The curled side bun

For this hairstyle, i sectioned off a patch of hair from the top of my head - about two inches back from my forhead (sp?) and then put the rest in a side ponytail. I then wrapped/coiled larger pieces of hair around my finger and pinned it to get the curl look. Then, with my curling iron i quickly curled the hair that was sectioned off at the top. After curling it, i layed it down on my head and pinned it until it looked like all of my hair had been curled. Try to cover all the straight areas with a curled piece of hair. What helps is when you curl a piece of hair and then separate it, creating multiple curls. Saves time! Next time i put up a hairstyle i'll take pictures of my steps, that way it's easier to understand :)

The "wet" Curl bun

Well, looking back over my pictures from a while back, i found a picture of a hairdo that i did for my mom. She was going to a company dinner, and it took approximatly...35 minutes max. Of course, i'm used to my mom's hair so doing this on someone else or myself it would take longer. I called it the "wet" curl because i applyed mousse to a section of hair, then curled it using my curling iron. Well, mousse takes a while to dry and i only gave it like 20 seconds so it was still on the wet side when i released it from the iron. So when i first saw it i was dissapointed because it looked very limp. However, it worked perfect because i could style the curl the way i wanted (i could pin it easily into the shape desired) and in the end i was happy with the results. So, here's the picture, if you have ANY questions, feel free to ask :)

New Blog Ideas

Well as you can tell, i'm not too good at keeping this thing updated! I just don't have any interesting stories to tell about children because i don't have any of my own, and my life is pretty much the same as far as adventure. So my friend (hope this is okay!) Leah has a great blog about different hairstyles that she does, and i thought that was a great idea! So i'll keep you posted on my latest hairstyles, etc! :)

Fitness Motivation

Before you read any further, let me assure you that i am not one of those girls who are obsessed about their weight and how many calories they consume daily. If you struggle to believe me, just watch me eat a piece of chocolate cake and you will be assured no doubt. :) One of my favorite sayings is that, "Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."

However...

I do believe in a balance! And when i mean a balance, i mean that if you want to consume 3 pieces of chocolate cake in one go, or snack all day on Gelato (i work in a Gelato store...yum!), then at least do your body the favor of excercising!

Excercising: any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health.

or, i could define it as,

something i don't do enough!

Excercising not only increases your health and fitness, but it helps you feel more 'alive', and it keeps away that sluggesh feeling that you can get. Now you are probably wondering, "where are you going with this?"

Well, it took all that to explain my story.

I wake up at 7am in the mornings (monday to friday), go to University, sit for 5 1/2 hours, come home, sit for another 3 hours doing homework etc. and the only excercise i get is the walk from my desk to the dinner table. :) Not good. Well, lately, I just got fed up being tired and drowsy in the mornings for my classes! I felt sluggesh...etc. So......I decided that i would start getting up 45 mins. earlier each morning to go running! It is hard getting accustomed to, but i LOVE IT! It gives me so much more energy and i feel great for my classes! Now, when i look at my fellow classmates who struggle to keep their eyes open for class... i just feel sympathetic for them. I'm also not just running to be more alert, but since i'm sitting down for almost 9 hours in a day... it's so easy to gain weight... and i'm not gonna start skipping dessert! ;) I also need to lose a few extra pounds that I try to hide.

Well, i thought i would just share my recent goal with you, and give you updates here and then on my progress!

...and to also maybe motivate one of you out there to start the same thing...

:)

A Review of Summer 09

Our horse riding trip (Above) Junior Camp Pictures (Below)

Manning Park (below)

Well, as much as i hate to say it, summer is leaving us once again. I am not as eager to jump up out of my bed in the mornings (not that i ever was) but i clutch the blankets around my face and fight to keep the cold air out. The trees are slowly getting dressed for Fall and looking out my window I notice various splashes of orange and brown on the leaves...and some have already fallen. School has also started up again! For me, I have 6 months of university to look forwards too, and then i am done school. It's about time!

I have thought back over this summer's events and realized that it has been such a wonderful year for me! I was blessed to be able to travel to Switzerland in May - June. That was the hilight of my entire year. I got out of school around the middle of June and that was the start of my summer. The remainder of June was a time for me to sleep in, relax, and enjoy every single minute that i wasn't in school. We went to spend a weekend in Victoria which was a treat. Around the middle of July, we took some people from france up to Manning Park. It was absolutly amazing! We had perfect weather and i was in my element. We went swimming, played volleyball, hiked, jumped off the bridge into the water, and did everything we possibly could fit into our 13hrs. of day-light. As soon as that was over, i was busy packing for summer camp! Camp this year was extra special for me because i was able to be an assistant councellor for junior camp! My cabin was so cute and we had alot of fun. hehe. THen right after that, was senior camp and this time i was the camper! I had SO much fun and the services were absolutly led by God. They were fantastic.

After camp, we took another trip up to Manning Park for my friend's birthday! It was alot of fun except we couldn't have a campfire because a fire ban was on! :( that was a huge downer, but we still had lots of fun swimming and playing intense volleyball. Lastly, during the last week of August, my family (except my dad who couldn't make it) and Hannah went up North to Quesnel and went horseback riding for a whole week. We rode horses ALOT, went fishing, re-united with family and enjoyed it overall. It really made me realize how much i love horses and nature! I was sad to have to come back to civilization. It's so much fun to get your nails dirty and rough-it for a week. After that, we went to Barkerville. Barkerville is a little town that has remained old-fashioned and you walk in old houses, buildings etc. There are woman and men dressed up in old-fashioned apparel and you feel like you've been sent back to the 1800's.

Well, i'm back to normal life now, and i have to adjust to waking up early for school, and coming home to homework. But hey, too much of a good thing is a bad thing! Maybe that's why we only get two sweet months of hot, lovely weather to enjoy ourselves and relax! But overall, i've had a pretty jam-packed summer! I enjoyed every single minute of it, and can't wait till summer 2010...if the Lord tarries!

My Trip to Switzerland

Vistiting with the Jung family ------ All of Dad's brothers and sisters except one sister

Top of

Europe

(The View from the Dining room)

Alrighty... i have procrastinated writing this post because i knew that it would take me a very, very long time to write. We covered every corner of Switzerland in one week... a very tiring, and rewarding adventure!

The Start of the Journey

Our flight to New York went perfectly. We had no problem with turbulence, smooth landing and takeoff, and the service was good. One thing however that i will make sure to remember for the next flight is that i must bring my own food. By the time i came home, i was thanking God for a mom that can cook a good, healthy meal! When combined, the amount of white flour and cheese that i consumed in 38 hours was the same amount i probably consume in one year. (I wish!) So, we flew from Seattle airport to New York. We had a four-hour layover and then continued on to Zurich, Switzerland! I made a huge mistake during the plane trip (although i couldn't really help it) i didn't sleep AT ALL. Thats not good, not good at all! I found myself staring at my own reflection in the dark plane window asking myself, "Am i normal?" All i could hear was the constant sound of fellow passengers snoring as i tried desperately to catch at least 5 minutes of sleep. I was unsuccessful to say the least.

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We arrived in Zurich at 8:30am. This was brutal because i just flew for 16 hours sleepless, only to arrive in the morning! To make matters worse, it took two hours to drive to the hotel, so we arrived in the afternoon, had lunch right away, settled in my room, and then went to the first convention meeting at 7pm. I felt so bad and prayed desperately that the preacher wouldn't look at me because i was so tired, i almost fell off my chair. Phil was also exhausted... he was standing up in the song service and in his exhaustion leaned against the post beside him. Unknown to him, it was also the control panel so all of the sudden the curtains started rising that covered the main wall! Talk about embarrasment! Phew. Anyways, we were very exhausted during the convention weekend, but I loved it anyhow. THe people were so friendly, the food was undescribable and our view was... simply amazing. Above is a picture of our view out of the dining room: (and from our hotel rooms)

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The convention was supernatural. THe meetings were absolutely fantastic and the presence of the Lord was so strong. Every single believer was so touched, and personally, that was the high-light of the entire trip for me. It was so wonderful. The meetings lasted from Friday to Sunday, and we left Sunday PM. It was so sad to leave! A very nice couple from Germany drove us into Zurich and we took the train to my Uncles house. We were soooo tired on the train! The train ride was so neat though! it was very fast and smooth. Our seat was next to a very grumpy woman though! Oh well.. Well we were in so much anticipation as we waited at the train station for my Uncle. We had heard so many stories from my Dad about his brothers and it was a bit strange to be finally meeting them for the first time in our lives. My Uncle Markus came and picked us up, and he matched Dad's description perfectly... he was really nice. All of our family was.

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Week 1 (following convention)

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This was a very, very busy week for us! We did so much touring and every day we traveled across so much beautiful land! On Monday, we woke up at 6:30, had a breakfast of bread and cheese, and espresso (typical) and set off to Zurich. Phil had ordered ahead so we had a car ready for us to pick up. The day was overcast and a light drizzle was coming down - the rest of our days was beautiful sun, no clouds - so my uncle markus gave us a ride to our car rental pick-up location. It was a small, silver compact car - perfect for us. Lucky for us, we only had to pay $400 CHF (swiss franc's) which is about $450 CD. Our credit card company paid the $800 for insurance! We were soo blessed to save that money, because rental cars are expensive and that was a GREAT deal for two weeks!!!!! After picking up our car, we drove to the famous street in Zurich, paid for parking, and went shopping! I didn't buy anything because the street was world famous and a regular skirt would have costed me about $200... minimum... and to say the least, i'm not made of money! Some of the stores were Zara, Louis Vutton, Jaquar, Rolex, Burburry, Diesel, etc, etc, etc. One watch in rolex was going for $21,500. Insane. I saw a cute dress and thought, hey i would love to buy that, but my bubble of joy soon burst as i looked down at the price tag - it was $400. No thanks! We stopped and bought some lunch and some fruit. After that, we visited alot of churches and castles. Switzerland is soooo full of Castles and churches! i loved listening to the church bells. We entered one of the biggest churches in Switzerland -
Einsiedeln.... it was out of this world. It was covered in intricate drawings, carvings, gold statues, a coffin (covered in gold and behind bars) and the place sent shivers down your spine. We watched a procession of monks singing - quite interesting to say the least! Me and Phil had to hold ourselves from laughing and weren't very succesful so we had to bend over and look like we were praying... i was scared that some nun would come and drag me out! ;) Then we went to McDonalds for lunch.. lol! We ended up paying $11 for two medium cokes and a medium coffee! REDICULOUS! its so crazy expensive there! Then i asked the worker how much she gets paid and she said $20 average an hour. That is crazy. After this we visited some of dads other family - they weren't expecting us so they were soooo shocked to see us!!! And we did all that in one day. Day 2 we visited Lucern and i decided that it was the prettiest town in Switzerland. We spent most of the day visiting dad's two sisters. One of them (erica) lives in India and she was visiting Switzerland for a couple weeks, so we caught her just in the nick of time! Day 3 we visited another one of dad's sisters out in the mountains. We took a nice hike, played with my Uncles bow's and arrows, and had a really nice day. Day 4, we took the train up to Jungfrau! Jungfrau is considered to be the top of Europe. It was so neat, and me and phil had fun in the ice-tunnels. That was great. My ears felt the elevation so bad :( They didn't pop completely until the next day! We also visited the Matterhorn. We met a man who yodels and he got permission to yodel in a church there. It was so beautiful! (Video below)

The next day we ate a nice breakfast - a fresh crossiant (sp?) and some strong coffee. We went to Fribourg and Dad showed us where he used to work as a chef, and we saw more churches and castles. On May 9th, we had a family reunion!! This was a miracle for everyone to meet together. My Auntie Pia couldn't come but my Uncle Urs from Holland and Auntie Marianne drove 12 hours just to be with the entire family for the day. It was really nice. The only negative thing was that they all spoke German with eachother except when I was talking to some of my aunties. So me and phil napped for a bit in the sun :) I'm so determined to learn French. After that we went and visited the Jung family! I love that family - everyone's so sweet and I'm good friends with Rahel. This was another huge highlight of my trip. It was such a treat to visit with believers after two weeks! We did alot together and me and Phil caught up on some shopping!

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Going Home

This was such a sad part, but i also wanted to get home so bad and see my family and tell them the stories. So it was a bittersweet ending. One thing that i forgot to mention was the difference in the Seattle airport and the Zurich airport! In seattle and new york, it is loud, dirty, a stale smell and confusing. We arrived at the Zurich airport and it smelt like herbs, you could literally eat of the floor it was so clean, every thing was polished stainless steel, and the trains left every 30 seconds oppose to every 10 minutes! There was such a difference. So we arrived in Seattle late - around 9:30pm and we drove home. We got in the door at 1:30am and CRASHED. We were exhausted and i hadn't slept on the plane ride at all. I fell in love with my bed all over again and i was happy, and sad to be home.

I would recommend visiting Switzerland to absolutely everyone because it is the most beautiful place on Earth. *Sigh..*

I'm going to Switzerland!

Yes, i am very, very excited! From April 28th to May 14th my Dad, oldest brother Philip and I will be leaving on a jet plane for the land of beauty! I am really excited..only 8 more days to go! My dad has 9 brothers and sisters and i've only had the chance to meet one uncle, so i am very excited to meet the rest of my family and watch dad catch up on 17 long years. There are so many places to visit and see, and things to do! My brother and I are planning to go hang gliding over the alps... I cannot wait.

The main reason that inspired my dad to make this trip was because brother Ed is having convention meetings in Adelboden, Switzerland. So i am looking forwards to this trip as it will be the first time outside traveling British Columbia! I promise to keep this updated if i have a computer, and i will post pictures.