Nine Highlights from '09

I may have stretched these *a bit* to make them fit into nine...but just a little :)

Interterm at Biola

This one started out as a bit of a sore spot for me, thanks to the whole "my family's on a cruise and I'm not" thing, but it ended up being a good month anyway. I took my stats class, which I really enjoyed thanks to the professor. When I wasn't doing stats problems, I was hanging out with people in Hart having family dinners and making Berry Cool runs. Tad visited me for the last week of interterm, and we enjoyed watching movies, hanging out at Berry Cool, wandering around Brea and Fullerton with Christine, and exploring new areas of campus.

Enjoying Olive Grove Park on campus

Hart Events

I absolutely LOVED living in Hart, no joke. The spring included '50's and "Funkship Cruise" all halls, HUOD/HUB sister floor "Spa and Dessert Night" Valentine's party, HUOD floor retreat to Shanelle's house in Valencia, and two girls' nights out to Cheesecake Factory.

looking nifty, fifties style :)

awesome HUOD girls on floor retreat

Funktastic friends with our funktabulous party drinks, at the Funkship Cruise All Hall, funk yeah!!! (oh how I love Ryan Low and the Hart Res Life staff xD)

Cheesecake Factory #1 for Raeleen's bday

Cheesecake #2 for Amanda's bday

Clarinet Club Events

Clarinet Club was one of my favorite extracurriculars at Biola - good friends, being nerdy about clarinet together and having fun. We had a Valentine's party at Amanda's house, hosted a concert by the LA clarinet choir, held a fundraiser for the Romania team, and put on an end-of-the-year recital.

About to watch Sleepless in Seattle

the Clarinet Club seniors after our last recital

Missions Conference

Missions Conference on its own is a delight, but it's even better when it's accompanied by a Tad visit. Tad was here for the St Patrick's all hall (mentioned above), all of the conference, and a really fun double date night with my friends Dave and Amy (who got married 10 days ago).

My love and me at the all hall

"it's a small world after all" kinda

Walking the Hermosa Beach pier

Final Days at Biola and Graduation

The last month of my time at Biola was filled with fun, including Comm Disorders dinner, Winds banquet, and of course graduation. I graduated magna cum laude and my family and Raelene were ther to celebrate with me.

Seniors at Comm Disorders dinner at El Torrito

The Romania clarinet section, at Winds Banquet

Communication Disorders graduating class Spring 09!

Mi familia y yo

Best friends since 2nd grade, this may it'll be her turn to wear the cap and gown :)

Romania

The Biola Romania tour was an incredible experience. I'd never been on a missions trip before, and this was certainly a wonderful first experience. I fell in love with the kids and people there, and I hope to return someday.

staying dry in Roschiori :)

our whole team, behind the team house

this sums up my trip

Summer Fun

This was quite possibly the best summer I've ever had. I spent my birthday at Disneyland with Raelene and Becky, played in the North County Community Band, went to California Adventure with Amanda, visited Tad and his family for a week, taught a group of Kindergarteners during VBS, and moved into my condo.

my super fun birthday/graduation party

Birthday, Disneyland style :)

California Adventure with Amanda <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbckf4htpkWtYPJtRx4lvS0ObUDowyLnf0kNAlLOR0WofvGFqUYSMBZKwhAkfjAE79pp8Tb7WafVUICG7cFhtmRGQzlEW6SQkx-pi31MgA5nTWMpEVWRC3rNxfgmCoNlr4uJDhN_DJr8Q/s1600-h/summer2.jpg">SonRock Kids' Camp VBS

Always delighted to see my love

Wicked at the San Diego Civic Center with the roomies and Raelene (and the fam)

Grad School

My first semester was killer, but I managed to find time to still have fun with friends.

An afternoon at Bates' Nut Farm

I helped Raelene put on her parents' surprise 50th birthday party

On a Biola visit weekend :)

December Nights in Balboa Park

a few of the ladies from my program, at my house for a Christmas party

Holidays with Tad

I spent Thanksgiving with Tad and his family. I was in Washington for half the week, and ont he Oregon coast for the other half. It was great getting to spend time with him, and get to know his family better. We were also blessed to get to spend New Years together, as Tad is now a San Diego resident :D

Hanging out in a Krispy Kreme in Spokane

Happy 2010!

Wrapping up a Decade

I'm never really "surprised" by the end of a year. A lot has happened in 2009. I am, however, surprised by the end of a decade. I still eel like it just recently turned 2000. I was 12 (and a half) at the turn of the century, thus I didn't have exquisitely clear memories of the entire 90's decade. So in a way, this is more first real closing of a decade.

Looking back, it's easy to see how much happens in ten years:

2001
Career day spent with a speech language pathologist
Graduated from middle school
Moved out of the house we'd lived in since I was 5
Started high school, and marching band, which ruled my life for 4 years
Moved into the house we live in now

2002
Mom started Mary Kay
Started playing percussion during marching season
Family trip to San Antonio

2003
First almost kinda sorta, not really boyfriend
Band trip to Australia
Began looking at colleges

2004
Spent 3 weeks in norcal at the STEP (Student Transition Education Program, I think) program at California School for the Blind
Family cruise to Alaska
Began applying to college

2005
Decided to go to Biola
Band trip to Hawaii
Graduated from high school
Started my college education at Biola
Met some of my best friends ever :)

2006
Interterm at Biola
Winds tour around OC?LA county
Family cruise to Mexico
Added my Spanish minor
Met Tad
Started dating Tad
Moved into Horton with Krista
Tad meets my family over Christmas

2007
Interterm at Biola
Met Tad's family over summer
Moved into Welch apartment with Krista and Becky
Started Clarinet Club with Becky
Family trip to Maui with Tad

2008
Biola Centennial
Winds tour to NorCal
Tad graduates from NNU
My 21st birthday
Valencia and I are paired and train for 4 weeks at Guide Dogs for the Blind
Becky, Valencia, and I move into Hart
Applied to grad school

2009
Interterm at Biola
I get accepted to SDSU for grad school
I graduate from Biola
First missions trip, to Romania with Heart 2 Heart International
22nd birthday at Disneyland
I move into my condo in Mission Valley
Grad school
Thanksgiving spent with the Tildens
Tad moves to San Diego!

I'm very excited for all that comes in the new decade :)

Celebrating Biola Style

This year, instead of heading down to San Diego from LA after finishing finals, I did the opposite. I was at home for a day, and then headed up to the Biola area for the weekend. And what a weekend it was.

I rode up to Orange County on Friday morning with Anja. We had fun talking in the car, espeically about how wonderful it was to not have school for a month. She dropped me off at Krista's house where I hung out with Krista's brother and sister while Krista got ready. Soon as she was ready we joined Becky at her place where the rest of us got ready to go to Biola graduation.

Dorothy (the graduate among us) picked Sizzler for dinner, which is conveniently between Becky's townhouse and Biola. I shared a combination plate of steak, shrimp, and ribs with Dorothy. Yum, I had forgotten how much I like Sizzler! We ate quicky since we were a bit short on time. Becky's and Dorhty's rommate Melissa and I went ahead early to the gym to save seats. It was wonderful (as it has been every time) to be back on campus. I became very excited when we walked past the Biola Christmas tree.

The gym was decorated festively with more Christmas trees. The ceremony was nice. I knew a few of the other graduates, mostly music people. Afterwards, we went with Dorothy and her family to the reception in the caf. The caf was also decorated with Christmas trees and such, and had delicious dessserts, eggnog, and cider. My dad made the point later that if you lived in the area you could make a point to go to that every year, lol.

After the reception we went down to Hart to pick up Becky's sister Jen, and happened upon a lot of Hart alumni. I got to chat with Beth for a while about grad school, and compare the programs at SDSU and Redlands. It's a bit of a relief to know that I'm not the only one who's thrilled with graduate coursework, haha

Saturday morning (after walking to Albertson's for milk) Becky made pancakes for her, me and Jen, which we ate with apple butter, very tasty. The rest of my Saturday was spent at Amy and Dave's wedding, which was beautiful.

I love weddings, love them, oh my goodness. Amy and Dave are friends I know, in a round about way, because of Valencia. Amy has a dog from GDB, and she was visiting Dave (who just graduated from Talbot) one week, and they came to a Symphonic Winds concert. My mom and Amy met in the bathroom with the two dogs. Amy and Dave are the couple that Tad and I went on a double date with to Hermosa Beach back in March (which happened to be the night before they got engaged).

Anywho

Their wedding was at the church Dave has been interning at. It's a small baptist church, with a tall steeple like a classic old church house, and very nice people. It was a beautiful ceremony, Amy sang a duet in Mandarin with her maid of honor, the wedding party read 2 Cor 13, they wrote their own vows, and at the end we all sang hymns together.

Immediately following the service was picture time, the favorite of which was the guide dog picture. Including Amy's dog Donna, there were five guides present. Donna was the star among the dogs, donning two different party dresses over the course of the afternoon and evening.

There was a reception in the church fellowship hall after the ceremony. Since they were also having a dinner reception, I assumed the church one would be just cake and punch. But they had a full array of food, including fruit and veggie platters, teriyaki chicken, california rolls, and several kinds of Chinese pastries. They had a slideshow of pictures of Amy and Dave and had a number of people say a message to Amy and Dave.

The dinner reception was at a restaurant across town called Happy Habor Seafood. Amy found a ride for me with one of her friends. We got a bit lost on the way, but found it a lot sooner than most of the guests.

The restaurant was a very nice, elegant, Chinese seafood place. Between receptions, Amy had changed from her traditional western wedding dress, into a traditional Chinese dress, red with beautiful gold embroidery. She and Dave looked great together with his matching red button down shirt. They're such a great couple!

Dinner was incredible, all nine courses of it! I tried several things I had never had before. Course one was jellyfish and a cold slice of beef. It was followed by delicious walnut shrimp. Then came the shark fin soup. Then there was shitaki mushrooms, bak choi, and abilone. Then there was the lobster, after which was the Peking duck. Next was the baked fish, and we finished off with a bowl of fried rice. Dessert was lotus paste cookies and red bean soup, both were amazingly delicious!

Amy and Dave came around to each table individually to toast and I got a chance to chat with them a bit. They sent me home with a vase of beautiful red and yellow roses from one o the tables. Presently, they are in Waikiki, lucky ducks :)

There were several things I decided from the day. 1. I want an afternoon wedding, 2. I want a slightly fancier reception locaiton than a church fellowship hall (though I want the ceremony in a church) and 3. White cake with straberries in it makes a delicious wedding cake layer.

Sunday I wrapped up my visit with church at Grace EV Free with Krista dnd Jen and then lunch at Panda Express.

Below are a few pictures from the weekend:


I am no longer in the most recent graduating class from Biola, weird


What a beautiful bride Amy is :)


the centerpiece at my table at their dinner reception


me with the happy couple, isn't Amy's dress gorgeous???

Preparing for Christmas

Celebrating Advent is so hard when the first 3 weeks are overshadowed by finals :/

As is evidenced by my life all semester, this year is especially difficult. I only have 4 days left in the semester, and yet so much to do. Add in that I am still slowly adjusting to my new again secular surroundings.

Nonetheless, I am almost finished with this darned semester, and have been doing my utmost to enjoy the season.

Last weekend I went with Raelene and her new boyfriend Nate to "December Nights" in Balboa Park. This is a San Diego tradition my family has never done. None of us are much for crowds, and as I discovered that night, all of San Diego (and their dog) goes to December Nights. It was fun though. We didn't actually end up getting there until 8:30 (we had been aiming for 7, and it ended at 10), but it didn't matter too much. I got a good chance to get to know Nate a bit and it was cold outside anyway.

The park was beautifully decorated with tons of lights strung everywhere and multiple Christmas trees. We had brotworst for dinner and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate while watching some of the jazz choir performance at the organ pavillion.

Raelene dropped me off at home, where I spent Saturday and Sunday helping my family put up the Christmas decorations.

Last week (since clinic was finished) I spent a large amount of time at home working on projects...and rinking eggnog *mmm*. I finished up some Christmas shopping yesterday morning, and enjoyed a Starbucks (courtesy of the starbucks card from my landlord).

4 more days:
EMonday: diagnostics exam
Tuesday: research methods presentation
Wednesday: Phonology project due 4 pm, language project due midnight
Thursday: Online Neurogenics exam

Then, Christmas break!!!!

Thanksgiving with the Tildens: The Oregon Part

(Continued from "The Washington Part"

Wednesday morning we piled into the Tildens' minivan and set out for the Oregon coast. I did quite a bit of sleeping on this drive, and some homework, but still had time to admire the scenery out the window. Generally long drives bore me, but this one was brand new to me , and fairly pretty. Essentially, we followed the Columbia River all the way along the Oregon/Washington border til we reached the coast. We stopped for lunch at Wendy's in "The Dalles" Oregon, very interesting name for a city. A couple hours later the Tildens stopped to show me Multnomah Falls. I love waterfalls, so that was a fun surprise for me. I bought huckleberry muffin and pancake mixes from the gift shop for Christmas gifts.



After Multnomah, the ride got to be a bit tedious. We hit a LOT of traffic going through Portland and some thereafter. The original plan had been to meet up with the rest of the Tildens for dinner, reaching Newport before dark. That changed to 6 pm, then 6:30, then 7:00, then 8:00. At 7:30 we stopped for dinner in Lincoln City at Mo's Chowder. That was a fun dinner. It was a very casual, homestyle seafood place decorated cute with lots of twinkle lights. We all shared a pot of clam chowder and Tad and I shared a shrimp melt, mmm!

We finally got to Newport at 9:00, about 10 hours after we left Richland...apparently it's only supposed to be a 6 hour drive...yeah, yay traffic. We got settled in our rooms and then went to say hi to the rest of the family. I got to meet one of Tad's cousins, who is extraorinarily quiet, and his aunt and uncle.

Thanksgiving was extremely rainy. I was somewhat disappointed the I couldn't see more of, well, anything, through all the rain. I called home and did homework in the morning. Tad's family eats out on holidays, so we headed out just before 1 for our reservation. I was extremely nervous about this, my family NEVER eats out on holidays, but it actually wasn't terribly different. We ate at "Fishtail Cafe". It was a small restaurant, decorated like a home living room with pictures and comfy chairs and a Christmas tree. The owner had been there since 6 am cooking turkeys.

It was a wonderful, home cooked meal, complete with almost everything I've grown up having at Thanksgiving. The only real difference was that we weren't the only group in the room and the people serving weren't eating with us.

Once full with out salad, turkey dinner, and pie, we mosied back to the hotel and had triptophan induced naptime. ... Several hours later ... we gathered in Tad's uncle's room for a light dinner of lobster bisk, rolls and cheese, and more pie. I got a chance to talk quite a bit with Courtney, Tad's cousin Peter's new wife. We hung out for a while and then returned to our own room.

While his parents worked on a puzzle they had brought with us, Tad and I went to spend some time in the hot tub. We had about 20 minutes and then the pool closed. Before coming back to the room Tad took me down to see the crabbing dock. Crabbing is a major thing to do while staying in Newport. Back at the room Tad taught me how to play Guitar Hero, and I think I'm now addicted, hehe

Friday was a very lazy day. I did some homework and played a game on the wii with Tad and Jeana. Lunch was with the group at the Chowder Bowl in town. I shared a seafood platter with Tad and tried fried clams and oysters, not bad!

After lunch Tad and I walked (with Valencia this time) back to the crabbing dock. I had asked if we could go during the daylight so I could see more. It seems like it'd be fun to crab, or even just watch people. There was a tiny little dungeness crab on the dock, so I actually got to see one up close.

The afternoon was spent hanging out, doing homework, and playing more guitar hero. We rejoined the group again for dinner at Lum Yen for Chinese. There was more puzzle action in our room, followed by Tad and me starting a game of Mario Party.

Saturday we had a casual lunch type meal in Tad's uncle David's room (sandwiches, chips...and chocolate fondu) and spent most of the rest of the day shopping. We drove back up to Lincoln City and spent a couple hours at the outlet mall. I got a couple more things for Christmas gifts and a new clinic shirt from Aeropostale. I also got a tshirt from the Christian bookstore that says "Faithbook: Jesus wants to put you into his book, do you accept? Revelations 3:3" There was another one I wanted to get, but was too big that said "Join me for happy hour, every Sunday morning" it had a verse from Ephesians about not getting drunk on wine but worshipping God joyfully.

Shopping trip complete, we met the rest of the gang at Tidal Raves restaurant in Depoe Bay. It was a very nice dinner. I got more clam chowder and coconut shrimp. Tad and i shared a slice of marionberry cheesecake for dessert. After dinner we all played a couple hours of Apples to Apples. Tad and I finished our game of Mario Party once everyone else had gone to bed, I won!

Sunday morning we got up early and started the drive back to Portland for me, and TriCities for the Tildens. We got lunch at Gustav's Pub and Grill in Tigard. We shared swiss cheese fondue and a platter that came with broworst, snitzel, chicken, spatzel, and saurkraut. After that the Tildens dropped me off at PDX and headed for home.

I had a great trip, it was nice getting to spend time with Tad and his friends, and getting to meet more of his family. I'm having an awful time of it now without him, we only have a month til he moves, but that feels much too long. Hopefully I can pull the next 3 weeks together to finish the semester strong.


Me and my love :)

Thanksgiving with the Tildens: The Washington Part

After a bit longer of a break than was expected (nearly 4 months) I am once again with my love. I finished classes on Thursday and arrived in Pasco around 6 pm Friday evening. Tad was waiting for me at the airport and as soon as we had my bag, we got dinner from Sonic. I wasn't quite as impressed with their food as I thought I would be, but their limeade is still amazing. We spent Friday evening hanging out watching hulu and such.

Saturday I spent about the entire day doing homework. His parents fixed steak and mashed potatoes for lunch and in the afternoon we headed over to Tad's frien Tony's place. There was a lan party going on there, so I fit in great with my computer. I think they were having a good deal more fun than I was though. We grabbed Subway for dinner and I watched some of their gaming. The most amusing part of the evening was after a couple of the guys had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol. I had been asleep ont he couch and then heard "hey Edgar! look, I drew you on my mousepad!!!" "Huh? What'd you do?" "No, really, look! See, it's the smiley face...and the curly hair like yours!!!!" "Oh yeah! dude, that's so cool!!!!" lol, is all I have to say.

Sunday was the day I experienced a plethora of kinds of weather. We woke up to crazy 50-60 mph winds that lasted all day and into the night. Somehow in the craziness we made it to church without blowing off the road. Tad and I had lunch with his family at Red Robin and then headed out for a day trip up to Spokane. We stopped in Cheney to pick up his friend Kim from high school who goes to EWU and Valencia got to see snow for the first time. She was very curious about the wet, cold white stuff that was all over the ground.

After being joined by Kim, we met up with Emily at one of the malls in Spokane. We wandered around for a bit, making fun of all the stores that already had Christmas stuff up before Thanksgiving, and then got dinner at the food court. The mall closed at 6 since it was a Sunday, so we followed Emily over to the Barnes & Noble she works at and hung out until their closing time (7). Emily stayed for a work meeting, so the 3 of us headed across the street to Krispee Kremes. Donuts are yummy, very yummy. Kim had class early Monday morning, so Tad and I dropped back off at her dorm and made the drive back to Richland.


hanging out in Barnes & Noble


Krispy Kreme!

Monday morning I helped out with stuff around the house and did some more homework. Tad and I made another Sonic run and then went to hang out at the mall. Tad explored his personal "happiest place on earth" (gamestop), we got free chocolate from the Sees "store" set up for Christmas, and wandered around Barnes & oble (apparently that was just the thing to do on this trip). We arrived home in time for nachos for dinner.

Once the dishes had been cleared, I helped Tad make his "Famous" chocolate mousse pie for Tuesday night's pie party.

Tuesday was another day for the finishing of homework and helping out around the house. The main event for the day was our pie party. Tad had invitd all of his friends who were in town over to have pie and hang out. It was fun, I got to see basically all of Tad's friends from home who I've met. We had the chocolate pies, a pecan pie, an apple pie, half a watermelon pie, Swedish pancakes, and a wide variety of drinks and played about a hundred rounds of Apples to Apples.

Funny realization I made that night, that may well be the last night I spend in Washington as Tad's girlfriend. Who knows the next time I'll be back up there. Anyway, the second half of my trip (the Oregon half) gets its own post.

Survival in a Foreign Place

The second blog I've written during grad school with the word "Survive" in the title, hmmm, do we see a trend here? haha

This was going to be just a blog about what I've been up to lately, but there was some profound thinking that went on in church today. Thus this shall be a mixed blog entry. Let's begin with the thinking and end ith the recap.

Today's message at the Flood was about growing to know God when we're in a foreign place. A foreign place can be just about anything, things that are painful and things that are happy. Physically being in a new place, entering a new stage in life, mourning, anything that puts you somewhere you haven't been (physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, etc) before.

Immediately my brain began listing all the different ways I'm in a foreign place. New stage of life? Check: it's called grad school. New location? Check: condo in a part of San Diego I didn't grow up in. New environment? Check: surrounded by non Christians post high school (much more different than I thought while still at Biola New place financially? Check: I'm broke and living month to month.

You get the picutre, I'm in an almost completely foreign place right now.

This got me to thinking, it's not wonder I've been feeling so completely out of my element. The speaker this morning (we had a guest speaker, it wasn't the pastor) likened these "foreign places" to the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years. We aren't happy about them. We want to get straight from point A to point B, but God specifically puts us in those times to learn and grow closer to him.

All of this was comforting in a way. I've been feeling pretty lousy about my faith the last couple months, running around like a chicken with its head cut off makes making time for God even more challenging than it already is, and I've felt like I was starting to drift. But that's not necessarily it...I'm just wandering in the wilderness right now. I'm ok with that though, I know it means I'm supposed to be learning and growing, and I know God won't let me stay here forever.

Going back to the thought on being surrounded by non Christians, I had a sad realization about that. I definitely feel like I don't quite fit in my grad program. Not in terms of academics, I fit just fine in terms of the actual content of the program, but socially I don't. I don't drink (at least not more than a margarita every once in a while), I don't live or sleep with my boyfriend, I don't swear, for me "going out with the girls" is going to Cheesecake Factory...to get cheesecake, and my idea of a party is making cookies, eating lots of chocolate, and watching a chick flick, and if we're talking a CRAZY party there are also boys and a rootbeer keg.

I'm not the only Christian in the class. Out of 38 of us, there are at least 4 or 5 others, but the majority is definitely non Christian. Anyway, I realized, I'm *never* going to fit in, not with the girls in my class, not with future coworkers. Being a Christian sets us apart, lights are clearly going to stand out in the darkness. It saddens me to not be able to fully bond with a lot of the people around me. Thank goodness though for being connected at church and being surrounded by fellow believers there!

This concludes the "thoughts" portion of this blog, now on to what I've actually been up to.

The week after Halloween was awful in terms of workload, which made my second trip up to Biola this semester very refreshing. I rode up with Anja and James again and got dropped off at Krista's house. Becky met us and we went out for sushi followed by the most amazing Italian ice I've ever had.

Becky had a concert to go to that evening at Long Beach, so Krista and I watched hulu at her place until it was time to meet up with Charlotte for Boba. I don't like boba proper, but I love the teas, especially Thai milk tea. Yum! Once finished with our drinks we went back to Hart to hang out. I got to see Tia and Raeleen, and I hung out with Charlotte until Becky picked me up.

Saturday I had lunch at Chick Fil A with Amanda, who tag teamed with Krista and Diana. After they had eaten, the 3 of us went and wandered around Bed Bath & Beyond, smelling candles and finding interesting things like dog snuggies and marshmallow launchers. We spent a couple hours at the Biola library (me working on homework, Krista job searching) until it was time to meet Becky for dinner.

Krista had picked out Taps Fishhouse and Brewery for her birthday dinner. It was a very nice restaraunt, with quite good food. We shared a glass of white wine between the 3 of us and the complimentary baked Alaska they brought out for Krista. After dinner we spend over for the Symphonic Winds "Japan" fall concert, which was wonderful, as expected. And after that it was to the Fellers' house to feast on amazing Japanese food and yummy desserts.

Sunday morning I went with Becky and Jen to Redeemer (which was wonderful, as usual) and met Krista for lunch at Daphnes. Becky and I went to a fun "Viv la France" free orchestra concert, and then it was back to San Diego I came.

Last week wasn't so bad in terms of work (helped by the fact that we had Wednesday off) and I've had a very relaxing weekend. Last night I got to go out to In N Out and the last home football game with Raelene, Anja, and James. I hadn't seen Raelene for several weeks, so we definitely needed to catch up!

And that's my life right now...4 more days and I'll be with Tad again, and have a week off school. Life is pretty good right now :)

Happy Halloween!

I am presently dressed as a fairy xD

I'm more excited about Halloween this year than I have been for a while because I get to spend it at home with my family. This has not been a possibility since high school. Halloween fell on weekdays my first 3 years at Biola, and I had a clarinet club party on Halloween last year.

But this year, it is a Saturday, and I am still in San Diego, so yay that!

Kind of funny though, most of the girls in my program are either going downtown, or to Monster Ball in Balboa Park, or parties, and I'm just excited to be home passing out candy. I seriously feel like my evening is more fun though. :)

This morning my mom and I went to a fundraising event for GDB at an assisted living home in PQ. Valencia went dressed up as a hippie, complete with tye dye tshirt, peace sign button, and headband, and Nigel went as a king. They served a very nice brunch complete with pie for dessert, and had a doggie costume contest. They gave Valencia a prize for being the only working guide there. It was a really fun event, and the residents loved seeing all the dogs.

Presently I am *supposed* to be working on homework before my grandparents come for our traditional chili and cornbread dinner.

And then, trick or treaters!

Hope everyone else is having a fun Halloween :)

Edit: After the trick or treaters

Tonight was a lot of fun. My grandparents came for dinner, which was yummy, and we had pumpkin pie to celebrate Steve's birthday (which was Tuesday). We finished dinner just in time for the trick or treaters to start. Favorite costume of the night was our adorable little neighbor Stephanie (not quite 1 and 1/2) whose mom made her a Mary Poppins costume, complete with crocheted scarf and carpet bag. Toddlers are absolutely precious!

I spent the time in between groups of kids working on my clinic case summary, which prompted my favorite quote of the night from a kid in a box with a helium balloon...I should've asked what he was..oh well

"Whoa! A fairy on a computer!"
"A fairy with homework...unfortunately"
"Cool, a fairy that goes to school"
"Happy Halloween"

Oh kids, gotta love 'em. Also gotta love daylight savings time :)

A Light in Sight

I was having a very mediocre week until Thursday afternoon when Tad got an email frm the guy at Point Loma.

A little review, Point Loma said no several weeks ago, and Tad has been trying to get some sort of information about what he can do to reapply. He sent an email Monday asking if he could perhaps take some undergrad prereqs and then reapply.

Answer from Point Loma man: If Tad takes a grad level religious studies course, and passes with at least a B, he can reapply for the MA program and will most likely be accepted. It can be any religious studies grad program, but here's the thing...the closest one to where Tad is liiving, is 2.5 hours away. Which means

He HAS to move.

And if he's moving anyway, it might as well be to San Diego, that way he can do a class in the program he'll be in, oh, and be with me, hehe

I am so incredibly excited. I've been on cloud nine for the last two days. I don't know if I've felt this way since the first time Tad told me he loved me. Ok, maybe it's not *quite* as good as that feeling, but it's prety close.

We don't know exacts yet, but he's hoping to move somewhere between Christmas and New Years. I can't believe it, two months. After over 3 years, I can handle another couple months.

Thank you Lord.

In other news, I've been busy, but having fun when I can. Two weekends ago Raelene and I went to Bates Nut Farm and picked out pumpkins, which we carved last night. Last weekend I helped Raelene with a surprise 50th birthday party for her parents. And in just a bit I'm going to head up to watch the Mt Carmel tournament.

7 weeks left to the semester, I can make it!

Valencia's Thoughts on Grad School

Dear Diary,

I don't think I like this thing called "grad school". Mommy is so busy all the time! Several days a week we're at this new school for the whole day. Sometimes Mommy remembers my bone and I get a little time off, but most of the day I spend trying to nap under tables and desks in different rooms until Mommy takes me to a different room.

The days we're home, Mommy is busy working on her computer. Apparently she's doing homework, sometimes I'm not so sure. She takes breaks to play with me, but I still spend a lot of time sleeping.

It hasn't been so bad, except yesterday. Yesterday was not a fun day. First, Mommy made us run down the path by the river walk. We were going so fast I didn't even get a chance to sneak in some subtle sniffing! I waited all day for my favorite thing in the world - dinner time.

But, horror of horrors, when we finished Mommy's second session and went to the bathroom where she usually feeds me, all I got in my bowl was water. At first I thought Mommy had just forgotten, but no food appeared. I drank some of the water and then we left.

"Very funny Mommy" I thought, Mommy must be playing a joke, I'll get my food when we come back from McDonald's.

But I didn't. Mommy forgot my dinner and because she's so busy, didn't have time to go home and get it!

It was awful diary, I had to wait through 3 hours of class on an empty stomach. I couldn't even nap I was so hungry.

Finally at 8:00 (4 hours past my dinner time!) I got to eat.

I miss Mommy's old school. This new one is no fun!

Sniffs and licks,
Valencia

Pursued

"By Your Side"
Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

(Chorus 2x)

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

(Chorus 2x)

There's often a deeper layer to issues that only surfaces after you've removed the top layer. I realized last week I was holding onto this whole mess. I realized today that I'm angry at God about it.

Angry at the Almighty...not really a place I want to be.

But I'm tired of waiting and having my hopes crushed every time something doesn't work out the way I think ti will. I'm tired of hurting about this.

The bright side: God is completely leading me through this. I'm a step farther than I was a week ago. I've felt entirely lost, and I think I have been for the last few weeks. But God never ceases pursuing his lost sheep.

"I'll be by your side Wherever you fall...My hands are holding you"

Wrestling with God

The message at church yesterday morning was about Jacob wrestling with God, about how it took wrestling with God for Jacob to find what he was seeking and to be headed in the right direction.

Something I really like about The Flood's pastor is that all of his sermons come straight out of scripture AND are then related to things that would be going on in our lives.

Of course, I didn't even need examples to figure out what I've been wrestling with God about: my relationship with Tad.

After over three years, we are still long distance. This on its own kills me. Now add in all the failed attempts at having him move.

We both thought that when he graduated from NNU he would move down to southern California to be with me while I finished at Biola, and then we would go from there. Well, you know how the best laid plans of mice and men go...

He graduated, finished up a couple classes, and went home. When he visited me for my birthday, we found jobs in LA that he could apply for, and he sent in applications. Not only did none of those places ever call back, but in July he got into a massive fight with his family. He was forbidden to move and told to get a job in WA.

Ok, we thought, he'll work there til I'm done with Biola and then he'll have money to move and maybe his parents will be more open to moving. Over several months he applied to at least 20 different jobs.

Nothing

But, he did get his medical things worked out, and discovered a calling to youth ministry through volunteer coaching a middle school basketball team with his church.

That's when he began applying for the fall semester at Point Loma.

Great, I thought, his parents will be supportive of his pursuing more education to go into ministry, he'll be able to move by the end of the summer.

Again, best laid plans...

Things didn't work out like we hoped with Point Loma. They didn't accept him based on his GPA, which is lower due to all the medication changes he underwent in the last two years at NNU. And the deal with his parents was that he could move IF he got in. Remember that he still has no job.

He would like to move down in the next couple months anyway. Look for a job here in SoCal where the market is a bit better than it is in WA. But his parents still forbid it, and have threatened to report his car as stolen if he leaves.

All this is more than enough for me. But of course there's more. In the last month we've suddenly been averaging two fights a week, when before we only fought once every couple months. Tad has always asserted that fighting is healthy for a relationships; that it's better that we fight and resolve it easily than if we didn't fight at all. But that's a drastic change. It coincides with me starting my grad program, but I can't figure out why that would cause us to fight more.

So, back to the whole point of this entry.

I know I'm supposed to give this all to God. I know I need to.

But I don't know how.

Every time I try, I let go and grab back on again, or I think I'm letting go but have this thought in the back of my head "The second I let it go, Tad and I will be together."

Dear Lord, show me, because I just don't know how.

Valencia's Birthday

My baby dog turned 3 on Thursday, and I'd say she had a pretty good day.

She got her birthday present early on Wednesday from my mom, a stuffed bunny that has no stuffing. They're called "skinnies" or something like that. She loved it, I think mostly the fact that it has squeakers at both ends, haha

Thursday is one of the days I spend on campus from 8 am to 8 pm, but I think it was the most fun for her that I could have made it. She got lots of "happy birthday"s from the other girls, and I brought her bone with me to campus. I may start doing this regularly on long days. I feel bad because Tues/Thurs I'm inside basically all day except for when I take her out to go potty. Valencia doesn't need to be in harness that whole time. I've started letting her have a couple hours off while I'm frantically working on things in the student work rooms.

...Anyway...

Session Thursday was designed to be a birhtday party for her. On the first day of clinic I had my client read a story about planning a surprise party and mentioned that Vaelncia's birthday was coming soon. In the following sessions he asked if we were going to have a party, so we did.

Emily, my coclinician got some extra balloons from one of the other girls that we decorated our room with. We acquired even more decorations when my client and his mom arrived. They brought a whole bag of dog birthday supplies, including a happy birthday banner, pictures of dogs, dog books, and a ziplock of doggy treats.

Everything we did in session revolved around a story I had written about Valencia having a birthday party. At the end I had candy for us, and let my client give Valencia one of the dog treats. It was a really fun session.

Valencia's day was rounded off with receiving a milkbone from the resource room attendant Kim and playing with Brady at home.

I think the only thing that could have made it better for either of us would have been for Valencia and Tad to get to spend their birthday together.

My Dog is Indecisive Too

I am known for being indecisive. I change my mind about 100 times before setlling on choices in matters big and small. The questions "Where do you want to sit?" "When do you want to meet?" and "What should I wear today?" are all generally first answered with "I don't know."

Well, apparently Valencia is just as indecisive as I am.

I sometimes grab two of her toys and ask her "which one?" and she takes whichever one is most appealing at that time. I did this tonight with her kong and her bone. She grabbed the bone, then changed her mind and grabbed the kong, then changed her mind again and grabbed the bone.

At this point the decision process most have been too difficult, as she let go of the bone and stared at me as if to say "But Mommy, I want to play with BOTH of them!"

Hmm maybe throwing them will help.

I tossed them in different directions. Valencia ran to the kong, to the bone, and back to the kong before settling on the kong as her toy of choice. Of course, by this time the effort of making a decision had worn her out, and after a minute of playing with the kong, she dropped it and curled up on her bed.

Don't worry Valencia, I totally understand.

Statues are People Too

Statues are funny things sometimes. They represent people (in many cases, not always as you can have a statue of just about anything) yet they're so different from pictures or paintings. I think the funny thing to me about them is the general lack of realistic color. In fact, the only realistic thing about them is that they are 3D and sometimes life size.

Raelene and I ventured to the Hazard Center tonight for dessert at Applebee's. The Hazard Center is named for one of the original families in San Diego. The Hazards owned most of the land in Mission Valley (the part of SD where I am presently living). Anyway, on our last trip to the HC (for some fro yo) we noticed a statue of Mr. Hazard Sr, and decided that at some point, when one of us had a camera, we would need to take pictures with Mr. Hazard.

That night happened to be tonight, and I think we look quite lovely next to "Pappy" Hazard. lol There is at least one more statue in the center that we will need to pose with at some point and, while out to lunch with my mom last week, we found a Mark Twain statue in a different shopping center. I see a picture collection forming!

Patience vs Reality

At what point does "waiting patiently" turn into "being too stubborn or stupid to let go"?

There are some things in life that would just drag on endlessly if we didn't put an end to them...how do we know what those things are?

Where's the magic point at which the pain of letting something go is less than it would be if things were left to drag on?

Please tell me there's some sort of equation for this

Settling In

I'm in the middle of my second week of fall classes and starting to feel comfortable with my routine. Mondays and Wednesdays I'm home all day working on homework or tidying up until I head to campus for class from 5-8. Tuesdays and Thursdays (starting next week when clinic starts) I'm on campus all day (8:30-8). Fridays I'm on campus from 9-3, and the weekends are spent doing homework and hanging out with friends. It's actually rather manageable, so far.

Thanks to bootcamp, the building is already starting to feel like home, though I still miss the Biola clinic workroom. The condo is definitely home, I just need to do a better job of getting into this thing called "cleaning"...yeah, about that...

I still miss Biola, but I do love San Diego so much, it's good to be back, and there are always weekends. Speaking of which, I am spending my entire Thanksgiving break with the Tildens. Thanks to university furlough days, I don't have class at all that week, and I'm off the Friday before. I'm really excited to get to spend another week with Tad's family, and to get to meet his extended family. It will be interesting to experience a holiday with a different family, hopefully it won't be too traumatic :o)

I best start getting ready for class now. If I get ready soon enough I'll have time to get a pumpkin spice sweet cream at Starbucks beforehand!

Back to the Bubble

After two weeks of intense, public school classes, I needed some time away. Time away from the stress of school, and time away from the secular world I was sheltered from during the 4 years at Biola.

It has been so strange, I went to public school my whole life until Biola, but during those 4 years I re-sensitized to everything. The difference is, now I'm a lot more comfortable and sure about what I believe than when I left high school. Still, the adjusting is hard, being reminded over and over again on a daily basis that not everyone believes what I do.

All that to say, I needed a fun weekend with some Biola people. I rode up to Orange County Friday afternoon with Anja and her boyfriend James. They dropped me off at Krista's house where I met up with both Krista and Becky. Becky drove us to Biola, and we spent some time roaming the halls of the music building.

I had about 16 hours notice that I was actually going to be in the Biola area, so most people were very surprised to see me, which is always kind of a fun thing. I stopped 4 different conversations simply by walking past the bandroom :)

Justine joined our party, and we made a very important stop: Commons. Nothing more refreshing than a Common Grounds' raspberry, peach smoothie. Commons now carries cupcakes so Krista got one for us to share.

Becky had already had plans for Friday night, so after our snack, she departed and the rest of us went down to surprise more people in Hart. We dropped in on Krista's last roommate Raeleen and Raeleen's current roommate Tia, stopped by to say hi to Charlotte, and hung out for a while in Amanda's room.

After a while everyone left for a bro/sis floor event (oh HUOD/Heat events!). Since Krista and I no longer possess Biola mealplans (fancy that) the 3 of us (me, Justine, and Krista) had dinner at Panera (am I using enough parentheticals?). And, of course, what Biola Friday evening would be complete without Berry Cool. Especially cool, I had filled my stamp card during finals week, so I only paid 16 cents for my fabulously wonderful honeydew fro yo :)

Justine dropped me and Krista off at Becky's townhouse. Since it was a characteristically hot SoCal Labor Day weekend, Krista and I opted for a dip in the pool. Swimming pools are amazing for hot, sticky summer nights.

We took advantage of the dvd collection at Becky's place and watched The Wedding Planner. Becky got home pretty soon after and we unanimously decided it was time for bed.

Saturday morning Becky made grits for breakfast, yum! She had a rehearsal for most of the afternoon, so Krista and I were once more let loose on campus. We spent a bit of time just chilling in Tia's and Raeleen's room chatting while they "worked" on homework. We left them alone to their homework and talked with Amanda in the upper lobby for a while until we decided to get lunch at Eagles.

Amberly met us at Eagles and the four us talked while Krista and I ate lunch. Krista and I spent some time checking email in the library, and I got to spend time sitting outside the library thinking and just being. That's always been one of my favorite places on campus. I love the trees by the library, and on weekends it's so calm and quiet there. Great place to sit and pray.

Krista and I spent the last hour before Becky came back playing a house rules version of Outburst in the sub. We made a really yummy pasta and salad dinner at Becky's and followed it up at Starbucks with Christine. We took turns sharing about our summers and boys over pumpkin spice frappuccinos, which are amazing!

Becky and I dropped Krista off at her house and made it back to La Mirada in time to see Up at the dollar theater.

Sunday Becky and I went to church at Redeemer, picked Krista up from Grace, and got lunch at In N Out. The girls dropped me off in Placentia where I met up again with Anja and James to come back down to SD I spent Sunday night at home so I could get a bit more time with my fam and a chance to hang out with Raelene.

It was so good to get to see my Biola friends again, and to just be on campus. It doesn't feel any different to me, which is great. It means I can just forget about everything else I have going on and enjoy my favorite place in LA. I came back very refreshed, which is good, because this will be a heck of a semester.

Also, apparently my internet browser just hates me, I still can't upload pictures with it, which greatly displeases me, but there isn't much else I can do, so oh well. For pictures of my life, see facebook, they're all there anyway

Surviving Bootcamp

Today is the last day of SLP (Speech Language Pathology) Bootcamp for us first year MA students at SDSU.

Thank goodness

It has been a crazy two weeks. Last week we had class from 8:30-4:00, with a lunch break in the middle, every day. Bootcamp is designed to get all of the grad students up to speed and at the same starting point before regular classes and clinic start. We've had our diagnostic methods and clinical methods classes, and have been meeting with our clinic supervisors.

I am so thankful I have the background from Biola. I feel so much farther ahead than a lot of the other students. Most of the Diagnostic and Clinic methods classes have been review for me, plus I'm not spazzing about clinic like everyone else is. Biola's comm disorders program is amazing!

I'm super excited about clinic, scared about classes though. I'm registered for 19 units. I never took more than 17 a semester at Biola! AHHH!!! I'm also having a bit of a difficult time adjusting to being in a public school again. Hearing people talk frankly about "hooking up" isn't exactly what I'm used to anymore. *sigh* Welcome to the world Lindsey.

Anyway, I had a very nice relaxing weekend (despite the crazy heatwave we're having). Raelene and I had dinner at Ruby's Diner Friday night, window shopped at Express, and came back to do a bit of facebook stalking. Saturday I got to hang out with a couple of friends from a ministry I was in freshman year, and spent the rest of the weekend staying cool and hanging out with Anja and her boyfriend James.

We tried out The Rock on Sunday, and decided we're a lot more comfortable with the Flood, as opposed to a rock concert rather than a worship service.

Oh and Tad helped me fix my computer so I can upload pictures to the internet again, so I'll be adding pics to my last few entries if you want to check them out :)

One more class, and then a four day weekend, yay!

6-2 Trip to Rossiori

Tuesday was a very early morning for us. I believe we were on the road by 6:30. I spent a bit of the time sleeping, but was awake to see a couple storks' nests as we drove past and the city of Alexandria as we drove through. The big exciting thing on our drive was passing through a gypsy village. Oh my was that interesting. Everything was very extravagant looking, big ornate houses. Jenny told us though that those are all fronts, the real house are quite small and behind them.

Our home base for the day was at a local church in Rossiori. We set up and put on a concert and carnival just like at Peris, except that these kids were crazy. It was kind of scary doing the cake walk with them because they were doing so much running and shoving.

We recovered over some lunch and then had free time. I did a bit of shopping, tried authentic Romanian sausage (called "meech") and bought a scarf.

We put on one more concert for a second group of kids and another carnival. These kids were much less hyper than the first ones, thankfully. One little girl was very cute, when given her candy she exclaimed in Romanian "I've won something!"

After carnival we packed up, got sack dinners to go, and made the drive back to Pipera. We could tell on our way home that a storm was blowing in and just as our van got back to the team house, rain drops started falling. These were HUGE raindrops. I made a ran for the porch, and no sooner had I made it up the steps then it started pouring buckets. This was absolutely the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen.

Some of the others were not quite so lucky and were drenched by the time they made it inside. Gusting wind, pouring rain, and booming thunder...definitely a good night to be inside. There was pizza waiting for us for a little extra dinner, now that's a good pizza delivery service!

Tues night was when I hit my low of the trip. I was sitting on one of the couches pondering the week and the storm, and then it hit me. I thought of the babies at the baby hospital, lying in their little cribs, alone, in the dark, in the middle of this storm. Babies who don't have parents to rush in and comfort them if they're scared and crying.

It only occurs to me now, several months later, that this could be an analogy for unreached people: alone, in the dark, in the midst of storms, with no one to shed light into their world. How important missions are for all the lost and lonely people in this world!

After pizza consumption we had night light and hot seat. Hot seat quote, Ryan to Katie D. (who are dating) as he picks up paper and pen "Describe your perfect date..."

6-1 Children's Day

(ee gads I need to finish my Romania journaling)

June 1st is Children's Day in Romania. It was established during Communism, which didn't make sense to me at first, why a communist dictator would care about children. But, if you think about it, children are a very important resource, and are easily brain washed, so it's prudent for a dictator to try to win them over.

Anyway, Children's Day still exists as a national holiday. Many museums offer free admission for children and there are all sorts of parties and carnivals for the kids.

Due to the late night we had had Sunday in combination with thelong day we were about to have, breakfast was made optional so people could sleep in a bit. I, however, never skip breakfast if I can help it. I ate rather quickly and then went with a few others to the Mega Image grocery store. I bought some more chocolate for gifts and some other Romanian snacks I had become fond of.

Back at the house we had worship and devotional time led by Matt and Amy Beth. Then the day got interesting.

The original plan had been: eat lunch, then go do a concert and carnival at Peris. However, after lunch we were informed that the orphanage directors had taken all of the "good kids" to an event at a different orphanage being put on by the Chinese ambassador. Instead, we went to where most of the kids were (an orphanage called Voluntar) and put on a concert there.

Favorite moment #1 of the day was as I was putting together my clarinet. I felt a little tap on my arm and turned to see Marius with the biggest grin on his face. I successfully said hi in Romanian as he gave me a big hug and asked him "che fach?" (how's it going?) his smile widened as he exclaimed "bine!" (good!) and ran off to greet other Winds members.

The concert was one of the most disorganized ones I have ever done, but considering it had been planned an hour before we put it on, not bad. After being thanked by the Chinese ambassador and the orphanage director, we loaded the vans and went to Peris where we did the same concert, but for ALL the kids.

Then, chaos ensued, carnival time. It was amazing how much we had been able to pull together. We had popcorn, face painting, hair wraps, magic show, limbo, ring toss, balloon animals, crafts, games, the fishing game, and a cake walk. Katie D. and I ran the cake walk. I took care of controlling the music and she did the number picking and candy giving.

After a few rounds we figured out we could just pick the number by looking at which kids had not had candy yet. I think only a few of them figured out we were rigging it, lol

Favorite moment #2 for the day was when Katie picked the number for an older boy and as she leaned down to get candy, he grabbed the little girl behind him and pushed her into his spot so she would get the candy instead.

We began the clean up when the kids were summoned for dinner and returned to Pipera for our own dinner. Night light was filled with excited chatter about our favorite kid moments of the day and instead of hot seat we had a special guest interview afterward.

Kostel is Jim's Romanian counterpart. He shared about his personal experience in the Revolution and about the effect of H2H's ministry in Romania. Kostel is extremely passionate about ministry and God, and also a very funny man. Favorite Kostel quote: talking about Jim always wanting to expand ministry "Jim like sin, bigger and bigger, but I like it." lol

Independence At Last

Independence is an interesting thing. One could spend quite a long time thinking about it philosophically, pondering the human desire and need for it.

That is not, however, why I am blogging right now.

Yesterday marked the end of 1 week living and getting settled into my condo. I can't tell you how amazing it is to be a 5 minute walk from the trolley line. A short walk, and I can get anywhere I could possibly need to (except my parents' house). The best part, I don't need anybody to come with me. No more scurrying to find rides every time I need to go somewhere besides Albertson's.

My roommate Ana won't have a car this year and my other roommate Anja is planning on mostly using the trolley this year, so the 3 of us have been doing quite a bit of exploring. I've made 3 trips to campus, a shopping trip to Fashion Valley, and an excursion to Old Town.

A benefit of still being in San Diego is I'm able to see all my SD friends a LOT more often. Raelene has been down a few times already to visit, explore Mission Valley, enjoy our pool/jacuzzi, and go to Wicked downtown with us and my fam. I also got to hang out with a couple of my good friends from the Braille Institute days who live within public transportation distance of my condo

The downside of the living independently thing is, I have no money to do anything now. Ah well, such is the life of a student right? :o)

Girls' Weekend

What happens when your dad and brother go out of town, your best friend is in town, and you have keys to an empty condo?

A really fun weekend with the girls!

When my dad and Steve decided they were going to go to my dad's family reunion in Chciago, my mom and I decided we should have a mini vacay down at the condo, and since neither of my roomies are moved in yet, I thought it would be a perfect time to invite Becky to come see it.

We kicked off our vacay with a stop at my new favorite frozen yogurt place L'Amour de Yogurt and then headed down to Mission Valley. I spent some time unpacking and settling in and we made a grocery trip to get some food for the weekend. Once the groceries were unpacked, we made the short drive (I love being central to all the fun things in SD!) to Old Town for dinner.

Friday night is the best time to be in Old Town if you're looking for fun! We had dinner at La Pinata, a family favorite for as long as I can remember and walked along the shops listening to live Mariachi music.



My mom dropped us off at the condo and went home for the night since Dave had come down for the weekend. Meanwhile, Becky and I took the opportunity to check out the pool and jacuzzi. Honestly I can't remember the last time I was in a swimming pool, but I remembered Friday night how much fun it is to go swimming on summer evenings. THe only downside was the water was extremely salty, kinda gross. Hopefully it's a bit better once the summer craziness dies down.

We topped off the night by watching Top Gun, one of my all time favorites that Becky hadn't seen yet.

Saturday my mom and Dave brought one last piece of furniture down and then joined us for lunch at Outback Steakhouse. Yum good eatin'! Becky and I spent the afternoon exploring IKEA, and determined next time we go, we should actually have something in mind to buy. Perhaps then we won't end up dizzy and headachey afterward, lol.

We both crashed for naps when we got back to the condo. Once we had both resurfaced we made up a Ready Made Asian salad (neither of us were extraordinarily hungry thanks to lunch at Outback, hee hee) and munched on that out on the patio. Raelene came down to join us after she got off work. I gave her the tour of the complex and the condo. We chatted and hung out for a bit before deciding to go walk around Fashion Valley.

Basically we just window shopped. By the time we got there a lot of stores were closed or just about to close. But it was fun to walk around and chat. After seeing Dippin Dots (which regrettably was already closed!) Becky and I were craving a cold treat. It took a bit of driving around, but finally we found our way back to the Ralph's center my mom had taken us to on Friday and we tried out Paradise Yogurt. Becky and I shared a "hurricane" which is kind of like a Blizzard from DQ. We got cheesecake yogurt with oreo, coffee, and chocolate syrup mixed in. It was tasty, but rather expensive.

Raelene dropped us off and headed home and we headed to bed. Sunday morning we packed up and met my mom at church. The afternoon was pretty chill, I think we all got a bit bored. Dave had rented a couple movies, so we watched The Man Who Knew Too Little which was really funny. Sunday evening was my last concert with the Poway Community Band. My grandparents and Kim, Jordie, and Maddison came down for it, which was great, I love having people come to concerts. :)

The post concert evening was spent watching TV and Becky headed for home this morning. It was a great weekend. I'm really excited to be spending more time down at my condo and for my roommates to move in. Until then, I have a bit more packing up to do here :o)

Son Rock Kids Camp

I just completed 6 days of Vacation Bible School at church. I promptly dubbed myself in "VBS recovery mode", but it was definitely a great week.

I led a group of 5 pre-kindergarten boys with the help of my VBS partner Jarin, who's going into 8th grade. Our theme this year was Son Rock Kids Camp: Where kids learn to build their lives on the Rock. It was most definitely crazy at times, and I was glad I didn't have more than 5 in my group.

The kids learned that they are: accepted, protected, forgiven, saved, and living for Jesus. I learned that I'm glad I'm not going to be a classroom teacher :)

The low for me for the week was seeing some of the attitudes of some of the high schoolers, who wree clearly only there to be with their friends.

My high for the week was on the last day when one of my kids, without help from me, said word perfectly one of the Bible verses, not just the simplified kinder ones we'd been teaching them, but the whole thing. :)

I think next year, if I'm feeling brave I might teach 1st and 2nd grade. If I'm not feeling brave, I might just go back to teaching music, but I'm glad I did kinder this year.

Washington Trip Part 2

Sunday morning Tad introduced me to his church's "postmodern" or "emergent" church service. He has disapproved of the service from the beginning, but wanted me to see it for myself. His disapprovals lie in the fact that there have been multiple occasions of denial of the complete authority of scripture by leadership. Definitely not ok.

As a whole I thought the general idea of the service was fine, but as an outreach. It was very seeker friendly and very informal. The problem is that the majority of the people who attend the service, are not new from the community. They're people who have been attending his church for some time, and just like the service better. A couple main things that bothered me about it were 1) prior to the offering the pastor described it as something we do if we feel led to. Hmm, I believe scripture says (in several places) to always offer a portion of what God gives us back to Him. Personally, if faith were about doing things I felt like, I wouldn't be living the Christian life.

Second thing was that there were young children running around for the entirety of the service. Besides being loud and disruptive, Tad told me that there was a program for them, going on at the same time. I can understand parents wanting their children to be used to going to "big church" as my family called it, but kids aren't going to get anything out of a service by running around screaming for an hour. They could have been up in Sunday School learning.

Hence I agree with Tad and his family on the matter. I also disapprove of the general movement being called "postmodern", but that's a whole different soap box for me.

We did go to the regular service afterward, which I was grateful for. After church we had lunch at a place called Chico's Tacos, which reminded me quite a bit of Rubio's here at home. I had a very delicious, very large California burrito.

Justine was able to drive down from Yakima that afternoon to hang out with us. I got to show her my Romania pictures and such and we spent several hours playing Mario Party. All I can say is, shake the can is a very interesting mini game. Tad's mom ordered in pizza for us, and then Justine had to drive home. I was so fortunate on this trip to get to see all the people I love in Washington.

Tad and I decided to take Valencia to a nearby park to play. She got to run around, sniff, and even go down the slide once. Once we tuckered her out, Tad and I sat on the swings and talked.

Monday we met Tad's dad at Jack in the Box for lunch and then went to Tad's doctor appointment. It was good for me to hear some of the stuff straight from Tad's doctor, gave me a bit more perspective. On our way home, Tad gave me my first Sonic experience. Supposedly we're finally getting one of those in SD in the near future, which I am now very excited about. Tad is a big fan of the limeaides, so I tried a cherry one and he got a mango one. He also insisted that I had to get a Route 44 one, which means it's 44 oz, oh goodness did that take me forever to finish. It was indeed quite tasty though. :)


I am very excited, as you can tell :D

Tad got a call to go fix a computer in the evening, so after he left, his mom and I went to go help a family friend pack to move. We had some good one on one bonding time, which was much appreciated at least on my part. Their friend Nita is amazing, such a sweet, giving lady. She has college age kids, which makes it even easier to get along with her and her husband, cuz they're like our parents right now, haha

Mrs. Tilden and I helped her by putting together some boxes and keeping her company as she sorted out her garage. We got a little tag team action going on when Tad came by and his mom headed home. Tad's been helping Nita with some picture stuff on the computer. We went inside to do a bit more of that, and then Nita did a spur of the moment photo shoot for the two of us, haha. That was really fun. Since I don't always get to see him, I cherish every picture we have of us, and I can never have enough (a bit to his dismay, lol) You can check out my favorites on facebook, but here are a couple of 'em.




Tuesday was leisurely around the house. I worked on things here and there while Tad worked on his computer jobs. Since we had been around the house all day, Tad suggested we do our just us date night that evening. I used the excuse to dress up a bit (cuz girls can't get enough of those, right?). My boyfriend is the sweetest guy ever! He was basically flat out broke the week I was there, but I had asked for a date night, so he took me out to Applebee's.

We shared an order of honey bbq wings and an order of spinach artichoke dip. Date nights are so great. Even spending all day at the house together is a different kind of quality time than spending time out together. After dinner we went for a walk in a park along the Columbia River. We went down to the water and I stuck my feet in and we watched people in their motorboats. It was fun, but still quite hot out, so we went to walk around the mall to cool down.


Tad takes beautiful pictures :)

I didn't have anywhere specific in mind to shop, so we stopped in Game Stop for Tad first. We walked through a souvenir/gift shop place and then shared an Auntie Anne's pretzel. I can't tell you how good itfelt to spend a couple hours just hanging out at the mall with my boyfriend. I almost felt like we had a "normal" relationship.

After the mall we stopped by Paul and Jessica's to pick up something Tad needed to fix the computer he'd been working on. I actually got to chat some with Jessica, which was really nice.

Wednesday we grabbed lunch from McDonald's and then did some errands. While his mom took Jeana to get her senior pictures taken, Tad and I went and got his oil changed and some other things on his car fixed. On our way home we stopped at Dairy Queen and shared an Orange Julius. Dinner with his family was at a Teriyaki place his family had taken me to the last time I was in town. From there we went once more to youth group, which was interesting thanks to some bad attitudes that night.

The remainder of the evening was spent once again at Paul and Jessica's. We watched the last disc of Tsubasa (that I had brought with me from home) and then played Tripoly. And when I say we played Tripoly, I mean we played until 3 am. We were having fun, and I was in no rush to go to bed considering I had to leave in the morning.

Thursday morning I got up at 8 and Tad helped me pack my stuff up. I hate packing, I'm awful at it and I don't enjoy it. I've told Tad that when we're married, he can do all the packing for us, lol. His mom made me a lunch and thne he dropped me off in Pasco. My flights went just fine, I happened to see one of the same airport workers in Salt Lake as I did the week before. She asked if I needed help and then said "Ma'am, weren't you here yesterday?" hahaha I was like "no, but I was last week!" hahahaha, good times.

I had such a great time with Tad and his family, and getting to see Emily and Justine and my aunt. This is definitely up there with my top favorite visits Tad and I have had. And maybe next time it won't just be a visit :)