One Year Older

My roomates surprised me when I got home from work.

The Yummy Fruit Tart we had! Yum!!

Well, on October 24, 2007, I (Christy) became one year older. Now I am a young (yep still young), wiser, more experienced 26 year old. But wow, do I ever have more learning and growing to do! =) My birthday was more of a week long celebration, which was very nice. I was surprised on Monday morning. I came in for work at the clinic to find my coworkers singing "Happy Birthday," and cinnamon rolls for breakfast (yumm!). Then at lunch time they took me out to Olive Garden. It was a day that was very sweet (between the cinnamon rolls and chocolate cake at Olive Garden...I think I need to run more miles!).

On my actually birth-day, I worked at the hospital, which was a nice day. The special thing there was one of my patients an 84 year-old male, who in the morning thought he was a doctor and was roaming the halls because he thought he needed to go to work (yes, he was very confused). Well, he sang Happy Birthday to me. The sweetest thing was when he got to the part with my name, he sang this: "Happy Birthday, whatever your name is, Happy Birthday to you!" And boy did he sing it with all gusto. This act of song was brought on by his daughter who had said, "Dad, did you know it's your nurses birthday today?" (She had overheard someone wishing me happy birthday in the hallway). So that patient definitely made me smile. After work, I was able to be treated to dinner by some of my co-workers. It was a nice to relax. Then when I got home around 9:30pm that night, I opened our apartment door to all my roommates and Tobin wearing Happy birthday hats and singing again! Then I opened a couple wonderful gifts from Tobin and my sister, and we had this Fruit Cream Pie...Yum!!!!

I definitely have felt very loved. Thank you all for you birthday wishes, phone calls, text messages, emails, etc. Man, there are so many great ways to keep in touch these days!

Now on to the next milestone....packing and moving to Oregon in one month! We'll keep you posted. =)

A Flexible Weekend

This past weekend was planned to go camping all weekend, but the Thursday and Friday prior things changed a bit. First off we found out the campsite hadn't been booked and now it was full...so plan B: So our Long Beach Apartment decided to have a roommate bonding weekend.



Saturday: Mountain Bike Ride
Sunday: Drive to Carlsbad/Encinitas, surf and then camp
Monday: Sea Kayak/Snorkel/Swim/Have fun



Well, then on Friday I find out that I'm working on Sunday, so Plan C...


Saturday: Mountain Bike Ride - Amazing, fun, 15 miles of up (try to ride up, fall off, and then walk the bike up) and barrel down the hill, while riding both brakes the entire time. The grade downhill was such an incline that I had to lean backwards over my seat to not flip forward!

At the very top!

Mani (one of our roomates), me, and Tobin

Sunday: Work a 12 hr shift, that ended up being one of the most difficult/busiest shifts I've worked, had no lunch break, ate a granola bar and a few bites of chip/salsa, then drove down to Carlsbad meet my roommates, Tobin, and another Friend Jana who is also a Fellow - who had been surfing and playing in the sun all day (just slightly jealous, but still ok because they had mallows and s'mores waiting for me!). Slept in tents in the campground set with the Pacific Coast Hwy just in our backyard and the beach/ocean in our front yard. =) It was an experience, and lots of fun!

Yumm, S'mores! I think one might be burning...

Tobin slept in a hammock!

Yumm, pizza for breakfast. Breakfast of Champions!

Monday: We drove to beautiful La Jolla and went sea kayaking and snorkeling. I swam with Leopard Sharks!!! And I heroically saved Tobin from them.....just kidding, they were harmless! It was beautiful and incredible fun to be out on the ocean in a kayak for 3 1/2 hours. Mani, one of our roommates, snorkeled the entire time!!! His fingers were like prunes by the time we were done. Anyways, definitely makes me want to go to Hawaii and see more beautiful reefs and fish, but I've got to learn how to unplug my ears, and how to properly blow water "OUT" of my snorkel rather than suck "IN." =)

-disclaimer: sorry no pictures of the sharks or snorkeling...didn't want to get the camera wet. But believe me it was be-a-U-TI-ful!!!


So despite plan A failing, plan B failing, plan C turned out to be wonderful! And now since I've worked this next week won't be as crazy for me! Shows that God's plan is better to trust in and not be bitter when things change. =)