WHOA! NO WAY!! ITS NEW!!!!

So! Who would have guessed it eh!?! A new blog post after all these many months! Why the change? Well the equation goes something like this... at school + nothing to do = a new blog post!
It is a Sunday afternoon and I'm on duty in the dorm therefore I cannot go to Timmy's or for a drive, I am, alas, trapped within the confines of my room. There are white walls all around me, a few lights and a window that allows me to look and watch as people drive by on the freeway, continuing their normal lives while I...sit and rot in my room and think about...random things really. For example, the other day I saw this comic portraying a little girl holding a diary close to her heart, in the top corner it said 1950's and the girl is yelling at her mom "Its private!" Then beside that one was another girl sitting on her laptop, the caption, 2008, and she is complaining to her mom, "man only 103,000 people have viewed my blog today!" Crazy how times change! I began thinking about how our lives our so private when 'real' people are around us and this isn't a bad thing. However, online, we share photos, talk about our deepest thoughts, talk to people we barely know and the craziest part of it all is that it feels normal. I notice how at times I will be talking to someone online and a 'real' person will come and start talking to me and I'm thinking "how rude, they are interrupting my conversation!" My goodness, how times have changed. Last fall the power went off in the dorm which meant no more internet, period! Suddenly the lobby was full and people began talking to each other. I find it crazy how we know so much about our 'neighbors' online and yet we may not even know who lives in the house next to us. What is the difference? Perhaps it is that we tell ourselves we are still safe, if the conversation gets to deep, oops internet cut out, whereas in person people can read our expressions, we have to be real and honestly in today's world it is hard to be real because we do not really know who we are. The media tells us who we should be, how we should act and dress and the music we listen to also dictates much of this. We end up with a generation that only really has an online identity but in real life has no idea.
Anyways, I have gone on long enough. I do believe I am going to go and find something useful to do, not sure what, but something. :) Have a great day!!

Last Post was October ... Wow!

I honestly forgot I even had a blog until Christmas vacation when my dear family reminded me. With facebook and hotmail it is easy to bypass this altogether. However, for the sake of whoever may happen to be checking this I thought I would post a new one...just for kicks.
It is currently 1:10 am and in all honesty I have no reason for being up. I am back at school now and have very little homework as of yet so I should be sleeping. The older I get the more I discover I do my best thinking at night, about life, plans, school, events, etc. Thankfully I do not have to worry about getting up early as I have no Tuesday, Thursday classes this semester. However, my Monday, Wednesday classes are maddening. From 7:40 am - 9pm I'm in class with a few breaks in between, Friday I'm there until noon.
Christmas vacation felt like it went too fast yet at the same time I know life goes on and no matter how much, at times, I want to drag my feet the world continues turning so I may as well keep up. I find the older I get the faster the world seems to turn which means the faster I have to make decisions and the faster I have to go when in reality all I want to do is hit pause and just chill. I suppose being busy is actually a privilege in that it allows a person to appreciate doing nothing, just relaxing. Just like being thirsty makes a person appreciate water or hungry to food. This makes me laugh as I think that maybe I should take a break from school so I can appreciate homework. I stare above my computer and I see bulging binders and books and textbooks and all I can do is shake my head. All that knowledge! I know I have read it, taken notes at one point so its in my brain somewhere...but where? All this homework and schoolwork, countless hours in a classroom and I feel as though I retain very little of what is said. This makes me wonder something else...If computers were non-existent, if I did not just have all this at my finger tips, would I appreciate it more, would I long for it? This leads to another question...if I did not have six or seven Bibles, if God did not feel so accessible, would I long for him more? Perhaps this is why we sometimes experience hard times. Its not God's way of punishing but merely reminding us that he is there and that we can rely on him, we can't do it all ourselves. It seems to be him reminding us that there is something better to come and that this is all temporary. Our measly seventy to ninety years on earth are merely a blink of the eye compared to what we could have. The trial that seems insurmountable today is, in reality, in the grand scheme of things, merely a pin prick. If you have ever climbed a mountain or hill you realize how much you can see. From above you look down and notice the hills and they seem so small. Yet when you are walking down below, those hills, that from above seem so small, feel as though they are mountains! I suppose I am writing this blog to remind myself that everything will be alright. Right now another semester looms high above me casting shadows of financial doubt, homework, jobs, scheduling, traveling, family, and more. Yet when I look back I realize all was fine. I made it this far, I can keep going...but sometimes even the strongest people need help. Sometimes it's nice to just let God help...that's where I need a few lessons. Just stepping back and letting God take over. I'll do my part and trust that he will do his. This semester will finish, the buds on the trees will come out, the flowers will open and the temperature will warm significantly reminding me that summer is around the corner and with it new life, a second chance.

Who Knew?! *Shrugs*

First I must define something: The word blond and according to dictionary.com it means...
light-colored; having light colored hair and skin; as a noun it means: a blond person
It is here that I must stop...a blond person...why do I pause here. Well I think that the term blond should mean something else but I'm not sure what yet. Maybe by the end of this blog I'll have a new definition to present to those reading. You see, today I'm wearing a red shirt with gold letters that read Blonde, the New Smart but what I'm about to write counters my shirt. So, my day has been going alright however I have been extremely overwhelmed today as I begin realizing that things are due and how school really only has one more month left and in that month I have 4 papers to hand in, 4 sermons to preach (the 4 papers have nothing to do with the sermons), 2 of those sermons are in class and one will be in Rimbey and the other in Leduc. Slightly overwhelmed there, more nervous. What does this have to do with being blonde? Well...I'm hoping to use this as an alaby for what I'm about to explain, its not super bad I mean I've done worse. Ok here goes!
So I bought a lamp the other day right?! If you are furrowing your brow read the blog below this one and you'll see that on Friday I bought a lamp with a blue base and yellow shade. So after convincing myself that it was unique I decided to keep it. After all the yellow shade matches the cheerios boxes on my top shelf and the blue matches the Vector boxes so how cool is that...I have a breakfast lamp! Well, I put the bulb into my lamp, plugged it in and turned it on but nothing happened. I groaned inwardly knowing that I would have to take this ridiculous lamp back because it was dead! Here it is, Monday afternoon and I'm getting the box out of the cupboard and preparing to take my unique breakfast lamp back to Wally world...I think to myself "I wonder what would happen if..." and I walk over to my other lamp and grab the light bulb out of that lamp and walk back over to my unique lamp and proceed to screw in the lightbulb...I then plug it back in and click the switch...Voila! I had light! So I walk back over to the other lamp and put the old light bulb into it and it doesn't work. What I am writing is this: I am keeping my cool little breakfast lamp because the only thing wrong with it is my brain blew a fuse and thus no lights came on upstairs resulting in me blaming a perfectly good lamp for my own lack of sanity. So I have a light and I think I will change my shirt to I Love Carbs or something...I will also define blonde as this Blonde: a creature, usually feminine with nothing between her ears as a result of her hair color creating a short in the wiring thus causing a fuse to blow and as a result the wind blows through her ears. Something like that...see my definition doesn't even make sense...I think I may just go back to bed but I'm off to Red Deer to not return my lamp but to grab some things for my hall as we have open house this weekend (where the guys get to come view the halls and rooms and thus everything must be decorated). Later!

A Dead Lamp!

It is 1:49 am and in all honesty I should be in bed. I still have this wicked cough I cannot kick for the life of me but I'm guessing that not going to bed early is playing a small part. This past Wednesday marked the end of midterms for myself and so far, or at least last time I checked, I'm still breathing. I am completely loving Greek and considering taking a minor in ancient languages but not taking the pre-prof course...the pre-prof is what pastors take however I have little interest in becoming a pastor so I am planning on taking a 4 yr religious studies degree with a minor in history and ancient languages...what am I going to do with this? I don't know yet but I love researching and learning so...we'll see. Anyways, why is my title a dead lamp? For this very reason...
Today, being Friday, I decided to try and play catch up. Last Friday I spent the day in bed wishing that death would come visit but alas that did not happen. I survived and my ailment and today decided I definately needed to clean. So I began with laundry and scrubbing my bathroom and wiping away dust in my room. I then proceeded to vacuum and then distribute toilet paper to the girls on my floor (one of the jobs as an RA) along with vacuuming the hallway. Then it was down to the guest rooms to clean them and make sure they were ready to go for the weekend. By the time I finished all this it was 3 and Michael wanted to go to Red Deer. I was so sick of cleaning that I gladly opted for a change of pace, besides the fact that I had been in Lacombe since I got back two weeks ago. So off to Red Deer we went. Michael dropped me off at Wal Mart as he wanted to go and buy something down the road at Future Shop. So I grabbed a cart, stopped and stared at all the halloween candy, then stopped again and stared but did not buy due to the fact that it is all very overpriced and I will wait until November 1...all St. Day or as it is more commonly known "All Halloween candy for Charlee day." I was finally able to peel myself away from the candy (besides I'm still sick and shouldn't be eating candy right?) and decided to get some important item for my bathroom called soap, you may have heard of it. Its great, its white and comes in a big container and I think it cleans your hands...all I know is it said SALE 2.97 and I bought it. I have to say something here...I am getting older because sales excite me now a days...either that or I'm getting poorer. I see a SALE sign and I have to stop, think about whether I really need it, debate, then if I do need it I buy a lot because you never know when it will be on sale again. For example, Wal Mart had a sale on Special K, it was only 1.97 per box...now for Alberta thats REALLY good because your average box of cereal is around $10! Ridiculous!! So I bought Special K! Then my absolute favorite Cheerios was on sale so I had to get those. Anyways...I'm getting sidetracked. So my cart and I finish walking down the food aisle in Wally world and my cart begins heading toward the aisle that contains cleaning supplies...of course I think to myself I need some. You see, up until today I have been using the cleaning buckets downstais...disgusting! Scrubbing your toilet with a scrubber that the rest of the dorm uses just doesn't float my boat not to mention you have no idea where those gloves have been and ya I decided to buy my own stuff. I know some families *cough* like to borrow the neighbors toilet plunger but...I like to have my own haha just kidding mom. Over thanksgiving our toilet overflowed and to our dismay there was no plunger in the house. So mom is standing over this toilet, water is pouring everywhere and making its way into the hallway and slowly pouring down the furnace vents into the basement and there is absolutely no plunger. A septic installer's house has NO plunger. So mom runs to the phone and dials the neighbor's number...they aren't home! So she calls another neighbor, they aren't home either, apparently on thanksgiving no one is home. So she calls another neighbor and frantically says "Can we borrow your plunger for the toilet?" ... its thanksgiving... its 10pm... a lady is frantic about needing a toilet plunger... the neighbor merely says "Who is this?" My mom quickly explains the situation and they all laugh and the story ends happily when the toilet becomes unplugged later that evening with a lesson about flushing certain feminine products down a toilet that has a septic system...not a good plan..................Anyways I'm completely sidetracked. I'm standing in Wal mart and notice that there is an all surfaces cleaner for sale so I grab it and then I see a light, no, many lights. I begin moving toward the light (don't worry its merely the light aisle). As I'm walking down that aisle I remember that I do need a light for my room as the fluorescent light in the ceiling tends to make a person feel slightly insane. As a student I must find the cheapest light and oh I do, its $9! I grab a blue one and head to the check out. When I get back to the dorm I open my light only to discover the base is blue, the shade is yellow...Oh well, I screw in a light bulb and plug it in, turn it on and NOTHING! So right now I have a dead lamp sitting on my fridge. The shiny blue base looks nice, the yellow is another story but anyways. I have written more then I intended and its 2:11 am. I bid thee all farewell!

Pictures

This is the group!! It was really windy!! Everytime the picture was taken the wind blew and threw me backwards.













Azalea standing on the steep, rocky surface












The view of Canmore and a really awesomely sweet drop off. I'm lying on the edge of the cliff with my hands dangling over taking the picture and of course praying that the wind didn't catch my coat and throw me into Canmore.

























A few of us on the way up the mountain! You'll notice I'm at the back of the group...taking a picture was my excuse for stopping and catching my breath





this is the mountain that we climbed
























This is the view from the side we climbed up, you can see the river valley at the bottom and the amazingly steep trail.

Summits!!

It was eight in the morning which in my books is way to early to be getting up, let alone dressed and ready to go on a Sabbath...but I was. See at 7:30 my phone rang and I could not figure out why on earth I had to be up so early on a day I knew I could sleep in until church started...needless to say it was Azalea, "are you ready to go?" My mind raced then it all began coming back to me...right! We are going to the mountains today. I got my stuff together rather quickly and headed down to the lobby to wait for the guys and Azalea, in total there was 6 of us going, my brother, Jared, his brother, JD, Azalea and myself. So, I waited until they all eventually came out to the lobby but by this time I was trying to find out where on earth Azalea had disappeared to. See, after she called me, as it turns out, she went back to bed. We waited until she was ready then Azalea, JD and myself piled in his car and the other three piled in Jared's car. The drive was good and of course I slept until we got there. It was 11:30, the sun was out but it was still cool so we all grabbed our backpacks and began the climb up. No joke, up...no, that word is actually an understatement. We were in the woods most of the way then suddenly there were no more trees as the oxygen was way to thin for anything to survive that high. Not only that but if anything did decide to live it would just get blown off. One guy we met on the trail said the wind was 42 knots. Needless to say it was enough to almost blow me around a couple of times. Anyways, we reach this treeless area and the rest of the climb is pretty much straight up and something mom would not appreciate at all. You see, if you look to your right you have an amazing view of this tiny little stream at the bottom, a road that is barely seeable anymore and the mountains are everywhere. Its also a fall that would hurt as you would begin sliding. This is what we walked on. I walked all the way to a point where I figured it would level out but no, mountains don't level out they merely curve straight down the other side. I look over and its just a straight drop off, this drop off is to my right and to my left is a steep ledge we just climbed up. To add to this the wind was ridiculous, I could lean into it comfortably. Everyone kept joking about how I was just going to fly right into Canmore. You see, on my right (the drop off) was an incredible view of Canmore, it looked so tiny and you could follow highway 1 for quite a while. We stayed up there for a bit but because of the sweat you accumulate on the way up and the cold wind you pretty much freeze to death quickly. Not to mention the fact that your nose is running and with wind like that...the guys had fun talking about their flying snot. Anyways, on the way back down we stopped as soon as we hit the tree line again and everyone took off their backpacks and we all discovered that everyone had brought enough food to stay a week. Michael had 7 sandwiches and two bags of cheese buns, Jared had 3 or was it 4 bagels, 3 sandwiches, 2 apples, yogurt, etc, Azalea had a whole whack of stuff including grapes, carrots and dip and bananas and much more, JD had ramen and a stove on which to prep it, Jared's brother had this massive loaf of bread and I brought hummus, buns, an orange pepper, nutri grain bars and I can't even remember what else, oh ya, everyone teased me for this but I also had a can of beans and a ... can opener (they all thought that was so funny). So we ate and ate and slowly the packs became a little lighter but the stomachs became heavier. Either way we carried the food up and down and had much left over. We continued on down the trail and discovered quickly that going down is not as hard on the ol' lungs and heart but extremely hard on the ol' joints. By the time we made it back down to the car it was 4:30. We drove down to the Nordec center (where the cross country skiing events were held back during the olympics in Calgary), why did we go there? Well, I refused to squat over another stinky out house and so we went there so I could use the facilities and wash my hands properly. It was so nice!! Needless to say everything was amazing about the day. The leaves were all yellow (no cool colors here because there are no maples) and the sun was out and the mountains were just so amazing looking!! Thankfully we made it back safely. Thus concludes that part of my day! It was amazing and I took some awesome pics with Azalea's camera, when I steal them from her I'll post them on here for you to see.

A What...A Blog!!! Thats Right! Its a NEW BLOG

Please hold your applause *holds hand up* Oh wait, *leans over as someone whispers in ear* o.k. if anyone has any complaints about not seeing a blog in a while see me after the show. Now back to what I was saying. *A stray tomato whizzes past the speakers ear as an angry crowd member defiantly folds their arms and waits* One question seems to be on everyone's mind, what has this crazy person been up to since the 10th of September? I mean come on, what could be so terribly important that they couldn't even find a few moments of their time to write a blog? The speaker chuckles and begins telling a tale of woe, a tale of laughter, a tale of humility and a tale of tiredness...
"You see," The speaker straightens and looks into the eyes of those listening, "this person, named Charlee, has been up to a lot in the last two weeks. Two weekends ago found her sitting in a chair in her room for two days straight with a 350 page book (no not a school book but rather a book she found in the ABC or as it is now known as the Store in which Charlee should not enter). She did not get up until it was done as it was just that good. Then the mondane life of school began all over again and she started running here and there and was taken on a run through the woods with her friend, however this run turned out to be more of a walk/sometimes run as her lungs folded their arms and said "like whatever, there is no way you are like making us work like that, like come on." Needless to say Charlee kept at it as the days were nice and warm. The weekend hit though and what should have been relaxing was far from it. It was her turn to be on duty and she found herself on Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It was tiring and by the end of it she hated seeing the little pink sign that said "team 2 and 4 on duty." As days tend to do they continued on and before she knew it Greek was beckoning her attention but something else was now happening. Sunday was the first day of the Running Club started by her friend. They went out on Sunday and ran 3 miles. It was a normal fall day. Now begins the tale of woe as a sign was posted saying "Running Club 6 am! Tuesday morning!" How hard can it be to get up right? Sleep is bliss but then something happens, its a noise, yes a sound. Its something that interupts a sleep, oh thats right an alarm clock. She jumps from her bed and looks at the numbers staring back at her, horror filling her eyes. The clock reads 5:45am!! *Music plays loudly in the background adding to the effect as speaker holds heart* Charlee thinks about skipping but a shrill noise cuts through the darkness of the room and she finds herself running toward the sound and quickly picking up the receiver. A voice on the other end greets her ear however this voice sounds way to excited about the fact that they are going running at this absolutely ubsurd hour. She goes downstairs to the lobby and to her surprise there is a large group of people seated there waiting to go. The run turns out ok and she falls back asleep afterwards. This same process is repeated Wednesday morning and as she walks down the stairs she discovers her body yelling at her. She makes her way outside and her lungs immediately say "are you like kidding us, it is way to cold for us to like breathe this air." Her legs begin moving and her heart beats faster and her lungs quit complaining and start working. There is only three of them and the route they take goes through the woods. Her legs begin hurting, her heart is pounding, her lungs are burning from the cool air, her nostrils are wide like that of a horse in full canter, and her eyes are struggling to see the path in front of her. However one factor keeps her going...she is scared to death of the dark and the idea of stopping would mean walking through the dark woods by herself...um no. She keeps going and finds that she doesn't die but rather just, well, keeps going. They get back and she finds the lobby is really hot! However the body cools down quickly and so after having a hot shower and eating a good breakfast she makes her way to class, then another class and another and then cleans and then works some more and finally she sits writing this crazy adventure to you. *The speaker steps off the platform, the audience chears. Bed beckons as the alarm will be screaming "GET UP TO RUN" all to soon.*