Saturday, April 19, 2008
Another Way to Waste Some Time!
Hey! Just thought I would let my readers know that Jay has started his very own blog! Yup after months of pressure to do so he FINALLY gave in! If you want to check it out here is the address: http://jayboaz.blogspot.com/.
The Joys of Spring!
The snow is ALMOST gone here! The sun is out in full force today (it is rather sad that I am stuck inside working on a paper), the fields look a little like lakes, and I am seeing grass in our backyard! It is a wonderful day!
The other day at lunch, when I was on duty I got to witness spring’s impact on kids. It’s funny, for most of the winter my students walk around, and HATE going outside, recess is almost a punishment when the wind is blowing and the snow is falling (even if the temperature isn’t that cold). Well, on Thursday my students started playing a game of cat and mouse. Now the first shock was that someone asked if the could play this game (it is a variation of tag), when does that happen? Of course they could play! As the game got underway it was great to see my students including EVERYONE (it doesn’t always work like this), not only were the majority of my students playing but eventually there were students from all classrooms and all grades playing. It was wonderful to see Christ in each of my students! Then I hear, “hey attach to this person because so and so hasn’t had a turn in awhile”. Including everyone, and making sure there is fairness in the game, now that is music to my ears! I bet it is even more wonderful for Jesus to hear it! It was a great day!
Spring is here and I love it!
The other day at lunch, when I was on duty I got to witness spring’s impact on kids. It’s funny, for most of the winter my students walk around, and HATE going outside, recess is almost a punishment when the wind is blowing and the snow is falling (even if the temperature isn’t that cold). Well, on Thursday my students started playing a game of cat and mouse. Now the first shock was that someone asked if the could play this game (it is a variation of tag), when does that happen? Of course they could play! As the game got underway it was great to see my students including EVERYONE (it doesn’t always work like this), not only were the majority of my students playing but eventually there were students from all classrooms and all grades playing. It was wonderful to see Christ in each of my students! Then I hear, “hey attach to this person because so and so hasn’t had a turn in awhile”. Including everyone, and making sure there is fairness in the game, now that is music to my ears! I bet it is even more wonderful for Jesus to hear it! It was a great day!
Spring is here and I love it!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Space, Breaks, and Things To Do!
It is funny how time just slips away when the to-do lists are long, and life is busy. That being said I love that time is flying by, I am enjoying life now but am looking forward to the events of the next couple of months.
SPACE
I crave space, physical space. My apartment is TINY! Really it is a box, and when Jay and I are both there it is a little tight for space. As of last Saturday Jay moved into OUR place. So I got to create some space in my apartment; no need for the freezer, an extra desk, and a bulky chair to live with me when Jay has a whole house. So my apartment is less crowded, Yipee! Plus now we can spend time at the house instead of my apartment. I am so excited to begin setting up the place. The kitchen is mostly done, and the living room is done for now. I tried to convince Jay that he should move into my apartment so I could move into the house, no dice though. I guess it is my turn to leave in the evening and walk home.
BREAKS
Ahhh the rythm of school is wonderful. This week I am enjoying Spring Break. Although my time is packed full of things to do I am enjoying a little time to myself. I must also add that the lack of an early morning alarm clock is a wonderful thing! I am currently at my parents house and enjoying the luxuries that come with staying here (and there are many!). I also got to visit my brother last night. He was in for a couple of days (he is living in Victoria right now) to help his girlfriend move into their place. It was nice to se him. He seems to have gown-up latley, he played the part of host remarkably well! Tonight I visited with Sheri as we worked on wedding invitations and looked at her pictures form Germany. I was so glad to see her and hear her stories. I was also grateful for her help!
THINGS TO DO!
Oh the list is endless! It seems that once I cross one thing off another gets put in its place! This week (becasue I am not at work) the list seems endless. Report cards, wedding invatations, essays for my courses, a really good house cleaning, are all on the list. Really the chance of everything happening is pretty small, but hey I have to give it a shot right! Ahhh the most important will get done, the house still may be a mess!
Enjoy Spring Break!
~S
SPACE
I crave space, physical space. My apartment is TINY! Really it is a box, and when Jay and I are both there it is a little tight for space. As of last Saturday Jay moved into OUR place. So I got to create some space in my apartment; no need for the freezer, an extra desk, and a bulky chair to live with me when Jay has a whole house. So my apartment is less crowded, Yipee! Plus now we can spend time at the house instead of my apartment. I am so excited to begin setting up the place. The kitchen is mostly done, and the living room is done for now. I tried to convince Jay that he should move into my apartment so I could move into the house, no dice though. I guess it is my turn to leave in the evening and walk home.
BREAKS
Ahhh the rythm of school is wonderful. This week I am enjoying Spring Break. Although my time is packed full of things to do I am enjoying a little time to myself. I must also add that the lack of an early morning alarm clock is a wonderful thing! I am currently at my parents house and enjoying the luxuries that come with staying here (and there are many!). I also got to visit my brother last night. He was in for a couple of days (he is living in Victoria right now) to help his girlfriend move into their place. It was nice to se him. He seems to have gown-up latley, he played the part of host remarkably well! Tonight I visited with Sheri as we worked on wedding invitations and looked at her pictures form Germany. I was so glad to see her and hear her stories. I was also grateful for her help!
THINGS TO DO!
Oh the list is endless! It seems that once I cross one thing off another gets put in its place! This week (becasue I am not at work) the list seems endless. Report cards, wedding invatations, essays for my courses, a really good house cleaning, are all on the list. Really the chance of everything happening is pretty small, but hey I have to give it a shot right! Ahhh the most important will get done, the house still may be a mess!
Enjoy Spring Break!
~S
Friday, March 7, 2008
Premarital Counselling
So Jay wrote a blog post on another blog but rather than me writing my own blog I will post his! Here it id:
Good day, gentle blogger. As you may recall, after Mark wrote a post about pre-marital counseling, I offered to write about my experiences in pre-marital counseling since I was about to undergo the program. He also told me that when I was ready to post about it, I was to log in and post away. So if you want to take the day off to keep healing from your recent sickness Mark, I've got you covered!Last night was actually the second time Sarah (my fiance, naturally) and I had met with our counselor. I didn't write an article about the first meeting as it was pretty uneventful; in truth, it was more of a fact-finding mission for the therapist, which makes sense since she needs to know what to talk about!
So yesterday evening we drove into the city and, after a stop-off to see Sarah's recently-returned-from-Phoenix parents, we went to our session. We waited a few minutes for our therapist to come and get us, which is normal. When she came out front she looked at us with a rather confused look; it seems that when she called me to book the appointment, she didn't write it down, or erased it somehow. Considering we had just driven over an hour and a half on a work night to come in, we weren't pleased. Our options were to reschedule, or wait until 9:15 and finish around 10:45 (remember the hour and a half drive home). We decided we were already there so we may as well just do the session late.
So after killing some time at McDonald's, we went back to find the exterior doors locked. No big, the therapist said she'd come get us if we got locked out. While we were waiting some people were leaving the building, so we thought "Great, we can get in". The woman exiting the building would not let us in and it took some convincing to make her stand aside (I had a fleeting thought that if I really wanted to get in she really couldn't stop me, but that would be a much bigger can of worms!). Once we were inside we discovered she had alerted security to our presence, so he came in to check with the therapist that we actually had an appointment. I know he was just doing his job, but I was getting a little annoyed at everyone looking at me like I was a criminal!
Anyway, we finally got our session started at 9:30. Our therapist, I'm not going to give out her real name but let's call her Aretha, cause I like that name, brought out copies of our Prepare exam results. For those unaware, the Prepare exam is a multiple choice quiz we had to do before our second counseling session; we had to do the quiz separately. The point is for the couple to answer honestly separately from each other, and then discuss the results in the session.Anyway, Aretha pulls out our results, and she gets a very surprised looked on her face, and makes several surpised noises as she quickly flips through. Naturally, our first reaction was "Uh-oh, that's not good!" It turned out that Aretha was shocked at how postive our results were; on a graph charting different marriage types and the percentage of typical answers, we were literally off the chart in one or two aspects.Now, you at home may be thinking that we cheated, that's why our answers matched up so well. I can't really blame you for thinking that, because we had almost considered answering together, but we decided that no, if we were going to do pre-marital counseling, we may as well do it right.So we went through the survey results, painfully slow at some points. Aretha went over every answer very thoroughly, seeing how we matched up. We kind of felt that she could have spent a little less time telling us how old we were and that we were both caucasion, but whatever. We went through 10 different areas of a marriage (things like communication, conflict resolution, marriage expectations, etc) and picked a few to discuss. We also picked some to discuss next time. The process is pretty logical.What did we get out of it? Honestly, not very much. Why? Because we've already talked about all of the issues that were in the Prepare, most of them before we even took the test. Sarah and I are both pretty logical people, and we know things aren't always going to be rainbows and skittles. I knew within 2 months of dating Sarah that I wanted to marry her, but I made myself wait to propose because I wanted a stronger relationship first, and I'm glad I did.For those who haven't discussed things ahead of time, I think the Prepare system is pretty good, and the counseling would be very beneficial. We have one more session to go yet, so we'll see what we take home from that. I really hope I'm in bed before 1:30 next time though.
Keep your stick on the ice!
-- Jay Boaz
Ahhh so now I am paying for the late night and needing sleep badly. Maybe it was a test in our relationships flexibility! :)
~S
Good day, gentle blogger. As you may recall, after Mark wrote a post about pre-marital counseling, I offered to write about my experiences in pre-marital counseling since I was about to undergo the program. He also told me that when I was ready to post about it, I was to log in and post away. So if you want to take the day off to keep healing from your recent sickness Mark, I've got you covered!Last night was actually the second time Sarah (my fiance, naturally) and I had met with our counselor. I didn't write an article about the first meeting as it was pretty uneventful; in truth, it was more of a fact-finding mission for the therapist, which makes sense since she needs to know what to talk about!
So yesterday evening we drove into the city and, after a stop-off to see Sarah's recently-returned-from-Phoenix parents, we went to our session. We waited a few minutes for our therapist to come and get us, which is normal. When she came out front she looked at us with a rather confused look; it seems that when she called me to book the appointment, she didn't write it down, or erased it somehow. Considering we had just driven over an hour and a half on a work night to come in, we weren't pleased. Our options were to reschedule, or wait until 9:15 and finish around 10:45 (remember the hour and a half drive home). We decided we were already there so we may as well just do the session late.
So after killing some time at McDonald's, we went back to find the exterior doors locked. No big, the therapist said she'd come get us if we got locked out. While we were waiting some people were leaving the building, so we thought "Great, we can get in". The woman exiting the building would not let us in and it took some convincing to make her stand aside (I had a fleeting thought that if I really wanted to get in she really couldn't stop me, but that would be a much bigger can of worms!). Once we were inside we discovered she had alerted security to our presence, so he came in to check with the therapist that we actually had an appointment. I know he was just doing his job, but I was getting a little annoyed at everyone looking at me like I was a criminal!
Anyway, we finally got our session started at 9:30. Our therapist, I'm not going to give out her real name but let's call her Aretha, cause I like that name, brought out copies of our Prepare exam results. For those unaware, the Prepare exam is a multiple choice quiz we had to do before our second counseling session; we had to do the quiz separately. The point is for the couple to answer honestly separately from each other, and then discuss the results in the session.Anyway, Aretha pulls out our results, and she gets a very surprised looked on her face, and makes several surpised noises as she quickly flips through. Naturally, our first reaction was "Uh-oh, that's not good!" It turned out that Aretha was shocked at how postive our results were; on a graph charting different marriage types and the percentage of typical answers, we were literally off the chart in one or two aspects.Now, you at home may be thinking that we cheated, that's why our answers matched up so well. I can't really blame you for thinking that, because we had almost considered answering together, but we decided that no, if we were going to do pre-marital counseling, we may as well do it right.So we went through the survey results, painfully slow at some points. Aretha went over every answer very thoroughly, seeing how we matched up. We kind of felt that she could have spent a little less time telling us how old we were and that we were both caucasion, but whatever. We went through 10 different areas of a marriage (things like communication, conflict resolution, marriage expectations, etc) and picked a few to discuss. We also picked some to discuss next time. The process is pretty logical.What did we get out of it? Honestly, not very much. Why? Because we've already talked about all of the issues that were in the Prepare, most of them before we even took the test. Sarah and I are both pretty logical people, and we know things aren't always going to be rainbows and skittles. I knew within 2 months of dating Sarah that I wanted to marry her, but I made myself wait to propose because I wanted a stronger relationship first, and I'm glad I did.For those who haven't discussed things ahead of time, I think the Prepare system is pretty good, and the counseling would be very beneficial. We have one more session to go yet, so we'll see what we take home from that. I really hope I'm in bed before 1:30 next time though.
Keep your stick on the ice!
-- Jay Boaz
Ahhh so now I am paying for the late night and needing sleep badly. Maybe it was a test in our relationships flexibility! :)
~S
Thursday, February 21, 2008
I know, I know, I know it has been over a MONTH since I wrote on my blog. In all fairness there is not all that much to write about. I have been busy, with work, school, wedding, etc. but there is little to report that would actually be interesting for all those in cyberspace.
However, now I do have news. We have been thinking about where we will be living post July 19th, there isn’t that may places to rent around here so we started last month to look around. Well it looks like we now have a house! We are going to be living in the Mennville Church house. We went to look around tonight, to see the inside. The basement is unfinished but will be great for storage and such. The upstairs has three bedrooms (or office spaces!). I am so excited that we will have space! Right now we spend a lot of time at my apartment. My apartment is TINY, and I have too much stuff as it is, so we certainly won’t be living here. The house is also great because Jay can move-in in April (his roommate is getting married in May). I tried to upload pictures but it didn't work (silly dial-up) but if you are on face book you can check them out there!
There is a quick update for you!
~S
However, now I do have news. We have been thinking about where we will be living post July 19th, there isn’t that may places to rent around here so we started last month to look around. Well it looks like we now have a house! We are going to be living in the Mennville Church house. We went to look around tonight, to see the inside. The basement is unfinished but will be great for storage and such. The upstairs has three bedrooms (or office spaces!). I am so excited that we will have space! Right now we spend a lot of time at my apartment. My apartment is TINY, and I have too much stuff as it is, so we certainly won’t be living here. The house is also great because Jay can move-in in April (his roommate is getting married in May). I tried to upload pictures but it didn't work (silly dial-up) but if you are on face book you can check them out there!
There is a quick update for you!
~S
Thursday, January 10, 2008
How-To
In class right now I am having my students write a “How-To” essay. Many of them have gotten right into it and are shocked at how many words it takes to describe how to build a snowman, how to make a sandwich or how to set a table. I must say I look forward to reading these essays!
So here is my how-to: How To Plan a Wedding
I planned on having a long engagement, although at times I think I was a little crazy. So I thought, long engagement, less stress (makes sense right!?). Well I don’t work like that and really I create stress in my life in order to get things done. So right now I am in “let’s get this done” mode. I must say this week has been very productive on the wedding front. Here are instructions for how to get a wedding planned (of course the trick is find a great guy (sorry Jay is taken), on who can plan, and has access to a phone!):
Every night you should go to your favourite wedding forum (I love Canadian Bride). Find a post that interests you, discover you are not doing something that you should be doing and then freak out. If you are really lucky you loving, wonderful fiancée will be in the room and will witness freak out. Try not to freak out at him, this won’t help your problem, just let him see the stress level build (right now work is REALLY stressful so the stress level is well beyond normal so it doesn’t take much). I like the line, “aahhh we need to start thinking about ___________”. Hopefully this will start a conversation about that topic. Together create a plan. Then have the wonderful, loving, fiancée put plan into action. Yes, that is right I am so thankful that Jay is part of this wedding planning process because he has:
· Booked the church
· Booked the reception, figured out a good menu, talks to the hotel all the time, etc.
· Found, met with and booked the photographer
· Come up with decoration plans
· Come up with a good idea for rehearsal dinner location
· Booked premarital counselling
· Figured out musicians for the ceremony
· Booked engagement pictures
· And who knows what else I am forgetting
·
You ask what have I done… well I have bought a dress! Remember that that took two attempts. I also went “shopping” for the bridesmaid dress. I like to think I am the one that lights the fire and pushes to get things done, and Jay is the “doer” Which makes me one lucky girl to have Jay help so much with this (thanks Jay!). So I guess the real trick to planning a wedding is not to have an absent groom; a marriage is a two-person job, and so to is the wedding planning process.
Here is a public thank you to Jay, who has done so much wedding planning!
Love you!
~S
So here is my how-to: How To Plan a Wedding
I planned on having a long engagement, although at times I think I was a little crazy. So I thought, long engagement, less stress (makes sense right!?). Well I don’t work like that and really I create stress in my life in order to get things done. So right now I am in “let’s get this done” mode. I must say this week has been very productive on the wedding front. Here are instructions for how to get a wedding planned (of course the trick is find a great guy (sorry Jay is taken), on who can plan, and has access to a phone!):
Every night you should go to your favourite wedding forum (I love Canadian Bride). Find a post that interests you, discover you are not doing something that you should be doing and then freak out. If you are really lucky you loving, wonderful fiancée will be in the room and will witness freak out. Try not to freak out at him, this won’t help your problem, just let him see the stress level build (right now work is REALLY stressful so the stress level is well beyond normal so it doesn’t take much). I like the line, “aahhh we need to start thinking about ___________”. Hopefully this will start a conversation about that topic. Together create a plan. Then have the wonderful, loving, fiancée put plan into action. Yes, that is right I am so thankful that Jay is part of this wedding planning process because he has:
· Booked the church
· Booked the reception, figured out a good menu, talks to the hotel all the time, etc.
· Found, met with and booked the photographer
· Come up with decoration plans
· Come up with a good idea for rehearsal dinner location
· Booked premarital counselling
· Figured out musicians for the ceremony
· Booked engagement pictures
· And who knows what else I am forgetting
·
You ask what have I done… well I have bought a dress! Remember that that took two attempts. I also went “shopping” for the bridesmaid dress. I like to think I am the one that lights the fire and pushes to get things done, and Jay is the “doer” Which makes me one lucky girl to have Jay help so much with this (thanks Jay!). So I guess the real trick to planning a wedding is not to have an absent groom; a marriage is a two-person job, and so to is the wedding planning process.
Here is a public thank you to Jay, who has done so much wedding planning!
Love you!
~S
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Time to get back into routine!
Christmas has come and gone, and I am so looking forward to getting back into routine!
Christmas was spent with family, family and more family. Jay and I managed to squeeze both sides of my family and his family gathering into our time in Winnipeg (which was 5 days). The gatherings were a little spread out so we spent some lazy days at my parents place. Maybe because I never had extended family around for Christmas when I was growing up the family at Christmas now is so important to me. I love Christmas eve with my mom's family, usually it is pretty casual, mom makes food, we eat, drink, and talk REALLY loud. Grandpa usually reminds us to quiet down every so often. With so many women in the room there is lots of talking, and whoever talks the loudest gets heard! Okay so I usually win. After the Putnams leave there are usually many hours of talking with just the four of us. This year we expanded to six and mom and dad were the first in bed, but there was still talking.
In the afternoon of Christmas day Jay and I headed over to his aunts place for their family gathering. I hadn't met all the extended family so it was a good chance to meet everyone.
Later in the week we had our Hayward gathering. This gathering was a little different as this was the first Christmas without grandpa. Almost everyone was there (one cousin and her family live in edmonton), which rarely happens. There is always less talking but more shouting at this gathering as it seems that deafness is as Hayward trait. We seem to have expanded in number each year at this gathering, after many years of fitting around one table we were forced to two!
We spent some lazy days in Mennville before New Years. We brought in 2008 with friends at a smallish gathering in Mennville.
2008 promises to be an exciting year. I love the possibilities of a new year, and this one is full of them. Of course getting married is the biggest excitment for me this year, but there will also be a move, and who knows what else in the next 12 months!
Enjoy 2008!
~S
Christmas was spent with family, family and more family. Jay and I managed to squeeze both sides of my family and his family gathering into our time in Winnipeg (which was 5 days). The gatherings were a little spread out so we spent some lazy days at my parents place. Maybe because I never had extended family around for Christmas when I was growing up the family at Christmas now is so important to me. I love Christmas eve with my mom's family, usually it is pretty casual, mom makes food, we eat, drink, and talk REALLY loud. Grandpa usually reminds us to quiet down every so often. With so many women in the room there is lots of talking, and whoever talks the loudest gets heard! Okay so I usually win. After the Putnams leave there are usually many hours of talking with just the four of us. This year we expanded to six and mom and dad were the first in bed, but there was still talking.
In the afternoon of Christmas day Jay and I headed over to his aunts place for their family gathering. I hadn't met all the extended family so it was a good chance to meet everyone.
Later in the week we had our Hayward gathering. This gathering was a little different as this was the first Christmas without grandpa. Almost everyone was there (one cousin and her family live in edmonton), which rarely happens. There is always less talking but more shouting at this gathering as it seems that deafness is as Hayward trait. We seem to have expanded in number each year at this gathering, after many years of fitting around one table we were forced to two!
We spent some lazy days in Mennville before New Years. We brought in 2008 with friends at a smallish gathering in Mennville.
2008 promises to be an exciting year. I love the possibilities of a new year, and this one is full of them. Of course getting married is the biggest excitment for me this year, but there will also be a move, and who knows what else in the next 12 months!
Enjoy 2008!
~S
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