Brainwave

We've discovered that the way to make me not feel pukey is to give me food that doesn't smell, so biscuits, tinned fruit, and cereal have all become major parts of my diet right now.

I have renewed admiration for my poor hubby. Right now he puts up with a grumpy wife who pretty much makes him do everything in the kitchen right now (due to the grossness of it), and who sleeps most of the time. He really is a saint, I love him SO MUCH, God was good to me when he blessed me with this man for my husband.

The bizarreness of pregnancy

I love the fact that I am pregnant, I am in awe that God has blessed us with a child. I love reading about how the baby is growing week by week.

Aren't you amazed at how God made us? Everything has a reason. When our body needs to rest, we feel tired. We have nerves under our skin to tell us if we are hurt/damaged. If we eat something bad for us, our body responds to get rid of it. God made our bodies in a way that should help us look after and protect it.

Here is where I am confused, I am a great believer in the way the Lord made our bodies, but I am confused by morning sickness. I feel neaseous all day, and don't really want to eat much of anything, yet I need to consider the fact that I and my baby need nourishment. Yesterday all I wanted was a chip butty with gravy, which Gibson's (the best chippy in Canada as far as I'm concerned) was happy to supply me with. But how nourishing is that? But, as many people have told me, right now I just need to eat whatever and whenever my body allows. Thankfully occasionally I crave cucumbers (like right now) or tinned tomatoes (last night), so at least I'm getting some veggies;-)

The good, the bad and the ugly

So after the big dump and deep freeze that we experianced last week, I have been pleasantly surprised with some warmer weather this week, today we should get to a high of +3. But then it's gonna go back to the cooler temps by the weekend, oh well.

I had 2 revelations this morning. The first is that one thing I do need to appreciate about living in Saskatchewan and going through the freezing winters, is that at least I don't need to worry about spiders like you do in the UK. The winters are too dry for spiders here , so you only ever see them in the summer! I LOVE IT! And the ones you see in the summer are still not as bad as some of the beast that sometimes reside in my Mum's house.

But that leads to revelation number 2, and that is that I just am going to have to accept that now that I live in Saskatchewan I am going to get sinus infections for as long as I live here. I truly believe that my system just doesn't like the dryness. Even when I am feeling fine and am not sick, most mornings I will wake up with a blocked nose, and that's with a humidifier running through the night in our bedroom, if we didn't have the humidifier going I would be even more blocked up.

Have I ever said how cute my Mum is? She is very excited about the baby and has decided that she's not waiting for my first ultra sound to check the due date, she's booking her flight over now to make sure she gets a seat! I love her.

The long wait.

Well, other than the morning sickness and feeling tired all the time, I don't feel that much different yet. You instantly think that being pregnant means you get a belly in 2 seconds flat right? It's weird how even though you know that's not what happens your still surprised when you still look exactly the same.

I'm excited to start looking pregnant, and to feel the baby moving. Allison has lent me this great book that goes through the pregnancy week by week and has pictures showing what the baby looks like, what it's doing and how it's growing... I love it.

I'm excited about this weekend, especially Saturday night cos I'm going over to Lisa's to celebrate her birthday with her, and we're having... FONDUE.... what a surprise. It's gonna be great.

Due date

I'm sorry, my bad, I forgot to put on the due date, baby Unger is due on the 4th of July 2007!

YAY!!!!!

What a blessing!

We're having a BABY!

I can barely contain my excitement!

Morning sickness is definately not the happiest thing ever, but I haven't actually puked yet, just been feeling nauseous. I have discovered that if I keep snacking the nausea isn't so bad.

Please could you all be praying for us, that the baby will continue to grow, be healthy and stay safe.

The weekend

Here is my 3rd attempt at getting this post on to my blog... 3rd times a charm right?

We had fun hanging out with Wes, Daniel & Steven on Friday night, and Diane arrived later after she was done helping at Snr youth.

Saturday was a fun day, we did christmas shoppiing for the Brit side of the family, hung out with Darren and went to see The Prestige at the new Galaxy cinema. That film is REALLY GOOD, I would definately recommend it. I won't say anything about it because knowing me I'll give something away that I shouldn't... but do go and see it!

Stupid excuses

How many stupid excuses do we daily use to make it alright to talk or criticise someone behind their back?

I was thinking about how frustrated we get with each other sometimes and it's so easy to get annoyed with someone right? So that makes it OK to moan right? WRONG!

I was also annoyed with myself for how easy it is for me to think badly about others. But what made it worse was when I realised how prejudiced I could be, without even knowing it. If I get upset with another christian, then afterwards I feel bad because I should love my fellow believer. I remember how annoyed I used to get at my none christian co-workers back in the UK, and my attitude at the time wasn't 'I should love them because God loves them', oh no. Don't get me wrong, I didn't consciensciously think 'They aren't a christian, so it's OK to get annoyed with them', but I didn't feel guilty the way I do when I'm annoyed with another christian.... how much of a horrible person am I?

AARRGGHHHH! I get so annoyed with myself!

Along the same topic, I've noticed how I make excuses for saying bad things or criticising others, by making it as an example. I truly need to learn how to KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT! WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN! I feel like I am constantly implanting both my feet in my mouth! And I say things then feel so bad about them, especially because half the time I say something, and then replay it in my head later and realise tht people could have taken it totally the wrong way or not totally understood my meaning. Not that that excuses me, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

So if ever I have offended you, with my big fat stupid mouth.... I AM TRULY SORRY!!!

I seriously think that God groans sometimes at the things that flow out of my mouth, and then gets annoyed at the unnecessary hurt and anxiety that has followed. I feel humbled at His graciousness towards me.

So work has been good this week. I am helping Kim run a Disorganised Sports club, and I really am loving the oppotunity to spend more time with kids, it really is a highlight of my week. We have some interesting characters attend, but they are all lovely kids. I got my new desk, it looks a lot more like a reception area now, it's so good! I was very excited! And some boxes are gone now that I have had a chance to unpack. The building itself really is looking good now, all that hard work is definately starting to pay off.

Something I have been very excited about the last 4 months is Spark People. I found this website called sparkpeople.com, basically it is a website set up to help you have a healthier lifestyle. So if like me you want to lose weight, they will help you. But I don't see this as a diet, I see this as being taught how to eat healthier, and look after myself better. Plus it's FREE! Even better. So if you want to be healthier, if you want to make sure you're eating the right things, or find some funner ways to get exercise please take a look at www.sparkpeople.com

Me & Becky 

Winter has officially hit

The frost silently killed my beautiful sunflowers on Tuesday evening... I am grieving their departure, they had such short but beautiful lives.

Moving on.... I'm sorry for the long silence, but I didn't think you wanted to hear me YET AGAIN complaining about another stupid sinus infection, so I stayed away until it is almost gone before commenting.

I got such a nice surprise last week when I recieved an e-mail from an acquaintance from Norwich last week, Becky, and now she's here in Saskatoon visiting friends. She came over to the office yesterday and I showed her around our labour of love, and she will be coming over to ours tonight for dinner, I'm quite excited! It will be fun to catch up, find out how people are, reminisce and share the joy that is Norwich YFC. YAY!

I can't remember what this is called, but I love it's colour and texture, especially when all the burgundy autumn cherry tree leaves are around it. 

My sunflowers have finally bloomed! 

My strawberry plant is still blooming, and if the weather stays good I have plenty of strawberries waiting to ripen 

My ripe strawberry amongst autumn leaves 

Beautiful Buffalo Pound 

Tired but happy 

Boy horsing around on Derek's Jet ski 

My boy 

My gladioli 

Joy & Jared 

The Dreaded Lurgey

Yesterday was doomed to be a bad day when I mistakenly got an EXTRA LARGE NORMAL Tim Hortons coffee, instead of my DE-CAFF.... WOOOPS! Yep, as well as having a sore throat, I self inflicted feeling awful all day, by mistake obviously, but still, how stupid am I. Thankfully I managed to take some pain killers before I got the killer migraine, but a weird side effect was that I felt like puking all day.
So last night I ended up having to stay home and watch a movie. 'What's wrong with that?' you might ask. Well, what's wrong with that is that my close friend Tanya just got ENGAGED!!! YAY! And I was meant to be meeting them for a celebratory drink! MEH!
But I did get to watch 'The Lake House', which is no where near as good as drinks with Tanya & Todd, but I have to admit to loving that movie, it was very good, I'm a soppy romantic and don't care if people know it.
Talking of good films, I watched 'Kinky Boots' on Wednesday night, another good'un. It's based in Northampton, England, on a true story. Very good british movie... I loved this one too.

Anyways, I would appreciate prayer as yet again I'm feeling awful and I really DO NOT want to take time off work. THANK YOU!

The weekend...

It's so nice to just have a nice relaxing weekend.

Friday night we stayed home and watched TV, then I went to bed early to read, and I fell asleep before 10pm... I am such and OLD CODGER!

Saturday I was up nice and early, so I crept downstairs so that I didn't wake L up and read somemore. I had a nice long conversation with my big sis which was so good, and then a nice chat with Debs on MSN, she has a webcam so I could see and hear her, whereas we only had a mic so she could only hear me, but we rectified that problem on Saturday afternoon by going and pur-chasing a webcam.... I am so excited, I'm going to MAKE my bro get a webcam so that I can have proper chats with my nephew Ben, and then he will actually know who 'Aunty Ciss & Unce Indsay' are! Plus it will be so much nicer to chat with family and friends who are far away, and be able to see them, then it really feels like a proper conversation.

Talking of which, I spoke to Bob just before we went to get the webcam. I really do LOVE my brother, he really is great, and always makes me laugh. He is the peace maker in our household. So I had a great chat with him, and Ben came on the phone and told me about his day, although I didn't totally understand him, toddler gibberish plus cute irish accent kept me from translating everything, but it was so good jsut to hear his voice!

That night, Joy, Allison, Ryan & Jared came over. The boys played X-box, and the girls all cooed over Jared, he is SO adorable, I took a great pic of Joy and Jared that I will post on here ASAP. So that was a great night, just catching up, and hearing all about Allison & Ryan's new house.

Sunday was Tanya's last Sunday at Cornerstone as a residant of S'toon...POOEY! So she leaves us on Friday...it's very sad. So a whole bunch of us went to Boston Pizza, which was fun, BUT the service was a tad shoddy. It took forever for us to get our food, we were there by 1pm, and didn't eat our main courses until 2.20pm!

3pm L & I arrived at the YFC building for an appreciation put on for us by Western Tract Mission, they were appreciating all their volunteers and all the ministries that had been renting with them the last couple of years. It was really nice. Afterwards we went to JD Peppercorns with Gil & Ally, and Kim & Barb, to watch the last 1/4 of the Riders game. That was great, Gil is so passionate, it was very entertaining! And the Riders won, so everyone was very happy.

A FREE WEEKEND!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!

Yes, the last couple of months have been manic, and I feel like I've hardly been in my house, but this weekend we are actually home.... aaaahhhhhh what bliss!

I need to get on and finish my jigsaw puzzle before Lindsay chucks it in the bin, he's getting frustrated with it being on our kitchen table, and I am getting frustrated at how slow this one is going. BUT it is a WASGIJ, so I know that it will be worth it in the end.... "The picture you see on the box lid is NOT the puzzle picture but holds the clues to what the puzzle picture is. To complete the puzzle, imagine what the characters in the box lid image can see..." . I love these jigsaw's, they are addictive!

Wednesday night was Tanya's farewell party at Erica's, and it really was a fun night. We defied the drizzle and sat around the firepit. Erica the great idea of us each toasting Tanya, and it was great to be a part of that, it was so good to hear how Tanya had touched other peoples lives... WE LOVE YOU TANYA!

Accident

I was shocked to read on the BBC website ( www.bbc.co.uk ) that Richard Hammond has been seriously injured in an accident while filming for Top Gear. Because of this the BBC are being investigated, and the program is under scrutiny because some critics say that this show has become "obsessed with acceleration and speed". I feel like this is a little harsh to be talking about right now. Yes there does need to be an inquiry in to what happened, but the last thing his family and friends (which include the people he works with) need right now is for the show that he loves presenting on, to be bad mouthed in the press while they are all worried sick about how he is.

I love the show, it actually made me more interested in cars, and I love that it is a show that Lindsay & I both really like to watch. And I have to admit to Richard being my favourite of the 3 presenters, Jeremy is funny ... granted, and James has good dry wit, but Richard is such a cheeky chappy.

I really feel badly for Richard and his family right now, and they are in my prayers.

Brrr it's chilly!

We are still renovating our new office building, and we don't have a furnace yet, so I'm a bit chilly working here right now. I'm sat with my flannel long sleeved shirt, wooly jumper and scarf on, with a small heater at my feet and my thermos mug full of herbal tea.

I need to get back in to my routine. Gym 3 times a week, and stick to my healthy eating plan. Please ask me how it's going, I need support and encouragement. I have my gym bag with me, so I need to remember to get changed before I leave work today so I can go straight after I've picked up L.

I'm feeling kinda sad right now, cos my buddy Tanya is moving to Regina in 10 days. I know that we'll still see each other, but I have to admit to feeling lost at the thought of her not being just up the hill from me, right now all I have to do is walk 5 minutes up the hill to her flat (which doesn't happen often right now but it's comforting knowing she's there). BUT, this is a good change for her, and it means that we'll be having more weekends away when we go visit her.

Following on

I've been away for the weekend at our Bourd/staff retreat, so only just checked my blog for comments. I always get excited when I get comments, I like to hear what other people are thinking.

So, people made some good comments and this is a delicate issue. I appreciate being challenged by others, and I agree with everything that was said.

I guess what I want to get across is the fact that alcohol itself isn't sinful, which is something that I have heard it described a lot as here in Canada within christian communities. How we abuse it is the sin. And we do need to be more aware of who is around us and if we are helping or hindering them, but we need to think about this on a broader spectrum, not just about alcohol ie: is my language helping/hindering, is what I am offering to eat helping/hindering, is what I am wearing helping/hindering.

My frustration is that we are so picky about alcohol, but not picky enough about other things as well. My frustration is that instead of teaching how to live our lives in moderation we just ban things, in that case I should just ban food right? Because I know I have an issue when it comes to eating, I don't know when to stop. Now I know that that statment is an exaggeration, I need to eat to survive, and you do not need alcohol to survive, but are you getting my point? This isn't about alcohol per se, it is about our attitude towards it.

But the other thing that drew me to the C.S. Lewis quote was the fact that he talks about how we seem to ignore other sinful behaviour because it doesn't really seem to be destructive therefore it's OK. The fact that I don't look after my body, and sometimes over eat is bad, and I need to recognise it as being bad.

When I read the bottom paragraph, I felt like I had been slapped in the face with his stinging words; Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals.

I'm sorry Chris... I stole your post.

I really am bad, I have been struggling with how alcohol is viewed here, and have been trying to explain my point of view and don't feel like I have explained it very well, so I was pleasantly surprised when I checked Chris' site and saw this excerpt from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I am ashamed to say that I still have not read this book, but this portion explains my views pretty well:

Temperance

One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons - marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turn.

One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word Temperance to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes golf or his motor-bicycle be the centre of his life, or a women who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as 'intemperate' as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals.

C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity

Now, I want you all to remember that I DO NOT agree with drunkeness, and I'm pretty certain that C.S. Lewis would agree on that point. But I do feel like it is all about self control and moderation. I feel like we need to be reminded of that more. Everything in moderation.

Prayer needed

The Executive Director of one of our chapters in BC is very ill with cancer, please could you be praying for healing and for his family. You can find out more info at his blog www.slimtimmy.blogspot.com

THANK YOU

Where did August go?

August just flew by, I guess because Hannah was here, and it just went TOO fast. It was great having Hannah here, we went to Waskasui, Wanuskewin, Buffalo Pound with Dawn, Edmonton and to the beautiful Rockies. We LOVED the Rockies, it's so breathtaking there.

So back to the real world.

Well, almost... we went down to Buffalo Pound with Dawn and Derek last weekend. It was great. The weather was nice and hot, the boys got to go to the Riders game and me & Dawn just had a nice relaxing weekend. It was fun, and peaceful.

Hannah 

Lindsay 

Me & Han on the boat 

Me in the tube just before we discovered we couldn't go tubing (boat problems) but after I had torn a hole in my swim suit from jumping off the dock 

Part of the Wanuskewin Heritage Park 

Han next to the south Saskatchewan River when we were at Wanuskewin 

Me & Han @ Wanuskewin 

Me @ Wanuskewin 

Time to focus

I've been having less than nice feelings about the fact that summer is almost over, just the fact that Friday is September upsets me. So I decided this morning that I need to try and focus on something good this winter, so I'm starting to focus on Christmas. I love Christmas, it's a fun time, so if I start getting excited now a) it reminds me that I need to shop soon for the Brit contingent and mail presents by November, b) it means I won't be quite so darn angry when it turns freezing.

That's my plan.

What do you believe?

I am feeling like a slug today, things are processing slowly, the cogs just keep sticking, I know there is a lot to be done, but I just can't seem to get in to gear properly.

And I keep feeling that gentle nudge... that nudge that is asking why I haven't sat down and had a proper conversation with Him in a while... why do we let ourselves be controlled by busyness? And THEN to top it all off, I find that I can't sit and have a quiet conversation, I've forgotten how to... I guess that's why I love the Apostle's creed and the Lords prayer, it brings me back in to focus, it helps me find the path. I miss not saying this every week, I miss that reminder of what I really believe without all the extra fluff that clouds things.

The Apostle's Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

AMEN.

The Lords Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen

Entering Jasper National Park

Hannah & Lindsay 

Jasper 

The view from the summit of Mount Whistler 

Me & Lindsay in Jasper 

Athabasca river just before the falls