The haps

Yesterday around 5pm I returned home from a long weekend away. Friday morning at 5am I got myself up and out the door as my Washington friends picked me up for a weekend at Malibu Club. Malibu Club is a Young Life camp located in Canada and is a 3 hour boat ride from the NE side of the Sunshine Coast. Young Life was a big part of my life in High School and I was priviledged to go to Malibu for a week as a camper back in 1999 and I got to go again and be on Work Crew there for a month in 2000. I had not been back since and when a couple of my old work crew friends invited me, I jumped at the chance. It was Memorial Day weekend in the States so the Young Life of Seattle thought it a good time to have a Discipleship Weekend for the High Schoolers in their area. Me and my friends (along with about 47 other college agers) volunteered our time to serve on the work crew for the weekend. I wish I could say that I had the most amazing time, but the truth is that I was sick for it all. I got sick about 2 days before the trip and assumed I would just get better as time passed. The case was that I got worse. And when you are at a camp on a island, you can't really go get medicine from the doc to make you better. Oh well. I put on my best face and served the best I could. For the weekend my job, along with my friends and a few other girls, was to be in the Linen Nook. This meant that we did all the laundry, cleaned all the bathrooms and even got to go and dig the dirt out of the cracks in the boards that make up the walkways. All for the Lord. I am now a master at folding fitted sheets! It's quite a skill to have. Jealous? Though it was not quite the trip I expected, it was pretty awesome to be in, what I think is, the most beautiful place on earth basking in God's beauty. You are surrounded by huge mountains, ocean, blue skies and by people who love Jesus. I have not felt that close to the Lord in some time and that made all the travelling and being sick well worth it.

P.S. Check out my picture blog here, it's updated!!

THE SUN IS OUT!!!

The sun has arrived and Vancouver is actually beginning to warm up! Today it's supposed to get to around 25 (celcius that is) and it should be nice most of the week. I love sun more than anything and it truly lifts my spirits. Give me the chance to wear flip flops and a tank top and I am one happy camper! Thank you Lord for sunshine and warmth.

And then there was Thursday...

Today has been a dull and unexciting day at work. Except for when my friend Shannon came and brought me lunch and we got to sit anc chat during my lunch break. Good times. I am excited to get off work because I am excited for what the evening will hold. After work we are going to go to the produce store to do our weekly produce shopping. Then we are having our Canadian friends, Levi and Shelley, over for some homemade pizza...De-licous! Then we will continue to our weekly ritual of watching Survivor. I hope Cirie wins...the finale is Sunday!

I promise I will update my picture blog soon ---> in the meantime check it out and look over my picture past :) www.kbpics.blogspot.com

Oh Happy day!!

My computer is fixed!!!! Derek got a new hard drive and installed it and now it's better than ever!

Currently....

Currently feeling: Bored






Currently Reading: Memoirs of a Geisha





Currently Eating: Strawberries







Currently staring at: Gmail







Currently listening to: Z 95.3







Currently drinking: water





Obviously I am 'currently' not working and slacking off. Oops! So Derek left for the weekend to go to some conference in Spokane with a couple buddies. I was/am quite excited to have the house to myself this weekend and have very much beenlooking forward to it. But when he left at 5:00am today, aside from feeling rather lethargic, I was sad tosee him go and will miss him this weekend. So I am living the single life this weekend and it's going to rock! I am having girls over for a big girl-fest of fun! Including movies, pizza, junk food and pampering. Pretty much heaven for any girl! Hope everyone has a great weekend and I pray the sun shines down on you!

Grad

Last night Derek and I went to the Regent Graduation to watch some of our dear friends graduate! It was very bitter sweet. We said farewell to many friends who we have gotten to know over the past 2 years and whom we will miss greatly. They have been a part of our Regent experience and forever a part of our life. I can't imagine having to that next year with even more, deeper, closer friends. However, it is very sweet becuase next year I will get to watch Derek walk accross that stage with Masters degree in hand and with that chapter of life complete. It will be scary to turn the page and head into the next chapter which, at this point, is unknown. But I have faith that God has a plan for us and that he knows what he's doing. I am amazed at life and how it can fly by so fast and hold so much greatness.

gotta love gmail

So as you know, my computer at home is sick. We think we just need a new hard drive and problem solved. It will suck because I will loose all my info. But $60 for a new Hard drive or $1000 for a new computer. What do you think? Anyway, at home I had all my e-mail set-up in the Thunderbird mail program, which I love because you don't have open up your browser, go to the website and check your e-mail. You jusy open a pogram and they download right it. I use g-mail (google mail) as my main e-mail server and I am just loving it more and more each day. Since my computer has been sick I have been getting my e-mail old fashion way online. But something struck me today. Besides being great and organizing all your emails into conversations, it also never has those little regarding "re:" things in the title of your email. That is amazing and beautiful to me. In other email news. At work (for my work e-mail and such) they use Outlook express. It's fine, again it avoids having to go online and go to a website to retrieve your mail. But you cannot search for emails like you can in gmail. Which is so annoying and just today I have been looking for multiple past e-mails that could be anywhere and took 3 times as long to find them than it would have on gmail. Pretty much g-mail rocks. If you do not use g-mail, you should, and you need to be invited from a current g-mail member to join g-mail, so let me know and I can send you an invite! GO GOOGLE! That's all I have to say about that.

and life continues

Derek is officially done with his finals! He is now recovering and resting, poor guy. I have to admit though it has been quite nice to have him play the stay-at-home-husband role these past few days. He has made dinner every night this week so far and has done his best to keep on top of the housework. Now, if he could only birth us some children we would be set!!
Sunday night we decided to go out for a celebration dinner. We went to this great local Thai restuarant downtown and right on the water. It just so happen to be an amazingly beautiful, sunny day so we had a blast! Great scenery and great food complete with deep-fried bananas and coconut ice cream. On the way home we were going to stop and rent a movie when we drove by Rogers Video and noticed they were having a 'Mega Movie Sale' (or something like that). So we stopped and got 3 DVDs for 24 bucks! We were stoked. So we continued our evening with one of our very own movies. Things at the job are going well. I am slowly but surely learning my through. I am excited to know it all!

computers, portland and finals

I was waiting to mzake a post until I got my pictures (from our trip to Portland) off my camera and I could put them on here. Sadly, 2 nights ago a shelf decided to fall off the wall and flat onto my computer and now is has decided not to work. Very fun...let me tell ya. So picture a photo of Jeff, Jess, and Derek getting into our little Subaru with JJ Bean coffee in hand as we begin our trip. That's the only picture I can remember taking.

Well, we went to Portland for Easter and were fortunate to have our friends Jeff and Jess join us for the drive (we dropped them off in Gresham where they have fam). Fortunaltey living in Canada we get Good Friday and Easter Monday as stat holidays so we had a 4-day weekend. Amazing! It was a crazy busy trip that consisted of visiting our best friends, my sister, Derek's entire family and having Easter brunch with Dan and Amanda as well as a Target run and a little too much coffee and alcohol. We had fun!

This week is Finals week for Derek or in other words "i don't have a husband" week. It's bitter sweet because on one hand I can just kind of do whatever I want with my week, come and go as I please and stay up late watching too much tv and scrapbooking. On the other hand because Derek is so busy and stressed, I am left do anything and everything when it comes to caring for us and our household (cook, clean, grocery shop, laundry, etc). It can be a bit stressful to come home after a long day of work and see the house that my husband has been in all day looking that same if not worse than it did when I left that morning. So last night at 11pm you would have found me scrubbing the shower and cleaning the bathroom. Stress me out! But after this week Derek will be a lot more free and I will hopefully feel like I have a husband again. We are planning a big fun date for Sunday night and I can't wait!!

New Beginnings

It is official! I have finised at The Well and have about completed my first week with SCARP. I am really enjoying it and know that it will only get better. I am in the very beginnings stages so there is still tons to learn. I think I will enjoy working in/for a school. My official title is 'PhD Secretary' at the School of Community and Regional planning. I work on the 4th floor all the way on the opposite end of campus from where Regent is located. I am not going to let myself be lazy and ride the elevator up to the 4th floor so I have to climb the stairs. But yesterday I counted and there are 12 flights of stairs leading to the 4th floor. Man...it's a workout. And this week I have probably avergaged about 8 times aday going up and down those stairs. My butt better look great in a couple months! Anyway, I took some pictures of my last day at The Well (they thre me a little party at the end of my last day) and I forgot to take a picture of my first day of work so I took a pic of me on my 3rd day of work. You can see the pics on my picture blog here.

Friends from home

The past two weekends in a row we had friends from Oregon come and visit us. First, Adam and Katy. Then Dan and Amanda. Adam and Dan are both great friends of Derek's and through that I have also become great friends with them as well as their beautiful new wives. We had so much fun with both couples. A few of the things we did: JJ Bean, Stanley Park, Lou's, Incendio, watched "The Corporation" and had some great conversations. Dan and Amanda inspired and encouiraged Derek and I to live more organically and naturally. So we are going to give it a try. We bought a book called "Worms eat my garbage" and we are going to start a worm bin very soon. I am very excited. We are also going to try and buy a lot more organic food and such. It is all a bit overwhelming but I can't wait to get serious about it. Where to start...?





Derek with Adam and Katy at Stanley Park















Katy and I doing a shot at Lou's














Dan and Derek at Stanley Park











Us with Dan and Amanda at an Organic restaurant called Aphrodite's








Yay for friends....I miss home.

job update and crafts

So I officially got a new job! I am so excited. I am going to be working at the Unversity of British Columbia as a Secretary for the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP). I cannot wait. It will be bitter sweet to leave the coffee shop, but life goes on. Plus the benefits of working for a large University are quite amazing. Yipppeee!!!

Also, I have to show off and show you how crafty my friends are. The other night we made recipe books, we had a blast and I must say they all turned out amazing!!! Check it out...

the search is on

I am looking for a new job, not for any particular reason but the fact that it is time. I am not sure what, if anything, will come of this search, but I thought I could explore my options. I have to admit that part of me would miss the ole coffee shop and seeing all the students at Regent College. But the benefit of more money in my pocket and relief of my aching knees of feet (from standing on my feet for a year and a half) might just out weigh that. We shall see.

Check out my picture blog for some photo updates here

rain, snow, sun?

The weather this week has been downright wacky! We'll wake up to light layer of snow on the grass outside and small flakes falling from the sky. I will get to work and then the nast rain will come and I have no hope for a beautiful day. Then by the afternoon the sun is shinning and the temperature has raised about 10 degrees. What a wierd place I live. But at the end of the day I am thankful for any sun I might have seen.
Today is a crazy day and so I must make this quick. Jess Reimer and I are in charge of the Spouses of Students group at Regent College and today (this morning) os our big term event. It has been a long time coming with more planning than will show, but after this morning it will pretty much be over, the SOS thing that is. Jess and i will begin to look for a replacement for next year. It's been good, but pretty exhausting and a bit heavy at times. Ugh! On a lighter note, Derek and I are having a housewarming party tonight and I am very excited about it. We bought a little too much alcohol (never a bad thing) and are going to spend the afternoon cooking and cleaning and preparing for this evening. I am stoked. I love parties!

P.S. Here is my shout out to you Lara (and Sienna too, cause she's cute)

moving on...

So Derek and I have moved to a new place...yay! We love it. Allow me to give you our crazy schedule of events that has made this move a bit on the stressful side...

Tuesday, feb 21: Go look at basement suite and love it
Wednesday, feb 22: Tell old Landlords we're moving (quite sad)
Thursday, feb 23: Old Landlords find someone to move in asap
Friday, feb 24: start packing
Sat, sun, mon: pack, pack, pack
Tuesday, feb 28: start moving
Wednesday, march 1: move completely out of old place

So basically what this all means is that we found a place and moved all in about a week. Ahhh! Needless to say, Derek and I are a bit exhausted. But it is all worth it because we love our new place. It is beautiful, new and has an amazing kitchen. You should come over!

In other news, my mom is coming to visit me today and will stay for a week. I am very excited. I am going to take her over to Victoria this weekend. She should be here soon :)


**A little shout out to Aud-dawg**

myspace, pyspace

So lately I have become addicted to one website known as 'myspace'. For some reason, I just can't get enough. Sadly, due to this, I have been neglecting my blog and to my faithful readers, I appologize. Today is a day that I have been waiting for for many weeks and months to come. And the best part of it all is that I am skipping work for it! Yes! My good friend, Shelley and I have taken the day off work and are heading one hour south to a city I like to call "targetville" aka Bellingham, Washington. Shelley and I will spend this day, yes ALL stinkin day...SHOPPING! To any guys out there, I am sure this sounds like pure tourture. But to any girls this is truly heavenly! Wish me luck on my shopping spree and we will see what I come home with! Off we go....

V-day

Valentine's day is not really a big deal at the Brown household as Derek thinks it is just a Hallmark holiday and blah blah blah. I don't really mind, but deep down I also would be okay with making a big deal out of it and doing something fancy and fun. Well, the big and fancy part didn't happen. But when I got home last night Derek had bought me flowers accompanied my strawberries and chocolate. We had dinner, he did homework then later we watched Law and Order and ate the strawberries and chocolate. What else could I ask for?! It was perfect :)


P.S. longest run yet accomplished today-45 minutes! And it was gorgeous outside! hehe!

Sick and tired

For 4 days now I have been sick...I mean down and out sick! Sleeping, hardly eating and watching far too much TV. I woke up Friday morning with a 102 degree (fahrenheit, that is) fever - random. I was feeling a bit down the night before but not expecting to wake up with a high fever like that. So I had to call in sick and actually had to reschedule a job interview that I was very much looking forward to (not something you want to have to reschedule). A lot of my friends have been sick too so there is for sure somehting going around. It's crazy around here! Usually when I get sick (unless it's something major), it's about one solid day of feeling icky and then a day to recover and I'm good to go. But this has been 4 days of the icky. My fever came and it went for 3 days. Up and down, up and down. Talk about exhausting! I had to call in sick to work again today...and apparently so did every one else. My poor boss had to cover 3 different people shifts all alone. But the day is done and I will be heading back to work tomorrow no matter how I feel because my guilt has overcome my sickness and that's just the way I work. But rest assured, I am feeling a lot better than I did 3 days ago. Yay!

Some highlights of the past week or so:

*Went on an all-church retreat last weekend and had an amazing time (will post pictures soon)!
*I completed my longest run yet-40 minutes!
*Got to be a part of the celebrations for Chad's birthday...i love birthdays!
*Was taken out for Thai food by my boss (and friend)
*I now have a total of 34 friends on myspace-don't be jealous ;)
*I recieved a sweet and romantic card from my husband (it was an e-card, but still!)
*I worked overtime last week so got to take 1/2 of today off!
*Made a nice chunk of money babysitting this past weekend and now get to go shopping!!

That's all for now!!!

Please take a moment to glance down at my Jan 16th post about Oregon...oh how I love it :)
Read it again...or for the first time-it's just SO true!

my art

I can't draw, I can't paint and I can't even write that well...but I can do this:



















more to come as my skills improve