I just simply remember a few of my favourite things... (in no particular order)
-Reading
-Gilmore Girls
-Red
-Pink
-Mary Kay
-The Salvation Army
-Letters
-Scrapbooking/Card making
-Photocopying things
-Flowers
-Suns wearing sunglasses
-Board games
-Being Erica
-Rocky Mountain Soap Co.
-Grey's Anatomy
-Markers
-Stickers
-Getting my hair cut
-Fair Trade Coffee (especially from Beaners)
-Chocolate
-Teaching bible study
-Camp
-Bagolac Saigon
-Summer
-The smell of freshly cut grass
-Colourful throw pillows
-Travelling
When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad...
By Golly, She's Got it!
This morning I was out at a school doing a couple of presentations. The first one was for grade two students about spit tobacco. These kids know a lot about spit tobacco as many of them have been offered it in the past (can we say high risk?).
I was teaching them how to recognize what is bubble gum and what is chew, and what the difference is. As I was talking about the effects chew tobacco has, one little girl put up her hand and asked, "If people know it's bad for you, why do they keep making it"? Excellent question! I did my best to explain in seven year old language that companies make tobacco because they know it's addictive, and because of that they can make lots of money. One tobacco representative made the comment that "Nicotine is highly addictive. We are therefore in the business of selling nicotine".
Somewhere I have the link that shows you all of the internal documents from major tobacco companies that the US court made public. I'll find it eventually.
In the mean time, shout out to Beamer's Coffee Bar!
Philo
I've heard from a few different people that it's not possible to leave comments on my blog. If you know how to fix this, let me know!
In other news, I'm going to try to slowly read my way through the list of 100 books everyone should read.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - (I"ve read some!)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo -
To begin I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
This Thing Called...Chocolate
Calgary Traffic Report:
Glenmore Trail East bound is backed up all the way to Crowchild Trail because of an accident at Glenmore and Deer Foot. Consider an alternate root.
Deerfoot Trail on the Calf Robe Bridge is closed because of construction. Use an alternate route.
Macleod Trail both directions is a mess down by Sundance.
Douglasdale Blvd and Deer Foot is blocked because of an accident.
Blackfoot Trail and Manhattan Road is backed up all directions because the lights are flashing red.
Good luck.
Canmore Traffic Report:
Photo radar on 15th Street.
The end.
So have you guessed some of the perks of living in a small town instead of a large city? Every once in a while I miss having certain luxuries at my fingertips, but usually I am very content to stroll down Main Street and breathe in fresh air. Also, the recent snow gives the mountains a fresh glow which I find wonderful.
Faith is a Journey
Faith, like anything in life, is a journey. This can be especially difficult because we live in a society that thrives on instant solutions. This thought came to me this morning as I was reading The Shack.
When a person comes to our office for addictions counselling, they fall into one of five categories of change. If they have no desire to change, and don't think there is a problem, we say they are Precontemplative. If they are thinking perhaps they need to change, and are starting to see the effects of their addiction, they are Contemplative. If they are getting ready to change, and are making a commitment to stop using, they are in the Preparation Stage. When they are actually putting their plan in action and moving forward, they are in the Action Stage. Finally, once they have succeeded in quitting, but still need a check up once in a while, they are in the Maintenance Stage.
Faith is the same way.
A person in Precontemplation may not even be thinking about God. They don't believe, and see no reason why they should. God does not even cross into their mind even when they experience His presence through people and nature.
A person in Comtemplation thinks there is a possibility God exists, but there really is no way to know for sure. They continue on with their daily lives. sometimes thinking about the existence of God.
A person in the Preparation Stage thinks that God exists, but has not fully committed to trusting Him with everything. The thought of doing so scares this person, but they continue to seek answers. They may attend church or talk to people about their thoughts and opinions on God. They know they need fulfillment, but are not ready to take the plunge.
A person in the Action stage takes it to the next level and trusts everything to God. They believe in Him, trust that He knows what He's doing, and feel fulfilled. They are excited about this new found glory, and want to SHOUT IT OUT to everyone they know because they finally found what they've been searching for.
Finally, a person in the Maintenance Stage continues to live their life for God, but needs a check up once in a while. They pray everyday, do devotions, go to church, and seek to deepen their faith. Their passion for God has calmed down, and they no longer bombard their friends and family with long and excited prayers. God becomes a familiar part of their lives, like an old blanket or favorite pair of slippers. They may sometimes store this favorite item in the back of their closet, but not for long. They know the comfort is there, they just need to remember to actively SEEK IT OUT.
Just like with addictions, relapse is the rule, not the exception. It is easy to slip back down into old habits and actions. God, however, knows this, and just like with the Prodigal Son, will greet us again with open arms.
What do you think of this? Personally, I feel as though I've just had a "check up".
Because Everyone Loves Tag
You've been tagged, so you are supposed to write a note with the 3's of YOU. At the end, choose 15 people (multiple of 3) to be tagged. You have to tag me, so you just need 14 more people. If I tagged you, it's because I am interested in learning more about YOU.
(To do this, copy this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, replace my answers with your 3's of Me, tag 15 people in the right hand corner of the app, then click publish.)
Those are the directions but once I got started I just kept taggin so I reached the limit so some ye may be cut off....my apologies....
Three names I go by:
1. Amanda
2. Navigator
3. Manda
Three jobs I have had in my life:
1. Addictions Counsellor
2. Specialized Services Aide
3. Camp Counsellor
Three places I have lived:
1. Canmore, AB
2. Calgary, AB
3. Edmonton, AB (I should get out of Alberta at some point)
Three Favorite Drinks
1. Dr. Pepper
2. Chocolate Milk
3. Sparkling Iced Tea with Raspberry
Three TV shows I watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Dragon's Den
3. Being Erica
Three places I have visited:
1. Halifax
2. PEI
3. British Columbia
People that text me regularly:
1. Laura
2. Erin
3. Other Erin
Three of my favorite foods:
1. Lobster
2. Crab
3. Candy/Chocolate :)
Three friends I think will respond:
1. Alcia
2. Erin
3. Sean
Three pets that I've had:
1. Sydnie
2. Pepsi
3. Pup
Three places I want to visit before I die:
1. Scotland
2. Australia
3. Greece
Hallliiiiffaaax
Philip and I just returned from Halifax, where he won the National Skills Competition in carpentry. He built a playhouse in six hours, did a written theory exam, and a transit test. Pictures to come later.
Here is what I'm thinking: Most people are good. They won't steal your car, rob you blind, or steal your credit card. The people who do are the exception to the rule...and chances are they have a mental illness, have been abused, or have a lot going against them (poverty, crappy parents, etc...) Also, being able to trust others is important, just don't be stupid about it (i.e. Don't leave your keys in your car or your door unlocked).
Right now I'm missing school. I've been researching grad schools and getting excited about doing my masters.
Also, Fil is moving to Toronto this weekend, which means a lot of tears and chocolate.
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