8 Days Left!!!!!

Eeek.

The Countdown Continues

I realized that after I changed the style and layout of my blog, my ticker went away and I forgot to re-add it again. So just in case you were all wondering what the count down to Mexico is, it is,

20 DAYS!!!!!

Yes, in 20 short days Kristen, Gareth and I will be found sipping drinks with umbrellas and laying by the pool. In these next few weeks I still have to find a bathing suit - something I am not looking forward to.

Just Plain Cute

These 2 characters are just too cute for words. I found Norah sitting in her doll crib on New Years Eve. Who says doll cribs are just for dolls.

Hayley loves Norah. I'm sure she can hardly wait until she can do everything that Norah does.

Showing off her dance moves.

This auntie loves her girls!

Cheers to a New Year!

-46 seems like a dreadful way to ring in a new year, however, that also means a day of sweatpants, no showers/getting ready, movie watching, puzzle making and new years cookies. All these great delights make up for the frigid temperatures and make for a lovely way to spend ringing in the new year. Low key. Cheers to that!

2009 was a good year in all I think. It definitely wasn't the best year, but it wasn't awful either. There were wonderful memories and some not so great memories made.

This year I have celebrated with Andrew and Aimee as they welcomed little Hayley into their family, with Don and Lavonne as they welcomed little Teegan into theirs. Mourned and cried many tears with Ken & Sabrina as they said goodbye to Kate.

It's been a challenging and exhausting year in regards to my health - ranging from botox treatments, going off my meds (I think it's safe to say I will never try that again), experiencing some of the worst headaches I have ever had and adjusting to the idea of having this pain be apart of my life for the long haul. At times the lack of progress with my headaches has put a strain on my relationship with God, but I am hopeful that this next year brings with it a game plan so that there can be some peace within my head. I have to hope.

I was talking with my future sister-in-law the other night and we were discussing friends and how hard it is to find friends who will love you and support you no matter what and who accept you for the person you are. As I listened to her talk about friends who have come and gone, I couldn't help but reflect upon the friends in my life and be truly thankful. It makes me sad to think that not everybody has a good group of friends. I have the most incredible group of ladies in my life who are in so many ways more like sisters. They accept all of me - the good, the bad and the ugly. Just thinking about each of these girls makes me teary eyed because I cannot imagine life without them. A week of absence from each other and we experience withdrawal. These girls are amazing. Actually, amazing doesn't do these girls justice - I'm not sure there is any one word that can fully describe how much they mean to me. I could go through each of these women and list off the incredible qualities they possess, but that would take much longer then I have time for right now. Perhaps one day I will be able to sum these fine ladies up for you. I am just so incredibly blessed to have them in my life - to know I can ask them for anything and they will go above and beyond what I need. Kristy, Sabrina, Kristen & Aimee, thank you for being you!

Life with God this past year has been exciting, challenging, frustrating and incredible. When I began 2009 I set some pretty high goals. I desired the Incarnate God. Emmanuel. God with us. I wanted to crave His presence in every aspect of my life. Did I accomplish that? Somedays I did. Somedays I failed miserably. A full year has passed and I still find myself craving that nearness to God. I have so much yet to learn.
2010 will be another year of striving to make Jesus all I want - to have Him be truly enough for me. To be attentive to the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus and have those Christ-like qualities seep out from every pore in my body.

There are good things coming my way in 2010. It's exciting to think about. I am getting a sister-in-law on June 19. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Friesen baby #3 at the end of June/beginning of July. I am impatiently awaiting my trip to Mexico in 28 days. Just to name a few. I have no doubt that 2010 will hold delightful, life-giving moments and I am excited to see what God has in store for me.

So here's to a new year. New beginnings. New chapters and new life. Cheers!

Christmas Festivities

Christmas is officially over. It seems the season has ended just as quickly as it approached. Instead of stores neatly aligned with product, everything appearing to be "perfect", it now is a scene of chaos and disarray as people scramble for the last minute deals. Such a sudden shift.

It was a good Christmas. It was low key, relaxing and exactly what I needed. My family is learning to create new traditions and schedules as we welcome significant others into the mix. Christmas has become a lot quieter than I remember it, but I'm finding that refreshing.

Christmas morning family picture.

This was some of my loot - both from Christmas and Grand Forks. I got some great deals on clothes in the States. It was a very successful shopping trip in that regard. For Christmas I got some great puzzles (yes I am a dork and I love to do puzzles), awesome monkey mitts, an Ingrid Michealson Cd, Starbucks gift cards, an awesome purse, and this great bath scrub that Dominika made for me, my mom and Courtney. It smells amazing. I was very much spoiled this Christmas.

Our Christmas trip down to Minneapolis got slightly altered this year due to the unfortunate bad weather. On the 27th we left the house at 4am, still hoping that by the time we got to Grand Forks, the roads would be opened up. Unfortunately that was not the case. We decided that we were going to make the best of our time in Grand Forks (even though the caliber of shopping does not rank close to that of Minneapolis).
The Canad Inns had rooms available and even let us check in at 7:30am so that we could all get some much needed rest before hitting the stores. Let me just say that if you have not stayed at this particular hotel before in Grand Forks, it is definitely worth it. The beds were to die for - none of us has ever fallen asleep so quickly and the water park is spectacular.


This tube ride was the awesome to say the least. We had so much fun. It looks like it could be kind of boring when you initially examine it, but when you go down it is sooooo much better. It involves an initial deep drop in an enclosed tunnel so you can't see a thing, followed by getting shot out of the tunnel into a whirl pool at a pretty decent speed. Like I said, it rocked.

I made a new friend while out for dinner one night. He was rather charming.

The girls indulged at Coldstone Creamery. I had the Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream. It was divine.

So, that was Christmas and our trip in a nutshell. I hope everyone had a great Christmas season!

What kind of luck is this???

Christmas was wonderful. It was a low key 2 days of lots of eating and spending time with my family. Part of our family Christmas tradition is driving down to Minneapolis on boxing day for a few days to do some shopping and also just to spend time together as a family. I packed my bags on Christmas Eve, eagerly anticipating walking through the Mall of America perusing the mall, a Starbucks in hand, of course.

I don't know if there is something about my family and travelling together, but it never seems to go as planned. My dad kindly informed us on Christmas morning that the I-29 from the border to Fargo was closed due to blizzard conditions and slippery roads. As the day progressed, highways being closed due to the bad weather stretched farther and farther south. Currently highways are closed from the border to South Dakota. Seriously???? The plan was to leave early this morning at 5:30am, but as it stands right now, the earliest we can possibly leave is the 27th first thing (only if the highways open).

I'm not sure what it is with our luck, but we can't seem to travel together. Christmas Day brought many people bringing to our attention that this was a repeat of our failed trip to Hawaii from last year. Let me tell you, no one had to bring that to the front of our minds.

So, today is a waiting kind of day. Hopefully we'll play some games and watch some good movies. I'm really hoping that we eventually make it out of this country so we can venture on down south of the border for some good times shopping. People wanted snow for Christmas, but this seems a tad excessive. But I guess this is Manitoba after all.

Stay tuned....

MRI Update

My Christmas holidays began today, promptly at 12 noon. I am on holidays for 12 days in a row and I couldn't be more in need of some time to relax and nourish me. The first thing on my holiday agenda was to meet with the neurologist regarding my MRI results from a few weeks ago. Nothing screams good times like going to see my neurologist.

I have been trying to prepare myself over the past few weeks to go into this appointment with low expectations. I needed to prepare myself that I most likely will hear that there is nothing wrong with me. And that was exactly what I heard. As much as I thought I was prepared to hear that there would be nothing wrong with me, I think deep down I really thought there would be. Something would show up on my MRI. Every brain scan I have had, every test that has been done (with the exception of 1) has returned normal. You may be thinking, but isn't that good news?? The answer is yes and no.

I am thrilled and relieved that there is no tumor growing in my brain, that there is no auto-immune disorder attacking my body. However, there is still no explanation for my intense headaches. It's a frustrating place to be as I crave to be free of these headaches. But as my neurologist very unsympathetically pointed out to me today, there is nothing else that can be done for me - there are no more exploratory tests to be conducted. This is the end of the line so to speak. So what's next?? Not much. The neurologist gave me some more medication (just in case I didn't have enough already) and told me that there was no need to come back and see him. The meds can be monitored through my GP. Fabulous (please note the sarcasm). I'm exploring alternative medicine options such as a chiropractor, who also is not totally convinced he can help me, but we'll see what happens when I meet with him again in the new year. It is a possible reality that these headaches are something I will have to live with for years to come.

The Christmas holidays have begun. The results of today's appointment were not what I was hoping for, but it's not the end of the world. I am relatively healthy and I am thankful for that. These holidays are going to be focused on living incarnationlly with Christ and using the time to doing things to nourish me such as drinking lovely coffees, wandering the Mall of America, exploring Ikea, spending time with some favorite little friends (ie-Gavin and Norah) and did I mention wandering the Mall of America???

Thank you to all of you who prayed for my appointment today. Your prayers have been so appreciated. It means an awful lot.

Well, I'm headed to bed. It's been a long day and I get to sleep for as long as my heart desires tomorrow, so I am anxious to put my head on that pillow.

Sharks and T-Rexes, Oh My!

Yesterday Cole and I went glo-in-the-dark mini golfing. It was pretty cool if I do say so myself. We explored underwater worlds filled with sharks and awesome looking fish and wandered the jungles of extinct dinosaurs all while trying to golf. It was quite the challenge, but we managed to make it through.

Unfortunately, the day ended with us both being eaten by a T-Rex. It was worth it though, because I got to spend the afternoon with Cole and nothing beats that!

Just a thought

"We are forever sorting out our sense of God. Jesus took a big gamble when he called God our father. God is beyond gender, beyond our imagination, and if we have bad associations or memories of either father or mother, we risk contaminating our idea of God with them. Those who have known a father as a tyrant or drunk, will have strange overtones to ‘Our father in heaven.' It takes many years of reflection to see what mother and father did to us, for better or worse.

Yet if we look for the North Star of Jesus' heart, the point to which he returned with joy and longing, we find it in one recurring word: ‘my father', meaning God. Philosophers and theologians speak abstract words about God, the First Mover, Creator, Transcendent and everlasting. Jesus' picture is different: it is the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. His clearest picture of the Father shows God coming out to meet us as soon as we turn God-wards."

~Sacred Space

Good Times.

Last night (or should I say this morning) I had the delightful privilege of spending a few hours in the ER. I had an unfortunate mishap with my nose ring - haha. As a lot of you know, tomorrow I am getting my MRI after a very long wait. Well, in order to get the MRI I need to remove all piercings and metal from my body. So, last night, I attempt to take out my nose ring to replace it with the plastic one they gave me (just so my hole doesn't close up). Much to my dismay, the nose ring is not simply twisting out as it should. After a few tries, my nose starts to swell up and bleed and I figure this has to be taken to the next level.

My dad is awake downstairs. Keep in mind this is all going on between the hours of midnight and 1am - yes I pick fabulous times to try things like this. So, I head downstairs to see if my dad can help me. I figure maybe another pair of hands can do the trick. My dad has another thought though. He heads to his tool box and brings out the biggest pair of pliers I have ever seen. He figures that if he snaps off the end of the ring, the other half will just fall out the inside of my nose. I initially thought that was a great idea. It makes complete sense.

So, my dad cuts off the tip of my nose ring. The other end does not fall out of my nose. Hmmm. We are both a little confused. The next attempt includes a pair of tweezers and me trying to twist it through. Nothing is working. My dad then suggests the unpleasant... that maybe I need to go to the ER and get them to do it. At this point it's 12:55am.

I head over to the hospital and go through the quickest triage and registration ever. It's gotta be good that I picked a Monday night to do this - it was dead. I got a few laughs from the nurses and the doctors as I explained my scenario to them. I was glad I could make them laugh on a slow night. The doctor took no mercy on my poor nose and gave it a good twist and pull. He managed to get it out with minimal pain.

Two hours later I walked out of the ER with an earring free and swollen nose. My nose is not looking its best this morning - red and swollen, but nothing make-up can't fix. I guess it's these moments that make life interesting. If everything were predictable, life would be pretty mundane.