July 1st... Me

First picture of the month long celebration.  Me and Nika-Lucy's puppy- on Canada's Birthday.  Beautiful, sunny day!

Celebration Time!!!

It's July!!

This is the month that I am going to celebrate every day!  I have so many things to celebrate and I want to share them with the world.  I have been BLESSED with 50 amazing years.  Some of the moments in those years may not have been filled with "peace and love and happy good times" but they have been blessed by the presence of an amazing God and some pretty incredible people.  This is my month to celebrate that.

I have chosen to celebrate with pictures.  Right now there are lots of scavenger hunt photo things on blogs and I LOVE following them.  I have such talented photographer friends that have inspired me.  Although my pictures will never rival the skill of Krista, Melissa, Janine, Loreen, Erin, Bobbi, Jason, Joyce, Stacey...etc (oh mercy, when I make the list I suddenly wonder why in the world I'm doing this)  but oh well- this isn't to impress anyone.  Just to remind myself of how good I have it.  That's easy to forget sometimes.

Anyone that wants to join me, please do.  I would love to see your stuff that you celebrate too.

Here is the list...
July 1- Me
July 2- Feet
July 3- Hands
July 4- Clouds
July 5- Breakfast
July 6- i read
July 7 - Technology
July 8 - Friendship
July 9 - Wrinkles
July 10- Childish things
July 11- Loved
July 12- Energy
July 13- Eyes
July 14- Pretty trash
July 15- Flowers
July 16- Sweet things
July 17- Anticipation
July 18- CELEBRATE!!  (my 50th Birthday!!)
July 19- Pink
July 20 - Fruit
July 21- Summertime
July 22- On the Road
July 23- Little One
July 24- Water
July 25- Bling
July 26 - Trees
July 27 - Words
July 28 - Goodbyes
July 29 - Leisure
July 30 - Comfort food
July 31- Bliss

I will try my best to post every day.  One of the sweet things about this month of celebration is that I am off work the entire time.  Now, this doesn't mean I won't be busy, but I've made a vow to myself to be busy with only things that give me bliss.

So with that, I leave you with two words...

PARTY ON!

A New Challenge for an Old Broad

As you may have noticed, my blog has taken on the theme of aging - which I suppose demonstrates where my head is at these days.  I have never been affected by my advancing years, but for some reason, this milestone has crept into my thoughts more and more.  It isn't that I'm fighting the inevitable.  It's just that I am amazed at how fast 50 years sped by and I'm kind of reflecting on what I've done that has made a difference in this world.  I know that I keep a busy and full life, but I have not been very good at celebrating those things.


I have a friend that turned 40 this past April.  She is one of my heroes.  She is beautiful and smart and brave and just plain fabulous (and she has GREAT shoes).  At the start of 2010 - the year she turned 40 - she decided to start documenting her "Year of Celebrating".  Every day her Facebook status was a statement of celebration.  No complaints or b!tc#ing about traffic, work or bad hair days.  Instead she finds things in the ordinary that truly bring joy.  Now, you might think that wouldn't be too hard.  For most of us, no it wouldn't - but for some reason, God decided to send her the trials of Job this past year.  She found a dream job, lost that dream job, watched her sweet mom suffer with cancer until her last breath, - and to top it all off - moved to Saudi Arabia to teach Saudi princesses.  (okay, that last one wasn't a trial - but definitely a challenge!)  I was inspired by her lack of defeat throughout all of these and many other difficult moments, hours and days.  I'm pretty sure that many of those days held little to celebrate, and yet, she did it.


I want to face my 50th year that way.  I want to be that kind of an Old Broad.  I love parties so what better way to hit this milestone than to celebrate something every day for a whole year.  So, with the permission of my dear friend - I am going to plagiarize her incredible idea.  I want to only post celebratory moments, every day - even in the crappiest situations.  I want to find the moments to commemorate as times of joy.  I've asked Dan for a new camera for Christmas, so I would like to pictorially document some of those times.  Then, on the 18th of every month of 2011 - I will have a party of some kind.  As I look through the calender and see some of the pre-existing appointments on there, I can see that some of those celebrations will be pretty cool - like one in Bogota, Colombia in February, or one at post-production of Guys & Dolls in April.  I can hardly wait.  Then there are the things that only God knows that aren't on my calender that I can't plan on.  Things like pain, and loss and change and disappointments.   Those I'm not so psyched about - but I want to be able to find glimpses of joy in those things too.


Let the celebrations begin!

(Thanks Sandra, for inspiring me to live my life celebrating.  Here's to your last month of the "year of fabulousness"...  Love you!)

50 Things...

I am the most unorganized person in the universe.  There...I said it.  I admit it and I am seeking help for this condition that seems to be quite terminal.  At this point in my life, to become organized is a less-than-likely probability, so I will embrace my cluttered life, my dust bunnies, and my inability to lay hands on what I need at any given moment.  Many people comment on how I am similar to my Mom.  Well, when it comes to the neatness, organized side - we could not be more un-alike.  She would become quite hot and bothered over her "mess" - which consisted of 3 dirty dishes in the sink and the Calgary Herald out of the magazine rack.  My Dad used to say that he didn't want to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, because he was afraid of coming back to find the bed already made.


I am not my mother (at least in that way).  My bed is in a permanent state of "unmade-ness".  My sink is full of dishes on a regular basis.  I have piles and stacks everywhere.  I watch TLC's "Hoarders" so that I can feel good about myself once in a while (however, my dearly beloved has been known to utter statements like "That's YOU! " while watching with me - actually this only happened once as he now knows better than that!).


Anyways... all this to say - somewhere in this existence in chaos, I have lost my car keys.  I had them one day then didn't.  I have looked in all the usual places and have come up with nothing but the realization that I need to get more organized.  In my quest for order - and looking for my elusive car keys - I have dug through some of the clutter and found a plethora (great word, eh?) of journals, each with about 4 to 5 days of entries - because I am clearly not organized enough to assemble a train of thought on a regular basis.  As I looked through the events that merited chronicling, I found one entry from 10 years ago.  I was on the 'eve of my youth - days before turning 40, dealing with all the emotions surrounding what I believed to be my twilight years, I turned my thoughts to the things I still wanted to do, see and accomplish.  I made a list of 50 things - a kind of bucket list - that I hoped to do in the next 10 years.  Like so many other articles (like my car keys) it got lost in the stuff until today.  Here is my list...


50 things...
1.  Still be married to the one I love and make sure he knows it. - check
2.  Work at a job I have passion for - check
3.  Be friends with my kids - check
4.  Preach a sermon - check - in PCA chapel
5.  Get a motorcycle licence -
6.  Get a tattoo - check
7.  Go on a cruise - check - California/Baja  - Jan 2006
8.  Take a missions trip with Dan - check - Colombia Feb 2010
9.  Jump a train...albeit a slow one...to the next stop
10.  Be speeding ticket free - hahaha - by the skin of my teeth and lots of charm!
11.  Go to Hawaii - check - August 2008 & Sept 2010
12.  Travel to Europe - going to Germany in March 2011
13.  Read through the Bible - sigh...getting there
14.  Eat sushi - check- Nighs took the PCAS staff out toSushi King at Paul's retirement
15.  Drink a cup of coffee - check - first and only in Colombia Feb 2008
16.  Take a belly dance lessons
17.  Own a sports car - preferably a convertible  - pending - 50th Birthday present July 2011
18.  Find Amanda - check - daughter I gave up for adoption - found March 2002 - aka Amy :)
19.  Go to the Grand Canyon
20.  Paint and frame a masterpiece
21.  Raid a garden in the middle of the night and eat stolen peas
22.  Write a book
23.  Spend a whole day at a spa
24.  Scrapbook my life
25.  Learn how to make lefsa like my mom - check - but not till she died unfortunately
26. Drive a bus -  check - got my bus licence for PCA
27. Be content in whatever state I am - check - most days anyways  ;)
28. Jump off a cliff - check - same time I did #45
29. Learn sign language
30. Drive across Canada
31. Watch the sun set then rise without sleeping in between
32. Go to a major league baseball game  - check - Padres game -April 24, 2011
33. Be a Grandma - but a cool one - check - to Isaac & Silas
34. Take an overnight canoe trip
35. Go one week without TV  - check- the first week of Guys and Dolls
36. Be a red head
37. Skinny dip
38. Toilet paper a house
39. Make a quilt
40. Do a "personal" photo shoot ;o)
41. Sleep under the stars - check - many times with my kids on the trampoline
42. Tell a stranger about Jesus - check - explaining to someone #6
43. Sing on top of a mountain
44. Swim in a waterfall
45. Go white water rafting - check - with Sr class 2006, 2008, 2009
46. Learn to kick box
47. Stay in a Fantasy room at WEM
48. Read the Hobbit (changed this now to watch all LOTR movies without falling asleep)
49. Visit Muli, my Compassion Child - in Kenya
50. Live without regrets - in process


So, without even referring to this list for the last almost 10 years, I have actually been able to check off 19 things.  I'm hoping to get more crossed off in the next 262 days...unless I misplace the list.