Day 4: Insights and Sightings

Aha:
Kind of an interesting day. Today was the performance for the choir I joined here in Calgary. Fortunately for me, the house we're house-sitting is located only about 6 miles from the concert hall so instead of having to pay $20 for parking, Clinton was able to take me and pick me up. Plus it was -37 Celsius (windchill) so the close drop-off/pick-up was a big blessing!
The choir actually did better than I thought they would. I think the adrenaline of performing helped a bit, it still wasn't wonderful, but enjoyable for sure! I had a great time and performed to my heart's content. I guess I was so lively in fact, that quite a few total-strangers came up to me afterward and thanked me for my animated performance. They said I was so fun to watch, a great performer with a great voice. How nice are they? I had a small solo/duet in "People Will Say We're in Love" and really got to flirt with the audience. It felt good to sing and it felt good to know I was entertaining to the members of the audience.
I had one older couple flag me down and ask me how the choir found me. When I told them I found the choir they were amazed. :)
They asked if I performed in any other choirs and when I told them I don't, they said, "Not even church?"
Me: Oh, yah, but it's just a little church choir.
They: Which church is it?
Me: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
They: Oh, that's a lovely church. We went through there when they had their open house.
Me: Oh, the temple? Yes, it's very beautiful.
They proceeded to tell me every Mormon they knew in our area, especially those who are musically-inclined, and told me I needed to contact them and perform more often. Ha!

Ha ha:
Did you know that Jesus works at the Costco in NW Calgary? Neither did I.

Me: Clinton, oh my gosh. That guy looks just like church video Jesus.

He: A bit, yah.

Me: I have to get a picture.

He: No, that'll be weird.

Me: I'm doing it.

He: Well, if you must, wait till I'm not around. (Leaves)

I take a couple shots next to the grapefruits. Hoping for a straight-on, but ended up with profile instead. I go find Clinton to show him my paparazzi work.

Me: I couldn't get a good straight-on pic. It kept turning out blurry.

Clinton: Yah, I've heard it can be hard to get a good picture of Jesus.

LOL!

Day 3: Hummm-dinger

Aha:
It's simple, but I had to wake up early for a choir rehearsal this morning and I did not sleep well last night. Even though I had little sleep, when my alarm ding-donged its tune I was able to get out of bed quite easily and was able to get to my practice with about 10 minutes to spare.
Yay for alertness despite fatigue!

Ha ha:
So, I joined a "choir" here in Calgary cause I really missed singing. There's a whole story behind auditioning for this choir and at first I felt really flattered. I contacted the conductor and asked if I could audition. He told me to come to their practice that week, sing along and then if there was time I could audition. He sat near me during the rehearsal and after rehearsal was over he said, "If you want it, you're in." I felt so special that I got in with no audition!
Well, over the last couple months I have come to understand why I didn't require an audition. This choir kinda sucks. Maybe I've just been spoiled having participated in some really good choirs throughout my life, but honestly, this choir stinks. I got in with no audition because I can actually sing.
I feel like I could end the post here knowing you and I have both had a good chuckle, but there's more.
At last week's rehearsal the conductor had the pianist play the soprano's line of music. Very quietly to myself (notice the emphasis on "very") I hummed my part to make sure I matched what was being played. Two hums in the lady to my left let out a loud, "Shh!" Sure she couldn't be shushing me, I kept quietly humming. "Shh. Shh! SHH!, I can't hear!"
Baffled and befuddled at the realization I had just been shushed by a grown woman for softly humming, I looked at her in disbelief. Without looking at me she leaned over and said, "Sorry, I just can't hear the piano with you humming." I was too shocked to reply.
A few minutes later we had a break and she got up. I turned to my neighbor on the other side of me and said, "I just got shushed!"
"Yah," she said, "some people have a hard time hearing the piano when people hum."
0/2
I had to remind myself I was in a room of adults and not 13-year-old catty school girls.
If I hadn't already paid the $175 fee to sing in the two remaining concerts this season, I'd've taken my obnoxious humming elsewhere by now. Ha!

Update: I read the above haha to Clinton expecting a laugh-along from him.

0/3

He: Well, you know how I'm always saying you're talking or humming or whispering too loud?

Me: Oh, thanks.

He: I'm just sayin'. Now there's proof it's not just me that thinks you can be too loud at times.

Me: (humph)

Ha!

Please, Lord, tell me I'm not as bad as this guy!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ch7MZtRmNU

Day 2: Tried to Make Today Count

Aha:

Today would have been my niece's 16th birthday. I've been thinking about her a lot this week and especially today. Thinking of Hayley also makes me think of her mom, my sister-in-law, Shelley. So, I texted Shelley to tell her I loved her and was thinking of her. 

She wrote me back and said that they were doing a special balloon release at 7:45pm tonight to honor the time when Hayley came into the world 16 years earlier. Knowing we couldn't be there, but wanting to be a part of this special celebration, I tried to think of what we could do all the way from Calgary. I looked at the emoticons in my phone and saw a balloon icon, as well as a snowflake icon (Hayley's special symbol is a snowflake) and decided to send the following message at 745pm to Shelley, my other sisters-in-law, my mother-in-law and Hayley's sister.

So thankful for technology that let's me participate in this special balloon release even when I live far away!

Love you, Hayley! Happy Sweet 16!

Haha:

So, while I'm waiting for permanent residency I'm unable to work. This means my days are full of time. Time to do anything and nothing at the same time. I've watched several tv series in their entirety, seen plenty of movies and read quite a bit. I volunteer as often as possible but nothing quite fills up your day like an actual job. For now, my days tend to be very long.

Lately I've been staying up quite late and sleeping in. This is not something I'm used to doing and I've been feeling pretty lazy. So last night I made a point of going to bed "early" and actually woke up kinda "early" today.

When Clinton came home from work I told him the day was really long and I was glad he was home. He asked why it was so long and I told him it was cause I woke up earlier than usual. 

He: Oh yah? What time did you wake up?

Me: 9!

He: Wow, 9? You realize that's not early, right?

Me: Hey, when you have nothing to do all day every day, you'd think 9am was early too!

According to Clinton, I'm "living the life" right now. But I call it, "having too much time on my hands". :)

Day 1: The Sweet Taste of Miracles and Pepsi

It's been a while. I know, now let's move on. I'm not going to recap the last year+ or I'll never write on my blog again, however as memories and events come to mind I'll add them but for now, let's start fresh.
Aha:
As most of you know, Clinton and I moved to Calgary last summer for his Family Medicine Residency. Technically I am here as a visitor while awaiting my Permanent Residency in Canada. To those who have immigrated, you can truly sympathize with me in the time, money, stress and down-right annoyance this process entails. To make a VERY long story short, suffice it to say I have legitimately experienced a miracle in my life this week.
When immigrating to Canada you have to first meet with a border officer who will say yea or nay to your entering the country. If you are given the yea they will typically issue you a 6-month visitor document. As your 6-month period draws to a close, and if you'd like to stay longer, you have to pay a fee and submit a very lengthy application on a very unuser-friendly website, if there are any errors you are refused your request and asked to leave the country or apply for a restoration of your document, at a 250% cost increase of your original application.
How do I know this? Because this is what happened to me.
We found out on Christmas Eve that my application was refused (my passport was not uploaded properly) and I either needed to leave the country immediately or reapply for restoration of my visitor status (Merry Christmas, right?). Well, Clinton (bless his sweet heart) reapplied for me on January 1st (Happy New Year), paid the fee and we wished for the best. It looked like it was going to take about 45 days to process.

***

When I first found out that we were moving to Calgary I cried and cried. I didn't want to move to a cold place again. Clinton promised that we would go on a warm winter vacation to break up the cold and we planned our trip for the middle of February. I have been looking forward to it.

***

Now, when your restoration application is in process you aren't supposed to leave the country. Our trip was coming close and I wanted to make sure I could go, so on the 31st of January I checked the immigration website and it was processing applications submitted after January 1st. I called the immigration office and they said that since my application was for restoration I needed to expect to wait at least 16 WEEKS! What?
Devastated, I decided to do the only thing I could do--Fast and Pray. I turned to the Lord and pleaded for a miracle. We'd been trying our best to do things properly and were still having setbacks. I begged the Lord to have mercy and to help make things right. I told him that, in the grand scheme of things, I knew this was so insignificant, but it was a big deal to me now. I told him that I had done all that I could and knew the only way this could possibly work out was through a miracle.
To make things scarier, the next day (Monday) we found out that the fee we had paid online wasn't the right amount. We had the choices of leaving it as is and hoping for our miracle, withdrawing our application and restarting the waiting process, or going to the border and pleading with a border agent to let me back into Canada (if I was refused I'd have to stay in the states while Clinton went back to Canada).
After fretting and stewing over it for a couple days, I finally broke down and realized I had to turn my stress, worries and problem totally over to God. It was all too much and I was really in a dismal slump. If anyone could fix our problem, God could. I had to totally let go and trust Him to take care of things. So I decided to trust the Lord, we let the application go as is and continued to pray for a miracle. Tuesday morning we still didn't have answers so I prayed all day that a decision would be made and that a positive decision would be made today or tomorrow (Wednesday). I went to bed with no communication from immigration and truly believed I'd have an answer in the morning.
Wednesday morning I woke up, opened my email and as I was looking at my messages the email we'd been praying for came from immigration. Not only did we receive an approval of my application, but also an honest to goodness MIRACLE from God. Despite the fact that the fee we paid was less than required and my application had only been received 5 weeks earlier--my application was approved!
I am publicly (as public as my blog can be) acknowledging the hand of God in my life. I feel like one of those lucky people in the scriptures who witnessed a miracle! Like one of those who were thrown into a Lion's Den or a fire--I came out untouched. I feel truly blessed, protected and miracle-ized. What an emotionally stressful, but spiritually rewarding experience this has been.
Thank you to my ward Relief Society sisters for their prayers; the prayers of my friends (esp. Jess, Nari, Christine and Shihara); and the continuous prayers of my family members for my immigration process in general. Also, Clinton you have been so wonderful through this whole ordeal. Thank you for being so forgiving and patient, and for loving me even when I'm crazy and emotional. People, miracles DO exist.

Ha ha:
A few days ago I went grocery shopping and noticed they were having a sale on Pepsi products (4/$3.50). Ever excited for a deal, I put four 2-liters in my cart, snap a pic of the deal (never know when you're going to get questioned at the register, so I've made a habit of taking pictures of special prices to save me a trip back to the product with a store manager just to prove I'm right).
Anyway, as per usual, I end up in the slowest lane ever. By the time it's my turn I totally forget to look at the price I was charged before bagging my groceries and heading out the door. When I got home I realized I had been overcharged, by like $4! I called the store back and they said I had to come back the same day in order to receive credit. So, I bagged my sodas back up and drove the 12-minute drive back to the store.
When I got to customer service I proudly whipped out my receipt and my camera to show the difference in price and awaited their apology, along with the sound of the till opening to give me my $4 back.
"Uh, ma'am? The picture you took is of the price for 12-packs. You paid what you were supposed to pay. This special is four 12-packs for $3.50/each. This is for 12-packs, not 2-liters."
Me: (Looking again at the photo) "Oh crap. I guess you're right."

So, instead of getting four 2-liters for $3.50, I got four 2-liters for $7.11, plus tax, plus deposit, plus the cost of gas going back and forth to eat a piece of humble pie.
At least I was able to laugh about it right away.

Day 35: Living the Dream

Aha:
Question #7: What is your dream job, and why?
I want to be a stay-at-home mom who works part-time in the salon attached to her house.
I think the reason for this one's pretty obvious.  I have always dreamt of being a mom and have never felt like a career woman.  Though, as I've spent all these years working and have yet to become a mom, I have gained an appreciation for having something outside of motherhood that's just for me.  The appeal of cosmetology is that it's pretty flexible, I feel good helping others feel better about themselves and there's good money to be had there.
So, someday I hope to be the wonderful mommy who spends her days with her beautiful children, but I also want to be an individual and spend an evening here and there doing something that's just for me...and why not make some extra bucks on the side too?

Ha ha:

The other day Clinton and I went out to supper with some of his coworkers from his last rotation.  We went to this restaurant called "Juniper 61".  It's this trendy little place in Tosa.  Anyway, the food was fantastic and we had a lovely time.  When it was time to go, I headed for the car while Clinton headed for the restroom.  Once I got in the car I looked up and saw the following billboard.

At first I thought, Why would they call those ballroom jeans?  They aren't very fancy.  And then I realized they meant "ball room" jeans, as in, room for one's balls.  Then the slogan "crouch without the ouch" made even more sense and I started killing myself laughing.
Once Clinton got in the car, I pointed to the billboard.  He looked up and said, "I don't get it.  Those don't look very dressy to me."  I started laughing and said "BALL - room jeans".  He laughed and said, "That's actually pretty clever!  And it is pretty uncomfortable to crouch in jeans."
Anyway, thought I'd share.  I guess their other slogan is "crouch without singing soprano".  Also funny.

Day 34: God Bless Me

Aha:
Question 6:  What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
I think that without question, the hardest thing I've ever experienced/am experiencing is infertility.  There's something to be said of watching everyone around you so easily achieve what you've worked, cried and prayed for for so many years.  I ruined at least one really wonderful friendship and experienced strain in my marriage and family because of impatience, envy and jealousy.  One year in particular I lost count at 32 baby shower invites in a period of about 9 months.  Putting a smile on my face with every announcement or pregnancy story was literally more than I could bare.  I was bitter, I was angry, I was hurt and I was devastated.
One afternoon, I received a phone call from one of my family members.  She was hesitant and carefully told me that she was expecting another baby.  Of course, I knew it before then.  That's one thing I've noticed--a sort of sixth sense--I can often tell someone's pregnant before they know or decide to start telling others, it's what I would call a tender mercy.  Anyway, she apologized and started to cry.  I told her, "I have to go now." and then I hung up the phone and cried like I'd never cried before.
Had I really sunk so low that people felt they needed to apologize to me for being pregnant?  What had I let happen to so many people I cared about that they felt they needed to skirt around their happy news for my sake?  Why did this have to be so painful?  I couldn't take it anymore.  My heart was so broken.
I told the Lord I couldn't do this any longer; the hurt was unbearable.  I was so unhappy and so tired of feeling dark and bitter.  I needed to let all of this go but couldn't begin to know how.  I prayed that my heart could be softened, that the pain would go away and that I could be healed.
Now, I've heard people bare testimony of the power of the atonement and always wondered how they could possibly know.  Sure, Jesus died for us and all so that we could be forgiven and he'd know how to help us, but how could anyone really know or feel anything more than that?  I will tell you, that I know the atonement of Jesus Christ is real and it truly can heal our hearts and save our souls.  The moment I finally let go of all of the hate and bitterness I'd been clinging to and finally opened my arms to the love and healing power of Jesus' atonement--I was finally set free.  I'm not going to lie and say that I never feel pain over infertility because I totally do, and I still cry about it at times, but I'm not bitter anymore.  I can actually be happy for my friends and family (after a quick cry) and I am filled with hope that God has a plan for Clinton and me--and that it's better than anything else I would have or could have ever planned for us.

Ha ha:
The other day I was talking to a coworker and had to sneeze.  As she continued to talk I turned my head to the side and sneezed into my shoulder.
Ooo, that felt a little wet.  Best to take a peek.
So I looked on my right shoulder and noticed a giant booger clinging for life on my wool sweater.
Meanwhile, my coworker keeps talking and I sorta duck down, hoping she doesn't see it over our little wall between our desks.
I grab a tissue and wipe my nose and then "casually" wipe off my shoulder, hoping any residual sheen is absorbed by the barely-soft tissues they provide for us at work.
Talk about embarrassing!

Day 33: I Could Honk I'm So Happy

Aha:
Question 5: What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?
Family and my husband are of course a given...
1. Food (Milky Way candy bars, peanut butter pancakes, sweet potatoes and cheese crackers. I was going to list all of these separately but then I realized that "food" would be almost all of my happy thoughts.)
2. Taking Peter on walks.  I love seeing the cute little smile on his face and the wind blowing through his hair.  When he's happy, I'm happy.
3. Taking links off of the countdown chain I made for how many days I have left at work (down to 127 now!!)
4. Getting ice cream cones from McDonalds every Saturday afternoon with Clinton.
5. Downton Abbey, The Walking Dead and Vampire Diaries.

Ha ha:
The other day I was listening to the scriptures from the Gospel Library on my phone.  I noticed the recording (Psalms 30) sounded a little weird, but I knew something was off when I heard a honking sound in the background.  Knowing I live on a busy street, I thought, Was that outside or on the recording??  I listened again and sure enough, there's a definite *honk* towards the end of chapter 30. Go on now, go listen to it for yourself.