TILF.

I forgot yesterday okay?
And as I am cleaning my room today I found so many things I love. It puts me in a good mood.

1. Green. I have so much green. I delight in it.
2. Sharpie markers. Of all shapes, colours and sizes.
3. Black ink pens.
4. Mulled cider, of the non-alcoholic variety.
5. Hanging out at home. The closer I get to leaving the more I just want to be at home.


I'm going to snow camp for the weekend.
So my resolutions are going to be delayed for a while.
Have a great new years celebration and I'll be back on Sunday night.

Betcha can't figure out this one.

So.
Itiwptetiawstydakhifat. Cstow/mcomattiabtijdrwithrniwtatyhifbaikisfwttbtasmpohtikfdta.

Believe it or not that is the shortened version of what I feeling right now. But trust me I say you will never figure it out. I have even forgotten.

But let's talk about me anyway. Since I'm pretty sure that why you guys read this thing. Not much else on it.

I don't like chocolate. And people are always shocked when they here this. I mean why? It's just another food. Normal people don't like other normal food so why do I get such special treatment on this.
It's not like I hate the taste. Well, okay sometimes I do. But for the most part I can tolerate it, even crave it. It's just not really on my top..300 foods.

I don't like Christmas either.
I find it stressful and awkward(oh so very awkward). I don't enjoy it and it seems like too much of a big deal for me. Now before you start arguing, I'm not saying I don't like the idea of the Biblical Christmas. But in actuality Jesus was not born on December 25th. And we should celebrate Jesus' birth every day not just one made up day in December that we also have to share with the crazy stress of gift giving and food.

This isn't really what I came on here to talk about :).
Despite my lack of excitement for this particular holiday I did really enjoy it. I was surprised.
Maybe cause the kids are getting older now so it's not so much about the presents but more about hanging out with each other.

So Hannah was happy.

Now, Hannah is not so happy.
Cause she realized that she leaves her hometown in less that two weeks.
This is a big deal, guys.
I have never been anywhere for more then a month. And that is with the reassurance that I could return home on any given weekend.

I don't really have that assurance this time.
I am going to a place where I have never been, to work with people I don't know.
And although this whole time I have been getting excited to go now the panic is setting in and it's all I can do not to cancel.

I know it will be so good for me. I will learn so much and become a better person(well, this is my hope. After seeing what Josh has turned into I'm not so sure :D). But for now I'm just scared. And very amazed that I am even sharing this with you.

I'm working on my 2011 resolutions right now, so I'm sure I'll have those up by the end of the week.
p.s. 2011..it sounds pretty lame. Hopefully it will prove me wrong.

Cliche Christmas Post? Heck yes!

We Lefebvre's do it right.
Family bonding over a board game or puzzle? That is a thing of the past.

Here is three great things to make your Christmas eve special and awesome like ours.

1. A little last minute wrapping.

2. This just in:the new way to bond with your family would have to be watching Star Wars on your new 42" television.
We never have been good at leave the opening of presents until Christmas morning.

3. Adding a little spring to our step, the old fashioned way.


Have a happy Christmas. Don't too caught up in the presents and food though...

*pause* I just remembered that I get to eat Turkey and mashed potatoes tomorrow.
This just made me really excited. I had forgotten about Christmas dinner. *unpause*


Anyway..where was I? Be happy. Make memories, remember memories.
Talk about your old job that you haven't worked at in four months but it still seems to be dragged back in every family conversation you have(haha, yeah we are weird).

Ch

Just another crazy fact...

I get major food cravings.

Like I will do anything and everything in my power to get my hand on the desired food or drink.
But I have started to notice a trend in these cravings.
I start craving what I read about in a book or watch in a show.
And contrary to popular television belief it isn't ever the food commercials advertising 99 cent big macs or the new Tim Hortons oatmeal.

Like the real reason for my curried rice obsession? In the episode of heroes I was watching that day they went to an east indian restaurant for lunch.
And today I watched a man drink a strawberry milkshake.
I. Need. A. Strawberry. Milkshake. Now.

The stupid things I do.

One of those things would be..
Running across my back yard in bare feet.
So, not only was there like a foot of snow everywhere but it was that hard snow that practically cuts your feet when you walk on it so imagine the pain been ten times worse because I was running.

I now have a blood blister on the side of my pinkie toe and the most of that area hurts like heck. I'm hoping I didn't do any permanent damage.

At least there was no frost bite...

A cooking adventure.

I have been spending so much time in the kitchen.
It amazes me, really.

I made a pork loin with rice the other day.
It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. But it didn't taste bad.
And it was my first experience making rice(crazy, I know). And I ended making way to much.


But that is okay because when it got to be supper time today I had a craving for curried rice. So bad a craving I almost drove into town just to get some butter chicken from the Wok Box. But I went to the kitchen instead and told my mother of the craving. She had been planning on using the left over rice for dinner anyway so she left me to it and I made curried rice.
It wasn't totally what I had in mind. But I don't think I could have accomplished what I had pictured so this was good enough for me.


Today was sort of an up and down emotional-wise day.
But my mood was brightened when I started baking at 8 Pm. At the same time someone started talking to me on facebook. Someone I *never* would have expected to have a really good conversation with. But we did. And it was enjoyable.

I wasn't in the spirit of Christmas baking before. But I guess hanging out with my friends who were baking yesterday sort of got me in the mood, and I was looking through recipe books all afternoon.

I made Cranberry Bliss Bar.



And Gingersnaps.



And that is all I got for tonight.

Hap Hap HAPPY!

I set out willing myself to have a good night. And for the first hour it was a terrible night full of disappointments, hard to understand asians and getting lost on the north shore(OMG).
But after the storm there is a rainbow and it was quite a beautiful one.

Complete with:
Hanging with the brothers and adopted brothers.
Getting some delishish Timmies and catching up with one of my boys.
Rocking out on the way home to some bass thudding party songs.
On the way INTO town going super slow cause I had nowhere to be and it was fun.
Stalking some guy with UGLY jeans.
And the best part...

BUYING A CANON DSLR CAMERA!


It quite made my day ..week..month.

It's so beautiful.

It's going to take forever to figure out how to work it but Matthew tootsie gave me one of his uni books from his photography class so that should help me to understand aperture , exposure and all that junk.

A good day.




P.s. my heater broke though. And my room is freezing. Momma, can you buy me a new one?

I'm a meat and potatoes kind of girl.

There are so many things that I have never made.
And when I say this I mostly meaning in the cooking world.

My mother put a chicken and potatoes in the oven this afternoon.
Just how they were.
Just a plain chicken and potatoes.

I can't stand to see *plain*.
So I added some stuff to the chicken, you know, the usual.
Garlic, onion, some green flaky stuff, salt and pepper.

And the potatoes I turned into twice baked potatoes, which I have heard a lot about but never made them.
And they didn't turn out bad according to sources. I didn't have one..haha I don't trust my own cooking.

Nothing special about them really. Just butter, salt and pepper, cheddar cheese and a little bit of garlic. Okay, maybe some italian seasoning too.
They were delish though.

I have a habit of making amazing food =D.

P.s.
One of my friends wrote this as her status today, and I thought it was so hilarious I wanted to share it somewhere. And since my twitter only lets me do 140 characters I will have to copy and paste here.

"Soo... I was sitting at a coffee shop with my bff's aaand... This girl walks up and says to me, 'My friends thinks your cute!' I turn around to see a 40 year old man waving at me, and smiling. I have nothing else to say...."


I'll leave you with that.
Night!

FACT!

1. I can go for periods of surviving on less than five hours of sleep a night without feeling bad. Or periods of sleeping for more than ten hours of sleep without feeling bad.
But I cannot mix the two together.

2.I am very complex. Like seriously. I confuse myself.
And I have many different moods. Which makes being my friend very hard.

3.I am quite the amazing cook when I put my mind to it. But I don't like to put my mind to it very often.

4.I painted my room lime green and black when I first moved into the new house(new=4 years ago) and now that I'm older and 'more mature' I keep thinking i should repaint it a more subtle color. But every time I try..I can't. Cause I love it so very much.

5.On a similar note, when I was younger I used to wonder what age do you have to be in order to look cool when you use kids stuff rather than just looking dorky and childish.
And just recently I had a realization. It's not that there is a certain age. It's the age when you stop caring that people will think you are cool or not. Fortunately I reached that age several years ago. Which is why I am totally comfortable hauling around my disney fairy water bottle and my Super awesome umbrella that looks like a frogs head.

6.I am very much an organizer of my brothers. I don't think its very normal. Which is where I pause to wonder if it's cause I'm so OCD or because they are disorganized..a little of both? Especially my older brothers.I clean their house. Do their laundry, go through their mail and make sure they are paying the bills. But I love doing it. It's going to be a little bit sad when they up and marry women who can do that all for them.

7.Sometimes when I'm in a bad mood, having a drink of carbonated beverage can make me feel better. But this isn't a sure fire thing.

8.I have smokin' bass skills apparently. It makes me laugh when non musical people think you sound good even though they are not a proper judge at all. It is a nice little ego boost though.

Things I luurrve Thursday.

1. Cheese. And we are talking about legit cheese here. Not corny humour.
2.Green Tea w/ Lemon
3. Zooey Deschanel
4. Finding something I'm good at, and actually enjoying it.
5.112
6.Nachos and sour cream.
7.Playing my favorites list from youtube over and over and over.
8.Cleaning.
9.My pseudo parents. They think I'm stylish even when I just throw on a pair of leggings and an old tshirt.
10.Not having to. (no, not going to explain this.)
11.Hockey.
12.A donkey wearing a John Deere hat.
13. Taylor Swift.(i thought it was appropriate since her favorite number is 13)
14. Budda Boomers :D

Life at it's fullest.

Sometimes in order to experience life you have to go outside in the dead of winter wearing only capri pj's and a huge old, blue paint shirt that makes everything smell like tempera.
You just need to stuff your unsocked feet into your shoes and make mini snowmen.


Sometimes you need to eat five chocolates. Just because.


Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself and make a dress out of a pillowcase.


Sometimes you need to be thankful, for a friend who is there for the long haul.
And be glad that she's photogenic too.

A little bit experimental.

Being at home for hours on hours, days on days had given me some restless energy that for the most part I have been putting to good use and attempting to clean the house.
The first day I cleaned both of the fridges. Wow, was that ever a treat.
My stomach is very delicate right now, I can start gagging at just the thought of normal food. (truth. I saw a plate of cookies yesterday and felt sick to my stomach.)
So, of course this made my stomach go over the edge. At one point I had to stop because I was dry heaving so bad. I am definitely a strange girl.

Anyway, to use up some of the stuff that has been piling in the main fridge I made lasagne!
Lasagne is so delicious. I love it. I might even love it more than my first love Spaghetti.
But I had never made lasagne myself before so this was a big experiment. I used a basic recipe I found online at Kraft Canada.
But since I can never just have simple I 'spiced' it up to my liking.
I added cheddar and hickory smoked cheddar as well as the other cheeses and instead of ricotta cheese I put cottage cheese cause that's what I had.
In the cottage cheese, egg mixture I put some pesto so make it a little more interesting.

The recipe called for water so you don't have to cook the noodles before hand, but the amount they tell you is too much because it turned out very watery so I would probably put half in next time. And give it alot more cooking time.
But all in all it was wonderful, and the fact that I made it myself made it taste that much better.

¿Puedo hablar español? No es una casualidad

Si.
Estoy escribiendo esto en español para tratar de engañar a usted a pensar en realidad estoy trabajando en los objetivos de mi caída. Pero yo no lo soy.
Creo que para que yo para aprender un idioma que tendrá que estar completamente inmersos en él, así que se puso fuera de mis aspiraciones bilingüe hasta que pueda vivir en América del Sur por un tiempo.

Si le ayuda, los otros dos objetivos se está trabajando en pulg. Maneras no tan común.Pero al menos tengo algo que mostrar a cambio ¿eh?

Me gustaría tener más que decir esta noche, pero la mayoría de mis noticias tiene que ser publicado junto con fotos y soy perezoso.

Por lo tanto, te dejo con una canción en su lugar.
Esta canción ha sido mi píldora de la felicidad para las últimas dos semanas.
Es muy pegadiza.



P.s. The english translation might be a little messed so use your imaginations.

Today was a fairytale, I wore a dress.

I actually did..sort of.
It was more of like a long shirt ish type thing. With leggings to make it appropriate. Of course.

ANYWAY.

I had so much fun today.
Okay so the first part of the day was crappy. That was the part where I didn't get to bed until like one and then I had to wake up to an alarm for the first time in a month and that was at 6:30! *sad face*
But after that I just was excited so I didn't mind it much.
I led worship at church.
Well, Behn 'led' but I pretty much led him so..that's how it went.
But honestly, we had so much fun during the practice. I just wanted that to go on forever.
The actual service time was pretty great too but I couldn't keep laughing like I wanted too, although at times I could barely contain myself.

Then I had wendy's for lunch.
Mmm.
*note* okay so weirdest thing, I am beginning to detest fast food. Like actually, and it makes me sick when I eat it now. It can only be from my diet I'm thinking but this is really good.*
I got a BLT Cobb salad(yumm), apple juice(yumm) and the new fries that they have been advertising. Oh my gosh, these things were amazing. Like better than McD's amazing.

After lunch I got to come home if only for a little while. But even that little while helped. I like my home. It makes me happy. I curled up in bed. It felt nice.

ROCK CLIMBING! It was fun, although I hadn't originally wanted to go. Made me feel so out of shape though. And my hands hate me. But that's nothing a little aloe body butter sample from the body shop won't fix.

And more worship!

It was a fun night.
Only made better by the fact that I get to sleep in tomorrow.

EDIT: And I looked back and I posted this at 11:11.
Things don't get better than this, guys.

Looks good.

Police: "You wish to report a murder."
J.D: "Attempted murder."
Police: "That's not so serious."

J.D.: "Not when you downgrade it from a murder.
But when you upgrade it from room service it's quite serious."

Does anybody want to go see 'The Tourist' with me?
It's comes out December 10th.
It has Johnny Depp AND Angelina Jolie.
What more can I say.

Sometimes you have to take a day to yourself.
And mourn the stupid mistakes that could have been avoided.
But after that day is done.
It's time to get up and move on as if nothing has happened.

To cleanse? Or not to cleanse...

I've gotten it into my mind that I should do a cleanse.
Yeah, maybe for the most part it is just because it's the preppy thing to do and I want to have said I've done one.
But I thought right now, since I've got nothing going on it might be the best time to try it.
I am very much a newbie to this sort of thing, which is why I'm listening to my voice of reason for once and not starting a brand new cleanse right off the bat tomorrow when I have barely even known about it for more than an hour.
Although it does sound very good to me.
The Master Cleanse(click to see official website)
Have you heard of it?

My mother has warned me against any such cleanses and detoxifications. But..then again she has some pretty strange ideas herself so I say to each her own.

I'm going to give myself some time to research and in the meantime try some simple healthier eating styles to see if that improves my general well being. Which probably means taking the stash of goodies in the closet and moving them to a locked cabinet far, far away where I cannot see them, cause for the most part I am out of sight, out of mind type of girl.

Now, as much as I hate the cliche 'ask a question at the end of your blog post in order to motivate more people to comment' I am going to do it.
Almost entirely because I truly want your opinion.
Only partially cause I do like lots of comments.

What do you readers think of cleanses and such?
Is it hot? Or not?

Sometimes I feel skilled.

It's 7:22. And I woke up ten minutes ago naturally.
Even though I went to bed the latest I have in..months probably.

Anyway.

The other day my mother gave me an ultimatum. Although it wasn't as serious as it sounds.
Rake the leaves or make dinner.

I really didn't want to do either. Especially since I hate working in the kitchen unless I feel inspired. But, the thought of raking leaves for two hours did spark some inspiration =).

I made soup. Like totally-from-scratch soup.
It was Potato Cheddar. And it was Amazing. Like actually.
Except for maybe a little bit too salty. I was getting very generous by the end of it.


I made buns. Like totally-from-scratch buns.
I have not made something like this in years. Actually mixing everything together rather then tossing all the ingredients into the bread maker.
I even made them part whole wheat to feel healthier.
They were very good.


And for dessert I made cookies.
Swedish tea cakes. They were yummy. I actually made those because I started craving them out of the blue. But I had to make them with store bought jam since my jam had an unfortunate accident.


Well, that's all for my home maker reports today.

T.I.L.T.

1.Warm countries that never experience snow, or even cold for that matter.
2.Peppermint Mochas. (I tried the peppermint hot chocolate today and it was nowhere near as good.)
3.Naps.
4. The lack of stress Ihave due to not having any responsibilities.
5.Waking up and thinking I can go into the day without painting my face.
6.Vehicles with a lot of weight, abs and good winter tires. Winter driving freaks me out.
7.Wedding pictures.
8. Pot stickers from the Wok Box. So. Good.
9.Getting christmas shopping done in November. I'm not done yet..but so close.
10.laughing.
11. That little group of close friends that you know will like you no matter what happens.
12.Snuggling in blankets right before bed being so stoked to sleep.(Am I a nerd? Haha, last night I was so excited to sleep I giggled for like ten minutes while warming up my covers and figuring out the most comfortable position.)

Confession #4.

Well folks. I have finally figured out where I got my 'smarts' from.

Another chapter in the 'Chronicles of Mother'.

Overheard her talking to someone on the phone today:
"I would assume if it's 34 dollars then it would be three tickets. One adult and two children.
Since the Adult is ten and the children are seven each so fourteen together."*Freeze*
10+7+7=24...

I will now double check any numerical equations that I ever let her handle.
And I thought math was MY weak point.

Haiti. The Finale.

Day 12:
Thursday was a busy day.
We went for a hike into the mountains in the morning.
It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive and then 45 minutes in. But in order to get there we had to cross a river in the truck, and some pretty rocky terrain. It was so much fun! A little worrisome at times though..like driving through a river that is at least two feet deep in a truck..scary.
But the hike was a lot of fun. The destination point was this cool mountain pool.
We spent a bit of time there swimming and exploring the creepy cave part, then hiked back and drove back to camp.
About five minutes away from home we realized there was a flat tire(not very surprising after everything the truck had done that day.) so most of the girl folk decided to walk back. That's when I discovered my shoulders.

I knew they would be burnt. I mean, I planned on that. I purposely didn't put on sunscreen cause it was the last day in Haiti and I needed as much sun as I could get.

But as I'm walking back to the guesthouse at the end of the excursion I look at my shoulders..and the entire surface of my skin was raised. I started freaking out, thinking that I was blistering already, or something along those lines.
So after panicking for a good amount of time I came to my senses and realized it was just the heat rash thing again. Just way worse. I took more benadryl and left it at that.

After lunch we went to the beach for a couple hours.
As far as beaches go it was quite splendid. But unlike last time it didn't seem as enjoyable. The only reason I can see for that is last trip we didn't have any water by us to go swimming in so the two days we went to the beach were really special. Whereas this time we had an ocean out our back door the entire time and a river to our right so making a special trip to the beach seemed a little pointless. Although the sand was spectacular.
And there was shells everywhere. I picked out quite a few to bring home with me.

By the time we arrived home my rash was back, and of course worse than ever.

So even though it was the last night I basically just took some medicine and read in bed before going to sleep early. Although not before indulging in a little left over halloween candy. I am very upset I missed the day after halloween candy sales.

Day 13:
Last day :(
I had mostly packed everything up the night before so I didn't really have anything to do in the morning so I just hung around..and made about 50 trips back up to my room to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything :) and I didn't(that I've noticed yet).
We did a couple last team photos and since there was nothing keeping us we left a little bit ahead of schedule.
I read/slept the whole bus ride back to the airport.
We said our quick goodbyes to Rod before we entered the building and..the crucial part..I forgot to take one final dose of Benadryl before I put it into my checked luggage. BIG MISTAKE.
My body was already looking pretty bad. And we were stuck waiting in the airport for over 3 hours. In which time..the rash spread to my face. Haha, it wasn't actually as bad as it sounds. It wasn't so much of as rash on my face..it just looked like I had a huge sunburn on my forehead. I was just pretty self conscience. And I made sure that I never touched my face..I was so sure if I even nudged it I would instantly get hives all over it.
Cause that's usually how it worked. It starts small, like mosquito bites but the more it's irritated the worse it gets.

But they let me on the plane with my 'disease'..so I guess I didn't look as contaminated as I felt.
I was done with planes already so I tried to sleep as much as I could.

We got into Miami and it took awhile to get everybody and the luggage together.
When we finally sorted everything out we got lost trying to find the hotel shuttle bus area. And it took forever! for our bus to come. And then it seemed like forever until we got our hotel. But maybe that was just because I was tired. And very done with dealing with some of the people in the group.

We dropped off our stuff in our room and went back out to find some food. I was feeling pretty nauseous at this point but there was no chance of me staying in the room by myself. We found KFC! Haha, it's sort of an inside thing..
I've never really been a big fan of KFC..maybe cause chicken definitely isn't in my top ten favorite foods. So I got mashed potatoes, and nachos..but they put some nasty processed cheese on it so that barely got touched.
And of course for the main course..a bite of the new double down!
The sandwich(burger?) that we had all been waiting for.
Instead of a bun it's two pieces of chicken on either side with bacon, cheese and sauce inside. SO GROSS. But we had to try it in order to say we've tried it.


We stopped at a grocery store on the way back and got some..must needed items. For me that was more Benadryl and some Pepto Bismol. For others..it was other means of making them feel better :).

We spent some time hanging out with the other people then went to bed.
I had such a comfy bed. I mean so nice. Soft, smooth,cool.
But I had the worst sleep ever.
I couldn't understand it.

Day 14:
I had some pretty amazing chocolate croissants for breakfast. But the coffee was only so-so. It was my first time having coffee in 2 weeks..so that was a little disappointing. The first flight all I did was sleep since I was to tired.

The Dallas/ Fort Worth airport was incredible. I wish we had more then 45 minutes there..but I did get to try McCafe. It's not available in Canada yet..it was quite delish.


The last plane was spent wishing the trip would just be over.
Of course we got into Vancouver and had to drive another 5 hours. Great.
But that's pretty much it, people.

I had a fabulous time.
It was so nice to go back.
To experience familiar things and then some new.

Being with a mixed age group was definitely different. But I have always felt comfortable with all age groups so it wasn't that big of deal for me.

It was a lot of fun having half of my family there. Maybe next time it will be the whole family :D.

Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Haiti. The Third.

Day 7:
Memories of Saturday are escaping me.
But we did do a big distribution to the ladies of Renault, one of the biggest slums they have in the area.
Renault is where the Wrays have a big Sunday School feeding program every Sunday so they have built a courtyard with a big concrete wall around it topped off with razor wire.
The ladies came in little groups, some shy others not shy at all. They all sat down on benches and then we passed a bag out to each of them. They all remained seated until everybody got one and then everybody filed out.

Day 8:
We had to wake up and leave really early in order to pick up the food and the Haitian youth team before heading out to Renault again, this time to do the feeding program.
Before they started letting the children into the courtyard everyone gathered in a circle and sang as the deer and then we prayed together.

Then we stood out by the gate and shook all the kids hands as they came streaming in.
Our team mostly just watched for the first part, as they sang songs and had a puppet show but then we sang a song for them. And passed out plates of bean, rice and a candy.

I was holding a baby during this and I am really a bad judge of knowing how old children are and what they should be doing at certain ages but it seemed to me like she was too young to be having rice and beans but my was she hungry.

After everything was cleaned up we headed back to the Wrays house in Cayes where we had some lunch and a few people 'swam' in the pool.

And then Debbie gave us a tour of the hospital they have set up. I never got to see it the last time I was in Haiti so it was nice to see everything they have done there.

Day 9+10:
Not much to report here. Just more of the work projects.
Which included the previously mentioned chain link fence and painting but there was also electricians work in the Wrays new house and some ceiling work, making huge long ceiling beams out of rebar and then carrying them across the property to the orphanage(that part was possibly the worst.) changing oil in machines and other such mechanical work, cement pouring.

Day 11:
This is where things started getting interesting.
We only did a couple of hours of work that morning. Just finishing up the projects we had started. I had a lot of fun that day cause I swore I would not do any painting. I did tough manly projects instead. Like jack hammer a cement wall. It was pretty intense. I wore away some of the skin on my hand. It hurt.

Since we finished early we had time to go visit the aids orphanage in Welsh that we did a VBS at and helped pour the cement roof on two years ago.
Those of us who went on the trip last time were shocked when we saw the property. Nothing looked the same. Last time there had only been a small unpainted guesthouse with three rooms, and unfinished church and the start of the orphanage. We drive up and there are buildings everywhere! And everything was painted a bright cheery yellow. We felt embarrassed to say that we had helped at all since the part we had done in comparison seemed small and unimportant.

It was good seeing Max again. He is the one who had the inspiration to build the orphanage since he himself has aids. And he has put up most of the funding for everything himself.
We listened to him talk about the plans he has for the future and all the blessings he has had in his life, it was very encouraging to hear.

We had lunch back at the camp and then went into Cayes for a tour of the market and some of the slums and then we went shopping! I say this with an exclamation when it reality I did not enjoy it at all. For some reason shopping lately is more painful for me then fun. I got the things I 'needed' to get as quick as possible. And then with the headache of it over I had fun joking with the sellers. Although I did start to have fun with the bartering. Initially it terrified me and I tried to get other people to do it for me.

That day was actually Ryan K's birthday so that night we had fireworks to celebrate and invited a lot of the children from the village to come watch with us. It was so entertaining to watch them be terrified of the loud noises only to start smiling and laughing when they saw all the light and color. Then there was a big bonfire and a bunch of people stayed out there for a long time. But, this is when my problems started.

I had noticed before dinner that I was starting to get some red dots on my stomach and I had no idea what they were from. But as I was outside they started to itch and then my head started to itch so I was doing a lot of scratching. And because of this I started to panic. I went back inside and I pulled up my shirt to investigate.

It looked a little something like this.

I took some bendryl and most of it went away.
I went to sleep.

Haiti. The Second.

Day 4:
The original plan of what we would be doing while down there was helping build the orphanage for amputees from the earthquake but the next part of the building process wasn't ready to go when we arrived so Rod and Debbie wrote out a list of other things they would like to get done.

And since we had a team full of people with different skills, as the list was read off everyone went to help in the area they had the most experience or the capability of doing.

Suffice to say I don't have much experience in anything. And my capability of setting up a chain link fence is pretty non existent. So I was stuck on paint duty.
Let's just get this out there. I HATE PAINTING.
The only thing I have ever really had to paint myself was my bedroom. And I handed that off to my brothers a quarter of the way through since I really didn't want to do it.

I had to keep myself going with the thought that I wasn't doing this as a fun time for me but I had gone down to Haiti to serve and this was the best way to do it.

After work that day some of went down to the river for a swim.
It was nice.
Especially since I hate the ocean and it's salt water-ness.

*Relaxing by the river*

The evenings were never a big thing. Just hanging out in the main room talking. Playing guitar and singing. Reading, listening to music, going to bed early.

The food! Was amazing. Like scrumdidlyumptious every time. But a lot of it was very..canadian. We went expecting things like bean and rice at every meal and instead we had Lasagna, Hamburgers, Pancakes and French Toast. I'm not complaining, though. I do like lasagna. Just a little upset we didn't have an spam-ghetti for breakfast like last time.
We had this one thing a couple times, it was a drink made out of plantains and a couple other things but it tasted like cinnamony porridge. Quite delish.

Day 5:
It was more of the same. Painting.
But apparently it took a lot out of me.
I went for a short nap after lunch and ended up sleeping for three hours.
More of the same. Eating, hanging out.

Day 6:
Well, as some of you might know there was a Hurricane heading for Haiti when we left Canada and the entire time we were monitoring which way it was going, how strong it was and all that, in the end it wasn't that big of a deal. Early Friday morning(around 1 am-ish) I am rudely awakened by a bunch of people talking outside the window of my room.
I went outside. And it was rainy and windy, but I didn't really see the thrill in that so I promptly went back to bed.
When everyone woke up later there was water EVERYWHERE. Great big pools of dirty rain water and some of them were actually pretty deep. A group of us went outside the compound to the main road to see the effects and for the first 5 minutes we were wading almost knee deep through the water. Quite the sight to see.

*Morning after the storm. A giant lake of water.*

Since we couldn't really do any work projects at the moment we stayed inside that morning and made up bags to distribute around the village. These bags typically contained some clothes, a pair of shoes, soap, a toothbrush if they were lucky, barley soup mix, rice, and either beans or a can of turkey meat.

There were different stations set up with each of the different items and there were people at each station putting the items into bags as the baggers went by.
At the end of the line there were people who tied the bags and then set them out of the porch where they got thrown from Rhonda to Danny to Curtis in the back of the bus.


*The confusing mess of making up distribution bags.*

There was an unfortunate accident.

Rhonda chucked a bag at Danny when he wasn't ready for it. He managed to look back at the bag just as it came and nailed him in the face. There happened to be a can of turkey in that bag. It made a gash in Danny's lip. He had to go to the hospital to get stitches.
Sick.

After lunch was probably my favorite part of the entire trip.

Each member of the team(minus Danny getting stitches and Josh who stayed at home cause he wasn't feeling well.) got partnered with a Haitian child from the school that is on the camp property. And then we took the bus full of bags and went out into the village and gave away bags to every home. Our Haitian partners showed us where to go and communicated with the families that we were giving the bags too.

My girl's name was Evenah. Or at least that's what I called her, haha, I was never totally sure that I was saying her name right.
We got along really well despite the language barrier.
I tried to make it fun by having races and playing hide and go seek.

*Evenah and I*

At the end of the day to thank our little helpers we gave a pair of new running shoes to each child.

Haiti. The First.

You might think I am crazy.
Blogging about my trip on the day of my return after traveling since 5:30 in the morning, crossing three(?) time zones and having no energy in my system.
And all the facts prove that I am crazy.
But I know myself. And I know that if I don't get this out of the way now I will procrastinate until I forget everything that happened.
So here you go.
The quick and to the point story of my missions trip to Haiti.

Day 1:
So the day of departure was hectic..and busy..and confusing and for the most part I just wanted to get it over with.
Not only was I leaving the country for two weeks but it was also baptism Sunday, barefoot soccer, Halloween..Oh, and my Birthday.

But the drive down to Van. was pretty uneventful.
We stayed the night at Ryan K.'s grandparents house.
And there was even a 'surprise' birthday cake for me. So special(only a little bit of sarcasm there,folks.).

Day 2:
Everyone woke up early and we loaded all the bags into the three trucks and headed off to the airport where we met up with all the other people who had come separately from the group. And everything started off normal.
We filled out Custom forms..and checked our bags, went through security.
This is where one of the first incidents happened.
Curtis A. for some reason has a special mark on his boarding pass which meant he had to do some heavy duty search thing so he got a full body x-ray done.
But since he was wearing the same blue Haiti shirt as 4 other people in line behind him it meant that Cade, Trevor, Matt and I think one other person had to get the intense search done too. Hah. Sucked to be them.

This whole time Behn, Dad and I were waiting for Cade since we had filled out our customs form as a family so we had to go through as a family.
So we go through the next checkpoint fine and we have one more to go and we are almost through and BAM! There is a note on our form saying we have to go to this special little room off to the side. Where we waited and waited and waited. This whole time we did not know why we were even in there. But time was going by and it was getting closer and closer to our departure time. And the American Airline employees were trying to figure out everything for us but in the end all that was figured out was that they had a problem with my father so we the children could go on but poor dad had to stay behind and wait some more.
So we trotted off to our gate with sad faces to tell the team of the loss.
Okay, I might have been laughing the whole time..but let's look past that.

The rest of traveling that day was most uneventful so it's hardly worth going through every detail except maybe one funny thing.
We went to pizza hut for lunch and Behn was getting all excited that you could buy beer at the pizza huts in the states..until we gently reminded him that you could in Canada too.

A couple of us slept in the airport that night. Terrible idea. Worst idea ever. Never doing that again. Especially since it was a crappy airport and all the stores closed early and then didn't open until after we left in the morning.

*Setting up camp for the night. There was a man sleeping by us who was snoring SO LOUD which did not help my insomnia.*

P.s. FIRST Time ever going to the bathroom in an airplane. But it's actually not as bad as they make it out to be.

Day 3:
After getting the worst sleep EVER!
We boarded our last flight non stop service to Port-au-Prince.
We landed.
It wasn't at all like I remember it from last time. That could just be my faulty memory or maybe alot has changed especially since the earthquake.
We had to take this little shuttle bus to the immigration part and WOW! was is ever Jam-packed! And confusing. And hot. And confusing. So many people everywhere and no order to everything(But now that I think about it that was pretty much the same as all the rest of our dealings with Haiti so no biggie.)
When we finally got all checked through we went on to baggage claim which was just as confusing. But add in some men who pretend to be officials. They are nice and find your bags for you..but then they hide them until you give them a tip.
It was a lot of work collecting all of the bags together but when it was finally finished we walked out and..were bombarded with more people trying to 'help' us with our bags and get us to come back to their taxi's. We just had to single file it and attempt to follow Rod Wray and his helper back to the bus.

Driving through the city was and interesting event. It was actually not that busy. Rod was pretty surprised at how quick we managed to get out of Port. But I managed to snap a few pictures before we left.

*Some lovely piles of garbage*

*There were hundreds of tents set of all over the place with survivors of the earthquake. Still living in the tents 8 months later.*

Overall I wasn't really shocked at the state of things. To be honest I thought it would be worse but I couldn't really tell the effects of the quake. I'm sure if we had gone to other parts of the city it would be more visible though.

Then the rest of the drive was a blur of snapping pictures and trying to get some sleep. Easier said than done..it was a very bumpy ride.

When we got to the camp we were amazed at how nice the guest house was. It was 5 times nicer than the one we stayed at last time. And that one was not terrible by any means. We somewhate settled our stuff and then the men went out to start work already..


and the ladies went to a nearby little market thing they had going..not sure what it was for but this is where I experienced another first.

FIRST ever energy drink.


Toro. Made in Port-Au-Prince.
It was very, very good.

Then the rest of the day was just getting used to the place and preparing for the next day by sorting clothes to give away and other such nonsense.


Okay I am drooping here. So I guess I will have to finish tomorrow.
P.s. I am only putting about 1/20th of my pictures on my blog. If you want to see the full extent look on facebook in a bit..
If you don't have me as a friend..well, maybe this will give you the nudge.

Hey guys.
I'm dead tired, I feel like a truck run over me,I haven't seen my father since yesterday morning but everything going to be fine cause in another three hours I will be in haiti!
So. See when I get back guys!
Please keep praying, we still won't find out when my dad is arriving in Haiti until like six...so any prayers for peace of mind and all that would be greatly appreciated.
Brb (in ten days)

A long time ago far, far away.

A family of five decided to move out to the country and become bumpkins.
They couldn't handle all the work of a farm themselves so they invited their grandparents along for this crazy adventure.

Now it came time for the Annual Day of Harvest Celebration and everyone gathered to enjoy each others company when all of the sudden A baby was born!
And that is the story of Hannah.

Would you like a little more detail?
The first year that my family moved to the farm they decided to have this thing on Halloween to make their sons feel like they were still having fun even though they had been banished to Pritchard where no trick-or-treating ever happens.

This occasion had things like hay rides, food, bonfires and fireworks(not to mention pig fights, which is curious since we never owned any pigs.).
So they invited a whole bunch of people to come out and everybody was having a great time all the while getting excited for the main event The Fireworks.
Finally it was time for the viewing and everybody is waiting in anticipation and...my mother went into labor and she had to skip the show to go birth me.

THE END

Hello people, this today is my annual day of aging.
I won't have much time to enjoy it though since I will be going non-stop all day but I will try to for a couple minutes at least..somewhere..somehow.

I was trying to think if anything was really special about 18...
Nope..well, I get to start paying taxes.. and I get EI which is great..cause I'm unemployed at the moment. :)

But there is one thing. I officially technically have permission to date from my parents now so.. Bring it on. Boys, I am ready for you :). Haha.



P.s. This is my last post for two weeks. I'm going to do some boring charity work :) so I'll see you when I get back.

Ew.

It's not that I am getting lazy.
Just wise, maybe. :)
Why shave your legs all the time when you are going to be wearing pants anyway?
I'm sorry if I have totally grossed you out with this post.
But the honest truth is that in some sick, twisted way I am proud of my accomplishment.
I went a whole month without shaving my legs.

S is for stress.

As most of you know( At least those of you who were at the brunch on Saturday :)),
I am a very paranoid person.
Maybe not in the usual,'normal' ways some people are but I do have some strange practices.
Forgetting something is my biggest fear.

Like when packing.

When it comes to packing for ANY trip it gives me a huge headache.
Cause unlike a boy who just throws a couple tshirts into a back back, I am very thorough.

It usually going something like this.

1. Write out a detailed packing list including EVERYTHING I need, might need, probably don't need but there might be one instance where I might need it for some reason. This list goes down to the nitty gritty of everything I must take.
I play out every part of the day through making sure I have written down anything I need for anything.
I write this list out on the computer because a. it's easier b. it makes for a cleaner sheet of paper since I rewrite this list several times. c.I like to highlight and bold everything in different colours according to what they are used for, what area of the house they belong to, and if I have packed it or not.
Are you feeling the strain on your head yet?

2. Write out a planner.
Here is where I just get ridiculous.
I map out what I will be wearing together and which day they will be worn. Along with any accessories etc. that I might need.
This is more for my flighty mind which might start wearing bright orange shirts with bright red shorts because I just randomly grabbed it from my bag.

3. Gather everything together and try as hard as I can to actually fit all of the stuff from my list into my bag. That includes all the might needs and don't needs. Since I find that there is no way all of the stuff will be able to come that is when I being elimination process.

4.ELIMINATION: The basic idea of this is holding up every article I have just put in the bag and asking the obvious question,"Do I really need this?"
That usually gets rid of the toques I've packed for a summer getaway or the 17 shirts that I'm planning on wearing on my 3 day weekend trip.

And that's the simple way of putting my complicated procedure.

Notes: I mentioned color coding my list. And you might think that is crazy but I'll give you examples.
Blue for things that I cannot pack until the day I leave cause I need to use them up until that day.
Red for clothes I need to bring but I'll be wearing it the day I leave.
Green for things I want to have close to me all the time so I should carry them in my purse rather than my bag.

This was just a little tidbit of what I'm going through today as I try and prepare myself for leaving in 4 days for HAITI!

Ouch.

I got my bottom braces on today.
They hurt bad.

But on the way home I picked up a couple much needed comforts.
1.Taylor Swifts new CD 'Speak Now'. Ahhmazing.
2.Hot fudge sundae. Avec peanuts.
3.Timmies coffee. And a fresh, pretty much straight from the oven pumpkin spice muffin.

The pain of the metal has lessened just having the company of these fine items.

EDIT:

...Oh and I guess the $500 I got today for being awesome helped a little too.

We are family I got all my sisters brothers with me

Since I know in the future I will be moving away for awhile I think that realization has made me appreciate hanging out with my family more.

Today was my day off and although I could have done super awesome things by myself I decided to go to the Wildlife park with my baby brother.


It was a lot of fun. I hadn't been there in years and there was a ton of changes that had been made so Noah was guiding me around since the map was as confusing as they come.


'We' took lots of pictures. I didn't have the heart to tell him that when it comes to animal pictures after you take them nobody is ever going to look at them ever again.

But I got him to smile in a couple pictures and we even had a mini photo shoot. It was pretty epic and cut short cause we heard some people walking down the trail towards us.



Then later today me and Sean hung out.
Hung out is relative. We ate McDonalds in a van while we waited for some people. But it was fun.

I'm going to miss my family when I leave. I happen to be very fond of them.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Want the Definition?

Sometimes I wish I had an exciting. Not really for my sake. But maybe just to give you some worthy of being read =D.

*pause* I just found out Taylor Swift has a new cd coming out October 25th. Why don't people ever tell me anything?*

I had a nice night off.
I started it by ordering a mint hot chocolate from my favorite place. It tasted perfect. And it was so good I actually finished the whole cup!(back story..I can never finish drinks. I always leave at least an inch at the bottom.)

Moving the night along I went to see 'Life as we know it' for the second time.
I know, bad Hannah.
But I learned a valuable lesson last time.
When I went to see Ramona and Beezuz I LOVED that movie..and about two weeks later I decided it was so good I had to watch it again but it was out of the theaters by that time. And I was sad. This time I was not going to let my hesitant self stand in between me and two hours of laughing, Josh Lucas and Josh Duhamel.
I was not disappointed.
The funny parts were just as funny and I didn't cry as much at the sad parts..Bonus!

I stopped at Shoppers on the way home to pick something up and got a little carried away.
I don't know what it is about those kind of stores, I just get swept up in the sales and the sweet stuff. I didn't spend alot, except for time...

And now I'm here, about to read in bed with a cat curled up on my toes.
What makes this night 50 times better is knowing I get to sleep in tomorrow.

Goodnight everyone!
Happy Tuesday.

Hannah is smart sometimes.

She knows that if you are tired, you should rest.
And she is SO smart she actually does rest.

It's the weekend.
One of the few weekends that I don't have several events planned.
So I went to bed early, slept in late(Well, okay not late but I forced myself to sleep more when I woke up the first time).
And I have done nothing(!) all day.
I watched a couple movies, the latest episode of Fringe. Wasted a couple hours playing Christmas Couples. Picked some apples. But..that's it.

I like this weekend.

Wht Thnksgvng mns t m.

(1).Family

The Lefebvre side. March 2010.

(2).Pumpkin Anything

Yumm! A new recipe I found online this morning.
I thought it was going to be a little risque since I put some of my mothers kefir(I know, shocking!) in it instead of buttermilk, but it still tasted so good. I will definitely share the recipe soon.

(3).Eating- most importantly Turkey.

Hannah thinks that decorating eggs just at easter is lame. So she is starting a new trend.
Eggs at every occasion!



Things I am thankful for:
*note* I have like millions of things I could write..but it's almost 12 and it would take forever and by the time I'm finised it would be so long nobody would want to read it. So for the sake of our get rich quick generation I will put it into 18 simple points.*

1.My bed- I have been sleeping away from home quite a bit and it makes me appreciate my bed alot. It's comfy and familiar.
2.Laughter-I love the feeling you get after laughing for 5 minutes straight. Like everything is right in the world and nothing could possibly get you down.
3.Friends that understand that sometimes I'm just not in the mood to be happy.
4.Opportunities.
5.A home in Canada.
6.A job.
7.Parents that understand that I don't want to immediately enslave myself in another four years of school.
8.Extreme-blasted cheddar goldfish crackers.
9.Memories.
10.My fishy- who has been with me now for 5 months and 8 days.
11.The beautiful outdoors.
12.My musical talent.
13.My sweet family.
14.Free stuff :)
15.My drivers license.
16.Lazy Saturday mornings when I get to sleep in and then just lie in bed for another couple hours. Followed by breakfast in bed and a movie.
17.Purpose.
18.A God who loves me and forgives me again, and again, and again. He's pretty sweet like that.

Jinxed.

This morning at first break some of the girls were talking about their nineteenth birthday.
One girl said hers had been on a Monday and it really sucked.
I was agreeing in my head.
And then as I was walking out I figured out what day my nineteenth will be on.



Monday.
Great.

"It's like Slumdog Millionaire in there!"

I have been waiting for this movie to come out forever!
I have watched the trailer like a thousand times.
And it finally graces us with it's presence at the Paramount theater tomorrow.

I will show up extra early just in the unlikelyhood that more than five people show up.
I am so excited.
This is making my month right now.
Basically an early birthday present.




In other news, I heart apple juice right now. More than you could possibly imagine.

Something quick.

I have to sleep pronto.
But.
I love Wednesdays.
They are my new favorite day.
This might be because it is new day off.
But its up in the air right now.


I like sleeping in.(which is really just waking up when everybody else wakes up.)
I like being able to lie in bed for 20 minutes just thinking and relaxing. Not too tired that I fall back asleep but not too alert that I want to jump out of bed and start my day.

I like taking time to get ready since I don't have to be anywhere at any specific time so I can take as long as I want.
I like doing something for an hour..and then realizing I still have the rest of the day to do whatever I want.
I like having time to stare into space on not feel guilty about it.


I like being outside on a crisp, October day. Soaking in the last bits of warm sun and having photo shoots.


I liked almost all of today and I'm counting down 'til next Wednesday.

You heard it first.

Just letting y'all know I'm taking a short break from my McDonalds diet.
Because...MONOPOLY STARTS TOMORROW!
this is one of the happiest times of the year for me.

And this year I will win something big. If not by myself I will recruit Matthew to pool our resources.

I have not decided if this means I'm allowed carbonated beverages yet. Maybe just from McD's?

Speaking of time management..

Okay this is really bad. I go to blog about time management at 9:55 pm when I am waking up at 4 the next morning while at the same time I am doing like 30 other things I have to get done tonight.
But then again..maybe that means it is fitting?

So, as you guys have noticed my blog is very light and cheerful and never really anything about seriousness. I would like to change it up tonight and actually talk about some of the stuff going on in my life. (Don't get too scared. It's not that bad I promise. And it will be short..for reason mentioned previously.)

Let's be honest.
It helps that not many people who read my blog go to my church :).
I don't really understand my pastor at all. Or maybe it's not that I understand..I just don't really try very hard. And it makes it very frustrating for me since as much as I want to learn and grow in my Christianity I feel like I'm being held back a bit, since church is a big part of guiding Christians along.

Awhile back I actually did go to a couple of different churches testing them out and I might start doing that again. But only half of me wants to do that because I do really love my church.

Okay, so that's serious subject number 1

2: along the lines of that, at young adults tonight all we did for our study was go over what had been said in the sermon this morning.
And this helped IMMENSELY! I don't know if Ryan was putting it in a way I could understand better or I was just in a better mood for listening but I actually could pick stuff up and it was so applicable.

We talked about time management. Which made me laugh alot inside.
Cause looking at my life right now you could probably say that there is no structure and I have no idea what the heck I am doing.
Here is how it goes.
When I come home from work I am super stinking tired and I do not want to do anything except lie on my bed and watch tv shows or read.
So I push all my responsibilities away promising myself I will do them later.
That continues for all of the week and finally Friday is here and I get all excited cause I get to relax and recharge. But ooops, I can't, cause now I have to do all that stuff I didn't do during the week. And since it's the weekend I feel as if I can go to bed later and it all ends up in my being overworked(on the weekend!), tired and really not looking forward to starting it all over again on Monday morning.
So I felt very convicted after this whole discussion.
Especially when I remember that I have been pushing off things like devotions and prayer as well. it makes me sad.
So, starting tomorrow I am going to live in a box with just me and a Bible, k?
Hah. I know it doesn't work like that. Although, sometimes I wish it could.
It will take me quite awhile to figure out how I can cut back off on frivolous things and get more into things that really matter.

That's about it.

And that is the serious portion on my blog for..6 months at least I would say :).

A slight break from the Caribbean.

Since I am not on my laptop and therefore no pictures.

One thing I have been wanting to mention for a while now and have just not had the time for it is..time.
I am going to get all philosophical on you now.
JK guys! It would take Hannah a while just to figure out what that word means :).

So.
Do you ever have that 'condition' (and I know of at least..1 person who does)
where you see a certain numerical time like every day.
Am I confusing you yet?

Explanation.
Every day at least once I see 11:26.
I do not know why. I don't know if it has a meaning or anything but every day without fail I see it. And sometimes..on a weekend or if I'm being really crazy and stay up too late I see it twice and it drives me crazy.
Like actually.
I am getting to the point where it upsets me.
I try to avoid it as best I can but I keep seeing it.
Any suggestions?

FYI:
Remember how my cat brought me that loverly present of mouse head and guts?
Well, it's happened two more times since then.
I think he's trying to tell me something. But honestly it's not my fault he gets locked out of the house some nights.

Do you know what I like best? Hanging out by myself. I have a good time. And I don't have to worry about being talkative or what the other person wants to do and when they want to leave. There is no awkward silences.

My job is teaching me how to appreciate weekends. Before this I never took them that seriously. Of course it hasn't helped that the one job I have had made me work every SAturday so I never got the true feel of it. But now that I am a Mon- Fri girl I count down the days and hours and as soon as I have left the building on Friday afternoon I feel like a free spirit. My body though, is still on 'go to bed early and wake up early' mode so I start feeling it about 8. Which is why I must keep myself alive with coffee. I just hope I'm not so into the routine that I will automagically wake up early tomorrow. Gah. I will hate life if that happens.

Okay, I need to finish my book before I sleep.
Goodnight all.
Happy weekend.
Happy Birthday Rylee and David.

Official birthday countdown starts now. 30 days.

You have a nice 'bumpah'. Jamaica #2.

Day 3:
Since it was our first full day there we spent it figuring out what we wanted to do and lying on the beach.

And I got a sweet burn. I had carefully planned how I was going to go about getting an epic tan and that fit in perfectly.
Now, a funny story with the next part of the day.
My mother has a watch. Which she wanted to keep on Kamloops time so that every time she checked what time it was she could figure out what the little boys would be doing at home. And she thought she would just keep track of what time it was by figuring out the time difference whenever she checked her watch.
So. Hehe. We made reservations at the asian restaurant.
For 6:30. We got ready a little bit early and slowly made our way down..and got the the place. But the strange thing was nothing looked ready, and yet all the waiters didn't seem to be in any rush. They were just sitting around chatting away. And giving us very strange looks. We waited for a while..and a little more until finally one of the guys came over and asked us if we needed anything. We explained that we had reservations for 6:30 and after a little confusion they explained to us that it was 4:30 and they didn't even open until 6.
Ooops. We must have looked like total airheads. They laughed at us.
And we had to go find something to do for two hours while dressed up to go to dinner.
But when we ACTUALLY went back it was really good.

I had :
Vietnamese Pork Dumplings- Spicy Pork Dumplings in a ginger sesame sauce.
Tom Yam Koong- Thai hot and sour prawn soup ( My mother was very surprised that I ordered this. I am not usually one for seafoody type things).
And for main course I had Cashew Chicken-Chicken, Cashew nut, Sweet Peppers, Onions and baby corn. *picture below*
All in all I would have to say that might have been my top pick of the three restaurants although at the time I had chose the Asian to be first since I don't really like that type of food so I wanted to get it over with.




And since they had no dessert there we just walked over to the buffet and some there. Mmmm. The cheesecake was to die for. And so every night after that we made sure we checked back to see if they had it.
Their coffee? So either since they are not coffee drinkers they don't know how to prepare it right or the jamaican coffee actually tastes like that but it was not good at all. But as I am a true addict :) I drank it anyway.

Day 4:


So the brochure told us it was going to be a soothing, relaxing climb.
If you ask my mother she will tell you it was anything BUT soothing. We didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into. But by the time we figured it out it was really too late for mom to go back :).

"Climb the falls in a human chain led by experienced Falls Guides. Pause at the 'massage parlour' and experience the soothing effects of the water as it cascades to the sea. For the less brave - live vicariously. View the activities of the more intrepid from the "safe" vantage point of the terrace or deck."

So the idea of it was pretty simple. Holding hands with a group of about ten you scale the side of a waterfall.
I didn't like the part of holding hands. Not only because its with complete strangers and thats just weird but also because if I had done it by myself with only me to worry about I might have actually been relaxed and soothed by everything. But trying to find footholds on slippery rocks while the water it pounding away and you and there are people on either side holding your hand thus preventing you from putting out your hands to secure yourself..not the greatest.

But it was something new that I've never tried so that made it fun.
And having video'd proof that my mother partook in such a crazy adventure made it even better.

We had lunch at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ochos Rios. It's one of the sister resorts to Sunset Beach but boy, was it different.
And that must be when I started appreciating our little run down resort.
It was so big and impersonal and there was so many people it was crazy.

And the desserts were not great at all so that was obviously one of the factors in my decision against it.

But they had these cool watermelon sculptures everywhere.
These things are so sweet. Haha. A pun.
Anyways..



The rest of the day we must have just hung out and had supper at the buffet since I don't remember anything extraordinary happening.
Usually what we do is since we were so tired from doing things all day we would have supper, listen to some of the live music after and then settle down for bed by watching movies and reading.

And that's it for today, folks.