Life before and after Guatemala

Well since my grandmothers wedding in October- which i'm sorry to say that i'm HORRIBLE at writing on this- it was Nata who has encouraged me to update my blog... and i have still procrastinated about a month... so since then- Christmas happened we had the whole family together- which was AWESOME! it's the first time in a little while that we were all together, and it was the first time with Christine added to our family:) then since January- we have been going through the Willow Creek Curriculum with the kids at church. It has been fantastic- they seem to really enjoy it- started to plan VBS for the kids, and this year seeing where i have no idea where God is calling and leading me in the next little while, we bumped it up so that we can guarantee that i will be apart of it- i woud like to be- even though it will be July 2-6 or so.

Well- I'm back from Guatemala and it was a fantastic time. going over seas for the first time really opens your eyes to experience and a totally different way of living. we built houses we had VBS for the kids in different places each week- we built relationships within our team of poeple, they were FANTASTIC. For a group of 18 people we all meshed really well together- i think it was the first time i just felt free to be myself. No one esle but jsut me. It was amazing.
The Culture down there- outside of Guatemala city is very traditional- they have held to their traditions- food, clothing, way of providing for themselves. It was really neat to experience the differences in the people. the fisrt thing people asked me when i got back was- what was th epoverty like down there. I can't say for certain that there is a clothing poverty. There is still much i woudl love to learn about Guatemala and how they live, but they all had clothes- holes and all. I'm not sure they had 3 meals a day- maybe only 1. Black beasn were a poor mans food- but they have it with alot of there meals- you can eat it with anything... ( it's gross.. ). the peopel are very plesant..
VBS- SOO FUN.. ok. it was even during our evening worship times that it was SOO FUN.. we did a dance with Ismael- who leads the VBS- awesome teacher.. keeps the kids atttention- very animated. anyway- taught us this dance called the Pollo- which means chicken..lol. it was the funniest game - and you let feelin grediculous.. but laughing... it was awesome! other then that0 it was fun to learn alot of the kids songs that we grew up with and learning songs in general that we know in spanish. it's a beautiful language- and always a little more difficult to learn a song that you know differently. the church service at the WEsleyan church in Guatemala was awesome to be apart of- the kids minsitry is hoppin' and the church services- thanks to the help of Tony- are contemporary- songs that we know. it's cool! i really enjoyed worshipping with them!
I also had the chance to meet my sponcer child- she is SOO BEAUTIFUL! wow.. it was a huge blessing to finally meet her. It definitly brings the letters more to life when you have the chance to speak with them and live a couple of hours with them.. it's never enough- but i plan on visiting again.
the scenery in Guatemala was fantastic! oh my word! it was so beautiful! we were surrounded by 3 volcano's and there were three not that far off from the lake area- we were at the base of the San pedro Volcano. the cities or towns in the area- there are 12 around the lake are all named after one of the Catholic Saints. Each year they would have a celebration- celebrating there saint.. what they do during those- i have no idea...
Since Guatemala- i have been looking for a job. Transition is taking place at Hillside and the new guy coming in would like to start off with a new staff.. which is understandable- and expected.. but it's still hard to say good bye to so many that you care about- and jsut start to get to know. it takes time to build relationships with people... god has a plan.. i'm just not sure what it is yet.
um, well other then that- i can't complain to much! i'm having fun catching up with poeple on face book and doing both my jobs. I hope this is a quick enough update to let you know what i'm up too...

pictures of the wedding

Arn't they a sweet couple! :)

My Grandmothers Wedding

Well, my grandmother got married on October 7, 2006 to a really nice man named Neil Tupper. He has a daughter that's my age... if not a bit younger... she would be my step aunt... how weird is that? But he has 12 children... and now i have a bunch of new step Cousins. Really nice people. unfortunately living up this way i won't be able to get to know them very well. But i did get to meet Aaron and Sarah Tupper, they are sweet ( brother and sister). So it was nice to connect with a couple of my new cousins.
My Grandmother has been giddy and totally Smitten since Neil proposed... ok.. since they started dating. It's been one of those things where when we would see grammy, we would tease her about Neil jsut to get the giggle out of her. It has been the sweetest thing i have seen. The wedding was great! it was so cute to see them kiss. There's jsut something about older people kissing- and in love. ( my grammy lost her husband a few years ago to a stroke, but they made it to their 50th wedding anniversary- awesome mildstone.)

However, Kyle and i had the privledge to sing at their wedding. It's always an honor to sing at someones wedding and to share that special day with them. There's just something about it.

The reception dinner... and dance. That was great! make the best out of everything. It was a blue grass band... now i know that there are die hards about blue grass- country... but it's impossible to dance too... so i thought..lol. I had a few lessons on the fox trot and tripple drive ( from my dad) that made the evening really fun... and entertaining. Otherwise, Kyle and i were just goofing off. Dancing with Rebecca.. or doing the chicken dance. But, the band that was there was a pretty popular band, Neil just happened to be friends with them- cool!

A few more pictures

Andy's wedding- it was really nice! and they are a SWEET couple!

The picture above is of VBS this year "Survivor Canada- The Arctic Adventure!" It was Alot of fun, can't wiat until next year! And this picture is of Bryan and I.

Just pictures from the blog below

This is the preschool room "Sonshine Park" This is the before and during changes of the room! It looks awesome! I will have the finised basement pictures later!

Jer, Carl, Nata and I at Jer's Ordination! Congratulations Jer! Now we have Jeremiah and Sarah's wedding to celebrate and Carl and Maya's wedding to celebrate in October! Congratulations again my friends!

Jason and Christine's Wedding. It was fabulous!

Pictures of a few of my friends from Michigan... :) miss you all!

Update from the last few months...

Well, life in my world is always grand! There has been so much that has happened, and i'm just plain horible at updating my Blog, so for those of you who actually read this, i hope you enjoy my update and pictures. Ok, from graduation, May and June i spent alot of time working at Fabricville as well as getting the process ready for the basement in the church. for those of you who don't know, the church gave me a decent sized amount of money to totally redo the basement. Our final kick off for that is October 22. Which is SUPER exciting. not ot get ahead of myself. But i have been working with a few other peopel to get the renovation set and in place. In May i had a meeting with Rod Wasson and his wife Tony( Moncton Wesleyan children's pastor) to go over some ideas as far as what we would like to have done. It was a great time and we got so much completed in a day. Thanks so much to them for coming! So from there, all the details had to get completed, and as workers go, we have to wait for the right supplies to come in, but they have been doing an excellent Job with our basement! new paint, murals on the walls, new ceiling, a ventilation system in place.. new tables and chairs. The basement is looking liek a children's ministry center! It's AWESOME!

So from June, into July i was at Beulah! woop woop! best place to be....or at Caton's. BUT, It was an exciting time, i loved being able to see so many familiar faces. Dartmouth.. it can be very lonely here.. i don't have many friends that i can really jsut go and hang out with. something i can deal with i guess. i have been for the last 8 months. However, God is good and He provides in time. I have my precious little bunny who keeps me company... he's so cute!

So, Beulah, it was great to see Jer Ordained! Congrats to you Jer! that was the highlight of my week, as well as seeing so many faces that i dind't think i would get to see. Three months from graduation was alot of time! i'm glad alot of us keep in touch on msn.

AND, my brother, for those of you who know, Jason's MARRIED! he got married July 22, in Holland Michigan, to a wonderful young lady named Christine Reidsma, who is now my sister! YEY! It's great having a sister when you have never really had one. She is a beautiful young lady whom i adore! I'm so glad she is now a Blaikie! The wedding was beautiful! Christine and Jason, made everyone cry. I love it the most when they said their vows... you jsut knew they meant it... with ALL their hearts. It was really touching. Kyle and i had the priveledge of singing in the wedding. Bebo Norman "a Page is Turned" great song... it had a great story to it. Wow. It was a memorable day!

It was also very fortunate for me, that i was able to be 30 minutes from where i did my internship, so i had the priveledge of seeing all my friends again! I miss you guys so much! It's hard being so far away from so many people. BUT, it was great to see them again, and show my parents around where i was living for 6 months, a place i learned to love very much!

August 12, Andy's wedding. Kyle and I sang in that wedding as well! It was very memoriable, it was sweet! Andy and Sandra make a really sweet couple! It was so fun to see Andy get married. God really had his hand on thier lives when He put those two together! they are a great balance together! and they take great looking pictures together! Much love and success to the Scott family!

August, still renovations going, but we had VBS- it was AWESOME! It was the first one that i was in co-leading with, but it was GREAT! Chrissy and Kathi did an amazing job also! The kids had fun, they learned about the Bible... by thte end of the week... we had 209 different kids i believe. about 125 different families, which is awesome! we had about 250 poeple in service fo rthe Sunday finale event... in which case, becuase we did a survivor theme... i had to eat a sucker with a cricket in it... specially brought over from NFLD... ok.. it was very crunchy.. and i finally bit into it the end of the service, jsut before everyone went for the BBQ. It was good times. It wasn't half bad after i ate some of it.. the orange sucher part tasted worse. It was soo much fun! i would do it again.. NEXT YEAR! It's funny how we can have so many different complications, and issues that occure, but God still takes all of our weaknesses.. as well as our strengths and makes something amazing out of it. " I Love it"

August 26, had a Blaikie Family reunion, in celebration of my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary! It wa SOOO fun, neat to meet a whole bunch of relatives that i have never seen in my life. kind of scary when that happens. But it was an experience. My uncle had a gator- 4 wheel tractor that we went up into the apple orchards in and pick apples. who knew that we could have so much fun in an apple orchard and sitting on the back of a gator. It was great! so many memeories and stories... and man.. do you ever get tanned once you come off those things... ok.. maybe it was dirt...

Long weekend in September, Jess and Anita came down to visit.
It was great! it was again so nice to have friends down this way! it has been so long, i loved having you ladies there! come again soon! we should try the pirate cruse again... and get the entertainment rolling.. and Jack Astors...there's just something about that place!

And up until now. My Grandmother Foster is engaged and to be married October 7, to Mr. Neil... i don't even know his last name...but it's the same day as Jer and Sarah's. torn between two.. not so fun... But the ring on grammy's finger is SOO beautiful! on my gosh... he was a good picker-outter! and he seems like a really nice man. My grandfather had passed away very young about 3 years ago.

Up to date, last weekend we had our kids kick off with the curriculum, which... is very exciting! I can't wait to see what God has in store for the kids this year! the renovations is only one thing, but to have a goal of about 75 kids downstairs will be awesome and then hopfully more as years progress.

For those of you who don't know.. which are alot of you, I'm dating a very nice young man named Bryan Wiens. "Tall, dark and handsome" just what my grandmother Blaikie suggested. He's a wonderful man of God, he helps out here at the church on the board level as well as with the youth group. He has his masters in Business and Communications; works with Aliant mobility.. wireless department. GREAT guy, like him lots. Has a very adventureous spirit to him.. definitly pulls me out of my comfort zone... which is a good thing.. and he can tolerate my family... i know they are so hard to get along with... there all Nuts. (smile)

So that's my life update up until now. At least those are the major events that have happened... and will be to come. There is sooo much to do.. and not enough time in the day to get it all done.
Enjoy your fall!
And for some reason.. this thing isn't letting me put pictures on... sorry.. i will try again later!

Graduation!

Well, i realize that it's been a month and a half since i graduated, but I figured i would blog about it anyway seeing as i haven't updated in more than 4 months maybe. I'm really getting horrible at this. Well. Graduation was AMAZING, it was so great to see everyone. For me it felt more like a reunion becuase basically my class came back for graduation having been away for a year. But it was soo nice! And it was great to have shared the platform with Jason- even though he rubs in the fact that he graduated before i did. I'll beat him up for it later! he seems to be doing everything first these days.
Life at Hillside is ALWAYS keeping me on my toes! The kids are great! And we are getting ready for some MAJOR renovation to the basement- it needs it. And we are getting ready to start our summer curriculum. Very exciting.
Well, i don't have a whole lot to say, i jsut know that Graduation was awesome! and that i have 2 amazing places to work and learn people skills and be outgoing.
Oh, for those of you that don't know- it's always one of those akward questions to ask or answer- but Kelvin and i are no longer together- we decided to be friends. I think for the time being it's the best decision for the voth of us seeing as we are so far away and going in separate directions in life. But things are good between us, which is a HUGE blessing.
So that's my update short story- not to interesting . Canandian Idol i think was better! But, figured i would put up at least a picture of Jason and I! We Are DONE!- No more school- no more school!

We're Famous!!!

Hey Everybody! Here is a picture of Kyle and I on Canadian Idol last night. It was from our audition. Proof! We did it!-
AND We made it on TV! How cool is that?? We really thought that they would have put in the part when we first walked in, and Zach sang "If your happy and you know it, clap your hands" Kyle and i clapped our hands- it was funny.

Yes, we did sing " A Whole New World" But we had so much fun doing it! Maybe we'll try again next year! Who knows- it's not all that bad.

That's the fun scoop! We at least tried it!

Canadian Idol

Well, My brother and I tried out for Canadian Idol. However, it was a good experience. We made it past the two preliminary rounds which was awesome. The first time was on our own, adn then the second was becuase they wanted somthing to laugh at... they put us in together to sing a duet. Yea... we haven't sung together in a year.. it was rough.. But we were a gag.. we knew it going in. HOWEVER... part of this whole Canadian Idol process.. which i jsut happened to clue in to.. this whole intuition thing.. so i was paying a little closer attention at the Tv side of things. the judges, bascially in the Celebrity round go by what the producers say in the two preliminary rounds. You have the executive for the first and the Producers for the second.. sooo.. i botched up my second audition, and from conversations that we had... it was repeated on the air, which, they wouldn't have known had they been in the audition room with me. So.. it's a little pre- determined as to who get's a gold ticket or not. But it was still a good experience non the less. I enjoyed the whole ride. So for those of you who are trying out.. your first two rounds are a REAL BIG kicker! It's TV right, they have to do what sells... and if that means doing a great job or passing people through becuase they can't.. well.. the show must go on! BUT.. they were all super nice! They weren't hard on us at all. Maybe becuase when Zach starting singing if you happy and you know it.. my brother and i clapped with him..lol.. which made him realize how silly we were.. but we sang a duet.. which wasn't the best.. i missed a key change.. they tried to get my brother to insult me.. just to make it more interesting.. but.. ya know.. we jsut had fun.. even if they make fun of us..lol. again, as part of mine being pre determined ( which i'm sure the judges can change some of the decisions).. they reemphazised what one of the producers had to say.... BUT.. nice thing they said...i had a very nice tone, nice voice, but i sounded like the girl next door.. no one out of the ordinary ( nothing i didn't already know) So, with a happy face, i just kept on smiling and taking their criticism.. which was totally cool, because i agreed with them... i know.. some of you are thinking..don't think like that.. it's not positive... yea yea.. i know... but let's talk realistically..lol... i'm not pop star material..lol. You have to have the heart for it to really get what you want.. and it's not what i have to offer.. it's never been a dream of mine to be a stage singer. HOWEVER..Zach liked my brother, they gave him a potential yes.. which wasn't enough when you have 4 judges unlike American Idol.. but none the less it was a great experience... Everyone encourage Kyle to try again next year. I relaly think he has it to do this event!
So.. that's my story.. sorry it isn't all that fun, but.. the best part.. was getting to know other Artists adn vocalsist in the area. They were soo much fun, and everyone was soo supportive. They had Great support Staff, great people working for them. Honestly it was awesome to be apart of it and see how things work from behind the scenes... it's what you don't see on Tv. It's really cool.
I think the best part.. is that i did something that was TOTALLY out of my character to do. I went for something that i would have only dreamt to try, and i did it. I feel soo good about trying for something that i didn't realize that i could push myself to do. It's a great feeling knowing that i at least tried... i failed.. but that doens't mean i have to stop there. It's a learning process.. which is why i went for it. I never thought i could do it. When you in with the judges.. my nerves were gone..like.. i didn't notice the producers or anything off to the side.. we jsut.. were ourselves... and they did what they were suppose to do. It was cool.
So that's my nonsense ramble of Canadian Idol! Have fun watching it if you do!