adventure in snow

so I had been stuck at work forever but today I was home! It was awsome to wake up in my own bed whenever I wanted. So today I decided to finish my christmas shopping. Problem was I had no car. So I walked. I called my friend beth and we together walked, or hiked to the mall. We finished up and went to dinner. Now we are sitting on the floor watching silly christmas movies. what a fun day!!

Stolen Wallet found

So I don't remember if I blogged on it or not but my wallet was stolen on black friday, appropriately named i think. Any way I was pretty much out of luch because every peice of ID I had was in there, gift cards, credit cards, social security cards..ect. anyway since that time I looked through my car frantically a few times, each little sister looked through it, and my dad looked through it. It was not, I repeat not in there! Since that time also I have cleaned my car out twice (shut you mouth katie), and still no wallet. Any way on sunday I was going through my car to get a few iteams I would need for work and there laying on top of my seat, innocently just laying all by itself was my wallet. I stared at it for awhile not letting my self get excited because I knew it could not actually be my wallet.
yes. yes it was. And i believe without a doubt that someone put it there! all my doors were unlocked and that just has to be it. So yay!!

snow days at work

So sunday morning I got a call from work saying will you please come in for the morning shift (I usually work evenings) and we will send a cab to pick you up. I said yes because working a unscheduled shift is awsome money. So I got up took a quick shower nervous the whole time the cab would come and I would make them late. I put my scrubs and I went to the front window to wait....and wait....and wait.
I called work and told them the situation, they said they would call the cab company back for me. I said thanks, my daddy and I talked for quite some time about theology, and why I was his favorite daughter (just kidding, but I know he was thinking it!!) the girls and I made some pancakes....I waited....my dad and I watched a movie....I waited.....we watched another one....I waited.....My sisters and I played in the snow...I waited. Come two in the afternoon I called my work again, theys said all the cabs are really backed up and that I don't have to worry about being later for my shift it is not like it is my fault. So I waited....at seven thirty that evening I called work and asked if there was anypoint in me coming in? They said no and they would cancell the cab.
Nine thirty that night the cab company called me and asked if I was ready, that they were on the bottom of the hill, I very politely said not thank you and I went to bed.
Four the next morning I got a phone call from work asking if I would come in and work a morning shift as well as any other shift that would come up (it was my day off) I said yes and to send me a cab as soon as possible. So they said ok and I waited.....finally at about one they arrived. I was able to work a bit of morning shift, the whole evening shift, and half of a night shift (state says you can only work 16 hour) so I have been staying at work (really nice suites) and picking up extra shifts if I can. I am sitting in my room just surfing the web till my next shift wich is at 3.
oh and I did not bring my phone charger or a tooth brush. yikes!

Finals week with savannah to look forward to

The last week has been hectic!! It is the week before finals. Now, in most school this is known as dead week. Meaning that there would be no home work and lectures in class are limited, so to mentally prepare yourself for classes. Not in my wonderful community college.
Aside from the finals I have next week, I had a six page paper, a ten minute speech, and a test to rewrite. Now why did I leave it all till the night before you might ask? Good question.
Anyway luckily (well not luckily I guess because three of my patients have died in the last few days) my work has been slow. So naturally I took my computer and hid behind a chair and finished my speech, which i delivered today and was pleasently surprised with a B (i don't do public speaking, not my favorite).
Then Melissa came over, we got ready by having a big thai dinner and set in for the long haul. Two papers and two redone tests (a complete miracle that we were able to retake them and even bring them home!) some ice cream, and a little wine later we were done!
this morning went by smoothly and sure enough I don't have anything left till tues when I have two finals and I am out!
This winter I had full intentions of going back to school once more, however then I realized oh my! my neice will be born right in the middle of the semester! what is the answer to that delima? Not just wait for the weekend after she is born and go see her. that is just silly! instead I will not be going back (just winter term) and instead I will taking off for a month to phx to be with my sissy! I am planning on watching movies with kate, feeding her bon-bons, and just general taking care of her. I am so excited and I just bought my tickets yesterday!!
See you soon sister friend!

my joy!

So I have the next three days off!! Count them three! I am spending them with wonderful friends and my fab family! I am super excited! No work no school! Awwwwwsome!

california here we come!!

so here is our california adventure in brief form.
we woke up (way early) and headed to a coffee shop to meet my soon to be cousin melissa to study for a test (which i got out of by sheer luck and by having a non-american around, they are so flippen useful!)
any way so we went to take a quick shower and to pick up stephanie daline. and we were on our way. our destination: only Jesus knew. Due south.
Meg was dropped off by her family who are on a seven and a half week vacation around america. All we knew is they were headed to cresent city, california and south. So we did the same thing. it was beautiful and so much fun. we had lots of laughs and good conversations. When we were about maybe two hours away we picked up a hitchhiker named nile. (i know some of you may be discusted with our poor choices, however, its cool because the first thing he said to us was "hey girlfriends" and the first hour of conversation was dedicaited to communs (think hippy without the weed). anyway we drove all the way through mountains and the red woods to cresent city and that is when meg decided to call her family. They told us they were at crater lake.
now please don't judge me, for a few reasons, i had only a few hours of sleep, i had been driving all day, and i was disoreanted with being not in oregon and all. any way my question was "where in california is that?" the gas station attenant that was once fondly looking at me looked both a bit disapainted and my obvious display of being an idiot and annoyed pulled out a huge map of the west coast and pointed while saying, this is portland (way north) this is cresent city ( way south) and this is crater lake (way way east and also quite a bit north) hmmm that is quite a problem.
so what did we do? go to the beach of course. oh and also mexican food. lots of adventures that day. and we went home that night. how exciting.

how many times can someone hit the same car?....and get away with it?

So a brief over view of how meg and i california adventure went....
so it started out with meg getting in at like two on monday and me having to leave at two thirty for work...bummer! so i called maria and had her take her out to portland to see the beauty and amazingness which is portland. I was so sad to miss them (i had not seen maria in forever) but was glad that they were going to get to be friends.
Any way i got off work an hour early (i am a very lucky girl) and rush to downtown portland. still in scrubs and getting a bit lost, getting direction from an unlikly source (haha another story entirely) I got there. we were meeting at a coffee place. So as a was expertelly parrell parking I hit the curb "oh crap" i think was my reaction but i was to excited to see both maria and meg that i rushed out of the car. now in the back of my head i was thinking "shoot i did not hit that car right? it is awfully close to me, but i am pretty sure it was the curb i hit". so as i am getting out in my hurry i look at the bar window next to me. i see about eight faces pressed up against the window laughing and pointing at me. dangit! stupid car. so i mime "did i hit that car" using lots of hand gestures. and they just kept laughing. phew! i thought they were just kidding....

so about two hours later a few more stories later i get back with meg in the car and we are headeding home. crash! i hit the car for sure this time. as i get out of the car...rather sheepishly...i look and the same eight faces are looking at my laupghing harder than i would think possible with our afixeating. anyway a guy walks out and says "what is your deal?" at this point i have a few options running through my head, one do i look cute enough to get out of this, answer: no your dirty and have scrubs on. two, is he drunk enough to forget? answer: maybe but he is not smiling. three can i get away with saying i am foreing or at least the fact that meg is from new zealand and she is? answer: yes indeed that is the ticket!
some how we get on the topic of surfing and this same surf spot we go to and then he talks about how he is going to new zealand next week...of course he is.
some how i swing the convo back to his dented car and he just laughs and says well can i get you to come in and have a drink? i would have had six out of pure appriciation if not for meg not being of age, i guess me technically either but yay! for nice people left in the world or maybe just for good drunks :) so the night ended happily with a quick pit stop to vodoo doughnuts and bed.

New Zealand friend!

One of my very best friends in New Zealand is coming here!! I am going tomorrow to pick her up in Seattle. I think she may only be able to stay one night before going down to S. California to visit family but I am so so so excited!! Her family decided it was time to come to America for a visit. Her father is Kiwi (new zealander) her mother is american, and they have not been back here for 18 years. They started on the east coast and have slowly made there way over here.
Every where else but America really knows how to vacation. They are gone for close to on month and a half I think...now thats the way to do it!!

adventure or running away?

So I feel like I have made it clear the way I feel about my job. But that is just part of growing up right? Getting a job you don't love to make ends meet, just push through it. Many women in my work who have been working there for years have been living that mantra. Take it a day at a time. Just make it work. Well I say no flippen more!! What the heck? chances are you only have like what 85 maybe 90 years if you lucky (lets me honest the places i want to live probably not that long) I am not! I reapeat not! going to live like that.
I am so thankful for wise people in my life. I really really am. I think I would make way dumber decisions if not for them. I wanted to quit the first day, and they said not a good idea so I waited. They said it would get better and it did. They said God would teach me big stuff, and He did. They said I would feel proud of myslef, and I do.
So heres the deal, I don't think a month here or there matter. If I decide to keep this job till June thats fine, I can make it work.
But now I have other options, but would it be running away? This man who lives in both portland and phoenix has offered me a job to be his in home assistant (not sketch he has another one also) and the man I work I would work for travels quite frequently. I would be doing errands and a bit of just office things. It does not sound mundane in the least though. I would be making slightly less than I do now, but I think with far less work and he is willing to provide a car when in Pheonix and all travel and living expensis paid for, including anything I want like dental, health, gym membership.
I told him I would be able to start Dec 1st and that school does not get out till Dec 12th. Hmm...what do you guys think? I don't want to run away from something but I am ready to move on.

Wedding dress shopping, school, and work....

So Melissa (David's (my cousin) bride to be) is getting married!! We are having so much fun together doing wedding stuff and just hanging out. So on Sunday we went wedding dress shopping! I have never seen such a beautiful bride, and I have never seen a bride with such a huge entourage. There was grandmas, sisters, cousins, aunts, moms. It was so fun.
As far as work goes, it is getting better. I have learned just to do my job and keep my head down. I don't really talk at work unless I am speaking with a resident. During my breaks I go into the meditation room and read or do homework. I have decided to stay through Christmas going full time then switching to part time after December.
I have never really appreciated school before, but this semester I am really enjoying it. I think I just realize how much I prefer school to work. :) It is not the classes, because they are bio and speech, besides from math my worst subjects, but I enjoy them because I am doing well in them, and lets be honest who does not like something they are good at??

new job....

hey so just an update about my job. it is really really hard. I am trying not to complain because once i get down every patients schedule it should get loads easier. but right now it seems like whatever i do i get yelled at, maybe not yelled but more of talked down at from the other cnas. I am being trained right now by two very very efficient women. they both came to america with the american dream and have had to work extremly hard for whatever they get. i am not that way and would prefer it to not get yelled at for throwing away the garbage before i do laundry. (this sequence of events does not matter wich way you do it). they say it is more efficient therefore i am wrong.
I just smile and say ok. trying to look docile and compliante but on the inside i want to scream i am not an idiot and yes i know how to place a pillow.
well i will get it soon and i am sure i will be so thankful by how hard they are pusing me, but right now i just want to sleep and not wake up for a few days.

The Heart Beat

ok so i feel safe writing this about one of my sisters because anyone who reads this will know who i am talking about!
But with my brand new stethoscope (yay so excited!!) I heard the babies heart beat! It is the first heart beat in fact, to be heard. My sissy was so excited so we called the whole family in and took turns listening (so unsanitary, but completely ok because of how exciting it was!!).
sister i love you and am so so happy for you!!

the boss called...

So exciting! My boss called and told me my licences has finally come in! I am so so excited! That means work starting Monday!! Also my classes start on Tuesday which I am also looking forward to.
OK all that is way fun but there most, no maybe the best thing ever was this day because I am loving referring to it as the day of lavished gifts!
Ok wait first to share with you my mind set of the day there is a verse that I am to lazy to look up that says something along the lines of....and if you fathers, even though you are evil can give good gifts to your children how much better can the father in heaven lavish gifts on his children?

so anyway today my daddy (i love my daddy and mama) bought me a car (i don't even care how dependent this sounds), a bedroom set, and help buy (my favorite) a nurse starting kit!!!!!!
It has a stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff, and lots of other fun toys! It makes me feel like a real life missionary!
Oh and speaking of which I am (God willing) for sure moving in June. I will be living in a piece of land owned by Spain but technically it is still in Morocco.
I will try and keep you all better updated.
love

I hate the washington state nursing board

This blog is all about frustration and dumb dumb Washington (sorry family that lives there). Let me just contrast for you.
Oregon board: calls me sweety, offers assistance i did not even know i needed, told me to send stuff in without finishing it because they knew it was confusing so they will just finish for me, they have a kind tone and picks up there phone really quickly
Washington board: rude. mean. questions like (in a negative tone) "what? your question does not make sense" not helpful. takes at least fifteen minutes to get a hold of anyone, and once you do you get even more frustrated because they expect you to understand all the ins and out of there dumb laws and get mad at you when you don't understand that the dumb blue form is only sent when requested and you are supposed to send it in only on a certain date. who knows that? do any of you know that?

so right now i am waiting for them to answer the phone (waiting for fifteen minutes) so i can find out my licensing number that they were supposed to send me of two months ago! all the while i can not work because they are being so slow!
I told the Oregon board what the Washington office was doing and they said it was ridiculous and to call them the next time i have problems. So i did and sadly enough the washington n. board is the only one who can give me my license number. ahhh!!!! so frusterated!

I forgot I grew up...

In high school I had lots of late nights with this one group of guy friends. We always did the same kind of thing that may be look down on in society, such as stealing lawn gnomes, or trading peoples Christmas decoration. I look at it now and see how lucky we were to never get caught. Any way I started to loose contact with some of these old friends until last night when they called. They told me I immediately needed to come over.
So I hopped in my car (after finishing my movie) and went. I don't know what it was but instead of acting like a sane adult I snuck through the back gate, under the terrace, fell on my face the same place I always do, and opened the door really a quite. After flipping over the couch and being flung to the floor with hugs from all my long lost buddies we all started cracking up because, we are no longer past curfew (well for them at least i never had one..thanks mom!) and we could do whatever we wanted! It was very exciting! However not long after I realized I had to work the next day, and they had stuff to do....so unlike times of old there was no four am adventure, and no fear of being caught, instead it was off to bed and responsibility.

a few late night summer parties pictures

So here is a little run down on the N. Africa base. The base is the regional base for all of N. Africa. The base is located in S. Spain. I think just for a little extra freedom. They run a dts (discipleship training school), a prayer room, and hospitality (which is serving the missionaries) and other ministries. I don't know loads about it yet, but from what I have gotten I will be officially living in Spain and working lots in N. Africa. We serve the missionaries there in a lot of different ways.
Here's another thing that I need prayer for. One of the directors missionaries in N. Africa just emailed him and he just emailed me to tell me that there is tons of prostitution in her area. I don't have any info other than that, she said she would get more info and keep us updated. The thing is it would be a huge commitment. Like years. I would have to learn Arabic and lots of other things before even thinking about starting.
I want to end child prostitution. I want to end it globally. So right now I am so lost and confused what it should be. Originally I thought for sure max two years there but this would ask for a lot more.

Africa/Spain

Hey guys so just to let you know I am leaning strongly towards Africa. I really am trying hard to keep God my lead. I am loving it by the way because I am really having to talk to God a lot, and God is definately helping me figure it all out, I love Him so much.
I will keep you better updated and tomorrow I will tell you a bit more about the base.

Australia or North Africa???

OK so my lovely friends and mostly family (Ashley this includes you because we are related twice now and I like you a lot so you are officially one of the many sisters!...I digress)
Here is the plan (I know Kate :)) I am leaving in about June ish. There are three options. Well actually the whole world is an option. Ok I am starting in the begging.
In the beginning...
When I came home from my DTS (discipleship training school) I was so happy to see everyone I loved here in America. I really was and I missed you guys so bad. But I was also quite sure I would be leaving again really soon. I mean come on God! I was totally ready!! (that was how a lot of my prayer times were). As some of you may remember I started planning a trip back to the Philippines, which ended in disaster. So, then I got it through my head God was saying wait. Lame! I was a little hurt and confused to because my place was not here! I knew that as a fact. I like being busy. I love serving. It makes me more happy than anything in the world. Serving God makes me feel like I am doing my dream of changing the world, and I feel more dependant and more connected with God then and other time in my life.
Anyway whenever I would pray God would say the same thing "by still and know that I am God" well God, hello I know you are God. Uhh! So frustrating!
Then the day came when He asked me "am I enough?" What?? what a silly thing to ask creator of the universe! Of course you are! then came the question "am I enough? If you stay in Portland Oregon your whole life and never lift a finger to serve the broken again. If you live the mundane, "normal" life, am I enough?" my answer very sadly was no.
I was broken. How had that happened? How had I, Kimberly, let serving and my dreams become more important? I was so focused on who I was going to save, what my next adventure was, I had lost what was so very precious to me. Sure I still read my Bible daily, sure I prayed often, but to what? For what?
God is good and gracious and He spent the otherwise very boring next few months of my life to teach me one thing. "you are loved" (direct quote). It was a hard lesson to learn. He stripped away everything that I thought made me happy. Every organized ministry I tried died in the beginnings. If you knew me well through these months since being home, I have tried to put on a happy face but these extremely boring months have been excruciating.
I am not loved because of the work I do, I am not loved for how fun I am, I am not loved because I read my Bible and pray. I am loved because I was created to be loved.
Not that I will always rely on that, not that I won't for sure screw it up, because God is my father, and he loves me so much, He is giving me another chance. He has opened up the world for me and said I will bless you wherever you go. well...
So wow! My dream. Thank you so much Jesus.
Now the fun and slightly stressful part!!! where to go??

Here are the options I think I have narrowed down, however if God like sends an angle telling you that I should go somewhere else, cool. Let me know.
anyway options are:
-North Australia ---I would be a School Staff
-South Australia ---I would be a school staff
-North Africa base --- I would work at their regional base in s. Spain and work in north Africa wherever they needed me.

I am really leaning on the North Africa base. Let me know what you think and please be praying for me.
and know that you are loved.

New job...New apt....getting married...just kidding

So this new job is going to be so so fun! I work swing so it is 3-11:30. There has been so much paper work, fingerprinting, just general running around to get my License work for Oregon, and training/orientation, that I am just ready to start loving on old people! Their days revolve around food mainly wich is great because that is how my life works as well. However I just have to deal with dinner (at 5 p.m.) and I get to take all the time I want. Stoping and talking with them, sitting down and really getting to know my clients is going to be my favorite part I can already tell.
Anyway, this place I am working at is amazing! It is were all the CEO's, presidents, and just general rich people of Portland retire. It is a 26 acre campus full of green and flowers and the nicest stuff I have ever seen. It is right on the river with great views from everywhere. There are about 5 main building and they all connect through sky bridges, so you never have to walk out in the rain if you don't want to. There are Japanese gardens, residents gardens, tree groves, pathways, the list just keeps going on and on. We took several tours yesterday and still I only know how to get to my "neighborhood" and back.
I work in Wisteria Neighborhood. (in my head I call is wisteria lane). You start at the manor or the plaza when you first move in to the community but as you age and need a bit more help you move into the neighborhoods.
Anyway I am so so thankful for this job. The residents never have to leave, there is a bank, restaurant, grocery store, clothing store, movies, library, etc. I love it!

Anyway the new apt. I am moving in with some girls I grew up with, Bailey and Olivia. They have another girl named Kaley living with them. Bailey and Kaley are sharing a room and Olivia and I would share. I am almost positive about this but we will see. I want to wait for Katie to come because I want as much time as possible with her and Savvy. Oh and ps I will probably be working so morning I get Kate! Back off! I am staking my territory now!! Love

New Job

I am leaving in about one minute for orientation! I am a little nervous. Supposedly I am doing it with like three or four exchange students that are very smart and very giggly.
Hmm.....I don't know how I feel about that. Well pray for me and I love you all.

Did I take it too far?

So I need your personal views whether or not I took this situation too far or not.
Today, for my new job (yay!) I had to take a u/a test (I had to pee in a cup). However that was not the issue. when all was said and done, I was very pleased with the result (very clear).
However, while I was walking out of the backroom to the exit I hear a very excited "kimber!" as i was turning around my question I posed to myself was who do I know that calls me kimber? So I turned around and looked this very excited girl up and down and had no idea who she was. i tried real hard to pull off the "...oh...yeah...hi! how are you?" she seemed so excited to see me that she did not even notice my lack of enthusiasm due to the fact that I had no idea who she was. She carried on with "oh i can't believe you were going to walk out of this office without saying hi first!" I was so completely lost at this point. Stunned is probably a better word.

She then asked me the normal questions like what are you up to these days, the tricky part for a response was, what in my life does she care about? Church, school,...ect. I had no idea. So I explained my reason for getting a drug test wich seemed enough for her because she chatted on about her job. A moment later we were interrupted by a nurse saying "oh you two know each other?" I just looked at her and smiled unintelligently and looked at my new/old friend and waited for the response. I think my mouth dropped a little when the response was "oh yeah she is my brothers ex girlfriend."
ok a few problems with this statment. 1. I have never had a boyfriend 2. i have not lived in portland for quite some time 3. i had never seen this girl in my whole life
at this point in the conversation I had made the decision to be as non-commital as possible for the sake of the poor girl when she realized i was none of the things she claimed me as.
So while I was looking for an escape route to this continualy awkward (only for me) situation, she turned to me and goes "kimber you really have changed" (yeah lady because you have no idea who I am but at this point I was in far too deep to turn back),then she decided it was a good idea to grab my hand and and take me over to her desk to show me her children. she showed me the youngest and was like look shaila, you remember her right?
i just stared. her response to my blank look was (or what i would like to say, non-commital look) was oh of course you don't! she was just born. (silly me). Then she started talking about her other girl. Her words were "of course you remember her!" with my reponse of "oh wow she is beautiful"
"she asked the question she has grown huh?" my response "yep she sure has grown i am sure"
while our little reunion was winding down there were a few more awkward questions about her dad and her brother (apperently ex boyfriend) that i (with skilled) avoided.
while walking away after our departure and promises to see each other again my last words were "tell her brother I say hi". I really did not want her to think I was bitter.

The Swiss come to visit!

So my the story of my friend Sam.

One cold and wet rainy Oregon coast day (is there any other kind?), three really bored eighth grade (almost freshman) girls were wandering around the oh so chilly beach. No boys, no sun, no fun! But wait, was that a boy (maybe they were slightly boy crazy) in the distance? "oh no" said one girl "we are on the Oregon beach! There are never cute boys here!!"
Well as it turns out that girl was very very wrong.

It was Bailey, Stephanie, and I and we decided we wanted to pursue a friendship with this boy (cute or not we were desperate). So Stephanie came up with the idea to yell random names until maybe he would respond to one. Bailey and I decided to bash on that idea for a few minutes, and then followed through. We shouted Tom! Elliott! Ralph! Steven! and other varieties of names.
Finally I got bored with this silly game and with bravery that surprised even me, I walked right up to him and asked if he would like to hang out with our little trio. And oh my was that a good idea!
We had found our self our very own, very cute, very foreign, Swiss boy! All that night we hung out and talked about how to say funny words, we went on an adventure that required me to (some would call it stealing) borrow my parents car (no license quite yet...sorry mommy!). Well it could not last long he was going home to very next day so goodbye to him...or so we thought.

Luckily we are the technology generation and through a variety of myspace, email, and face book we have kept in contact these long years. Finally Sam thought it had been long enough since he had seen his favor tie American girls and he flew out to see us. He is here now and will be here another two weeks.
Much to all of our dismay he has a girlfriend. We plan on taking him to see all of the beautiful Portland so if you guys have any ideas for fun adventures let me know!

Disneyland?? Oh no...we are poor!!

Did I slave away all day in the heat while my family moved?? Nope! i went to hang out with my cousin. Enchanted forest! (otherwise known as the "poor man's Disneyland" was invaded last weekend by Patty, C.J., and myself. We rode rickety, old rides, we got scared out of our minds by the haunted house (you had to be at least two to get in...yikes!), it was quite to party. To top off the wonderful adventurous day, we went home ate food and watched a movie!