Christmastime

So finals are done and first semester is over. Studying for finals was so stressful but I made it through and I feel good abou how I did. It is so nice to feel completely stress free! My friend has an extra ticket for a concert tonight and she offered it to me so I am very excited for that. It is Paul Brandt and High Valley and it is going to be a whole bunch of fun.

Tomorrow I am going home and it will be so nice to be home for a bit. I will be working a lot but it should be fun anyways. And I am excited for some snow, but not for the cold. Christmas is going to be pretty busy with going home, working, coming back to BC for Christmas, staying with my best friend's family and then back to school. All the while I need to try and figure out a way to work out consistently throughout the next few weeks.

Last night I had such a fun night with Tim. We cooked supper together and then after made the most delicious Bailey's milkshakes MMmmmm. It was so tasty and then we watched a movie after and it was just great.

Anyways, there is not much else going on right now. Life is good and Christmas is coming!!

"For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given,
   and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
                                        - Isaiah 9:6

End of Semester

Well the first semester is quickly coming to a close. Classes are done and finals are around the corner. I have so much to study and I have no idea how I am going to contain it all into my brain. Let's just say it's gonna hurt for a while. It will feel so nice when finals are finally over. After that, I get about 3 weeks off! It will be busy though. I will be kinda running all around from place to place; from school, to home, to my sister's house, to school, to my friends house and then back to school. And I am hoping to see my boyfriend sometime throughout all that craziness.

The past few weeks have been pretty chill. I had a few big papers to write, but they got done somehow (not really sure how though) and with volleyball slowing down, I have had a lot more free time. Yesterday my team had our weekly "team time" and it was really good as usual. Everytime two girls share their testimony and I love hearing about where my friends come from and why they are the way that they are. It is also a good environment for all of us to support eachother and pray for eachother. I love my team and I love team time! After team time,a  few of us went to Brad and Donna's (my assistant coach and his wife) and chilled in the hot tub! It was so relaxing and wonderful :)

Anyways, that is about it for now, I am going into study mode and I plan to not come out until I write my last final.

How great is our God

The past few weeks have definitely been better for my stress levels which is wonderful. I finally got my student loan money which has taken so much stress off. I hate worrying about money and now I do not have to! I also booked my flights home for Christmas and I am so excited to see my family. I am hoping to make all the money that it cost me to buy my flights back over the holiday by working and I have that all set up as well.

I have just a few more papers to write and then 3 finals and that will end this semester! It is so crazy how fast the time flies by. Next semester seems like it will be a tough one though. I do not have any easy classes to allow me to focus more on the harder ones because they are all going to be hard. AND I have to have a Friday morning class which sucks so much :( I am really not pleased with this. At all.

We got this weekend off of volleyball which has been fantastic. It gives everyone a chance to recover from being tired and sore and injured etc. It also gave me the chance to watch the basketball teams play and that was enjoyable. I had a physio appointment yesterday morning and it went good for the most part. He was able to fix the issue with my foot. The bones in my foot were all stiff and not moving around and he did something magical and it moves now so it feels way better now. He also did some work for my shoulder. The reason that my shoulder got injured on the first place is because my hips and back and shoulders and collar bones and neck were all out of line. It was seriously messed up. He fixed it pretty good last time but was just checking it this time and was making sure it was all still in line. He cracked my back which felt so good and did some rehab work on my shoulder. Then he was doing something with my neck and all of a sudden out of nowhere, he cracked my neck. The kind of cracking that you see in movies and never want anyone to do to you for fear of dying! He just did it! He did not warn me or anything, just cracked it. It felt kinda weird but I thought to myself, "he knows what he is doing and I'm still alive, so I guess it worked!" However, today my neck is sore incredibly sore. Maybe this is supposed to happen, but its so sore that it is giving me a headache and it hurts to hold my head up and it just feels really stiff. I am going to see how it feels by Monday and if it is still sore, I will call physio and tell them about it and hopefully get it fixed or something. Other than my neck, everything else is feeling pretty good from being able to rest up a bit. My shoulder is getting some much needed rest and my muscles are able to get better from feeling so sore.

Today my Mom called me to tell me that my Pake is in the hospital again with pneumonia. It's good that the doctors know exactly what is wrong so that they can treat him, but it is not good obviously and it scares me. I am so afraid of what will come and when it will come. I do not know what I will do when it happens, besides cry. A verse comes to mind from Revelation. I am in Revelation class at school and it has been so amazing to learn what it all means. Anywyas, the verse is:

"Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Revelation 7:16-17

This passage is comforting because I know that when we die, we will go to be with God and there will be no suffering and there will be no sadness. God himself will wipe away the tears of His people. The incredible, unending amounts of love and grace that comes from God never ceases to amaze me! How great is our God!

God is Good!

So this weekend was definitely better. I was feeling surprisingly unstressed and I was able to get a lot of my paper done on friday which was swell. We had more games this weekend, and we played Camosun. We never beat them last year, but we won on Friday!! It was so great to win and we played so amazing. Check out the CBC website, under athletics and click on the story about "WVB 3-1 over visiting chargers", there you will see a video of me talking about the game! It's a little embarassing because I was put on the spot, but whatever, its cool I guess. Anyways, so we played Camosun again on sat at 1pm and we played pretty bad in the first two sets and ended up losing the game. It sucked a lot but I was not as mad as I usually get when we lose. I had a lot of ancouragement from the other cpatain on the team whaich was wonderful and I also had a lot of encouragement from my coach. I had a pretty relaxing rest of the day on Saturday and I even made myself a real dinner! It was actually pretty tasty :) Today I woke up confused because of daylight savings time and I did not know if my phone reset itself automatically but I ended up figuring it out. I went to church and was really confused by the sermon and did not get what he was trying to say at all. Then I went for lunch with one of my best friends, Kari!! We had a great time chatting and spending some time together. Then I came home and called my mommy. We had a good chat, as always, and it made me feel so happy because my Mom always has the best things to say to me :) Then I worked on my paper and finished it (with a short nap in between). The cool thing was, I felt absolutely no stresss while doing it which was unusual for me so everyone who has been praying for me for less stress had helped! Because God answered and made me less stressed! God is so good! My roomie and best friend came home tonight (after going home to her family for the weekend) and it was great because I missed her and we always have so much to talk about and we have so much fun together. FFL!!!!!

Here's a verse that really speaks to me lately:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7

This is so true, because through prayer this past week, I was able to receive peace from God!!

On my mind....

So another day has come and gone. With the craziness of school and volleyball right now, time seems to fly by so quickly. One moment it's Monday and I have a whole week to look forward to and the next moment it seems like it's Thursday (almost) and the weekend is upon me. Within all this craziness I have so many different thoughts running through my head. I have quite a few big papers coming up really fast and I need to get working on them ASAP. I have a group project that's due on Tuesday and I have to meet with my group soon. I have extra meetings here and there for various things, like coaching club volleyball next semester and team time for volleyabll. I have to prepare my testimony to share with my team tomorrow night and we have two games this weekend that I am thinking about as well that would be really nice to win. I hurt my shoulder a couple weeks ago and I went to physio on Monday for it and that went really well but my shoulder is still sore a lot and I cannot use it 100% yet so that is very frustrating and I really just want it to feel better. On Saturday we will be missing two of our key players and we are already missing one of our vets so that one should be interesting. I am still waiting on student loans to come through so I am pretty stressed about that because I need the money desperately and if I do not get it, I do not know what will happen. I am also still thinking a lot about my Pake (Grandpa) because he was in the hospital for a number of weeks and is finally out now but he is still in need of prayer for strength and healing. I am always thinking anout my Mom and sisters and Dad and how I miss them. I miss my family a lot more than I did last year. I think this is because last year everything was still so new and exciting whereas this year, as it is still fun, it is not new and I am definitely used to my schedules and such and I find myself missing my family more than before. Of course, boys add stress to the situation. All the 'does he like me,' 'should I talk to him first or not', 'what is he thinking' type of questions are there all the time. As far as volleyball goes, this week has been probably the best week for practices thus far, however I find myself getting frustrated more than I ever have with different things which does not make sense. The team has been working so hard, yet I am seeing only the parts that are not quite there yet. Maybe it's good to know what we still need to work on, but I think it's important to acknowledge the things that have improved greatly. As one of the captains on the team, I am finding that there are certain things that I have to deal with that I would not have had to deal with if I were not a captain. I am happy to be in a leadership position, and I am loving is so far, but some of the things that need to be addressed are not the easiest so I am having to look for the confidence, strength, understanding and care of a good leader. I am also finding that I am very emotional at the end of each day, more so than I usually am. I am pretty sure that part of this has to do with the fact that I have a lot of things on my mind so that makes me stressed out. And I am a week late for my period (sorry for the bluntness) and I think that is because I have been stressing which can make it fluctuate and now I'm stressing about why I'm not getting it so that's making it delay even more. Also, due to my business and stress, all my back muscles are super tight and my shoulders and neck and that is causing my whole back to be more sore than usual and I really just want a two-hour massage cause that would be wonderful. I also am trying to figure out when and if I am going home before or after Christmas. This depends on the student loans coming in and if I can get some cheap flights. I find that I am starting to forget things here and there that I usually do not forget. Like sending birthday cards on time, I forgot to bring my travel mug home from service practicum, I forget about meetings until the last minute, I forget to keep in touch with certain people that I really need to make an effort to talk to regularly. Even just writing this blog, which is helpful because it allows me to get everything on my mind out of my mind, but it also just piles all my stresses in a big tower that looks so tall right now that I cannot see the top and it is so overwhelming, I just want to cry. I know that crying will make me feel better, but at the same time, I do not want to cry becasue I want to be superwoman; I want to be able to handle it all. I think I have taken on this "superwoman" mindset this year and I am not sure yet if it is a good thing or not. It could be good because I am taking charge and becoming a leader, which includes more responsibilities, but on the other hand, I need to be careful not to take on more than I can handle.

Well, I think that is it for now. I have no idea if any of what I just wrote makes any sense, but I do not care enough to go over it and check. It is just my rant of what's on my mind. This may sound really depressing, but it really isn't. Yes, I am stressed out right now, but it is a part of life. I am very happy with my life and I do enjoy the things that I am doing (school, volleyball, being a leader, etc). I am admitting to having weaknesses. We all have them, and I know that it is ok. A verse that has stood out for me in the past few months is:

"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corinthians 12:10

Yes, I have weaknesses, I have felt insulted at times, I have dealt with hard situations, I have had difficulties and even persecutions (nto as much of these, especially at a Bible college, but we all experience it in some way or another, large or small). But despite these weaknesses, I KNOW that through Christ, I am strong. This is the title of my blog and it is so true. 

Another verse that has been important to me this year is:

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." -Matthew 6:33-34a

This one reminds me not to worry. Even though I have so much on my mind and so much to do, I am reminded to take everything one day at a time because it does no good to worry about what will happen tomorrow. All I have is right now, and right now, I have Christ!!!

Today

So today we had our first game of our third weekend of league games. We played College of the Rockies... they are not very good. We played well in the first set and won. And then in the second set, something happened and we just could not stay focused and we lost it. But we came back to win the 3rd and 4th sets so that was nice to finally have a big 'ol W on the board. We play them again tomorrow and hopefully we can take it iin three this time.

I am very frustrated on another topic. Boys are really a big waste of time. Either the ones that you do not like pursue you, or you end up liking the ones who dislike "blonde haired giants" (dutch people) or the ones who are so shy that you cannot even have a normal conversation with. It would be nice to be the one who is pursued by someone who is genuinely nice and caring and cute and Godly and what not. But right now that person does not exist. So I am going to give up for real this time. I am so sick of wasting my time on thinking about guys. It is seriously so stupid.

Anyways.. I just needed to rant and get that off my chest cause I am just a little bit angry right now. It got triggered because some guys were over at my house (one may or may not be a guy I might like) (and the other may or may not be a guy who likes me too much and is probably jealous) and they just got up and left. Seriously??? Who does that? I find that to be so rude! I am just not a fan right now.

Back to volleyball, I totally packed (hit the ball into the face) a girl today and it was awesome. That may sound mean, but really, it only happens if you do not defend yourself properly so it's not my fault. I feel as though I played generally well today. I missed too many serves which I will focus harder on tomorrow. I think I could be getting more blocks too. Other than that, I think I did pretty well. The fact taht I was only tipping in practice all week because of my shoulder made it easier for me to tip on games because I used to never do that. I think I managed to tip approximately 4 times today so that was good.

Ok well it is now late and I have an early game toorrow morning so I am going to go to sleep.

Good night all.

Some Thoughts

Why do poeple get mad at other people? Well it is usually because they did something hurtful to them. But what if they apologize? Then what? Are they supposed to accpet it and move on? Is there a designated amount of time for getting over what happened? Should the first person declare war on the other? Should they pretend like everything is okay when it's not? I just do not know what is supposed to happen. Is there more a person can do than apologize?

"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you,  live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." -Romans 12:17-21


This is saying that we need not get revenge on people and that God will take care of it. So if someone does "declare war" on you because they are mad, we can, in turn, respond with kindness and love.

Four and O

So my team had our second weekend of league games this weekend and we played against our cross-town rivals. Our game on Saturday started out really good and we almost won the first set and we played so good. But after that, we shut down and lost in 3 sets. Then on saturday after two very long team meetings and watching game tape and talking about how we were going to play better and do what we weres upposed to do, we came out and played so bad again and lost in 3 sets again. It is so frustrating to lose all the time and since I'm so competitive, I get really angry after we lose. So I was not too happy. Also, I did something to my shoulder in the game on Friday and I do not know what, but it has been hurting so much since then and I could not play properly yesterday because of it which was also frustrating. I will have to make an appointment with physio I think to get it checked out. I just feel like physio does not do much. Last time i went for my back and it did not help at all. Our record now is four losses and no wins. Hopefully we can turn this around because it sucks and I do not want a repeat of last ear where we lost all the time.

Movies and a song

So I am so happy that it is the weekend finally!! I am chillin at home alone because my roomies and some friends went to a movie. They went to see Paranormal Activity 3. I dod not go because I am wayyyy to scared for taht kind of movie. I do not do well with scary movies at all. It's not only that I get scared with them, but I also just do not really agree with them. Why should we fill our minds with such things as blood, gore, killing, massacres, demons etc.? Is it wrong? No. But is it necessary? No. I do not have a problem if other people want to watch those types of movies, but I just think that I can be filling my mind with better things. Since they are all gone, I was kind of bored and I am now listening to my worship music, singing along and relaxing (and blogging obvs). I am listening to one of my favourite hymns right now: How Great Thou Art. I absolutley love the lyrics and so I am going to share them with you:

O Lord my God,
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thy Hand hath made,
I see the stars,
I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout
The universe displayed;

When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
I hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze;


Refrain:
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come,
With shouts of acclamation,
And take me home,
What joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
"My God, how great Thou art!"


Refrain:
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!

This song has always been one of my favourites and it brings tears to my eyes sometimes when I sing it because it is so true. God is so GREAT!!!!

Intro

Hello,

I created this blog so I can just write out my thoughts and have a place to vent or share news or whatever. So to start, I am very happy that it is Wednesday because that means that I have officially completed all of my biggest midterms and I can finally relax tonight! (I am a student at Columbia Bible College and I also play volleyball there.. I will probably talk about it a lot) I am very sore from volleyball. We had team workout yesterday and my back is very sore. I have an ongoing back problem that physio has not been able to really help me with and they do not seem to know exactly what is wrong. Something in my spine is abnormal and it causes all the muscles in my back to be tight and sore. Sometimes they even spasm. I have good days and bad days. Good days are when I do not have any pain at all and bad days are where it hurts to do pretty much everything except lay down flat on my back. So that hurts :( We had practice today and that went really well and now since my midterms are over and I have no assignments for tomorrow, I am going to chill out tonight. Take a long shower, listen to some music, eat some food, maybe watch a movie. The options are endless.