I have a brother (in-law)

Monday, July 31, 2006

Saturday July 29th was my little sister's wedding day!
I can't believe that Danielle is married. She is now Danielle Robb; Mrs Robb!
What a weekend. I feel like everything went by in a blur.
An outdoor wedding is quite a lot of work, but definitely very beautiful

The wedding took place at Mike Weir Park in Sarnia (Bright's Grove). We had the ceremony on the beach and then the reception under the pavillion that we so beautifully decorated.
Danielle looked absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress, and I finally got to wear my dress. Even though it was so hot outside I didn't mind wearing black.

The ceremony was great and I didn't mess it up on any of my parts. I didn't realize that I was responsible for taking care of a ring and luckily I didn't lose it...like I normally would. It is probably the first and last time I will ever be a maid of honor and so I wanted it to be perfect for my sister. I thought everything went beautifully and soon the ceremony was over and they were officially married!
After many, many pictures (Danielle married a photographer) we finally got to get the party/reception started. I was excited all day for delicious steak. The cake looked great too, they designed the whole thing to look like a sand castle. Cute.

I was super nervous for my speech and I practiced in my head the whole dinner. One thing that was a bit weird at the wedding was looking out at the guests and only knowing half of them. But just a lot of more fun people to get to know I guess.
Anyway, after the dinner and speeches, Danielle and Aaron had their first dance as a married couple. It's funny because neither one had ever really danced before.

Nathan did a great job as the emcee for the evening and I was glad he was there. He was a huge help and just a heck of a lot of fun. He posted all the pictures he took on his blog if you're curious to see more.
Looking forward to hanging out with the newly weds when they come back from their honeymoon up north at a cottage. All in all, it was a busy but great weekend with the family, and I finally have the brother I've always wanted!

Money Money Money

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Last night I was lucky enough to barista at the Frwy while the Socially Responsible Investing Discussion took place.
For those of you that were unable to make it, you for sure missed out, and not just on the free dessert/coffee.
To be completely honest, I wasn't able to catch all of the discussion due to my barista duties, but Randy pretty much summed up what they talked about for me afterwards.
The discussion lacked powerpoint, portfolios, documents etc, on PURPOSE. There was no catch, no sign on the dotted line, no pressure.
The whole night was a time for everyone to just sit, chat and ask questions about investing money in companies that are concerned about where that money is going. It was informal, personable and easy to understand. I got to talk to Terri Rice, the main speaker afterward and she was inspiring. She told me that it's not often she gets to speak to the actual clients, usually she just works with brokers. She said that it is awesome to see people actually concerned with ethical investments and it encourages her to make sure people are aware of this decision when starting to invest their money. Scott Reeves was also there and his office is located in downtown Hamilton, because he wants to be there! He was a super cool guy. I was talking to him after the discussion too about people like me, with not alot of money, but wanting to do the right thing once the pay cheques start coming in...He told me that it doesn't matter if you have 100$ to invest or 100 000$, he's into people who are into socially responsible investments. He'll take time to walk you through what's best for you whether you've got lots or a little bit of money.
I was blown away by these people and their desire to use their job, the business they are in, for good. To make sure that money is being used properly and not contributing to things like sweatshops. They are really people who are making kindgdom investments. I was inspired by their work and their attitude towards life. So for those of you who missed out, if we are able to get Scott and Terri to come back for a second discussion night, you don't want to miss it!
Make sure you know where your money is going...

I broke my blog

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

All I was trying to do was add Kevin, Kaelyn, Jason etc. to my 'Friends' list and I ended up deleting half my blog.
How ridiculous is that?
Nathan managed to save all my posts, but all the cool design is gone. Sad face!
The worst part is that Nathan, Pernell AND Kevin are all away so my blog will stay broken until they return.
I guess you never really appreciate things until they are gone, sigh.

It's a girl

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I stopped my preaching rants this afternoon.
And put my VISA where my mouth is.

Today I sponsered a beautiful little girl.
Her name is Paola and she is from Honduras.

Paola lives with her mom and dad as well as 2 other siblings. Her mom and dad are occasionally employed. Paola works at home caring for their animals as she is still too young to attend school. She loves to play dolls, hide and seek, and attend Bible class.

Her birthday is the same day as my sister Danielle, and my family recently returned from a missions trip to Honduras so that's why I chose Paola.

I'm glad I get to be a part of her life.

Feed me?

I haven’t been eating very well. I pretty much live off of the Frwy Coffeehouse grilled cheese sandwiches and Union Market bagels. It's my own fault though, a combination between laziness, a busy lifestyle and poor cooking skills.
I was feeling inspired to take better care of myself today when I remembered a conversation I had awhile ago with one of the girls that lives in my house. She’s quite a nice girl and was telling me all about her recent purchase. A membership to a weight loss centre to aid her goal to get in shape and feel better about herself. This membership was not free, and came at quite the price. Many hundreds of dollars were spent to help her eat healthy and to inspire motivation to exercise. I’m really proud of her for having the self discipline to eat healthy. It’s expensive and difficult when all you’re craving is ice cream (and she informed me that ice cream has way too many points!)
I know I’d have a hard time dieting.
But this got me thinking…not to get picky, but it’s amazing to me that our North American culture spends so much money on exercise, dieting and weight loss, while half the world is starving. I know I am not an ideal body weight, Erin and I always joke about our extra little wobbly chub, but I know I’m not fat. It’s easy to think that though in the culture we live in. Thin is in and many of us suffer the consequences.
However, today I didn’t start to rant about the media, worry about anorexia or even wish I was skinnier secretly in my head. Today I was struck with a realization that half the world is starving themselves while the other half is starving. What a confusing world we live in today. So many campaigns to alleviate world hunger, while at the same time we’re spending millions to get thin.
In 1996 the World Food Summit set a goal to potentially eradicate world hunger by 2015. According to their statistics, currently 852 million people are chronically undernourished. EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO MILLION PEOPLE. An even more staggering fact is that one BILLION people in this world are living on less than one dollar per day! This is unacceptable. If this global number doesn’t make you cringe, here’s a more local example. In Canada, in 2/3’s of single parent homes, the parent reports not eating in order to have enough food to last the entire week. That’s almost 70% of single parent households that don’t have enough to eat on a weekly basis. Food is a luxury to these people. A luxury! I think of the definition of luxury and somehow a visual of bread doesn’t immediately surface.
I ache inside that my desire is to lose five pounds while people around the world are praying for their next meal. How as a culture can we be so selfish, sit back and do nothing as people go to sleep hungry? Food is a basic human need. All people should have access to this ‘luxury’ whether rich or poor. Food is a right, and this is something that is non-negotiable.

It's getting hot in here...

Monday, July 17, 2006

I was searching on my computer for a specific document and I came across an old essay I wrote in grade 9. It's funny looking back on your writing from 6-7 years ago. Thankfully I have progressed since then, but what I had to say wasn't that bad. Interestingly enough, my essay was about global warming. Nathan just posted about the fact that we went to go see The Inconvenient Truth at the Westdale Theatre. Depsite my cynical suspicisions of a political ploy, Al Gore had some great things to share. The movie was powerful and a definite must see.I learned so much from this movie and re-reading my little essay it would be tough to share it all. But I'll venture to leave a few comments.
Global warming is a big deal. It's not just something scientists, university students and environmentalists should talk about. Everyone needs to do their part to be informed on this global issue. Why? It's our fault! The way we live is creating a consistant temperature increase that will have devestating effects on this earth if we don't pause and choose to do something about it.
It was so interesting to me how I could write this essay for school and a mere 6 years later, forget about the words I so passionately shared with my peers. We tend to live in the moment don't we? It's so tough to break into our long term memory as a people. Things like 9-11, the tsunami, hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, they are remembered mostly because of their immediate devestating effects. Or have you forgot about these disasters already? It's easy to forget. However, events like these usually etch our memory and fill the pages of history books, while things that are brought about slowly with minimal short term damage are overlooked. For example, what about the crisis in Darfur where millions of people are dying? How many of us are informed or ready to be moved by this? Not enough. The time has come to stop living for today and start thinking about tomorrow.
An illustration that really put things into perspective for me was one about a frog. If a frog jumps into a boiling pot of water, it will jump out immediately. It recognizes that the water is too hot and that it is dangerous to remain in that situation. On the other hand, if a frog jumps into a lukewarm pot of water and the temperature goes up gradually, the frog will happily stay in the water unaware of the imminent danger.
We are like that frog. We're sitting in a boiling pot and we're lazily basking in our hot tub of relaxation while disaster awaits. But this disaster can be avoided. We as a concerned people can decide to take action and hop out of this pot.
I was challenged by this movie and my grade 9 science essay to re-evaluate the way I live and to be responsible for the way I live.
Go see the movie, hopefully it will change your actions too.

Whew...

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I'm officially done summer school today.
Enough studying, presenting, researching.
I'm ready for a break.

But first...sleep!

Happy Birthday to My Friend Pam