ok i'm off...

Ok. I'm off to Uganda...

I will be working with the hope foundation.

http://www.hopefoundation.ug/

and we will be staying in and around Kamuli:) Near Jinja... and possibly some time in Kampala...

I'll let you know I'm alive as soon as I can get access to a computer.

our swedish lovleyness...

Me and Cecilie went on a walk for a few hours in the freezing freezing cold!

Ok... so this is the continuation of the last post... Our boys (the swedish ones) came into our rooms early saturday morning to wake us up! It was quite exciting but at first i was quite confused as to what was happening... It was so fun though... They even gave us lovley cookies just like the swedish tradition. It was so nice. I was surprised at how beautifull their voices were but maybe it was just that I was so so tired... I didn't even remember if they sang english or swedish to us:)

St Lucia's Day - A very swedish tradtion.

Ok... so here is some background information on St Lucia's day... so that you willl understand my next post. Happy reading...

Around Christmas time in Sweden, one of the biggest celebrations is St. Lucia's Day (or St. Lucy's Day) on December 13th. The celebration comes from stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden.

St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name.

St. Lucia's Day is now celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash round her waist and a crown of candles on her head. (Normally electric candles are used for safety!) The crown is made of Lingonberry branches which are evergreen and symbolise new life in winter. Schools normally have their own St. Lucias and some town and villages also choose a girl to play St. Lucia in a procession where carols are sung.
In homes often the eldest girl plays St Lucia for her family, bringing them 'Lussekatts', St Lucia's day buns flavoured with saffron and dotted with raisins which are eaten for breakfast. This is how the family is woken up. Other girl siblings also can help!

Good Morning.

My room is quite fun in the morning. We often have trouble getting out of bed. We used to have a bit of a routine but as DTS has gone on we've thrown our routine out the window. It used to be Helena first up, then Me, then Anna, then Hanna... but now its different everyday. Hanna is even sometimes first! sometimes we all lay in bed and we look at eachother and then its a race for who can get out first... I usually loose that since i am on a bunk bed... not the top but its still a ladder in the way of just rolling out. I am quite sad to say goodbye to all my roommates. I thoroughly enjoy or mornings filled with lafter and moaning before getting up. I like our fights for the mirror and sink and the countdown to "prayer time" Its quite funny. Yesterday morning I was only half ready before be prayed... so i was sitting down in the middle of my room with my hair in a towel holding my makeup bag.

Now i will tell you a little kinda funny Heidi moment. Yesterday was a very busy day for me with lots of one on one talks. I first met with my one on one from 1-2 then from 2-245 I had a one on one with my school leader, and then from 3-4 I had a one on one with our speaker. I also had 1 hour of prayer for my Uganda team and yeah lots of other stuff througout the day. Problem was that i was not feeling so well in the evening. After our prayer time I wanted to just spend some more time journaling in the prayer room so i was there for about 1 hour but felt really sick so i decided to come up to my room and put my pjamas on.. it was only 8 oclock.. then i felt so so sick i didn't want to go anywhere or do anything so I just layed in bed. My roommate was skyping and was like, "are you goign to bed already" and i was like, I'm not sure. I think i'll jsut take a nap. So i layed down, she left quite confused by me... and I went to sleep. At 8 oclock. Then at 9 occlock i woke up still feeling sick but a bit better and i got up... and I finished getting ready for bed... talked to my roommate and my friend for a while.. and went back to bed at 1030. Who in the world has a nap at 8pm? I dont know... but it was wierd... I dont think i was thinking to clearly. I just wanted to lay down! But now i am feeling much much better and ready for a new day.

SNOW

Go God.

So this friday night we had evanglism. I have to be honest with you that i was not at all excited to put on my winter coat, gloves, toque, scarf.. etc and head out into the dark cold streets of uddevalla to share the gospel! I was tired... and I was cold... and when we got there and were praying before we were sent out it started to snow.. and it was WINDY... it was really very very cold. I was also not so excited about evanglism because its hard to start conversations becasue i dont even know if the person speaks english or not. Finally after a lot of prayer walking and praying to God to please warm up our insides and help us think positivley we decided to just go ahead and talk to someone. The first person we talked to inside Mcdonalds was not too keen on talking but it was a good warm up. After that we decided we'd venture out into the cold again and find some more people to talk to. The only problem was, that being a cold night everyone was heading indoors for the evenign and the streets were getting emptier and emptier as the night progressed. I then saw a man and I said to my 2 evanglising friends... "lets go talk to him..." so we did. We went and approached him and shared the gospel with him. NOt like the whole gospel or anything but we got to talk about who Jesus is to us and what he means in our lives. It was really cool. The man had some crazy new age religeon and was homeless but he was so nice and it was so cool to be able to pray for him. We also met another one of our teams on the street and told them to go and try to talk to the guy in Mcdonalds that we did not have much sucess with him. We thoughd it would be cool if two teams tried to talk to him. AFter the night when we were debriefing my friend was like... thanks for leading us to that guy... it was so cool... he was so open to talk to us and she started to talk to me about their conversation and i was like... Lina... it is definitally not the same guy. It was so cool because God totally used our time in Mcdonalds to help them talk to this christian man who just really needed someone to talk to and feel loved by and know that the church is a body and we are there for one another when life sucks.

My second smaller God story is this. If you know me at home and my messy room... you can imagine what my bunk and desk look like here. absolute chaos. So today Malaria medication day.. and we were supposed to take our pills with lunch... however I could not find my pills.. and we were rushed for time... i was freaking out... so then i sat on the bunk and was like "God please open my eyes and show me where i left my pills..." then i was like... man i need to look in my suitcase again... and i opened my suitcase... and then i remembered that they were tucked safley away in the front pocket of small bag inside my big suitcase! Go God... we all took our medication and no side effects so far. Yeah!

Its the little things that count.

This week has been extra good for a few little reasons...
I think the main reason would have to do with food. On weekends we get packed lunches because we only have a hot meal for dinner becasue there is no afternoon work duty to make lunch. I am getting very very sick of the bread here (its homemade and its really heavy... kinda like a cakeish bread) and I eat it with Jam and cheese which is also getting pretty old. So anyways on saturday a family on base had open house from 10-1... so at 12 i went there for some coffee and cookies... and so i was full and I just ate an apple for lunch! (packed lunch went in the garbage... ) then on sunday I had lunch with my 1 on 1 and small group which was so good! Then monday night for dinner I also did not have to eat in the dining hall! My outreach leaders cooked us a special dinner as a surprise. It is the first time since holland that I got to eat a nice big piece of chicken that I could actually tell was chicken. The rest of dinner was also delicious! Then tuesday I ate in the dining hall and it was hotdogs... which are disgusting in my opinion so I just ate the usual breakfast food for dinner... yummy yummy. Today is wednesday and I am eating with another family on base. It is an old couple who invite all the DTS students over for dinner in small groups one time during the course of their DTS and my turn is this week. I hear we eat waffles which is fabulous in my opinion. Tomorrow night is family night on base and all staff host students and cook for us! I will be eating with the Darby's who have two small boys and the mom is swedish and the Dad is from California. they are such a nice family and their home is so cute and so homey which is something you really miss living in dorms.

so yes! It is things like visiting a home, eating yummy food and having fabulous fellowship that really make you smile...

oh and i also talked to my parents for an hour this week... and my sister sara for over and hour... and Justin for an hour! so lots of lovley chats to make my week splendid too...

and a package from my church for Christmas! What an amazing surprise! I was so so happy.

FUN NIGHT...

This week we had a fun night. On saturday night there was a base wide talent show... and I participated. Because I am going to Uganda for outreach I have been going to some fun African DAnce lessons on Sunday nights and the girl who leads it was persistent that we who attended her lessons also perform with her in the talent show. The only problem in this arrangement is that us backup dancers are quite obviously white and cannot move or shake like a black person. It is so unnatural to me. After our performance i was quite releaved to rejoin the audience and then after a few more performances the MC said "Miriam and her crew are up for another piece... " and i was like... "um... we are?" so i had to go to the front to participate in a dance that i have only practiced a few times... but was not at all prepared to do in front of the whole base. It was a little embarassng but not too too bad...

then after the talent show was finished we moved to the Cafe for some games and of course a dance party! I was a little sad at first becuaes i was in the middle of Settlers of Catan when the dance party broke out... and we all know how much i love to dance! AFter my game was finished i jumped onto the dance floor and had a fabulous time with all my wonderfull friends here. Then it was time for some chatting on the sofas:) It was such a fun night, but i went to bed too late! It was justified though because we only have two weekends left so we need to really fill them up!

all in all it was a lovley night of fun...

Swedish culture... lets fit in.

I also forgot to share about my lovley shower experience. Because we were 150 people for a week in a church with one shower we were given time to shower once every other day at a sports center about 15 minute walk away. We knew that the showers were communal so you were welcome to bring your bathing suits... athough this is not so normal in this culture. they think it is ridiculous to wear your bathing suit to shower. when i told them i wore my swimsuit when showering communaly they asked how i get cleaned.. haha... culture difference right there. I would rather be a little dirtier than shower naked communally... but since i'm here to be put outside my comfort zone i was up for anything. So we were 4 of us in one shower room... and I decided putting on my swim suit was a hassel so i aksed the girls if its ok if we all shower naked and they were like... yeah of course... we would prefer that... but they were gonnna wear their swimsuits for my sake... so anyways i had my first naked communal shower experience. It was quite ok becaue they were all my roommates and we are quite the happy family. My next shower was much more akward. I was with 2 incredibly beautifull swedish girls so i was a little more hesitant to undress. Then people kept coming and there were like 6 of us for 3 shower heads so people just waited for an empty shower... Naked... and just chatted. One of them was my staff One on One... .so it was quite weird just chatting and having a conversation Naked while i showered and she waited for an open shower! Crazyness... i can not believe that i did it! Go Heidi go... That was only one week of "outreach" so I am sure you can expect much much crazier stories during my 9 week outreach to Uganda. I hope God continues his sense of Humor and excitement. Man oh man... I still can't believe I showered Naked communaly. Sorry if this is a bit of a weird post to read.. but i thought i'd share it.

I forgot to add..

I forgot to mention that i recieved the most lovley package from my grandparents today! Thank you Oma and Opa! My chocolate letter made me think of my Christmas stocking... and everythign else was also so thoughtfull and filled with love. It made me day. I also recieved 2 letters today so it was quite the love filled day.. and i talked to 2 friends from home! Wow I really did have the most amazing day ever!

Back in Business.

England.
What a week...

It started out at 2am on Sunday morning with a drive to Torp, a shopping complex 20 minutes from the base. We waited there for the bus that would take us to Oslo. On arriving at a gas statino in Oslo at 430 am we had to wait till 6am to take the taxi because it is cheaper then. So at 6am we took the taxi only 10 minutes to the airport. Then we waited there from 615-1250. what a fun time! We slept... played cards... ate super super expensive pizza...talked...learned Norwegien... laughed... and slept a little more. Then we took a two hour flight to Newcastle airport... then a 20 mintute metro ride... 15 minute walk...and FINALLY ARRIVED at the church at 430 pm on Sunday! what day.

The week was filled! Filled with singing, praying, listening, evangelizing, eating, chatting, reflecting and sharing. We would have lectures in teh mornign and then the afternoons we had evangelism in the City of Newcastle. Then in the evenings we also had evanglism on some nights... or we had some games on one evening. I was so encouraged by how "easy" it is to evangelize. It is much less scary then I imagined and I am so eager to continue evanglizing... I want to make it a regular part of my life.

Now for the funny story...

so on the way to england i was sitting next to my good friend Cecilie and I noticed lice in her hair. I didn't really freak out i jsut told her... i think you have lice. Then during worship the next day i saw more and i was certain it was lice... so I told our leaders. That night we checked all our classes hair for lice and luckliy she was the only one. So in the mornings we would pick the lice eggs out of her hair and one mornign we did the special shampoo stuff to kill the lice. I even found live lice in her hair! SCARY!

so on thursday mornign we woke up early again to check her hair and becuase they did not want the other 100 people at the church to freak out about lice we had to always check her hair in a discreet place... so we chose the handicapped washroom around the corner in the back of the church. seemed like a smart enough plan becuaes no one really used that bathroom... so we checked her hair for about 45 mintues and it was 830 and we decided we should go join the others for breakfast... but were confronted with a slight issue. The bathroom door did not want to open. Uh oh. So i told Cecilie to try. It still didn't open. Being DTS students we decided to ask God to let us out... so we prayed over the door... but apprently God thought it was qutie funny to watch us stuck in a bathroom so he wanted to leave us there a little longer. WE tried alittle more with some pushing shoving... and lots of handle turning but no luck. then we started to yell... I was like "HELP... someone help us... we are stuck in the handicapped washroom." It seemed like a useless effort because everyone was at breakfast and would not be using the toilet... and the dining hall is so loud we didn't think they could hear us... After a little less than 15 mintues i noticed the door handle turning so i was like... Hello? is someone there, and i heard a guy wondering what we were donig yelling in the bathroom... I proceeded to explain our situation and he laughed and said he would go find the director people... so he did. 2 guys came and we were excited because two guys working on a "simple" problem should not take to long but we overestimated there Heroism. They tried for about 40 minutes with no prevail. We were still stuck. They told us to hold tight and they would phone the Handyman... so they did and 10 minutes later he arrived. We were quite excited because by this time we had been locked in the bathroom for just under 1 hour... After 15 minutes he got us out... I was so excited to be free... but we missed breakfast... the tables and everythign were already cleaned up and everyone was at worship! woops. But we still got breakfast and came to worship late. It was quite the morning! I am sure God was laughing even harder than we were... what silly girls getting stuck with two people in one bathroom.. waht must people think... haha!

so all in all it was quite a great week! I wore almost the same thing for 3 days because after we found out cecilie had live lice we had to bag all her clothes and sleeping bag... so that meant she used half of my clothes... and i gave her my warm stuff to sleep in because she had no sleeping bag... and it was cold... and so we both wore the same thing... ALOT... good thing we don't know the people there so well... and good thing we wont see them again soon.. haha...

God is good.

Here goes nothing.

I currently have a to do list that is a mile long... I'll let you in on a fraction of it.

• send molly a letter or postcard
• send our team photo home so that people can see my lovley team and pray for us
• put jennas letter in an envelope and acutally send it
• pay my school some more money
• finish a book by tomorrow that i am only half way through
• plan the intercession topic and format for tomorow mornings intercession. (this involves meeting with Helena... meeting with God :) and seeing whats on his heart for intercession... and picking some worship songs all of which take time that i do not have)
• start my journal... and finish it
• go to a meeting tonight
• get vaccinations
• write a blessing for someones blessing pocket
• finish this blog post since i have not posted in over a week
• pack for england...

the list could go on quite a bit longer with many small things that take a few minutes and thigns that are a process and take multiple days to complete. I feel like I am running a marathon that i'm not able to walk in... or quit. Its quite tiring but I learn so much along the way. I am so thankfull to God for what i've been learning and how he's been speaking to me. By reading my list you may think i am stressed and really tired but i'm not. I have so much joy all the time! I'm not worried or stressed very often because so much crazy stuff happens here there is no need to worry. (although i do catch myself sometimes worrying). Everyday is a testimony to God's faithfullness. I also am not stressed which is odd becasue i often stress out about even the smallest things... but here i just know i'll get it done eventually so there is not point in stressing out about it...

So life has been great. We had teaching on "the father heart of God" last week and this week we are learning about our "identity in Christ." I love our speaker this week. She is so amazing. She gives us clay to play with while we teach and at first i thought it would be distracting but i love playing with it. It really helps me to be doing something with my hands. I do not really make any beautifull creations but i just roll it into balls... flatten it like pancakes or make it into long cords and braid it. If i were to make an impressive creation it would take all of my attention so its best i dont attempt to expand my art skills during lectures. I am getting very very excited for Outreach and for England this weekend. I am so excited to have a week focussed on learning evangelism strategies and then doing it. I think we have classes during the mornings and then we go out and evangelize in the afternoons... or evenings... im not really sure because we will find out more information in class this afternoon. I am however very excited to be evangelizing in a country where i do not first have to ask the person if they speak english! Yeah!

as for the rest of my daily happenings they are too many to be written down here... but I will just say THANK you to my family who sent me the most amazing care package ever... the finger puppets were a great addition and the ductape made me laugh. I also loved the snippets of the Messenger that were included and my christmas card in October:)

Thanks! and sorry my posts are so few and far between... But this week will probably be worse because i dont think i'll take my computer to england.

My lovley Team!

This is my Outreach team! Please pray for us. Tiina and Mikael are our leaders. We have 4 Swedes, 1 Estonian, 1 German, and then Me! Its going to be a fabulous outreach!

ps

P.s.

I am going to Uganda

I am learning swedish... norweigen... and lugandan all at once. Quite the feet...

In norweigein i can say "I have to pee" or "I really really have to pee"
In Swedish i can say more things, like "Ok everybody" Good morning, thank you... etc

and i can also sing a song... yeah thats right! pretty amazing...

and then in Lugandan i can say

"good morning" and "Thank you" and "white person" and "hi"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fRNIdZe05I

here is a link to the swedish song i'm learning to sing. IT is about a soccer star here in Sweden... named Zlatan

we had some extra time off
today because our speakers
flight was delayed... so we
decided it woudl be nice to go for
a walk



Here is Alfreds arm pointing
in the direction of our base...
even though you can't see it.



Me and Pihla. And Paulina's
lovley peace sign looking
like horns behind my head.



Some lovley boys. They are
roommates. Its Alfred, Axel,
and Julien from left to right.



This is me and Lina having
a very deep conversation.

My weekend...

Helena in the back and martina in the front. They are both on my outreach team to Uganda.

i love this photo even though maybe its not so flattering.

we went star gazing... and this was on the dock before heading up to the rocks.

me and cecilie went for an evening walk and took a picture with a moose...

not sure what i'm doing here... me and cecilie were going for a walk.


we went for a walk to a near by "mountatin" and climbed to the look out point... there was no trails though so we bush wacked.


body builders:)

the view! I live in such a beautifull place. God created some pretty crazy sights.

this was our friday work duty. We were cleaning the showers and found some lovley hair in the drains! so disgustin i honestly was gaggin and had to run to the window for some fresh air. It was so bad!

My first follow up letter to my supporters... i thought i'd post it here too...

Hello all!

Here is my first letter from Sweden. My Discipleship Training School (DTS) started just over a week ago and already I’ve learned so much. My Swedish experience started with a lovely 22 hour bus ride from Amsterdam to Goteborg, a city about an hour away from my school. I had been living in Holland for the summer working as a Nanny. My bus ride was LONG and hot, due to the broken air conditioning on the bus. I guess I should have expected that when I chose the cheapest form of European transportation! When I arrived at the bus station in Goteborg, I had to hall all of my bags about a kilometer, which was quite the feat. I had a large backpack, a large suitcase, a large shoulder bag, and a backpack. I was going for the big and heavy theme with my luggage. By the time I reached the train information desk, I was sweating buckets. I exchanged my money, bought a train ticket, figured out how to use a Swedish pay phone, and boarded my train to a small city near my base. On the train I took advantage of the small bathroom and attempted to make myself presentable because we all know first impressions are very important. I brushed my teeth, put on some make up, and tied my hair back. When I got off the train in Ljungskile (pronounced Young Sheela...) I met Mikel, one of my Swedish staff who was there to pick me up and bring me to the base. I was the second student to arrive at Restenas (our base.)

So what were my first impressions of Sweden and YWAM Restenas? It is beautiful here. The landscape where I am is similar to Canada, but the mountains here are not nearly as big. They are more like very large hills. My base is in the countryside and is literally in the middle of nowhere. We are a five minute walk from the sea. My expectations and preconceived ideas of what my DTS would be like were not even close to correct. I thought everyone would be between the ages of 18 and 22 give or take and that we would have international staff. I also didn’t really have an idea how living with 4 girls in such close quarters would be. My classmate’s ages range from 18- 38. There are married students, engaged students, dating students, and then the single ones! We are a class of 25 students from 11 different nationalities and everyone brings so much to the class. Everything that is said is said twice -- once in Swedish, and once in English. At first it really bothered me but now I like it. It gives me a chance to process what is said and take notes without getting behind or having to write insanely fast.

NIKO- My first week of DTS was spent in the woods doing a program called NIKO. Niko is a greek word which means ‘to overcome,’ and that’s exactly what we did on Niko. It is a program designed to prepare students for their outreach in the developing world. Niko also focuses on surrender, teamwork, leadership and servant hood. We were challenged spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and PHYSCIALLY. I really wish I could tell you what the week entailed but we are sworn to secrecy so that if others do a Niko, their experience will be as rich as ours was. I will however tell you a little bit about what I learned.
• I learned that you can accomplish so much more when you work together.
• I learned what it means to lead in humility and to lead from underneath as a servant
• I learned that when you put others ahead of yourself great things are accomplished
• I learned what it means to surrender your rights
• I learned what it means to support your team members
• I learned about the power of encouragement -- that a small encouraging word can be exactly what you need to keep going.
• I learned about perseverance and what it means to keep fighting when you just want to give up.
• I learned about Loving through actions.
• I learned how to dry your wet clothes when it’s raining and there is no place to hang them (sleep with them in your sleeping bag and they will dry overnight). Each night I slept with my pants in my sleeping bag and all my wet socks nicely against my stomach and chest underneath my shirt. I smelled great!
• I learned that if you tuck your wet socks into your pants while you walk your body heat will dry them and you'll always have an alternate pair for halfway through the day when you need to change socks.

So I hope you have a little idea of what I’ve done here so far. Our real lectures start this coming Monday and our first topic is on Hearing Gods Voice. I am very excited about all that I’m going to learn here and all the lessons and wisdom I’ll be able to take with me for the rest of my life.

so thank you!

Heidi

Me, Kristi, and Lisa on the night of the "big party!"

My shelves are the two lower ones... as you can probably tell if you know me... My roommate Helena's shelf is the on above mine... and she is much neater than me!

This is also at the "party" that one of the staff buildings hosted in our second week here... each room had a differnt theme. This is Mikels room and the theme was checkered/plaid shirts.

Me and Paulina

our for a walk on a blistery day!

me Roelof, Kristi, and Cecilie

I'm still Canadian:)

I hope you enjoy three new blog posts all in one day! haha...

here are some pictures from my adventure in Ljungskile with Cecilie... my norweigen friend... and from my quality time with God at the sea this morning...

What did i learn this week?

This week our lecture topic was "the two kingdoms"

we learned about the Kingdom of the World and the Kingdom of God. It is such foundational teaching and most of us were quite shocked that we have never really had teaching on this before in our christian lives. It was such great teaching from an amazing Norwegian teacher.... those of us who have grown up in the church were very happy to have a way to organize all this bible knowledge that is floating around in our heads without a "place" to put it...

We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is our King. Love is our constition...and our future is Heaven. We have different rules than the Kingdom of the World because these two spiritual kingdoms are opposites... We are called to love those who hate us. Pray for our enemies. Turn the other cheek...

Also we learned about relationships but only briefly becuase fitting two weeks of teaching into oen week is a little difficult for someone who is longwinded... haha... but we learned alot about bitterness and selflessness... and forgivnes... and it to was very refreshing teaching.

We also found out our possible outreach locations on friday morning...

Nepal
Uganda
China
Cambodia...

those are my choices... and at the moment that is the order of preference i have. Nepal being first and Cambodia being last... I really wanted to go to India.. but as you can see its not an option... so we'll see where i go.

looking back...

Okay... so i have not written in forever... and i must apologize for that...but this week has been crazy with lots of learning... and processing... and lovley times with lovley people.

So this week i went swimming in the ocean. If you dont think much of that re read the last sentence and just ponder it for a minute... i am in sweden... it is october... and its cold here...!

This week I was tired! Not really sure why exactly. We did alot. The days are packed... and its constant thinking and doing. We got our official work duties this week... and voila. Heidi is back in the Janitor business! haha... I felt like i was back at the elementary this week becaue one day i was on hallways and stairs in the student housing building... and i was wearing my brown flip flops and lulu lemon capris... and thats what i always wore to janitor... so it brought me back a few months... haha.

this week i also was very wise about sleeping times:) I went to bed before 9:30 almost everynight. We wake up at 645 usually... breakfast is at 7... and so at night i am tired... and i just decided to be wise and get a good sleep so i go to bed at 930. its funny because i'm not the only one... I am usuall one of the first in bed in my room.. but on tuesday night we had an evening class untill 9 and i think everyone in our DTS (at least all the girls) were in bed by 920... haha... so funny. You think you go away and are with young people and it will be lots of late nights and early mornigns with lots of coffee... but no... we are smarter than that here:) we go to bed Early.

Almost time to breath.

this week has been absolute craziness. I thought that the week of the celebration would be relaxing for us students. We had no lectures scheduled and we were all packed out of our rooms and sleeping in the classroom... so we really didn't have anywhere to have classes... BUT... we had massive lectures. More than you would think possible. We have been busy from 7am- 10pm everyday, and thats not even an exageration. We have about 45 minutes between lunch and the afternoon lecture... and then about 45 mintues between dinner and the evening lecture... but its insanse... this is our days.

Wake up : 7
Breakfast 7:30-8:30
Lecture 9-1230... with a small coffee break somewehre in the middle.... which is chaos with 700 people all getting coffee at the same time.
Lunch from 1230-2
Lecture from 2-4
Dinner at 5
Lecture at 7-930 ( but usually till 10)
and then lights out at 11..

that gets really tiring after a week with 700 people and lectures were sometimes so difficult to sit through. The one night we had nonstop lecture from 7 until 1030 by loren cunningham (the founder of YWAM) and it was really interetsing... but 3.5 hours is a really long time to be sitting in your chair without moving... and dont even try to get out to pee because we were so crammed together it was impossible to get out once you were in...

It was a good week though. God did amazing things and it was cool to be part of this 50th aniversary jubilee. I cant believe i met loren and darlene cunningham.. .crazy.

Today most people pack up and go home... and then tonight we have the 30th aniversary celbration for Restenas... (this base) and then tomorrow... we are taking a sabath and putting the cleaning off until monday... except we all have our journals due at 530 pm... and its not like we've had one spare minute to work on them all week... so tomorrow will be a massive journal party in the classroom...

sorry its been so long between posts... i've been too tired at night to post!

Samuel's Contribution

It's time. Time for what you might think?
For the Swedes to take over this blog of course! :-)
My name is Samuel and is one of the native Swedes going in the same class as Heidi.
I have to say thanks for letting us borrow Heidi for this DTS! She's a lovely gal! :-)
This week we've had a 50th year celebration for YWAM here at Restenäs. Loads of people (like 700-800) and looooong meetings!
Loren & Darlene Cunningham has been sharing their experience and testimonies from all their years in YWAM.
The celibrations will continue tomorrow with the 30th year celebration for Restenäs. More cake? Yes please :-)
Well well. I will give the blog back to Heidi now!
Samuel signing off.

Hopes and Fears.

tonight we gathered in the prayer room as a dts class to discuss our hopes and our fears.

WE started with some worship and just a time of prayer and then we went into open sharing time. Everyone shared one thing they feared for their time here... and one thing they hoped to see happen... or see God do, or learn. You get the idea. It was cool to see where people are at. What scares different people. What people have similar hopes and fears to me, ETC.

Tomorow morning i get the privilage of making breakfast for my base with a few other students. Its my first work duty and i'm rather excited. I also am doing breakfast clean up... and dinner prep. It should be a fabulous day though!

Goodnight!

the outdoor classroom

Hello all.



I would just like to say that i have succesfully completed Nico and have recieved my certificate of completion. I can not tell you much about it but i will say as much as i can.



so what is nico? It is a five day trip into the wilderness which involves no links to civilization and living very minimally. We had a limited packing list without the joys of deoderant and toothpaste. It is foccused on overcoming. Overcoming emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual challenges. It is about learning. Learning about teamwork, leadership, surrendering, and servanthood.



It is the most intense "program" i've ever gone through. Not because any task was too difficult to complete but because everything we did needed our all... and giving your all into everything for a week gets exhausting and beign in a group of 35 people with no alone time for that long is also draining.



All i can tell you about what we did is that we did alot of walking and hiking in the woods. We did teambuilding activities and we praised God in all circumstances and truly relied on God and upon one another to get through each day. If you ever have an oportunity to do a Nico... do one! HOnestly it is probably the best learning experience I've had.



So what did i learn?

• I learnt that you can accomplish so much more when you work together.


• I learnt what it means to lead in humility and to lead from underneath as a servant


• I learnt that when you put others ahead of yourself great things are accomplished


• I learnt what it means to surrender your rights


• I learnt what it means to support your team members


• I learnt about the power of encouragment. That a small encouraging word can be exactly what you need to keep going.


• I learnt about perserveerance and what it means to keep fighting when you just want to give up.


• I learnt about Loving through actions.


• I learnt how to dry your wet clothes when its raining and there is no place to hang them ( sleep with them in your sleeping bag and they will dry overnight) each night i slept with my pants in my sleeping bag and all my wet socks nicely against my stomach and chest underneet my shirt) smelled great!


• I learnt that if you tuck your wet socks into your pants while you walk your body heat will dry them and you'll always have an alternate pair for halfway thoruh the day when you need to change socks.

What did i experience?

• I experienced teamwork
• I experienced community living in its extreme
• I experienced rationing (food and toilet paper)
• I experienced the realitiy of ticks. Good thing i got my TBE vaccination.
• I experienced frustration and the importance of surrender.
• I experienced the outdoors.
• I experienced how seriously necessary hard core rain gear is necessary here.

Nico was amazing but challenging. It served its purpose well. It definitally taught is in a hands on / outdoor classrom type of way. HOwever... I do not feel like heading out on another Nico anytime soon...

"NIKO" greek for overcome

Today at 4pm we have to meet outside the gym ready for our 5 days in the woods...

No one knows what to expect other than a real outdoors experience with no modern accomodations. We are not allowed to bring deoderant, or toothpaste, or hair stuff, or lipsol... or anything. WE can only bring 5 socks, 5 underwear, 3 shirts... 2 pants... so basically nothing. I think they are even cheking our bags. It is strict.

I'm a little nervous and anxious because apparently my rain gear is not waterproof... and my walking pants are also non existent...

So we leave today at 4pm and we return some time on wednesday... i think:)

My roommates are Hanna, Anna, Helena, and ME:)

Hanna and anna are swedish, and Helena is from Germany.

The food here is decent. Nothing that i am like WOW that was so delicous... I more feel like meals are just a really good time to get to know people and have good conversations. I have really enjoyed sitting with different people and having some good "get to know you" chats. I like the "family" feelings.

I dont think my DTS is a "normal" dts... we have like the biggest mix and variety of people and ages, and cultures ever! I am 18... we have acouple who are engaged and are 27... and we have a guy who is 38 too. I think the most common age would be around 21...

Well i figured i'd write a post before i head into the unknown for a week... because who knows if i will come back alive... or fully functioning... maybe my hands will be frozen off! I hope not.

ps... dont be excited for NIKO stories because we are sworn into secrecy... scary.. i know!

Take a minute to backtrack.

Ok i feel as though i missed telling you all about the happenings of multiple days where a lot happened... so kelsey told me that i just need to start somewhere and if it ends up being a super long post... thats ok:)

so i'll start with my weekend...

Friday Chris stayed home from work so that i could have an extra day for my weekend to get in as much as i could before my monday departure to sweden. In the morning i did the usual routine of preparing breakfast and getting David to school on time. Then it was off to the Hague to meet kelsey. We met at the pearcing place where we got our ears pearced!

AFter that painfull adventure we did some shopping. NOt really for clothes although i did by a lovley warm winter scarf for the cold weather that sweden has to offer... I bought 2 english childrens books for David and Sara as a going away gift. I had 2 potted flours for Chris and Carolina and a card too. Then friday evenign i returned back to Voorschoten for some Surinamese food and then me and Carolina headed to the schevenigen to see the live muscial of Mary Poppins and a really nice theater there. It was such a fun musical to watch even though it was in Dutch. I still loved to see the actors and actresses and the dancing and the singing and yeah i just really like live theaters. (molly you would have loved their costumes)

When we got back at 1130 kelsey was already at my house waiting for me. So we headed upstairs to just chill and drink tea and eat blanke vla before headign to bed. Saturday mornig we awoke nice and early and ontime for our big day in amsterdam. We took the train and arrived in amsterdam around 1030 and our walking tour was scheduled to begin at 11. So we met at the tourist information center just outside of central station and followed the man with the sponge bob square pants umbrella to dam square where everyone was split into groups depending on language... and was taken around the city. It was supposed to be between 2 and 3 hours... but our tour was 4 hours... and free. The guides lead for tips only, so of course you are supposed to tip becaues it is their full time job. I thought maybe he was a student and doing tours in his spare time but no... this was his full time job! It was such a fantastic tour though we realy saw a lot of amsterdam... but our legs were a little tired.

So what were the "must sees" we checked off our list?

• a canal tour


• the heineken brewery


• anne frank house


• rijksmuseum (just from the outside)


• Dam square


• Red light district...during the day, and at night


• Rembrants house


• the jewish district


• coffee shops... lots of coffee shops


• the widest bridge


• the narrowest house


• the national monument


• the giant wooden shoe


• vondelpark


• the royal palace (also under contruction)


• the magna plaza a famous shopping mall


• the leideplein (the famous square for terraces.. a nice place to get a drink) we each had a shot of jenever here (some kind of famous dutch shot)


• and yeah.. i'm sure i saw more but obvioulsy i can't list 4 hours worth of sights that we saw... and i can't remember alot of the names...

so saturday night we returned tired and with sore feet... but lots of laughing.. I was so happy, and kelsey was very funny even though she was not particularily trying to be... and sunday we planned to go to churhc but it turned into a lounging around day. WE stayed in bed untill 11 or so and then we got up and ate breakfast (more like lunch) and then we walked to town to get some candy and chocolate and water for my bus ride... and then we did some more tv watching and just laying around.

THEN at 545 it was time to go for my farewell dinner. We went to this lovley italian restaurant with expensive meals! so expensive. It was so nice though. We had starters ( so many apetizers all at once...) and then we had our main dish... (Sara it reminded me of all your food pictures... it looked like crazy fine dining...

Sunday night was packing time... hardcore cram time. I started packing at 10pm... and gave up around 1230 and then started again in the morning... I hate packing... and i have so so much stuff... but i dont think i have enough warm clothes... becaues i'm freezing here... its so cold and its not even winter yet! just september and i have till november here... uh oh... I packed a lot of summer clothes... looks like i wont be needing those clothes soon...

so now i'm here... and photos of my new home in sweden are coming soon;)

Another new home...

so. I made it to Sweden... finally... after 23 hours of travelling... and not luxury travelling i might add.

My first trip seemed a little sketchy but it was alright. I left Den Haag at 215 and arrived in Hamburg germany at 11 15. I read until it was too dark to read... and then i read a little more from the light of my camera screen. After my eyes were too tired to keep looking at the dimly lit pages i decided to konk out for a few hours. When we got in Germany i had to to transfer busses and had to wait with some other fellow travelers for our bus which was late. I got a coffee at Mcdonalds to warm me up inside.

Once on my bus enroute to sweden I settled in next to a swedish guy who was quite freindly and we chatted for a good portion of our next "leg" of the journey. It was a full bus. Every seet was taken and it was also so hot! I was just sweating and pretty much hyperventilating. I hate feeling trapped in a certain temperature. I know its weird but i hate feeling like i am so hot and stuck in such a confined space and my next fresh air wont come for 2 more hours or so... and only then for a ten minute break. I found it so hard to sleep becaue of the temperature issue.. but since the night before i left i only got about 5 hours of sleep my body eventually put me to sleep regarldess of my comfort situation.

WE got a 45 minute "stretch" break on the ferry from Germany to Denmark.

Now the most ridiculous part of my journey occured once the bus ride was over. The bus depot is considered part of central station in gothenburg but it is not as close in proximity to the trains as one might hope. I had more than i could carry. A super heavy super full regular sized back pack as well as my over the shoulder bag stuffed full with stuff (including my purse inside) Then i had a massive backpacking backpack and also a huge suitcase. much to much for me to carry all by myself so the journey from the bus to the train information desk took a good 15 minutes of huffing puffing and sweating and of course frequent breaks to give my shoulders a rest. I finally found the information desk and the place where i could get swedish money instead of my euros... and i purchased a train ticket and was directed which platform i woudl leave from. I then had to call my base to let them know when to pick me up... so I had to ask how to use the pay phone and then get change to use it... and then hurry off to my platform in time for my train. I felt disgustingly grose on the train ride... so i brushed my teeth... and put a hair band in:) and i was gonna change but i thought i'd put it off till i got to my base... and now i'm here... and we are gonna be sardines... we are in farirly small room with 4 of us... well not yet. its just me here...

I love the base though. So beautifull... So so beautifull.... and I have spent the day with my school leader (Krista) I am eating meals with her and her husband for today because there are no students here yet... and so the cafeteria is not up and running... But tonight more students are coming.. and tomorrow a few more... and then lots come thursday...

anyways I am gonna go do some exploring... and sleeping... and unpacking.. and then i have dinner in a few hours and a church service thing tonight..

but i'm safe:)

ps... i left my lovley rain coat on the bus! man am i mad about that! I loved that coat

UH OH

I leave in 1 day.... ONE DAY!

and i have yet to pack... like really.... my room is chaos... it is a ridiculous mess! Stuff everywhere and nothing in my suitcase yet... o well... i'll get it done... just might be a late night!

Accomplishment.

Look who learned to french braid their own hair !

I did;)

I still can't master the two... but i like to do the one with a slight turn in it...

I prefer if it starts from the left and curves around so the brade ends up on my right shoulder...

I"m not a fan of the one straight back braid....

Goed Zo Heidi...

(translation being "Well done Heidi...")

Running

I just thought i'd let you all in on a little accomplishment. I am running. Consistently.

you may think whats the big deal? lots of people run regularily... BUT... I DONT. I usually make these great running plans or exercise schedules for the week but they last maybe 5 days and i'm done with it... this one has already lasted almost 3 weeks. The hard part is that my schedule will be derastically changing in a few days so where will my running fit? who knows yet...

but i do plan do keep up somewhat of a routine... even if it switches from five days on two days off... to everyother day or only 3 times a week or something like that. We will have to see how 'settling' goes.

Living like celebrities

Last night I went to the cinema to watch inception with a dear friend of mine:) Getting there was quite the process. I followed my directions and ended up on the correct street. I then asked a pedestrian which direction to walk down this street... and vuah la... there was the theater. cute, and prim and propper. It was an old brick building in a lovley open square surrounded by other beautifull buildings. Kelsey however had a little more difficulty finding the place. The issue is that the hague has 3 cinemas all with the same name. You just need to check which location your movie is playing at. But kelsey went to the larger theater.... so i said, "lets meet at burger king" because we both know where that is... but then she went there... and i was still standing on a corner keeing my eye peeled for her... we missed eachother... so we were royally confused because both theaters when are beside a mcdonalds... so which theater... which mcdonalds.. but eventually we found eachother and got our mcflurries that we tried to get last time... and we thourougly enjoyed them while we hurried to our theater. we were there with time to spare and had a fabulous time in theater fit for kigns and queens. Literally it was ridiuclous. Beautifull lobbies a concession that was crazy. You could get wine with glass wine cups as well as beer and a billion other drinks, of course royally overpriced. It was so great to be at a decent theater because so far the theaters i've been to have all been old and sketchy and ahve had a break for peeing and eating halfway thorugh which totally ruins movies. who wants to we awakened from the movie watching trance they were in.. even if they do have to pee. All in all it was a great movie and made me think alot about dreaming... (we saw inception by the way) afterwards i ran the the route back to the train station and made it in time for the 11:09 train... which was fabulous so i could be in bed before 12.. not just arriving home at 12! I was very exhausted after my run through the streets looking like a fool and then pedalling home so so fast in an effort to stay warm... Getting up is still getting more and more difficult... instead of easier... I wish i was still able to just effortlesslye spring out of bed and have breakfast waiting and ready with a smile on my face... the smile is still there but the "spring " is missing...

ps... i have a billion things to do in 5 days.

Tentin it up in the rain:)

This weekend we went on a camping adventure , and by "we" i mean kelsey and myself.

The adventure started on friday night when kelsey stayed here for the night. We had to babysit carlijn while the family was away at a work function until late but we didn't mind. We cooked a lovley dinner, drank some diet coke and chatted while drinking some lovley tea. Saturday morning came much to quickly after our late night but we did a few groceries.. the neccesities of course (marshmallows, chocolate, stroepwaffles, and of course fizzy iced tea) We were then ready to depart. On arrival at the train station in Hoek van Holland it started to poor, so i speedily unpacked my rain coat which i unfortunatly did not let air out for the past 2 months. It has been tucked away in my packpack for sweden, and when i put in on i smelled like a thrift store mixed with an old man mixed with stale cigarette smoke. Yummy eh? so with rain jacket on and stroepwaffel in hand we piled into the back of a tiny tiny european car for our trek to the camp site. I felt bad for the guy sitting in the middle of the back seet between me and kelsey because we both had our packs on our laps... or actually half on ours and half on his... and to add to this discomfort he was in close proximity to my lovley smelling jacket:)

When we got there God decided to give us alittle sunshine before the rain storms that were soon to follow. We set up our ancient tent with clear blue skies and got in a few card games before the weather started to take a turn for the worse. By the time dinner started it was already raining and the poor boys had to bbq in the rain:) I was quite surprised that the boys thier cooked all the meals and all us girls did was set up and clean up meals... which was not a difficult task...

Now the evening after dinner was fabulous. We set up our fire chat circle dispite the rain and shared the Lords supper with eachother and sang a song before we started to share our testimoneis with one another. It was a time of encouragement. It was cool to see how everyone was open with one another even though lots of us were strangers to eachother. We all were connected in some way to at least 1 other person there but not everyone knew everyone. The group however all shared one thing in common, they all did their DTS in Australia so me and kelsey did not really fit into that cattegory but we were welcomed anyways.

After a night of testimonies we were ready for bed... quite late! so me and kelsey jumped into our tent and into our sleeping bags in hopes of warming up! it was cold... cold... cold! and then we chatted. I learned lots about her. Eventually it was time to call it a night and we slept pretty bad. I woke up frequetly to the sound of rain and wind and even a collapsed tent! We were sleeping in an ancient tent and it proved exactly how ancient it was when a pole broke during the ngiht and we woke up in a flat tent. I found it so so funny. I was laughing so hard in the morning. I was in a fit of hysterics forever... everything made me laugh and everything was funny. I still laugh looking back.

Good times! The rest of the day was also so much fun and but freezing and wet. We packed up in the pooring rain and headed home by train looking dirty, and cold and ridiculous with our giant wet packpacks covered in mud:)

what a fabulous weekend...

ps. five days to go!

Tenting indoors, late night trains, and a visa.

This weekend should prove to be interesting... I'm going camping when it is forecasted for rain each and every day of the weekend... and not just a little rain, LOTS. to be certain that i did infact have a working tent i set it up in my bedroom... twice now:) The first time it was just me, and then today, it was yet again another rainy day, and i was "on duty" all day with Sara and she is quite difficult to keep occupied... so we set up the tent and hung out inside. We had a picnik. drew some lovley pictures. and watched some tv:) but i'm not sure why she watned to so badly since the tv was on teh outside of the tent... and muted, so all she saw was the color of the tv screen through the walls of the tent. Silly kid!


Y

yesterday was also quite the day. I finally can be at peace about YWAM... Gods answered my billion prayers about getting my Visa in time for my departure! I emailed the Swedish Embassador in Holland, His name is Rolf which i think is pretty much the coolest name ever. Anyway, it was the second time i have hasseled him if my visa is proccessed yet so i expected to recieve a reply similar to last time which nicley said that no, its not ready but it will hopefully be processed soon. He is not the one doing the proccessing... its all done over in Sweden... So anywaays instead I checked my emails in the morning like i do everyday and i had an email from rolf, so i opened it and vuahla... my life just got better. He said my visa was ready and i could come by and pick it up anytime between 9-12 on a weekday. So I planned to go Friday (which is today) but then i was to excited so i asked carolina if it is alright if i hop on the train to the hague to go and get my visa and she said go for it... so i did. After running through the rain, and using my handy dandy map i arrived at the swedish embassy at 1150, ten mintues before closing... sorry rolf. Then i gave this lady my passport, and she told me to take a seat. about ten minutes later rolf came out and handed me my passport and showed me the lovley resident permit that was now safley inside of it! Hurray hurray hurray. Enough worries... So there is still one girl visaless for my DTS, she is from the congo and for her visa to be processed in time we need a miracle (please pray)! So after wednedays mishap with the closing time of mcdonalds i decided to get a mcflurry on the way home... because i was so so happy!

So then yesterday, which is my "free day" besides the mornign when i bring the kids to daycare and school, and dinner (which i cook on thursdays) I was not free at all. I did go to the embassy in the morning, but then i was supposed to go to haarlem at 4 to meet Linda (saras friend from YWAM) but carolina said, "i dont mean to ruin your plans but thats not gonna work today." SO, i had to wait at home until 623... Chris was late comign home from the office, and the baby was sleeping, and hte kids needed to be picked up from two differnt places at the same time, and it was raining and we were carless because chris had the car at work. So thats where i came into play. I went to pick up sara from daycare early while carolina stayed with the baby... then it was her turn to head out in the rain and pick up david while i stayed with both kids... during which time i prepared dinner and had everything boiling on the stove and the meat ready to be fried... I was trying to catch the 631 train and they both got home at 623... so i jumped on the bike and pedaled my heart out to the station... when i got there i did not even have time to park my bike properly so i just found the closest empty area to the ticket machine and procedded to buy my ticket... but my change would not come out of my purse... and the train was already there when i was still putting in my coins... so when my ticket was dispensed i sprinted... litterally sprinted down the stairs and then up the staris to my platfoorm and jumped on the train just before the doors closed. I was huffing and puffing, after my crazy bike ride and run up and down stairs! but i made it... then after a wonderfull evening in Haarlem... with linda and her friend it was time to head back.. but i thought i missed my last train. But i hopped on a train to Leiden central which is pretty close to my town and then just prayed that i woudl get there in time for the last stoptrein which passes through voorschoten... I made it in time... but i did not get homeout until 145 am... and chris and carolina were worrying... I was honestly so so happy that i made it because if i missed it i'd ahve to take a taxi which is a lot more money than my 4 euro train ticket... (which i already bought)...

so now the family is at a work bbq and i'm home with carlijn who is not feeling well.. she has a cold so she snores (its kinda funny listenign to a baby snore) and she also got her shots today so she is not her normal predicable self... and i'm waiting for kelsey to get here... She is sleeping over tonight in anticipation of our saturday- sunday campout! yippee!

ps. 10 more days.

a little to late.

its a little to late for a few things...

8:08 is exactly 8 minutes to late for a stroepwaffle mcflurry from mcdonalds...
It may seem a little ridiculous to be in Europe and hanging out with a friend and we choose to go to mcdonalds on a night out... but you have no idea how amazing they are.. all that yummyness for only a few euros. Since we were a little too late we went to find the restaurant with the cheapest desserts.. and the fourth one we came to seemed reasonable so we went there... and then decided to get the 12 euro dessert... but dont worry we shared! and it was massive... and meant to be shared!

What else is a little too late... KELSEY... my long lost friend whom i never met till a week ago but i'm sure God planned for our paths to pass ways. I'm sad that our paths did not pass until now... but i am sure that even though she has one more year here... and i am off to sweden.. we are still gonna be friends. two weeks is enough time to bond :) It seems like we have more in common than the fact that we are both aupairs... we seem the same. Its nice to actually be able to talk about more than "your kids" when you go out... to have things that you both wanna talk about... to be interested in who eachother are... we could talk forever... becaues we both know nothign about eachother... weird... she only knows waht i've told her... and i only knwo what she has told me... its wierd! But interesting:)

Kelsey was a little to late for her tram... I wanting to help someone but not beign able to. i was sitting nice and cosy on my easyily accesible and straight forward train... while kelsey tried desperatly to find the right tram stop with the right tram going in the right direction :) i am currently waiting for the call to tell me she has safley arrived home... I am also listening to a mixture of lovely evening type music with screams from sara from the floor below me. she does not like being woken up to pee at night... and she really does not like it if she has already peed and is forced to change her underbroek and pjamas... but good thing i'm "off" duty... and just get to listen to it...

ps. 12 more days.

< two weeks

Less than two weeks to go. In two weeks and 1 hour i will be arriving at the gothenburg bus station, tired, sick of sitting, and nervous as ever to find my way to my ywam base.

I'm not just gonna let these two weeks pass by though. I have much planned... well not to much but enough to keep me busy.

1. Finish reading my bible. (i'm in acts... and i am 1 day ahead of schedule to finish reading by the time i leave)
2. hang out with kelsey (the new canadian aupair) we will go to the beach this week one evening.... not to swim, just to walk and talk and gaze at the beauty of the sea, we are going to amsterdam... we are going shopping... to a museum or two... and i'm going to show her the best english church ever so she does not have to go through the process of looking for a church!
3. go camping! yes camping... in Holland with mostly people i do know, BUT the people i do know are amazing so im sure their friends are amazing too. I really can't wait for the weekend.
4. I am also planning on hanging out with Linda one more time. she lives super far away though so I'm thinking we will meet in the middle. maybe sightsee in Utrect for a day
5. I am goiong to finish twilight... that wont be a problem though. i read 400 pages yesterday... just 100 more to go.
6. I'm going to send at least 3 more letters... to whom? i have yet to decide.
7. PACK... what a scary thought. How do i fit everything i brought here + everything i bought here... into the same amount of space i had on he way here. I think i'll have to leave something tucked safley in the cuboard in holland until my return here in 6 months... I won't be needing many summer clothes...

so all in all time is flying by. even days when i do "nothing" time passes quickly. Yesterday i read all day... and drank tea... and just enjoyed the craziest storm i've seen yet while in Holland... I'm so excited for Sweden... although i'm not officially even allowed into the country yet... {come visa come}

So anyways... 13 days till departure... <>

Sorting through clothes!

So now that David is back in school my days are less eventfull...

I have only one child to look after

+ a baby

but Carolina is always home so really my job is now to just be here so that one of us can bring david to school.. pick him up for lunch... then bring him back... then pick him up again at 3...

Other then that i now perform organizational tasks...

Yesterday it was the crawl space in my room which got organized by moi.

I dumped bag after bag of clothes on my bedroom floor... and then proceded to sort them into sizes...

0-6 months

6-9 months

9-12 months

12-18 months

and 18-24 + months...

There was A LOT of clothes. I can't even figure out how they have so many girl clothes, its insane. In each age bracket there was many many shirts, onesizes pajamas, pants, shorts dresses... even socks!

It may sound like a boring morning, but i was happy to sit on my bedroom floor with the music playing drink some coffee eat a cookie and sort and fold. IT felt good to accoomplish something and now they are back in the cuboard in labeld bags ready for carlijn to grow to fit them. Its weird because the 6-9 month bag will be in use when i return here from YWAM. I'm quite excited to see how much bigger she is and how much more she can do when i return!

Oh and also some good news... i've ran the past 3 days... and today I will run to, so thats 4 in a row! My goal is five days a week until i leave for YWAM, so that means only 12 runs left before sweden... unless i run the day i leave which might be nice considering after i get on the bus... i'm sitting for 22 hours! ah... crazy..

19 days till sweden! I'm getting excited! but it will be weird to leave here because its really become a nice home! I like it here now... and there is also a new canadian nanny who just got here... and if we were both here for a year I'm sure we would have been great friends, but now i'll just make sure we have an amazing three weeks!

tea and a storm

Last night I made myself some lovley apricot peach loose leaf tea and as i sat down i poored it all over me. freshly boiled hot hot water! Since i was having a conversation with Chris i couldn't just rip of my clothes... so i put down my tea and ran up to the bathroom where i put the water on as cold as possible and jumped in the shower. It hurt lots but it was ok. I put on a loose t shirt and some tights and went back downstairs to make some more tea... since the first cup didn't get drunk... it got poored:) So this mornign i have lovley red patterns down my chest and stomach... but no blisters:) so we're all ok... I'm just wearing some looser fitting clothing for the time being... goodthing its a rainy stormy day that does not require the wearing of a bathing suit because i think it would look quite funny!

last night in addition to my burn I also had my first night of little sleep here. Maybe it was due to the fact that i had a "nothing" day with movies, reading and a short run... or maybe it was due to the crazy storm. It rained lots and lots and the wind was intense. It was humid so sleeping with my windows all shut did not seem like a good plan... so i left them open and got a first hand experience of the wind flowing through my room. It was nice, but a little difficult to sleep throught. Getting up this morning was difficult but now I just finished task one of the day (organize the kids wardrobe) I like any organization or house keeping tasks.

One less kid is weird. David started school again yesterday. So now its just the girls at home because Chris is also back at work. Weird. Its nice having things calm down alittle but also a little boring at times.

Less than three weeks till YWAM. Yeah... I can't wait. It will be wierd to create another routine and make another place into my temporary home but i'm excited for the challenge and can't wait to start learning again. I want to sit down with a lovley new notebook and a pretty pen and take notes while i listen to a wise person lecture to my classmates and I. I'm excited to say the least. I'm also excited to put my lap top to better use (no more just messaging, blogging, and watching movies... its time for hard work! )

summers coming to and end! crazy

God

So we are almost at the six week marker and three week to go marker... only 1 day apart:) and just as Jeremy's mother predicted... i'm feeling a wee bit homesick. She said its the worst at 6 weeks... but I dont think it will be worse than week 1... so i'm counting on maybe just a few longings here and there... but no tears:)

anyways today... i have done nothing. I am babysitting sara... and carlijn. sara however is sick and has been sleeping on the couch all day. and if she is not asleep she is criying or moaning and asking for her mom... who is gone... or puking. so yeah, i've had lots of down time... but I am out of money for the week... only 10 euros left till monday... and my plans for the evening fell through. So pretty much what you need to get you unhomesick is money (to do things) plans ( to do things) and friends (to do things with)

my friends are all busy... except one who we planned to go to fireworks in the hague... but they go to late... and i can't get a train back in time...
i have no money...
and my plans were all falling through...

But.. now i'm going to a movie... only 6 minutes by train from home:) and a few minutes walking... with my friend from canada (marie) and i have just enough to go there and back and watch a movie... :) so yeah... That will get me out of the house... and have some normal converstaions with a fellow canadian... and just have a good time!

Also... God has impeccable timing... because this mornign the mail came.. and there was none for me... but mail is wierd here in holland.. and sometimes it comes twice... so this afternoon...as i was desperatly trying to make weekend plans... as well as plans for this evening... the mail man came and dropped of more mail. three letters... two of which were for me! yippe... one from Justin and one from sara (the best older sister ever!)

it was such great timing and it made me so happy to hear from home...

anyways... thats my thoughts for now...

Can't wait to actually see twilight this evening.. instead of get their and realize it actaully does not show at 930... and have to watch step up instead! silly silly theater schedules!

puke

This morning sara was not feeling to great. She had mentioned a sore stomach the night before... but as she is always complaining about something we did not think much of it. Then this morngin when she suprised us by throwing up her breakfast we realized maybe her complaints were legit. She put a twist in our days plans because we were just packign up to head to rotterdam for the day until her unsuspected sickness hit. So we took the mornign nice and slow. I did some laundry, cleaned my room, fed the baby... etc and everyone else just worked on wedding plans and also tidying up and a few errands. After lunch (which was delicous thanks to my superb grocery shopping skills) we started to get things ready to go. Once we were in the car and half ways to rotterdam... sara woke herself up with throwup after her mini car nap. It was all over her as she was not prepared due to her lack of consiousness. She threw up all over herself, her car seat, and the back seat and floor of the van. It was grose... and on these crazy holland roads we had to wait a while before an opportunity to get off the highway was availiable. When we did we cleaned her up... put some new pants on and then headed home with her sitting in her moms lap with a bag held open in front of her mouth.

poor davids plans latley have always been getting ruined by saras sickness, first her ear infection and high fever problems... followed by this puking escapade... o well... so him and Chris headed to the hortis botanicus where they got to see an exibit on flesh eating plants... so cool. they brought home a plan that is supposed to catch and eat flies... I was happy becasue flies are a serious problem here. and they seem to especially like my legs... !

I enjoyed another day of doing very little but household tasks of cooking, cleaning, and groceries... but its better than childcare so i was happy to do the "funner" things.

Tonight i'm heading to the "main strip" of voorschoten to meet a polish nanny named ola and we are going to go for drinks on the one and only terrace in this town:) and its proved to be a beautifull day so we can sit outside and enjoy the warm summer sun that only appears once every two weeks or so in holland. I dont think west coasters of canada should ever again complain that we have to much rain... because at least ours is predictable and comes in teh winter and spring... not every day in the summer too!

:) goodnight!