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

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 :)

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 :)

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

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

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?

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

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.

*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.