Come Join Me!

Check out my new blog:

www.vanessamsiemens.blogspot.com

See you soon!

New Blog

So because I have a new email address and hate having to sign in with this address, I have decided to make the shift to a new blog which is:

www.vanessamsiemens.blogspot.com

I would love for you to join me there! However, I have made it private just so I can know who is reading my blog, etc. But dont' let that stop you! Send me an email at vanessa_siemens@hotmail.com and let me know who you are and how you found my blog (if I don't already know you) and I will send you an invite!!

See you there!

(p.s. the new blog isn't too exciting yet.. but hopefully it will become so!)

Happy New Year's!

My friend Jenn was in Alberta for the holidays and I missed her when she was in B.C., so I decided it would be fun to fly to Calgary for a few days to hang out with two of my really close and dear friends, Jenn and Lindie.When I arrived, Jenn and Lindie were there to greet me. Lindie works for WestJet, so it was nice to have my own personal smiling customer service agent waiting! :)
We went to Schanks for New Year's. It's a sports bar in Calgary. It was a little sad to watch the Canucks lose while surrounded by Flames fans, but it was fun anyway! Here are the oh-so-cool New Year's hats we got.. haha.. it was hard to keep mine on my head while taking the picture, but it turned out kind of fun anyway! After the game we danced a bunch and enjoyed the appy's buffet! For New Year's Day, we went to the Saddledome to watch the final game of the midget hockey tournament. The game was between the Vancouver Giants and Russia and Vancouver got creamed 7-0. A little sad, but it was fun anyway! Afterwards, we went with Jenn's whole family to Mongolie Grill for a goodbye and birthday dinner for Jenn before she headed back to Quebec.
The next day, I went out with Lindie, her sister Erin and two of their past roommates. We decided to go for pizza and it was lots of fun!

Erin and Meghan, who was out from Bermuda for the holidays

The next day was Erin's birthday, so we went skating outside at Bowness Park. Lots of fun skating outside, although my feet are fairly prone to getting sore!! The only other place I've skated outdoors was Quebec, so it was fun to be able to do it again! It's cool, because there's all different paths you can skate. That night, Erin, Lindie and I met a bunch of Erin's friends from work (she's a paramedic) at Open Sesame for a birthday dinner for Erin. I didn't end up taking any pictures, but we had a great time! All ten of us got free dessert at the end, because they made us move tables! We werent complaining! Then I caught my flight back to Abbotsford where I have a few days yet before school starts!

Last but not least is the famous pink tablecloth. Jenn, Lindie and I always hide it on each other when we are visiting one another. It started one summer when we all lived together in Quebec. We'd always hide it in each other's pillows. Anyway, now we write a little message on it every time and then hide it on each other. Recently I found it in my sock drawer.. but I hid it nicely in Lindie's house.. fun times!!

More thoughts on the New Year and pics from the last couple days to come!!

Expectations

Lately I have been thinking a lot about expectations. I was examining three aspects of expectations: expectations of myself, of others and that others have of me. At first I thought I had no expectations of others, then I realized that I have far too many expectations of other people.. I have expectations of perfection for myself and I project those on other people. I can't meet those, neither can others and so nobody wins in the end.

I want to write a quote from 'The Shack' that was talking about expectations versus living in expectancy. It has helped me reframe this for myself as I approach my relationships and God with a new perspective.

"Let's use the example of friendship and how removing the element of life from a noun can drastically alter a relationship. Mack, if you and I are friends, there is an expectancy that exists within our relationship. When we see each other or are apart, there is expectancy of being together, of laughing and talking. That expectancy has no concrete definition; it is alive and dynamic and everything that emerges from our being together is a unique gift shared by no one else. But what happens if I change that 'expectancy' to an 'expectation'-spoken or unspoken? Suddenly, law has entered into our relationship. You are now expected to perform in a way that meets my expectations. Our living friendship rapidly deteriorates into a dead thing with rules and requirements. It is no longer about you and me, but about what friends are supposed to do, or the responsibilities of a good friend."

I understand what is being said here and it makes perfect sense, but I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how to actually can apply to my daily life. Is it truly possible to live free of expectation? As I approach God, I come full of expectations of what I feel He should do and what I think should happen in my life. I insert law into it and attempt to dictate the way in which it goes. Yet, I limit God and leave disappointed and miss completely what He is actually doing and what He is speaking to me. Interesting to consider.

Family Gatherings and Friends

On Boxing Day and the 27th I had two family gatherings. On Boxing Day it was with my mom's side of the family. We're fairly big, so usually whoever is hosting it uses their church for us to meet! It's always so much fun hanging out and eating and laughing together. Every year we have a doubles ping pong tournament and it's a lot of fun! Here's some pics from that gathering:

My cousin Mika and I

My cousin Desiree and I

Desiree, Omi and I

Lucas, Chad and Bobbi (my sibs)

A bunch of cousins and a couple uncles

hahaha.. Okay, so my aunt doesn't normaly looks like this, but she was trying to be cross-eyed for the picture and was laughing at the same time and this is the snapshot I got!! :)

My cousin Fred and his wife Tarah

My cousin Devon

My mom and Bobbi posing with the cake my mom slaved over!!

The first and second place teams for the ping pong tournament

My Uncle Pete and I who were on a team together for the tournament

After the tourney, we like to play the blowing game where you have to blow the ping pong ball away from you so it doesn't fall off the table where you are. It's hilarious to play and it's hard not to laugh the whole time!

I made it to the final three.. you can tell in this picture we're all ready to blow! haha

Omi wanted a picture with some of her grandsons to see who was the tallest

Omi with some of her grand-daughters

These pics are from my family gathering from my dad's side of the family. It was pretty snowy and so it took people a while to get there because the roads were slippery. My car wouldn't make it up the hill to their house, so my cousin and uncle had to come rescue me! We had a huge feast and played the gift exchange game. It's always fun to see what everyone brings, because a few people have trademark gifts they put in every year. This year, as every year, I was reminded of my Opa, Oma, Dad and brother who aren't with us. Empty spots around the table are reminders of loss, but also reasons to celebrate because the richness of life and joy they brought to us. While eating dinner I was thinking about how every year my dad would always forget to take the buns out of the oven for the meal and we'd always find them afterwards. I am thankful for all the good memories for sure.

My friend Lindie from Calgary came out for a few days to visit. She went to the hockey game with my mom while I went to my family gathering. I would have loved to see the Canucks beat the Flames with her (she's a big Flames fan), but my mom got to enjoy it instead!

Kelly, Lindie and I went for dinner in Vancouver to our favorite Japanese/Korean bbq place where it's all you can eat and you get to cook your meat!! it was so much fun! Then we went to two different theatre sports afterwards in Granville Island.

And so ends my whack of posts. Perhaps there will be a few more soon about things I have been thinking about! :) Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and time with family and friends!

Birthday/Christmas Eve

So this picture and the next are actually from Boxing Day, but I posted them, so here they are. My cousin Desiree and I made about 100 jam jams on Boxing Day! Jam Jams are a classic cookie in our families and we always have a lot of fun making them!! And they're SOOO good!

On Christmas Eve, Chad, Bobbi, and Lucas all came over for a brunch and then we opened our Christmas presents!

Lucas, my mom and I

Bobbi and I

In the evening, family and friends joined us after church at The Keg for dinner. Then we went to my house for cake and games and hanging out. Above is the cake my mom had made for me which was very special! :)

Chrystal and Kacey playing 'Things'. Chrystal got me the game for my birthday and it was funny, because that's the exact same thing I got her! haha.. It's a great game-lots of fun!

Carrie, Desiree and Brooke

On Christmas Day, I didn't have anything to do, so I went over to Chrystal's house where we played some games in the morning. Then they invited me to join them for their Christmas supper and hanging out. It was so much fun! Thanks guys for including me in your family and making me feel totally welcome! It was a great way to spend Christmas! :) Chrystal, Tasha, Kaeli and I all went to a late movie afterwards. We saw National Treasure (the second one) and it was pretty good. haha.. they even leave it wide open for a third one!

Mexico!

Cheryl and I left my house at 1am and drove down to Seattle to catch our 6am flight. By the time we got to the airport we were pretty tired but that made things a lot funnier. My favorite was the self check-in that we had to do. We had to scan our passports but we couldn't figure out how you could stuff your passport in the little slot that was there. "American passports must be smaller" we decided.. then we realized that I was blocking the nice big scanner that was quick and easy to scan the passport. haha..

Finally we arrived in Puerta Vallarta where we went to our resort, Samba Vallarta. Here was the view from our lawnchairs on the first day.

This was my fake camera for the week which conveniently I used as a bookmark. I read eight books in seven days! Lots of good thinking material and relaxation! So nice to not read school material. I read 'The Shack' (SO good and challenging), 'My Name is Asher Lev', 'Blink of an Eye', 'Sex God', 'Becoming Human', 'As the Leaves Fall', 'Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants', and 'Messy Spirituality'. It was a great mix of easy reading and good thinking material at the same time.

The sunsets every night were absolutely stunning!

View from the beach lawnchairs.

Cheryl and I out for dinner at the Italian restaurant at the resort. Well, at least the restaurant was fancy... hehe

We had a nice convo with the couple at the table across from us. We hung out with them a bit through the week as well.

Eating the Christmas tree... we thought it was pretty.

Cheryl, Willie and I

Willie and I

Every day we got little towel animals on our beds. We were pretty excited about the bunny.

Our favorite bar tender, Martin. He always made special drinks for us to try out.

We decided it would be nice to feed each other.. hahaha

Fire!! They burn the liquor before the put it in your coffee and pass it from container to container-it's pretty cool!

Tequila shots with the waiters

All the kids were going up for pictures, so we decided we would too! haha..

Yair and his new friend at the disco.

Last day on the beach

Cheryl and I decided we were sick of being selected for special screening at the airport! one time, okay, but both times??

We had a great relaxing week! We almost didn't make it home as our flight from San Fransisco to Seattle was randomly cancelled. But luckily we got on a different flight flying standby (even though there were over thirty people on the list!) We got home in the wee hours of the morn, just in time for my birthday on Christmas Eve! (and that is my perfect segue to the next post!)

Christmas Party and Last Exam

I decided that since I have a lot of catching up to do, I would just do a lot of posts!! So now I'm back tracking to a couple weeks ago, when I had a Christmas/birthday get together with a bunch of friends at my house! We ate lots of good food and played some great games! I was reminded once again of what an amazing drawer I am in Pictionary. haha.. My team was absolutely amazing. (okay we weren't the best at drawing, but we had a lot of fun!!)

John Mark and I

Kacey and Alex

Chris, Heidi and Kristen. I think Kristen schooled Chris in foosball quite a few times..

Chrystal, Brooke and Kacey

The next day I met my friends Sarah, Megan and Alex for breakfast at IHOP. It was great to hang out before the holidays and Alex was out from the island so it was good to see her too!

Alex and I

After breakfast, i went to school to study for my last exam. We met at a coffee shop first and then were in the school cafeteria. I must say that we really didn't study much. Or I didn't at least. hehe.. I'm not the best person to study in groups because I distract and want to do anything but study. So we hung out that afternoon and then wrote the last exam! huzzah!! up top is a pic of amy and kristen doing practice quizzes online.

kristen and I

Dan decided he would do an impersonation of one of the guys in our textbook. Took a while to get the head angle right! But I think he got it in the end!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I'm back from Mexico! I arrived back around midnight just in time for Christmas Eve and my birthday! Mexico was very relaxing! I read seven books in seven days! Great to do some non-school reading for once. Christmas was great as well. Wonderful to spend time with family and friends. My cousin and I baked cookies on Boxing Day and made one of our regular cookie videos. This one is a nice Christmas song for you to all enjoy. I will be posting some photos of Mexico and Christmas soon so stay tuned! For now, enjoy the video! :)

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane..

These pictures are small but they are of the place we are staying in Mexico!! Cheryl and I are off to the airport in Seattle to catch our 6am flight. YAY for no sleep!!

It feels amazing to be done my last exam!! I finished it in 22 minutes (a new record for me) and when I went to hand it in, my prof said "wow, that's fast. kind of scary." haha.. and i got my paper back and got 100% which was uber exciting!! :) Hoorah!! I'm done this semester and it feels amazing. See you in a week, stay tuned for pictures!!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I took my braids out which was an all day ordeal but boy it was fun to have an afro for a while! :)

They say stress makes you lose your hair.. well it is exam time...

Christmas Decorations

My mom goes nuts when it comes to Christmas decorations. I went around taking a few pictures of the decorations tonight. There are more, so perhaps I will take pics later, but thought I'd post these for you to enjoy! Welcome to my Winter Wonderland!

Fun with Friends

Thought I'd include some pictures of my last couple of weeks to bring you up to snuff on some of the stuff I've been up to!

So far I have done five exams and have one more to go on Saturday! Today's was the longest by far. Way too much written! But it's done, so that's good! We were allowed a cheat sheet and this was mine.. Yes, i like to write small.. haha

Studying this morning with Kristen.. Actually she was working on the assignment she forgot was due today!

Amy's cheat sheet

Emily, Breanne and I are youth leaders for sr. high at church and we carpool together on monday nights. this week we decided it would be fun to go hottubbing afterwards!

Chrystal and I studying hard at Boston Pizza

Carrie and I went to "Excalibur" last Saturday, a play in Surrey. Was a lot of fun!

Kristen and I have a weekly coffee/lunch date. We always order the chips and salsa and the spinach dip.. we've always wanted to try the greek tapas, but never wanted to give up one of our other choices. So we invited Chris along (during a study break) and forced him to order them!! haha.. We decided that during exam time you cannot have intellectual conversations with others, but that made the conversations quite interesting and absolutely hilarious!

The best picture of kristen ever.. hahahaha

Chris, Kristen and I

Ryan and Sue

Last week everyone from my small group came over for dinner. Everyone brought something and it was a great time of fellowship and hanging out! Lots of great laughs!!

Harry and Lisa

Gord and Andrea

Sieg and Deste

Ray and Carrie

Our annual Christmas dinner with the Derksen's- always lots of fun!!

So, now my countdown is:
-5 exams finished
-1 exam to go
-3 days until Mexico
-10 days until my birthday
-11 days until Christmas!!

YAY!

Snow!

Recently we had a lot of snow and I took a couple walks and some photos!! Had I not been studying and working on a paper for one of the days, I would have taken a lot more photos!!

Coming Soon

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I am in the middle of exam time and insanity is running amuck. I take one look at the million items strewn across my room (not normal for me at all) and realize that things have gone nutso. But we are making it through! I'm really tired for the most part. I have a lot of pictures to post. So that will come after my exam tomorrow. For now I wanted to leave you with a quote that I ran across in my Abnormal Psych textbook while studying:

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds" -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Any thoughts?