Recap one

How do you sum up a month of memories, feelings, ideas, and experiences into a blog? This is what I have been struggling with since I returned home a little over a week ago. I have had a hard time getting it all across when I tell people about it, using the same words “It was amazing!” every time when asked how my trip was. That just does not cut it. I know I could do more than one blog post, but even in more than one I am just not sure how to express what it is I want to.

I have yet to ask my family if they have noticed it, but I feel I have changed.

Keeping up with my normal ways, I started a journal when I went and got about one week into camp before I stopped updating it.

Anyone that got my email updates knows my flight into the country of China was an eventful one, and not all happy. Yet as soon as walked into the cafe in Xin Zheng, at the SIAS school where I would spend the next two weeks, the entire past day and a half melted away....and I was home.

The first week, I had two girls. Maggie is nearly 18 and is such a smart kid. Annie, my 17 year old buddy of the week was such a sweetie. I was not sure how the week was going to go, having two girls not even 10 years my junior, and who both spoke English! It was a pleasant surprise to get along really well as a family, and find things that we could help each other with or learn from one another even though we were not the typical BMH family group. We became so close, in fact, that we gave our family a name. Angel, Maggie, Annie, and I called ourselves the Glory Family. It was also this week that I met little Jennifer. She was one of the roommates of my girls and translator, so I spent a lot of time around her as well that week. She stole my heart, along with the hearts of many others there!

Week two saw challenges of its own, but turned out to be no less of a blessing than week one. The story of my little Brooke broke my heart and made me want to do nothing but hug her all week. That was not possible at first, as she was not comfortable with that much contact right off the bat. At our very first meeting, it was decided that instead of hugging her every time I saw her, which would have been my first choice to show my affection, I would hold her hand. You can imagine then how wonderful it felt when, by the middle of the week, she was grabbing for my hand and as she looked up to give me one of her winning smiles. Her Chinese name is Wan Jun, but when I asked if she wanted an English name she asked that I pick one for her that had something to do with water. After choosing Brooke for her name, my translator told me that her {Alyson, my translator} Chinese name meant Spring. How perfect is it then that my name means garden/fruitful? Don't those names fit perfectly? This week was really about the relationship with my translator, I think. We had an amazing long conversation after life charts one day. There were tears, lots of tears. It is something I am still in prayer over, and I'm looking forward to the program BMH has for keeping in contact with each other after. {It is set to start in a month or so and will give us topics to discuss and help us stay in touch, or at least open the door for you to start more.}

The staff at Xin Zheng, or the SIAS camp as I always called it, was fantastic! We had so much fun both with the kids and just as a group. We went on moped rides on the weekend, and hung out in the computer room, had wonderful conversations till early in the morning, and laughed a lot. When it was time to leave, I took it pretty hard.


{Stay tuned for recaps of weeks three and four.}

Just purchased my tickets

My how things can change in less than two weeks!!

Ticket prices went up for my flight to China, and I found out I had to pay for another trip inside the country. Due to these factors, I will not be able to afford the side trip at this time, so that will be done later. {My older brother got a job with VOM and will not be returning home in September as we had hoped. Dad, Mum, and the kids will be taking his things to him while us older girls are gone so Kade and I had wanted to go visit him at his new place. While the ticket prices were down, I could do it all for less that my budget, which now I am going to be pressed to get all of my China travel done for the money I have/will have.}

HOWEVER, I am still very sure this is where I am suppose to be going, and I KNOW 100% this is all in His hands, so if I have anymore troubles with money I know it is going to show up in the right amount of time! Don't think I have ever spent that much money on one thing though. That was a new experience! Mum and Kade were right next to me as I hit the 'purchase' buttons, for support and all ya know! :D

It is now midnight, way past when I said I wanted to go to bed! hee. There was a game tonight and it went into overtime. Then I actually did go to bed but something told me I should get up and search flights, and since my laptop was next to my bed it was easy to do. It was then I found the prices were starting to creep up again, and felt it would be the right time to buy them.

I am excited! As Kade said "Now you really have to go." {no returns on the tickets allowed. Guess that means that if I end up not being able to pay for camp by the deadline, I am going to be in China by myself for a few weeks! lol}

Silver Leaf starts the same day I am to leave Michigan and ends the same day I am to return. {KOI picked the RIGHT year to be the first they are not there, since I will not be able to attend at all.} There is a countdown on the website for openeing day, so I go there to see how long I have till my big adventure begins. {and I do mean big. You should see the flight plans I was sent. MY WORD. And that is not even counting all the fun and hubbub of camp. tee hee!! I always have done things big haven't I?}

How many days do I have?

65.

Thanks to all that have been praying about this up until now, but please do continue. I still have some money I need to raise and a deadline to have it by. {I know I can have the money by the time I leave, it is the months time I have to earn it right now that is at all a worrysome problem for me. And even then, it is only a fear when I take my eyes from where they should be.}

The first time I spoke to the director of Bring Me Hope, he told me he didn't know how many volunteers would be there in 2009. I replied with "Enough." as I knew the Lord would send as many people to the camp as would be needed. This is the same attitude I am using towards the money and deadline. I will have 'Enough' when I need it.

Is this what it feels like to be a 'big girl'?

Its fun! lol. {Still would rather have Gill deal with it all, but that should come later....perhaps}

Now it really is time for bed. Thankfully I do not have to be to work until 2, as I am working the closing Mall shift. However, I have gotten little sleep in the last few days and I do not see much in my future after tonight. {Was up for work at 5 Tuesday, didn't get a nap in like I had planned, walked 2 miles, went to bed at 1:30am after the game, got up at 5 for work on Wednesday, got about an hours worth of a nap in, and will be staying up for a game Thursday night that has a 10:30 start time. I may not be the coolest person, but I sure know how to fill a day, don't I?}

Ah, the things we do for the stuff we love.

Thursday plan:
Sleep...work....watch Ducks smash some Sweden to D-town, red tinted transplants.

God is good! :D

Updates

Hey,
I know I have not been my usual blogging self...and that is not for lack of things to say, just for lack of the motivation to write them. This is a very sad fact, as there has been a lot going on.

I got to go to a Stanley Cup playoff game in Detroit last weekend {as in the 18th of April} and it was so much fun! I got to go with Kade and Mum, the latter of whom had only just been to her first ever NHL game not two months before! The team I was hoping to win did not in the end win, but it was a very enjoyable game anyhow.

Savings for China are coming along SWIMMINGLY!! In fact, as things stand right now, I nearly have enough for all of it, and have even been able to tack on another small trip at the end. {meaning I will be flying somewhere else for a few days after China} I am very excited for all of it and can't wait for the time to get here.

Now that the sun seems to be shining more often, I am going to be able to get back to my walking, wich is a very good thing indeed. My back has been hurting a lot more and I have been having a harder time getting rid of it. This can, and DOES, often put me in a not so good mood, or just shorten my wick a bit. Somedays I don't even notice it really. It is not until after I have blown up at someone that I realize things are not right, and it is then I feel just how much my back hurts that day. {NOTICE: I am NOT saying this gives me the right to be in a bad mood, for those of you reading this who have been on the recieving end of one of said blow ups.} The weight also complicates things with my PCOS which is really not good. Things were so much better when I was at my lower weight, and I am in a very big hurry to get back to those days! heh.

Work has been hard to figure out. lol. One week I am told I will no longer be working at the mall, then I am told I will be again but only one day a week rather than two, then one of the mangers from the mall is moved back over to our 'stand alone' store and another co-worker is moved over to the mall. It is all very back and forth.

My plan when I woke up this morning was to head out on a long walk right away, pick up something to eat, and just walk for a nice long time. However, things changed so now I am going to eat here, and THEN take off for a long walk. It should be a nice time, as the sun is VERY bright today.

My Bring Me Hope weekend.

As for how the savings go.....

Three words

Two

More

Sleeps!!!




more animals

And we count

Since it is after midnight there is now only......
Wednesday
Thursday
Duckday!!

Guess what!!

more animals

Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Half of Friday.
Thats all I have to wait.
Booya!

Hockey here I come.

A big mess

You know how, in order to clean UP a mess, you have to make a bigger mess? Yeah...well, my problem is I get to where the mess I am cleaning up has gotten way bigger, and I decide I no longer feel like cleaning.

This is where I find myself at this very moment.

The hockey game was not televised by either team tonight, so we ended up listening to it on the radio. {meaning I was pretty much lost for 73% of the time, as I do not do well listening to a game.....I need to watch it. "Wha? They got a goal? When? Who was on the ice? How did my D-man do? He got hurt? When? Ha ha, biscuit!" yeah...it is not a pretty sight. This is why I love Center Ice. But anyway!} So as I was listening to the game, I began what I thought was harmless pick up of my desk. However, in order to get the trash heap off my desk and put in the proper places, I must clean out those places from the trash that I piled in them the LAST time I cleared off my desk.

Somehow, this lead me to not only cleaning off the top of my desk, but also the containers I have on one of my desk shelves, all the little drawers and such on my desk, AND my shelves in the furnace room. At this very moment, the bottom shelf of my desk is empty with everything laying on the floor instead, I have an entire garbage bag full of junk to be taken out in the morning {"Or....probably not." Yay for hockey related quotes at 11pm!} I have found the necklace set I made for a friend......a friend I see very little......a friend who was here just a few days ago and yet I managed to NOT be able to find it while she was a here, I have about three years of letters and cards from one of my best friends, all nicely filed and in order now, the furnace room shelves are reorganized and looking good.....but my desk top is a mess.

My desk top is a mess, and I want to go to bed.

But I have a pile of stuff behind me that needs to be put away.

A pile of stuff I have been ignoring for the past twenty minutes as I visit all the usual sites, update my status at facebook and myspace, check hockey scores, and write a useless blog.

A pile of stuff that really is suppose to be back in my desk, so that I can go to bed.

A pile of stuff I can not leave there.


Have you ever, while cleaning up, found something that you remember buying, but have no clue why? I found something like that tonight. Six dice. Different dice, of different shapes, sizes and colours. A purchase I remember making about three years ago, but do not know why as I have NEVER had the occasion to use these six numbered...well I would call them cubed but they are not all that shape! I mean really, what do I need with a blue marble die that has numbers like 20, 50, and 90? I got them at a gaming shop when it was going out of business. Why was I not stopped by the people shopping with me?

And now they sit, on my desk, as I ignore a pile of stuff and junk behind my desk.

And I am sniffing from the dust I have kicked up while cleaning.

Ah, what a mess.

Happy New Year Peoples!

Hello. I know, I have not posted a blog in over a month,...and have not been around online nearly as much as I use to lately either. My plan was to type a long year ending blog post. That 'ain't happening right now. This short one will have to do.

When it comes right down to it, I might not sound like it, but I am really just too busy to be able to keep up with my blog. Well, that and what I am doing is not all that post worthy. Much of the same day in and day out. When I am not busy, I am tired, or trying to catch up on other things I have had to put off due to being busy.

My hours have been upped at work, and I have to be awake shortly after 4 in the morning now to get to work. These two changes have caused me to be very tired when I have a moment to sit, and my brain does not work well enough to form a blog. I usually end up trying to relax and watch a show or movie I have missed earlier in the week. Nearly every night has a hockey game, and it is hard to type a blog and watch a game as you miss quite a bit when not looking at the screen the entire time. {There is in fact a game playing right now, but I am mad at the reffs and so am a bit more ok with not paying 100% attention to it right now. That, and as I said, this is going to be rather short, so I will get back to keeping my eyes on the screen very soon.}

My weeks go something like this Sunday I do not work but have Church in the morning. Depending on how things go, we spend everywhere from an hour to five visiting online via Skype with my brother David. Very often, by the time we are saying goodbye, it is time to eat dinner and then the puck is dropped. :)

Monday is my one full weekday off, as I sometimes get out at 11 rather than 1 on other days. This is when I will take advantage of my morning off, though that means one of two things. Either I sleep in ALL MORNING since it is the one and only time of the week I can do that, or I wake up mid morning to get things done. {NOOOOOOOO....oh, sorry. I don't like what is going on in the game. *tear*} This is when I run errands, hang out with Kade, take the kids out, catch up on some TV I have missed due to games...etc.

Tuesday I usually work 5-1. Upon my arrival home, I check in online see whats going on with everyone, talk some with my family and get filled in on what happened while I was gone, and then I most often head to bed for a nap. There are many times I do not get up again till it is time for dinner. If it is an Anaheim game, I go back to bed after I eat, and sleep till 10 when its time to get up and watch the game. If it is a Pittsburgh game, Kade and I head right from the table to the computer to 'hoot for' {as my Grandma would say} our Eastern team.

Wednesday, what do you know, looks much like my Tuesday.

Thursday, I think I remember doing this all the past two days.

Friday, if I did not get paid today, my day looks VERY much like Tuesday-Thursday. If I DID get paid today, then I probably have some banking and shopping to do after getting out of work at one.

Saturday, you guessed it. Even my weekend looks a lot like the rest of the week. Although, Dad has the day off, so if we are going to go out and do a family thing, this would be the day to do it. I don't HAVE to take a nap as I do have the next day off, but there are often times I am so worn out from the week that I end up at the very least just vegging out on the couch in front of the TV or something.

Plus, add in there that I have to make a trip out to Royal Oak every other week for my injections {which was this week....today....ouch} and I still go get my back adjusted, but it is down to about once a month now.

It sounds like I sleep A LOT, but I often do not feel like it.

As for China....all is going VERY WELL!! I have now reached the HALF WAY MARK in my savings. People, there is no doubt in my mind, I am spending no less than two weeks in China this summer! And I CANT WAIT!

Also.....Monday, Kade and I purchased tickets to an NHL game in February! *I'm gonna go see Husky*!! {sing*songy}

Christmas was good. Weird and didn't really feel like Christmas, but it was nice anyway. :)

2009 starts in less than an hour here! Hope you all have a fun start to yours!

The ending is finished.

I was finally able to get around to posting the ending to my Hockey Weekend story. I am now missing game night, and reliving all the fun that we had there!! *happy sigh* Can't wait till the next game!! FEBRUARY HERE I COME!
Anyhow, I do not, as is always the case it seems, have time to post all of the photo and video links here {oh yes...there is video! Is that not a fun thought?!} So instead, I shall once again have to direct you to the blog on which it really IS posted. {I can copy and paste my posts from Xanga to Myspace, and vise versa. The same is not true for this blog, or my home page....carmshangout. So I have to post links instead}
Click on the here for more hockey story fun!

Hockey Weekend

I wish I had the time to post it all here, but I have to get to bed like….fifteen minutes ago! So, for the first installment of my hockey weekend break down, go visit my Xanga blog {Or Myspace}
I shall link to the next installment as soon as it is written!

Snippets

I love it! :D

Work is going well. In the past two weeks I have worked over 60 hours!! This may not seem a big deal to some, but to me anymore, it is. True, I use to work 80 hours in a two week period while at Meijer, but that was before! Nearly two years ago, they didn't think I could work more than 15 hours a week!!

I have not had the time to do much blogging lately, other than my AHL countdown posts, and yet now that I have a day off and can update.....I can't think much of what I had wanted to say.

My boss was really cool, and gave me Friday off this week!! YAY. I asked to just be out by one, which is normally not a problem anyway as I am often off that time. However, we are opening up a new store where the start hours are later than mine now {I start at 5 and 6 in the morning. The new store does not open till 8 or 9 being as it is in the mall} so I was worried that I might work there and not get out when I needed to. Now that I have the entire day off, I can go grocery shopping with everyone before it is time to take off for the game.

As of right now, I have two weeks of camp paid for!!! I am so excited! I see no problem in reaching my half way goal by the end of the year, which means I have even more time to earn the last half in the new year, meaning I will have extra money for the unseen things or any emergencies that come up! I was also worried that I was not going to have any money for Christmas, which also does not look like it is going to be the case. It is going to be a smaller Christmas, as far as the price tag on the gifts I buy, but I am not going to have to trim my gift list or boycott the gift giving all together like I had worried. This just means I get to be more creative with my ideas....always a fun thing! I have already begun making some gifts, so I hope those of you on my list appreciate hand made things!

The Ducks won their game last night, and the goalie got his first NHL career shut out! GO HILLER!! "Doin the Hiller shuffle!!"

Wow...I should have so much more to say,,,and I don't.
grr!

I shall have to wait for the future....just FOUR DAYS!!

R U Kidding?

There are only 10 days left!! However am I going to keep my feet on the ground?

Eye Test

A 3 F Y U 8 I D
I U 6 E I O P P
2 H S X W R T I
1 1 D A Y S ! !
P L 6 H D V A W
H U Z Z A H

How many, how many, how many??

12 days!!!

As of today there are.....

Two weeks!

Two

Weeks

Iz 'cited!!

Is it too obvious?
Only 16 more days.

I think I can......

.....make it the 17 more days till my AHL hockey game!!

Countdown number one.

Yes people, thats right. The very first of my countdowns has begun.

18 more days till RINK SIDE SEATS!!