O Canada!

Today's Tuesday Trivia is dedicated to all things Canadian:

The name "Canada" is derived from the Huron-Iroquois word "kanata," meaning a village.

The Canadian national anthem, O Canada, has been sung since the late 1800s. However, it was not proclaimed Canada's National Anthem until 1980.

The 10th province to join the Confederation was Newfoundland. (Yea! Great Big Sea!)

Curling is the official sport of Saskatchewan. Nearly 1 million Canadians play the game and more than 3 million watch it on T.V.

Canadians consume more macaroni and cheese (or Kraft Dinner), per capita, than any other nationality on Earth.

Butler just became my favorite campus!

What a fantastic weekend!

I spent the day Saturday at the church offices training for a new volunteer position I'm moving in to at Elevation. In the morning, Larry spoke to the group and re-cast the vision of the church for us as well as filled us in on the culture of Elevation and the best way to explain it to volunteers. The afternoon was then spent learning our new database and practicing data-entry.

I am so excited and feel so blessed and privledged to be given this opportunity to become a leader in the church. While I know that I am going to struggle in the beginning with a couple aspects of this position, I believe that God has given me this challenge and, with His help, I will succeed.

God is doing amazing things through Elevation and I am honored to be a part of it. What a privledge to know that God has led me to this place to fill this role and help Elevation reach those far from God so they may be filled with life in Christ!

Megakatamar

When my sisters and I were younger (middle school-aged) we spent our summers making movies. My mom would go to work in the morning and leave us with a chore list to do. However, she would come home to a bigger mess than when she left (sorry mom!). My oldest sister, Katie, would take the lead as producer/director and Mary and I would be tasked to come up with props/set design. We were each responsible for our own costumes.

This would be a full day event. We made some chin-head videos, lip-sync concerts and murder mysteries. I would say our specialty was music videos with songs from Bon Jovi, Guns 'N Roses, Warren G and yes, even Hanson.

We eventually accredited the videos to our production company, Megakatamar Productions, and would enlist some help from our cousins at family parties or at the cottage. The Booth clan made some fantastic movies such as The Nativity Story, however the all-time classic is Trouble at Glitter Bay in which a developer is planning to ruin Mr. McGregor's land! Don't worry though, Mary, Hannah and Grace save the day!

When we found the video below on YouTube, we could not help but notice the similarities in the two brothers to my two sisters. This is just dead-on to what Katie and Mary would do. Katie would of course be the older brother trying to take a nice picture for mom, while Mary would be the younger, laid-back brother who ends up driving the older brother crazy.

Even if you don't know my sisters this video is still hilarious. Enjoy...

Trivia Tuesday

Did you know...

New Bern, NC is the birthplace of Pepsi?


It was invented in 1898 by Caleb Bradham in his pharmacy in New Bern and was first named "Brad's Drink." Bradham later patented the drink as Pepsi Cola and his pharmacy is now a Pepsi museum.


Find more information about New Bern and the Birth Place of Pepsi here.

Jesus Is Amazing

This video is just fantastic. I love it and I hope you enjoy it as well!

Bump-N-Run vs. Fun-N-Gun

Today was our first flag football game of the season. This is my first season playing with this team (and I think this is only their second season playing) and everyone on the team is really out to just have fun. We're not looking for the championship trophy or anything. Well, of course for our first game we had to be matched up against a really good team that, according to the refs, have been playing together for years. It was a good game though and our team improved as the game went on. We even scored a touch down! So it wasn't a complete blow-out. Thankfully the weather cooperated for us too. The weather reports said we would have snow and some accumulation by noon, but it only just started sprinkling as we left. Playing in the game today though made me realize just how out of shape I am. I was tired after the game, but also felt pretty good and ready to go about my day. That quickly changed when I got home. After a nice warm shower, comfy sweats, a pillow, blanket and a movie I was ready for a nap!

Let it Snow!

This morning I woke up with Eric telling me it had snowed! Finally it feels like winter down here. This is my first Southern snow experience and watching the news this morning was pretty entertaining. While some areas in the foothills/mountains received up to 4 inches, we had about half an inch to an inch on the ground in our area. There were extended news/weather/traffic reports this morning and an endless list of school closings scrolling across the screen.

Growing up in Michigan, we would need at least a foot of snow to get a school closing (I only have 2 clear memories of snow days). Since every school in the area was in walking distance or a short car ride away, the Grosse Pointe School system did not use buses. The city was very good with salting the roads and clearing sidewalks too, so it wasn't hard to get to school after a snow storm.

Throughout elementary and middle school we walked to school and even if there was less than a half an inch of snow on the ground (and what was on the sidewalks had already melted) my dad would make us wear boots. It was such a hassle to have to wear boots, carry a pair of shoes and then change at school, especially when it was not entirely necessary. I remember many mornings when my sisters and I would try to talk ourselves out of having to wear them, but there was no talking him out of it. When we were younger, sometimes mom would help us sneak out, but once we got older it became easier just to zip out of the house without dad seeing what was on our feet.

To end my post today, I'll share a pic from Maddy's first Christmas:

Trivia Tuesday

Welcome to the first installment of Trivia Tuesday. Each week we will learn an interesting new fact. Enjoy!

Did you know...

Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating!

Jeremiah 1:5

As I grow in my relationship with God, one thing I find myself struggling with is seeking God's advice/help with everything. If I come across a problem or a tricky situation during the day, sometimes I'll just try and figure out how to handle things on my own or I'll ask my husband for help rather than seeking God.

I just finished reading Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and it opened my eyes to this fact. The main male character would seek God in everything he did every day of his life. He lived his life to fulfill the will of God.

I pray that as I strengthen my relationship with Jesus, I would seek Him in all that I do and live my life to fulfill His will. As Pastor Furtick said last week, God created each of us for a divine destiny. I need to seek God daily and work toward fulfilling the divine destiny that God has planned out for me.

Don't Worry About It

When I entered college, I decided to not let things stress me out too much. Of course if I had a major paper or presentation assigned, I would stress out a little bit. But I would not let the day-to-day happenings get to me. When I found myself getting stressed, I would take a deep breath and remember that God will get me through anything. There isn't anything that, together, He and I can't handle. I also repeated Matthew 6:34 to myself numerous times:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The other night, my devotional led me to the Deuteronomy 31:9:

The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

This passage reminded me that God is always with me. There is no reason to worry about today or get stressed out that things are not going to turn out ok. They will.

Things may not be perfect or the way you would like them to turn out, but God will take care of you. He will be with you and He will never leave you.

Happy New Year!

I still can't believe it's 2008 already! This year has gone by super fast. A year ago, Eric was moving down to NC and I was mid-way through planning our wedding. Now, we are settled into our apartment in Charlotte, becoming more involved in our Church and loving every minute of it and we have Maddy to keep us company. Looking back on everything that happened in '07 - Eric's job, the wedding, our move, my job transition, finding our Church and friends - I feel so blessed that everything was so smooth. God has been very good to us and I'm looking forward to finding out what He has in store for 2008!