Holiday season!

It's here, it's finally here!! It's the Holiday Season!!!! Christmas music, Christmas goodies, Christmas desserts, Christmas colors and scents and yet it's still about a month away. Thanksgiving is here though, and it can't come fast enough! I am super looking forward to the delectable food, the couple days off and and then the rush to Christmas!

In my last post I discussed Harry Potter and I saw it at 12:20am on Thursday night/Friday morning. We had our large group Christian Challenge meeting that night, so my friend and fellow staffer Lindsay left right away with a couple students to save us seats in line while I and another girl stayed behind because I had to tear down my area. So we left and got to L.A. Live at about 9:30 and had a looooooong time to wait!! The girls we took were seeing the 12:10am showing, so they were in a different line. Lindsay and I just chilled for a good while, chatting with all the other Potter nerds around us, I was falling asleep, then it was time to go in!


I wore my Harry Potter Griffyndor/USC scarf :)

Thankfully Lindsay was a forward-thinker and got us a diet coke and sour patch kids to keep our sugar up and our eyes open! I was fine during and even after the film, was wide awake at 3am, but before the movie I was fading fast.


We were in line for a long time - we took to making faces for the camera to pass the time :)

It was amazing though and I am definitely going to see it again!! I think the most fun part came from driving home at 3:30am, because the freeways were CLEAR!! As in, no cars in front of me on the 10 freeway at all - which of course only happens at that time, so that was pretty fun.

Saturday was USC's community service day called Friends & Neighbors Day. You can sign up to help out local non-profits and some of my friends from Challenge did one that was feeding the homeless, and at first I was scheduled to do that one with them, but it was like 7 Challenge peeps and I thought that was quite enough, seeing as how the whole idea for us doing it is to spread ourselves thin and meet new students. It wasn't their fault either. It was 2 small groups that chose the same one independently! So I changed to walking dogs at a place called Bark Avenue :) I went with a freshman in Challenge and got to meet a couple new people so it was really fun! It was just a LOT of walking. We walked to the place which was pretty close, but then we walked dogs for about 2.5 hours! They needed help because they're under-staffed and they want to make sure all the dogs get enough exercise so we helped out :)


Maddie with Othello, the dog I spent the most time with, although he also had some digestive issues....


Adorable pic of one of my favorites, Hollister - he was a bit tired by this point :)

So this weekend was really fun, and I cannot wait until tomorrow because that will mean just ONE more day until Turkey Day!!! As for me, I'm most looking forward to the stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie! I love all things pumpkin and I made pumpkin brownies the other night and they were delicious - YUM!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!


just had to show another photo of Hollister - I mean, just look at this face!!! so much cuteness here, I can't help but smile when I see this one

HP7.1

It's here. It's now. This is it. It is finally opening weekend of HP7.1. For those of you not in the know (which you should be because, let's face it, HP is flippin' awesome), "HP7.1" refers to "Harry Potter 7, part 1" because TOMORROW is the day when it comes out!!! It is currently 1:53pm in Cali, and I'm seeing it at 12:20am, so basically I have less than 12 hours, LESS THAN 12 HOURS PEOPLE!!!! Holy moly I am getting so excited I almost can't take it. I might have to stupefy myself to contain myself. Why Potter you ask? Well, firstly, because it's awesome. Secondly, it's really awesome. Thirdly, it's a great story. No, really. I know it was originally for kids, but by about book 4 the author J.K.Rowling goes all crazy and kills someone, and she never looked back. If you try reading book 6 to a 10 year old they'll probably be traumatized. She kills off about half the Potter universe in the last book, and not just the peripheral characters either. She goes big so she doesn't have to go home. But in all seriousness, Potter has to be good quality to engage the world right?? Well, okay, that same argument could be made for "Twilight" but I haven't read the books and I don't plan on it - I read the synopsis on Wikipedia so I know what people were talking about, but that's it. Most of my friends who have read it concede that yes, while it is an addicting story, it is by no means Shakespeare. Heck, they didn't even say it was Dan Brown level. One of my good friends was an English major and she said it was just horribly written. Another friend of mine (AKJackso shout out!) told me that if I was ever depressed I should read those books because they're so badly written I will start laughing as I'm reading and thus put me in a better mood :)

No, Potter is well-written and it gets better as she goes along. The first 2 books are my least favorites because they tend to be slow and plodding and repeat a lot. But trudge through those books and you won't be able to put them down. My mom convinced me to read the first 3 books while we were looking at colleges for a week my senior year. I shrugged her off because I said they were kid's books and I am by no means a kid anymore. She then said she had read them and my oldest sister too, and how they both enjoyed them. Ok fine, just to placate my mom I bought the first 3 in paperback and in about 4 days they were all read. Yeah. So from them on I was hopelessly addicted. Book 5 came out when I was a sophomore in college, and I had to force myself to do homework instead of read Potter. I would "reward" myself by working for a good hour, then reading a chapter, then working for an hour and reading a chapter and then I'd stay up later at night reading a few chapters at a time. So it both helped and hindered my studies :)

But I have also really enjoyed the movies. Films 3 and 6 are my current favorites. I know some people hate the fact that the movies tweak or leave out parts of the books, but let's be honest, if they included everything in their right order then the movie would be like 6 hours long. I love Potter but my rear would not. I really enjoy the liberties they take because it keeps it fresh. Plus the music in film 6 is awesome, like woah.

SO, all of that to say that I am SUPER PUMPED for Potter 7 tonight/tomorrow morning. The only thing I am not looking forward to is the pain factor because my rheumatoid arthritis has come back and it gets wicked bad the later it gets, like at 10pm it's horrible, so 4am should be interesting :)

Now, while I am indeed pumped to see it, I am not as bad as this guy:



Harry Potter is cool and all, but it's not LIFE. Sheesh. That should be left to Calvin and Hobbes. ha haaa, just kidding. But take a look at the trailer!!!



a-MAZE-ing right?!?! oh man, just get goosebumps watching it :) cannot WAIT until tonight!!

And until then, this is pretty funny too:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

T-minus 10 hours and counting...

Lessons from Demas

So last night I had my LIFE group and this semester we are looking at the book of Philippians as a canvas to study the Bible in different ways (looking at the background of a book, cross references, verse summaries, etc) and last night was biographical studies. It went really well!! We looked at how you would start and if it's your first few times we suggested a more obscure character so you don't get overwhelmed with too many verses to go through. I had our group (total of 8!! although one girl came pretty late, so it was mostly 7, which is still awesome!) divide up into 2 groups to each study a different character. My co-leader Josephine took the reins for her group and they looked at the person of Epaphroditus and looked up any verses that mentioned him, any insights they could glean, any chronological order they could make of his life, positive and negative character qualities they saw of him and then the main lesson they could learn from his life. Their main lesson was to be a serving person and put others' needs ahead of your own. Very good thought!! Paul mentioned that exact thing in Phil. 2:3-4 :)

My group looked at Demas who only has a grand total of THREE verses about him in the entire Bible:

Colossians 4:14, Philemon 1:24 and 2 Timothy 4:10.

From the first 2 verses we gleaned that Demas was a fellow worker of Paul and was faithful to him, seeing as how Paul had exacting standards for people he decided to work with (he refused to take Mark along with him during his second missionary journey because Mark had left him during his first one), so for Paul to call Demas "my fellow worker" meant that he had to be doing something right! Then the 2 Timothy verse says that Demas deserted Paul because he loved this present world. What a sad letdown!! Here was this great guy, has credentials from PAUL who wrote most of the New Testament, and he "deserted" Paul, which we discussed was always a negative verb and intentional too. It wasn't like Demas accidentally chose something else and that made him not be able to work with Paul, no, he deserted him which means it was a deliberate choice to leave the things of God and focus only on the things of this present world. The main lesson we got from it was that no matter who you are, you are never far from falling away. The Christian walk is hard and tiring and it's a marathon, not a sprint. It's very easy to be pumped for God for a few years, maybe even a decade, and then settle into a stagnant walk with Him (going to church, praying every now and then) because Satan is constantly trying to get us out of commission for God and he will throw anything he can at us to make us ineffective for Christ. Do I always want to walk with God? nope. Do I always get excited about spending time with the Creator of the universe? I would like to, but nope, not every day! Do I always want to memorize verses or read books that can help me grow? Nope! But I know myself, and if I give myself a little leeway, all of a sudden it will become 2 days without time with God, then 3 days, then forget to memorize Scripture altogether, then just blindly doing a routine and forgetting that God has the PATH OF LIFE in His hands and it would behoove me to humbly submit my mind, heart and soul to Him in order to have real, true and eternal life. Because, after all, if God created the earth and everyone/everything in it, wouldn't it be a good idea to get to know Him in order to have the wisdom I need to walk through this life?? That's how I can get all I need!! It just requires a submission of my stubborn and rebellious will that says, "no thanks God, I got this"

How did I even come up with Demas for us to look at? It was a few years ago when I was on my boss' ministry team (student leadership team within Challenge) and he had us look at Demas one night and no, I had never heard of him till then, or if I did, I just glossed over his name. But in studying those 3 verses his example has always stood out to me. It's a timeless example that we are never far away from falling away from God. As Neil says, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. Demas didn't finish. He started well, and I'm sure people of his day thought he was a great and strong follower of God which I'm sure he was, but the love of this world choked out any heart he had for God and he walked away intentionally.

This is not to be a downer session, I walked away from last night and even still this morning smiling at God's grace and how well it went last night, but I think Demas has implications for us all at all times. Are you like Demas? Have you gotten comfortable into a rut of Christian activity because you feel that's what you "should" do? Or have you even given up the guise of being a believer because it doesn't matter anymore? God is real and He wants you to be in a thriving and close personal relationship with Him, and yes it is hard, but He will give you the tools you need to walk victoriously with Him!!

Ezekiel 36:26 - "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

Isaiah 41:13 - "For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.' "

Isaiah 41:9-10 - "I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

2 Timothy 4:7 - "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."


This one was for you Amy :)


this guy's photo title was "applauding turtle" so it's like he's urging you on right?? right?? hmm, maybe not....but worth a try :)

What steps will you take today to be more like Paul than Demas?

Does God use Facebook?

This year my boss Neil has asked me to lead the sister Challenge ministry we have over at Santa Monica College once a week and Tuesdays are my days to go over there and lead a small group and get to know some of the students there. Usually I try to get there around 11am, prayer-walk a bit, start the study (and lunch :) at 11:30 and go from there. Today didn't get there till almost noon because of stinkin' TRAFFIC - ugh. I seriously hate the 10 freeway, along with the 5, the 101 and the 405...all of them really. But I digress. I decided to to a 4 week study focusing on God and Facebook (yes, Facebook, I figure if everyone goes on it all the time it'd be good to use that to my advantage, plus, I love FB :) at the beginning and kind of see where the students are that come to the small group and I thought I'd use a series I came up with last year - really God gave me the creativity though because I know myself and I am not this creative :)

Week 1 is "God has friended you" and uses the Facebook analogy of God friend-ing us and how He gives us the choice to confirm or ignore His request. I love doing studies like this because even though I went through it last year I always get something new out of it with whoever I'm having the study with.

We looked at many verses about God taking the initiative with us, how He has been pursuing us since the beginning and how courteous He is, because He literally does give us the choice to confirm Him as the God we live for or ignore His request and continue living for ourselves. One passage we looked at was Exodus 3:1-6 when God initiated an encounter with Moses through the burning bush. He tells Moses to take off his sandals because he is standing on sacred ground and one of the girls there today, Kelly, said that it really underlines our unworthiness compared to God, that no matter who we are we're still not good enough for God and how knowing this, God still reaches out to us. I had never thought of it that way before and it was a really cool insight! I was feverishly writing it down as she was talking :) But really, it's so true - we're not good enough for God, but through *His* pursuing *us* and giving us the greatest gift in the sacrifice of His Son He made a way for us to come to Him and receive true and eternal LIFE!!! So amazing to think about!! That God cared that much about every single one of us that He initiated His Son coming down to us as God incarnate and giving us a way to know Him personally!! wow, I say again, WOW!! God is so good!!!

So next week we will be talking about the importance of community through "God's Facebook Network." Week 3 is "Does God change His status?" asking the question, "is God even involved in our lives? Does He care?" and we will end with "God wants to see your whole profile" with the idea being that just like how on Facebook you can "hide" certain aspects of your profile from certain people, God does not want that - He wants ALL of us, not just part of us. I'm excited for next week and what I'll learn from the students!


and with that, here is the funny of the day - whoever comes up with these espn and college gameday commercials is a genius and I love it!!

Fall Conference!!

As promised, here is an update from our annual Fall Discipleship Conference.

The location was Big Bear and it was heavenly! I LOVE that smoky, mountain smell and as soon as you exit your car in the mountains you can smell it!! Such a nice change from the icky, smoggy air :) The speaker was Dudley Callison, who also spoke at my freshmen Fall Conference, the one that changed my life, literally! It wasn't really anything he said, although I do still remember the constant question he would ask us, "to what end?" As in, "Ok, you're studying hard right now so you can get good grades. To what end? To get a good job. To what end? To make money. To what end? So that I can pay for my apt/house. To what end? So I can be rested and go to work. To what end? So that I can make money to buy clothes. To what end? So that I can wear those clothes to work. To what end? To what end? To what end???" So that we could really figure out what/who we were living for.

But the reason that specific fall conference changed my life is that the weeks leading up to it, both my Bible study leaders had told me a couple ways I could get to know Jesus Christ personally and I had always brushed them off, mostly because they required effort on my part and I wasn't ready for that. One of those ways they told me about was having a daily time with God, (Quiet Time, Time With God, whatever phrase you use :) reading His Word and journaling about what I find. So that conference weekend rolls around and low and behold, the girls I was rooming with all did their Quiet Times!! That was the thing that threw me. These girls actually *walked the walk*!! I had talked the talk my whole life, but these people actually did those things they told me to do! That was the biggest thing. So that Monday after the conference, I got out my Bible and journal, told God that I while I had always believed in Him I was finally going to commit myself to Him and let Him have the driver's seat to my life now, and then it felt like a new beginning to my life!! Such awesome times, God is so awesome I can't stand it sometimes, like woah.

But I digress, this is supposed to be about Fall Conference 2010, not 2002! So Dudley was our speaker and the theme was Lifestyle Discipleship and it was really great to re-align my perspective and get energy and motivated for the 2nd half of the semester!!

Here are some photos of the event:


ahhhhhhhhhhh, Big Bear, how I love thy clean air!!


Brittany, Josephine (my co-leader), myself and Christina :)


I think these girls were having a good time, don't you? :)


Me with Sydney and Jessyka, and we all found out we love the show "Arrested Development" and plan on having an "AD" party soon!


Went hiking and rock climbing - ohb yeah!!


USC Christian Challenge staff 2010-2011!! Aren't we a good-looking bunch? :P

There was also a bonfire with s'mores which was delicious, and extremely sugar-y, I was only able to have one!! The funny thing is that even though it was only last weekend, it feels like *forever* ago!! Goodness....

It was amazing though, more updates to come later so stay tuned :)



In honor of Halloween coming up and just the fact that I love espn commercials, here is the funny of the day!!

Catch-up

So it's been about a month since I last posted and I'm sorry, I'm going to try to be better at this! Still not used to the whole blogging thing, but I promise I'll get a handle on it :)

Well, many things to go through then! One of them was a very good friend of mine from my college days came out to visit for a couple weeks and it was great to see her again!! We were in my sorority and Christian Challenge together and she just finished law school in Hawaii and took a much-needed break from studying :) I took her on a tour of USC because even though it's only been three years since she was on campus, it's changed a lot! New campus center (thank you Ronald Tutor for donating a bazillion dollars for it!) and new cinema school, and she had never been in Heritage Hall!!! Only where we show off all our athletic trophies! So we made a pit stop there too :)


This is Amy with her favorite bike of all time, the Paul Frank giraffe bike :)

Then we also went by the bookstore and she got a few things because what is a trip to USC without going to the bookstore and checking out all the latest in Trojan fashion??


This was taken post-purchase...and yes we're pseudo-matching with the plaid and no, we didn't mean to!

And of the two times she came to USC to visit, we went to Chick Fil A both times!! Such yummy food :) and as is our custom, we both got the kid's meals :)


I love their chicken nuggets - it's the only thing I've gotten from them!!

We also went to Disneyland and had oodles of fun during Halloween-time!!


in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle...


in front of the HUGE Mickey pumpkin!!


Amy and I fighting on during the Tower of Terror ride, which we rode twice in a row because no line!! Gotta love Disneyland on a dreary day :)

We also watched the USC-Stanford game at one of the staffer's houses (thanks Jeremy and Katy!) and that's all I can really say about that. After the depressing game Amy, myself and another friend of ours Jessa all went to Yogurtland to drown our sorrows in fro yo...


At least I was surrounded by good company right??

Thus begins the first half of the update - the rest will come tomorrow about our annual Fall Discipleship Conference!!

NCAA, how I loathe thee sometimes...

So I don't know if you keep up with college football, but my dear Trojans got slapped with quite a harsh sentence in the post season after the NCAA looked into our program for 4 years and found 2 players had received improper benefits from agents. Now, I am not saying they don't deserve to be punished, it's just that they can't be punished because the culprits (Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo) are currently out of the NCAA's reach and making millions. So they went after the only player they could and it was USC. I realize full well that USC was probably not 100% clean in all of this, but I do think the punishment was a bit harsh - a loss of scholarships, 2 year bowl ban and vacated wins from the years Reggie played and received the benefits. One of the phrases the NCAA used was "a lack of institutional control" about the USC athletic department.

Then, during the summer I am at the gym and watching ESPN when I see a very interesting story running on the ticker on the bottom of the screen. It said that about 10 UVA football players had received improper benefits as well and the NCAA was looking into it. Hmm, funny that it wasn't headline news like it was for USC and they had way more people involved. Ok, well, I expected to hear a harsh sentence concerning them sometime soon.

Fast forward to this morning and I'm reading the LA Times sports page and turns out 2 of their players are only having to deal with a 4 and 6 game ban. The others are being investigated, but if found to have received said benefits, they only have to pay back some of what they took and give it to a charity.

Now, am I the only one who sees a major discrepancy here?? USC was not the victim yes, I'll give you that, but seems that after investigating the school for FOUR years and only finding 2 players, whereas UVA has about TEN might mean that it's UVA with the "lack of institutional control" and not USC. Again, USC was not innocent and they do need to watch their marquee players more, but ONE versus TEN is a BIG difference in my mind. No bowl bans, no vacated wins, no scholarships lost, in fact, those players that broke the rules will still get to play in this season. Awesome. Thanks NCAA for being fair all across the board.

Still annoyed, but then again, can't do anything about it, so oh well. And with that, I leave you with a commercial about why I love sports and ESPN: