It's a wonderful life!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and was able to feel the magic of Christ's love with family and friends. It's been so wonderful being home and getting to see friends and family. 

Every Christmas for the past couple of years, my family has started the tradition of watching It's a Wonderful Life. If you've never seen it, I highly suggest it! It's the BEST Christmas movie, and I would consider myself somewhat of a Christmas movie expert. It's a great movie that reminds you how important family is and it also shows you how much of an impact you can make, even if everything hasn't gone according to your plan. This movie never fails to make me tear up and appreciate the important things. 

I'm updating this blog after Christmas ( shh...sorry to let the cat out of the bag). Anyways one of the teachers I work with was asking me what I got for Christmas. I got lots of great things (boots, giftcards, clothes, money) but when she asked me that, what popped into my head wasn't the most expensive gift I received, nor was it the prettiest. Instead it was a small little assortment of Marzipan shaped into little fruits. Marzipan is an almond paste that is actually pretty tasty and it can be molded into different shapes, usually used for decoration.

Well, when my GrandMary was alive every Christmas we would make a cake together. One year in particular we decided to get fancy and make some sort of Yule Log cake that called for Marzipan for the decorations on top. We could not find it anywhere. We called one of the local bakeries , sure they would be able to help us out, but then when my grandmother called and asked if they had any Marzipan, the employee responded, "Uh...Sorry ma'am we don't have that kinda pan here." She was putting marzi-pan in the same category as bunt pan, cookie pan, frying pan. We laughed about that for years and it's one of my funniest memories of my GrandMary, so when I unwrapped that small gift this year, it really made me smile. I ended up making a blueberry lemon cake that my GrandMary used to make and I was able to top it off with a little Marzipan! To me those little things are what make Christmas so special! ( Don't worry, Jesus being born is pretty special too) :) 

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas!

So excited to get back to Texas, but I had a lot of fun with my fellow City Years before heading to the Lone Star State! Between ugly sweater parties, finding a puppy at school, and looking at beautiful Christmas lights and hitting up downtown Sac, it was a great way to end 2013 in California and get excited for Christmas!

Check out the awesome lights in the middle of my collage. Near Trader Joes, my favorite grocery store, there are several streets that ban together to put out killer Christmas lights! One street hung up lights across the canopy of the street, while others all wrapped their trees with candy cane lights! And on one street a man got creative and had a theme with his house and both neighbors on either side of him. He called it Christmas past, present, and future. I didn't get a shot of Christmas future, but you can see where for Christmas past he tried to replicate the house from "A Christmas Story", all he's missing is the leg lamp in the window. And then for Christmas present he has a man trying to put up Christmas lights, falling down with a firetruck there to help him down. For Christmas future he parked his smart car in front of the house and attached wings to make it look like it could fly! So cool!

For our Rosa Parks Christmas party we had a really fun white elephant gift exchange, where everyone fought for the blanket I brought, everyone avoided getting the dish soap someone brought, and where I ended up with a really cute penguin coffee mug. Our team leaders also gave everyone handmade bracelts with a word or something that reminded them of us. Mine reads "mini- Lindz' because I remind Eric of Mrs. Barber, the teacher I work with! Which is great because I aspire to be like her in many ways!

YAY CHRISTMAS! 

Christmas Cheer!

           

T'was the night before Christmas break when all through the apartment,

 not a creature was stirring, except for a Sammie, 

she baked cookies for so long that her hands got clammie (nothing good rhymes with Sammie)

After making cards 'til the early morn, to spread Christmas cheer,

She never expected what she would hear, 

for she was not the only one planning a surprise,

when she got to class, she couldn't believe her eyes!

So basically, I work with the best English teacher ever. Also City Year is out every other Friday for corps wide meetings at the office. Last Friday we were out, and that's when Mrs. Barber decided to do the "apple" project. I kept hearing things about the "apple" project, but wasn't really sure what it was. Then today, in first and second period they presented me with a cute box full of sweet, sweet notes my students had written me, and gifts a few of them had brought in for me. It was so touching. I cannot stop reading the letters and am sure they will serve as a source for motivation as the year goes on. I love every single one of my students so much.

Here's a few I'll share:

                                

Hmong New Year!

Hmong New Year was one of the best nights serving at Rosa Parks this year! After school the Hmong Club hosted a Hmong New Year celebration complete with a talent show and tons of delicious Hmong cuisine. During my time in Sacramento I've learned so much about Hmong culture and tonight being able to watch so many of my students dance and sing in the talent show, representing their culture was amazing! My team member ,Lao, even shared his family's traditional Hmong clothing with some of us for the event! The clothes are so  delicate and sometimes are sewn and worked on for a year or more before they are ready to be worn.

 Earlier this week the choir and band put on a performance during school, so between that and the performances tonight, I have felt like a proud mom! There is one student who is super sweet, but very timid, and in both the Hmong New Year celebration and the choir shows, she had solos and performed with confidence and a sparkle I hadn't seen in her. Now every time I see her, I make a huge deal out of how amazing of a singer she is, and I always get a giant smile from her. Tonight was just one of those nights where I know I'm where I'm meant to be.

kuv hlub koj ( I love you!) 

Instant Aging

If you ever want to feel instantly older repeat these words to someone:
 "Look at me when I'm talking to you."

In the past four months, I  feel like I understand what parents go through so much more than I did before. And with winter break fast approaching, I find myself having to have more and more "Get it together" talks with my seventh graders. Get it together....start doing you're homework, stop trying to "get by" and instead, get busy, I don't want you to get kicked out of this class because you're not doing the work, .....ect. The best is when you're having one of these conversations with said seventh grader and not only are they not looking at you, but they also have ear buds in their ears....REALLY? Really they do. lol I just want to yank them out. haha Luckily, there are more kids in my class that are trying hard to finish out strong than there are that need to "get it together".

A lot to be thankful for

Such a wonderful and much needed Thanksgiving back in good 'ole Beaumont, TEXAS! I was able to see many friends, family, and share a lot of laughs! I even put a little blonde in my hair, thanks to my favorite hair stylist and mother, Jay Sheppard!

Fun with Josh and Jeanan 

Birthday dinner for Theresa with Kyler!

Winter Camp at Woodleaf

I had a tramendous time this weekend with my Sacramento Capernaum friends at Woodleaf Winter YoungLife Camp. We laughed. We ate. We played in mud. We danced. We listened to beautiful talks. We sang. We learned more about Christ.

Exactly what I needed after GRE weekend and before Christmas season began!

This is how I felt about taking the GRE

Felt much better after some rollerblading and getting awesome gifts from my favorite girls! 

11-12-13

Nothing big to take note of today, except the fact that today's date is pretty awesome!

11/12/13

Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day!

I started my day with donating blood, which felt great cause I was long overdue for a donation, it's been awhile! Then I headed over to my teamleader's grandma's house were my two TLs had made an amazing brunch for our Rosa Parks City Year team! There we ate delicious food and played bored games. Later we went paintballing, which was scary. haha It was actually really fun. But, I had never been before, so I spent the first couple rounds hiding behind a wall afraid to move.

Nice to start my Veteran's Day donating blood in honor of the blood shed for our country and to end it with a battle of our own of the paintball field.

Thank you to all those who serve and protect us. 

Taste and See

The Lord is so good. In the Capernaum club talk tonight, Colleen gave a great talk. If we are going to bake something, like a cake for instance, the ingredients ( baking soda, flour, salt, sugar) are not good by themselves; instead they are bland, tasteless, bad, except for maybe sugar, it's good! Our lives, too, are big mixing bowls full of the mundane, hard times, trials, and wonderful things. Separately these chapters in our lives don't do much for us, but when we mix them all together, God creates a beautiful life for us, a beautiful cake! It's important sometimes to step back and look at the big picture. Tonight was a good reminder of that. 

This was a wonderful weekend, not as full of GRE studying as it needed to be, but nonetheless it was great. I did get some studying done, and I also got to hang out with lots of beautiful people. I got together with some people from City Year last night, went to Crazy Hair club at Capernaum, talked to so many great friends over the phone (you too, Mom!) and I even made muffins from scratch with my new friend. 

I got a job hanging out with a really cool eleven year old on Saturday mornings and this Sat. we made blueberry, pomegranate, white chocolate chip muffins from scratch. They turned out spectacularly! That may be another reason that verse really applys to me right now. I've been cooking up a lot of good food! 

I love middle schoolers ( Wait, did I just say that?)

I keep forgetting to post this. A few weeks ago in our after-school classroom, one of my seventh graders claimed to be finished with his homework, so I told him to make me a list of things he knew about Rosa Parks because that is the name of our school and then I planned on letting him research more and figure out how many new things he could learn. 

...But then, this is what I got. 

He gave me a list of the different parts of campus. I couldn't help but laugh a little when he told me he had completed his list. Luckily, he did know a few things about the actual person Rosa Parks! lol  

Dia de los Muertos

We had fun this week teaching the elementary students about Dia de los Muertos, and decorating cookies with them! Also, take note of the foil necklace I'm wearing in the bottom right picture. I made that little beauty in my after-school art club! 

notes in the hallway...better left unread haha

So.... I found this outside the cafeteria last week and I couldn't help but laugh.

 I should be happy she at least used the correct punctuation ending marks. 

Thankful

Tonight I was able to see the opening night production of "Soldadernas", a beautiful play that captures stories of women doing the Mexican Revolution.It it a wonderful job, capturing a sense of authenticity that I feel is hard to come by. In the Q & A section after the play, one of the actresses spoke of the play as unraveling some of the stories that were never told.  It was a great play and I was in the audience with the niece of Cezar Chavez, which was really neat. I am so thankful to the women and people that have went before me, paving the road to a better future. We are not done yet, but it is because of the strong people that have gone before us that we are able to continue to do our best to #makebetterhappen.

I also have a huge urge to listen to Mexican music in the car now!

Picture Day!

We got our school pictures today! Looks like they don't get any better as an adult. haha

Comfy, Cosy

My landlord finally put up my shelf in my room, and it is complete! 

Happy Falloween!

Today was wonderful. Scaringly wonderful. This week is red ribbon week and so every day is a different dress-up theme. Yesterday's was stuffed animal day and today's was nerd day. I have always loved red ribbon week and I'm so glad to be back in public school, so i can participate! I dressed my City Year normal look up a little with a few small modifications: lopsided ponytails, glasses with a band aid in the center, my polo buttoned to the top, and my ensemble would be incomplete without the coffee stain, where I "accidentally" spilled coffee on myself this morning.

Today was also our middle school Falloween dance. It began right after school, and the amazing teacher I work with is also in charge of student government and all the school events. Needless to say, I spent the majority of my day getting things ready for the dance. It turned out great! City Year hosted a Haunted House that they had to walk through in order to get into the dance. It was great! I was a zombie and I kept screaming, " Help I'm trapped!" "I need a date to the dance" and different things like that. After the kids went through, it was time to chaperon. Some chaperons might like to hang back and be ready to pounce if kids get to close. But for me, I take a different approach. Instead I get right in the mix with everyone and pull out the most ridiculous dance moves I know. Sprinkler anyone? What about the Egyptian dance? Or the hand rolling that is ever so popular? Dancing super silly actually helped keep kids from dancing too close. I distracted them. And some of them even joined in, either to make fun of me or to have fun with me. lol It could have easily been either one. Anyways it turned out great!

Happy Falloween!

[She] has fought the good fight, [She] has finished the race, [She] has kept the faith

Today marks a year since my GrandMary has been gone. I still think about her all the time and miss her a lot. I miss her when I'm cooking. I think of her every time I go to mass, knowing that without her strong Catholic faith, I would not have been raised Catholic. While I wish my GrandMary was still with us, I take comfort in knowing that God has got her back and that I will see her again someday. I'm hoping she's saving a spot for me up there!

Link to the video I made ( may not work)

Weekend of fun

This was one of my best weekends in a while! It started with strawberry margaritas with some City Year friends. Don't worry because our jobs have turned us into old people, I was still in bed before midnight, as was my roommate and her friends. The next morning was wonderful!

1. I FINALLY GOT MY FOOD STAMPS

I know, I know, these are not the words most college grads long to hear themselves say.

And while I would have never thought I would be so excited to get them, but I really am. If I didn't get them, I could definitely be okay, but by accepting them, I'll be able to eat healthier and not stress about money this year. 

Anyways after I got them, I ran down to the Farmer's Market, where I had to move quickly and ended up buying a lot of tomatoes and some really good bread. Next, I picked up two of my City Years and we headed to the Rosa Park Lady's Volleyball Tournament! This is our girls first year of volleyball and, while they didn't have a lot of wins under their belts, it has been really awesome watching them become better and better. By the end of today, they were finally calling balls, going for balls, and getting serves in. The Rosa Parks team fought hard and it was a close game, but they ended up loosing in the end. I was a proud supporter though! I was probably driving everyone around me crazy yelling "Go Rosa Parks!" "Nice Job, Ladies!!" throughout the entire game. It was also cool  for some of the girls in my English class to see me in real clothes! One of them told me today that when she started getting mad at the game, she would hear me cheer and it would make her smile! :) Moments like that make it all worth it. 

Later on, I did something I've really been meaning to do for a while. I went to reconciliation, confession. I hadn't gone since probably March and especially after moving to a new City, I really wanted to. I almost didn't make it, but I convinced myself to go, and I'm so glad that I did. I love going to confession. Some people can't wrap their heads around it Why go see a priest when you can just tell God yourself? I can think of several reasons. There's something different about saying your sins out loud, a way of really owning them. I think also you go into confession thinking This priest is gonna judge me and think I'm terrible. Then, after stepping into the confessional, the opposite happens. He doesn't wag his finger at you and point out all your mistakes, instead he reminds you of God's mercy, forgiveness, and everlasting love. You walk out feeling new, and what better way to start the weekend. 

Sunday morning I went to church and on wimb even decided to stay for a Women's Breakfast, which was lovely and  I made some friends. After mass, I made my way over to my new favorite coffee job with to die for Mexican Chocolate Iced Mochas ( so good, you have to capitalize). I got a little GRE stuff done, mostly just enough to stress myself out and realize how much work I have to do between now and the 17th. :/ 

I ended my night with Capernaum. Right where I belonged. Capernaum Sacramento is trying to raise more awareness and funds, so tonight they held a summit, where they talked about different things and had some really great speakers. One of the speakers was Nick Palermo, who founded Capernaum! It was so exciting to meet the man responsible for one of the best parts of my life these past three years! I had a great time talking with people and hanging out with friends with special needs. I only wish it happened every week instead of every two weeks. In the summit, we heard some really great things, that I couldn't help but take notes. 

Our  friends with special needs teach us too...

have Joy in a sad world. 

Love in a hateful world. 

have Gratitude in a whiny world.

Be loved for who we are, not what we do. 

"Everyone wants to do something good with their life, they just don't know where to start."

Be comfortable being uncomfortable. 

BUBBLES

Not the best picture of me, but today I got to blow bubbles as students ran through to wait for the bell to ring! Every morning we "power greet" the kiddos as they make their way to school! Usually we sing different songs, but today we added bubbles in the mix!

Pumpkins

After a wild week, I got to have a little fun Thursday night with my roommate Jocelyn! We went to a coffee shop down the street from our house that was having a pumpkin carving contest. It was her first time carving pumpkins, so we had fun! We only competed against two other people, but they gave us a run for our money. One guy carved his German Shepherd, lol. We were proud of our Dia de los Muertos  pumpkin! And even though we went into Trader Joes ( grocery store) 5 minutes before it closed, that didn't stop us from getting a clerk to take a quick picture of us in the beetle-juice cutout!