The Shack!

I was visiting my Mom this past week and she loaned me this book called 'The Shack' by William Young. It is by far one of the best books I have read in a long long time.

I can't believe how much I cried (B-A-W-L-E-D) during this book...from the gripping beginning to the heartwarming ending - I serious am loving this book.

This is a little summary I took from the Shack's website:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

I've had some revelations about myself reading this book, which is largely in part why I cried, I'm sure (despite having this heartache, joy and total love for the people in the book!) I have for so long felt a distancing between myself and God...I grew up going to church - I was in the praise team - I enjoyed it. For the past ten years I have only gone to church when visiting home - and it's because I've become lazy and unsure about going sans-spouse.

Don't get me wrong I don't believe I need to go to church to feel that sense of fellowship, but there is something that I am missing in that relationship and I'm not sure how else to attain it.

Anyway - regardless of your religion or sense of spirituality, this book is really well written and enjoyable...I would love to hear that some of you have read it and what your thoughts are!!

Conflicted

I'm having a conflicted life these days. Some days are great - I'm full of pep and excitement and am loving my new business ventures and spending time with the kids. And then other days I feel so completely and utterly lost that I sit and wonder what am I suppose to be doing because I don't feel like I'm really fulfilling some parts of my life purpose and it's scaring me.

I have been following a particular blog for several months that I discovered through another blog that I still follow and this particular blog that I was introduced to has been on hiatus for a few months now and I've been missing it. So today I did some 'google surfing' and searching and found the writer of this blog has embarked on a new venture and I'm thrilled to read her new blog and business site! Finally.

This woman is a clairvoyant. I've always believed in a sixth sense and Clarivoyance and while I was reading her blog and site I just feel like my insides are quivering from reading the testimonials and the insights she's shared on her blog because it feels natural to me....sort of like something you've been looking for and when you finally find it you're so excited and full of adrenaline it's hard to control - does that make sense?

Damnit I sound like a looney bird. I'm in this emotional space tonight.

Anyway - lately I've been feeling completely and totally lost in life. And I wonder if finally finding this site is a way to prompt me to really start searching out what my purpose is...do you ever feel like you're just floating along with life because there's nothing else to do but just 'go with it?' What happened to choice and purpose in decisions...?

And after sitting on this post for a while I'm sure I'll end up deleting it because I honestly don't think I've made a lick of sense and feel even more conflicted trying to verbalize (textualize???) how I'm feeling - UGH! HELP!

What do you think of having a clairvoyant or psychic reading? I've never done something like that and although it completely intrigues me, it terrifies me at the same time because it's really a lot of 'unknowns' and what do you do with the information that you're given? Again I say, UGH! HELP!

XOCAI - I'm loving it!

Okay....soooo...it's been FOREVER since I've blogged - and I do mean forever. A lot has happened in my life - that stuff can wait, because I have discovered something new that I'm reallllly excited about. It's a healthy chocolate called "Xocai" - yes, I do mean healthy! Not only is it good for you, but it tastes amazingly good and one piece definately satisfies that chocolate craving you might be having (can you tell how excited I am?!).

Xocai products (chocolate bars, nuggets, cookies, drink and protein bars) are produced with unprocessed, non-alkalized, non-lecithinized cacao powder, combined with the Acai berry and blueberries. The combination of these ingredients, in their natural state, provide a product that is packed full of the most powerful antioxidants. Chocolate products on store shelves use processed cocoa powder and sugars, along with bad fats, fillers, waxes, preservatives and they contain a high amount of calories. That is not the case with Xocai - it is all-natural and GOOD FOR YOU!

So let's be serious - I'm a skeptical as the next person, but something rings true about this for me. Mostly because I know other people who have invested, use the product, distribute the product and are healthier and, frankly, wealthier, because of it!

Aside from hearing and reading a multitude of testimonials from customers who include a piece of Xocai as a supplement in their daily diet, I know a man personally who has not only lost 45 pounds over the course of a few months, but is also off all diabetic medication (previously on several pills to maintain blood sugars, and still struggling!) and is maintaining a normal blood sugar level (4.5) on a consistent basis.

I have heard stories from customers who have lowered their blood pressure (and got off those pills), they have made their fibromyalgia manageable to the point where they can once again participate fully in their life doing the activities they love - pain free! Customers have erradicated common migraines and have made their Season-Affect Disorder (SAD) manageable with the boost in energy they receive from partaking of these products. This doesn't even begin to skim the surface of the various ailments that the antioxidant rich chocolate has alleviated!!

These benefits alone, in my opinion, make all the reason to at least try the product. In fact, there are so many health benefits from Xocai that doctors and dentists are jumping at the opportunity to distribute their product and incoroporate it into the treatments of their patients - why take a pill if a piece of healthy chocolate can help alleviate symptoms and illness!?

For those of you wanting more information - you can find it by going here (I'll have my own website up shortly that will house these videos plus much more information):

Discussed in Canada News Media

General Overview

Athlete's Testimonial

Some Science

Anyway, that's what has and will be consuming a lot of my time lately. We're going to plan a few chocolate tasting and information parties in our hometown, plus up in good ol' Grande Prairie over the next few weeks...so I'm really excited! If you are interested in hearing more about this - or want a sample or two to try, please drop me a note here or send me an email (xocai_lj@telus.net).

31 - I'm 31!

So,....yes, I'm 31. Doesn't feel much different than 30. I don't feel old, although my skin looks oldish - and that bugs me alot. My hands are "old hands" - all dry and wrinkly-like. I need to give them some TLC. I hate that my hands look old. And I have fine lines when I smile - but I think they're cute, so I'm okay with it for now :) And of course, the grays...they're definitely there and will disappear if I ever get the nerve to get my hair coloured. I've done it myself a few times, but I feel like going wild and crazy and stepping outside of "brown"...so we'll see.

Tonight hubby took me to a great steakhouse for dinner - YUM! We don't get out much, just the two of us...so this was a nice treat. We were going to go to the movies as well, but there is nothing out that I want to see badly enough to spend $50 bucks one (now that admission is $10.99 per person, PLUS concession - sigh, what a rip).

So we came home, hubby is sick, so he's sleeping. I made peanut butter balls and cranberry-almond white chocolate bark for the party tomorrow (yes, we're having our first and last east coast 'open house' christmas shindig tomorrow). Yip yipee. BYOB :P

Heaven help him!

So I was laying on the bed this afternoon trying to sleep (because I was up all night with a puking 5 year old) and my husband who happened to have the day off today came in and said "holy shit, you have a lot of gray hair" - this coming from Mr. GrayHair himself. After mumbling a loving "screw off" I woke up to clicking sounds...camera clicking sounds...and this is what I found.



Holy shit - I'm turning 31 in December and I have a head of gray. That's it, I'm dying my hair. RED! I want to be a sassy sexy redhead and since my temperment already matches the stereotypical redhead, then I figure it'd be a great match!

Happy Birthday Em!

It's my baby girl's one-year birthday today! My oldest (who turns 5 next week) is insisting on cake...I didn't bake one. So I guess I'll hit the store on the way home for a little 6"-er if I can find one.

Back to Work

Well it's been a loooong time since I've written on here. I haven't felt much like blogging, and who knows if this one post will lead to more. But let me just say - I've started work again after a year off maternity leave and it has been baptism by fire! It took me over an hour to login to the computer - having to reload program after program after program (yawn)...figure out what my passwords are - having to get them reset, because heaven help me I can't remember my password from a year ago!

Tell me it only gets better...I don't remember how long it takes to get better, but here it is, Thursday, and I have been coming to work everyday this week thinking it was already Friday (sigh)...makes for a VERY long week.

Last night was Halloween...oooohhh spoooky. McKenzie was transformed into Princess McKenzie (pictures to come later) and Emily was Tigger (a la Winnie-the-Pooh). Of course, Emily stayed home with me and helped hand out candy, being one and all I didn't think it was kosher for her to go trolling for candy at the neighbours house. BUT McKenzie hit the mother load of great candy houses! I don't remember ever getting full size chocolate bars and chips and all that crap - it was always gum and suckers and little mini chocolate bars...which is what I give. But my baby came home with a dozen big bars and lots of other crap. Needless to say, we're going to have to ration it big time unless we want a three month long sugar high (no thanks!).

CBC had a lady talking about setting up a "Halloween Store" where the kids could trade their candy in (use it like money) for books or toys, that kinda thing. SO, I may hit the dollar store and pick up a few things and do something similar...or I'll just do what I do every year and slowly start to sneak things out of her bag and put them in my hiding spot to give out over the course of the next few months as "treats" (aka bribes) that kinda thing.

Okay, well that' sit for now - I'm at work as I write this, and that is very bad for productivity. C'est la vie - it's Friday! Oh no, wait...it's Thursday. F$%&!

Thanks Stockwell.

So word is that Stockwell Day (and whomever else was in on the decision making) has agreed to fix the eroding bank at Mom's house and one other on Kerr St to the tune of almost half a million each - holy crap! That's a joke, right?

They're going to back fill the yard with lots of boulders and rock and graval to give it some stability and then Mom can topsoil and sod at her expense when she chooses to.

You know what's really funny though? My Dad asked them over 30 years ago if he could backfill with rock at his expense and they said "Absolutely Not!", then after Dad died, my Mom (about 28 years ago) asked if she could backfill with rock at her expense and guess what? They said "Absolutely Not!"...so now am I shedding a tear at them having to blow a budget on this project now? ABSOLUTELY NOT!