Blog Catch-up Part 2

Okay, where were we? Ah yes, last week, well, it only gets better :)

Thursday: I go to campus resigned to the fact that my ID card is hopelessly lost, prolly in one of the gutters around USC, and that I have to pay for its replacement, which I should do anyways because it's my own fault I lost it. So I go to USCard Services, and as they're getting me a new card I ask about paying the $18 fee. The guy who was working with me said that there would be no fee. Umm, come again? He said he gave me a brand-new card with a new number so he's treating it like a first-time card he's giving me. He said if I lost this new one then I would have to pay the fee, but not this time. I still do not quite understand it, but hey, I am not arguing! I was so happy and thanking God for that little gift and I went straight to the gym because I hadn't been in 6 days and I was feeling a bit overdue. So had a nice, long workout, and when I was finished I met up with my friend Jane and we went to have lunch together. I had to make a pit stop to my car to change out my workout bag for my normal one and I had parked at a meter that day and didn't pay for it. Normally this is nothing new because I have a handicapped placard (another perk to having rheumatoid arthritis!) and it allows one to park at meters for free (and green, limited time spaces for unlimited time), but this time I had forgot to put it on my rear view mirror! I put it on right away and was thanking God that no one gave me a ticket! It might not seem a huge deal, but those parking citation people around USC are extremely intense and if you're one minute off you usually get a ticket - I was about 4 hours off and no ticket! So basically God saved my rear end *twice* in the same day!! It was quite exciting :)

Friday: one of the other women on staff with me, Anya, had her birthday on Friday so the two of us, plus her twin sister (who I staffed Project Impact with in summer 2008) and 3 other friends all went out for hot pot that night. I don't know if you've ever had hot pot before, I'd only had it once, but it was so delicious!! We ate at a place called Jazz Cats in Monterey Park, and yes, they actually had a wall with tons of framed photos of cats...odd. But we got these pics out of it:





Can you tell which ones were the twins?? :)

Basically it was a delightful evening and it was great re-connecting with friends and having a fun night out! Quite refreshing I'd say

Saturday: That night I went to campus and had dinner with Jane and then she, Lauren and I watched 3 hours of Olympics, and I could have watched more. I really wanted to see Apolo Anton Ohno skate and because he's a big name of course the finals for his event weren't until about 10pm, but I got to see both his qualifying races and in the finals he got silver when he almost didn't even medal! On the last lap he was in 4th place, then the 2 guys in front of him collided and Jane and I were jumping up and down going crazy and it was all sorts of fun. Then we ended the night by watching 2 episodes of "Gilmore Girls" because I lent Lauren the first season (she had never seen it before!) and then it was bedtime.



Sunday: Had a Valentine's Party at my apt that night for some of the girls, and I hung up pink and red streamers, hearts and littered the floor with pink rose petals - had to admit, it looked pretty good :) The line-up for the night was simply making three kinds of desserts, yes, THREE. Sugar cookies first, so they could then be decorated, then made rocky road brownies and apple cobbler and oh man they were delicious!! We also watched While You Were Sleeping (quite possibly my favorite movie of all time) and we ate ourselves into a sugar coma.

Below are Amanda, Jane and Carrie-Rose, all of whom live on the same floor!


Here are Amanda and I cleaning up because of course, whenever you bake a lot of things, there is a lot of cleaning to do! Although I was definitely impressed that Amanda offered to help and made me stop cleaning the dishes!


Finally this is moi with 3 plates of some of the brownies to give away to some of the guys in Challenge. Thy were jealous at all we were making and since we had some leftover, thought it might be nice to give them some of it, plus, if it all stayed at my apt I'd gobble it all up and that would not be good for my arteries :)

Blog Catch-up

It has been a few days since my last post and I'm sorry about that! I am aiming for every Mon, Wed and Friday but it has proven more difficult than I thought. Anyways, let's re-cap last week shall we? I'll try to go super fast so it won't bore you too much...



Monday: Every other Monday night I meet with a group on campus called Tommy's Kitchen. It is run by one of the guys in Christian Challenge actually and there is themed food every time and we basically divide up into groups and make the dinner from scratch in the religious center (only spot on campus with a kitchen). We always have three courses: some kind of salad, usually 2 entrees and then a dessert. It is *super* fun because not only do I get to meet more students that way, but I get to learn how to cook too!! I found out that I love "chiffonade-ing" things, be it basil or spinach, or whatever - I think it's just fun to do and tastes great!



Anyways, this past Monday was "Souper Bowl Monday" and we were going to make 3 kinds of soups. Now, I don't know about you but soups don't really excite me, so I was actually going to skip it and just go home early. Then right as I am walking to my car I get a frantic call from the president, Victor, because he needs a ride to his apt, so I give him a ride and basically I decide to stay after all. Good life choice! Not only were all the soups delicious but I got to know one of the girls there a lot better so, again, I think God had a different and better plan for me that night!!

Tuesday: Not the best start to my day because I realize I lost my staff ID...again. I never dropped it in 4 years and now I lost it twice in one week!! What in the world...so I prayed about it, tried re-tracing all my steps, but no dice. I went into every building I even thought about and nothing, nada, zilch. Great. The replacement fee was $18 and it's not horrible or anything, but I also just didn't want to pay it so I let it go for one more day. But the BEST part about Tuesday was my dinner with Alex, a girl in my small group. We talked about where she is in her walk with God and how she has Turner Syndrome (medical disorder) and her thought processes with it. Now, that was not the cool part at all, but as she was talking, she was saying the very same things I went through with my own rheumatoid arthritis!! I told her some of my thoughts when my RA was bad and she said she felt the same way! Wow - I still don't know why exactly I have RA, but that conversation was one great benefit from it! I was able to connect with Alex on a much deeper level and show her she's not alone in this. Wow, it just amazed me with God's timing!

Okay, I think I've written a lot here and I'll break up the rest of the week!!

Finally, below is a picture of Apolo from the first short-track race in the Olympics this past Saturday night. He got the silver and another American, JR, got the bronze. I love the Olympics!!! (and Apolo too :)

PS...

I also thought I'd point out that I am now a little depressed because the Superbowl marks the end of football for about 7 months, or more specifically with the USC Trojans, 206 days till Sept. 2nd...

Who D'at!!!

Yay for the Superbowl yesterday when the Saints improbably beat the Peyton Manning-led Colts!! I was rooting for the Saints, yes, but I never thought they would win, not against Peyton. Well, they did win, and by TWO touchdowns!! And now Reggie Bush and Sedrick Ellis (former Trojans - fight on!) have superbowl rings! That is very exciting and I hope they do well next year too. I honestly didn't have a dog in this fight, I was basically rooting for the Saints because of Reggie and because it was "Nawlins" and they could use some cheering up :)

Christian Challenge had a Superbowl party for it and we used one of the shnazzy campus lounges for our location. We got there at 2:30pm and set up the room with tables and chairs (most of which were already there thankfully!) and of course the food! We had multiple kinds of chips (a Superbowl staple) and dips, including homemade guacamole by yours truly and yes, it was quite tasty!! Thanks to my madre for the recipe :) My roommate and fellow staffer Erin made gingerbread cookies in the shape of footballs and first down markers!! I didn't even know she had football cookie cutters!! How do I not have those too!?! Well, that's the beauty of being roommates, we can share :)


mmmmmm - gingerbread cooies!!

And we had a great turnout too! I honestly had no idea how many to expect, we didn't make this an official Christian Challenge thing because we wanted it to be more relational, but there were a good number of students there! If I had to guesstimate, I'd say there were 40-50 people there, most of whom we knew but there were a good number that were new so that was really cool. Two of the girls in my small group were there the whole time, Lauren and Alex, and then Carrie-Rose came in the 4th quarter because she was working on a film the whole day. And Kimberly stopped by for a bit before she went to do homework so I was pleased that most of the girls either came or at least stopped by. And my good friend Jane came for the whole time too!! She is a freshman living on the same floor as Lauren and Carrie-Rose in Pardee Tower (my old dorm!) and she is not a believer. She has yet to come to a small group or our large group Challenge Thursdays, but she does enjoy coming to our fun events and meeting more people and that's a good step!

Once the game was over (Go Saints!! And now Reggie Bush and Sedrick Ellis have a Superbowl ring!) we were all cleaning up, mostly the staff and some students, and Carrie-Rose got a vacuum and I started to clean the room because there were chip fragments *everywhere* and Jane asked me if she should get another vacuum to help out and I said sure. Next thing I know she is vacuuming too! Another area of the room without being told or asked to do that! And she's not even a believer!! I was shocked and impressed and I am praying God would continue to work on her heart. It was just so crazy because she is a freshman too, I mean, most of the students who were helping were at least upper classmen, with a few younger students, but she wasn't even asked to help - she just jumped in. Wow - I hope that becomes a pattern and not a one-time thing :) I'll keep you updated on it.

Lastly, instead of a comic today, I got these pictures from the New Orleans newspaper and they can't help but make me smile so I hope they do the same to you:


This is the front page of their newspaper and I think they're a little happy...


I love this picture!! The Saints QB Drew Brees with his wife and newborn son - so stinkin' cute and I definitely think this should be their Christmas picture :)

God's timing > my timing

Just this week I have had multiple examples of God having much better timing than me. Now, I know that God will always have better timing than me, but when it happens to me directly it just makes me smile and thank God that He knows what He's doing way better than I do!

This week on Wednesday I was planning on going to the gym later than usual (because I had my RA infusion that morning) and actually going to one of the gym classes like "Body Blast" or Yoga. The reason I could do this is because my weekly meetings on Wednesday nights for Challenge leadership (called Ministry Team) was canceled due to my boss being out of town. So I was all ready to go to Body Blast (have no idea what that would entail...) with two of the girls in my small group when I realized I didn't have my staff ID in my bag, or anywhere in my car, and I need it because it has a sticker for the gym. Much frustration ensued. Well fine, I thought, I guess I'll stick around later than I planned and I called a friend of mine in the dorms to see what she was up to and I headed over to her room. I brought some brownies with me (rocky road brownies - yummmmm!) because I wanted some of the girls to eat them because I knew if I kept them in my apt I'd have a brownie party of one and that would not be good for the 'ole body :)



So I went to Pardee Tower (my old dorm and now I go there often because not only do 2 of the girls in my small group live on the 8th floor, but I also know about 10 other girls on that floor!) and visited Jane who has fast become one of my good friends this year. We knocked on Lauren's door (in my small group) and distracted her from her work for a bit, before letting her finish and basically I spent the night with Jane, Lauren and 2 other girls on their floor eating dinner and talking in their hallway. I also met yet another girl on their floor so methinks God wants something to happen there :)

Basically, if I had found my card and gone to the gym, I would have worked out with Carrie-Rose and Kaila and that would have been great, but I also probably would have left afterwards and gone home, whereas by not having my ID card I spent more time on campus, got some good time with non-believing girls and even met someone new! Thanks God!! Yeah, I think He knew the second option was the better one - He tends to know that kind of stuff...

Oh!! and what happened to my lost ID card you ask? Well, I figured it was at my apt somewhere because I never take it out of my bag, so I get home and check my desk and dresser and nada - no ID. Oh great. Then I think through how I would get a new one and would I have to buy another gym semester pass if I lost the other one and when I would do all of this, when I stop and figure out the best thing to do is pray, because as a friend told me, when you don't know what to do, pray! So I did just that and I told God that while He knew exactly where my card was I had no idea where it could be. I asked that if it was on campus somewhere a student would find it and hand it in because that was the only option I could see if I dropped it on campus somewhere. So right when I finish I got a thought about where it could be! I was pretty sure I left it with the USC Scheduling Office from Tuesday because Challenge had a table out on the main part of campus this week and I had it on Tuesday. You have to sign in to get the table and *hand in your ID card* which you get back once you sign out. Well, I was smart and I never signed out thus that office must still have my ID card! I called and they did have it and so thank you Jesus for helping me find my card!! I honestly cannot tell you how often that happens to me - where I lose something, pray about it and find it!

So that is just one example of many in these past few weeks of God knowing better than me - I'm sure there will be more to come :)

Oh, and another thing that is totally unrelated but the winter Olympics start next week!! Opening ceremonies next Friday night - woo HOO!! I heart the Olympics :)


And lastly, here is some funny to hopefully make you smile:

Ode to my Tempur-pedic mattress

Oh Tempur-pedic mattress,
How I love thee.
You make my nights full of comfortable dreams
where I am content in my sleeping stupor.
You are always there for me,
Inviting me to a refreshing vacation of uninterrupted sleep
That makes me wake up for the day feeling refreshed.
You never get lumpy and you always fit to my exact specifications.
I make this ode to thee, my wonderful Tempur-pedic mattress,
And look forward to being with you for years to come.



This was actually inspired by a 2 minute presentation I had to give in college my senior year for a class. The prompt was to talk about something or someone I loved for 2 minutes - could be anything. I was racking my brain to think of something I could use (the obvious ones like friends and family seemed too trite) when it hit me in bed - my Tempur-pedic mattress!! Technically it's a mattress cover thing, but still, it works wonders. My dad got it for me my junior year of college thinking it would help me sleep better and oh my goodness he was right.

Incidentally, for my class, the rest of the people in it chose everything from their family to something random like I did to present. The guy who went before me talked about his dog that had since passed away - how it was the greatest dog in the world, how much he loved him and he even got a little choked up talking about him, which made all the girls in the class (myself included) get teary-eyed and when he sat down the entire class was quiet. Then I went up there and talked about my mattress that I love. Yeah, I felt pretty awesome. At least I still got a good grade though so while not the best placement, my prof liked it!

Interwoven

So this past Saturday we had a women's event for Christian Challenge with the goal of connecting all the women involved, hence the super cool title "Interwoven." Two of the other staff women and myself got together at the beginning of the year to brainstorm how we could connect the girls to each other because so often the lines of friendship fall with whichever small group you're in and we wanted to have something for all the girls so they could get to know everyone else too, not just the ones they know in their separate small groups. To that end, we had an event on campus (because most of the girls are younger this year and don't have cars, thus making getting off campus a little more complicated). We had 2 speakers, Melinda who is my boss' wife and recent alum Leslie. We had them give mini bios of themselves and how they came to know Christ personally and the bulk of it was to let them share how getting to know Christ for the first time or really working on their walk with God during college has helped them post-college. We really wanted the girls to connect that it's always important to connect with God, and that if you really work on your walk in college it pays huge dividends the rest of your life. We had about 7 tables set up, with at least one other recent alum at the tables so that the students could ask them questions. It was a great time and of course I didn't bring my camera, but my roommate did so I'm hoping to put some of her pics up when she uploads them on facebook :)

As is expected we had amazingly tasty treats at the event and I was super full by the end but it was definitely worth it. While I don't yet have pictures of the event, I thought I'd at least show pictures of what we ate, and yes, it all tasted as good as it looked!!


Of course you have to have fruit at a women's event - gives the impression we're trying to be healthy :) and not pictured though is the best part of the fruit medley - the dipping sauce! It's a white dip that is a straight mixture of cream cheese and marshmallow cream - holy cow it is delicious!


One of our staffers, Sandra, made these cookies - heart shaped sugar cookies! Because you also cannot have a women's event without something pink...


Amy made these mini muffins - lemon poppy seed and orange cranberry - YUM!! I had a couple :)


And this, my dear friends, is what I made - tomato herb crostini! I mean, I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but TOOT they were amazing!! I had quite a few of these things, and I even hate tomatoes! That should tell you how good they were, although, as I was looking up the photos for this, I suddenly realized that I forgot to put the feta cheese on top! Ah well, it was still scrumptious

And now onto the pinwheels - 2 kinds: spinach artichoke and tomato parmesean and they were stinking good! Erin made the spinach ones and Anya made the tomato ones :)




And lastly, what women's event would be complete without some chocolate?? Erin also made brownie bites and we put Hershey's Kisses all over the tables for the students (and staff...) to munch on




So that was that! It was a great time and went well past what we were thinking! It started at 2:30 and we didn't leave until 6pm - whew!! Long day, but it was enjoyable so it worked. Then my roomie Erin and I came home, finished the rest of the cleaning, laundered the tablecloths we used and just rested the whole night - it was fabulous and just what the doctor ordered :)

Finally, because you can always use a laugh, here is another comic from my new favorite artist: