I'll be home for Christmas...

Well, I never got around to blogging about the rest of my week with Dan. We had some fun times hanging out, going to my church, meeting Dan Ribbens for lunch, going out to eat with Brita, Jen Binger and her brother J.D., going wine tasting with Brett, and watching movies. It was great!

On Monday, we gathered up our belongings to travel to Chicago for Christmas! Jamie and Chad arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, Chad's mom on Thursday and Rob on Friday. I had a ton of fun playing with my niece and nephew Eleanor and Ezra and seeing their parents (my bro and sis in law) Andrew and Natalie. I can't tell you how many times Eleanor asked if she could jump on me, which meant, "you lay on the floor, and I'll bellyflop on your stomach!" Luckily, she is only a 29.5 lb four year old, so it didn't hurt at all! Here are select pics of the week in Chicago!








Christmas is always fun, but is particularly fun when kids are around. I am so thankful for Andrew and Natalie and how they've brought up Eleanor and Ezra to be such great kids. I am also thankful for my parents and their care for us as their children. They have given so much to us already and continue to support us all now that we are all grown up. Every time I see them it reminds me of what they have done for me. Thanks mom and dad! In general, I have just been so thankful to be back with my family the past couple of weeks. I'm gonna miss them when I leave! I will write more later with some pictures of the other kids in Philly. (I would do it now but I have over 700 pictures to choose from and they are taking a while to download!) I leave to return to SB on Wednesday!

Brother Dan

On Monday night I picked up my big brother Dan from LAX. His flight got in at 8:05 and my final in Fullerton was supposed to end at 6:45, so the timing was going to be great. Unfortunately, the final was group presentations, and they went way long. Therefore, I was a little late picking him up. (But I am so glad to be done with it!) Dan is the first of my five siblings to visit, so I was super excited. So excited, in fact, I missed the exit to the airport (OK, that was only b/c I was coming from a different direction on a different road, but somewhat b/c I was excited too!)

On Tuesday Dan got to meet the entire Kinesiology and Athletics department as Kirsten and I hosted the White elephant Christmas party. I ended up with a brand new fondu set! It was lots of fun and it was a great time for Dan to meet everybody.

Yesterday I showed Dan around Westmont and downtown Santa Barbara. We ate lunch downtown and then went down to the beach and Stern's Wharf. We took a bunch of fun pics while we were down there...





Later last night, we played an intense game of "take one" (aka speed scrabble). Then I helped Kirsten with a little project in which she stayed all night doing! I stayed up finishing up a paper while she scrapbooked :)



Today, Dan and I went on a great hike through Romero Canyon. We just might be a little bit sore later :)









I have had a blast so far and am looking forward to more to write about this week!

New links!

I was really proud of myself for figuring out how to change the links on the right of this post. So, I put some links to blogs of my friends and family. If I am missing yours, let me know... that means I don't have it :-) Anybody curious as to why I was doing this? I was procrastinating. Big shock, I know. I am posting a picture of my nephews at soccer camp this past summer. They are so cute and I am so excited to see them again this Christmas!

The Cousins

On Monday after class, I met up with Bonnie and Susan for dinner. When I got there they asked, "Do you like Sushi?" I have never had it before, and I was feeling brave, so I told them I was willing to try it. People, this is a big step for me! It actually wasn't as bad as I would have imagined. I still didn't love it. I didn't like the texture of the spicy tuna rolls. The California rolls were definitely safe and the shrimp tempura was probably my favorite. I also had a rainbow roll. The evening was so much fun. There were lots of fun memories shared and stories told (for instance, "Remember when..." and "Do you remember the time when...") Susan lives in Venice Beach, so I definitely need to see her more often. Bonnie was in town for a two day visit, so I was so thankful to get a chance to see her while she was here. Hopefully I'll see her in Philadelphia as well. It's so nice to see family when you are so far away from home. All in all, a very refreshing and relaxing evening that curbed my appetite for family until Dan gets here on MONDAY! HOORAY!

Goofy!

So the other day my friend and housemate Jen Price and I had a fun time at starbucks. We were there to work, but not as much as planned. Now, we did get SOME reading done, but I'm the type of person who needs to take "healthy" breaks during my work. If you go to her link you can see a funny video of my ADD and goofy-self.

I must say, I have a paper due on Monday that I finished on FRIDAY. So, I have been productive, which is nice! I just need to edit tomorrow! Hooray! :-) Have a great day!

My Brother, James Bond

I've been emailing recruits all day and needed a break. Therefore, I thought I'd come back to the blog. Yesterday my brother Rob called and said, "Guess how many of my students today told me that I look like James Bond... 57!" So, I Googled the trailer and it was so wierd! Now, I know they aren't identicle, but he's already had random people come up to him and ask him about it. It's pretty funny. He decided he's gonna go to Hong Kong and have an autograph session to make some money :-) Rob is in the picture on the right, in case you couldn't tell!

Filthy-delphia

I got an email from my sister the other morning. It was one of those forwards titled, "You know you're from Philadelphia if..." Now, Jamie isn't from Philly, but she knows it like the back of her hand because it's practically a second home to all of us Mouw's who don't live there. Anyhow, I thought it was pretty funny because I experienced a lot of the things listed in the email when I lived there for two years. I decided to post it because it was so funny! :-) My comments are colored! Enjoy!

You've never referred to Philadelphia as anything but "Philly."
AndNew Jersey has always been "Jersey."
You refer to Pennsylvania as "PA." Couldn't be more true!
You know how to pronounce Bryn Mawr, Schuylkill, Bala Cynwyd,Duquesne, Punxsutawney, Susquehanna, and Allegheny.
You know what a "Mummer" is. I could never get a straight anser from ANYBODY about what a mummer is. I don't think the Philadelphians even know what they are!
You can use the phrase "fire hall wedding reception" and not even bat an eye. ????
You absolutely hate T.O. That's funny, b/c I hated him before he left the Eagles!
You really miss Y-100.
At least 5 people on your block have electric "candles" in all or mostof their windows all year long. UM, it was actually like 80% of our block had the colored "Icicle" lights all year :-)
Words like "hoagie", "sticky buns", "shoo-fly pie", "pierogies" and"pocketbook" actually mean something to you. My Grandma said "Pocketbook"
You know the time and location of every "wing night" in a 20 mile radius.
You consider an exotic vacation to be a trip to Ocean City, VirginiaBeach, or Myrtle Beach.
You think very little of an Amish buggy on the road.
You've run up the steps to the art museum emulating Rocky at least once.
You consider Pittsburgh to be "out west," and you know the fastest wayto Philly is the Turnpike. I think Californians struggle with this as well. They say Nebraska is in the East?!?!?!
When the forecast said snow, you stayed up waiting for them toannounce that school was cancelled.
You know that more than two inches of snow will at least get you a two hour delay.
You have an uncontrollable urge to buy bread and milk when you heard the word "snow." Philadelphians are rediculous when it comes to snow. Whatever you do, do NOT go to the store when snow is in the forecast!!!!
You live within two miles of a plant that makes potato chips, cornchips, pretzels, candy, or ice cream, or that packages turkeys, beans,or bologna.
You think the roads in any other state are smooth.
Refer to something as "a whole nother," e.g., "That's a whole nother issue."
You punctuate every sentence with, "You know" at least twice.
You want olive oil, not mayonnaise on your hoagie.
Your favorite dessert is water ice. (pronounced "wooder" ice) mmmmm... Rita's Water Ice!!!
You find yourself using "yo" and "youse guys" when talkinglong-distance to family members.
You find yourself at a nice restaurant thinking "I wonder if they havecheese steaks?"
You visit New York and are impressed by how clean it is. HAHA
You've had more than one debate on why Wawa is better than Sheetz. I do miss WAWA!
You call sprinkles on top of your ice cream cone "jimmies".
You can't imagine lunch without a Tastykake.
A vacation at the Jersey shore is better than going to an island(there's more stuff to do, plus you know everybody.)
You know where to find the Rocky statue.
You've had more than one argument over why your place for cheesesteaksis the best. I love Jim's Cheesesteaks... probably b/c that was the only one that I knew how to find!
You've never been to the Liberty Bell, or the only time you were therewas on a class trip in third grade.
You know what and where "Boathouse Row" is
You will buy a pretzel from anyone, anywhere without even thinking ofwhere it was - or where his hands have been.
You can't imagine a breakfast without scrapple.
You don't know what a sub is, but you think they are trying todescribe an imitation HOAGIE.
You aren't a bandwagon Sixers fan, you loved them when they sucked,and before they had A.I.
You call the Dallas Cowboys the Cowgirls.
When every year a team makes it close to or to the post season and yetevery year you still find your self saying i know how this is gonnaend...there's always next year. Sounds like the Cubbies.
If you never took a field trip to anywhere other than the franklininstitute, the zoo, the art museum, or the museum of natural science
If you listen to Preston and Steve EVERY morning.
If you know every word to the theme song from the fresh prince of Bel Air.

Bouncy Balls

Hey Everybody,
You need to check out the extended version of this commercial.
It's like every kid's secret ambition! Have fun with it!

Birthdays

My niece Eleanor turned 4 yesterday. I called her today to see how her birthday was and this was a part of our conversation.

Me: Eleanor, How was your birthday?
Eleanor: Good, you can come to my party on Saturday!
Me: Eleanor, I can't. Remember I live far away in California? Maybe I can send you a card. But it won't be there for your party. It will be a little late.
Eleanor: Or you can send me a present.


:-) Oh kids, they crack me up!

So today I am down at my class in Fullerton. I get here pretty early (that is an understatement!) and I was finished with my work with an hour to spare.... I love procrastinating! I had two weeks to read four research articles and I read them all today.

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would get done.

Actually though, I need to get some work done a little bit early because my parents are coming in a few weeks. After they leave I have a huge project due and then a recruiting weekend. I don't want to have to do work when they are here! Maybe I'll find it in me to become disciplined! I guess we'll find out!

Below is Cal State Fullerton's Logo... they are the Titans and I cannot figure out why there is an elephant representing the Titans. Any thoughts on that? I know at Wheaton we were the Thunder but we were represented by a cloud with a lightening bolt going through it... not exactly Thunder I know, but what else are you supposed to use to represent something you can't see? (That sounds like a Wheaton statement if I've ever heard one. Always making something secular sound Biblical! :o) ) Anyhow, have a great day... I'm off to class!





I'll leave you with a "Homerism" I heard on the Simpsons the other night. Homer's Friend, Apu, who is a Hindu was having a run of bad luck after being found out about an affair he was having. He said, "Maybe all this bad Karma is just bologna."
Homer responded, "mmmmm..... Caramel Bologna...."

haha

to post or not to post...

The other day I got an email from someone (B) encouraging me to post... or was it that this person was encouraging me to comment.... not sure which, but I thought it was funny so here it is!

"Updating blogs has a direct mathematical correlation to how many people are reading and commenting on your blogs.

People reading / Number Of Days Between Posts = Total Enthusiasm For More Posts

(People commenting / Number of Days Between Posts)*100 = Total Enthusiasm For More Posts

Let see an example of this... B has posted three times over the last 10 days... during this time B has gotten 12 comments... and 492 people reading.

492/10 = 49.2 - B’s Enthusiasm Based on Readers (Average)

(12/10)*100 = 120 – B’s Enthusiasm Based on Commenters (Above average)

As you can clearly see... the more that people make comments on one’s blog... the more likely you feel like updating. It’s really just simple mathematics." :o)

Any comments?!?! :-D

Giving it a whirl...

So, I didn't set this up, but I thought I'd try using it and seeing if I like it better than the Xanga site I have... so far my computer types the same way!! AMAZING :o) Now I am going to see how easy it is to put an image in my blog. Hang on... Ok, that was pretty easy. This was a picture of a boy with a sibling that he had been carrying on his back in the refugee camp in Gulu. The other boy joined for the picture so I could take a picture of his soccer ball (lower part of the picture.) The ball was made with banana leaves! Crazy huh? It was so funny because I just kept smiling at the boy carrying the baby and he'd smile back, but then all of the sudden I realized he spoke a little bit (ok, a VERY little bit) of English. It was so cool to talk with him! But one of the most important thing I learned is that a smile can go a very long way, and so can a hug!


Ok, so this one picture is of the NILE RIVER! It was so amazing becuase it was so strong sounding! The other picture is of Kendra with a boy after our game in Kenya. During the warm up for that game I kept talking with the boy and his older brother. Then Kendra had given the older brother a pen and the little boy kept wanting to try it. Finally, I ended up giving the boy my pen (very discreetly) and that made both of them happy! So this is Kendra helping the boy write or draw somthing...ok, that is all for now! My first post has been a blast :-)

Just Getting Started!!!

So this is my first post on Blogger. If you want to see my other blog make sure to check it out at Mouwser's Musings.