California for Stefani

Well, it’s Saturday and tomorrow is Halloween.  I have always loved Halloween… i like the dressing up (as a kid) and love all the candy.  As I got older I loved the fact you could get Halloween lights and now our house is fully decorated for the season.  I tend to stick to the mellow parts… pumpkins, Casper type ghosts and the occasional bat.  I am not a fan of the scary parts of Halloween, so I stay away from that.   As a Christian, I have never had a problem with this day and with trick or treating.  Why can’t we make the day what we want to make it?  I think Christians tend to take things too seriously.  Call it Harvest day, or whatever you want, but it’s still Halloween in my eyes.   I did put up my first winter lights… they are LED Snowmen, so they aren’t Christmas lights… they are winter lights.

We just got back from a great weekend with my parents.  We went to 6 wineries in Yakima, Washington.  I gave a list of various ones to Doug and told him to figure out which ones he wanted to do, and I would be the designated driver.  We wanted to take the Mustang, but 4 adults and many bottles of wine just didn’t make sense, so we took my parents Aerostar.  It was a good drive, but I missed my car.  Thankfully the Aerostar does pretty good on the hills, so that was much better than the Tercel we used to have LOL.  We stayed at a Best Western in Yakima and shared hotel room.  We always manage pretty good in that regards.  Nobody snores or farts too much HA HA HA!!  Between the 4 of us, we brought back 11 bottles of wine.  Thankfully the border guard was ok with that.  Oh wait… he was only told about 8 of them {giggle}.  We even did a winery tour of Kestrel Vintners… we were supposed to pay $25/person for the VIP treatment, but he waived the fee if we bought some wine.  

So we have driven with the top down a bit in the last week.  The weather has been cold, but if it isn’t raining we tend to drive around.  We have scarves, toques and jackets in the back of the car to keep us warm.  Too bad we don’t have heated seats, but beggars can’t be choosers… so we live without heated seats LOL.  It is amazing how often we look at our car and just grin.  This piece of metal with a vinyl roof makes us so very happy.  It actually brings us a little piece in our fairly unpeaceful (emotional) life…. which segues (spelt correctly) into some of my thoughts these days.

We still feel a little unsettled.  We love where we live and we love living so close to my parents… but sometimes we just feel so unsettled.  We booked our flights to LA for April and are very excited to be going back to California.  We love it there, but I think it is a matter of the grass being greener in another country (HA HA HA).   We have to learn to like it here because what if this is where we will be for a long time?  Thankfully White Rock is as close to California as we can get without moving out of Canada.  We can just say we are on our way!!

The root of our issues though needs to be dealt with… why do we feel so unsettled in such a beautiful city and with such a decent life?  I probably know the reason, but it probably is best to not get too much into it on a public forum.  I just have to get over our disappointments in people and move forward.  I was looking through my photo albums and that didn’t make it any better.  So many pictures of great parties we used to have… and none of those people are friends any more (except for my amazing parents).   I can’t even look at those pictures because it doesn’t bring me good memories, but all the sad reasons they are gone out of our lives.   Some reasons are because of church ( we aren’t Christian enough I guess), some reasons are because we weren’t the mover’s and shakers of the church and so being friends with us wasn’t good enough anymore (and yes, this is not a perception, but reality) and some are because our views on life didn’t mesh with theirs, and so “agreeing to disagree” wasn’t an option.  Of course some aren’t friends because people change (ourselves included) and you don’t have things in common anymore. 

How does one get over these disappointments when they stare you in the face every day?  Moving to Mexico was going to be a new start in life… with a clean slate on the “friendship” blackboard… now that board is only partially erased and we need to rewrite it instead of starting over.  I want to start over… live in a new place… make new memories… meet new people… people with no preconceived ideas of who we are, etc.  But that isn’t an option right now… so what do we do?  We hold our head high, forget the past, look to the future and rely on God to light our path into the unknown.   (This rambling is not any reflection of how wonderful my parents are as friends though).

On another note… for those out there who forget to take their marriages seriously… please make sure you take time for yourselves.  It’s one of the reasons we do these weekend things and just do stuff… we change up the routine so that life doesn’t get mundane.   Drive a different way to work (or back home) to see the world differently.  Do things spontaneously… get out there and enjoy life together.  Marriage is serious stuff and it takes work.   Your partner should be your best friend and best friends should get out and have fun.  Doug and I still fight even on our road trips (just ask Doug about Googling Target), but we work it out and plan the next one.  We need to mix it up to stop the routine getting us down.  We take our marriage seriously and want to make it work (helps that we both want the same thing).  I can’t believe it’s been 22 1/2 years already.  Sure glad I have Doug to enjoy life with.  Here is to many many more.

Less than 2 months until Christmas… YIPEEE (my favourite time of year)

Time for a little lighter blog.  I will try to not get to serious in this one, but I may slip every so often.  I figured I would make note of a few things that make me fun and not so normal (what is normal anyway).

  1.  I carry around a stuffed Mickey Mouse that I got in fall of 2005 when we visited Disneyland with my parents (yes I took my parents to their first trip to Disneyland).  Mickey Mouse travels with me everywhere.  He is like the traveling gnome from Travelocity.  I take pictures of him in every major photo stop that we go to.   He also sits in the back seat of our Mustang strapped in with the seatbelt (so he doesn’t fly out when driving with the top down).  I decided to even start a facebook page for him (oops… he started it himself, but I am just helping LOL).  It’s kinda fun to have him travel with us.  We get questions all the time, but everyone seems to like the idea and thinks it’s fun. 

2.  My hair is bright red… at least it is most of the time.  I love going as bright red as possible.   It helps me feel a little more fun and I feel less dull with it.  I used to have long, curly hair, but when Doug had his stroke, I decided I needed a change… so I cut my hair.  Soon my hair was really short and then one day I decided to get blond streaks.  I did the blond thing for awhile, and started dabbling with the reds and finally found a way to get it nice and bright red. 

3.  I hate silver… it seems so “normal” and dull.  So when we got our Mustang and found out it was silver (our Escape was silver too)… we quickly decided that it needed to be changed.  Of course I couldn’t change the colour, but we added some “touches of us” to it.  We put a strip down the car and put the word Mustang on either side of the car.  It cost us a little bit of money, but it was worth it to make the car seem less “common”.  I also hate “common” LOL

 

4.  I love the “dorm room” look in our place… or at least that is what I was told our place looked like by an old friend (not a friend anymore), so I hope it wasn’t an insult about our place.  I hate blank spaces on my wall and try to fill it up with many things.  Our bedroom even has a Disney theme to it… I love all things Disney and I think that makes me feel young and happy.  I tend to lean more to Mickey Mouse, but I do love Disney as a whole. 

5.  I love lights… lots and lots of lights.  Halloween lights, Christmas lights or any other kind of lights.  Currently my Halloween lights are up, but soon the Christmas lights will go up.  I think it just makes me feel bright and shiny (happy, shiny people??? LOL).  There is something about coloured lights that just make me happy.  I also love all the comments I get from people about all my lights.  Maybe one day an airplane will mistake our place for a landing strip and we will have a plane land in our back yard LOL

6.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel.  Not sure if that makes me specifically fun… but it’s a part of who I am. 

7.  I love driving down the road with the convertible top down… and for no reason at all, just throw up my hands and yell YIPEE!!  What a feeling it is to drive with the wind in the your hair and the ability to put up your arms and the top of the car isn’t there… it’s so freeing.

8.  I love it when we (both Doug and I) totally mess with peoples perception of us.  I think when people first meet us, they think we are a certain type of person, and soon find that we are not like that.  I love the looks on people’s faces when I say something that they don’t expect… yup… that is a lot of fun.

Well, we are back from our vacation. What a great time we had. Here was our itinerary…

Seattle – 1 night

DisneyWorld – 3 nights

Carnival Dream Cruise – 7 night Western Caribbean, ports including Cozumel, Roatan, Belize & Costa Maya

Florida – 4 nights – sights including Kennedy Space Center

Seattle – 1 night

What a great vacation and now we are back home to regular life. I don’t mind that too much because it gives us the opportunity to save up for our next vacation.

We have been struggling with coming back home to the pains of being here. We are trying to figure out how to deal with that. Doug posted on his blog kinda how we feel about it all, and so I won’t try to go over it again. Doug's Blog

Something I thought of today though, and I am going to try to explain it. It all started with reading a blog of a friend of mine who quoted a verse from the Book of Alma… well… I know my Bible a little, and I know there is no such book in the “regular” Bible, so I asked her were it came from and she told me it was from the Book of Mormon. She told me they use this book as a companion to the Bible. That made me think… and so we chatted about it with my parents for awhile and then started to do a bit of research about it. Doug gave us a quick history lesson of what he found out and then we left it alone until our drive home from my parents.

I was having some issues with believing some of how it came about, but then I thought about it a bit more and realized… what does it matter? Does it change my relationship with Jesus on if someone else believes that there are other books written about Jesus? Not a chance! And who am I to say it is true or not? It doesn’t change my Christian views, so why should I worry about it or even put any thought to it? What I see as the “regular” Bible is just a piece of our Christian heritage, and who knows what else is missing from what we were taught. Even the Bible can be interpreted differently and if you don’t believe that, look around and see all the religions that have stemmed from different versions of our “regular” Bible.

Now you ask… why am I mentioning this? Well because the above belief will probably get me in a lot of trouble in the “regular” church who believe solely in the “regular” Bible and have no flexibility in what else is out there. How do we survive in that type of structure? I don’t think we can because in the end someone will always want us to change to their way of thinking and I have no desire for that. I want to have an open mind to all that is out there and the various versions of what a relationship will look like with our Saviour, Jesus Christ. I want my relationship with Jesus to be built on my faith and not what others tell me it should look like. He is excepting of everyone, and so I have to follow that same rule of thinking. So unless church has changed in the last little while, I don’t think we will fit in much. So… what do we do about this? How do we go about surviving here in White Rock with all the bad memories of friends past? How do we go about making new friends that believe in Jesus Christ and not have to succumb to the “regular” church way of thinking? Well… I think we need to have a bit of change of heart… stop looking at what isn’t to be (Mexico) and look at what might be… where do we find this? I was thinking that Doug and I need to find our hearts desire… what makes us tick? Is there an area that we feel God is leading us? If we stay in our cave and hide away from people, we will never show the love of God to people. How do we go about showing what God is all about to the people in our community? How do we show how loving God/Jesus is to everyone, from all walks of life? It won’t be by staying locked up in our house and it won’t be by being pissed off in church all the time… so where do we go? We need to focus on where this might be… no matter how small it is. Do we volunteer somewhere in something that we have a heart for? I know for now it isn’t in church because so far all church has been is a place where they want the members to all think the same. So we need to look outside the box (or church) and find it somewhere. We need people around us… people of all walks of life… we must be needed somewhere… we need to find that place and ask God to guide us in the right direction.

We need to forget about the past and work on the present and future…we need to see where Jesus wants us because he isn’t going to give us this interesting view of thinking and then hide us away in our little condo in White Rock. I am very curious to see where he will guide us, too, because I want to be open to where He thinks we should be. I think it will be small though, because we seem to be good at the little things. I want to look towards this and see what areas we are good at. Maybe work with seniors? Maybe with kids? Homeless people? Single parents? Cooking for others? Teaching computers? Teaching English? Doing some bookkeeping? Playing guitar (that is Doug)… who knows… we have some talent… wonder if they can be used to show how wonderful God/Jesus is and what a great friend he is. I love him with all my heart and I want the world to know that he is amazing and loves everyone no matter what.

So… where do I start?  I met these people 40 years ago, but I don’t remember the details since I was only a newborn… yup, Vic & Chris are my parents.  I am the first born and their guinea pig HA HA HA!!   I think I have always enjoyed my parents company.  Yes, there are moments in one’s life that parents can cramp ones style, but I don’t think it was too often.   What are some of my memories of them…. my dad playing piano to us before going to bed, my mom praying with us, reading to us or even singing to us, our various camping trips (i didn’t say they were all good memories LOL), trekking up the mountain to check out our water supply, the many times my parents put up with our games, skits, etc.

My dad is the math person PLUS he also is a music person.  I got my math skills from my dad, but I didn’t get the music skills.  I LOVE music though, but don’t have the same talent as he does with music.  I do play piano though (SHHHH… don’t tell anyone) and used to enjoy it a lot.  I prefer to let someone else do the playing though… much easier for me.   My dad has a love for teenagers and as a teacher, he is great with them.  It took a bit for him to get used to the idea of me being a teenager though.  Everyone told him that once I became a teenager everything would go downhill, so I think he was expecting me to be a lot worse than what I was… yup… I did do some not so great things as a teenager… I listened to secular music (Bryan Adams, ect) AND I had some posters of movie stars on my wall.   I think he eventually figured out I wasn’t that bad as a teenager and he softened up a bit.  If I remember correctly, he had a hard time saying “I love you” to me for the first year or so when I turned 13… all those stupid people that scared my dad… hope Karma bit you in the ass.  Once he got over that “teenage” hurdle, things went pretty good… other than the normal teenage thing.  Turns out me and my dad don’t work well together and if you want proof… ask us to pile a woodpile together.   Now that can bring it oodles of memories and most not that great, but at least we can both laugh at that now.

In grade 10 my class did a student exchange with a group of students on the east coast… there is no way I would have done this without my dad.  He was one of the teachers that went along, and it made it much easier on me.  I won’t go into detail about that whole adventure as that would take many posts and probably some therapy to get over.  But all I will say is that I survived it because my dad was there.  Otherwise I think I would have asked to be sent home earlier.  When I turned 16, he bought a motorbike and we learned to ride it together.  What cool parents to let their daughter have a motorbike and if I remember correctly, when we moved, he bought the street bike and we learned to ride that too.  I got that bike for my grad present.  Now my dad wasn’t too amused when I became engaged at 17 and when we went to Hawaii as a family (and left poor Doug behind), he proceeded to take me out for lunch and explain that maybe I should play the field a bit… totally understandable for a dad to worry about their 17 year old getting engaged to a 23 year old who was my first boyfriend.   Let’s just say that Doug’s background didn’t ease my dad’s worries… so again, totally understandable for the apprehension.

My mom is the artist in the family.  She comes from a long line of artists.  I have a number of paintings of my Oma’s in our house.  My mom does some amazing sculpting with clay and can paint too.  My sister Andrea got that talent too, along with her son Owen.  It’s cool to see how those talents can run in the family from one generation to another.  I did NOT get that talent at all.  I can paint a wall if I have to, but that is the extent of my artistic talent.   My mom was a teacher before I came along, but decided to be a stay at home mom once I showed my cute face.   I think it was rough on my parents financially with only having 1 income, but they managed and we sure appreciate having a parent home with us.  Granted because my dad was a teacher, we had both our parents home after school.   My mom is quiet (probably where I get that from) and is very relaxed.  She wasn’t the type of mom who made our lunches for school, or even made our breakfasts… granted again, my dad was a teacher, so he was the one that helped us in that area, but for the most part, we made our own breakfasts and lunches.   My mom does not like to cook, but thankfully my dad does, so we didn’t starve.  I think each family needs to figure out their strengths and work with that.   My mom was good at cleaning up after my dad though (in the kitchen), which was needed LOL.   My mom and dad both tucked us in night, but it was my mom who would read us the bedtime stories (Cross and the Switchblade).  She would pray with us and just listen to us when we needed someone to talk to in the darkness of the night.   She read us all sorts of books to us. 

My mom was the calm one when it came to me becoming a teenager.   Ok… mostly calm… my first time driving with my mom didn’t go so well and it was soon after that when they decided I would get driving lessons instead of them teaching me.  Smart move on their part.   I don’t recall many issues with my mom when I was a teenager.  I am sure she can come up with a few, but I think my mom did pretty good as a mom of a teenager.   AS the picture shows, my mom was always good at the strong supportive part of being a parent.  It was great that she was a stay at home mom.

My parents were great parents (for the most part… just ask me about Rye bread)… they took us with them most places even though they could have gotten a babysitter instead.   They allowed us the freedom to be who we wanted to be, even if it meant a small kid would put their feet up in the pews at church in the choir.  They didn’t conform to what society said they should be and with that, raised 3 girls as individuals.  They taught us sex education at an early age so that we understood what our bodies where about and about some of the dangers of predators.   They taught me about faith in God and how easy it actually is.  They didn’t sugar coat adult life and because of that, I was fairly prepared for what the world would throw at me as I grew into an adult.  My parents always told me I was beautiful and because of that, I have a fairly decent self esteem.  They practised what they preached… they were not the type of parents who said one thing and did a totally different thing.  We learned from example and that is a great legacy for a parent to give their kids. 

We have done some stupid things as adults and my parents have bailed us out.  We owe them big time for that.  I think for the most part, our relationship is as friends and not as parents any more.   They support us in all that we do and are a shoulder to cry on when we need it.  They have seen us at our worst (Mom & Dad… think New York LOL) and have seen us at our best.  They have been with us through it all and we are forever grateful for that.  I love having them as best friends.

We are leaving on vacation in 8 sleeps and it is going to be weird to be without them for this vacation.  We have done our big vacations with them for a number of years now, and this will be the first one in a long time that we haven’t done with them.  We will really miss them.  Next year we go to the Panama together, so that will make up for it.    I think my most favourite memory I have vacationing with them is going through Central Park with the horse and carriage.  We were bundled up in blankets in the carriage.  I loved sharing my first time in New York with my parents.   I also enjoyed taking my parents to Disneyland for their first time.   Instead of the parents taking the kids to Disneyland, we were taking them to Disneyland.  That was fun.   So many memories, so much fun… here is to many more memories together.  Thanks Mom & Dad (Chris & Vic) for being great friends, wonderful parents and such supportive people to Doug and I.  We are blessed and thank God every day for you guys.

I am going to take a break from the “friends” blogs and just post about the going on’s in our life. We are off on our vacation in 2 weeks. I think I have posted what we are doing before, so I won’t repeat myself. I am so excited about DisneyWorld… it’s my first time there. I have been to Disneyland a few times, but really looking forward to DisneyWorld (and so is Mickey Mouse). Our cruise will be great. It isn’t a long cruise, only 7 days, but that is ok. We are going to enjoy Florida a lot too.

I have met some amazing people so far online that we will be cruising with. Aislinn and Tim are the couple I think we can most relate too and so we are really looking forward to spending some time with them. If all goes well, maybe a trip to Salt Lake City will be in store. I love telling people about my new Christian Mormon friends… wow, didn’t think I could get that many interesting looks from people LOL. It is amazing how people place others into a box of beliefs… Mormons I guess aren’t allowed to be Christ followers? Who knew… LOL Glad I know differently. I have learned in the last few years that there is no box and that we are all unique in our beliefs, even within the realm of Christianity.

My other online friends that we will be meeting are Gina, Bernie, Julie, Al, Mary, Debra, Jan, Bryan, Aonika… and the list goes on. Can’t wait to meet them all. Gina and Bernie have been very loyal Cruise clients and even Julie has booked something with me. I do really appreciate it and hopefully I do a great job as a Travel Agent for them. Most of the people we have been chatting on Facebook for over a year and it will be great to finally meet them face to face. I hope we will be friends even after the cruise. I want friends all over the US so we have people to visit when we eventually see all the places I want to see in the States.

Well… back to the going ons… well… other than getting prepared for our vacation, not a whole lot else. Our plants on the patio are doing well, we are really enjoying our place and the job as Resident Managers is going well. So most of our time is spent working and relaxing. I have everything all organized for our vacation. The vacation binder is all set up, cash is put aside, CC are usable and I am ready to go away to Florida and then the Caribbean. We are Cruising with my cousins and their 2 kids and that will be a blast. The three of us turned 40 this year, so this is a celebration of sorts.

Doug is currently putting movies and TV shows onto the netbook so we have stuff to watch on our flight. We ordered a bigger battery for it so it will last for the whole flight. We are bringing the lap top along too so I can do some bookkeeping while vacationing and upload our pictures to the laptop. I sure love technology. This way we can also keep in touch with family and friends, and work of course too. It’s been a few years since we vacationed like this without my parents. Usually they join us, but it just didn’t work out this year. Next year we are doing a 15 night Panama Cruise together, so that will be fun.

So I was thinking about doing the next “friends” blog on my parents. They are our best friends, so I think they should be mentioned in my blog. So I will work on that and hopefully have the up before we leave on vacation. Just in case you didn’t know, we are spending a week in Florida and a week in the Caribbean… yup… we will be sunning and relaxing in the sun… well… I guess Disneyworld may not be relaxing to some LOL

I would have to go back into my photo albums to figure out when we first met Bonnie & Grace, but I think it’s been at least 5 years that we have known them.  They are good friends that like to go cruising together.  When you don’t have a spouse to go cruising with, you need to rope your friends into wanting to go too so that you can go vacationing for cheaper than paying a single rate.  We met them on a cruise and have been friends ever since.  They live in California which of course is where we want to move to. 

  Bonnie has an amazing sense of humour and she has endless amounts of one liners.  She has suffered with a number of illnesses in her lifetime but through it all she still has a smile on her face.  We got to see her place earlier this year and it suits her perfectly.  She has such a great love of life and wants to try it all.  We had the best time with her a few years ago on a Caribbean cruise out of New York.  What a blast that was and Doug had a great time going Snuba’ing with her.  Maybe someday we will go on a cruise with her again.

Grace is fun to go vacationing with.   We have been cruising with Grace and her friend Ruth too, which was a blast.   Grace loves to organize things and does a great job with lists, organizing and keeping everyone in order.  It was great to have Grace show us Santa Barbara when we went and did our Southern California road trip.  Grace loves people and seems very relaxed with just about anyone.   It has been a lot of fun vacationing with Grace and hopefully someday we will do it again. 

As you can tell, there isn’t as much I can write about Bonnie & Grace as we don’t live close enough to each other to really get to know each other that well.   Even so, the vacations we have done together have been so much fun.   I hope our friendship will last a long long time and so that we can travel together until we are all too old to leave our old folks home HA HA HA.

Thanks for being such great cruising friends. 

We met Kraeg and Anna in May 2009 when we moved into the condo at The Morgan. Kraeg was on the strata at the time and he was as frustrated as we werewith what was going on there. At least we had the option to move if we wanted, as we were only renters, but they were owners and didn't have much choice but to stay. With some encouraging of the strata, we decided to apply for the job as Resident Managers and I think within a few weeks, we got the job. If it wasn't for him and Anna, we would have quit that job a lot sooner than what we did.

It was really cool living that close to friends. When we would go over to their place, I was able to go in my slippers and not even have to put shoes on. They have an amazing looking place and everything is so neat and organized. Not that I think our place should look like that because I can't handle living in neat and organized. I don't mind organized, but I like the dorm room look. Pictures all over my walls, crazy things hanging in places (my Furbies in the bedroom) and of course my Mickey Mouse themed bedroom. Anyways... I digress... I love their place and how they (I mean Anna though) decorated. They had the same configuration of a condo as us, but they took out a wall and made their 3 bedroom condo into a 2 bedroom. They had a unit facing the opposite direction as us, so between the 4 of us, we had a good view of the goings-on in the condo area. It made for some late night meet ups outside in the courtyard LOL. There was never a dull moment living at The Morgan.

If you look at the 4 of us, you will notice that we are the polar opposites. They are tall, slender, beautiful people, and well... Doug and I are not 2 of those three LOL. Our homes are polar opposites too... we have the dorm look, and well... they don't. Even when getting to know them I kept thinking that we just were mismatched for friends. I kept waiting for them to stop doing stuff with us because Doug and I are a little off the wall. Another big difference is that Doug and I are Christians, and they aren't and in fact Kraeg is very skeptical about Christianity (don't blame him) and so sometimes that isn't a good mix. But we are all ok with each others beliefs and don't try to convince each other that they are wrong. Just thought of another difference... see... we have a lot... they love outdoorsy, exercisy stuff and well... we don't LOL

As time went on, we needed each other to vent about the stuff going on at the condo, and along with that we became good friends. Granted, I don't know how good of a friend we are since we still haven't heard the story of why Kraeg spells his name the way he does. Anyways... I digress again... back to the story... The Morgan... that place brought us together. We needed each other to vent about the crap going on and we also got to learn about each other. We found out that Kraeg and Anna like Scotch that is hard to find in the states and when we do find it, we can't buy it for them because we have no way to get it on the airplane. Rarely did we watch tv or movies together when we visited. It was always chatting and getting to know each other. We loved that and felt very safe at their place. They were not judgmental about our choices at all. They were the second people we told about our decision to move to Mexico (my parents where first of course). They were very supportive of it and were even excited for us. They were the first we emailed when we found out we had to come home without the job. Because they lived so close, they were the ones we got comfort from when we needed shoulder to cry on.

Again, other than my parents, they are the only ones that know the full story and heard all the cries of our hearts when it came to Mexico. They supported us in ways they can not imagine and we are forever grateful for that. Even though I figured in the beginning of our friendship that it wouldn't last because we were so different, it has turned out to be a great friendship. It hasn't been as close as it was before because we moved out of The Morgan, but they have been busy with opening up a new business too, and I know how much work that is, so hopefully when it gets more routine for them, we will get together more. Kraeg and Anna have been great friends and it has been great getting to know them in the last year (and a bit). I do hope it will be one of those long time friendships and even with our differences, that we will be forever friends.

I do want to mention one thing that we do have in common... we don't have kids (by choice). It isn't as if we don't like kids, but we just don't want them 24/7. It is always cool to meet others like us in that way. One of the things that I will always remember about them is the Christmas card they gave us (I still have it). They considered not giving it to us because they had done it up before they found out we weren't moving to Mexico, but they decided to give it to us anyway. It has some peso's in it for taco's on them, and also a great note about how they will miss the blondie and the red head, along with the condo that had the most Christmas lights. Oh, and and it was a Mickey Mouse card... it didn't take them long to figure out who we liked LOL. We will keep that card in our hope chest and will treasure it always.

We are wishing them all the best in their new business venture and hopefully it will become so successful that they can retire and buy a place in Mexico and they will hire us to be the caretakers LOL. We do wish them all the best though in the business 4 cats

Here is to many breakfasts together and many late night visits again when things settle down for you guys. We love having you as friends and I hope our relationship keeps on growing.

I am thinking about doing a series of blogs about friends. I think that not enough time is spent on encouraging each other and maybe if I do a series of encouraging blogs, that will help a person appreciate each other a bit more. Our lives get so busy with stuff that we forget about the people around us. I find people focus on each others negative qualities and not always the positive ones. I think as adults we are quite aware of who we are and don’t need constant reminders of what we do wrong. Lets focus on what we do right and encourage those things in each other.

What I plan to do is write a blog on each friend and describe how I know them and what they mean to both of us. Might turn out interesting and I won’t tell any family secrets LOL.

My friend Shauna posted this on her facebook status and that got me thinking about my next blog post.  The term “way” is what got me thinking. 

God created us and he loves us unconditionally.   If that is the case, then why do we think that God is “way” to good to us?   Our original creation was for communing with God on earth.  Other than the silly sin that makes this life rough, we are still around for that very reason.  We are friends with God and a part of friendship is giving to each other.  Considering that God has special abilities (he can perform miracles, etc), then why wouldn’t he use those abilities for his children?

I am very grateful for how good he is to us, but “way” to good?  Not to sure about that.  I guess there are many people who believe that they aren’t good enough for God, so maybe that is where that thinking comes from.  I guess my belief is that God is “perfectly” good to me.  He loves me no matter what I do and he forgives us when ever we ask, so why wouldn’t he be good to us?   I don’t think it’s about deserving the goodness in our lives, that is not what I am saying, but if God loves us as much as he says he does, why wouldn’t he be good to us.  Would be kinda stupid to say, “i love you” and then pummel us with disasters all the time. 

We were created by God and he loves us so very  much no matter what stupid things we do.  I think that love is what allows him to do good things for us.  Yes, life throws us curve balls at times, but that isn’t God, that is living on this sinful earth.   Obviously this is my opinion, and I am sure people will differ.  This is just the way I think. 

So the above is my thought for the day.  It’s the beginning of the week and every day it gets closer to our holidays in September.   Our weekend went well and we got to see a bunch of Christian bands at a day long concert.  It did rain a lot, so we didn’t stay right until the end, but we still had a lot of fun (it was an outdoor concert).  We got to spend time with my parents who also enjoyed it.  Gotta love parents who still will go to those kind of things even though it is geared for teenagers.  My parents have always been very supportive in that area.  They took us to Petra concerts and White Heart concerts… gotta love them for that.  Not many parents encourage their kids to listen to hard rock like that.  Even though they weren’t a huge fan of it, they still supported us in it.  Yup, I think my parents are a keeper LOL.

The ocean beach living has been GREAT.  I love living here and I hope we can stay here for awhile.  We are currently the resident managers of our condo complex, so that has been interesting too.  Our car has had a few additions too it and so for now, I think the car will be happy with all it’s little upgrades until we get new tires.

It may not be California, but we are living in the next best place (in Canada).  Yup, God is good to us (just a perfect amount LOL)

"Because real body life isn't built on accountability. It's built on love. We're to encourage each other in the journey without conforming people to the standard we think they need."

The above is a quote from the book I just finished reading. 

We went to Manning Park this weekend and there is no internet up there.  Unless you like fishing or hiking, there isn’t a lot for me to do, so I did some reading.  Doug read this book awhile ago and has been asking me to read it.  He put it on the netbook and so I sat outside reading the book on my netbook.  We had a GREAT time visiting with my family and even though I suffered without the internet, it was still worth going.   We enjoy just sitting and chatting with my parents.  My sister and her family came up too, so that is always a great way to know them better too.   My sister always brings some kind of craft along, so we got to do some crafty things.  She made a Mickey Mouse bean head… very cute and it might land up being my Christmas present.  There is a swimming pool there, so we got to do some swimming too.  Doug caught a few fish and my dad fried that up and they ate fish fried in butter.

So back to the book.  It’s a book about why so many people don’t like the “institution” of church.  It makes total sense and if you are one that is trying to figure your way through what church looks like, you might want to pick this book up (or download off the authors website for free).   It helps one look at what we are being taught and why so many people get burnt out in church. 

I agree with the above statement and have tried to live that life as best as I can.  I think we lack the ability to encourage but excel in the ability to criticise.  Instead of telling someone what you think they are doing wrong, how about you tell them what they are doing right.  I figure that God can tell them what they are doing wrong.  Why should we be the ones that do stuff like that.  We all have a journey in our walk of faith, and I think it looks different for every person.   Maybe it’s why I have no issues with gay people being a Christian or that other “religions” could also be Christians.  Who am I to judge the journey of ones walk in their faith.   It’s all about loving each other and that is the main focus of what Jesus talked about when he walked this earth. 

The book focus’s on ones journey with Jesus.  Not the church, not the elders, not with being accountable to each other, but our accountability to Jesus and him alone.  If we are following the path of what Jesus wants, don’t you think things will fall into place?  Sure life throws us curve balls, but it’s our walk with Jesus that matters.  How do we love others?  Criticising in “love” is not love.  Encouraging is love.  Accepting each other is love.  Not judging the actions of others is love. 

I have no desire to conform others to my way of thinking anymore because it just isn’t worth it.  People will figure it out in their own time and then someday they will come to me and we can go for coffee and discuss it.  I will walk the journey with Jesus next to me.  I will take comfort that he is encouraging me and helping me learn along the way.  I will learn to encourage more whenever I can. 

The book doesn’t say church is wrong, but it says many of what goes on in church is.  I totally agree and obviously I am not the only one that has issues with the institute of church.  It’s about community and loving each other where ever we are at.  Sure a church can be healthy but usually it doesn’t stay that way.  How many times have we been guilted into going to church?  How is that godly?  There is so many other examples that I can come up with that I have come across in our dealings with church, but what is the point in dwelling on it.  It’s the past and I want no part of those things in my past.  I want to work on my friendship with Jesus and I want to see how that looks in my future. 

The sales of this book just shows that there are many out there that are having troubles with church and are searching.  Your search will end when you seek that relationship with Jesus.  Enjoying time with others talking about the love of Jesus and what he has done in our lives.  It can look like a barbeque with neighbours, with family and friends.  It can look like a quiet time with a friend at a coffee shop just talking.  It can look like sitting at Manning Park enjoying the smell of the trees and the company of friends (also known as my parents).  Those are all examples of the church that Jesus meant for us.  It doesn’t have to be structured, have an outline or have a purpose other than being together, to encourage each other and to relate how wonderful Jesus has been to us.  Sure a meeting is ok every so often, but why all the time… why can’t we be casual and just visit and have no agenda?   That sounds like heaven to me ;)

It's not about teaching, it's about living. Learn to live this life and you'll find no end of folks to share it with. Teach it first, however, and that will be your substitute for living it

Another quote from the book (above in bold).  I totally love this.  I have lived this concept all my life… it’s about living it and not trying to teach it.  So I will keep on living my life with Jesus walking side by side (or he carries me every so often) and I will learn from  his love and give that love back to others.  I need to keep my eyes on Jesus and what he has to teach me.  Only through him will I manage and only through him can I be someone who can love others for who they are.

To end this blog, I want to say this book didn’t have much new that I learned, but it put words to my thoughts in my head.  It makes a lot of sense and makes me feel secure in the fact that I am not a bad Christian.  I am loved by Jesus and that is all that matters.  If I am walking the walk with him, who care what others think. 

The title of my post is how we both are feeling these days. It's an attitude thing and we both have to figure out how to get over it. It's a matter of changing our mindset and focusing on everything that is good and not thinking about what is missing.

We would have moved to Mexico 6 months ago and I guess we are feeling the loss a lot these days. Not too sure why, but we both feel down. I think we are feeling like that we are just going through the motions of life right now and not doing anything different. That's not a bad thing, but it's just not what we were expecting to be doing at this point. We are both on the verge of tears all the time... which totally bites and is kinda annoying. We have it good and we shouldn't be complaining, and honestly, we aren't complaining, just feeling down.

We are also missing Louie... he was put down a year ago and I think we just miss having a pet around the house, but have no desire to have another one who only lives 10 - 12 years and have to put down again because they are sick. We just got too attached to Louie I guess. He would have loved our Mustang and driving in it with the top down. He would also have loved living so close to the beach... he was a beach dog through and through.

We have it good, and anyone who looks at our life from the outside would say so. We live on the beach, we have our dream car, we both have good jobs and we have a vacation planned in under 50 days. Who wouldn't want to live our life... we sure are enjoying it. But it's that feeling that sits in our soul... that feeling of utter sadness of what we could have been doing. As Doug said this morning... we have too many holes in our heart right now. Gotta figure out how to patch those holes up... anyone got some polly filler? HA HA HA!!!

I know that with time it will get easier and only God can truly help us fill those holes, even if it means healing them but not giving us something else to replace what we lost. We have to focus on all that is good in our lives, and for the most part we do. Not sure where we would be if we didn't have faith in God... in our belief that we are safe in his hands. Even in our sadness, he loves us and cry's with us when we cry. He never promised sunshine and roses every day, but promised his love and devotion to us. Life throws us curve balls and we have to live with that. It's how we manage with those curve balls that is important and if you focus on what is good and not what is bad, then we should manage ok. Only God can help us focus properly and settle our soul.

So things are ok in our lives. We applied for a caretaking job in our building, but probably won't get it. They are wanting to pay someone $500/month for being on call 24/7... hmmm... that seems a little ridiculous, but I guess if they can find someone to do that, more power to them. Can't imagine things will be run to well in our building then, but heck, we are only renters, so what do we care ;) We leave on a vacation on September 14th... spending a few days in DisneyWorld, then a 7 night Caribbean cruise and then 4 nights in Florida checking out the sites. Should be fun to get away and see part of this amazing world.

We are meeting up with a bunch of people on the cruise that we met online... sure wish some of them lived closer because I think we would be good friends with a few of them. Why do the friends who like us not live closer? All our "so called friends" who live close don't want to do anything with us, so too me that seems like a one way friendship. I guess to me it's important to visit and commune with friends, not just say we will visit and phone us, but never do. I guess I expect too much out of people, which is why we live our own little lives at the beach.

Doug and I will survive... we will get over this bit of sadness and be bright, shiny people again soon. We will keep having faith in God/Jesus (yes I put them as 2 not as 1) and believe that he will keep us safe. He will repair those holes and we will go where he sees fit to send us. If it's here in White Rock for a long long time, that is fine by me, but if he sends us to California, I am more than happy with that too ;) I think God wants us happy and sometimes it doesn't matter where we are because he will make things work where ever we are. I need to be happy with routine and the normal things in life right now because we aren't in Mexico, we are in White Rock... no sense in dwelling on things that aren't to be (tell that to my soul, it needs to be reminded). If nothing else, we will sit in our car, be hugged by our Mustang seats and drive around the world (with the convertible top down) until our hearts are repaired ;)

Yes, I babble... it's who I am LOL

Figured I would do a fun blog post about me. Maybe y’all want to know a little more about who I am.

I was born in 1970 on May 29. I am the oldest child in our family. I have 2 younger sisters and 2 foster siblings (1 foster brother and 1 foster sister). I grew up in Agassiz on a mountain with no neighbours. We had a beautiful A-frame house that every one loved. We had a great view of the river and the Fraser Valley. If someone was camping on one of the islands on the river, we could even talk with them. We had some good conversations with strangers HA HA HA. We lived on the mountain side, which made for great hiking and some great caves. It was too bad that I preferred to be inside watching TV or reading a book.

Living on a mountain is a lot of work (just ask my parents) and I was very happy to move into civilization when I was 16. I also was able to go to a different school that was a lot nicer than the one I had grown up in. I met Doug when I was 16, got engaged at 17 and was married at 18 on July 2nd, 1988. Marriage at that young of an age brings a lot of unique issues, but we managed and we have been married 22 years now.

So who am I? I love reading, always have. When I finally learned to read English (yes, I am an ESL… German is my first language) I could not be dragged out of the library. I think I read every book that I could get my hands on. Then when my parents were offered a TV, I fell in love with that beautiful entertainment box. I watched Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, MASH, Wonderful World of Disney, FAME and a number of other shows growing up. I am very shy, but am learning to come out of my shell a little more as I get older. I think that comes from not knowing English when going to Kindergarten and also being bullied most of my school life.

My favourite colour is Blue and I have no favourite number. I LOVE to travel and I think I have had that desire for as long as I can remember. I am not into camping though, but I will survive it if I have to. I need flush toilets for any traveling that I do. I prefer no bugs and I am not adventurous with food. I only eat Beef, Pork and Chicken (some Turkey) as a meat and will try various fish’s, but not that much into seafood. I hate banana’s and not really that much into Chocolate. I also don’t like blackberries but that is because we had to pick them as a kid and I got sick of them. I am also a fan of white bread… I believe the slogan that WonderBread has… “part of a complete childhood”… it’s why I think my childhood was not complete… no Wonder Bread, only icky Rye bread for my lunches… ewwww, ewwwww, ewwwwww!!! Since becoming type 2 Diabetic, I am very grateful for Cob’s bread and their high fibre white bread… they are my heros LOL. I love computers and most technology. I have been using the internet since about 1995 and been using a computer for at least 10 years before that. I also love Disney and if you see my house, you will figure that out pretty quickly.

I am an Introverted person and have been all my life. I don’t handle large crowds well in small spaces. I do love people though and love being surrounded by them. I think that comes from growing up on a mountain with no neighbours. I think that is why I LOVE living in the city now. I love throwing parties, but get very tired at the end of it. I am a great Mennonite who likes to cook and have people over for food. Yes, I am of Mennonite heritage and that is why every gathering that I attend needs to have food around it HA HA HA. Guess that is why I am not skinny. I love numbers, which is why I am a bookkeeper. I took Algebra in school just for the fun of it. I am not an artistry type person and don’t apologize for it either. I love music though, but only to listen to it. Granted I can play piano and if I put my mind to it, can probably be pretty good at it, but it doesn’t come natural and I have to work to hard at it to be good… yup, I am relaxed that way… if it takes too much work, I would prefer to not do it. Numbers come natural, so that is why I picked a profession that comes easy to me.

I don’t dream big, but I try to dream with attainable dreams. I don’t like to be let down, so I think that is why I do it that way. Less disappointment then. I am not competitive and in fact feel bad sometimes when I do win at things. That means someone else loses and that makes me sad. I don’t mind playing games, but not ones that are overly competitive. I just enjoy playing the game, win or lose. So of course that means I don’t really like sports.

I love to sit and just chat with people. I am very relaxed and am very open with who I am (if asked). I have some different outlooks on life, so unless someone asks, I don’t always give out my opinions too freely. I think I am a good listener and I enjoy hearing about peoples lives. I think that is why I love being a Travel Agent, I enjoy helping people with their vacations and hearing about them. I think I could be a great best friend to someone (other than Doug and my parents). I am very loyal and will do just about anything for a friend. We have traveled far to help out friends in need. I have gotten a little cynical about people though as we have been let down by friends, but I am working on that and trying to be more positive again. I tend to see the good in just about everything and have a fairly positive outlook on life. If you have ever watched the Disney show Pollyanna, then you know my personality… I am a Pollyanna type.

I have been a Christ follower since about 4ish… not totally sure of the age, but I figure that as far back as I can remember, I have always known Jesus and known his love for me. I have never backslided on my faith. I have always trusted God/Jesus with my life and known that he has been there through everything. A big part of my faith has come from my parents… they have been a great example in that area. They are my best friends and we love to travel with them.

One of my biggest dreams that I had was to go to New York, and we went there about 5 years ago for the first time. IT was everything that I imagined and more. We went again a few years ago and hope to go again and again. Another dream was to own a convertible and a few months ago we bought a Ford Mustang Convertible. There are still things on my “bucket” list and I am sure they will happen… we have a lot of living to do yet. I want to see Europe, move to California, visit many cities in the States (too many to list), and much much more when it comes to traveling. That is mostly what I want to do in life, lots of traveling.

OH… and I love to babble… always have. Can’t you tell???

One of the things I feel that are important in a church is a midweek get together of some sort. Each denomination calls it something different, but ultimately it is some kind of get together with others. When we have looked at various churches we always make sure a church has some sort of option like this because it is what helps get to know each other. We have been to a number of churches that don’t have this and that is when we have found we don’t know anybody in the church. How does one get to know each other if you just see each other 1 – 2 hours a week?

I think that is what I miss most about not going to church… is the mid week thing. It isn’t as if we can just find one to go to, but NOT go to the church… oh no, can’t have that. Usually you have to go to the church that the group is involved with… bummer!! I am not into structure, so that is another beef I have with these things. There always has to be a certain way to do things. What even annoys me more is that the church dictates what you have to study… good grief… do they tell us when to go pee too??? What totally gets me is when the church wants the groups to study the sermon notes… boy the pastor must be really high on themselves to want everyone to study his stuff. Heaven forbid if people want to talk about other things other than the sermon. Nope… can’t have people thinking for themselves. That is not the way of the church.

I wish these type of groups where more about developing friendships. I don’t understand why that isn’t more important in a church. If you don’t have friends, how can you grow with others? Our first church in Surrey had started out good with this kind of thing and just when we were finally getting to meet new people (remember we were new to the city), the church decided that we had to move to a different group. Nope, we can’t decide such things, the church has to decide that. No wonder people have such bad attitudes about church. It’s a dictatorship.

We went to a home group for 2 years at a different church and didn’t really get to be close to anyone. Nobody wanted to do things outside of the group. I guess I am the type that likes a bit of one on one type interaction and just going out and doing things. It doesn’t always have to be about the structure of the meeting or about church. We have gotten together still with a couple from this group, which is nice but we don’t go to the home group anymore. I do miss the weekly get together, but I found it was hard to get to know anyone deeply if we are always in a structured setting, with no room for spontaneity.

What does this kind of thing look to me??? I don’t have issues with some structure because I know others need it, but how about some place for openness and just talking? Why always the same thing every week? How about some quality time outside of the get together? Dinner out, out for coffee, games night, or something else like that? Why can’t people make more time for their friends? Or does it come down to the fact that these weekly get together’s are not as important as it seems? Maybe having more friends is too much for others, and the hassles of family life just doesn’t have room for more friends. I wish that wasn’t the case, but I think it is. Also why do they stop in summer? Do we stop needing each other for the summer? I guess if the church says so, then it is that way.

Yes, I am a little disheartened by church at the moment. I guess I blame them for part of our loneliness in our lives. But ultimately it is our choice to not go to church and put up with all the bullshit that goes on. Maybe someday we will find a group that will allow us to join, but not have to go to their church. Maybe someday we will find a group that looks a little like what I would feel comfortable with and that we can develop friendships that will last a lifetime. I can hope can’t I? I will always keep my options open though because you never know what God has in store for us. Yup, I still believe that God has some control of my life and that the church does not control my belief in God. It’s me and God in this life and no other institution… he will guide me and comfort me in all aspects of my search. In the end it is how I have lived this life for God that matters… so whatever he has in store, I am game for.

Here is to our journey with God… I am looking forward to our future and have great (and some not so great) stories from the past. Here is to seeing what “Christianity” looks like in all it’s forms. I look forward to the paradigm shift that is happening.

Wow has the weather sure changed from one week to the next. Last week it was raining and cold and now it's hot and very sunny. Sure makes driving the convertible fun, but the hot sun on the head needs to be dealt with.

Our landlords came by yesterday to check to make sure we weren't keeping a grow-op in our place. We weren't, but he did notice our palm tree that we planted. He liked what we have done in the garden patio area. We told him the palm tree is because we were supposed to be living in Mexico now and not here, so this is a little piece of Mexico for us.

So Doug is working on his Bachelors Degree (in Adult Education). This is so that in 4 years (when our car lease is up), we can try to see if we can get a job in the states. He has 1 full year of classes left, but will spread it over 4 years instead. 1 class a semester or maybe 2 if he can. Our ultimate goal is to move to California and legally work there.

Why California you say? Not totally sure, but we love the atmosphere and the weather in the San Diego area is nice. Our goal is to find a place between LA and San Diego somewhere. We love the beach life and I think California has the ultimate beach mentality. It is a lot like White Rock, but better weather and there is something about living in the States that we want to do. Not totally sure why, but it is a goal. If we only make it to living in White Rock for now, that is ok too, who can complain about the beach life here (other than ALL our rain). We would love to move somewhere to start all over again with people, things, ect. It's like cleaning the slate and starting new. I think that would be great. The end result might still be the same as here, but at least we tried.

There are constant reminders here of how badly things have gone in our life and I would like those reminders put away. I can't complain about life for the most part though, we have had a lot of good things happen to us, but the rough parts always stare us in the face. I would like them gone.

We enjoyed a nice weekend with my sister in Powell River (Sunshine Coast). She has a two year old and a newborn... yikes.... crazy life if you ask me. Makes me grateful for deciding to NOT have kids. Granted that stage in life is gone very quickly. We enjoyed our drive there and back. We had a great visit with my sister and my parents showed up at the end and we celebrated my dad's birthday on Sunday. Pictures are on my facebook page.

We started 2 cleaning jobs to earn some extra money. Gotta pay off some credit card debt before our next vacation. It's been fun working with Doug. Granted most of our jobs are working together, but this one we have managed to not yell at each other (YET). We actually work very well together (for the most part). We each have the qualities that make a good team in various jobs.

Not much else new with us these days. Still no prospect of a church. I just don't feel the need for church right now. I would like people to do stuff with, but just because you go to church doesn't mean you have more friends... I found we felt lonelier when going to church than now, so for now, we stick with being hermits in our condo on the beach and driving our Mustang Convertible with the top down.

I have always wondered how you can prove if prayer works or not?  How do you go back in time and go to that point where you prayed a certain thing and choose to not pray to see if prayer worked or not?

I believe in prayer!  Can I prove that it works?  I guess not really.   I think prayer is part of my belief system as a Christian.   Being a Christian means I have to have faith.  I have to have faith that prayer does work.  I have to have faith that the God I believe in actually exists.  I have to have faith that he sent his Son (Jesus) to die for us and save us from our sins.  I have to have faith that there is a heaven and hell.  Could I be wrong?  I doubt it, but I guess me and the many millions of other Christians could be wrong too. 

Prayer to me is really just chatting with God.  I am not one of those type of people that use lots of flowery words to pray to him with.  I don’t see the point in that.  We were created to cohabitate in the Garden of Eden with God… why would he have wanted to create us so we can talk to him with all sorts of crazy words.  Why not just normally like with anyone else.   I talk to God like he is my best friend (which he is).  I ask him for protection, for guidance, for peace and just regular chats.

Do I understand why sometimes a prayer isn’t listened to?  Not a clue… I assume God is listening, but circumstance are such that it can’t be dealt with.   I don’t have those kind of answers and I won’t even try figure it out.  I guess that is where faith comes in and we just have to have faith that things will work out.  I think people forget that we live in a sinful world and in this world, life sucks at times.  We can’t stop things from happening and so we just need to pray that we will get through it.  He can comfort us in situations and help us through it.

I choose to believe that prayer works.  I have seen it work (can’t prove it though).   I will still pray for people, for myself and for situations to heal themselves.  It doesn’t hurt people around me to pray, so why stop.  If it gives me some peace, then I will keep doing it.  I need as much as I can to make it through this life.  If prayer is one way to do that, I will keep praying. 

I do think people can go overboard on prayer though and make a big deal about it.  I don’t think it should be flashy and loud and obnoxious.  Prayer is between a person and God.  It is a conversation between friends, it is a cry for help, it is many, many things.  It shouldn’t always look the same.  I get annoyed when you go to church and the leader will come up and pray that God will be in “our presence” for church.  Good grief… isn’t he around us all the time?  I would think that as a Christian, we would have God with us at all times and we don’t need to make a big deal about asking him into the church… granted… considering some of the churches, maybe that is the only way God will come in HA HA HA… just kidding.  Sorry… went into my issues with church again… LOL

This won’t be a long post… just wanted to say that I believe in prayer.  It is part of my faith that it works.   It is the choice I make as a Christian to believe in it.  It is all about choices to me.  

I believe that there are parts of our lives that are the piece of the puzzle that have the red dot on it. Do you know what pieces I am talking about? Ever done a 3D puzzle and seen those pieces that have red dots on them? Do you know what you are supposed to do with them? Throw them away… they have nothing to do with the puzzle… they mean nothing to the big picture. That is what I think our Mexico fiasco was about

Well… here goes the post… I have been working on it for awhile in my head. Some of you know about our Mexico adventure, but for those of you who don’t… here is the long winded story.

It was November of 2009, I was browsing the internet (Craigslist) for caretaking jobs. We were currently the caretakers for the complex we lived in and were considering branching out and doing it elsewhere in the Fraser Valley. I stumbled across one that was in Mexico… I clicked on it… sent it to Doug… read it over and over again. It seemed legit and it was a guy who lived in Vancouver who had a small resort in Mexico that needed a caretaker. Doug and I chatted about it and figured why not… can’t hurt to inquire. So Doug sent an email and told him a bit about us and then we left it in the hands of the World Wide Web LOL. A few days later we got a reply… they liked our resume and would like to meet us. So off we went to the Endowment lands of UBC to have in interview about a job in Mexico. We were overwhelmed right away… his place was HUGE and you could tell money was no object.

We had a good interview with him and even met some of his kids. We were there for about an hour and then off we went. It sounded like a good job, but we definitely had questions. No sense asking more questions though if we don’t get short listed, so we just wrote our questions down on a paper and left it at that. About a week later, we got a call and him and his partner wanted to meet us again. They really liked us and he wanted us to meet the other person who owned the piece of property. So off we went again and this time armed with questions. We had an amount in our heads that we wanted to make, but we didn’t tell him that.

We met the two owners and they answered our questions the way we were hoping and the amount they were wanting to pay was exactly what we wanted to make. We were there for at least an hour and at the end of it, we were told we had the job if we wanted it. They wanted us to fly down and check out the place first, but they also said that we would love it, so no worries. We agreed that we would go down and visit while they were down there for Christmas Holidays. We left and immediately phoned my parents and told them we got the job. We were excited but suddenly very scared… how was this going to work? We went home, and started to plan…

We emailed with the owners a bit and eventually they booked us flights to Cabos for a 3 night weekend. We would check out the place and then go home and pack and then in the middle of January, we would plan to move permanently to Todos Santos, Mexico. Everything fell into place so nicely… we knew it was God. We felt at peace about it and even though we were scared about starting something so new, we were also excited. We bought about 15 Rubbermaid containers and started to pack the things we were going to put in storage. We organized the things we wanted to bring along already and the things we would bring along in January. We gave our notice for our home and our jobs. Everything was going well considering we were planning to move to another country with very little stuff.

Our flight left December 18th, 2009… we had 2 check-in luggage (49lbs each) and 2 carry-on’s for our first round of stuff to bring down. We had confirmed with the owners that we could store the things there until January when we came with the rest of our stuff. We had found out a few days before that the current caretaker was going to meet us at Hotel California and then we would follow him to the Hacienda. We were a little apprehensive about this, but figured lets go for it LOL. Our flight went OK, and we got into San Jose Del Cabo in the afternoon. We got going a little late, so our meet up time at Hotel California was a little later than expected, but we found him… drunk… eek…

We sat at Hotel California and had dinner and chatted with the caretaker. He had just been told that week that he was being replaced and when I asked him where he was going after this, he said he didn’t know because he was a drifter and had no place to go. Hmmm… this was going to be interesting. We followed him to the Hacienda and met Mike (one of the owners) who had been waiting for us to be there for dinner (would have been nice if we had known that). We chatted and we were shown to our rooms. It was all starting to sink in that this would be our new home in less than a month. It was scary but we wanted to try something new and see if we could do it.

The next day was spent chatting with the owners about the job and some of the things we would do. The other owner showed up with his family and that is when we started to notice how much the kids liked the current caretaker. This was going to be interesting… that night we heard the owner and the caretaker laughing until all hours of the night and that is when we started to wonder what was going on… little did we know it would turn out the way it did. So now we are on our second full day there and we had a few more questions now that we had seen the place and seen where we were going to live. When we sat down with the two owners to ask them the questions, they proceeded to tell us that they had changed their minds and were going to stick with the current caretaker. They tried to tell us that they hadn’t told us we had the job, but we proceeded to tell them that I had proof saying otherwise. I think the current taker (who was always drunk) convinced them that he would change his ways if they kept him on. We were told we could spend the night (our flight left the next day), but we packed up all our stuff in less than 20 minutes, made a reservation at a hotel in Cabos and LEFT. We were in tears… never in our minds did we think this would happen. We did our research on the property and on the owners. Everything was on the up and up, and I think up until that evening, I think we had the jobs, but the current caretaker was a friend of theirs and I think he made it hard on them to fire him… so I guess it was just easier to send us home and be out that $2000 in the flights for us.

We couldn’t believe it… we had to go back home with all the stuff we had brought, and tell everyone what happened. We were devastated. Our flight home was horrible, but thankfully we got first class so that helped us drown our sorrows. We got home on December 21, 2009 and have a very very rough Christmas. We got our jobs and our place back, but we were very very down.

I believe that God wanted us in Mexico and because they choose to change their minds, God had to adjust his plans LOL. I don’t believe God would string us along like that… not a chance. I believe that people have choices and when things like that happen, life has to be adjusted. God can help us manage through it, but he sure isn’t going to tell you to do one thing and then say HA HA HA, just kidding.

We still think about it a lot and it still hurts. Our life is good though and so we are grateful for that. We landed up moving anyway and moved to White Rock, which is right beside the ocean. We got ourselves a Mustang to drown our sorrows in. My parents are very happy that we didn’t move. We will make the best of what is thrown at us and we will enjoy life no matter where we are… that is just who we are. Our goal is to move to California if we can. But that is a long term goal… for now we have a 4 year lease on the car, so I think we will be here for at least 4 years. We love being at the ocean so even though it isn’t in Mexico, it is at least the same Pacific Ocean.

We are working at erasing that part of our lives away from our memory. It means nothing to us and has nothing to do with our future. It was a horrible, sucky, unnecessary piece of our lives that we will be very happy to forget. It is amazing how people can play havoc on others' lives, and I am a firm believer in Karma… so we will let God deal with our enemies and we will move on with our lives. God is much better at dealing with that than I am, so I will leave it in his very capable hands ;)

So here is to an exciting life in White Rock where the ocean is across the street. We will drive with the convertible top down as much as possible and we will enjoy living only an hour away from my parents. Maybe someday our lives can start new in California but we will see how that pans out, but for now we will be happy here and be grateful that God is loving and keeps us safe no matter what life throws at us. We are blessed with a great place to live, a great car, amazing parents (and best friends), decent jobs, each other AND the most amazing God and our bestest of friend… Jesus… we will always work on looking at the bright side and not wallow in the sadness of what could have been. No sense in that. It won’t change the situation.

Thank you God for helping survive the crap in this life. Glad Doug and I can survive it together.

Here I sit on our patio on a beautiful sunny day here in White Rock.  This morning it was raining, but thankfully by this afternoon, it is sunny.  We were at the beach earlier doing some people watching… that is always fun.   I think there is some reading issues with our population though… there is a sign that says no smoking and no pets on the promenade, yet you see a lot of people smoking and walking their dog.   Since the bylaw officers are around everyday, I am sure they will be caught at some point.  Guess it pays to learn to read LOL.

So our water feature is just about done.   We did it on a budget, and as you can see from the picture, I think we did a good job.  Somewhere in those plants are two gold fish.  Hopefully they adjust nicely to their new home.   I still want to put a small Japanese Maple tree beside the pond and then I think it’s done.  I think our back patio is looking pretty good.  We have 2 tomato plants and 1 serenno pepper plant.  We also have a lime bush and a lemon bush.  Hopefully at some point we will get some fruit/vegies out of our efforts.  If not, there is always the grocery store LOL.

As I sit here on a Sunday afternoon, I think of all the people that were in church this morning.  I sure don’t miss it.  I keep thinking I should miss church, but I don’t.  I miss the people, but I don’t miss the sadness of going home after church alone.  Most people do church every sunday, but the rest of the week, they don’t think about the people in the church.   Why bother seeing people once a week for an hour or so and then have no other contact with them other times.  I just don’t see the point.   I can worship God anywhere, so I don’t need church for that.  In fact I worship God the best at the beach or sitting on my patio listening to worship music.  I sure don’t need church for that.  I find church is to constricting.  You have to follow their rules and how they believe in God.  I have no desire for someone telling me how I should worship, how I should believe and how I should act.    I think I could handle it if God tells me to go to a certain church.  I know he will give me the abilities to have patience with the rules if it is supposed to be a place we should be going.  So far we haven’t found that place.  We do pray for guidance though, so it isn’t as if we refuse to go to church. 

We used to go to a Vineyard church and did like the style of it.  I think if they put one in South Surrey, we would at least try it out, but so far there isn’t plans to put one out here.  The closest one is in Langley, and we just didn’t get along with the people there and we were hurt fairly badly by a bunch of the people, so we have no desire to go back.  I think you have to get along with the people in a church if you want to go there.   The church we used to go to when we first moved to Surrey become to political for us… too many rules, ect.  How can one dictate how long a song can be played in a worship service… geshhh… I just don’t understand that.  Guess the will of God is second to being in control of the songs in worship.  I am just not into rules and politics and if people need that, that is ok.  Just don’t expect me to like it.  I am ok with not going to church for now.   Problem with my way of thinking is that our Christian friends don’t agree and so we don’t have a lot of Christian friends anymore because they believe that to be a good Christian, you have to go to church.  Oh well… it’s a lonely life, but at least I am living it the way I believe in.   I know we are living it the way God wants us to, so what more can I do… i am ok with it for the most part. 

So I guess I should finish some planting of the roses.  I got a few from my mom yesterday, so I should find a place for them in our back patio.  I also think at some point we will have to take the car out for a drive with the convertible top down … I hear it calling me from downstairs.

It was a good week last week.  The weekend went pretty good too.   It wasn’t too hard to get back to work after Vegas.  My one bookkeeping job has slowed down a bit, but I can just make up the hours with the other job.  I have been doing ok as a Travel Agent too, so I can’t complain… too much.  I would like a few more hours, so we will see what I find to do for some extra money.  I have some credit cards to pay off and a few future cruises to pay for.

Our weekend was nice.  We went to my parents on Saturday and stayed the night.  We had a party to go to nearby for some friends of Doug.  I was having my 40th birthday party at my parents on Sunday, so it all worked out fairly nicely.  My mom made a really good cheese cake for the party.  We brought a bunch of salads and my dad barbequed a bunch of tube steaks (weiners).  It was a nice party with some family members.  My grandpa (opa) came too.  His wife is in the hospital, so he has been getting a little lonely.  He is 98 years old… not too bad if you ask me.   I got some cool gifts for my birthday.  Most of them I knew about, but that is how we do things in our family… it helps so that we get gifts we like.  If you are on my facebook page, you can see the pictures of the gifts I got. 

Our life does not consist of too many friends these days.  It hasn’t for a long time actually… mostly due to the choices we have made.   We are fairly picky on how we like to be treated as friends.  Maybe too picky, but it is the boundaries we have made.  Let me tell you a phrase a former friend of ours said… “I can not agree to disagree”.  How does one move on with that kind of a friendship?  How can friends not agree to disagree?  That statement was the final nail in the death of our friendship (which still makes me sad).   One thing people will realize from this blog is that we think differently.  I know that the way I think will not always be the way others will think, but I am ok with.  How one believes makes no difference to me and I would like the same respect back from our friends.  I will gladly talk of my beliefs, but please do not argue with me about them.   I have a cousin who loves to discuss his beliefs, and we will chat on MSN for hours discussing them because he doesn’t try to change how I think, and I don’t try to change how he thinks.   It comes to respect… he respects my beliefs and I respect his. 

I also find as we get older, our friends that we used to have, get busier with various things and so we tend to be the last thing on their minds.   I get tired of being the one who always calls people to get together, so we land up just giving up eventually, and weirdly enough… the phone never rings.   I guess it was bound to happen though… we don’t have kids, so we tend to have more time on our hands than most other people.  We also don’t go to church (right now) and so we aren’t involved in every little church thing either.  

It does get lonely though, but I think it is how our life will be for the most part.  I would like to think that if we move away someday, it might get better, but I somehow doubt it.   It is why we surround ourselves with things we like… beach condo, great car and travelling… because we need something to do.  Our evenings usually are spent watching tv, playing on the computer, going for a walk on the beach and maybe going to the coffee place for some coffee and people watching.   I do go through my head sometimes to try to figure out where we can change, but it usually doesn’t go anywhere since I don’t see why we have to change our personality so that we get along better with people.  Why can’t people love us the way we are?   We might be a bit quirky, but honestly, are we that off base that nobody really wants to spend time with us?  Sure we have some odd beliefs, but how does that make a difference.  

I don’t have regrets with our past friendships.  I believe that friendships should be uplifting and positive… not depressing and negative.  We have had those kind of people in our lives and eventually we had to change the situation.  It was hard, but it the long run it had a lot less tears.  I know that not everyone will get along and I think a person has to find the right fit for friends… turns out that part is hard to find.    Right now the only people I would bear my soul too (other than Doug) would be my parents and maybe 1 other person, but she doesn’t live close by, so that makes it hard.   It is hard sometimes to see so many people have such close friends in their lives that they can cry on their shoulder, phone when something goes great, etc… I do wonder why we don’t have that with anyone in our age group. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not blogging this to get sympathy.  It is a blog of my thoughts.   It helps me organize my very jumbled mind of everything in it.  I know that I am loved by God very much.  He created me this way and I am grateful for that.   I love how he has changed my views on life and Christianity.  It is amazing to have my paradigm shift on my beliefs… i love it.  I always felt so out of sync with the Christian world, but I am starting to realize that I am not so out of sync… God has been changing how I see things.  I have a great support in my parents who have seen things very differently all their lives too…

I am 40 now… wiser maybe, but probably not LOL.   I am looking forward to my future… it may be hard at times, but I think I will get to unjumble my head even more as time goes on.  I enjoyed turning 40… had a great time in Vegas and a great party at my parents.   I don’t feel any older, but I guess once the eye sight goes, I might start to feel older HA HA HA.  Happy 40th birthday to me… here is to many many more.  Hopefully I don’t confuse Doug too much with all my wierd Christian views