Lovely Hawaiin Song

On Christmas day our family went to a luau (with the roast whole pig and everything!) On the way there, we had an "escort" who entertained us on the bus ride and boy was he absolutely hilarious!! I wish I could have videotaped all his jokes, but he was just pulling them off the top of his head like nothing! When we passed other buses from the luau, he told the driver to turn on the lights, and for us to bounce up and down in our seats so it looked like we were having lots of fun haha. Then he said if any of them pass us and try to do the same, we'll turn on the lights and wave the other direction because nobody has fun when no one notices :) it was a great bus ride haha. Anyways, He taught all of us this song:

Just Hang Loose
And Just Have Fun
Sippin' on a drink,
Lyin' in the sun
Don't try to fight it
It ain't no use
Cause when you're in Hawaii
You should just hang loose

That song was then stuck in our head the rest of the hawaiin trip, but it was fun! :)

O Canada!!

We are home!! We flew in to Edmonton today at around 12:30 in the afternoon. It has been nothing but smooth flights. all of our flights were on time this time, and we received all of our baggage. It was so great. We left Honolulu last night at 10 pm ( 1 am alberta time) and arrived in Seattle at 5 am (6 am Alberta time) then we had a five hour layover. It was really great!! The vacation was wonderful, the trip home was wonderful, and everything just worked out!! I'll be sure to put pictures up sometime. I just don't know when! Hopefully before I go to GP this weekend! I'll try my hardest!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Finally arrived!!!

I'm writing this in on the 6th floor of our hotel room in lovely Oahu Hawaii!! It's so beautiful here and warm and relaxing. Tomorrow we're going to Hanauma bay to go snorkelling and swimming all day! I'm so excited. I would love to put a few pictures up, but i'm on my dad's laptop which doesn't have photoshop so it is unable to process my pictures. The reason I'm writing this post today is to tell you the story of our wonderful adventure on trying our very hardest to make it to Hawaii.
It started on saturday the 20th. We left our home in Edmonton around 10:30 because our flight left edmonton at around 1:20. So we arrived, checked our baggage and whatnot, then flew to seattle at about 1:30. All seemed to be going really well and everyone was so excited! We made it there a little late (around 2:30) but we werent worried because our flight to Honolulu didn't leave until 5:30. We happened to land in Seattle during a snowstorm (which is very strange for Seattle) but we figured nothing of it because we've seen MUCH worse and it was in fact snowing in Edmonton when we left. So we hung around, played some games and had something to eat. We kept making sure our plane was leaving at the right time, but found that it wasn't supposed to take off until an hour later (6:30) We thought whatever, we'll just arrive in honolulu round midnight. Oh how wrong we were. They boarded all of us passengers onto the plane, and we ended up sitting on the plane at the gate for 5 hours!!!! You could tell seattle obviously never got snow because they had I think three snow removal trucks out on the runways trying to clear it, and only 2 de-icing trucks! It was a disaster!! We got de-iced about 2 hours after we had been in the plane (we were waiting in line for de-icing) but then we had to wait to take off (which ended up being another 2 hours. By then, our de-icing had worn off so we needed to get de-iced again. This time we actually made it to the runway. We were getting excited thinking we were finally going to be able to take off, but our hopes were dashed when the pilot announced that the runways weren't clear and we were going to have to cancel the flight for that night. Everyone left the plane extremely grouchy. They also promised us a flight the next morning at about 11:30. So we thought we'd just get a hotel room and come back in the morning. But to our dismay, when we called, we couldn't get a hotel room. So we ended up staying in the "comfy" airport overnight. It was so cold and we had to sleep on the floor. We found out our flight was cancelled at midnight, so we'd already been there for 10 hours. And now we had to stay another twelve until our flight.

That was one of the longest nights I've ever had, and I think any of us were lucky to get 3 hours of sleep. We all woke up around 6 or 7 and just waited around, had breakfast and kept watching the board for our flight. Come nine o'clock, my dad happened to find out that the company we were flying with, actually used our plane to fly people to minneapolis only about an hour earlier! We were so mad because we would have been able to fly out the night before (It wasn't a very bad snowstorm at all, and planes take off in canada in that weather all the time, i'll show you pictures) So now we were going to miss a full day and a half of our time here. We ended up paying for a hotel room and car rental we didn't use, and were facing another night in the airport. After that, the company put us (along with 240 other angry passengers) on standby for their plane leaving at 5:30 (which was already fully booked) We pretty much gave up hope on that flight because there were 240 people who were supposed to leave the night before trying to get on that plane. My dad called his travel agent and asked her if there were any more options (where we wouldn't have to pay) and she ended up setting us up with another flight that landed on a different hawaiin island, but had a connecting flight to honolulu. We transferred our tickets and went through security again just in time to make it to the next gate. We had an hour left before we were supposed to board, and low and behold, they cancelled our flight yet again because the airport (rather the company) ran out of de-icer. We were so exausted and angry, and hopeless, that we were deciding to just head back to Edmonton and have christmas at home. So we walked back to the Northwest gate (the company we were originally trying to fly with) and were going to see about cancelling our tickets and transferring to an edmonton flight. While we were there we noticed that there was a plane flying to honolulu around 5:30. So my dad decided to try one more time, and if that didn't work out, we were going to fly home. We were able to board that plane (on stand by) because there were empty seats. and we actually were able to fly out of there around 10:30 seattle time (11:30 alberta time) We arrived in Honolulu at about 3 am Hawaiin time (7 am alberta time) and went to get our bags. Oh, I should also mention that when we went to transfer our tickets to that other airline, we went to get our bags and found out they already sent them to honolulu. So we arrived in honolulu to get our bags, and were told that 4 of them weren't there!! we were so frustrated and exhausted and we'd already been in our clothes for three days, so we just wanted to get to our hotel to rest. We sent out a mising baggage description and asked if they could send them on the next flight out. (That was early monday morning) and we just received our baggage finally this morning!!!!

It was an exhausting and such a frustrating trip, but we are so thankful to be here safe and fine. We aren't happy with the airline service along with 240 othe people (If you'd seen how not bad the weather was, you'd understand) but we're just laughing it off now, and calling it an adventure! We've been touring around lots, and in fact, Marlys can barely walk now because of all of our touring. We have yet to go swimming in the ocean but that is tomorrow's day! I miss all of you and hope to talk to you soon! Have a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I realize there is still five days until Christmas, but I am leaving for Hawaii today. SO since I will be gone for the best day of the year, I want to wish you all a Wonderful Christmas, filled with family and friends. Stay safe, eat lots of turkey, and just have a great time. I also ask that you remember why we celebrate this each year. It's a reminder of what God has given us and we need to celebrate the freedom and redemption and wonderful gift that was sent to us at this time--Jesus! So have a blessed Christmas, I miss all of you back home, hope to see you all in the new year! Love you all!

Kari

Banana Slush - one of our Christmas tradition recipes.

4 cups sugar
6 c. water
5 mashed bananas
1 lge. can pineapple juice
1 lge can orange juice (or 12 oz. frozen orange juice)
2 tsp. lemon juice (or 12 oz. frozen lemonade)

Boil sugar and water 5 minutes and cool. Mix remaining ingredients together. Freeze the containers. Fill glass 1/3 full with slush and fill up with gingerale or lemon lime. To create a fine texture, whip it up in the blender.

We usually serve it with gingerale and split the mix into two ice cream pails. Makes for a delicious slush!! Try it sometime :)

Cookbook quotes!

My mom has this little cookbook that I used for the first time (Making our traditional Christmas slush...recipe to follow) and I was reading through it while I was waiting for the sugar water to boil. There's some really neat things in there! Allow me to type a few tidbits.

"God never asks about our ability or our inability but about our availability."

"The Crown of the Home is Godliness. The beauty of the home is order. The glory of the home is hospitality. The blessing of the home is contentment. 'As for me and my house, we will Serve the Lord!'"

My Kitchen Prayer
"Man shall not live by bread alone
Our Lord and Master said,
But by the living Word of God,
Our souls must needs be fed.

So as I cook and serve the meals,
I will sincerely pray.
That I shall give, along with food,
Some Christ-like love today.

Now as I clear the meal away,
and wash the pots and pans,
Dear God, please cleanse my thoughts and heart
with thine own loving hands.

Man shall not live by bread alone,
So we do pray, dear Lord,
'Please make us very hungry
For a knowledge of thy Word.'"

A funny :)

Hazards of baking - By a young mother

Turn on oven to heat, get bowl, spoons, ingredients; grease pan, crack nuts, remove 18 blocks and 7 toy cars from kitchen table. Measure two cups of flour, get baking powder, remove Johnny's hands from flour; wash flour off Johnny. Put flour, baking powder and salt into sifter, get dust pan--brush up pieces of bowl Johnny knocked onto floor. Get another bowl. Answer door bell. Return to kitchen. Remove Johnny's hands from bowl, Wash shortening, etc. off him. Get one egg; answer the telephone. Return. Clean egg off floor and remove 1/4 inch salt from pan. Slap Johnny's hands; take greased pan and empty out layer of nutshells. Pick up pieces of bowl, pulled off by Johnny as he fled. Look for Johnny. Put Johnny to bed for nap. Wash kitchen floor. Wash table. Wash walls. Wash dishes. Call bakery. Lie down

"There's so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us."

"I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

"One who has light views of sin will never have great thoughts about God."

"The woman who drives from the back seat is no worse than the man that cooks from the kitchen table." :)

"Lord, bless the food on these dishes as you blessed the loaves and the fishes; and as the sugar hides in the tea So let us hide in thee, Amen!"


There's so many other cute and funny and good quotes in there. Those are just a few of my faves :)

All finished school and ready to Say Aloha!

I officially finished my first semester on Friday. exams and all! Overall I think I did pretty well on the exams. I got 74% on the Image processing one of photography and 84% on the design exam. As for the other 2, I have yet to hear back about my marks, and wait anxiously and hope I did well! Not too much else has been new I guess. On this past saturday, a group of us classmates had a movie night at Brendan's and had a potluck supper. It was lots of fun! We watched "The Dark Knight" in high definition! I didn't think Batman could get much better than that, but I was wrong :P And that ended the semester off really nice. Now everybody is spread their different ways for our month off! So awesome. Right now, we're just getting packed and ready for Hawaii which is only 3 days away! Yesterday we went shopping to pick up some needed ods and ends. I'm bringing my camera with me to hawaii so I needed to get a really nice soft case that can hold all my lenses and is light enough to take on as carryon, and I've been successful! It fit three of my four lenses and accessories and it still only weighed 9 pounds. So that'll be nice. I'll have room for a book or my MP3 player to keep me entertained on the 6 hour flight haha :) Marlys, Terry, Kyle and baby are coming on friday morning. It's going to be so great to have the whole day with them before we fly off. Grandma and Grandpa are coming to house sit for us the week that we're gone, so they'll be here friday. Mom and I have a games evening planned out for friday night and we're going to make a bunch of snacks for the evening, including the oh so delicious lefse (a potato pancake and you spread butter and sugar onto it and roll it up. It's norwegian) but other than that life has been pretty normal.
There's also been a crazy thing happen just down the road last week. On thursday last week, there was a murder suicide in a house just a couple houses down from us. It was pretty scary and really heartbreaking, especially so close to Christmas. We're praying for the family and everything. We definitely weren't expecting something like that in a small town.

Baby Bellies and Happiness!!

Here is my glowing beautiful sister and the first picture of her baby belly! I got so excited when I saw it! Isn't she just too cute??We are anxiously awaiting the baby, and in fact, Mom and I just finished quilting the baby quilt last night!!

Update on Grandpa!

Grandpa had his next appointment yesterday and had nothing but good news! The Doctor believes he got everything out the first time so that's a huge praise! They're going to keep an eye on it yet just in case he miscalculated but so far so good!

Inches away from Dog Burger

This morning started out nice. I woke up and had a nice breakfast and took my time getting ready for school, made myself some tea and what not and headed out the door. It was dark out because it was only about 7:30 so I turned on my headlights and headed down the road. all of a sudden I saw a brown flash a couple feet in front of my car. This bloodhound (by the looks of it) was sniffing a trail in the middle of the road in pitch black. I swerved as hard as I could and missed the dog by inches. I bet his head was about an inch from scraping the side of my car. That woke me up in a hurry (I was paying attention by the way :P) and my legs proceeded to turn to jelly. Luckily Ol' yeller lived to see another day, and hopefully ran his way home after her heard the loud honk from my car!

Another Trip to GP

Once again, it was wonderful! So much fun, and much too short. This time my mom came with me and it was so nice! We had a good time together and good time visiting. Chili and pie night went really well, and I was even able to sing with the band again! So awesome! Thanks guys :) That was just too great. We sang "Singing with the Saints" and it turned out pretty good despite not rehearsing. But before that, they sang young love, and then did Johnny B. Goode and they were so amazing! Mr. K did the kick across the stage while playing guitar!! It was so funny and I couldn't stop giggling throughout the whole song :) I also may have found a job while I was up. I went to Watson's foto source and asked if they were interested in hiring a student over the summer, and the lady working said they probably would be and that I should send my resume in as soon as possible because they often hire help over Christmas and summer. So that's my next task (next to studying for next weeks exams and all my projects this week.) Hopefully it all works out. I think it would lots of fun to work at Watson's. Anyways, I have critique now, so I am going to scoot across the hall, and hear about my picture.

2 weeks left and 7 projects to go...

Yeah crazy I know! 2 weeks left until Christmas break and we get handed 7 new projects. 5 of which came on the same day. And now I have four projects due next friday, one due next wednesday, and two due on the 12, oh and then an english project due on the 10th! Yikes!! The crunch is coming. oh and then studying on top of that for finals! All the stuff that has been covered this semester will be on the test because we haven't had any tests yet. We only get one test (per class) a semester. So they are going to be doozy's!!
I've also been staying at school late this week. Yesterday I was at school from 8 am to 6 pm. It was a long day! and then today I was there from 9-4 so it wasn't as long, but it still makes for a very tiring day. We have a print sale tomorrow and friday that we have been getting prepared for, so it's been two very busy days of printing, mounting and matting prints, as well as organizing and labelling and everything that goes along with that! Whew! But, I am definitely looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend back in GP. That should be really great and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone and also going to Chili and pie night! Hurray! I'll have to try and get some pictures from chili and pie night to put up here because it's sure to be another fun evening.
Every year Webster does a talent show night where the men and the women bring chili and pies and there is a competition. So they start with the talent show, and then half way through they break for chili, which is judged and put into different categories. Then we have pie which is also judged in different categories. And then the talent show continues on! Last year the men brought the chili and the women brought the pies. This year they're switching it. Should make for an interesting night! I'm curious to see what kinds of chili's the women come up with, and the creative genius of the men and their pies.

Cancer strikes again...

For those of you who don't know, Cancer runs on both side of my family. My Grandpa B has had cancer 3 or 4 times and has it yet again. He just had a lump removed from his lip last week and just got the test results back yesterday and they were positive. They aren't sure what they can do for it yet so my Grandparents are going back in a couple weeks for more tests. It's going to be extremely difficult this time because my grandpa is now in his late 80s and has had quite his share of bouts with cancer. I just pray he'll make it through this. We'll just have to wait and see. So please if you ever think of it, say a quick prayer for my grandpa. We'd appreciate it!

For the Bolgers

Today in photoshop, we were learning how to put pictures in a grid pattern for a project we have due on friday. I got a little bit sick of using his pictures that he takes over the weekend and wanted to use my own. I needed nine picture of the same type of subject, and I happened to have the pictures of Kenna and Brooks on my USB drive. SO I made this grid for you guys! If you want it of course, and if you want any changes, let me know and I can change it for you! I can also send a higher quality one. I had to lessen the quality to put it on here! Hope you enjoy!

Thank you all so much!!

Praise God! I was able to get my hard drive fixed with no loss of information!! After recieving my hard drive back yesterday night, I immediately went home and backed up all my pictures onto my computer. Phew, never doing that again! Thanks for you prayers. I'm so totally relieved!

Bad Bad day....

Probably one of the worst things that could happen to a photographer is having their hard drive crash on them. Guess what happened to me today? Yep, my hard drive crashed. It wouldn't be so bad if I had been smart enough to write my pictures to CD and store them in other places, but apparently I procrastinate. Oh boy. Hard lesson to learn. All the pictures I have taken over the past year are on that hard drive including my Bridgestone picture that I worked endless hours on trying to get it just right. If it doesn't start working or if I can't get it fixed by next week, I can kiss entering the contest goodbye. I'm so frustrated right now and hope that I can find my futureshop receipt from a couple of months ago so I can take it in to get fixed so they can hopefully restore it and I won't lose all my pictures. Please pray that it would work. I know praying for a hard drive to work sounds strange, but I really need it to work again. Luckily I got one print off of it before it crashed so I still get a mark for it at least. But it printed kind of pinky and I need to fix some things. oh well...whatever happens happens. It is just so frustrating sometimes....

Congrats to Brent and Chantelle!

I haven't written a formal congratulations to them yet. I did know about her being pregnant quite awhile ago, but it just seems so much more real and more exciting now that she's past that three month mark and able to share it with the world!! So congrats you two! hopefully baby Brent doesn't cause you too much extra pain (especially the fractured ribs he caused his mother :P) We'll wish for that to not happen a second time, and hopefully you start to feel better pretty soon! I wish you all the best in raising the little one, and I'm sure you two are going to make fine parents! Can't wait to see it in May and formally welcome it to the world!! 6 months to go lady! :D

Remembering Today

I hope everyone remembered the significance of the day today. Let's never forget.

Hilarious Comedian!

Ok, So funny! My parents bought this guys DVD from a Laugh for Life seminar they went to this past weekend, and I didn't stop laughing! my throat hurt from laughing so hard. He's a christian guy named Tim Hawkins. Anyways, here's some clips from www.Godtube.com and there's more at his website www.timhawkins.net. Enjoy!!

Scary Bedtime Prayer


Hedge of Protection


Moms


So hilarious. Check out his song "Cletus take the reel." It's a spoof of Carrie Underwood's Jesus take the Wheel. Hilarious!!

At Long Last, I emerge Victorious!

Oh boy! I'm finally editing my biggest project yet. Every year Bridgestone/Firestone Canada ( a tire company) has a competition for all student enrolled in a photographic type secondary education course. We have to take a picture of a bridgestone tire in a setting that is beyond natural. So I finally finished mine. I have a chance (small chance anyways) to win up to 4500 dollars. So we'll see how it turns out!

Here we have the original:
Here is the edited version I'm going to enter!

So I really need to thank my brother for posing like that when there was weather in the negatives not including windchill. Finally all done, and ready to go. Only took about 12-13 hours of editing haha. Hopefully that'll speed up once I learn my way around photoshop :)

After a weekend of wonderful chaos...

comes a complete loneliness and solitude. Quite a jump to make all in half an hour. But hey, the weekend I had, was well worth all the dead quiet around here now. The weekend started off with a surprise visit from my best friends. Logan, Davis, Kaden, Gaelan, Aerylin and Heather all came and surprised me for the November 8th weekend! For those of you who don't know, Logan, Davis, Kaden and a couple others of us "started" (originally founded by Brent and Jared I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong) a wings night every 8th of the month. But with me being moved away, I am unable to really participate in the celebrations. So awhile back we had planned to have a wings night here in Edmonton this month, but then Logan told me that he had to work this weekend, so I planned on a quiet evening at home with my parents. But lo and behold, come about 7:30 friday night, I heard the doorbell ring, and I opened the door to the most welcome sight I've had in a long time. It made me so happy! We played games and just had a wonderful evening and all of us didn't end up going to sleep until 1 in the morning. It was great!! The next few days were equally exhilarating and I hated to see them all leave this afternoon. I tell you though, the time I spend with them now seems to be a whole lot more cherished than before. Not that I took it for granted before, but now I know what I miss out on when I'm not around and I miss it more than anything in the world. I guess we'll just have to do it as often as possible over the next years to come!

Happy Birthday Logan!

Happy 18th Birthday!!
18 today! wow!! You're finally the same age as me...for another two months haha. I'll always be your elder, but someday you'll be able to rub that in my face! When We're both 79, you can make fun of me for being 80 sooner than you will be. So I guess I better enjoy this while it lasts :P Anyways, I hope you had a great day, hope you did something exciting, rather than just count bottles, and I hope you heard some exciting news (congrats by the way :) I wish I could have been there to celebrate the day with you, but I trust you did a fine job anyways. Have a good night, eat lots of cake, and just have a good time! I miss you lots!

Kari

Baby nephew/niece!

The very first pictures of my niece or nephew! Apparently its very active!! :D Praise God for a healthy baby thus far!

This is the cute little face...

And this is the cute little leg, and cute little feet!

I actually read a whole book...

That's right, from cover to cover. And It only took me about an hour yesterday morning...and three straight hours last night. What can I say? It was an absolutely incredible book and a very, very good read. It's challenged my faith in ways I don't think it's ever been challenged. And just to cure your curiosity, the book is called "Left to Tell" written by Immaculee Ilibagiza. It's her real life account of surviving the Rwandan genocide in early 1994. One million Rwandans perished at the hands of their own friends and neighbors because of tribal jealousy/hatred. I have never been able to read a book like that where it's kept my interest and focus on the story the whole time. What this woman goes through and all the stories of others she encounters is heart breaking. This woman suffered through 3 months in a tiny concealed bathroom with seven other women cramped in there. She heard exactly what happened to her brother when he was brutally murdered and saw the evil and hatred burning out of the murderer's own eyes. The most amazing part of this story is how her faith in God stays so unbelievably strong through this whole ordeal. I can only imagine what my own faith would be like after enduring all that. It was amazing to see all the ways God answered her prayers, how he blinded the enemy when she was right in front of them and all that happened. Incredible! I just wanted to cry with Joy and sorrow at the same time reading this book. There's one part in the book I'm going to type for all of you to read because it is so beautiful and amazing. It might be long, but bear with me, it's worth the read!!

"I arrived at the prison late in the afternoon and was greeted by Semana, the new burgomaster of Kibuye. Semana had been a teacher before the genocide, as well as a colleague and good friend of my dad's - he was like an uncle to me. Four of his six children had been killed in the slaughter, and I told him he must have faith that his little ones were with God.
'I can see how much the world has change; the children now comfort the parents,' he replied sadly.
As burgomaster, Semana was a powerful politician in charge of arresting and detaining the killers who had terrorized our area. He'd interrogated hundreds of Interahamwe [the organization of people killing the Rwandans] and knew better than anyone which killers had murdered whom and he knew why I'd come to see him.
'Do you want to meet the leader of the gang that killed your mother and Damascene?'
'Yes sir, I do.'
I watched through Semana's office window as he crossed the courtyard to the prison cell and then returned, shoving the disheveled, limping old man in front of him. I jumped up with a start as they approached, recognizing the man instantly. His name was Felicien, and he was a successful Hutu [the tribe that was killing the other tribe, the Tutsi's] businessman whose children I'd played with in primary school. He'd been a tall, handsome man who always wore expensive suits and had impeccable manners. I shivered, remembering that it had been his voice I'd heard calling out my name when the killers searched for me at the Pastor's. Felicien had hunted me.
Semana pushed Felicien into the office, and he stumbled onto his knees. When he looked up from the floor and saw that I was the one who was waiting for him, the color drained from his face. He quickly shifted his gaze and stared at the floor.
'Stand up Killer!' Semana shouted. 'Stand up and explain to this girl why her family is dead. Explain to her why you murdered her mother and butchered her brother. Get up, I said! Get up and tell her!'
Semana screamed even louder, but the battered man remained hunched and kneeling, too embarrassed to stand and face me.
His dirty clothing hung from his emaciated frame in tatters. His skin was sallow, bruised and broken; and his eyes were filmed and crusted. His once handsome face was hidden behind a filthy, matted beard; and his bare feet were covered in open, running sores.
I wept at the sight of his suffering. Felicien had let the devil enter his heard, and the evil had ruined his life like a cancer in his soul. He was now the victim of his victims, destined to live in torment and regret. I was overwhelmed with pity for the man.
'He looted your parent's home and robbed your family's plantation, Immaculee. We found your dad's farm machinery at his house, didn't we?' Semana yelled at Felicien. ' After he killed Rose and Damascene, he kept looking for you...he wanted you dead so he could take over your property. Didn't you pig?' Semana shouted again.
I flinched, letting out an involuntary gasp. Semana looked at me, stunned by my reaction and confused by the tears streaming down my face. He grabbed Felicien by the shirt collar and hauled him to his feet. 'What do you have to say to her? What do you have to say to Immaculee?'
Felicien was sobbing. I could feel his shame. He looked up at me for only a moment, but our eyes met. I reached out, touched his hands lightly, and quietly said what I'd come to say.
'I forgive you.'
My heart eased immediately, and I saw the tension release in Felicien's shoulders before Semana pushed him out the door and into the courtyard. Two soldiers yanked Felicien up by his armpits and dragged him back to his cell. When Semana returned he was furious.
'What was that all about Immaculee? That was the man who murdered your family. I brought him to you to question...to spit on if you wanted to. But you forgave him! How could you do that? Why did you forgive him?'
I answered him with the truth: 'Forgiveness is all I have to offer.' "

Those are the last two pages of the book, but how wonderful. What an incredible message and lesson to learn. I can't imagine what I would be like in this situation. But God completely sustained Immaculee and kept her faith strong through this whole ordeal. God is amazing! Praise God for who he is and his incredible love!

Just a Note...

Just a quick update as what's been going on. I haven't written anything about what's new in awhile, so here goes! Shouldn't take too long as I have no life :P haha just joking
Well, These past two weeks have been unbelievably busy. I've had six assignments due within ten days, and only having the four days to work on them. I'm happy to say though that I was able to finish my assignments that are due this week today. that was a huge relief! Now I'm able to kind of relax and plan ahead for the upcoming weeks with multiple, MULTIPLE assignments due. I'm hoping to get at least three done this weekend. We're going to My sister's place in Medicine Hat for the weekend. I'm getting one done there called "When I grow Up" and hopefully I'm going to be wearing Marlys's wedding dress and looking in the mirror. Then I have one with a bridgestone tire where we have to take a picture of a bridgestone tire showing it's dedication and commitment to the community, safety, and another topic, but I can't really remember. Anyways, I want to do a shot of a gladiator from a low angle, and he'll br crouching with his spear, and the tire will be his sheild. Then I want to photoshop it to look like a scene out of the movie 300. Hopefully that'll work, and hopefully my brother will be willing to get into a gladiator suit. Anyways, this shot is for a contest for Bridgestone and I have the chance to win up to 3000 dollars! First place is 1500, 2nd place is 1000, 3rd place is 500 (that's just for each school) and then the winner of all the schools gets 3000 dollars. so we'll see how that turns out!
Like I said before we're also going to visit Marlys and Terry and Kyle this weekend. I'm super excited to see them and it should be such a great weekend!
Tomorrow night I might also go back to the bible study one more time to determine whether or not it's a good idea to keep going. I haven't given it a second chance yet.
I know this whole post is pretty scrambled and rushed, but I don't have a specific thing to write about haha, and I'm tired and want to go to bed! Just a note to say hi to all of you out there reading this! Miss all you at home, and hope all is well!

This day...

Beautiful song by Jadon Lavik. Wish I could have found the audio for you guys, so beautiful!

This day two lives become one
This day a new journey has begun
Our hearts full of lasting love
Brought together by the hand above

To share a life that draws us closer
To the one that we live for

And I will give you my heart
And all of who I am
And I will give more than vows
And words could ever say
Yes I’ll give you my all on this day
On this day

On the cross his love was shown
And this love will build our home
Standing now in front of you
We profess a love we know is true

To share a life that draws us closer
To the one that we live for

And I will give you my heart
And all of who I am
And I will give more than vows
And words could ever say
Yes I’ll give you my all on this day
And I’ll give you my all on this day

And I will give you my heart
And all of who I am
And I will give more than vows
And words could ever say
Yes I’ll give you my all (on this day)

And I will give you my heart
And all of who I am
And I will give more than vows
And words could ever say
Yes I’ll give you my all on this day
And I’ll give you my all on this day

On this day, on this day

Trip back to Grande Prairie

You bet! Best weekend ever and it came and went so fast! I realized that it would be possible to go home for the weekend about 2 days before I wanted to leave. Thanksgiving was cancelled in Red Deer at my Aunt's (which wasn't a good thing) But upon realizing that, I was excited to know that I would be able to go back to Grande Prairie! How awesome! So I packed up my things, phoned a couple people and made my way home! The drive went really well, went slow on the way there and fast on the way back. I just had a very relaxing weekend catching up with everyone. I really needed that trip. Now I feel more at ease about being gone so long, and I feel like I'm able to concentrate on school better! It doesn't seem like it's going to be forever until I move back home for the summer. So that's great! I was also able to go see our old place and animals again. Really hard, but good to know the animals were doing good! Those were the only pictures I got from the weekend because I was too busy having fun! So now it's been 3 days since I got back and I miss it already! 1.5 months down, 6.5 left to go!My two dogs Max (left) and Maya. They sure remembered me!This is Smoochie Pants (my brother named her :P) Best cat everJust a few of the familiar and wonderful sights!

Aunty Kari!

Yep! It's true! I am officially going to be an Aunty! My sister Marlys is pregnant and due on March 27 2009! I don't know what else to write about that, only that I'm really really REALLY excited :D My very first niece or nephew. Hurrah! :D

Just for Hannah :)

So I told Hannah I'd put up some pictures I have taken. Just to let you know Hannah, these are pictures from before college, so they aren't too great but hey, I'm learning! Hope you enjoy them! These are just a few of my favoritesSo there are a few of them! There's some more that I like, but I don't want to put them all up, and I need to go to bed haha. But I hope you enjoyed them!

Family Weekend!

Our family has been planning a weekend retreat for our extended family, especially with everything that has been happening over the past months. We all needed a time to relax, recuperate and encourage each other. It turned out to be a really great weekend. We got to know new members of the family (Lori and Nicole mainly) And it was just a good, Christ glorifying weekend. There are some pictures from the weekend, but not too many. We were all so busy enjoying our time, that we forgot to get some pictures! So there's just a few I took from saturday night!This was when the men just got back from the football game! This isn't all of us yet. A few are missing, but it was a great weekend. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!
This is Brad and my Uncle Mike...The Uncle we don't talk about haha!
And this, Is my wonderfully hilarious brother. Isn't he charming?

This is my Uncle Trevor and his new wife Lori! Trevor's son Kris is next to him, Tamara (Trevor's daughter with my Late aunt) is in front of him, Lori is in the middle, and Nicole is to the right, and she is Lori's niece! It was great to get to know Lori and Nicole this weekend!This is Aunty Pam, Mike, Brad (Middle Back) Austin, and Lauren

This is Uncle John, Aunty Cheryl , Colleen in the front middle, Chris in the back on the right, and Chantelle and Brent.The founders of it all, Grandma and Grandpa Knapp. They're so cute :)Grandma and Grandpa and the Kids! On the left, My dad Darrell, then Pam and then John. Missing my Aunty Deb who passed away in 2000.
And last but not least, my family! There's mom Ruth and Dad Darrell at the front, Left to right: Marlys and her husband Terry, Kyle and me! This was the best one we got, Kyle doesn't usually take nice pictures, he's too much of a joker :)

Cake Decorating Fun!

So at our family retreat this weekend, we had two birthdays in the family, and I love to decorate cakes, so I really wanted to make some fun and neat cakes. I decided to make two car cakes and a soccer field cake. Here's some of the pictures!They have the initials of the birthday boys on the front and their ages on the top! The reason it's a smash up derby is while I was decorating the blue car, The back end of the yellow car fell completely off, so Mom said make it into a smash up derby so I did! It worked out pretty well haha :)And of course, both of them love soccer, so I made them a soccer cake, complete with lego peoples! It was delicious!
And the two Birthday Boys! Terry on the Left, Austin on the right! Happy birthday guys!

Open House Pictures!

So As I promised there are some open house pictures! I'll try to keep them at a minimum so that they'll load at a reasonable time! Here they are!!This is the open house set! Record store theme, as I posted in the other post.
This is the product of the scene! Might be a little hard to see, but I guess click and it enlarges. Pretty cool stuff!Our print show! this is only half of the room, but you get the idea. People who go tour the area get to vote on their favorite black and white picture, and their favorite color picture. It's pretty neat!
These are the pictures I entered. A lot of the younger kids liked the skittle one haha. I knew kids like candy :P

That's about the basics of it. It wasn't that eventful! Just sat at the booth, handed out information to people, and took their votes! It was a good time though!

Bible study

Yes Indeed! I did go to it, and I did find it (with a minor loss of direction.) I showed up early surprisingly because they didn't start until 7:30 and I was there at around ten after. So that was weird. Anyways, it turned out to be pretty good! I'm still a little wary on some aspects, but I'm going again next week just to try it out. I can't judge it by one time, so I'll try one more time and keep praying about it for sure! The subject they are doing though is very interesting. It's called the "Truth Project" and it is being distributed by focus on the family. It is created for believers because all too often now, Christians are getting sucked into the lies of the world and starting to get a worldly world view. Truth Project brings you back to the basics of Who God is, Who man is and how it all works. It's so very interesting, and it is very biblically sound. My parents and I actually went to a training seminar for it last weekend so we are "technically" equipped to start our own small groups. (I'm not going to be doing that yet that's for sure!) I'm very excited about the whole subject this group is doing. I think it's going to be quite a wake up call for many christians out there.
Anyways, back to bible study. It was a very friendly group, everyone was talkative and outgoing which was nice. The only problems I had with the group was that they didn't have a set leader. So it was basically just a bunch of college aged kids/young adults saying what their own opinion is on the subject, they weren't bothered by keeping tabs with if it's right or not. I was really wary about that. The other thing I was uncomfortable about was that it felt like almost a singles "bar" per se where it was like, "alright, let's find me a wife." I doubt that that's the mentality of most of them, but still, I've never been in a situation where it's strictly all singles who are all college age, and a lot of them are looking to settle down. Something I'm not used to. BUT that's my own personal issue, not an issue to bring against the group. So we'll see how it goes again next week. Subject matter, I'm very pleased about, group discussion/leadership, not so much.

Open House!

Well at the beginning I wasn't looking forward to open house at all because now we're going to be two days behind in preparing for our project that's due monday, but today as everything was getting all set up, i started to get more and more excited. It was really awesome, we cleaned up the two main rooms, hung up some large pieces of styrofoam and we each got to hang two of our own prints (First years, second years got to hang 8) and now anyone who tours through there gets to see our prints. There are also voting sheets. Anyone who goes through there gets to vote on their favorite black and white print and favorite color print. I don't know what happens for the person who gets the most, but anyways, it's good to know if you have the "best print in show" Per se. Last month the second years had to come up with ideas for a large photo shoot, so the vote that won was "Record Store." That photo shoot took place in the other large room. It waqs so crazy to see all the lighting set up, the set work that had to be done and everything that went into producing a great shot! Since the theme was record store this year, one of the second year students also took individual pictures of all the characters in the big shoot to make posters for the open house.
Oh, in case you don't know, Open House is there for the whole college. It's for anyone who's remotely interested in going there sometime so they can check out some programs and find out what they'd most like to do. So it's a pretty neat thing! Tomorrow I'll try to bring my camera to school to get some pictures of all the set up and posters and what not and show you guys. It's a pretty neat and intricate thing. But I'm off to go buy my wonderful flash! I will talk to you all another time.

Critique class

Well, Let's say it was a nerve wracking experience! It was our first one and none of us students knew what to expect! In this class, our instructors have all of our pictures lined up on the wall from the previous week, they then proceed to tell us what they like and what we could improve on. Doesn't sound so scary when it's said like that, but when you put all your effort into taking a shot, it can be devastating! BUT it turned out to be a pleasant surprise today! It was an hour and 15 minutes to judge all the prints, but I'm happy to say that my print was in the top 6, and had the third highest mark! (There were three of us with the same mark) So because of that, I got to hang up my picture on the "Ego Board", so dubbed by the second years, for a week. Wow! Hopefully I can keep that up! It was definitely a surprise!

Another Sunday, Another church!

This morning we decided to try out a baptist church in St. Albert. We weren't sure what it was going to be like from the internet, so we drove there and were a little disappointed to see how large the church was (not because all big churches are bad, but a lot of them tend to have the "big church" attitude) So we were on guard spiritually before walking in there. But what a pleasant surprise! We went in and sat down and really enjoyed the service. There wasn't a sermon this sunday because they were having a missions presentation. They recently had a missions team go to Honduras. So that was a really good presentation. We came out of there feeling a whole lot better (especially since all of us were in a foul mood this morning) The greatest part about it was that we just knew these people were genuine. That made the whole difference. The past churches we tried out, we just felt that the people weren't genuine about their faith or being welcoming, it was really depressing. But this church seemed promising. We're going to try it again next week, see if the preaching is biblically sound, and then we'll go from there! This week, I'm hopefully going to try one of their college and career bible studies and see how that is to! This is looking up!

In the Beginning...

God created the heavens and the earth. Wow! I had a wonderful evening tonight with my dad. He took me to the space and science center here in Edmonton and we went to a theatre type show about the beginning of the space age. This theatre is not a normal theatre. You walk into the room and it's completely round and there's a big projector in the middle of it facing the ceiling. when you sit down, your chair reclines and you look at the roof and the whole roof is a screen. It's absolutely amazing. During the movie, I forgot many times that I was just in a theatre and thought I was actually in space. It was incredible. It was about the race for space between the Soviet Union and the United States. The most amazing part of the movie was when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldred were orbiting around the moon, on the screen you see the moon on the left, the top of the earth, millions of stars and this space ship in Orbit, and all of a sudden you hear Neil Armstrong's voice (the real recording) from a Christmas eve broadcast reading Genesis. I almost started crying. The whole time I was watching this movie, I kept thinking "this is extraordinary, but I can't wait until I can see the real thing in heaven!" I was just awestruck at the beauty of God's creation and watched the whole thing in wonder! It was definitely beautiful and if you ever get a chance to see it, It's called the Dawn of the space age. Left me completely awestruck and speechless! And he saw that it was good :)

Isn't it over yet?

Don't get me wrong, school is going just great and I love everything about it, but...Isn't the year over yet? This has been one of the slowest times I've ever had to deal with. It's feeling like I've been here for months and months! I love being with my parents, but I miss home. Oh well, hopefully it'll start to speed up now as I actually have things that need to be done in the evening! So instead of sitting in front of the TV from noon to 10, I'll be contributing to my career and society! Hurrah! Let's hope it hits the fast forward button soon!

Sick as a Dog!

Ok well, Maybe I'm not that sick, but I sure feel like it right now! I had a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago and now it's back with a vengeance! I'm feeling plugged up, exhausted and I have a headache as well. So I went to the doctor's to get it checked out today. I'm a little nervous about what he prescribed because the possible side affects are unbelievable! They include the little things like possible nerve damage and tendon problems. Oh also, it said if you start having severe mood changes and occasional thoughts of suicide, stop using it...oh wow! So now I know if i start absolutely hating life because my tendons hurt, I should stop taking my antibiotics for my little sinus infection! crazy stuff. So If anyone actually reads this blog, prayer that I don't get the nasty side effects would be great!

Church Hopping!

Wow! I never figured church hopping would be this hard! Since we've moved down here, my mom, dad and I have been trying to find a good, biblically sound church to go to. We have gone to three churches now and so far, we've been unsure about all of them. We all miss Webster so much and it's hard for us to not compare other churches to webster. BUT with that said, we still have open hearts to finding the right church for us to attend while we're down here. We've been praying for discerning hearts as well as churches now are usually pretty charismatic and unstable. The first church we went to was solid biblical teaching, but the people there were so cold and stand offish that we felt like we were a burden to have there. (the pastor excluded. He often calls my dad just to see how things are :) The next church we went to had very warm and friendly people, but the church itself seemed like it had a little bit of everything thrown in there. We got the impression that they were only worried about the numbers of the congregation (they kept telling us that there were usually more people who attended) and that they weren't really sure of their identity. There was a little bit of lutheran, catholic, baptist, etc influence in the service. The third church we went to was today's church, and it wasn't actually too bad. The message itself was really good and we quite enjoyed it, so that was great. We didn't stick around to long to see how the people were (The pastor is a very nice man and he is also a neighbor of ours) We'll just have to see. We're trying another church next week and we'll see how that turns out! SO we just keep praying that God will lead us to the right church where we can be challenged to grow!

Give Me Jesus

In the morning when i rise
in the morning when i rise
in the morning when i rise
Give me Jesus

Chorus:
      
Give me Jesus
give me Jesus
You can have all this world             
But give me Jesus

Verse 2:
    
And when i am alone
oh and when i am alone
and when i am alone
Give me Jesus

(chorus)

Verse 3:
 
And when i come to die
oh and when i come to die
and when i come to die
Give me Jesus

^(chorus)^

- Fernando Ortega

Second day of college life...and going more broke by the minute!

Whooo boy! I knew going to college was going to cost me a hefty sum, but I didn't expect to spend that much in one day! I still don't have all of my equipment! Today alone, I almost exceeded my limit of $1000!!! If you saw the little pile of things on the table you'd probably ask "How much did you spend???" Oh well, My dad reassured me that it's investing in my future, so how can I argue with that? All I can say is I really need to practice my money handling in the near future, especially if I want to avoid getting a job for the year!

This is what I spent my money on today! minus three textbooks which I left in my locker! Welcome to college, and the career of photography!

First day of college life!

Today was my official first day as a college student! Talk about intimidating. First I started off the day by getting up at 5:40 because I just couldn't sleep last night. Then I drove to St.Albert to catch the bus from there and oh boy. I have never seen so much traffic in one time in my life! I'm from a town/city of 55,ooo people and it was a huge shock to be here. The traffic was backed up down the yellowhead trail all the way up to the corner we turned off of. I don't know what the street was, but what is normally a 20 minute drive, took almost an hour. It was crazy! Then I showed up at 8:15, and I guess orientation wasn't until 9. So I kinda wandered around until then. The rest of the day consisted of tours of our labs and whatnot and it looks to be very exciting! I saw someone there that I sort of knew from back home. That should be fun to get to know her better! Then I met some other people and it just turned out to be a good day! So now I have 8 months left! I can't wait to get started on my pictures! In fact, I'm going to load on my new photoshop CS3 and get editing! toodles!

Family pics...sort of

At my cousins wedding this past Sunday, my parents wanted pictures of us kids because we're actually all together now! So here they are! My Beautiful sister and her husband Terry
Terry, Marlys and Kyle All four of usFunny story with this one, My cousin and I wanted a picture together, So I asked Marlys to take it. She didn't know her finger was in front of the lens, Terry thought it would be funny to walk through just as she's taking the picture (only to catch his backside) and Kyle just jumped right in. So I guess it's a picture of all four of us...with personality haha

Funny quote (maybe more!)

A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion but doesn't. ~Author Unknown

I thought the Kennedy's might like this one. I know it made me giggle...we all know how graceful the accordion can sound...:P

The New House!

Just some pictures so all of you can see the new place!

Mom and Dad in the front yard
The view from the front door

The living roomThe dining room/basement door The Kitchen
The basementThe Upstairs three bedroom doors

and my room!