Word.

I do actually have things to say, but if I’m being completley honest, I really can’t be bothered to muster up coherent words tonight.   Life has been BIZZAY the past few weeks.  That’s to be expected considering it’s September, and in the youth ministry world, that translates into one heckuva busy month.  

So, hopefully in the next few days I’ll get some of the latest and greatest in my life down on this blog, but until then, I thought I’d leave you with a few quick  tidbits just to whet the ol’ appetite. 

1. As I eluded to in a previous post, we probably have to move again.  Trust me, there will be more on this, as I have several thoughts to vent, whine about, discuss in a mature, calm fashion.   (let’s just say there will probably be several REALLY??’s included…)
2. I may have stooped to a new low today when (because of aforementioned move) I had to shove all our dirty dishes in a shopping bag and hide it in our storage room because people were coming to see the place.  I know. Housewife of the year over here.
3. I kind of like the show Glee.  Like really.  I may or may not have watched the scene where the glee club sings Gold Digger several times.  I like to think I’m channelling my inner gangsta.  You know, the white, middle class, female gangsta.
4. Last weekend, on a whim, Ben and I called up our sr. high students and invited them over for a chill night. Without any prompting on my part, their activity of choice was to watch episodes of The Office.  They make me so proud.   Now if only we can get them quoting Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy, our work here will be done.
5. In the past week, Ben and I have bought 8 tires.  Have you ever really stopped to think about buying tires?  That’s like $1000 dollars worth of tires yo.  Up until 6 days ago, I kind of just took for granted that tires existed on cars.  That was before my entire life savings was spent buying new ones. Eight of them.  Awesome.  I can think of at least 12 other things I’d like to do with $1000.  One of which can be found here.
6. For a friend’s bachelorette party this past weekend we went and played Laser Tag.  Because there was only 6 of us, they grouped us with a large group of high school students for our round.  The girls from that group begged the guy on staff to let us play boys vs. girls, and because he too, was a high school student, the sway of 8 girls was too much . So, that’s what we did.  Us 6 adults, joining forces with these other 8 girls planning our assault on the boys.  I believe their primary strategy was as follows:  “*giggle*, let’s kick them in the crotch and then we can shoot them, *giggle*” Nice.  Well, we definitely destroyed the boys (And to the best of my knowledge no crotch kicking ensued…)  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I may or may not have come in first on my team. And second overall.  That means I only lost to 1 pubescent teenage male. I think that’s worth noting, don’t you?

And considering there’s really no better way to end a blog post then the words “pubescent teenage male” (think of the google searches that will bring), I guess I’m finished here.   

Peace out.  (see, I’m 1/2 way to gangsta already)

Another Genius Idea, Brought to You By Christy and Karmyn

To cap off a great weekend, Ben and I spent some time with two of our bests, James and Christy. 

(Side note: am I suddenly 16 again? Apparently I am, since I decided to describe 2 of our friends as my “bests”.  I might as well go the whole nine yards and add the ol’ “ies” on the end of that one.  And while I’m at it, I should check with my parental units and see if I’m even allowed to be on the computer this late.  Excuse me while I go take a quiz measuring my fashion I.Q.)

So, as I was saying, we were hanging out with James and Christy, enjoying dinner, games, and as per the usual, lots of laughing.  We were catching up on our lives and got on the topic of house buying.  I actually have lots of legit thoughts on this topic, none of which will make their way into this blog. (perhaps another one, in the near future). What we DID talk about however, was how flipping expensive houses are in the area we live in.  Ben and I happen to live in one of the richest cities in Canada (trust me, we don’t exactly contribute to maintaining that status), which means that the chances of us owning a home here are slim to none.  We’re cool with that – we don’t really need a house yet – but sometimes, just for fun I’ll still peruse MLS just to see what’s out there.

As we talked about the fact that the house where Ben and I live (we rent the basement) is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $600,000, and how the house where we now live is soon going up for sale (that is ALSO a blog post in itself, because yes, we most likely have to move…again..for the third time in a year…don’t EVEN get me started), we all got talking about how the four of us should just pool our money and buy the house together.  You know, that would only be a mere $300 000 per couple.  (HA!). 

Since this idea is entirely laughable, we got thinking about how we could begin to afford it, and my previous blog post came up.  The one about 21 ways to earn $100.  Well, Christy and I decided we could just adopt that idea, but change it just a bit.  So….we would like to introduce to you:

600 Ways to Earn $1000.

Eh??? eh??

When you say it that way, it actually sounds feasible right? And really, that’s only 300 ways per couple.  So really, Ben and I only need to concentrate on earning $1000 for three hundred days of the year – leaving us 65 days to just shoot the breeze.   Sounds like a plan right?  I know. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this one YEARS ago.

We also may or may not have crunched some numbers to figure out exactly how many pop cans we’d have to collect to earn our six hundred grand that way.  Just trust me when I say it would be A. LOT.

So, if you feel so inclined, you can help us out if you like.  I’d either suggest letting us know any and all ideas of how we can earn $1000 per day, or start drinking lots of pop. It’s up to you, really.

Dear Internet, this is where you come in.

Well, it’s currently 1:37 am, and as you can see, I’m definitely not sleeping.  This isn’t a rare occurrence, which you may know, if you’ve been kicking around this blog long enough.  At the best of times, my brain doesn’t shut down, and unless I am really beyond exhuasted tired, I can’t just lay my head down and fall asleep.  Usually, it requires reading of some sorts, sometimes I’ll watch an episode of  My Name is Earl on my Mp3 player, or, if I’m really desperate (which means Ben is still awake and has vetoed the light being on, and my MP3 player is dead), I’ll just lay there and try my darndest to FALL ASLEEP ALREADY.

Anyway – this post isn’t actually about my sleeping habits, although I did feel the need to justify why I’m still awake at 1:37 am on a Wednesday night when clearly, I need to work in the morning.  I’ve been on a particularly rough streak of being awake the past week, and I think I can only chalk it up to one thing: the youth ministry season has now officially begun.  Yes, it’s that time of year again, when youth programs kick back into high gear and my life becomes full of meetings, good talks with students over iced capps, events, bible studies, planning, and reconnecting.  I LOVE IT.  But, it does mean, that for a good few weeks I have resigned myself to the fact that I won’t be sleeping as much. 

As tired as I was tonight trudging off to bed, the minute my head hit the pillow, it started swirling with my to-do’s for tomorrow, ideas for our kick-off this weekend, who I need to try and meet up with, more planning, booking things, etc, Etc, ET-freaking-CETERA.  (Someone out there PLEASE tell me you can kind of, sort of, on some sort of level understand what the heck I’m talking about).

So, anyway -there I go with the second digression of this post…(umm, can you tell it’s 1:49 in the am? yes, that’s right, it’s taken me 12 minutes to write 2 paragraphs).  So, as I was laying in bed a while ago, I was thinking about the upcoming missions trip our sr. highs are going to be taking this March Break.  We’re going to be heading down to the Dominican Republic to do some work at a school for underprivileged kids.  I’m very, very pumped about this trip, and what it all entails. I’m sure there will be more on this as the year goes on, my thoughts on the trip, all that we need to do to get ready, my thoughts on short-term missions in general, etc, so I’ll save my ramblings for those posts. But the reason I’m now 454 words into a blog post at 1:52 in the morning is because I need your help. 

As I was laying in bed thinking about the planning for this trip, I started thinking about the fundraising we’ll need to do.  The cost of the trip is $2100/person, and so, although we’ll be doing group fundraising, there will be an expectation of each student to raise some on their own.  I want to encourage and equip them the best way possible to take this on and thought it would be fun to come up with a “21 ways to earn $100″ list for them.  I think when you say a number like $2100 to a 15 yr. old, that can seem intimidating. But if I can give them 21 ideas on how to earn/raise $100, well, personally, I think that’s do-able.  (for example: Find 10 items that you don’t use anymore: movies, books, clothes, etc, and sell them on Kijiji for $10 each) 

Here’s the problem.  I currently have 8.  EIGHT.  That is not twenty-one. Not even close.  So, I’m asking you. What’s 1 way to raise $100??   I would love to hear your feedback on this! If 13 of you each leave 1 comment, well, then I’ll have enough.  (See what I did there? eh? EH? doesn’t seem like such a hard task now does it?)  

Now, it’s no secret that I average about 2 comments per post.  I’m ok with that.  I’m not in this blog world for the comments. (don’t get me wrong they’re nice, and I appreciate them when I get them)  But, see, that doesn’t really help me out here on this one.  So…here’s where I put out the shameless plug to comment.  I don’t care if you’ve been blog-stalking me for a year and you found me through some random word search on google. (I know you’re out there “ghetto butt” and “pumped puss”….although I’m sorry that you were directed to my blog, because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t what you were looking for) I also don’t care if you linked to me through someone’s blog and you don’t know me.  (Trust me, I’m totally down with with the blog-linkage…)  It would be great if you’d leave your 2 cents about earning $100.  (Get creative!)

Well, it’s now 2:08, and I’m thinking about giving the ol’ “heading to bed” another try.  For your sake, I hope I succeed, otherwise, who knows what I’ll be asking you for next.

We Really Needed Groceries OK?

A few weeks ago, after Ben and I had returned from our canoe trip, we realized we had ZERO groceries in the house.  Now, you might think zero is an exaggeration, but I would beg to differ.  Unless you can tell me what sort of meal we could create with the following ingredients: Vegetable oil, icing sugar, jam, and 1 piece of freezer-burned fishstick.  (On a side note: Does anyone want to come for dinner? We make wicked awesome food around here).  

Anyway, as I was saying, because of our comings and goings this summer, we didn’t eat at home a lot, thus the lack of groceries, and as we returned, we knew we needed to remedy the situation ASAP.  So, that night, around oh, I don’t know, 11:30, I trucked my rear end over to the nearby Sobey’s (nothing like 24 hour grocery stores…am I right people?) to get us some grub.  This was a hefty shop.  The kind where you fill your cart to the brim with all the things you need.  We knew we had a few larger dinner parties coming up, so there were boxes upon boxes of hamburgers, bags and bags of buns, and not to mention all the other things we needed to re-stock our fridge. 

Now, at this point, I must acknowledge, that usually, people who are out shopping at 11:30 at night are usually on a specific “Crap-I-forgot-to-get-milk-for-tomorrow” kind of mission . You know, the kind where they get one or two specific items, and just want to whip in and out as fast as possible.  Their spouse might even be sitting in the car with it running as they jet around the store.  (You might be able to see where this is going…) I finish my shopping and pull up to the sole cashier working that late.  There’s no one around but her and I and we being to make pleasant conversation as I load up the conveyor belt with stacks and stacks of food.  As I’m putting my last few items on the counter, I hear a voice behind me ask  (even though he was pretty sure he knew what the answer was going to be), Ma’am, are you the only register open right now?” And I turn to see a man standing there with nothing more than a loaf of bread in his hands.  I start to feel a bit guilty, wondering if I should let him go ahead of what I’m sure will be a 20 minute ordeal at the register…but as I debate this thought in my head, I look once again behind me, and apparently, at this precise moment, every.single.customer in the store is ready to make their purchase.  All of the sudden there was a line up of 9 people, all holding nothing more than 2 or 3 items, curving around the magazine rack, down through aisle 4, waiting. FOR ME.  

All of the sudden, it hits me.  I’m THAT person.  The one who doesn’t get the unspoken rules of grocery shopping.  The one who I’m sure everyone was grumbling about under their breath, thinking “who does this person think she is? Can’t she get her life organized enough to not have to do this at 12:15am? Doesn’t she realize I left my car running in the parking lot?”  (At this point, I have to confess, that I actually don’t know what they were thinking….but I’m pretty sure if I were them, that’s what I would be thinking…)

Oy, what a feeling.  So, I do what any self-respecting person would do.  I turned around (after frantically beginning to help the cashier bag my items) and just acknowledge it.  I say to everyone “well…looks like I’m THAT person.  Who does their entire grocery shop at midnight anway?”.  Everyone enjoyed a good chuckle, and I think I maybe, just maybe, I avoided being pelted with nine separate grocery items.  Crisis. Averted.

The catch up post, where I try and cram in all the events I’ve done recently, so I can get rid of the guilt of not posting for a while off my back.

Well, once again, it’s been a while.  Perhaps I should stop pointing out the obvious and start blogging more eh?  Now that the summer’s over, I’m off my self-proclaimed blogging break, and the posts should start being more frequent…probably not more interesting, but 1 out of 2 isn’t bad.

I think the reason the posts have been few and far between is that I feel like they would all say the same thing: Wow..this summer has been busy…I can’t believe it’s almost over…we’ve been so busy doing stuff, I can’t believe it’s already September….

See how boring that would get?  Even in that one sentence I said the same thing four times.   But let’s move away from excuses, shall we, and get onto bigger and better things.  

The past few weeks have, in true fashion, been busy.  This weekend marks the first weekend since July 4th that I’ve been home, and I’ll be honest when I say I don’t quite know what to do with myself.  The weekend following the canoe trip (which was briefly mentioned in my last post), we headed to Whitby for a dear friend’s wedding.  Ash and I have been friends for a long time, and it was so great to be a part of her day, and catch up with old friends who I rarely get to see.  

Because of my job, we had to leave that night and come back home (which, I love…don’t get me wrong, but in cases like this, sometimes I wish I didn’t have to leave a (really  fun!) wedding at 12:30 am, drive for an hour and then get up at a ridiculously early hour to go set up at church), and then later that Sunday we had a group of friends over from our old church in Hamilton.  It’s a group that formed over time, but now, although we don’t all get to cross paths that often, try and get together a few times a year for what can only be described as shenanagins.  We may all be approaching 30 (some of us are closer than others), but there seems to be unofficial permission to act like 12 year olds when we all get together, and we usually end up laughing hysterically. This particular time, we ended up at a local park, playing “Frisbee 500″ (much like 500 up of your childhood – you know that game – the one where someone hucks a baseball high in the air and gives it a point value…and if you catch it, you get the points).  We came home sweaty, full of grass stains and a little sorer than any of us would have liked.  But man was it fun. (And I really can’t even try to explain what’s happening in the picture below…)

The weekend after that, we headed to a small beach town to meet up with some more dear friends.  I’ve blogged about them before, but Sheena, Julia and I go way back.  Back in May, the three of us (and our spouses) carved out some time in our all equally busy summers to make sure we could hang out.  The earliest weekend that worked was this past one.  We rented a beach cottage and spent the weekend playing games, eating ridiculous amounts of food, walking around town, and getting to know our honourary nephew Kai.  (Phil and Sheena’s kid).

Because of my job (which, I love…don’t get me wrong…) we again, left late Saturday night, so we could be back for Sunday.  Later that Sunday, we had another great group of friends over, this  time, our old gang from Redeemer.  Much like the weekend before, we busted out the BBQ and had a great time hosting people who we don’t get to see as often.   

And now here we are.  Long weekend ahead of us, and no big plans.  Sometimes I think that means I should try harder to be connecting with people.  Any inch of free time leaves me thinking “am I doing something wrong? Are there people I’m neglecting that I should be calling?”….but then I look over a post like this and realize how ridiculously blessed I am by the people in my life.  Ben and I have people surrounding us that we are privileged to call friends (and family!), and as I think back over my busy, full, summer, I have to marvel at all that we did, and all those we got to see.   I hope community is something that you, too, get to experience on a regular basis.

 

Well, there you have it. I can now mentally get myself over the hump of thinking “I can’t blog…I don’t even know where to start”.  Having subjected you to far too much detail of my summer has been cathartic…so thanks for wading through a bunch of stories and pictures of people you probably don’t  know.  Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!