My Birthday

As of today, I am 22 years and 2 days. I celebrated my birthday on Monday (well, and on Sunday too). Birthdays are always so good! Hanging out with my family and my friends, good food, great cake, a few gifts and cards, and mostly a lot of attention.

I don't understand when people dread their birthday. I look forward to mine! It probably helps that it's at the end of May, and also that I'm still young. I might be dreading my birthday 20 years from now.

Anyway, I got a pretty white shirt, a few books, a pearl necklace with matching earrings (fake, of course), and best of all: the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my wonderful boyfriend.




Quite a happy birthday, if I do say so myself. :D

Gimme A Break

Mmm, now I'm thinking about Kit Kat bars. But that is not the topic of today's blog.

I have decided to take a sabbatical from the Internet. It's only going to be for about 5 days, so I guess I can't really call it a sabbatical, but I like the word. So sabbatical it is. I've decided to attempt to take the time I would normally spend on the Internet, and use it instead to read the bible and pray.

And even if it's for 5 days, this will be no easy task for me. I really like the Internet! But I think it's pretty much a guarantee that if I'm on the Internet, I'm not doing anything productive.

Also, this sabbatical doesn't apply to the time I'm on the Internet when I'm at work. I work on the computer, I need the Internet for some of my tasks. And honestly, if I have no work to do, I use the Internet to amuse myself until I have work to do. Plus, if I let myself do everything I need to do on the Internet while I'm at work, then it's easier for me not to go on the Internet at home.

Anyway, the whole point of this is that I want to spend more time reading my Bible and praying when I have spare time, which I should be doing anyway. But we all gotta start somewhere.

This also means that I won't be blogging for the next 5 or 6 days. I know that I don't blog everyday, but now you have all been notified, so you don't have to worry about checking in until....May 29? At least until then.

In fact, I'll try to write you all a nice long blog to let you know how everything went. Remember, my 22nd birthday is next week Monday, and next week is also big decision-making time for Art and myself. Exciting and scary. Alrighty then. Until next week!

Hang Ups

If you go back to this post, you will find a picture of my boyfriend, Art. (It's not an actual picture of my Art, it's kind of a joke). Because we have a long distance relationship, most of the relationship happens over the phone. Thus the phone becomes kind of like a symbol for him.

Talking with my beloved boyfriend is wonderful, but unfortunately the conversation has to end at some point. This is the worst part of playing telephone with the one you love. It's late at night, or he has to go somewhere, and we really must let each other go.

So we take our time saying goodbye, and we usually say it several times, because we really don't want to get off the phone. Then we say our final goodbye. And sometimes I wait. Because I don't want to be the first to hang up.

At the same time, it kills me to hear the beep on his end telling me that he hung up. I hate hearing that. But I hate it on my end too! I don't want to hang up on him! I don't want him to hang up on me! It's a struggle I go through every time. And I don't know which one I hate more.

I wish that we would never have to stop talking. Of course, I wish even more that we could stop talking on the phone and talk all the time in person instead. One more year. We will make it one more year.

World Famous Spinach Dip

Okay, so this dip isn't actually world famous, it was just really really really good. Last week I had to make snack for our Life Group, and I decided to make a spinach dip. I perused the Internet, found 2 very easy, quick recipes, combined them, and lemme tell you, the dip was a hit.

Now you have to understand: I do not have a knack for cooking or baking or making food. So this was quite an accomplishment. I have decided to share this recipe with you.

My spinach dip was VERY tasty, and if you are the kind of person who actually has skills in the food department, then your dip could be 10 times better than mine! So here it is: (it's so easy, I memorized it).


1 10oz (1 pkg) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained thoroughly
1 Cup mayonnaise
1 Cup sour cream
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
2 cups shredded cheese (or however much you want)


1. Preheat your oven to 350F.

2. Blend the mayo and the sour cream together.

3. Add the Parmesan cheese and garlic powder, and keep blending.

4. Drain the spinach using a sieve. Once it is thoroughly drained, add it to the rest of the ingredients, and blend in with the electric mixer, or by hand.

5. Scoop the dip into a small dish for baking. Put half of the dip in, add half the shredded cheese on top, then dump the other half of the dip on top of that, and add the rest of the shredded cheese for a finishing touch.

6. Bake for 15-20 min. or until it's bubbly. Serve with your favorite chips or pieces of bread (or whatever else you feel like dipping in it. Your finger perhaps?)

In my experience, serves 6 hungry adults and 5 hungry kids, but only if you have other snack foods around. Otherwise, better make a double or triple recipe.

Enjoy! :)

Mmm, candy....:D

"Pizzaz Juicy Jellies"

"Super Sour Gum Balls"

My tongue after consuming all that candy

Meme Tag: I'm It!

I was tagged by Erin to do this meme:

Four jobs I've had:
1. Picking strawberries
2. Greenhouse worker
3. Subway sandwich artist
4. Receptionist

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Count of Monte Cristo
2. Little Women
3. Sleepless in Seattle
4. Pride and Prejudice

Four places I have lived:
1. 2nd St. North, small town in Canada
2. 4th Ave. South, same small town
3. Dorms at PLBC in Surrey, BC
4. In a van for a month, touring the Northwest States.

Four television shows I love to watch:
1. C.S.I.
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. The Office
4. C.S.I.: New York

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Mazatlan, Mexico
2. California
3. North Carolina, coast
4. Washington coast

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. A&W Poutine
2. Sandwiches and cookies from Subway
3. Pesto Tortellini with Chicken from Brannigans
4. My mom's chocolate chip banana bread

Four websites I visit daily:
1. The Weather Network
2. Hotmail
3. Blogs on Blogger.com
4. Facebook

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. My bed
2. Bellingham, WA (boyfriend)
3. Edmonton (best friend)
4. California (former college roommate)

Four bloggers I am tagging (even though I don't know how many people actually read my blog).
1. Steph
2. Kat
3. Kate
4. Svea

Spring Is Sprung

I love May. It is the perfect month, in my mind. And not just because my birthday is in May. Well, kind of. But it's the end of the rain and cold, and the beginning of warmth and growth. The grass is green, the leaves are starting to show, flowers are blooming (including these tulips in our front yard).

Tulips are my favorite flowers, by the way.

Some other things are starting to bloom too! Take a look at the latest picture of my sister's slowly-growing tummy, above.

Update

Oops! So I haven't blogged in...10 days. Sorry everyone. So what's happened in the last 10 days? Well, I got Josh Groban tickets. And I must be completely honest: I got them on a whim, and I was really afraid that I would regret that decision, because I got 2 tickets, and I didn't have anyone to go with me yet. And they're expensive.

But the price will be worth it, because I got FLOOR SEATS!!! Row 21. Read it and weep. Or read it and be really happy for me. And my sister is going with me, so that is super awesome. We get to go to an AMAZING concert together, and by that time, the baby will be able to hear and decipher outside noises. So I'm sure the little one will enjoy it just as much as we will. His or her first concert!

In other big and exciting and scary news, my boyfriend, Art, and I have decided to dedicate the month of May to praying about where God wants us to live. This is a huge decision, as he is American and I am Canadian, so this means a change in citizenship for one of us, and one of us will have to move half-way across the continent.

The tendency is to be anxious that God won't speak, or that it won't be clear to us, and somehow we'll end up making the wrong decision. But I have so much peace about this. I feel like God is taking this time to prove His faithfulness to us in little things, and to speak to us about other areas of our lives, and essentially, building us up and readying us for the end of the month. I'm not worried or anxious at all.

I'm excited, but most of the time, I barely think about it because God is concentrating on other things right now. I have peace because I trust God. He has been working out everything in my life, big and small, since before I existed. This is not too big for Him, and therefore, it's not too big for us. But it's still big.

I suppose when we get within a few days of the deadline, I'll be more anxious, but right now, life is grand. By the way, if any of you feel like lifting up a prayer for us, please do so. We need all the prayer we can get.

And finally, it's unseasonably warm for May, it's such a perfectly gorgeous day. I can't wait for work to be over so I can sit in the sun, and maybe go for a walk later and take pictures. With my mom. And...wow, I'm just in such a great mood today! God, thank you for this day, what a great gift.


P.S. My birthday is in 20 days. :D