Happy Mother's Day!

Allow me to indulge myself just a bit;) Amanda presented me with a book of poetry this weekend that she had written. I'll share just one. The style is such that whatever the 3rd thought of the 4th line is, it changes the rest of the poem to that subject...

FAMILY
Busy, small
Caring, helping, working
Grandpa, grandma, mom, dad
Cooking, cleaning, loving
Smart, pretty
Mom

Apparently it brought tears to the teacher's eyes when she read it. Can you just imagine what it did to mine (let alone my heart)?!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Oy, what a week I've had...and here I had all these great things to post about, but I'm so busy I can't. But I've popped in briefly to share what my brilliant daughter said tonight...

She said, "It's our imperfections that make us interesting - at least that's what I've always thought."

What a perspective! ...our imperfections make us interesting.

What do you think?

Do It Anyway Lyrics

The lyrics to this song are powerful and really capture what I'm feeling...

You can spend your whole life buildin'
Something from nothin
One storm could come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You could chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

God is great but sometimes life aint good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like i think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This worlds gone crazy
And it's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all you heart
For all the right reasons
And in a moment they can choose to walk away
love em anyway

God is great but sometimes life aint good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like i think it should
But I do it anyway
Yeah, I do it anyway

You can pour your soul out singin'
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yeah sing it anyway

I sing
I dream
I love anyway

You Are a Auditory Learner

You tend to remember what you hear, and you have a knack for speaking well. You excel at debating, foreign languages, and music. You would be an excellent diplomat - or rock star!

What's Your Learning Style?

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Living with a GRANDE Passion

I think this book sounds interesting! This is what the back cover says...

You don't stand in line at Starbucks just to buy a cup of coffee. You stop for the experience surrounding the cup of coffee.

Too many of us line up for God out of duty or guilt. We completely miss the warmth and richness of the experience of living with God. If we'd learn to see what God is doing on earth, we could participate fully in the irresistible life that he offers.

You can learn to pay attention like never before, to identify where God is already in business right in your neighborhood. The doors are open and the coffee is brewing. God is serving the refreshing antidote to the unsatisfying, arms-length spiritual life---and he won't even make you stand in line. Let Leonard Sweet show you how the passion that Starbucks has for creating an irresistible experience can connect you with God's stirring introduction to the experience of faith.

You can read more of an excerpt from the book here.

Les & Sherri's Tasty Travels

Yes, you are right, I've been missing in action...part of that is just busy life things and part of that is the recent trip that my hubby and I took to Edmonton. For the third year running, Les and I headed to Edmonton at the end of January for the Breakforth Conference. The conference was awesome again this year, and I hope to post more about that in the future, but I thought I'm mention first a few of the tastier parts of trip. You see Les I spent a couple of extra days in Edmonton to shop and relax after the conference, and we had a great time at some of our favourite spots, so here are a few of our tips that had us eating at way less than $40-a-day!

- What's a trip to Edmonton without visiting IKEA?! And did you know that they serve some of the best coffee that Les has ever tasted? Also they run a breakfast feature until 11 a.m. each day...breakfast for a buck! So one morning for $1 each we had scrambled eggs, sausage and a croissant. It was very good and totally fueled us for the next few hours as we shopped. We actually made it back to IKEA at the end of our trip too as we were snowed in in Edmonton for an extra day and Les had missed having his Swedish meatball lunch. They have a deal for somewhere around $5 that includes salad, a meatball entre (with lingonberry sauce) and coffee/tea. Did I mention that their tea is pretty awesome too?! Gotta love IKEA!

- The Old Spagetti Factory was where we had supper on the night the conference ended. This was a favourite of Les' family growing up and he still orders the veal everytime he goes there. So knowing that we might head there I checked to see if there were any deals to be had online before we left. And sure enough, visaperks was offering a promotion where if you paid with your visa you would get a free entree for every one you purchased..so basically, my hunter's chicken that night was on the house:) (And yes, I cheated and had the wee dish of spumoni ice cream that comes with your meal that night too:)

- White Spot - this is our favourite place to eat at from back in B.C., and thankfully there is one in Edmonton now. Many people here in Saskatchewan don't even know about White Spot, but trust me, you would love it. It's kind of like a Kelsey's or a Moxie's, but WAY better. The first time I ate there when Les & I were dating I had the cheddar grilled chicken and to this day I have not had anything else there. It's SO good, and I get there so infrequently that I always order the same thing...yum! Les's favourite is the double double (double the beef, double the cheese). And thanks to letting our server know where we were staying (just down the road), we got 15% off our total check!

- Starbucks! When Les and I travel (which isn't much), we try to go to as many different Starbucks as we can. One of our favourites is on Whyte Street in Edmonton...a perfect break for an afternoon of walking up and down Whyte Street and exploring the ecclectic shops there (including Avenue Guitars...the BEST guitar store ever!) It's upstairs in an old brick building that is now a Chapters...the view and the windows are completely charming. Another Starbucks highlight was at the downtown Starbucks one of the nights during the conference...we had a short period between our afternoon and evening sessions and both weren't too hungry so we indulged in the Starbucks-fair... I had a sugar-free cinnamon dolce latte with no fat (so basically skim milk and expresso, but it tastes so good) and a low fat scone. In Edmonton the Starbucks have French Toast Scones. Doesn't that sound good with my doce latte?!! Mmmm.

- Red Robin is another favourite of ours whenever we are in Alberta. We both are in love with the teriyaki chicken sandwiches. They grill pineapple and put it on the grilled teriyaki chicken breast. It's delightful! Since I was sure we would try to get to Red Robin at least once, I did some searching online for deals before we left and found that if you sign up for their newsletter, you get $3 off your meal the next time you are there. So, yet another deal!

- O'Byrne's Irish Pub - this is an Irish Pub on Whyte Street. We ate there on Tuesday night because on Tuesday nights they have a real Irish session. The atmosphere was so authentic...music was awesome (even though we couldn't stay later to see the dancers), and Tuesdays are all-you-can-eat fish and chip nights for $7.95. And let me just say, that neither of us could eat more than the initial portion they brought, but oh, the fish was so good (not all batter)...and what a treat to have chips!

My Favourite Monty Python Skit...

Presenting...THE LION TAMER!

The 2007 Blizzard

Well, by now it would not be 'news' for me to tell you that we had the worst blizzard I have ever experienced in my life this past Wednesday. Though I am a little late in writing about it on here, I still want to preserve the memory of that day...for it was the first time I've ever come home from work on snow-mobile!

Actually, the day started normal enough. When the alarm went off Wednesday morning, Les told me there was only a 'skiff' of snow, and later when I ate my breakfast, I looked out and thought, 'maybe the storm has passed us by', it was lightly snowing with just a bit of wind. Sure visibility was reduced a bit when I drove to work, but I had definitely driven through worse before. Once I was at work I was pretty much oblivious to what was happening outside...it's like that most days once I get inside our downtown offices. But after lunch I heard a couple of administrative staff talking about their bus routes being shut down, and then a little after 1:30, I got the message from the OMP, we could go home as the city was closing down streets, but we should make sure to take work with us. I called home and told Les that I would pick up Amanda on my way. A few minutes later Les called me back to say that the school had also called saying that they were closing too and that we could pick her up. Les told me to drive safe, and I said 'of course, you know me, I'll go slow...'

I have driven through a lot of things, but I have never experienced anything like the drive home on Wednesday. One of the worst parts being driving north on Circle Drive between 22nd Street and 33rd. I could see nothing. The only way I stayed on the road was to look for the green street light poles that were every so often in the ditch. Somehow I got through and made my way to Amanda's school to pick up my girlie. Somehow, that is, with a few tears and lots of prayers a long the way...

Now, Amanda's school is only a few blocks from our house and so you would think that once I got there I was home-free. Well, I only wish that was true. The residential street I had to pull onto to get her from school was aweful and I had to pull on facing north, so we could barely see anything. We navigated around cars, got stuck and unstuck...only to find ourselves 2 car-links form where we could turn west to head home. But there was no getting further. These cars were ultimately abandoned in the centre of the road (the front one of which I couldn't even see). We tried to go around them and got horribly stuck ourselves. I kept going in and out of the vehicle trying to dig us out the best I could...all the while facing the gusting wind and snow from the north (I've never been colder...eyebrows and eyelashes frozen with ice-crystals). Everytime I'd pop back into the vehicle to warm up, I tried to keep it together and tell Amanda that everything would be ok. Nobody helped us..we tried to help a couple of others...and then, at one point I thought this man who walked up to our car was going to help us, but he just shouted foul language our way while puffing on his cigarette. Once I accepted that we wouldn't get through there, I tried to get us back to behind the two abandoned cars (once a car that was blocking us moved). In the process, I managed to turn the car around to try going up the road the other way...only to end up getting stuck again because I had to stop behind a van that seemed to get stuck and unstuck every few feet. The van had numerous people with shovels helping them, but no one even made a motion to help us. Eventually though a man walked up to the vehicle and told me I might as well give up, that even if I got unstuck, that there were so many vehicles stuck ahead of that van that we weren't going anywhere tonight. He said to just abandon the car. I said that I scared to do so because I had my daughter with me and I didn't think she could make the walk home in this. He said we could wait it out at his home around the corner with his wife, and he helped to push me so I could get unstuck and then I pulled the car as far over to the corner as I could.

Amanda and I then tried to walk to this gentleman's house, but eventually Amanda couldn't walk into the wind anymore, and we ducked into a nearby driveway and knocked on the door of a stranger (so much for all my efforts at teaching my daughter not to talk to strangers). These were kind strangers though, and they let us in and let me use the phone to call Les. Les wanted to come and get us right away, but it was no use, he would just get caught in this all too. We'd have to wait it out a bit and try to walk a little further later. Our hosts made us some hot chocolate and then looking out their front window said it was getting worse, so we should just come upstairs and watch some TV with them, that we wouldn't be going anywhere for quite a while. Once upstairs the man of the house commented that he remembered a bad snow storm in the 80's when the police let them use their snowmobiles on the streets. He wondered if that would happen again, so he called the city police and got their approval to take his sleds out. The next thing I knew, he and his wife were getting their snowmobiles out and bundled us up and took Amanda and I home. I've never been so thankful for the kindness of strangers in my life! And thankful to God too, because He did answer those prayers and kept us safe...even taking us to the one house that could actually get us home before dark that night:)

How Ironic...

Today we took back a DVD that Les received for Christmas to one of the local Christian bookstores here. When we tried to watch the DVD last night, it skipped in several places and so we didn't get very far. So today we took the DVD back hoping to be able to exchange it for another copy.

Since Christmas we have been to a few different stores to do returns and exchanges. Most seem to have fairly generous policies and were only too happy to help us out. I suppose that is why I'm still thinking about our experience at this "Christian" store today. It was quite the opposite. You see, when we approach the counter and explained the problem, the clerk didn't immediately try to remedy our problem and obtain a new DVD for us or provide us with a refund or a gift card for that matter. Rather, the clerk's response was to ask exactly where the skips were on the DVD as she would have to view the DVD herself before doing anything else. I explained where the skips were on the parts of the DVD we were able to watch (after a certain point, the skipping was so bad, the DVD was unwatchable). She then took the DVD to the back of the store to the children's area where they had TV and DVD player that was currently playing a Veggie Tales video. She then said that she would have to view these skips for herself. After I helped her with her own technical issues in operating the DVD player, I then showed her some of the skips on the DVD. Satisfied that there were indeed skips on the DVD, she did not proceed back to the cash register as I had hoped to help remedy the problem for us. Instead she said she would need to review this with her manager and could not promise that they would take the DVD back. In the end, they determined that they would replace the DVD for us, but, of course, they didn't have any in stock, so they would order one for us and call us when one came in. In the meantime, we got no refund, no gift card or in-store credit on the DVD return, just their word that they would call us when our new DVD came in...

We took their word, but the irony of it stuck with me. They certainly didn't take our word that the DVD skipped, and I guess that rubbed me a bit the wrong way. We've never had a problem returning anything this season at the secular stores we went to, but today, at this "Christian" store, we were treated suspiciously when we were simply returning a defective product, simply wanting a working version of the exact same thing. And all this in a place where there are books and cds galore on topics like grace and love, it felt more than just a little bit ironic to me.

Making an Elf of Ourselves...

Sherri

and

Les

A Very Brophy Christmas!!



Every year we have both sides of our families over for Christmas, and every year Les works on Christmas day, so we have never had a 'normal' Christmas morning as just our immediate family...that is, until this year. Our Church held a candle-light Christmas Eve service on the eve of Christmas Eve, and so last night we did our normal Christmas Eve traditions with family over after the service...and then we carved out today for a 'very Brophy Christmas' which meant just the 3 of us - Les, Amanda and me. We had oatmeal cookie pancakes for breakfast, then leisurely shared gifts (instead of the usual rushing on Christmas day after Les gets home from work and before we have both sides of the family over and share turkey). Then we visited, played games, snacked and enjoyed our first Christmas alone together. Tomorrow Les will head off to work and when he comes home both sides of the family will be over and the turkey feast will begin, but I have to say that I like this new tradition...a little bit of peace that I'm treasuring in my heart tonight:)

Merry Christmas!

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Each year, you really get into the spirit of Christmas. Which is much more important to you than nifty presents.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Where Have I Been?

I haven't found time to check blogs much less post on mine lately (and look, it's nearly Christmas and this blog is still decorated for fall?!) On November 27th I started my new job...and the first week was, well, it WAS! Without going into many details, let's just say my partner felt the need to send me flowers at home by the end of the week which was a nice end to a...I-don't-know-how-to-describe-it...week! I'm working 3 days a week which doesn't sound like it should be so hectic as it is, but it is a very fast paced environment, and I dare say I haven't even had so much as a lunch hour to myself with out a meeting or a lunch and learn. Also I'm working much longer days than I used to (and remember Les does shiftwork). I used to be able to work my job around Amanda's school hours, but now my Dolly has to be a bit more independent (and that's a bit hard on me...she's doing fine with it though:) But overall, I have to say that things have been going pretty well. I'm now at the end of week three and find myself much happier at work now that I have some clients and some people stuff to manage. I love the people stuff about work...always have...anywhere I go, it's the people...the clients, the staff, the people who "make" my day...

On a related, but unrelated note, my Christmas party for work was last weekend, and it was very nice...and very well organized, just as you would expect for a bunch of accountants. Les commented afterward that you could sure tell it was a room full of accountants when the punchline to the big joke at our table was "QAR"... (QAR stands for quality review). Anyway, it was a lovely evening from the start (being greeted by the OMP with a glass of champagne) to the finish (learning about other countries and how they celebrate Christmas and then actually being able to participate in a meaningful tradition from Poland).

One more thing that I meant to post last week, and is related to the above in that it has to do with Christmas, is that Les, Amanda and I attended a "Cheer Party" at Starbucks last Tuesday. It was a blast! Free peppermint mocha's and eggnog latte's...live music...treats... Christmas at Starbucks is so good! I say, "On with the tradition!"

The Big Gummy-Bear Is NOT the Poster-boy for Gluttony

Warning: Rant ahead...

I've held my tongue on this one about as long as I can, but the big gummy-bear being used to symbolize the sin of gluttony this week in the announcements at church took me over the top. First off, let me say, that I KNOW it was meant to be funny, ...still, I'm not laughing...

Our Church is doing a sermon series on the 7 deadly sins. A couple of weeks ago it was gluttony's turn. The speaker was someone that I respect and that I have learned much from in the past (and I'm sure I will learn much from in the future), so I was looking forward to hearing what he would say on this one. He started his message with a statistic on how many Americans are overweight or obese...linking this as an example of gluttony. He did also mention in his message how things like shopping, excessive tv watching etc. could also be an examples of gluttony as well. But I couldn't get past his link right off the bat of overweight or size to this particular sin. Sure, it is true that there are people who are overweight who overeat, but this isn't necessarily true of all overweight people, and I am so tired of discriminatory comments like that. It wouldn't be acceptable on the following weekend when sloth was discussed to single out a particular racial group and use negative statistics about their presence in the workforce to illustrate sloth. And likewise, it wasn't acceptable, to me anyway, for overweight statistics to be used to illustrate gluttony either.

I would have been fine if we would have talked about overindulgence or overeating to illustrate his point, but to use size statistics as his hook to convince us that more than half the population has a problem with gluttony, well, it just wasn't credible to me. Probably most of the people in the congregation could have identified with gluttony in their lives without someone using their size against them. Food-wise, there were probably plenty of people listening who weren't overweight but had personal experience with over-indulgence. The size of a person does not tell the tale of how present or absent this sin is from their life. In fact, it is my own excessive focus on eating less food, counting and balancing carbs and proteins and exercise that is probably a more glutton-ous behaviour on my own part. When it all comes down to it, it is not what you see on the outside that tells you about the sin a person struggles with because really it is a matter of the heart, and so often it cannot be detected with the eye.

Perhaps I've taken the sermon illustration more personally than I should have, but it is a personal matter to me. I am someone who has dealt with size my whole life and who works ever so hard everyday to make sure that I eat healthy and exercise, and size-ist comments that have been thrown my direction over the years have made self-acceptance a very hard thing for me...and I have just fought the stereotypes too hard in my own life to let this illustration go... Besides, what do the pastor's statistics mean in any case? He was saying that some number over 50% of Americans are overweight or obese. Do you know what that tells me? Not much since reading that by BMI standards Brad Pitt is overweight and George Clooney and Russell Crowe are obese (obese?!!). You know, just the other night I caught a feature on CNN about the designer's creating a new size...a 00 (that's right, a size zero is no longer small enough, they've created a double zero). In the news story, a reporter wanted to get a sense of what is might be like to be a larger woman living in a world where there is now a size smaller than zero, so the reporter put on a fat suit and uglied themselves up to go out and see how it felt in the real world. First of all, I thought it was 'rich' that they couldn't just go out in the fat suit...they had to ugly themselves up too (bad hair, skin, teeth, etc)...after all, there ARE still people out there who think 'fat and ugly' are one word?! (Rich!, I know!) Secondly, I had to do a double take when they mentioned the size of the reporter after donning her fat-suit. It was a 12?!! Do you know that I have never in my adult nor teenage life been a size 12...NEVER! All the diet pills consumed, all the meals skipped, all the calories counted and fats eliminated, carbs watched and balanced, exercise...all of it and I have never made it down to the size of that reporter's fat-suit.... (ughhhhhhhh!!!!)

Anyway, later that night I was hungry (real stomach hunger) for a snack, and I gave in after watching that news story. The next day I felt bad and told my husband that I was a glutton for having that snack. He looked at me in disbelief. "Good grief," he said, "You had a bit of oatmeal. Most people watching tv on a Saturday night are ordering pizza in and you are feeling bad about a small bowl of oatmeal?!" What nonsense indeed! That being said, rant over... I'm just going to let this all go now... (breathe in, breathe out:)

A little over 4 years ago, I used to sing this song (see below) ...meaning many of it's words. And then God turned my waiting into dancing, and the "brown-eyed boy" in my future (from the song) appeared...and every day since his love have given me a bigger taste of heaven and taught me more about God's love.

Born To Fly

I've been telling my dreams to the scarecrow
About the places that I'd like to see
I say, "friend do you think I'll ever get there?"
Oh, but he just stands there smilin' back at me

So I confessed my sins to the preacher
About the love I've been prayin' to find
Is there a brown-eyed boy in my future, yeah
And he says, "girl, you've got nothin' but time."

But how do you wait for heaven?
And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground
When you know that you were born,
You were born to fly

My daddy he is grounded like the oak tree
My momma she is steady as the sun
Oh, you know I love my folks
But I keep starin' down the road
Just lookin' for my one chance to run

Hey, cause I will soar away like a blackbird
I will blow in the wind like a seed
I will plant my heart in the garden of my dreams
And I will grow up where I wander wild and free

Oh, How do you wait for heaven?
And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground
When you know, that you were born?
You were born, yeah, you were born to fly


Today is the 4th anniversary of the day I married that "brown-eyed boy"! And I love him even more today than on the day I said "I do". He and his love are teaching me to 'fly'!

Do I Really Look Like ANY of these People?

Everlasting God
(by Chris Tomlin)

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God You reign forever
Our hope, Our strong deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint, You won't grow weary

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God You reign forever
Our hope, Our strong deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint, You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

Our God You reign forever
Our hope, Our strong deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint, You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

God, You are everlasting

I Know an Author...

Last night I attended a reception for someone I used to work with a few years ago. He has definitely earned his 'lion-taming hat' (look back at July and August's posts if you are not sure of what I'm talking about there)! A few years ago he left behind the exciting life of a CA to explore his life-long dream of being a writer. And last night at McNally Robinson, he launched his 4th book!! He is the author of the Russell Quant mystery series of books. His main character is a novice private detective based in Saskatoon who travels about the globe too. This morning my husband read a few excerpts of Tony's new book to me, (which, incidentally, was presented to me at the reception by my soon to be new boss...who was, also incidentally, my boss once before, but that is another story..) and we both (that is, Les & I) found ourselves giggling about the descriptives we found in the excerpts of this place where we live:)

It was fun to get together with many of my former co-workers from a few years ago to celebrate Tony's success last night and to see where life has taken them. And seeing Tony, as always, was a good reminder to us all to "live life wide" ... (he's always saying that, "life is short, but wide!")

Pretzels & Chicken...Parmesan & Fish....

Oh my, this was delicious! I made it for supper the other night...yum! And if you are trying to eat more fish, then you'll love this one too...we sure did:)