End of May Update

Well, it's hard to believe, but the end of May is already here. I have already paid all of my bills for the month of May. I just can't believe the weather in our area is not good. We did not have a spring!

So here's an update on the challenges I completed this month:

-Went to a 3d movie
-Took part in the Survivor's Lap for the Langley Relay for Life
-Went to a Funeral and Internment
-Visited Clayburn Village
-Learned to cope with my husband's new "toys"
-Having new furniture delivered
-Scrapbooking
-Reading a dimestore romance?
-Camping trip with 1 of my parents

So, although this month was rather low on the number of challenges I completed, I took several huge steps forward for myself personally. I think this month was the most personally challenging yet. Or do I say that every month? So far, I think I am keeping up very well with what I have set out to do this year. I am hoping the weather gets more sunny so that I am able to take on more outdoor type challenges. (Eg. Driving places I wouldn't normally get to travel to). But I'm happy doing what I have done so far with what I have been given.
The Survivor's Lap with the Relay for Life will go down as one of the most important things I could do for myself.
I haven't had a lot of time to complete the scrapbook, but I did locate some clearance supplies, so when I get a moment to myself, I know what to do with it!
As for my new bed, what a wonderful investment! I am able to wake up in the morning without pain. What a difference that has led to my outlook on the day!
As for my husband's new purchases, I am still coming to grips with his new hobby. I don't think this is going to go away anytime soon. However, my husband has taken steps to ensure I feel a lot more safer to be in the same house as his new "toys". I think it will take some more time in order to fully deal with this.
I will leave you with a mini challenge I completed tonight:
Whenever I drive, I don't drive on the highway. I will take every other road but that one. The car feels funny when going that fast. It's hard to describe. Other than the car feels loose and not all that stable. However, tonight I was coming back from an appointment and I had to pick my husband up from work. The only option I had was to use the highway. What a nervewracking experience. However, I did it! I guess it's not so bad when I don't have any other choice!

Thanks for reading!
Lynn

3D Movie

After the Relay, my friend "kidnapped" me for the remainder of the evening. I was willing to go, and she asked if she could borrow me prior to kidnapping me, so I was not really in any danger.
She wouldn't tell me where we were going until we arrived at our destination: the movie theatre. She bought tickets to Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D. What a treat this was!

I haven't been to a 3D movie since I was a smaller kid. The glass lenses were different colours the last time I went!
What a cool experience this was. The glasses were hardly noticeable. But the effects were well worth seeing.

The movie was very good as well. It taught me that scars, no matter from what, will heel. It was a truly remarkable evening.

Thanks for reading

Lynn

Relay For Life-Survivor's Victory Lap

It has been quite a day.
The funeral was in the early afternoon. Then, my girlfriend picked me up and we headed for Langley's Relay For Life.
I registered as a cancer survivor, got a free t-shirt and was able to walk one lap with all of the other survivors.
What an experience this was!
Although it was a little bit more of a challenge than I thought it was going to be! I don't like drawing attention to myself, and putting that t-shirt on made everyone who looked at me know instantly that I had had cancer. During the rest of my life, I only tell people that know me on a more personal level my struggles. Here, it was automatically out there. It was kind of unnerving.
As we made our way around the track, the announcer called out all of our names. They actually pronounced my name correctly.
Ultimately this challenge was so huge for me. I accepted that it's okay to put myself out there more, I have some great friends and I'm so much more stronger than I could have ever thought.

thanks for reading
Lynn

Funeral and Internment

A few days ago one of my husband's relatives passed away. His name was Ernie and he was my husband's maternal grandfather's brother. He considered him to be like a great uncle.

I knew Ernie from church. When we were both at church together, he would save room for me and vice versa. When I first started attending church, he took me and my mother in law for breakfast afterwards. It was during these breakfasts and at church I got to know a little bit about him. He came to my confirmation last year.

He was a quiet, unassuming man. He never said a harsh word about or to anyone. He was also quite funny, but clearly missed his dearly departed wife.

Surprisingly, he passed away last week. This came as a complete shock. I will never forget being told he had passed. I was cleaning and my husband tapped me on the shoulder crying. I stopped doing the cleaning for the evening and just had to find out more. We went to visit my husband's family in order to hear the information first hand.

Ernie's funeral was quite nice. My favourite bible quote is psalm 23. This  quote was on his bulletin. My husband was the pall bearer. We got to go to the internment and watch the grounds crew lower the casket in. It was a very sad experience. However, I understand Ernie finally got what he wanted: to spend eternity next to his beloved wife Edna.

To Ernie: It was a pleasure to get to know you. I enjoyed sitting next to you in Church and having breakfast with you. I'm glad to know I will see you again one day. Only this time, breakfast will be on me!

Thanks for reading

Lynn

Clayburn Village

As I was taking a look outside today at the rain, I was trying to think of things I could do today. I picked going out to Abbotsford for lunch and a drive. There's a circle farm tour that I thought looked kind of fun. Perhaps I'll save that for another challenge. Because of some interesting events today, I didn't have enough time to complete the entire farm tour.

I picked one stop on the tour and my husband and I drove to it. My husband really didn't want to go into the soap store, so we stopped by an information board just outside the door to it. It was about this Clayburn Village.

I had never been to this area of Abbotsford before. I had no idea this place even existed. Apparently it was the first company town in BC. It had a church, schoolhouse, bank etc.
As I finished reading the information, I noticed a separate box that said Take One. When I opened it, it contained a walking tour pamphlet.

So that's what we ended up doing instead of shopping for soap. It was interesting. I enjoyed learning the history, and taking a bit of a walk in the rain. It only took about 20 minutes, but it was well worth the experience.

Thank-you for reading.

Lynn

New Household Items

I always thought of myself as a bit of a pacifist. I'll admit I dislike guns and am a little afraid of them. I think it takes a lot of responsibility to own one. I've never met a person who takes the responsibility seriously, or so I thought.

So, my husband decided to surprise me and purchase not only one gun, but two. Now, I am faced with not only partially owning two, but all of the gear that comes with the purchase of these as well. I am also running out of room to store hobby items. I also had to have a very serious conversation with my husband about this "surprise".

I hope in time, this will become easier for me to accept. However, for right now, I'm terribly surprised. I guess this will be one of those challenges that makes me face not only who I am, but what I strongly believe in.

Thanks for reading

Lynn

New Furniture

I have had the same bed for a number of years. It has moved with me through university, more than several moves throughout the lower mainland and it was getting a bit old. It saw me through more than it probably should have. I didn't really notice it was starting to wear out until my husband started to complain about the pain in his back. I always have pain in my spine so to me it wasn't anything new.

However, we found a good deal while out shopping one day a few weeks ago. What a nerve wracking experience! We pondered the purchase more than we did when we purchased our new car!

So, they delivered it today. What a difference this has made. It's a bit higher than the old bed, so for once I feel short! However, it is really comfortable. I guess tonight's sleep will tell if this has been worth it or not!

Thanks for reading.

Lynn

Update: After the first night, I had a really good sleep. I just wish my husband didn't snore so much! I think the new bed has made him more comfortable so he snores twice as loud now! I didn't sleep very much because of it, but the bed held up just fine!

Scrapbooking

I'm not much of a scrapbooker. I don't have a lot of time in order to work on personal projects. However, because this blog is such a huge project, I would like to keep some tactile memories, I purchased one today. The goal is to have this scrapbook complete by the time the year is complete.

I think I could get into this. If only it weren't so expensive!

Thanks for reading!

Lynn

Dimestore romance... novel

Okay, I have tried another challenge and failed. My friend recommended I try reading an adult novel. Not the cheesy romance novels, but one with some more racy content.

I can't get through the first couple of pages. I didn't even manage to make it the racy parts. Because frankly, the writing is very poor and I don't really care to read anymore of it. It will only get worse from the point I'm at. I don't really care if I ever read another of these books.

Yuck! Is all I have to say. There's no story: no character development, no plot, and if the only challenge is figuring out how to score the guy, I'm sorry, who gives a crap?

Real life is much more interesting!

Maybe I'll look for something a bit more up my alley next time.

Thanks for reading

Lynn

3 days in one camping trip

This challenge almost failed. Because I had taken my father in law ice fishing in January, I thought it would be appropriate to take my father camping for his birthday.

He always talks about going whenever my husband and I go. This weekend is his birthday and I thought the weather would be okay to go. So I handled pretty much everything. I booked the campsite, did the grocery shopping, ordered the fishing licenses. Then my step-mother stepped in. She complained that this was too hard on my father and my father was too soft to say anything. So I cancelled everything.

However, we turned it into a day trip instead. We turned 3 days of camping into 1. We ate, and cooked over a campfire, fed the birds and chipmunks. The only real funny thing was that my husband caught on fire trying to get the campfire going. His coat started smoking, and now has a hole in it. He wasn't injured.

I will still be paying for this mistake for some time. However, my father had a nice time for the day.

I have attached some pictures of our day into this blog.

Thanks for reading

Lynn