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