My Own Coffee House

Global Warming Polls

2009-07-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

I'm doing research for a class I'm taking on global warming. Please take two seconds to vote and help me out. Thanks!

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2009-06-12T10:58:00.001-07:00

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My Girlfriend

2009-06-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is me and Meagan. This was taken after a date to the Spaghetti Factory. We have had several really fun dates. She one of my favorite girlfriends. I trust her advice and respect things she says. We don't always agree and we have our fights, but she's a friend I know that I can always count on. Since I've taken her out the last few times, she made me dinner Tuesday night. It was the best chicken and rice meal I've had. The chicken was super juicy and the rice was delicious. There were several really great movies on that night as well. We watched last part of Get Smart which is probably one of the best movies ever. I first watched it at my sister's house like 5 times within a week. I don't normally watch movies that often, especially that close together. Meagan said Ann Hathaway's character reminded her of me. I can see that, haha :) After that we found P.S. I Love You. The first couple times I saw that movie I cried throughout the whole thing. They were perfect date movies. We ended the night with homemade cookies in coffee ice cream while watching P.S. The cookies were muy deliciouso! Especially combined with the coffee ice cream. Mmmm! Thanks for another great date together, Meagan! Can't wait for another!

Toastmasters

2009-06-11T18:28:00.001-07:00

Since we returned from the field trip early enough, I was able to make it a Toastmasters meeting. This was an opportunity for me to get extra credit in my Business Communications class. (We all did terrible on our papers so he offered this to us). I thought it was great! I didn't really know what to expect. I though at first it was a networking group or something and I guess it kind of is, but it is so much more than that! The purpose of this group is to improve and become more comfortable with public speaking. Looking at the Toastmasters International website, I found a location that met the perfect distance away at the perfect time at Denny's. This was perfect cause I was pretty hungry too after a long day. This was probably the best group too. The people were fun and high energy, but they were also very legit and good at what they did. The set-up was interesting. There were a lot of speeches with evaluators that evaluated different things, like time and overall and an ah/um counter. There was also a chance for impromptu speeches. The people were great and I actually stayed and talked with the District Director for a couple hours afterwards. It was a good experience and I might actually join. It would be good for networking as well as improving my public speaking skills. Especially if I'm going to do anything with my Business Degree. I would definitely recommend it to anyone as well, but I heard that some of the other ones were boring and stiff. I went to a good one. The District Director actually knew my professor too which was even better for me. Especially when I turned in my agenda today and said "Michael Owens says hi." His expression was great and I heard more stories of the two of them. ("I'm a drug trafficer" *twitch*) Ha Ha. Good times.

Knott's Field Trip

2009-06-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

I was lucky to get to Knott's Berry Farm with one of my favorite classes this week. Some of my classes have been cancelled lately so I have been able to sub locally before going to my other later classes in the afternoon and evening. I was asked to sub for an assistant so she could take a personal day. She would not have taken it, however if I hadn't have been able to go because it was a field trip with the whole school and we broke off into groups so they wanted to be sure there was a sub there who knew the kids and teachers as well as expectations of the students. Basically, they needed someone they knew could handle the kids in a situation that wasn't everyday and where there wouldn't be another staff member present if something came up. I love that teachers can trust me and think of me so highly to be one of these "good" subs. I only took 2 pictures all day because it was nuts. We lost one kid for a while, she's mildly autistic and gets easily distracted. She wandered away from us and lost us when we walked into the restaurant. But she knew just where to go, Chaparone Central. Good girl! But we were freaked out for a bit. Another boy only went on the rides at Camp Snoopy. That's who I was with the majority of the day. I would have loved to ride more "big kid rides" but I go often enough that I was fine doing the Snoopy thing with the other kids. I had a lot of fun with these kids and here are the only two pictures I took the whole day.

Last Weekend

2009-06-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was interesting. For having pretty much nothing planned, it was quite eventful. Friday night before heading to my uncle's to sleep I had dinner at a friends house with several people and we ate ox tail stew. It was different, but very good. The next day a friend and I headed out to the beach when I got off work then we took the ferry, in the car, over to Balboa Island which I'd never been to before and we got some ice cream. We were planning on walking around the island a bit but ended up heading to the Angel's game instead and watching the game from a Gold Suite looking right down the first base line on the View Terrace (or something like that where you're only allowed on the level if you have a ticket for it). People on this level are SPOILED! And I was spoiled! Ha! All you people I called to take some extra tickets totally missed out! Even if I did call you late. You missed out! Later we watched Swordfish which Bethanee and I had started the weekend before in our hotel room before having to check out. Neither of us had ever seen it before and decided we needed to finish the movie cause it looked so good. Well, sorry Bethanee, I found someone with it and finished it already. The following day after breakfast (at 2pm) at Denny's we were off to the park to play some basketball then went on some swings, James attempted to climb a tree, we did some self defense stuff, cartwheels, handstands and just played before grabbing some coffee to end the weekend. It was a weekend filled with nearly all of my favorite things. I had so much fun. All I have to say is thanks.

Ruck Wedding

2009-06-03T22:51:00.001-07:00

These are a few photos from Steve and Kristin's wedding in April. They're pretty fun. The whole day was really fun and full of great people. Love you guys!

Newest Pet Peave

2009-05-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's been developing lately with the changes in technology. I feel like people don't feel like they need to talk on the phone anymore at all. All they do is text. It really drives me crazy now when I call someone and leave a message and get texted back! If I call you, CALL ME BACK! Unless you're in class or somewhere where you can't talk, but tell me "hey I'm in a movie, what's up?" When people do that, it's great. But lot's of people now just text because they like it better because it's less invasive or something. It's really hard to plan things though through text and things turn out sour. Questions are hard to answer quickly and to the point. And the conversation takes forever as opposed to a few minutes talking. I do NOT like being constantly disrupted by my phone every time I get a text when I'm watching a show at home or talking to someone or doing homework or something. Let's just talk for a few minutes and get it over with instead of dragging it out with text messages. Especially if I call you, I think it's proper etiquette to call me back. Use the same type of contact that was initiated!

I Miss...

2009-05-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

my old coworkers. I ran into someone who I worked with at Sylvan at school today. I like her a lot! She made me feel so loved and appreciated and missed. She said she was going to tell everyone she saw me and make them jealous. Seeing her reminded me I still had a check stub I told the director I would come pick up so I figured I'd stop and get it on my way home from school since it could be "on the way" if I wanted it to be. There were only 3 people there but I stayed and talking to them till closing (about an hour and a half). What was really funny was all of the work I had been doing before I left was still left UNTOUCHED! No kidding. The boxes of records and files were still stacked on top of the tables in the testing room and all the files that needed to be refiled elsewhere were still stacked on the desk in the front office and no lists had been made either. It's kind of funny to me because it's not it's super busy there this time of year so noone can do it. There's plenty of time! I could probably finish it in a couple hours myself. I was even tempted to start working on it all again too. I wish more people could have been there like Julianne and Lili and Mike and Maria and Danny and Anna. I still haven't seen Anna's baby either! I don't just miss Sylvan either, I miss subbing. I miss recess. I miss circle time. I miss comforting a child who's crying for apparently no reason but can't communicate the problem because of his "disability." I miss getting hugs from kids who missed me since the last time I worked with them. I miss eating lunch with the teachers while watching Madagascar or some other new kids movie. I miss it all.

Good Day

2009-05-12T22:26:00.001-07:00

After a long day yesterday I was debating staying in bed today but since I could never bring myself to do that, I went to school anyway and I'm so glad I did. If there was ever a good day at school, today was the day. Upon the beginning of my first class, some people came in with caps and gowns and presented an invitation for Beta Gama Sigma-the highest honor one can achieve in business school. Only 150 students were voted to receive this invitation and I was one of them today. I also had to pick up my certificate of membership in the International Golden Key Honor Society today. Well, the professor then began her lecture after congratulations but we were interupted again by someone reminding the professor of a presentation or something we were supposed to go to. We all followed her to the events center where we then became part of the Career Success Summit 2009. We were able to meet and talk to many local business executives. There was a speaker then a panel that answered questions from the audience then we got FREE lunch while we talked to an employer at our tables more intimately. It was incredible. These people had a lot of insight into the business world and I had a unique opportunity to learn things today that most people learn the hard way. I actually took a lot of notes because the things they were saying were so right on and I knew they would be useful for me today and in the future. I think the networking lunch was the best part. The employer at my table actually helps businesses get the most for their money and optimize profits based on investment. Something like that anyway. He was awesome and offered his services and advice whenever needed. My next class is always fun and today's "lecture" was on conflict management. Perfect! He reminded us that work isn't everything and we need to keep our priorities straight. He used several country songs to prove his three points: 1. Don't Blink-Life goes by fast. There's no need to dwell on a problem of little consequence when there are more important things that matter. If conflict comes up, we have two choices: Let it pass and let it be part of your day or dwell on it and let it be part of your life. 2. Live Like You Were Dying-Live with the end in mind. If an issue isn't going to greatly affect your life in a few years, it's not that big a deal so move on. 3. So Small-"Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand." People blow things way out of proportion for unnecessary reasons. Keep things in perspective and realize what really needs attention and what isn't that big a deal. My next class was the same as always but the night ended well still because my last class was cancelled and I was able to go out to dinner with my friend that I haven't really seen in a while and I still had time to send my part of the presentation off to my group members for Thursday. Again, today was really something I needed. I learned A LOT and will be able to apply it to my life today and in the future. It's all relevant in life, not just in business. I was encouraged today and things were put into perspective and appear to me more clearly now.

Brad Stine - Offended By The Truth

2009-05-12T00:05:00.001-07:00

This one is just as good. Along the same lines. People shouldn't be offended by the truth and if the truth hurts that means you don't got it.

Wussification Rant

2009-05-11T23:38:00.001-07:00

Whatever happened to free speech? Why can't people be critical thinkers and see that not everything is an attack. One or two words here and there are very commonly twisted so that one person is offended but that one person usually truly misses the point which most likely has nothing to do with them anyway. Here is a little video that I appreciate a lot. I love this guy. I think he's a great comedian. He's smart and witty. He uses materials in his jokes that most Americans are afraid to use anymore. I wish people would get over the "politically correct" thing that is so huge in the US these days. It stems from insecurity and low self esteem as well as pride I think. I'm not just talking solely about PC issues, I'm talking about people in general getting offended or taking a few words too personally and throwing a huge fit about it. How can a few words that have nothing to do with a person or situation cause so much of a ruckus? PEOPLE, watch it. Learn something!

Lifehouse "Everything" Skit

2009-05-07T13:07:00.001-07:00

I've seen this video several times and have actually seen a live performance of it. It is absolutely amazing! It is so powerful and a great reminder to people. Every time I watch it, I cry. EVERY TIME! It really hits specific issues that people deal with and go through in life. In the drama, the main character begins her relationship with Jesus and is amazed by him. Soon, however, things of this world distract her and draw her away which result in depression and potential suicide. It's at this point that things change for her again. Watch it and be moved!

New Job

2009-04-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know yet, I got a new job in Mission Viejo. I'll be starting out doing some marketing and assistant director stuff while also doing some online training at a learning center out there. Once I finish some training and get my teaching credential with the company, I'll start teaching there and get a bit more money. I'm pretty excited about it. I start next Wednesday, a week from today. I've already looked at apartments in the area and found a place that was designed for me! I'm in love with it! But I think it would be wiser to rent a room in the area for a while so I don't lock myself into a long-term lease right away. That way I would also be more comfortable with staying with my parents in Riverside when I come back this way for school or church. I know if I get my own apartment I'd want to be going there every night. I really want a roommate too to help with the cost and so it's not super lonely. We'll see what happens but my friend Carrie, who lives out there, mailed me her Penny Saver yesterday so I can check up on rooms for rent and stuff this week. It's still pretty crazy to think about how much my life will be changing in the next couple of weeks, but I really like it!

Group Project Suck 2

2009-04-29T21:22:00.001-07:00

So I've already ranted about my lame group but I need to rant again. We have a presentation tomorrow evening, class is a 6. I have class ALL day before then. I'm supossed to write a paper with material sent to me from the other group members. My information I have so far is a very, very sparce power point with basically an outline of the presentation. Not much information to write a 3-5 page paper on. It's due tomorrow! What are people thinking!?!?!? And ya I write awesome papers under pressure but this is ridiculous! I'm so angry! And people were making excuses yesterday about not sending me info yet! I couldn't believe it! I'm gonna have to BS the whole thing and they're getting a LOW grade from me. Good luck passing this class folks! I HATE GROUP PROJECTS! Depending on other people for a good grade is SO not a strong point of mine.

Lucky

2009-04-28T12:23:00.001-07:00

I first heard this song a little over a week ago and immediately fell in love with it. Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait are amazing together! Now I love it even more because my good friends Steve and Kristin danced their first dance as a married couple to it. This is also the song that ended the evening of their wedding. Later that night one of the groom's friends played a bit of it to me over the phone with his guitar. I told him if we get married we have to copy Steve and Kristin and make it our first dance song. He was fine with it but I don't like copying people. Anywayz, watch the video and fall in love with the song too.

Group Projects Suck

2009-04-28T12:01:00.001-07:00

I absolutely hate group projects. I do my own work perfectly fine. I think there are even more group projects and presentations because I am a business management major. Great. Nobody communicates like they should and only one or two people actually end up doing any work. I have three projects I'm supossed to be working on but haven't really yet. One of them is due Thursday, two days from now and I was elected to write the paper with the material sent to me by the other group members. I wasn't able to meet with the group when they met outside of class and I wasn't even told what I was supossed to do until last night because I sent a pretty nasty e-mail (again). The information I've gotten even since then is absolutely useless to me. How am I supossed to write a paper without any information? And the power point that one of the girls did is LAME! It really makes no sense at all and it's missing a ton of information that's necessary for our presentation! What the heck? I don't know what to do about it anymore. Whatever. One of the my other ones is due next week, I THINK. And we haven't really done anything there either except figure out who's writing what portion of the paper. At least that group actually has someone taking charge and delegating duties and making decisions. Ugh, when will this all be over?!

Botswana 2 Year Anniversary

2009-04-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my old Botswana Team and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary of our trip together to the other side of the world. We relived many memories of the trip as well as reflecting on everything that has happened in the last 2 years. Among these developments, there have been 3 weddings, 2 babies, 2 tattoos, another World-Wide trip to Honduras for many of us, a long-term trip for Lauren with her now-hubby Leo (whom she met the night we left for Africa), a couple of graduations, and many new career and volunteer opportunities. Sandy had made up a couple of slide-shows from our trip, our past get-togethers, and some of the things that have happened over the past 2 years. It was crazy to see some of the photos and try to remember all of the countless, priceless times together. But it was also a really neat reminder of how lucky I am to have these special people in my life! Over the last year our monthly reunions have dwindled in size to a dedicated few, but yesterday we had a great turn-out with some people there who we rarely see anymore. It was so nice to catch up. We were still missing two people: Cristin and Nikki. Hopefully soon we will have our complete group together again. To visit Sandy's photobucket and view the slide-show click here. I've posted a few photos us our group here as well. This first one if our group at our commissioning service the Sunday before we left. This was one of my favorite Sundays at church.This one is of our group in Africa at Ma Adom's house where we had an authentic African meal. It was delicious! Lauren isn't in this one because she's taking the photo but the rest of the team is as well as some of the missionaries we stayed with including our Sandals contact Shawna.

These photos of our team are at one of our first get-togethers since returning to the states. I think it was the second or third maybe. The only one missing here is Dean, who's taking the photo I believe. And Shawna hadn't returned from Africa yet. I like the second one here because it really shows how our group relates with each other. We are rarely ever serious. Dean always says 12 seconds is the longest we can go seriously. We always get it right when we are serious, but it's always followed by a bunch of laughter.

This one was at the Sandals Worldwide service at church where the two teams (Africa and India) went onstage and the church was able to watch a video of our trip as well as listen to people from the team answer some questions. We're all wearing name tags so that people could ask us questions and talk to us about the trip after the service. After the three morning services we all went over to Mama Gail's house for some delicious food and a great time together until the evening service.

This one was taken at Dean's house for Shawna's Welcome Home party. We're missing a few people here but it was great to see Shawna back at home, see her albums and hear more stories of her two years away from the States.

This is the photo from yesterday. Kimmy and her baby Evan are cut-out (Tom's fault, sorry Kim) and Cristin and Nikki weren't present. But we were all so happy to be together again and reminisce.

My Fake Fiance

2009-04-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

I was telling a friend of mine at one of my friend's bridal showers a couple weeks ago that I needed to get engaged so that I can get all the gifts I need for when I move out. At the time I had seriously been looking for apartments in Orange County but realized I had very little to fill it with and things that I would need everyday. But if I was to get married, I would have all the parties and stuff and get a ton of gifts, gift cards and straight up money to begin my life on my own. I told several people of my brilliant plan and one of them said they had just made a movie about that! Turns out it was playing on ABC Family and my mom watched it the other night so it was recorded on our DVR and I was able to watch it today. I love it! It's not exactly what I had in mind, some of the motives are different, and they actually were planning on getting married for real, and ended up doing it for real and really falling in love with each other. I highly doubt that would actually happen to me and I'm not planning on it, but I need to find a guy, nonetheless, who would be willing to stage an entire wedding so that we could get gifts and parties and all the good things that come with it. Plus, then I'd be the bride instead of the bridesmaid for a change. :)

1 Year Later

2009-04-21T13:05:00.001-07:00

It's still so hard. So much has happened this year, yet it still feels like it was just a couple weeks ago that I got 10 missed called and 5 text messages telling me to call and I recieved the news. I thought it was a joke at first. I didn't believe it. I called him cell, his house, his wife, his parents. I couldn't go back to class and sit there to work on our group project. I was a mess! I drove out to the hospital where my family was cause Jake was having surgury. I couldn't even see the rode. I didn't shower for three days because I didn't want to be alone. Loneliness would cause a whole new cascade of tears to fall and I didn't want that. I was angry. How could he be so selfish! I'd just talked to him for hours the day before and texted him that morning with no response. Now I knew why. It was at the viewing that it really became reality, but I was able to forgive him and I felt more at peace. Every month on the 21st, I remember Brian Glenn Sanders. I still haven't been able to hold myself together at the cemetery to visit him so I've never been to his sight. I kind of feel guilty, but then again I don't. It's too hard still. But I am trying. His family, my family, and our friends help make this easier to bear, but it still takes time to heal. I miss you so much friend!

Beach with the Fam

2009-04-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

So last Friday I took another day off work and we went to the beach with family. The family I went to Disneyland with was still visiting so they joined us there. We also met up with one of my cousins and her daughter as well as her niece and nephew and her mom (my aunt) who we didn't even know would be in town! It was nice. These are a just a couple of the dozens of photos we took. Aubri really like my volleyball with Wilson on it. And this a photo of Aubri with a couple of the cousins' kids playing together in the sand. Yes, Aubri was the only child there that wasn't blonde.

Disneyland

2009-04-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

So one of my favorite cousins is visiting here this week. Monday-Wednesday they spent at Disneyland with the kids. I have a pass now so I joined them yesterday for the day. That place is so much more fun with kids! Especially their kids. Since they bought me breakfast and dinner, I bought everyone dessert. The girls got cotton candy and destroyed it in line for Finding Nemo Submarine thing. The little 2 year old made such a mess! She was her own attraction and entertained quite a few people in line. I think she liked it!

Angel Food Ministries

2009-04-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

Angel Food Ministries is a great way to save money on your groceries. Sandals Church has recently partnered with this ministry to help church families. It is an opportunity that is open to anyone close to a distribution center and there are no requirements or applications to fill out or income verifications. It is open to everyone! Check out this video. And visit the website here.

Scunci

2009-04-02T21:07:00.001-07:00

So since my bangs were cut a little too short last week, I haven't been able to put them back even in a clip or bobby pins very well so I've been relying pretty much on headbands. I found a really cute one in my sister's room that I was able to put a couple of outfits together for (it's a deep red color with white polka dots). My main problem, besides the lack of deep red in my wardrobe, is the pain it was causing behind my ears. It was so bad that when I got in the car or something I'd take it off just for the short relief that it brought me. I decided I needed to invest in a headband or two since I couldn't bring my bands back every day without short strays falling out and I couldn't make them look as good as Aime did the day she cut them. I looked at Rite-Aid before work the other day and didn't really find anything I liked enough or for a good enough price. But when I stopped for groceries after work the next day I decided to look and see what they had there. That's when I saw it. The most innovative headband I've seen. I thought the stretchy ones I used to use to hold my strays back when playing volleyball or working out or driving with my top down were amazing. This is even better! It's made by Scunci and the two endscurve backwards so that they don't sit just behind the ears. They sit further back and it's painless. It's no slip as well so I don't have to worry about it falling off (which my sister's did on occasion).

Seriously, Genius!

How does that happen?

2009-03-31T21:29:00.000-07:00

So I woke up before 5 am today to try to find a job to work. After checking every 5-10 minutes (my alarm goes off every 5 minutes so I make sure I check the website constantly) for about 4 hours and only seeing 1 assignment for a high school severly profound handicap class (I don't do that classification and age group for several reasons), I decided there probably weren't going to be any other postings since all the schools had begun for the day by then (around 9am). And I wasn't planning on working at Sylvan today either. I had told my boss I was on spring break and had today available to work (since I've only been working twice a week there and not very often subbing, I figured I'd make up some hours), but she said they would probably be covered. So again, i wasn't planning on working at this point. By mere curiousity, I checked the system again for assignments around 9:30 and one had been posted for today from 12-3. Ya it was only 3 hours, but it was for a good class and I might as well work 3 hours then none at all day. Then I'd come home and take a nap. Well, on my way to this school the director at Sylvan called me and asked if I could still come in so I went straight there once I got off and did my normal schedule. Thing definitely didn't turn out the way I initially thought it would when I woke up this morning. I wonder how tomorrow will turn out.