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!

Beautifully Wonderful Weekend!!!

It has been awhile since I have had a wonderful, amazing weekend. Don't get me wrong... I love my job (yes I do love it) and I love hanging out with the kids and stuff, but nothing compares to a weekend off!

Friday I had to work (I was on LAX sleepovers so I had to stay with the kids that were going down to LAX Saturday morning). Work was surprisingly pleasant. I had about 8 girls (maybe 7 boys in the boys dorm) so my mom offered to drive the kids to our house to watch a movie. It was so nice to get off campus and just hangout with the kids at my house! I got to chat with a couple of kids that I don't normally get to talk to which was super neat! The kids went to bed around 10 (I let them stay up... don't tell anyone... haha) and I was going to try and stay up. I had two girls who were getting picked up at 1:30am so I figured pulling an all nighter might be ok... I was exhausted and actually tried to sleep but it didn't work out for me... so it pretty much was an all nighter. I woke the rest of the kids up at 5:30am so they could head out in the vans at 6:15 and I was off for the rest of the week!

After getting home at 6:30am, I was already wide awake so I watched a movie before starting Crepes. Sarah came home this weekend with two of her friends from school and she begged me to make Crepes. They actually turned out pretty good (the girls really liked them so I guess that was good). After a very filling breakfast of crepes my mom and I drove down to Ventura to do a little shopping (I bought a new hat... Yay for payday and buying new hats!). We decided to stop by Real Cheap Sports to check out some camping gear for my mom (Our school has an amazing outdoor education program and all of the middle-schoolers go on a backpacking trip in the spring... my mom has gone on two trips so far and has finally decided to break down and start buying her own gear). I love Real Cheap Sports because I always liked earthy, granola people (my mom thought that calling them granola people was pretty funny... but whatever). The store just makes me happy! We did some recruiting while we were there too which was pretty fun (we invited the cute camping guys who work there to apply for our summer camping director position... The position really needs to be filled and it would be rad if we got some new, young blood in there! - not to mention cute!).

After our Real Cheap Sports adventure my mom and I went to pick up Ruby from Villanova (Ruby was one of my mom's students from Taiwan the last few years who now goes to Villanova... she comes over on occasion to get away from school). Ruby had been gone on Spring Break for a bit and wanted to come over and make us dinner. She actually had never cooked before so she was a little nervous, but she did an amazing job! She started us out with some tasty BOBA, accompanied with some garlic Cucumbers, Some great egg dish, and Taiwanese fried rice. We barbecued some chicken and cooked up some asparagus which made for a really great dinner! Hanging out with Ruby was super fun! She is such a sweet girl and a great addition to the family!

Sunday was another AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL day! I got to go to Community which is always a blessing! It was cool to be there on a day when we were starting a new study (we just got done with Colossians and are now moving onto Acts). After church, Janae and I headed home for the afternoon. My parents and I tag-teamed washing our cars which was actually pretty fun. Later in the afternoon, Holly, Carl, and I drove up to Santa Barbara for Emy's concert. We went up early to hang out with one of their Forest Home friends, Elissa. Elissa lives in this amazing house that looks over all of SB! The view was incredible and the company was just as wonderful! Emy's concert was AMAZING, as always which made for a lovely end to a beautiful weekend!!! Thank you God for a beautiful weekend, for new and old friends, and incredible music!!!

Mono?

I don't think I have mono but I have been SUPER tired lately... I have been sleeping great, but not getting too much, but I still wake up feeling tired and sort of achy. Don't really know what's going on with that... Maybe I will freak myself out enough again to go back to the doctors...

Other than being super tired, this week has been fun! I went for a nice bike ride down to Foster Park and was pleasantly surprise how nice it is down there. I actually have never visited Foster Park but had this image in my head of something really gross and dirty and just ghetto. But it was really pretty and well kept... and the river was nice to look at too. There is a good amount of water in it and I am thinking about going creek hopping sometime next week if anyone wants to join me.

Last night I went for a walk up on Shelf with Amber and the girls. It's always super nice to hang out with Amber and the girls made for a super fun walk. Sage must have run about 3/4 of the trail... I was amazed!

And now I find myself sitting at the coffee shop with Holly. Today is a beautiful day so go out and enjoy yourselves!

Pobre Niños Emos

In honor of going up to 2 gauges in my ears (they hurt SOOO bad! I put them in yesterday morning and they still are killing me!!! I am probably going to stay at 2s for a little while), I thought I would share a super interesting article that Ryan sent me about the crazy Emo Riots in Mexico. Apparently all the Punk kids and the Hard Core kids have gotten together and decided that Emo kids suck and are all gay so they want to beat them all up... Definitely read the article because it is really sad! Also check out this awesome video that completely describes what Emo is.

Work this weekend was good. Basically a normal weekend. I sort of have the next two weekends off (I have to work Friday night for sleepover LAX kids) so that should be really nice! Have a beautiful day!