web "window shopping"

So, I couldn't sleep this morning. I don't know if it was nervous excitement or if I was stomach sick! haha. Anyways, it caused me to venture to the living room to watch "rich bride, poor bride" and browse the internet. I landed on modcloth.com and thought I'd share some of the cute dresses and tops I found:

Cute, right?! I know.

Karla Lee - January 5th, 1961

Today is my mom's 50th birthday. I wrote this for her:

The first person I ever knew was also the most influential person in my life.

My mother has been a mentor, coach, confident and friend

and has faithfully guided me, like a lighthouse, towards truth, love and a life worth living.

She taught me how to walk by faith and to pray when my faith was scarce.

Most importantly, she taught me to trust in Christ when I had almost no faith at all.

My mother has modelled kindness, strength and perseverance

and has taught us what it means to live selflessly.

She has made me who I am and I hope to someday be

a mirror-image of the woman who gave love and life to me.

A Wonderful Christmas Time

I'm a tad late with this one!

I had a wonderfully magnificent Christmas. It was full of fun, family and festivity (and who could possibly ask for more?!) We were at our church for Christmas Eve, and I read from "the Jesus Storybook Bible" from a big arm chair onstage. It was like story-time with Aunt Jay - I should have pushed my glasses down my nose a bit! When that was done, we headed over to Uncle Grant and Aunt Connie's house for Saip family Christmas. We ate lots of tasty food and played the present-stealing game (White Elephant?). Aunt Edna ended up with a bottle of Fireball...

We stayed overnight at Dad and Muttie's house and enjoyed a leisurely morning of opening presents, eating dad's goulash (yummy), drinking coffee and, of course, reading the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2.

At around 11:30 we headed over to mom and Lyle's to have our family Christmas there - we ate mandarin oranges and turtles (it's tradition!) opened presents and lazed around. Uncle Guy and Aunt Terri came over for Christmas dinner and we enjoyed our usual ridiculousness joking and laughing around the table, eventually retiring to "jam" in the music/living room.

/div>

I'll have you all know that I remained in my pajamas ALL day.

We left for Kelowna mid-morning on the 26th and enjoyed our Dyck family Christmas as soon as we arrived! We had an awesome time of relaxing, playing games (TTR, Settlers, Dominion) and I read about 50 percent of "Little Women" on my new Kindle! (I'm now at 80 percent).

We even enjoyed some outdoor theatre and a sleigh ride (right up my alley!) in Armstrong - we had an awesome time.

It was fabulous. Just fabulous.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Mere Christianity...

My friend Ron lent me "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, which I have been meaning to read for... well, most of my life. While reading it today, I came across a couple of thoughts that I wanted to quote - undoubtedly I'll have another post or two referencing this book, but here's what I'll share for now:

"I have heard some people complain that if Jesus was God as well as man, then His sufferings and death lose all value in their eyes, 'because it must have been so easy for Him'. Others may (very rightly) rebuke the ingratitude and ungraciousness of this objection; what staggers me is the misunderstanding it betrays. In one sense, of course, those who make it are right. They have even understated their own case. The perfect submission, the perfect suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because He was God, but were possible only because He was God. But surely that is a very odd reason for not accepting them? The teacher is able to form the letters for the child because the teacher is grown-up and knows hot to write. That, of course, makes it easier for the teacher; and only because it is easier for him can he help the child. If it rejected him because 'it's easier for grown-ups' and waited to learn writing from another child who could not write itself (and so had no 'unfair' advantage), it would not get on very quickly. If I am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life. Ought I to shout back (between my gasps) 'No, it's not fair! You have an advantage! You're keeping one foot on the bank'? That advantage - call it 'unfair' if you like - is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?" (pg. 58-59)

And also from page 65...

"God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then... There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."

Update

I'm still alive.

I didn't end up going in to Tsawwassen for job shadowing - I called Paige and told her how crazy stressed I was feeling about some of my school stuff and she said "don't worry about it! We can reschedule for January!" (After all, this wasn't required, it was just something I wanted to do).

So I felt better.

Today, I worked on my directoral project for "The Tempest" and then Gabby came over to study for our Stagecraft final. I can do this.

And then I watched last week's episode of "The Office" again because it is SO freaking funny. Sometimes you just need a little light-hearted escapism in your day!

Also, you all need to go to this site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1y64mxm85s

I LOVE Dave Barnes. What a funny guy.

Okay. Merry Christmas!

the Christmas Crazies.

I'm desperately trying to finish off my remaining school work - tomorrow (Tues.) I'm shadowing Paige Hansen at SDSS as a drama teacher (it's recommended that anyone going into education has at least a few experiences in the classroom before finishing TEP, PDP or BEd). Wednesday morning is my Introduction to Technical Theatre final exam... I'm not at all prepared. That night we have the youth Christmas banquet, leaving me little to NO time to work on my final project for my Intro to Theatre class on Thursday morning.

Yikes.

If I can just survive past Thursday morning, my life will be easy, breezy and wonderfully Christmas-oriented. HOWEVER, I literally have no idea how I'm going to get all of this done.

Why not work on it RIGHT NOW instead of blogging? Well, I'm trying to... but every once in a while I become paralyzed with fear and have to resort to sneaking some Reese's pieces or staring at my Christmas tree or venting on a website...

AAAAH.

Also, I've asked Kyle for Christmas movies for Christmas (scrooged, home alone, muppet christmas carol, it's a wonderful life, white christmas, the grinch, elf), but what good does it do me to open a gift that I will not be able to enjoy for a whole 'nother year?! dag nabbit. I still want them, I just want them now so that I can enjoy them. He already tried to buy me one, but I had already bought it for myself... (Christmas Vacation).

Okay, back to the grind. Wish me luck.

my whitt

I'm a tad late. I meant to write this a few weeks ago, but school and rehearsals and, well, life caused me to delay.

My sister, Whitney Shea (Saip) Dyck turned 24 on October 24th - her champagne birthday. It's hard to believe that we're getting into our mid-twenties... I remember sitting on our bedroom floor, making barbie cars out of slippers and wondering what we would look like when we turned 16.

I have lots of memories with Whitt - she has been my "other half" since 1988. From before I can remember I have tried to be just like her... everything from outfits, to hairstyles (pixie cut in grade 5, yikes), to last names... haha. In all honesty though, I don't know who I would be without her. She has played such a vital role in shaping who I am today - she's always been a coach, cheerleader, mentor, confident, supporter and best friend to me, and I can't explain how much she means to me.

So Whitty, happy (belated) birthday. I love you more than you'll ever know.

xo Jay