I Can't Get No... Satisfaction...

The last couple of weekends at work have been a little rough... Just crazy kids and not a whole lot of support from other staff members has left me coming home in tears from being so exhausted! This weekend was no different. My kids were sick and the nurse had to come in three times this weekend (she is on call for "emergencies" and we try to not call her unless something is seriously wrong with our kids; she should never have to come in three times especially when it's for the same kid). Anyway, it was frustrating and hard and I left Sunday sad and wondering if I was making a difference in these kids lives. All I want is for these kids to feel loved and these last few weekends I have been so heartbroken because I don't feel like I am making a difference. I was chatting with my parents at dinner Sunday night after work and I remembered a conversation that I had with one of my kids on Friday night that almost brought me to tears.

One of my kids I have known for the last 3 years. He came here with no guardians and we had almost zero contact with his parents (sound familiar Amber and Ryan? This is a boy... not Chris). My mom worked really hard to find him a guardian (trying to be his guardian herself... the school wouldn't let her; conflict of interest) and sort of took him under her wing. We have kinda all taken him in and kept an eye on him at school for the last few years (he's one of our "year-round" kids; he's here all school year and 9 weeks during the summer). Anyway, Friday he came into my office (well, it's Dave's office and Dave was gone so I was him for the afternoon and I was in his office) and looked a little sad. I asked him how he was doing and he said he was tired of all of the drama at school. I asked him to elaborate and as he was getting ready to tell me one of the sixth grade girls came in asking him to come out and talk to him. I told her she could tell me too and she was very vague and didn't want to. Anyway, this kid told her that if she wanted to talk to him, she could say it in front of me because he was going to tell me everything that was going on anyway. She was shocked that he was going to tell me the drama and this was his response, "Miss Michaela is like my older sister. I tell her everything." Wow! Sister? Really? I had no idea that this was how he felt. He went on to tell me about the drama and I gave him my two sense about the whole thing which he appreciated and took to heart. It was so nice to actually feel like I was making a difference in at least one kid's lives. It's enough to keep me going back every weekend. Next weekend is Parent Weekend which is usually really sad and hard so please pray for me and my kids (especially the one's who's parents will not be visiting them).

"Christians" vs "Christians"???

Today I was watching some reruns on Lifetime (yes I am a nerd sometimes) and I came across a show that almost brought me to tears: Anyone familiar with the show Wifeswap? Well, the basis of the show is to find two very different families (usually they are messed up, broken families) and the "new moms" come in and switch things up to try and "teach" the new families how other families function. Anyway, I got caught watching it today and it really broke my heart. The first family, the Child's family, were super conservative, Bible-thumping Christians who believe the father is the Ruler of the household and the mother is his "Help-mate." They have two 18 year-old daughters, a 17 year old son, a 13 year old daughter, a 10 year old daughter, and a 2 year old daughter. They all have "chosen" not to date and pray and believe that God will reveal their spouse to them when the time is right. The second family, the Beckman-Heari... something family, were Liberal Christians, where the father is a super educated ex-preacher who has 3 masters degree in theology and a PhD in Bible and can read and speak 8 languages. The mother is a powerhouse executive who "brings home the bacon" while the husband is the "stay at home mom." They believe that their childern should think for themselves and are they are allowed to slack on their chores.

As the intro to the show ran, I started to laugh at the crazy families... But it didn't take long (maybe 2 minutes into the show) for me to realize how sad this episode actually was. The conservative father admitted, with pride I might add, that he "brainwashes" his children and he has been "brainwashing" them since birth. When their 13 year old daughter started to express an interest in having a career as well as taking care of her family, the father removed her from the house to "protect" her from the new mom's "worldly" influence. The other father mocks "Bible-thumpers" by enthusiastically praying and singing songs like "The B-I-B-L-E. Yes that's the book for me..."

Anyway, the show made me really sad to see how wrong both of these families were and what a terrible example they were of what a Christian is and should be. Neither of the families had it right and I just pray that something will change in those families.

Carded?

Sometimes I go to the grocery store and pick up stuff for Taco Tuesday. And sometimes I pick up a bottle of Triple Sec and I don't get carded... Do I look like I am old? Why did they not card me? It's sort of a depressing thought... Anyway, Happy Taco Tuesday everyone!

My Funny Valentine

Every year I look forward to Valentine's day for one reason and one reason only; My Dad. Every year he gets each of us (my mom and my sisters and myself) a Valentines card and some candy. Sounds simple, but I really do love him for it. I love mydad so much and I am so thankful for the person that he is. Thanks Papa! I love you!

A Moment of Joy

My last post was a little depressing so I thought I would share a moment of joy with you. Yesterday afternoon as I was rounding up the girls for dinner (22-1 can be a little difficult), I ran into a Chinese couple who were looking for one of my students. I knew that this girl was going home for the weekend (but with her, going home means going to her sister's house), but I didn't recognize either of these people. I went to her room and told her someone was here that I didn't recognize. She was a little confused but when she saw the woman, she got so excited and ran up to her and embraced her. They were chatting in Chinese and I was awkwardly in the way, then she asked if her father could come into the dorm. At that moment I realized that these were her parents and I let them have their little reunion. It might sound like not that big of a deal, but to see the joy and happiness on this students face, it really made my day.

I am on sleepovers this weekend, so I am here the whole weekend which is hard, but ok. I am tired, but I will get by. On another wonderful note, my dad got a new job. I don't think I blogged about it, but he got laid off about three weeks ago and he has been looking and praying for the last few weeks. He is now going to be working the third shift (9pm-6am) for Channel Island Surfboards in Carpinteria. He'll be running the machines that cut out and shape the surf boards. It was definitely a God thing for him to find this job so thank you for those of you who were praying about it. Please continue to pray that this will be a good fit. Pray that his sleeping patterns can be adjusted easily and that our family can adjust to this new and exciting change.

Heartbreaker

While Heartbreaker is a great Pat Benatar song, it doesn't really describe my weekend. Friday was my first day back at work after a very long break. I really missed my kids and was excited to get back (even though I had been battling a cold all week). Most of the afternoon was spent catching up with kids and learning how to do Speed Stacks. The kids had a Social that evening which always makes for an eventful night. It started with cleaning up one kid's leg (one of the girls "accidentally" scratched his leg with her shoe... long story but he ended up with a cut on his leg from a couple inches below his knee to a couple inches below his ankle). He's a tough kid so it wasn't a big deal to him, but it was a gnarly cut nonetheless. Later in the evening one of my middle school boys thought it would be a funny idea to pull a chair out as someone was sitting down... It would have been a funny idea if he didn't pick the one girl who just had surgery that removed a piece of her hip bone (they took the bone from her hip and put it in her mouth...). She was in so much pain and because of the very recent surgery (like a week and a half ago), I called the nurse... She ended up being ok, but really really sore. After the social, I went up to open the dorm and walked by one of my girls crying hysterically on another girl's shoulder. I gave the second girl the look of "Is she ok? What's going on?" and she gave me the "I'll tell you later." look. Apparently she just found out that her ex-boyfriend in Korea just died in a car accident. She was pretty devastated so Tami (the head of the girl's dorm) came in a chatted with her.

The rest of the weekend was full of fairly typical teenage drama, but what really broke my heart was a kid who doesn't even go to this school. Saturday morning I ran into Tami who was going to take an old student out for breakfast. He had been calling her the last few nights, crying hysterically because his parents don't love him. As she is telling me this, the kid pulls up in his Brand New BMW Bimmer that his parents gave him for getting a B average. A brand new car and all this kid wants is for his parents to love him... It broke my heart and continues to break my heart. I really do hope and pray that these kids feel loved; if not by their parents, then by their dorm parents at least.

Maybe it's a Sign

Last night I got to hang out with a bunch of old friends (Katie, Megan, Keri, Becky, Nicki and some of their husbands and babies). It was so fun to hang out with them all again and to see everyone all grown up and living their lives. It was a little awkward being the only single person there, but I have to say I am pretty happy where I am at. Everyone is in town for Kelly's memorial today which kinda makes me sad, but I know she is in a better place.

The picture is from walking shelf road the other day with my mom and Sarah. I took a few more that I really like, but I need to work on them a little in photoshop... For now, you can check them out.

A Few of My Favorite Things

While raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens are some of my aunt Julie's favorite things, (haha... I tell that joke to my kids and they never get it...) I thought I would share a few of my favorite things.

• Spending 8 hours Decoupaging a coat rack for my bedroom (I'll try and get a picture of it for you).
• Spending 4 hours sewing 4 pairs of PJ shorts for my sister.
• A Sunday afternoon phone call: "Hey Michaela! What are you doing tomorrow at 5am?" "Um... Sleeping... Why? What do you need?" "Wanna drive me to the Burbank Airport?"
• Running into people at the gas station... at 4:30am. (So, I met this couple last weekend at church. They pulled up just as I was getting out of my car and asked what time church started. I said 9:30 and walked in with them. Her name was Deborah and his name was Noah. They just moved into town a couple of months ago and their friend recommended the church.) Anyway, he was on his was to work down at Disney Studios. He works construction on film sets and is currently working on the new Sandra Bullock movie, The Proposal (which I don't really understand because the movie is in post-production and I have already seen previews for the film... which I thought means the movie is finished... I dunno).
  
• The 4:30 drive to Burbank Airport...
• Random Conversations at Trader Joes: The first after this guy noticed my FH shirt (getting dressed at 4:15am = grabbing the shirt at the top of the clean pile). He started chatting about Rancho Del Rey and how his dad was good friends with the Hansens (who donated a bunch of money to RDR back in the day... hence Hansen Hall). We chatted about FH for a bit before I had to leave. The second was at the check out at TJoes. The girl at the register commented on how much she liked my haircut (which is always funny when I haven't gotten my haircut in 3 months... has it really been that long? Oh Wowee Wow!). We chatted about straightning hair and stuff before I had to head out.

A pretty random start to the New Year... And I love every bit of it!

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.