My last, first day of school

Well, another year is underway, and for the last time, I survived my first day of school. For now anyways :) I have a couple profs begging me to do a PhD in their fields (the trouble is they are in different field...practical theology, youth ministry or preaching...) but right now I am SO burned out that I can't even bring myself to WANT to do more school! This quarter I am only taking two classes (Christian Ethics and Introduction to Islam, both of which I am looking forward to), but somehow I managed to say yes to being the teaching assistant for three different classes! Yikes! I knew I had my normal youth ministry class, but forgot about the fact that I was also grading papers for the distance learning youth ministry class (which isn't that many students) and then about a month ago I said yes to working for a preaching professor. Which I kind of forgot I agreed to. Until Sunday night when I got an email from him saying "ok! We're all set! I'll see you Tuesday at 1!" So yeah, it's going to be a little bit of a stressful quarter. I also am teaching an adult bible study at First Pres Burbank every Wed. night for the next 4 weeks on Reformed Theology. Kind of a broad topic, I know, but it's all I was given. Thankfully I spent all summer cramming Reformed theology into my brain for ordination exams, so I should be ok, I just need to pull it all together tomorrow before 7!

Not the world's most exciting life-update, but I need to go to bed :) Stay tuned for more in the next few days....

a few more birthday photos...

...just because they are fun! Jenn took these last Tuesday at my birthday lunch...
Becca and I
I bet they can't see us!

the group--Jenn, Tera, Chuck, Missy, Ryan, Alethia, Becca and I

Jenn and Tera REALLY like Thai food!

just one I really like from the beach :)

a fabulous week around LA

Missy was here this week!! For those of you who don't know her, Missy is one of my great friends from college and my church in Seattle, and will be one of my bridesmaids in March. She is an amazing person who is a pediatric nurse at Children's Hospital in Seattle and loves people and life so much :) She flew down on Monday and leaves early tomorrow morning but it was so fun to have her here for a couple days, especially with yesterday being my birthday! I got to celebrate with a lot of different people and she was able to be there for all of it! We've had a busy week, so here are some of the pictures so far.

Monday night she, Chuck and I went hiking in Monrovia Canyon (my favorite hike around here). It was so fun to watch the two of them get to know one another, as they had both heard a lot about each other! This is Missy on the beginning of our hiking trail, she looks ready to go!The Monrovia Canyon fallsHere is Missy at the end of the trail.Me at the end of the trail.

Chuck and I at the waterfall.

Missy and I.

For my birthday on Tuesday I had lunch with friends from Fuller at Thai Dishes, a great Thai restaurant.  Then Missy & I went and looked at wedding invitations at the mall for awhile, before going to dinner with my small group from Chuck's church.  We didn't get any photos from lunch but here is my small group at dinner. 

We were also celebrating Nancy's birthday a month late, so this is us with our birthday pazookies (fresh baked, still hot chocolate chip cookies with melting ice cream on top--yum!) 

Laughing over their ridiculous version of happy birthday.

This morning, Chuck, Missy, Jenn and I went to the beach for a morning of water, reading, sunshine, and sand (and surfing for Chuck of course!) 

Here is Jenn, looking very excited to be on the beach! 

My adorable fiance ready to hit the waves.

Jenn and I 

Missy and I

Jenn built quite the sandcastle...

She also chased away the sea gulls that ate my sandwich, she was quite a presence for them to reckon with.

We stopped to overlook the Pacific for some amazing views.

Happy Birthday Weekend to Me!

I like birthdays. I think people don't get celebrated nearly enough in our world, and birthdays are great times to remind those we love why we love them and how much they mean to us. My birthday is coming up on Tuesday, but celebrating it started last night :) Chuck and I were going to go for a hike for our date night, but he made me open my birthday present before we went. He gave me a camelback, which is something I have been wanting all summer, so I was VERY excited! It is a fabulous invention, an easy way to carry water without having to carry a ton of separate water bottles. Plus the one he got me is very cool--it's cute, and holds all kinds of stuff, which is just wonderful. So we went for our hike last night and I got to feel all cool and out-doorsy, which of course I am not, but I now at least have gear that makes me able to pretend! Our photos really didn't turn out well, it got super dark in the canyon a lot faster than we were expecting, but it was a VERY cool hike that we want to do again in the day time!

Today, Jenn, Chuck and I went to The Getty Center (a huge art museum) to spend a day hanging out on the absolutely beautiful grounds and exploring some of the exhibits. We took picnic lunches and found it SO relaxing just enjoying the views! Here are a bunch of photos:

Chuck and Jenn enjoying our picnic. Only part of the amazing and beautiful Getty Center. Jenn posing in front of the gardens. The gardens from above. Bonding over our sandwiches and cookies.Enjoying the sunshine.Hmm...they look very serious.Kind of a blurry picture...Yes, we do know what we are talking about. Kind of.

A few more recent photos

I had a few free minutes tonight so I thought I'd post a few photos from the last couple weeks that had not been posted yet.  Chuck and I are in Minneapolis right now, just until tomorrow.  We came in on Friday for the weekend so that I could go wedding dress/bridesmaid dress shopping with my mom and my little sister, Megan, who also flew in for the weekend.  It was a VERY successful weekend!  I found my dress and everything to go with it with the exception of shoes (I know what I want, I'm just going to get them in LA), and we found bridesmaids dresses too, so it feels good to have those two things done.  My dress should be here in December so I can get it fitted then, I LOVE it, I can't wait to show it off!  But, no pictures are going on here because a certain someone is NOT allowed to see it :)  (Email me if you want pictures before March!)  We also got to go see the ceremony and reception locations today and start visualizing what they will look like.  We're getting so excited!  Here are a few more photos from when Chuck's parents were in town--they sent us a CD of photos last week and I thought I'd share a few of them with you.  

At the Reagan Library overlooking Simi Valley

Soaking wet coming off of Jurassic Park at Universal Studios--it was fabulous though!

The beautiful bouquet of flowers his parents sent me back in August when I was taking ordination exams, I realized I never posted these!

Watching the surfers in Malibu

At Universal Stuidos

Christina & Steve got hitched!

On Saturday Christina (a good friend from Fuller) married Steve in Houston, TX. A few of us from Fuller flew out for a quick weekend trip to be part of the beautiful celebration--here are a few photos!

The flight was the first chance I'd really had to look at the wedding magazines Christina gave me. In the Real Simple weddings, there is a job description for each member of the bridal party. Here's Jenn giving the thumbs up to the bridesmaid job description--she looks ready for the task!

Steve and his groomsmen showed up at the rehersal in full mariachi costumes, which were awesome!

Stacey, Jenn and Heather getting ready for the weddingHere comes the bride!Mr. and Mrs. Steve Chambers!the reception hallChristina lost her mom this past year, and Steve lost his dad when he was little, so they wanted to pay tribute to both families and those who weren't able to be there. They put together a great table of photos of all their family members.

they had a fruit and cheese table as people went into the reception

After the wedding a group of us went out to continue hanging out. While there we all voted Jenn the most helpful wedding guest! She worked the guest book table, said the dinner prayer, gave instructions for dinner, bonded with Christina's grandma, and was all over the place--I am VERY excited to have her at our wedding as she is embarking on her career of super wedding woman!Jenn and Stacey at the reception