Thanksgiving

So I said I would update about Thanksgiving and now that I have some time and don't appear to be falling asleep I will.

On Thursday (Thanksgiving day) I awoke at 7am and went downstairs to help with preparations. There was lots of cleaning to be done and then some food to be made. I don't think I was much help, but I tried.

Gary's sister and her family came around 1pm as did Christine, Sharon and Howard. Everyone gathered in the kitchen as the final cooking went on. It was a little crowded to say the least. I got to try Iced Roaches. Yummy. We also had dips and snacks.

Dinner was very like Christmas dinner. There was turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn and then some other unique stuff such as green chili corn, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie and cabbage salad. All edible and I've adjusted well to American food.

Overall, it was a good meal and the company was good. Afterwards there was the usual crashing on the couch before the guests left and the cleanup began. I was very glad to go to bed.

So now you've experienced Thanksgiving second hand. Basically Boxing Day except the grace is more about being thankful and the decorations are associated with Autumn.

The day after Thanksgiving is a day for the shops to go crazy. Some shops had sales on everything they sold and some opened as early as 5.30am. I didn't get up that early, but I did get some bargains and some great Christmas presents.

Celebrating Thanksgiving made me think about Christmas and how much I'm going to miss my family and our traditions. I'm just thankful to be in such a warm and loving home.

'Twas the Monday before Thanksgiving

I thought now would be a good time to write before all the chaos of Thanksgiving occurs.

The weekend was pretty hectic and tiring. I stayed at Charlie's house on Friday night so that the dogs wouldn't get lonely. I didn't sleep very well and then had to get up early to go to Wellington Mall. I guess I wasn't in the mood to shop cause I only got two things (and one of those Sharon bought me for Christmas. Just in case you wanted to know, Sharon is Dawn's mum. She treats me somewhat like a grandchild.)

After the long day at the mall I went to sleep for two hours. I didn't mean to, but couldn't help it. It did mean that I didn't feel like eating until Sunday morning though.

I have never had such a mad Sunday. First of all we have Hanging of the Greens next week -a service when the kids decorate the church. Apparently I'm now singing with the youth. Don't know how I ended up doing that seeing as I'm not a member of the youth, but I guess I don't really mind. Only thing is that they sing Away in a Manger to a weird melody and it quite annoys me. It's one of my favourite Christmas songs and now I won't get to sing it the right way.

So anyway, we were practicing for that and then I had my Sunday school class. After Sunday school I went to lunch with a few girls from youth. We had our first small group and it went ok. They got a little bit sidetracked but I was ok with that cause I wanted to keep it casual, but then I wasn't ok with it cause we weren't really getting anywhere. We did get back to the point though and I think they were inspired by the story we read. Hopefully they got something out of it. I don't feel particularly gifted as a small group leader.

As Charlie was away this weekend Youth Band practice was slightly different. We went through some stuff but things just seem to flow better when Charlie is there. Youth definitely flows better. I just don't like being in a position of authority.

Anyway, today was fun. We had the twins, Trinity and Logan, over and we took them to the park. They are so cute when they are sleeping and they didn't cry all day. Only thing was that it was very tiring and I hurt my ankle again. Oops. Ah well.

Gary and Louise are coming tomorrow so soon enough I will have chocolate again. Yay! I can't wait. I might also have contact lenses and some more clothes.

Anyway, I'm going to go rest now. Hope you are all well!

I would say Happy Thanksgiving, but you don't celebrate it. Perhaps you could learn some stuff about it though...I'm an expert.

Sporadic scoops

Sorry that my entries are so sporadic but I don't really feel I have much to write.

Over the weekend I didn't do very much. I organised stuff for youth and spent lots of time practicing the piano. I accompanied the Children's Choir on Sunday in a service for the most annoying song in the world. Thankfully I managed not to make any mistakes but now people think I can actually play without 20 hours of practice so I've already been signed up to play "Deck the halls" a week on Sunday. Not fun. I'm dreading it simply because people know the song so well so they'll know if I get it wrong.

Also on Sunday we had Youth Band practice. Charlie, being Charlie, made me sing into a microphone and attempt to play guitar at the same time. I never thought it would be so challenging, or that my fingers would hurt so much. I've been practicing every day and next week he won't be there so I'll have to lead practice. It could be amusing or just depressing. Thankfully we don't have to play for a while so we have time to practice the three songs that we have. I'm liking the challenge of it cause it's something I really want to be able to do, even though I keep saying that I just want to sing. I think that's cause I miss singing so much. Last year it was part of basically every day of my life. Now I'm glad to have a driver's license so I can sing along with the radio. Sad, I know.

I did have the opportunity this week to work on my music theory as Charlie passed the job of writing music for the trombone to me. Slightly challenging as I don't know much about the trombone and I haven't done theory for 2 and a bit years.

Tonight I helped lead a 1 st grade class. It was fun. We learnt about John the Baptist and I was impressed at how well they listened. We also made cardboard doves. They were covered with feathers and had a spoon attached to the bottom, apparently to make it fly better. I didn't see the improvement but that's what the book said. Then again, it did say to use a paper plate and not a cardboard bird. Ah well. They still enjoyed sticking loads of feathers on and telling me all about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is next week and I think Dawn is going to have lots of family round. Slightly worrying. But I'm sure it'll still be fun.

Anyway, not much else has been happening except for the usual busy office life. The next few months will be hectic with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year but hopefully I'll find time to keep you up to date.

Hope you are all good. I am- I had my first Monday off without being sick in over a month and didn't do a thing!

Driving Miss Daisy

Yesterday I was helping Becca with her cramming for her history test when I got a phone call from Charlie. My proper permit had arrived and he was very excited to tell me that I had to get up and be ready for 6.45 this morning.

So we arrived at the DMV at 7.15ish and were number 00. It had started at 70 something so we were in for a long wait. About 3 hours. Finally they called the number and then said there were still people in front me for the test so we waited another half hour. Finally I got into the car with the examiner.

I was really stressed about it. I was pretty sure I was going to fail and as I had so much time to think about stuff I had come up with lots of things to fail over. Anyway, we drove around and then back to the DMV and I passed with flying colours. Absolutely no mistakes. I was totally shocked. I still am. It's completely weird to be driving in a car on my own. I'll probably get lost soon!!

On Saturday we went to Boonadducious which was a Christian concert with Toby Mac and Third Day. It was pretty cool. At one stage I was just staring into the sky. It was a clear night and the stars were really bright. I started thinking that it would be very easy for someone to question why so many of us were at a Christian concert. It's odd how I have studied so much science and yet it's still really hard to actually prove God. Anyway, I was looking at the stars and I started thinking about how they are just like God. He's always there, even when we can't see him.

When I got home I wrote a poem about it cause I finally felt inspired. The weird thing is that my devotion on Sunday was about the stars and how someone had flown up in search of God but had found no proof. Had he been a poet he might have seen God everywhere. I was slightly freaked at the link but then I thought about how cool it is. I like having images from God.

Next Sunday I have to play piano with the children's choir. I'm really nervous. I don't feel very confident when I play and an audience puts me off. But I can still do all things through Christ who strengthens me so I'll just keep trying. I'm also playing guitar with the youth band. I only started teaching myself a few months ago and I didn't really put much effort into it before. It's all rather daunting. I'd quite like to just go back to singing. It's so much easier!

When I was scrolling through my blog I noticed that there were links through out it. Does anyone know where they came from? I wasn't very pleased cause the blue doesn't really go. Plus who wants to look up chocolate cake online? It's no fun if you can't smell or eat it. (Bet I have another link for that now!)

Anyway, I'm such a waster cause now I'm tired. I have been up since 6.15 but who goes to bed at 9.30? I guess I should just go with what my body says though cause I've already been sick too much!

Hope you are all well.
xo.

Malteaser Moment

Do you ever have blonde days? I'm having one. I just can't get my brain to compute anything. Charlie asked me to find a story about serving. Something inspirational that we can use with youth next week. All I can come up with is about starfish. It's quite a cute story but not entirely relevant.

I think I'm stressing myself too much about it. I want to be able to contribute but everything just seems a bit much for me today and I think I'm going to have to take a few deep breaths to get back to something close to normal. I was hoping to be more collected today but it's not going to happen.

I haven't done much this week. On Wednesday Ronda couldn't come to Extreme Kids so I had to take the 4/5 year old class. It went somewhat well. Elijah wouldn't be my first choice on a story to tell. They had more questions about how bread is made than anything. They also got a bit distracted and started to recite humpty dumpty to me. It was cute the first time but rather annoying after a while.

We did lots of dancing and so I got lots of exercise. It was cool to see them so excited about the songs. One little girl got this really complicated clapping rhythm completely right every time. I was so impressed.

I went to the mall yesterday and bought a few inspirational books. I will tell you about them when I start reading them. They look pretty good though and I'm excited about getting closer to God. I was kind of feeling a bit like I was sinking but I'm hanging in there.

Charlie read one of my poems to the youth. Thankfully he only told middle high that I wrote it. I don't mind him using it, and it did fit quite well, but it's embarrassing. I only really write for me. It's a great way to work stuff out in my head but I don't want everyone to read them cause it's kind of like bearing my soul or something. Each one is part of me and even though in my opinion they are pretty rubbish as far as poetry goes, they are still important to me. I wrote a new one last night and it was really exciting as I haven't written in so long. I love being inspired even if it is about sad stuff or hard stuff to think about.

I hope you are all well unlike me! I've had what seems to be a cold, though I'm told it's allergy stuff, for about a week. I'm feeling a bit better but it's still gross.

I'll try and update soon even though we have no computer at the house.
xo.

Time flies when you're having fun

Last week was somewhat hectic. So much so that I'm now sick again. It's not fair that I always get sick!

On Friday I went to see a movie with Kathy called Birth. It has that creepy kid from Godsend in it. Anyway, we thought that it would be scary, but actually everyone just said "WHAT?" when the movie ended. In fact a girl two rows in front turned round to someone behind her and asked if they could explain it. I don't think I recommend it but if there's a sequel I'll probably see it just so that some of it can be explained.

On Saturday I carved my very first pumpkin! It's so cute. We lit it up last night and put it out front. I'll try and upload the picture sometime soon.

Of course Halloween is a huge thing here. I went trick or treating to three houses and got enough sweets for a month. Then I felt too sick and came back to hand out stuff at the door. I dressed up as an angel and might have been described as cute had it not been for the red runny nose. I think I have hay fever!

Yesterday we also went to a pool party. Of course I was too sick to go in the pool, but Spencer did try really hard to push me in. It was very close but thankfully I didn't go in. Who knows what would have happened if I had.

Anyway, I should go and rest some more. Hope you are all good.
xo.