someone's twenty-one...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY j o n n i o s!! *cheering*

hope u had an awesome day!! :D

what happened to the weekend?

does anyone else ask the same question on mondays?

anyway, this past weekend was the cooking class with jo. :) it was on saturday, so i met up with stella at fairview and we stayed there for a while. and it was good times! (thrifty's is becoming like this, urban behaviour/american eagle/trying-to-be-different-and-ghetto store. how can u even try to mix ub with american eagle? it just doesn't work that way. i dunno what's going on...) so we tried to find a birthday present and we kinda did, but we're unsure if we should get it or not. mmmmm. i dunno. anyway, so afterwards we went to joanne's place where we met up with justin, david, jon and bernard, for our cooking class. let me just tell you, joanne is the best teacher chef ever! :D *thanks jo!* it was fun going to the grocery store and getting groceries (i felt so grown up! haha) and looking for bargains. :) i used this BIG sharp knife that was really scary looking. i've gotten better since the days of family studies. i would never have used it back in grade 7. but i'm alive and i still have all 10 fingers. i guess my klutziness has gotten better. hahaha. watch me walk into a door just because i said that. :P i'll have to be careful. anyway, jo taught us how to make so many things; 4 types of pasta, silky chicken, teriyaki chicken/beef and desserts. (i think that i'm may have missed some dishes...? me and stella made soooo many tarts it was crazy. yummy, but crazy. :D oh goodness, it took forever. i was sick the whole time i was at jo's place...i hope that i didn't get anyone else sick! :/

so yah! i made dinner for me and my daddy yesterday night. :) *teriyaki chicken, rice and "choi"*. and he liked it! and nobody got sick! :D oh, i'm so ready to cook at university now...but even if i'm too lazy i can just get stuff from the caf - i still have so much food money left on my meal card. hahahahaha.

but yah, this weekend as a whole was good times. friday and sunday were fun too...(yay for $3 pillows!) i'd blog but i'm too hungry! i haven't eaten lunch yet. :/ so i'll be going now. what's for lunch? KD! (doesn't this contradict my whole blog?) haha, oh well... :D

cough cough go away...

*cough* i have a cough that won't go away. just so you know. :)

so tomorrow is the last day of extension. time flies (kinda). *heehee* all of us are tired - no, dead tired. but all in all, even though at times i feel like a slave because i'm the floater and they assume that floaters don't get tired of cleaning or moving things, it's been a really good experience. my little attached girl is no longer attached to me and although it's a little sad, i know that it's for her own good. and that's what we as counsellors are really there for: to help them. they're good kids. i'm gonna miss them...

would i trade my job for another? probably not.
would i do this again next summer? probably not.

however, i'm thankful for this job (with all it's faults and all). through it, i've been stretched as a person and i've learned so much. it will be another memory i will keep in my thoughts and even though it's hard, tough and i really dislike it at times there are other times where i wouldn't want to be anywhere else. those moments make up for all the crappy moments. :) some of the kids have progressed so much it's unbelievable. they're babysteps mind you, but i've learned here in a big way that sometimes babysteps for one person, may mean milestones for another.

Bible heroes...

i find that a lot can be said about a person by who they choose (and their reason for choosing that particular person) as their favourite Bible character. usually it's someone they can relate to. someone who has felt much loneliness may choose joseph, another who is very brave and courageous may choose joshua or king david as theirs, while others who are super passionate about missions and the spreading of the gospel may choose paul...the list goes on...

as for me, i choose ruth, a loyal, hard-working, obedient, humble woman of God who i have sooooo much respect for. she was a loyal friend and daughter-in-law to naomi that she didn't leave her when many others would have. she was hard-working for she gleaned after the reapers in the field of Boaz all day without rest. obedient enough to follow and obey all of naomi's advice and instructions regarding who she should "keep close to" and boaz. but most of all she was humble enough to do all the things that i have previously said and humble enough to obey our Heavenly Father - and due to her humbleness and willingness to obey she was blessed by the Lord. eventually she became the great-grandmother of King David, and was a part of the geneology of Jesus Christ. the book of ruth is most definitely my favourite book of the Bible. and she is definitely someone i look up to, and regard very highly.

i love her story. i love ruth. she's my all-time favourite Bible character.

so, who's yours? leave me a comment. :)

to you...

thanks for the talk tonight, justin - thanks for sharing. thanks for listening.

you're the greatest. :)

music time...

side note: you should hear the kids during our music circles. so adorable.

oh mr. sun, sun, mr. golden sun
please shine down on me
oh mr. sun, sun, mr. golden sun
hiding behind a tree (i see you)
all the little children are asking you
to please come out so they can play with you
oh mr. sun, sun, mr. golden sun
please shine down on
please shine down on
please shine down on me.

maybe with a change in weather, i'll feel better. maybe.

totally exhausted.

oh man. today was a tough day at work. since i'm the floater and someone didn't come into work today, i was in charge of her one-on-one kiddie during the extension. he's such a cutie, but towards the end of the day, i was feeling totally frustrated. the kiddies at this camp all have a different routine with their one-on-one counsellor, and ideally, that routine should be followed every single day. it's what the child needs really. it works to everyone's advantage this way. however, since i'm the floater and i can't be everywhere at once, i usually stick to helping out with the lower-functioning kids (because they usually need more help - although that's not always the case). anyway, so since i haven't really spent that much time with the higher-functioning kiddies i was kinda lost as to how and what this particular counsellor did with her kid. it's nobody's fault really. but since my camper's routine was broken, my usually happy-super-behaviour camper, was a not-so-happy camper today. :( so that was bad news. especially since i wasn't used to doing one-on-one at all. there really wasn't anything i could do though. other than, try to calm him down and try to think of nice things to put on the report for his mommy. ;) it's totally wasn't his fault though (if i were him, in his shoes, i'd probably have acted the same way). it wasn't his regular one-on-one camper's fault either. and it wasn't my fault. this stuff happens. and i totally understand - it was just a little frustrating. i suppose it's one of the downfalls of being a floater. oh well, God put me in this particular position, so i suppose i'll just continue doing my best. :)

however, don't get me wrong - i enjoy working where i do. i can't see myself going back there next year (we are severely underpaid for the amount of work we put in) but all in all, i have to admit, it has been a really great experience - most of the other counsellors are pretty nice and the kiddies are so cute! :)

on a tangent...

is anyone else disappointed with the finale of For Love or Money? i personally thought that it sucked. everything about it was so stupid. stupid paige. she played the game totally wrong. she made herself too vulnerable to that guy too soon, and too openly - she totally set herself up to get hurt. stupid boy (i don't even know his name. haha). out of all the ways that he could have broken the news to paige that she had lost, he had to pick the worst one possible. i'm glad he didn't get anything. big jerk. but most stupid of all was the "twist". what the crap?!?!? this is why i think erin is stupid. i don't want to watch the sequel. stupid reality tv. stupid stupid stupid. but even stupider is the fact that i'll probably get sucked into watching at least bits and pieces of it sooner or later. argh. how disappointing. but oh well...at least the company watching it was good. :)

p.s. we should go again sometime justin - it really was enjoyable and relaxing...and i want to finish reading my harry potter. :D heehee.

september-july

here's to: talking times, good times, bad times, funny times, sad times, challenging times, encouraging times, learning times, reminiscing times and just being there for each other...

all these things (as tough or as great as they might have been) have helped us get this far. thanks for sticking with me through it all.

happy tenth! :)

day one.

my first day of "real" work is now complete! :) and i am exhausted. i woke up extra early today, because i had to be at Yes I Can at 8 15. plus walking and subwaying. so i woke up at 6 15ish. (i usually get up at 6 30...so it wasn't too bad). anyway, it was the first day with the kids! (as opposed to the training days, where it was just us counsellors). it's a totally different experience. some of the kids there are a handful. BIG handfuls. but they're all really adorable and cute - although there have been several crazy situations already. but at the end of the day Shannon (my boss) and Janet (Shannon's boss, and our BIG boss) told all us counsellors that it was the smoothest first day of camp ever...so that was nice. but yah! the kids there are crazy! soooo much energy. it's a really different experience than at YSM or TCM or any other kid thing that i've done before, but its an awesome experience (like all the others), and i'm learning a lot. (i hope that this helps me get into music therapy. :) but even if it doesn't, i'll be satisfied with this camp experience anyway). i'm tired - exhausted like i said before - but at the end of the day, i'm happy with my job. :)