JC4evaLuv's Xanga

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:24:18 GMT

Romania take two...

grateful for another opportunity to return to a place and a people that i've come to love and cherish beyond measure. and simply because i can't resist showing off the beautiful girls (and yes they're all girls) that i met and fell in love with during my one month stay at their orphanage in Alexandria - here's a short slideshow i made as part of my OCM presentation. for my supporters, as i promised, an update will come shortly! but for now, enjoy:

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:24:50 GMT

hello lovely world of xanga after 1.5 years of not posting....
why the return? primarily so i can no longer be called a closet-xangaer by ahem (:P) and so i can share with you about my awesome missions trip to romania last month! the following is what i shared with my sunday church - it's LONG so you've been warned! but there are pictures too (although many of those as well haha) so hopefully that makes up for the length (or that tells those who don't want to read through, to just skip to the end :P).
here goes:

For those of you who don’t know or may not remember, God blessed with me an awesome opportunity to serve Him on a short-term missions trip to Romania. My favorite testimony about when I was raising support, was when church offered me a certain amount of money. My family and I decided it was too much and we told the elders to take back $500. I was worried about not being able to raise enough, but that very same night when I went home, my aunt called me to wish me congratulations on graduating from college. She said she received my letter in the mail and thought that the best graduation gift she could give me was to support me – so her family decided to give me…
$500. In one night, I got it all back and to me, that just confirmed once again that God wanted me to be on this trip. I’m thankful that God gave me this chance to grow in my faith. I went with an organization called Heart to Heart International Ministries and I spent the first two weeks of this month working in a baby hospital, orphanage, and girl’s transition house (we were also supposed to visit the boys transition house as well, but unfortunate circumstances prevented us from doing so). Heart to Heart has volunteer teams and staff at each of these locations throughout the year. At the orphanages and the transition homes, teams stay for a month and lead the children in Bible studies, teaching them Christian songs, and memorizing Bible verses. I participated in the two-week team which means that I was in all the different parts of ministry, not just one, and so my team mainly just helped out the one-month teams that were there. For example, at the orphanage, we helped keep the kids quiet during the message, participated in the group games, and played with the kids during free time so the other team could prepare for that nights message and Bible study. It seemed challenging at first because I didn't know any of my teammates, and plus I had to travel all the way from America to Romania and back on my own (I've traveled enough, but never on my own!) - but God of course worked it all out. It was so awesome to be able to be surrounded by people who are so passionate about the same things I am. My teammates (who ranged from age 14 to age 64, the two girls I got to know best were ages 33 and 27 (although they definitely didn't look or act it), and I was the only one in the 15-26 age group), who became my second family, and this organization inspired me so much.

It’s hard for me to describe to you how much these two weeks have changed my life. Before I get into the children, one of the most surprising things I think was the fact that I fell in love with the entire country of Romania! Her people, her culture, her history, her beauty - it all amazed and mesmerized me. Her history is an incredible one, but that's a whole different testimony in an of itself that I'll have to wait for another time to share with you. The children of course, were the ones that I fell in love with the most. Their lives are so different from my very own spoiled American upbringing, and seeing the depth and breathe of the pain and brokenness these children live through and live with was heartbreaking. To paint a tiny picture for you of what I saw in the baby hospital and orphanage – for the babies, all of them are only fed and changed twice a day, they get baths and a new change of clothes every 2 days, and they are almost never allowed to leave the room they stay in. The babies drink rice milk, not even real milk, and the toddlers eat either a bowl of mashed potatoes or a bowl of watered-down macaroni and cheese every single day. They are never given any fruits, vegetables, or meat so these babies and toddlers get the calories they need, but they don’t get the nutrients necessary for healthy development. Some of the babies had the worst diaper rash I had ever seen and sadly, all of them get very little of the physical and emotional attention they need to develop normally. But these babies were so beautiful and it was such a joy to be able to hold them, cuddle with them, and simply love them. I got the chance to attempt to teach a toddler how to feed himself, bottle feed the infants, change my first few diapers, bathe my first baby, and I even got the chance to hold a precious little 2-month old that was left at the doorstep of the hospital during my team’s stay in Romania. The hardest part was always leaving because these children would cry and scream like nothing I had ever heard before, and all you want to do is run back in but you know you can’t.

At the orphanage, sadly the conditions don’t get any better. The ages range from 4 all the way to 18 and these growing kids are still fed the same malnourished diet – lots of calories, but no nutrients at all and all of them are physically and sexually abused by the orphanage staff. The girls have no hot water in their dorms and not only that, they aren’t even allowed to use the shower room they have because the staff decided they needed it to hold their supplies. So these girls take showers with the foot washing faucets. The boys have hot water but the staff just don't turn it on for them. The staff and teachers simply don’t care about these kids and when they are young, they give them cigarettes to start smoking so almost all of the older ones are addicted. They all grow up on this tiny piece of land that, similar to the babies, they are never allowed to leave. The hardest part to see was just how messed up their concept of love is. These children don’t understand love because they’ve never truly experienced it. They don’t know how to love others, nor do they know how to be loved themselves. They grow up being told their worthless, being treated as if they were worthless, so what else do they believe but that they’re worthless and they deserve the life they have?

But like I said earlier, I fell most hopelessly in love with the kids at this orphanage. It amazed me that these kids could still run around, laugh, and smile despite the harsh circumstances that they grow up in and it’s incredible what a little bit of love and attention can do to a child. It gets kind of crazy being there because these kids know absolutely no boundaries at all – they’re constantly holding your hand, sitting in your lap, playing with your hair, looking at your fingers, trying to take off your sneakers, asking why you look Chinese or what’s that thing on your face (referring to my birthmark). Oh and to these kids, anyone that comes that looks even remotely Asian, what are they called? China! “China China, come here! China look at this! China is Bruce Li your father? What about Jackie Chan?” And what does every single Chinese person know? Karate of course! “China show me karate! Karate!” Even my crazy teammates started calling me what the kids did! So by the end of these lovely two weeks, China or cenezu (Chinese in Romanian) were my two new nicknames.

I didn’t expect to be able to build any relationships with the children because I was in so many different places, and all together I was only able to spend five days at the orphanage – but did God work wonders in those five days. I spent most of my free time there running around playing soccer, even though I’m terrible at it. It was from soccer that I got to know two boys really well, Razvan and Marius, but especially Marius. For some reason that I can’t really explain, Marius and I just clicked from the start and got to know each other rather well. I call him my “friend soul mate” because although we spoke two different languages, we understood each other so well. We had so much fun playing soccer, playing cards, getting into a huge water fight, talking about our families, telling him about Christ, writing letters to each other, him teaching me Romanian and me teaching him English? No of course not, Chinese! He grew to be protective of me rather quickly and he became the little brother that I always wanted but never had. We ran, we laughed, we played, and we shared our lives with each other. It blows me away that our friendship blossomed so much in such a short period of time. On my last day at the orphanage after plenty of hugs and promises to write and send pictures, I told these two boys to follow me along the wall as I walked away. There’s a wall that between the street and the orphanage with a gap on the top that allows you to still see in, and Razvan followed me and he’s laughing and smiling and still having a great time. Marius however, just stood there by the path and didn’t follow. I yelled his name and told him to come so I could say bye one last time and he just stood there. I yelled and yelled and he just wouldn’t move and I got so so so angry. I thought, this is the last time I’m going to see you, you don’ know when you’ll ever see me again, and you won’t even come say bye?!?! Maybe we aren’t as great friends with each other as I had thought we were! As I continued to walk slowly away, I told Razvan to go get Marius and he ran off. I saw him grab his arm and pull him towards me, but then he stopped and instead put his arm around Marius’ shoulder. Marius’ other friends went over to him and put their arm around him as well...
and then I saw. His shoulders shaking, his head down, and when he finally turned around I saw him wipe his eyes as he blew me a kiss and waved one last time. This teenager, who I had known for only 5 days, was crying and of course, I started crying as well. I now wear a funky leather bracelet on my wrist - it's our friendship bracelet and Marius has a matching one on his wrist as well. It’s great because everyone asks me about it, and I get to tell them about my incredible friendship with him and how simply amazing God is :)

Sometimes I think back to what life was like before these two weeks – I didn’t have to worry about Razvan, Marius or the other kids I met. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not they were sick, whether or not they were being abused, whether or not they were going to church. I didn’t have to worry about the babies, if they were still getting fed, if they were getting over their colds, if they were finally learning how to walk. And even more than all of that, I didn’t worry about my future because I already had everything planned out, I didn’t have to worry about pleasing my parents or meeting their expectations, I didn’t worry about depending on others for spiritual and financial support to go back to Romania because I wasn’t expecting to. Most of all, I didn’t need God to be in control because I was and I knew what I was doing. The biggest lesson I learned during these two weeks was how to give up control over my life. I no longer know what the future holds or what it will bring. If it’s in God’s will, I would like to go back to Romania every 6 months until perhaps, I can be there full-time as part of Heart to Heart’s staff. But I don’t know if that’s what God wants and I don’t know if I’ll get to go back this January or next summer or the years after. I don’t know if Razvan and Marius will still be there, and I’ll be honest and say that it hurts to think that I may not ever see them again in this lifetime, that five days is all I got with them. I’m slowly learning to give up the control, to learn that having God in control of both my life and their lives is so much better than having me in control. Not a day goes by when I don’t pray for them, their safety, and their salvation and hope that I’ll see them in eternity. For the first time in my life, I can finally say that I’m really not in control. It’s a hard place to be, to not know what will happen tomorrow or the days after, but being in His control is such a sweet place to be.

picture time!! first, the babies:
some of my teammates and i in the baby hospital

what costel looked like as i attempted to teach him how to feed himself :)

adorable marion getting a bath

the precious (and sadly starving) abandoned 2-month old i had mentioned before

second, girls transition house:
most of the transition house girls (plus some staff)

beautiful loredana - the girl from the house i got to know best

we took the girls to a nearby lake, and lets just say it wasn't exactly the most pleasant place to swim in....if you dare, ask me for the story as to why!

third, the orphanage (note: the kids LOVE cameras, especially digital ones, and once you take them out you pretty much can't get them to stop taking pictures. marius and razvan pretty much felt as if they were the brand new owners of my camera by the end of my time there, so needless to say most of my pics are are either of them or taken by them :P):
here he is! marius :)

razvan! who btw, is the most amazing un-trained soccer player i have EVER seen

christina, the girl who could kick all the boys butts in soccer!

flori, the very first girl that befriended me

georgiana, the absolute cutest kid alive! i loved seeing her because she would always jump into my arms and plant a huge wet kiss on my cheek :)

cloudia playing cards with me and marius - she definitely stood out with her bright blonde hair and striking blue eyes

vaseli, lauren (my teaammate), me - vaseli's holding a poor puppy that was born to one of the stray dogs that lived on the orphanage grounds

poor vaseli's shoes :( :( :(

one of the rare occasions marius and razvan yelling at me to go play soccer instead of taking pictures - marius is in the midst of throwing the ball at me haha

razvan and marius wanted me to write them letters (mainly marius :P), and i told them i wouldn't give them their letters unless they wrote me! so here they are working away...after this, marius always had a letter waiting for me every single time i went to the orphanage (and even gave a letter to the one-month team there to give to me because he found out they were going to run into me!!). and yes, thats my name on marius' arm haha :)

we threw a carnival while we were there, and the game i was in charge of was called "pin the tail on the zebra/lion/hippo/monkey/giraffe" (haha)...i was extra "mean" to razvan and marius by spinning them around more than twice what i did to the other kids, so i let razvan get revenge on me by letting him spin me around (and needless to say i got spun around to the point where i couldnt stand and almost threw up hahaha)

the three of us :) who's holding the football above my head??

and finally, one last picture of marius and me! it was taken during our huge ridiculous water fight, and if you can see he's still pouring water on my head :P it's my most favoritest picture out of the 200+ that i took!

even more pictures can be found here, but sadly my team never got to take a team photo :( i do have 200+ more of my own so ask to see my photo album if you'd like or feel free to ask me more questions if you have any, i would love to share more!!

if you made it this far - thanks for reading through!! and of course, this one gets an extra special thank you - you cheered me on from the very beginning, you wouldn't let me doubt myself or God's plans for me, you encouraged me, prayed for me, hec you even came all the way to new york to be at my apartment when i got home from the airport(!), didn't get mad when i was so sleepy from the jet lag, and listened so patiently to the 30-hour version of my trip that you unfortunately got (yes i know i torture him :P). i AM the luckiest girl alive

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Tue, 23 Mar 2004 03:07:58 GMT

Sunday, June 08, 2003

Sun, 08 Jun 2003 00:08:19 GMT

it's been a while huh? xanga has kinda lost its appeal mainly because ive suddenly become ridiculously lazy and well...updating just takes too much energy! but at the request of several individuals here i am typing away about absolutely nothing...

ok my youth group officially SUCKS:
sher3ert: your kiddies keep on saying how sorry they feel that i'm living with you next year
sher3ert:
sher3ert: i met joseph today and he said he felt bad for me...
sher3ert: lol

after 5 huge carts full of stuff in addition to a large number of bags being simultaneously carried...i have finally officially moved into sulz tower for the summer. how the hec did i accumulate so much over the last year ?! i swear i have at least twice as much now than when i started fall semester...at this rate i cant imagine what moving out senior year is going to be like. thanks to greg, johnson, and allan who woke up at 930 and toiled away for the next 2 hours just to help me move =) minus unpacking my clothes, im almost completely settled in altho i already dread the day that everythings going to have to once again be repacked and hauled over to 616...ahh the wonderful benefits of being a college student.

my job is great...the work itself can get pretty mudane at times but its the people who make going to work a blast and moving to sulz means i finally get to be living with them too and wont be in solitary confinement from the world like my last week in 600s where i had no internet, room phone, or suitemates! not too fun...but hey i survived without going too insane...

why does new york weather suck so much? it feels like spring still...im freezing! i actually have ac in sulz and i wanna use it sometime during the summer! i went home last weekend to visit the kiddies and my sunday church and only brought hoome the flipflops i had on my feet...definitely the wrong weekend to be wearing flipflops and my feet were not happy. this weekend wouldnt have been much better tho (altho it was awesome in other ways ;)...rain rain go away! come again another day! i want to see the suuunnnn....

dreamworks34: so i really wanted this jacket i saw yesterday
dreamworks34: it was a north face
dreamworks34: and then i tried a large on
dreamworks 34: and i was like "what the hell? it fits but seems snug"
dreamworks34: and that's weird cuz i know i'm medium
dreamworks34: and then i findout it's a woman's jacket
dreamworks34: omg
dreamworks 34: what the hell
hahahahaha

finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo finding nemo

why does time (<-- thanks kenny =P) always seem to fly by the fastest when you want it to pass by the slowest?

Sunday, April 06, 2003

Sun, 06 Apr 2003 19:04:52 GMT

<--- me taking a pic of myself and greg (hence the reason why our heads are chopped off but i liked this picture anyway so dont criticize my photography skills!) isnt he cute? hehe...ok fine ill keep the mushiness to a minimum so i dont gross any of you out. i dont know why i like the picture so much but...i do...so i figured id share it =P

definitely shouldnt be updating now when i have two tests tomorrow which i havent started studying for yet and theres gospel jam tonight so i only have half a day left...but...oh well =P i need to stop playing so much and get some self control. regulation !! i cant believe the semester is practically over...ahhh where does time go?? basileia or one day? sigh...bu zhi dao =T

watched how to lose a guy in 10 days with jon the other night...every girl would be delighted while every guy would be disgusted. princess sophia's all the way! haha...despite the terrible ending i would recommend it to, especially to girls =P i went to redeemer this morning and ran into a whole bunch of old school friends from abudant! completely random (well minus albert since he's here with atonements for gospel jam)!! what a small small world it is that we live in....

this is how much i love my youth group:
agape724: are you sure it's not a scam?
j c 4eva l u v: the movie ticket thing?
j c 4eva l u v: haha iunno
j c 4eva l u v: ray sent it to me
j c 4eva l u v: so i only sent it to youth group ppl...not ppl at columbia
j c 4eva l u v: cuz u guys cant kill me as easily as they can if it turns out to be a scam =P
agape724: gee, thanks
agape724: i feel so special
j c 4eva l u v: muahhahaha
j c 4eva l u v: =)

this is how ghetto my youth group is:
PrAeSb2GOD: alex got bongos
j c 4eva l u v: haha i heard
PrAeSb2GOD: tim is gona be happy
PrAeSb2GOD: expensive bongos
j c 4eva l u v: oh ya?
j c 4eva l u v: are they nice ?
j c 4eva l u v: im hopin they are if theyre expensive
PrAeSb2GOD: yea
j c 4eva l u v: hot hot hot
PrAeSb2GOD: theyre 190.. but he got them for 120 online
j c 4eva l u v: o niice
j c 4eva l u v: werent u complaining about the case or something ?
PrAeSb2GOD: the case is the best
j c 4eva l u v: haha watever yo
PrAeSb2GOD: same case i would use
PrAeSb2GOD: very chinese case
PrAeSb2GOD: the same box they shipped it in
j c 4eva l u v: hahaha !! no we're not ghetto at all....not one bit...

616 single next year...awww yeah! and ill be on campus all of summer so come play if youre in the city! or in fact...you should allllllll just forget about going home and stay in the city with me =P and theres going to be summer iv again!! hopefully ill be able to attend more regularly than i did last summer when i went a whole 3 times i think...haha oops...

a week that started off as not-so-great ended up not being that bad at all. i cant believe how much i struggle with the same sins time and time again, but slowly God's breaking me and molding me into someone better. the lyrics to vineyard's i surrender says it all:

I'M GIVING YOU MY HEART AND ALL THAT IS WITHIN
I LAY IT ALL DOWN FOR THE SAKE OF YOU MY KING
I'M GIVING YOU MY DREAMS, I'M LAYING DOWN MY RIGHTS
I'M GIVING UP MY PRIDE FOR THE PROMISE OF NEW LIFE

AND I SURRENDER
ALL TO YOU, ALL TO YOU

I'M SINGING YOU THIS SONG, I'M WAITING AT THE CROSS
AND ALL THE WORLD HOLDS DEAR, I COUNT IT ALL AS LOSS
FOR THE SAKE OF KNOWING YOU, FOR THE GLORY OF YOUR NAME
TO KNOW THE LASTING JOY, EVEN SHARING IN YOUR PAIN

i love these lyrics...so beautiful...
anyway time to cram...gospel jam tonight! woohoo =)

Sunday, March 23, 2003

Sun, 23 Mar 2003 19:52:19 GMT

have anyone of you ever been to fairway??? whoa. why hasnt anyone told me of it before?? that place is ridiculous!!! so ridiculous me and jon spent our friday night there (and it gets its on blog)...haha. me and jon get there and of course we try to enter through the exit and cant figure out why the automatic doors wont open. so smart so smart we know =P anyway we get into the fruit/produce and junk food/canned goods section and its relatively huge but not huge huge and im thinking this place is nice, cheap food but not that big..wat the hec is jon talkin about ?? so i told him and he jus laughed and was like lets jus go walk around and not even buy anything. so we did and wow...was i blown away. its exactly like price club minus the free food and they dont sell everything in bulk! the even had an entire refridgerated room!!! aisles upon aisles upon aisles of fooooooooooooooooood....cheap food too!!! i think i like eating too much. jon had to control me from wanting to buy everything i saw. haha. we made a rather impressive dinner..or rather he did and i watched and "learned" =P and then proceeded to get one of the most massive food comas i have ever gotten in my entire life. haha. and that, was my first memorable experience in fairway.

can someone tell me whats wrong with chris?
dreamwOrks34: i got a ski helmet too
dreamwOrks34: i'm wearing it now
dreamwOrks34: i look like mega man
dreamwOrks34: with my helmet and boots on
dreamwOrks34: asian mega man
hahaha...

i spent way too much time watching strongbad last night. i finally know what u boys are talking about!!=P sooo funny....check it out: www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html more things to waste your time with!!!

alex ill help u pray for joe!!!! hahaha...we're so bad. then we can all play together my senior year! woohoo!!!!!! jk jk...joe go wherever you think is best! youll always be my deidei no matter where you are =) but keep in mind that alex is definitely coming here and we want to play with you!=P why do all the kiddies in my youth group have cell phones ?! and why are they all growing up ?!? ahhhh...

hanging out with my youth group this weekend was definitely the best way to end spring break. thanks for the contributions to the stephanie-is-poor-fund !!! i didnt end up using it so now im a whole $3 richer!! woohoo =D i think i crash at jacob/geraldine's too much...hehe...coco (their dog) even recognizes me now!! i woke up to the lovely sensation of a doggy tongue licking me all over my face. nice. i saw jeremy and javelin at the retreat we were at, ive known them since i was 5! tony was there too. such a small small world!

sooo much work to do. no time to do it cuz im off to catch up on 5, yes 5, alias episodes with johnson. yes we know weve gotten a tad behind. so many more ppl are watching it now!!!! hot hot hot =P

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Wed, 19 Mar 2003 19:00:04 GMT

5 seas boys
6 barnard girls
2 plane rides next to drooling boys
1 random lady who i was sitting next to that had the exact same birthday as me!
11 people in 2 rooms for 2 people
0 extra dollars paid for the hotel
1 night on the beach
1 awesome icecream place found thanks to chris
3 girls sharing half a pineapple filled with icecream
2 found coconuts, only 1 that tasted awesome
3 ponchos & 2 umbrellas in the rainforest
1 chance to swim in a waterfall
2 cars, 1 "fun" car that blasted pop music the entire time and got the boys scared
1 night spent in the car
23 bathing suits (girls only)
21 pairs of shoes (girls only)
2 ferry rides to culebra
2 coral reefs (with fish!)
1 night in 1 cheap but beautiful hotel in culebra
2 doggy friends
1 kitty friend
926532312647236 pieces of sand on everyone and everything
8 burned backs
2 burned everything (me and chris =P)
1 bottle of aloe
1 hot puerto rican sun
0 kayacks
13 bug bites
5 goggles
2 swim races
1 night in club laser with the rest of iv
1 dance floor filled with pretty much all iv people (haha)
0 pictures taken with everyone from iv =*(
0 chances to see johnson without his shirt on =*( x2
1 michelle animal dance
4 infamous questions
0 days to sleep in
1 sick girl (me)
5 other groups from columbia that were randomly met (besides those from iv)
5 asians spotted in total (besides us)
3 chinese restaurants
3 famous sonja sarongs
1 boy chicken fight
1 prom pose
3 wendy stops
1 gay beach
1 free trolley
2 quarter bus rides
4 entirely sleepless nights
1 limo ride back from jfk
1 hec of a spring break trip to puerto rico =)

"all right kids, get on the bus!"
"cute and cuddly"
"i chose armen as my animal because he's loyal and strong"
"fudd..rucker! rucker..fudd!"
"death on a stick"
"if this is a planet and this is a planet, is this a planet?"
"PAY ATTENTION!!!"

Thursday, March 06, 2003

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 06:48:53 GMT

i found this story recently and thought it was too cute not to share =P

The Potato Puppy
By Linda Stafford

My four-year-old son, Shane, had been asking for a puppy for over a month, but his daddy kept saying, "No dogs! A dog will dig up the garden and chase the ducks and kill our rabbits. No dog, and that's final!"

Each night Shane prayed for a puppy, and each morning he was disappointed when there was no puppy waiting outside.

I was peeling potatoes for dinner, and he was sitting on the floor at my feet asking for the thousandth time, "Why won't Daddy let me have a puppy?"

"Because they are a lot of trouble. Don't cry. Maybe Daddy will change his mind someday," I encouraged him.

"No, he won't, and I'll never have a puppy in a million years," Shane wailed.

I looked into his dirty, tear-streaked face. How could we deny him his one wish? So I said the words that were first spoken by Eve, "I know a way to make Daddy change his mind."

"Really?" Shane wiped away his tears and sniffed.

I handed him a potato.

"Take this and carry it with you until it turns into a puppy," I whispered. "Never let it out of your sight for one minute. Keep it with you all the time, and on the third day, tie a string around it and drag it around the yard and see what happens!"

Shane grabbed the potato with both hands. "Mama, how do you make a potato into a puppy?" He turned it over and over in his little hands.

"Shh! It's a secret!" I whispered and sent him on his way.

"Lord, you know what a woman must do to keep peace in her home!" I prayed.

Shane faithfully carried his potato around for two days; he slept with it, bathed with it and talked to it.
On the third day I said to my husband, "We really should get a pet for Shane."

"What makes you think he needs a pet?" My husband leaned against the doorway.

"Well, he's been carrying a potato around with him for days. He calls it Wally and says it is his pet. He sleeps with it on his pillow, and right now he has a string tied to it and he's dragging it around the yard," I said.

"A potato?" my husband asked and looked out the window and watched Shane taking his potato for a walk.

"It will break his heart when the potato gets mushy and rots," I said and started getting out food for lunch. "Besides, every time I try to peel potatoes for dinner, Shane cries because he says I'm killing Wally's family."

"A potato?" my husband asked. "My son has a pet potato?"

"Well," I said shrugging, "you said he couldn't have a puppy. He was so disappointed, in his mind, he decided he had to have a pet..."

"That's crazy!" my husband said.

"Maybe you're right, but explain to me why he is dragging that potato around the yard on a string," I said.

My husband watched our son for a few more minutes.

"I'll bring home a puppy tonight. I'll stop by the animal shelter after work. I guess a puppy can't be that much trouble," he sighed. "It's better than a potato."

That night Shane's daddy brought home a wiggling puppy and a pregnant white cat that he took pity on while he was at the shelter.

Everyone was happy. My husband thought he'd saved his son from a nervous breakdown. Shane had a puppy, a cat and five kittens and believed his mother had magic powers that could change a potato into a puppy. And I was happy because I got my potato back and cooked it for dinner.

Everything was perfect until one evening when I was cooking dinner, Shane tugged on my dress and
asked, "Mama, do you think I could have a pony for my birthday?"

I looked into his sweet little face and said, "Well, first we have to take a watermelon....

hahaha...the powers of a mom huh?
=)

everyones gotta watch tien do this dance:
http://etrata.home.attbi.com/flash/banana.swf
if he ever tells you that norman's keychains are supposed to be pulled on, never listen!!! sorry norm =P umm..apparently bubbles are good to eat? crazy boys! and yes to all of you who were mercilessly picking on me the other night, i know what box sets are !!!

chris wants a mail order bride...someone go pick one out for him!!! puahaha...

can i jus say that i have the best small group ever? challenges for all...rock on!! we can do it !!! our favorite website is www.despair.com (if you didnt notice it in all of our away messages one day last week)..check it out! hot stuff...(ray would agree too =D)

two weeks of hell to get to one week of heaven....3 tests and a paper this week, 3 midterms, one test, and one oral exam next week...but what comes after that ??? PUERTO RICO BABY !!!!! awwwww yeah - crystal clear beaches, white sand, warm sun, and one insane island soon to be filled with one-too-many iv people! haha...its gonna be rockin! sigh...gotta get through midterms first...

small group quote of the week:
"no man is worth your tears, the one who is wont make you cry."
we're such hopeless romantics =)

Monday, March 03, 2003

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 06:35:06 GMT

<--- funko, me, and chris all dressed up and ready for some paintball action ! funko looks so hardcore...haha

the wonderful greeting i get the second i come back online tonight:

Lazyazz983 (11:13:34 PM): rawwrrrr
tienlun (11:13:34 PM): rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
sylintjon (11:13:34 PM): rrrrrraaaaawwwwwwrrrrrr
affectless (11:13:34 PM): RAAWWRRRR

haha...silly silly boys

paintballing was definitely the best way to end a stressful week. good friends and crazy fun, what could be better ??? running around like madmen in camos that were way to big, guns that were way too heavy, snow that was way too deep, weather that was way too cold, feet that were way too wet....awwwww yeah =P we all only got a few hours of sleep the night before so im surprised we lasted as long as we did. never sit next to jon on the bus when he's sleeping. and never let mike be a one-man-team on his own, he jus ends up gettin demolished. it hurt alot when u got shot, but definitely worth it. i was only one of two out of my entire team to escape in one of the "games" we played and got a handkerchief as a reward, but i left it on the darn bus!!! ahhh...oh well. still one of the best highlights of the semester by far =)

jon (liu)'s a pimp.
all girls beware!!

Monday, February 24, 2003

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 06:32:03 GMT

lunar gala was so much fun!!! the craziness of the past week was definitely worth it. ribbon dancing roockkkeeedd, im in love with it now =) and no to a certain someone, i did not develop muscles as a result...haha. good job everyone!! and thanks to those who came to "support" me (ie. kai) when they didnt really want to altho i never made anyone come! i still didnt quite understand the fashion show part.....

melon307: i saw u practice
melon307: for lunar gala
melon307: with flags of some sort
flags ?!?! dan shin...ribbons! RIBBONS!!!

i gave chris a bruise after only punching him 3 times. HAHAHAHA.
[ bow ] thank you thank you, 19 years of jeff traning...no doubt!

special birthday shoutouts to norman, adam, and of course my one and only

paintballing and iceskating comin up soon!!!
wooo i have something to look forward too =)
am i the only one who thinks this semester is flying by??? crazy...

[ dying because ive been alias-deprived ]
someone save me