chicago.

last week i spent my 21st birthday in chicago.

i had an amazing time.

i really love big cities. i love taking public transportation. i love being surrounded by thousands of people i do not know. i love talking to strangers. 

i got to stay with my friend emily, she goes to school at loyola university. i really liked all her friends. we hung out with her rugby team a few nights. they are crazy. i feel like they would have all played water polo if they lived in so cal. 

i have been out of state for my past three birthdays. 

19- cambodia

20- louisiana

21- chicago

where will i be on my 22nd?

sippy cup.

i really enjoy the spontaneous things that happen in my life. 

today after the male choral concert and dinner we had nothing to do. until we decided to walk to cvs and grab some goodies.

it was andrew's birthday so we bought some birthday candles because earlier at dinner he had forgotten to make a wish when he blew out his candle so we had to give him another shot. but we didn't have a cake, so we just all held a candle. 


we also bout sippy cups and decorated them with sequins and googly eyes and glitter glue.

because what 20 year old wouldn't love to drink out of a cup with a built in straw?

im voting we take our cups to the caf and use them.

laundry time.

oh four day weekend.
i have been consistantly having fun times the past four days.

friday- went to disney land wiht jillian to help her spend her birthday fun card at disneyland. (because if you have an annual pass you can go on your bday and get a gift card with 70 bucks on it.) and then we went out to dinner for her 21st. followed by a viewing of the notorious b.i.g. movie. then some quality time spent with friends in the albertos parking lot untill 2 in the morning.

saturday- went to mark lamberth's funeral. i did not know him but i had been reading the blog and praying. seriously i learned alot at the funeral and got to hear some awesome people speak things i really needed to hear. then i watched pineapple express and got a pedicure with jillian and andrew. we decided to go to disneyland the next day so i acutally went to bed pretty early.

sunday- actually got up to go to sandals at 8:30 am. yes in the moring. then a quick trip over to bunch and then me jillian and andrew were off to disneyland! and it was crowded. we didn't ride that many rides but we saw alot of shows and did that whole thing. it was fun but i came hoome exhausted.

monday- got to sleep in and then went to balboa with some of the girls from my cottage. i really was in a poopy mood at first. i dont know why i was so cranky. but then i ended up having a lot of fun. and the sunset was beautiful. (believe it or not, but this picture was taken with my cell phone.)
but now it is monday night and i have homework to work on, some reading i want to get done, clean up my room, and i need to do laundry becuase im about to run out of clean underwear (you can wear jeans over and over again, but once you are out of chonies its totally laundry day).

nor cal weekend.

friday morning, 4am we left.
our first stop was at julia's uncle's vineyard.

we labeled some bottles for him and then we were back on the rode.
we got to redding and went tout to red robin for heather's 21st birthday.
heather is a generous person and proved this point by sharing her free sunday with julia.
the next day we slept in. then we went to target. i walked away with a pack of gum, and im pretty sure that deserves an award. its so hard to resist.
when we got back to the simpson campus we were attacked by geese. ok not really, but we did go watch a soccer game.
for dinner we went out for sushi. and jackie, who hates sishi, had rice.after sushi we got to go over to trav and annette's house. we had brownies, and friendship and played games. and i didnt take any pictures. :[ but payton did, so maybe someday we will make guest appearances on their blogs.
there are alot of riverside people currently residing in redding. melissa, who is heather's ra (they affectionately call her boss), elizabeth(fern), heather's suitemate. and the lances.
sunday we went to the sundial bridge and took abbout 200 photos.


we also took a million jumping pictures. julia is a retired cheerleader, and i am channeling my inner ninja.
we got to make a stop at my cousin greg's house where i met my new cousin (once removed? seccond cousin?) kingston. my brother chun was also in nor cal, so that was cool and random. and then my computer ran out of space, so there are no more pictures to show.

if anyone has an external hardrive laying around i could use one.

jr high

I am starting my third year of helping with the jr high at the grove.

and i love it!
seriously jr highers, they are stuck in this crazy time of childhood colliding with young adulthood.

one of the is having her 12th birthday part this saturday, and i am so excited!
we are kicking off the celebration with a mall scavenger hunt and then we will go back to gina's house for a makeover/fashion show!

and the invitation is a cell phone!!!!!!!


Who's jealous that they didn't make this guest list?

new bible.

yesterday i went out with my grandma and she bought me a new bible as an early birthday present. (im going to be gone on my birthday again this year.)
im excited to get started in this esv bible. im in daniel right now.

if i was going to judge a book by its cover i would say that the stories filled in this beautiful book must be amazing.

its hard though to leave behind all my notes in my old bible. but its exciting too.
should i attack this precept style? or start with some light underlines? highlighter? colored pencil? writing in the margins? i could develop a whole system of markings and colors and everything.

how do you handle a new bible?

random awesome weekend. and its not over yet.

friday night about thirty college students gathered to celebrate two births at bj's brewhouse, a chicago style pizzeria.

i made a card. because im creative. no actually because im cheap, and i have alot of free time.
the front said, "what does a clam do for his birthday?"

i only knew about 5 of the thirty people. my friends eric and corrine. it was fun. and the food was delicious. and i enjoyed the night. some awkward moments, but thats expected.


and who can resist a pizookie?

saturday night started off with church. NICK VUJICIC is freaking amazing. for reals. i dont know how to explain it. i kinda want to see him again, he will be in california the next few weekends.


so after that awesomeness abby, holly, jillian, levi, and monica came over to my house. for an awesome dinner and some awesome games. we played an awesome game of spoons. this awesome game called Sentence To Draw(S). and the night ended with some awesome pumpkin cheesecake.