A break :)

I just needed a break. So I took one. After the weekend in Arizona, I headed out to Los Angeles. My friend Angie and her husband Andrew recently moved to Canyon Country, CA (they used to live in College Station and housed me for two hurricane evacuations :) ). Angie picked me up at the airport, looked over at me and asked "so what's the plan?". I replied "beach, Disneyland"..."Good plan". We spent the afternoon roasting (literally, unfortunately, so much for SPF 70) in the California sunshine and ate dinner outside of Knott's Berry Farm.

Huntington Beach

The next morning we were up bright and early to go to the BESTEST PLACE EVER- Disneyland!

We ended up spending 14.5 hours at the park and had such a fun time.

Ice cream and Disneyland- ::sigh of happiness::


Sporting our uber cool Minnie ears (Angie and I and two of our friends took a road trip back in college here- she got a princess hat with ears and I got a Mickey santa hat..yeah we do the ear thing).


No, we didn't actually ride the teacups- my stomach and things that go around and around don't agree


On Wednesday morning, Angie took me to this breakfast place that has 101 omelets. She got a peanut butter and jelly omelet. It was really tasty. Really. Egg is very neutral tasting so if you can just get past the mental image of eggs and peanut butter, I promise your tummy will be happy.

Ah, good times, good times.

10 Year Reunion

Yep, that would be my ten year high school reunion...the time went so fast! Although, I do have to say that it doesn't feel like I just graduated yesterday...too much life has happened since then, but it definitely doesn't feel like ten years!

My best friend from junior high, Kristen- she moved during our freshman year- I haven't seen her since my freshman year in college.


Me and Helen- we used to walk to and from elementary school together

Thoughts on the reunion? It was a bit surreal...seeing people I haven't seen since graduation night, now all grown-up and discussing our doings over drinks and dinner...strange to see them without a backpack :). What I think impressed me the most, was the confidence that everyone has...when you're 18, there are still so many unanswered questions about what to do and where to go...ten years removed from those big decisions, it was awesome to see how settled and confident my classmates are, families, careers. Confidence, as most of you will remember, wasn't run-of-the-mill in high school ;-). We're all grown up. It will be interesting to see how another ten years affects that confidence...how life events will shape us.

Me, Tommy, and Nic- these guys cracked me up all through high school- things haven't changed :)



Justin, Jason, Hank, Jonny, Lydia and I...Jason, Jonny, Lydia, and I have great academic decathlon memories, and the rest of the group, many years of shared honors and AP classes, quips, studies, and good times.


Michelle and I- we were in Girl Scouts together...which means I have known her since elementary school, and she does tris, which makes her even cooler ;-)

It was also fantastic to reconnect with friends- we all mentioned at least once or twice, how great Facebook has been in removing some of the awkwardness of reconnecting. Gotta love technology. I also had the chance to talk with a few people whom I never took the chance to know better in high school- one gal and her husband live in Dallas now and I am hoping to be able to see them in the future. All in all, I'm very glad I went. :)

holy delayed blogging batman

Yeah, I've stunk at blogging recently...there seems to be an epidemic of that right now...things have been really busy with work and such, so extracurricular activities have been limited to training and sleeping :). And then of course, when I do do something, like last weekend 3/4 roomies went outlet shopping and then had dinner with Carolyn Yohe and the fabulous Adrienne at the Yohe abode...I totally forgot to take pictures...similar case with yesterday- 4th of July festivities included a pool party at the Parris' and hangout time with the McFerren clan....but I didn't take pictures! :(...so here's the one picture I have taken in the last couple of weeks. I made a 4th of July trifle for the party. It was yummy...only Lisa and I ate some at the first party, so I enlisted the help of the McFerrens. They stepped up to the plate and finished the job in about 10 minutes flat ('course, there's a LOT of them ;-) ). I should have more exciting blogs coming up...10 year reunion, California and Disneyland...excitement!

5 year anniversary!!!

Yesterday marked my 5 year anniversary with NASA. Five years...sometimes it feels like I've always been here, and sometimes it feels like I just moved here...crazy. Still lovin' it... :)

Tea Party Extravaganza!!!

So, as most of you know- I co-lead a girls discipleship group at my church. We have 20 girls ages 13-20 in our group and to wrap our True Beauty/Modesty discussions...and kind of the year... we held a Mother/Daughter Tea Party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun- we had the owners of Bellisima! come in and do a fashion show and give a talk on dressing modestly and what beauty really is (their clothes are great by the way) and we had some activities for the girls and their moms, and of course lots of goodies. At the end, we honored our four older girls who help us by leading individual prayer groups of girls. I got all cry-y and choked up and couldn't figure out why...later I realized it was because we started the group with these four girls four years ago- and it is amazing to see how much they have grown spiritually and into such Godly young women...I was overcome with God's grace and mercy in their lives and for the privilege I have of getting to interact with such fun and inspiring gals. I truly love these girls dearly and I can't wait to see what God is going to do with our group this coming year!

And finally, someone took a picture of the roommates (folks at church call us the Chicklets :) )



Claire, me, and Pam

Expected and Unexpected

So the topic for this year's Next conference was Jesus Christ (are you thinking, well, duh Melissa, it's a bunch of Christians getting together, shouldn't it be about Jesus Christ?), I agree "should" being the operative word. How often do we go through our day and never once think of the Cross...of what Christ did for us? I was very excited for this conference because I was more than ready to have my world rocked by learning truth, rediscovering truth I already knew, but it was covered with the cobwebs of everyday life, and being convicted of areas where I need to focus on Him more. All of that happened...but what also happened is that He assured me and affirmed certain choices and decisions I have had to make in the recent past- tough choices, that shouldn't have been tough, since it was choosing between Him and the world, but they were...tough (I'll stick with that word, since other adjectives may lead you to believe that I am being melodramatic...although I assure you, I would not be!). So that was an unexpected sweetness to the conference. The messages are all available for free download here. I highly recommend you listen to them.

Rather than describe each message that was given, I will just list some key phrases that the speakers said that really made me think.

Josh Harris' message was based around Luke 6:46-49 (Jesus speaking to the people)-

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and not do what I tell you. Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like, he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, when the stream broke against it, immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great."

I never realized that this passage was being spoken to believers. I always thought that the people who built their house on the rock were believers and the ones who didn't were unbelievers, but Jesus is addressing believers in this entire passage- that means some of us are building our foundations on rock (ie Him) and some of us aren't. (ooh, conviction, or as Dustin would say, "the Sovereign slap" :)).

Josh said (paraphrased) "When was the last time that Jesus, that something you read in Scripture, changed the path you were on."- oh yeah, I had an answer for that one. Thanks for the affirmation Lord.

DA Carson- "God's love for the world is not awesome because the world is so big, but because the world is so bad".

DA Carson- "You must see more of the glory of God to become stabilized in your Christian life"

Kevin DeYoung- Speaking about feeling condemnation for something you have done: "saying 'I can't forgive myself' is just more sin. Of course you can't forgive yourself, only God can".

Kevin DeYoung- "You will never be a Christian until you stop believing in yourself". (ie only God can sustain you, if we try to sustain ourselves we will fail, maybe not immediately, but we will eventually fail).

So that ends my Next blog. The conference was...expected and unexpected.

Tejas Tri 2009

Another tri bites the dust :). Today Lisa and I did the Tejas Tri - 600yd (0.34 mile) swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run. I did it in 1 hour and 30 minutes. My swim was a bit longer than I would have liked, but I swam almost the whole distance freestyle (only used the breaststroke once or twice to catch my breath or to sight better)- which was really my main goal, so overall, I am very happy with my results. The run was challenging because it had warmed up pretty good and its was pretty miserable out there. I am glad Lisa finishes before me...she's there to cheer me on at the finish line (and today I needed it!)...hmm, maybe I need to train harder so I can reciprocate...or maybe some of you should come cheer both of us on (hint hint, nudge, nudge).

Post race

My bike performed awesome, I really enjoy riding it- my fear of riding is slowly fading to a more manageable level...although it wasn't helped by the poor gal I rode past who was being administered to by the paramedics...look likes she took a head/face dive off the bike and was strapped to a body board and was "red"- I stopped looking at that point...crashes are going to happen...::shudder::

Lisa and her gear

Besides the new bike, I also broke in what's called a trisuit. It's a once piece shorts/tank top combo. I got the Orca 226 and I LOVE it...my shirt was always riding up and I don't like showing my stomach...I didn't have to worry about that with the trisuit..plus it allows for great range of motion, it wicks water and sweat like there's no tomorrow...great investment.

Me and my gear

I will say that one of the things I did not like at this tri was the lack of the wet, icy towel they usually hand you at the end of the race to wipe your face with and put on the back of your neck. I never realized how amazing that towel is until I had to do without...ah..icy cold towels...