beautiful friendships

Back in October I was able to fly across this Canada country and go to Layne and Jono’s lovely wedding.  The best part about doing that was of course being with the people.  It truly was such a happy celebration of their eclectic lives and as such was the case there were friends from all places and all seasons there to celebrate with them.  Six out of the 11 track girls were in attendance as well as a friend from back in dts.  What was so amazing and wonderful to be able to see for me was the fact that even though we had not been together for at least 4 months we still went right back into the depth of friendship that we had built up over our years being together.  There was no back paddling, no extra asides necessary to explain where we were coming from in the updated decisions we told each other about.  There was just joy and celebration and a bit of task completing which was accomplished in the way we had always been used to.  I’m very glad to have a group of friends from all over with whom I can have that.  It’s SO good.

I came back.

: )

I think that smile is a good way to just ask for grace for my absence in the past almost 6 months and move on.  Done, over, no more need to yatter about it.  Yep, I think so.

A few things to get straight about this return though are thus.  I don’t promise to write brilliantly, or post creations never dreamt of before, or even regurgitate a collection of other people’s information which seems to be a fashionable trend of late with the bloggy people.  Instead my intention is just to share the things that follow along with the title I have given to this blog; the things that I cannot help but be in awe of a bit.  It’s a bit of personal journey I want to intentionally take because of a certain uncle of mine and a certain assessment test he seems to carry in his pocket.  That will be further explained later, but for now I don’t wish to get too wordy.

My moment of today then comes from a person on the skytrain.  I had got off at a station I never had before because I needed to go visit the bank and as I came out of the station I realized that the guy in front of me was singing.  The first thing I did then was look for his headphones with a “b” on their circular sides as that is usually the cause of any singing that is happening around the transit systems.  No such things were on this guy.  Instead there was just a very nondescript cell phone held up to his one ear.  Now this had me intrigued.  So of course I then am paying much more attention to this situation than I mayhap should be.  It turns out that he was just singing in what seemed to me to be spanish and laughing throughout with whoever was on the other side of this wonderful phone conversation.  It should be noted too, that I am quite sure that by nationality he was not spanish, and nor was the song short.  In fact, i was behind him all the way into the mall entrance and I am sure I heard what was a whole verse and part of a chorus.  Sadly my spanish skills are not that advanced and so I can’t say what was actually being sung about.  I like to thing though that it was happy, joyful love.  It would to me make for the best story in that situation.  I love it when people divert from the regular transit activities, it’s one of the things that brings me surprise followed by admiration.  And hey, that’s the definition of wonder.

I am not so much a crazy that I took a picture to illustrate this and so instead of a direct illustration, here’s just a bit of love.

whaaaaat.

So check this out.

This here is another little ride-on video.  But it’s rather different than the last one.  While the last one I posted was a scenic walking tour through a perfectly executed new land, this one in the newest roller coaster in Japan.  It has the steepest drop of any coaster in the world in that on one of the drops it actually turns under itself.  That sentence makes no sense until you watch it and then come to understand.  So here it is…

So my questions for you are as follows:

1. Would you ride on this roller coaster?

2. What is the scariest roller coaster you have ever been on?

The answers i would give to the above questions are, 1 – YES, and 2 – the one in west edmonton mall. (i’ve blacked out, my aunts have, as well as many of my friends.  that makes it a little unfriendly…)

a Camrose style summer.

I live in this lovely wee town called Camrose.  It is the place for walking paths, long-term care facilities for seniors, Norwegians, common -40 temperatures in the winter, mammoth mosquitoes all summer long, with beautiful peaceful sunny days scattered throughout the year.

Last night was not one of those days.

It was about 1am when all of the sudden with a roar from the sky down came hail the size of cats and rain the size of dogs.  It took me a moment to realize what was going on, and that what was going on meant that I should get my window closed.  After locking mine I went for the stairs in order to check on the windows upstairs.  They were pretty much closed except for the one in the office which I had left open and that now had tons of hail in the crack of it so that it just would not go shut.  So along with dad and Braden I had a bit of an adventure getting the screen of the window, scooping all the hail into a bucket and finally getting it closed, all with a deluge of water flying into our faces.  : )  There was of course some thunder, some house shaking and then it passed.

This morning I took Bender(my dog) for a walk and though everything on our block looked normal, there were places where the hail was still piled high and the landscaping quite strewn about people’s yards.  There were also a very many LARGE puddles which Bender had to run through of course and then shake himself off right next to me.

I took these photos from the weather network site and so don’t know who’s they are but I guess I am about use them… haha

 

yes, all of this is hail.

So there you have it.  A taste of the lovely Camrosian summer.  Hail today, sun tomorrow, tornado on the next.

future excitement!

Okay, so this post is about disneyland.  I thought I would just lay that out there.  : )

Today Nate sent me a message with a link to this video.  It made me happy very happy because Cars just so happens to be one of my favourite Disney movies.  And the idea of having a whole land of it where everything comes alive (oh yeah, that’s the purpose of Disneyland) seems like a wonderful thing to me.  I first heard about this Cars Land when I was in Disneyland with my family in December of 2008.  You may have heard this before, but my family (and me!) and nate’s family (with him!) were there for 2 of the same days during that trip.  The story goes (that we made up) that I made fun of him because he was lookin’ all disney lovin’ and he made fun of me for looking really canadian.  HA!  Totally possible, right?  Anyway, back to cars land.  There is this building in California Adventures that is all about all the things that are being imagined into being next.  I mean I am sure the imaginings in there are about 5 years behind what is going on in the actual dreamer people’s minds, but it is satisfying none the less.  So here it is, a sneak peek of cars land!

From what I have read on the Imagineering website there is going to be 3 new attractions in this area of the park.  You will be able to float on Luigi’s Flying Tires, dance to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and rocket through the desert on Radiator Springs Racers.  And it all opens in the fall of 2012!

this is what the area currently looks like as it is under construction.  i expect the kind of brilliance that is found everywhere else on those paths and streets in that place where dreams come true.  haha 

and let’s just say that I am excited…

this thing called a Train Pass.

There must be some sort of magical deal that eurail has with my house here in Camrose.  I ordered jodi and my train passes online just two days ago choosing the option of economy shipping for delivery on the 26th of July, and voila! they arrived today.  Braden also had his arrive just 2 days after he ordered it.  I have yet to actually go through the package and really look at it’s contents so I am going to do that now.

The package contains:

a newspaper called “Rail Today” which I will read tonight

the traveler’s guide which is filled with very helpful information

the timetable of all the trains in europe written in a very small font

the paper confirming that I got loss and theft coverage

a cover letter which from a quick glance at the next item is essential to being able to get on a train

my actual ticket! (YES!!!)

and,

the eurail pass map which looks something like this…

Maps are something that I love and am very passionate about and it’s no different here.  This map specifically makes me so happy because all of those little lines of railroad tracks represent spectacular adventures.  My adventuring that starts in 27 days time is going to be over 4 of the countries found above, but I have been blessed in that I have already been to 10 of europe’s 50 countries.  So again, these railroads bring back memories as well as hopes for what they could hold in the future.  I will be sure to report back -with photos of course!- on what happens with my eurail pass in hand.

 

On another note, Nate is currently flying out of Israel and over to Athens, Greece where he will be for the next 3 weeks.  Please pray that him and his team as they are in Athens in such a tumultuous time that they would speak words of truth and wisdom, and act in such a way as well.  You can read more about his time there right from him, here.

1.5 projects completed!

Out of the many ideas that I have for things to make in these next weeks I have now completed 1 and a half.  The half project was just a modification that I did to a dress that I sewed about 4 years ago.  Then yesterday and today I completed my first full project.  It is a green slip dress made out of a jersey fabric and the purpose of it is to be used for layering.  Here is example one – which it was directly made for.  : )

the top is from a thrift store in Encinitas called Flashbacks but is Free People, then the dress is made by me!

(it should also be noted that my mum is the seamstress who coaches me along with the next steps in my projects.  I’m good on the execution side of things but sometimes lack knowing what to do next.  thanks mumma!)

Another small note for today is just this video.  It’s an “awwww” sappy kind of sweet thing.  So beware.  haha!

ps – yes, i did not post yesterday.  but hey, nobody’s perfect.  : D

patterns, colours, and textures.

this is simple, here they are:

all of these i bought today.  some are fabrics, some are clothing and i’m gonna let it be a mystery as to which is which.  try taking a guess!

 

i have 3 brothers.

So in this past week I have talked about both a brother named Braden and a brother named Josiah.  The thing is – I actually have 3 brothers!  : )  Aaron has been at Living Spring Bible Camp for the past week and just came home today.  This of course was reason to take some photos with him so that they could go here.

i had to make this picture small cuz aaron was making such a scary face.  haha.

so yep, there he is!  We will have to see what kind of adventures I write about having with him.

 

 

whoa.

Now this is just really cool.  I don’t even know if I can express what makes it so, but it just is.

i think it’s the mystery of it all.

the suspense

the fact that you never really find out what is going on.

how creative it feels.

and the way that it is edited so very seamlessly with so much attention to every little detail.

in short:

i love it.