Grace as it Comes

My Miracle

2008-04-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

As many of you may know I went through the adventure of a lifetime last night. I will go on to explain in as much detail as I can remember exactly what happened.

Last night, April 25, I went to a Starfield concert with 3 of my friends, Cassie D., Jenna Matson, and Stephanie Pink for my birthday. When we arrived there we were at the end of the line with around 500 people in front of us. We weren't too happy that we were so far back so I came up with the idea that we should go searching through the line for someone, anyone, that either of us knew. I found an acquaintance of mine who is pretty nice and let us in line with him. There were around 50 people in front of him. When we got into the church my 3 friends and I got a 3rd row seat on the very left hand side (when looking at the stage). We were so excited for the night to begin!

Bethany Dillon came on stage first and sang around 3 songs (one of which touched me - Beautiful). After she did her thing Shane & Shane came on to do theirs. They also were very good when they sang their 3 or 4 songs. When they were done we had a speaker come up on stage, David Nasser. I thought I was paying attention to what he was saying but right now I can't really recall it so I might have been to excited to process it! I do remember, however, that at the end of his talk we all were given a World Vision child to pray over. Then he gave us the option of sponsoring that child. The four of us had decided that we would sponsor two together. We were then given a 10 minute break to go do what ever we needed to do while Starfield set up. My friends and I went to the World Vision table that was set up to hand in the kids we weren’t going to sponsor and hand in the form of the ones we were. We stood in line for around 5 minutes when we decided that we were never going to make it too the table because everyone kept butting in front of us. So we went back to our seats and figured that we would do that at the end of the night.

The crowd had started forming in front of the stage so we made the decision to go join them. Stephanie is in utter love with Starfield so naturally she wanted to get closer to the stage. At every chance we got, we inched forward. We had settled on being in the middle of the crowd, closer to the front than the back. Then Starfield came on stage. The first song they sang was Hosanna (I will post the lyrics at the end). One of my favorite songs on their new CD (I Will Go). Then they started to sing the next song. From The Corners Of The Earth. They sang the first verse. Then they started to sing the chorus. And we all started to jump. And the ground started to bounce. That's when my mind shut off. I knew that we were about to fall through. I could feel it inside and out.

The Holy Spirit just totally over took me and I started to pray. I don't know exactly what I all prayed, I know I prayed for protection, for peace. That's when we started to fall. I don't remember what happened, only that we fell. I remember the feeling; like I was being let down gracefully. Like I was falling through time. It was the longest moment of my life and I don't think that will ever change. When we landed and I finally realized what happened I started saying not only to myself but everyone around me to just stay calm. Kept repeating that over and over again. I couldn't feel that anything was broken. All I could hear was the screaming of the people around me and the water that was pouring down on top of us. I started to look for Cassie, who was right beside me but lying the other way. She had the most horrified look on her face I can't even describe it. I heard her say "My leg! My leg!" When I looked down at her leg all I could see was her knee, the rest was hidden by 3 guys that had landed on top of her. I helped pull her out and over to a matt that was lying a few feet from the rubbage. Then I saw Jenna sitting right by Cassie with a look of disbelief on her face yelling "Where's Stephanie?!" Seeming to be the only one who wasn't injured I made sure people were with my 2 friends when I went to go look for Stephanie. There were a few people still stuck in the pouring water and rubbage. I saw a few people pulling out an unconscious girl with long brown hair. Stephanie has long brown hair. I couldn't see the face of this girl and There were many people looking after her that I thought I'd be of better use with Jenna and Cassie. Some people had taken it upon themselves to carry Cassie out of the way so I put myself in charge of Jenna. I got someone to help me get her up the stairs where we sat her down on a bench inside the lobby. Within 30 seconds we had people, many with first aid and one doctor that lived somewhere near by, come up to us and ask what hurt and if we were okay. I stayed with Jenna who was mumbling about her leg hurting and where was Stephanie? I felt my pockets for my cell phone and when I found it I called Stephanie hoping that she had it on her and didn't leave it in her bag. She didn't answer. That's when I really started to get worried. I focused my attention back on Jenna and answered some questions. My phone started to ring and I saw that it was Stephanie. "Stephanie!??!!" I asked her if she was okay, where she was. She said she was outside. I told her where I was and waited for her to come find us. She called me again and said that she had found Cassie and I told her to stay with her. When I was sitting there with Jenna I looked over and saw my cousin Chris standing by a doorway. I got up to talk to him, just to inform him of what happened and went back to Jenna. A firefighter finally came to us and started to help her. That's when I was guided outside because having me and others that weren't injured inside made it difficult to deal with those who were.

When I went outside I had no idea what I was going to do because as far as I knew Cassie was still at the bottom of the stairs. Thanks to God, she had been transported outside and was just feet from the door that I exited. Stephanie saw me and immediately ran up to me and gave me a hug. We went over to Cassie, who was hooked up to an oxygen tank and covered in blankets. Her face had calmed down since I saw her last and that made me feel calmer. I started talking to Stephanie about what I don't remember. We called Cassie's dad and informed him of what was going on. Then I called my mom and had apparently started with the worst sentence a child could ever say to their mother; "Mom, don't panic." I went on from there to explain what happened and the whole time she wasn't saying anything. When I finished she spoke and hearing her voice somehow took away all my fear. She called Stephanie's parents for her as Stephanie knew that if she would have heard it from her they would have been more scared. Cassie was soon put onto a stretcher and we were told that she was going to be taken to Langley Memorial Hospital. Relieved that she was going to a hospital close to home Stephanie and I turned our attention to finding Jenna.

We stood at one door for a while, waiting to see if she was still in there. Then we were told to leave that door free so we went 5 feet down to the next door and stood there waiting. Stephanie had meanwhile gotten a call from her parents who were on their way to come get us. They were pulling people out on stretchers and I made sure to look at every one of them. I didn't see any of their faces but I did see things that told me they weren't Jenna. A neck brace, blood etc. Then I saw a stretcher being put into an ambulance. All I could see of the person was their feet. Those were Jenna's feet. How I knew that I'm not quite sure. We ran over to her just in time to hear them say she was going to Chiliwack Hospital. Then I heard her soft voice say "Phone my Dad!"

Stranded Stephanie and I decided to go to my cousins Julene and Chris' house which was literally just behind the church. Being the amazing people that they are they let us interrupt their evening. We waited there for Stephanie's mom and dad to come. Thank you Julene and Chris for making us warm! Stephanie's parents soon showed up and together with my cousins we watched the 11 o'clock news. Sure enough the event was on it. After that we figured we should go to the Langley hospital to see how Cassie was doing. We got to the hospital around 11:45 and found 3 more of our friends waiting there to see Cassie (most had called me, I told them where she was). We weren't aloud to visit her until she had a room. At the moment she was just on a bed in the hall way. Her boyfriend and parents came out to the waiting room and said that "She's just through that door." So we all broke the rules and went through the door and down the hallway to where she was. From the look on her face I could tell that she had completely calmed down. She had gotten some X-rays but the doctor hadn't talked to her yet. My mom was wanting me home and Stephanie's parents also wanted to leave. So they brought me home.

Sleeping was rather difficult as I woke up almost every hour not really knowing what was going on. I woke up at this morning at 8:30 with a what I think is a bruised muscle in my right shoulder. Other than that and a bruise on my other arm and the expected aches I'm totally fine. God protected me and my 3 friends last night. I have never in my life felt closer to Him. I only have a bruised shoulder, Stephanie has a bruise on her leg and a scratch on her hand, Jenna has a torn or stretched muscle in her right thigh, and Cassie may have a fracture in her left leg. That fact right there is my miracle from God. I cannot describe how I feel right at this very moment. Just that I am eternally grateful, and I will forever more declare Him as King.

"Hosanna" Starfield

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

[Chorus]
Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest x2

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on our knees

[Chorus]

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity

[Chorus] x2

Hosanna in the highest!

"From the Corners of the Earth" Starfield
(what we heard of it)

From the Corners of the Earth
From every nation, God is calling out His own
A saved generation, that will not be overthrown
And we’re not backing down, no way
We’re finally seeing it clearly
One body, one church one savior,
One call to praise

Chorus: Hey, from the corners of the earth
We will sing of your great worth
And around the world proclaim
Our God Reigns!

2007-12-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

Title: Joy

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Year: December 2007

Medium: Acrylic

Title: Love

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Year: December 2007
Meduim: Acrylic

Title: Peace

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Year: December 2007

Medium: Acrylic

Hatzic Lake

2007-10-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday my Dad, sister and I went to our cabin to do some clean-up before the winter. We have an apple tree there so one of the jobs was to clean up all the rotten apples on the ground. Larissa and I started to clean those up (by clean I mean take a rake and fling them towards the tree) while my dad pulled out the lawn mower. I threw maybe 10 apple when my sister said that there was a bee that was drunk on apple juice. I ran to the truck and got out my camera and from then on out I was the photographer for the day! Here's a few pictures:

Notice the bee on the left in the grass. He's drunk.

Larissa having fun flinging the apples.

Dad mowing the lawn.

We had quite a few mushrooms there this year.

This apple was massive. My hand was stretched when I was holding it. And for such a big apple, it had a lot of taste. So good!

This is the party apple. 10 bees and a fly.

This is just a cool picture.

After the apples we moved on to collecting nuts.

She's so beautiful!

She's also beautiful! Haha. This is my dream car and we just so happend to be driving by it on our way out.

Nathan & Katie Thiessen

2007-08-11T18:58:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, August 4th, my oldest and last brother got married. Having an interest in photography Nathan and Katie decided to make me their candid photographer. I had so much fun taking pictures the whole day, even though it did mean getting up at 5:15. I took way too many photos to post them all but here's a few of my favorites:

Getting ready in the morning: Monica, one of Katie's bridesmaids.

The final product.

The bridesmaid dresses were perfect for spinning: Angela, maid of honor.

Playing giddy-up with the bride while getting her dressed. She had no idea. Angela, Katie, Monica, and Kathryn.

The dress has to be perfect before any "professional" photos are aloud to be taken.

My favorite picture: Madeline, flower girl, and Katie.

Katie's first and only scared moment.

Daddy walking his little girl to her man.

Saying their vows.

I was on the other side of them with their photographer and then they decided they wanted shots from the back to they made me run, in high heels I might add, behind them to get some shots.

Another one of my favorites.

Bridal party standing around while the photographer stole the beautiful couple.

Only the cutest couple ever! Madeline and Christian, ring bearer.

Katie being her beautiful self.

Their "candid" laughing shot.

They actually wanted to hold the flowers: Jayson, best man, Tim, Nathan and Darren.

I told them to act brotherly and this is what they gave me.

The beautiful couple posing for the other photographer.

Lunch time! I think i should send this in for a coke add.

Photographer: "Show me some leg!" ... We applaud her efforts.

Awwweeee...

They're so cute!

Spinning!!

Dizzy much?

One of the benefits of being their candid photographer is that i got to be left behind by my parents and end up not having a ride back to the church. They decided they wanted to keep me so they let me in the limo.

Accessory shot.

Cutting the cake.

That's the day summed up into 27 photos. I took 773 so you can imagine how hard it was to pick only a "few". Thanks for looking guys!

Art

2007-06-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you know that I have a blog dedicated just to my artwork but I do. It has just recently been updated for any of you that would like to check out what I've been up to in the past year. www.rgthiessen.blogspot.com Enjoy!

Ashland

2007-04-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

So this past Tuesday, the 24th, a group of 40 grade 12's from my school and Brookswood went to Ashland, Oregon for a Shakespeare festival. We left the school around 5AM on Tuesday. Piled on the bus, went to sleep and then ended up at the border. When we got to the border my teacher, Mrs. Robinson, asked if anybody on the bus did not have their Canadian citizenship. One person puts up her hand and says she's a landed immigrant from Africa. The only thing is that she didn't seem to remember to bring her papers with her. So what was supposed to be a ten minute stop ended up being a 45 minute stop. When we got to Seattle we had to change bus drivers, so we did. We got this awesome bus driver named Terry. So after about 3 hours of having him drive we got pulled over on the I5 by a cop. A huge Canadian bus full of teenagers. We ended up getting a ticket for being 9 miles over speed limit. The stupid this is that there were many cars passing us. So that took around 15 minutes. Then we decided to take a break and have breakfast/lunch. We were supposed to be there for 20 minutes, however there was a Jack-in-the-Box and some of the guys went there. They ended up being there for 10 minutes longer than they should have been. Oh, did I mention that we couldn't really be wasting time? We had a play to get to that night and if we were late, we wouldn't be aloud in and we wouldn't get our money back. What was supposed to be a 12 hour drive (we were supposed to be at our hotel at 5PM) ended up being a 14 hour drive. We got to our hotel at 7PM. The play started at 8PM. We had to be back on the bus at 7:30. So we had 30 minutes to get checked into our hotel, have a shower (because 14 hours on a bus full of 40 teenagers and no AC kinda made you gross), and get dressed into something nicer. Keep in mind that there were 4 people to a room, mine had 5. We were tight for time, but we made it! That play, the first of 4 that we saw, was called "Tracy's Tiger". It was a jazzy musical/play that this group of actors wrote based on the short novella. It was really good. My second favourite play that we saw.

The next day we had a backstage tour of the three theaters that this group owned. It was really neat to see and hear how this group began and how they came to own all of these theaters. My favorite of the three was the Elizabethan Theater. It was their only outside theater and we could take as many pictures as we wanted. Unfortunately we never got to see a play in there because it was under construction. It was also the biggest of the theaters. The next biggest was called the Angus Bowmer Theater. We saw 3 of our plays in there. It's amazing how they can change the stage in there for each play. They can take away some stage, or add some. For every play we saw in there, the stage was different and you almost wouldn't be able to tell that it was the same place. The last theater, and their smallest, is the New Theater. Very small and intimate. After our tour we went to a little place, which is a lot like Fort Langley, called Jacksonville. We went there just for fun. They had a lot of cute stores and a nice little place to have lunch. They had one store that was full of all kinds of clocks and I felt like I could buy the entire store. The only problem with that was that I couldn't even afford one of the clocks. When we got back to Ashland we went shopping there. They have a lot of antique stores, book stores, shoe stores, and real estate stores. Yes, real estate. There was one on almost every block. It was insane. I went into one of the antique stores and found a pair of Oprah glasses for $20. They were so cool that I couldn't resist buying them. After shopping we went back to the hotel and had dinner. Then we went to the Angus Bowmer Theater and saw "On the Razzle". A very funny play. One of those that you laugh so hard that your face hurts after but in a month you probably wont remember. It didn't really have any plot, it was just hilarious.

On Thursday we didn't have anything planed untill12:30 so a bunch of us decided to go into town and get some more shopping done. After shopping we went to a prologue for the next play we were going to see: "Gem of the Ocean". The prologue was basically one of the actors (one that was in "On the Razzle") telling us the plot line, giving us all the character's names and a little about them. I liked this because when we saw the play we had an idea of what to expect and look out for. This play, "Gem of the Ocean", was by far my favourite play. It was set in 1904 and was about the African American people. Me having a fascination with these type of people might have been a reason as to why I liked it. But it was a very touching play and is one that I would definitely see again. I liked it so much that I bought the playwright for it. I started reading it on the bus home yesterday and it had some history of the play in it. I think that this play and I were meant to be because it premiered on April 28th. For those of you that don't know what that means, then I'm guessing you don't know me. After that play we went back to the hotel for a little down time and some dinner. Then we went back to the theaters and saw a prologue for "As You Like It". This was the only play we saw that was Shakespearean. But it wasn't a true Shakespeare play: no one died. It was more of a comedy. However, I did not like it. It was definitely one of those plays that repeated itself over and over again and I got extremely bored with it. The fact that we had already seen a play that day probably didn't help that much.

On Friday, yesterday, we left and came home. This experience is definitely one I am glad I experienced. It was so much fun and the group that I went with was perfect. They were all the artsy type and really enjoyed they plays. This actually surprised me because when I think of people going to see plays, I think of the nerdy, smart people. But these people were all the "cool" people of the school. The 2 main leads in AIDA, Shianna and Min, came and were probably the people that enjoyed it the most. They were in a play so they understand it and appreciate it but they weren't the kind of people that I expected to go to something like this. These people surprised me and I have a greater respect for all of these people now that I see who they really are. They made this experience such an amazing one and I don't think I'll ever forget it!

My two wonderful room mates: Kate and Ashley.

A glimpse of what we were surrounded with. Ashland is in a valley and is surrounded with beautiful landscape.

The Elizabethan Theater. Once again, it's under construction but is still very beautiful.

Jacksonville was filled with old buildings as was Ashland. If you like old towns and antique shops, Ashland is the place for you!

For dinner we could either go to A&W across the street from the hotel or we could go to Albertsons (a grocery store) down the street. In order to get there you had to go over the overpass. I thought it was kind of cool that I was walking over the I5.

Me using my sweet awesome Opera glasses.

On the way home we saw the most beautiful sunset ever. It was raining, the sky was pink and there was a rainbow.

Margherita del Gerbera

2007-04-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

So I was really bored this afternoon and so decided to look through one of my old albums. It had pictures in it that I had taken in Manitoba and I saw this picture and immediately thought "paint it". It's a flower from my cousin's, Heather, wedding bouquet.

Name: Margherita del Gerbera

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: acrylic

High Time...

2007-04-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

...for a new post! I've been informed my my Aunt Anneliese and her daughter (my cousin) that I should update. To tell you the truth, I didn't think that anybody ever looked here anymore. So, I never posted. But a lot has deffinatley happend since my last post. I'm just not sure that I can think of all of it.

One of the biggest things is the play at my school that I was involved in. It wasn't actually a play, a rock opera: AIDA. And for those of you that think I was in the play, think again. I was way too nervous to try out so I didn't. My friend, Jenna, and I went to Mr. Fatkin (the drama teacher at our school and the play director) and asked him if we could be stage hands. We ended up being in charge of all the props. This included things like moving massive pillars on stage, getting the big props (like a boat, dock, desks...) ready to go on stage and making sure that everybody who needed a little prop had it before they went on stage. One of my good friends, Rayel, was the stage manager and so I also had the job of running around and doing stuff for her. The main thing she got me to do was tell everybody to shut up and be quiet. Oh yeah, I also was incharge of making sure everybody who needed a mic, and their mic taped on to their face. This was fun and I learned very quickly that I had to keep this tape on my body at all times: you never know when someone's going to need some! (story about that later). So I had tones of fun doing this and I'm pretty sure that if Jenna and I had decided to not show up one night, the play would have fallen apart. So I think I had a pretty big part.

If you have no idea what AIDA is, then you're going to want to read this part. Okay so there's three main characters: Aida, the Nubian princess; Radames, captain of Egyption army; and Amneris, the Egyption princess. This can get a little bit confusing, so pay attention. Amneris is engaged to Radames, has been for 9 years. Radames' army captures Aida and some of her people (Egyptions and Nubians are not friends) and make them slaves. No one knows that Aida is a princess. After being away for a few months, Radames thinks he should give Amneris a gift. So he gives her Aida. At first Amneris doesn't want her but then figures out that Aida knows her fabrics and decides to keep her (Amneris talks about dress being her strongest suit). Radames and his army catch the Nubian king. Amneris relizes that Radames is becoming distant with her and tries to figure out why. She finds out the night before her wedding day the truth: Radames has fallen in love with Aida (still not knowing that she's a princess). Aida convinces Radames to marry Amneris because she believes there is no future for them. At their wedding, a soldier comes crashing in saying that the Nubian king (Aida's father) has escaped. The wedding is stopped and they go running after him. Amonasaro (the king) gets on a boat and yells at Aida, "Daughter! Come!". Radames comes rushing in at that second and then finds out she's the princes. She turns to get on the boat when her friend, Radames' servant, gets killed. The boat leaves without her. At the end (don't read this if you're planning on seeing the play anytime soon) Radames and Aida get put in one tomb to die together because they have betrayed the princess. While in the tomb, Radames tells Aida that he'll find her, even if it takes him 1000 lifetimes. The last scene is in present times and Radames finds Aida.

It's a really cute story. Gets kind of anoying once you've seen it 8 (more with the practices) times, but still a good story. Now for a few stories of everything that went wrong: on stage and off. The first one that pops into my mind happens to be on stage. It's a scene where Radames has just confesed his love to Aida and vise versa. He's supposed to give her his amulet so she will be protected. I guess you could say this is my fault, but the necklace was kind of put on before his mic was. So when he went to take it off, he happend to rip off his mic. It looked hillarious because he's standing there holding his mic to his mouth while Aida is telling him she loves him. I was right there when he got off stage to tape his mic back on. I felt so bad for the actor. The second this is about one of these massive pillars. There's 3 of them and we only use all 3 at the same time, once. Every other time it's only 2 being used. So it was perfect timing for this to happen but still very bad. Right after the scene where we used all three (which happens to be my favourite scene) was over, we go on stage and roll these monsters off. Well, the one my fellow stage crew was moving kinda lost a wheele on the way off stage. This wasn't anybody's fault in particular, there was just way too many wires and things on the ground that we roll the big thing over; it got loose. So the wheele fell off and the thing almost toppled over and pulled down the whole set with it. The bad thing is that this was one of the pillars that needed to be used again. There are 2 pillars that have an old side and a new side. This was one of those and we needed the old side again. The other pillar only has one side: a new side. I was so stressed that night because there were 4 other girls, all in grade 9, that were helping Jenna and I, and all of them and Jenna came to me to figure out what to do. It was all on me and we only had a few minutes to figure out what to do. There was nothing else we could do but use the 3rd pillar. So I tried to figure out a way to get it on the other side of the stage (where we needed it) and soon found out that that would be imposible to do. So I figured that I would just get someone to push it on from the wrong side, push it accross the stage when needed. The only thing is that there's no blackout when it needed to go on. So we couldn't exactly push it on ourselves because we were in black, not costume. So I was running around trying to find someone, anyone, who stood on that side of the stage in that scene. I finally did and asked them if they could do it. They said yes. I actually got low from thinking that much. I had to sit down for the rest of the play (only 2 scenes) and eat. It was so intense! There was also other things, like a soldier forgetting his shackles that he had to put on Aida in the end.

In a way I'm glad that it's over because I don't have to deal with things like that anymore. But I also really miss it. I met some great people doing this and I miss their pressence. I also miss just seeing the story. After watching it over and over for about a month you tend to get used to it. But now it's done, and that's sad. Here's some pictures from it:

The group: cast, crew and pit.

Me, Shianna (Aida), and Jenna. I became pretty good friends with Shianna. I helped her change twice durring every preformance and she made it known that I was appreciated, always gave me a huge hug after every preformance.

Rayel and myslef. She was so good to the cast, bought a flat of water everyday for them with her own money. She also made me do her dirty work and run around.

Aida, also known as Shianna. She has an amazing voice. For those of you out there that like country, you'll like her. She has a country sounding voice.

Radames, also known as Min. His voice shocked me. He has the kind of voice that surprises you every time he opens his mouth. Rayel and I melted every time!

Amneris, also known as Madison. I had no idea she could sing untill I came to a rehersal. She also has a really good voice. Just very quiet.

Just to show you that I wasn't lying about the mic falling off. As you can see, Shianna had a really hard time not laughing!

So, I think that's it for now. You guys better have enjoyed this. Took me a while to do! Just kidding! Glad to do it. Have a good weekend! Oh yeah, I'm going to Ashland, Oregon next week for a Shakspeare festival. If you could pray for a safe ride there and back and safe time there that would be great.

Grad Cruise

2006-12-21T16:10:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody. How many is everybody I have no idea. If you are still coming back to this blog, congrats to you because it has been a LONG time! I have a lot to catch up on, but I think I'll start with my grad cruise. Around a month ago I bought a ticket for the annual Grad Christmas Cruise. The date for the cruise: November 29. Little did they know what was in store for that day. A week before the cruise, on the 22nd of November, we had a huge wind storm. This storm knocked down trees all over the place putting people's power out for up to three days. That Saturday night, the 25th, it started to snow. We woke up on Sunday morning and it was still snowing. It kept snowing all throughout the day. Finally stopped sometime during Sunday night. We had around a foot of snow. So that Tuesday, the 28th, during the announcements at school, they said that the cruise had been postponed for Monday, December 11th. We're all a little disappointed but figure that it's probably for the best. So we wait anxiously that week and a half only getting more excited for this cruise. Then Monday the 11th came around. It was a little bit windy that day so we thought that they might cancel it again. When the announcements came on at school we all listened very intently. They said nothing about the cruise. A load off our shoulders! School ends, we all go home. I was at home getting ready when the power goes out. Now I'm getting annoyed because I still had to straighten my hair. So I called up one of my friends and thank God she still had power. I went to her house and we spent the next hour getting ready together. Then we get in her car and head off to the school. We got out of the car, all dulled up in our new dresses and our perfectly done makeup and head to the front of the school. Guess what the first thing we hear is: "It's cancelled." Everybody was SO angry. A bunch of us ended up going out to Boston Pizza for dinner (seeing as we had no other plans) and the night wasn't all that bad. But the fact that it was cancelled for a second time was so annoying to everybody. The worst part was that everybody had spent all that time getting ready; some people even spent a lot of money to get their hair done. So we go to school the next day and hear that they have rescheduled the cruise for Wednesday, the 13th (the next day). Wednesday comes around. The whole day everybody was so bored with the fact that it was supposed to be the cruise that night. No one was excited. The fact that it was even windier than it was on Monday didn't make it any better. The announcements came on and they assured us that it was going to happen. Still no one was excited. I think that all the excitement was used up on Monday night. Anyways. We do the whole bit again. School gets out and we go get ready. Thankfully, the power didn't go out this time. My friend picks me up and we head to the school. And guess what. IT WASN'T CANCELLED!! That was when the excitement began. So we all piled on the four busses and headed out to Vancouver. That night was so amazing. I don't know that it could have been any better than it was. We danced, we ate, we hung out with friends and we enjoyed the view of Vancouver at night. I had so much fun and am so glad that it actually happened. Just let me say that this was the first year that they have ever had to cancel it.I'd post some pictures but it's not letting me.

The kids

2006-09-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about being in Indonesia was seeing how Julene and Chris' kids are growing up. Paeton is talking so much now. The last time I saw him he was 2 months old so he wasn't saying anything! While I was there, he said his very first prayer, "Jesus...amen." It was so cute! Tehya is growing up so fast too. She's starting to understand a lot more of what we say to her. I had so much fun playing with these 2 kids.

Paeton after having a bowl of ice cream. “Mor? Mor?”

There were a few times that I did some school with Tehya. She has so much fun doing it!

Paeton LOVES his tools! Papa and Grammy gave him some new ones for his birthday. He had so much fun with his ‘ahdeedohs’!

Tehya had so much fun with the cats in Tarakan. She was always wanting to play with them!

While I was there, Julene thought it would be a good idea for me to do some art classes for a few of the missionary kids there. So there was 2 days that 3 kids came over and did some art with Tehya and me. The classes were supposed to go on for 3 days, an hour each day. However, the kids were pretty young still, the oldest was 8 or 9 and Tehya was the youngest at 4. So after about 20 minutes the kids were done. It was fun though. On the second day, I gave them some canvases and they painted a picture on them. Once again, they were finished after 20 minutes. The only person who was interested and painted the whole hour was the only person who wasn’t supposed to be in the class: Paeton. It was so cute!

continued...

2006-09-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

There were all sorts of bugs there. I saw a beetle that was as long as my index finger and about 2x fatter! It has got to be the biggest beetle that i will ever see. And it didn't fly or anything so it was pretty cool to just sit there and watch.

They also have what are called cicoks (che-chok) which are little geckoes. These things amuse me to no end. They are so quick and small. And they are all over the house. It's crazy!

Thats all for now...if you have any questions I can try and answer them in my next one.

Indonesia

2006-08-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the plan is to post pictures and stuff about my trip in little bursts. There is way to much to tell and things will randomly come to mind. And, if I do it all in one thing, I figure most of you wont read it because it's way to long. So, here goes...

My trip was AMAZING. I have never experienced something like this before in my life. It is so cool to see how my cousin and her husband, Julene and Chris, and their 2 kids, Tehya (4) and Paeton (2), live out there. I had so much fun just hanging out with them and getting to know them a little bit more.

My first impression of Indonesia was that it was a crazy place to live. When we got out of the airport, it was approximately a 30 minute drive to Julene's and Chris' house. So all I got to see was these crazy busy roads. I thought that this place was way to overcrowded and everybody needed to learn how to drive! Indonesians are maniacs on motorbikes. It's crazy how they drive. When you look at it for the first time, you think that these people are very impatient, very busy, and need to get places fast. After a few days, I realized that these people weren't so crazy. They're actually exactly the opposite of what I had thought earlier. Very calm, patient and friendly.

This is just a little taste of the streets there. If you look closely enough, you can see that not everybody wears helmets. And they tend to cram a lot of people on these bikes. I think the most I've seen was 4 (2 adults, and 2 decent sized kids)!

My first night there, Julene comes into my room with a "present" from Chris. On top of this box that she was holding, was a very bright green beetle. It was pretty cool, until it decided to walk off the box and go for a little flight to my ceiling. I was like, umm, I don't really like sleeping with bugs. Julene reassured me that this bug was harmless, "It doesn't bite, it wont crawl all over you..." So, I left my room for a while and purposely left a lamp on so that it would hopefully go over to it. Lucky for me it did. Wasn't hard to get rid of then!

IDONESIA!!!

2006-08-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I don't have much time. But I just wanted to let all of you who read this blog that I am safely in Indonesia. It is sooo much fun here! Nothing that I would have ever expected. Anyways. No pictures yet. I'll do that when I get home. But I have to go now so I will try and post again soon!

Camp!

2006-07-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

This past week (July 14-22) I was at a camp with my youth group. This is my youth group's 5th year going to Rough Acres, which is just past Houston, BC, and is my third. We basically go there and take over the camp. We provide the camp with cabin leaders, support staff, kitchen staff and someone to run everything. This year I was up there for the Jr. Girls camp. It was so much fun!

These are my girls. The one sitting beside me is my co-leader, Karen.

We have a tradition that every year we have a crazy utensil night. It's so fun and extremely messy because you get things like whisks to eat spaghetti with.

Waterfront was a huge hit for all the girls. We have things like surf bikes, canoes and a large water trampoline.

Every year, at the end of the week, each cabin does a talent show. This year, Karen and I dressed up as old ladies and sang a story about how we once had this cabin full of crazy girls. It was a big hit!

My newest creations

2006-06-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Infinite

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: acrylic

Title: Uncomfortable Stare

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: acrylic

A little freaked out

2006-06-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

So today I had my first dentist appointment in about ten years. I was freaked out. I told all my friends that I was going to the dentist and they all started telling me these horror stories. So I get to the dental office and they first take exrays of my mouth. They stuck something in my mouth and told me to bite down and then they took an exray. Four exrays later, she told me to get up and follow her to a different room. Well, it wasn't really a room. It was more like a closet. I had to stick my head on something and bite down on another thing and hold on to something else ... two minutes later this things start swinging around my head. After that they told me to go sit down. Five minutes later, the dental assistant shows me the four exrays she took and told me that I had three wisdom teeth (my top left one being the missing one). Then the actual dentist comes in and starts poking around my mouth (I have to say, those gloves they wear really don't taste that great). He starts saying some random letters and numbers and his asisstant answers him in the same language. After ten minutes of this, he tells me that I have two cavities. I wasn't too impressed. Honestly, how does a diabetic get cavities?!?! (okay, bad question...don't answer). Then he brings out this huge exray of my mouth and says that I need to get my wisdom teeth pulled sometime in the next two months. AAAHHHHHH!!!! First of all let me just say that I am absolutly freaked out of needles. Now, you might say, " she's diabetic and has to give herself one almost every day. How can she be scared of needles?" I've always been scared of needles. So scared that when I'm getting the flu shot or something of the sort (aka stitches), I have to watch the person give it to me or I'll freak out and wont do it. So, now I have to get two fillings and get all three of my wisdom teeth pulled?!? You've got to be kidding me. I can't see my mouth, how am I supposed to do this? The dentist takes another look at my exray (which was what that thing in the closet room did when it swung around my head) and takes another look at my mouth and says, "Oh no, nevermind. We can let the teeth grow in and (I dont remember his exact word but it was something like:) burst out of the gum and that will be easier to take out that way." So now all I have to do is get two fillings. So not looking forward to it. I'll keep you posted.

So Sad

2006-05-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

So, for the past week or so, my painting (the one I last posted about) has been in an art show at my school. Yesterday, it was all taken down. So, I go to art class today and ask my teacher if I could take my piece home. Of course he said yes (it's not like he's going to keep me from taking home my art). After school I go to the class to colect my art. We go into the back room and search through all the paintings (I tell ya, there are a lot of paintings back there!) and finally come upon mine. I bring it out and guess what I saw. There was (and still is) a huge (okay, not that big) scratch/gash in it!! I was like WHAT HAPPEND TO MY PAINTING??!?!??!!! Oh, I was not very happy. When you look at it now, the first thing you notice isn't that it's a nice piece, it's that there's a big blank spot right in the middle of it. If you would run your hand over it, there's no way you could miss that there's an indent in it. So, now I have to wait for next class to fix it, which is on Tuesday. I have no idea how I'm going to get rid of that indent never mind mixing the exact same colour that got chiped off. Errrrr....

Happy Mother's Day!!

2006-05-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

Title: Gigli di Calla

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: acrylic

This is my biggest (not your average big canvas size, when I say big try 30" by 40" big) and (I think) my best piece of art that I have done. I must say that if it wasn't for my art teacher, Mr. Gordon, that I would have never done this. I did it in pencil crayon once and he saw it and pretty much shoved a canvas in my hands and told me to do it. So there it is. This is what I gave my mom for Mother's day. She loves it!

What eles can it be called?

2006-04-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I am diabetic. Well, this last August, I recieved an insulin pump (a $6600 tiny machine which I got FREE from the sponsership of Minimed and Variaty Club).
So, this is the pump.
1. The place where the battery goes (it only takes a triple a battery and it lasts for approximatly 2 months!)
2. This is the screen (obviously). You can't see it on this one but along the top, it shows me the time, how much battery power is left, and how much insulin is left. It's also where you see things like the menu.
3. This is where the insulin is stored. You can put up to 300 units in there which will last me for approximatly 5-6 days.
4. This button brings you the menu. There's way to many things in the menu so I won't bother listing them all. Also, if I want to give myself some insulin, I press this button and it will do what I ask.
5. This button is the escape button. Obviously you press it to get out of a screen that you no longer want to be in. If you press it on the main screen, then it will show you things like the date, exactly how much insulin is left, how much time you have left before you have to change it...etc.
6. You would push this button if you want to give yourself some insuline. When you press it, it asks you how many carbs you are eating and what your blood sugar is at. When you finish putting that in, it shows you how much you should give yourself. After that, you push the Act button (#4).
7. This, and the next button, you use to put in what your blood sugar is and how many carbs you're going to eat and scroll up and down and menu. If you press this button on the main screen, it will beeb at you. Each beep signifies 1 unit of insulin. It's just a fast way of giving yourself some insulin.
8. If you press this button on the main screen, a backlight comes on.

So, now that you know how it works and what it looks like, I will get to the whole point of this post. When you look at this pump, if you don't know what it is, what do you think it is? Well, here's a list of all the thing that it has been called:

1. an mp3 player
2. an ipod
3. a pager
4. a phone
5. a step counter
6. a tuner
7. (only 1 person has got this one) an insulin pump

Driving

2006-04-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

So, for the past, oh lets just say, year, my friends have been pushing me to start driving. Course, I've had my "L" for almost a year, since May 18, 2005. Since then, I have driven a grand total of one time. For half an hour. At Hatzic Lake, which, if you've been there, is one long straight road with no signs or other cars. So, it's pretty much not going to help me any.

It's not that I don't want to drive because I do. It's just that I don't want to drive with my mom just yet (mostly because I'm scared I'll get mad at her and start yelling at her, as almost always happens when we are together and she tries telling me to do something). So, the only other person in the family that can take me driving is my dad. And he leaves for work before 7 in the morning and then gets back at 5, which he then sits infront of the TV and has his mate (a South American tea). After that, we have dinner, which makes him sleepy. So, he's either in bed, sleeping, or infront of the fire, sleeping, by 7:30. Giving me no time to drive. Now, I don't want to blame it all on my dad, so the other thing is that the only car in our family that is not standard is my sister's car (an old K car). She's out most nights doing things like teaching piano. So, when my dad isn't tired, or sleeping, my sister is gone with her car.

So. Some of this has recently changed. Thanks to my big brother who totaled my dad's cube van (his work vehicle) my dad has gotten a new truck (F350...really nice truck). Oh, and get this: it's automatic. Meaning I can drive it! So, today, as all you know (hopefully), is Good Friday. Which means that my dad didn't go to work. So this afternoon, he surprised me and wanted to take me out driving. =) I got to drive a truck!! And a big one at that! It was kinda scary. But at the same time, really really fun. This being my first time driving, I wasn't that good. However as time went by, I think I got better (which is always a good thing). The one thing I really have to work on is my turning. I always seem to go over the lines. Oh well, I'll work on that.

Anyways, just thought that all you people that read this should know that I am actually trying. =)

Snowy Manitoba

2006-03-27T08:04:00.000-08:00

So, as many of you know, right now, I am in Manitoba (the city of Winkler to be exact). My cousin, Heather, just got married on Saturday to her now husband Bruce Fehr (not sure if that's how you spell it). It was a nice wedding; much different from what I'm used to because they're from a tiny little town in Manitoba and I'm from a rather large city in BC.

The cutest part of the wedding was how the ring bearers came in. She kind of got cut out of the picture but the flower girl was pulling them in on this wagon. The one on the left is Bruce's nephew, Ashton. The one on the right is Heather's nephew, Rowan.

Bruce and Heather, the happy couple.

The brides beautiful bouquet.

Yesterday, Sunday, a bunch of us went to my Aunt's and Uncle's "estate" (as they like to call it). I think that they own the biggest and only hill in all of Manitoba. Everybody out here has at least one slead like thing that we used to slide down this hill. For those of you that don't know, there is quite a bit of snow here....

On the top is me, thigh deep in snow. Of course it got worse as we went on, with Aunt Anna on the right, waist deep in snow. And below, you can see that, had we not had snow shoes on, you would probably never see us again.

My Grandpa doing a little dance for me on top of the picnic table.

Just a cool picture (mixed with a bit of hottness).

The next sequence of pictures is rather quite funny. Some of my cousins made a ramp at the bottom of the hill. My cousin Warren said, "It's actually a pretty good ramp. I can do a complete 360 off of it." Well, I didn't believe him so i slid down the hill and told him to come and show me. Guess what, he proved me rong. You don't have to turn sideways to do a 360. You can go head over heals too...

Nice try Warren.

My Star

2006-03-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

So it's the 7th today. My one and only sister's birthday! YAYYYYY!!! I don't know if any of you who read this know, but me and my sister are very close. Infact she's my best friend. (I have to admitt, it wasn't always this way!). So today's her birthday. I've seen her for a grand total of maybe 15 minutes today. She had to work at 6am untill 10am, so when I woke up she was already up and gone. Knowing she had to work that early on her birthday made me a little mad so I decided to cheer her up by blowing up some balloons and putting them on the bannester at the front door. I then made a sign that said, "Happy 19th Birthday!" and attatched it to the 2 bannesters so that there was no way she could miss it (for those of you that don't know our house, you take stairs into the actuall house which is where I hung the poster. She would have to walk right into it in order to get out of the entrence). When I got home from school, I asked her if she liked her balloons. She said, "It made me smile =D." So, on birthdays, we as a family usually have dinner (my mom takes an order from the birthday person and makes them what they want for dinner (for me it's always her home made chicken noodle soup)). Well, my parents are on a cruise right now so my sister's friends decided to take her out for her birthday. This didn't make me very happy. I was planning on making dinner for her tonight (she wouldn't know that I made dinner untill dinner actually happend because she teaches piano Tuesdays) but that obviously isn't going to happen. I guess she saw that I wasn't too impressed with the fact that she wasn't going to be at home for her birthday, so when I got home from school, she asked me to go out to dinner with her and her friends. I accept. Just as long as I can be with her it's all good. So this one's for you Rissy:

Happy Birthday!!!

You are so amazing and I love you so much. You're my #1 role modle and there is no one eles I would want as a big sister!

The best of friends.

So alike in the wierdest ways.

My bro

2006-02-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

Title: Handsom (or Darren)

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: graphite

Dr. Seuss

2006-02-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

Title: ? (any suggestions?)

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: acrylic

Rose

2006-02-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

Title: Rose

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: soluble crayon/felt

Necklace

2006-02-19T19:34:00.000-08:00

Title: Faith

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: graphite/soluble pencil

AAHHHHHH!!!!!

2006-02-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

Title: Scream 2

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: pencil crayon

Road

2006-02-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

Title: Swinmünder

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: water colour

Windmill

2006-02-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Title: Windmill

Artist: Rosalynn Grace

Medium: water colour

My Sister as an Artist

2006-02-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

Last Monday my sister-in-law, Chelsea, came over for dinner (Darren, my brother, usually comes with her but he went to the hockey game that night). After we ate I was complaining about this project that I had to do for art. I took out my water colours and my sketch book and my sister, Larissa, atacked my book with the paint. She was really trying desperatly hard to make some sort of architeture (that was my assignment), for me to hand in as "my" art. This is what she came up with:

As you can tell, water colour deffinatly is not her thing. The blob in the middle (the gennie looking thing with yellow hair, yellow sunglasses and a white smile) is supposedly the Statue of David. Can you see it? The thing around it is an arch with a vine wrapping around it. Those purple blobs are supposed to be flowers.

I started painting again today and she said that she wanted to try painting with acrylic paint. So, I went upstairs and got a tiny little canvas (the size of half a piece of paper) and some acrylic paint. I gave it to her and she started going at it. This is what she came up with:

I must say, she is much better with this paint. If you don't know my sister, well...this is her. She didn't know what to paint so she just painted her self. She even signed them both.

Oh, and I didn't hand in her water colour painting. I eventually came up with my own.

I have a wierd family

2006-01-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

2006-01-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

My view on the movie Narnia

2005-12-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

So, we're back to the subject of the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. My mom gave me this article to read by Stephen Hume (from the Vancouver Sun) and I absolutly hated it. Anyways. I wrote him back. But first here's some of the article by Stephen Hume.

"Most of the story makes no sense at all as Christian allegory.
For example, if the Messiah is characterized by both the Biblical prophets and his disciples as a lamb of peace, how does this square with the movie's portrayal of the Messiah as a gigantic carnivore? If the Messiah came not as an all-powerful king but as a humble peasant born in a roadside manger, what's with this majestic imperial persona? Jesus came not as Caesar in a tent embroidered with gold thread, he lived with poor people and prostitutes and was executed in squalid conditions among thieves and murderers.
Furthermore, isn't the lion an icon for the persecution of Christians? Weren't the martyrs thrown to the lions in the Roman arena? In fact, doesn't Peter characterize the devil as "a roaring lion?"
Then there's an eruption of deliciously vengeful violence as the wicked queen and her followers get their just deserts. How does this square with the Christian injunction to the faithful to love their enemies, do good to those who do them ill and, most important, to turn the other cheek instead of striking back?
Christ said of his tormentors while on the cross, "Father, forgive them." If the injunction to forgive is the defining Christian value, how does the retributive butchering of opponents find congruency?
In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Peter cuts a Roman soldier, Christ orders him to put up his sword and heals the man's wound. In Narnia, the so-called Jesus figure of Aslan provides the kids with swords, arrows, daggers and sets them off on the path of bloody slaughter.
Then there are the bad guys themselves. While the supporters of Aslan are handsome, beautiful and proud, supporters of the White Witch are misshapen and physically unappealing. They hobble, limp, drool, lumber, have spastic movements, are too big or too small.
Dwarves and giants serve as representations of wickedness. In other words, the stereotypes of conventional beauty define what's good, while attributes that fall outside those stereotypes are associated with evil.
Frankly, this kind of association should disturb everyone, not just Christians. In the Christian gospels, Jesus ministers to the halt, the lame, the blind and the mad. And he warns his followers that "What you do to the least among you, you do to me." In other words, don't make judgmental distinctions on the basis of appearance in the way the movie does.
Now, Narnia is still a rousing good yarn - 85 million books sold testifies to that. But does it work as Christian allegory? I think not."

Now, for those of you that don't know, this is my absolute favorite movie. I really didn't like what this guy said so I wrote him back:

At the end of your article, you asked if the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, works as Christian allegory. You answered that question by saying, “I think not.” Well, here’s my answer: I think so.
In the beginning of this story, Lucy Pevensie finds this most amazing world. She tries to tell her three older siblings about this world she has found but fails to get them to believe. It is only after the professor argues Lucy’s side that their eyes are opened. Only when they have an inkling of faith do they enter and see this world that Lucy has found.
When Christians tell non-believers about their faith, most of the time, the non-believers think that this person is crazy for believing the things they do. They don’t necessarily see or understand the “world” that this Christian lives in. But when, and if, they start thinking about what was said, they will start to see what this “lunatic” sees.
The first time that Edmond Pevensie enters the world of Narnia, he meets the White Witch. She bribes him into thinking that she is good by giving him Turkish Delight and telling him that he could be king of Narnia someday. Edmond falls into her trap and betrays his brother and sisters. The devil uses worldly things, such as money and status, to try and lure people away form the truth.
And now for Aslan; let me say that having a “gigantic carnivore”, a lion, represent the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in my opinion is very smart. May I remind you that C.S. Lewis wrote this series specifically for children. If you were to ask a child what animal would represent a king, what would they say? A lamb? I don’t think so. Lewis used a lion because kids see lions as kings. After all, the lion is the king of the jungle. Also, in the Bible, it says the only thing we should fear is God. He is dangerous yet at the same time, He is merciful and peaceful. In the book Susan asks the beavers, “Is he safe?” the beaver replies by saying, “’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king.”
You also said, “Jesus came not as Caesar in a tent embroidered with gold thread, he lived with poor people.” Let me ask you to remember what the White Witch lived in: a huge castle complete with a moat. Aslan’s tent (note: tent not castle) was maybe the size of the dungeon that Edmond was in. And, all the creatures on Aslan’s side lived in the same type of shelter as Aslan himself, showing that he was no better than anyone else.
Aslan sends someone (Father Christmas to be exact) to bring Peter, Susan and Lucy swords, arrows and daggers, yes, but he does not “set them off on the path of bloody slaughter.” He gives them these things to prepare them for what he knows is ahead. He doesn’t say, “Here, take these and go make war.” To Susan and Lucy he says, “I do not mean you to fight in the battle. … battles are ugly affairs.” And to Peter he says, “The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well,” meaning use them for good. God has given us all weapons for our own use in this world. They are commonly known as the armor of God and we are to use it in battles of the spirit. God would rather us not fight at all, but since evil has entered the world, He sees fit that we are prepared for what will come to us.
You are right; we as Christians are supposed to turn the other cheek. When you watch the scene where Aslan dies, do you see him fighting back? No. You don’t. Lucy even realizes this and asks a very good question: Why? Could it possibly be because he is turning the other cheek? This is also referring to when Christ died on the cross. Aslan died on the stone table in place of Edmond whose crime was betrayal of Aslan. He took Edmond’s place because he loved him and he knew that his blood could take the place of Edmond’s. Aslan died on the stone table as if he had committed a crime. Jesus Christ died on the cross as if He had committed a crime. He took the punishment for our wrong doings.
Next is the great battle. In the book of Revelation it says that there will be one last battle between God and Satan; between good and evil. In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Aslan kills the White Witch in a matter of seconds. In Revelation it says that in one single moment, all evil is gone.
You also talk about the bad guys (supporters of the White Witch) being completely ugly, “misshapen and physically unappealing. They hobble, limp, drool, lumber, have spastic movements, are too big or too small.” Let me say, once again, that these books were written specifically for kids. Followers of the White Witch have “ugly” hearts and evil spirits. How are you supposed to describe that to a child? They won’t have a clue what you are trying to say. Lewis made these creatures ugly because he knew that kids would understand physical ugliness more than they would spiritual “ugliness”. Making the bad guys ugly automatically makes them seem evil or bad.
So, let’s ask that question again. Does the movie, and book, The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe work as Christian allegory? In my opinion, it most certainly does.

He actually e-mailed me back but I have no idea what he's saying. His words are a little too big for my liking.

Dear Ms Thiessen:

You, of course,are perfectly entitled to interpret anything you like in any way you wish. However, I do note that C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, was quite specific when he said the books were not Christian allegory and he was bemused by the attempt by adults to portray them as such. Why would adults do this? Because they wished to colonize his stories and appropriate them as propaganda for their own religious ideologies.
I think you are confusing the movie and its marketing -- which was the point of my column -- with Lewis's books. How Lewis portrays the "bad guys" and how the movie portrays them are quite different. In my opinion it is destructive and flies in the face of Christian ethics to associate physical disabilities with evil. To try and make that equation with impressionable children is even more reprehensible. For the most part, evil, as Hannah Arendt has observed, is characterized by its banal and seemingly benevolent face. Thus the Nazis were not drooling, spastic degenerates but were handsome fellows in snappy uniforms who made sure the trains to Auschwitz ran on time, then had dinner with their families and went out to the opera. Indeed, if I remember rightly, Hitler said in Mein Kampf that he was doing God's work and the uniform of the German army carried the slogan "Gott mit uns" -- God is with us. Not the first tyrant or general to claim to be doing the Lord's work with fire and sword. I daresay not the last, either.

By the way, a standing ovation to all of you who actually read this whole thing. I know that I wouldn't have!

Vancouver Giants!

2005-12-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, so about a month or 2 ago, I got this letter thingy from JDRF (Juvinial Diabeties Research Foundation) saying that they have 6 tickets for me and 5 friends to go to a Vancouver Giants game. I replied and said that yeah, I'll take them. So, last night my family and I (which in total was 8 so we had to actually buy 2 more tickets which was totally fine) went to see the Vancouver Giants play the Portland Winter Hawks. It turned out to be a really good game. The Giants won 5 nothing. The funny part is that all of those goals were scored within the last 11 minutes of the game. Now, I have to say that this was my first hockey game that I've ever been to, at least that I know of and can remember. It was pretty exciting and even though about half the seats were empty (I'm guessing that was due to the fact that the Canucks were playing not too far from where this game was) the place got so incredibally loud when ever the Giants scored. It was awsome. So, I guess that that's my exciting story for the weekend.

The final score. We won!! YAYYYYY!!!!!

Mom, Dad, and Larissa.
Nathan and his girlfriend Katie. They chose to have the 2 seats that we had to buy. If you look close enough, you can see some people way up behind them. That would be the rest of us. Me! Yes, my hair is naturally kinda curly. Chelsea and Darren.
This was probably one of the most exciting parts of the night: the one and only fight. It was great.
This is how the fight ended. The reffs piled up on top of them. (the reff in the corner has our last name!)

Narnia!!!!

2005-12-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

Oh my word!! Such an amazing movie!! I went to go see it yesterday (Saturday) morning at 10. My good friend Stephanie got 4 free tickets from her dad who got them from his boss or something. Anyways. She invited me and 2 other people to go with her. Stevi and myself have been planing on going since like September or something so of course she invited me. The funny part of this story is that this was her birthday party. The only thing is that a week before the movie, she came up to me at youth and says, "So, does your sister still want to go see The Chronicles of Narnia?" I say, "Of course she does!!" And then she says, "Okay. ... She can have mine. I cant go." I was like WHAT???!!!!?!?! I was so bumbed that she couldn't come. After all, we have been planing to go for like 4 or 5 months. So, my sister took Stephanie's place at her own birthday party. I have to say though, it truly was one of the best birthday partys I have ever been to! So seeing that she missed it, and we wanted to go together, we are going next week sometime.
Okay. So this movie truely is such an amazing movie. What I saw was not what I had expected. I thought yeah, it'll be good. But no. It wasn't good...it was GREAT. It is definatly at the very top of my favorite movie list. Now I've always known that the Chronicles of Narnia had come from the Bible. But I never really understood why for some reason. It could be the fact that I have never read the book. I've only listend to it on tape. But when I was watching it, it totaly made sense. Everything that I saw my brain somehow made it made it relate to the Bible. I was so amazed. I really do like that movie. And I so cannot wait for all the sequels to come out. And I'm pretty sure that they will have them! If you have not gone to see this movie yet, GO. It's an amazing movie.

Last Weekend

2005-11-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks!! So, it's been a while and I'm sorry for that. School has been a little hecktic right now. I handed in my short story (the one that I posted last) and got perfect on it. I have to tell you, I so did not expect this to happen! I also finished my project in clothing (which was a stripes/plaids project. I made a bag) and got 70 out of 75 which I believe is about 93%. This excited me because when I was in grade 9 clothing, my teacher (the same one I have now) gave me 84% on absolutly every project that I did; no matter how great it was. So, you can imagine that I was pretty satified with my mark.
Last weekend was soooooo incredably fun! We had a mother daughter weekend. We, of course, went shopping in Seatle from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. Saturday was pretty much an entire day spent shopping. We left the hotel around 9:30AM and got home around 9PM. It was a very long day. I blew all of my money that I brought, so once again, I'm scrambling to find some money. But I am very satisfied with all of my purchases. I bought 3 shirts: 2 Bilabong and 1 Aropostal that says "Daddy's Little Girl" on it; one sweater: blue zipp-up Split; and a Jennifer Knapp CD.
Oh yeah! I also bought a touque. It was funny. My sister put it on hold for me and when I went back there I said, "I have a touque on hold". The cashier paused for a second and then turned around and got the touque. As she was ringing it up she's like, "It's a good thing that my manager told me what a touque was! Other wise, I wouldn't have had a clue what you were talking about!" After I left the store was when I remembered that Americans call "touques" "bennies". I had to laugh.

On Saturday night we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. This is, obviously, me eating all the great food!

Stacey's birthday was last Wednesday so we made the staff of Olive Garden come out and sing her happy birthday and put a teara on her head. She didn't exactly like this.

School contd...

2005-11-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

First of all, I miase well say that all that studying did me absolutley no good. I did horrible on both tests. Oh well. I don't really remember what I wanted to say. So, really, this is a waste of a post. Oh well!
While I'm here, and talking about school, I had to write a disturbing short story for English. I thought that I'd post it and see what you guys think:

Short Lived Love
By Rosalynn Thiessen

It was supposed to be a great day the next day, sunny with only a few clouds in the sky. For Damian, this was the perfect day to be at work. Damian Peters worked four days a week at the drawbridge. He was a well cut man and loved sitting outside in the sun while he was waiting for a ferry or a train to show up. His four-year-old daughter, Morgan, also loved being outside in the sun. Tomorrow would be a great day to give his wife a break from being a mom and take Morgan to work with him. They would all enjoy it. It had been a month or so since Damian spent a day with his only child, and even longer since his wife had had a day without either of them.
“Say goodbye to Mommy, Morgan,” Damian told his daughter who was all dressed to play outside. “Bubby Mommy. I lub you!” Morgan explained as she hugged her mom tightly. “Have a good day honey. We should be home around seven,” Damian said as he kissed his wife goodbye.
Morgan talked the entire forty-five minute ride there and when they arrived, it only took five minutes for her to get lost in her play. Damian kept a close eye on his daughter as he opened up his little control booth and took out his lawn chair. The weather man sure was right; the weather was great. Damian sat down, picked up his book and began reading, not really paying full attention to the words. He sat there silently and, out of the corner of his eye, watched Morgan play in the dust. It would defiantly be bath time when they get home.
A long, deep horn-like sound came from around the bend of the river. That was the distinct sound of a moving ferry. “Morgan! Come, quick! There’s a boat coming!” Morgan immediately dropped her toys and came running to her daddy’s side. Damian picked her up and let her stand on the only bit of counter space that wasn’t occupied. “Do you want to watch the bridge go up?” Damian asked as his hand headed towards the button. “Ya!” He smiled at her excitement as he hit the button. Morgan looked at the bridge in complete awe. As she pointed at it, she bounced up at down and with laughter in her voice said, “Bridge going up Daddy! Bridge going up!” Once the ferry came into view, she completely forgot about the bridge and started to ramble on about the big boat.
Morgan eventually went back to her play only to hear her daddy calling her again thirty minutes later. “Come here honey! Do you want to see the bridge go down?!” She was on her feet within seconds running as fast as her little legs could carry her. Once she was by her daddy’s side, she asked him, “Daddy? Can I push dah button?” Picking her up in his arms, Damian put her on his stool so she could reach the button and told her to go ahead and push it.
Damian took out his camera knowing how much his wife would love to see how extremely excited Morgan was. And you sure could see the excitement. Her already big bright blue eyes got bigger with a certain little sparkle that lit up her face, immediately making her large mass of blond ringlets look small. And that gap between her two front teeth just seemed to disappear within that huge smile.
After the bridge went down, Morgan looked curiously at Damian. “Why did dah bridge hafta go down Daddy?” “Well, in a minute, a very fast train is going to come around that corner,” he lifted his hand and pointed to the bend in the track, “and go right over this bridge.” Morgan almost fell off the stool trying to see around the bend. She suddenly got excited again and, as she pointed, asked, “That train?!” “Yup!” Damian replied as he jokingly started to tickle her. She giggled intensely as she tried desperately to get away.
As the day went on, Morgan’s excitement for the bride, boats and trains never dwindled. Every time her daddy called her name, she came running with no hesitation in mind. Damian stopped worrying so much about Morgan and started to pay more attention to his book instead of what she was doing. She seemed to have noticed this because she kept on wondering farther and farther away from the booth. She eventually reached the bridge (which really wasn’t very far from the booth) and when she saw it, she immediately started to explore. Morgan climbed down underneath the bridge and soon discovered all the mechanisms. Her face immediately lit up with excitement for she had just found her new playground. She climbed on and crawled around the big wheels going in and out of tight spaces.
Morgan suddenly heard the loud scream of a train and knowing her dad would soon be calling, she started to find a way out. Damian heard the train and called out for Morgan. “Daddy! I’m stuck!” Morgan replied. Damian had no idea where she could be stuck around here, “Where are you?” He heard her far off reply, “Under dah bridge!” and started to panic. Here there is this speed strain with around three hundred people aboard that will be here within two minutes and it would take longer that that just to get to the bridge. If he didn’t push that button, he could save his daughter but three hundred people would be killed. If he pushed the button, his daughter would be squished to death but three hundred people would live. The same frightening question kept running over and over in his head: Save one person, or three hundred?
Damian slowly pushed the big red button as he told his daughter how much he loved her. He stood there unbelieving as he listened to Morgan scream.

School

2005-10-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

What an ugly word. Anyways. As you probably already know, school is back on. It actually has been for a week now. At the moment (okay, not really ... I'm kinda typing right now) I'm studying for two tests tomorrow. Uggggg! And what makes it worse is that both are in classes that I'm not good at (Socials and Biology). Which means I have to study even harder. Bah. You may be asking what I'm doing here, at the computer, when I should be studying. Well, I'm printing out some things to help me. And there's a lot of pages so it'll take a while. But, back to school. The teachers are really anoying me because they can't seem to say the word "strike". They keep refering to it as "the break". It makes me think that they're ashamed of what they did. Which makes me wonder why they did it in the first place.
My papers are finished printing so I'll go study now. I'll probalby finish this another time.

My crazy weekend

2005-10-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've actually had a "weekend" for the past 2 weeks. But I'm just going to start at this past Thursday (Oct. 20th). My day started out with my alarm going off at 7:20 because I had to go babysit. I had to be at their house at quarter to 8, but when I looked at the clock, after eating and having a shower, it was that time. I hadn't even done my hair yet when I litterally ran out the door. Anyways, I had been at their house for about an hour and a half when my mom called. She said my sister was cleaning the bathroom and found my insulin pump sitting on the counter. I realized that in the rush of getting out the door and trying to get to their house, I had forgotten to get wired back up! AAHHHHH! My mom was freaking out. So I had to get Aaron to put his shoes on and then we had to walk all the way back to my house (ok, so I live like 2 minutes away, but with a little kid...it takes like 5), do a blood test (which, oddly, I was normal) and then hook my pump back up. It was a very hecktic morning, and the fact that everybody was making fun of me for forgeting it only made it worse =(.

That night, I went to one of my friends' (Jenna) birthday party. Her birthday was in June but she decided to have her party now. Kinda strange. I, actually, really shouldn't be talking because I'm planning on having my 16th birthday party now and my birthday was in April. Anyways. It was really good. We started watching the Notebook around 2am (it was a sleepover) and didn't end up going to sleep untill 5:30 or so. We slept until 10:30 (so we got a grand total of 5 hours of sleep that night, which isn't bad considering we were planning on pulling an all nighter ... didn't really happen) and then got up and had breakfast.

That night (Friday) I went to youth, which was Bible Study, and didn't get home untill 11. I was so completely wiped out, especially seeing that I didn't have a nap or anything. Bible Study was pretty awsome though. We talked about cliques and about how we need to get rid of them. It was good. So, I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 7 (a little better, but still not enough). I went to Stephanie Wall's house because herself, Carrie and I were going to make some money by cleaning Steve's dad's house that he built. The owners are moving in tomorro (Monday) so we had to make it spick and span for them to live in. I tell ya, that was one dirty house! We started cleaning it at 10 and ended at 5. That's 7 hourse of cleaning. Crazy! It was actually really fun. Who knew you could have fun while making money?!?! Haha. Just kidding. We (my parents and my sister came) stayed at the Wall's house for the awsome game (hockey) (which we won for those who don't watch). I wen't to bed yesterday around 10:30 and woke up this morning at 7:30 so I could go to first servise. So, now, here I am. Kinda tired and writign this. That's my weekend for ya.

Oh yeah. The one thing that made this weekend bad was knowing that there is a very good chanse that I will be going back to school tomorrow. Uugggggg... I so don't wan't to go back. I have to much homework to do. On that note, I should go.

Cell phone

2005-10-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

I've finaly done it! I have entered the crazy world of cell phones. I got my very own cell yesterday. No more of this sharing with my sister stuff. That didn't work out so well. We used to share this huge fat ugly phone, and she always had it. So, really, we wern't sharing. She had a cell phone. But now, we both have one. It's so exciting! We origianally went into the store to change our number to a different phone (my brother just got a new cell so we wanted to upgrade ours to his old one), but then the sales clerk said that our plan was over and we could get a bran new phone for free! My mom's like "Okay". So while we were at it, she just got another one and paid for a new number. So, me and my sis have the same phone, just different numbers.

So, I've always wanted a flip phone (just becasue they're so much fun to play with!), but they were only 3 year plans. We only wanted a 2 year plan so the phone that we could get with that was not a flip phone =(. But it's all good. I've actually come to like this phone more than I would have a flip phone. Anyways, this phone is so cool. It's a camera phone (which you can also take videos with). It also has a flashlite on it! It's so crazy! There's only 9 buttons, because there's 2 numbers per button. So wierd. Ok, I feel like such a geek. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I have a cell phone.

My sweat awsome cell phone.

Going to Indonesia

2005-10-13T15:44:00.001-07:00

It's been almost a year now since my cousin Julene and her family (her husband, Chris, and two kids, Tehya and Paeton) have moved to Indonesia as missionaries. They have finally finished at language school, learning how to speak Indonesian. They will be moving in a few days to their new "home". Ever since they left here a year ago, I have been planning to go there and visit for a while. Well, now I think that it's actually going to happen! This excites me so incredably much. I have a chance to g0 there in March (durring spring break). The only thing is that I'm broke. And my parents are making me pay for this myself (which I'm totaly fine with). So I need to find a large amout of money somewhere before March. What makes that hard is that I don't have a job! So, I'm helping my mom out on Wednesdays with Alpha. This gets me $25 every Wednesday, but Alpha is only a 12 week program. So that only gets me $300 (which, by the way, about $100 of that goes to my parents because of all the money I've borrowed!). So, I've also started to babysit a little more. My sister and I kinda share this job. If he (Aaron is his name) needs to be looked after durring the day, when I'm in school, then Larissa babysits, but when I'm home, I get it. It's not really a schedualed thing, it's more like she calls and we go. But it works. So, right now, I'm not doing too bad. I'm making money, and trying so incredably hard not to spend it. I'm really starting to look forward to March now. It seems like so far away though. augggg...so frustrating. Oh yeah! I'm also collecting pop bottles. Right now, I've got like around 10 bags sitting in my garage! I'm just kinda ask people if they get money back for their bottles (they usually say no), and then ask if I can have them. It works, I'd say, about 90% of the time. It's great! But yeah. Those take a while to sort. So I think that I'm just ramabling now. I'll stop and let you get on with your day ... or night.

Aaron (the kid that we babysit)

A few of my bags of pop cans.

Me working the dishwasher at Alpha.

A Little About Me...

2005-10-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'll expand on what I wrote about yesterday. I was born on April 28 and have grown up in Walnut Grove. I have lived in the same house my entire life with both my parents and my three siblings. I have two brothers, Nathan (23) and Darren (21), and two sisters, Larissa (18) and Chelsea (22) [my sister-in-law] whom is married to Darren. I am, as you can tell, the youngest at 16. I also have two cats, Tabby and Diddle.
When I was 9, I was diagnosed with diabeties. This has been one of the hardest parts of my life, but it just recently got a little easier about a month and a half ago when I recieved an insulin pump. Now, instead of doing three shots every day, I do one shot every three days. It's so much better.
I love basically any kind of art. Most of all, drawing and painting, and photography. I also love music. Listening to it and singing it. If I can find a really good book, I'll pick it up and won't put it down untill it's done; ok, I'll put it down but it will only take me two or three days to finish it.
Hmmm...what eles could I say? I love to hang out with my family and friends. Darren and Chelsea come over every other Sunday to hang out with us (and eat our food). Thats one of my favourite parts of the week.
When I graduate hight school, I plan on becoming a hair dresser. What I really want to do is open up my own buisness from my house. But, of course, I will have to have a house to do that. So that will have to wait untill I move out on my own, or get married (which will be a while). So I will probably start out in a salon. Which, by the way, I have never stepped foot into one. Hard to believe. I know. My hair dresser works out of her house and pretty much always has.
Once I have lots and lots of money (which will never happen), i want to travel. A few places I would like to go are Indonesia (my cousin, Julene, and her family live there), Africa, Germany, China, and some other places that I cant think of at the moment.
Keep coming back to this blog, and you just might find out a little more about me.

I'm here!!!

2005-10-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. I can't believe that I'm doing this! My good friend Angela told me that I should definatley start one of these things. And since two of my siblings and three of my cousins have one, I figure, why not. So here I go. I should probably warn you ... I'm a horrible speller, so if I spell something wrong, ignore it. And I will deffinatley not be writting a whole lot.
So I guess I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm sixteen years old and am in grade 11. I am the youngest of four (puls one) kids and am the only one left in high school. My best friend also happens to be my sister (Larissa) whom is two years older than me. I am diabetic and have been for about seven years. I am five foot seven (and a half). I have (at the moment) auburn brown hair and green eyes. I am very artistic and love to do anything that sounds artsy. Some of these things include drawing, painting, music, photography... and the list goes on. I think thats about it for now. I'll try to write often, although no promises.