We're Going to Get a Christmas Tree!!!

Every year on December 21st we go and get our Christmas tree... which means today we are going to get our Christmas tree!!! This year is going to be bitter sweet as Aiden will be with us but this is our first year getting a tree without Krista. Actually this is the first year any of our family members are missing.

Back to Aiden, he has been asking us for the past week where our Christmas tree is. Every time we go out and he sees a christmas tree he points and makes sure we all see it! And 2 or 3 nights ago at supper he told us all that even in Bulgaria they have a Christmas tree (so we better get one soon!). Needless to say he was very excited when we told him we are going to be getting one today!

Looking for the perfct tree...

Then it got too cold so we let dad pick out any tree... as you can see from the tree in this picture it wasn't the "perfect" tree... but we did have a Christmas tree!

trip update

So I've made it to Vancouver and am waiting for my bus now. Can't wait to get home and go to bed!

Home!

I'm home tomorrow!!!! But I have so much to do before then! Here's my schedule from now til I get home:

8:15pm-9:00pm Finish packing
9:00pm-9:30pm clean my room
9:3pm-10:00pm get ready for bed
10:00pm go to sleep
6:00am get up
6:00am-6:30am get ready for the day
6:30am Leave for work
7:00am-10:00am Work
10:30am get home from work
10:32am go and pick up some things from a lady who heather took classes with (she's moving and is going to give us some of the things she doesn't want any more! So far we've got a cell phone and a water cooler!)
10:45am clean out the car
10:50am pack up the car
11:00am clean up the house, empty garbage's etc.
11:10am Leave for our work lunch
11:30am-12:15pm eat lunch with work people
12:15pm leave for Regina
1:15pm get to Regina and pick up Linden (our wonderful friend who baby-sits out car)
1:30pm get to the airport
3:00pm Heather flies out
4:15pm Andrea flies out to Edmonton

NOTE: it is now going to be confusing becuase of time changes

4:36pm Arrive in Edmonton
5:20pm fly out of Edmonton to Vancouver
5:57pm get to Vancouver
6:00pm figure out how I'm going to get from the airport to the ferry (my two options are a) take a taxi (not my first choice) or b) take the chartered bus that is supposed to run at 7:40pm)
8:15 or 10:45 I will get on the ferry to Nanaimo and 2 hours later I will see my parents and Heather (who us flying into Comox)
So I will be home sometime between 11:30pm and 2:00am

ANOTHER NOTE: This time is with the time change meaning it will feel like 1:30am-4am

Moral of the story

1. Book your plane tickets early when using airmiles or you have to add a ferry to your trip
2. don't book work the day you're leaving on a trip

To travel or to Save?

I've been spending some time over the past few days looking at my pictures and I have realized how lucky I am! I have got to do so much traveling in the past few years. Even this past year I realized that I have ridden on at least 15 planes and had a couple of road trips across western Canada and the North Western States. In the past 4 years (since I graduated from high school) I have been to the states, Mexico, Guatemala, Bulgaria, Germany, Honduras and of course I've got to see more of Canada. I have been so blessed to be able to take all of these trips!

The bad thing about traveling is once you start it's really hard to stop. So for the past month I have been thinking about what traveling next year will look like for me. I have thought about just going on a trip for the fun of it or should I be going on a mission trip? Or would it just be best for me to stay here and save my money? I was praying about it and looking into different opportunities. During this time I came back to what do I want to do for a living once I have my student loans and car payed off? This is something I have been struggling with for a while and while I was thinking and praying it came to me! Ok actually it came back to me becuase it was a dream I had a couple of years ago, I would LOVE to lead groups on short term mission trips. When I went to Mexico with the youth group in '07 I loved it. Sure it got stressful and wasn't always enjoyable but I had a joy while there! I have decided to pursue this endeavor and see if I still have peace about it. So I have decided that this summer I would like to go on a short term missions trip as a leader, that is if it's God's plan and he allows it to all be put into place.

After making this decision I figured that I should look into different missions groups I could go with and I came across Big World and their Never the Same missions trip. The lady who is organizing and leading this trip is Susie Shellenberger (the old editor of Focus on the Families Brio Magazine). I had always wanted to go on this trip when I was in high school but I could never afford it. So I looked into it some and guess what the are going to ANTIGUA!!! I decided at this point that I would look at my calender and make sure that the dates fit. They didn't :( The trip doesn't end until the 11th but Kassi is getting married on the 1oth and I can't miss Kassi's wedding. That was the end of that... ok if you know me you know if I want to do something I wouldn't give up that easy so I emailed Big World and told them about my dilemma and they informed me that leaving a couple days early would be fine and that I should still apply! So that is where I am right now at the application stage, the 14 page application.

Please pray for me, that if this is what God wants to me do it will all work out and go smoothly and if this is not what God wants me to do that I will feel peace knowing that he has other plans for me, greater plans. Thanks!

23 and counting

Today I went for a walk becuase it's sunny again! The snow is very pretty right now and I'm learning to appriciate it (as long as I can stay home).

Time to clean

I have a confession I HATE cleaning my bedroom. I don't like it when it's messy and I do enjoy having a clean room but I despise cleaning it. I don't mind cleaning the rest of the house but for some reason my room is torture. Take this past week. I have spent hours in my room "cleaning" it's still not done and it wasn't that bad. but I find way more fun stuff like watching wheel of fortune on the internet or hanging stuff on my walls, blogging or petty much anything so I don't have to clean. Why is this such a hard thing for me to do??? Well I better go hang up my laundry so it will dry

my room in dorms, this was actually pretty clean

It's late but it's here/24 days til christmas

What's more Christmasy then snow? We got our second snowfall last night and I'm pretty sure this one is here to stay :(