Off to Wyoming!

Yay, it's Thanksgiving Break here at La Sierra University! Teddy and I will be taking off on Tuesday for Las Vegas, then on to Wyoming Wednesday morn. We'll be spending time with his family for the holiday. What a great time for a road trip too! I was SO excited earlier this week when gas went under $2.00 for the first time since who knows when!! Last time I checked today it was at $1.93. And yes, I know the rest of you out in the midwest and stuff have it way better but boy am I just glad to see it at $1.93. Is our economy tanking or what?! I guess this is one benefit though, isn't it?

Well I've decided not to decorate for Christmas this year. Yeah, I know Santa would be ashamed of me. Bu,t we're not going to be around for Thanksgiving OR Christmas so I figured I'd try all my ideas next year. Little disappointing, I had been looking forward to our first Christmas in our own home. But oh well. I hope GYC and Lake Tahoe will be as fun as we are hoping.

So besides that I am just swamped with schoolwork. I will be graduating in June, Lord willing. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Yes! I'm really having fun actually, right now I'm taking Statistics and it's quite the mind challenge. But you know, getting those weekends and evenings back won't be too bad either...

Fire!

So yesterday we had several fire encounters! We went to church and came out and saw smoke and ash falling from the sky. Some church members were told their neighborhood was being evacuated so they hurried out of the fellowship meal to try to save their stuff. On the way back home traffic started to really slow down up ahead of us, when we noticed a fresh accident. A truck had just fallen from the overpass somehow and was in flames. There was a guy in the ditch with blood coming out of his ears. We still dont know what happened there but we prayed for them right then and there. It couldn't have been more than a couple minutes since the accident had happened. Then that night after we had hung out with friends as we were on our way home, we saw the hills by the interstate we were driving on glowing with the forest fires that were burning!
It looked alot like this

It was eerie and surreal. We stopped to try to get a good view (along with like 50 other people who owned houses nearby.) We had to take a different way home because they had closed part of the interstate down. Then when we were like 10 minutes from home, we saw another fire up ahead! This time it looked like a house was on fire. So ofcourse, curiosity got the best of us and we decided to check it out. Sure enough, about a mile and 1/2 from our house, a house had caught fire and firefighters had pretty much given up. They were just standing around waiting for the flames to die down. So it was a pretty exciting day, although not necessarily a good day for some people. This is fire season right now; I hope it isn't as devastating as last year! See although the weather is picture perfect almost daily, and there is so much going on around Southern California, there is a price to pay for living around these parts. So on to more happier thoughts...Thanksgiving is almost here! =D And we may or may not be going to Wyoming. More on that later.

To those who think the world is falling apart now...

Consider some of these quotes on change:

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."
-Anonymous

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."
-Abraham Lincoln

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less." -General Eric Shinseki (Chief of Staff, US Army)

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
-John F. Kennedy

Lets give our new president a chance. I can't know the future; he most certainly could be the biggest political disappointment of our generation. I am not over my cynicism of politicians and their unique capacity to lie and corrupt their power. However, our idealogical and better, hopeful side of self should atleast give this guy a second look. You cannot deny he is the most intelligent, eloquent, idealogical, inspiring, collected, brilliant president to get elected (by a landslide, I should add) in decades. He deserves a chance. Let's give it to him.

Crazy week, crazy pics

Our friends Wati and Vince were over last weekend. It was simply a blast; our other friend Amy who lives nearby had a birthday on Tuesday so we had a little 'party' with the most awesome helium ballon decorations! Wati had just gotten a new mac, so while trying to figure it out she came across the camera and we had fun playing around with it. Which one is your favorite?

Oops I gained 300 lbs.!




Here is the one where I look like an alien!!


Check out Teddy's chin


Here is my giraffe pose!




I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard! So then we decided to take some halfway normal ones.






So this weekend our friend Steve is getting married. We're helping with the set-up tomorrow and Saturday. I also have an important assignment due tomorrow and another final next week. Then ofcourse there's the super exciting election in a few short days!! Whoohoo!

Bad dog

So I'm happy to be alive today! Teddy and I went exercising this morning and as we were passing by one of our neighbors' houses from across the street a white pitbull out of nowhere started running towards us ready to attack! He wasn't even barking, he was just growling and fullspeed heading towards us. Just as he was reaching us, I yelled 'STOP!' all the while praying, and Teddy swung me around behind him. All of a sudden, two seconds before he attacked, he stopped and turned back. He was like 2 feet from us when he turned. Whew! Teddy says he was ready to punch him in the face if we had tried attacking us, but I'm just glad we didn't have to do anything. We probably won't be going by that street again! God is so good, I've never been bitten by and if I ever do, hopefully it won't be a pitbull.
Speaking of animals, so Teddy has finally said ok to having a kitty. I have been dying for something cute and cuddly to have around, but Teddy hasn't wanted to because he thinks we're too busy. Well we are busy, but not too busy for a little sweetie! =) Ofcourse I'm going to try to upsell him to a little dog, I've always been more of a dog person myself. But...ofcourse I will take a cat over nothing!
So on another note the election is only 16 days away. I absolutely CANNOT wait until the election. I can't seem to think about anything else these days. Ok, well I am exaggerating a little bit. But imagine, in a little over two weeks we will have a new president-elect! Hey, check out these funny pics I found.

So I'm sad because my camera isn't working anymore. =( I think it's still under warranty so I'm going to need to see if I can get it replaced. Anyhow, this last week has been pretty useless. I was sick for most of it, and then I passed the nasty cold on to my husband so that was pretty unfortunate. Unfortunate, because you have never seen a bigger baby when one is sick! I mean, I took one day off work, but Teddy absolutely cannot function when he is sick. So I had to take care of him as soon as I started feeling better. He's such a baby. Ah, well what would I do without him? =)
Did I ever tell you we are making a garden? It's fairly small, probably 8'x12' or so, just big enough for our postage-sized back yard. So far we've planted broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beets and two different kinds of lettuce. We'll be planting onions and a couple of other things a little later. This time of year you can't grow a whole lot, but I'm thankful that we can actually grow some things!
It's so fun to watch the tiny little sprigs pop up from the earth after a couple weeks of watering and wondering if the seeds will actually germinate.
So it's only 23 days until the presidential elections! I'm really excited and looking forward to getting a new president. I think it might even help the stock market settle down, maybe. Here in CA there is also a couple important issues being voted on too, one is called Proposition 8 that would overturn the CA Supreme Courts ruling allowing same-sex marriage. The other makes it harder to get an abortion, which I think is great that this issue can make a little progress if it passes. So a lot of exciting things coming up! The other exciting things ofcourse are what is going to happen to our economy? What do you think: after the bailout and subsequent happenings, should we still consider ours to be a capitalist society?

Rants and Raves!

Ok, so I thought I'd write my thoughts down just because I don't feel like this train of thought is being heard out there. I wonder if anyone else out there thinks this whole "Bailout Hate" thing is crazy. Why would anyone with their head on straight be against it? Economists and professionals are pretty much in agreement; without major steps, our economy is headed into an economic collapse. Guess what, economic collapses don't hurt the corporate fat cats who have their yachts and million dollar homes and other reserves. They hurt the average Joe. And what's this that most Americans are against this bailout deal? Are they really ready to lose their jobs because their small business or company they work for can't do business anymore because the credit they rely on dried up? Or because someone else they do business with went out of business? We are all connected to Wall Street even if we don't want to be! And I don't care yet, since I'm in my early twenties; but a large portion of the American workforce is supposed to be retiring soon. What do you think will happen to 401(k)'s if we taxpayers don't step in and get this bailout approved? Yeah, that 778 point drop on Monday sure opened some eyes. Maybe what happens on Wall St does affect Main St!
To go even a step further, and I hope no one will hate me for this but I have to say it. Because no one else is saying it. The media can't say it because they try to be politically correct. Politicians can't say it because people would get mad at them and would jeopardize their seats. SO here goes. Who do you think had at least a 50% responsibility for getting us where we are today? The average Joe, who thought he could buy a home he knew he couldn't afford, gambling on the possibility that he would be able to refinance his home later but got an adjustable, sub-prime rate mortgage because he really shouldn't have been buying in the first place. AND buying when home prices where at historic highs because they thought somehow what goes up does not come down. Yes, mortgage lenders had no right lending to those who weren't qualified, and yes there was predatory lending, BUT there where many, many people out there who just went in way over their heads and have no one to blame but themselves! And now they're complaining about having to bail out our financial system when if they hadn't been defaulting on their loans at such a historic rate, the banks would be fine? So okay I'm not exactly tickling people's ears right now. But I'm UPSET that people are such idiots sometimes!

Grand Canyon!

So we just got in last night from the Grand Canyon!
Teddy and I have never been there, even though Teddy went to school for two years in Arizona and I've been living (relatively) close for the past 2 1/2 years. So it was more spectacular than either of us imagined! The word awe can describe a little bit of what we felt when we first saw it.

I'm sure whoever first discovered the Grand Canyon had a hard time believing their eyes! Getting close to the edge was pretty terrifying though. I'm super scared of heights, and I've never been that close to such a steep fall. One stumble and you're through! No second chances. =)


It was exhilarating and inspiring...but only a small part of our weekend. Before that we drove in through Vegas so we drove by the Hoover Dam. It was pretty neat too.
We spent Friday night and Saturday night camping in the forest with some friends. On Sunday morning we got up early to see the sunrise but on the way to the canyon we saw some elk in the woods by the road. They just happen to be Teddy's favorite animal. We followed them into the woods and we were able to get very close to a large 30-something herd of mostly female and baby elk! We also saw a large, six-point bull! He was massive, and we got to see him for 2-3 minutes which is a very long time! Later on that day we also saw another bull (smaller one) that I did get a picture of. (unfortunately I had forgotten my camera so I wasn't able to get pictures of the elk herd or the large bull!)


So what a relaxing weekend! Now it's back to work, school and more of the same. I feel refreshed and ready for a good week.

This is a rainbow we saw on the way! If you look closely you can see it is a double rainbow. =)

Ok so I am VERY upset right now. The referees made some calls that were obviously (ask anyone, even the newscasters saw it) wrong and as a result the Broncos basically stole a win from right off under us. Aaargh! Now we're starting off the season 0-2. *sigh* So ok maybe I love my team the Chargers a little too much...I just need to take a deep breath and calm down. ;-)
I thought this touchdown was pretty cool, here it is!



On a different note, I've had a really nice weekend overall. Went to San Clemente and Newport Beach over the weekend. The weather's been so beautiful around here lately, things are really cooling down.

Life on a houseboat

So I just got back last night from Lake Mohave. It was a very relaxing, enjoyable trip and I feel stoked about starting a new school year with my job at La Sierra! I'm going to be working with some pretty neat people. Already I'm getting calls from LSU students several times a week wanting to join the Literature Evangelism program on campus. Yay, I'm excited! Right now I'm working on a poster to advertise and get the word out before school starts. (on the 22nd) I love having this time where I can really organzie myself for the start of the year and kill it on homework. I just finished a 12 credit class-I'm so happy to be done with it! =/

This weekend has been a busy one. Teddy's parents are visiting for a few days, so Thursday and Friday were spent in a flurry of preparation for Sabbath and their visit. This will be the first time they see our house! For some reason I'm nervous...but things go well and they seem to approve of my housekeeping. =) I love my in laws, seriously I couldn't ask for better. But there's always that initial nervousness when we go visit or vice-versa, it's hard to explain.
Friday our friends gave us a call; 3 of them were driving on their way to school in AZ when their tire blew, causing them to lose control, flip, cross two lanes of traffic and finally come to a stop 50 yards later. It pretty much totaled their car. They walked away with only a couple of scratches! Since the accident was just a few miles from our house, we picked them up and I was able to take a few pictures of their car.


It was pretty crazy. And here is the offending tire.

I thought this sticker on his car was pretty cute!

So I'm getting ready to head out for a La Sierra University Spiritual Life retreat and will be spending 5 days on a houseboat in Lake Mohave! This is where we make plans for the year, have fun, bond and soak up the sun. Because of the secluded location, there won't be cell phone service and of course no internet. This should be fun!

My first blog post

So, here it is. My first blog post! So why start a blog, anyways? Well first of all I was inspired by my friend Sarah. She blogs religiously and I always enjoy reading her blogs. I always enjoy reading all my friends' and families' blog posts. It's neat to feel included in their life, like you know what's going on and almost a part of their everyday life even though you may be hundreds of miles away.
And then secondly, I wanted to start blogging because I have been missing my time with my old journal. I just don't pick it up anymore! But I miss writing my thoughts and life happenings down....so I figured since I practically live online these days with school and all, I might as well start a blog.
So to start this is just a little summary of what's been going on in my life lately. I life in the LA-surrounding regions area of CA with my husband Teddy. We share a burden for the Student Literature Ministry work and are involved year-round with running a program at La Sierra University and summer programs. We love seeing young people become involved in the LE work, mainly because we've seen the amazing things it's done in our lives and others! This past summer I led a team of 8 big-book students, and it sure was a blessing. However, since we were closing on our house the same week the program began, this summer has been one of the most stressful ever. I'm still recovering. =D
Yes, we bought a house and it's been alot of fun. Here's a little pic of our house before we bought it. We just cut our grass for the first time yesterday! We found a little push mower on craigslist and a few blisters later Teddy and I are pretty pleased with our front yard. I think the neighbors were wondering what kind of people had moved in next door who didn't cut their grass....haha Ofcourse they have no idea that during the summers we work over 80 hrs a week!
So now it's nice to have some time at home catching up on school. I'm finishing my degree online, and I love every bit of it. Speaking of school, I should sign off now and focus on that for a while. Bye now!