Ten Highlights of 2010

I feel like I was just writing one of these posts for 2009. I certainly have years that are filled with fun things and changes. As fun as it is, I won't mind when grad school is done and things are a little more relaxed in my life. Here are some of my favorite things from the year. :)

Family Cruise in the Caribbean

At the very beginning of 2010 my entire family took a fantastic vacation to the Caribbean Islands of Puerto Rico, St Thomas, Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, and Aruba. We had a week onboard the Caribbean Princess. My favorite part of the trip was seeing the joy on Valencia's face on our catamaran ride in St Thomas.

First Valentine's Day Spent with my Love

This was very special to me. In the 3 and 1/2 years we had been dating, Valentine's day had never been a convenient time to be together. Now that Tad and I live int he same city, it's usually convenient to be together. Tad planned a very sweet surprise date for me. We made a cherry vanilla cake, and then re-created our first date by going to Boomers for mini golf and go carts. After which we got our favorite appetizers at Applebee's.

On the ferris wheel at Boomers

Spring Break with my Biola Girls

For a fun change, instead of visiting my Biola girls (Becky and Krista), they came to me. We spent a few fun days catching up and exploring San Diego. We watched Walk the Line, had Rubios with Tad, and spent a day in Seaport Village. I sure do love those ladies!

The hat shop in Seaport Village

Mother-Daughter Trip to SF

In April, I happened to get a four day weekend, which happened to coincide with the California Council of the Blind convention in Burlingame. We flew up and enjoyed a long weekend of relaxing, shopping, and seeing old friends. We ate out at an old favorite Chinses restaurant one night, had dinner with friends from church another, and got to see my friends Amy and Dave as well as Valencia's puppy raisers. Oh, and I went to some convention related things lol

In front of our hotel

Elizabeth & Matthew's Wedding

My friend Elizabeth got married on April 24 at the Grand Tradition in Fallbrook. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding. It was also another fun excuse to get to dress up and go to a party with Tad. We enjoyed spending time together, meeting some new friends, eating some delicious food, and celebrating Elizabeth and Matthew's marriage with them. :)

Birthday Weekend with Becky

Becky's and my birthdays are 2 days apart and we have found a way to celebrate them together every year since we met freshman year at Biola. This year was no exception. I did the train ride up to Fullerton and had lunch with Becky at The Olde Ship (a pub!). We had our birthday dinner at Red Robin, and Krista and I watched Becky perform in the orchestra pit for Biola Youth Theater's production of Cats!. It is good to have a birthday buddy! =)

4 Year Anniversary

This was only our 2nd anniversary actually spent together, the 1st being our one year. Like Valentine's Day, Tad planned a surprise date for me, which consisted of a delicious Round Table pizza and a movie night in with mocchi to snack on. By dating anniversary 5, we will be married!

Family Summer Vacation

Our week of family vacation kicked off with a trip to the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Bowl concert. We went with the Biola Alumni Association and enjoyed a spectacular Tchaikovsky concert complete with fireworks. Several days later, we embarked on our trip to Cambria. It was a relaxing week of tidepooling, shopping, farm exploring, Hearst Castle touring, and Olallaberry pie, yum!

On the farm in Cambria. This is the next picture I'm going to submit for the GDB calender.

Sharp Community Re-entry Internship

This fall I had my first off campus clinical experience. And I loved it. I became a part of the family at the day treatment program at Sharp Memorial. I learned a lot, met some very cool therapists and clients, and became very confused about what I actually want to do after graduation.

Me with my supervisor Joann

Engagement

Probably the happiest day of my life to date - on November 23, my sweetheart asked me to be his wife. I am thoroughly enjoying being able to call him my fiance and enjoying planning my wedding. This highlihgt to be continued in 2011 ;)

Thanksgiving Day at my parents'

Looking back, 2010 has been a wonderful year with progress made towards my Master's degree and plenty of time spent with my love. 2011 can only get better from here!

The Very Blustery Day

Growing up, I loved the storybook "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day". Pooh Bear and his friends experience a very rainy and windy day, followed by a very rainy and windy night. In the morning they all awake to a flooded Hundred Acre Wood.

I had flashbacks to the story this past week. Southern California got hammered by a tropical depression that started last Thursday night and continued until this past Wednesday night. Over the weekend the rain was pretty off and on, but Monday night it poured, and it poured, and it poured.

I spent Monday and Tuesday night at the condo so I could hang out more with Tad before we both went on separate family vacations. Wednesday morning I was going to take the trolley to campus and then take the bus to Tad's place. I set out as per usual down the riverwalk, noticing how much higher the river had gotten. Halfway down the walk, I realized that the noise I was hearing was not traffic (as I usually hear), but water...not a good sign.

All of a sudden, as I approached the end of the riverwalk, where I turn and cross the river, Valencia stopped. I assumed she was taking an unplanned pit stop and turned to tell her no. SPLOOSH! I stepped into ankle-deep water. I turned back, and realized that the entire street, sidewalk, and last 10 feet of the riverwalk were completely submersed. The sound of water I had heard was a mini water fall that had formed from the street down the slpe into the river. There was at least 5 feet of water across most of the street.

Good girl Valencia!

It is a very strange feeling, looking at a usually busy street turned into a river. I called Tad and informe dhim he would have to pick me up, as I had forgotten my canoe. I then spent about 10 minutes taking pictures and video. All I can say is, I'm very glad I don't NEED to be taking the trolley any time soon!

Music, Graduation, Narnia, and Friends

My visits to Biola fall in very similar patterns from year to year since I make the traint rip up there for the same occassions every year: to celebrate Becky's and my birthdays, Symphonic Winds concerts, and graduation.

My good friend Justine graduated on Friday, and thus, I made a weekend trip out of it.

I took the train up to Fullerton Thursday afternoon and was picked up by Krista. Becky was finishing finals at CSU Long Beach, so that left Krista and I to amuse ourselves. We grabbed lunch from Baja Fresh and then went in search of gifts for Becky's elementary school band kids. After looking at some ridiculous things at Dollar Tree, we decided on giant chocolate snowflakes. We counted out what we THOUGHT was 23 and checked out. The cashier didn't want to count them and just scanned one 23 times. When we got the snowflakes to Becky, we discovered there were actually 26, oops!

Before meeting up with Becky, we stopped by Starbucks in La Mirada and ran into our former professor Yvana who happens to be expecting again. She told us that our other two profs from the major were on campus grading papers, so after we got our drinks we headed to McNally. It was nice getting to chat with 2/3 of the profs. We couldn't find Tonya, as she had been out to coffee with another former student and never came back. From there, Krista and I had an hour to kill and just sat in her car in the parking lot.

The main focus of our evening was Becky's elemntary school band concert. She ahs some really cute kids, and the other performances were cute too, especially the Kindergarteners singing. After the concert we did a late night Wendy's run and then went back to Becky's to crash for the evening.

I didn't get to go to bed quite as soon as I would have hoped. One of Becky's roommates was having a long last night with her boyfriend before the break. They were making cookies, watching movies, and generally being loud until at least 2 am, and didn't take the hint that I needed to sleep on the couch. Becky fell asleep on the floor, and when it became obvious there would be no moving her upstairs, I bid a curt goodnight to her roommate (at midnight) and went to sleep in Becky's bed.

Friday was a driving-all-over-the-place day. Becky and I picked up Jen from Hart and set out on some errands Becky needed to run. We grabed lunch from In N Out and were intending to see Narnia with Krista, but all 4 of us missed the showtime. Instead, we bought tickets for a showing after graduation and explored the big bookstore next to the theater. The cool thing is that I've seen all 3 of the Narnia movies, with Biola friends, in the Downtown Disney theater.

Becky and Jen went back to Hart to pack Jen's stuff up while I stayed at Becky's place to take a shower and get ready for graduation. Since Jen had some extra meals for the semester, she swiped me into the caf for dinner. It was fun reliving a Biola caf experience for the evening. She and I ate quick and ran over to just barely find seats in the gym for graduation. It was a very nice ceremony. I loved the speaker and the special music (a beautiful arrangement of "Be Thou My Vision" sung by Donte and accompanied by the orchestra).

We found Justine no problem afterwards for hugs and congratulations. Then Becky, Krista, Jen, and I grabbed some quick snacks from the reception in the caf and zipped off to our movie. We made it in perfect time, just at the end of the previews. I loved it. I'm sad to say I didn't succeed in finishing the book before watching the movie, but from what the others said, it seemed like it stuck pretty closely to the story. What I loved most (other than the music, hehe) was how much of the Christian messages were left in. It was refreshing after the disappointment of them being changed or taken out completely in Prince Caspian.

Saturday morningI awoke, got ready, and had Becky "drop me off" at the Albertson's center to meet Justine. Upon arriving at Alberton's, Becky's car stalled, then would start and not go into gear. She didn't have her phone with her, so she called triple A on mine. They eventually came an hour and a hafl later, but we did enjoy hanging out and having breakfast at Starbucks with Justine. Once we knew Becky would be able to make it home safe, Justine and I set out for FullertonAmanda's house in Fullerton.

Amanda was busy baking Christmas gifts for her fellow Sunday School teachers, but we kept her company and caught up on life. She fed us lunch (in addition to broken sugar cookies) and then took me to the train station.

The rain made things complicated, but it was a weekend when I got to have quality time with 4 of my closest friends from Biola, which made it very special. :)

Wedding Planning

Tad and I have been engaged for almost a month now and have a tremendous amount of planning already done, all thanks to my mom. Right away she jumped in and started doing research for us. She, thus far, has kept a perfect balance of being involved and providing suggestions, but also letting us make the decisions. She's made me a wedding planning binder, collected a couple bridal books, and is making me a scrapbook of our engagement and wedding planning time.

Here's all that we've accomplished in the last 4 weeks :)

We're getting married on July 23, 2011 at PLC (my home church) with a reception to follow at the Courtyard by Marriott in Rancho Bernardo. Since PLC doesn't have any outdoor place to take pictures, we're using the duck pond right by the Marriott. I have asked Raelene to be my maid of honor and Becky and Krista to be my bridesmaids. Tad has asked his best friend JC to be best man (ironically JC is getting married two months after us, and Tad will be in his wedding party), his roommate Nate to be a groomsman and will ask my brother Stephen to be a groomsman.

I have my dress. I'm absolutely in love with it!!! My mom and I found it on our first day shopping. We went first to the shop where she bought hers, a place in La Mesa called Amour. I tried on several dresses there and really liked one of them. We were all set to buy that one after looking at another couple shops. We looked at a secondhand place which had beautiful dresses that weren't any cheaper than the brand new ones. On a whim, we decided to go to one more store before deciding on the dress I loved.

There's a place called Here Comes the Bride across the freeway from my condo. We wandered in, without an appointment, and were helped by this delightful lady named Jeanie. She was so helpful and sweet. I tried on 5 dresses there, and knew right away when I tried my dress on. It is modern, sophisticated, and very me, and that's all I will say before the wedding :D

We've also ordered our cake topper, booked our DJ and photographer and are looking at florists. We've picked purple, yellow, and silver for our colors.

As I said, we've got quite a bit done for the amount of time we've been engaged, and I'm loving every minute of planning! :)

Black Friday

(The end of the semester took over and delayed my blog posts, I started this and am now finally posting it a week before Christmas, lol)

My family avoids leaving the house at all costs on Black Friday. Tad, however, LOVES Black Friday. He asked me this year if I would like to join him and experience it first hand. I said "sure, why not."

I would have enjoyed the experience more had I not been sick, but all in all, it wasn't bad.

Tad spent Thanksgiing with my family and brought with him all of the Black Friday ads. After everyone had headed home, we spread them out and decided which deals we absolutely could not pass up. We narrowed it down to about 10 stores, which I thought was a little ambitious, but Tad thought we could manage it. We decided to head out around 2:30 am, so at 10:45 pm I crawled into bed to get as much sleep as I possibly could before our expedition.

It was strange, driving around at 3:00 am. We went from my parents's house to Tad's place to pick up some blankets and much needed caffeine. Our first stop was JC Penney's. We looked at the wedding bands they had on sale and inquired about how long ring sizing took. I tried on some shoes, and then, empty handed, we moved on.

Next was Target where we raided the electronics section for super cheap movies and video games. After Target came Macy's (to look at more wedding bands) and Bed Bath and Beyond (to pick up new sheets for Tad). We tried to go to Border's, but they weren't open yet, so we stopped by Aaron Bros for art supplies for my older brother and Sears to take advantage of the sale on fleece blankets. The final stop before we crashed was Walmart. There was nothing of interest to me on sale, so I opted to stay and nap in teh car. I was glad, I got a full hour in while Tad navigated the zoo inside.

We arrived back at my parents' around 8:30 am, in time to grab a quick nap and soome breakfast before meeting with the wedding coordinator at the Marriott. On our way home from that we stopped by Border's and got the new Taylor Swift album.

I was pretty sick, and very exhausted, so I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I could have. But I think I'll do it again next year. It was fun driving around together, and we did get some really good deals. Plus, we didn't get trampled by any mobs :)

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!

"Marry me Juliet. YOu never have to be alone. I love you, and that's all I really know. I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress. It's a love story, baby just say yes."

Oh boy did I say yes! Here's the story :)

Tad proposed on 11/23/2010, after almost 4 and ½ years together. We’re very excited to be planning our wedding for July 23, 2011. <3

*Her Side*
For me and Tad, the answer to the question “Have you talked about getting married?” has been “yes” for a while now. Early on though, we decided we didn’t want to get engaged until we had lived in the same city for at least a few months. So when Tad moved to San Diego last December, after almost 3 and ½ years of dating, I was pretty sure I’d be getting engaged sometime this year. I just didn’t know when.

I knew he was planning it by summer, as I overheard snippets of conversations between him and my mom and my friend Raelene. I looked for hints of a proposal any time we went out starting at my birthday (in June). Yet he still managed to completely take me by surprise.

The week of Thanksgiving I was working at my internship Monday-Wednesday. I saw Tad Monday evening and was not expecting to see him again until Thanksgiving. I had class Tuesday night after work and was coming back home right after my internship on Wednesday. That being said, here’s the story. =)

I woke up bright and early (6:25) on Tuesday morning and was immediately confused. I use a travel alarm clock and am extremely regimented in where I put it. When it goes off in the morning , I jump out of bed and turn it off as fast as I can so it doesn’t disturb anyone else. My alarm clock was in a different place than I usually put it. I discovered that it was in some sort of open plastic tub, which had other stuff in it, namely feathers. My only thought while digging to get to my alarm clock was “Why the heck did Anja (my roommate) put my alarm clock in a box of feathers after I went to bed?!?”. I got the clock switched off (really hoping I hadn’t woken Anja) and set out to figure out what this mystery box of feathers was.

Again not wanting to wake my (supposedly) sleeping roommate, I took the box into the bathroom and flipped on the light. I then saw that taped to each of the feathers were pictures. Some were of me as a kid (holding my little brother as a baby, blowing bubbles, dressed as an angel for Halloween when I was six), some from high school and college (me and Raelene before prom, one of my senior pictures, my favorite picture from Romania), and some of me and Tad (our first picture together, on vacation with my family in Hawaii, celebrating his new job in San Diego). There happened to be 23 altogether: an interesting coincidence since I’m 23, he proposed on the 23rd of November, and we will be married on the 23rd of July. Looking at through the pictures, it clicked (as I became more awake) what I was looking at. In Tsubasa Chronicles, the anime series that got me interested in anime (and still by far my favorite), a princess suddenly loses all of her memories, and her childhood friend takes great risks to travel across different dimensions to find them. These memories are found in the form of feathers. Tad had found all of my feathers. I knew that the pictures were what he had asked my mom and Raelene for.

I had a minute of thinking about how sweet this was, and then remembered that I wasn’t planning to see Tad at all that day, or the next. For the second time that morning I was very confused. I wondered if maybe I wasn’t supposed to have found the box yet. Though not wanting to wake him up before 7:00 a.m., I decided I should call him. I intended to say something to the extent of “I’m confused, and I think you know why.”

Yeah, the thought didn’t even cross my mind that he could possibly be in my apartment. I threw on a sweatshirt over my pj’s, grabbed my phone, and went into the living room (once more thinking of my “sleeping” roommate).

I closed my bedroom door behind me, looking at my phone to find Tad’s entry in my recent calls list. I hit send on my phone and looked up and was momentarily startled by a figure sitting on my couch. I hung up the call when I realized it was Tad. First question “Who let you in?”, COMPLETELY confused once more. And Anja replied from the corner “That would be me.” So much for being concerned about waking her! I found out later that Anja had been enlisted to plant the picture box, let Tad in, and take pictures.

I went and sat on the couch next to him. “You have no idea what’s going on right now do you?” he asked, grinning mischeviously. “I have some idea,” I replied. Um, no, by this time I (finally for that morning) knew EXACTLY what was going on!

He handed me his stuffed Mokona (a Tsubasa character) who had a feather taped to him. I noticed another glob of tape and peeled it off to find a ring. Tad took it from me, got down on one knee, and said some very sweet things (only a few of which do I remember because I was thinking “holy cow he’s proposing” over and over again) which concluded with “Lindsey Rose Hastings, will you be my wife?”, to which I very enthusiastically replied “YES!”

I didn’t cry. I just smiled and laughed, a lot. One of the funniest things to me, besides being caught completely off guard, was that for the last couple months I have carefully planned every outfit in case of proposal, and when it actually happened, I was in my pajamas!

Tad saved me an hour on the bus by driving me to my internship, where I dragged him inside to show him and the ring off.

It was a perfect way for him to propose, and I’m so blessed to have him as a fiancé and soon-to-be husband.

*His Side*
I guess my side of the story is a lot longer than hers. For me, I'd been planning to find a way to propose to her since April. It started by finding her ring shortly after Valentine's day this year, and watching the "extra inventory" get helped out the door with a discount. Not to try and be cheap, but I was on an extremely short budget, and was hoping to get something really nice while being frugal. It worked.

As for the how, I was first going to try and get her on April 1st, being the generally silly person that I am to lure her into a sense that I was being silly the entire day about how I didn't want her as my girlfriend anymore, and then propose towards the end of the day. But I had yet to ask her dad at that point, and was working very long shifts at work; finding the time to meet with them was near impossible.

Now, on to plan two. Along with three, four, five, and several others, I felt like any good ideas I had were never going to pan out in my favor. I went through phases of modifying songs (most notably "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, knowing how much she loves it, and knowing that it would make such a big deal to her if it was made into something she would always remember. Conveniently, Lindsey Rose fits in the same relative space as Juliet).

With the talking we'd been doing about planning our wedding, (after four years, it's a natural progression), we had decided on some dates and she had wanted to get it official for planning's sake soon (being Thanksgiving). Being that I was at this point "running out of time", and having finally gotten a solid time to ask her dad, I went on to plan some way to get a complete surprise.

About half-way through June, I figured out my method of proposing. While I didn't completely decide every detail at that point, I thought that I should start the preparations. I started hunting down some pictures from her mother as well as best friend in order to get a broad spectrum of memories that she would have from throughout her entire life, not just ones since I was involved. After I had my pictures, I got them printed off, and then had some feathers ready to tape them onto. Then I grabbed my Mokona doll, taped the ring onto it, and that part was set.

The hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to ambush her in the interest of actually surprising her. I knew she knew, and I knew she was constantly expecting me to propose any time we were together. That meant only one thing to me, early morning, preferably before she'd even left for the day. It would be even better with her telling me, at one point, that she didn't want it to be "too late". I knew that this would probably catch her completely off guard, which the way any good proposal should be. I was originally going to surprise her at work with the ring, but had to alter my course when I found out that I would need to be at work in the morning instead of at night, as I had thought.

The most nervous part for me, out of all of the various things, was definitely asking her dad (although they were both there, so it was more parents than just her dad). While I had no concern if she would say yes, I know her parents had gotten to see a really bad side of me and my life way back in the beginning of our relationship, as I was struggling with a lot of life issues at that time.

As for the actual asking her, the worst part was waiting from alarm clock going off to her coming out. While it may have only been 15-20 minutes, it definitely felt like an hour or more. I was worried my surprise was ruined when her roommate's dog barked, knowing that I was there. After she finally came out, it was a huge relief, because I wouldn't have to care about the logistics anymore, and it would finally be over. I hadn't really written out a speech in my mind, or honestly really planned the speech part out at all. The only part that mattered was the actual question to me. The irony of it all was that I thought that I was going to be the one who cried, just because I know that I had certainly not deserved her for the time I had her, even if I knew she'd say yes. The only part that I can really say was scripted was the fact that I knew I was going to ask her with her full name, and that I would ask her to be my wife, over "marry me".

It might be nit-picky, but I thought it means more to be asked to be something of that level of importance to a person, instead of just an action. You get married on a day, you get a wife for the rest of your life. And I will indeed have a wife, Lindsey Rose Tilden, and she will be mine until the day God takes us home.

Taken by my mom on Thanksgiving

Biola Trip Fall 2010

Biola Visit Fall 2010
I was last at Biola in June when I celebrated mine and Becky's birthdays and went to the BYT Cats performance. It was high time to see my friends again!

Thanksto my schedule this semester, I was able to leave right away Friday morning. Tad dropped me off on his way to work at the Old Town trolley station. I caught the blue line to Santa Fe Depot where I purchased my ticket, and hopped on the train. The ride was uneventful. I sat across from an older couple who were on their way home from a cruise. I arrived in Santa Ana (the only station between SD and LA at which I had not been) and met Becky. We grabbed Krista at her place and got lunch at KFC. Quote of the day: Me "Becky, I thought you wore size 8 shoes." Kirsta "I wish I had 8 feet."

After lunch we went to a special shoe store for people with small feet to see if Krista could find some new dress sheos. Unfortunatley she didn't find any that worked. From there Krista went back to prepare for her birthday party, and Becky and I headed up to the Biola area. We had been planning on helping Krista get ready, but Becky's car needed to get taken in to the shop. She dropped me off at Biola and went to the auto repair place.

I arrived about 45 minutes before the Winds rehearsal ended, so first I got tickets for the Winds concert. I got cash from the ATM in teh SUB and decided to see if any of my Comm Dis profs were around. In McNally I ran into our secretary Marty, who was watching an ultimate frisbee game in which Dr. Corey was playing, and she informed me that Matt would have been around had he not had a family emergency that day.

I wrote a quick note tot he profs (which I left in the assignment drop box) and headed back across campus to the music building. I got back in time to hear a bit of the rehearsal and then surprise everybody. I hung out and chatted with people for a while and then Amanda suggested we get boba. She and I got to do some catching up about life and boyfriends, and Becky joined us once her car repairs were done.

Around 4:00 we bid farewell to Amanda, went back to Becky's place so she could change, picked up Jennifer from Hart, and picked up Justine from her house in Cypress. The 4 of us, though running late, managed to make it to Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney just in time to be seated. We were shortly by Raeleen, Emily, and Melissa. It was a fun dinner. Neither Krista nor I had ever been to Rainforest Cafe. Jennifer and I shared cocnut shrimp for dinner, and we all shared a bit of Krista's icecream sundae.

Becky, Melissa, and Raeleen had to leave to do other things from there, but the rest of us went back to Krista's house for games and goodies. Tia and Diana met us there. We played a game called "The Gam eof Things" which was really fun. There's a category like "Thing syou shouldn't do at the circus." Everyone write ssomething, and then you try to guess who said what. While playing we enjoyed mini caramel apples, frozen yogurt and nilla wafers sandwiches, jelly beans, and choclate. Yum!

We finished the game, and then it was time for cake! Funny story about the cake, the bakery had mispelled Krista's name, and gotten her age wrong. By the time we got back to her house it had been fixed though. It was delicious, Tollhouse chocolate chip with lots of purple frosting. Tia, Emily, and Diana said their goodbyes after cake, at which point the remaining 4 of us watched The Proposal. Overall a good movie, though some annoying assumptions about relationships.

Becky arrived close to the end of the movie to take Justine, Jen and me home. Becky and I got back to her place around 2:20 and crashed.

We were up bright and early Saturday (around 9:00) to go to the Vandoren Clarinet Festival at UCLA. Becky was performing in the afternoon with the LA Clarinet Choir. Another of the choir members had offered to drive both of us. At the festival we went to a couple seminars (one on the history of Buffet and Vandoren and one on being a studio clarinet player), did some shopping (I brought cigarette paper, which is for unsticking pads, and a piece by Ralph Vaughn Williams, a favorite composer of mine), and sat in on some performances. I really enjoyed getting to be nerdy and spend the day doing clarinety things with Becky.

Becky and I got back to her place with an hour before we needed to be at Biola for the Winds concert. We lounged around, eating rice krispee treats and discussing the menu for her graduate recital reception.

The Winds concert was great, as usual. The theme for the semester was "Traditional meets Contemporary". Each piece was matched with another, one old and one new, but with similar themes of motifs. Really cool idea. As per usual, we promptly drove over to the Fellers' for the after party. The food was the traditional Thanksgiving wraps and apple and pumpkin pie.

After two very full days and not enough sleep Friday night, Becky and I crashed at her place. The time change helped us get a little extra sleep, in addition to going to the 11:00 service at church. The funny thing, was we ended up 45 minutes late. Becky lost track of time while getting ready, so we headed out a little late anyway. Then I discovered I had forgotten my glasses (I had thought they were in my purse). We turned around for my glasses and went to get gas, since Becky's tank was on empty and we were late anyway. At the gas station Becky discovered she didn't have her wallet. Back to her place we went again. As we were returning for the wallet I realized I didn't have my phone. Upon acquiring both of these items, we went back to the gas station, and then to church.

Even funnier, after the service Krista found us, and told us she had only been there for 30 minutes. When she arrived at church, she thought she was on time, but was somehow an hour late. Still puzzling, we went to a pizza place called Gondola's for lunch and shared a BBQ chicken pizza and a canolie. The girls dorpped me off at the train station with just enough time to catch my train home.

An Update on My Internship

I am down to just 5 weeks left at Sharp, which seems crazy. I love it so much there, it makes me sad that I have to leave soon. I've recently been hinting that I would be interested in a job, so I'm keeping my figners crossed that there will be an opening for me.

Some highlights of the last few weeks:

We have now discharged several clients who started the program after I did, one of whom was pretty much my client. This is a happy fact, though the sad part is that in his final week, my client seemed to be slipping back into his habits as an aalcoholic. Last week was the losest I've yet been to working full time. My supervisor was out for the whole week, which left me and the per diem SLP. Boy that was a trip! I went in all 5 days, half days for Tues/Fri, and was busy busy busy. The plus side is, I'm really feeling confident in my abilities to treat on my own now. I know the staff really appreciated me filling in too. At the end of the week , I received WOW's (Sharp's employee rewards program) from 4 of the other therapists, all with very sweet and encouraging notes.

Also, most recent favorite client quote, comes from one of my clients (who is not very sociable) to the per diem SLP. His name happens to rhyme with another client's, and she frequently confuses them. During goal setting she called him by the other name and then said "I always get you two confused, I need a way of keeping you straight." To this my client replies "Well, I'm your favorite aren't I? It shoudl be easy!" *everyone in the room bursts out laughing

Oh yes, never a dull moment at CREP. :)

Halloween 2010

Though I didn't have any major plans, this year's Halloween was quite fun. The Sunday beforeHalloween, Tad and I volunteered at Mission Church at the Harvest carnival. He dressed up in his white mage costume from last year, I dressed as a pirate, and Valencia went as a ninja (to her delight, no extra items where required for her costume, lol) At the carnival we manned the train bounce house for kids under 4. EASIEST JOB EVER!!! We had under ten kids the entire hour we worked, and all we reallyhad to do was tell the parents to take the kids' shoes off. In exchange for our work, we were given free dinner. We also got to hang out with Tad's aunt, uncle and cousins for a bit, as well as one of the new guys in the college group.

Halloween weekend itself was crazy. Friday and Saturday I spent basically all day at the CCB convention at the Marriott in La Jolla. I got a lot of good information there, especially on public transit in SD that I either didn't know, or kinda of knew but wasn't sure. Tad was wonderful and drove me home Friday and dropped me off Saturday. Saturday evening we hung out at his place with Anja and James. We made Philadelphia rolls and Miso soup and played Mario Party. Sunday we had the opportunity witht eh college group to serve communion in church, which was a really neat experience. After church we had lunch at Chile's with the other college people and then headed up to PQ to spend time with the fam.

My cousins Jennifer and Matthew and their little boys Jason and Cory came up from Santee and my grandparents came. We had pumpkin carving, the traditional chile and cornbread dinner, and pumpkin pie. Tad and I went the nerdy route and carved a Mokona pumpkin. No one in my family knew what it was, but we were proud of ourselves nonetheless. Jennifer and Matthew brought their jack-o-lantern with them. They had tried to grow their own pumpkin and it had turned out green. So, what else do you do with a green pumpkin? Make it into Kermit the Frog! Dave carved a classic scary jack-o-lantern, and my dad went for a remake of "The Scream". Tad and I took the role of the main candy-passer-outers, until Kim, Jordan, and Maddie arrived. Then Jordan took over.

It was a really fun evening, but the best part was getting to spend it with Tad. Even on holidays that aren't really important, like Halloween, its fun to get to spend them with him :)

Salem

The day before we lost Simpkin, my family got a new arrival: a little black kitten named Salem. My mom's cousin Stephanie's cat had had kittens, and they couldn't quite find a home for this little fellow. My mom offered to try to find a home for it through the pet stores around us. So, when we had a family dinner with Stephanie's family, they brought the kitten along with them. We all fell in love right away, but especially Dave. He decided that we had to keep tthis littel kitten, because "no one could give this kitten as much love as we will."

The naming process took a little while. In his first week with us he had such names as Eddie (for either the Munsters character or Edgar Allen Poe), Felix, Merlin, Zorro, and Figero. Dave was the one who came up with Salem. I suspect it was inspired by the city in Massachusetts, though several people have asked if it was for the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Salem is quite the adventurer. He has no fear of any of the other animals, though at first he wasn't fond of Valencia. As for the other animals' opinoins, Buffy pretends to hate him, but is secretly happy for another feline playmate, Tilly loves it like a baby, though slightly wary of the claws, and Nigel isn't sure what to make of it at all. Nigel would like to boss him around like he tries with Buffy, but Salem is so strong willed to do what he likes that it doesn't seem to be working for Nigel. haha

In any case, he makes a perfect fit for our pack of animals. :)

Walking with Jesus

I have been going through a lot of spiritual transitions over the past year. Last year was very difficult for me and only through the summer did I start to feel "normal" again. Recently, God has been working in me through the college Sunday school group at Mission, and I now feel that I am in a place where I can put this working into words.

We wen tthrough a unit talking about the passages surrounding Jesus walking on water in Mark. The passage immeidately before walking on water is that of the feeding the 5000. The disciples are grumpy during this miracle because they thought they were going to have a rest. Jesus performs the miracle and there are 12 baskets of food left over. They then get in the boat and are supposed to go to Bethsaida. It is while they are on the lake that they see Jesus walking on water. They don't recognize him and are afraid. Jesus had meant to pass by them, but since they are afraid, he gets in the boat and they don't end up at Bethsaida. The next passage is feeding the 4000. This time there are 7 baskets left over. Again afterwards they get in the boat, and the disciples have a conversation about not having any bread. They reach Bethsaida, and Jesus performs the miracle of healing the blind man where at first he says he sees people but they look like trees.

Discussion with the group is where things really fall into place for application. The disciples missed the whole point of the feeding of the 5000. Jesus can provide everything a person needs in abundance. This is even demonstrated by the fact that there was a basket left over for each disciple. He wants them to understand that he, as God, provides for them. But they don't get this, which is why they are terrified when they see him on the water and don't make it to Bethsaida. Jesus does the feeding of the 4000 to try to tell them again. This time the 7 baskets symbolize completion and wholeness. It seems that the disciples still don't quite get it, because they complain about not having bread. There is more conversation int eh boat that we don't know about, but Jesus must decide that they are ready for Bethsaida, because that's where they end up. With the blind man, Jesus makes it a point that it isn't enough for him to see, but not see clearly. Jesus wants him to see everything in perfect detail as it is.

So, summary of application, God can and wants to be our provider. He provides abundantly for us both with physical and spiritual needs. When he teaches us something, he doesn't give up if we don't get it the first time. He works to show it to us in different ways so we understand and learn more about him. And even when we think we see something (like the blind man seeing people as trees), he keeps working to make it perfectly clear for us. There is always something new for us to discover about God.

Now personal application to my journey. The trips int he boat that the disciples and Jesus mke made me think about the Footprints poem. Graduating from Biola, Jesus and I were walking along the shoreline together. Then grad school and roommate issues hit, and I feel flat on my face. I spent quite a while lying face down in the sand. At first I cried out and began to reach for God, but the pain overwhelmed me, and very quickly i dropped my hand and resigned myself to lie there. I felt alone and abandoned and felt as if I were drifting from God. As soon as I realized this consciously, I reached out to God and he picked me up. Throughout the summer he carried me, and I clung to him. I was terrified of falling on my face again. At the same time, I felt ashamed that I wasn't walking, simply being carried. But the suppor tof others, and God's reassurance made me understand that it is ok to let yourslef be carried for a time.

Now, entering year 2 of grad school, and with a better elader of college group, I feel ready to walk on my own feet again. I am stillleaning heavily on God, but this is a good thing. He is more than able to support me and provide for me. And I realize now, tha tthough I was walking on my own, yet next to Jesus, when I graduate drom Biola, I believed that I had learned everything about him.

I see now that I am only seeing trees when I want to see people.

I pray that he continues to show me more and more of his character as I walk with him.

Rest in Peace

The day came, and my kitty baby has gone. I called my mom yesterday afternoon with a question, and caught her just as she was arriving home from the vet. He no longer could eat, and she said he seemed ready. I would have to agree. As a friend texted me in response to the news, he's probably chasing mic ein heaven right now.

Simpkin Arnold Hastings
July 20, 1994 - October 11, 2010

Loved house cat, companion, and friend. Simpkin was born to Maggie Alic Hastings, the first of seven kittens. His brother Beauregard "Beau" Mittens Washburn was adopted to the Hastings' grandparents and visited Simpkin regularly. At age one and a half, Simpkin's mother Magie developed severe allergy to flea bites, and left her suffering, peacefully in her sleep. His brother Beau met a tragic end at age 8 in dealings with a coyote.

Simpkin loved hunting, eating, sunbathing, and being scratched behind the ears.

He is survived by his family, the Hastings, his beloved feline companion Buffy, and three canine housemates. He will be greatly missed.

Buffy and Simpkin (Photo by Steve)

Tad's Birthday

Yet another special occasion this year that Tad and I got to spend together, was his birthday. The only other time we've been together on his birthday was when I visited him for the first time. It was our two month anniversary and we hadn't seen each other in nearly 4 months. That day was fun. We went to church, and then on our first official date. We did mini golfing with another couple. Ironically, that first birthday of his we were together, was the day Valencia was born. :)

Her 4th birthday started with her heartguard meat chewy (which she loves) and a frozen peanut butter kong (which she also loves). We got ready and went over to Tad's place where he surprised her with a new squeaky toy. It's a raccoon with six squeakers in it. While she was enjoying getting to know her new toy, I surprised Tad with 3 of the Glee soundtracks. We hung out for a while listening to the music and then set out for his birthday lunch.

Tad picked Fudrucker's for his birthday lunch. We each got a burger (I got bacon, bleu cheese, and mushrooms, yum!) and shared fries and a drink. It was funny, there was another service dog there when we got there. After lunch we ran a number of errands, including picking up a birthday package from the post office. We were both too stuffed from lunch to think about dinner for quite some time. We hung out and played Guitar Hero until hungry enough to eat something.

For dinner we just heated up some cheddar bratwurst and mashed potatoes, but the drinks were fun. The night before we had gone grocery shopping, and Tad picked up a bottle of grenadine and we made Shirley Temples.

Saturday, Tad bought his birthday present to himself: a recurve bow, arrows, and other archery gear. The store we got it from has a shooting range, and we got to do a bit of shooting. We're doing a badge with the Caravans kids on archery, and realized it'd be a fun hobby to have. Upon making our purchase, we promptly headed down to Sushi Diner to meet Raelene for the double (technically triple) birthday celebration.

Sunday, my mom had planned to bring a pie down when they brought Steve back to the dorm, and then decided that a full family dinner would be better. She made a roast, green beans, and potatoes, and we had pumpkin and peach pie for dessert. I think Tad really enjoyed having a family celebration for his day.

And I know I enjoyed getting to celebrate both our birthdays together within the same year, a first for us :)

Cleft Palate Clinic

Life got really busy with midterms, but I'm squeezing in some blog time.

The weekend before last I had the opportunity to go with my program to a two day cleft palate clinic in Mexicali. The clinic is put on by the Red Cross and is a full team approach type deal. There are surgeons, dentists, nurses, anesthesiologists, and us SLPs. People come from up to several hours away to have surgeries and receive free therapy. It's a pretty awesome program they have going.

My Friday started very, VERY early. I met up with the other SDSU people at 7:30 at the old clinic and from there we carpooled to the Calexico/Mexicali border. I rode with Christine and Jessie (a first year, who I found out is a Christian). It's always such a wonderful thing meeting other believers, I know I get just this sense of safety and peace. Jessie's really sweet, I've really enjoyed seeing her around the building over the last couple weeks.

We all arrived in Calexico at 10 am, and it was already in the 90's. Definitely NOT my favorite weather, but we made the most of it. I was fortunate to end up in one of the cars heading across the border, rather than having to walk. I rode with Dr. Allen, the retired SDSU faculty who leads the trips for us students. A lot of people had complained about her not being personable, but I liked her just fine. She reminds me of one of my grandmothers.

Anyway, we arrived at the Red Cross building and set up for a full day of diagnostics. The clients came in and were checked out by the surgeons. If they needed surgery, they were scheduled and sent to talk to the anesthesiologist. All of the clients, whether having surgery or not, who had any sort of craniofacial abnormality came to see us for a speech screening. Dr. Allen did all of the talking, but as she speaks very limited Spanish, she had us translate. That part was really cool for me, I got lots of practice speaking both to clients and their parents.

The other really cool part was seeing all the variety in cases: cleft palates in all states of repair, teeth growing in places they shouldn't, different syndromes I'd heard of but never seen, etc. In the afternoon we had the opportunity to watch surgeries. I went in to the operating room, but really wasn't able to see much, so I didn't stay long.

Throughout the day we were certainly well fed. There was a giant table of food that everyone had brought to share, mostly snack stuff. They also had a hot meal catered. Friday lunch was rice, tomales, and mole. Once all the surgeries for the day were done at about 10, we went with the whole group to a taco shop. I was super tired, but it was fun chatting, and enjoying some delicious tacos and a beer (which I actually liked, amazing).

We stayed the night in a hotel in town. The property is gated, and it reminded me quite a bit of the hotel my family stayed at in Puerto Rico in January. It was kind of a bummer to have to pay for a hotel room that we were only spending about 8 hours in. I shared with Christine and Janie. We basically showered and then went to bed. We had all brought our own food fro breakfast, and waited for everyone else by the pool and watching a little stray cat, hehe

Back at the clinic it was therapy day. I got to do some more translating, but not as much as Friday. I was also having an awful time staying awake, there were a few times I fell asleep standing up. Tired as I was, it was good to get to see how to work with kids with clefts and repaired clefts. We finished up with the therapy at 4:00, got across the border at 5:30, and made it back to San Diego around 7:30. It was a long couple of days, but definitely worhtwhile. :)

From the Ocean, to the City, to the Mountains

Compared to last year, thus far this semester has been super chill. I'm busy during the week, but with only having two classes, my weekends have been pretty free. This past weekend was chock full of activity, and really fun.

Friday started out with sailing with the young adults group at Braille Institute. I hadn't done anything with Braille since the summer after my senior year of high school, so it was kind of an interesting flashback experience. It was me, Lindsay, Daniel, Krishna, and Kelvin (who I also kinda know from church at Mission, lol). We went with a group off of Shelter Island. They paired us each up with an instructor and had us do the steering. It was a lot of fun. We had a beautiful day to be on the water - not too hot, not too windy.

After sailing, I had enough time at home to change and feed Valencia before heading with Raelene downtown for the Padres/Giatns game at Petco Park. We had seats in the row in front of Nate and his brother-in-law Ben. HOLY COW were these good seats, we were RIGHT behind the Giants' dug out. Yeah, about that, Raelene and the boys were rooting for the Giatns, boooooo. haha it wasn't so bad, considering there was no score until inning 7 when the Giants got a run. Raelene and I had fun chatting and chowing down on some awesome nachos.

Saturday evening I got to go to a place I'd never been before: Mt Laguna. Steve's department was holding an event out there for students, families, and faculties. We picked Tad up on our way out there and enjoyed seeing parts of San Diego that were very unfamiliar to all of us, lol. It's beautiful up on the mountain, pine trees and mountain air and a gorgeous sunset. They had a potluck dinner, and then gave a tour of the observatories that State owns up there. I was very excited to get to be up in the dome of one of them! Once the stars came out, we had a telescope set up to look at the moon and Venus.

Saturday also happened to be my dad's birthday. He was at a work "retreat" (aka conference) all day, so we celebrated on Sunday. We went out for dinner at Pei Wei's and had German Chocolate birthday cake. It was an awesome weekend spending time with family and getting to do some things in San Diego that I don't get to do every day :)

Escapades on Public Transit

I mentioned in my post about my internship that I'm taking quite a bit of public transit this semester for my internship. As such, I have begun collecting a number of interesting stories and experiences. I thought I'd share them here.

The first morning of my internship went smoothly. I had no trouble finding the right buses or bus stops, but I encountered some interesting people. My first surprise was when I got to the bus stop outside of my condo and discovered a homeless person sleeping on the bench. They were there the second morning as well, but I have not seen them since. I was also delightedly amused when, on the second bus, a high school kid boarded with the hugest afro I have ever seen in my life. He is a regular rider, and I get a little joy every time I see him, lol

A more frustrating day came the first Thursday of the semester. Thursday is the day I have both my internship *and* class. Thanks to the slowness of public transportation I have to leave my internship 45 minutes early to make it to class on time. I take the bus back to Fashion Valley and then catch the trolley from there. There are two bus lines that stop outside of Sharp, both of them go to Fashion Valley. One is a regular city bus, the other is a shorter bus/van thing. The 25 happened to come first, so I got on, and was greeted by another black lab. The other dog's handler was a lady in a wheelchair. Unfortunately for my schedule, she got off before fashion valley. It took quite a bit of extra time to get her AND her dog off the bus.

Even more time was lost when at the next stop a lady got on, who spoke basically no English, and refused to get off or pay, though her 3 bus passes were expired. 5 minutes of arguing later, she pulled out a current bus pass and we were on our way. I had definitely missed my trolley at that point, but did still manage to make it to class just in time.

Somewhat frustrating, and somewhat amusing to me, have been my attempts at meeting Tad at work. To do this, requires 3 bus routes. The first week I tried, I thought I could only take the 25 to transfer to the 41, and the 25 never came. After an hour and a half of waiting, Tad picked me up. I later discovered I could take either th 25 or the 120. So last week I tried again. I caught the 120, and told the driver I wanted to transfer to the 41. He told me which stop and said I needed to cross the street, which I had suspected. I got off, crossed the street, and caught the 41...in the wrong direction. Boo, so I stayed on the bus back to Fashion Valley, and looped around, but by that time Tad was off work. Thus for a second week in a row, I didn't mak it and he picked me up from UTC. However, next week I WILL make it!!! lol

Something fun about taking the same routes a the same times is I've met other people on their way to work. They're friendly now, and know Valencia by name :)

Spiritual Growth

I have been aware for some time that the past year has held very few posts on spiritual or emotional growth. Though I created this blog to be my everything blog (thoughts, rants, funny stories, life events, etc) the emotional processing has decreased immensely. This postbreaks that streak, which I hope is a good sign of things to come.

Over the summer I have felt myself beginning to re-stablizie emotionally and spiritually. My prayer life has regained some of it's energy and I find myself in scripture more than I usually have over the last year. But things still aren't the same as they were during my Biola life, and I still miss Biola terribly. I decided that something that might help would be to watch the Biola chapels as they are posted on youtube. This will both help my Biola-sickness, and help feed me spiritually.

The two parts thus far on John 1 have been incredible. I particularly found things sticking with me during Dr. Klink's message, and after Fred Sander's chapel began a read through of the Gospel of John. But I don't have any profound thoughts on truth to share yet, which reminds me of the beginning of my Biola career. I couldn't blog at all for several months being so completely overwhelmed with everything. Perhaps my overwhelmedness (overwhelmment? *shrug*) is a sign of new start for me. The beginnings of new growth that I've longed for for months.

Please pray for me in this time. I am still in a sometimes precarious living situation, intermittent states of fear of being torn down emotionally, and in a secular environment almost everywhere. I know God can grow me anywhere, I just happen to find it more difficult to allow myself to grow here than in the safety bubble of Biola.

Sharp Community Re-entry

I have just completed my first week at my first off campus placement. Never again will I have to do clinic in a university clinic. I have made my first steps into the real world of speech language pathology, and it is very exciting!

The CRP (Community Re-entry Program) works on functional goals for clients with brain injuries with the intent of returning them to school/work/driving/regular life. It is a team of speech pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and social work. As an intern, I am currently mostly observing and helping out with scattered therapy activities. By the end of the semester I will be doing full time therapy for the clients.

My schedule fits the perfect balance of busy, but not too crazy. I am in Mon Wed Thurs from 8:00-4:30. Of course, to manage this with public transportation, I catch my first of two buses at 7:00 am, and don't count on getting home until about 5:30 pm. I really like that my placement is actually at a hospital. It feels very professional, but since we are completely outpatient, I don't have to worry about the blood and guts stuff.

I'm really loving getting to know the clients. Each has their own amazing personality and sense of humor. There are currently about 10 in the program, and most of them will be discharged by the end of this month, but I look forward to getting to know the new ones who will be coming in as well.

The funny thing about being an intern, is your supervisor has the liberty to ask you to do little things that don't exactly relate to what you're studying to do. Though I imagine in some cases this could become aggravating, I kind of enjoy being asked to file things or run little errands. I guess it really makes me feel like I'm in the real world instead of the fish tank that university clinics tend to be.

In any case, I have immensely enjoyed my first week and can't wait to get more client contact hours in the weeks to come.

Moonstone Beach

Our family vacation week continued Monday bright and early. We left the house around 9:30 to head to a formerly favorite vacation spot: Cambria, CA. About 12 years ago, we went for 4 years in a row and stayed at Captain's Cove Inn on Moonstone Beach. We enjoyed tidepooling, exploring the little shops, visitng nearby farms, and touring Hearst Castle. When thinking of a family vacation destination for this year, we decided it was high time to go back.

The ride was long, but fairly tolerable with very little heavy raffic. We got lunch from McDonald's in LA and had hoped to stop at a family favorite restaurant called Hobee's in San Louis Obispo. Sadly, Hobee's was no longer there. Instead we got cookies from the Madonna Inn. The most amusing part of the drive was Tilly growling at a hobo on the side of the road. We arrived on Moonstone Beach just before dinnertime. My mom had wanted to bring Tilly with us, so instead of Captain's Cove we stayed at the Cambria Shores Inn. I think everyone staying there had at least one dog with them.

The owners were great. They gave us a goody basket for the dogs which included some treats, towels for them to sleep on, and an issue of "Fido" magazine. Each eveningthere were appetizers set out in the lobby (next to the bowl of dog treats), every afternoon there were fresh baked cookies, and every morning there was a breakfast basket with muffins, croissants, and fresh fruit.

We settled into our room, freshened up, and then went straight into town for dinner. Night #1 we decided on our favorite place in town, Linn's. Linn's is a family owned restaurant, but not just that. They have a farm just outside of town with a large shop of fresh made jams, syrups, etc. They also have several boutiques in town and a small cafe. For dinner I had the berry stuffed chicken which was incredible. For dessert we took home one of their famous Olallieberry pie. Olallieberry is a cross between loganberry and youngberry which are crosses of blackberries and raspberries. The pie is absolutely wonderful!

Tuesday morning we drove to Linn's farm to do a bit of shopping and watch the peacocks that roam around the farm. My mom and I had fun taking numerous different farm themed pictures, many including Valencia. Lunch was in town at "Easy as Pie", the cafe associated with Linn's. Mom and I shared an amazing chicken and berry salad.

We all crashed for naps back in our room and then set out for our first try at tidepooling of the trip. We found a number of hermit crabs and one starfish clung onto a dry rock. For dinner we decided on the Mexican place in town called Las Cambritas. It was very festive, and the food was pretty good. Back in our room we had another slice of Olallieberry pie and watched "The Bucket List".

Wednesday morning was our tour of Hearst Castle. Back when we were coming every year, we had done all of the main tours, leaving only the gardens and special night tours. None of the evening tours were available during this trip, so we did the first tour again. It was just as incredible the second time to see everything. That man did not think in small scale on ANYTHING! lol

My parents had leftovers from Las Cambritas for lunch, but Steve and I did not. While my mom purused the shops, Steve and I got lunch from Round Up Pizza and Grub. The food was good, and I love hanging with my brother, but I felt like the staff assumed we were on a date, which was quite awkward. Once we'd eaten, we joined my parents for shopping, and got icecream before heading back to the room. My dad and I took another stab at tidepooling and found more hermit crabs, anemones, and a submerged starfish.

Everybody was still rather full from eating a late lunch, so we ate a light dinner back at Easy as Pie. We took another olallieberry pie back with us and watched "The Blindside". What a great movie that is. I love things that are true stories and don't overdramaticize conflict.

Thursday morning we enjoyed our last breakfast basket and headed for home. We stopped for lunch in Santa Barbara and stopped again at a Wendy's not too far from Biola.

It definitely wasn't a high action trip or an exotic one, but it sure did the trick of relaxation!

Hollywood!

My family didn't make any particularly big plans for summer, partially because we had our cruise in January, and partially because of other expenses that came up, but my dad took the last week of August off from work. Thus Friday kicked off our family vacation time. The Biola Alumni Association planned an event to go to one of the Hollywood Bowl concerts, and since the Griffith Observatory is only a short distance from the Bowl, we planned a day trip out of it.

We ended up with a little extra excitement before our trip when my dad came home Thursday night to find water trickling out of the water softener in the garage. It became worse, to the point where we had to shut off the water to the house. This meant that we had to brush our teeth out of water bottles, and I didn't get my shower for the day. I greatly disliked the idea of doing a whole car trip, without having had a shower. Fortunately, the LA Fitness that my dad and Dave are members at agreed to let me shower there.

The Culligan man was able to fix the problem, and we left only about an hour later than originally planned. Our drive went pretty well until about 10 miles past Biola when we hit tons of traffic, and continued to hit traffic until we reached our destination, 2 hours later. We got lunch from a little golf course cafe and then drove up the hill to the observatory. The Griffith Observatory has beautiful views of the LA area. You can even see the Hollywood sign off in the distance. We browsed the exhibits for a couple hours, and then made the short drive over to the Bowl.

The Alumni Association provided a picnic dinner prior to the concert. We enjoyed chatting with alumni from different eras of Biola. Steve won a "I went to Biola" tshirt for answering that the eagle is our mascot. After dinner we looked through some of the Bowl shops, and then took our seats. The concert was incredible. It was an all Tchaikovsky performance, a coronation march for the czar, a violin concerto, Capriccio Italiano, the waltz from Swan Lake, and the 1812 Overture. The USC band joined in at the end of 1812 during the most amazing fireworks display I've ever seen.

The conductor for the evening was a guest conductor, but I liked him very much. He was British and had a wonderful sense of humor. Some favorite quotes from the evening:

"The trombones have exited. They don't play in this piece (referring to the violin concerto)...this is a piece of beauty and enchantment."

"You can't ignore trombones, though it's well worth the effort."

"The percussionist would follow the music, allegedly,..."

During intermission we were given the delightful treat of chocolate chip cookies from the Biola cafeteria. While eating these cookies, I discovered that the people sitting directly behind me were Beardo and Ali Rader. It was nice to get to see some people I knew, and who were close-ish to my age.

Following the concert was an adventure I didn't expect. The Bowl parking is done in ferry ashion, cars are just all packed in. This is great for saving space...but it means that the people who get to their cars first, can't necessarily leave first. My mom and I ended up walking back to our car in what felt like a stopped freeway. There were break lights everywhere and people trying to figure out how to get out as soon as possible. We made it safely to our car, and in turn safely home.

It was a great way to start our week of vacation, and a wonderful first Hollywood Bowl experience.

Tribute to a Childhood Friend

It's not easy being a kid. There's so much to learn, and i don't jus tmean book learning at school. You have to learn how to deal with your needs, your emotions, other people. In short, you need to learn how to live. Most kids manage to find ways to make the learning easier, one of which is through the support of friends.

Friends come in all shapes and sizes: neighbor kids, cousins, school classmates, imaginary, stuffed animals, canine, and feline. The particular friend in question falls under the last category.

My family's cat Simpkin (named for the cat in Beatrix Potter's Taylor of Gloucester) was a part of the highlight of the summer I turned 7. We had had various pets--fish, frogs, a parakeet, even a puppy for a week--but nothing furry due to my parents allergies. Circumstances changed this when a black,female cat started hanging around our cul de sac. Mom, having grown up with cats, felt sorry for her and began offering her pie tins of milk. It was while I was away at camp that my mom noticed the cat was pregnant.

Shortly after I returned home from camp, my mom announced that we were taking her in, and naming her Maggie. We had Maggie another 2 or 3 weeks before she delivered 7 healthy kittens. Simpkin was the first of the 7.

He was a spunky, mischievous kitten who lived up to his namesake. That was an incredible summer. I have many memories of cuddling with little kittens, playing string with them, and watching my 3 and 1/2 year old brother give them rides in his toy dump truck. As the kittens grew big, it came to time to let some of them go. Much as we loved all of them (tabbies Simpkin, Samuel, & Rocks, tuxedo cat Beau Mittens, black-like-his-mother Blacky, half tabby half calico Hannah, and calico Patches), there was no way we could keep 8 cats at our house. 5 of them went to pet shops, my grandparents kept Beau Mittens, and we kept Simpkin.

At least twice in elementary school, I got to bring Simpkin in for show and tell. In second grade,my mom happened to mention to the class that he liked to catch mice, and one of the girls in my class was so traumatized that my mom called her house to apologize and bought her a stuffed mouse.

Simpkin certainly was a talented hunter. At different times, he brought mice, lizards, birds and rabbits into our house, most of which were still alive. We knew from the beginning that he was a smart cat; he understood many words, and even learned to say "no" "mom" and "ouf" (for out). He found his way into much of Stephen's and my schoolwork. Stephen wrote a story about cats being the best pet "even though some kitties are naughty and pluck the rug" and I wrote a poem for an arts contest that got selected to be displayed at a district wide fair.

My family jokes that by the time Simpkin was 4, he had used half of his cat lives. At 1 1/2, he went missing for a few nights. My mom feared the worst, that he had been eaten by a coyote, but on the second morning we found him in his usual plac ein the garage with a broken leg. He must've been hit by a car and dragged himself home. Several years later we nearly lost him when he had urinary tract blockages. Since then he has fortunately been healthy.

It scared me when he got sick, I couldn't lose my friend. Any time I felt sad or lonely, I could find Simpkin and just sit and be. He didn't ask questions or judge, just loved me back. I know most people think of dogs as doing this. They do. I find the same comfort with Valencia. But not many people realize that the same companionship can be felt with a cat.

Simpkin turned 16 several weeks ago. According to the chart at our vet's office, that is about 90 and is labeled "geriatric". He certainly has aged greatly over the last year. Even more of his day is taken up with sleeping, and though when he's awake you can still see the same spunky cat inside, he moves much slower. At his last teeth cleaning, our vet told us that Simpkin's jaw is now too thin for him to be eating dry food, and since being put on the wet food, Simpkin has dropped from 21 lbs to 14.

This saddens me, but not as much as I would expect. I wondered about it for some time and then it came to me. As I've seen the spark and youth drain from him, I've slowly been saying goodbye. He barely resembles the cat he was 10 years ago, and as I've watched him grow more tired, more thin, more senile, I've said goodbye. I know it will still hurt when he finally passes, but it would hurt even more if I hadn't already started my goodbyes.

My mom reckons he's got enough spunk in him to last him a few more years. I don't know if he will, a part of me hopes he does, while another hopes he doesn't. All I know for sure is that all I can do now, is continue to love on him like I have for the last 3/4 of my life.

Buffy (top) and Simpkin (bottom) napping together

Free At Last

I finished up everything clinc-y on Monday, officially ending year 1 of grad school. WOOHOO!!!

Anja and I did some heavy cleaning of our share of the apartment, I packed up my stuff, and Tuesday morning I headed for home. First stop on summer vacation was pedicures for me and Mom. We were both adventurous and went for purple shades on our toes. I selected a blue-ish purple from the OPI Shrek collection called "Funky Dunky" while my mom went for a lighter purple...slightly crazy for both of us, lol.

Wednesday and Thursday were cousin-tastic. My second cousin Jennifer and her little boy Jason came over Wednesday for lunch and swimming. Then my cousin Kim and her girls Jordan and Madison met us at church for the VBS carnival. We watched the program, and then hit the carnival fun: pizza dinner, cotton candy, and carmel apples, oha nd some games and crafts for the kids. I really wish I had been able to do VBS at PLC this year, dumb clinic schedle. Oh well, hopefully next year.

We did jacuzzi when we got home, and the 3 of them spent the night. Kim had a convention in LA on Thurs, so mom and I watched the kids. We played, had lunch, watched Cats and Dogs with Tad when he came over, and then went swimming. The girls are adorable, but full of energy, so we were happy to relinquish them to their mom when she returned.

Yesterday I ran some errands with mom, which included our favorite sandwich at the Nordstrom's cafe. In the evening, my dad, Tad, and I went to the SD Biola send off event at College Ave Baptist. Ironically, we ran into a family from Mission there.

Throughout the week I've been working on finishing up my high school trips scrapbook and reading. I'm about half way through The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I'm really enjoying it, as I do most historical fiction set in the South. On the scrapbooking front, the highschool book is almost done, and I hope to get working on the cruises book, and eventually Biola.

All the while, I am NOT thinking about anything school related! =D

4 Years and Counting

Today marks4 years that Tad and I have been together, and i couldn't be more thrilled that this anniversary, we're finally living in the same city!

Unfortunately Tad is working today, so we celebrated last night. Over the last couple weeks I had been trying to talk about ideas for things to do to celebrate. After about a week of Tad not really seeming to want to talk about it, I asked and he informed me that we had plans, and they were a surprise. He sure loves surprising me!

We went for pizza at Round Table. The pizza we shared was called the Bacon Dome, and was really good. It had bacon, sausage (which I picked off of mine), ham, tomatoes, and green onions. Here it is



After dinner we went back to Tad's place and exchanged gifts. I got him a rice cooker, since he makes it so often. It will come in handy both for orange chicken nights as well as sushi nights. His gift for me was the movie Cats and Dogs, which we watched, while eating mocchi.

It was a fun simple night, but the best part was getting to spend some time together just for the purpose of enjoying each other's company. I'm hoping tonight that he gets off at regular time so we can hang out a little bit more :)

Kids, Clinic, and Weather oh My!

The summer is chugging along, slowly but not. I suppose it's slower since I still have coursework. I have two more weeks of clinic/diagnostics. Clinic has been going well, both of my clients will end up meeting/surpassing their goals, which is great. I'm always keeping busy during the week by helping with Summer Camp at church. Since I came in after the summer had started, I basically do odds and ends things (make sure the kids stay where they're supposed to be, help with assorted random games, keep order, etc).

This past week was extra fun for me though. Most of the kids were at camp, so there were only 7 kids, and very little structure. We let the kids play with water guns and sponges in the parking lot, fly kits, do sidewalk chalk, etc. Then once we got them dried off and changed out of their swim stuff, we gave them otter pops and watched an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos. I got ot actually interact more with the kids, especially the little girls. They were very inquisitive about Valencia, and shared with me all about their own pets.

The other fascet of church life I've gotten involved in at Mission is teaching Sunday School. Technically it was Tad who volunteered/was asked to teach, but he asked if I would help him. Last Sunday was the first week. We had 7 1st and 2nd graders to teach about God calling Samuel for the first time. The highlight of that was watching them (in re-enacting the story) trying to wake up "Eli" (Tad).

Amidst all this time with little ones, we have had some crazy summer weather! The first week and a half of July was oddly cold. It was like May Gray or June Gloom all over again. Lots of people were begging for the hot weather, I just wanted to see some sun. Well, be careful what you wish for! From last Wed on, it's been getting progressively hotter. Friday and Saturday it got up to 97 at my house, which is ridiculously hot for coastal San Diego.

Fortunately there are outlets available to escape the heat. Thursday Tad and I had planned to go to the beach, but thanks to a bad headache in the morning he wasn't feeling up to it. Instead, we headed the opposite direction into La Mesa to take advantage of the dog bed sale at World Market. They were $10 each, so I got one for at home and one for at Tad's. That World Market is right next to Grossmont Center, so we explored there for a bit. I assumed after that we'd come back to my place for lunch, but Tad went into surprise mode. He started driving even farther east. After a few wrong turns and some dodged questions from me, we arrived at Sonic in Santee.

That's the only Sonic in San Diego county, and we had talked about driving out there before, but always thought it was too far of a drive just for fast food. It certainly was quite a ways out there, but Tad felt bad that we hadn't gone to the beach like I wanted to. We were there a little early for Happy Hour, so we just waited and talked in the car for 20 minutes. Precisely at 2:00 we got a cherry limeade and a watermelon slush to share. We spent the rest of the afternoon flopped on the couch in my living room with the windows open and fans on to stay cool.

My mom picked me up Thursday after dinner to come home, and we've pretty much spent the entire weekend in the pool. Friday I did an afternoon swim AND a night swim. It certainly also helps that with the solar panels we can run the AC more. Plus the fact that this week will be a lot cooler, oh the ins and outs of summer weather.

Random unrelated side note, this is my 100th blog, woohoo!

Independence Day 2010

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I'd say it's tied with Easter and closely followed by Christmas. I am, always have been, and probably always will be insanely patriotic. Add on that it's in the middle of the summer, and fireworks are just amazing, and you have a winning holiday for me.

With exuberance, I finished my final for my dysphagia class 5 pm Wednesday. Tad picked me up and we were off for a night of "Summer Camp" at Mission. Tad insists that it's different from VBS, which it is in a few ways (it lasts the whole summer, one night a week, there isn't an overarching "theme", etc), but that's basically what it is. There are between 30 and 40 kids each week, and they're divided into 4 equal "teams" by colored bandanas. They get to play with water games in the parking lot for a bit, then head back for "camp challenge".

Camp Challenge is some sort of ridiculou game that has nothing to do with anything, it's just for fun. Wednesday night, the two selected kids had to eat through two cans of whipped cream to find the piece of bubble gum in the bottom. When they found it, they had to blow a bubble before the outher team. Quite silly. After Camp Challenge, the kids gather and are introduced to the night's message and memory verse. They split again into two groups and go to the rotations, where there is a lesson, and then a silly game. At the end of the night, they're divided by age group and gender into small group time.

Tad is the designated photographer, so as I was getting a feel for the program, I followed him around all night. I ended up getting to do some guide dog education with the younger boys. After explaining what Valencia does, I was asked by one little boy "Can you not see because of those 'context' in your eyes?" lol, kids are cute. I'm looking forward to helping for the rest of the summer.

Thursday I had a bit to do on campus in the morning. I met Tad at his place, we did a few quick errands, and then met Raelene for lunch at Sushi Diner. Yum! I sure love that restaurant. The 3 of us shared a California Roll, a Philadelphia Roll, a Tempura CA Roll, a Shrimp Lover's Roll, and a Caterpillar Roll. Once full of delicious sushi, Raelene drove me home and Tad headed to work.

Friday was my family's 4th of July celebration. My cousin Kim, her girls Jordan and Maddie, and my grandparents arrived in the afternoon. We enjoyed the nice weather for swimming. While in the pool Jordan, my mom, and I experienced the "Spa" and then Jordan took me on a cruise on the floating raft. My dad bbqed hotdogs for dinner, which we ate with our baked beans, watermelon and potatoe salad. After dinner, Jordan and I passed the time until the Westview fireworks by reading some of the Beatrix Potter books.

The fireworks were great, but not quite as fun as watching Jordan and Maddie enjoying them =)

Saturday my mom and I got to shop the presale items at Nordstrom. We picked out matching cardigan sweaters, and I got a new clinic jacket.

On the 4th itself we went to church in the morning, and then hung out at home. It was too cloudy and dreary out to swim. We had an early dinner and then went to see Toy Story 3, very cute!!! And now I've returned to the condo to prepare for the last few weeks of clinic.

Birthday Celebrations Part 2

In my family, birthday celebrations get spread out over about a month. For exmple, the week I was home after finals and went shopping at Kohl's with my mom, that was the official start to my birthday month. Likely some event or outing that happens in mid July, will also be counted for my birthday. It's kinda fun that way.

Anyway, since Tad works starting in the afternoons Thurs-Mon, he agreed to take me home Thurs afternoon. Before coming up to PQ though we cashed in some of my birthday coupons. We shared lunch at Joe's Crab Shack (they gave me a zebra print cowboy hat to wear, it was interesting) and shared an icecream from Baskin Robbin's.

Tad dropped me off and visited a little with my mom before heading off for work. About an hour later, my cousin Michelle and her sister Kim's little girls Jordan and Madison arrived. I helped the girls make melty bead designs, and then it was swim time. Swimming pools are so much more exciting with little kids in them. I watched Jordan do about half a dozen summersaults and then tossed diving rings for her. Kim and the girls' dad Doug arrived just in time for dinner.

I got up bright and early on Friday to go to the train station. My mom dropped me off a little earlier than I neede to be there, so I had plenty of time to sit and people watch. My ride was uneventful (as some train rides can be very eventful). I sat next to two older ladies who were both going to visit family in the San Bernadino area.

I arrived in Fullerton pretty much on schedule and Valencia spotted Becky immediately after deboarding the train. Lunch was a special treat, we went to The Olde Ship, a very cute English pub not far from the train station in Fullerton. I had heard of this place on multiple occasions while a student at Biola, but had never been. Becky had been one time, and thus thought it would be fun to go again. The large group of people at the bar watching the World Cup definitely added to the atmosphere, as did our sweetheart of an English lady waitress.

We took a bit of time deciding what to have, but eventually Becky settled on the Dungeness crab cakes and I decided on the chicken curry. The food was excellent, and we spent quite a bit of time chatting and catching up. Quote of the day "Is there a capital of the Yukon? Are there even cities in the Yukon?" "Maybe, if you count trading posts and railway crossraods as cities. The rest is well..." "Nothing and snow." "Exactly! I've seen Balto, I know what it's like up there!"

After lunch we went to Becky's (kind of) townhouse. Becky is going to be living there in the fall for her second year of grad school, but is saving money by living with family in Rancho Cucmonga for the summer. For these couple weekends while she was playing in the pit orchestra at Biola, her roommates agreed to let her stay over. (Rancho Cucamonga is a good hour from Biola). I dropped my stuff off in the townhouse living room, and then Becky suggested we go for a walk outside. It was certainly a gorgeous day for a walk. We walked around the landscaped areas of the townhouse complex (which I hadn't seen before), walked around the La Mirada Veteran's Park, and then walked around the block.

We spent about another hour upstairs in Becky's room talking and cooling off, and then watched a couple episodes of friends before dinner. For a second year in a row, we picked Red Robin for our birthday dinner. Krista, Dorothy, and Melissa (another roommate of Becky's and Dorothy's) joined us to celebrate. I had a coupon for a free burger, and since Becky and I had had a large, late lunch, we split a bbq burger as well as a mint brownie shake. yum! Red Robin is definitely one of my favorite restaurants. After having our free icecream Sundaes, Becky and Dorothy took off to get ready for call time.

I rode with Krista to campus and we sat and talked by the fountain until it was time for the show, Cats, put on by Biola Youth Theater. Cats is an interesting show, there is only a very loose plot line; most of the show is individual songs about different cats. I did not know this going in, and spent the first act waiting for the plot to start. The cast gave a great performance though, the singing was good, and the dancing was amazing. I do believe the dancing was my favorite part :)

Krista came back to Becky's to hang out for a bit after the show. Becky opened her birthday gift from me, and we did some more chatting =) Saturday morning both of us slept in. When we did get up, Becky made us oatmeal. I packed my stuff up after breakfast and went to lunch (i get hungry very shortly after breakfast, lol) at Wendy's with Dorothy and Krista. Krista drove me back to Fullerton where I just caught my train. Unfortunately, there was track work being done this weekend, so I had to get off the train in Irvine and take a bus back to San Diego. Quote of the day: Conductor "If you are going to San Diego, you need to get off the train in Irvine and board a motorcoach...motorcoach being amtrak's word for 'bus'" lol

The bus ride went fine, long because of traffic, but decent enough. My dad and Steve picked me up from the station, and the rest of my weekend was spent relaxing at home.

Birthday Weekend

Today is my 23rd birthday, and I've had a fun weekend celebrating it.

Thursday I went with the girls to Cheesecake Factory at Fashion Valley. We had to wait quite a while to be seated, but the service was fine after that. My roommates Ana and Anja came, as well as my co-clinician this semester Liz, whose birthday was on the 12th. Also attending were Angel, Erin, Carolyn, Dorothy, and Nicole. Most of the girsl got dinner, I however went straight for dessert. Anjaand I split a slice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake, and a slice of raspberry chocolate truffle cheesecake. Both are extremely delicious.

Friday morning, Raelene picked me up from the condo. We got bagels from Golden Bagel and went to enjoy our brunch at the beach. We didn't stay too long, but it was wonderful to see the ocean! I can't imagine living somewhere not on the coast. After Raelene dropped me off, I had to go to a dentist appointment, and then had a few hours free to do some homework. I got my haircut in the evening, and on our way home, my mom and I picked up burritos from Cotijas for dinner.

After dinner, my parents and I went up to my grandparents for a short visit. My great Aunt Dorothy is in town and staying with them, so we got a chance to catch up with her, and eat zucchini bread.

Saturday morning, Mom and I ran some errands, and picked up things to make my birthday gift for Becky. We worked on that at home after lunchtime. Tad somewhat surprised me with a visit (I knew he was coming, but he didn't tell me when). We played with Valencia int he backyard until he had to go to work. Fairly shortly after he left, we left to go meet the families from my mom's ladie's Bible study for dinner. They had selected Hodad's in Ocean Beach.

This was an interesting cultural experience. OB was the center of drug culture in the 70's, and is still a very hippie place. There were guys up and down the street with petitions to save the whales and such. Hodad's had an interesting surf shop atmosphere. It's decorated with license plates all over the walls. It was a bit dirty, and once the music changed from Van Halen and Journey to screaming heavy gutiar music, it wasn't so enjoyable. But the food wasn't bad. I took a nap when we got home, and then did a bit more homework.

Today we had church in the morning. I relaxed for a couple hours at home until Tad picked me up to go to lunch. My mom was sweet and gave me the lei that my dad had given her for their anniversary to wear. We went to Claim Jumper because I had a coupon for a free entree. We shared chicken fried steak, yum! For dessert, they brought me out a red velvet cupcake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles, and a candle, it was cute :D

Sadly, Tad had to work today, so he came in to say hi to my fam when he dropped me off, and then had o leave. My grandparents and Aunt Dorothy came as did my second cousins Jennifer and Matthew and their little boy Jason. My dad bbqed chicken and we had a lot of fresh yummy summer fruit. The birthday/father's day cake my mom made was my great grandmother's applesauce cake, which is a favorite of mine. We opened cards and presents, and then it was time to go back to the condo.

A very different birthday from last year, but enjoyable. I look forward to year 23 of my life :)