Action Shots

http://www.troutstreaming.com/Sports/311282

The top two photo albums are from this year. Check em out!

BUSY...

I don't think many people really understand what that term means to me. For the most part, I'm not one to freak out, so that's a really positive thing. However, the older I get, I feel like my "getting overwhelmed factor" has been increasing. (Of course, when class starts I'll let you know about my panic attack status, haha)...

I had a pretty busy weekend and at the moment I feel pretty emotionally drained. I need a vacation yet I'm no where near the time that I can take one. :)

I'm hoping to slow down some after volleyball season. At that point I will just be working full time and going to school full time. Next year I think will be much less stressful. I'll be substituting and going to school with no volleyball to worry about or take up my time. I'm pretty excited about that actually...

I really don't know what the real point of this post is, so sorry for wasting your precious time!!

In other news...

My weekend was packed but pretty great. I had my one credit class which was a retreat to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island. I had lectures and got to meet my cohort for the MAT (master's in teaching) program. That was nice and I'm sure it will be cool to go to class and know or have at least seen the majority of my classmates. I actually met a pretty cool girl there too and we're going to hang out this weekend. She cracks me up. It's scary how alike we are. Farting, burping, etc... I think the only thing we differ on is that I spit... haha. She's great! Anyway, so that was fun and it makes me excited for the program, it's a really great teaching program and they really care about making us good teachers. I'm excited about it.

We won our match against NNU (in 5) for those of you who couldn't be there. It was pretty fun and good to beat them. They are a good team and they have beaten some good teams so it was really good for us to beat them.


Troy visited this weekend which was also really fun. He stayed with me on Saturday night after the match. We went to Brian Ball's house on Sunday in the evening and had dinner. They have two little girls. Kira (almost 2) looks like Katie Balls' twin! SO CUTE! What a happy little girl. :) I had a blast playing with her and being there.

Not that anyone cares about this last tidbit, but I topped off the night by watching "50 first dates"... and yes, I cried... duh. :)

Shopping for Internet - I need your help!

Hi. So I'm researching wireless internet to get at our house. Seems like only three services really show up on the radar when I search it: Verizon, Comcast and Qwest. Do any of you have any other services that you like better? I'm leaning towards comcast. I want it to be cheap, but at the same time, speed is very important and I would probably be more likely to pay more to ensure fast downloading time. Anyone have any advice for me? Thanks!!!

Puerto Vallarta here I come!

I'm going to go to Mexico for Spring Break this year! Woot woot! I reserved my plane ticket last night and will be purchasing it tonight officially. I just need to pay for my flight and my food and fun money for the week so it's gonna be pretty great! I'll be gone a week. March 15-22. Just thought I'd inform the public... :)

What is Labor Day for?

I've always loved a day off or two, but I decided to check what labor day is really all about and I think although very simple in nature, many people just don't care to know what it is. Read this, now you know! :)

Cool Article

I thought this would be most interesting to Troy, but really I thought we all might enjoy it! Check out this article on genes!

Not enough time...

Hello all of my faithful fans! Okay, let's be real, hello family! :) Sooo I have a favor to ask. My time is very limited with all this volleyball and working out and doing physical therapy. There's not much more time left after figuring in eating and sleeping! My athletic trainer, Julie, plays the guitar and has some pretty nice recording equipment so we are going to make a CD. :) If you all could help me out with choosing some songs to sing, that would be great. If everyone gives me at least three suggestions then I will probably have plenty of songs to do. Try to keep in mind my voice and abilities. Also, it is probably best to steer clear of hip hop-ish types of songs because she plays the guitar. Thanks everyone! Have a great weekend! Love, Rachel

Fox discovers the "paint" program

This was fun. I showed Fox how to use paint and he really liked it. Here are his creations. This first one (top left) is just something I like to do... it was the inverse of this picture below. Cool huh?

More Cali pics...

This is probably my favorite picture ever (top left) I'm a hatching penguin! haha... the next couple of pictures are us girls at a Mexican restaurant with Lyss' parents (not pictured).




























I also enjoyed reading a lot on my trip. It feels like I haven't read for pleasure hardly at all in my life, but it seems like its been a few years at least! The Kite Runner is a really great book and I would highly recommend it.

This last shot is just classic pool pose with Martha Washington hair... at least that was the goal... mine was already falling down.

Cali Pics

This first picture is at the beach in Monterey Bay at "lovers point" :)
Then we were at the Aquarium in Monterey Bay. My personal favorite is being happy little penguins!

In need of some updates...

So, I guess I have not really kept up on this. Now's probably not the best time to start... yes, mom, I'm avoiding my paper yet again. That is something I think I will never be able to change about myself. Procrastinator til the end!! Anyway, let's see... life has been moving along since my "new job woot woot" post. School finally ended for the summer, yet not for me because I took an incomplete in one of my classes because I didn't have time to finish my final paper as moving took WAY longer than expected! And I'm pretty certain I was very soon to a complete breakdown or panic attack. So I moved into a new house (well, new to me) about a mile and half away from the old one and from campus. It's really big and I love it! I'm living with some of my favorite people (outside of my awesome family, of course) so I'm pretty excited about the upcoming year and how great it will be. There are five of us girls: Angie, Chelsey, Nikki, Torii, and me. All of us are on the volleyball team together except Chelsey, who did play with us for two years but graduated in '06 with me. :)
Let's see, so I moved and sort of finished school and then went on vacation to California with Alyssa and Angie. So fun. Cannot express that enough! (pictures to come) Then I was off to Reno to visit Shane, Whitney, and the Kollster. ;) That was also SO much fun! We did a lot packed into just a few days, it was really great! Plus, mom visited them and overlapped with me a day, so it was nice to spend time with her there too. Then it was off to Utah. I stayed with Dena and Steve and visited with them and Troy. I was there a little over a week. Utah was a ton of fun too and I got to see people that I haven't seen for a long time and had some really great visits.
Then I came back home and moved my stuff from the basement to my room. I worked on my room a lot and to do this day I'm so close to completion, I can smell it! I spent a lot of time at mom and dad's that first week of July as Troy and his friend Josh came up to visit.
Okay, so enough of the dull play by play. I'll be sharing some pictures with you from the trip... but mostly from Cali because Angie and Lyss took pictures. My camera hasn't been working for like 4 or 5 months and I haven't made enough money to really take the plunge and buy a new one yet.
In recent news, I haven't really been working because I'd been visiting with Troy and doing my room and then I hurt my back last week. To take out all the details, I got an injection today in my lower back to try to shrink a bulge I have in one of the disks that was causing me a lot of pain and discomfort. It was really easy and didn't hurt (unlike the warnings mom and others gave me...). I didn't throw up or have any other weird stuff happen so that's nice. Hopefully this makes me better! If not, they try up to three injections with about a week in between each one. Volleyball starts on the 6th, so I'm hoping this injection worked and I'll be fine and ready to play. Worst case scenario would be if none of the injections took and then I couldn't play volleyball this year because I would have to have back surgery. Hopefully that's the last time I have to mention that because I'm on the road to recovery! :)
Mom and I are off to Clarkston, WA to visit with Tod, Ann, Fox, and Axel (my new nephew!!). We will be there a week. I'm so excited!
Well, I think that's all I have for now. I will post some pictures soon!
Love, Rachel

Sex Offenders Where I live...

I thought this was very interesting. There's the key on the left. I have a rapist living 4 blocks away from me. Watch Dog is a pretty cool site. Just put your address in and you get a map like the one I got for where I live.

New Job - woot woot!

So I got offered a job at Seattle Prep today and accepted it. I will be an Administrative Assistant starting September 3. I'm very excited for this opportunity and experience (not to mention making a lot more money than I ever have before!!).

[It is full time but it is unknown how long the position will last (as far as the duration in months goes... at least through February). This is because I'm filling in while the woman who usually works there goes through treatment for breast cancer.]

Broken Pinky

For those of you who weren't aware, I just noticed I had taken some pictures of my broken finger a few days after I broke it, so I figured, why not post these to the world? Yes, I have a very exciting life... I broke my finger playing kickball! :) haha. It was quite painful, but it was really cool. I dislocated it. The middle of the finger was totally out of the joint socket and I could see the bone and everything. It was pretty swollen the first few days and bruised even worse. But the bruising is nearly gone and it's only a little swollen now. It's been two weeks... so in two weeks from today I can start playing volleyball full out. I've been able to hit and serve, but nothing else and definitely not in any type of real game-like situations. Oh well, life goes on. Sadly, kickball was so fun... so worth it! ;)

Miss University 2007

This is old news... but I just got this picture from a friend, so that's why I waited. On April 30, I was in the Miss University Pageant for the three University Wards in the Seattle North Stake (for church). We wore our "evening wear" (see picture), performed a talent (I sang, video to come, hopefully), and had a personality section (you answered a question). It was so much fun!! Anyway, I don't have any pictures of me in my sash and crown for some reason, but I just thought I'd inform all of my fans that I won. ;) It was so much fun, I had such a blast. PS... my PJ's rock huh! hahaha! ALSO, sorry about the weird effects on the picture... who knows.

Subbing at Seattle Prep

I was an art teacher yesterday. I taught 3 blocks. I say "taught" in the loosest sense of the word, but still. Subbing is way fun. I surprise myself, sorta. I can be a little strict. (hehe) Things like, "Silence means no talking ladies" came out of my mouth. I've also noticed, by reactions from students, that I have a pretty mean glare/stare. If I shot them a look they were definitely reacting by not talking... wa ha ha. Anyway, I administered two tests which is why I needed to be strict but what's funny is that they were really good during the test but they were supposed to have "silent study hall" afterwards, which of course is something no one really likes except for those nerdy students who actually want to get homework from other classes done (the jewels in my crown they are. just like me). :) So anyway, nothing new to report except that I had a fabulous day. Also, riding the bus was fun of course. Now I'm actually pretty mad at myself for being an idiot and never riding it before. I should never be borrowing people's cars... that's what buses are for! The only thing is that they are time consuming. I had to leave at 6 and got to work by 7:15. But that's okay. It was an adventure. PLUS, I got lots of my reading done for school, so that's nice!

MAT Program

I'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's the letter I got in my email yesterday at 3pm:

4/30/2007

Dear Rachel,

Congratulations! You have been approved for admission into the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Seattle Pacific University. The team and I were very impressed by your enthusiasm and passion for young people and believe you will make a fine educator.

Because we want to finalize our cohort, I need your written commitment of acceptance. Please email us using your full name by Friday, May 4, 2007, at gradadmissions@spu.edu to indicate your decision. If we do not hear from you, we will assume you are not coming and will give your place to another applicant. Very soon you will be receiving notification of your acceptance in the mail with other materials related to the MAT program including general graduate information and course descriptions.

On behalf of the faculty and staff, I wish you the very best of success as you embark on this exciting opportunity with us. We are excited to have you join our community of servant-learners.

Warm regards,

Richard Scheuerman, Ph.D.

Master of Arts in Teaching Program Chair

School of Education

Seattle Prep High School

I turned in all my paper work when I interviewed/just filled out paper work (haha) a week and half ago at Seattle Prep High School. I just got a call today a little before noon and I'm subbing tomorrow! Woo hoo! I'm really excited. I will let you all know how it went.

Also, I know this sounds extremely ridiculous being that I haven't had a car living in Seattle for the past two and a half years BUT I've never ridden the bus while living here. So, I've used the trip planner online and I will be riding the bus to get to work to substitute tomorrow and it will be my first bus commute!! :) I know, very exciting.

MAT Interview

The interview went GREAT! I was very charged and excited after Thursday's interview. There's no way I'm not gettin in people. I should be receiving an email by the end of this week and then you will know for sure what's going on and if I'm in. It was great though, I thought it went really well and I've decided it's really good I'm changing fields... I'm such a people person! ;)

MAT program update

Well, I received my congratulatory letter in the mail yesterday to inform me that I made it past the initial screening process for the Master's in Teaching program at SPU. I have a group interview on the 26th which will be the determining factor of my admittance to the program. It is 3 1/2 hours long! Yikes... good thing I'm a talker! ;) So about 2 weeks after the 26th I should be hearing about the decision. I will keep you informed.