Ultimate

We had our Ultimate wind-up last night and a couple on our team put together this slide show for everyone. This is our season in review!

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The End of a Season

Well, I am writing this post on my official last day of summer holidays. Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was stressing out with final exams and now as of tomorrow I am back at it again. Although the summer has been quick, it has still been a good one. So cheers to a fabulous summer and luck for the upcoming year ahead!






Thursday was my last day of daycare. We made it an extra fun day with treasure hunts, popsicles and a movie. I couldn't have asked for a better summer job. For the most part the kids were all really good and everything ran smoothly. Here some pictures from my last day with my kids.

My cutie Kylar

Cole + Sam = Best Buds

Not only are summer holidays ending today, but today also brought the end of our ultimate season. We finished in 4th place, which was too bad (it should have been 3rd), but we ended off on somewhat of a good note. The team we played against did not have the greatest team spirit, which affected some of our game, but overall it was a fantastic season. It was a ton of fun and I am excited about next year already!

THE ZOO

This morning Cole and hung out at the zoo before the ultimate game. It had been awhile since I have been able to hang out with him - just the 2 of us, so it was an extra special thing. Soon he may not want to hang out with me - he might be too cool for me (hopefully that doesn't happen for awhile yet).

Is it Christmas time already? Cuz the reindeer are out!

In Memory

It is 6 years ago to this day that my Grandpa died. Not only was he my grandpa, but he was a father figure to me and also one of my best friends. We spent a lot of time together while I was growing up. When I was younger we would have sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's house, spend wonderful summers out at the cabin together. He was the type of Grandpa that actually got down on the floor to play with us - he met us at our level or where we were at. I never had to question his loyalty to me, his love for me and where he stood. He was a constant in my life when other things were falling apart.

As I got older and played more sports, he came to every single basketball or volleyball game that he could. I knew I would always see his face in the stands and that meant the world to me. His constant presence in all aspects of my life was a huge life giving thing for me.

He became a listening ear to my problems and my prayer warrior. His confidence in me gave me strength when my life was headed down some tough roads. I remember countless times when I would run the 2 km to Grandma & Grandpa's house to hang out if I needed a safe place where I could just be. Even as I got older, he always met me where I was at.

I wish he could still be here, to see what I have made of myself, the path I have chosen and the faith that I have acquired. Even though he is not here at this present moment, I believe with my whole heart that he is aware of my accomplishments, the obstacles that I have overcome and the person that I have become. I miss him a lot, especially when I am at the cabin as that used to be "our place", but I have grown and I have created new memories. Not necessarily better memories, but different ones - equally good and life giving. In the moments of my missing him, I remind myself that he is where he wants to be - he is sitting at the feet of Jesus worshipping and I am excited for the day when I can join him there and we can worship our King together.

I miss you Grandpa and I love you very much!

Ready for Winter??

This afternoon I caught this on camera.

I know the kid loves the winter, but bringing out the sled in August seems just a little too crazy.

Caught red handed!

Creepy

I had a run in with a guy tonight that is leaving me feeling extremely creepy. Here's how it went down.
This evening Jess and I were hanging out at the Starbucks on Osborne catching up (it had been since May so were in due time). Anyway, beside us was a man probably in his forty's or early 50's. He kept looking at me/us while were talking, but I thought nothing of it. It wasn't like we were talking about anything he shouldn't hear, but it was just kind of weird - weird enough that we noticed anyway. So at 10:15 I looked at my watch and said to Jess that I needed to get home to bed. So we got up to leave, threw our cups out and in the corner of my eye I noticed the man had also gotten up and was following us out. I muttered to Jess that I needed her to walk me to my car (I am sooooo thankful to Bonnie that she let me borrow her car cuz after tonight I did not want to be walking. I'm taking it as a God moment). Jess and I started making our way to my car and the guy was catching up to us. He stopped us and said the following:

Man: "Excuse me, I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable in there, I just find you extremely attractive and beautiful. I would love to have the opportunity to get to know you better."

Kara: "Thank you very much, but I am not interested at this moment."

Man: "Well, I just didn't want to pass up the opportunity to not say anything to you or get to meet you. You have a beautiful face and you have lovely feet".

Kara: (scared out of my mind right now) "ummmm.... thank you????"

Man: (begins to walk away) "Have a nice evening!" (starts to walk past my car and down the way that I would have walked had I not had a vehicle tonight.

Needless to say, I drove Jess home cuz I wasn't about to let her walk alone, even though she only lives a block away from where we were, but I was pretty creeped out and so was she I think. I am so thankful that I had her along with me and that she decided to walk to my car with me. Thanks Jess! Like I said, I am viewing this incident as the hand of God working in some mysterious and yet odd way tonight. I know I have been praying for the right guy to come along into my life, but this is not what I had in mind. I seem to attract some very strange people. Wondering if there is something about me that attracts them. Go figure! Anyway, I am all wound up and my blood is just a pumpin', but I suppose I should go upstairs and try to fall asleep.

Kids Church Links

This post is for Heidi & Aimee. I have pulled up the links for the kids church lessons and crafts for you guys. I hope that they help. These were the ones that I used most frequently.

http://www.dltk-bible.com/

http://www.mssscrafts.com/

http://www.daniellesplace.com/HTML/bible_lessons.html

http://www.biblekidsfunzone.com/

The Weekend Review

The second last weekend before school starts has officially come to an end. It was a good weekend though.
On Friday I hung out at my parents so that I could do some errands and stuff like that. I ended up being able to hang out with my very good friend Jodi. Her and I have been friends since junior high, lived 2 streets over from each other when I lived at home and basically lived at each other's houses throughout high school. We still both live in Winnipeg, but the last time we saw each other was at Thanksgiving. It's really quite sad how we don't see each other very often at all! So it was good to hang out with her, catch up with each other and hang out with her sister and mom too!
Saturday my grandma, mom and my great aunt drove down to Grand Forks for the day to do some shopping. It was fantastic. Thanks to Amber we had a ton of great coupons, which saved us a ton of money and got us some great deals! Thanks Amber. I got some great new outfits for school and stocked up at Bath & Body Works and had my fair share of Starbucks coffee (but how could I not when I have a $1 off any drink). I unfortunately forgot my camera at home so there were no pictures that were taken while away, but we had a lot of fun. I love being able to spend time with my grandma - we have some pretty great and entertaining conversations. Thanks for a wonderful day Mom & Grandma!
Today I slept until 12:20 which felt fabulous. I decided to spend another night at my parents because of the time when we got home and that way I could spend some of today hanging out with Kevin and Dominika. It was a pretty low key sort of day where laying on the couch watching movies, eating popcorn and reading magazines were completely acceptable. I was in need of a day like today.
So now I am home and unpacked and that feels good too, but I should go to bed. I have one last week of kids and then I am officially finished. The summer has flown by sooooo fast! It's crazy. School starts in 1 week. I'm not sure if I am ready for that yet, but I guess I don't really have a choice. I have to be ready.

The Hills Are Alive...

With the Sound of Music!

Last night (Wednesday) I got to go to Rainbow Stage to one of my most favorite musicals of all time...The Sound of Music. I went with Aimee, Kristy, Lauren, Rosalind, Deanna & Laurie. It was a lot of fun but a little chilly. I have now seen this particular musical 3 times in my history of going to Rainbow Stage, but I must admit that out of the 3, this year's was my least favorite. Mostly because they included songs that I had never heard of before (they are not in the movie) and they mixed up the order of the songs. In my opinion, you can't have the yoddling (spelling??) song in the bedroom scene with the thunder storm. They are supposed to sing Raindrops on Roses, Whiskers on kittens, etc.

Other than that, it was a good time for most of us. We will be going again next year to see Peter Pan - another goodie.

Bre was volunteering at the park, so we needed to pay a visit to her at her booth. Who knew you could buy sound of music or rainbow stage yo-yo's.

The picture is kind of blurry as I was trying to sneak a picture of the production.












I have absolutely wonderful friends. They not only graced me with their presence but also brought Kernals popcorn for me to enjoy during the show!! My favorite! There isn't much else that makes me so happy ( I think only a slurpee tops the popcorn).

The 2 girls who brought such a wonderful treat! Thanks Deanna & Laurie

Lauren, Deanna and Laurie enjoying the yumminess.

Well on Saturday I am off to Grand Forks with my mom and Grandma, so I am anxiously awaiting and looking forward to the shopping and hoping that I will discover some fabulous deals!

Folklorama Part 2

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Folklorama

This evening Aimee and I headed out to explore Folklorama. Due to the rain and the fact that we were on bikes we only made it to the Africa-Caribbean Pavillion. It was amazing. The dancing and the drumming was incredible. Here are a few pictures from the evening (sorry the pictures aren't that great because the performers did not sit still for at all).

The Rum Punch was EXTREMELY strong - I couldn't even finish mine - probably wise too because I hadn't eaten supper yet (Don't worry Aimee didn't have both of those glasses either. One was mine).

Reflections

I have been reading a book this summer titled "God is Closer than you Think" by John Ortberg. It's a good book so far (I'm only on page 49). As I was reading the other day something struck me that I thought I would like to share with you. This is what it said:

"Perhaps in God's hiddenness God is up to something. George MacDonald wrote a book about a pastor named Thomas Wingfold, who is troubled by doubt and is inability to know God is present. He decides to make his life an experiment in seeking simply to follow Jesus in spite of his doubts. At one point he is caring for a dying man who has come to faith through his infuence. "I wish I could come back after I die, " the man tells Wingfold, "so you could be delivered from doubts and know for sure about the faith."
Then Wingfold says the words that have stayed with me ever since. "No- even if you could, I wouldn't want you to. I would not see him one moment before he thought best. I'd rather have the good of the not knowing".

That little story intrigued me a little. I have been praying constantly for the right man to come along and sweep me off my feet. I admit that there are even times when I wish I could jump forward into the future to see the man that God has picked out for me and to see the path my life will go down. It hasn't really occured to me prior to reading this book that there might be a reason for the uncertainty and a good of not knowing. If I am too eager to jump ahead, who knows what I might miss out on in the process - the other God moments that I may miss out on because I am so focused on this one thing sometimes. I have been encouraged to enjoy the present moment - the ordinary if you will. God doesn't always speak with a megaphone (actually I have yet to experience that) so rather than focusing and constantly praying about the right guy to come into my life, rather I am praying that my eyes might be opened to the work of God in my life through the small things because chances are I am more likely to find God when he whispers rather than when he yells.

A Mix of this and that

On Friday I had the privilage to go to Rosenort with my dear friend Kristy to visit my blogging friend Amber who is also Kristy's sister-in-law. It was a ton of fun. It's funny how you get to know a person, their struggles, their weekend plans, etc through each other's blogs but have not yet met in person. Other than meeting Amber and her adorable little girls, one of the highlights definitely was the cottage cheese perogies with white sauce & snickers pie at the cafe that we ate at the town cafe. Wow, were they ever good! It was a meal fit for a king (or queen). However, playing Ultimate later on in the evening didn't really agree with my heavy stomach from lunch. Oh well, the heaviness was worth it!

Auntie Kristy reading some bizarre fairy tales to Hailey

The 5 of us








Right: Me and Jayda

Like I said, Friday we had an exhibition Ultimate game. The team this year has been so much fun to play with and getting to know the very different people on the team. We won our game, which is always a good thing and we just had a lot of fun.

After Ultimate, Kristy and I met up with Steph and Aimee at Grant Park to see the movie "Becoming Jane". I must say that it was not a favorite of mine. Perhaps I was not in the right frame of mind to see a very slow and non-action sort of movie (after all the movie did only start at 10:05pm). Even if the movie was not a favorite, it was still good to be able to hang out with the girls.

After the movie we ended off the night at Boston Pizza with some drinks and some twisty bread - Yum!

Oh and girls, we are Definitely NOT Boring!!!!!

Saturday morning somewhat bright and early, my brother Derek and Courtney came by to pick me and Cole up to head out to the lake. We had some relatives out from Calgary so there was a ton of family out there. Thankfully I had Cole to distract me from all of the craziness and provided me with a reason to come home earlier.


Saturday the waves on the water were HUGE! It was not swimming weather not for me and certainly not for Cole.
















So instead of swimming and laying on the beach we played a lot of Bocce Ball with my parents and my grandma. The teams were "The Kids" (consisting of Derek, Courtney, Me and Cole???) vs. the Geriatrics (aka Mom, Dad & Grandma). Just so you all don't think that we are mean to our parents, they were the ones who picked the name out for themselves :)






Even Grandma got into the Bocce Ball


















And when there are some close calls, it is always handy to have a tape measure around.














Right: Derek showing off his "style"








On Sunday the water was beautiful. We were able to put the jet ski into the water to do some tubing and waterskiing. By evening the lake was like glass - absolutely perfect. Cole made some huge accomplishments this weekend:

1. Riding a two-wheeler all by himself.
2. driving the jet ski (perhaps next time he will be confident enough to be pulled behind in the tube)


































































The reason for the big family gathering at the cabin was because my aunt and uncle from Calgary were out for the week to visit with their 2 kids Brittany & Brandon.













Perfect water skiing and tubing weather

Courtney and I

The weekend was jam packed and passed by extremely quickly. It's crazy how there are not very many weekends left in summer to be out at the cabin. I think I have 1 or 2 more weekends left. Very Sad.