An Eventful Weekend

My mom and I spent the weekend down in LA with our good friends the Bredbergs. We got to go to Burke Williams spa in Pasadena on Saturday. That was such a treat! It was like entering a whole new world. I felt a little out of place as I imagined what it would be like to float in indoor spas, get massages, and take endless showers on a regular basis. I'm sure it would loose its awe factor after a while though. We followed up our spa adventure with a trip to "21 Choices" which is the best frozen yogurt place on the planet. It's Yogurt Creations meets Coldstone. You choose from custom flavors and then they mix in whatever you want! I got strawberry shortcake flavor with pound cake and rainbow sprinkles mixed in-mmmmm.

The rest of the weekend we spent working and playing. There is always something exciting going on at the Bredberg house. For my mom and Kim working meant editing the book they are co-authoring about education and homeschooling and also working on marketing their website Collective Banter. It's basically facebook combined with the scholastic art and writing competition for artists, writers, and musicians. You can win money! They are all about advertising at the moment so here you go mom and Kim..... This is the link : http://collectivebanter.com/ Go check it out!

Working for me meant running lots of errands and talking to Kim about the book of my high school writing that she is going to publish. Woooohoo, I can't believe I am going to be a published writer. Pretty cool. Kim is always coming up with awesome ideas for me, but I never thought I would have my own book! She's going to use it to teach other high schoolers about the writing process. Now I have to write something for the forward and a blurb for each of the pieces. It's a little nerve racking to sit down and try to write something you know is going to be published!

Hannah and I had a great time hanging out, being totally dorky Twilight fans, and seeing the movie "Grown Ups" together. It was hysterical. I would highly recommend it along with Inception which was AMAZING.

Wow I have been promoting a lot in this post. Better give you a break. Tata for now

xoxox Evie

A monumental discovery

I just found the coolest website! It has all these amazingly cute blog backgrounds that you can download for free. It's so easy-and coming from me you know that's the truth. There's a link to it under my favorite sites. Flowers make me so happy!

All my wisdom has been robbed

I'm sitting in bed with lots of gauze in my mouth and feeling pretty darn good. I just got three wisdom teeth pulled. I used to be scared to have them taken out but after my trip to Mexico I became very enthralled with the idea of anesthesia. They started an IV in my arm which I've never had but it was very similar to having blood drawn (I've offered my arm to my fellow phlebotomy students many a time!). Then they put something over my nose and said it was oxygen. They asked me to do something but I honestly can't remember anything past that point. When I woke up I felt sooooo weird. They helped me walk to the recovery room to lay down in for a few minutes. It was all very funny to me. I'v decided my mind is too impenetrable for drugs to make me loopy. Hypnotists don't have a chance either. Heheh. However, this experience has given me a lot of compassion for those people in the world who are all there mentally but can't talk or express their thoughts and emotions. That would be so incredibly frustrating. It makes me see people like that in a new light. Anyways--wonderful Caitlin is coming over later to watch Lord of the Rings with me. I should probably get some sleep. But first I want to talk about my graduation party....

It went so well. I was a little nervous about the speeches and the ceremony part. But it was really nice. My parents had the most heartfelt things to say and of course they made me cry. My speech went well until I started thanking Kim--I lost it royally at that point. Tears aside it was a very special ceremony and party. Everyone came down off the deck and prayed for me. That was really sweet. I'm incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life that care so much about me. The food was AMAZING and I received so many encouraging cards and wonderful gifts. Thank you to everyone who came, and I missed all of you who couldn't make it. I'm off to go hibernate. Tata for now! xoxox Evelyn

Last night was such a great night. I have been wanting to have a dance party in our old house ever since our renters moved out. I really wanted to do it before a lot of my friends left on vacation for most of July. At the beginning of the day it wasn't looking like very many people could make it. Low and behold every single person I invited ended up at my house later that night. That's record breaking. We had such an awesome time dancing and we had two mock rocks. That was definitely the highlight of the evening. Fond fond memories. Thank you Jesus for all of my amazing friends and for providing the opportunity to hang out with them all before their vacations!

Team Godines!

Maria-the grandmother at our site. She got a letter from her son with a note saying God Bless You to all of us

Adrian and Wesley trying to be par-core (don't know how to spell that) in the party house

Casey all Cola-ed out. My favorite picture of the week I think

Mexico this year was great. It was less laid back than last year but it was just as good of an experience. Despite having small numbers and three houses to build we still finished a whole day early. This year was unique because we got to rent this "party house" thing in the neighborhood and have lunch with all the families instead of having them come to our campsite. I mustered up enough spanish to share with Maria during lunch. She gave me the biggest hug and then launched into telling us how much she appreciates all of us. She said that God told her we were angels sent to her to build her house. I love her so much. She is such a kind soul. I was a little bummed throughout the week that we didn't have kids or VBS on our site but listening to Maria at the end made it all worth it. None of the other families shared except for her. This was my 5th year going to Mexico and I don't think I will ever get tired of it. Each year is so different and so special.

I got to help Trale (a dental hygiene student) suction while he used the ultrasonic instrument

We were invited to Joel's (the owner of Velmar Hospital) house for Paella on our day off

Me and my horsie Maria. She gave me the most thrilling ride of my life! She literally galloped down the beach and I was holding on for dear life. I was laughing hysterically. See the video :)

Me and some cute kids from the migrant camp

I was able to watch 4 births. This baby girl is literally minutes old and I got to hold her and feed her. I felt bad that her mother didn't get to hold her first though.

An enormous tumor I watched be removed from a very overweight patient's abdomen. Sorry...heheh

Me and my roomates (the dental hygeniests)

A group photo- this was only part of our group. There were 25 of us altogether

Me and Joeny in front of the general hospital. She spoke fluent spanish and was a great friend.

My two week trip to Ensenada was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. Thank you Sally Beck for helping me get there! I was able to see four births, two surgeries, tour two hospitals, visit a public health clinic, help clean kids teeth at a migrant camp, and do glucose tests at an orphanage. I also got to go on an awesome horseback riding adventure, see the Bufadora (a big blowhole) and meet some great people. When I arrived at our hotel everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone in our group over the next to weeks. There were so many different people from all walks of life. I felt like I had a few stand in mothers and made some really great friends. I really miss them-we were all like a big family. We ate together, worked together, cried together, talked together, and had fun together. I learned a lot about the health care system in Mexico. It's better than I expected but it is definitely different than ours. The labor and delivery room really opened my eyes to that. There were 12 women laboring in one room and it was virtually silent!

I was a bit frustrated with my spanish during the trip. I used to be able to speak so much more smoothly and I felt tongue tied every time I tried to say anything. I had good days and bad days language wise. There were some people on the trip that didn't know any spanish and they elected me to help teach them basic things. That was nice:) But being there really ignited the desire in me to some day be fluent in espanol!

So I was hoping that going on this trip would also make me super passionate about medicine. That didn't exactly happen. I enjoyed the trip and the things I did but I still don't know if I'm called to medicine or if I'm passionate enough about it to have a career in it. I'm pretty sure I want to help people and involve spanish somehow. I just don't know if it will be in health care. I feel so fickle. One day I think it sounds great to be a P.A. The next day I get an uncomfortable feeling when I think about medical things and having to see sick people all day long. I also found out that P.A school is really hard to get into and you need at least 3,000 hours of working in health care before you can be considered a strong applicant. I'm scared to throw myself into something that I'm not sure if I will even like. Lately I've just felt so unexcited about college and my future. Nothing is sparking my interest-how lame is that? I enjoy a lot of things but I've never had a dream career. I know God has a plan for my future but it is still so hard to have faith that everything will work according to His plan when I'm the one having to make the decisions!

Even though my trip didn't answer all my questions and give me an overwhelming passion for health care I'm still so happy I went. It was such a valuable experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Thanks to my wonderful friend Lauren my blog is now the way I want it and I actually know how to work it. Here are the pictures from Kayla and Justin's wedding. It was such a fun event-everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so much! I am so thankful I was able to go. My dad and I left around 9pm and I drove almost the whole way to Bonita. We spent the night at the Sanchezes and the next morning we drove across the border and arrived at Suites Malena where we met everyone from Santa Rosa. It turns out I didn't miss anything important the previous day so I'm really glad I chose to go to Kayla's wedding!