Friends

This weekend rocked!!! I love my friends! :)

I am so thankful for each and everyone of you. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by life, I think about all of the amazing friends that God has blessed me with. My life may not look like what I would hope right now, but my friendships are more than I could ever ask for. Thank you Jesus for friends! :)

Goodbye Michelle

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my many adventures this last weekend. Hopefully more adventures will be coming shortly. :)

Michelle Does California...Day 4

Saturday was Michelle's last full day here before she had to fly back to Seattle, so I had to make sure she got the full Southern California tour. That morning we got up really early and headed into downtown Los Angeles to go to the Garment District and look for some good deals. Every Saturday the merchants have a street fair where all of their clothes are REALLY cheap (like $5 for jeans). It was quite the cultural experience. I had never been and I am pretty sure that I was the only white girl and by far the only blond there. I LOVED IT! Everyone was speaking Spanish and Korean and the air was filled with the smell of wonderful Mexican food.

After we spent some time in Downtown, we headed north up to The Getty Museum. For those of you who have not been I highly recommend it. For one its free (well, besides parking which is only $10). And Secondly it is absolutely beautiful. It was SO cold that day, well cold for LA, but sunny. We toured the whole museum and enjoyed the view.

After the Getty we drove all the way back to Orange County in order to partake in the magical experience that is Medieval Times! My friend Jackie and her fiance Ian came with us and we had the best time. You can never go wrong with grown men in tights playing make believe for all to see.

So one of the best things about Medieval Times is that you are not allowed to use silverware! We got to eat giant pieces of chicken with our bare hands as well as ribs and potatoes. The chicken was about the size of my head! Michelle is a vegetarian and luckily they have a vegetarian option which was pretty good too. But lets be honest, nothing beats the giant piece of chicken. :0)

All four of us enjoying our trip back in time...Hazah!

Michelle Does California...Day 3

Day 3...and what a day it was. I know some of you might be a little shocked by this next post, but honestly, I haven't lost my mind...I promise! So for awhile now I have wanted to get a tattoo. Again I know how this sounds, like some sort of rebellious act, I promise you it is not that at all. So when I found out that Michelle was for sure coming down to visit me, I knew I had to seize the moment and just do it, after all she is the only one I would ever want to do this with. I mean we have been friends for 19 years...wow that makes me feel old. We have had a lot of firsts, the first time I drove solo, I drove to her house, we graduated 6th, 8th, and 12th grade together. We have seen each other through a lot. So that afternoon we went to OC Tattoo.

Michelle got three small symbols on her left wrist...a cross (for her faith), the roman numeral V (for the 5 members of her family), and a star (she needed one more to balance it out ;) )

I got a treble cleff with Psalm 33:3-4 written underneath it on the upper back part of my neck. Now let me explain myself before you all start freaking out. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have had a pretty rough year. This rough year has led me to do a lot of praying and more importantly a lot of listening to what God wants to teach me through these many trials. As many of you know, I have my bachelors degree in music, what many of you don't know is that I chose music over journalism (I was a double major) after a pretty awesome encounter with God.

I was in church, feeling so much inner turmoil because I knew I needed to drop one of my majors, otherwise I was going to be in school for about 8 years. I had no idea which one to drop, journalism at the time was practical, and my parents were strong advocates of that, while music was a risk. This moment in church was the first time that I distinctly heard God's voice and he said..."Kristin, trust me with your music". That day I came home and wrote my first song, funny thing is, I had been trying to write for years and couldn't, the minutes I released control and had faith in God and his calling on my life it came so naturally, as if God spoke directly through me in song. It was so special.

While at APU I went full throttle with my music, I honed my craft and wrote a lot of songs. And then I graduated. Not only did i get a degree upon completion, but also a massive amount of fear, binding fear. I stopped doing music, I stopped writing, I stopped singing, I stopped playing the piano, I hid everything that I wrote in a notebook and tucked it away, basically I stopped trusting God completely. Instead I put my faith and trust in myself and what was safe and easy. I got a job in advertising, it was a cool job, I worked on entertainment accounts like CBS and Showtime. Cool parties, cool people, awesome job...I hated it, every minute of it. I felt like a part of my soul was dying, and I dint know why.

So I quit and got a job teaching music, I started playing the piano again, but I still didn't sing, I didn't write, I kept that notebook locked up. A few months back I was praying and asking God to pretty much change my life, because I know that I am not where I am supposed to be. He showed my that I have been Jonah for the past 3 years, running as hard as I can from anything that he has called me to do. RUNNING. And more importantly that not only have I not trusted Him with my music, but I have not been trusting Him with my life, instead I have been trusting myself...no wonder I am so stressed out all the time. :)

In the Old Testament when God would show himself to his people they would build an altar to remind them of what God had done for them. The first altar Abraham built was an altar that resulted from an encounter with God Genesis 12:7, “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” Well, this tattoo is my alter. It is my constant reminder that I have made a decision to not only trust Him, but to believe Him as well, with all of me, to "trust him with my music".

Psalm 33:3-4 "Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does."

And what is it that you do after you get tattoos...Well of course you get Jamba Juice and thin mint girl scout cookies. After that we went and checked out Balboa Island, which is SO cute. That was my first time there, and I will definitely go back again soon. It is only 20 minutes from where I live. So fun!

I know this is really LONG post...so thanks for reading! :)

Inked

Michelle Does California...Day 2

Thursday was the first full day that Michelle had here. I had to work most of the day, so she got to spend the morning sleeping in. During my lunch break I picked her up and dropped her off at the mall, where we ate at Olive Garden and Michelle got to pose with the lion head. That is our high school mascot, hence the cheerleader pose she struck. That night I promised Christina that I would make cupcakes and 7 layer bars for her church bake sale, so we spent the evening baking while watching The Office and 30 Rock. Not the most exciting day, but we had fun catching up and having a chill day. We really needed it considering what we were about to the the next day...

She Came...She Went...Michelle Does California..Day 1

Michelle has left the building...As of 2pm this afternoon Michelle got on Alaska flight 505 and left beautiful sunny Southern California where she had the time of her life and returned to Snowy Seattle Washington. We packed so much stuff into 4 days that instead of writing a massive post, I will be posting one a day for 4 days (I put the posts on a timer, so make sure to check back each day for a new installment of Michelle does California, trust me you don't want to miss it...We had many a fabulous adventures). Anyway this pictures was taken right after I picked her up from the airport, time 10:15pm...Day one. We jammed out to old school pop music from high school on the drive home and spent most of that night laughing and staying up way past my bedtime, especially considering that I had to teach my toddler classes early the next morning. It was so much fun to be roommates for a weekend! I miss her already...

Jackie's Getting Married!

Jackie is the first real friend I made at APU upon transferring there my sophomore year. We met within the first day of my being there, she was an alpha leader with my roommate and we just hit it off. I spent most of my time that first semester at Jackie's place which happened to be right across the street. :) She has been a wonderful friend these past 6 years.

Over Christmas she got engaged to her boyfriend and just this past weekend she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (if any of you are keeping track this will be wedding #6). I am so excited for her and am really looking forward to watching her and Ian get married. Congratulations Jackie!

Goodbye #504!

Today is the last day of our apartment still looking like our apartment. :( Kelsey's mom is flying in today to help her pack up. We move our stuff into storage this weekend, and move out completely next weekend. We started this project as a little tour of our apartment and you can see what it has become. We had the best time making this and laughing the whole time. Its been a great 2 and a half years. I am going to miss it here, and miss Kelsey even more!

Mr and Mrs Bonenberger

Congratulations Lisa and Kyle! Their wedding was the last of the three and she was the most beautiful bride. :) I promise this is my last wedding post for a LONG time...now onto other life events! They were all a lot of fun, but if I don't go to another wedding for the rest of the summer I will be ok with that.

Mr and Mrs Lekas

Congratulations Katie and Jason!


Katie and Jason got married last weekend at a beautiful vineyard in Solvang, CA. It was one of the most gorgeous weddings that I have ever been to and the 2nd of the set of 3 wedding that I am attending this summer (all of which happen to be in a row)! Congratulations you two, I know you will be so happy together!

Angels In The Outfield

Take me out to the ball game...This last Friday night a few of my friends gathered together and headed over to Angels Stadium to watch the Angels play the Braves. My friend Amber was in town visiting from Colorado and LOVES the Braves as well as the Angels (she grew up down here) and has been waiting years to see them play each other. To be honest with you I am not really much of a baseball fan, and the few times I have gone to a game (and by few I mean 2) I have gone for the food! The hot dogs were awesome and the nachos divine...

It ended up being a really boring game with the Angels losing, however Kelsey had a good time and made friends with the boys who were sitting next to us. We also screamed emphatically when the Angels scored all 2 of their runs and sang Take Me Out To The Ball Game during the 7th inning stretch which resulted in my new favorite picture!

Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out in time to capture the most thrilling part of the game...when two girls got into a fight a few rows below us, which resulted in drinks being poured on each other, hair being pulled, and eventually an escort out of the park by security. So far I am two for two on witnessing fans fighting at the games. :) Oh baseball how I love thee!

19...19...1985!

Yesterday was Ryan's Radical Birthday Extravaganza, a flash back to 1985! We started getting everything ready for the party around noon and finished it all up just minutes before the party started at 7pm. It was a theme birthday party, so everyone dressed in their best 80s attire, which is great since the last time we dressed like this we were in elementary school. Funny thing is I found my outfit at forever 21 since the 80s are apparently back. We had all the best 80s hits playing and even had a dance off to Michael Jackson's Thriller as well as the comedic styling of Brien Downie. It was a great party with great food and great people!

Ryan is loved by so many people! :)
The typical roommate shot...Kelsey and Brien...Shaunt, Nate, Ryan (the birthday boy), and Brien, The refuge crew.

The late night crew at the end of the party, The Birthday boy, Ryan and his family, Ryan and I rocking the 80s!

She did it!

Congratulation s Kelsey! After 4 1/2 years of hard work my wonderful roommate has her masters in BS, and might I add that she is quite full of BS. :) Actually she just got her degree from Talbot School of Theology in Biblical Studies (BS) and Theology. Yeah Kelsey! This weekend was filled with fun, food, tea and crumpets all in honor of Kelsey. I'm so proud!

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Happy 26 Lauren! Today one of my closest and dearest friends came into the world and for that I will be forever thankful. We have gone though so much together and life would not be the same without her. So Lauren for this on your 26th year I present a trip down memory lane...

Our first choir tour together...
Yum, questionable tour food!
Your Graduation
East Coast Choir Tour with our bus whose AC didn't work
Your schools homecoming
Feed the birds at the wild animal park! (Best picture ever)

Getting lost when you took Sara and I to meet Aaron
Making us all go golfing at the driving range for your birthday and disrupting all the serious golfers.
And now your getting married!!! I love you lots and have had a blast getting to know you better over the last 6 years! :)

And So It Begins...

Let the bridal showers begin! This last weekend marked the start of the 2008 wedding season. Last year I attended 4 wedding in 5 weeks, two of which I was in. This year it is going to be 3 weddings in 3 weeks, and the girl below is the first.

Lauren is getting married on June 21st and this was her first of many showers to come in the next month.
Below are the shower party planners and one of her bridesmaids , Ally who is on the left.


Oh, and thats me, did I mention that I am a bridesmaid too? Yeah Lauren! I am so excited for you!!!