Tuesday 19 July 2011

Another Info Meeting!!! (Sunday happenings at MRC)

Sunday was also so great! I’m so amazed by how God works! We had an info meeting at 2:30pm after church and we were able to get a ride with P’Suwit and P’Nan to go to MRC in the morning. Even tho the Korean teams were gone, Matt still translated the service for us! (and Esther – another missionary in Bangkok - who was at church too)

We are so blessed to have translators wherever we go! Such an answer to prayer! I remember one day ordering a smoothie… Trying to act out what I meant... and when I turned around an older lady asked “Do you need some help?” Why yes I do! Lol. She asked me a bunch of questions about how I wanted my smoothie… All I was really trying to do was convey I wanted a smoothie not just the fruit. But anyways if God sends someone to help me communicate when it’s just a smoothie I'm ordering, how much more is he going to make sure we have translators or people who can help when it is something more important than that. And He HAS been providing those for us!

After church we were having another DRIME info meeting for the people who weren’t able to make it to the info meetings a few weeks back… And it went so well! We have 4 more people interested in leadership! Praise the Lord! 3 of them are boys! I was nervous that we wouldn’t have any boys interested in leadership and I was really praying for some because not only do the girl drimers need role models and people to look up to but they guys drimers do as well! All 4 of those people interested started filling out the leadership application! So great! So now after that info meeting we had 6 people filling out application forms! This means more work for Janna and I. But I feel like now God can truly show us who is right for this leadership team!

Also I haven't updated our praise and prayer requests so here's an update!!!

Prayer Requests
- Choosing the leadership team… Listening to God for who He wants to be part of the leadership team
- Pray that we are able to have them chosen by the end of the month!
- For wisdom and insight into God’s will for DRIME Thailand – what does that look like? That we would daily give over our thoughts and desires (of how this Base Plant should go and of other things) and follow what God’s desires and plans are for that day. Continually relying on Him!
- For Janna and I to use our time wisely and be productive – lots of big tasks to conquer: for example - planning the August trip (when a DRIME team from Vancouver comes) pray that the details of that trip fall into place.
- Prayer for flexibility, health, energy and restful sleeps
- Continued unity of our team – more time to be open and get closer to one another.

Praise Items
- Praise that 4 more people are interested and applying for leadership! (we have a total of 6 people filling out leadership applications)
- Praise God for new friends and new adventures!
- Being less busy/swamped with DRIME work – a good balance of fun things/rest time/drime work
- Answering Prayers!!! (He continues to amaze me how he answers even the little things – like words of affirmation ;) haha I got a letter in the mail!)
- Praise God for all the English speakers he puts in our path when we need them! :)
- Praise God for all the people that are willing to help us when we need help!
- Praise that the city remained calm after the election results!
- Praise for safety as we traveled out of Bangkok this weekend!
- Praise God that we are healthy!

Again,
Khorb Khun ka sumrop your prayers!!!
Pra - Jaow - Auay - Porn - Ka!
(God bless you!)

Love,
สแมนธา (that means Samantha in Thai!)

Weekend at Ampawaa: The Floating Market!

Ampawaa!!!

We had the most amazing weekend!!! During a conversation one day at the office with P’Jamie we found out that she was going with a group of friends to the floating market in Ampawaa for the Thailand Long Weekend! They were going on Friday and staying overnight and coming home on Saturday! They let us join them and were happy to have us along! I’m so glad because it was so fun meeting them and hanging out with them!!! We wished we could have stayed longer!

the group
We met up with P’Jamie, P’Ying, P’A, P’No and P’Mon at the McDonald’s at Victory Monument around 11:30am and started our epic adventure together! Lol. We started out by getting tickets for a van that would take us to Ampawaa… The first place we went to we would have to wait until 2:30pm for a van so Jamie and a few others went to look for a van at another place that might leave sooner than that. We bought tickets and met up with Jamie, A and No… It’s so sweet how the guys offered to carry all the girls bags and kept looking behind them to make sure we were still following and not lost. Haha. We still had to wait for the van at the other place… they were on van number 13 (sip-sam) when we bought the tickets and our van was number 21 (ye-sip-et) so we waited on some steps for a bit and then we went into the mall to wait there for a bit as well… Janna, Jamie and I decided to look around the mall for a bit… Jamie got a phone call from Ying that the vans were on van number 19! So Jamie, Janna and I ran through the mall, down the escalator and to the group as fast as we could! So funny but so exciting and memorable! We got to the van holding area and still had awhile to wait… We didn’t really need to rush but it was still funny that we did! We ended up getting on the van around 3pm! We were finally on our way!!! Hooray!

My team: P'A, P'Jamie and Me!!!
When we got to Ampawaa we put our stuff in the group’s room and went to start our game and eat. We split into two teams and had a SCAVENGER HUNT!!! So fun!  Jamie, A and I on one team; Janna, Ying, Mon and No on the other! It was the first time me and Janna have been separated since we got here! Ding dong! (that means CRAZY in Thai! Legit!) It was a little bit difficult because I can’t read the thai signs but it was still super fun and I even FOUND some of the shops (we had this booklet of pictures that Ying had found on the internet of shops we needed to find) We had a certain amount of money and we were supposed to try different things from the shops when we found them. So I tried some different things… like squid eggs and yellow bean something on a stick and pork balls on a stick… And I don’t really know what else haha. We had pad thai for dinner and it was so good! Different than the pad thai I’ve had in Bangkok! And coconut water was only 10 baht!!! (at home it is 30 baht) So cheap! And yummy!

This is IM who I saw!
During the scavenger hunt I saw people I know!!! I was coming off this VERY VERY crowded bridge! (It was SO BUSY because it was a Thailand holiday) Literally like you are slowly move baby steps at a time while trying not to lose the people that you are with because it’s like a sea of people. Anyways, I was coming off this bridge and I heard someone call my name! I thought it was someone from the other team because who would I know in Ampawaa?? I’m not even in Bangkok to see someone I recognize you know? And Samantha is NOT a Thai name :P. But when I looked over, it was IM!!!  (I met Im on my last missions trip to Thailand and he was Ashley and my translator for a very memorable conversation with two boys named Arcoon and Doon) So crazy that he was there on the same day as me! Maybe Thailand is a small country (small world) after all!!! Later, we saw ANOTHER person that we know while on our scavenger hunt. It was Matt and his Arkansa team, walking towards us, saying “Hey people I know!” LOL… We see him a fair amount in Bangkok but it was funny to run into him here at Ampawaa (2 hours away from Bangkok)! Oh… so interesting how small the world is! I feel like Tanya would say something like, Samantha you really know EVERYBODY!!! Haha. (Even when I’m across the world)

On the boat to see the fireflies!
After the scavenger hunt we met up with the rest of the group for a boat ride! We were going to see the FIREFLIES!!! Such a great ride! I felt like I was in Tarzan or something! Every time we came up to a bush/tree with fireflies in it I wanted to “ooh and aww” everytime! Haha! It was breathtaking! The wind in my hair, water from the river and twinkling fireflies in the night! So amazing! God’s beauty and creation and just nature! The trees looked like they had little blinking Christmas lights on them! We couldn’t take pictures because it would scare the fireflies away! But I don’t think I would have gotten a very good picture on my camera anyways! It was so pretty tho!
our cottage/cabin
The view


After the boat ride we went back to our “resort” they had booked for us… lol. We would have totally stayed with them in the homestay they had gotten but there was no more room for us! But our cabin/cottage-looking place was SO NICE!!! Janna and I wished we could have stayed there longer than just to sleep… It was right on the water with a cute little porch! And the bed was so comfy! We slept well that night!

worship time

In the morning we got a ride back to the floating market and we had some worship time with the group! It was awesome because EVERY song was one that we recognized and could sing along to… We may have not known all the words but they were English songs… I even played the shaker! ;) Funny funny! And a couple of the songs they asked me to start singing… so kinda lead (vocally).

teaching us some skills ;)
We walked around the floating market a bit more, took some more pictures and then went to get tickets for a van back home. While we were waiting for the van we looked around this little gift shop of sorts… And then No pulled out his guitar and he started teaching us a little bit! We are hoping he can teach us some more another time! Super excited for that!  And Natti takes voice lessons on Tuesdays… she said I could join. So how cool would that be? Voice lessons AND guitars lessons IN THAILAND!!! (I really hope! *crossfingers* haha)

All in all, it was a GREAT WEEKEND!!! So much fun! Nice to have a change of scenery and change of pace from DRIME work! And nice to have made some new friends! We were very very very tired tho! But so worth it!!! :)

<3 Our new friends!!! <3

Thursday 14 July 2011

Blog Number Hok (6)

Dutch Blitz game with P'Kong, P'Kung, P'Jenjira & I
Well let’s see. Our prayer requests were ANSWERED!!! We have just felt so so busy! However, we were able to have 2 days off in a row! (Kind of 3 days because we didn’t have to present anything on Sunday either!) This allowed us to do a bunch of fun things! Even before the two days off we started being able to do some fun things… Like on Wednesday night after the DRIME info meeting, P’Kung, P’Kong, P’Jenjira and I played DUTCH BLITZ!!! (Ya DRIME Culture haha) P’Kong also taught us a Thai word that all the teenagers are saying these days “Ru rien” (apparently it’s slang for like “you got it” – Makes me think of Full House – You got it, dude! – Michelle Tanner) You have to nod your head when you say too ;)! Haha so funny! He also promised he would dance and sing for us next time!

Then on Thursday night after our other DRIME info meeting, we went to see Transformers 3 with Kung in the movie theatre. Did you know you have to stand up to pay respects to the king of Thailand (He’s been king for 65 years!!) while a little montage and song plays before the movie starts! Interesting Fact! And the seats in the movie theatre are not straight up and down seats… They are slightly reclined… which I didn’t really like. But they are pretty comfy… I think once I get past the fact that they are different than I expected I might grow to like them. Haha.



On Friday we went out and got our nails done! I even got some pretty jewels on my nails but they didn’t last very long lol. Getting your nails done in Thailand is SUPER CHEAP!!! It cost 100 baht for my toenails… that is $3!!! When can you EVER get a pedicure for $3 in Canada? The nail polish ITSELF is more expensive than that. Granted, I spent a little more on my fingernails because of the brand of nail polish I wanted to use (OPI) and the jewels… But it still was only 380 baht… which is like… $12. Not too bad. Without the jewels it would have been $6… so I prob won’t get the jewels again… they didn’t stay on long. Live and learn ;). After that we came home had dinner and watched Avatar. We had bought it a few weeks back (again only like 100 baht = $3). It was my first time seeing Avatar… It’s SO GOOD!!! Loved it! And we made it kinda like a movie night having pop and chips while we watched.

Starbucks
McDonalds
Then on Saturday we took a PINK taxi to Esplanade (a mall). We browsed around the different stores, we went to McDonalds for lunch! And later we went to Starbucks to grab a beverage and read for a bit… Kinda a taste of home day maybe? After that we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 because they have a movie theatre in the mall – they also have a bowling alley and a skating rink and a grocery store… All in one, so great! The movie was so cute! We were going to do this day a few weekends back but our plans changed. So I was glad that we were able to have this day at Esplanade! 

Sunday we wanted to go to Natti’s church because we haven’t had the opportunity to go yet – we’ve been presenting at churches every weekend so this is the first Sunday we didn’t have to. So Natti’s church has 2 services and we were going to go with Natti early to the first service and then just take a taxi home… But she told us it would be better for us to come to the 2nd service because all the students come to that one and there aren’t any students that come out to the first one (very considerate of her). It was also very very nice to sleep in a little later on Sunday and do devos in the morning and have a later breakfast and get ready and go… Funny story tho… (and this is why I’m so grateful we know people and so grateful God works things out ahead of time and prepares us for everything) Natti had told us to call her in the morning and she would tell the taxi driver where to go. So we called her when she told us to… around 1pm (the service started at 2pm). She didn’t answer so we tried again… and again and again… no answer… We didn’t even know the area of the church to tell the taxi driver and wait for her to call us back so she could tell the taxi more details… And there were SO MANY taxis on the road… (unlike the other Sunday we needed a taxi lol) We kept shaking our heads at them, saying no, no… while we waited for Natti to call back. Thankfully, I had been talking to Joke on facebook a few nights before. (I knew him from last trip and we had exchanged numbers cuz he wanted to visit at some point) So I had his number and texted him something like this: Hey… we are trying to come to your church but Natti isn’t answering her phone. She was going to tell the taxi driver how to get to your church because we don’t know how. Are you at church already and can find her for us or can you help us talk to the taxi driver? He phone me RIGHT back… like literally a minute later! And he said he could HELP! YAY! So we flagged down the next taxi and handed the driver our phone. Joke told him where to go! Natti phoned about 10/15 mins into our taxi ride… she was so sorry but she had been busy doing something and saw like 5 missed calls from me and Janna. :S No problem! Mai ben rai! Joke was able to help us! He had told us if the taxi driver didn’t know where to go we could call him again. And… we had to. Lol.

Mahaporn Church - Natti's church
I gave Janna his number just before my phone died and that was just around the time the taxi driver tried to ask us where the church was. So we called him again. We saw someone up ahead on a phone in a white shirt… He was outside waiting for us! So we told the taxi to drive up to the guy in the white shirt (ironic – DRIME haha) Anyways… my point of that story is… we KNOW people here… and they are SO HELPFUL – ALL OF THEM!!! I don’t know how we’d manage without them! They are all such a blessing and a joy! Anyone who comes to Thailand or other countries on their own to backpack or whatnot; I don’t know how they do it – with the language barrior and not knowing their way around. We couldn’t even go get our nails done without help from Ning! Haha. Again, just so grateful we KNOW people here in Thailand! So blessed!

This week has mainly been following up with people and setting up more meetings with people and setting up other info meetings for the people who couldn’t make it on Wed or Thurs. We have another DRIME Info Meeting scheduled at MRC (Rangsit Church) this Sunday afternoon. Two girls who are interested in leadership will be at this meeting so pray that it goes well. (Also be praying for boys to be interested in leadership as well!) We also started to be able to work on planning the August trip more which is great because that is coming up so quickly – 26 days! Overall this week has been more of a relaxed week in comparison to our past weeks and the DRIME load. It’s been nice to have a bit more time for updates, reports, mpd and such.

Natti, Jenjira & I in our swim caps!
Oh! On Tuesday night, after work, we got to go swimming in the RAIN!!! I couldn't stop giggling! Oh and we looked super hot in our swim caps that we had to wear!
Check it out!

Tomorrow we leave for Ampawaa for a night. This weekend is a long weekend so the office is closed on Friday and some people go away. Jamie and some of her Alumni friends were heading up to that area to visit the floating marketplace and to see the fireflies at night…And she said we could join them! We are going up with them in a van but there wasn’t any room to stay with them in the homestay place they had already booked but they put us in a “resort” nearby apparently… We will be hanging out with them and then heading up to our room at night to sleep. I’m kinda excited… :D it will be an adventure! ...and we are back for our info meeting on Sunday, so it worked out perfect!

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Little Quirks/Random thoughts

LIGHTNING STORMS - Despite the fact that it actually rains pretty much every day, it is the “rainy season”, lightning storms are actually a frequent occurrence around here. Janna absolutely LOVES this! If I see lighting from my room I go tell her… because she can’t really tell from her porch. I’ve come to view lighting and thunderstorms as normal occurrences lol… especially from my room. Def fun to watch from my room! 

BUGS - Okay so I dubbed Janna “bug swasher”. But as soon as I was about to praise God for the fact there were no bugs in my room, that’s when I started to see them. (did I jinx myself?) This week I just feel like I’ve seen a lot! Many a time has there been these tiny ants that like to make a home in my towel… I usually notice them after my showers… EW!!!!!! :S… But at least they are tiny and I can wash my towel! Today Janna noticed an ARMY of these tiny ants... all over my bathroom sink and bathroom floor! Sooooo many! Yuk mak! Then there are constantly bees surrounding the smoothie shop… Which makes me very nervous to order a smoothie… those ladies that work there every day must be very brave indeed! The other night after Janna left my room, this miniature beetle-like bug scurried across the floor of my bathroom… at first I thought it was just a piece of fluff that moves when I walked in but then I SAW IT… so I froze and it froze… so I went to get a flip flop… but I missed. I didn’t see it after that. Probably went into a hole in the wall or something?

SPECIFICALLY: SPIDERS - But THE MOST shocking thing is… we were in the grocery store… and I saw it… in Janna’s hair… A SPIDER!!! And it musta been adrenaline or something cuz I flicked that spider out of her hair without even thinking! Then I saw the web still attached to my hand so I shook it off my hand!!! Ack! (I didn’t realize the web was still attached to my hand) BUT I USED MY HAND!!! AND I took a SPIDER out of Janna’s hair… That’s pretty brave for me! (I have arachnophobia)

BANGKOK TRAFFIC - Traffic is always bad so people never know how long it will take to get places. It depends on traffic. It could take half an hour it could take 2 hours! Normally Natti doesn’t like to drive much after 5:30pm… apparently that’s when the traffics the worst. But everyone tells us that traffic is ALWAYS the worst… lol I don’t know!
RAINY SEASON- ANOTHER big thing that makes people late or keeps people away from things is the rain… Mingle Mania people were sitting in traffic for 2 hours because of the rain… I guess traffic and rain go hand in hand with each other!

Janna and I have given ourselves different "titles" for different things…
A few of these include:

Jenjira's beautiful
 mango cutting skills ;)

I have been dubbed “Bruised Banana Eater” and Janna “Bug Swasher”. I am the “Pineapple Cutter” and Janna is the “Mango Cutter”. I’m the Monthly Reports girl and Janna is the Money Recorder girl.
Just fun little facts ;)

Blog Number Haa (5)

This week has been SO PACKED!!! God continued to fill it up! So packed I didn’t even have a chance to write a blog and I was dying to do that! So here it is… finally. Lol
Ear Update: I went back to the doctors on Monday even tho I was feeling about 95% better! Praise the Lord! He wanted to see me again and even though Natti said you don’t have to go back and see him if you feel better, I still felt like I wanted to hear him say that the ear infection was gone or almost gone. I just wanted to be able to be fully on my game for this base plant ya know? So we went back and he said that it’s almost 100% better. YAY!!! He said that the ear drum wasn’t infected anymore but there was still a little redness and infection in “middle ear” (I still don’t really understand that term – all I know is it’s behind my ear drum) He gave me 3 more days of medication and said I prob don’t have to come back and see him. Now it feels healed… And I just want to thank you all for all your prayers! Khorb Khun Mak Mak Ka! It’s still not a hundred percent healed in all honesty but it’s like 99.987543% better haha. (I still sometimes hear the like crackly sound in my ear when I yawn – but other than I can hear fine and I feel back to normal) 

I'm not the only one who has benefited from the medical system here... Janna was having a hard time reading her computer and she was getting headaches all the time. She thought maybe she needed glasses... And she DID!!! Natti so graciously took her to get her eyes check (which is FREE by the way!) And now she's the proud new owner of a pair of glasses and her headaches are disappearing! She's feeling better!
It’s funny… God knows what He’s doing… because if I was back home, I wouldn’t have wanted to go to the doctor as many times as I had to go here. Especially in a foreign country… Yet I was comfortable going back for my follow up appointments…  It felt like it was no big deal. The first one was a little intimidating because I didn’t know what to expect – but then the first time I was in alot pain so I knew I needed to go there. On another note, if Janna was in Canada an eye exam alon is around $120.00 let alone if you have to buy glasses AND lenses on TOP of that. She got a "more expensive" pair of glasses here in Thailand which I think is still SO MUCH cheaper than what she would have spent in Canada. So blessed to be in Bangkok where there is a great inexpensive medical system! 
On Monday (last week) before we went to the hospital, P’Knock invited Janna and I along with a bunch of the TCCC for lunch at a special noodle shop that had just opened up! It was so much fun and we kind of had an extra Thai lesson because everyone was speaking in Thai around us. My is so cute! She would say things to us but we didn’t know what they meant. So we would ask Kung or sometimes she’d tell us and then we were learning more and more new words!

Our meeting with Rahel - in the middle.

Our days were quickly filling up with meetings (most of them were at 1pm ironically). We met with a couple of Kung’s friends on Tuesday after lunch and explained about the DRIME ministry and the different ways they could be involved. The conversation went on longer than we expected so our DRIME meeting with Natti and Kung that was supposed to be at 2pm got bumped back to 3:15ish… So we quickly touched base with Natti and Kung and our next steps before Natti had another appointment! Wednesday we had a meeting with Kung’s friend Rahel (pronounce Rachelle). I really like her… she stayed and helped us with our Thai a little bit! Thursday we had a meeting with Pop and Sunday we had a meeting with Air. So many meetings!!!
Pancake Breakfast at Natti's place!

Friday morning, Natti invited us over to her house for breakfast and she had made us a pancake breakfast! So yummy!!! Since it was Canada day, somehow we got to talking about Canada day stuff and the national anthem… And of course they made me sing it! I mean I don’t mind… I like to sing… But by myself???  Janna wouldn’t sing with me :P I’m still shy about some things! But I did… I sang... Guess that was my only real Canadian celebration…

Rachel, Ashley, Me and Courtney at
the Canada Day Fireworks 2010

Though I definitely was reminiscing about what happened last Canada Day. I picked up Rachel from the airport (never met her before) in the afternoon… and Ashley got dropped off later that night. We decided to adopt Courtney for the evening and we ended up going out for Canada day celebrations and fireworks… Went to the amusement park, the boys ditched us but we still had fun! And we had good talks too… about what girls usually talk about :P but also I especially remember the one about 2 Corinthians 12:8&9. <3 love you girls! <3


"In the Light" at Mingle Mania
 Friday night was Mingle Mania and it went really well! Fook and Air came early to practice. They did such a great job! They have a great memory because we taught them the drama like 2 weeks ago! We got to have a BUFFET for dinner! So tasty! Like fetticini and salmon sauce (alfredo-like tho), ham slices with spinach, salad bar, a make your own soup with assorted thai noodles and pork balls, sushi, rice, LOTS of stuff… AND dessert! The evening started later than it was supposed because of the rain. It’s hard for people to get around in the rain. It usually appears out of nowhere and starts pouring and then it will stop… sometimes it will stop in half hour sometimes after 3 hours – it’s always different. But with the train and the amount of traffic that was out there… We started later… The program consisted of a game, our presentation and then worship. The game at the beginning was this cup game where you sang, "We pass the cup from left to right, left to right like this, we pass the cup from left to right and we never ever miss". I don't entirely get the rules... But somehow on two seperate teams, Janna and i both won! Lol and ironically they had thai books for prizes - haha so they gave us oil... But they said if we wanted we could have the encouraging words (thai book) as well and give it away - since we couldn't READ it ;) haha. So funny. Next we did our presentation. Natti was our translator. She's so good at translating! I love her for SO MANY REASONS!!! <3 We introduced ourselves and the ministry. I said "Sawatdee ka, Chan choo Samantha ka. Pu-en di chan choo Janna ka. Pu-en di chan choo P'Natti ka" IN THAI! Haha! We also performed "In the Light" with Fook and Air helping us! We shared our testimonies and then we told people how they could get more information and be involved in the ministry here in Bangkok! We had a few people sign up afterwards!!!
Janna sharing her testimony at MRC
Sunday we took a PINK taxi to Rangsit Church! There actually weren’t many around in the morning (we normally see streets FILLED with them but there were like NONE and few cars too!) Janna and I think it’s maybe because of the election! We called Kung and got her to talk to the taxi driver so that we could get where we needed to go (LOL) We got there around 9am and waited to practice with Fook and Air… It’s actually good that we got there when we did because before we knew it, with practicing and technical stuff and praying before the service it was all of a sudden 10:30am!!! The service went really great tho! I saw Kung and Kay doing the dance with me up in the sound booth when I was ‘good girl’… It was good that I was supposed to be smiling because they made me laugh! Janna shared her “3 min testimony” (and I say that only to bug P’Jenjira :P haha) I think her testimony went really well! J And I shared about getting involved in the ministry during announcements. This lady named Esther came up and was chatting with me after the service (while Janna was at the table and lots of ppl were signing up and taking flyers for our info meetings!) and encouraged me and ALREADY donated to DRIME Thailand! I’m already blown away for the way God is providing and how encouraging everyone is about Thailand needing this ministry and they are so grateful we’ve come. They are grateful? I feel SO BLESSED to BE here!!! And it’s awesome and ironic at the same time because P’Knock’s sermon was about giving God the little that you have. It was about God multiplying the bread and the fish and about how “I am the bread of life” how we will never go hungry, God will satisfy our desires our needs, He WILL provide. So give the talents God gave you to Him… small or not…whether that means a little money or a little skill/talent or something you don’t think is useful or worth much… God WILL use that… You WILL be equipped… Just start with that small amount. God will do the rest. And God has been CONSTANTLY providing! Praise HIM!!!
In case you're wondering how my teammate experiences life in a different way, you can check out her blog at http://www.jannaruth.blogspot.com - since she was able to post before me this week ;)