Prep Day

Today was a prep day.  I worked from home for the majority of today and then decided to head into the office around 3:00.

I spent a lot of my time prepping everything for this Saturday's tubing trip and trying to clean out mine and Lindsey's office.  Mia helped me to call all of the parents so they would bring their children's permission slips up to the building.

One of my middle school students, Adrian, came by with his mom and proceeded to tell me about his two recent court dates for tickets he had.  He was able to work out community service and will now be putting in 27 hours with us.

He decided to start tonight, so I had him walk his mom and little sister home and come back.  I fully expected to have to hold his hand through every task and start to teach him a decent work ethic (this is unfortunately the norm for most of our students).  Instead, Adrian finished every task in record time, he went above and beyond making sure things got done well.

During his time working with me, we talked about school, friends, life choices.  It was so awesome to see the genuine desire in his eyes to change and start making smarter life decisions.  I'm excited to see where his time doing hours will take us.

And then the day ended perfectly, a trip to B-Dubs with my little brother, Antonio.  I love, love my time with him!  Especially when it is time spent talking over wings and fries. 

Shopping, shopping, shopping!

The vast difference between my Tuesday and Wednesday night children, is incredible.  Last night was absolutely crazy and then tonight was so mellow it's not even funny.

It was so good to see the children too!  I have missed them so much, it's not even funny.  We unfortunately didn't have all of our youth tonight, I'm thinking because we have had to cancel so many nights in a row.

So before the night started, I got to spend the rest of my day shopping with Lindsey.  Shopping days are some of my favorite days.  I've decided if I ever work in a different field, I need to be in the personal shopping industry.  I absolutely love to shop and it is so much more fun when it's not your money that your spending.  I also like looking for a bargain, which is key when you are trying to be a good steward of the money a donor has given you.

So today, we went bargain/clearance shopping for gloves, hats, and snow pants/jackets for this weekend.  We also had to get supplies and food for the next month or so while I have to take off work to recover for surgery (more on that later). 

All in all, today was a successful response to yesterday and was exactly what I needed.

Yay Kids!!!

I finally got to see my Tuesday night children!!!  And I've also decided that there is a full moon somewhere.

They were absolutely insane tonight!!  We had 25 kids and 4 adults...this is not a good ratio for my kids, but we made it work.

We spent the night playing games, catching up, painting rocks (the rocks are their place holders for seats at dinner), taking pictures, and talking about when I'm gone next month.  I'm excited to see where this crazy group of kids can go.  They have so much energy, are absolutely hilarious, their imaginations are insanely huge, and they have some of the most genuine and interesting questions I have ever heard come out of a child's mouth.

Speaking of energy, I don't have any, so this girl is headed to bed.  The children were so insanely crazy, I'm pretty sure they sucked all of the energy out of me.

Sudden Snow

Today was my pre-op appointment.  The nurse went over all the things I needed to know for next week.  I'm so thankful Elizabeth went with me.  I'm not nervous for the surgery, but yet I'm kind of nervous for the surgery.  I know, I make tons of sense.

Elizabeth and I enjoyed a lot of great conversations today.  A year ago I would have laughed if you would have told me how close we are now.  I'd be lost without her.

After pre-op and lunch we headed into the office, where we discovered a surprise.  100 cases of Capri-Sun pouches were waiting for us, our food bank acquired them for 0.25 a case, such a steal!!  And it came just in time, we were definitely running low and by low I mean we used our last case last week.

After we loaded the last case on the shelf, Lindsey and I headed back towards our office for a meeting.  And that's when we discovered it, snow.  Snow coming down like crazy.  Hours before we had 50 degree weather and now it was snowing, which was not good news for me, I was rocking flip flops.

We decided it wasn't bad enough to cancel and powered through, something I started to regret as we were driving to pick-up the middle school students.  The visibility was awful and snow just kept piling up on the van, but I'm glad Lindsey helped me power through.

Tonight we enjoyed polish pool, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, and an amazing discussion.  Antonio came to visit and help volunteer for the night, which just added to our discussion time.  Tonight we brainstormed ideas of how we could serve in the community and also raise funds for our programs.  Antonio helped to provoke the youth into thinking about the Children's Hospital and we quickly filled up a full page just with ideas of what we could do there.

It was such a blessing talking to the students about how they could help others.  I'll give you a glimpse into a few of their ideas:
- Decorate Children's Hospital for the holidays.
- Help build a house for a family. 
- Do a blanket and sock drive for the homeless.
- Help serve a meal at a homeless shelter. 
- Spend time with the elderly at a nursing home.              

I love my students!!

Not to mention, as we ended the night everyone pitched in to do the chores, even the students who were exempt based on their performance last week.  Seriously, they are amazing.  I mean how many 11-13 year olds do you know that willingly sweep, mop, clean a kitchen, and wipe down walls.

After we closed up the building for the night, I proceeded to drive home in the snow.  And for once, I wasn't completely annoyed.  It was so beautiful, hanging on the trees, covering the yards, but completely off of the streets.  Everything was so undisturbed, it was truly beautiful.  Hopefully I still feel this way tomorrow.

Target is the best!

I spent this morning recovering from yesterday in bed.

Once I finally dragged myself out of bed, I decided I needed to spend part of today working, having taken Thursday and part of Friday off of work.

So I went to check out deals on snow pants, coats, hats and gloves.  This weekend we are taking our first group of elementary students tubing.  There are 30 of them, and we don't have enough cold weather accessories for 30 children.

Tonight substantiated all of my claims that Target is the best store.  After hitting up Wal-Mart, Kohls, K-Mart, Gordmans, and Target, I discovered that Target has beyond the best prices on everything we needed.

So I literally bought every set of children's gloves they had on the shelf, and almost all of the hats.  I got quite a few looks as I loaded up the conveyor belt.  We our now the proud owners of approximately 100 gloves, like I said, it was a really good deal.

After shopping for work, I decided I needed to hit the grocery store.  Our refrigerator has been looking so sparse since before Thanksgiving.  Let me give you a visual, before tonight, all we had was three bottles of wine, cheese, and a small amount of milk.

So now I'm sitting here taking a break from emails.  It's amazing how much I have to email for work.  I never thought I would have a job that required so much emailing.

Tubing...take one

We took our middle school students tubing today, 18 students and 4 adults.

It was an absolute blast.  These are some of my favorite days.

I absolutely love getting to watch the students faces as they see the mountains, covered in snow.

I love watching them act like they aren't cold, yet they hurriedly put on the gloves, hats, and coats I insisted they bring.

I love watching them try to figure out balancing on the 'magic carpet' that takes them, tube in hand, to the top of the hill.  

I love watching them as they spin and zoom down the mountain, screaming and laughing.

I love watching them wrestle and play in the snow after tubing for a hour, completely unfazed by the exhaustion that is starting to set into the adults.

Today was amazing!  And the highlight, came when we got back to the building.  Instead of all the kids darting off, they voluntarily stayed.  They stayed to clean out the cars, making sure they didn't miss any trash, they helped load all of the snow pants back into storage, they helped to unload and organize the left over snacks and water.  Some of the kids stayed for almost an hour making sure everything was done and that Lindsey and I weren't stuck doing it on our own.

After tubing I went over to the Diaz house for dinner.  We had tamales.  They were so good and spicy.  I love that I am getting to where I can eat spicier food.

After dinner, I took Mia, Antonio, and Vincente to get ice cream.  We swung by house to pick up the most perfect movie to watch...Pitch Perfect.  I know I have already said it, but I can't say it enough, Pitch Perfect is the best movie I've seen in a very long time.  Time at the Diaz house after tubing, was the best way to end today.

Blessings in disguise

Having Jeff here was definitely a blessing in disguise.  I got several different pieces of news this morning that left me with all kinds of emotions. 

Jeff being an amazing friend, stepped in and put my day back on track.  He had me move things around at work so I could take most of the day off, he canceled his plans for the day, and we headed out to lunch.  After lunch we went shopping, again.  Side bar, I love that this man, loves to shop as much as I do.  

We spent the day talking about everything and nothing.  It was great to just enjoy the day with him.  I was super sad that I had to say goodbye, but all the more reason to try and make it to D.C. or even London.  

So after goodbye, I went to pick-up Mia to help her finish canceling a contract.  One of the best parts of my job...helping the teens learn how to handle adult situations, like contracts.  

After the post office we headed to a few of the local Mexican shops, the bakery, grocery store, and then a small little hole in the wall restaurant.  We had to frequent these places to get the stuff for our first Mom's Dinner of the year.  

Tonight was such a huge blessing.  We had more mothers show up than in the past, several of them are new to our programs.  We were running late on dinner and not only were the moms super gracious, but they stepped up and helped us prep dinner in record time.  During dinner the moms talked about how they could start to be more of a community, how we could better support them, and then brought me to tears with their last questions.  

I will be having surgery on my shoulder in two weeks and won't be able to work for at least a month and will probably be down for the count for most of the month.  It'll be especially hard since it is my dominant arm.  Their questions..."How can we help while your gone?" "What can we do for you?"  These were the broader questions.  It was so touching to see how concerned they were for me and how they could step in while I'm away.  All in all, today was filled with blessings.  

Who closes a waterfall?

So Jeff is here and today has been a blast!  

Jeff is my kind of ex.  We had this weird non-relationship, relationship about six years ago.  Despite our very complicated and dramatic past, our ridiculously different lifestyles and views, we are still close friends.  It's pretty amazing actually how close of friends we remain. 

So I was super excited when I found out he decided to make a Colorado stop on this like ten-state road trip he's doing before his job takes him back to D.C. and then eventually London in the next few months. 

He took me try out one of his all time favorite restaurants, Teds Montana Grill.  Everything there is made fresh daily, and it was so good!  Then we headed into the mountains, I really wanted him to enjoy one of my favorite places, some waterfalls that take like five minutes to hike to.  Unbeknownst to me, they are closed from November to May.  I mean how do you close a waterfall?  I know it's probably for everyone's safety, the hike is all rock and probably gets super icy.  And of course the waterfall probably freezes over throughout the winter since it's freezing in the mountains, but seriously?!?!  Waterfalls can be pretty frozen too!!  

So instead of seeing the waterfalls, we drove this road I randomly found a few years ago with a good friend and did my favorite kind of hike.  I call it a 'fat kid's hike', because they range anywhere from two-to-eight minutes and they give you spectacular views.  It was particularly breath-taking to see snow laced throughout the mountains. 

After our 'fat kid hikes' we hit up an outlet and Jeff shopped for some work necessities.  After soup and salad for dinner, we ran over to the Diaz house to help Mia and her mom out with some contract stuff.  I couldn't rush Jeff out fast enough after they discovered he was fluent in Spanish. 

And now I am sitting here listening to him and Carrie talk about all things D.C. related.  What a perfect day today was. 

Best Friends 'til the end

It seemed super cliche and childish to say 'BFF' or 'best friends forever', but that is exactly what Samantha and I are.

We met at church.  I was a couple years younger, but despite that we instantly hit it off.  We've been close ever since, even through distance.  Through our 15 year friendship we have probably spent at least half of that living in separate cities and most recently states.  And in spite of the distance we've stayed close, I'm so blessed to have her.

She's going through one of the roughest experiences right now, dealing with things I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.  However, I know in the end, it will be for the better.  Especially for her and my amazing nephew, Peter.  Peter is the most amazing two year old I have ever met, and there is no way I'm impartial.

So I tell you all of this, because I spent my evening on the phone with Sam and cleaning my house.  Yes, we had to cancel yet again.  When I got the news about no volunteers, I literally hit my head against the wall for like a minute, and then I cried.  I really miss my babies, fingers crossed I'll be seeing them next week.

However, it was super awesome to get to catch up with Sam, next to missing my family like crazy, I miss her the most.  I also got to give my house a much needed deep clean.  Which was really convenient because Jeff is coming to visit tomorrow and will be staying for 2 days.

And now I'm heading to bed, because I am absolutely exhausted.  Update from last night, Carrie and I neither one really slept.  I was super late to staff meeting, yeah over sleeping!  We decided to hold off on breaking the lease, mainly because we don't have grounds to.  So here's to hoping we have no more issues and the next 4-5 months fly by!

Excitement all around

Absolutely everyone has been getting sick with the flu lately, and today was no exception.

I heard from three different volunteers all within two hours, and they were all sick.  I feel like a broken record at this point, but we had to cancel the night.  I'm getting pretty bummed at this point, I really miss my students.

So I took yet another night to find the silver lining.  Emilia, had planned on Lucas being with me for the night, so I told her that he could hang with me, and I also picked up Grace.  I also agreed to pick up Mia and Rafael from a volunteer event when they were done.  So, Grace, Lucas and I went to kill some time at Hobby Lobby.  Grace's Christmas present from me was getting to pick out whatever art supplies she wanted.  She also helped me pick out some basics to make some wreathes for my house.

It was so much fun walking through the isles with Grace.  She loves art, in all forms.  I really wish there was more I could do to make art more accessible to her.  This is one of my biggest frustrations with what I do.  I see children with so much talent, gifts, and desires to excel in areas, but they aren't able to due to a lack of resources or money and so much more.

After Hobby Lobby, we picked up Rafael and Mia, and went to CiCi's.  CiCi's is becoming our go to place, it's cheap and there is so much food for such a little price.  I took the kids home and then headed home, then the adventure really began.

I came home to an open house, completely open, with all the lights on, and no roommate.  I called the police, who came and searched the house a total of three times.  They stayed with me while I waited for Carrie to get home from a concert.  Thankfully nothing was missing, the police think it was teens who got scared off, praise God.

So now Carrie and I are sitting in our living room, avoiding going to sleep and contemplating breaking our lease to move into a new house.  Nothing like a break-in to turn your night/life upside down.

Kids...FINALLY!!

We finally were able to see our students tonight!!!  It seems like it has been forever and a day since I had seen my babies.  And yes, I refer to my middle school youth as my babies.

Tonight was a pretty relaxing/mellow night.  We played a rousing game of polish pool.  Polish pool is this crazy, fast paced game where you race around the table trying to hit a ball before it stops or makes it into a pocket, you also want to avoid points, and there are lots of ways to get points.  It seems like a complicated game, but its not...it's so much fun, especially when you play with teens.  It's also a pretty good work-out.

After a few rounds of polish pool, we sat down for dinner and discussion.  We had our students take surveys about their faith and the program.  I'm glad we did the surveys, despite the blunt honesty.  It now gives us a jumping off point.  A lot of our students don't consider themselves Christians, or they think they are Christians 'half of the time'.

So it'll be good to get to really talk through their faith with them and really dive into the fundamental principles of Christianity.

Basketball and Brothers

Today was amazing!!  Tonight was faith night at the Nuggets game and my pastor had also partnered with them for a fundraiser.  On a side note, he is like the most amazing networker I have met.

The Nuggets were playing the Thunder, which is my team.  He got me some tickets, some absolutely amazing tickets!  They were 10 rows up from the court...10 ROWS!!!  I asked my "little brother", Antonio, to go with me.  There was only one condition, he had to cheer for OKC.  And he did, he even sported one of my Thunder t-shirts.

A little back story on Antonio.  I met him when he was a sophomore in high school, four years ago.  He was dating one of the girls who attended our teen program and I totally thought he was a punk.  After a few months, he attended our fall retreat and we hit it off.  We are both equally stubborn, competitive, and argumentative.  That weekend was probably the only time that I really won in those areas.  That weekend he adopted me as his big sister.

As time progressed I got to hear more and more of his story, the part that touched me the most...he's an only child and I'm the first person he ever considered a sibling.  Over the past four years we have bonded and continued to grow in our relationship.  He is protective, caring, genuine, and all around amazing!!  He also spent his senior year volunteering three nights a week to work with our elementary and middle school youth.  Which meant we spent tons of time together!  When he graduated in May, I cried through just about everything.  I didn't know it was possible to be so proud.

This fall he went off to college.  And while I am so proud of him, I was selfishly sad to see him go.  It was a huge adjustment this fall not having him there Monday-Wednesday night.  So when I found out he was coming back to do a semester at the campus in the city, my heart was so happy!

So tonight, was just like old times.  I love the time we get together, I love sharing common interests, like sports.  I love that we cheer for each others teams.  The best part of tonight...although we lost in an exhilarating OT...Antonio started to lose his voice with me.

A Day of Shopping

What was meant to be a day spent working with the kids, was instead spent running some much over due errands. 

Every winter we take our youth into the mountains for some tubing.  Since I will be having surgery right in the middle of when we normally take them we have re-worked our calendar.  We were hoping to take a group of the kids this weekend, but just couldn't make it happen fast enough.

Well, I could have made it happen, but my boss Elizabeth has been trying to work on us not doing things last minute.  And by us, I primarily mean me.  I'm really good at going with the flow and flying by the seat of my pants; which in turns means I can be really bad about making things work when they probably shouldn't.  So instead of making it work, we decided to postpone this particular night until March. 

So instead of tubing, I spent today getting everything that has been missing from my house for the last month, or so.  Half way through the trip I started to wonder how I've been living without so many of my basic necessities?  It's amazing what you can do when you don't have time. 

B-Dubs and Movies

I have spent the majority of my life not liking most BBQ food, especially wings. 

In the past three years I have fallen in love with wings, specifically the honey BBQ wings from Buffalo Wild Wings.  So tonight that's what I enjoyed for dinner.  

And then I enjoyed 'Pitch Perfect' for like the 15th time.  I flipping love that movie so much!!  It's incredible.  

This was how I finished off my day full of clerical work and writing my thesis rough draft.  Not a very exciting day, and that's just what i needed. 

Now, I'm ready for a weekend full of errands. 

School means Homework...

I've been considering what it would mean to go back to college and get my degree.  And then I have to do homework for the program I am in, and I don't want to do it anymore.

I really wish there was a way to go back to school and not have to do homework, so if someone could make that happen for me...that would be fantastic.

In related news, I spent my day trying to finish the rough draft for my breakthrough plan.  It has been so hard to work on, I can't even begin to figure out why.

Now this exhausted girl is heading to bed.  Hope you had a fantastic day.

Meet the Alvarez Family

Due to another issue with volunteers we had to cancel tonight.  Instead of getting super irritated, I chose to find the silver lining again.  But before I tell you about my silver lining, I want you to introduce you to the Alvarez family.

The Alvarez's are best friends with the Diaz family, that's how I met them.  The mom is Emilia, just like Isabella, I absolutely adore Emilia.  We joke around, a lot.  She's super sarcastic like me and it's great that it doesn't completely get lost in translation.

Emilia is a single mom who I admire so much.  In my line of work I see a lot of single moms.  Most of them work a lot and the older kids are left to take care of the younger.  Some of them are on welfare, some of them don't take the best care of their kids, and a few of them are exceptions to the stereo-type.  Emilia is one of the exceptions, she does not let her past dictate her future, she continually sacrifices herself for her kids, she works multiple jobs, but still spends hours with her kids.  She is involved in their lives, she knows what is going on with them, I'm pretty sure she never sleeps...

She has three kids who still live at home: Rafael, Grace, and Lucas; they are all enrolled in our programs.  I talked briefly about Rafael and Lucas yesterday.  Rafael is in high school, Grace is in middle school, and Lucas is in elementary.  I have a special bond with each of these youth and I try to spend individual time with each of them on a semi-regular basis, this is where the silver lining comes in.

Since I spent last night with Rafael and Lucas, I decided to spend time with Grace tonight.  I met Emilia at a school where Lucas was practicing with his basketball team and picked Grace up.  We went to go get some ice cream and had a blast catching up.

Grace is so flipping hilarious, she is spunky and sweet.  She's the best kind of pretty, the kind that doesn't realize how gorgeous they are.  She is a natural leader and is constantly looking out for those who are outcasts.  It was great to get to catch up and talk about the choices her friends at school are making.  I'm excited to follow-up with her and talk more about the choices we make.

After ice cream I took her home and hung out with Emilia and Isabella for a little bit.  We had some pretty interesting talks about politics, gun control, and current events.

Canceled...again

So we unfortunately had to cancel our evening yet again.  This time it was due to lack of volunteers as opposed to no power.

I was pretty bummed when I realized that we weren't going to be open, I miss all my kiddos!  At the time I didn't realize the golden opportunity I was being afforded with a night off.

When I called Isabella to let her know we wouldn't have programs, she asked if I could help pick up Mia and Rafael from a school event.  (Rafael is one of our teens.) 

I of course said yes, I already had Santiago and Lucas (Lucas is Rafael's little brother) with me from tutoring, so why not.  After I picked them up I finally realized the opportunity I had, I could either take the kids home and relax at home or I could take the kids to dinner and get some precious one-on-one time with them.

I chose the latter and I'm so glad I did.  We went to CiCi's because they have a good deal right now, and let's face it when you are feeding three growing boys, a buffet is always the best choice.  It was good to get to catch up and talk with all of them.  I love when I get to sit and hear what is going on it their lives.

The boys took breaks in between eating to go play arcade games, which gave Mia and I some time to have girl talk, which I always love.

So, while I missed having the huge group of kids for the night, I'm pretty thankful that God provided me an opportunity I might not otherwise have.

No Power

Well tonight was supposed to be our first night back with the middle school students.  Notice how I said supposed to be?  We typically leave to go get our students around 5:30 and then the night starts at 6:30.  Well at about 4:45 our power went out.  It proceeded to flicker and have problems for the next 20 minutes,  About the same time we discovered we weren't the only ones with power issues, everything went out, even some of our back-up/emergency lights.

Upon further investigation, we found out that an underground switch had been flipped and they were trying to fix it.  It took out approximately 3,000 customers and spanned a couple of miles.  Needless to say, we canceled the evening, not knowing when the lights would come back on.

This however didn't effect my plans to much, as I was already going to be missing the night for school.  I've been involved in a 15-month program for urban youth workers and we have meetings once a month to discuss what we've been learning.

I love my class, they have become my family.  Tonight we enjoyed pizza, talked about our final thesis paper, and started to plan our graduation.  We also spent a good deal of our time tonight laughing, a series of events had me practically on the floor.

All in all, it was a great day.

Sunday Relax Day

Most people have Sunday Funday...I had Sunday Relax Day.

Have you ever had one of those days where you don't want to get out of bed?  Well I'm not afraid to admit, that today, thanks to technology, I didn't get out of bed for most of the day.

It's so cold and bleh here that I curled up in my bed with the computer and did some work, watched netflix, and completely vegged out.

It was a glorious day, however if my life remains so low key, I don't know what I am going to do with myself, I'm feeling pretty lazy.

Now I'm off to watch the Golden Globes, they are my favorite.  Here's to hoping Tina and Amy do a great job, I'm rooting for them.

Let's Party

It is FREEZING!!!  I am so ready for the snow and cold to stop, and it's only January....it's going to be a long winter.

Tonight was our annual staff and board Christmas Party.  Yes we have our Christmas Party in January.  When you work in ministry life tends to be one big blur from the months of October through December.  Throw on top of all the events, outreaches, and regular programs, the routine holiday parties between friends and family and there just doesn't seem to be enough time to fit it all in.

That combined with our desire to have everyone attend, we switched it to January a few years back.

The evening got started late due to the NFL play-offs.  We enjoyed a big family style meal and then the highlight of the evening, Dirty Santa.  This year wasn't as fun or cut-throat as years past, but it still made for a good time.  I ended up with this interesting bird bath/feeder/planter thing.  To be quite honest none of us could really figure out what it is.  I'll either be re-gifting it to my G-ma or donating it.

All in all, it's been a great day.  I've enjoyed all the mellow time I've had lately, it's been good to rest up before going back into working with children 3+ nights a week.

Too Much Computer Time

Still recovering from the kick-off I spent the majority of today working from home.

My paper still isn't done...thankfully I am getting an extension.  And that pretty much sums up my day.

Sorry this one is so short, I'm a little tired of typing and being in front of the computer for the day.

Procrastination

Today was spent recovering from last night and working on my final paper for school.

I'm in a program that works with youth ministry leaders in an urban setting.  It's been a year full of crazy and now it's coming to an end.  An end that includes putting together a final paper that reviews what we learned and delves into how we will implement it over the next several years.  It's a 15-40 page paper and is so impossible to write.

That being said I am done procrastinating and I'm back to the grindstone to get it done.

Organized Chaos?

Today was our big semester kick-off for all of the youth programs.  It was going to be a great day!  A local fast food chain agreed to donate enough food for 100 people and to bring some entertainment.  This was going to be great, it would free up me and our other youth director, Lindsey, to register the new kids and socialize with the parents.  And then today around 3:00 we got a call that the entertainment wouldn't be coming and neither would some of our volunteers.

With ministry you learn to roll with the punches and think on your feet, so we adapted to the best of our ability.  We did the best we could, but it just wasn't enough to handle what was going to be thrown our way.  We ended up with six new families showing up, bringing with them 18 new kids.  While this doesn't sound like much, throw in the other 60+ kids we already have and it was a recipe for chaos, which is exactly what we had.

Now I stand pretty firm in how well I do in managing chaos, but tonight was one for the record books.  I spent my time meeting with parents and getting kids re-signed up for the evening programs and after school tutoring, while Lindsey attempted to play games with the kids.  The night flew by and I'm excited to see what next week is going to bring with all the new kids.

Now I'm headed to bed, because I am absolutely exhausted.

Meet the Diaz Family

I got to see one of my favorite families today.  The Diaz family took me in when I first moved here and made me a part of their family.  They are my saving grace on a regular basis, anytime I need a reality check...I head over to their house.

The mom,  Isabella, has slowly become a very good friend of mine.  She's teaching me Spanish, I'm teaching her English, we share recipes and movies, and have so many amazing talks, I adore her.  She is married to an amazing man, who is one of the hardest workers I have ever met, he reminds me of the men I knew back home. They have four kids; Maria, Mia, Vincente, and Santiago.  Their kids are enrolled in the programs I run and they are absolutely amazing.  Maria graduated last year, Mia is in high school, Vincente is in middle school, and Santiago is in elementary school.

I think part of the reason the Diaz have such a special place in my heart is because of Mia.  I started mentoring Mia shortly after I got here almost 4 years ago.  She is crazy, amazing and I absolutely love her.  I see so much of myself in her it's crazy.  She is sassy, loud, outgoing, and so concerned about the well being of others.

So after work today I went over to their house.  Mia helps me communicate with all of the other moms and families.  (I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to learn German when I was in high school instead of Spanish)  Which brings me back to why I went over to their house, Mia was helping me remind all of the families that our kick-off is tomorrow.

After catching up with Mia and the rest of her family, I decided to meet one of my good girlfriends, Jenni, for dinner.  We tried out a local diner, not a fan, and then decided to go clearance shopping at Target.  Well actually, Jenni went clearance shopping, I had to pick up a few things for tomorrow's big kick-off party.  All in all, it was a successful last night without programming for a while.

Football and Wine

First day back to work today.  It's weird going back after basically three weeks off.

We started the day with a team meeting.  It was good to catch up with the team and start to get stuff put together for our kick-off on Wednesday.  I'm so excited to see the kids...I miss them like crazy.

Of course the first day back wouldn't be complete without a little drama, our room was a mess, as per usual.  We combined all of the youth ministries into one room to have a youth room.  The ministry as a whole uses the room on occasion under the agreement that the room will be returned to a clean, functional state.  However, ever since the move, the room never gets cleaned up...but I digress.

After work, I headed over to Laura's to watch the BCS National Championship game, also known as, Alabama owning Notre Dame.  It was a pretty sad "watch party" as we were all rooting for ND.  Laura is a huge ND fan, and I cheer for any team that plays against Alabama or the SEC.  Half way through the 3rd quarter we decided to head to the liquor store for some wine....

Laura is truly one of my best friends here...she loves country music, football, wine, and is absolutely hilarious.  If I had to watch Alabama win another championship with anyone, I'm glad it was her.

Last Day

Pretty uneventful day, trying to soak up every last bit of rest and relaxation possible before I go back to work tomorrow.

I spent the day running errands, which mainly consisted of a Target run. I'm seriously in love with that store, I could spend hours there, if only my pocketbook could...

Spent my night flipping between NCIS re-runs and a barrage of chick flicks, exciting I know.

I promise this will get more interesting, I'm just in an awkward space between being out of town and not working.

Spontaneous Roommate Date

After spending an hour fixing my hair, doing my make-up, and figuring out what to wear, I was ready for my work's Christmas Party.  Yes we have our Christmas party in January.  We decided a few years ago that it was too hard to try and fit yet another party into the month of December, so we moved ours to January so the majority of staff and board could make it. 

So I called my boss, Elizabeth, to let her know I was going to be fashionably late (I still needed to pick-up a bag from my 'Dirty Santa' gift) and she informed me that our party wasn't until next week.  After about 5 minutes of debating and searching through emails and evites, I hung up...thoroughly depressed.  I mean my make-up and hair looked seriously good and it was going to be wasted because at this point I had declined all plans with friends due to the party. 

Thankfully, the roommate, Carrie, didn't have firm plans...so a roommate date was planned!  Being the crazy girls we are we spent 30 minutes debating what we wanted to do: karaoke, trivia, bowling, movie...  We settled on dinner at Applebee's, seriously we're pretty intense.  

On our way there we passed a motorcycle accident, it was pretty ugly and I'm pretty sure it happened like less than 2 minutes before we drove up on it.  One of the main reasons I know Carrie is the perfect roommate for me, without even saying anything she pulled the car over and I was on the phone with 911.  She let me hop out to help direct traffic and she drove to block off any incoming vehicles.  When the paramedics and police arrived we walked back to the car, both near tears and instantly started praying.  I am so thankful to have a roommate who so genuinely cares, loves, and desires to help strangers.  

Dinner took a few to get back on track, but once we got over the scene of the accident, we had a blast.  It's been about a month since we've really been able to sit down and talk, and several weeks since we had even seen each other since we both went home for the holidays.  After dinner we decided to really be crazy and go back home, put on some pjs, and watch 'Pitch Perfect'.  

Seriously guys, if you haven't seen it, you need to...like NOW!  Quit what you are doing and go watch it, find it no Netflix, Redbox, go buy it from Target, see it in the dollar theater....whatever you need to do, do it!  It's one of the best movies I've seen in a while, I am currently watching it for the 6th time...it's that good. 

First "Yes" for the month...

It's good to be back home, but man is it cold here.  I spent the majority of my first day back relaxing at home and responding to emails from the bed.  It's a rough life, I'm aware.  I don't know what it is, but I feel like the longer you're away from work, the harder it is to get back into the swing of things.  Which is weird, because I LOVE, LOVE what I do.

My friend Laura was house-sitting this weekend so we opted to watch the Cotton Bowl over there. (Their TV is much bigger than either of ours, much bigger.)  The game was a bust for those of you who might have missed it...I pretty much loathe any team from Texas, but an SEC team from Texas is like the worst combination ever.

So after a horribly depressing game, I decided to say my first "yes" of the month, and go to karaoke with Laura and a few of her friends.  Three margaritas later and I was ready to sing, we were signed up for two songs, but unfortunately (or fortunately for those listening) didn't get a chance to sing before we left.  We did however rock out to just about every song that people sang and the songs they played between spots.

All in all it was a good time and I'm glad I said "yes", this might be the best resolution I've made yet.

Leaving on a jet plane...

Why do I always wait until the last minute to pack?!  Maybe that should have been one of my resolutions, to not procrastinate as much.  When it comes to procrastination, I'm pretty much a pro...I'll teach you how one day.  Did you catch that pun there?  Sorry I'm so lame, I just couldn't resist.

I have gotten smarter by booking late afternoon or evening flights, then I'm not stressing out right after I wake up, waking up is stressful enough.

I'm excited to head back home, it's been 2 1/2 weeks and I miss my roommate dearly.  I however am not looking forward to the colder weather that I've heard is awaiting me upon my landing.

Okay, enough procrastinating...this girl needs to finish packing so she can go enjoy one more Mexican meal with my Mom and stop by Dad's work to say goodbye.

Busy Day

Last day in my hometown for awhile...I'm going to miss it.

So my day has consisted of spending as much time as possible with my amazing nephew; he's 2, loves Woody from Toy Story, is exactly like his mother, and screams my name every time he sees me.  The last part really makes me happy since I only get to see him every 3-6 months.  His mom is my best friend, we've known each other since middle school, and I'd be lost without her.  We're pretty much an amazing combo of sarcasm, mischief, and laughter. 

I had lunch with the 'rents at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, 2 things that I will miss dearly.  The Mexican in my city just isn't what I grew up on, it's good just not what I fell in love with when I was a kid.  I also just realized I called my 'rents things...just roll with it.  But seriously, they are awesome parents and I think I miss our rando conversations the most.  We talk on the phone all the time, but it's just not the same. 

Enjoyed a 3 hour coffee date with my life mentor at a new shop that my friend just opened up.  The atmosphere is incredible, the drinks rock, and the couch we curled up on made 3 hours seem like 30 minutes.  Catching up with her and talking about life face to face over coffee will trump our Skype dates any day.  This could be due to the fact that I'm not a big Skyper...I like to multitask when I'm on the phone and for some reason people don't really like when you are tweezing your eyebrows, cleaning your kitchen, or doing a barrage of otherwise monotonous chores. 

Finished the night at dinner with some of my closest friends, again at a Mexican restaurant.  It's interesting how as you get older the subjects you talk about change.  I never thought I would spend an hour talking about my parents' and grandparents' health issues.  When did we get this old?  Yes we, I can't be in this alone...that's just depressing. 

And now that I've gone there, I'm going to go curl up in bed with my pup and watch episodes of HIMYM on Netflix. 

Resolutions....so cliche?

It's a new year and with it comes resolutions, of course...

For the first time in a long time I've decided to make some New Years' Resolutions.

So here's the list, from me to you...enjoy it!

- I will blog about my day, everyday for a full year.  Aren't you excited...

- I will say "yes" to going out at least 3 times a month.  I've become quite the homebody in my ripe old age of 28. 

- Lose weight and get healthy.  I know, I know...everyone says this.  But for reals I've got to lose weight and get healthy not for the obvious health reasons, but more so because my brother is marrying the love of his life on a beach this summer and this girl is so not beach ready.  Especially since the love of his life is the tiniest, cutest person ever.

- Complete all resolutions so I don't have to make any next year.