Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow

Update

2009-10-13T21:40:00.002-05:00

It has been a really long time since I actually wrote on here, so I figured now was sort of time to do that.

We had a pretty busy Thanksgiving, with 4 gatherings to go to with delicious food at all of them!

Friday is the first day of our learn to skate program. I've been very busy getting ready for that. I'm a bit nervous for it to start, but I'm sure with lots of prayer, things will go as smooth as possible. If you think of me on Friday, please say a quick prayer for me. We have quite a few skaters again this year which is awesome! I'm so glad parents want to enter their children into our program and get them to learn how to skate. Even if they don't turn into a hockey player of figure skater, basic skating skills are so helpful!

I'm also teaching Sunday School for the first time ever! I have 6 kindergarten kids. I have been tested almost every Sunday already and I know that Satan is the one that is testing me, but God is helping me through. There are a few kids that really test my patience level and have zero listening ability and actually have some really rude comments that left me speechless. I just pray that God will continue to guide me and help me through all the struggles.

Work is still going good and is still busy. I'm so thankful for an awesome job and a busy job as well. On Sunday I am flying to Calgary for a course for work and I will be flying home on Friday. I'm a bit nervous about going, so if you could pray for me next week that would be greatly appreciated!

I think that's about all that is going on with me right now. Hope you are all doing well and that you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

Prayer Request

2009-09-18T12:31:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone! I have a prayer request...
When I was in grade 10, my drafting teacher and his family were in a serious car accident and his daughter has been quite sick off and on since then. She has had many operations since the accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. Last Thursday she was taken by ambulance to the city. She is really sick right now. Please pray for her and for her family. Pray that she will fight the infections in her body and the bacteria in her blood. Pray for her brother and her parents. Her mom is in the hospital 24-7 with her and her dad goes in every other day after school.

Thanks guys!

Rhubarb

2009-08-10T18:13:00.002-05:00

If anyone wants any rhubarb, just let me know because I have extra.

Enjoy the rest of the hot sunny day! I hope it stays this way for a bit!!!

2009-07-21T09:03:00.001-05:00

I decided I would quickly say hi to all my readers (if I have any left) and realized the last time I posted was in May! How time flies! I wish I had something new or exciting to write about, but I don’t. Oh I guess there is something exciting for me… we bought a dishwasher!!! HAHAHA I’m very excited and can’t wait until Matt has finished installing it! I’ll have to post a picture once it’s in. Other than that, we’ve been keeping busy with baseball, watching Shawn race, working outside and that’s pretty much it.

I hope you’re all having a great summer!! I’ll leave you with 2 pictures of Skylar who is growing like a little weed!

Watching daddy race!

It's been a really long time

2009-05-28T14:36:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! I know that it's been forever and for that I am very sorry!! I never have anything interesting to write on here, so that's why I haven't posted in so long.

I'm hoping summer is here for once. I'm ready for some sun and warm weather!! I have pulled out a lot of flowers and plants, so now I need to go buy some and plant them in the bare spots. There is a very cheesey flower patch in the backyard that I want to change, so that needs to be done yet. Before we do that though, we want to take out the sandbox. We're giving it to Shawn and Wendy for Skylar to play in next summer!

May long weekend Matt and I went camping with my mom and dad! We all really wanted to go to a bunch of car racing that weekend, but they were cancelled due to cold weather! We did go to Greenbush on Sunday for some races. We went there to watch Shawn race in his first race ever! He did really well and got 4th place! I got to be the videographer for the race and got some awesome reactions from my mom and Wendy when Shawn hit the wall a bit!! We're going to Greenbush again this Saturday to watch Shawn. Hopefully he won't hit the wall this time!

Well I think that's all that's going on these days. I'll try to post a bit more often, but I'm not guaranteeing anything!

I'm an auntie!!!!!

2009-03-21T13:09:00.004-05:00

On March 17th, I became an auntie to the cutest little girl!!! Skylar Faith came into this world at 8:13pm, weighing 9lbs 1oz and 22" long! I love her so much and can't wait to spoil her lots!! The new family is doing good, just recovering from a tough delivery. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Road Trip

2009-02-15T17:56:00.002-06:00

I have put a new ticker on here and I'm so excited for it to count down! Matt's brother and sister in law gave us Vancouver Canucks tickets for a wedding gift!! We are so excited. The game is in Minnesota against the Wild on March 31st! They are also coming with us, so it's going to be an awesome time!! We're all very excited to watch them play in real!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

A new part time volunteer job!!

2009-02-01T18:20:00.002-06:00

Some of you may have read about the Miss Winkler Queen Pageant maybe getting canceled. I really didn't want to see this happen because I believe that it is such an amazing opportunity for young women to take part in. I talked to Matt about it and we prayed about it. Thursday evening I got a phone call from my brother. He told me that the pageant was going to be on this year and that he was working with one of the coordinators sisters that evening and she had wanted to know if I would be interested in being on the committee!!!! I said yes right away! I am really looking forward to being on the committee. I'm not sure what my role will all include, but it's sounding like I will be going to most of the events with the girls, going to meetings and maybe planning one or two of the events. Please pray for the 2 girls that have taken on this huge task. Also pray that there will be girls that want to take part. If you know of anyone that would be interested in running for Miss Winkler, let me know. Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Pics!!!!

2009-01-29T12:12:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone!!

I'm not posting pics on my blog, because that will take forever!! If you want to see pictures from our honeymoon you can go to our wedding website... www.mywedding.com/mattandjanelleforever

As for the wedding pictures, we picked up our proofs yesterday and I LOVE them!!! If you want to look at them online, leave me a comment with your email address and I will email it to you.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Wedding and Honeymoon Recap

2009-01-24T15:45:00.001-06:00

Has it really been that long since I last posted?? Life has been crazy the last few months with getting stuff ready for the wedding and also getting the house ready and I just couldn’t get myself to blog at all. I will try to start posting more often, but no guarantees.

I had such a blast at our wedding!!! I woke up sort of early and went to my SIL’s to get my hair done. Once that was done, I headed to the spa to have my make up done. I then put on my dress, saw Matt, jumped into the truck and headed to the studio for pictures. The weather was pretty good that day which was an answer to our prayers! We started our pictures at the studio with just Matt and myself. We then went to the outdoor to do pictures with the rest of the wedding party and then headed back to the studio to do some more with the wedding party. Pictures were SO much fun and I can’t wait to see them!!! After pictures, we went to the church to do family pictures and then wait for the ceremony to begin. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, butterflies invaded my stomach and wouldn’t go away. I was SOOOO nervous! The ceremony flew by for me and before I knew it I was married and was being congratulated by everyone. It was such an amazing day and I’m SO thankful for everyone that helped me plan and get everything ready!!!!

After the reception was over, we said goodbye to our families and friends and headed to our house. We finished packing everything up for the honeymoon, had something to eat and then were off to the city with my newest BIL and SIL (Carl and Carolyn). We had to be at the airport around 2am on Sunday, so they dropped us off at the airport, so that we wouldn’t have to pay for parking for a week! We checked in, went through security and then sat and waited. It seemed like forever before we could board the plane! We finally got to board and we were off to Mexico. I was so exhausted, but of course I couldn’t sleep on the plane. The flight was VERY long because there was nothing on TV and I couldn’t sleep! We landed in Cancun, picked up our luggage and went outside to find the van that was going to take us to our resort.

The ride to the resort was crazy and scary! I prayed the whole time because I wasn’t sure if we were gonna make it to the resort or not! LOL We did arrive at the resort safely and went to check in. We could only get into our room at 3, so we walked around the resort figuring out where everything was located. The resort was really big, so we did a lot of walking. At 3, we went back to the reception desk and got the keys for our room. Our room was quite big and we could see the ocean from the little deck!!! We had a great time on our honeymoon and time went by quite quickly!! We had cloud and rain for 5 days and then sun for the last 2 days that we were there. I’m just glad we ended up getting at least a little bit of sun!

I will post pictures soon, so I hope this will do until I get the pictures on here. Hope everyone is doing good!!

In a Better Place

2008-11-22T12:18:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to let you all know that Taffy is in a better place now. She went to heaven to play with all the other puppy's yesterday afternoon. As a family we made the decision to just put her to sleep. She was very weak yesterday and we knew it wouldn't be long, so we just put her out of her misery. It's very sad, but I know she's looking down on us and wishing we would stop crying and just be happy. As I sit here and type this, I'm crying because I miss her SO much! She was and will always be my little sister. The house is way too empty without her. Some people might think we're dumb for being so sad about losing a dog, but she was a family member. We had her for almost 12 years! That's a long time!! If you could keep us in your prayers for strength that would be greatly appreciated!! Hope you all have a great weekend!

2008-11-16T20:38:00.002-06:00

Wow it's been a really long time since I last posted!!! Nothing much has been happening around here though. Matt and I have had possession of our house for a little while now and we have been busy painting! My parents have been helping us A LOT, which is a huge blessing. We need to paint the feature wall in the kitchen/dining room, part of the master bedroom, the office and the spare room. Once we're done, I'll post some pictures of the before and after for you all to see.
Other than that, we've been wedding planning here and there, going to pre-marital counselling, and I've been caoching.
Well, I should get back to cutting music for one of my skaters. I'll try to post more often. Hope you all had a good weekend!!

Update on Taffy

2008-10-30T18:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks to those of you who have been praying! Taffy is now back at home for a few days. She is still not doing good at all. The vet put her on some more pills this morning and they are helping her a bit more. They still aren't sure what is wrong with her. All they know is it has to do with her liver. Today is the first day that she's eaten since Friday. She is still very weak, but very alert and has little spurts of energy once in awhile. Please keep her in your prayers and I'll keep updating you guys.

Prayer Request

2008-10-28T08:43:00.002-05:00

I have a prayer request today...
Our dog, Taffy is VERY sick! She hasn't really eaten since Friday, was only drinking a little bit and was throwing up about twice a day. My mom took her to the vet yesterday and they couldn't thank her enough for bringing her in because by today it could've been too late. The vet said she is have trouble with her liver. They kept her overnight to get her hydrated again. They will be doing more blood work today to see if her liver numbers are still high and they will also try to get her to eat a bit. This is very scary! I know she is old, but it's still so hard! The vet said that 3 years for a human is 2 1/2 weeks for a dog! That's crazy!!
Please pray that they will be able to figure out what is wrong with Taffy and that they will be able to treat it. We know that Taffy is not in any pain, so that is a very good thing! We're all finding this hard, especially my mom since her and Taffy are at home together all day every day. Thanks for your prayers everyone! I'll keep you updated on the situation.

Thoughts

2008-10-22T09:51:00.005-05:00

In my previous post I mentioned needing ideas for what to do behind the head table at the reception. I pictured something in my head and need your thoughts and opinions on it.

I just used pictures off the internet, so we would attach my skating dress and Matt's hockey jersey to a board where the pictures are. Then on either side of the board I'm thinking of putting iced branches in clusters. What do you think? Please be honest and feel free to give me other ideas as well. Thanks!

Weekend and your ideas

2008-10-20T08:27:00.003-05:00

Well I figured I would update you all on how CanSkate went on Friday. Let's just say it couldn't have gone much worse! It was awful!!! When we register kids, we ask that they at least be able to stand by themselves on the ice. When I was getting the kids on the ice, tons of them had never been on ice before!! I was telling the kids to skate around the rink to warm up and so that we could get everyone on the ice and they just stared at me blankly. The parents were all hanging over the boards and told me that they couldn't understand or speak english and they had never been on the ice before! I was SO frustrated!!!! I can speak a tiny bit of German, but I have no idea how to explain what they are supposed to do! I'm not out there to explain everything in 2 languages. There just isn't enough time in the day for me to do that. I know that some of the parents were pretty upset while the kids were on the ice, but they need to understand that we can't spend one on one time with their child for 45 minutes! I'm just hoping and praying that it will go better today. All prayers are welcome! Sorry for yet another rant.

Now for some exciting news... MY WEDDING DRESS IS AT HOME!!!!! My mom, Wendy and I went to the city Saturday morning and picked up Carolyn. We then headed to Stella's to try on my dress and take it home! It was very busy in the store, so I'm glad we weren't there for long. I love it even more now than I did before! When I came out of the fitting rooms, all kinds of people were commenting on gorgeous my dress was! It needs a very few alterations which is awesome! When we were done at Stella's, we quickly went to Polo Park and got some jewelery and a tiara for myself for the wedding. We quickly had some lunch, went to Fabricland to pick up some more yellow material to wrap the flower stems. We then went to a little store called Butterfly Fashions. I got my grad dress there and we wanted to see if we could find a flower girl dress. We found a very cute one in the right size. It was a bit over what the parents wanted to pay, but the owner of the store gave us $10 off!! It was another successful day!

I know all of you are creative and I'm needing some ideas. We're not sure what to do behind the head table at the reception. We were thinking of having one of Matt's hockey jerseys and one of my skating dresses (his hockey jersey is black and yellow and my skating dress is yellow), but we have no idea what else to do. Do you have any ideas or suggestions?

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Update and CanSkate

2008-10-17T08:47:00.005-05:00

First of all I want to thank everyone for their napkin opinions!! We decided to just go with paper napkins. Our colors are black and yellow. We were going to do white napkins, but then decided not to, since we felt it would take away from the yellow accents. We found yellow napkins yesterday that match VERY well!

There was a message on our answering machine at home from Stella's the other day! They said that my dress was in! We ordered it 2 weeks ago tomorrow! I'm going to call there to make sure it's actually my dress. We did rush order it, but I thought it would take longer than that!

Today is the first day of CanSkate, so I could use some prayers! I'm looking forward to CanSkate this year and it's always fun teaching these kids how to skate. You can just go out on the ice and forget about everything that is going on in your life and just be a kid again for 45 minutes! We have 62 kids registerd with us this year! People are still phoning to register, but we are now saying that we are full. We could take more, but we just don't have enough volunteer coaches. We also have so much trouble finding parents that want to volunteer their time to do little jobs for the club. Last year we couldn't even get parents to sit in the music booth while their kids are on the ice to play music so that we could practice for our ice show! It made me so incredibly frustrated. This year, we purchased an I-Pod to put the music onto and we'll put it by the ice so that I can control it and no parents will have to play music. We really shouldn't have needed to buy an I-Pod and it's not like we have money to waste, but it just needed to be done. Sorry for the little rant!! Please pray that everything will go very smoothly today and please pray we'll be able to find some people who want to volunteer some of their time.

I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Opinions

2008-10-15T11:10:00.003-05:00

I need your opinions on something. We can't find cloth napkins that even come close to matching our yellow. What do you all think of paper napkins? Do they look too cheesy/tacky/cheap or the opposite? Please be honest! Thanks!!

3 Months - UPDATED

2008-10-10T07:57:00.004-05:00

Our wedding is in 3 months today!! It seems like so long and yet at the same time it seems like a short amount of time!
We have a pretty busy weekend planned, but it should be a good one.
Yesterday my mom, Candace and I went to see a wedding planner in Plum Coulee. We went to see her about flowers for the wedding. I am very happy with what we all came up with in the end. This evening we have a Thanksgiving gathering with Matt's extended family. I'm also hoping to go pick up my ring today. If it's not back yet, I'm going to be SO mad!! We had gone to the store a week and a half ago to get my ring sized. I told them I needed it back for the weekend because we were going to be doing engagement pictures. She promised that my ring would be back in on Wednesday. Well they called me Wednesday while I was at the rink and said that they had just talked to their goldsmith and he doesn't feel comfortable sizing the ring that much because of the baguettes on the side. She said that they suggested the ring be sent to the manufacturer so that they can take out the center diamond (its a custom diamond) and put it into a size 5 ring. I was quite angry when she told me this because I was supposed to have my ring back already when she phoned. I explained to her that we have engagement pictures and I really need my ring. She said they would try to have it in the store on Friday and then after the weekend, I can bring it back and then they'll send it away and I'll have the right size back by the end of October! I was really not impressed! I'm just praying that they call me today and tell me I can pick it up!
Tomorrow we are going to Walhalla to a florist to get a quote on flowers from her and also see about renting some stuff for the wedding. In the afternoon we are doing engagement pictures (with a ring hopefully) and in the evening we are having Thanksgiving dinner with Matt's family. Sunday is a gathering with my extended family and Monday I might be taking family pictures for Matt's brother and his family.
I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving weekend!!!

**UPDATE** My prayers were answered... my ring is in and ready to be picked up!! Now I can breathe a sigh of relief!!

Booked!

2008-10-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

Our honeymoon is now booked!! YAHOOO!!! We're going to the Grand Sunset Riviera Princess All Suites Resort and Spa Regency Club.

It was a success!!

2008-10-06T07:51:00.002-05:00

Dress shopping on Saturday was a success!!! We have a dress ordered and I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!

We started off Saturday morning by going to Stella's. We had such an awesome lady helping us! She was young and so incredibly happy and helpful. If I came out of the dressing room and the dress looked ugly on me, she told me that. I love people like that! After I had tried on all the dresses that everyone had picked for me, we had 3 maybes. I tried those 3 on again and there was 1 that made everyone's eyes go wide. Even the other people in the store that were trying on dresses, couldn't believe how gorgeous that dress was!

We then went to 4 other stores. 2 of them I didn't even try on any dresses. At Helene's, we had a lady helping us that didn't smile once! I would open the door to the fitting room and she would lace me up before I could show anyone the dress and even if I thought it was totally ugly, she still had to lace me up! She kept getting grumpier and grumpier because we didn't like anything that we had tried on.

Our last stop was Chantal's. That was the worst experience of my life!!!! My mom, Carolyn and Candace all said I had lost that sparkle in my eye that I had at Stella's. The truth is, after Stella's I wasn't having fun anymore and everything was just going downhill. The lady (Amanda) at Chantal's asked me what I was looking for in a dress. I told her exactly what I wanted and what I didn't want. She then asked me when the wedding was and I told her January 10. She totally flipped out on me!!!! She said they couldn't order anything in for me, which I knew wasn't true, since Stella's could order a dress for me. Amanda told me that I could only look for dresses in my size. We found a few and she brought a few. While she was searching for dresses, she was huffing and puffing because she was so angry. When I came out of the dressing room the first time and was standing in front of the mirror, she asked me why January and I told her that there was no particular reason why. She then asked me why I was only coming dress shopping now and I said that we just got engaged not too long ago. She just couldn't get over the fact that I was getting married in January and only going dress shopping that day.

We stopped for a lunch break and then went back to Stella's to try on the one dress again to make sure it was the one. I then got measured and we were all set!!

After Stella's we went to Party Stuff and got some stuff for the wedding. I bought a vase set and some black and yellow sand, some water balls for the centerpieces and I rented the bowls for centerpieces as well. That store is so awesome! They have so much awesome stuff for any occasion! We then went to Michaels to see what else we could find. We got some spray snow for some branches, loose fake snow for in the centerpieces, iced crystals for branches and 3 picture frames for people to sign instead of a guestbook. After that we headed to a Fabricland. We found material for the ring bearer pillow that my mom and I are going to make, material for the guys ties and some cotton batting to serve as snow around the trees at the front of the church.

We got so much accomplished and we all had a blast!!!! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Dress Shopping!

2008-10-03T08:15:00.002-05:00

I'M GOING DRESS SHOPPING TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? HAHA I'm going with my mom, my maid of honor (Candace) and one of my bridesmaids (Carolyn).

Please pray that I will be able to find a dress that looks awesome on me and that it will be a reasonable price.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!!!

Some plans

2008-09-23T11:59:00.004-05:00

The church is booked for January 10!!! Now that the church is booked, I feel like I can really get into the planning.

Yesterday, my mom, 2 of my bridesmaids and I went to Fabricland to pick out a dress pattern and some material and we also have a seamstress, so that's great news!

I have decoration ideas in my head right now and I'm hoping they will work. I want to have lots of artificial Christmas trees with white lights on them! I think it would look gorgeous! If any of you have artificial Christmas trees with white lights or even just strands of white Christmas lights that you don't mind borrowing out in January, please let me know.

Wedding Website

2008-09-19T14:06:00.004-05:00

Thanks for all the congratulation messages everyone!!!

Yesterday evening, Matt and I started up a wedding website. It doesn't have a lot on it yet, but there is some stuff. Feel free to check it out regularly, as we will be updating it frequently. The website is: www.mywedding.com/mattandjanelleforever

Hope you all have a great weekend! We're going to the Parade of Homes tomorrow to try and get some ideas for our house!

HUGE NEWS!!!!!

2008-09-18T07:48:00.003-05:00

As of Tuesday evening, I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!

Some of the pictures aren't the greatest, so I'm sorry.

Let the wedding planning begin!

just some random things

2008-09-09T14:23:00.006-05:00

As many of you know, I am the head coach for our city's learn to skate program. The start to the season is getting closer and closer and I'm needing your help. I am in need of people to be my assistants and to be on the ice with the kids helping them and teaching them a bit. I have some assistants, but not enough. If you know how to skate forwards, backwards and know how to stop without using the boards, you are the person I need! If that doesn't apply to you, maybe there is someone that you know that it applies to. If you want more information, are interested in volunteering or know someone who would be interested please let me know!

Matt has been making some laundry racks recently and so I'm advertising for him. :) Below is a picture of one that is already made and ready to be bought. The laundry racks are 4' long with 13 bars and are $98.00. Below is a picture of the one that is ready to go.

Exciting News!!!

2008-09-05T16:53:00.006-05:00

Some of you have noticed one of the tickers on my blog and have been asking about it. Matt and I bought a house and we are SO excited!!! We hadn't been looking very long and found this one, decided to put in an offer and the rest is history. Our possession date is Nov. 1 which seems like awhile yet, but we aren't in any hurry so it's ok. The first thing we will be doing when we move in, is painting! It's all white right now and that is way too boring for me! haha So in the coming months, I may be asking you guys for advice and opinions on colors. Below are some pictures of our house that I took today. Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Skate Canada Day - TODAY and it's FREE!!!!

2008-09-04T15:34:00.002-05:00

Skate Canada Manitoba and Winkler Skating Club are proud to present the third annual Skate Canada Manitoba Day! On Thursday, September 4th, come try Canada's leading "learn to skate" program for FREE! Professional coaches will be leading the fun filled CanSkate session! No previous skating experience required. Make sure to bring your skates and your helmet!
Location: Winkler Arena
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm

If you're interested in this, then come to the arena tonight and if you know someone who would also be interested, please tell them about it. We're hoping to have a good turn out!

Wisconsin Dells - TONS of pictures!!

2008-08-28T09:09:00.011-05:00

I have finally gotten around to posting pictures from my summer. There are 3 posts in total with pictures. Enjoy!!

In July, our whole family went to Wisconsin Dells together. We did tons and took tons of pictures.

Pictures taken on the way to Wisconsin Dells

Wisconsin Dells Army Ducks

Go Karts

Noah's Ark

Mini Golfing

Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park
Outdoor Waterpark
Indoor Amusement Park
Indoor Waterpark
Roller Coaster. This one was tons of fun, but whipped you around pretty hard. It also went underground which was really neat.Wave Pool. These waves were HUGE!!! They totally knocked you over and pushed you back pretty hard.Go Kart Tracks

Tommy Bartlett ShowPictures of the main stage area.This couple was so awesome! They walked forwards and backwards in this thing and did flips while it rotated. The guy walked on the outside and also did it blindfolded! It was crazy!!The juggler was pretty funny and was constantly making fun of himself, the 2 women were amazing and the laser fireworks were really good as well.

Storybook Gardens
Various animals. We laughed a lot at that kangaroo... it looked like it was posing!Giraffes! You could feed a bunch of the animals, so I was going to feed the giraffes, but chickened out when I saw their tongue!! It's SO long and disgusting!!!Various animals
I went for a short camel ride. It was such a cool experience and one I might never have again.
Pictures taken on the way home

Clear Lake

2008-08-28T08:54:00.004-05:00

Matt and I went to Clear Lake for a couple days this summer with his brother and sister-in-law. We had such an awesome time, even though the weather wasn't always the greatest.

Matt and his brother on the 4 seater bike that we rented. We had a lot of fun on that bike and we laughed A LOT!!
We had brought our Wii along, to play in the evenings or if it was raining. When we got to the cabin, we looked at the TV and burst out laughing. It was about a 13" and there was no way we could play Wii on there. So the one morning, we jumped in my car and drove to Brandon and went to Future Shop and Matt bought this 42" TV!

Matt and I were pointing at a dead fish in the water.Matt and I talking about something.

Weddings

2008-08-28T08:13:00.010-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the 2 weddings that I've been to this summer.

Matt holding the maid of honors flowersMatt's Niece and I. We figured we needed to take a picture together since we were almost matching!
The bride (Julie) and I
Matt and I
My cousin Nicole and I at her wedding reception

2008-08-18T10:41:00.002-05:00

It's been a month since I last posted and lots has happened since then. I will be posting tons of pictures this week yet for all of you!

Some of you have been waiting for pictures of our new trailer, but I never got around to taking any, so you will never be able to see it since we have now gotten rid of it. We loved it when we went to look at it and were sad to see it go! You may be wondering why we got rid of it, so I will tell you.

When we brought the trailer home, we noticed that one of the lights in the bedroom didn't work and that when the a/c went on, little pieces of styrofoam came out of the vents onto the floor! The one evening my dad was going to put a new bulb into the bedroom light since it wasn't working. When he took the cover off, he found a dead mouse! We were leaving for holidays in a few days, so we didn't want to get rid of the trailer. My brother, SIL and I never knew about the mouse that was found because my dad knew that if he told me about it, I wouldn't have gone in the trailer! So off we went to Wisconsin. Our whole trip we had no trailer brakes! That makes for a VERY interesting ride and some pretty tense moments! My dad later figured out that the mice had chewed the wires for the brakes. While in Wisconsin, sometimes when my brother or SIL went into the trailer, they said it felt like they were touching an electric fence when they opened the screen door! This also had to do with the mice! Us kids went home and my parents continued on with their holidays. The one day they opened a bunch of vents in the trailer and looked inside one of the walls and it was filled with mouse poop! They couldn't beleive that someone would sell a trailer that had been infested with mice! The mice had chewed tunnels in the styrofoam in the ceiling along the whole trailer! My parents were so disgusted and so angry!

Other than the mice problem, we also found out that the previous owners had always left their black tank open, causing the sewage to build up in there to create a pyramid. In other words, it was so plugged that we couldn't use the bathroom!!! There was no way that we could break up the pyramid... it was like rock!

When my parents got home, my dad called the previous owner of the trailer to tell him what had all happened and this guy just acted like he had no idea! He made an insurance claim and gave us our money back for the trailer. We thought that was pretty nice of him. My parents are going to Fargo today to look at a trailer and will most probably buy it. I think from now on, we'll be looking in every cupboard and vent when looking to buy a trailer! I will make sure to take pictures if we do buy it.

Sorry for the long boring post. I will leave you with a picture of me and a co-worker from our festival parade.

Going on holidays!

2008-07-18T08:51:00.003-05:00

A few new things have happened around here since the last time I posted.

We sold our trailer and started to frantically look for another to buy! We went to go look at 2 trailers in Notre Dame and ended up buying one of them. It was a bit bigger than what my parents had wanted to buy, but we loved everything else about it. It's a 32' fifth wheel with 2 slides! I haven't ahd time to take pictures, but I will take some while we're on holidays.

A couple weeks ago I found out that the girl I coached CanSkate with last year is no longer wanting to do it anymore. I was shocked! This left it all up to me. If I didn't say yes, the club would not be offering CanSkate. I was really stressed about it and had no idea what to do. I talked to my parents and Matt and they encouraged me to pray about it and that they would stand behind me no matter what my decision was. I've decided to take on CanSkate and GroupSkate by myself and also do some private lessons. If my coach in Morden has lesson openings, then I will be skating there, but if she doesn't, I will no longer be a skater, but instead just a coach. I'm getting excited about it, but at the same time I am SO nervous!! It's a HUGE job and responsibilty and I just hope I can do a good job. If you can pray for me it would be greatly appreciated!

Today after work we are going on holidays!!! My parents and I are leaving today and Shawn and Wendy are leaving on Sunday. We're going to Wisconsin Dells and I'm pumped!! I'll try to take lots of pictures and then have a big picture post when I get back. I'm also pretty excited that I won't have to worry about doing my hair while I'm away... Wendy braided my hair into cornrows last night after baseball. We didn't do all my hair... just part of it. So now all I have to do is put it in a ponytail and it's good to go!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

First camping trip of the summer and pictures!!

2008-07-01T13:22:00.005-05:00

We went on our first camping trip on Friday and it was a blast! We left Friday at lunch time and came home Sunday evening.

My family is all huge fans of racing, so that was the main reason for the trip. There was a big event going on at the dirt track Friday night. It rained pretty much all the way to Grand Forks and we kept praying and praying that it wouldn't rain in the evening so that we would be able to watch the races. It cleared up and it was a gorgeous evening!!! We camped in East Grand Forks at a state park and it was such a nice place! We had a great site with tons of room! We set the camper up, went and got some groceries, had supper and then it was off to the races. Saturday it was another rainy day, so we went and did a bunch of shopping. Sunday was gorgeous and hot! We spent a lot of time outside before we packed up. Wendy and her family were singing at a Bible Camp by Park River, so we went there before heading home. It was such a great weekend and just went by way too fast!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. Hope you're having a great Canada Day!!!

2008-06-17T12:57:00.000-05:00

Gina wanted a word post from me, so here you go…

I’m taking quite a long break from skating and I’m really enjoying it so far. I don’t miss it at all, so I’m thinking it was time I needed a break from it. I’m starting up again in August, so we’ll see if I miss it by then. I’m trying to decide if I want to still skate this next season, or if I just want to coach. I have a feeling that if I just coach, I’m going to really miss skating for myself. I’ll just keep praying about and see what happens when the time comes to make my final decision.

In health news, I had my MRI done about 3 weeks ago and went to see my doctor a couple days ago for my results. The MRI was totally normal, which was a HUGE answer to prayer. The technician did note that I have a cyst on my brain though. They say I’ve had it since birth and that it’s not doing any harm or anything. I thought it was pretty weird that they could tell that I have had this cyst since birth. My doctor has now diagnosed me with migraines and we’ve now started medication. The kind I am trying right now is VERY expensive, so I’m glad we have good insurance at work. The only problem with this medication is that if you don’t take it at the very first sign of your migraine, it won’t do anything. Some days I’ll wake up with a migraine, so on those days, I can’t take my medication. I have to go back to see her in 6 weeks and then we’ll see how this medication is working. If it’s not doing the job, then I guess we’ll try something else. I want to thank you all for your prayers on this!

Life is going to start getting a bit busier now again, since baseball starts next week. Our first game is on Monday. I’m just the scorekeeper again this year. Hopefully we can do a bit better than we did last year!! Ha-ha

I am itching to go camping, but I will have to wait a bit longer. We are going to Grand Forks next weekend with the camper and I’m pumped!! We’re leaving Friday at lunch and coming back home on Sunday. All 6 of us are going, so it should be a really good time like usual.

For those of you with kids that live in this area, the MB church is having a children’s carnival on July 1st from 4-8. I’ve volunteered to help with this function and I’m starting to really look forward to it. They’ve been asking for volunteers in church for awhile now and I wasn’t sure if I should or not, so I prayed about it and talked to Matt about it. Matt wanted to know why I wasn’t totally sure about helping and I told him it was because I didn’t think I was that good with kids. He told me that I am good with kids and that I should help out since it would be fun for me. So, I signed up and am going to a planning meeting next week! If you are interested in the carnival and want more information on it or have questions about it, just leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it.

I apologize for the long, boring post. Hope your week is off to a great start. Hope you all enjoy the sunshine!! Oh and if you’re a fan of old muscle cars like I am, Courtesy Motors is having a car show tonight.

Wordless Wednesday - picture taken in the Pembina Hills

2008-06-11T08:11:00.004-05:00

A bit of an update and some pictures

2008-05-25T17:07:00.009-05:00

I haven't posted pictures in a long time, so I figured it was time.

Matt's birthday was May 20th and after what seemed like forever, I got to give him his gift! My parents, brother and SIL and I all went together and bought him a Wii! We set it up and began playing. It is such a blast and we've had tons of fun playing it since then.

Matt is a VERY hard person to surprise, but I like trying anyway and it worked this time! I told Matt that we were going to Grand Forks on Friday for the dirt track races and that Shawn and Wendy would be coming later. He got to my place on Friday and was really eager to leave, but I had to stall him because I was waiting for my friend Candace and her boyfriend Daniel as well as Carolyn who is Daniel's sister and Matt's SIL. Matt was pretty surprised to see them. So we got in the truck and drove to Pembina, where we picked up Carl (Matt's brother and Carolyn's husband). We then drove to Grand Forks, got our tickets for the races and went to the track. At the track we met up with Joanne and Cornie (Matt's sister and BIL). We got to our seats and watched some hot laps and then waited for a bit for the races to begin. Matt got another surprise when he found out that his friend Jonathan and his fiancee Julie came with Shawn and Wendy. It was such a gorgeous night for races and we all had so much fun! I can't wait to go again!!

Some of you may be curious to know how my CT scan went. It went good and they didn't find anything which is a huge blessing! My doctor was a bit concerned when she first saw me, but was relieved when she saw the results. She then ordered an MRI and told me it could take 2-4 weeks to get an appointment. Well I have an appointment on Wednesday, which is 2 weeks from my doctors appointment!!! I'm a bit nervous for the MRI, but I'll be fine. Part of me hopes they can find something that is causing my headaches and part of me doesn't want them to find anything. All I know is that I'm sick of having headaches all the time! If you think of me on Wednesday, please say a quick prayer for me.

Well that's all for now. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

For Sale

2008-05-20T15:49:00.004-05:00

My parents are wanting to sell our trailer, so that they can buy a bit of a bigger one.

For Sale: 1997 Terry, 27ft trailer, sleeps 6, rear bedroom w/ queen bed. 7 cu. ft. 2 door fridge, microwave, TV & antenna, awning, ducted A/C & furnace, 2-30lb. propane tanks, rear storage pod, spare tire. Excellent condition. Stored indoors for winter.

Glasses and more

2008-05-05T18:32:00.004-05:00

Well, here are the pictures that some of you have been waiting for... my glasses! I'm still trying to get used to them, but I can totally notice a difference when wearing them!

I've been having headaches a lot lately and that's why I went to the optometrist in the first place. She said some of my headaches were from eye strain, but not all of them. I had an appointment with a doctor in regards to my foot, so I figure I would ask her if she would be my family doctor and also ask her about my headaches. She's not sure what's causing the migraines, so tomorrow I'm going for blood work and Wednesday it's off to the hospital for a CT scan. I'm hoping she can figure out the cause and how we can fix them!

I'm off to babysit Matt's niece now. Hope you're enjoying the sunshine today!

Editing Photos

2008-04-30T12:54:00.003-05:00

I found a really cool photo editing program the other day. You can do so many cool things with picnik and it's easy to use as well! I can't wait to play around with it some more!

Glasses

2008-04-18T14:26:00.002-05:00

I've been having headaches pretty much everyday for just over a month now, so I went to get my eyes checked yesterday. I now need to get glasses. My eyes are very strained for sitting in front of a computer all day at work, so I will only need to wear my glasses at work, and for reading. The optometrist said that my eyes were causing some of my headaches, but not all of them. I have a doctors appointment at the end of the month, so we'll see what she says. I'm planning on going to look at frames tomorrow morning. Do any of you have any suggestions as to what shape of frames would suit me?

Funky Sock Exchange

2008-04-14T12:55:00.001-05:00

I'm participating in a funky sock exchange and I'm having TONS of trouble finding other people who want to do this as well. I love funky socks, so I when my boyfriends sister asked me to do it, I said yes right away! Here is an overview of the instructions...

This is a funky sock exchange. Please send a unique pair of ladies socks to the person whose name is listed on the #1 space. Then move my name into the #1 space and put your name in the #2 space. Only your name and mine should appear on the list when you send out your letters. I have enclosed a blank letter for copying. Please fill out the form and send it to 6 friends. You should recieve 36 pairs of socks for the price of one!

Who doesn't want 36 pairs for the price of 1?!?! All my friends are saying no and I couldn't believe this would be such a hard task! If you're interested in taking part in this, leave me a comment with your email address and I will email you the forms.

Thanks everyone!!!

New Purchase

2008-04-02T21:58:00.000-05:00

This is the new purchase that I just made. I can't wait to get them and to wear them! Now it just needs to warm up some more! Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the Spring season.

2008-03-19T20:45:00.002-05:00

Not much to blog about this evening, but some of you may be wondering how the carnival went on Saturday. It went pretty good actually. I have heard lots of good comments about it. The only thing that got negative feedback was that you couldn't hear what the M/C was saying. Other than that,, everything went great. The kids were all so cute and they did a great job!

In other news, I went for foot x-rays yesterday and went to see the doctor today for my results. Most figure skaters have ugly feet and I sure am one of them! I have extra bones and ugly bumps. The bone by my big toe has always stuck out more than it should, but lately it has been getting bigger and hurting A LOT especially when I have my skates on. Turns out, it is a bunion and the x-rays didn't show anything abnormal. The doctor was mainly looking for arthritis, but she said that it's looking ok for right now. That was very good news for me because I didn't want to have arthritis and I didn't want to have surgery. My prayers were answered. Now I have to just keep my eye on it and be careful with what kind of shoes I'm wearing. I might also have to get new skates that are a wider width so that my foot has more room.

Hope you all have a great Easter! Enjoy your long weekend!

Skating Carnival

2008-03-13T23:57:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to invite you all to Winkler Skating Club's annual carnival/ice show. It's on Saturday, March 15 at 7:00PM at the Winkler Arena. Admission is $2.00. Our theme this year is "The Olympics".

Dress rehearsal went very well on Monday and I'm actually really excited about Saturday! Thanks for all your prayers!!

Stressed

2008-03-05T08:10:00.004-06:00

Our annual skating carnival is sneaking up on us VERY quickly and let's just say I'm not nearly ready for it to be here yet. 10 more days until carnival and SO SO SO much to do yet. I'm beginning to think that the carnival this year really isn't going to be very good, but I sure hope I'm totally wrong! Not all the routines are done because it's pretty hard to work on them when half the group is missing or the groups teacher is not there. I just get so frustrated on the ice some days. I'm just praying that everything gets done and that we are able to put on a great show for everyone!

Once carnival is over, most of my stress will be gone (hopefully). Maybe then I will actually be able to just relax in the evening and not have my brain working 120% thinking about carnival and skating stuff. And maybe I'll also have energy to do other things! I'm just always exhausted these days. It doesn't matter when I go to bed, I can hardly pull myself out of bed and make it through the day.
I need some advice on something... we have volunteer Program Assistants (PA's) that teach all the little groups in Canskate. I have never seen such a lack of dedication from PA's ever! It is brutal. When I was a PA, there was no way I could miss Canskate. If I wanted to do something or go somewhere on a Monday or Friday, I was only allowed to go after Canskate. I need advice on how to get better dedication from them next year. Some of them probably won't be back next year, so then we'll need to find even more. It's just frustrating when you only have 3 PA's show up for the session!

Sorry for so much rambling and complaining, but I just had to get it out. I'm just stressed, frustrated and moody these days. I feel sorry for the people around me some days! Please keep me and the rest of the skating club in your prayers. We could all use prayers these next 10 days.
Blessings my dear friends

long post... lots of pictures

2008-02-28T13:32:00.014-06:00

I took a lot of pictures on Sunday and I'm finally posting them now.

Sunday afternoon, my mom, Wendy and I went to Winnipeg to see High School Musical - The Ice Tour. We were sitting in row 2, so we had an awesome view! I loved the show and it made me want to join Disney on Ice SO much more! As I was sitting there watching, I was thinking to myself "I wonder if I would be skating on this ice right now if I had sent in my video like Disney had asked." The main characters were really good skaters, but the other characters were just average. They just had to do a bunch of footwork and stuff. Enjoy the pictures.

Sunday evening, we went to the last hockey game on the regular season for Matt and my brother. I can't believe I will soon be done watching hockey! It's just not the same on TV, but that will have to do.

Matt skating to the bench

Team meeting between the 1st and 2nd period. Trying to figure out what they need to improve

Team picture after Sunday's game

The really supportive girlfriends and wife that hardly miss a game!We are the loudest fans and we always have a blast, no matter what the score in the game is.

Hope you have all had a good week so far. It's Friday tomorrow!!!

2008-02-22T11:08:00.002-06:00

I'm happy to report that it's warming up a bit outside today and we're supposed to have nice weather this weekend as well!! woohoo!
Today after Canskate, I'm headed off to Altona for a test day. I am partnering a skater for 2 dances. His coach (she's also mine) is pregnant and her big belly is in the way, so she's unable to partner him.
Saturday I won't be getting to sleep in a whole lot because Matt, his brother Carl and I are going sledding all day! They want to take me out in the hills, since I've never gone sledding there before. I'm glad it will be warmer tomorrow than it was on Monday when we went sledding!
Sunday after church, my mom, Wendy and I are going to the city to see High School Musical On Ice. We have seats in row 2 so it should be really good.
Hope you all have a great weekend!

Great Results!

2008-02-19T07:59:00.003-06:00

First of all, I just want to thank everyone that prayed for me this weekend. I really felt them. Now for those of you who are waiting to hear how I did, I got... 3rd!!!! I skated pretty good on Saturday and had the best skate that I've had in a long time on Sunday. I went out there and did the very best that I could and that's all I wanted to do.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Nervous

2008-02-15T08:11:00.003-06:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I had a good evening yesterday. Matt and I were both tired and lazy, so we ended up just watching a movie after I came home from skating. Here is a picture of what I got from Matt. This perfume smells amazing! He bought this while he was in Louisiana and was deciding between Ralph Lauren and Roxy. Even though I'm a huge Roxy fan, I was glad he didn't buy it, since I got Roxy perfume for Christmas from my parents.

This weekend is a really big competition for me and I'm stinkin' nervous already!!! I'm competing in the triathlon event... I have to do a creative skills program, an interpretive program and my long program. We get marked on each performance and then they add up the marks to get your final placement. The skater who gets 1st, goes on to the StarSkate Nationals in Ontario in April! This is my goal. I was 2nd two years ago, so this year I'm determined. They are also using the new judging system for this event, which could be interesting. We've had to change parts of my long program and add things and take things out this last week and it's stressing me out. I'm actually looking forward to looking at my report card on Sunday after my long program to see what I got deductions on. It will be a huge learning experience for myself, as well as my coach. The competition is in Beausejour, so after Canskate today, we're heading to Selkirk, where we'll be staying for the weekend. I have a practice session tomorrow morning at 8 and then skate twice later on in the day and practice Sunday morning at 7:45 and skate once around 2. If you think of me this weekend, please pray that I will go into the competition with confidence and that I will do the best that I can do.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T15:33:00.003-06:00

I can't believe it's the middle of February already! Matt and I aren't doing anything special today. I have skating and then we're gonna make some kind of dessert together after that. I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, so the other day I told Matt that we could just celebrate our year and a half anniversary. I still can't believe that we've been going out for 18 months! It seems like just yesterday that we met and yet at the same time it feels like I've known him forever!!

I just wanted to wish all of my blogging friends a Happy Valentine's Day! You are all so special and I thank God each day for bringing each and every one of you into my life. You are there with me through thick and thin and always have something encouraging to say to me. I love you all!!

Photo Shoot

2008-02-12T13:33:00.000-06:00

I wanted to give Matt some cool pictures of me for Valentine's Day, so on Saturday I went to my SIL's and took some pictures. Now I have to decide which ones I like best. That's where all of you come in... I need your opinions. Which ones do you like the best? Which ones don't you like?
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Asking for prayers

2008-02-12T07:42:00.000-06:00

If you have a moment this morning, please pray for my mom... she is having surgery in the city at 9:30 this morning.
THANKS!!!

We did it!!!

2008-02-08T09:27:00.000-06:00

Matt and I got our new gym all put together!!! It looks great and I can't wait to start working out! Putting it together wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be... the cables were the most confusing part, so I just read the instructions and Matt connected all the cables.

I'm so glad it's Friday today because I'm really looking forward to the weekend! Today during groupskate, I'll be making up little programs for almost all the skaters because as of right now I have 7 out of 10 going to a competition at the end of March! I'm so happy that the girls and their parents are excited about competing. We could really use more skaters in our city!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

2008-02-05T10:56:00.000-06:00

Nothing really new going on with me these days. It's great having everyone back at home! My parents had an awesome trip and Matt also had a great trip!

Skating is going pretty good. My jumps are starting to get closer and that makes me gain more confidence for my upcoming competition. I tend to lose all my jumps the week before I compete, so I'm praying that doesn't happen this time.

Before Matt left on his trip, we ordered a home gym. We both want to work out and decided to buy a home gym together since that's cheaper than buying a gym membership for both of us. My dad and I picked it up on Saturday and Matt and I are putting it together tonight! It looks really confusing, so hopefully we'll be able to get it all together!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-01-30T15:21:00.000-06:00

The other evening, I was watching videos of my favorite figure skater (Sasha Cohen) and came across this one. I just sat and watched in amazement as she shows off her amazing flexibility and does this whole program with no skates on. It's breathtaking!

Tired

2008-01-30T10:25:00.000-06:00

I am so tired this morning! 4.5 hours of sleep is just not enough for me. Shawn, Wendy and I went into the city yesterday to pick up my parents from the airport. They were supposed to land at 8:30. When we got to the city, we quickly stopped to have some supper. My dad texted us and said that the hydraulics on their plane weren’t working, so there was going to be a delay and said he would text us when they were back on the plane. Since we didn’t want to sit in the airport for a couple hours, we did some shopping. We went to Homesense for awhile and then to a store called Urban Planet. I had never been there before but Wendy had. That is now one of my favorite stores! They have SO many clothes and awesome prices!!! We couldn’t shop for very long because they were closing, but I got some awesome deals. We still had time to waste, so we headed to Wal-mart for a bit. Dad texted us again and said that they were now on the plane and getting ready to go. We headed to the airport, got some Tim Hortons and sat in the observation room to wait. They finally landed around 10:45. We got home around 1:45 and I talked to them for a few more minutes before I went to bed. Needless to say, I’ll be going to bed earlier tonight! Oh well, at least they got home safe and sound.

Brrrr....

2008-01-29T11:14:00.000-06:00

Wow it is cold outside!! -26ºC and with the wind it feels like -43ºC!!! Now that is cold! I really wish I was somewhere warm right now! There were blizzard warnings yesterday, but it didn't really happen. I was praying hard last night that the highways would be ok, because I'm going to pick up my parents from the airport tonight with Shawn and Wendy. Hopefully the roads will be good and hopefully their flights go good. If you could, please say a quick prayer for them today.
Hope everyone stays warm today!!!

Stuff

2008-01-28T13:11:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's Monday already!! The weekend just flew right on by! Saturday I got my hair cut and had my brother and SIL over for supper. Sunday was church, watched some skating on TV, and just relaxed. It was a really good weekend!

The other day the trees were just gorgeous!!! So when I got home at lunch, I pulled out the camera and took a few pictures! These pictures don't do justice though!

Here are some pictures of my hair cut. I hate how I look on these pictures, but at least you can see my hair! lol Let me know what you think.

Before:

After:

New Style

2008-01-24T10:21:00.000-06:00

Lately I've been so sick of my hair, so yesterday while I was at my brother and sister in laws, I made an appointment and found a style that I want. I'm getting it done Saturday afternoon and I'm so excited! Let's just hope it will look good on me and that everyone will like it. The picture below is kind of how I'm getting it cut. I couldn't find the exact style on the internet. The length is about the same, but my bangs with be short and choppy.

Scrapbooking

2008-01-21T11:30:00.000-06:00

Friday I found out that my friend wouldn't be able to move in with me until today. That meant I was all by myself for the weekend. I am a person who loves being around other people and hates being at home all alone! That being said, it was a bit of a rough weekend. I wish I knew if what I am feeling is normal or if it's just down right weird. I miss Matt like crazy already and he only left Friday!

Friday evening I didn't do anything! Saturday I had skating in the morning, watched skating on tv all afternoon and then decided to actually get something done. I decided that I would scrapbook! I got a bunch of scrapbooking stuff for Christmas, so I figured it was time to get started. Sunday I went to church by myself and went home in such a good mood! It was another great message. I'm so glad some of the churches here are doing the pure intimacy series! It needs to be talked about! I had some lunch, watched some more skating on tv and scrapbooked some more.

It ended up being a good weekend, even though it was lonely and quiet. I'm glad that Matt and his friends arrived safe and sound in Louisiana! Today is their first day of work and I pray it goes well for them.

Here are the scrapbook pages I got done this weekend. I had a lot of fun doing it actually, although I'm not very good at it. Oh well, I'll get better with practice!

All of my supplies

My birthday

Christmas

Another Christmas page

Sledding

Another sledding page

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Contest!

2008-01-17T15:50:00.000-06:00

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

All Alone...well almost

2008-01-16T10:44:00.000-06:00

I'm going to be pretty much all alone for the next 2 weeks or so and I'm not really looking forward to it, to tell you the truth.

My parents left for Florida this morning. They actually went in to the city last night so that they didn't have to get up as early this morning to catch their 7:30am flight. They are going for work and then a bit of a vacation after that. They are gone until January 29th.

Friday Matt is leaving as well. He is going to Cameron Louisana for MDS with 7 of his friends. His friends went on an MDS trip while Matt was in his first year of college, so I'm glad that he now has the opportunity to go as well. They are driving down there and will be home February 3.

Since everyone is gone at the same time, my friend Candace is moving in with me for awhile! It'll be good to hang out with her all the time, since we don't get to do that very often.

Please pray for safe travels for everyone.

Christmas picture post... finally!

2008-01-15T14:34:00.000-06:00

Better late than never I always say! Hope you enjoy my Christmas picture post.

Matt and me wrapping presents

Christmas with my dads side of the family in Winnipeg. My cousin Laura's oldest daughter Emma was hilarious while we were playing dominoes. She was really interested in the make up that I had on, especially my green eye shadow! She wanted to know everything about it. LOL The picture of me and Emma is when she was asking me all the questions. It was really cute.

Matt and me having our Christmas together. He was so positive he knew what he was getting from me, but in the end he was surprised! We both got each other ipods which is really funny, but at least we don't have to share now! haha He thought that there was a Vancouver Canucks jersey in the big box and really wasn't expecting new black and yellow hockey gloves!!

Christmas at Matt's place was on Christmas Eve. I didn't take any pictures of the actual Christmas part, but of course I got sledding pics. We all went on a hay ride and after that was done, Carl and Matt did a bit of jumping with their sleds on the yard. I really wasn't dressed to take pictures, so there I was in the knee deep snow in dress pants, flats, a winter jacket and I couldn't wear mitts to take pictures! I was SOOOO cold and wet when I got inside.

2008-01-15T14:27:00.000-06:00

Every year on Christmas Day after church, we have a weiner roast inside. Shawn and Wendy were at her parents again this year, so it was just my parents, Matt and myself.

Our dog Taffy (the one in the red sweater) and Shawn and Wendy's dog Odie opening presents. Taffy isn't very good at it, but Odie sure is!

Opening presents with my family

Opening more presents with my family

Competition results and a bit of other stuff

2008-01-14T11:34:00.000-06:00

Saturday, was our regions Regional competition. It was held in Manitou and if any of you have ever been to that rink, you'll know that it's freezing cold!! It's a good thing it wasn't too cold outside. I didn't do my freeskate because I knew I wouldn't make it through the whole thing. My lungs can't handle the extreme cold because of my sports asthma. My coach and I decided that I would do my creative skills and get comments on it since I was the only one in that category. My skate felt alright... but not the greatest. I got comments from the judges afterwards and they didn't have many good things to say about it actually. So after hearing those comments, we're going to be making a bunch of changes to it before I compete in February.

Some of my groupskate girls competed in the team event and I'm so proud of them!! They did so well and it sounded like they had a really good time as well. There were a lot of teams competing, so they made 2 flights. 2 of my teams were in the first flight and the other team was in the second flight. In the first flight, my teams got 2nd place and 5th place and in the second flight, my team got 3rd!!! The girls that got medals were super happy!!! Hopefully competing in this competition made them want to compete some more! There is another competition in Morden that they can go to, so I'm hoping they'll want too.

The rest of my weekend was really good. Matt had 2 hockey games...they lost both but that's alright. I love watching his team play! We cheer so loud and the other teams get so angry sometimes. lol

Church was really good yesterday. Our church started a new series called pure intimacy. I'm really looking forward to the other topics in this series in the Sunday's to come. I wasn't totally sure how well this topic would go over in our city, but so far it seems to be going over quite well. Let's just hope it stays that way and that people won't stay home from church just because the pastor will be talking about sex.

On another note, my back is hurting SO bad. My brace has been working really well, but it's not going to make all of my pain go away. Do any of you know a good chiropractor in this area? I was going to a really good place, but I don't have time to sit there all evening waiting for my appointment

Skating Competition

2008-01-11T09:03:00.000-06:00

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow because I will be both a skater and a coach at our regions competition!

It has been a bit of a stressful week because I didn't think I was going to be able to coach. I didn't have a coach photo id yet, so Dec. 10 I sent in my money and all the forms. Well, it got lost in the mail and so Dec. 27 I sent it in again. The office where they get made was closed until the 7th of this month and I was so scared that I wasn't going to get it. Yesterday when we got home from the city, I went to the mail and there it was!!!! An answer to my prayers!

One of my skaters withdrew from the competition because of her back, so now I just have my groupskaters that are competing in the team event. It's going to be a huge eye opener for some of them! We had a little practice competition on Monday with them, just so they know what to expect and everything. They had so many questions which was awesome! I had to chuckle at one of the girls... I was telling them that they need to have their hair up and out of their face and this one girl had her long hair down with a toque on and asked if that was good. I then had to explain that you can't wear toques at a skating competition! lol It was such a cute, innocent question. I think they will do well tomorrow and I hope they have fun and won't be disappointed if they don't get a medal!

I'll be sure to let you all know how they did!

Life is busy

2008-01-09T11:09:00.000-06:00

Life has been busy and I haven't had time to put my Christmas pictures onto the computer yet, but it will happen one day.

Some of you have asked what I all got for Christmas, so I'll hopefully remember most of it... Matt gave me an IPod, some accessories for it and an awesome looking framed picture of him. From my brother and SIL, I got some scrapbooking stuff, a shirt and a really cool wire bread/fruit basket. From my parents I got a roxy belt, roxy wallet, roxy zip up hoodie, roxy perfume, a sweater and tons of little stuff. My Grandma gave me some money. My Grandparents gave me a big fondue set, a fondue recipe book and some little stuff. At my Grandparents, we pick names and my mom had my name so I got a roxy purse from her. It was roxy Christmas and I loved it!

Last weekend Matt and I went to a cabin from Saturday to Sunday. We went with Cornie, Joanne and Kira (Matt's BIL, sister and niece) and also Carl and Carolyn (Matt's brother and SIL). The cabin belonged to Cornie's boss and we actually went for Joanne's birthday. It was really cold in the cabin when we got there, but we got the wood stove going and it started to warm up. We had some lunch and then Cornie, Carl, Matt and I went sledding. The trails that we went on were AWFUL!!! They were SO bumpy. None of us had fun on them. When we got back to the cabin, we had some supper, relaxed and then played some Clue. We were all pretty tired, so around 1 we all went to bed. Carolyn and me were sharing a bed in one of the rooms, so we were talking for awhile and then sort of said goodnight, but then we just started talking again. When we looked at the clock it was 4:20!!! We decided we should go to sleep so that we wouldn't be dog tired in the morning. We were up by 9:15 and got right to making some breakfast. We then did some more sledding which was a lot more fun!!! We just went out on the lake a little bit.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off of work to go to the city with my mom. She is having an appointment with her anesthesiologist for her surgery.

Below are some pictures from our weekend at the cabin in Point du Bois.
Kira and I cuddling

Letting the sleds warm up

Cornie, Joanne and Kira

Matt and I

Kira crying... she loved going for rides on the sleds and wanted to keep going!

Matt and I

Matt and Kira

Carl and Carolyn

Just standing around and talking

Snowmobile helmet

2008-01-03T14:45:00.000-06:00

On the 22nd, we had to go to the city for a gathering, so on our way there, we stopped in Oak Bluff to pick up my helmet. I didn't end up getting the pink one like I was hoping, because nobody was sure if they would even get them in this season. So I ended up getting a plain black one and am going to get it painted in the summer. I'm pretty excited about this because it's going to be unique and one of a kind. I'm just not sure what I want painted on it. All I know is that I'm going to put a Ski-doo decal on it and I want the helmet nice and full. Any suggestions?
this is the helmet I bought

this is the decal that I want to get. I want to put it on the back of the helmet and then paint around it

I'm still here

2007-12-31T09:35:00.000-06:00

Sorry for not posting in so long!! I've been so busy and everytime I sit down at the computer, something comes up and I put off writing a post even longer.

I had an awesome Christmas, but it went by way too quickly. I took tons of pictures with my new camera and will try to post those very soon. Tonight is our annual steak and lobster supper and then Matt and I are going to my friend Candace's place for the evening, so it should be a really good time!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

We have a theme...

2007-12-13T09:35:00.000-06:00

Yesterday at skating we decided on a theme and I think it's going to be really cool! Our theme this year is going to be The Summer and Winter Olympics. One of the skaters had suggested that and so we started to see how many ideas we could come up with for that theme and we actually came up with quite a few right on the spot. If any of you have ideas for this theme, let me know. I also want to thank Rachelle for all the awesome theme ideas that she gave me in my last post!! We'll have to keep those in mind for next year!!

In other news... I got my camera yesterday!!! WOOHOO!! It felt like Christmas opening that box. haha Now I just need things or people to take pictures of!

I need your opinions and ideas

2007-12-12T13:31:00.001-06:00

I know there are a lot of creative people out there in the blogger land and now is when I need you all.
We had a skating meeting yesterday and started talking about our annual carnival. I got nominated to be the coach on the committee. Now is when we begin our planning process and I'm actually really excited yet pretty nervous about it all.
Here is where you guys come in. We need theme ideas. We've gotten a few from the older skaters, but we need more so that we have a bunch to choose from. Also, we need to decide whether we want to have a carnival or an ice show. What's the difference? A carnival is based around a theme, but doesn't have a story line. For example, one year we did colors. One group was yellow and skated to yellow submarine and another group was purple and skated to purple people eater. An ice show is still based around a theme but it's more of a story and all flows together.
Please please please let me know of any ideas and opinions that you have! Thanks!

All done Christmas shopping!!

2007-12-10T14:23:00.000-06:00

That's right I am offically all done Christmas shopping!! It feels so good to be done. I'm in the process of making a gift, but I don't have to buy anything else. haha

Saturday I headed to the city with my parents to go shopping. Not only did I buy Christmas presents, I also bought some stuff for myself. I bought 2 pairs of dress pants and two sweaters. Everything was on sale so I got some really good deals! I also bought a back brace. The lady that was helping me said it wasn't going to help me while skating but I'm going to prove her wrong. I wore it to go sledding yesterday and I had NO pain!!! It was amazing. I'm going to test it out while skating today. Below is a picture of the brace that I got (mine doesn't have the shorts attached to it).

Speaking of sledding, I had a blast yesterday afternoon!! We were in the ditch just a little ways from his house and my arm was burning and felt like it was on fire, so I stopped my sled and waited for Matt to notice I wasn't driving anymore. He came back to me and asked what was up. We realized that the electric visor on his helmet wasn't working and that's why the cord was so hot (the cord runs from the helmet, down your arm and plugs into the sled). We then drove back to his place and did a swap of visors and then were off again. The snow is still VERY powdery and it was really bumpy so that's how I know my brace was working! I got some pretty good air on some of the bumps and almost fell off twice! haha That's what makes it interesting though and I can't wait to go again!! Hopefully my helmet will come soon too. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Weird template and weekend plans

2007-12-07T10:48:00.000-06:00

So, today when I went to my blog, I noticed that my template was different. Up until now, it's had snowflakes and now it has santa. I haven't touched my template recently so I'm not sure how it got changed. It's almost a bit creepy!! I tried to copy in the code for the snowflake template, but it just comes up as santa. I have no idea what's going on. haha

I have a sort of busy weekend planned but I'm really looking forward to it. Since my parents aren't home tonight, I'm going to finish decorating the tree and put up some other decorations around the house.

Tomorrow I don't have skating, so I'm going to the city with my parents to finish Christmas shopping. I'm pretty much done, but just need a few things that you can't get here. While we're in the city, I'm also getting a back brace. My back is just not getting better no matter what I do. I tried a back brace a couple months ago, but I couldn't even breathe while wearing it, so I'm going to get a decent one now. Hopefully that will help my back from twisting so much when I fall at skating. In the evening, Matt and my brother have a hockey game, so I'll be going to that as well.

Sunday after church, Matt and I are going sledding!!! I'm SO excited. Hopefully the snow will be a little bit harder by Sunday so that it isn't all powder... then I won't get stuck so easily!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Just for fun

2007-12-05T11:32:00.000-06:00

Nothing new going on in my life, so I figured I would do a post like I saw on Drea's blog awhile ago.

Type in the answer to these questions... and the 1st GOOGLE IMAGE it shows you post. (if the 1st photos are disturbing, just use the 1st clean photo)

Age At My Next Birthday: 20

Place I'd Like To Travel: Hawaii

Favorite Place: Arena

Favorite Object: Graf Figure Skates

Favorite Food: Cottage Cheese Perogies

Favorite Color: Pink

Nickname: I don't really have a nickname, so I'm just gonna skip that one

Birthplace: Winkler

2007-11-30T13:47:00.000-06:00

I got this from my cousin and thought it would be fun to put on my blog. Feel free to put it on your blog as well!

1. What time is it? 1:30 PM
2. What's your full name? Janelle Nicole Klassen
3. What are you most afraid of? the unknown
4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater? Blades of Glory (wow that was a really ong time ago!)
5. Place of birth: Winkler
6. Favorite food: Perogies
7. What's your natural hair color? Medium brown
8. Ever been to Alaska? nope
9. Ever been toilet paper rolling? yeah
10. Love someone so much it made you cry: yeah
11. Been in a car accident: just a little fender bender
12. Croutons or bacon bits: croutons
13. Favorite day of the week: Friday
14. Favorite restaurant: Olive Garden
15. Favorite flower: Daisies
16. Favorite sport to watch: There are so many… figure skating, hockey,
car racing, surfing… those are just a few
17. Favorite drink: not sure
18. Favorite ice cream: rolo
19. Disney or Warner Brothers: Disney
20. Ever been on a ship? no, but really want to go on a cruise
21. What color is your bedroom carpet? beige
22. How many times did you fail your driver's test? none
23. Who did you get your last email from? my skating coach (it was a bill for lessons)
24. What do you do when you are bored? read or go on the computer
25. Bedtime: 10:30-11:30
26. Who will respond to this the quickest? ?
27. Who is the least likely to respond? ?
28. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? everyone
29. Favorite TV show? Extreme Makeover Home Edition
30. Last person you went to dinner with: Matt and his brother
31. Favorite time of year: hmmm… that’s a tough one… I like all the seasons except spring
32. What is your favorite color? pink
33. How many tattoos do you have? none
34. How many pets do you have? one little dog
35. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? the egg
36. What do you want to do before you die? so many things
37. Have you ever been to Hawaii? no, but I want to go one day
38. Have you been to countries outside the US? yeah… Germany, France and Austria
39. How many people are you sending this to? none because I'm putting it on my blog
40. Time this survey ended: 1:45 PM

Results

2007-11-27T13:15:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess it's time for an update on how my competition went this past weekend. Saturday afternoon I did my long program. Let's just say it didn't go very well at all. I just felt really shaky and not comfortable out there. I placed 4th in that event.
Sunday afternoon I did my spins program. Spins are way better for me than jumps. It's just something that comes easier to me. I felt that I skated really well and I guess the judges thought so too, because I placed 2nd.
Now it's back to the rink, to try and get my jumps more consistent. Maybe for my next competition I won't be sick either!

The other day, I wrote about buying a new camera off of ebay. Well I am officially ticked off! We ordered those cameras Nov.5 and we still don't have them! We ordered them through a company because we figured that would be easier, well we sure were wrong about that! They have been phoning and phoning telling us that they haven't recieved payment and threatening to close my brothers ebay account, when we've tried sending the payment 5 times and they won't accept it! They are now telling us that we don't have a confirmed address. We wanted to get them shipped to ND, so that it would be cheaper, but they won't do it. We asked how much it would cost to ship to Canada and it was ridiculous! The cameras were supposed to cost us $383 shipped to the US, but now to have them shipped to Canada, they are to cost just under $500.00!!! That is so dumb. We have now told them to cancel our order because they are being such jerks. Now we will have to shop around to see what prices we can find.
I hate not having a camera! I feel so lost some days. Christmas is getting closer and closer and I want a camera for the holidays!! I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on our camera situation. Hope you're all having a good week so far!!

Prayers are needed

2007-11-22T10:15:00.000-06:00

Nothing new going on in my life right now, but I felt like blogging quickly, plus I need some prayers.

Monday during the day I started to not feel good and it got worse as the day went on. I went to the rink after work and coached, but went home after that instead of staying to skate. I went to bed around 9, hoping that a long night would help. Tuesday I felt about the same as Monday, so I skipped skating and felt SO awful in the evening. Yesterday I felt even worse than the night before, but I figured I would try and go to work. I got to work and asked myself why I was even there. I felt so sick and had a fever. I was sitting in my chair just sweating! I decided that I should just go home and rest and get better, so that’s what I did. I slept almost all day!!! By the evening I had started feeling a bit better already, but nothing near great. I had an awesome night and I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better. Now I know that everyone gets sick and I probably shouldn’t be complaining, but seriously, this couldn’t have come at a worse time! I have a competition this weekend and I’m not even close to ready. I haven’t done one jump or one spin or a run through of my program in a week! That is a long time!! Today I’m making myself go skating, no matter what I feel like, because this will be my last practice before my skate on Saturday afternoon.

So if you could please pray that I will feel better for Saturday and that I will be able to skate my best at my competition that would be greatly appreciated. I’ll be sure to let you all know how I did and if I can figure out how to post a video, then I’ll do that too! Hope you’re all having a good week so far.

SO EXCITED!!!

2007-11-16T10:55:00.000-06:00

I'm finally getting a new camera and I can hardly wait!!!

My camera went on the fritz awhile ago already and so I started shopping and studying different cameras. That's when I found the one shown above! My parents also wanted a new camera so we're both getting the same kind. We're getting them off of ebay because its way cheaper that way!! I couldn't find a picture of the exact one that we're getting, but this one is very close. We just aren't getting the DVD that it shows in the pic, but I think we're getting everything else that is shown. Can't wait to try it out and finally be able to put some pictures on my blog!!

Where do you stand?

2007-11-12T11:21:00.000-06:00

That is the question we as the audience were asked yesterday by Peter Furler of the Newsboys at the best concert I have ever been too!

My brother and SIL had been at the concert in Grand Forks in March, so they knew what to expect and they were serious when they said the concert was amazing and the encore was even more amazing!! If you want to see part of the encore, then click here. The video is sweet and I totally wasn't expecting that to happen!!

The concert started out with a band called Newworldson. They are a Canadian band and I hate to say it, but I really wasn't a fan of them. Kutless then came on and like usual, they were awesome! And the Newsboys came on last and put on a great show!! I love the feeling that you get at a Christian concert. I really can't describe it, but it's such a great feeling!!

I also bought a Kutless shirt at the concert. It's brown and pink and on the back of the shirt it has some lyrics from one of their songs...

Can't you see
We're crushing the hearts of the innocent
We're teaching them to fail
And how it breaks me to see how we're living
And punishing the ones that need us to care
To see them hurting
Feels like knuckles to the back of my head

That was the extent of my weekend. Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Weekend Plans

2007-11-09T15:40:00.000-06:00

It’s finally Friday!!! Today is going by so slow and I’m really not in the greatest mood and I have a headache. I’ve felt pretty down all week, but I’m not sure why. I’ve also been going to bed early every night and can hardly get out of bed in the morning. Last night I went to bed at 9:30 and when my alarm went off this morning, it felt like I had only gotten a couple hours of sleep! I get grumpy so easily and I just snap at people. I hate it so much. Yesterday I didn’t really eat either. I went home at lunch and started eating and everything I tried to eat was SO disgusting!!! So I didn’t eat lunch or supper. My parents were a bit worried because I’m just not my usual self. Please pray that I will start to feel better and not be so crabby!!

I’m hoping my weekend won’t be too busy, so that I can relax a bit. Right after work today I’m coaching. Canskate has been going a lot better lately which is so good! This evening, I’m going to finish cutting a solo for one of my skaters. It’s my first solo that I've cut, so hopefully it will sound good!

Tomorrow, there is a test day here and there is skating afterwards. Not too sure what else I’ll do in the afternoon. In the evening I think I’m going to Matt’s brother and SIL’s for supper and then hang out with his whole family for the evening.

Sunday, Shawn, Wendy, Matt and I are heading to the city for the Kutless and Newsboys concert in the evening. I’m really looking forward to going to the concert!! It should be a really good time.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Giveaway

2007-11-06T13:26:00.000-06:00

Drea over at DE Reviews is having a great Pure Anada Giveaway! I have always wanted to try mineral makeup to see if it would help my skin, so now maybe I will get the chance to try it for free!! If you want to enter or want to know more about the giveaway click here. The giveaway ends Saturday!

2007-11-05T11:32:00.000-06:00

One Flaw In Women
(you will see what it is in the end)

Women have strengths that amaze men.
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happines, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take "no" for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their heart breaks when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you
to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
family and friends.
Women have vital things to say
and everything to give.
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Let's keep this going, so that we can let all the women out there know, just how truly amazing they are! If you are feeling down, read this poem, or if you know a woman that is feeling down on herself, send her this poem to help brighten her day!

Skating & Open House

2007-11-01T13:47:00.000-05:00

Nothing new and exciting going on in my life right now… just the same old, same old.

Skating is going pretty good these days. I’m trying to get myself ready for my first competition of the season and it’s a bit frustrating. I have sports asthma and it’s really bad when I’m doing something physical in cold air. I guess that kind of means I’m in the wrong sport. HAHA Anyways, I’ve been practicing my program at skating and I just can’t make it through it while doing double jumps. I was thinking about it the other day and I think I have found one of the reasons why I can’t make it through. I concentrate really hard on breathing during my program, except for when I jump. When I jump, I hold my breath! I know that sounds really weird, but it’s true. I asked my one coach if that could be one of the problems and she said yes. She then also said that, that could also be the cause for me falling on my jumps and not landing them. I’m really tall and straight in the air because I’m holding my breath, then on my way back down to the ice, I exhale which causes me to break at the waist which in return causes me to fall. Now that we’ve figured it out, I have to try and break my habit. It’s going to be really hard to do since I think I’ve always had this habit. Hopefully I can break the habit sooner rather than later.

Yesterday evening, I also got my hair done. I got it cut and colored. I love the cut, but I'm just not sure if I like the color. It's really really dark, but I know that it will fade yet. I think I might just have to get used to it. I was going to take a picture, so that you could all see it and give me your opinion, but my camera is shot and I haven't gotten a new one yet. So for now, my posts will be very pictureless. I hope that's ok.

In other news, my SIL is having an open house tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. What kind of open house? It’s a signature homestyles open house. Signature homestyles is stuff for your home. If you like interior decorating, then this is for you! They have such nice products and I’ve already gotten some stuff for when I move into my own home one day (hopefully it won’t go out of style before then). My SIL will have products on display as well as coffee and desserts. If you want more details or if you have questions, leave me a comment and your email address and I will answer it for you. If you want to know more about the company and see products they are offering, click here.

2007-10-29T23:44:00.000-05:00

So I think I got my new layout mostly figured out now. I just don't know how to put countdowns on now. If anyone knows how, please let me know.

Today, like every Monday was crazy. Worked till 4 and then headed straight to the rink. I coached till 6 and then skated till 8. Today at Canskate, we had costume day! It was great to see most of the kids dressed up in the cutest little costumes. We handed out suckers to all the skaters and the best dressed skater in each group got a bigger prize. We had some issues with a parent about the whole thing afterwards, but they tend to complain about every little thing we do, so we didn't really pay attention.

After skating, I whipped home and Matt picked me up and we headed off to Plum Coulee for his first hockey game of the season! They lost 7-1, but they didn't play too bad. They just need to keep practicing together so that they begin to play as a team.

Well, I'm really tired, but I have to go work out before I go to bed. I'm really excited to do my new work out DVD's! Have a good night everyone!!!

Under Construction

2007-10-29T14:33:00.000-05:00

Please be patient while my blog is under construction.

Thanks!

Appointment

2007-10-25T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I had my appointment yesterday and it went ok, but not as good as I was hoping. The lady was super nice and I felt very comfortable talking to her. She has never done a birthmark before, so she’s not sure of the results that I will get if I decide to have it done. She does a lot of pigmented lesions, but no birthmarks. I got concerned when we got talking about the price. For pigment lesions, its $150/session and it usually takes 2-3 sessions depending on your skin. She said for mine, it might take up to 12 sessions!!! That is $1800.00!!! But then she said that she wouldn’t charge me that much and that we would talk about a price if I did decide on having the treatment done. She did do a sample on me yesterday. It felt really cool actually and didn’t hurt at all. She told me to wait 4-6 weeks and then to call her if I wanted to go further. So now I guess I will wait for it to heal and see if I can notice any difference in it at all. I’ll just keep praying about it and hopefully something will work out.

Some good news! UPDATED

2007-10-23T07:54:00.000-05:00

I had my doctors appointment yesterday and it went really well. The doctor I saw doesn't do the laser surgery, but he just does the consult to see if you are a candidate. He said that I was a good candidate and he thought it should be able to be done. He told me to call his wife in the evening to make an appointment. I called last night and left a message, so hopefully I will get an appointment soon! When I have my appointment, she will give me a quote on the price and if I still want to go through with it, she will laser just part of my birthmark to see if it will heal nicely. If it does, then she will do the rest. I'm getting more and more excited about it and now I just hope it won't cost too much!!!

**Update**
Went home at lunch and my mom told me to call the lady who I'm supposed to see for my laser surgery. I have an appointment tomorrow at 4!!!!! I'm so excited, yet kinda nervous. I'm praying that my appointment will go well tomorrow and that it won't be overly expensive.

2007-10-22T09:39:00.000-05:00

It’s Monday already?!? Where did the weekend go?!? My weekend was so crazy and busy and not relaxing.

Friday was another session of Canskate, which went surprisingly well actually. The rest of the evening I didn’t really do anything.
Saturday, I had skating in the morning, I went toy shopping for Canskate and then the work began. I had tons of stuff to do for Canskate!! I did some and then I had a nap. I then worked on coaching stuff all evening till about midnight.
Sunday, I went to church and it was an awesome message!! After church, I went out for lunch with my mom, Matt, Shawn and Wendy. We came back home and it was back to work for me. I worked on coaching stuff all afternoon and evening again. I got to bed around midnight again and didn’t fall asleep for a long time, since my brain was still working. Needless to say, I’m tired.

I really hope all the Canskate work will slow down soon, because I’m not sure how much longer I can do this. I am just a grump in the evening because I’m stressed and tired and just want to do nothing for one evening! Please pray that it will slow down and I will be able to get some much needed sleep soon. If could also pray for me around 3:00 today, I would really appreciate it. I have a doctor’s appointment at 3:00 and I want good news. I have a big birthmark on my chest and it looks ugly and has started bothering me lately. I am seeing a doctor today about laser surgery. He will check to see if I’m a candidate for it. I’m really excited, yet kinda nervous for it. I’ll make sure I let you guys know how my appointment went!

Hope you all had a more relaxing weekend than I did!

Pictures

2007-10-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

My mom babysat for my SIL's nephews yesterday and I took these pictures during my lunch break. Landon kept making funny faces at me until I got the camera out. haha

I went to Matt's house yesterday and these are pictures of his new sled!

While I was at his place, we decided to wash and wax his old sled (which is now mine). It looks so clean and shiny now!

All we need now is snow!!!

2007-10-17T09:13:00.000-05:00

So I promised you all yesterday that I would write a post today about a purchase that Matt made. It's not letting me post pictures, so next time I go to Matt's place, I will make sure I take pictures of his new sled!

Last week I told you about a sled that Matt had found on ebay that looked really good. The seller ended his bid early, so we missed out on that one. We continued shopping and found a nice one in Winnipeg. Monday, Matt went to the city and went to look at the sled. He ended up giving the guy a deposit on the sled. Then yesterday, Matt got the money for the sled and we went to the city to pick up the sled. It looks SO good! He was SO excited and I'm happy that he found one that he really likes. Now that we both have sleds, we have to wait paitently for the snow to fall. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.

Pure Chaos

2007-10-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

Friday was the first day of CanSkate, and let’s just say that it probably couldn’t have gone any worse. I was bombarded with questions and concerns of parents as soon as I stepped on the ice. I am the only head coach on the CanSkate ice on Friday’s right now and it was pure chaos. Most of the kids that stepped onto the ice couldn’t even stand by themselves. We don’t have enough teachers and helpers on Friday’s, which makes it even harder to be organized. There were quite a few parents on the ice with their kids just to help us out because those parents understood that we were doing our best. I wish I could say that all the parents understood, but then I would by lying. This one dad in particular, was SO angry, because his son was totally out of his league and thought that this was a learn to skate program. Well yes it is, but we would love it if the kids would at least be able to stand in one spot by themselves. When I got off the ice on Friday, I wanted to crawl into a corner and cry. There were angry parents everywhere that didn’t realize that aren’t superheroes. If your child comes on the ice on the first day and can’t even stand by themselves, there is a very low possibility of them being able to skate by themselves by the time the session is over. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Yesterday, there was another head coach on the ice with me and the session went a lot better than Friday, but was still chaos. We still had quite a few parents on the ice, but we’re ok with that for the very beginning. The dad that gave me heck on Friday was back on Monday and gave it to me again. He said that all his son did was sit on the ice and that it would be more beneficial for him to take his son to public skating and teach him there. He wanted to know why the groups were so big and why his son wasn’t getting more one on one help. I tried to explain to him that we are following Skate Canada’s standards and are actually a bit better. Their standard is a 10:1 ratio for students to teacher. The most we have in a group is 10, but we also give that teacher a helper. If we were to give every skater one on one, we would need around 75 teachers/helpers on the ice. I’m really not sure where we would find that many.

Sorry about my rant… I just needed to get it out of me. Please pray that it will continue to get better and better.

We did get one compliment from a dad yesterday… Almira (the other head coach) was told by a dad that we were doing a very good job and she said thanks. He then told her to make sure that I got told because I looked like I really needed to hear that. I guess I was looking just a bit stressed. HAHA

Yesterday was also the first day of Pre-CanPower. My coach Alissa is in charge of that, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to make it, so her husband and Almira’s husband ran it. Alissa could definitely use some prayers these days. She is 18 weeks pregnant and was in the hospital again yesterday. I think this was her 3rd or 4th time in the hospital already. When she gets sick, it starts in the afternoon… she throws up all evening, all night and all the next day. She’ll be without any food in her system for 24 hours, so her husband takes her to the hospital and they start her on an IV to get all the nutrients back in her. They are hoping to send her home sometime today. The doctor is thinking that she might be having twins because the baby is sitting so high and she popped out all of a sudden.

I hope you are all having a good week so far. I’ll be back tomorrow with another post about a purchase that Matt made.

Thanksgiving and other stuff

2007-10-09T13:58:00.000-05:00

I hope and pray you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I sure had a wonderful one and for once, I didn't eat too much!

Saturday, we had a skating seminar at the rink. I attended as a coach and learnt SO much! Saturday for supper, we were at Matt's place. Supper was delicious and the evening was good. We picked names for Christmas and I got his mom, so now I have to think of what I can buy her. It's hard to believe we're already thinking about Christmas! Matt had a hockey exhibition game that evening so I went to that with his SIL.

Sunday, we went to church, relaxed in the afternoon and then I went to my grandma and grandpa's for supper. Matt couldn't make it there for supper, since he had to do chores at home, but he did come later on.

It felt SOO good to have the day off yesterday. I slept in for once and then went to Winnipeg with my parents to visit my grandma.

Matt and me were shopping for sleds yesterday and it made us want snow even more! I didn't get to go snowmobiling very much last year, because I didn't have a sled and Matt isn't a huge fan of having someone on the back of the sled while he's driving. So, the shopping begins. He is going to give me his and he is going to buy a newer one! I am SO excited! We found some on the auto trader and also some on ebay that looked pretty good. But then we found an amazing looking sled! It's in Minnesota, so we can easily go pick it up and bring it back. The bid ends in 4 days, so we'll see what happens!
Front view of the sled Matt wants

Side view of the sled
Now that I have my own sled, I need a good helmet. Here is the one I'm hoping to get!

I will be sure to let you know if he ends up getting the sled (I really hope he does!) Really nothing else to blog about. My life is so repetative and busy right now!
Monday - work, coach, skate
Tuesday - work, skate
Wednesday - work, coach, skate
Thursday - work, skate
Friday - work, coach
Saturday - coach, skate
Sunday - DAY OFF
As you can see, everyday is the same! Hopefully something interesting will happen in my life, so that you guys actually have something interesting to read!

2007-10-04T14:01:00.000-05:00

I was watching the news yesterday and they interviewed a lady who used to live on a hutterite colony in Dauphin and now lives in Saskatchewan with her husband and son. She has written a book about living on the colony and then leaving with her family to live else where and now different life was off of the colony.

Usually I wouldn’t really have cared, but this time I did. The lady who wrote this book, Mary-Ann, was actually a judge at the queen pageant when I ran. She also was Winkler’s queen at one time! It thought it was so cool and it brought back so many good memories from the pageant.

I think this would be a very interesting book to read, especially since I know her! For more info on the book click here

2007-10-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

Well, we had our first day of canskate planning yesterday after skating and it went quite well.

We have run into a small problem but we’ll just work around it the best we can… canskate coaches are supposed to keep record of all the skaters in the canskate program according to which level they are at. This makes it much easier for the coach to put the skaters into groups. You always want skaters in a group according to their level of ability. Our problem now is we can’t find these records anywhere! We have called the coach and asked her where they are in the rink and all she tells us is that she’ll get them to us when she comes to this area. In other words, she took them with her at the end of the season! We think she’s coming here on the 13th, but since canskate starts the day before that, we now have to make groups according to what we think. That is the only thing we got done yesterday and we’re hoping we won’t have to switch the groups too much once we start skating.

We will continue our planning and pray that we won’t run into any more major problems. I’m starting to look forward to this challenge, yet really nervous at the same time.

Every year in March, we have an annual carnival/ice show. We really need to start thinking of a theme that we would like for this season. I would love to do something unique, but I’m just not sure what yet. Any suggestions?

I hope you aren’t getting bored with all my skating/canskate updates… but that’s really all that’s going on in my life right now. Hope you are all having a good week so far!

2007-10-01T13:02:00.000-05:00

Why do weekends have to always go by so quickly? It was a good all girls weekend… my dad, my brother Shawn, Matt and Shawn’s FIL left on Friday for Kansas. Shawn is a HUGE nascar fan and has always wanted to go to a race. Since my dad has connections through his work, he got 4 free tickets for Sunday’s race. At first, my dad’s boss and one of his co-workers were going to go with Shawn and my dad, but they backed out last minute. So, the hunt then began for two other people who wanted to go. Shawn’s FIL said yes right away and was pumped! Matt isn’t a nascar fan but figured it would be an awesome experience and so he said yes as well.

Friday evening, my mom and I did some grocery shopping and then just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Saturday I was at the rink from 9:30-1:45 again. When I was done at the rink, I headed over to Wendy’s. She did my hair and waxed my eyebrows. I had major roots already, so we just bleached a few chunks of hair that were already blonde and you can hardly notice that I have roots anymore! I want to go dark for winter again, but I haven’t quite decided how dark or if I want just a solid color or what I want to do, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! After we were done my hair, we did some scrap booking and then I went home and hung out with my mom in the evening.

Sunday, after church, we 3 women headed to the city to do some shopping. I needed some new dress clothes from work and we just bummed around and shopped. It was a really fun afternoon. In the evening, we went to Wendy’s parents place for her nephew’s birthday party. Cody is now 4 years old and was thrilled at his birthday party. Last week, his dad had backed over his tricycle, so a few of us went together and bought him a new bike with training wheels. He was SO excited and didn’t want to get off of it! We also bought him some really cute clothes!

Now, the guys are on their way home and are planning to be here sometime around supper. Tonight I have skating from 6-8 and then the Canskate planning begins. Hopefully we can get a lot done today!

Thankful Thursday

2007-09-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

I’m thankful for…

...my family and all that they do for me and also the support of my family. They stand behind me 100%. Even if they don’t always agree with me, they will still support me and encourage me.

...my friend Candace – we are both VERY busy people, but we are still very close friends. She is there for me no matter what and is always there to talk, to listen and to give advice.
...my blogging friends – you always have encouraging comments and prayers when I’m feeling down and you help me to remember to trust in God and everything will work out.

...Matt – he is the best boyfriend I could ever ask for. He puts up with a lot and supports me in the many things that I do. I don’t know what I would do without him!

...God – I don’t know what I would do without God in my life. He lifts me when I’ve fallen and I’m not sure how to get back up, He’s constantly teaching me to trust in Him, to be patient and to not always take things for granted.

...Cindy, my skating coach – she knows me inside and out. She can tell if I’m not feeling good, if I’ve had a bad day or if I just don’t feel like skating. She’s supportive and encouraging and such a good friend. She motivates me and strives for me to try harder and to be a better skater. At competitions, she knows exactly what is going through my head while warming up and before I step on that ice to compete. She has a way of calming my nerves a bit. Knowing that she is standing there by the boards as my coach means the world to me! One year without her as a coach felt like an eternity! Now, we’re back together and it’s going to be a wonderful season!

...all my skaters – you are all my guinea pigs and my first time students. You have faith in me and give me a chance at being your coach. You all tell me that I’m exactly like Cindy and that is a compliment!

What are you thankful for?

May I present to you...

2007-09-25T23:28:00.000-05:00

...one of Winkler's new head Canskate coaches, Janelle Klassen!!!!

I applied for this position last week along with two other coaches from our club. We applied as a team, because we all didn't want to do it by ourselves. We found out after skating this evening, that the executive had a vote about it and the majority was for the 3 of us. I was so excited to hear this, because I know that some people were going to quit if the coach from last season was hired back.

So, even though it is 3 of us, I still am doing a lot of it by myself. We are offering Pre-Canpower for the first time this year and Alissa will be running that. I will be in charge of Groupskate and Canskate on Monday's and Fridays, and Almira will also be in charge of Canskate on Monday's.

I'm really looking forward to this huge challenge, yet I'm really nervous!! We now have A LOT of planning to do before the first session which is on October 12!!

Well, I just wanted to share my good news with you and now I'm off to sleep. If you could please pray for all 3 of us that would be greatly appreciated!

Update...

2007-09-25T08:31:00.001-05:00

I’m a bit frustrated this morning still but that’s alright. I had no luck at the clinic yesterday… I went there right after work and waited and waited and waited. I went the receptionist at 5:40 and told her to take me off the list because I couldn’t stay any longer. She told me that there were only 5 people ahead of me and asked if I really needed to leave. Well yes I did need to leave. So, I sat there for an hour and 40 minutes and didn’t see the doctor. I quickly zipped home, grabbed something to eat, but I was too much pain to eat so said forget it and was off to my first aid refresher course.

My first aid was going to run out on the 30th of this month so I had to quickly get it done so that I could keep coaching. First aid courses aren’t always the most interesting but it was still pretty good. I had forgotten some stuff since the last time that I had taken it, so now I know how to do things again. We also learned the new CPR standards which are going to be a lot easier to remember now that it’s the same for every age. At the course, we got a pocket resuscitator mask and I am SO thankful for this new device. We now don’t have to do mouth-to-mouth if we have this mask along with us! We practiced using it and it’s a lot easier than mouth-to-mouth, and you also don’t have to worry about getting the victims vomit in your mouth!

I hope the week is off to a good start for all of you!

2007-09-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

What a gorgeous weekend we just had! Today is cloudy and rainy, but the weekend was sunny and warm!

Friday evening Matt and I went for a jog by ourselves… I run WAY too slow for him so we just go our separate ways. ha-ha. After our jogs, we went to my brother and SIL’s place and watched a movie.

Saturday, I was at the rink from 9:30-1:45. 9:30-11:30 was figure skating and the rest of the time I was helping with CanPower. I had a nap in the afternoon and did some cleaning around the house. Matt and I went to my brother and SIL’s for supper and then we played games all evening. It was such a good time and I’m SO glad the 4 of us get along so good.

Sunday, we went to church and then my brother and SIL came over and we had lunch together and then Shawn (my brother) watched the Nascar race, Matt had a nap, Wendy (my SIL) went home to do a few things and I really didn’t do anything. At 3:45 Wendy’s nephews came over and I babysat them, since they were all going to Stony Mountain to sing in the jail. I took a bunch of pictures of the boys while I had them but haven’t had time to put them on the computer yet, but I will post them soon.

Today, after work I am making a trip to urgent care at the clinic. I have some canker sores in my mouth and they hurt SO bad that I can hardly eat! I would make an appointment with my doctor, but that isn’t possible since I don’t have one… the doctor that I had went to school for awhile again and isn’t taking his patients back or something and there aren’t any other doctors that are taking new patients so now I’m without a doctor. I’m really hoping there is a good doctor working in urgent care today. If you think of me, please say a quick prayer. I hope you are all having a good Monday!

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow

Update

Prayer Request

Rhubarb

It's been a really long time

I'm an auntie!!!!!

Road Trip

A new part time volunteer job!!

Pics!!!!

Wedding and Honeymoon Recap

In a Better Place

Update on Taffy

Prayer Request

Thoughts

Weekend and your ideas

Update and CanSkate

Opinions

3 Months - **UPDATED**

Booked!

It was a success!!

Dress Shopping!

Some plans

Wedding Website

HUGE NEWS!!!!!

just some random things

Exciting News!!!

Skate Canada Day - TODAY and it's FREE!!!!

Wisconsin Dells - TONS of pictures!!

Clear Lake

Weddings

Going on holidays!

First camping trip of the summer and pictures!!

Wordless Wednesday - picture taken in the Pembina Hills

A bit of an update and some pictures

For Sale

Glasses and more

Editing Photos

Glasses

Funky Sock Exchange

New Purchase

Skating Carnival

Stressed

long post... lots of pictures

Great Results!

Nervous

Happy Valentine's Day!

Photo Shoot

Asking for prayers

We did it!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tired

Brrrr....

Stuff

New Style

Scrapbooking

Contest!

All Alone...well almost

Christmas picture post... finally!

Competition results and a bit of other stuff

Skating Competition

Life is busy

Snowmobile helmet

I'm still here

We have a theme...

I need your opinions and ideas

All done Christmas shopping!!

Weird template and weekend plans

Just for fun

Results

Prayers are needed

SO EXCITED!!!

Where do you stand?

Weekend Plans

Giveaway

Skating & Open House

Under Construction

Appointment

Some good news! **UPDATED**

Pictures

All we need now is snow!!!

3 Months - UPDATED

Some good news! UPDATED