Thursday, June 28, 2012

this week

I LOVE SUMMER.

Sunday - church and then a Texas Hold 'Em poker party for my roomate Scott's birthday

Monday - saw the new Pixar movie "Brave" (loved it)

Tuesday - taught hip hop dance to middle schoolers and then drove to SF and watched the Giants smoke the Dodgers

Wednesday - college group

Thursday - taught hip hop dance and then had coffee and awesome God-conversation with a friend in the sunshine

Friday - Disney movie sing-along (The Little Mermaid)

Saturday - conference in Fremont on how to start and run successful small groups

I LOVE SUMMER.

Monday, June 25, 2012

a Daniel quote board?

A couple posts back, I shared about a student in my college group named Daniel. I seriously think I need to start a Daniel Quote Board because this guy says the craziest/weirdest/funniest things. Here are two he told me the other day:

1) He works at our church's day camp and after a pie throwing contest, he was helping hose off some of the other counselors before they went back inside. As he lifted a female co-worker's ponytail (to hose all the whipped cream off her neck), he said, "I feel like I'm washing one of my horses!" Needless to say, she did NOT appreciate that comment.

2) And THEN later that same day, he was talking to his boss (mom of 4 kids in her early fifties) who runs the camp. She was complaining her knees hurt. Daniel replied, "I'm not saying you're a pig, but there are certain farm animals that when they eat too much of a protein-rich diet, they get weak knees."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? Who IS this kid!?!?


Friday, June 22, 2012

Luna and Gizmo

I am dogsitting/housesitting this weekend. Meet Luna. I don't know what type of dog she is, but she's a ball of fluff.


Luna eats dry dog food mixed with wet dog food which attracts ants. I think I killed 200 last night.

I am also taking care of Gizmo, their massive yellow lizard. Anyone know what type of lizard this is? I have no idea.


Gizmo eats silkworms which I have to touch.


I pick up their squishy bodies and fling them into his terrarium. It's gross.

I don't know why I'm sharing all this.

Luna and I are going for a walk.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

family

Dad's 67th birthday + nephew Samuel's 1st birthday + Father's Day = family picture  (we're missing a few cousins but this is mostly all of us)



Then a sister picture just for fun.



And I also tried to get a nephew picture...

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Sardines in the sanctuary

I don't mean actual sardines, like the small oily fish you buy in a can at the grocery store.

I mean the game Sardines. Have you ever played? You know how in Hide and Go Seek everyone hides except the person who's "It"? And the person who's "It" has to run around and find people hiding? Well with Sardines, the person who's "It" gets to hide while everyone else closes their eyes and counts. Then the seekers have to go find the "It" and when they do, they stand, sit, or lay down with that person and have to be silent. You keep playing until the last person finds the group who are huddled together like sardines in a can.

One more thing before I share the story. There is a guy who comes to the college group named Daniel. He is a self-proclaimed redneck. He and his family own a farm of sorts out in the boonies where they raise goats, chickens, and pheasants (I don't ask questions). Daniel loves being manly. He's always talking about when he had a squirrel as a pet, the times he's shot wild turkey on his property, and how his switchblade has come in handy on multiple occasions when he's in the fields. If he has a conversation that starts to sound a bit girly, he says, "Oh man, I've gotta get home, eat some chili, and shoot something. Y'all are getting too feminine for me." But picture Daniel as a tall, thin 19 year old. Not exactly the manliest of men. But he's still hilarious. And he loves being kind of outdoors-y and redneck-y.

During the summers, he works as a counselor at our church's day camp. His camp name is "Macho Nacho". He was hoping people would just shorten it and call him "Macho". But to tease him, everyone purposefully just calls him "Nacho". He is constantly having to remind people of his FULL camp name. I should also mention he has no filter. He just says what he thinks all the time.

Ok, with those intros out of the way, here's the story. Last night we kicked off the college group for the summer. After having a couple weeks with no Wednesday night meeting, it was so great to see people again. After the evening's festivities, a group of students wanted to go play Sardines in the church sanctuary. We went in and it was pitch black. Perfect. There were 9 of us. 1 person volunteered to be "It" and find a hiding spot while the rest of us counted.

For the first 10 minutes, people were quiet as they searched all around the church. Then we spent about 10 minutes whispering to each other, even though it's against the rules. "Psst...did you look over there yet?" After searching for 20 minutes, we were so ready to find our "It" person. So we started talking out loud. "PARKER!! I ALREADY LOOKED THERE!"

Someone shouted Daniel's name to see where he was because we noticed we hadn't heard from him in awhile, which is rare, since he loves to talk.

Silence.

"Oh my gosh, you guys, " I said, "Daniel found the hiding spot! That's why he's not responding!"

The other seekers decided to have some fun with this realization. "Hey, let's say stuff to annoy him! He'll speak out because he can't handle staying silent."

One guy started saying in a sing-song voice, "Heyyyyyy Nacho!!! Where are youuuuu, Nacho!?"

"Yeah, Nacho!!" I repeated, also purposefully not saying his full camp name. "Where are you?"

"We WILL find you," the guy said. "Hey guess what, everyone? Daniel told me yesterday that two of his cousins MARRIED EACH OTHER!!!"

"What?!" one of the girls shouted. "Cousins marrying each other?! That's gross!"

"Yeah, but remember they ARE kind of redneck-y so maybe that's normal," the guy continued.

"Were they distant cousins? Or maybe third cousins?" the girl asked.

"I'm pretty sure he said they were first cousins. NACHO, WERE THEY FIRST COUSINS!?!?" the guy screamed into the empty, dark church auditorium.

Silence.

Wow, I was impressed at Daniel's self control.

We kept searching. I went to a side of the church I hadn't been to. I noticed huge curtains blocked off on one side. I opened one side and saw body shapes in the darkness. YES! I found them! Without saying a word, I slipped behind the curtains and stood next to someone, shoulder to shoulder. I was trying so hard not to make a sound.

Suddenly, the person next to me hissed an intense, indignant whisper my way.

"To start with, my name is MACHO Nacho. And they were SECOND cousins!!"

I laughed so hard and everyone else found us.

Monday, June 11, 2012

bullet points

Life lately:

* Went to my third Giants game of the season last Friday. Have a few more coming up. Addicted.

* A dear friend I used to work with (who lives 3 hours away) has been in town for a work trip and crashing with us the past few days. It's been so fun hanging out and catching up with her.

* College group kicks off for the summer this Wednesday. Sarah, you better WERK!

* I LOVE SUMMER. Sunny days are my favorite. Tonight my roomates and I made dinner and then had strawberry shortcake. And it was still light out. At 7:30 pm.

* Went hiking yesterday. Bliss. The forest smelled amazing.

* I miss my nephews. Samuel turns 1 on Saturday!

* Just bought the book "The Gospel According to Harry Potter". I am seriously going to blog about all the fun parallels between the books and Christianity. I'm lovin' it. (Not the McDonalds jingle)

Thursday, June 07, 2012

#1 most-read post

I love the new blogspot dashboard. It lets me see the blog posts that have been viewed the most.

The #1 most-read post from my blog?

This one.

It has been viewed by 4,361 people from all over the world. 

That makes me so happy. Because I love the message of that post. We all have value. Because we are God's kids.

I'll be honest, the reason so many people have viewed it is because they googled "Narnia", "Lucy" "Aslan", or "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". But it doesn't matter. They still clicked on it.

And maybe someone out there in the big ol' world we live in realized that they shouldn't compare themselves to other people (just like I am learning about) because a loving God made them special and unique with gifts of their own.

Monday, June 04, 2012

Comedy Sportz

Have you ever been to Comedy Sportz? Let me back up. Have you ever watched the tv show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" There are 4 players who do improvisational skits/games for laughs and points. Comedy Sportz is all over the US and you sit in a theater and yell out random things and the 4 players have to use that in their scenes.

I went the other night and there was this one game called "Dirty Hand Randy". We gave the players categories and they had to say things in that category (For example, if the category was "Colors", they'd say "Red", "Purple", "Yellow" etc.) If they made a mistake or couldn't think of any more things that fit that category, they had to put a hand up. When both hands were up, that player was out of the game and the audience yelled "Dirty Hand Randy". (I have no idea why).

Intern Scott yelled out this category: "Nicholas Cage characters!" (in movies). You can hear him laughing next to me.

Friday, June 01, 2012

the year of the bow and arrow

Who knew the most popular tool/weapon/recreational activity of 2012 would be archery? It's all over pop culture.

Katniss in the Hunger Games:



Once Upon a Time (both Snow White and the Hot Huntsman/Hot Sheriff):



Hawkeye in The Avengers:


Even the new Pixar movie coming out soon has a redheaded heroine who is skilled with the bow and arrow.

Here's a fun clip I just watched from "Brave". This movie looks so good!