Birthday Weekend

I'm sure I have written this before; birthdays in my family are kind of a month long celebration.  This is largely due to the fact that my mom likes to use birthdays as an excuse for various fun activities.  If it's within your birth month, or within a week or two after your birthday, it gets counted as "for your birthday!".  I had my family party on Father's Day, celebrated with Raelene at Red Robin on Tuesday, had birthday cupcakes at homegroup on Wednesday, and then a crazy weekend!

Tad's cousin Julianna came down from Modesto for the weekend.  About a month ago she acquired tickets to Legoland, and Tad suggested that we go for my birthday.  She arrived Thursday evening while I was at Bible study.  Upon arriving home, they announced that we were going shopping to get Julianna a bathing suit so we could hit the waterpark at Legoland..  Somehow this took until about 11:00 pm

Friday we got a pretty early start for not all being morning people and dropped Valencia off for her "puppy play date" as we called it.  Legoland does not allow service dogs on any rides, so I asked my co-worker Andrea if she could watch V for the day.  Andrea happily agreed.  Valencia had a wonderful day palying with Andrea's mini poodle and corgie.

We had a fantastic day at the park.  The crowd was decent for a summer day, and the weather was perfect.  We did several walk through attractions (including "Adventurer's Club", which I remembered from when we were pass holders) and hit several of the rides.  We were able to secure an exit pass, which made things much easier.  We went on all 3 roller coasters, the Buzz Lightyear-type ride, and Fairy Tale Brook.  We also traversed all of miniland and I think just about every gift shop.

My favorite part of the day was the waterpark.  We hit two slides.  On one slide we had an extra passenger on our ride, a little boy whose mom asked if he could ride with us.  He was adorable.  We spent the rest of the time in the lazy river, made more interesting by Julianna and Tad trying to pelt each other with the giant lego bricks.  The day flew by, helped by the fact that the park closes at 6:00.  We picked Valencia up, dropped our wet clothes off at the house, and had dinner at Outback.  It was a delightfully enjoyable birthday.

We all slept in on Saturday and spent a leisurely day tidying up the house and preparing for game night.  Several people canceled, making a small, but fun evening.  Since there were only 9 of us, we were all able to play one game.  We played a lengthy Logos game, and then half a game of Zero.  Steve spent the night and went to church with us Sunday, after dropping Julianna off at the train station and grabbing a waffle taco for breakfast.

It was a long weekend, but a fun one.  I feel very loved and celebrated :)

Valentine's 2011

Our Valentine's Day plans this year were not quite as detailed as last year's surprise date, but we still had fun. This year, we spread our celebrations out over a couple weeks. Tad planned a surprise date for me again, but couldn't wait until the actual weekend to go out, so the weekend before our 4.5 year anniversary he took me to Black Angus. I teased that this was a mistake, as it s now my new favorite restaurant.

Valentine's weekend I took Tad on a surprise date. I took him out to Red Lobster, but I wanted it to be a surprise for as long as possible, so I wrote the directions as clues that I gave him along the way. This was my first time at Red Lobster, and I was quite pleasantly surprised. I got the cocnut shrimp, Tad got the salmon, and we shared a piece of key lime pie.

I, unfortunately, got sick with a cold on Sunday. I stayed home from caravans and my internship Monday and Tad took care of me. It was very sweet, just in a different way. On Valentine's Day (Monday) Tad made orange chicken for lunch and got a pizza for dinner. He surprised me with a chocolate pasta dessert and watching The Princess Diaries. Outside of being sick, it was a good weekend.

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 :)

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 :)

4 Day Weekend

As an addendum to my last post, maybe June isn't going to be so crazy after all, haha

I certainly am extremely busy Mon-Wed, but after I posted Thursday, I finished my session plans for this coming week, and then realized "...I have nothing that has to be done for school until Monday." And thus the relaxing weekend began.

Thursday itself wasn't great, Tad and I had been fighting in the morning, and that kinda set my mood for the whole day. I did get to have Starbucks with Raelene, and get some grocery shopping done. Friday I went on a cleaning spree, I did laundry and vacuumedmost of the condo. I had a phone interview with one of my off campus placements, which went fine.

Chores out of the way, I had some time to read (something I haven't had time for for a LONG while), went to the mall, and finished out my day with time in the hot tub. Saturday morning I spent with Tad, we patched things up and had lunch together before he was off to work. On his way, he dropped me off at Daniel's and I got to hang out with Lindsay and Daniel for the afternoon. We chatted, listened to a random German radio station, and got Ben & Jerry's.

This morning Tad and I went to church at Mission and out to lunch with the college group to Chili's. I think I will spend the end of my weekend doing some more reading, and watching anime on hulu.

Oh summer, how I love thee!

Recent Life Happenings

Life in grad school is always busy (as demonstrated by the fact that I started this blog over two weeks ago and am just now getting back to it), but I do find time here and there to have a little fun.

The weekend after Valentine's Day, Tad and I joined the Mission Nazarene college group to make the communion elements for the week. We hung out and had Pat & Oscars for dinner, and then set to work making grape juice and bread. Yes, that's right, we made grape juice. We squished up the grapes, added sugar, boiled them, and then strained out the skins. I certainly wouldn't drink a whole glass of it, but it wasn't bad. It was also nice getting to know some of the others a little bit better.

The following weekend I spent at home, partially to celebrate Dave's birthday, and partially to go to Elizabeth's bridal shower. It was a beautiful shower, at the Grand Del Mar hotel. I got to meet and chat with friends I hadn't met as well as some of her family and family to be. We had a wonderful lunch, played a couple fun shower games, and watched her open gifts. I can't wait for the wedding next month! :)

the beautiful bride-to-be

After the weekend, Tad moved from the room he'd been renting to his own apartment. It's a one bedroom in a gated community several blocks from SDSU. It isn't the area he'd wanted, but it's affordable rent, and I can walk there from my building. We've spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks gathering furnishings for the apartment. I've spent enought ime there that I'm starting to feel like I'm moving in, which makes it hard not to take over ont he decorating! haha

I went home again this past weekend, and did NO homework, whatsoever. It was glorious. I spent time in our now complete jacuzzi in the backyard, cooked with my mom, and went out to lunch with Raelene. I love my weekends at home with my family.

And now I'm home sick. On one hand it stinks being sick, on the other, I don't really enjoy Tues night's class, and being sick now will hopefully mean I'll break my streak of getting sick in April :o)

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

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)

After the Storm

One week ago I was completely and entirely miserable. Thank goodness that is not the case tonight. I've been fighting with myself all week. Trying to deal with things, but not having the time to sit in the pain of all of it. It didn't help matters that in closing off the wound before it healed, I started pushing Tad away. I don't know where I would have been this week without him being so supportive. He really is amazing, supporting, accepting, and loving, even when I'm a complete emotional wreck.

I was able to start sorting things out in group last night. It was pointed out to me several times that I have been holding all the pain inside, pretending it isn't there. Later, while on the phone with Tad, I suddenly came to realize something he already knew, but I hadn't seen. I've been really, REALLY angry with my mom about this. not just in the last week, since at least Thanksgiving. That's why every time it's come up,I've exploded. Tad recommended I talk to my mom about it. So, with quite a lot of effort on my part, I brought it up again today.

We had a really good conversation. Nobody freaked out or yelled or got upset. She listened to what I had to say, and said she'd be willing to reconsider things. The downside is it looks for sure like Tad and I will be long distance for one more year, but I'm willing to wait.

In other news, I played my last Symphonic Winds concert on Saturday (not counting graduate graduation, Pomp & Circumstance doesn't count). It was a great concert, possibly my favorite of the 4 years. Becky did my hair really cute, curled with a bow like Shirley Temple. My parents brought me Berry Cool beforehand, and gave me flowers after. It's a beautiful bouquet, all different colors of gerber daisies, mums, and bright orange lilies.

Sunday was the disability event for theo of suffering and disability. We went to Redlands (which is rather far) to a Sunday School class designed for individuals with intellectual disabilities. It was a lot of fun. I can't get enough of working with people with disabilities, which makes it a good thing I'm majoring in a related field :o). Soon after getting back on campus from that I went with a bunch of people from the Romania team to a Romanian church service. The service was for the most part in Romanian, but some of the youth translated for us, pretty cool. I'm so stoked for the trip.

I think that's about it, other than some pretty fun times in the caf Tues for cinco de mayo, they had a lie mariachi band =D. Thanks everybody for the prayers, I really appreciate it :)

March Midterms Bring April Colds

(lol, I started typing this Tues and never got around to finishing)

Every year, without fail, I get sick in April. Last year no surprise at all considering it was after tour. Putting 65 sleep deprived people together on one bus, for a week is asking for the plague to return. It's like I get almost through the school year, and then my body goes on strike.

This year's cold (which has been fairly mild, thankfully) is somewhat ironic as I started coming down with it a day or two after Tad came down with a cold. Normally you wouldn't be surprised if a couple got sick about the same time, unless they were 900 miles apart. Tad caught something from Jeana on Friday and I started getting a sore throat Saturday evening. Tad lost his voice Sunday, I almost lost mine Tuesday. Both of us have had fluctuating body temperatures. Somehow, from two states away, he got me sick.

The weekend was fun. On Friday our Heart 2 Heart contacts came and talked to us about all the schedule and practical things about the trip. I'm so excited. Here are a few points of interest:

-Good flight times: leaving at 3:30 pm Sunday, getting in to Bucharest around 4 pm Monday with a short layover in London, and then leaving 1 pm Thurs arriving in LA 7:30 pm Thurs with another short layover in London
-H2H owns an 8 bedroom 8 bathroom house where we'll be staying. They have internet, a computer, and a big backyard with a pool
-Woodwinds will be working with kids at a special needs orphanage north of Bucharest while the brass work with kids at an orphanage south of Bucharest
-Once we come back together we'll put on a carnival at each orphanage for Children's Day (June 1 in Romania)
-We'll get plenty of opportunities to hold babies in the baby hospitals
-There will be some sighting seeing/shopping time in Bucharest
-They encourage lots of picture taking, and will compile a cd out of everybody's pictures

Saturday my dad came up and we went out to dinner at BJ's and then to the Craig/Hitchens debate. I really enjoyed it. In my opinion Craig won, hands down. Hitchens had some good points, but he didn't really have any arguments as to why God doesn't exist. It was all just "Christians aren't any more moral than anybody else."

The week has gone by pretty quickly, since I've been so busy. I am very proud to say that yesterday I finished my capstone rough draft. YAY! haha It's 38 pages, which means I'll have a little more left to do on it, but I'm happy for now.

Now it's off to my last class before Easter break. I go home tomorrow morning, which gives me plenty of time tonight to do laundry, pack, and watch a movie. I certainly wouldn't mind finding a ride to a Maundy Thursday service either.

Grad School, Capstone, and Life

All I really need to say to explain everything in this post is senioritis. Oh man, I'm glad I never really got it in high school, because it is BAD. Right about Wednesday this week I started feeling completely and entirely apathetic about school. I had a Spanish paper due yesterday and my capstone pages due tonight (working on those while I type this) and I did no homework between Tuesday afternoon and yesterday afternoon. yeah...bad

I suppose grad schools are the biggest update right now. I got into Chapman, yay!!!! I did not get into San Francisco or San Jose. That leaves Fullerton and the final word from San Diego. I don't feel too bad about San Fran and San Jose; San Fran was my last choice, and San Jose said they had almost 300 applicants and were only able to accept 20. Once I receive my official letter from Chapman (they called to tell me I was accepted) I have two weeks to notify. If I don't get in to SD, and I haven't heard from Fullerton before the Chapman window closes, that's where I'll go. But I think Chapman is still after Fullerton because of cost.

In other news, capstone is chugging along, my current page count is 24, that leaves 16. Our rough draft is due sometime between next Wed and the Monday after Easter break. I would really like to have it done by Wed so I don't have to work on it over Easter, but we'll see.

Couple random fun things, well, I was home last weekend for my grandpa's birthday. I went Tuesday evening with Krista, Raeleen, Charlotte, Tia, and a few other girls to Cheesecake Factory just for fun. I got chocolate raspberry truffle, it was delicious. This morning we had another "No Make Up Wake Up" with our brother floor. The girls go to breakfast in their pjs (I didn't, I don't go outside in pajamas) and the guys are all dressed up and give us roses and serve us in the caf. It was a lot of fun.

And now it's back to finishing my chunk of capstone for the week...joyous

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last Friday and Saturday was our spring floor retreat. There were about 15 of us who went, which in my opinion is a good number for a "large" group. We went to Shanelle's house in Valencia, so I was quite happy to take Valencia somewhere that bears her name. Charlotte had made CDs for each car to listen to on the drive up, gotta love random 90s CCM and Disney songs, haha.

There was a surprising lack of Friday evening traffic on the 5, so we made it in pretty good time. Shanelle's house is really nice and her family was very welcoming to us. Upon arrival we took some time to relax with chips and salsa and a few teen magazines. I should mention that our theme was "sleepover" in case that might clarify a few things. We made personal pizzas for dinner. It's amazing to me the variety the caf has for pack out meals. Anyway, we enjoyed pizzas and just hanging out.

After dinner we played a couple rounds of Truth or Dare Jenga (always interesting, espeically with Biola people) and several rounds of Twister in our pajamas. There were definitely some fun photo moments in there. :)

Let's recap, random 90s music, chips and salsa, pizza, truth or dare, twister, teen magazines...what are missing? More junk food and a movie! We made some pretty amazing icecream sundaes and watched "Made of Honor" Interesting movie, good for a sleepover, enjoyable enough, but I don't know if I'd necessarily opt to watch it again. After the movie some people wanted to watch another one, but about half of us (who had the "sleep deprived college student" mode kick in) opted to go to bed. I was very glad I did the next morning when I heard they had watched Edward Scissorhands, I hate that movie, but that's for another discussion.

I definitely got way more sleep that night that I had in quite some time. In the morning we had our caf pack out breakfast and slowly got ourselves ready to head back to school. We stopped at a mall foodcourt for lunch and then trekked back to homework land.

Really fun relaxing weekend, I needed that. In the meantime, I'm feeling fairly alright with my wschoolwork load. I read about 200 pages this weekend, but enjoyed all of it. I highly recommend reading "When God Weeps" by Joni Earackson Tada, it's amazing, a little intense, but amazing. The news for the week is that I'm on the waitlist for acceptance into San Diego State. I'm #4 out of 28 on the list, so I'm really hoping and praying that means I'll get in.

Enjoy a few pictures from the weekend :)


Discovering that Twister is a little difficult with six college students at a time

Not Such a Small World After All

My excitement for Missions Conference this year was reinstate Sunday at church. Keith Philips from World Impact spoke, and his message had a surprising effect on me. World Impact is an organization that ministers to urban communities. It was started in LA and includes a number of programs ranging from Bible clubs for kids and a Christian school for children from single and zero parent homes to a seminary for individuals from the urban communities to learn to be pastors in their community.

I think inner city ministry is wonderful and necessary, as much as missions anywhere else in the world, but I have never felt a calling to it. Thus I was surprised with how excited I became when Dr. Philips began talking about the schools they had started: schools that are probably very much in need of a speech therapist. And then God began bringing to my mind the vast number of places in the world that are in dire need of speech therapists.

This is still something being mulled over in the back of my mind, but I am now very excited to see where God leads me from here. I'm curious to see how Romania will come into play in my life. I am becoming very aware that I may find myself there again after the two weeks this summer. No rushing things though, God will show me when and where he wants me to go.

In other news, I had a wonderful weekend. I was very diligent about homework and was thus able to enjoy the times spent not doing homework. I went bowling on Saturday with Best Buddies and finished with a 117. This, if you know my bowling skills, is incredible, my average is generally around 57. Granted, it was with bumpers, but that's a small detail :)

After bowling I went out to dinner with my family and Christine's parents and several other friends of their's and afterward went to see Marriage of Figaro. It was quite enjoyable. I do think though, that Carmen is my favorite of the operas I have seen at Biola.

Classes are still going well, and I am still enjoying all of them. I had my first session today with my new client, and I adore him. I think this will be a really fun semester for me. I hope he enjoys it too. I am nearer to narrowing down exactly what my Capstone topic is. Right now it is practical measures for parents, teachers, and SLPs to encourage and promote emergent literacy skills in children. I want to run it by Matt to see what he thinks, but that's most likely going to be it. That being said, that's it for now :)

Weekend in Nevada

My parents, Stephen, and I just got back this afternoon from spending a long weekend with my dad's family in Nevada. My dad grew up in Boulder City, Nevada, about 45 minutes outside Las Vegas, and my grandma still lives there. My two aunts and cousin had all arrived earlier in the week and were there for Christmas.

We piled into my dad's Camri Friday morning, dropped Nigel off at the petsitter's, and set out on the 5.5-6.5 hour drive. There was snow in the mountain pass, but sdaly none left at my grandma's house. I was hoping it would snow enough on Christmas for some to stick so we could see it. No such luck, oh well.

Friday was my mom's birthday (what a way to spend your birthday, driving for 6 hours in the desert) and Saturday was my Aunt Diane's birthday, so we celebrated by going out for dinner at the only restaurant that was open Friday night, Big Horn. It was a nice Italian/Mediterranean place. We had a fairly large group with my aunts, cousin, grandma and our family friends the Lindebergs. I got veel parmesan, quite tasty.

Two favorite quotes of the evening
#1 "They had me at lamb cabobs" Stephen
#2 My cousin Stephanie: Hey
Our Waiter: What?
Stephanie: It's my mom's birthday
Waiter: I know (ref
Stephanie: I eating it *referring to the birthday cake*

After dinner we went back to my grandma's house and had cheesecake and hung out. My parents and Steve and I spent Friday and Saturday night in the old hotel in Boulder City, since the 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house was already a bit full. It was also good to get a little break from the craziness. My cousin Stephanie, now 15, has physical and intellectual disabilities. She is very sweet, but loves attention and doesn't mind being loud to get it. It was kinda funny, over the course of the weekend I went from "Lindsey", to "Aunt Lindsey", to "Lindseya" (what she had been calling Valencia) to "Aunt Lindseya" haha

Saturday my Aunt Lauren's friend Courtney flew in from Reno to visit and then drive back with Aunt Lauren on Sunday. We hung out, played a couple games of Apples to Apples and Uno and watching Mama Mia. Sunday morning Aunt Lauren and Courtney left, and Aunt Diane and Stephanie left for the airport not too long after. The 4 in my family moved in over to my grandma's house and spent the day relaxing there, and playing Yahtzee. And we drove home this morning.

I love getting to see family, but am glad to be home again. I'm also getting mildly antsy about being back on campus. And don't even talk to me about grad school applications, ugh. I have a lot to do this week.