Weeks 10 & 11: Tacos to Turkey

Last week we were in Mexico at a deaf school in Ensenada. I got to be in Brett’s van AKA #Blackflipvan. We stopped for dinner where our great pizzookie problem occurred. Matt, Jordan M, Jordan S, Kelly, Shiloh and I ordered a pizzookie at BJ’s and hour before we had to be at the vans. We waited forever and we were down to like 15 minutes before we asked where it was. They had ended up dropping our Pizzookie on the ground and were making a new one. We had our waiter give us our check & paid. The guys didn’t want us to be late so the 4 girls ran back to the vans. We turn to see the guys booking it with the pizzookie with about 30secs to spare. It was insane!

On the way down we stayed at San Diego Christian College for a night. We got to take a tour of the campus and experience chapel before we headed out. We got to the school, which is on about 600 square acres, and had dinner. The next couple days we were doing a lot of work clearing bushes and weeds around buildings to prevent fire hazards. I was with Jenae’s group and we called ourselves #TeamJenae or #Teamtearingitup. One of the places I worked was on a slope and I ended up falling down it three times. Apparently I’m known for falling down a lot… Friday, I got to work in the kitchen, cutting up vegetables and making flour tortillas. They were delicious!

#TeamTearingItUp!

Getting to hang out with the kids was fun! We played a lot of soccer and basketball. They taught us a little Mexican sign language and some people got their own sign names. The girls put on a 5K run which was awesome to watch them do. A lot of the guys dressed up in ridiculous costumes. There were a bunch of obstacles like running through tires and through a mud pit. Running the race was a huge confidence booster for the deaf girls. We also got to play a big soccer game as Joshua vs. Rancho Seudo Mudo. It was so much fun.

5K Run!

#TeamPizzookie on Snoopy Rock

One of my favorite things was hiking up to Snoopy Rock (a giant rock shaped like Snoopy) with my Pizzookie friends and Jonah. Once at night and once at sunset. We sat up on a rock a looked out the camp at night which was super cool. The other time I went to Snoopy Rock and they climbed up to the top of the hill. While I was sitting on a rock, the all yelled out “YAHWEH!” from the top. It made me think how cool it’ll be when the kids at that school will be in Heaven and be able to hear God calling out their name.

Sara and I with Luke McMillin.

Andrew, Stephen, Me, Daniel, and Morgan.

Going to Ensenada on Thursday was probably one of the best days of my life! It was so much fun! I hung out with Sara, Stephen, Daniel, Morgan, and Andrew. We got to watch the start of the Baja 1000, a 1000 mile race down Baja California in everything from trophy trucks to tricked out VW bugs. Sara and I got to take a picture with Luke McMillin, a 19year old driver who got 6^th place when he was 16, 2 months after getting his license. We walked down to the wharf and had fish tacos. We walked around the stores on two of the main roads. The boys were super protective of Sara and I so they had us walking in front or in between them the whole time. It really made me appreciate my Joshua brothers more. Afterwards, some friends of Rich let us into their home and made dinner for us. They even rented a karaoke machine for us to use (Yay, music!!!)

Andrew, Sara, and Daniel

Going to Mexico was such a great experience. It really made me think about how we take hearing and other senses for granted. At the same time though, it was awesome to see how happy those kids are. They didn’t let their lack of hearing stop them from doing anything or being who they wanted to be.

Trophy Truck.

Morgan.

As soon as we got back to the building, I turned right around and headed home with Ricky and Antonio. Being home was so great. Monday I slept in and went to Zoe’s Hawiian BBQ for lunch, delicious! I also went to go visit my high school teachers and friends at OA, which was really nice. Tuesday, I went up to Paso with Daniel and his dad to Morgan’s house. Andrew was there too and I got to go shooting with my Joshua brothers. It was the very first time I’ve ever shot a gun! We did some skeet shooting and target shooting with hand guns. I had a big bruise on my shoulder from the shotgun for a couple days after. I really enjoyed it, it was a ton of fun! It was so awesome of Morgan to have us over to do that.

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Cali & I

Wednesday I spent the day with my mom and sister and my friend Cali. We went to go look at the Altrusa trees and put in tickets to hopefully win a tree and prizes. I spent a few hours at Cali’s house and I taught her how to play Magic (I can’t believe I’m into that game now!). After, I went out with my family to Far Western for an early birthday dinner for my mom. It was really nice, especially with Chef Rick’s food! I met up with some friends at starbucks later that night and it was awesome to catch up with them.

Thursday was turkey day!!! Thanksgiving was kind of weird not spending it with my best friends family, but still good! It was just my parents, sister, and grandma but we probably had enough turkey to feed an army. Honestly, I was ready to skip dinner and go straight to turkey sandwhiches!

Hover Goat

Friday night I had Melissa, Brisa, and Cali sleep over. It was interesting having a sleep over where I couldn’t watch TV, listen to music, or play video games.  We stayed up late eating cake and playing games. In the morning, we had breakfast and got ready to go to See Canyon to the Gopher Glen apple farm. We picked up Michael and headed to Pismo. We bought some apples and drove over to Port SLO Pier to eat at Fat Cat’s. They have the best onion rings in the world! After, we went over to Avila Barn to feed the animals and buy apple cider and honey sticks. After I dropped everyone at home, I went over to my friend Jeremiah’s house to see some college friends. We played board games and I listened to the guys play Halo. We spent like 3 hours playing Mafia in the dark. It was so funny and scary at the same time. I got to be the murderer 3 times. The  first time, I was able to kill everyone without anyone finding out who it was!

I headed back up the hill Sunday with Ricky and Antonio around 2. We weren’t able to fit everything in Ricky’s car so Andrew was kind to let me put my bags in his truck. Going up was fun, those guys are hilarious! We stopped to get chicken kabobs and tacos.  As soon as we got back, we got mobbed by the people who were already here. I loved being home a lot but I seriously missed all my brothers and sisters here. It was awesome to be welcomed back by everyone! All in all, it was an amazing 2 weeks!

Week 9: "It's the Devil's Dandruff!"

Monday was our first Philippians test, which I totally passed! I had stared early on it so I had it memorized beforehand. I wrote out the entire chapter on my mirror the night before to help me and Shelby study. Afterwards, some of the girls and I went on a hike to the water source. It was fun! We went to the tree house, the hermits cave, and to the water source waterfalls. It was so pretty. I only fell down once!

Tuesday night during girls group, we had a gift exchange… Holland style! We each brought something we had that we didn’t really use or want. It was crazy! We had to act like other girls, answer weird question or do random things. It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday we started decorating the building for Christmas! It looks so cool. There are light everywhere and even our moose head and mountain lion are sporting some ornaments and Santa hats!

It was Pause night this week! Since Friday was Scott & Happy’s anniversary, we decided to throw them a little anniversary party. It was a surprise so they thought it was a night all about Trevor. We got to the Harris’s early so we could make dinner and set up the table. We made spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, salad, and had a chocolate cake and ice cream! When they pulled up, we threw dry rice at their car. They were so surprised! It was a great dinner and we grilled them about how they met & how he proposed and such. After, we went to the ark and did a crutch relay race in honor of Trevor. We played ping pong and foosball, and gaga ball upstairs. Then we went back to the Harris’s for cake and ice cream and played Apples to Apples and Quelf. It was such a fun night.

Although it was a fun night, I still had to finish the rest of my paper when I got home at like 10. I had started it the night before but  I was up until like 12:30 writing it. Poor Shelby was up until 4:30am!

It finally snowed! Friday morning I woke up to it snowing! Everything was covered in a nice layer of powder. But it was also a weird day. It felt like one giant awkward moment of a day. During deep cleaning, we kept spraying each other with the sink hoses. I went down on a trash run with Morgan and Logan and on the way up I was talking about my feet and Logan told me the my feet “make his heart sing like a thousand fiery suns.” It was so funny. What’s not so funny was when I was walking up the hill after getting dinner and Ponderosa, and I blacked out. Fortunately I had my awesome brothers and sister there to take care of me. Jonah and Jordan ran up the hill to get help, while Julian, Logan, Luke and Lexi stayed to make sure I was okay. Julian and Logan even wrapped me in their jackets to make sure I didn’t freeze. Lexi and Julian held me hands and helped me calm down while we waited for Rich to drive down and pick me up. I’m so grateful I had them with me. I got back to the building and used my inhaler and was able to breath normally again after a while.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. I finally slept in past 9am! Well, I slept until 9:01 anyway… But I got up and packed for Mexico. Later, I went down with a bunch of people for lunch. It was a snowball fight all the way there. We came back up and had a tea party in the dinning room. I wrote some letters and watched people play chess. Later in the evening, we played Bang! And Quelf, which was so much fun with Jordan, Kelly, Nathan, and Lauryn.

Tomorrow we head to Mexico, and then it’s off for Thanksgiving Break! 

Week 8: Cheers to ButterBeers

Tuesday, Shelby and I got to host the girls night. We did an improve theme. We started out playing a game called Photo Freeze, where a team is given a scene like “shark attack” or “meeting your celebrity crush” and they have to act out the scene as a picture, so they can’t move. After that, we played a game called the PowerPoint Game. Each team was given a theme written by the another team (Like “marine wildlife” or “the anatomy of the human body”) and 3 random sentences also written by the other teams. Then they had to present a PowerPoint they had never seen before, using their theme and somehow had to incorporate their 3 sentences into their presentation. It was so funny watching teams try to explain why there was a picture of a guy eating a burrito in a presentation about marine life or what a pie chart about lucky charms had to do with the stages of pregnancy! I think most everyone had fun, even the women staff enjoyed it!

Wednesday was our pause kid’s soccer games, so we went down to the fields to cheer them on. I painted my face and made signs with Shiloh. Morgan & I both lost our voices from screaming so much! Both Dayton and Dylan’s teams won! After the game,  Happy and Scott took our pause family over to their house to eat. We had breakfast for dinner with pancakes, sausage, eggs, and real Canadian syrup! Plus, none of it was Sysco food, ha! We played games and told stories around the bonfire on their porch. Great end to the day.

For our theme dinner Thursday night, it was Harry Potter! It was so much fun! I dressed up as a Death Eater with a dark mark and everything. Shelby did too and we creeped out a bunch of people! We started off with taking photos before dinner. Everyone looked so awesome. Chad pulled off a great Draco. Before dinner, we were separated in to houses by the sorting hat. I got Hufflepuff, even though I really wanted Slytherin. For dinner we had Turkey legs, split pea soup, shepherd’s pie, shoo fly pie, and this savory pumpkin dish with onions, garlic, cheese, and spices. It was so good. We also had these chocolate cookies with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and dried cherries inside. After dinner, house points were awarded for the best costumes. Shelby, Bella (as Bellatrix), and I got 12 points each as Death Eaters, along with a 10 for Hipster Potter (Nathan) and 10 for Cee Lo Green (don’t ask…). We won with 56 points! After, we headed down to the Ark where we play Quidditch! We were running around, throwing dodge balls through hoops with brooms between our legs. Unfortunately, we lived up to the Hufflepuff name and lost… badly. 45 to 16. But it was a ton of fun! We ended the night in the building with some ice cream and some ButterBeer.

This weekend I worked in the dishroom at Cedar Hall for the Hume Lakers conference (all the big donors). I worked with Logi-Bear (His name is Logan but everyone calls him Logi-Bear). It was fun, but I don’t think working in the dishroom is my calling in life. Saturday, I was at lunch in staff dining and I got up to get something, we Ji pushed out her chair really fast and hit me, causing me to fall to the floor. Everyone was staring while I was laughing historically on the ground! When I got back to work, I was filling up a bucket with extremely hot water for silverware, when Nathan comes out of nowhere & shoves bubbles in my face! I ranted at him kiddingly, when I go to turn around and Mallory does it to me too! But this time, I dump the bucket of hot water all down my front. I tried to rush over to the sink to spray myself off with cold water, but I slipped and fell. Fortunately, I never got hurt, but falling down I front of others is not my idea of fun, although very funny!

Tomorrow is our first Philippians test! Good thing I finished it early. We have to have the entire book of Philippians memorized by the end of the year and Monday is our chapter 1 test.