Super long catch-up

okay, so I realized I haven't done an update in a while, so let me es'plain, no, there's too much, let me sum up:

- after Fall Conference, my Life group and I continued to dig into the book of Ephesians and find applications from it for our own lives which was super encouraging and awesome. It's so much fun to learn from the Bible together and see all the different ways God speaks to us!

- went on annual Disneyland trip during finals week with a few students, Rebekah from my Life group and then 2 other girls I know and it was a blast!! (but really, how could it not be?? it's *Disneyland**! plus, we all got in for free, so that's always a plus :)

chilling with Pooh Bear (although, have to say, this year we didn't get a photo with Eeyore OR Tigger, who also happens to be my personal favorite)

- huge Christmas party given by Christian Challenge at my boss' house, which is ALWAYS a huge hit and tons of fun with loads of new people to meet and food to taste!

This is all members of my Life group (Top from L to R: Lensa, Rebekah, myself & Charlene, Bottom row: Alex, Megan, Vanessa & Lauren) can you spot which ones are identical twins? :)

what can I say? We like to have fun together!

- annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party thrown by a friend of mine and yours truly and her sister won a prize!! so exciting, and Mom, if you're reading this, I actually *liked* that sweater! I swear I don't think your Christmas sweaters are ugly, they are just colorful and I love them :)

Courtney-friend along with Kourtney-sister :)

- I went to the USC press conference with two of my friends (who are also USC alumnae) and we watched as Matt Barkley announced he was going to stay for his senior year!! (yes, I realize this makes me a crazy fan, but hey, I wasn't the only one, not by a long shot! the venue was *packed* with fans and sportswriters and it was awesome)

Barkley is STAYING!!! watch out world, USC hopes to lead the PAC and the nation in 2012!

- got to see my sister and bro-in-law from Hawaii for a week

hanging with my siblings the day after Christmas, and yes, we are posing with random mannequins in a store...

- saw Wicked for the second time and it. was. AMAZING!! I think I liked this time better than the first time I saw it because I was pretty far away last time so this time we were pretty close which was pretty darn cool, I mean, we could see the detail in all the costumes and it was awesome! The detail the people went to to make them was crazy! (Plus, and it must be said, the guy playing Fiyero was super handsome, so it was pretty nice to be close to him :)

what a wicked good show

- went shopping and got some much-needed tops with my sisters and mom

- saw Sherlock Holmes 2 (very good and entertaining, although, I think the music was better in the first one) and also saw The Artist which was a truly great film that I plan on seeing again and again! It is a black and white silent film, but it is amazing, seriously, and the Oscars agree with me because it is nominated for TEN awards! All in the big categories too! (best director, best actor, best supporting actress, best original score, best original screenplay, best editing, etc.) I saw it with my movie buddy Katelin and I have to say, we have good taste. The last movie we saw together before this one was Midnight in Paris, and both are nominated for Best Picture this year! Danh we have good taste :)

jolly good show!!

you. need. to. see. this. movie!!!

- woke up sick on new year's day (no, not from a crazy night before) but I had been fighting a stuffy nose all the previous week but ignoring it and it finally caught up with me. I literally spent two whole days in my pajamas! I also forgot that with my rheumatoid arthritis, with all the drugs I'm taking, that any time I get sick I stay sick for a longer time period b/c my drugs suppress my immune system so it just takes longer to get over even a common cold. That was great.

- had my 10 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!! Yes, I realize that makes me old, but it was pretty awesome actually!

one of my dear friends Katelin and I (she is also my aforementioned movie buddy, between the two of us we know everything about Hollywood and movies, it's pretty awesome)

WHEW!! sorry that was such a long jump, next time it won't be so bad :)

Fall Conference FUN!

So our Fall Discipleship Conference was a few weekends back and wanted to put up some photos of what all we did and learned about so without further ado, here is a snapshot of our time in Big Bear!

Who: The Christian Challenges from USC, San Diego State Univ and Cal Baptist Univ

What: retreat to get away, grow closer in walk with God and be refreshed for the last bit of the semester

Where: Camp Cedar Lake in Big Bear

Some photos:

Becky and I as we were helping to set up the bookstore, attired in USC garb of course!

Jessyka, Katy, Makena & Michelle having a grand 'ole time :)

Myself and Emily with our matching white sunglasses :)

Makena and I "heisman-ing" (the latest craze after "Tebow-ing")

Baby Samantha (our mascot if you will) surrounded by some of her fans :) Isn't she crazy cute?!?!

Josephine and I chilling in our room before a session! See that blue and orange bag in the lower right corner? I got that my *freshman year of high school*!!! As in, fall of '98, and that bag is still going strong!! One of the best purchases I've ever made :)

Rebakah, me and Jessyka chillaxing during some of the free time



And lastly, here is the funny/sad of the day. Some poor dog's owners are *super* big Star Wars fans, dressing up their pooch to look like an AT-AT from Episode V. And yes, I knew what it was called without having to look it up...

12 is an awesome number

I have decided that 12 is an extremely awesome number. Why you ask? Why 12, of all the other numbers out there? Why is 12 now so special? Here are some fun facts about the number 12:

- it's Tom Brady's number, and he's a pretty good qb... (it's also Andrew Luck's number, but he's lame so I don't count him)

- it's the name of a Russian film from 2007 that is a loose re-make of 12 Angry Men

- it's the largest number with a single-morpheme name in English

- it's the atomic number for magnesium in the periodic table

- the average human has 12 cranial nerves

- has to do with the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples of Jesus

- there are 12 days of Christmas

- there are 12 months in a year

- 12 people have walked on the moon

lastly,

- it's also the number of my current sedimentation rate!!!!! My sedimentation rate, or sed rate for short, is a basic barometer of how my RA is doing b/c it measures inflammation in my joints. The normal adult's range is between 10-20 and mine have usually been upwards of 50. In the summer it was a 69, then it was a 44 and just last week found out it is now a TWELVE!!! Now do you see the amazingness that is the number 12?? Now, I know my sed rate will continue to fluctuate the rest of my life, but I will enjoy having it at a 12 for right now :)

yay 12!!!!

and now here is the funny of the day:

Birthday Blast weekend

So Sunday was my birthday and it was stinkin' amazing. The whole weekend was a birthday bash of sorts, starting off with a Trojan VICTORY!!! This is a 1875% increase over last year, when my birthday actually fell on a HOME game against Washington.......which we subsequently lost.....so that wasn't the best starter for my birthday last year but I'm happy that Lane, Matt and the rest of the Trojan men were able to overcome a shootout with Arizona to win the game. (side note: Zona has one of the worst defenses in the nation, and we still had a hard time putting them away!)

Man our boys look good in cardinal and gold!

Also took my friends Mallory and Sarah to the game with me and it was a blast, except for the fact that it was stinkin' HOT. The cool thing is that it was their breast cancer awareness game so all the security people, instead of wearing their normal bright yellow jackets wore pink ones instead. We even got free pink bracelets (a la the Live strong rubber ones) so I took a few extra for my mom :) (breast cancer survivor for 20 years!!!)

After the game Sarah and I met a few of our other friends at a Tunisian/Moroccan restaurant in Hollywood called the Moun of Tunis. I had been twice before, and it was pretty darn good. You sit in these booths, eat with your hands and towards the end of the meal a belly dancer comes out! It's a fun experience :)

mmmm, b'stilla..... (basically it's a pastry of sorts with meat and egg inside, that's covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon - odd combo to be sure, but it's still delicious!)

After the b'stilla, we also received brik, salad, couscous and lemon herb chicken! it is a TON of food, but it's all very delicious so we were good with that!

Then came the present openings!

I got a lot of movie passes for my birthday...almost like my friends know I love going!! Squeee!!! And it's perfect timing of course b/c in the fall all the best movies come out so I am *set*

Of course my friend Lindsay got me leopard flats (she works at Shoe Dazzle after all...) but she knows I love the leopard print and with it being in fashion now it's a lot easier to get :)

After all the food and present opening came tea in little cups that look suspicious, but fear not, it's only TEA inside!!

We thought it'd be funny to get a picture of us all with our tea :)

Whew! So that was all Saturday, and now onto the actual day itself. Had church, then a bbq for college students right after (including us college staffers) and everyone sang to me there which was embarrassing but also really fun :) Then went to my parent's house in Pasadena and watched some football (including a great run by Joe McKnight for the Jets!) then had an amazing dinner! I asked my mom to make me my favorite dish, BBQ chicken pot pie which she got out of a Cooking Lite magazine years ago but doesn't make all that often. She even made TWO dishes of it so that I could take one home with me!!

mmmmm, I'm having some for lunch too and I think I'm starting to get hungry for it looking at these photos....

My mom also used a bright orange tablecloth that I know she got just for me because she is not the biggest fan of orange (she was happy when I got into USC because she thought my orange "phase" would be over now that my school colors were red and yellow instead of orange and blue, but I told her that red and yellow together make orange, so really, orange is a super spirited USC color :)

I got to see almost my whole family (minus my oldest sister and her husband, because, you know, Hawaii is a little far away for a weekend jaunt) and my nephews!!!

My youngest nephew, who is about 8 months and already wearing 1 year clothes :)

To cap off the night my mom and I (joined later by my dad) watched X-Men First Class because that movie is awesome and all sorts of amazing

Not to mention that Michael Fassbender is quite the stud in it....

Then on Monday (whew!) went out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory at the Americana with a good friend of mine from college and it was so fun! We ate, laughed, she gave me Hunger Games themed presents (which are AWESOME, and technically still being sent but I am so excited to have them!!) we walked around a bit and then called it a night. She makes me laugh like no other so I was really looking forward to seeing her and it was a great night!!

This was my free "dessert" from Cheesecake, and I put dessert in quotation marks because it was basically whipped cream with some fudge...so I guess the recession hit them too !

So it was a great celebratory weekend and even last night at Life group the girls made me brownies with orange frosting and they all signed a card for me which was super sweet and I def made myself wait until I got in the car to read it in case it made me teary :)

Birthdays are awesome and wonderful but after this weekend I'm fine with waiting another year!

And lastly, here is the funny of the day :)

Guilty pleasure...

Okay, so I blame one of the girls in my Life group for this, but recently I have grown into a big Taylor Swift fan. Yes, it's true. This whole last week whenever I have had to work on something in the computer labs on campus I have listened to the Taylor Swift channel on youtube (and yes, I'm even doing it now...)

So say what you will about Tay Swift, but her songs are catchy, they have good stories and her videos are super cute and fun. There. I said it. I like Taylor Swift. Is she the best singer ever? No, but she is pretty good. Would I see her in concert over U2, whom I have already seen 3 times in concert? No way, U2 will always be number 1 and any chance to see them = bliss and top priority. But if I could see U2 PLUS Tay Swift, then I would do it.


do YOU have any guilty pleasures?

**UPDATE: so that same friend of mine who got me hooked on Tay Swift just gave me a mix cd of her songs last night at Life group!! 19 songs!!! I know some of them but most of them are new, which means happiness in my car for days :) Thanks Rebekah!!! :D

Who's in your Top Five?

I don't know if you will remember but one of the phone companies had a "who's in your top 5?" slogan a few years back b/c the idea was that the exclusive top five friends/family of yours that you talk to the most would become your "top 5" and they would be free mobile-to-mobile calling. So then the thought becomes, "well, gee, who is lucky enough to be in my inner circle??" and then rate your friends/family accordingly. Now, I'm making this out to be a bad thing and it's not, I'm just taking some thoughts about it to the extreme :)

But my boss, Neil, had a talk around that time taking the idea of a Top Five and putting it to ministry purposes. He said we should have a top 5 list of people we are praying for, and at the time I thought that was a nice idea but didn't really do anything with that. But starting this past summer I took that idea in earnest and had a group of 5 friends that I have been praying for every day that they would come to know Jesus personally b/c they are all very dear to me and could care less about God. As this school year has started, I have seen many more opportunities to share my testimony with them, the gospel with two of them and just get more time with them and see where they're coming from. I can't see this as a coincidence. For one of them, we got together every now and then last year, but this year she has been initiating more time together and I can only attribute the change to God working in her heart!!*

It has been SO EXCITING to see God working in this area!! I know God is infinitely powerful and also intimately personal, so why does it surprise me when He answers prayer? He is more than capable to handle anything and everything I throw at Him, and then some! (Ephesians 3:20-21) I mean, isn't it so amazing that God CAN handle anything?? and not that He is struggling to juggle my issues with my friend's and also with a guy in Ukraine, no, He doesn't struggle with anything because He can handle it! He is everywhere at once, with everyone, at all times!! It feels so secure knowing that God is helping me out 100% yet not ignoring anyone else, that He is helping each and every one of us at 100% of His power!

So yes, prayer WORKS and it is so exciting to see God working in people's lives!!

*UPDATE: just had lunch with one of my Top 5, well, we didn't just have lunch, but we made it! Pasta with roasted red bell pepper sauce!! and yes, it tasted as good as it sounds, but that's neither here nor there, the *point* is that I was praying for a chance to share with her and God again gave me an opportunity! She was talking about her philosophy class and how she had to write a paper discussing Rene Decartes and his philosophy that God is perfect and how she didn't agree because of people born with birth defects and such. So we talked about that and I was able to share the gospel with her! Not very coherently mind you, I was so excited that I had to tell myself to slow down and get the right points across, and even now I am kicking myself for not saying something, but hopefully that means we can pick up the conversation the next time!! She is still not searching, but it has been exciting and really fun getting to know her better b/c she is an amazing woman! So I am continuing to pray for her b/c as we know, prayer works!!

Any fun stories you have of prayer working??

Welcome Back frenzy!!

So it is the middle of the second week of classes and we have had 3 welcome back events with 2 more on the way!! Whew!! It's been a little tiring but it's also been really great! Been able to meet a ton of new folks which has been a joy :)

Starting off we had a Dessert & Games night the Sunday before classes started. It was directly after a Christian group fair from 12-3 so this party started at 3:30 and went past 7pm!! We had TONS of desserts, everything from cookies and brownies, to red velvet cupcakes and rice krispies and if all that wasn't enough one of our guys brought root beer floats!! And all those desserts I mentioned? Yeah, there were at least 2 if not THREE trays of each of those!! Some store-bought, some homemade, all delicious. I had a couple of them myself and oh man they were good!!

We also got to meet a lot of new freshmen because we had a great location, right by some of the dorms with a huge lawn perfect for the guys playing football, then frisbee and finally wiffle ball!

do you see those yummy desserts?? Oh man, salivating just looking at them (haven't eaten in a few hours, it's getting near my dinner time!)

Students hanging out at the food table (obviously, where else would you be?) and Elizabeth and Makena were super excited about it :)

So then we had our annual Pizza Party Bash on the first Thursday of classes. It was in a park right by the bookstore so it had maximum visibility which was very helpful! We had around 20 boxes of pizza and they were all gone by the end!! It was awesome meeting tons of people there, and usually after dinner time students tend to not stop by anymore but this year we had a steady stream trickle in and ask us what Christian Challenge was all about! It was great :) Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I'm pretty sure one of our seniors did so I'll try to get some from him later! In the meantime:

Oh, and funny fact. I met a freshman guy who is half-Armenian (like me), grew up in Pasadena (like me) and even goes to the church that a lot of my extended family goes to - United Armenian Congregational Church (UACC)!! How weird is that?!! Small world right??

The very next day we had a bonfire at Dockweiler Beach and it was great - another TON of students were there, so much so that a few of our drivers had to pull double-duty and take a car to the beach, drop them off, come back to USC and get another car full! I am so grateful for our students' servant hearts - I heard no complaining or grumbling!


ok, so that bring us up to this week! We have a tailgater this coming Saturday for USC's first game of the season (Beat the Golden Gophers!!) and we're having it after the game. We're calling it a "5th Quarter Party" which I know doesn't make mathematical sense, but it's a fun name though right? (One of our student leaders came up with the title, she's a screenwriting major so she has major creativity!)

I'll let you know how it goes!! Here is the funny for the day: