Announcing...

The birth...
of a new blog!
My new blog! =)
So technically, it is also the death of this blog. I find this a bit sad, but waaaaaay more exciting, because I love my new blog. In a completely different way than I love this one. This one was an excellent place to grow up... but the new blog? It is going to be an excellent place to be grown up. (Cause I'm so close to 19, everybody.) I don't actually feel grown up yet... I feel very far from it, to be honest. I have been thinking about starting a new blog for months now... one where I post regularly, where I put more thought into my posts, and where I write "professionally" (meaning that all the capital letters and periods are there, and I do not use lol. I have a real problem with wanting to use lol. Thank you, hours and hours of emailing, for that. ;)). Although my goal is to be a better blogger, I am positive that I will still have the same writing voice, because that is the voice that is inside me, and a new blog cannot change that. Translation: I am still random. =) Random Mondays will happen, but they might happen on a more regular basis. In fact, you might start picking up on a pattern in my blogging.
The new blog is going to be better... I promise!
There is nothing there yet... it is completely blank, except for my picture and profile on the side, and the title and verse at the top, and a picture of my writing. I am planning on publishing my first post there on Thursday, which just happens to be Valentine's Day! That makes it so fitting that my first post is going to be all about love.
Yup.
I planned that.... the post about love happening on Valentine's Day.
Where can you find this new blog?
Right here: http://allthatmatters27.wordpress.com/
Rest in peace, Sweet Nothings. 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Today just felt like a snow day. 

Right from the moment I got up, it just felt like that sort of day. Actually, to be completely honest, when I woke up, there was some confusion as to what kind of day it really was. This was because I accidentally fell asleep soon after supper last night (I think it was soon after seven that I drifted off...) and I proceeded to sleep veryvery soundly for the next seven hours. I woke up at two. (Insert moment of heart-stopping panic in here- I was sure that I had overslept and was late for work.) I was so relieved when I checked my phone and realized that I could sleep for another two hours yet. So I got all the way into bed, and slept until four. 

Sarah and I walked to work together, and it was already pretty snowy then. It was a nice walk though... I like walking with Sarah, cause Sarah is everything good and nice and sweet, and we always have interesting conversations that can be about things like our feelings on jury duty to her boyfriend to how my neighbour's dog is planning to eat me some day. 

So anyways... we tromped through the snow and were quite relieved when we got to work, cause it was kinda windy and snowy. Florence decided it wasn't worth hitching up her horse and coming through the storm, since Fridays in the winter at Hillcrest are usually not more than 8 hour days anyways. So Earla was back there with us today taking her place. And Amber was gone, because she took two weeks off work, because her husband has two weeks off work. As Florence put it.... "She married him, so she might as well be with him." So we were short one worker to begin with, and then Sarah left to go to a funeral, and it was just me and Earla back in the kitchen. And I realized that I am no longer afraid of Earla. And that I haven't been for awhile now. Earla and I can have nice conversations, and I can ask her questions, and we can laugh... it is a generally pleasant relationship, I would say. And today, she let me make the long john cream! Normally Florence does that... but she wasn't there, and someone had to do it... and I was the only one, I guess. =) But I must say... I felt very important as scooped out the 8 (heaping) cups of margarine. And corn starch? That is funny stuff, ya'll. And I inhaled a whole lot of icing sugar. Now I understand why Florence is always so happy and funny. It's because of all the icing sugar she breaths in while mixing the cream. 

So I got done, and looked out the window and saw this: 

and decided that I could totally handle walking home in that. After all, I walked through snow and wind to get there in the morning, so I could most certainly do it on the way home, right? (yes, that is a buggy shed. I do work at a very Mennonite store. And I love it. =))

This is poor Pansy's dog house. I don't think she was inside it. I hope she wasn't. Pansy is a great dog. Apparently, she is a biter. (I know... I was surprised too! But with a name like Pansy, I guess I should have figured it out.) But the thing is... me and Pansy love eachother, and she has never tried to bite me. Probably because this summer, I would stand and pet her and talk to her every single day before I left work. She has never been anything but gentle around me... I don't get why my neighbour's dog, Bruce, dislikes me so much. I just don't know what I did wrong. 

This is what the main street of Floradale looked like. It was at this point that I started doubting my decision to walk home. 

The sidewalk looked like this. And the other sidewalk looked like this:

So walking on them wasn't really an option. I just walked on the street.

I thought I would take a picture of myself to document this little adventure. 

I was going to smile! I really was! 

But my face was just too cold. And it was too windy! And there were too many snowflakes flying around. 

So I made this face instead. This is my "I don't know if I'm going to make it" face. If you ever see me making it, you must take me somewhere warm. Fast. 

And then I got to the hill. My house is all the way at the top of it. And it just looked like a big hill. It always does. But today, it looked bigger. 

This is the picture that I took when I turned around to walk backwards for awhile, because my neck and face were just too cold. Walking backwards is a perfectly acceptable thing to do in extreme weather conditions such as this. 

 So I had a tiny little niggling feeling inside me that my first self-portrait was not the most attractive one that has ever been taken. I decided it would be wise to take a second one, just to be on the safe side. And the above picture is what I ended up with. I can't decide if it is better or worse than the first one. All I know is... when my face is that cold, it apparently doesn't smile.

This is my dear, sweet, wonderful, cozy house! I was so excited to get there! First of all because I had a dozen donuts in my backpack, and it was two o'clock and I hadn't stopped to eat lunch at work. And second of all because my siblings had a snow day, and it's just fun to come home from work and see them. Also because I'm pretty sure that my face was close to being permanently stuck in that grimace forever, and for the sake of the world... I did not want that to happen. 

(Side note: How many donuts did I eat today? Three, okay? I ate three donuts in one day. I ate one for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for supper. I should at least get credit for spacing them evenly. I don't really have a problem with craving the food that make at Hillcrest, mainly cause we work with it so regularly that it kind of loses its appeal. But the donuts? They are an ongoing issue for me. I don't like donuts from anywhere else very much... but homemade donuts, right after they have been fried and glazed? There is almost nothing better. And I also had two cups of hot chocolate today. It was just that kind of day.)

My footprints in my driveway. 

Me, once I was warm and had blankets and hot chocolate and and my face was capable of making semi-normal expressions again. It was quite pleasant. Quite a lovely day, actually. Even without Amber and Florence. I was actually very disappointed that Florence couldn't make it, because our motto for the day was going to be "Think clean". But there will be another Friday for that, I am sure. ;) 

Anyways... I am going to go find some wonderful cozy way to entertain myself this evening, since our social was canceled, due to the snow. 

The snow is pretty, I tell you what.  

A Moment of Silence

Soooooo.....
Remember that time I said that Oscar's problem was mental, and not physical? And then I went on to say that he really just wanted to be a dolphin?
Well, I was wrong about that.
Cause Oscar?
He deeeeeaaaaaad.
It happened last Thursday evening, when I went to feed him. A dead fish is not a nice thing to have in your room. Dad so kindly took care of him for me. He didn't flush him though. I was a little disappointed about that. He just put him in the garbage in the garage. I'm really not complaining though, because I was just so grateful that I didn't have to be the one to deal with it, because I apparently can't handle dead things. I think it was worse because fish just generally disgust me, and so a dead fish would just be too much for me to deal with.
I really did love Oscar though.
He was a good fish.
A pretty fish. The prettiest one, if I do say so myself.
I had the greatest customer experience of my life on Friday because of him. I was telling my people at Hillcrest about how he died, and just as I was at the part of the story where I left my room and said "Dad... Oscar is dead!" a customer stuck his head into the kitchen and says "Can I have one long john?". Good timing, customer. The other ladies were already laughing, because they apparently found Oscar's death amusing? And so this customer, he says "My, my. I think I'd like to join you ladies in here for awhile. It sounds like you're having a good time!" And so Amber says "Oscar is a fish." And then I said, "My fish. Oscar. He died!" And this customer just jumps right into the conversation and says "Did you flush him?" and I'm like "No! Dad wouldn't let me!" and then the customer made a joke about something fishy going on with my septic system, and I was laughing reallyreally hard at that point, and was like "I'm sorry... was that one long john that you wanted?" and he was like "yeah" and I was pretty much crying at that point, and it did not help that the others were all sitting at the counter laughing just as hard as me. So the customer goes on his way, but a few moments later (when we are somehow laughing even harder), he came back and said "A moment of silence... for Oscar." and we couldn't stop laughing, and he left, and it was just a really great moment where Sarah was holding onto the counter because she couldn't stand up by herself because she was laughing so hard. I laugh a lot at Hillcrest... but that was definitely the hardest. I think it was one of those things that you actually had to witness yourself though. lol.
So anyways...
Oscar is dead.
There is an empty space on my desk where he used to be.
And in my heart. 

Beautiful Moments

There seems to have been lots of these lately for me. Moments that my mind has pin-pointed as beautiful.
I think part of it is because it's winter, which tends to dampen my mood, and so I am always kind of watching for those exceptional moments, where life is just... beautiful.
I wish I had pictures to show, but these moments can come and go so quickly that there's either no time for a picture, or I don't think of it, or a picture just wouldn't capture it, and I'd rather just have it in my head.
So... beautiful moments from the past week:
-Walking to work last Thursday morning. It was cold. Really cold. Everything inside me did not want to leave my warm-ish house. I did though. I bundled up and turned my iPod on, and started walking. I decided to rebel against the weather at the moment and listen to all my favourite songs from summer. But about half-way through "Long Hot Summer", I realized that maybe, instead of being annoyed at the weather, I should embrace it. Because once I actually looked around, it was really beautiful. The moon was almost full, so it was beautifully lit, and the snow was all sparkly and powdery, and the air was so clear and crisp... and it was beautiful. I abandoned all those summer songs, and listened to the Sidewalk Prophets' latest CD instead. Beautiful music, beautiful setting. Only five minutes late for work. What can I say? I was enjoying my walk. ;)
-At the ladies' retreat when Joy and Kaylin and I decided to go for a late night walk, and happened to come across a giant stretch of completely perfect snow. Never been stepped in snow. (If it sounds like I have a lot of late night/early morning experiences in the snow... it's cause I kind of do.) After some discussion as to whether we really wanted to be the ones responsible for ruining such perfection, we all ended up charging through it, and there were three trails of footprints. We went down to the dock, and looked out at frozen Lake Laverne, and it was just another beautiful moment. Snow really is quite beautiful.
-The moment I saw the candy aisle(s) at Wal-Mart last night. Valentine's Day is coming, ya'll. And what better way to celebrate than with candy? Especially when it's so on sale. And there is those good Eggie things. Apparently, they are not just Easter candies. They taste just as good at the end of January as they do in March or April!
-Driving through rain and fog to meet my Tuesday night friends. (They also happen to be excellent friends on any given day of the week!) Driving home through more rain and fog from hanging out with my Tuesday night friend. (Yeah, one friend got lost somewhere along the way. We missed you, friend. :)). On the way home it was completely foggy, and the fog was actually kind of moving... I could see it moving across the road in front of me. And it was one of those moments that could be creepy, but was also kind of beautiful in a very lonely way. I felt kind of like the only person in the world. Well, besides Sarah McLachlan, I guess. She is a good one to listen to if you happen to be driving through the fog.
-Am I the only one who has moments where something just seems so beautiful and wonderful that everything inside me just goes all still and there is this moment where I feel perfectly at peace and calm and loved? I had one of those the other day when I was reading Psalms 33, which I am going to copy for you all to read.

Psalm 33

Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. 

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 

Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 

For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. 

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 

For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 

The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; 

from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, 

he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes their deeds. 

The kind is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 

The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. 

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 

that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. 

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 

For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. 

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. 

The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 

Is there anything more beautiful than that?  

It's (a bit) Warmer When There's Two Of You

Me and Trish... we take care of eachother. =) Also, judging by the number of pictures taken that have my mouth open on them, I have a real problem with not talking. 

So happy together! 

Cheeseball just shouldn't taste like bacon. I mean, we will still eat it if it does... but we prefer if it tastes like cheese. And is not rolled in nuts. We think we will just keep buying our cheeseball from Kitchen Cuttings, where they roll their cheeseballs in parsley. Cheese could actually be the official food of our friendship, I think. 

We do love a good game of peekaboo. It's almost as much fun as just sitting on a couch together for hours on end. See, we are easily entertained. That is the wonderful thing about us. Put us on a couch and we are happy for a loooong time. But sometimes we like to do things... like go through drive throughs in our pjs, or randomly go for walks in the middle of snowy nights. We have a completely normal friendship.  

See? Sometimes Trish talks too. I am not the only one who talks around here. 

And on a completely different note... 

I think I have figured out what Oscar's problem is. 

It's not a physical problem. It's more of a mental thing. 

You see, Oscar wants to be a dolphin. 

That is why he is so flippy and splashy and jumpy and fast. 

He wants to be a dolphin. 

Okay, now picture this: a miniature dolphin. A Betta fish-sized dolphin. 

I'd buy one of those. 

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

I should begin by saying that if you are my friend, family member, or fish, you are automatically one of my favourite things. 

Just because your picture is not here does not mean that I don't love you. 

There are no pictures of people in this post, because once you start, it's hard to know where to stop. So I just stuck to items. Non-living items. 

Ready? =) 

Mushy potatoes. Yes please. So you know that good thing that moms sometimes do? Where they are cooking meat (like beef or chicken) in the oven, and they just stick the potatoes right in with the meat, and then when you get home from church, the house smells amazing and you can hardly wait to eat? Well, I like mushy potatoes... the ones close to the side or bottom that are so soft that they can't even hold themselves together anymore. That is what I like. 

Green Iced Tea from Tim Hortons is definitely one of the best things to drink. I can't always drink a whole bottle of it though... sometimes the person I am with needs to give me a hand. lol. This is a very special green iced tea bottle. I'm so scared Mom's going to recycle it, cause she does that sometimes. But I've had it since the beginning of October and I think I will keep it for the rest of my life. =) 

This box specifically is not one of my favourite things. However, I made it while I was teaching my Sunday School class one morning, and I have decided that teaching is one of my favourite things. Sometimes I really don't like it. Like when that cute little Stephanie kid will not sit down, and all the other kids are getting restless and I can tell that I am going to lose control very very soon and start to pray that the buzzer would go. But other times I just really love it. Like when I'm reading them the story, and I look at them, and some of them are actually paying attention, and watching me, and their eyes are big, and the story is amazing to them. Like when Trish asks who has the gray crayon, and Monica is using it and holds it up, and Trish reaches out to grab it from her, but then notices that Monica's stone is only half-colored, and instead of taking the crayon, she asks "May I use it when you're done with it?". So proud of her. =) Even though I most likely did not have anything to do with it. lol. 

My "book". =) It's just cool, I tell you. From the pretty aisle at Winners. Winners has the prettiest pretty aisle! If you've never been there, you are really missing out. 

Okay. There are several things about this picture that I love. One of them is the golf ball. Its name is Dilbert, and it came from above. Or so it seems. One night, after skating, Meg and I walked out to the car, and there Dilbert was. Sitting right beside the car. And it wasn't there when we walked in. So we imagine that it fell from the sky and bounced perfectly straight up and down a few times before settling happily beside our car to wait for us. Dilbert is a very meaningful golf balls. He knows things. Seriously. The other things that I love about this picture are my Princess Diaries books and "The Help". Some of my favourite books in the whole wide world!

This is the picture that Joy finger painted for me! So special! I love that our friendship has such a specific starting date. And it's so handy that that also happens to be my birthday! ;) 

This is my cute little red tea pot, with my cute little red tea ball thinger. Loose leaf tea is just way more fun than tea bags. Seriously! And there is so many wonderful flavors! Irish Breakfast Tea has been my favourite so far, I think. 

So there are two things in this picture that I can hardly believe that I am choosing as some of my favourite things. One of them is scarves. I used to hate scarves. I still don't like to wear them for no purpose... but when it comes to keeping warm? I want a scarf, please. Also, the color purple. It's one of my favourites right now! It certainly never used to be. Yeah, I'm just a few years behind everyone else. lol. So... purple and scarves are cool. And I like my hats too. They have the tendency to slide down over my eyes... but I like them anyways. If you want to talk to me, or just make eye contact, all you really have to do is tip the hat back a bit. ;)

My Bible! I think it's pretty! And it says good things. Really, what more could you want from a Bible? 

This is my tiny garbage can!! I see now that I should have had it more beside something, to show how small it actually is, cause it really doesn't look that small all by itself like this. But it is definitely smaller and cuter than the average garbage can! I bought it because I was so sick of working at my desk or sitting in my chair and always having to get up and walk across the room to get to the garbage can. So I got this one and put it right beside my chair. And every time I look at it, I think "Curse you, tiny garbage can!" (said in a Vector voice, obviously. Don't ever try to tell yourself that what you watch doesn't affect you. Despicable Me has had an incredible impact on my life). 

Lamps with cool chain things that you pull to turn them on are just the coolest! I have two lamps like this, one on my desk, and one beside my bed. The other  night I pulled the chain on the one beside my bed just a bit too vigorously, I guess, and the lamp fell over and a bunch of stuff flew everywhere, and it was just annoying cause I was so close to being asleep. So pull gently, folks. Never fear...it will still do the cool clicky noise. 

Two of my favourite movies right now. I think I will love them forever. 

This is the dish that I bought to take my lunch to work in. I just think it is the coolest little thing! It has cool clippy sides and pretty flowers on the lid! 

This is a very handy little thing for someone like me who has the tendency to lose little things like memory sticks and chap stick and various other random little things. 

This is my Kobo!!! I love it! We have not even been together for a whole month yet, but it is just so easy to love this! And I was looking at this picture, and was so confused by why it looks like the screen is all gray and bumpy. Then I figured out that it just looks like that because you can see my ceiling on the screen. Don't you worry... the screen is actually very smooth. It is wonderfully fun to read with this thing. I read "Peter Pan" on here. And "The Story Girl". The best word that I can think of to describe these two books is delightful. I know, I know. That sounds weird. But seriously... I got done "The Story Girl" (which I had read and loved first of all when I was younger... like ten or something) and sighed and thought "Well, that was completely delightful" and felt this odd kind of sadness because it was finished. And last night when I was going to bed, I just kept wishing that there would be more of it to read. I don't know if I have ever been so not ready for a book to be over.  There is just something completely beautiful about the characters and the stories and the setting. Every chapter just leaves you feeling so content. And I love that I could love it when I was a kid, and that I still loved it this time. I was worried that I had outgrown it or something. But apparently I didn't. And you know what? I bet that when I am 40, or 60, or 80, I could still read it and love it. It is just that kind of book. Maybe that was why I was so sad last night... because I was finished "The Story Girl". But I was sad on Sunday night too, and I wasn't finished it yet then. But maybe I subconsciously knew that I was going to finish it and so I was just being sad in advance? I don't know. While we are discussing "entertainment", I should also say that there are three songs that I absolutely love right now. Well, more than that. But three songs that I am going to tell you about. They are all by The Tenors. "Forever Young", "Anchor Me", and "Lullaby (the Smile Upon Your Face)" are their names. I love them. You might too! So you should listen to them. 

My day planner.... I like it. It's been awhile since I actually used a day planner, because I just used the sticky notes on my laptop for my last two years of school. But it's kinda fun writing down everything, and it's so nice to look at it then and know exactly what you are supposed to be doing and when you are supposed to be doing it. I just kept those kinds of things in my head all summer and fall, and it was just getting a little bit scary having to trust myself with all those dates and times. So I got my day planner. 

A lemon-scented candle. Clearly, Bath and Body Works has someone brilliant working for them. 

Gazebos. I love gazebos. I think it would be lovely to have one in our backyard, but the rest of my family just doesn't seem to understand. This one is a little blurry. lol. But wonderful nonetheless! It's nice how there is a bench in it. This just might be one of my favourite gazebos. ;) 

Clearly, I take delight in three billion small things in life. =) 

Random Monday

Random Mondays are just so random that you never know when they will happen! 

Or even if they will ever happen! 

I hesitated before doing this today, because I do not feel wordy at all. And random Mondays only work when I am in the wordy sort of mood. And today is just not a random Monday at all. In fact, my thoughts have centered around very few things today. I just think the same thoughts over and over again. 

Yup. 

It has not been happy, I tell you what. 

So I decided that I would post a few pictures and leave it at that. I think that will be best for everyone here. Some of you may actually be in good moods, and I don't want to be responsible for ruining that. 

Sisters... passing the time. Sitting on the floor because the furniture is gone. A house with no furniture? That is just sad. 

Do you know what else is sad? My crooked chair. Never balance a folding chair on just two legs. I learned that lesson for you. Now you don't have to learn it. Maybe I should be a teacher when I grow up. 

This was at a reunion this past summer. There was a beach and sunshine and a lot of very old relatives and a stump. This is how I look when I sit on a stump. It's not summer right now. It is winter instead. Another sad thing.

A young me. I think this would have been when I was in grade 9? I think I have improved with age. Like wine. Or cheese. Ooooh... cheese. That may be the happiest thought I've had all day. 

Me and Trish... this is when we were young and carefree. ;)

Ah..... the summer that Kenton and I painted Nana's fence. It was quite the ordeal. We look like we are enjoying it though. And Kenton is smaller than me. 

Little Kenton!! So cute!! So tiny!! lol. 

Me and Trish and Clari and Joy in Reading. Also when we were young. Yeah... I dug through old old folders for these ones. 

Me and Shannon. From just this past summer. Shannon, I was going to try to do a whole blog post about peppers for you. Just to prove that I could do it. But I can't do it. lol. Maybe someday I will reach that level of creativity, but I'm just not there yet. I may never reach that place. Unless I go back to school. Then I could get there. But will I go back to school? I don't know. I just don't know. I should decide though. I really should. You can't just put off a decision like this forever. Millions of people go to college or university. They do. And they succeed and have wonderful, happy lives. Why would I not go back to school? Ohhhhh... because I don't know what exactly I should go to school for? Well, that's a good reason. Man. I am so tired of thinking all the time. I am just... tired. Maybe I should go to bed. Maybe I will be happier tomorrow! Ooohh... a heads up... tomorrow, I am going to do a blog post on some of my favourite things. It will probably be happier than this one, due to the fact that I will have to look at pictures of my favourite things and then write about them and explain why they are my favourite things (well, some of them may not have a huge explanation... some of them might just mean something special to me, and to some random person who might just happen read this, and so it won't make sense to the rest of you, but it will make sense to the person that it is meant to make sense to). And who could be sad when they are thinking about their favourite things in the whole wide world??????