From the backseat

I spent EIGHT FULL DAYS in the backseat of the Buick and such an experience is definitely not one to be tossed away and forgotten without at least a small blog post commemorating it. Indeed the long hours of repositioning for comfort, teasing the guys in the front, rocking out with Jess in the back, digging around for lost phones or iPods or treats or what have you, cannot be treated as some lousy old bag of potato chips, crumpled up and thrown in the waste basket, considered useless and undeserving of further contemplation. Truly, they were important hours of my life full of laughter, sleep, music, and, yes, learning how to have patience and deal with people in such close quarters for so long.

Interestingly, the poor fellows up front were forced to be entertained by my iPod of Jess's most of the time as theirs were too new for our radio transmitter ma-bob.They were very well cultured in pop/rock from Jessica and everything else from me. :) As some of you may know, I like pretty much EVERY genre of music and so over two hours, shuffling my 1400 songs gives you quite the mix! Everything from a cappella groups to Skillet to unique French styles to Michael Buble to Switchfoot to country to Lecrae to Jack Johnson and more! We took great joy in driving them a little bonkers with our enthusiasm and obnoxious singing. Also, they were introduced to my random skipping through songs which I'm sure they appreciated.

I was also in charge of the cooler and snacks within as it resided quite happily at my feet all this time (which greatly limited my sitting/sleep positions). We had made almost 200 Oreo truffles (ended up with about 40 left over), a couple dozen Scotcheroos, a bucket of gingersnaps, and a bag of double chocolate cookies. We also had apples, carrots, chips and drinks to consume along the way. Me thinks we made far too much food for ourselves because we were quite sick of it all by the end and didn't even finish it!

We had some very amusing moments in the car. We all traded easy-going jabs at each other and spent many hours laughing hysterically. One hilarious instance was when we played a prank on Josh. We were sitting at a gas station and Jess is like, "we should totally prank him when he comes back!" so we decided to throw crackers on his sit just before he sat down. Derrick was armed with the three Ritz crackers and as Josh went to sit down, he casually chucked them onto the seat. At the CRRRRRRUNCH!!! we all burst into hysterics, Jess and I practically rolling around in the back seat. Another rather amusing ride included making up stories sentence by sentence as each person took a turn adding to it. Here's an example:

One day Prince Derrick went out fishing. He caught a 50 inch trout. It ate him. So he was swimming around in the stomach acid for awhile. Then he used his amazing physics skills to turn the chemicals into a bomb and blow himself out. He sat rather happily in the fish guts on the beach. Suddenly a beautiful princess named Analea came by. It was love at first sight... when Prince Derrick saw the cracker in her hand. Analea left Derrick and the cracker to be alone with each other and walked off down the beach.

The rest were equally ridiculous but occupied us for about 20 minutes. 

As the hours dragged on, I would alternate between trying to sleep and watching my surroundings. From my position in the backseat I would stare out at my surroundings, unimpressed for the most part by these flat states. Seriously, from the desolate wasteland of southern Wyoming to the dried cornfields of Indiana, to the dead, brown fields of Nebraska, this part of the country is really rather dull. Kentucky was rather beautiful as well as southern Missouri. The fall colours in the trees were stunning. Other than that though, the flat flat flatness of everything was just so bizarre to me and odd to my senses. How I missed seeing even a distant mountain range! I really don't know how people do it!

It was altogether a very interesting trip both in the car and out. I definitely had a blast chillin' in my seat but... if I ever see the inside of the Buick again...it'll be TOO soon!

You make me wanna SHOUT

Okay, so yesterday morning was one of the most, I hesitate to say dreadful, how about...interesting...of my life. I woke up with all these plans for my morning before breakfast but...plans changed.

I went over to brush my teeth in the kitchen sink because Kaitlyn was in the bathroom and I was just tidying it up a little and I suddenly I become aware of dozens of little black things crawling everywhere! UGH! Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE ants!!?!??! Well anyways, I couldn't exactly brush my teeth with disgustingness all over the place so I started cleaning up. There were a few dishes as well as a carton of grapes that had attracted the horde...grapes went into the garbage, dishes in the sink and out came the 'Shout'. (I have discovered that cleaners kill ants quickly right where they happen to be scurrying...halted said scurry.) So as the room fills with  the slightly toxic smell of chemicals, I grab some toilet paper...didn't have paper towel and start wiping up the swarm. THEN I realize, not only are they all over the counter, they are harvesting a spill of oats off the floor! As I tried to keep myself from blowing up in frustration or throwing up in disgust, I get out the Shout again and spray away. (At least the floor is nice and clean there) So I finally got them all and was able to brush my teeth. Of course, it wasn't 3 minutes later that more showed up - apparently the message hadn't got back to the main base yet. After killing those ones (with Shout of course - this is turning into a commercial), I starting thinking maybe I should have just left them, they could have cleaned up the mess for me!

Anyways that was my fantastic morning, half an hour of killing ants and almost being late to breakfast!

Of ghost cars, beads and bears

Traveling with my sisters is always an interesting and hilarious experience. A quick jaunt up to Kelowna and back this weekend was no exception! That's right, just two days after I returned from Jackson, we're packing up the car and heading out (much to my mother's dismay).

The excitement started just outside of hope with a sudden decrease of speed from the cars in front of us. Soon we are travelling in a pack and Nel strains to see ahead and hypothesizes (correctly), "I bet that's a ghost car right up there, that silver one?" So ya...here we are, forced to travel at the agonizing speed of 100kph (who wants to drive the speed limit???) and you can tell everyone is getting antsy. We pass by several exists and he still won't leave!! THEN two semi trucks pull on right in front of him and he is stuck at about 98kph...which is even worse in a way because no one wants to pass him! As our turn comes up, we start climbing a hill so he is pushed even slower so we anxiously make our way past him and laugh as everyone zooms quickly out of sight. First adventure over.

The next hilarious happenstance occurred on the drive home. We stopped at Merritt to switch drivers and get coffee at Tim Hortons ( FINALLY after about 2 months! I needed some Timmies!). So we walk in the door and Danae turns, flamboyantly gesturing and says something (I missed it due to what happened next) and her new bracelet flies off her wrist, hits the wall...and breaks! Beads go flying EVERYWHERE and for about 10-15 seconds we stand there completely frozen as these beads ping off of lights, windows, tables, chairs, the floor...everyone turns and stares in shock. As the bouncing settles to the floor, I smile, wave and say a small, "hi..." We laugh as we scurry around picking up the beads, chatting with the people. Some thought it was ice, some thought the glass had shattered. It was pretty amusing. I assured them that we just wanted to make an entrance and well, it was kinda fun to make everyone laugh. We were still laughing our heads off as we got in the car and drove off.

The final leg of the journey consisted of driving through spooky clouds of fog, obnoxious singing and dancing and finally a BEAR SIGHTING! Danae had been wanting to see a bear since Jackson so we were all very excited to see this little guy up on the hill. Unfortunately we went by too quickly to get a picture but it was all very exciting any ways and Danae was quite pleased.

Oh, another fun little tidbit. We had iffy weather the whole trip but it only really started pouring...as we enter Abbotsford. Yay...how I love this town. haha

Things get scary

Evidently I have been working too long on this week's paper. It brings to mind the odd things which occurred during the writing of last week's paper...

I have this odd habit of making bizarre and apparently slightly scary noises after I have been sitting for a long time especially in deep concentration or exertion of the brain (hence, not reading a novel which I can do for a whole day with no negative side-effects other than a sore butt...these issues arise in activities more like, writing essays, researching etc). So last week I spent probably over 4 hours straight just researching, organizing and writing my paper on Hebrews 6:4-6 (which is like the MOST CONTROVERSIAL PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE). Suffice to say, it was VERY exhausting and though I enjoy this type of thing, I got bored. As such, I have the natural impulse to relieve the pressure of boredom building up in my very being by making outlandish noises. These could start off as over-exaggerated sighs, highish pitched squeally -type things, or rapid breathing. Last week, when I emitted one of these bizarre sounds (rapid breathing in this case), Natalie looked up from her study, gave me a weird look then broke out laughing telling me I sounded like I was in labor...well, I suppose I was laboring pretty hard but I don't think that's what she meant. It was quite amusing to the both of us and the laughter was a good break from study.

So today, I have only been working steady for about an hour and a half and I just suddenly "buzzed" really obnoxiously through my lips, expelling a huge burst of pent up air and energy that has been suppressed by this increasingly boring paper. This time there were a few more people in the bunkhouse and I heard immediately, "WHAT WAS THAT!?!?" One friend said it sounded like a bear's stomach rumbling. Another said, "I wasn't thinking that...but I won't mention what I thought it sounded like..." After more laughter, Natalie said it wasn't as bad as the labor pains so I guess that's something...

Bibles, commentaries, notes computer...ahhhhh!!!!

Because I have evidently grown too bored to work on my paper, I decided to take a break and post this. Unfortunately, I don't feel any more energized to continue for the next 45 minutes till dinner...I think it has something to do with staring at this annoying (but incredibly and unfortunately useful) glowing screen in front of me. These outburst don't tend to occur when I do such intense study by hand...I say it again: I was born in the wrong era.

Counting Sheep

It's said to be a exercise leading directly to sleep, for all those nights when sleep just won't come, count sheep. But seriously, I mean, if you've tried it you know, and if you haven't, well you knew better, that it really doesn't work. But, I was out of options last night and so I decided to try out the age-old trick.

At first the monotony had me thinking that maybe this was going to work. The sheep were stacking up in my brain, one-dimensional and all the same...however by about 16, this got too boring and they started to take on characteristics: old sheep with long white beards, young girl sheep in bonnets, cowboy sheep, skinny sheep,

fat sheep, sheep with buck-teeth, sheep with no teeth, sheep smiling, sheep crying etc. This went on for awhile but slowly the sheep because 3-dimensional and started moving. By the 40s there was a tap dancing sheep, a line dancing sheep, a sheep herding dogs, a sheep jumping over the moon, a sheep barbering a man's head and they got more creative over time.

Unfortunately, coming up with new mind pictures was growing exhausting and so by the late 60s I was back to monotonous plain old sheep. By the 70s, it was just sheep heads, the the 80s they had turned into ducklings somehow and by the 90s were fortunately back to sheep.

 By the time I reached one hundred I decided this exercise was fruitless and annoying. I thought about starting over at one (as saying one hundred and one would take too much effort) but gave up after about 10...I wasn't even imagining sheep anymore, just counting. So my mind wandered and I started writing this post in my head and so here we are...I eventually fell asleep around 12, long after the details of this post were put together and I was once again bored.

So, I have decided that the whole idea is nonsense and either bores you so that you can't continue or leads your mind on so many different paths that you get confused and more awake trying to figure out where the sheep are than sleepy.

According to Wikipedia it is "presumably, is to induce boredom while occupying the mind with something simple, repetitive, and rhythmic, all of which are known to help humans sleep." (maybe it didn't work because I wasn't imaging them all jumping one after the other over a fence, all identical and such...but I tried the monotony, it failed). However according to a study done at Oxford (people actually do STUDIES on this type of thing!?!?) it is less beneficial than imaging a calm seen such as a beach or waterfall (why do calm scenes have to have water in them??? and anyways, depending on the beach or waterfall, things might not be calm there at all!)

Interestingly one of the earliest references to this activity dates back to 1605 in "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes :

 "Let your worship keep count of the goats the fisherman is taking across, for if one escapes the memory there will be an end of the story, and it will be impossible to tell another word of it."

However, this sentence really makes very little sense to me so I fail to see its relevance...in other news, people of India and Pakistan would refer to the exercise as counting stars.

In regards to my further research on the topic I have found that there is very little information about the origin and effectiveness of this old folk lore. But I have discovered some interesting tidbits about the way shepherds in like the DARK AGES, actually, I don't know the time period, but they had this weird rhyming system of counting sheep...like, real sheep...I'm sure you wanted to know that. As my search has yielded nothing else which strikes me as particularly fascinating, I will here close my post. If you have more questions or interest in the subject...Google your heart out.

A bad day to nap

Back in Jackson for my last 8 weeks of study...moving on from that decidedly depressing topic...With the time difference and that wonderful thing called day-light savings, getting up at 7:30 this morning felt more like getting up at 5:30, as such, I was dreadfully tired all morning and could barely stay awake during church. So after a delicious lunch of spaghetti Alfredo, fried beans and garlic bread,  I read my Bible for a bit then decided to take a nap. As many of you would know, I don't nap very well - I can barely sleep in, never mind sleep randomly during the day but as I could barely keep my eyes open I decided it was worth a try, so I lay down and surprisingly am slowly drifting off. You know when you can like feel your brain start to lose it? like you start imagining the weirdest stuff and you feel all floaty-like, ya so I was in that state, enjoying it's delicious nonsensical-ness and SUDDENLY there is an outrageous ROAR like thunder and a large thud. Of course, my sleep-deprived yet half-asleep mind is jolted rather abruptly from its ease and my heart immediately starts pounding as my brain leaps in a million directions at once trying to decipher the source of this rude intrusion on my serenity. Thunder? Earthquake? Gunshot? Explosion? It doesn't take long for the mental image of the 6 inch sheet of ice and snow inching itself part way off the roof of the bunkhouse to come to mind.

Snow build-up and ice slide upon my return after break

Forest of icicles growing along lengthening ice sheet

Ice sheet in front of guys' door

I close my eyes and try to mentally calm my agitated body as I realize it was only ice sliding off the roof and crashing to the ground. (Normally, I would be up and checking it out but at that moment I was too tired and peeved to have my rest interrupted.) As such, when Natalie showed up a few minutes later describing the wreckage below, I had so drag myself up and go check it out. Indeed it was quite the sight and pretty cool to see but only minutes later, I was back in my bed hoping to get some rest. HA

Broken ice wreckage in front of girls dorm

Ice wall in front of guys dorm (note the post knocked over!)

I should have known that something like this is just too interesting and entertaining for a bunch of college students to ignore. Soon, there is half a dozen students outside, some clearing away the sheets of ice, some banging on the roof to dislodge more and most just standing around exclaiming, coming in and out and telling everyone else. At this moment, I ache for even the slightest bit of soundproofing in the walls. Yet, somehow I manage to just lay there with my eyes closed and slowly the sounds fade away. I think maybe I slept...half an hour. Basically, I plan on going to bed at 8, maybe that will be more successful...

Filling in the blanks

I feel like I have been lied to and cheated. I feel like I my past has been hidden from me and I have been living a shallow, fake life. The world, our culture today has tried and almost succeeded in stripping me of my history. I feel like I've been living an illegitimate life, betraying my own family!

These weeks of learning about Church History have opened my eyes to reality. Before coming here the extent of my knowledge about Christian history started with the Apostles, moved on to persecuted Christians in Rome and then jumped to me and my family today. Granted, I knew a few facts about the Reformation, Martin Luther etc. I'd heard of Wycliffe and Tyndale and knew about the Puritans and such but wow, now the gap is gone! I have filled in that huge hole I never even knew was there! Granted, there are still a lot of blanks but I don't feel so separate from those who began the faith. Moreover, I feel connected! I feel like I am part of a family - these were real people! My own brothers and sisters struggled and were persecuted, fought for their beliefs and were killed for them. People I am going to meet some day - people I am going to talk to gave me my Bible and paid for it with their lives! It makes me sad that I have never studied them before. I have always loved my family so much and now I feel that I have so many more people to love.

When I began this year, I was struck by the family atmosphere of the place and how all of my peers have become so close and precious to me, well that is how I am beginning to see all my Christian brothers and sisters in history. I think we have all really missed out, not getting to know them. I am angry at the way that my secular public school basically lied to me about history. Everything that happened was because of religious struggles and influences. (And I think today more world events than we realize are effected and influenced by that same thing.) It is unfair that we are not taught the truth. I pray that someday it will change but I think it is an impossible hope. I'm thinking it's really only gonna get worse.

Home, a little unorthodox, but I got here

Was rudely awakened this morning by some hungry crows thumping and knocking on the roof. Apparently people think it is oh so funny to dump their pita bread stuffs everywhere and in doing so attract a million birds to come to the feeding grounds and then since it is so BLISTERINGLY cold out there, the bread is solid rock so the dear old birds fly to the roof tops and smash it on the shingles and patter about trying to eat the stuff. It's a good thing I love being home, or I might have woken up ticked this morning.

By the way, sorry I have been gone so long if you were wondering where I've been. Here is the story since I last posted. Sorry, it's a little long.

I don't really know what to write. This homecoming, this past weekend was not at all what we had all envisioned: big welcoming party at SEATAC, going shopping at the Outlet mall, staying up late looking at pictures and sharing memories and just enjoying being home. God had other plans and though I see His hand of timing through it all, it is still hard to adjust - hard to even believe all the stuff that happened the past few days.

I guess I'll start with Thursday. I got news that Uncle Dave wasn't doing well and my family was driving up to Kelowna to be with the family. We changed my flight to fly into Kelowna and my dear friends at the collage gathered around me and we prayed. Friday morning, in class, I got the text: "Uncle Dave is with Jesus. Hallelujah!" and well, everything changes. I couldn't go back to class but had a nice quiet time with my dear friend Elisha. God totally sent her there for me and we could comfort each other and talk and it was okay. Since I couldn't be home with my family, there was no better place for me to be. I thank God again and again for putting with that group of people. They were so awesome and supportive.

Leaving school was hard. We drove off in a big caravan at about 2 and it's weird how I feel like I've left a piece of myself there and with those people. God is really doing stuff in our class and I miss them already. Hours later I get to Tatiana's house and stay the night with her, then we drive out at 8:30 the next morning to the Denver airport (that place is HUGE by the way and just SLIGHTLY intimidating...I admit, I almost threw up but I survived). Got on the plane at 12, got to Seattle at about 2ish, got on another plane at 3 (oh but before that I had to find the gate - had to TAKE A TRAIN!!! - I felt so independent and smart finding it all on my own but in reality, it wasn't hard. The airport people are quite talented at making stuff easy to find - thank goodness!).

So I got Kelowna at about 4:30pm but had to wait a hundred hours to get off the little plane (which Dad told me was so small that we were going to do a loop-de-loop before we landed...didn't happen but it was atrociously loud in there). Then I had to wait a million years to get my bag - BY MYSELF because we came from the US and had to go through customs which was another billion year long line-up. However that wasn't bad because as I'm standing in line all antsy I hear a whistle, look up and through the sliding door leading out of customs I see my siblings with balloons waving frantically and shouting. I wave back and as the doors slide shut everyone in line slowly turns and looks at me and I'm like..."hehe, my family..." and I can't help but smile. So that happens a few more times and then suddenly I hear this garbled, "Annaaaaleaaaa???!! Analeeeaa!!" and so on...and my brother is at the wall (which is like not a real wall) and he is on the floor trying to see me under it...and then he is at the crack saying my name and I can see their silhouettes through the wall but what am I supposed to do, just yell back with all these strangers in line who already think I'm a weirdo?? haha This one old lady is like "they sound pretty excited" (I'm thinking...well that's an understatement, they sound like crazies!!!) and I'm like, "I've been gone for awhile.."

So I finally get through customs and there they are! My sisses with balloons and an obscenely bright poster and my Mom and Dad, my brother, my cousins, the Swaans, my grandparents and the whole seen is so perfect, well as perfect as it could be in the situation. After much hugs and a few tears, I get to hug my beautiful nephew, and then I spot a Tim Hortons cup and have an immediate craving and I want to kiss the ground cuz there is really no place like Canada, people!

It was hard though because my homecoming was tempered with the news of Uncle Dave and I was so glad to be there to comfort my dear cousins and Auntie but could've talked for a year about all my stories and couldn't stop hugging people and smiling. It really was a joyous occasion because Uncle Dave is in such a better place, but it is so hard being back here you know. I had bursts of joy tempered with sadness and it was just a confusing mix of emotions that really leaves you quite exhausted.

So we drive home on Sunday and I talked the ENTIRE drive home. Most of you won't be surprised by this. It was the shortest 3 1/2 hour drive ever!

It is so amazing to be home, back in Abby. A few things have changed...and the cold was unexpected (I just left this weather in Jackson!) but it's my town, my people. There is really no place like home and it's great to be back