Some more things about me you probably don't know..

• anything artifically cherry flavoured makes me want to hurl


• although I am a lifeguard, and am at the pool on average two times a week to swim, I still have never been off the tallest diving board


• when I was 16 I went to Cuba and bought a cigar to smoke on my 19th birthday. It's still sitting on my dresser waiting for me.


• I am trying to lose weight, not because I think I'm fat, but because I want to be healthier and look better.


• On average two nights a week from when I was 4-12, I would have recurring half-asleep, nightmares in which an evil voice would relay all of my thoughts in my head. It was sometimes accompanied by a nightmare of random dots and lines chasing each other. Every time I had the nightmare I would wake up screaming. The nightmare went away, but I still get the evil voice in my head once or twice a year when I am extremely tired and drifting off to sleep.


• I've experienced the chemically charged, 'sweep her off her feet', head in the clouds, kind of love only once in my life.

Tag, it's my turn

Alright, so I got tagged by Jan in a wierd 'pass on the blog topic' game. The point is to find a word for each letter out of my middle name that relates to me and then explain it. Then when I finish I'm supposed to tag a certain amount of people and tell them to 'play the game' too. But I don't feel like tagging people so if you see this post and want to copy it...be my guest.

Here goes nothing...Oh and PS my middle name is Kathleen if you can't figure it out.

K...

Karate

I took karate for 8 years from when I was 8 until I was 16. I think that my dad despised the idea of raising a 'girly girl', so instead of pirouetteing around a dance floor, I kicked and punched my way through grade school. Like any elite sport, as the years progressed, karate slowly took over my life. Instead of spending time on the weekends hanging out with my friends or watching movies, I would be training. I was at the dojo at least 3 weekday nights all night long, and my weekends always consisted of one type of training camp or another. I can't say I didn't love it. I did. Karate was my life. I eventually quit because it took over my life, but occassionally I miss it. It's not that I miss the actual sport, I just miss the feeling it gave me. I was good at it, and it made me feel good to be better than 99 percent of other people at something. I don't feel that way about most things anymore.

A...

Accoustic

I love accoustic songs. I love accoustic guitars. I love people who play accoustic guitars and accoustic songs. Period. If accoustic were a genre like pop, rock, or opera, my life would be complete.

T...

Toilets

I have horrible luck with toilets. One day during grade 10 I was running late for school and I couldn't find my deodorant. So I went into my parent's ensuite to borrow my mothers. Now there is something you must know about the arrangement of my parent's ensuite to fully understand this story. The toilet in their bathroom is directly below a large cabinet. This is where my parents keep things such as medicine, soap, shaving cream, and...deodorant. So I opened said cupboard in order to get my mom's deodorant and upon opening the cupboard, knocked down a pile of stuff. And of course my father, the primary user of this bathroom, never shuts the toilet lid. And he also never flushes the toilet. So long story short, my mother's deodorant fell into the nasty toilet. And I was in such a hurry that I decided gloves were not an option, and I flushed the toilet. My reasoning was that the gross stuff would be flushed and the deodorant would be too big to fit down the tunnel, so it would stay. And voila! clean toilet in which I could reach my hand down to grab the deodorant from. Not so much. The deodorant flushed half way down the tunnel and got stuck. So I explained the situation to my dad, and seeing as he is Mr. Handiman, he decided that we would have a father-daughter-toilet bonding session. Which basically ended up being him and I shaking and plunging a toilet in the middle of the front yard.

Moral of the story...hire a plumber, or don't wear deodorant.

H...

How I met your mother

I do realise that How I met your mother is just a TV show...but I couldn't think of anything to put under H. So there. This show is addicting. I don't know what it is about it, but I could honestly spend hours watching it. This is my new sick day rerun-watching show. Here is a random quote by Ted that I liked out of the last episode I watched from season 2.

"I think for the most part, if you're really honest with yourself about what you want out of life...life gives it to you."

L...

Love

Obviously L goes with Love. Love (or lack of it) is pretty much the driving force behind everything.
So here's a list of things that I love.
I love...the ocean and the feeling I get when I stand next to it.
I love...driving at night and listening to music.
I love...muscle fatigue.
I love...feeling understood, and at the same time, understanding.
I love...puddle jumping.
I love...feeling loved.

E...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

I like this passage because whenever I read it, it gives me a little bit of a reality check. When I feel like I hate being a university student and I can't wait to grow up and move on to the next chapter of life...I read this passage and realise that that time will come and that I should be content with where I am right now because I will never be 18 years, 11 months and 4 days old again.

E...

Enormous teddy bear

Basically all you have to know is that if you ever want to make me super super super happy, or for some freak reason I have decided I hate you and you want to get into my good books...buy me a life sized teddy bear.

N...

Nicknames

I have a million nicknames.
Annie, Anna, Anatha, Anica, Anifer, Anaconda, Anchovies, Anthrax, Anne of Green Gables, Six Pack, Sprout, Gromet, Squirt, Mable, Goldfish, Annipoo
Etc etc.

The end.

Things I miss about home

• having a car to drive when I want to go somewhere
• my church, as much as I like church in Nanaimo, it doesn't compare to my church family at home
• having mother-daughter-chats on the kitchen counter
• having a TV and couches rather than a laptop and bed to watch movies on
• having a fully stocked fridge that I didn't have to grocery shop for
• being able to call up my best friend Kim, with the strangest ideas ever, and then doing them
• the snow at Christmas
• my comfy bed
• driving my cat crazy
• going on 'dates' with my dad
• baking with my mother, which inevitably turns into an argument, and then eventually both of us rolling on the floor laughing
• dropping Kim off from a young adults church function and spending hours parked in her driveway just talking
• having food fights and cheesecake eating competitions at work

Abandon ship!

I'm irritated. I'm irritated at people who have a relationship with Jesus Christ as their personal saviour and then turn around and deny their time and energy to another christian. I'm irritated at 'spiritual leaders' who are all talk. They preach about how to stay away from sin, but when a fellow christian has fallen, they are the first to walk out of their lives.

I think this blog is mostly pointed at people my age or a little bit older. I find that a lot of them are so absorbed with themselves, that they forget to take the time to help others. Sure, they find time to proclaim that drinking, drugs, sex and partying are completely wrong, but when a friend stumbles on one of the above, where are these people? They're long gone. And they're using their time and energy to gossip about the person who has stumbled, rather than actually do something to improve the situation.

I wonder, what gives them the right to lecture people, and then completely walk out on them? To go back to the old cliche, What Would Jesus Do, do you really think that Jesus would preach at someone, and then completely ditch them once they had stumbled? I beg to differ. Jesus would be walking right next to that person supporting them through their trials. So how can they justify walking out on someone in a hard time in their walk with God?

I admit, this is a bit personal for me right now. I have a friend who has strayed from her walk with God, and I have other friends who talk about her and her problems all the time yet neglect to do anything to help her. It makes me mad to hear them talk about the actions she has taken and the mistakes she has made and then at the same time see them walk out on her. It makes me mad to talk to her and realise that she is intimidated by these 'friends' because she believes them to be better than her, stronger than her, more Godly than she is. It makes me mad to see that by choosing to ignore my friend's situation, they are effectively driving her deeper along the wrong path. It just makes me mad...

Two-by-fours and other hard objects

I always pray that God would metaphorically whack me over the head with a two-by-four to show me things that He wants me to do, or wants for my life. I'm feeling very punch drunk tonight.

It has become very evident that I have, not intentionally, been avoiding relationships in my life. Whether it's to do homework, hang out with some other friend, or stare at my computer screen, I have been putting off spending time working on relationships in my life that I find more difficult. Relationships that either take more time, or that I don't find immediately beneficial to me. I've been really self-centered and I think God has shown me that I can't continue to follow him and deny these relationships that He has given me.

So from now on, I'm going to spend less time on things that glorify me, and more time and effort on things and relationships especially, that glorify God.

Childlike innocence

I stumbled across this picture tonight as I was looking through photos on my computer. As I gazed at my 2 year old face through my computer screen, I found it hard to recognize this little girl sitting on the Fischer-Price toy in front of me. Same dark eyes, same facial structure, my hair was a bit blonder back then, but still recognizable as me in the picture. Yet so much has changed since the summer day on which this photograph was taken.

I've grown up from the 2 year old little girl in the polka-dotted, white sundress to who I am today; an almost 19 year old university student.

I have made and treasured relationships with many people. I have made a few friends that I know will be around for the rest of my life. I have travelled to Cuba and France and seen the way that the people there live their lives. I have loved and been loved. I have graduated and learned to drive. I've cried, laughed, danced and yelled. I have grown in my faith and in my love of Christ.

Yet, for all of the amazing opportunities and learning that I have experienced in my life since this picture was taken, I still envy this little girl for something she has that I have somehow lost. Her innocence and complete dependance on something bigger than herself.

Through the many roads I have traveled, and the many things I have seen, I have lost that childlike innocence. The world is no longer a huge playground for me to play in, a happy place full of love and joy. I no longer look to my daddy for everything that I need. I have learned to rely on myself for my wants and needs.

I think this relates to my spiritual life as well. When I was young, I knew little and relied completely on my parents for my wants and needs. Now that I have grown older, I have learned to rely on myself more and more. In this way, I have developed tendencies to also act that way towards God. I offer Him situations in my life, but attempt to work through these situations that I have 'given God control of', by myself. Although I pray about situations, there is always an ounce of me that holds on and refuses to let go.

So this is what I'm praying for. In a small way, I would like to remain like this little girl. A child who, through everything she does, still relies on her Father up above to supply her with her every need.

Luke 18:16-17
Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't recieve the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it."

Soul mates

I went for a walk with a friend today around Nanaimo and we got on the topic of soul mates and whether we actually believed there was such a thing.

This is something I often wonder about. Is there really just one person out there, out of the +/- 7 billion people in this world who is entirely perfect for me? One person, living anywhere on this planet, who could compliment me in every way? Is it possible that God has one man in mind for me, only one man, and that I would be more blessed with this one man than anyone else in this world? And if there is only one man set aside with my name across his forehead, would God continually lead me back to him if I chose another path to follow?

Or could it be that God has more than one person set aside with whom He would fully bless a relationship? Is it possible that no matter how much I mess up God's plans for my life in that area, that He will still provide me with someone? Or is it just a hit and miss deal?

Sometimes I wonder if I think too much.