The "Thing"

thing (n.)
-an overall, attractive quality about someone which naturally draws you to them
-it seems to be almost (but not quite) a universal quality because everyone of your gender seems to be drawn to them (it isn't just you being normally attracted to someone)
-it comes from their personality, though the person must be at least ok to look at
-it (in a guy) makes girls feel special and it (in a girl) makes guys feel wanted
-if you have the thing, you have it for life
-you know someone has it soon after you get to know them

"He's really attractive, I can't explain it, he's just got that thing about him."

brought to you by Jessie and Bek

Phone Talk

You know what is a sign of true friendship :P? When you are in the middle of chatting on the phone with someone and the phone dies (or the reception cuts the coversation) and neither person calls the other back to finish the conversation...and that's ok.

Bam!

So, Amarea walked right into a newspaper stand the other day...

Goin to the Chapel...

Really good sermon today. There was a couple visiting from Ireland and they told us about their lives. It sounded so awesome, all the wonderful things that God has been doing with them and their ministry, and some crazy persecution they've had (being sabotaged, stoned, etc.). The first thing that I took from it was the importance of sharing your faith with others. It's our responsiblity, but God will give us his spirit to do it. Also keeping our hearts right before God by confessing sin and obeying him so he can use us to the fullest. The husband was such an awesome example of trusting God even when he's had extreme loss in his life. It's tempting to, at least momentarily, lose your faith in God's goodness when traumatic things happen to you which are out of your control and unfair. His wife spoke about looking for love from people and how God can only be the one that fulfills your deepest need for love and validation. It's important to have that mindset before you "inflict" yourself on another person in a romantic relationship :).

They were so cute together. She is taller than him, and this is the first couple where I didn't mind that she was taller than him. Perhaps when they are an older couple, height doesn't matter as much. They were past 50 when they got married. My favourite quote (which I enjoyed more than other people) was when he was talking about how the Lord provided buildings for their seminary ministry. God would always give them buildings and one that he wanted was an old bar. He said something like, "And then I just prayed, Oh Lord, the PUB would be wonderful. Please give me the PUB! I would really like the PUB!" Perhaps you had to be there. I enjoyed it. I think I snorted slightly while I was giggling. A couple people looked back at us.

Couldn't help it. It was what came up when I Google imaged "pub sign". This is just to add a visual to the pub quote ;).

Changes

I'm liking September because there is only reading really, no big assignments. That's how life should be. Always. I am very glad to be back at school. It's so good to see everyone again, and even to learn things. I like learning things. My Shakespeare class has been particularly good so far. We watch movies in like every other class! I fear I am getting used to this ;). World History is good too, very interesting! I'm a discipleship group co-leader at Campus for Christ, so that's going to be a new experience, but it'll be exciting. So school is good.

I got the job at Marks Work Wearhouse that I interviewed for! I start training on October 3rd :). So that's really sweet. It's part-time and seasonal right now, but it could turn into a long term thing after January. The people seem to be all around my age. Each time I've been in, the male employees have been scarce. So work will be a bunch of girl-power-hours and I can get behind that.

I've officially changed churches. I'm going to a local Baptist church in Fall River now. I had been praying about this for awhile, and I feel that God wants me to serve here with the worship team and the Sunday school program. I'm excited, but also kinda sad to leave everyone at Birch Cove. Feeling bittersweet about it all, I suppose.

I've begun a new experiment with myself as the test subject. I've only put Christian music on my mp3 player. It was really hard to say goodbye for now to Mariah, Kanye (guilty pleasure), the Rejects, Coldplay, and so on. However, I would like to see if this exercise will make me feel more encouraged, stronger in my faith, and generally more spiritually minded. I'm going to try it for a bit and see what happens. I need to look up how long it takes for something to be a habit. Maybe I'll try it for that long. Let me be very clear that I think it is perfectly fine for Christians to listen to secular music. I'll stop before I begin to rant ;).

That's my life in a nutshell.

Resisting the temptation to count the number of "I"s in this entry...next one will have less, promise. Speaking of temptation, yesterday I resisted the temptation to cover Shiloh's poop with some leaves from a leaf pile on the side of the road instead of picking it up in a bag.

We Are Family

Well, I just got back from our church family camp...that I went on minus my family ;). It's the only way to really go to family camp. Lol, just kidding. It was such a good time though! Even better than last year! We had some car trouble on Friday afternoon, so I ended up only going to Malagash EARLY on Saturday morning. I slept most of the way there. Everyone in the car called me cranky...but I'm sure they were just kidding. I'm never cranky.

I got there 10 minutes before my first preschool session started. There were only 2 preschool age kids and they were angels all weekend. No tears and no attitude! I kid you not. A dream. We had so much fun together doing our scavenger hunts, making music makers, playing games, reading Bible stories, praying. I taught them all about how God made everything, how to praise God, and we talked about Jesus the last day. I just realized how much fun it is to talk to kids about God. Like I've done it before, of course, but just to look around the camp and pick out all the things that God has made and talk about how cool God is. So fun!

Some more campy highlights were the yummy food, spending good ol' quality time with everyone (it was so much better cause I knew people a lot better this time), silly bonfire songs, giggly star gazing- with "just for us" shooting stars (it was my fav star gazing time ever, if you Polly's goers can believe that one), picking up sea glass on the beach, playing with the kids, our worship times, and talent nite. The "Spoonful of Sugar" song was a success! We all dressed up (I was Mary) and there were 7-8 kids who did the actions. Ah, I wish the weekend could last longer!

Going Away!

It's late and time for bed! I'm almost all ready for our Birch Cove family camp weekend. The preschool program is going to be a good time. I've got a nature scavenger hunt all ready and I found some sand toys in storage at the church, beach detour ;)! The best idea is one for the talent show. Lets just say it includes Mary Poppins and interpretive dance! Leaving Friday afternoon, back Sunday afternoon! Happy weekending! Go get your week-end on...I really can't stand that song ;).

This Little Piggy...

So my poor feet can't handle shoes on their own. I will never wear anything barefoot except my flip flops. It's been a really hard week for my feet. I learned the hard way that walking around the city in 2 different pairs of shoes is a no-no with bare feet. I am enjoying being at school and having to walk more though. Walking is nice. On the topic of feet, I am really not a feet person. Feet from a distance aren't so bad. There are very few people whose feet I actually like within a metre of my person (not counting baby feet-all babies have likable feet).

Pearly Whites

I got a chipped tooth filled in today. This one was noticeable, right in the front on the bottom. It looks better then it has ever looked, even before it was chipped. It makes me want to get all new teeth. My mom said she'd get me some new ones someday because she feels guilty that the well water made my teeth yellowish in some spots. Perhaps things like redoing your teeth get addictive and soon I'll want to fix other parts of my body. I am actually fairly happy with the rest of me. Maybe we shouldn't try to change anything about ourselves because that's how God made us...I wonder if there are some groups of people that don't agree with the idea of braces.

Teeth must have been sooo bad before the dentist movement.

Weekenda

As part of the Gold Rush fair, me and my mom organized a bake sale for World Vision and a rep for the organization came down with a table. It went so well. It was really fun to chat and meet people. We raised $210! The money is going to go to educate a girl in China, provide money for a family to start their own business, and for hens and chickens. It was such a great time. I want to head it up next year and fill the entire room with baked goods to sell. I feel good. It feels nice to do something for someone else. I wonder if people get such a high from doing good things that they stop doing it just to help others and start doing just because they like how they feel after. Some people must. I never want to be like that. I do want to sponsor a child once I have more of an income. Oh, and Sarah, remember that CD you made me with the French, Spanish, Canadian, etc. music on it? I played that as background music and got more than one compliment on it :).

So when I got a movie on Saturday nite, I slapped down my Public Library card by mistake. I just saw blue in my wallet and yanked it out! Anyway, the Blockbuster guy made fun of me. That was after he called me and my buddies "the Ashleys" (from Recess). It was amusing, scandalous even. That night I decided that yelling is fun, rolling over car hoods is fun, The Breakfast Club is fun, and feather boas make the world go round.

Day 1

First day of school was quite positive. It was nice to see everyone at school again. I ran into a suprising amount of people today. The one class that I am really excited for is my Global History class. I was hanging on her every word. Like, who said that North America is on the top of the world? Maybe the world should be drawn on maps flipped around with South America and Africa nearer to the top. It's going to be so interesting. Plus, since I've been reading the newspaper for 2 whole months now, I feel more up with the times. Seriously :).

I've given out sooo many resumes! Halifax Shopping Centre, Sunnyside Mall, and Dalplex have all been covered. I just know that I have a strong desire not to work in a pool again. We'll see. At least I always have my money tree. Wait, it's not in the yard anymore...

I just realized the beauty of something: credit cards. I maxed out my $500 credit card in one day (books are expensive) and I just figured out that I need to only pay like $15 a month on it. Cash now, pay later. It's lovely.

Harvest time in my garden is coming to a close. My sunflower hasn't bloomed yet. It's 3/4 as tall as me. Any day now, any day.

This weekend is Waverley Gold Rush Days. It's time to feel connected to the community and proud of living in the sticks. Maybe if I stand in the stream long enough, I'll find some gold. Don't get me wrong, I kinda like it out here.

In closing, my little dog is so cute. I love her. Conditionally love her that is. She is sleeping in my lap right now.

School Starts

School starts on Thursday! This picture show almost makes me want to go back.

Keep clicking "next" under "Back to School Special".

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20060904/

Yup, Yup!

Just got back from a good loooong cottage weekend in the Valley! We had lots of giggles, story times, and chick flicks. We set off some mad fireworks with our brand new pink lighter. Exploring the caves on the beach and drinking the outdoor freshwater was great. It was so nice to have a beach day to just suntan. I became close friends with Megha's mp3 player ;). A surprise international phone call from our Adventurer was so great. I miss you, Sarah! We got back to our gathering roots by going blueberry picking. Mmm! One in the bucket, one in the tummy. Our glam dessert out was enhanced by a really cute waiter. But don't worry, we didn't spend the whole night trying to snap his picture or anything. The ice cream was yummy at the wharf and such a good price! Yeah...so all we really did this weekend was eat. It's true. Everyone learned that Morgan can do some amazing and innovative things with cheese! Our country church service was lovely. It was a nice change. As a side note, I would just like to say that if you are going to be a gentlemen or be polite, don't act annoyed when you do it. All chivalry goes down the toilet when you scowl and then let the lady go first. We had a perfect example of this after our Sunday service. Bad, bad, bad :). The whole weekend was a really nice time with my girls. We should go away together more often!



Notable convo:
Josh- "Oh, it's not a good song. There are swear words in it, like hell and s***."
Jessie (jokingly)- "Aw, they aren't thaaat bad..."
Josh- "Jessie!! Don't lower your standards! Don't let your London bridge DOWN!!"