spelling at starbucks

today the lady at starbucks wrote my name Allistan on my cup.
It made annie and i laugh during our thursday morning accountability time.
(which was awesome by the way)
I think if I worked at starbucks i would spell people's names terribly wrong just to see their faces. It's a good joke.

its a very, very mad world.

So I go to the bank on my way home from work only to find out how truly shady the world is.
I park my car, I grab my wallet, take out my debit card, grab my checks and walk into the bank. I set down my stuff and start filling out my deposit slip when this nice looking lady next to says, "do you know the date?" And I being so friendly say, "yes, of course," (look down at my watch) "its the 29." She leaves i finish my deposit slip and walk up to the bank lady only to find that lady STOLE MY MASTERCARD!!! I was like where in the world is my card??? I KNOW i just had it...so after searching for it we watched the security tape and the lady clearly asks me for the date, waits for me to look down and swipes my card. INCREDIBLE!! Things like this don't happen where i come from.

Dear Thief lady,
YOU are not nice. You took advantage of MY nice-ness when you asked me for the date and you make me angry. Give me my dang card back and stop being a thief. Clearly you are going to get ZERO from me i already cancelled my card. Next time do a better job of stealing.
-The END.

a letter to santa margarita parkway....

dear santa margarita parkway,
you cannot decide you want to be one lane...you must be 3. It is not wise to abruptly change in the middle of my drive down to your one lane because that only causes extreme chaos. I would also suggest that you not make this change at 7:00 and directly in front of target. In closing, i do not like you at all as one lane, i like you much better as 3 and i shall not cross you again until you are back to three because it took 30 minutes to go 2 miles. not cool santa margarita, not cool at all.
-Me

testing your faith.

I can't tell you how many people thought I was strange for going to a different religion's church service. First of all...i was going to support one of my students, which i don't care where she was i'd go hear her sing. But if you're secure in your faith why on earth does it matter if you go or not? I know what i believe and i believe it with my whole heart...listening to someone else's twisted view of the God i serve does not sway me in the LEAST. I'm a firm believer that you cannot argue something you know nothing about. If i don't know what someone else believes how on earth could i tell them they are wrong? If someone made an uneducated or uninformed judgement of Christianity i would not give their argument the time of day. The more i learn about other religions the more I'm convinced of the loving, gracious God i serve. Someone that's scared to hear the religious views of others, i would think, needs a faith check.

James 1:3-4 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I dont know about you, but i want to be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If that means testing my faith by hearing someone else's religious views and then figuring out how they differ from mine...briiiiiing it on. =)

so many Allisons

we're fun Allisons. =)


and can i please give my american idol comments.
i love carrie underwood
i dont love Taylor Hicks
.....he really, really annoys me for some reason.

church of religious science....

So one of my kids was singing with her friends at a church in Orange this morning...so i decided to be supportive and go watch. So i get there with her family only to discover the church is a church of religious science...what is that you say? I HAVE NO IDEA! but it was the most interesting thing i've ever seen. This people are sooooo off. The entire service was centered on you and what you want and how you can create "religion" to fit your life. The name of the opening "congregational song" was i love myself just the way i am. The entire staff was women, not a single dude around...they took bits and pieces from every religion under the sun and formed this church of religious science.

Which makes me think....this is what our students do. (maybe not as extreme) but they want their faith to fit them or to fit their life. They base their relationship with God on the way they FEEL. I guess even I have the tendency to pick apart Christianity and focus on the parts i really like and tend to ignore some of the stuff i don't like. The reverend lady (I don't remember her name) titled her message last week, "Since hell isn't real why am i still in this hand basket" which is funny, I admit...but they had this view of Christians as serving a fire and brimstone God....the lady also had this profound quote that she used in her message...and it was totally the exact same one I had on my starbucks cup this morning...which i found to be awesome. The whole thing was just really interesting to me...i've been thinking a lot lately about how much students base their faith on feelings ...this whole post modern idea...but this experience just put it into concrete for me...and it was coming from adults. I want to go back and talk to the reverend lady...see if i can get a better understanding of where she got her information...we'll see.

aside from that...super fun weekend off. I helped chassey get ready for prom and then spent the weekend playing pingpong with her brother. Nice to have a family away from home. =)

Cell Phone shoot out

i'm a little bit proud of my sell taught photoshop skills right now....who knew if you just kept hitting buttons you could make something pretty sweet in photoshop. =)

$17 at IHOP

Now don't be fooled....i'm not a dumb person.
But for some reason i'm horribly terribly irresponsible with money.
I don't keep track of how much is in my account, i don't keep receipts, i don't even often look at receipts. I'm just really really not good with money.

...so today i had to take shaun and Chip to the airport at 5am...yes, you heard correctly 5am. I was supposed to pick up Mariah's wedding DVD last night but it was done so late i decided i would jsut do it this morning and then drop it off at Mariah's mom's house before they flew to oklahoma. Well i kinda ran out of time at the crack of dawn this morning and ended up just having to hang out at the airport between dropping shaun off and her parents showing up. So i decided to go to IHOP and hang out for a bit where my waiter's name was ALOHA...yes ALOHA.

Somehow he managed to charge me $17 for a waffle and somehow i never noticed.
Stupid Aloha, i hope you randomly read this blog tonight and feel bad for charging me $17 for a waffle that was mediocre at best.

But i did catch up on everyone's blogs on my handy sidekick that is really only convenient as everything BUT a phone...but that's a whole new blog subject.

"i love tuna"

Melinda's gone? now her head is shaped a little oddly...but is that any reason for her to not win??
i'm a little disappointed not gonna lie.

BUT it is past midnight and i have to wake up at 330 to take Shaun to the airport in the morning...shoot me now. so when you see me lookin a little rough in the office tomorrow or dragging a bit...cut me some slack, i don't do mornings.

but today was fun. A bagel adventure with the girls in the morning.
3 Allison's in the backseat of Shaun's car for lunch.
Dinner and American Idol with my favorite family away from my own, the Bennetts. =)
and now...some drugs and sleep. good times.

google analytics. macs. and friendship.

So i put this tracker thing in my page...it said 55 people looked at my blog in the last hour.
i don't even know 55 people that have a blog. Strange.

I did make a new support letter today. I made a "comic book" on my mac. Hopefully a little more fun to look at than a super long letter!


I'm a big fan of the mac book. It pretty much makes my life a million times easier.

I did spend some time at the Field's house teaching torie some mad crazy ab workouts that I used to have to do in college. I'm gonna go ahead and say she'll be crazy sore tomorrow. =)


I did learn a valuable lesson today about the difference between serving someone and feeling used. One of my spirituals gifts is totally serving others but occasionally I need to learn how say no. Not a fun lesson when it comes from someone you really trust and care about but i guess life is kind of strange like that sometimes. Makes me realize I'm still super young...young in life and young in ministry and I have so much to learn. I give all 55 people that randomly read my blog today total permission to speak truth into my life when you see me being stupid. I love love love love when my friends know they can ask me for anything and I'll do it without hesitation and i believe when a friendship gets to a place where both people feel safe asking the other for something...it's the VERY best kind of friendship. BUT i can't stand feeling used. Not a fun feeling. Oh well. Life goes and I learn something else about myself and others.

sad night.

I had to say bye to John and Mariah tonight. =(
not cool...but i am so excited for their future and future visits to Oklahoma! But i'm totally gonna miss my friend. It's a little bit funny when you're so far from home your friends totally turn into your family I totally pray Mariah finds a friend who makes her as comfortable in Oklahoma as she's made me here.

back to work tomorrow...but i dooooo have this weekend off which is sooooo exciting. =)
peace out.

words of wisdom.

"Don't wait to go to the doctor. that is dumb. you are not being strong. you are being dumb. Being sick does not make you weak. Being sick and not doing anything about it makes you dumb."
- my doctor whose name i can't remember

The doctor said those exact words to me today and it was kind of awesome. And i'm going to go ahead and say he is correct. And that I've been miserably sick for over a week...when if i would have just gone to the doctor like everyone told me....i would have felt so much better. Like i do now...well getting there. He did tell me i had the worst sinus infection he's seen in his 23 years of being a doctor which is awesome. I mean if you're gonna be sick, you might as well be REALLY sick. (note my competitiveness) He also said if i had waited one more day I would have had a sinus infection as well as pneumonia because everything was draining into my lungs. Which sounds so appealing. So he gave me some super concentrated anti biotic, some steroid...weird, i agree....and some other dug i have to take every 4 hours, which is a little bit annoying.

anyway, drugs and sleep that's my new motto.
They are both beautiful things.

my head might explode.

now, anyone that knows me AT ALL knows that i despise going to the doctor. But today i might be more sick than i've ever been in my entire life...so i'm giving in and letting Teresa Blakeney take me to the doctor in the morning. boo. But i'm pretty darn miserable so hopefully they'll give me something to make it alllllll go away.

On a happier note...today was awesome. I got to do a workshop at the Promise and i felt really good about my talk. Usually i get really, really nervous but this time was different...maybe it was the front row FILLED with the familiar faces of all my lovely girls. It's funny because i'm supposed to be the one pouring into their lives and somehow they manage to pour just as much into mine. I love them. They make the endless hours of student ministry totally worth it.

Lunch after the promise with Torie, Allison Hibbard, Courtney Gause, Cathy Fields and little cassie was super fun. Our service was great. We did a one hit wonder on The Power of a Thank You. And afterwards had a lovely dinner at my new favorite restaurant BoneHead with Allison and the Blakeneys. Shaun honestly has the funniest kids in the world...hahah JK. =)

and now i want to crawl in a hole and not wake up until i feel better. i hate being sick. its absolutely the WORST.

why you shouldn't make fun of birds.

Today was officially Allison, Colton and Jessie day. =)
I left work early today to spend some quality time with 2 of my favorite students which was super fun. Jessie just got paid so we decided to do a little shopping...so we are off to the spectrum where Colton forces us to eat dinner at like 4:30. So we decide to go to PF Changs (my favorite by the way) well....Jessie somehow got confused and thought we meant Panda Express...soooo not the same. She's super confused as to why Colton and I are walking right past Panda Express...which turns into lots of laughs at Jessie's expense. So we sit down at PF Changs, outside beacuse it's BEAUTIFUL in california right now! So we're all talking and laughing of course...because that's what we do...when we look over and much to our surprise see a one legged bird. I don't care who you are...that's hilarious. So we are all near tears laughing so hard at this bird when it suddenly flies away...well here's where the story gets good...we're all talking....laughing....enjoying the sunshine when all of the sudden i feel something wet on my back. Now...either some stupid kid threw something at me....or that dang bird just pooped on me. NO LIE that same ONE LEGGED BIRD pooped on me!!! I'm pretty sure none of us have ever laughed so hard in our whole lives. everyone sitting outside was laughing...it was hilarious...and i guess thats what i get for making fun of a one legged bird. =)

aside from that...it was an extremely fun day. P.F. Changs, Barnes and Noble, the pretzel store, urban outfitters, some random store jessie liked that colton and i couldn't pronounce, adventures on the way home, colton not knowing how to walk.....and finally cinema night at Trabuco where Jessie wrote her own movie!!!! It was sooooo funny and i was super impressed. well done jessie! i wish i had pictures to help give you a mental picture of our day...BUT we all forgot our cameras. LAME.

super fun day. =)
and the promise in the morning!
Good times!!!

word to your mother.

I guess it's time for me to join the rest of student ministries and start blogging. I came to this conclusion because there are some seriously funny things that happen in my life and i decided the world should know about them.

today started with a wonderful trip to Bagels and Brew with Annie!
I always enjoy our talks and laughs. She gets me. Most people don't but for some reason...she does and i like it. I trust her, which is also rare.

i'm teaching a workshop on forgiveness at The Promise this weekend!! Saturday morning at 10! a little excited, a little nervous. We'll see!!

and in case you forgot MARIAH GOT MARRIED!!!! and she comes home tomorrow!!