Butterscotch Pudding

Ya know, I really like that stuff. It's nice. And the cool part is that if you buy the instant kind, it's ready in "just five minutes"! :) haha. :)

Anyways...life is goin steadily along. Not boucing-off-the-walls exciting, but interesting... sometimes sweet... sometimes hard... always blessed.

So...what's been happenin... Grandpa turned 40 the other day - twice, in fact. It was lovely. :) We celebrated his b-day when I went home for the weekend. So nice to be with him & grandma & mom & dad. I sure needed a break from school. I've decided that I always have a hard time the 1st 8 weeks or so of school & then right when I start getting used to things, it's good for a while and then, finals come & either summer/winter break. College is a very weird concept, you know.

Anyways... I was definitely burnt out & ready to come home. Friday night I just layed on our nice couch & watched the presidential debates... it was interesting - I'd never watched one before. Saturday grandpa & grandma came over and hung out & then I left for a little while to run errands, etc. Good stuff. Then Mom & Dad & I watched Seabiscuit - I'd never watched that either - I liked it. :) Sunday morning, Mom & I played hookie & went to La Jolla for muffins and hanging out on the beach... it was so pretty and refreshing. Then we came back and had lunch w/ dad... then I came back up. It was a really great weekend. There's nothin like family - I felt so special. I know it's like your family's "job" to think you're really cool, but it still feels really nice to be appreciated. I needed to hear it.

Anyways... I went on a GYRAD with my friend, Mike. GYRAD, by the way is basically this date night where you "Get Your Roomate A Date" and you go have fun with a bunch of people... sometimes it's w/ friends...sometimes it's with interests... and sometimes it's with complete strangers. ;) But they're pretty fun. Especially if you just go with a friend. We went to the Getty museum & then Diddy Riesse. The Getty was pretty good. I only saw like 1/3 of the museum and I wasn't super impressed, but maybe if I saw more, I'd like it. Diddy Reisse is this cool ice cream shop in Santa Monica where you get to choose two freshly baked cookies & your ice cream & they make you an ice cream sandwich for a buck! Pretty sweet deal! :) haha. So that was fun...and then we cam back and saw Collateral at the dollar theatre. That's a pretty good movie, I must say. Has anyone seen it?

Sunday was SO fun - I went for a 2hr bike ride - yay!! I haven't been in a month in a half. And while it was super fun while I was riding, I was SOOOOOOOOOO sore that night. Oh my WORD! I won't do that again... I'll just have to keep up the bike riding so my muscles don't have spasms! :)

This week was Torrey week, which basically means we only have 2 days of school and then 3 days of conferences. There are 10 sessions and you're supposed to go to 8 of them. Well, I needed a break from school to catch up on all the things that are needing to get done, so I went to one session & then I'll make up the rest later. It's cool cause I've been able to really relax this week.

Oh, I got my first filling at the dentist yesterday - it was pretty cool. My mouth felt all funny though. The funny thing is that it wasn't even for a cavity - it was for a chip in my tooth. It's been there for a while, but the dentist was afraid it'd turn into a cavity, so he filled it up. It feels nice and smooth. :) haha. OH, and when he said to "rinse out" my mouth after he'd done it, I went to drink the stuff and swish it around and it just sorta drooled out of my mouth. Oh man. :) Pretty darn funny. I kept thinking, "Why isn't my mouth staying shut?" and then I realized it was the novacaine (sp?). :) Fun times...

I took Chrystal to the airport today - she's flying out to see Sara B in Boston. (Sara B was my other roomate, freshman year). So, that's pretty cool! And now, I'm gonna go catch up on Visual Basic HW that I've been avoiding the last few days... :)

Love you more than Diddy Reisse,
~Vanessa

Update

Hey all,

I've decided to get better at writing these emails more frequently for two reasons - one, to be able to share the cooler parts (not just basic I did this, then that, then that) sort of stuff and also, I think it's somewhat therapeutic to write out all the stuff that happened during the day... :) haha... So here goes...

Friday I left for San Diego @ 3pm with the girls basketball team. We went to this guy's house in Del Mar and it was seriously a mansion - I've never seen a more elaborate house! First, you pull into the driveway which is just a work of art in itself; then, the entryway has ponds on either side leading up to a cut-glass doorway... You enter and on either side are staircases leading to the 4 bedrooms - each with bathrooms/showers and a hanging-out area... There's a family room on the left, leading into another bonus room with all leather furniture and a bar with marble countertops... The kitchen is all tiled in marble-like stuff with 2 sinks, 2 dishwashers & all sorts of neat things. He has another room with a grand piano and more lovely leather furniture... Then another with more leather furniture and it looks like a room "the men" would all go smoke cigars in... Then his master bedroom is HUGE!! Seriously, it's the size of our house - it's crazy. Then he has a swimming pool, a jaccuuzi, tennis/basketball courts & a balcony. All this with beautiful plants, etc. Oh man - craziness. Ya know what the COOLEST part of it was? He let 21 people come crash there for the weekend and hang out, mess up his pretty house & took us all out for Persian/Greek food just because he has a heart for what we were going to be doing down in TJ. And he does it all the time - he sponsors 4 (now 5) different orphanages, hosts church services 5 nights a week and has groups come down all the time to use his house - I thought that was so awesome. :)

Anyways, so that night we mostly just hung out & got to know each other - I talked to Orlando a lot. He's mexican and is a driver for the guy (Jerry) who owns the house. It was neat to talk to him & get a good picture of what Jerry was like and stuff. He was very nice & it was cool to hear about his family & history as well. We spoke a little Spanish, as well, which was lovely. :) After I hung out w/ Orlando some, I hung out with the b-ball girls and we played a bunch of games... it was fun. We played "hot seat" but only 3 mins per person cause there were so many of us. It was pretty neat - you kinda got a brief overview of each person & could sorta pursue it from there. There's a lot of really neat people on the team...

Saturday we were supposed to leave at 8:15 and ended up leaving at 8:45, but we got to the bus by 9:30 which was the important part. I couldn't believe they were that late - it was pretty crazy. Especially for a sports team, it surprised me. We got to La Roca around 10am and it was such a great day there! Jerry actually went down with us, which was cool - he's now sponsoring another place in TJ - haha. :) He has a big heart for Mexico and it's kids. I actually talked with him for like 20 minutes & got his business card - I'd really like to hook up w/ him some summer/winter for an internship @ his non-profit company. He basically helps people who are in debt get out of debt & teaches them how to manage it - I thought that was pretty darn awesome! He was born in Pennsylvania & was an orphan, so now he has a big heart for kids. Anyways, TJ was really fun. :) I got to connect with some of the moms and hung out w/ some of the youth & some of the kids as well! It was SO great to be down there... oh man, it was hard to think it would be my only time this semester.

We left TJ around 3:30 and washed up for dinner @ a Persian/Greek restaurant that Jerry treated us all to. It was SO yummy! I got a combo plate of gyros & filet mignon kabob... And there were pitas & an appetizer with all different sauces...it was great. :) Then we came back & hung out & then made an ice cream run - yay for Ben & Jerrys! :) haha I got "Chubby Hubby". Yummm. :) We hung out some more & I decided to go to bed a little earlier...

We went to their church service today and it was so neat! First they sing & then they share all the blessings in their lives & the things they're thankful for; then they have the sermon (and today, testimonies cause we were there) and then the offering & they're done. It was 1.5 hrs like our church, but it seemed more packed with stuff. :) I liked it! We got to hang around for another hour after that and that was really neat. We played games with the kids & held the babies. :) It was great. It was really sad when we had to leave - I thought a couple of the girls were gonna start crying... but it was neat, cause they really connected with the kids & plan to go back sometime this semester. That was really sweet to see...

Unfortunately, the line looked reeeally long when we got back so the coach panicked & got a "faster" way on the bus... It actually ended up being a lot longer & sorta frustrating, but ya know, you do what you think is best. At least we'll know for next time! :) We went back to Jerry's house & thanked him & picked up our stuff...

I met some REALLY awesome girls & had a GREAT time I'd do it again in a heartbeat. :) So now I have to get some hw done before tommorrow comes! I'll talk to you all soon!! :) (like tommorrow!) haha :)

Joe-thanks for the encouragement. :) I'm excited to see you too!!

Traci-yeah, the milkshake pic is my favorite! :) The penny collection sounds awesome! I'll ask Joy (our director) if we can send the pennies your way - I'll be home next weekend so maybe I can drop them by the school if it works out...I'll letcha know! :)

Grandma-the fountain is a water fountain - it has all these nice chairs/tables around it & you can look at the fountain & listen to it while you do your work. :) It's really nice. Thanks for your prayers for our safety in Mexico - it obviously went smoothly as far as safety! :) YAY FOR GOD! YAY FOR GRANDPA! :) I'm SO glad he's doing better!!!!! I'm SO excited to see you both this coming weekend. :) Oh yay. :) Can't wait to catch up! I have pictures! :) See you soon!

Better get started on that hw...

Love you more than TJ trips (though it takes a close 2nd),
Vanessa