We're Getting Married!

Hello Friends! I suppose that most of you know by now that I am getting married! I’m SO excited…he is definitely my favorite, without a doubt! A lot of you probably know this fantastic man called David Graham, but for those of you who don’t, here is a photo for you to enjoy. Just to let you know, I am the luckiest woman alive!

David is very outgoing, and he loves people. He has this gift of friendship – he’s interested in people, and can come up with the most unique and thought-provoking questions. He has an amazing way of making everyone feel welcome and valued. He’s also a wonderful conversationalist.

He is supremely creative and is an extremely gifted writer. David is very intelligent, but also very down-to-earth. He’s finishing up a Master’s in Philosophy at the moment, and will complete his thesis this summer.

He’s considerate, and incredibly kind. He looks at situations from every angle, and doesn’t just see things as black/white, right/wrong. I love this about him, and it challenges me, as well.

David has a terrific sense of humour; nobody makes me laugh as much as he does. There is never a dull moment! He’s the life-of-the-party sort of guy. He’s responsible, he’s a very hard worker, and when he does things, he does them well!

He is very REAL…he lives life in a very deliberate and exciting way. I love being with him and I’m very much looking forward to our life together! August 18 is the big day, and it just seems so far away!

Oh my goodness, I love this man…I am so thankful for him. I’m proud to be with him! Sometimes it really hits me that we’re getting married - it’s a fantastic feeling!

So for those of you who haven’t met David yet, I hope I have been able to give you just a small glimpse of what he is like…though you really have to meet him to get the full effect, which you would enjoy!

Wow…look at all of the explanation marks in this entry – I have used them to try to capture my excitement…they are just not sufficient.

Moments in the Mundane

Today was a supremely disorganized day at work…not because of me, not because of anyone, really. Things just did not go as I had planned. The day began with a fire drill, which included the staff running around and forcing people out of bed, and into the hallway – pajama clad. The weather was smoking hot, forcing us to cancel our outdoor games. We decided to throw together a “jam session” (not the jelly - the music). The woman playing the piano had no sense of what song she was playing, the man playing the guitar broke his pick, got up and left, never to return, and the omni-chord would have been fabulous, if it could have been about sixty times louder. Luckily those listening had a good laugh about all of the shenanigans.

I hate the feeling of not being in control of a situation. I want guarantees; I want things to go my way (who the heck doesn’t?) God asks us to surrender our lives to him, giving up control and potentially sacrificing our own desires. This scares me! I have to remind myself daily that His ideas for my life are much, much better than my own plans.

I don’t really understand Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The desires of my heart have not always matched up with His…I know this because some of the things I’ve prayed about were not addressed how and when I would have liked them to be. In retrospect, I am thankful for this. Perhaps it is because I’m not really ‘delighting’ myself in Him.

I suppose I have come to understand and embrace the fact that I do not always know best, and I am willing to follow someone who knows. I say I’m willing…some of the time I’m willing, a lot of the time my stubbornness gets in the way. Sometimes I am simply apathetic; I get carried away with what seems important, focusing on what is present in front of me at the moment.

There are times when I am woken up. I was reading part of this book called Velvet Elvis; the author was talking about these “…beautiful moments in the midst of the mundane” that cause us to become aware that there is something bigger than what we can know or understand.

I was thinking about what some of these moments have been for me…I know I’ve experienced them. There was a moment like this last week at work; on Friday a resident received a fruit basket for mother’s day; she brought it out at tea time to show it off…she wasn’t really showing off the gift, she was just so excited that her son had cared enough to think of her. It was just a simple, special moment that we could see inside of her.

These are times when I need to see this...moments like this cause me to re-focus and re-direct my thoughts and myself.

Candice + Heidi = Fabulous Roommates

Well, I’m back in good ol’ Red Deer. I miss my roommates. Those girls taught me so much; we had the most fantastic year of our lives. All of us have developed some decent abdominal muscles because of all of the laughing that took place. This laughter stemmed out of frequent Michael Jackson dance sessions, Heidi’s sleep laughing and Tarzan obsession, our fish funerals, and Candice’s sporadic comments regarding flight paths or cold feet.

We lived in an apartment called The Spanish Lantern…the main reason we moved in was because of the name. Much of our entertainment was derived from simply glancing out the patio doors. A man once lived in our dumpster and decided to light a fire in there to keep himself warm, only to melt the entire lid. We had neighbors across the alley who wore pinstripe suits, top hats, and clown glasses…we think they owned a tickle trunk. Our landlord, Greg, was a riot. He often accused us of putting fingers and toes down the drain, causing it to clog. He advised us to dance to the rhythm of the gurgles that our sink produced. I will miss him.

As I walked home from school following my last exam, I reflected back on our experiences in The Spanish Lantern. I thank God for these amazing women that I was blessed to share a home with. We needed each other…there were some tears shed, and we were able to comfort, encourage, and hold each other. There were also many joyful moments that we could celebrate together. We learned patience, we learned to compromise, and we learned how to communicate. I could not have asked for better women to share eight months with.