june

well. I know its been almost 2 months since I posted. a lot has transpired since then. let me fill you in- in a nutshell. aka short sentences.
- Houston, BC is a very quaint town. Kyle the welder lives there.
- Grizzly bears and many, many black bears live in the wilderness surrounding Houston. I saw both.
- I am moving to the other side of the country in less than 2 months.
- I moved out of my old house a week and a bit ago. I still live in East Van.
- I am going to be a bridesmaid in about 26 days.. i think. The bride knows the countdown better than I.
- My brother is now a real pilot.
- My other brother is soon to be a high school graduate and will be attending my alma mater in the fall.
- Driving stick is hard. Mostly if you are worried about breaking your friend's car which has been driven ridiculous amounts to arrive at current destination. Also if you are just starting to learn.
- Weddings are beautiful. Jeremy and Anna are married!
- Gerberas remain my favourite flower though they are troublesome to arrange.
- Rice pudding cups after work are a small joy in life.
- I am doing my part to prevent varicose veins now by wearing compression socks to work- and my legs are thankful.
- I love taking pictures with an SLR. I feel artsy. See below.
- My parents are soon to see this province I love.
- I've finally been to Barkerville. It was great fun. There is gold in them 'thar hills. And it was a min-road trip with Brian aka superfun.
- I have 9 shifts left. Then a month off. Then I'm going to be an ER nurse.

life is full of changes and challenges and laughter and love and its GOOD.

april showers

Well it's been a while since I posted anything on here- over a month to be exact. Now I'm pretty sure that no one, or very few people at least, read this but it's still kind of nice to be able to look back and see the events of the past year.

I can't believe that we're already halfway through April. I came back from Newfoundland feeling that the next few months were going to go by really slowly.. but now April is halfway done and May is booked chock full of great activities. Such as- a road trip with Ashley! Jeremy and Anna's wedding with Brian... fun fun stuff that makes me very excited.

I feel as though I'm in a bit of a weird place right now actually. I'm trying to make the most of my time in Vancouver, but at the same time so much thought and time seems to be devoted to making plans for what's coming next. I guess it's all a balance. Living fully in the moment while making plans for the next steps, all the while trusting that God is in control. That is a lesson I need to learn over, and over, and over again.

well i was crazy about you then

and i'm still crazy bout you now

over ten years have gone by

you're still mine

locked in time.. lets rewind

do you remember when..

-jack johnson

East meets west

February was an eventful month. I went to Newfoundland for 10 days to visit Brian and in process got a nice taste of the east coast. It tastes like salty air and screech and fresh fish. Mmmm. It was a great trip. The east coast seemed to me surprisingly more rugged and rocky and ocean-like than the west- at least than Vancouver- I think it's because Vancouver is sheltered by the vast land mass of Vancouver Island. (I suppose Tofino compared to St John's would be another story).

One of the highlights of the trip, going with the wild ocean theme, was walking along and around the bottom of Signal Hill, the high hill that sits at the entrance to the St John's harbour. There we were, along the high rocky shores, still very snowy- with the cold blue deep north Atlantic roaring and swirling below. It was so unbelievably windy on the point- I really felt in danger of blowing off. Luckily that didn't happen. :)

My birthday was also a fun day- waffles and phone calls. strawberries and a great hike, ocean and sushi, friends and a movie. Very good. Very, very good. Plus a surprise visit from a friend from Victoria and then a pub night with the house on Sunday- it made the whole birthday weekend fantastic. (And I started the birthday week with Sunday morning fondue breakfast in St John's if you want to go back that far)

The next few months are going to be interesting. Vancouver is a great place in the spring. I'm looking forward to some more adventures. Will keep y'll posted.

February days

It's been ages so after a little prompting from some well-meaning individuals I am finally posting. Also I am on my days off now which bodes well for some pondering time. :)

What is going on in my life lately you may ask? Well. Our house is back to 4 lovely friends as Hillary has returned from her Indonesian-Singaporean adventures. I've been working a lot lately but work has been good. Something I've really noticed lately is the team spirit thing we've got going on up in ortho trauma.. I really appreciate so many of the people I work with there. Helping each other when the going gets crazy, starting IVs when veins collapse for one, going into a patient room two at a time so the crazy woman can't hit you with her newspaper while you try to take her blood pressure. Standing beside a dying patient as he takes his last breaths- making silent signals to each other about not finding a pulse as his anxious daughter stands nearby- that bonds people. We look out for each other. And at 4 am a lot of things become awfully funny.

Also of note lately is that a week from today I'll be in St John's, Newfoundland! So excited about that. It'll be so good to see Brian again... and to see his world out there. Context means a lot.

Vancouver is gorgeous lately and I am developing a deeper and deeper appreciation for this city. It hasn't been such an awful winter at all really. And now we've been getting sun quite frequently... Cypress, Grouse and Seymour look positively majestic. If you didn't know this already, I love the mountains. Had an amazing bikeride with Nancy to North Vancouver last week and oh, the sunset.... amazing. So amazing.

The Lord God is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him.

(Habbakuk something...)

jagged peaks

Well it's a Friday afternoon and the weekend is beginning. Though I am working tonight and tomorrow.. not so much of a weekend perhaps. I don't mind though.

The lovely sun shone on Vancouver today. And as a matter of fact, it is still shining. The days are getting longer.

Today I went for coffee. had a nap. had two lovely phone calls. made some cookies. puttered around the house. read a good book. It was a good day. Nice and relaxing.

Not much else to say. Sometimes I really wish I could drive off into the beautiful mountains which I see everyday. Those of you who I hang out with a lot (ie Nanc) are going to laugh because I say that a lot. But something about them just makes me feel restless. A good restless. An adventurous feeling. They're just so mysterious to me.

On that note, I'm going to make some dinner and then head to l'hopital... Au revoir, tout le monde.

northern new years

This is my first post of 2009. Of other importance is that yesterday marked 1 year since I moved to BC- flying into Victoria on January 8, 2008. Crazy! What a year it's been. Some of the hardest times of my life, with all the change and transition, but it's all been worth it- it's been a great year. I've been to some really neat places, got to know 2 awesome cities. Met amazing people, people who I think will now be part of my life for a long, long time. Graduated, started a new job, lived in 4 houses... it's been pretty eventful, that's for sure.

I just got back from an amazing time up in Prince George with Brian and his family. The people of PG definitely know how to have fun in the snow. We went snowshoeing, cross country skiing, skating, sledding, walking in the (super deep) snow... lots of fun. Also just talking face to face and hanging out together was fantastic. We haven't done that in a while. Now we once again live on (literally) opposite ends of the country.

Other than that, Vancouver is still recovering from the massive dumping of snow which we had over the holidays. I think we narrowly averted the possibility of some massive floods but it's still pretty soggy out there. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going snowshoeing as the mountains are still snow-covered- looking forward to it as those mountains are one of the main reasons why I love this city. Then Monday it's back to work. I've also reached the 6 month mark at VGH which seems to have flown by.

Life is interesting. Challenging, frustrating, exasperating at times. But God is good.

west coast Christmas

I have started a post for this blog numerous times in the last month, but always just kinda went, "naaaah" and let it be. So I think it's about time for an update. Though I don't really have anything extremely newsworthy to say, I dont think. We'll see.

Vancouver has found itself in what the locals might call a deep freeze for the last week or so. The temperature has been sitting around -7 I think, which isnt terribly cold, but its colder than its been for a long time. For me and many others I think it just seems normal for this time of year- my roomie Jana was saying that to her it seems like a gift for those people who are missing home right now where the temperatures are much colder and there's a white Christmas- good point. Because it does look like Vancouver will get a white Christmas. I am enjoying it. Though I do miss biking to work, because the bus takes a long time. And also I have run out of bus tickets, though that is a problem that is easily fixed. I must say that Vancouver deals with the snow a lot better than Victoria (from being there last winter when it snowed once)- I guess it has to, being the bustling metropolis it is. But they do seem to have more than one snowplow at least ;).

Work has been going well, I must say that I am really getting quite used to it now, and have really increased my confidence in general for how things are run in the orthopedic trauma world. And people are funny. Here are a few random lines from patients, just from the last couple shifts, that stand out in my head...

" But how do you get a snake out of the toilet?"

" How many pieces of bone in my arm are broken? How is the surgeon going to glue them back together?"

" You and me, we went together, back in 1919"

" Nursey nursey nursey nursey!!"

"I was getting out of bed to try and fix the flat tire!"

" Will you marry me? You will get a million dollars!"

" Who looks after you while your parents are at work?"

" Find me the Chinese radio!"

All of the above are true statements by real patients at Vancouver General Hospital.

Christmas is coming. surprisingy so, I can't believe that its only 6 days ago. I'll be working the the 23rd day shift, and then the nights of the 24th and 25th. It'll be pretty different. There have already been a few "aaah i miss home and being there for Christmas!" moments. Its not easy. But I have good company here still- Mark and Hillary will still be home. And then on the 27th I am going up to Prince George for a week which will be lovely. :)

My eyes are getting blurry in tiredness so I think that's all for now.

Here are the beautiful mountains which i love so much. This is west coast. this is home. one of more than one place which i consider home, but still home. :)