Exhausted

Yup, I am completely exhausted in every single way. I have just completed the first round of tests and I now get to be on a restricted diet for the next series of tests that happen next week. I also had x-rays on my shoulder. Everything has just worn me right out for the day. I'm not evening going to youth group tonight because I feel like rubbish at the moment.
Before my trip to the hospital, earlier in the day I was able to finally drop off my resume at Pizza Hut and I also dropped it off at a photography studio that it is looking for an admin assistant. I'm trying to not get too down about this whole lack of job thing, but it's starting to get hard. I shall keep you posted if anything happens with the above mentioned positions.
I think I am going for a nap, or at least an unmoving position on my sofa for the rest of the evening. Hope everyone is doing well.

First Steps

I have taken the first steps to get my health back on track. I think I have found a new doctor that I am comfortable with and I really like her. She of course wants to run all of the tests again just for her own curiosity and suspisions, and I of course am not thrilled by this idea! I am proud of myself for taking this step though to getting healthy once more. My parents however are not exactly jazzed by the idea of me going the medicated route like I have been thinking. They wat me to make an appointment to see a naturalist first before I go with steroid based medication. Seeing the naturalist is expensive and not exactly cheap; close to $100 a visit. I don't think it could possibly do any harm though to go see him.
I also some how managed to mash up my shoulder and I need to have x-rays on it. I know with my long list of injuries, this is just another one to add to the list, and some of you I am sure are having a good laugh right now. Go ahead and laugh away, but you're not the one who may have a wreked rotator cuff or a cracked scapula. So tomorrow I think it is off to the hospital for x-rays. Fun times ahead!
I hope you all have a great Easter weekend and are able to take some needed time for personal reflection on what this weekend is all about. Much love to you all!

Oy..... More Snow!

Yesterday, it did not snow at all, except overnight 6 inches of snow fell and 6 more is suppose to fall over today. What is going on in my area of the world?! The weather did allow for me to actually get into Moose Jaw last night for the 11-14's youth group (once the church has moved buildings, a 15-18's group is going to be starting). I had a lot of fun being with the kids last night. I've been attending this church for the last 8 years and I've known most of these kids since they were just little, so it wasn't that hard to join the group. Getting into youth leader mentality is taking some time, but it is all coming back to me. I think it is like riding a bike-you never forget how to. I get to think of some games for next week, so for those of you who help with Rock Solid please send me some ideas!!!

Regrouping

Biggest shock to my system happened this morning. I found out that my church is going to be regrouping, but in a different church building and under a new name. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I should feel excited that the church I have attended for the last 8 years is going to try and make a go of things once more and save me from church hunting. At the same time i'm mixed emotioned about it. Just because we are switching buildings and having a new name, doesn't mean that our congregation will grow by leaps and bounds, and be able to make things work this time. I hope you know what I mean. I totally know that God can multiply the congregation by leaps and bounds. The name is switching from Lakeview Christian Church to Crossroads Church. The church is now a 15 minute drive further into the city from where it used to be as well. Another surprise for me today was also being asked to help lead the 11-16's youth group. I don't know why it shocked me. I did use to be a youth leader in my church before moving to Winnipeg and then living in England. I just wasn't preparred to be asked. I told James I would most likely help up until I go to camp(depending on when I leave for it, and depending on my work schedule once I have a work schedule). Please pray for me as I work through this whole thing and decide if this is really where God wants me or not.
NCAA basketball is going well. However, a few of the teams that I really like have been knocked out of the tournament already, but thankfully there has always been another team still in it that I feel like I can cheer for. No more basketball until the next round of playoffs and those begin on Thursday. Maybe I will actually be able to do something productive until then!
The blizzard has finally stopped and I didn't need to get out my knee high boots. However, roads are extremely icy and have not been fun to drive around on. I may risk going into Moose Jaw tomorrow or I may not. It has been cold here and it was a depressing first day of spring!
Let me know people how you are all doing. Cheers!

March Madness Has Begun!

NCAA Basketball (american uni) playoffs have arrived. It's one of the good things abuot being back home. For the next 2 weeks, it's a lot of basketball on my television. This is a good thing right now because I don't know when I'll be able to get into Moose Jaw. The snow keeps coming down fast. For lots of people, this isn't a problem. However, because I was in England until 3 weeks ago, I missed all of the winter driving experiences. Sad to say, but I've gone soft. BUT visibility is poor as well, so better to play it safe than sorry. Ok, back to the topic at hand. NCAA basketball playoffs is when (if i am at home during the last 2 weeks in march, which i haven't for a few years) my dad and i get tp really hang out by ourselves because no one else in the family is interested in it. It's one of my favourite times with my dad. Last night while my dad and I were watching basketball, we had an amazing talk about integrating your faith into a secular sports environment/organisation. Which I had been struggling with a lot lately. It was so encouraging for me to hear just about the little things my dad does or says within the athletic league he is involved with as being an athletic director of a Bible college (the only one in the league). We also had a great chat about the possibility of me being able to graduate next May---a whole 6 months ahead of schedule maybe. It would be a lot of hard work and would include me taking possibly 6 modules over first semester, but it would also mean that the only thing i would have left to do in January is my work placement. So we talked about the possibilities of where I could do my placement and he knows if I could, I would be going back to England for it. (For those of you over there, if you know of any places that would be great for a sport management placement, please let me know!) I have really realised just how special a father-daughter relationship is. I've always been close to my dad, but i've taken it for granted way too often. Thank you Lord for my dad and the relationship that we have where I can share what is on my heart and I can learn from his experiences and advice. Please help me not to take it for granted.
I am now getting excited for going back to U of M first in May for two weeks of modules (a semester's worth of a module crammed into 1 week. It's hard work, but the plus side is that they are finished in a week) and sorting out more distance education modules. And then I am getting excited to go back in September which will hopefully be my final year. Please pray for me as I try to make that choice.
Quick job update: Possibly have the opportunity to work at pizza hut. Through a family friend who is the district manager of pizza hut for my area has told me to drop off my resume at the moose jaw pizza hut and to tell the manager there that i talked with the district manager. So, as soon as this snow has cleared up somewhat, i'm off to see if i can get myself a job. prayers appreciated for that one too.

Where is My Snow Shovel?

Hello to all from the deep freeze region that I am currently residing in. There is a blizzard on the way in the next few hours. It is expected to last through to Saturday. It's been snowing steadily for the last 2 days already. This is not exactly the way I would have liked to greet the official first day of spring that is coming up. What was a beautiful first week back with the snow melting ever so quickly has once again turned into what will soon be a new full foot of snow on the ground. Most people know I hate snow because of the cold. If it could snow with out the bone chilling cold, I don't think I would have such an aversion to it. Now, it is close to -20 with the wind chill factor involved. Motorway travel is not advised and so the job hunt is once again delayed, but this time to an unknown date! You who are in the sunny regions of the place I would really like to be right now (and for more than one reason) better not be taking your weather for granted at all. However, all of this snow does give me one more chance to build Miz her Snow Shrek. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go and find my knee high snow boots and my heavy duty super scooper snow shovel. It looks like I will be needing them shortly.

Airport Run

I just got back from picking up my sister Kara at the airport in Regina. She was in B.C. for 10 days. I was happy that I got to drive my parent's car. However, since we last discussed my car, the tyre was repaired and then we found out that the battery was dead as a door nail and needed to be replaced completely. My car is now once again in commission and I was able to drive it around for the first time in a very long while. I am quite happy to be reunited with my car and for those who love to drive like I do (you know who you are), you may understand my feeling of happiness.
This may sound strange, but is there a phobia for fears of wide open spaces? I think I may have an aversion to significant amount of open spaces after spending 6 months in a country that does not have much open space. There is almost a feeling of security or a marginal amount of safety in the closed in feeling and i must admit a part of me misses that. At the same time, it is just nice to have my house with it's huge back garden and more than 2 feet of space between my neighbour's houses on either side of us. Just something for me to ponder. My dad asked me again when I thought I would be going back. Although he wants me to completely finish my degree before i go back over, i think he is starting to realise that might just not happen. Yet another idea for me to ponder.
It is well after midnight and I think i need some sleep. Have a great one everybody!

Patience is NOT my Middle Name

I handed in the 5 page plus 5 page personal reflection answers from page 4 of questions that need to be answered on seperate sheets of paper. When I went to go hand in my application package (as it became), the sasktachewan camp director was really excited and had also told a couple of camps about me already. I have realised that in some social circles, having the last name Pullman really does help. My dad is a fairly well known man in various different aspects and sometimes saying that I am Ellery Pullman's daughter will get me further along for a reason that by not mentioning who my dad is. It has been like that with this camp application thing. The camping director had no clue who i was until he asked me my last name and then it was like he started paying attention to what I had to say. He was like "Your dad and i are good friends and I've heard great things about you." and then about the camps he had spoken to, he said peoplem were excited because they knew who I was. Knew who i was or just heard of me? Many people who work at camps came to Briercrest Bible College and had my father as a psych teacher. The prime examples that my father uses when teaching are often about my sister's and I. I know this because i took 2 classes with him and often turned 10 shades of red when he started telling yet another story. Anyways, the camp stuff is all in and Wayne said he hoped to let me know within the next 2-3 weeks as to where I could be used best. I just don't do well with the waiting aspect of things!
I'm also sick of being sick. I haven't been able to do anything really productive in the last couple of days. I don't even have the energy to work on my sociology....i still have 2 papers to write for it and its all due on april 7. and then i have a final exam to write as well. I think i need to switch gears in the next couple of days!
I'm crawling back into bed or at least to my sofa. Have a good weekend people!

Where is God Leading Me?

This is the question that has been on my heart ever since I found out that I was going to be leaving Luton. I was almost deathly afriad to be going back to the 1500 people village of Caronport and once again being sucked into the "back burner" way of life that I was used to in Caronport. I was (and still am) questioning how God would be able to use me back here. However, in the last few weeks God has really put summer camp ministry into my heart. I know that it can only be God because I have never had the desire to work at camp before now. I had a preliminary phone interveiw yesterday with a camp in Northern Manitoba. It went really well. However, I found out that the position is only for 6 weeks. Not sure what to do about it. This morning, I had a chat with the Sasktachewan director for Christian camps and they are in need of program directors as well so he asked me to apply. I have the 5 page application form sitting in front of me right now. It needs to be in asap. Want to know what my devotions focused on today? Ironically, it focused on Isaiah 6, but especially verse 8 " Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying "Whom shall I send, And who will go for us?" Then I said, Here am I! Send me." It was pretty powerful words after hearing about the need in so many camps. Anybody else besides me think that this was a direct word of God for me? Question now is, if this is where God is leading me, how do I pick the camp to be at this summer? Any insights you might be able to offer me would be greatly appreciated.

Girl's Ice Hockey....Not a Nice Sight!

Yup, I went to the girl's hockey game this afternoon. We won by a score of 9-5. However, girl's hockey really is not all that fun to watch. It is often slow moving and they aren't even allowed to check another player into the boards, this means a lot less penalties being given out. I think my disgruntledness at the hockey game is due to the fact that I just plain like the hard hitting that men's hockey has. Not sure what that says about me personally though!? You don't have to answer that one :) Anyways, the rumor mill was true and I came face to face with the ex. It wasn't as bad of an encounter as I thought it would be. He sure did look shocked to see me turn up though! Anyways, our 30 second conversation was brief, but it was alright.
I was contacted by a camp today to possibly be their program director for the summer. It's a pretty good sounding camp and I would be directly under the actual camp director. For some reason, and I think it could only be God, I no longer have an aversion to spending a full summer out at a camp. It would be great experience and I think it would challenge me and streach me in ways that I haven't been yet. I don't want to say anything too early, but maybe this is why I needed to come home. Maybe I need to once again get out of my comfort zone and do something that I had never considered doing in order to be able to come back to England to do something else. Only God really knows, but I am now excited to see where God is going to take this possibility of me in leadership at a camp. I have my preliminary interview with them over the phone either on monday or tuesday. Please pray for me in this!
My sister is begging me to come and help her with her powerpoint presentation. She has resorted to calling me by my nic name that only a select few know about (and has some gender confusion attached to it!), so I better go help her for a while. I just don't want to be the one who does all the work for her.
My family and I are also going to watch Love Actually together tonight because none of them have seen it. It may end up making me "homesick" again, but I think I can handle it. I hope everyone has a great sunday. Speak to you all soon!

Marmite in Canada (with a few other things)

I had to see for myself if a few certain items did or did not actually exsist in Canada, so I took a trip into Moose Jaw and went to Superstore (it also happened to coincide with my mother's shopping trip). As we went through the store, my eyes were peeled for things that are typically British, or that I had associated only with England. Here are a few things that I found throughout the store: Marmite. I was shocked to find it and even nearly bought it, but then common sense prevailed. Hienz Salad Cream! I was so excited to see this stuff, that despite the price of it I made my mum buy some. I braved the strong smelling imported olive section to venture into the ethnic cooking aisle (which is an adventure in itself at times). Here, I found a whole range of Pataks curry products and was quite thrilled! Lastly, I wasn't really looking for anything else, but out of the corner of my eye I spotted it. On the top shelf and with a huge astronomical price attacked to it, I saw a small bottle of Ribena! Unless I was desperate though and really really homesick for something familiar, then I would buy the Ribena. Just to know that I can find it here now was a bit of a comfort.
So that was my trip to the supermarket and was very thankful to find some now familiar items. Sad that it was one of the highlights of my week though.

Cooking Curry and the Whole Nine Yards

This evening, I cooked curry with the fixings that I had brought back to Canada with me from England. We as a family had never cooked proper curry before. I mean no offense to my mother's tuna curry (which isn't all that bad), but that itsn't "true" curry by any means! I even went the extra distance and made homemade naan bread, and tarka dhal. And thanks to the ethnic food section in Superstore (our equilivent to sainsbury's, but only massively bigger), I was able to find a great selection of curry stuff for future use, but for the time being I found Pataks Mango Chutney, and I found Pappadams (or however you spell it). Anyways, the tarka dhal was extremely time consuming, but it was worth the effort. Overall, the kitchen was a complete mess, but the meal was great. My family enjoyed it, and the best part was that because I did the cooking, I did not have to do the washing up! I did confuse my mom several times during the afternoon though due to several things that i referred to in british terms. One of them being dinner (commonly called lunch here instead of the evening meal) and i was explaining about what needed to be done with the grill (which is called the broiler over here, but i could only think of the word grill). My dad complimented me on the meal and then looked at me and said "It made you homesick didn't it? or England sick at least." That comment almost made me cry and I could only nod my head in agreement to him. It's been encouraging for me at least that people are recognising the fact that Luton feels like home for me and are begining to understand that as well.
After dinner this evening, we watched the movie Mystic River.....is it ever a screwed up movie, but really not that bad overall.....for a Sean Penn movie that is. Clint Eastwood was the director and he is even credited with doing the music. Who knew that he was so talented? Actually, anyone know that he was in a musical movie? The movie is called Paint Your Wagon and is absolutely hilarious because you don't expect to see Clint Eastwood singing. It's worth seeing just to laugh at it. We rented Love Actually because no one else in my family has seen it, so that is tomorrow night's feature.
Tomorrow, our women's highschool ice hockey team plays in a play off semifinal here in caronport. I was planning on going, but then I found out that a certain ex-boyfriend of mine may very well be officiating the game. However, nothing is final yet. Question: Do I go to the game and take the risk of running into him for the first time in a long time, or do I avoid the ice rink tomorrow completely? I think I may go because he may actually not even be there, it's just the rumor that he may be there. I'll let you know what I end up doing.
Karen, I am really sorry about your back. Believe me, I wish I could come back right now! The sports therapy people though really are not that scary and are trained to help you. Hope it feels better soon mate!
Well, it is almost 11pm my time which is almost 5am England time. My system is still a little on the confused side still, but this is the latest I have been up since I have gotten back to Canada, so I must be starting to adjust to things. However, I am feeling pretty nackered right now, so I think my bed is calling me pretty soon. Hope everyone has a great weekend and for the England people, I hope you have a great Mother's Day. North America's mother's day isn't until May. Lots of love to all!

The O.C.

I got to watch The O.C. this evening for the first time since i've left. The second series has gone downhill a little bit, but it is still very entertaining. I'm catching up on past episodes which is a good thing because new episodes start again next week.
I took my sister to the airport this afternoon. It was the first time I had driven in a really long time, but it of course came all back to me in an instant. I got to drive my parents car (which i really enjoy driving) because my car is out of commission for the time being with what apparently is a flat tyre due to a nail puncture.........the question is though: it hasn't been driven in almost 6 months. How did it incure a nail??? Oh well, thankfully I don't have to be the one to fix it or pay for it!
Today, four Mounties were killed when they went to bust up an in- house growing operation of marajuana. This sort of stuff usually happens in the United States more than it does in Canada. Why are some people so stupid and just have no respect at all for human life? Lord, please be with the families as they go through the grieving process.
To those who went top golfing last night, I hope you had a great time. To those who happened to be in Tim's car, I am very glad that you are all safe and sound after what possibly could have been a not very good outcome!
Have a great evening people.

HELP

Lord, when someone doubts who you are, please give me guidance as to how to answer their questions and deal with their anger. Help my heart not to break when I hear that they no longer believe in the value of prayer as a means of help. Help me to still love them and to not vent my anger and dissapointment at them on to them. Please protect me from their doubts being projected onto me. Lord, how do i deal with the fact that they think what I say is a load of crap. How do I show that they are still so very important and are missed when they aren't around. Just help me Lord. Thank you that you are amazing and are still very much at work in this world today as you were 2000 years ago.

Tea not up to Code

I have had a few cups of tea since I've been back in Canada and it is not nearly up to the standards that the british have in place for their cups of tea! I am very happy that I packed the tea that I had leftover from my flat. My parents are a little surprised with the amount of tea I now consume! As long as I stay away from the fruit tea, all shall be ok.
Being back in the town of the infamous Bridalquest has been an experience already. I have had a few looks from students I haven't seen before and just the raised eyebrow is enough to send me running in the opposite direction. However, seeing people I haven't seen in a long time has been good and telling them about how much I love the people and Luton has been great. Because of Canada's lack of history, people absolutely love seeing the pictures of St. Mary's and finding out how old it is. It's been a kick telling them that it is over 850 years old!
Well, I think I need to get back to the reorganisation of my room. I'm going to be looking at some paint chips....the mint green walls need to go! Lots of love to all!