whoops....

so a whole summer has gone by and no news.....kinda a testament to how crazy busy my life has been in the last 3 months....
ranch was fantastic but also the most tiring thing ive done in my life. having to apear to be on full energy 24/7 is suprisingly draining. but i met some amazing campers and made some awesome new friends....
highlights of summer include-

• hitting up toronoto in a limo dressed to the 9's with 8 other incredible forgeiners
• new friends- esp the brit boys, breeza, gav n jess and building up some awesome old friendships.
• getting to witness the journey of the brit boys coming to know Christ and being baptised
• getting to impact some awesome campers
• being the cupcake queen
• being so absurdly tired that i lay on the ground in a staff meeting laughing for approx 5 mins with sarah
• random bp adventures involving traffic cones.
• standing on a large scaffold aka lighting rod in the midst of a near tornedo pelting kids with water balloons.

since summer finished ive had my fair share of adventures spending a few days at Josh's cottage with a few fantastic people, soaking up the sun, tubing, water skiing, sipping wine on the deck, checking out the stars on the dock, paddle boating and exploring gangsta island. and then spending a few days camping at tobermorey off lake huron and georgian bay on the bruce penisula checking out the grottos, meeting randoms at the campsite, late night walks in search of fire and the demo derby on the way home.

then i jetted off to hallifax nova scotia with bree o visit the clarkes for the week and had a fantastic time checking out downtown, chillin with bree, catching up with some friends from my last nova scotia trip n seeing jess n gavs for a few days. very early sunday morning bree n i headed to the airport her to head back to toronoto and me to head to London via washington- only to find out my flight to washington was cancelled due to the hurricane and so got shifted to a flight to ottawa (business class- FANCY!) and then onto london. Randomly Julie happened to be in ottawa at the time and so i had a great afternoon seeing julie and matt and catching up a bit on the past few months. it was short but sweet and saved me from a bunch of boredom in ottawa airport!!

i arrived nice and early in london on monday morning and made my way into the city and onto a bus to bristol to spend a few days seeing neil and jen my mates from ranch last summer. they are getting married in oct and so it was great to get to spend a few days catching up with them before the hecticness of wedding prep takes over!! been a great week here and tomorrow i head on anotehr few buses to nottingham to visit the brit boys from ranch this summer for a few days, before heaidng up to glasgow on tuesday.....so many adventures still to come, got over a month in the UK so lots to do and see and maybe some more stories before i get home....

juxtaposition

so im sitting here on the porch of the dining hall as the sky spews forth a lot of lovely hail and i realise ive been gone over a week and had no contact with the motherland.....whoops......

ok so then canada. got here a week or so ago and hit into full swing of work trying to get stuff ready for summer.

its been a strange week filled with great joys and great sorrow. one of the ladies here had a baby- called sam and he is just beautiful. such a blessing and brings such great joy to athena and andy. one of my adopted canadian sisters got enaged and another one is getting married tomorrow night. and its been great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones already.

now the to deep sorrow from this past week. a young guy mike (25) who i was working with in the kitchen this past winter, sadly on wednesday night last week he had a seizure which led to his death. this was a big shock for everyone at the ranch as he was such a part of things here and has stirred so many emotions. he was really a great guy with an increadilbe heart for the Lord. his servant heart put all of us to shame and he will be deeply missed. he was very excited that he'd been accepted to be a bunkhouse leader all summer and it sadens me deeply that the kids who would have had in his cabin wont get to meet him, because i know the impact he would have had on them would have been of eternal significance. the funeral was today and was a wondeful testament to mike and though we will miss him deeply, we can and do all rejoice with him that his sufferings on earth are completed and his joy with the Lord can now be fully realised.

so staff training has begun and its been quite a hard start to the week. there is heaps to get done, and little time for rest in that process. so i will be relying heavily on God and His strength to get me through and complete the tasks he has set before me for His work.

where did all the time go????

so its been quite a while.....and life has been ultra busy of late....

so heres the last 3 months in a nutshell.....

after i left ranch canada, i headed to new york where i met julie for a few days. loved it of course as i always do.....then after a few days filled with shopping, rent on broadway, food at le ecole, and all things new york......a quick cab ride to the airport, fligth to willmington and Julie and I met andrew, fiona and lucy to spend a few days there! i dragged julie around town all day friday checking out the spots made famous by dawsons creek, one tree hill and empire records baby! did a studio tour of mulitple one tree hills sets (yes im that cool!!!) helped julie celebrate her birthday, and a lamb roast later and we were off again, back thru new york, toronto, calgary- 3 lost bags later and we were back home at julies! i spent a week here catching up with julie, seeing a few mates- clay and adam an amazing afternoon snowboarding at sunshine village- bamff and lovely walks around calagary and i was off again on another flight this time on my way to the right side of the world....2 days later (yes march 2nd did not exist for lynda in 2008) and i arrived in NZ.....one mroe quick flight and i walke dout to meet channah and lisa!!! a sight for sore and tired eyes!!! so i spent the next week having an awesoem time catching up with channah and jords, and lisa, touring the areas around christchurch. it was a great week and then i up-ed into the plane again this time to return home....

the next few weeks were filled with catching up with people, getting new visas, KEC, and getting back into working....

from here its been a crazy 3 months.......work work work, planning winter camp band, and planning stuff for summer in canada again.....its been busier than i could have imagined and its looking like its gonna stay that way until i head off again in 2 weeks! i have plenty to fit in before i skip the country again including a lovely physio rehab program for my knee i busted back in january, winter camp and plenty of band practice and planning before then, summer planning still! a license test to get off those embarassing green p's, people people people to see and say goodbye too, a weekend crazier than ive ever had and of that little thing called packing!! so its gonna be a hectic few weeks, but thursday 12th june i fly out of sydney airport again somewhere around 2:30pm to head back to ranch canada.....arriving there june 13th at a rather nasty 7:20am about 31 hours after leaving sydney! its gonna be a long trek but one thats becoming pretty stock standard for me!

so i guess the next time im on here is most likely gonna be from the other side of the world again!

farewell canadia...

so its been a hugely busy weekend but an amazing one....
i had some amazing friends come to visit like laura, brooke, sarah, mel, josh and preston and some of the locals came round to hang. so it was really good to get to see people again before i leave.
i went to my fav resturant in town- one99 on saturday night with the ladies and it was a truly awesome night. we got totaly spoilt thanks to cassidy (the manager) getting our very own private room overlooking the resturant, complimentary patte, lamb and duck as specials for von and me and dessert platter on him with a sparkler cos it was my final weekend in canada. was very very cool night and so so so much fun!
weekend activities also included hiking up teh hill and snowboarding down, a walk to the swimming pond, singing and sharing my testimony at young adults sunday night, playing ice hockey and getting to ride the zamboni (thats the thing that makes the ice smooth again for all you non canadians out there!) with jaime, and lovely teen ranch family dinner and generally getting to spend time with people i love!!!!
and then to top it off ontario decided to make today a public holiday called family day which i enjoyed having lunch with stacey, JVD and preston, follwed by snowboarding at blue mountain with steve, rachel, and sarah with yvonne, ash, and priscilla coming along to hang out. was a great afternoon/nigth with lots of sweet boarding, some scary rides too! lots of falls, a huge bruise an dlump coming out on one of my knees, a very sore tailbone from the ice, a sore finger from getting it stuck in the car door and scary trip home complete with whiteouts (where the snow is blowing so thick taht you literally can not see anything and have to stop cos you have no idea where the road is!!!)
so all in all its been a great weekend. its now 4:47am and i leave at 6:45am to go to the airport in the morninga dn im always packed- yes still leave everything to the last minute. so here i leave you as i head to new york, willmington, calgary, new zealand an dthen finally home march 10th!!!
see you soon!

day 8......?????

so i have the priveledge of having 4 of mjy lovely friends- laura, brooke, sarah, and josh come visit me this weekend. and one of the lovely exciting things that we decided to do was take a nice trek up the hill to seee teh view of teh ranch and orangeville covered in snow.
so turns out its quite a trek.....so so tiring and my legs still hating me from making them walk the hill so many times this week were so mad at me!
but we made it and i lugged my snowboard up with me to make the trip back down so much easier! So i hads a sweet ride back down the hill. was so good to have a ride that lasted longer than 30secs before having to walk back up to go again! and was really fun doing some bigger turns n stuff.
so turns out my 7 days turned into 8....lets see if i can keep this going!

Day 7...

so the final day of my experiment to see if i could board everyday for a week....and i am happy to report i was successful!!!
My trip to hockley with jacob fell through but i powered on again on the apartment hill. the snoww has packed better over the days and provided a nice base to board on. i headed out about 6pm and fit in quite a few runs in teh half hour i was out there. was very enjoyable!!!! but my legs were starting to hate me for making them walk up the hill after every run!!!
day 7 COMPLETE!!!

Day 6...

well the week is almost over and today i was particularly pressed for time, and so 20mins before i had to be up for dinner i kitted up and ran out to the hill, put in a few runs then ran home to change for dinner.....all in all a very quick visit to boarding land but a visit none the less.
snow was a bit better packed than the last few days, but still thick when off the path created over the last few days....
i have 1 day left of my snowboarding week and so il hopefully be heading out to hockley valley with jacob tomoro to get some better runs in with a ski lift- cos im sick of walking up the hill!!!!
day 6 complete...