Dork Alert!

I wanted to sound the alarm myself so that you all know that I know I am a dork :0) I got new sunglasses for biking this week. This morning I went on a bike ride with Kirsten and I decided i would have jen take a picture of me so I could blog about the glasses. They are a TON better than my old pair (that did not do anything but slide down my face while I biked!) Anyhow, Jen took the picture and said, "The dork alert is about to go off!"

Another funny thing that happened is that after this picture I walked into my bedroom and turned the light on because it seemed so dark in my room. I was laughing so hard! It wasn't dark, I just forgot to take the glasses off! Anyhow, here is dorky Rebecca...

And by the way, the bike ride was great!

Miracle performance!

hey all,
I just wanted to let you all know how productive I've become lately. Last Wednesday at our Coaches Bible study, Jen and I prayed for miracle performances. In other words, we both have a ton to do and it would be wise for us to be disciplined and focused as we work. So the last two mornings we have come to Goleta Coffee company between 6:30 and 7:00 and put our time in. I have been WAY focused and productive. :-) It feels so good! I think I'm realizing I do much better in the morning and much better when I have a focused study partner.... oh the feelings of being back in school. I am thankful I'm finally remembering how to do this school thing. I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with me! Anyhow, I better go back to productivity.... lunch first though. :-)

P.S. Sorry no pictures of us studying... we were being too productive! :-)

Florida Storm Warning...

Britty Gumpa

Here is a video of Brita in the back seat. You can hear people who had gotten out of their cars talking to Brett about the situation. For some reason, when Brita, Brett and I get together, one of us always has trouble talking...

traffic

A group of us went to Mammoth this past weekend, and we decided to leave early on Sunday rather than Snowboard. Well, apparently everybody had the same idea. We ended up parked on the freeway for 20 minutes. It took us about 2 hours to go 30 miles. We definitely had to put on our patience pants. Here is a video of us moving very slowly... I am using "Videoegg" for the first time, so I am not sure how this is going to work! I will post a brita video after this one...

The significance of insignificance

The other day one of the faculty at Westmont sent us a link to "Hubble: The most amazing space photographs in the universe."

The email said that these pictures, "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful." -- Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th, 2006)

As I looked at the photos, I was pretty amazed to say the least. I started to think, "who am I, to think that I am anybody!" I am very small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things! However, I was also reminded of the fact that I have a God who thinks that I AM important! So important, in fact, that he sent his one and only son to die for me! Amazing

Not only did he do that, but he created this AMAZING universe that we only catch a GLIMPSE of through these photos. I don't know about you, but sometimes I get that strange feeling in my stomach when I try to think about the universe, infinity, and how God has been around forever... there is no beginning and end to God's existence. As a human, my mind just CANNOT get around the idea of something not having a beginning and end. I guess that is what faith is all about. I think seeing these photos is a good way to keep me humble! Anyhow, I thought these photos below were pretty stinking amazing. I basically pasted the entire website below... so enjoy!


The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth

In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth

At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula, which looks like the eye of disembodied sorcerer Sauron from Lord of the Rings

The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre

In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon)



The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'

Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way

The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation


The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born

Another Musing.....

The other day I "Googled" my name because I wasn't sure if my blog was accessible to the outside world. The sixth entry was, "Mouw's Musings-The President's Blog." It is the new blog of the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, Richard Mouw. Richard is my dad's cousin and I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and eating dinner with him as well. Also, he spoke at my graduation from Wheaton. Anyhow, I thought it was so cool that we choose almost the same exact name for our blogs! Crazy! I wonder if I could get him with copyright laws :-) Haha, I wouldn't want to do that anyhow! I thought his first entry in his blog is a great reminder of God's presence in our lives, no matter where we are... the internet, my space, blogger, facebook, etc: He is there! Here is Richard's entry...

December 4, 2006

Launching a New Blog:
MySpace

Those who know me well thought they would never see the day, but indeed it has come: I am launching my own blog.

Now, it wasn’t so long ago that I wouldn’t have known the definition of a blog, much less its purpose. I am always a little behind on these things—and confess that I have to endure more than a little teasing from my son, Dirk, who is certainly more technologically savvy than I.

Yet I cannot ignore the upside of this whole blogging business. I spent a lot of time this summer exploring blogs—take note, I might be reading yours!—and became quite intrigued with the immediacy of this new way of communicating. So here I am, plunging into the adventure myself. It offers an opportunity for me to share with you, my friends and fellow bloggers, the things that are on my heart in “real time,” so to speak.

One thing that has been on my heart lately is space. Along with exploring blogs this summer, I became familiar with MySpace. I did some browsing, and was amazed by the sheer volume of this phenomenon: thousands and thousands of pictures of people supposedly inviting you into their “space.”

When I look at all those pictures, I think about how, in some primordial sense, each of these folks realizes that they are not alone. I think that, at some level, they realize the truth of the Psalmist when he said: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” Or in today’s vocabulary, we might say: If I retreat into my own website, my own blog, my own MySpace…there, too, I am in your
presence.

As Christians in this MySpace culture, we need to be reminding people that everything we call “my space” is also, in a very profound sense, God’s space. We are inescapably in God’s presence.

Whether it’s on MySpace, in classrooms, or in the workplace, each person we encounter in our day-to-day lives has a God-sized space within their souls. This is a space that can be filled only by a relationship with the one true God.

Richard J. Mouw

Shakey Face Galore...

When I went home, Chad and I had some fun with my parents’ new camera. We did this thing that he and his college buddies do when they are together, referred to as shakey face! Now, I must warn you, it looks a bit funny and isn't too flattering. :-) But don't worry, I'm not proud!





The key is, you have to make your face totally relaxed and then shake your head back and forth. Chad and I had to do tons of takes because we were still learning the camera and there was a little bit of a delay. But beware, sometimes too many takes can give you a head ache! :-)

Hair Do's and Don'ts :o)

My niece Maddie has pretty long hair and loves to have it done in special ways. Luckily for her, Aunt Jamie had some time to "make her pretty" (even though she already is!) this Christmas. Here are some pics of the lovely ladies....



















Post French Braid Shock Syndrome ...



And Jamie even took time to make us the "Girls with Curls!"

Ba!

Today I am going to post pics of the youngest niece in Philly, who wasn't allowed to (or wasn't given the opportunity to) go to see Charlotte's Web. Her name is Evelina... Evie for short. She will be two in March and is pretty much a stinker! BUT, she is such a cute stinker! Definitely expressive with a great sense of humor. By the end of the trip she was calling me, "Ba!" It was so cute! So basically, she was the "belle of the cameras" so there were a larger percentage of pictures to choose from! (Note: when i said in my last post that I had 700 pics to choose from, I did not take a single one of those pictures. I didn't bring a camera home because I knew there would be plenty of pics to share!) So here is Evelina!!

This is a post bath pic with her Uncle Chad. Her hair is not done yet here... she is gonna have great ringlets someday!

Opening other people's presents before it's time :)

























Evie and I sing this song called, "Skid-a-ma-rink-i-dink!" It's got hilarious hand motions and this is Evie and I cracking each other up :)

Scavenger hunt...

I never got around to blogging about my time in Philly, and I have over 700 pictures to choose from, so I decided that instead of being overwhelmed about choosing pictures, I would just do a couple each day.







Finding the clues...








For Toby, Maddie and Josiah's Christmas present, I sent them on a scavenger hunt that gave them clues as to what they were getting. The clues were a bag of popcorn, a spider and a pig. The last clue told them to go to the computer, but before they could go they had to guess what the present was. Toby raised his hands in the air and yelled, "Charlotte's Web!" Josiah said, "We've already seen that video!" I replied, "I know, but there is a new one with real people and I'm going to take you to the movies!" At the computer I showed them the trailer for the movie so they would get even more excited.

These kids have never been to a movie theatre, so it was a real treat! They loved the popcorn and Sprite and Josiah didn't sit down the entire movie (The kids only get one half hour video a day, and only watch TV if football is on. Josiah had never seen a screen this big!) It was awesome to take them to their first movie! Not sure yet, but it might be a yearly occasion! :)

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.