Sunday, June 25, 2006

Ode to a good friend (actually, two)

I'd like to introduce you to my good friends. Affectionately I refer to them as "sandals", but their technical name is Nike ACG "Air Deschutz" Sandals. These friends have walked with me (haha) through many good times.



I have owned this pair of sandals since 1998. In fact, hubby brought them back for me from Hawaii during his mission trip there. I can hardly believe it's been 8 years. That was a rocky time in our relationship - we didn't really know if we'd be able to stick it out - but I knew I meant SOMETHING to him because I was the only one who got souvenirs AND sandals when he came back.

I've worn these sandals faithfully every summer, on vacations, camping trips, etc. I haul them out whenever it seems like it'll be a sunny week. Some people are grossed out at the sight of feet, but I have perfectly normal feet and don't mind exposing them to the world by wearing sandals. (I would not, however, walk barefoot outside - I'm not Britney Spears, after all.)

Permit me to indulge in some fond memories with my Nikes.

Here I am in Victoria, pretending to be a dinosaur (June 2003):


If you look closely you can see my sandals on the carpet of my Campbell River hotel room (May 2006):


Look - we are meeting the Genie from Aladdin at Disney World (Feb 2003):


Clod is the center of this pic, but look - sandals during camping! (July 2004):


I think I'm saying grace before eating in this picture, but otherwise, it's eerily similar - same chair, same camp location ... it's when I went camping with some of my school friends in July 2003:



I have many other fun pictures, but I am afraid I might be wearing the same clothes in many of them. Darn that Old Navy hoodie - its versatility may be outweighed by its lack of photogenicity.

Anyway. In May 2004, I went to St. Louis with my family for my cousin's wedding. While we were walking up the steps to a fancy shopping mall, my mom noticed an issue with my sandals tearing at the back. I managed to sew them back together ... but I guess thread can only do so much. This month I noticed significant damage again ... Poor Nikes. View the damage below - warning - lovers of Nike sandals may want to avert their eyes!

Oh! The disaster!


I suppose I could have sewed them up again, but I just didn't think it would be worth the effort. So this past weekend, I bit the bullet and purchased a new pair of sandals. I hope they last another 8 years (that would mean $5/year - pretty good!) It's hard to say goodbye to such a good friend, but all good things must come to an end, right?

Here is a picture of my new friend: (don't worry - I bought both the right and left ones!)


Monday, June 19, 2006

Babies - part deux

As an addendum to my last post, I thought I would write a few more thoughts.

First - I guess not having kids definitely means a different perspective. I love kids, but actually, I really like that I can hand them back to their parents when I'm tired of them... in a good way of course. Obviously I can't predict how I'll react once we do have kids... maybe I'll feel totally different.

I once watched an episode of Dr. Phil which was like stay-at-home moms (SAHM) vs. working moms (WM) and I was honestly shocked at the attitude of some of the SAHM's. The way in which they condemned working moms was awful... suggesting that working moms don't have their kids' best interests at heart, that their kids will suffer, etc... most of the WM's either said that of course they felt some guilt about working all day but didn't have a choice.. or else that they wanted to show their kids that it was possible to balance a full time career with a full household.

The former Chief Judge of the Provincial Court here in BC worked all her life and has five kids. Five! My stars. I think being a lawyer isn't terribly conducive to staying at home, although I never want to be one of those big firm, partner-track lawyers who works 80 hours a week and has billing targets .. but I probably won't be able to fluff off work whenever I want either.

Finally, I borrowed a book called "Mommy Wars" today at the library. It's full of essays from both SAHM's and WM's. Should be a good read.

Okay, on to non-baby-related stuff. I tripped one of my 3" three ring binders yesterday and nearly ripped a nail right off my toe. Needless to say I was in terrible pain (although I am a pain wimp.) I don't think medical attention is necessary (or even useful) .. but I wish I could do something other than try not to re-injure it. I guess I'll have to wait several weeks. This puts a glitch in my plan to have nice polished nails all summer long (it is sandal season, after all.) I actually googled "torn toenail" to find some remedies. I love the internet.

Anyway I could barely walk this morning and therefore I didn't go to school today. It's okay - I doubt I missed much. I felt a bit better after a good long sleep, but it's still difficult to walk properly. Stupid binders and klutziness.

Tis all for now. I haven't posted many pictures lately, but maybe I will do so soon ... I am waiting to receive a new adapter for my notebook ... Raf dropped my whole computer once and it partially severed a portion of the cord - and I finished it off the other day. Wow, I'm doing well, clumsiness-wise.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Babies, babies, babies

Someone asked me today when we're planning to have kids, and I gave my standard "Not right now" answer. I don't mind being asked - I figure it's the natural thing to ask people once they are married - it's probably more "normal" to ask that than anything else, really.

I can't say I really know what the answer is, though. I'm pretty happy with things the way they are - just the two of us in our spacious-for-two-people-with-tons-of-stuff house, not having to think about the needs of a little person, you know ... I recently read a post about how women today grow up in a culture of self-serving - pursue your own goals, travel, live your life how you want, work as hard as you want, etc ... and how there's possibly a shift in the mindset towards stay-at-home-momship and such... and maybe that there's something to be said about self-sacrifice - giving up your own goals to further the needs of your kids.

I don't know how I feel about this. My mom was kind of a combo of stay-at-home and working - as a piano teacher she was able to stay at home while working, so we didn't spend much time in daycares or with babysitters except when we were really young. In my profession, I probably won't be able to spend most of my time working from home. The reality is that if I have kids, they'll probably spend at least 3 days a week in daycare. I can't even imagine giving up my career for my kids. No right or wrong to be alleged here - just random thoughts. Maybe I'm selfish, or perhaps I'm just going to present to my kids the option of having kids yet still having a full-time job.

Well, good thing we don't have to consider this issue for a few more years :D

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Losing steam

It's not really the end of the year for me, since I'm not really a student any more (PLTC notwithstanding.) But somehow, I still feel like I'm getting slower and slower as summer approaches. I have a lot less energy to devote to the many things going on in my life. Like fellowship - there's only a couple of weeks left, but it takes so much to plan an evening, and sometimes I don't even feel like it's worth it. Kind of a cynical view. It's definitely tough to watch as teens who used to be regulars start to drift away. I wish I could shake them and say, "Don't make this mistake ... don't leave ... you might never come back..."

We had an interesting conversation at cell group yesterday. I won't go into all the details, but one topic that arose really made me think. There's a few cliches floating around, like, God has bridged the gap and all we have to do is reach out for him ... or God has taken 999 steps and you just have to take one... you know, thoughts about faith and such. But Jason brought up a different way of looking at faith. Might we be better off giving all the glory to God, realizing that it is His grace and mercy which redeems us, and not our faith in Him that saves us... maybe it's more appropriate to say that God took all 1000 steps, and I don't deserve any of it, so that His grace is fuller and larger. Hmm, I suppose I never quite considered it in that way. But it is true - God continually reaches out for us, even when we don't reach for him. On the other hand, there's some aspect of turning ourselves onto the narrow path to follow Him too.

Well, maybe it's hard to explain. God is so unfathomable that it's very difficult to put into words how I have come to know Him and how I know that He is real and that He has saved me.

But I sure wish I could explain it better to the teens who have, consciously or not, stopped coming to church.