Thanksgiving with the Tildens: The Oregon Part

(Continued from "The Washington Part"

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Me and my love :)

Thanksgiving with the Tildens: The Washington Part

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

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

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

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


hanging out in Barnes & Noble


Krispy Kreme!

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

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

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

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

Survival in a Foreign Place

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Halloween!

I am presently dressed as a fairy xD

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

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

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

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

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

And then, trick or treaters!

Hope everyone else is having a fun Halloween :)

Edit: After the trick or treaters

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

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

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

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

A Light in Sight

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

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

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

He HAS to move.

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

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

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

Thank you Lord.

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

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

Valencia's Thoughts on Grad School

Dear Diary,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sniffs and licks,
Valencia

Pursued

"By Your Side"
Tenth Avenue North

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

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

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

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

(Chorus 2x)

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

(Chorus 2x)

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

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

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

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

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