Snapshots Mini Album - November Pages

I Choose

I came across this post I wrote back in September 2006. I think it's great that I still choose all these things in my life. I CHOOSE:

• To live my life to the fullest every single day!


• To follow wherever God asks me to go!


• To love unconditionally!


• To live with integrity!


• To not be afraid anymore!


• To be honest with those I love!


• To show forgiveness!


• To use my gifts to help others!


• To matter. I am worth it!


• To cross my lines and take that first step!


• To allow my self to soar!


• To reach all my dreams and goals!

2 Peas Wednesday Blogger Challenge

Please feel free to join us if you blog. Challenge for today: If you could choose a different time period to live in, when would it be?

Growing up I absolutely loved watching shows like "Dr Quinn Medicine Woman" and "Christy". Watching the simplicity and love, the sense of family and of duty just seemed to pull at me. I often wished I had been born in this time period. The early 1900's just seems to represent the things that I see as the best parts of life: love, family, loyalty, respect, belief, and courage.

2 Peas Monday Blogger Challenge - Memorable Vacations

Please come join us today/Monday if you blog. Challenge~ If you can remember going on a family vacation. What was your favorite and why?

My absolute most memorable family vacation is from the summer I was 16 years old. It was 1992. My family and I took 3 weeks and traveled through Western Canada. We went to the Calgary Stampede, the West Edmonton Mall, Jasper Alberta and Banff Alberta. It was the most amazing vacation ever. I loved the sheer beauty of Canada, the mountains, the yellow plains in Saskatchewan - everything. Every night my dad and I would sit in the motel room with maps and plan the next days drives and stops at local tourist attractions. He drove, I navigated from the backseat. It was such a bonding time for the two of us. As he drove, I often took photos and videos from the backseat. This is when my love for photography really developed. This is a trip I plan to do with my girls when they are old enough to appreciate the beauty of Canada ( and when they are old enough to drive that far without crying - hehe.)

2 Peas Friday Blogger Challenge - Comfort Foods

Join us today Friday if you blog. Fave comfort food?? what's yours? blog about it.
I have two very special comfort foods. The first is a hot cup of coffee. It can
something I drink in the morning or very late at night. there is just something so comforting about holding a hot cup of black coffee in my hands. I am not quite sure what it is, perhaps the warm, perhaps the taste. Whatever it is it seems to sooth me. It quites my mind, it relaxes me, and it gives me pure joy.

The second comfort food I have is a hot bowl of mushroom soup with lots of pepper. this is what I eat when I am not feeling well or when I am sad. It warms me throughout my whole body and brings me comfort I can hardly begin to even describe.

2 Peas Wednesday Blogger Challenge - What Others Think...

Join us today/wed if you blog. Challenge: Here is a fun question... would you live your life any differently if you didn't care what people thought?? blog about it.. fun huh???? I am finally at that point in my life where I am realizing that it is not important what other people think about how I act. I am living my life for me, for God and for my kids. I have a keen sense of right and wrong, and a keen sense of how I should be reacting and acting in many situations. As long as I am living every single day loving who I am, as long as I am living every single day serving God, and as long as I am living every single day trying to be the absolute best mom I can be... well then, it does not ever matter what other people think.

2 Peas Thursday Blogger Challenge - What I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up

Join us today/Thursday if you blog. Challenge: When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up????

Growing up I went through a couple of careers that I wanted. I started out wanting to be a lawyer like my aunt Cathy. I eventually changed my mind about law because I realized that there was something inside me that would keep me from ever being able to defend someone that I knew was really guilty. The thought of doing this weighed so much on my

conscience that I knew I would never be able to do it. After deciding that I could not go through with becoming I lawyer I decided that I was going to go into journalism. I love writing. I love photography. I love getting facts and writing about them. I did a co-op placement in highschool at the local newspaper and loved every single minute of it. Then at Christmas time a local mom and her kids were killed in a car accident. The editor of the paper published a photo on the front page of an adult-sized coffin beside two child-sized coffins. I freaked. I thought it was so insensitive for the grieving family members. I freaked so much I almost got fired from my placement. The editor told me that I was an amazing writer but that I would never make it as a journalist because I had too much heart. I worried about people's feelings instead of only caring about the story. To me that meant not becoming a journalist because I don't see anything wrong with having too much heart. I love my ability to care for and empathize with others. That is a piece of me that will never change no matter what job I ever do.

2 Peas Monday Blogger Challenge - 5 More Years

Join us today/Monday if you blog. Challenge: If you only had 5 more years to live, would you change anything about your life? I think that the hugest change I would make in my life is to just LIVE IT! To live it for God and to live it for my girls. To stop worry about the small stuff that is so insignificant compared to the love I would have to give all those around me. I would also make a point of getting up to date with all my scrapbooks so that my girls and my family would always be able to remember the events and even the everyday things of our lives together.

2 Peas Friday Blogger Challenge - Living Life Over

Join us today/Friday if you blog. Challenge: If you had your life to live over again, what would you choose to do over again? Blog about it.... As much as I have had some really bad experiences in my life, and as much as I've made some extremely poor choices I do not believe I would change anything I have gone through or experienced. Every single experience I have had to this point in my life has shaped who I am today. God allowed all those experiences and choices to shape me and to tech me to become the woman He has desired for me since before I was created. God always has a perfect plan for each and every one of us. It is not always the pl,an we want, and many of us question the events that have occurred in our lives. We just have to remember that God knows the plan and He will never leave us. He will take us to where we want to be.

2 Peas Tuesday Blogger Challenge - 10 Beautiful things

Join us today/Tue if you blog. Challenge: List 10 things that you own that are beautiful and that you just love. Blog about them. 1. the coffee sign in my kitchen 2. my sandcastle collection 3. the shelf I painted that belonged to great aunt Lottie 4. the tv tables I painted 5. the rooster collection from my kitchen 6. all my craft supplies 7. the photo of my family when I was 5 8. my porceline figures from my mom 9.the winter barn painting I did 10. my books

2 Peas Monday Blogger Challenge - Something You Didn't Know

Please join us today if you blog Challenge~ Tell us all something about yourself that not many people know. Blog about it, this should be fun to read Wow, Something people don't really know about me... that's tough. I guess the thing I try to hide from most people is the fact that I am insecure. I try to act as if I am a strong woman and that I am outgoing, but inside I have always been very insecure with very little self confidence. This past year that is definitely changing. I am becoming confident with the woman I am. I am beginning to be happy being me. I am becoming more confident with me, with my choices, and with my abilities to think clearly and to react from the heart. I will become the woman I want to be. I will become Powerful. I will become Intimate. I will become Confident. I will become Free.

2 Peas Friday Blogger Challenge - Fears

Challenge: Are you afraid of anything? What are your fears? Blog about them. I think everyone has fears of some sort. I have some that are kinda silly and some that strike deep within. My silliest fear is of centipedes and bats. I'm not sure what exactly it is about them but I freak if I see either of them. My deeper fears revolve around loosing my strength to stay clean or raising my kids in a way that is detrimental to them. I am often afraid that I am not being a good enough mom. I think recognizing our fears and realizing that everyone has fears is definitely the first step in conquering them.

2 Peas Wednesday Blogger Challenge - Attributes

Join us today/Wed if you blog. Challenge: List your 5 best attributes, in your opinion. Blog about it. Well, I guess it can be hard thinking of your own best attributes. Here are what I would guess would be my best 5: 1 - my smile 2 - my ability to love 3 - my listening skills 4 - my ability to help others 5 - my love for God

2 Peas Sunday Blogger Challenge - Obstacles

Join us today/Sunday if you blog. Challenge: What are the largest obstacles preventing you from realizing your dreams?? Blog about it. When I sit and really think about this topic it really hits home to me that the largest obstacle in preventing me from realizing all my dreams is me. That sucks in a way to finally realize that, but it is good in a way to know as well. The greatest thing stopping me is myself, fear of the unknown, or just fear at what will come, that I won't succeed. I need to learn to trust. To trust that God will guide me to where I need to be, to bring me to the path that He has set out for me. I also need to trust in myself, that I have what I need inside. That I know what is right and that I will know when I am on the path that has been chosen for me. Sometimes I need to let those fears inside me push me forwards instead of keeping me where I am. I need to just always remember to put God first and pray that He will bring me to the place that all my dreams will come true.

2 Peas Tuesday Blogger Challenge

Join us today/Tue if you blog. Challenge: Here's a question for you. Blog about it. Would you rather be a great musician, athlete, scientist, artist, politician, or writer??. If I could be one of these I would want to be a great writer. I have always wanted to be a writer. There are always so many thought going around in my head and I love being able to put them to paper. I would love to think that someday I was able to write something great that was able to touch someone. That I was able to take from my experiences and knowledge and use it to perhaps make a difference in someones life.

2 Peas Saturday Blogger Challenge - High School Friends

Please join us if you blog Challenge~ Do you still keep in contact with friends you hung out with in High school? Blog about something that you enjoy about them.. Looking back at some of the amazing friend I had in high school it is very sad to say that I am not still friends with many of them. I got married so young that when all my friends were off at University or College I was married and working and going to school so unfortunately we have all drifted apart. I can say though that by having this blog I was able to get re-connected with my absolute best childhood friend of all time. His name is John and we met on the first day of kindergarten. We were in school together through till high school graduation and then never saw each other again. Someone emailed him a link to my blog and he posted a comment. We have talked a couple times since and it has been amazing finding out how his life has turned out!!

2 Peas Monday Blogger Challenge

Join us today/Monday if you blog.... today/ Here's the challenge! What object in your home that you posses, that you absolutely love? Blog about it.. about something you have that has special meaning to you. There are few things in my home that I treasure as dearly as these 2 lady figurines. They were both given to me by my mom at Christmas time. I received the first, the one with the lady holding up the baby the Christmas right after my first daughter was born as a remembrance of her birth. The second with the child on her lap was given to me the year my second daughter was born. They mean the world to me and are such symbols of that special time in my life.

2 Peas Friday Blogger Challenge - Resolutions

Join us today/Friday if you blog. Challenge: The New Year is almost here.. thinking of any resolutions?? What do u hope to accomplish in this new year of 2007??? Blog about your goals and aspirations. I have a lot of goals for the new year, well really things I want to accomplish. Sometimes I find it very hard making resolutions though and actually admitting my goals out loud or on paper. I think it is because if I admit them out loud or I put them down in black and white I become very upset if I do not accomplish them and feel like I have failed. Here are some of the things I would like to accomplish in the new year: - find a new place to live (I have to move by Jan 31st) - spend more time crafting (scrapbooking & painting - develop a couple of closer friendships - develop my faith - read more books - keep my house more organized - keep finances better balanced Maybe I'll have to do a layout about my resolutions and challenge my thinking.

Loosing Trust

It has been so hard for me in the past to truly trust people. I have often acted like I trust them and in reality do not. I pretend to be who they want me to be so that I do not loose them in my life. I find it so hard to honestly open up and let people in. I have such a hard time believing that it's worth it, that I am not just going to end up getting hurt, and that I won't just end up loosing them. I hate feeling this way. I think though, that perhaps God is trying to teach me to trust in Him, and in myself, and love myself before I can trust in anyone else. Perhaps if I remember to ask God to always guide me to the right people, and to show me what He wants for me, than I will learn to trust again. For now, I will keep a part of myself closed, and afraid.

2 Peas Tuesday Blogger Challenge - Languages

Join us today/tue if you blog. Challenge: If you could learn another language, which would it be and why? When I was a kid I took French Immersion in school from grades 5 - 9 then just regular french the rest of high school. I could speak fairly fluently, could read it and write it. The problem is that I live in a small town (about 10,000 people) and there is nowhere to speak french here. In having many years pass now I have almost lost all of my french skills just because I have not had the opportunity to practice. i would love to be able to study it again.