random thoughts.... on Canada

And you thought this blog would only be about my ITALIAN adventure. ;)

I got a new free Neil Young download from itunes and that got me thinking about America's northern neighbor, Canada. (For those who do not know, Neil Young is Canadian -- that is enough to make Canada cool, but I thought I should continue my search for cool Canadians -- no pun intended - ha!)

While looking at a list of famous Canadians, I saw Christopher Plummer's name, so that led me to think:
October 28th on Oprah, they are reuniting the cast of The Sound of Music.
I LOVE that movie and wish I could be in the audience for it.
Julie Andrews is one of my all time favorite actors.
I mean, she's just magical.
Mary Poppins, Maria, The Queen in Princess Diaries
And yes, she even has an awesome October birthday (10.1.1935).

I lived a year in metro Detroit and never set foot into Canada. I've been to Toronto airport, but that is it. Never been to Canada. It is one of my life goals.

Let's just take a glance at why the world is not the same without Canada (or Canadians):
*Christopher Plummer
*Neil Young (obviously I've already mentioned these two)
*Tim Horton (this one is specifically for my roommate, Laura)
*Matthew Perry (my favorite character from FRIENDS)
*Sandra Bullock
*Celine Dion (I've been listening to her a lot lately -- laugh if you want, but I'm happy that she had her healthy twins recently)
*Anna Partridge (she's not famous but she's my birthday buddy and friend from camp! Thought I'd just add her in for fun)
*Michael J. Fox (ok, I'm a kid from the 80's, how could I NOT put that down!)
*The Moffatts (anyone remember them? NKOTB = BSB. Moffatts = Hanson... Obviously NKOTB/BSB were better and the Moffatts/Hanson were for joking purposes).
*Devon Sawa (seriously had a crush on this kid... Casper... anyone?)
*Shaina Twain (they love her over here in Italy... :)
*James Cameron (thank you for Titanic. I only saw it once.. but you made millions because girls loved seeing Jack slip through Roses' fingers)
*Robin Scherbatsky (yes, from HIMYM -- I'm hooked on that show!)

Ok, I think I've proven my point... Canada has value in the world.
I hope to visit it someday... I hear it's beautiful!

Newspring Fall Series

Every fall Newspring Church in South Carolina has a series about marriage, relationships, dating...

For the past three years I have listened to them.
I was blown away by the "Beautiful" series. It is hands-down the best series I've ever heard. Ever.
Last year they did "Don't Get Married Until..."
Last Sunday they started their new series, "Man Vs. Wife".

I look forward to this every year because marriages are a huge part of life and divorce is sadly becoming more common.

Check it out if you want. Here's a snippet of what he said to singles (because these series aren't just aimed at married people!).

Based on Philippians 2.1-5:
SINGLES GIRLS: You cannot be like-minded if you love Jesus and you’re dating a guy who does not love Jesus. You cannot have the same love if you love Jesus and he does not. You cannot be one in spirit and purpose if you love Jesus and he does not. If he’s not dedicated to a church, he doesn’t love Jesus. Christ is the Head of the Church – are you going to tell Jesus that you love his Head but you don’t love His Body? He might have a commitment problem, which is why he wants to live with you but not marry you. If you think he’s really committed to you, go home and tell him you’re not going to have sex with him for six months to focus on the relationship and see how long he sticks around. Beware of the guy you consistently have to make excuses for. That is not who Jesus wants you to be with.

SINGLE GUYS: men need to learn how to fall in love with Jesus and STAY in love with Jesus over and over and over again. Then and only then will you be committed to a woman you said you’d be committed to.

October Birthdays and Christmas!

October birthdays are fantastic.

Some of my best friends have birthdays in October:

October 11: my wonderful college roommate, Laura!

October 15: Tiffany... We have known each other FOREVER... 

Seriously. And I'm so happy we're still friends!

And as most of you know, I spent nine months living with the Nugents. 

My little buddy, Rachel Rae, is 5 today -- October 25!

This picture is from December 2009, so it's been almost a year since that picture. Even since I left in September, I can tell from Kelly's pics on her blog that Rachel is growing... She is so precious to me... and I'm pretty sure she's one of the only people who kept me sane last year! Time spent with those three Nugent girls was priceless. 

Thank you Rachel, for enjoying the simple things of life, like hula hooping, playing outside, playing with Barbies, and for all the little video clips we took this past year. 

(from left: Nicole, Rachel, and Morgan. I am obviously the one with dark hair... haha...)

 Morgan has the same birthday I do: October 23! She is my birthday buddy! She has a super contagious laugh and enjoys life. She enjoys reading as much as I do. 

Don't want to leave Nicole out of this post (even though her birthday's in June)... she has been emailing me while I'm in Italy and I LOVE it! :) She and Morgan are doing Bible Bowl: Genesis this year! I'm excited for them.

Yes, the reason why I know October birthdays are fantastic is my birthday is October 23.
This year, my birthday was full of great food and time with my sister Irene. 

We went to breakfast and had a brioche and cappuccino.

Then we went to her dad's store where we had wonderful food (as always).

You guys in America are celebrating fall with your pumpkin spice latte.
I'm celebrating fall with pumpkin lasagna.

My special birthday coffee... I only had one sip...

Later that night we went to Giddy Up Diner, a 50's/60's American style diner.

They brought me cherry cheesecake with candles while Marilyn Monroe sang happy birthday in the background.

 I'm not one to like cheesecake, but this was FANTASTIC! yum yum.

 Mara, me, and Irene. LOVE these girls. It was fun celebrating my birthday with them.

Yea for October birthdays. I sure do miss the fall colors in Michigan: 

(taken last year from the church house)

PS -- 2 more months until CHRISTMAS! 

Jeni P... this post's for you...

For those of you who would like to watch this video, please do. The talk is 28 minutes long (with a few songs at the end, so it's 38 minutes total), so make sure you have time for it. This is the guy who wrote Gracenomics, the book I reviewed a while ago. He moved his family for six months to Bangkok. It's the question of safety vs. following God.

Main point: The pursuit of safety stands in the direct opposition to the pursuit of God. You have to chose one or the other.

Kindle resources

I don't know if you know this, but there are hundreds of free books waiting to be read...
Kindle can be downloaded onto your computer (so you can read books on your computer for free without purchasing a Kindle) and you can get some pretty great books.


Login to Amazon.
Click Kindle Store --> Kindle ebooks --> Kindle Bestsellers. You will see the top 100 paid and the top 100 free books.


Among the books I have downloaded are all the Jane Austen books (books prior to 1920's -- I could be mistaken about the date -- are free, meaning a lot of the classics!).


Right now #8 is called Naomi and Her Daughters: a novel. (I'm thinking it's the story of Ruth in a new way -- and she's one of my favorite Bible characters!)
I have gotten free books by Max Lucado, John MacArthur, Bill Hybels, Charles Stanley, Gary Smalley...


It's been good for me since I mainly work in life to support my habit: buying books. Since I'm not earning an income at the moment, it helps that these books are free. :) 


Just thought I'd share in case someone out there doesn't know about the awesomeness of the free Kindle books.

late night karaoke

Sunday after church I went to karaoke with some new friends! And yes, I did sing a song! haha... I sang You're the One that I Want (from Grease) with Antonella.

She's from Sicily and she was visiting her cousin, Mariantoinetta (on the right in the picture below).

It was fun to hear the Italians sing American songs... and they definitely rocked the Italian ones. :) 

Can I get a Witness?!

One of my favorite parts about church is the testimony time. Now, everything's in Italian, but I've shared a couple of times at church while someone translates for me.

This past week, I mentioned that for the past nine months I've been reading the OT. While I'm grateful for that time and the lessons learned from so many of the people in it, it's refreshing to see JESUS come into the picture as the fulfillment of everything they were waiting for. I love reading the Gospels.

Just finished reading the Sermon on the Mount and was reminded of camp this summer in Jeni P's Matthew group.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. ~Matthew 7.13-14