Month: February 2006

  • EDIT: American Idol
    So, the game is on. Christy and I are voting separately. Brenna was far too idiotic tonight, she’s definately going home. The second was a little bit harder to figure out, but I’m going to have to go with Heather Cox, mostly based on the fact that she hasn’t had as much exposure to America. I don’t think we’ve had a chance, or wanted a chance, to love her. I don’t think she has a big fan base out there voting her through, and her song wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t fantastic either. Yeah, I don’t think anyone else will be singing a Mariah song for a while…



    I GOT A JOB!

    Praise the Lord!

    So the job hunt has been an ongoing saga in our lives for the last several months. We started looking into employment opportunities as soon as we told our Pastor that we were leaving Midway, so counting back–Daniel looks at the calendar–that’s exactly 17 weeks ago (approx. 4 months). Wow. Yeah, we dropped the bomb to Pastor Baize on Halloween, and he asked us to take a couple weeks to pray about it and make sure before we announced it to everyone else. I can’t believe we’ve been looking for a job for that long!

    Well, we’ve looked at churches galore, a credit union, a temp agency, three different jobs at APU, and several other things that I can’t even remember right now. After a million interviews and appointments with all of the above places, I finally got somewhere with the registrar’s office at APU. I had a couple of interviews that were cool and after a couple of weeks of figuring stuff out on their end, the boss called and offered me the job today! Yahoo! I am now officially the Articulations Administrator at Azusa Pacific University. I cannot tell you how excited I am!

    Quick side note: it is obvious to us that God has been working in this situation to guide us and lead us to this place. It’s hard to explain, but looking back at the events as they unfolded, even in the past week, we can see how the timing has worked out perfectly so that I am completely confident that this is the right thing to do. Thanks for all of your prayers!

    So…what does the Articulations Administrator do? You mean, what am I going to be doing at APU? Well, this is a brand new position that they are creating, and have wanted to create for around twenty years. I will be working in the office of the registrar, and will be in charge of…oh, you know what? Just take a look here…so much easier…


    Other News:
    Since we love ministering to people through music and worship, we will also be looking into a few different part-time church positions. There is one job right now that we are looking into at the church where Christy grew up and her parents still attend. There is a music assistant position open; that person would be in charge of leading worship at their video venue, a worship environment geared towards those college types…and it sounds like it would be really cool. In addition, they are desperately looking for someone to take over their kids choir–which is a really big deal to the church. It’s the same kids choir that Christy grew up in and they have had the same director for 25 years (her same director). This lady had to retire from doing it because of health reasons, and it’s actually a pretty sad situation, but what a huge thing if one of this lady’s kids  choir members stepped in to carry on the ministry. I think it would be the tops, honestly. No better situation to come into…let’s be praying for that to happen!

    Ok, we’re just finishing up here in Twain Harte, and then back to LA. Oh–I start APU on March 15th. AND I rocked the next Starbucks Crossword puzzle, except I had to phone-a-friend for the final question. It was hard! Thanks Uncle Lee!

    Also-I’m going to rock the American Idol competition, so watch out bloggers! Read Mike’s entry if you’re not up to speed…

    I got a job! I’m jumping for joy! Man, who knew it would take so long?
    Thanks to all of your who have been supporting us and praying for us!

  • OK- I took a good half-day off from listening to RENT and I’m not Rent-ed out anymore. I’m ready for more!
    “Rent Rent Rent Re-ent Rent!!!”


    Well-

    We watched RENT again last night, and listened to it all the way up to Twain Harte. Wow. I certainly caught a WHOLE lot more the second time I watched it. More character stuff, deeper meaning to the lyrics–it’s been incredible. However, I may be a little RENT-ed out. I’m not totally burned out on it, ’cause I still love the music and stuff, but it’s been pretty constant over the past several days. However again, we have deciphered a whole new layer to the meaning of many of the lyrics and the musical overall–a meaning that makes it all the more incredible. I’m not sure how to describe it other than it has been like peeling an onion…layer after layer after layer.
    …and Heidi walked out in the first five minutes. I’m so dissapointed…

    Jubilee was fun, except that Noah was pretty crabby for most of the time. Nathaniel had a great time playing with his cousins in the game room, and he was very excited to buy a little blue velcrow wallet with the tickets he won from playing the games. It’s cool to know now that he’s old enough so we can leave him with his cousins that are like 10 and 12 and 5 and he can have a great time and we don’t have to worry about watching him every second–they are responsible enough to keep an eye on him and make sure he’s OK and not lost or anything…it’s a cool new thing…

    I can’t wait for Sunday’s Starbucks crossword puzzle! I have the first one done and I will rock this one too! Free coffee for life is a-comin’! I can feel it!
    Also-they have different Starbucks pastries up here, so I had a Lowfat Cranberry-Apple Muffin. Yum!

    And believe me, I know that I’m a linkin fool. I apologize in advance to Shantelle and whoever else that is extremely stressed out by the over-abundance of links. I just don’t have a job, that’s all. I promise, as soon as I get a job I will stop linking so much. I will reduce my linkage to a reasonable amount. Until then, however, be warned.

    Oh yeah-Christy has never seen the original Thriller video from waaaay back when. The only thing she knows of it is the scene from 13 Going on 30 where they reinact it. I downloaded it from iTunes and she’s gonna watch the original…she is compelled to after they danced to it on Dancing with the Stars on Thursday night. So funny…but she just loves cool dancing with lots of people doing it all at once.

    Oh yeah- iTunes has now sold one billion songs in just three years. Amazing. It is true what they say–Apple may be taking over the world…and actually, that might be OK with me, as long as I get to keep my G5…and my 23″ Widescreen HD display.

  • American Idol: OK,  I was half-right.


    OK, ok…I’ll post.

    I really appreciate this new html editor for entries, it’s like looking at Microsoft Word while typing your blog–which is cool. The link is to one of the designer’s pages, where he gives a link to try it out, and you can switch back and forth if you don’t like it. Try it out, bloggers!

    American Idol
    I didn’t enjoy the show that much. Chris, the rock guy, rocked. I did enjoy his performance. I call Copa-Cobana-Bobby and Freaky-Smile-Gideon to go home tonight. However, by the time you read this (most of you, anyway) you’ll probably already know. I already posted who I think is going home of the girls, but just in case you missed it, here they are.

    The Job Hunt
    Going along. Met today with people from two of the three potential jobs I have on the plate. I probably will know more in the next few days about it all, and will post as soon as I know anything.

    Other
    -I’m still listening to RENT. I’m growing more and more attached to it and the songs are constantly going through my head…Heidi, if you just had someone to help you understand what was going on, you probably would be ok…if you haven’t seen it you’re really missing out!

    -The Apprentice starts Monday. Yahoo!

    -Noah is making good progress with the therapist. I’m sure Christy will write all about it…stay tuned.

    -Not much else on my mind right now…but that doesn’t mean much!

    -Melody and Chris aren’t losers anymore.

    here are two pics, one is with Nathaniel, and one is with Noah. See if you can tell which…

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  • Add’l Edit:

         You’re Jack. Take a break from being perfect.

    I took a LOST quiz. Sorry. I don’t have a job…gotta do something.


    EDIT ADD:
    American Idol: The vocal lesson girl is my favorite (I wanna say…Katherine?)

    Christy and I call Brenna and Stevie to go home. Stevie’s performance was the weakest performance we’ve EVER seen at this level of the competition in the history of the show. An embarassment. Sorry girl. Go back to the opera!

    Also– Christy and I have a new love for the play/movie RENT.  We saw the play in NYC and liked it (see Christy’s blog) but I actually turned the movie off half-way through. Then Christy convinced me to watch the sp. features, where they did a good 2 hour documentary on Johnathan Larson (the writer) who died the day the show opened, tragically. It was an amazing documentary and made me love the film/show. Anyway–we finished it and have been singing the songs ever since. I think we actually stayed up until about 1:30AM Monday night watching it…but you can do that when you don’t have a job!


    Finished the requirements for my class tonight…in other words-I’m done with that course! This quarter isn’t even over until March 16th or something,  but I don’t have to go back to that class at all! Yippee! On the other hand, I need to work on my final project for the other class–I turned in one project the prof wasn’t too happy about, I’m not even sure why (but I have an idea…).

    A VERY cool html editor now…you should check it out. Click on your user name and underneath the section that says things like New Weblog Entry there should be somthing about using a new version of the html editor…you might have to try it a few times.

    Also-heard about another job at the church where Christy grew up-AND they need someone to do their kids choir–the same kids choir Christy was in all her life growing up…hmmm…we’ll be checking that out first thing on Tuesday…

    Still no word from Melody and Chris…losers!!

  • EDIT ADD: got my first Starbucks Crossword puzzle yesterday and I rocked it! I started probably at about 8 or 9 PM and worked on it a little bit off and on between cuddling on the couch with my sweetie–but I just couldn’t stop working on it because one fill-in led to another and so I finally finished it at a prompt 2:30AM! YES! I got the clue right and everything! I can’t wait to win free coffee for life!
    PS- Uncle Lee–never have done crosswords after my initial interest sometime around 10 years ago at your house after seeing you and my dad labor over them, but this seems a worthy time to restart!
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    Church at Eastside was cool, and I would love to work there. We had a great time–good job to the worship leaders over there. I do hope that I can bring what I have to the table at this place ’cause I feel like I could add a lot–but we’ll just see how things play out this week! Be praying!

    I would love to hear from you Midway-ites how everything is going since we miss you!

    Oh yeah- Seinfeld Season Six speical features are even better than ever! Yeah!
    AND- even though I’m no chocolate fan, I went ahead and tried the Marble Mocha Macchiato at Starbucks. It was tasty! It actually just tasted mostly like a regular Caffe Mocha to me…but again, I’m no chocolate expert! Poo-poo on Heidi for not liking it!
    Now, would I order it again? No. I’m sticking with my Caramel Macchiato!

    And I’m just arranging away!

    Also- you may notice a barrage of links in this entry. HA! I’ve never done this before, but got the idea only from my friends that blog over here. They’re link maniacs!  Everything that could possibly be linked is linked…I just thought it’d be fun to try it out!! But honestly–some of the best blogs I’ve read, ever!

    OK- Midway–how are you?

  • EDIT ADD:
    See pic of me not shaving for about 4 days…HEY I don’t have a job! I don’t have to shave if I don’t want to…
    Evidently though, this doesn’t look as cool on the pic as it did in person…I was impressed and annoyed at how fast my facial hair grows. I’m so manly…

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    Finished my Elvis song #2 and #3 is coming in the email…whew! I’m so excited! Arranging is fun!

    I miss The Office. Poo poo on you Olympics, ’cause The Office is not coming back ’til you’re gone! Oh well…(sniff)

    Speaking of funny shows–in the midst of what is a crazy arranging time for me right now (hooray for work!) I took a little break from the coffee and the staring into my computer screen and watched a little Seinfeld Season 5 sp. features, and THEY ARE GREAT! Good job to the Seinfeld crew for making great sp. features. I guess these DVDs were worth the wait afterall!

    Class tonight. One of our recent assignments was to write a :30 commercial with only the lyrics to start with. I finished mine, but I’m not sure how confident I am about letting the class listen to it…I can wait for some others to go first, and if theirs stink I will feel a little better…it is always a little intimidating to showcase yourself like that in front of a whole bunch of people. But I will tell you this, I am very challenged with my schooling, so for that I am extremely grateful. I love it. School is great!

    This weekend we are going to a church that is a potential job…Eastside in Fullerton.

  • EDIT ADD: Shack (my prof) liked the fact that I finished my work in the same day so much he gave me some more. Cool beans, I got nothing to do, and take it while you can get it–cause once I get a job, hasta pasta! Arranging will be a on-the-side kinda thing…but I LOVE IT!

    Also-grapes are so unpredictable. A whole bunch can be crisp and juicy and then you get some mediocre soft ones. I would eat grapes more if I could count on them to all be crisp and juicy…I’m just saying (you know the rest).

    Also-check out the coolest sweepstakes ever! This is definately the best prize, too…

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    Right now I am in the midst of a 1950′s style song transcription for Citrus College…fun stuff. It’s called “C’mon Everybody” and it’s from the musical All Shook Up with a bunch of Elvis songs (including the aforementioned–obviously). I’m pretty sure on the chorus they are singing “Love-a my baby” but all 20 (and I’m not exaggerating) lyrics sites I checked all say the chorus is “I love my baby”. Ok, all you lyrics sites, I’m going with you… (so hesitant)

    Christy and I had a lovely valentines day–we made homemade-from-scratch sugar cookies with Nathaniel in the shape of hearts and gingerbread men. OK, no store anywhere had heart-shaped cookie-cutters on Valentine’s day [I'm so confused] so we had to hand-carve the hearts…which is why Nathaniel made some gingerbread men. We had a cookie cutter for that shape. Then, we went down to have Grandma/Grandpa in Placentia watch the kids while we stole away for lunch and ice cream. After this grand time we had, we arrived back to the Grandfolks house to pick up the kids in a whopping 45 minutes. Yeah–the love is still alive! Happy Valentines day dear!

    Well–even though I don’t have an official job yet, one of my old profs has me working non-stop on arranging for him. I love it! Seriously…after a good 5 weeks of having nothing to do around here but look for a job, I walked out of my first meeting with him–where he gave me my first assignment for him–and I thought to myself “Life has meaning again!!! I can go on!!”
    OK-so overdramatic…but it was rejuvenating! Hard at work…working hard…ordering in…working weekends…

  • The Perfect Last Day

    Congrats to Jose for commenting on my blog! Yay!

    As for the rest of you-subscribe and post! Post comments! Do whatever–but as for now, this is the best and most efficient way to keep in touch with us (Christy has a blog also if you didn’t already know). People were saying things like “I hope you’ll send word and write about how you’re doing” and I was saying back to them–I write almost every day ON MY BLOG! Duh! But for those of you newbies-check out the link at the top left of the page that says subscribe…click on it and put in your email and a username and you’re set! An email will come to you every time I write! Yippee!

    So keep in touch Midway folks–this is the best way to do it. Post, and comment…and for those of you already doing it, welcome to the 21st century…welcome, to THE FUTURE. (hee hee–I love it!).

    All right-a huge thanks to everyone for all the love and gifts. Today was an awesome day. I probably couldn’t have imagined it much better…Music was great and I had a blast singing with you all. After church we had a choir/orch BBQ party and I rocked at the Star Trek trivia that was thrown at me mid-cheeseburger. A good 20-30 questions and I only missed about 5 or so…pretty sweet. Then we played NERTZ for a good 2 1/2 hours in the church caf–I SWEPT that game. Here are the scores:

    Daniel: 150
    Mike: 118
    Christy: 44
    Erica: 14
    Sara: -93
    Arlette: -181

    Left early–
    Val: -123
    Jorge S.: -152

    Yeah so I am still the reigning NERTZ King over San Diego. I have not been defeated in several months…beautiful. Celina almost made it to play but was feeling insecure about her abilities–I think she’s arranging for lessons from Mike…

    Then we headed off to Kids Choir (well, Christy did–I went to Starbucks) and after that, over to Pat and Oscars OF COURSE! Which was a blast! A bunch of folks came and we ate and talked and played for a loooooong time. So fun.

    What a great day!

    Goodbye to you guys in SD. It’s not like we’ll never see you again, ’cause we will–but we’ll miss hanging out with you and having you in our lives. Thank you for all your love and support. It is truly unfathomable.

    Pass on this blog link to others in the choir/orch if they don’t have it already. I’d love for everyone to keep in touch. Love you all! Thank you for a perfect last day in San Diego! Remember to give Aaron C. T. your full support and love like you’ve shown us. You’re the best!

    oh yeah-and keep reading!!!!

  • What were we thinking?

    -OK, let’s start over…we decided on a whim to run up to Mission Valley and see Curious George with the kids (Nathaniel and Noah) and the Codallos family. Pretty fun…except that the last time we tried to get poopy Noah to sit through a movie was Madagascar this past summer–and it didn’t work. At that time Noah lasted about 3 minutes until Christy finally took him out to the lobby where he finally got happy looking at the flashing commercial ads on an ATM machine in the lobby. THIS time he lasted about 30 minutes (clearly an improvement) but that was mostly because of the popcorn, pen and paper to draw with, capri sun juice, and pb&j sandwich that Christy prepared ahead of time. So there came a time about 25 minutes in to the flick where I thought to myself, “If I don’t bail out now with Noah, I won’t be able to get my money back…” and I knew he wasn’t going to last much longer since we had exhausted all out tricks by then…so Noah and I went to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (Thank you Mission Valley…).

    Which, on a side note, their Caramel Ice Blended drink is fantabulous!

    Anyways–not a success with Noah, but due to the delightful coffee drink I consumed while waiting for the rest of the group to get out of the theater, I am not at all displeased. ALSO–Will Farrell plays the Man in the Yellow Hat–and he was also fun to listen to. Will is one of my all time comedy favs and I enjoy him most anytime to some degree. Even in Bewitched, I enjoyed him for what it was worth. BUT in this movie, he was fun to listen to, just jibber-jabbering away in the Will Farrell way like some people do in cartoons, but it was funny…cutesy and funny…which is great for a kids movie. Seriously, it was no Incredibles or anything, but still cute…

    I had my second interview with APU today for the AA job in the Registrar. I feel like the immediate supervisors liked me, and the interview seemed to go well, but I just need to be praying to find out if this is what God wants for us.

    Last weekend here in SD!

  • EDIT ADD:
    What a fantastic day! I met with Shack to look over a song I’m arranging for a new kids musical and we did music stuff for like, 2 hours! Which, with Shack, is an eternity–when I was in school, it was like-5mins and we’re done…but basically because I’m soooooo fast (he gave me the song on Tuesday afternoon and I’m done on Thursday afternoon) he wants me to do the whole thing. Then we’ll record it with the Jazz band from APU on April 1st…I’m like-YES! Nevertheless, it was so encouraging…
    Plus class was pretty cool also! Our next assignment is writing an original :30 spot for a commercial and the only thing we have given to us are the lyrics…so challenging for me ’cause I can’t write music worth a darn…but I finished already and am hopefully going to record the vocs this weekend and add some more stuff on my own…
    Yahoo! Off to SD…
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    So who was the 11,000th visitor?? I guess we’ll never know…

    So LOST was good last night, and not necessarily great. However-if you saw the previews for next week, you saw that they let the timer run out in the hatch!! Oooooo I can’t wait! It is quite exciting!

    Singing for Al last night again was fun. It is a good little excursion for us since we really don’t do anything else during the week except school (for me) and job hunting (on the internet, etc…) and the occaisional trip to the mailboxes down the pathway. I’m telling ya, it’s a blast! So getting out of the apartment is a cool deal, and singing for Al is always fun ’cause he makes good music and it’s fun to be a part of that. It’s too bad we probably won’t be there for much longer.

    Last weekend in San Diego, so last chance to hang out with us, San Diegans!
    Rumor has it that there’s going to be a party after church with everybody in the universe, well here’s the other rumor–we’re gonna NERTZ it up as soon as humanly possible at said party…so bring your A-game and your cards…I’mjustsayingisall…

    The Office is tonight!