Survival of the Sleep-Deprivingest

Well hi there! I hope all is well for everyone and that you're enjoying this absolutely GORGeous weather :) well, at least I hope it's gorgeous for you... it has been for me! I'm sorry to say that I am currently pictureless, BUT I'll just give you a quick checklist of the cool stuff happening in my life...

I am actually home for Spring Break right now, catching up on sleep and knocking out a very short (thank goodness!) to-do list. The week leading up to here was pretty rough, two all-nighters in a row and minimal sleep after that made for a fun week. But I got everything done that I needed to, and it's almost like my Spring Break is two weeks long... I say this because the Spokane school district's Spring Break is the week after mine, so my three field experiences are on hiatus :) Also, last week, I found out that my partner for my Behavior Intervention field placement came down with viral meningitis and was hospitalized (felt SO bad) so I had to change groups and am now at another Elementary school. It's actually much mo' better because the teacher is nicer to the students and to us Whitworth students as well. All in all it was a fairly stressful academic week, but I made it through! Now, for seeing friends and lying around time...

The big news as of now is actually the future. Plans are changing left and right! I will actually be going to Haiti this summer August 4-11 now that the organization has shifted their trips around, which is fine because it gives me a longer period of time to work consistently throughout the summer. Also, I'll be staying in Spokane this summer... I'm currently looking for and applying for summer work (I'll do anything, paint houses, work a register, I don't care!) and have a job starting the first week of April that will continue through August. I'll be tutoring a 7th grader who needs help with his science! During the summer I'll be moving out of my current house and into my new place. It's smaller, just four of us will be there, and a much better situation for all sorts of reasons! So that's exciting... then starts my last year! Probably the most exciting thing to happen recently has been my applying for my Intercultural Immersion experience. All education peeps at Whitworth, for the JanTerm of their senior year, spend a month teaching in a different cultural context than their own. Some go to the other side of Spokane (whomp), some travel across the state, some go to another state (or home for them), but most go outside of the country. I am one of those that can't justify staying in the country if I have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go elsewhere... so I've been looking at my options. I have always thought that I wanted to fulfill this experience in Africa, whether through the school or a program created by me, but through some searching I have had a change of heart. Whitworth has a faculty-led, 8 person trip to Tanzania, which is basically exactly what I thought I wanted... but instead, I am applying to go to Kazakhstan! I am very excited, it's really a big change but it feels so right!

I've also started thinking of life after Whitworth... Grad school at University of Oregon, teaching in Alaska, Oregon, Spokane, Africa, I don't know... life is the best kind of question mark right now. Life is good, and the future is bright :)

Anyway, that's a short little synopsis of my planning right now. I'm excited for a break, but I'm sure I'll be excited to go back to school too. Enjoy your week everyone!

With love,
Chels

Hallelujah

So as many of you can imagine, one of the most wonderful, magical things happened this weekend. My sister, the strong and incredible woman that she is, gave birth to Payton Marie Hall at 10:52am on Saturday morning. Most of the people who read this blog read Jenna's too, so I won't go into too much detail... but the weekend was quite the journey! For several reasons...

I got the phone call from my dad at about 4:50am that Jenna's water had broken and she was on the way to the hospital. So of course, in good 'ole "wait, what?!" fashion, I started throwing things in a bag and said "I'm on my way". But my wonderful father assured me that he was already looking at plane tickets and that he would get me there as soon as possible. I keep trying to tell him how much it meant to me to get me there so quickly so that I could be there from the beginning, but I don't think I can. In a lot of ways, my daddy was my rock this weekend. Love you dad :)

So I leave my house, go to the airport, basically jog through security (had no belt or laptop... wouldn't have worn pants if it would have sped things up... but I'm pretty sure it would have just slowed my travels down) and fly over to Portland. Funny enough, my plane landed at EXACTLY 10:52, and as I called my dad to tell him that I had landed, I heard the lullaby that hospitals play over the loudspeakers every time a baby is born. That counts as being there, right?! It was really an exciting moment. So dad said, "grab a cab and get here quick". So I run out of the airport, run back in to find an information kiosk and ask where the cabs are, and finally jump in a cab with a driver named Donald Lickiss. Oh yes, I remember his name. How could I not. Upon walking up to him, I said "hi" and he responded "never". Between you and me, his aroma said different... my dad even commented when he met me outside the hospital. So I zoomed over with good 'ole Donny boy and arrived at the hospital just as Kyle had come out of the OR, showing video of the baby to the two new grandmas. Of course, we all commenced to bawling and hugging. It truly was a beautiful family moment, we felt like this new little person made us complete. As soon as we could, we went in to see Jenna and Payton. I'm so unbelievably proud of my sister, and I kid you not, Payton is the most beautiful little girl ever born... a true angel.

Over the next few hours, we went between hospital and Jenna and Kyle's house, resting (I was an exhausted wreck) and basking in this miracle. One of the most magical parts of the weekend, though, was when Jenna and Kyle invited a chaplain to bless Payton while we were there. He prayed over the family and had the parents say their hopes for her. When I got to hold her next, I told her my hopes and dreams for her in this world, that I wanted her greatest gifts to meet the world's greatest need and that I hoped she would show others the love and support that she is sure to receive from her family. And she started crying. I think I overwhelmed her :) When I held Payton, my favorite thing to do was to sing to her. Nada te turbe, nada te espante, todo se pasa, Dios no se muda, quien a Dios tiene nada le falta, solo Dios basta. Basically, it means "Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God never changes, he who has God lacks nothing, God alone is sufficient". Not your average lullaby, but if she's going to be bilingual by the time she's 5 I've got to get to work! Just kidding... but I was truly feeling the sentiments of the song.

This weekend was beautiful in many ways, but it was also a pretty difficult time. For those of you who have followed me through my college journey, you may remember a good friend of mine named Lee Stover who made at least one appearance in each of my email updates. Well, four hours before I received the news of Payton's impending arrival, I received news that Lee had passed away the night before in his sleep. You can imagine I didn't get much sleep that night, hence my being an emotional wreck :) He passed away from an enlarged heart in Cheyenne, Wyoming where he was a Youth Director of a Presbyterian Church. I only told my dad, he was so wonderful in hugging me and holding me, and covering for me when I "needed to go for a walk". My mom could tell something was wrong so I told her later when we were alone. I wouldn't be telling you now except I feel compelled to share with you my thoughts.

Lee Stover was a fantastic friend, I can't even count the memories! We built an igloo together, we wrestled constantly (and if you remember his description, you can imagine how it was extremely one-sided), he waited with me when I got my RA letter, we went camping at Priest Lake, and tons of other little memories. He was the kind of guy who would see a budding little freshman, hardly knowing who she was, and would make her feel right at home. That is who Lee was to me, a support and essential member of my family away from home. The guy who saw me outside on the evening of the first snow of the year, came out and asked me to dance as the snow fell. I am being completely honest when I say that it was a magical moment for me, I had never felt so special. It is by far my favorite memory of Lee, and is such a good example of his person.

If you had met him, you would have loved him. His laugh was contagious, and although he wore his emotions on his face, he still always seemed to be smiling. He had a larger-than-life personality and a pure heart for others. He wasn't a protector of others simply because of his size (about 6'5" and 300+ pounds), but because he cared for people so much. No person was insignificant in his eyes, everyone had an incredible purpose on God's Earth. He had a way of always being a support, always being there when you needed him for silliness or seriousness. He could reach the unreachable; those people you see in your lifetime that you wonder, "do they have anyone to love?" you also would have seen hugging Lee if they had met him. A ferocious man of faith, unafraid to ask difficult questions and admit when the answers were inadequate. An incredible friend to everyone, and greatly missed.

It's always hard to lose someone because we feel cheated, don't we?! We feel like, as much or as little time as we had spent with them here on Earth, we lost all future opportunity to be in fellowship with them, to laugh with them, and to learn from them. But this isn't about me, this isn't about my losing the possibility of relationship or even the world losing the possibility of being bettered by him. It's funny how much we take for granted and let go unnoticed until it is pressed upon our heart. I learned so much from him while he was alive, but oh so much more in his death. It seemed as though Lee had an endless capacity for loving and caring for others, and I realized through the way he lived that it was because He loved God first. His dedication to Christ made him a vessel to pour out to others, and I want to be more like that. At his memorial last night, one of his friends reflected that Lee's life was one big "Hallelujah", that each day was a gift and a new opportunity to show Christ's love on Earth to others. Shouldn't we all live that way, as if each day were a celebration?! I want each day to become a "Hallelujah", an experience with which I can love others and do so with joy. That's what Lee has taught me; I saw it in his face whenever I saw him, but now I see the desperate need for it in the world. It almost seems fitting that a man with a heart larger than life itself died of an enlarged heart...

So I guess this is a temporary goodbye, friend. You'd better be saving me a dance up there, but until then I'll say and live a "Hallelujah" each day for you.

Love,

Chels

Helloooooooo Broadway!

Well hi there! Long time no talk... how are all y'all?! Happy (belated) Valentine's Day, by the by :) I hope you are reminded of all the blessings and love in your lives; know that I am blessed by each of my relationships with you and that I am very thankful for you :)

It's been a very eventful beginning to the semester, hence the lapse in my blogging... The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. I am taking Advanced Cell Biology, Plant Biology (ugh...), Secondary Teaching Methods, Middle/High School Field Experience, Behavior Intervention and Motivation, and Teaching Secondary Science. And of course, Women's Choir. Phew! It's not as many classes as I have done in the class, but they are all super intense and a lot of work. Advanced Cell is extremely interesting but will in fact be the death of me. All of my Education classes have their craziness too. I have three (count 'em... THREE) field placements, one at an Elementary school, one at a High School, and one at NORTHWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL! YAY! Northwood is where I had my field experience last year, I lurv it there :) it's hard to schedule everything since I have about 10 hours in schools each week outside of the other classes I have as well as work, so I go from about 7:30am-7:30pm Monday through Thursday and then homework begins! I know many of you have similar days and I don't mean to complain, but it's why I've sorta been M.I.A. the past few weeks and will probably continue to be so. But I'm getting two very different experiences at my schools. At Shadle Park High School, the teacher I was placed with is kind of the exact opposite of the teacher I would like to be. BUT, the teacher I was placed with at Northwood is exACTly the type of teacher I would like to be! His name is Dave Gamon, and he was voted as one of the best middle school science teachers in the state. Everything I am doing in his class is useful in that it isn't busy work. We're spending our time together developing my ideal classroom environment, I will get to plan and co-teach lessons with him, and a bunch of other stuff. I am SO blessed to be working with one of the best in the business and I am already learning so much from him. I was truly on cloud nine after being in his classroom :)

But enough about school... Other than working my tail off, the past few weeks have been eventful socially too! Steph came back from Africa safe and sound (SO glad to have her back... we are as close as sisters, I missed her so much), and last weekend my good friend from TLT Sarahann came into town to see AVENUE Q! It was in Spokane for one weekend so she drove over to spend the weekend with me and awesome adult puppets :)

We made a day of it, started early and went to the Army Surplus, got lunch at Dick's Hamburgers, walked around downtown Spokane's Riverfront Park and saw the big red Radio Flyer. The show was AWEsome, although we were kind of frustrated because they changed a bunch of the show and censored it (apparently it's because it's Spokane...) BUT something awesome happened afterwards. We were walking out of the theatre and we spotted, oh yes, the two lead actors from the show walking down the street. So what did we do?! We hoot-hollered them down and got a picture with them. BEAUTIFUL men, and talented... ahh, good day. That and Sarahann ended up accidentally goosing the one on the left (she claims it wasn't intentional... I don't know if I agree with her).

Anyway, we capped the day off with a five-pound burrito in Cheney (shared this time, and no we still couldn't finish it) and swiftly conked out at home. It was so great to have her here, it was a fantastic weekend!

Also, after these crazy few days, Steph, Colin and I decided it would be in our best interest to escape to Cour d'Alene for the day. We drove over this morning, walked around on the waterfront and hiked a wee bit, grabbed lunch, went to a coffee shop downtown to study for a good long while and ended by going to a thrift store just because we could. Idaho sure is thrifty! It was a stunning day too, and great to spend time with two of my best friends. As crazy as life is right now, I still have the ability to escape! Here's a picture of Steph and Colin, obviously having a good time :)

The last bit of news, besides the fact that I got a second job as a school shuttle driver (and had to drive a 15-passenger van... with only one passenger... awesome, thanks a lot facilities services for the keys to that monstrosity of a bus), I heard from the organization that I will be traveling with to the DR this summer and it turns out that they are shifting all of their attention to Haiti after the quake. Sooooo this summer, during the same time, I will be going to do work in Haiti! I'm so very excited, and as crazy as the switch over is right now and how disorganized everything feels, I can't wait to go over and begin loving those orphans.

YAY! I finally finished this blog! I think that's the very few of the highlights from these past few weeks. I hope to hear from you soon and truly hope that you're enjoying this absolutely beautiful weather we have been having :)

With love,

Chels

P.S. My niece is coming soon.... best thing EVER :)

All Hail the Burrito!

So I know my blogs have become food-related (I swear I'm not being paid by the Food Network) but I have to tell you about this really smart (sarcasm) choice I made this past Saturday. One of my friends in my class and I were talking and she showed me this picture of a 5-lb burrito that she had demolished a few months earlier. And yes, that lit a fire under my stomach :) So this past Saturday, I attempted and utterly failed. I was proud of the attempt (as were the people I met there! Hahaha) but it was just WAAAY too much. I've made peace with it, and afterwards I was saying "I WILL be back to complete it in one sitting" but in the subsequent days I have decided that food challenges are not for me. You will not be seeing me starring on the next episode of Man vs Food, that's for sure... even though that was my inspiration... gotta love a show about glutiny!

How are all you guys?! I hope the end of the month is treating you well. I'm home now for JanTerm break, getting ready for the baby shower this weekend! My class ended really well (I was the intelligent person that saved the majority of their homework for the whole semester til the night before it was due... lots of lost sleep, but I'm making up for it :) ) and I gave a presentation on the Curse of Macbeth that went really well. Any questions, just let me know :) made the trek over here yesterday and have since been pulling together a bunch of loose ends and basically knocked out my to-do list. YAY! Now I have one big project left that's almost done, but it's kind of a surprise so sorry I can't give more details :) my house is good, my friends are good (Steph comes back next Thursday!) and I'm excited to start another semester at good 'ole Whitworth. Not too much to report here!

Well, that's it for now. Last two weeks have been filled with nothing too special so I'll leave it at that. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Love,
Chels

The Queen of the Sheep

JanTerm is good. Class is good. Friends are good. All is good. The true meaning of this post was to show you how I catapulted myself into the life of a carnivore. I cooked red meat for the first time tonight, and DIDN'T die!
Shepherd's Pie is the name, and everything in my canned vegetable stores is the game. Not to mention the fresh stuff :) Sauteed some ground beef, corn, green beans, potato cubes, shitake mushrooms, spinach and tomato sauce (for gravy-like purposes... I also added some thyme, coriander and oregano) and then made some mashed potatoes with, well, potatos (with the peel of course... come on, what do you take me for?!), garlic and butter and milk and thyme and parsley and a dash of love. Put it in the oven and mark it with an E (you know, for "edible"... that's pretty much all I was going for) and you have a Shepherd's Pie!
As you can see, I detailed the process for my family to see my incredible eating skills... that and I had to call my dad before the mayham (to ask him how to cook red meat... not too proud...) before and he told me to take pictures :) My house called me the Shepherd Queen, so that was pretty exciting. It actually turned out amazing. AND I forgot the best part: I NEVER EVEN LOOKED AT A RECIPE! Booyah, my scientific curiosity and chemistry training finally became useful and, thanks to Winco, relatively inexpensive.

Anyway, been keeping fairly busy with things, but loving the relaxed-ness of this time of year. I hope you are all also enjoying this incredible time and I would love to hear from you all. I'm continually praying for you every night before I go to bed, just so you know, and love you all very much.

Cheers,

Julia Child

Chickens all around! I feel like Oprah...

Sooooo Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2010... I haven't written a single date right, I'll tell ya that. I think I'm in denial... ya know, kinda like a Holocaust deniar but a New Year deniar instead. A lot has happened since I spoke to you last (tons of adventure and debachery, I assure you :) ) but I'll try my best to update you without rambling or forgetting.

So over break I made use of my time by seeing friends, spending amazing quality time with family and traveling my butt off. I got to spend Christmas Eve with the Books (which is always amusing and energizing :) I love them all so much) and Christmas day with the Casebolts (such incredibly good, wonderful people. I love them all so much too!). After awesome Christmas festivities, enough food to warrant a two-week fast and a vacuum cleaner (thanks mom and dad! The general concensus of my housemates and I is that the vacuum sucks :) ) I trekked up to Lynden to spend some action-packed time with Steph and her family before she left for South Africa (which she is currently loving... not shocking, it's summer there... AND it's Africa...). We went to Boulevard park in Bellingham which was absolutely stunning (and they have a Woods Coffee Shop on the water where I basically bought my weight in Cream Cheese Brownie muffins... I guess that two-week fast was just a pipe dream). Here are some pictures:

And then we went and gave some Christmas gifts from my incredibly caring and giving Grandma Book to Coleson and his family. You should have seen the look in their eyes, it was wonderful! Coleson looks as you would expect a child with cancer to look and it broke my heart, but my heart was also happy to see him playfully engaging in a Nerf gun fight with his little brother :) Steph packed the schedule for me to see all her friends that have become my friends as well over the years and the most relaxing thing we did was make olliebolen. It's Dutch pasteries with apples and raisins that are dropped into oil and fried. Deliciously heart-clogging! Put some powdered sugar on that and voila! You might as well be wearing wooden shoes :) Steph's mom was born in Holland and she said it was a family tradition to make olliebolen right around New Years so we got to work:

I'm pretty sure Steph's mom was tired of me saying "olliebolen" in the stereotypical Dutch accent... I added lots of "yah!"'s and "onderbrokie" in there (onderbrokie is the only other word I know... it means underwear :) so I kept saying, "we're making olliebolen in our onderbrokie yah".... I know you're all imagining me saying it...). All in all it was an awesome trip and a great time.

I was only at Steph's for a day and a half and got home in the evening. The next day I hopped on the train and headed down to Portland to visit the Halls for New Years. I should have read ahead on Nostradamus' predictions, because I did NOT see the crazy adventure coming. The day I train into town is of course the day that Portland virtually shuts down due to 4 inches of snow (Spokane would be shaking its head if it had one...) But, in good ole me fashion (according to Kyle) I made friends on the train and we banded together, quite like a Band of Brothers would but not as intense or bloody (maybe damper for a little bit). Jen couldn't get to me so I braved the Max system with my train buddies ("Trainies" if you will) and was wandering around downtown Portland with these miscellaneous people for about two hours. I could go on for ages about the stories, but I'll only tell them when you ask specifically so I don't bore you. Needless to say, I love unplanned adventures. I'm pretty sure all my trainies were about ready to shoot me because I was having too much fun :) I then spent the next few days getting some wonderful quality time in with Jenna and Kyle, although it was mostly Jen that I saw. It has been so long since we had one-on-one time together like that, honestly it may have been years the way our lives are going, and those few days just reminded me once again how incredible and lovely of a sister I have and how thankful I am for her. She means so dang much to me, and I wouldn't take back that time we spent together for anything. I love you Jenna <3

Also during this little excursion, I got to feel the baby move and kick and basically throw a tantrum through my sisters cute little belly (which isn't so little anymore!) It was the most bizarre, strange and exhilarating experience I think I have ever had! I'm not going to lie to you, I cried... and we were at a movie that didn't warrant crying... I'm pretty sure some people may have been confused if they saw me. Then ma and pa came up and the Halls came up and we did New Years right by playing Pit with index cards and dressing up a Joey Harrington bobblehead.

The next day we watched the Ducks fight a vallient fight but sadly lose and then the Casebolts headed home. I had one day of packing and cramming in friends and than it was off to Spokane! I had quite the mobile break... not too break-ish if you ask me, but worth every minute :)

So now I'm back! Had some car trouble for the second time in the past few weeks, but I took Little Sally to the car doctor today and she hath been healed :) And I moved into my own room for the first time in two and a half years. It's crazy, I never realized how much stuff not that I had but Steph had. She was basically furnishing me! I had to start from scratch. But I had to move both of us out becaue our new roommate moved in tonight (her name is DJ and she seems incredibly nice and fun... so excited to have someone new around!) and I've been emailing Steph every day while she's gone giving her an earfull about how much crap she owns. But here are some pictures of my new room:

Now that I'm done moving in, I don't have to be a social recluse so I'm already planning my JanTerm adventures. Reconnecting with friends I haven't seen due to mismatched schedules, a roadtrip to Boise, ID to see a good friend and a to-do list that seems insurmountable will do the trick! My class, Belief in Wierd Things, is really cool and low key which is nice; nobody wants a hard class during JanTerm. The only thing that's missing is snow. We haven't gotten more than half an inch of ucky slush since I've been here. Not cool, Spokane, not cool.

Okay, this was an uber long wall post and I apologize, but if you made it this far I commend you! Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had experiencing it! I love you all and hope you had a wonderful holiday season! Let me know how it went, I would love to hear your crazy holiday stories as well :)

Peace out,

Chels

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...