Things I Never Thought I'd See

One of the things I never thought I'd see in my earthly life was Jesus using hairspray.
Yes. You read that right.


Jesus uses aerosol hairspray.

Before you wonder if I managed to have an out-of-body experience, let me explain :).
Never did I see a bright light (though I did wonder if I would perish from laughing so hard!!).

One of the activities we did while in Florida was visit the Holy Land Experience. Think living biblical museum. It was interesting. The park itself is not very big, and so it is easy to find your way around. The sketches were actually very funny and well done, I thought. And I enjoyed the singing.

Anyway.

It was close to lunch time. There was a very realistic reenactment of the passion story happening. (Which was quite graphic so we did not take the girls to see it - Little M was already wondering why people were beating up "Jesus" and why the soldiers were so mean and why there was red on the ground - lots of fuel for great questions and conversations though!) We decided to go find a suitable lunching area while there were very few people wandering around. We sat down at some picnic tables - which happened to provide a back-stage viewing area for the aforementioned passion story.

I was busy trying to keep the girls entertained while waiting.
And then I looked up.
And I burst out laughing.

There was Jesus, behind the scenes...
shaking out and fluffing his hair...
going through a significant amount of aerosol hairspray!!

And when I say Jesus was fluffing his hair, I don't mean just a little scrunch scrunch.
I mean head upside down, flinging his dark curly locks all over the place, eightys-head-banging, hairsprayed to the max fluffing.
It was hilarious!!!

I have no idea what "scene" came next in the passion story. Perhaps Jesus was about to break out of the tomb and needed a quick fix-up.
I'm not exactly sure.
I just know that the scene is forever branded in my memory and I will never look at a can of aerosol hairspray in the same way again.

Sometimes you need a little finesse, sometimes you need a lot!

ANYWAY.

It reminded me of how, as believers, sometimes it is hard to find the right words to describe the wonder of Jesus. It can be a challenge to explain the essence of gospel; to share of our spiritual experiences. We stumble in our explanations, grapple for the right analogy, and even with other believers we can encounter this challenge.
Indeed, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18


I think that is why well-written spiritual books and songs are so vital to our christian life. They help put into words the things we experience and help describe the wonder of knowing God and enhance our understandings of things that are hard to explain.

And however we try - we must keep trying.

This group of people spend their days trying to communicate the love of God through story, song and narration. God uses that to bless people and to turn hearts toward Him. It is good.

Even if "Jesus" does have a bit of an obsession with hairspray :).

The Gift Of Time

Among life's provisional resources, time is one of the most precious to me. How I spend my time is very important to me - and how I waste my time is too!! There never seems to be "enough time," or it seems to move too fast or too slow. More and more, I am coming to see time as a Gift.

This fall, our little clan experienced a rare gift of time. Jon was able to take a 10-week (with 2 extra weeks at Christmas) parental leave. Due to benefits through his employer, this was a financially feasible opportunity. That meant that the kids had their dad around, I had adult conversation throughout the day and there was always someone to keep babies at home while the older one(s) made the trek to school in the cold!!

While this chance of a lifetime was a blessing, it was not without its work. Two adults, having to share space 24/7, used to doing things "their own way" requires communication, intentionality and a healthy dose of grace!!! It means ensuring that expectations and boundaries are clearly discussed (and understood!) and that it is okay to accept help every once and a while :). It means that not everything has to be done in a certain way (as a SAHM, this is a particular challenge because my house is also my 'workspace' and I am used to having things organized in a way that makes sense to moi!).

We also got to take a family vacation. When Jon first brought this up (I am fairly convinced he was waiting for just the right time, as he is quite patient that way, but he dropped the bombshell at supper with the kids bouncing everywhere :P).... I just stared at him.

Blink. Blink.
You're kidding, right!?
Quiet.
Do you REMEMBER the last time we took a lengthy trip away and I almost completely and entirely lost my marbles!???!
Clears throat. Let's me continue to vent. He's a smart man!
LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. YOU WANT TO GO AWAY FOR SIX WEEKS, WITH BABIES, AND STROLLERS AND DIAPERS AND HALF THE HOME AND YOU WANT TO PACK IT ALL IN THE VAN AND DRIVE TO FLORIDA -- WHICH MAY I REMIND YOU IS LIKE A 30+ HOUR DRIVE -- AND DID I MENTION THERE ARE BABIES INVOLVED!?!?!?
Yes. I do.

Oh man.
Keep in mind, this was before Wee One was born and I had no IDEA if we'd have any difficult surprises, if I'd wrestle with post-partum darkness again, and I certainly wasn't sure I was up for any adventures. And I like adventures. But REASONABLE ones!!!


Long LONG story short - we did it! We went away for six weeks (left Dec 29 in a dreadful snowstorm and returned February 10) and lived to tell the tale (though I wasn't so sure I would some times!). And you know what!? It was a big blessing. A SIGNIFICANT amount of work too, this business of traveling withe 3 little ones 5 years and younger, but a gift that will only grow sweeter with time. We did all sorts of fun things like Disney and Sea World, but my FAVORITE times were spent watching the girls gain confidence in the pool, hanging out in the sunshine, talking with Jon about our goals for the next few years (a rare treat, considering that most of the time our conversations are somewhat interrupted!) and so on. We came home quite wrinkled from having spent 4 days in the van on the way home, but refreshed.

God is One who offers us the gift of TIME. Time to live and breathe and love, to wrestle and work things through, and have adventures. Some of them are quite extravagant (like this); mostly the gift of time arrives in sweet little packages throughout the days.

Most importantly, he gives us the gift of time to FIND HIM!

 ⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found; 
   call on him while he is near.
          Isaiah 55:6


May the gift of time be even sweeter because it is shared with HIM!

Oooh la la is all I can SAY!

Okay. It was a dream that began when I worked as a travel agent.


Yes, I worked as a travel agent! It feels like a completely different lifetime, but it wasn't actually - only the mid-90s - and it sure was FUN!!!


But one day, when I was organizing brochures, I came across the info packages for NEW ZEALAND!!!


Until then, I was interested in Europe, perhaps Mexico (only something hot, sunny and relaxing!), but after seeing the gorgeous pics, the varied activities, and the culture life, I was HOOKED!


I can't resist peeking, sometimes! I get notices of seat sales or room sales, and ack! The travel bug in me needs to browse!!


For example, Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific is hosting a massive hotel sale!! Reservations must be made  between Oct 27-29, 2009 but travel can be anywhere from December 09 - April 10! Countries include Thailand, Korea, China, Japan, HK, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Bali. 


YUP I SAW NEW ZEALAND IN THAT LIST!!!


And the hotels look simply glamorous! Can you imagine waking up, donning that fluffy terry cloth bathrobe, sipping a cup of coffee and just --- being!??!? Delightful!!

Okay. So, J&I have made reservations at a local resort for a weekend in November to celebrate our 10-year anniversary (which was technically in July, and we got away for one night then, but we thought we'd sneak in a getaway in fall too!). But, I don't know :).... maybe we should dream a bit bigger and head to New Zealand for a week before the baby is born wink wink!!


He he he.... click here to take a peak at the amazing rates for your dream destination. I'm sure your husband will looooooove you for it!!!!! Where would you head off to could pack your bags and not think twice :)?

Vacation Daze!

How can be it that it has already been well past a year since we spent 2 sun-drenched months in Florida!? The kids were so little (the sleep so scarce :(...) but we had so. much. fun. I flipped through my pictures (hundreds of 'em! - thank goodness for digital cameras!!!) and marveled at how memories grow even sweeter with time.

What were some highlights...

 - the glorious sunshine! Especially for us snow babies, not having to dress in layers just to walk in the garage to the family van was worth its weight in gold!!

 - the beaches. I am not much of a beach fanatic, but something about the ocean, the sunshine and warm sand equals = t.h.e.r.a.p.y. Ahhhh!

 - walking through the orange groves with the girls.

 - spending time with family.

Some of our greatest moments were at the Disney parks! We had a blast! I will never forget...

 - Cruising up to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail and watching Little M's eyes light up, or the squeals from our nieces who had come to visit, or the giddy way our parents lived out their childhood dreams.

 - Getting to know each other while waiting in lines. Oh, I know, waiting can be a challenge (I will rant about waiting in life another day!!), but really we had some hilarious moments just ... waiting.

 - The "let's do that a-GAIN!" after a fun attraction. What were some of our favs? ...

... Magic Kingdom - Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Peter Pan (of course!)

... EPCOT Centre - browsing through the exhibits, The Land, The Seas and Soarin' !

... Hollywood Studios - Rockin' Aerosmith, Hollywood Tower of Terror (sounds freaky doesn't it!) and of course, their great shows! 

... Animal Kingdom - A Bug's Life, Safari Expedition, Mt. Everest

 - J would say one of the funny parts of the day was actually the tram drivers that drove you around the parking lot! Not sure if it was because it was the end of a long day or what, but they were hilarious!!! Maybe we were just giddy after spending the day on our feet, out in the sunshine!

We've been to Florida three times in the last ten years, and we've often pre=booked our tickets. If you're interested in this you might wanna check out the best deals in Florida at discount Disney tickets. When you buy your tickets in advance, you often save quite a bit of cash AND you save time and hassles by avoiding long line-ups at the gates. 

We laughed and laughed and laughed. I would do it again in a heart beat (and once the children are a little bit older!!!!).

Sponsored by http://www.orlandofuntickets.com/

Bitten by the travel bug!!

Oooh. It's just about this time of year - S.P.R.I.N.G. B.R.E.A.K. time when J looks at me with that wandering wonder in his eye.... he gets the urge to TRAVEL! Pick up the kids and pack the bags and wherever the van goes (um, on our rather planned, yet somewhat flexible itinerary!!) is where we go too!

One thing we had looked into before kids, but have not done yet (have to save SOMETHING for those empty-nest days!!) is international travel. While J has left the continent in search of other cultural pastures, my feet have never left north american soil! 

But that doesn't keep me from dreaming! I came across the  Okinawa Travel Guide and wondered - what would it be like to travel to JAPAN!? I flipped my way through tons of info on Okinawa Japan. What else could a person want to know :)!?

FOOD! Yikes, one thing about traveling (especially outside my comfort zone!) is the variety of palettes out there! However, this site takes some of the mystery out of the meat :) so to speak. 

BEACHES! If there's anything us snow-bound people long for at this time of year, it's the sand and surf! I did not realize that the beaches in Okinawa Japan were so beautiful! I can almost feel the wind on my face!

SLEEP! Maybe it's the sleep-deprived mother in me! Not sure, but I'm a little obsessed with rest these days! I can only dream of staying in five-star resorts like this! WOW!

Well, a girl can always dream  :). Japan - exotic, beautiful, something completely different! 

Sponsored by oninawa-information.com

Do you have a minute to see something COOL!?

One of little M's highlights while we spent time in Florida, was of course, 

SEA WORLD.

Oh man. The greatest excitement of her two year old existence was watching the BABY DOLPHINS in their nursery or the dolphin and shamu shows :).

      

Which, of course, led to her three-year-old dolphin birthday party :).

So, you can imagine her thrill when we watched a dolphin video the other day! You'll notice a link to Sea World on the right side of the blog page - click to watch a super-neat video of the amazing ways these incredible animals play! Truly beautiful!

Oh yeah - we went to Las Vegas!!

I may have mentioned that this year's festivities, in part, took place in Las Vegas.
You know - flashy lights, a little warmer, casinos :).

Our time there was good. And hey, getting out the door is a lot easier without snow suits!!

But getting there. Oi Veh. Let me share the tale....

 1. Bad customer service - my phone call/ticket information is apparently usually an inconvenience.

2. We arrived at the airport with time, however I got scolded by the agent because we were only 2 hours early instead of 3. She was supposed to issue a ticket for Kezia (who flies free but apparently has to pay taxes, which, of course, is something we learned AFTER booking the tickets - even though I had an AC rep on the line while BOOKING the tickets and she didn't tell me a thing) - and it took an hour for her to tend to my request alone. She had no idea what she was doing, she kept leaving the desk for like 10-15 MINUTES at a time trying to get answers, AND AC reps informed us numerous times that this is their BUSIEST time of the year so we shouldn't be so frustrated. WELL. Out of 10 desks, there were only 4 on staff. 1 was for executives only, so she never helped anyone. The other was for baggage check-in, so she sat there without serving customers too. The third was helping to solve a united airlines glitch and the 4th was "helping" me. The 3rd DID try to help after Jon came over and vented, but #4 told her that she should go back to her task and mine could wait (again, it was my fault for following the AC phone reps instructions and arriving at the airport in proper time, but not her fault that she didn't know what she was doing. Her name was Lorna :(.) #3 helped solve the problem, and after much finger tapping and sighing on my part, we were on our way.

3.We rushed through security and customs - only to find out that our plane was delayed. Actually, we didn't know. We were waiting by the gate and our boarding time AND flight time came and went. No announcement. So, Jon finally asked and oh yeah, our plane was 45-60 min. late. Good - except that it was supper time and we were supposed to have had enough time for supper before rushing through security. Fine. There was a deli - but they were on coffee break for half an hour and couldn't take money for a sandwich. THEN they charged $7 per sandwich (of course, you find this out AS your are purchasing your sandwich - 2 pieces of stale roll with deli meat, some mustard and fake cheese - because they don't post the prices!). THe AC rep assured us that all flights in Denver were delayed because of weather so we shouldn't have any trouble making a connection. Oh yes, the "connection". In Denver. With 2 babies, 5 carry-ons, 2 very-tired parents --- annnnd it's 9:30pm. SO, on the plane I ask the United flight attendant about all of this. TWO TIMES she gave me the gate number, but didn't see anything about flight delays. That meant we had about .... 20 min. to get OFF the plane .... THROUGH THE AIRPORT .... and TO THE NEXT PLANE - With 2 babies, 5 carry-ons, and 2 very-tired parents. We land in Denver, got off the plane and start heading through the airport. Jon refuses to move frantically, since it is their problem and they will have to get us on some flight anyway.

4. So, we head to the gate. We hear, over the intercom, our flight information at a DIFFERENT GATE - and our airplane is LEAVING --- BOARDING CLOSED!!! -- but maybe, maybe there are TWO flights to Vegas. Who knows. It's a busy place. However, we arrive at the gate that we were instructed to go to, except that airplane is STILL BOARDING --- FOR HOUSTON. OH HOUSTON, we have a PROBLEM. So, we back track with 2 babies, 5 carry-ons, and 2 very-tired parents, and get to our gate JUST AS THEY ARE SHUTTING THE GATE DOOR. NOOOOOOOO!! They take pity on us - not sure if it was the babes, the gray hair sprouting everywhere on the smell of sweaty armpits, but whatever. They stopped the plane, got us on, and off we went.

5. Sigh. We land in Las Vegas, and the airport is HUGE. HUGE. We finally find Jeff, and finally discover that our car seats did not make it to the airplane that we did. They promise to courier them over in the morning. But, this being the busiest time of the year and all, they showed up around supper time! So, we go to get our car rental. However, the line-up is 1 hour long, even though we have a reservation, AND it is 12 Vegas time, meaning 2 in the morning for our girls!!! Jeff figured that we'd have no problem getting one in the morning, but we did, so we didn't end up with a car rental after all.

I am happy to say that we flew west jet on the way home, and it was paradise. We arrived in plenty of time, walked in, were greeted by friendly staff (even though one of our bags was 6lbs over the limit) and landed in Winnipeg in less than 2.5 hours. We took the night flight, which was very nice. The airport is quieter, there is less stress, and people in general are very sleepy and very mellow :P.

I am also happy to say that there are NO PLANS FOR TRAVELING IN THE NEAR OR DISTANT FUTURE. At this point, I would rather poke my eye out. Almost. It's twitching furiously, anyway!!!

Happy New Years Day!

I would like to start the year off right - by creating a list of completely unreasonable expectations and not anticipating on keeping a single one . But, alas, I will not bore anyone with the hundreds of things I'd love to change about myself, and switch to a more entertaining topic instead.

Like, where on earth did the month of December go!? Oh yes, now I remember. It whizzed by in a sea of lost shopping lists (don't even get me started!!), birthday party mayhem, a heater that went on the fritz (the NIGHT, of course, before the big birthday bash, at 10pm between cake decorating and packing bags...), Christmas celebrations and a trip to Vegas. Yeah, I threw in that last one for fun .

Approximately 2.5 weeks ago, I freaked out in traditional Leah-style, desiring to eradicate the month of December from the calendar year. However, we survived to tell the tale. Let me share a few highlights with you .

We celebrated M's 3rd birthday. Somewhere, sometime between December 21, 2005 and December 21, 2008, my beautiful first-born daughter stretched from a tiny little infant (8lb, 2oz) to a witty, expressive, talkative little girl. I will do a whole post on her birthday, which was simple in comparison to some elaborate events I read about online (you find out all sorts of things when you google "dolphin party"!!!)

But I cannot begin to convey the stress that results when Dollarama closes at 9pm during holiday times. C'mon people! When Walmart is open 24/7, you can at least extend your hours to those brief windows of time when the rest of us are able to get away for a few quiet moments!!

Anyway, Thursday night before the party, the day when I'm running around like a maniac trying to get laundry done, suitcases packed for Las Vegas, children tended to, birthday party stuff ready --- the furnace breaks. Yup. When it's -40 loveliness outside, it's 10pm at night, and the timing juuuuuuust isn't great! So, at 10:03pm I am simultaneously on the phone with the gas company and decorating M's dolphin birthday cake. Who says moms can't multi-task ?

Long story short - the furnace couldn't be fixed that night. The birthday party rolled on without a hitch. Some young fellow came the next day and fixed the furnace (we did warn him about the houseful of children under the age of 4!), which was very nice, we got our bags packed AND we flopped into bed at a delightful 2am. And we think that 11:30 feels late!!!

Friday, December 19, we celebrated M's birthday with her little friends. What fun a birthday party can be! It turned out very well, all things considered.

The next few days were full of preparation. We celebrated Christmas with family, got a few last minute things done and then...

VIVA LAS VEGAS! A family member had invited us to share holiday time with them in Vegas. So. We went. Traveling with babies isnot the same as traveling with adults, but we all lived to tell the tale. Sort of. I think I lost a few days of life due to stress, but we flew in, flew out and enjoyed our time in between. I will save a whole post for our Vegas extravaganza. There is much to tell .

And then, finally, we landed. We came home. We settled in. We took time to look through presents, stories, laundry  - and breathed. Oxygen is very important, so I hear, and I find that when life is harem-scarem, I forget to do that. Helps to clear the head and heart .

Next year, stay tuned for Advent: Unplugged. !! I long for an Advent season that is less dramatic and more conducive to reflection, worship and appreciation.