Raise Your Hand if You're Ready for Spring

I am! I am!

So, last week the weather was Beautiful, that's right, beautiful with a capital "b". I was loving the weather. There was hope that soon it would be spring which means summer is just around the corner.
But of course it was too good to be true, and Tuesday rolled around, bringing with it gross weather in the morning, and I mean gross and slippery roads!!! But, by the end of the day everything was back to spring and my heart was happy.
The happiness my heart was feeling has since passed b/c last night it began to snow, and it got cold. This morning I had to scrap the snow off my car. And there was fog! And it's cold again!

Yes, my hand is up and I am very ready for spring!!!

Unity

I was recently at a meeting with other children's pastors/leaders in my city. It's quite amazing to me how the church of Lethbridge is moving towards unity. For someone reason all I remember is the lack of unity between churches a few years ago. Although I could have been incredibly miss informed, and there could have been unity between pastors and congregations that I was blind to.

My question is does unity stop with the children's pastors/leaders?
Does it stop with the sr. pastors, or the youth pastors/leaders?
Or is unity bigger then we're seeing now?
Is it bigger then Global Day of Prayer (May 27)?
Is it bigger then the combined summer camp outreach?
Is unity possibly so big that what we're seeing now is nothing to what the generations to come are going to experience in Lethbridge, or is this it?

Am I out of my mind to dream of MORE unity between the churches of Lethbridge

welcome back to real life...

It's ok, I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth...yet. I'm back in Lethbridge, and life is great...and cold...and hard...and challenging...and new.

Great b/c I'm back home living with my family and in the same city as my fiance. It's so great to be close again...so feel like I'm actually part of the family and actually dating someone (although we're now engaged). And I got a job!!! I'm working fulltime at Dominion GateWay Center

Cold b/c it's the middle of winter and it's been snowing for the past few days. The novelty of being cold has kinda worn off...I'm ready for summer!!!

Hard b/c it's been a huge adjustment moving back into a house where we actually talk to each other daily and have to work our schedules together. And hard b/c I haven't really done the whole relationship thing with Matt since the first year we were dating we were on opposite sides of the world. It's like I'm re-learning everything I should already know.

Challenging b/c I'm trying to be the best fiancee, daughter, sister, friend, employee etc., and I'm a bit out of practice.

And new b/c most of what's happening has never been done in my life before.

That's my little update...maybe now that I'm getting into more of a routine I'll become more consistent in my postings. Haha, and that's a MAYBE b/c I don't actually know how routine things will stay...do they ever stay???

I can use an e-brake...at least now I can

On Saturday night my mum sent me to Dairy Queen to buy an ice cream cake (just so you know I love those and haven't had one all year!!!). So I got myself all rugged up and headed out in the cold. When I parked at Dairy Queen I put the e-brake on b/c in Oz everyone puts the e-brake on, all the time, so it's just a habit now. When I came back out to the van to return home with the ice cream cake I couldn't get the e-brake off. I assumed that if I just kicked it a bit more it would release since all other vehicles I've driven the past couple of years with e-brakes by the pedals work like that. I finally gave up on kicking the e-brake convinced it wouldn't release and went back into Dairy Queen and used my only change on the pay phone to call home and say that I was stuck. My mum answered and told me that she'd send someone to help me out right away. After hanging up I headed back to the van to try once more to get the e-brake to release. Guess what I found? A leve that you pull with your hand to release the e-brake.

Brilliant, I know!

I'M ENGAGED!!!

Poison: Champers, oh yes!!!
Favorite thing: the amazing man sitting next to me (and the incredible ring that he put on my finger :) )


Ladies and gentleman, I would like to announce that I'm ENGAGED to Matthew Furukawa!!!

Here's the story for those of you wanting all the juicy details...

About a week ago my boyfriend (now fiance!!!) suggested that we go out on a fancy date before my family joined us for three weeks in Sydney Australia...little did I know what he had up his sleeve.
Yesterday (Dec. 14, 2006) Matt and my good friend Susan Sohn got up early and left the house to pick up a vehicle that was being repaired in the city. The night before we had planned that Matt and I would go into the city with Susan to pick up the car and then spend the day in the city seeing the sights. We had planned at all, I thought, but in the meantime Susan and Matt knew that that wouldn't be happening otherwise all the other plans for the evening would be screwed up. So, when I woke up after they had left I was told that it was because they knew I wasn't feeling too well and they didn't want to wake me. RIGHT!
When Matt got home we immediately left for Castle Towers where Matt insisted that I get a manicure, which was fine I'm not one to argue with being pampered when I have the chance to receive it!
After my manicure Matt seemed to be in a bit of a hurry saying that Susan wanted him to clean her car and the pool area, and was seeming to be a bit stressed about our date saying he wasn't sure where we were going.
After cleaning the car together (ok, so maybe Matt cleaned and I just supervised) we raced home so he could clean the pool area (or maybe do something else...), while I got ready for our date.
Right before I was about to put on my dress (which I looked amazing in by the way :) ), Matt told me he wanted to see me as soon as I put the dress on. I figured he just wanted to see his hot date, so after putting on the dress I began to spray myself with Susan's Burberry London perfume, but Matt interupted before I could completely spray myself in the amazing scent and handed me a package from David Jones, it was my own bottle of Burberry London.
We ended up leaving the house in a made rush, apparently cleaning the pool area took longer then expected, hmmm...right. As we climbed into Susan's CLEAN car, Matt warned me not to check the GPS to see where we were going. We began our drive into the city and the whole way Matt was stressing about not making our reservation, which had me thinking he'd quickly picked a place that afternoon. We ended up driving right down to Circular Quay, and parked at the Opera House (like my favorite place in Sydney)!?! And very we quickly exited the car and began our walk to into the Opera House where we had a reservation for two, at table 29 in a booth for two overlooking the harbour at Guillaume at Bennelong, which I'm told is the most difficult resturant to get into in Sydney at the most sought after table :) We ate the most delicious, lush three course meal (fancy shmancy, I know!). The whole while my mind was going wild as I began to think that at any moment he'd get down on one knee. But he didn't...
After dinner we went for a walk around the Opera House, observing the harbour at sunset. As we rounded the corner of the Opera House we saw a pier, where Matt pointed out an italian speed boat, apparently made all of wood, a one of a kind, in fact the ONLY ONE registered in Sydney (the photo is of the actual boat)!?! My thoughts were not on the boat, rather that my boyfriend (now fiance!) not only knows everything about cars, but also everything about boats. As we got closer to the pier Matt waved at the driver of the boat (Manny!), I figured he was just being super friendly, but as reached the end of the pier I realized that that was OUR BOAT!!! Matt and I spent an hour touring the harbour in an italian speed boat (can you say romantic!!!). Again the whole while I'm thinking oh my goodness at any moment he could "pop the question." And yet again, he didn't. Which to be completely honest didn't disappoint me since prior to our date I was convinced we weren't going to get engaged until we returned to Canada.
Following our boat ride we took a brief walk through the Botanical Gardens (b-e-a-utiful!), where I was scared out of my mind by a rodent (I know, only me), so our walk remained very brief.
We then decided to call it and night and headed towards our car. When we reached our car park Matt made some comment about a scratch on the back bumper (typical Matt...), so he helped me into the car and went around to the boot of the car to "examine the scratch" (or send a quick text back home to let "the troops" know that we were on our way).
Our drive home was entertaining (as driving in any city with the two of us usually is). I may have directed Matt past our exited, but I fully knew what I was doing b/c there was another exit that would get us back home easily enough.
When we reached the Sohn house I was greeted by yet another surprise...a path of YELLOW rose petals, and tea lights which led into the Sohn's backyard. Matt came around and led me into the pool area which was full of candels and roses!!! At the end of the pool was a table set for two with champagne and a chocolate fondue. Matt seemed so relaxed and I attempted to make myself believe that we were not going to get engaged despite how romantic the atmosphere was.
We took our seats and Matt
poured us each a glass of champers. There was a card sitting at my place setting, which Matt insisted he read to me. As he began to read the card, the tears began to well up in my eyes as I knew that this was for real, and I was really going to get engaged. He then proceeded to kneel down infront of my seat and asked if I would make him the luckiest man alive by agreeing to marry him. With my face covered with my hands, between hyperventilating and the tears I manged to say "of course."

...and from that point on I have been engaged!!!

my toes lost their virginity...

Poison: Nescafe Blend 43
Favorite thing: spending time with my boyfriend :)


So I had my first pedicure yesterday. It was pretty much amazing. I loved it heaps and heaps and after that I could def. become a high maintenance girl who needs one every other week. Yeah that would be nice.


I'm really not a high maintenance girl at all. I was thinking about it yesterday, I'm pretty easy going, despite what some people think :) I think the credit for that goes to my mum for sure. Although I do enjoy being a pampered princess my mum never really ever let me get to high maintenance-ish. I mean I did use to get my eyebrows done like once a month, and there was a time when I went and got my legs waxed once a month as well, BUT although I did enjoy those luxuries, it wasn't as though I couldn't live without them b/c I now do.


I'm not fully sure what the whole deal with being high maintenance is. My problem is that I just don't have the time to sit around and be super pampered. There are so many other things that I can do with my time. Maybe one day I'll understand, and be ok with taking the time however often to let myself be high maintenance...but until then I'll just continue to paint my own toenails.

Matt's here!!!

Poison: Nescafe Mocha
Favorite thing: Being with my boyfriend!!!

He arrived, and I picked him up from the airport (late...in my defense, traffic was super bad and I may or may not have gotten lost even with GPS...don't ask). And he's now being in Oz for over 24hrs and I'm loving having him here!

And that's all I have to say about that :)