Updates: Part 2

Hello there,  Readers!

Thanks for coming back to read more about those updates!

Last week, we left off at the end of the summer. Since it's now almost the end of the semester, I'll catch you up on school (Late August to Now).

First of all, I moved to LA and started school at Biola right at the end ofAugust. September began, and so did all my classes. Currently, I'm in Experimental Psychology, Psych & Christian Thought, Foundations of Christian Thought, Psych Statistics Lab, Biblical Interpretation&Spiritual Formation, and New Testament History and Literature. Phew, that's a mouthful. There isn't a whole lot to say about my classes that's really exciting, but I have made some awesome friends. I didn't have a roommate when I first got here, but I asked a girl I had met if she wanted to be my roommate and now she's one of my best friends! I also made friends with a girl in my Foundations class who's also a psych major and this girl who added everyone as a friend on Facebook over the summer.

September didn't have a whole lot going on, except for my birthday toward the beginning. Kosmos is seriously awesome and took a bus to come see me. We went to our friend's place in North Ridge and stayed there for the weekend. I was definitely sad when the weekend ended and Kosmos had to leave, but it was by far one of the best birthdays I've had so far in my life.

When October finally came around, there was a lot going on. Toward the middle of the month, Biola's annual Torrey Conference began. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much. The first day of Torrey, they held it on the lawn. But things got a little crazy. To give you some background, apparently, one of the on campus ministries had been sent a message by God through prayer that the lawn would be revitalized. Then, this year, one of the various ministry groups here began holding their meetings on the lawn. But then Torrey was held there too! But here's where it gets really crazy. That night, we were worshiping and the worship leader was in the middle of prayer. We had just finished singing "How He Loves" (If you're unfamiliar with the title, just think "Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree") and "Spirit Break Out" ("Can you hear the sound of heaven touching earth"). All of a sudden, there's a flash of light. I think a lot of people were confused and thought maybe it was a photographer since they had been taking pictures earlier, but then BOOM! Thunder. The worship leader had barely said Jesus' name when that happened. Everyone cheered. The worship leader tried to continue her prayer and repeated Jesus' name. More lighting and thunder. More cheers. One more time she tried, she said Jesus' name and all of a sudden lighting struck right on top of us. It honestly looked light it hit right next to the stage. Then she asked Jesus to cover us with his love and grace. Then out of no where, these HUGE drops of rain started falling. It barely started when all of a sudden, it was pouring on top of us. Everyone ran for cover and a good portion of people ran back to the dorms. I think I can safely say, based on the Facebook and Instagram posts that followed, that we all heard "the sound of heaven touching earth". It was incredible. I don't know about anyone else that night, but for me the message was loud and clear, "I AM here."

One of the girls on my floor captured that video of the lighting that seemed to strike near the stage. The rest of Torrey was great, but this was the highlight.

Reaching the end of October, Halloween weekend came, and I had the chance to go home! I was more than a little excited. I went home for my little brother's birthday, but while I was there, I of course got to see Kosmos. Actually, he was there with my family basically every night except K's birthday and he picked me up from the airport. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed my time home.

Which brings me to November. Since being home, I have been absolutely swamped with papers and tests. Actually, I need to go finish one now. But, by the time you read this, I'll be done and ready for Thanksgiving to start. Hooray! And boy, will I have an post following Thanksgiving weekend. But I can't say anything today about it. Exciting things happening! Tune back in next week for more!

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Updates: Part 1

Hey Readers!

It has been an awfully long time since I have made a detailed post on this blog. I am deeply sorry about that because I have had a few things that I could have been more active in blogging about even though I updated Instagram. So lets start with some updates, shall we?

First of all, I graduated from Community College Cum Laude with my Associate's Degree in June. And I finished my IGETC for transferring. Woot! Of course, nothing is ever easy when you want it to be, so of course there were/are some bumps. I had to go in to get my Associate's degree, even though I was told in June it would be mailed to me. And of course, something wasn't properly filled out on my IGETC, so I have to get that resent. When I went in to the Registrar's office, the woman working at the counter responded to my claim of needing the IGETC resent with, "Oh they've been doing this for a long time, they wouldn't mess up." To which, I had to hold my tongue. Honestly, time does not mean that you don't make mistakes every once in a while. So now I need to call the office to get it fixed since I'm not close enough to take care of it in person. I'm not happy about that. But I know it's done. I just need to get it fixed.

Second! I went to Alaska on a cruise in July for my step-dad's 50th and my step-brother's 21st. Before I get into this, you should be informed that I get horribly sea-sick. So, here we are at sea, and I am the only one who can feel the boat (sorry, ship) rocking. Did I mention I get sea-sick? After the first day at sea, I'm already nauseated. But I didn't think it would get too much worse. Wrong. We make it to our first stop, Ketchikan, and the tour that my step-brother and I were meant to go on had been cancelled due to fog I believe. Ketchikan is small, and there's not a lot to do at port, so going on a tour was really our only option besides browsing a gift shop that we didn't have money for. Alistair decided to go on a quick hike and I decided to go back on the ship (it can't rock too much at port, so at least that was alright), but I did stay on land in the rain for a while before I did go back. The day ended, and we went back to sea.
The next stop was Juneau. This one was a lot more exciting. Even though I don't like boats, I went on a whale watching tour. This part was seriously cool because we were able to see the whales (humpbacks) bubble-net feeding. From what I understood, basically, the whales dive down and herd the fish to one spot. Then they all dive down and form a circle around the fish and start blowing bubbles while narrowing their circle until they get to the top and catch as many fish in their mouths as they can. The bubbles form a net because the fish are too stupid to swim out of the bubble net. I'm glad I brought my camera, but I wish I had been able to capture some better pictures. These guys move fast!

Our next stop on the trip was Skagway, which apparently was a gold mining town. If you've ever been around the Sutter's Mill area where they preserve history by basically not updating any building to make it more appealing for tourists, then you know about what Skagway looks like, except with less trees around the town itself. And there's a train. The cool part about this was that we got to ride the train and see a lot of different things. The bad part was that the guide decided to talk over the main guide person on loudspeaker so you couldn't actually hear any of the things about the railway history. And she didn't know the history very well, so she'd say things like, "Oh I think this, this and this, but the conductors can tell you more!" While talking over the conductor. One really cool part thing that also happened in Skagway was we got to meet a dog sledding team (the dogs and the trainer) and we got to see a little of how they train and how the racer prepares. He was really passionate about it and he definitely had things planned out well of what he wanted to talk about. And the best part: we got to hold some of the puppies. If I weren't allergic, I'd be all over getting a dog this cute.

Then, we were supposed to go around the fjord, but something happened with the sewage where it didn't get emptied and we couldn't actually go see it. Xander and my mom were pissed. So instead of going around the fjord, we stopped in Sitka. See, I actually really enjoyed Sitka, and I honestly wish we'd had more time there. It was pretty cool. My grandma, my step-brother, and I were the only ones to get off at this point, so we just enjoyed walking around the historical path way. Alistair and I decided to have some fun with the things around the trail. My favorite one though, is this one:

There's a lot of history about Sitka, and if you ever have the chance, I highly recommend going. We actually ended up hijacking part of tour and learned a lot about the St. Michael's Cathedral. Again, a lot of history and I highly recommend looking it up or visiting if/when you have the chance. But our time in Sitka did have to end, and so we returned to the boat, somewhat satisfied with our adventure. 

Then the terror of the long days at sea began. The boat actually got rocky enough that my family could actually feel it. Since I felt the rocking since the beginning, you might be able to guess that this is when I got really really sick. It was bad enough that they gave me nausea pills. And with these motion sickness pills, what happens is that you're awake long enough to eat, which is good because you take one of these pills and breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And after you eat/take the pill, you have maybe an hour before you sleep. So basically, for the rest of the days that we spent at sea, I was asleep. 

Finally, we stopped in Victoria, BC. We were able to see the Butterfly Gardens and Butchart Gardens. These places were absolutely spectacular. I mean beautiful. I wish they allowed wedding photos to be taken at these places or something because it was wonderful. It was also way hotter than the rest of our trip. I mean, sun shining, not a cloud to be seen. I honestly don't think I could describe this stop accurately enough to give you a good picture. It's another one of those places that if you ever have the chance, you should definitely go check out. 

And finally, we were ended up back home. Phew. As much as I loved the sight-seeing, never again. I hate boats. 

Kosmos' birthday is in July, but I had been away during that time, so we celebrated when I got back. I gave him a cool necklace and a treasure chest that I painted to look like a Kingdom Heart's chest. And that pretty much sums up July.

On to August! First of all, I quit my job so that my last day was right before we celebrated my mom's birthday by going to Bennihana's. She had a nice birthday so that was awesome. 

Then, Kosmos and I celebrated our one year anniversary! We planned out a trip to Disneyland a few months prior and spent a week in Anaheim. We agreed that if we do it again (and we definitely will), we want to have more time and a bigger budget for food. It was Kosmos' first time there and his favorite part by far was the food. On our actual anniversary day, he slept in a bit while I ran to the park to get beignets and mint juleps to bring back to the hotel. He was very pleasantly surprised when he woke up to the food. He had the beignets the first day in the parks and insisted we have them as much as possible every other day, so I was sure to get extra for us. It was definitely the best way I could think of to end the summer with. 

Kosmos tearing up after having his first mint Julep and beignet

His first time on space mountain. He liked it.

Playing with his bubble gun. Like a kid at Christmas

Anniversary Dinner at the Blue Bayou with Fantastmic tickets

New hats for both of us!

But unfortunately all things must come to an end and we did have to go back after our week was over. And then it was time for me to prepare to move to Biola.  

And with that dear readers, I will end my first set of updates. If you want to read more about what I've been up to, check in next week (I have a post written and scheduled, so it will definitely be there!)

I have more to tell, but you'll just have to wait!

With Love,

PolarBearMoose <3

BlogLovin'

Hello friends!

This post will be short, I promise!

I will be linking my blog to a new blog site called BlogLovin! You can follow me by clicking the link below as well as a bunch of other blogs!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Love,

PolarBearMoose

The Beginning of the End

Hey Readers,

Wow. Been a while, eh? Y'know, its crazy how quickly time passes. It seems like forever ago that I posted, but these past two years? They've gone by far too fast. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking my Fall 2013 classes. And in the next two months, I'll have finished everything I needed for transferring. My journey through community college will be complete. Crazy.

It's amazing the things you learn about yourself when you least expect it. God does such wonderful things when you least expect them. When I started at community college, I gave myself two years to get my classes done and get out. No distractions. No need to make friends, since I'd only be there 2 years. I wouldn't date because I didn't think I could possibly get to know a person well enough to want a long distance relationship in only two years (or less). I would get my classes done, get A's, and everything would work out and go smoothly. That was my plan. God had some other ideas in mind for me. Almost immediately into my time in college, my world changed forever with the loss of Walker. A loss that I still feel, and I'm sure many others do too. I struggled after that. My straight A ideas turned into A's and B's then a quarter of C's and F's (Thankfully only one of each). My lack of friends at school sunk me into a deep depression and I felt lonely. Then I felt another loss, the loss of my beloved Silky. I still cry, frequently, when I think about my baby boy. I miss his soft fur and many times I wish I could just hold him one more time. And it gets me by surprise. I feel his loss everyday. So much pain, and all of it was just in my first two quarters. I felt anhedonic and emotionless. I didn't laugh, my smile was fake, and I cried myself to sleep after losing him. The first time I laughed, and I mean really laughed, was the day I met the Stormblades. Just when I needed to get back up, God led me right where I needed to be. For whatever reason, I took a chance on them and it worked out beautifully. Two months later, we're hanging out at Fanime together. That summer, we spent camping, hanging out, and having fun with each other. Cut to August, and I'm dating Kosmos whose a part of Stormblades. Sometimes, things don't go as planned, but they turn out beautifully because of it. 

It's funny that I thought I wouldn't make lasting friends. After all, the school I chose to transfer to was because I wanted to make friends. I knew before I left high school that friends were the most important thing in my life, why would I cut myself off from making new ones? What was I thinking? To be honest, I thought I'd never find friends who cold mean as much to me as the Lunch Bunch. I know better now. I've never felt so much love from so many people before and it feels incredible. 

The work that I've done up to this point makes me feel so much more prepared to finish my journey at Biola, the school I'm transferring to. What felt overwhelming at the beginning of this journey, is now a shining accomplishment and something that I feel incredibly proud of. And now that I'm reaching the end of this journey and preparing to start a new one, I can't help but feel upset to be leaving so many great things behind. Of course they will be here and I fully intend on coming back to visit whenever I can, but that won't make me miss them any less. Kosmos and I can skype. Hopefully, he'll be able to visit me.  I also found out my friend, LP, will be transferring in the Fall to a school just an hour away from Biola and hopefully, we'll be able to hang out some weekends. Maybe even do some roleplaying while we're down there. Who knows. But I feel both incredibly sad and incredibly excited to be here, finally, at the beginning of the end. 

With Love,

PolarBearMoose <3

The End of Week 3

Hello Readers,

Okay, so the last time I blogged it was the second day of the quarter. Today is the last day of week 3 an I have to say, so far, so good. I had the first real pieces of homework this week and I actually have been keeping up with it all. As for skipping classes, something I struggled with a lot last quarter,  I have only skipped one and it was because my friend AG had just come back from his month long excursion to Japan. Unfortunately, I'm falling asleep in Astronomy, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be. It's only been about 5 minutes per class which is enough to keep me awake for the rest of the class and I don't miss any of the notes. I'm feeling very optimistic about this quarter. I definitely think I will be able to keep up with everything. I feel organized. Which is nice. Now if I could just get my room that way.

Kosmos decided he really wanted me to play Minecraft with him so he actually paid for me to download it. Now I'm hooked. I like the building part, definitely, but I also really enjoy being able to talk to him over Skype while we build. It's not something we have to be in the same room to do, though we could if we wanted. It's something that I think will help with the distance when I transfer. That and things like Robocraft. I really like that we're getting into the habit of calling each other on Skype even if we don't say anything and we just sit there doing homework. Minus things like hugging, he's there with me no matter where we Skype.

Did I mention in my last post that my child development class requires 12 hours of community service? Well, if you didn't know before, now you do. I finally figured out what I'm doing. I'm volunteering at my little brother's school, but it means I have to go get a TB test and fill out a bunch of paper work. But a lot on the original list wanted long commitments that I couldn't give. This way I can get it out of the way in 3 total days. Versus taking the whole quarter up to take care of this. It means I'll also have more time to get a job and get money for things like food and Fanime. And a car. Oh yeah, ICYMI, I'm saving for a new car cause I'm pretty sure my car is NOT going to last much longer.

I've been spending a lot of time out of the house lately and my little brother posted a whole bunch of little notes on my door the other night saying, and I quote, "I <3 wou" and depicting a stick figure of himself with tears saying "sister". It's actually pretty impressive cause he wrote without any help and he's been having trouble with reading and writing, but in this case, he did very well with writing on his own. It made me both very proud and very sad. So I've been staying home a bit more lately instead of going out after school so I can spend some time with him. I think I was looking at the time I have the wrong way. The way I saw things before is that my family would always be there so I could spend as much time out of the house as I wanted, especially since it's the last stretch of time before I transfer. But that's not entirely true. K gets the same amount of time as everyone else and I need to balance a lot better. My mentality has been that it's my last few months to be able to hang out with Stormblades, but I've been ignoring that it's my last few months to spend at home too.

Anyways, I should get back to focusing on class and more homework.

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Welcome to 2015

Happy New Year Readers!

For many of you, I'm sure school is about to start, or it will be starting very soon. For myself, today is Day Two, so I figured I'd share my schedule with you.

Monday and Wednesday: Child, Family, and Community Interrelationships is up first, followed by Psychology of Gender. I get an hour for lunch and finish my day with Abnormal Psychology.

Tuesday and Thursday: I start with Intercultural Communications and move on to Psychology of Gender again. Another hour for lunch right before Solar Astronomy.

All total, I'm taking five classes between 9:30 and 3:45 throughout the week.

Last quarter was kind of hellish for me. I had long gaps between classes that made it difficult to stay motivated to stay at school the whole time and I didn't get to see any of my friends during the day. I made new friends, but I missed Stormblades. This quarter, however, my friend EW is in my psychology of gender class. He has no idea what to expect and so he's sitting next to me, staring at his syllabus. Kosmos isn't taking classes this quarter, unless he takes a random. Unfortunately, they didn't keep him at his seasonal job so he won't be able to focus on that job like he had wanted to. However, they're keeping his application in case there's an opening. I've taken this many classes before, but previously when I did, I didn't really have a social life or work life to keep up with. Now I'm not totally sure what to expect for this quarter. Hopefully, I'll be able to balance everything.

Anyways, for now I'm going to focus on class.

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Hey Readers,

In case you didn't know it, I live in NorCal. And right about now, we are facing the largest storm we've had in five years. Now, I know for anyone who has to deal with tornadoes or hurricanes, this storm would be nothing. I already know people who are making fun of the storm the way many of us did when the earthquake hit the East Coast, but let me explain why we're making a huge deal out of all this.

First, we've been facing one of the worst recorded droughts as of lately. That means that there really isn't any water in the soil around here either. At least not as much as there should be. With this kind of heavy rainfall, the ground is going to get over saturated with water. And you might be able to guess, this can lead to landslides. So we might get some landslides which destroy homes and can be fatal.

Second, we got warnings on our phones this morning from WNS about potential flash floods. Hear that? Flooding. And if you don't believe me, take a look at this article from Mother Jones. Those pictures are very real and they show exactly how bad the flooding is. And that's just so far.

Because it's raining, and it's finals week, I am spending my day inside my house working on essays. Kosmos had work until 8 this morning and because of the storm, I had him come crash at my place. I figured while he's sleeping, I'd blog a little and maybe start working. It's not too bad where I live right now, though the wind makes driving less than fun. I don't know about anyone else, but I love the rain. I love the smell, I love the feel, all of it. Though I don't know how I feel about this heavy downpour. But we need it desperately. Plus, for those of us who stay inside during rain, it can cause some of us to actually get things done around the house, and what-not.

Anyways, for those of you taking finals, good luck. And for those of you also dealing with this storm, be safe.

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3