Pictures from VA

After living in Richmond for 22 years there are people that I've grown up with. This is a picture of my best friends from high school. However 4 of us in this picture have been good friends since a 6th grade gym class! Alice, Amanda, Neha, Ashley, and I outside Carytown Burger and Fries.
Dr. J was an amazing professor that I got to know throughout my four years at University of Richmond. It was great to go back and see him.
Here is a picture of my Res Life boss Kerry--as you can see she was about to have a baby and TODAY (12/29/06) Addison Ellen Fankhauser was born! YAY!
Not the best picture of any of us but here are some crazy and fabulous girls I got to know while I was an RA--Dominique, Tiffany, and Kristen M. at Moe's.
I forgot how gorgeous the University of Richmond campus is...this is a picture of the lake and gazebo. Laurie and I took a morning walk around campus and were amazed by the changes and renovations made to the university. For instance, here (next picture) we are in front of the gold fountain in dhall. Is that really necessary? I don't think so!
Another unnecessary purchase that I always laughed at as a student were these giant wreathes that the university spends thousands of dollars (I'm not exaggerating) to hang up on the tower of the library during Christmastime.A fun surprise of the holidays was Sarah's engagement! Here she is with her sparkling diamond--exciting!

My sister and I in front of the Christmas tree. My Mom kept trying to capture "Christmas card moments" since she didn't have one for this year. My Dad, Mom, and crazy dog--Ollie in the backyard of their new home. Quite a different backdrop than LA yeah?
Since Cursillo I have become quite excited about butterflies--so much so that I gave one to the cat for Christmas. I think he liked it...or at least the catnip inside hehe.

Visit to VA

I spent the past week and a half in Richmond, VA celebrating Christmas with family and friends. And in case I forgot in was in Virginia there have been several humorous reminders that I was not in LA anymore...

* When looking at neighbors' Christmas lights I saw numerous farm tractors all lit up.
* Instead of worrying about hitting pedestrians when driving, I have to worry about hitting deer. There are actually special deer whistles installed on my parents' cars!
* I'm no longer in the minority in saying y'all...people "talk more funny" than I do here!
* There were 2 cars on the interstate and that was traffic. Later as when my parents were dropping me at the airport to fly out we saw a pick up truck driving in reverse on interstate. Guess he missed his exit...
* When checking out at the UR bookstore the cashier asked where I was living since college. I said I moved to California. In response she asked if I kept a life jacket under my bed because CA was going to fall off into the ocean. She was completely serious.
* In digging through boxes of old stuff in my parents house I found dishclothes with the confederate flag sewn on them. Quite disturbing--but Richmond is the capital of the confederacy.

In all seriousness it was a fun trip seeing people I dearly love and spending time in a city I grew up in. I'm back in CA now trying to get ready for a new quarter, celebrating new year's, and watching the Rose Bowl Parade (only if it doesn't rain though). I'll post pictures of my VA trip soon!

Disneyland!

Becca, Sophie, Sarah, and I decided to not buy each other Christmas gifts this year and instead use that money to go to Disneyland! It was a joyous, relaxing, and fun day. We all needed the fantasy world of Disneyland to relieve stress from finals and really, stress from life in general. It was also amazing to have that time for the 4 of us to hang out. I think our Disneyland day is best told in pictures...here are a few...
Welcome to Disneyland--Sarah, me, Sophie, and Becca posing by the A of California.

Our first ride of the day was Splash Mountain.

What we didn't realize was that the water in Splash Mountain is th fullest in the beginning of the day so we were soaked from the splash!

I thought the many strollers at Disneyland was quite entertaining.

Becca and I enjoying the teacups--I got tired of turning the teacup but Becca kept on going--thanks Becca!

And then we all turned into pirates thanks to the tatoos Becca brought. A pirate character told us we looked authentic all we needed to do was get drunk (not quite what I expected a Disney character to say!)
Our pirate hats also helped us turn into pirates. My pink hat said I was a "pirate princess!"

Sophie and I waiting in line for Indiana Jones.

We ended the day by watching the Parade of Dreams--the dancing snowmen were my favorite. Then we headed to Downtown Disney for a relaxing dinner before heading back. It was a great day:)

Another quarter = Done!

It's hard to believe that fall quarter is over. Someone at church asked me today how my quarter was...it took me a moment to answer and truthfully say it was hard!

My classes were tough. I had Gospels with Hagner--who for you non Fuller people--has quite a reputation for being challenging. And while the class was academically hard for me I learned so much! One of our assignments was to read all 4 gospels straight through and journal in response to each one. It was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had--both academically and spiritually.
I also took Exegesis of 1st Corinthians with an adjunct professor. To be honest I didn't like this class until the very end as I was writing my paper. I have written one other exegesis paper before and did not enjoy the experience--but this paper was different. There were several cool insights from translating it from the Greek and I loved learning more about Paul's theology of evangelism (1 Cor 9:19-23)--Paul's a pretty swell guy I'm learning. :)
My third class was Pastoral Counseling and Family Therapy with Augsburger. I ended up taking an incomplete in that class to spend more time on the final paper. Honestly I have never been so emotionally impacted or drained by a class before. A person's family is the most intimate thing to them because they have been so influenced by them. To analyze yourself and your family as a class assignment is hard--but I recommend it to everyone.

However this quarter was hard for other reasons besides classes. Still recovering from surgery in the beginning made the quarter tiresome from the get go. And I had never had a part time job on top of full time seminary before--the income was great, but it was new time management to get used to. And finally the quarter was interrupted midway by the incredible gift of Cursillo. In sum, the quarter wasn't bad--it was just an compact period of intense growth.

Here are pictures of two groups of people that were amazing throughout this chaotic time in my life. This is my small group--Lisa, Rebecca, Christina, me, and Sarah. We are all 2nd year Presbyterian students at Fuller. We met once a week and listened as each one of us took a week to share our story with the group. They have been an amazing source of joy, support, and prayer.
This second picture is of me with Sophie, Sarah, and Becca. While we're not an official group of any sort, they have been a wonderful threesome to walk through the good times and the hard times of the last couple months with. I treasure these women and see us being in community long after we're done at Fuller.

So what will I do next since I'm done with the quarter? I'm going to Disneyland!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I spent Thanksgiving lunch with friends in a gorgeous house of a family from church. We eat brought a dish making it a potluck Thanksgiving. I made cranberry sauce for the second year in a row. After lunch had digested I headed to a church family's house and ate a second Thanksgiving feast of the day. It was a great day filled with friends, great food, and relaxation. Here are some pictures of the weekend...

Denise and I salting the turkey...turns out cooking a whole turkey is quite a large undertaking, but it tasted great in the end.

One of the best parts of being at this house were the dogs--here are Sophie and I trying to get them to pose for a picture.
Yes we are standing in a pool on Thanksgiving...granted the water was a bit chilly but still it's the principal of things. I do love California weather but it was a bit odd to be so warm on Thanksgiving day.
The entire group: