am and Bex and I were about to go to bed when Lenneke came into our rooms & told us that there was some northern lights out. So bex and i grabbed our sweaters & went out into the cold. it was worth it, i'm telling you. i know that i'll never be able to explain in words or even show in pictures how amazing it was. it covered the entire sky & did some wild things! we even had shooting stars. 2hrs later we came back inside, ate some soup, talked a bit about our experiences during the lecture phase & then decided it was best to go to bed. here are some pictures from the northern lights show:
(you can click them to make them bigger)

the girlzHelen bought us a gingerbread house.....on Thursday night we worked together to put it all together

Lenneke wanting to be like our house
There's a christmas tree in our kitchen!
Bex is lovin' washing the pots

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

last night we had our Borgen christmas party. the girls got dolled up, the boys put on their suits & combed their hair and we had a party. Everyone from the base came our. First we ate supper together, then we had a little childrens program, then we took a break for the parents to put all of their kids to bed, & then we resumed our party. it was so relaxing & christmasy. we had a gift exchange, ate great Norwegian dessert, & sang christmas carols. We also had the people living in/around the base pray for us going on outreach. it was great.

and that's it! I hope that you are all enjoying your Christmas. much love :)

2006-12-09T18:41:00.000-06:00

it's another late saturday night, and i'm here to update :)
this week was our last week of lectures & tonight i created my journal for the very last time!
***sigh of relief, the heavens sing***
it's a strange feeling to be done this! next week we're going to be busy with outreach preparation, then i have a week to do absolutely nothing (although i'm sure i'll end up busy somehow), and then i'm going to London for a weekish with Bex and Eric, and then......drum roll.....OUTREACH!!

last night the the girls all went over to Ansku's house & had a sleepover. it was so much fun: we watched a movie, ate junk food, talked, laughed, and then slept a bit. this morning we stayed in bed until noon, then got out of bed to make ourselves brunch, ate the brunch, then some of them crawled back into bed, others read, and i web surfed. we did that until 5pm and then we slowly made our way back to the base. :) happy happy joy joy. it was a good day.

here a little story for you. it was thursday evening, it was getting late. but bex and melodie got very excited for some reason. why? well, it could have been because the next day was the last day of the lectures, it could have been because of the lack of sunlight, or it could have been that they are just strange. they didn't know what to do with their new found excitement. it was 11pm, too late to wake the others. so they decided to hop out of their window (in pjs and bare feet) and run around the building to the door. so that's what they did. they escaped from their room out of their window (like real rebels) and then giggled their way around the building. all of the commotion woke up dear lenneke.....so they pulled her in and did a round 2.

THE END

2006-12-02T17:10:00.000-06:00

hi everyone...well it's 1:30am on a saturday night and i'm awake waiting for my family to come onto skype so i can chat with them & see them on sherwood's new web cam :) eeeeeeee, i don't mind waiting :) thank you jocelyn (or isaiah and luke) for buying it for sherwood.....it's really the greatest gift ever! this afternoon i got to see sherwood, joc, isaiah & luke and afterwards i could not stop BEAMING! hehe, it really made my day :)

here are some pictures from this last week:

last week-end we got invited to hang out at a house where some of the staff from our base live....bex and i got very excited, and a bit nervous as you can see

bex and i acting strange & ansku laughing at us :)

wednesday night helen, lenneke, and cherob joined bex and myself in our room for a little chocolate cake/candle/girl time

helen and i mutilated our candles

anneke and me chillaxing after classes on friday

bex and her dream ring

last night i was working on my journal....it got a little late.......

and i was so happy after all of the work i had put into it...

tonight we had a pizza party, we all went into the kitchen together and made our own pizza and then watched the movie 'hitch' together....when the movie was over we came back into the kitchen to find the dishwasher was pouring water out of the bottom!! as you can see Bex was being a great help trying to find and fix the problem :)

2006-11-28T11:51:00.000-06:00

ok so i just had to tell you guys this: my work duty is helping Annika do kitchen stuff & today we went grocery shopping. guess what i found.....PERSIMMON

hmmm, this lovely fruit brings back such good memories :) israel, inuit, family and friends.

2006-11-26T10:04:00.000-06:00

i figured it was time for a little updatie. things are going well for me :) unless that is you take into consideration the fact that most of our snow has been blown away (leaving the ground very slippery) and the fact that today it was dark by 2pm. i do miss the snow & wish that the sun would stick around for longer....but those are things are are out of my control! bummer, eh? did you know that i only have 2 more weeks left of lectures left. two. one more time for those that missed me there: i only have 2 more weeks left of lectures left! my goodness, how did this go by so fast? isn't it strange how time works? like, for me it feels like i've been here for such a long time, but it also feels like it's just begun. i feel like i just saw all of you guys, but i also feel like i've been away from home for forever. i feel like my dts is almost over, but i'm really not even 1/2 done. yes, i do realize that i'm just babbling right now. but i just can't wrap my mind around time! ok, i'm going to stop thinking about that now. here are some pictures from the last 2 weeks.

Bea's birthday party, November 18:

Cherob

lovely Bex

hehe, do you guys see the similarity that i did?

lennekeBex and Annika

the food.....it was insane. i'm telling you!

leivur and markus

bex and me

lenneke and ansku

November 19
Helen thought it would be a good idea for us to play with her boomerang......which really was a great idea: bex threw it into a great big tree. :) i think i recall bex telling me several weeks ago that she missed climbing trees. what a perfect opportunity for her.

my neighbourhood

(this is my favorite mountain)

the group

friday lovely morning

hehe, oh joys

love you guys. i miss you and niverville.

2006-11-18T04:07:00.000-06:00

what do normal people do on friday nights again? i'm beginning to forget......

this is what we do at borgen

2006-11-18T03:47:00.000-06:00

over night i received 116 spam e-mails. one more time.....over night i received 116 spam e-mails.
i usually receive around 5 a day....but 116? what is that? this day has just begun :) muahahah

2006-11-10T13:34:00.000-06:00

wake up, wake up child
and see the day i have for you
everything's new
wake up, wake up child
i've been waiting for you to get out of bed
so we could take on the world
me and you, we can take on the world

i'm crazy dancing over you
and i just want you to know
i'm crazy singing my love
and i am so thrilled
thrilled to bits with you

get up, get up now
kick the darkness
kick it till the light bleeds through
i'm counting on you
we will see the light bleed through
i'm counting on you

*dan lyth "crazy dancing"

i'm back again! this time for good....well for good until december 23 when i leave for London. it's so good to be back at Borgenhome. i actually really enjoyed this last week in Tromso. it was nice to be in a city again. there were people! NORWEGIANS! hehe, we've only got one Norwegian on my dts....so, although i've been in Norway for 2.5 months, i haven't really experienced much of norway culture. it was good.
This week was probably one of my favorite weeks so far. i wasn't looking forward to it at all at the beginning of the week. i didn't really want to leave Borgen, i was afraid of being stretch, and i was tired. but i was so blessed and refreshed through this week. God is so good, so faithful! one jewel revelation i had is that God will never leave me. NEVER. i know it seems so elementary, but i had realized that my personal fear of being left by man (humans), was also a fear and lack of trust with God. but He won't leave me! never! He's not going to....you can't change my mind :)
ok, i need to get to sleep now. i love you homies

here are a couple of pictures from the week....

hanna banana

Bex

hehe, lenneke and i had a little photoshoot. our model/photographer chemistry is amazing it's HELEN again!

ok, she actually does have a face :) purdy person

2006-11-07T03:12:00.000-06:00

hey everyone just thought i'd give you all a quick little updatie :)

we're back in Tromsø this week & it has been really good so far. On sunday night we did a drama, dance and testimony at a church service, which went good. it was fun. tonight we're going to be leading a children's club. woooooooo hoo. partEY

anyways, i should get back to class. love you all!

2006-11-02T05:59:00.000-06:00

so blogger finally decided to work on my side and let me put up some pictures. here she be:

BURGER KING.....and hanna

Vince Esterman and his sketch board evangelism

people watching Vince on the left, Vince on the right

our bedroom....11 girls together forever(forever=6 nights)

hehe, we had a 2hr dance lesson which included some mirroring and hip hop.
me and lenneke showing off our talent of mirroring:)

Bex bought herself some nice, soft, pretty gloves & they loved my face

Sunday evening Lenneke, Bex, Cherob and myself went to a cafe for hot chocolate to just chillax....hence lenneke and bex chillaxing in this picture
and more chillaxing
UNTIL: a mighty light zapped Cherob in the head

and that's the only way to explain this picture

Bex got zapped too...

2006-11-01T12:07:00.001-06:00

hi to my faithful readers and to the sporadic visitors,

i'm got back from tromso last night! it was really good, nice to be in a city and close to shops. i got to eat at BURGER KING! AH, i love you dear whopper jr and i also got CHOCOLATE MILK....lovely! we were together with a small bible school learning about evangelism. and on thursday and friday we out out to the streets to practice some of what we were learning. SCARY, well, it actually ended up being pretty good. our teacher, vince esterman, is an evangelist from paris (well, originally from australia....) and his method of street evangelism is using a sketch board. so pretty much what we did was he would tell a story using his sketch board (see pictures below) and then us students would just listen until he finished his story then talk to the people who stopped to listen to his stories & give them invitations to church. 2 ladies that we met on the street came to church and accepted Christ into their lives! it was so cool, exciting and amazing to be a part of!

ok, so i just tried for the last 1/2hr to upload pictures and it's NOT WORKING!!! *shakes fist at computer* sorry peeps....but i will be back.

2006-10-24T09:28:00.000-05:00

PICTURES!!
HA, i bet you all didn't think i was actually going to fulfill my promise. DID YA! oh ye of little faith.
well, you're getting pictures, they're in absolutely no order & i haven't gotten to the descriptions yet...that will have to wait. i'm off to tromso in an hour. so you all back at home will have to feed off of these pictures until i return.
i forgot to say that while we were in finland i met santa! the REAL santa...or so the finnish people told me. we got a group picture taken there. hah, ah i wish i had a scanner so i could show you all my face. i look soooooo excited to be sitting next to santa.

getting ready to head off....can anyone find my bag?

annika and me

lenneke loves the camera

she also loves her new pink watch. because she loves pink.

cherob, cherob, cherob

me and jung im

cherob and me

finnish nature walk (bex's pictures)

umm, lenneke is in a cage?

be afraid...

bex and lenneke being cool on the arctic circle

IMSOCOOLIMONTHEARCTICCIRCLEIJUSTSATBYSANTA

lenneke and bex

the team on the arctic circle

...the arctic circle...

lenneke, cherob, and bex after a full day of shopping/santa visiting

they had this mirror ceiling...that we quite enjoyed

lenneke, bex and myself getting ready for a walk.

annika

they love each other

just checking to see if brown curls suited bex

we went a little crazy after being in the van together for so many hours...

just a little crazy...

the finland DTS and norway DTS UNITE

and now i just want to take this time to honor my leader, Helen Wilson. hi helen! she's fabulous. now that you all know what she looks like, you can wave at her if you pass her on the street.

2006-10-19T13:27:00.000-05:00

I’m back! Yes, shout for joy! Ok, I’m now going to attempt to update all of you people on the last couple of weeks.

FINLAND: We drove up to Finland on October 1 (8 hr drive) what did I do in Finland? Well besides eating tons of chocolate, learning how to knit and learning a bit of Finnish ( “minä olen Melodie Kanadasta”=”I am Melodie from Canada” “siunausta”=”Bless you!” “Jeesus rakastaa sinua”=”Jesus loves you” “älä sure poika”=”don’t worry boy” “kiitos”=”thank you” and our personal favorite was “sinä olet suuri pottu”=”you are a big potato”) we joined up with another DTS in Rovaniemi for 2 weeks of lectures. I’ll be honest….it was really hard for me the first while to be out there. It’s crazy how fast and easy it is to make yourself a comfort zone! Like seriously! Well, I got shoved out of the lovely comfort zone I had made for myself during the short 3 weeks that I had been in Borgen. I love that I’m paying them to do this to me. Hehe. but I’m really glad that we spent those 2 weeks in Finland. The lectures were great, I was maybe, kind-of, just a little bit sad to leave there! Being out there really made me appreciate Borgen so much more! I love this place and these people. (of course I could never write anything bad about them…seeing as they have all found this address J ha) jk jk jk jk jk jk(who am I?? who am I??) ok, I think it’s best to move on now.

So we drove back home from Finland on October 13, arrived at the base late in the night. We couldn’t sleep in our own room, b/c other’s were sleeping in them, so I spent the night on Hanna’s floor & then early Saturday morning we drove down to Tromsø. It’s 1.5hrs south of Borgen & we spent the week-end at a conference thingy. It was a really good experience. We left back for Borgen-home Sunday evening and after that I was pretty much exhausted. I’ve been trying to catch up on my sleep this week, last night I went to bed shortly after 9pm…it was so great.

Next week we’re going to be going down to Tromsø again for a little bit. I say a little bit b/c at the moment I can’t remember how long it is. Also I’m not too sure what the internet availability will be while I’m there. Just to warn you all: you may have to go without me once again. *sigh* I know it’s hard children, but just breathe. I will be back one day.

I don’t have my pictures uploaded onto my computer yet…but hopefully by this week-end I’ll have that done. Or maybe even tonight….you’ll just have to wait and see.

2006-09-29T06:38:00.000-05:00

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arctic norway & arctic russia!
wooo! bring it on!

that's pretty much all that i know about it right now...b/c that's all that they know! hehe, but yes, i'll keep you all updated.

pray for us! thanks

2006-09-28T15:01:00.000-05:00

hello again everyone!
i though i should just write a little update about my week. this week we've been learning about spiritual warfare through a video teaching by dean sherman. good 'ol dean. it's been really good! SO much information! everyday i'm just trying to take as many notes as possible so that i can go through it all later. it's hard to keep in all in my brain!

picture time:

this was last week some time. i think that there was two days where it was really cloudy, and the mountains looked really cool.

this is where i sleep at night...with pictures of my lovely family right by my head.

a couple of nights ago we got some northern lights! it was the first time they came out up here & they spread all accross the sky! they didn't move much.....but they were the kind that if you were driving your car, you'd have to get out at look. beautiful

we're heading off to finland to 2 weeks on sunday. it's kind of sad to be leaving the base. i really like it here, BUT it's pretty cool to be able to go to finland. i'm not complaining :)
and tomorrow i find out where we are going on outreach! AH, i'll keep you all updated! i'm so curious about what it is...i can hardly wait!

2006-09-24T07:57:00.000-05:00

week-end#3
guess what we woke up to this morning...SNOW! ya, september 24 and we have snow. well, it's not staying on the ground b/c the weather is still in the +s, but snow is indeed falling from the sky.

here are some more pictures. eat 'em up

lenneke, bex, & meself

playing hockey! ha, everyone thought that because i was a canadian i would be SOOO good at it. surprise, surprise....but i tried my best to give Canada a good name.

walking around the neighborhood.

bex becoming one with art

this is where i sleep.

first day of classes
me=adam

last night was geoff's 50th birthday bash and us students were volunteered to help prepare food & serve. so we decided to go all out and dressing up :)

a few of us
Cherob, Annika (staff), me, Leivur, Bex, Lenneke

we couldn't keep Cherob out of the chocolate. she owns the phrase "you can dress her up, but you can't take her out."

bex became quite vicious. do you see the fear?

raindeer meat...

an unsuspecting Hanna walked in on me and Lenneke just moments after we lost all sanity

and that is where the pictures from my evening ends! we ended up being in the kitchen until about 1am cleaning up! ha, it was a very good bonding experience :) i had fun.

2006-09-21T13:37:00.000-05:00

i remembered another cultural thing that everyone should know about...TERRY FOX! no one out here knows who he is! we were going for a walk and showing each other all of the different funny ways we would walk when we were little. (woah, look at the W i had going on there!) anyways, i was saying about how i used to always pretend that i was terry fox with the little 2 hop on one leg thing. you know? didn't every canadian kid pretend to be terry fox at one point? anyways....no one else in the world knows about our canadian hero. *sigh*

joke of the day: they have me helping out with worship...SINGING! ha, ptl they haven't put a microphone up to my mouth yet!

i don't think i've mentioned on here yet, but i'm going to Finland on october 2 & will be out there until the 15th! we're joining up with a ywam school out there and then they will be coming out here for one week. should be gooooooood. apparently it's a lot cheaper out there than it is in norway, so a bunch of the girls are so excited to go shopping. i won't deny it...i may be one of those girls.

2006-09-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

today was day 2 of lectures and i thought i'd say hello to everyone. HELLO.
i wanted to write a blog with a bunch of random things that i've learnt since coming out here, like cultural differences....but i can only remember a couple. so i'm going to try to remember them. hopefully they'll come back to me as i write:

nobody here knows what the word "mennonite" means. it's not the easiest thing to explain, if you've ever tried.....and believe me i have tried!
it snowed on the mountain that is right in front of me. yep, lots of it. they tell me though that it'll probably melt again before the real winter begins.
i've realized a couple of jokes that only canadians would understand...(ex. man wearing a purse=murse. like the mts commercials?anyone?)
we are losing 5 minutes of daylight every morning and evening! soon it will be black all of them time!
there are only 4 of us whose first language is english. for everyone else it's their 2 or 3, so sometimes we joke about them not understanding us & speak very bad english...i think that by the time i get home, i will not be speaking normal at all.
i now think with a new zealand/norwegian/something-not-canadian accent
lenneke is listening to superchick in the other room :) BIG BIG STAR MACHINE

i think that's it for tonight folks! i'm off to be creative and make meself a journal. any questions?

2006-09-17T06:31:00.000-05:00

i figured that when i have time, i may as well update. the week-end has been really nice. yesterday i was able to explore a little bit.....i didn't go too far. i walked along a path by the river which is right near our base. followed it until i got the the fjord and then just sat there for a little bit. it was a beautiful day yesterday....it was actually a little bit warm! *SHOCK*
yesterday i was also able to finish my first homework assignment.....a collage! i'd love it if that would be the homework every week! doubt it! here's some pictures of the beautiful Norway.

today will be pretty much the same, although i don't think i'll wander too far away from my room, seeing as it's back to cold and rainy weather. so i think i'm going to go and read.
i love you.

2006-09-15T12:29:00.000-05:00

so i'm back again with MORE pictures from arctic extreme!! for those who haven't read about it yet, go 2 posts back & read it!

credit goes to Øyvind Gustavsen for taking these pictures

Day 1: checking out the food we were given. i also forgot to mention that we were given whale meat (which was pretty goooood) and dried moose meat (which was so hard on the teeth!)

there were bees following us the whole time! i think that there were only 3 stings though. this is hanna

Hanna & annika (DTS staff)

obstacle #1: figuring out how to cross a bridge that was 3/4 underwater...

and slippery..geoff

helen

me, cherob & jung imbex, lenneke, cherob & myself
figuring out our tent

and it works!

day 2: taking a break while climbing the mountain.

on our way down the mountain

me and lenneke, a couple of times she lost her footing and slid into me, so i'd have to brace myself so we both didn't fall down! i'd look back every once and a while it if heard some rocks falling. good times :)

day 3: team building!

do i trust these people??

lenneke

meet the people i'm with:
students

bex(new zealand & also my roomie)

cherob (USA)

lenneke (holland)

staff

jung im
turid

Øyvind

helen

hanna

annika

geoff (canadian!)

our theme song was "just keep walking, just keep walking" (sung to the tune of "just keep swimming" from finding nemo)

crossing the river together
hanna, annika, lenneke, and me

getting ready for communion together

we survived!
they were trying to figure out a way to get more guys to come out here. ha, what better way than this?

2006-09-13T10:31:00.000-05:00

well, now that i've told you all about the arctic extreme, now i'll show it to you! if you haven't read my last post, maybe you should do that first.

these pictures were taken by Bex

this is the view from the base, where we started out.

me and cherob at 4am packing up our stuff. don't we look like we're having a blast?

this was cherob's drink she made and drank. it included coffee grinds, jello mix, and warm water......it pretty much tasted very gross.

me and jung im a little ways up the mountain! still smiling :)

mom, when i saw this, i thought that it was something that you would do

and we're at the top of the mountain! three cheers!! i don't having any pictures of us actually climbing, seeing as at many moments if we leaned a little too far backwards we would have just rolled right on down the mountain....to our DEATHS. but, ptl, that didn't happen to any of us! :)

view from the top

the top

this was on the way down....sliding, slowly climbing down. this was another area where we had to lean in towards the mountain and be very careful with our footing, or else we'd just fall all the way down!

sliding turned out to be a little bit easier! gave our legs a bit of a rest, but we'd have to watch out for big rocks that would go sliding down with us, make sure they didn't hit the person in front of us! i'm the one with the orange pack.

sliding, sliding, sliding.
lenneke, me, annika, and helen

after the hardest part going down the mountain! we're ALIVE....and i look retarded..

last day of arctic extreme! i'd sit down any chance i got!

walking through the wilderness.
lenneke and myself

this was right near the end. as you can see, i was having a little trouble walking straight.
lenneke, rebecca, and myself

so that's it for now folks! one other thing that i found out was that we walked 22km on that 4am-11:30pm day! please keep in mind that we were climbing mountains. yes, just respect me now.

2006-09-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

hello family, friends, etc.
i am indeed in norway! i left thursday afternoon...cried myself to the city & through the winnipeg airport :) but all of my flights were really good. i've been having a really good time out here. i'm missing everyone a lot....but it's good to be out here. this is basically what's going on:
right now there are only four girls as students here (Lenneke, Cherob, Rebecca) there's going to be one guy coming on the 18th of september(i think his name is leivur?lievur?hmm, i'll get back to you on that one) and possibly one more lady from russia(they're not sure if the money will come in for her)
so what have i been doing these last 5 days? hmm, well where do i begin?
ok, well on saturday we had most of our morning to get ready for our ARCTIC EXTREME. what is arctic extreme? i'll be honest, it's hard to explain....but basically just look at those two words: arctic & extreme. basically we had this list of things that we needed to pack & could not bring anything extra. no deodorant, no toothpaste....3 days. so at 11am on saturday we met outside and began out journey. honestly, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. the other girls and myself weren't worried at all about it, until some of the staff (who had just done their dts last year) gave us a couple of worried looks, and said a couple of things that made us think...ok, this is going to be difficult. so we get into some cars and drive about 20minutes away from our base. stop at the side of the road somewhere, load up our big backpack & start hiking. now, this wasn't like hiking accoss a manitoban wheat field...no, this was like in the middle of bush with lots of ups and down. there was us four girls and then 7 staff. each one of us four girls took out turn leading. basically geoff (Dts leader) would say:"you see that mountain over there, and that sharp peak at the top? ok, lead us in this direction." it was really hard, b/c sometimes you weren't able to see our 'guide point' and so we'd just try to walk as straight as possible. which wasn't always possible, b/c sometimes there were things in our way. anyways, it was a tiring first day. they gave us the food to make for ourselves (a couple of things include dried fish, fish balls , flour, oatmeal, potatoes, carrots) just so you all know, i did eat some of the dried fish....all though nobody touched the fish balls.gross. the first day was really tiring, i'm not sure exactly what time we stopped at....b/c we had our watches taken away from us. but we had enough sunlight to set up out tent. so we went to bed that night, but b/c i was still going through jet-lag i couldn't sleep for a very long time. then just before the sun came up we heard the wonderful sound of............anneka(dts staff) opening up our tent and saying "ok, girls, it's time to get up. you have 20 minutes to pack everything up, including your tent" AH! it was a mad panic to get everything together. but i think we were only 2 minutes late (which resulted in us having to do 10 sit ups for every minute we were late) they told us after that it was 4am when they got us up. lovely. so once we had everything packed up we started hiking again. it was along morning & we were all so tired. i wish that there was some way that i could describe it better....but i just can't. it was hard! finally we stopped somewhere & geoff told us we had 3 hrs off, to use our time wisely, and that it would be best if we set up our tent. so i was allowed to have one of the leaders watches so we knew when our 3hrs was up. it's was 8 or 9 when we stopped. after 3 hours we started up again...up up up up. as in up a mountain. ya, no joke, i climbed a real mountain. there were times when if anyone of us fell, we would just keep on rolling down. we went very slowly and carefully. there were loose rocks everywhere, so we had to be careful where we put our feet. at one point i just about fainted. i think it was a mixture of lack of food/water/sleep/energy/basically every good thing my body needs. but we sat down for a moment & i ate some raisins (which have never tasted so sweet) and water. the fainting feeling past & we continued up. it was really hard. we were struggling a lot with our attitudes on the way up. but we made it!
ok, i'm going to try to type fast now, it's midnight and i'm not to sure what i'm running on right now...
so we climbed up the mountain, down the mountain. were looking forward to our supper and sleep. we eat supper. it gets dark out. we all settle around the camp fire. hear a little message. i'm so ready to fall asleep. geoff says "you have 20 minutes to pack up all of you stuff" and panic erupts. ha, no actually i think that we did pretty good. but it was hard. so we walk in the dark for about 40 minutes (keep in mind i was exhausted and had no watch) had to solve a couple of problems...passed all of the problems. then we get to this one area and geoff tells us " ok, you guys stay here. we'll let you know when we're moving on. use your time wisely" *sigh* so we sit down for a bit and pray. then we look over and see them setting up their tent. we weren't too sure if it was a trick or something. but we figured, they climbed the mountain too, i'm sure they're just as tired as we are. so we found and area and set up our tent in the dark. thankfully we found out our skills at interpreting are great. and we did get to got to sleep. i think they said it was about 11:30pm at that time.
so that was my 4am to 11:30pm mountain hiking, forest searching day. the next morning they let us sleep in a little bit. 8am, they have big hearts. we started the day off with some team building games. you know, ones with blind folds, etc. we were all super sore and tired. but it was pretty fun. then we started the journey home. steep downhill way home. ummm, we also crossed a river...
then we made it back to the base at around 5pm. and the first thing everyone did was SHOWER! ah! try to imagine hiking for 3 days straight. my shirt was basically just pure sweat. it was gross, maybe you shouldn't imagine it.
so now i'm sitting in my bed, pushing my bed time back so i could fill you all in. be thankful! but yes, that was my arctic extreme. every muscle in my body aches, but i'm glad i did it.

i love you all so much! i have some pictures to post but it wasn't working right now....so i'll have to try again later.
miss you all! *muah*

2006-08-30T21:26:00.000-05:00

well folks. the count down is now at 8 days until i'm in Norway. so i figured that i'd make a new update.....well, of course the real reason that i'm updating is so that sherwood and ruth have something else to be themselves on. my poor "testing 1-2-3" post has been exhausted.

ok, so 8 more days! i'm super excited about it! a couple of weeks ago i was just feeling very nervous about going and was having a hard time being excited at all. but i'm happy to announce that i cannot wait to go on this next adventure. i'm excited about the people i'll meet, the places i'll see, and the things i'll learn.

it's kind of sad that this is my last week at work. i've been there for almost 2 years & it's strange to think that i may never work there again. but then on the flip side i'm excited to say that this is the last week i'm working. i'm always going back and forth...who knows how to figure out the mind of a 20 year old female??

2006-06-16T11:32:00.000-05:00

testing
1-2-3