Wake me up when December ends...

I am officially exhausted.

This month has been so incredibly crazy I have barely had time to blink!
exams...work...playing piano for Christmas...playing piano for a wedding...seeing relatives...trying to catch up with everybody...making time for family.
This has led me to being so busy this month that I woke up this morning and realized it was December 31st...the last day of the year...New Year's Eve. Is this how I want to remember my first New Years event as a non-minor. Not that I would want to get wasted and forget everything and feel like shit tomorrow or anything, but seriously. So here we are, 6:30 pm...not feeling well...at home...deciding if I want to go to the fireworks at Central City and if the bands that will be there are worth $10....being Dutch the answer would be probably not.

But then again...what is so bad spending New years with the siblings? Catching up with my sister that I havent seen for months....playing games...aka schooling them all including my sister's boyfriend ;)...and just having a good time. There's good food, good company, no parents home, and I can sit around in my PJs (the one perk of not feeling well...although I wear pajamas all the time anyway..at home that is...)

So maybe this isnt the most memorable New Year's ever, but it doesn't need to be. Lord willing I will have more.

What if you knew you would die tomorrow? How would you live differently? ...something to think about.


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Tree That Dutchness "Bought"...

Pictured above is this year's Christmas tree. A pretty normal tree, decorated, green, smells like tree. Sounds normal to me. This is the result of the epitome of Dutchness. We actually found this tree tossed out by someone up our street, lying on the side of the road. It likes what they say, "one man's junk is another man's treasure". I'm not gonna lie to you...I'm pretty sure this is the nicest tree we've ever had. Usually we are so cheap that we pick out the cheapest 10 dollar trees at Art Napp...and I must say, Charlie Brown would be proud....we like to honor the fellow with sparse, pathetic Christmas trees. Even the fake tree we have, and I must note this was bought on Boxing Day SOOO DUTCH!! I cant believe it...but even the fake tree is a Charlie Brown tree. Wow we're lame. But I love it.

Horray for free trees!!

Chicken Milk

I can't believe it's that time of year again. The blissful awakening. The period of serenity between finishing exams and discovering your lowly grades. Ahhh what bittersweet pleasures. Ok, so I'm not completely finished yet, I still have one exam left, but it was for an arts course about "The Fundamentals of Music"...so pretty much stuff I've been learning my whole life so far. Pretty easy? I say yes.

Lots has happened so far this December, and it is only the 11th. (2 weeks till Christmas!!!) I guess this will be just a quick update for all..no lengthy stories this time just key points. We'll see how it goes though..this paragraph is already way longer than planned.

- I discovered the other day when reading the French side of an egg nog carton that directly translated, it means "Chicken Milk". YUK!! That was a bit of a turnoff. Do I still drink egg nog? Indeed I do!!! By the way...how do you milk a chicken?

- It will be four years on Wednesday since my mom had cancer. Yahoo!! So as long as we dont have any shocking discoveries between now and then...it looks like we have to celebrate. One more year and she hits the big 5-year mark.

- This past weekend my grandma was in the hospital for tests. She hasnt been doing so well lately, but she was doing good enough to be sent home. I pray I can still spend at least one more Christmas with her before she dies. It's her favourite time of year.

- exams!! I never knew I could be so satisfied with a C in school. It means I pass!! YAY!!..although I'm still waitng for grades..so I dunno yet.

- SNOW!! WOOHOO!!! There is still a small lump by our drive-way...I should put it in the freezer and treasure it forever.

- I'm playing for a wedding on the 30th...I'm pretty sure I'm excited and I'm sure I'm terrified, I'm not gonna lie to you. This is my first wedding I've actually taken part in and I really dont want to screw up. I guess I should practise for a million hours or so.

- I am playing in Church on Christmas morning as well...just because all the better pianists are out of town. Hehe so they get stuck with me! SUCKERS!! Just kidding...hopefully that goes well. I love Christmas music.

- My dad got me an advent calendar...(because I bugged him about not getting me one)..and I realised they lost their charm to me. The chocolate is pathetic...not that Im a chocolate expert, I just know what I like. I feel old.

So I think thats about it. I probably forgot a bunch of stuff. But this is getting long enough. So I will spare you the time and energy.

Peace

Boersma out!

update

well, in my last post, I told you about a guy from work who had a heart attack. He was in the hospital in a coma in critical condition. The other night, he had two more heart attacks and then died. So..not so good news. The sad thing was his wife called in when he was still in a coma and asked if it would be ok if she took a few days off. Such devotion to their job. Kudos to that attitude but in no way should anyone have to work under those circumstances.

Have you looked at the mountains yet today? So beautiful. First day of the "snow sport" season. Glorious

Anywho...I'm out

Death by Chocolate

Wow! What a weekend!
It all started out Friday night. I had to work from 10pm to 5am...The beloved late-night shift in wonderful Whalley. It all went pretty well, except for the fact that I was in drive-thru for 7 hours and it was cold!! So cold that when I went to drive home there was even some frost on the window. It was a pretty uneventful night aside from some guy trying to pay for his food with a fake 50 that I drenched in water to prove to him it was fake and that I couldn't give it back.

On Saturday I went curling for the first time with my Young Adults group from church. What a blast! And I actually didn't suck as bad as I thought I would. I'm still feeling it a little in the "rectus femorus" of my quadriceps muscle group. Yay anatomy...and in my right tricep. And I have to say I had quite to "Olympic-style" shot much by chance the other night knocking the other teams stone out of the circle and then landing mine in the very epicenter of curling goodness...the lovely little yellow circle! What a fluke!

So then on Sunday I got called in to work from 7pm-midnight..and then called again to ask if I'd stay till 2...and then when I got there they asked if I'd stay till 3. Apparently only 1 person had been scheduled to do the late-night shift. We ended up with 3 after calling in another person.
But here's the kicker of my weekend. If you read nothing else in this post be sure to read this.

THE KICKER!!:
We have an older Fijian couple that comes in every night around 11:30 to clean our restaurant's lobby. When they arrived however, the wife came running up and banged on the door and the guy who was up front in drive-thru heard and came running out. He found her husband unconscious in the front seat of the car with the car still running. The guy (Larry) pulled out his cell phone and called 9-1-1. They instructed him to pull the e-brake and get the man out of the car. As he went to pull the e-brake, the man's leg his the gas pedal and the car, which was in reverse, backed into the wall of the restaurant denting it and causing extensive damage to the handicapped washroom inside. Larry managed to jump onto the car so he wouldnt be hit bit it and he rode it into the wall. At this point the car had stopped. He got the man out of the car and gave him CPR because he wasn't breathing and had a very faint pulse..nothing worked. When the ambulance took him away, he wasn't breathing, had no pulse, and was foaming at the mouth. His wife was a wreck as well. One customer came in and sat with her for an hour with his arm around her, comforting her. What an angel. Such a contrast to some people who got mad at me for telling them our restaurant was temporarily closed for a medical emergency. This happened around 12:00 and we reopened at 2, but we were just so shaken up by the whole ordeal.
Please pray for this man as I still have no idea if he even lived through the night. I may have watched a man die and I wasn't able to do anything about it.

I want to be a paramedic.

Sorry for the long one, I just had some stuff to get off my chest..trust me this was definitely and "long story short" kind of thing.

It was also my mom's birthday this weekend. I made her a cake...it looks kind of funny because I couldn't find the cake-decorating tips so I had to write on it with smarties. So amateur. I hope it tastes good. :)

peace

Blonde Moment!!

haha so not much to say, other than the fact that I have a kinda funny story that happened yesterday. I laughed at myself. So I was out with my mom (we went to Timmy ho's and then the mall) and I was driving. We put the club on the car when we got to the mall, something my mom does all the time and I never do because I dont have a key for it...logical reason to me at least. So we put on the club and went shopping for a bit. Then we got back to the car, I put the stereo faceplate back in (oh ya thats another thing we do is take out that thing for the stereo...it is Whalley after all and the car has been broken into once already...but getting back to the story)...so I put the key in the ignition...put the car in reverse and release the e-brake. Typical car starting techniques, am I right? Well, there was one thing I neglected. I backed out of our parking space and tried to turn the wheel, but there was something hindering such a movement. What was it? and more importantly..what was jabbing into my leg? It was at that moment I realised my utter stupidity and blondedness. I had negleted to take the club off the wheel, so the thing jabbing into my leg was none other than the long end of the anti-theft device we have grown to love. I have often joked about driving with the club on to see if it's possible....I still think it is if you only make one direction of turn. But that is my story. It was a good laugh. So dumb am I. Coolest kid EVER!!

peace

The Promise of Redemption

here's to snoring, fanta, and the end of midterms!!
So I just finished my last midterm for a while and it feels great. Im still at school right now though on a 2 hour break...but I'll get through it.

As the title shows, things are looking up for me a bit. I had a rough week trying to study for midterms, not being able to focus on midterms, and wondering if school ir really where I should be right now. Then I lookd into some study abroad oppertunities and i'm thinking that or taking a bit of time off to travel. Anyone wanna come ;) hehee.

Another amazing thing was my bottle of gold, FANTA!! so exciting...im trying to savour it and drink it slowly, but it makes me soo giddy and excitable that its more fun to drink it. YAY FANTA!!! I cant wait till i get home so I can pull it out of the fridge and soak up it orange-fruity-goodness that I call Fanta love. Thanks Adana for bringing it home from Mexico for moi!

Haha...funny story. So I was in class the other day sitting with some of Ricardo's friends that I met last year. One of them decided to sleep through the lecture, so he rested his head on the other guy's shoulder. There was about 10 minutes left in class when we heard a loud snort. I looked over and Amen (the guy who was sleeping) was snoring. Me and Ryan (the other guy) burst out laughing along with everyone sitting around us. Amen still did not wake up. We nudged him a bit, still he didnt wake up, so we decided to let him sleep...he had stopped snoring at this point. At the end of class we we like ...I guess we should wake him up now. I kind of want to leave him here though just for fun. Just then, he sat up in his chair, looked around, made some high-pitched noise and then fell back into his chair, resting his head on Ryan. We start laughing again, and eventually he wakes up for real this time and we told him all about it.

haha good times.

boersma out!

no wait...boersma back in again...

GO CANUCKS

boersma out!

79 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes

From when i start this blog, that is how long it is till Christmas. WOOHOO!!! That title is also evidence to my absolute boredom in my break at school. I want to go home right now, but i have a class at 2:30. I really should be studying or doing somthing productive seeing as I have 2 midterms next week after thanksgiving, but I dont feel like it. I need a holiday. not just a one-day one...but maybe 2 weeks or so. Catch up on Z's and just veg and not have to worry about looming exams and assignments and other treacherous tasks.

Anyways, i'm feeling a lot better now after my incident on the side of the road, so that's good...but I feel like I should be telling a funny story of sorts right now cus this is getting a little dull and ...well I dont know what else, but i'm bored with it :P

The Canucks won yesterday which was the highlight of my week so far. I love winning!!...hopefully we can make this a trend, but I dont know...even with Luongo, they dont seem as good as they have been in past years. Although, the goal by Linden last night did show some promise for what kind of season he may have.

So, my sister is home for Thanksgiving and the teacher's convention this year. So that's exciting.

more to come soon....when i have some crazy adventure...or if I do something stupid :S.

79 DAYS 10 HOURS and 30 MINUTES TILL CHRISTMAS!!!

hooray for holidays!!

boersma out!

Sick.....blech!

So I'm here spending my second day home from school and feeling crappy. It's actually kinda nasty. It all started on monday. I felt really bad at school, but I had an organic lab that is hard to make up. I had a really bad headache and I was feeling dizzy and was randomly getting hot and cold. Then on the way home with Adana, the power went out on the skytrain so we had to take a longer way home. When I finally got to Gateway, my dad was there to pick me up. But I couldnt make it home...so I ended up puking on the side of the road...in Whalley might I add. My mom thought it was funny and was telling everyone that called that night. She was all like "Elly, other people going by probably thought you were a crack head or somthing. You know...looking sick, vomiting on the side of the road." Thanks mom...that sure makes me feel a lot better. Well good to say I'm feeling a little better now, but I havent really eaten much in the past few days now and I'm not even hungry. So needless to say I am home from school and I plan on calling in sick tonight.

I hate being home alone during the day though. It is soooo incredibly boring. just talk shows and soaps on TV....and not much fun to be had. So I think I'm gonna go now and rest somewhere.....watch some talk shows...good times...:S

peace

and it all got deleted

so I ignored the warning signs the computer gave me and clicked "OK" anyways, so my entire post got deleted. So I will start agian. This one will be much less wordy however because I am sick of typing the original, but I wiill summarize for you...yes "wiill" with 2 "I"s just cause I want to break the rules ;) Yesterday i had my day off which was super awesome. I actually got to sleep in for the first time in 2 days (sweeeeet!). But I spent the whole day doing the homework I've already been given, which is lame. So if you ever want to entertain me on a Thursday or even a wednesday night...lets hang out!

Well not much left other than the fact that I am super bored right now. I have a 2 hour break till 2:30 when I can go to lab orientation. woohoo *sarcasm* for chemistry. So here I am just sitting in the library with nothing to do, exchanging glances with the guy at the computer across from ine. And might i add...quite the looker;) heehee. Alright so thats enough for now. This has been quite the abbreviated version of what i had before, but maybe that's a good thing.

i'm still working at McDic's, and getting sicker and sicker of it as the days go on. to make it worse they keep screwing up my schedule. I'm thinking of throwing in the towel soon, but I like getting money and I dont feel like applying at other places in the middle of the semester so I'm thinking of just leaving it till december and then ditching those fools. We'll see....there's some cool people that work there so its kinda fun sometimes...and then other times it sucks. :P

what's in a name

Well, if you didnt notice I changed the name of my blog. No real reason other than the fact that I had no idea where the original name came from in the first place. Come to think of it, I dont know where this one came from either, but we'll try it out for a while to see how it fits.

So summer is going pretty good, but I'm finding for the first time I'm not dreading the return of school. Does that mean I'll enjoy it when it comes? I highly doubt that. But I think it will be a nice change to working tons at McDonalds for low wages and being forced to pretend I'm happy even if I'm not. Seriously though, I'm a pretty happy and friendly person, but there are times when I just want to yell at some customers 'cus they are just so incredibly annoying and frustrating and many other negative things.

Speaking of Summer, I took some vacation time off work (much needed let me assure you) so I could help my sister move to Terrace. The whole family is going and camping up there and helping her move all her stuff so she can teach at the Christian school up there. Well...what happened was we couldnt find someone to take care of our dog while we were gone and she doesnt do so well with car trips we discovered the last time we drove to and camped in Northern BC, so we thought it best she stays in Surrey. The problem is she cant stay with people who have cats because she has this thing against cats (she is a dog you know)...seriously though she bit the neighbours cat a while ago. So I'm gonna be house-sitting for a little while....and my parents are ok with this...and they want me to have frineds over the whole time...and they want me to have a party. sounding a little wierd yet? Is that what you would call trust? Hopefully I dont blow it or I could ruin whatever trust they have in me. So between about the 17th and the 23rd of August feel free to stop by, hang out , party it up whatever you want cus the house is all mine.

So I'm guessing this week will be a blast...but I'll let you know when it's over and my parents ground me for life....hopefully not...I'll try to be good.

peace

elly

"you smell like pine-sol"

Well I guess it's been a while again...its been a little crazy in the life of Elly lately. Speaking of which, i just got off an 8 hour shift (5 am till 1 pm)...after working 5 pm till 1:30 pm the night before...woot woot for 4 hours of sleep. Im just a little dillusional right now and may start typing random words that dont make sense just bear with me. My mom said driving tired is just like driving drunk, and i think the same goes for typing...its actually really hard. what you dont see is how many times i've had to backspace and try again.

haha...the title by the way is a quote of what some Whalley guy said to me today at Surrey Central. I was waiting for the bus and he came up to me and asked me if the bus had come which was the same bus i was taking and so i told him no and that i sure hoped not. And then he said it.."you smell like pine-sol"..and i didnt really know what to say so i kind of smiled and nodded and looked away. Then he asked me if i had spilled some pine-sol on myself today and i told him no that i hadnt and that i think it might be someone else you're smelling. It turns out there was a cleaning guy spraying the pay phones with some disinfectant. And then he was like "oh it's you" to the cleaning guy who mimmicked my initial response of smile and nod. The whole time im just thinking "man that has to be the worst pick-up line i have ever heard!" So that's my story for today. Work has been crazy and theres a lot of new people who dont know what they're doing (which is annoying) but its still a blast. Customers proably think we're obnoxious though.

anyways i am thouroughly exhausted and should probably take a nap right about now.
good night....evening...afternoon...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

FOUND!!

"And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." Luke 15:5-7

I think I can finally understand the passion of the shepherd an his joy in the recovery of his sheep. A few months ago our car was broken into and my wallet which I so wisely left unattended in the car...in Whalley...overnight...was sorted through. Everything was taken out and thrown over the seat but the only lost possession was about $5 in loose change....and then I discovered the empty void left by my missing grad photos of my friends. Well, obviously we do not clean out our car near enough because today they were discovered in my car door...all of them.

So I guess this means I take back the names I called this potentially drug-addicted thief (pervert and the like) and I apologize. Whoever you are I hope my $5 and owever much you pawned the car stereo for bought you very little drugs...so little that you had to kick the habit because you couldnt afford it...

In other news, my arm is looking a little demented right now so I would like to pass on a very important lesson I learned today. When taking a longish drive like to abbotsford from whalley on a hot sunny day, do not and I repeat do not let your arm hang out of the window. No, I did not break my arm today but I have the wierdest looking sunburn ever. nice and blotchy on one spot and only on my right arm. If thats not attractive what is? So my advice to you is dont do what I did. Get a car with air conditioning so you dont need to have you arm out of the window.

Well, thats all for now. Cheers.

PIRATES IN 4 DAYS!!!!

Boersma out

Dutch people really are just that hot!

Well I guess it's time for an update on whats going on in my world. Playoffs are over so that means so are my dreams of master champion of the hockey pool.
Although I did flatten the competition in my league (aka I defeated the Boersma family convicingly) I only managed a 240th place finish out of 90,000 people, 5 points shy of 1st place. Who do I have to blame? In my case I place full ownership on Fernando Pisani of the Edmonton Oilers, who by the way now owes me $5,000 in prize money.

But in this absense of Hockey I can now focus my attention on World Cup Soccer and the glories of my home team, the Netherlands. Watching soccer has confirmed my suspicions that Dutch people are hot. Take Robin van Persie for example.



in one word...WOW. He makes me want to move to Holland and maybe pick up an equally good looking cousin or something. But then I'd probably find out there's some wierd way through all the Dutch intermarriage that I'm related to him in some way...sick.

Well thats enough of my ramblings on in one sitting....I promise more interesting stories to come as summer is here and wild things always happen in the summer.

GO HOLLAND!!!!

Boersma, out!

PS....for anyone interested, Stabilo is playing at the Cloverdale Amphitheatre on Canada Day. Be there!

RIP Billy

Well, I guess I should be celebrating today upon the jubilant news that my arch nemesis has died. In any situation this would be great news. The hunted has outlived the hunter. The hero of the story has outlived his antagonist and become the decorated hero he was destined to be. Then why is this once hunted hero sad? COuld this vile creature not have been my worst enemy. And if not, then why didn't I figure this out before and repair the damaged relationtionship? Okay, enough with the artsy figurative language, it's time to get to the point. The beloved family bird passed away today. He was slowly getting sicker and less energetic so we knew he was going to go soon, but it still feels like a loss even though we had come to terms with the situation months ago.

If you dont know Billy or any of our past tropical birds, he was quite the chatter-box at the worst of times. The best was when he would mess up his phrases and say things that either dont make sense or are a little off-colour (those are my favourite ;)). For example, he would mix up "Art is bald" with "Jesus loves me" and get "Jesus is bald". Who knows, maybe He was and the bird is smarter than the creators of the Jesus videos who always present Jesus as a white male with long dark hair and a beard and nice eyes...white robe with a red sash and the arms wide open in a welcoming way.

Here's to you Billy. From being a good sport during hockey games chearing on the home team to my music critic when practising the piano and always keeping us entertained by riding on heads instead of shoulders and pooing on unwanted company (always a good laugh...after they leave..).

Boersma out!

Hockey pool update: since the first round is very much over I am proud to say I dominated the Boersma clan with a whopping 51 points thus proving that not only am I the most knowledgable hockey fan in the family at predicting the stars (I'm gonna get it if someone in my family reads this) but also that Elias is my new best friend. (Ebay kinda messed up by not changing my choices for the second round so I stepped down until round 3 cus right now im stuck with a bunch of players and Kiprusof who arent even in the playoffs anymore. So much for winning overall out of lots of people...but there's prizes for each round too.)

Violated

I am here to report a felony..I think that's how you spell that. Yesterday night our family car got broken into and they took our stereo and went through my wallet that was wedged between some seats. He or she I guess took all my $5 in loose change and an expired movie pass and took everything out of my wallet. All of which I thought I got back until I looked this morning. I had felt kind of liberated that they didn't get a credit card or anything of much value because that was what they wanted. Instead, all of my friends grad pictures and I think I had a leftover of mine in there are gone. What kind of sick pervert takes stuff like that. I mean, go ahead and take my money, steal the whole car if you want, but don't take something that is of no monetary worth to you. But they mean alot to me. These are my friend's beautiful faces that I am barred to look at in black-and-white in the yearbook with no personal comments to me. The money I can get back, these pictures I can't. Thanks a lot PERVERT!!!

Sorry for the downer, I'm just a little annoyed right now. Better times later.

Take the Plunge

Well, i did it. I made it through my first year of university with scars to prove it. Today was my last final and I now begin the longest summer holidays of my life. Will I get bored? probably. With a dead-end job at McDonald's which I'm hoping to can upon the acceptance to a new work place, and the lack of my favourite hockey team in the playoffs (that's the Canucks by the way) I'm stuck watching hours of playoff hockey that could bore you to tears. For example, the Flames vs. the Ducks game today...it wasnt even exciting! Why do I put myself through the torture of watching teams that knocked my "home-boys" out of the playoff race (how I loathe them) well it's quite simple really. This year I've discovered a beautiful thing called a hockey pool. All you have to do is select your ultimate roster, watch them rock and then rake in the prizes...or at least I'm hoping that's what happens. Although, I think I will get the same amount of joy, if not more, from the mere satisfaction of defeating my siblings. Bragging rights are prime and so sweet especially when you lack the "age and maturity" of your older family members. Who am I proud of today? My good budies Joe Thornton, Dany Heatly and Jason Spezza...keep bringing in the gold guys. These guys could sinlge- or triple- handedly win me an ipod (again vain hopes). What sweet sweet victory.

Evidence that I am the coolest first-year at university of all time (and by cool I mean biggest loser):

- turning off the lights in the Bio lab and asking Adana if the power went out, then realizing it was me.
- being the only one in a huge lecture hall laughing when my math prof stated very matter-of-factly that he loves hazlenut truffles. 9you have to know a bit about my prof to know why thats so funny...i'll leave you guessing)
- falling up the stairs...twice...in a row...ya im a loser
- having the doors of the skytrain close on my backpack
- hitting a prof in the shoulder (there's a story behind that, I dont just go around hitting people)

and soooo many more

ya so thats about it. Yay for summer vacation and 3 cheers for playoffs.

boersma...out!

Jesus, dont let me forget you

"'We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.'Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'
Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paridise.'"

Luke 23:41-43

"The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God!'"

Mark 15:38-40

Was Jesus forgetful? The request of the man on the cross next to Christ seemed to think so as he poses his request..."Jesus, remember me." A request I'm sure we can all relate to. We don't want to be forgotten by God and no matter how much God assures us He knows us each by name, we still need the affirmation that He wont forget about us. Somehow, I dont see this being likely. Jesus was Lord of the lowlifes, the tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, you name it. He seeked these people out and treated them with respect, the criminal on the cross included.
I think there is a bit of that criminal in all of us. We follow the crowd and hurl insults at others like snowballs. But then we step back and think, hey wait, this isn't right. Im sorry God, please remember me. Dont forget about me.

We have little to worry about when it comes to God remembering us. He knows every detail about us. It would be like a father forgetting he ever had a child. But what if we turn the statement around? "Jesus, help me not forget you when you come into your kingdom."

Just somthing to think about.

Easter side note:

For those wondering, yes, my mom did offer to hide the easter eggs for us yet again, it's actually kind of amusing. And yes, I am the youngest in my family...the oldest is 24...too old for an easter egg hunt with the same hididng spots in the living room as the past decade? Tell that to my mom (who is an elementary school teacher, if that explains anything). Maybe my family's just wierd, but i get chocolate out of it, i just have to work for it.

till next time

boersma

Evolve This!

Well...I'm almost done my first year of university (1 week left of classes) and that means I have nearly survived 1 semester of BIO 102.

If you can read this picture kudos to your eyes, if not here's the low-down. This is the result of a very boring class, Elly needing to vent, and a sudden urge to learn to write left-handed. Of all the courses I've taken in my university career (there hasn't been many - 8?) this has got to be the worst. You see, this course is all about ecology and evolution, 2 topics I have little to no interest in studying in depth.

I must say though, studying evolution from a non-creationist perspective has gotten me really thinking about my worldview about how and if evolution really takes place, and if so, why? It's interesting to see how the process of evolution scientificly is very similar to the "days" of creation. I'm not gonna get into the whole evolution thing here 'cause I think that would just make a long post even longer.
We have discussions in labs on evolution and it's interesting because at my table in the lab, there's a Muslim, a Hindu, 2 atheists, and me, so we get a variety of opinions and a pretty good debate. Even with this, this class bores me to death and I am barely passing, but hopefully i can pull it together cus this lab is needed for bio majors. If i dont pass....bring on the Kinesiology baby! It's way more fun anyway.
highlights of bio 102:
watching fighting fish go at it
touching a praying mantis - those are wierd bugs!
playing with neanderthal skuls - "dont we look alike?"
aaaaaaaand nothing else comes to mind. 3 months and thats all i had to show for it

boersma out!

p.s. Embarassing Moment!!
So I met my friend nici in the hallway one day and we were talking about my Kinesiology anatomy exam coming up where we have to know bones muscles etc as well as joint movements. So here we are in the SFU hallway doing horizontal flexion (taking extended arm and moving it so your upper arm touches your chest) and I was like "oh ya and there's horizontal extension" as I am saying this, I move my arm so it is pointing horizontally away from me. At this very moment one of the SFU profs walks by and I end up just wailing him in the shoulder. He didnt even flinch! He just kept on walking and I was just like "sorry" and then we burst out laughing. So funny, but so embarrassing, luckily in a school that big, he shouldnt remember me enough to hold a grudge. Phew

"Are you a Christian?"

So, I was at work today taknig a guys order. Ater I gave his his change, he asked me if I was a Christian. Curious as to why, thinking of the song "they will know we are Chrsitians by our love" and pondering if I look like a Christian and, if so, what do Christians look like? I said "Ya, I am. how did you know?". He then pointed at my wristband (make poverty history) and said that was why. He started talking about how his pastor was going to get him one too. So, seeing the common interest in the wellfare of fellow man posed the comment, "Well it is a good cause, for a good organisation." And he said, "Well I wouldn't call it an organisation as such,it's faith." Processing what he said, I ended our conversation with "yes, it is faith, but faith in numbers."

He smiled and walked away with fries in tow, which would seem to be the sole goal of the McDonalds corporation. "Come hungry, leave happy." But I think it was something more. I think he knew he got me thinking about what he said about how it isnt necessarily some sort of organisation set on eliminating world poverty, but that it's a whole lot more.

The elimination of poverty has always seemed like a foreign goal to me, even Jesus told his desciples that "the poor will always be with you." How can we then eliminate poverty all together?

THe customer left me with more than that however. I've been thinking about the reason why he knew I was a Christian. Should the only way of knowing be by the things we wear or the causes we stand for? Can people actually see something different in me? A lot of the time I dont think so. I dont always act the way I should or I do things that I regret. I just encourage anyone who reads this, including myself to try to show to others that you are a Christian by the things that you do and the love that you show.

all for now

boersma out!

ode to pets

...is that a lion? Actually, if all my computer abilities are half as good as I expect them to be, you will see this is one wierd lion. This breed of lion hails from the lowly whalley ghetto. She is one-of-a-kind and the only lion that likes to chase cats. Infact, this fantastic feline is not actually a cat at all. This is none other than the Boersma family dog. This is a Boersma no doubt. Long nose, black and white markings..?...an odd pungent odour, and shockingly good looks. The king of the beasts will rule again in the body of Sadie. This Lab (black lab...if you couldn't tell) cross pitbull...every whalley dog has at least some pitbull in it...my guess is there's a stray one thats really gettin' around to all the ladies if you know what I mean ;)...is the magical mutt known as my family dog.



Since this is an odes to pet plural, I guess I should make some mention of my arch-nemesis the "family" bird. Family in quotations because I like to disown this mad creature of death shown here. Dont be decieved by his calm demeanor and miniscule size. With the blink of an eyelash this sweet little songbird turns into a ruthless killing machine with long talons and a wicked-sharp beak. He likes to suck people in with his casual conversation starters like "hello Billy" and "I like you" and "I am Canadian"...he is quite the charmer, but he lies . This native Australian claims ownership of a country he doesnt belong to. He saya he likes you... then bites you. He follows movies cathphrases like "Hakuna Matata" with a demeaning "Art is bald" (my dad likes to believe that's a lie). But all these negative aspects are completely ignored by me when he pulls a Billy and poos on someones head, or eats food off the dining room table, or falls into the kitchen sink and spends the rest of the day sulking in his cage. He even attempts to have a simbiotic relationship with the dog, trying to land on its head, but that is just completely unnatural. This is Billy...you love him and you hate him all at the same time.


Boersma out!

And now for something completely random...

quote of the day:

"If I ever ace anything in chem, I think I am going to wet myself"

(Elly's take on university)

water polo for the lazy at heart

Well...I'm sitting here at school...and bored out of my mind. hmmm...school and bored, nothing new here I see. I can't find Jackie, so I went to a computer lab so I dont feel like a loser haha. With so many people in one big place, it's hard to find someone you know, and not every person is sociable enough to keep a conversation going. But I'm not going to get into "the people of SFU" here..I'll leave that for a later post. (I was people watching the other day and you wouldn't believe how amusing it can be)

But anyways, I want to tell you about a beautiful thing named inner-tube water polo. It's like Dairy queen icecream cake...who knew the 2 best desserts (icecream and cake) could come together in such a wonderful marriage to make me happy. Anyways, inner-tube water polo is offered as a intramural sport here at SFU and Jackie and I thought it sounded amazing, so we went to sign up, believing the inner-tube's sole purpose was to make it so we wouldnt have to expend as much energy treading water. But wow were we wrong....what a work-out! You actually have to sit in the tube and balance yourself so you dont fall out when you're throwing the ball, and then paddle like crazy with your arms and legs. Wow you get so sore, muscles start cramping but you just fight through the pain and keep going. You get so tired, butit's crazy fun and it looks hillarious to see these big muscular guys flailing their arms to paddle to the loose ball. My main issue is getting back in the tube once I've fallen out in the deep-end. It's so much easier when it's shallow. My team is crazy too...wow good times.

Everyone should get the honour of playing this magical sport at one point in their lifetime. one of these days it will become world-renown and become an olympic sport and the Olympics wont know what hit 'em.

till next time....mwa haha

boersma out!

A finished product

Well..this past Christmas holiday, I set out to do something I have never accomplished before in my life - finish a cross-stitch. I know it sounds lame...but that's just how I am sometimes..lame. So, I went out to a store and actually spent about 4 bucks on this thing, but I have pictures to prove that I did finish it. Even though it didn't take me very long to complete (the thing was pretty small, but I didnt want to feel like a loser in the store buying a learn-to-stitch kid's guide, so this was the best I could do) it feels good to have finished one. And now I have to confidence to believe that it is possible for me to do something constructive rather than destructive all the time. I'm branching out ;) haha.
But thinking about it, a project this small gave me so much satisfaction because it isn't what I usually do. It's not a comfortable thing for me to sit still and focus for a while, but knowing I could complete something that is difficult to me made me happy.

This makes me think about the new project that FVC is doing in funding a school in Sierra Leone. Stepping out of the comfort zone to do something, that just like my cross-stitch, has possibly been contemplated but never completely attempted. I think its an awesome way to spread God's love to people around the globe. Just like Jesus said "Whatever you do for the least of my people, you do for Me". Who needs the money more? In the future it would be great to see sports teams and school groups from FVC to go to this budding school in Sierra Leone and show the people that we aren't just people with really full wallets, but really full hearts as well.

BYOBs: Bring Your Own Bus stop

Don't you just wish sometimes that city buses could cater to your schedule? That they could be like a taxi, but just a whole lot cheaper. And then wherever you need a ride, whenever, you can set out your own personal bus stop on the side of the road and a bus will come running. Like the bus thing on the third Harry Potter...he just sits at the side of the road and a bus comes speeding to him. Unlike the movie, I am willing to pay the bus fare, it doesn't have to be free, I just wish it was more convenient.

This came up the other day. I had to go shopping for my sister's birthday which was yesterday (Happy Birthday Cath ;)) and I had no car to take, so my only options was walking for a long time or taking the bus. I opted for the bus. Now the bus to my area is not very reliable. It often drives past me because it gets too full and it only come every hour. It is also nice however, that it takes me straight to Guildford mall almost as fast as driving.
So...I go to Guildford, pick something up from the Body Shop (yay for sales!!) and then I decide to take the 320 bus to Surrey Central so I can go to some of the stores in a little strip-mall called "The Dell" in lovely downtown Whalley. This is about a 5-10 minute walk from Surrey Central, probably closer to 5...and then another 5 minutes or so to walk to the bus stop that takes me to my house. I look at my watch and see that I have an hour, so i figure it will be about 20 minutes walking so i can get to the bus stop a few minutes early. That leaves me 40 minutes to shop. Now, if you have ever been to the Dell, you will know as well as I do that 40 minutes is too long..it feels more like 4 hours. I was out of there in about 15 minutes. Then I walked to the bus stop only to look at my watch and see that the bus didn't come for another 25 minutes. I can walk home from there in 25 minutes so grumpily i walked home thinking about having a bus just stop for me nicely on the side of the road so i can use my free transit pass for the trip home.

Sometimes I wish life could be more convenient like that as well. As much as I grudgingly walked home from Surrey Central Station, I felt good when I got home for the nice excercise. It wasn't raining, not that cold either, but I didnt take the time to enjoy it because I felt so inconvenienced. I think we need to look at our lives the same way. Just because things dont go as planned, and everything seems to be going wrong, we need to realize that it is not these events that are inconveniencing us from doing what we really want to, but that these events came up for a reason. It is God telling us that He, not I, the He is in control. He wants us to slow down and appreciate the wonders around us, and then all those stickysituations and time when we are so frustrated will just seem wierd. I mean, who ever comes up with an idea like a personal bus stop anyways?

Update: A friend from work asked me to pray for her friends father and to ask others to pray as well. Her friends dad had a brain infection and was given 48 hours to live. Well, that was 4 days ago, and after many prayers spoken I was talking to her yesterday and, miracle of miracles, he is recovering. He now responds to people talking by turning his head and opens his eyes, although his vision is quite blurred. And he's been moving his fingers too. So please just keep praying he will make a full recovery.

Thats all for this pretty long post....till next time

boersma out

A start of something new

Here we are in the beginning of a new year. Does it feel any different? No, not really. Not much changes in the span of a few days, but looking back over the years, you can see that those subtle, over-looked changes are important and happen. Have I changed much from a week ago? I really doubt it, but if I were to look back at myself in January of 2005, I think I would see a bit of a difference. Change is good. It brings out the hope for new beginnings and starting fresh.

I'm not going to get too insightful here, after all it is only 11:00 AM and I'm still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

So, here lies my first blog of 2006 and my first ever blog. Expect to see more of these over the year from me as I need a scape-goat when procrastinating on doing my homework. And you can expect future blogs to be more interesting because hopefully I will write them when I'm more awake. That's all for now.
hope you had a good New Years.

Boersma out