Me and Nawsheen at the Christmas party!

Christmas time is here...

It's been awhile I know. I don't even know where to begin! I should get my journal and look back on this month! haha. In fact I might just do just that...

Ok...went and got my journal, so let me see if I can get this blog all caught up. The following are all excerpts from my daily journal...

Nov. 16---- "Listened to a Piper sermon about youth and not letting people look down on us 'because of (our) youth'. It was more though about how we are all called to do something that no one else can do because God made us all unique with our own unique gifts. It was a really good sermon and was really good for me because it helped me realize more that I do have some sort of special purpose and calling and gifting in life, I just need to ask God to reveal it to me and then off I can go to serve Him. So that was all good. This afternoon I went and saw the new Bond movie..."

Nov. 17---- "This evening at work I told my boss about my plans to leave in December. I assured him that it had nothing to do with my job. He seemed genuinely sad that I was going..."

Nov. 19---- "There was a big Geo Science forum happening this week and this past evening was the gala dinner. Our hotel was actually overbooked and it was absolute craziness trying to figure out where to put people. At one point in the evening we were scrambling to find rooms for everybody who was coming in..."

Nov. 23---- "I literally got up 15 minutes (or maybe 20) before I left for church. I didn't have time for anything. I quickly chowed down on a cinnamon bun and drank some orange juice. No coffee for me this morning. I actually somehow made it to church just as it was starting. I sat with Maureen. After church I ran over to Extra Foods...I then walked over to Maureen's to sit and talk and have coffee with her. It was really nice."

Nov. 27---- "I have met some awesome Japanese people! One lady is staying in the hotel. Her name is Satoe. I also met another girl, Eye (at least that's how you say it), and two other guys who got a job at the hotel where I work. One is Ryo and the other I can't remember. This afternoon I went for coffee with Satoe, Ryo and the other guy, which was a lot of fun! Tonight we, all four of us, went out on the lake to see if we could see the Northern Lights. No such luck tonight, but we will go again tomorrow....I am going to be so sad when Satoe goes back to Japan on Sunday!"

Dec. 1----"I got to work with Nawsheen, which was quite fun. We always have a good time when we work together. Ooooh...it's payday this Friday! Yipee! More Christmas money. I'll actually get to spend some money on my family this Christmas. It'll be fun. Mom is going to take me shopping when I fly into Moncton. That's the plan anyways. Hopefully it will all work out. I can't wait to see my mommy again. I miss her."

Dec. 3----"I talked to mom on the phone this evening, which was really nice...I think that I'm really starting to grow up and learn patience and tolerance. Work is good for that. I talked to mom about work too, and all the awesome people I've been meeting through work. It's great. Before bed, I sat down and wrote notes in a few Christmas cards for my friends. It was fun. I'm going to miss all my friends here..."

Dec. 5---- "Today our dear Canpages friends checked out and headed back to Calgary. I was actually quite sad to see most of them go. They were all just so much fun and so entertaining. One of the guys got us front desk girls a card saying thanks for making their stay more fun and also he got us chocolates! It was really very sweet of him...I'm definitely going to miss them all. Too bad they had to go so soon..."

Dec. 11---- "This evening I did my dinner thing. I made chicken alfredo. After supper we all opened our gifts from each other. It was pretty fun. I got two gift cards from Kelly and Kotah as my gift. A card from Starbucks and a gift Mastercard. Awesome gifts. Coffee and money...haha! It was very thoughtful. After supper and all that I went with Kelly to Saint Patrick's Church. She and I both met friends and came to see Handel's Messiah. Divya payed for me as my Christmas gift. It was marvelous! Three hours of an amazing choir and professional orchestra (mini orchestra of course...) The soloists were exceptional. They and the choir were wonderful to listen to. Handel's Messiah is an amazing way to present Christ's birth, crusifixion, and resurrection and second coming!"

Dec. 13----"So, yesterday was the Christmas party. I was supposed to work from 6pm-10pm, but good old Fil came through for me and instead I only worked from 6pm-8pm. We all ate and drank and then it was presents time. We all had to go up and sit on Santa's lap and get our present when called. I wouldn't sit on Santa's lap. I was like, 'no way!' ... I got a French manicure from Merle Norman from Rick (a cook). What a nice gift. I'll need to grow my nails now! ... Nawsheen got me a Christmas present. It's a really nice makeup case and she filled it up with a bunch of Avon goodies! It's awesome."

So....that all brings us up to today. I didn't do much...I just listened to a sermon and then went and watched Four Christmasses. It was ok. So now you can all be happy...I just completely updated my blog. haha. I need to get to bed now!!!! It's after 1am!

Walking to work in the SNOW

Just thought I should add a couple of shots that I took on the way to work a little while ago. Walking to work in the snow has become the norm for me around here...

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Yes, it's true. I am leaving Yellowknife. I have decided that Yellowknife is not for me and so I have already booked my plane ticket home. I leave on December the 30th, but I don't arrive in New Brunswick until the 31st, which is just crazy, but hey, it was cheaper that way.

So, obviously a lot has gone on since I last posted, because I havn't posted for quite some time now. My mother and my grandmother have been on my case about this so I think it's high time that I posted another little antidote.

I am going to go back to Thanksgiving, because a really neat thing happened and I never got around to writing about it. Ok, a couple of days before Thanksgiving a friend of my uncle Vince and aunty Anne came to my work to welcome me to Yellowknife. She bought me a bouquet of carnations and while we were talking she found out that I had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving and she invited me out to her place! So I arrived at her place Sunday afternoon and I had a really really great time. She had also invited two really nice Jamaican women and another lady from her work I think. We just chatted and ate and ate and ate. When they drove me home I made a comment about how I enjoyed hanging out with a bunch of old people. They all just split a gut laughing. It was really funny. So the next day, or a couple of days later, I was talking to mom about what I had done for Thanksgiving. She asked whose house I had gone to and I said, oh her name was Maureen. Well mom just about went crazy, she was like MAUREEN!? And she asked me if it was Maureen L and I said yes. She was like, "OH my goodness! I went to her church and her daughter was my maid of honour!" I was on Facebook at the time and Maureen happened to be online so I started talking to her and I asked if she really knew who I was. She said that she didn't, all she really knew was that I was Vince and Anne's neice. So I filled her in on whose daughter I was and she was really excited! I got mom to add her and mom got to find out that her maid of honour now lives overseas and has four kids! When mom had known her, they didn't think that she would be able to have kids!!! So it was just really really awesome!

Anyways, this is all I have time to write for now because I have to go and shovel off the steps before Kelly falls and kills herself on them.

TCHAU for now!

Voting for the first time!

So hooray...

Today I voted for the first time ever! It feels so cool knowing that you have a part in who is going to be helping lead our provinces and country. Now I know that if who I voted for wins the election I had a part in that. Also I can now have a right to be disappointed if who I voted for doesn't make it. As someone in one of the offices said to me when I called for directions to the polls, I'm doing my civic duty. Neato eh?

In case anyone was wondering...I voted for the Conservative party.

:-D

Growth Spurts

Becoming an adult is one of the most difficult challenges that I have had to face in my life so far. It's even harder than the teen years. Right now I'm at the place in one's life where they are stuck somewhere between teenhood and adulthood. I want so badly to be an adult, but yet I still often act like a teenager and even sometimes like a child. Now, becoming an adult is hard, but becoming a woman of God, now that is the ultimate challenge!

Right now I am stuck between being a teen Christian and becoming an adult Christian. Believe you me, this is not an easy journey. Already in my life I have been faced with many difficult questions, challenges, and life choices. And already I've chosen some pretty dumb stuff and some pretty good stuff too. Is it enough though? Not even close.

Today I watched a message by this guy called Paul Washer. I started the video thinking, well, nothing much really. I was mostly thinking I guess that I was glad for YouTube because I unfortunetly slept in this morning and so was feeling pretty guilty that I was missing church. I'm not too sure that I have yet found my Yellowknife church, but I know that I still need the Christian fellowship. So anyways, I watched this message by Paul Washer and it really got to me. He talked a lot about how Christians these days in North America live so much in and of the world and are ignoring the fact that it's not only a narrow gate that we go through, but there's also a narrow path that we should be following. He talked about how we so often "re-commit" our lives but it only lasts for maybe a week, sometimes a month, and sometimes even less. He also talked about how so many of us live our entire lives professing to be Christians because we prayed a prayer and we even live like our fellow "Christians" but often those people in our youth groups and churches aren't even Christians at all and we are living up to such a low low North American "Christian" standards. He talked about what we really should be basing our Christianity on, and it's not a prayer, it's our fruit and our lives and whether or not we really are walking on the narrow path, and yeah we all screw up, but as Christians when we screw up God is always there to chastize us and get us back on the right path.

What I got out of the message was mostly that I have been straying too often from the narrow way and have been basing my standard of living on too low of standards. I know that change will not be huge right away, but I think that if I really stick to it and if God is really in it, then anything can happen. I want to start putting my standards up to the way people like John Piper and Martin Luther and Paul Washer live/lived their lives. It's definitely not going to be easy, but I believe with all my heart that it will be worth it.

I recommend that everyone watches this message because it really is life changing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8

I would really really appreciate it if everyone would pray for me right now, because I don't want my convictions to last one day, one month, or even just one year. I have a real desire right now to be more like Christ and I want it to stay that way.

If anyone has any recommended reading either from the bible, or some good book, please let me know in a comment. One thing to keep in mind that Paul Washer said before his message (and I really like this) "If what I say in this message is not the truth, then I am the one who is going to face judgement, but if what I say is the truth and you don't listen to it the judgement is yours." something like that...

Anyways it's baby steps from here on to Adulthood and t0 becoming a Woman of God...

Weekend out...

Last night I went out to a club called the Prestige to meet some of my cool and classy non-drinking friends. It was really fun. The club has started putting on "Retro Dance" nights where they play music from the 70's 80's and 90's till about 12am. It's going to happen every second Friday. The guy who teaches the salsa dance classes that I plan on taking is the one who started the retro night. He is friends with the owner of the club. So anyways it was a really fun night. It was really classy, nobody was drunk or going around hitting on people. Besides, Raza (the salsa teacher) and his roomy, Josef, were taking good care of me. At 1am we went to a really high class french restaurant called Le Frolic and we just sat and talked and drank tea. After that we took a cab back to Raza and Josef's house where they had a car they could use and then they drove me home straight away. On the ride home we saw NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!! It was AWESOME!!! I was soooooo excited! So that was my weekend so far. Really really awesome. Today I am working from 3pm-10pm so I probably won't end up doing anything tonight. It's really boring here on Saturday because no one is checking in or out. So that is life.

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAVIS! Hope that you have a good one tomorrow!