I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

The wonderful, lovely, most awesomest lady is back in Canada for the holidays. 
One of my best friend LETITIA! It's unbelievable to have her back.

I think i've spent more time with her than any other the other two. Which is fine by me muhahaha. It's been so good to catch up. And when I say catch up, I mean really have heart to hearts instead of the wishy washy: "Hey how's it going." "Good I was frustrated with work today" "Oh Sucks, tomorrow's another day."

I mean hear dreams, share sorrows, shed tears of both happiness and heartache.

We were all standing in church this Sunday all side by side. I remember when that was normal. It was an everyday thing.

We take those we have in our lives for granted. I know I do on a daily basis, no matter how hard I try not to. No matter how much I try and cherish the little things, they're so easy to forget. You don't know what the little things are until you don't get to do them anymore.

But this holiday has been superb. The ONLY thing that could have made it better was if our 5th member returned to us. Channel :( One day the 5 of us will be together again just like old times. I miss the 5 of us. But i'm grateful for the time I have now.

I've been thinking a lot of the time lately. Man, I don't have enough time for all the things I want to accomplish. God definitely made a day 24 hours for a reason, he made the time we have on earth brief for a certain reason. We have to manage our time wisely. Spend our time in the most appropriate and useful way. I think the phrase, or terminology of "spending our time" is intriguing. It's a weird thought that we can SPEND our time kinda like we can spend money. There is way more value to the way you can spend you're time than the way you spend you're money. Money can do ALL sorts of things, and yes it's a wonderful thing, it provides for you and for others. But when we reach our last day, it's not going to be all about what money you spent where, even if you gave most of you're money away. God is going to look more at what you did with the TIME he gave you on earth.

Well I wasn't exactly sure where that was going and I got lost a time or two on the way. But I hope I spend my time wisely. It is definitely one thing i struggle with and am making a better attempt with in the new year.

I left my heart in _______

I've fallen in love.

Seriously guys, I have. I've fallen in love with the seawall. HAHAH I bet I had some of you going. Hehe.

(sorry for the sideways-ness it's late, my computer is slow and i don't wanna spend hours flipping them)

I haven't been to the Seawall since well a few years, and because of the Olympics they've basically renovated it all since the last time I've been there. And it's gorgeous. I would actually love to just sit and stroll along there all day and every day. It was Canada Day I discovered it's beauty. And since I didn't quite get enough of it then I decided I had to go down again.

Lenny (Leanna) worked on my birthday so I luckily got to extend my birthday into a second day...(well actually my entire week had been filled with little birthday dates, it's grand). So Lenny and I spent the afternoon there after I went to Apple to replace my iPhone.

We sat on the grass and just admired the lush greenery blend with the concrete giant's and the sun strongly shone between them in spite of their demeanor. Then we strolled along a dock literally on the water having fun with the swaying of the waves. Then continued walking a few miles but because of all my walking the day before i was in my cast and quite sunburnt therefor uncomfortable and didn't make it as far as I know we both wanted to. But another time.

We stopped at the CUTEST cafe, which we ordered pannini's and sanpelegrino where the barista brought everything out to us and we just sat oceanside. Then we walked back and sat along the water and watched the sun set...

Wow that sounded romantic..so for you couples out there, perfect date, I swear!

It was about 10 so we headed back to the skytrain to retire to Lenny's for the night and relax.

I wanted to put in a bunch of pictures but they just aren't working right now and it is getting late! I will see if I can edit in a few days and add some!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME :)

Hello Folks!

SUMMER HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!

Such a relief! Sunshine sunshine sunshine starting this week. Tuesday to be exact, my birthday, was the first day of 20-something weather to hit of summer. So what did I do, obviously grab one of my best friends and go to the beach :)

It was grand! Got up nice and early put on my new little white lace dress and my hat and headed out the door with TWO sandals on. Yes you heard me, two sandals. NO CAST! Woot...well to be cautious i brought it in my bag and used it a little bit. But hey it's a start. It was my birthday i wasn't gonna let that thing slow me down. And I felt so loved with the numerous text messages and personalized Happy Birthday wall posts.

We tanned, strolled, had lunch beach front, relaxed and played in the shoreline. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here's a few thousand for you to catch a glimpse into my birthday day. Man my city is beautiful!

I don't think I could have asked for anything better.

Well maybe not the really nasty sunburn I got when I was down there. And I could have done without dropping my iphone in the ocean. Yeah...in the ocean. I know stupid to bring my phone in the ocean right? But we were just walking in the shallows and i wanted to take pictures.

BUT GOD IS GOOD!

 And so is Apple! Since it was in the first year of it's warrenty they gave me a brand new phone, NO questions asked! God definitely delivers because I could not afford to buy myself a new iphone!

This months Yellow Brick Road

Almost two weeks since I have broken my foot. It has been interesting to say the least, and its DEFINITELY had its ups and downs.

Most of the time I'm super bored. The first week of relaxing was nice. Now I don't feel relaxed. I feel like a cooped up chicken. The first three days I just wanted to throw my crutches, now I'm getting pretty good at them. I've crossed pretty much everything off my list besides some books i wanna finish reading. I actually just wanna run. And this is going to be THE first thing I'm going to do. Maybe go for a walk. Frolic in a field. Do summersaults. I don't know just get out of this house. I really think this is the only reason I'm still working. Is to get out of the house. And I cannot wait for Sunday's a lot more than usual.

On the other hand...

I am SO thankful for everyone in my life being so supportive and visiting me and such. I especially like treats, until my mom started getting mad at my brother bringing me ice cream. But hey, I wanted ice cream and he wanted a reason to drive. It WAS the perfect solution at the time.

I am SO thankful I really am not in any pain other than discomfort. I really haven't even taken any medication or Tylenol since it happened. Actually even on the day it happened I didn't take anything. So blessed, I could be in a ton of pain.

It also could have been way worse. I could have fallen and broken more, had surgery, be in one of those permanent casts instead of my removable air cast (although i kinda wanted one of those so people could sign it), or had a permanent injury of some sort for it. 

And I'm BEYOND thankful that this isn't permanent. Some people have to live on crutches, in wheelchairs, in hospitals, and at a young age too. Yeah right now this sucks for me. But I think about all the people who live like this day to day. The people that have cancer and ARE stuck at home everyday like my friend Sam was. I'm always reminded that someone else ALWAYS has it worse. And God loves that person no more and no less than myself.

What I find the craziest is the God is performing a miracle on my right now. He is moving and healing the bone right inside me. I find this the craziest thing. I cannot hear, feel, see, know this is going on. Two days after I went back to the doctors he told me the bone moved by itself back into place. God made our bodies this awesome. Think about all the functions your body has. It does so many things just to keep itself healthy that you're not even aware of, it just does them by itself. I think that's pretty miraculous. Something like that HAD to be made by something. And I love my creator so much for designing and caring for my body. When we break ourselves, literally, we're not just broke like when you break a twig of a tree. I think that's something to be more than thankful for.

I really am the kind of person that's ALWAYS on the go, never home. So this is weird and frustrating for me. I've already learnt so much about God and myself and its only the first little while. Well not like this is actually going to be a long period of time. I have chosen that this is a positive, and yes I have moment's where I get frustrated and think 'this is such an inconvenience.' It's in the time of inconvenience and fear that you have the most opportunity to grow.

Proverbs 17:17

Where ever we are: I'll love you guys to pieces.

I feel like I take the fact that I have the two of you (Gabbi and Paula) here with me right now for granted. The fact that I can talk to you face to face, or even simply give you a hug..or a nose massage means so much. So just so you know I love you two and I don't know what I would do without you. Leanna and Meaghan too! God put all 4...well 6 of you in my life for a specific reason. And each of you have a different reason. I'm so blessed to have you all and I'm always thankful. I just wanted you to know.

(PS a found a good friend picture with 5 girls; woot)

PROVERBS 17:17

Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together through all kinds of trouble.

HAPPY BRITHDAY TOASTER FACE :)

So there's this lady whose been my best friend for some time now. If you don't know her you should because she's more than amazing. Beautiful, caring, ever so talented, and has the biggest dreams. Needless to say I love her more than she knows. I won't go into detail as I have already expressd how much she means to me in a lengthy lenghty card! But TODAY she enters adulthood officially. Non of this teen thing attacthed to your age. I'm so excited for the next chapter of her and all of our lives, (you know who you are, "our").

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY
GABRIELA ADRIANA TARVES

(otherwise known at Toaster Face)

HEY NICOLE, i'm talking to you.

NOTE TO SELF:

When feeling low or unispired this summer

READ THIS

and your bible

I wanna live this summer to it's fullest. Seize the moment cause if the last year has taught me anything you have to treasure the time you have on this planet and definitely the time you have with people You're only at this stage of your life for so long.

Me and Gab's were talking the other day about how sometimes she gets frustrated and just wants to be done with all the in between and just wants to be where she wants to be already. And thats exactly how i've been feeling the last year. I just wanna own my design firm and have a family. Maybe I wouldn't go as far as to say frustrated, theres just some days where I just wanna be there, you know. Yes, sometimes the getting there sucks but today I realised I have to much to do in this time right now. Heck i'm not even 20 yet.

I think dreaming does that to you, you get so excited for the future and you start to dream bigger and God shows you what he wants for your future and its so awesome you just want it now. If there wasn't a reason for the road to getting there God would just give it to you.

Today, in particular, was a day full of inspiration and good news. It definitely showed me how much I do love learning and dreaming. I realised that right now to get where I want to be I need to be learning and dreaming. I wanna learn something new everyday and live everyday more inspired than I ever have. Live my summer with a purpose, hence the list. To take time to be my age, and act like a fool with my friends.

SUMMER GOAL:

Live life to the fullest

God died to give you life

Let the sun on my shoulders shine.

I'm getting so excited for summer. I have lots planned as always, and like usual most of them won't be completed but this year i'm determined. I wanna be a beach junkie.

 My plan is as soon as this semester is over legit try and get my liscence, and my parents are at the point to do anything to get it. Lesson to be booked test in May booked and if i fail i'm going to go on standbye every two weeks until i get it. Cause it's just ridiculous. Get my truck and cruise to the beach when ever i'm not working.

So this is my summer time bucket list:

Get my liscence
Road trip
be a beach junkie
Learn to suft
Turn 20!
Make a fort on the beach and
    literally chill there all day from morn to past sundown
Have a picnic
hold an actual bar b que
Have a giant tea party
Camp out in my yard
Go for a "nature walk" and take pictures
Photo shoot
Ride a bike around the Sea Wall
Camping
Find a beach that allows bonfires and have one
Bon fire in my back yard.
Make a GIANT fort and have a movie marthon in it
Finish 3 books
Read my books in the sun at the beach
Finish my sketch book for my portfolio
Interview some local Designers

Thats all i can think of for right now :)

Chasing Rainbows

If you have not noticed, I love coziness. Blankets, fires(camp or fireplaces), Pajama's, Sweaters, Mittens, slippers, knits, cozying up with a good book and a tea, etc. Today was my only day of reading break, I used this day to make a wicked awesome fort with Best Friend. It was by far the best fort I have ever built. Maybe not the best i have ever seen, especially after looking for pictures for this entry. There are definitely some awesome ones out there. I'm now totally stoked to make an even bigger and better fort. Maybe thats what i'll do for my birthday, a HUGE fort-out. With pretty lights, full of pillows and maybe some air fresheners if Gabbi's gonna come. Definitely NO DORITOS. Ahem. Here is a phone picture of our lovely creation.

So I spent majority of my wholed up in a wonderful little paradise with best friend sister and second mother watching Community. Which is a new favorite you must check it out. Sorry Paul for say I did not like this show before. My bad that I definitely thought it was another show, Parks and Recreation I think. We had tons of pillows and Alex brought in the christmas lights to line the place and bring in some light. It was indeed our own little hideaway.

It also got me thinking about how our life is like a fort. Sometimes you keep yourself comfortable within your own little walls and never step out of the "fort". You get lazy and distracted and put aside the stuff that God is asking you to do and you start to procrastinate because you don't wanna leave your little bubble of coziness where you're comfortable with everyone inside your walls. You spend so much time building your little fort and when its done its your own little paradise too afriad to leave or let anyone foreign in your fort. However nice your fort is you can never grow or learn within your fort, of course you could have your laptop and learn things on there maybe stay in your fort forever and take online courses. But what would you do with that information, you would have no hands on experience with it. You couldn't take a bunch of business courses and go out and actually have the skills to open and run a business. Or you could sit and read your bible all day every day. Sure the bible is AWESOMELY WICKED. I mean its the word of God, which basically means its fantastic and you can't do life without it. But what would you do with the life God has spoken into you within the walls of your fort. You need to step out and be uncomfortable to grow, you NEED to step out and be uncomfortable to shows God's grace and love. You get it?

So my goal is to create the most awesome fort ever. Another thought, Letitia this is for you. My dear friend Letitia told me about how in England for Christmas they have what you call a 'lockdown' with all your family for like a week and just watch movies, be lazy, eat, and catch up with one another. When she comes back she wants to do this with all of us. I am so totally excited for that.

And I have a new proposition: This should happen in an extreme FORT!

I now introduce you to...!

Made by the amazingly talented

Paula Barrientos!

This girls got talent, and i'm proud to call her a best friend!

The story of my life, and the most amazing people in it.

 Love you guys.

Twilight zone?

If any of you don't know, which i'm pretty sure all of you do because no one reads my blog besides my closest friends pretty much, two of my best friends took off on a plane. one to plight to Bradford, England and the other's travels took her to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It has been super hard to keep each other updated. Even with technology all the technology in the world it doesn't change the time difference...well actually if you have a time machine it would, that would be sweet I would go back in time and be like hey jesus whats up? Well maybe I wouldn't say whats up cause i don't think I would be that casual i think i would be more in awe and be like jesus is in front of my right now...right now. Wow that would blow my mind...okay i'm getting off topic. On our Saturday night sleep over the three of us made a plan to skype..(or well tokbox because its better when you want to video more that one person), all 5 of us. Well it failed, lame time change calculations.

So the time change completely ruined us all skypeing together..but the one thing that was kinda neat was we actually did get to talk to both Chanel and Letitia at 1am. So it was like we were talking to both of them at once except we weren't does anyone get what i'm saying? Let me break it down. 11:30 to 215ish* we talk to Chanel. Except because of the fall back we got a complete second chance at 1am. Letitia comes on at 1:16...yeah thats right one minute after Chanel goes to bed.  That was probably a waste of your life reading that paragraph but I found it pretty cool.

Even though we didn't get to talk all 5 of us at once, our conversations where awsome. We sang Chanel a string of songs to make her cry, except she held the actual tears in very well even though they were on the brink of pouring from her eyes like a spout. I loved singing all the old songs we used to listen to in Hector. I should make a mix of the songs we used to listen to, i'll call it the hector mix :) But it was truly great to hear what was going on in our lives straight to each other and not just in message. Its not quite the same when you tell great news and you don't get to see their reaction.

This is probably getting boring so i'll leave you with that and the fact my eye is gonna twitch right out of its socket within seconds. But the night way grand, its amazing i was able to spend the night with all my best friend even though their half way around the world. It was a little like we all had a sleep over and stayed. Went to bed with Chanel and woke up with Letitia and had pancakes.

100th post

When my soul is weak

I sing God strengthen me

When I find myself in need

I sing God rescue me

When my troubles overwhelm

I sing God bring your peace

Lord your one and only Son

Is all I ever need

I am free, free

All my chains are broken

Sometime this is all I really need to hear. Man Parachute Band is so good, just put them on random and I hear exactly what I need to hear ALL the time...well i know that has alot to do with God. Man sometime I really don't realise how much he's needed in my life. From where I am just over a year ago to now like i know i've said this a few posts earlier but man i can't even believe it. Like I love my family but I have a whole new one that god has given me that makes up for all the crap at home. Always supportive never judgemental and I have the best friend you could ever ask for man their halfway around the world because god brought them their. Amazing.



This is my one hundreth post by the way, yay. So my day was super boring but I know Chanel and Letitia wanna hear it all sooo. Woke up so late and went to the mall cause i'm in desperate need of jeans because i have NONE, litteraly no jeans. So i got jeans and pj bottoms. then got two shirts and a purse for super super cheap cause Off the Wall is shutting down and everythings on sale plus 40 percent off the lowest ticketed price. Nuts. So i think my fall/winter/spring wardrobe is complete can't spend anymore money haha. I have to work at 5 am tomorrow but...i woke up at 1pm today so theres no way i'm sleeping now i've attempted.

OOOH and starbucks drinks are out. MY FAVOURITE. Had a Eggnog Latte today and can't wait to make a chai eggnog latte sunday at church!

Miss this

She's leaving on a jet plane..nope; she's already gone

Okay so its actually been forever.
So i'll just dive right in.

The last few weeks have by far been some of the busiest i've ever had. From Saturday to thurday i had a total of 12 hours of sleep; two all nights a 6 hour sleep and 2 3 hours i guess you could call them naps. But its all starting to look up. I'm finally sleep regular hours, getting stuff done, and my cold is almost gone except for the itchy throat.

Major even of last week. One of my bests went and started a life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lack of sleep and emotions clearly didn't prove well for me cause i was a weeping disaster. Paula you can't leave saying good bye to two of you has been way to darn hard.
I don't wanna talk about this anymore cause i'll cry, so Chanel I love you so darn much and i know god has such amazing plans for you over there, and i know you're coming back here eventually.

On another note; this week has been looking up drastically. Got all my shifts taken for the week cause my family is in town for thanksgiving, shopping with Gabbi on Thursday finally. My brothers birthday and lifegroup tomorrow. And I cannot forget Mike is recovering quite well theres been some major good news, and its definately all god.

LOVE GOD LOVE LIFE LOVE PEOPLE :)

oh and i'm too lazy right now to put in pictures way to much to do tonight

You, my brown eyed girl.

I've been stuck up in my room all day long due to the worst cold I can ever remember having. How I Met your Mother thank you for saving my day; besides the 54 minute wait after every 72 minutes. But its kinda nice to have a break and hear the rain patter outside my window and cuddle with my dog, incessant nose blowing and coughing aside.


But since I have nothing to do waiting another 37 minutes to watch more How I Met your Mother let me catch you all up on my last few days.
So Saturday was the last time i posted I believe.
I don't think anything particularly out of ordinary happened on Monday so we can skip to Tuesday.
Did I mention Tuesday's are my favourite; 4 hours of art in the morning then life group at night. This Tuesday however was extra good, really it was quite bitter-sweet.

Art was fun spent all class drawing a hallway which students decided they wanted to block while waiting for their class. Right after class I bused back to home and met a friend from kindergarten Madison. It was so wonderful catching up and listening to her stories of love and how great this guy is that she's met. She's moving to Australia in a few days for a year, cause that's where he's from. But anyways, so good to catch up with each other even though at sometimes we're not even a block away from each other. This is when I noticed i was getting sick so i went home and had a nap before Life group....Chanel's last official Life group but we'll get to that part a tad later. So the girls came and we all had a wonderful time chatting then watching the Glee Season premiere. Sadly dear Madi had tummy problems and felt sick, I felt so bad. So shout out to Madi, LOVE YOU!
So Life group is now over and Chanel sees the last of the girls out she turns around and tears stream down her face so i gave her a big hug and Gab joins us. We decide to break it up before it becomes a brawl session So we head upstairs so Gab's can draw Chanel blindly. First step into Chanel's room Gab start to bawl then chanel does then I do then Alex does. We're all weeping then somewhat start laughing cause we're being such babies.

Okay so i'm gonna stop rambling now and get to a conclusion of my events.
I can't even believe the people God has put in my life. A few years ago I never thought I could love so many people so dearly. Every single one of them mean something so different to me. Old friendships, Best friends, New friends, and of course my girlies :)



Chanel I don't even know what i'm gonna do when you're gone for 2. We may not have been best friends all through high school but you were always there since grade eight. Through you me and Sasha and now Me You and Gab's as well as the wonderful few additions that have made our whole family. Now you're a crucial part of the 5 of us, and mean a heck of a lot to me.



Well now i'm crying again. Time to instill my plan from Tuesday night - dehydration to stop the tears.
And I couldn't find a good picture of 5 girls so these have to suffice.