Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

The last day of 2014 I received my boxing day shopping, renegotiated my Bell contract (I now have unlimited internet and TSN but no long distance plan and pay $20 less per month), washed some floors and picked up some groceries to get through the next few days.
I would be quite happy to go to bed now as I am tired but will head out soon with Kim and that will wake me up. Her bedtime is normally 8pm so I warned her that she had to take a nap. Last year, she fell asleep during the service. I am looking forward to it even if it is late at night!

This is the final song for 2014

24 hours to a new year

James was in a tournament these last few days. I think he was the MVP on his team. In the second game he scored the game winning goal 19 seconds before the end of game buzzer. He's normally on defence but the coach put him up in the front line when it is crunch time. So he scored quite a few goals in the tournament but the team didn't advance to the finals. He is playing up an age level- so against 13 and 14 year olds.

I went by the library today and happened to see the DVD for "Mean Girls" so I picked it up. It was quite a fun movie really.

Tomorrow I'll head to Kim's Church for their New Year service. James wants to stay up until midnight as well so he might come along!

Sweet Valley

Yesterday I read a sequel to a series of books I read as a teen. The Sweet Valley series. The sequel has them grown up to almost 30. But they haven't really matured any since high school. It was still a fun read.

The book I started today "Earth to Betsy" is a little bit hard to get into. It seems a lot like a train wreck so far but I'm hoping it will get more interesting as I read on.

I worked today but am off until Friday now!

Kansas City Saturday Night

Last night I tuned into the livestream of the Kansas City House of Prayer and watched it for a few hours. The worship leader was the same as the other Saturday night that I watched- her name is Ryan. I've logged in a couple of other times but haven't lasted very long as the other leaders don't suit my taste as much as Ryan does. Their team works really well together. This session had the worship team up the whole time but there are intermittent prayer people that seemed to pop up every 10 minutes or so and read a scripture and pray or something and then they disappear again. As they pray the worship team backs them up, sometimes singing some of their words, sometimes just with music. It was quite enjoyable. After a nice 2 hours like that you would think I would have a good night, right? Wrong, I had a terrible night!

This livestream takes up more bandwidth than Kim's church livestream so I have to be very careful how much I tune in as I just about reached the limit of the internet download for the month :(

At Rustle, Al did a year in review and everyone cried in January and laughed in February. That's how we roll. We said goodbye to 2014 as a Church family and hello to 2015.

I finished the book I was working on "Good Grief" by Lolly Winston about a woman whose husband of 3 years died of cancer and how she copes. It is a very good book in that it is written in such a way that it is not gloomy. The character keeps wishing for a boyfriend with a prosthetic leg so she can keep the leg on her side of the bed while they sleep so he can't get away.

James has Jonathan over again today. I'm making tacos tonight.

Tomorrow James has a hockey tournament and I'm planning chicken but all the broccoli I looked at today was very SAD. I don't know how my mom found such good stalks when we were in St. C.

Snipping

I was excited to discover the snipping tool to allow you to create pictures from the internet. In "All Programs" I typed in "snip" and up it came and I snipped this amusing ad:

Glad to see the price is coming down! (from Beyond the Rack)

The next time

The next time I mention ordering from Sears someone should give me an electronic slap. This happens every time I place an order that they say there will be free shipping on- they charge me shipping and I have to call and get it taken off. I mentioned this to the guy who took my call and he suggested placing the order by phone instead. If the internet orders are so unreliable, why have them? That's my rant for today!

And the wind

Evidently Kingston got the same wind we heard in St. C. but probably worse. My front porch looked like a recycling explosion had taken place when we pulled in. My boxes of recycling were scattered everywhere.

Today has been relatively quiet. Jonathan has been over to play with James. James fell down the stairs once when getting drinks for them. I went to Loblaws first thing in the morning to stock up on staples. I get meat from John's so we don't have any of that, so I'll probably make pizza for tonight. I have been doing laundry most of the day but it is almost done now.

Karen sent me this song and I have been enjoying it today:

vacation!

Had a great vacation with my family. Lots of cool presents from parents and Nat and Karrie! Fun Skyping with Nat and Karrie and Abigail and many of Sue's family.

Here is the hat that Sue made for James. He rocks it, doesn't he? Thank you Aunt Sue!


We traveled by bus and the buses ran pretty close to on time. They were full each time, by the nature of the season.

I did some boxing day shopping online. Sears is always the sketchiest order for me because it says free shipping but in the past they have always charged me shipping- I like shopping at the bay (or pretty much any other online retailer) as they confirm the shipping before you place the order. So we'll see how this goes.

Too tired now, so will write more tomorrow!

crispy

So far it is crispy, not slippery so getting around is ok so far!

Facing the storm

The latest forecast indicates the freezing rain will begin at 6am and turn to rain around 10am. Still waiting to see how it plays out.

I finished "The Constant Princess" in between cleaning the bathroom, packing, meal things and laundry. So I went to the library tonight and picked out some more books. I'll read some on the trip.

The streets were quiet when I walked to the library. I guess everyone is at the mall?

Freezing rain

I am trying to figure out if I manage to schedule trips at the same time as freezing rain warnings or if the freezing rain checks my travel plans and then decides its schedule.

Last year we hauled out of Kingston in the middle of the freezing rain storm. The bus plowed through and had no issues (not even being late) but Toronto had been hit pretty badly before we arrived and the driver warned us as we were approaching TO that power was out in many areas.

The latest warning is only over Kingston because our temperature is taking too long to warm up. TO is already at 2 degrees so they will only get rain. But we are at -2 right now so the risk is all on us. Hopefully we warm up faster than predicted but we'll have to see.

I cleaned the basement this morning while James was at stickhandling camp. Need to work on packing and cleaning the bathrooms this afternoon!

Darkest day

Today I was thinking of the gloominess from "Cold Comfort Farm" :
Flora Poste:
It was winter. The grimmest hour of the darkest day of the year. The Golden Orb had almost disappeared behind the interlacing fingers of the hawthorn.

In honour of the winter solstice.

I had a student call me with some sad news today so there was certainly darkness. Looking for the sun.

I read quite a bit of my book today. In spite of having a lot to do! Will have to stay away from my book tomorrow!

A year since the fire

I meant to post this on Dec 17 on the year anniversary of the fire, in remembrance. The building has been rebuilt. Not quite as far as they were last Dec 17 but they are getting close. They have festive lights beamed on the crane at night so the building looks quite jolly.

Today I did shopping and cleaning. I need to write some Christmas cards tonight.

I started reading a fictional novel about Katherine of Aragon. By Phillipa Gregory who I have read some other books by- I think she wrote some of the books on King Henry's other wives that I have read.

James was down at market square for a few hours today helping pick up garbage at the Rogers hometown hockey special. He had a good time. He said he met Wendell Clark.

Trying to prepare for our trip but the weather is befuddling me. If the temperature is going to be above 0 I am not sure if I should wear my winter coat or my spring coat!

Wrap-up

The week sped by as a blur!
On Monday we had our work lunch at Jack Astors and I had a divine chicken and bacon sandwich. It was very good.
I was working hard at work to try to make sure everything is ready for next term. It won't be, but I'll get as close as I can.
I also read the book "Babylon Sisters" by Pearl Cleage and found these 2 quotes that I really liked:

After one character has tried buying up property to give poor people a place to live and found in most cases they left it in disrepair and did not pay him.
"Trying to change poor people's lives is never as glamorous or inspirational as they make it when some do-gooders get the central role in a Hollywood movie"

On War and conflict:
"There are always a million answers- the generals and rebels make sure of that- but when you really think about it, there's no good reason to try to kill as many people as you can, for as long as you can, until the ones who are left surrender their lives, or their resources, or their culture, or their self-respect, or their ancestors, or their spirits, or their oil, until they get strong enough to throw you off their backs and the whole cycle starts all over again"

Smart tortoise

Hat trick

James got a hat trick tonight. His team lost 7-9 but he was still pretty pleased.

I wrapped presents and wrote Christmas cards today but it won't really feel like Christmas until we are in St. Catharines!

fly over

See who gets this picture- I'm guessing my parents will!

The holiday Hugs event went out well. We gave out Hershey's hugs. I got paired with a lovely lady named Agatha and we worked efficiently and handed our bag out quickly. We were the first team to return. But there was no prize for that.

I got some shopping done today. I wanted to buy a new Bible and there was a Max Lucado commentary one on sale so I got that one. Very pleased and looking forward to it!

Mady is on her way to Africa- so excited for her!

I got some shopping done today and I'm going to try and get things wrapped before James gets back from hockey!

updates and some Kim stories

There isn't a lot of information available about the Martin Place hostage taking. They don't seem to know the number of hostages, the intent or even have any contact with the gunman/gunmen. I assume they are worried about a bomb if they try to rescue the hostages. How long?

A couple of funny Kim stories. When we were in Costco and were at the checkout we decided that I would pay for both our purchases as Kim didn't have the right card. She would pay me back later. So that was all fine. Since she didn't have to be there to pay, she went off to find some boxes. I have no idea what direction she went. But then it was my turn at the register and she was gone. And she was the member so she was supposed to show her card at that time. I had a gift card I was using so I gave that to the guy instead and indicated that Kim was around somewhere. But really I had no idea where. He quickly called a manager and the manager did something on the computer and was gone and the purchases made before Kim returned. They are very efficient at Costco, let me say that. When we were leaving Kim remembered that she hadn't shown her card at the checkout and I recounted everything for her. It was pretty funny.

An other thing Kim had done recently is plan a birthday party for her Mother who turned 80 a couple of weeks ago. Kim and her sisters invited 90 people. Guess how many showed up? 0. Kim's mom wasn't surprised by the non attendance as most of her friends aren't all that mobile so at least she wasn't disappointed much.

Bridges and life

Choose bridges. Choose life.

Joanne did an incredible job at the Rustle service on "joy".
I ran some errands afterwards and then came home and took a nap!
then got up and watched Kim's service, which was mainly praying for young people.
Then found out about the situation in Martin Place in Sydney Australia. In a Lindt chocolate shop, which if I were going to take hostages, that would be the place because- yummy chocolate. Praying for a peaceful resolution for all.

Tomorrow we have a work lunch at Jack Astors and I'm volunteering at "Holiday Hugs" put on by the Queen's alumni association for students still studying for exams. I don't think actual hugs are involved, just dropping off treats. Should be a festive day anyway!

ihop- not the kind with pancakes

My fantastic find of the day today was posted by my Facebook friend Clint. He posted this link for the ihopnc http://www.ihopkc.org/prayerroom/- international house of prayer in north carolina. They have a live stream of 24 hours of prayer. So whenever you are praying alone and wish you had someone to pray with you can link in with them! So happy to find this.

I slept very well last night and felt fine all day so I don't know what yesterday was about. I went to Canadian Tire and Loblaws first thing in the morning and they weren't very busy. I was looking for boots for James as the ones from last year are growing holes but I could not find any in his size.

Most of the day was regular cleaning things. I made some cornflake marshmallow cookie dough (It needs to be in the fridge overnight before I can bake them.

James is off to Peterborough for a game tomorrow. He is very pleased the team got a bus!

off

I woke up this morning feeling fine- got up washed dishes, made lunch + breakfast, put dinner in the slow cooker, shoveled snow and we still left the house at 7:30am.

On the walk in, James warned me that he was going to stay up until 10pm on Sunday as "Home Alone" was on. He also said that he would watch "Elf" when it was on. He needed to watch some "classics" to get in the Christmas spirit he said.

He had a presentation and a test at school today but I think next week is a lot of fun things.

At 10am I started to feel a little off. I took a walk thinking the fresh air would help. I wasn't feeling sick, just that something wasn't quite right. I left work a bit early and lay down for about 20 minutes listening to the Darlene Zschech song I posted yesterday. Then I was feeling better, whatever it was seemed to pass. I drank Apple Cider vinegar with dinner to be safe. I'll take it easy for a while.

My students' last exam is tomorrow.

Epidemic

It only takes once to get addicted to drugs. So many people are trapped.

Kim and I did some shopping in the afternoon. We had lunch at "eggsquis". I had the raspberry crepe which I thought would be raspberries but when they brought it out it was blueberry and banana. So they took it back and fixed it but it still had banana it it, so I gave that to Kim. Kim had effs florentine and she asked for the poached eggs to be poached hard but they were all runny so they had to make her meal again. Kim was not put off by it as she felt the food was delicious (when they get it right) but I don't think I would be so keen to have crepes there again. Geneva crepe is my favorite store for that. Kim said the eggsquis was the new Cora's (which she also liked)

We went to target and I found some pants for James and my favorite orange cream yogurt raisins. Not an obvious combination but delicious and the raisins at least are healthy. I have only found them at Target.

Then we went to Costco. I picked up 4 boxes of the granola bars that James likes. Kim was all "you realize you are buying 240 granola bars"? They will last a while but not too long!

We also did some grocery shopping.

Things were busy but not as crazy busy as things sometimes get in December!

This video was posted in March 2013 but I hadn't seen it before today- I am enjoying it very much:

It was posted before Darlene's cancer diagnosis which she has since recovered from.

A no snow day

James was VERY disappointed that today was not not a snow day from school.

We did get a lot of snow but the streets were relatively plowed. The sidewalks on College were excellent but near the school they were not. The issue seems to be if the street plow goes after the sidewalk plow it messes up all his work.

I am on a vacation day today. Kim and I have a lot planned for as soon as she finishes work.

The wrong path

Tonight I needed to drop some library books off before I went to Diannas. I originally was going to drop off the books and go back to Palace Road to walk down to Johnson but when I got to the library I saw that there was an easy path to Sir John A and thought it would be easy to take that route. So it was snowy and dark and I was walking a new route. So I started off thinking I would be able to find the sidewalk. The snow was 1/2 way up my boot so having a sidewalk or not doesn't make too much difference but it still is a bit easier with a sidewalk. So I'm walking and thinking that it will eventually get better, but it never did. I plowed through anyway but I think the degree of difficulty of the walk was much higher than if I took Palace Road which I KNOW has sidewalks. It seemed a bit baffling that a road as big a Sir John A. didn't have a sidewalk. But maybe it did, just very buried. This can be an analogy for things in life as well. Sometimes you think you are on the right road but find that you can't find the sidewalk and the visibility is diminished because of all the stuff flying in your face. But you just need to plow through and you'll make it to a path that has sidewalk eventually!

For the walk home the snow had intensified and the visibility was poor but the walking was fine.

I saw Christine yesterday at St. Mary's. Carolyn had been in the morning and she had a busy day of physio and other appointments so I said I would only stay a few minutes, but I ended up staying an hour and a half.

James has a presentation on Friday and needs to practice a lot so if there is a snow day tomorrow he will have his work cut out for him.

His class is also having a pot luck French Revellion lunch on Dec 18 so he needs to bring something. I'm thinking of Apple juice instead of mulled apple cider or baking some French bread. I am not adventurous enough to try a lot of the recipes online!

Tanya

Tim Lyon posted this photo of the festive Novelis sign.

Today at work I was catching up on lots of past things, so that was good. I'll run the copycheck tomorrow or Wednesday which will result in a pile of work, but good to complete it.

I went to see Tanya after work as she is in the hospital for an infection. She had lots of visitors today so she was happy about that, but really tired. She is not enjoying the hospital food at all but is not really up for sweets so if anyone is going to visit her and want to bring healthy things, I'm sure she would appreciate it! I had to wear a gown and gloves to visit. She was in good spirits and was feeling better than yesterday.

Rather

I feel like I need another weekend day to recover from a busy Sunday!

Up early to make egg salad sandwiches as James was off to Coburg for hockey.
Then Rustle. I have to say a lot of the time the Needs and News section where people talk about what is going on and what they need prayer for is the highlight for me.
Al's message today was about pointing. John the baptist pointed to Jesus. Jesus pointed to God. The Holy Spirit points to peace. Where do you point to?

Then I did some shopping on the way home and had lunch and cleaned the bathroom.
Made dinner and then put the livestream of 3rd day up. They started with a celebration of their pastors and they had asked a couple of people to speak. When Jennie came up to speak (I had known her years ago from Next as we led a small group together- that type of work always connects you) she made me cry as she talked about what had been going on in her spiritual life. God does amazing things.

Then we had a meeting at Next and it was great to see old friends again. Now I need to go to sleep as I am not sure how I'm going to manage the 6am wake up.

planetshakers

I just discovered Planetshakers. They seem to be having a lot of fun:




I have been reading Isaiah 54 and before there is growth there is praise.

“Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.

James has been asking for a tablet for Christmas. Today when he asked I said "Why do you deserve a tablet?" His comeback "I was in your belly for 9 months" Touche.

body

Last week a Carleton engineering student that I knew was murdered in Ottawa. This week Kingston police pulled a body out of the water at the pier. Due to the proximity to Queen's I was very worried but it turned out to be a missing Oshawa man. Still 2 bodies in 2 weeks is not too good.

It is rainy here but predicted to drop below 0 which won't be pretty.

I finished another book "You don't want to know" by Lisa Jackson. It wasn't as insightful a book as the last one I read but it had quite a number of surprising turns that kept it interesting.

9 months

As we were walking in this morning James must have done something that made me pull out the guilt card "I carried you for 9 months in by belly". How can you argue that he owes me big time? Well apparently he can "But I've given you 9 months of laughs so we're even". And so he tips the scales. I laughed.

Monday I worked late as it was the due date for projects. Tuesday there was a retirement party for Donna. When I came out of the party it was snowing. When I woke up this morning I thought I would have to shovel, but instead it was mostly all melted! I'm not complaining about that.

Tonight I watched 2 hours of survivor and cleaned the floor at the same time. (James has spilled juice a few days ago and it was sticky!)