Sample Saturday

I love Costco, i love roaming the isles and checking out all the deals, even if I don't buy anything.  Phil has never experienced Saturday at Costco or as I like to call it "sample Saturday".  Every corner has a food sample and you could basically have your lunch by cruising the samples.  I always wondered how many people actually bought the food they sampled but it worked for us.  We found some great organic cereal and pasta so they made some money off us. 

The best part of the day was the drive around town and all the beautiful leaves.  It was like God had snapped His fingers overnight and all of a sudden there was bright yellow and orange everywhere.  It was one of those WOW moments where you can't help but marvel at what God created and how blessed we are.  I love this time of year, fall colours, getting ready for Thanksgiving and hard to believe but Christmas just around the corner!

Working down the list of fears

I'm afraid of a lot of things.  The usuals like snakes and bats, not a fan of heights, roller coasters or anything relating to speed and height combined.  I had a big fear of flying which i've worked on to now just say i don't enjoy flying but i'll do it.  My dad has flown once in his life and refuses to do it again.  I see how it can limit your life if you're not open to it.  When I had the opportunity to go to South Africa last year I knew it was time to get over it.  I had flown before, just small 3 hour max flights here and there.  South Africa was a different story.  19 hours of flying with one stop that we didn't even get to leave the plane for is pretty much facing the fear head on.  Having dealt with that one it allowed me to be at ease with flying to Italy and Israel for my honeymoon and be the strong one for my husband who hasn't really gotten over that fear yet. 

Motorcyles weren't really a big fear of mine except for the one my husband owns.  It's a nice Harley however it's not really a two seater.  In order for me to ride on it he suction cups a seat to the back.  Doesn't exactly sound safe to me although he assures me it's fine.  I have avoided riding on the Harley since we met but I knew it was time to deal with it.  I know how much Phil has wanted me to go and he think he was quite shocked when I actually said yes!  We made it down the street and back and that was enough for me.  I'm not afraid anymore, a stirdier seat of my own would make things a bit better but it's one more thing off the list!

Patience in Pancakes

I have been married 10 months now and I'm still learning and doing my best at being the domesticated wife - women libbers better stop reading now.  I enjoy coming home and cooking dinner, taking care of my husband.  I'm a pretty good cook but there is one thing i have not conquered- pancakes.  I never cook them right, I can't get them round, it stresses me out so I avoid them.  My husband had been wanting pancakes and I just couldn't avoid it anymore so I had to try again.  The batter was ready, the pan was heated so I went for it.  I "thought" it was time to flip and here I go again - totally ruined.  Undercooked broken disaster!  I tried to keep my cool and went for another one and it all became clear.  I had NO patience for this process and that's why I was ruining them.  I was using too much batter and flipped too quickly.  As with most things in my life when I want results I want them now as fast as possible and I do too much at once, and it reflected in my cooking.  So I took a deep breath, poured another pancake, less batter this time and just sat back and waited.  When the bubbles had survaced it was time to flip and ta-da a perfect pancake - and a few more after that.  I finally conquered the pancakes and had a little life lesson as well.

America's Got Talent....or do they?

I've never gotten into America's Got Talent before but it's a been a slow summer for TV.  So Phil and I got into the show and started to have our favorites.  Last night was the finale and like every competition show they drag out the winning announcement for 2 hours until the last 30 seconds.  Now there were 4 finalists going into the last night so at a couple different points in the evening they did narrow it down to the final 2 so that kept the momentum going.  They had the homage to some of the worst performers and actually let them come back and do group number.

So America's Got Talent is about a variety of talents and the winner gets the million bucks and a vegas show.  So as I was watching this season and judging, like i'm actually someone on the panel, I would rank them based on whether they would be able to create a vegas worthy show around this act.  Having never been to Vegas I don't know exactly what is Vegas worthy but i used my imagination.

The final 4 were Michael Grimm, a blues type singer.  Jackie Evancho, a 10 year old opera singer.  Fighting Gravity which were a really cool glow in the dark blue man group type deal and "The prince" as I called him, I won't write his full name because i'm sure someone will be offended, but he chose his name not me.

So out of these four The Prince and Fighting Gravity I thought were the most Vegas worthy.  Michael Grimm should go on American Idol or something and going to Vegas to see a 10 year old opera singer just sounds weird.  Now talent wise Jackie the opera singer was hands down the most talented but Michael Grimm was chosen by America as the winner. 

He was a down on his luck kind of guy, always talking about his grandparents and how broke they were so I think he got a lot of sympathy votes on this one.  I know that may sound heartless but this is talent show not who has the sadest story.  The upside is you know the money will be put to good use and now he has a way to continue to support his grandparents financially.  For Jackie - she just 10 years old she has a big career ahead of her. 

So America's Got Talent is over....what's next.....oh the Apprentice starts tonight! 

Choose Joy....not as easy as it sounds

A few years ago for Christmas I bought my mom a sign for her house that says "Choose Joy".  I thought it was a nice sign for her house and frankly it gets harder and harder each year to buy my mom Christmas presents.  I didn't really buy it with deep meaningful sentiments behind it (sorry mom).  However this sign has turned out to be a reference point in both of our lives over the past couple years.  I probably should have bought myself one.

Think about it - "choose joy" sounds easy but it's not.  Let's be real, when things suck you just want to be mad about it, yell, sit and sulk, eat a bag of chips - whatever works for you - and deal with it your own special way.  Then the words "choose joy".  For me that means rise above it, don't let your circumstances bring you down, choose to move on and pull yourself out of it.  Find the joy in your life, your spouse, your kids, a forgiving and full of grace God and keep smiling.

Eat Pray Love...and eat some more

So I finally saw the movie "Eat Pray Love" on the weekend.  I read the book this summer and really enjoyed it so that made me a bit skeptical about the movie.  Alot of times a good book doesn't transfer into the movie we had created in our minds or they leave out parts of the book that you think should have made the movie.  The movie was 2 1/2 hours and I think they managed to get do a good translation of the book. 

I loved the visuals from her time in Italy after just being there myself this year.  I related to her enjoyment of the pasta and the gelato - I think I ate gelato twice a day while we were there.  Because I often got strawberry and banana I convinced myself it wasn't bad for me. 

Seeing the movie reminded me about a part in the book that stood out to me.  Liz, played by Julia Roberts, is speaking with her friend Luca Spaghetti - yes that was his real name.  He was saying that Americans (I will clump Canadians into that category for this example) don't know how to enjoy life.  We overwork ourselves all week only to be exhausted by the time the weekend arrives and we just want to lay around in sweat pants and watch TV.  I wondered if this guy had a camera in my house! 

Italians live "la dolce vita" meaning the sweet life or the good life.  They enjoy every minute.  After visiting Italy I really did notice that.  I kept wondering if anyone had jobs because the cafe's and restaurants were always full in the middle of the day.  His view of North Americans was we work so hard to enjoy life but then don't really enjoy it which I think is pretty true.  How many weekends have I wasted catching up on episodes of The Real Housewives (don't judge me) instead of getting out there and enjoying life?  But to be fair occassionally a day in sweat pants, Ben & Jerry's and a few good movies do count as enjoying life for me! 

Living "la dolce vita" just means different things to different people.   

Falling in love

In our couple's devotions this week the writer was talking about going back to a place of love.  Reminding yourself of the time you fell in love with your spouse or a particularly loving time in your relationship that sticks out.  Most people i'm sure think back to their wedding day because love was just oozing that day!  It was the first thing that came to my mind but one moment in particular which was my first dance with my husband.

We had tossed around many ideas for what song to dance to and I didn't want to pick something that everyone dances to at their wedding, I wanted something unique.  So my husband asked if he could pick the song and surprise me.  For a control freak like me it was a hard thing to do but I trusted he would pick us a great song.  Some friends had played this song called "Cause I Get to Love You" by a singer from Toronto named Bryan Weirmier.  I LOVED the song, it had to be our song.  My husband said he didn't like it he wanted something else.  I was clearly upset but I was trying to learn about compromise here.  So I let it go, little did I know what my husband was planning.

Our wedding day arrives and time for the big dance.  The music starts and right away I recognized the song "Cause I Get to Love You".  I thought, "how sweet he caved and played the song".  Then the song started to skip, my worst nightmare come true and our big moment ruined.  I was starting to get mad and shooting death glares over at our sound guy.  Phil and I stopped dancing for a moment as we tried to figure things out and then all of a sudden there is a guy at the keyboard who starts playing and it's the same song "Cause I Get to Love You" and it's the singer/songwriter Bryan Weirmier.  For me it was instant tears - tears of joy of course.  That was a moment of love for me.  I couldn't believe this man loved me as much as he did.  He went to all that work to surpise me and actually bring the singer to perform at our wedding - how often does that happen?  It wasn't just a first dance or a song, it was a moment for us. 

I gave a speech at another wedding recently and told the couple that on this day you think you could never love this person more than you do right now, but it only gets better and it's true what i've heard throughout the years, you love them more and more each day. 

I couldn't write this blog without sharing Bryan's song with you too.  "Cause I Get to Love You"

http://www.myspace.com/bryanweirmier

I'm learning alot lately about control.  It's something that God is constantly teaching me about and I'm learning to let go of it.  This past long weekend was a good example of it.  My husband and I planned this great weekend with our families.  We had both our parents and my husbands sister and her husband up for the weekend.  We were going to have a big BBQ, go boating have a bonfire and enjoy our time together.  Of course after all the beautiful weather we had last week it all went downhill before the weekend.  Between wind and rain it didn't look like we would be able to do anything we had planned.  Our family arrived on Sunday and thankfully there was some sun and we managed to BBQ but had to eat inside.  We got a couple boat rides in but short ones because of the weather.  However, despite that fact that things didn't go the way we had planned, everyone still had a great time.  Our parents spent lots of time together continuing to get to know each other and we had the joy of having everyone under one roof and we don't get that too often.  So God is saying to me "I have other plans and don't worry it will all work out" which of course it did.  How often do we find ourselves freaking out because we are not getting our way or things are not working out the way we had planned.  God has a bigger plan and it's always a better one. 

Are you that important?

Remember what life was like before everyone had cell phones?  It was quiet and peaceful.  People actually looked you in the eye when you were talking to them rather than checking their phone for the latest text or tweet.  Now we have become so accessible there is never a moment of peace.  Not even in the bathroom!  I use a public bathroom in our building at work and twice today when i was visiting the ladies room there were women, in the stalls, talking on their cell phones.  Now at first I was wondering if they were talking to me or to themselves but then i could hear the muffled voice on the other end of the cell phone.  Are they that important that they can't even have these couple mintues of peace and privacy?  And does the person on the other end of the call know what's going on right now?  I guess this is life in a multi-tasking world.

Wavy weekend

So I took my own advice and my husband and I attempted a nice day out on the boat on Saturday.  We got up early with the plan to boat to Midland for lunch and head back in time to leave for the Casting Crowns concert.  There was not a cloud in the sky, no wind, nice calm waters on the river as we headed to Georgian Bay.  As we hit Georgian Bay it was another story.  Not choppy or wavy but "swales" were the forecast for the day on Georgian Bay.  My husband found it fun and adventurous as I white knuckled my life jacket (safety first) and kept convincing myself not to get sick.  We decided to press on to see if it got better the further we went - guess what - it got worse.  It wasn't dangerous (it may have been for a smaller boat) just nauseating! We gave up on our little mission and headed back to the river.  As we got back we passed many boat with their tubes attached probably hoping for a nice day of boating like we did, and I assume they didn't last too long out there either.  I've head many people say that Georgian Bay is unpredictable conditions as we found out.  It seemd like a perfect day for the boat, quite disappointing with the beautiful weather.  I'm sure alot of cottagers were upset too.

We headed to Queensway Cathedral to see Casting Crowns that night.  This is only my second time seeing them live but there are a few things I really enjoy about their shows.  They put all the words to their songs up on the screens so you can sing along to everything.  They are very humble and non rock-starish (clearly not a word)  They come out casually on stage to start the show, no big intro, no fancy outfits just jeans and t-shirts.  They are just a bunch of youth pastors who put a band together and probably didn't expect to be come one of the biggest bands in Christian music.  They are embassador's for World Vision and Mark Hall has taken it one step further and he and his wife adopted a little girl from China.  It's great to hear that they are living what they preach as well.