Get Ready

Not sure what I'm going to write about yet, but hopefully it will be good!

This Week

I don't usually like to post in this format, but it seems so much happened and there's not much to say about each, so here it goes.

Last week I:

• Had a snow day Wednesday! We got a bit of a surprise dump on Tuesday night, and so Dal and King's were closed. I'm glad, because I had a midterm Wednesday morning, and I would have been sooooo stressed about arriving late because all the traffic was backed up. Unfortunately, I was ready for it and it was a little frustrating to put it off till Friday, but it turned out ok. The snow day helped enable me to get all of the following finished!
• Took four midterms. Some were intense, some were fun, all turned out relatively well.
• Started working out! I went for a two mile jog on Tuesday (while it was still gorgeous), which I don't think I have ever done. I also started a push-up and crunches program, to get me to a level I want to be. The goal is to be able to do 100 pushups and 200 crunches in a row, and to have jogged 30 miles before April 12. I'm contemplating the squats program too, or something for my legs, but jogging may be enough. We'll see.
• Bought new tennis shoes (unrelated, but relevant to the previous point) because my old ones, which I've had about 30 months, have a nice hole in the toe. I actually bought the same ones, Nike Pegasus+, because I really like them, and I've noticed the updated version has an extra thick layer over the toe, so it seems that was an issue. Those shoes have been through lots, including a vat of barbecue sauce, and they've held up. Anyhow, that was my spending spree this week... :-/
• Went to a young homeschoolers science fair with the A's. Lauren and Sarah entered projects on buoyancy, and did a really nice job of their experiment. The atmosphere was non-competitive, and we had a great time. I actually learned a bit from some of the projects, which was cool!
• Knitted a Bible case from start to finish. My ESV was getting beat up in my backpack, so it now has a little lime green sweater. I really like the way it turned out. :)
• Listened to 1 Peter sermons by Mark Driscoll on authority. Here: authority. Here: ungodly authority. Here: wives. Here: husbands. Pretty good. A lot of people don't his style, but the last one was the edgiest I've heard him, at least at the end, and... ya. I think it had truth and was necessary to hear, but not sure about the method of delivery- from the pulpit. Mr. Dave pointed out that when your authority gets public criticism from those higher up, it's harder for those lower down to respect them... definitely see two sides. I really respect what he has to say though. Good message.
• Finished a web design project. We had to make a webpage for a school club. Check it out!

All in all, it was a good week. And now it's reading week!!! So exciting! Though I have a lot of things I need to do, including get caught up on everything I put off because of midterms last week. I also want to finish the Old Testament and get into Matthew this week, which is definitely do-able. I'm at Habakkuk now, so that's 31 pages in my NIV or 21 pages in my ESV (just different print sizes). All the rest are short books. I'm going to keep up the workouts, and Wednesday is Andrew's birthday- the big "oh-four" ;) I also want to finish Contact by Carl Sagan, if possible. It's pretty good so far, but I've been putting it on the back burner, and it's getting burned from sitting there so long.

Love Sucks

...at least according to a shirt I saw on the bus. It was bright red, hard to miss, and the message was encircled in a candy heart. The young man wearing it was definitely making a statement, but I had to think about if he was just under the weather from a lonely Valentine's Day, or if he didn't understand what love is.

What's really ironic about this whole scenario is as he walked on the bus, I was listening to Sanctus Real's song, Don't Give Up. It's about the cultural norm of casual love that doesn't last. Unfortunately, today more married people have been or will be divorced than not. I had to laugh at my iPod for shuffling this way, but I really paid attention to the lyrics, and something stood out.

Your restless heart won't win, 'cause you take, but you don't give.

And you'll keep movin' on till you learn what love is.

Bam.

I'm learning more and more that the key to every single relationship is giving. It's putting another before yourself, giving of your time, attention, talents, money, and otherwise- it's different for the needs of each relationship, be it friend, sibling, parent, or spouse. But one thing is consistant- giving. After all, that's what God did for us. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:7-10 ESV).

Sure love is hard, but it's a sad world that rejects even the idea of it.

Joy and Simple Gifts

My birthday was earlier this month, and before I left for Calgary, we had a discussion here about what sort of cake I wanted. My friend, Catherine, and I had grown up with our birthdays one day apart, and we always had red velvet cakes (at least as I recalled at the time. Photographic research since has shown Catherine always has the red velvet cake, and occasionally I'm a copycat). But in any case, that's what I was after. Mrs. Gina was busy at the time with various things, so I opted for the box version, and began to hunt for Red Velvet Cake. Sobey's didn't have it. And there ended the hunt, because I don't have a car, so getting to grocery stores is a little complicated.

I ended up having a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, which is basically a red velvet cake without being red, and I had a lovely birthday. My friend, Jenna escaped residence life and slept over, and we watched an "inspirational Christian sports movie," aka Facing the Giants. I got generous gifts from all the kids (including one of Andrew's picture books. :) talk about generosity) and spent some time that night thinking about the last 19 years. What a gift in itself.

Then, a week later, I went out for supper with Jenna, and she surprised me. She had been to Starbucks earlier that day, and lo and behold, they have Red Velvet Cupcakes!!! So she got me one. Isn't it incredible how the most simple gifts are sometimes the best? The cupcake and I had a photo shoot before it got devoured. Starbucks, I'm willing to sell the rights to the photos. ;)

Sunshine's Dark Side

Today I was back in the McCulloch Museum. You may remember my post, just two weeks ago about the joyful yellow tang fish that caught my attention. Well, today he had a friend. It was a little wrasse, fluttering about.

While I was reading next to them, the professor who cares for that tank came in and was talking to another student about them. The three of us watched them flutter about, and the professor was telling us about the alpha characteristics of the yellow tang. He said that last Saturday, they had introduced a blue tang into the tank, and the next time he checked, there was not a trace of it! My eyes must have bulged. Our dear Sunshine! A cannibal!

It made me think though, about pets and how I hardly know that fish and think it's cute, but have no knowledge of the species as a whole. It happens a lot with dogs. People see this cute puppy they want, but have no real sense of the discipline and patience it takes to train a dog.

I've been thinking a bit recently if I want to have a dog when I'm "all grown up." Part of me does. I've always had one, and I appreciate the company and security. It's an excuse to go for walks, which I don't do enough as is. And I can definitely see me sitting by the couch at night, listening to my husband talk or read, petting a happy, sleeping dog.

But part of me knows the work. And the hair. Oh my goodness, the amount of hair my mom vacuums. And dogs are expensive.

One thing is for sure though, I would get a bigger dog. I love my dear Lacey and Ziggy, but they're so easy to spoil because of their cuteness. I don't know. There's a dog show in the middle of February, so I think I'll go and bring my camera and talk to some breeders for future reference.