not much.. but whatever

I really don't know what to write here on my blog. I don't know if anyone reads this thing anyways..

Not much happens here in Utopia.

I guess I can write about last week.

On Thursday I went to Snow Valley with my friends. It was one of the most amazing times I've ever had. The weather was gorgeous and there was enough snow on the slopes so it wasn't all icy. The only hill that was icy was Vertigo. I went down for the fun of it and almost wiped out so I decided not to go down it again. I finally got some pictures of people doing tricks and what not. I didn't exactly do the t-shirt run, but I did take off my coat and hoody so that was close enough right?

On Friday, Janelle and Laina picked me up and we went to church for an evening of evangelism which was really good. After that, we went to hockey. I had a very bad game. I was really tired when I was on the ice, but when I was off the ice I was ready to go back on. I couldn't manage to score any goals or make any good plays.

Saturday was a good day. We drove down to Wellandport squished in Janelle's car. Good times. We finally got there and listened to another good speech on Evangelism. We had a good lunch of sloppy joes and salad. Then we went to the school and played some floor hockey. I had a great team, but we lost in the semi-finals so we didn't get to play in the last game :( I think it was a good thing cuz I was exhausted after playing 4 games. I was so wiped by the end of the day I was happy I didn't have to drive home.

Sunday I hung out with Janelle, Heidi, Mark, and Laina. We had fun on the hay bales..watching Mark and Heidi try to do cartwheels, roundoffs, and backwards walkovers. :) And then Mark started jumping over the girls.. heehee. Later in the afternoon I went and watched the AOC practice. Had a pretty good time at yps that night. I was really glad to come back home after a good weekend tho.

Family

My family

Dad, Mom, Katelynn, & Adam (wrong order)

Chris, Anneke, & Nathan Naves

Brad, Andrea, Erica, Bradley, & Wesley Bruining

Katelynn Armstrong

Adam Armstrong & Gavin Cudahy

Erica and Oma

Bradley

Wesley with his Daddy

Nathan

My 2nd Family, well kinda

I started being a Mother's Helper back in the middle of June.

Here are some pictures of the wonderful Christian family I am helping out.

Brothers: North and Mattias
Being silly
North, Mattias, and Nevaeh

All muddyNorth
Mattias
Nevaeh

Sisters: Nevaeh and Lydia
Jennifer, North, and Mattias
Jennifer and Mattias
Andrew and Mattias
Jennifer & Andrew

Florida! St. Augustine

These are some pictures of our stay in Anastasia
State Park in St. Augustine, Florida.
While we were staying there, we met up with some
people we know. My Uncle's brother was there with
his family. They are in most of the pictures.


We bicycled down to the mainland one Sunday
afternoon. When we got to the fort, we got there
just in time for their hourly cannon shooting. Boy
was it loud.

It was really cool to watch. Last year we took
a tour of the old fort.

We had a guest in our trailer, after we got him
outside I took a picture.

Mom, Adam, and I got up early one morning and watched
the sun rise. We were sort of disappointed since there
were a lot of clouds on the horizon.

I liked this picture best out of the few sunrise
pictures I took.

Adam waiting for the perfect wave... Me and
my new friend Mary Grace.

Me, Mary Grace, Miriam, and Adam

The result of Adam's boogie boarding. The under tow was pretty
strong it pulled him under for quite awhile. He was afraid to try again.

The kids really loved Adam. They started jumping on top of him.


I think he liked it, even though he said he didn't. He is
smiling in all the pictures.

Most of the crew. It was really windy down by the
ocean. They set up a tarp to protect the babies from
the wind. It really seemed to help up to even though
we were sitting on the other side of where the babies
were sleeping. I didn't get a picture of the youngest
Rachel, I guess she was still sleeping at that point.

Mary Grace, Adam, Me, Joshua, and Caleb.

Bethany

Florida! Panama City

Here a few pictures from our short stay at St. Andrew's State Park which is very close to Panama City, Florida.

Jellyfish

some pictures of waves

Sea gull

A guy who was kite surfing. These were not an

uncomon thing at this park

Pelicans

Me in the water

A Toddler's Tea Party!!

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me and my brother who is four years older than I am. I was maybe 1 and a half years old and had just recovered from an accident in which my arm had been broken among other injuries. Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news and my brother was playing nearby in the living room when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!' My Mom waited, and sure enough, I came down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy. She watched him drink it up, then said, 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet??

Hockey

I am one of the assistant coaches for my brother Adam's team the
Canucks

They play every Saturday from the last week in September

till the End of March. I really enjoy being out on the ice with

all the kids. The Canucks are in Atom West. We have 13,

9-10 year olds on the team this year. We are in the play-offs

right now and have a 2-0-2 recordso far.


Adam and his best friend Gavin

I'm Back!!!

Ok now that summer is basically over I have returned to my blog. So much has happened this summer.. Lets see...
I worked.. How fun is that??? I went to the cottage for the week in mid July with my family, my Uncle John and Aunt Helen along with their family, the Mejards and the Muirs.. and we cannot forget Uncle Henry. Besides that I didn't do too much. OH yeah.. I just got home from a great week at Camp Tamarack!!!! WHOOT!!!

The theme this year was Looking to Jesus. Wow it was an awesome week. The speaches were so meaningful. I learned a lot. I found that the speakers were really emotional. I don't know if anyone knows this, but I got really emotional during Rev Greg B.'s first speech. I started crying..:'( It wasn't that I was upset, but I was moved by what he was saying.
There was also a lot of time for fun and fellowship either with games/sports or just hanging out talking or singing. My sports team only won 1 game :( but I had a lot of fun none the less. I got to meet a whole bunch of new people and see a bunch of people I haven't seen in a long time. I even met 2 guys from PEI !!!! They came to camp for the week.. I thougth that, that was perdy kewl!!!!
Then on the Friday night a bunch of people went down to the Dikschei's house for supper and move fun and fellowship. That was a blast. I ended up playing volleyball after supper and a bunch of us started going CrAzY and sang Veggie-Tale songs. What fun.. Over all it was a great week and I was really tired on Saturday.

AWW!!!

Cutest lil kids come for a visit

My sister Andrea and her husband Brad needed some time away from the kids so they packed up and took off to Pensylvania for 6 days. My other sister Anneke and her husband Chris took care of the kids for 1 night and then drove them here to our place where they stayed from Friday night till Tuesday afternoon. We had a blast with the kids.

Bradley

More pictures are coming... when I can get them to load on here..

Handy Conversions (horrible pun warning)

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter: Eskimo Pi
2000 pounds of Chinese soup: Won ton
One millionth of a mouthwash: One microscope
Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement: One bananosecond
Weight an evangelist carries with God: One billigram
Time it takes to sail 220 yards at one nautical mile per hour: Knot-furlong
365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling: One lite year
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone: One Rod Serling
Half of a large intestine: One semicolon
1000 aches: One kilohurtz
Basic unit of laryngitis: One hoarsepower
Shortest distance between two jokes: A straight line (think about it for a moment)
453.6 graham crackers: One pound cake
One million microphones: One megaphone
One million bicycles: Two megacycles
2000 mockingbirds: Two kilomockingbirds (work on it...)
10 cards: One decacards
One kilogram of falling figs: One Fig Newton
1000 cubic centimeters of wet socks: One literhosen
One millionth of a fish: One microfiche
One trillion pins: One terrapin
10 rations: One decoration
100 rations: One C-ration
Two monograms: One diagram
Eight nickels: Two paradigms
Three statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital: One I.V. League

A boring post... but hey its something

So I haven't posted in awhile.. What to post.. I dunno. The blogs seem really dead lately..
Oh yeah, my computer is acting up again. GRrr I can't seem to do anything right. So I am on the lap top but my pictures aren't on here..

Lemme see.. all the pictures I have on here are so old. Not worth posting.
Then again., this post isn't worth posting.

Hopefully in 2 weeks I'll have some good pictures to post. Erica and Bradley are supposed to come down on the 20th for a few days. I have to go pick them up from Haggersville. I then have to babysit them that night since my mom is going to a ladies' night thingy. They better listen to me.. Atleast my dad and brother will be there too.. just in case I need their help.

Well that's all I can think of for now.. yes I know it is boring, but I lead a very boring life.
IF any of you do read this, comments are most appreciated. Thanks

Daytona - Bike WeekDaytona Beach Speedway

Adam, Mom, and I standing at the entrance of the track

Look at all those bikes..



Dad in his glory


Dad after Mom said he couldn't get it

Adam wants to take it for a joy ride

We found a good bike for Mom.

Oooh a Big Momma

The "Green Machine"

A cool bike

Everywhere we looked was bikes, bike and more bikes

More Florida pics... St. Augustine (Anastasia State Park)

Pictures by the Ocean..

(Hope these make you happy Anneke)

One morning mom and I got up early to see the sunset

We sorta missed it cuz the clouds were right on the horizon and no place else :(

Me riding my bike

Me riding my bike

Ocean

Adam on the rocks

"Birdy"

"Birdy"

Lighthouse

Mom and the lighthouse in the distance

Us "Chillin" on the beach

Mom

Just "chillin"

Mom and Adam

Mom

Adam splashin in the waves

He looks cold

"Sharky"

"Sharky"


Adam playing in the sand

FLORIDA

Ok so maybe some of you have been wondering why I haven't written in awhile. My family went to Florida for 2 weeks. So here is my story of what happened.


Day 1: Friday March 2, 2007

Woke up around 2:30 am and got ready to leave. We drove and drove and drove. We went to the border and had no trouble at all getting through. Really we hardly were asked a thing. All the guy asked was how long we were gonna be in the States and if we were all coming back on the same day. That’s it. He didn’t even ask us where we were going or if we had any BEEF in our car. After some more driving we finally we stopped at our hotel in Charleston, West Virgina. Wow what a hotel that was. We got into the room and there was only one bed. Hmm that happened to us before and I had to sleep on the floor, but not this time. There ended up being a pull out couch that Adam and I shared.. in our own room.. Yes there were 2 rooms in 1 room. Crazy eh? We had the living room while my parents slept in the bedroom. We got there sometime in the afternoon so we had tons of time to swim and shop. There is a mall across the road from the hotel. We didnt buy anything but it was still fun to look. Every evening at 6:30 there is a manager's reception with all sorts of finger food. Veggie trays, all sorts of nuts, chips and more. There even was an open bar... all this was FREE with the cost of the hotel.


Day 2: Saturday March 3, 2007
We had a free breakfast at the hotel and left after we finished eating. Another long drive. I was stuck in the backseat of the truck which isn’t very comfortable. If we had a van that would be a different story, but yeah I shouldn’t complain since I was getting a free trip! We finally arrived in St. Augustine, Florida around 7 pm. We couldn’t find the campground and everywhere we stopped and asked, no one knew where it was. Finally we found it. But the gates were closed and we couldn’t get in L A car pulled up behind us and they told us the code to open the gate. They even showed us the way to our campsite. What service! Setting up a tent trailer was hard to do in the dark, but it wasn’t too since my dad brought along his huge spot light thingy which has like 10 million candle power (if not more) We went to bed since we were so tired of driving.

Day 3: Sunday March 4, 2007
We got up and had breakfast. I don’t really remember what else we did that morning before we went to church. We went to St. Augustine Baptist Church. They have 3 morning services plus an evening service!!!! Yikes. We got there kinda late for the 2nd morning service. WOW I’ve never seen so many people in a church before. I felt so out of place since we didn’t really know any of the songs or anything. The sermon was pretty good though. After that we were bad and went grocery shopping. We didn’t really bring any food along since we thought that we would have trouble bringing it through the border. Then back to the campsite we went. We did a ton of biking along the beach.

Days 4-9 : March 5-10, 2007
Most of these days were pretty much the same. We did a lot of biking along the beach/ocean. Went Geo-caching, shopping downtown and other things like that.
Mom and I did laundry one day. Yikes was it expensive. But we needed clean clothes so we had to pay. On Friday we went to Daytona Beach. We didn’t know before we left for Florida that it was Bike Week in Daytona. What I mean in bike is motorbikes. Yikes what a crowded place it was there down at the raceway. We thought it was really cool that you drive right under the track. Adam kept asking “when are we going to see the Nascar Cars?” We never saw any but we sure saw a ton of Bikes.

Day 10: Sunday March 11, 2007
We went back to the same church. This time we decided to go to the early service which was at 8:15. It was more like what we are used to. Again I felt out of place since my brother and I were the youngest ones there. Everyone else was old..lol But it was a good service and I knew most of the songs. I never knew that drums would sound good with both a piano and organ. They weren’t that loud like at the other service. After church we biked downtown. We even met some people from Ontario. Some lady over heard us say we were from Barrie and she came over and said that she too was from Barrie.

Day 11: Monday March 12, 2007
We packed up our trailer and drove 5 or so hours to St. George’s Island. Boy what a dumpy place it was before we drove over the bridge to the island. While driving over the bridge we saw a dolphin jumping in the ocean. That made our day. After setting up we went to the ocean. The weather was just gorgeous that day and we had our first experiance swimming in the ocean. We saw a sea turtle when we were in the water. That sort of scared my mom but it was pretty small.

Day 12: Tuesday March 13, 2007
We packed up again and drove 1-2 hours to St. Andrew’s. We set up and then went searching for my mom’s oldest sister and her family. They were camping at the same campground as us. We didn’t find them so we decided to look at the beach. We didn’t find them but we did find my cousin Beth and her husband Nate. We were shocked to see them since we didn’t know they were going to be there. I think they were pretty shocked too. We heard from Beth that we just missed my mom’s sister and that crew who just left for lunch. We then had fun playing football/catch in the water. Later on my cousin’s husband Brian was biking and saw us so he stopped. We talked to him for a bit. We found out where everyone else’s sites were so we stopped by for a visit.

Day 13: Wednesday March 14, 2007
We went shopping. Went to a couple places. We got some boogie boards from Good Will for 6 bux each which isn’t too bad I guess. We had a blast with them in the ocean. Adam thought his was a surf board and was trying to stand on it, but it didn’t work since he never left the sandy bottom. We saw a bunch of surfers and some guys with wake board s and a kite type thing. That was really cool. They did some pretty cool tricks. I wanted to get a picture but they were too far away. Oh well. I did get a couple pictures of the surfers. I am now regretting of not taking any pictures of my cousins’ kids. They are sooooo cute especially Bradley and Andrew. Those 2 guys were pretending to be surfer dudes. And they are only 3. After we got back from the beach we went to the other campsites and played a couple games of volleyball. My team stank and we lost both games. Oh well we had more women than the other team which only had 1.

Day 14: Thursday March 15, 2007
The morning started off nice, but soon it was rainy. It sort of spoiled the day but we went shopping. Again we didn’t really get anything since Dad doesn’t like shopping that much and he only likes to stay at each store for 5 minutes or so and then has to leave. So we drove back to the campsite and then mom and I went to some of the close shops. I was hoping to get a new swimsuit, but they were soooo expensive. Some were $80 and they weren’t even that nice. Most of the shops just had skimpy 2 piece ones which I’d never be caught in. I finally decided to get a sweatshirt/hoodie. Its brown with the words PANAMA in big letters and then CITY BEACH underneath in smaller letters. St. Andrews is really close to Panama City. We did a bunch of packing since we were leaving early the next morning L

Day 15: Friday March 16, 2007
Early again..too early for my liking but yeah. It was something like 3:30 when Dad told me and Adam to get up. We left around 4. Another long day in the truck. We drove and drove till we got to Dayton, Ohio where we stayed in another hotel. We got there around 7:30 and swam for a bit. Then we went back to our room which wasn’t near as fancy as the other one but it was still nice.

Day 16: Saturday March 17, 2007We got up and had breakfast. Then we grabbed our stuff and went to the truck. Dad went down to the truck before us and I was shocked to not see him when we got there. Then I noticed that 2 bikes weren’t there either. Mom went inside the front doors and saw dad talking to someone at the desk about the bikes. So we had 2 bikes stolen L they just happened to be Dad’s and mine. Then mom and dad came back to the truck and we waited to the police came. Then we drove home. At home we got a nice surprise. Mom was putting some things away downstairs and then she sort of screamed. I thought there was a mouse or something but no that wasn’t why she screamed. The basement was flooded. So we spent most of the evening using the shop vacs trying to suck up the water. We didn’t get it all but its not near as wet as it was. I watched the Leafs lose to the Canadiens L Why couldn’t Tucker score in the shoot out?? Oh well.

So that pretty much sums up the trip. I even didn’t even say everything even though it might seem like that to you. Pictures are coming in another post.

Please comment!!!

Ok here are some pictures...from the trip

Adam in the pool
Adam being really weird in the pool
Mom and Adam in 1 of the elevators
Adam and mom. (I took a picture from the 7th floor.. thats why its so dark)
I took this one while going down the elevator
1 of the cool lanterns
Waterfall..without the water going.. how disapointing

Umm... yeah. I took a picture of the ceiling cuz it was all windows.. Perdy cool if you ask me
A grand piano.. I wanted to play on it, but decided against it since it was like 6:30 or so in the morning
Adam...lost in the jungle..(lol)
Elevator
Adam in the elevator

A table set up with coffee cups..

Adam in the truck

Alyssa Lies

My little girl met a new friend, just the other day,

on the playground at school between the tires and the swings

But she came home with tear-filled eyes, and she said to me

"Daddy, Alyssa lies"

Well I just brushed it off at first,

'cause I didn't know how much my little girl had been hurt

or the things she had seen.

I wasn't ready when I said

"You can tell me" and she said...

"Alyssa lies to the classroom,

Alyssa lies everyday at school,

Alyssa lies to the teachers

as she tries to cover every bruise"

My little girl laid her head down that night to go to sleep.

As I stepped out the room, I heard her say a prayer so soft and sweet

"God bless my mom and my Dad and my new friend, Alyssa

*oh*I know she needs you bad

Because Alyssa lies to the classroom,

Alyssa lies everyday at school,

Alyssa lies to the teachers

as she tries to cover every bruise"

(bridge) I had the worst night of sleep in years

as I tried to think of a way to calm her fears

I knew just what it was I had to do

*I knew exactly what I had to do*

but when we got to school on Monday I heard the news

My little girl asked me why everybody looked so sad

the lump in my throat grew bigger with every question that she asked.

Until I felt the tears run down my face

and I told her that Alyssa wouldn't be at school today

'Cause she doesn't lie in the classroom

she doesn't lie anymore at school

Alyssa lies with Jesus

because there's nothin' anyone would do

Tears filled my eyes when my little girl asked me why Alyssa lies

*Oh Daddy, oh* Daddy tell me why Alyssa lies

Hidden meaning of Valentine..

For God so loV ed the world,

That He gA ve

His onL y

BegottE n

SoN

T hat whosoever

Believeth I n Him

Should N ot perish,

But have E v erlasting life."
John 3:16

Random Bits Which Have Happened Lately

OK here we go again in a very random order

1. Watched "Shrek"
2. Watched "The gods Must be Crazy I"
3. Watched "The gods Must be Crazy II"
4. Watched the Leafs win :) YAY
5. Listen to the Leafs play against Carolina
6. Won the Stanley Cup.. lol..
7. Trying to find what I want to do with my life.
8. Talked to a bunch of ppl on msn
9. Got up to 94 friends on facebook
10. Sang crazy random songs @ work. Which ever songs that got stuck in my head
11. Had a short funeral for a coffee pot. Many-a-tear were shed by myself and Kathy.. and a moment of silence was held in rememberence of the coffee which wasn't used. (man we tried so hard to keep from laughing)..its a looooooooooong story

I think thats it.. if I think of other things I'll post them later.

If you don't think this guy is the cutest guy ever

----->

Then you don't know what you are thinking