My New Job and Easter

I have already been working at my new job for about a week and a half.  It's amazing and I love training!  I've been learning a lot of stuff, most of it intertwines a bit.  I have a bunch of papers on the procedures, there is so much detail!  I've highlighted and written all sorts of notes on them.  I've also started to decorate my cubical.  I bought a giant teacup planter (I don't know what I'm putting in it) and a few other desk items

I've been helping in tellers the past few days.  It's just until they get the new hires trained.  I'm only on the schedule until next Monday over there, so I think that's my last day.  It's been hard to have one foot in the new job and the other in the old.  Everyone is so kind and helpful toward each other, but it stretches me.  I think it's something that I need to trust God with.  I need to remember to rely on Him instead of myself to get me through each day and each week.

I'm getting ready this week to go camping in Joshua Tree Park.  It's going to be fun, though this is the first camping trip where I've had to bring my own water...it's going to be interesting.  I'm trying to get everything together early, because I have to borrow several things and go to the store for other stuff.  I'm excited!!!

Easter weekend was great, especially when Friday is a half day!  I went to the Good Friday service and sat with some of the young adults.  Everyone had been given a nail at the Sunday service to hold onto for the week and on Friday, we were to nail it into the cross on the stage.  I went up after the service to nail mine in.  I'm so used to seeing a wooden cross, they are everywhere; it is easy to be numb to the meaning.  This cross, however, was different.  It was filled with tons of nails that people had hammered in; it looked so painful.  This usually beautiful cross was ugly and sharp.  It took me away from the usual into the real, it jolted my mind to remind me of what happened on the cross.  Hammering the nail in was emotional.  I couldn't make myself hammer it where the actual nails would have been, but it was still hard.  It reminds me of the lyrics "it was my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished."

My nail bent when I hammered it in.  It stood out from the straight nails, but when I turned to hand off the hammer, I couldn't find my nail.  It was as if God was telling me that He took away my sin, my guilt.  It is gone, I didn't need to look for it or worry about what I did wrong.  He took care of it on the cross.  It was a moving moment, I didn't want to leave, but I found myself outside talking to the other young adults about their thoughts on the service.  It moved us all.  Sometimes we need a sharp reminder of what we take for granted, an action to remind us what Jesus did for us.

A few hours after the Easter service on Sunday, I went to a friend's house for Easter dinner/meal.  Her family was kind to allow me to join them.  They had some great food and I enjoyed being there with them.  I missed being with my whole family, but I got pictures of my nieces in their cute Easter outfits!  I went home afterwards to rest, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to go another friend's house to make strawberry cupcakes.  All in all, it was a great day and I even though I was barely home, I felt right at home wherever I was.  God has blessed me with such awesome friends!

Blessings

Today the pastor at the church I am going to talked about greed.  It was a bit different than I thought it would be, it was about our selfishness in abundance.  He used Luke 12:13-34, on the parable of the rich fool and on how we are not to worry.  The rich fool was so greedy with his abundance of grain that he build bigger barns and told himself to relax and not worry.  He relied on his supplies instead of God.  We can rely on ourselves and things, but we will always want more and become greedy for more.

It reminded me of my journey to Biola.  Everything came into place in His timing and clearly by His hand.  He provided the place that I live and the job that I work at.  I worked hard to find these things while I was still in Washington, but I can clearly see that it was God's hand that made everything come together so wonderfully.  I am reminded of His blessings and abundance to me and cannot take any credit for myself.

The most recent blessing that I received from Him was my promotion at my job.  I didn't even know that the position was open and God directed that supervisor to me!  They wanted me and they weren't looking at anyone else.  I felt that it was the same message as before: blessings are to bring glory to God, not praise for myself.  I can't take credit for anything.  I have worked hard, but it has been God who has blessed me.


Anyways, I just wanted to share what I learned today.  I'm going to make some spaghetti squash, I've been wanting some all day!  I'll leave with a picture of the awesome new yarn that I am using for my new knitting project:

Glittery!!!

 

Visiting with Grandma Plus Some Exciting News!!!!

This weekend my grandma came down from Seattle to visit.  I picked her up on Thursday night and Richie took her to grandparent's day at Biola the next day.  I took her to BJs and she had her first pzookie, white chocolate macadamia nut!

Saturday I had breakfast at Corner Bakery with Grandma and Richie.  We drove around a while before deciding to play skip-bo in my backyard.  My parents spend a good amount of time trying to get Grandma a flight home after finding out that her first flight was delayed and would not get her to her connecting flight in time.  We ate lunch at Cafe Verones before dropping her off at the airport.  It was a great weekend, but I knew that I needed to start on my homework right away!

I haven't cooked anything exciting recently, I was busy and had plenty of leftovers.  I did get quite a bit of food from my parents when they were down here, which was awesome!  The veggies were all cut up already, all I had to do was chop up some garlic and throw it all on the stove.  I did make a chicken and ranch mix casserole this week.  It required rice, milk, and water, but I added garlic and onions for more flavor.  It's really good and I'd make it again!

I've noticed that the biggest thing that bothers me in my finance class is my professor's white board skills (or lack thereof).  He erases the board with his hands and does a sloppy job working through the problems.  He tries to draw a math problem, it doesn't work to well :P  I'm just thankful that we don't have a chalkboard XP

So, my exciting news...I'm getting promoted to a new job at my work!  I'll be working with different people, but I know a few of them already.  They approached me about 2 weeks ago, I didn't even know about it until they asked me if I was interested!  I feel so blessed and humbled and excited!!!!  I start in a few weeks, but I'll be helping out with tellers until they hire more people, can't leave them short now can I.

Anyways, that's what been going on in my life.  I'll try to be more proactive about posting, but I can't promise anything.

Until next time!

Spaghetti Squash and a Water Bottle

 

Last weekend I decided to try making spaghetti squash.  I don't think that I fully understood that the meat of the squash was stringy like spaghetti, I thought it was the middle with the seeds in it.  Thankfully it wasn't, there isn't anything in the middle anyways.  It was so delicious!  I sauteed diced tomatoes with garlic and onion on the stove to put on top.  Then I topped it off with feta cheese, I love it!  I would definitely make it again.

 

Last week, I got a new water bottle to test out for my advertising class.  We are suppose to get the feel and spirit of it so we can understand what it is.  At the end of the trimester, our two ad "agencies" are to pitch ideas to the owner and try to get his business.  It's an awesome way to get some real life practice on what we are learning!  It's a cool water bottle, it filters just about everything and can be used on any fresh water source.  It makes even the gross water from water fountains taste good.

I had a midterm last week in my financial policy class and a take home test in my other class (which I prefer).  Take homes are so much easier, I can focus on the concepts more than names and definitions.
It shows too, now that I have gotten my exam score back: 75% :(  If I do well on everything else, I will get a B in the class.  Forget getting all As...  Oh well, I can at least get a B in the class, that's good.

That's all for now.

Scallops and Scents

Today I decided to try a new recipe, seared scallops with white beans.  It had bacon and baby spinach along with half a red onion and a garlic clove.  I had never cooked scallops, so I as unsure of how they would turn out.  It was actually a fantastic dish.

I added an extra piece of bacon, two didn't seem enough.  I also only bought half a pound of scallops, those things are expensive, but delicious!  The beans were the main ingredient, besides the scallops.  It was sautéed with red onions, garlic, bacon, and baby spinach.

I would definently make this dish again, though the scallops were kind of pricy. Next time, I'll make the bean part of the dish and use a different kind of meat or seafood to serve with it.

I went to Bath and Body Works to get wallflower scents for my room along with a few other items.  It was 6 items for $24.  I got these because sometimes my room can smell stiff even though I leave the door open.  Also, because it's awesome and smells great!  It's tropical spice, it smelled so wonderful that I just had to get it along with two others.

I bought two scentportables, one for my car and one for my gym bag.  My car doesn't smell bad, but my gym bag does.  The one for my car is a pineapple scented sunshine, while the one below for my gym bag is Caribbean escape.  They smell awesome.

That makes up the 6 items, but I also wanted some antibacterial hand sanitizer, not the small ones (which I have several of), but the larger bottles.  I grabbed a travel sized lotion that is suppose to help you fall asleep before checking out.  It was nice to treat myself to some awesome stuff today.  Bath and Body Works keeps me and my environment smelling awesome!

February 2012 Update!

So it's been a while since I've done any blogging.  I'm not very good about keeping it up constantly, but I'll keep trying.

I finished my first trimester well with As in both classes!  My goal is to get As in all of my classes, seeing that it's all about getting the work done and understanding the concepts.

I had December off of school, which was nice.  I was able to focus on Christmas budgeting and writing all those Christmas cards.  My parents came down for the Biola Christmas tree lighting the first weekend of December.  It was pretty awesome, coming together as Biola students/alumni to Biola's Christmas program.

I also went to Disneyland a few times to see their Christmas decorations, they were amazing!  I loved the parade and wanted to dance the whole time.  We saw a Christmas program going on just inside the gate to leave the main park.  It was on the birth of Jesus, narrated by Gary Sinise (Mac Taylor from CSI: NY) and sung by a huge choir that filled the inside gates.  There were also trumpeters on top of the gates dressed like those old fashion ones that announce the entrance of Disney kings.

My mom sent down my Christmas decorations, thanks so much!  It was awesome to be able to put up a small tree and manger scene in my room.

My favorite part was flying up to WA to see my whole family: my parents, brother, grandma, sister, and her family.  I don't get to see Jen and her family too often now that I'm down in CA, so it was fun to see her and see how her little girls have grown.  Ady is now talking away and Sierra is just the happiest girl in the world with her big smile.  I look forward to seeing them all again.

I started my second trimester at Biola on January 3rd.  I'm taking Organizational Financial Policy on Monday nights and Advertising & Social Media Strategy on Tuesday nights.  I love having Prof Mobley for my advertising class, she's an awesome prof!  Sometimes we look at different ads and talk about what made it great or awful.  She split our class in two groups of 6 or 7 to make an ad agency.  Ours is called "You Me & That Guy."  You being the client, me being the agency, and that guy being the target audience for the client.  Our motto is "start a conversation, build a brand."  The guys did an awesome job with the logo, I don't have it to show, though.

Work has been going well.  I've learned how to scan the checks after they are processed and ready to go.  I feel like I am actually growing here, whereas before I felt like I learned how to be a teller and that was it.  Everything about this job is better, though I do appreciate the experience that I got from my previous job.

I still love to cook.  It's amazing what moving out will do to you.  Before, I didn't know how someone could cook a good meal after a long day at work, but now I know.  I don't even have to have all these extensive recipes, I have learned enough from my mom to have a good idea of what to make (though cook books do help).  I made an awesome Cajun shrimp dish with a bottle of Cajun sauce I got for Christmas.  It was so good, reminded me of the days when we would put on Mardi Gras parties.

Oh, one big thing I did was dye my hair dark (and I cut it).  I've been wanting to dye it for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it.  It's weird when I brush my hair or wash it because it is 4 inches shorter, wow!  I love it all!  I got it done in Palm Desert with my mom.  She was really shocked, but I think she'll get over it soon :)

Baby shower and visitors :)

So, it's been a while since I posted.  A few things have happened since then.

Last Friday I kept pretty busy.  I began with a choir rehearsal for a Christmas concert at church at 9:30.  I'm trying to connect with people in my life stage, but they are hard to find.  Honestly, I'm just trying to connect, which is why I went to coir practice.  At noon, I went to a baby shower for a coworker whose last day was Monday (she's due next Wednesday).  I made her a baby sweater and a turtle hat, she loves turtles.  After a few hours, I ran over to Richie's place to see him and our cousins.  I've never seen any of the Harry Potter films, but I've now seen the very last one...

My parents came down for ten days in the end of October.  First stop, Disneyland.  I also went shopping with them at the mall just half a mile away from my place.  Then we celebrated Richie's birthday the next night.  On Richie's actual birthday, I was able to have lunch with them at Chick-fil-a.  The next weekend my parents took me to Palm Desert while Richie was at a retreat.  I got some brown work pants, so now I don't have just black!  It was so much fun and I enjoyed spending every penny...and there were a lot of pennies :)

I've gone to Disneyland a few times with Richie, Ashley (cousin), and a few of her friends.  Its been so much fun, I love exploring everything without being pressed for time.   That's the beauty of the annual pass!  I saw it during the Halloween season and can't wait to see it during Christmas (though apparently I've seen it then before...).

I have a few weeks left of class, my last day is Dec 1st!  I then have the whole month of December off before starting up class again on Jan 3rd.  I'm coming home for a few days for Christmas, Friday night to Monday afternoon (tried to get a later flight).  I'm excited to some up, yet sad that it is so short (thank goodness its on a weekend).

I'm still waiting for the vacation schedule to plan out my time off next year.  I'm taking a week of in October to spend time with my family when they bring the nieces down to Disneyland for the first time!  I know that they will love it.  I've decided that if they dress up as the Disney princesses, I will dress up as Tinkerbell.  I don't know what I'm going to do with my other 2 1/2 weeks of vacation.  Since I'm the last one to choose my time, I'll just have to pick times that aren't chosen.

All I have left are two presentations.  Almost done with my first trimester!