His grace still amazes me

My mom just told me about a passing in our extended, extended family.... it was very sad because it was incredibly sudden and unpredictable. The older I get, the more I realize how life is short and how we can never really know when it is our time to go. Today, I drove a portion of highway where there are always several memorials set up, most recently one for a 17-year-old. The other day, I read about a girl whose wedding was 7 days after my own, but who didn't even make it to her second anniversary because her melanoma finally took her life. I'm also reminded that it has been just about 18 years since God took my dad to heaven, and a few years since He called one of the Whammies home too.

People often ask why God allows these things to happen, why things like illness and suffering exist. Age old questions, I suppose. I don't think I have the answer. I don't think any of us does. Can there be any explanation to satisfy someone who has lost a friend, a family member, the love of their life? I remember when people would sometimes tell me that God had a reason for taking my dad when he did ... and I remember thinking that whatever the reason was, it sure didn't seem like a good one.

I attended a wedding rehearsal today and found it (as always) a little bittersweet to see the bride walking down the aisle with her dad. I wondered for a moment why God hadn't allowed my dad to walk me down the aisle.

These are just all musing thoughts, and again, no real answers. I guess all I can say is that I still have hope and faith in my Savior. I still believe that he is faithful and that in the end, this life I've lived will make some sense. All of the suffering people now have will one day come to an end, to be replaced by joy and praise and eternal life. God's omniscience will always trump my own knowledge. It isn't so much why do we suffer, but where do we turn for strength when we do suffer, where do we go when we are broken, who can heal the pain.

This is the hymn we sang at our wedding - we don't sing it much in worship any more, but I find the lyrics to be a real comfort.

My faithful Father, enduring Friend
Your tender mercy’s like a river with no end
It overwhelms me, covers my sin
Each time I come into Your presence
I stand in wonder once again

CHORUS:
Your grace still amazes me
Your love is still a mystery
Each day I fall on my knees
Your grace still amazes me
‘Cause Your grace still amazes me

Oh, patient Saviour, You make me whole
You are the Author and the Healer of my soul
What can I give You, Lord, what can I say
I know there’s no way to repay You
Only to offer You my praise

Much better secrets

Have you ever been to Post Secret? Probably almost everyone has heard of this site, but for those who haven't, it's a project where people anonymously mail in postcards, usually handmade, on which they have written whatever secret they wish to share. Every Sunday, new secrets are posted. There are also books, but I'm too cheap to buy a whole book full of other people's secrets.

I do, however, visit the site every once in a while and I must admit that it's become a bit of a favourite for me. Maybe it's voyeuristic of me, but I find the secrets fascinating, and usually, a little upsetting as well. Some of the secrets are variations on events in my own life, or thoughts I have had before. I wonder about the person who has taken the time to send in a secret - does he feel relieved? does she check the site to see if the secret was posted? is he now going to tell a real person his secret? is she languishing out there, alone, with no hope? Do they struggle with these secrets, hoping that someone will figure out that the secret is theirs?

I wish I could share the hope that I have in Christ with some of those secret-holders.
I also wish I had the courage, the creativity, the eagerness to send in a secret.
And most of all I hope that posting a secret really does provide release and a renewed spirit. After all, Jesus came and gave his life not so that we could be alone and sad, but so that we could have life, and have it to the full.

Almost Paradise

It's funny how life has a tendency to run along without you even really noticing that time has gone by. I've had a busy few weeks and yet no matter how busy I am, there are always many more things to do and in my case, many things left undone. I'd love to tell you that I have a super clean house, an organized desk/office at work, and not a scrap of paper in my inbox. I think you'll all agree that these are goals worthy of aspiring to. Alas, my disorganized mind spreads itself into my surroundings, slowly but surely building up piles of undone work. It's not a good thing, people.

I'm currently trying to work on a factum. It's been a while since I've had to work on one of these.... I suppose it's been around 4 years, since first year law. My brain has turned to mush.

Hey, so have you been wondering how our new car is? Because it is fabulous! Oh, the little gas it uses. Every car should be a hybrid. Or better. I don't like to have to think that $1.14/L is cheap for gas. IT IS NOT.

What a terrible secret

The other day I was listening to the morning radio show that irks me so much, and they had a guest on who speaks at these seminars entitled "The Secret". Apparently it's a part of Tony Robbins' "The Power Within" series. (By the way - I always confuse Tony Robbins with that Tony Little (?) who does the exercise machine commercials.) Again, I am only commenting on the bit I heard, so if I've mischaracterized something, let it go. :)

The guest was talking about how everything in the world, from you, to your steering wheel, to the tree on the street, to the mug on my desk, is made up of the same stuff - energy. I'm not much of a scientist, so I won't comment on the oddness of this "fact". He said that there are laws of attraction such that if you focus on the negative, you will attract negative energies. For example, if on your report card you saw 7 A's and 1 D, and you lamented, "Why oh why hast thou bestowed upon me a D", you would only attract further bad marks on your next report card. Whereas, if you focused on the A's and thought about how you could get more A's, you would then attract more A's. He also said that this applies to people too, you will only attract negative people if you are filled with negative energy.

You probably won't be surprised when I tell you that many of the speakers for the upcoming seminar wrote such books as "Chicken Soup for the ___'s Soul" and have job titles like "Life Coach".

I can't think of a more ridiculous explanation for the bad things that happen in life than this. Negative energy? You must be kidding me. It's an odd world where we reach out to these "spiritual" explanations rather than reaching for the Creator of all things.

Weekend ramblings

Judging by my sitemeter stats, I'm not the only one who heard "under my arm Beretta" in Rihanna's new song. I feel slightly vindicated!

It's the long weekend and I'm kind of bored. Went for dim sum today with my mom and the hubby... yummy. Then we went shopping, but didn't buy anything... which is probably typical. It would be nice to have somewhere to go, but then again, we don't have money to be throwing away on vacations. Every once in a while, an unexpected house expense will turn up that probably has priority over vacation money.

You know, before I moved out, I had a vague idea of house expenses but having to actually pay them certainly made that idea more specific. For example, I didn't really realize that you have to pay the city for your water, your sewers, and your right to leave garbage on your curb. I mean in my mind, I just thought this was all wrapped up in property taxes. But it is not. And property taxes! The city does nothing to help increase the value of our house, yet they continue to charge us more every year. The city does seem happy to decrease the value of our house. Case in point - the builders needed access to some water main or whatever that is under our lawn, so the city dug up our lawn. Instead of laying sod, they just sprinkled grass seed willy-nilly and told us that it will all grow back. We now have an ugly, patchy green-brown lawn despite frequent watering. Plus, our gardener has to mow around it. I'm not sure that the city is permitted to just dig up your property without bringing it back to its pre-digging state. But I am too lazy to look into all of the by-laws and such. Stupid city :(

I'll hug an entire forest if I have to

On the weekend, we took a rather big step in our lives ... we became environmentalists. Nope, that's not accurate. Actually, we took a tiny step toward environmentalism. Hubs sold his beloved Jeep, the one he has had since before meeting me, his first new, not-a-beater car. Alas, the fuel prices these days are beyond ridiculous and it was time for a change. It was truly the end of an era, saying goodbye to the Jeep that has been in both our lives for so long (although - obviously it meant more to him than to me, I can't even drive standard) I mean - how will we get up a snowy hill in the winter? How will I dry my hair in the summer if I can't take the top down? How will we confuse gas station attendants without a key to the gas tank?

Well, as it turns out, another car is just around the corner for us. We're gonna be getting a hybrid! I'm soooooo excited. I'll probably drive it once or twice a week which will definitely reduce my visits to Petro-Canada, far too frequent these days.

This reminds me of a funny story. Recently we were at Petro-Canada at one of the full-serve stations. The gas jockey stuck the nozzle into the gas tank and pressed the ... trigger? He then let go and just as he was about to walk away, the nozzle spat out of the gas tank, and gas sprayed everywhere, including on the gas jockey. Luckily he caught it before it continued to spray and I wondered if we would get charged for that extra gas. (We did.) (It wasn't that much.) The best part is that the guy came up to the window and said to hubby, "Sorry...for... some gas." My gosh - we were killing ourselves laughing. Good response to spraying gas. Sorry for some gas!!

Working for the weekend ... I mean on the weekend

It's disheartening to be working on a day where I would normally be relaxing and yes, possibly even taking a nap. Alas, such is the fate of a lackey like me. I had to buy myself a coffee and some food to keep myself awake and alert... so I headed over to Starbucks for a chocolate croissant, only to find that they didn't have any. I chose a marble coffee cake instead, which advertises itself as Reduced-Fat. I do like the regular coffee cake at Starbucks but I have always found it a smidge on the large side. (By the way - it wasn't until I was out of high school that I realized "coffee cake" doesn't have coffee in it.) Anyway this reduced fat version is good and all, but as I peered at it through the case, I realized that it is half the size of the regular coffee cake. And fat content? You guessed it - about half. Is that what we are calling reduced fat now, just serving a smaller portion (and charging about the same as the full size cake)... Are we so easily deceived nowadays? (Please note - I would have bought the regular cake but they didn't have that either.) (My Starbucks lacks.)

Let's hope I can get out of here soon. So stressed!

Misheard song lyrics

There's a new song out by Jay-Z and Rihanna ... I have to admit that I really enjoy "Pon de Replay", Rihanna's first big hit, but since then I have quickly tired of her music and her fivehead. The new song is called Umbrella but when I first heard it, I thought she was saying:

"You can stand under my arm Beretta, etta, etta, eh, eh, eh" - as opposed to what she is really saying: "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh" ...

I think my version is better. I'm not sure what an arm Beretta is, but when I misheard the song, I actually envisioned an underarm Beretta. Dangerous AND sweaty.

Short post, just wanted to thank everyone for caring for me and praying! No relief in sight yet. Must bear down and concentrate.

Me, myself, and I

Ever since getting back from Easter weekend, work has been quite sucky. There is much to be said about work, but a blog is probably not the best place. It doesn't bode well for me that I've had such a terrible temper lately, little things just get to me and I feel like exploding. I haven't yet, although I have expressed a ton of frustration. I'd appreciate some prayer.

I feel like I don't have much to say right now, and I think it's because work seems to suck the life out of me. One day I thought reading might cheer me up, so I borrowed a couple of books from the library. The first book, "Happiness Sold Separately" just depressed me further. It's about a couple who have infertility problems and turn away from each other - the husband has an affair, the wife withdraws into herself. There's much more to the book, but I dunno, it didn't stick with me as a great book and instead, made me feel sad. I have a second book to read, so I suppose I'll post when I've finished that.

Hmm.

I told you so

Yesterday during my daily Wii play, I achieved a gold medal in Bowling: Power Throws. You may think I'm a bit of a nerd for even mentioning my video game prowess, but I don't really care what you think right now because I GOT A GOLD MEDAL. Granted, I was aided by a little tip regarding the last stage of Power Throws, but anyway, yay me!

The Wii has been a great source of joy lately when I have been feeling super stressed ... it's nice to be able to smash punching bags to dust, and bowl over 200, and play a good game of tennis, even if all this is only virtual. I won't go into details, but work has been swamping me lately and I can't help but feel overwhelmed and more than a little stupid as well. I could really use a vacation, except that I just returned from one. Sure would be nice if life were a series of vacations interrupted by brief periods of work, rather than the opposite.

It's still my party

It's my birthday again and I am approaching the age at which I don't feel like telling people how old I am for fear that they will say "Wow, I thought you were MUCH older", which would be offensive, or "Wow, I thought you were younger than that", which would make me feel unaccomplished.

So far, an excellent birthday. Hubby sent me two dozen of my favourite roses (some things never change) and yesterday we went to the Canucks game, where in a game I thought would never end, we won. (I guess that is a little different from last year.) Ah, nothing beats Canuck playoff atmosphere. There was a tailgate party outside where free hot dogs were being given out as well as samples of some weird energy drink. We had already eaten so I didn't partake in the hot dog affair. I really regretted this in or around the second overtime, when the food stands were all closed and my hunger rushed back. By the third overtime, people near me with obviously superior energy levels and possibly fuller tummies were still chanting "M-V-P" at Luongo... while my chant was "I wanna go! I wanna eat!"

In any event, towels were waved, voices were lost, and we won the game just after it was officially my birthday. Both Trevor and I can celebrate our birthdays properly now.

I don't have much to reflect on or anything this year. It's been three years since we were engaged, so that means we are almost at our two year anniversary. Life is good. I can't complain. The hubby cooks for me and really, can one ask for more than that? I think not. Work is going well except that sometimes I hate my job. But I don't really. It's just that I hate having to think so hard ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY. Heh.

Praise God for the many blessings he has given me!

Booooo...

Well the whirlwind trip to SF is over and my brother seems to be settling in well. Lots of creature comforts at his place... too bad he can't cook at his computer desk, then he'd be set, wouldn't even have to move! Heh.

There were many lineups this weekend and my patience was sorely tested in each one. My mom and I waited at the post office for at least a half hour when it should have taken about 2 minutes. I mean, I know the USPS isn't known for fabulous customer service, but really, let's move things along. There was an angry jerk at the front of the line and another lady who apparently needed to make use of every single service that USPS offers. Very nice.

Today at the airport we had to use this "easy check in" process that United offers forces you to use. Basically you check yourself in and then the counter agent is supposed to give you the luggage tags. We had some trouble using the "easy" process, so we had to ask for help. The agent was of little to no use. I could have sat behind the counter and offered the same level of "assistance". (I'm reminded of the Friends episode where Joey couldn't use air quotes correctly.) (Yes I DID just watch that episode, thanks for asking!) Eventually she stopped yakking on the phone long enough to get up and give us our luggage tags. Hmm. Now that I think about it I don't think she got up. I think I have seen a snail move faster than her. It's kind of upsetting that United actually pays people to sit on their butts all day doing nothing. Oh, and the flight attendant snapped at someone who had to go to the bathroom on the plane. Should he just have peed on the floor then? Please.

In the "security" lineup (quotes again!) we got told off by one employee for not pushing our items through the conveyor before stepping through the metal detector.... meanwhile the other employee kept motioning us to come through the metal detector before we had pushed our stuff through. Grr. I would like to see some stats as to whether all these new security measures have really prevented terrorist activity. It's irritating that we have to go through a zillion lineups, but I would accept it if it was proven to help. I am not reassured though, knowing that airport security staff don't go through much security themselves.

Twice during the weekend, I said to the hubby, "Is that person a man or a woman?" It's unusual that I say that more than once in a short span of time. The second wo/man was the car rental agent. S/he was supremely unhelpful. Is it just an American thing or what? S/he sent us up two levels, where we were told by the second car rental agent that the first one had no idea what s/he was talking about and was totally wrong to send us back upstairs. Kind of funny, but an inefficient way to run the company, having employees talk about each other behind their backs.

When we got our luggage, we kept wondering what that odd smell was in the air. Had someone baked some sourdough bread? Spilled some soy sauce all over the city? It seemed to follow us too... we couldn't get away! Well, when we got home, we found out, that odd smell WAS us! And it was because some idiot must have brought home soy sauce and it spilled all over their luggage, and it got into ours (but luckily not in our clothing.) Who puts a bottle of soy sauce in their luggage anyway - that stuff is cheap, just buy it at home!!

Yay! I'm done ranting :D

It was a great trip. I just like to harp on the little things.

Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind...

Greetings beloved readers... I'm comin' at ya from waaay down in San Fran! We're here visiting my brother. It's only been one full day but a busy one it has been. We have helped my brother furnish his place, and let us hope he never has to move again! I hate lifting stuff!

The new GPS is faboo. We have been zipping around town like nobody's business alternating between Shrill, I mean Jill, the American voice, and Karen, the Australian voice. We gave Emily, the British voice, a roll, but she was just okay. You can't drive mindlessly though, sometimes it doesn't give you much warning to make a turn, depending on how wide the intersection is. Also, some words are a little garbled.... or mixed up. But overall, a very fun unit. I'm looking forward to not driving aimlessly looking for specific addresses in Maple Ridge, for example.

Today we ate at Ohana, a Hawaiian BBQ place. I believe it is a chain restaurant but really, it's quite good value and pretty good eats too. It's the epitome of fast food. Even when you eat in, you get a styrofoam container. No need to ask for a container to pack up your leftovers, since it comes in its own takeout container... and leftovers there will be since they feed you huge portions. I had BBQ pork - yum.

We also passed by the famous "Mr. Chau's" and the also-famous "Pho to Chau". We didn't stop at either one.... but we did laugh.

I must say, what is with the skanky dressing people seem to enjoy these days. This one girl wore short shorts to the BBQ place and then complained that she was cold. You're kidding! Shorts that don't cover your legs at all and you are cold? Ridiculous! Super tiny t-shirt not producing warmth? How odd!

Church doesn't start at 9 here.... it starts at 9:45. But my brother says everyone is always 15 minutes late. Kinda weird....ly familiar :D

Fashion Police

I'm watching House Hunters right now. There's a 30-something mom on the show... nice lady... but horrible fashion sense. Capris in an orange, lime green, and black print should be outlawed. I'm no fashionista, but whoever thought capris were a good idea for the general public must have lost his/her mind. Capris are hideous! On skinny people they are tolerable, although they maintain a bit of a "My pants are just a smidge too short" look. On people like me, not so skinny, capri pants are just awful. They're often tapered, and then they leave off at the fattest part of one's calf, as if to say "Look! The leg I do not fully cover is apparently HUGE and I bet you can't take your eyes off it."

Fashion trends just confuse me.

Bowling Alley Star

In real life, I am a terrible bowler. Terrible. I don't think I've ever bowled 100 .. usually I only bowl around a 60 or so. It's horribly embarrassing.

But in Wii life, I am an excellent bowler! Yesterday AND today I managed to bowl amazingly in the "bowl around these oddly placed barriers" challenge. Ahh, the Wii has revolutionized my bowling ability. I only wish I could showcase these skills for the real world.

By far my favourite part of the Wii is making Miis! Man, talk about good times. I wish everyone's Mii could be as awesome as Junior's, it looks EXACTLY like her. Kind of scary actually.

Not much other news, except that soon I will be slightly less directionally challenged, with the help of my new GPS! I got a great deal from Amazon and the super fast shipping means it's already waiting for me in California. Next weekend we'll be heading down to visit my brother. I was trying to find out whether one can visit the Googleplex for some kind of tour ... but ironically I cannot seem to find such information using Google. What am I doing wrong!?

LOL .. attempt #2

One of my teens sent this to me and I swear I laughed for an hour straight. It's awesome! You must watch.

Lost in Translation?

(Hubby says that was one of the worst movies he ever saw! Correction: he doesn't admit to having seen it at all.)

Two songs for y'all ... one is an English translation of a Spanish song, one is a Spanish translation of an English song. We'll be sharing these in Missions Hour this Sunday. Yay! Who wants to guess the name of the song that has been translated into Spanish? I'll be giving out e-props as a prize! (And you can't guess if you are from Chile!)

1. Siempre que me muevo es en Ti

Siempre que me muevo es en Ti
Junto a Ti Cristo
Siempre que respiro es en Ti
Siempre cada paso es en Ti
Tu eres mi camino
Siempre que respiro es en Ti

Oh Tu gracia y Tu bondad
Miro alrededor Tu estas alli
Tu amor me capturo
Oh gran Dios de amor
No entiendo aun

2. The YoYo Song

I don’t want to be a yo-yo
A yo-yo
A yo-yo
I don’t want to be a yo-yo
A yo-yo
A yo-yo

‘Cause it’s sometimes up
It’s sometimes down
It’s on its side
Or spinning around

I want to be like an arrow
Walking down God’s narrow path
I’ll keep my eyes on Jesus
And I will never look back

Yesterday I was watching Friends and I have a few choice phrases to share. If you don't watch Friends, what is the matter with you? It's sooo funny.

I LOVE JACQUES COUSTEAU! I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO PUT BEEF IN THE TRIFLE!
It tastes like feet!
Ross married Rachel in Vegas and got divorced! AGAIN!
What's not to like? Cream? Good. Custard? Good. Meat? Gooooood.
Hurricane Gloria didn't break the porch swing, Monica did!

Ok yes, those are all from the same show. But it was a good one.

Squeah - Place of Refuge

Just got back from our youth group retreat and it was excellent. But before I go into that, I wanted to tell you all that I'm currently watching CBC's Test the Nation (the first nationwide IQ test!) I took the test online already so I am only watching for entertainment. So far I have learned that CBC has some serious technical issues that one would hope they would have fixed.... I mean .. if you're going to show a video and ask questions, you should really make sure that the video doesn't pixellate and stall. Anyway, let's talk about the test later. (Edit: It's not Sunday any more.... so this post is a bit outdated.)

The theme of the retreat was "Got Purpose?" and our theme verse was 1 Corinthians 10:31.... "So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." This weekend, I was also mulling over Tree's recent post where she referred to the blog about debunking Christianity.... I did go and visit the site, but didn't really study it for long - kind of found it a bit hard to navigate, actually, but that might just be me. I do think it's sad that someone who once preached about God could turn so against God.... and that he would feel that Christianity actually prevents one from living a full life, contrary to how Jesus said that he had come to give us life, that we could have it to the full.

I think this is a question many people, perhaps (to generalize) often teenagers, struggle with. Does Christianity impose limitations on the life we can lead, or does it instead offer a fuller life? The answer seems to depend on your perspective. Consider the worldly perspective - the me first, take care of number one attitude. From this viewpoint, any "lifestyle changes" would seem like limitations. But from the other perspective, where life is lived in community with others and with God, those lifestyle changes that we make are beneficial to ourselves and others. I think Tree touched on this in her post. The bottom line is that God does offer us an abundant life. Maybe sometimes we don't know how to receive it, or how to live it to the fullest. Maybe we fall back into the worldly view sometimes. Maybe we just don't really understand what Jesus meant about having life to the full.

Sometimes I think our problem is shortsightedness... and a little selfishness too. But in my view, God's promises include a joy that reaches deep into our hearts, and peace that lasts even through troubling times ... the "debunkers" seem not to have really experienced this. They talk about judgmental Christians, the "myth" of tithing equals more providence from God, one post I browsed through talked about how the author had come to faith through his own fear in the devil and relief that Christianity offered protection. But have these folks experienced the relational God?

I'm just musing through many thoughts right now, thinking of how to help our teens grow closer to Christ, fearing that some of them will one day turn into debunkers. May God help me to live a life that models after Christ. It's certainly not an easy path, but it is rewarding.

Sometimes, isn't a little punishment good for the soul?

Ah, morning radio. It's like the pesky friend you sometimes like, but more often find just slightly too annoying to pay full attention to. This morning, the topic (extended from Friday) was from a book written by a mother of five, regarding how to discipline your children without punishments. Please bear in mind that I haven't read this book, nor do I plan to, since the non-existent children I have are pretty well-behaved... usually. It won't stop me from commenting, though.

I didn't get to hear the whole segment, traffic being light today so that I arrived at work earlier than expected, but I gather the point she was making was that you don't need to punish your kids in order to resolve a problem. For example, if her teenager broke curfew by coming home at 3 AM, she would not do something like take away the cell phone for a week, or ground the kid. (What she WOULD do - I'm not sure - since she just said some vague nonsense about how there should be a positive solution.) (Here's where reading the book would make this post a bit more on point eh.) Someone asked, aren't there negative consequences in the real world when you do something wrong, and aren't you just teaching your kids that there are no negative consequences... her response was that yes, the real world has negative consequences, but as a parent you have a vested interest in how your kids turn out, and you should be the one to work positively with them.

I suppose her argument has some merit... after all, some forms of punishment are probably a bit harsh. I'm sure every parent out there has flown into a rage at some point in time. But try as I might, I could not envision what positive reaction I might be able to have to my kid doing something wrong. Let's say, for example, that I had a toddler who, despite my warnings not to throw that ball in the house, threw a ball into the TV. Clearly the answer isn't necessarily a spanking, but would it be wrong of me to remove the ball? Or to have the child apologize and sit in a time-out? I just can't think what "positive" thing I could do. Apparently one suggestion this author has is to have a "time-in" - you basically spend that few minutes teaching your child how to calm down, rub his or her back, give a hug, let him/her bang out frustrations on a toy drum, etc.

Frankly, I find this absurd. I can subscribe to the Nanny 911 or Supernanny form of time-out (the kid gets a few minutes to sit alone, and then the parent sits down to explain what said child did wrong), but it seems weird to immediately dole out the backrubs and hugs and positivity.... never mind the mixed message involved in banging on a toy drum to let out anger (if a drum is okay, why wouldn't younger sibling's head also suffice?) I understand how one must work on the root of the problem and teach problem-solving as opposed to fits of anger, but when a fit of anger occurs, is that really the time to dig into what the root of the problem is? Or is that the time to say "Go to your room NOW and don't you dare give me that look if you want to get out of your room before you're 30."

I'm clearly going to be a harsh parent one day. Have some pity for my future kids.

Another weekend goes by

I'm not sure why I haven't posted much lately... sometimes I have something I want to say, and then it slips out of my head before I get around to posting. Sometimes I just have nothing to say.

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good. We went to a seminar on Saturday about how to help teens who are struggling and hurting ... it was fairly eye-opening. Too bad we had to give up sleeping in to go... I LOVE sleeping in on a Saturday, as it is the only day available to enjoy that luxury. (Don't bother reminding me that if I have kids, I won't ever get to sleep in ... I plan to develop a healthy sleeping-in habit in my kids.) Today, we had church, did some shopping with my mom, and then headed to the Canucks game-watching affair... let's just not discuss it.

I read a blog recently where the person was discussing married life. I think this person has been married for about the same amount of time as hubby and I. She mentioned how people frequently inquire as to how married life is, and she gives a standard response about how it's great on some days, and yet there are some days where you just bury yourself in your room, cry and cry and wonder why you married the person you did. I chuckled when I read this, but then I realized she wasn't joking.

Doesn't it seem a bit dramatic to you.... having days that are so bad, you actually sob about why you married that person? Obviously, married life (and life in general) has its ups and downs, but I can't say I've ever felt quite that sad or upset. Hubs and I are kind of opposite in terms of who we are, what we like, etc, and at the same time we are both rather stubborn, competitive, and unwilling to compromise or lose. You can see how conflicts may arise. Most of the time we resolve our conflicts pretty quickly. I can't imagine how awful it would be to feel so down in the dumps as to have to wonder why I married him.

But perhaps for some people, drama is just a normal thing.

Must go - the laundry is calling and it refuses to just leave a message on the answering machine. Demanding fool.