Home from UCYC

I’ve been away this past week at UCYC for Jr. High summer camp. We took 56 6th, 7th and 8th grade students on a nine hour bus ride from Long Beach, CA to Prescott, AZ. It was a long, crazy, but great week.  I hope to find some time to share more about the whole camp experience soon.  But for now, I must say: thanks to all the parents for trusting us with your kids… thanks students - you guys and gals rock and we love you!… thanks to all the staff at UCYC for your energy and enthusiasm at the end of what must have been a long summer for you all — you really showed our kids love and really made them feel special… and thanks Scott for being our brave and fearless leader and for the energy you had to get through your 3rd camp this summer. A few more shout outs: Thanks for Veronica for your help when my back started bothering me… Oh, and thanks to my sister Sara, and my “sisters” Julie and Nereida for decorating my room with ‘Welcome Back’ signs and making me feel loved. (I loved it …even if my room was a disaster when you were in there!)

I felt the earth move under my feet.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had an earthquake. We just had one… a 5.8 in Chino Hills, and it shook pretty bad here in Long Beach. I felt it instantly, and Scott and Aaron were just laughing at me as I ran to the door (I realized that I have a glass desk… not the best for hiding under during an earthquake. )… and then it jolted pretty good and knocked something off a shelf, and suddenly they ran to join me. Haha.

Ahh the joys of living in Southern California. *sigh* I really don’t like earthquakes.

Hello Blog-land!

I just realized it’s been quite some time since I’ve writte a blog post, so I figured I should sit down and punch something out.

So here I am. Trying to think of what to write. There’ s so much going on right now, that I can’t even focus on one thing. So I think I’ll write this post asking those of you reading it to be praying for me…  pray that my mind quiets long enough at night for me to fall asleep so that I can get enough sleep to function. I need sleep… I don’t get hardly enough. Also, pray that I would just deal with things one at a time and not get overwhelmed or discouraged. Pray that I would be able to refocus on my weight loss goals and that I would make better decisions and get back on track with those efforts. Thank you. I appreciate your prayers!

Thanks and Praise

I have to give a BIG thank you to those of you who have been praying for my dad and his health over the past 6-7 months, and an more huge shout out of praise to God…

This past Wednesday my dad had a doctors appointment and the doc gave him the all clear to go back to work. He starts back up again on Monday! So basically dad’s heart is healthy, it just has an irregular heart beat due to an extra electric current (but this isn’t dangerous and life threatening), and his thyroid was in good working condition and the nodules came back as non-cancerous after the biopsy!! All great news. Today dad took mom on a little test drive out to work and all was good!

 So thanks again for all of your prayers and support. I am lucky to have you all as my extended family!

A quick update

• Well I guess the first bit of big news is that my cousin Lauren got engaged to Mr. Tyler Brown yesterday. I’m very glad that she found a good guy and that they are going to be a family! Congrats to Tyler and Lauren!
• I went to see WALL-E yesterday with my mom, Julie, Rei, Veronica and their mom Angie… what a cute movie, and power-packed with a bunch of really important messages to all of us regarding our dependence on technology, relationships with others, taking care of ourselves and our earth.
• I also got the chance to finally ride the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride at DCA. My review: two thumbs up! I had so much fun, I was giggling through the whole thing. The technology they used was really clever and it is so much more fun that Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster.
• Sara babysat Bree for Jennie and Jeff while they went to see WALL-E, and so baby Bree got to go to DCA with us also… she was such a good little girl! I was surprised how great she was, and how chill J & J were about Sara having her out and about for the afternoon… most new parents are not like that. It was fun having the baby and getting her to smile — which was also really easy. It’s fun watching her become more responsive the older she gets. I got some cute pictures and added them to my Flickr.
• After 10 days of house/critter-sitting, I finally got a good night’s sleep… slept in until almost 11 am today! Haven’t done that since I was in college I think. It felt good. Now it’s time to go get ready… gonna take the parents out to disneyland for a bit… maybe go for another whirl on the Midway Mania! And then this evening I may go for a bike ride… it sounds more exciting than a trip to the gym.
• Oh yea… that’s another thing I haven’t talked about in awhile… my weight loss efforts are sure being given a run for their money… it’s hard not to go overboard and eat all the time during the summer. I went almost 3 weeks of not making it to a weight watchers meeting… and I went this last Thursday for the first time since reaching my 10% goal… and I had gained 2.2 lbs. Which let’s face it… that number could have been alot higher… ALOT higher. So 2lbs is nothing. I’m trying to make sure that even if I indulge in something that I limit that indulgence and then as a consequence I have to be more active. I’m not going to let myself jump off the wagon, no matter how hard it gets.

Puppies. Grrr.

I’m a puppy person. I love dogs, I really do.

But taking care of Cooper is a pain in the butt! HE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. Seriously, it’s worse than a baby… at least when a baby poo’s it’s in a diaper. *sigh*

And the barking. There is NOTHING I can do to make this dog shut up and go to sleep. WIth a baby at least there are tried and true methods that I can try to make the baby stop crying… but with this puppy, NOTHING works.

I’m trying to remain calm and collected… but when you’re alone with animals, well, I find myself having odd conversations with them (or to myself… I’m not sure). You know something isn’t right when you’re trying to reason with a puppy.

Oh. I get it. This must be part of the long and difficult lesson on patience that God’s been trying to teach me for the past 28 years. Right?

lessons learned at the beach

I’ve learned a few things in my 28 years… here are a few more that I learned yesterday:

- There is nothing more peaceful than a beautiful sunset accompanied by a the sound of crashing waves. There’s something that happens to me when the sky turns that “sunset” color. Can’t explain it any futher than that. Yup, It’s magical.

- Sand… it gets everywhere. Watch out… it can be dangerous.

- Always come prepared with Lysol Disinfectant Spray and your own roll of toilet paper when you need to use the bathroom at the beach. Seriously, I’m taking Veronica with me everytime I go to the beach. That girl was prepared!

- You never know how much fun you can have at the beach with a handfull of Jr. High girls, some water, candy, pringles, goldfish crackers and PB&J’s until you get to spend 9 hours doing it.

- Don’t build your sandcastles on the shore where the waves are still hitting… and not when high tide is coming in. DUH. I knew this one… but the JH girls didn’t. At least they were able to give Veronica the experience of building her first sand castle.

- A sandwich is not actually supposed to have sand in it! (Let’s just say Katie got a little something extra special to her PB & J!)

- Oh yea, and whatever you do, don’t forget to put suncreen in that little crack behind your knees. Burned knee-pits are not fun!

 

Despite being exhausted and having knee-pit issues,  I had a really fun day. I am so richly blessed getting to do what I do. Watching the people around me and watching my jr. high girls totally made that clear to me that I am one lucky chick! There is something cool about worship time together at the beach. Maybe it’s being outside and connecting with God through the land and the mysteriousness of the ocean and all that makes it different. Whatever it is, it’s cool and I like it. I like it alot. :)  *insert Forrest Gump voice*

I’m looking forward to more worship night’s at the beach with The Burn Experiment. I’m hoping we’ll get more churches to participate too… that would be awesome to see. Next month we’ll have a high school night and another jr. high night at Bolsa Chica… and I’m looking forward to more s’mores, sand, worship, sunsets… hopefully no more burned knee pits though!

A random Hello-post

I haven’t posted in a few days, so I thought I’d put up a little update.

• I’m housesitting and taking care of two dogs and a cat for Joel and Cheryl while they are on vacation with their family… they are in Florida right now, and leave Saturday on a carribean cruise, the luck ducks.
• Levi is still a great dog. Boo Boo Kitty is still an evil kitty. (We just don’t get along at all.) And Cooper… we’ll let’s just say that dealing with a puppy is different. Haha.
• We’ve had two pool parties here at the house so far… one forthe new freshman in HSM on Tuesday where we had about 30 kids in the pool…. and another one last night for some of our volunteer staff in student ministries.
• Today I am heading down to Bolsa Chica with a couple Jr. High girls and Veronica to hunt out a fire pit for tonights Jr. High Burn Experiment at the Beach… s’mores and worship at beach sounds great to me! I haven’t spent a full day at the beach in a very long time though, so I’m a little concerned about that! Hopefully I won’t become crispy-Amy. I’ll be slathering on the SPF 50! Stay away damaging UV rays!
• I feel like this has been the longest week ever… I think because there has been so much going on. I can sure tell it’s summer time!
• I’ve not been doing well with my food choices and I don’t feel I’ve been getting the levels of activity I should be getting, and the scale is proof… it’s AMAZING how fast and how easy it is to put on weight. I’m a little frustrated with myself right now in this area of my life. I really truly need to refocus and get back on track.
• I am most looking forward to tomorrow, when I can just spend the afternoon relaxing out by the pool!

So hello everyone out there in blogland. Thanks for reading. I hope you’re all enjoying the summer so far. :) 

Funny

Transition Time!

It’s that time of year again… we’ve said goodbye to our 8th graders and we’ll have a final bit of fun with them Friday night and Saturday for the Final 24, and this Sunday we’ll welcome a new batch of 6th graders! It’s just amazing to me that time has flown by so quickly!

Today I went to McAuliffe’s promotion ceremony to watch Claire and Crystal graduate… and I remember them being in the 6th grade like it was yesterday!

This last week has been alot of fun with students… last week we had our Junk Food Journey, and that was an adventure! Had a great time with my sister and Lauren on a major calorie-fest… and let me just say that I experienced my first REAL brain freeze… it was horrible chugging a small slurpee!

Yes.

And it’s too hot to sit here and type anymore, so that’s all for now.