what the heck!

I can't believe its December tomorrow! Only 25 days until Christmas! I think I only have 16 school days left. It seems like only last week where it was the end of September and I didn't think I was going to make it through the whole school year! That's awesome. I only hope some more snow comes so I can go snowboarding soon, then I will be satisfied, not completley because I don't think any human being can me completley satisfied ever, but I will be pretty close.

Becky's Christmas List (# 9 is now changed!)

This Christmas list is for my family only! I am NOT expecting a whole bunch of random people to get me all this stuff! But enjoy anyways!


1. The Message Bible by Eugene H. Peterson

2. A BLACK vest

3. Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers—Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison (please don’t get me hard cover, and I would like the cover to be the same as my other books. Talk to my sisters or mom! The picture is the right cover.)

4. Startled by His Furry Shorts—Confessions of Georgia Nicolson
by Louise Rennison.( I think this one is too new to get in soft cover, and if it is please don’t get it for me! Again with the covers!)

5. A long time ago my friend had this Margarita Body Mist from Shoppers Drugmart and when I went there to get it my mom said it was too expensive (it was only like 10 bucks! I was so mad she wouldn’t let me get it!). So I went back a couple weeks ago to get it, now that I have my own money and they said they didn’t carry it any more. I was so upset. I almost broke down in the store! It was just one of those days. So if any of you could find margarita body mist or perfume or anything I woud like it. If not, So Pink form the gap is very good to!

6. Any MONEY towards my Folk Fest ticket and my Unknowen Destination with my parents after Christmas are always always welcome. Anyday! Anytime!

7. The Brat Pack – Breakfast Club, Weird Science and 16 Candles. If this is too expensive then just Breakfast Club is perfectly acceptable!

8. Downheres CD—Wide Eyed and Mistified

9. So I used to have any good books for #9 but then I changed my mind and decided slash rememberd that I wanted a good world map to hang on my wall, so I would like a world map with all the countries, and capital cities on it. And I don't want the freaky stretched out kind. If you really need help ask Pam, I think she'll know what I mean

10. A grey scarf, hat and mit set….KIMMM!!! HURRY UP!

Thief on the Cross

Sometimes I wonder if my teachers are Christians or not. I usually end up putting a Christian perspective on all my writing pieces or adding supportive verses from the Bible. I don't always go into them know that's what I'll do, it just usually happens. They must think I'm a little strange if they are not a Christian themselves. Who knows, maybe it gets them thinking. Normally I'm not much of a writer but this is a particular piece I wrote for a recent English assignment and I quite liked it. Let me know what you think.

Thief on the Cross

As I, a thief, hung on the cross paying for my offenses I saw a man walk up Skull’s Hill carrying a cross on his shoulders. It is he who calls himself Jesus Christ the son of God. This is the man whom earlier I was mocking and calling names I remember only faintly as the blood drips from my body. As I watch them pound the nails through his wrists I think, “How strange. He doesn’t resist the nails, he almost invites them.” I hear the others below yelling and spitting on him. Yet he remains quiet, as I watch I hear a quite, hoarse whisper, “Father, forgive them.” Why do they want to kill him?! Why do they want him dead?! My curiosity offsets the pain I am going through and I feel a warmth spread over my body. A warmth I have not felt on the hottest of days. I look Christ in the eyes; I see no anger, only tears. I see the soldiers below gambling in the dirt, then I see the sign nailed above him; “King of Jews.” They mock him as if he weren’t a King. If he were crazy they would only ignore him, if he had no followers he would be no threat, they would not kill a King whom does not have a Kingdome. Is it possible that he is a true King? I hear the thief on the cross on the other side of Christ, mocking him along with the others; “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us while you’re at it!” (Luke 23:29) He is talking about me I realize. “Don’t you fear God?” I call out. All heads turn and look at me. Even I was surprised at my own words, only moments ago I was cursing him along with the others. When all heads are turned away a crook places himself between Jesus Christ and the crowd, everyone looks at him, even Jesus. He says, “Don’t you even fear God when you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done one thing wrong.” (Luke 23:40) I see Mary look up and wipe her tearstained face. We are guilty, he is innocent. We are filthy, he is pure. We are wrong, he is right. He is not on that cross for his sins, but for ours. The crook and I understand this now. He turns and looks Jesus in the eyes and makes a request; “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” (Luke 23:42) Christ replies, “Today you will be with me in Paradise. This is a solemn promise.” (Luke 23:43) I am in awe; seconds ago this man was a crook, a beggar. Now he stands there, a Christian, a servant of God.

November 22

This is just a regular day I want to share with you:
I woke up this morning at 7:45 at Corries house. I went into the bathroom and got ready for my day and left at 8:10 I walked over the bridge and through the train station to my bus stop, there was a homeless person sleeping in the bus shelter so I thought it better not to disturb him and sat on the bench out side. My bus came. I got on it, and about 15 min. later I got off again at Glenlawn Collegiate Institute. I headed to my first class, electronics, without going to my locker other wise I would have been late. I took off my jacket and sat down at my table with three other guys. About 3 seconds later I stood up again for Oh Canada. The class proceeded. I'm not going to tell you what I did because you would most likely get bored and stop reading. At 10:00 I went up to my locker dropped off my coat and proceeded to my next class. English. I don't really like English, I'm not sure why I'm in advanced, I guess I'm not bad at it, I just don't like it. Anyway, in this class it was the student teachers first day, she's good, I like her. She's been hanging out in the back of out class for the past few classes. It was a pretty slack class, at one point I climbed on the empty table behind me and lied down, it was pretty nice. With about 15 min. left of the class I asked her if I could leave 5 min. early to run down to the cafeteria and buy some food because you can't go quickly in-between classes because there are too many people and the line is too long, so if you go right at the end of a class there is no line. I figured this out in about the first week of Grade 10. So she agreed, after we made a deal that I would work for the next 10 min. with out distraction. I went to the caf at 11:10 and bought an egg salad sandwich, a chocolate chip cookie and a strawberry kiwi Fruitopia. Oh joy. Physics. I used to like physics, when we had a good teacher, he is now temporarily the vice principal because our principal left for three months with high blood pressure and so now we have a crap replacement teacher. He has a homosexual (gay) accent and I can't really concentrate when he talks. And it seems as though he is only there for the money and doesn’t actually want to help you learn so therefore just blows you away when you ask him a question. It really is a great class (eye rolling). So the only thing that keeps me in this class is knowing that this is my last class of the day, the fact that it’s the only science that I took so I'm kind of stuck with it, and the hope that Mr. Poulter (the original teacher) will soon come back. So I wait until 12:30 until I am free!! Then I went up to my locker, got my jacket and went out to the bus stop. I don't know what time the bus actually comes but I always catch it so I'm not going to complain. So I get on the bus and go home. I got home at about 1:00 and Pam was there. I went downstairs and watched some of Lord of the Rings- the Return of the King. I fell asleep. When I woke up I went upstairs and knit some of my scarf that Kim is supposed to be knitting for me. Then my friend Cam called and asked if he could come over for a bit because he was locked out of his house. So he came over at about 3:30 and we just looked at out year book until I had to leave for Work at 4:30. So I walked to my bus stop so catch the bus at 4:33 to get to work for 5:00. I missed my bus. Or rather the bus missed me. So I walked back home and made Kim drive me. At this point I was not in the best mood. I missed my bus, I didn't really want to go to work in the first place, and I was working with a girl whom I don't really like. So I got there in time and all was good. From that point on the rest of my day was pretty boring, other than the part where my awesome sister Pam brought me a slurpee to cheer me up. What would I do without sisters? I would be lost. So then when I was done and closed up at 10:45 (yeah that's right Pam I did a close in 15 min! and the till only had an extra 17 cents in it!) Kim came and got me and I was home by 11:00. I sat at out kitchen table for a bit and talked with my parents, not about anything in particular, and then I went at got read for bed, after messing around with sage for a bit. So that brings me here. And now I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

Introducing....Sage!

I took a few pictures of her with Pam and me, these are my favourits:

Oh Sage...

I've wanted a hamster again lately. I used to have them all the time when I was younger. Me and my dad built a cage and altogether I had four hamsters. My dad recently threw it out, so now when I want one I don't even have a cage! Luckily Van B's have their old cage still and said they would lend it to me, and I'm going to get a hamster on Thursday. I think I will name it Sage. I kind of have a theme going with my hamsters, I name them all spices. I remember when I got my first one thinking I hate when people have hamsters and name them Hammy or something like that, it's so unsatisfying or something. You finally have the chance to name a living thing, name it anything you want, something fun, something cool, something original, fresh and brand new. And you chose HAMMY?!? What’s up with that? So I chose Ginger, because she was brown with a white stripe on her back. After that I decided to name all of them spices, so I had a Nut-Meg, Saffron, Pepper and soon to be Sage. And all of them have followed Ginger with a brown coat and a white stripe down the middle. When I get her I promise to take a picture and get Kim to show me how to put it on here! I feel kind of bad choosing a name before I've even chosen my hamster, but I've always liked that name, I mean for a hamster, and I was always disappointed that I didn't get to use it, so now I'm going too.

Old Friends

I met an old friend on the bus the other day. I had stayed at Corrie’s house the night before and was going to school. I got on the bus and as I was sitting down I heard some one say my name. I looked to where I had heard it and didn't know who it was for a second. Oh, hey! I said cheerfully. It was Andre, I grew up with him and his family around all the time. They were immigrants from Romania and our family was helping them with the transition. I haven’t seen him for at least 4 or 5 years, and I remember him as a scrawny 12 year old that liked playing cars with me on my kitchen floor. It was weird seeing him grown up. As I realized who he was I suddenly became conscious of my appearance. I don't know why this happened. It's not like I care what anyone else thinks of my bright orange plaid jacket from Value Village or whether my hair is wind blown and looks a mess. Maybe I wanted to impress the past, show him that I had grown up and was a relatively normal person. We talked for a bit, where we were going, what school we went to, and just in general how we were. It was nice too see him again. Good memories brought back and refreshed.

Jeremiah

I name my blog this because as I type I listen to the words Sarah Groves wrote about Jeremiah... Jeremiah tell me about the fire that burns up in your bones...Other than that it has no significance to this blog, it's just my favorite Sara Groves song. Perhaps another day I will go in to greater detail.

My dad was sick yesterday. I've only seen him bed ridden only two other times, once when I was about eight or nine, he had some virus or bug that caused him to be sick enough to go to the doctor. They did a few tests on him and didn't know what he had, so therefore couldn't even help him (sorry if I'm not quite accurate Pam and Cor, I don't really remember it that well). And the other time was when he went out on his bike, it was raining and there were train tracks, need I say more. All of you who are reading this probably know what happened anyway. He fell, he broke his collar bone. Some good hearted soul stopped to see if he wanted a ride to a hospital but obviously my dad, Bob Van Aertselaer was way to stubborn to accept a ride to the hospital, so he proceeded to climb back onto his bike and ride to the hospital. So later that night when I came home he was in bed, trying to move as little as possible since all they can do for a broken collar bone is give you a sling, which wouldn't really help if you were lying down. So yesterday he left church early and came home and pretty much just lied there all day trying not to throw up. It was weird. It kind of freaks me out when I think of how healthy he is for his age compared to others, other than his knees I'm sure he could get up tomorrow and run a marathon. When he retried he told me over the past 35 years (give or take) at Hydro he had only had something like 14 sick days, like how ridiculous is that?!? I think over the past 2 years at school I've had more sick days than that! And just today as he was leaving to go teach at Red River he realized that over the last three years of classes he's never missed one either! I don't know how he stays so healthy, it’s not like he's one of those super sanitized people, like he washes his hands before he eats and everything, but that’s about it.

Now that I come to think of it I should have called this blog sick dad, or something more suiting like that. But that’s just so boring and predictable, when you started reading I bet you didn't think I was going to be talking about my dad the whole time did you! Haha well I tricked you!