Life, Trials, and Jesus!

So, I just realized that it's pretty much been about three months since I gave an actual update on life. Feels like it's high time.
For those of you who don't know, I am no longer working in the school office at Grace. I'm now the assistant teacher in Kindergarten. I have to say that Kindergarten was definitely not my first choice. In truth, it was my last. Don't get me wrong, I like 5-year-olds and all, but a whole group of them who don't know how to tie their shoes.... Anyway, as I've told many people, the first two weeks were a big trial for me, in my perspective. The thought of being stuck in a little room with all 21 of them, for the WHOLE school year, well it basically freaked me out. A whole year with the same class is a long time when you look at it this way, both of my student teaching experiences were for 1/4 of the year, and then last year I was a teacher aid for 1/2 of the year. Anyway, yeah, Kindergarten. Really doesn't sound like a trial at all when I read it on paper...or blog, but I viewed it that way, and thankfully, God has really used it to teach the things that trials are supposed to teach us.
For one, it's reminded me that I am ALWAYS dependent on Him. This made me realize it more, but I am no more dependent on Him in this situation than I am in any other. I know it sounds silly, but it also made me focus a lot more on heaven. I think there is just something scary when you're starting out a job that you're not sure you love. It's different than just getting a part time job for the summer. For me, as a girl, I don't know when, let alone if I will get married someday. I can't just bank on it, or put my hope in it. So whatever I do, I might be doing for awhile. It just made me remember that I will not be doing anything on this earth for very long compared to eternity, and whatever I AM doing now, I better be doing wholeheartedly for my King! Which made me remember that God has PLACED me here. I didn't just choose it. I know that's a common thing to say, so sometimes we don't really think about what it really means. But God wants me here right now, not just for me, although that's what's helping work all things for my good and His glory right now, but also for the little Kindergarteners. And not just for them, but also to help out Kathi Nelson. That's another thing that's cool because she used to be my fourth grade teacher and now I'm actually getting to know her as a friend. :0)
Something else God is teaching me is about my sin. There are a few Kindergartners who are a bit defiant and will say no to my face. One day it was getting to me and on my break I was reading in Isaiah about the Israelites who were continually provoking God to His face. I realized that whenever I sin, I am just like those little Kindergarteners, I am saying no to His face. And the fact that He would die for me amazes me all over again!
So, I can truthfully say, that this trial made me truly joyful! :0) He has drawn me closer to Him in this than I EVER could have imagined. We are so ridiculously blessed to be allowed to serve Him and know Him! Our great Savior and King! We get to be WITH HIM someday soon!!!
Okay, the other news is that I am officially on High school staff. Sorry Christen, if you are reading this and I haven't told you on the phone yet. That was the news. I absolutely am loving it! I didn't realize that ministry could be this fun! I highly recommend it. One of the biggest surprises to me is the great conversations I've had with many of the girls already. I guess it shouldn't necessarily surprise me, but it did. The staff is great too and I get to go to my first staff meeting tomorrow.
Well, that's life lately. Hopefully I can speak to the readers I may have, and haven't spoken to recently, soon. 'Til then, press on and keep your eyes on Jesus!

Camera!

So, I love photography. I still have yet to take a class in it. I tried to get into a class all through high school. I finally got into it my senior year, but my family went on vacation at the beginning of school and the teacher said I missed all the important information. So I had to be the T.A. in the class instead.
I found that the internet can actually teach you many things. I bought a new Canon Powershot IS S5 and have been practicing with it.
So here have been some of my attempts. My parents 25th wedding anniversary is coming up on the 27th, so my mom asked if I could take some pictures of them. Then I just had some fun snapping a few of Emily today.

That's Life...(that's what all the people say)

I figured it's high time to bump down that picture of the virus attacker. Thankfully, my cold is just about over. In fact, I think this morning was the first one where I didn't wake up with...well...you know. That reminds me of Runaway Bride, the morning show, "Wake up with Flem". Haha. Okay...anyways...

So, because I have nothing to write about and yet I still need to post something, I am going to answer a random question: "What traditions do you carry on during your day, consciously or otherwise?"

Hmmm...more than I thought when I thought about it. It's funny that most of my traditions center somewhat around mealtimes.

In the morning, I always wake up around 5:45 and 6:00. I stumble to the bathroom to take my shower. My mom ALWAYS says "Good morning!" in the brightest, cheeriest voice that makes me want to...well...scream. But I usually grumble back, good morning, and turn on the hot water. It's funny the things a shower can do for your mood. After that I always go and make coffe. Three cups, one spoonful for each cup. While that's gurgling up I eat my cereal. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Best. Cereal. Ever. Lately I've been eating it on the couch, cuz it's cozier. And my dad has recently taken to eating his breakfast at the same time at the table with his laptop and there is just not enough room for what I would like. Plus it's colder at the table near the open window. After the coffee is poured, I dry and straighten my hair. Then I go and pick out something to wear. I ALWAYS tell myself that for now on I will pick out my outfit the night before. But this never happens. And this is 99.9% reason why I never make it out the door at the time I would like. Usually, if I've forgotten to make my lunch after the cereal, I frantically make it now. Then I frantically do my make-up, than I frantically run out the door, sometimes having to put on mascara or something in the car. In this I am well-skilled.

If I don't listen and sing to my music on the way to work, I am in grave danger of falling asleep at the wheel. There have been some close calls lately. I don't have an i-pod thingy in my car, but I'm glad...anyone can just listen to a shuffle mix of their songs. I am a big fan of making mixes myself. I like to have certain themes...road trip...mellow...fun and peppy. I pull in, drop off my lunch at the fridge, enter my office, and turn on my computer. Here is where the morning tradition ends. Who knows what I will find at work???

I ALWAYS have lunch at 12:30 on Mon., Tues., Thurs., and Fri. Well, pretty much always. On Wed. I eat at 1:00. This is because I eat with Emily and on Wednesday's she likes to eat later because she comes in later and it breaks up her day more. Em and I ALWAYS eat on this one particular bench. We get made fun of for always eating on this bench.

I leave work at 4:30. Again, I am in danger of falling asleep on the way home if I'm not singing. I have recently been trying to pray though while I drive. It works out being a really good time to pray and think.

There's not many nightly traditions I carry on. I like having SOME part of my day unpredictable. I do generally hang out with Megan and Amber at least once if not more during the week. Amber and I just started a hip hop class at the gym. THAT'S interesting considering I am TERRIBLE AT DANCING. Amber just happens to be the best in the class.

Before bed I ALWAYS brush my teeth and wash my face. That's one of my least favorite parts of the day. :0( However, I LOVE the part where I turn off my light and hit the pillow. :0)

Attack!

Original uploader was TimVickers at en.wikipedia

The past month was a very busy month. Clint and Kim Archer came out for Resolved and Junior High camp, and with them came six other South Africans. Lyle and Liz Wetherston, Kerry Drew, Vicky Ramsden, and Warren and Jen Upton. We had the privilege of having the Uptons stay with us. It was such a blessed time and I am so thankful that God allowed them to come out here. It was just very sad to see them leave yesterday! We were able to do a lot of fun things with them. The Resolved Conference, Disneyland, the 4th of July, and more. There was many a late night. So, the day after they left (thankfully), it all caught up with me and I now have the flu/cold. (Along with a disturbing case of pink eye...okay, it's not THAT disturbing. Most people didn't even notice it and it's almost gone.)

Laying here with my muscle aches, I was suddenly very curious about what causes muscle aches when you have the flu. So I went ahead and looked it up on good 'ol trusty Wikipedia. (Looking up various topics on how our bodies work just happens to be one of my favorite things to do...call me a nerd if you must...or...don't call me a nerd!) Anyway, it's fascinating. It all has to do with the immune system. When we get a virus, our immune system kicks in and produces antibodies that fight it off. The antibodies travel to our muscles by way of our blood, and they can cause the muscles to contract. The constant contraction makes our muscles sore, apparently.

There are a host of things that fight disease that I didn't even consider before. Tears, coughing, sneezing, saliva, and gastric acid are just a few among the many. I could go on and on. (By the way, the picture above is a "single neutrophil (yellow) engulphing anthrax bacteria (orange).")

The one thing that prompted me to write this post was the annoying presence of evolutionary terms on the wikipedia page. It makes it hard to distinguish betweeen what's true and what's not. (Well, I guess that's a problem with Wikipedia in general. :0) I am not suffering from the same delusion as Michael Scott.) One thing that always strikes me as I study anything about the human body is the fact that people can actually still believe in evolution after they themselves have studied this topic. All the functions that take place within the human body point to a Creator! None of those things could have just happened by accident! It's just one more thing that points to what an Awesome God we have!

Changes

***I wrote part of this post the other day, but I don't want to change it, so I'll leave the beginning as is. Part of it is from right now though.***

6/30/08
Well, I just got back from my lunch break at my new job, Grace School Receptionist/Secretary. Yes, that is the official title. To tell you the truth, I don't even exactly know the difference between a receptionist and a secretary, but I am both apparently. Anyway, before I left for lunch I had a general idea of what this post would be about, now, due to unforseen circumstances it will be changed a bit, oh...there's the title of the post again...but I'll get to that later.
I've been struck recently by all the changes that are happening in my life. There are big things and then there are all these small things too that didn't immediately come to my mind, but nonetheless, they are changes.
One big change is obviously my job. I was working the last five months as a teacher aid in a second grade classroom, now I am at a different school working as what I stated above. I've always somewhat enjoyed when the unexpected happens, at least for the most part, and I definitely didn't expect to become a recep./sec. (My own little made up abbreviation there.) I thought I might have my own classroom this year, but, so far, God had a different plan for me.
***Actually, it's kind of funny. When I was little Emily and I sometimes pretended that we were secretaries in a doctor's office. She hated the game after five minutes, but I loved pretending to schedule patients for doctor's visits. I was telling some people last night that I was making some appointments for people the other day at work, and it was like a dream come true. :0) ***
Anyway, another big change is that I left Crossroads. My old roomie (another change that I will get to in a minute) and I are checking out different fellowship groups at church. People keep asking me why I am leaving...to tell you the truth I could have stayed in Crossroads, there's no exact reason necessarily, it just seemed like time to move on since I've been there for six years. I guess a part of the reason is another change, my Bible study leader and his wife, Eric and Leslie Davis moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to plant a church, (eventually) and they took a group of people with them from the Bible study. My old roommate, Melissa, is one of them. Which leads to another recent change. I moved back to my parents house.
Melissa went to Jackson and at the time we found out that she would move, Megan wasn't sure if she might move back to Minnesota (thankfully she didn't). Jen heard about the possiblity of both of them moving and she decided to move in with some girls from her Bible study. I decided to move back home and save some money.
All of these changes have happened within the last week, although I was anticipating a couple of them for awhile now. For the last three weeks we have had some South Africans staying with us. Clint and Kim Archer came as well, primarily because Clint was asked to teach at the Junior High Summer camp this year. They were able to come early enough to go to the Resolved Conference and a group of people from their church in Hillcrest decided to come too. We met Jen, Warren, Vicky, Liz and Lyle when we went on our trip to South Africa last year. Jen and Warren are staying with us. Because of all the busyness of the last couple of weeks, all these changes haven't really hit me yet. And it's weird. I haven't really had time to contemplate anything that is going on. While I often enjoy the unexpected, change normally freaks me out a bit at the beginning. But not yet...so I'm waiting...

7/2/08
After lunch I was thinking about a completely different change that one day we as believers will experience. While Emily and I were eating, a man named John, who used to be one of the ushers at Grace, approached us on his wheelchair and proceeded to proclaim the excellencies of God to us for about twenty minutes. The thing he kept coming back to the most was that we will be changed when we see God. "We will sin no more" as he put it. I was greatly encouraged and convicted by this man as I was sitting there listening to him. I have never seen John without hearing about how wonderful God is. Not a single time. I remember every Sunday morning, waiting to walk around the corner of the church and hear him say something along the lines of "Praise the Lord, our King!" He was telling us on Monday how he is at the church almost every day with the purpose of reminding seminary students and anyone else he sees about how we need to keep our focus on things above and not on the earth because it is so easy to be distracted by things of this world. He was saying how we have a mission to tell others about Him until He returns, and I think that it is so cool that he doesn't stay at home, which he could easily do, and probably no one would think the less of him. But instead he is out being faithful to encourage other believers, reminding them of the gospel and what we have to look forward to! I want to be like that someday, only it has to start today. My prayer is that God will help me to understand how glorious He is and that He would make me faithful to proclaim His excellencies as well.
We have a huge change coming and it's not that far away!

Kristin Fish

So the main reason why Emily and I traveled to the East Coast was for Kristin's wedding! We were both bridesmaids along with Megan, her sister, as maid of honor. This was special in itself because the four of us have been close since the beginning of High School. I knew of Kristin since Jr. High from church, but we became friends when we were in the same P.E. class at Valencia. I was very thankful for how God brought her along at that time.
I wasn't too fond of High School at the beginning. I was used to a small Christian school with about 15 students in my 8th grade class. It was very different be in a class of around 700. I also wasn't used to the language or the conversation topics. In fact, after having enough of it after about a week, I broke down in tears in the second class of the day. Art with Mr. Bibicoff. An older girl in the class who was pretty outgoing took me outside and talked to me. I don't even remember what she said, but it was a little comforting. However, a few days later I still didn't want to be there and I told Mr. Bibicoff that I didn't feel well. I don't think he liked any sort of conflict and so he immediately said that I could go to the office. I called my dad and asked him to pick me up. Then I tried reasoning with my parents about other options for schooling. Thankfully I made it through the first month okay. I could not understand at the time why my friends that I had from Grace seemed to love public high school, and I quickly wound up not spending too much time with them. I made a couple of friends in P.E. and it was going okay, but none of them were very close. Then Kristin showed up. I never would have thought when I saw her for the first time in Jr. High that she would become a best friend. We soon introduced our sisters to each other since they were the same age, and as I like to say, "forced them to become friends."
From there it took off to slumber parties, "fashion photo shoots", CoolTay Productions, late night t.p. raids, .007 tournaments... the four of us loved to hang out together.
When I first went to Master's, Kristin was going to C.O.C. but I still went over to her house every Thursday night for dinner and we would often meet for coffee at Starbucks. When Megan finished High School the Cooley family moved to Massachusetts so that Mr. Cooley could be an Associate Pastor at a church there with his friend that he met in seminary. It was not easy saying good-bye. It was one of those summers where I felt like I didn't have many friends around, which made it worse.
I won't go into too much of our friendship while she was gone those two years, but I will say that God demonstrated His faithfulness in many ways. He also answered a lot of prayer, which helped me learn that there is never anything too great that I can ask of Him. All of this made this wedding all the more meaningful to me. :0)
Em and I were super blessed to have the Cooley's for two more years when they came back to go to Master's. Something Kristin promised she would never do! Haha. (Just why she couldn't have gone when I went I'm still trying to figure out.) :0)
But, Kristin had already met Jerry in Massachusetts. They worked at Starbucks together and he wasn't saved when they met. God used Kristin to tell him about the gopel, or actually I think he had heard the gospel from his family but she talked to him about it more. I guess he seemed interested at first but didn't give his life to the Lord right away. Eventually he did and he actually moved out here right before (I think it was before) Kristin did. He actually had planned to go to UCLA which he did for awhile. So I am also so thankful that we got to know him when he was here.
The wedding was really perfect. It was fun and easy just having the three of us, I think. Kristin got to have her "autumn style" wedding. We decorated the aisle with leaves and pretty autumn flowers and we wore bronze colored dresses. Kristin's dress was beautiful, it was a mix of ivory and white and had a unique style. There were tears and laughter...and I feel like this is gradually becoming a very corny sounding post, but it's all true. Megan gave a perfect, tear-inducing toast at the reception.
It was a little weird seeing my last close friend from high school get married. As she and Jerry were driving away I had this sense of finality in a way. Like even though my childhood ended already, this felt like the REAL ending.
It's sad to be separated from Kristin and Megan again, but thankfully, as believers, we know it's only for a time!

New York City!

I think it has been quite a while since I have updated the ol' blog and the thought made me realize just how crazy life has been. I say crazy, but I mean a completely different kind of crazy than when I was in school. It's been very nice not having the craziness of homework or lesson planning this year, still, as strange as it may sound, I actually miss homework and tests and learning. But that's getting off topic. Life has just been busy as of late. But good busy.

The most recent event that happened was Kristin's wedding in Massachusett's. Em and I were both bridesmaids and so we flew out there on the 19th. We have always wanted to go and visit New York City and we thought that after Kristin's wedding would be the perfect time to do so. But then we thought Megan should come with us, and then of course Kristin had to come also as sort of a "last hurrah." So Em and I actually flew into New York on Tuesday and spent the whole day there then we met up with the Cooley's on Wednesday and then made our way to their house in Mass. that night.

New York was a blast, although in the first few hours I wasn't so sure it would be. I think we enjoyed taking the shuttle from JFK to our hotel near Central Park. It was so exciting to see the tall buildings and the adorable brownstones that we were so used to seeing in movies. The driver was very nice and took us right to the front of our hotel and helped us with our bags.



***As a side note.*** I had always heard that people in New York in general could be fairly rude and mean, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the exact opposite. Most of the people we met were very kind and helpful. We figured that about five different times when we were a bit lost and confused and verbally discussing it, a person would overhear and offer their help and would even walk a bit of the way with us. I loved hearing the New York accents too! Anyway, more on that later.

After we dropped off our bags we decided to hit up one of the many nearby Starbucks, formulate some sort of plan for the day, and then head over to Central Park, by foot. This little plan worked fine to begin with. We got to Central Park okay and we were overwhelmed by how beatiful it is. There's just a unique feeling of being surrounded by lush, green trees, and then seeing a bunch of skyscrapers rise up behind them.





We took a look at our map and decided to cut through the park and meet up with 70th street so that we could go see Cornell Medical Center, where my mom worked when she lived in New York. It didn't take long for us to realize that Central Park is much larger than we thought and the roads on the map were evidently only the LARGE roads in Central Park. We were lost, and it started to rain. After some wandering we came upon "the Pond". It was amazing! This huge pond with a fountain and little boats...and wow, that's not even the largest body of water in Central Park. I took out my camera to take a picture and to my utter dissapointment, found out that the battery had died. Unfortunately, I had left the rest of the batteries in my bag which was in the hotel. By this time we were getting pretty wet, we realized we had only about an hour to get over to 46th street to buy tickets for Phantom, and there was going to be no way that we could get to the hospital. We called our mom and regretfully told her that we wouldn't be able to see it. She graciously said that it would be okay and we started to make our way down 5th Avenue to the ticket line.

Now our plan was to hail a taxi and ride most of the way there, but let me tell ya, its not as easy as it looks, or as my mom said it would be. Most of the taxi's had people in them already and the ones that were empty seemed to not want to stop for us! So we walked along. On the way, a overly friendly local started walking with us and wouldn't leave us alone. Em is very good at giving the cold shoulder at times like these and so eventually he went away, but it did not in any help the mood we were beginning to fall into. We walked all the way from 70th Street to 46th Street and my pants were soaked up to my knees and my non walking shoes and stocking-type socks were filled with water. I just kept telling myself that it would eventually be over. We finally got there and I preceded to roll my pants up to my knees, wring out my socks, pour the water out of my shoes and put them back on without the socks. With my big coat I most likely looked very moronic. But I didn't care, it was much more comfortable. The enourmous line moved surprisingly quick....I would almost dare to say "lightning speed" and we made it up to the large mass of pushing, scrambling New Yorkers in front of the ticket booth. I could tell everyone was pushing so I thought I would just deal with it. But I heard a very funny conversation (in my mind) to my left between two angry women. Woman 1: "Stop PUSHING!" Woman 2: "I'm NOT pushing!" 1: "Yes! You are!" 2: "No! I'm NOT! I'm being PUSHED!" 1: Then push back THATAWAY!" Oh boy was it entertaining! We got our tickets and we headed back to our hotel for check-in time. Wonderful, beautiful check-in time! We got up to our room and pretty much collapsed on our bed...after we changed out of our soaked clothes of course.

The room was incredibly tiny, but cute and cozy. After we put our suitcases on the floor, their was pretty much no floor space left. I'm not exaggerating. We had to climb over the bed to get to the other side of the room. But I thought that was fun. After we watched a little bit of T.V., we got dressed up to go out.





It might sound crazy in the cold rain, but we wore dresses and I wore flip flops. My feet got wet but at least they dried quickly, and it really wasn't terribly cold.



We stopped at a pizza place on the way, since we had to try real New York pizza. :0) And we were already feeling much better with some rest and some food in our tummies.





We had pretty good seats for "The Phantom of the Opera" and we very much enjoyed it. We had planned to go to Times Square after the play even though it would be a little late. We were going to change our minds after our interesting afternoon, but when we got out, the sky was clear and the rain had dried up. We were in such good moods that we knew we could handle seeing Times Square. We were really glad we went! Again, we were overwhelmed. The tall buildings, the lights, the people! It was crazy, but fun. We went into this giant M&M store. Two stories full of M&M merchandise you would never even dream of. Crazy.



We bought I Heart New York shirts. We wore them to bed and the next morning Em pointed out that there was a giant hole in the armpit of my shirt! I thought, oh well, mom can sew that up, but when I took it off, my thumbs went right through the material! Oh well, I guess that's what you would expect for $2.50. :0)

The next morning was wonderful! The sky was blue and clear! The lady at the desk had told us that it would be easy to hail a taxi in the morning to Penn Station. We definitely wanted one this time because we had our luggage. I was a bit skeptical and sure enough, we began to run into the same problem. We had to meet up with the Cooley's by a certain time, so we started walking. Ever so often I would step a ways into the street and try to get one, but they were all ignoring me! However, after five blocks with our luggage, I was done and I tried again. I stepped into the street, stuck my hand in the air, and what do you know…a taxi put on its turn signal and started coming towards me! I told him Penn station and he agreed to take us! I know it sounds silly, but this was one of my highlights of New York. It just felt so New Yorkish, so movie-like…I don't care if you agree or not Hayley, it was without a doubt, pakish.



This is turning into a novel, so I'll sum up the rest. We met up with the Cooley's, then we took the subway to Ground Zero. We couldn't really see much because they are already working on the new building, the Freedom Tower. It looks like it will be pretty cool. Then we headed over to Battery Park area to see the Statue of Liberty from afar. Much smaller than I anticipated. Then we walked over to Wall Street. We snapped a picture of the two business girls in front of the New York Stock Exchange. :0) We also saw the Trump Building and Tiffany's down there. Wow, those diamonds sparkle like crazy! Then we took the Subway back up to Rockefeller Center. Em and I paid the 20 bucks to go see the view from the "Top of the Rock." I really think it was worth it. The view was amazing. I liked being able to see the whole of Central Park, realizing that we only made it about maybe, maybe half of the way up. We were able to see the Empire State building. It was just cool to really be able to see that Manhattan is an island. You really can see the whole thing up there.





After Rockefeller we walked over to Times Square again. Still very cool in the daytime. Then we walked down Fifth Avenue, headed over to Bloomingdale's, really a mall in my estimation. Then we eventually made it to our final destination, Serendipity. The place is very cute and the food was very good, just way overpriced. But it was fun seeing the place where the movie was filmed.





Four tired girls then made their way back to Penn station and waited for the train to Hartford, Connecticut. Oh, that was an interesting thing as well. They don't tell you what, I guess you would call it station or terminal, your train is arriving at until 10 minutes before it is supposed to leave. After watching the New Yorkers run like mad to the right station, we were a bit worried about making it in time. Thankfully, we wound up being relatively close to ours and we made it. God was just very good to us in general on the trip. No surprise of course. God is always good. He was so good in letting us spend a wonderful time with our dear friends in a fun city! :0)

Next blog feature: The Fish Wedding!

Tagged

I've never been tagged before, but here goes:

Five things on my To-Do list:
1. Clean my room. I mean a thorough cleaning, like dusting, washing sheets, organizing, etc.
2. Sign up for Resolved.
3. Write thank you notes and a letter.
4. Finish making a comic book of Melissa as a superhero.
5. Reserve a hotel for the roomie road trip to Monterey!

Five favorite snacks:
1. Anything Starbucks
2. Chips and Salsa with cream cheese...mmmmm
3. Oreos in milk or peanut butter
4. Little Trader Joe's chocolate chip cookies
5. Potato chips and dip


Five things I would do if I was a billionaire:
1. Support missionaries
2. Pay off school loans
3. Help out my parents
4. Travel
5. Buy a house somewhere on the east coast

Five places I've lived:
1. First house in Saugus (until I was four)
2. Second house in Saugus
3. Waldock dorm at Master's
4. Little green house in Newhall with the roomies
5. N/A

Five jobs I've had:
1. Hostess at Mimi's Cafe
2. Financial Aid "Intern" at Master's
3. Substitute Teaching in Santa Clarita Districts
4. Tutor at The Learning Advantage
5. Teacher Aid at Trinity

Five people I'm tagging:
1. Christen Paige
2. Amber Black
3. Melissa Arnds
4. Sara Mallon
5. Melissa James

Jesus, King of Kings!

I was thinking this morning about how Jesus is called the King of kings, and so I looked up all the verses in the back of my Bible that talk about God being the King. I LOVE thinking about this! Since in America we obviously don't have a king, most of my knowledge or thoughts about kings come from movies or books. There are definitely evil kings, but if you look at good kings, usually the people in their kingdom truly loved them and loved to be called the king's servant. I'm thinking in particular of stories about King Arthur and how the knights cared so much about the king's honor. Everything they did, they did for their king, or in the name of the king.
Jesus is OUR King. But He is not just any king. Isaiah 9:9 says, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." Jesus humbled Himself and became a servant who saved us! Those of us who sinned against Him!
I couldn't help but think of the movie, First Knight. Guinevere and Lancelot definitely sinned against King Arthur. Near the end of the movie he is going to have them killed for what they did. That doesn't wind up happening, but still, that's what he had planned on doing. We sinned against Jesus, our King, in numerous ways and a number of times that is impossible to know or count, and then He died FOR us instead of killing us! A punishment we fully deserved. Wow! Why wouldn't I want to be called His servant and live for His honor and glory?!!!

The 80's

Emily said that I have to blog. So I am. I went with Janel to Cubbies tonight and we started talking about shows and toys that we played with when we were younger. So, yeah, I'm going to blog about that stuff. I actually resumed an 80's t.v. show conversation with Emily and Caitie the other night at Bible study, that we started a year or so ago. Some of these things may have been more 90's. But since I was born in the 80's, it still counts as an 80's childhood.
I think one of the coolest toys I had was a Popple. Does anyone remember Popples? They were these....bears?...I think. You could either get small ones or big ones. They came in many different bright colors and had Troll-like hair, floppy ears, and the best part about them....was the pocket on their back. If you flipped this pocket around...the Popple turned into a ball!

I was super excited to find this picture because this is the exact one I had! Emily had the small purple one. Haha! I thought these were the coolest toys ever. Sadly, my Popple's hair got matted...after...I had to wash it, because...never mind.
Does anyone remember Skip-It? Maybe they still have them. It was this thing that hooked around your ankle, and this round, heavy thing at the end had a counter, and you would swing it around and jump over part of it, and see how many you could do before you basically tripped over the thing. Haha.

Around the same time as the Skip-It, I got a pogo stick for my birhday. But I won't go there...let's just say my parents have good black mail pictures of me…
Who could forget Cabbage Patch dolls? I never had a real one, but my Grandma made me one. Yeah. She bought the head and body I think…or maybe she just bought the head and sewed the body and clothes. But she had blonde hair and that's how I learned how to braid. For some reason she had a large bald spot, but I liked her.

Then of course there was Gak and pogs and dozens of other cool toys that just can't be compared with today, in my opinion at least.
Let's see, as far as T.V. shows...one Em and I LOVED was The Wuzzles. It took us forever to remember what it was called. I remember that I had a little Wuzzle tape recorder. The only episode that we remember was one about a money tree. Strange, but true.

There was another great show that I believe was called, "Small Wonder." The main character was a girl robot that looked like a human. She was overly and unusually kind and naïve. At least this is my remembrance of the show. She seemed to always wear the same outfit, a red dress with a white pinafore type thing. I thought it was cool because I had a very similar outfit. Why I wanted to look like a girl robot, I don't know, but it's a fact nonetheless.
Here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go2mq3gs_3Y You won't be sorry. It's the opening credits. How can you go wrong with lyrics like, "She's fantastic, made of plastic!" ? Haha!
Now this show doesn't count really to me, although it did run through the 80's I believe, but I absolutely loved "The Wonder Years." Kevin Arnold, Winnie Cooper, Paul, the brother, and the hippie sister that showed up ever so often. I loved the opening song and pretty much everything about it.

Then there's always "Alf", "Care Bears", "Family Ties", "Smurfs", and "Fraggle Rock."
Oh man, I'm telling you, the 80's were great. At least as far as toys and T.V. shows. Clothes on the other hand….

What's Been Going On

Today I feel like mainly summing up what has been going on lately in pictures. Probably the biggest change that has happened lately is that I stopped tutoring. It's not like I was dying of too much work. That's practically impossible to say now that I don't have homework or lesson planning anymore. But one full time job is enough for me, and I like actually having time to make dinner at night now. Although I really haven't made dinner too often yet. My favorite girl that I tutored is named Allie and on my last day, she brought me some flowers that she picked from her mom's garden. I thought it was very sweet.

She also drew a picture of me. I think for a third grader she's a pretty good little artist.

I never really wrote anything about my Bible Study's ski retreat. It's a little late now to go into a ton of detail, but it was a really great time. It was fun having a smaller group and getting to have good conversations with people that I normally don't always get to talk to. Plus I made a couple of new friends! :0) We also got to build a legitimate snowman! Something I have not done since I was five, and then it was really my dad who made it.

Recently they filmed a movie in the little group of homes that my friends and I live in. Our guess was that it is because it looks like a camp. All the houses are green, except the owners, whose house is yellow. It threw off my theory a little bit until they painted the front of their house green to make it match! They painted it back shortly after filming. They were around for about a week. Our landlord told us that it was an America Ferrera movie, but we are pretty suspicious about that. The signs said "Parental Guidance." So we'll just have to wait and see. Below is a picture of the lights that were shining into my bedroom at one o'clock a.m. in the morning on the last night of filming! If I hadn't had my blinds closed it would have looked like daytime. Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep before they left.

This is the notification we got the day AFTER they started filming.

I recently went to Chinatown with Melissa Johnson.

We came across this store.... Don't they mean Jade RINGS?

This....

Is what fell out of this...

All we know is that it was called a Sesame ball. Melissa was a little sad when she dropped the inside on the ground. But I don't really consider that a bad thing.
My mom and I like to go to Pasadena together. She has a few senior citizen sites that she goes to to inspect their kitchens and give them talks on nutrition. After she's done we typically either go to this really cool bookstore called "Vroman's", or we get Boba at Tapioca Express in Marino. Yum! I'm so glad my mom likes Boba. I usually sit in the car at my mom's first site and this was my view from the side mirror!

I just love old buildings!