A dogs life

Our next door neighbors have a dog. I'll let you happily contemplate that for a little while before I go on to explain what that means...

Today, I am writing a paper on ethics and legal implications of nursing...blah blah blah...to inspire myself I made the hugest bowl of guacamole ever...I got about 8 pages written and am now a bit unsure of how to wrap it all up...and the guacamole has disappeared! in my belly!

Back to the dog, it has the potential to be a great neighbor, it's a little short haired dog, unfortunately it has the voice of thunder. It only knows how to bark, I feel like it doesn't lack doggie communication skills however, there are no other dogs around...just people, so if it really wants to communicate that bad...learn to talk already. The other awkward reality is that the owners gave it a Portuguese name that I forgot and couldn't really pronounce in the first place...so now I can''t get it to shut up whenever it sees me...I don't know Portuguese or dog, and it refuses to shut up and let me teach it English...I say "nice puppy" in soothing tones and it just doesn't get it...so yeah, everytime I walk outside and he sees me, "BARK, BARK, BARK, BArk, BARK, BARK,..."

What does that mean, already?!?

Right now I am sitting at the dining room table, working diligently on my paper, the window is open and all I can hear is, "BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!"

Seriously?!

which ultimately inspired this post...my neighbor, the Portuguese dog who cannot be named...

Prayers

I went to South Africa two summers ago and had the chance to work with a wonderful catholic family housing, adopting and caring for little children. This family has grown through it's ministry to abandoned children by adopting all those kids who haven't been found homes by the time they grow out of the nursery (age 5-6ish) over the years. One of those boys had a horrific accident about a week ago. Because it's winter in South Africa right now, and they don't insulate their houses, space heaters are valued commodities. I used a space heater when i was there two years ago, it was amazing...T's space heater blew up last week, while he was sleeping, he had it close to his face and has suffered severe burns to his face and into his lungs...he is on a respirator, in the hospital and really not doing very well. Please pray for this boy, he is one of the first to be adopted by the family and has grown to be quite the spokesperson for abandoned children...he is only in his teens...before he came to this family he was tied up like a dog and ate scraps the pet left. I just got a facebook message from his mum and she hasn't been sleeping since this happened. Also, because there are 22 kids in this family she can't be at the hospital with him all the time. So please pray for T and his family...

in the year of the goat

apparently my last post gave others a chuckle, they found it a humorous addition to this website and wrote me about "what a good laugh" they got out of it...in fact, I was actually going for touching to the point of tugging at my heartstrings vibe, possibly even a tear...fail.

so before I continue with this post I thought I should say, this one is supposed to be funny...who knows maybe this one will actually make you cry though...

I went to the anniversary. I rode with some of my cousins I haven't seen much since moving to the city so we caught up on life and school...then we got to the place and I immediately found my Aunt Agatha who had agreed on short short notice to play for me...she brought two hymnals and then we decided to practise it a few times through...went well...and then we sat down for dinner...
all through dinner I kept wondering, when am I on?
had the salad and waited for my name to get called...
found a washroom and waited in the stall...
had the meal
had dessert...
went to the washroom again...still waiting
started thinking, maybe I wasn't going to have to sing after all...
and then the program started.
"Please let me not be first..." I kept hoping...
and then a few sings were sung, and Bri played the piano, and then Wendy played a duet with her...a few more things happened I feel like...
then I started thinking, "please don't let me be last!"
kinda freaking out alittle at this point, supper not sitting so well, getting a queasy sort of feeling in my stomach...I hate it when people talk about being nervous and say they have butterflies in their stomach; I don't get it, why butterflies? Butterflies are pretty, they fly so they are light, and they are just nothing remotely close to how I feel when I am nervous. If I had butterflies in my stomach i would be happy, what I have is a walrus barking when i am nervous...walruses are definately more nerve wracking than butterflies in my opinion...
so there I was, waiting with wally inside me...
and then it was my turn.
I had originally thoguht I would try and talk abit, and explain that this song was picked out by the Cornie Enns family...but wally wouldn't budge...
so i just opened that hymnal and waited for the music to start...
then it happened...the goat.
there are timse when one discovers much to their complete amazement...vibrato.
it's astounding really, where once you thought you had a clear voice and even tone, now comes out the mother of all vibrato's...
I kept thinking, "Is that my voice?"
only to answer myself with the echo of my own voice, the sound carried really well, unfortunately it was the sound of a goat like baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa; it was like a sonic boom on crack...
by the third verse I was evening out a bit, but by now I had carried the shakes from my voice to my legs, when i sat down it was in my hands...I two handed the water glass in order to get some into my mouth...
everybody was super nice, and it was mostly family or people I would never see again so i wasn't even as nervous as I can get...

my favorites of the evening, that aunt agatha played for me...so great, then the next was uncle Johns opening joke..."this is better than buy one get one free"...i almost laughed out loud-which would have been another public humilation as you all know...then Luke and Bri really did make me laugh out loud...oh and...

jack, get your own table:)

the story I find myself in

today I am going to sing at a gathering of some of my favorite people here in Winnipeg...My Aunt Nettie and Uncle Peter are having their 40th wedding anniversary and i am singing...I am freaking out I am freaking out...that more what i feel like saying but at this point the calm before the performance has set in. This whole week I have been wondering how I would do...this whole week has been obsessed with something I haven't even done yet...and now that the inevitable has arrived an eerie quiet settles over my busy thoughts. A miracle didn't happen, my sisters didn't get to Winnipeg to help me out, or simply take over...my grandpa didn't forgot and got back to me with a hymn he recommended (a family effort with my auntie Carol and Kath involved too)...I even practised (which I don't normally do since I somehow still believe that practising somehow makes singing more of a performance art and less an act of love) somehow from growing up experiences and my own awkward interpretation of everything; singing in public has always been this way...a form of appreciation that I know falls short of perfection every time but sing I must...over and over again...back in my heyday (I didn't actually really have one) when I was in choirs and singing more regularly I found it easier simply because I was numb to it after doing it so much...however usually before a performance I remember back when I was 11 I was so nervous I was praying that God would break my legs so I wouldn't have to sing at the Christmas pageant at the Hazlett's...I prayed the week before, the day before, the day of...but somehow I ended up standing beside Nathan, James and Ste and singing "Go tell it on the mountain" while one of the little kids found a tambourine to bang and completely mess up the rhythm, to make it even worse James who normally carried the boys section decided he wouldn't sing, so it was me...and the background vocals singing off key, out of rhythm in front of this boy I had a huge crush on and whose school I would be going to the next year...I wanted to disappear into the floor. Somehow I survived it and moved on to sing again in public...every now and then when I get really unnecessarily worried over something I remember that experience and remind myself that I should be worried...really worried...growing older has helped a bit, I started to help God out in giving him plans of how to break my legs or intervene in the situation to make it 'go away' instead of just asking for him to miraculously break my legs...cause that's a bit unrealistic...one time i backed out last minute and made my sis sing alone....accapella...I am a horrible person...but she made me cry she sang so well....anyway...that was my week...now I feel like a rusty old kettle getting ready to sing He leadeth me...He leadeth me right here...Oh blessed thought...Oh words with heavenly comfort fraught...I kept telling him its' the earthly comfort i need but by His hand, He takes me and grabs it, He won't let go, He drags me and I am forced to follow...He leadeth me...