National Youth Worker's Convention 2006

Starting Thursday Nov 2nd through Nov 6th, Andrew and I will be attending
the National Youth Worker's Convention in Anaheim by Youth Specialties. We
signed up for a Critical Concerns course labeled "Reaching kids through
today Tech-Knowledgy", it will be discussing using media to reach your
youth group. We are very excited about this course. There were a lot of
other courses, like marriage and ministry, helping hurting kids,etc. But
they all cost extra money to go to those so we just chose the one for both
of us.

Also, on Saturday night from 10pm- 11pm they will be having a course called
"Using your Mac for Youth Ministry", so we are ecstatic about this one too
since we only use Mac's.
We're wondering how much this will be able to show us, since we really use
almost everything on our laptops for ministry. Andrew especially is
interested to see what they can show him, since he thinks he is the Mac
guru, which to his credit a lot of our friends have purchased Mac's because
of Andrew and his skillful salesmanship!
Awesome speakers coming every day and night, and also some of the coolest
bands: Shaun Groves, Jars of Clay, Kutless, Hawk Nelson, David Crowder
band, and also Kendall Payne for entertainment. David Crowder band will be
leading worship every night, which I am so excited for!! This convention, I
think, will helps us a lot in our ministry and show us some new things :)

We reserved a hotel for the time we are out there because of the times of
the convention, we didn't want to have to wake up at 4am to make it out to
Anaheim. A Queen Suite with free wireless internet, what else could you ask
for? Ha ha. We are so blessed to have a church that will be sending us to
this convention, yipee!
Keep watching the blogs because the next few days I will be blogging a lot
with all the events going on.

Bill O'Reilly

Tonight we went over to Andrew's parents house in Cherry Valley... Holy cow
that fire was close coming off the freeway.

Anyway, while we were there she was watching a Oprah when she had Bill
O'Reilly on and I normally would not like him because I have heard some
things from him before but this time almost all of the subjects he had an
opinion on I agreed on like the war in Iraq, government, etc. I thought he
was an ultra liberalist but he's pretty conservative on his thinking. He
said in the show when debating with an audience member "You probably pulled
that off the internet..." she interrupted and said "No I read it in the
newspaper and I have all the clippings." Bill says, you've regurgitated
that from someone else. He says, "The news shows are jokes" they sit in
make up for 4 hours and read the teleprompter... Ooooooohhh.
I agree, that most people do not know where they truly stand on issues,
they read an article that makes a lot of sense and try to call it there
own.
Most people will agree that soldiers being killed in Iraq is bad, but who
am I to say that their life was not valuable that their purpose was not
valiant? It's one thing to not agree with the reasons for the war, but
don't ever stop supporting our troops!!! They went into the military some
before they knew they were going there, and some because they wanted to go
there and fight. Their reasons may be different, but who are we to say that
their purpose should have been different?
I guess, I feel so passionate about our soldiers because my Grandpa
served, my Father served, and my Brother is serving now. My Dad has told me
stories of when He returned from Vietnam and being yelled at "Baby
killer"... where was the welcome party then? Do you even have a clue how
much morale soldiers lose when their own country does not support them?
Imagine being one of those soldiers, another reason why I am so passionate
about supporting our troops is because so many other don't. I see
protestors wanting to be-head Bush, and I am so stinkin sick of it...
People want someone to blame and he just seems to be the easiest target.
God puts in place all authorities, so why I do I back Bush and support out
troops because "In God we trust"

Mission Mandate

Mission mandate Acts 1: 1-11, Matthew 28:16-20 by Pastor Cor Pool
* Sermon notes

Evangelism- not everyone is gifted with evangelism but we all do have the
responsibility to be a witness for Christ.

"And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."

Jerusalum- start with the people closest to you
Judea and Samaria- beyond the comfort zone, people that are different than
you.
End of the earth- go everywhere, Global Mission

- Finish the missions that Jesus has started, there is no "Plan B" in the
missions of Jesus Christ.
- Americans are more interested in spiritual things now than they were 10
years ago. 65 million people do not belong to a church. 34 million people
said that they would go to a church if someone invited them.
- 2 Peter 3:9
- Our mission here on earth has eternal consequences, sometimes that means
stepping out and taking a risk.
- We know the path to salavtion, why would we not want to share that with
other?
- We are called to be bridges to people not walls, we need to reach other
that may be different than us.
- Reach out to the homeless, the loveless in their plight.
- Are you fishing for men, if not, everyone deserves to hear The Word of
Christ.
- Is anyone going to be in heaven because of you? Is anyone going to say
Thank You for sharing your faith with me?

Buttercups

A little while ago Andrew's parents gave me a little bucket full of
buttercups (which smell delicious when they are bloomed) from there house
out at Cherry Valley because they were blooming literally all over their
3/4 of an acre backyard. So my Father- in - law took a shovel and dug some
up for me and I took them to our little place and have been sitting outside
our door for about 6 mos. A few months ago, I could have swore I killed
them off. I remember Andrew's mom telling me that they are resilient little
flowers, but I thought I still killed them. This morning I came outside to
find them growing still and on top of if they have multiplied the bulbs.
Crazy! So, I am excited for them to start blooming because they smell so
wonderful. I can't wait to have a full garden of my own, or a backyard or
front yard to plant... someday.... Ahhhhh :)

Eyelash implants

Listening to Air 1 this morning, the news mentioned that cosmetic surgery
has now allowed for a person to be able to get eylashes sewn into their
eyelids so that you could have longer eyelashes. The surgery would cost
$3000/ per eye. Yikes, I say forget that crap. You would have to trim your
eyelashes because they use human hair, weird huh?

Briggs Wedding 10-21-06

Create Your Own!

1 Corinthians 12

Spiritual Gifts (by Pastor Cor)

The divine ability distributed by God to fulfill his purpose for us for the
common good of the will of God.

If you are gifted in teaching, Teach. If you are gifted in leadership,
lead. If you are gifted in reaching people, evangelize. If you are gifted
in music, then play. We cannot copy someone else's gift, we need to use the
gift that God has blessed us with. We need to discover out gift and then
develop our gift. If you are not using your spiritual gift God has given
you, maybe it's because you are scared but when you do use your gift it
will give you the greatest thrill you could ever imagine.
After you discover and develop it, deploy it. Put it into action (1 Peter
4: 10). God has given us each a gift so that we can use them. No Christian
is ever left out of receiving a gift, God has given each Christian a gift
to be able to function as one body. There should be no spectators within
the church, no one should ever just be sitting in the pews. The body of
Christ suffers, when one part does not use their gift. When we come here to
serve God we need to put aside any spector attitudes, not just listen to
The Word but be doer's of The Word.
God's plan is brilliant!!! Every Christian receives a gift, so that one
ever feels insignificant. No ever feels left out. Every person is an
important part to furthering the Kingdom of God. No such thing as "little
people" in the body of Christ. Every gift is needed, and we compliment each
other by using your gift. Start now by contributing to the body of Christ
and serve by using YOUR gift :)

Bored at lunch!

Funny picture of me because I am bored at lunch now.... Geesh. If I had my
internet acess that would be nice! Can't use my work computer for personal
business.

Bachelorette Party

Last saturday was the Bachelorette Party for my cousin, I rented a 2007
Jeep Commander, which I loved!! Picked them up at 11am and went to eat at
the Elephant Bar in San Bernardino. After that we went to the Picture
People (which I wouldn't suggest going to unless you have children) and
took some pictures (seen above) then after that headed out to Palm Springs
for manicures & pedicured at the Spa Resort & Casino (do not go there,
staff has horrible customer service and prices are outrageous) so it turned
out the girls only got pedicures but that is fine. It started getting dark
so we headed out to the Aerial Tramway (www.pstramway.com) to go up the
hill and have dinner. We got there and it was 38 degrees, we ate at the
Peaks Restaurant (yummm) I got the Kobe Burger, 1 girl got the linguini,
and the rest got the steak and fries. Excellent service, quiet, and had a
spectacular view of the Coachella Valley at night. We all gave Nicole some
sexy lingerie and fun marriage stuff, who hoo! 2 days for Nicole as a
single woman! Riding down the tramway at night was scary and cool at the
same time :) We all got back to the meeting place and 1 girl left her
headlights so I used the rental (which seats 7 by the way) to jump start
her car. All in all besides the horrible service from the Spa place it was
a pretty good bachelorette party!

Barefeet Costume Party

Create Your Own!

Bridesmaid Dress

2 pictures of me in my bridesmaid dress:

Busy days

So Saturday 21st is my cousin's wedding and I am the matron on honor. These
last few months have been hard, especially since I still think of her as so
young still (and really she is only 1 year younger). Tonight I have my
final dress fitting and Friday I should be able to bring it home. Thusday
is the Rehearsal Dinner and Friday is going to sleep early because I have
to wake up at 4am for my hair appt... I know I know she is crazy for making
me wake up at 4am. So I also have to come up with a speech for the toast,
yikes, I have so much that I could say. Pray that I can keep up the energy
through the weekend and try and rest on Sunday and go back to work on
Monday. It's so utterly crazy how fast we truly grow up, and thinking about
families and wow so amazed still. I always get butterflies thinking about
having a baby, he he.

Date & Time stamp

Okay so I have been in search of a Electric Customizable date & time
stamper but have been unsuccessful. I used to use this one by DYMO called
the datemark but it is not customizable. I need it to be able to say my
company name and department. If anyone has any resources of where or how I
can find this please let me know.

Thanks!!!

Question?

Did anyone ever actually eat the top of their cake at their 1 year
anniversary. We still have the top of our wedding cake and wondered if it
would be actually safe to eat after that long. Anyone?

Bitterness? No!

I can look back on recent events and honestly say I have made a lot of
mistakes, I am not so prideful that I cannot admit that.

One thing I won't do, is take responsibility for someone else's mistakes or
actions. When will people step up to the plate and stop pointing the finger
at other people for their problems? When did society teach people to point
the finger instead of taking responsibility? I may have said things the
wrong way, but what excuse can someone else have for their own actions?
They take none, and because they take no responsibility it only shows their
lack of maturity.

When did it become okay to always act like the victim to get your way? Who
taught these younger generations to act in such a way? These people act
like victims all the time so that someone will always pity them and feel
sorry for them and always come to their "rescue".

When did it become okay to shut your eyes so you purposely not see the
truth or reality of a person? How can we shut our eyes to reality of who
people are or excuse them away because of their behavior. At some point in
your life you will be face to face with the truth, will you close your
eyes? You can only shut your eyes for so long, before you are backed into a
corner with the truth.

I never claimed to be perfect, and I never will... I have a lot of my own
issues. The great thing of having a good relationship with Christ is that
he is constantly showing me where I need to improve and every part of my
life is a learning experience. I will not let the love in my heart grow
cold because of other people's thoughtless and selfish actions, because
Christ is constantly pumping my heart full of warmth because I am seeking
His good and perfect will.

RMC

This a picture of me in my company logo polo shirt, they are really
comfortable. Supposed to only wear them on Friday's but I am too lazy and I
work in the admin so they are cool with it. Man, I am tired lately. Keep
thinking... Why am I so tired? Sheesh. Try and watch some TV tonight and go
to bed early.

Clint's 27th birthday

We had Bible study and also Talia and I decided to make a cake and decorate
it for Clint's birthday. Had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday Clint!!!

Talia's hair

The New life Drama company having fun with Talia's hair!!!

Gone...

So... When I was 17 years old I decided to get my belly button pierced.
Everyone was doing it... Ha ha. I was a lot skinnier back then and I
thought it was totally cool to be able to get one so I did. Well,
embarrassingly I have still had it in til this day. I decided this morning
that I have had this in for 6 years and that it is time to just get rid of
it. With me wanting to have kids someday... It was just time. So I have
moved along now, it is quite weird since I feel like it was almost a part
of me but it's gone now. Man, I can't believe I kept it in for that long.

Connecting

How weird would it be to walk around this earth and have no connections with people. Our sermon for this Sunday morning was all about the connection with people. How much relationship effect our ability to minister to people or not. Each of us has been designed as a different part of the body of Christ(Romans 12:1-21). Without us being unified as one body, how can we work together for Christ's purpose. We all need to be plugged in to the church and ministries. If all we do is sit in the pews every Sunday but walk away without a connection, then you are missing part of the purpose of our being here on Earth. If you expect to walk into a church and meet perfect people then you are coming into church with the wrong objectives. We are all a bunch of messed up people who have issues and we are not perfect. If we were perfect then we wouldn't need a God who forgives. Because we are imperfect, we need a God who forgives us and cleanses us. As people, we need connections in order to have fellowship. Most people do not respond to street preachers, the main reason I believe for this, is because when people street preach they don't portray their faith being real to them. How do we show people that our faith is real... By creating relationships and showing them that your faith is consistent in every area of our lives. Show kindness, be patient, always forgive, offer commitment. Just some thoughts of my own from the sermon this Sunday.

Gosh!!

Okay, So I have been signed on for this wedding on November 17th. I was like totally nervous before, but then I went on the internet and found out where the wedding was going to be held and now I felt even more nervous because the site where the wedding and reception is going to be held is in a lot of ways not very attractive. So, now I am even more nervous because I don't quite know how I am going to pull off good photos in a place like this. I have my flash and I have been practicing but am still nervous anyway. The reception shouldn't be so bad but the ceremony I am pretty nervous about. Keep me in your prayers.

Details from Monday

Well, I spoke to my Dad who had his meeting with his Union Rep and with Human Resources. The meeting went really well, the Union Rep said he represented himself really well. They asked him questions about the specific situation, what happened in the classroom full of students and teachers. He told them that the student asked for my dad to show him her pressure points because she had a headache.

When he mentioned that he knew who had made the allegation, they were surprised that he knew who it was. They asked him how he knew, and he answered by saying that she is the only person in this facility that doesn't like me. When she has an issue with me, she has never pulled me aside to discuss them with me, she will say what she needs to say in front of the children and in front of other counselors, which is inappropriate. They asked him for a specific example of her not liking him, so he made mention of a situation where he made a joke about people who wear low-rider pants. He said there are 3 kind of people who wear low riders, Britny Spears, britny spears' fans, and plumbers." She came storming over, and scolded him because her husband was a plumber.

He also told them, that in this profession because they counsel kids, it is not unusual for counselors & teachers to hug one of the children, in some instances we are hugging children 3 or 4 times a day. Especially, when they are going through a hard time. The probation officers feel that they should not have any physical contact whatsoever with the children. Which, is ridiculous, due to the nature of their profession.

All of his co-workers they talked to gave him praise, that he is well liked, the children get along with him, has been here for 15 years.

Me being in Human Resources myself, I tried to get as many details as possible... They took my Dad out of his work which I can understand because they don't want to compromise the investigation. The part that could get the County of Riverside and Probation dept. in trouble is the fact that the Chief Probation Officer banned him from Van Horn, and made him clean out his desk which in other words is claming him guilty before they have come to this conclusion and told him he would be transferred. you cannot force someone out of their job without reasonable justification as to why you are forcibly transferring them. My Dad thinks he is going to be consulting an attorney depending on the outcome of the investigation. It is defamation of character, which he would not be going for any money but a formal apology from the County of Riverside, Chief Probation Officer, and the officer that accused him for falsely accusing him. There are a lot more details to the interview, but this is what I have for now.

My Dad is hurt beyond belief about this whole situation, I pray that Human Resources would find no fault in my Dad. That those who accused him would understand the severity of trying to accuse someone of these actions. Lord, give my Dad a peace about the outcome, that your will would be done. Pray for the accusers, that they would be able to see the truth. Thank you for all of you that were praying for him, and continue the prayers on until they reach a conclusion to this investigation.