Tourist in Your Own Town

Greetings,

Well I didn't manage to ward off a cold right after midterms. I just get so run down staying up late and studying that I usually catch a cold. I had a sore throat the whole time that my grandma and Rissy were here and now I have a runny nose, but it's not so bad. I have a little time to recuperate before class starts again. Man, this break has been so nice. It has been awesome not having to go to class and get up early. I don't want Monday to come.

I am pretty tuckered out from all the things that I did with Leia, my grandma and my cousin. We did pretty much all the touristy things in Victoria, went shopping, ate out, and just hung out. It was really a great time. Rissy used my camera the whole time so I have tons of pictures. I think that they had a good time too.

Now back to the grind. My parents are coming to visit next weekend which will be nice too. I won't be making it back for Easter as it's too expensive to fly. But as of late I have been planning to go back to Stettler for the month of May. I think that I am taking a class out at the Bamfield Marine Science Centre from June 9-July 18. I am pumped and a little unsure at the same time. The course is : Biology of Marine Mammals, which is exactly what I've always wanted to do and learn about, but I am a bit unsure off a new place and a bunch of things. It's only 6 weeks though and everyone that has been out there always says that it's a great time.

So I guess this is going to be a short one. I hope to sometime come up with something more interesting to put on this blog, but for now these updates will have to do. Later days!

A not so quick update

Greetings,
I was going to say that this was going to be a quick update, but knowing how much I talk, it most likely won't be a quick one.

Where to start? Well the chocolate buffet thing was really good. My roommates and I really bonded and got to know each other. We talked a lot about how strange our landlords are and different things that bother us. It was good to see that it wasn't just me that was getting annoyed. However, sometime when I have a spare moment I will attempt to explain how they brush their teeth (all from a sound persepective, since I haven't actually seen it). Some other time though, remind me. It'll give you a good laugh I'm sure.

Anyhow, this week has been packed full of midterms and assignments. I got a lot done on the weekend so that I could just study. However I underestimated the amount of material we covered in class. I finished them off today and they went really well. So that last few weeks I have just been cooped up in my room doing school work. This weekend I did get together with Leia's friend Cassie Penner who is going to school here. It was good just to talk to her. A prayer request for her would be for her surgery that she is getting during reading break on her ankle. She is hoping to play bball again next year.

This weekend and next week are looking to be a whole lot more exciting. Tonight I am going up to Nanaimo with Jess to watch CBC play Malaspina. Then tomorrow I am watching them play Camosun here in Victoria. I am excited to see my friends again and watch some basketball. Then on Monday my grandma and Rissy are coming to visit. I have a whole list of things that we can do and places to see, so it will be action packed and extremely fun.

My Lent "covenants" I guess you could say are going well. Not eating after supper was hard while I was studying, but I managed to not eat anything. Hard to do, but a good habit to get into. My 40 minutes of prayer have been hard too, but super rewarding. It's fun to try and find new ways to pray and things to pray about. Last night was a hardcore 40 minutes of praise on God's love, fitting for Valentine's day. Other days I pray through the "photos of the day" on the National Post website. Most of them include depression, sin, death, and many evils of the world. There are also pictures that express God's creation and creativity. It has just been such an awesome experience. I have never felt closer in my walk with God than I do right now. It's like I am fully aware of His presence every minute of everyday no matter what I'm doing.

I feel close to God yet my relationships with people need some work. So if you would like to pray for that, just patience in dealing with people, and me not judging them based on trivial things, and just genuine love from God. I am constantly working on that and have already seen growth.

My knee is doing great. I mean I still can't run but I have slowed down a bit and stop when there is pain. I have been getting stronger and so my knee also feels stronger.

There you have it, folks. An update of parts of my life. I hope to post a lot more frequently now that my work load has dissipated a bit. So until then, later days!

Two Totally Different Topics

Greetings,

First off lets discuss the Superbowl on Sunday. Boo Giants. I mean they played a good game but I still didn't want them to win. Their defense won that game for them. The whole game was a defensive battle, like none ever seen before. I was super impressed with the Giants defense in shutting Tom Brady down. I think that they may have been getting to his head, not just his body to sack him. So I really don't think that Eli Manning deserved the MVP award. Sure he threw for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter but he didn't do anything more spectacular than any other player and they sure didn't win because of that. All the credit should go to the defense that held the Pats to only 14 points, who averaged over 30 in the regular season. Someone more important like Michael Strahan should have won it.

The Pat's didn't play like they wanted it either. Sure their defense was amazing too , but what was with their offensive line? Why didn't they adjust in the second half to put a stop to the great defense of the Giants? They lost the game for the Pats. I mean it's a team game, but Brady was doing the best with what they were giving him. If his O line would have pulled it up a little bit he would have had more time to perform.

It's over now and I'm sure that we are going to hear about it for a long time. I just wanted to state my opinion that the MVP went to the wrong person. "Offense wins games, but Defense wins Championships."

Onto another topic: Lent. I haven't ever really gave up anything for Lent before but I feel like I should this year. so i have decided that I am going to post it on here so that I will that someone is expecting me to keep it up and not break it. I am not going to fast, as you all know how much I like my food, that wouldn't be a good idea. PLus we are going to the chocolate dessert buffet at the Empress on Friday. So I am:
(1) not going to snack or eat after supper (it seems like a simple thing that I should be doing anyway, but maybe with a forceful approach I will stop. It's hard when I'm studying so it should be good to give up.)

I don't really watch tv lots or anything, and I use the internet for school so I can't give it up, plus i have to keep in contact with people. So the other thing that I am going to do is not so much give up something but do something extra for the forty days of Lent. It was Leia's idea for it:
(2) to pray for 40 minutes a day. Another thing that I should already be doing, but it will be so good to just make a habit of praying for 40 minutes. I am positive that I won't run out of things to pray for.

While we are on this topic, there are a couple of things that I wouldn't mind some prayer for.
- my pastor's wife's mom has cancer and shingles and is in chemo again
- a girl on my bball team last year, Chelsea, just tore her MCL in both knees, her ACL in her good one and has cartilage damage in the bad one. I don't think that I could handle that. Plus she was playing bball at UCFV, she was that good.
- school for me. I am super stressed with midterms and all the work to do. I really just need to have some time to be social and relax a bit.

Those are the main things. Thanks to all the people who are constantly remembering me in prayer. I really appreciate it. I find it hard to ask for prayer sometimes, it's a humility thing I think. Now that I have just laid that all out for you on these two totally different topics I will go and stop procrastinating studying for my chem quiz that isn't going to go that well tomorrow. Later days!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Greetings,

A lot has happened since I last updated this thing for real. Last week's blog was just some contemplative thoughts. I went over the mainland again last weekend to take in some CBC basketball and chat it up with my old roomies, Serena and other CBC friends. I had a great time. The basketball games were pretty fun to watch, I ended up getting 2nd in bump too. We mostly just hung out and talked and played some Skip-bo and that's about it. It was fun and relaxing. Oh yeah, that was on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday I had a mini field trip boat cruise with my biological oceanography class. There only ended up being 3 people that day as you could pick any day to go from Mon. to Sat. Well anyways I was the chief scientist because no one else wanted to so I directed my crew, told the captain when to lower the Niskan bottles and what order we were going to test things in. It was all really fun. Hopefully I will be posting some of those pictures on here. We had a great warm sunny day which made it even better.

This is the zooplankton net where we catch krill and other very small marine organisms.

Above are the Niskan bottles that we drop down at certain depths to capture water from those depths to measure the nitrogen, chlorophyll, phosphate, etc.

My TA's looking at the CTD instrument.

This last week has been a bit stressful though just because I am in class until 5:30 everyday and when I get home I just don't feel like doing any work. I had 2 midterms and a small paper due so I was really busy. Two weeks from now is packed with due dates of assignments and midterms so if you want to keep me in prayer that would be super helpful.

This weekend was awesome. Leia came on the ferry on Friday for my birthday!! We went down to the ocean and turned over rocks and I wowed her with my knowledge of intertidal sea creatures. It was fun and we got some really good pictures. You should see Leia's though, she was doing most of the photography while I did the brunt work of turning over the rocks and picking up the crabs. I love the ocean! We went out to the Macaroni Grill (kind of like Olive Garden) for supper with my friend Jess. Then we went to the movie "27 Dresses" which was really good and funny. After that we had some ice cream cake decorated with a football. Today Leia and I slept in, well not really for me, although 8 is pretty late, haha. Then we made crepes with stawberry filling and whip cream. So good. We went to Walmart, up Mount Doug and played lots of games. So it was a great birthday weekend!

Pretty much all of my weekends in Feb. are booked up which excites me. This next weekend my roommates and I are going to the Chocolate Buffet at the Empress for mine and Sarah's joint birthday. The next weekend CBC is here for some bball games and then my grandma and Rissy come during my reading break. Then the weekend after that my mom and dad are coming up for a visit. This semester is going well and I am keeping busy. I am planning on coming home for Easter which is pumping me up just thinking about it.

Well that's about all that's new with me. I am going to spend my Sat. night tonight catching up on my homework since I am planning on watching the Super Bowl tomorrow. I am really rooting for the Patriots to win. They deserve it. I think that it will be a good game as the Giants do have a shot at winning. It might just be me, Jess, and the popcorn bowl, but that's fine with me. Hope you can all watch it as it might be a historical game with the Patriots going undefeated for the whole season. Go Pats!

Later days,
Candice