OCTOBER!

Well tomorrow kicks off October for me, and I couldn't be more excited!! Every weekend has something incredible going on and it is going to be the best month of the year by far.
The first week: Girly sleepover at Lauren's! AND I'm finally getting baptized! It's super exciting, and I'm so ready for it! It's going to be at Lover's point (formally called "Lover's of Jesus Christ Point") in Monterey...in the freezing cold water. Ahhhh! But it's worth it, so bring on the ice cubes!
Week 2: My cousin is getting married! YAY! So not only is that exciting, but because of it I get to see my whole family! Who- I haven't seen my whole family together in so long, but I haven't even seen my intimidate family in about 2 months.
Week 3: Kelly is in town! Haven't seen her since she graduated in May! Can't wait to see her! Also, FCA is going to a concert- Tenth Avenue North. They're going to be awesome!
Week 4: My cookie monster is in town AND so is Michelle! This weekend is going to have so much missed love in it! I miss these too wayyyy too much that I don't even think a weekend will be long enough. Jordan might be coming in this weekend too, he's not sure on this weekend or the next...but he is coming end of October! YAY YAY!! :)
Week 5: Halloween! Which is also Andrew's birthday..so big party! FUN! It's also the weekend of the volunteer sleep over at the aquarium...now we get to be the crazy campers instead of watching the crazy campers! Going to be so much fun....hide-in-seek in the aquarium behind the scenes? You bet!
Jordan might be coming in this week, like I said..he's not sure which weekend yet.

I know you are all jealous of how wonderful this month is going to be for me! Can't wait!! :))
HAPPY OCTOBER!
xoxoxo

Sweet Saturdays

After the week I've been having, this sweet, lazy Saturday is exactly what I want and need!  Intramural started last week! So far our dodgeball team is 1-1 but I think the first week is going to be named the practice week because they have to re-do the schedule anyways. First week and a team gets disqualified.... but they deserved it. They showed up wasted, took the game wayyyy too seriously, and then fought the other team...oh and I was standing in the doorway between the two who started the fight and almost got trampled- yay first week of dodgeball.  We'll just say we're happy that team is no longer competing...who gets wasted on a Monday night to play intramural dodgeball? Like seriously? Oh well, their problem, not mine and I got a good story out of it. Back to our team...we need a little work- then again all I contribute to the team (besides being caption and running it all) is war cries, weak throws, and defensive distraction.  Not like I get hit at all, usually my ball gets caught or I'm the last one in on my team and can't catch the ball to bring more in...but it's fun all in all.
I can't wait for bowling next Wednesday! It's going to be a blast! Maybe we'll be the champs again?! :)
Yesterday I had my service learning for my student teacher hours. Remember I'm working in an all-autistic classroom for 6 hours on Fridays. It's so rewarding, fun, and exciting...especially after the day I had yesterday with the kids. We went swimming, and I was hanging with one of the kindergarten boys named Leo, and was trying to get him into the water.  One of the teacher warned me..."he never gets in past the steps and will just sit on the top on...he's stubborn."  You can't tell me something like that and not have me try to make him go further.  Let's just say by the time swimming was over Leo and i were moving around in the water, teaching him to push a floaty noodle in front of him as he kicks his legs, and showing him how to blow bubbles in the water. :) All the teachers kept complementing him and I during it, and it was the topper of the week! Can't wait to get in the pool next week with him!
Besides spending hours on end in the library, going to class, work, and everyyyything in between my week was long, slow, rewarding, great, productive, and almost over!! Today is a lazy day...work in 2 hours, cleaning the apartment, laundry, small amount of homework, watch my new netflix movie I received last night, and topping it off by going to watch our lady volleyball team kick some butt!  Today will be lazy, and great! Hope yours are too! And your week! :)

Not now...

Now, of all times, now...my body decides it wants to be sick. The flu is going around CSUMB right now, and this morning I woke up stuffed up from head-to-toe, a sore throat, and on the floor of my room? Besides having class at 8am, I also had work, the apartment looked like a tornado went through it, I havn't been to the gym in 2 days (and wont be able to go till Sunday), had homework on my desk un-finished, and a bible study tonight. This is not a good time to be sick and out of function.  So, after much back-and-forth I opted not to go to the gym today so I could come home at 10am and sleep till work at 2pm.  My roommate- as wonderful as she is- gave me medicine for my cough and stuffiness. And my boyfriend packed me lunch and got everything ready for me to head to work. I'm not 100% sure what Lauren gave me, but around noon I felt so much better, I cleaned, showered, and got all of my stuff together for the rest of the day. I made it through work, finished my homework, and am now waiting for 7pm to roll around so I can top my night off with a wonderful bible study and some homemade beagles.
Thank God, hallelujah, praise the Lord- I'm feeling much better, and by much I mean I'm at least functioning. Still a little bit stuffed up and my throat is red and raspy but I'm out of bed and good to go. I feel like I snipped that flu right in the butt!! Trying to get me sick when I have too much to do....geeze, no fair! 
Pray it stays away!
So far...so good...so long "flu!"
:)

Nothing's hotter than an Otter!

So much school spirit! Now that I am in week 3 of my junior year and I have my weekly routine for school and work down it is time to throw in some fun activities!
I have one pretty much everyday. It's quite amazing I must say. My "stress-relief" activities go like this:
-Monday: Dodgeball Intramurals
-Tuesday: Fellowship of Christan Athletes Bible Study
-Wednesday: Bowling Intramurals
-Thursday: Beagle Corner Bible Study
-Friday: Monterey Bay Aquarium Camp-In Counselor (Fri or Sat...every couple weeks) 
-Saturdays: Blue Crew at sports events (tailgate, and be loud fans at sports events) (Fri or Sat depending on what day the games are)
-Sunday: Worship in the morning. Bible Study at church at night.
* I also joined "outdoor recreations and adventures" club, but that is about twice a month and they usually plan fun trips like hiking, tubing, rock climbing, biking....things like that.

Fun Right?! I know, it's a lot...but it keeps my sanity believe it or not!
Each one is sort of like the topper of my day. In the mornings I have school, then 4 days a week I have work after class, the I go to the gym and do homework, but my night is topped off with something fun and enjoyable! I love it! And I'm so excited to start intramurals at the end of this month! Going to be rockin! 

Aside from all that fun going on life in Monterey has been good to me this week. Weather is off and on. One days it's foggy and windy and the next the sun is shining. Can't complain because I like the sun so I will take what I can get. Yesterday we got the invites out for Andrew's 22md birthday in October, his birthday is on Halloween so it's always a big celebration. This year he is going to be a Spartan 300, and I am his Spartan Goddess/ arm candy. So we're looking forward to that!  Still don't know what to get him, any ideas feel free to thrown them my way! :)


That's about it for now- aquarium camp-in tomorrow night so I will be sleeping next to some fishes! Then I have a girl's day on Saturday with some friends, so a pretty easy going weekend ahead of me. :)
Much Love everyone! Miss you all! <33

Just keep swimming...Just keep swimming.....

This past week has been....I'm not sure what adjective I am looking for just yet.... Hectic, Weird, Indifferent, Slow, Rewarding, Unorganized, but all in all- TIRING.
Where to start?!

I guess classes is a good place to start- since I am here for an education and it seems to always come first and conquer my time before anything else can. My into to teaching class- the one where I actually get student-teaching hours fulfilled- is my favorite so far. This teacher is amazing when it comes to lessons. He is teaching us on how to become teachers and all we need to know but he isn't just standing at the front of class and lecturing, he is actually doing what he teaches. For example- today we learned about classroom configuration and all the things you need to think about when putting your classroom together, so he gave us a giant piece of paper, and some crayons and said to draw our classrooms for a certain age group. It was fun, but you don't think about all the little things that go into making a successful learning environment. (Did you know that aquariums have been proven to lower blood pressure and calm people down? We should all have aquariums in our homes, classes, workplace, etc..).  Also with this class I got into the autistic program I wanted to get into. So for my student- teacher hours I will be at an elementary school that has its own autistic program and classrooms! I'm really excited to start that up soon...hopefully next week!
My second favorite class this week was my dance class- Afro Cuba Hip Hop. This week we started out with our basic moves and getting our warm up down. And I learned something! I have no rhythm what so ever. I must really be a Harshman.... Most of the other people in the class do the same movement as me but theirs look smooth. Mine are more jerky...like I'm a box...I can't get my movements to 'flow' just yet...hopefully that will come to me soon!

Outside from my numerous hours of class and homework I did have a little fun this weekend. I did my volunteer work at the aquarium and for those who don't know this I am a camp counselor at the Monterey Bay Aquarium where I do overnight sleepovers with children. So I basically hang out in the aquarium all night then sleep next to my favorite fishes. It's pretty awesome, not going to lie. This week was the last night the Outer Bay Window would be open since we're closing it for re-molding, so we spent some extra time with the jellies, the sunfish, the hammerhead sharks, tuna, and barracuda. Shout out to my MOM- we just got about 8 new baby turtles in one of our exhibits- can't wait to watch them grown up...I'll send you updates on that! :)

Work is, well, work. Working for the school has its ups and down- UPS: work on campus, flexible schedule, free CSUMB gear, I can do homework on site, the list goes on. DOWNS: the state of CA has cut our school budgets yet again, which means the school has less money to pay me, which means my hours get shortened...which would be alright...if tuition wasn't raised too.  So I'm working HALF the hours I was supposed to be, and I can get up to 14hrs on a good week if I'm given enough tours to do. For those who don't know- if you are enrolled in classes, then you can't work more than 20 hrs a week. So already we are part time...but if I'm putting in half of that...what am I and 1/4th time worker?  It's a bummer...but hallelujah I have a job to complain about!  Besides hours being cut I definitely got yelled at during work for letting it slip to the boss that it was slow and I had no work left to do. (I had finished literally all the work to be done and my office supervisor told me to just do homework) Well, boss man goes to my office supervisor and yells at him for me not having work to do...the f-bombs get dropped on me for telling boss man I finished my work. All I did was be honest right? I hate work politics...

Besides all that- Fellowship started up again yesterday. I think my Dad and boyfriend were the only ones I talked to about this but over the summer I felt very distant with my faith and very guilty about it. I know I should read my bible everyday- even if it's just a few verses or pages or a whole book but I should be opening it up everyday...if I want to grow with my faith in God. But I was having trouble with the will-power of actually doing. For some reason I have this fear that I wont understand what my bible is saying without my bible study teacher there to walk me though it. So..today I challenged myself. I opened my bible to the first page and read. I want to read through my entire bible, no time limit, no restrictions, nothing...but I want to read through it word by word because of my own will-power. I'm excited about this, and I've come to realize that even though I might have questions doesn't mean I can't grow in my faith because it's not Tuesday night and I'm not at worship. I want to be able to grow on my own and I needed to trust that what I read and how I interpret the word is how I'm going to apply it to my life.
So everyday, I will read part of my bible, and I will understand it. And if I don't...I can take notes to my teacher on Tuesday. :)  Can I get an Amen!?

That was my week....told you it was a million adjectives in one. I hope everyone has a good week this week, and have a SAFE labor day holiday! Love and miss you ALL!  :)