To go or not to go...

I've been thinking of going back to school for a little while now. I had my performance review at work not to long ago, and the only real suggestion was for me to finish my degree. I had already been thinking of doing so before it was brought up but now I'm really thinking about it.

I have been doing some research on different options:
1. Look into Chapman University. They have classes one night a week each from 6-10 and could finish the reaming 3/4 of my degree there...but when the financial breakdown comes up...that doesn't look like the best option. I will be attending an info session there next Tuesday to better look at it.
2. Complete some more general education courses at MPC and either continue on to CSUMB or complete my degree online. I am planning to meet with an Admissions rep from MPC next month to see what else I can take and when. A less expensive option but way longer.
3. Do option two or start with online courses now. Expense wise...probably in the middle of options 1 and 2. The online program I am looking at is at U Mass.

UMass offers a BA in Liberal Arts (which is what I was working towards), but they have a focus in Woman's Studies:
"Women’s Studies Concentration
The Women’s Studies Concentration explores the history of women in societies throughout the world – providing students with an understanding of how social and cultural influences have shaped the lives and roles of women throughout history. For graduates, there is a growing demand in the workforce for experts on gender issues. In fact, women's studies specialists are increasingly being used as consultants in both the public and private sector. Graduates of this concentration receive all the benefits of a well-rounded liberal arts education, plus advanced knowledge of issues particularly affecting women in the workplace today."

The good thing about UMass online degrees, they are 100% fully accredited and you get a degree from the UMass that you are admitted to. For example, the one I am looking at would be UMass Lowell. That's pretty darn sweet if you ask me. I've always liked UMass...pretty sure I had a UMass hoodie when I was younger.

For now I am still doing research, hoping to have more of a plan and begin taking more classes come the new year. So many options, so much money. I have no idea how I am going to afford this, but we will see. Going back to school makes me a little nervous.

After working here at MIIS for almost two years now, I realized that after the first year I could start taking some classes. I was thinking about taking one next semester, but I found one I really wanted to take and it only happens in the Fall. So this weekend I am taking a work shop (Friday 6-9, Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 9-2) on Human Trafficking. The recommended reading for this course is the 240 page TIP report.

(this the 100th post on here, glad you all have enjoyed them)

It's almost here...

Ok so this isn't the best picture, but yesterday I got my first pumpkin of the year! Fall/Autumn is my favorite time of year, no questions asked. To me the most beautiful time with all the leaves changing colors (mind you I don't see that out here but back East its amazing). The crunching leaves under your feet, the smell in the air. The joy of wearing sweaters with a scarf and gloves (something Adam always made fun of Meighan and I for). Good apple picking then going home to make some kick butt apple crisp. Pumpkin picking and carving. Sitting with apple cider in front of a fire. The colors, just everything. Ahhhh I just love it, and really really miss it, for the most part this is the time if year, if any that I get a little homesick.

Yesterday at the farmer's market I went to get some veggies and actually almost forgot to buy them because I was so excited to see pumpkins. I picked the most perfect, round little pumpkin I could see on the table! Also got a huge acorn squash, can't wait to cook that up with some butter, brown sugar and nutmeg! Yumm Yumm.

Happy Early Fall!

Finally

Ok so I'm a dork, that we all know. But you know when you get those questions like..."If you have lunch with any person, alive or dead, who would it be?" I always draw a blank, there are way to many options for that one and I guess it would depend on what I wanted to talk about on any given day. My answer never changes for the question "If there was one band you would love to see who would it be?"...Jimmy Eat World!!! I have missed seeing them a total of five times for various reasons but, that string of bad luck is to come to and end of October 2! Thats right, I finally get to see Jimmy Eat World live!

Every so often I check the site to see if they are doing a US tour again and always fails, but for some reason today I went on again and looked...front page, there it is, the schedule for this falls US tour and they are coming to Santa Cruz and San Francisco! Obviously I'm wicked excited about this. And their new cd comes out October 16. Tickets have been bought...Happy (way) early birthday to me!

(www.jimmyeatworld.com)

2 Down...20 To Go

Just a quick update. I took my second test tonight: Exodus and only got an 89 on it. I mean its not bad but I accidentally hit the the enter button and it submitted it with out me double checking my answers. Oh well. Only 20 more tests for this course!

Next week Victoria and I start our pilates class which is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I can't wait.

Grace and Peace
~Jenny

5 Amazing Years...

Happy Anniversary Sara and Jay!

Today has been five years that my awesome sister has married one of the best guys I have ever met in my life.

On August 17, 2002 I saw my sister walk down the aisle towards Jay to start what has become to me a great example of an awesome marriage. In every marriage there are ups and downs but with God truly being the center you see more of the good. They are truly an encouragement to me. I couldn't of asked for anyone better for my sister than Jay.

I will never forget the first time that Jay met my sister (for all of you who don't know, Jay and I were friends before he ever knew Sara). She was in a traveling drama ministry and they came to our Church for a performance. A little while later Jay asked how she was doing...he had only met her once and I'm pretty sure that is all he needed. I kept thinking, why does he care how Sara is doing and then it hit me!! She came back a few months later and we had some people over our apartment to hang out. He walked in and literally took her breath away...(so sweet).

They are the traveling couple for sure. A good chunk of their relationship was spent apart (especially hard when planning a wedding by the way). Jay was in Costa Rica, Egypt, California. Sara was in Romania for a bit. A year after they were married they moved to California, then two years later are in Maryland now they are living in England, oh where will these two end up next?? (hopefully closer to me?)

Two years ago today at 3:00 am I was woken up by a phone call. Before even answering it I knew I was going to become and Auntie!! Sure enough for their third wedding anniversary they were given the wonderful gift of becoming pregnant with Jed.

Here is to five amazing, adventurous years...can't wait to see whats to come! I love you and miss you tons. Thank you both for being so wonderful...

I heart you,
Jenny

(I stole that picture from you! haha)

Healing

(Again playing some catch up for everyone in this post)

"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul; and forget not all his benefits-who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases," (Psalm 103 1-3 NIV)

On my 19th birthday I was diagnosed with Cervical Dysplasia (HPV). There are several stages to this and is known as a precancerous condition. Since then I have had to go ever three to six months for tests and biopsies to check for cancerous cells. 90% of the time they would come back positive as to having the cancerous cells. I have been told since the age of 19 that future with children looked risky and some even said impossible. For me, that was fine. I was/am open 100% for adoption, but being that young you really don't want to hear those words. How do you explain to whom ever you date (if you think it might get serious enough) that Oh by the way I may not be able to have kids and I might develop cervical cancer...easily, you say it just like that. Well at least I did. You get nervous of ever having to have that conversation. You think who the heck is ever going to want to date me and once they hear that will they actually stick around??

On July 17 after an ER visit, more doctor visits and a bunch of not so much fun tests I got some amazing news...No more cancerous cells...No more of the HPV!! Completely in the clear. No signs of not being able to have children. I had to have the doctor repeat it about three times, I was shaking. Healing has taken place, amazingly and only one to thank for that...God. Seriously amazing. I won't have to have that conversation, ahhhh what a weight lifted from my shoulders. I might actually go out on a date, who would of thought

Below are some e-mails I sent out as prayer requests about all of this back in June and July of this year. They go in order of oldest to newest...

June 26, 2007:
Hello,

Just wanted to fill you in and ask for prayer over the next week. Saturday I was in an extreme amount of pain in my pelvic area. It hurt to sit, stand or lie down, however I put it off for a day and just popped a ton of Advil. It didn't get much better come Sunday so I called my doctor and she suggested I got to the hospital with my medical history. I went had a few exams, blood work, ultrasound, etc and they said there was some loose fluid near my right ovary in the ultrasound and it concluded that I had a functional cyst on my right ovary that burst and that was the source of all the pain. I need to follow up with my regular doctor near the end of this week for another exam and see what she has to say also. A functional cyst from my understanding doesn't seem to be extremely serious (doesn't lead to ovarian cancer), but never the less its a bit scary to deal with. I have an appointment Thursday morning with my regular doctor, and I'll let you know what happens then.

Thanks for praying. Jenny

June 28, 2007:
Hello I went to the doctors today, and no more answers for now. She had my results from the hospital faxed over and decided i needed more blood work (three tubes) and have to go back next week for another exam. Thanks for praying and I'll keep you posted. Jenny

July 5, 2007:
Hello, So another follow up, I went back to the doctors today and had another exam and got the results of my blood work from last week. The blood work came back normal. As for the exam, she said that she thinks it will come back abnormal and may need to go see another doctor with in the next week, week and a half. She will have the results of this weeks exam hopefully by the middle of next week and we will go from there. No solid answers yet, but please keep praying. My doctor and I talked today and the worst case scenario is that my pre-existing condition has become worse over the past two years and possible surgery in a not so distant future. As for now, more doctor visits, exams and biopsy's. Thanks for all the prayers. ~Jenny

July 17, 2007:
Hello, I just received a call from my doctors regarding my test results. For the past six or seven years I have been having some health problems (the detection of pre-cancerous cells). I have been told time and time again, that my chances of having children are very slight, and lately have been told that I might be having surgery in a not too distant future. Just wanted to say thank you all for your prayers during all this, and to let you know that my results came back completely negative on ALL my tests! There were NO signs of cancerous cells. I won't have having to go back for any biopsy's!! Thanks again! I'm shaking, I am so excited!!

~Jenny

Grace and Peace ~
Jenny

"For Nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37 NIV)

Back to School...well kind of

So I decided to take an online bible course. The actual title is Survey of the Bible part 1 (Genesis - Song). I took my first test the other day (Genesis) and got 100!!

Please pray that I complete the course. Its online so its a go at your own pace type course, which is nice but can also be bad some times. Its a survey course so you are skimming the books during the lessons and gleaning the meanings and importance of each book. You are expect to read them more in depth out side of the lesson.

Oh Starry Night, Family Vacation, etc...

This past weekend there was a meteor shower (if you didn't know that already). Topher, Victoria and I decided to go camping up at the Pinnacles on Saturday Night. When we got there we set up our site and headed off to the park for some hiking. Victoria really wanted to see the bats so we went to the caves and of course there were loud people in front of us, so there were no bats to be found. We ended up at a cool spot to take some photos and hung out there looking at the creatures, dragonflies and frogs for a while. At dusk the bats started to come out!!! Oh boy for someone like me who doesn't really like them it was a little weird at first but after a while with them flying over head and coming really really close at some point I got kind of used to it. We hung out for a bit longer and watched as the stars started to come out. Man what a beautiful scene. I forget how much I miss looking up and seeing the sky like that. You don't get that much out here.

We decided to hike back a little after 9 (so it was pretty darn dark), we had to walk back threw some caves which was an adventure! We saw a baby fox on the way back. Drove back to the camp ground, cooked dinner then headed out to an open spot to start taking some pictures. I saw a good number of shooting stars...didn't catch any with the camera but thats fine. After a while of trying to figure out how to actually capture the stars in general, we finally go there (as you can see by the photos above). I didn't get all that many photos (posted about 14 on my flickr site) because I feel asleep in the jeep!

We had fun, saw a bunch of creatures...deer, bats, frogs, fox, bunny, vultures, dragonflies etc. nice relaxing weekend and hope to do it again soon. I didn't realize how much I missed camping and doing out doors kind of things.

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July 20 - 29th Family Vacation to Monterey!


Dad, Sue and Biz came out for the week to see me! WoooHooo.

Really couldn't of asked for a better time. It was their first trip out here to visit and hopefully not their last. We did a lot in a week, I'll give you the break down:

Friday they arrived and took the scenic drive down from San Fran. We went out to eat on Fisherman's Wharf. Saturday was nice and relaxing, went for a walk down the beach and around town. Sunday again was a lot of relaxing (we all got a lot of reading done...I finished the last Harry Potter in a week!) and that night we had a cook out and Luke and Lisa's place so they could meet some of my friends (and Sara and Jay's Friends too). Monday I took them to First Awakenings for breakfast (Sara and Jay's suggestion), then off to the Aquarium to check out the fish and to Canary Row. Tuesday we ended up in Carmel for the afternoon, ate at an awesome little place and had a great bottle of wine with lunch, then headed off to Chateau Julien for our wine tasting (oh boy it was really good!!), then to Farmer's Market. Biz got her birthday present there, a Henna Tattoo. Dad really enjoyed the farmer's market. Wednesday was Point Lobos and Big Sur. Thursday Sue and I took Surfing Lessons...you just got to see the photos, they speak for themselves! What a great time, we plan to do it again (well at least I do). Friday we headed up to San Francisco for the weekend, just hung out and relaxed in our not so great "hotel" room. Saturday we went to Alcatraz! Awesome. Then wandered around San Fran. Sunday we all went home...sad when you think that after that I won't see them for at least a year seeing as I don't plan to go home for Christmas this year. Which leads us to my next update...
(check out more photos here)
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I'm bound for England and Italy!

My tickets have been bought. There is no turning back now. I'm off to England and Italy for two and a half weeks in December!!! I get to see my sister, brother in law and nephew for 2 1/2 weeks...that will be the longest I have seem them in over two years, how crazy. I miss them so much, and each day it gets harder to live this far away. Hopefully at some point we'll actually live near each other or at least on the same coast. My nephew is getting so big and all I get to see is photos (don't get me wrong, they are great, but its not him). I can't wait to just hug him and hang out with him. To top it off we will be in Italy together. A life long dream about to come true. We plan to spend Christmas and New Years in Italy! Oh my goodness.

Only a few more months!


Ok well for now I guess that is it. Should probably go and get some reading done.

Surfrider International Surfing Day - June 21, 2007

Check out more photos from Carmel, CA at: http://www.flickr.com/gp/22456584@N00/46ysD8

Also check out Surfrider - www.surfrider.org for more info on them and all they do!

Invisible

Every feel invisible? Even to those you are closest with?
Ever feel like if you were to just leave for a while no one would really notice?
Ever feel like you are just walking around with out really living?
Ever feel like you are living someone else's life?

We say we are friends and close but are we really? If I don't pick up the phone or send the e-mail will you remember to? Will you take the initiative at some point? At what point would you do that? Do you really want to know what is going on when you say "how are you? whats going on with you?". Do you want the truth or are you being superficial? What makes us friends and not just acquaintances?