I can read again! May 8, 2008

I never thought that being able to read would be an issue.  Well, it has been for the past little while, and my brain seems to be waking up again and allowing me to focus.  I couldn’t even read fiction for the longest time.  I’ve been doing some reading during the last couple of days here in Kelowna, and it’s so soothing to my soul.  Reading and journalling are 2 things that usually bring me great joy and peace, and I think they’re coming back to me.  Brain is still a bit fuzzy, but this is progress people.

I also never knew that things like getting out of bed sometime before afternoon, showering, and eating could become a problem.  I’ve learned that over and over in the past months.  Don’t ever complain to me about how you might be eating too much…well at least not for a little while.  Sure, there needs to be a limit on what we consume, but having an appetite and being able to eat is a sign of health.  Something else I’ve learned is how I can push myself when I have to.  Over the last 2 months I’ve been working at an accounting firm - tax season - and I got out of bed simply because I HAD to.  That’s probably one of the things that kept me going…it could also be one of the things that nearly killed me.  Who’s to say.

Anyhoo, I CAN READ AGAIN!  Jackie is super excited about this.

I’m Alive People! May 6, 2008

Well, I have obviously been away from my blog for a while.  Life has taken a bit of a toll on me lately - or is it me who has taken a bit of a toll on me lately? - and with that comes a brain dead Jackie who can’t even put a sentence together.  I think I’m coming out of one of the darkest stages of my life to date.  WOO!  Don’t want to get too excited or anything…I am cautiously excited and filled with hope.  I ALMOST even feel like myself again.  So if anyone actually stops by here at all anymore, HI :)  My intentions to get the blog fired up again are good.  Now let’s hope these intentions translate into action this time.

December 26, 2007

A friend emailed me this link to check out, and so I did: www.adventconspiracy.org

I love it.  The idea of making Christmas about Jesus instead of consumerism…doesn’t seem like a crazy idea to me, but a lot of people would likely get grumpy about it.  I love giving gifts, and yes, I do love getting gifts…does that make me greedy?   Maybe it doesn’t have to be a no-gift-situation.  There must be something in between.   Every year on November 1st I start getting angry…Halloween over, and then all of a sudden it’s Christmas stuff.  Go shopping, Christmas music.  Go to Walmart, Christmas decorations everywhere.  Can’t stand it.  I love giving gifts, but not the obligatory gifts - know what I mean?  Giving gifts is truly a blessing to me, so I don’t think I would do away with all of them.  Yet if I just said to my family or Greg’s family - hey, how about we do this advent conspiracy thing this year? - there would potentially be a lot of freak outs.  And I’m not sure I could see my church getting on board.  So what do we do?  It’s easy at this point to say - next year will be different - but I don’t feel super optimistic about that happening.  I would love to find a middle ground on this stuff.  If anyone out there has found the middle ground, I’d be interested in hearing about it!

Merry Christmas December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas to all of my faithful readers! This last month has been busy for me…probably for everyone…but Jackie’s brain is fried. There’s the whole Christmas thing to get ready for.  But what’s killing me is school.  I’ve been working on this exegesis paper and I’m learning that a counselling student probably shouldn’t pick this paper to do when she takes a theology class. I’m so sick of my counselling-type papers that I thought I’d try something new. I really have found that I enjoy the theology classes, and exegeting (still not sure if that’s a word) is actually really interesting to me. But I could have taken the easy road and just did a case study type paper instead. But nooooo had to try something new. So the stuff for this class is due on Jan. 7th. That’s a bad time to have a class due with Christmas all in between and everything.

Parents have been up since Friday night. I think/hope they go home tomorrow morning. That might sound like a terrible thing for me to say for those of you who live for family visiting. I love a one evening visit and then no more parents. This staying over for night after night gets a bit stressful for me. Don’t get me wrong, my parents are great. If they lived in the city we’d always be visiting with them, I’m sure of it. We have had some good times over the weekend, though, and now with Rhonda being part of the family it is even better. (Finally have a girl to hang out with besides my mom!) Jackie is just done with hosting right now…the introvert needs to recover!

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you’re all having a great time with people you want to be with!!

Well that was weird… December 6, 2007

Weird on so many levels.  Had a conversation today with my brother’s girlfriend…oh wait fiance!  Ya, little brother is engaged as of Nov. 25.  That’s the first weird thing…not weird bad, just weird like - whoa my little brother is gettin’ married.  Second weird thing…she was wondering if I could call the church to find out about all of the wedding things.  They wanna get married in my church, which is where they apparently want to start going regularly.  Third weird thing…I was like, well, COOL but in my mind I was wondering if there’s even anyone around there to marry people anymore!  Ya, so much more weirdness, but it’s all good weird if ya know what I mean.

Grad Application December 3, 2007

Ok, I’m sitting here staring at my grad application and trying not to freak out.  Needed a good distraction…what better thing to do than blog?!  Last time I tried to graduate (last year) I had the biggest meltdown of my life, and I’ve been recovering from that for a verrrrry long time.  So now here I sit face to face with my grad application for this year.  I’ve left it WAY too long…didn’t want to face all of the crap that comes immediately after you fill out the application.  Like “what date can you come and do your oral comprehensive exam?” “when are you getting your grad picture taken?” (oh ya - got that taken last year….uuuuugh) “are you coming to the ceremony?” “here’s the list of dates that everything is due or you don’t graduate.”  Can I do it this year?  Will I graduate?  Well, if I don’t AGAIN I’m gonna feel really great about myself.  I know I will…ok, I hate saying that because that’s what I thought last year too…this is the point where I get irrational.  What if I don’t this year???  What if I can’t do it again??  I know I know, “I will.”  Freaks me out people…freaks me out.   Well, here I go…fillin’ out the application.  WOO HOO!!

Christmas gifts November 23, 2007

I’m lookin’ for some great websites for doing some Christmas shopping online.  Any suggestions?  The ones I’ve been to that I love are airmilesshops.ca, crateandbarrel.com, thestockingstufferstore.com, www.thehungersite.com….ya, there’s so many.  Still looking for more.  Any ideas?

November 23, 2007

Kelowna has been great.  So much relaxation it’s ridiculous.  The weird thing here is that it starts getting dark at like 3:30pm (they’re 2 hours behind us), but it starts getting light at like 6:30am.  Weird hey?  Ya, so I’ve got a couple more days here and they’ll be great, I can just tell.  And then it’s back to reality…I much prefer the Kelowna unreality :)  Poor Greg…stuck at home looking after reality without me.

Goin’ to Kelowna November 19, 2007

I’m just sitting in the Calgary Airport right now…on my way to Kelowna!! For my 30th birthday Jacqui sacrificed many airmiles and some cash to give me a trip to see her. So here I go! I don’t know why, but it seems like on my way there I always have a 2-3 hour wait at the Calgary Airport, which sucks. Oh well, life could definitely be worse!  However, it is somewhat torturous watching all the happy people going to Cuba and Mexico walk around with their fake tans and flip flops.  Nothing like a hot holiday.

House Church? November 16, 2007

Every Sunday morning at 10:00 cars start pulling up to a house across the street.  The people getting out of the cars are all dressed up.  Then, an hour later, people get back into their cars and drive away.  The same thing happens on Wednesday evenings.  I totally think these people have a house church happening.  I wonder if they’d mind if I just showed up one Sunday morning in my church duds and invited myself to their church.  This has been going on for the 4 years that we’ve lived in this house, and it’s totally intriguing to me.  One time Greg actually thought that some guy in a car was stalking us one Sunday morning, so he knocked on the guy’s window to see what he was doing.  The guy was reading his Bible waiting for church!  How do these people keep this thing going, and what do they do over there?  Maybe this Sunday I’ll spy…