Saturday, October 24, 2009

Weekend getaway...

Hello all, sorry that I haven't posted in about 2 months...
Lets, just say life has gotten a bit busy... Right now, Kelsy, Katie, Dakota, Janelle and I are at the cabin- cozied up with blankets by the fire. The wind is a blown' outside Janelle thinks we might blow away.... I think we'll make it....
Below I included some pics of a roommate adventure that occurred last weekend to the local pumpkin patch. And when I say local, I mean out in the boonies of Everson, about what is supposed to be a 30 minute drive... The drive there however was filled with multiple U-turns and Trinh repeatedly saying, "I think the turn is just right beyond this intersection".... Trinh was supposed to have the directions on her phone- which we realized she forgot soon after leaving the house... Considering that we were leading, and that Mary was following behind in her car, I think it is safe to say that we weren't the best navigators- especially when Trinh says, "Oh, I totally think I know where we are going- I was there 2 years ago".... Thankfully, we eventually made it there by going the route that is about 15 minutes longer- but hey, we made it there and I guess that is all that matters :) Moral of the story, next time I'm leader, the navigator will definitely have accurate directions on them...

Field O' pumpkins...
Group shot with the pumpkin cut-out...


Trinh and I were the first one's to finish (without cheating I might add)


Mary and Brittany posed for a pic- Britt was rather proud of her "mustache"



Brittany in her raincoat, posing with the wheel barrows...




Group shot with the Scarecrows- Me, Trinh, Katie, Brittany, Kelsy and Mary




Feet shot- Guess which ones are mine.... Hint: the colored ones one the left :)


First one to find a pumpkin- yes!!


Trinh and I with the giant pig- about 20 seconds later my both my boots decided to leak while standing in the biggest, deepest puddle in all of Whatcom county... It was great...
Hope this feeds your curiosity for a while- Happy Fall everyone!









Friday, August 28, 2009

4th of July pics and some end of summer quarter fun...


First, for some fun here is the rubric my professor sent out for evalutating my group presentation we did last week. The presentation was about our group process, so my group the jokesters we were decided to be a caterpillar that "transformed" into a butterfly- so so funny! Here is what my professor had to say about our presentation (she loved it so much she pulled out her camera and started taking pics)- only in Human Services :)

making our entrance...

transforming into a cocoon...
Comments:
Equal participation by all group members
· Yes!

Teamwork:
· You all looked like you were having fun.
· Very much a team presentation.

Focus on process not product:
· I was laughing too hard to pay attention to exactly what you were saying….but I did get some good pictures….see below.

Depth of reflection on highs, lows, in betweens:
· Again, laughing too hard….I didn’t take any notes!

Visual/metaphor fits with group process:
· Amazing visual

Creative:
· Outstanding!!!!

Overall presentation (flows well):
· Too much laughing to evaluate.




Better late then never- the pics from 4th of July @ my roommate Brittany's house:



The whole gang after some softball at the field down the street...



The ferry ride home (I don't know how to switch the order of these pics :)


Pickin' some rasberries in the backyard before Breakfast the morning of the 4th. Take note of how patriotic Britt's outfit is- she wanted to be "America" and I couldn't resist lending her my sparkly blue tank top :0





Some of the gang watching the Poulsbo 3rd of July fireworks show over Liberty Bay-two days of fireworks, now thats my kind of thing.



we found a playground in a nearby neighborhood



Surprised we didn't break the slide :)

Watch out everybody! Don't worry it was just an airsoft gun for the marksmanship contest (celebrating our 2nd ammendment rights of course)...






Friday, July 31, 2009

Still Alive and Kickin' ...

This is just a post to say that sorry I haven't blogged in ages- school kind of caught up with me over these past few months and with summer school in full swing (what was I thinkin' taking summer classes.... oh boy...) I haven't officially caught up on my "to do" list..

Stay tuned as summer winds down and fall approaches- I will make my best effort to be a "better blogger"

To do list:
1- Finish thank you's (still) to all those that supported me in Boston- There comin' I swear!
2- Work on scrap book of the year so that I can clean off my bulletin board and start Fall with a fresh start...
3- Find a job for the now almost over summer. I've resorted to temporarily house sitting for a crazy family with 3 cats (2 of them are on meds- one even has an inhaler- can you say ridiculous??) and a jungle of plants for their backyard (leave it to me to get a house sitting job with plant watering responsibilities the hottest week of the year....)... Good news is that the neighbors saw me watering and hired me to take care of their "indoor" cats and two potted plants- this is my kind of gig....
4-Finish summer quarter. Oh yeah- guess I should make time for some school work- shucks darn....

Anyway, Sorry to disappoint those of you sitting on the edge of your seats for my blog updates (Hey, I know you're out there :) But I will keep you "posted" if anything exciting happens... Well, I'll try at least :)

Glad its finally starting to cool off- happy summer!
Kristina

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Boston video....

Because I forgot to include this with the last post, here is a video of the trip to Boston, courtesy of the two "INNterns" Sarah and Laura that went on my trip... Enjoy- its only a few minutes long...


Boston 2009 from the INN on Vimeo.

Friday, April 17, 2009

I promise I didn't forget...

So sorry I haven't blogged in what seems like a year...


I'll try to keep it short considering I have so much to cover.

Boston was AWESOME! Over the course of the week we helped out with 11 different organizations. As a group we did everything from house demo, shoveling compost, sorting children's clothes, serving homeless individuals and helping out local Boston churches with their current needs... We stayed at a pretty sweet church- it was 375 years old... I promise for those of you that supported me- your thank you cards on the way!!! Here are a few pics of the trip and a link to a video that our trip leaders put together:


Team dinner with some of the girls- our last night in Boston. We went to the oldest pub in Boston- George Washington was a regular there...

We worked at a church that John Quincy Adams built for his father. John Adams, John Quincy Adams and their wives are barried in the basement (we actually saw their crypts). This church is the only place in the world where two US presidents are barried together- no big deal...


At the Tremont Temple Baptist church were we worked one day- the giant baptismal tank was funded by some dude with the same last name.... kinda cool...


Our group the day we worked at the Treemont Baptist Temple... Also the place where we went inside the 4-story organ that was over 150 years old- a good story you should ask me about sometime...

The woman in the white coat was from Brazil. We didn't know her but she wanted to take pics with American's so she could send them to her friends back home and tell them she had friends in America.... so funny...

Mary and I in front of the Harvard bookstore... Thats right, I went to Harvard :)


My friend Becca and I outside Cheers...


Since the trip I have been back in the swing of things back here in Bellingham- work, school, INN stuff...


Sunday I went to the mariner's game with some friends- thanks to my friend Katie who scored me a free ticket through her mom and sister that work the games. As people left the game and seats opened up, we eventually made our way to row 1, seats 1 and 2 by first base- ahh the joys of a free ticket.....


Well, this is all I can think of as note worthy for now...

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

Because I am too lazy to actually write about everything that has been going on lately here are some pics that can hopefully tell a story:



A couple Wednesdays ago, we went to Red Robin for Mary's 20th Birthday dinner



Earlier that same day a few of us drove down to Boulevard park to play frisbee, and catch the sunset






A little dark, but Kelsy and I playing in the rocks looking for shells and little crabs...




Jarrett, Nick, myself and Kelsy- Jarrett literally "ran" into us while we were down there...



Trinh, Jarrett, Nick and Myself....



Roommate pic (minus Mary)...



Because we can never just take normal pictures...













Monday, February 9, 2009

So what, if I'm not 5' 9"

I just finished looking at some scholarship sights but I had to stop because I was just getting too frustrated and I come to you trying my hardest not to rant. I mean, seriously I don't qualify for most scholarships because I'm not a minority, I speak English, my parents are US citizens, I wasn't born outside the US- the list goes on and on... And, I just came across one scholarship offered by some organization to do with the tall people of America and to qualify I would have to be over 5' 9" (have they seen how tall my family is- no offense guys). Oh, and then there is one offered by Bill and Melinda Gates but only for minorities (because they clearly have experience in this area as two wealthy white Americans). And, while we are on the subject of minorities/race (adding more fuel to my quest for financial aide fire) one of my Human Services professors was saying that race doesn't exist (she is a black woman mind you) and was going on and on about how genetically we aren't different and by stressing racial divisions we are only hurting ourselves (makes sense to me) so then without sounding too ignorant why the heck does my friggin "race" matter so much to the idiots who make up the rules for financial aide and the stupid FAFSA form? Ohhh darn, guess it just means that I have to marry some tall, foreigner who was born outside the US (providing our kids with duel citizenship- I hear that financial aide thinks thats pretty cool), and learned English as a second language. Then, just maybe my kids would have a better shot at receiving some sort of financial and be able to afford college. I think I need to send word Obama's way about the idea of socialized post high school education- not thats more like it.... I'm done now.... I think.... Anyway, moving on if I didn't offend anyone too harshly.....

The last few weeks have been a blur, mostly just school, work and studying. Saturday was fun, the INN had a local service event where we went out to the small town of Acme (by the Mt. Baker highway) and helped a recent widow who's house was at the bottom of a hill/mt. and as a result of all the snow then rain the nearby creek overflowed and brought over 2 feet of mud/rocks/sand/uprooted grass up against her house. We spent most of the day shoveling and wheelbarrowing away the mud to fill in the giant river bed that was created as a result of the storm through what was once her grassy backyard. The amount of mud was truly unbelievable, and although we were able to clear enough mud to see her pathway from her back porch and get into underneath her house it was crazy to see how much mud was still left there...
Sunday was also a pretty good day. A group of 5 of us girls went to church and then wanted to go to lunch afterward. Sarah suggessted costco- because its cheap but we realized that none of us had costco cards. That was until Kelsy realized that she still had Mary's card from when we bought the seran wrap for Nick's car. So sure enough we went to costco, but how can you go to costco without making the sample rounds... Which of course lead to us getting a cart and buying "just a few things".... An hour later we made it to the check out line and purchased our things- with absolutely no question of who Mary was mind you- I like to think that its because Mary's picture on the card is really cute and sometimes I like to think that we do look alike :) Anyway, items purchased, we then grabbed some lunch, and then gas- again who can resist the cheap price of costco gas.... Then, later after everyone was back home and studied for a bit we went to the fort's intermural basketball game, and then their dodgeball game. We like to accredit the reason that the boys basketball team is undefeated is because of our excellent fan/cheering abilities... The dodgeball team on the other hand, lets just say we are there for a little moral support after the games....

Ok, I am tired, and should probably get some reading in that I have been trying to do for the last two hours before I go to bed.... That being said, I will leave you all with some pics from the local service event that happened on Saturday.....

The drive out to Acme- such a nice day...

Making wheelbarrows at the church before heading off to move some mud with Danielle, Laura, Grant and Caitlin...


Laura and I before we got muddy...


The woman, Mary's backyard- this used to be all grass....


over 2 feel of mud against her house...



Before....


After.....

The whole gang....

Sunset as we left Acme....