Happy Birthday Sophie!

In honor of Sophie's 25th birthday we did a "come dressed as your favorite 80s movie star" party (since she was born in 1980)--it was quite the entertaining event (actually thrift store shopping was almost more entertaining as we tried on various outfits that were less than attractive). Here are a couple photos from that night

So I found this hideous pink prom dress & went as Molly Ringwald from Pretty in Pink and Sophie was Princess Buttercup from The Princess Bride (hey it came out in the 80s even if it didn't take place then!)

Jenn went dressed as Bette Middler from Big Business mostly because she found the hat first thing in the thrift store and refused to get rid of it so we found her an 80s character that would have potentially wore it :)

The full length dress shot--I think I am glad we don't live in the 80s anymoreThis is a random shot from last weekend--Emily and Jenn hosted a fondue party, it was quite a wonderful idea--lots of chocolate!

This is another random photo--Kurtley "proposing" to my roommate Alicia--I actually think he is begging her to do something and it doesn't really look like she is about to say yes to whatever it was he wanted her to do....I think her response had something to do with the fact that he came without a ring in hand, so my guess is he didn't get too far!

Happy New Year!!

So New Year's proved to be a bit of an event around here with the Rose Bowl Parade and the big game and all, and this year we added to that inches of rain in a torrential downpour throughout the whole parade. BUT, I am now an official Pasadena resident and only live about a mile from the parade route so I wasn't about to let a little rain stop me from seeing it live--after all, I lived in Seattle for 6 years, I can handle a little water--right?! Well, we had more than a little water...during the 4 hours we stood out on Colorado Blvd we had inches of water fill the gutter in front of us, and we absoultely froze--but we definitely can say we were there :) Here are some photos from that weekend...
For New Year's Eve we hung out at Sophies and played Scene It--here's one of the teams: Reese, Emily, Sophie, Jenn, Denise, and Daisy (Denise's puppy).
And here is the other team--Jenn, Jeni, Steffi and myself--I realized I officially know nothing about movies--the only question I got right was asking for which city some scene took place in and none of us had a clue, but there was a Starbucks coffee cup on the table in the scene so I guessed Seattle and happened to be right!

Here's our group at 7 am pre-parade--we're already looking a little wet! (Seth, Emily, Sophie, Jenn, Sarah & Steffi)

This Elephant Float was really cool--except that it squirted water at us! As if we needed any more water being added to the air!

The poor Disney float broke down so the parade had to stop while the tow truck was hooked up and could tow it the rest of the way.
Parade watchers hiding from the weather--the rain itself was one thing but the gusting wind that blew the rain horizantal was another!

Reese & I attempting to stay dry--it was less than successful, we were both soaked within the first 30 minutes.

The famous magician Lance Burton was on this float and here he is attempting (unsuccessfully) to stop the rain, so apparently our wish wasn't his command...
Here is the water getting deeper and deeper on our feet--and I was even wearing boots with a decent sized sole!
The Texas Cheerleaders dancing in the rain

More Christmas in Minnesota

And here are the rest of the photos from Christmas break in Minneapolis:

Here is Brian with Taylor
And Christopher with Taylor--he liked Chris' air mattress so poor Chris had to share his bed all week!



Mom, Megan and I took Taylor on a walk on the trails one day (well actually several days, I just happened to have my camera with me on one of those days). Taylor thought it was awesome to get to go off leash and play in the snow--and Megan thought it was oh so fun to have to give him a bath every time he came back home...oh wait, maybe she didn't love that part.
Isn't Minnesota beautiful?! This is right across from my parent's house--Lake Riley--and I happen to think it is gorgeous!

Christmas in Minneapolis

After spending time in Seattle I headed out to Minneapolis to spend our family's first Christmas in our new home. I was prepared for sub-zero temperatures and feet of snow, but they had a warming trend and we actually enjoyed temperatures close to 40! I decided I LOVE Minnesota and am really excited my parents moved there--it is beautiful, the city has a ton of cool stuff to do, and the pace of life is so different from LA or Seattle that it felt really relaxing. Here's me standing out on Lake Riley (across the street from my parent's house)--and yes that IS an ice fishing shack in the distance--we definitely don't live in Sacramento anymore!

Megan is puppy training Taylor for Guide Dogs for America and so he gets to go everywhere she goes--so he came to Minnesota. He LOVED the snow and being around so many new people--I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of dogs, but he is the COOLEST puppy! He is incredibly smart, and LOVES people. Here he is "helping" my dad build a snowman. And in a battle with his "mom" over the wrapping paper--Megan won, but it took awhile!

Jenn gave me the coolest ornament--it's a Starbucks cup--definitely the perfect gift for me! :)

So Chris is a little bit of a philosophy nut (ok he's a philosophy major at Princeton) and I made the mistake of asking him one little question about something (I can't even remember what it was about) at dinner and here he is still talking about philosophy with my dad. Something about free will or killing lobsters or things being preordained....I really have no idea what they were talking about :)

Here is Christopher, my dad and I at my dad's cousin's house--it was great to see some extended family in Minnesota that I hadn't seen in years!

Christmas Break in Seattle

Finals ended (finally!) and I got to spend a wonderful 10 days in Seattle. I got to stay with my old roommates, spend lots of time with people from church whom I adore, see the kids I used to babysit for a lot, and spend lots of time in my favorite coffee shops (especially the Greenbean, the most amazing coffee shop in the world!) I also got to see Late Tuesday in concert, go to church for 2 sundays, and join my wonderful girl friends for a night out to the Nutcracker. It was an AMAZING ten days, and wonderful being in a place that is SO familiar after a quarter of starting all over. I haven't found a scanner to scan the photos from our night out, but here are a few digital photos from the Christmas party we had.

Missy & I Missy, Ryan and Chris--I'm not sure they know what is going on!
Aaron, Darbee, Jeannette, and Ryan downing their Irish Car Bombs
Brian, Jeannette and I

Missy & Heather cooking us breakfast the morning I flew out--yay for Heather's french toast!

Thanksgiving in Colorado

For Thanksgiving my mom, dad and I met in Colorado to spend the weekend with my Grandparents, my Uncle Vaughn, Aunt Carolyn, and cousins Jason, Stacie, Rachel, Mikaela, & Amanda--it was a wonderful weekend of good food, hanging out with cousins, relaxing, and being introduced to the Mexican Train Game (yeah don't ask, it's a strange game my grandparents love right now...) Here are some photos in no particular order....



Here's Amanda guarding her sparkling cider that she is obsessed with--I swear she was buzzed from it that night! And here she is working on our puzzle.




Dad & Jason with hands nicely folded waiting for dinner :)
And here are Dad & Uncle Vaughn drying dishes trying to earn their dessert (we'd told them no pie if they didn't help!)

And here are Stacie, Rachel and I doing dishes, thanks to Grandma using her china it took FOREVER!

Dad & Papa turkey carving




My older cousin Jason & his wonderful wife, Stacie (and Lucky)

The Family all set for dinner--see our hands are folded so nicely like grandma said!

An amazing calling

I was at Starbucks about two weeks ago wearing a shirt from my favorite band "Late Tuesday" when this older couple (he was 60, she might have been a bit younger) asked what it meant. I explained they were a band in Seattle, and then they wanted to know why I was down here and they found out I was in seminary. That was all it took to get them talking and talking and talking! They told me all about this experience they had in this Methodist church here in Burbank where they had a woman pastor who was so welcoming and embracing of them and their 12 year old autistic grandchild. This man told me that he takes his grandchild to church every Sunday and to their wonderful VBS program each summer and they just embrace this little boy there. He told me all about how he grew up Catholic and his wife grew up Protestant and that they were raised thinking blacks were unacceptable but here is this black woman pastor at this church who is truly amazing and they had never encountered that before. They wrote down the church address and their phone number and wanted me to come to their house for Thanksgiving and on and on and on!

I got to thinking that I feel like these things have been happening more and more since I’ve started Fuller. It’s like once people find out I am in seminary they start talking—even though they don’t know me at all, I am all of a sudden a "safe space" and they want to be heard. While it isn’t always convenient to listen to someone you don’t know for a ½ hour, it is such a gift! What a need the people of this world have to be heard, to share their stories to feel cared for. I think the fact that they are willing to spend a ton of time talking to some strange young girl that they don’t know speaks volumes about how desperate our society is to have their individual stories heard, respected, and honored. I am kind of overwhelmed with the idea, but I think God is calling me to spend my life really listening well to people and their stories, to just get to sit and let them talk because it seems like that need isn’t being met for so many people. What an amazing calling!

It is also interesting to me that once people find out I am in seminary, they want to tell me their own personal stories of being wounded by the church (I don't seem to get too many people excited to tell me their stories of amazing churches!). While at first I was uncomfortable hearing people's stories of things they thought were wrong with the church because I didn't feel like I could say anything in response to them (I mean, I wasn't there, how can I fix something a pastor said 25 years ago?!) I am finding that most people really don't need me to say anything, they don't expect me to respond, they just want so desperately for someone to listen to this painful story they've carried around for so long. An injustice was done to them and they don't expect me to fix it, they just want to be heard. What an incredible gift to be able to give someone--the gift of being heard. How often do we truly do that for our neighbor? We think we need to say the right thing in response to their stories or pain, when really, I am learning that often silence speaks ten times louder than any "cookie cutter" answer. May we all continue striving to be people that listen with our whole hearts!