M 100th Post and my 1st one from the States

OK so I have already been here five days and haven't posted anything but part of the reason is this is my 100th post and I wanted it to be good and maybe a little long. Instead of just being like hi I am here.....

I arrived in Minneapolis last thursday night. I went to the office on Friday morning and got to meet most of the staff plus talked with Carmen who is my supervisor. Then in the afternoon I spent sometime unpacking I know what you're thinking me unpacking it's crazy....

This is the guest house that I am living in I am on the third floor in the back corner. The apartment building that you can see is where Pat L's mom lives.
This is the office where I work. My desk is in the basement.
Here you can see the corner of the office building and the corner of the guest house. This shows how close they are. The brown building in the background is the coach house that has apartments where staff live.
This is the front sitting room in the guest house.
This is my bathroom. It's a nice size.
This is my door with room number.
Here is my kitchen with full size appliances. It's a decent size kitchen.
This is the other side of my room. Which is where my sitting space is.
This is my bed and desk. This the one side of my room.
This is my door on the right. The door on the left is the back stair well which would of been used as the servant stairwell when the mansion was first built.
This is part of the landing area on the third floor and shows my laundry facilities. (When I just saw this photo I remembered that I needed to put my laundry in the dryer)

On Saturday I wanted to explore the neighborhood a bit so I went for a walk and then I saw a bus stop. So I went over to it and the bus came as soon as I got there. So I got on not really knowing where it was going but pretty sure it was going downtown. Thankfully it did so I got off downtown and wandered for a bit before heading to Target. Then I decided to walk home. I used the Hyatt hotel as my guide first and then Pat's mom's apartment building. Then that everning I watched a movie with Heidi and David. They are engaged and Heidi lives in the coach house.

I just realized I forgot about Friday night I don't know how I could do that. So one of my colleauges asked if I went to go to a Somalian Wedding with some people so I said ok. Actually that was after finding something to wear. So I went and it was so much fun. I would say 99% women in the room. I am unsure how many of them were Muslim. Anyways we didn't get there until about 10:15 we ate at 1:00 and I didn't get home until 2:30. I thought I was going to be deaf since the music was so so loud my ear was hurting. It didn't help my table was the closest to the speaker.

On Sunday I went to church with Carmen. It was really good. Then in the afternoon I went and visited Pat's mom Ruby and then had a nice supper with her and her friends. I am hoping to get over there as much as I can. I really enjoyed talking with her. She is such a women of God who spent so many years faithfully serving God overseas and didn't lose faith despite many hardships.

Monday was my first day in the office and it was really good and I spent most of the day trying to figure out Adobe.

But I gotta run I need to go make instant mashed potatoes for potluck supper tonight. I know what your thinking but I haven't gone shopping so that is the only food I have for like a group of people. Plus I talked to Heidi so we aren't bringing the same thing she is bringing instant sweet potatoes.

Take Care until Later

Note to God Mother: I wasn't going to post these photos on my blog because I figured everyone who reads my blog is on my facebook but then I remembered you so then I posted them just for you.

My Christmas

So after getting off work on Saturday the 22nd I got a ride to Edmonton and then caught the bus to Creston it was a 12 hour ride with very little sleep. My dad picked me up and then took me to my sister's place. I slept for a couple of hours and then after having a late breakfast/lunch we went over to my parent's house.
When I got to my parent's house my brother and his girlfriend and her dog were there. The dog had surgery the day before he is 17 years old and had some lumps removed. He started to chew at his stitches and they didn't have a cone because the lady at the vet said he wasn't doing anything with them most likely because he was drugged. But it was Sunday and with Monday being Christmas eve they wouldn't be able to go to the vet to get a cone so we told my brother to make something. We went down town and when we came back this is what we saw
the dog with a kokanee box around his head. It was pretty funny and he was been wearing it most of the time since. For those of you who think it's mean the dog is fine and it's better for him because he is not eating his stitches.

The picture below is of our tree at around 2:30 on Christmas Eve

and this is our tree at around 3:30 on Christmas Eve
You see my dad thought the tree should be in the basement all along where there was more space. Which I agreed with and so they were talking about it along with my sister and the next thing you knew we were moving the tree and all the presents. I was saying how do you spell ridiculous? P-r-o-u-d

When I was at Thanksgiving I learned how to make pies or at least I thought I did. So I told my mum that this year I would be making pies. So I gave her my list of ingredients before I came home and she picked up everything I needed. The crust process didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. After numerous calls to the Langager's and making some changes I was finally able to get the pie crust into the pan without to much damage. Part of my problem was rolling on the counter and having it stick.

Below is a picture of my cherry pie before I baked it. It is not as nice as Erin Lanager's but it is still pretty good, but seriously I don't expect my pies to look as nice as Erin's she is much more detailed and particular about things than I am. Below is a picture of one of my pumpkin pies along side my favorite Lemon Meringue.
Below is a picture of the Lemon Meringue up close.
Below is a picture of the pumpkin pie and before you judge it I want you to know it tasted good. The problem was the pie crust broke around the edges all the way around and I am not sure why it did it.
Below is the cherry pie and the edges are really dark because we were eating supper downstairs and I forgot to check on it. The pumpkin I had wrapped foil around the edges to protect it but I forgot to do that with the cherry pie until it was to late. But I am told it still tasted good. I don't know for myself because I don't like cherry pies.

On Christmas Day I made buns but I was a little nervous because of the problem with the pie crust the day before but they ended up turning out great. They were a little on the big side but they were prefect for turkey buns today. Right before they were done I realized they weren't really getting brown on top so I quickly melted some butter and brushed it on top and then briefly put them under the broiler so they could get brown and they they were done.
Below is the picture from Christmas dinner. My sister is getting annoyed with pictures and I am posing because it makes it easier that way.
Below is a picture of the Lefse that I butter and sugared for my family and some people who were over. The plate on the right is my mum's because she is diabetic so she had sweetener on hers.

So the plate above is what is left after my family ate it. As you can tell they are not Norwegian and the whole concept of Lefse was a little more foreign to them. The only one who like it was my mum but I think that's because she is trying to be Norwegian her new favorite saying is "Uff Da". She is so silly.

Anyways I should run I need to go back to my sister's and pack everything for the next week which is going to be crazy.

Thursday- Leave for Summerland spend the night at my Aun't and Uncle's
Friday- Leave for Vancouver Island spend the next two nights at my Grandma's and spent time visiting family.
Sunday- Leave for Mission and spend the next four days being super busy trying to get a lot of visiting in with old Friends.
Thursday(Jan 3rd)- Leave Mission and head to Seattle where I will get on my flight to Minneapolis :D I am excited and the time is going so fast next thing I know I will be there.

Take Care. The next time I post I will most likely be in Minneapolis.

Busy busy busy busy busy

I am exhausted......I have been working tons this week which has hardly left time for anything else...as soon as I am done writing this I am going to go pack for an hour then go to work for at least 8 if not longer but I am going to try and not stay to late cause I need to finish all my packing and clean the house.....I just can't wait to be finished....

PRAYER

This week I am taking class at CLBI. It is part of my internship. I am also working during the week. Which so far has left me pretty tired. If you could please pray for me that I would find the time and the energy to get everything done that would be amazing. Also because I am tired I seem to get more easily stressed so if you could please pray about that also.

ERIN

I would like to introduce all of you to my friend Erin. You may wonder why I am doing this and the reason is today is her birthday. Some of you are lucky enough to know her and know that you are blessed by it. OK so I was trying to post these five different photos of Erin that I am sure most of you haven't seen but the Internet is bring dumb and I should be leaving for work right now. Plus for my sake it's most likely better I am not posting the photos cause I am sure Erin would of hurt me. :D

Erin is amazing, wonderful, beautiful(yes you are Erin), caring, thoughtful, gentle and kind....
I can also tell you that when Erin reads this her face might go a little red and she might try to convince her self that she is not these things but that is a lie.....I love you Erin and I hope you aren't mad at me for this post.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are LOVED

What's Happening in my Life

So this post is a few days later than I told you it was going to be but that's because the details weren't confirmed until yesterday.

As you know I am currently working here in Camrose. I will continue to do that until Dec. 22nd. Then I will take a long bus ride to Creston where my parent's and sister live. I will spend Christmas with them and then MAYBE go down to the coast after Christmas but I am not sure how that will work out.

Then around the 3rd or 4th of January I will head to the airport and board a flight for Minneapolis, Minnesota. I will be spending three months volunteering with the World Mission Prayer League as Part of my Internship. I will do various things like office work, correspondence plus once a week leading the prayer and devotion time for the staff. I am excited about this opportunity and that it is all confirmed.
After the three months working in the WMPL USA Office I will come back to Camrose and work in the Canadian WMPL office. Doing various tasks.

Along with working in the Canadian office I will continue to plan and work out the details for a family Mission trip for Resurrection Church here in Camrose. With the trip taking place next August. The details are still coming together about where the trip will be.

That is it. So you now know what is happening in my life for the next nine months. What will I do after that? I actually have no idea but I still have some time to think and pray about that.

www.wmpl.org
www.rezchurch.ca

What's happening in my Life

OK so I don't actually know what is happening in my life as of January but I should find out in the next two or three days so check back then and I will catch you up in my life. The only thing happening right now isn't I haven't been sleeping well which is super frustrating. It takes me a long time to fall asleep and then I am awake before my alarm it's very annoying. Anyways check back in a few days.

First Real Snow

This is what I woke up to this morning. Angela and I both woke up before out alarms so we got ready for church early. Then walked around the path across the road from our house. I took some pictures. Then we went and got Timmy's and went to Church. We were a bit late. oops














The first and last photos are my two favorites. The photos aren't that great my photography skills aren't that good I am still working on them

Short Hair, School & Relationships

Ok so how lame is my life that I lie asleep at night wanting to be sleeping but instead I am thinking about what to write for my next post. Thankfully I remembered it because how annoying would that be thinking about it and not sleeping and then forgetting about it the next morning. Anyways some reason I was thinking about short hair and how I wish I could have a really short hair cut but unfortunately short doesn't look good on me which could be do to my rather large head. But I have friends who can really pull it off for example Hannah looks really good with short hair and Jen who has short hair due to circumstances looks really great. My sister has long hair but she can pull off the short look and I have the feeling it will become short again sometime soon. It seems that most of the time girls want to grow their hair for their wedding. I thought maybe I should just cut my hair but that is a big commitment which would take years to grow out and then I thought about how much I am not a fan of commitment and that is why it is hard for me to decide what to do for school next fall. Do I want to do a four year program? Really that's a big commitment which then led me to thinking no wonder I can't date anyone I can't even commit to a hair cut or school how could I commit to a relationship....oh how I love my life

My Roommate

So my one roommate is Kelly. She is a 17(maybe 16) year old exchange student from Hong Kong who is studying at the high school here in town. She is far away from home and I can tell she feels very lonely. I would really appreciate it if you could pray for her. I have debated before if I could hear her crying at night but now I am pretty positive that there are some nights when she cries herself to sleep. Also if you have any ideas of how I can reach her and make her feel more comfortable please let me know. I try and talk to her everyday when I get home but it always just ends be being really brief. So anyways if you could pray for her that would be great. Thanks.

Bowling

OK so as I mentioned before I am in a bowling league with Jeff, Jen and Colin. So last week I was the top bowler on my team and this week I didn't bowl as well as my average from last week which is fine. Some members of my team beat me on individual team scores but I had the overall high triple for our team. The thing is I have a problem with my team and it's not being beat by them but rather having them cheer for me when I do badly. It seems there new goal is to beat me so when I do badly they are excited by this, is it just me or is this wrong?

Work

OK so on Wednesdays at work I work in the kitchen. Doing baking or whatever job they have for me. So last week they taught me how to make flatbread, let’s just say it didn’t go very well. I was having a hard time learning how to get the flatbread on the grill and mainly I was having a hard time rolling the flatbread. Then when the flatbread was done drying I took it out and placed it on a tray. I then picked up the tray and turned to walk it into the kitchen when I caught the edge of the tray on a corner causing me to partially drop the tray. The thing is when you drop flatbread it basically shatters into small pieces which we then can’t sell. Oops. I felt horrible. So yesterday they got me to do flatbread again and I was much much better at doing it. I had like no problems getting the flatbread onto the grill and I did a much better job rolling it into the right shape. The two ladies in the kitchen even told me I did a much better job than last week. So that was sweet give it a few more weeks and I should be better and better.

So I joined a bowling league with some friends Jeff, Jen and Colin. Last night was our first night of bowling. We did ok. I bowled a 173,162 and a 171 which isn’t amazing but it was the best on my team. So now on Wednesdays that is how I will spend my night at the bowling alley yeah I know some of you are laughing Natasha R you can stop laughing at me.

On Saturday I am going up to Tofield after work for Thanksgiving. I will be staying with the Langager’s J

That’s pretty much all that is going on with my life.

The New Look

So what do you think about the new look of my blog? I noticed yesterday that someone had a picture on the top of their blog so I thought I wanted to do it too. So at first I tried a photo of me but the photo was way to big so when I decided to change it and decided on the flags concept. It took a few changes to get it looking right. But I like how it turned out.

Side Story: On Sunday Natashia and I were walking to church in the evening and I asked this lady about where a road was and she said sorry she didn't know and kept on walking then she turned around and started talking to me. I was pretty sure she was from Pakistan and was just about to ask when she told me she was so then we talked about Pakistan and told her where I had been. She told me about immigrating to Canada and the conversation lasted no longer than five minutes but it was a really good talk but made me miss my friends in Pakistan.

Oh my look at the time I gotta run or I am going to be late for work

Finally

Ok so this is long over due I know but I haven’t really felt like writing it which I know isn’t fair to those who check my blog.

So a lot has happened in the last month. After finding out that I had no internship for September I cam down to Camrose with Sarah Walsh and was planning to only be in town for a few days before heading home to live and work in Creston. I wasn’t super excited and after talking with some people I decided to stay here and work in Camrose. So I am working at the Lefse house. Mainly I waitress and work in the front but occasionally I work in the kitchen depending on what day it is. I am living in a house with three other girls. Two are upstairs and another is downstairs where I am. In the basement we have our own kitchenette, living area and bathroom.

Things are starting to come together for my internship to start in January. I will post more about it when I know until then I am going to leave it at that. If you could pray for me that would be great.

Since my last post I turned 23 which didn’t really change things. My birthday came and went pretty uneventfully.

Until later God Bless

what do i do with my life?

so my internship in calgary for september has fallen through....what does this mean? there is nothing lined up for me until January and I am not really sure how I feel about this...what do i until then? i have such little time to organize anything so it looks like i will be moving to creston and living with my parents until at least christmas....after that i don't really know i am kind of cconfused at the moment and wish i knew what God's plans were for me....

Frustrated

OK so I am slightly frustrated with Superstore. This is what there logo looks like...


and this is what I think it should look like...
OK now let me explain why I feel this way. So I went to Superstore to get some Digital Photos printed. Below is a document of events.

1st Visit- Of the four machines only one has a spot for a USB key so I wait for it. When I finally hit the browse photos button it loads about 4 of them in like 3 minutes which is way to slow. So then I am like fine and I am also told this machine is usually busy. So then I wait for the other machine because I decide I will get some prints off my SD card. So the rest of that part goes smoothly.

I then came home and burned photos from the USB onto a CD.

2nd Visit- The first machine I go to won't read my CD so I wait for the next open machine. After spending about 30 mins picking pictures I go give the guy my receipt and get my little ticket. My plan is to get them the next day after work.

When I got home from work there is a message on the machine from Superstore telling me that my photos didn't go through. So I am like great I have to do it all over again.

3rd Visit- So I go in again and place the order which takes less than 30 minutes this time because I am getting pretty good at. I take the guy the receipt and he gives me my ticket. I ask the guy to call upstairs to see if they have gone through he does and they hadn't but he says it takes a few minutes but he reassures me that if they don't go through then we will call me.

So I come home and no phone call so I am like great it worked.

4thVisit- I went in today to pick up my photos and it has been two days since I dropped them off. I give the guy my ticket he can't find them and then this other guy looks for them. Can't find them. I am slightly annoyed so after ten minutes of them looking because they don't really want to tell me that they can't find my photos it's confirmed they don't have them and I have to place the order yet again. This time it only takes me 10 mins to make the order because by now I am becoming a pro at it. I then waited 15 minutes in the photo department until they confirmed that the order did make it up stairs. Now I have to go pick them up tonight. They better be there or I will be very very not impressed and may even ask to talk to the manager which I hate doing. Will see.

June 23

I feel that I am finding myself back at my old post from June 23rd. Now more than ever.

More Wedding Pics

I love this photo. Alex was looking into the water at the fish so we all joined him. I think it is such a cute photo.
This is the kokanee mascot the Sasquatch. He blew the horn on top of the roof of the brewery after they had finished signing the registry. Then he came down for a few pictures.
I thought of this photo and told them to take it and then I remembered that earlier in the day Kate the flower girl had seen a photo of Natashia and Sarah kissing my cheeks and she was like eewww. So I thought it was funny that we took this photo.
My sister and I on the bridge.

The girls of the wedding party. The flower girl is Brad's niece Kate.
I really like this photo. Even from behind Alex looks adorable.
Ok so my friend Litsa had this photo in here wedding album and I liked it and I knew it wouldn't look quite the same with a smaller wedding party. It would of worked better if Wayne hadn't been acting to cool to fake a reaction.
Sisters on the bridge again.
My sister and brother in law.

Signing of the registry.
My dad walking my sister down the aisle. My dad was looking pretty spiffy in his suit. It's new and hip. He told the lady at Moore's that it was his four event suit. 3 weddings (Carolyn's, Tim's and mine) and a funeral (his). hey he said it not me.
Standing at the front. I wish I was getting married soon so Alex could be my ring bearer. He is just so adorable I love him.

My sister and Alex looking very good. I really like this photo I think it is one of my favorites so far.