10 Hopefully Interesting Random Things

A few weeks ago, two friends of mine asked me to write 10 Random Things About Myself. Life has been INSANE and so I am only now getting to it. Hopefully I can make it worth your wait. :o)

1. When I was 13 years old, I had newly arrived in England. My family had moved there and my brother and I were out exploring one day. We climbed a spike fence to get down onto a railroad. The spiked fence should have been a warning, shouldn't it?

I was an avid reader and had read The Railway Children. In this story these children had moved to the country and had discovered a train that went by their house every day. They got to communicating with an elderly gentleman on the train by waving etc. They would listen to see if the train was coming by putting two hands on the track and then lying their heads on the track and listening for the rumbling vibration.

I figured this was a great thing to do, so I did it. You can only begin to imagine my terror when the most enormous jolt of electricty ripped through my body, throwing me away from the train tracks. My hands were burned with blisters, but that was the only physical sign that I had been shocked.

I sat there absolutely terrified and immediately began to scream blue murder. I thought I was dying! My poor 14 year old brother had no idea what had happened and tried to calm me down.

The funny thing (not then!) was as we were walking home I was sure I was going to die. If not then, then later. So my 'oh so wise' brother told me I needed to 'ground' the electricity that was sure to be coursing through my body. He told me to put my hands on a metal light pole. I was sure that he was going to kill me, so I refused.

For weeks after, this I prayed every night that I would not die in my sleep. My parents never knew this happened until only a few years ago.

Now the rest will probably be rather lame. *grin*

2. I was born at home by midwife, and slept in a drawer when I was little.

3. Excluding my first son, all my children were born in 1.5 hours (or less) from the first contraction, or sign of labour. My first son was born in 4 hrs 10 minutes.

4. When I was 19 years old I moved to Banff to earn money and save up to go on a solo trip to Europe. I am a very goal oriented person and I knew I could make my fortune if I kept my focus. While other kids were there to party, I used the opportunity to my advantage. I had applied for a job as a Chambermaid at the Banff Spring Hotel. That became my number one job.

I knew that I could make more money babysitting the hotels guests children and so while other staff members were outside smoking during breaks I would dash back to the housekeeping office and scoop all the posted babysitting jobs. In this way I got 95% of the jobs that came in. I didn't know this until I finally left and Housekeeping told me that I was there most reliable babysitter and that I took 95% of the job. I went on to travel and visit some of these guests that I got friendly with! A great way to see the world!

As I worked at the hotel I found other opportunties to make money. I was there for 5 months and over that period of time I held down 6 jobs, simultaneously, working on average 85 hours a week!

As well as being a Maid and a Babysitter, I worked parttime in one of the Hotel Gift Shops, cleaned the Chief Engineers house once a week, worked at Suisse Chalet in the town. And my last job that netted me a killing was cleaning the guys rooms. I was making $3.50 an hour and these guy staff members didn't like cleaning up after themselves. As a maid I was quick! So I used this to my advantage and advertised cleaning the guys room at $15 and it only took me 1hr +. Good money.

Even in the midst of this crazy work schedule I had a blast living in Banff and found it my favourite place to live. I was a staff member in a place (that I considered home) that people paid a fortune to stay in!

In this way I was able to save for my trip to Europe. That is another story!

5. I guess I can lead into the next one here. When I was in Switzerland I was walking down a street one day and heard the most beautiful singing. I followed the sound and discovered a family singing on the street. I sat on the sidewalk and listened. After they were done and the crowd dispersed I approached them. They had six children and I was always drawn to families. I discovered they were on their own - not affiliated with any church. I ended up going back to their campsite with them and spent the afternoon with them. The next day I rejoined them and travelled with them for five days. I loved their family atmosphere - the closeness. I loved their love of the Lord.

One day I had to make a decision - my plane was leaving to go back to Canada. I had to either toss my ticket and continue on with them or go home. I had never experienced this kind of closeness before. They suggested I pray and see what God told me to do. I couldn't understand why God wouldn't give me a 'go ahead' but I didn't get one.

It broke my heart and I cried my eyes out, but I left. My ties to my family were too strong to be broken. Over the course of the next couple months, I ran into various people who I told my experience to and they all thought the situation very odd. I didn't.

I went home to Canada and told my mother and she told me that they were a cult. I had told her their name. I didn't believe her. She called her pastor and he came over and brought with him a book written by David Moses's daughter. The founder of the group I was with was David Moses. The pastor told me my mother was right. It was a cult.

I read the book from cover to cover and was shocked beyond belief. All the little stories and way of life, I had been taught by the family were in the book - but this time they were in full bloom, not just in seed form.

For instance, I was told that if the father's daughter had to date a guy to get him to know God - that was okay. I accepted this as it didn't sound 'too bad'. When I read the book it actually said, if she has to sleep with the guy - that is okay. It's all for the cause. It is called Flirty Fishing. That was the name the father had given to me.

What I discovered was that all of the things they had 'taught' me or exposed me to were like little seeds. They were all manageable and acceptable, but the book showed what these ideas were like when they were really acted upon. When they were in full bloom.

Suddenly I realized that everyone was right. The name of the group of people I was with was Families For Christ. They used to be known as The Children of God, and previous to this Teens For Christ. I knew from talking to them that they had changed their name because they had been persecuted in countries.

A few months after I was home my mother gave me a newspaper article. The cult had been stopped at an airport where an underage boy was trying to leave the country with them. It was a frightening experience to realize that it took me another two years to unindoctrinate my brain from what I had been taught. I would have gone with them at any time in the following two years. Cults are very scary and insideous.

6. I fell off a 2nd story balcony twice when I was under the age of two. I was a real adventurous child! The second time I land *across* a picket fence. My mother was terrified to see what was the outcome! The neighbour got there at the same time and he picked me off the fence - I was okay. God must have a hand on me!

7. I have had many natural and not so natural disasters follow in my wake!

a) An Volcano in Mt. Etna, when I was in Italy;
b) the worst Snowstorm in England in 100 years, while I was there;
c) a Tornado in Edmonton/Banff area, when I lived in Banff
d) a Hurricane in Florida, while visiting a friend
e) an Earthquake in California, while on holiday there
f) a major Flood in Fiji, while on honeymoon;
g) a ferry boat sinking, directly after I crossed the English Channel

8. I had an unreasonable fear of electricity and electrical fires until I was about 32. I wouldn't even let my husband changed a lightswitch without a fuss. I was *certain* he was going to reconnect the wires incorrectly and the house would burn down!

God has a real sense of humour, or perhaps it was just His way of getting me to get over it. We moved to our town from a big city and decided to build a house. We were trying to cut costs and so had an electrician look at our house plans and show us how to wire it ourselves. He drew little red and green lines where all the wires were to run. He would come in later when the wire pulling was done and would hook up all the little boxes.

No big deal, right? Right. Guess who got the job??? MOI!! There I was for TWO WEEKS drilling holes in studs and running wires from here to there and having to staple them down. Staple them down? What about running a staple through a wire accidently? AHH!! Would have freaked me out if Ray did it. But since I was doing it, I was able to see I did it without any incidents.

After this was done, my irrational fear subsided and I was able to see there simply were two wires in the box and red went to red and white to white - type thing. No biggie. So now I can say I wired a brand new house! HAHA! Who'd of thunk!

9. In one year, Lord willing, I will have 5 or 6 car seats in my van! What a hoot!

A few years ago, a customer of Ray's got a call from a neighbour. The neighbour was concerned because he saw a car parked out front of their home. They were away as it was their summer home. The neighbour was not aware that my hubby was doing some work on their summer place. When he called the owners he said, "And what's really odd is the van is full of carseats!" (Like what burgler would come with a van and four carseats? *grin*)

10. I have been to this many countries: England x 4, Germany x 2, Spain, Switzerland x 2, France x 3, Luxembourg, Austria x 2, Italy, Belgium, Wales, Mexico, USA - countless, Hawaii - more perhaps, but the memories are starting to fade...

So how's that for Random and trying to keep it interesting. :o)