***Interim Post***
I have tried and tried to blog, but have obviously failed miserably. Please don't give up on me, blog land buddies........
To appease you, here are some new pics for your viewing pleasure. When life has equalized a bit more again, I will be sure to be back here in blogland.
But the news in brief is...
-I am back in Vancouver
-I am moving house on Tuesday (it's monday morning now)
-I am yet to finish packing
-On Thursday I leave for 1 month to work for YWAM Victoria on Vancouver Island to edit videos for a month
-It's my birthday in 11 sleeps!

Ok, now back to the morning 'time-to-get-out-of-pjs-get-ready-for-work' scenario

My super-hot hair net look making lunch at YWAM Salem

Jessa and I at the top of Multnomah Falls, OR

Jessa, myself and Adam in the Nightstrike clothing room in Oregon. I got to keep the cardigan, though Adam had to put the cowboy hat back.....

The group shot of all of us assembled at our friend Nancy's wedding in Calgary. Aren't we a good looking bunch?

Jana and I at the bottom of Multnomah.

Jessa, Jacqui and I in front of our beautiful new house post-lease-signing.

The back view

Me, Reebs, Adam, Mark and Reeb's brother and sister in law in town for a visit

Still procrastinating. Urgh.

Quotes of the day that make you laugh when you realise you are a Kiwi who has become very used to living in Canada.

(heard on www.kiwifm.co.nz during the news broadcast)

"Snow tires....have you ever heard of them?"

"The coldest laboratory in the southern hemisphere, an awfully chilly -35degrees, simulating an Antarctic winter..."

Tehehehehe. I shouldn't be laughing. Or blogging. Or emailing.

Oh yeah, I sent out my newsletter today (finally!) Email me if you got it and don't want it, or didn't get it and want it.

heaps of love

and HUGE MASSIVE AMAZING BIG THANKYOU to my lovely Sara who sent me pineapple lump marshmallow easter eggs! You are a legend buddy. Miss you loads, blow kisses at Wellington for me ok hun?

This post is called procrastination.
I should be packing. Not posting
I leave at 6.15am
yipes
but i still took this personality test. You should too.
Which world leader are you?
SNAP, I get to be Ghandi, I always wanted to shave my head
BAH!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Man two posts in one day.
Firstly, I'm happy to say I'm getting back into video stuff, and Laura has put two of my videos on her podcast site, so if you wanna look or download or whatever you can check it out here.
The first is called "Live a life less ordinary" (Laura's name not mine) which we made for the promo tour we did in Seattle and will be taking to Portland with us, and the "Team Malaysia" is a technically rough, but fun video of our time on outreach in Malaysia.
Gives you a better idea of my life here and how things have been going and what I have been up to.
Urg. I really truly had something I really wanted to post and I can't remember
Gutted. Can't remember.
I am going to buy the Sione's wedding soundtrack for my birthday I think. Or you could buy it for me... ;) a good sound of home if ever I heard one.
Thanks for being there Rob and Lois, you guys are legendary.

So after a bunch of searching and wondering, we have a house!
I can't even really believe it, but it was real and we walked in the beautiful front door (which sadly I didn't get a pic of!!!) but yeah, I will have one soon enough!
It's going to be so beautiful and wonderful and it's so encouraging to see God provide for all of us, with one big beautiful house and one reallly really great landlord.
The 6 girls will move into the 3 bedroom upstairs suite and the 3 boys will move into the downstairs suite. it's going to be a big beautiful party and I can't wait. Though I will have to becuase with this work in Victoria and everything,I won't really get to settle in until June. But who cares! We have a house!
Check out these lovely pics, thanks Reeebeee

This is our beautiful kitchen, with fridge and gas stove. Out the back where you see the flowers in that window is a little nook area/sunroom with a little mudroom bit for the winter, and a back door out onto the porch at the back.

Jana posing at the back of the house. We have the top, and the boys are in the basement. The white door is a big stoarge area for all our bikes! Yay for living in Vancouver!

Our living room. The door on the right is the main front door to the front little porch.

The yellow room where Jacqui, Rebecca and I will probably make home

The blue room for Jessa and Jana probably
The little candy floss pink room for Hannah

So yeah, I am really looking forward to moving in and really be able to unpack and settle and do normal things like buy a bed and stuff. Though even as I type this, one thing I've really been learning in the last 6 months or so is that home is a very abstract term. I am resisting the urge to type some dumb cheesy "home is where the heart is" kind of platitude, but at the same time.......

Ok enough for now. I remember I had a bunch of thing I was going to blog about but I can't remember. Oh yeah. Bitter diatribe. I tried to download those episodes of Shortland Street, and it turns out that I am not allowed to watch them or download them or anything because I am outside of New Zealand. Curses. What I ask is why do TVNZ think that anyone within New Zealand would want to download them, instead of people outside New Zealand who are stupid enough to ACTUALLY MISS SHORTLAND STREET!!! lol. Tragic and sad that I am actually admitting that I miss it. It's drivel and pathetic, but it's amusing right.
Anyways, nothing else I was going to say just for those of you who have forgotten what I look like cuz it's been sooooo long, here is a pic i just found I had from Nancy's wedding weekend in Calgary. Actually truth be told it's from St Paticks Day at the pub after Nancy's wedding, but we had a super fun awesome time, and bit of a mini reunion of our DTS, with 10 of us, 11 including Stefan, 12 including Nancy, and it was beautiful and awesome. Congrats Joe and Nancy, I know I'm a month or so late, but yeah, very cool wedding.

Stefan, Andrew, and I with our Green 'beverages'

Ok, that's all, it's bed time.
Happy Easter everyone.
Heaps of love
Next post probably from Portland, Oregon. We leave on Thursday. Yipes.

So after the quickest border crossing I've ever ever been a part of I am back in (amazingly) sunny Vancouver for a bit of the beautiful spring, before making a beeline in 10 days or so back to the USA, or more specifically to Portland, Oregon.
I feel like it's been ages since I blogged and there is SO much to tell.
ok
so I'm going to try bullet point form to firstly limit ramble, but also to try and cover everything I want to in a clear and concise fashion. Also, for those skim readers out there with a short attention span, you can get a quick overview.

1. This is a good book -
2. I really really like fruits. And I'm happy that strawberries are in season and cheap again. That and asparagus (i know that isn't a fruit, but you know what I mean)
3. I'm a little nervous to put the Neo flags counter up, I don't wanna be the lamer with only one little bouncy flag. Don't let me down peeps.
4. Oh yeah, I ate some peeps. You know americans, those little yellow sugar wrapped in sugar chicken things for easter? one word. yuck.
   
5. YWAM Seattle are really cool people and I had a really great time hanging out with them and getting to know them more. I'm hoping to go back for a visit with them with Philip when he comes to visit in June, because Seattle is also a super awesome groovy cool city that I'm looking forward to seeing in summer.
   
6. I just watched 'Sione's Wedding', a great Kiwi movie made by Oscar Kightley and the Naked Samoans. It was funny and sweet and oooooozing wtih Kiwiana, to the point I have to admit I got a little teary eyed. It's all shot in Auckland, and full of Samoan, Maori, Kiwi, Island goodness that makes me miss home and want to find some Islanders to hang out with. It's a different world that I can't even begin to explain, and even though I am unashamedly white and nerdy, I miss it. You should watch it. In fact, once I am done making these pies I am making, you can come over and watch it with me. Pies, pineapple lumps (I found them Jessa!) pavlova and Sione's wedding. Sigh!
7. So in our search for housing, it is looking like we might have something. all will be confirmed tomorrow. All 6 of us girls are waiting on hearing back from a landlord tomorrow morning on a large 3 bedroom house that we can share with a great kitchen, living area, deck and nice (i hope) bathroom. It was weird trusting the other girls to suss it out while Jessa and I were in Seattle, but here's hoping that it all works out. More info when we get it, but please pray for us!
8. I'm still coughing a little bit. But it's a lot better. Thanks for praying!
9. I love video editing. Except today I wanted to tweeeeek our promo video and I realised after doing my desktop tidy up I messed up a bunch of file paths that Premiere needed for my working copy. Urg. Lots of files in "offline" mode now. Mucho frustrating.
   
10. For those who didn't know already, I'm planning to do a lot more video/media stuff in the near future. More details when everything is official, but if anyone wants to join in with paying into the 'BUY HILLARY A WICKED AWESOME VIDEO CAMERA' just let me know.
    
    and.......DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....
    
    
11. I have just been informed by my dear friend Brett that TVNZ (the equivalent of CBC for you Canadians) has put Shortland Street on "TV on Demand" on their website. Now this may not be a big deal for most of you, but for a lil'ol'occaisionally-home-sick me, that is HUGE. I don't even like Shorty that much (ok who am I kidding, I really used to be addicted to it during university!!!) and now I can watch it whenever I want. "You're not in Guatemala now, Dr. Ropata" AMEN!
12. Oh yeah, and I did the personality test that Ralph did. Check it out, pretty colours.......
    
13. Oh and last but not least, check out these brilliant and beautiful websites. The first is an excellent source of free stock pictures, and the second is my new favourite grape website, where I can buy stuff from New Zealand for not too much, and a relatively cheap delivery fee. Dilmah tea and Gingernuts here I come!

Oh and just so you know I didn't forget.......

• Happy Birthday Sara
• Happy Birthday Philip
• Congratulations Amy and Luuk

Love you all soooo much
Hillary