Ten thousand words

Well, here are ten pictures, that altogether speaks ten thousand words. But I will add some captions :D
For those of us who are not with us now in Santa Clarita, we are still hanging out in Waldock Lounge, and taking it over...but no one notices me nearly as much as Rhi now. Harrison is hanging out there more too, which is amazing. The guy sitting against the blue chair in the bottom right is my friend from Fresno, Jacob Baker, who is now attending TMC. Its cool having him around.

Yup, you cannot mistake that hair, that is Rae, cutting a cake, with a MASSIVE KNIFE (I think borrowed from Brian) all for the guy in the background with the fedora. At first you might not know which Fedora-toting CS major that is, until you are effected by the flash-bang like qualities of his Canadian-white arm. This was at the beginning of the semester for Dallas J. Hoekstra's birthday party! Which doubled as a LAN party as well. It was a really good time at the beginning of the semester, to give recognition to Dallas, as well as to be reacquainted with our friends that we had not seen, or not been able to talk with that much.

While we all played games Joseph and Rhi were being super productive...or at least we think that they may have been...Joe has been super busy with his classes and practically a part time job. Both he and Rhi are taking intensive upper division classes for their major.





Scott!!! Anyone find it ironic that a guy from Oregon is wearing an In-N-Out shirt? He is also a TA now, which is really cool! But also sounds like a lot of work...He played Gotcha and survived until exactly 1 minute until the game was over...laaaaaaame.

 Life went as normal for a while, with lots of insanity and fun. But then I got a chance (last minute!) to go to Yosemite with my family! It was amazing, and this picture is from a hike that we took, rock hopping, trying to find some caves. That is my brother on the far right (the crazy looking one).

 The hike was pretty fun, especially when this happened ----->
If you look carefully at the middle, that is a friendly little rattler that my brother Landrew almost stepped on...It was really scary, but God totally opened his eyes to see when he really should not have been able to see it where it was. It was a startling and sobering moment, but so seemed the entire week. (We did find some fun caves! But they were from rock falls, not from water).

This is my brother and sister-in-law! I really missed them, and got to ride up and back with them, which was such a blessing! I am working on a website for my brother now too. But it was such a blessing to be with my family, and to see old friends. It was a really encouraging time.

These are my kids :) I am working at AWANAs now at Placerita, which is not easy at all, but is so incredibly good. These kids are so sweet, and I am really looking forward to working with them this semester, and the next. We are the "Orange" group. I approve.

The sunsets here are just as beautiful, and campus is equally as amazing with its odd mixture of untamed wilderness and well-kept gardens, all mixing into a beauty that can't help but show how awesome God is.

Happy Birthday Rae

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TxgDQqDEZo&edit=ev&feature=uenh

A Random Note to Charity

Hey, Charity! I don't know your e-mail, and you don't have Facebook, and I'm never on Skype, so this is pretty much the only way I can tell you this.

I'm in your room this year. Rocio's on your old side. :)

That's all.

Love,

~Camille

Bandwagons....

Well I'm back at school. And I'll have to say, this is going to be the hardest and best school year of my life; following the hardest and possibly the best summer of my life. 21 work hours and 17.5 credits, I'm going to be learning a lot about time management this year. That said however, I'm so blessed to to be back here, there was a lot of doubt about whether college would be at Master's or at a JC back home. I decided it would be Master's and I'd let God take care of the rest. He's done it so far, and let me tell you, His planning is so much better than mine. :P Trusting Him to do the rest.

Well I guess 10 random things...

1. Hotchkiss women is the best dorm. Period. Forget the ants.
Followed by Waldock and Slight men, the order of those depends on who I'm hanging out with at any given time.

2. Gotcha is going to wreak havoc on my grades...

3. The beach and 6 Flags are the two things on my bucket list this semester.

4. Epic pranks wars may be in progress.... You better get someone to watch your butt, Joe. ;)

5. I have to watch Ocean's 12 and 13 by the end of this week.

6. Six is irrelevant...

7. Weston forgot to invite me to this nifty little thing.

8. My roommate and I are making a lot of noise typing, I feel sorry for the girl trying to nap in here. I guess that's kinda what happens when you take a nap at 12:30 am though.

9. I discovered tonight that a couple of us have dreams where we save each others lives... This was highly amusing.

10. White text, this isn't the only incident of this either.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of,,,wait, what?

Well, I got a job, and with it came a lot of perks. A lot of perks. I get a special desk, a new computer to use (2 actually), a steady pay check, school mostly paid for, really good insurance, a wonderful work place, practical work experience, a constantly challenging work flow, and even some free food. This, for me, is all I really need to be happy (barring my desire for adventure). But after getting it, I am reminded of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Nothing in this can truly make me happy at all, all it can do is leave me with a desire for things to gratify myself with. This all brings me back again to how really pointless life really is in comparison to Christ, times like this remind me again how you can gain the entire world and yet not be "happy", the true happiness, more appropriately joy, can only come through knowing and treasuring Christ. I guess you could say that it is freshly reminding me how much greater than life Jesus Christ is, and how through Him I can be made right with God and have a relationship with Him. I am so thankful for all of the opportunities that I have now to learn this.

Well, in lieu of that rant, I want to now conform to my peers and make a list of 10 things, with no actual category for what they entail. Just ten things.

1) You can really meet the most fun (and odd) people by fixing their computers. Its really interesting how much a person's life is invested in their computer, and how when fixing it you have to watch exactly what you say. I guess for a person who goes through computers faster than a cat through a dog pound, it never really hit me how much people's lives (especially students) are dependent on a functional one.

2) I am so missing chapel, not being able to go because of work and school is really hard. The encouraging music with everyone, the solid teaching, the discussions about it.

3) Computers have lost their attraction. When I first came to school, I loved computers, and always wanted to have the newest one, or at least dream of it, and to work on them. After a year here though, God has really reset my view of them, they are expendable and will burn in the end, with something better always on the horizon. Why have the best or obsess over them?

4) We have plans of starting an archery club :) We need to talk with the school administration, they probably won't let a bunch of kids play with bows and arrows (even Eagle Scouts). But it will be fun to pursue, if anyone wants to help us, please do!!!

5) The broken clock in Waldock is so much fun, watching people freak out when they find out what time it really is. "Nah, I got a few hou...wait....AHHHHH!!!!!".

6) Rhi is still obsessing over Del Taco, Jack In The Box, pink, shoes, pickles, pepperoni, pink (did I mention that?), JAG, pizza delivery.

7) Dallas is laughing over fun yet very nerdy jokes, which is always enjoyable (as long as you can understand them!)

8) Did I mention that God is awesome?

9) Living off campus is weird, but not too weird. Its just like being on campus, I spend most of my time in Waldock, the library, the computer services building, class, and the lower caf. Only go home to sleep...and eat cold pizza.

10) I still seem to be spending a lot of time in Dixon...its really weird...but I have found that all of them are from when people drag me there...so totally not my fault! I am not a creeper, I swear!!!

push 'play' to pause

It is good to be back.

This first week after coming back stateside has been nothing but hectic, running back and forth from classes and seeing familiar faces, standing in the longest caff lines you ever clapped your eyes on, and just the kind of fellowship that is characterized by both bellyaching laughter and moments of deep sincere care that I have grown to love and miss of the tribe over the summer.

The freshmen are taking over the campus! From filling up the chapel to the brim and over, to making it a well-meaning fight in the caff over the last banana, the freshmen are truly everywhere. Praise the Lord! He is indeed using this school to reach more and more young men and women to prepare them from being unworthy vessels, to be still unworthy vessels, but now consecrated and aligned to hearing the Word of God.

Chapel is something that i have missed sorely. The opportunity to be in a hot gym packed with students with one accord praising our Heavenly Father does not present itself every day, and I cherish each moment.

This year, I am a junior! my my, how time passes quickly. I don't know about you, but after hitting junior year, school suddenly seems to speed up. The brevity of 15 weeks is suddenly glaring one in the eye, while the list of tasks that demand attention and completion seems to grow longer than the hotchkiss stairs.

I have found that the sweetest moments in my day are not when I'm walking with friends to class, or even enjoying a decent meal at the caff, but they are in the morning when all is still and i have a moment to spend with my Savior. It may seem tempting to sleep that extra 10-15 minutes, then lazily lumber over to the restroom to get cleaned up for school, then let one's thoughts wander as we get ready for the day, however it is crucial to take time out of the day to spend with the One who by far loves us the most. Indeed, this is the only way that we can truly enjoy our day: by pausing before it begins, to spend but a brief moment with the Lord.