navy lines background

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

i'm late for work! and other thoughts.

so why am i posting on my blog?
(i'm waiting for patrick.)

tonight i taught esl with joey. i can't even tell you how much i'm going to miss it. our students just rock. they're fun and kind and ask hilarious questions.
they're brave - they come from all over the world and somehow end up in little ol' halifax. then, they're brave enough to come to esl at a church they've never attended with people who are as crazy as joey & me ...

the awesomest part of esl is getting to introduce people to Jesus - and for those who already know Him, to talk with them about Him. because He's awesome.

ooh, patrick's ready - gotta go! xo

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

joy comes in the morning

i haven't been feeling well the past few weeks. i was hoping for an appointment this month with my pcos specialist, but received no notice.
yesterday, mom & i were chatting and she said there wouldn't be anything wrong with me calling just to check. there wasn't any answer, but i left them my number, just in case.

this morning, they called and told me ... my appointment was scheduled for today!! i do have one, and i didn't miss it!

what an awesome, amazing blessing. just another way that God takes care of me.

Monday, June 21, 2010

innocent sowvillians

the other night i woke up with this in my head. who'd'a guessed: my sleeping self has the same lame sense of humor as my waking self.


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

cryin', lovin', or leavin'

it's been a weird few days, and i miss my patrick. lately our sleep schedule is all wacky. you'd think that since we both work nights, we'd sleep the same rhythms. we totally don't.
for example ...

cryin':
on sunday, i got a migraine (first in years! yuck!). i took two gravol and hit the hay, the only way i can get through 'em. patrick, although he had to work, was unable to sleep on sunday thanks to me waking him up. so he tossed and turned all day while i zonked out ... for 20 hours. seriously. he had already worked, come home, and slept by the time i woke up.

lovin':
so we planned to hang out on monday night, with bekah and justin (yay!), after the sunday school teacher's meeting. i got to hang out with patrick for an hour or so before i went off to that.

leavin' (and some more cryin'):
monday is our only night off together. after a disastrous date with bekah & justin (during which i had a horrific allergic reaction, we couldn't get the dvd player to work, and patrick fell asleep), i couldn't seem to sleep at all. bekah and justin headed home (likely with more than a few sighs of relief) and i laid around, read books, played msn games, planned my conference cookies ... finally, i got in bed and hoped for sleep.

didn't happen. eventually, i got up and started making my cookies for conference. as the sun started to rise, i made a cup of tea and took my book out onto the balcony. i had on snuggly pyjamas, and took a cozy blanket with me - which was good, because the morning was chilly and wizard-of-oz-windy. just when i'd decided i'd had enough of the beautiful - but too brisk - weather, i realized i couldn't get the door open. i was stuck on the balcony until someone woke up.

an hour later, mom woke up and let me in. hallelujah!
then patrick woke up, and we had breakfast together. after that ... I FELL ASLEEP! now that he was awake.
he spent the day chillaxing, and just when i was waking up, he came to bed to get some sleep before work.

AARGH!
anyway, we work the same shifts for a few nights, so here's hoping we'll get to see each other non-drugged, non-sleepy, and non-crazy.

the dads

our dads have been having a busy june.
my dad hit a big milestone ... he turned 65 last week!
happy birthday dad. the old people jokes will stop soon ... xoxo. you're awesome.

and patrick's dad was stricken with a slipped (or herniated?) disk. poor papa Gerry is spending one of God's loveliest months in bed, slugged with drugs. mean ol' disk.

(my representation of the mean ol' disk)
to both our dads: we love you & thank God for you. thanks for all the ways you (still!!) take care of us.

Friday, June 11, 2010

crazy/sleepy

apparently, i've been a chatty little sleeper today. check out my insanity on patrick's post here.

before i go back to sleep, here are some cool thoughts from the sermons i was listening to at work:

God is not a cosmic pinata. prayer isn't a stick you use to beat blessings out of him. he's your father. prayer is like talking with your dad.
and
there's no point criticizing the church. who is the church? you are. stop criticizing yourself and make some positive contributions.

mark driscoll makes me laugh.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

big catch-up post: life lately

it's almost 1am. i'm sitting in mom and dad's living room, trying hard not to giggle out loud. i'm reading engrishfunny, and it's killing me.

(part of me feels a little bit bad at making fun of people who are trying to speak english. the rest of me just finds the mistakes hilarious. if people were laughing their butts off at my lame-o lunda, i would laugh too.)

i haven't posted forEVER! i haven't seen my friends, haven't done anything non-family-social, for practically a month. i've been working nights - and i love it. i get lonely, but mostly my mars hill downloads keep my mind busy while my body does the work.

work
my favorite part of my job is unpacking pallets. i get to slice open boxes, unpack the clothes, check them off on a list, and hang them on racks. then i have to unplastic everything (i recycle!), and arrange it according to size. after that, i cinch everything with a waist. it's easy, i get to use a knife, and i see the cute clothes before they hit the salesfloor. :).

some nights i just clean & tidy the department all night long. surprisingly, there is enough work to keep me busy for 8 and a half hours, but my mind gets numb by 5 am. last friday i was so bored it was making me twitchy.

The Move
as well as working, i was busy with The Move. we packed up our cozy little place with the world's ugliest address the end of last month. we threw out so much stuff. (i don't understand: we've moved 5 times in 4 years of marriage, and still we manage to accumulate things.) we were kind of forced to take our time with packing this time around. we're moving to thunder bay in august, but don't plan to stay there for more than a year. so we had five different categories while we packed: garbage, value village, need for the summer, take to thunder bay, and store in halifax.
we printed off labels and everything. (this will definitely make things easier in august when we have to haul it all across the country. we'll just read the labels and pop it in - no sorting or deciding required!)
as usual, our family was amazing. they came and helped us pack, trucked our stuff across the city to mom and dad's, and helped us clean. even my 9 year old nephew was cleaning! three cheers to him :).
we were really glad to be done The Move.

grad
i did it. i'm finally, officially, done school. i am janelle labelle, b.a., b.ed. i am licensed to teach your children muahahaha ... ;).
unlike most of my friends, i'm not subbing this month. after working 6 days a week all year, i just wanted to slack a bit this summer. patrick, the love, was in favor, so i'm working part time nights and that's it.

jen's visit
the other fun thing that happened was my big sister coming to visit. we had lots of fun eating yummy food, playing with the kiddos, and staying up late. she made the best spicy sauce for summer rolls while she was here - yum! and korean barbecue that was to die for.

patrick's birthday
this is happening RIGHT NOW! and he's at work. we've kind of been celebrating all week - monday, we slept all day, then got up and had a date that lasted from 7pm until 6am. we had supper, saw a movie, talked over drinks, looked at apartment ads in tbay, watched another movie, watched the sun rise, then went out for breakfast. it was awesome. this is a weird backward starlit summer. tonight we went out for snacks with mom and dad and joey. yum! but patrick had to go to work afterward :(.
i'm excited for him to come home this morning. i've never had a 27-year-old husband before.

forward things
we bought tickets for our july trip to kap! we're super happy to be going, especially as it means we'll be able to have a fun drive up from toronto with the adorable newest labelle, jelena. we also plan to get bubble tea from our very own favorite chinese restaurant, and that's almost worth the flight in itself. of course, it goes without saying that we'll have loads of fun with our labelle family: i'm excited for some fierce rounds of bananagrams and catch phrase already!

we also called some landlords about apartments we found monday night. i'm feeling apprehensive about thunder bay. the people i've met from there are so warm, but the temperatures we'll have are so cold! all that snow ... ugh. when i lived in zambia, i was over the moon. not a flake to shovel, or a hint of frost to slip on! on the bright side - chrissy, caitlin, and stevie k will be there. i'm told the hoito is the best restaurant ever. and there seem to be about a million gorgeous hiking trails to try out. and i will still be able to surf your blogs.

happy sun-catching, summer friends! see you on the moon side.