Wild Sweet Orange on Letterman

malawi here i come!

I leave for Malawi, Africa in a month from tomorrow! On July 30 I will be going with a team from church to help finish the Pediatric Clinic that WACC has raised money for. It's going to be a crazy adventure! I get nervous and excited every time i think about it!

Dusty and I decided to sponsor a child from Malawi. This is Chikondi. She was born on May 15, 2003. We share the same birthday. She likes music and playing ball. She will probably experience more pain and loss in her life than i can imagine. I pray that God will keep her healthy, will comfort her in hard times, and help her find Him one day.

Seal Beach with Nate & Dorothy

real men wear pink

So remember baby Joy that I wrote about earlier... well HE was born! Two weeks late, along came an unexpected surprise... a boy! Mom, Dad, Grandma (who came from germany with a suitcase full of girl baby clothes), Doctor and nurses were all shocked to see a boy. They had thought it was going to be a girl the whole time. So here they were with no names picked out for a boy and a suitcase full of pink dresses! Nicole and Markus finally decided on Noah Louise. It's both American and German. They are very excited and sure that little Noah will still be secure in his masculinity... despite the slight mix-up. :)

We got to visit Noah, before he had a name. He was only 18 hours old.

Wild Sweet Orange at House of Blues

This band is from Birmingham, Alabama (i think i've mentioned that before). That's how Dusty and I know them. Not only are they really cool guys, but they are also super talented musicians! I have loved them since I heard them play in a warehouse in Birmingham (back when they were Old American Dream) and now they've been on David Letterman! We've seen them play three times in L.A. since we moved out here, and every time, their lyrics haunt me and their sound inspires me! They are living their dream and that makes me so jealous but so happy for them at the same time. So anyway, security at the House of Blues was tighter than at any other concert i've been to. It was stupid. I had to check my camera in at the giftshop, pay 3 bucks, and could not pick it up until i was leaving the place. Stupid. Preston even got us backstage passes and so i told one of the MANY guards that was standing around that I had a Backstage pass and I was going to need my camera... he still said no. stupid. All that to say, the only mode of photography that we had was Dusty's iPhone... which has no flash... so the pics are crap.

Chicago & Willow Creek

I went to an Arts & Worship Conference in Chicago with our worship pastor and his wife, two musicians, and our stage creator. It was an inspiring and creative week! So glad I had the chance to go. I made some cool connections, got some inspiring ideas that i will be able to use at work, and left feeling very confident in where I'm at as a designer. All good things!

Chris Klein & I

Chris is a midfielder for the L.A. Galaxy (he plays with Beckham). He came to speak at our church at a men's event. When all the women heard he was coming, we invited ourselves! :)

The summer is flying by...

Since a picture is worth a thousand words and my free time is priceless, i'm just gonna throw some pictures on here... if you're lucky you'll get a blurb or two...

incase you're not sure who you are... take this test!

i found this while playing on myspace. i was actually very shocked how accurate it was. now just send it to 10 friends and all your dreams will come true... i'm kidding. 

My Personality...

little alien joy

by the way, i saw something so amazing tonight i just have to share... my friend, Nicole is pregnant and already passed her due date. tonight she showed me her plump little belly because joy, the baby inside her, was kicking. i felt where her little foot was pushing firmly against Nicole's stomach. then all of the sudden it moved a few inches. it was like a bump rolled across her stomach. it kinda looked like an alien was inside her. i jumped and may have even screamed a little. once i got over the startling image of an alien jumping out of her stomach and killing us all (sometimes my imagination freaks me out), i became so amazed at this life inside of her. i can't wait to meet joy.   

somehow may came and went and it's june now

i'm excited about june, but a little worried that it'll fly by just as fast, if not faster than may did. this coming week is going to be a  lot of fun. monday night is the wild sweet orange concert at the troubadour in west hollywood. i love going to see them play. but it's always bittersweet bc every time i go to one of their shows, real life just seems so boring. it honestly takes me like a week to get over the "rock 'n roll high" and be able to enjoy my semi-ordinary life once again. luckily, the day after this show, instead of going back to real life, i'm going to a worship & arts conference in chicago with five other people from church. we'll be there tuesday-friday. staying in downtown chicago then commuting to willow creek. i'm going to a few design/photoshop breakout sessions which i'm really excited about. i'm hoping that i'll come back from the conference with some inspiration and new, out-of-the-box ideas to really take my design to a new level (not to mention a new pair of shoes... there's no way i can go to chicago and not shop). then on sunday, wild sweet orange will be back in the area ( i think they're going up to san fran and then down to san diego during the week) so we're going to go see them again. this time at the house of blues in anaheim (in downtown disney). i'm sure with two shows in one week plus all the artistic inspiration i'll be getting from the conference... i'll be so uber-inspired i'll probably have to dye my hair pink or get a tattoo or something to help relieve it. does that make sense or am i crazy? i do things like that when i'm inspired.