"The Fault In Our Stars" John Green

I read a book today.

I don’t want to tell you what this book is about.

But I want to tell you what this book will do to you.

At least what it did to me.

This book took me on an emotional journey.

I’d be reading one page and laughing about how the characters interact with each other.

Then I’d be three pages later, and have tears running down my cheeks.

And that’s jarring.

Really jarring.

I almost couldn’t handle it. I had to put the book down for a bit every so often just to let my mind catch up to where my emotions were.

And yet I could. Not. Stop. Reading.

Tears streaming down my face, I’d start laughing.

Then I’d flip the page, and more tears would fall.

I don’t even…

I just…

Can’t.

Could.

Not.

Stop.

This is a really easy book to get hooked on.

And trust me, when I say hooked, I mean it.

That hook will pull you this way, and that way…

And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Except to keep reading.

Day 9

Big day today! I was up and out the door by 7:45 and caught the bus to the Greyhound station to pick up my ticket for tomorrow. Then it was a half hour wait until my bus came to go to West Edmonton Mall, so I found a couple geocaches! :)

Made my way to the mall just as it was opening, so I stopped at A&W for some breakfast. Stopped at Bentley's for a carry-on size luggage case, then got to shopping! I bought a few things today - some books, some CDs, a dragon sweater, a few gifts.

It took me four hours just to do the first floor.

Four hours!

FOUR!!!

Sigh...

I did enjoy a good chunk of time in Chapters. I saw the "Humans of New York" book there, I kind of flipped through it a bit. A picture that really stuck out for me is this one:

The caption beside it said this:

'Make sure you can see the bag.'
'Oh, I didn't realize you were advertising something.'
'Isn't everything beautiful advertising something?'

Snap.

After the mall, I headed down to Beth's work, she gave me a tour before we headed out for dinner. It looks really good in there! Beth told me that she did a lot of the painting in there herself - all the non-institution-white colour, that is lol! And it looks really good! This was my favourite wall:

It says this:

Our HEARTS are made for WORSHIP

Hear and understand me.
Even though you disagree, please don't make me wrong.
Acknowledge the greatness within me.
Remember to look for my loving intentions.
Tell me the truth with compassion.

Our HANDS are made for SERVICE

Hear the Word of God in your life.
Always recognize Jesus in others.
Now is the time to be present to God.
Do you reflect God's love to those around you?

But my absolute favourite wall item I saw was a picture in Beth's office. It actually hit me really hard, I almost started crying right there...

The text beside it said this:

Forgiven
This picture reveals the heart of God toward you. As you look at the painting, you see not only Jesus wrapping his arms around a fallen man. You see Him wrapping his arms of mercy around you. Your eyes say "Jesus is holding a broken sinner." Your heart says "Jesus is holding me." When you look at the cross you will never need to question if He loves you. He came for you; He died for you; He lives for you. What a tremendous price has been paid. More than all the riches in the entire world. This price was paid so that you could know the joy of being forgiven.

Oof.

For dinner we went to Swiss Chalet, and spent some time just catching up. It was so great! :) Then we went geocaching, and we found one right at the corner by the restaurant! :)

We also went down by the river to find some more, but we couldn't find any. I had gone down into the bushes to hunt for it, couldn't find it, then couldn't find my way back up again! Made my way back to the car, where Beth had gone to wait for me, and there was a fruit truck there so I bought us some nectarines. Soooo tasty! :D

Then she gave me a ride back to the house, and here I am!

Tomorrow's probably going to be a long day too. I head out at 7am to catch my bus down to Red Deer. Soooo excited to see the Scotts!!!!! :D So I'm gonna jump in the shower then head to bed. Goodnight!

Day 8

Today was a great day! :D I woke up about 11:30 haha great start! Got up, showered, grabbed a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios (WIN!), then headed out geochaching. I found five today! :D I also got a good picture of a dragonfly :)

Stopped at the store to pick up a gift for Sam and Mike, then headed back to the house to get ready to head out to Taste of Edmonton. As soon as Sam was home from work, we headed out.

I've never experienced anything like Taste of Edmonton, it was really cool!!! You get there and get tickets, and there's a whole lot of food trucks. Each of the trucks has 2 items they're selling, most for 3 tickets, but some are 4, some are 2.

My two favourite things I had were duck confit tacos, and chicken masala perogies, YUMMMMM!!!!!

We were taking pictures as well by the fountain/wading pool area that was there, and a kind stranger offered to take one of the three of us. Some good ones, I think ;)

There were also two geocaches nearby, so we went on a hunt! The first one was really easy, we found it no problem :) The second one was really tough, we couldn't find it :( But probably for the best, there were a lot of muggles around ;)

We headed back to the house, and we're all just getting ready for bed now. Sleeeeepyyyyyyy.......

Plans for tomorrow, I'm going to head in to West Ed Mall in the morning, do some shopping, then meeting up with Beth for a tour of her workplace, then we're going for dinner :) Looking forward to seeing her! :D

Day 7

I apologise, my dear readers, for not posting this last night! I had actually completely forgotten.

So, yesterday! I was able to say goodbye to Peter and big bro before they headed off on their bikes for the day, then Ruth, the little one, and I got in the car. We dropped the little one off at daycare (her first day!), then raced off to the ferries. We were a bit late leaving the house (partially my fault lol whoops...), so I was a bit nervous about getting to the ferries in time. But we made it no problem :)

The ferry was super cool! I was kind of expecting it to be swaying back and forth a bit, but I could barely feel it move at all! I sat inside for a bit, until we got going a ways, then I headed out to the top deck to get some pictures. Contrary to what Alex told me ("It's cool for the first 30 minutes, but the next 50 are just water"), I loved the whole thing! I sat outside for the whole time once I went out! And I actually wish I had gone out right away! Going through the islands was soooo pretty!

We even saw some harbour seals! :D

Once docked, I found my way outside and took a taxi to the airport. I had about 20 minutes before boarding, so I just went through security and headed to my gate. Turns out there's no food stuffs by my gate because it's a newer section, so they're still working on that...

It's a bit funny though, because I went from cross a sea of water, to crossing a sea of clouds... ;)

But once again, got a really great view of the mountains :) <3

It was a good flight, not very much turbulence except for when we were coming down, which is normal anyways. I even got to watch a couple episodes of Friends! :D

Landed in Edmonton, got picked up by Mike (my friend Sam's boyfriend), and it took FOREVER to get back to the house because we got caught in rush hour traffic on the Henday (it's like the perimeter around Edmonton). But we did make it back eventually lol. I was so pumped to see Sam! :D It's been 5 years since I've seen her last - it was at Nat and Jessica's wedding! So we reminisced about camp days, went through pictures on Facebook, watched Star Trek Voyager (heck yes LOL!), had perogies for dinner. Mike headed out to his friend's for a bit, so Sam and I played Frustration - do you remember that game? It's like Trouble, you have your pegs you gotta get around the board and back into your end, the die is in a bubble in the middle that you press to pop it to roll... It was fun lol

Then Mike got back, he got me some bedding stuff for the couch, and we all headed to bed. I was pretty wiped, so I didn't even think about writing this post until I was already snuggled up in the blanket lol!

But hey, better late then never, right? :) Plans for today, I'm gonna head out geocaching while the two are at work. Then I think Mike's gonna rent a wheelchair for Sam (she's got a broken leg) and we're gonna head out to Taste of Edmonton. Sounds cool! :D

Day 6

Day 6 already? Where has the time gone??? I leave tomorrow! :(

Today I was a bit late getting outta bed... Jumped in the shower, grabbed a banana, and was off to High Point with the Hickmans! Got to see Alex one more time today, that was awesome! :D Should've grabbed a picture with him, dang!

Also got to see LA and her fiance Pete! It was great seeing her again :)

Playing on the worship team was pretty cool, it was great playing with the people there :) Had I known, though, that there wouldn't have been another singer, I would've asked for a mic to be set up too! Oh well, it was fun as it was :)

After church, I went for lunch with LA and Pete, Ed and Kathy Chiu, and a few other people that came with the Chius. We went to Swiss Chalet, and I had the 1/3 rack ribs with rice pilaf and a multigrain bun. Pretty tasty! :)

Conversation was pretty great too! Filled in LA with what I've been up to lately, heard her side as well. Chatted about The Salvation Army, found out that I'm really not alone in how I'm feeling. Which was quite interesting to learn...

Afterwards, LA and Pete gave me a ride back to the house, and I took off on the bike right away to head downtown to Silk Road Tea. My purpose was to pick up some westcoast peppermint tea, but I got pretty much everything else but! :P I grabbed 8 different teas, they all smelled sooooo good!!! :D

Made it back to the house in time for dinner, we had waffles with home-made fruit compote that Ruth made. Sooooo good!!! :D

After dinner, we all headed out to the Gorge to find a few geocaches! :) We found four in total there, sweet! Then we headed back to the house, it was the kids' bedtime.

I didn't really take any pictures today, but I did grab a really good one from down at the Gorge :)

I showed the picture to Ruth and Peter, and the little one wanted to see too, so I showed her. I asked her if she thought it was nice, she said yes, then asked, "Was Jesus there?"

WOW LOL!!! I answered her, yes, because He is everywhere. She had a hard time understanding transcendence, but that's alright lol it was an interesting conversation nonetheless :)

I'm going to have a cup of tea, then perhaps do some stitching for a bit before bed. Tomorrow Ruth and I are heading out at 9am so I can catch a ferry at 10, I'm pretty excited for the adventure across the water! :D From the ferry, I gotta make it down to the airport to catch an flight to Edmonton. I'm pretty excited to see my friend Sam there, and my friend Beth! :D

Until then, goodnight! :)