Full weekend...

I write this as I sit and admire my new living room. I know it may sound funny, but something as simple as redecorating my living room seems to have brought me great joy. And how we did it is a great story...I will give you the short version.

On Saturday morning, two of my roommates, Jodi and Alicia, got up to go garage sale hunting for some new things for our living room....keep in mind that you have to get up early to go to garage sales and early is something that I don't exactly like to do. But our house desperately needed some attention. We were driving around all different areas of the northern part of the valley for three hours...and very unsuccessful. Almost at our wits end and giving up on scavenging though other people's belongings, we headed to IKEA. For those of you who are not familiar with IKEA, it is a marvelous store that sells everything for the home and the prices are not outrageous, some of it very cheap.

We went down to the "as-is" section with floor display items and returned items and that is where we got the items to furnish our living room. We started talking to this guy that worked there and asked him a couple questions about some of the stuff out there. Turns out he is familiar with YWAM and worked at our Christmas tree lot a couple years ago. So he was more than willing to continue to reduce the price on items for us. And we didn't even ask. So we got a couch, bookshelf/entertainment unit (that we tailored and put a saw to it to get exactly what we wanted) and a rug for so little money. The three of us just kept throwing glances at each other in complete disbelief! That night, we got the urge to paint...and so we did. We finished around 1 am.

On Sunday morning, after we eagerly put everything together, the three of us (Jodi, Alicia and I) sat down on the couch to take it all it and see just how much we had been blessed in the day before. We are all proud of what we did, but more so than that, we are in awe of how things came together and it was just a little extra "I love you guys" from God!

I don't have a picture right this second but I will take one and post it on here in the next day or so.

I love...

I love the winter olympics! I watched the opening ceremony with a couple of friends and I am one of those self-proclaimed cheesy people that love to watch as much as I can possbly fit into my schedule. I like to live vicariously through all of those people who thoroughly enjoy the cold weather and being outside for long periods of time in the snow. I myself am a warm weather type of girl and even though they are having fun, give me 75 degrees in southern California and I am happy.

Urban Plunge...

Today was the day for the urban plunge. What's that? It is our version of a scavenger hunt...with a twist. The outreach teams start out blindfolded on the bus and dropped of in various locations so they really have no frame of reference as to where they are at. None of them know the LA area so it makes it that much more challenging. They are given clues of things that they have to find, only it's not that easy. Along with each clue there is a challenge that they have to do in the meantime of trying to find the location on the clue. For example, the first challenge for the team I was with was that the leader had to walk backwards the entire time. The second was that all but the leader had to be blindfolded as the walked to the next location. This is a particularly difficult when there are 10 people on the team and only one of them can see. Takes A LOT of trust crossing downtown Los Angeles streets when you can't see. Other challenges were to tie their shoe laces together...the leader can't touch the ground at any time forcing team members to carry them for blocks on end, up hill at times...blindfolding the leader and everyone else has to be silent, making a blindfolded, and very nervous leader I might add, walk up to strangers and try to talk to them and understand the directions they are given enough to convey them to their silent team...that is just a name a few. it is definitely a team buliding and character revealing adventure. I must say, though, that it was nice to be on the giving end of this scavenger hunt this time rather than the one struggling to walk many blocks in the wrong direction while tied to 9 other people...

A Couple Big Things...

So a few things have changed since the last time I wrote. For starters, the film school that we were going to run has gone from being a classroom intensive program to an apprenticeship where the students can learn by doing. This fits our style so much more and allows us a little more freedom to teach them how we make films. We will have 4 or 5 students rather than the school of 20, which obviously will allow more time for them to actually get their hands on the equipment and allow them a little more creative freedom as well. We have officially accepted one student and 2 others unofficially. We are all really excited about this new venture and know that this is the right direction for our department.

As the organizer in the department, I am working on scheduling the speakers for seminars once a week as well as making a basic plan on deadlines for the individual films that they will be producing. In addition to that, I am waiting on final scripts from 2 people in my department so that I can prep for filming. We are hoping to have one done completely before the apprenticeship starts on March 20 and the second one almost ready so that the students can work with us. Each year, our films take on a new level of complexity, which shows that we are growing. And it also means that I am being stretched a great deal because I have to figure out how to make these grandiose ideas that they come up with. I am always learning something new, which I appreciate.

The apprenticeship will run from March 20 to May 13. I, however, will only be here in LA for the first 2 weeks of it. On April 1 (or somewhere right around there), I will be traveling to South Africa for two months. I am going as a co-leader/nanny with the Discipleship Training School Outreach team. The main leaders, Wayne and Karyn, were actually the ones that I went to South Africa with the first time 3 years ago. We will be traveling to some of the same locations to see the progress that has come from soem of the things that we started or worked on back then. I am really very excited about this trip! I realize this is a big piece of news and very little detail, but more is to come.

Back on the West Coast

I made it back to LA safe and sound a couple days ago and hit the ground running. We are doing the prep work for the film school we are starting in March and it is no easy feat. Logistics are my thing, but this is definitely a challenge And seeing as how none of us have ever pioneered a school like this before, we have to rely on God a lot more in order to get it done...and to do it with excellence. I definitely covet your prayers!

Other than that, things here are going good. I always realize how much I do enjoy being here in LA and working on the base when I am away for a little while. My break at home in Florida was great, but there is something for being here and doing what God asked me to do that brings life to me. A busy life, but life nonetheless.

Shout out to the BYH!

One of the highlights of my trip to Florida was getting to see a lot of old friends. And one night, I went to a community dinner and got to hang out with some of my good friends from college and the BYH (Big Yellow House). The summer after I graduated, I lived in a house with 8 other girls. We didn't have any extra space, but we did have a lot of fun! I count that summer as one of my favorites. So I got a picture with the 4 of us that were at this dinner. We missed you Karisse, Sara, Julie, Linda, and TJ!



L to R: Kristen, Kelly, Me, and Erin

As promised...

I mentioned before about my friend Sarah (AKA Smiller) coming to visit LA and I would put some pictures on from that weekend...well, here there are as promised. See how much fun we can have Smiller...don't you want to move back? :-)



Sarah, Karisse and me...We stopped at the tree lot to visit Karisse (who was working there) after church.


A California Must...there's just something about In-N-Out. For all of those non-Cali people, this restaurant has pretty much has the best fast food hamburgers (in my humble opinion)...


Ode to the home states...I was wearing a Minnesota t-shirt, paying homage to my dear friend, Smiller, and while we were shopping, she found one that had Florida on it.

Traditions

Merry Christmas! I hope that you all had a blessed day and enjoy the time you have with family and friends. I am sure there are traditions that you have for Christmas time, whether it's going to someone's house or how you exchange gifts. Whatever it may be, those traditions seem to bring comfort, knowing that things are the way they always have been. It gives a sense of steadiness in your life even when things around you are always changing.

My family has a few traditions that I know will never falter, like getting to open one gift on Christmas Eve, and knowing that the gift will ALWAYS be a set of pajamas. There is really no surprise about it and that's OK by me. Just as long as I get my pajamas.

In the past few years, we've added something new to our Christmas "festivities"...we have had Christmas morning in a hotel room. I know that sounds kinda strange and maybe not exactly ideal, but in all reality, it's not that bad. It usually means that we are having Christmas at someone's house that has so many people over that there isn't room there for our whole family to sleep (at least comfortably). And I figure if you have to stay in a hotel room for Christmas morning, it's not difficult to stay in a room like this one.

There was a regular sized room with the beds in it and then through the connecting door, there was a living room, dining room and kitchen. In total, the living space was as big as 3 hotels room side to side. And the bathroom definitely deserves mention as well...the tub was HUGE! I don't know the diminsions of it exactly, but the picture gives you a bit of a clue.

Sister Fun Day

Each time I come back to Jacksonville to visit my family (usually twice a year), Maurine and I spend the day together, doing various things and just enjoying each other's company. The highlights of the day were going bowling and making pumpkin bread.

















I'd like to say this was a strike, but I will admit I am not the best of bowlers. I didn't do to shabby...









...but it helps when your competition is only 7 years old :-)

Most kids want to go to places like Chuck E Cheese's for their birthday. Not my little sister who turned 7 years old yesterday. Her tastes seem to be a bit more expensive, as she choose to go to Red Lobster to have crab legs for her birthday dinner. And here you can see her diligently working on cracking those crab legs. I can hardly believe she is 7 now...she's grown up so fast. Sniff sniff.


Here's me, Maurine and my older sister, Andrea