I am at school. My roommate is sleeping now, so i can not write more. I am still not moved in, and am tired.

Ok, so I have not posted in what seems like forever. I have been getting out of work...Well sorta, today being my first day of freedom, yesterday being my last day. My room is a COMPLETE disaster zone. Ok, so maybe it normally is a little messy. Well, according to my family, my room is a disgrace...but anyways... I have packed most of my shelves into boxes, and my clothes are ALL clean, except for what I was wearing today. Oh, and My MOTHER, yes, my MoM, has started blogging. She is getting negative feedback from the males in our family. How did my brother put it...Oh yes..."Freaks and messed up people read and write blogs" I said "But I read and write blogs" He said, "to prove my point". So, yeah, I am still writing even if all my brothers and father discourage it. My dad put it like this: well, in the past people used to write in journals and diaries, hoping for someone to steal and read it. Posting your personally thoughts for the world to see is the same sort of thing, except no one has to steal it.
Today was a pretty good day. I went in, and did not eat breakfast (it was gone by the time I got in there...I was what? like ten to fifteen minutes late?) Then our family pulled out risk. We tried a new way by passing out the cards and trading. I ended up will all of north America, except for central America. I traded three countries for one...and my dad said that was most likely the BIGGEST mistake of the game. (yeah, thanks dad, who I did the trade with) and I partnered with Julie, who had all the countries of Asia, except for two. And also with David, who had all of Europe. We were against Daniel, who had all of Africa, and Jonathan who had alstrallia and the two countries Julie did not have in Asia, and my Dad, who had South America, and the one country called central America from MY AREA.
WHat the?!? There were just a bunch of dogs or coyotes howling out side, they sounded horrible...Weird...
Anyways...We, the north, aka Julie, David, and I, suffered a MAJOR defeat in the hands of our southern neighbors. It started with David loosing 10 guys to Daniel's 5...then Julie lost a ton, and then I started loosing...That's when we realized that none of us were good rollers...Julie was the best of us...THAT only happened until my Partner Rebecca, came to my rescue. We did not have enough colors for everyone who wanted to play to play, so Rebecca and I agreed to take turns. My dad was beating me into the ground, when suddenly Rebecca says she will roll, and the table turns, my dad went from not loosing a man, to DYEING...It was great. But unfortunately he quit while he was ahead. So, I was the first out...and my partners soon followed. Maybe I am not to rule the world...yet.
Then after that, I went and jumped on the giant trampling with the little kids for a while, getting completely tired out.
Then I made arrangements with my VERY good friend Jen to pick her up in Down town Santa Cruz...at 12:45. My dad went with us so we could stop by palace arts. We take the newish Honda, a car bought for my sister, but my dad liked so much he traded her the car that he and I shared so now Julie and I share a car and he gets his own. We hit traffic a few times...DON'T DRIVE ON SUNDAYS...yeah, you all probably knew that, this was the first Sunday I have had off in like the six years I have lived here, or I had them off while in Texas, where they don't even know what traffic is. So, we get there, and we are waiting...for like five minutes, all the sudden Julie says...she is sitting right behind us. I was like, man, we are in a new car she has never seen before...of course she wont recognize us...so we back up...and sort of scare her. Then she gets in and we head to Palace arts and office supplies.
I LOVE Palace arts...It was wonderful...a whole isle of Oil paints, another of acrylics, another of Water colors, and Sumi-a, and brushes. Oh the wonder. So, we wonder around. I got some new colors. some of the normal ones...and I got an ORANGE paint. I also picked up the wrong series of yellow...yes, series two, which somehow doubles the price. So, on sale for 30% off, it cost 7.74 for the tube. The others were 3.49 a tube. The large white tube was 7.99. I got a brush for 3.79, a really cool one with a slanted tip. Yeah, I got out of there for about 65 dollars, so yeah, I cannot wait to continue painting with my new colors. FUN FUN FUN!!!!!!!!!
After that, we return, and eat Uncle Kwoks Chinese food.
Then we all took off and went Bowling. I am so bad at it, but I like doing it. I got a 68, beating my friend by 8 points. In the order of highest score to lowest was Dad, David, MoM, Jonathan, Rebecca, Daniel, Rachel (ME), and Jen. The four youngest used bumpers...so their scores are disqualified.
So, after that, we get home and play a game of "out" (it's Basketball) and on like the second game, it went on for like a long time, and I SO WON. yeah...I was the first to get a basket, and I just kept throwing it in...from the same spot, like two feet away from the basket in the front. I was driving them INSANE. So, it continued on...till it was just David and I. I had finally gotten a "o" and a "u" and so had he...we keep going back and forth, making every shot, taking turns going from different spots. (I even got it going in the hoop facing backwards...yeah, my dad helped me some with direction) Finally my brother throws...and MISSES!!! making me the CHAMPION...Yes, I was shocked, they were shocked. And I followed my dads great advice, and quit while I was ahead. So, I went and played rummycube with my mom and friend.
Then my friend's mom calls and we have to take her and drop her back off in SC so she can get a ride home. My mom and I then do some shopping. Then come home for dinner and movie night. We watched some really boring stuff about water polo. Then saw our TV commercial for BGN (Bamboo Giant Nursery) then we watched Dr. Quinn. We are at the boring part where she and sully are "courting" oh, its a little overboard with the SAPPINESS...all the guys in the room were calling out their displeasure...and I will admit, it was pretty bad. "oh, meet me down by the kissing tree" PLEASE!
After that, my sister Rebecca came out with me and we packed a box, then she had to go to bed. She has water polo and Math tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are going to go sailing. My dad has been dying to take me and who ever will go out on his 33 foot sailing yacht. He wanted to go today instead of bowling, but it had been chartered out for the weekend. So, tomorrow...hopefully we shall have smooth sailing. My friend Jen and her whole family will be going with us tomorrow. We will hopefully have lots of fun.
Well, that about sums it up.
Later folks...

Well, i work tomorrow so to bed i must head.
I was going to write something...but i lost my train of thought. That proves i am tired...Goodnight
Oh,

So many things have happened....Where to begin?
I went to Mexico. It was fun.
There, that about covers that subject...or not.
Just to document it...During the Mexico trip was the first time I had to ask a guy out. He is 15 and his name is Chris, yeah, he is also kinda cute.
So, I am standing around, being yelled at in English and Spanish, trying to get my group of 20 people to communicate with the people around them. There was one other translator, and his favorite thing to do was to disappear (more on THAT later)
I meet these three girls, they are sweet and nice. Their names were Dulce, Ebet, and Liset. Dulce was a quite girl of 14. Her sister Liset was a wonderful gal of 12 years old. She was hanging around our group like the others, but she had her eyes on one of the boys in our group...yes, Chris, the worship leader and he also preached one of the messages while we were there. She would stand in front of him and sigh..."que romantico!" He, on hearing that word "romantico" got worried. Then when I walk up to him and tell him with Liset he is ready to run. The coversation went something like this (Translated for easier reading)...
Liset: Hi
Chris: Hi
Liset: How old are you?
Chris: 15
Liset: Will you be my boyfriend?
Chris: Ummmm...ah...no
Liset: Ok, will you kiss me?
Chris: *Shocked* What? um, NO
Liset: *In a sad sort of way* Will you be my friend then?
Chris: *Still recovering* Yeah, sure
Liset: Ok, good *Shakes his hand*
Chris: yeah, I got to go help them *points at the orphanage*
Liset: Ok, bye
Chris: Bye
And that was that. I had to translate that all for them. It was soooo very funny. When the other 15 and 16 year olds caught wind of this, they in their kind and loving way only found in a high school setting, let him have it. I felt sorta bad for him...just sorta.
Dulce had never seen her cousin Liset act like that before and was quite shocked at the whole thing as well, mainly that she was 12 not that she walked up to some strange north American with blond hair and blue eyes and asked him out. In their culture its normal for the girl to make the first move. In fact she said normally the girl does all the asking at first.
I also played soccer in a ankle length skirt again. I was always put as goalie...and after the guys slammed a few balls into my body and I made a goal for my team, the game was stopped, because Walt (the other translator) was doing something else again, and I had to go translate. One of the guys I played soccer with and talked to for like two hours on the bus was Scott. He said his name in Spanish is Escutilo (don't know how to spell it) but they could not even say that, so they called Scott: Cuchillo (in English: knife)
I said I would tell a little more about the other disappearing translator, on the first day I think it was, he went "evangelizing" and did not show up when we were suppose to leave so I got the joy of going with the pastor and finding him. I had to drag along one of the guys. They put a rule out that girls were not to go anywhere alone, if there was three of them that did not matter, there HAD to be at least ONE guy. Guys are overrated. Well, I grabbed (not literally, he volunteered) and took off in a beat up van. The pastor takes off toward town, and I convince him to turn around and instead of heading to the nearest store to head towards the nearest house. We ask the guard if he has seen a couple of lost Americans wondering around. He says yes he had and they wondered *he then points down the road* We then go in and I find our team, and load them in the van, Walt then meanders toward the van and climbs aboard.
Our team had 63 students and leaders, we had three translators. Walt, Scott (not the soccer player, the long haired dude from Sacramento), and myself. We hired two more translators while we were down there, but that was still a ton of talking. Luckily I do that well. All the stories were on Daniel, and saying the King of Babylon's name in English, Nebuchadnezzar was not hard, but in Spanish, Nabucodonosor, I could not seem too. There were a few words I and the other translator got stuck on, but we worked around it. Crafts were one word it took us a while to figure out. I still don't know "encourage" but yeah, in the woman's bible study the said that word like a HUNDRED times, I think inserted the word "help" instead...Yeah, not the same, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment.
Also, Special thanks to Arturo, for making me memorize John 3:16 in Spanish. It was so very useful.
yeah, well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Oh, and Translating for a translator in front of translators at a translator's meeting was one of the hardest things I have had to do in a while.

MEXICO!!!

well, this is it. I am off to Mexico at 6 am. I have to wake up at 4:30 and leave by five to arive at 5:30 to get on the bus to leave at 6. 4:30 is TOOOOOO early in the freaking morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, got to get my four hours of sleep or so. LATER!!!

I am taking tomorrow off from work. Then I am packing for Mexico in that time. Then I am hanging out with my MoM some, which will be tons of fun. Now I am going to sleep. Goodnight.

Something I found entertaining...

A married couple in their early 60s were out celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant. Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table and said, "For being such an exemplary married couple and for being faithful to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish." "Ooh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband" said the wife. The fairy moved her magic stick and - abracadabra! - two tickets for the new QM2 luxury liner appeared in her hands. Now it was the husbands turn. He thought for a moment and said: "Well this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this only occurs once in a lifetime, so, I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me". The wife, and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish... So the fairy made a circle with her magic stick and -abracadabra! - the husband became 92 years old.
The moral of this story.....
Men might be ungrateful idiots....
But fairies are......female!

(my dad did not find it funny at all...My mom, sisters, and I thought it was. The younger kids did not see a thing funny. So, depending on the reader, it may be funny or dumb, the choice is yours.)

Sick...

Well, Summers are not the time for getting sick. When you are in school is not the time for getting sick. There really isn't a good time for getting sick. Well, now is a bad time for getting sick, so of course, I am. Yes, you all heard that right. My mom says it could be the 24 hour bug, or the 48 hour bug (Time increases as I continue to stay sick). Its sort of like the flu. My manager went home with something similar, Anna Raquel was sick with something similar, and now I got it. My parents are still pressuring me to go to work. I took most of the day off today, only working 3.5 hours, off and on when I could. The huge job I had been working on finally came through, and I get to finish it up tomorrow. Its such a relief!
I am going to bed now, yeah, even after sleeping most of the day away. I am hoping to be well enough to work tomorrow and go to my sisters award ceremony for swimming and do most of life's activities. I still need to pack for Mexico, I am hoping I am well by then. The 8 am meeting went alright, the install crew did not show up. That was bad. I translated most of the time again, I did not do so well, being sick, tired, and then the guy's radios went off and I totally lost my thoughts. I got the basics of the meeting explained to him.
We hired a new guy. The first question he asked me after being hired was "can I wear this?" *He is holding up an earring, the loop type thing with balls at each end* I look at it and ask "where?" and he says "my ear" I, being very relieved, tell him to ask Sandie, because I do not care if he wears it or not. Then, a few hours later he makes some comment about his girl friend and acts just like the other guys in the office. I am depressed about that. He said he was a Christian, goes to my church, and comes from a Christian home. Yet, he wants to blend in with the world. He acts just like the other guys, other than the fact he doesn't brag about drinking (he only being 18) and I have not heard a really bad comment against women yet. I had still hoped he would be more pleasant to be around. Instead of trying to copy every one else. Also, Carlos is back. Everyone seems happy about it, I never met the dude.
Well, goodnight. Miss you all.

Dios, Gracias por esta dia...

*Is tired* Spent the day relaxing with Jen. Got a white hot chocolate with chocolate mint and whip cream covered in chocolate chip chunks, complements of Jen who works in a coffee house. And she claims not to be Colombian... Every time we go out, we always have to ask, Colombian style or American? Lunch was American, Dinner and coffee were Colombian style. For those who do not know... In Colombia, if you suggest going out to eat or doing something that requires money, its like saying "my treat" so we learned to never suggest going anywhere unless we had a lot of cash. When a person invites, they pay. In the USA on the other hand, its very normal to suggest going out to eat or to go places and expect everyone to cover themselves. The Colombians watched a group of us "north Americans" talk invite each other to go out to eat and they were surprised when each person covered themselves and did not expect the person inviting to pay. Once we discovered this, a group of "north Americans" would invite one or two Colombians and then everyone would chip in to cover their expenses. Its so weird having your best friend in CA being someone you met in Colombian on missions. We never know which culture to follow. We both love and follow the Colombian way of doing things, we speak in Spanish most of the time, and talk about Colombia. We are also two Americans living in the US, our English is better than our Spanish, and grew up around the US culture. Oh well. While I am in Mexico, she will be in Hawaii, we shall see who has more fun. She wanted so bad to go to Mexico...oh well.
Speaking of Mexico, I don't think I wrote... I am going to Mexico on a missions trip called Missions 2 Mexico, through SCBC (Santa Cruz Bible Church) and Yugo Ministries. We will be heading to Tijuana, Mexico August 9-14th. I am going as one of the three translators for 65 high school students. Yeah, they are slightly short staffed, but God will still work through us. I have also never worked with High schoolers before, so hopefully its not that much different than working with the other age groups. 65 of them....That's a lot. Wow, To all those that read this blog, PLEASE pray for me as I do this, I so don't feel that I am able! Pray that God will use me anyways. Oh, I am nervous, but I know that God will help me, He has before, and He will again! But extra prayer never hurt anyone.
Tomorrow I have to attend a company meeting at 8 AM. So I must sleep NOW. Most likely I will be translating some of the meeting...hope my brain is turned on that early in the morning! Five days to MEXICO!

Greg...Yeah, the Jazz Harpist

Well, I went to a Greg bucannans concert tonight...I should really find out how to really spell his name but I am too lazy right now. It was slightly boring at the beginning...but then there was one part where we could not stop laughing. The main part was when a quiet spot came while he was giving his testimony, a dog barked at him...and he barked back. Then to recover that...he said, hey, I want an interpretation! The whole place couldn't stop laughing. I have also decided to give up my dreams of one day playing the harp. It has seven pedals to add to the 42 strings. The strings are different colors, "c" is red, "f" is black, and all the others are white. He said playing the harp was like "playing by color" sorta like "paint by number" I still think its harder than it looks. Each of the seven pedals controls certain strings. One petal controls all the "c" strings, and either leaves them natural, or makes them flat or sharp. You also only use eight fingers to play, you don't use your pinky (smallest finger) The strings are made out of three different things, plastic, metal, and goat gut (I think he said their intestines). He said "that's how we know there are goats in heaven, they are there to make harp strings" He also has two harps, the one he used at school was blue, the one he used tonight was black. They only cost about $30,000 dollars each.
Disclaimer- all this information was put here from memory...to the best of my knowledge all information stated here is true and correct.
I also bought a new CD today, another Jars of Clay, "who we are instead" and I got the CD "spring fever" free.
I also FOUND Wally Mc Doogle on CD!!!! I was shocked. I only found the first CD...it has two books on it. Book 1 "my life as a smashed burrito with extra hot sauce" and book 2 "My life as alien monster bait" by Bill Myers. Its so very awesome. and no, I am still not over books...they are still some of my best friends.
Well, because I was at Greg's concert, I skipped church tonight. So, I am going Sunday morning. Goodnight Y'all. Sleep well world!!!