My Favorite Things

...waking up next to my husband in the morning.

...getting on the internet and finding out that my friend Elisabeth has had her long awaited baby!

...seeing my younger siblings. (We have plans for Boston Pizza tonight!)

...going to work in the early morning.

...only working until 4:30 pm because you have plans for Boston Pizza with the world's cutest siblings.

...finding out that Las Vegas has the cheapest, fanciest, cleanest hotels you've ever seen so you can actually afford to stay somewhere nice.



...anticipating the familiar faces of aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents.

...eating chicken ceasar salad for supper that has hot chicken on it. Oh so good!

...finding inspiration in others.

...finding inspiration in the Infinite, holy God.

...drinking a chocolate protein shake.

...eating pizza with my siblings and enjoying their brilliance. (Do you get the sense of how happy I am to get to see them again?)

Some Random Thoughts

Recently, I've been brain storming, reading, etc. It's funny that I've even had the time to think since I have been so busy. Apparently, my head is never allowed to be empty. ;-) Some of these quotes are from the internet, some from the radio and some from my many years of memorization of the Bible. They are all connected in some ways and completely random in others.

There is one reason I am posting these: to give you something to think about. That's all.

  And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. -- Ephesians 6:4

Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.

- Etienne de la Boetie, "The Politics of Obedience" (1553)

"Sometimes we see evil in the closed eyes of a recklessly naive wife.." --Lydia Lovric

A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. -- Bertrand de Jouvenel

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;  ... To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people.. -- Isaiah 10

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. -- Ephesians 5

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. -- 1 Peter 3:7

Odds and Ends

I love those who yearn for the impossible. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Today, I weeded part of the garden. It feels so good to finally be able to get my fingers in the dirt and to clean the unwanted weeds away from the peppers, tomatoes, garlic, corn and onions. And I didn't even get to the potatoes or lettuce yet. I had been wanting to get into the garden for a few weeks now but the rain kept coming down. A day would begin with the sun but by noon, the clouds were rolling in. Finally, after a few days of heat, the ground was dry enough for me to get out there.

Last weekend was The Boogie Fest in Carlyle. At one point, there were over 50 motorcycles on Main Street... all painted in different colors and designs. Such fun! Also, all of the Pharmasave Chicks were supposed to dress up as bikers, so Lydia and I obliged them. It was a lot of fun and rather nice not to have to worry about looking nice for a couple days. Lol.

The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in the places no one has ever been before. -- Albert Einstein

Saturday evening, I called to ask about a couple things and Zeke answered the phone. I can't believe how old he is: this February, he turned 13. It seems like just yesterday he was in diapers, spitting up milk.We talked for about an hour about a lot of stuff. He has a keen mind that never stops. I hope he will never be satisfied with what he thinks. He is very skilled in several areas... music has always been a gift to him.

I was always fascinated by people who are considered completely normal, because I find them the weirdest of all. -- Johnny Depp

Jesse and I are getting ready to leave on our belated honeymoon. Actually, this might be considered our 3rd honeymoon. (The first two were spent in Regina.) We're excited about the trip as a whole, of course... but there are a couple things I am really pumped about: seeing my relatives and having them meet Jesse for the first time. Especially my uncles and aunts and cousins. I'm also excited about San Franscisco: I want to eat the famous sourdough and clam chowder. While we were living in Melville, Dad was against eating yeast for a few months. So, we made sour dough bread. In the books, they would say stuff like, "This is similar to the famous San Francisco Sour Dough, etc., etc." Allow me to assure you that our sour dough was nothing like San Francisco sour dough. In fact, I'm not even sure our attempts deserve the title of sour dough. More like "sour rocks" or "break-your-teeth-sour-dough". Lol. Those months of no yeast diet were veryyyy long. However, even with that experience under my belt, I am still very happy to finally have a chance to eat real San Francisco Sour Dough. :-)

Pictures will be posted periodically as I take them and get internet access. It's going to be a really intense trip, with many sights to see. When I discovered that Jesse's family were overseas travelers, I was overjoyed because I have always wanted to travel. This trip is going to be a beginning; a simply marvelous beginning! And California is always a good place to begin anything!

Enemies are so stimulating. -- Katherine Hepburn

Why yes, they are, Miz Katherine. Did you have anyone in particular in mind? ;-) 

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. -- Audrey Hepburn 

Lydia has been sick the past couple of days. When I first began work at Pharmasave, I got really sick a couple weeks into it. Lydia is probably having a similar experience. We`re around sick people 5 days a week and one's immune system must build up to resisting everything you're in contact with. So we're taking good care of her and making her rest and drink lots of fluids. She's pretty pleasant for being sick so I can't complain! I do wish she would feel better soon. She is simply feeling awful.

Well, cheers. I'll try to write more later. Apologies for the very boring blog post. But I do love sharing my little odds and ends... I hope you'll derive some joy from them. :-)

P.S. I do adore Audrey Hepburn.

Come One, Come All!

My friend Bekah is having a blog party!

Long Due

Life is not an exact science, it is an art. -- Samuel Butler

The past few weeks have been crazy. And when I get some downtime at night, I'm either spending quality time with Jesse, Lydia and Snow... or I'm falling asleep. I haven't even had the energy to post pictures. Lol. But I have some time today and I intend to use it for a number of things, catching up being one of them.

Lydia. She's moved down from Endeavour and is living at our house. She is working at the Pharmasave with me and (if all goes as planned) she's going to be teaching guitar lessons in the fall. It's been great having her around. (I'm not just saying that because she reads my blog. Lol.) Among her many attributes, she is pleasant, kind, smart, funny and a very hard worker. She cleans my bathroom. I like her. ;-) Since moving here, she has cut and donated her hair for cancer and bought an i-phone. Also, we have played and sung together at Will Elliot's 50th birthday party. I had forgotten how much fun it is to practice together. Our voices are very similar so when we do manage a harmony (we're just learning how those work) it's a little astounding. I hadn't realized how much I miss my siblings until she moved in. Now, it's better.

Hannah. And Daniel. :-) Bless their hearts. They're married and pretty happy about it too! What a beautiful wedding. Hannah's day was perfection. As you may know, it's been pretty wet this year. When Hannah said she wanted an outdoor wedding, none of us were sure if that was going to work out. Especially when it rained... and rained... and rained some more... right up until a couple days before the wedding. But the day of the wedding, so many prayers were answered!

It was gorgeous!

Hannah made her dress.

She ordered the flowers online and had them shipped to my folks' place. (Sun flowers, blue delphiniums and white roses.) 

Lindsey made the wedding cake. (I got to watch most of the process... such fun! Lindsey is really talented.) 

The end result was amazing. Lindsey spent a lot of time on that cake.

Lydia, Ellie and myself played the music for the ceremony. 

(Due to everything being really, really hectic, we didn't get to practice much at all, but we still sounded fine. I can't imagine how much better it would have been if we were a little more organized. Lol! The more I'm in the music world, the prouder I get of my siblings and their musical abilities.) 

Jesse and I got to meet Daniel's family finally. They are so great. Hannah is going to fit right in. :-) Oh. Fun fact! Hannah was a barefoot bride. Love! 

Our British Columbia, Washington, California, etc., etc. trip. It looms upon us with a raging speed. Hehe. I am astonishingly excited. I am looking forward to hours of Jesse and me time. I am looking forward to seeing my aunts and uncles and my grandparents and great aunts and great uncles and cousins. I am looking forward to staying in hotels and going to Disneyland and doing a little shopping, etc. I am looking forward to experiencing a beautiful coastline drive and San Francisco!!! I will do my best to take pictures and post them as we go.

Lindsey tried to visit us this past weekend but things came up in her life and she wasn't able to make it happen. Sadness. But we did have a wonderful visit during the wedding festivities and we will get together again. Someday, it will happen. The good part about this was that we got the house cleaned up. ;-) The state of the upstairs is such that we could (should!) get medals for tidiness and ingenuity. Lindsey, we miss you!!!

And besides all of this prittle-prattle, what have we been doing most? Working and living. Mostly working. Haha. :-P But Pharmasave always outdoes itself when it comes to being a great job. I love my bosses. I love the managers. I love having new runners so my feet don't hurt so badly at the end of the day. And I love having my sister working with me; having breaks and lunch with me; driving to and from work together. It is hard work in ways but it is a very rewarding job and I love waking up in the morning looking forward to a full 9 hour day at work.

What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?

 -- Emile M. Cioran

Spiritually and emotionally? Lately, stress has been the biggest thing on my plate. Between dealing with some old memories and people I would rather not deal with, the wedding days were hard on me. But God got me through it and I was fine. I love Lydia living in our house, it's amazing having her around; but it's a change and change is stressful. God is getting me through this too. Beginning to work full time had me freaking out that I wouldn't be strong enough to pull my share of the load and that I would get involved in all the drama. I hate stabbing people in the back. It is almost worse than lying. Both make me feel unclean and my conscience kills me. Haha. But God has given me strength where there is weakness, on all counts. Have I forgotten to lean on Him at times? Oh yes. But He has never left my side. Not once.

Jesse has been there for me as well. The longer I am married to this man, the more I respect him. For instance, on our trip for Hannah's wedding, we forgot the video camera. It was a fault on both our part, but instead of getting extremely upset about it, he kinda blamed himself and got over it. We contacted my mother-in-law and had her meet us half way the next day with it (and our pillows). Point of the tale? He didn't blame me. He didn't even blame himself for long. He didn't yell about it or even get very frustrated. He was calm, understanding and at peace. What a guy. Oh and the other day, we got to his comic shop five minutes after it closed. He was so disappointed. We had missed it our last time through the city as well. But he didn't blame anyone and he cheered up shortly after. He just rolls with the punches and is at peace with God and man. I can't believe I married someone who is so beautiful. Jesse, I love you.

We've been watching a show called West Wing. As you may be able to tell from the title, it's about the happenings of the West Wing in the White House. Martin Sheen plays the president and he is marvelous. :-) But I mostly appreciate the portrayal of the government. They may not make all the decisions that we want them to make but they are not demons. They are people who have to choose which impossibility is the best probability for success. They're wrong sometimes but they are also right. For this job, they receive hatred from the people, because there is always someone who disagrees with you. The more important the decision, the more widely spread the differences of opinions. With greatness comes great responsibility... and suffering.

This show was taking place through 9/11 so they made a special episode in response. I thought it was well balanced. In fact, many of the views expressed were ones I could apply to my background, people I know, situations I get involved in, etc. But the best line was this one:  "You want to get these people? I mean, you really want to reach in and kill them where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. It makes them absolutely crazy." -- Joshua Lyman (West Wing: Isaac and Ishmael) 


Do you know what makes extremists? They stop seeking. They stop searching. They get stuck on a couple of ideas and that's it for them: they don't move on. Extremists never reach their full potential. God created us to always learn and change. He loves a tender, meek heart. It has taken me years of tears and physical suffering to understand this. I used to be an extremist. If it hadn't been for God's grace and love, I have no idea where I would be today.

 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Matthew 7)


Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (James 4)

God bless you today!

mr and mrs daniel and hannah ives

Picture Update

I am so happy for them! :-)

Love their hair.

Uriah.

Mum. Isn't she lovely?

Dad and Jesse talking about Jesse's current work project.

Cilla and Martha washing dishes. Such good girls. :-)