catch up

Well, I'm still in Owen Sound for a few more days. Madly trying to get a pile of homework done before I go back to Calgary...
But in the midst of the homeworking I've fit in some other things. Like yesterday I went to the mall with my mom. Believe it or not, I haven't actually been to the mall yet this summer (I tried to go once, but it wasn't open yet), so I was surprised to discover a new store. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Owen Sound finally got a Le Chateau.
Also, last night my dad and I went golfing. I am, as expected, terrible, but it was still a lot of fun. My putting is really what killed me. I need to learn to put a lot more softly. Anyways, we got to see a sweet sunset on the way back from Chesley Lake, so that was lovely.
Today I'm going to finish up some more homework, and then Roz and I are going to the drive-in tonight. Even though we've already seen one of the movies that's playing. They didn't have very good options so far this summer. I think we're going to see Bourne and Hairspray. Yeah, weird combo, but we're switching screens in between movies cuz whatever's playing after Bourne and before Hairspray we didn't want to see.
Then tomorrow, I guess, I'll have to finish interviewing my couple for my marriage and family practicum. Plus finish whatever papers I don't finish today.
And then on Thursday...I'll head back home to Calgary.
ps, I love that I call this home, and that home. Everywhere and nowhere is my home. Or maybe I'm just in a nomadic stage. Anyways, that's the plan for the rest of the week, in case you cared, haha.

stylin'

So this morning when I got up it was overcast and grey, so I put on jeans.

Not accounting for the fact that, oh yeah, I'm in Ontario right now, which inevitably means: humidity.

So whatever, I'm lazy and stay in my jeans all day, not bothering to change.

This evening I just rolled up the pant legs.

Not like, multiple rolls a few inches wide with both legs even.

No, no.

Just one roll.

And kind of just let them fall down or stay or whatever they wanted to do.

The point was to expose my not-recently-shaved legs to air.

And it worked.

Only...I forgot how stylin' I was and went out to the grocery store to buy my brother pop and my mother bread (wow, that could be a really funny sentence if you didn't speak English as a first language) and wandered all around the store with my legs in the aforementioned state.

Totally didn't realize it until I was out of the store, and I had to laugh at myself :)

Smooth, stylin' Megs.

Yup, that's me.

adjustments

The thing I'm not quite used to yet about being back at my parents' is the time it takes to get anywhere in Owen Sound. I'm meeting a friend at 6 for dinner. At 5:45 I thought, "Oh, I need to get going!" and then shook my head at myself. I don't need to leave until 5:55. In Calgary I would have had to leave at least by 5:15. Ahh, the small town life. I love it! Of course, it is also beneficial that when I'm here I have access to a car...

quote of the night

"is that a guy? ... oh, no, it's a transformer"

ahh BethL, I love you :)

snapshots of friends

I am so blessed!

I have so many wonderful, wonderful friends.

The down-side of this fact is that they are all scattered around the globe, and I am so, so lonely in Calgary. Generally they are not in visiting distance, with some exceptions (like Nynke! who is visiting me in Calgary in September). But for the most part, the physical distance remains and we are forced to maintain our friendships on a technological basis.

Recently I have been able to see a lot of my friends again. One of the joys of coming back to Ontario is that many of my friends are a lot closer. Still not an easy distance, but much more accomodating than Calgary, for instance.

The other night Roz, BethL and I hung out at Roz's house. It was so good to spend time with these girls again, and share our hearts together. Even some tears, and no, it wasn't just me. I found that time to be so healing and very special. I am so blessed to have these wonderful friends with whom I can pick up where we left off. We've been friends for so many years, and it's amazing that we're still so close (when we have the chance). I would say that Roz definitely gets the prize among the three of us for keeping in touch, since she does physical things like cards in the mail. Quite impressive. But it's so nice to know that those life-lines are intact and available.

Yesterday I went to Nate and Jess's wedding. Left at 7:30 am and got there at 2. Unfortunately, their wedding started at 1, so I totally missed the whole thing. I was sitting at the border from 11:30 til 1:10. Brutal. I was really disappointed, BUT it didn't really matter because I got to see my friends again! I showed up when they were taking pictures, so I sneaked in and changed. Love that I showed up to their wedding in shorts. smooth.
Nate and I realized that we hadn't seen each other in over two years! And he is still one of my best friends. So cool.
I also got to see Collin again, which was great since I'm pretty sure we haven't talked at all since we last saw each other. Also at my table was Katie Radel, Missy Pukalo, Heather Potolsky, and Liz and her husband Pat, who I'd never met before. It was nice to catch up with everyone, even just briefly.

And of course, I got to see Peter and Jon (wow, I just realized I almost look like I'm not wearing anything in that pic with Jon)
and Holley.They are such great friends, and it's never long enough when I get to see them. Brief moments don't cut it...although they are precious and I am thankful for them. I just wish they could be longer.

I had to leave the reception early because Josh and I had planned on meeting in Niagara Falls at 6:30. I was an hour late (seemed to be my theme of the day) partially because I left Nate's wedding late, and partially because for some strange, unknown reason, people in upstate New York appear to enjoy driving below the speed limit. If it is 55, please, don't go 30! (that's like doing 50 in a 90 zone in km). It is painful, especially when I'm late. I don't usually get road rage, but I was very tempted to honk at the stupid drivers. Anyways, I eventually made it to Niagara and met Josh (and I still don't know how to hear the voicemails he left me. I'm so not a cell phone person at all) and so that was nice. Only I was still in my dress from the wedding, which made me super over dressed. Oh well. Made up for that by making a scary face...notice that my one eye is looking directly at the camera and only one is crossed. (Josh, I didn't put this up on facebook, just my blog, teehee)

Today I got to see Steve and Daryn at church, which is great cuz I haven't seen them in a while either! It's so crazy that Daryn's going to Yale. Smart kid I tell you. They both are...look out world! We took some random pictures outside and pretended to be a family. Steve and I are the parents, BethL and Daryn are supposed to be our children, and my brother is supposed to be our dog, but then I think Daryn wanted to be a dog as well. Whatever, it was random and weird and that makes me happy. And then we tried a bunch of times to get a good jumping pic, and we finally did! yay!

whoa, 2 days in a row!

Today for the holiday we went up to Gravenhurst to see Uncle Glenn and Aunt Leona, and Leanne and her kids. On the way we passed the pirate ship, which certainly seemed much larger when I was a child, and also Weber's, but we did not stop for a burger. Alas, I will have to wait another year.
Anyways, it was such a fun day since I have been kid-deprived for quite some time, and Emma Rose and Annie Sunshine are brilliant. We played "hide the marble" (a variation of "the penny game"), rack-o, and phase 10. Emma totally beat me at phase 10. And she's only going into gr. 4. I was quite impressed, even though I did help her quite a bit.
Annie is quite the cuddler and talker. I don't think I've ever heard a 4-year-old with such amazing verbal skills. And she is very assertive. She thought that Emma was making fun of her, so she asked me to ask Emma to stop, but I told her she should ask Emma herself and explain to her that she was being hurt by what Emma was saying. So she did. If I were her I totally just would have been mean back. Only more mean. So wow, having a 4 year old set me a good example :) impressive.
I'll have to visit them in Edmonton sometime this next year for sure.
We got my brother to play tag with us, only because he is so much bigger and faster than us we told him he had to walk with his feet directly in front of each other, toe to heel. Totally hilarious to watch by the way. I think he caught me because I was laughing too hard to move away. My bro is such a good sport, I totally love the guy.
Also, he sleeps in the car the same way I do. And dad. And his dad. With the head back and mouth wide open. We took pictures. mwahahaha. Actually, I totally can't laugh because I am genetically set up to look just as ridiculous myself.
Fun quote of the day:
"We're going for a walk at the wharf"
"Grandma, I didn't know you had a dwarf!"

update. caution: may be long

So....I haven't blogged in a while
I flew back to Ontario on Thursday...after a little unexpected and certainly unwanted adventure. See, as I was leaving to get in my cab to go to the airport, I was very careful to get my luggage out the door without the cat escaping. And then as I was slipping through the door, he got out. So I tried to coax him back into the house. As did the cab driver. And a random lady passing by. For 25 minutes. Finally I had to give up because my cab driver was still waiting (thankfully) and I needed to get to the airport. I'm still not sure if he made it back safely, because when I called when I got to my sister's Merissa didn't think he was back yet. I really hope he made it back, because even though I don't always like the guy very much, I still want him to be okay and also it would be really sad for Karyn if he's gone. (note to my housemates: please let me know if he's ok!)
Anyways, I made it to Kitchener airport, which adorably small. One terminal, on baggage carousel. I noticed that many many many houses have pools in their backyards. And walking off the plane reminded me why. Ahh, humidity! Anyways, I saw one of my campers at the airport (random) and I still haven't quite remembered her name which has been bugging me for a few days. If only I had labelled the backs of my pictures...oh wait, maybe I did! I'll check later.
Anyways, I went to Amelia and Curtis's for Thursday night and then on Friday Meil and I went shopping! Yay! And we got some really sweet deals. I mean, 3 shirts for $5...who can beat that? And the lady at Tim Hortons was super nice and gave us a ton of extra timbits.
After Curtis was done work we went up to Owen Sound, and even though I slept for much of the way (hey, you know me and long car rides) I still appreciated the familiar beauty for the time I was awake. It is definitely good to be home.
Saturday we spent the day at the beach. Oh man, the water was gorgeous! Seriously, perfect day. Well, it could have been hotter and slightly less windy (sand in the eyes is quite irritating) but it was bright and sunny and warm. Bubba and I decided it was similar weather to that day when we were at the beach in Marseilles (seriously not as nice a beach as Sauble, but whatever, it was France) and on one side of us were people in light hoodies and on the other side were the slightly overweight topless girls.
After the beach we rushed home to quickly shower off the dirt and then go see the Bourne Ultimatum for Steps' birthday. Even mom liked it *shocker* so that was great. Good thing we'd gotten tickets in the morning and arrived early...Since Owen Sound only has one movie theatre. And the drive-in, but I'm not a fan of their current selections, so Roz and I will have to go later.
Anyways...mom asked me to serve communion for Sunday morning since she was on the praise team and someone else had to do it with dad. That's certainly a way of welcoming me back to church! But I didn't really want to sit in the very front row the whole service and serve communion because I've never done it before at this church and I know I'm a member, but I'm not an elder or a spouse of an elder, although I am the daughter of my mom who is an elder, but anyways, I just didn't feel comfortable, so they got Terry Myland to do it instead. And since he was the one actually getting the plates to distribute to the other distributors, I was especially grateful he replaced my mom instead of me. Wow, this is a really pointless sidenote.
Back on track...church this morning was great.

sidenote (again, already, I know, I'm sorry): it's "put on a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" not the spirit of happiness. It's an exchange. The powerpoint was correct (check out Is. 61:3).

I felt really challenged by Kendall's sermon. He's been doing a series in Ecclesiastes (I think Rick Love would be pleased) using the illustration of the ostrich and the owl. I guess he's using them to tell a story each week, but the ostrich represents the sort of pessimistic majority of the book, and the owl is the wise interjections found throughout the book, and mostly at the end. Today's sermon was on work. Colossians 3:23-24 definitely convicted me. "Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ." I know that I've been feeling really unmotivated and burnt out and lazy lately, but I've also had the wrong focus. Definitely an area I need to work on...and not to worry, I have plenty of opportunity.
Ok. I think you're pretty much caught up now. We just chilled this afternoon and took some family photos. I taught my dad how to use his camera on the manual setting. Oh, and I had beige cake for my birthday for lunch and got a really sweet piano book.
Sorry that I've been so bad at blogging lately...maybe I'll get back into it? We shall see...