I LOVE NY!!!

I am happy to report that my life has been getting somewhat interesting and I have more to report today than I have the past couple of weeks. Well I went to New Jersey last Saturday for a job interview at Six Flags Great Adventure Park in Jackson. The interview and swim test was on Sunday morning. The swim test went sososososo well. I don't even remember being out of breath or tired. It was so cold that I just wanted to get moving and show them what I could do. 2 people failed the test and so 6 went on to interviews, one of them being me!!! I had practiced a lot of interview questions in preparation for it, but they turned out to be way easier than I thought. I was very comfortable with them and not really all that nervous so I think that I did a great job.

I think that it helped having the trainer pick me up from the airport and stay at her house so that I got extra chances to talk to them about my background and even about their career path. It was great! So there were 4 days of interviews with about 10 people each day. So about 40 people were applying for 2 positions. However this gets whittled down really fast because my week, 3 people cancelled and then 2 people failed so only 6 had interviews. I heard too from the trainer that our day had way stronger swimmers than the first day, a couple days before. The rest of the interviews happened yesterday and today and so I will find out tomorrow if I got the job or not. I wish that I didin't have to work so that I could sit by the phone to hear.

After the interviews were over I got a ride to the train station to catch a train to Penn Station in New York. That night I checked into my hotel, visited Grand Central Station, ate some NY cheesecake, and walked around Times Square (which I loved!!!!!) Oh man, I walked everywhere. Manhattan is only 2 miles wide (12 blocks numbered first to 12th ave) and 12 miles long (numbered from 1st street to 50th I think). Monday I got up early to take a hopon hopoff bus tour through Harlem, past Central Park, and all these famous places you see on the movies. It was so cold though (about 0C) because the bus didn't have a roof so I froze.

Next I took a bus on the downtown loop past Times Square, Macy's, Madison Square Gardens and got off at Battery Park. I got on the harbor cruise water taxi that took us out on the water past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I then took the bus back uptown past the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center over to Madison again. There I shopped a bit, ate a hot dog at a hot dog stand and waited for the Knicks game to start! That was awesome. It was Legends night so Patrick Ewing was honored along with a number of other famous Knicks players. The Knicks lost to Orlando by 3 points, a nail biter in the end. Dwight Howard for the Magic was amazing to watch. Scored 35 points or so too. Unstoppable!

After the game I went up the Empire State Building and saw the city at night. It was beautiful! I then spent more time in Times Square wandering around, shopping, eating and staring at the lights. It's so bright! Tuesday I went to the Rockefeller center and went up to the Top of the Rock to see the city during the day. The view was way better because you could see all of Central Park, the Empire State building and all the way past the Statue of Liberty. All the colors of the buildings were pretty fantastic too. I then went on the Brooklyn tour which was alright, but not super great. I had to catch my plane at 3 so I took the train to the airport and was on my way home.

I want to thank everyone that prayed for me. I have never felt more covered in prayer or felt the presence of God so close to me as I did during my interview. I felt so confident and was at peace with what I said and did. He definitely gave me the words to say and the conviction behind it to demonstrate that I wanted this job. I would love continued prayer for the right decision to be made tomorrow and that if I do get it that I will be able to get all my stuff together to move down quite quickly. The park opens on Saturday April 4th so I will have to be there right away.

I will definitely post my pictures soon enough because words cannot describe all the things that I saw. I would suggest that if you ever go to New York that you spend more than 2 days because there is way too much to see. I would have loved to have some more hot dogs, walk in Central Park, do a bunch of clothes shopping, visit the little restaurants and shops on Canal Street and Little Italy. And it really is the city that never sleeps. Talk about less than 4 hours a night each night just because of the adrenaline and seeing so much. Oh and I loved the taxis. Hailing a cab was one of the best things that I did. Cheap too, only like 5 bucks a ride, just because everything is so close.

Well I would love to show you all my pictures if anyone wants. You know where to find me. And I will be posting and letting you all know tomorrow or Tuesday if I got the job or not. You know, even if I don't get it I know that God was right there with me and I have no regrets about what I should have said or did. He knows where I am supposed to be right now and am confident that I am listening to His leading about following his direction. Later days!

NY here I come!

Well folks, since I saw my mom looking at my blog today to see if I had updated it, I decided that I should give a little shout out to my loyal fans. The last week has been way less than entertaining. I have spent the majority of the time on the computer researching visa information and booking everything for my trip to New York. I am getting so excited. I found an awesome seat sale and am flying to Newark, NJ on the 21st of March. My swim test and interview are on the Sunday at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. On Sunday I am heading back to New York and spending Monday and Tuesday seeing the sights before flying home. The best thing is that on Monday night I am going to a Knicks game at Madison Square Gardens!! I am stoked for that. I wish football season was still on, but I will settle with basketball.

I have been praying like crazy for this job opportunity, not only for the job to present itself and for them to contact me back, but for all the visa information and other things to come together for me. I would love prayer for safety in traveling, strength during my swim test and mostly for confidence and words to say in my interview. I am really nervous about it after bombing my West Edmonton Mall one a month ago. So I have been practicing interview questions today and getting ready for my mom and maybe my friends to ask me questions to prepare me.

I am thankful that I have been working at Tim Horton's all this time because it has given me valuable work experience where I have coworkers and have to punch in and out like a real job. The time spent here in Stettler has not gone to waste. I have been feeling quite lonely lately. I miss Leia and Serena. I like hanging out with Kim and Esther, but we have such different schedules so it doesn't always work. But Leia is coming home this weekend!! It's only for a short period of time but I will take it over nothing.

I am super pumped that the Dallas Cowboys got rid of Pacman Jones and TO. Yay! We might have a shot this year! I haven't been into March Madness this year surprisingly but it's hard when I don't have sole possession of the remote control or anyone around me that is just obsessed with it. Instead I just read a lot and the only show that I just love is the Biggest Loser. Every week I have to watch it. It's so good.

Well like always I hope to find something more interesting to post about in the near future. If I don't get around to it before next Saturday I will be posting my NY pictures when I get back! Later days!!

My life in the times of February

Greetings! It's been almost a month since I wrote a blog that actually updated my life rather than providing mouth water recipes or videos. I have got to hang out with Kim a lot. We were good friends in high school and now she is living in Stettler doing her teaching practicum at the Erskine School. Church has also been really great. I miss a college and career group like Adore but going to church every Sunday is definitely a highlight of the week.

I went to Missionsfest last weekend and it was so awesome!! I went to a couple seminars on prayer, a mission called Lifeline Malawi and one on Muslim evangelism. The assemblies were great and all the speakers really hit home. They had a huge hall filled with exhibits of different missions groups, bible colleges and other Christian organizations. It was great to get information for all sorts of things. I went out for supper with my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was so great to see them again!

The past little while I have been doing nothing other than reading, sleeping, eating, working out, working and the most time consuming thing of all . . . phoning places and internet browsing information about getting a US working visa. I have an interview and swim test at Six Flags in New Jersey in a couple weeks. They seem very interested in having me work there but I am struggling to figure out the visa situation. After many phone calls to Texas, New Jersey, Washington, etc (that will be one expensive phone bill) I have come up with some helpful information. I need to do a bit more research on Monday, get the time booked off of work, and then book the flight. I am super excited. This past week while swimming I was really scared that I would fail the swim test as you have to swim 80 feet or 1 length of the pool underwater. I practiced that night and yesterday and was able to do it 3 times (not in a row of course). So I am confident that I will do well.

I would love prayer for doors to open for me to get a Visa, for everything to work out and for me to have patience to wait. I am praying that if all the doors open and God leads me this way, that I will do it. If doors close and the opportunities fail, I have a couple other plans for the summer and the future which I am not going to disclose now because who knows what will happen. Each day the plan changes and I become interested in something else.

I love the sun here in Alberta. I don't miss all the overcast days and fear of rain in BC. I do miss the ocean and the mountains and all the greenery though. I am going to visit on Easter weekend. Serena and Leia are both excited for that. Me too. I don't have to work then.

I am not going to complain about Tim Horton's on here again. It's a paycheque. That's all I am going to say. Things need to change in the near future because I would rather be living somewhere else and doing a job that I love. We'll see. All in God's timing. He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Well, I am off to church again without my family as my parents are both having separate holidays in Florida and I don't know what Brianne is doing. Pray for her too please. Gotta work tonight but I get Tuesday off and I can't wait! Oh and if you want to see a good movie, sure it's a chick flick but it's pretty funny, go see "New in Town" with Harry Connick Jr. and Renee Zellwegger. I really liked it. I went to see that on Friday when I went to Red Deer. The main purpose of the trip though was to spend an hour at Parables, use my birthday gift certificate, and then go to Costco for their hotdog and fries. It was so satisfying.

I hope that was a good enough update for you. I like blogging random things and then the occasional update for you so expect a whole bunch of crazy blogs. Later days!!!