Wired

So, the title really isn't for Wired Magazine, it's just because I am wired on caffeine right now to get through the rest of my classes. Today was my first day of the spring semester (actually, I really shouldn't say was because it still is).My first class started at 8am, Human Physiology. The material sounds really cool and I will totally get into it, but the professor is totally monotone so I will definitely need to drink my big thermos of coffee before I go into that class. My next class was Survey of Latin America. This professor is super old and is requiring us to read 5 books over the course of the semester (I don't like required reading!!!). My next class was Dance. Now, if most people reading this know me pretty well but for those of you who don't know me, I CAN'T DANCE. I can sing and keep rhythm pretty well that way, but make me move and it's like I have two left feet. So that class will be interesting! My next class was Plays and Players. Basically we go see about 4 plays throughout the semester and write critiques and discuss in class what we liked and didn't like. We have to watch three CSUN productions and one professional production. Our professor thought it would be cool for us all to see Wicked. Any class that requires me to see Wicked is pretty darn cool in my book (Mom and Dad, really I have to see it... it's for school...). Between 1:45 and 4:20 I have a huge gap in which I find stuff to do (homework, shopping...). Since we didn't have any food in the house last night, I decided to explore Northridge, Reseda, and the surrounding area a little more. I ended up at Whole Foods market where I picked up an AMAZING sandwich for dinner. I also picked up a triple shot chai latte at Starbucks to get me through my last two classes. So now I get to wait until my professor arrives (my class is supposed to start at 4:20, but there was a note on the door saying he could be as late as 5 today). All in all school as gone fairly well. I'll let you know how the rest of my day goes after my three shots of espresso really kick in.

It's Over!

Well, my long vacation has now come to an end. Spring semester starts on Tuesday, but I am pretty ready for it. It's been fun laughing at all of the people who had to go back to school super early, but the laughing is now over. I am getting way to comfortable not doing anything. Work went really well this week. Mason is finally getting better. He still has a stuffy nose, but it's not as bad as it has been.

Have you ever had the feeling that you are all alone in something. I don't mean physically, but sort of emotionally I guess. I have kinda been feeling this way last night through today. I know that I am not alone and it's kinda silly to feel this way, but I have been kinda struggling with one of my Jr. High girls who is going through a lot of bad stuff right now. I am almost at a loss of what to do. All last night I was up worrying and praying that everything will work out according to God's plan, but it's still so hard to let go and to focus and lean on the people around you for support. I dunno, I'm sort of rambling right now because I can't really put into words what is going on in my head. But basically if you could pray for my Jr. High girl that would be great. She's not a Christian at all and she is just going through so much stuff and could use a lot of prayer.

Well, since it is Sunday and I have a big week ahead of me, I thought I would include some prayer requests for this week.

• Like I said before, school starts this week. Please pray that I will be able to get back into the swing of school. Pray that I will be able to handle my Tuesdays (basically I have class from 8am to 9:30pm; then I have to drive home).
• Again please pray for my Jr Higher girl. I can't really explain what's going on, please just pray that she will be ok and that I will know how to help her.
• Please pray for me and this unexplainable feeling of loneliness. Pray that I will not go into this semester with this feeling because that usually sets me up for a pretty depressing semester.

I think that's all. I know there are many more, but those are the only ones that come to mind. I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.

I'm Back!

Well, I'm back! I survived another youth trip and I am so tired! It all started Saturday night around 10pm. All the kids came and spent the night at the church because we left were leaving at 4am on Sunday and we didn't want to have to wait for people. Needless to say I got maybe 1 hour of sleep that night and woke up to drive for some 7 hours to Sierra Summit.

The first couple of hours were tough because everyone in my car was out like a light bulb in June. After breakfast I woke up and was ready for the rest of the trip. I only hit one patch of black ice which scared the crap out of me, but we all made it up there safe and sound. Sunday was pretty warm sitting in the sun, but it got cold as the sun went down. A couple of girls (both named Taylor) went up with Jake David (it was their first time snowboarding). Jake ditched them and they ended up riding back with ski patrol earning them the wonderful nickname of "Ski Patrol."

The rest of the trip went really well. No major injuries; just some bumps and bruises. Driving home was super funny. Jan and his friends Austin and Sean were in my car and they spent most of the time mooning the other cars in our group. They actually made me miss the offramp from the 5 to the the 126. Then they all yelled at me for missing it and I missed the next offramp too. It was a pretty wild night and a pretty wild trip. I have so many more funny things that happened, but I am exhausted from this weekend and I need to get some sleep. But I am back and we are all safe. Thank you for all your prayer!

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy

So I was trying to think of cooler titles for my blogs and I tried to think of something that would describe my fairly simple week (hence the title). So the week started out normal. Monday was nice. Samantha had to do some stuff in Ventura so I had Mason to myself most of the day. Monday night we met with the new leadership team for Community which I believe was very productive. We'll see if we accomplish all that we discussed at the meeting.

Tuesday was pretty chill. I basically sat at home doing nothing until I went with my Mom to her OVS soccer game in Santa Barbara. Wednesday was alright. Samantha had one of the girls from the office come over to pay bills. It was a little strange having someone I don't know hanging out in a house that's not mine, but she was cool. Poor Mason can't seem to shake this cod that he has. He now has a narsty cough in which he gasps for air. It's super sad. But Samantha's mom came into town on Wednesday night to watch Mason while Samantha and Hellmuth went out of town for their anniversary, giving me Friday off.

So my week was pretty much over as of Wednesday. Thursday I drove down to Northridge with my cousin to show her around the campus. I was able to pick up two classes worth of books (that would be 6 books for $175). It was nice to hangout with my cousin again. But that was it for the week. Today I'm just hanging out and doing nothing. This weekend is the snowboarding trip so that should be pretty fun, but for now everything is just easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Weekly Prayer Requests

Well, it has definitely been a while since I posted prayer requests. It's not that I haven't had any, it's just that I have had a lot less because school is out and I basically go to work and church (so I am kinda praying a lot anyway). Just as an update, I started my new job last week. It went really well and I am getting more used to it now. Wednesday I met Hellmuth (that would be Dr. Billy's first name; he's Icelantic) and he was very nice. Hellmuth's mother was in town Wednesday through Friday and she was very nice as well. I guess she was raving about me to her friend which made me feel good.

Friday was nice because Samantha had a Dr's appointment in Santa Barbara and she waited down there to pick up her step kids. So she was gone most of the day and I got to hang out with just Mason. It did kinda suck though because he had a fever the entire night before. He was better when I got there, but still a little fussy from his long night. But now we start another week and here go the prayer requests.

• Please pray that this week goes well with Mason. He has been fighting off a Sinus infection for the last couple of weeks so please pray that he will get better soon.
• Everyone in my family has had the flu over the last week or so. Please pray that my immune system won't fail me now. I really can't afford to get sick.
• I am going on the Snowboarding trip next weekend with the youth group. Please pray for everyone going to be safe and that there will be no major injuries. Please pray for all of the drivers (I might be one too; we'll see) to be safe and to have wisdom and patience as they drive.

I think that is all I have for now. School starts in two weeks and I am sure I will be having plenty more prayer requests then.

Slacker

So I was surfing the internet today and I realized I never posted how my new job went (or is going because it is still going on). I thought that I had written about it but really it was just an email that I had written to Amber about my new job. So I apologize that I have been kinda a slacker lately with my posting. So here it goes with the new job info:

Monday I started my new job with Mason; he is the son of Dr. Billy and Samantha Billy. He is six months old and is huge! No joke, he is wearing 12 month clothes and they are almost too small! But he is cute and he is kinda fun. The first day was a little bit awkward; just because it's a new family and I really don't know them that well. Samantha hung out around the house because she is trying to catch up on 6 months worth of house work so that made it a little more awkward but it turned out to be fine. Mason is not as mentally developed as Dalton was/is so it is a little more difficult, but it's fun. He likes to be held (remember this is like a 20+ lb. kid) a lot so I spend a lot of time in the rocking chair. He also loves the Teletubbies so I have already memorized an entire DVD; fun soup! Anyway, I am just kinda working and hanging out now. I only work three days a week now so I have just been hanging out on Tuesdays and Thursdays until school starts. So pretty much, I've just been being a slacker this week and this will probably continue for the next two weeks until school starts.

Change

Today I was reminded just how much I hate change! Today was my last day watching Dalton which was super sad. It's just sad because I have watched him grow from this tiny little 8 week old baby with two thumbs (on his left hand), to a 7 month old little boy with one thumb. He's now crawling (well, more like scooting on his tummy, but he's getting around), sitting up without any assistance, and is just all together super fun (listen to me, he's not even my kid; just wait until I have my own kids). I mean, I know I will probably see him around and Alia said she would probably call me for weekends and stuff, but still; change sucks! It didn't help that Dalton was super sick and fussy all day. But change happens and it has to; otherwise things would get too boring.

So I start my new job on Monday with Mason (it's just a trial period but I have to make this one work). I am still on winter break which is nice cause I get to relax a little bit more and I am not spending nearly as much money on gas so it's nice; yet amidst all this relaxation, change still happens and today's was tough.

Crazy Morning (kinda gross)

Well, well, well... It has been a while since I wrote last. It's kinda funny, I only seem to write when something is going wrong lately; but this morning was super fun...

So here's what happened; This morning I work up to Toby whimpering in his crate so I got up and let him out. As I let him out of his crate I noticed a ton of vomit all over the inside of the crate. I let him outside and cleaned up the crate and his blanket and his bowl. I didn't feed him because I wanted to watch him for a little while and see what was up. I then noticed that he... how do I put this... was struggling to have a bowel movement. I talked to my mom and found out that he had gotten sick the morning before as well. So I took him to the vet to see what was going on.

The vet wanted to take some x-rays just to make sure he didn't have anything stuck in his intestines. So I waited in the waiting room for a half an hour for the x-rays and to make a long story even longer, Toby had eaten what appeared to be some gravel or something of that nature which had blocked up his colon and made his stomach so upset. So the doc gave us some special food that I have to feed him 4-6 times a day along with two prescriptions to give him three times a day for five days, or until he passes whatever the heck he ate. After that fright I am now $400 in debt to my parents and I am freaking out cause now I know I have to take this new nannying job in order to make some money (In case you didn't know, I got offered a new nannying job for a doctor couple that live in Rancho Matilija. They have a 6 month old boy named Mason and the wife, Stephanie, is pregnant with another. I met with them on Tuesday and we are going to have a trial period starting next week so you could pray that the trial period goes well and that if this is what God wants me to do right now that it will work out.) So that was my crazy day. If you could pray for this whole job sitch to work out and that I can catch up financially.

WILD!!!

So these are just some pictures of the wonderful power of God last night. In case you don't live in Ojai, last night the wind was WILD!!!! I have never experienced wind that wild before and it was so humbling to know that I could do nothing to stop it. So last night I went out to rent some movies because my friend is lame and doesn't want to hand out with me while she is here (not you Katie, you're cool). I rented 4 DVDs and we were watching one of them as a family. I had just let my dog out to go to the bathroom when the electricity went out. It came back on really quickly, so we grabbed all of our flashlights and stuff just in time for the lights to go out for good. Luckily we still had most of our candles out from Christmas so we were fairly well prepared. I let my dog back in because he was super scared from the wind.

I went out to my room to grab another flashlight and I saw that the fence separating our property from the trailer park next door had come crashing down. Needless to say I opted to sleep in the house in case anything else happened. Most people are saying that around 6 transformers blew last night which caused the wild blackout.

This morning we awoke to find that two large pine trees had fallen into our backyard, one large branch had fallen on top of my room, and the fence was worse then we thought. But everyone is safe and the insurance people are coming out either today or tomorrow. I just thought it was pretty wild and I hope everyone else was luckier then we were.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful day today and yesterday. Christmas was in a word... interesting... for me. First of all we had Christmas eve dinner at our house last night and we had been prepping all week. My mom isn't the best at communicating what she needs done when she is focused on something else so this whole week has been super stressful with trying to help her, finishing up finals, and trying to manage with only three cars (Sarah's car needed a new transmission and it was in the shop all week). But Christmas eve dinner ended up just fine. Lots of great food and family drama that I really can't go into detail about on here because I don't feel like writing a novel, but feel free to ask me about it sometime. My grandma decided to give me the "what were you thinking grandma" gift this year. She gave me a flashlight. Now this wasn't even a cute flashlight or like an awesome mag-light; Oh no. This was an ever-ready, big, fat, ugly flashlight that you can buy at Ace for about $10 (yes I used to work at Ace Hardware).

Christmas eve I also sang with Amber and Ryan at the Christmas eve service. It was fun even though I am fighting off a small cold that Dalton gave me. I also told the children's story which was kinda funny cause it was so short. I was seriously up there for like 2 minutes. It was awesome!

Today was not as wonderful and merry as I would have liked. I woke up to my cell phone ringing at a around 7:30. It was a blocked number so I knew it was my house (I sleep in the garage), but whenever I would go to answer it they hung up. So I went into the house and poured myself a huge cup of coffee. Apparently Sarah was woken up a little bit more rough then myself and she was REALLY upset. So upset in fact, my mom opted out of opening presents right away to go for a run so everyone would cool off. So while my mom went out on her run, my dad went for a walk, Sarah went back to bed, and Janae and I stayed in the living room and watched Happy Gilmore. Finally at around 9:00 everyone was calm enough to enjoy giving and receiving. I got a hat, the rest I have to return.

After presents we made breakfast and made plans for the rest of the day. We decided to go to the beach since we are Southern Californians and well... we can. So we headed off for Bates with the family and Toby. It was Toby's first beach trip and he loved it. He was terrified of the waves, but loved the water and the sand and all the other dogs. It was cute. I was able to catch some pictures in between it all. Later we made Tamales (Christmas presents for everyone basically). Making the tamales was great fun but later my mom's friend came over and that kinda sent everyone into a tail-spine again which I can't go into detail about but ask me about it and I will be more then happy to share. But all in all Christmas was fine. I hope everyone else had a better time. Again Merry Christmas to all!