I'm a Novelist!

I did it! I made the wire, actually, I had several hours to spare! the 50,000 word mark has been past and I have been successful at reaching a deadline! Check it out! I'm a Nanowrimo Winner!
Check it out here if you're interested http://www.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=168361

The New Music Teacher

I got a job today! Well I had the interview and was offered the position and accepted. It doesn't start until February first, but it should be a blast. I will be the music teacher for Kindergarten through Grade Five! reading over the curriculum it sound like a blast to me!

I am so thankful to have some solid work. What a strain the last few months have been on me (ok, slight underexaggeration). They have been difficult.

They told me today that they wanted to pull me in for interviews for the other jobs I have applied for this past month but were unable to due to a computer glitch in the system saying I was only willing to teach LA & SS. I found this extreemly frustrating, but have to believe there is a plan bigger than computer glitches and communication problems. It was nice to hear they wanted me though.

So until February 1st, I will do some supplying at the school, hopefully, getting to know the ropes around there, and organize myself for the remainder of the school year. What a blast! Teaching music! how fun!

did you see, did you see?

Yup made it to 41,810 words today. I think we're gonna make it by Friday folks. Novel Writing month is nearly over and we're gonna make it.

Christmas Advent Basket

Today my Mom, Dad, Nanny and Grampy joined Chad and I at Swiss Chalet for the Festive special at lunch after church. It is always such a treat when they come up to visit even if it is just for a couple of hours. I love having them around, and each time they leave I feel some regret at living 2 hours away. Yes, it's still much closer than many, but even just being a few hours away you miss out on so many things, no dropping by after work, no stop in suppers, or meeting everyone at the Santa Claus parade. Anyway, making me long to have them closer was not the point of their visit.

The POINT, was to bring Chad and I up a Christmas Advent basket, all wrapped, each day starting December 1st we get to open one gift, and it is lableled. So the fight will be on to see who gets to open each gift. So now they sit, staring at me from across the living room, begging me to touch them, shake them, feel them and it is taking every bit of self control I have to not go over and do all those things, well that and the fear that I might just figure out what one of the things are, spoiling the fun for myself. How fun! I will keep you updated on what special Christmas treats we get!

AND Mom & Dad, Nanny & Grampy brought up all of our Christmas gifts from the Moncton area. Goodness our living room certainly looks like Christmas is coming now! Mom was afraid we might not be able to get down at all before Christmas and couldn't bare the thought of us not having our gifts from them Christmas morning. So they too, stare at me from across the living room, begging me to touch them, shake them, feel them....they are pretty, I wonder what they are...

Chad & I are staying in town this Christmas. We decided last year running to each family's Christmas was too hard and we didn't feel like we had one of our own. So we will do our Christmas Eve services, and create our own traditions, meeting up with Chad's family around noon Christmas Day, and going down to Moncton to visit for a few days after the craziness has settled down. Sounds like a plan at least, we'll see how we make out.

The Nativity Story

Chad and I had the opportunity of viewing The Nativity Story thursday morning at the theatres before it comes December 1st, and I must say I would recommend you go see it. It is well done. Of course there are moments where you want a little more creativity, stepping away from the text a bit more, adding some creative license, but overall it is well done and something worth seeing.
It is also another movie, like the Passion of the Christ, and the Chronicles of Narnia where we are given a rare opportunity in movie going history. Besides some films made in the 50's relating to Bible stories and such, this offers those of us who believe, more movie going opportunities, to see some creative interpretation of stories we cherish. There is also a significant bit of historical context that we might not otherwise consider when reading, hearing , or experiencing the Nativity Story at Christmas for another year. This alone is enough of a reason to get off of our butts and out to see the movie, supporting more of this type of thing in the future.
It will be interesting to see what non-believing people have to say about such a fantasitical story, a virgin giving birth to God. I certainly would be interested to take some of my friends out to it and have a discussion afterwards.
More than anything, the message that Jesus came to earth for the lowest of people and the highest of people resounds through the movie and is a message of hope for all at Christmas, one of the most difficult seasons for many.
The soundtrack sounds awesome and I look forward to getting my hands on a copy of it.

Go see it! and bring a friend! I was shocked last year during my internship as Christmas approached and the middle school students began discussing the Christmas story. Many of them did not know it all all, or peiced together bits and peices, some girl named Mary, got together with some guy named David and had baby Jesus. There is much confusion, don't take it for granted that people know!
http://www.thenativitystory.com/

Turkey Hunting

Well Happy American Thanksgiving to all you Yankee's out there! Chad and I celelbrated a little yankee thankee of our own last monday and drove down to Houlton ME to pay our US student loan and go turkey hunting. Americans have amazing deals on frozen turkeys just before their Thanksgiving and we certainly found a deal. I must admit I got just a tad excited when we rounded the bend in the grocery store and there was the largest turkey I had ever seen. It was massive. One big 25lb frozen bird for just $16.00--Wow! Chad kept saying "Heidi that one is really big...we could get one smaller..." but I kept insisting this was the one for my parents! Chad thought they probably didn't have a roaster that size, so we ran out in the cold to a pay phone and called home.

"Mom! It's Heidi, how big's your turkey roaster?"

"What?"

"Your turkey roaster, how big is it? How big a turkey do you want?"
"Are you in Houlton?"

"Yup, I found one that's 25lbs!"

I was so excited. We did get one for ourselves as well, a more reasonable 14lber, and we'll cook it up sometime after Christmas in the dead and boring winter months for a treat.

Successful turkey hunters!

Part-eee at the Billingtons!

Last night was a blast! The SSC Choir sang at Scott's Nursery Christmas Tree lighting community event again this year and afterwords Chad and I decided it would be fun to have some people over to the house for treats and social time. We couldn't decide who to invite, or more we couldn't decide who not to invite, so we invited all of the choir and their spouses if they wanted to come. I must admit I was completly suprised at the amount of people who said they wanted to drop by. Keeping in mind we have a MINI home, I was a little concerned we were going to have people looking to the flush for extra seating!

Anyway, it was fun. People piled in happily, sharing seats, sitting on laps and the floor just being cozy. I wish we had thought to take a picture of all the food. We had the extra leaf in our table and it was still just overflowing in treats! I'd say it was an overall success and people walked away having had a good time. Might consider making it an annual event!

watching the clock

so it's 12:07 and Chad and I went to bed aproximatly 1 & a half hours ago. Chad had this brilliant idea that since we've been getting to bed so late these last few nights or so our schedule is all out of wack and that is why mornings are so hard and we feel like crap. So, sounds like a plan, if warm milk was necessary he was going to bed at 10:00pm tonight. Well come 10:30 he did get himself to be so I thought I would try too.

12:08 but here we find me at 12:08 sitting on teh couch, wrapped in an afghan with my friendly laptop, passing the time. Oh, I intend to write some more, being the novelist that I am :P but is that really the point as I lie in bed listening to my husband saw on wood and I watch the clock to turn

12:09 ok so I am watching the clock turn out here too but at least I don't feel like I am disturbing him from sleep, alll right all right-truth be told! HE was disturbing me! Marriage makes ...what's that word when you can't sleep...ok maybe I shouldn't be writing tonight, I might regreat it when I look it over in the morning....marriage makes....ah google-insomnia seem so much worse! I should take that up with God later--when the pastor, priest, reverand or whatever waves the magic wand saying its alright to have sex now at the wedding ceremony, insomnia should be instantly curred as well. Insomniacs and marriage just don't work

12:12 I think I'll already regret the utter stupidity of this post come morning, so if we go for now...

A Spitting, Married Priest, With No Benediction

This afternoon between morning and evening services at SSC Chad and I went to the nursing home in town, Pine Grove. Once a year SSC is responsible for bringing them their afternoon chapel service and Chad & I have done it the last few years. We go and I play some hymns and lead a little song service and then Chad gives a brief sermon.

Today was hilarious, well actually last year was too. The people are great and are so appreciate of anyone coming in. Last year we met a couple ladies who loved to chat. They were there again this year. When we first came in the chapel, one lady was really interested in whether or not Chad was a priest, he started to explain that he was a pastor but she inturrupted and asked if he was ordained, to which he simply replied yes. Then he introduced me, Heidi, his wife to everyone. There were some definite strange looks from this lady-- a priest with a wife?

Things went pretty normally at first. I lead us in several hymns and there was a lot more singing this year which was nice. Then Chad shared his message to which he included a story about him spitting off the Camplino Suspension Bridge in Vancouver- I think it wasn't exactly audience appropriate, they didn't crack a smile or anything, and then it was time to wrap things up. One of the ladies needed someone to help wheel her back to her room and Chad decided to take her. It was hilarious, as I was filing the music back into it's appropriate place, this outspoken woman started asking loudly over and over again, despite being told, "Is the service over? Is the service over?" When finally she got it that it was, she was completly flabergasted, a service ending without a benediction?

All I could think of was the confusion that must be running through her mind, a spitting, married priest who ends a service without a benediction?

Date Night

Well, last night Chad & I went on a very fun Date night. Generally we have made it practice to go on a date night every Friday night. Time we spend just the two of us, doing things the two of us love to do together. It is good practice but we've had a really difficult time doing it, well really, since last Easter. Easter always throws things off with preparations for our Easter production at church, and it's hard to get back on track for anything before summer. Then when summer hits, well it's summer, and everything is all esque. Then Septmber happens, and frankly it's is September! Things are all up in the air with new programs, new schedules AND it's NOT summer! THe first couple weeks of September happend and then stuff just kept crawling up on Friday nights and our date nights got pushed to the side.

All of that to say, last night we went out on a great Date Night! We started, Chad leaving a tad earlier from work and headed off to Houlton to pay on the US student loan. As little fun as paying off debt is, Chad & I generally always enjoy the trip to Houlton, a time to talk and catch up and then check out cool deals at Marden's, cheap gas, and other cool stuff at the grocery store like cheap Turkey's and Walmart that they only have in the US of A. Often we will stop at the best Pizza Hut ever (beside Marden's) and splurge on their jukebox and eat yummy pizza with chunky chicken and veggies, but this time we just went to pay the debt and then headed over to Marden's.

Marden's was great this time around. Sometimes there is absolutly nothing but junk, but other times the saying is true, and we have said it several times "you should have bought it, when you saw it at Mardens!" When we walked in the door they had the nicest Christmas boxes and I just got so excited, buying two for special Christmas gifts. Wow, they will look great under those peoples Christmas trees! We picked up a few other Christmasy things and headed off to Walmart, where we got a couple of things, got a doughnut and some gas and headed back to Freddy town. I think, this just goes to prove again, we are easily amuzed.

Well if this wasn't enough, we then went to Regent Mall for Manchu Wok supper and a bit more Christmas shopping before going to a movie. You see, we had to buy film the other day and if you didn't know this already, when you buy film at Walmart you get coupons for free movies at the theatres. So we had two free tickets and decided to go see the new Will Ferrell movie "Stranger than Fiction" I must tell you, if you haven't gone, or don't plan to DO! It is great. Of course the adds on t.v make it out to be this huge comedy and frankly it wasn't hugely funny, but had a bit more of a thinking edge to it. So abandon any preconcieved ideas and head off to see this movie. I must admit it was great, especially for me this month as I'm endeavoring to push out this novel. Did I mention I'm over 27,000 words! yeah me!

So we got home around 12:30, after running to Sobeys to quench a Diet Coke urge (I know, I'm a walking comercial) and I walked in the doors of home, and no I wasn't called to the wonderful world of dreams, but instead, the Housework had my name all over it. So I tackled it--head on. For 2 hours. And at 2:30am I crawled into bed, satisfied. I am strange. I admit it. Never denied it.

Before I die...

As a kid I made this list of things I thought I needed to complete or accomplish, often by certain ages. For instance, I thought I should be published by 25, married by 27, fy in a plane by 27, go Overseas by 30. Of course the list that ensues grew over time. I have a chart where as I accomplish each thing I check it off and put the date beside it. Maybe it's a bit crazy, but man it certainly is fun to be able to check those things off as I get there!

TO DO:

Hug more often

Love being me

Love deeply

My family & friends know I love them deeply

Make a significant difference, have my life mean something

Milk a cow

Collect eggs from hens

Ride a horse for a significant time

Whale Watch

Learn to play poker

Gamble with $20 in a casino

Backpack camping

Drive through movie

Skinny-dip at midnight

Dance in a warm summer rain

See where Heaven & Earth Meet in Elgin

Sleep out under the stars, where there are no bugs or snakes or massive spiders!

Learn how to Swing Dance

Create and produce my own Greeting Cards

Pursue Photography

Get married by 27

Be a great Wife

Be a great Mom

Graduate BA

Graduate BED

Build a House

Fly by 27

Fly a plane by 35

Write a book

Be published by 25

Sky dive

Scuba Dive

Bungee jump

Travel across country by car for a summer

Spend a full day at a spa

Tour a Winery

Parachuting

Surfing

Drive a Motorbike

See Les Miserables

Take Mom to the Opera

Go on a Safari

Go on a Cruise

Go to Italy and eat gelato & Italian pizza

Go to Vienna for Christmas in the Alps

Dance The Waltz at a Ball

Go to London

Go to France have coffee on a curbside café

Go to California and travel the coastline

Go to Hawaii

Go to Africa

Go to New Zealand

Go to Mexico

Go to the Grand Canyon

Go to San Francisco and ride a cable car

Go to Prague

Go to New York for New Years

Go to Venice for a gondola ride with hubby

Go to China walk on the Great Wall

See the Northern Lights

See Mont Blanc

Visit a concentration camp

See Anne Frank’s house

Girls Day Out!

Yesturday was a full day!

I picked Sharon up just after 9am and we drove to Moncton where we met my Mom and Nanny at Champlain Place for some Christmas shopping! What a blast we had! We did a killing on some shopping and had a blast at the same time, even better! By 4:00 with a loaded cart and some seriously exhasted knees and feet we decided it was time to head home (ok. my Nanny was pushing the cart to hold herself up). Stuffing our purchases into the car Sharon & I headed back up to Fredericton. I'd say we had a great day and maybe it should become a bit of an annual trip!

Last night after supper, back her in Freddy town, I got to do one of the things I absolutly love, sit on the living room floor with all the Christmas gifts I've boughten for people, and wrap, wrap, wrap! It's not that I'm a particularly wondering gift wrapper, I just really love it for some reason. Chad was busy working on his sermon, so I had the living room to myself in my Christmas glory!

The Novel

So it's true. I've embarked on a new mission, one I've always wanted to do, yet needed a deadline and it has been provided. I've always wanted to write a novel, even started one a while back, but never got around to finishing it as there was no deadline, and I'm a kind of girl who loves a good deadline. Then a good 'ol friend of mine, Vicki, sent me a link to this online web page that gives you a deadline for writing a novel, she is setting out on this adventure as well. the point is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Ambitious. The goal is to focus less on amazing quality and more on just pushing something out. So I thought, of all the times in my life when I might have the opportunity to pull this thing off-this would be the time! I don't have full time work, I don't have children, I can leave some of my household responsiblities for another day. Lets give it a shot. So I am. If I can figure out how to link you folks to it, you can check up on my progress from time to time. Wish me luck!

You can check out my progress, and grab an excerpt here if you're really bored today:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=168361

God Moments

Well I had a God moment of clarity last Friday. I know I am late in sharing, but better late than never, it has been a busy week with an especially busy weekend. Friday at school, the Principal and Vice Principal who were two of my interviewers in the job I was almost sure I had last week, pulled me aside to sing my accolades. They both sat down with me and told me that it was a really close call for the job. That of 35 applicants and 8 interviews I was in the top 2 with the woman who got the job. That I had a really strong interview and that they were all impressed with me. That when I left the interview one of the interviewers commented as I left "There is a woman of confidence! She is a born teacher!" It was a tough decision according to them, but they chose the woman with 3 years experience in a difficult teaching position over me. But they encouraged me to keep on keeping on and applying for those things coming down the road, that they expected I would have a classroom of my own soon. So this was very encouraging. One thing that I thought was just so nice, is the VP is a Christian and after debriefing me on my interview and building me up a bit, he asked if he could pray with me about the situation. What a priviledged situation. So I had a God moment of clarity. A few times over in one day. Then a teacher came up to me and said that everyone in the school knew I had the skills and was going to make a great teacher, and to keep with it. What a great way to end a rough week.

Then Diana Frost really spoke into my life this past weekend at the Women's Retreat out a Bar None Camp, where I was doing the music. How refreshing and what a reminder that God really does care about me. God Moments.