Month: March 2006

  • EDIT ADD:
    Ran a 5k race today with Christy’s dad, Erin, Steve and Christy. We walk/jogged it, since Christy’s dad really shouldn’t be excercising all that much since he got his pig’s valve installed (yeah, in his heart). Towards the end however, I was tired of the jog/walk and just left the group and jolted ahead. Chirsty did too…I finished with my all-time low of 36 mins, Christy was at 37, and the rest of our family running group at 40.
    Overall, I placed 197th, and Christy placed 208th.
    Yeah, not my best race, but honestly, we never were competing–it was more for Christy’s dad and the fun of it.

    In other news: I’m tired.

    Great news:
    Well, great news for me, anyway! The last couple of days have been good cookie days. I wanted to go the caf today, because I knew there would be some more cookies (they don’t put them out, they’re in the back, and I think I’m the only one who asks for them–heh heh heh). But I was going to grab food with an old friend from a church I led choir at way back in the day, and she didn’t want to go to the caf. Ok. I was cool with that.
    But then…when I got back from lunch, I went anyways. I went into the caf w/o paying, telling the lady, “I just want to see if they have some cookies” and I found my favorite Romanian dessert lady who saw me and immediately said, “Oh, you want some cookies. I’ll be right back”. And she did come right back, with a plate of cookies for me! Yahoo! Which I immediately took back to my office and gobbled up…yum!

    Two Funny Things from Work this Week:
    1)
    I was IMing one of my coworkers because she was recruiting the student workers to help me on a project. I was typing quickly, and might have been a little buzzy from all the caffiene. She asked me something that I needed to check on, so I meant to type,
    Just a sec

    but instead, in my hurry (in fairness, the letters are right next to each other on the keyboard….) I typed

    Just a sex

    and I saw it, and was like “AH!” to myself, and typed back
    Oh dear…
    I meant, just a sec…

    and by that time she was laughing so hard-it was hilarious. Boy, was my face red…

    2)
    My office pal has some Hershey’s Kisses on her desk, and pretty much everyone around the office has some sort of candy on their desk or something. I make my rounds throughout the week, bumming candy off of my coworkers. Today I grabbed one of the Kisses off of her desk and ate it, but it was pretty gross. So I emailed her and gave her a hard time about how her candy was disgusting and stuff…nevertheless, my boss was in our office talking to me about something, and we were joking around about something, and my office pal (clearly offended that I didn’t like her leftover Thanksgiving candy) blurted out something to the effect of “…just because you didn’t like my kisses!”
    My office pal and I, of course, knew we were talking about the Hershey’s candy. Our boss, however, did not….we had a good laugh about that one, too…

    Misc.
    Life is clicking along. I don’t feel as awkward in this environment anymore–being around all of my old profs, who I look up to quite a bit, and being treated like an equal instead of a student is less and less weird all the time.  In fact, one prof has been giving me quite a bit of his work to do for him. And I LOVE it.

    God has been providing in incredible ways. There is no way we should be able to live on the salary I’m making, but money is coming in at all the right times and it is clearly an act of God. There is no other way to explain it. I get a phone call here, or more arranging work there, and we have enough money to pay the bills…it’s amazing–and so random. It’s all totally God. And we have never felt more peaceful about living day-to-day with our finances, because we know in our hearts that we are in the right place in our life. Thank you Lord!

    Oooo-work has been even better now that I listen to my iTunes library while I’m TreQ-ing. It’s great.

    Katherine McPhee in the bottom three! NO! Say it isn’t so! You people need to vote for her! Katherine McJanke for president! er…American Idol!
    No really, vote for her.

    I have some awesome pics to load later….I can’t wait.

  • Xanga on lunch break…here goes.

    Christy and Mike are waiting in line for American Idol in the pouring rain! Good luck to them, and I’m sure Janke will write all about it…as will Christy.

    Umm…lunch at the caf. Today’s lunch was more like I remember. Since it’s raining the caf was full again with a lot of students who weren’t eating outside at one of the many other eateries that have been added recently. Anyways, it was busy. Yay. Then, something exciting happened. Cookies.

    I have been asking the lunch lady (ok, the dessert lady) every day if there are any cookies. Every day she says no. Every day there are no cookies. But today, the cookie drought was lifted. It rained cookies.

    I actually looked at the desssert cart on my way in and asked again-receiving my usual “No” answer. So with a sad face I asked if there was some sort of schedule to this cookie making (or lack thereof). She did not know. “Whenever do they make these cookies?”, I asked. But again, she couldn’t help me. Then I got my peas and tuna on salad, and the dessert lady actually came and found me. “You should go look at the dessert cart” she said in her think romanian accent. And I was intrigued…alas! There were cookies!

    Did she bake them in the last 3 minutes? Were they in the fridge and she didn’t know it? Did it really matter? There were cookies!
    Cookies, cookies, cookies!
    By the time I got there, there were already two other ladies waiting to get some cookies as well…the cookies were all stuck behind the counter, but I have long arms. And I put them to good use today…and we all rejoiced…

    And that, my friends, is the saga of the cookies.

    And boy, were they tasty!

    Today.

    Today, is a very good day.

  • EDIT ADD:
    Check out these pics that Nathaniel made at YLFC this weekend. This is another example of why I simply love this church. Seriously, if Nathaniel keeps bringing home stuff like this, I will be the proudest Dad ever! For some reason it just hits my twisted side the right way…can you say (sing Twilight Zone theme song here).

    Bottom line: best Church craft EVER.

    I know you’ve all been dying to see the pictures from Chris and Melody’s engagement, and frankly, so have I–especially since I took them.
    So without further adieu, here is just a sampling of the great pictures I took for the happy couple to treasure forever!!

    IMG_0008

    IMG_0009

    IMG_0007

    IMG_0006

    IMG_0005

    Mmm…I especially like the last one. I think it really sums up the love that they have for each other…ahhh, how precious!

    Side note: went to church today at Yorba Linda Friends Church,
    and IT…
    WAS…
    AWESOME.

    We’ve been praying about what to do, but we’re definately staying here. It was thrilling in more ways than I can describe. Originally, I was looking around for a church job, but we really feel like this is what is right for us at this time. We’re going to find some voice/piano students to help supplement our income in lieu of the church job…we just feel like this is the thing to do right now. I can’t really explain it–but know this–it’s pretty radical. I’ve been really doing some radical thinking lately about church/worship, current trends, etc…I’ll explain sometime…
    Ooo–and starting Easter, they’re doing a serious called LOST, themed around the TV series…yummy!!

  • It’s the end of week two of my new job and I still love it. There have been far less cookies lately though, and that has been dissapointing…however, I am not dismayed!

    There are a lot of fun little perqs to this job, but one of them is that I get to eat anywhere on campus for 3 bucks. Normally, the full price is about 7-8 bucks, so this is quite the deal. Well, on Friday Christy and Noah joined me for a little lunch in the caf and it was super fun! I only had to pay 6 bucks for the 3 of us (Noah doesn’t eat enough to buy a regular meal). It was yummy and nice!

    My Dad has been helping me out with these Starbucks crossword puzzles over the last 6 weeks (can you believe that this Sunday is the last one!!). Every week I would call him on the phone and our conversation would sound like this, “Ok, a 5 letter word, blank-K-blank-blank-S, and the clue is…” and he would figure them out…what a guy! I think last week I  actually scanned and emailed him the puzzle to help with a few hard ones…Well this week he and my mom are visiting my Uncle (his brother) along with some other family in Washington–you know, the home of the ‘Bucks. *Side note: I’ve been to THE ORIGINAL Starbucks in Seattle. But of course I have–’cause I’m awesome. Duh. You know it*
    Anyways–he and my Uncle are pretty good at these puzzles you call crossword, and he tells me on the phone, “We’ll pick up the crossword puzzle and have it done in 15 minutes”. Sweet.

    I gotta go. Down to SD today and back for church at Yorba Linda Friends for choir with Al…yay!

  • EDIT: WOAH! My parents sent us a huge check to help with Noah’s assessment fee…wow, thank you! I can hardly believe how much people are willing to help out our little Noah…Thanks guys.

    Happy Birthday to my mom!
    I have the best mom, ever! Through thick and thin, my mom has been so loving and supportive. Most of you don’t know, but I’m the only Semsen-ite of my immediate family to presently not live in the greater Tuolumne-Twain Harte-Sonora metropolitan area, and I know my folks are bummed about that. But nevertheless, they continue to pour out their love and support to us. Thank you mom and dad!

    I had a tasty thing in the caf today-Stromboli. Now I don’t usually try the main entrees, I just stick to salad and fruits and some cottage cheese and turkey or something, but this Stromboli looked too tempting to pass up! Plus, Brenda Reinabach was there in the salad bar line and she highly recommended it to me. Hey, when Mrs. Reinebach says it’s good, it probably is!

    Gotta go. Back to work. That’s all for this lunch break.

    I’m going to win at Nertz tonight. All you LA people are invited. My house, 7-ish.

  • Word that Kevin went home. I predicted Lisa, but at least I was close…by Keving.
    Oh yeah, and Lost was great. Not awesome, but great. Next week looks even awesomer…
    And I love Yorba Linda Friends Church. Thanks Al for a sweet rehearsal tonight. I’m going to sing ALL GLORY BE TO GOD with them this Sunday…that’s in my top two favorite songs of all time along with The Mind of Christ (not the one from Honor and Praise, but the other Mark Hayes one we did my senior year at APU). I can’t wait.

    And yes, we’ll be in SD on Saturday only! Call me if you want to see us, but we’ll be pretty busy running around…

    I saw Travis Cottrell again tonight on Idol. He’s the best! Go Travis! Make another album, ’cause that last one (Alive Forever) was cool! Major props!

    Oh yeah, also–my office-mate is cool! I must ask her eleventy questions a day, and I’m getting it more and more now…thanks  Erin!

    American Idol
    Paula was high on crack or something. Geez. Get a grip. Many great performances this week, but I think my favorite was Katherine’s. Christy thinks she has turned into a supermodel. It is amazing what people can do to you with the right clothes and makeup and all of that stuff. But I agree with Simon, she definitely is a star. I still like Chris and Elliot and I do still think they’ll be in the top 3, although Mandisa is giving them a run for their money.
    Speaking of Mandisa, evidently she’s friends with Travis Cottrell, ’cause I got an email from Travis this week telling me he was going to be at the American Idol taping with his wife as part of Mandisa’s family and friends. Lo and behold, there he was! Right in the audience! Wearing his Vote for Mandisa T-Shirt (looks like Vote for Pedro…ya know).
    Picture 1

    Picture 2

    OK, yeah, I looked, and she has been on his worship teams and stuff in the past 5 years or so. Cool. Maybe she sings on Alive Forever.

    Bottom Three:
    Bucky
    Lisa
    Ace

    Going Home:
    Lisa

    As much as I think Kevin should go, he’s not going to because people think he’s adorable much like they thought John Stevens was adorable. He’ll be around for awhile. On another note, I agree with Simon about Taylor’s perfomance tonight–totally boring and mediocre. I say he’s # 4 or 5 overall–but NOT going to win like Mike thinks.

    Other:
    Blogging is a little bit harder in the past few days. I can’t to do it at work like some people do…he he…(oh yeah, thanks for coffee today) because I’m in my second week and I just don’t feel comfortable getting on my blog at work. Plus everyone and their dog in that office can see my computer display at any moment of the day. I’m self-conscious just checking my email (which is 99% of the time totally work related).

    I got a random call back from a church I applied at a while ago. It has sounded more promising than any other church thing I’ve looked at so far up here. The pastor sent over a profile of the type of person they are looking for and it really fits who I am. Please pray for this opportunity. They were thinking more of the full-time route, but I already have a full-time job and he was cool with that. He still wanted to talk simply because he liked my resume and the article from Purpose-Driven that is about me and Midway. I am excited about this as, along with the one other church opportunity we are looking into right now. I think I miss playing piano and being a part of the music/worship experiene in that way…

    I’m also playing piano right now for a very unique service at a church nearby. We are in rehearsals, and the music is very interesting. It is basically an entire album of Cindy Morgan’s called The Loving Kind. It is very different and fun to play. The band is good. Fun times.

  • I guess that last post was pretty long. Too much to read…
    Good job to those of you die-hards that made it through.

    I found a site that let me upload my final project in Advanced Arranging. So if you’re curious, take a listen.

    It’s not a big deal, just a little diddy…there were certain components it had to have and a certain instrumentation. That’s pretty much what’s up.

  • Happy Holiday!
    Had a St. Patty’s Day party in my office today. It was pretty fun! There was a little trivia quiz that we had during the party about the holiday and other various Irish facts that I totally bombed! Yeah, I got 3 out of 10 correct. Pretty stinky! Oh well, at least there were cookies at the party! (which made up for none in the caf during lunch…)
    Here’s an example of a couple of the questions:

    What percentage of Irish people have red hair?
    A)    4 %
    B)  21 %
    C)  56 %
    D)  79 %

    or…

    In Ireland, kissing the “Blarney Stone” is supposed to do what for you?
    A) Moisten your lips with the moss of the land
    B) Give you good luck for life
    C) Remove shyness
    D) Make you succesful in love

    and other crazy questions like that….

    look below for answers…

    Strengths Test
    My boss also wanted me to take a strengths test to understand a little better how I will fit in around the office. I guess everyone takes one, and she actually gave me a list of everyone’s strengths to look at…well here are my results. These are supposedly my top five strengths. I’m interested to hear your take. (for newcomers, just click on add comment below the entry).

    RESULTS:

    Achiever
    Your
    Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant
    need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the
    end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel
    good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single
    day-workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you
    deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of
    achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have
    an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to
    achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles
    for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the
    next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be
    logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you.
    As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent.
    It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work
    long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on
    to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply
    that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity
    for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.
    Includer
    (formerly
    Inclusiveness) “Stretch the circle wider.” This is the philosophy
    around which you orient your life. You want to include people and make
    them feel part of the group. In direct contrast to those who are drawn
    only to exclusive groups, you actively avoid those groups that exclude
    others. You want to expand the group so that as many people as possible
    can benefit from its support. You hate the sight of someone on the
    outside looking in. You want to draw them in so that they can feel the
    warmth of the group. You are an instinctively accepting person.
    Regardless of race or sex or nationality or personality or faith, you
    cast few judgments. Judgments can hurt a person’s feelings. Why do that
    if you don’t have to? Your accepting nature does not necessarily rest
    on a belief that each of us is different and that one should respect
    these differences. Rather, it rests on your conviction that
    fundamentally we are all the same. We are all equally important. Thus,
    no one should be ignored. Each of us should be included. It is the
    least we all deserve.
    Activator
    “When
    can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are
    impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or
    that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable
    insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action
    can make things happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a
    decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are
    still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If
    the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest
    way to get there is to go stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to
    sit around waiting until all the lights have turned green. Besides, in
    your view, action and thinking are not opposites. In fact, guided by
    your Activator theme, you believe that action is the best device for
    learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result,
    and you learn. This learning informs your next action and your next.
    How can you grow if you have nothing to react to? Well, you believe you
    can’t. You must put yourself out there. You must take the next step. It
    is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed. The bottom
    line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say, not by
    what you think, but by what you get done. This does not frighten you.
    It pleases you.

    ***answers to Irish questions (I know, I’m tricky, just seeing if you’re paying attention!)***

    1-A

    2-C
    Competition
    Competition
    is rooted in comparison. When you look at the world, you are
    instinctively aware of other people’s performance. Their performance is
    the ultimate yardstick. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how
    worthy your intentions, if you reached your goal but did not outperform
    your peers, the achievement feels hollow. Like all competitors, you
    need other people. You need to compare. If you can compare, you can
    compete, and if you can compete, you can win. And when you win, there
    is no feeling quite like it. You like measurement because it
    facilitates comparisons. You like other competitors because they
    invigorate you. You like contests because they must produce a winner.
    You particularly like contests where you know you have the inside track
    to be the winner. Although you are gracious to your fellow competitors
    and even stoic in defeat, you don’t compete for the fun of competing.
    You compete to win. Over time you will come to avoid contests where
    winning seems unlikely.
    Learner
    You
    love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be
    determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the
    subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The
    process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting
    for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from
    ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early
    efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing
    confidence of a skill mastered-this is the process that entices you.
    Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences-yoga
    or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in
    dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project
    assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject
    matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This
    Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the
    subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that
    accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the
    learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

  • APU Rocks
    Work has been really good. I’m really getting the hang of some of the stuff, and actually spent a lot of my time mapping articulations today, (too hard to explain, just go with me here) which was cool. Also, there was a new girl that was hired to replace the only other male person in the office, who is leaving on Paternity leave and then moving to somewhere far away.
    Well we had a meeting today with the President of the University (who is an amazing person–there was a standing ovation when he came up to speak–everyone loves him).  He explained his vision for some new stuff in the works, i.e. building plans and goals for the university in the near future. One of those goals was better compensation for the faculty/staff at APU. Yada yada yada, I’m getting a $250 bonus check tomorrow and so is every other fulltime employee on campus (over a thousand of them). Part-timers get a bonus too. So me and the other chick that started this week are already getting extra  $$.

    Here’s the kicker though–this job pays slightly over half of what I was making at Midway. We’ve been figuring that I would get a part-time worship leading job to help us make up some of the difference and also just planned on living on less. Well, I don’t have a church job of any sort yet, and money has been tight. Everyone has been extremely generous, and we’ve been doing well for a while because of that.  I’ve done some arranging jobs, and have a couple others that could help a little, but have mostly earned as much as I’ve been able to without anything steady.  In addition to that, we’re going to have to start shelling out thousands of dollars to get Noah the care he deserves–and we just don’t know how it’s going to happen.

    I literally was asking God the other day to please provide for us through the next couple of weeks until I start getting paid. I was like, “Well, you’re going to have to do something crazy, ’cause I can’t imagine how you will provide for us now…” But we all know that I’m not omniscient. So I heard the news and let me just say that I was pretty teary for quite a while afterwards, because I knew that it was part of God’s provision, something that I could have never seen coming or would have expected, and BAM, there it was. I was and I am still floored.

    We sang the Doxology to end the meeting.
    I couldn’t sing. It was physically impossible to make sound with my voice (well, without utterly losing it in front of all my coworkers).
    So I listened.

    Praise God from who all blessings flow
    Praise Him all creatures here below
    Praise Him above ye heavenly host
    Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
    Amen.




    Final Exam
    In other, less important news: my last class was a disaster.  It was supposed to be a “listen to everybody’s project and eat lots of food” party. Only three of us (including the prof) brought food.  It was horrible. THEN, about two hours in I accidentally dumped the cookies all over the floor. Everyone screamed, except for the one guys that was like, “That’s ok, I’ll still eat ‘em”.  Go ahead dude. Go ahead.

    I think my project was fine, but it was a little painful listening to other classmates tunes. A few of them blatantly strayed far off the assignment, and it was a little bit embarrassing. “You know that you weren’t supposed to use strings…” Oh well. It’s over. I better get an A is all I’m saying. One week off, then back to school for Quarter #2. Can you believe it?



    Pray for Christy
    This is one of the most difficult seasons in her life. She is carrying quite a bit of the burden of caring for Noah and Nathaniel, plus arranging all the autism stuff, and cleaning the house, and so on and so forth…it’s waaaaaay too much, and she’s doing it all.

    Also-an amazing thing is happening next week at APU. It’s pretty unique…

  • EDIT ADD: 2nd day of work in my office and it’s still great! All I have to say about APU is cookies. I get to eat in the caf or anywhere on campus for $3 a meal. And let me tell you-it is awesome. I get fruit, salads, and COOKIES. LOTS AND LOTS OF COOKIES.

    So, in review:
    Best part about APU today: cookies
    Worst part about APU today: weird dead pig that was on the rotisserie during the lunch Luau event hosted on West Campus. That thing was gross, and very real…

    All I have to say about work so far at APU is IT’S GREAT! I love my job and the people I work with. Thank you Lord! What a great place to work…

    Umm, also-I still rock at Nertz. Heidi would’ve scanned in the score card, but it was far too messy to read–so here’s the scores:

    Daniel:     168
    Heidi: 163
    Christy: 88
    Leanne: 50 (came really late–like over half-way through–but still did so good for being late!)
    Amy: 32 (left early)
    Derek: -15 (left early)

    Good job, Heidi. You almost got me, but I just can’t be defeated…

    Good times hanging out with Derek, Amy and kids…thank you Denny’s that kids eat free on Tuesday’s and Saturdays.

    I’ll be putting up my Starbucks posters in my office today. If I were really cool I’d take a picture and post it here, but alas, I have no awesome digital camera to do such with.

    American Idol:
    This one’s tough. I like AI, but I hate a two-hour show. C’mon people! I gotta sleep sometime!!!
    Bottom three: Melissa, Lisa, and Bucky.
    Going home:     Bucky.

    Fa la fa la: I have a new email address. What? No. I’m not posting it here!
    APU rocks.