Big Game Night

Dad came for a visit this past weekend. That meant dinner at Reuben's, Habs vs Leafs game, cheesecake back at Reuben's :) Then breakfast at Eggspectations, church and a little bit of Christmas shopping. Short and sweet! 

Kinsey and Ryan are die-hard leafs fans so they scalped tickets last minute and joined us for the game and cheesecake afterwards. Such a treat! 

Oh PS big win for the Canadians! 4-2 woot woot! ;) 

PPS. Apologies for the the red-eye and blurriness. 

Purpose

It's easy to be overwhelmed by looming homework assignments and lately I've been feeling like nothing I'm doing right now has a purpose but tonight I caught a glimpse of a bigger picture. I was able to step back from the daily grind and reflect on what I'm doing here, what I've learned and where it's taking me and I feel better. So I'm thankful for the people in my life who are my encouragers and supporters and for a God whose purpose prevails.

November in a Nutshell

Year after year I'm amazed at how fast these semesters go by. September is settling in, October is midterms and November is prep for finals. This semester has been unique for me though. Instead of midterms and finals I've had presentations and papers...and visitors :) Jared was able to visit two weekends in November and dad will be treating me to the Leafs vs Habs game at the Bell Centre at the end of the month. But first I have two more presentations and two more papers to go! Thankfully that means I only have one final exam on the 16th so I get to have a four week and 5 day Christmas break! (minus the couple days of driving to and from Montreal to write the exam)

While Jared visited we were able to host Kinsey, Ryan and Katelyn for dessert and games. Roomie Amanda joined us for catch phrase too. Ryan also gifted us with his wonderful piano playing and Jared of course with his guitar and singing. It was a great night with friends. 

Our friends from church Morgan and Sam (who I lived with for the month of July) host Jared when he comes to visit and this time we were able to make a meal and bring it over to their place to enjoy with them. We had a hoot together. Those two are a riot! We blared Mariah Carey Christmas music and all sang along while playing Dutch Blitz, talking about and singing worship music and laughing at each other's crazy jokes.

Back at my place we put up our Christmas trees. Yes plural...we have two. I LOVE having Christmas lights. It makes the apartment feel so much warmer and cozier and my heart feel full and it reminds me of all I have to be thankful for and to look forward to. 

The only other thing November means is grad school applications. Dun dun dun... thankfully I don't think I'll be too stressed. I just have to get academic and clinical references, cite my volunteer work and write a little statement about why I want to be a speech pathologist. I'm only applying to U of T and Western so that narrows down my workload. 

So that's my November. Looking forward to two weeks of productivity, a break when pops comes to visit and then a month at home with lots of exciting Christmas celebrations! Yippee :) 

  

Romados Chicken Dinner

A few weekends ago Kinsey, Ryan and I got together after one of my intramural volleyball games and tried out a restaurant called Romados. This little place is literally 100 meters from my apartment and I hadn't tried it yet! Ryan, being the intelligent networker that he is, found out from friends that we should call and order in advance and we were glad we did! We probably saved at least 30 minutes of waiting in line by placing our orders in over the phone. They had something like a Disney Fast Pass line! There wasn't much seating so we took our dinners back to my place and enjoyed each others company and our food. We were so impressed with the huge proportions and the cheap price!

Can you believe there was an entire half chicken underneath that heap-o-fries!?

Roomies!

It's time you all met my roommates! I have three: Kim, Amanda and Erica. This weekend Amanda's parents came to visit (and spoiled us with dinner and dessert!) so we finally got a picture of the four of us together. 

Me, Kim, Amanda, Erica

Now, a little bit about them. Kim from Calgary is studying Opera, Amanda from Oklahoma wants to do speech pathology like me and Erica from Peterborough is studying English.

The four of us met in our first year residence, Douglas Hall and now in fourth year we are all reunited!

It's not often that we're all home at the same time but when we are there's lots of singing and laughing and cartoon watching. It's a good time.

I'm very thankful for the amazing roommates I have had throughout my time at McGill. I have been so blessed.

Young Love

I was a bridesmaid for the first time this summer. It was such an honour to be a part of the day that my dear friend Malorie married the love of her life, Mr. Zachary DeBruyne.

In Montreal though, when I tell my classmates that I have friends getting married their first question is always, “How OLD are they???” to which I respond, “Oh, 20-21, but we’re from a small Christian community, it’s not uncommon”, to which they respond, “Oh”, with the look of bewilderment still plastered all over their faces.

When I say it's not uncommon, what I mean is that last year even Kinsey and Katie were getting tired of me shouting from my bedroom, “Another engagement!! Another engagement!!” as I scrolled down my Facebook newsfeed which was/is covered in pictures of diamond rings.

All these weddings back home get me thinking about some of the differences between my friends at home and my friends at school. I’m not sure if it’s being at McGill or being in Montreal, probably a combination of the two that make people’s heads spin when I mention marriage at the age of 21. 

I love that my friends are finding love and getting married. I am so happy for them and so proud of them for committing their lives to loving each other with Christ's love. 

“Real love, the Bible says, instinctively desires permanence.”
― Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Finding Happiness in Your Most Profound Relationship

Here are some pictures of Mal and Zack’s wedding. It was such a beautiful celebration of God’s work in their lives and I was so blessed to have been involved.

 I also had the pleasure of joining the wedding party on a post-wedding wine tour in September, which was such a blast! Mal and Zack have such an amazing group of friends and I’m so thankful that Mal and Zack brought us all together J

The Montreal Half-Marathon: A September Success

I've been posting about this for months now via facebook and instagram and the day finally came! For four months I ran 3 or 4 times a week anywhere from 5 to 16k on any given day and then Sunday September 22 I ran 21k in 1h56! I placed 168th (out of 683) in my age group and was 1167/5999 women!

Kinsey and Brad came over the night before the race to help me carbo-load and then Ryan joined later in the evening for games night. We love Monopoly Deal!

The three also came out to cheer me on! The race finished at Parc Lafontaine and the streets were lined with crowds of supporters. Kinsey, Brad and Ryan each were holding up a sign for me. I couldn't hold back a smile. I have the greatest friends. I kicked it into high gear to the finish line so that I could run over to them to celebrate as soon as I could!

The race started out on the Jacques Cartier bridge and it was rainy and cool but once we got running the rain stopped and the temperature was perfect. We all had to hop around to avoid puddles but it wasn't so bad. We ran through La Ronde which is an amusement park and then through Old Port by the Canal, which I love. The 18th kilometre (give or take) was entirely uphill but I had worship music blaring, supporters cheering and I closed my eyes and gave it my all! Going into the race I had estimated that it would take be between 2 hrs and 2:15 so when I realized my pace was going to get me in much closer to the 2 hour mark I was excited and was even more motivated. My competitive spirit kicked in pretty much as soon as the run started. Ha.

Going into race day I thought this would probably be my one and only half-marathon. It was just something I wanted to say I'd done. Now that I've done it though...I'd do it again in a heart beat. It's a great feeling.  

Also, big thank you's to Morgan Thrall and Michelle Powell for being my running buddies this summer :) Love you ladies! 

So there you have it!  

Apartment Pictures

Welcome to our humble abode. 

Come on up! 

First things first, here's the bathroom if you need it: 

And the laundry room's across the hall: 

Here's the hallway on the left. My room is the open door at the end. 

Now follow me into the living room! 

Which brings us to the kitchen! 

And finally there's my room: 

And there you have it! Thanks for checking out the new place! 

Back to School Update

My final year has begun! Here's a little update.

My three roommates Amanda, Kim and Erica and I are all settled in to our new apartment together quite nicely! (I will post pictures soon, hopefully). It has a very different vibe than Tupper did, but I like it. This year is going to be so different! Having three roommates instead of two makes it harder to be as involved in each other's lives and we all have fairly different schedules, though Amanda and I have two classes together which is great! It's also different because we have a dishwasher in our apartment so there's no "arguing" about washing dishes, but there's also no dish washing quality time. I never thought I'd miss washing dishes but I definitely miss blaring TSwift or "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" while Kinsey washes and I dry. Also having such a big kitchen makes meal times easier as we're not fighting for counter space. Having laundry machines is also awesome...now I can use my spare change for coffee instead of laundry which is definitely an improvement. And we have closet space! Amazing! Finally, and most shockingly I think, I'm noticing that I'm no longer the first one up in the morning and first one to bed! In this house I'm the last one up and the last one to bed! It's sort of weird but I'll get used to it. :) Overall, we're all getting along splendidly and even had a fun bowling night together yesterday!

This year is much different from other years, not only because of a new apartment and new roomies but because of school itself. In the past I'd buy my textbooks and start my reading and note taking right away. I'd have full days on campus with lots of class time and some breaks in between. This year my schedule looks like this:

That's right. No class before 10am and on three out of four days I'm done before noon. And three day weekends! Yahoo! I have three classes that have scheduled class time. My fourth is my senior honours research project that I'm starting this week in McGill's Language and Memory Lab on bilingualism so I'm sure most of that empty space will be filled up with time in the lab but for now... WOOHOO!

Another difference from previous years is that two of the three classes I'm taking are seminars. That means that they have about 20 people in them (instead of 120) and have no midterms or finals. My grade for those courses entirely depends on presentations and class participation. My homework during the week will be to read and critique research papers and prepare to make presentations and contributions to discussion in class. In a way this is great - no cramming for midterms or finals! But on the other hand this is terrifying - I spent the last three years perfecting my multiple choice exam skills and now in my final year they're going to make me throw that all out the window and actually force me to think on my feet!? ...shoot. But I'm hoping for the best and reminding myself that these are actually important life skills that I will only learn by practicing...and we're all in the same boat!

My non-seminar class is an anatomy and physiology class through the department of kinesiology. (For all of you who know about my struggles to satisfy this requirement for grad school, it all worked out! I was able to get out of the hard physiology course and into this one!) I'm going to love this course, I just know it. First, because I just really like anatomy and physiology and secondly because the professor said, "I don't want anyone to be nervous. I want everyone to have fun in this course!" (most of the students in this course want to be Phys.Ed teachers) and then proceeded to tell us stories about her son. Waaaay better than the physiology course I was in with 700 future doctors. And thirdly because Amanda's in it with me! Yippee!

So that's it for now. I'm enjoying my three day weekend. I got to spend some time with my girl Katelyn who lives less than 5 minutes away and also with Kinsey which was such a treat. I went for a run with my friend Kirsty who just got back from 3 months in South America and who kicked my butt into shape. Yikes, and she's not even training for the half! Though she has run it before. I think she's a natural runner. I on the other hand most certainly am not...four months of training and I still dread every run.

Anyways, hope everyone's having a good start to the school year! Happy September!

Refrigerator Worthy

Sometimes swimmers at the YMCA give us lifeguards gifts. Coworkers of mine have received chocolate or fruit, Kinsey even got a necklace for Christmas one year! I myself have been given raspberry tea and this past week a swimmer found out it was my birthday and decided to bring me a gift. I had to share it with you. It's just too good to keep to myself. He gave me some hints as to what it would be before he gave it to me. He told me that it took him an hour to prepare and that it weighs 1 milligram. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the artwork of Mohammad, the McGill graduate student who studies earthquakes:

 I wish I could tell you more about Mohammad than what I mentioned above but I honestly don't know much more except that he swims every day at the pool and we always have a short conversation mostly consisting of "How are you? Good swim?" and long pauses that I usually fill with some random statement about my life (eg. "I'm going home for my birthday next week!") and also he likes to play badminton. 

Mohammad asked me if I knew where this was and I told him I wasn't sure but it looks like a park. He wouldn't tell me where exactly it is but said he will next time so I'll keep you posted! In the meantime, this masterpiece is on my fridge. 

The Colour Run

This past weekend I ran The Colour Run at Parc Jean Drapeau with three friends. The Colour Run is a 5k run where runners wear white and get covered in a different colour at each kilometer. The whole point is to have fun, get messy and be active! We had a blast and here are some pictures of before, during and after!

Before

During

After