Middle of the Quarter...

Hello all! Sorry it's been so long...

Finals went well. Good grades. :)

This next quarter started slowly, which was nice. I thought it would be a tougher quarter than it turned out to be. State mandated furlough days for teachers have been a blessing. :) Classes make up 14 units instead of 16 (which somehow I had miscalculated...).

The first weekend after school started was Easter and went back to Watsonville, took Andrew along. Great time to spend with the family. :) Second weekend went camping with a whole bunch of old church people (old as in graduated last year and have since moved all over the place) in Yosemite. It was COLD! The third weekend I went up to Stockton with Andrew and met his sister and went to his church, his favorite high school Mexican restaurant, spent time with his mom and step dad. Three great weekends...but exhausting for the first four weeks of school! Thankfully the quarter is easy!

Right now I am taking: Math for Elementary teaching II, Computer Based Curriculum, Psychology of Learning, and Art in the Elementary Classroom. Enjoyable for the most part, and I have kept up with the homework. But this week is going to be CRAZY! Just lots of midterms and projects due. Even had to cancel the family coming down on Saturday so I can work on stuff. Sad day! But by this time next week, lots of stress of the quarter will be over!

Roommates are great. Today is Brett (friend since freshman year)'s birthday, tomorrow is Ana's (roommate). Lots of fun! Been busy with biblestudy on Wednesday nights, catching up with friends (since I was out of town five weekends in a row with the two in NY), and spending lots of time with my favorite boy. :P We're praying together daily, enjoying our separate biblestudies, and, of course, spending a lot of time together and hoping the three months this summer will go quickly (he's going to be in Kansas from June 21 to Sept 10th).

God is great. He has been blessing and leading my life. I have so many wonderful people around me, and so many great experiences and classes, etc. I am so BLESSED!

Love you all.

New York!

First day of classes. :(

But spring break was amazing! Left Friday from SLO, came back the next Sunday. Actually in New York from Sat night to Sat afternoon. Lots of fun things! Our hotel was about 6 blocks down from Times Square, two blocks from Central park. Saw three shows on Broadway: In the Heights, Mama Mia, and West Side Story. Saw Madam Butterfly at the Opera. Went to the top of the Empire State Building. Top of the Rock. Walked almost the whole length of Central Park. hit the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Natural History Museum and lots of other fun things!

Andrew and Tandy are great company. :) Andrew is amazing. Yes, I love him. :D Now you all know. And we went to Tiffany's.

Finals Week

Finals week is always a mix of fun and stress for me. There's the "extra" time to catch up with friends, go to the beach (since it's finally warm again!), and stay up late watching movies. But then there's the ugly reality of four finals to study for spread out across the week and never "enough" time to study.

I'm halfway through the week with two finals down and two to go. Math for Elementary Teaching final was Monday morning, and I did well. Educating Individuals with Exceptional Needs (Special Education) was Monday night, and I did well on that one, too. My easiest finals are now over.

Currently I am at the coffee shop writing two essays for the "take home" portion of my Senior Project final. One is Institutionalism vs. Individualism in Public Education, the other comparing the points of view of two texts on the two largest teachers unions, NEA (National Education Association) and AFT (American Federation of Teachers). I also have to study for an in-class essay for this final that focuses on the Nation At Risk document and the changes it proposed and the changes that actually took place. When this is done, I will need to study for my American History final as well.

Studying. Courtney was here earlier, as our tradition is Wednesday studying at Higher Groundz. Now Ana has joined me. Hopefully I'm able to get all this stuff done! Will be heading home Friday after my final, and then to SJ, and then NYC! Finals week is almost over.

Last Day of Winter Quarter!

Dead week is officially over for me. Regular classes are done. Time to party! Or study for finals. :) Two Monday, one Thursday and one Friday. Then off to NYC!

It's been a productive morning, cleaned the kitchen, living room and my bedroom. Gonna study for my Monday finals for a few hours and then Courtney and I are getting a group of people together to "dress up" and go out for dessert. We're aiming for Madonna Inn and their delicious cakes, but so far we only have three people so we'll see. Then we'll see a movie afterwards. And then the partying will be over and the weekend of studying will begin.

Off to studying. :)

Studying with Courtney at Higher Groundz, the local Christian coffee shop. Finishing up the quarter strong. It's good to hang out with old friends; we were just saying how good it is to have friends from a long time ago that you still get to hang out with once a week. Wednesdays at HG has become our tradition.

Went on FBC Women's Retreat this past weekend. It was really amazing to hear the women's stories and get to know people outside of my age group. We worshiped together and shared our testimonies: there are some amazing stories of God's faithfulness and mercy among that group of women - it puts me in awe, because if that one group of 30 women has that many stories of God's goodness, how many other wonderful stories am I missing from the other people around me? I wish I were more comfortable asking people their stories.

The Beginning...

Since I have trouble keeping those I love updated on my life, I took the idea of starting a blog from Brett. I'm hoping to build this both with life updates as well as artistic thoughts. Fun and informational. Unfortunately it is dead week and I have homework to do for class tonight so this is all that I am going to post for right now, but I will hopefully update this once in a while. Love you all!