Confusing Communion in a Strange Denomination!

A long long time ago (yesterday ) in a land far far away (Kansas City) two seasoned experts on the practises of Communion entered into a strange denomination of which communion is only a shadow of the CRC.....

Ok, so yesterday was sunday and that time of the month....(no not that) It was communion at church! SO....

SCENES FROM LAST SUNDAY:

Narrator: The Pastor's wife introduced herself to Jessica and Steven after church and learned about their situation. She was interested about the fact that they had been married a mere 3 weeks at that point and was curious to know more about us. She then asked....

Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): So did you go to any other church's since you have been here?
Steven: I went before Jess came to a Luthuren Church.
Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): Oh, how did you like it?
Steven: Well it was ok, it was a little weird, the Pastor sang the litergy and the whole congregation all drank out of the same communion cup.
Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): Oh, Ok, (laughing) so you didn't like that.....
Steven: I didn't do communion because it was a little too weird for me at the time...
Narrator: Steven, Jessica and the Pastor's wife continued to talk and it was a friendly conversation indeed.

THIS WEEK AT THE SUNDAY SERVICE:

Narrator: Steven and Jessica enter the church and converse with members of the congregation. Topics such as bible Study, babies, Kansas City University winning their previous game- (college basketball) were all discussed. After the congregation sits down and the service begins....Steven and I notice something at the front......something on a table.....something I hadn't done since I was in Edmonton....something looked a little off.....Could it be.....no wait.....it couldn't! BUT IT WAS!

A Half Loaf of Bread and a SINGLE CUP OF GRAPE JUICE adorned the table for COMMUNION!

Steven looked at me....and I looked at him....it was pretty obvious. This communion was going to be a weird one.

Steven just couldn't believe that he had said all those opinions about communion at last weeks service without experiencing communion here first.

So the worship starts and then ends (it was lovely) and the sermon begins and finishes off (very powerful....meaningful...) and then it started. Communion. And I have done Communion many times....but never like this. I was very concerned I was going to get sick! What if I got a cold sore! So then the Pastor organizes people to stand around the table at about 8 at one time.....Steven and I happened to be in one of the front rows....so we went first with a few other people. So they passed the loaf around and you were supposed to rip off a piece. So we did that. We were very much concentrating on the bread and passing it around when to my surprise I saw the big silver cup of juice coming my way! I quickly downed the bread and Steven did as well....we both looked at eachother and I took the cup in my hands, raised it to my lips and took a sip....and Steven gave me this nervous awkward look and took a sip as well.....wWell, when we passed it to the next person they

dipped
their
bread
in
the
juice
HOW EMBARRASSING! Yeah, so we were the only ones to sip the juice (we had no bread left to dip anyway) and everyone else very sanitarily dipped the bread in and then ate it........we walked back to our seats and Steven could not stop laughing. He was shaking our bench! He just could not stop thinking about the fact that we sipped out of that cup and that everyone else had dipped the bread! We poisoned everyone with our germs! We also were laughing that we were the crazy Canadians who thought that this possibly wasn't a communion but a lunch and left the communion table full of bread and juice mustaches around our mouths like children....

Nobody mentioned it to us afterward....but we were still laughing about it after the service....I guess I'm going to watch and listen more closely the next time I'm in a strange church and communion begins in a strange way....

Honeymoon pictures

The honeymoon was really really fun and relaxing! We went skiing, dogsledding, shopping, had a fondue dinner and even went to a dinner theater! Very memorable time!

oh good grief!

This is a picture from my bachelorette with all the cousins! Thought I would throw that in here with the rest of my random post!

Read what I accidentally almost posted on someone's wall. If you read it carefully, it makes me sound so crazy!

"Yeah, school is all done and I graduated from Grant MacEwan from the Social Work program. I worked after school till I got married in a group home and now I technically can't work here at all! "

It makes it sound like I got married in a group home, and not only that I got married in a group home, but because I did, I cannot work in the States! So there is some mixed up thought process! Good thing I read that before I sent that out! When I read it after I wrote it I burst out laughing! How embarrassing! I will be asked if I had the ceremony in a group home, and what kind of a person would do that anyway? So strange. So there is a mistake for you to laugh at!

Today Steven and I had lunch, I made him a lunch and brought it over to him. It was pretty tasty and Steven ate whole wheat brown bread! I was pretty excited about that. Although the bread here is considerably sweeter here than in Canada, it is something that I keep noticing.

Also, the drivers are so angry all the time! Everybody honks at eachother, and it's not like Canada, people here honk ALL the time for anything! driving too close, not moving exactly when the light is green, all that kind of stuff. Makes me a very scared pedestrian. Although I wouldn't compare it to the Carribean countries who just honk their horn for honking sake, the people here are actually pissed!

So two American insights for the day. The bread here is made with more sugar, and the drivers are considerably more angry than in Edmonton.

A very fun night!

Last night was my bachelorette party! It was very fun! The night started out with toboganning and stern warnings from our mothers to be careful on the most deadly hill in edmonton....the last time my cousins and I had been there, a girl had an accident and had to have re-contructive face surgery! So needless to say, this hill is steep, and has bumps that will send you flying! The best sled was one that had a smooth plastic side and a layer of foam - perfect for the bumps big and small as you go down! (Many were lamenting this morning of sore bums.) That was very fun. Then we headed out to a hotel where we proceeded on with our merry little party. It was very fun, we had alot of games that we played. Then we all got separated at mid night by a security guard. Apparently we were being too loud. Then a devastating phone call with the threat of eviction! We all kept it down after that....but it was pretty funny. A pretty memorable night too! Thanks to Penny, Eva, and Christine, and all the others who made it so much fun!

Looking forward to the end of my shift....boxing day celebrations!

Ok, so yesterday the kids came about 10 minutes afer I wrote that post...and then it was even sadder. they were just so hyper and they were pushing limits and I was by myself.....augh. So today has been another amazing day at the group home. (sarcasm) One of our girls has been trying to convince me that just washing her hair is as good as having a shower...so that's been interesting. The boy that we have here is supposed to clean up his room today. We just finished and it took us (I helped him, he needed it) coming up on an hour and a half. I feel like I should be almost done my shift when I have only completed only two hours of it - another 4 to go. Anyway. Today is boxing day and I actually am thankful for this 8-2 shift because now I can celebrate boxing day with Steven's mom's side of the family, (yesterday was his dad's.) Should be fun, it always is. Anyway. I needed to vent about work. Right now I hear the shower being turned on and off and banging in the bathroom, so who knows what is going on in there with that girl!

20 minutes...

Ok, it has been 20 minutes since the last post and still no kids!!!!!!!!!! AUGH! I am bored and I want to eat a christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas!

hello, it is Christmas Day and I have to work. What probably is the most brutal about this curerntly is that I have been here for a useless half an hour without any children in this group home. While my family is eating the most delicious din din, I am on the internet while my co-worker plays nintendo. Ok, I am a little sad, but really, I'm not too terribly sad. I'v decided I won't despair, I did get to spend quite a bit of time with my family this christmas! Yesterday was Christmas Eve and it was wonderful! We read the Christmas Story from the Bible and watched "The Nativity Story" on TV. We opened up presents and I was very pleased with what I had to give, and what I recieved! Very relaxing evening, it was memorable. Today I woke up and went to the Christmas day service at our church. Then Steve and I went to his parent's house for opening of gifts and stockings! Once again, nice gifts! Then while munching on some hors devors we watched some "planet earth" which Steve's parents had recieved and it was spectacular! Then to Grampa and Gloria's (Steve's side of the family) for some family time, although I didn't get to spend christmas dinner with them, I still spent some time with them so that was nice. So anyway, I hope that everyone had a satisfying christmas! Merry Christmas and hopefully these kids show up real soon so it can be worth my while!

Oiler's Game!

Last week Dad, Andy, Penny and I all went to the Oilers game! The weather was brutally cold
and we walked far to avoid paying for parking because that is the biggest rip off ever! The game was against the Columbus Blue Jackets and we won 3-1! It was a great game! Thanks Dad for taking us!

Christmas Bake Day!

For the first time in a long time I am excited about seeing the snow. It doesn't bother me really very much to have to take extra time to drive in it or to be so careful all the time. I did almost get into two accidents on separate occassions this past week. And still the snow is not really stressing me out very much. I guess because the sooner the snow comes and things start getting cold the sooner the wedding! I find myself wanting to go swimming all the time lately - so that I can sit in the hot tub and finally get warm! It seems like a shower just doesn't cut it these days for getting you warm!

I am missing out on the annual christmas girls party with my highschool friends (that actually started in junior high.) I have not missed a year since then and am feeling a little sad about it. Sometimes having to work friday and sautday nights is not always that great! Oh well, at least I can see them the next week at bible study.

Last sunday we had a really fun time doing some christmas baking with my bible study friends and cousins! We made christmas trees (coconut/white chocolate), gingerbread men, sugar cookies with icing, gingersnaps, and candycane shortbread! DELICIOUS! And it was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who made the treck out to St. Albert for that! It was a really great day! Here are some pictures I stole from facebook! Thanks Erin!

Going back to work...

Yeah, so I'm probably going back to work this week. I'm pretty much better, not 100% yet, but the doctor says "I can see that you are doing a lot for your long term recovery, keep up the good work." Sounds promising! Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to going to work, it will be kind of like a fresh start. I actually really needed that break, it truly was from God. The first two weeks were no picnic but after that I started to enjoy my time off and then I got a head start on my wedding!

Speaking of the wedding, I booked the caterer today and the hair salon! They said "We highly recommend the trial hair-do" I was like shove it you money hungry salon people!!!! Well, I figure that there is no way that I could honestly look that bad after a visit to the salon, like come on. These are professional hair stylists. And besides all of that, I am cheap, and I could use the extra $55 dollars. How ridiculous that the trial is less expensive than the wedding day hair-do. I should just tell them that it's a trial on the wedding day. (I won't but honestly.)

Anyway we are all still so tired from Matt and Liz's wedding which was a total blast. We danced till 1:30am! (We as in Steven and I, and our friends) Everyone's calves hurt. I certainly hope that I didn't spell that wrong - I mean the muscles on the back of your lower legs! The wedding gave me some good ideas for my own especially since I plan on having my ceremony in the same place. Steven was making fun of me telling people that I was taking notes. The embarrassing part is that people were like "Where are these notes?" I was like, no I took mental notes not actual notes! So thanks a lot Steve!

Found: A hall!

I found a hall! It is exciting! It's a newer building and yet still small, just the right size! So thank goodness that is over with! We also have a location to take pictures indoors (which is a big deal in Edmonton because it is simply too cold to take all the pictures outside in the winter!) And not only that, it will be for free, which makes a huge difference. I need a photographer that will take pictures for less than 1.5 grand ... This is going to be difficult. Hopefully I can get a good one in time!

Another couple in my group of friends are engaged! As of right now there are 4 couples in the engaged stage! That is alot of engaged people. Matt and Liz are getting married this weekend, and then Steve and I will be next in March. Two more weddings will follow in the summer. Crazy. We are so old!

Just a picture of Steve and I:

hurray!

I bought a car! it's pretty! it's white! it 1994! grand am! v6! 4 door! ahhhhhhhhh. I feel a lot better now. This weekend I am moving out. Excitement. I got the loan from the bank, although it required a lot of hasseling. I used up my gift certificates to Ikea and Sears from Christmas for a duvet cover, 500 thread count sheets! (oh, they are so nice!) and a rug type accessorie for my room! It will match my bright green walls, and I do mean bright green!

July long went awesome, went to Steven's parents cabin and did a hike, and a 4 hour quad ride! (literally 4 hours!) and it was no mediocre quad ride, very exciting. At night there was fireworks for Canada Day. It was a great weekend.

Steven did one of the cruelest things a boyfriend can do to a girlfriend. Oh yes, it may be hot outside, but does that justify shaving your head? It looked so different I couldn't even look at him for the first 15 minutes of him surprising me with it. I am more used to it now. Pictures to come of the horror! Oh how I miss his curly hair.....

Dominican Fun Times

That was an amazingly awesome trip. SO MUCH FUN! In the pictures you can see from the top:

1. The girls chewing on sugar cane, you don't eat it, you just chew it and so much juicy sweetness comes out!

2.The boys pretending to be sharks when we went to swim with sharks and sting rays.

3.The girls pretending to eat the coco plant. Usually when a coco plant is ripe is goes from green to yellow and then to red.

4. This is when we went on an outback safari through the country side. There is hardly any pollution, the air is so pure and clean, our tour guide told us that although the dominican people who live in the country may be poor, none of them ever go hungry because of the wealth of food.

5. The girls before supper one day. I'm showing off my t-shirt from the outback safari.

6. Taking a horseback riding break. And if you read my previous post, this break was very much needed for me. We are chewing on fresh coconut.

7. A section of the resort we stayed at. You can see our rooms, we stayed on the third floor in the top left hand corner.

8. Erika, Marla, and Kylie wiped out from boogie boarding. It's pretty intense.

9. Marla, Erika, Steph, and I.

10. All 13 of us at the sharks and sting rays tour.

the dominican is a great place....Happy Mothers day mom!

Happy mothers day mausha! This is a picture from Steph and I´s balcony of the day it rained! Tuesday. The rain was really cool, I got very burned on monday so I have been just putting on TONS of sunscreen these past few days. This is everything that a tropical vacation should be and everything that I dreamed it would be. It is the vacation of my dreams. Steve and I went kayacking today on the ocean! there was coral reef sticking out of the white breakers and we almost tipped over! It was so scary! hitting the coral reef would have really hurt! Thank goodness we didn´t tip over......then the resort has these entertainment people who got us to play this game for some prizes, Steph won, but she didn´t want the half hour massage, so she gave it to me! now I am the happiest girl in dominican! tomorrow I am going to try for the 5th time to get my legs tanned! but its been close to impossible to get any kind of tan or burn going on there.....It´s like the whitness refelcts the light back. Take that sun. This past week I also went and snorkeling the coral reef which was pretty neat, so beautiful, so many crazy fish, also during that trip we went swimming with sharks (nurse sharks) and sting rays. Nurse sharks are not dangerous, so it was scary cause they were right there swimming right beneath us! Last night we went for a sunset horseback ride along the beach....believe me it sounds 100% more romantic than it really was! But that was still fun, I am VERY sore from that trip... mostly because my horse loved to straight out run and my stirrups stretched out longer than my legs, so I was only holding on to the saddle without a handle. When that is the only thing you are holding onto...it is soooo impossible to pull on the reigns....to say the least I was a little stressed and a little sore from all the bumping. So when we went back after a much needed break, I very sneakely said that a different horse was the horse that I rode there and had a much more pleasant ride back home! sneaky I know, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Happy mothers day mom! I love you soooooo much! I tried to call collect but you weren´t home! So sad. Happy mothers day anyway! Tonight is the spanish buffet....not too sure what is going to be different about this one compared to Mexican and Dominican food night.....the best one so far has been bbq night.....although I have been quite adventourous in my food these days....rabbit, duck, and goat have been the different kinds of meat I have tried. And there is alot of mystery food here.....the desserts are kinda questionable......I never know what is actually going to be ok with my stomach... Most people here are not too sick....but there has been some considerable talk about the runs.....but it has been an incredible time so far, this week the plans are to go on a dominican country side safari, and to santo domingo the first place that columbus apparently landed in all of north, central, and south america! love you all!

I've got the wedding day jitters, but I'm not getting married

This post is just for christine! you have GOT to write at least one blog before your wedding day! You just gotta! It only has to be a sentence about how you are excited and busy! Please?????? We wanna know!

My great weekend!

I had a great weekend! Starting on Friday at Field Placement, I helped lead through several classes with the men's addiction and rehabilitation program! It was scary and yet very satisfying. Using the basic couseling skills we learn in school I was able to be the one in charge on Friday and I felt respected by the men there and effective. It's funny because the age range of these men go from 60-late 20's and sometimes I just think, I'm 21, never done drugs, female, and I am able to handle (with help) a men's addictions group! How exciting! Anyway, I went and talked to my Field Placement supervisor from the women's program that I was apart of for most of this year and she told me some profound things about being a counselor and how group process works.

Also on friday, I went to Starbucks to meet with my Field Placement Supervisor and I had $1.37 in my pocket. I went up to the Starbucks and asked if there was anything for about that much, and she just said, what do you want? I told her that if I didn't have enough it would be ok, and she just said what do you want? She eventually convinced me, and even the customers waiting in line were asking "how much are you short?" So I ordered a shaken iced tea passion fruit and it was so delicious! This is a must have when it comes to Starbucks drinks! Anyway, it turns out that those ladies gave me the biggest size and I seriously could have cried it was so sweet! They just said, make sure to do something nice to someone else in the future and I assured them I would! I think one of the other touching details of the story is that it was in one of the roughest neighborhoods in town. Seriously rough. And it's interesting how that would never happen in downtown....it really says something about the quality of people we have living in edmonton.

Ok, so saturday I went and bought christine's bridal shower gift and other gifts and it was the best! You know I LOVE buying gifts for people especially when they have a list of everything they might want at the store, it makes my shopping experience so great! And honestly I love the bride I was shopping for and she is so easy going and low maitenance when it comes to keeping her happy. She appreciates everything! It was a good experience. Saturday night I went to a group of tired friends from school and we talked and played games and it was so much fun, although we were so tired that the evening ended rather early because of that!

Then there was sunday, church, and then the bridal shower and that was just a blast. We played the toilet paper bride, and played a quiz about how well you know the couple's love story. It was a great day, one of my favorite parts was a speach from her aunt about being married, it included expectations and reality, the beautiful parts of being married and how to make it work. Another good part was when all the married women said something to christine about either how to make it work, what they wished they had known, or anything to look forward to. Some good stuff came out of that conversation, and it was said several times that having a Christ centered marriage is the most important thing. I really appreciate all that kind of stuff. It was a really nice party!

It was a great weekend!

Winter Retreat memories

Today it is exactly two years ago that me and Steve met.

I went on a college age winter retreat with a whole bunch of people I didn't know, hmmm, nope, I really didn't know any of them at all. The reason Steven and I started talking was because we were asked to draw the journey of our lives, ya it could have been really deep but most people just drew a picture of their house, their elementary school, stuff like that. So Steven drew this picture of his highschool, drew a stick-figure girl inside the school with a "X" over her. So I asked him if he liked girls. He got so red..... and tried to explain his girl problems from highschool. Steven was SOOOOO easy to tease....now he knows me too well and doesn't fall prey to my schemes. He says he liked me because I was crazy, and I never really understood that. I mean, there were some seriously crazy girls who were on that winter retreat. Anyway, when I looked at the date a while ago I remembered the significance.....Steven is going to read this and comment for sure about what I wrote and either tell me I was wrong or I really was crazy. So if he hasn't commented on this blog yet, he will and I will probably be in trouble.

Peace Out Pepsi!!!!

Tab came over yesterday and took some pictures and it was so much fun! Steven was really apprehensive about the photo shoot saying it was lame and stupid going in, I think he thought it was going to be a lot like walmart where I would sit in a chair and he would put one hand on my shoulder, and I would fold my hands in my lap and we would fake smile for a while.....but it turns out that Tab just let us have some fun while she took some pictures! She is going away to Switzerland for a year and since she has always offered me and Steve a photo shoot, we finally took advantage of it and it was really awesome! So, a picture of me and Steve rockin out and pepsi simpson.....a.k.a......hottest dawg on the planet. Peace out!

p.s. there are more pictures hopefully to come.

READING WEEK!

AHHHH! Reading week is FINALLY here! Now I can have a chance to have some fun and complete some projects that really badly needed to be finished and write some papers I didn't have time for.... So far to celebrate I have had a family day with Steve's dad's side of the family, gone out to cook my absolute favorite bar and danced the night away, (the last time I went out it was september), my highschool girlfriends and I had a get together last night, and cleaned up some things that I had ignored since christmas....so I'm feeling pretty good besides the fact that I'm physically sick but that doesn't really matter because I don't feel guilty about not going to school or field placement when there is none to go to! woooooowooooooo! I have asked Steve to phone me at 12 and ream me out if the project that I am working on is not done by then because I set a goal to be done by 12:00pm! Better get crackin on it, otherwise if Steve reads this blog after he reams me out I'm going to get another phone call....and it won't be pretty. Other than the fact that I hate school, these breaks are quite luxurious. There is no way that if I was working full time I would be able to have a spring break, a christmas break, and a november break, not to mention the fact that I only have at the most 6 hours of class a day.....much better than working, oh who am I kidding I would way rather be working. But I am thankful for the breaks, it's just that when you have so much over your head it is incredibly difficult to enjoy them. For the most part, I am enjoying these breaks.....even though technically I am just doing homework from 10 in the morning till 4......so I'm still working but I am at home and can do stuff in the evenings and no homework is due......ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! My current mood is very happy.

So it's definitly wednesday and the middle of the week. I have homework to do and am putting it off by writing a blog. I just have to say that today I am so ridiculously tired! The whole day was just a battle to keep my eyes open. Good grief.
Last night Steven, Rob, Leigh-anne, and I went to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Video Game Music Production. It was really fun, everyone enjoyed the show immensly. The crowd that this event attracted was mainly geeks. I have never seen so many nerds in one place, but then again, I have never been to the UofA Engineering Program Buildings. I know what your thinking! Yes I have been to Steven's (semi) passion, the Computing Science Program buildings, and it was seriously nerdy, but not as many people take Computing Science as Engineering. So this overwhelming amount of nerds filled up the entire Jubilie Auditorium. So much Sci-Fi. Wow. They had a big screen that would show images and animation of the video game that we were listening to. So many massive creatures with huge arms and teeny heads. And also so many purple transparent women in so many of the games. I know what your thinking - weird. I enjoyed the Super Mario Brother's Theme song and the Zelda them song. Funny how the same guy wrote both of them. Anyway it was a super fun night and a unique way to express music through video games!
One of my personal favorite parts was (you know when Mario goes underground through a pipe? And the music changes to: dana dana dana.....dana dana dana.....) ya, the whole symphony orchestra did that, I guess it's funny to watch old people play video game music on their cellos, violins, and other instruments.