celeb sibs

A lot of things have been happening this past weekend. All to do with my siblings.


On Saturday the fourteenth it was my older sister's birthday. Helma is four years older than I am and is a great teacher (she claims she is not). From the little things like teaching me how to play dress up and how to take care of our dolls to how to share a room way back in the day. She also gave my my first mask (I think I was 8 or so and my parents thought it was ridiculous). She taught me how to giggle, how to argue, how to keep my mouth shut, and how to talk. She taught me how to listen, how to learn 30 French vocab words in one night when I first entered high school in Holland. She taught me how to be a sisters, how to be a better sister, how to be a loving sister. She taught me how to solve many, many math problems even though she was four years ahead of me. She taught me ow so many things.
When we first moved to Canada I was 13 and she was 17. Boy, was I ever shy, and here comes Helma, my life saver. She was awesome, you know why? I'll tell you! She talked for me. If someone asked how old I was she would tell them, if someone asked where we lived she would tell them. I was like a little child following her mom. I must have driven Helma nuts but eh, it made life a little easier for me.
Helma is the more outgoing type of the two. She is awesome. She talks to everyone. She has always had outgoing jobs. She was always able to have good comebacks (ow she still does by the way), she is able to tell you many many stories, if you just wait long enough. (We shared a room for the first half a year in Canada.) Let's just say many nights we were up for hours, because we first had to do our homework, then go on MSN with the Dutch people (midnight here is 8am there), and then we would just talk... :) lol).
She showed me how to take big steps, like go to college, move out, and do some crazy things all in one (like) week it seemed to me. She was gone and I missed her terribly. That was, let's see, four years ago now? She came back for a while after college, and then got married! I was of course happy for her, but eh, who can I talk to now, late in the night...?
Helm, you know what, I think you should move back in. It is way to quiet around here without you, it's no fun not having my older sister to teach me all the little things only sisters can teach me :( I love you!


Next, on the 15th of August, my big, single, then with girlfriend brother got engaged. Peter and Cindy have been dating for a year I think, and now got engaged! They are going to get married his Winter. I'm pumped. For us. For them. For him. He's so excited. Now who can not get excited when the old bro is excited?! Peter and Cindy, I hope you have tons of fun with your wedding planning, and are looking forward to all that is to come! :D I can't wait for the big day!



A day later, August 16th, was Corne (my second brother) and Erika's fifth anniversary. It is so crazy that it has been five years already! It sure does not seem that way to me. But it is so. Now you oughta know that C+E live in the Netherlands and we do not. Even though they have been married for quite a few years, we have only seen them together as a married couple in real life for about hmm say 6-8 weeks! I know, it's pretty scary. But I know that they're still my bro and sil, that they always will be. No matter where they are, no matter what they do, they will always be my brother and sister in law. They know have my one and only adorable nephew so far! He's super, and hearing all the things over phone and email, its just super. I love them, but
miss the three van Ipertjes in Nederland very much so.


Dear siblings, I think you all deserve to have the name celeb sibs, because you need to be celebrated. Always.

I love you! :D

mom should be home

My mom is in Orlando right now. For a Tupperware meeting/conference. She left this past Monday and won't be back until late Saturday night. It might not seem like something big, and that's what I thought.. She's just gone a couple of days, and will be back sooner then we think. Well that's what my brain was telling me the last week, but now I think a little different.
It's rather boring without a mam around. I mean doing the chores, the laundry,dishes, clean up, I don't really mind doing that.
But coming home to a house that's quiet. To a kitchen where there is no one cooking. To an upstairs where there is no one reading her book. To a home where no one tells you what to do, and you cant really ask how to do stuff either. Well it's crazy, but I even miss the part of being 'bossed' around. I think everyone wishes at one point during their childhood/teenage years that moms weren't there. Just so that we could have the freedom, no one telling us what to do. No one saying how to do it, and no complaints of how we have done it.



For me, I always thought so too. My dad has been gone before, several times actually - to Holland and away for work. I can only remember one time that my mom was gone for more then a day, and that was way back in 2002. I was hmm 11 then, and boy did I miss her. My dad and mom went to Canada for two weeks then and us kids were billeted out to other places, it wasn't so bad really. But now, for the first time in 8 years my mom is gone, for almost a WEEK! wha! I miss her, and I certainly hope she does come back on Saturday. And even more so, doesn't go on a trip for a long time, at least not if it means that we have to be home alone, blagh.
I'll be sure to tell her that though, because I think that is something a mom needs to know, that she's appreciated, loved, and missed when she isn't here.

chaos

It's summer here in Canada, and that means no school. It's great, I love it! The beautiful weather, the days off school, the things you can do during the long days, it's awesome.
My summer has been a busy one, and it is slowly coming to a close. There are many things I had planned to do this summer, but sadly to say, I haven't really gotten to them at all. It seems that I am unorganized. It's a big maze in my head. It's a chaos in my room, in my schedule, in every day. And because it is such a chaos, I cant seem to get stuff done, think straight, keep up with the plans I had, and do the things I should be doing.
There are a couple of weeks left before school starts, and my goal is to get some stuff done, get organized and ready for a new part+start.

choices and changes

I realize that everyone has to make choices, always. I don't about you, but choices confuse me. Choices always come with crazy changes. If I say yes to this, what will happen later, in the next minute, hour, day....and so on. But eh, we gotta make those choices, we gotta face those changes.

But how do we decide? Since I was a little girl I have wanted to become a teacher. To teach children, to share information, gifts, talents, to build and to encourage, to help and support, to give and to be there for the students. What more can you want? Anyway, during my three high school years things went a little different than I had planned. My grades weren't as high as I had hoped, my personal life went whacko, and well, all in all, I wasn't able to go to university. I settled with something else.

Instead of going to university and getting my B.Ed right after high school I decided to go for Educational Assistant at a community college instead. It was not what I wanted, not what I had hoped, and not what I had planned. But it was a choice I made, because I knew I had to do something so that I would at least get a paper of some sort. I knew that if I wouldn't go further after high school I would probably never do a thing, and just work.

Going to college this past year was a choice I made, and it brought many changes. I am now an EA, and although I love the job, the kids, the people, the things I do, it is not what I wanted. It's a thing I did because I had to make a choice. A choice that changed my life.

I have now chosen to work this coming year. Work as an EA for a year, and my plan is to go to university(uni) the year after. It's a choice that will change my life now because of all the experience I get in the school this year. Now my hope is to actually get into uni and not change my mind, or change my plans again.

That's my hope, and my plan though. I don't know if it is the right plan, the right hope, the right choice. I would love to have the choices I should make written out for me. With bullet points or something. However, we all know that's not how life is.

I hate changes, but I know they come with the choices I make. Now this coming year I will have to make some choices. Find out what I want to study in uni, what I want to do with my life. Where I want to go to uni, and... and... and...!

How though? any advice? please tell?!

to my lil' sis'

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.
~Isadora James~

My little sister is celebrating her 17th birthday today. I can't believe how old she is getting. I know, so am I, but eh, she was always little and younger than I am, and now she is getting older and older :( She'll never be my little sister to whom I read stories, with who I played dress up and house, who I shared a room with for 11 years, and when we had to clean our room it took several weekends because we'd end up playing. She'll never be that little sister whom I could tell what to do. She was always there for me, and we often played together.
We are now the only 2 of 5 kids left in our house. It's boring, I must say since we used to have so many of us. But I am very thankful for my sister; in the last couple of years she has become my friend. I have learned to share with her, to appreciate her, to love her, to ask her questions, to answer her questions, to help her when she needs me, to shop with her, encourage her, to help her with her homework and cleaning her room, to curl her hair, to laugh and cry with her, to dance and sing with her, and most of all to be a friend to her.
I love you my dear lil' sis' and hope that we will continue to make many memories, share laughs and cries, have good and bad days, and recover. I pray that you will always be my little sister, and my friend.

the power of prayer

Pray without ceasing ~ 1 Thes. 5:17

I was having a very sad and grumpy day this past Monday. Just after supper my prayers were answered. I received a call, and got a job! A great job that I'd been hoping for for months (since Christmas time 2009). It was going to work out, or so we thought. However, as the months went by we all realized it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't going to help the kids catch up with their school work and I wasn't going to the States anymore. So I found a new job.

Now that job is over, I am no longer a nanny. I was about to start pulling my hair out. What was I gonna do for the month of August? Sit around at home and wait until school starts? yeah, NO. So I was getting kind of grumpy Monday, well actually very grumpy..

And then the phone rang, and I was offered a job. Ten minutes, if even, later I had the job and I started this morning. I'm so excited, I just can't hide it.. But even more so, I am thankful. Thankful that the Lord heard my prayers, and answered them! Even though I didn't think it was going to happen anymore, the Lord made it happen, in His timing. Maybe I had been praying the wrong way, with my own desires in mind. Maybe I was wanting 'me' glory instead of glorifying Him through my work. I don't know, but the Lord chose this time to answer the prayers of multiple people. Not in our timing, but in His.

We have to pray without ceasing, I have to pray without ceasing. And not forget that I have to pray 'not my will, but Thy will be done Oh Lord!'

Oh Happy Day! That I may have a faithful Lord and Father, Who always hears, always listens, and always answers!

Rejoice in the LORD alway, and again I say, Rejoice.

~ Phil. 4:4

little inspiration

Sorry peoples,

I haven't had a whole lot of inspiration in the last few days.
I know I could just write about something, but I dont want to do that.
It's not fun to write blogs about nothing, or something just because
I had to write something. So I will try to get some inspiration again,
so that I can write a worthwhile post in the near future.

For now, I guess you will just have to wait and see while I'm digging
for that inspiration that I need ;)