Housing Update

I know there are people who have been waiting to hear about any sort of housing news. The problem is… we don’t really have any. The one house we really wanted fell through. We were really stressed out for awhile. Somewhere along the line, however, I surrendered. I gave in to God’s sense of timing and stopped stressing about it… knowing that God is good and faithful and that He loves to give good gifts to His children.

So we won’t be moving May 1st. This also means that I will not be planting a garden this year. It is already getting late to put veggies in so a May 1st move was the latest I could kind of push it back. I am okay with this. I was offered space at another garden but I’m pretty sure that unless it is in my backyard and I see it everyday, I will forget to take care of it.

We did look at some houses yesterday. Because there are so many houses for sale in the neighbourhood we want to move into we decided to start emailing real estate agents and ask if their clients would be interested in renting. Houses frequently don’t sell around here and they often get turned into rental properties for this reason. One guy was very interested so we went to see that house yesterday. He was really great and the house was a good space for us. A tad on the large side but what he wants for rent is more than reasonable. The set-up of the house is unique and it has a lot of character. It also has a really sweet attic and tons of hang-out space. I’m trying not to get too attached because there is always the chance that it will sell before his contract is up mid-May.

Now… because we don’t have a house our third roommate has no place to go. She has to be out of residence today… so… she’s moving in with us. I am really excited. We will actually have two ‘extras’ moving in today. One of our friends is working on-campus for two weeks so is staying in the city. I moved most of my stuff into Danielle’s room (and the boys’ basement) so that Esther could have my room. So, the sharing a room aspect of things is already getting off the ground. I’m looking forward to having more people in our house and getting to know Esther better.

For now, I should likely get some work done… sheesh! I’m such a procrastinator.

On Not Getting What You Want

As a 26-year-old, fairly adult-like human being I’m pretty aware that we don’t always get what we want. I have to tell you though that there is more than a small part of me that still wants to throw up my hands, fall to the ground, kick my feet and scream in a full-out toddler temper tantrum when things aren’t working out. I’m not sure if this is normal or not.

A friend of mine innocently commented this week that I tend to ignore things that are difficult. Now, I am not sure that this is true… in fact, I am completely sure that it is untrue… but it bothered me that this may be people’s perceptions of me. I started to scan my conversation memory for recent discussions we had had for evidence that may support his claim. Now, he is one of the people in my life that I often vent to… and I do have a tendency to dramatize things to the point of outright hilarity so that I don’t go insane, but I have to tell you, that comment has really stuck with me throughout the week. I’m trying to decide what an appropriate response to difficulty is. I’m fairly certain that running in the opposite direction is not helpful (or possible in most cases) but I am not sure that acknowledging difficulty is a bad thing. Maybe part of wishing for something different is a dissatisfaction with the current world and a longing for what is to come (got to like how I just created a ridiculous theological standpoint for my complaining).

On the topic of things that are hard… we still haven’t heard anything about a house. This, as you can imagine, is actually what started the aforementioned conversation. Last night we decided we had passed into the world of complete desperation and started emailing realtors to ask if their clients would be willing to rent rather than sell. It’s actually how the boys got their house… I’ll let you know how it works out.

Finally… an off-topic note about the fact that everything around me currently reminds me of camp. This morning I walked into a community centre to drop off clothes and it smelled exactly like my old cabin. It is so interesting to me that it is possible to miss a location this much. And now… I must get back to saving the world!

The “Teaching Tracy to Rollerblade Fiasco”

 

I have three summer goals…

1. Learn to Rollerblade
2. Learn to Play Soccer
3. Plant a Vegetable Garden

 

Yesterday I decided that goal number one needed to be accomplished. Now, I have done some rollerblading before. I’ve borrowed pairs from friends and attempted to rollerblade around the house, or down the driveway (not a good idea, for any of you who are thinking of learning). So, I kind of figured that I just needed to go out and buy my own pair so I would actually learn. This started the whole fiasco. I really wish we had a video camera that we could’ve used to document the entire evening… it was quite the event.

 

SportChek has rollerblades on sale this week so we headed to the mall to check them out. The sales associate was completely unhelpful so it was good that Danielle was with me. I tried on two pairs and rollerbladed around the store a bit. This is very difficult in a fairly full sport’s store. I tried very hard to not knock over the rows of bicycles that were lined up like dominoes. Of course the pair that fit better was the more expensive of the two but because of the sale I only ended up paying a $10 difference. They are purple and also looked cooler than the other ones (although I wasn’t willing to pay $10 more just for them to look cool).

 

Once we had picked the rollerblades I decided I should buy wrist guards. Everyone I’ve told that I want to learn how to rollerblade has highly suggested wrist guards so I decided I’d take them up on that. Danielle and unhelpful sales associate man went off to find wrist guards for me while I took my rollerblades off and put them back in the box. Wrist guards apparently come in different sizes… that was a challenge for us (especially since the sales associate didn’t know the difference). Danielle made fun of me for buying wrist guards but did show me how to put them on (turns out improperly… thankfully, however, our friend Steve noticed the problem and taught me how to put them on properly). We then purchased the blades and wrist guards and proceeded into stage 2 of the plan.

 

We picked up our friend Steve and called Timmy to meet us at Bayfront. We rollerbladed the first stage of the waterfront trail (or whatever it’s called). I fell twice. Once was because I tried to brake going down hill (not a good idea). I was going really fast and it was scary because there was a turn at the bottom of the hill. It didn’t hurt that bad but I was pretty glad I had bought wrist guards. The second time I fell was right near the end. We went over a bump in the pavement and I lost my balance. That one hurt a lot more. I did something to my shoulder and landed pretty hard… again, glad I had wrist guards. The evening ended with the first ice cream cone of the season. My body is only slightly pained this morning. We have plans to go again this afternoon.

Not much else to report. We are still waiting for news on this house that we want… or any house really. It’s been a stressful week because of that… really up and down in terms of trusting God. Thankfully, it’s easy to be happy when the sun is shining and I can wear capris and flip flops. I love this weather!

 

 

 

 

 

My Chicago Experience

So I’m back from my week in Chicago… In my overwhelming list of things to blog about I have decided to divide the post into each day’s highlights before giving a more general overview of the week…Day One: Tuesday
1. We stopped in Michigan at this place called The Chocolate Garden. They had the best chocolate orange truffles I’ve ever tasted.
2. We ate at this place called Rio Wraps. It was amazing. I had a caesar salad wrap that had chinese noodles in it! Hence, the amazingness.

Day Two: Wednesday
1. We had Chicago-Style pizza… deep-dish, cheesy and delicious.
2. Mark Yaconelli. He’s this dude in youth ministry… total food for my soul!
3. We found a random Thai restaurant for lunch and had some great Pad Thai.
Day Three: Thursday
1. Psalters! I’m still not entirely sure if I loved them or just misunderstood them but it was pretty interesting.
2. Virginia Ward. She is this amazing, black woman from Boston who talked to us about prophetic youth ministry.

Day Four: Friday
1. Coming home. There is something awesome about coming home to a place where I am known and loved by people that I really enjoy.
2. Laughing our heads off as we prepared to cross the border.

And now for some more random thoughts…

Willow Creek… is huge! Early on we decided the best way to deal with it would be by treating it like a college campus. Once that decision was made it was much easier to sit back and take things in.

Mentoring is important. This theme kept coming up again and again and again throughout the week. It made me think of people who had mentored me with gratitude. It also challenged me to think of some things I can intentionally do to pour into the lives of the girls in our ministry.

That is currently all I can think of. I mean, I could give you every little detail of what I learned but I’m not sure people care that much. (If you want it just ask for it). It really was a good week… I enjoyed myself, learned a lot and was definitely encouraged. I missed the kids like crazy and it was good to see them again this morning. I really do love Hamilton and all the people who make this place home. It was good to be away but it was better to come back.

How Much Chlorine is in that Pool Anyway?

I went swimming yesterday. Now, I don’t really swim… although every once in awhile I end up in a pool and realize that I don’t actually hate it as much as I remember. Yesterday was one of those times. After church a couple of the kids were heading to the rec centre for public swim. They invited us to go with them so we hiked up the mountain, put our bathing suits on and headed back down into the neighbourhood to meet the kids at the pool (life will be SO much easier once we move down there). We did some swimming around but mostly we played in the shallow end. I got my work out jumping around while throwing and catching balls with the girls. My only complaint… and it is ever so small… is that my entire body smells like chlorine (something that could be changed by showering, I should point out) and my throat has that strange “I’ve had chlorinated water in me” feeling I get after swimming in highly chlorinated pools. I’m assuming that they have pretty high levels of chemicals in that pool just to keep in clean.

I went to Toronto this weekend. I spent Friday night and Saturday with Christine, going on all sorts of misadventures in the big, bad city. I had a great time. I also remembered why I do not live in Toronto. It is SO big and overwhelming… I quite appreciated Hamilton as I was making my trip home via GO Bus. It’s the perfect city for me right now.

I also watched the Kite Runner this weekend. We had a bunch of people over Saturday night for a viewing. I’m still not finished reading the book but I decided to watch it anyway… it’s pretty hard not to when there are 10 people in your living room watching it. I didn’t love it… the book does a much better job of laying some groundwork that I think makes the rest of the story make sense. I’ll have to see what I think when I actually finish the book… which I am finding quite difficult to read without bawling my eyes out.

I am going to Chicago this week. We leave tomorrow morning and come back Friday night. I’m going to a youth leadership conference at Willow Creek Church. It should be interesting. I am actually looking forward to it but feel a slight hesitation that I may be completely overwhelmed by the vastness of the Willow Creek Campus. I am also nervous that most of the conference will be tailored to white, middle-class, suburban churches which I am not a part of. That is only a small concern, however, and I am sure I will walk away having learned something of value.

That’s all the news I can think of… we are going to look at a house this afternoon. It’s the third we’ve viewed. The first was a disaster, the second was too small… I have high hopes for this one but we’ll see what happens. Alright, I must visit the bank to get American money and do some other last minute pre-packing type things. I promise a better update after I return from Chicago… perhaps something that is not nearly as “I” centered as this update has been. 23 days until we move…