Updates!

Daryl and I checked out Joshua Tree National Park. This is by far my favorite shrub:


Big Rocks:


Medium Rocks


Malinda and Jess's Texas Wedding (yes, the asian wedding party is line dancing!)


Bride and Groom gettin' their groove on:


Leina, Celina, and my sweet ride (how hip is my "westside" symbol?):


One more quarter to this year's teaching:


As of today, I am testing what it's going to be like being a single parent to two very cool high schoolers. Here's my new home:

Craving BRIE?

Hooray!

I have just found THE BEST triple creme brie there is!

Usually $24 / lb., Trader Joe's sells this Belletoille Triple Creme French Brie for just $6 / lb. Just one tiny nibble of the buttery goodness will satisfy you of any cheese cravings for weeks. It is SO GOOD! I dare you to try it.

Happy Christmas and New Year!

Happy Birthday YeYe and BaBa!
















Cousins































How youngins celebrate at the Holiday Bowl
















How not-so-youngins celebrate at the Holiday Bowl (but note that both have attended the Cotton Bowl in the past)
















Daryl and I are definitely registering for the Wii
















Happy Christmas and 2007!

I'll tell you later how this article made me feel and my thoughts on it. I am very curious on your thoughts!

As a Christian, what do you think?
As a non-Christian, what do you think?

Lost and Found

A few weeks ago, I lost my ring at work. I lost it somewhere between this big building on the left and the building at the VERY end right by the hills:

So during 1st period, I asked my kids to look on the ground of my classroom - NOTHING.
I emailed all my coworkers - NOTHING.
The secretaries left their desks to search - NOTHING.

I was close to tears! But I refused to let my students see. Many didn't even know I was engaged.

Then I looked outside my window, and what do I see?

KIDS EVERYWHERE! On the ground, looking for my ring!! All the teachers had received my email, postponed their classes, and made their kids go outside to sweep the campus for the ring!!! Thanks guys =)
And yes, it was found by one of my students. WHEW!

On another note, please lift up your prayers for this little guy:

This is Matthew, an 8 year old at church. 5 years ago, he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and was given only 6 months to live. Well, the church got together and prayed like craaaaazy. Matthew surivived the 6 month mark, and continued to live well beyond that. The doctors then reevaluated him, and gave him another 5 years to live. In spite of the numerous bouts of radiation, he has remained so happy and cheerful. It is now the 5 year mark, and Matthew has just completed surgery again. The news was disheartening. The tumor had grown with more cancer, causing Matthew to lose his balance and some of his speech. Please pray for his family (he has a little brother, who is very scared about big brother being in the hospital). Please pray for God's healing...

At Cal, waiting on Sproul with 75 junior highers:

1.) A Cal student on Sproul thinks one of my very pre-pubescent students is so cute that she gives him 8 full size candy canes (as if he were 5).

2.) One of my huge football fan kids stands smack in the middle of Sproul (the quad) at 12 noon and asks every buff guy who walks by,
-"Excuse me, do you know Marshawn Lynch?"
-"Pardon me, do you know DeSean Jackson?"
-"Oh hello, do you know Nate Longshore?"

3.) This same passionate football fan spends all of lunch in the DC talking to this one guy he found who works for the Cal Football Team. He asks him his GPA, his SAT score, what he was like in middle school, and of course, if he knows Marshawn Lynch.

4.) My kids absolutely LOVING the DC food (Crossroads).
Endless ice cream and soda = heaven!

Brave

Ted Haggard's wife, Gayle, wrote this letter (this is an excerpt), to her church, New Life in Colorado, just a week after Haggard's incident(s) was made public:

Dear Woman of New Life Church,
I am so sorry for the circumstances that have led me to write this letter to you today. I know your hearts are broken; mine is as well. Yet my hope rests steadfastly in the Lord who is forever faithful.

What I want you to know is that I love my husband, Ted Haggard, with all my heart. I am committed to him until death “do us part”. We started this journey together and with the grace of God, we will finish together.

If I were standing before you today, I would not change one iota of what I have been teaching the women of our church. For those of you who have been concerned that my marriage was so perfect I could not possibly relate to the women who are facing great difficulties, know that this will never again be the case. My test has begun; watch me. I will try to prove myself faithful.