You Know You Grew Up in the 80's if...

(I got this as a forward, but then found it with all the pics here.)

You've ever ended a sentence with the word SIKE.

You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and can do the Carlton

You know that 'WOAH' comes from Joey on Blossom

If you ever watched 'Fraggle Rock'

It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.

You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.

You played the game 'MASH'(Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House)

You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.

You know the profound meaning of ' WAX ON , WAX OFF'

You wanted to be a Goonie.

You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us...head-to-toe)

You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.

You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.

You took lunch boxes to school...and traded Garbage Pail Kids in the schoolyard.

You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.

You still get the urge to say 'NOT' after every sentence.

You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.

You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes.

After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying 'I know you are, but what am I?'

You remember 'I've fallen and I can't get up'

You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.

You have ever played with a Skip-It.

You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.

You remember watching both Gremlins movies.

You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.

You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.

You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool...and don't even flinch when people refer to them as 'NKOTB'

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on 'Saved By The Bell,' The ORIGINAL class.

You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.

You just sang those words to yourself.

You still sing 'We are the World'

You tight rolled your jeans.

You owned a bannana clip.

You remember 'Where's the Beef?'

You used to (and probably still do) say 'What you talkin' 'bout Willis?'

MacGyver was your hero

You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you!

You have other friends that will laugh just as much as you did while reading this.

Thinking of NZ

Last night I was awake for an hour in the middle of the night again. Usually this annoys me to no end and I lie awake there trying to stop my mind from thinking of all the things that I need to do the following day. Last night was different, as I was thinking of our trip 2 and a half years ago to New Zealand and Australia. Probably because of my mentioning it in the last post. Mostly I thought of NZ and all the things we did/saw there. It was a good hour. I enjoyed going over the experiences we had and didn't feel nearly as exhausted this morning when I woke up as I normally do when up in the middle of the night. One of these days when I am upstairs blogging, I will post some of our pictures from our trip and tell you some of the stories. It was a memorable trip to say the least. I cannot wait until the day when we return for another visit.

Sunshine and Snowflakes

Oh, I almost forgot that I got a CD in the mail yesterday that I ordered on Tuesday from http://www.sweet-music.com/. It is a Christmas CD of kids singing called "Sunshine and Snowflakes". We had it when I was a kid and actually did it as a Christmas production when I was in grade 5 or 6 (do you remember which one, K?) I played it right away last night and knew all the words and everything. It was written/produced in 1973 and the cool thing is that it sounds "new" still. I am so happy with it! I love being able to share music I loved as a child with R. Apparently my dad found some old records of our when we were kids and our friend R works with a guy who can transfer them over to CDs, so I am going to get more of them done. Cannot wait! I'm going to bring my Sunshine and Snowflakes over to C's tomorrow so we can listen while we Christmas bake! (I'm pretty excited about Christmas baking, can you tell!?! :)

Sexy Beach Hair

I was reminded of this phrase when I put up my hair the other day and without thinking didn't pull all the hair through my ponytail and looped it back through a few times. The girls in our youth, N especially, used to call this "sexy beach hair". The funny thing was when I asked DH to take a picture of me and make sure to get my hair - he asked me why, was I going to send it to N? And I'd never even told him that I'd been thinking about the girls all day because of my hair.
Unfortunately, you still can't really tell how it is, but I did feel kinda sexy that day. I also felt about 25, which is an improvement on 32!
Even though I can now put my hair into a ponytail without any stray hairs coming out, I am still looking froward to chopping it all off on the 8th of November (the first appointment I could get!). Yeah for haircuts!

Memories and songs

Yeah, another post about songs. Though music has always been a big part of my life, it seems like it is taking on new, more significant meaning in the past month or so. You know how you go through phases where you listen to different songs, then move on and don't have so much time, or totally forget to even put any on at other times. I tend to like having some sort of background noise and music is awesome for that.
Anyways, different songs remind me of things... like where I was, like people I was with when I listened to it the most or even some what I was reading when I first heard it. There is a CD that I have by a group called Truth from the 90's that every time I listen to it, I think of Stephen R. Lawhead's book Taliesin, because I was reading it while we drove to BC to DH's parents. (By the way, we first thought to name our son R from reading Lawhead's books. There was a character in his Pendragon cycle named that. Just a piece of trivia there for you. Oh, and DH and Mark, the next book in the King Raven series, Scarlet, is coming out in September. Enough about books though, this post is supposed to be about songs.) Oh, a piece of trivia about Truth at the time of the album I had, "One", is that both Jody McBrayer and Jana Long of Avalon were a part of the group.
There are many songs that remind people or situations that we shared. Especially the missions trip that we went on in 2002 with another couple and six teenage girls. We had quite a soundtrack on that trip and any time I hear any of them, I think of the trip and the girls. Songs like "Speechless" by Steven Curtis Chapman, "God of Wonders" and "Voulez-vous" by Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil' Kim and Maya (I know, I know, not exactly missions trip or church approved, but DH would turn the volume off and we would sing "Will you eat some Shreddies with me" instead of the real line at the top of our voices. Yeah, it was fun. :)
The song that most reminds me of that trip and for the longest time after we moved to Calgary neither DH or I could listen to it because it would make us miss Brandon and being in youth ministry SO BADLY was "Shackles" by Mary Mary. Now when I hear it I still think of all this, but it is sweet memories. Interestingly enough, all the girls that we took on that trip have been in ministry in one way or another. N is involved as a volunteer with the youth at GVCC, while K and her new hubby, D, will be running the student ministries there (he started on August 15th). E was involved in Outtatown, a program where they travel and do ministry and have studies all at the same time (very cool) and she went to South Africa in January for 3 months as well as travelling in western Canada for 3 months and doing ministry here too. K and V both ministered at Pioneer Camp for multiple years, as well as V going to Ethiopa on a short term mission for 3 months. K went to Thetis Island for Capenwray with N for a year. N will be returning in fall for a second year, and she has also been a counsellor and served at a Bible camp for various years. And the couple that we took with us now has a ministry to people from South America who have moved to Brandon. That trip changed all of our lives. We ended up in Calgary as a result. And I am not going to go into all the things that happened to us as a result, because this is a positive, thankful, praise to God post. (You can read about it here if you really want to.) I am so proud of all of these people and love them all so much. They will always have a special place in our lives. And the memories are fun. I have a DVD that DH made which I wanted the other day and laughed and cried. We all look so much younger and it's a little funny all the things you forget but come rushing back.
So, for your listening pleasure here is "Shackles" by Mary Mary - courtesy of YouTube.

If you are having difficulty viewing, you can watch it here.

Shoestring Memories

This last week while I was away, my cousin Jen and I went and got a chick flick (Catch & Release - not that great... wouldn't recommend it... Jen and I talked about all the things we would have done differently if we had written the movie. But that is beside the point. :) and got junk food - candy, chocolate. I found some of that shoelace licorice on sale - you know the green ones, I think they are mint, though I'm not sure. And memories came back. We both agreed that you cannot eat them without putting knots of some sort in them and I immediately began to "crochet" one when we got back in the car. This is something that Kim and I used to do when we were about 11 years old, I remember sitting in her room in their trailer and getting taught how to do it and them eating them all down. It is a little insane that you would play with something that you are going to eat like that, but somehow it seemed like the thing to do then and it still does now. I couldn't not do it. So Kim, do you still crochet your licorice shoestrings? :)
What are memories that unexpectedly have come flooding back to you of things you did when you were young?

Fulfillment of a dream

This morning when I went to get R, there was a surprise in his crib for me. (No, lucky for me it was a pleasant surprise... no finger painting with unmentionable substances for my little guy yet.) Yesterday DH had put away all R's stuffed animals and apparently the ones that didn't fit in his hanging toy catch-all (don't know what to call it) he put in the crib. In R's hand though he had a stuffed animal that I had bought for myself 5 years ago. And I was taken back, because I hadn't thought of it in awhile, but it was so right that my little precious son was holding it.
It is a little stuffed bear, about 5 inches tall and made of that soft, soft fabric that a lot of stuffed animals are made of nowadays. Then it was just a beginning thing in the industry, so I found it unusual and all I wanted to do was rub it on my cheek constantly, so I had to get it. We had just found out that Mark and Jobina were pregnant with Riker and I actually had bought it to give to them to celebrate their pregnancy with them. I couldn't do it though. He was so soft, and he had floppy arms and head and if you held him right and bounced him a little he could dance. (Better than Ellen Degeneres if you ask me! :) I found another stuffed animal, just as soft and cuddly for Riker that I believe he still loves and cuddles, so it's OK that this one never made it there.
There was another reason that I couldn't give this stuffed bear away - because it held a bit of a promise for me. I knew that someday the time would be right for DH and I and we would have our own pregnancy and our own baby.
And my promise came to be. He is in our lives, lighting them up and bringing joy to everyone he encounters. He gives me smiles in the morning when I go to get him up. He gives me hugs and kisses in the afternoon. He gives me snuggles and laughter and I cannot imagine life without him. He was well worth the wait!
So when I saw him with that little teddy this morning, all this flashed through me head and all I can say is, "Thank you, God!"

Anniversary thoughts and reflections

Anyone who knows DH and I well is thinking, "What anniversary?" In fact, that is probably what my husband is thinking too! :) It was 4 years ago today that we rolled into the city with our moving van (UHaul, of course, though we do not like them because of their awful business practices and our horrible first move, they were the only ones we could get. Gotta love a shady business with a corner on the cross country moves.) with attached Suzuki Sidekick. We had just left the only home we had ever known as a married couple in Brandon, MB and the only church that we had ever ministered in. We had taken a youth ministry that didn't exist and brought it to life, with many students that were excited about impacting their world and volunteers that we were confident could help those students lead the ministry without us. We were coming to a church where we felt DH could grow as a leader, be mentored in speaking and we would have an abundance of opportunity to minister to and help people grow themselves. We were also coming to a place that, though we had never lived here, was home, as my family was here.
In the past 4 years it has been a bit of a different ride than we thought it would be. In fact, career wise for DH it has been downright discouraging and, some days we feel, ministry ending. We went through a senior pastor leaving our church that we moved here for, the person who was supposed to mentor DH in being a leader actually (most likely not intentionally, though it did/does feel like it) killed any confidence DH had in being a good leader. Then we found out that the church was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the church merged with another church. DH stayed on, though in a capacity that was far different than what we came here for. There was parts of the job that he enjoyed, but for the most part it was a job, rather than a ministry and frankly, who wants to work in the ministry for the salary we seem to think those who are "working for God" should be paid? (I am sounding a little bitter here, sorry people. It is pathetic though that society and Christians seem to think that pastors should be making so little. Why should they have a lower standard of living than everyone else? It makes no sense, if you ask me.) Also it was tough to be working somewhere where you look around the table at staff meeting and think "All these people were chosen. They were stuck with me, they didn't have a choice." Do not get me wrong though, DH loved the people he worked with and the team was great. It was the situation.
On the other hand, we have be very blessed personally in the past 4 years. We travelled to Mexico in March of 2003. We moved into our first house in October of 2003. DH got given a sailboat, a Fireball racing dinghy, in June of 2003. He completed his Masters of Leadership from Royal Roads University in June of 2005. We travelled to Australia and New Zealand in June/July of 2005. We had R in October of 2005. DH is now working at an oil & gas start up, taking a break from ministry for awhile. (I don't think God has said we are done forever, as my husband's heart still burns for it.) We have made amazing friends (you know who you are! :), been able to see my family on a regular basis and DH's family probably 2-3 times more often than the previous years in Manitoba. We are now part of a church that we can be ministered to in. That is nice I find to see the other side of the coin, and later when we do go back, we will know from experience what it is like.
We also still keep in touch with various people from Brandon and go back to visit. Our ministry there lives on, just in a different way than we expected. It is more in the individual lives - one of our girls (ladies now!) is in South Africa with a student educational program called Outtatown. One is in Ethiopia with SIM working with a girls ministry. One is getting married in May to a young man studying to be a youth pastor and is wanting to be fully involved with his ministry. Two are at Capenwray studying more of what it means to have a relationship with God. One was working for YFC and then got married this fall and she and her husband moved from Brandon and started a small group for young married people at their new church because there was none. Two of our close friends who were our apprentice leaders of our small group took over the group, then became coaches for small group leaders and are now teaching and helping to lead the youth ministry at the church. There are more, but these are just the ones that come immediately to mind. So, God is still working through the seeds that we helped place in people's lives. It is good.
And I am here, on this journey, learning so much about God and myself and starting to consider the ways that I can get involved again. And though there was tough times in the past 4 years, I would not trade them. I like where we are at now, who I have become as a result of our experiences. I don't know where I would be if I hadn't had them. I don't think I would like to find out. I guess that the phrase "Father knows best" is true, because I think my Heavenly Father does.

Happy 10 Years M!

I find at our house that Valentine's Day is pretty anti-climactic. We do not do Valentine's Day on February 14th, which used to bother me, but does not any longer. DH is of the camp of "Why should I be romantic on this specific day just because Hallmark and retailers tell me I should?" To his credit, he doesn't poo-poo it and then leave it all together, he actually will surprise me with "Valentine's Day" when I least expect it, with card and everything.

It is kind of interesting that I just remembered this morning that it was 10 years ago today that DH proposed to me, which you would think should be something we would celebrate each year. :)

To celebrate that occasion, I was going to recount the story, but I tried and I just do not do it justice (DH is the one who is gifted in the creative writing in our family). Suffice it to say that it was popular to do big productions for engagements at school and DH wrote this entire play basically that involved spies and espionage, revenge and ultimately a diamond that made it's way into a ring. We spent the evening chasing around Moose Jaw and it ended with a proposal in the outdoor pool at the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa (see picture on the right). It was a wonderful night!

I'm going to get a little mushy now... M, I just wanted to say thank you for asking me to be your wife 10 years ago. Though our lives (do not read marriage here) haven't always been easy over the years, I have never regretted that I said yes to you. You are an amazing man and I count myself privileged to be your wife. I love your sense of humor, your smile, your work ethic and tenacity. I love your willingness to be totally open with me and your desire to always be growing together. I love your intellect and desire to keep learning and how that challenges me. I love how you love our son and how seriously you take your role as R's dad and primary male role model. I love you forever and always!

Memories of a great man

It is funny how certain things make you think of someone out of the blue. I was cleaning the bathroom today and we have this foldable scissor that DH got somewhere, long ago and I haven't actually seen it in our home until a month ago. Anyway, the scissor reminds me of my Grandpa, Isaac F, from my mom's side. He used to carry a little scissor like that around in his pocket - in the days before a Swiss Army knife replaced it.
I have been thought of my grandpa a lot more in the past year then I was in the previous 12 since he died (I was 18 when he did). I loved my grandpa a lot! He was an amazing man who was quiet, though strong. He stood his ground on things he believed in, and even though he died in his late 60s (or early 70s, I can't remember) he was still seeking to know God and be closer to Him daily. He loved his family deeply... I don't remember him not having time for me. My sister and I were his only grandchildren and he enjoyed being a grandpa. I remember that he gave the very best hugs, big bear hugs where he would squeeze you tight. I remember cuddling with him in his La-Z-Boy and watching TV, sitting on his lap while I cried and him pumping my arm and talking about the waterworks and how he was going to have to get rubber boots from all the water. I also remember him tickling me under the chin and singing the song
I tickled her under the chin,
I did it again and again,
She liked it so,
She couldn't say no,
And I tickled her under the chin.
To which I would be gasping for breath, trying to get out "No, Grandpa, no."
I do that to R now. I tickle under his chin and sing the song. I tell him about his Grandpa Isaac and how much he would've loved him, how much they would've loved each other. I tell him about how he was named after Grandpa Isaac (R's full name is R Ranger Isaac) and how I want him to be like him someday. I want him to be a strong man, one who people can lean on. I want him to be someone who wants to know God better every day of his life. I want him to love deeply.
I miss my Grandpa.