It's a long one!!

Well, that was a fun trip! :) It was, that's not sarcasm...
Got back last night from Cali and went straight to the girls' night function for youth! Whew.. I was tired this mornin, but it was worth it.
Here's a quick run down of what Wendy and I did over the past few days...

Tuesday:
Got up at the butt crack of dawn.. actually it was more like the lower back of dawn because the sun wasn't even up when we left CS. So we left super early and got to the airport at a reasonably good time! We made it all the way to the airport in an hour and a half! Yeah, that's good time.
Anywho so we got all boarded and stuff then took off into the wild blue yonder. The in flight movie was Beautyshop with Queen Latifah.. I'm really glad they have headsets for that stuff because I really didn't want to have to watch that, much less, listen to it all the way to CA. It wasn't necessarily a long trip, but it seemed like it took forever I think because you can't really see where you are. You know when you're in a car, you can see what towns and states you are riding through. But on a plane, you can't see state lines and stuff.. all you see is dirt or mini mountains or squares of land. A nice flight nonetheless. We landed and Wendy saw Kat Osterman in the women's bathroom! I don't know what she looks like so I completely missed her.
We got our rent car and headed out onto the highways of California. We took an exit and were going to go look at the USC campus, but ended up driving downtown to the big buildings of LA and seeing tons of cool stuff. We drove all the way through downtown and eventually somehow decided to get onto Santa Monica Blvd and see what we could see. We didn't see much.. haha. No actually we saw some fun stuff! We drove through Hollywood and Beverly Hills and saw lots of nice cars. We didn't recognize any person of fame while driving, but it was fun all the same just to be driving!! At one point, we were driving down a different road and Wendy said something like, "No, I think that's back in Hollywood, we're in Beverly Hills." She then proceeded to say, "This is not real." Haha! Seriously though, who thought we'd be driving through Beverly Hills ???
So anywho, then we drove over to Pasadena, where Wendy's school is. As we drove in, we saw lots of just shops and stuff and just tried to figure out where the heck we were. We saw parts of the college and even drove past Wendy's new apartment! (more on that later) We checked into the hotel and then got ready for an "Evening Visit at Fuller." Basically it's a night thing to let people know what Fuller is like and if they want to come, it's informational and stuff. It was pretty cool actually. We sat at a table with other students who were interested in the school of psychology. They were pretty cool people. We had dinner which was salad and some breads. Welcome to California! Haha.. no, it was really good actually. After dinner, there were some formal stuff that we did, like hear a short speech from one of the deans of the school and watched a video of alumni testimonies. (I think that was my favorite) We went and listened to a mini-lecture from one of the professors of the psych school and had a little Q&A time there. The lecture was Wendy's favorite part, and it was a highlight for me simply because I could see the interest that she held for the subject and also because I understood what he was talking about!!
After the function, we went back to the hotel and went to bed cuz we was wiped out. :)

Wednesday!
We got up, had breakfast, got ready and headed out! Wendy wanted to drive around Pasadena a little bit and see what we could see. There are SO many shops!! I was in heaven.. all my favorite shops! But we stayed in the car and pressed on. We drove around Pasadena for probably an hour, just seeing what streets did and exploring.
Then we headed out onto the highways again. I wanted to put my toes in the ocean, just to say I had, so we headed for the coast. We were going to take a very direct way there, but instead hit Sunset Blvd because it goes all the way to the coast. So we drove down Sunset and saw a bunch of stuff. It's kind of like Santa Monica Blvd, but I think there's more. We drove through Beverly Hills again and saw the Beverly Hills Hotel :) And then we drove through Bel Air !! Whoo hoo! Fresh Prince! hehe.. Then we drove through Brentwood, which as Wendy informed me, is where OJ lived. tsk tsk.
We hit the Pacific Coast Highway and went South to Venice Beach. It was sooo cold !! The atmosphere, not the water! It must have been like 75 with no sun and a breeze. We had lunch at this little Mexican food restaurant, it was really yummy!! We walked to the beach and saw the muscle men, and I stuck my toes in the cold water for all of two seconds! It was just too cold ... We left Venice and went back to Pasadena .. I think. .. What did we do after that.. ? OH!
Yeah.. We headed back to Pasadena because that afternoon, we were going to see Wendy's apartment!! So we went and met Irwin, her floor director at the bookstore and walked to the community where she would be living. It's called Koinonia, which I absolutely love because I love the idea of Koinonia and everything it stands for. Yay! So we walked around the community and found out where the laundry facilities and everything is and then went upstairs to see her place! Wow.. can we say small? It's wow, small. But I think it's totally liveable for one person. Her bathroom is bigger than mine right now!! But like I said, it is totally do-able for two years.
After that, we went and got ready for Hollywood Blvd!! We were going to meet Lindsay and Aaron and his parents for dinner out in Hollywood. It was fun!! We drove down Hollywood Blvd for quite a while and saw Grauman's Chinese Theater and also the Kodak Theatre where they have done the Oscar's for at least two years now.. It was cool (and dorky) to think that we were walking on the same ground that celebrities have walked on before! We ate at Mel's Diner, a little place off the blvd that serves burgers and all sorts of stuff. I got a BLT with avocado.. so yummy! And it totally hit the spot .. We walked around for a while after dinner, up and down the blvd there are the stars in the sidewalks. You know when you hear about so and so getting their star on Hollywood Boulevard? Well, that's what we saw! There are so many of them!! It was hard to walk and also read the sidewalk at the same time. But fun all the same. And in front of Grauman's are all the concrete slabs with people's handprints and footprints! It was cool - Lindsay saw Shirley Temple's and I saw Tom Cruise's and even R2D2's ! haha.. It was cool.

Thursday:
Wow. Today we were so tired waking up!! But it was all good. We got ready for the day and then checked out of the hotel and got back on the highways! We drove to Burbank, which is not far from Pasadena. Wendy wanted to check it out. We drove down Burbank Blvd, but there was like, nothing there. Bummer! We headed to the airport to return our car and eat. We got the car returned and then ate our most expensive meal of the whole trip... a hot dog, fries and a drink for $9.50 !! Holy mackeral. That's what we get for eating in the airport I guess. We boarded our flight and made it back home!!
It was a great trip and I gotta say I'm so lucky for Wendy letting me go with her!

Be praying for the Cooper family as they follow God's voice to different points of the earth!!

Ugh. I'm so mad at me. It's like 12:30 on Monday night (Tuesday morning) and I'm still awake. It's just pissing me off cuz I got into bed at like 11 and even took some Tylenol to help me sleep a little. I'm leaving in the morning at 5:30 w/ Wendy so that means getting up around 4:45 to take a shower and get to the church. Argh it's just so frustrating because I want to sleep but I can't. My mind is just going like 80 miles a minute. No reason... I should have taken Advil .. it helps me sleep better.. I never take Tylenol.. and it hasn't been long enough to take Advil anyway ... frustration!! Well, if anyone reads this, please be praying for our trip. It's gonna be fun, but it's a new environment for both of us. I love you all!!

It's been a fun evening! Dancing at Maggie's, hangin w/ Andrew and Pest at Water-Burger with our Whata-Picante Sauce .. and an okay game of softball ... It's nights like these that I wish would never end ...

So rehab isn't working ...

I think I'm getting cured... I only had to watch my favorite part in My Big Fat Greek Wedding three times to be satisfied .... hehe.. there she goes again !!! BAH!!! HAHAHAH ... Okay ... four times. Why can't I stop laughing???! Oh.. there are the tears ... good times, Steph, good times. :)

And I'm back !

Okay so last night I had written all this stuff but I got tired, so I left it up so I could publish it this morning. I got up this morning and wrote like two more sentences and went to publish it. Well, it all got erased... so here's what I pretty much had...
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I'm back from UMArmy! This week was super fun and we all had a great time. I am too lazy/tired to write everything out, so if you really want to see what happened this last week, you're gonna have to read Lauren's blog and just ignore all the gooshy stuff that she had. ;) We were on the same work team, if that explains anything.

Our group was awesome - we didn't always get along, and I got fired at least twice during the week, only to get rehired at the end of the day. But I tell you what, we worked hard and we never gave up. We touched some lives and planted some seeds in Galveston. Let's see.. who was in the most awesome group of GREEN N ... Well there was Lauren, the most excellent encourager and my go-to girl when I needed to vent or basically who I could go to whenever cuz she's just that awesome. There was Steph, a young woman who is learning so much about herself and about building. She has a beautiful heart and I only wish I could have gotten to know her better. Andrew, who we could always count on for a laugh and who is an awesome servant of the Lord. John, who introduced us to new phrases and made me love him even more. And Hugh, who hated my music selection, but was always willing to help out in any way he could. And an adopted Gwen, our fearless color group leader who made sure we were doing okay and joined us for lunch everyday. OH! AND WILSON .. Our adopted crew member, whom without we could not have finished our project. He is a wonderful teacher and is so awesomely patient with the students, it's just amazing.

Our week was fun at the least!! We had some trying times, but who doesn't?? One of our projects, the door, was the most frustrating thing ever. (Can't you see the storm clouds??) But we learned tons of great lessons this week while on the worksite. Like: 1) You can still hammer pretty darn good while hanging upside-down. 2) Stay out of the bushes unless you want to get cut up. 3) Don't ever look through an old man's stuff... ever. 4) Always always always measure and re measure and re measure because you never know. 5) You should trim the door, not the door jamb.

I personally learned some good stuff this week as well. I guess I kind of re-learned it... * I can't worry, because worry is the opposite of faith. * It's not about me. * God's plan is perfect and is perfectly timed. My prayer this week was that God would put me where He wants me, when He wants me. I have to get onto His timeline, and jump off of mine because mine is super flawed.

I'm so grateful for all the encouragement I received this week and for all the support I received from friends, new and old. I am truly blessed.

That's it for now! More to come as I think about it.

Off to UMArmy! So I won't be here for a while .. not like I've been here much in the past few days anyway. Please be praying for me and my group! I don't know who they are yet, but you can be praying all the same.

And please be praying for me. I have not found a job yet, and I know that I have to be patient, but it's really trying my faith.

So yeah, yeah. Okay. Have a great week and I'll fill you in when I get back !

OH YEAH.. pray for next Saturday too.. Kelly & Charles are getting married !! :) Yay!

For more links on G8 stuff, see the G8 links on the sidebar over there ------>

Oh and here's some of my friend, Danny's, photography. This is one of my favorites. If you want to see more of his photography, go to this website.

I named this photo, "Peek-A-Boo." I don't know what Danny named it. :)




(Photo by Danny Boyle)

As I was watching The Sandlot tonight, I saw my favorite part where they play ball under the night sky, lit by fireworks. To go along with yesterday's post, here's a quote from that scene.

"There was only one night game a year. On the fourth of July the whole sky would brighten up with fireworks, giving us just enough light for a game. We played our best that night, because I guess we all felt like the "big leaguers" under the lights of some great stadium. Benny felt like that all the time. We all knew he was gonna go on to bigger and better games, because every time we stopped to watch the sky on those nights, like regular kids, he was there to call us back. Ya see, for us, baseball was a game. But for Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, baseball was life."

You know, there's just something about standing in an open field with thousands of people around you, and staring into the sky in awe of the fire balls that are exploding, creating a beautiful array of color and sound.

Standing in the middle of Zilker Park in Austin last night, I felt like I should be standing in the middle of the Sandlot. I honestly felt like a 12 year old again. It was so cool. My eyes were just glued to the sky.

It was awesome to think about how the Chinese invented fireworks so long ago and today we're using them to celebrate our freedom. I love fireworks. There's just something about lighting a little string and watching the light travel into a tube that holds this ball of gunpowder and other chemical powders, then watching it explode in the sky. What is it?! I don't know but it's fun.

Last night was truly fun. We spent the afternoon at the park, just chillin, eating, playing catch and enjoying the outdoors. It was hot, I won't lie, but I think it was all worth the sweat and the dirt and the tiny little ants.

Yesterday felt like a true 4th of July. Playing outside in the hot sun with best friends, eating watermelon and sandwiches and drinking ice tea and lemonade, listening to patriotic music as the sun set, and finally watching fireworks light up the sky. It was great. :o)

Happy Independence Day, America. You're one lucky son-of-a-gun.

Reach One More . . .

My thoughts:
Now, I didn't know a lot about this whole G8 thing until extremely recently. I'm talkin' last Thursday here. And from what I've learned, seen on TV, heard, etc, this is a huge deal. I mean, I've always known that that there has been poverty in Africa and that AIDS is a big deal over there that is very much out of hand. But I've never had the desire or concern about it until now. Maybe it's because Ginger is going over there, she's taking a present action. But knowing that there has been stuff our nation has been able to do for so long, but we haven't is really frustrating. I mean, if we gave only 1% of our government budget to Africa to help with poverty and AIDS, that's a really large amount of money!! My question is why have we waited? What's the deal? I mean, yeah, it was important to free the Iraqians from tyranny and to help with the tsunami and we wanted revenge on Bin Laden, so that's why we chased him... but Africa has been in poverty for hundreds of years!!!!! Ugh.. Let's just keep praying that our President and the rest of the leaders involved in the G8 make some good decisions that will help the entire continent of Africa and the millions (or billions?) of people who live there.

Some facts: (these just kill me)
- Around the world, 104 million children do not go to school because of poverty.
- Each day more than 8,000 people die of AIDS.
- 15 million children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS. Unless more is done, there will be 25 million of these children around the world by 2010.
- ONE person in seven goes to bed hungry each night.
- ONE person in seven lacks access to clean water for drinking, cooking or washing.
- ONE in five people has to survive on less than $1 a day

If we gave an additional ONE percent of our national budget to fight world poverty and AIDS, we can help: (**This is what we want Pres Bush to pull for!**)
Prevent 10 million children from becoming AIDS orphans
Send 104 million children to grade school
Provide clean water to almost 900 million people around the globe
Save almost 6.5 million children under 5 from dying of diseases that could be prevented with low-cost measures like vaccinations or a well for clean water

(All facts from www.worldvision.org)

This is what else the ONE Campaign (www.one.org) is calling for:
*Trade Justice: Reform trade rules so poor countries can earn sustainable incomes.
*Drop the Debt: Cancel 100 percent of the debts owed by the poorest countries.
*More and Better Aid: Help the poorest people of the world fight poverty, AIDS and hunger at a cost equal to just ONE percent more of the U.S. budget, on a clear timetable.

And here are a few things of what GOD says about what we should be doing...

Proverbs 31:8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."

Luke 3:11 "John answered, 'the man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.'"

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

If you want to know what you can pray for specifically, click on the following link (PDF)
http://worldvision.sitestream.com/ONE/prayerpoints.pdf

Today has been .. kind of normal, if you really want a word to describe it. I dunno, I went to church this morning, and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the sermon. I don't know.. worship was odd too.. It was probably just me though. Lunch was kinda fun! We went to the Deluxe Diner with a gi-normous group. I don't even remember everyone who was there. But it was cool - we hung out for way too long. I went and took care of my dog and then went to youth. I can't really comment on youth too much because .. youth read this :-p But I must say, I really enjoyed our prayer time at the end of the evening. It was pretty impromptu and we just kinda jumped into it, but our group was good. We didn't do it like the other groups, but the way we did our prayer fit our group better than the other way would have. And I said it in our circle, but I'll say it over and over again... I am blessed by each of those girls. Each one of them has brought something new into my life. Life would be very different without each of them.
Whew! Okay, so when I got home, I had to water the lawn ... yeah.. it took me like 3 hours. It was ridiculous. I don't think it's supposed to take that long!! I'll just hope that I didn't completely flood it. haha..
So, only 7 days til UMArmy !! AACK! I have a lot left to do before I go!! I have to get farther on the job hunt and I have to pack!! It's nuts -- Here's what the run-down looks like...
Monday: July 4th plans
Tuesday: make phone calls like crazy following up on stuff; eat dinner with the counselors; work?
Wednesday: work? youth stuff, eat dinner with mom?
Thursday: eat dinner with mom? work? ... who knows....
Friday: w/ mom pretty much all day (i can't reveal why, just trust me on this)
Saturday: take my luggage up to the church in the afternoon

So somewhere in all of that, I have to pack.. I'm sure it will happen :)

Haha.. I'm sorry, did I say "get stuff done" earlier today?? Cuz I'm laughin out loud now!! I didn't get much done today. Surprise, surprise!!!

Instead of "getting stuff done," I went outside and laid out for an hour. However, I did finish my thank you notes for graduation today!! WHOOP! ... Now I just have three for birthday ... Hey, at least I finished them.

The rest of the afternoon... was spent waiting on my dad. Yeah it was weird. He called me around 4 and said he was going to be at the house soon to drop off this key, but then he didn't show til like 5:30 almost! I was kind of perturbed because I had needed to go run a quick errand, and ended up not being able to get that done because I was waiting on him. But it's all good...

I went to dinner w/ Wendy and Ginger at Casa Ole and that was fun :o) Always fun times w/ Wen & Gin. I am really gonna miss those girls when they move off. Let's avoid such depressing thoughts at this time of night... So after that, Wen and I went to Target for like, at least an hour .. It's just such a great store! ! We headed back to the church and worked on altar stuff and watched "My Best Friend's Wedding." Yeah, I really do like that movie :) It's just good stuff and it brings back great memories!! And also helps me think about the future. As a wise woman once told Wendy, "Yeah, you're a Jules now, but someday you'll be someone's Kimmy." Ah.. such wisdom.. and it's a nice thought too :0)

"Someday ... when I'm awfully low ... when the world is cold ... I will feel a glow ... just thinking of you ... and the way you look tonight ..."

We finished painting and we set up the altar and I must say, it looks darn good. If you put Wendy's and my brains together, you've got some super creative juices flowin!! I love to put those creative juices to work !!

You rock, Wendy!! :o) (This is a shout-out to see if you ever read this... hahaha)

See? Simple fun and time spent with friends is like, the main reason I didn't go to Midland...

Happy Birthday Mom!!
And Happy Birthday PJ!! (You're only 2, but I wanna shout it out anyway.. )

Well Sunday night's post was a little depressing, no? Golly, let's see if we can get this thing back on track ...

This week has been pretty boring, if I do say so myself. Monday, I had a softball game and then I ate dinner with Ginger. Which was fun :o) The softball game was not fun .. one of my worst games so far this season (that was the 4th game). You know, when you strike out at your first up to bat, it's not really a good sign ...

Tuesday ... I don't remember what I did Tuesday ... Oh yeah! I went to work for a few hours and then I rented a movie and took it up to the church. Miss Congeniality 2 is kinda cute! I mean, of course, once you get into the movie, you know how the plot goes, but it was still fun :o)

Wednesday was ... um .. good! Haha.. I gotta start posting more often or write down what I do everyday .. I went out to the church early in the day and returned a key, then I went and saw Miss Lauren at VBS! So fun... I washed my car on Wednesday and got totally burnt on my back, but my car is clean and I had something to do :o) Then I laid out in the backyard for a little while and then headed out to the church for youth stuff. When I got there, the kids and some of the counselors were playing "The Game." It's this game the counselors made up this year that we play in the gym. It's so fun, and it's a great workout too!! So I joined them and played for a long time til it was time for the Jr Hi kids to go home. We played V-ball with the Sr Hi kids and also a little wall-ball for the renegades. After the counselor meeting, the counselors got goofy and tried to play some pranks on the JUMMP kids that were staying there. I don't know how well they worked, but it was fun all the same.

Thursday was boring as crap. I didn't do anything productive all day!! I never turned on my car on Thursday.. that's how much I didn't do.

Friday I went with Ginger to Galveston to check out some sites for UMArmy. It was fun! We got to see a lot of houses and meet some people, so that was good. It was good just to go to Galveston. At one point, we were sitting in Ben & Jerry's just watching the waves crash on the beach.. It was relaxing. :o) Then we sat in traffic on the way home. I felt bad because I fell asleep early on in the trip, but only for like 15 minutes.. Still.. it's not polite, and I stayed awake the rest of the day home. Whew! Last night, (Friday) I went back out to the church and we played some junk poker. I did pretty well in the first game. I was the 3rd person out, but the second game I was the 1st person out. Haha. So I was bored for a while until Wendy got herself out so we could play battle. Good times were had...

Well, it's Saturday today and I got up late. ... again ... My family is in Midland this weekend, I chose not to go, simply because I didn't want to. :) I made a good decision in my opinion. I know I'm missed out there, but I honestly don't think I'm missing anything other than time with the relatives. So today I am going to get stuff done. I don't know what "stuff" is, but it will get done. hahah.. whew!

Peace out peoples!