Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life fer me

A bunch of my college students and I went to see Pirates 2 last night (opening night) at the theater downtown. It was a blast! We started the line out front and watched as tons of people in pirate costumes came walking by and joined us. I took a million pictures. The audience was so much fun....lots of energy! We laughed, clapped, screamed, cheered, laughed some more. I really liked the movie. I think the people in the theater were half the fun. While waiting for the movie or during previews people would start yelling, "ARGGGGGGG!!!" and we'd all join in.

Dumb birds!!!

Oh Say Can You Seeeeeeee

Last night we had our 5th annual 4th of July par-tay at the Gordon House. Always good times. We BBQ'ed (aren't our kabobs so colorful?) and hung out with friends (I love how our driveway is so packed) and watched the fireworks from our porch at 9:30 pm. My favorite part of the evening was our next door neighbors (all guys) who were LOADED with fireworks and were setting them off all evening. When the main fireworks were going on, they were lighting theirs in the street - as if they were trying to compete with the actual ones. They kept lighting them, one right ater another. When the fireworks would fly up into the air, they sounded like loud kittens dying. (sad analogy, I know) I could NOT stop laughing, though. Hope you all had a happy 4th!

Before and After

I wanted to share with you guys my "Before" and "After" pictures of my new office. The old artwork is gone and replaced with bright, cheerful yellow walls and other fun-ness. The sunset portrait on the wall was painted by grandfather Pop-Pop (the one who passed away this winter). He was a painter as well as many other things, and he knew I loved that painting, so he left it to me. Very special. It is a sunset he painted in Lake Tahoe (one of his favorite places).

I love my new office!

Dance Dance Revolution

This past week the roomates and I headed to the Boardwalk for "cheap night". (All rides are only 65 cents) After going on the Giant Dipper rollercoaster (and our car stopping on the way up the ramp-scary!), Fireball, and eating lots of cotton candy and ice cream, we headed to the nearby arcade because the ladies really wanted to see Dance Dance Revolution. Dude, do you guys realize how hard-core some people are about that thing? We were watching these guys and they were SO INTO IT. They have obviously spent many quarters and hours perfecting their moves.

And then this one guy got up and put them all to shame. He was amazing. He had every move DOWN. (his picture is above) And after awhile I stopped watching the screen and just looked down at his feet. For a game that is supposed to teach you to dance, you actually look quite silly. If I were to get on a dance floor and bust out the moves I learned from DDR, I would probably get laughed right off the stage. You're honestly just moving your feet in robotic ways while your arms stay at your sides. And there's those weird, awkward pauses while you're waiting for the next arrow to go up the screen. Where's the fun in that!?!

The whole situation struck me as awesomely funny.

(And for those of you who haven't discovered "Ask A Ninja", my new favorite website, click on this link and hear the ninja's thoughts on Dance Dance Revolution. Have fun!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56vcMhVv_WM&mode=related&search=

Summer movies

Ahhh, the mindless popcorn flicks that are so enjoyable on a hot summer's day. So far I have seen The Da Vinci Code (it was ok), X-Men 3 (disappointing for me), and Cars (pretty cute). The next three on my list are Superman Returns, The Devil Wears Prada, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Paintin' the office

Imagine the color of a green M&M. Now imagine the color of the bright blue M&M. Well, that was what our office looked like BEFORE. The top half was bright green, the bottom half blue. When you walked in, it was actually quite offensive to the eyes.

But no longer! We have done a extreme makeover: office edition. Some of our summer interns stepped up to the plate and helped us tackle the job. I also have moved from the office, into my own office with a DOOR. (OOooooooooooo!) Here are some pixs from our painting days. I will show a "before" and "after" picture of my office once I get it all fixed up.

What I am learning in life right now...

THE ARMOR OF GOD

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."

(Ephesians 6:10-18)

They're everywhere!

It's funny, but before I got Johnny, I never saw Toyota Corollas. And now I seriously see them EVERYWHERE. And not just any Corollas...."phantom grey pearl" Corollas, just like mine. It's really funny to me. Maybe I'm just more aware of them now that I have one. And by the way, can I just take this opportunity to say that the Corolla horn is the LEAST intimidating horn on the market?? Every time I use it, I cringe then laugh. It's like the chihuahua dog bark (or yip) of car horns.

Roomate Day

Saturday was Roomate Day at the Gordon House. And by golly, what a great day it was. Things started out with me making special pancakes for everyone in the morning. I make pancakes every Saturday (a little tradition I have), but usually just for me or one other person. But Saturday was a day for celebrating. Everyone in the house had something fun to celebrate:

Laurel and Jessica - finished with teaching for the year!
Jen N. and Jen Cope - turned (or are about to turn) 30!
Joanna - has officially lived in the Gordon House a year! (yeah!)
me - my first week as College Director!

So we feasted on banana, walnut, chocolate chip pancakes with whatever toppings people wanted plus lots of juice and coffee. While we ate we watched the World Cup on TV. (Viva Brasil!...in 3 days)

Then, at 1 pm, all 6 of us piled into Copey's car and took off to the nearby high school pool where we swim. A) I love swimming, especially when it's sunny. B) I don't love getting badly burnt on my back (ouch!) I usually swim at night so I'm not used to putting on sunscreen. Oh well, live and learn.

Then, to cap off Roomate Day, we came home, made the hugest salad ever, and sat on the front porch in the sun, eating and sharing stories. Yeah for the sun. Yeah for the Gordon House. And yeah for my roomies. What a great day.

Disneyland and fishing and Hairspray, Oh My!

Preface: it is SO weird to be back. I am still in "vacation-mode". I was so out of it at work today. But anyway, my vacay was so fun! Nowhere near long enough, but wonderful just the same.

Monday was my travel day to So. Cal along with lots of hugs and talking with my BFF, Elissa and her hubby, Mike. Tuesday was a mini-reunion with another close friend/roomate from college, Melanie. Mel had flown out from Texas, so we spent the day together. We went shopping and then drove to the ol' alma mater. The first picture is of Elissa, Mel, and I in front of our old dorm. We walked inside and it still smells the same. Awesome. We met Mike for dinner and then went to see The Da Vinci Code. I couldn't stop looking at Tom Hanks' hair. It's the closest thing to a mullet one can get. Come on, Tom.

On Wednesday we visited the Mouse House. Ok, can I just say Space Mountain is AMAZING?!?! They put in a new track and so it just flies. We were in the front car and tears were literally flying off my face because my eyes were watering like crazy. I had a perma-grin the whole ride. Go to D-land just to go on Space! So fun! (Pirates of the Caribbean was closed because they are adding Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa to the ride. That should be interesting) It was a great day.

We drove to San Diego that night. Elissa's parents live down there and her dad took us fishing on Thursday. I caught 6 fish! Woohoo! The picture is of the fifth one I caught - a bass. I hadn't been fishing in ten years...when Elissa's dad took me out for the first time our freshmen year in college. We caught 17 fish altogether but only took home 3. They were delicious!

Friday we just relaxed and then that night we went to see Hairspray, the musical. We are huge theater fans, so we go whenever I am down. Two years ago we saw Les Miserables, last year we saw Wicked, and this year it was Hairspray. I went not knowing anything about it and it was fantastic! Such fun dancing and singing. I wanted to jump on stage and join them. It kind of had the same feel as Bye Bye Birdie. Lots of energy and humor. I think I might have to go out and buy the soundtrack. I added the link to Hairspray on Broadway under "websites", if you want to check it out!

The hard part about vacations (maybe you can relate) is it takes a couple days to finally relax and start enjoying yourself. And then just when you're geting used to being away from work and life...you have to go back. Yowsahs. I think vacations should be a minimum of 7 or 8 days. =) Who's with me!?!?!

What a great week. Just what I needed. Maybe not as much rest as I had thought I would get, but definitely lots of fun. Hopefully all of you have vacation time coming to you soon. Bring it on!

VACAY!

Well my friends, I am taking off tomorrow (Monday) for a much-needed vacation. I am tired and in dire need of some rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, and many other "r" words. It will feel so good to get away for a week and not think about ANYTHING. Just having fun. And then I'll come home feeling refreshed (there's another "r" word for ya). Bring on the sun!!!

Last TOS for the spring

Oh my word, last night was so much fun! It was our last college meeting (The Other Side) for the spring semester. It was a night of reflection of the past nine months. We played games from the whole year, looked at pictures, shared our favorite memories, encouraged each other, and shared what God has taught us this year.

It was such a special night for me, because these past nine months have been my FIRST nine months with these students. At times last night I just looked around at their faces and was in AWE. Awe of God's soverignty and how He knew I would be here, at this church, with these students, experiencing all these things.

It's been a rich year. There have been many good times. There have been hard times. Times of growth and frustration and joy and sadness and challenges and laughter and tears and love and uncertainty and peace and doubts and contentment.I wouldn't trade it for anything.

And just when I thought the night couldn't get any better...DANCE PARTY!!! Someone had set up a disco ball and we danced the night away. Could we have had more fun?!?! I don't think so. We danced for two hours and it was so fun to see the college students letting loose and going nuts. =)

What an amazing night. What an amazing year.

San Luis Obsipo

This past weekend I drove to San Luis and spent two fun days with my youngest sister, Emily - she's a junior at Cal Poly. We had such a fun time! On Friday night we went to PCF (Poly Christian Fellowship) on campus. It was so awesome to see so many college students wanting to be there and learn more about God.

About halfway through the talk, Em accidentally knocked her water bottle over. It made a huge crashing sound and all the water went into my lap, chair, and shoes. The speaker actually stopped speaking and then it was the typical all-heads-turned-to-look-at-us. I decided not to move and attract more attention, so I just sat there, nodding like I was totally into what the speaker was saying and pretending like I was NOT sitting in a pool of water. I ended up looking like I wet my pants the rest of the night. SWEET! =)

We spent Saturday at the beach then shopping downtown, getting pedicures (I love being a girl), eating at Firestone (best fries EVER!), talking, etc. It was a blast. I love you, Em! (The pix is of us downtown...it's a little blurry, but check out the street sign)

Two fires

A friend and I were talking the other day about spiritual disciplines (like silence & solitude, reading the Word, praying, etc) They shared something that I like alot:

It's like we each have two fires in our soul. One fire is for the world and the things of this world. The other fire is of God and the things of God. Which fire will burn brighter? The one that is given more fuel. If we throw logs on the fire of this world, that one will burn more. But if we throw logs on the fire of God and the things of God...that fire will be the one to consume us.

I like it! Consuming fire. Very cool thought.

I finished my book!

After months of reading it off and on, I finally finished The Brothers K by David James Duncan. So good! I came home from work and read on the couch on our front porch. It was sunny and breezy and beautiful. It was such a good book - now I know why everyone loves it.

Next up: Blue Like Jazz!

P.S. How amazing is it that it's still light out until 8:00 at night. Yesssss...

Comedy Sportz

Last night I took some college students to Comedy Sportz in San Jose. Such a fun night! If you've never been, it's an interactive improv show like Whose Line Is It Anyway but we get to be the ones in the audience shouting out stuff. There were two teams (blue and red) playing different rounds and competing for points. If they said anything inappropriate, they had to wear a paper bag on their head for the rest of their scene.

My two proud contributions to the evening were "MULLET!" and "CHUCK NORRIS!"

My talk, Survivor, and Tom Cruise

Three things happened in the last 24 hours that I just felt like writing about. They have nothing to do with each other. Just random life occurrances and observations.

1) My talk. Last night I continued in our series we've been doing on "The 4 Loves". Two weeks ago I spoke on the first love: Child and Parent. Last night we talked about two more loves: the love between friends and the love between guy/girl relationships. There is one girl who came to the college group with a friend and I KNOW she didn't want to be there. She has been avoiding church and the college group and doing her own thing. I have totally been praying for her and I was so excited she came last night. So, I'm in the middle of my talk and I happen to look up...and see her text messaging someone!

Are you serious?? Yep, right in the middle of the talk.

She fully had her head down, phone out, looking at stuff, and texting. For like 15 minutes! My first instinct was to feel angry. As I think about it now, I still feel a little upset because I have never experienced anything like that (I felt kind of disrespected). And to make it harder, the girl who brought her to the group told me her friend had leaned over at one point when I was speaking and said, "This is bullsh--."

Man, it really bummed me out. But I keep thinking: she did not want to be there. She had no interest in hearing what was being said. She is really struggling in life right now and church was probably the last place she wanted to be. She was just there because her friend brought her. As soon as the talk was over, she took off out the back door.

I've been doing some thinking about this ever since last night. Amongst all the things I've thought, I know that I will keep praying for her.

2) Survivor 12 - Exile Island. Survivor is one of my favorite shows. The roomates and I are faithful watchers every Thursday night. I missed last week's episode because I went down to the lake for Wildlower but we had it taped. So this morning I watched it before I went to work. Ok, um, so I cried. Every Survivor, there is always an episode where they bring loved ones out. Like a spouse, or a mom or a dad, etc. If a suvivor wins a challenge, they get to spend time with their loved one.

So, it's like 9 in the morning and I'm watching the tape of these dirty, tired, grimy survivors who have been on their island for over 30 days, away from all the people they love. And from around the corner, their love ones start walking out. The looks on their faces seriously brought me to tears! I am such a sucker for things like that. I think I cry everytime I see that certain episode. I not only cried when they walked out, but I cried when the winners got to go forward and hug their loved one. You could see how much they loved them and it was a beautiful thing.

And then I had to wipe away my tears and just laugh at myself.

3) Tom Cruise. So every Thursday I go to lunch at my favorite Chinese food place in Aptos. The food is so delicious! And super inexpensive. The waiters all know me because I'm there every week and I'm always bringing friends. So I am eating my yummy food and reading the Good Times paper and there's an article on Mission Impossible III. My waiter, Eric (obviously not his Chinese name-his American name)comes by and sees the article.

Eric: "Oooh, have you seen it yet?"
Me: "What? Oh...no."
Eric: "Are you going to?"
Me: "No, probably not."
Eric: "I saw it last weekend. Very good!"
Me: "Really?"
Eric: "Yes. Lots of shooting." *makes gun with hands and shooting noises*
*I laughed*
Eric: "Do you like Tom Cruise?"
Me: "Actually, no."
Eric: (raises eyebrows) "No?? Tom Cruise...handsome man!!!"

He clapped twice to make his point and then walked away. It was such a random conversation and again I just had to laugh. Good times.

Wildflower 2006

Last weekend was my third Wildflower triathlon at Lake San Antonio! I just spent 30 minutes sharing the glory in a blog when it all got erased. *sigh* Instead of re-typing it all again, I will just sum up: it was awesome! My race was Saturday and I had a blast. My friends told me that since this was my third triathlon, I can now call myself a "Tri-Triathlete". =)

My distance: 1/4 mile lake swim, 10 mile bike ride, and 2 mile run.

The first picture is roomates Laurel, Copey, friend Cynthia, and I the morning of our race. The pix was taken at 7:30 am and we are not real morning people, as you can tell. Ha ha. The second picture was taken of me on my bike by a friend who had my camera. That was seriously my face the whole time. I just LOVE this race. It is a thrill to participate with so many other people. And crossing the finish line is such a great feeling.

Can't wait till next year!

Switchfoot concert

Last night I went to a Switchfoot concert. When I first walked in, I felt SO OLD. There were junior high, high school, and college students everywhere. I felt so old and so tall. I had no idea the crowd would be that young. As the night went on, I saw more of an age range, but it still seemed quite young.

The concert was AWESOME!! I loved every minute of it. Those guys are so gifted. They rocked out for an hour and a half. I loved hearing the songs off their new album and they played some songs from their last one, too. At one point, the lead singer Jon Foreman whipped out a harmonica to play a new song and the crowd went nuts!

My highlight of the night: one of my favorite songs of theirs is called "This Is Your Life." At one point, Jon stopped singing and held the microphone out to the audience so everyone could sing the words. And sing they did! People were singing their little hearts out. And here is the line we all sang -

"This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"

LOVE it. Suddenly, I was so glad the room was filled with junior high and high school kids. I was listening to their voices sing that line and wondering, "Are they thinking about what they're singing?" They are at that age when they are being formed into who they are. Are they who they want to be?

Are we?