New Addition to the Stubbe Family!

Here are some darling pictures of my new rabbit! We didn't know if it was a girl or a boy, and then last night we let it out of it's cage and it started humping Ellie, and I yelled "IT'S A BOY!!!"
It is a ten month old lop-earred rabbit, and it is 1/2 angora so it is really as soft as it looks! Please vote for a name:

a) Fennel
b) Chester
c) Augustus
d) Felix
e) Eeyore
f) Finnigan

Place Your Bets Now!!!

Top Ten

Top 10 Movies:
1. Amelie
2. Primal Fear
3. Before Sunrise
4. Edward Scissorhands
5. Curly Sue
6. Christmas Vacation
7. The Shawshank Redemption
8. About Schmidt
9. "V" for Vendetta
10. The Island

Top 10 Bands/Artists:
1. Bad Religion
2. MxPx
3. Ginny Owens
4. AC/DC
5. CCR
6. Stevie Nicks
7. The Doobie Brothers
8. The Beastie Boys
9. Billy Idol
10. Guns 'n' Roses

Top 10 Celebrities:
1. Lindsay Lohan
2. Paris Hilton
3. Natalie Portman
4. Hayden Christensen
5. Scarlett Johanson
6. Harrison Ford
7. Nicole Kidman
8. Anthony Hopkins
9. Ashlee Simpson
10. Tyra Banks

Top 10 Foods:
1. Lasagna
2. Apple Crisp
3. Ice Cream
4. Yogurt
5. Cinnamon Rolls
6. Blackberry Pie
7. Peaches
8. Fresh Pineapple
9. Pizza
10. Homeade Bread

Top 10 Things:
1. Kris
2. Trampolines
3. Turquoise Water
4. Sea Turtles
5. Beaches
6. Drinking Coffee
7. Snorkelling
8. Swimming
9. Watching movies
10. Ellie

Top 10 Beverages:
1. Coffee
2. Cappuccino
3. Latte
4. Tropicana O.J.
5. Pepsi or Dominican Coca Cola
6. Dole Strawberry Orange Banana Juice
7. Caramel Macchiato
8. Pina Colada
9. Banana Milkshake
10. Orange Fanta from the Caribbean

Oodles of Bunnies!

Last weekend Kris and I drove to northern Ohio to see Mamma C (Kris' mom) & Jim, and then on to Indiana to visit our friends Stacie & the Starks. We had a lot of fun... and I especially had a lot of fun playing with the 4 bunny rabbits that the Starks had picked up for $10/each that morning at a fair before we got there. I fell in love & I think you can see that by these pictures! The caramel coloured one is Stacie's, and it's name is Bianca. I can't remember the other one's names, but I do know that over the course of less than 24 hours that we spent at the Starks, two of the bunnies got lost and only one of them was found when we left! Needless to say, as soon as I got home (I had been in the market for a bunny already) I went to the pet store and bought myself a 10 month old, charcoal grey lop-earred rabbit for $25. It was the last one out of 6 and I fell in love instantly! He/she is soooo cute! (we don't know if it is a girl or a boy yet...) So soon I will post a picture of it and then you can help me come up with a name! Hee hee.

A Shout Out

Yo Jared, thanks for reading my blog! If you scroll down to the blog entitled "Making an Impact", that entry applies to you too! Peace oWt.

Tibetan Monks in Sault Ste. Marie

Last week, Kris and I went to see some Tibetan Monks working on this mandala. The intricacy is amazing, and obviously these pictures don't do this work of art justice.

This mandala is called the "Buddha of Compassion" and the purpose of it's construction is to encourage everyone of us to generate a compassionate heart for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Mandala's are constructed of marble which is refined to a powder and then coloured. The monks then draw a design on a board and proceed to fill it in with the sand that they have made. They use metal instruments to pour the sand with precision onto the mandala. They sometimes wear masks to keep their breath from moving the sand. Once the mandala is complete (it usually takes five days) they destroy it and pour the sand into the ocean, or in this case - Lake Huron.

These monks are Tibetan refugees and are monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India. Click on the title link to learn more about this monastery.

It was nice to be able to learn more about a particular culture without having to spend thousands of dollars travelling there. Now I am curious to learn more about Tibet, as well as the life of monks.

Petit Perisien

Isn't this cute? It's entitled "Petit Perisien" by Ronis

Making an Impact

Today i got a myspace message from a student that I worked with two summers ago at M.W.A. and who was also in the D.R. when I was there. I didn't even know he wasn't in the D.R. anymore, so it was to my surprise when he messaged me. Anyway - I just wanted to blog about how good it feels when someone from your past, in this case a student, makes an effort to contact you and let you know what is going on with them. It tells you that you made enough of an impact on them, that they are willing to spend the time hunting you down on the internet to send you a note. Thank you to that student - you know who you are!

My 2nd Tag...

I was tagged... so you have to do this, pass it on to four people and send a copy back to the one who tagged you. This way we all can get to know a little something more about one another.

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Housemother, Dominican Republic
2. Counsellor, Missanabie Woods Academy
3. Coffee Lady, Zoe's Bakery & Cafe, Toronto
4. Dog walker, Toronto

Four Movies you would watch over and over:
1. Amelie
2. Off the Map
3. Pippi Longstocking
4. Primal Fear

Four Places you have Lived:
1. Jarabacoa , Dominican Republic
2. Toronto , ON
3. Missanabie , The Woods
4. Sudbury, ON

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Lost
2. Survivor
3. Gilmore Girls
4. The Office

Six places you have been on vacation:
1. Belize
2. Russia
3. Estonia
4. Dominican Republic
5. Finland
6. Holland

Four websites I visit daily:
1. http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com
2. http://snorkelady.myspace.com
3. http://www.thestubbes.com
4. http://www.snorkelady.blogspot.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Biscotti
2. Pizza
3. (can coffee be a food?)
4. Ice Cream

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Australia with Cate
2. A Greek Isle with Calley
3. At Bethany's house... or with Bethany somewhere kewl like Ireland
4. Playa Rincon, Dominican Republic

List 4 things you are proud of accomplishing so far in your life:
1. Living and working in a foreign country.
2. Finishing my college diploma.
3. Staying married for 5 years and counting.
4. Travelling abroad alone.

List 4 things you are scared/afraid of:
1. Worms
2. Failure
3. Being a mother
4. Not travelling to all of the places I want to go.

List 4 things you still want to accomplish in your life:
1. Living in Australia for a minimum of 6 months
2. Getting my B.A. in social work & possibly my masters
3. Adopting a child
4. Retiring in Italy

4 Tags:
1. Cate M
2. Bethany D
3. Calley C
4. Abby M

Paul McCartney Advocates for Seals

Paul McCartney and his wife Heather,left, pose with a seal pup on the ice floes off Iles de la Madeleine in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, Thursday March 2, 2006, as part of a high-profile protest against Canadas annual seal hunt. (AP Photo/CP,Tom Hanson)
- taken from "Riverdell" blog; March 2 post. Click on title link.

I Am Prone to Moodiness

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

I worry that my dreams aren't attainable...

How You Life Your Life

You seem to be straight forward, but you keep a lot inside. You're laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think. You prefer a variety of friends and tend to change friends quickly. You tend to dream big, but you worry that your dreams aren't attainable.

How Do You Live Your Life?

Australia 2007

Presently I am reading the book "Bella Tuscany" by Fances Mayes. It is a sort-of sequel to her first book, "Under the Tuscan Sun". Many of you are probably familiar with this title from the popular movie, "Under the Tuscan Sun" with Diane Lane, which was based on this book by Frances.

For some reason, I was really excited to see the movie when it came out on DVD, but I decided to read the book first. I was in for a treat! I have already posted several quotes from Frances which you can find in the archives, and they are simply irrisistable. The way her words capture my own imagination... they way she is able to transfer the beauty that she sees before her own eyes onto paper is amazing & to be admired. The movie was also very refreshing (I own it).

So, right now as I read Bella Tuscany, I often find myself dreaming. Dreaming of retiring in Italy one day. Dreaming of all of the places in Europe that I wish to visit. Thinking to myself that Italy can't really be as wonderful as Frances makes it sound... but then I remember that one of my dear friends Calley has been there and said it is the most beautiful place she has ever been. Specifically one town on the coast... but I can't remember the name. And Calley is well travelled.

Here is a paragraph from todays reading....

"I still can't resist the magnetic pull of abandoned farmhouses. Every few miles Ed pulls over, and we step through briars, mentally restoring and moving into the mellow house which often has no roof. In the larger villages, such as Castiglione del Lago, Citta della Pieve, and especially in Passignano, which is right on the lake, there are a few other travellers but no one is pouring
off buses or streaming through the streets with the kind of
determination I often have. Around here, travellers are more
inclined to sit on a lakeside patio eating roasted red pepper pizza, or to stroll along a wall under a Renaissance gate, or to drive through the fresh countryside with the windows down, perhaps turning up the tape of Pavarottie singing break-your-
heart arias to maximum volume."

How perfect is that? Perfect. Anyway... onto the title of this post...

Australia 2007. (Speaking of dreaming about foreign places... suddenly this dream becomes closer to a reality.) Kris wants to go and study abroad for one or two semesters at The Sunshine Coast University in Queensland, Australia. It is about an hour or so north of Brisbane, on the coast. One of his friends did this a year or so ago, who also was going to Algoma University (where Kris presently attends). He told Kris and I about his adventures and how Algoma University has an agreement with Sunshine Coast to equally transfer academic credits. Sooo... being the Australian-wannabee that I am... I suggested to Kris that we do this some day too. Luke (our friend) told us that fall of 2007 would be the best time to go (except I think they start their semester in August, so we would go then). So I think that this is what we are presently hoping for. And hopefully we will have the determination and willpower to save what little money we may be able to save (once I find a job) for our flights over there... (Flying to Australia is the longest flight there is from Canada - something like 22 hours in the air. Typically, a flight for one person costs about $6000 CDN, however they do go on sale from time to time for about half the price, depending on what time of year you go.)

So that is one of our dreams, that I am trying to convince myself really & truly could become a reality if we put our minds to it and devote ourselves to it in prayer. Exciting, ain't it? :o) We do tend to be travel bugs... We've only been back in Canada from the Dominican for 9 months and after we had been here for about 5 I was already wanting to live in another place. But Canada is marvelous, and I truly am glad to be here right now amidst the beautiful cold snow & the pine trees. I find myself not wanting winter to end after missing out on it last year!

Well, this brings my post to an end. Maybe I'll add some pictures of Australia... :o)

Above: "12 Apostles" located in Victoria, Australia. Photograph by Walton.