Who? What?

Ok, so, I just had THE most random reunion at my front door at 10:30 at night... Janae and I were sitting watching a stupid movie (The House Bunny... I do NOT recommend this film... it's pretty stupid) when we heard a knock at our front door. While we accept company any time, we usually have some warning, especially when it is after 9pm. So we were a little surprised and dare I say freaked out when we heard the quiet knock at the door. We looked at each other for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what to do. I peaked out the front window to try and get an idea of who was knocking at the door... When I couldn't figure it out, we heard another faint knock. So, what do we do when we are freaked out and don't know what to do??? We go run to wake up mommy.

"Mom, someone is knocking at the door... what do we do?"
"Turn the lights on for them and answer it."

So I turned on the lights and cracked open the door to find a very attractive young boy (and by young I mean High School) in board shorts and bare feet. "Is this the Andrews house?" he asked.
"Yes," I answered hesitently
"Does Grandma Linda live here?"
"Not anymore. She lives in Ventura."
"Well... I don't know if you remember me... You know Ray?"
By this time, my mom had come to the door. "Kelly? Oh My Gosh, I just saw your mom at the mall today. Come in come in."

Kelly used to be my cousin about 10 years ago. His mom was married to my uncle for a couple of years and I haven't seen him since before the divorce (about 10 years ago). My mom and him chatted for a bit. Apparently he had taken his girlfriend up to the Hot Springs (his car got broken into, but that's not why he came over) and on his way back to Ventura, he decided to come and visit Grandma Linda because "she was a really nice lady." While they were chatting, Janae got this eurica look in her eye. "Do you work at Skating Plus?"
"Yes," he answered
"Oh my gosh! Do you remember me?" So... a couple weeks ago, Janae went to Skating Plus with some friends for her friend's birthday. All of the girls were obsessed with one guy that worked there. Janae even asked him to skate with her friend for her birhtday. His name was Kelly and it was our cousin (well... kinda cousin...).

After catching him up on the happenings of his step brothers and sisters and step cousins, we invited him to come back when everyone is actually awake. And off he went to drop off his girlfriend who was waiting in the car.

Well, just some randomness I wanted to share with you. Things have been busy and crazy. A lot of bad, sad, good, and fun things have been going on. I have some pictures of the good and fun. A wonderful trip to Disneyland along with a day of Christmas Caroling. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!

Do Everything In Love

Like I said a couple of posts ago, (Final Assignment) I finished my final assignment for my digital photography class. It is all over! Before deciding to go with the feet portrait, I was playing around with grids and overlays and stuff on Photoshop and well, that up there is what I came up with. I really liked the colors in it and the overlay of the grid...

Yesterday was my first day back at work from Thanksgiving break. And while I wasn't totally stoked to go into work, I have to say that I was excited to see my kids again. When I got there, I just felt an overwhelming amount of love and compassion for these kids who spend all year away from their families. Sure the elementary annoy my with their silly arguing about who lined up first and "you touched my bed." Sure the middle schoolers who think they are the coolest kids in the world break my heart with their disrespect and eagerness to find acceptance from anyone who will show them the slightest bit of compassion. Thursday at Aces, the leaders went into the kitchen and we chatted about the evening and why we come to help at youth group; We go to love teens. Then it came to me, how awesome is it to have a job where I am getting paid to love kids? It sucks not going to church and not being able to serve like I feel I should. It sucks being tired after a long weekend of crazy kids doing crazy things. But I get to love kids which makes it all so worth my time.

Anyway, this all just kinda came to me right now as I was looking at the overlay on that grid up there. The words on it just reminded me of why I am here every weekend.

Spread Love everywhere you go.
Do everything in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14
Love is the water of life... drink deeply.
Love is the fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.
Let us always meet each other with a smile, for a smile is the beginning of love.
If you judge someone, you have no time to Love them.

Song For The Road

A couple of blogs ago, I wrote about going to see Ingrid Michaelson on Election Day. I had mentioned that I really liked the opening bands (which seems to be kinds rare to have good opening bands). One in particular was a guy named David Ford. I have been listening to him a lot the last couple of days and I came across one song that he played that night that I really like. The lyrics are super poetic and really pretty. I like several of his songs but be careful with the explicit lyrics (they don't bother me, but some people seem to hate them...).

Anyway, the song is called Song For The Road and I really like it...

well the day cast down
lengthy shadows on unfamiliar towns
and i drove 300 miles from the place i call home
and i tipped my hat to the angel of the north
and the sun, it set fire to the heavens
on the hills over sheffield tonight
and i will sail over this countryside with new friends and old
we are nowhere but man, we’re alright

so you can keep your belief in whatever
and i’ll wear my cynicism like a tattoo
and while poets try to engineer definitions of love
oh you know that all i can think of is you
and i just can’t wait to see you on sunday
far from the traffic and the smoke and the noise
but for this evening i will play back every message that you sent
so i can sleep to the sound of your voice

now i don’t lightly use words like forever
but i will love you ‘til the end of today
and in the morning when i remember everything that you are
well i know i’ll fall for you over again
now i know someday this all will be over
and it’s hard to say what most will i miss
just give me one way to spend my last moments alive
and i choose this, i choose this, i choose this
i choose this, i choose this, i choose this
i choose this, i choose this, yeah i choose…
this

Family Time

Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving marks the opening of the Holiday Season. We actually waited until Saturday this year to decorate the house. We actually got to make some tamales too which is my favorite thing to do during the holidays (I am going to try and make more in a couple of weeks...). Decorating is normally a pretty annoying part of my holidays. I know that's not what the holidays are about so it kinda pisses me off, but this year was nice. It was fun to hang with the fam for the day which made the decorating almost painless. I took some photos, but the lighting was kinda rough so they aren't that great...

Batman? Really?

I was checking my email tonight and came across this article on my Yahoo news feed. I think it's pretty interesting what some people name their kids, but this takes it to the extreme...

1. BATMAN
Venezuelans are among the world’s most creative namers. In fact, according to their own government, they’re too creative. In September 2007, after hearing about babies named Superman and Batman, state authorities urged parents to pick their names from an approved list of 100 common Spanish monikers. Those conventional names (such as Juanita and Miguel) quickly acquired a patrician ring, ironically giving rise to more novel names, like Hochiminh (after the Vietnamese guerilla) and Eisenhower (after the president). There are also at least 60 Venezuelans with the first name Hitler.

For the other five names check out the article.

Final Assignment

My final assignment is due next Wednesday. For this assignment I had to create a grid using 20 or more photographs and compile them into a self-portrait. I finished the assignment today (I just have to mount it on Monday) which means that I am totally done with my class... Now what?

As a part of my final assignment I had to create a portfolio online... Since I have already been doing that, I created a set with all of my assignments from this class.

I Say Hello...

This morning I went for a walk with my mom. We walked the bike path down towards Oak View and I began to wonder; Why is it that people say hello when you pass them on the bike path? Don't get me wrong, I think it's wonderful and I always say hello myself, but why do we do it? I mean, if we were walking/running/biking on a sidewalk, we never say hello to people we pass (some people do, but most times you won't). So why is it that it is almost expected of you to greet other bike path goers?

I don't know... just something I was thinking about today...

Election Day... WOOO!!!

All I can say about Election Day is "Man I am glad it's over!" I am so tired of hearing people discussing politics and crap, thinking that their way is the best way... I just get tired of it. I thought it would be better today, but I overheard some ladies in the doctor's office getting into it about Prop 8 and abortion and Obama. Oh well...

So, even though I am not a big fan of Election Day, I am a big fan of a (hopefully) new tradition Holly, Elissa, Janae, and I started. Yesterday was the first stop in Ingrid Michaelson's new tour and we all decided to go. The concert was at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. Since the concert wasn't until 8pm (even though we wanted to line up at 5pm since it was general admission and we wanted to get a good spot) we decided to spend the day at California Adventure and Disneyland. It was a super fun day and the concert was amazing! Not only did Ingrid rock, but the opener's, David Ford and Newton Falkner, were incredible! David used a looper and layed down all of his own beats and backround music and vocals before singing the melody of his very poetic songs. Newton Falkner was a super neat British guy with long crazy dreds. He did stuff with his guitar that I have never even seen before (it was practically 3 instruments in one...). He did a couple of covers (which I normally think is pretty stupid), but he did Bohemien Rhapsody which is one of my favorite songs and it was incredible!!!



Finally Ingrid came out and played (along with Allie Moss). She is such a character and was joking around the whole time, complaining about the mirrors catching her butt at a bad angle, laughing about the set lists with the word fart in every song... It probably doesn't make any sense, but it was funny and super entertaining. She is a great performer and if you know who she is and/or want to hear some great music, you should go see her tomorrow night at the El Rey theatre on Wilshire.

All in all, it was a great day, even if it was Eleciton Day! Wooo!

Assignment 4

My current assignment for my photography class is to use one piece of paper, one light source, and my imagination to come up with one photograph... Yup. That's the whole assignment. Pretty much I can do whatever I want, which should be pretty cool. But it actually kinda sucks. I don't consider myself as having the best imagination in the world and I really like focused, guided assignments... But I took some shots out at FHOV and I am kinda happy with a few that I came up with. None of these have been edited yet so please let me know what you think about them. Be as critical as you want cause it actually helps me out a lot!

Assignment 4

Ojai Day... 10 years later...

Alright, I know Ojai Day was like 10 weeks ago (ok, more like 3 weeks...), but I wanted to share some photos with you. Ryan let me borrow his camera for the day and it was super fun to ride around on my bicycle and pretend to be a professional photographer for the day... I am pretty happy with a few of these. Ojai Day really is my favorite day of the year. I just love how everyone and their mother comes out. It's such a great community event and the music is pretty fantastic too!

Sweet 16

Last weekend was my dear friend, and sort of adopted sister, Ruby's 16th birthday. To celebrate, we had her over for a taco dinner and an evening of laughs. Ruby was one of my mom's first students at OVS and is now the sophomore class president at Villanova Prep. She came here maybe 5 years ago from Taiwan knowing very little English and it is really amazing to see how much she has grown and changed and turned into the wonderful young woman that she is (Ohkay, I sound like I am 80 saying it that way... but it is the truth). I love Ruby and I am so glad that we got to spend time with her for her birthday.

Last weekend was also Parent Weekend which, I'm not gonna lie, was pretty rough. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy that some parents actually come visit their kids one weekend out of the year, but seeing some of these kid's family dynamics literally breaks my heart. One of my 4th grader's dad's can't be more than 2 years old than me. Another one of my kid's mom (who I think is insane...) brought her new "friend" to meet her daughter since they are going to be spending Thanksgiving with him... Are you serious? Who brings their new boyfriend to Parent Weekend to meet their daughter for the first time? Who does that? It breaks my heart. And then there are the kids whose parents don't even come to Parent Weekend. I had a forth grader who was alone this last weekend because her parents couldn't fly out for the weekend. Granted I understand that flying out from Japan for one weekend is kinda crazy, but other parents do it. And their kid is in 4th grade! For reals? You can't come see her? Stay for a week for crying out loud! Just come visit your daughter! Parent Weekend is always really depressing, but I am glad I got to be there for the kids who had no one, or worse, the kids who's parents at psycho!

Hittin' It Hard

Yesterday was sort of an interesting day. I got up, went to class and then went to Kinkos to print some of my recent photos. When I got there I went into my backpack to get my USB drive where ALL of my photos are right now and I couldn't find the drive. I seriously almost died trying to figure out where I had left it. Then I remembered that I was working on some photos at OVS the night before and left the USB in the computer I was working on. So I drove back to OVS and grabbed my drive and then drove back to Ventura to print my images (I have to mount my images today so I sort of needed to print them yesterday).

After printing my images, I went over to the Coffee Shop to hang out with Cory for a bit. After Cory left, I waited a little while longer to pick up Nae from school. While waiting, There was this other guy at the table across from me (definitely a hippie in his linen clothes). He kept staring at me until he finally said "Hello! How are you?" "I'm good thanks. How are you?" He said he was good and asked me what my name was. I told him to which he responded, "Michaela, you have a very good energy coming off of you." I said thank you and asked him his name. He told me his name was River (which I totally believe). He told me that he had been gone for 3 months and now his computer wouldn't start. He asked me if I knew any good "Computer Wizes" in town (which I don't... well, other than Ryan who just knows everything). We chatted for a little while about how our computers hate us (mine really hates me and I think John keeps making fun of me whenever I plug in the PC...) and how crappy the stock market is right now and how we could care less.

Later in the evening I went to Sumo Sushi with Cory, Holly, and Carl. The evening was pretty funny with Cory hitting all of the Taboo dinner topics (religion, politics, and money). After dinner we went over to the new frozen yogurt place, Tuti Fruti or something like that. The whole day was pretty great and I am glad I got to hang out with friends.

Soap Stories

This weekend of work was really nice. A bunch of my kids went home so I actually only had about 19 girls. Friday night was kinda just a hangout night. Once it was too dark for the kids to be outside, Lauren and I sat outside of the girls dorm and played some guitar until it was too cold to move. Saturday we took the kids down to Hollywood and Highland to watch the Chihuahua movie at the El Capitan Theater. The movie was pretty stupid but hanging out in Hollywood wasn't bad. After the movie, we went up to Universal City Walk (which is one of my favorite places!).

One of my favorite things about taking a Saturday trip is being able to take the kids to the Farmer's Market on Sunday. I actually ended up not having any kids so I got to walk around and pick up some great veggies for dinner. While I was wandering around, I ran into my boss Dave who was chatting with one of his friends. He called me over to introduce me to his friend. After I introduced myself, his friend turned to Dave and said "It looks like you have a very competent assistant. It's important to have someone who is respectful and reliable as an assistant." There was some more back and forth stuff about me (while I was standing right there, feeling awkward that people were talking about me right in front of my face). Dave then started talking to his other friend and I was trying to find a good way to walk away in the least awkward way. Before I got a chance to leave, Dave's friend asks me, "Can I gift you with something? I would like to gift you with something." I politely said "Thank you so much, but no thank you. I'm ok." After insisting, she asked me when I was born. I told her September 22. to which she responded "Hmm, right on the edge... Are you a Virgo or a Libra?" I told her Virgo (funny cause I had just looked at some magnents at City Walk that fully described each sign... interesting). She asked "Are you really very much a Virgo? Does that describe you well?" I said yes (because I saw it on the magnent the day before). She picked out some amazing soap and put it in a bag for me. I thanked her and went on my way. The soap smells fantastic and I thought the whole story was pretty good. Only in Ojai right? Next Saturday is Ojai Day and I can't wait!

PS: I though this was the funniest picture of soap! So Great!

C.S. Hopping

Today was pretty funny. I woke up at 7:30 (after not sleeping super well for two nights now... I feel better, but at night I can't stop coughing) and rolled over to Coffee Connection around 8... I spent a few hours hanging in the back patio. Around 11 Holly, Cory, and I decided that it was far to hot to continue sitting there, so Holly and I went down to Bad Ass Coffee in Ventura. The place was practically abandoned but we hung out for an hour or so before I had to head over to my Digital Photography class. There I finished my 3rd assignment (I think I finished it... I think I am as happy as I can get with these photos... it's just time for a new camera...). I cut out two of the photos and decided to stick with the color.

'Guitar Man'

'Music Man'

'Anything Helps'

'Book Club'

After class I dropped off some paperwork at the Business Office before, yup, heading back to Coffee Connection to wait for Nae to finish with a test. So... a few cups of coffee later, It's time to try and go to sleep. Please let me know what you think of the photos. The assignment isn't due until a week from Monday, but I have to print them and mount them next week so any suggestions would be great!

Benches

This last week was kinda wild. I guess it started last Friday night at work. I was hanging out with Lauren after putting all of the girls to bed and Lauren kept telling me I should really try and get a hold of one of our co-workers from Summer camp. I told her I had tried with no response and I was just tired of pursuing it. She eventually let me know that this person had a secret wedding the previous weekend and was 4 months pregnant and that I REALLY should try and get a hold of her. Now, my first instinct was shock, followed quickly with anger. Not anger that she got married and was pregnant, but anger and sadness that this co-worker that I considered a pretty good friend didn't feel it necessary to tell me herself what was going on with her life. The next morning I got up at 4am to drive Holly to the airport so when I got to work, I was pretty tired and still really bummed out about the news from the night before. Then, I saw that this person was calling my cell phone. Because I was kinda pissed, tired, and working, I pushed ignore because I didn't feel like having that conversation right then and there. A couple minutes later, this person came to hunt me down in the Girl's dorm (and I hid in the hallway to avoid her for almost a half an hour). She later cornered me in the Health Center and said stuff like "Sorry I haven't returned any of your phone calls... A lot has been going on... A lot of things are changing... And I wanted to tell you this before you found out through the grape-vine..." I told her she was too late and I already knew... the conversation was awkward from then on. I told her congratulations (even though I don't think it was very sincere). I really am happy for her because this is what she has wanted for a long time. I am more just bummed that she didn't feel it necessary to let me know what was going on...

So the rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. We went to State Street on Sunday were I took a ton of photos for my Photography class (Assignment 3... look at them and please tell me what you think... Not just "I like it or I don't like it" but what works and what doesn't). We also took the elementary kids to the SB museum of Art. It's free on Sundays and there was a great exhibit of Picasso Drawings. Later I got a wonderful visit from my friend Elissa at Borders which made the weekend extra special!

The rest of the week was pretty mellow. My mommy was gone camping so it was just me and Nae at home all week. My Dad was coaching so I really didn't get to see him that much. But the house was quite and I was fighting off allergies that later turned into a little head cold around Wednesday. Now I am work again trying to enjoy the rain!

The Jerk

I love the movie The Jerk ("The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!" So funny!), but this time I was the Jerk and it wasn't really funny. It was sort of busy weekend I suppose. I went to work Friday night and we had a social. It wasn't too bad this time around even though a ton of the kids were super moody this weekend. Sunday we went to the Mall (WooHoo! The mall). It's actually one of my least favorite trips that we do, but Nae came with me and we had fun playing and taking pictures in the toy store. After work my mom made dinner for my b-day.

Yes Monday was my birthday and I have to admit I was kinda a jerk (ok, maybe a lot a Jerk). Amber had planned out a wonderful day of hanging out with friends and I wasn't super happy. I guess I have never really liked my own birthdays because I really don't like having the attention on me and usually that's how birthday's work. So the first half of the day was kinda painful for the people around me (I am sorry for being a lame face) even though we enjoyed Coffee, Pedicures, and Lunch. After a hour of resting and thinking, I realized how much of a jerk I was being and realized I just needed to get over my insecurities and enjoy the love and company of my friends. So later in the early afternoon my wonderful friends picked me up in the "Party Bus" (Martha's Astro Van) and we enjoyed a wonderful night hanging out with each other.

In addition to being my birthday Monday, It was also my mom's best Friend, Shelly's first day of Chemo. She was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer and is starting her fight. She lives in Elk Grove (a town south of Sacramento) so it makes it a little difficult to support her being so far away. In order to help her feel supported through this, we are all wearing our Stand Up 2 Cancer Shirts on days she has her Chemo treatments.

In other news, I finished my Second Assignment for my Digital Photography class. The first half of the assignment was to take compositional photographs (Rule of 3rds, C curve, S curve...). The second half was to take the top 6 photos and make them absrtact. Check them out!

You Suck!

Ok, so the title is a little rough, but I honestly have been sucking at blogging lately. Not too much has been going on so I haven't really had anything to blog about. School is... going. I love my digital photography class! I will probably be posting some of my photos tomorrow... I have to touch them up a little and then save them as JPEG's before I can upload them. Spanish is... really easy. I am taking Spanish 2 (which I have taken maybe 5 years of Spanish in my lifetime, plus I grew up being babysat by my abuela who only speaks Spanish) so to say the least I am kinda bored, but it's nice to kinda start to brush up on my unused Spanish skills (that's right... I just called them Spanish Skills). My two other classes are online and start in October so I will let you know how those are going once they start.

For now I am just hanging out at the coffee shop with Holly, Tim, and Nicki. The Big 21 is on Monday and everyone is freakin me out, but we'll see what happens... Haircut Sunday and i am hoping to get a new look (everyone has the graduated bob now... it's time for a change...)

Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho!

It's off to work I go this weekend. Last night was the start of weekends at school. I was so excited to meet all of my new kids (which there are several of them by the way) and super excited to see some of my old kids. We have a ton of girls this year (well, it's the same number as last year... it just seems like there are a lot of girls this year) and about half of the boys we had last year. About half of our girls are new to OVS which is super neat but also sort of difficult as far as transitioning. We have a very lively bunch of girls who feel the need to yell a lot (sometimes too much, but it's their first weekend so they are excited). But for the most part they all seem like nice girls so we will see how this year goes. Last night we started off the weekend with a pool party, today we go to town (Big Town... yeah, that's just downtown Ojai... not big at all), and tomorrow we will go to Skating Plus (I will probably opt out of skating since I broke my arm there years ago). But, so far (knock on wood), so good.

Excited?

Staff meetings are this week for work and the kids are supposed to arrive on Monday. I haven't really had a whole lot of feelings about work starting up again. Well, maybe I have kinda been dreading it and wondering why I signed my contract to give up my weekends (or worse, my Sundays) for another year. But today I got to go to my first staff meeting and, upon seeing the resident student list, I kinda got... Excited? Really? Yeah, I am kinda excited about work. Funny how just seeing the names of the kids I am going to be spending my weekends with got me excited about my job. I thought it was funny... The meetings sucked and I have to go to more on Friday (I am supposed to go tomorrow but I have class... never thought I would prefer to go to class than a meeting). Friday's meeting should be short and then I have to do my CPR certification that afternoon, but it hopefully won't be too bad. But yeah... I'm kinda excited... Go figure...

The Root of All Evil

Today was our first Community back after a summer break. It was so nice to not have to walk into big church and feel awkward and uncomfortable in those pews, but to actually walk into a room full of people I love and who love me (not that people in big church don't love me... many of them do, it's just... so dull) and feel comfortable.

The popular phrase is "The love of Money is the Root of all Evil." Is that really true. True, money causes many of the problems in our world today, but really... ALL problems... it's a little extreme. Actually, money makes a lot of good things possible in our world today. We looked at one of John Wesley's sermons where he talks about the use of money amongst Christ Followers. Mike Kingsley mentioned it in his last blog, but it basically can be summed up in three short sentences: "Gain all you can. Save all you can. and Give all you can." Now, without going into great depth on this topic, it pretty much means that we should be hard workers. As Christ followers we should be hard working because we serve a higher master. We should use every minute of our day to work hard and earn as much as we can. Following that is "Save all you Can." This doesn't really mean to stockpile all of your money just because you can. It's more it's better to save our money than to continue spending it and pouring into this giant consumer economy that we find ourselves in. And the third of course is "Give all you can." It's pretty simple right. So why can't we do it? Why can't I do it?

John Wesley died with only a saddle. The reality of our finances is that 100% of what we have is God's. Not the 10th that we give to the church (even though that is important), but every penny we have is God's. That means that anything we purchase with our money is (or should be) an offering to Him (pleasing in His eyes). John Wesley wraps up his sermon with this:
"Brethren, can we be either wise or faithful stewards unless we thus manage our Lord's goods? ... Then why should we delay? ... At this hour, and from this hour, do His will: Fulfill His word, in this and in all things! I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, act up to the dignity of your calling!"

It might not all make sense because it doesn't really make sense to me right now either. Here I sit typing on my poop HP computer dreaming of owning a new Macbook Pro and a new SLR camera for my digital photography class. So what do I do with that?

Thin Moments

It's been so nice to be able to go to church this summer. I've been almost dreading going back to work in a couple of weeks because I know it means no more church. I've been kinda bummed that Community took a break for the summer (I'm glad I get to go to two before work starts) because I really have a hard time in "Big church" (I call it big church... I don't know why...). I don't know if it is the Honky Tonk/Patriotic Worship music or the sermons that seem to go on forever about nothing... sorry, a little bit of venting going on there. Anyway, all this to say I actually liked yesterday's sermon. Even though most of Paul's sermons feel like I am in a history lesson (and don't get me wrong, I like a little bit of the history stuff... but not an hour of it...), yesterday's was pretty good. He has been talking about this "Thin Moments" in life where we find ourselves the closest to God. At conference (and it seems like everywhere), a lot of people have been wondering "Where God went?" He seems so distant to so many people and the reality of it is, He hasn't gone anywhere. We have built up this thick wall around us with the business of our lives, the school, the work, the meetings, the soccer games, whatever is filling our lives. We have pushed Him away and we have to thin out our lives in order to draw nearer to him. So the sermons have been about ancient ways of making ourselves thin to God. This week He talked about the "Jesus Prayer" which is one of my favorite prayers. There's just something so powerful in saying "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, A sinner."

Home Again, Home Again...

It's been a little less than a week since I got back from GEM-K Conference and I am just now getting my head focused enough to write about it. Conference was amazing! It was so nice to catch up with old friends from last year and was even more fun to get to know all of the first timers to GEM-K Conference (this year we had over 10 first timers). This year was really neat because there wasn't a specific "team" that came over to run conference. We had a team, but not like last year when our team from OVCC went over to run it. This year there were two youth leaders from GEM (Cam and Tagg), four past GEM-Ks (Patty, John, Michael, and Kate), two people who love GEM-Ks (Liz and myself), Rod, and Matt and Hailey (and their kids). Being at Conference came so naturally this year because, 1) I had been there before and knew what to expect, and 2) I wasn't in charge of making sure the entire thing ran smoothly (by that I mean it wasn't all on our team's shoulders like last year, rather it was a total team effort and it was just natural).

So, the theme for Conference this year was taken from Chris Haw and Shane Claiborne's new book Jesus for President (sound familiar?) Matt was our speaker and he focused on a Mission theme: namely the Mission that God has for each of us and how it ties into God's Mission of bringing Shalom to the Earth. So our theme was Sheep... How does that work, you might ask. Well, in Matthew 10:16, Jesus says "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves" so... there you go. We are all sheep.

So, like I said, Matt was our speaker. In the mornings he would show a video and then we would break into our small groups and discuss the video. In the evenings Matt would speak in a sort of discussion format (similar to what we do in Community which is why I really enjoyed it). Every night he had the kids participate in section which he called "Agree:Disagree." How you play is simple: Matt throws out a statement and you walk to a side. You either agree or you disagree and then we discuss and argue each side. And you HAD to pick a side. There was no room for middle ground. All of the statements were set up in a way where you could come up with an argument to agree or disagree. I liked this part of Matt's talks because it made the kids (and myself) actually think about what they believe and why they believe it without being able to consult their parents or friends. They had to decide. Two statements that I remember most vividly were from the last night: "I have sinned if I bought a pair of shoes that were, unbeknown to me, made in a sweatshop." and "Everything we do is spiritual." Now, I have some strong opinions for these two, but I was surprised at the amount of kids which disagreed with my opinions. It was actually kinda sad.

All in all, conference was great! I love making connections with people, especially teens. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to attend and hang out with everyone (thanks again Matt!). It really was a wonderful time!

PS: the rest of my photos are posted on my Flickr. Have a look!

What is Poverty?

Today is our second full day of Conference and things are going really well. This morning Michael shared with us about his recent trips to Cambodia. He showed some pictures of where he lived and his brothers and family in Cambodia. He also showed us a pair of trousers (I've been hanging around Matt too long when I call pants trousers) he was wearing that his friend from Cambodia swiped from the garment factory she works in and gave him as a gift. It was crazy to actually see the face of someone who works in garment factories in Cambodia and to hear the stories of people passing out from the chemicals in the dyes while they only get paid $50 a month... The pants alone sell for a good 40 Euro (Michael said this, I don't know the brand but I hear it's popular in the UK). Michael told another story of one of his trips to Cambodia when he couldn't take any money out of the bank because his bank card didn't work (I've had this problem before no it was no fun). Oneo f his sisters/friends (she was pretty young and had lost both of her parents to AIDS) told him that she had saved up some money and handed him everything she had (about $10). He refused it at first because it was all she had and she started crying saying that if he didn't take it, then he didn't love her family. Sounds like a lame excuse I know but it was totally legit. In that culture it would be an insult not to take it as it was; a gift.

After Michael shared, we watched a short movie that asked the question "What Is Poverty?" Many people define it as a lack of money, but this guy proposed that Poverty was a lack of friendship. He asked, "If you lost everything, your house, your money, everything, how long would it take you to find food and water? How long would it take you to find a place to sleep? How long would it take you to find a job?" A lot of people I know would probably say a matter of minutes and maybe a week or so for a job. His argument was that if you are able to find everything you need to survive in a matter of minutes or weeks, then you are not poor. It was an interesting argument and I am not totally sure I agree with it fully, but I can definitely see a lot of that at school. All of the kids I work with are filthy stinkin rich but are so lacking in the love department that I would totally consider them poor...

I don't know. It was an interesting topic and it was neat to hear Michael speak a little. Tomorrow we are going to Vienna in the afternoon which should be a good time! For now I am going to attempt to take a little nap... I'm tired! Check out the pictures I posted on Flickr today of Conference so far.

2 Posts in One Day?

It must be something good if I get two posts in one day... My bag came tonight (around 9:30pm)!!! Praise God! And another praise is that Mike is doing much better. Matt and Liz went to visit him this afternoon and they say he looks much better. The doctors still want to keep him there to figure out what's wrong with them... So please keep praying that the doctors can figure out what's going on and that he can join us soon!

Caught in a Storm

Today I woke up around 9 am after going to sleep around 9:30pm... gotta love those 11 hour sleeps. We all ate breakfast and then hung around for a couple hours before heading into downtown Sopron. We found a bank (many of us didn't have any forint and needed to take some out) and then we went and ate some pizza for lunch. Liz and I (Liz is my roommate by the way... I enjoy hanging with her and am looking forward to getting to know her better) shared a pizza which made for a lovely lunch. We then walked up to the BOB (the toboggan ride here in Sopron), just to make sure we all remembered how to get there. I opted out of riding it this time around, but maybe later in the week if some kids want to go I will ride it with them. As we left the BOB, it began to rain. We walked down to the Interspar (the very large grocery store here is Sopron) and picked up some necessities (for me it was shampoo, conditioner, deodorant,) and then some not so necessities: Coke Light (that's right Ryan... I'm having a Hungarian Coke Light right now... If I get my suitcase back then I will bring some home for you, but if I'm stuck with my carry-on, you're out of luck!) and a Soproni (yeah, that's definitely a beer... not quite 21 yet in the states, but here it's legal and not a big deal so Liz, Matt, and I are going to have our beers later on tonight). Once we left Interspar the rain had picked up and there was some definite thunder going on in the background. Ah... a summer thunder storm! It's was super neat to be caught in one since we definitely don't have them in California. We were able to catch the bus up to our stop. By the time we reached our stop we still had a 5-10 min walk uphill to our hotel and by this time it was pouring down rain with thunder and lightening. Once we got up the hill, we were soaked from head to toe. I kept slipping in my rainbows so I took them off and just walked up barefoot. About 5 minutes ago I looked out the window of my room and definitely saw a lightening bolt maybe a mile away... and now the rain has stopped... It looks like it's clearing up. But it was pretty neat.

Anyway, no word on the luggage yet. I have to call and ask sometime today. I will keep you as updated as possible. Please be in prayer for Matt's brother Mike. He got here yesterday from spending a couple months in Cambodia (he is here to be part of the team) and almost instantly began to feel ill. Not getting into too many details, he got REALLY sick and from all the loss of fluid he was definitely way dehydrated. The ambulance picked him up yesterday and took him to the hospital were he probably has to stay for another two nights. Matt and Liz are over there right now checking up on him but please pray that the doctors can figure out what's wrong with him as there are many possibilities with him just getting back from Cambodia. Pray that they can treat him and that he will be healed and can join our team soon.

Made it... Almost in one Piece...

It is now Sunday, August 3 (I have lost a day somewhere) and I am happy and thankful to report that I made it safe and sound to the Hotel Korona in Sopron, Hungary. The flights weren't too bad (accept for the 2 hour delay in DC). I am sad to report that the one bag that I checked didn't make it to Hungary with me (and no, I am not joking). I have all of my clothes with me this time (I brought them in a carry-on) so we are only missing all of the camp shirts and decorations. It won't be the end of the world if it doesn't make it, but it will be a lot of time and money wasted (which would be a bummer). Please pray that it makes it here soon so the kids can have shirts for conference this year. I will try and keep you all updated on the trip (the hotel has wireless internet now so I don't have to sit up in the nest and plug in every time...). Anyway, I have to get going. Check back for more soon!

Making Like a Baby... and Heading Out...

I couldn't resist the pun in the title... I couldn't figure out what to make the title so I made it as cheesy as possible...

I am leaving tomorrow morning for the 2008 GEM-K Conference in Sopron, Hungary. All my bags are packed... I'm ready to go... oh wait I'm not singing... But in all reality I am ready to go. These last six weeks have been crazy stressful and busy with camp, and I am excited to get away and meet new people and reconnect with old friends. I will do my best to keep my blog updated with photos or whatever, but I don't make any promises. Please pray for travel safety for me (and my luggage... I am carrying on my clothes and checking the camp t-shirts and it would be a bummer if they didn't make it). Keep me and the MKs and the leaders and Matt & Hailey in your prayers the next week and a half.

PS: Here are a random sampling of photos from Summer Camp this year. Enjoy!

Head of the GSD Department

Work has been about half stress/half a riot lately. I say a riot because they stress and craziness of it just kinda makes me laugh now. A lot is going on and my boss keeps throwing things at me that stress me out, but now it's almost a joke seeing that there is only about a week and half left. My friend Katie (she has worked summers in the past with us and it was really hard doing the first few weeks without her) is back for the last two weeks of camp which has been a huge help! Everyone has been asking what her official job title is and we decided that she is in charge of the GSD department (Get Shit/Stuff (as we tell the kids) Done) and she is doing a fantastic job of getting stuff done!

As far as everything else goes, I'm trying to tie up lose ends and finish up stuff before I fly out to Hungary on August 2. That's right. I am not sure if I mentioned it before but I am going out to the GEM-K conference again this year in Sopron, Hungary. I leave on Aug 2 which is less than two weeks away which doesn't leave me a ton of time to get things finished up. Please pray that I can manage my time well these next few days. Also pray for conference this year. I am really excited about going (I am also carrying on my own luggage... no losing anything this year). I will write more about conference before I head out, but for now, I'm off to work!

Jesus for President

It's here! The long awaited blog on Shane Claiborne's new book, Jesus for President. I finished the book months ago and never felt motivated or focused enough to actually sit down and write about it. What changed you might ask. Last night I went to the Jesus for President book tour at Ventura Vineyard church. The mix of music and speaking was really moving and inspirational... it sounds kinda crazy, but it was a super neat experience. Shane and Chris (Chris Haw, the co-author of the book) would stand up and quasi-preach the main outline of the book; from political structures of the bible to the political stands Jesus made to the political stands that we as His followers should be making as well. Intermittently between Shane and Chris speaking, two guys from Psalters would play some pretty powerful songs/chants/ and ultimately Psalms...

The book itself is really powerful and really makes you think about how you live your life. It questions who you are living for; Are you living for the Roman Empire (or in our case, the American Empire) or are you living as a chosen child of God - Holy and set apart from nations to be His own. The book really looks at the early church and the politics of Jesus. Someone asked me about a month ago if I thought "politics" should be brought into the church. My response was, the church itself is a political statement. Jesus' entire ministry was political and we, as His followers, should follow in the same manner. We need to be radicals for love and not war - loving our enemies, which I'm pretty sure doesn't include killing them - We are called to turn the other cheek, not to cower in fear but to look our enemy in the eye and pour Christ's love into their souls.

Everything that Shane and Chris had to say was super powerful, but one thing that really made me look at my own life was this: During Jesus' ministry, some of John the Baptist's disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Luke 7:19). Jesus didn't respond with a conceited "Yes." Instead he "cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind" and told them "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Luke 7:22) Jesus essentially says to them, "Tell him what you see... look at what is being done and decide for yourself." I have always thought this response was pretty neat, but Shane challenged us by asking if we could respond in the same way? When people ask us, "Are you a Christian?" our response should be that like Christ's "Tell me what you see in my life." I know I struggle with that and always have to reevaluate my life to see if someone could look at my life and see Jesus at the center of every thought and action.

There were a ton of super cool parts about last night; including hanging out after with Paul, Kathy, Josh, Darren, Kate, Carl, Coco, and sitting chatting with Shane and Chris after most people had left. We stuck around for a bit and Paul just shared his heart with them. Then we helped them load up their Veggie Oil bus (I'm pretty sure it's normally the Psalter's travel bus, but they are using it for the book tour and driving it across the country. The coolest thing I probably can take from last night was reciting the Litany of Resistance and Confession that Shane, Chris, and some others had complied in order to pledge allegiance to our one true King (not a country, an empire, a flag, or president, but our one true King and Savior Jesus Christ):

One: Deliver Us, O God.
All: Guide our feet in the ways of Your peace.
One: In humility, we ask.
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us Peace.
One: In humility, we ask.
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us Peace.
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.
All: Have mercy on us.
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.
All: Free us from the bondage of sin and death.
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us peace.
One: Today, we pledge our ultimate allegiance to the Kingdom of God.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the peace that is not like Rome's.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the gospel of enemy-love.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the kingdom of the poor and broken.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To a King who loves His enemies so much He died for them.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the transnational Church that transcends the artificial borders of nations.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the refugee of Nazereth.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay His head.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the cross rather than the sword.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the banner of love above any flag.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the One who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the One who rides a donkey rather than a war horse.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the way that leads to Life.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the Slaughtered Lamb.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: And together we proclaim His praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power.
All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb!
One: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb!
All: Long Live the Slaughter Lamb!

Way better than pledging to the American flag. How incredible is it that we can pledge our allegiance to the Slaughtered Lamb! The goal of last night was not to tell us who to vote for or which party to join. Their mission was and is to unite Christ Followers to live lives set apart from the nations and empires of this world and to live lives that reflect Christ's love for us all. Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb!

Camp... And then Some...

I have now heard from about three people that they were SO happy that I FINALLY updated my blog... I know I am usually really good at updating, but it's been a rough last 5 weeks with trips, prepping for camp, and now running camp. The first three weeks of have been really hard on my physically, mentally, and emotionally. Things are starting to look up though. God has put two incredible co-workers on our staff this year that are so encouraging and loving towards me. God also has blessed me with some AMAZING friends and mentors and I am so thankful for having them in my life (you know who you are...).

So, camp... Where do I begin? I actually don't really want to talk about it. It's getting better and we are hoping/praying to hire Katie back to help us out for the last three weeks of camp. Right now it's kinda just been Dillon and myself doing everything with not a whole lot of help from out new Head Dorm Parents... they are doing their best, but they are new to the job and there seems to be a bigger learning curve for them (not to mention one is the laziest person alive and never wants to do anything he is supposed to... it's kinda annoying). So camp is crazy and stressful, but I am trying to find the joy in it where I can...

Chaos and then Some

This post is mainly for Martha (which, I didn't even know that you read my blog because you never comment on any of my posts...) but since it has been forever since I have posted, I thought I would throw out a brief catch up before taking my 60 children (camp has begun) to the fireworks.

So, we are just finishing our first session of camp (first two weeks) which means that all of our 2A campers will be going home tomorrow and all of our 2B and 4B campers will be moving into the dorms. This session was SUPER stressful with ACA accreditation and crazy children (one of which we sent home early) and the lice scare and the 4th of July... but things are getting a little better (just in time for out next group to show up...). I will have to do a full catch up later when I have more time, but for now, you will just have to be satisfied with the teasers (Martha...).

You Drive Me Crazy!

Tuesday, my mom, my cousin, and I loaded up my little Dodge Neon and headed up the 101 en route for Sacramento. The plan was originally to be just me and my mom, but my cousin is staying with us for a little while and so she came along as well. Our first stop was at Montaña de Oro State Park outside of Morro Bay. The coast was gorgeous and it was a great stop for lunch. After driving past Morro Rock, we continued up Hwy 1 (only stopping at Elephant Seal Beach) until we reached Limekiln State Park to camp for the night. We did a little exploring around the camp ground (we did a little hiking around the campsite) before it got too cold.

After going to bed at 7pm (thank God for Tylenol PM!!!), we all got up and headed out around 9am. We made it up to Monterey Bay close to noon. One of our co-workers' parents live up in Monterey and they are members of the aquarium. So , long story short, we got to go to the aquarium for free which was pretty sweet! After a couple hours at the aquarium, we drove up to Elk Grove to visit the Burgs. We were going to leave the next day, but after Shelly invited us to spend the night with her out on the Delta, we couldn't resist. The Delta was really nice and it was nice to just hang out around a campfire for the evening (by the way, campfires are my favorite!!!)

Friday morning we loaded up the car once again and headed the rest of the way up through Sacramento to my Tia Irma's house. We hung out most of the day and then went to Ryan's graduation. Right now I am sitting at the house getting ready to take a nap before his graduation dinner. We are going to drive back tomorrow morning (I think we are planning on leaving at 3:30am) so I should be back for church, but we will see how things go... Feel free to check out some of the far too many photos I have taken. Please pray that the rest of this trip goes well. I have been having some trouble with my ears and stuff which has been leaving me feeling pretty nauseous and with terrible migraines. I am going to the doctor's again this week to see what's up with them, but until then, I am just trying to hold out until then...

What Is Going On?

Ok, I know it's been awhile since I have blogged (with the exception of the last post), but I have good reasons. Things have been super busy with work ending and summer starting and helping out at Forest Home and babysitting... It's been crazy, but let's see if I can't catch you up on what's going on...

Last weekend (I mean two weekends ago... not yesterday's weekend but the weekend before that) was my last weekend working for the summer. The kids graduated on Thursday and they all went home (some to stay for the summer and some only for a couple weeks before returning for summer camp). The weekend was kinda stressful as most of the kids were all ready to be done. We did our normal Santa Barbara State Street trip to end out the year. Weekends were fun and I am looking forward to working them again next year (but I am super pumped to have them off for the summer... too bad there is not Community...). So, graduation is always a fun time for the kids and for the teachers. I really like our graduations because they are not too long and they give out a ton of really fun awards. The best part, I have to admit, about graduation is shopping through lost and found after the kids leave. There wasn't as much stuff as last year, but I did find some cool things (well, some of them weren't actually lost and found but I had fun taking pictures of them...).

Monday I hosted again at Forest Home. This group was a little strange because they had already been at camp for a couple of days and I was taking over for the other host... It was just weird coming in on an already established group... Youth group ended this week which is sad, but just in time for me to be way busy.

Friday I went over to watch my boys for the weekend. Mason has made so much progress (he is walking, signing, sort of communicating - without words -) and Caden is a giant! There is seriously like a 7 lb difference between the two of them. But watching them was fun and I am hoping to do it a couple more weekends this summer.

On a more future note, tomorrow I am heading out on a road-trip with my mom and my cousin. We are working our way up to Sacramento to visit my tia and my cousin (he is graduating this Friday). We don't have any really set plans other than we are driving up the 1 and stopping at a campsite for the night around Monterey. We were able to score a couple of free tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which I am super excited about!!! We might stop and a friend's house on the other side of Sacramento for another night and finally end up at my tia's house maybe around Thursday (in case you aren't familiar with the lay-out of California, driving straight through to my tia's house would maybe take 6 hours, but we wanted to make a trip out of it so we are stopping here and there along the way). I am really excited to get to spend some quality time with mi madre this week! I am going to try and barge back Saturday night so I should be at church on Sunday...

I have already started a ton of planning and scheduling for summer camp. Our meetings start on the 16th, but I will probably start really working hard around the 9th... I know it sounds pretty busy, but I love this time of the year... I love having crazy schedules but still making things work... So, yeah... that's what's going on...

To Barge (v.)

To Barge - verb - orig: Ojai
a combination of two words, Charge and Barn... To charge to a distant location for no apparent reason other than having a fun like a barn or barnacle.

Last week Amber Carlson and I decided it would be fun to barge up to the closest Sonic. She had never been to Sonic before and we both had the day off (well, she had the day off... I have everyday off...) so we figured, what better day than today to go for a nice two hour drive up the 33. The 33 was beautiful! Everything was super green and the wild flowers are all blooming. Two hours and 5 counties (yes, we drove through 5 counties...) later, we arrived at the sketchiest area in the middle of Bakersfield, CA right across the street from Happy Mart... I know this sounds super pointless and random, but that's what barges are all about... It was great getting to know Amber better and it was a great addition to my small but growing list of random road-trips...

How Big Is The God You Serve?

Last night at youth group, Ryan had this guy named Richard come and give his testimony to our High School students. It was a super intimate night with only 8 students (usually we will have a good 30-40 kids on a Thursday night but they all have a 4 day weekend because of Memorial Day on Monday...). It actually worked out really well because out of the few kids that came, at least half of them really needed to hear Richard's story and they were totally moved to chat with him about it afterwards. Richard's testimony was absolutely spectacular! It's incredible what God has done in this man's life. I wish I could share some of it but for reals, no one would ever believe me... After he shared, Ryan asked us all, "How big is the God you Serve?" For Richard, God is bigger than drug addiction, abuse, violence, prison... How big is your God? That's something I have been dwelling on since last night... We serve a Huge God who is bigger than all of the crap of this world... And what is incredible to me is He chose us... He chose me... He loves me... and he says that NOTHING (neither death nor life, nor angels nor semons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing: Romans 8:38-39 ) shall be able to separate us from the LOVE of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Hello! I will be your Host for this Week!

Last week, Wednesday - Friday, I got to work at Forest Home Ojai Valley. Basically what happens is there are groups that will come in and run their own programs. While they run their own programs, there has to be a "Host" who provides whatever the group needs in order to run their program (The Host is basically the contact person for the group... They carry the Host cell phone around all day and night). So, that's pretty much what I did last week for those of you who were confused. I stocked bathrooms, set up Audio/Visual equipment, helped with Recreation (Zip-line dismount... so much fun!), Did announcements... and broke up a midnight water raid...

Ok, so here's the story with the water raid. Apparently their host last year (I won't mention his name but some of you might be able to guess who...) helped some of the male counselors raid a girl's cabin in the middle of the night. So, having heard all of the stories from last year, the kids, led by the leaders, decided to have a full on water battle in the middle of the night. I had finished all of my "Host" duties, hooked up my cart (highlight of hosting was probably driving the electric cart around all day!!!), and headed over to Holly's house (where I was staying while hosting). I took a shower and got ready for bed then sat and chatted with Holly as she was cutting out stars (long story). Then around 12:30am I heard some girls screaming... It only lasted a couple seconds so I figured they maybe saw a bug or an animal or something and just freaked out... Then I got a phone call from the ground's keeper asking if I heard all of the noise. I then figured that it wasn't just one scream and I had to go check it out... I walk out to find bathroom doors covered in silly string, water balloons being hurled at people and boys and girls throwing buckets (actually trash cans... they used their trash cans) full of water at each other. It had woken up a couple people so I had to make everyone go back to their tents and go to sleep. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and if I were in middle school (or a leader in the group), I would have been so pumped on this battle... but, because I was working and a couple of people (the ground's keeper in particular) got pretty pissed, I had to shut it down. The kids and leaders were great the next day and made sure that they picked up every last water balloon shell and dried up piece of silly string... All in all, Hosting was fun. The group was great and fun to be around and to chat with (especially this one EMO kid who kept asking me about my gauges... He called me "Plugs" the whole time... pretty funny... I got a few pretty fun nicknames from the kids... "Plugs," "Mae-Mae," "Chae"...) I think I am hosting again this next week, Monday - Wednesday (so I will be at youth group next week Ryan... sorry for missing it last week!)

As far as work goes, we took the kids to the beach this weekend. It was so nice to get out of the heat for the afternoon. One more weekend and I am free for the summer! I am super excited. These last few weekends have been super special for me. I have been connecting to a few kids on a little bit of a deeper level and just enjoying every bit of them. I am excited to have my weekends back for the summer though!

One of Those "Born-Agains"?

This weekend at work one of my coworkers (all of the teachers are put on weekend duty's to help supervise the kids) said something that really made me check my heart and evaluate myself (does that ever happen to you? Someone - maybe even someone who isn't a Christ follower - says something that makes you check yourself?). She is sort of a Chatty-Kathy ("sort of" might be being too nice... she talks A LOT and it's usually pretty negative... not super fun to work with). Anyway, she was talking about one of her friends and referred to them as "One of those Born-Agains." I said "Born-Agains?" and she sort of just went on with her story (I honestly don't even remember what she said because I started to really think about what she said... I think it was something about how she had cancer or something... that sounds bad that I was zoning out, and it probably was...). Don't get me wrong, I was super excited that she called her friends this. It sounds like they are doing a pretty good job of furthering God's Kingdom. It did however make me look at myself. Do people call me "Another Born-Again"? Is God's love pouring out of me to make people see Jesus in me? Are the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) apparent and driving factors in my life today? What am I doing to further God's Kingdom? I just finished reading Jesus for President (I will be posting on that later) and it talked a lot about living like Jesus lived/s and loving like Jesus loves. It talked a lot about being a part of a different Kingdom; not the Roman Empire, or the American Empire, or the European Empire, but being a member for Kingdom of God and what that means for how our lives should look. They should not look like those with devotion to the Empires of this world (focusing on money, power, military might...) but those with a devotion to loving God and loving others! I pray that people will see Jesus' love shinning through me! I pray that one day, someone will see Christ in me and that they might even refer to me as "One of those 'Born-Agains.'"

Introducing...

MIKA!!!

That's right, we got another dog yesterday. Not just a dog, but a puppy. She is a 10 week old Australian Shepherd-Boarder Collie Mix. We adopted her from the Humane Society and she is absolutely adorable. She will be a pseudo-family dog, but Janae will be caring for her. She definitely is a puppy and we are definitely dealing with lots of "puppy" things (potty training sucks!!! when we got Toby, he was already paper trained...). Speaking of Toby, I am not sure how he is reacting to this new addition. He did mark his territory in the house which made me really upset (he has NEVER done that before!). He is pretty cute with her though; herding her around the house and stuff. She's still pretty scared, but is starting to get comfortable in the house and with all of us.

Go Dodgers!

This weekend we took the kids to a Dodger's Game. I don't think I have been to a Dodger game in maybe over 10 years. I am not a huge baseball fan, but going to events are fun and games are pretty entertaining because you can either watch the game or people. Let's just say I watched a lot of people! Dodger's scored in the bottom of the first inning (do you like that baseball lingo? I used to play softball...) making the scored 2-0. The next 6 innings were uneventful. The pitcher threw a no-hitter of the first 7 innings of the game before starting to lose it, so they switched up pitchers. We left right as they were switching pitchers (we had to make it home for dinner on time...) and from what I was told, the game went downhill after that. For those of you who aren't at all familiar with baseball, there are 9 innings (usually, as long as there isn't a tie). Apparently the final score was 8-5 Houston. So sometime in the 2 and a half innings from when we left, Dodger's scored 3 more runs and Houston scored 8! It sucked that we had to leave early, but we made it back right on time as it was (to the minute!!!).

Anyway, It was a really fun day and a really fun weekend. I had some good bonding time with a couple of the kids (it's about time I get some bonding time... only two weekends left before summer!) which was really special to me. Another praise for all of you is that I finally got offered a contract for next year! They weren't sure if they were going to have enough in the budget to hire me back (they do all of the hiring around February/March time) but yesterday they offered me a contract. So I believe I am on for another year of crazy 30 hour weekends hanging out with some great kids!

Where Did The Sun Go?

Sorry for totally lagging on blog updates. Not a whole lot has been happening, but I've been really busy... Does that make sense? Kinda an Oxymoron maybe...

Anyway, if you read my last post you will know how tired I was last week. The after Prom party really did me in and I pretty much haven't stopped since. Last week Wednesday I had another all nighter (I drove my friend Holly to LAX Thursday morning at around 3am and we might have gone to bed around midnight or so giving me another night of only two hours of sleep... NO GOOD!!! but totally fun!). Last weekend at work was pretty mellow. All of the kids had just gotten back from their backpacking trips so most of the weekend was spent unpacking, doing laundry, and just relaxing.

This week was a pretty exciting one. Monday was Cinco De Mayo so we celebrated by having Mexican Food at Home-Group (and who better to be on the main dish than me?). I spent most of the morning cooking and cleaning (like a true Mexican I suppose... I had the apron on and everything... I totally reminded myself of my abuela...). That afternoon I drove down to pickup Holly from the Airport which was fun. We had some good bonding time on the PCH. Dinner that night was AMAZING! We had so much food and all of it was great! Tuesday I got some stuff done around the house and around town before driving up to Santa Barbara to pick up Mackenna. Later that night I got to watch Mason and Caden again. They have both grown so much! Mason has made some incredible progress (he's walking, dancing, signing, and interacting with you... still not talking, but totally communicating through signs and nods!). I am actually going to be watching them the last weekend of this month while Mom and Dad go away on a much needed vacation.

Which brings me to my next big news; I only have three more weekends left before summer!!! Yes that's right! Counting this weekend (which starts in about an hour), I only have three more weekends left for this school year. I still don't know if I will have a job next year (they aren't sure if they have it in the budget to hire an Assistant on the weekends, but the Headmaster is "Cautiously Hopeful"... whatever that means...), but it's totally in God's hands! In other news, Holly has finally recruited me to work at Forest Home. I am going to be hosting a group this next week (Wednesday-Friday) which I am actually sort of excited about. It should be fun! Life is beautiful right now and even though the sun disappeared today, I thought I would share one of my favorite photos right now... Enjoy the weekend!

Fried, Toasted, Spent...

I'm not so sure that this weekend was as good as I thought it was going to be. I mean, I didn't think it was going to be spectacular or anything. I knew it was going to be pretty rough, but I didn't anticipate how rough it actually was. Overall, work this weekend was really stressful. The kids were really high strung and not behaving really well. I actually had to discipline a few students this weekend which I never do because I hate it! So work was crazy. I did get to go home Friday night (I was supposed to be on sleepover duty). One of the dorm parents came in around 11pm as I was curling up on the couch and asked if I wanted to go home and sleep in my own bed... "Heck Yes!!!"

Saturday was similar to Friday as far as discipline and all that. We did open the pool for the kids (it was way too stinkin' hot for the end of April). I got to clean out a dead rat from the pool which was fun (or not!)! The pool was incredible and I totally jumped in a couple of times to cool off! Saturday night after getting off work, I headed over to the After Prom Party at Jesters/Ojai Playhouse. I got to pretend to be paparazzi for the first part of the night which was super rad! The rest of the night, I helped watch kids (Tried to keep them from making babies) in the movie theater (Goonies... "HEY YOU GUYS!!!"). I think I ended up getting home around 4am and fell asleep at 4:30am. I slept for about 2 and a half hours before getting up to head over to work. I took a cat nap on the bus on the way down to Santa Monica, but the whole day was pretty miserable from being so exhausted!

After work, I went straight down to Ventura for Nicki's birthday dinner. It was sort of a girl's night thing which was super fun. I felt like I was drunk (not that I know what that feels like) from having no sleep and walking around all day long. After dinner we did a little bowling. I was way loopy by this time so I don't remember everything (I took pictures though to try and remember some of it... I am totally exaggerating by the way, I remember everything). I am slowly trying to play catch up as far as sleep and stuff, but I am still super tired... Was it worth it??? ABSOLUTELY! It was a great weekend even if I am totally fried!

PS: I did manage to take a lot of pictures from this weekend despite being super tired!

Pictures of The Prom After Party

Pictures of Santa Monica/Work

Pictures of Nicki's B-Day Party

Pictures of my new gauges... That's right, I went up to 0G's this weekend... they don't hurt at all which is super awesome! I probably won't go any bigger despite the constant nagging and temptation that some of my High Schoolers dish out... I can almost put my finger through the whole which tell me they are big enough!

SOOOO Good!

I have to say that I am super excited about this weekend! It's crazy and chaotic and I can't wait! I am on sleepover duty tonight at work (which is always a joy... you know sleeping on the couch... I don't mind it as much as I complain, but it's the job I guess). So I go into work today at 2:30pm and stay overnight, work all day tomorrow. I get off at 10pm when I get to shoot straight over to Jesters/Ojai Playhouse for the Safe and Sober After Prom Party! The Party goes from 10pm - 4 am after which I will go home and try to sleep for a couple hours before needed to be back at work by 8:30am... (are you tired yet?) I get to work from 8:30am - 5:30pm (we are taking the kids to the Santa Monica Pier which I am really excited for because I have never been there before). After work, we are having a girl's dinner for Nicki's B-Day which should be super fun! Who knows what will happen after that with all of those crazy ladies! As crazy as this weekend sounds (and trust me, the more I think about it, the more I freak myself out about it), I am super excited (mainly for the After Prom Party because I am didn't go to Prom because I am sort of Anti-Prom - it's cool for other people, but not my thing - The After Prom Party is going to be awesome!)! Please pray for strength and patience and rest (when possible) and energy for me to get through this crazy exciting weekend. Also pray for a Safe Prom night for all Nordhoff students! Pray that good decisions will be made throughout the night!

PS: this picture is dedicated to Miss Cory Coffey, my friend and partner in crime when it comes to all things that are SOOOOO GOOD!!!!

The Arches

Last night Carl and I drove up to meet Kate and some of her friends for dinner at Something's Fishey. Dinner was delicious and it was fun hanging out with Kate (Hey Kate H! Glad to hear that you read my blog!). After one of Kate's friends suggested hiking up to "The Arches" by Westmont. I didn't realize how out of shape I was until we started climbing up the mountain behind Westmont. It wasn't really "climbing" but most of the hike had a pretty good incline to it. It actually goes through some private property so it was a little sketchy some of the time. There was super cool quasi-Roman architecture which was super neat to see! The view was incredible and I really like how the lights blended on my camera! It was a fun night for sure!

Spring is in Bloom

The weekend after last, my parents, Chris and myself took a bike ride down to Ventura. The weather was perfect (a little warm... it was that 90F degree weekend) and the ride was great! I saw this little guy on the trail as we were riding down and we stopped to help him across the trail (and a quick photo opp...). For more pictures of this killer ride, check out this link.

I have also been having some fun with Henna and you should check out those pictures too!

Whirlwind

I definitely feel like I have been in a whirlwind these last two weeks. But what really sucks about it, is I dont' even remember what I did... Does that ever happen to you? You get so busy with a bunch of stuff that is really fun, but when you sit down to evaluate it, you realize that it was sort of a whole lot of fun nothingness... This probably makes no sense but I am trying...

I think if I had internet this week I probably would have updated my blog sooner with all of the wild exciting things happening in my life lately. Unfortuneately, the wireless at Coffee Connection has been down all week which leaves me without internet (well, ok not entirely true... I have internet at my house on our home computer. We used to have wireless there but it hasn't been working for months... if anyone wants to come over and fix it, I would definitely love them forever - talk about conditional love... - I will use my house computer for email and stuff like that but I hate updating my blog on it... and I can't upload pictures onto it... I just like using my slow laptop...). Let me try and rack my brain on the happening of the last two weeks...

Well, I have been hanging out with my friend Holly a lot. She works at Forest Home Ojai Valley as the Program Director (it's sort of like what I do in the summer so it's fun to hang out and talk about camp... yes I am a nerd but so is she... it's win-win) so we have been spending a lot of time there hanging out and working on stuff (like skate ramps and other stuff). Hanging out at her camp is definitely getting me excited about our summer camp. We have about 5 more weekends left before school is out and then maybe three weeks before camp begins... Time to start planning...

I can't really put my finger on anything concrete that has really happened in the last two weeks which sort of bums me out... All I know is that I have been having a good time and enjoying the incredible sunshine! I have some new pictures that migth spark something in my brain that I will try and post this week (pray for the wireless to be back up at the Coffee Shop). Other then that, Have a lovely weekend friends!