Boxing Week Spending

Well it's hard to believe that after tomorrow, there is only one week left of Christmas holidays. It's been an interesting holiday. The dinner party at the Camerons, chatting @ Timmy's 'til 4am, the movie and home-made ice cream at Jackson's and to top it off, I finally got to some Boxing Week shopping. I went yesterday to Market but only to hem my new expensive sweats from Lulu (thanks Jon and Crys!). However, there was a huge line up and so I went back today and although there was no line up to get into the store, it took me forever to get into the fitting rooms and such. I decided to go to The Bay and I find that when I'm there, I buy the most random things. It's just a store where you can buy anything. I ended up coming out with some new boxers, towels and pillows!!! Haha...good deal but another hundred bucks down the drain! :P It's weird 'cuase I felt really old carrying the pillows to the car on the other side of the mall. I would've hit Banana Republic to look for some work clothes (getting ready for it...), but since I was carrying these huge pillows, I decided to just make a break for it and head home....maybe I'll go to the malls tommorrow to look for some clothes.

I didn't get to do Boxing Day shopping because I thought the chaos, stress and discomfort of it all was not worth any "good deal." So I didn't hit the malls on Boxing Day. However, I went to CP and picked up the new Switchfoot and Matt Redman CDs. I can tell you that Matt's "Beautiful News" really is a beauty. I've only listened to the Switch foot about once through but it sounds good so far...just have to give it a few more gos. I also bought the old Jars of Clay CD "If I Left the Zoo." Wow! Now I know why everyone's all about the "old" Jars of Clay. Though, I really appreciate the old, their new stuff just shows how talented they are for evolving and not giving us the same old stuff that gave them success in previous years. Speaking of music, I am really digging Nelly Furtado's latest song: "Say it Right." Yup, there's my recommendation for "pagen" music for the week!! :)

Speaking of Nelly, my bros and I were watchiing a special on Muchmusic on the hottest chicks of the year and Nellly Furtado was ranked higher than Jessica Alba. Umm....get real!!!! You can tell the fact Nelly is Canadian played a role in this. I can admit that Nelly's gotten to be a bit more attractive lately, but is she anywhere close to be in Jessica Alba's league? HECK NO!!!! Look at the pics below, and you be the judge! :)





It's Canadian Propaganda at its finest!!! :P

And lastly, I also bought a new Iceman and Nightcrawler figure from Phoenix Comics! Yeah baby...my toy collection is totally taking up too much room. At this rate, I'm going to have to consider purchasing a new bookshelf again! :P

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Hmmm...so I'm stuffed and sitting on the comp listening to music while my bros are playing Madden '07 and with their new Ipod Shuffles. :)

Some highlights of this Christmas Eve:

Almost actaully falling asleep during Evening Service! Good thing it wasn't during the part with the lighting of the candles...(my personal favorite!). I wasn't tired in the morning but I guess after having two services in one day, the lack of sleep hit me!!!

Carolling was AWESOME!!! MAN! I just had some really awesome talks with people and I'm just thankful for such wonderful caring people. The conversations were really something from God so THANK YOU to those who spoke into my life with some great reminders!

The Allreds house was a fun place to hang out as I really stuffed myself silly. The baked pitas w/ garlic, mayo and cheese....mmmm...so simple, yet so good!!!

The dogs were cool...I think I'd want a Mexican Hairless one day! :)

Afterwards, we went to Crystal's and Jon's to give some "Wii virgins" a chance to explore the new system and I swear, we should record videos of first time Wii players because it's the most entertaining thing I've been seeing in ages!

I got home at about 3:30ish and opened my presents and I wanted to say thank you to everyone for your thoughtfulness!


Anyways, I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I am very thankful for my family and my friends. It was a pleasure to spend the best season of all with you and for those who are travelling, come back home safely soon! :)

Success!

YES!!! I FINALLY BEAT ELEBITS!!!!!


......and now, back to Zelda.....:P

And I.....

....I celebrate the day that you were born to die
So I could one day pray for you to save my life --Relient K

I can't believe how close Chistmas is approaching this year and I think it has only hit me now that it's the holiday season!! Wow, tommorrow's the Christmas Banquet already!!!

It was a fun weekend as it was full of interesting adventures and hang outs. A highlight was when we went to Geo/Janet's and Janet forgot her key so we couldn't get into the house. We called Geo to drive back home to open the door for us but we actaully managed to BREAK INTO the Mah residence before Geo arrived! LOL..oh the fun and the exhiliration! I wish I could say that was the first time I've broken into a home, but it isn't. I had a previous incident of doing that when I was younger but I'll save that story for another time.....:P

Today I woke up really late and I think I overslept too because I was really tired all day. I ended up not eating dinner at the usual time and decided to go out and do some shopping because I really needed to get out of the house and shake the cobwebs out of my head. I ended up buying the component cables for my Nintendo Wii so that it would display images a lot nicer for my HD TV. My bro is playing Madden '07 as we speak and the graphics are nice! :)

I also ended up at T&T and I really just love having the store so close to my house. Praise God that this supermarket was built near us because it is such a pleasant place to shop. I remember when I lived with my mom, she would take me to the T&T in Marlborough and finding parking was nearly impossible there! Well everytime I've gone to the one in Harvest Hills, I've had no problems finding a spot to park and they're always close to the entrance. It's not as packed as Marlborough and it's just such a joy to go buy stuff there. I can't wait 'til all the rest of the stuff is done being built there. So far, I've seen some fancy furniture store, an Italian restaurant, a dance studio, a Pho place and a Timmy's. I heard they're building a restaruant like Sun Chu Kee and Calgary Court up here (same owner), and I can't wait for that! I wonder what else they're going to build up here?

Lately I've been thinking about how much has changed in my life over the past year and I'm starting to ponder if we, as humans, usually embrace change or do we fight and/or fear it? And how do we know when change is suppose to happen? Do we initiate the change or do we let the change begin first? Hmmm......

Magnificent Obsession

Wow, it's all coming by so fast. And yet I realized today that tomorrow is the last chance I have to give the youth a Christmas gift because some won't be at the dinner and YAC is cancelled next Friday. Hmmm...just got them something small. I was thinking of the YAC committee doing Christmas cards together and giving them out but since it's so late in the game, scratch that off! :P

I found some Wii remotes for Kenric! Yes, I'm not the only Wii player in our church lol!

Tonight is the last episode of Survivor until Sunday's 3 hour season finale!!! My bro has a guess that instead of tribal council voting between 2 people, it will be a vote between 3 people. INTERESTING THEORY!!! :P

God's been really good. He's been speaking to me about stuff which is weird because I usually find that my relationship with Him is at its best when I'm really busy and relying on Him to get me through things. And yet, I've had a great reflective time with Him....and that's contradictory to past happenings . He reminded me of something in a book I read yesterday. I think it's funny how easy it is to forget certain things. We think life lessons can teach us things but its easy to lose sight. God touches us and it's great and yet you'd think we could remember the lessons and yet even the Israelites in the bible kept forgetting. Which is why I like to journal things and write things on my blog 'cuase it's a good way to reflect and think, "oh yeah, God was teaching me THAT a few months ago....why did I forget?" :P

So I've had a song on my heart lately (yes, another one!). It's a few years old, but it's my favorte Steven Curtis Chapman song (And it even won best song of the year for 2003!). Many of you have heard it, but here's the lyrics in case you've forgotten:

Lord, You know how much
I want to know so much
In the way of answers and explanations
I have cried and prayed
And still I seem to stay
In the middle of life’s complications
All this pursuing leaves me feeling like I’m chasing down the wind
But now it’s brought me back to You
And I can see again

This is everything I want
This is everything I need
I want this to be my one consuming passion
Everything my heart desires
Lord, I want it all to be for You, Jesus
Be my magnificent obsession

So capture my heart again
Take me to depths I’ve never been
Into the riches of Your grace and Your mercy
Return me to the cross
And let me be completely lost
In the wonder of the love
That You’ve shown me
Cut through these chains that tie me down to so many lesser things
Let all my dreams fall to the ground
Until this one remains

You are everything I want
And You are everything I need
Lord, You are all my heart desires
You are everything to me

You are everything I want
You are everything I need
I want You to be my one consuming passion
Everything my heart desires
Lord, I want it all to be for You
I want it all to be for You

FM Static...no, not the BAND!! LITERALLY!!!

Today I received two packages in the mail and I was only expecting one. Well it turns out one of them was a package I took to the post office to send to Alexis and Jarrett that was returned to us. The box I shipped was used to ship some stuff to me a week before and the address wasn't taken off lol so it had two different ones on opposite sides of the box. I took it back to the post office though and didn't have to pay for reshipping it! Whoo hoo! :)

I took the car to get washed finally and there's just some strange satisfaction in seeing your baby all clean and presentable. :) It was expensive and I had to buy gas to get a discount on the carwash. Man, this having a car thing gets expensive! :P

I was considering doing Christmas shopping today and when I got into the car, I realized that I have actually finished my Christmas list lol. I've had it done for awhile now and didn't realize it. It's a nice feeling. I don't know if I'm going to write cards this year guys. Sorry if this offends some of you people but I'm just feeling lazy this year. Plus, I don't think I have much to say that'll be any different than any other year I've written cards lol. You don't need a card from me to know that I care do you? :P Man, what kind of husband am I going to be to my wife if I said THAT to her! :) Then again, none of you peeps are my wives lol....

I've been listening to tunes from Relient K's Christmas CD and I was going to buy it online but I can't find it anywhere. Apparently, it's quite the collectors item as it's very rare and going for about $40 Canadian on ebay right now. So the solution for me was downloading the CD lol. It's pretty good if you like alternative Christmas tunes! :) Yeah baby, yeah!!!!

On a final note...do you know how I was writing about how God was speaking to me in different ways as of late? Well I have to tell you something because I was reading a book at my desk in my room last night and then I heard this strange buzzing noise. I couldn't make out where it was coming from at first but then I realized that it was coming from my clock's radio. Even though the switch and the volume were "off," the radio was in fact on. I could hear voices in it and I thought, "God, are you trying to get me to turn on the radio?" And so even though the clock radio was switched onto "off," I turned the volume dial and it was locked clearly onto Shine FM. I tried to turn the radio off by switching the switch from on to off back and forth repeatedly but it wouldn't go off. Suddenly, I put the book down and said, "Okay God, if you want me to tune into something, I'll stop reading and listen." So Focus on the Family came on and it was a special addition. It was featuring the first of a two part sermon from some woman in Texas and let me tell you, the sermon was AWESOME! I have not heard such a sermon with such quality in ages!

Anyways, I wasn't going to blog about this because I thought it wasn't anything special..."maybe my radio is broken," I figured. However, I was doing the same thing today: reading at my desk and I checked to see if the radio was on and it wasn't. I turned up the volume and it wasn't going on. So I switched it to "on" and yes, the sound of Shine came through lol. So kind of weird how things can happen like that. God was totally speaking to me about a certain area in my life and I think it could be applied to another area...but we'll wait and see to find out. :) Anyways, kind of neat how stuff like that works. I am going ot head off now and go listen to part 2 of this sermon. Take it easy folks! :)

*UPDATE* No part two!?!? What the....must've been a repeat. This is getting weirder by the minute! :P

Every Great Story Has a Beginning

I’m not going through the motions
Waiting and hoping you call me
I’m not missing you
You might have had me open
But I must be going because
I got life to do
I know I’m usually hanging on
I used to hate to see you gone
But this time it’s different
I don’t even feel the distance
I’m not missing
I’m not missing you

I'm looking forward to picking up the above song from Stacie Orrico's new CD hitting stores in January. Yeah I know, I'm a pop music junkie but I can't help it. :)

And yet the above lyrics are finally ringing true in my life. It's been about half a year and you'd think that it'd be about time for a shift in mind-set for me eh? :) I think the toughest part of this transition was feeling so miserable but yet not being able to express that to the people who care the most about me. I don't know...maybe I kept it all in because I didn't think anyone could understand. Yet others knew how I was doing but didn't think it was that bad. Or maybe I know certain people would try to minimalize what I was feeling. Don't you hate that? People try to reason with you when you're feeling emotionally confused and you think logic matters when someone is hurting? You just think, "don't tell me my pain isn't real becuase if it didn't, why would I feel like I lost a part of my soul?"

And yet now here I stand.....God has not left me through it all. I've had some down time to relax and reflect upon everything and it's been good. This past half year has been the most trying time for me in a long time as it's been awhile since I've been truly tested to this magnititude. And yet, it's through this storm that God has really shown himself so real in my life...more real and more practical than ever. Becuase He picked up the pieces of my life over the course of this time, I can now remember that long time ago, he did the same for me when I was just 15 years old and had realized his heart was in need of mending.

During the weekend, I talked to a few people about how funny it is because it was weird these last few months between God and I. I think Him and I are in a different relationship now. It's evoloved; it's more mature. Through the tough times, I never really felt God left me like how we can imagine Job not feeling God was anywhere near Him in the bible. However, despite my stubborn ways, God kept me close. He answered prayers still and answered me through speaking to me in many situations in my life. I began to hear God's voice in different ways than in the past. I started seeing how He was shaping my world and how He opened doors and closed certain ones in my life for practical reasons. It's been really different for me...but it's not a bad thing...it's just.....different.....

And so learning how to be in existence now with these sudden changes will be a challenge for me. I am praying so hard that God would put the pieces of my life back together and make sense of it all. I have so many questions in my mind. Some are answered but so many still remain unanswered. And yet these are questions I feel I need to pursue the answers for. It's slowly coming together and so my prayer for the new year is that God would shine His truth and His light upon my life stronger than He ever has before. Maybe this is all just a glorious beginning for my life again....maybe he's just setting the stage for newer and greater things. Speak Lord for your servant is listening.....

Fin.

Remember how I said that on the release day of the Wii, I was tossing and turning and felt like God wanted me up but I chose to try to sleep anyways? I had that experience today too. I was trying to sleep in but my mind was dreaming about something really weird and it was draining to think about rather than relaxful. I chose to get out bed because of that and went on the computer. I went to the Future Shop website because I wanted to check something out. You see, I bought a new TV for our living room yesterday and Phil asked me a question about it and I had no idea what the answer was to it so I went on to check the answer out. Anyways, I've been checking Future Shop's website quite frequently lately to look for Wii controllers and so as I was typing in the link of the site, well a bunch of URLs to the site popped up and and I scrolled to one of them and hit the Wii Remote page I visted in the past. It said that they were in stock at the NE Future Shop! I checked for the Nunchucks and they were in stock too! I was freaking out because I didn't know how many they had and the store had been open for an hour already so they might have had as little as one of each and by the time I made it there, they could've been gone! I called several times but no one picked up. Well all I can say is I drove like a maniac trying to get to the store and the store was packed! However, the good news is, the remotes and the nunchucks were in stock and I picked up 3 of each!! Wow, 200 big ones down the drain!! Cheap system; expensive accessories. When I got home, I went back online and it said they weren't in stock in the NE Future Shop anymore lol. This is kind of funny becuase they didn't get any Wiis in and when I went to the Coventry Hills location yesterday, they said the accessories usually ship with the Wiis. BS I tell ya!! So thus, this concludes the hunt for accessories. It's quite fitting since my semester is now over as well and I have no work to do! :) I could've picked up more remotes/nunchucks but I figured I wouldn't be a jerk and sell them online as I wanted the people who have the systems to buy them...hopefully it worked. Sure, I may have made money selling an extra Wii, but I spent a lot of time looking for accessories and things just have a way of balancing out like that. Praise God that the hunt is over! :)

I also got shopping done today. I went to Toys R Us and they have a HUGE weekend sale so go hit up that store if you haven't done so already! Also, I went to Blessings and picked up some things. I also FINALLY hit the T & T by more place and I can tell you I like it A LOT better than the NE location...less crowded and I could actually find parking. I picked up some Inari and it was awesome. I wanted some Dim Sum but didn't want to wait in line as I had ice cream in my basket and didn't want it to melt before I got home lol.

As for my new TV..it's a 40 inch HD LCD Sony. It didn't fit in my car so I I had to get some bungie chords and it was sticking out of my trunk when I brought it home. I managed to bring it inside my home and the TV is still in tack. LOL...no HD yet, but maybe soon. Just have to wait awhile because I think this family has spent enough money over the holidays already...:P

Busy While at Home

Hmmm...I don't know what my fanscination is with Spider-man, but I've been posting lots of pics of him on my blog as of late. It has nothing to do with the movie, but I don't know...I think I'm realizing that he is the best comicbook character because he can relate to so many people. Don't get me wrong, Havok's still my favorite but Spidey is just so universally appealing. And with him, he always gets the short end of the stick....well except for marrying a SUPER MODEL/ACTRESS for a wife!!!! Well, unless she dies...which implies short endage again for Spidey....haha, like the above picture implies!!! :P

I must admit, though I'm not technically in classes right now, I've been really busy. I thought the scrapbooking thing would be easy but it turns out it's just like writing a term paper...but it's more expensive and more time consuming. I think I spent about 2 hours writing my paper and then 5 or 6 hours getting pictures together and cutting them out and cutting out borders and backgrounds and such for the scrapbook. Thought the project was expensive and time consuming, it was actually a fun project to do and it's worth keeping to look back on. I may incorporate it into my porfolio too.

I brought the scrapbook to Joelle's last night and showed off my accomplishment lol. Wow, my first scrapbook was finished and I can see why people like doing this type of thing. Though I wouldn't recommend it as a hobby if you've never tried it because scrapbookers spend thousands of dollars on this type of thing!!!

Speaking of Joelle's, we got to play some 4 player Wii over there! So that's what it feels like to have 4 people play the Wii at once...lol...man, I don't know if I have enough space in my living room to accomidate that! :P

I went to look around for some remotes today and did I have any luck? Nope. I did see about 6 or 7 Wiis at Royal Oak's Wal-Mart if anyone's interested though. :)

Yesterday, I went to get grad photos done in the morning and I was really dumb because I showed up wearing a hoodie thinking I could do grad photos. When I got there I thought, "Why am I not wearing a dress shirt and tie?" LOL...I signed up for a time later on in the day and came back dress appropriately. This was a fun process because I didn't do a grad photo for my Econ degree. This degree, well, I am definitely more proud of so hence why I'm taking the pics! :P I can't believe it: one more semester and then I get to teach!!! :)

One last note for today. I spent about 3 hours working on my resume and its starting to take shape. Man these things take a long time to do. Hope it's ready for tommorrow to get reviewed! And I hope they don't slaughter me either lol. One more day of school and then it's time for holidays! HOO-RA!!!

Liar Liar

Last week--because of the cold snap we experienced in Calgary--many kids were wearing hats like in the picture above. I think it's so cool because the girl in the pic is Molly aka Princess Powerful aka Bruiser from Runaways and she is known for her trendy hats. She wears many hats similar to the pictured above but the character who is the hat always changes. I've been reading Runaways for a few years now so imagine my surprise when students showed up at school with these funky hats. I want one! LOL

So it seems that Spider-Man is going to be back in black soon and you know they're only allowing that in the comics because he's going to wear the suit in Spider-man 3 coming out this summer! Oh baby I love the suit! :)

I drove to where Costco is up by my house and they have Winners, Roots Outlet, Michael's, Home Depot, etc. and it looks nice. I hope the infrastructure will be better for getting in and out of there soon. Today when I drove there, the raods were wet and the sun's beams were glaring into my eyes and I could hardly see while I was driving. Scary!!! I hate when that happens!!

One thing that came to mind today was the topic of lies. For some people, they can be very creative in the process of lying. They'll think of stories beforehand and plan a course of action when people ask them about something. While others are just good at making up lies as they go and before they realize they've done it, they already lie and it's already too late to stop lying! I know what kind of liar I am.....What kind of a liar are you? Hmmmm.....:)

Never Again....

Gross! When I went to sleep, I still was full from the ribs at Montana's! I woke up and had to take a whiz at 5am and had the taste of rib sauce in my mouth and it was dry. When I really woke up, same dry sandy taste in my tounge and around my mouth. When I pooed in the morning, it smelled like TEXAS BOLD BBQ sauce as well. I am still quite full from the 2 lbs. of pork I ate yesterday. I know I've said this before, but NEVER WILL I INDULGE IN RIBS AGAIN!!! .....well, at least not for a little while.... :P I feel like puking.......