HO HO HO!

Well, I'm home! Finally :) I am very happy to be back and... well, sleeping... I haven't been very useful otherwise... The past few weeks have been quite the wurlwind for many reasons. I spent one weekend on the Westside for the Christmas choir concert (thank you to all who came out... I hope the music meant as much to you as it and your presence meant to me). And the weekend after that, we had our Spokane concert series. In that way, I was kept pretty far away from my homework :) I was nominated as a choir officer this year so the time I would have spent studying I spent with the sick singers and coordination social events. Good stuff, huh?! :) Also, I finished my play which was a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. My friends said I was a proper prostitute so that's always good haha. That and I finished finals last week, finished Microbial Physiology FOREVER, and am getting prepped and rested for JanTerm. I will be finishing up my Psychology minor with Belief in Weird Things (yes, it's actually a class...) and playing in the snow (no, that is not a class... but if it were I'd already have a degree completed).

Anyway, lots of good stuff goin' on but little focus as to what they are... sorry! I've just been living about the same life and doing just about the same things, but would love to hear how you are doing! I hope you all have safe travels this holiday season, and enjoy family and friends!

With hope that you experience His perfect joy in His season,
Chels

P.S. Steph will be in South Africa all of January, and I would appreciate if you could send good juju vibes and prayers her way for safe travels and good lessons.

P.S.S. For those of you wondering, Coleson is doing better! His tumor is shrinking so we're just hoping that he will not need radiation before they can remove it... thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

P.S.S.S. I may be out of line, but I challenge you to remember what others in the world need this holiday season as opposed to what some may not even want...

1001 Spokanian Nights

Again, I am pictureless... but hello either way! I hope this finds you all well and ready for THANKSGIVING! I know, usually you don't need to prepare for a break, but holidays are the exception to the rule :) but it's worth it, because you get to spend time with the people you love. I can't wait to see my family! And if you haven't guessed, I'm home right now... smelly and tired and oh-so content! I think my parents are excited to smell my stench again :)

The last few weeks have been pretty fun-filled and action packed. Classes have been tuggin' along, getting ready for finals week in about three weeks. Oy... but I'm catching my revitalizing break now, even though I brought more homework and textbooks than clothes this time around. Also, the play I'm in is blocked, rehearsed and... well, over-rehearsed really... we open December 10, so fingers crossed that I make a good hooker! At least I have an alternative after I graduate if teaching doesn't work out :) juuuuuuust kidding! Also, choir is getting ready for its Christmas tour to the Westside. Funny news, my peers in the choir nominated me for choir office (I'm moving into the Choir White House next week...) so I actually am the choir's Social Coordinator for the year. I'm very excited, this means I get to plan social events for the choir during tour and throughout the year to build the community and whatnot (hmm... sounds awfully RA-miliar, right?!) and it starts with coordinating Secret Santa. So what did I do?! I dressed up as economy Santa for choir that day. By economy Santa, I mean I went to the dollar store, picked up some mop heads to fashion a beard and hair, a Santa hat and some glasses, and then I stuffed my belly with the clothes I changed out of. Ya know, the red shirt, white trim, black pants and brown/blue Nike's :) the choir thought it was pretty hysterical apparently, and I even wore my beard for a whole 20 minutes after I spoke in front of everyone! I started getting overheated at that point... that and the choir director couldn't stop giggling when he saw Santa singing hollily and jollily :)

Everything else is going great. I recovered from Feminight and my cold is slowly subsiding as my brain is slowly making an exodus out my nose... No big, it's not like I need it. And my Sudanese family are doing great; Sarah, the daughter, just turned 10 this past week. WOW! She's growing up so fast, and for the first time I saw her with her hair down. It was culturally appropriate for girls to have their hair back most of the time, so she was very excited at something so simple as wearing her hair down. And the baby is doing well :) It's funny, whenever these events happen with this family, they invade this one very VERY large Middle Eastern man (who wears tons of cologne and a nice suit at all times) who apparently is looking to wed. Always awkward, always fun to deal with. It's great having a 40-year-old man forced upon you! Don't worry, we always claim the "my boyfriend couldn't make it" and that usually solves the problem.

So Steph and I saw The Lion King on Sunday, and it was aMAzing! The music was beautiful, Mufasa's voice was b-e-a-Utiful, the set and costumes were beautiful... it was all beautiful! As a theatre techie, I was having a small panic attack from the glory that was their facilities. If you have the opportunity, please see it. Granted, it followed the movie exactly so was a little bit artistically stale, but it was TOTALLY worth sitting in the second to last row made in the theatre.

Quick prayer request: Coleson, the boy mentioned before, has been going through his chemo and is having a pretty hard time. He has a feeding tube, continually gets sick and is having MRI's in the next few days to see if the malignant tumor in his thigh will need radiation before it is surgically removed. He will already need radiation for the spots in his lungs, so we really hope he can have it just removed surgically. He also has been very sick with some sort of flu, so it's been a rougher few weeks for him than we hoped. If you could keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers, I'm sure they would appreciate it and feel your support :)

And finally, I have some pretty exciting news. For the past few years, the past few months especially, I have been feeling called to do mission work outside the country but didn't know when, where or how it would happen. Well, I know some may not believe in this, but I feel as though I got the call from God that answered those questions. So, this June I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic with the Foundation for Children in Need to work with orphans for a week! Everything has been wonderfully falling into place, and I really got a good feeling about this organization and this place, so I was officially accepted to the trip about a week and a half ago. Ever since I got the Call, I can't stop thinking about it. Every time I remember, I get very emotional. I can't wait to meet these kiddos and build relationships with them. Any prayers you could send my way as I prepare for this journey would be greatly appreciated!

Okay, I'm done blabbering my mouth for a while. I truly hope you all enjoy your Thanksgivings, spend it with those people you are most thankful to have in your life, and travel safe!

GOBBLE GOBBLE! (That's turkey-talk for "Love you!")
Chels

Public Service Announcement :)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Whitworth choirs to present 2009 Christmas Festival Concert, "Ye Shall Have a Song"
The 2009 Whitworth University Christmas Festival Concert, "Ye Shall Have a Song," will take place in Bellevue, Seattle and Spokane, featuring the Whitworth Choir, the Whitworth Women's Choir, and, for the first time, the Whitworth Men’s Chorus. The production, built around themes of pilgrimage and song, will involve 110 student singers, accompanists and instrumentalists. For more information, please call (509) 777-3280.

The concert will include its title piece, Randall Thompson’s “Ye Shall Have a Song,” from The Peaceable Kingdom. The Whitworth Choir will sing the featured work of the program, John Rutter’s “Gloria,” which is accompanied by brass, organ, timpani and percussion. Other concert selections include “Cantate Domino,” by Jackson Berkey, Healey Willan’s “The Three Kings,” “Pilgrims’ Hymn,” by Stephen Paulus, Peter Louis Van Dijk’s, “Susa Ninna,” and “There is No Rose of Such Virtue,” a setting of the 15th-century English text composed specifically for the Whitworth Men’s Chorus and the 2009 Festival Concerts by Marc A. Hafso.

The Whitworth Choir and the Whitworth Men’s Chorus will perform under the direction of Marc A. Hafso, professor of music and director of choral activities. The Whitworth Women's Choir will perform under the direction of Debbie Hansen, associate director of choral activities and chair of the music department. Diana Trotter, professor of theatre, will serve as narrator, and Bonnie Robinson will serve as organist.Following is concert and ticket information for each performance location:

Bellevue

When: Saturday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m.

Where: First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, 1717 Bellevue Way NE

Seattle

When: Sunday, Dec. 6, at 3 p.m.

Where: First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, 1013 8th Ave.

Spokane

When: Friday, Dec. 11, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 12, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Where: First Presbyterian Church of Spokane, 318 S. Cedar St.

Tickets: $18 general admission, $15 for students and seniors 62 and older. Tickets may be purchased by calling (800) 532-4668, online at www.whitworth.edu/musictickets or at the information desk in the Hixson Union Building at Whitworth. A limited number of tickets may also be available for purchase at the door prior to each concert.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:
Marc A. Hafso, professor of music and director of choral activities, Whitworth University

Joan Lack or Loree Swegle, music department program assistants, Whitworth University
Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703

This message was sent by Whitworth University 300 W. Hawthorne Road, Spokane, WA 99251Campus Telephone: 509.777.1000

A Quick One

Hi there! I'm very sorry, this little witty ditty is going to be short and has no pictures, but I promise a more in depth one is to come in the upcoming weeks.

Been pretty busy around here. Between schoolwork, choir, the play, volunteering with the refugees, spending time with a child with cerebral palsy, a social life and planning a campus-wide womens retreat again, I have been fairly preoccupied. All are going very very well! I just got back from Feminight this afternoon (woot! I live! AGAIN!) and am about to pass out right... about... NOW!........... Just kidding, I guess I've got a little bit more wind in me. It was breathtaking at Camp Reed, and don't worry plenty went wrong. You know, like giving all the girls the wrong directions on how to get there (not my doing... and if I hear one more "well, if this were a MEN's retreat..." I may just crawl into a hidey-hole) and starting a small fire in the downstairs floor of the lodge (by the way, Camp Reed really needs to change out its fire detectors... we caught it as it happened but it was still pretty smokey and no alarm sounded). But besides that it was incredible :) Our speaker was phenomenal, the planned events were great, the dance party was HOPPIN' (I was the dj... my only stipulation to do it again :) ), the food was great (I had fun working in the kitchen the time I wasn't dancing) and we had over 100 girls go this time. It was such a blessing, I can't even begin. And I could talk forever but I won't because I know it's not the small details that makes it good. Just know that it was a wonderful time :)

To top off the wonderful time, I got a really bad burn on my finger (I was making like 6 grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch at Feminight for the vegetarians and... well, digit met grill...) and have a really bad head cold including runny nose and scratchy man voice that made it difficult to yell out announcements during the event. That on top of extreme fatigue from a busy weekend with one 10-minute break other than sleep equals me going to bed in approximately 7 minutes. I will hopefully be posting again soon with more stories (I'm so tired I can't think of anything right now...) so until then I love you all and have a fantastic week :)

With love,
Chels

Dragging the Dog...

Hey there posse! So I couldn't really think of a title, and while I'm writing this I am sitting next to my window and see, for the millionth time, this older man drag his dog down the street. It's really very funny, I see him force this same dog down Ivanhoe every day and the dog always looks at me like, "he's not serious again, is he?!" I always chuckle to myself... so that's the reason behind the title. Very insightful and meaningful, I know... :)

All is well in Chelsealand. I had my midterms last week (a week earlier than everyone else; I think my professors wanted to plan midterms at a time when they thought none would be happening in other classes... except all my professors did it... good planning, guys :) ) and it was a killer. Between three research papers, three exams and teaching a lesson for a class, I was tired. AM tired. But I've been recovering. Last weekend, to prepare for the poopy-poop week I knew I would have, I absconded away with a few of my housemates to study in b-e-a-Utiful Coeur d'Alene and enjoy an evening of unplanned fanciness. We studied at this little coffee shop down by the water (and by study, I mean people watched and chatted) and then got dressed in the Coeur d'Alene Resort bathroom in our fanciest pantsiest dresses and had dinner and desert at the Dockside Restaurant there. It was wonderful to spend some time there with good friends and we were even joined by Mother Nature (it rained cats and dogs and gerbils while we were walking along the dock... of course when we were exactly halfway through the loop... wonderful...) The food was kind of pricy, so we decided to share a meal. A pasta sampler:

As you can see, not enough for four people (the picture even makes it look bigger than it was). So what did we get? That's right. We had a wonderful time, and I was really able to take my mind of the craziness that was the upcoming week.

A lot has been happening. Our Sudanese family had their baby (yay!) and we've been visiting the little guy on a regular basis. He's aDORable, and seems to like us :) here are a few pictures of Steph and I with the baby and Asim (now a Big Bro for the first time) with little Aseal.

I feel so old! Everyone is having babies and getting engaged and thinking about getting engaged and GAH! It's very frightening to think of all the crazy adulthood happening around me, but I am thoroughly enjoying my childhood. It's been a bit strange though...

In other news, classes have been going fine. Kinda stressful but fine. MicroPhys is still a time suck, but I feel like I'm finally getting on top of it. And I found out that the Women's Choir is touring to Seattle December 4-6... just saying :)

I decided, after a summer of theatretastic greatness, that I would audition for Whitworth's Festival of One Acts and got into a show! It's called Hello from Bertha and will be a real challenge for more than one reason. It's definitely a drama, and I will be playing a Jewish prostitute (yeah, wonder how that casting came about...) but I'm excited to put my acting shoes back on.

Steph and I went shopping yesterday for some fun stuff for Coleson and got him a bunch of army stuff from the army surplus. We really hope he'll like it, it's this whole army motif thing going on :) Coleson is doing fine. They'll be putting a feeding tube in in the next few days, but apparently that's pretty common. He just has no appetite and has been losing too much weight so there ya are. His family feels the support and love of their community and friends, so thank you again for your thoughts and prayers and know that it really means a lot to Steph and I. We are currently brainstorming on how to best advertise Coins for Coleson, but we'll be sure to let you know our progress :)

Well, I better get to work on things of a Feminight nature. Just know that I am doing very well, still learning a ton about myself, my faith and my place in the world, but am very happy doing it. I hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Chels

P.S. "What we do is less than one drop in the ocean, but if that drop were missing, the ocean would be lacking something." -Mother Theresa

Kairos

Well helllloooooooooo everyone! I know it's been a long time, but please put down your torches and pitchforks, I intend to explain why I haven't written in three weeks. Everything has been insane and I haven't had much time for sleep much less communication (I've had to tell several tours, "don't worry, I swear I speak English... I'm just bilingual in Mumble Jumble, that's all"). I won't bore you with the details, but Microbial Physiology is consuming my academic life (don't worry, I won't let it get the rest of me... the academic part is a very small one so I'll just let it have it :) ). We have this huge research project that has been taking forever and we can't seem to get it right, and I haven't been doing well on other aspects of the class. AND I'M ACTUALLY TRYING! My other classes I could care less about, I haven't put an ounce of effort into them, and I'm acing them! How the heck does that work?! Kinda frustrating, but oh well. Steph has been extremely swamped with school too so we actually pulled two all-nighters (well, not technically, they were really 4:30am-ers but we had to get up at 7 anyway so I say it counts...) and were extremely delerious. If you were wondering what an all-nighter looks like, here you go:

Lots of sugar (in Orange Julius form) and music to keep us awake. I've been exhausted from school and everything else, but other than that life has been wonderful!

Choir is great, tours are great, my Sudanese kids are great (and about to become one more this week apparently... we didn't know mom was pregnant until a week and a half ago... wow...) and Feminight is underway. I am once again heading up advertising so that should be fun; the campus walls won't know what hit 'em :) Got some big stuff in store, but it'll be along the same line as last years so I won't bore you. This past weekend, I housesat for a professor and cared for her five (very old and very likely dying) animals and it was smelly, poop-filled, and yet TOTALLY worth the money. Just had to throw that out there :) As far as my house goes, everything is wonderful! We've been having great fun getting to know eachother, now call eachother sisters, and already have plans for living next year. As you can see, we're eating alright (this was my first attempt at chicken parmesean and I kicked it's clucking booty! Take a look):

We actually didn't have any regular mozeralla cheese so what you are looking at is deconstructed string cheese... mmmm, appetizing, isn't it?! And below is a picture of all my housemates and myself. From the right, it's Kenz, Steph, Andrea, Awbrey, Katie and I. Yup, that's the posse!

We've been having crazy dance parties during the week and other greatness to keep sane, so I've been very happy. I've found myself to be very reflective this past week also, trying to figure out some things and answer some big questions I've had for a while. Needless to say, I am trying to see what my faith is like while walking in the middle of the trail. Most people, myself included, find it very easy to give praise when they're on the mountain top because something is really great, and it can also be quite easy to seek Him when they're in the valley because nothing seems to be going right. But the true test of faith comes from traveling on the middle trail, when life is simply being lived. Well, at least I know that my life is to be lived for others. But if one wishes to exhale throughout their life, they need to learn to inhale. So I've been learning to inhale (aka foster my own spiritual health and taking care of myself, for those who didn't quite get the metaphor) and am continuing to learn. I'm just trying to figure out what this looks like. Sorry, I know this isn't what you wanted to read, just giving you a little peak into the topmost thoughts of my brain. Much more going on up there though, and if you're ever interested in talking about it please don't hesitate to contact me. I love these deep, weird conversations :)

I actually have two prayer requests to ask of you guys: first off, I just sent in an application for a Washington Council for Higher Education Board scholarship that may equal out to be worth a public college tuition. With every year of funding, I would commit myself to two years of teaching in Washington state, but seeing as how I was planning on it anyway... I definitely don't want everyone to pray that I'll get it, I just hope that you'll pray that the committee reaches out to those who need it most, whether that be me or not. Please pray that they have a clear mind in their decision-making and that the most deserving candidates receive the scholarships. I should know by November 30th so I'll let you know then :)

Also, and this is a big one, I ask that you all pray for a 6-year-old boy named Coleson Brink. Steph, my roommate for the past two years, has babysat Coleson since he was an infant up until this point along with his younger brother and new baby sister. Well, about a week and a half ago, Steph found out that Coleson was diagnosed with Ewing round cell sarcoma, a very rare childhood cancer. He has a tumor on his hip and was just admitted into the hospital for an 8-month long treatment of chemotherapy, surgery, more chemo and finally radiation. His mom and dad thankfully were donated housing by family in the Seattle area and get to have the two other kids stay with them (the plan otherwise was that they would week to week with alternating grandparents for the 8-month period and wouldn't see there mom and dad for days and weeks at a time). The survival rate, if it hadn't metastisized, would have been 80%. Well, they found malignent lumps in his lungs as well and he now has a 10-15% chance of making it. He's only 6! Steph is devastated, she felt as though he was one of her own family. Naturally, Coleson is extremely frightened and asks his parents a lot of tough questions, like "what is surgery? Does it hurt?" and apparently his little brother Logan, who's 4 years old, asks his mom and dad, "is Coleson gonna die?". This is tearing this family apart. So Steph and I are starting a coin drive on campus called Coins for Coleson where we are trying to raise money to buy him toys for while he is in the hospital and help the parents with medical bills as much as possible (dad had to quit his job to be with his family at the hospital). We know we can't help much, but we're going to try. So please, please pray for Coleson. And if you feel led to help out, just let me know. I'm not asking, just saying. Thank you for your prayers. Below is a picture of him:

Steph and I made him an army Build-a-Bear this weekend named Pvt. Ura Trooper (by the way, that really REALLY confused the woman checking us out... she was like "I don't get it, Oora Trooper?!") Life is just so incredibly precious, and it's amazing how little time we have sometimes. But in the time that I'm here, I want to make sure that my greatest gifts meet the world's greatest needs, and always remember that a smile is the beginning of love. Thanks for reading through this with me, hope to hear from you soon.

With love,

Chels

It all started with a tennis ball...

Well hello! (By the way, if you saw me in person, I would be impersonating Mrs. Doubtfire when giving you this greeting! Just try and get that image out of your head...) I hope that this blogtastic entry finds you all well and wishin' summer was back :) I've just been getting back into the swing of things and am now boycotting homework so I thought I would tell you all the wonderful goings-on around here. It's been quite the last week and a half! Classes are going just fine, although I started the process of overwhelm-ment last night. I just have to learn to discipline myself and work steadily towards my research projects, something I'm DEFinitely not used to doing. Heck, last year I wasn't even sure if I was a student or not! Another reason why I decided to lay down my RA cape... One thing I've been pretty good about, schoolworkwise, is my Microbial Physiology stuff. Our draft research proposal is due this Friday so I've been trying my best to open up this bohemith and stay awake long enough to get through a sentence. Successful?! We'll see... I had my first Exceptional Learners and Inclusion class on this past Tuesday and it was... well, interesting. We have 9 students in the class and half of them are taking the course for graduate degree credit so it's doubling as a 300-level (aka Junior) and 500-level (aka not Junior) class. Strange, huh?! Anyway, we have a test and a paper due every week of class so let the good times roll!

As far as other stuff goes, I've been having tons of fun meeting new people and hanging out with my housemates! I do have to tell you this one story. Last Saturday (so a week and a half ago, not this most recent... I dunno, does saying last still work?!) was very eventful: I had tour guide training, a few coffee dates to reconnect with friends, a birthday dinner for a Duvallian and our school's annual Bingo tournament (at which my friend won a Snuggie...). After all this, Steph and I decided to spend time with one of our old friends from freshman year and it so happened that he invited us to play urban golf on campus. He met up with 5 other guy friends who were all dressed in suit jackets and shorts (truly short shorts), smoking cigars and pipes and drinking Arnold Palmers to celebrate the drink's namesake's 80th birthday. It was pretty dang funny, so what do Steph and I do?! Join them! We grabbed a golf club and a tennis ball and starting whacking at the lawn like you wouldn't believe (ahem, can you say divet?). Anyway, we were laughing and having a jolly-old time getting to know these new friends when I saw my green in sight: the campus totem pole. I had a perfect shot between one of our school buildings and one of the players (wearing the shortest shorts of all... I don't know, in guy world, does that mean he won or something?!) and thought, I can make that! I've only hit the shins of the other guys a few times. And don't worry, this was around midnight so there were no unsuspecting students walking to and from class. I took aim, made a beautiful swing, and my ball ricocheted off the building and hit the guy (who is bending over at this point) right in the butt. And I'm not talking a slight glance, I'm talking "BULLLSEYE!" So I thought I'd let you know how I make friends :)

This week I gave my first tour and it went great! I was fairly tongue-tied but they said I did just fine... I'll take their word for it. It's always disconcerting when a past alum is coming with their son or daughter (or, if you have my tours, their granddaughter!), I feel like saying "you could probably lead this better than me!" but thankfully there's tons of new stuff to show them. Like the wide open expanse that was Keola! And by the way, my housemates and I are going camping on the Keola lawn as soon as the grass seed takes root. This weekend was the first home Football game and skydivers flew down onto the field. We didn't really know how to react, so we kind of golf clapped... probably not the reception they were expecting... then it started to rain. And as you can see, we were not pleased. Before the game, Steph and I met our freshman year RA and one of my best friends, Kendel, and had breakfast in Manito park. It was wonderful to sit down and talk to her again. Saturday night a few of us went to an improv comedy club close to campus called the Blue Door Theatre and that was pretty fun! So, as you can see, I've been keeping myself fairly busy. I've been kind of turned upside down by this whole not RAing thing. I don't really know how to handle not being frantic and frazzled! It's an incredible blessing and I still get to be involved (apparently I'm on the planning committee for Feminight again... woot... I should have known I could never escape it once I started it, not until I graduate at least!) and today I still went to Community Building Day (full of weed-pulling, compost-shoveling, laughing, and being horrified at the state of our bus and bus driver). I still see Asiz, Sarah and Asim every week and am now a legitimate volunteer for Global Neighborhood (the organization Steph and I met them through). So I just realized how scattered this past paragraph was. Oh well, there it is for ya.

Okay, I may have missed some things, but I'll hopefully be writing again soon. Lots of work to do and very little time to do it in, so I'd best be off. I hope your days are filled with love and compassion and that you make the difference you want to see in the world. As Mother Teresa said, "what we do is less than one drop in the ocean, but if that drop were missing, the ocean would be lacking something".

Love your lives,

Chels

P.S. I made it into Women's Choir... woohoo! So if you are in the Seattle/Bellevue area in December you might just wanna hit up our wonderful Christmas concert tour... Just saying :)

P.S.S. I'm really bad at taking pictures (I actually took these last few from Steph) but I'll get better, I promise!

RUN!!! The Swine Flu is coming! The Swine Flu is coming!

Why hello everyone! I just thought I would share the latest Whitworth sentiments with you through my blog title :) I am happy to say that classes have begun and so has the mountains of work. It's bittersweet to not have leadership duties to distract me from the amount of work to do in the upcoming months, but I guess reality bites you in the... well, you know...

I have quite the class line-up for the semester: Microbial Physiology, Animal Behavior, labs for both of those, Exceptional Learners and Inclusion, Core 150 (aka Christian Traditions in Western Civilizations) and my Teaching Assistantship (the class where I'm the freshman counselor basically). It's great because my two science courses spent their first day trying to convince us that their specific course is the hardest biology course offered at Whitworth (both contradictory and untrue, I know that to be Genetics...) and that the research projects assigned will be the death of us. We have all semester to do this project in Microbial Physiology in which we isolate a single colony or strain of a specific genus from an environment, characterize it, grow a pure culture of it and run an experimental procedure on it. Does that hurt your head?! Because it hurts mine. Just think how many bacteria species live on a square inch of the skin on the back of your hand! And I have to grab one of those suckers?! I hope I can afford this class, I might set up a "Glass-Breaking" fund to hinge my bets... I've gotta make rent... Anyway, this professor is employing the "fly and be free" tactic, basically meaning he assigned us this project today and it's due in December. The rest is up to us. So if you're wondering where I am at most times, I'll probably be elbow-deep in sheep's blood and agar... ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.

It's going to be one of the more writing-heavy semesters, but I'm ready for the challenge. It's been really nice being off-campus; don't get me wrong, I'm still somewhat bummed about not being an RA, but I've been having a great time and I know it's only going to get better. Everyone has come back for classes and I'm already in the midst of planning my first prank (hehehe...), auditioned for choir yesterday and have tour guide training on Saturday. Woot! That and a whole slew of fun activities for the weekend, school is back in full swing.

The house is coming together quite nicely, if I do say so myself :) Here are some pictures of the place to tied you over until you visit!

Our b-e-a-Utiful garden, if I do say so myself ;) we broke the bank on the landscaping for this place, but ya know, it's worth the ambiance.

This is one of my wonderful housemates, Katie, making steamed rice and vegetables... I surprised her :)

Welcome to Steph and my room! It's great, we're having a ball. And the best part is, our neighbors across the street have three yippy dogs that start barking at 7am every morning so I now have test subjects for my research projects :) just kidding! Steph keeps saying she's going to make Doggy Stew... doesn't sound too appetizing...

So there are your pictures, more to come of the fun to be had :) I usually swipe other peoples' pictures of events because I forget my camera at most times, but I'll try my best!

Okay, off to the next event of the day (if I can remember what it is...) To my nifty planner I go!

Be well everyone

With love,

Chels

Domesticisity!

Hello one and all! So I don't have pictures of my new home yet, but I will soon I promise. I have been spending my days flocking to campus because Internet and air conditioning are very attractive luxuries that my house lacks. I've been visiting friends and watching the student leadership return to campus from the sidelines and have a joyful old time! When not doing that, I've been bonding with my new housemates (LOVE them, it's going to be a fantastic year!) and sprucing up the old place. I feel like such a grown-up! We've basically lived at the thrift stores in town and been taking daily adventures around the greater Spokane area to find garage sales. The other day, one of my housemates and I hit 6 garage sales within an hour and found tons of nifty stuff that just needed a LOT of TLC... and some antibacterial cleansing... I worked for a good two hours on this toaster from the 1970's or earlier that has since declared mutiny against me, but at least it doesn't smell like burning gasoline anymore! And more importantly I made the cheap chrome paneling shine like a new penny :) Anyway, we've been fixing up our bargain buys and have invested a whopping $30 bucks into this place (second mortgage here we come!) but I weeded yesterday, sanded and revarnished our dining room table (a freeby because it had broken in half, so we also filled the crack and bracketed it too...) planted a garden, fixed my dubious toaster for the second time and a hodge-podge of other stuff. The great thing is my roommates really want this to be a home and so we're all pulling our weight. The last two roommates are slated to come within the week, so the family will be complete!

The other day, I went grocery shopping for myself for the first time. And I don't mean picking up a few things here and there for the family, or getting snacks or even meals to pack into the dorm room. I mean real food, food I have to make on a daily basis. You'll be happy to know I haven't made myself sick yet, but give it time :) the learning curve doesn't just apply to book learnin'.

I will most definitely post pictures within the next week or so to show you what the house looks like. It's going to be a very bohemian, eclectic style because of two reasons: 1) All my housemates like the look, and 2) the price is right. I have some before pictures, and I'll put those nasty reminders up too :) Anyway, I think the girl working in this coffee shop has started placing bets about whether or not I'll ask to sleep here so I'm going to get out of her hair. I love you all dearly, and I hope to hear from you soon!

With love,
Chels

P.S. Don't worry, I haven't been working so hard that I'm not having fun... midnight sprinkler runs on campus have already happened, AND I've already been pegged in the head with a frisbee inside the new dorm :)

La Starta of the Bloga

Welcome to my concession! I have finally given in, everyone... STOP! Blog time :) Everyone seems to agree, myself included, that this may be the easier way in which to keep in touch and relate my debauchery to you all. This way, I won't have to write a small novel; instead I can just post the fun as it comes! And it gives a new field of competition for my family and their "I'm going to out-comment you" mentality :) So welcome! For a little bit this blog may be a work in progress, meaning I might change the layout and such, but I will try my best to keep it updated, I really will. Each year has been a huge change, so we'll have to see how this year goes, but I anticipate a much more relaxed, free atmosphere. Don't worry, I'll still keep myself fairly busy, but just in different ways. And I'll be taking you guys along with me :)

I moved into my new (well, not so new... the geometric-design shudders give it away) duplex a few days ago and already love it. My housemates are great, the other two who are already here, and I think it's going to be a wonderful change of pace and push into adulthood. My papa left me today (TO STARVE!!! Just kidding, we ate enough the last three days to keep me full until Thanksgiving... I'm assuming that was intentional on his part...) and I headed over to campus to visit some friends. Tons of people are coming back today for RA training (haha SUCKERS!) and for various other reasons so I snuck into the cafeteria (Saga, if you may recall) and made the rounds. I saw a few old team members from my leadership team and started feeling both nostalgic and sad. Part of me would really have liked to be an RA again, but I'm ready for a new adventure and feel as though I took as much from the experience last year as I could have. This year will be completely different and yet I anticipate that it'll be completely great! With living off-campus, tour-guiding, classes, being a peer advisor for about 20 freshman, choir, possibly auditioning for the school play (SO excited!), my refugee family and volunteering with the Bonner Leader program, it's shaping up to be a pretty dang good year :)

When papa and I arrived in Spokane after much gluteal distress, we took a tour around campus and went to the beautiful, newly-seeded lawn that was once Keola. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my much beloved, asbestos-filled home last year has been destroyed. It was really kind of sad, I'm going to miss everything about it. Well, not everything, but the people, the memories and what it represented. But on the flip side, it's kind of cool because I can tell people I'm giving tours to that I once lived in a dorm that doesn't even exist anymore! How about them apples?!

So for the next week and a half (I got here pretty early) I will be getting things put together in my house, bonding with my roommates, and creeping on RA training and Traditiation meetings. I'm in the Library right now for two reasons: 1) It's air conditioned and my house is not, 2) it has Internet and my house does not. We're going to be fixing this very soon, we are looking between Comcast and someone named "my friend knows this guy who..." and we'll probably be going with the latter :) Spokane is beautiful and I wish you were all here, but I'll try and make it feel like you are, okay?! My email at chelsea.casebolt@gmail.com is still fully functioning and I would love to still hear from you all, so don't think that door has closed just because this one has opened up. Also, I've been asked to provide my address here at school, so here it is!

9803 N Ivanhoe Rd
Spokane, WA 99218

Tada! That's it for the first post. Wow, practically painless! So comment away if you see fit, and I will talk to you all soon.

With love,
Chels