To work or not to work, that is the question.?

So I am tired. SOO tired! I am still getting used to not being able to lay down and nap when I get exhausted. It's a totally different world being mommy. I am struggling with the idea of having to go back to work at the end of September when my Mat leave is up. Trust me, leaving my baby boy in the care of another person five days a week is not my ideal situation, but there is really no other sane option. I have to work... but I have a plan! See, if I get pregnant right soon, then I can work for 5 months and go back on maternity leave again. Downside (which is really an upside too): I'll have a new born AND a 18 month old to take care of! But its an idea. Nothing has really been decided yet, I'm more or less leaving it up to the fates :) (they never screw up!) Either way, I'll do my best with what I have to work with.

So on another note, summer is finally here! (You'd never guess by the amount of rain there has been lately). I am excited to get to spend lots of time with my family and friends this summer. We have a few trips planned, including a trip to Vancouver Island for a family reunion and then a 1-2 week camping trip in Vernon. Also, I plan to get to hike some more trails in Chilliwack with my sister and her adorable son. I am so grateful to have the entire summer to stuff full of activities before I have to go back to work. It at least makes me feel like I have used my time wisely.

Random confession: I have been watching a ridiculous amount of baby shows lately, mainly "I didn't know I was pregnant", and I am terrified that I may have been pregnant for the last 8 months and will spontaneously go into labour any minute! That show really makes you think that anything can happen! Tho, I am almost positive that nothing like that is going to happen (mostly because I took a pregnancy test last week and it was CLEARLY negative), I am just a nut!

Thanks for reading!

Decisions

I just made a very very difficult decision... I have made a lot of hard decision in my life (getting married, having a baby, buying a house), but for some reason, this one was one of the hardest. I was invited to crew on another sailing trip. This time they are headed to Mexico and eventually around the world and I was planning to help bring them from Canada to San Fransisco.

 Now if you look back, I have had lots of hopes and dreams about sailing and had the time of my life sailing to Maui and back 5 years ago. I have been craving a trip like this since I landed back in Canada! But I currently have a 5 month old son (Jack) who will only be 9 months when we depart. I have fought with the idea of going for months and months and made the decision today that I will not be going. I think I stared at my reply e-mail for an hour before I sent it!! Ugh. I wish my son was older, but life is what it is... Jack is growing so fast and I don't want to miss a second of it!

Life is full of regrets and there are lots of things that I have missed out on because I was too scared or shy or my priorities weren't in order. I thought that if I didn't go sailing, that I would regret it. But then I realized that I would probably regret even more missing my son's first camping trip in Vernon (we go every year) and possibly developmental milestones (like walking, talking etc). I never imagined how much my heart would be tied to my son - he's what I live for now. Perhaps if I am lucky, I will be able to rent a sailboat when we are in Vernon and then I'll have the best of both worlds.

Happy thoughts.

Long time no see!

Five years.. where have I been? I have thought about writing numerous times over the past few years but never got around to it. Tonight seems like the night to start. Let me set the mood first... Tonight is my first night at home alone since we bought our house and I am feeling lonely. The house is quiet, baby Jack is snoring and the cat keeps licking herself above my head on the pillow! you may wonder why I feel lonely with so much company in my bed, but neither of them can talk!!! This woman needs pillow talk every night to be able to sleep!

So let me back track a bit now and briefly catch you up to where my life is now... my sailing trip to Maui was life-changing! It was probably the most interesting thing I have ever done! And so I will detail about it another day. After this trip, I flew home and worked at camp all summer. I was then invited to fly back out to Hawaii and help crew the sailboat back... again, life-changing! I did not go back to school after that because UCFV, once again, cancelled my Adventure Tourism program! err...! I got rehired as a flag person and worked full time until summer 2008. In November 2007, I learned all about clubbing and bar-hopping (oh the joys of becoming legal drinking age) but it didn't last long... One last trip out to Roosters Country Cabaret for a friends birthday party (I was the designated driver!!) led me to my now husband, Travis.

After meeting Travis we started dating and got serious fast. We fell in love very fast and by the third week we were dating, I already knew I wanted to marry him! Travis and I got engaged on July 10th, 2008 at Montana's restaurant (yes i made him wear the antlers) and we were later married in February 2009.

Life has been interesting from then on... I got a job working for the government just before we were married and we bought a townhouse that spring! Again, things moved very fast. We wanted desperately to to get pregnant but after over a year of trying, we started to give up. Luckily God had other plans and I became pregnant with our handsome son, Jack, last January! He is now five months old and the light of my life. ! We sold our townhouse early this year and bought a huge (to us!) five bedroom house in Chilliwack! Needless to say I am loving life right now!!!!!

So there ya have it, my last five years in a nutshell. I will go into further detail on things another day but for now I should close the book. I am tired and Jack is teething and I would hate to wake him up!

Good night.

Important Words from an Important Person

First off, I am NOT apologizing for not blogging these past months... I have been at Camp working hard to get ready for the summer time!!! It was super nice to be done school, and I really thought this semseter was "IT".. but yea It appears that its not. I have decided to head back to school in the fall for another round! This time, though, I am taking the Less expensive route and will be attending UCFV. I think I am just gonna take some randomized courses (like geography and random Physical Ed Classes) for the first semster.. then Starting January will be full swing into Adventure Tourism!! Unfortunately, (if I do this), I will not be coming back to Pines next spring/summer because the program runs till the END of August. I am still in the process of praying about all of this, but I am pretty sure it is what will happen. I am excited to be taking the outdoor adventure classes and hopefully head into an Outdoor Recreation type of job in the near future. (This may include camp ministry for awhile!)

As for right now. I have 2.5 more days left at Pines and I will be heading back to the Coast to prepare for my One-Month sailing trip to Maui!!!I am dang excited for this trip. We will be leaving Monday and I will return to Canada on the 27th of June. (just in time to get my bum back up to camp). I'll be Directing the Leader in Training program with a certian Ryley, Steve J and Leanne!!! Will be a hoot of a summer no doubt. Please pray for us as we have never all worked together as a team before and probably will need lots of support (at least in the first few weeks).

Well time to get back to the camp! Dont expect much posting from me till the end of the summer cuz I dont really get opportunities to come to the office and talk about my life! HAHA. Keep it Real all you folks out there reading. And have a good summer!

Kara

Life in General

Holy Cowzers! Not gonna lie, I cant access my Blog account from my home computer anymore. I am not sure why. However, I am able to use the school computer, once again, to write this. I am sure whoever reads this already knows what is up with me. Haha, yea my life isnt that entertaining anyways. Lets see.. setting the mood. I am listening to "Cold December" by Matt Costa. He is pretty much amazing - heard him for the first time this weekend and I loved it.

So in the way of new items to talk about. I spent last weekend in Kelowna with Heather. We thought it would be sweet to take a bit of a road trip before our busy summer begins! Oh man - so excited for summer! But yea, we had a fire(s) on the beach(es) and played in the sunshine a lot. It was freakin gorgeous! I also learned how to Tango on Saturday night. Just a warning to anyone who tries it.. its like the dirty dance of Ballroom dancing! Oh man, kinda awkward, but I had a really good time.

This is the last week of school at Columbia Bible College and I am so glad to be getting out of here. I will be working for a few more weeks in Abbotsford, then I'll be making my way up to Grand Forks for a wonderful spring/summer of fun! (and lots of hard work). Im pretty sure the Tercell is in its last days, so it may not get to grace Grand Forks with its presence again. This is a sad event, yes it is because I love that darn car. All blue and beautiful... *tears* But on that note, I am looking for another vehcile soon, so if you have some ideas, please share!

Other new stuff. Ive decided that I will probably be taking next year off school. Its about time that I was homework free and maybe, just maybe my bank account can be in the positive! That would be pretty much awesome I think. Dont really know what that is like, being a college student and all. :P

I am basically just ranting about really nothing. I thought I had a lot to say but I am not that creative. I just want to dance. Maybe if the sun came out for awhile, I could go play some soccer or football! That would be fun. Yep, fun. Last weekend felt so much like summer tho, man I wish it was summer already. It was probably not a good idea for me to have gone out last weekend cuz I havent been able to get back into my studies knowing that I will be done in a week. I keep thinking that its not worth the effort anymore, but it is. Please tell me to suck it up and finish the darn semester!

Okay, Im going to eat lunch. Perhaps I will write once more before I head to Grand Forks, but if not.. then It may be a long long blog vacation!

Adios Amigos

This is Why Im Hot

It happened AGAIN! Friday I went to work (the only day I worked last week) and it rained... All Day! My rain gear saved my life... yes this time I put on my rain pants too in anticipation to be wet. I never imagine, however, that I would get really muddy too. I feel bad for my work clothes. Today I will be heading out to find some better fitting rain gear considering that the stuff I am wearing now is way too big and difficult to manage cuz its always falling down and bunching up everywhere! (You can prob imagine).

The weekend consisted of a really long Youth Wokers Conferece that I took for 1 credit! I, once again, went in there with a hard heart and a sleepy self and well, fell asleep during the evening talk. I did not stay long afterwards, even though it was prety sweet to see my old youth leaders and what not! I slept in Saturday morning and showed up in time to catch the end of worship for the morning session. [Way to go Kara!]. I didnt fall asleep this time tho.. in fact, I stayed awake for every session that day! I really didnt enjoy a lot of what the speakers were preaching about, but despite all of that, God spoke to me. It was pretty much unrelated to the speaker's topic, but I just got this flashback to when I first accepted Christ into my life. I remembered what I had said to God, and everyone else - that I wanted to be a pastor!

It was really easy to brush off that later in my life because I did not think I was a good enough speaker to be a pastor, nor did I feel that Bible school was worth going to for that long! But the more I thought about that time in my life, the more I realized how shifted I had become in my thinking about my "purpose" in life. I was taking the easy way out wtih my "administrative skills" (though they are an asset) and all that jazz. I cant be taking the easy way out my whole life!

It reminds me of Moses.. when God told him he was going to be this great leader and speak to people and Moses disagreed with God and said he couldnt do it! Its a good thing God is so gracious cuz I would have booted Moses in the but if he said that to me! In the same way, God is being gracious to me in letting me do what I want to do. Yet God is just sitting there waiting for me to realize that a good pastor does not become a good pastor by being good at it... but by God's works through that pastor is what makes them good! You ever wonder why God chooses the most unlikely people to fulfill His mission? Its so that God will be glorified! If poeple thought that Moses performed all of those miracles on his own, then God would not have done them! That is why when Moses strikes the rock, he is forbidden by God to enter into the promised land... because he did not let God have the glory for the water spring in the rock!

So back before I started on the Moses tangent... I have decided that I will stay at Columbia for at least another year, if not more.. to gain some more knowledge and maybe even get a BA (depending on how long I stay). I have all the time in the world, and knowledge is priceless and timeless, especially when it is bringing me to a closer understanding of God!

So that is where I am at right now. Kinda insane.. I mean going to College for another year is a huge commitment for me! And seriously, I have major commitment issues! (In the process of working on those!) I am excited tho! Maybe i'll even live on campus or something... nah. I may move out of my house tho! That could be fun.. haha! Okay enough about my random ideas. Im gonna go get ready to shop! Adios Amigos

Nifty Nifty, Look Who's at FIFTY!

As you can tell by the beautiful title of this post, this is my Fiftieth (hard word to spell) Post! I am surprised that it took me this long to get here, but what can I say?

So to your left, you should be able to see a picture of 11 gorgeous pines girls wearing "I (heart) Battalion Boys" t-shirts! yes, we all love you guys... hence why we support you with the t-shirts. Its an all-around good picture tho.

So what is new in the life of Kara? Well, to start er off... I havent been able to Blog for awhile because my internet has been all funky on me (in other words, it doesnt work!) And when it does work properly, this page wont load on my computer. So I am resulting to writing this at Columbia Bible College; between writing papers acutally. It seems like I have been on 'paper writing over load'.. and will be for the next few weeks until I get them all done. But I cant complain too much, only one more month left of this!!! Tonight is acutally my Bookkeeping Final exam as well. That means that after tonight, I have no more night classes. Holla! (oh geeze, did I just say that?!).

I pretty much had an amazing weekend in Vancouver doing UMA. I have no words really to describe my experience there except that it was a HUGE eye opener for me. I went in there thinking that I knew everything there was to know about drug problems, and people on the streets but I knew nothing! Absolutley nothing! I wish everyone could go and see the way I did. And listen to the people who spoke into my life this weekend. All of the things that I have been learning about the Heart of God through OT and other classse was pretty much put into practice. Seeing and understanding what the real mission for my life is was pretty much the theme of the weekend. Not that I know where I will be 6 months from now, or anything of that sort, but knowing that no matter where I am, I am still gonna be living for Christ the same.

Looking ahead, I really have had a lot of options put in my path for the fall. I am not sure what I want to do tho. I am going to wait it out and see I guess. I have been leaning towards returning to Columbia for a few clases, but man.. I just dont want to be doing all of these papers!!! I want to do some hands on stuff! Plus I still have no clue where I want to be going with my life career wise. Bah. Patience.. Thing will work out when they need to (and by that, I dont mean me sitting down and hoping that things work out.. but more me looking into things and praying about it!)

Okay.. 4 MORE WEEKS! Im going to get timmies now. Adios!

Ps. I lied, my car wasnt at CBC all weekend, my family picked it up for me on Thursday... sorry parking guy if you thought you couldnt see my camo car. It was at home the whole time! Maybe next time you'll find it!

Pps. That was quick! Just after I left the Collegium, there it was: A new parking ticket! haha It was beautiful.

UMA

Haha, okay so first to explain the picture. Basically some days i'd rather be one of the orange barrels on the job site than a flagger. However, it dawned on me yesterday, as I was working in the pouring rain (yes I was very wet) that if I were a barrel all day, I would fill up when it rained! That would be so uncomfortable! Who wants to be full of water at work? And seriously... barrels dont get paid very much (as you can see from the picture) haha... okay so now you all know that I love being a flagger more than a barrel on a rainy day.

Next topic: This weekend is UMA! (Urban Mission Adventure). I will be going to Vancouver with a ton of other CBC students and we will be staying three nights at the Ivanhoe on Main st (I think that is where it is.. I could be wrong, I'll let you know when I acutally go there). I am pretty stoked to be going cuz Ive heard such freakin awesome reviews of the trip! But im also a little Nervous... I guess the big reason I am so nervous is because I dont really know how it will all work. Im sure once I am there it will be fine, but im not one to jump into something that I dont have much control of. "just let go Kara..." I know, I know. I dont really have a choice in this one!

So apart from doing UMA this weekend, I apparently have like three papers to write and my final project for Bookkeeping to do (that project will take at least 12 hours to do!) I am beginning to wonder if it was a good idea to do UMA THIS weekend!?! You know the real reason (besides the fact that this is the first weekend that i havent had a saturday class) that I chose this weekend to go is because I heard its the "warmer" one... haha Betcha its gonna just pour on me the entire time! Yes, that always happens. Like how yesterday was the only day I worked this week and do you see rain today? No. Did you see rain on Tuesday? No. But it rained ALL day yesterday didnt it? Go figure. haha. Such is life.

By the way, I am doing freakin awesome right now! Not just becuase I have had my coffee already... but beacuse I just feel good. (Yea, I am now re-addicted to timmies coffee... ive had one every day this week! some days two or three)... Things seem to be working out really good, and I am getting to excited about going up to Pines in like 6 weeks. I know that it will rain the entire spring, just because I will be there, but who cares!?! Its kinda like going home I guess? If that makes much sense to ya'll. May not cuz if you've never been to pines, you wouldnt have a clue what I am talking about. But those of you who have still may not really get it. Maybe Im just stoked to have my big kitchen back! haha I loved cooking with GIANT appliances last spring! Making apple tarts in huge muffin tins that cover the entire counter :P (a little bit of over exaggeration there... the counters are big too). Its all pretty much awesome.

Im now off to see my optomitrist and find out how bad my eyes are! haha I seriously cant see road signs any more, so it will be a good thing to get new lenses and contacts and what not. Hopefully I dont have any scary eye diseases that will make me blind by next week, cuz then I cant work anymore. Or drive.. or type - well acutally I could still type cuz I dont even look at the keyboard (I am THAT good!). Okay Have a great weekend guys and gals!

Au Revior

Ps. Parking guy... I will possibly be parking my car illigally ALL weekend. Be prepared! (if you can find my car.. I have camoflauged it... so you gotta have super car detector lenses to find it)

Midterm Madness

I am not sure why, but everytime I have tried to write this week, the post never works. I guess my computer has some serious issues that need to be worked out, but for your information, I am on the school computer right now. (therefore, dont expect pictures..)

So I basically didnt sleep last night. The reason for this is because I had been studying all day yesterday and all I could do was lay in bed and recite what I had been reading... BAH! Well it was more like a "half-sleep" that I had last night... Cuz I was still awake, but my eyes were closed and I was pretty out of it (some of you may understand this half-sleep thing). I 'woke-up' at 0500 and decided that a shower wasnt worth being cold for. So I went back to sleep for another half hour... then I woke up again and decided that I didnt need a big breakfast, so I slepd for another half hour, then I woke up and decided that I didnt need to stop for coffee.. and so when I finally woke up at 0645, I quickly got ready and ran out the door so I could get a few minutes review in before my exam started! I knew everything that I had to do on the exam before I got there, but it was still awful. I just cant memorize worth peanuts!

Midterms aside. Last night I took a sweet break from studying and went swimming with Heather. Swam some innacurate lengths, chilled in the hottub... ya know, the usual! It was really worth it tho, cuz I acutally exercised (which i havent beeen doing lately) and I love swimming!

Work has been pretty nuts.. I had friday off after my long 15 hour shift on Thursday (crazy BC Hydro boys). I wasted pretty much my whole friday - except for getting my youth work assignment started... but im sure it was alright cuz I was so far gone all day; probably couldnt have been productive if I tried.

Had my final for Payroll Saturday morning... that class is done - 95.03%!!! Went out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for Rachels 19th Birthday! that was a hoot. Sunday I dont think I did anything all day, except talk on the phone and pretend to fix my trunk (yes, it is still broken!). I acutally dreamt last night a bit about how I was going to wire my trunk down... im so strategic.

I need some timmies coffee... Im outta here!

ps. To the CBC parking guy... last week, I parked in the visitors parking lot for 10 minutes!! I was disappointed to see that I was not fined.

Progressive Mood

It is extremely hard to be creative when I am listening to music. Not that the music doesnt help with setting a mood... but I keep changing genres every other song so I cant focus. Its my fault. But to keep you moving along with me, I am listening to Damian Rice.

So this week has been interesting. Totally throwing me off to be working on days that I usually dont. I have worked tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Wednesday was sweet. I got to hang out with the cute excavator operator all day again. It was good fun, and I found out that I was one of the few women they have had on site... but they were super friendly to me! I must be having some good luck lately, cuz yesterday I ended up working for BC Hydro in North Vancouver. My o My were they some good looking fellas! haha It was a lot of fun cuz the crew was younger and they liked to joke around a lot. Made the day go by faster (if that is possible) You see... I left my home at around 5:30am, and when I got home after work, it was 10pm.. you do the math! I did a lot of standing around and drinking coffee for most of the day, but then when it got dark again, we got silly and cold and tired.. haha suddenly we were watching logs roll across the road and thinking they are funny.. but THEN realizing that we need to stop traffic! haha oh man.

I think that it was fun last night, even tho I was so tired and shaking from all the caffine I had had. I couldnt sleep for a few hours after I got home.. and it may have been becasue of the adrenaline. Apparently when you realize how long you have been working and are tired, but then think about the OT time your clocking... your body goes nuts! Fun times. Im just glad that I wasnt the one who had to drive home! My partner drove me in the work truck! (i was just listening to Micheal Jackson)

Umm today I dont know what to do with myself... i have the day off because I worked enough yesterday... and I know i should study.. but I dont feel like it cuz im still tired, but I cant sleep! I was up at 5am... haha went back to sleep but not really, my body doesnt work that way. It has become routine for me to be awake at that time every day, no matter how much sleep I have had. (Now its Mariah Carey).

Keith Urban is awesome.. (Im listening to him now) Im sorry, I cant make this longer and better but im still tired and not feeling too good from work yesterday. Gonna go tanning or something! Enjoy the silly March snow folks!

Keith Anderson - Pickin Wild Flowers! Tis the closing song of the day!