Nicaragua In Pictures

Hello world! We've been back from Nicaragua for a couple weeks but soo many things have been going on and I can't wait to update you on all of that. But for now, I will share our journey with you with lots of pictures.


My mom and I went with my church in Galt to Masatepe, Nicaragua for a week during my Spring Break. We went and built a house, played soccer, encouraged the church, had adventures, and grew closer to God.

Nicaragua in 3...2...1...

We are heading to Nicaragua in three days! I absolutely can't wait.

My mom and I are going with our church in Galt, Horizon, to Nicaragua next week. We will be doing some construction projects and hanging out with the community. 

Life is seriously an adventure...and I'm thankful for it. 

Shamrockn' Half Marathon

Well. We did it! Lydia and I ran our first half-marathon today. And if I think I'm truly honest with myself, it probably won't be my last. The feeling of crossing the finish line was absolutely worth running every single step of those 13.1 miles.

We laid out everything the night before. I was asleep by 9pm. Lydia was asleep by 10pm. That is ridiculously early for us!

We woke up before the sun and drove downtown. The sun was rising as we crossed the river walking to Raley Field.

I knew quite a few people running this morning too. Here's Jacob! Nice shorts bro.

My boss (RLC) Christina. She was actually the person that first put the thought of running a half marathon in my head. We talked about goals during RA training last summer and this was one of hers. It ended up becoming one of mine too!

The MacLeods. My next door neighbors. Good job Sierra on running your first half marathon, too!

We call each other "Frandie" It's kinda our thing. The shamrocks on the bottoms have our names on them. (Auds and Lyds)

We started lining up in our wave. We ran in Wave Three. Our start time was 8:15am.

Look at all these people! We were in a large group for about the first mile. 

I seriously could not get over the fact that we were about to run 13.1 miles. Our training was not what we had expected it to be...we barely trained in the last month. The longest run we ever did was 5 miles. Oops. However, the DJ was fun and I was just stoked to run with my Frandie. We can do anything together!

The Race:

Mile 1: I still cant get over the fact I was running a half marathon

Mile 3: Feeling good...wondering when it's gonna start hurting.

Mile 5: Confident.

Mile 6: Lydia and I decide that we will not walk in the race....ahhh!

Mile 8: Feeling good...hitting a bit of the runner's high. Rockin the run.

Mile 10: My wall...I hated every step of that mile.

Mile 11: Gaining some confidence back.

Mile 12-12.5: Why do these miles feel like they're getting longer and longer? Crazy....

Mile 12:5-Still hard...but we came this far. Can't stop now!

Entering the stadium: I don't know where the extra energy and confidence came from...but we just starting running faster! It felt so good.

We sprinted across that finish line!

I cheered and thought, "Did I just do that?" Then Lydia hugged me and I thought I was gonna collapse. 

Our support group: Laura, Sarah, Melissa, my mom (Tanya) and Aubrey.

My mom is seriously the best. She first found us at about 1.75 miles. We gave her quick high fives as we ran past....then we saw her two other times before she was cheering us on at the finish line. She drove around Sac just to keep us motivated throughout the whole race. She's the sweetest!

Laura and Aubrey found us around mile 8.5 and cheered us on as we ran up a hill. Laura took the above picture of us running. Awesome action shot! 

We did it!

Remember awful mile 10? I just prayed. Lord, this is all through Your strength...and it will all be for Your glory. 

Ain't that the truth? Lydia and I knew that we could not run this on our own...and not even with each other. We definitely had to rely on the strength of Jesus to run those 13.1 miles. My faith was definitely strengthened today!

A month ago, or even yesterday, I couldn't tell you how I was going to finish this half-marathon. I wasn't even convinced I could do it without stopping. 

Get out there and do something you never thought you could do...you just might surprise yourself!

Tree Number One.

Adventures are fun. They make life fun. They make friendships fun. I like them. And I felt real adventurous last night. 

And we didn't even have to leave campus.

After a CRU event, Reese and I found Nicole in the halls. We all live in the Res Halls. Fun right? Well, I was NOT ready to call it a night. It was around 9:30pm, I had class in the morning, but who cares. 

Have you ever heard of geocaching? Well, we started off looking for one that was apparently in the Res Halls. No luck, so we moved on to a different one on campus. This one was a ton of fun. It had us finding these rocks on campus and then plugging their numbers into the coordinates. It was tough at night and we weren't able to finish it. We found all the rocks, but not the cache. But, we are determined to find it before the semester ends!

Then, we headed to a cache that I had done before. I did my best to give creative clues to Reese and Nicole.

This is us in the elevator of a parking structure. We were prepared with flashlights and a headlamp. Super professional.

The cache! Complete with a bandaid...thanks!

You would think that'd be enough. However, all the trees on campus are tagged and numbered. This is where the real blog story begins. We started the hunt for tree number one.

I knew the general direction to go and luckily the tree numbers were getting smaller and smaller. 67, 57, 15, 7, 4, but where was number one?! There are literally over a thousand trees. 

BAM! We found it! We literally were cheering as a couple walked by. They were kind enough to take our picture.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but that tag definitely says "1"!

Well, you can't find a tree and not climb it. But you see, I am not a tree climber. Never have been. I'm short, it's hard, and I rarely try.

Reese got up the tree, no problem. 

However, Nicole and I really struggled. Well, I finally made it up the tree.

Notice I didn't say that I climbed the tree. I stepped into Nicole's hands and grabbed on to Reese's wrist. Together, I was boosted and pulled up the tree. Quite an adventure.

Then it was Nicole's turn!

The process began again. She stepped into my hands, grabbed on to Reese's wrist, and up she went!

Thanks Reese!

I am surprised campus police didn't question us. Three hooligans with flashlights: hunting rocks, searching for a tree, and then climbing one...three times.

What adventure is complete without battle wounds? 

Even though I technically didn't climb the tree, I still tried to grapple my way up with my arms. I was left with these lovely scratches. 

I had such a fun night and am convinced that life is what you make of it!

How have you made life adventurous lately?

Songs Worth Sharing

Sometimes, you find those songs that you just love and you don't mind listening to over. and over. and over again. Here are a few I wanted to share with you.

Warren Barfield

Love Is Not A Fight

Ron Pope

A Drop In the Ocean

Gavin DeGraw

Soldier

Enjoy! 

Back to Jenkins!

Our wonderful Hall Manager, Demetrio, resigned a few weeks ago which left his position open. I applied and was hired on Friday, moved in on Saturday, and started my position as the Draper/Jenkins Hall Manager today. 

 He set such a great example and he is definitely missed!

I've been an RA for two and half years and it's a little bittersweet to leave that position. The hardest part was telling my residents that I would no longer be living on the wing with them. Here are some pictures of my favorite RA memories:

Halloween 2010. Tara and I were RAs in Sierra, learning the ropes.

Kelly, Shakshi, and me having a girls night in Fall 2011. We were RAs in Jenkins last year. Remember when I found out they were hiring me back for the first time?

Kaela, Tara, and I were the "Sierra Girls". We took a trip to Disneyland last Winter Break. Such a blast.

This fall, we had "Have Dinner With Your RA" during opening weekend. This is about half of the girls I had living on my wing this year. I miss them already...and it's only been three days.

When the residents are away, the RAs play. Once the residents moved out for Winter Break, we turned off all the lights, and played hide-and-go-seek. Crazy intense. Loved every second of it.

This is such a new experience and I am thrilled for this opportunity to grow professionally and personally. The Lord has definitely provided me with such a rich experience living in the halls and I couldn't imagine what life would be like without these experiences. I can't wait to serve my staff and Sacramento State Housing and Residential life in this position.

I couldn't post this blog without showing you this. I am not the most efficient packer. Oops. Thanks to everyone who helped me move buildings!

Go with the flow: Day trip to SLO

Hello blogging world! I am excited to tell you about an adventurous day I had with James. This was spontaneous and definitely a crazy day. We are partnering with Cru at SLO to take their students to East Asia. So fun, right?!

Monday at 3pm, I got a call from James and another staff dude, Jacob. They thought it'd be a good idea if we went to SLO the next day to go to their weekly meeting and talk to students. Here's the thing, I hate skipping class. But I figured, what the heck? I love adventure...and who wouldn't want to go to SLO? It's only 5 hours each way....no big deal to conquer in a day.

James picked me up at school and we started our journey at 10am. We wanted to get an earlier start but I had to get a TB test. Lovely. 

The drive was a whole bunch of fun. It was raining, and James seriously could not stop talking about how excited he was about his new windshield wipers. Thank you, Jacob, for buying them for James, so I could hear all about them on our drive.

We discussed business like things and probably everything under the sun. Our trip was filled with lots of bathroom stops. Sorry. I don't know what was wrong with me that day. I'm typically a good passenger, but James never complained about stopping. We would discuss the cleanliness and overall score of a bathroom...our favorite: the 7/11 in Stockton...off of I-5 (Ben Holt Drive). Exceptional!

We stopped at lunch at McDonalds and we made poor choices when ordering our food. Of course, our lunch stop was paired with a potty break. 

Someone please explain to me why there was a roll of toilet paper on the hook where ladies hang their purses? The normal dispenser was totally full. I was confused and laughed a little.

We also stopped at a fruit stand. James was not impressed with his peach. Sorry bro.

In addition to our conversation, we oftentimes broke out into songs about the drive, and yes, the bathrooms. Here is a really little taste.

We arrived in SLO around 4pm. It was pouring rain and we were bummed that the beach and walking around downtown were not the best way to spend the day in the rain. Luckily, James was able to get ahold of his cousin, Chris. We picked him up and went to coffee at this really hipster place. We loved it.

Seriously love it when my foam is artsy.

So delicious!

Next, we were off to have dinner with the ZagRodny's. They are on staff with Cru at SLO. They will be coming with us to East Asia! Their focus is on bringing faculty with us but they will participate in the project and we are excited to have them join us with their two kids. Molly made us a delicious dinner of macaroni chili, my first time having it and it was great! She also made brownies and served it with ice-cream. Mmm mmm good! 

One of my dear friends from Ocean City Summer Project, Sharon, joined us for dinner and we made sure to take a picture at the end of the weekly meeting. 

Sharon went to East Asia last summer so it was so good catching up with her and asking her lots of questions. She just kept telling me how much I'm going to love it...and I totally believe her. 

At their weekly meeting, James and I were able to tell the students why we were there and invited them to come with us. We met students after the meeting and got to answer their questions. The coolest part for me was getting to meet the girls that have already been accepted on our project. I've been talking to them on the phone to get to know them and discuss their applications, but it was so nice meeting them face to face! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with them...sad.

We left SLO at 10:30pm and arrived back in Sac around 3:30am. We're probably crazy for doing this in a day. But, I was a good co-pilot and stayed awake the whole time to talk to James. This is quite an accomplishment cause I'm typically the first one to fall asleep in the car. We had lots of sunflower seeds and James drank a ridiculously large Mountain Dew. We made it home safely and kept saying over and over how worth the trip was.

Well, that was our trip to SLO! We are excited and hopeful to see how God pulls our team together. Here's another thought: my blog's title is 100% sent...and that means 100%. Why do I only post when something with a project comes up? I want to start blogging more of my everyday life things because serving the Lord is not just about going around the world...it's about being sent into your workplace, classroom, housing, and having fun...just all parts of life. Hope you join me on this journey. Subscribe!

Embrace the blessing of adventure.